    [JPRT 112-30, Volume II]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]

    112th Congress                                                 S. Prt.
    1st Session         JOINT COMMITTEE PRINT                      112-30
    _______________________________________________________________________

                        COUNTRY REPORTS ON HUMAN RIGHTS
                               PRACTICES FOR 2010
                                   VOLUME II

                                   ----------

                                  R E P O R T

                                SUBMITTED TO THE

                         COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS
                                   US SENATE

                                    AND THE

                          COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS
                          US HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                                     BY THE

                              DEPARTMENT OF STATE

         IN ACCORDANCE WITH SECTIONS 116(d) AND 502B(b) OF THE FOREIGN
                       ASSISTANCE ACT OF 1961, AS AMENDED

               COUNTRY REPORTS ON HUMAN RIGHTS PRACTICES FOR 2010
                                   VOLUME II

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    112th Congress
     1st Session             JOINT COMMITTEE PRINT                  S. Prt.
                                                                     112-30
    _______________________________________________________________________

                        COUNTRY REPORTS ON HUMAN RIGHTS
                               PRACTICES FOR 2010

                                   VOLUME II

                                   __________

                                  R E P O R T

                                SUBMITTED TO THE

                         COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS

                                   US SENATE

                                    AND THE

                          COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS

                          US HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                                     BY THE

                              DEPARTMENT OF STATE

         IN ACCORDANCE WITH SECTIONS 116(d) AND 502B(b) OF THE FOREIGN
                       ASSISTANCE ACT OF 1961, AS AMENDED

                     COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS

                JOHN F. KERRY, Massachusetts, Chairman
    BARBARA BOXER, California            RICHARD G. LUGAR, Indiana
    ROBERT MENENDEZ, New Jersey          BOB CORKER, Tennessee
    BENJAMIN L. CARDIN, Maryland         JAMES E. RISCH, Idaho
    ROBERT P. CASEY, Jr., Pennsylvania   MARCO RUBIO, Florida
    JIM WEBB, Virginia                   JAMES M. INHOFE, Oklahoma
    JEANNE SHAHEEN, New Hampshire        JIM DeMINT, South Carolina
    CHRISTOPHER A. COONS, Delaware       JOHNNY ISAKSON, Georgia
    RICHARD J. DURBIN, Illinois          JOHN BARRASSO, Wyoming
    TOM UDALL, New Mexico                MIKE LEE, Utah
                 Frank G. Lowenstein, Staff Director
           Kenneth A. Myers, Jr., Republican Staff Director

                      COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS

                 ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida, Chairman
    CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey     HOWARD L. BERMAN, California
    DAN BURTON, Indiana                  GARY L. ACKERMAN, New York
    ELTON GALLEGLY, California           ENI F.H. FALEOMAVAEGA, American
    DANA ROHRABACHER, California             Samoa
    DONALD A. MANZULLO, Illinois         DONALD M. PAYNE, New Jersey
    EDWARD R. ROYCE, California          BRAD SHERMAN, California
    STEVE CHABOT, Ohio                   ELIOT L. ENGEL, New York
    RON PAUL, Texas                      GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York
    MIKE PENCE, Indiana                  RUSS CARNAHAN, Missouri
    JOE WILSON, South Carolina           ALBIO SIRES, New Jersey
    CONNIE MACK, Florida                 GERALD E. CONNOLLY, Virginia
    JEFF FORTENBERRY, Nebraska           THEODORE E. DEUTCH, Florida
    MICHAEL T. McCAUL, Texas             DENNIS CARDOZA, California
    TED POE, Texas                       BEN CHANDLER, Kentucky
    GUS M. BILIRAKIS, Florida            BRIAN HIGGINS, New York
    JEAN SCHMIDT, Ohio                   ALLYSON SCHWARTZ, Pennsylvania
    BILL JOHNSON, Ohio                   CHRISTOPHER S. MURPHY, Connecticut
    DAVID RIVERA, Florida                FREDERICA WILSON, Florida
    MIKE KELLY, Pennsylvania             KAREN BASS, California
    TIM GRIFFIN, Arkansas                WILLIAM KEATING, Massachusetts
    TOM MARINO, Pennsylvania             DAVID CICILLINE, Rhode Island
    JEFF DUNCAN, South Carolina
    ANN MARIE BUERKLE, New York
    RENEE ELLMERS, North Carolina
                   Yleem D.S. Poblete, Staff Director
             Richard J. Kessler, Democratic Staff Director

                                  (ii)

                                C O N T E N T S

                                  ----------
                                                                       Page

    Letter of Transmittal............................................    ix

    Preface..........................................................    xi

    Overview and Acknowledgments.....................................  xiii

    Introduction.....................................................  xvii

                                    Volume I

    Africa
        Angola.......................................................     1

        Benin........................................................    20

        Botswana.....................................................    30

        Burkina Faso.................................................    41

        Burundi......................................................    51

        Cameroon.....................................................    72

        Cape Verde...................................................    92

        Central African Republic, The................................    98

        Chad.........................................................   122

        Comoros......................................................   137

        Congo, Democratic Republic of the............................   143

        Congo, Republic of the.......................................   186

        Cote d'Ivoire................................................   196

        Djibouti.....................................................   218

        Equatorial Guinea............................................   227

        Eritrea......................................................   240

        Ethiopia.....................................................   257

        Gabon........................................................   284

        Gambia, The..................................................   292

        Ghana........................................................   305

        Guinea.......................................................   320

        Guinea-Bissau................................................   335

        Kenya........................................................   344

        Lesotho......................................................   368

        Liberia......................................................   384

        Madagascar...................................................   395

        Malawi.......................................................   408

        Mali.........................................................   419

        Mauritania...................................................   429

        Mauritius....................................................   444

        Mozambique...................................................   452

        Namibia......................................................   465

        Niger........................................................   479

        Nigeria......................................................   493

        Rwanda.......................................................   525

        Sao Tome and Principe........................................   544

        Senegal......................................................   549

        Seychelles...................................................   565

        Sierra Leone.................................................   571

        Somalia......................................................   589

        South Africa.................................................   610

        Sudan........................................................   628

        Swaziland....................................................   655

        Tanzania.....................................................   670

        Togo.........................................................   692

        Uganda.......................................................   702

        Zambia.......................................................   728

        Zimbabwe.....................................................   744

    East Asia and the Pacific

        Australia....................................................   783

        Brunei Darussalam............................................   794

        Burma........................................................   801

        Cambodia.....................................................   823

        China (includes Tibet, Hong Kong, and Macau).................   843

            Tibet....................................................   882

            Hong Kong................................................   891

            Macau....................................................   906

        Fiji.........................................................   914

        Indonesia....................................................   928

        Japan........................................................   949

        Kiribati.....................................................   961

        Korea, Democratic People's Republic of.......................   966

        Korea, Republic of...........................................   979

        Laos.........................................................   989

        Malaysia.....................................................   999

        Marshall Islands.............................................  1026

        Micronesia, Federated States of..............................  1032

        Mongolia.....................................................  1038

        Nauru........................................................  1050

        New Zealand..................................................  1054

        Palau........................................................  1061

        Papua New Guinea.............................................  1066

        Philippines..................................................  1076

        Samoa........................................................  1093

        Singapore....................................................  1101

        Solomon Islands..............................................  1116

        Taiwan.......................................................  1123

        Thailand.....................................................  1132

        Timor-Leste..................................................  1160

        Tonga........................................................  1169

        Tuvalu.......................................................  1175

        Vanuatu......................................................  1180

        Vietnam......................................................  1187

    Europe and Eurasia

        Albania......................................................  1213

        Andorra......................................................  1224

        Armenia......................................................  1229

        Austria......................................................  1261

        Azerbaijan...................................................  1270

        Belarus......................................................  1295

        Belgium......................................................  1332

        Bosnia and Herzegovina.......................................  1340

        Bulgaria.....................................................  1358

        Croatia......................................................  1371

        Cyprus.......................................................  1389

        Czech Republic...............................................  1415

        Denmark......................................................  1433

        Estonia......................................................  1441

        Finland......................................................  1449

        France.......................................................  1460

        Georgia......................................................  1472

        Germany......................................................  1515

        Greece.......................................................  1530

        Hungary......................................................  1547

        Iceland......................................................  1565

        Ireland......................................................  1573

        Italy........................................................  1581

        Kosovo.......................................................  1594

        Latvia.......................................................  1615

        Liechtenstein................................................  1626

        Lithuania....................................................  1631

        Luxembourg...................................................  1643

        Macedonia....................................................  1648

        Malta........................................................  1663

        Moldova......................................................  1673

        Monaco.......................................................  1699

        Montenegro...................................................  1703

        Netherlands..................................................  1730

        Norway.......................................................  1741

        Poland.......................................................  1750

        Portugal.....................................................  1766

        Romania......................................................  1773

        Russia.......................................................  1796

        San Marino...................................................  1840

        Serbia.......................................................  1844

        Slovakia.....................................................  1861

        Slovenia.....................................................  1877

        Spain........................................................  1885

        Sweden.......................................................  1896

        Switzerland..................................................  1907

        Turkey.......................................................  1917

        Ukraine......................................................  1939

        United Kingdom...............................................  1965

                                   Volume II

    Near East and North Africa

        Algeria......................................................  1979

        Bahrain......................................................  1996

        Egypt........................................................  2009

        Iran.........................................................  2027

        Iraq.........................................................  2061

        Israel and the occupied territories..........................  2089

        Jordan.......................................................  2139

        Kuwait.......................................................  2157

        Lebanon......................................................  2169

        Libya........................................................  2188

        Morocco......................................................  2203

        Oman.........................................................  2222

        Qatar........................................................  2230

        Saudi Arabia.................................................  2243

        Syria........................................................  2266

        Tunisia......................................................  2288

        United Arab Emirates.........................................  2305

        Western Sahara...............................................  2317

        Yemen........................................................  2324

    South and Central Asia

        Afghanistan..................................................  2347

        Bangladesh...................................................  2372

        Bhutan.......................................................  2395

        India........................................................  2403

        Kazakhstan...................................................  2437

        Kyrgyz Republic..............................................  2457

        Maldives.....................................................  2472

        Nepal........................................................  2485

        Pakistan.....................................................  2505

        Sri Lanka....................................................  2541

        Tajikistan...................................................  2560

        Turkmenistan.................................................  2573

        Uzbekistan...................................................  2586

    Western Hemisphere

        Antigua and Barbuda..........................................  2609

        Argentina....................................................  2614

        Bahamas, The.................................................  2630

        Barbados.....................................................  2640

        Belize.......................................................  2646

        Bolivia......................................................  2655

        Brazil.......................................................  2668

        Canada.......................................................  2688

        Chile........................................................  2702

        Colombia.....................................................  2713

        Costa Rica...................................................  2742

        Cuba.........................................................  2754

        Dominica.....................................................  2768

        Dominican Republic...........................................  2775

        Ecuador......................................................  2794

        El Salvador..................................................  2812

        Grenada......................................................  2827

        Guatemala....................................................  2833

        Guyana.......................................................  2850

        Haiti........................................................  2859

        Honduras.....................................................  2873

        Jamaica......................................................  2892

        Mexico.......................................................  2904

        Nicaragua....................................................  2923

        Panama.......................................................  2940

        Paraguay.....................................................  2957

        Peru.........................................................  2970

        Saint Kitts and Nevis........................................  2987

        Saint Lucia..................................................  2991

        Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.............................  2997

        Suriname.....................................................  3003

        Trinidad and Tobago..........................................  3011

        Uruguay......................................................  3020

        Venezuela....................................................  3028

    Appendixes

        Appendix A: Notes on preparation of Report...................  3061

        Appendix B: Reporting on Worker Rights.......................  3069

        Appendix C: Selected International Human Rights Conventions..  3071

        Appendix D: Description of International Human Rights
          Conventions in Appendix C..................................  3079

        Appendix E: FY 2010 Foreign Assistance Actuals...............  3081

        Appendix F: United Nations General Assembly's Third Committee
          Country Resolution Votes 2010..............................  3107

        Appendix G: United Nations Universal Declaration of Human
          Rights.....................................................  3115
    ?

                             LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL

                                  ----------

                                           Department of State,
                                         Washington, DC, April 8, 2011.
    Hon. John F. Kerry,
    Chairman, Committee on Foreign Relations.
        Dear Mr. Chairman: On behalf of the Secretary of State, I
    am transmitting to you the Country Reports on Human Rights
    Practices for 2010, prepared in compliance with sections
    116(d)(1) and 502B(b) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, as
    amended, and section 505(c) of the Trade Act of 1974, as
    amended.
        We hope this report is helpful. Please let us know if we
    can provide any further information.
                Sincerely,
                                     Michael H. Posner,
                             Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Democracy,
                                               Human Rights, and Labor.
        Enclosure.

                                      (ix)

                                    PREFACE

                                  ----------

        Today, the eyes of the world are focused on the Middle East
    and North Africa, where people are demanding that their
    governments live up to the guiding principle of the Universal
    Declaration of Human Rights, that all people are ``born free
    and equal in dignity and rights.'' The promise of this
    principle is the driving power behind every movement for
    freedom, every campaign for democracy, every effort to foster
    development, and every struggle against oppression. We are
    inspired by the courage and determination of these activists,
    and we see in their struggles the true manifestation of a
    universal yearning for dignity and respect. We stand with them
    and with all citizens, activists, and governments around the
    world who peacefully work to advance the causes of democracy
    and human rights.
        As President Obama has said, we are guided by a simple
    idea, `` . . . freedom, justice and peace for the world must
    begin with freedom, justice, and peace in the lives of
    individual human beings.'' This idea represents values we
    cherish in the United States, but they are not ours alone. Our
    belief in the universal principles of freedom, justice, and
    peace guides us on a daily basis as we work to make human
    rights a human reality. The world has witnessed that without
    meaningful steps toward representative, accountable, and
    transparent governance, the gap between people and their
    leaders will only grow. We will continue to promote, support,
    and defend democracy, in its many forms, knowing that it is the
    best political system for allowing individuals to enjoy their
    human rights.
        The 2010 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices provide
    a record of the state of human rights in the world and raise
    awareness of the progress made in 2010, the ground lost, and
    the work that remains. This year marks the thirty-fifth year we
    have reported to Congress on human rights around the world.
    These reports were initially envisioned as a tool to help guide
    the United States in its foreign policy, but they have grown to
    be something much greater. Other governments, individuals, and
    organizations now use the human rights reports as essential
    sources of information about conditions in countries around the
    world. For activists, many of whom confront a shrinking space
    in which to operate and do so at great personal risk, these
    reports also provide evidence that the world is being made
    aware of their struggle.
        As I travel the world, I make a point of meeting with those
    people working to advance the cause of human rights within
    their own countries. I am consistently impressed by the power
    of the human spirit, and the unwavering commitment of these
    brave individuals. Their work inspires us and confirms the
    importance of holding governments, including our own,
    accountable for the treatment of their citizens.
        Once each year we submit the Country Reports on Human
    Rights Practices to Congress, but advancing freedom and human
    rights is a daily priority for the men and women of the
    Department of State, both in Washington and in our embassies
    overseas. Through these reports, through our diplomacy, and
    through our example, we will continue to press for the
    universal human rights of all individuals. Now is the
    opportunity for us to support all who are willing to stand up
    on behalf of the rights we cherish.
        In that spirit I hereby transmit the Department of State's
    Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2010 to the
    United States Congress.
                                Hillary Rodham Clinton,
                                                    Secretary of State.

                          OVERVIEW AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

                                  ----------

                          WHY THE REPORTS ARE PREPARED

        This report is submitted to the Congress by the Department
    of State in compliance with Sections 116(d) and 502B(b) of the
    Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (FAA), as amended. The law
    provides that the Secretary of State shall transmit to the
    Speaker of the House of Representatives and the Committee on
    Foreign Relations of the Senate by February 25 ``a full and
    complete report regarding the status of internationally
    recognized human rights, within the meaning of subsection (A)
    in countries that receive assistance under this part, and (B)
    in all other foreign countries which are members of the United
    Nations and which are not otherwise the subject of a human
    rights report under this Act.'' We have also included reports
    on several countries that do not fall into the categories
    established by these statutes and thus are not covered by the
    congressional requirement.
        In the early 1970s the United States formalized its
    responsibility to speak out on behalf of international human
    rights standards. In 1976 Congress enacted legislation creating
    a Coordinator of Human Rights in the Department of State, a
    position later upgraded to Assistant Secretary. Legislation
    also requires that U.S. foreign and trade policy take into
    account countries' human rights and worker rights performance
    and that country reports be submitted to the Congress on an
    annual basis.

                          HOW THE REPORTS ARE PREPARED

        The Department of State prepared this report using
    information from U.S. embassies and consulates abroad, foreign
    government officials, nongovernmental and international
    organizations, and published reports. The initial drafts of the
    individual country reports were prepared by U.S. diplomatic
    missions abroad, drawing on information they gathered
    throughout the year from a variety of sources, including
    government officials, jurists, the armed forces, journalists,
    human rights monitors, academics, and labor activists. This
    information gathering can be hazardous, and U.S. Foreign
    Service personnel regularly go to great lengths, under trying
    and sometimes dangerous conditions, to investigate reports of
    human rights abuse, monitor elections, and come to the aid of
    individuals at risk, such as political dissidents and human
    rights defenders whose rights are threatened by their
    governments.
        Once the initial drafts of the individual country reports
    were completed, the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and
    Labor, in cooperation with other Department of State offices,
    worked to corroborate, analyze, and edit the reports, drawing
    on their own sources of information. These sources included
    reports provided by U.S. and other human rights groups, foreign
    government officials, representatives from the United Nations
    and other international and regional organizations and
    institutions, experts from academia, and the media. Bureau
    officers also consulted experts on worker rights, refugee
    issues, military and police topics, women's issues, and legal
    matters, among may others. The guiding principle was to ensure
    that all information was assessed objectively, thoroughly, and
    fairly.
        As has proven the case in the past, we anticipate that the
    reports will be used as a resource for shaping policy,
    conducting diplomacy, and making assistance, training, and
    other resource allocations. They will serve also as a basis for
    the U.S. Government's cooperation with private groups to
    promote the observance of internationally recognized human
    rights.
        The Country Reports on Human Rights Practices cover
    internationally recognized civil, political and worker rights,
    as set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
    These rights include freedom from torture or other cruel,
    inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, from prolonged
    detention without charges, from disappearance or clandestine
    detention, and from other flagrant violations of the right to
    life, liberty and the security of the person.
        Universal human rights seek to incorporate respect for
    human dignity into the processes of government and law. All
    persons have the right to nationality, the inalienable right to
    change their government by peaceful means and to enjoy basic
    freedoms, such as freedom of expression, association, assembly,
    movement, and religion, without discrimination on the basis of
    race, religion, national origin, or sex. The right to join a
    free trade union is a necessary condition of a free society and
    economy. Thus the reports assess key internationally recognized
    worker rights, including the right of association, the right to
    organize and bargain collectively, the prohibition of forced or
    compulsory labor, the status of child labor practices, the
    minimum age for employment of children, and acceptable work
    conditions.
        With this 2010 edition of the country reports, DRL expanded
    the use of hyperlinks from these reports to other key human
    rights documents produced by the Department of State.
    Specifically, readers are asked to follow hyperlinks for
    complete information on religious freedom issues by consulting
    the 2010 International Religious Freedom Report, the 2010
    Trafficking in Persons Report, if applicable, and the several
    current publications produced by the Department's Consular
    Affairs Bureau on international child abductions, if applicable
    to the country in question.
        Within the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, the
    editorial staff of the Country Reports Team consists of: Editor
    in Chief Stephen Eisenbraun; Office Directors: Eric Falls,
    Robert Boehme, Jeffrey Hawkins, Douglas Kramer, Jessica
    Lieberman, Mark Mittelhauser, Susan O'Sullivan; Senior Editors:
    Jonathan Bemis, Douglas B. Dearborn, Daniel Dolan, Jerome L.
    Hoganson, Patricia Meeks Schnell, Marc J. Susser, and Julie
    Turner; Editors: Naim Ahmed, Cory Andrews, Sarah Buckley-Moore,
    Laura Carey, Elise Carlson-Rainer, Della Cavey, Eric Concha,
    Sharon Cooke, Susan Corke, Stuart Crampton, Kathleen Crowley,
    Frank Crump, Bonnie Daley, Tu Dang, Mollie Davis, Mort Dworken,
    Sindbad Fennimore, Karen Gilbride, Joan Garner, Carrie George,
    Safiya Ghori-Ahmad, Patrick Harvey, Caitlin Helfrich, Matthew
    Hicks, Alexandra Hoey, Kimberly Holbrook, Victor Huser, Jill
    Hutchings, Stan Ifshin, Dianna James, Sarah Johnston-Gardner,
    David T. Jones, Simone Joseph, Malac Kabir, Yelda Kazimi,
    Mancharee Junk, Min Kang, Katharine Kendrick, Orly Keiner,
    Stephen Kopanos, Alyson Kozma, Douglas Kramer, Sarah Labowitz,
    Gregory Maggio, Stacey May, Stephen Moody, Sarah Morgan,
    Perlita Muiruri, Sandra Murphy, Daniel L. Nadel, Genevieve
    Parente, Blake Peterson, Meredith Ryder-Rude, Peter Sawchyn,
    Robert Schlicht, Monica Sendor, Wendy Silverman, Marissa Smith,
    Rachel Spring, Jason Starr, Leslie Taylor, Jennifer Terry,
    James C.Todd, David Wagner, Micah Watson, Chanan Weissman,
    Mareham Youssef, Sarah Yun, Rachel Waldstein, Bernadette
    Zielinski; Editorial Assistants: Carol Finerty, Stephanie
    Martone, James McDonald, and Regina Waugh.

                                  INTRODUCTION

                                  ----------

        This report provides encyclopedic detail on human rights
    conditions in over 190 countries for 2010. Because we are
    publishing this report three months into the new year, however,
    our perspectives on many issues are now framed by the dramatic
    changes sweeping across countries in the Middle East in 2011.
    At this moment we cannot predict the outcome of these changes,
    and we will not know the lasting impacts for years to come. The
    internal dynamics in each of these countries are different, so
    sweeping analysis of the entire region is not appropriate. In
    places like Tunisia and Egypt, we are witnessing popular
    demands for meaningful political participation, fundamental
    freedoms, and greater economic opportunity. These demands are
    profound, they are homegrown, and they are being driven by new
    activists, many of them young people. These citizens seek to
    build sustainable democracies in their countries with
    governments that respect the universal human rights of their
    own people. If they succeed, the Middle East region, and with
    it the whole world, will be improved.
        The United States will continue to monitor the situations
    in these countries closely, knowing that the transition to
    democracy is not automatic and will take time and careful
    attention. In Egypt, we await the lifting of the state of
    emergency, which the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces has
    promised to do prior to parliamentary elections. In Tunisia, we
    are encouraged by the creation of a fact-finding committee to
    investigate human rights abuses that took place during the
    uprising.
        While we address these and other short-term repercussions,
    historians will have the benefit of time and perspective to
    help us understand what triggered these popular movements. But
    three trends clearly contributed to their development and to
    other changes that occurred throughout the world in 2010. The
    first is the explosive growth of nongovernmental advocacy
    organizations focused on a wide range of democracy and human
    rights issues and causes. Fifty years ago, when Amnesty
    International was created, few countries outside of North
    America or Western Europe had any locally based human rights
    organizations. Today, local nongovernmental organizations
    (NGOs) exist in almost every country in the world. The growth
    of these organizations has been dramatic, and in many countries
    such citizens' organizations have been created against great
    odds and only because individual human rights activists were
    willing to face great personal risk. Secretary Clinton
    highlighted the importance of these organizations in a speech
    she gave in July 2010 in Krakow, Poland, to the Community of
    Democracies. As she said, ``societies move forward when the
    citizens that make up these groups are empowered to transform
    common interests into common actions that serve the common
    good.''
        In closed societies, where repressive governments seek to
    control and stifle the debate on sensitive political and social
    issues, governments view these independent local citizens'
    organizations as a threat rather than a resource, and democracy
    and human rights defenders are singled out for particularly
    harsh treatment. For example, in Belarus, over 700 prodemocracy
    activists, including seven presidential candidates, were
    arrested during public demonstrations following the flawed
    December 2010 presidential elections. In the weeks that
    followed, the offices and homes of civil society
    representatives, independent journalists, and political
    activists were raided as part of an effort to stifle
    independent political activity and free expression.
        In the last several years, more than 90 governments have
    sought to pass restrictive laws and regulations, hampering the
    ability of organizations to register, operate freely, or
    receive foreign funding. A proposed NGO law in Cambodia,
    introduced in December, is emblematic of these efforts. The law
    would impose burdensome reporting requirements on NGOs, erect
    significant barriers to the registration of foreign NGOs,
    require foreign NGOs to collaborate with the government, and
    outlaw unregistered NGOs. In Ethiopia, a new civil society
    organization law entered into force in February, following a
    one-year grace period. The law prohibits charities, societies,
    and associations that receive more than 10 percent of their
    funding from foreign sources from engaging in activities that
    promote human rights and democracy; the rights of children and
    persons with disabilities; equality among nations,
    nationalities, people, genders, and religions; conflict
    resolution or reconciliation; and the promotion of justice.
    During the grace period, Ethiopia's leading human rights
    defender organizations adjusted by re-registering either as
    local charities, meaning that they could not raise more than 10
    percent of their funds from foreign donors, or as ``Resident
    Charities,'' which allowed donations but prohibited activities
    in the enumerated areas. There were 3,522 registered
    organizations before the civil society organization law was
    adopted; after the law only 1,655 remained.
        Secretary Clinton acknowledged these troubling restrictions
    on civil society in her speech in Krakow, when she identified a
    ``group of countries where the walls are closing in on civic
    organizations'' and cautioned that when ``governments crack
    down on the right of citizens to work together, as they have
    throughout history, societies fall into stagnation and decay.''
    As we have seen in the Middle East and elsewhere, governments
    cannot suppress civil society indefinitely, and they can never
    suppress it legitimately.
        A second important trend is the dramatic growth of the
    Internet, mobile phones, and other connective technologies that
    allow instantaneous communications to billions of people across
    the globe. As Secretary Clinton observed in a recent speech on
    Internet freedom, the Internet has become the town square of
    the 21st century. Much has been said and written about the
    effects of these connective technologies in allowing Egyptians
    and Tunisians to mobilize in the weeks and months before
    demonstrations actually began. While it is the courage of the
    people themselves that led the way and was the driving force,
    the amplifying impact of these new technologies, coupled with
    the power of television stations and the Internet to broadcast
    videos obtained by citizens using these mobile phones, cannot
    be denied.
        Today there are more than two billion people with Internet
    access spread across most countries of the world, and around
    five billion mobile phone subscriptions. These numbers are
    projected to grow dramatically in the next 15 years. And as
    more people gain access to these remarkable technologies, and
    use them both to gather and impart information on human rights
    and to communicate with other activists, an increasing number
    of governments are spending more time, money, and attention in
    efforts to curtail access to these new communications outlets.
    More than 40 governments are now using a combination of
    regulatory restrictions, technical controls on access to the
    Internet, and technologies designed to repress speech and
    infringe on the personal privacy of those who use these rapidly
    evolving technologies.
        In Saudi Arabia in 2010, the government restricted access
    to the Internet and interfered with citizens' privacy while
    online. The official Communications and Information Technology
    Commission (CITC) improperly monitored e-mail and Internet chat
    rooms and blocked sites, including pages about Hinduism,
    Judaism, Christianity, and certain forms of Islam deemed
    incompatible with Sharia law and national regulations. In
    Sudan, the government monitored Internet communications and,
    during the elections, blocked access to the Sudan Vote Monitor
    Web site. The Government of China tightly controlled content on
    and access to the Internet and detained those expressing views
    critical of the government or its policies. In Vietnam, the
    government orchestrated attacks against critical Web sites and
    spied on dissident bloggers. Police arrested 25 dissidents over
    the course of the year and forcibly entered the homes of a
    number of others to remove personal computers, cell phones, and
    other material.
        A third trend, and one that points in a negative direction,
    was the continuing escalation of violence, persecution, and
    official and societal discrimination of members of vulnerable
    groups, often racial, religious, or ethnic minorities or
    disempowered majorities. In many countries this pattern of
    discrimination extended to women; children; persons with
    disabilities; indigenous; lesbian, gay, bisexual, and
    transgender (LGBT) persons; and members of other vulnerable
    groups who lacked the political power to defend their own
    interests. Often members of these groups were denied economic
    opportunity or the ability to abide by their social or cultural
    traditions or practices or were restricted in their ability to
    speak freely, to assemble peacefully, or to form associations
    or organizations.
        In Pakistan, religious freedom violations and violence and
    discrimination against religious minorities continued. The
    blasphemy laws were used to harass religious minorities as well
    as vulnerable Muslims or Muslims with minority views. (In the
    first two months of 2011, two senior government officials who
    publicly challenged these laws were brutally killed.) In Saudi
    Arabia, there were severe restrictions on religious freedom and
    discrimination on the basis of religion was common. In China,
    the government continued to demonize the Dalai Lama and harshly
    repress Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang and Tibetan Buddhists. There
    were reports of increases in anti-Semitic acts around the
    world, including the desecration of cemeteries, graffiti, and
    blood-libel rhetoric, as well as Holocaust denial, revisionism,
    and glorification. There have also been spikes in expressions
    of anti-Semitism during events in the Middle East.
        Persons around the world continue to experience
    discrimination and intimidation based on their sexual
    orientation or gender identity. Honduras saw an upsurge in
    killings of members of the LGBT community by unknown
    perpetrators. Meanwhile, in many African, Middle Eastern, and
    Caribbean nations, same-sex relations remain a criminal
    offense, and through such laws and other measures the state
    reinforces and encourages societal discrimination and
    intolerance. In Uganda, for example, intimidation and
    harassment of LGBT individuals worsened during the year, and
    some government and religious leaders threatened LGBT
    individuals.
        Exploitation of laborers was also a problem in many
    countries, often compounded by threats against workers for
    attempting to unionize. Again in 2010, the government of
    Uzbekistan mobilized thousands of adults and children as forced
    laborers during the annual cotton harvest. In Bangladesh, poor
    working conditions caused needless deaths, notably in the
    garment industry. Bangladesh was also the site of frequent and
    at times deadly labor unrest during the year, particularly in
    the Ready-Made Garment Sector and Export Processing Zones.
        These trends are further illustrated below by the thumbnail
    sketches of 27 countries (listed alphabetically by region). The
    section on country highlights provides illustrative examples of
    the human rights trends in 2010. In some of these countries
    there have been negative developments or the human rights
    record has been a mix of positive and negative developments. In
    other countries highlighted below, we reflect on positive
    trends in 2010. The body of this report is a much more detailed
    examination of these and an additional 167 countries.
        2010 marks the 35th year that the State Department has
    produced the annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices.
    This year's report covers human rights conditions in 194
    countries. What began as the response to a Congressional
    mandate to report on the human rights situation in those
    countries that were receiving U.S. assistance in the mid 1970s
    has blossomed into a detailed analysis of human rights
    conditions in all countries that are members of the United
    Nations. The country reports provide an overview of the human
    rights situation around the world as a means to raise awareness
    of human rights conditions, in particular as these conditions
    affect the well-being of women, children, racial and religious
    minorities, trafficking victims, members of indigenous groups
    and ethnic communities, persons with disabilities, sexual
    minorities, refugees, and members of other vulnerable groups.
        As the scope of the State Department's reporting has
    increased, so has the use of these reports around the world. In
    addition to providing data to Congress to inform their funding
    and policy decisions, these reports are used throughout the
    U.S. government and by many foreign governments. And,
    importantly, they are increasingly being used by individual
    citizens and NGOs as critical sources of information on what is
    happening in the world. To facilitate the sharing of this
    information, reports are translated into over 50 languages and
    made available online.
        The U.S. government compiles the human rights report
    because we believe it is imperative for countries, including
    our own, to ensure that respect for human rights is an integral
    component of foreign policy. We provide these reports as a form
    of comprehensive review and analysis.
        The reports do not cover human rights in the United States,
    although this Administration has made a commitment to take a
    close and critical look at our own performance on these issues
    even as we cast a spotlight on the practices of other
    countries. In November, the United States presented its first
    report on human rights in the United States to the UN Human
    Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva through the Universal Periodic
    Review. In preparation for that report we conducted extensive
    consultations in the United States with a wide range of civil
    society organizations and Native American leaders. Last month
    we appeared again at the UNHRC meeting in Geneva to report our
    response to the recommendations made to us by other
    governments.
        We also continually report on our human rights record
    pursuant to our treaty obligations. In January 2010, we
    submitted periodic reports on our implementation of the
    Optional Protocols to the Convention on the Rights of the
    Child. In 2011 we will be submitting periodic reports regarding
    implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and
    Political Rights, the Convention Against Torture, and the
    Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. In
    2010, for the first time, a section on the United States was
    included in the State Department's Trafficking in Persons
    Report, and the United States was ranked based on the same
    standards to which we hold other countries.
        A final word about the production of these reports. These
    194 country reports are comprehensive, if not exhaustive. Their
    production is a Herculean endeavor requiring extra-ordinary
    efforts by a team of talented and committed human rights
    officers at U.S. Embassies around the world, and by their
    counterparts in Washington, D.C., including the dedicated staff
    in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor. Each
    country team collects, analyzes, and synthesizes information
    from a variety of sources, including domestic and international
    human rights organizations, other governments, multilateral
    organizations, and members of civil society. Once the reports
    are drafted, they are rigorously edited, reviewed, and fact-
    checked, to ensure accuracy and objectivity.

                               COUNTRY HIGHLIGHTS

        In 2010, governments around the world continued to commit
    severe human rights violations and abuses. The paragraphs below
    describe the human rights situation and key trends in specific
    countries where abuses were especially serious. We also
    highlight Ukraine, where in 2010 there was backsliding after
    positive developments in previous years. The section begins
    with a discussion of several countries--Colombia, Guinea,
    Indonesia--that are highlighted for notable positive human
    rights developments in 2010.
        Colombia is a country where there were notable improvements
    in the human rights situation in 2010. Soon after taking office
    in August, President Santos and his administration strengthened
    the government's relationship with civil society and human
    rights defenders, holding high-level consultative sessions,
    publicly expressing support for human rights defenders and
    engaging them in dialogue, and supporting efforts to increase
    penalties for threats and violence against human rights
    defenders. The government advanced a Land and Victims' Law to
    provide for land restitution and victims' reparations.
    Extrajudicial executions decreased substantially from 2008 and
    2009, and several senior military officers were convicted of
    human rights abuses. Some human rights abuses continued, such
    as some threats against human rights defenders and trade
    unionists. The Ministry of Defense began implementing an
    agreement with the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human
    Rights to monitor ministry measures to improve adherence to
    human rights.
        In December 2010, Guinea inaugurated its first
    democratically elected president since independence from France
    in 1958. The people selected longtime opposition leader Alpha
    Conde, the candidate of the Rally of the Guinean People Party,
    as their president following two rounds of elections. Although
    there was some violence following the second round, the
    elections generally were regarded as free and fair.
        Respect for human rights in Indonesia continued to improve
    in 2010, 12 years after the country's transition to democracy.
    While weaknesses in the justice system persisted, President
    Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, democratically reelected in July
    2009, remained a strong proponent of the rule of law and
    accountability and civil society, and the media remained among
    the most vibrant in Asia. Professionalization of the military
    continued, although some serious human rights abuses by
    military personnel occurred, particularly in Papua, and
    punishments, when imposed, were often not commensurate with the
    crimes committed.
    Africa
        Cote d'Ivoire ended 2010 in a standoff over the presidency,
    following October elections in which incumbent President
    Laurent Gbagbo, candidate of the Ivoirian People's Front, and
    opposition party leader Alassane Ouattara, candidate of the
    Rally for Republicans, advanced to the November 28 presidential
    run-off. On December 2, the Independent Electoral Commission
    declared Ouattara the winner with 54.1 percent of the vote as
    compared with 45.9 percent for Gbagbo. The election was
    declared fair and democratic by the UN and international and
    domestic observer missions. Gbagbo refused to accept the
    results, alleging voter fraud and intimidation in several
    regions, and both Ouattara and Gbagbo took oaths of office on
    December 3. At year's end, President Ouattara operated his
    government from the Golf Hotel in Abidjan under a blockade from
    pro-Gbgabo forces. Gbagbo retained control of state resources
    including the national television station, the security forces,
    and the treasury. There were credible reports of human rights
    abuses during this time. On December 16, security forces fired
    on supporters of President Ouattara during a demonstration
    march. At least 20 persons were killed, many more wounded, and
    hundreds arrested. In the one week period from December 15-22,
    the UN Operation in Cote d'Ivoire human rights division
    reported 173 persons killed, 90 subjected to torture and ill-
    treatment, 471 others arbitrarily arrested and detained, and 24
    persons missing. The overwhelming majority of these cases of
    extrajudicial killings, torture, detention, and disappearance,
    were committed by security forces loyal to Gbagbo. Human rights
    violations which took place after December 31 are not
    documented in the 2010 report.
        Serious human rights abuses continued throughout the
    Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), particularly in the
    mineral rich, conflict-affected eastern and northeastern
    regions, where state authority remained non-existent or
    extremely weak. Human rights defenders have been intimidated,
    beaten, and, as in the case of prominent activist Floribert
    Chebeya, even killed. Armed entities-including elements of
    state security forces-perpetrated abuses with impunity and
    engaged in the illegal exploitation and trade of natural
    resources, particularly minerals. Revenues derived from the
    illicit trade in minerals, some of which supported armed
    conflict, fueled the continued insecurity in eastern DRC,
    aggravating an already precarious human rights situation. Rebel
    and militia groups in eastern DRC continued to engage in rape
    and looting campaigns in efforts to control communities
    residing near lucrative mining areas, and to reap mining-
    related profits that sustained the conflict and attendant
    abuses. Credible sources such as the UN Group of Experts on the
    DRC presented information indicating that some Congolese and
    international corporations' supply chains originated with
    suppliers who traded with armed entities-including elements of
    the state security forces-that committed serious human rights
    abuses.
        Nigeria continued to be plagued by serious human rights
    abuses during the year. Security services personnel, including
    police, military, and State Security Service officers,
    committed extrajudicial killings and tortured, beat, and abused
    demonstrators, criminal suspects, detainees, and convicted
    prisoners. The Joint Task Force, formed in 2003 to address the
    instability in the Niger Delta and consisting of military,
    police, and security services, conducted raids on militant
    groups and criminal suspects, resulting in numerous deaths and
    injuries to both alleged criminals and civilians. Corruption
    was pervasive at all levels of government and throughout the
    security forces. Ethno-religious violence also resulted in
    deaths and displacement during the year. Jos and the
    surrounding farmlands were the site of two major attacks in
    January and March. Up to 1,000 individuals, mostly women,
    children, and the elderly, were murdered, hacked to death, or
    burned alive.
        Violence continued in Sudan throughout 2010. Nationwide
    elections held in April were not deemed fair and free by the
    international community, and observers noted numerous problems
    throughout the process. In Darfur, fighting involving
    government, government-aligned militias, rebel groups, and
    ethnic groups continued to kill, injure, and displace
    civilians. This violence killed 2,321 persons during the year,
    according to the UN, an increase compared with the 875 persons
    killed in 2009. The government continued to conduct aerial
    bombardment. Gender-based violence, the use of child soldiers,
    and the obstruction of humanitarian organizations and the
    United Nations-African Union Hybrid Mission in Darfur continued
    to be problems. The government harassed, arrested, and beat
    civil society members in the north. In Southern Sudan,
    interethnic fighting and Lord's Resistance Army attacks
    continued to kill and displace civilians. According to UN
    estimates, violence in the south resulted in an estimated 986
    deaths and the displacement of 223,708 persons during the year.
    Registration for the 2011 Southern Sudan self-determination
    referendum occurred in November and December. Lack of progress
    on preparations for a separate referendum on whether the border
    region of Abyei should be part of the north or the south led to
    sporadic violence and rising tensions in the area.
        In Zimbabwe, security forces, police, and Zimbabwe African
    National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF)-dominated elements of
    the government continued to commit numerous, serious human
    rights violations with impunity, including torture, against
    non-ZANU-PF political activists and party members, student
    leaders, and civil society activists. ZANU-PF's dominant
    control and manipulation of the political process through
    trumped-up charges and arbitrary arrest, intimidation, and
    corruption effectively negated the right of citizens to change
    their government. Although there were fewer incidents in the
    first half of 2010, expectations that elections would be held
    in 2011 led to an increase in the number of cases of harassment
    and intimidation of civil society organizations and members of
    the media toward the end of the reporting period. The
    government continued to use repressive laws to suppress freedom
    of speech, including for members of the press, assembly,
    association, and movement. Military forces and other government
    agents also continued abuses in the Marange diamond fields.
    East Asia and the Pacific
        Despite the release of Aung San Suu Kyi, over 2,100
    political prisoners remained in custody in Burma at the end of
    2010. Many civil society activists were detained indefinitely
    and without charges, and regime-sponsored organizations engaged
    in harassment and abuse of human rights and prodemocracy
    activists. The government routinely infringed on individual
    privacy and restricted the freedoms of speech, press, assembly,
    association, religion, and movement. The government did not
    allow domestic human rights NGOs to function independently, and
    international NGOs encountered a difficult environment. The
    fall 2010 elections were neither free nor fair. The government
    continued its tight control of the activities of Buddhist
    clergy. Military forces in Burma continued to commit egregious
    abuses and violations against civilians in ethnic minority
    regions. These abuses included rape, torture, forced
    relocation, and forced labor. Violence and societal
    discrimination against women and minority religious communities
    continued, as did unlawful recruitment of child soldiers and
    trafficking in persons, particularly of women and girls.
    Workers' rights remained restricted and forced labor, including
    that of children, also persisted.
        In Cambodia, members of security forces, acting with
    impunity, committed arbitrary killings. Human rights monitors
    reported arbitrary arrests and prolonged pretrial detention,
    underscoring a weak judiciary and denial of the right to a fair
    trial. Restrictions continued on freedom of assembly and
    expression, including for members of the press, and there was a
    growing abuse of defamation and disinformation lawsuits
    targeting opposition voices. Civil society expressed
    significant concern that the draft Law on Associations and NGOs
    could, if adopted, seriously constrain the ability of NGOs to
    operate. The draft law released in December included provisions
    that would impose burdensome reporting requirements on NGOs,
    prevent associations with fewer than 21(later reduced to a
    still-onerous 11) members from attaining legal status, erect
    burdensome barriers to the registration of foreign NGOs,
    require foreign NGOs to collaborate with the government, and
    outlaw unregistered NGOs. Anti-union activity by employers and
    weak enforcement of labor laws continued, and exploitative
    child labor in the informal sector remained a problem.
        In China, the negative trend in key areas of human rights
    continued. The government stepped up restrictions on lawyers,
    activists, bloggers, and journalists; tightened controls on
    civil society; and increased attempts to limit freedom of
    speech and control the press, the Internet, and Internet access
    in 2010. Authorities also increased the use of extralegal
    measures, including forced disappearances, strict house arrest,
    arbitrary detention in ``black jails,'' and other forms of
    ``soft detention'' to silence independent voices and punish
    activists and their families. Legal activist Chen Guangcheng,
    along with his wife and child, remained under house arrest, as
    did other released political prisoners. Public interest
    lawyers, who operated within China's legal framework, were
    disbarred, beaten, or ``disappeared'' for taking on the defense
    of clients and issues deemed sensitive by the government.
    Bloggers and Web masters have been arrested and charged with
    ``subverting state power'' for re-tweeting a post or operating
    a Web site where others posted comments. The government also
    continued its severe cultural and religious repression of
    ethnic minorities in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region and
    Tibetan areas.
        In North Korea, the human rights situation remained grim.
    During the year, the government maintained tight control over
    the flow of information into and out of the country. The
    government denied its citizens the right to due process and
    arbitrarily arrested and detained individuals, including for
    political crimes. Defectors and NGOs indicated that severe and
    systematic human rights abuses occurred throughout the
    country's extensive network of prisons and detention centers.
    In addition, the government continued to enforce rigid controls
    over the freedoms of speech, press, assembly, association,
    religion, and movement and worker rights. There were no
    independent domestic human rights monitoring organizations, and
    the government denied international organizations and foreign
    NGOs access, making it impossible to assess accurately the true
    scope of the abuses occurring in the country or the validity of
    these reports.
        The government of Vietnam continued to suppress dissent,
    tightened controls over the press, and limited the freedoms of
    expression, assembly, movement, and association. Individuals
    were arbitrarily detained for political activities and denied
    the right to fair and expeditious trials. The government
    arrested at least 25 political activists, convicted 14
    dissidents arrested in 2008, 2009, and 2010, and denied the
    appeals of another 10 dissidents convicted at the end of 2009.
    The judicial system was strongly distorted by political
    influence, endemic corruption, and inefficiency. Freedom of
    religion continued to be subject to uneven interpretation and
    protection, particularly at the provincial and village levels.
    Internet freedom was further restricted as the government
    orchestrated attacks against critical Web sites and spied on
    dissident bloggers. The government limited workers' rights to
    form and join independent unions.
    Europe
        Authorities in Belarus arbitrarily arrested, detained, and
    imprisoned prodemocracy activists, journalists, and civil
    society representatives. In the wake of December 2010's flawed
    presidential election, authorities initiated a broad crackdown
    against demonstrators, detaining close to 700 persons and
    raiding offices and apartments belonging to members of
    independent media, NGOs, and the political opposition. Over 40
    individuals, including several presidential candidates, now
    face up to 15 years in jail. Through its detentions and trials,
    the government of Belarus continually is creating new political
    prisoners. The judiciary lacked independence and suffered from
    corruption, inefficiency, and political interference; trial
    outcomes were often predetermined, and many trials were
    conducted behind closed doors. Official corruption throughout
    the government continued to be a problem.
        In Russia, the government infringed on freedom of
    expression, assembly, and association, detaining certain
    demonstrators and continuing to pressure select NGOs,
    independent media, some religious minorities, independent labor
    unions, and political opposition. Attacks on and the murder of
    journalists and activists continued. There were reports of
    physical abuse by law enforcement, military hazing deaths, and
    harsh prison conditions. Rule of law and due process violations
    remained a problem, and government corruption was widespread.
    Xenophobic, racial, and ethnic attacks and hate crimes
    continued to be a significant problem. The conflict between the
    government and insurgents, Islamist militants, and criminal
    forces in the North Caucasus led to numerous human rights
    violations by all parties, which reportedly engaged in killing,
    torture, abuse, violence, and politically motivated abductions.
        In Ukraine, despite beginning with free and fair
    presidential elections, the overall trend for 2010 was negative
    due to problematic local elections, intimidation of the media,
    and perceived selective prosecution of opposition figures.
    International and domestic observers found the October local
    elections did not reach the same standards of the presidential
    election, citing the registration of fraudulent opposition
    candidate lists, government pressure against election monitors
    and candidates, and election officials selectively barring or
    removing candidates from ballots- all prompting concern about
    the government's planned next steps for election reform. In
    addition, there were numerous reports that authorities
    attempted to direct media content and intimidate journalists.
    Although the government took steps in 2009 to better combat
    corruption, the international community expressed concern that
    politics motivated the new government's 2010 criminal
    investigation of 30 members of the previous government for
    alleged corruption; several of these people were detained and
    subsequently charged.
    Near East
        Political tensions flared in the weeks preceding the
    October elections in Bahrain. The government arrested more than
    200 Shia men it accused of inciting or involvement in street
    violence. Those arrested included some, but not all, of the
    leaders of two groups, Haq and Wafa', which reject the monarchy
    and had called for a boycott of the elections. The government
    charged 23 of those arrested with involvement in a ``terror
    network'' pursuant to the 2006 counterterrorism law. The
    electoral process also was marred by the government's banning
    of the two main legal opposition parties' Web sites and
    newsletters. The government did not allow international
    observers to monitor the elections. The government also
    continued to restrict freedom of assembly and association.
    Security forces intervened in demonstrations and limited and
    controlled political gatherings during the year. NGOs and civil
    society groups were required to register with the government
    and provide membership lists. In September, the Ministry of
    Social Development effectively shuttered a local human rights
    organization, Bahrain Human Rights Society, when a ministerial
    decree ordered the dissolution of the society's board of
    directors and appointed a ministry employee to be the group's
    interim head.
        According to multiple sources, the Government of Iran
    executed approximately 312 persons in summary executions during
    the year, many after trials that were conducted in secret and/
    or did not provide due process. In many cases, persons executed
    supposedly for criminal offenses such as narcotics trafficking
    were actually political dissidents. Authorities held political
    prisoners and continued to crack down on women's rights
    reformers, ethnic minority rights activists, student activists,
    and religious minorities. There was little judicial
    independence and few fair public trials. The government
    severely restricted the right to privacy and civil liberties,
    including freedoms of expression, including for members of the
    press, assembly, association, and movement, and it placed
    severe restrictions on freedom of religion. Vigilantes
    continued to attack young persons considered ``un-Islamic'' in
    their dress or activities, invade private homes, abuse
    unmarried couples, and disrupt concerts. Violence and legal and
    societal discrimination against women, children, ethnic and
    religious minorities, and LGBT persons persisted.
        While the credible and legitimate national parliamentary
    elections in all 18 provinces on March 7 reflected a
    significant achievement in advancing the exercise of human
    rights, extremist violence, coupled with weak government
    performance in upholding the rule of law, resulted in
    widespread and severe human rights abuses in Iraq. There were
    reports that the government or its agents committed numerous
    arbitrary or unlawful killings, arbitrary detentions, and acts
    of torture connected to its security operations, often with
    impunity. Attacks by al-Qaida in Iraq and other extremists
    continued against Iraqi Security Forces (ISF), government
    officials, and civilians, often targeting urban areas,
    Christian churches, Shia markets, and mosques. On May 10,
    coordinated bombings and shootings resulted in at least 119
    fatalities, including ISF and law enforcement personnel. On
    August 17, a suicide bomber blew himself up in a crowd of army
    recruits in Baghdad, killing 61 persons. During the year, 962
    Ministry of Interior personnel were killed and 1,347 were
    injured. Police officers, in particular, were targeted.
        In Libya, Colonel al-Qadhafi and his close associates
    monopolized every aspect of decision-making in the government.
    Continuing human rights problems included torture, arbitrary
    arrest, official impunity, and poor prison conditions. A large
    but unknown number of persons remained in detention or prison
    for engaging in peaceful political activity or for belonging to
    an illegal political organization. The government significantly
    restricted media freedom and continued to restrict freedom of
    expression, and routinely monitored telephone calls and
    Internet usage, including e-mail communication with foreign
    countries. There also was physical surveillance of political
    activists and foreign organizations. The government owned and
    controlled virtually all print and broadcast media, and
    government-controlled media neither published nor broadcast
    opinions inconsistent with official policy. The Internal
    Security Organization routinely harassed journalists, and
    overly broad provisions of the penal code served as the basis
    for frequent charges of criminal defamation. The government
    severely restricted freedom of assembly and permitted public
    assembly only with advance approval. The government restricted
    the right of association and generally only allowed
    institutions affiliated with the government to operate; no NGOs
    functioned in the country. In the early months of 2011,
    protests erupted across Libya. Because they occurred outside of
    the reporting period, they are not documented in the 2010
    report.
        In Syria, security forces committed unlawful killings,
    detained political and human rights activists, and tortured and
    physically abused prisoners and detainees with impunity. The
    government also imprisoned several high-profile members of the
    human rights and civil society communities, in addition to the
    estimated 2,500-3,000 political prisoners previously detained.
    Lengthy pretrial and incommunicado detention remained a serious
    problem, and the courts systematically used ``confessions''
    extracted under duress as evidence. Defendants' claims of
    torture were almost never investigated. The government severely
    restricted universal freedoms of expression, assembly and
    association, religion, and movement.
    South and Central Asia
        An increasingly difficult security situation in Afghanistan
    resulted in a number of serious human rights abuses. Civilians
    continued to suffer from intensified armed conflict as
    conflict-related deaths increased by 15 percent during the year
    compared to 2009. Government and progovernment international
    forces were responsible for civilian deaths, specifically 16
    percent of total civilian deaths. Human Rights Watch reported
    that timely and transparent inquiries or accountability of
    forces in the event of wrong-doing were often lacking when
    civilians were hurt or killed. Taliban and insurgent attacks,
    including politically targeted killings, escalated in both
    number and intensity. At least 30 individuals were killed on
    September 18, the day of parliamentary elections, and the
    Taliban claimed responsibility for killing three candidates
    during the campaign period between July and August. In August,
    five campaign workers supporting Fauwzia Gilani in Herat were
    abducted and killed. There were also attacks on election
    officials. The elections themselves were marred by electoral
    fraud and widespread irregularities, including the
    establishment of a special tribunal to investigate the election
    results and complaints; low voter turnout; and insufficient
    conditions for participation by women. The government was
    plagued by official impunity and corruption and often failed to
    conduct effective investigations of human rights abuses
    committed by local security forces. Arbitrary arrest and
    detention remained a problem, and the judiciary lacked
    independence. Freedom of religion, including the right to
    change one's religion, was severely restricted. Women continued
    to face pervasive human rights abuses, including violence,
    insurgent attacks on girls' education, limited access to
    justice, and other limitations on their rights.
        In Pakistan, allegations of extrajudicial killings and
    detention of civilians by the security forces were reported by
    several media outlets and NGOs. During the year, there was a
    significant increase in the total number of reported torture
    and rape cases of individuals in custody, almost double as
    compared to 2009. The Society for Human Rights and Prisoners'
    Aid reported 72 civilian deaths after encounters with police
    and 168 deaths in jails, an increase from the previous year.
    Militant and terrorist bombings in all four provinces and in
    Federally Administered Tribal Areas continued to result in
    deaths and injuries. According to the report, terrorist and
    extremist attacks and operations to combat terrorism and
    extremism resulted in 7,400 deaths, of which nearly 1,800 were
    civilians, over 450 were security forces, and over 5,100 were
    terrorists or insurgents. There were numerous reports of
    politically motivated killings in Karachi and Balochistan.
    According to a report by Dawn, 1,981 persons were killed in
    political violence in Karachi, of which 748 were targeted
    killings. According to Human Rights Watch, the targeted killing
    and disappearance of Baloch leaders, activists, and civilians
    increased in 2010. Religious freedom violations and violence
    and discrimination against religious minorities continued. Some
    people accused of blasphemy against Islam were sentenced to
    life imprisonment or capital punishment. One of them was Aasia
    Bibi, a Christian woman, who was sentenced to death in
    November, becoming the first woman to receive such a harsh
    sentence for blasphemy.
        Uzbekistan continued to incarcerate individuals on
    political grounds. While one political prisoner, human rights
    activist Farhad Mukhtarov, was released during the year, 13 to
    25 political prisoners remained in custody, and family members
    reported that many prisoners were tortured. Human rights
    activists, their family members, and members of certain
    religious groups reported harassment and arrest by police and
    other members of the security forces. Freedom of expression was
    severely limited and harassment of journalists increased during
    the year. Police and security services subjected print and
    broadcast journalists to arrest, intimidation, and violence, as
    well as to bureaucratic restrictions on their activity. The
    criminal and administrative codes imposed significant fines for
    libel and defamation and the government used charges of libel,
    slander, and defamation to punish journalists, human rights
    activists, and others who criticized the president or the
    government. Freedom of association also was restricted. The
    government tightly controlled NGO activity and regulated
    Islamic and minority religious groups with strict legal
    restrictions on the types of groups that could be formed and
    registered. Forced adult and child labor was used during the
    cotton harvest.
    Western Hemisphere
        The government of Cuba released more than 40 political
    prisoners during the reporting period, including many notable
    human rights activists arrested in 2003, although most were
    released on the condition that they leave the country. Cuba
    continued to hold dozens of other political prisoners. The
    government suppressed human rights and fundamental freedoms,
    including freedom of speech, the press, assembly and
    association, movement, and religion. Human rights groups noted
    a marked increase in the use of short-term detentions designed
    to disrupt the work of civil society and harass activists. In
    addition, the government continued to stage public protests to
    harass and abuse activists and their families, particularly the
    Damas de Blanco (``Ladies in White''). Although the government
    characterized the mobs as spontaneous, participants frequently
    arrived in government-owned vehicles or were recruited by local
    Communist Party leaders from nearby workplaces or schools. In
    extreme cases, government-orchestrated mobs assaulted these
    individuals or damaged their homes or property. Members of the
    security forces monitored, harassed, and sometimes physically
    assaulted human rights and prodemocracy advocates, dissidents,
    independent journalists, detainees, and prisoners, and did so
    with impunity. The government did not recognize independent
    journalism, and subjected some independent journalists to
    travel bans, detentions, harassment, equipment seizures, and
    threats of imprisonment. Unauthorized assemblies of more than
    three persons can be punished by up to three months in prison
    and a fine, although these meetings were more likely to be
    broken up than prosecuted.
        Respect for human rights and democratic institutions
    deteriorated over the past year in Nicaragua. Protesting
    opposition party members were denied freedom of assembly. March
    2010 regional elections on the Caribbean coast were marred by
    allegations of widespread irregularities, and credible domestic
    NGOs were denied permission to monitor the election. Other
    issues include politicization of the judiciary and other
    government organs, substantial government interference with
    media freedom, and harassment of NGOs and journalists. Police
    did not protect demonstrators who protested government policies
    and allowed progovernment groups to engage in violent
    activities. The government continued to criticize religious
    leaders who expressed concerns about government practices and
    policies that affected public participation and democratic
    freedoms. Government officials publicly excoriated Catholic
    Church officials who denounced the manipulation of the
    electoral process.
        In Venezuela, the government used the judiciary to
    intimidate and persecute individuals and organizations that
    criticized government policies or actions, including peaceful
    protesters, journalists, a judge, members of opposition
    political parties, NGOs, union and business leaders, and
    ordinary citizens. Government officials also restricted freedom
    of expression, harassing and intimidating privately owned
    television stations, media outlets, and journalists through
    threats, property seizures, targeted regulations, and criminal
    investigations and prosecutions. In late December the National
    Assembly adopted a package of laws that further undermined
    democratic principles and practices in Venezuela, including a
    law delegating legislative authority to the executive that
    extended beyond the term of office of the outgoing National
    Assembly, in violation of the shared values of the Inter-
    American Democratic Charter, and laws imposing new restrictions
    on the independent media, the Internet, political parties, and
    NGOs.

                           NEAR EAST AND NORTH AFRICA

                                  ----------

                                    ALGERIA

        Algeria is a multiparty republic of approximately 36 million
    citizens whose head of state and government (president) is elected by
    popular vote for a five-year term. The president has the constitutional
    authority to appoint and dismiss cabinet members and the prime
    minister. A 2008 constitutional amendment eliminated presidential term
    limits, and in April 2009 President Abdelaziz Bouteflika won reelection
    to his third term in office. Some opposition parties boycotted the
    election, arguing that restrictions on freedom of association skewed
    the election outcome in favor of the incumbent. While the state of
    emergency law implemented in 1992 remained in effect during the year,
    the Government concentrated its enforcement on the provisions
    restricting assembly and association. Security forces reported to
    civilian authorities.
        Principal human rights problems included restrictions on freedom of
    assembly and association, which significantly impaired political party
    activities and limited citizens' ability to change the Government
    peacefully through elections. There were reports of arbitrary killings.
    Failures to account for persons who disappeared in the 1990s and to
    address the demands of victims' families remained problematic. There
    were reports of official impunity, overuse of pretrial detention, poor
    prison conditions, abuse of prisoners, and lack of judicial
    independence. Additionally, widespread corruption accompanied reports
    of limited government transparency. Authorities used security grounds
    to constrain freedom of expression and movement. Women faced violence
    and discrimination, and the Government maintained restrictions on
    workers' rights.
        Terrorist groups committed a significant number of attacks against
    government officials, members of security forces, and, to a lesser
    extent, civilians.

                            RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

    Section 1. Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom
            From:
        a. Arbitrary or Unlawful Deprivation of Life.--There were reports
    that the Government or its agents committed arbitrary or unlawful
    killings.
        On June 2, a mentally disabled man, Nouradine Nadri, died in police
    custody in Saida province, according to the Algerian League for the
    Defense of Human Rights' (LADDH) Saida province office. Police arrested
    Nadri following an altercation with the driver of a vehicle that
    accidentally struck him. According to LADDH, police brought Nadri to
    the province's security headquarters instead of transporting him to the
    hospital as stipulated by article 51 of the code of criminal
    procedures, which requires a medical examination before placing a
    suspect in custody. Nadri's family reported to LADDH that their son
    died following abuse by police.
        Information on terrorism-related violence in the country was
    difficult to verify independently. The Ministry of Interior
    sporadically released information concerning the total number of
    terrorist, civilian, and security force deaths. During the year
    security forces killed, injured, or arrested approximately 1,935
    suspected terrorists. According to press reports on official estimates,
    the total number of deaths was 619: suspected terrorists killed 65
    civilians and 91 security force members, and security forces killed an
    estimated 463 suspected terrorists in military sweep operations that
    resulted in armed clashes. These numbers represent a decrease from the
    804 deaths reported in 2009.
        Most terrorist attacks during the year were attributed to the
    terrorist group al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), which emerged
    in 2007 after the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat allied itself
    with al-Qaida in 2006.
        The year was marked by some violence. For example, on April 4, a
    terrorist attack killed seven communal guards in the eastern province
    of Bejaia. On June 12, a car bomb attack against a unit of the National
    Gendarmerie in Ammal between Boumerdes and Bouira left four security
    force members dead and at least 17 wounded. An AQIM terrorist killed 11
    gendarmes on June 29 during an ambush in Tinzaouatin in the province of
    Tamanrasset in the Algerian-Malian border area. AQIM claimed
    responsibility for all of these attacks. Former minister of interior
    Noureddine Zerhouni stated in 2008 that an estimated 400 terrorists
    operated in the country; the figure remained the most recent one
    available.

        b. Disappearance.--Enforced disappearances, reportedly numbering in
    the thousands, were a significant problem during the 1990s and
    continued to be a topic covered in the media and raised by local and
    international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). The Government on
    August 26 listed the official number of disappeared cases as 6,544,
    which represented a significant reduction in the official number
    reported in previous years. During a March 2009 conference in Geneva,
    representatives of the Government's human rights advisory office, the
    National Consultative Commission for the Promotion and Protection of
    Human Rights (CNCPPDH), stated that 8,023 persons remained missing or
    disappeared as a result of government actions between 1992 and 1999. In
    previous years the Government attributed 10,000 disappearances to
    terrorist kidnappings and murder. NGOs reported that security forces in
    the past played a role in the disappearances of approximately 8,000
    persons.
        The law provides measures for compensating victims of
    disappearances. For courts to hear charges of disappearance, the law
    requires at least two eyewitnesses. Many of the disappearances in the
    1990s were in later years attributed to the security forces; however,
    the Government did not prosecute security force personnel, and there
    was no evidence that the Government investigated cases it acknowledged
    security forces caused.
        In 2005 voters approved by referendum President Bouteflika's
    proposed Charter for Peace and National Reconciliation, which ended the
    Ad Hoc Mechanism established in 2003 to account for the disappeared.
    The charter went into effect in 2006, granting amnesty to and
    preventing investigation into the conduct of the National Popular Army,
    the security forces, state-sponsored armed groups, and persons who
    fought on behalf of the Government during episodes of civil strife in
    the 1990s. On February 2, the Government added two additional
    provisions to the charter. The first provision stipulates that 3,455
    public employees who were dismissed from their jobs for violent acts
    they committed in the 1990s would have the years they were out of their
    jobs counted towards their retirement pensions. The second provision
    allows families of the disappeared who filed claims after the original
    2006 deadline to claim compensation. The amnesty also covered certain
    persons involved in Islamist militant and terrorist activities. Persons
    implicated in mass killings, rapes, or bomb attacks in public places
    were not eligible for amnesty. Some local NGOs, including SOS Disparus,
    Djazairouna, and LADDH, criticized the charter for enabling terrorists
    to escape justice and security forces for acting with impunity.
        On January 11, the local human rights NGO Alkarama presented to the
    Government human rights commission the disappearance case of Lakhdar
    Bouzenia, who was allegedly arrested by security forces in 1993 and
    tortured. The case remained unresolved at year's end.
        In a February 2009 report, the UN Human Rights Council Working
    Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances stated that in 2008 it
    transmitted to the Government 768 cases of disappearances that were
    reportedly attributed to government forces between 1992 and 1999. Also
    in 2008 the UN Committee Against Torture (UNCAT) reported its concerns
    that Law 06-01 provides impunity for members of armed groups and state
    officials and that the Government had not yet initiated proceedings to
    investigate the fate of the disappeared. UNCAT also expressed concern
    that the Government had not publicized the criteria for compensating
    family members and required those compensated to waive their right to
    seek civil damages against the state.
        Families of the disappeared reportedly experienced complications
    and delays in receiving compensation. In September 2009 then minister
    of national solidarity Ould Abbes stated the Government had paid 11
    billion dinars (approximately $149 million) in compensation to
    families. According to the Government, as of the end of 2008, 25,316
    claims had been filed for compensation under the charter. Authorities
    approved 13,866 claims and paid compensation on 12,339 of these claims.
    In August the Government revised that number, reporting that only 6,544
    persons disappeared in the 1990s and that families in 6,420 of the
    cases previously received financial compensation.
        Armed criminals conducted abuses against civilians including
    kidnappings, false checkpoints, and extortion, particularly in areas
    east of Algiers and in the southern portion of the country. In 2008
    then interior minister Zerhouni reported that 115 of 375 kidnapping
    cases in the previous two years were related to terrorism.

        c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or
    Punishment.--The law prohibits such practices; however, NGO and local
    human rights activists reported that government officials sometimes
    employed abusive treatment to obtain confessions. Government agents can
    face prison sentences of between 10 and 20 years for committing such
    acts, and some individuals were tried and convicted in 2008.
    Nonetheless, impunity remained a problem.
        Local human rights lawyers maintained that abusive treatment
    occurred in detention facilities, most often against those arrested on
    ``security grounds.''
        Amnesty International (AI) and other international organizations
    documented the mistreatment of terror suspects, where they have been
    ``held in unrecognized places of detention without contact with the
    outside world, at times for prolonged periods, putting them at risk of
    torture.''
        There were three reports of police abuse during the year.
        In mid-April guards at El Harrach prison insulted Khalouf Fares,
    Nour Abdel Aziz, Yaakoub Bilal, and Karman Hurfi, who were awaiting
    trial on terrorism-related charges, according to AI. The men were also
    stripped naked in front of other detainees and guards and slapped.
        On October 22, a police inspector in Setif received a 10-year
    prison sentence and a 50,000-dinar fine ($677) for abusing his
    authority and fraud.
        On November 11, a police officer was arrested in the wilaya
    (province) of Batna for allegedly sexually assaulting a woman in her
    home. The case was pending at year's end.
        During a September 2009 visit to El Harrach prison, Minister of
    Justice Tayeb Belaiz stated that the ministry had prosecuted and jailed
    14 prison workers for mistreating prisoners in 2009.
        AI and Human Rights Watch claimed that prisoners affiliated with
    hard-line Islamic organizations tended to receive harsher treatment
    than others. In 2008 Alkarama reported that after a protest by inmates
    related to prayer room space, prison guards handcuffed, stripped, and
    beat approximately 80 prisoners with iron bars and sticks. There were
    no reports of any such allegations after 2008.
        In October the World Organization Against Torture reported
    allegations of torture in the case of Abderrahamane Mehalli, who was
    reportedly mistreated by the Department of Intelligence and Security
    (DRS) immediately following his 2006 arrest. Mehalli, accused of
    belonging to an armed terrorist group, was punched and kicked and
    suffered simulated drowning at the hands of the DRS according to online
    reports.

        Prison and Detention Center Conditions.--Prison conditions
    generally did not meet international standards, and the Government did
    not permit visits to military, high-security, or standard prison
    facilities or to detention centers by independent human rights
    observers. Overcrowding remained a problem in many prisons. According
    to human rights lawyers, prison overpopulation was partially explained
    by the Government's excessive use of pretrial detention. In 2008 the
    CNCPPDH conducted 34 prison visits and highlighted concerns with
    overcrowding, insufficient bed space, and problems with lighting,
    ventilation, nutrition, and hygiene.
        According to the director general of the Prisons Administration,
    there were 58,000 prisoners in the country's penal system held in 137
    prisons. Prisons held men and women separately. In some cases
    overcrowding meant that juveniles were held with adults; however, in
    general the Government maintained separate juvenile detention centers.
    Pretrial detainees were held separately from convicted prisoners.
        Prisoners were permitted weekly visits by their families; family
    members have the right to bring in food and clothes. Prisoners were
    permitted religious observance and had a place to perform prayers. All
    Muslim religious days were celebrated within prisons. In each prison
    inmates can submit complaints to the penitentiary administration or
    their lawyers. Follow-up on complaints, and investigation, can take
    time based on the content of the complaint, urgency, and the conditions
    of prisoner detention.
        During the year the Government permitted the International
    Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Red Crescent Society to visit
    regular, nonmilitary prisons. ICRC visits to persons held in places of
    detention run by the Ministry of Justice and to those detained in
    police stations and gendarmeries were carried out in accordance with
    ICRC standard practices. Visitors to some prisons saw no signs of
    torture or mistreatment. Observers also noted an improved quality of
    medical care available to inmates in some prisons.
        In April 2009 an amendment to the penal code permitted the
    substitution of community service for prison sentences for first-time
    offenders with a maximum prison sentence of three years. Authorities
    reiterated in July that the new law was designed to reduce recidivism
    and to alleviate overcrowding in prisons. An ombudsman does not exist
    to serve on behalf of prisoners or detainees.
        In a 2008 report, UNCAT expressed concern over reports that the
    DRS, the intelligence agency tasked with internal security, maintained
    secret detention centers inside military barracks that operated outside
    judicial authority. During the year AI reported significant concerns
    that torture and abuse occurred in DRS facilities.

        d. Arbitrary Arrest or Detention.--The constitution prohibits
    arbitrary arrest and detention; however, overuse of pretrial detention
    occurred in practice. In 2008 the head of the Government-appointed
    CNCPPDH stated the abuse of pretrial detention tarnished the image of
    the country's justice system.
        The head of the CNCPPDH explained in August that judicial error
    resulted in cases of ``unjustified'' pretrial detention due to a lack
    of incriminating evidence. On December 7, CNCPPDH president Farouk
    Ksentini cited his organization's 2009 human rights report in noting
    that ``physical abuse and other brutalities'' were committed against
    suspects during questioning and in pretrial detention.

        Role of the Police and Security Apparatus.--The national police
    force, consisting of more than 140,000 members, falls under the control
    of the Ministry of Interior and has national jurisdiction. The National
    Gendarmerie, under the Ministry of Defense, also performs police-like
    functions outside urban areas. Organizationally the DRS reports to the
    Ministry of Defense and exercises internal security functions, but it
    also performs functions comparable to the police in terrorism cases.
        Impunity remained a problem. The Government did not always provide
    public information on the numbers, infractions, or punishments of
    police, military, or other security force personnel.
        The criminal code provides mechanisms to investigate abuses.
        On December 14, a 41-year-old man died in police custody under
    suspicious circumstances in Constantine. The man was found strangled in
    his cell the morning after his detention. A week after the death, local
    residents rioted in the streets. On December 27, national police
    director General Abdelghani Hamel said during a radio interview that
    police officers had been placed under investigation for not following
    procedures (removing the man's shoelaces) prior to the man's
    incarceration and that he likely committed suicide.

        Arrest Procedures and Treatment While in Detention.--According to
    the law, the police must obtain a summons from the Prosecutor's Office
    to require a suspect to appear in a police station for preliminary
    questioning. Summonses also are used to notify and require the accused
    and the victim to attend a court proceeding or hearing.
        Police may make arrests without a warrant if they witness the
    offense. Public lawyers reported that procedures for warrants and
    summonses were usually carried out properly.
        The constitution specifies that a suspect may be held in detention
    for up to 48 hours without charge. If more time is required for
    gathering additional evidence, the police may request that the
    prosecutor extend the suspect's detention to 72 hours. Those suspected
    of terrorism or subversion may be held legally for 12 days without
    charge or access to counsel under the law. Such individuals are
    obligated to answer questions posed to them by security forces, and
    they are not authorized to contact anyone. By law the initial court
    appearance in terrorism matters is not public.
        At the end of the 12-day period, the detainee has the right to
    request a medical examination by a physician of choice within the
    jurisdiction of the court. Otherwise the judicial police appoint a
    doctor. The certificate of the medical examination is then entered into
    the detainee's file.
        AI and other human rights groups expressed concerns about abuse and
    possible torture of suspects during this 12-day period. However,
    comments from numerous Guantanamo Bay detainees returned to the country
    and their lawyers indicated that these individuals received fair
    pretrial treatment in accordance with the law during the 12-day period.
        Following the 12-day period, individuals involved in terrorism
    cases are placed under judicial control, which requires them to report
    weekly to a local police precinct and to reside at an agreed-upon
    address. Travel within the country is unrestricted. Travel abroad is
    not generally authorized.
        Prolonged pretrial detention remained a problem. The law does not
    provide a person in detention the right to a prompt judicial
    determination of the legality of the detention. Persons charged with
    acts against the security of the state, including terrorism, may be
    held in pretrial detention as long as 20 months according to the penal
    code; the prosecutor must show cause every four months for continuing
    pretrial detention. According to local NGOs, pretrial detainees
    represented 11-12 percent of individuals held by prison authorities
    during the year.
        Judges rarely refused prosecutorial requests for extending
    preventive detention, which by law can be appealed. Should the
    detention be overturned, the defendant has the right to request
    compensation.
        There is no system of bail, but in nonfelony cases, suspects were
    often released on provisional liberty referred to as ``judicial
    control'' while awaiting trial. Under provisional liberty status,
    suspects are required to report weekly to the police station in their
    district and are forbidden to leave the country.
        Most detainees have prompt access to a lawyer of their choice, and
    the Government provides legal counsel to indigent detainees. The penal
    code requires that detainees in pretrial detention are informed
    immediately of their rights to communicate with family members, receive
    visitors, and be examined by a doctor of their choice at the end of
    detention. In addition any suspect can request a medical examination
    once on police premises or before facing the judge. In practice there
    were continued reports during the year that these rights were not
    extended to all detainees. Typically detainees had access to a doctor
    only at the end of their detention. Some detainees were held
    incommunicado without access to their families or lawyers.
        Human rights advocates reported that authorities continued to hold
    Mohamed Rahmouni at the military tribunal in Blida on alleged terrorism
    charges but had granted him access to a lawyer. Rahmouni remained in
    prison at year's end.
        In 2009 a court acquitted Mohamed Fatmia of terrorism charges.
    Fatmia was detained in Serkadji prison in 2008 and was held
    incommunicado throughout 2007.

        e. Denial of Fair Public Trial.--The constitution provides for an
    independent judiciary; however, the president exercises supreme
    judicial authority, and the executive branch limited judicial
    independence. The constitution provides for the right to a fair trial;
    however, in practice authorities did not always respect legal
    provisions regarding defendants' rights.
        The High Judicial Council is responsible for judicial discipline
    and the appointment of all judges. President Bouteflika serves as the
    president of the council.
        Military courts in Oran, Blida, Constantine, and Bechar tried cases
    involving state security, espionage, and other security-related
    offenses involving military personnel and civilians. Each tribunal
    consisted of three civilian judges and two military judges. Although
    the president of each court was a civilian, the chief judge was a
    military officer. The permanent military court was composed of three
    members: a chairman (civilian magistrate from the civilian courts as
    president) and two assessors (from military personnel designated by the
    defense minister having at least the same rank of the defendant subject
    to trial).
        By law defense lawyers must be accredited by the military tribunal
    to appear. Public attendance at the trial is at the discretion of the
    tribunal and some cases took place behind closed doors. Appeals are
    made directly to the Supreme Court. Military tribunals try cases, but
    they only occasionally disclosed information on proceedings. There was
    no public information available on any cases that were tried before the
    tribunals during the year.
        The nine-member Constitutional Council reviews the
    constitutionality of treaties, laws, and regulations. Although the
    council is not part of the judiciary, it has the authority to nullify
    laws found unconstitutional, to confirm the results of any type of
    election, and to serve as the final arbiter of amendments that pass
    both chambers of the parliament before becoming law.

        Trial Procedures.--Defendants are presumed innocent and have the
    right to be present and to consult with an attorney, provided at public
    expense if necessary. Most trials are public and nonjury. Defendants
    can confront or question witnesses against them or present witnesses
    and evidence on their behalf. Defendants and their attorneys
    occasionally were denied access to government-held evidence relevant to
    their cases, but there were fewer reports of such incidents during the
    year. Defendants have the right to appeal. The testimony of men and
    women has equal weight under the law.

        Political Prisoners and Detainees.--There were no reports of
    political prisoners or detainees.

        Civil Judicial Procedures and Remedies.--The judiciary was neither
    fully independent nor impartial in civil matters and lacked
    independence in some human rights cases. Family connections and status
    of the parties involved reportedly influenced some decisions.
    Individuals may bring lawsuits, and there are administrative processes
    related to amnesty, which may provide damages for human rights
    violations and compensation for alleged wrongs.

        f. Arbitrary Interference With Privacy, Family, Home, or
    Correspondence.--The constitution prohibits such actions; however, in
    practice government authorities infringed on citizens' privacy rights.
    According to human rights activists, the Government monitored the
    communications of political opponents, journalists, human rights
    groups, and suspected terrorists. Security officials reportedly
    searched homes without a warrant.
    Section 2. Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:
        a. Freedom of Speech and Press.--The constitution provides for
    freedom of speech and of the press; however, the Government restricted
    these rights in practice through accusations of defamation and informal
    pressure on publishers, editors, and journalists.
        Individuals generally were able to criticize the Government
    privately without reprisal. However, citizens self-censored public
    criticism. The Government attempted to impede criticism by monitoring
    political meetings.
        The law specifies that freedom of speech must respect ``individual
    dignity, the imperatives of foreign policy, and the national defense.''
    The state of emergency decree, introduced in 1992, gives the Government
    broad authority to restrict civil liberties and take legal action
    against what it considers to be threats to the state or public order.
        A 2006 presidential decree continued to criminalize speech about
    the conduct of the security forces during the internal conflict of the
    1990s.
        Radio and television were government-owned and frequently broadcast
    coverage favorable to the Government. During nonelection periods
    opposition parties and spokesmen regularly were denied access to public
    radio or television. Political parties and independent candidates
    received the same amount of radio access time during the three-week
    campaign period prior to the 2009 presidential election and prior to
    the 2007 legislative and local elections. Several opposition parties
    stated that their daily media allotment during the three-week period
    was the first time they had been allowed media access since the
    previous election cycle.
        The country's print media consisted of numerous publications that
    supported or opposed the Government to varying degrees. Many political
    parties, including legal Islamic parties, had access to the independent
    press and used it to express their views. Opposition parties also
    disseminated information via the Internet and published communiques.
        The law permits the Government to censor, levy fines, and imprison
    members of the press. The Government indirectly censored and
    intimidated the media into practicing self-censorship by using
    defamation laws to harass and arrest some journalists; some members of
    the press faced retaliation for criticizing government officials. Other
    journalists and many political cartoonists, however, regularly
    criticized the Government.
        The law defines defamation broadly, and the penal code imposes
    prison terms of up to 24 months and fines of 50,000 to 500,000 dinars
    ($677 to $6,770). Defamation includes ``the insult'' of government
    figures, including the president, members of parliament, judges,
    members of the military, and ``any other authority of public order.''
    Furthermore, a 1990 law protects Islam from defamation, controls access
    to external information, and outlaws writing that threatens national
    unity. In 2001 the Government amended laws to criminalize writing,
    cartoons, and speech that insult or offend the president, parliament,
    judiciary, or armed forces. Despite these regulations cartoonists and
    editorialists continued to enjoy some latitude in criticizing the
    Government.
        On January 25, the Government blocked the independent Paris-based
    Algerian radio station Radio Kalima from broadcasting its programs to
    the country via the European satellite operator Eutelsat, according to
    Eutelsat.
        In March Riad K., the correspondent of El Bilad in Chlef, received
    a two-month prison sentence after Senator Nourredine Belaredj filed a
    complaint following the September 2009 publication of an article
    criticizing the senator for corruption.
        Also in March the Court of Bir-Mourad Rais (Algiers) fined the
    publisher of Ennahar El Djadid, Anis Rahmani, 50,000 dinars ($677)
    following a complaint filed by the official news agency. He was accused
    of defamation.
        In May the mayor of Ain Boudinar filed a complaint against Belkacem
    Belhamideche, the managing director of La Reflexion newspaper,
    following the June 2009 publication of an article quoting an
    entrepreneur denouncing corruption. A court sentenced Belhamideche to
    six months in prison.
        The Government used defamation laws occasionally to pressure
    editors, journalists, and the owners of printing houses. In a 2009
    letter to President Bouteflika, the international NGO Committee to
    Protect Journalists expressed concern for ``the rising incidence of
    press freedom violations.'' In 2008 Reporters without Borders (RSF)
    criticized the defamation laws as ``repressive legislation.''
        Omar Belhouchet, editor of the French-language newspaper El-Watan,
    faced government pressure throughout the year for articles published in
    his newspaper in 2009. In 2008 authorities brought a case against
    Belhouchet and reporter Salima Tlemcani for allegedly libeling a faith
    healer in a 2004 article. An Algiers court sentenced both to three
    months in prison and a fine of 50,000 dinars ($677). The case remained
    pending at year's end. The charges against Belhouchet in connection
    with three libel cases relating to articles he published several years
    ago about airfare increases and police killings of demonstrators also
    remained unresolved. Belhouchet and Tlemcani remained free at year's
    end.
        In January 2009 freelance journalist Hafnaoui Ghoul stated that
    unknown persons threatened him near his home in Djelfa. He claimed that
    authorities did not investigate the incident. According to RSF,
    officials have targeted Ghoul for years, repeatedly detaining, beating,
    and persecuting him for writing articles critical of the Government. At
    year's end Ghoul faced 16 pending lawsuits by local officials related
    to his articles on corruption.
        During a February 2009 appeal hearing, a Mascara court sentenced
    Layadi El-Amine Yahia, a journalist for Le Carrefour d'Algerie, to one
    year in prison and fined him 20,000 dinars ($271) for libel in an
    article implicating Mascara's commerce director in corruption. The
    court previously acquitted Yahia, who was unaware of the Government's
    appeal of his acquittal. Yahia appealed the February 2009 decision, but
    the court had not set a date for the hearing at year's end.
        In March 2009 authorities in Ghardaia detained news Web site al-
    Waha editor Nedjar El-Hadj Daoud in connection with a 2005 defamation
    case, but subsequently released him within days for medical reasons. On
    May 11, a Ghardia court sentenced Daoud to six months' imprisonment in
    a lawsuit related to an article published in 2006 involving then
    presidential chief of staff Labri Belkheir. According to RSF Daoud
    faced 20 pending defamation complaints in Ghardaia.
        There were no developments in the 2007 appeal of Saad Lounes, who
    was given a one-year sentence for tax fraud on the basis of a complaint
    by the Ministry of Commerce dating to 1995. Lounes faced legal pressure
    for more than 10 years while he operated the only private printing
    press in the country.
        In 2008 an appeals court reduced the 2007 sentence of journalist
    Dhil Talal, convicted of defamation for an article exposing a
    government ministry's monetary losses, to a fine of 5,000 dinars ($68)
    and a six-month suspended prison sentence. During the year there was no
    decision on Talal's 2008 appeal of his reduced sentence.
        The Government exercised considerable economic leverage on the
    media, as most newspapers were printed at government-owned presses.
        The Government continued to influence the independent press through
    the state-owned advertising company, National Agency for
    Communications, Publication and Advertising (ANEP), which decided
    whether independent newspapers would benefit from advertisements placed
    by state-owned agencies and companies. ANEP, and therefore the
    Government, controlled the largest source of income for most newspapers
    and used this economic control to steer content in the press. As has
    been the case in recent years, independent advertisers played a
    considerably smaller, but increasingly visible, role in advertising
    revenue.
        The Government continued restrictions on both the local and the
    international media's coverage of issues relating to ``national
    security and terrorism.'' Al Jazeera's office remained closed, after
    the Government banned it from operating in the country in 2004 for
    broadcasting a program featuring opposition figures criticizing the
    Government. In previous years international journalists had their
    accreditations denied, but there were no such occurrences recorded
    during the year.
        Agence France-Presse (AFP) and Reuters maintained offices in the
    country, and the Government reaccredited both in February. In 2008 the
    Government revoked the AFP and Reuters bureau chiefs' press
    accreditations in response to allegedly inaccurate reports the agencies
    filed on terrorist attacks in the country.
        In April the then communication state secretary to the prime
    minister gave a Tunis-based private channel, Nessma TV, a two-week
    notification to close its Algiers bureau, saying that the station did
    not have official authorization to work in the country. According to
    press reports, 12 complaints were filed against the channel during the
    year, including by the National Office of Copyrights. Despite the
    notice to close, Nessma continued to operate in the country, working
    through a local public relations firm.

        Internet Freedom.--Access to the Internet was generally unimpeded;
    however, the Government monitored e-mail and Internet chat rooms. In
    August 2009 the Government enacted a law on cybercrime that establishes
    procedures for using electronic data in prosecutions and established
    the responsibilities of service providers to cooperate with
    authorities. In November 2009 then minister of post and information
    technology Hamid Bessalah announced that his ministry was creating a
    National Center for Internet Data Exchange to protect Internet users
    from inappropriate content, cybercrime, and hackers.
        By law Internet service providers face criminal penalties for the
    material and Web sites they host, especially if subject matters are
    ``incompatible with morality or public opinion.'' The ministries of
    justice, interior, and post and information technology have oversight
    responsibilities. The cybercrime law provides sentences for six months
    to five years in prison and fines between 50,000 and 500,000 dinars
    ($677 to $6,770) for users who do not comply with the law, including
    the obligation to cooperate with law enforcement authorities against
    cybercrime.
        There were approximately 4.7 million Internet users, which
    represented approximately 13.6 percent of the population, according to
    figures released on June 30 by Nielsen Online.
        In January the public could no longer access the Rachad opposition
    movement's Web site (rachad.org) or its Internet television site
    (rachad.tv). Rachad organizers accused the Government of jamming and
    infiltrating its sites.

        Academic Freedom and Cultural Events.--Academic freedom generally
    was restricted. Academic seminars and colloquiums occurred with limited
    governmental interference, and there were delays in issuing visas to
    international participants and instances where authorities denied
    international experts entrance.
        In May the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research
    required academics to obtain approval before participating in
    conferences abroad and called on academics and researchers to
    coordinate with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs before attending or
    organizing conferences. Also that month the ministry cancelled the
    second Maghreb Forum on Democratic Processes and the Building of a
    Modern State two days before its scheduled start, providing no reason.
        In June the Government banned three professors from Mouloud Mammeri
    University in Tizi Ouzou from participating in two scientific
    conferences in Morocco.
        In an August interview with Arabic-language newspaper El-Bilad,
    director Mohamed Hazourli stated that authorities banned two episodes
    of his Ramadan sitcom Aasab wa Awtar wa Afkar (Nerves, Strings, and
    Ideas), and the series was taken off the air. The banned episodes
    addressed problems with local artists and their treatment from the
    Government.
        On the margins of the 2009Algiers Book Fair, authorities prevented
    anthropologist Tassadit Yacine from holding a conference on the work of
    Jean Amrouche, a Berber writer from the Kabylie.

        b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association.--The constitution
    provides for freedom of assembly and association; however, the
    Government severely restricted the exercise of these rights in
    practice.

        Freedom of Assembly.--The constitution provides for the right of
    assembly; however, the emergency decree and government practice
    continued to significantly curtail this right. A decree implemented in
    2000 banning demonstrations in Algiers remained in effect. Authorities
    required citizens and organizations to obtain permits from the
    Government-appointed local governor before holding public meetings. The
    Government restricted licenses to political parties, NGOs, and other
    groups to hold indoor rallies and frequently granted permissions on the
    eve of the event, thereby impeding publicity and outreach.
        LADDH reported continuing difficulties in obtaining permission to
    hold outdoor meetings and seminars. Groups opposing the Charter on
    Peace and Reconciliation also had difficulty securing permission to
    hold public gatherings.
        On March 7, police prevented a sit-in of 40 broadcast journalists
    on a hunger strike protesting low wages and unfair working conditions.
    The managing director of the National Company of Radio Broadcasting
    filed a complaint on March 12 against seven reporters for illegally
    entering a public premise and hindering the work of the public radio
    service.
        In May security forces sealed the headquarters of the Maison des
    Syndicats (Unions House) rented by the autonomous union syndicate. The
    action coincided with the beginning of an international social union
    forum in Algiers. The Government ordered the property owner to prohibit
    the organization of trade union activities at the premises.
        In May police blocked a rally organized by the Bezzaf (Enough)
    Movement in front of the offices of state television to demand press
    freedom. The police detained four protest organizers as they approached
    the site on the grounds of inciting a gathering ``that could disturb
    public tranquility,'' which is an offense under the penal code. Police
    questioned the organizers and released them the same day.
        In August the wali of Annaba refused to allow the Abdellah
    Djaballah wing of the Islam Movement to organize an iftar at Teleferic
    hotel. Annaba officials did not give any justification for the refusal.
        SOS Disparus, an NGO representing relatives of persons who
    disappeared during the 1990s civil conflict, held weekly sit-ins in
    front of CNCPPDH headquarters until August, when government authorities
    began preventing this activity. According to witnesses police dispersed
    the crowd and beat and arrested some demonstrators on at least one
    occasion. In August the group tried again to hold its weekly sit-in,
    but police prevented the gathering.
        On November 4, Algiers airport authorities denied entry to Tarek
    Labidi, a Tunisian lawyer and member of the National Council of
    Liberties, who was traveling for a LADDH conference on good governance
    and civil society. Authorities provided no justification for his denial
    of entry.
        In January 2009 police prevented a peaceful demonstration organized
    by the Workers' Party to show solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza
    Strip. Police dispersed the crowd and allegedly beat and arrested some
    demonstrators. In February 2009 police prevented a sit-in organized by
    contract teachers who attempted to demonstrate near the presidential
    offices.

        Freedom of Association.--The constitution provides for the right of
    association; however, the Government and the emergency decree severely
    restricted this right in practice. The Ministry of Interior must
    approve all political parties before they are legally established. The
    Government restricted the registration of certain NGOs, associations,
    and political parties on security grounds but declined to provide
    evidence or legal justification for refusing to authorize other
    organizations that could not be disqualified on security grounds. The
    Government frequently failed to grant official recognition to NGOs,
    associations, religious groups, and political parties in an expeditious
    fashion. The Ministry of Interior may deny a license to or dissolve any
    group regarded as a threat to the Government's authority or to public
    order. The law implementing the 2006 amnesty prohibits political
    activities by anyone responsible for having used religion leading to
    the ``national tragedy,'' that is, the 1990s civil conflict.
        The Government issued licenses and subsidies to domestic
    associations, especially youth, medical, and neighborhood associations.
    The Ministry of Interior regarded organizations unable to attain
    government licenses as illegal. Domestic NGOs encountered bureaucratic
    obstacles to receiving financial support from abroad. Although not
    illegal, financial support from abroad is conditioned by law on a
    series of authorizations from the ministries of interior and national
    olidarity. These authorizations remained difficult to obtain. According
    to the Ministry of Interior, there were 81,000 registered associations,
    5,000 of which were active during the year. SOS Disparus remained
    unrecognized and continued to operate facing government interference.

        c. Freedom of Religion.--For a complete description of religious
    freedom, please see the 2010 International Religious Freedom Report at
    www.state.gov/g/drl/irf/rpt.

        d. Freedom of Movement, Internally Displaced Persons, Protection of
    Refugees, and Stateless Persons.--The constitution provides for freedom
    of movement; however, the Government restricted the exercise of this
    right in practice.
        The Government generally cooperated with the Office of the UN High
    Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and other humanitarian organizations
    in providing protection and assistance to internally displaced persons,
    refugees, returning refugees, asylum seekers, stateless persons, and
    other persons of concern.
        Under the 1992 emergency decree, the interior minister and
    provincial governors may deny residency in certain districts to persons
    regarded as threats to public order. The Government also maintained
    restrictions for security reasons on travel into the four southern
    provinces of Ouargla, El-Oued, Laghouat, and Ain-Salah, where much of
    the hydrocarbon industry and many foreign workers were located. The
    same decree permits the minister of interior to place individuals under
    house arrest. AI reported that the measure was used to assign a
    residence to individuals already detained in DRS barracks, thus
    concealing prolonged arbitrary detention. The Government also prevented
    overland tourist travel between the southern provinces of Djanet and
    Tamanrasset, citing the threat of terrorism.
        The Government did not permit young men eligible for the draft but
    who had not yet completed their military service to leave the country
    without special authorization; such authorization was granted to
    students and to persons with special family circumstances.
        The family code does not permit anyone under 18 to travel abroad
    without a guardian's permission. Married women under 18 years of age
    may not travel abroad without permission from their husbands.
        The law does not provide for forced exile, and it was not known to
    occur.

        Protection of Refugees.--The country's laws provide for granting
    asylum or refugee status, and the Government had a system for providing
    protection to refugees. However, there were no reports that the
    Government granted refugee status and asylum to new refugee applicants
    during the year. According to the UNHCR, the Government did not accept
    UNHCR-determined refugee status for individuals from sub-Saharan Africa
    fleeing conflict. As of January, 192 asylum seekers, mostly sub-Saharan
    Africans, registered with the UNHCR. There were reports that the
    Government deported some asylum seekers after trials without legal
    counsel. Refugees holding valid UNHCR documentation were less likely to
    be deported. The Government provided informal assistance to an
    estimated 1,000 Tuaregs in the south fleeing conflict in Mali and
    Niger. However, authorities did not extend legal protections to an
    estimated 1,400 asylum seekers from sub-Saharan Africa residing in
    Algiers. Nonetheless, Algerian authorities tolerated the presence of
    these asylum seekers in the country.
        The Government provided protection to an estimated 90,000 Sahrawi
    refugees who departed Western Sahara after Morocco took control of the
    territory in the 1970s. The UNHCR, World Food Program, Algerian Red
    Crescent, and other organizations also assisted Sahrawi refugees.
    Neither the Government nor refugee leadership allowed the UNHCR to
    conduct a registration or complete a census of the Sahrawi refugees.
        In practice the Government provided some protection against the
    expulsion or return of refugees to countries where their lives or
    freedom would be threatened on account of their race, religion,
    nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political
    opinion, as was the case with the Sahrawi refugees.
        Sahrawi refugees lived predominantly in camps near the city of
    Tindouf, administered by the Popular Front for the Liberation of the
    Saguia el Harma and Rio de Oro (Polisario). The remote location of the
    camps and lack of government presence resulted in lack of access to
    employment, basic services, education, police, and courts for Sahrawis.

    Section 3. Respect for Political Rights: The Right of Citizens to
            Change Their Government
        The constitution provides citizens the right to change their
    government peacefully through periodic elections based on universal
    suffrage. However, restrictions on freedom of assembly and association,
    as well as restrictions on political party activities, limited this
    right.

        Elections and Political Participation.--The constitution mandates
    presidential elections every five years. In 2008 President Abdelaziz
    Bouteflika announced his intention to seek parliamentary approval for a
    set of constitutional amendments that included removal of presidential
    term limits. One month later the parliament approved the proposed
    amendments by a wide margin with minimal debate.
        A contested, multiparty presidential election was held in April
    2009 in which the incumbent was elected to a third term. Official
    election statistics indicated that President Bouteflika won the
    election with 90.2 percent of the votes and a voter turnout of 74.6
    percent. Opposition parties and defeated candidates estimated voter
    turnout was actually in the range of 18 to 55 percent.
        Election observers from the Arab League, African Union, and
    Organization of the Islamic Conference stated in a press conference
    that the 2009 election was fair and transparent. Some international
    experts commented, however, that observers monitored only election-day
    procedures and were not on the ground to evaluate preelection
    activities. Others noted that the complexity of some election
    procedures created room for fraud and government influence. Two
    opposition parties, the Rally for Culture and Democracy (RCD) and the
    Socialist Forces Front (FFS), boycotted the election, arguing that
    restrictions on freedom of association disadvantaged potential
    challengers and made the outcome of the election a foregone conclusion.
    LADDH pointed to a lack of critical debate in the media and favorable
    treatment of the incumbent by state-owned media.
        There were complaints during the three-week campaign that public
    areas dedicated to election propaganda did not display each candidate's
    materials equally. Some candidates reported interference from local
    election committees when organizing meetings with voters and filed
    complaints with the National Election Commission. In March 2009 the
    Party of Liberty and Justice (PLJ) reported that one of its campaign
    buses was vandalized by a group of youths as PLJ's candidate left a
    meeting with supporters in the Algiers neighborhood of Bab El Oued. In
    the same month, authorities arrested an FFS official in Tizi Ouzou for
    distributing pamphlets calling for a boycott of the election. In April
    2009 police blocked a group of RCD party members who attempted to march
    in an Algiers suburb to encourage voters to boycott the election. In
    general all candidates received equal access to television and radio
    media as stipulated in the electoral code.
        There were reports of restrictions placed on opposition political
    parties. Opposition candidates complained that the Ministry of Interior
    regularly blocked registered parties from holding meetings and denied
    them access to larger and better-equipped government conference rooms
    while facilitating the activities of the pro-Bouteflika National
    Liberation Front (FLN). The law requires that potential political
    parties receive official approval from the Ministry of Interior to be
    established. To obtain approval a party must have 25 founders from
    across the country whose names must be registered with the ministry. A
    party must have received 4 percent of the vote or at least 2,000 votes
    in 25 wilayas in one of the last three legislative elections to
    participate in national elections, making it very difficult in practice
    to create new political parties.
        In 2009 Mohamed Said was a candidate for the April presidential
    election. His party's request for accreditation by the Ministry of
    Interior remained pending at year's end. The Ministry of Interior did
    not approve any political parties during the year.
        Membership in the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS), a political party
    banned in 1992, remained illegal. In 2008 Wafa party leader Ahmed Taleb
    Ibrahimi announced his withdrawal from politics after the Government's
    continued refusal to register his party because of its perceived ties
    to the banned FIS. No party may use religion or ethnic heritage as a
    basis to organize for political purposes. The law also bans political
    party ties to nonpolitical associations and regulates party financing
    and reporting requirements. According to the law political parties
    cannot receive direct or indirect financial or material support from
    any foreign parties. The law also stipulates that resources are
    collected from contributions of the party's members, donations, and
    revenue from its activities in addition to possible state funding.
        There were three women in the cabinet. Women also held 30 of the
    389 seats in the Popular Assembly of the Nation, the lower legislative
    chamber, and four of the 144 seats in the Council of the Nation, the
    upper chamber. A woman led the Workers Party, and three major political
    parties--the FLN, National Rally for Democracy, and RCD--had women's
    divisions headed by women. The country did not have a quota system
    assigning women a certain percentage of seats in the parliament.
        In accordance with the law, the Government promoted political
    rights for women by encouraging increased female representation within
    elected assemblies.
        The ethnic Amazigh (Berber) population of approximately 10 million
    participated freely and actively in the political process and
    represented one-third of the Government.
    Section 4. Official Corruption and Government Transparency
        The law provides criminal penalties of two to 10 years in prison
    for official corruption, and the Government implemented the law more
    effectively than in previous years. World Bank governance data
    reflected the existence of a corruption problem.
        Although a 2006 law established a national anticorruption program,
    it does not require elected and senior officials to declare their
    assets. The law does not provide parliamentary immunity in certain
    cases. Two presidential decrees published in 2006, however, make high-
    level government officials subject to financial disclosure laws. The
    decrees also stipulate the formation of an anticorruption agency, and
    the Government announced its creation in August as well as new policies
    to strengthen the role of the accounting court.
        Irregularities, including the excessive use of private agreements
    often affected public procurement. According to the Ministry of Public
    Works, following the president's 2005 prohibition on the use of private
    agreements, including sole-source contracts, government agencies began
    implementing a public tender policy for all infrastructure and large
    government projects. For those public tenders, evaluations were not
    released to participating companies, and evaluation methods and
    techniques were not clearly defined. Some agencies, however, continued
    to use direct contracts for public works projects. In July a
    presidential decree mandated that all financial transactions involving
    more than 500,000 dinars ($6,770) be conducted by credit card, check,
    or other noncash method in an effort to increase financial
    transparency, track illegal financing of terrorism, and reduce the
    possibility of corruption.
        During the year major corruption investigations targeted operations
    in four executive branch ministries: Energy, Public Works, Fisheries,
    and Transportation. The DRS conducted the investigations of the major
    corruption cases throughout the year, rather than the Ministry of
    Justice or any other specialized entity.
        A notable corruption case during the year involved several private
    businessmen and senior executives at the country's national oil
    company, Sonatrach. The men apparently awarded contracts in violation
    of the public procurement code. In late January police arrested several
    top company officials. All defendants in the case were pending trial at
    year's end. Following the incident, then energy/mines minister Chakib
    Khelil was relieved of his position in May in a broad cabinet
    reshuffle.
        In April an Algiers court ordered the arrest of the current and
    former directors of the Port of Algiers and four other port officials
    for misappropriation of public funds. The defendants were pending trial
    at year's end.
        Also in April police arrested 17 customs officials at the Algiers
    Airport for accepting bribes in exchange for foregoing baggage
    searches. The officials were under judicial control, awaiting trial, at
    year's end.
        In July two officials from the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine
    Resources received two-year prison sentences for accepting bribes in
    exchange for allowing Turkish and Algerian ship owners to exceed catch
    limits on bluefin tuna, a species designated endangered by the
    International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural
    Resources.
        According to an August 2009 press report, the court of Cheraga
    charged four Algiers police officers with trafficking stolen cars.
    Authorities placed one of the officers in pretrial detention in El-
    Harrach prison. The court placed the three other officers under
    judicial control pending the outcome of their trial.
        In October 2009 an Algiers court began questioning high-level
    government officials suspected of extortion and influence peddling in
    awarding contracts to foreign companies involved in the construction of
    the East-West highway, one of the country's largest infrastructure
    projects. Authorities arrested and levied corruption charges against
    the Secretary General of the Ministry of Public Works, Mohamed
    Bouchama, and a DRS colonel who served as a Ministry of Justice
    advisor. In December 2009, authorities indicted the Ministry of Public
    Works chief of staff, Ferachi Belkacem, in connection with the same
    case. Authorities placed Belkacem under judicial control. At year's end
    the outcome of the trial remained pending.
        In December 2009 the press reported a corruption scandal in the
    customs service dating back 10 years. Authorities charged five customs
    executives, six customs agents, and five waste exporters with forgery,
    filing false declarations, underinvoicing, and embezzlement of public
    funds. The report estimated losses between 1998 and 2001 at 100 billion
    dinars (approximately $1.35 billion). Officials arrested the five
    customs executives and placed the remaining suspects under judicial
    control pending the outcome of their trial.
        According to a December 2009 press report, the inspector general of
    finance conducted 128 audits and issued 160 investigation reports on
    corruption during the year. In 2008 press reports quoted Ministry of
    Interior officials stating that since 2007, 1,325 employees of
    municipal and provincial governments were subject to legal proceedings
    for wasting public funds, forgery, and bribery. According to the
    report, authorities convicted 324 employees, while the others remained
    under investigation or had trials pending.
        The media focused on corruption in the customs police. According to
    press reports, 960 customs officials faced disciplinary commissions for
    official negligence or corruption charges between 2005 and 2008.
    Customs officials reported 215 disciplinary cases during the first
    quarter of 2008; 118 cases resulted in official reprimands, and nine
    cases resulted in suspensions.
        Although permitted under the constitution, authorities restricted
    access to government information. There is no law facilitating access
    to information. Throughout the year the Ministry of Justice, in
    cooperation with the UN Development Program, improved access to
    information about the country's judicial system and developed a modern
    information management system for penitentiaries. As a result, citizens
    were able to request personal legal records from the courts and receive
    the documents the same day.
        In May the Government created the Ministry of Prospective Planning
    and Statistics. However, lack of government transparency remained a
    serious problem. Although the Government did not release many economic
    statistics, the new ministry released such figures. Most ministries had
    Web sites, but not all were regularly maintained to provide updated
    information. The Ministry of Justice provided information on citizens'
    rights and legislation.

    Section 5. Governmental Attitude Regarding International and
            Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations of Human
            Rights
        The Government continued to restrict and to harass some local NGOs
    and impeded the work of international NGOs. Although some human rights
    groups, including the Algerian League of Human Rights (LADH) and LADDH,
    were allowed to move about freely, the most active and visible
    organizations reported interference by government authorities,
    including surveillance, monitoring of telephone calls, difficulty in
    securing meeting spaces, and difficulty in obtaining approval for
    international speakers to address sensitive issues.
        The Government was not responsive publicly to reports and
    recommendations from domestic human rights NGOs and interfered with
    attempts by some domestic and international human rights groups to
    investigate and publish their findings. Domestic NGOs must be licensed
    by the Government and are prohibited from receiving funding from abroad
    without approval from the ministries of national solidarity and
    interior. However, approximately 100 unlicensed NGOs, such as women's
    advocacy groups and charity organizations, operated openly. Unlicensed
    NGOs did not receive government assistance, and citizens were at times
    hesitant associate with these organizations.
        The most active independent human rights group was LADDH, a legally
    recognized NGO with members throughout the country. LADDH was not
    permitted access to government officials for human rights advocacy or
    research purposes or to prisons, except for normal lawyer-client
    consultations. The smaller LADH, a separate organization based in
    Constantine, was licensed, and members throughout the country monitored
    individual cases.
        By law NGOs not legally recognized by the Ministry of Interior
    cannot conduct investigations. Sometimes, however, even legally
    recognized NGOs were prevented from conducting investigations. For
    example, LADDH did not have access to prisons or detention centers.
        International NGOs continued to experience delays in obtaining
    visas, and outright refusals occurred. Delays in processing visa
    applications prevented some NGOs from conducting programming during the
    year. However, during the year the Government granted visas to
    personnel of several organizations that had not previously been able to
    obtain visas. The Government maintained that legislation did not allow
    branches of foreign NGOs to operate legally in the country.
        On September 5, authorities detained Djillali Hadjadj, the Algerian
    representative of Transparency International. He had been sentenced
    without his knowledge to three years in prison for forging
    prescriptions. Several international and local NGOs called for
    Hadjadj's immediate release. A court gave Hadjadj a six-month suspended
    sentence and a 100,000 dinar (approximately $1,350) fine.
        The Government continued to deny requests for visits from the UN
    Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (pending since
    1997), the UN special rapporteur on torture (pending since 1997), the
    UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions (pending since 1998),
    the UN special rapporteur on human rights and counterterrorism (pending
    since 2006), and the UN special rapporteur on arbitrary detention
    (pending since 2009). The Government accepted visits of UN special
    rapporteurs on violence against women in 2007 and freedom of religion
    or belief in 2002.
        In an August radio interview, CNCPPDH president Farouk Ksentini,
    citing Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia, stated that UN special rapporteurs
    would have access to the country but that international NGOs would
    remain banned because they allegedly supported terrorists in the 1990s.
        According to local AI representatives, in November 2009 AI explored
    the possibility of visiting the country, but at year's end had not
    received a response to its request. AI officials have not visited the
    country since 2005 and were denied visas in 2006.

    Section 6. Discrimination, Societal Abuses, and Trafficking in Persons
        The constitution prohibits discrimination based on birth, race,
    gender, language, and social status. In general the Government enforced
    the nationality and family codes, although women continued to face
    legal and social discrimination.

        Women.--Rape, spousal and nonspousal, occurred. The law
    criminalizes nonspousal rape but does not address spousal rape. Prison
    sentences for nonspousal rape range from one to five years. Claims
    filed by women for rape and sexual abuse continued to face judicial
    obstacles and many women did not report incidents of rape because of
    societal pressures and bureaucratic problems in securing convictions.
    Women's rights activists reported that law enforcement authorities
    became more sensitive to the issue compared to previous years,
    evidenced by the implementation of the 2007-2011 national strategy
    combating violence against women. During the year women's rights
    activists reported a significant increase in reports of violence
    against women.
        Spousal abuse occurred. The penal code states that a person must be
    incapacitated for 15 days or more and present a doctor's note
    certifying the injuries before filing charges for battery.
        Domestic NGOs reported that physical violence against women
    increased. Since November 2009 approximately 8,500 women were
    officially reported victims of domestic violence with 3,500 physically
    abused, 2,500 violently assaulted, 1,000 sexually assaulted, 600
    sexually harassed, and 100 killed, according to the Algiers-based
    Center of Information and Documentation on the Rights of Women and
    Children.
        In a 2009 report, police registered 9,517 complaints of violence
    against women in 2008. According to the CNCPPDH, approximately 4,500
    women were victims of assault during the first half of 2008. Police
    statistics for 2009 reported 2,675 cases of physical assault, 1,359
    cases of abuse, 144 cases of sexual assault, and four deaths.
    Approximately 20 percent of assailants were identified as male family
    members. During 2009 a national study showed that 67.9 percent of women
    acknowledged that spousal abuse occurred in the country.
        During the year local women's NGOs, including SOS Femmes en
    Detresse, the Wassila Network, and Bent Fatma N'Soumer, spoke against
    violence in the family. SOS Femmes en Detresse and the Wassila Network
    provided judicial and psychological counseling to abused women. Women's
    rights groups experienced difficulty in drawing attention to spousal
    abuse as an important social problem, largely due to traditional
    societal attitudes. Several rape crisis centers run by women's groups
    operated, but they had few resources. The Working Women section of the
    General Union of Algerian Workers established a counseling center for
    women suffering from sexual harassment in the workplace. SOS Femmes en
    Detresse operated one call center in Algiers, but a second call center
    in Batna was closed. During the first eight months of the year, the
    Algiers call center received more than 2,500 calls.
        The punishment for sexual harassment is one to two years'
    imprisonment and a fine of 50,000 to 100,000 dinars (approximately $677
    to $1,350). The punishment is doubled for a second offense. The police
    stated that 107 sexual harassment cases were reported to the police in
    2008, the most recent year for which figures were available. The
    majority of reported cases of harassment occurred in the workplace. SOS
    Femmes en Detresse provided legal advice and counseling to 800 women;
    however, only 50 of the women seeking assistance filed formal
    complaints.
        The Government did not impose restrictions on the right of couples
    and individuals to decide the number, timing, and spacing of their
    children. There were no restrictions on access to contraceptives, yet
    contraceptives were harder to obtain for single women. In 2009 the
    Health Ministry's Office of Family Planning conducted a public health
    awareness campaign. According to the office, 62 percent of women,
    mainly married, regularly used contraceptives. According to UN
    estimates, the maternal mortality ratio in the country was 120 deaths
    per 100,000 live births in 2008. Government hospitals provided skilled
    attendance during childbirth as well as obstetric and postpartum care
    and equally diagnosed and treated women for sexually transmitted
    infections, including HIV.
        The constitution provides for gender equality; however, some
    aspects of the law and many traditional social practices discriminate
    against women. The family code contains elements of Sharia (Islamic
    law). The family code prohibits Muslim women from marrying non-Muslims,
    although this regulation was not always enforced. A woman may marry a
    foreigner and transmit citizenship and nationality to both her children
    and spouse. Muslim men may marry non-Muslim women.
        Women can seek divorce for irreconcilable differences and violation
    of a prenuptial agreement. In a divorce the law provides for the wife
    to retain the family's home until children reach 18 years of age.
    Custody of children normally is awarded to the mother, but she may not
    make decisions on education or take the children out of the country
    without the father's authorization. In practice, more women retained
    the family's home if they had custody of the children.
        The family code affirms the Islamic practice of allowing a man to
    marry as many as four wives. According to the family code, polygamy is
    only permitted upon the permission of the first wife and the
    determination of a judge as to the husband's financial ability to
    support an additional wife. In practice, however, this occurred in 1 to
    2 percent of marriages.
        Amendments to the family code supersede the Sharia requirement that
    a male sponsor consent to the marriage of a woman. Although this
    requirement has been formally retained and the sponsor continues to
    contract the marriage, the woman may choose any man that she wishes to
    be the sponsor. The sponsor represents the woman during the religious
    or civil ceremony.
        Women suffered from discrimination in inheritance claims and were
    entitled to a smaller portion of an estate than male children or a
    deceased husband's brothers. The law purports that such a distinction
    is justified because other provisions require that the husband's income
    and assets be used to support the family, while the wife's remain, in
    principle, her own. In practice, women did not often have exclusive
    control over assets that they brought to a marriage or that they
    earned.
        Married women may take out business loans and use their own
    financial resources.
        Despite constitutional and legal provisions providing for gender
    equality, in practice women faced discrimination in employment. Leaders
    of women's organizations reported that discriminatory violations were
    common and that women were less likely to receive equal pay for equal
    work or receive promotions.
        In urban areas, there was social encouragement for women to pursue
    higher education and/or a career. Girls graduated from high school more
    frequently than boys. According to 2010 statistics, women represented
    55 percent of the medical profession, 60 percent of the media
    profession, 30 percent of the upper levels of the legal profession, and
    more than 60 percent of the education profession. In addition, 36
    percent of judges were women. Women served at all levels in the
    judicial system, and female police officers were added to some
    precincts to assist women with abuse claims. Out of nine million
    workers nationally, two million were female. Women may own businesses,
    enter into contracts, and pursue careers similar to those of men.

        Children.--Citizenship and nationality are transmitted from the
    mother or father. Under the law, children born to a Muslim father are
    Muslim, regardless of the mother's religion.
        The Government provides free education for children through high
    school. Education is compulsory until the age of 16 years. The
    Government provided free medical care for all citizens, including
    children with disabilities, albeit in generally rudimentary facilities,
    and to both sexes equally.
        Child abuse is illegal but continued to be reported as a problem.
    NGOs specializing in children cited continued instances of domestic
    violence against children, which they attributed to a ``culture of
    violence'' stemming from civil strife in the 1990s, including social
    dislocations caused by the movement of rural families to the cities to
    escape terrorist violence. Experts assumed that many cases went
    unreported because of familial reticence. The National Foundation for
    Health Progress and Research Development (FOREM), a children's rights
    watchdog NGO with EU funding, estimated that approximately 10,000
    children suffered some form of abuse.
        The criminal code prohibits solicitation for prostitution and
    stipulates prison sentences of between 10 and 20 years when the offense
    is committed against a minor under the age of 18 years. According to
    the law, the age for consensual sex is 16 years. The law stipulates a
    prison sentence of between 10 and 20 years for rape when the victim is
    a minor but this sentence was rarely carried out. The law prohibits
    pornography and establishes prison sentences of between two months and
    two years as well as fines up to 2,000 dinars (approximately $27).
        The country is not a party to the 1980 Hague Convention on the
    Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. For information on
    international parental child abduction, please see the Department of
    State's annual report on compliance at http://travel.state.gov/
    abduction/resources/congressreport/congressreport--4308.html.

        Anti-Semitism.--The country's Jewish population numbered fewer than
    2,000 persons, and there were no functioning synagogues. The Government
    did not promote antibias education, and there is no hate crime
    legislation.

        Trafficking in Persons.--For information on trafficking in persons,
    please see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons
    Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        Persons With Disabilities.--The law prohibits discrimination
    against persons with disabilities in employment, education, access to
    health care, or the provision of other state services, although in
    practice the Government did not effectively enforce these provisions.
    The law provides services, including free medical care, for persons
    with disabilities; however, there was widespread social discrimination
    against persons with disabilities. Few government buildings were
    accessible to persons with disabilities. Public enterprises, in
    downsizing their work forces, generally ignored a requirement that they
    reserve one percent of jobs for persons with disabilities. Social
    security provided payments for orthopedic equipment. The Ministry of
    National Solidarity (MNS) provided some financial support to health-
    care-oriented NGOs; however, for many NGOs this financial support
    represented approximately 2 percent of their budgets.
        The MNS maintained that there were two million persons with
    disabilities in the country, of whom the largest percentages were
    classified as ``chronically ill'' or ``other'' (38 and 30 percent,
    respectively). However, according to the Algerian Federation of
    Wheelchair Associations, there were three million persons with
    disabilities living in the country. The Government estimated that
    approximately 44 percent of disabled citizens had some form of motor
    disability, 32 percent had communication difficulties, and 24 percent
    suffered from a visual disability. The Government classified
    approximately 193,000 individuals as ``fully disabled'' and claimed
    during the year to have appropriated 9.54 billion dinars (approximately
    $129 million) for their welfare.

        Societal Abuses, Discrimination, and Acts of Violence Based on
    Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.--The penal code criminalizes
    public homosexual behavior for males and females, and there is no
    specific legal protection for lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and
    transgender (LGBT) persons. The law stipulates penalties that include
    imprisonment of two months to two years and fines of 500 to 2,000
    dinars (approximately $7 to $27). If a minor is involved, the adult may
    face up to three years' imprisonment and a fine of 10,000 dinars
    (approximately $135).
        There was societal discrimination against homosexual conduct. While
    some LGBT persons lived openly, the vast majority did not, and most
    feared reprisal from their families or harassment from authorities.

        Other Societal Violence or Discrimination.--HIV/AIDS was widely
    considered a shameful disease in the country. According to 2007
    statistics released by the Ministry of Health, 2,100 citizens were HIV-
    positive, and 736 persons suffered from HIV/AIDS. There were 54 centers
    offering free testing services to detect HIV/AIDS. Only 51 percent of
    women, both single and married, noted use of condoms to prevent
    infection. In response to societal discrimination, during the year the
    Health Ministry and the NGO AIDS Algerie launched an HIV/AIDS
    prevention campaign, stressing the need to avoid discrimination,
    especially in the workplace, against those with HIV/AIDS.

    Section 7. Worker Rights
        a. The Right of Association.--The constitution allows workers who
    are citizens to join unions of their choice but requires workers to
    obtain government approval to form a union. The labor unions law
    requires that the Ministry of Labor approve or disapprove a union
    application within 30 days and allows for the creation of autonomous
    unions. However, the Government may invalidate a union's legal status
    if its objectives are perceived by authorities as contrary to the
    established institutional system, public order, good morals, or the
    laws or regulations in force. Approximately two-thirds of the labor
    force belonged to unions. The General Union of Algerian Workers (UGTA)
    was the only legally recognized labor confederation. The UGTA includes
    specialized national unions; its density is highest in the public
    sector. Workers may form independent unions. There were no new unions
    formed during the reporting period, but existing unions focused on
    increasing their visibility.
        Unions have the right to form and join federations or
    confederations. Unions may also recruit members at the workplace. In
    practice, attempts by new unions to form federations or confederations
    were obstructed by delaying administrative maneuvers, such as delays in
    processing registration requests. Since 1996 the Autonomous Unions
    Confederation, which functions without official status, repeatedly
    attempted to organize the autonomous unions, without success. The
    Government did not allow the autonomous union of public sector workers
    (SNAPAP) to register as a national confederation. SNAPAP and other
    autonomous unions faced government interference throughout the year,
    including official obstruction of general assembly meetings and police
    harassment during sit-in protests.
        For example, on May 13, Algiers authorities shut down the House of
    Unions after SNAPAP planned to organize a conference on unions in the
    Maghreb. Two days ahead of the conference, the wilaya of Algiers sealed
    the premises. There were reports that some citizens lodged a complaint
    regarding noise in the building housing the House of Unions.
        The law permits unions to affiliate with international labor bodies
    and develop relations with foreign labor groups. For example, the UGTA
    is a member of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions.
    However, the law prohibits unions from associating with political
    parties and also prohibits unions from receiving funds from foreign
    sources. The courts are empowered to dissolve unions that engaged in
    illegal activities.
        The law provides for the right to strike, and workers exercised
    this right in practice, subject to conditions. All public
    demonstrations, including protests and strikes, must receive prior
    authorization, according to the emergency law. Several dozen strikes
    occurred throughout the country. Under the state of emergency decree,
    the Government can require public and private sector workers to remain
    at work in the event of an unauthorized or illegal strike. Authorities
    rarely give permits for public gatherings. According to the law on
    industrial relations, workers may strike only after 14 days of
    mandatory conciliation or mediation. On occasion, the Government
    offered to mediate disputes. The law states that decisions reached in
    mediation are binding on both parties. If no agreement is reached in
    mediation, the workers may strike legally after they vote by secret
    ballot to do so. A minimum level of public services must be maintained
    during public-sector service strikes.
        The authorities tolerated strikes but continued to enforce a ban on
    marches and demonstrations in Algiers in effect since 2001. The courts
    challenged the legality of strikes called by teachers, doctors, and
    health-care professionals during the year.

        b. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively.--The law
    provides for collective bargaining for all unions, and the Government
    permitted the exercise of this right, in practice, for authorized
    unions; however, the UGTA remained the only union authorized to
    negotiate collective bargaining agreements. According to the UGTA, nine
    million workers were covered by collective bargaining agreements, not
    including foreign migrant laborers.
        On October 7, workers at the ArcelorMittal steel plant in Annaba
    halted a strike at the request of the UGTA, which began negotiating
    their demands. The workers at the plant received increased pay as a
    result of the negotiations.
        The law prohibits discrimination by employers against union members
    and organizers and provides mechanisms for resolving trade union
    complaints of antiunion practices by employers.
        There are no export processing zones.

        c. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor.--The constitution
    prohibits all forms of forced or compulsory labor; however, there were
    reports from the Ministry of Labor and NGOs that such practices
    occurred. Forced labor conditions existed for migrant workers that were
    not fully protected by labor law. Construction workers and female
    domestic workers were reportedly vulnerable.
        Also see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons
    Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        d. Prohibition of Child Labor and Minimum Age for Employment.--The
    law prohibits participation by minors in dangerous, unhealthy, or
    harmful work or in work that is considered inappropriate because of
    social and religious considerations. The minimum legal age for
    employment is 15 years, except for apprentice positions. To serve as an
    apprentice, minors must have the permission of a legal guardian.
    Despite the labor code's prohibition of the practice, child labor
    remained a problem in the agriculture and the informal sectors.
        Also see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons
    Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.
        The Ministry of Labor is the entity charged with monitoring and
    enforcing child labor laws, with sections across the country
    responsible for monitoring violations and conducting a census of
    workers in national and private companies. The ministry conducted and
    in some cases investigated companies suspected of hiring under aged
    workers. However, monitoring and enforcement practices for child labor
    were not consistent.
        During a November 2009 conference on children's rights, FOREM
    representatives stated that there were approximately 300,000 children
    under 16 years of age working in the country on farms and in shops.
    Including children who work in households and as vendors, the number of
    working children in the country stood at approximately 1.5 million in
    2010, according to FOREM.
        The Ministry of Labor is responsible for enforcing child labor
    laws, but enforcement was hindered by insufficient human resources.
    During the year FOREM implemented a public awareness campaign to
    encourage children to remain in school until 16 years of age, rather
    than participating in the workforce. Roughly 300,000 students drop out
    of school annually to join the workforce, according to FOREM.

        e. Acceptable Conditions of Work.--The national minimum wage of
    15,000 dinars (approximately $203) per month did not provide a decent
    standard of living for a worker and family. The minimum wage was raised
    to this level in 2009 by a tripartite social pact between business,
    government, and labor. Autonomous unions, which were not included in
    tripartite talks, reported the increase was inadequate and would not
    affect the majority of workers who already earn more than the minimum
    wage. The previous tripartite negotiation occurred in 2006 and
    established a minimum wage of 12,000 dinars (approximately $163).
    Ministry of Labor inspectors were responsible for ensuring compliance
    with the minimum wage regulation; however, enforcement remained
    inconsistent.
        The standard workweek was 37.5 hours included one 10-minute break
    and one hour for lunch per day. Employees who worked longer than the
    standard workweek received premium pay on a sliding scale from time-
    and-a-half to double-time, depending on whether the overtime was worked
    on a normal workday, a weekend, or a holiday. In general the Ministry
    of Labor effectively enforced these labor standards, particularly in
    the civil service and in public sector companies; however, enforcement
    was less efficient in the private sector because of low union density.
        The law contains occupational health and safety standards, but
    Ministry of Labor inspectors did not enforce these regulations
    effectively. There were no reports of workers being dismissed for
    removing themselves from hazardous working conditions. If workers face
    such conditions, they reserve the right to renegotiate their contract
    or, failing that, resort to the courts. While this legal mechanism
    exists, the high demand for employment in the country gave an advantage
    to employers seeking to exploit employees. Economic migrants from sub-
    Saharan Africa and elsewhere working in the country without legal
    immigration status were not protected by the country's labor standards,
    making them vulnerable to exploitation. Labor law does not adequately
    cover migrant workers.

                                   __________

                                    BAHRAIN

        Bahrain is a monarchy with a population of approximately 1,235,000,
    including approximately 569,000 who are citizens. King Hamad Bin Isa
    Al-Khalifa is the head of state and all branches of government. The
    king appoints a cabinet of ministers; approximately half are members of
    the minority Sunni Al-Khalifa ruling family. The 2002 constitution
    reinstated a bicameral, legislative body consisting of an upper house,
    the Shura Council, whose members are appointed by the king, and a lower
    house, the elected Council of Representatives. Approximately 67 percent
    of eligible voters participated in the October parliamentary and
    municipal council elections, the outcome of which was affected by
    extensive gerrymandering of districts. The opposition, Shia Islamist
    Al-Wifaq political society won all contested 18 seats in the 40-member
    Council of Representatives. Security forces reported to civilian
    authorities.
        Citizens did not have the right to change their government.
    Trafficking in persons and restrictions on the rights of foreign
    resident workers continued to be significant problems. There were
    numerous reports of abuse against foreign workers, particularly female
    domestic workers. There were many reports of domestic violence against
    women and children. Discrimination on the basis of gender, religion,
    nationality, and sect, especially against the Shia majority population,
    persisted. There were multiple allegations of mistreatment and torture,
    especially of Shia activists associated with rejectionist and
    opposition groups. Authorities arbitrarily arrested activists,
    journalists, and other citizens and detained some individuals
    incommunicado. Some detainees did not always have adequate access to
    their attorneys. At least two of the detainees were dismissed from
    their public-sector jobs prior to the commencement of judicial
    proceedings. The Government restricted civil liberties, including
    freedoms of speech, press, assembly, association, and some religious
    practices. There were instances of the Government imposing and
    enforcing official and unofficial travel bans on political activists.
    The Shia are underrepresented in positions of leadership in the civil
    service, police, and security forces.

                            RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

    Section 1. Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom
            From:
        a. Arbitrary or Unlawful Deprivation of Life.--There were no
    reports that the Government or its agents committed arbitrary or
    unlawful killings.

        b. Disappearance.--There were no reports of politically motivated
    disappearances.

        c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or
    Punishment.--The constitution prohibits such practices; however, there
    were multiple allegations during the year that security forces employed
    them. On February 8, Human Rights Watch (HRW) issued a report asserting
    that ``since the end of 2007, officials have repeatedly resorted to
    torture for the apparent purpose of securing confessions from security
    suspects.'' The former detainees interviewed for the report claimed
    that security officials and prison guards subjected them to ``abusive
    tactics'' during interrogation. In some cases in 2009, Ministry of
    Health doctors found corroborative evidence of injuries that matched
    the detainees' claims of mistreatment. According to senior government
    officials, the Government initiated an investigation of HRW's
    allegations. At year's end the Government had not published the
    investigation's findings.
        From August to December, local and international human rights NGOs
    asserted that security personnel had tortured more than two dozen
    detainees. During court proceedings from October to December, many of
    these detainees claimed that officers of the National Security Agency
    mistreated and tortured them. Detainees claimed that they had been
    beaten, suspended in painful positions, forced to stand for long
    periods, deprived of sleep, and subjected to electric shocks. During
    trial proceedings in October and November, defense lawyers requested an
    independent investigation into the torture allegations, to include
    independent medical exams. The prosecutor asserted in December that
    claims of torture had been investigated. At year's end neither the
    court nor the Government had released the findings of any such
    investigation.
        Local human rights organizations and lawyers also reported alleged
    instances of abuse by law enforcement authorities in connection with
    the approximately200 men and juveniles detained between August and
    December.
        Local human rights activists and attorneys alleged that many of the
    23 Shia activists arrested in August and September and charged pursuant
    to counterterrorism legislation, including a prominent blogger, were
    beaten, subjected to electric shocks, hung upside down, and beaten on
    their feet (falaqa). During court sessions in October, November, and
    December (see section 1.e.), all detainees claimed they were beaten by
    National Security Agency officers, with some claiming they were
    subjected to electric shocks, made to stand for long periods of time,
    and made to sign confessions during or after mistreatment or torture.

        Prison and Detention Center Conditions.--The Government, which
    maintained that prison conditions met international standards, did not
    release any detailed information about the prison population or prison
    and detention center conditions, nor did it permit visits by
    independent human rights observers. A UN report in March described
    ``suboptimal health conditions'' in prisons. In the second half of the
    year, some detainees alleged that security personnel physically abused
    them and, in some cases, withheld medical care, including access to
    medication and medical equipment.
        In August approximately 70 prisoners in the country's central
    prison in Jaw protested their living conditions, and some prisoners
    went on hunger strike. In response members of the quasigovernmental
    National Human Rights Authority visited the prison; however, the body
    did not issue a public report. A local human rights NGO reported that
    the Jaw prison population was more than 1,300, although the prison had
    been designed to hold only 500 inmates. According to the Office of the
    Inspector General of the Ministry of Interior, the Jaw prison held
    1,100 inmates.
        Authorities generally permitted inmates reasonable access to
    visitors and religious observance. However, the Government temporarily
    suspended visitation rights for some inmates in the aftermath of the
    unrest in Jaw prison. In addition the Government did not permit family
    members to visit dozens of detainees arrested on security-related
    charges for at least several weeks.
        The Government did not permit independent monitoring of prison or
    detention center conditions, nor was there an ombudsman for prison and
    detainee issues. It is unknown if prisoners could submit complaints
    about treatment for investigation.

        d. Arbitrary Arrest or Detention.--The constitution prohibits
    arbitrary arrest and detention. However, local human rights activists
    and attorneys alleged that police and National Guard units arbitrarily
    arrested or abducted Shia men and youth during the year, particularly
    from August to October, and that security officials held some
    incommunicado for days or weeks.
        The Office of the Inspector General of the Ministry of Interior
    received an unknown number of complaints pertaining to pretrial
    detention, although it was not clear how many of these resulted in
    investigations or penalties.

        Role of the Police and Security Apparatus.--The Ministry of the
    Interior is responsible for public security; it controls the public
    security force and other specialized security units that are
    responsible for maintaining internal order. The Bahrain Defense Force
    is responsible for defending against external threats and provides
    internal security. The security forces were generally effective in
    maintaining internal order.
        The Office of the Inspector General of the Ministry of Interior
    received 246 complaints between January and October, of which 121 were
    not related to police conduct. Nineteen cases were referred to the
    Ministry's legal affairs directorate for further action. The ministry
    maintained a hotline for citizens to report police abuses; however,
    many in the Shia community believed the Government condoned police
    misconduct and, therefore, did not report allegations of abuse. In
    practice the ministry responded to allegations of abuse and public
    complaints by establishing temporary investigation committees, which
    did not issue public reports of their findings.

        Arrest Procedures and Treatment While in Detention.--To apprehend a
    felony suspect, police must present evidence to a judge who will decide
    whether to issue an arrest warrant. Police and security forces must
    transfer a suspect's case to the public prosecutor's office within 48
    hours, and they generally respected that requirement in practice.
    Within seven days of arrest, a suspect must appear before a judge in
    the public prosecutor's office. Judges may grant bail to a suspect and
    regularly did so. If the judge decides the suspect is a flight risk or
    a danger to society, the judge may allow as long as an additional 45
    days of detention while the public prosecutor conducts an
    investigation. This process may continue through subsequent reviews by
    different judges, but pretrial detention may not exceed six months.
    Detainee access to attorneys was often restricted in the early stages
    of detention; attorneys must seek a court order to confer with clients
    and then coordinate with officials at the detention facility for
    access. The state provided counsel to indigent detainees. While
    detainees were generally allowed prompt access to visiting family
    members, many of those arrested on security-related charges between
    August and December claimed that they were not allowed to see relatives
    or lawyers for several weeks.
        In accordance with the 2006 counterterrorism law, law enforcement
    agencies must transfer a case to the public prosecutor's office within
    five days of the suspect's arrest, although the law permits law
    enforcement agencies to request an additional 10 days before the formal
    transfer of the case. Prosecutors must commence their formal
    questioning of a suspect within three days of receipt of the case.
    Other pretrial detention procedures are governed by those concerning
    cases that are not related to terrorism.
        From August to December, law enforcement agencies arrested
    approximately 200 men, including minors, and held some of them pursuant
    to the 2006 counterterrorism law. Local human rights groups and
    attorneys, as well as international human rights NGOs, alleged that, in
    many of these cases, authorities used incommunicado detention,
    restricted lawyers' access to their clients, and prevented family
    members from visiting detainees. International and local NGOs, as well
    as attorneys, asserted that security officials abused and tortured some
    of these detainees (see also sections 1.c. and 1.e.).

        e. Denial of Fair Public Trial.--The constitution provides for an
    independent judiciary, and the Government generally respected judicial
    independence in practice; however, the king has control of the judicial
    system. According to the constitution, the king appoints all judges by
    royal decree. The king also serves as chairperson of the Supreme
    Judicial Council, the body responsible for supervising the work of the
    courts and the public prosecutor.
        The trial of 25 Shia activists charged pursuant to the
    counterterrorism law--two of whom were based in the United Kingdom and
    tried in their absence--commenced on October 28. The trial was
    generally open to detainees' family members, journalists,
    representatives of local and international NGOs, diplomats, and members
    of the general public, but, in some cases, a number of journalists and
    human rights activists were denied access to the court. The defendants'
    lawyers, together with local NGOs, asserted that security personnel
    subjected the men to mistreatment and torture while in pretrial
    detention (see section 1.c.), deprived them of adequate access to legal
    counsel, and prevented them from meeting with family members for
    several weeks. They withdrew from the case on December 9 to protest the
    presiding judge's failure to rule on several requests they had made in
    the first four sessions of the trial, such as an impartial
    investigation into torture allegations.
        The minister of justice and Islamic affairs and endowments
    appointed 23 new lawyers, and the case was pending at year's end. Human
    rights activists and attorneys alleged that the detainees' right to a
    fair, public trial was undermined by the detainees' limited access to
    legal counsel and the presiding judge's failure to rule on the defense
    attorneys' requests.
        Two men faced trial in November and December, accused of assaulting
    an editor of the progovernment Al Watan newspaper on August 25. The two
    men were arrested less than 48 hours after the attack, shortly after
    which senior government officials announced that the men had confessed.
    Most newspapers carried photographs of the two men, referring to them
    as assassins or terrorists. The trial commenced in November. The men
    were released on December 12 after the victim of the assault testified
    in court that the two defendants were not the men who assaulted him.
    The judge agreed to the prosecutor's request that the court examine
    other evidence in a hearing scheduled for January 2011.

        Trial Procedures.--According to the constitution, defendants are
    presumed innocent until proven guilty. Civil and criminal trial
    procedures provide for an open trial. There are no jury trials. By law
    and in practice, defendants have the right to prompt consultation with
    an attorney of their choice within 48 hours (unless they are charged
    pursuant to counterterrorism legislation), and the Government provided
    counsel to indigent defendants. Defendants are present during trial
    proceedings, and they have the right to present witnesses and evidence
    on their behalf and question witnesses against them. No law governs
    defendants' access to government-held evidence. Defendants have the
    right to appeal. Women's legal rights varied according to Shia or Sunni
    interpretations of Islamic law (see section 6).

        Political Prisoners and Detainees.--Human rights organizations
    alleged that some of those arrested on security charges from August to
    December were targeted because of their political activism. Many of the
    prominent detainees are leaders of, or affiliated with, political
    groups.
        On August 17, authorities arrested Muhammad Saeed al-Sahlawi, a
    member of the board of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR).
    Human rights groups report that Al-Sahlawi, a dentist and human rights
    activist who supervises the BCHR's Web site, was arrested at his home
    during a wave of arrests targeting political and human rights
    activists. Al-Sahlawi was previously arrested in 2006 for distributing
    publications demanding political reform and in 1997 for contacting
    oppositional and international organizations abroad.
        Also on August 17, according to the BCHR, authorities arrested
    Sheikh Abdul-Hadi Abdullah Al-Mokhadur and Sheikh Mirza Al-Mahroos,
    both clerics involved in activities promoting human rights, in Manama.
        On September 4, authorities arrested and detained a popular
    Internet Web site writer and administrator of a Web site, Ali
    Abdulemam, and charged him with involvement in a ``terrorist network,''
    together with 24 other men (section 1.e.). This group of 25 also
    included a board member of a local human rights organization and
    political dissenters.

        Civil Judicial Procedures and Remedies.--Citizens may bring civil
    suits before the court seeking cessation of or damages for, some types
    of human rights violations; however, in many such situations, the law
    prevents citizens from filing civil suits against security agencies.

        f. Arbitrary Interference With Privacy, Family, Home, or
    Correspondence.--The constitution prohibits such actions, and the
    Government generally respected these prohibitions in practice, except
    under the provisions of the law and under judicial supervision.
        The Government is required to obtain a court order before
    monitoring telephone calls, e-mail, and personal correspondence. Many
    Shia citizens believed there were extensive police informer networks,
    but they were unable to provide concrete evidence.
    Section 2. Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:
        a. Freedom of Speech and Press.--The constitution provides for
    freedom of speech and of the press ``provided that the fundamental
    beliefs of Islamic doctrine are not infringed, the unity of the people
    is not prejudiced, and discord or sectarianism is not aroused.'' The
    Government limited freedom of speech and press through press laws,
    libel and slander laws, and national security-related laws. Both
    censorship and self-censorship took place.
        The law forbids any speech infringing on public order or morals. In
    private settings, individuals openly expressed critical opinions
    regarding domestic political and social issues. There was also
    considerable freedom of expression on the Internet, in letters to the
    editor, and occasionally on state-run television call-in shows.
        A Shia cleric aligned with a rejectionist group was temporarily
    banned from giving Friday sermons in October. The Ministry of Justice
    and Islamic Affairs and Endowments deemed some of the cleric's sermons
    to ``threaten civil peace.''
        The Government did not own any print media, but the Information
    Authority--established in July as an associated element of the Ministry
    of Culture and Information--and other government entities exercised
    considerable control over domestic, privately owned print media. The
    Government owned and operated all domestic radio and television
    stations. In August, September, and October, the Information Authority
    threatened to shut the Web sites of a number of newspaper and media
    outlets unless they stopped broadcasting video content. The Information
    Authority stated that it was illegal for media outlets to broadcast
    video content until a law regarding online video broadcast is
    promulgated by the national legislature.
        Radio and television broadcasts in Arabic, Farsi, and English from
    countries in the region, including by satellite, were generally
    received without interference. However, in May the Ministry of Culture
    and Information temporarily closed the Al Jazeera office in Manama and
    banned an Al Jazeera news crew from entering the country. The ministry
    accused Qatar-based Al Jazeera of ``flouting the laws regulating the
    press and publishing'' and requested the network to enter into a
    memorandum of understanding with the Government regarding their
    activities in the country. At year's end the two sides remained engaged
    in negotiations, and there was no Al Jazeera representative in the
    country.
        At least one journalist faced violence during the year. On August
    25, two men attacked an editor of the progovernment Al Watan newspaper,
    who was slightly injured. Security forces arrested two men and tried
    them for the assault, but a judge released them after the victim of the
    attack testified that the men were not his assailants (see section
    1.e.).
        Government censorship occurred. Information Authority
    representatives actively monitored and blocked stories on matters
    deemed sensitive, especially those related to sectarianism, national
    security, or criticism of the royal family, the Saudi royal family, or
    the judiciary. Journalists also practiced widespread self-censorship.
    According to some members of the media, government officials contacted
    editors directly and asked them to stop writing about certain subjects
    or asked them not to publish a press release or a story. In September
    Bahraini newspapers inaccurately conveyed an official U.S. government
    statement about the country, allegedly at the behest of government
    officials. In the lead-up to the elections, observers noted that
    political debate was largely absent from media outlets. Domestic and
    international human rights groups alleged that the Government imposed a
    media restraining order.
        The Government enforced at its discretion the press law to restrict
    freedom of press. The law provides for fines of as much as 10,000
    dinars ($26,500) and prison sentences of at least six months for
    criticizing Islam or the king or inciting actions that undermine state
    security, as well as fines of up to 2,000 dinars ($5,300) for 14 other
    offenses. These offenses include publicizing statements issued by a
    foreign state or organization before obtaining the consent of the
    president of the information authority, publishing any reports that may
    adversely affect the dinar's value, reporting any offense against the
    head of a state that maintains diplomatic relations with the country,
    or publishing offensive remarks toward an accredited representative of
    a foreign country because of acts connected with the person's position.
        The Information Authority reviewed all books and publications prior
    to issuing printing licenses. The Ministry of Justice and Islamic
    Affairs reviewed books that discussed religion. The Government banned
    at least one book by a domestic author, Nader Kadim, entitled Unbridled
    Hatreds. In June the Government banned the Arabic translation of the
    diaries of Charles Belgrave, a British colonial officer in the country
    from 1926 to 1957.
        In August and September, the Government-run Bahrain News Agency
    (BNA) and most daily newspapers repeatedly published photographs of
    suspects and detainees. Members of the quasigovernmental National Human
    Rights Institution, human rights activists, and detainees' attorneys
    asserted that such actions, prior to the commencement of judicial
    proceedings, violated the constitution and penal code.

        Internet Freedom.--While the Government generally respected
    Internet freedom, there were some government restrictions. The
    Government's Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) ordered
    service providers to block Internet users' access to certain sites. In
    the lead-up to the elections, the Government banned opposition Web
    sites. In August, September, and October, the Information Authority
    threatened to shut the Web sites of a number of newspaper and media
    outlets. Reportedly, the Government did not monitor e-mail use.
    Internet penetration among citizens exceeded 80 percent.
        The Government regularly monitored users' online activities and
    blocked residents' regular access to numerous Web sites that officials
    considered to be inciting sectarian tensions, were antigovernment, or
    were anti-Islamic. The Government also blocked the Web site of at least
    one human rights NGO during the year, and it blocked the Web sites of
    the two main opposition political societies, Al-Wifaq National Islamic
    Society and the National Democratic Action Society (also known as
    Wa'ad), during campaigning for the October national elections. Public
    discussion of blocked Web sites was widespread, and many users were
    able to access blocked sites through alternate servers.
        One of the country's most popular oppositionist Internet forums was
    blocked in August and September, although officials permitted the site
    to operate freely thereafter. On September 4, authorities arrested the
    site's administrator, Ali Abdulemam, who is also a popular blogger, and
    charged him with involvement in a ``terror network'' together with 24
    other citizens (see section 1.d.).
        The Government continued to invoke the press code to justify the
    questioning of some journalists and bloggers. Web site administrators
    legally face the same libel laws that apply to print journalists, and
    Web masters are held jointly responsible for all content posted on
    their Web sites or chat rooms.

        Academic Freedom and Cultural Events.--There were no government
    restrictions on academic freedom. Some academics self-censored,
    avoiding contentious political issues.
        The Government banned at least one film, the Indian-produced
    Lamhaa, for its political content.

        b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association.--Freedom of
    Assembly.--The constitution provides for the right of free assembly,
    but the law restricts the exercise of this right, and security forces
    intervened in some demonstrations during the year. Organizers must
    submit requests for public gatherings or demonstrations to the Ministry
    of the Interior at least 72 hours in advance. Three citizens from the
    proposed demonstration area must sign the application. If there is no
    response to the request, the gathering may proceed. The law prohibits
    public gatherings near hospitals, airports, commercial centers,
    designated security-related facilities, or funeral processions. The law
    prohibits gatherings between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m., unless the chief of
    public security or his deputy gives written permission. The law states
    that funeral processions may not be turned into political rallies, and
    security officials may be present at any public gathering. The head of
    public security must notify the organizers about any official changes
    to the request (such as location, time, or route) at least 48 hours
    prior to the event. Organizers of an unauthorized gathering face prison
    sentences of three to six months.
        The Government specifically limited and controlled political
    gatherings. The law regulates election campaigns and prohibits
    political activities at worship centers, universities, schools,
    government buildings, and public institutions. The Government did not
    allow mosques or ma'tams (Shia religious community centers) or other
    religious sites to be used for political gatherings without permission.
        Antigovernment demonstrations occurred regularly in numerous Shia
    villages throughout the country. Groups of Shia youth, allegedly
    instigated by members of the unregistered Haq Movement and the newly
    organized al-Waf'a Islamic Movement, regularly appeared at both
    registered and unregistered demonstrations where, according to Shia
    community members and Ministry of Interior officials, they burned tires
    and trash and threw Molotov cocktails and stones at riot police.
        Police often dispersed demonstrations with tear gas. Local human
    rights NGOs alleged that riot police used tear gas against peaceful
    demonstrators; however, the Ministry of the Interior countered that it
    used tear gas in response to attacks by demonstrators. Security forces
    sometimes fired rubber baton rounds to disperse demonstrations and, on
    a number of occasions, security forces allegedly ricocheted shotgun
    pellets from the ground to disperse rioters as a last resort.

        Freedom of Association.--The constitution provides for the right to
    freedom of association; however, the Government limited this right in
    practice. Although the Government does not allow the formation of
    political parties, it authorized registered political societies to run
    candidates and participate in other political activities.
        The Government required all groups to register: civil society
    groups with the Ministry of Social Development, political societies
    with the Ministry of Justice and Islamic Affairs, and labor unions with
    the Ministry of Labor. The Government decided whether the group was
    social or political in nature based on its proposed bylaws. The law
    prohibits any activity by an unlicensed society and any political
    activity by a licensed civil society group.
        To apply for registration, a political society must submit its
    bylaws signed by all founding members, a list of all members and copies
    of their residency cards, and a financial statement identifying the
    society's sources of funding and bank information. The society's
    principles, goals, and programs must not run counter to Sharia law or
    the national interest, as interpreted by the judiciary, nor may the
    society be based on sectarian, geographic, or class identity.
        A civil society group applying for registration must submit its
    bylaws signed by all founding members and minutes of the founding
    committee's meetings, containing the names of founding members, their
    professions, their places of residence, and their signatures. The law
    grants the Ministry of Social Development the right to reject the
    registration of any civil society group if it finds the society's
    services unnecessary, already provided by another society, contrary to
    state security, or aimed at reviving a previously dissolved society.
    Associations whose applications are rejected or ignored may appeal to
    the High Civil Court, which may annul the ministry's decision or refuse
    the complaint.
        Many NGOs and civil society activists asserted that the Ministry of
    Social Development routinely exploited its oversight role to stymie the
    activities of NGOs and other civil society organizations. While some
    local NGOs asserted that bureaucratic incompetence characterized the
    ministry's dealings with NGOs, numerous other local NGOs stated that
    officials in the NGOs directorate actively sought to undermine some
    groups' activities and to impose burdensome bureaucratic procedures on
    NGO board members and volunteers.
        In September the Ministry of Social Development effectively
    shuttered the prominent local human rights organization Bahrain Human
    Rights Society, when a ministerial decree ordered the dissolution of
    the society's board of directors and appointed a ministry employee to
    be the group's interim head. Soon thereafter the group's ousted chief
    filed a lawsuit against the ministry; the case was pending at year's
    end. In October the ministry filed a lawsuit against the ousted board
    of directors of BHRS but withdrew the suit shortly afterwards. In
    December the former BHRS leadership issued a human rights report for
    2009 in the name of the BHRS; the Government did not interfere in the
    report's release or dissemination.

        c. Freedom of Religion.--For a complete description of religious
    freedom, please see the 2010 International Religious Freedom Report at
    www.state.gov/g/drl/irf/rpt.

        d. Freedom of Movement, Internally Displaced Persons, Protection of
    Refugees, and Stateless Persons.--The constitution provides for freedom
    of movement within the country, foreign travel, emigration, and
    repatriation, and the Government generally respected these rights in
    practice. The Government cooperated with the Office of the UN High
    Commissioner for Refugees and other humanitarian organizations in
    providing protection and assistance to internally displaced persons,
    refugees, returning refugees, asylum seekers, stateless persons, and
    other persons of concern.
        The law provides that the Government may reject applications to
    obtain or renew passports for ``reasonable cause,'' but the applicant
    has the right to appeal such decisions before the High Civil Court. In
    practice authorities relied on determinations of national security when
    adjudicating passport applications.
        On September 19, authorities announced they had revoked the
    citizenship of a naturalized Shia cleric, Ayatollah Sheikh Hussain al-
    Najati, his wife, and their three children. The Government restored the
    family's citizenship in November.
        In October authorities prevented three activists from leaving the
    country. All three were permitted to travel within one to two weeks.
        The constitution prohibits forced exile, and there were no reports
    of forced exile or return from exile during the year. Some political
    oppositionists who refused the 2001 amnesty remained in self-imposed
    exile.

        Protection of Refugees.--The country is not a party to the 1951
    Convention relating to the Status of Refugees or its 1967 Protocol
    relating to the Status of Refugees, and the Government has not
    established a system for providing protection to refugees. In practice
    the Government provided protection against the expulsion or return of
    refugees to countries where their lives or freedom would be threatened
    on account of their race, religion, nationality, membership in a
    particular social group, or political opinion. Such individuals
    generally had access to certain social services, education, and
    employment.

        Stateless Persons.--Citizenship is generally derived from the
    father; however, noncitizen men who marry citizen women are not
    entitled to citizenship; as a result, children from such marriages are
    stateless. The Bahrain Women's Association reported that as of December
    the organization was aware of 213 women with stateless children.
        The law clearly defines naturalization requirements, but the
    adjudication process for naturalization applications was not
    transparent. Opposition groups claimed the Government regularly ignored
    naturalization rules to manipulate demographics for voting and to
    maintain Sunni domination of police and defense forces over Shia.
    According to these opposition groups, the Government was more lenient
    with naturalization requests from foreign residents in the security
    forces, while Shia and other applicants experienced delays in
    processing of their cases. The Government occasionally granted
    citizenship to Sunni residents from neighboring countries.
        Stateless persons had access to limited social services, education,
    and employment. Stateless persons were eligible to receive housing and
    other government services; however, they were excluded from receiving
    scholarships.
    Section 3. Respect for Political Rights: The Right of Citizens to
            Change Their Government
        Citizens do not have the right to change their government or their
    political system; however, the constitution provides for a
    democratically elected Council of Representatives, the lower house of
    parliament. The king appoints the prime minister, who then proposes
    cabinet ministers. Members of the ruling Al-Khalifa family held all
    strategic cabinet ministry positions and approximately half of
    ministerial slots. The bicameral national assembly consists of the 40-
    member Council of Representatives and the 40-member appointed Shura
    (Consultative) Council. The king may dissolve the Council of
    Representatives at his discretion; he also has the power to amend the
    constitution and to propose, ratify, and promulgate laws. Both councils
    may question government ministers (except the prime minister), and the
    Council of Representatives may require a minister's resignation with a
    two-thirds majority vote of no confidence. The Council of
    Representatives may introduce a resolution indicating it cannot
    cooperate with the prime minister, in which case the joint national
    assembly would have the option to pass the resolution by a two-thirds
    majority, requiring the king to dismiss the prime minister or to
    dissolve the Council of Representatives. A no-confidence vote has never
    arisen.

        Elections and Political Participation.--Almost all registered
    political societies participated in the October elections for the
    Council of Representatives and municipal councils. Sixty-seven percent
    of eligible voters participated in the two rounds of voting on October
    23 and 30. The opposition Shia Islamist political society, Al-Wifaq,
    won all 18 races it contested for the Council of Representatives. Two
    progovernment, Sunni Islamist parties won a combined five seats (down
    from 15), and independents won 17 seats. Most opposition groups and
    other activists alleged that the Government gerrymandered electoral
    districts in 2002 to provide for a progovernment, mostly Sunni majority
    in the Council of Representatives.
        Political tensions flared in the weeks preceding the October 23
    balloting, largely given the Government's arrests of more than 200 Shia
    men it accused of inciting or involvement in, the street violence.
    Those arrested included some, but not all, of the leaders of two
    fringe, rejectionist groups, Haq and Wafa', which had called for a
    boycott of the elections. The Government charged 23 of those arrested
    with involvement in a ``terror network'' pursuant to the 2006
    counterterrorism law (see section 1.e.). The electoral process was also
    marred by the Government's banning of the two main opposition parties'
    Web sites and newsletters. The Government did not allow international
    observers to monitor the elections.
        The Government did not allow the formation of political parties;
    however, more than a dozen political societies, which operated somewhat
    like political parties, chose candidates for parliamentary and
    municipal elections, campaigned for political office, developed
    political platforms, held internal elections, and hosted political
    gatherings. Political societies were highly critical of provisions in
    the law requiring them to notify the Government before contacting
    political groups abroad. The law prohibits civil society groups from
    engaging in political matters.
        The newly elected Council of Representatives includes one woman,
    who previously won election as an independent in 2006. Only one of the
    major political societies fielded female candidates for the Council of
    Representatives. An independent female candidate won a seat on a
    municipal council. The newly appointed Shura Council contains 11 women.
    Two women served as cabinet ministers, five women sat as judges in the
    criminal courts, and one was a judge in the Constitutional Court.
        Shia and Sunni citizens have equal rights before the law; however,
    Sunnis dominated political life, although Shia comprised the majority
    of the citizen population. Government and societal discrimination
    against the Shia population remained a problem. Sunnis received
    preference for employment in sensitive government positions and in the
    managerial ranks of the civil service. The defense and internal
    security forces were also predominantly Sunni, and few Shia members
    attained high-ranking positions. There were 18 representatives of the
    mainstream Shia political society, Al-Wifaq, in the elected Council of
    Representatives. The appointed Shura Council included 19 Shia members,
    including the speaker, as well as one Jewish member and one Christian
    member. Five of the 25 cabinet ministers were Shia, including one of
    four deputy prime ministers. The Jafaari Sharia Court consisted of 13
    Shia scholars.
    Section 4. Official Corruption and Government Transparency
        The law provides criminal penalties for official corruption;
    however, the Government did not implement the law effectively, and some
    officials reportedly engaged in corrupt practices with impunity.
    Significant areas of government activity, including the security
    services, continued to lack transparency. The press reported that, in a
    number of cases, authorities jailed or fined law enforcement officials
    for misconduct, most often for accepting bribes. An anticorruption unit
    was established in the Ministry of Interior; however, the Government
    did not announce any related investigations. The law does not require
    government officials to provide financial disclosures, nor does it
    provide citizens access to government-held information.
        In response to a bipartisan parliamentary inquiry into alleged
    illegal or improper sales of public property worth billions of dollars,
    the Government formed an interministerial committee to investigate the
    matter.
        The National Audit Bureau's annual report resulted in the formation
    of two parliamentary investigation committees, one of which studied
    problems affecting Gulf Air, the other of which investigated problems
    at Mumtalakt, the sovereign wealth fund. No prosecutions arose from the
    findings of these committees.
        In June 2009 the high criminal court found the former chief
    executive officer of the quasigovernmental housing bank for trade and
    finance guilty of embezzling 1.5 million dinars (four million dollars)
    and sentenced him to 10 years' imprisonment. The ruling was the first
    guilty verdict in a major corruption case in many years. An appeal was
    pending at year's end.
        In June 2009 authorities charged the executive director of the
    Bahrain Institute for Political Development (BIPD) and two other BIPD
    officials with fraud and embezzlement. The case remained pending at
    year's end.
        On November 9, a court issued a verdict in the corruption case
    against two former managers of Alba, an aluminum firm majority-owned by
    the Government's sovereign wealth fund, sentencing the men to seven
    years' imprisonment and imposing large fines. The two former managers
    appealed the verdict; a hearing was scheduled for January 2011.
    Activists alleged that the men were scapegoats for more senior Alba and
    government officials who engaged in illegal and corrupt activity.
    Section 5. Governmental Attitude Regarding International and
            Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations of Human
            Rights
        Restrictions on freedom of association and expression and increased
    government scrutiny and harassment during the year hindered
    investigation and public criticism of the Government's human rights
    policies; however, local and international NGOs continued to publish
    reports on human rights.
        In September the Government effectively shuttered BHRS, a prominent
    human rights NGO (see section 2.b.). The Government also exerted
    considerable pressure on other NGOs to stymie their activities.
        Several women's rights NGOs, notably the Bahrain Women's
    Association (BWA), the Bahrain Women's Union, and the Young Ladies
    Society, advocated for enhanced political, economic, and social rights
    for women and girls. In July police officers questioned two BWA
    volunteers after they were interviewed by Al Jazeera.
        The Migrant Workers Protection Society (MWPS) provided protection
    services for at-risk migrant workers, including operating a small
    shelter for runaway female domestic workers, and advocated for domestic
    workers' rights, which are not protected by current labor laws.
    According to local and international NGOs, a senior official in the
    Ministry of Social Development threatened to take administrative action
    against MWPS after a domestic employee working for the official sought
    refuge in the society's shelter.
        The Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR), which the Government
    officially dissolved in 2004, continued to issue reports and had strong
    ties to international human rights NGOs. The BCHR occasionally
    coordinated its activities with leaders of political rejectionist
    groups. On August 16, the Government arrested one of the BCHR's board
    members, Mohamed Saeed, a dentist, and charged him with involvement in
    a ``terror network'' (see section 1.e.). The case was pending at year's
    end. On September 4, the Government-run Bahrain News Agency, together
    with progovernment newspapers, temporarily labeled BCHR president
    Nabeel Rajab a ``terrorist,'' and on September 27, authorities
    prevented Rajab from leaving the country. He was permitted to travel
    two weeks later.
        On April 5, a court fined the head of the Bahrain Youth Human
    Rights Society (BYHRS) 500 dinars ($1,325) for operating an
    unregistered NGO. According to the BYHRS, the Ministry of Social
    Development did not respond to the group's request to register as an
    NGO.
        The Government-aligned Bahrain Human Rights Watch Society (BHRWS),
    headed by a former Shura Council member, undertook a number of advocacy
    campaigns during the year, including highlighting abuses against
    foreign workers and organizing an elections monitoring initiative.
        The Government generally welcomed visits by representatives of
    international human rights organizations. Representatives of HRW and
    Amnesty International had multiple meetings with government ministers
    and other senior officials. Other international NGOs, such as Front
    Line, met with senior government officials. However, journalists with
    close ties to senior government officials repeatedly attacked
    representatives of international human rights organizations. On at
    least two occasions in September and October, a progovernment newspaper
    published a series of articles attacking HRW representatives.
        In April and September, the Government barred two representatives
    of a foreign NGO working on institution-building and civil society
    strengthening from entering the country.
        The UN Development Program (UNDP) maintained an office in the
    country, and it advised the Government on developing mechanisms to
    encourage respect for human rights. The Government welcomed visits by
    both the UN high commissioner for human rights and the UNDP
    administrator.
        On April 25, the king appointed the 23 members of the National
    Human Rights Institution, a government-backed commission created by
    royal order in December 2009. Many of the members are government
    employees and former or current members of the Shura Council. The
    institution's chairman, Salman Kamalaldine, a former BHRS leader,
    resigned in September to protest the institution's failure to address
    allegations of mistreatment of detainees arrested during the August and
    September government reaction to demonstrations. National Human Rights
    Institution members staunchly defended the Government's human rights
    record in public fora, both domestically and internationally.
    Section 6. Discrimination, Societal Abuses, and Trafficking in Persons
        The constitution provides for equality, equal opportunity, and the
    right to medical care, welfare, education, property, capital, and work
    for all citizens. These rights were protected unevenly, depending on an
    individual's social status, sect, or gender. The law deprives foreign
    workers, who make up approximately half the population, of many
    fundamental legal, social, and economic rights.

        Women.--Rape is illegal; however, the law does not address spousal
    rape. The press reported cases of men arrested for the crime, including
    a few cases in which fathers of rape victims sought lighter sentences
    for perpetrators. There were numerous reports of employers raping
    female domestic workers, but most victims did not seek legal redress
    since local courts require witnesses to prove guilt for such assaults.
        No government policies or laws explicitly addressed domestic
    violence. Human rights organizations alleged that spousal abuse of
    women was widespread, particularly in poorer communities. Women rarely
    sought legal redress for violence, and there was little public
    attention devoted to the problem. The Batelco Care Center for Family
    Violence continued to offer free medical, psychological, legal, and
    social assistance to victims of violence, primarily women and children.
    It also operated an abuse hotline that recorded 206 cases from June to
    November.
        The law prohibits sexual harassment, but it remained a widespread
    problem for women, especially foreigners employed as domestic workers
    and in other low-level service jobs. The press reported a number of
    cases of men arrested for sexually harassing women. Article 350
    stipulates penalties of imprisonment of up to one year or a fine of 100
    dinars ($265) for committing an ``act of indecency with a female.''
        Reproductive health services, including birth control and maternity
    care, were available without charge to all women. According to the
    Ministry of Health, maternal mortality was 9.5 per 1,000 births. The UN
    Population Fund estimated that the maternal mortality ratio in 2008 was
    19 per 100,000 live births. Health centers required women to obtain
    spousal consent in order to undergo sterilization; however, this
    consent requirement did not apply to provisions of other family
    planning services. There was no information as to whether women receive
    equal diagnosis and treatment for sexually transmitted infections,
    including HIV.
        Women faced discrimination under the law. A woman cannot transmit
    nationality to her spouse or children. Women have the right to initiate
    divorce; however, religious courts may refuse the request. In divorce
    cases, the courts routinely granted mothers custody of daughters
    younger than age nine and sons younger than age seven. Custody usually
    reverted to the father once the children reached those ages. Regardless
    of custody decisions, the father retained guardianship, or the right to
    make all legal decisions for the child, until the child reached the age
    of 21. A noncitizen woman automatically loses custody of her children
    if she divorces their citizen father without just cause.
        Women may own and inherit property and represent themselves in all
    public and legal matters. In the absence of a direct male heir, Shia
    women may inherit all property; however, Sunni women without a direct
    male heir inherit only a portion as governed by Sharia and the brothers
    or male relatives of the deceased divide the balance. In practice
    better-educated families used wills and other legal maneuvers to
    mitigate the negative effects of these rules.
        Labor laws prohibit discrimination against women; however,
    discrimination against women was systemic in the country, especially in
    the workplace. There were numerous reports of employers mistreating
    noncitizen women working as domestic servants. The influence of
    religious traditionalists sometimes hampered women's rights. The Labor
    Market Regulatory Authority stated that women constituted 20.5 percent
    of the labor force, although these statistics excluded the
    approximately 75,000 domestic workers, a majority of whom are women.

        Children.--Citizenship is derived from one's father. Women cannot
    transmit their nationality to their children; therefore, children of
    some citizen mothers and noncitizen fathers are born stateless (see
    section 2.d., Stateless Persons).
        Government-run primary schools are segregated by gender, although
    children are subject to the same curricula and textbooks. Schooling is
    compulsory for children only through the age of 14, but it is provided
    free of charge to citizens and legal residents through grade 12.
        NGOs reported an increase in the number of child abuse cases in
    recent years but were unsure whether abuse is on the rise or whether
    there is greater willingness to report it. Sharia courts, not civil
    courts, address crimes involving child abuse, including violence
    against children. NGOs expressed concern over the lack of consistent,
    written guidelines for prosecuting and punishing offenders and over the
    leniency of penalties involving child abuse cases. The Be Free Center,
    an associate of the Bahrain Women's Association that focuses on child
    abuse awareness and prevention, dealt with 2,371 cases of child abuse
    victims during the year.
        From August to December, there were numerous reports that security
    forces detained boys under the age of 18, including some arrested in
    their homes. There were reports that boys were prosecuted and convicted
    for security-related crimes, including two 12-year-old cousins who,
    after four months of pretrial detention, each received six-month prison
    sentences, which the Government said would be served in a juvenile
    detention facility run by the Ministry of Social Development.
        The country is not a party to the 1980 Hague Convention on the
    Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. For information on
    international parental child abduction, please see the Department of
    State's annual report on compliance at http://travel.state.gov/
    abduction/resources/congressreport/congressreport--4308.html. as well
    as country-specific information at http://travel.state.gov/abduction/
    country/country--3781.html.

        Anti-Semitism.--There were no reports of anti-Semitic acts in the
    country.

        Trafficking in Persons.--For information on trafficking in persons,
    please see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons
    Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        Persons With Disabilities.--The law protects the rights of persons
    with disabilities, and a variety of governmental, quasigovernmental,
    and religious institutions are mandated to support and protect persons
    with disabilities. In June the Ministry of Social Development announced
    a partnership with the UN Development Program (UNDP) to develop and
    implement a National Strategy for Persons with Disabilities.
        New public buildings in the central municipality must include
    facilities for persons with disabilities. The law does not mandate
    access to nonresidential buildings for persons with disabilities.
        There were no official reports of discrimination against persons
    with disabilities in employment, education, or access to health care,
    but according to anecdotal evidence, persons with disabilities
    routinely suffered lack of access to education and employment. The one
    government school for children with hearing disabilities did not
    operate past the 10th grade. Certain public schools had specialized
    education programs for children with learning disabilities, physical
    handicaps, speech impediments, and Down syndrome, but the Government
    did not fund private programs for children with disabilities who could
    not find appropriate programs in public schools.
        The law requires the Government to provide vocational training for
    persons with disabilities who wish to work. The law also requires any
    employer of more than 100 persons to hire at least 2 percent of its
    employees from the Government's list of workers with disabilities;
    however, the Government did not monitor compliance. The Government
    placed persons with disabilities in some public-sector jobs.
        There were no restrictions on participation in political and
    electoral processes for persons with disabilities.

        National/Racial/Ethnic Minorities.--The law grants citizenship to
    Arab applicants who have resided in the country for 15 years and non-
    Arab applicants who have resided in the country for 25 years. There was
    a lack of transparency in the naturalization process, and there were
    numerous reports that the citizenship law was not applied uniformly.
    For example, there were allegations that the Government allowed foreign
    Sunni employees in the security services that had lived in the country
    for less than 15 years to apply for citizenship. There were also
    reports of Arab Shia who had resided in the country for more than 15
    years and non-Arab foreign residents who had resided more than 25 years
    who had not been granted citizenship.
        Although the Government asserted that the labor code for the
    private sector applies to all workers, the International Labor
    Organization and international NGOs have noted that, in practice,
    nonnational migrant workers faced discrimination in the workplace.
        In March 2009 a Sunni Pakistani civilian, Mohammed Riyadh, died of
    burns he suffered after rioters firebombed his vehicle. Due to his
    ethnicity, attackers assumed the victim was an undercover police
    officer monitoring activity in the village. On July 5, seven Shia men,
    who had been charged under the counterterrorism law, were sentenced to
    life imprisonment for their role in the death.

        Societal Abuses, Discrimination, and Acts of Violence Based on
    Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.--The law does not criminalize
    homosexual relationships between consenting adults at least 21 years of
    age; however, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender activities were
    not socially accepted, and discrimination was common.

        Other Societal Violence or Discrimination.--The media reported few
    cases of HIV/AIDS. There were no reports of societal violence or
    discrimination based on persons with HIV/AIDS. The Government mandated
    screening of newly arrived migrant workers for infectious diseases,
    including HIV/AIDS; migrant workers found to be HIV-positive faced
    deportation.
    Section 7. Worker Rights
        a. The Right of Association.--The law grants workers, including
    noncitizens, a limited right to form and join unions as long as the
    union is for lawful objectives and does not disturb the fundamentals of
    the religion and public order is not disturbed. Members of the military
    are prohibited from joining unions. In the private sector, workers may
    form unions without prior authorization. Public-sector workers may join
    private sector trade unions and professional societies, but trade
    unions are prohibited in the public sector. Foreign workers, excluding
    domestic workers, are allowed to join unions and many do so, but they
    are not allowed to engage in collective bargaining. Only one trade
    union is permitted in each workplace. The Shura Council vetoed a law
    that would allow more than one trade union per company. All unions must
    join the General Federation of Bahrain Trade Unions (GFBTU). The law
    allows for the establishment of additional federations; however, at
    year's end, there were none. According to the GFBTU, approximately 18
    percent of the labor force was unionized with employees from the six
    major state-owned firms making up 52 percent of total trade union
    membership.
        The law prohibits unions from engaging in political activities,
    although union officials participated in public forums regarding
    workers' rights. The GFBTU did not report any government interference
    in its activities.
        The law states that the right to strike is a legitimate means for
    workers to defend their rights and interests; however, this right was
    restricted and is not available for all workers. The law prohibits
    strikes in certain sectors the Government deems essential. The list of
    essential services prohibited from joining unions exceeds international
    standards. They include the oil, gas, education, telecommunication,
    transportation, and health sectors, as well as pharmacies and bakeries.
    For workers permitted to strike, the law requires a lengthy process of
    conciliation followed by mandatory arbitration. Workers must approve a
    strike with a two-thirds majority in a secret ballot and provide two
    weeks' notification to the Ministry of Labor before conducting a
    strike. There were no strikes during the year. Although government
    sources held that the arbitration provision did not preempt the right
    to strike, the law does not specify that a union may proceed to a
    strike vote if it disagrees with the arbitrator's decision.

        b. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively.--The law
    provides for the right to organize and bargain collectively; however,
    foreign workers, who make up approximately 60 percent of the workforce,
    are not permitted to engage in collective bargaining. Employers and the
    Government are required to treat unions as independent judicial
    entities.
        In the private sector, the law prohibits antiunion discrimination
    and employer interference in union functions. The Government generally
    protected this right.
        There are no special laws or exemptions from regular labor laws in
    export processing zones.

        c. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor.--The law prohibits
    forced or compulsory labor, including by children; however, there were
    reports that such practices occurred, particularly among domestic
    workers and those working in the informal sector, many of whom are not
    fully protected by the legal code. There were no reports of forced or
    compulsory child labor; however, there were reports of children
    trafficked into the country for domestic service and sexual
    exploitation.
        Foreign workers, mostly from South and Southeast Asia, who made up
    approximately 60 percent of the workforce (76 percent of the private-
    sector workforce), were particularly vulnerable to forced labor and in
    some cases were subject to withholding of passports, restrictions on
    movement, contract substitution, nonpayment of wages, threats, physical
    and sexual abuse. Some foreign workers arrived in the country under the
    sponsorship of an employer and then switched jobs while continuing to
    pay a fee to their original sponsor, which made it difficult to monitor
    and control their employment.
        In numerous instances, employers withheld salaries from foreign
    workers for months or years and refused to grant them permission to
    leave the country. The Government and the courts generally worked to
    rectify abuses brought to their attention. The fear of deportation or
    employer retaliation prevented many foreign workers from making
    complaints to authorities.
        The Government continued to conduct extensive awareness campaigns,
    yet many foreign workers were unaware of their rights under the law.
    The Government published pamphlets on foreign resident workers' rights
    in several languages, provided manuals on these rights to local
    diplomatic missions, and operated a telephone hotline for victims.
        In August 2009 new rules went into effect to allow migrant foreign
    workers (excluding domestic workers) to change jobs without employers'
    permission, subject to certain restrictions. During the year the
    Government reported that more than 7,000 workers switched employers
    under the new rules.
        Labor laws do not fully cover domestic workers. There were numerous
    credible reports that domestic workers, especially women, were forced
    to work 12- to 16-hour days, had to give their identity documents to
    employers, had little time off, were malnourished, and were subject to
    verbal and physical abuse, including sexual molestation and rape.
    Between 30 and 40 percent of attempted suicide cases in the
    Government's psychiatric hospitals were foreign domestic workers.
        Also see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons
    Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        d. Prohibition of Child Labor and Minimum Age for Employment.--The
    law prohibits child labor and establishes protections for children from
    workplace exploitation, and the Government effectively enforced these
    laws. Some children were believed to work in family-run businesses, but
    the practice was not widespread. There were reports of children
    trafficked into the country for domestic service and sexual
    exploitation. Also see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in
    Persons Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.
        The minimum age for employment is 16 years old. The Ministry of
    Labor makes rare exceptions on a case-by-case basis for juveniles
    between the ages of 14 and 16 who have an urgent need to assist in
    providing financial support for their families. Minors may not work in
    industries the Ministry of Health deems hazardous or unhealthy,
    including construction, mining, and oil refining. Minors may work no
    more than six hours a day and may be present on the employment premises
    no more than seven hours a day. These regulations do not apply to
    family-operated businesses in which the only other employees are family
    members.
        According to NGOs, government labor inspectors monitored and
    enforced child labor laws effectively in the industrial sector. During
    the year the Ministry of Labor employed 43 labor inspectors.

        e. Acceptable Conditions of Work.--There is no national minimum
    wage. Unskilled foreign laborers in particular did not earn as much as
    their home countries' guidelines suggested and were at times subject to
    nonpayment of wages. The Philippines imposed a minimum wage of 80
    dinars ($212) for domestic workers and required a contract signed by
    the two parties and approved by the Philippines Embassy. However, in
    practice many such employees were paid less than 80 dinars ($212).
        The Ministry of Labor enforced the labor law and mandated
    acceptable conditions of work for all adult workers except domestic
    workers, including a maximum workweek of 48 hours, with special
    permission required by the ministry for work in excess of 60 hours per
    week. Muslims may not legally be required to work more than six hours
    per day and 36 hours per week during Ramadan. Workers are entitled to
    one day of rest after six consecutive days of work and to annual paid
    vacations of 21 days after one year of service. Work in excess of 48
    hours per week is to be paid at a rate of 25 percent above the normal
    wage if conducted during the day and 50 percent if completed at night.
    In practice many foreign domestic workers worked more than 60 hours per
    week and did not receive overtime. The labor inspectorate conducted
    periodic comprehensive inspections of private sector enterprises,
    including verification of employee hours and wages.
        According to NGOs, workplace safety standards were adequate, but
    inspection and compliance were substandard. The Ministry of Labor set
    occupational safety and health standards and sporadically enforced them
    with a team of 11 engineers from multiple specialties. Inspectors had
    the authority to levy fines and close worksites if employers did not
    improve conditions by specified deadlines. There were reports of
    employers being fined for violations. During the year the media
    reported several workplace deaths owing to a combination of inadequate
    safety procedures, worker ignorance of those procedures, and inadequate
    safety standards for equipment. Exact figures were not available.
    Particularly hazardous sectors included construction and automotive
    repair.
        During the year inspectors visited labor camps to verify whether
    workers' accommodations met required safety and hygiene standards. In
    2009 inspectors visited 1,419 labor camps, of which 126 failed the
    inspection because of safety issues such as gas and electricity
    problems, overcrowding, poor hygiene, and general disrepair. Inspectors
    cited poor hygiene in warnings issued to 148 camps, as well as part of
    their rationale for the closure of 31 camps. The inspectors were
    authorized to inspect only premises that had a commercial registration;
    they could not inspect private homes where most domestic workers lived
    or unregistered ``private'' camps where many unskilled laborers lived.
        Reports of employers and recruiting agencies beating or sexually
    abusing foreign women working in domestic positions were common.
    Numerous cases were reported to local embassies, the press, and police;
    most victims were too intimidated to sue their employers, although they
    had the right to do so. If a victim brings suit against her employer,
    she cannot leave the country for the duration of the case. The Migrant
    Workers Protection Society continued to support victims who took their
    cases to court, but compensation to victims was reportedly low.
        When a worker lodges a complaint, the Ministry of Labor opens an
    investigation and often takes remedial action. The ministry reportedly
    received 5,132 complaints during the year, including complaints from
    domestic workers. On average there were 11 complaints from domestic
    workers per month. Ministry officials stated that they were able to
    resolve most of these cases through mediation. The public prosecutor
    took the remaining cases for investigation. Complaints that cannot be
    settled though arbitration must be referred to the court within 15
    days. However, the vast majority of cases involving abused domestic
    workers did not reach the Ministry of Labor or the Public Prosecution.
        A ministerial decree prohibits outdoor work between the hours of
    noon and 4 p.m. during July and August. The Ministry of Labor reported
    it fined 36 companies each 50 to 300 dinars ($132 to $792) per worker
    for allegedly violating the ban in 2009, an increase from 29 cases in
    2008.

                                   __________

                                     EGYPT

        The National Democratic Party (NDP) has governed the Arab Republic
    of Egypt, which has a population of approximately 79 million, since the
    party's establishment in 1978. Following parliamentary elections in
    June and November that were marked by significant irregularities and
    preelection restrictions, the NDP continued to dominate national
    politics by maintaining an overriding majority in the popularly elected
    People's Assembly and the partially elected Shura (Consultative)
    Council. The Government derives its governing authority from the 1971
    constitution and subsequent amendments. Executive authority resides
    with the president and the cabinet. In 2005 President Hosni Mubarak won
    a fifth consecutive six-year term with 88 percent of the vote in the
    country's first presidential election, which was marred by low voter
    turnout, charges of fraud, and government efforts to prevent opposition
    candidates from participating effectively. Security forces reported to
    civilian authorities.
        The Government limited citizens' right to change their government
    and extended a state of emergency that has been in place almost
    continuously since 1967. Security forces used unwarranted lethal force
    and tortured and abused prisoners and detainees, in most cases with
    impunity. Prison and detention center conditions were poor. Security
    forces arbitrarily arrested and detained individuals, in some cases for
    political purposes, and kept them in prolonged pretrial detention. The
    executive branch exercised control over and pressured the judiciary.
    The Government partially restricted freedom of expression. The
    Government's respect for freedoms of assembly, association, and
    religion was poor, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) continued
    to face restrictions. The Government killed an increased number of
    African migrants trying to cross the Egyptian-Israeli border into
    Israel.

                            RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

    Section 1. Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom
            From:
        a. Arbitrary or Unlawful Deprivation of Life.--The Government did
    not commit any politically motivated killings; however, security forces
    committed arbitrary or unlawful killings during the year.
        On June 7, according to eyewitnesses, two undercover police
    investigators beat to death 27-year-old businessman Khaled Sayeed after
    approaching him in an Alexandria internet cafe. A government autopsy
    concluded on June 23 that Sayeed died from choking on a bag of
    cannabis. The autopsy noted bodily injuries that could have resulted
    from beating but asserted that these injuries did not cause the death.
    On July 3, the Government charged the two investigators with cruel
    treatment, torture, and wrongful arrest. A trial began July 27 and
    continued at year's end.
        On November 6, 19-year-old Ahmed Sha'aban disappeared in
    Alexandria, and his body was discovered in a city canal on November 10.
    According to NGOs, in December the public prosecutor suspended its
    investigation of the family's complaint accusing police officers of
    murder. One family member who viewed Sha'aban's body told an NGO it
    showed signs of torture.
        On November 24, during violent clashes with a large group of Coptic
    Christian rioters in the Giza neighborhood of Omraniya, security forces
    killed two persons and injured approximately 40, and rioters injured
    approximately 20 police. According to reports the violence began when
    police moved to halt construction of a church and community center the
    Coptic Christians believed they had permission to build. Security
    forces arrested 158 persons for participating in the riots. By year's
    end the attorney general had ordered the release of all but 23 of the
    detainees.
        On December 7, according to NGOs, witnesses stated that Mustafa
    Attia El-Sayeed fell during a police arrest over a debt dispute.
    Witnesses believed the fall aggravated an existing heart condition,
    causing El-Sayeed to die of a heart attack. A government autopsy
    following a complaint filed by the family ruled El-Sayeed died from
    natural causes.
        At year's end the Government had not publicly taken action to
    investigate the 2008 killing by security forces of four individuals
    during violent clashes between police and protesters in Mahalla el
    Kubra or the 2008 killing by Central Security Forces (CSF) of three
    Bedouin tribesmen during demonstrations that followed the CSF killing
    of a suspected drug smuggler.
        On January 6, in the town of Naga Hammadi, men with automatic
    weapons shot Coptic churchgoers after Coptic Orthodox Christmas Mass.
    Seven persons were killed (six Coptic Christians and one off-duty
    Muslim police officer) and 11 others wounded (nine Coptic Christians
    and two Muslims). Authorities arrested three suspects; at the end of
    the year, they remained in detention and were being tried in state
    security court on charges of premeditated murder.

        b. Disappearance.--According to the most recent UN Human Rights
    Council Report of the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary
    Disappearances, there were 36 outstanding disappearance cases.
        On August 8, two human rights NGOs filed a request that the
    Government investigate the whereabouts of Mohammed Sayed Abdo Turk; his
    father believed him to be in the custody of the Ministry of Interior's
    State Security Investigative Services (SSIS). In July 2009 Turk
    reportedly disappeared in the Damanhour area.
        In 2008, according to the quasi-governmental National Council for
    Human Rights (NCHR), Ahmed Ismail Al Sheikh disappeared from a prison
    in Damanhour in the Delta. The Government and the prison gave the
    family contradictory accounts of his whereabouts.

        c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or
    Punishment.--Article 42 of the constitution prohibits the infliction of
    ``physical or moral harm'' upon persons who have been arrested or
    detained; however, the law fails to account for mental or psychological
    abuse, abuse against persons who have not been formally accused, or
    abuse occurring for reasons other than securing a confession. Police,
    security personnel, and prison guards often tortured and abused
    prisoners and detainees, sometimes in cases of detentions under the
    Emergency Law, which authorizes incommunicado detention indefinitely,
    subject to a judge's ruling. The Government rarely held security
    officials accountable, and officials often operated with impunity.
        Domestic and international human rights groups reported that the
    SSIS, police, and other government entities continued to employ torture
    to extract information or force confessions. In numerous trials
    defendants alleged that police tortured them during questioning. Police
    and the SSIS reportedly employed methods such as stripping and
    blindfolding victims; suspending victims by the wrists and ankles in
    contorted positions or from a ceiling or door frame with feet just
    touching the floor; beating victims with fists, whips, metal rods, or
    other objects; using electric shocks; dousing victims with cold water;
    sleep deprivation; and sexual abuse, including sodomy. There was
    evidence that security officials sexually assaulted some victims or
    threatened to rape them or their family members. Human rights groups
    reported that the lack of legally required written police records often
    effectively blocked investigations.
        The Government investigated torture complaints in some criminal
    cases and punished some offending police officers. Courts sentenced
    officers to terms of one to six years in prison and ordered officers to
    pay compensation to victims in some cases. According to the most recent
    government figures, in 2009 the public prosecutor referred nine cases
    of cruel treatment to the criminal courts and one case to a
    disciplinary tribunal; it also requested administrative sanctions in 10
    cases. Of these cases, according to the Government, courts tried and
    convicted one police officer for torture, acquitted another officer,
    and had not ruled in two other cases in the first six months of the
    year. Also in the first six months of 2009, the time period for which
    the Government provided information, 16 police officers faced
    disciplinary action for committing abuse or torture.
        During the year human rights groups and the media documented a case
    of abuse of a blogger, and cases of harassment of journalists and
    bloggers who reported on controversial topics (see section 2.a.).
        The Government did not investigate a February 2009 cell phone video
    depicting police officers sodomizing a victim at a Cairo police station
    or an August 2009 cell phone video depicting police officers torturing
    an unidentified man suspended by his arms in a Port Said police
    station.
        On March 7 and 8, according to an NGO source, a security officer
    beat Taha Abdel Tawab, a supporter of former International Atomic
    Energy Association chairman and opposition political activist Mohammed
    El-Baradei, in a police station in the city of Fayoum. An officer also
    allegedly withheld food and deprived Abdel Tawab of medication, causing
    him to be hospitalized. The public prosecutor ordered an investigation
    of the officer and questioned him on March 12. By year's end
    authorities had not taken further action on the case.
        On April 13, according to witnesses, police beat, stripped, and
    arrested activist Baha Saber during a demonstration in Cairo after he
    pushed police officers to move outside a cordoned area. According to
    NGO sources, police subsequently beat and sexually abused Saber in
    custody. On April 14, the public prosecutor charged Saber with
    resisting arrest and impeding traffic and released him the following
    day. The charges remained pending at year's end.
        On September 18, according to an NGO source, two police corporals
    arrested Mostafa Galal El-Din Abdel Hamid and subsequently shackled and
    beat him at Dar El-Salaam police station in Cairo. On September 28, the
    day of Abdel Hamid's release, his family filed a complaint with the
    public prosecutor, and at year's end the case was under investigation.
        In July 2009, according to NGO sources, security forces used
    electric shocks and sleep deprivation to torture members of an alleged
    terrorist cell arrested for allegedly smuggling weapons to Gaza, among
    other charges. At year's end the suspects were on trial in a state
    security court.
        In March 2009 a court sentenced police corporal Ahmed Antar Ibrahim
    to six years' imprisonment for his 2008 assault on anti-torture
    activists and doctors Magda Adly and Mona Hamed. Ibrahim had confessed
    that police intelligence officer Ahmad Maklad ordered him to attack
    Adly, but authorities reportedly did not investigate Maklad's role.
    According to NGO sources, Ibrahim's retrial on procedural grounds began
    in December 2009, and on April 4, Damanhour Criminal Court sentenced
    Ibrahim to two years in prison for assault. According to NGO sources,
    Ibrahim remained in prison at year's end.
        In November 2009 the Alexandria Criminal Court convicted police
    officer Akram Soliman of assaulting a mentally disabled man, Ragai
    Sultan, and sentenced Soliman to five years in prison. On July 4, an
    appeals court upheld the verdict. According to NGO sources, Soliman
    remained in prison at year's end.

        Prison and Detention Center Conditions.--Conditions in prisons and
    detention centers remained poor, although human rights lawyers and NCHR
    reported improvements. According to observers, prison cells were
    overcrowded, with a lack of medical care, proper hygiene, food, clean
    water, and proper ventilation. Tuberculosis was widespread; abuse was
    common, especially of juveniles in adult facilities; and guards
    brutalized prisoners. Provisions for temperature control, lighting,
    sanitation, and basic and emergency medical care varied but were not
    always adequate.
        The Government did not announce any investigations into the 2008
    alleged beating of detainees from the El-Mahallah demonstrations; the
    2008 alleged beating of a foreign detainee; or the killing of one
    prisoner and injury of 25 others during a 2008 prison riot in Assiut,
    following the alleged torture of a prisoner.
        Although separate prison facilities existed for men, women, and
    juveniles, adults were not always separated from juveniles. Pretrial
    detainees were sometimes held with convicted prisoners. The penal code
    provides for reasonable access to visitors; however, according to NGO
    observers, the Government sometimes prevented visitors' access to
    detainees held under the Emergency Law. Prisoners were permitted
    religious observance. Authorities permitted prisoners to submit
    complaints to judicial authorities without censorship and to request
    investigation of credible allegations of inhumane conditions; however,
    NGO observers claimed that prisoners were sometimes reluctant to do so
    out of fear of retribution from prison officials. Authorities rarely
    investigated credible allegations of inhumane conditions.
        The Government did not permit independent human rights observers to
    visit prisons or other places of detention during the year, despite
    repeated requests from the International Committee of the Red Cross and
    other domestic and international human rights monitors. Some prisons
    remained completely closed to the public. As required by law, the
    public prosecutor continued to inspect all regular prisons. SSIS
    detention centers were excluded from all inspections. The NCHR visited
    four prisons during the year, their first visits since 2005. The NCHR
    reported improved health care, food, and recreation. The NCHR
    considered itself an ombudsman serving on behalf of prisoners, but
    there was no official government ombudsman.

        d. Arbitrary Arrest or Detention.--The constitution prohibits
    arbitrary arrest and detention; however, during the year police and
    security forces engaged in such practices, including continued large-
    scale detentions of hundreds of individuals without charge under the
    Emergency Law, which was extended in May for two years and limited to
    terrorism and drug trafficking cases.
        Throughout the year the Ministry of Interior awarded compensation
    to members of Islamic groups who were detained without trial in the
    1990s.

        Role of the Police and Security Apparatus.--The Ministry of
    Interior controls local police forces, which operate in large cities
    and governorates; the SSIS, which conducts investigations; and the CSF,
    which maintains public order. SSIS and CSF officers are responsible for
    law enforcement at the national level and for providing security for
    infrastructure and key domestic and foreign officials. Single-mission
    law enforcement agencies, such as the Tourist and Antiquities Police
    and the Antinarcotics General Administration, also work at the national
    level.
        The security forces operated under a central chain of command and
    were considered generally effective in combating crime and terrorism
    and maintaining public order. There was no systematic prosecution of
    security personnel who committed human rights abuses, and impunity was
    a problem. The Government failed to bring cases against police and
    security force personnel following credible allegations of torture.
        The UN Development Program, with government cooperation, provided
    human rights training for 255 judicial and law enforcement officials
    during the year.

        Arrest Procedures and Treatment While in Detention.--Individuals
    may be arrested and detained under the Emergency Law or the penal code,
    both of which give the Government broad powers.
        The Emergency Law allows arrest without a warrant and detention of
    an individual without charge for as long as 30 days, after which a
    detainee may demand a court hearing to challenge the legality of the
    detention order. A detainee may resubmit a motion for a hearing at one-
    month intervals thereafter; however, there is no limit to the detention
    period if a judge continues to uphold the order or if the detainee
    fails to exercise the right to a hearing, and there is no possibility
    of bail. Many detainees under the Emergency Law remained incommunicado
    in state security detention facilities without access to family members
    or to lawyers before their cases were transferred to trial, and some
    faced torture in detention.
        Arrests under the penal code occurred openly and with warrants
    issued by a district prosecutor or judge. A prosecutor must bring
    charges within 48 hours following arrest or release the suspect.
    Detainees under the penal code sometimes were not informed promptly of
    charges against them. Authorities may hold a suspect for a maximum of
    six months while they investigate the case. There was a functioning
    system of bail for persons detained under the penal code. In criminal
    cases defendants have the right to counsel promptly after arrest and
    access to family members at the discretion of the court. In criminal
    cases the court is obligated to provide a lawyer to defendants who
    cannot afford one. However, in practice defendants often faced
    obstacles and were unable to secure regular access to lawyers or family
    visits.
        The Government continued to rely on the penal code for the majority
    of criminal investigations and prosecutions. In recent years
    authorities detained thousands of persons administratively under the
    Emergency Law on suspicion of terrorism or engaging in prohibited
    political activity. The Human Rights Association for the Assistance of
    Prisoners (HRAAP) estimated that the Government continued to hold
    between 3,000 and 4,000 persons in administrative detention without
    charge or trial under the Emergency Law; most of those detained were
    members of Islamic extremist groups arrested in the 1990s.
        In August the Government detained between 50 and 100 ``April 6''
    activists involved in protests against power shortages and efforts to
    collect signatures for a petition calling for political reforms in the
    name of Mohammed El-Baradei. The Government released all the activists
    within 48 hours.
        In August the Government detained Emad El-Kebir for allegedly
    participating in a street brawl and charged him with offenses falling
    under the penal code's terrorism statutes. A state security court
    acquitted El-Kebir on December 19, and he was released from prison on
    December 21. El-Kebir was the victim in a high-profile police abuse
    case for which a court sentenced two police officers to prison
    sentences in 2007.
        On September 14, the Government detained an activist in the
    opposition Democratic Front Party and released him within 48 hours.
    According to observers, security forces questioned him about his
    political activities, including support for Mohammed El-Baradei.
        Authorities released approximately 240 Bedouin during the year,
    while approximately 60 remained in detention.
        During the year there were cases of pretrial detention exceeding
    legal limits. Failure to implement judicial rulings regarding the
    release of detainees remained a problem.

        Amnesty.--On July 23, President Mubarak ordered the release of
    3,525 prisoners on the country's national day.
        On October 6, President Mubarak issued a decree ordering the
    partial pardon and permanent release of 409 prisoners on the occasion
    of the holiday commemorating the 1973 Arab-Israeli war.

        e. Denial of Fair Public Trial.--The constitution provides for an
    independent judiciary, but in practice the judiciary was subject to
    executive influence and corruption. The constitution provides for the
    independence and immunity of judges and forbids interference by other
    authorities in the exercise of their judicial functions. The Government
    generally respected judicial independence in nonpolitical cases in
    civilian courts. The Government ignored court orders to halt
    parliamentary elections pending reinstatement of some candidates banned
    by the High Electoral Commission. State security courts constituted
    under the Emergency Law share jurisdiction with military courts over
    crimes affecting national security. State security courts were not
    independent, as the Emergency Law stipulates that all state security
    court verdicts are subject to the president's review and allows the
    president to modify sentences handed down by the judges. The Emergency
    Law also allows the president to replace two of an emergency court's
    three civilian judges with military judges. The president may refer
    criminal cases to state security or military courts, where the accused
    does not receive most of the constitutional protections of the civilian
    judicial system. The Government continued to use the Emergency Law to
    try nonsecurity cases in these courts and to restrict many other basic
    rights.
        The president can appoint civilian judges to emergency courts upon
    the recommendation of the minister of justice or military judges upon
    the recommendation of the minister of defense. Military courts were
    established under the code of military justice law 25 of 1966. Under
    the code of military justice, the president can refer civilians to
    military courts for certain offenses in the penal code, such as acts
    harmful to the security of the Government or deliberate destruction of
    property to harm national security. A 2007 amendment to the law
    includes an appeal mechanism for military court verdicts, which lawyers
    were sometimes able to use to bring cases on behalf of their clients.
    Military verdicts were subject to review by other military judges and
    confirmation by the president, who in practice usually delegated the
    review function to a senior military officer. Defense attorneys claimed
    that they were not given sufficient time to prepare and that military
    judges tended to rush cases involving large numbers of defendants. In
    June parliament amended the code of military justice to grant military
    courts jurisdiction over workers in military factories. In August a
    military court ruled on a case involving workers in a military
    production factory (see section 7.e.).
        According to information from the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) website
    in October, MB second deputy chairman Khairat El Shater and one other
    MB member remained in a military prison. In 2008 a closed military
    tribunal had sentenced El Shater and his other civilian colleagues,
    seven in absentia, to prison terms ranging from three to 10 years on
    charges of money laundering. In November 2009 the Supreme Military
    Appeals Court rejected their motion contesting their transfer to a
    military tribunal.

        Trial Procedures.--Defendants enjoy a presumption of innocence.
    There are no juries. Trials are usually public; however, observers
    needed government permission to attend court sessions. Human rights
    activists were generally able to attend trials in civilian courts but
    were excluded from most military trials. Defendants have the right to
    counsel in civilian courts, and the Government provides a lawyer at the
    state's expense if the defendant does not have counsel; however,
    detainees in certain high-security prisons continued to allege that
    they were denied access to counsel or that such access was delayed
    until trial, thus denying them time to prepare an adequate defense.
    Defendants in military courts also have the right to counsel, but
    lawyers complained they did not have full access to their clients. The
    law allows defendants to be present, question witnesses against them,
    and present witnesses and evidence on their own behalf. The law
    provides defendants and their attorneys the right to access government-
    held evidence against them.
        In civilian courts defendants have the right of appeal up to the
    Court of Cassation. Sentences by military courts and death sentences in
    civilian criminal courts are subject to confirmation by the president.
    The president may alter or annul a decision of an emergency court,
    including a decision to release a defendant.

        Political Prisoners and Detainees.--HRAAP estimated that the
    Government continued to hold between 3,000 and 4,000 persons in
    administrative detention without charge or trial under the Emergency
    Law; most of those detained were members of Islamic extremist groups
    arrested in the 1990s (see section 1.d.). The Government held
    detainees, including many MB activists, for several weeks to several
    months or longer and did not permit international humanitarian
    organizations access to political prisoners.
        According to the Muslim Brotherhood's website, the Government
    arrested and detained 6,001 MB members during the year, mostly without
    formal charge or trial. According to public MB statements, the
    Government released most of these detainees soon after their
    detentions. According to public statements by the MB, approximately 702
    of their leaders and members remained in prison at year's end.
    According to press reports on November 25, MB lawyer Abdel Monem Abdel
    Maqsoud announced that authorities arrested 1,400 MB members in advance
    of the November 28 parliamentary elections, including 1,206 following
    the MB's October announcement that it would participate in
    parliamentary elections. According to the same press report,
    authorities released 700 MB activists following the elections; those
    remaining in detention had been charged for violations of the
    prohibition of the use of religion in politics. Maqsoud also claimed
    that a court convicted and sentenced 18 MB activists for using the
    political slogan ``Islam is the solution'' and that appeal processes in
    these cases continued at year's end.
        On February 8, the Government detained 15 MB members, including
    three members of the group's senior administrative body the Guidance
    Bureau (GB), for belonging to a banned organization, damaging ``social
    peace,'' and forming an underground organization that it claimed
    planned militant activity. On April 4, 13 members of the group were
    released. On April 7, the Government released two of the GB members,
    Mahmoud Ezzat and Essam El Eryan. On May 13, the Government released
    the last detainee, Osama Nasr.
        On March 27, the Government arrested ``April 6'' activist Tareq
    Khadr after he urged students in Alexandria to sign a petition calling
    for political reforms in the name of Mohammed El-Baradei. The
    Government detained Khadr without charge under the Emergency Law before
    releasing him on June 11.
        Approximately 20 members of the prohibited Hizb al-Tahrir al-Islami
    (Islamic Liberation Party) remained in prison at year's end. In 2004
    the Supreme State Security Emergency Court convicted 26 men linked to
    Hizb al-Tahrir for belonging to a prohibited organization. Several of
    the defendants, including three British citizens, alleged they were
    tortured to compel them to sign confessions.

        Civil Judicial Procedures and Remedies.--Individuals had access to
    civil courts for lawsuits relating to human rights violations and filed
    such lawsuits; however, the courts were not entirely independent,
    especially in politically high-profile cases.

        f. Arbitrary Interference With Privacy, Family, Home, or
    Correspondence.--The constitution provides for the privacy of the home,
    correspondence, telephone calls, and other means of communication;
    however, the Emergency Law suspends the constitutional provisions
    regarding the right to privacy, and the Government used the Emergency
    Law to limit these rights. Furthermore, authorities in terrorism cases
    may disregard constitutional protections of privacy of communications
    and personal residences.
        Under the law, police must obtain warrants or court orders before
    undertaking searches and wiretaps, but some human rights observers
    alleged that the Government routinely violated the law. Police officers
    who conducted searches without proper warrants were subject to criminal
    penalties, although courts seldom imposed such penalties. The Emergency
    Law empowers the Government to place wiretaps, intercept mail, and
    search persons or places without warrants. Security agencies frequently
    placed political activists, suspected subversives, journalists,
    foreigners, and writers under surveillance, screened their
    correspondence (especially international mail), searched them and their
    homes, and confiscated personal property.
        On March 6, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW), security
    officers entered and searched the home of Maha el-Khadrawy, a member of
    the ``April 6'' opposition group.
    Section 2. Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:
        a. Freedom of Speech and Press.--The constitution provides for
    freedom of speech and of the press; however, the Government partially
    restricted these rights in practice through harassment, censorship, and
    arrests and detentions, sometimes under the Emergency Law and in other
    instances under provisions of the penal code that prohibit incitement
    or discrimination.
        Many citizens and journalists openly expressed their views on a
    wide range of political and social issues, including presidential
    succession and President Mubarak's health. There was vigorous criticism
    of senior government officials and policies, including direct criticism
    of the president, in the independent press, on satellite television,
    and on blogs. During the year a number of opposition political
    activists, journalists, and NGOs continued to advocate for political
    reform and openly criticized the Government. Government actions--
    including arrests, wide-scale detentions of MB members, harassment of
    independent journalists and activists, and government restrictions on
    civil society organizations--led many observers to charge that the
    Government sought to curtail criticism and activism.
        The penal code and the press and publications law govern press
    issues. The constitution restricts ownership of newspapers to public or
    private legal entities, corporate bodies, and political parties. There
    were numerous restrictions on legal entities seeking to establish
    newspapers, including a limit of 10 percent ownership by any
    individual; the Government apparently enforced this limit unevenly. The
    Government owned stock in the three largest daily newspapers, which
    generally followed the Government line, and the president appointed
    their top editors. However, in some cases writers in progovernment
    newspapers criticized the Government's handling of the People's
    Assembly elections. The Government also controlled the licensing,
    printing, and distribution of newspapers, including independent papers
    and those of opposition political parties that frequently criticized
    the Government and gave greater prominence to human rights abuses than
    state-run newspapers.
        In September, according to observers, a Cairo studio cancelled the
    contract of the Saudi-owned channel Orbit for late rent payment,
    resulting in the cancellation of the talk show Cairo Today hosted by
    prominent host Amr Adeeb, which was generally critical of the
    Government. Observers asserted that the cancellations were politically
    motivated.
        On October 4, according to multiple observers, Al-Sayeed Al-Bedawy,
    owner of the independent newspaper Al-Dostour and president of the
    opposition Wafd party, forced editor in chief and prominent government
    critic Ibrahim Eissa to leave the paper. Observers asserted Al-Bedawy
    forced Eissa to leave the paper for political reasons. Eissa continued
    to write critically in the separate, online newspaper Al-Dostour Al-
    Asli. In mid-September the private satellite television station ONTV
    cancelled Eissa's talk show.
        The Ministry of Information owned and operated all ground-based
    domestic television and radio stations.
        The Government detained journalists and one writer and harassed
    others during the year.
        On April 3, the Government briefly detained publisher and blogger
    Ahmed Mahanna in Cairo and confiscated copies of a book he had
    published entitled, El-Baradei: Dream of a Peaceful Revolution.
        On July 18, independent newspaper Sawt Al-Uma's editor in chief
    Wael Ibrashy and journalist Samar El-Dowe went on trial in a suit filed
    by Minister of Finance Youssef Boutros-Ghali for allegedly urging
    citizens ``not to follow the law'' in two January articles criticizing
    the country's new real estate tax. The trial continued at year's end.
        On November 19 in Alexandria, the Government arrested Youssef
    Shaban, a journalist from the independent e-newspaper Al-Badeel Al-
    Gadid, on drug charges and detained him for nine days before releasing
    him on November 28. NGO observers asserted the arrest was retribution
    for the journalist's coverage of a demonstration against housing
    demolitions in Alexandria.
        In March 2009 a court in Damanhour sentenced Al Fagr journalist
    Kamal Murad to six months' imprisonment and fined him 100 pounds ($17)
    for allegedly insulting a police officer in Rahmaniyah in 2008. In July
    2009 a Damanhour appeals court overturned the prison sentence but
    increased the fine to 200 pounds ($34). Authorities did not investigate
    the alleged police assault on Murad.
        During the year opposition party and other independent newspapers
    published articles critical of the president and foreign heads of state
    generally without being charged or harassed. Government officials and
    private individuals filed politically and nonpolitically motivated
    suits against journalists under the portion of the press and
    publication law that forbids malicious and unsubstantiated reporting.
    Under the law an editor in chief could be considered criminally
    responsible for libel contained in any portion of a newspaper, and
    journalists faced fines of as much as 20,000 pounds ($3,426) and
    sentences as long as five years in prison for criticizing foreign
    leaders or the president. According to the Moltaqa Forum for
    Development and Human Rights Dialogue, there were 68 lawsuits against
    24 journalists during the year. At year's end, according to a domestic
    NGO, approximately 70 defamation suits, some of which were political in
    nature, were pending against the leading independent newspaper, Al-
    Masry Al-Youm.
        On November 20, the defamation trial of journalist and activist
    Hamdy Qandil began in Giza Criminal Court. Foreign Minister Aboul Gheit
    sued Qandil for alleged defamation in a May article in the independent
    daily newspaper Al-Sherouq that criticized the minister's performance.
    At year's end the trial continued.
        On February 2, courts in Giza sentenced independent newspaper
    editor Yasser Barakat to two six-month prison sentences and fines of
    20,000 pounds ($3,426) and 40,000 ($6,852) for defaming member of
    parliament Mustafa Bakry in two 2008 newspaper articles criticizing
    Bakry's business dealings and his relations with foreign governments.
    At year's end Barakat remained free pending an appeal. In 2009 police
    imprisoned Barakat for approximately five days after a court found him
    guilty in a similar case. The prosecutor ordered him released pending
    an appeal.
        In May 2009 a Cairo appeals court reversed a 2008 decision ruling
    against founding chairman of the Ibn Khaldun Center for Development
    Studies Saad Eddin Ibrahim in a civil lawsuit by an NDP activist for
    ``tarnishing Egypt's image'' in a series of articles and speeches on
    democracy. The appeals court also ruled that other pending civil
    lawsuits against Ibrahim on similar grounds be referred to the public
    prosecutor for potential investigation. Ibrahim visited the country for
    the first time since he left in 2007 and spoke about political matters
    in media interviews.
        The Emergency Law authorizes censorship for reasons of public
    safety and national security. Domestic media practiced some self-
    censorship on sensitive issues such as the military and the
    intelligence service due to fear of government reprisal. The Government
    regularly confiscated publications by Islamists and other critics of
    the state. It increasingly ceded confiscatory authority to government-
    controlled Al-Azhar University, and authorities acted on the
    university's recommendations to confiscate publications.
        In February an appeals court upheld a fine and a ban on author
    Magdy El-Shafee's graphic novel Metro. In June 2009 El-Shafee was tried
    in connection with a lawsuit filed by an NDP member accusing him of
    using profanity and depicting nudity in Metro. Observers believed the
    suit was politically motivated due to the novel's criticism of the NDP
    and the Government.
        In 2008 authorities confiscated 5,000 copies of a book written by
    former senior police officer Amr Afifi that discussed legal procedures
    relating to interactions with police officers and explained citizens'
    rights vis-a-vis security forces. Afifi subsequently fled the country
    and remained abroad at year's end.
        On May 19, a Cairo appeals court upheld the one-year prison
    sentences handed down on January 6 and February 2 in absentia against
    Abdu Maghrabi and Ihab Agami, an editor and a journalist, respectively,
    from the weekly newspaper, Al-Balagh Al-Gadid for alleging that police
    questioned a group of popular male actors for engaging in a gay
    prostitution ring. The court also upheld the 40,000 pounds ($6,852)
    fines included in the sentences. Maghrabi entered prison on May 19 and
    remained in prison at year's end. Agami had not been apprehended nor
    had he turned himself in by year's end.
        Throughout the year the Government routinely searched imported
    written material to confiscate items deemed insulting to religious
    sensibilities.
        On November 27, following a suit brought by an NGO, an
    administrative court ordered the cancellation of an October 11
    government decree to regulate bulk SMS messages. According to NGO
    sources, the court ruled the Government decree violated freedom of
    expression and the right to information. The Government appealed the
    court's decision, and at year's end the appeal was under review.

        Internet Freedom.--According to 2009 International
    Telecommunication Union statistics, approximately 21 percent of the
    country's inhabitants used the Internet, which the Government actively
    promoted through low-cost access. According to the Government, during
    the year there were more than 165,000 blogs in the country, and
    approximately 20 percent of them focused on politics. On rare occasions
    during the year, the Government blocked access to some websites and
    monitored the Internet. According to NGO observers, the Government
    blocked election-related websites belonging to the MB and an activist
    group on the day of the November 28 People's Assembly election and the
    December 5 run-off election. According to NGOs the Government required
    Internet cafes to gather personal information of Internet users,
    including names, e-mail addresses, and telephone numbers.
        During the year police harassed, detained, and allegedly abused
    certain bloggers and Internet activists.
        On March 1, blogger Ahmed Mustafa went on trial in a military court
    on charges of ``releasing military information'' for asserting on his
    blog in February 2009 that the Government dismissed a student from a
    military academy to create space for another student from a well-
    connected family. Military police had arrested Mustafa on February 25.
    On March 7, the Government dropped its case against Mustafa and
    released him.
        On November 29, a military court sentenced Ahmed Hassan Bassiouny
    to six months in prison on charges of ``disclosing military information
    without permission.'' Bassiouny had created a Facebook page to answer
    questions about military service such as what documents are required
    and how to fill out the documents. The Facebook page also included
    patriotic messages and videos, and links to newspaper articles about
    the military. Bassiouny remained in prison at year's end.
        On May 6, a court acquitted blogger Wael Abbas of providing
    Internet services illegally and overturned a six-month prison sentence
    handed down in absentia on February 21. Observers believed the cases
    were politically motivated due to Abbas' blogging, which was often
    critical of the Government.
        On July 22, the Government released blogger Hany Nazir, who had
    been held without charge under the Emergency Law since 2008 following
    his blogging about allegedly sensitive religious issues.
        On July 13, the Government released blogger and activist Musad Abu
    Fagr, who had been jailed since 2007 without charge under the Emergency
    Law following blog posts about the difficulties faced by Sinai
    Bedouins.
        On November 16, authorities released blogger Karim Amer,
    incarcerated since 2006; according to Amer's public statement on
    November 24, prison officials beat him on three occasions during his
    detention. According to Amer and NGO sources, an SSIS officer beat him
    during SSIS detention between November 5 and November 16, and warned
    him not to blog upon his release.

        Academic Freedom and Cultural Events.--The Government restricted
    academic freedom through various means. It selected deans rather than
    permitting the faculty to elect them, justifying the measure as a way
    to combat Islamist influence on campus. Professors published articles
    in academic journals covering a wide range of topics, but observers
    assessed that professors practiced degrees of self-censorship regarding
    commentary on sensitive issues such as the military, the security
    forces, and government corruption. According to an NGO source, the
    Government excluded MB-affiliated students from participating in
    student elections. During the year the Government harassed students
    collecting signatures endorsing Mohammed El-Baradei's political reform
    petition, and students belonging to the ``April 6'' movement.
        In March and April, according to an NGO source, police arrested
    under the Emergency Law 10 MB-affiliated students at Menufiya
    University in the Delta at parties where students sang songs supporting
    the Palestinian cause. The Government released all 10 students by
    September 11.
        On October 3, according to an NGO source, a police officer beat and
    kicked an MB-affiliated female student at Zagazig University, resulting
    in slight bruises, after she refused to allow security to check her bag
    while she was entering campus.
        On October 9, according to an NGO source, students at Ain Shams
    University in Cairo affiliated with the ``April 6'' movement, the
    National Association for Change, and the MB clashed with police after
    the students tried to convince others to sign Mohammed El-Baradei's
    political reform petition. According to the NGO, police slightly
    injured four students during the clashes.
        On October 23, the Supreme Administrative Court upheld a lower
    court decision to bar police from university campuses. At year's end
    the Government had not implemented the ruling.
        The Ministry of Culture must approve all scripts and final
    productions of plays and films. The ministry censored foreign films to
    be shown in theaters but was more lenient regarding the same films in
    videocassette or DVD format. Government censors sometimes tried to
    assure that foreign films made in the country portrayed the country in
    a favorable light. During the year domestic films playing in theaters
    addressed political and socioeconomic issues in a critical manner.

        b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association.--Freedom of
    Assembly.--The constitution provides for freedom of assembly, but the
    Government restricted this right. Citizens must obtain approval from
    the Ministry of Interior before holding public meetings, rallies, and
    protest marches. Protests may not be held in or near places of worship,
    in accord with a 2008 ministerial decree. The ministry refused to grant
    permits for some political events, and the Government tightly
    controlled public demonstrations, including some meetings on private
    property and university campuses.
        Throughout the year authorities tolerated a wide range of peaceful
    demonstrations by labor activists protesting labor conditions and
    government policies. However, police sometimes responded to political
    demonstrations in large numbers to contain the size, location, and
    effectiveness of the demonstrations, and they sometimes used excessive
    force. In certain demonstrations police detained suspected organizers;
    some alleged mistreatment in detention.
        On January 15, the Government arrested and detained a group of
    approximately 30 activists and bloggers as they arrived in Naga Hammadi
    to visit the families of those killed in the January 6 sectarian
    shootings. The Government released the detainees on January 16, with
    charges pending related to illegal assembly.
        Throughout the year police briefly detained members of the ``April
    6'' movement who distributed leaflets and planned political events. On
    April 6, according to bloggers and activists, police arrested
    approximately 70 members of the group during a protest in downtown
    Cairo. Witnesses reported several detained protesters appeared to have
    been beaten by police.
        On May 3, approximately 100 members of opposition groups, political
    parties, and independent members of parliament demonstrated in Cairo to
    demand electoral reforms and an end to the state of emergency. Security
    forces encircled the demonstrators to prevent them from marching a
    short distance to parliament to present their demands. When
    demonstrators tried to break through the security forces, police pushed
    the demonstrators back and beat some of them.
        On September 21, approximately 250 demonstrators from opposition
    groups and parties staged an antisuccession protest in Cairo against
    President Mubarak's son Gamal. When demonstrators tried to exit an area
    cordoned off for the protest, police pushed and hit some demonstrators.
    Police briefly detained an estimated 15 to 40 demonstrators.
        On December 12, several hundred protesters from opposition groups
    and parties protested the People's Assembly election results. According
    to observers police pushed and shoved protesters who tried to
    demonstrate outside a cordoned area but did not make arrests.

        Freedom of Association.--The constitution provides for freedom of
    association; however, the Government restricted this right. The
    minister of social solidarity has the authority to dissolve NGOs by
    decree, and the law requires NGOs to obtain permission from the
    Government before accepting foreign funds, apart from donations from
    foreign governments with established development programs in the
    country.
        During the year the Ministry of Social Solidarity delayed or did
    not grant permission for some NGOs to receive foreign funding, and in a
    few cases the Government prevented NGOs from holding events, training,
    meetings, and workshops in different cities. In a few cases, the
    Government denied entry to foreign consultants supporting international
    NGO programs.

        c. Freedom of Religion.--For a complete description of religious
    freedom, see the 2010 International Religious Freedom Report at
    www.state.gov/g/drl/irf/rpt.

        d. Freedom of Movement, Internally Displaced Persons, Protection of
    Refugees, and Stateless Persons.--The law provides for freedom of
    movement within the country, foreign travel, emigration, and
    repatriation, and the Government generally respected these rights in
    practice, albeit with some notable exceptions. Citizens and foreigners
    may not travel in areas of the country designated as military zones.
    Males who have not completed compulsory military service may not travel
    abroad or emigrate, although this restriction may be deferred or
    bypassed under special but unclear circumstances. While some Bahai have
    obtained national identification cards with a ``dash'' for religion,
    married Bahai and their children continued to face difficulties
    obtaining national identification cards because the Government does not
    recognize Bahai marriages. As a result some Bahai men of draft age were
    unable to establish that they have fulfilled or are exempt from
    military service obligations and, therefore, faced difficulty obtaining
    passports. An unmarried woman younger than 21 years old must have
    permission from her father to obtain a passport and to travel, and
    police reportedly required such permission for married women in
    practice, although the law does not require it. Authorities
    occasionally held individuals at the airport to delay or prevent
    altogether their travel for what appeared to be political reasons. The
    Government also used travel prohibitions to punish dissidents.
        On December 28, a court revoked a travel ban imposed by the
    Ministry of Interior on Christian convert Maher al-Gohary. The ministry
    had reportedly denied foreign travel to al-Gohary since 2009 based on
    ``security concerns,'' claiming his case would be used internationally
    to ``defame'' the country.
        The constitution prohibits forced exile, and the Government did not
    use it during the year; a number of citizens remained outside the
    country in self-imposed exile.
        The Government did not consistently cooperate with the Office of
    the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and other humanitarian
    organizations in providing protection and assistance to refugees,
    returning refugees, asylum seekers, stateless persons, and other
    persons of concern.

        Protection of Refugees.--The constitution includes provisions for
    the granting of refugee status or asylum; however, the country has no
    national legislative framework or system for granting asylum. The
    Government admits refugees on the understanding that their presence in
    the country is temporary and that the UNHCR assumes full responsibility
    for the determination of refugee status on behalf of the Government.
        In practice the Government sometimes did not provide protection
    against the expulsion or forced return of refugees to countries where
    their lives or freedom would be threatened on account of their race,
    religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or
    political opinion. Compared to past years in which the Government
    forcibly repatriated hundreds of Eritreans, during the year there was a
    marked decrease in the number of deportations. In April the Government
    tried to forcibly repatriate two Darfuris but was prevented by an
    administrative court decision. In September the Government attempted to
    deport two more Darfuris whose cases are still pending.
        Refugees faced violence by security forces, abuse, and
    discrimination.
        There was a consistent flow of Eritrean, Sudanese, and other
    African asylum seekers and economic migrants who attempted to migrate
    through the country to Israel during the year. During the year border
    police shot and killed at least 28 African migrants attempting to cross
    the border into Israel and injured many more. There was no indication
    the Government took action to punish border police involved in these
    shootings.
        There were also increased reports from asylum seekers and migrants
    crossing the Sinai into Israel of extortion, rape, torture, and
    killings by Bedouin smugglers in Sinai. In December press and NGO
    reports alleged that smugglers were holding 250 Eritreans hostage and
    torturing them to extort money from their families. Information from
    asylum seekers, NGOs, and the UNHCR in Egypt corroborated accounts from
    African migrants in Israel that migrants endured extortion and serious
    abuse--such as beatings and being cut, burned, and deprived of water
    for extended periods of time--while transiting Sinai.
        Authorities arrested nearly 500 migrants during the year. Those
    apprehended while attempting illegal border crossings were generally
    sentenced to one year in prison and were subject to deportation
    following completion of the sentence. In a small number of cases,
    authorities detained unregistered asylum seekers for more than one year
    without access to the UNHCR. The Government maintained that these
    measures were necessary to provide for security along the border and
    combat smuggling. The UNHCR did not have access to those arrested to
    determine their refugee status.
        Imprisoned refugees, asylum seekers, and migrants were held in
    small cells with convicted criminals, where they had limited or no
    access to sunlight for periods of three to five months, no access to
    medical treatment, and poor food. African prisoners often faced race-
    related beatings and discrimination.
        Refugees continued to face limitations with regard to access to
    work, education, and health services. African refugees in particular
    faced SSIS harassment, restrictions on employment, poor housing,
    limited access to health care and education, and societal
    discrimination based on race. Iraqi refugees faced restrictions on
    employment and on access to health and education services.
        Representatives of stateless persons living in Cairo expressed
    concern that such individuals often did not qualify for protection
    under the local refugee apparatus. Stateless persons made up less than
    1 percent of all registered refugees. Nearly all stateless persons,
    many of whom were the children of Eritrean fathers and Ethiopian
    mothers, lacked refugee status and were not considered citizens by
    either of their parents' countries. They received no monetary
    assistance, lacked the ability to work, and were isolated from other
    members of refugee communities.

    Section 3. Respect for Political Rights: The Right of Citizens to
            Change Their Government
        The constitution provides that citizens shall elect the president
    every six years and the 518-seat People's Assembly every five years,
    with 10 of the seats filled by presidential appointment. The
    constitution also provides that two-thirds of the 264-member Shura
    Council, the upper house of parliament, are elected and one-third are
    appointed by the president. Shura Council terms are six years, with
    half of the council's elected seats contested every three years. There
    continued to be limitations on citizens' rights to change their
    government peacefully.

        Elections and Political Participation.--On November 28, the country
    held elections for the People's Assembly, the lower house of
    parliament. Independent media, NGOs, and domestic election observers
    reported low voter turnout, widespread fraud, exclusion of accredited
    monitors and candidate representatives from polling stations, lack of
    independent oversight at polling stations, and interference and
    intimidation by security forces. The High Electoral Commission ignored
    court orders invalidating election results in some districts due to
    problems with candidate registration. Citing reports of electoral fraud
    in the first round, the opposition Wafd party and the MB boycotted the
    second round of the elections held on December 5. Observers reported
    similar instances of fraud and security intervention in the second
    round of voting. Non-NDP representation in the parliament declined from
    122 to 84 members, most of whom formerly belonged to the NDP. During
    the preelection period, authorities arrested hundreds of opposition
    activists. Political parties reported that state television refused to
    provide equal air time for their political advertisements. NGOs also
    reported problems with voter and candidate registration and domestic
    observer accreditation. On June 1, the country held elections for the
    Shura Council, the upper house of parliament, that were marked by
    similar problems.
        The NDP continued to dominate national politics by maintaining an
    overriding majority in the People's Assembly and the Shura Council. It
    also dominated local governments, mass media, labor, and the public
    sector and controlled licensing of new political parties, newspapers,
    and private organizations. The law prohibits political parties based on
    religion (and religious slogans in political campaigns)--and the MB
    remained an illegal organization; however, independent MB-affiliated
    members of parliament continued to participate in parliament. In
    previous years the Government refused to grant official registration to
    at least 12 political parties that had filed applications. In July the
    political parties committee rejected the Reform and Development Party's
    application for registration.
        The Government implemented a new 64-seat quota for women in the
    518-seat People's Assembly. In addition to the 64 quota seats held by
    women, two women won seats, and the president appointed another woman,
    for a total of 67 People's Assembly seats held by women. The 264-seat
    Shura Council included 12 women. Three women served among the 32
    ministers in the cabinet.
        There were 10 Christians (seven appointed and three elected) in the
    People's Assembly, eight Christians (all appointed) in the Shura
    Council, and two Christians in the cabinet. Christians, who represent 8
    to 12 percent of the population, held fewer than 2 percent of the seats
    in the People's Assembly and Shura Council. A Copt served as one of the
    country's 28 governors in Qena. According to available information,
    there were very few Christians in the upper ranks of the security
    services and armed forces. No other minorities served in political or
    other high-ranking positions.
    Section 4. Official Corruption and Government Transparency
        The law provides criminal penalties for official corruption, but
    the Government did not consistently and effectively implement the law,
    and impunity was a problem. The media routinely reported on confirmed
    cases of low-level corruption, including the fraudulent alteration of
    official documents, embezzlement, and bribery and on corruption trials
    of former senior government officials. The Central Agency for Auditing
    and Accounting (CAA) is the Government's anticorruption body and
    submits biennial reports to the People's Assembly that are not
    available to the public. The CAA stations monitors at state-owned
    companies to report corrupt practices. Observers did not judge the CAA
    to be effective.
        According to observers there was widespread petty corruption in the
    police force, especially below senior levels. The Government claimed to
    investigate corruption and other instances of police malfeasance using
    a nontransparent internal affairs mechanism.
        On February 2, former housing minister Mohammed Ibrahim Soliman
    resigned from parliament following press reports that the Government
    was investigating him for corruption. Independent members of parliament
    filed a criminal complaint against Soliman in January 2009 for alleged
    corrupt real estate deals.
        In 2008 Cairo Criminal Court convicted former deputy agriculture
    minister Youssef Abdel Rahman of approving the importation of banned
    pesticides, harming the public interest, and receiving bribes and
    sentenced him to 10 years in prison. The court sentenced 13 other
    government officials to prison sentences of between six months and
    seven years. On April 21, an appeals court upheld the verdicts, and the
    officials were incarcerated.
        There are no financial disclosure laws for public officials, nor is
    there a legal framework stipulating how citizens could access
    government information. In practice the Government was not generally
    responsive to requests for documents regarding government activities
    and did not provide reasons for its lack of responsiveness. The
    Government released public statements and held press briefings for
    foreign and domestic journalists. According to the Government,
    ministries provided publications and pamphlets to citizens who
    requested information.
        In a December study by the Government, 57 percent of respondents
    reported that the payment of bribes was required to obtain government
    services and that corruption among civil servants had increased over
    the previous year. Requests for bribes were reported most often during
    interactions with police, courts, the traffic department, and officials
    issuing construction permits.

    Section 5. Governmental Attitude Regarding International and
            Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations of Human
            Rights
        Government restrictions on NGO and international organization
    activities, including limits on domestic organizations' ability to
    accept foreign funding, continued to limit investigation of and
    reporting on human rights abuses.
        Local independent human rights NGOs included the Egyptian
    Organization for Human Rights, HRAAP, Arab Penal Reform Organization,
    Association for Human Rights and Legal Aid, Cairo Institute for Human
    Rights Studies, Egyptian Initiative on Personal Rights, Ibn Khaldun
    Center, Arab Center for the Independence of the Judiciary and the Legal
    Profession, Arab Network for Human Rights Information, Nadim Center for
    the Rehabilitation of Victims of Torture and Violence, Association for
    Freedom of Thought and Expression, and Egyptian Center for Women's
    Rights (ECWR). NGOs formed a coalition to advance their objectives
    during the UN Human Rights Council Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of
    the country and issued reports compiled by the UN Office of the High
    Representative on Human Rights identifying areas of concern and making
    recommendations for issues the Government should address. Internet
    activists and bloggers continued to play a significant role in
    publicizing information about human rights abuses. Although
    unregistered organizations generally were allowed to conduct
    operations, they did so in violation of the law with the prospect of
    government interference or closure.
        The Government did not demonstrate a consistent approach to
    cooperating with human rights NGOs, sometimes harassing them or
    restricting their activities. In a few cases, the Government prevented
    NGOs from holding events during the year. Government officials were
    selectively cooperative and responsive to some NGOs' views. Throughout
    the year the Government met with a range of NGOs to discuss human
    rights, including the minister of state for parliamentary and legal
    affairs' meetings with NGOs in the context of the UPR process.
        On September 18, a court dismissed a lawsuit filed by Judge Abdel
    Fattah Murad alleging that the leaders of two prominent human rights
    NGOs and a blogger defamed Murad by publicly claiming he quoted without
    attribution from the work of one of the NGO leaders on Arab
    governments' policies toward bloggers.
        The Government generally allowed international human rights NGOs to
    establish informal operations. HRW maintained an office in the country.
    Other organizations, such as Amnesty International, made periodic
    visits as part of their regional research program and were able to work
    with domestic human rights groups. In 2008 the Ministry of Foreign
    Affairs withdrew approval for the International Federation for Human
    Rights to open a regional office in Cairo. At year's end the NGO was
    waiting for official approval. The Government registered the American
    Bar Association on October 4 and the International Foundation for
    Electoral Systems on December 6. The National Democratic Institute and
    the International Republican Institute, which provided technical
    assistance in support of expanded political and civil rights, remained
    unregistered but were able to pursue limited activities.
        The Government cooperated selectively with the UN and other
    international organizations. It permitted the visit of the UN special
    rapporteur on trafficking in persons. In an April 21 statement issued
    at the end of her visit, the special rapporteur congratulated the
    Government on the April 20 adoption of a comprehensive trafficking law,
    urged the Government to implement the law fully, and called for the
    Government to intensify its efforts to combat human trafficking. In
    December the special representative of the UN Secretary-General on the
    issue of human rights and transnational corporations and other business
    enterprises visited the country and met with government officials and
    members of the business community.
        According to UN information, the Government did not agree to visit
    requests from six special rapporteurs and one working group. The
    requests were from the special rapporteur on the independence of judges
    and lawyers; the special rapporteur on the situation of human rights
    defenders (requested in 2003 and renewed in 2008); the special
    rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief (requested in 2005); the
    special rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading
    treatment or punishment (requested in 1996 and 2007); the Working Group
    on Arbitrary Detention (requested in 2008); the special rapporteur on
    extrajudicial, summary, or arbitrary executions (requested in 2008);
    and the UN special rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human
    rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism who visited
    in 2009 and requested a subsequent visit. The Government agreed to a
    future visit by the special rapporteur on the sale of children, child
    prostitution, and child pornography (requested in 2009).
        The UNDP Human Development Report on the country focused on the
    challenges faced by the country's youth, noting problems such as
    unemployment, poverty, and inequality of access to education and
    providing recommendations for how to address them. The UN Committee on
    the Elimination of Discrimination against Women issued a February 5
    report welcoming some government steps and recommending action on
    matters such as repealing discriminatory legislation.
        The NCHR is a consultative subsidiary of the Shura Council that
    monitored government abuses of human rights; it formally submitted
    citizen complaints to the Government and issued reports critical of the
    Government. During the week of March 14, the NCHR issued its sixth
    annual report on the status of human rights in the country, covering
    2009 and the beginning of the year. The report was critical of some
    government practices, including restrictive legislation governing
    political parties and NGOs, arbitrary deprivation of life cases,
    increased sectarian tensions, MB detentions, and the use of state
    security courts and military courts to try civilians. For the first
    time, the report made no recommendations. In February the Shura Council
    announced the new composition of the NCHR for a three-year term
    beginning that month. The Shura Council appointed former chief justice
    of the Court of Cassation Moqbel Shaker as the new vice president,
    replacing Kamal Aboulmagd, a former minister. The People's Assembly had
    a human rights committee that human rights activists deemed
    ineffective.

    Section 6. Discrimination, Societal Abuses, and Trafficking in Persons
        The constitution provides for equality of the sexes and equal
    treatment of non-Muslims; however, aspects of the law and many
    traditional practices discriminated against women and religious
    minorities. The constitution prohibits discrimination based on race,
    ethnic origin, language, religion, or creed, but the Government did not
    effectively enforce these prohibitions.

        Women.--The law prohibits rape, prescribing penalties of 15 to 25
    years' imprisonment or life imprisonment for cases involving armed
    abduction. The number of cases investigated was small because women
    were reluctant to report rape. Spousal rape is not illegal. According
    to a 2007 study by the National Center for Criminal and Social
    Research, there were approximately 20,000 cases of rape annually.
        Although the law does not prohibit domestic violence or spousal
    abuse, provisions of law relating to assault may be applied with
    accompanying penalties. However, the law requires that an assault
    victim produce multiple eyewitnesses, which is a difficult condition
    for a domestic abuse victim. Domestic violence continued to be a
    significant problem. Several NGOs offered counseling, legal aid, and
    other services to women who were victims of domestic violence. The
    quasi-governmental National Council for Women (NCW) trained law
    enforcement personnel and attorneys on increasing their efforts to
    combat domestic violence against women. The NCW and independent NGOs
    also held sessions to train women on how to report domestic violence to
    attorneys and law enforcement personnel. The NCW had ombudsman
    officials in their 27 offices covering all of the country's
    governorates.
        The law does not specifically address honor crimes, in which a man
    violently assaults or kills a woman, usually a family member, because
    of a perceived lack of chastity. There were no reliable statistics
    regarding the extent of honor killings, but observers believed such
    killings took place during the year, particularly in rural areas.
        Sex tourism existed in Luxor and at beach resorts such as Sharm El-
    Sheikh. Most sex tourists came from Europe and the Persian Gulf region.
        There is no specific law criminalizing sexual harassment, but the
    Government prosecuted sexual harassment under existing law. Sexual
    harassment remained a serious problem. A 2008 ECWR survey found that 83
    percent of Egyptian women and 98 percent of foreign women in the
    country had been sexually harassed and that approximately half of women
    surveyed faced harassment daily. In June 2009, to combat increasing
    rates of sexual harassment, the Ministry of Islamic Endowments
    distributed a book entitled Sexual Harassment: Its Reasons and How to
    Address It to imams and preachers in all governorates. The ECWR noted
    the step but criticized the book's discussion of sexual harassment,
    which included blaming women for triggering harassment.
        The Government did not restrict citizens' family planning
    decisions. The Ministry of Health distributed contraception, provided
    personnel at no cost to attend births, postpartum care to mothers and
    children, and treatment for sexually transmitted diseases at no cost.
    According to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination
    against Women's February 5 report, maternal mortality rates decreased
    from 84 per 100,000 live births in 2000 to 55 per 100,000 live births
    in 2008. NGO observers reported that poor reproductive health care
    contributed to the maternal mortality rate and that government family
    planning information and services were not adequate to meet the needs
    of the entire population. The UN Committee on the Elimination of
    Discrimination against Women's February 5 report called on the
    Government to strengthen access to affordable contraception throughout
    the country, assure women in rural areas do not face barriers in
    accessing family planning information and services, promote sex
    education for adolescents, and conduct national surveys on maternal
    mortality and morbidity. According to the most recent statistics from
    the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women,
    the rate of contraception use in 2005 was 59 percent. NGOs expressed
    concern over lack of access to reproductive information and services
    for adolescent girls.
        The law provides for equality of the sexes; however, aspects of the
    law and traditional practices discriminated against women.
        Laws affecting marriage and personal status generally corresponded
    to an individual's religion. For example, a female Muslim citizen may
    not marry a non-Muslim man without risking arrest and conviction for
    apostasy; under the Government's interpretation of Sharia, any children
    from such a marriage could be put in the custody of a male Muslim
    guardian. Khul divorce allows a Muslim woman to obtain a divorce
    without her husband's consent, provided she is willing to forgo all her
    financial rights, including alimony, dowry, and other benefits. The
    Coptic Orthodox Church permits divorce only in specific circumstances,
    such as adultery or conversion of one spouse to another religion. A
    Muslim female heir receives half the amount of a male heir's
    inheritance, and Christian widows of Muslims have no inheritance
    rights. A sole Muslim female heir receives half her parents' estate,
    with the balance going to the siblings of the parents or to the
    children of the siblings if the siblings are deceased. A sole male heir
    inherits his parents' entire estate. A woman's testimony is equal to
    that of a man in courts dealing with all matters except for personal
    status, such as marriage and divorce.
        Labor laws provide for equal rates of pay for equal work for men
    and women in the public sector, although this did not always happen in
    practice. Educated women had employment opportunities, but social
    pressure against women pursuing a career was strong. Women's rights
    advocates claimed that Islamist influence and other traditional and
    cultural attitudes and practices inhibited further gains. According to
    the most recent government figures from 2007, women filled 19 percent
    of private sector jobs, 29 percent of public sector jobs, and 22
    percent of the total workforce.
        On July 12, the State Council's Special Council decided to stop
    hiring women in entry-level judicial positions indefinitely. A variety
    of government offices promoted women's legal rights. The Ministry of
    Social Solidarity operated more than 150 family counseling bureaus
    nationwide to provide legal and medical services. The NCW proposed and
    advocated policies to promote women's empowerment and designed
    development programs to benefit women. It also provided assistance to
    women facing discrimination in employment and housing, domestic
    violence, sexual assault, and child custody disputes. A number of
    active women's rights groups also worked to reform family law, educate
    women on their legal rights, promote literacy, and combat female
    genital mutilation (FGM).

        Children.--Citizenship is derived through a combination of the
    principles of birth within the country's territory and from one's
    parents. The February Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination
    against Women report welcomed a 2004 amendment that grants gender
    equality regarding the transfer of Egyptian nationality to the children
    of a man or a woman who marries a foreigner. The report expressed
    concern that Egyptian women cannot pass their nationality to their
    foreign husbands, unlike Egyptian men who have such right after two
    years of marriage. The Government generally attempted to register all
    births but faced resistance from citizens in some remote areas of the
    country, such as the Sinai. The Government worked with NGOs in an
    attempt to address this problem.
        Education is compulsory, free, and universal until the ninth grade.
        FGM remained a problem, but the Government addressed it seriously;
    FGM rates declined from previous years. According to the most recent
    government statistics, the Government received approximately 5,000
    reports of FGM cases from citizens between 2005 and 2009. In 2008 the
    minister of population and families stated publicly that FGM rates in
    Upper Egypt were 65 percent but did not exceed 9 percent in northern
    governorates. The law criminalizes FGM except in cases of medical
    necessity, with penalties of three months to two years in prison or a
    fine of up to 5,000 pounds ($857).
        Partnering with NGOs, the Justice Ministry, and the public
    prosecutor, the Ministry for Population and Families continued its
    campaign to combat FGM through public outreach and encouraging the
    public prosecutor to pursue prosecutions. The ministry organized
    renunciation ceremonies and made announcements through the year that
    certain villages were FGM-free.
        Although reliable data were lacking, several NGOs, including the
    Hope Village Society, ECWR, and the Alliance for Arab Women, reported
    that child marriages, including temporary marriages intended to mask
    prostitution, were a significant problem. In 2008, as part of the Child
    Law amendments, the Government raised the legal age of marriage from 16
    to 18 years old.
        The Ministry of Social Solidarity offered shelters for street
    children, but many children chose not to seek refuge there. The
    shelters closed at night, forcing the children back onto the street.
    The Ministry for Population and Families offered a hotline for street
    children and abused children and a day shelter for male street children
    that also provided literacy training, computer training, and health
    care.
        The country is not a party to the 1980 Hague Convention on the
    Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. For information on
    international parental child abduction, please see the Department of
    State's annual report on compliance at http://travel.state.gov/
    abduction/resources/congressreport/congressreport--4308.html.

        Anti-Semitism.--Anti-Israel sentiment is common in the media and at
    times devolved into anti-Semitic rhetoric. Anti-Semitic editorial
    cartoons and articles depicting demonic images of Jews and Israeli
    leaders, stereotypical images of Jews along with Jewish symbols, and
    comparisons of Israeli leaders with Hitler and the Nazis were published
    throughout the year, particularly during and following Israeli Defense
    Force killings of persons on ships carrying aid headed to Gaza in June.
    The Government reportedly advised journalists and cartoonists to avoid
    anti-Semitism. Government officials insisted that anti-Semitic
    statements in the media were a reaction to Israeli government actions
    against Palestinians and did not constitute anti-Semitism. A number of
    private satellite television stations, licensed by the Government and
    broadcast on government-owned Nilesat, broadcast severe anti-Semitic
    programming; the programs used video and pictures of the Holocaust to
    glorify it. Other programs denied or diminished the Holocaust's
    existence. The Government removed 12 of these channels from Nilesat in
    October. On November 27, an administrative court ordered Nilesat to
    reinstate five of these stations, which Nilesat did. There were reports
    of imams using anti-Semitic rhetoric in their sermons, although the
    Minister of Islamic Endowments instructed imams to avoid anti-Semitism
    when making anti-Israel remarks. There were no reports of anti-Semitic
    violence directed toward the country's approximately 100 Jews.
        On February 23, police arrested a man who threw combustible
    material from a hotel facing a downtown Cairo synagogue February 21.
    The material caught on fire on the street outside the synagogue but
    caused no damage or injuries. According to multiple press reports, the
    assailant was scheduled to go on trial in 2011.

        Trafficking in Persons.--For information on trafficking in persons,
    please see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons
    Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        Persons With Disabilities.--The law provides that all businesses
    must designate 5 percent of their positions for persons with physical
    or mental disabilities; however, there are no laws prohibiting
    discrimination against persons with disabilities in education, access
    to health care, or the provision of other state services, nor are there
    laws mandating access to buildings or transportation. Widespread
    societal discrimination continued against persons with disabilities,
    particularly mental disabilities, resulting in a lack of acceptance
    into mainstream society. Government-operated treatment centers for
    persons with disabilities, especially children, were poor.
        The ministries of education and social solidarity share
    responsibility for protecting rights of persons with disabilities.
    Persons with disabilities rode government-owned mass transit buses free
    of charge and received special subsidies to purchase household
    products, wheelchairs, and prosthetic devices. Persons with
    disabilities also received expeditious approval for the installation of
    new telephone lines and received reductions on customs duties for
    specially equipped private vehicles. The Government also worked closely
    with UN agencies and other international aid donors to design job-
    training programs for persons with disabilities.

        Societal Abuses, Discrimination, and Acts of Violence Based on
    Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.--Although the law does not
    explicitly criminalize homosexual acts, the law allows police to arrest
    gays on charges of debauchery. In January 2009 police arrested 10 men
    in Cairo on charges of debauchery. Authorities forced the men to
    undergo HIV tests and anal examinations in detention. Following a court
    order, police released the men in May 2009. Gays and lesbians faced
    significant social stigma in society and in the workplace.

        Other Societal Violence or Discrimination.--HIV-positive
    individuals faced significant social stigma in society and in the
    workplace.
    Section 7. Worker Rights
        a. The Right of Association.--The law permits workers to form
    unions, with several significant restrictions. All unions are required
    to join one of the 23 officially recognized industrial federations to
    operate, and these federations must affiliate with the Government-
    affiliated Egyptian Trade Union Federation (ETUF) to be legally
    recognized. The Government considers all unions that are not part of
    ETUF to be operating as illegal entities. ETUF was strongly influenced
    by the ruling National Democratic Party. However, the Government
    allowed a number of small, independent unions--including the Real
    Estate Tax Collectors Authority (RETA) union--to operate with minimal
    interference. In practice there was minimal union representation in the
    private sector, and most of that was found in formerly state-owned
    factories that have been privatized.
        According to ETUF's website, it represents more than five million
    workers. ETUF influenced nomination and election procedures for trade
    union officers and permitted public authorities to intervene in union
    financial activities. State-owned enterprises employed most union
    members, who made up approximately one-quarter of the labor force.
        Workers seeking to form independent unions may face dismissal or
    refusal to register. However, in 2008 the country's 52,000 public-
    sector real estate tax collectors announced the formation of the RETA
    union and refused to join the ETUF. The Ministry of Manpower and
    Migration (MOMM) did not formally reject the RETA application for
    registration, but the union continues to have uncertain legal standing
    because it has not been formally recognized by the ETUF. ETUF
    leadership filed a complaint with the public prosecutor against the
    RETA union president in September 2009. The public prosecutor
    interviewed the president but took no further action. At the same time,
    ETUF formed a rival union for tax collectors and other employees of the
    Ministry of Finance and has since directed funding to this
    organization, rather than to RETA. Two other workers' groups--medical
    technicians and teachers and school administrators--began the process
    of forming independent unions during the year.
        The 2003 Unified Labor Law permits peaceful strikes, but only after
    an extended negotiation process and only if the strike is announced in
    advance and approved by a general trade union affiliated with ETUF. In
    practice strikes were rarely, if ever, approved. Nevertheless, strikes
    and work stoppages occurred very frequently throughout the country.
    There were somewhat fewer strikes and worker actions during the year
    compared with the previous year, although workers' rights NGOs noted
    that they were often larger and more effective in achieving stated
    goals than in previous years. To legally call a strike, ETUF must
    notify the employer and concerned administrative authority at least 10
    days in advance, giving the reason for the strike and the date it would
    commence. Prior to this formal notification, approval from two-thirds
    majority of the ETUF-member general trade union is necessary. The law
    prohibits strikes while collective bargaining agreements are in force
    or during the mediation and arbitration process. The law also prohibits
    strikes in a lengthy list of ``strategic or vital'' entities, at which
    the interruption of work could result in disturbance of national
    security or basic services, which covers the majority of workers (see
    section 7.e.).
        Strikes were largely peaceful, despite the presence of government
    security forces at larger strikes. There was an increase in high-
    profile strikes during the year, notably in the textile and steel
    industries, as well as government workers such as teachers,
    journalists, lawyers, and employees of the state statistical agency.
    The Government generally did not interfere in strikes in either the
    public or private sector, provided they did not become violent and
    strikers' demands were focused on economic issues.

        b. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively.--The law
    provides for collective bargaining; however, it requires tripartite
    negotiations, including the employer, workers, and the Ministry of
    Manpower and Migration. In practice the requirement for tripartite
    negotiations was seldom followed, and workers negotiated directly with
    employers. In a few cases of strikes in the private sector, the
    Government reportedly involved itself in negotiations. In many cases,
    such as the large state-owned textile factories in Mahalla, the
    Government is the employer.
        The law does not permit antiunion discrimination; however, there
    were reports that such discrimination occurred in practice and that
    enforcement efforts were ineffective.
        Labor law and practice were the same in the approximately 10
    existing export processing zones as in the rest of the country. The
    International Trade Union Confederation reported that private sector
    workers throughout the country, including in special economic zones,
    complained of poor working conditions.

        c. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor.--The constitution and
    law prohibit forced or compulsory labor. Such practices were reportedly
    rare. Also, see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons
    Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        d. Prohibition of Child Labor and Minimum Age for Employment.--The
    law prohibits children younger than 17 years old from working in most
    sectors. However, in some cases employers abused, overworked, and
    generally endangered working children. The law also limits the type and
    conditions of work a child younger than 18 may perform. In
    nonagricultural work the minimum age for employment is 15. Provincial
    governors, with the approval of the minister of education, may
    authorize seasonal, often agricultural, work for children who are 13
    and 14, provided that duties are not hazardous and do not interfere
    with schooling. Children are prohibited from working for more than six
    hours per day, and one or more breaks totaling at least one hour must
    be included. Several other restrictions apply to children. They may not
    work overtime, during their weekly day(s) off, between 7 p.m. and 7
    a.m., or on official holidays. Children are also prohibited from
    working for more than four hours without a break. Children younger than
    16 are prohibited from working in 44 hazardous industries, including
    agricultural work involving the use of pesticides. A person convicted
    of forcing children below the minimum age to work may face a prison
    sentence of three to six months.
        According to recent UN, NGO, and American University in Cairo
    estimates, between 2.7 million and 5.5 million children worked in the
    country, 70 to 80 percent in agriculture. Many of these children worked
    legally, especially in agriculture. Children also worked in light
    industry, as domestic workers, on construction sites, and in service
    businesses such as auto repair shops. According to NGO and media
    reports, the number of street children in Cairo was increasing, and
    these children were at risk of being sexually exploited or forced to
    beg.
        The MOMM, working with the National Council for Childhood and
    Motherhood and the Ministry of Interior, generally enforced child labor
    laws in state-owned enterprises and formal private sector
    establishments through labor inspections and supervision of factory
    management, although enforcement in the informal sector was weak. As a
    result of limited and inconsistent funding for inspector training and
    enforcement, child labor enforcement inspectors generally operated
    without specific training on child labor issues and performed these
    inspections as part of their other duties. Training programs varied in
    quality by governorate. When offenders were prosecuted, the fines
    imposed were often as low as 500 pounds ($86) and thus had questionable
    deterrent effect. Child labor in the informal sector remained
    prevalent. Government efforts to address the problem focused on
    collecting data to design effective intervention programs and
    government support for a package of intervention programs with the
    assistance of international agencies. The Government established a
    national tripartite committee, which included relevant ministries,
    worker and employer representatives, and NGOs to address the problem of
    child labor.
        According to the independent Hisham Mubarak Center, the
    Government's efforts to combat child labor in the informal sector were
    ineffective. The Government made progress toward eliminating the worst
    forms of child labor, pursuant to the UN Convention on the Rights of
    the Child; however, challenges remained. The National Council for
    Childhood and Motherhood worked during the year to provide working
    children with social security safeguards and reduce school dropout
    rates by providing families with alternative sources of income. Also,
    see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons Report at
    www.state.gov/g/tip.

        e. Acceptable Conditions of Work.--The Government did not set a
    private sector minimum wage, although in November a court ordered the
    Government to establish one. There was a public-sector minimum wage,
    although it frequently did not provide a decent standard of living.
    Base government pay was commonly supplemented by a complex system of
    fringe benefits and bonuses that could double or triple a worker's
    salary. Following the court order, the National Council on Wages
    recommended a minimum wage of 400 pounds ($69) per month, which workers
    argued was not enough to provide a decent standard of living, according
    to press reports. Parliament had not addressed this recommendation by
    year's end. According to the Government, few workers in the formal
    private sector and no government workers earned less than this amount.
        The National Council of Wages determined working hours for
    government and public-sector employees, but there were no standards for
    the private sector. The law stipulates that the maximum workweek is 48
    hours. Most private-sector employees worked five days per week, usually
    Sunday to Thursday. Overtime for hours worked beyond 36 hours per week
    is payable at the rate of 35 percent extra for daylight hours and 70
    percent extra for work performed at night. The premium for work on rest
    days is 100 percent, and workers are supposed to receive 200 percent
    for work on national holidays. The labor law permits overtime work in
    limited circumstances; the law was enforced through labor inspections.
        The MOMM sets and enforces worker health and safety standards;
    enforcement and inspections were uneven. The law prohibits employers
    from maintaining hazardous working conditions, and workers have the
    right to remove themselves from hazardous conditions without risking
    loss of employment.
        On August 3, an explosion killed one worker and injured six others
    at Helwan Engineering Industries military factory. Workers staged a
    sit-in protest. On August 30, a military court handed down three
    acquittals and five suspended sentences with 1,000 pounds ($171) fines
    for stopping work, damaging factory equipment, assaulting a general,
    and disclosing military secrets. In June parliament amended a law
    covering military courts to grant them jurisdiction over workers in
    military factories.
        There were reports of employer abuse of citizen and undocumented
    foreign workers, especially domestic workers. Many claims of abuse were
    unsubstantiated because undocumented workers were reluctant to make
    their identities public.

                                   __________

                                      IRAN

        The Islamic Republic of Iran,\1\ with a population of approximately
    77 million, is a constitutional, theocratic republic in which Shia
    Muslim clergy, and political leaders vetted by the clergy, dominate the
    key power structures. Government legitimacy is based on the twin
    pillars of popular sovereignty--albeit restricted--and the rule of the
    supreme leader of the Islamic Revolution. The current supreme leader,
    Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was not directly elected but chosen by a
    directly elected body of religious leaders, the Assembly of Experts, in
    1989. Khamenei's writ dominates the legislative, executive, and
    judicial branches of government. He directly controls the armed forces
    and indirectly controls internal security forces, the judiciary, and
    other key institutions. The legislative branch is the popularly elected
    290-seat Islamic Consultative Assembly, or Majles. The unelected 12-
    member Guardian Council reviews all legislation the Majles passes to
    ensure adherence to Islamic and constitutional principles; it also
    screens presidential and Majles candidates for eligibility. Mahmoud
    Ahmadi-Nejad, a member of the Alliance of Builders political party, was
    reelected president in June 2009 in a multiparty election that was
    generally considered neither free nor fair. There were numerous
    instances in which elements of the security forces acted independently
    of civilian control.
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
        \1\ The United States does not have an embassy in Iran. This report
    draws heavily on non-U.S. government sources.
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
        The Government severely limited citizens' right to peacefully
    change their government through free and fair elections, and it
    continued a campaign of postelection violence and intimidation. The
    Government committed extrajudicial killings and executed persons for
    criminal convictions as juveniles and through unfair trials, sometimes
    in group executions. Security forces under the Government's control
    committed acts of politically motivated violence and repression,
    including torture, beatings, and rape. The Government administered
    severe officially sanctioned punishments, including amputation and
    flogging. Vigilante groups with ties to the Government, such as Basij
    militia, also committed acts of violence. Prison conditions remained
    poor. Security forces arbitrarily arrested and detained individuals,
    often holding them incommunicado. Authorities held political prisoners
    and continued to crack down on women's rights activists, ethnic
    minority rights activists, student activists, and religious minorities.
    There was little judicial independence and few fair public trials. The
    Government severely restricted the right to privacy and civil liberties
    including freedoms of speech and the press, assembly, association, and
    movement; it placed severe restrictions on freedom of religion.
    Authorities denied admission to or expelled hundreds of university
    students and professors whose views were deemed unacceptable by the
    regime. Official corruption and a lack of government transparency
    persisted. Violence and legal and societal discrimination against
    women, children, ethnic and religious minorities, and lesbian, gay,
    bisexual, and transgender persons were extant. Trafficking in persons
    and incitement to anti-Semitism remained problems. The Government
    severely restricted workers' rights and arrested numerous union
    leaders. Child labor remained a serious problem.

                            RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

    Section 1. Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom
            From:
        a. Arbitrary or Unlawful Deprivation of Life.--There were reports
    that the Government and its agents committed multiple acts of arbitrary
    or unlawful killings, and the Government made only limited attempts to
    investigate killings.
        There were at least two extrajudicial killings during the year, and
    there were few updates or investigations into cases from previous
    years.
        On February 22, Yavar Khodadoust, held at Gohardasht Prison in
    Karaj, reportedly died as a result of severe torture. Prison officials
    reportedly warned Khodadoust's family from pursuing an investigation
    into his death.
        On April 30, according to multiple sources, unknown persons in Sari
    Prison reportedly tortured to death Hadi Aravand, a death row prisoner,
    who had been convicted of murder. Sari Prison's warden claimed that
    Aravand's death was the result of suicide, but the coroner ruled that
    Aravand died from suffocation with a plastic bag tied over his head and
    confirmed that Aravand's arms were tied behind his back and his legs
    tied together at the time of his death. Torture and bruise marks were
    reportedly visible on Aravand's body, including a broken arm, wounds on
    his back, and a small deep slit around his neck.
        There were no updates in the June 2009 killings in separate
    incidents of Amir Mirza or Taraneh Mousavi. After Basij militia
    arrested Mirza and Mousavi, authorities allegedly beat and tortured
    them in custody, including raping Mousavi.
        There was no update in the July 2009 killing of Mohammad
    Naderipour, chairman of the student chapter in former presidential
    candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi's election campaign. According to Iran
    Human Rights Voice (IHRV), Naderipour's body was found inside his
    vehicle 48 hours after plainclothes security forces had arrested him.
    The coroner determined that Naderipour's death was the result of ``a
    blow by a blunt object to the back of the head.'' Authorities
    reportedly demanded the family bury his body immediately, allegedly to
    avoid further investigation.
        In June a military court sentenced two unnamed prison officials to
    death in connection with the July 2009 beating deaths of university
    students and protesters Amir Javadifar, Mohammed Kamrani, and Mohsen
    Rouhalamini at Kahrizak Prison; nine others were sentenced to prison
    terms and lashes. The 12th was exonerated. The names and identities of
    the convicted were not published. In the wake of the torture
    allegations and the deaths of the three individuals, the supreme leader
    shut down the prison and launched an investigation into the case. In
    August Tehran Prosecutor General Saeed Mortazavi was suspended for his
    role in the deaths and promoted to deputy prosecutor general for Iran.
        There were no updates in the July 2009 death of former student
    activist Alireza Davoudi who suffered a heart attack under suspicious
    circumstances while in hospital care. His family said officials warned
    them not to publicize his funeral. Davoudi had been expelled from
    Isfahan University, reportedly for his political activities, when in
    February 2009 Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) officers
    allegedly arrested him in his home in Isfahan and took him into
    custody. Security officials reportedly burned him with cigarettes, beat
    him, and hung him from the ceiling. In April 2009 authorities released
    him on bail awaiting trial, but his family hospitalized him soon
    afterward due to psychological problems stemming from the alleged
    torture.
        There were no updates in the September 2009 case of Saeedeh
    Pouraghai, whom security forces arrested for chanting ``Allahu Akbar''
    (God is the greatest), considered a call to dissent, from the rooftop
    of her home in Tehran. Two days later, authorities summoned Pouraghai's
    mother to identify and claim her body, which reportedly had been
    partially burned to hide evidence of rape and torture.
        There were no updates in the November 2009 death under suspicious
    circumstances of Ramin Pourandarjani, a physician who worked at
    Kahrizak Prison. Officials gave conflicting reports of the cause of
    Pourandarjani's death, including a heart attack and an auto accident,
    before Police Chief Ismail Ahmadi Moghaddam announced that
    Pourandarjani had committed suicide and that a suicide note explained
    he feared charges over his alleged failure to give detainees adequate
    medical treatment. Some sources accused authorities of poisoning the
    26-year-old doctor to silence him. Earlier in the year, Pourandarjani
    testified to a parliamentary committee that authorities told him to
    list meningitis as the cause of death for Mohsen Rouhalamini (see
    above), whom Pourandarjani claimed actually died as a result of
    injuries inflicted during torture.
        According to multiple sources, the Government executed
    approximately 312 persons in summary executions during the year, many
    after trials that were conducted in secret or did not adhere to basic
    principles of due process. Some human rights groups reported the number
    was as high as 500 but had difficulty documenting the additional cases.
    Authorities did not release statistics on the implementation of death
    sentences, the names of those executed, or the crimes for which they
    were found guilty. Exiles and human rights monitors alleged that many
    persons supposedly executed for criminal offenses such as narcotics
    trafficking were actually political dissidents. The law criminalizes
    dissent and applies the death penalty to offenses such as apostasy
    (conversion from Islam), ``attempts against the security of the
    state,'' ``outrage against high-ranking officials,'' ``enmity towards
    god'' (moharebeh), and ``insults against the memory of Imam Khomeini
    and against the supreme leader of the Islamic Republic.'' According to
    Amnesty International (AI), an increasing number of people were charged
    with moharebeh, a vaguely defined offense that carries the death
    sentence. According to Philip Alston, the UN special rapporteur on
    extrajudicial, summary, or arbitrary executions, moharebeh is ``imposed
    for a wide range of crimes, often fairly ill defined and generally
    having some sort of political nature.'' Iran Human Rights (IHR)
    reported that 38 individuals were executed for the crime of moharebeh
    during the year.
        On January 28, the Government hanged Mohammad Reza Ali Zamani and
    Arash Rahmanipour for allegedly belonging to a military royalist group,
    the Kingdom Assembly of Iran, and for plotting assassinations of
    government officials. Rahmanipour was 17 at the time of the crime.
    According to AI, authorities denied both men access to legal counsel
    and coerced their confessions. Zamani and Rahmanipour were arrested
    three months prior to the June 12 election, and they appeared in the
    August 2009 ``show trials'' (see section 1.e.) with others who had been
    detained during postelection protests. For this reason many
    commentators believed that their execution was a warning to prevent
    further protests.
        On May 9, the Government hanged Kurdish activists Farrad Karmangar,
    Ali Heydarian, Farhad Vakili, Shirin Alam Holi, and Mehdi Eslamian at
    Evin Prison. In 2008 Karmangar received a death sentence for
    ``endangering national security'' based on his alleged involvement with
    the Turkey-based Kurdish Workers Party. Karmangar, superintendent of
    high schools in Kamayaran, was affiliated with a number of civil
    society organizations, including the local teachers' union, an
    environmental group, and the Human Rights Organization of Kurdistan.
    According to the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran
    (ICHRI), the defendants' trials lacked due process or proper evidence,
    and authorities executed the individuals without prior notification to
    the families and lawyers.
        During the year the Government practiced public executions and
    group executions. The IHR reported that the Government executed at
    least 19 persons in public during the year. According to the ICHRI,
    judicial authorities ordered the hanging of hundreds of individuals
    inside Vakilabad Prison during the year. According to a former prisoner
    of Vakilabad, most of those executed were sentenced based on drug-
    related charges, and the executions were conducted dozens at a time,
    most without the knowledge and presence of the lawyers and families of
    those executed.
        There were two reports during the year of persons executed for
    crimes committed when they were minors. In addition to the execution of
    Arash Rahmanipour (see above), according to IHR, in July authorities
    executed a juvenile offender known only as Muhammed. Domestic human
    rights lawyers reported that at least 100 juvenile offenders were on
    death row at year's end, many for offenses such as homosexual conduct,
    apostasy, or acts incompatible with chastity.
        Adultery remained punishable by death by stoning, but there were no
    reported executions by stoning during the year. The law provides that a
    victim of stoning is allowed to go free if he or she escapes. It is
    much more difficult for women to escape as they are buried to their
    necks whereas men are buried only to their waists. According to AI, 10
    women and four men were at imminent risk for death by stoning at year's
    end (see section 1.e.).
        There were no reports of the Government or its agents killing
    demonstrators during the year; however, during the June 2009 election
    protests, scores of protesters and nonprotesting bystanders were
    killed, especially during antigovernment rallies. Government sources
    reported the death toll at 37, opposition groups reported approximately
    70 individuals died, and human rights organizations suggested as many
    as 388. There were no reported arrests, charges, or investigations in
    conjunction with these deaths, nor were there updates in the killing
    cases of the following individuals: Sohran Arabi, Behzad Mohajer, Neda
    Agha-Soltan, Mahmud Raisi Najafi, and Ashkan Sohrabi.

        b. Disappearance.--There were reports of politically motivated
    abductions during the year. Plainclothes officers or security officials
    often seized journalists and activists without warning and detained
    them incommunicado for several days or longer before permitting them to
    contact family members (see section 1.d.). Families of executed
    prisoners did not always receive notification of their deaths.
        Sometime after January 2, according to AI, authorities arrested
    Sourena Hashemi and Alireza Firouzi, students who had been expelled
    from Zanjan University for their role in exposing the sexual abuse of a
    female student in 2008. Their arrest was not officially acknowledged
    for more than six weeks. Firouzi is a member of Human Rights Activists
    in Iran (HRAI), many of whose members were arrested in the wave of
    arrests of human rights defenders in March. Evin Prison authorities
    released Hashemi on bail on April 4 and Firouzi on May 12.
        On November 8, authorities arrested six followers of imprisoned
    Ayatollah Hossein Kazemeyni Boroujerdi, who called for separation of
    church and state, and on December 6, authorities reportedly detained
    Mohammad Mehman Navaz, a civil engineer and supporter of imprisoned
    Ayatollah Boroujerdi, in an unknown location after summoning Navaz to
    the special clerical court. At year's end there was no information
    about where the prisoners were held.
        During the year Fayzolah Arabsorkhi, a member of the central body
    of the reformist Islamic Revolution Mujahedin Organization and former
    deputy minister of commerce, reappeared at Evin Prison. Sources stated
    he was serving a six-year term at year's end; however, there was no
    information about any trial having been held. In July 2009 unidentified
    persons arrested Arabsorkhi without presenting a warrant or identifying
    themselves as police. Evin Prison guards allegedly beat Arabsorkhi in
    custody, necessitating a visit to the hospital. On April 10, according
    to The Green Voice of Freedom Web site, authorities released Arabsorkhi
    for five days on a bail of 10 million toman (approximately one million
    dollars). On December 19, authorities arrested his reformist daughter
    Fatemeh Arabsorkhi and released her on bail at the end of the year.
        The Iranian-American Jewish Federation reported that 11 Jewish men
    who disappeared in 1994 and 1997 remained missing. In 2007 witnesses
    claimed they saw some of the men in Evin Prison.

        c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or
    Punishment.--The constitution and law prohibit torture, but there were
    numerous credible reports that security forces and prison personnel
    tortured detainees and prisoners. A February 5 study by the UN special
    rapporteur on torture stated there were ``credible'' allegations that
    the country's security forces committed politically motivated torture
    following demonstrations in 2009.
        Common methods of torture and abuse in prisons included prolonged
    solitary confinement with extreme sensory deprivation (sometimes called
    ``white torture''), beatings, rape and sexual humiliation, long
    confinement in contorted positions, kicking detainees with military
    boots, hanging detainees by the arms and legs, threats of execution,
    burning with cigarettes, pulling out toenails, sleep deprivation, and
    severe and repeated beatings with cables or other instruments on the
    back and on the soles of the feet. To intensify abuse, perpetrators
    reportedly soaked prisoners before beating them with electric cables,
    and there were some reports of electric shocks to sexual organs.
    Prisoners also reported beatings on the ears, inducing partial or
    complete deafness; blows in the area around the eyes, leading to
    partial or complete blindness; and the use of poison to induce illness.
        Some prison facilities, including Evin Prison in Tehran, were
    notorious for cruel and prolonged torture of political opponents of the
    Government. Authorities also maintained unofficial secret prisons and
    detention centers outside the national prison system where abuse
    reportedly occurred. The Government reportedly used white torture
    especially on political prisoners, often in detention centers outside
    the control of prison authorities, including Section 209 of Evin
    Prison.
        There were reports of deaths attributed to torture by government
    security forces during the year (see section 1.a.). There were also
    reports of torture of political prisoners and labor leaders during the
    year, and in 2009 Ahvazi Arabs alleged that authorities tortured and
    raped community activists during the year (see section 6, Minorities).
        On May 18, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ),
    guards at Evin Prison severely beat Kayhan columnist, blogger, and
    documentary filmmaker Mohammad Nourizad, causing what the prison
    physician classified as a serious head injury that affected his
    eyesight. Authorities had detained Nourizad in December 2009 and
    sentenced him to three and one-half years in prison and 50 lashes on
    charge that included ``propaganda against the regime'' and ``insulting
    the supreme leader, the president, and the head of the judiciary.'' The
    CPJ sent a letter on June 9 to judiciary chief Sadeq Larijani
    expressing concern regarding Nourizad's treatment in prison. On June
    24, authorities released Nourizad on 300 million toman ($300,000) bail;
    however, on August 20, after he published a critical letter addressed
    to the supreme leader on his blog, authorities rearrested him. Nourizad
    began a hunger strike on December 10 to protest the irregularities in
    his trial and prison conditions. On December 16, authorities arrested
    members of his family along with the wife of a reformist leader when
    the families gathered outside of Evin Prison to ask about Nourizad's
    health. According to the ICHRI, security officials interrogated and
    verbally abused them.
        On August 25, the brother of Azeri activist Youssef Soleiman
    reported that prison authorities administered electric shocks and gave
    psychotropic drugs to his brother. Soleiman was arrested on June 16; no
    charges had been announced in his case at year's end.
        During the year according to an August 3 report by the Iranian
    Committee of Human Rights Reporters, interrogators in the Intelligence
    Department's isolation cells tortured Ahmad Bab, an activist for
    Kurdish minority rights arrested in September 2009, and demanded that
    Bab admit to having connections with antigovernment groups. When Bab
    refused to confess, one of the interrogators pulled three of his teeth
    with pliers. Interrogators allegedly also beat Bab with a baton, tied
    his limbs to the bed and pulled them until he fainted, and verbally
    abused him.
        During the year according to various sources, authorities at Evin
    Prison tortured or abused and mistreated Mohammad Davari, who served as
    presidential candidate Mehdi Karroubi's chief of staff and editor in
    chief of the Saham News Web site until his September 2009 arrest.
    According to Karroubi's Web site, the torture was intended to force
    Davari to publicly cast doubt on Karroubi's 2009 claim that
    postelection prisoners had been raped.
        On July 22, journalist Reza Rafei-Forushan wrote a letter to
    judiciary head Ayatollah Sadegh Larijani describing his abuse in prison
    and his forced confession. Authorities arrested Rafei-Forushan in June
    2009 after the elections and held him for 43 days in solitary
    confinement during his interrogation.
        In June Supreme Leader Khamenei granted clemency to journalist and
    former Ministry of Intelligence official, reformist, and former
    presidential advisor Saeed Hajjarian, and authorities released him from
    Evin Prison in August. During his incommunicado detention beginning in
    June 2009, prison authorities reportedly interrogated Hajjarian in
    direct sunlight at high temperatures and then doused him with ice
    water, causing him to have heart palpitations. Since sustaining a
    spinal cord injury in an assassination attempt in 2000, Hajjarian has
    used a wheelchair and required a number of medications; according to
    the ICHRI, authorities denied him medication and allegedly gave him
    psychotropic drugs to weaken his mental state. In October 2009, after
    Hajjarian's appearance in the ``show trials'' (see section 1.e.), the
    Revolutionary Court of Tehran sentenced him to a five-year sentence for
    inciting postelection unrest.
        At year's end Ibrahim Sharifi remained outside the country. In June
    2009 security personnel sexually assaulted Sharifi after his arrest for
    participating in antigovernment demonstrations. In August 2009 an
    unidentified man Sharifi suspected of being a government agent warned
    him against testifying to a parliamentary committee about his
    allegations of abuse. There was no evidence that the Government pursued
    any investigation into Sharifi's abuse claim.
        At year's end Maryam Sabri resided outside the country. In July
    2009, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW), authorities arrested Sabri
    during a vigil after her photo appeared on a Web site connected to the
    Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) that posted pictures of
    protesters and asked viewers to identify persons in the photos for
    arrest. According to Sabri, prison guards raped her four times before
    they released her in August 2009.
        At year's end Ebrahim Mehtari resided outside the country. In
    August 2009 security officers believed to be IRGC members abducted the
    computer science student and political activist from his workplace and
    transferred him to a location in eastern Tehran. Mehtari told HRW that
    his jailers beat him severely and repeatedly and sodomized him with a
    baton or stick during his detention. Passersby later found him on a
    street in Tehran semiconscious, bleeding, and with his hands and feet
    tied, and took him to a hospital. A physician from the medical
    examiner's office, which reports to the judiciary, examined Mehtari the
    next day, but when the medical examiner learned Mehtari had just been
    released from detention, officials tried to destroy the report.
        There were no updates in the 2008 beating case of Peyman Fatahi.
        Some judicially sanctioned corporal punishment constituted cruel
    and inhuman punishment, including execution by stoning (see section
    1.a.), amputation for multiple-theft offenses, and lashings. According
    to an October 11 report published by the semiofficial Iranian Students
    News Agency, Mashad prosecutor Mahmoud Zoghi said that amputations,
    which were often carried out in the presence of other prisoners, were
    an increasingly common punishment. The head of the country's delegation
    to the UN Human Rights Council, Mohammad Javad Larijani, told the
    council during the year that the Government does not consider such
    punishments torture or cruel or inhuman punishment and that they are
    culturally justified.
        On October 16, a judge sentenced a man convicted of robbing a
    confectionary shop to have one of his hands amputated. According to
    local press reports, authorities amputated his hand on October 24.
        On October 23, according to state media, authorities in Yazd
    amputated the hand of an unidentified man convicted of theft. According
    to the ICHRI, deputy judiciary head Seyed Ebrahim Raeisi said the
    amputation was ``based on the law and divine punishment'' and ``a
    source of pride for us.''
        On December 11, local press reported that the Supreme Court upheld
    a sentence of blinding with acid for a man who blinded his lover's
    husband in the same manner. At year's end there was no information as
    to whether this sentence was carried out.
        During the year the Government initiated limited investigations
    into reports of torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or
    punishment; according to AI, these investigations focused more on
    covering up abuses than revealing the truth or punishing those believed
    responsible.

        Prison and Detention Center Conditions.--Prison conditions were
    poor. There were frequent water shortages and sanitation problems.
    Prisoners were frequently subjected to harassment and discrimination.
    Many prisoners were held in solitary confinement or were denied
    adequate food or medical care as a way to force confessions.
    Overcrowding was a significant problem, forcing many prisoners to sleep
    on the floor. According to a June 11 statement by the Student Committee
    in Defense of Political Prisoners (SCDPP), Ward 4 of Gohardasht Prison
    (also known as Rajai Shahr) held more than 800 prisoners, but had a
    capacity for 240,with no bathrooms and only eight toilets. Numerous
    prisoners complained that authorities intentionally exposed them to
    extreme cold for prolonged periods and said they lacked access to
    medical care in prison. AI and Reporters Without Borders (RSF) reported
    on July 16 that many prisoners have had heart attacks or other cardiac
    problems in different prisons, especially Evin and Gohardasht. RSF also
    noted that prison authorities refused to transfer ailing prisoners to
    hospitals even when the prisoners urgently needed treatment that can
    only be provided outside a prison and even when the prison doctors
    themselves recommended it.
        On January 13, according to IHRV, Evin Prison authorities brutally
    beat Mahdi Mahmudian, a member of Mosharekat Front, who suffered from
    kidney disease. Mahmudian had reportedly protested the bathroom
    restrictions enforced on him.
        On January 19, former commander of the Center for Expert Naval
    Training Colonel Alborz Ghasemi died after spending 20 months in
    confinement in an intelligence detention center and in Evin Prison.
    Ghasemi suffered from stomach cancer and had been tortured; he
    allegedly received minimal medical care in detention. He was originally
    accused of providing intelligence to the People's Mojahedin
    Organization (MEK).
        As of mid-August authorities reportedly continued to refuse
    hospitalization requests from two imprisoned journalists with serious
    health conditions, Isa Saharkhiz, a reformist journalist held in
    Gohardasht Prison, and Hangameh Shahidi (see section 2.a.). On November
    11, according to a press report, Saharkhiz fainted and authorities
    transferred him to a hospital to receive treatment for his heart
    condition; however, he returned to prison almost immediately despite a
    cardiologist's recommendations that he be released from prison.
        On August 19, domestic human rights activists reported that
    authorities at Karoun Prison in Ahvaz had banned Abolfazl Abedini Nasr,
    a journalist and former head of a domestic human rights organization,
    from leaving his cell even though Abedini Nasr was medically required
    to visit the prison's clinic every three days to receive medical
    treatment (see section 2.a.).
        On July 26, after authorities granted him early release, student
    activist Iman Sadighi (see section 1.e., Political Prisoners) reported
    on conditions in Mati Kola prison in Babol: ``Fighting amongst
    prisoners.was a daily occurrence. In one incident two inmates had a
    fight with each other and one of them bit the other's ear off, then to
    prove how dangerous he was, he chewed and swallowed the ear--you felt
    that there was nothing of humanity left inside the prison. Our rooms
    were infested with cockroaches. Sometimes the cockroaches would even
    get in our food. At night, the cockroaches would get into our beds and
    we would wake up with them crawling over our faces. To add to all this,
    our blankets were infested with lice, and there were rats that came in
    the cell from time to time. There are no toilets in these solitary
    cells; prisoners are only ever allowed to use the toilets three times a
    day. Many times they can't wait for their turn and they have to do
    their toilet in the cell, which is why the solitary wing cells reek of
    excrement stench.''
        There were no updates, nor was there evidence of any government
    investigation, in the cases of two prisoners who allegedly died due to
    neglect: Karaj political prisoner Amir Hossein Heshmat Saran in
    February 2009 or Evin prisoner and blogger Omid Reza Mirsayafi in March
    2009 (see section 2.a., Internet Freedom).
        On January 7, the parliamentary special committee investigating
    reports of torture and abuse of postelection detainees in Kahrizak
    Detention Center in 2009 submitted its final report, which placed
    responsibility for the beating deaths of three detainees on then
    prosecutor general Saeed Mortazavi. Authorities transferred Mortazavi
    to head the country's task force against smuggling. On August 22,
    progovernment news sources reported that authorities had also suspended
    three top judicial officials at the Tehran prosecutor's office in
    connection to the case. In late July 2009 Supreme Leader Khamenei
    ordered Kahrizak detention center closed.
        In an April 14 interview with the Iran Human Rights Documentation
    Center, nongovernmental organization (NGO) activist Ali Kantoori
    described conditions in two prisons, Evin and Ghezal Hesar, where he
    was detained in 2008. In addition to beatings during interrogation,
    solitary confinement, and harassment of family members, Kantoori said
    lice infestations were common, prisoners had inadequate access to clean
    water or medical care, and the prisons lacked heat and air conditioning
    and had an insufficient number of bathing facilities. Guards reportedly
    regularly mistreated prisoners, including forcing them to kneel during
    prisoner counts. Authorities released Kantoori on bail after five
    months, but in August 2009 the Sanandaj General Court sentenced him to
    15 years' imprisonment. In mid-March Kantoori left the country, and he
    was living outside the country as a refugee at year's end.
        In June the UK-based International Center for Prison Studies
    reported that more than 166,000 prisoners in the country occupied
    facilities constructed to hold no more than 98,000 persons (170 percent
    of official capacity). There were reports of juvenile offenders
    detained with adult offenders. Pretrial detainees occasionally were
    held with convicted prisoners. Political prisoners were often held in
    separate prisons or wards--such as Evin Prison, especially Ward 240,
    and Ward Eight of Gohardasht Prison, known as the IRGC ward--or in
    isolation for long periods of time. Human rights activists and
    international media also reported cases of political prisoners confined
    with violent felons.
        The Government did not permit independent monitoring of prison
    conditions by any outside groups, including UN groups or special
    rapporteurs. A parliamentary committee investigating prison conditions
    paid a visit to Evin Prison in July 2009 and issued its report on
    January 10. According to press reports, the committee called for a
    complete investigation and blamed prosecutor Mortazavi for the rape and
    torture that took place in the prison. At the same time, the committee
    also blamed opposition candidates Mehdi Karroubi and Mir Houssein
    Mousavi for fomenting abuse; both previously expressed concern about
    sexual abuse in Evin Prison. The report claimed that reported sexual
    assaults did not occur, despite the testimony of numerous witnesses.

        d. Arbitrary Arrest or Detention.--Although the constitution
    prohibits arbitrary arrest and detention, these practices continued
    during the year.

        Role of the Police and Security Apparatus.--Several agencies share
    responsibility for law enforcement and maintaining order, including the
    MOIS, the Law Enforcement Forces under the Interior Ministry, and the
    IRGC. The Basij and informal groups known as the Ansar-e Hizballah
    (Helpers of the Party of God) were aligned with extreme conservative
    members of the leadership and acted as vigilantes. In October 2009 the
    Government announced the merger of the Basij into the IRGC ground
    forces. While some Basij units received formal training, many units
    were disorganized and undisciplined. During government-led crackdowns
    on demonstrations, the Basij were primarily responsible for the
    violence against the protesters.
        The security forces were not considered fully effective in
    combating crime. Videos posted on the Internet in October documented
    two stabbing murders that occurred in public spaces while police failed
    to intervene.
        Corruption and impunity were problems. Regular and paramilitary
    security forces committed numerous serious human rights abuses, but
    there were no transparent mechanisms to investigate security force
    abuses and no reports of government actions to reform the abusers.

        Arrest Procedures and Treatment While in Detention.--The
    constitution and penal code require a warrant or subpoena for an arrest
    and state that an arrested person must be informed of charges within 24
    hours. Authorities rarely followed these procedures in practice.
    Authorities held detainees, at times incommunicado, often for weeks or
    months without charge or trial, frequently denying them prompt contact
    with family or timely access to legal representation. In practice there
    was neither a time limit for detention nor judicial means to determine
    the legality of the detention. According to the law, the state is
    obligated to provide indigent defendants with attorneys only for
    certain types of crimes. The courts set prohibitively high bail, even
    for lesser crimes, and in many cases courts did not set bail.
    Authorities often compelled detainees and their families to submit
    property deeds to post bail. Prisoners released on bail did not always
    know how long their property would be retained or when their trials
    would be held.
        The intelligence arm of the IRGC reportedly conducted arrests
    during the year, sometimes without a warrant. Additionally, security
    forces executed general warrants to arrest protesters or those
    perceived as opponents of the Government. The use of these general
    warrants precluded the need for individual warrants.
        There were reports of arbitrary and false arrests during the year,
    including the arrest of dozens of students and journalists in February
    in anticipation of protests planned for February 11, the anniversary of
    the revolution.
        On February 7, authorities arrested Mahsa Jazini, a women's rights
    activist and journalist with Iran Newspaper, at her home in Isfahan.
    According to her attorney, charges against her included ``actions
    against national security'' and ``cooperation with foreign media'';
    however, Jazini reportedly said the officers who arrested her and
    confiscated her personal items described her crime as ``being a
    feminist.'' On March 1, authorities released her on bail for 100
    million toman ($100,000).
        On March 2, police arrested physician and blogger Hesam Firouzi on
    unknown charges and placed him in Ward 209 of Evin Prison. Firouzi
    served as physician to many political prisoners. In June judicial
    authorities reportedly set his bail at 100 million toman ($100,000); it
    was unknown whether he was in prison at year's end. Firouzi was
    previously arrested in March 2009 and served six months of a 15-month
    prison term for acting against the country's national security,
    distorting public opinion, distributing lies, and giving refuge and
    medical treatment to political prisoners.
        On November 2, authorities arrested journalist Nazanin Khosravani
    and charged her with acting against national security. There was no
    information as to the basis of the charges, and Khosravani's mother
    reportedly said Khosravani had not been working as a journalist for
    more than a year. According to media reports, Tehran Prosecutor General
    Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi warned Khosravani's mother not to conduct media
    interviews if she wanted to help her daughter. At year's end Khosravani
    remained in Evin Prison and had been permitted contact with her family
    only once, via telephone.
        There was no update in the March 2009 beating and arrest case of
    Yasser Torkman, a student at Amir Kabir University and member of the
    Islamic Students Organization in Tehran; authorities released Torkman
    on bail in April 2009.
        At year's end former government spokesman Abdollah Ramezanzadeh was
    serving his six-year sentence for ``acting against national security.''
    In June 2009 police arrested and seriously beat Ramezanzadeh. He spent
    116 days in solitary confinement, 74 of which were incommunicado and
    without charge, and then appeared at the August 2009 ``show trial''
    (see section 1.e.) and was convicted in December 2009. Ramezanzadeh was
    incarcerated due to a letter that he cowrote to the head of the
    judiciary calling for the prosecution of IRGC officials for their role
    in the June 2009 election and its aftermath.
        At year's end Mohammad Mostafaei, a human rights activist who
    represented the cases of many juveniles sentenced to death as well as
    that of Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiani, a woman sentenced to stoning for
    adultery, had claimed asylum in Norway. On November 11, media reported
    that the Islamic Revolutionary Court sentenced Mostafaei in absentia to
    six years in prison for acting against national security for discussing
    Mohammadi-Ashtiani's case with foreign-based Farsi-language media. In
    July and August, authorities detained Mostafaei's wife and brother- and
    father-in-law in an attempt to get Mostafaei to turn himself in, and
    the two men faced charges of concealing a suspect at year's end.
    Mostafaei was originally arrested by plainclothes police officers in
    June 2009.
        On May 16, Clotilde Reiss, a French national teaching assistant
    formerly employed at Isfahan University, returned to France. In July
    2009 authorities arrested Reiss on charges of espionage, and she was
    present at the August 2009 ``show trials'' along with French embassy
    employee Nazak Afshar and British embassy employee Hossein Rassam, who
    were also charged with espionage and plotting to overthrow the
    Government. On October 25, an appeals court overturned Rassam's
    conviction and four-year prison sentence for espionage, substituting a
    one-year suspended sentence for spreading propaganda against the regime
    and maintaining a five-year ban against his employment by foreign
    embassies or organizations. Afshar was released in August 2009 on bail
    of 500 million toman ($500,000).
        At year's end, authorities released on bail of 500 million toman
    ($500,000) one of the U.S. citizens arrested by border guards in July
    2009 on the Iran-Iraq border and permitted her to leave the country;
    the other two remained in Evin Prison. Authorities held the Americans
    in solitary confinement for extended periods of time during the first
    months of their detention. Their trial for espionage and illegal entry
    into the country was scheduled for February 6, 2011.
        In November 2009, according to the ICHRI, security forces
    arbitrarily arrested scores of students throughout the country in an
    attempt to stifle protests expected on Students' Day, December 7. For
    instance, on November 3, media reported that authorities had arrested
    civil activists and student leaders Hasan Asadi Zaidabadi and Mohammad
    Sadeghi. Zaidabadi was released in December 2009, and Sadeghi was
    released after 40 days of detention. There was no information as to
    whether the two were ever tried.
        During protests in December 2009 after the death of Grand Ayatollah
    Hussein-Ali Montazeri and during Ashura celebrations, the ICHRI and
    IHRV reported that authorities detained between 200 and 1,000 persons,
    many of whom remained in prison at year's end, some facing death
    sentences. Death sentences were given to individuals who were accused
    of moharebeh (see section 1.a.) for participation in Ashura Day
    protests. On March 17, the ICHRI reported that Revolutionary Court
    judge Abolqasem Salavati sentenced teacher Abdolreza Ghanbari to death
    for moharebeh based on his participation in Ashura protests. According
    to the ICHRI, Ghanbari did not have access to a fair trial nor
    permission to select a lawyer for his defense. The Prosecutor's Office
    requested death sentences for at least 11 other individuals arrested
    during 2009 Ashura celebrations.
        There were no reports of Iranian-American journalists arrested
    during the year; however, in 2009 and previous years, security forces
    arrested several Iranian-American journalists and academics on charges
    of espionage and ``acting against national security.'' Prison
    authorities subjected the activists to harsh interrogation techniques
    and solitary confinement and in most cases kept them in prison for
    several months. At year's end one academic was free on bail but not
    permitted to depart the country.
        There were no updates in the 2008 cases of Ebrahim Mirnehad or Dr.
    Arash Alaei, both whom remained in prison at year's end. Authorities
    sentenced Mirnahad to five years' imprisonment on charges of ``acting
    against national security'' and ``spreading propaganda,'' charges that,
    according to AI, stemmed from his public condemnation of his brother's
    execution earlier in the year. Dr Alaei and his brother, physicians
    specializing in the prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS, were found
    guilty of ``cooperating with an enemy government.'' AI reported that
    Dr. Kamiar Alaei remained in prison at year's end.
        Pretrial detention was often arbitrarily lengthy, particularly in
    cases involving alleged violations of national security laws.
    Approximately 25 percent of prisoners held in state prison facilities
    were reportedly pretrial detainees. According to HRW, a judge may
    prolong detention at his discretion, and pretrial detention often
    lasted for months.
        The Government reportedly put individuals under house arrest
    without due process in order to restrict their movement and
    communication. Authorities placed former presidential candidates Mehdi
    Karroubi and Mir Hossein Mousavi under de facto house arrest during the
    year. In previous years the Government used house arrest for senior
    Shia religious leaders whose views regarding political and governance
    issues were at variance with the ruling orthodoxy; however, there were
    no new confirmed instances of this practice since 2009. Grand Ayatollah
    Montazeri, the most prominent cleric under such restrictions, died in
    December 2009.

        e. Denial of Fair Public Trial.--After the 1979 revolution, the
    judicial system was revised to conform to an Islamic canon based on the
    Qur'an, Sunna (the traditions of the Prophet), and other Islamic
    sources. The constitution provides that the judiciary be ``an
    independent power''; in practice the court system was corrupt and
    subject to political influence. The constitution provides that the head
    of the judiciary is a cleric chosen by the supreme leader. The head of
    the Supreme Court and prosecutor general also must be clerics.
        Islamic revolutionary courts try offenses viewed as potentially
    threatening to the Islamic Republic, including threats to internal or
    external security, narcotics and economic crimes, and official
    corruption. A special clerical court examines alleged transgressions
    within the clerical establishment, and a military court investigates
    crimes connected with military or security forces. A media court hears
    complaints against publishers, editors, and writers, including Internet
    cases.

        Trial Procedures.--Many aspects of the prerevolutionary judicial
    system survive in the civil and criminal courts. According to the
    constitution and criminal procedure code, a defendant has the right to
    a public trial, presumption of innocence, a lawyer of his or her
    choice, and the right of appeal in most cases that involve major
    penalties. These rights were not respected in practice. Panels of
    judges adjudicate trials; there is no jury system in the civil and
    criminal courts. In the media court, a council of 11 persons selected
    by the court adjudicates cases. No defendants in any court had the
    right to confront their accusers, nor were they granted access to
    government-held evidence. During the year human rights groups noted the
    absence of procedural safeguards in criminal trials.
        During the year AI, HRW, RSF, and several other human rights groups
    continued to condemn trials in the revolutionary courts for
    disregarding international standards of fairness. In August 2009 the UN
    special rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading
    treatment or punishment, the special rapporteur on the situation of
    human rights defenders, and the vice chairperson of the working group
    on arbitrary detention expressed ``serious concern'' about the
    situation of detainees in the country.
        The Government often charged individuals with vague crimes such as
    ``antirevolutionary behavior,'' ``moral corruption,'' ``siding with
    global arrogance,'' moharebeh, and ``crimes against Islam.''
    Prosecutors imposed strict penalties on government critics for minor
    violations. When postrevolutionary statutes did not address a
    situation, the Government advised judges to give precedence to their
    knowledge and interpretation of Islamic law. The head of the judiciary
    chose revolutionary court judges in part due to their ideological
    commitment to the system. Secret or summary trials of only five
    minutes' duration frequently occurred. Other trials were deliberately
    designed to publicize a coerced confession.
        On February 3, a revolutionary court sentenced student activist
    Mohammad Amin Valian to death in a group trial for moharabeh for
    allegedly having thrown three stones and shouted ``death to the
    dictator!'' during a December 2009 Ashura protest. Government officials
    arrested Valian on January 12, after Damghan University's Basij student
    publication published an article about him. Authorities denied repeated
    requests from his family on his whereabouts, and according to ICHRI
    they only said he was held in a ``special location.'' According to the
    same report, he was also denied access to counsel. On May 15, an
    appeals court rejected the revolutionary court decision and sentenced
    him to a three-and-one-half years' imprisonment and a fine of 300,000
    toman ($300). As of September authorities had granted Valian
    conditional release.
        At year's end the ICHRI reported that approximately 600 inmates
    remained on death row in Vakilabad, with the majority convicted for
    narcotics-related crimes. Some inmates reported that they had been
    tortured and forced to make confessions but that judges ignored their
    claims of physical coercion.
        In August 2009 the Tehran Revolutionary Court convened the first of
    a series of televised mass trials for more than 100 opposition
    politicians and activists detained after the June 2009 election; the
    opposition referred to them as show trials. Among those on trial were
    senior proreform politicians, lawyers, and journalists, including
    former vice president Muhammad Ali Abtahi; journalist and former
    interior ministry official Muhammad Atrianfar; intellectual and
    prodemocracy activist Saeed Hajjarian, reportedly tortured in detention
    (see section 1.c.); filmmaker and Newsweek reporter Maziar Bahari (see
    section 2.a.); an Iranian-American academic; and Mohsen Mirdamadi, the
    leader of the largest reformist party, the Islamic Iran Participation
    Front. The prosecution accused the defendants of fomenting a ``velvet
    revolution,'' acting against national security, and having ties to
    British spies. Authorities did not permit any of the defendants access
    to legal counsel prior to the trial. Some of those charged read aloud
    ``confessions'' in which they denounced former colleagues and declared
    there had been no fraud in the election. There were allegations that
    several defendants, including Abtahi and opposition candidate Mousavi
    supporters Mostafa Tajzadeh, Abdollah Ramezanzadeh (see section 1.d.),
    and Mohsen Aminzadeh, underwent ``massive interrogation'' in Evin
    Prison.
        At year's end Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani awaited execution for
    alleged adultery and murder while her son and lawyer remained
    imprisoned. In 2006 after having already been convicted and punished
    with 99 lashes for involvement in her husband's murder, a court
    sentenced Ashtiani to death by stoning for adultery. According to the
    NGO Women Living Under Muslim Laws, two judges declared her not guilty
    based on the lack of evidence in the case, but the other three judges
    found her guilty based on ``divine knowledge of the judge'' (elm-e
    ghazi), a legal provision that allows judges to make a ruling in the
    absence of conclusive evidence. On September 8, a Foreign Ministry
    representative declared that the stoning sentence had been suspended
    but suggested she might still be hanged on charges related to her
    husband's murder. Human rights groups maintained that Ashtiani's
    confession was coerced and decried the lack of due process in this
    case. One of Ashtiani's lawyers, Mohammed Mostafaei, sought asylum in
    Norway during the year (see section 1.d.).
        Opposition groups continued to question the legitimacy of the
    special clerical court system. The court is headed by a scholar in
    Islamic law and is capable of ruling on legal matters through
    independent interpretation of Islamic legal sources. Clerical courts,
    which investigate alleged offenses and crimes by clerics and which the
    supreme leader directly oversees, are not provided for in the
    constitution, and they operated outside the domain of the judiciary.
    According to a 2007 AI report, defendants could be represented only by
    court-nominated clerics who are not required to be qualified lawyers.
    According to the AI report, in some cases a defendant was unable to
    find a cleric willing to act as defense counsel and was tried without
    legal representation. Critics alleged that clerical courts were used to
    prosecute clerics for expressing controversial ideas and for
    participating in activities outside the sphere of religion, such as
    journalism or reformist political activities.
        On December 6, the special clerical court summoned Mohammad Mehman
    Navaz, a supporter of Ayatollah Boroujerdi (see section 1.d.).

        Political Prisoners and Detainees.--Statistics regarding the number
    of citizens imprisoned for their political beliefs were not available,
    but human rights activists estimated the number in the hundreds.
    Approximately 500 democracy activists and journalists were in detention
    in Evin Prison alone at year's end. According to opposition press
    reports, the Government arrested, convicted, and executed persons on
    questionable criminal charges, including drug trafficking, when their
    actual offenses were reportedly political. The Government charged
    members of religious minorities and others with crimes such as
    ``confronting the regime'' and apostasy and followed the same trial
    procedures as in cases of threats to national security. During the year
    the Government rounded up students, journalists, lawyers, and political
    activists to silence them or prevent them from organizing protests.
        Authorities occasionally gave political prisoners suspended
    sentences or released them for short or extended furloughs prior to
    completion of their sentences, but they could order them to return to
    prison at any time. Suspended sentences often were used to silence and
    intimidate individuals. The Government also controlled political
    activists by temporarily suspending baseless court proceedings against
    them and allowing authorities to rearrest them at any time, and it
    attempted to intimidate activists by calling them in repeatedly for
    questioning. The Government issued travel bans on former political
    prisoners; for instance, authorities continued to prevent former
    political prisoner Siamak Pourzand from leaving the country to receive
    medical care and to join his wife, also a former political prisoner,
    and family abroad.
        Authorities routinely held political prisoners in solitary
    confinement for extended periods and denied them due process and access
    to legal representation. Political prisoners were also at greater risk
    of torture and abuse in detention. The Government did not permit
    international humanitarian organizations or UN special rapporteurs
    access to political prisoners.
        The Government imprisoned persons throughout the year for political
    reasons (see sections 1.a. through 1.e. and section 7.a.), including
    minority activists (see section 6). Human rights organizations reported
    that 21 Kurdish political prisoners faced execution and 44 Baha'i
    remained in prison at year's end. The Government also reportedly held
    some persons in prison for years under charges of sympathizing with
    terrorist groups such as the MEK.
        On February 28, an appeals court upheld 10-month prison sentences
    for three student activists from Babol Norshirvani University (Mohsen
    Barzegar, Iman Sadighi, and Nima Nahvi) and one-year suspended
    sentences for Hamid Reza Jahantigh, Hessam Bagheri, Siavash Salimi
    Nejad, and Ali Taghipour. The students, most of whom were also banned
    from educational institutions for one to five years, were convicted of
    ``actions against national security'' and ``propagation against the
    regime,'' based on their alleged planning of and participation in
    protests and contacts with antigovernment entities. Authorities
    conditionally released Barzegar and Sadighi on July 17, but on November
    9, police rearrested Barzegar at his home prior to National Students
    Day, allegedly without a warrant (see section 2.b., Freedom of
    Association). Nahvi remained in prison at year's end.
        On May 5, Revolutionary Court Branch 28 sentenced Bahareh Hedayat,
    a prominent student activist, to two years in prison for ``insulting
    the supreme leader,'' six months for ``insulting the president,'' and
    five years for ``actions against national security, propagation of
    falsehoods, and mutiny for congregation.'' An earlier suspended
    sentence of two years in prison for participating in a women's rights
    protest was added to make Hedayat's total sentence nine and one-half
    years in prison. In July Appellate Court Branch 24 upheld her sentence.
    In late December authorities reportedly presented her with new charges
    of ``disturbing public opinion'' based on a letter she wrote from
    prison on National Students Day. At year's end Hedayat was serving her
    sentence in Evin Prison where authorities had recently banned her
    visitors ``until further notice.''
        On August 8, the Supreme Court rejected Jafar Kazemi's death
    sentence appeal. Authorities arrested Kazemi, an editor and publisher
    of academic books at Amir Kabir University, during the 2009 election
    protests and reportedly tortured him physically and psychologically
    during his detention. His interrogators allegedly threatened to arrest
    his wife and children if he did not confess. Kazemi was convicted of
    moharebeh and sympathy with the MEK, but he pled not guilty. At year's
    end Kazemi awaited execution.
        On September 4, authorities summoned Nasrin Sotoudeh, a prominent
    human rights lawyer and women's rights activist, to Evin Prison where
    they arrested her on charges of ``propaganda against the state,'' ``a
    conspiracy to disturb order,'' and cooperation with Nobel Peace Prize
    laureate Shin Ebadi's Defenders of Human Rights Center (DHRC). Shortly
    after her detention, Sotoudeh went on a 70-day hunger strike to protest
    her treatment, including solitary confinement. On December 27,
    authorities presented more charges against her, including ``not wearing
    the hijab [headcovering]'' and ``not observing Islamic standards of
    conduct.'' At year's end she remained in solitary confinement and
    weakened from her hunger strike. During questioning, her interrogators
    reportedly told her they controlled the length of her sentence, which
    would be at least 10 years.
        On April 20, Branch 26 of the Revolutionary Court sentenced Mahdieh
    Golrou, student activist and member of the Advocacy Council for the
    Right to Education, to two years and four months in prison for
    association with the MEK. She began serving the sentence immediately,
    along with a suspended one-year sentence for her activities related to
    educational rights. In late December authorities reportedly presented
    her with new charges of ``disturbing public opinion'' based on a letter
    she wrote from prison on National Students Day. Golrou suffered from
    intestinal problems during her continuing imprisonment in Evin Prison.
        On January 26, a revolutionary court sentenced Shabnam Madadzadeh,
    a member of the Islamic Association and deputy general secretary of the
    student organization Tahkim Vahdat, and her brother Farzad Madadzadeh
    to five years' imprisonment for moharebeh and propaganda against the
    state, and in June an appeals court upheld the sentence. Their lawyer,
    Mohammad Oliyaeifard, was not present as he was serving a sentence for
    speaking out about another client, a juvenile executed for a murder
    allegedly committed when he was 17 years old. Authorities arrested the
    Madadzadehs in February 2009, and officials in Ward 209 of Evin Prison
    allegedly beat and whipped Farzad in front of Shabnam to coerce her to
    confess. Human rights groups reported during the year that Shabnam
    suffered from digestive ailments and heart problems and that she lacked
    medical care. The Madadzadehs remained in Gohardasht Prison at year's
    end.
        At year's end Abdolfattah Soltani, a prominent human rights lawyer
    and DHRC spokesperson, continued to face a pending court case for
    security-related charges, In June 2009 authorities arrested him without
    a warrant and held him for 72 days without charges, including 17 days
    in solitary confinement, until his release in August 2009.
        On December 29, an interrogator known as ``Mahdavi'' reportedly
    informed Ebrahim Yazdi's wife that authorities had transferred the
    ailing former foreign minister and the secretary-general of the Freedom
    Movement of Iran to a safe house in a military zone. Authorities
    detained 80-year-old Yazdi at least three times since the June 2009
    elections, once when he was in an intensive care hospital ward. During
    one of his imprisonments, Yazdi spent 50 days in solitary confinement.
    On October 1, officials arrested Yazdi in a private home in Isfahan for
    allegedly participating in ``illegal prayer'' while he attended the
    memorial service for the daughter of a friend. His wife was allowed to
    visit him only after he had been jailed for 40 days. Yazdi was
    recovering from bladder cancer surgery as well as heart surgery, and
    his family believed his life is in danger because of the physical and
    psychological strains of prison, lack of medical care, and unsanitary
    conditions.
        During the year Abdollah Momeni continued to serve a four and one-
    half-year prison sentence for disseminating propaganda against the
    country by transmitting news of street protests and colluding to harm
    national security. In June 2009 police arrested Momeni, spokesperson
    for the Alumni Association of Iran (Advar-e Tahkim Vahdat), a legally
    registered political organization, and authorities sentenced him in
    November 2009 after he appeared at the fifth session of the ``show
    trials.'' AI reported that authorities used as evidence against him
    Momeni's ``contacts'' with AI and HRW. In August he wrote a letter to
    Supreme Leader Khamenei in which he detailed the physical and
    psychological abuse he had endured at Evin Prison including severe
    beatings and suffocations to the point of unconsciousness during
    interrogations, interrogators holding his head in a full toilet bowl,
    solitary confinement for 86 days, and repeated threats of rape and
    imminent execution. Momeni also said his interrogators forced him to
    practice false confessions before his trial.
        As of July 7, Naseh Faridi remained free pending an appeal of his
    January 7 sentence to six years in prison and 74 lashes for allegedly
    passing information to the MEK on account of his activities in the
    SCDPP, including interviews with foreign media. On June 29, authorities
    released Azeri minority activist Ali Bikas from Evin Prison after an
    appeals court acquitted him of all charges. Authorities arrested the
    two SCDPP members in June 2009 and tried them in the ``show trials''
    later that year.
        At year's end there had been no verdict announced in the mid-
    October revolutionary court trial of Mohammad-Ali Dadkhah, a member of
    the Center for Defending Human Rights and an attorney for several
    political activists. In July 2009 police arrested Dadkhah at his office
    and charged him with meeting with ``foreign enemies.'' HRW reported
    that at the time of his arrest he was meeting with colleagues to
    discuss the judiciary's proposal to restrict the independence of the
    bar association. Dadkhah remained free on a 500 million toman
    ($500,000) bail at year's end.
        In March authorities released an Iranian-American academic on bail
    of 800 million toman ($800,000) but continued to prevent him from
    leaving the country at year's end. In July 2009 authorities first
    arrested him on charges of espionage based on his association with the
    Open Society Institute, which the Government had previously approved.
    He appeared before the ``show trials'' in August 2009 and in October
    2009 was sentenced to 15 years in prison, later reduced to five years
    by an appelate court.
        As of November 16, former university student Misagh Yazdan-Nejad
    was seriously ill with a respiratory illness, unable to walk or eat.
    Gohardasht Prison authorities reportedly refused to grant him leave to
    undergo surgery. In September 2009 a revolutionary court sentenced
    Yazdan-Nejad to 13 years' imprisonment for participating in a 2007
    demonstration. The Government had previously executed three of Yazdan-
    Nejad's uncles and imprisoned both his parents on political grounds. At
    year's end there were no further updates on Yazdan-Nejad's status.
        In September 2009 a reformist Web site reported that police
    detained Mohammad Ozlati-Moghaddam, head of opposition leader Mousavi's
    veterans' affairs committee, following a search of his home; he was
    held for an unknown length of time. On November 15, a reformist Web
    site reported that security agents had again arrested Ozlati-Moghaddam,
    and his status was unknown at year's end.
        On March 16, authorities released economist and journalist Saeed
    Leylaz from prison on bail of 500 million toman ($500,000) to seek
    medical treatment. In December 2009 authorities sentenced Leylaz to
    nine years in prison, later reduced to five, for allegedly maintaining
    ties with foreigners and working to overthrow the Government.
        At year's end Emaddedin Baghi, founder of the Committee for the
    Defense of Prisoners' Rights, was incarcerated in Evin Prison, serving
    a six-year sentence for ``propaganda against the system'' and
    ``colluding against the security of the regime'' in relation to an
    interview with the late Grand Ayatollah Montazeri and a one-year
    sentence for his work advocating for prisoners' rights. A revolutionary
    court also banned him from participating in political activity for five
    years. In December 2009 authorities arrested Baghi and detained him for
    180 days. Authorities imprisoned Baghi on previous occasions since 2000
    for his activities as a journalist and his campaigns against the
    Government's execution of juvenile offenders.
        At year's end Kurdish and women's rights activist Zeinab Bayazidi
    continued serving a four-year sentence for acting against national
    security. Security forces arrested her in 2008; she was reportedly
    tried behind closed doors without access to an attorney of her
    choosing. According to human rights organizations, Bayazidi went on a
    hunger strike in July to protest a prison official's treatment of
    several female prisoners.
        At year's end Abbas Khorsandi, a political activist and founder of
    the Iran Democratic Party, an Internet forum for political debate,
    remained in Evin Prison, where authorities reportedly prevented him
    from seeing a doctor despite his poor health. In 2008 a Tehran
    revolutionary court upheld an eight-year prison sentence against
    Khorsandi for ``acting against national security through formation of
    an illegal association.'' During the year Khorsandi's family repeatedly
    expressed concern about his poor health, especially his heart disease,
    but the Government made no response.
        There were no updates in the following 2008 cases; all individuals
    were believed to be in prison at year's end: writer and student leader
    Amin Ghazain Tehran; human rights lawyer Saleh Kamrani; Hadi Qabel,
    reformist cleric and member of the reformist political group Islamic
    Iran Participation Front; and Office for Consolidating Unity spokesman
    Ali Nikunesbati.
        Ayatollah Mohammad Kazemeini Boroujerdi remained in Evin Prison
    despite appeals for his release on medical grounds. Human rights groups
    claimed he had been in solitary confinement without access to an
    independent lawyer since his 2006 arrest. Prior to Boroujerdi's arrest,
    the Government had increased pressure on him for his belief that
    religion and the state should be separate.
        Political prisoner Behrouz Javid-Tehrani, who spent four years in
    prison for his activities during the 1999 student uprising and was
    sentenced in 2005 to seven more years in prison following a secret
    trial without legal representation, remained in prison at year's end.
    At the time of the most recent conviction, Javid-Tehrani was in
    solitary confinement in Gohardasht Prison in Karaj, where he alleged
    security agents severely tortured him on numerous occasions.

        Civil Judicial Procedures and Remedies.--By law the judiciary is
    independent from the executive and legislative branches; in practice it
    remained under the influence of executive and religious government
    authorities. According to the constitution, the Court of Administrative
    Justice, under the supervision of the head of the judiciary,
    investigates the grievances of citizens with regard to government
    officials, organs, and statutes. In practice citizens had limited
    ability to sue the Government. Citizens were not able to bring lawsuits
    against the Government for civil or human rights violations. Dispute
    resolution councils are available to settle minor civil and criminal
    cases through mediation before referral to courts.

        Property Restitution.--The constitution allows the Government to
    confiscate property acquired illicitly or in a manner not in conformity
    with Islamic law, and the Government particularly targeted religious
    minorities, especially members of the Baha'i faith. During the year
    there were reports that authorities destroyed several Sufi libraries
    containing sacred texts and took over nursing homes and hospitals
    connected to Sufi orders.

        f. Arbitrary Interference With Privacy, Family, Home, or
    Correspondence.--The constitution states that ``reputation, life,
    property, [and] dwelling[s]'' are protected from trespass except as
    ``provided by law,'' but the Government routinely infringed on this
    right. Security forces monitored the social activities of citizens,
    entered homes and offices, monitored telephone conversations and
    Internet communications, and opened mail without court authorization.
    There were widespread reports that government agents entered, searched,
    and/or ransacked the homes and offices of reformist activists and
    journalists in an attempt to intimidate them.
        For example, on several occasions during the year government
    security forces raided the home and offices of human rights attorney
    Nasrin Sotoudeh (see section 1.e., Political Prisoners), confiscating
    her computer and cell phone, along with those belonging to her husband
    and children, and many of her clients' files.
        On September 16, government security forces raided the office of
    former presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi and confiscated
    computers and other property (see section 3).
        Unlike in 2009, there were no reports that Basij forces carried out
    nightly raids throughout Tehran, destroying public property, entering
    homes, and beating civilians in an attempt to stop nightly protest
    chants. However, there were some reports that Basij forces raided
    universities in February to stop protesters.
        During the year vigilantes continued to attack young persons
    considered ``un-Islamic'' in their dress or activities, invade private
    homes, abuse unmarried couples, and disrupt concerts. In May according
    to press reports, authorities launched an intensified campaign to
    enforce the mandatory hijab and issued a list of acceptable men's
    hairstyles. According to press reports, morality police have stopped or
    detained more than two million individuals since 2007 for inappropriate
    hairstyles (usually related to the length of men's hair or beards) or
    bad hijab.
        There were reports during the year that the MOIS arrested and
    harassed family members of political prisoners and human rights
    activists, banning them from speaking to foreign media or traveling
    abroad, blocking their telephone conversations, making false criminal
    charges against them, and blocking their access to higher education.
        From early February to March 9, authorities detained Saleh
    Noghrehkar, the nephew of former presidential candidate Mir Hossein
    Mousavi and the head of the legal team for Mousavi's campaign, in Evin
    Prison, reportedly to intimidate Mousavi and his wife.
        Throughout the year authorities issued statements threatening to
    arrest Mehdi Hashemi on corruption charges, the expatriate son of
    influential cleric and former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. Some
    human rights organizations alleged these threats were retaliation for
    Rafsanjani's criticism of the Government after the 2009 postelection
    protests.
        On January 13, authorities released from prison Nushin Ebadi, a
    professor of dentistry and sister to Nobel Prize-winning human rights
    lawyer and activist Shirin Ebadi. Intelligence officers arrested
    Nushin, who was not involved in human rights issues and did not
    participate in any of the postelection protests, in December 2009.
        There were also reports that authorities threatened and arrested
    family members of expatriates who posted critical comments about the
    country on social networking Web sites such as Facebook. According to
    media accounts, an Iranian-American studying abroad reported in 2009
    that he received an e-mail warning him that his relatives in Iran would
    be harmed if he did not delete an online petition he had created
    relating to the imprisonment in Iran of a human rights activist; he
    claimed that security agents arrested his father two days later and
    held him briefly.
        Authorities occasionally entered homes to remove satellite
    television dishes, which are illegal in the country.
    Section 2. Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:
        a. Freedom of Speech and Press.--The constitution provides for
    freedom of expression and of the press, except when the words are
    deemed ``detrimental to the fundamental principles of Islam or the
    rights of the public.'' In practice the Government severely restricted
    freedom of speech and of the press. There were no basic legal
    safeguards for freedom of expression, and the Government--notably the
    judiciary--arbitrarily enforced censorship measures against the
    independent press. Government censorship and self-censorship limited
    dissemination of information during the year. The Government frequently
    threatened and jailed journalists as a consequence of their work. It
    also closed the offices of the journalists' union in August 2009.
        Individuals could not criticize the Government publicly or
    privately without reprisal, and the Government actively sought to
    impede criticism.
        On December 19, according to RSF, intelligence officials in
    civilian dress arrested Fariborz Rais Dana, an economist and a member
    of the board of directors of the country's writers' association. Other
    sources noted that Dana's arrest occurred shortly after his interview
    with BBC Persian in which he criticized the Government's subsidy reform
    policies. At year's end there were no updates in his case, and his
    whereabouts were unknown.
        The Government held significant influence over all media in the
    country. The country's media outlets were varied, including state-
    controlled television, radio, and print publications, as well as
    private newspapers and magazines that cover current affairs, politics,
    the arts, and sports. The Government closely monitored reporters and
    media outlets, and private media lacked independence in practice.
    Journalists who failed to abide by government guidelines faced
    intimidation, arrest, or closure of their publications. The Government
    required foreign correspondents to provide detailed travel plans and
    topics of proposed stories before it granted visas, and it attempted to
    influence them to garner more favorable coverage. The Government's
    Press Supervisory Board (PSB) was responsible for issuing press
    licenses, which it sometimes revoked in response to articles critical
    of the Government, and for examining complaints filed against
    publications or individual journalists, editors, or publishers.
        According to Article 175 of the constitution, private broadcasting
    is illegal. The Government controlled and maintained a monopoly over
    all television and radio broadcasting facilities through a state-
    controlled entity, the Voice and Vision Organization. Radio and
    television programming--the principal source of news for many citizens,
    especially in rural areas--reflected the Government's political and
    socioreligious ideology. Foreign programs such as BBC Persian and Voice
    of America were subject to government jamming. Satellite dishes that
    received foreign television broadcasts were forbidden, and the
    Government periodically confiscated them from homes. For instance,
    according to opposition websites, police began confiscating satellite
    dishes from rooftops in Tehran ahead of the February 11 anniversary of
    the Islamic revolution. However, most satellite dishes in individual
    homes reportedly continued to operate.
        During the year the Government detained, jailed, tortured, or fined
    numerous publishers, editors, and journalists (including Internet
    media) for their reporting. RSF reported that 37 journalists remained
    in detention as of December 20. The penal code states that ``anyone who
    undertakes any form of propaganda against the state'' can be imprisoned
    for as long as one year; the law does not define ``propaganda.'' The
    law also subjects writers to prosecution for instigating crimes against
    the state or national security or ``insulting'' Islam; the latter
    offense is punishable by death.
        On January 8, according to the CPJ, authorities arrested Mostafa
    Dehghan, a freelance journalist who wrote about social issues for
    several newspapers and the women's rights Web site, Change for
    Equality, and detained him in Evin Prison's Ward 209. According to PBS
    Frontline, he remained in prison as of December 10, and there was no
    evidence that authorities had charged him with any crime.
        On February 1, security officials beat and arrested Abolfazl
    Abedini Nasr, a reporter for Bahar Ahvaz, in his home in Ramhormoz and
    transferred him to Evin Prison,where he reportedly underwent harsh
    torture during interrogation, resulting in severe heart damage. On
    April 4, Branch 1 of the Revolutionary Court in Ahvaz sentenced him to
    11 years in Karoun Prison in Ahvaz for association with foreign
    governments, membership in HRAI, and ``propaganda against the regime''
    based on his interviews with foreign media. On April 13, Abedini
    collapsed in and was admitted to the prison clinic, according to AI. On
    August 19, HRAI reported that prison authorities had banned Abedini
    from leaving his cell until further notice, preventing him from
    visiting the prison clinic to receive regular required medical
    treatment. There was no information about Abedini's status at year's
    end, and he remained in prison.
        On February 9, according to the CPJ, authorities arrested Ali
    Malihi, a journalist for Etemad, Irandokht, Shahrvand-e-Emruz, and
    Mehrnameh, and a revolutionary court tried and sentenced him to four
    years in prison for ``congregation and mutiny against the regime,''
    ``propagation against the regime,'' ``participation in illegal
    gatherings,'' ``publication of falsehoods,'' and ``insulting the
    president.'' As of October 1, authorities reportedly had not permitted
    him to meet with his lawyer except during court proceedings. The CPJ
    reported he was held in solitary confinement in Evin Prison and went on
    at least one hunger strike to protest his treatment.
        On March 2, authorities rearrested journalist and activist
    Mahboubeh Karami, the fifth time she was arrested in the last three
    years (see section 6, Women).
        From June 12 until his December 22 release on 500 million toman
    ($500,000) bail, authorities detained Abdolreza Tajik, who writes for
    reformist newspapers Fath, Bonyan, Bahar, and Shargh, in Evin Prison.
    This was Tajik's third arrest since the disputed June 2009 elections.
    At year's end he faced charges of ``propagation against the regime'' in
    connection with his membership in the DHRC, according to news reports.
    His sister, Parvin Tajik was also sentenced to 18 months in prison for
    pursuing her brother's case.
        On July 28, a court sentenced Mostafa Kazzazi, the publisher of
    banned reformist daily Seda-ye Edalat, in absentia to 11 months in jail
    on charges of ``propaganda against the Islamic regime'' and inciting
    unrest. He was in prison at year's end.
        In October authorities arrested two German reporters while they
    were interviewing the family of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani (see section
    1.e.). At year's end the two reporters remained in custody.
        On at least two occasions in December, police officials raided the
    offices of reformist daily Sharq and arrested editor in chief Ahmad
    Gholami, managing director Ali Khodabaksh, and reporters Kayvan
    Mehregan, Amir Hadi Anvari, Rayhaneh Tabatabaee, and Mehran Faraji.
    Local news sites reported that Tehran's general and revolutionary
    courts prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi said the arrests were based
    on ``security charges.'' Authorities reportedly released Gholami,
    Khodabaksh, and Anvari on bail before year's end, but Mehregan,
    Tabatabaee, and Faraji reportedly remained in prison. According to
    press reports, an unidentified Sharq journalist said authorities raided
    the newspaper offices because of an upcoming Students' Day issue.
        On December 9, Branch 28 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court
    sentenced Mashallah Shamsolvaezin, head of the journalists' association
    and a prominent reform journalist, to 16 months in prison for
    ``insulting the president'' and ``weakening'' the Government based on
    interviews he gave to international media. At year's end it did not
    appear as though his sentence had begun.
        There were updates in several cases from previous years.
        On October 9, the Tehran Revolutionary Court sentenced Saeed
    Razavi-Faghih, a former editorial writer for several reformist
    newspapers and former member of the Office of Consolidating Unity (a
    reformist student organization), in absentia to four years'
    imprisonment and 74 lashes for antiregime propaganda, participating in
    illegal gatherings, and insulting the supreme leader, and it summoned
    him to Evin Prison to begin his sentence. In January 2009 security
    agents confiscated his passport when he returned to the country from
    France, where he had been studying since 2004. At year's end he
    remained in prison.
        On February 1, an intelligence court summoned Alireza Saghafi and
    held him until February 14. Saghafi, who edited the magazine Rah
    Ayandeh until authorities closed it in 2008, was sentenced to three
    years in prison. In January an appeals court confirmed the one-year
    suspended prison sentence for Amir Yaghoubali, a journalist for the
    daily Etemad for ``activities against national security'' and
    ``disturbing public order'' based on his writings. Authorities arrested
    the two journalists along with several others in May 2009 during
    International Workers Day demonstrations.
        According to RSF, authorities arrested more than 100 journalists
    after the June 2009 election, and 30 others fled the country, the
    largest exodus of journalists since the 1979 revolution.
        Mohammad Ghouchani, a journalist and editor in chief of the banned
    Etemad Meli daily, who was detained from June through October 2009,
    reported that intelligence agents continued to harass him during the
    year.
        In January a court sentenced journalist and editor of Khorade-no
    Bahman Ahmadi-Amoee to seven years in prison and 34 lashes, reduced in
    March by an appeals court to five years' imprisonment. There was no
    information as to whether the lashing sentence was upheld. After a
    brief visit home, Ahmadi-Amoee began serving his sentence in Evin
    Prison on May 30. He remained in prison at year's end. On June 8, the
    26th Chamber of the Tehran Revolutionary Court sentenced his wife Jila
    Baniyaghoub to one year in prison and banned her from working as a
    journalist for 30 years, reportedly due to her writings related to
    election events and women's rights, and October 25 press reports stated
    that an appeals court had confirmed the verdict. Baniyaghoub's lawyer
    said there was no legal basis for the 30-year journalism ban. In June
    2009 authorities arrested the two journalists in their home.
    Authorities reportedly prevented Ahmadi-Amoee's access to legal counsel
    and held him in solitary confinement for 65 days; his lawyer had no
    access to any government evidence against him.
        On May 10, Branch 26 of the Revolutionary Court sentenced Iranian-
    Canadian Newsweek reporter Maziar Bahari in absentia to 13 years in
    prison and 74 lashes for conspiring against the state for his presence
    at postelection protests, possession of ``secret'' documents based on a
    public court document relating to arrests, propagandizing against the
    system, insulting the supreme leader by implying that he was a
    dictator, disrupting public order by reporting on a clash between
    protesters and Basij forces, and insulting the president. Authorities
    arrested Bahari in June 2009 and held him until they permitted him to
    leave the country in October. Bahari remained in outside the country at
    year's end.
        At year's end despite serious health problems, journalist and
    member of the Committee for Human Rights Reporters Hengameh Shahidi
    continued to serve her six-year sentence in Evin Prison for
    participating in postelection demonstrations and ``spreading propaganda
    against the holy Islamic Regime,'' based on an interview with the
    ``antirevolutionary'' BBC. On October 28, authorities reportedly
    granted medical leave to Shahidi, originally arrested in June 2009, but
    returned her to prison on November 14 with no explanation.
        At year's end journalist and blogger Shiva Nazar Ahari was free
    pending the start of her sentence for four years' imprisonment and 74
    lashes based on her political and journalistic activities. In December
    2009 authorities arrested her and two of her colleagues from the
    Committee for Human Rights Reporters as they were headed to Qom for
    Grand Ayatollah Montazeri's funeral; she remained in prison until
    released on bail on September 12. On January 20, security forces
    released her colleague, Nasrin Vaziri, after detaining her for almost a
    month.
        According to international media, authorities released Syrian
    national Reza al-Bacha on January 10. He was arrested in December 2009
    while reporting on demonstrations.
        On October 15, authorities released Kalemeh Sabz editor Alireza
    Behshtipour Shirazi on a bail of 5 million toman ($5,000) pending trial
    for ``acting against national security.'' The editor was arrested in
    December 2009.
        In December the CPJ reported that writer and journalist Mostafa
    Izadi remained in prison.
        There was no information as to the status of journalist Mohammad-
    Hossein Falahiezadeh, whom authorities transferred to Evin Prison's
    medical clinic due to his critical health situation in September 2009.
    Falahiezadeh had served his 2008 prison sentence for reporting on
    street protests by members of the Ahvazi Arab minority, but MOIS
    officials reportedly stated his release was contingent on meeting bail,
    which he could not afford.
        During the year the Government banned, blocked, closed, and
    censored publications that were critical of the Government. The media
    law forbids government censorship, but it also forbids disseminating
    information that it considered damaging to the Government. Government
    officials also routinely intimidated journalists into practicing self-
    censorship. Public officials often lodged criminal complaints against
    reformist newspapers; the PSB referred complaints to the media court
    for further action, including closure and fines. The court conducted
    its hearings in public with a jury of appointed clerics, government
    officials, and editors of government-controlled newspapers. Some human
    rights groups asserted that the increasingly conservative media court
    assumed responsibility for cases before PSB consideration. The
    Government censored both reformist and conservative newspapers after
    they published articles contradicting the official line, and it
    permanently closed others during the year, including more than 10
    national publications including Etemad, the country's largest
    circulation reformist daily, and the weekly Irandokht magazine (early
    March), Shahrvand-e Emrouz (November 8), Chelcheragh (November 20), and
    Shargh (December 8). The following papers banned in 2009 remained so:
    Kalameh Sabz, Etemad-e Melli, the business newspaper Sarmayeh, and
    Hayat-e no.
        According to an August 18 ruling by the Ministry of Culture and
    Islamic Guidance allegedly obtained by an opposition group, the
    publication ban on any news or information related to opposition
    figures Mehdi Karroubi and Mir-Hossein Mousavi and former president
    Mohamad Khatami continued.
        In December 2009 according to RSF, the Ministry of Culture and
    Islamic Guidance issued a directive banning print and Internet articles
    about cleric Grand Ayatollah Montazeri, a critic of the Government who
    died on December 19. At year's end the ban remained in effect.
        At various times in 2008, government officials advised reporters
    not to use the names of unauthorized political parties and to ``censor
    pages which are likely to create a dispute,'' observing the country's
    ``religious, moral, and national sensitivities.''
        The Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance must grant permission
    to publish any book, and it inspected foreign printed materials prior
    to their domestic release.

        Internet Freedom.--NGOs reported that the Government continued to
    increase control over the Internet during the year as more citizens
    used it as a source for news and political debate. According to 2010
    Internet World Stats, approximately 43 percent of the country's
    inhabitants used the Internet.
        The Government monitored Internet communications, especially via
    social networking Web sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, and
    collected individuals' personally identifiable information in
    connection with peaceful expression of views. The Government
    threatened, harassed, and arrested individuals who posted comments
    critical of the Government on the Internet; in some cases it reportedly
    confiscated their passports or arrested their family members (see
    section 1.f.). Freedom House and other human rights organizations
    reported that authorities sometimes stopped citizens at Tehran
    International Airport as they arrived in the country, asked them to log
    into their YouTube and Facebook accounts, and in some cases forced them
    to delete information.
        On February 10, the country's telecommunications agency announced
    that it had permanently suspended Google's e-mail service; however,
    ``G-mail'' services continued throughout the year and were only
    periodically interrupted.
        All Internet service providers (ISPs) must be approved by the
    Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance. The Government also required
    all owners of Web sites and blogs in the country to register with the
    Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance; in practice, this regulation
    was rarely enforced. The Press Law and penal code both apply to
    electronic media, and the PSB and judiciary used such laws to close Web
    sites during the year. The Government also used filtering software to
    block access to domestic blogs on all sides of the political spectrum
    and some Western Web sites, reportedly including the Web sites of
    prominent Western news organizations and NGOs. According to RSF the
    Government blocked access to thousands of Web sites during the year,
    and in some cases ISPs redirected computer users from opposition Web
    sites to progovernment news sites.
        The Government also censored Web site content to control citizens'
    access to information. According to Freedom House, content from
    opposition leaders' Web sites was deleted during the year. The
    Government also imposed limits on Internet speed and technology, making
    it difficult to download Internet material or to circumvent government
    restrictions to access blocked Web sites. According to multiple sources
    the Government's ability to censor the Internet improved during the
    year. Internet NGOs reported that the Government was attempting to
    block Internet users' access to circumvention technology. According to
    RSF, the Committee in Charge of Determining Unauthorized Web Sites--
    which included representatives from the Ministry of Communications and
    Information Technology, the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance,
    the Ministry of National Security, and the Tehran Public Prosecutor's
    Office--determined blocking criteria.
        During the periods prior to the anniversary of the Islamic
    Revolution (February 11), the anniversary of the 2009 presidential
    election (June 12), and Students' Day (December 7), authorities slowed
    Internet access and blocked access to Facebook and Twitter.
        During the year the Government prosecuted and punished persons for
    peaceful expression of dissenting views via the Internet.
        On February 25, authorities issued a 91-day prison sentence for
    blogger Mohammad Esmaeelzadeh for ``insulting the supreme leader,'' and
    Esmaeelzadeh served the sentence during the year. According to ICHRI,
    the Babol prosecutor's office awarded him a four day furlough in April
    ostensibly attend his child's birth, although he was not allowed to
    leave the town of Babol and travel to Karaj where his family lived.
        From June 20 until his temporary release on bail on August 9,
    authorities detained Hamed Saber, a freelance photographer, after he
    posted photographs he took of Tehran street protests on photo-sharing
    Web sites such as Flickr and Picasa. There were no updates on his case
    at year's end.
        On September 18, according to RSF, eight intelligence ministry
    officials entered student blogger Navid Mohebbi's home and arrested
    him. Authorities released him from Sari Prison on December 25 after a
    revolutionary court sentenced him to a three-year suspended sentence.
    He was charged with membership in and support for the One Million
    Signatures Campaign (see section 6, Women), acting against national
    security, propaganda against the state through connection with foreign
    media, insulting the founder of the Islamic Republic, and insulting the
    supreme leader. Mohebbi's trial took place behind closed doors; not
    even his lawyer attended.
        There were developments in several cases from previous years.
        In July the Second Branch of the Ghazvin Revolutionary Court
    reportedly sentenced blogger and physician Ali Asguar Jamali, to three
    years' imprisonment for insulting the supreme leader and antiregime
    propaganda. Jamali, who defends workers' rights, wrote a blog called
    Dr. Social-Democrat. According to cyberdissidents.org, at year's end he
    remained in jail.
        At year's end Mohammad Nourizad, originally arrested in December
    2009, remained in Evin Prison serving a three-year sentence (see
    section 1.c.).
        There was no evidence of any government investigation into the
    March 2009 death of 25-year-old blogger Omid Reza Mirsayafi in the
    medical ward of Evin Prison, reportedly due to an overdose of a
    medication he received from the prison clinic for depression. In 2008 a
    Tehran revolutionary court sentenced Mirsayafi to 30 months in prison
    for propaganda against the state and criticism of the supreme leader.
        Internet journalist and cleric Mojtaba Lotfi continued to serve a
    four-year prison sentence imposed in 2008 for posting online a sermon
    by Grand Ayatollah Montazeri, a well-known opponent of Supreme Leader
    Khamenei, that criticized President Ahmadi-Nejad's claim that Iran was
    ``the world's freest country.'' According to RSF, Lotfi suffered from
    lung problems stemming from Iran-Iraq war injuries.
        In September a court sentenced well-known blogger and dual Iranian-
    Canadian citizen Hossein Derakhshan to 19 and one-half years in prison
    and a five-year ban from political or journalistic activities. At
    year's end he reportedly remained in Evin Prison pending appeal.
    Authorities arrested Derakhshan in 2008 while he was visiting the
    country and allegedly subjected him to psychological and physical abuse
    in detention, according to the NGO HRAI.
        Blogger and women's rights activist Shahnaz Gholami was in asylum
    in France at year's end. On April 3, IHRV reported that Branch 2 of the
    Revolutionary Court in Tabriz sentenced her to eight years in prison
    for publishing articles considered devoid of truth, spreading
    propaganda against the regime, and alleged MEK membership. Gholami was
    arrested in 2008 for publishing ``propaganda'' and ``jeopardizing
    national security.''
        There were no updates in the case of bloggers Omid Memarian,
    Roozbeh Mirebrahimi, Shahram Rafizadeh, and Javad Gholamtamimi,
    sentenced in February 2009 to prison terms of up to three years, fines,
    and flogging despite the judiciary head's admission that the bloggers'
    confessions were coerced. Memarian, Mirebrahimi, and Rafizadeh were
    sentenced in absentia as they remained abroad at year's end;
    Gholamtamimi continued to reside in the country during the year. The
    four were originally arrested in 2004.

        Academic Freedom and Cultural Events.--The Government significantly
    restricted academic freedom and the independence of higher education
    institutions. Authorities systematically targeted university campuses
    to suppress social and political activism, including by banning
    independent student organizations, imprisoning student activists,
    purging faculty, depriving targeted students from enrolling or
    continuing their higher education based on political affiliation or
    activism (see section 3), and banning social sciences and humanities
    curricula. Authorities continued to dismiss university professors in
    accordance with a 2006 presidential call for the removal of secular and
    liberal professors. To obtain tenure, professors had to refrain from
    criticism of authorities.
        In August the director of the Office of Development of Higher
    Education announced that the Government would begin restricting the
    number of students admitted to humanities programs at universities, and
    in October authorities placed restrictions on social sciences
    education, barring universities from opening new departments of law,
    philosophy, management, psychology, political science, women's studies,
    or human rights. The Government also announced it would revise at least
    70 percent of the existing social sciences curricula, and there were
    reports that the changes had begun at year's end.
        Also in October the supreme leader declared the private financial
    endowment of Azad University was religiously illegitimate, leading the
    way for a potential government takeover. Azad University, supported by
    former President Rafsanjani, has hundreds of branches in Iran and
    several outside the country. Azad University's main branch in Tehran
    was a major site for the June 2009 election protests.
        According to AI, in October 2009 authorities banned from teaching
    five prominent law professors from Alameh Tabatabai University's law
    school. Local news reports noted that the professors taught human
    rights courses at the university.
        The Government censored cultural events with stringent controls on
    cinema and theater and a ban on some foreign music. On June 1, the
    Government announced a ban on music education in private schools,
    already banned in public schools, and on August 3, media reported that
    the supreme leader advised against the practice and teaching of music
    in general, although music continued in the media at year's end. The
    Government monitored cultural associations and continued to crack down
    on underground music groups, especially those it considered inspired by
    Satan, such as heavy metal or similar foreign music. Authorities banned
    broadcasting of certain singers' music and certain songs from
    government-owned radio stations for unspecified reasons.
        Throughout the year there were reports that security forces raided
    recording studios and underground concerts. In May police raided an
    underground concert outside of Tehran and arrested 80 individuals for
    being improperly dressed and for drinking alcohol. In November Tehran
    police reportedly arrested male and female members of an underground
    rap group for ``immoral'' and ``un-Islamic'' behavior and for drinking
    alcohol. There was no information at year's end about the status or
    whereabouts of those arrested in either case.
        On July 21, President Ahmadinejad established the High Council for
    Cinema to conduct the country's cinema policy, and the group reportedly
    held its first meeting on December 30. As the main source of production
    funding, the Government effectively censored domestic filmmaking.
    Producers were required to submit scripts and film proposals to
    government officials in advance of funding approval. Movies promoting
    secularism, feminism, unethical behavior, drug abuse, violence, or
    alcoholism were illegal, and some domestic directors were blacklisted.
        On March 1, plainclothes police officers raided the home of award-
    winning film director Jafar Panahi and arrested him along with his wife
    and daughter, film director Mohammad Rasulov, and 15 other individuals,
    most of whom were released a few days later. According to some sources,
    Panahi and Rasulov were working together to make a documentary about
    the 2009 postelection protests. On December 20, a court convicted
    Panahi and Rasulov with participating in a gathering and making
    propaganda against the regime and sentenced them both to six years in
    prison, and Panahi also to a 20-year ban from making films, writing
    scripts, giving interviews, and traveling abroad. At year's end both
    filmmakers remained free pending the outcome of their appeals. Most of
    Panahi's films are banned in the country.
        In September Culture Minister Sayyed Mohammad Hosseini publicly
    criticized the country's annual film festival for supporting the Green
    Movement. The Ministry later revoked the production license for Asghar
    Farhadi's film Separation of Nader and Simin. Farhardi was permitted to
    resume production in October.

        b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association.--Freedom of
    Assembly.--The constitution permits assemblies and marches ``provided
    they do not violate the principles of Islam''; in practice the
    Government restricted freedom of assembly and closely monitored
    gatherings to prevent antigovernment protests. Such gatherings included
    public entertainment and lectures, student meetings and protests, labor
    protests, women's gatherings and protests, funeral processions, and
    Friday prayer gatherings. According to activists, the Government
    arbitrarily applied rules governing permits to assemble, with
    conservative groups rarely experiencing difficulty and groups viewed as
    critical of the Government experiencing harassment regardless of
    whether a permit was issued. During the year authorities arrested,
    tried, and imprisoned individuals who participated in demonstrations
    since 2006.
        The Government continued to prohibit and forcibly disperse peaceful
    demonstrations during the year. Paramilitary organizations such as
    Ansar-e Hizballah also harassed, beat, and intimidated those who
    demonstrated publicly for reform. They particularly targeted university
    students.
        According to a February ICHRI release, authorities collected
    photographs of expatriate citizens in protest gatherings outside the
    country. When those citizens entered or left the country via Imam
    Khomeini International Airport in Tehran, security officials
    temporarily detained them for questioning.
        On December 7, students held peaceful demonstrations at various
    universities in the country, including Qazvin Azad University, Tehran
    Polytechnic University, Gilan University, and the Tehran School of Art,
    to protest the restrictions on humanities studies (see section 2.a.,
    Academic Freedom and Cultural Events), as well as the imprisonment of
    students. Paramilitary Basij forces responded by breaking up gatherings
    and detaining dozens of students.
        In a global study released on February 5, the UN special rapporteur
    on torture stated that the June 2009 election protests ``were met with
    excessive violence by the police and government militias.'' He said he
    received ``credible allegations'' of the killing of at least 12
    students participating in the protests and pointed at agents of the
    Revolutionary Guards, paramilitary Basij, and State Security Force as
    employing ``extreme force to suppress protesters by opening fire during
    demonstrations and using pepper spray and batons to disperse
    demonstrations.''
        In September an appeals court rejected the appeal of Mohammad
    Tavakoli, charged with ``gathering,'' ``collusion against the regime,''
    ``propagating against the regime,'' and ``insulting the supreme leader
    and the president.'' At year's end he was serving his eight and one-
    half-year prison term in Ward 3 of Gohardasht Prison in Karaj. The
    ICHRI reported that he had no access to his lawyer during his
    imprisonment or trial. In February 2009 authorities arrested
    approximately 20 participants in a ceremony commemorating the life of
    Mehdi Bazargan, the first prime minister appointed after the 1979
    revolution. The group included Tavakoli and at least three other men
    from Tehran Polytechnic (Amir Kabir) University's Islamic Students
    Association--Esmail Salmanpour, Hossein Torkashvand, and Koroush
    Daneshyar--who reportedly were detained in Ward 209 of Evin Prison. All
    the detainees except Tavakoli were believed to be free at year's end.
    On December 5, prior to Student Day, authorities arrested Esmail
    Salmanpour and held him for two weeks.
        In February 2009 more than 1,500 Amir Kabir University students
    demonstrated against the Government's plan to rebury soldiers from the
    Iran-Iraq War on university grounds. According to AI, security forces
    arrested four Amir Kabir University students, Abbas Hakimzadeh, Mehdi
    Mashayekhi, Nariman Mostafavi, and Ahmad Qasaban, along with 70 other
    students during the demonstrations. Authorities later released 40 of
    the students. There was no information regarding the status of the
    remaining detained students at year's end.

        Freedom of Association.--The constitution provides for the
    establishment of political parties, professional associations, Islamic
    religious groups, and organizations for recognized religious
    minorities, as long as such groups do not violate the principles of
    ``freedom, sovereignty, and national unity'' or question Islam as the
    basis of the Islamic Republic. The Government limited freedom of
    association in practice through threats, intimidation, imposing
    arbitrary requirements on organizations, and arresting group leaders
    and members. According to a January 2009 HRW report, under the Ahmadi-
    Nejad administration, municipal, provincial, and national councils--
    established by 2005 regulations ostensibly to facilitate NGOs' permit
    process--instead served to suppress NGO activities. Such councils
    generally denied NGOs' applications without written explanation,
    especially in minority regions, where those who successfully obtained
    permits nevertheless faced harassment (see section 6, National/Ethnic/
    Racial Minorities).
        In November according to the Wall Street Journal, plainclothes
    agents without warrants arrested four of the five new central committee
    members of the Office for Fostering Student Unity (Tahkim-e Vahdat), a
    politically active student group, immediately after the group's
    elections were held. The group said the Government pressured it not to
    hold the elections. Authorities released Ali Qolizadeh, Alireza Kiani,
    and Mohamad Heydarzadeh by early December, but as of December 7, Mohsen
    Barzegar remained in Evin Prison without access to family or a lawyer.
    The Ministry of Science, Technology, and Research declared Tahkim-e
    Vahdat illegal in 2009. On October 31, Raja News, a Persian-language
    Web site HRW believes is affiliated with the Intelligence Ministry, ran
    an article accusing several Tahkim-e Vahdat members of having ties with
    the MEK. Tahkim-e Vahdat rejected these allegations.
        Throughout the year the Government reportedly continued to exert
    significant pressure on the DHRC, a Tehran NGO headed by Nobel Peace
    Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi (see section 5).
        The journalists' union and other labor-related groups also
    continued to face problems during the year (see section 7).

        c. Freedom of Religion.--For a complete description of religious
    freedom, please see the 2010 International Religious Freedom Report at
    www.state.gov/g/drl/irf/rpt.www.state.gov/g/drl/irf/rpt

        d. Freedom of Movement, Internally Displaced Persons, Protection of
    Refugees, and Stateless Persons.--The constitution provides for freedom
    of movement within the country, foreign travel, and emigration, and
    repatriation. The Government placed some restrictions on these rights.
    The Government cooperated with the Office of the UN High Commissioner
    for Refugees (UNHCR) with regard to refugees from Afghanistan and Iraq.
        The Government required exit permits for foreign travel for all
    citizens. Some citizens, particularly those whose skills were in demand
    and who were educated at government expense, had to post bond to obtain
    an exit permit. The Government also restricted foreign travel of some
    religious leaders and individual members of religious minorities and
    scientists in sensitive fields, and it increasingly targeted
    journalists, academics, opposition politicians, and activists--
    including women's rights activists--for travel bans and passport
    confiscation during the year. The Government banned travel to Israel,
    but this ban was reportedly not enforced.
        There were no updates on the travel bans on prominent attorney
    Naser Zarafshan, academic Mehdi Zakerian, DHRC deputy Narges Mohammadi,
    and peace activist Sorayra Azizpanaha.
        In March, Simin Behbehani, a renowned Iranian poet, was barred from
    boarding a flight to France. Authorities questioned her and confiscated
    her passport. At year's end, authorities continued to bar her from
    leaving the country.
        On December 20, a court sentenced filmmaker Jafar Panahi, who was
    restricted from travel in October 2009, to six years in prison (see
    section 2.a., Academic Freedom and Cultural Events).
        A woman must have the permission of her husband, father, or other
    male relative to obtain a passport. A married woman must receive
    written permission from her husband before she leaves the country.
        The Government did not use forced external exile, but it used
    internal exile as a punishment. Many dissidents practiced self-imposed
    exile to be able to express their beliefs freely.
        There were indications that members of all religious minorities
    were emigrating at a high rate, although it was unclear whether the
    reasons for emigration were religious or economic.

        Protection of Refugees.--The country's laws provide means for
    granting asylum or refugee status to qualified applicants, and the
    Government reportedly had a system for providing protection to
    refugees, but the UNHCR did not have any information as to how the
    country made asylum determinations. The Government did not consistently
    provide protection against the expulsion or return of refugees to
    countries where their lives or freedom would be threatened on account
    of their race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social
    group, or political opinion. Unlike in the previous years, there were
    no reports of registered refugees included in mass deportations.
        As of March, according to information provided by the country's
    Bureau for Aliens and Foreign Immigrants' Affairs, 1,065,000 refugees
    were registered with the authorities, of whom approximately 1,021,600
    were Afghans and 43,800 were Iraqis. Approximately 70 percent of the
    Afghan refugees and their children had lived in the country for 20 to
    30 years. There were 3,590 Iraqis registered with the UNHCR at year's
    end. The UNHCR assisted with the voluntary repatriation of Afghan
    refugees under a tripartite agreement between the Islamic Republic of
    Iran, Afghanistan, and the UNHCR, which came back into force on June 28
    after three years of suspension.
        Twenty-two of 30 provinces were partially or fully closed to
    refugees; therefore, authorities generally required registered Afghan
    refugees in these ``No-Go Areas'' to choose either to relocate to
    refugee settlements, sometimes in other parts of the country, or to
    repatriate. However, the UNHCR noted that some of these refugee
    settlements needed rehabilitation. The limited number of resettlement
    locations is a major constraint for the UNHCR to assist refugees with
    relocation within the country. Of the 7,922 Afghans who repatriated
    from January 1 to November 7, the vast majority said they were under
    pressure to return due to the Government's No-Go Areas policy.
        According to the UNHCR, the Government's reregistration campaign
    launched in 2008 to assist male refugees to obtain work permits enabled
    more refugees to work in the country. The law allows only male refugees
    to work, but UNHCR has in the past provided limited assistance to
    female refugees.
        In July 2009 according to the UNHCR, the Government announced a
    policy to treat the enrollment of all school-age children, including
    lawful foreign residents and registered refugees, in the same manner.
    However, at year's end there was no information available about how the
    new policy was enforced. According to 2009 reports, more than a quarter
    of primary-school-aged refugees were not enrolled in school. The U.S.
    Committee for Refugees and Immigrants reported in 2008 that Afghan
    refugee children were charged fees to attend school, while Iraqi
    refugee children were able attend public school for free. In some
    cases, local government officials reportedly suspended education
    services for refugees to encourage them to repatriate.

    Section 3. Respect for Political Rights: The Right of Citizens to
            Change Their Government
        The constitution provides citizens the right to peacefully change
    the president and the parliament through free and fair elections, but
    the authority of unelected representatives over the election process
    severely abridged this right in practice. The Assembly of Experts
    elects the supreme leader, the recognized head of state, who may be
    removed only by a vote of the assembly. The supreme leader exercises
    influence over the Government appointments of the 12 clerics and
    religious jurists who make up the Guardian Council. The Guardian
    Council then approves the list of candidates for the Assembly of
    Experts, whose 86 members must also be clerics, who serve eight-year
    terms and are chosen by popular vote. There was no separation of state
    and religion, and clerical influence pervaded the Government. The
    supreme leader also approved presidential candidates.

        Elections and Political Participation.--In June 2009 the country
    held its 10th presidential election, which outside observers regarded
    as neither free nor fair. International observers were not allowed
    entry to monitor the election results. The Guardian Council approved
    only four candidates out of more than 450 prospective candidates,
    including 42 women and former officials. No women were approved to run
    as candidates. Authorities increased censorship and surveillance during
    the campaign, blocking cell phone signals and access to social
    networking and opposition Web sites. The Government also reportedly
    harassed and arbitrarily arrested political activists, members of the
    country's religious and ethnic minority communities, students, trade
    unionists, and women's rights activists during the preelection period.
        For example, in April 2009 authorities detained Mehdi Mo'tamedi
    Mehr, a member of the Committee to Defend Free, Healthy, and Fair
    Elections and the banned political organization the Freedom Movement of
    Iran, after the committee published a statement about civil society
    institutions as election observers. In December 2009 according to local
    press reports, the MOIS summoned Mehr and other members of the Freedom
    Movement, and at year's end they remained in detention.
        In May 2009 authorities detained Emad Bahavar, also a member of the
    Freedom Movement, for ``spreading propaganda against the system'' by
    campaigning for presidential candidate Mousavi. According to IHRV, he
    was released 96 hours later. He was detained again in June 2009 and was
    released after 46 days in solitary confinement. Nine months later on
    March 7, Bahavar defended himself at a trial for his June 2009
    detention and was immediately arrested. On November 29, Bahavar was
    convicted of ``assembly and collusion to act against national
    security,'' ``propagating against the regime,'' and ``insulting the
    leader.'' He was sentenced to a 10-year prison term and a 10-year ban
    on any political activity. At year's end he remained in Evin Prison.
        Anecdotal evidence suggested that authorities forced some election
    observers representing opposition candidates to leave polling stations
    and that millions of unused paper ballots went missing. Before all
    polls closed and ballot counting had commenced, government-controlled
    media announced that President Ahmadi-Nejad had been reelected in the
    first round of elections, obtaining a majority of the votes. Contrary
    to the election law, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei approved the
    election results before the Guardian Council certified the election and
    before the Interior Ministry announced the final results. Independent
    analysts studied election data and concluded there were a number of
    irregularities, including at least two provinces showing a turnout of
    more than 100 percent and the absence of longstanding regional
    variations in turnout, which appeared abnormal despite regulations that
    allow Iranians to vote at any polling station. According to official
    government data, President Ahmadi-Nejad took not only all former
    conservative voters, all former centrist voters, and all new voters,
    but also up to 44 percent of former reformist voters, a scenario
    analysts questioned.
        The constitution allows for the formation of political parties,
    although the Interior Ministry granted licenses only to parties with
    ideological and practical adherence to the system of government
    embodied in the constitution. There were more than 240 registered
    political organizations that generally operated without restriction or
    outside interference, but most were small entities, often focused
    around an individual, and did not have nationwide membership. Members
    of political parties and individuals with any political affiliation
    that the Government deemed unacceptable faced harassment, violence, and
    sometimes imprisonment.
        In 2009 both former presidential candidates experienced raids on
    their homes and offices. Specifically, in early September militants
    believed to be connected to the Government repeatedly targeted the home
    of former presidential candidate Mehdi Karroubi in consecutive evening
    attacks. On September 16, security forces raided the office of former
    presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi.
        In March Minister of Science, Research, and Technology Kamrn
    Daneshjoo said that only those who have proven commitment to Islam and
    the ``rule of the jurisprudent'' (velayat-e-faghih) can teach or study
    at universities, and during the year the Government continued to
    dismiss professors and ban students from higher education institutions
    based on their political affiliations or actions. According to the
    ICHRI, university officials dismissed or forced the retirement of at
    least 50 university faculty members during the year for their
    affiliation or support of the Green Movement. For example, in August
    the Ministry of Science suddenly dismissed Yousef Sobouti, head of the
    Institute for Advanced Studies in Basic Sciences in Zanjan Province,
    allegedly for political reasons, and replaced him with a scientist
    reportedly known to have links with the Basij militia. Following calls
    for an investigation into the dismissals and retirements, various
    members of the parliament called for a review; however, at year's end,
    no formal investigation had been launched.
        The two leading reformist political parties, Islamic Iran
    Participation Front and the Islamic Revolution Mujahedin Organization,
    were banned in September.
        Admission to universities was politicized; in addition to
    standardized examinations, all applicants had to pass ``character
    tests'' in which officials eliminated applicants critical of the
    Government's ideology. According to a December ICHRI report, there were
    at least 70 such cases during the year. Basij members were given
    advantages in the admissions process. During the previous three years,
    according to the ICHRI, government interference with university
    admissions considerably increased.
        Authorities relied on university disciplinary committees to
    suspend, transfer, or expel enrolled students based on social and
    political activism, involvement in student publications, or
    participation in student associations. Student groups reported that a
    ``star'' system inaugurated by the Government in 2005 to rank
    politically active students was still in use. Students deemed
    antigovernment through this system reportedly were prevented from
    registering for upcoming terms. Repeated suspensions through this
    mechanism resulted in effectively denying the rights of targeted
    students to complete and continue their studies.
        During the year Ministry of Intelligence agents used threats,
    intimidation, and arrests to silence students who attempted to seek
    accountability and legal justification for their deprivation from
    higher education.
        For instance, during the year a disciplinary committee at Qazvin
    International University expelled Payam Heydar Ghazvini, who was in the
    last term of his theology and law studies, and banned him from any
    university for three years. Ghazvini was the head student campaigner
    for opposition presidential candidate Mehdi Karroubi in Qazvin
    Province.
        Also during the year the Central Disciplinary Committee expelled
    Kazem Rezaee from Shiraz University, where he was studying mechanical
    engineering. Rezaee was editor in chief of the student publication
    Farvardin and was arrested four times for his student activism between
    2007 and 2009.
        In November the Ministry of Science confirmed the expulsion of
    Kaveh Daneshvar from Babol's Noshirvani Industrial University.
    Daneshvar went on a hunger strike in 2009 to protest the arrests of
    Babol University's student activists during the postelection events.
        According to the Guardian Council's interpretation, the
    constitution barred women and persons of non-Iranian origin or
    religions other than Shia Islam from becoming president. Women were
    also barred from serving as supreme leader; as members of the Assembly
    of Experts, Guardian Council, or Expediency Council (a body responsible
    for mediating between the Majles and the Guardian Council and serving
    as a consultative council for the supreme leader); and as certain types
    of judges (see section 6, Women). On December 20, President Ahmadi-
    Nejad appointed Farahnaz Torkestani to a vicepresidential cabinet post
    as head of the National Youth Organization. Women also served as the
    vice presidents of legal affairs and science and technology and as the
    health minister. Twelve women served in the Majles during the year.
        Five Majles seats were reserved for recognized religious
    minorities. Other ethnic minorities in the Majles included Arabs and
    Kurds. There were no non-Muslims in the cabinet or on the Supreme
    Court.

    Section 4. Official Corruption and Government Transparency
        The law provides criminal penalties for official corruption, but
    the Government did not implement the law effectively, and official
    corruption and impunity remained a serious and ubiquitous problem in
    all three branches of government. In a September interview with state
    media, former prosecutor general Ayatollah Abdolnabi Namazi alleged
    that judiciary officials were under pressure not to pursue corruption
    charges against cases referred to the Committee to Fight Economic
    Corruption. Many officials expected bribes for providing even routine
    service. Individuals routinely bribed officials in order to obtain
    permits for illegal construction.
        According to a May report by the Foundation for Defense of
    Democracies' Iran Energy Project, the supreme leader continued to
    transfer a large portion of the country's commerce, industry, oil and
    gas, and services sectors to the IRGC. In recent years the Government
    gave control over state enterprises to the IRGC through the granting of
    special privileges. IRGC companies were large enough to underbid
    competitors and were generally favored in the bidding process for large
    contracts. In October the IRGC was awarded a road-building contract of
    15 trillion toman ($15 billion), the largest in the country's history.
    According to the report, the IRGC does not answer to either the
    executive or legislative branches with regard to its economic
    activities and does not publish any records or reports about its
    revenues. Under a 1993 decree, all of the IRGC's economic activities
    are exempt from taxation. The IRGC is also widely considered to control
    the vast majority of the underground and black market economy. Up to 80
    percent of illegal goods enter the country through unregistered ports
    and jetties controlled by the IRGC.
        According to Freedom House, the hardline clerical establishment
    also grew wealthy through its control of bonyads, tax-exempt
    foundations that monopolize many sectors of the economy such as cement
    and sugar production. Bonyads receive benefits from the Government but
    are not required to have their budgets publicly approved.
        All government officials, including cabinet ministers and members
    of the Guardian Council, Expediency Council, and Assembly of Experts,
    were required to submit annual financial statements to the state
    inspectorate. There was no information available regarding whether
    these officials obeyed the law.
        Numerous government agencies existed to fight corruption, including
    the Anticorruption Headquarters, the Anticorruption Task Force, the
    Committee to Fight Economic Corruption, and the General Inspection
    Organization.
        In late January according to media reports, intelligence agents
    arrested 15 individuals in Karaj, including the mayor and three city
    council members, under embezzlement charges. The cases of the detained
    were forwarded to the Karaj public prosecutor, but there was no further
    information regarding the case at year's end.
        On December 20, the judiciary announced that First Vice President
    Mohammad Reza Rahimi would face corruption charges. In April members of
    parliament had publicly accused Rahimi of corruption. Rahimi denied the
    charges. At year's end there were no updates about the status of the
    charges, and Rahimi remained in his position.
        There were no developments related to the February 2009 National
    Audit Office report that revealed that the Oil Ministry had not
    returned 1.2 trillion toman ($1.2 billion) in oil revenues to the
    treasury or to the November 2009 parliamentary commission's criticism
    of the Government's recent privatization efforts, which concluded that
    the Government essentially gave the national telecommunications company
    to the IRGC.
        There were no laws providing for public access to government
    information.

    Section 5. Governmental Attitude Regarding International and
            Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations of Human
            Rights
        The Government continued to restrict the work of human rights
    groups and activists and sometimes responded to their inquiries and
    reports with harassment, arrests, monitoring, unlawful raids, and
    closures (see also sections 1.d., 1.e., 2.a., 6, and 7). The Government
    continued to deny the universality of human rights and stated that
    human rights issues should be viewed in the context of a country's
    ``culture and beliefs.''
        Hundreds of domestic NGOs focused on issues such as health and
    population, women's rights, development, youth, environmental
    protection, human rights, and sustainable development, despite the
    restrictive environment, including pressure not to accept foreign
    grants. NGOs must register with the Interior Ministry and apply for
    permission to receive foreign grants. According to various sources,
    independent human rights groups and other NGOs faced intensifying
    harassment and threat of closure from government officials as a result
    of prolonged and often arbitrary delays in obtaining official
    registration.
        During the year the Government prevented human rights defenders,
    civil society activists, journalists, and scholars from traveling
    abroad (see section 2.d.). Human rights activists reported receiving
    intimidating phone calls and threats of blackmail from unidentified law
    enforcement and government officials. Government officials routinely
    harassed and sometimes arrested family members of human rights
    activists (see section 1.f.). Courts routinely applied suspended
    sentences to human rights activists; this form of sentencing acted as
    de facto probation, leaving open the option for authorities to suddenly
    and arbitrarily arrest or imprison individuals. This threat was
    sometimes enough to silence activists or pressure them into providing
    information about other activists.
        Professional groups representing writers, journalists,
    photographers, and others attempted to monitor government restrictions
    in their respective fields, as well as harassment and intimidation
    against individual members of their professions. The Government
    severely curtailed these groups' ability to meet, organize, or effect
    change.
        In June according to the ICHRI, a government intelligence official
    traveled with the NGO delegation to the UN Human Rights Council's
    Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of the country and reviewed statements
    made by the NGOs.
        Throughout the year the Government reportedly continued to exert
    significant pressure on the DHRC, a Tehran NGO headed by Nobel Peace
    Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi, and it systematically harassed and
    arrested lawyers affiliated with the organization. On October 30,
    Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court sentenced Mohammad Seifzadeh, a
    lawyer and one of DHRC's founders, to nine years in prison and a 10-
    year ban on practicing law for ``acting against national security'' by
    establishing the DHRC. Seifzadeh told the ICHRI that his trial occurred
    behind closed doors.
        In 2009 a Basij-student mob attacked Ebadi's offices and home, and
    the Government pressured at least two of the DHRC's employees to
    resign; prevented several DHRC members from traveling outside the
    country; arrested and detained a DHRC secretary for 55 days; regularly
    summoned DHRC members for interrogation; and warned individuals not to
    attend the DHRC's gatherings, some of which police dispersed. On
    January 12, authorities released Ebadi's sister, Nushin, a professor of
    dentistry, after 17 days in detention. Nooshin reportedly also faced
    threats of dismissal from her university job.
        Despite numerous appeals, including from the UN, the Government
    denied requests from international human rights NGOs to establish
    offices in, or conduct regular investigative visits to, the country.
    The last visit by an international human rights NGO was AI's 2004 visit
    as part of the EU's human rights dialogue with the country.
        The International Committee of the Red Cross and the UNHCR both
    operated in the country with some restrictions. Since the Government
    issued a standing invitation to all UN human rights agencies in 2002,
    there have been six visits to the country by UN special human rights
    institutions, but none since 2005. The Government generally ignored
    recommendations these bodies made and failed to submit required reports
    to the UN Human Rights Committee or the UN Committee on Economic,
    Social, and Cultural Rights. The Government ignored repeated requests
    for visits by UN special rapporteurs.
        A February 5 global study by the UN special rapporteur on torture
    and other similar practices stated that there were ``credible''
    allegations that the country's security forces used excessive force
    against peaceful demonstrators and committed politically motivated
    torture following demonstrations.
        In a March 11 interview with Radio Free Europe (RFE), then UN
    special rapporteur on torture Manfred Nowak said he was ``really
    concerned about the situation'' in the country, including allegations
    of torture in prisons following the 2009 elections, but that the
    Government would not permit him to visit and investigate the claims.
        In June the UN Human Rights Council reviewed the country's human
    rights record as part of the UPR process. The Government rejected 45 of
    the 189 UPR recommendations, including concerns over torture, the lack
    of due process, and independence of civil society. Mohammed Javad
    Larijani, chief of the country's High Council for Human Rights, said
    human rights activists were ``inciting violence.''
        On October 29, for the eighth consecutive year, the UN General
    Assembly adopted a resolution expressing concern about the country's
    ``serious ongoing and recurring human rights violations.'' High Council
    for Human Rights head Larijani said the resolution was ``illegal'' and
    was designed to undermine ``constructive interaction between [his
    government] and the UN Human Rights Council.''
        The Governmental High Council for Human Rights has not conducted
    formal investigations into post-election abuses. Larijani, the
    council's head, is the brother of Ali Larijani, speaker of the
    parliament, and Sadeq Larijani, head of the judiciary.
    Section 6. Discrimination, Societal Abuses, and Trafficking in Persons
        Although the constitution formally prohibits discrimination based
    on race, gender, disability, language, and social status ``in
    conformity with Islamic criteria,'' the Government did not effectively
    enforce these prohibitions.

        Women.--Rape is illegal and subject to strict penalties including
    the death penalty, but it remained a problem. There were reports of
    government forces raping individuals in custody (see sections 1.a.,
    1.c., and others). Spousal rape is not illegal. Cases of rape were
    difficult to document due to social stigma against the victims. Most
    rape victims did not report the crime to authorities because they
    feared societal reprisal such as ostracism or punishment for having
    been raped. According to the penal code, rape is a capital offense, and
    four male witnesses or a combination of three male and two female
    witnesses are required for conviction. A woman or man found making a
    false accusation of rape is subject to 80 lashes.
        The law does not specifically prohibit domestic violence. Spousal
    abuse and violence against women occurred. According to a study
    published in 2008 using 2005 data, 52.7 percent of women reported being
    physically abused during their married lives. A study published in 2009
    using data from 2006 reported that half of the secondary students
    interviewed had witnessed spousal abuse in their families. A survey of
    women with infertility from August 2009 to January 2010 revealed that
    approximately 62 percent had experienced domestic abuse because of
    their infertility. Most women said their abuse was psychological; 22
    percent of women had experienced physical or sexual abuse because of
    infertility. Abuse in the family was considered a private matter and
    seldom discussed publicly, although there were some efforts to change
    this attitude, particularly by the ``One Million Signatures for the
    Repeal of Discriminatory Laws'' (also known as OMSC and ``Change for
    Equality'') campaign. Some nongovernmental shelters and hotlines
    assisted victims during the year.
        There is no law prohibiting ``honor'' killings, although no cases
    were documented during the year. The law permits a man to kill his
    adulterous wife and her consorts if he is certain she consented. Women
    convicted of adultery may also be sentenced to death, including by
    stoning. According to a police official quoted in a domestic newspaper
    in 2008, 50 honor killings were reported during a seven-month period,
    although official statistics were not available. The punishment for
    perpetrators was often a short prison sentence.
        There was no update on the February 2009 case where a father killed
    his 16-year-old daughter for suspicious activity; the 2008 cases of a
    man known as Ahmad, who allegedly killed his daughter after her former
    brother-in-law kidnapped and slept with her; or Morteza, who allegedly
    killed his sister after she married a man without her family's
    permission.
        There was a lack of reliable data on the prevalence of sexual
    harassment in the country. Media reports indicated that unwanted
    physical contact and verbal harassment occurred. Government officials,
    however, often blamed women's sexuality for problems in society; for
    example, on April 16, cleric Kazem Sadighi said, ``many of the ladies
    who do not have a proper appearance cause the hearts of the youth to be
    swayed and they become defiled by sin, and this leads to the spread of
    adultery in society, which increases earthquakes.'' There are laws
    addressing sexual harassment in the context of physical contact between
    men and women. Physical contact between unrelated men and women is
    strictly prohibited and is punishable by lashing.
        The 1993 family planning law recognizes the basic right of married
    couples to decide freely and responsibly the spacing and timing of
    their first three children and have the information and means to do so
    free from discrimination, coercion, and violence. According to the law,
    health and maternity benefits are cut for the family after three
    children. Local clinics and rural health centers disseminated
    information on family planning under the guidance of the Ministry of
    Health and Medical Education. There were no restrictions on the right
    of married persons to access contraceptives. According to the
    Population Reference Bureau, nearly 80 percent of married women of
    reproductive age used family planning methods, 75 percent of whom used
    modern methods of contraception. Couples who plan to marry must take a
    class in family planning. According to the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF),
    the 2008 adjusted maternal mortality ratio was 30 per 100,000 live
    births. According to UNICEF, 97 percent of women gave birth with a
    skilled attendant present. Men and women received equal access to
    diagnosis and treatment of sexually transmitted infections, including
    HIV. However, women tested less regularly than men because of social
    stigmas attached to doing so.
        The constitution nominally provides women with equal protection
    under the law and all human, political, economic, social, and cultural
    rights in conformity with Islam. Provisions in the Islamic civil and
    penal codes, particularly sections dealing with family and property
    law, discriminate against women. Shortly after the 1979 revolution, the
    Government replaced those laws that provided women with increased
    rights in the home and workplace with a legal system based largely on
    Shari'a practices. In March 2009 President Ahmadi-Nejad instructed the
    relevant bodies to implement a law in which women's share of their
    husband's inheritance would increase to one-fourth from the previously
    stipulated one-eighth of his property. At year's end there was no
    information on the law's implementation. The Governmental Center for
    Women and Family continued to publish reports on feminism with a
    negative slant and limited the debate on women's issues to matters
    related to the home. Women cannot directly transmit citizenship to
    their children or to a non-Iranian spouse (see section 6, Children).
        Although a man (or boy) can marry at age 15 without parental
    consent, the law states that a virgin woman or girl needs the consent
    of her father or grandfather to wed, or the court's permission, even if
    she is older than 18. The country's Islamic law permits a man to have
    as many as four wives and an unlimited number of sigheh, based on a
    Shia custom in which a woman may become the wife of a Muslim man after
    a simple religious ceremony and a civil contract outlining the union's
    conditions. Sigheh wives and any resulting children were not granted
    rights associated with traditional marriage. The Government does not
    recognize marriages between Muslim women and non-Muslim men or Baha'i
    marriages.
        A woman has the right to divorce only if her husband signs a
    contract granting that right, cannot provide for his family, or is a
    drug addict, insane, or impotent. A husband was not required to cite a
    reason for divorcing his wife. Traditional interpretations of Islamic
    law recognized a divorced woman's right to part of shared property and
    to alimony. These laws were not enforced. According to a study by the
    National Organization for Civil Registration, quoted in a book by a
    women's rights activist, more than 89 percent of women did not receive
    their due alimony, and 9 percent did not receive their share of the
    wedding gift (wedding contracts traditionally stipulate that in case of
    divorce the groom give his bride the wedding gift for financial
    support). The law provides divorced women preference in custody for
    children up to age seven; divorced women who remarry are forced to give
    the child's father custody. After the child reaches age seven, the
    father is entitled to custody (unless the father has been proven unfit
    to care for the child). The court determines custody in disputed cases.
        Women sometimes received disproportionate punishment for crimes
    such as adultery, including death sentences (see sections 1.a. and
    1.e., Trial Procedures). The testimony of two women is equal to that of
    one man. The blood money paid to the family of a female crime victim is
    half the sum paid for a man.
        Women had access to primary and advanced education, and
    approximately 65 percent of university students were women. Government
    officials acknowledged the use of quotas to limit women's university
    admissions in certain fields such as medicine and engineering. In
    addition social and legal constraints limited women's professional
    opportunities. Women were represented in many fields, including the
    legislature, municipal councils, police, and firefighters, but a woman
    must seek her husband's consent before working outside the home.
    According to a 2009 World Economic Forum report, the unemployment rate
    for women, who constituted 33 percent of the workforce, was 15.8
    percent, compared with 9.3 percent for men. Cultural discrimination
    remained a factor; one member of parliament suggested that banning
    women from the workplace could solve the country's unemployment
    problems. Women cannot serve in many high-level political positions or
    as judges, except as consultant or research judges without the power to
    impose sentences.
        On November 17, Khadijeh Azadpour, who won a gold medal in martial
    arts at the Asian Games, told the local press that authorities told her
    she would only receive a promised apartment if she were married.
    Previously, she said she was promised an apartment if she won a gold
    medal.
        The Government enforced gender segregation in most public spaces,
    including for patients during medical care, and prohibited women from
    mixing openly with unmarried men or men not related to them. Women must
    ride in a reserved section on public buses and enter public buildings,
    universities, and airports through separate entrances. The penal code
    provides that a woman who appears in public without an appropriate
    hijab can be sentenced to lashings and fined. However, absent a clear
    legal definition of ``appropriate hijab'' or the punishment, women were
    subject to the opinions of disciplinary forces or judges. Pictures of
    uncovered or immodestly dressed women in the media or in films were
    often digitally altered.
        In August a controversial family law that would make polygamy more
    permissive was reintroduced to the parliament. Women's groups
    successfully lobbied to table the bill in 2008; the bill would allow
    men to take additional wives without the first wife's permission, tax
    women's dowries, and remove conditions for the registration of
    temporary marriages.
        The Government continued its intense crackdown against members of
    the OMSC, which activists launched in 2006 to promote women's rights,
    particularly by advocating reform of discriminatory laws. Several
    members of the OMSC remained under suspended prison sentences and
    travel bans, were in prison, or were in self-imposed exile at year's
    end.
        On March 2, authorities rearrested Mahoubeh Karami and searched her
    house. IRGC officials took her to Evin Prison where according to the
    ICHRI she remained for 80 days. She reportedly suffered abuse during
    interrogation, including being hit on the head with a water bottle.
    According to her brother, her charges stemmed from her membership in
    OMSC and her support for the DHRC. On August 18, according to press
    reports, a court sentenced her to four years' imprisonment for
    membership in a prohibited organization and spreading of propaganda
    against the state, but at year's end she was free on bail of 500
    million toman ($500,000).
        In March according to the Human Rights House of Iran, the Branch 15
    of the Revolutionary Court acquitted Khadijeh Moghaddam on two counts
    of propaganda activity against the regime and disobeying police orders
    but sentenced her to a one-year suspended prison term for assembly and
    conspiracy with intent to act against national security.
        In March 2009 security forces detained Moghaddam for approximately
    one month along with 11 other members from OMSC and the NGO Mothers for
    Peace--Delaram Ali, Leila Nazari, Farkhondeh Ehtesabian, Mahboubeh
    Karami, Bahara Behravan, Ali Abdi, Amir Rashidi, Mohammad Shoorab,
    Arash Nasiri Eghbali, Soraya Yousefi and Shahla Forouzanfar--as the
    group met to make traditional Nowruz (New Year) visits to families of
    several political prisoners. The ICHR suggested that security and
    intelligence forces must have eavesdropped on activists' private
    communications to apprehend them. Judge Matin Rasekh charged the 12
    with ``disturbing public opinion'' and ``disrupting public order,'' and
    they were transferred to Section 209 of Evin Prison under MOIS control.
    All 12 were released on bail in June 2009.
        On December 5, local news reported that authorities arrested
    Hakimeh Shokri at at Behesht Zahara Cemetary along with several other
    mothers who were celebrating the birthday anniversary of Amir Arshad
    Tajmir, one of the protesters killed during the 2009 Ashura protest.
    They were gathered at Behesht Zahra Cemetery and were arrested. At
    year's end Hakimeh was transferred to Evin Prison and charged with
    ``espionage'' and ``acting against national security''; the other women
    were released.
        There were no developments in the case of Maryam Malek, detained
    for several weeks in April 2009 and charged with ``propaganda against
    the system'' in connection with her OMSC membership.
        On December 29, authorities summoned Maryam Bidogli and Fatemeh
    Masjedi to report to prison to serve their one-year sentences for
    membership in a feminist organization. In May 2009 authorities in Qom
    arrested the OMSC members, along with the male author of The Women's
    Movement in the East, Gholamreza Salami. Intelligence agents searched
    homes of both women and took personal belongings. According to news
    reports, the women had previously been investigating an honor killing.
        In January and February, authorities released the activists
    reportedly arrested in December 2009, including Zohre Tonkaboni and
    Mahin Fahimi, members of Mothers for Peace; and OMSC members Atiey
    Youseffi, Somayeh Rashidi, and Mansourreh Shojaaiei. There were no
    other updates available in any cases related to these women.
        There were no developments reported in the case of Mehri Moshrefi,
    sentenced in January 2009 along with her husband to a two-year
    suspended sentence. In 2008 authorities arrested Moshrefi, her husband,
    and two of her children at a cemetery where One Million Signatures was
    staging a protest and transferred them to Evin Prison despite
    activists' claims that the family was not involved in the gathering.
        As of July Ronek Safazadeh remained in Sanadaj Prison. In April
    2009 a court sentenced her to six years in prison for spreading
    propaganda about the Government in relation to her distribution of One
    Million Signatures pamphlets in 2007 and membership in the armed
    opposition group Free Life Party of Kurdistan, with which her lawyer
    maintained she was only marginally involved.

        Children.--Citizenship is derived by descent when a child is born
    to a citizen father regardless of the child's country of birth. In
    general birth within the country's borders does not confer citizenship,
    except when a child is born to unknown parents; when both parents are
    noncitizens, but at least one parent was born in the country; or when a
    child born to noncitizens continues to reside in the country for at
    least one year after age 18. The birth registration law requires that
    all births be registered within 15 days. The responsibility for
    implementing birth registration law falls to the Ministries of Justice,
    Interior, and Foreign Affairs. According to UNICEF, despite efforts to
    register rural births, 13 percent of births were not reported in 2005.
        Although primary schooling up to age 11 is free and compulsory for
    all, media and other sources reported lower enrollment in rural areas
    for girls than for boys. More than 25 percent of refugee children of
    primary school age were not enrolled in school.
        There was little information available to reflect how the
    Government dealt with child abuse, including child labor. Abuse was
    largely regarded as a private family matter. In May the Government
    announced that approximately 150,000 cases of child abuse had been
    recorded in the six months prior, and a prominent attorney added that
    the Government did little to address the problem. According a 2005
    study by the UN's Integrated Regional Information Network, child sexual
    abuse was rarely reported.
        The law requires court approval for the marriage of girls younger
    than 13 and boys younger than 15, but it was reportedly not unusual in
    rural areas for parents to have their children marry before they became
    teenagers, often for economic reasons. The age of criminal
    responsibility for girls is nine years, while the law does not consider
    boys criminally responsible until age 15; thus, if a 12-year-old girl
    accuses a 14-year-old boy of rape, the 12-year-old girl would face any
    criminal penalties alone. Sex outside of marriage is illegal and is
    punishable by death, although media reported that the common punishment
    was imprisonment and lashing.
        In November 2009 according to the Mehr news agency, the leader of
    the student Basij organization, Mohammad Saleh Jokar, announced that
    6,000 Basij units would be created in the country's elementary schools.
    Jokar said the action aimed to expand and promote Basij and
    revolutionary ideals among young persons. He added that approximately
    4.5 million students and 320,000 teachers were members of the Basij. An
    RFE report noted that the Basij also began a program to register baby
    girls for later training in the Basji Hossein Haj Mousaee Basij unit.
    The report also discussed ``resource centers'' being built at
    elementary schools to prepare children to join the units.
        There were reportedly significant numbers of children working as
    street vendors in Tehran and other cities and not attending school.
    International media sources reported there were as many as 250,000
    street children in the country.
        International news reported on the plight of children of imprisoned
    mothers. According to State Prisons Organization regulations, children
    could stay in prison with their mothers until the age of three;
    according to a report by the Association for Defending Prisoners'
    Rights, children sometimes stayed through the age of six.
        In March authorities reportedly released child and women's rights
    activist Maryam Zia, arrested in December 2009, on bail of 30 million
    toman ($30,000) due to health concerns and, according to some press
    reports, a 13-day hunger strike. In September Branch 28 of the
    Revolutionary Court sentenced Zia to one year in prison for propaganda
    against the regime.
        The country is not a party to the 1980 Hague Convention on the
    Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. For information on
    international parental child abduction, please see the Department of
    State's annual report on compliance at http://travel.state.gov/
    abduction/resources/congressreport/congressreport--4308.html, as well
    as country-specific information at http://travel.state.gov/abduction/
    country/country--3781.html.

        Anti-Semitism.--The Government's anti-Israel stance, in particular
    the president's repeated speeches decrying the existence of Israel and
    calling for the destruction of its ``Zionist regime,'' created a
    threatening atmosphere for the 25,000-person Jewish community.
    Government officials continued to make anti-Semitic statements,
    organize events during the year designed to deny the Holocaust, and
    sanction anti-Semitic propaganda. The Government also limited
    distribution of nonreligious Hebrew texts and required Jewish schools
    to remain open on Jewish Sabbath.

        Trafficking in Persons.--For information on trafficking in persons,
    please see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons
    Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        Persons With Disabilities.--The law prohibits discrimination
    against persons with disabilities. The law also provides for state-
    funded vocational education for persons with disabilities, but
    according to domestic news reports, vocational centers were confined to
    urban areas and were unable to meet the needs of the entire population.
    Building accessibility for persons with disabilities remained a
    widespread problem. The Welfare Organization of Iran is the principal
    governmental agency charged with protecting the rights of persons with
    disabilities.

        National/Racial/Ethnic Minorities.--The constitution grants equal
    rights to all ethnic minorities and allows for minority languages to be
    used in the media and in schools; in practice minorities did not have
    equal rights, and the Government consistently denied their right to use
    their language in school. The Government disproportionately targeted
    minority groups, including Kurds, Arabs, Azeris, and Baluch, for
    arbitrary arrest, prolonged detention, and physical abuse. These groups
    reported political and economic discrimination, particularly in their
    access to economic aid, business licenses, university admissions,
    permission to publish books, and housing and land rights. The
    Government blamed foreign entities, including a number of governments,
    for instigating some of the ethnic unrest.
        In January 2009 HRW released a report documenting government
    persecution of the 4.5 million Kurds in the country, who have
    frequently campaigned for greater regional autonomy. The report
    documented the Government's use of security laws, media laws, and other
    legislation to arrest and persecute Kurds solely for exercising their
    right to freedom of expression and association (see section 1.e.,
    Political Prisoners and Detainees). According to the report, the
    Government consistently banned Kurdish-language newspapers, journals,
    and books and punished publishers, journalists, and writers for
    opposing and criticizing government policies. Although the Kurdish
    language is not banned, schools did not teach it. Authorities
    suppressed legitimate activities of Kurdish NGOs by denying
    registration permits or bringing spurious charges of security offenses
    against individuals working with such organizations. Kurds were not
    allowed to register certain names for their children in official
    registries.
        IHRV reported that two Kurdish students who passed entrance exams
    for graduate school in 2009 were denied admission based on their
    ethnicity.
        There were no developments in the case of Jebraeil Khosravi,
    sentenced in January 2009 to a 20-year prison term for membership in an
    illegal organization. At year's end he was believed to remain in
    Bandar-Abbas Prison.
        In November authorities reportedly released Kurdish writer Abbass
    Jalilian, who goes by the name ``AKO,'' upon completion of his 15-month
    sentence for espionage.
        On May 9, the Government executed by hanging Farrad Karmangar,
    fellow Kurdish activists Ali Heydarian and Farhad Vakili, and two other
    political prisoners at Evin Prison (see section 1.a.). Authorities
    originally arrested the three men in 2006 because of their human rights
    activism.
        Foreign representatives of the Ahvazi Arabs of Khuzestan claimed
    their community of two to four million in the country's southwest
    encountered oppression and discrimination, including the lack of
    freedom to study and speak Arabic. Ahvazi and human rights groups
    alleged torture and mistreatment of Ahvazi Arab activists, including
    allegations that in September 2009 IRGC intelligence officers raped two
    female activists.
        In October 2009 relatives of seven men sentenced to death for
    killing a clergy member in Ahvaz told local human rights organizations
    that authorities had tortured them to coerce confessions.
        Ethnic Azeris comprised approximately one-quarter of the country's
    population, were well integrated into government and society, and
    included the supreme leader among their numbers. Nonetheless, Azeris
    complained that the Government discriminated against them, banning the
    Azeri language in schools, harassing Azeri activists or organizers, and
    changing Azeri geographic names. Azeri groups also claimed a number of
    Azeri political prisoners had been jailed for advocating cultural and
    language rights for Azeris. The Government charged several of them with
    ``revolting against the Islamic state.''
        On April 2, approximately 10,000 Azeris demonstrated near Lake
    Urmia, located between the provinces of West Azerbaijan and East
    Azerbaijan, to protest the Government's lack of attention to the drying
    out of the lake. The protesters also demanded the preservation of
    Azerbaijan's cultural heritage. Authorities arrested more than 100
    demonstrators.
        On May 25, intelligence officials arrested Akbar Azad, an Azeri
    author and journalist, at his home in Tehran. After his arrest,
    security forces searched his home and confiscated his computer, books,
    and personal property. At year's end he remained in detention.
        On August 1, two to three thousand Azeris reportedly demonstrated
    for the right to be educated in Azeri Turkish and to condemn
    discrimination against their community. According to the RFE report,
    Basij militants broke up the demonstration and arrested at least 12
    individuals.
        On August 25, the brother of Azeri activist Youssef Soleiman
    reported that prison authorities abused his brother (see section 1.c.).
        In May 2009 media sources reported that 16 ethnic Azeris were
    injured during clashes with police in the city of Tabriz and 15
    demonstrators were arrested. Protests also took place in the town of
    Orumiyeh and in Tehran. The demonstrations commemorated riots of 2006
    in Tabriz and other cities protesting a newspaper caricature depicting
    Azeris as cockroaches.
        Local and international human rights groups alleged serious
    economic, legal, and cultural discrimination against the Baluch
    minority during the year. Baluch journalists and human rights activists
    faced arbitrary arrest, physical abuse, and unfair trials, often ending
    in execution. In 2008 authorities executed Baluch journalist and
    education activist Yaghoob Mirnehad in Zahedan for alleged membership
    in the militant group People's Resistance Movement of Iran (formerly
    Jundallah), which the Government considers a terrorist group.

        Societal Abuses, Discrimination, and Acts of Violence Based on
    Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.--The Government censored all
    materials relating to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT)
    issues. In 2008 President Ahmadi-Nejad called homosexual activity an
    ``unlikable and foreign act'' that ``shakes the foundations of
    society.''
        The Special Protection Division, a volunteer unit of the judiciary,
    monitored and reported ``moral crimes.'' The law prohibits and punishes
    homosexual conduct; sodomy between consenting adults is a capital
    crime. According to a December HRW report, security forces used
    discriminatory laws to harass, arrest, and detain individuals they
    suspected of being gay. In some cases security forces raided houses and
    monitored Internet sites for information on LGBT individuals. Those
    accused of sodomy often faced summary trials, and evidentiary standards
    were not always met. The punishment of a non-Muslim gay man or lesbian
    was harsher if the gay man or lesbian's partner was Muslim. Punishment
    for homosexual behavior between men was more severe than for such
    behavior between women.
        The law defines transgender persons as mentally ill, encouraging
    them to seek medical help in the form of gender-reassignment surgery.
    The Government provided grants of as much as 4.5 million toman ($4,500)
    and loans of as much as 5.5 million toman ($5,500) for transgender
    persons willing to undergo gender reassignment surgery. Human rights
    activists and NGOs reported that some members of the gay and bisexual
    community were pressured to undergo gender reassignment surgery to
    avoid legal and social persecutions in the country.
        The size of the LGBT community was unknown, as many individuals
    feared identifying themselves. There were active LGBT NGOs in the
    country, but most activities to support the LGBT community took place
    outside the country.
        On April 25, according to press reports, police found a 24-year-old
    transgender woman known as Mahsa strangled in her apartment. Mahsa had
    previously undergone male to female sex-change operations. Her two
    brothers confessed to killing her on moral grounds. Although the
    brothers were sentenced to prison time of eight years and three years,
    respectively, the sentences included suspended jail time, which reduced
    their actual sentence in prison to three years and one year,
    respectively.
        In July according to HRW, a Tabriz court issued an execution order
    for Ebrahim Hamidi, who was originally charged at age 16 with raping a
    minor. After the victim retracted his accusation, the court acquitted
    three other defendants but convicted Hamidi of sodomy based on elm-e
    ghazi. According to his lawyer, Mohammed Mostafaei, officials tortured
    Hamidi into signing his confession. HRW reported four other men in the
    country were in danger of execution for sodomy.
        According to the HRW report, family members threatened and abused
    many young gay men, who also faced harassment from religious scholars,
    schools, and community elders. Some LGBT persons were expelled from
    university for allegations of homosexual activities. The HRW report
    also alleged that Basij forces attempted to entrap for arrest persons
    engaged in homosexual behavior.
        On July 10, officers raided a private party in Shirza and arrested
    17 gay men. According to a local NGO the charges against the men were
    eventually dropped.

        Other Societal Violence or Discrimination.--Persons with HIV/AIDS
    reportedly faced discrimination in schools and workplaces. The
    Government supported programs for HIV/AIDS awareness and generally did
    not interfere with private HIV/AIDS-related NGOs. Government hospitals
    diagnosed and treated AIDS patients free of charge.
    Section 7. Worker Rights
        a. The Right of Association.--The law provides workers the right to
    establish unions; in practice the Government did not permit independent
    unions and severely restricted workers' attempts to organize. Workers
    in transportation, education, and other sectors were systematically
    suppressed. A national organization known as Workers' House was the
    sole authorized national labor organization. It served primarily as a
    conduit for government control over workers. The leadership of Workers'
    House coordinated activities with Islamic labor councils in industrial,
    agricultural, and service organizations comprising more than 35
    employees. According to the ICHRI, these councils, which consisted of
    representatives of workers and a representative of management, were
    essentially management-run unions that undermined workers' efforts to
    maintain independent unions, but they nonetheless frequently blocked
    layoffs and dismissals in support of workers' demands. During the year
    the Government pressured workers to join the Government-sponsored
    councils.
        The 1990 labor code stipulates that workers may establish an
    Islamic labor council or a guild at any workplace or that workers may
    appoint an official representative. The law strongly favors Islamic
    labor councils; no other form of representation is allowed in a
    workplace where such a council has been established. Although Workers'
    House oversees Islamic labor councils, the Interior Ministry, the
    Ministry of Labor, and the Islamic Information Organization draft
    councils' constitutions, operational rules, and election procedures.
    There is no representative workers' organization for workers who are
    noncitizens.
        Restrictions on freedom of association for workers continued during
    the year as the Government and the judiciary imprisoned and aimed to
    silence labor activists. Because of the severe crackdown on labor
    unions from the previous year, many workers groups cancelled annual May
    Day protests, including activities focused on the banned teachers
    union.
        On April 16, leaders of the country's teachers associations met in
    the city of Yazd to formulate a statement. Officials from the local
    intelligence office telephoned to threaten them and warn them to leave.
    The statement by the leaders of the Coordinating Council of Teacher's
    Trade Association called for hunger strikes after National Teachers Day
    on May 2.
        On April 22, intelligence officials summoned Tofigh Mortezapour and
    Hasan Kharatian, both from the Teachers' Trade Association in Tabriz.
    On April 26, authorities searched Mortezapour's house and confiscated
    personal items, including his computer and papers. On April 27,
    authorities interrogated both men.
        On April 24, intelligence officials summoned three members of the
    Teachers' Trade Association in Hamedan--Ali Najafi, Asghar Mohammad
    Khani, and Jalal Naderi--to the local intelligence office. The ICHRI
    reports that authorities detained Najafi for a day and night. The three
    faced interrogations again on April 26.
        Also on April 24, the Tehran Investigation Office of the
    Intelligence Ministry summoned Ali Akbar Baghani, the secretary general
    of the Teacher's Trade Association, and Mohammad Beheshti Langeroudi,
    the spokesperson for the association. On April 29, intelligence agents
    searched their houses and detained the two men without informing them
    of the charges. The events prefaced worker and teacher strikes planned
    for May 1 and 2. Both men were released in July after 63 days in
    prison.
        In a related incident on April 28, the Human Rights Activists News
    Agency reported that security forces entered the house of Alireza
    Hashemi, head of the Teachers' Organization, and took him to an unknown
    location after confiscating his computer and a number of personal
    belongings. In June 2009 during a general crackdown on dissidents,
    authorities arrested and detained him for 25 days. At year's end he
    remained in prison.
        On May 1, National Workers Day, union and student protesters
    clashed in Tehran, and dozens were reported injured. There were also
    reports of demonstrations in other cities including Tabriz, Shiraz,
    Kermanshah, Qazvin, and Esfahan. International media reported that more
    than 16 persons were injured. Also on May 1, authorities reportedly
    briefly detained Mahmoud Salehi, former head of the Saqqez Bakery
    Workers' Union who completed a prison term in 2008, and asked him not
    to participate in Workers' Day activities.
        On June 12, authorities arrested Reza Shahabi, a leader of the bus
    syndicate, and kept him in solitary confinement for 40 days. The Tehran
    bus company fired Shahabi four years prior for alleged union activity.
    The ICHRI reported that the Revolutionary Court had not at year's end
    charged Shahabi with any crime. In December Shahabi went on a hunger
    strike to protest that he had not been released after payment of his
    bail of one million toman ($100,000). At year's end he remained in
    prison.
        On August 3, a court sentenced Rasoul Bodaghi, a member of the
    board of directors of the teachers' association, to six years in prison
    and prohibited him from union activity for five years on charges of
    ``propaganda against the system'' and ``assembly and attempt to disrupt
    the national security.'' Authorities arrested the veteran teacher in
    September 2009. Gohardasht Prison guards reportedly severely beat him
    on May 28.
        On November 2, intelligence officials in Karaj briefly detained and
    reportedly assaulted bus syndicate leaders Saeed Torabian and
    Gholamreza Gholamhosseini. Two days later, intelligence officials
    arrested the two as they were posting a message on the Internet about
    the November 2 incident. On November 3, authorities reportedly released
    Torabian, but Gholamhosseini remained in prison at year's end, along
    with other syndicate leaders arrested in November, including Morteza
    Komsari and Ali Akbar Nazari. Authorities also detained Torabian from
    June 9 to July 20, charging him with acting against national security
    and speaking against the regime.
        There was no update on the case of journalist and union organizer
    Sajad Khaksari, whose final charge was awaiting treatment by a public
    court in Tehran in December 2009. Khaksari is the son of Mohammad
    Khaksari and Soraya Darabi, both leaders of the Iran Teachers' Trade
    Association.
        On January 4, security agents arrested the then public relations
    officer of the Haft Tapeh Sugar Cane Company's trade union, Reza
    Rakhshan, and detained him until his January 20 release on bail of 15
    billion toman ($15 million). On December 1, the Avhaz appeals court
    reversed a lower court's acquittal of Rakhshan, by that time the new
    president of the union, and sentenced him to six months in prison for
    ``propagation of lies.'' Rakhshan had written an article commemorating
    the second anniversary of the union and describing his firing earlier
    in the year for union activities. On April 14, authorities released
    then union president Ali Nejati on bail. Union leaders Mohammed Heydari
    Mehr, Feridoun Nikoufard, Jalil Ahmadi, and Ghorban Alipour were all
    released after serving sentences of between four and six months.
        In August 2009 security officers closed the offices of the
    Association of Iranian Journalists immediately before a union general
    meeting and President Ahmadi-Nejad's swearing-in. At year's end the
    association was inactive, and many of its members remained in prison.
        There was no further information about Ebrahim Madadi, who remained
    in prison at year's end on charges from 2007.
        On May 28, prison authorities transferred bus-driver syndicate
    leader Mansour Ossanloo from Evin Prison to solitary confinement in an
    IRGC ward at Gohardasht Prison. The ICHRI reported that intelligence
    ministry interrogators reportedly subjected Ossanloo to harsh
    interrogations and mental torture. AI noted that authorities denied
    Ossanloo medical care. In August Branch 1 of the Revolutionary Court
    reportedly sentenced Ossanloo to an additional year in prison for
    ``propaganda against the regime.'' Ossanloo had no access to a lawyer
    during his sentencing, and authorities failed to notify his lawyers
    that he was going to court. Ossanloo's original charges dated from
    2007.
        The law prohibits public sector strikes, and the Government
    considered unlawful any strike deemed contrary to government economic
    and labor policies, including strikes in the private sector, but
    strikes did occur. According to international media reports, security
    forces continued to respond with arbitrary arrests and violence to
    workers' attempts to conduct labor strikes.

        b. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively.--Workers did not
    have the right to organize independently or to negotiate collective
    bargaining agreements freely. According to the International Trade
    Union Confederation, labor legislation did not apply in export
    processing zones.

        c. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor.--The labor code
    prohibits all forms of forced or compulsory labor, including by
    children; however, there were reports that such practices occurred. See
    also the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons Report at
    www.state.gov/g/tip.

        d. Prohibition of Child Labor and Minimum Age for Employment.--The
    law prohibits employment of minors younger than 15 and places
    restrictions on employment of minors younger than 18, such as
    prohibitions on hard labor or night work; however, it permits children
    to work in agriculture, domestic service, and some small businesses.
    The Government did not adequately monitor or enforce laws pertaining to
    child labor, and child labor was a serious problem.
        According to government sources, three million children were
    prevented from obtaining education because their families forced them
    to work. Unofficial sources claimed the figure was closer to five
    million, and credible reports stated that approximately 14 percent of
    children in the country were forced to work in dangerous conditions.
    There were reportedly significant numbers of children--primarily
    Afghan, but also Iranian--working as street vendors in major urban
    areas. Traffickers also exploited children for forced commercial sexual
    exploitation and involuntary servitude as beggars and laborers.
    Children also worked as mechanic apprentices or in clay/brickmaking
    operations. Also see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in
    Persons Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        e. Acceptable Conditions of Work.--On March 16, according to
    international media, the Supreme Labor Council announced an annual
    minimum wage of 303,048 toman ($303); labor rights activists claimed
    that amount was insufficient to feed a family of four in Tehran.
        The labor law does not cover an estimated 700,000 legal workers, as
    it applies in full only to workplaces with 10 or more workers.
    Workplaces with fewer than five workers or in export processing zones
    are exempt from all labor laws. Afghan workers, especially those
    working illegally, often were paid less than the minimum wage.
        The law establishes a maximum six-day, 48-hour workweek with a
    weekly rest day (normally Friday), at least 12 days of paid annual
    leave, and several paid public holidays. Women have the right to
    maternity leave.
        The law establishes a safety council chaired by the labor minister
    or his representative to protect workplace safety and health. Labor
    organizations outside the country have alleged that hazardous work
    environments were common and resulted in thousands of worker deaths
    annually. The quality of safety regulation enforcement was unknown, and
    it was unknown whether workers could remove themselves from hazardous
    situations without risking the loss of employment.

                                   __________

                                      IRAQ

        Iraq, with a population of approximately 29 million, is a republic
    with a freely elected government led by Prime Minister Nouri Kamal al-
    Maliki. On December 22, the new government was sworn in after the
    parliament, the Council of Representatives (COR), approved a power-
    sharing agreement reached by all of the country's major political blocs
    on November 11, approximately nine months after the March 7 elections.
    Despite the controversy surrounding the January 15 decision by Iraq's
    Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) to ban approximately 500
    candidates for alleged ties to the banned Ba'ath Party, and violence
    before and on election day, the COR elections met internationally
    recognized standards for free and fair elections, and the results of
    these legislative elections reflected the general will of the voters.
        Iraqi security forces (ISF) reported to civilian authorities, but
    continuing violence, corruption, and organizational dysfunction
    undermined the Government's ability to protect human rights. During the
    year the following significant human rights problems were reported:
    arbitrary or unlawful deprivation of life; extremist and terrorist
    bombings and executions; disappearances; torture and other cruel,
    inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment; poor conditions in
    pretrial detention and prison facilities; arbitrary arrest and
    detention; impunity; denial of fair public trials; delays in resolving
    property restitution claims; insufficient judicial institutional
    capacity; arbitrary interference with privacy and home; limits on
    freedoms of speech, press, and assembly and extremist threats and
    violence; limits on religious freedom due to extremist threats and
    violence; restrictions on freedom of movement; large numbers of
    internally displaced persons (IDPs) and refugees; lack of transparency
    and significant, widespread corruption at all levels of government;
    constraints on international organizations and nongovernmental
    organizations' (NGOs) investigations of alleged violations of human
    rights; discrimination against and societal abuses of women and ethnic,
    religious, and racial minorities; human trafficking; societal
    discrimination and violence against individuals based on sexual
    orientation; and limited exercise of labor rights.
        Extremist violence, coupled with weak government performance in
    upholding the rule of law, resulted in widespread and severe human
    rights abuses. Terrorist groups, such as al-Qaida in Iraq (AQI), and
    other extremist elements continued to launch highly destructive
    attacks, attempting to influence the elections and government formation
    process, fuel sectarian tensions, and undermine the Government's
    ability to maintain law and order. Extremist and AQI attacks continued
    against ISF and government officials. AQI and other extremists also
    conducted high-profile bombings targeting urban areas, Shia markets,
    and mosques, and Shia religious pilgrims. Religious minorities,
    sometimes labeled ``anti-Islamic,'' were often targeted in the
    violence.
        During the year, despite some reconciliation and easing of tensions
    in several provinces, the Government's human rights performance
    consistently fell short of according citizens the protections the law
    provides. However, the credible and legitimate national parliamentary
    elections in all 18 provinces on March 7 reflected a significant
    achievement in advancing the free exercise of human rights.

                            RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

    Section 1. Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom
            From:
        a. Arbitrary or Unlawful Deprivation of Life.--During the year
    there were press reports and personal accounts that the Government or
    its agents committed numerous arbitrary or unlawful killings connected
    to its security operations. These numerous accounts and press reports
    accused government security forces of being responsible for unlawful
    deprivation of life. The outcome of official investigations was often
    unpublished, unknown or incomplete.
        With the increased exercise of central government authority over
    security forces, widespread and confirmed unauthorized government agent
    involvement in extrajudicial killings largely ceased, although there
    were reports of individuals using their security positions to settle
    personal grievances and grudges. In addition, there were reports of
    attacks by individuals posing as ISF. On January 17, a group of
    approximately 30 men dressed in military uniforms executed three
    brothers from the Mjamma'i tribe. On April 2, 16 gunmen in ISF uniforms
    killed 24 persons in the Sunni village of Albusaifi. Victims of this
    attack included former members of the Sons of Iraq (SOI), government-
    paid security forces who turned against al-Qaida. On October 11, gunmen
    wearing military uniforms killed four members of a government-supported
    Sunni militia in Yusufiya. In response, beginning in January the
    Government ordered tailors to sign pledges promising not to make or
    sell uniforms to nonsecurity personnel and imposed fines, business
    closures, and possible jail sentences for noncompliance.
        Violence against the civilian population perpetrated by terrorist
    groups remained a problem during the year, and bombings, executions,
    and killings were regular occurrences throughout all regions and
    sectors of society. For example, on January 25, suicide bombers
    attacked several hotels in Baghdad, killing 37 persons. On March 26,
    two bombs exploded in a restaurant, killing 57 persons. On May 10,
    coordinated bombings and shootings across the country resulted in at
    least 119 fatalities, including ISF and law enforcement personnel. On
    August 17, a suicide bomber blew himself up in a crowd of army recruits
    in Baghdad, killing 61 persons.
        Incidents of terrorist attacks by female suicide bombers continued
    to occur throughout the year. On February 1, a female suicide bomber
    killed 54 Shiite pilgrims in Baghdad. On July 4, a female suicide
    bomber killed at least four persons at the entrance to the provincial
    government offices in Ramadi.
        From January 1 through December 31, an estimated 652 ISF personnel
    were killed in combat (noncriminal) actions and 2,204 were wounded.
    During the year 962 Ministry of Interior (MOI) personnel were killed
    and 1,347 were injured. Police officers, in particular, were targeted.
    For example, in the week beginning August 1, gunmen or explosives
    killed at least five traffic officers and wounded 19 in Baghdad,
    forcing the authorities to arm some of the traffic officers with AK-47
    assault rifles. On August 25, coordinated attacks targeting security
    forces throughout the country killed at least 56 individuals. On
    November 2, a roadside bomb in Sa'diyah exploded near a police convoy,
    killing three officers. On December 29, an attack by three suicide
    bombers in Mosul killed a prominent police commander and caused the
    collapse of the police station. The police commander who was killed,
    Lt. Col. Shamel Ahmed al-Jabouri, had been recognized for confronting
    terrorist groups in the area. The attack was the sixth attempt on his
    life and the second in the previous three months. An AQI-affiliated
    group, Islamic State of Iraq, claimed responsibility for the attack.
        Terrorists also targeted government institutions and leaders.
    Terrorists subjected the International Zone, where many government
    institutions and foreign embassies are located, to rocket and mortar
    attacks throughout the year. On February 18, a suicide car bomber
    killed 13 individuals outside the main government complex in Ramadi.
    Suicide attackers targeted the same Ramadi government complex in Anbar
    province twice, on December 12 and 27, killing at least 13 in the first
    attack and at least 17 in the second attack. On April 4, suicide
    attackers detonated car bombs near embassies in Baghdad, resulting in
    42 fatalities. On October 19, the UN special representative to Iraq, Ad
    Melkert, escaped unharmed when a roadside bomb struck his convoy; one
    ISF member died from the attack.
        Terrorists also targeted religious institutions and minority groups
    (see section 2.c.).
        There was an increase in AQI attacks against Sunnis cooperating
    with the Government--the SOI and Sunni tribal leaders. On April 20,
    gunmen killed five family members, beheading three, of the local anti-
    AQI militia in Tarmiyah. On June 17, gunmen killed Khudair Hamad al-
    Issawi, his wife, and two sons in a village outside Falluja. On July
    18, a suicide bomber killed at least 45 anti-al-Qaida Sunni fighters
    waiting for their paychecks. On August 18, gunmen killed an SOI member
    at an official checkpoint in Madaen; a bomb attached to a vehicle
    killed another SOI member in Baquba. On December 18, Sheik Ahmed Abu
    Risha, head of the Anbar Awakening Council, survived an assassination
    attempt when police defused a bomb concealed in a laptop.
        In Erbil, Sulaymaniyah, and Dohuk, the three provinces under the
    authority of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), there were
    significantly fewer reports of extremist violence than elsewhere in the
    country.
        There were press reports and credible accounts of KRG security
    forces committing arbitrary or unlawful killings and arrests.
        Although violence levels were lower in the KRG as compared with the
    rest of the country, there were incidents of terrorist attacks. For
    example, on September 29, in Qaladiza district, northeast of
    Sulamaniyah, a suicide bomber wearing a Peshmerga uniform attempted to
    detonate explosives among the Kurdish Peshmerga forces but was
    intercepted before gaining access to the facility and chose to detonate
    the explosives instead of surrendering to the security forces.
        On November 1, in Erbil, a vehicle-borne improvised explosive
    device was discovered at a checkpoint approximately three miles south
    of the inner city. Two passengers in the vehicle at the checkpoint were
    killed.
        On May 4, Sardasht Osman, a contributor to the independent news
    outlets, was abducted and killed. He was known for his articles
    alleging nepotism and corruption in the leadership of the Kurdish
    region, including President Massoud Barzani and his immediate family.
    His body was found on May 5 in Mosul.
        On several occasions throughout the year, the Turkish government
    used military aircraft to attack areas where the Kurdistan Workers'
    Party (PKK), a terrorist organization, were active in the north.
    According to press reports, one civilian was killed and two others were
    injured by artillery fire in Iraq on June 18.
        Iranian forces occasionally bombarded areas along the Iran-Iraq
    border, targeting members of the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan, an
    Iranian Kurdish separatist group. According to press reports on
    September 25, Iranian forces killed 30 Kurdish insurgents in the Qandil
    Mountains in northeastern Iraq as a reprisal for a bombing in the
    Iranian city of Mahabad, which killed 12 persons and wounded 80.
        There were no known developments in killings that were reported in
    2008 or 2009.
        Other parts of this report contain related information (see
    sections 2.a., 2.c., and 2.d.).

        b. Disappearance.--The majority of reported cases of disappearances
    or kidnappings appeared to be financially motivated. Religious
    minorities and children were often the target of such kidnappings.
    Kidnappers who did not receive a ransom often killed their victims.
        Police believed that the majority of these cases went unreported.
        As in 2009, there were fewer reports that police arrested civilians
    without an arrest warrant and held them for ransom. However, there were
    numerous reports of the police releasing legally arrested persons from
    custody after receiving monetary payment.
        New mass graves of thousands of persons who went missing under the
    Saddam Hussein-regime were found during the year. On January 5, the
    Karbala Provincial Council Human Rights Committee announced the
    discovery of a mass grave containing the remains of 23 persons killed
    during the al-Shabaniyah (Shiite uprising of 1991). On January 24, the
    Ministry of Human Rights (MOHR) in Karbala announced finding a mass
    grave also with the remains of victims from the al-Shabaniyah. On
    January 24, police found the remains of eight persons, believed to have
    died after 2003, at a grave site outside Fallujah. On March 17, the
    MOHR announced the discovery of three mass graves containing the
    remains of 255 persons killed in the 1980s and 1990s in Wasit Province.
    On March 23, the MOHR announced the discovery of a mass grave
    containing the remains dating to 1991 of 20 persons in Maysan Province.
    On June 20, police discovered the remains of eight persons in Baghdad,
    presumed to be victims of sectarian violence during 2006-07. On June
    25, police found a mass grave near Samarra containing the remains of 11
    persons presumed to be victims of 2006-07 sectarian violence following
    the attacks on a revered Shiite shrine during both years. In July the
    KRG Ministry of Martyrs Affairs discovered two mass graves in Sorya
    village in Dohuk Province: the first containing the remains of 28
    persons, mostly children and women; the second, the remains of 14
    persons. In October the MOHR in Ramadi announced the finding of a mass
    grave with the remains of victims of at least 69 persons who died in
    the 1980s.
        Reports indicated KRG authorities arrested some minorities without
    due process in Iraq's disputed internal boundary region, taking them to
    undisclosed locations for detention.
        Other parts of this report contain related information (see
    sections 1.b. and 2.a.).

        c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or
    Punishment.--The constitution expressly prohibits torture in all its
    forms under all circumstances, as well as cruel, inhuman, or degrading
    treatment. During the year there were documented instances of torture
    and other abuses by government agents and similar abuses by illegal
    armed groups. The Government's effectiveness in adhering to the rule of
    law in these circumstances faced obstacles from continuing large-scale
    violence, corruption, sectarian bias, and lack of civilian oversight
    and accountability, particularly in the security forces and detention
    facilities.
        Local and international human rights organizations, the MOHR, and
    the human rights directorates of the MOI and Ministry of Defense (MOD)
    continued to report allegations of torture and abuse in several MOI and
    MOD detention facilities, as well as in KRG security forces' detention
    facilities. A MOHR prisons report for 2009 indicated that there were
    326 documented cases of torture and mistreatment at MOI facilities, 152
    cases at MOD facilities, 14 cases at Ministry of Labor and Social
    Affairs (MOLSA) facilities, one case at Ministry of Justice (MOJ)
    facilities, and 12 in Peshmerga facilities in the Kurdistan region
    during that year.
        As in previous years, reports of abuse at the point of arrest and
    investigation, particularly by the MOI's Federal Police and MOD
    battalion-level forces, continued to be common. Allegations of abuse
    included use of stress positions, beatings, electric shocks, sexual
    assault, denial of medical treatment, death threats, and death.
        On April 19, the local and international media reported the
    discovery of a secret prison operated by security forces under control
    of the Prime Minister's Office containing more than 400 Sunni
    detainees, of which over 100 were reportedly tortured. The detainees
    were arrested by the ISF during October 2009 security sweeps in Ninewa
    Province and then transferred to a prison in Baghdad. One prisoner
    reportedly died in January from the abuse, while others were allegedly
    beaten, raped, suffocated with plastic bags, and had electricity
    applied to them. Authorities initially arrested three officers, but
    they were later released without charge. There were no prosecutions of
    any officer or judge associated with the event. Subsequently, 75 of the
    prisoners were released and 200 were transferred to other jails,
    according to government officials.
        In May 2009 three detainees at the MOI's Al Forsan detention
    facility in Ramadi were allegedly tortured, and in June 2009 prison
    guards allegedly tortured and raped female detainees at an MOI
    detention facility in the Adamiya neighborhood of Baghdad. Charges were
    brought against the officers involved; no further updates were
    available. In June 2009, in response to three COR members' allegations
    that 11 detainees had been subjected to abuse and torture by MOI
    officials, the Government established a committee that charged 40
    police officers with abuse. According to government reports, one
    general, two colonels, two majors, and two lieutenants were suspended
    pending additional investigation into charges of detainee abuse; no
    further updates were available.
        Impunity for security forces continued, although there were
    indications that some disciplinary action was taken against security
    forces accused of having committed human rights abuses and judicial
    follow-up in some torture cases, but little information was publicly
    available. The MOI Human Rights Directorate, charged with investigating
    human rights allegations within the police force, had a staff of 90
    investigators based in Baghdad and 14 others, one in each province
    excluding the KRG. During 2009 the MOI Human Rights Directorate opened
    55 investigations into human rights abuse cases and sent 15 cases to
    court for further investigation, nine of which had substantiated
    allegations of torture against 14 officers, including one general, five
    colonels, and three majors. There was no comparable information
    available for 2010 at year's end.
        There were fewer reports of torture or abuse in the MOJ's pretrial
    detention facilities than in the MOI or MOD facilities.
        The KRG's Antiterrorist Law allows abusive interrogation under
    certain conditions, and such practices reportedly occurred in some
    detention facilities run by the KRG internal security forces, Asayish,
    and the party-affiliated intelligence services Parastin of the
    Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and Zaniyari of the Patriotic Union of
    Kurdistan (PUK). Allegations of abuse included stress positions, broken
    fingers, and application of electric shocks. A 2009 MOHR report on
    prison conditions in the Kurdistan region noted that inspectors had
    observed signs of ``systemic torture'' in Asayish detention facilities,
    although cases in prisons run by KRG Ministry of Labor and Social
    Affairs were limited to isolated instances.

        Prison and Detention Center Conditions.--By law the MOJ has full
    control and authority over all detention facilities, except for those
    administered by the MOD for military justice purposes. This law was not
    fully implemented, however, and four separate ministries--the MOJ, MOI,
    MOD, and MOLSA--continued to operate detention facilities. KRG social
    welfare authorities operated prisons in the KRG, and KRG security
    authorities operated pretrial detention facilities. KRG internal
    security forces and KRG intelligence services operated separate
    detention facilities as well. Kurdish authorities operated eight
    detention facilities that combined pretrial and postconviction housing
    and eight additional internal security pretrial detention facilities.
        Although the Government had not yet provided adequate resources
    (personnel, supplies, equipment, and facilities) to the MOJ for it to
    assume complete control over all detention operations throughout the
    country, there was progress in transferring MOD detainees to MOJ
    detention facilities. The country's fractured penal structure, in which
    the MOJ held convicts and the MOJ, MOI, and to a lesser extent the MOD,
    hold detainees complicated detention and prison operations. For
    example, the MOJ oversaw day-to-day operations in the Baghdad prison
    formerly known as Camp Honor, but another agency controlled outside
    access to the facility, resulting in the denial of family member access
    to detainees.
        At year's end, there were 12 MOJ prisons and 11 MOJ pretrial
    detention facilities.
        MOI detention facilities comprise an estimated six Federal Police
    facilities and 294 Iraqi Police facilities. There are an estimated
    1,200 smaller MOI police holding stations throughout the country
    managed, staffed, and operated by the Federal Police, Iraqi Police
    Services, Criminal Investigations Division, and the National
    Investigative and Information Agency. Although there were no
    independently verified statistics, it was estimated that the MOI
    facilities held as many as 8,000 pretrial detainees.
        The MOD operated 27 Iraqi army pretrial detention centers for
    detainees captured during military raids and operations. There were
    reports of unofficial detention centers throughout the country. The MOD
    lacked the legal authority to detain civilians and was required to
    transfer detainees to MOI or MOJ facilities within 24 hours. In May
    2009 the MOD began transferring its civilian detainees to MOJ custody.
    Approximately 325 civilian detainees remained in MOD custody at year's
    end (650 at the end of 2009), the majority located in a detention
    facility in the International Zone in Baghdad. After reports of
    systematic abuse in this facility, the Government closed it and
    transferred the detainees to MOJ facilities.
        The majority of individuals in MOI and MOD facilities were pretrial
    detainees. Overcrowding of pretrial detainees remained a problem in all
    detention facilities throughout the country due to slow case processing
    and lack of information sharing among relevant agencies.
        The MOJ is the only government entity with the legal authority to
    hold, care for, and guard posttrial detainees. The total capacity of
    MOJ's Iraqi Corrections Service (ICS) facilities was 26,469 beds for
    men (not including emergency capacity) and 553 beds for women. The
    total number of prisoners in the ICS was 25,020, 43 percent of whom
    were pretrial detainees.
        In MOI and MOD detention facilities, conditions and treatment of
    detainees were generally reported as poor. The MOI Human Rights
    Directorate reported conducting 1,020 inspections during the year, a
    significant increase from 270 inspections in 2009, and noted that
    overcrowding remained widespread. Many lacked adequate food, exercise
    facilities, medical care, and family visitation. Limited infrastructure
    or aging physical plants in some facilities resulted in marginal
    sanitation, limited access to water and electricity, and poor quality
    food. Medical care in MOI and MOD detention facilities was not provided
    consistently, and there continued to be allegations of abuse and
    torture in some facilities.
        Despite limited resources and funds, MOJ detention facilities
    provided detainees with better treatment and living conditions than MOI
    and MOD detention facilities. Medical care in MOJ's ICS prisons in some
    locations exceeded the community standard. ICS personnel made
    significant progress in meeting internationally accepted standards for
    prisoner needs. The MOJ is responsible for training ICS guards and
    correctional executive management staff, providing the facilities with
    necessary supplies and equipment, addressing overcrowding, facilitating
    case processing, and providing prison rehabilitation programs.
        The ICS internal affairs department monitored abuse or violations
    of prisoners' human rights. Allegations of abuse resulted in the
    disciplining of ICS officers in some cases. During the year there were
    seven allegations that ICS staff abused detainees. There was no
    information available on the disposition of these cases at year's end.
        The law mandates that women and juveniles be held separately from
    male adults. Although this law was generally observed, in some cases
    women were held in the same detention facility as men but in segregated
    quarters and cellblocks. A MOD inspection of a facility in Baghdad's
    International Zone found women at the facility, albeit in separate
    cells. Juveniles were also occasionally held with adults. MOD
    inspections of its International Zone facility and Old Muthanna
    detention facilities found juveniles living in the same cells as adult
    detainees. Additionally pretrial detainees and convicted prisoners were
    sometimes held in the same facility due to space limitations.
        During the year MOLSA's juvenile facilities improved. The end-of-
    year population of the Tobschi juvenile facility in Baghdad was 297
    pretrial juveniles, while the facility's capacity was 327. Legal,
    medical, educational, and social services were available on site. The
    Karada female juvenile facility, which had a population within its
    capacity, had medical services on site. The Shalchiya facility also had
    a population within its capacity. The Kharq juvenile facility remained
    overcrowded, with a capacity of 245 and a total population of 490
    posttrial juveniles. There were no reported instances of abuse or
    mistreatment in MOLSA facilities. Small numbers of juveniles were also
    held at some MOJ and police stations; for example, 167 juveniles were
    at MOJ facilities at year's end.
        KRG security authorities operated male pretrial detention
    facilities, and KRG social welfare authorities operated male posttrial
    and female and juvenile pretrial and posttrial detention facilities in
    the Kurdistan region. The KRG internal security forces and the KRG
    intelligence services operated separate detention facilities. Domestic
    and international human rights NGOs and intergovernmental organizations
    generally had access to pretrial and posttrial facilities. Access by
    independent organizations to the facilities of the KRG internal
    security and intelligence services was limited to the MOHR, the
    International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), and the UN.
        Until the April media reports of an extrajudicial detention
    facility appeared, the national detention facilities occasionally
    permitted visits by representatives of the national MOHR and members of
    parliament. After the press coverage, MOHR officials reported
    encountering resistance at some detention facilities to MOHR visits.
    KRG detention facilities permitted visits by the national MOHR and KRG
    human rights authorities. The MOHR's annual report covering 2009 was
    generally critical of prison standards across the country and addressed
    general conditions and populations of detention facilities, judicial
    processes, and torture allegations.
        Domestic and international human rights NGOs and intergovernmental
    organizations generally did not have access to national MOI detention
    and pretrial facilities, although the MOHR initiated a program in 2009
    to train NGOs in how to conduct prison inspections. Some
    intergovernmental organizations had access to similar facilities of the
    KRG internal security and intelligence forces, which were separate from
    the national facilities.
        The ICRC had access in accordance with its standard modalities to
    MOJ detention facilities, together with access to places of detention
    under other ministries, although at times with difficulties. The ICRC
    did not have access to the Counterterrorism Center detention facility.
    During the year the ICRC carried out 118 visits to 39 central
    government detention facilities. The ICRC also regularly visited 40 KRG
    detention facilities.
        The ICRC had a separate agreement with the KRG for access, although
    not full unrestricted access, to KRG detention facilities. They
    formally renewed the agreement in December 2009.
        Other parts of this report contain related information (see
    sections 1.d. and 5).

        d. Arbitrary Arrest or Detention.--The constitution provides for
    protection against arbitrary arrest and detention without a warrant,
    except in extreme exigent circumstances as provided for in a state of
    emergency. In practice there were many instances of arbitrary arrest
    and detention.

        Role of the Police and Security Apparatus.--The ISF consists of MOI
    security forces and MOD military forces and amounted to approximately
    793,000 persons at the end of October, consisting of 259,910 military
    and 4,120 special forces personnel. The MOI exercised its
    responsibilities throughout the country, except in the KRG area. These
    responsibilities included providing internal security through police
    and domestic intelligence capabilities, facilities protection, and
    regulating all domestic and foreign private security companies. The MOI
    was also responsible for emergency response, border enforcement,
    dignitary protection, firefighting, and internal monitoring of the
    conduct of MOI personnel. The army, under direction of the MOD, also
    played a part in providing domestic security. Official impunity was a
    serious problem.
        The MOI security forces included several components: the 301,286-
    member Iraqi Police Service primarily deployed to police stations; the
    majority Shia 43,957-member Federal Police, organized into commandos
    and public order police; the 60,605-member Border Enforcement Police;
    and the 94,000 Facilities Protection Service security guards deployed
    at MOI direction at individual ministries. The MOI was responsible for
    approximately 529,000 employees, almost 10 percent of the country's
    male labor force as of the end of October.
        During the year the security services grappled with the problem of
    integrating the SOI into the ISF, strengthened chain of command and
    control, and promoted force modernization, enabling the ISF to improve
    operations against extremists. Although oversight by MOI and MOD
    internal affairs increased, problems continued with all security
    services arising from sectarian divisions, corruption, and
    unwillingness to serve outside the areas in which personnel were
    recruited. The effort of the head of the largely Shia Federal Police to
    have police serve in provinces other than their home provinces to
    reduce corruption was only partially successful.
        Government efforts to pay the approximately 94,000 SOI personnel,
    predominately Sunnis, and integrate them into long-term employment (20
    percent with state security agencies and 80 percent with civil
    ministries) were stalled in late 2009 in advance of the March 2010
    parliamentary elections. Prior to this period, the Government had
    transitioned 43 percent of the approximately 95,000 SOI members into
    the ISF or various civil ministries. During the elections the
    Government put the transition of the SOI into civilian and Iraqi
    security forces jobs on hold to afford extra security during and after
    the elections. Security needs during government formation extended this
    pause in SOI transition.
        A history of pay problems and slow transition to other employment,
    although coincidental, contribute to negative perceptions among the
    SOI. Despite these delays the Government continued to support the Sons
    of Iraq. Since May 2009 the Government has been responsible for paying
    all SOI salaries, and timeliness continued to improve. In two of the
    last four months of the year (September and December), the SOI were
    paid early, with only minor delays in four provinces in October and
    November. Other recent government actions to address the problem
    included establishing a joint interagency coordination center for the
    SOI, more timely payments, and the creation by the prime minister of a
    committee focused on how best to promote successful SOI integration. In
    addition, the Government's draft 2011 budget included $195 million for
    salaries and other payments for the SOI. Suspected government targeting
    and arrest of SOI personnel for alleged previous terrorist activity
    continued to be a point of tension between the Sunni population and the
    Government.
        The KRG maintained its own regional security forces, the Peshmerga,
    as set forth in the constitution. The two main parties of the Kurdish
    region maintained ties to these Peshmerga units, which remained
    separated in practice along party lines, as well as to other security
    and intelligence units currently outside KRG or central government
    control. KRG security forces and intelligence services detained
    suspects in KRG-controlled areas. The poorly defined borders between
    the KRG and the central government and contested areas of authority
    remained a cause of confusion, and therefore concern, with regard to
    the jurisdiction of security and courts. In April 2009 the chief judge
    of Sulaymaniyah Province and the head of the PUK branch of the KRG
    internal security forces signed a memorandum of understanding,
    acknowledging the supremacy of the civilian court system in all
    security matters. KRG internal security forces pledged not to carry out
    arrests and other actions without court authority in the memorandum.
    Due to a lack of progress in the integration of security forces,
    effective control by political leaders continued through political
    party channels.
        The MOI established the internal security forces disciplinary and
    criminal court system in 2008. By year's end, the courts had heard more
    than 6,000 cases and returned 2,000 convictions for violations and
    crimes committed by MOI police.
        A significant number of allegations of MOI and MOD abuses were
    raised during the year, although few of these allegations led to
    convictions. There were continued reports of torture and abuse
    throughout the country in many MOI police stations and MOD facilities;
    the incidents generally occurred during the interrogation phases. The
    MOI Internal Affairs Division did not release the number of officers
    punished during the year.
        Security force officials were rarely pursued for suspected crimes
    because ministers, responsible for the suspect, have the legal ability
    block an arrest warrant. Section 136(b) of the criminal procedure code
    gives ministers the opportunity to review and prevent the execution of
    arrest warrants that sitting judges presiding over criminal
    investigations have issued against members of the security forces.
    Permission was rarely given during the year to prosecute higher-level
    officials.

        Arrest Procedures and Treatment While in Detention.--The
    constitution prohibits ``unlawful detention'' and mandates that
    preliminary investigative documents be submitted to an investigative
    judge within 24 hours from time of arrest, a period that can be
    extended by one day. For offenses punishable by death, the defendant
    can be detained for as long as necessary to complete the judicial
    process. Law enforcement authorities reportedly continued to detain and
    search individuals without an arrest warrant after the state of
    emergency law expired in 2007, although there were no reliable
    statistics available on such incidents.
        In practice many detainees were held for months or years without
    access to defense counsel or without being formally charged or brought
    before a judge. Police and army personnel frequently arrested and
    detained suspects without judicial approval. MOHR and MOD Human Rights
    Directorate inspections of the MOD detention facilities in the
    International Zone and at Old Muthanna Airfield found many detainees
    without case files or valid detention orders. Police often failed to
    notify family members of the arrest or location of detention, resulting
    in incommunicado detention. Unlike in the previous year, fewer security
    sweeps were conducted throughout entire neighborhoods or provinces.
        At year's end, the number of detainees in government hands was
    estimated at 21,000, not including those in central government
    facilities in the KRG or Asayish and KRG intelligence service
    facilities. At year's end, the ICS held 11,063; the MOI, an unverified
    number estimated at 8,000; the MOD, 325; and MOLSA, approximately 350.
    The KRG total was reported to be approximately 338, not including
    central government facilities in the KRG or Asayish and KRG
    intelligence service facilities.
        In practice few detainees saw an investigative judge within the
    legally mandated time period. Many complained they did not see the
    investigative judge until months or sometimes years after arrest and
    detention. Incommunicado detention took place. Lengthy detention
    periods without judicial action were a systemic problem. The lack of
    judicial review was due to a number of factors that included
    undocumented detentions, backlogs in the judiciary, slow processing of
    criminal investigations, and an insufficient number of judges. There
    were allegations of detention beyond judicial release dates as well as
    unlawful releases.
        The Government periodically released detainees, usually after
    concluding it had insufficient evidence for the courts to convict them.
    During the year the Government released approximately 560 detainees.
        Detainees initiated hunger strikes to protest either poor detention
    conditions or slow case processing. It was unclear if the hunger
    strikes resulted in any improvement in detention conditions or case
    processing. On February 19, detainees at al-Minaa detention facility in
    Basrah went on a hunger strike to protest detention conditions ``not
    fit for animals.'' On May 31, the media reported detainees at al-
    Rusafah facility in Baghdad initiated a hunger strike to protest
    conditions there. On October 30, the media reported detainees at al-
    Miqdadiyah facility in Diyala Province embarked on a hunger strike to
    protest conditions there and the slow processing of their cases. This
    was the second time during the year that al-Miqdadiyah detainees
    launched a hunger strike.
        There were reports that KRG internal security units detained
    suspects incommunicado and without an arrest warrant and that they
    transported detainees to undisclosed detention facilities.
        Police across the country continued to use coerced confessions and
    abuse as methods of investigation.
        The law allows release on bond, and in practice criminal (but not
    security) detainees were considered for release on bail.
        Judges are authorized to appoint paid counsel for the indigent and
    did so in practice. Attorneys appointed to represent detainees
    frequently complained that poor access to their clients after their
    appointment hampered adequate attorney-client consultation.
        Other sections of this report contain related information (see
    sections 2.a. and 2.d.).

        Amnesty.--During the year the Government granted amnesty to 72
    persons.

        e. Denial of Fair Public Trial.--The law provides for an
    independent judiciary. Although the judicial system was credited with
    efforts to maintain an independent stance, the security situation in
    the country rendered the judiciary weak and dependent on other parts of
    the Government. Threats and killings by sectarian, tribal, extremist,
    and criminal elements impaired judicial independence in many places.
    The Central Criminal Court of Iraq (CCC-I), Kharkh and the Felony
    Court, Rusafa (formerly the Rusafa CCC-I), which operated in heavily
    guarded locations in Baghdad, were notable exceptions. The MOI agreed
    to supplement security for judges and allowed judges to select which
    police officers would be assigned to their security detail.
    Approximately 2,000 police officers under MOI authority were assigned
    to protect judges.
        Judges frequently faced death threats and attacks. Judges' family
    members also faced death threats and attacks. On June 6, an appeal
    judge survived an assassination attempt when a roadside bomb exploded
    near his convoy. On July 14, Judge Hassan Aziz of the Cassation Court
    was assassinated after an adhesive bomb was placed in his car in
    western Baghdad. Between August 10 and September 7, there were 12
    assassination attempts on judges throughout the country.
        Although individual judges were generally viewed as objective and
    courageous, judges were vulnerable to intimidation and violence. There
    were reports that criminal cases at the trial level or on appeal to the
    Court of Cassation were decided by corruption or intimidation. There
    were reports that court-issued detainee release orders were not
    consistently enforced.
        The law restricted the free investigation of wrongdoing. As
    referenced above, section 136(b) of the criminal procedure code gives
    ministers the opportunity to review and prevent the execution of arrest
    warrants that sitting judges presiding over criminal investigations
    have issued against ministry employees. This provision provided
    immunity to selected government employees and enabled a component of
    the executive branch to terminate proceedings initiated by the judicial
    branch. During the year permission was given to arrest only lower-level
    ministry employees under Section 136(b).
        The constitution provides for an independent judiciary in all
    regions.
        The KRG 2007 Judicial Power Law attempted to create a more
    independent judiciary. The Kurdish Judicial Council, which had been
    part of the executive branch's MOJ, became legally independent and took
    responsibility for its own budget, human resource management, and
    reporting. KRG judicial authorities no longer have direct operational
    control over the judiciary, the KRG financial authorities relinquished
    control of the council's budget, and the chief justice was appointed by
    other judges and not by the executive branch. Nonetheless, the KRG
    executive continued to influence cases in politically sensitive areas,
    such as freedom of speech and the press (see section 2.a.).
        The NGO Human Rights Watch claimed in a 2008 report that the CCC-I
    seriously failed to ensure detainees' rights to due process and fair
    trial. The reported failures included long periods of pretrial
    detention without judicial review, inability to pursue a meaningful
    defense or challenge evidence, and abuse in detention to extract
    confessions. The lack of judicial review was due to a number of
    factors, whose relative weight was difficult to assess, including a
    large number of pretrial detainees, undocumented detentions, backlogs
    in the judiciary, slow processing of criminal investigations, and an
    insufficient number of judges.
        The Iraqi High Tribunal (IHT), formerly the Iraqi Special Tribunal,
    tried persons accused of committing war crimes, genocide, crimes
    against humanity, and specified offenses from July 1968, through May
    2003.
        In the 2007 Anfal trial, Ali Hassan al-Majid, widely referred to as
    ``Chemical Ali,'' and two codefendants, Sultan Hashem Ahmed and Hussein
    Rashid Muhamad, were convicted of genocide and related charges and
    sentenced to death. The sentences were upheld on appeal. The Anfal
    trial concerned the deaths of an estimated 182,000 Kurdish men, women,
    and children, caused in part by the use of chemical weapons by the
    former Ba'athist regime in a 1986-89 campaign against the Kurds. In
    2008 the Presidency Council ratified the death sentence of Ali Hassan
    Al Majid, who was executed on January 25. At year's end, the death
    sentence for Sultan Hashem Ahmed has not been carried out. No further
    information was available regarding Hussein Rashid Muhammad.
        Two additional cases were referred to the trial chamber. The
    Halabja case, which included five defendants and began in 2008,
    involved chemical attacks on the Kurdish town of Halabja in March 1988
    that resulted in the death of more than 5,000 civilians. On January 17,
    Ali Hassan al-Majid was convicted of genocide and executed on January
    25. The remaining defendants were acquitted on genocide charges but
    received 15 year sentences for crimes against humanity. In 2008 the
    trial began of 24 defendants who were part of the former regime and
    were allegedly involved in the persecution of Dawa party members
    (religious parties case). During the year there were nine acquittals
    and five death sentences (including for former foreign minister and
    former deputy prime minister Tariq Aziz, issued on October 26) in the
    religious parties case.
        In April 2009 the IHT began the ``ethnic cleansing'' case, in which
    13 defendants were charged with involvement in forcibly relocating
    Kurds from Kirkuk to other areas of the country. The case ended with a
    verdict on August 2009 acquitting five defendants and convicting the
    remaining eight. All prison sentences in the case ranged from six to
    seven years. The prosecutor appealed three of the acquittals. The case
    remained under consideration by the appeals court at year's end.
        In September 2009 the IHT issued a warrant for the arrest of Abdel
    Basit Turki, now in self-exile, who was the former head of the Board of
    Supreme Audit responsible for auditing the financial records of all
    central government institutions. Turki was charged with ``wasting
    national wealth'' during his time as a senior government official under
    Saddam Hussein's regime, in particular for the transfer of billions of
    dollars in cash out of the country prior to Saddam's removal. Turki
    claimed that the allegations resulted from his exposure of corruption
    after the fall of Saddam Hussein. The allegations against Turki fell
    under the jurisdiction of the IHT due to their nature and the time
    period in which the offenses were allegedly committed.
        On October 25, the IHT sentenced Tariq Aziz to death for crimes
    against humanity, specifically for torture and murder of Shia political
    opponents. President Jalal Talabani publicly stated he would not sign
    the execution order. At year's end, Aziz remained in prison, serving
    sentences for other crimes for which he was convicted.
        During the year the IHT continued to investigate a number of crimes
    allegedly committed by members of the former regime, including other
    atrocities following the 1991 uprising, the draining of the southern
    marshes, and the invasion of Kuwait. The IHT also dropped charges
    against some detainees.

        Trial Procedures.--The constitution provides for the right to a
    fair trial, and judges--investigative, trial, and appellate--generally
    sought to enforce that right, which is extended to all citizens. An
    accused person is considered innocent until proven guilty and has the
    right to privately retained or court-appointed counsel. One of the
    significant challenges facing the criminal trial courts was
    insufficient access to defense attorneys. Many defendants met their
    lawyers for the first time during the initial hearing. Defense
    attorneys were provided at public expense if needed. Trials, except in
    some national security cases were public, and judges assembled evidence
    and adjudicated guilt or innocence. Defendants and their attorneys had
    access to government-held evidence relevant to their cases before
    trial. Criminal judgments of conviction and acquittal may be appealed
    to the Court of Cassation, a judicial panel that reviews the evidence
    assembled in the investigative and trial stages and renders a decision.
    There is the right of appeal also in civil cases.
        The constitution provides for the establishment of military courts,
    but only military crimes committed by the armed forces and the security
    forces may come before such courts. The MOI courts investigate and try
    crimes committed by MOI employees related to their employment.

        Political Prisoners and Detainees.--Some detainees alleged
    political reasons motivating their arrests, which authorities countered
    with criminal charges ranging from corruption to facilitating terrorism
    and murder. The prevalence of corruption, slow case processing, and
    inaccessibility to detainees, especially those held by
    counterterrorism, intelligence, and military authorities, made most
    claims hard to assess.
        In 2009 there appeared to be an orchestrated political campaign
    against Sunni politicians from Diyala Province with arrest warrants
    issued for four members of the provincial council, the deputy governor,
    and a member of the parliament from Diyala. In May 2009 Iraqi special
    forces affiliated with the prime minister arrested Abdel Jabbar Ali
    Ibrahim on terrorism-related charges; he remained in custody at year's
    end. In November 2009 the deputy governor, Muhamad Hassayn Jasim, was
    arrested on charges related to terrorism financing. He was being held
    in a MOD detention facility at year's end. A former Sunni provincial
    council member, Hussayn al-Zubaydi, was convicted in October of
    terrorism-related charges and given a life sentence.
        There was little information available concerning persons detained
    in Kurdish Asayish facilities.

        Civil Judicial Procedures and Remedies.--The country has a legal
    framework, as well as an independent and impartial judiciary, for
    dealing with civil issues in lawsuits seeking damages for or cessation
    of human rights violations. Administrative remedies also exist.
    However, during the year the priorities of an understaffed judiciary
    and government administration focused on issues more directly related
    to security, and these procedures as well as administrative remedies
    were not effectively implemented.

        Property Restitution.--There was a problem with serious delays and
    corruption in adjudicating claims for property restitution. The
    Property Claims Commission (PCC), formerly the Commission for the
    Resolution of Real Property Disputes and originally called the Iraq
    Property Claims Commission, is an independent governmental commission.
    Its purpose is to resolve claims for real property confiscated,
    forcibly acquired, or otherwise taken for less than fair value by the
    former regime between 1968 and 2003 for reasons other than land reform
    or lawfully applied eminent domain. The PCC process was intended
    primarily to benefit those whose land was confiscated for ethnic or
    political reasons as part of the former regime's ``Arabization''
    program and other policies of sectarian displacements. In response to
    the delays and corruption in adjudicating claims, in June the prime
    minister installed new management, which initiated a claim verification
    process and extended the deadline for filing claims to June 2011.
        As of year's end, the PCC had received more than 165,000 claims
    nationwide since its founding. At year's end, more than 25,000 claims
    had reportedly been reviewed, of which approximately 13,500 were
    approved and 11,500 rejected. Of the total claims filed, more than
    47,000 were from Kirkuk; of the claims approved, more than 1,780 were
    from Kirkuk. The Higher Judicial Council appointed 39 judges and the
    KRG appointed five, for a total of 44 judges hearing cases.
        Since 2003 a number of wafadin, Arabs previously settled in the
    Kirkuk region under Saddam Hussein's anti-Kurdish policies, returned to
    their previous homes in the center and south of the country and applied
    for compensation. Since the PCC was established, more than 28,000
    wafadin have applied for compensation to the Article 140 Committee,
    which resolves claims for wafadin who seek compensation for returning
    to their original provinces. At the end of 2009, approval for
    compensation had been given to 16,500, and 10,917 wafadin had received
    compensation and in theory have returned to their original provinces.

        f. Arbitrary Interference With Privacy, Family, Home, or
    Correspondence.--The constitution mandates that authorities not enter
    or search homes except with a judicial order. The constitution also
    prohibits arbitrary interference with privacy. In practice security
    forces often entered homes without search warrants and took other
    measures interfering with privacy, family, and correspondence, although
    this happened less than in previous years.
        In the KRG-controlled provinces, there was pressure on citizens to
    join the PUK party in the province of Sulaymaniyah and the KDP party in
    the provinces of Erbil and Dohuk.

    Section 2. Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:
        a. Freedom of Speech and Press.--The constitution broadly provides
    for the right of free expression, provided it does not violate public
    order and morality, and the Government restricted that right in some
    circumstances.
        Despite this constitutional protection of freedom of expression,
    the law provides, if authorized by the prime minister, for fines or a
    term of imprisonment not to exceed seven years for any person who
    publicly insults the COR, the Government, or public authorities. The
    law also restricts media organizations from expressing support for the
    banned Ba'ath Party or for ``alterations to Iraq's borders by violent
    means.'' In practice the main limitation on the exercise of these
    rights was self-censorship due to fear of reprisals by the Government,
    political parties, criminal gangs, insurgent and sectarian forces, or
    tribes.
        Individuals could criticize the Government publicly or privately,
    but not without concern of reprisal if the criticism was seen as
    ``crossing the line'' by challenging one's personal sense of honor.
    Individuals exercised self-censorship accordingly. There was no
    evidence that the Government attempted to impede criticism by
    monitoring political meetings.
        Concerning freedom of the press, the independent media were active
    and expressed a wide variety of views subject to the Government's
    interpretation of lawful restrictions on violations of public order and
    morality. Political parties strongly influenced most of the several
    hundred daily and weekly publications, as well as dozens of radio and
    television stations.
        Journalists were subject to violence and harassment. Eight
    journalists and media workers were killed during the year in Mosul,
    Baghdad, East Fallujah, and Ramadi. At least 12 others were targets of
    attacks, nine of whom suffered injuries from bombings of cars or
    offices. Journalists were targets of government security forces,
    corrupt officials, terrorists, religious groups that were unwilling to
    accept media independence, and unknown actors who, for whatever reason,
    wished to affect the flow of news. Despite multiple killings of
    journalists during the year, there were no convictions for these or
    previous killings of journalists.
        For example, on April 14, the Iraqi Army's Baghdad Operations
    Command allegedly arrested Saad Al-Aossi, the editor in chief of the
    independent newspaper Al-Shahed. Baghdad Operations Command denied any
    involvement with the disappearance of Al-Aossi, whose fate remained
    unknown at year's end. On September 7, gunmen assassinated Riad al-
    Sary, a journalist and presenter of political and religious programs
    for Al-Iraqiya state-run television, in a Baghdad drive-by shooting.
    Al-Saray hosted religious-based programs that promoted reconciliation
    between Shia and Sunni. A day later, on September 8, gunmen fired from
    a speeding car and killed Safa al-Din Abdel Hamid in front of his home
    in Mosul. Abdel Hamid had worked at Al-Mosuliya, a private channel that
    covers Ninewa Province in the north. Abdel Hamid's program Our Mosques
    detailed the history of religious sites in Ninewa.
        Security forces harassed local journalists. On January 15, the
    domestic NGO Journalistic Freedoms Observatory (JFO) reported that
    Najaf police assaulted journalists and damaged their equipment as they
    tried to complete a follow-up report on recent bombings. On January 31,
    security forces detained eight journalists in Maysan Province when the
    journalists, who were part of the media corps covering a local story,
    protested when the security forces attempted to prevent them from
    covering the story and confiscated their equipment. On September 21,
    police beat several journalists at a Baghdad checkpoint, even though
    the journalists had shown their press cards and were lying face down on
    the ground.
        The Government acted to restrict media freedom in some
    circumstances by penalizing those who published items counter to
    government guidelines. On February 28, security forces raided three
    publishers and confiscated copies of the 16-page booklet, Where has
    Iraq's Money Gone?, which accused the Government of financial
    corruption. On July 6, a media report alleged that the Baghdad
    Operations Command discharged firearms to prevent a crew of the Beladi
    satellite channel from covering a Shiite anniversary celebration, even
    though the crew possessed the necessary documents to access the area.
        On October 31, the Baghdad Operations Command accused and arrested
    two Al-Baghdadia television employees, who were released two days
    later, for assisting the terrorists who attacked Our Lady of Salvation
    Church. The employees received the terrorists' calls, resulting in the
    station announcing their demands on television. On November 1, the
    media commission ordered the Baghdad Operations Command to close Al-
    Baghdadia's Baghdad office, which it did by disconnecting the station's
    power and ordering everyone to leave the premises. The station
    continued broadcasting into Iraq from Egypt. On December 23, COR
    members formed a fact-finding committee to inquire into the closing of
    the station's Baghdad office, about which some members expressed
    freedom of press/media/speech concerns.
        The law prohibits reporters from publishing stories that defame
    public officials. Many in the media complained that these provisions
    prevented them from freely practicing their trade by creating strong
    fears of prosecution. There was widespread self-censorship.
        In July the chief justice established a special court (the Court of
    Publication and Media) in Baghdad to adjudicate civil and criminal
    claims against the press and media, which some media organizations,
    journalists, and NGOs fear may have a negative impact on freedom of
    speech and press. The court heard a lawsuit against an independent
    newspaper that reported irregularities at a construction site in Basra.
    In October the court ruled in favor of the newspaper.
        On November 12, a court ordered the United Kingdom newspaper The
    Guardian to pay damages to the prime minister in a 2008 suit for 1.1
    billion dinars (approximately $940,000) for describing Prime Minister
    Maliki as ``authoritarian''; the suit also called for the closure of
    the paper's Baghdad bureau. The news organization, which continued
    operating in the country, appealed the ruling, which the appellate
    court overturned on December 28.
        Media workers often reported that politicians pressured them to not
    publish articles criticizing the Government. They offered accounts of
    intimidation, threats, and harassment of the media by government or
    partisan officials. The Government frequently used the threat of legal
    action against media workers. The Government used its authority to deny
    journalists permits to impede potentially unfavorable media coverage.
        In compliance with regulations introduced in July 2009, all book
    imports were subject to inspection by the Ministry of Culture. Books
    produced and published within the country required the ministry's
    approval before going on sale. According to the ministry, new vetting
    procedures applying to imports were established to stop the entry of
    literature promoting sectarianism.
        In the Kurdistan region, a 2008 law provides for media freedom, and
    imprisonment is no longer a penalty for publication-related offenses.
    However, journalists continued to be tried, convicted, and imprisoned
    under the 1969 penal code. The Kurdistan Journalists Syndicate (KJS)
    documented 44 lawsuits against journalists during the year in the
    Kurdistan region, approximately one-third under the penal code.
    According to syndicate officials, the 2008 law is the sole basis for
    prosecution of journalists for publication offenses, but the law allows
    prosecution on the basis of offending public morals and other crimes.
    Public officials regularly resorted to punitive fines through legal
    actions against individual media outlets and editors, often for
    publishing articles on alleged corruption.
        During the year political parties filed lawsuits against media
    organizations and journalists in Kurdistan ``in self-defense.'' For
    example, on August 2, Fadhil Mirani, the KDP politburo secretary, filed
    a one billion dinar (approximately $860,000) suit against the
    opposition (Goran) newspaper Rozhnama. The suit was in response to a
    July 20 report that accused the KDP of receiving money from oil
    smuggling deals with Iran. On September 23, the Kurdiu.org news service
    reported that the KDP filed a lawsuit against the chief editor of the
    Kurdonia news agency regarding an article about the KDP's views towards
    the PKK and Kirkuk.
        Regarding prosecution for offending public morals, on February 1,
    KRG authorities used paragraph 372 of the 1969 penal code to arrest the
    editor in chief of Chavder, a Dohuk-based newspaper, and a journalist-
    poet for publishing a poem that allegedly compared features of mosque
    architecture to parts of the human body. The authorities released the
    editor and journalist after 48 hours; however, the director general of
    (religious) endowments in Dohuk filed a lawsuit against them. On
    December 12, a Dohuk court fined both the editor and poet one million
    dinar ($860,000) each for publishing the poem.
        On April 2009 KRG minister for martyrs and victims of Anfal Chnar
    Sa'ad filed four defamation lawsuits against Jihan magazine editor in
    chief Nabaz Goran seeking damages of one billion dinars ($860,000) and
    imposition of a travel ban following an article reporting on the
    minister's two-month trip to London. On December 7, the court ruled on
    two of the cases and permanently blocked Goran from traveling abroad
    and, in a decision which Goran appealed, fined him seven million dinars
    ($6,000). Government and party officials filed five other defamation
    lawsuits against Goran during the year.
        The KDP subsequently dropped all lawsuits as a gesture of goodwill
    to media and journalists.
        Libel remains a criminal offense in the Kurdistan region, and
    judges may issue pretrial arrest warrants for journalists on this
    basis. Journalists were sometimes imprisoned while police investigated
    the veracity of published information. When named in a lawsuit,
    journalists were typically detained at police stations and were not
    released until they posted bail. Police often kept journalists in
    custody during investigations.
        Journalists in the Kurdistan region asserted that they routinely
    encountered personal intimidation by KRG officials, security services,
    tribal elements, and business leaders. The KJS documented more than 300
    incidents (threats, suits, and attacks) in 2009. In a report that
    covered the period from July 1 to December 25, the KJS documented 52
    court subpoenas.
        On January 19, freelance journalist Sabah Ali Qaraman alleged that
    persons affiliated with the PUK tried to abduct him because of his
    articles criticizing alleged PUK corruption. On February 24, Hawlati,
    an independent Kurdish newspaper, printed a blank front page containing
    only the headline, ``You have the guns.and we have the pens'' in
    response to alleged abuse and attacks from the intelligence agency
    Asayish affiliated with the PUK. The newspaper linked the persecution
    with authorities trying to influence press coverage of the elections.
    Political parties owned or had significant influence over all but a few
    newspapers based in the region. According to the Office of the UN High
    Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), in April 2009 criticism of the
    ruling PUK and KDP in the Kurdish region resulted in intimidation,
    beatings, arrest and detention, and extrajudicial killings, with
    journalists particularly at risk.
        On May 4 in Erbil, men abducted and killed Sardasht Osman, a
    contributor to the independent newspaper Ashtiname and news Web sites
    Sbei, Awene, Hawlati, and Lvinpress, who was known for his articles
    alleging nepotism and corruption in the leadership of the Kurdistan
    region, including President Massoud Barzani. In the month preceding his
    killing, Osman had written an article appearing in the Sweden-based
    Kurdistan Post that accused a high-ranking official of corruption. His
    body was found the next day 50 miles away in Mosul; he had been shot in
    the head. Even though the Kurdistan Regional Government officially
    condemned the crime and launched an investigation, many persons
    protested the killing, suspecting that Osman had been silenced by the
    leadership he criticized in his articles. After launching an
    investigation, Kurdish authorities in September issued a 430-word
    report claiming that Osman had been killed by a member of Ansar al-
    Islam, a Sunni terrorist group, for not carrying out work he had
    promised to do. The report provided no evidence for the assertion. The
    Committee to Protect Journalists and other press groups said the report
    lacked credibility.

        Internet Freedom.--There were no government restrictions on access
    to the Internet or reports that the Government monitored e-mail or
    Internet chat rooms. According to International Telecommunications
    Union June data, there were an estimated 325,000 (1.1 percent of the
    population) Internet users. Individuals and groups could engage in the
    peaceful expression of views via the Internet, including e-mail. Direct
    Internet access was generally low due to a lack of infrastructure in
    homes; however, the prevalence of Internet cafes contributed to usage
    among youth.
        In January the Babylon City Council referred to investigators a
    media employee at the council after he published on a Web site the
    proceedings from an open, public council meeting. The JFO reported that
    the council claimed the media report could hurt the reputations of
    members planning to run for parliament seats.

        Academic Freedom and Cultural Events.--Social, religious, and
    political pressures restricted the exercise of freedom of choice in
    academic and cultural matters. In all regions, various groups
    reportedly sought to control the pursuit of formal education and
    granting of academic positions. During the year extremists and
    terrorists targeted cultural figures. In the central and southern parts
    of the country, there were a number of reports of threats by extremists
    and sectarian militants against schools and universities, urging them
    to modify activities, favor certain students, or face violence.
    Educational institutions at times complied with the threats, and
    academics practiced self-censorship to comply with them.
        There was a report of a government attempt to restrict academic
    freedom. On December 7, Al-Arabiya television reported that the
    Ministry of Education banned theater and music classes in Baghdad's
    Fine Arts Institute and ordered the removal of statues at the
    institute's entrance, all of which the ministry denied. The ministry
    said it closed the music and theater department but that the subjects
    were still being taught. The Education Ministry did not provide a
    reason for its actions, although the demonstrating students and
    professors speculated that religious reasons were behind the actions.
    At year's end, the subjects continued to be taught at the school.
        Unlike in 2009, there was one report of a government effort to
    restrict a cultural event for political reasons. On October 1, the
    deputy governor of Babil Province banned music and dance, ostensibly in
    observance of the birthday of Shia Islam's sixth imam, Jaafar ibn
    Muhammad al-Sadiq. Media sources, however, suggested political motives
    behind the deputy governor's action, which effectively cancelled the
    Ministry of Culture's Babylon Festival.
        Other parts of this report contain related information (see
    sections 1.b. and 1.d.).

        b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association.--Freedom of
    Assembly.--The constitution provides for freedom of assembly and
    peaceful demonstration, and the Government generally respected this
    right in practice, although there were reports of abusive practices
    against protesters.
        The Government refused permits for demonstrations on electricity
    shortages in the summer and also intimidated, arrested, and used
    excessive force against protesters. On June 19, police in Basra killed
    two persons when it opened fire on demonstrators demanding more
    electricity and the resignation of the electricity minister. Following
    the incident, police used more traditional nonlethal means to disperse
    violent protests, such as water cannons during an August 22 electricity
    protest in Nasiriyah.
        On November 3, the Iraqi Kurdistan Parliament approved a new law,
    which the KRG president approved in early December, designed to
    regulate demonstrations throughout the region. The law mandates that
    protestors obtain permission in advance before demonstrating and that
    the local authority has the right to deny the request. Civil society
    and opposition parties opposed the law, believing the authorities would
    use the requirement to limit their freedom of assembly. There were
    demonstrations, both authorized and unauthorized, against the law, all
    without incident. There were no reports that KRG security forces killed
    or detained demonstrators protesting government acts.

        Freedom of Association.--The constitution provides for the right to
    form and join associations and political parties and specifically
    mandates that this right be regulated by law. The Government generally
    respected this right in practice, except for the legal prohibition on
    expressing support for the Ba'ath Party.

        c. Freedom of Religion.--For a complete description of religious
    freedom, please see the 2010 International Religious Freedom Report at
    www.state.gov/g/drl/irf/rpt.

        d. Freedom of Movement, Internally Displaced Persons, Protection of
    Refugees, and Stateless Persons.--The constitution provides for freedom
    of movement in all parts of the country and the right to travel abroad
    and return freely. The Government generally respected these rights.
    There were some limitations in practice, particularly regarding travel
    into and residence in the Kurdistan region, but the KRG allowed
    Christian families displaced from Baghdad to Erbil to enter without
    restriction. Approximately 1,400 Christian families moved from Baghdad
    to Erbil and from Mosul to the Ninewa Plains seeking better security in
    the months following the bombing of a church in Baghdad on October 31.
    Restrictions by provinces on the entry of new internally displaced
    persons (IDPs) had little impact because there was little new
    displacement during the year.
        The Government generally cooperated with the UNHCR, the
    International Organization for Migration, and other humanitarian
    organizations in providing protection and assistance to IDPs, refugees,
    returning refugees, asylum seekers, stateless persons, and other
    persons of concern, although effective systems to assist these
    individuals were not fully established by year's end. For example, some
    IDPs were unable to access the public distribution system in the
    governorate to which they were displaced. In some instances the World
    Food Program and the ICRC delivered food rations to these IDPs.
        Under the state of emergency, the prime minister can restrict
    movement pursuant to a warrant, impose a curfew, cordon off and search
    an area, and take other necessary security and military measures (in
    the Kurdistan region, only in coordination with the KRG). In practice
    the security authorities have recourse to the same powers in response
    to security threats and attacks. The security forces tended not to
    abuse these powers since they were unpopular with residents.
        There are no KRG laws that restrict movement across the areas
    administered by the KRG, but due to security procedures in practice
    movement was restricted. Citizens (of any ethnicity, including Kurds)
    crossing into the region from the south were obliged to stop at
    checkpoints, undergo personal and vehicle inspection, and receive
    permission to proceed. Officials prevented individuals from entering
    into the region if deemed a security threat. Entry for male Arabs was
    reportedly more difficult than for others. The officer in charge at the
    checkpoint was empowered to decline entry into the region.
        To accommodate increasing numbers of summer and holiday visitors,
    the KRG security authorities worked out agreements with other provinces
    whereby tourist agencies submitted names of visitors in advance for
    preclearance. Visitors must show where they are lodging and how long
    they intend to stay.
        The MOI Passport Office maintained a policy of requiring women to
    obtain the approval of a close male relative before receiving a
    passport. In the KRG, unlike in the rest of the country, women over the
    age of 18 obtained passports without such approval.
        The constitution expressly prohibits forced exile of all native-
    born citizens. The injunction also applies to naturalized citizens,
    unless a judicial decision establishes that the naturalized citizen was
    granted citizenship on the basis of material falsifications. Forced
    exile did not occur.
        There were no known government restrictions on emigration. There
    were few reports of citizens having difficulty obtaining passports.
    Exit permits were required for citizens leaving the country, but the
    requirement was not enforced.
        Members of the Mujahedin-e-Khalq (MEK), a terrorist organization,
    who were invited to the country under the Saddam Hussein regime and who
    are not considered refugees, stateless persons, or IDPs, reported
    allegations during the year that MEK leaders attempted to prevent
    defection of some of the 3,400 residents at the MEK's Camp Ashraf in
    Diyala Province, under threat of reprisal. MEK leaders denied such
    allegations. In the past individuals claimed to have been subjected to
    psychological and physical abuse, including threats of reprisal against
    family members and solitary confinement in Ashraf, to discourage
    defections.
        The Government, which assumed security responsibility for Ashraf in
    January 2009, engaged in provocative acts against MEK residents. Such
    acts included the placement of high-powered loudspeakers that broadcast
    anti-MEK propaganda and refusal of entry for some consumer and
    industrial goods. In response MEK residents conducted provocative
    protests of their own, which reflected the continuing contentious
    relations between the MEK and the Government. There were numerous
    protests and reaction throughout the year.

        Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).--The Government officially
    estimated at year's end that there were 2.56 million IDPs, including
    166,664 post-2003 IDPs present in the KRG. An estimated 1.3 million
    were displaced following sectarian violence that began in 2006,
    approximately 200,000 were displaced between 2003 and 2005, and
    approximately a million were displaced prior to 2003, according to the
    UNHCR. The official government estimate was revised down toward the end
    of the year to reflect both IDP returns and clarifications in the
    database.
        The majority of those displaced pre-2003 were moved under the prior
    regime's policy of Arabization; many of them had returned to their
    areas of origin but were included in the displaced population because
    they were unable to regain their original property and residences. Both
    Arabs and Kurds displaced in this way had access to compensation under
    a process outlined in article 58 of the Transitional Administration
    Law, which was further confirmed in article 140 of the constitution. A
    structure to implement this process was in place, albeit moving at a
    very slow pace.
        Throughout the country most IDPs occupied abandoned buildings,
    public buildings, or homes other displaced families had abandoned.
    Approximately 500,000 lived in ad hoc ``clusters'' or settlements
    located throughout the country with limited water, sanitation, and
    electricity. The UNHCR identified 116 settlements in Baghdad, with an
    estimated 226,118 residents. Other IDPs rented homes at increasingly
    high cost or lived with friends or family members. Lack of registration
    limited IDPs' access to basic services and legal documentation to
    receive food rations from the public distribution system.
        Hygiene and sanitation for IDPs were generally better in the KRG
    than in other areas, but education, livelihoods, and other concerns
    remained critical. Kurds whose villages were destroyed during the Iran-
    Iraq war remained without adequate housing. In October the
    representative of the UN secretary general on the human rights of
    internally displaced persons called on the KRG to assist those IDPs who
    have no access to education, shelter, and health care. Access to
    education was a particular challenge for Arabic-speaking IDPs in the
    KRG. In Kirkuk the representative reported that IDPs had been targets
    of harassment and detention, particularly during the run-up to the
    anticipated census exercise.
        Targeted attacks and threats against Christians in Baghdad, Mosul,
    and other cities resulted in the displacement of 1,380 Christian
    families to the KRG and Ninewa Plains by year's end. According to the
    UNHCR, more than half of the Christian population has left the country
    since 2003 and Christian families are disproportionately represented in
    the Iraqi refugee population.
        Overall, only a small number of the country's displaced persons had
    returned to their places of origin. A significant number of IDPs,
    420,000, and a smaller number of refugees, nearly 80,000, moved back to
    their places of origin, particularly in Baghdad and Diyala provinces,
    during the period 2008-09.
        During the year there was a significant decline in both IDP and
    refugee returns; by the end of October, IDP and refugee return levels
    were only 51 percent of returns in 2009. The UNHCR reported that 61
    percent of refugees surveyed who returned to Baghdad in the past four
    years regretted their return because of terrorism and insecurity, and
    87 percent of the total number interviewed said their income was
    insufficient to cover their family needs. (The UNHCR does not promote
    refugee returns because of insecurity.) Returning refugees also
    expressed concerns regarding insufficient health care, poor educational
    opportunities, and housing shortages. Of those returning, 77 percent of
    refugees did not return to their original residences because of
    insecurity or a fear of being targeted. Others reported it was not
    possible to return because their homes were damaged or occupied by
    others.
        There is a legal and administrative process for restitution of
    property and eviction of squatters, along with a system of grants and
    stipends for returnees and evictees. The Government offered stipends of
    1.5 million dinars ($1,290) to returning families who deregistered as
    IDPs or refugees. As of mid-November, according to the Ministry of
    Displacement and Migration (MoDM), 52,967 families had received the
    grant and another 3,856 claims were in process. There were six returnee
    assistance centers, although one Baghdad center was inoperable for a
    period of several months beginning in April due to lack of MoDM
    support. In general the IDP housing assistance program was burdensome
    bureaucratically and did not produce satisfactory results.
        Prime Minister's Order 440 from mid-2008, which authorized eviction
    of IDPs from government buildings, was again not implemented. This stay
    expired in mid-year, and evictions rose during the second half of the
    year. During the period May to December, 18 verbal and eight written
    eviction orders were delivered to IDP settlements in Baghdad; the IDP
    communities of Al Ameen and Air Force Camp were evicted. In November,
    2,000 IDP families were evicted in Hillah. Two hundred IDP families
    were evicted from Furat, and, according to Karbala provincial council
    officials, 34 IDP settlements in the province were put under eviction
    orders in May. Some communities were able to negotiate with authorities
    to postpone their evictions. Communities particularly at risk included
    those living in abandoned public buildings that the relevant ministry
    wanted to reclaim and those living near oil pipelines. In some
    provinces those evicted were provided with land grants in alternate
    locations, but in many cases evictions took place without viable
    alternatives.
        The Government has no comprehensive policy for undoing sectarian
    cleansing, but it encouraged returns to secure areas where violence had
    occurred previously. The Government promised to provide essential
    services to support returnees in Baghdad and Diyala provinces upon
    their return home; however, delivery on these promises has remained
    largely unfulfilled. Many humanitarian organizations and Sunni leaders
    cited the lack of steps to reverse the worst of sectarian cleansing,
    claiming that the Government wished to discourage Sunni Arab refugees
    and IDPs from returning. Government officials vigorously denied these
    charges. In its view practical obstacles often discouraged greater
    numbers of returns. For example, the Government's property restitution
    policy depended on individual requests for restitution from property
    owners, and these requests often became bogged down in an overburdened
    legal system. Many property owners did not file claims due to fears of
    retribution from those evicted. In addition, the restitution system was
    unduly complex to navigate.
        A 2008 national policy to address displacement led to some positive
    measures for the displaced, including property restitution, but a plan
    for a durable solution remained to be agreed upon at year's end. On
    September 29, during his visit the representative of the secretary
    general for the human rights of IDPs urged the Government, as well as
    the international community, to make stronger efforts to meet the human
    rights, humanitarian, and longer-term development needs of IDPs in
    accordance with international human rights standards.
        The Government, through the MoDM, allowed IDPs access to domestic
    and international humanitarian organizations, collected information
    about IDPs, and provided some protection and assistance in the form of
    humanitarian supplies. The Government did not target IDPs or forcibly
    return them under dangerous conditions.

        Protection of Refugees.--The country is not a party to the 1951 UN
    Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol.
    Its laws do not provide for the granting of asylum or refugee status,
    and the Government has not established a system for providing
    protection to refugees. In practice the Government provided protection
    against the expulsion or return of persons to countries where their
    lives or freedom would be threatened on account of their race,
    religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or
    political opinion.
        The Government generally cooperated with the UNHCR and other
    humanitarian organizations to provide protection and assistance to the
    approximately 40,000 refugees living in the country. Reports of attacks
    and arrests of refugees in the central and southern parts of the
    country declined during the year, although they continued to be
    targeted periodically in attacks by sectarian groups, extremists, and
    criminals.
        Generally, refugee groups of Turkish and Iranian Kurds in the KRG
    achieved a high level of integration. For the majority of the 7,825
    Iranian Kurds whom the UNHCR registered as refugees in the north, local
    integration remained the best and most likely option. Refugee groups in
    central and southern regions, particularly refugees who were perceived
    to have been privileged by the former regime, such as Palestinians,
    Ahwazis in the south, and Syrian Arabs in Baghdad and Mosul, had less
    chance of integration and continued to face discrimination and require
    protection.
        The Government began a registration of the 15,626 UNHCR-recognized
    Kurdish refugees from Turkey in November, most of whom had resided
    since 1998 in a UNHCR-administered camp in Makhmour, Erbil Province.
    The registration included the issuance of an identification card that
    provided greater mobility, employment opportunities, and access to
    civil documentation. It was hoped that the registration would lead to
    greater possibility for voluntary return and de facto local integration
    for the group.
        According to the UNHCR, general violence in the central region and
    targeted attacks against Palestinians decreased. Notwithstanding
    improvements in security, Palestinian refugees continued to experience
    a deep level of uncertainty with regard to their place within the
    fabric of society. Economic challenges placed Palestinian refugees in
    the lowest socioeconomic rankings; their declining economic situation
    was in part attributable to a loss of employment opportunities due to
    discrimination. The UNHCR reported that it worked with the MoDM to
    provide identification cards to the 11,500 Palestinians remaining in
    the country. The MOI, in coordination with the UNHCR, issued
    approximately 10,000 identification cards to Palestinians, and
    approximately 2,000 more were in process at year's end. The cards
    facilitate increased mobility within Iraq by the Palestinians.

        Stateless Persons.--The UNHCR estimated the total number of
    stateless persons in the country as less than 120,000, most of whom had
    already commenced the process of reacquiring nationality. The MOI
    Nationality Department anticipated resolving all such cases over the
    course of the next two years. Since 2003 more than 25,000 persons have
    regained their nationality, 4,000 of them during the year, in
    accordance with articles 17 and 18 of the nationality law of 2006.
    However, approximately 54,500 Bidoun (literally ``without
    nationality'') individuals living as nomads in the desert near Basra,
    Thi-Qar, and Samawa southern governorates remained stateless at year's
    end. In the north an estimated 560 stateless Syrian Kurds were
    registered as asylum seekers.

    Section 3. Respect for Political Rights: The Right of Citizens to
            Change Their Government
        The constitution provides for the right of citizens to change their
    government peacefully, and citizens exercised this right through
    periodic, free, and fair elections based on universal suffrage.

        Elections and Political Participation.--In March 7 parliamentary
    elections, nearly 12 million votes were cast, drawing from a pool of
    more than 18.9 million registered voters. The majority Sunni Iraqi
    National Movement (known popularly as Iraqiyya), led by former prime
    minister Ayad Allawi, won a plurality with 91 seats in the 325-member
    body. Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki's largely Shia State of Law
    Coalition was close behind with 89 seats, while the Iraqi National
    Alliance and Kurdistan Alliance followed with 70 and 57 seats,
    respectively, with the Kurdistan Alliance retaining 47 seats after the
    Goran party left the alliance in November. Small minority blocs and
    independent candidates won the remainder of the seats. International
    observer missions and indigenous observer networks declared the
    elections free from widespread or systemic fraud.
        The IHEC announced preliminary election results on March 27, based
    on 100 percent of the vote tabulation and resolution of approximately
    200 complaints. The Federal Supreme Court certified the election
    results on June 1. Following the procedural calendar requirements, the
    new COR convened on June 14 but adjourned less than 20 minutes later to
    allow political blocs more time to negotiate the formation of a
    government. Following eight months of negotiations, the COR finally
    reconvened on November 11 and elected a speaker and deputy speakers. On
    November 25, President Talabani charged Maliki with forming a new
    government. The COR gave unanimous approval to this new government on
    December 21.
        The number of votes cast exceeded that in the 2005 COR elections by
    100,000; the turnout of registered voters was 62 percent compared with
    76 percent in 2005, attributable in large part to the much higher
    number of registered voters that resulted from concerted voter
    registration campaigns by IHEC, political parties, and civil society
    organizations. IHEC instituted antifraud measures and procedures to
    handle complaints in compliance with an April 19 order issued by the
    Electoral Judicial Panel. The results of the Baghdad recount closely
    mirrored the original tally, dispelling lingering concerns about
    electoral irregularities.
        A series of terrorist bombings, most targeting Sunni and Iraqiyya
    candidates but also Assyrians and Christians, marred the final three
    weeks of the election campaign. On election day, 42 persons were killed
    and 110 wounded in attacks in Baghdad, while several more were killed
    or injured in other cities around the country. According to reports,
    228 persons died in election-related violence during the three-week
    campaign period prior to March 7, while another 178 were killed in
    postelection violence before official results were announced on March
    27. Levels of violence were considerably lower than in the 2005
    national elections.
        IHEC, with nine COR-appointed commissioners, had sole
    responsibility for administering the elections, including the 49,640
    official polling stations. IHEC welcomed strong civil society
    participation and technical assistance and observers from other
    countries and international organizations. IHEC credentialed 114,500
    domestic monitors from more than 492 national monitoring organizations,
    657 observers from 35 international organizations, and 476,366
    representatives of political entities.
        Political parties and candidates had the right to propose
    themselves or be nominated by other groups, including the innovation of
    a select number of political parties holding primaries to develop their
    respective slates. The Government did not restrict political opponents,
    nor did it interfere with their right to organize, seek votes, or
    publicize their views, apart from the legal prohibition on supporting
    the Ba'ath Party.
        A number of candidates were disqualified. The 2008 Accountability
    and Justice (de-Ba'athification) Law prevented active Ba'athists and
    high-level former Ba'athists from running for elected office. On
    January 14, the Accountability and Justice Commission (AJC)
    disqualified approximately 500 candidates due to alleged Ba'ath Party
    ties. Sixty-three candidates were later reinstated under the auspices
    of an ad hoc COR committee. Approximately half of the remaining
    disqualifications affected secular nationalists including those from
    the Iraqiyya bloc. Sunni parties with affected slates could voluntarily
    name replacement candidates. Candidates on the disqualified list could
    avail themselves of an appeals process through a special cassation
    chamber empowered to review AJC decisions.
        Because the cassation chamber could not complete its review of 210
    appeals prior to the deadline for ballot printing, it issued a legal
    opinion on February 3 allowing candidates who formally appealed to run
    in the March election, with the proviso that candidates who won seats
    during their appeal would be subject to postelection vetting.
    Ultimately the cassation chamber completed its vetting process prior to
    the elections, reinstating 26 candidates.
        The country's political parties tended to be organized along either
    religious or ethnic lines. Shia Islamist parties, such as the Islamic
    Supreme Council of Iraq, al-Dawa al-Islamiyya Party, and Sadrist Trend,
    as well as Kurdish nationalist parties such as the KDP and PUK, were
    the predominant political forces. Other political players included the
    secular Iraqiyya, Sunni Iraqi Islamic Party, and ethnic minority
    parties, such as the Assyrian Democratic Movement. Membership in some
    political parties conferred special privileges and advantages in
    employment and education. The KDP and PUK reportedly give preference in
    government employment to their respective members. In all, 160 regular
    parties, 36 independents, and 10 minority parties and candidates
    participated in the elections. In the month prior to the elections, the
    five major political party coalitions signed an electoral code of
    conduct pledging to refrain from inciting sectarian or ethnic tensions
    and promising to accept the results of the election.
        The 2009 election law calls for an open list election in multiple
    districts. The open list measure contributed to enhanced transparency
    of electoral politics and accountability of elected officials, but it
    created additional challenges for voter education, ballot design, and
    related electoral preparations necessitating a postponement from a
    January 21 to March 7 polling day for most voters. Polling procedures
    included special voting periods for security personnel as well as
    citizens who were hospitalized and incarcerated. The law expanded the
    number of seats in the parliament from 275 to 325. Of those seats, the
    law reserves eight compensatory seats for minorities: five for
    Christian candidates from Baghdad, Ninewa, Kirkuk, Erbil, and Dohuk;
    one Yazidi representing Ninewa; one Sabean-Mandaean representing
    Baghdad; and one Shabak representing Ninewa. The law also harmonized
    language defining internally displaced persons and opened the process
    to out-of-country voting for refugees and citizens abroad.
        The constitution mandates that female members of parliament
    constitute 25 percent of the COR. There were 81 women elected to the
    COR, including candidates elected through the open list system. In the
    previous COR, women chaired two of the 24 standing committees. In the
    previous government, there were five female ministers of 37 in the
    cabinet: the ministers of state for women's affairs and for provincial
    affairs, and the ministers of human rights, environment, and housing
    and construction. Three cabinet members were from religious and ethnic
    minority groups: the minister of human rights, the minister of industry
    and minerals, and the minister of youth and sports. In the current
    government, there were two female ministers of 44 in the cabinet
    (minister of state for women's affairs and minister of state without
    portfolio), and three cabinet members from religious and ethnic
    minority groups: minister of environment, minister of youth and sports,
    and minister of state for provincial affairs. In the current COR, there
    were two women chairing a standing committee.
        The KRG had planned provincial elections for November for the
    provincial councils in Sulaymaniyah, Erbil, and Dohuk, but the KRG
    postponed the elections. At year's end, the Kurdish parliament had not
    set a new date for the elections. Press reports suggested that the KRG
    postponed the elections in order to avoid anticipated electoral losses
    by the PUK party in Sulaymaniyah, where the opposition Goran party was
    expected to gain electoral votes.

    Section 4. Official Corruption and Government Transparency
        Although the law provides criminal penalties for official
    corruption, the Government did not implement the law effectively.
    Large-scale corruption pervaded the Government, and public perception
    of government corruption and impunity continued to be strong.
    Intimidation and political influence were factors in some allegations
    of corruption, and officials sometimes used the ``de-Ba'athification''
    process to pursue political and personal agendas. The World Bank's
    worldwide governance indicators reflected that corruption was a serious
    problem. In July the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the
    United Nations Development Program, and the Central Organization for
    Statistics and Technology within the Ministry of Planning and
    Cooperation Development released a report on the working conditions and
    integrity of civil servants within four ministries. Among the findings,
    24 percent of the staff that had daily contacts with private business
    within the Ministry of Trade received at least one bribe offer, and 72
    percent of all civil servants would not feel adequately protected if
    they reported corruption within their ministries, of whom 73 percent
    would not feel adequately protected from physical harm. Government
    anticorruption officials and the media consistently commented on the
    pervasive corruption in society.
        During the first six months of the year, prosecution of corruption
    cases increased, but officials combating corruption faced persistent
    political, social, and capacity restraints. They also faced physical
    threats and attacks. One inspector general reported that those involved
    in investigating corruption ``are facing serious risks without personal
    security details and other protective measures to do their jobs and
    stay alive at the same time.'' On September 26, Laieh Muhammed, who
    executed arrest warrants for the Commission on Integrity (COI), was
    killed on his way to work at a checkpoint into the International Zone.
    He was the second COI employee killed by a silenced pistol. According
    to the COI, 40 personnel had been murdered in the line of duty since
    2004. Credible information on the nature and extent of corruption in
    the judiciary was lacking, but such corruption was widely believed to
    exist.
        Anticorruption institutions were fragmented, and their interaction
    was hampered by a lack of consensus about their role, partly due to a
    lack of effective legislation as well as to insufficient political will
    to eliminate widespread corruption. Lack of accountability continued to
    be widespread, reinforced by several statutory provisions, unclear
    regulatory processes, and limited transparency.
        The law does not provide public access to government information
    for citizens or noncitizens, including foreign media. Certain
    government officials, such as ministers, governors, and
    parliamentarians, are required by law to file financial disclosure
    reports, but the Government did not enforce the requirement. The COI
    reported that only 24 percent of new COR members had complied with the
    law,while 76 percent of former (pre-March 7 elections) COR members had
    complied. Ten of the 18 provincial governors had complied. The Council
    of Ministers had a 100 percent response rate.
        The COI, established in 2004 as the Commission on Public Integrity,
    is the Government body charged with preventing and investigating cases
    of corruption in all ministries and other components of the Government
    nationwide (except for the KRG). The COI, with a staff of approximately
    1,300, reports to the commissioner of integrity, and the COR and has
    the authority to refer cases to the judicial investigators for possible
    criminal prosecution. The commissioner was appointed by the prime
    minister in 2007. He has never been confirmed by the COR and was
    therefore subject to replacement at the prime minister's discretion.
    The same was true of most investigators general (IG).
        According to a prime ministerial order, the COI does not initiate
    cases and has instructed the ministerial IGs to perform all initial
    investigations. Although the order remains in effect with the IGs
    initiating 95 percent of all investigations, the COI initiated several
    high-profile investigations with the knowledge of the Prime Minister's
    Office. Each ministry has an IG charged with performing audits,
    inspections, and investigations to reduce fraud, waste, and corruption.
    In practice this order placed the ministers in control of any
    investigation of corruption within their own ministry and permitted
    them to halt corruption proceedings against their employees. There were
    documented instances where the ministers have ordered major corruption
    investigations to be dropped. As in previous years, ministries
    effectively stalled investigations by failing to provide information or
    not complying with requests for officials to appear in court.
        The prime minister's approval is required before corruption cases
    proceed against members of the presidency or the Council of Ministers.
    Information on specific instances of the prime minister and ministers
    using these tactics during the year was not available. Judicial
    authorities reported that the practice constituted a significant
    obstacle to the prosecution of corruption cases.
        Under a section of the criminal code (136[b]), prosecutors must
    receive permission from the relevant minister before an official can be
    brought to trial for an offense related to official duties. In 2009, 54
    persons were shielded from prosecution by the use of the provision. In
    the first half of the year, ministers halted 96 investigations. The
    threat of invoking 136[b] or failing to provide information was usually
    effective in stopping investigations. For example, the interior
    minister terminated an investigation into the ministry's purchase of
    fraudulent bomb detectors from a British company, although the
    ministry's IG determined that 75 percent of the contract value was
    given to government officials in bribes.
        While the COI remained undeveloped as an institution, especially in
    the provinces, it steadily increased the number of corruption-related
    arrests. For the first six months of the year, 982 cases were sent to
    court, compared with 972 during 2009. For the first six months of the
    year, there were 181 convictions, compared with 285 in 2009. According
    to the COI, by October 31, approximately 2,300 defendants were referred
    to the courts during the year, resulting in 600 individuals receiving
    jail sentences. An estimated 10 percent of the persons convicted were
    government officials with the rank of general director or higher. The
    Ministry of Defense had the largest number of employees referred to the
    judicial system, followed by the Ministry of Interior and Ministry of
    Municipalities. On May 30, the COI arrested three state-owned bank
    managers and issued arrest warrants for four merchants and an owner of
    an Iraqi company for using government funds to fund a private business.
        The addition to the ministry IGs and the IGs for the municipality
    of Baghdad, the Property Resolution Commission, the Hajj and Umrah
    Pilgrimage Commission, the Commission of Political Prisoners, and the
    country's multiple religious endowments, and the Board of Supreme
    Audits (BSA), which is the country's oldest anticorruption agency,
    perform external audits of government ministries and agencies. The BSA
    also audits the offices of the prime minister, the Presidency Council,
    and the presidency of the COR, as well as expenses claimed by members
    of the COR.
        Aside from the core institutions of the COI, the inspector general,
    and the audit board, the COR maintains an Integrity Committee charged
    with oversight of executive branch and anticorruption agencies. By
    executive order the prime minister created the Joint Anticorruption
    Council in 2007 to integrate anticorruption initiatives; it includes
    representatives of the COI, IGs, the BSA, COR's Integrity Committee,
    and the Higher Judicial Council and is chaired by the Council of
    Ministers secretary general.
        The media and NGOs continued to expose corruption, although their
    capacity to do so was limited.
        Published on March 24, the Government's Anticorruption Strategy for
    2010-14 identifies more than 200 specific anticorruption challenges,
    along with an action plan for addressing each. The Joint Anticorruption
    Council, with the COI acting as the lead, has responsibility for
    supervising compliance with the strategy, which also seeks
    participation from religious and community leaders, civil society
    representatives, and journalists. At the end of the year, 29 of the 34
    ministries had complied with the strategy's requirement to submit an
    anticorruption plan for COI review.
        In 2008 the KRG established a corruption committee, composed of
    government officials, to review levels of corruption and make
    recommendations on how to prevent corruption. The KRG contracted an
    international accounting firm to study KRG institutions and make
    recommendations on anticorruption measures. In July 2009 KRG Prime
    Minister Nechirvan Barzani announced the summary results of the
    accounting firm's report, including a recommended anticorruption
    strategy. In December, KRG parliamentarians established the Kurdistan
    Integrity Committee with the objective to create a centralized BSA and
    a Commission of Integrity in the KRG. As of year's end, the separate
    BSAs in Erbil and Suleymaniyah had yet to merge, and the Iraqi COI had
    not received permission to operate officially in the KRG.
        On April 21, former minister of trade Abd Falah al-Sudani was
    acquitted for lack of evidence on certain charges of corruption and
    mismanagement within his ministry which oversees the country's vast
    public food ration program. Sudani remained at large, and the
    Commission of Integrity continued to pursue other corruption charges
    against him at year's end, while others indicated an intent to repeal
    the acquittal. Al-Sudani resigned from his post in May 2009 and was
    then charged with corruption and arrested while fleeing the country.
    The court released al-Sudani's brother, Sabah al-Sudani, who was also
    arrested after he was stopped with 170 million dinars ($150,000) and
    attempted to bribe a police officer. Three Ministry of Trade officials
    involved in the case, including the director general of the Grain
    Import Board, were convicted of negligence; one received a two-year
    prison sentence, and the other two received one-year sentences.
        In November 2009 authorities discovered that the head of the
    Baghdad Amanat's Accounting Department and 13 other persons, several of
    them her relatives, had stolen more than 23 billion dinars ($20
    million). The authorities arrested the 13 suspects, but the department
    head fled the country. Government authorities worked in coordination
    with neighboring countries to arrest her on June 19 as well as recover
    a substantial portion of the stolen funds. The suspects remained in
    custody at year's end.
        As of year's end, the commissioner of integrity and several IGs
    lacked full authority because their names had not been submitted for
    parliamentary confirmation, as required by law.
        The constitution provides COR members immunity from arrest unless
    the member was caught in a criminal act or charged with a felony and
    the COR overturned immunity by a majority vote.
        The central government and the KRG maintained inflated public
    payrolls. Ministries and public sector institutions employed
    nonexistent ``ghost'' employees, and political patronage was common at
    all levels of government. Ministries were beginning to establish
    automated payroll deposits and conduct workplace audits with the BSA to
    cut back on ``ghost'' employees. Rates of absenteeism and desertion
    among the ISF continued to decrease. During the year in the KRG there
    were an estimated one million employees on the Government payroll of a
    total population of approximately 3.9 million.
        Political parties subjected the COI to a number of high-level
    attempts to influence prosecutions. Members of the legislature also
    reportedly attempted to pressure the court on numerous occasions.
        There were reports in all 18 provinces, at the national and
    regional levels, of opaque public tender processes, favoritism in
    contracting, and excessive discretion of public officials in
    procurement decisions.
        Corruption along the country's borders existed as well. A September
    22 media report detailed a security operation against trucks smuggling
    oil outside the country. The Government worked independently and with
    the international community to address structural and capacity issues
    in this area.
        Local and foreign business organizations in the KRG complained that
    the KRG did not publicly tender contracts in sufficient time to allow
    local business owners to compete, and that political and personal
    favoritism determined the results.
        Anticorruption, law enforcement, and judicial officials, along with
    members of civil society and the media, continued to face threats and
    intimidation for vigorous pursuit of corrupt practices.

    Section 5. Governmental Attitude Regarding International and
            Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations of Human
            Rights
        During the year the Government had a mixed record cooperating with
    NGOs. Although the Government expressed a willingness to cooperate with
    the UN and its agencies on human rights issues, as seen in its
    participation in the Universal Periodic Review, practical cooperation
    was limited, with the Government citing security restrictions.
    Government cooperation with NGOs was evident during the election, with
    tens of thousands of independent election observers deployed throughout
    the country.
        During the year activity and advocacy by the country's NGOs
    contributed to democratic governance. While domestic human rights NGOs
    remained affiliated with a political party or with a particular sect,
    space for independent NGOs was opening. Branches of international NGOs
    and NGOs serving women remained the most forward leaning. Overall, NGOs
    still faced numerous challenges and did not systematically serve as
    bulwarks against failures in governance and human rights abuses.
        On January 25, the Government passed a law on NGOs that was
    designed to facilitate NGO registration and operations while providing
    extra protections from onerous and arbitrary government actions.
    Provisions in the new law included the following: NGOs are permitted to
    receive foreign funding and affiliate with foreign entities (including
    the UN and ICRC, for example) without prior approval from the
    Government; the Government cannot deny NGO registration without
    attributing the denial to a specific provision of law; criminal
    penalties (including imprisonment) were removed for membership in an
    improperly registered NGO; the Government can only audit or inspect an
    NGO office with cause; and the Government must obtain a court order to
    suspend an NGO or confiscate its property. The new law became effective
    on April 7. The Council of Ministers Secretariat NGO Assistance Office
    was in the process of implementing regulations consistent with the new
    law. One office in the country located in Baghdad accepted
    registrations for NGOs.
        During the year there were reports that the police conducted
    unannounced and intimidating visits to some NGOs, demanding
    photographs, passport details, names, and addresses of all staff and
    their family members. NGOs reported that the new law aimed to remedy
    this situation.
        The poor security situation continued to limit the work of NGOs. On
    January 18, gunmen killed five persons of a domestic humanitarian NGO
    in its Baghdad office and afterwards detonated a car bomb, wounding two
    police responders. However, such direct attacks specifically aimed at
    NGOs remained rare. The Government did not take special steps to
    protect NGOs from targeting or harassment.
        The Kurdish areas had an active NGO community, although local
    Kurdish NGOs generally were closely linked to and funded by the PUK and
    KDP political parties. The KRG and Kurdish political parties generally
    supported humanitarian NGO activities and programs.
        The central government's attitude toward international human rights
    and humanitarian NGOs was one of moderate cooperation. The Government
    did not mandate additional registration requirements for international
    human rights and humanitarian NGOs outside visa requirements for
    international staff. Information was not available regarding the
    existence of any government efforts to refuse visas for international
    NGO staff or restrict access into the country. Due to security concerns
    and the costs of addressing those concerns, many international NGOs
    established offices in Erbil in the KRG and then hired local staff for
    activities outside the KRG.
        The Government generally cooperated with the UN Assistance Mission
    for Iraq (UNAMI) and the international governmental organizations
    associated with it. For example, Security Council Resolution 1883
    (2009) mandated the UNAMI to advise, support, and assist the Government
    and IHEC with the March 7 COR elections, which international observer
    missions and Iraqi observer networks declared were free from widespread
    or systemic fraud. The Government permitted visits by various UN
    representatives of all levels; for example, by the UN representative of
    the secretary general on the human rights of internally displaced
    persons, Walter Kalin, in late September and the UN secretary general's
    high-level coordinator who handles Iraq-Kuwait issues, Ambassador
    Gennady Tarasov. UNAMI and its affiliated organizations regularly
    release reports on a wide range of issues. There have been no reports
    of any government efforts to block release or distribution of UNAMI
    publications.
        In 2008 the Government signed a headquarters agreement with the
    ICRC, granting it legal status and permanent representation in the
    country. The COR had not ratified the agreement by year's end, but the
    ICRC benefited nonetheless from its provisions.
        All nongovernmental investigations of alleged human rights
    violations continued to be restricted. The Government attributed
    restrictions to the security situation and its policy of allowing only
    the MOHR and the ICRC restricted access to detention facilities. The
    Government generally did not permit detention center or prison visits
    by NGOs. The MOHR met with domestic NGO monitors and responded to their
    inquiries by opening MOHR investigations into alleged violations. In
    2009 the MOHR also initiated a program to train representatives of 32
    domestic NGOs to visit and monitor prison conditions.
        The MOHR attempted to monitor human rights abuses and advocate for
    and assist victims, and it issued public reports on prisons and
    detention centers, minorities, and victims of terrorism. Limited
    resources and poor cooperation from other ministries limited the
    ministry's effectiveness. The effectiveness of KRG human rights
    authorities was limited by a lack of trained personnel and effective
    follow-up throughout the Government on human rights issues.
        In 2008 the COR's Committee on Human Rights passed legislation
    establishing an Independent High Commission on Human Rights. In
    December 2009 a Committee of Experts to select the commission's
    directors was formed, but the COR had not ratified its membership at
    year's end. The Government had not contributed any funds, and support
    from the international donor community was limited. The COR committee
    advocated publicly for raising standards in government detention
    facilities and prisons, and credible human rights organizations
    considered that to be valuable. The KRG's legislature formed a special
    committee to deal with human rights and detainee issues, but did not
    issue any public reports.

    Section 6. Discrimination, Societal Abuses, and Trafficking in Persons
        The constitution provides that all citizens are equal before the
    law without regard to gender, sect, opinion, belief, nationality,
    religion, or origin. The law prohibits discrimination on the basis of
    race, disability, or social status. The Government did not effectively
    enforce these provisions.

        Women.--The constitution provides for equal treatment before the
    law without discrimination based on gender; in practice, discrimination
    existed, and enforcement of equal treatment was uneven. The general
    lack of security in the country and increasingly conservative societal
    tendencies had a serious negative impact on women.
        The penal code criminalizes rape, does not address spousal rape,
    and permits a maximum sentence of life imprisonment for rapists. There
    was no reliable estimate of the incidence of rape or the effectiveness
    of government enforcement of the law.
        The constitution prohibits all forms of violence and abuse in the
    family, school, and society. Local NGOs and media reporting indicated
    that domestic violence often went unreported and unpunished with abuses
    customarily addressed within the family and tribal structure.
    Harassment of legal personnel working on domestic violence cases, as
    well as a lack of police and judicial personnel, further hampered
    efforts to bring perpetrators to justice.
        There are no specific laws that concern domestic violence. Under
    the penal code, a husband is legally entitled to punish his wife
    ``within certain limits prescribed by law or custom.'' Existing laws
    were widely unenforced, including those on domestic violence.
        During the year NGOs reported that domestic violence against women
    remained a serious problem, although no reliable statistics existed.
        Domestic violence was also widespread in the Kurdistan region,
    including beatings, shootings, and burnings. Women have an unequal role
    in the family and in the social structure of the region. Although
    technology has made it easier for women to contact others outside their
    immediate family, this has led to sometimes violent disputes over who a
    woman can talk to or what she can do outside the home. For the first
    eight months of 2009, the domestic NGO Human Rights Data Bank recorded
    363 incidents of battery against women, 295 reported threats, 40
    murders, and 32 sexual assaults in the KRG.
        Honor killings remained a serious problem. Legislation in force
    permits honor considerations to mitigate sentences.
        According to a 2009 UNHCR report, honor killings were prevalent in
    all parts of the country. For the first nine months of 2009, the
    domestic NGO Human Rights Data Bank recorded 314 burn victims (125
    instances of self-immolation and 189 cases of burning), compared with
    234 burn victim during the same period in 2008.
        A KRG human rights official reported in 2008 that the KRG does not
    consider an honor killing legally different from murder, thus making
    punishment for an honor killing equal to punishment for murder. The
    nature of the crime made it difficult for authorities to find
    sufficient evidence to prosecute cases. KRG human rights authorities
    reported that 117 women died in honor killings in 2008; the KRG
    reported a total of 528 honor killings in 2009. UNAMI and civil society
    observers considered both figures to be low. KRG human rights
    authorities and the KRG's Honor Killing Monitoring Commission were
    active on women's issues, particularly on steps to end honor killings.
        Both public and private shelters for women existed, but space was
    limited and service delivery was poor, with private shelters providing
    a slightly higher level of service. Shelters closely protected
    information regarding their locations. Some NGOs worked with local
    community mental health workers, employed by the Ministry of Health,
    who provided assistance to victims of gender-based violence. Other NGOs
    worked to provide legal assistance to these victims. NGOs played a role
    in providing services to victims of domestic violence who received no
    assistance from the Government. Authorities frequently attempted to
    mediate between women and their families to work out a peaceful
    solution for the women to return home. Other than marrying or returning
    to their families (which often resulted in the family or community
    revictimizing the shelter resident), there were few options for women
    who were housed at shelters.
        Sexual relations outside of marriage for any reason are prohibited
    by law, including sexual solicitation often present in sexual
    harassment situations. The penalties include fines and detention. The
    criminal code provides relief from penalties if unmarried participants
    marry. No information was available regarding the effectiveness of
    government enforcement. Due to social conventions and retribution
    against both the victim and perpetrator of sexual harassment, victims
    of sexual harassment did not usually come forward to pursue legal
    remedies.
        The Government generally respected the basic rights of couples and
    individuals to decide freely and responsibly the number, timing, and
    spacing of children and to have the means to do so free from
    discrimination, coercion, and violence. Apart from the general
    insecurity in the country and attendant economic difficulties, there
    were no impediments to access to information on family planning,
    contraception, and maternal health services, including skilled
    attendance during childbirth, prenatal care, and essential obstetric
    care and postpartum care. Many women received inadequate medical care
    due to a lack of essential drugs, transport to referral institutions,
    and medical personnel lacking training in emergency obstetric care.
    Women were at increased risk of poor birth outcomes with high rates of
    anemia, short birth intervals, early marriage, and early pregnancy.
        Although the constitution forbids discrimination on the basis of
    gender, in practice conservative societal standards impeded women's
    abilities to exercise their rights equally to men. Throughout the
    country women reported pressure to wear veils. Islamic extremists
    targeted women for undertaking normal activities, such as driving a car
    and wearing trousers, in an effort to force them to remain at home,
    wear veils, and adhere to a conservative interpretation of Islam.
    Islamic extremists also reportedly continued to target women in a
    number of cities, demanding they stop wearing Western-style clothing
    and cover their heads while in public.
        The Ministry of State for Women's Affairs, with an approximately
    18-person professional staff, functioned primarily as a policy office
    without an independent budget or the ability to hire more employees.
        Women experienced economic discrimination in access to, and in
    terms of, employment and occupation, credit, and pay equity for
    performing similar work or managing similar businesses as men. The
    security situation disproportionately affected women's ability to work
    outside the home. Weak labor laws and the lack of an equal opportunity
    employment law left women vulnerable to arbitrary dismissal. Government
    efforts to combat economic discrimination against women are minimal and
    unsystematic.

        Children.--The constitution states that anyone born with at least
    one Iraqi parent shall be considered a citizen. The Government in
    general was committed to children's rights and welfare, although it
    denied benefits to noncitizen children. Their families had to pay for
    services that were otherwise free, such as public schools and health
    services. Except for several hundred Palestinian families, they were
    not eligible for the national food rationing program.
        Primary education is compulsory for citizen children for six years,
    and 89 percent of students reached the fifth grade. Education is free
    for children at all levels.
        Helping street children remained a challenge for the Government,
    NGOs, and international organizations. Many street children remained
    from the war and the ensuing sectarian fighting. Extremists' attacks
    also resulted in orphaned children. There is no adoption under the law,
    only guardianship for extended family or friends who can provide for
    the child in Iraq. The law does not permit foreigners to obtain legal
    guardianship of Iraqi children. Although orphanages existed, there was
    little evidence of an established culture of informal adoption for
    nonrelated children.
        Female genital mutilation (FGM) is not illegal and is a common
    practice particularly in the rural areas of the Kurdistan region and
    other areas of the country where Kurdish communities live. Several NGOs
    that worked to halt FGM had anecdotal evidence that in rural villages
    as many as 90 percent of women had undergone the procedure, and in
    urban areas as many as 30 percent. The Government offered no
    substantive assistance for victims of FGM.
        On February 6, the Association for Crisis Assistance and
    Development Cooperation (WADI) released the findings of a
    representative empirical study on FGM in the Kurdistan region which
    noted that the majority of women in the region had undergone FGM. On
    June 16, Human Rights Watch released a report describing the
    experiences of girls and women who had undergone FGM. On July 6, the
    High Committee for Issuing Fatwas at the Kurdistan Islamic Scholars
    Union issued a fatwa declaring that ``female circumcision'' was a pre-
    Islamic practice that should be avoided for health reasons. On July 12,
    the Ministry for Endowments and Religious Affairs in the KRG asked
    clerics to note in sermons and Friday prayers that FGM was not an
    Islamic practice.
        Although there were no statistics, a tradition of marrying young
    girls (as young as 14 years old) continued, particularly in rural
    areas.
        Sexual relations outside of marriage for any reason, including
    rape, are prohibited by law. Producing, importing, publishing, or
    possessing written material, drawings, photographs, or films that
    violates public integrity or decency (including pornography of any
    kind) is prohibited. Rape is a serious offense, which can result in
    long prison terms, including life imprisonment. The penalties for
    violating public integrity or decency include fines and detention. No
    information was available regarding the effectiveness of government
    enforcement. Due to social conventions and retribution against both the
    victim and perpetrator of sexual relations outside marriage, victims of
    sexual crimes did not usually come forward to pursue legal remedies.
        Individuals do not need parental permission for marriage upon
    reaching 18 years old. Consequently, the minimum age of consensual sex
    is 18.
        Despite laws against child labor, children often worked illegally
    on farms or in street commerce. In accordance with the labor law, MOLSA
    established an inspection service to ensure compliance with the law as
    it relates to prohibitions on child labor in the private and public
    sector.
        The country is not a party to the 1980 Hague Convention on the
    Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. For information on
    international parental child abduction, please see the Department of
    State's annual on compliance at http://travel.state.gov/abduction/
    resources/congressreport/congressreport--4308.html.

        Anti-Semitism.--The majority of the Jewish community, which was
    estimated to number 117,000 in 1947, left in the years immediately
    following the creation of the state of Israel in 1948. Virtually all of
    the remaining Jews left the country over the passage of the following
    decades. Fewer than 10 Jews remained in Baghdad, and none were known to
    live in other parts of the country.
        The criminal code stipulates that any person promoting Zionist
    principles, or who associates himself with Zionist organizations or
    assists them by giving material or moral support or works in any way
    towards the realization of Zionist objectives, is subject to punishment
    by death.
        There were no reports of anti-Semitic acts.

        Trafficking in Persons.--For information on trafficking in persons,
    please see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons
    Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        Persons With Disabilities.--The law prohibits discrimination in
    employment, education, access to health care, and other state services
    against persons with physical disabilities. The Government enforced the
    law in the Government sector but not in the private sector. The
    Government made efforts to ensure access by persons with disabilities
    during the March 7 election.
        The constitution states that the Government, through laws and
    regulations, should care and rehabilitate persons with disabilities and
    special needs to reintegrate them into society. There are no laws
    prohibiting discrimination against persons with physical, sensory,
    intellectual and mental disabilities in employment, education, access
    to health care, or the provision of other state services. Access for
    persons with disabilities to buildings remained inconsistent.
        The Government has programs aimed to help persons with
    disabilities; however, numerous media reports documented the challenges
    these programs faced, namely in the lack of qualified, trained
    personnel and large special needs populations. Amputees, persons with
    other major physical injuries, and persons suffering from mental/
    psychological trauma were the focus of most media reports. The Health
    Ministry provides medical care, benefits, and rehabilitation, when
    available, and persons with disabilities may qualify for benefits from
    other agencies, including the Prime Minister's Office. The Ministry of
    Labor and Social Affairs operates several institutions for children and
    young adults with disabilities. The Ministry of Health's most recent
    estimate of the number of persons with physical and mental disabilities
    was two to three million, approximately 10 percent of the population.

        National/Racial/Ethnic Minorities.--The country's population
    includes Arabs, Kurds, Turkmen, Chaldeans, Assyrians, and Armenians.
    The religious mix is likewise varied. Many consider the Assyrians and
    Chaldeans to be a distinct ethnic group. These communities speak a
    different language, preserve Christian traditions, and do not define
    themselves as Arabs. The country also has citizens of African descent,
    ``Black Iraqis,'' a population that community representatives estimated
    to number more than one million. According to Minority Rights Group
    International, the largest Black Iraqi community is in Basra; a
    significant number reside in Sadr City in Baghdad as well.
        The constitution identifies Arabic and Kurdish as the two official
    languages of the state. It also provides the right of citizens to
    educate their children in their mother tongue, such as Turkmen, Syriac,
    or Armenian, in government educational institutions in accordance with
    educational guidelines or in any other language in private educational
    institutions.
        During the year discrimination against ethnic minorities was a
    problem. There were numerous reports of Kurdish authorities
    discriminating against minorities in the disputed territories under the
    de facto control of the KRG, including Turkmen, Arabs, Yazidis, and
    Assyrians. According to these reports, authorities denied services to
    some villages, arrested minorities without due process, took them to
    undisclosed locations for detention, and pressured minority schools to
    teach in the Kurdish language. Ethnic and religious minorities in
    Tameem (Kirkuk) frequently charged that Kurdish security forces
    targeted Arabs and Turkmen. Within the three provinces of the KRG,
    there was little evidence of KRG discrimination against religious and
    ethnic minorities. Minority communities operated their own schools and
    were represented both in the parliament and executive branch of the
    KRG.
        Palestinians reportedly experienced arrest, detention, harassment,
    and abuse by police, by individuals pretending to be police, and by the
    general public. A 2006 citizenship law prevents Palestinians from
    obtaining citizenship or Jews who emigrated to other countries from
    reclaiming citizenship.
        A population of 1.5 to 2 million Black Iraqis reported economic and
    social discrimination. UNAMI estimated in October 2009 that more than
    80 percent of the Black Iraqi population was unemployed. Minority
    Rights Group International reported that many were laborers or worked
    as domestic workers.

        Societal Abuses, Discrimination, and Acts of Violence Based on
    Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.--There was no law specifically
    prohibiting homosexual relationships, although the penal code prohibits
    the act of ``buggery,'' or sodomy, irrespective of gender. The law
    calls for imprisonment only if the ``victim'' is under the age of 18.
    There was no data on how often, if ever, persons were prosecuted for
    sodomy. Due to social conventions and retribution against both victim
    and perpetrator of nonconsensual homosexual acts and persecution
    against participants in consensual homosexual relations, this activity
    was unreported.
        In light of the law, the authorities rely on public indecency
    charges or confessions of monetary exchange, (i.e., prostitution, which
    is illegal) to prosecute homosexual acts. Homosexual persons often
    faced persecution and violence from family and nongovernmental actors.
    The procedures used to arrest such persons were also used to arrest
    indiscreet heterosexuals who may be in sexual relations with persons
    other than their spouses.
        Due to social conventions and potential persecution, including
    violent attacks, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT)
    organizations did not operate openly, nor were gay pride marches or gay
    rights advocacy events held. Societal discrimination based on sexual
    orientation and gender identity in employment, occupation, and housing
    was common. Information was not available regarding discrimination in
    access to education or health care due to sexual orientation or gender
    identity. There were no government efforts to address this
    discrimination.
        While there were fewer reports of discrimination and violence
    against gay men and lesbians than in 2009, discrimination and violence
    against such persons continued. On June 23, the London newspaper the
    Guardian reported that police in Karbala attacked and detained six
    persons, of whom two were gay men, one lesbian, and two transgender
    persons. The article reported that one of the men went to a hospital
    two days later with a throat wound and allegations of police torture.
    On June 29, the newspaper Al-Bayyna Al-Jadidah reported the arrest of
    college-age, gay men who allegedly confessed to committing
    ``unethical'' acts. The article, which highlighted the legal steps
    taken to secure a judicial order prior to the search and arrest, ended
    with ``greetings to those awake eyes (security/informant forces) that
    pursue all homosexuals.''
        As of year's end, authorities had not announced any arrests or
    prosecutions of any persons for abusing, killing, torturing, or
    detaining any LGBT individuals.
        Other parts of this report contain related information (see
    sections 1.c, 2.c., and 6.d.).

    Section 7. Worker Rights
        a. The Right of Association.--The constitution states that citizens
    have the right to form and join unions and professional associations
    with certain restrictions. The Saddam-era labor codes, which are still
    in effect, place limitations and conditions on these rights. Public
    sector workers who are not executives can legally form or join unions,
    but regulation classified most public sector workers as executives.
    Workers in state-owned enterprises can form or join unions. Unions in
    the public sector and state-owned enterprises are not independent; they
    are sponsored by the state. Private-sector employees who work at
    establishments employing more than 50 persons may form and join unions
    that have limited rights. Private-sector unions have the right to seek
    government arbitration for labor disputes, but not the right to strike.
        Labor Law 150 of 1987 is still in effect and states that trade
    union organizations should ``play an effective role in the organization
    of labor relations, in the protection of workers' rights, and in the
    development of their personalities.'' However, it declares virtually
    all public sector workers to be government ``executives,'' and
    therefore legally ineligible to form or to join unions. The rights of
    migrant workers are not covered under this law. The provision in effect
    eliminated unions and the right of association from the large public
    sector. Although the number of formal unions and associations remains
    undefined, workers in state-owned enterprises have generally been
    organized along sectoral lines stemming largely from state employment.
    The largest sectors with the most active unions or associations are
    oil/petrochemical, industrial and defense manufacturing, and education.
        In the private sector, the 1987 Trade Union Organization Law states
    that employees can form workers' committees, with limited rights of
    association, in private-sector work sites employing more than 50
    workers. Originally, this was also intended to remove the right of
    association from a majority of private-sector workers because most
    private-sector businesses employ fewer than 50 workers. Decree 8750 of
    2005, which cancelled unions' leadership boards, froze their assets,
    and formed an interministerial committee to administer unions' assets
    and assess their capacity to resume activity, also inhibited union
    activity.
        The legal and regulatory framework, combined with violence,
    insecurity, high unemployment, and lack of decent work standards
    provided for unacceptable conditions for working people. Nevertheless,
    labor organizations in state-owned enterprises were active during the
    year despite threats and harassment to union leaders. In January the
    Government imprisoned the president of Basra's Iraqi Teachers Union. In
    March the president of the Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions was charged
    with accusations that he was endangering the economy through union
    activity. On March 18, workers of the Southern Refinery Company held a
    three-hour strike. On April 1, the company transferred four leaders of
    the Refinery Workers Union in Basra. On July 21, the Government
    expelled the Electrical Utility Workers Union from its Basra offices.
        The MOLSA Labor Directorate has jurisdiction over the labor code,
    child labor, wages, occupational safety and health issues, and labor
    relations. Although the private sector expanded only modestly during
    the year, workers in the private sector continued to enjoy the right to
    form workers' committees at work sites employing fewer than 50 persons.
        The constitution states that every citizen has the right to
    demonstrate and strike peacefully in accordance with the law; however
    the 1987 labor code rules out the existence of public sector labor
    unions capable of carrying out industrial action and prohibits striking
    in the public and private sectors. Strikers were harassed and
    threatened for striking during the year. In March the media reported
    that security forces (army and police) dispersed an oil worker
    demonstration in Basra and arrested two demonstrators. According to
    October 10 press reports, Hassan Juma'a and Falih Abood, the president
    and general secretary, respectively, of the Federation of Oil Employees
    of Iraq were banned from travel outside the country. In June the
    authorities surrounded protesting longshoremen in Basra and transferred
    union leaders hundreds of miles from their homes.
        The Government was the largest employer in the country; reliable
    estimates indicated the public sector accounted for approximately 30 to
    35 percent of the total workforce. There were no government-sponsored
    prosecutions or attacks on trade union activists during the year,
    although the Government appeared to use transfers to remove troublesome
    union leaders from active union activity.

        b. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively.--The 1987 labor
    code in practice ruled out the existence of labor unions able to carry
    out free and independent union activity and therefore effectively
    prohibited independent organizing and collective bargaining in the
    public and private sectors.
        Because unions have no legal power to negotiate with employers,
    proactive protection of workers' rights through collective bargaining
    and written collective contracts is not possible. Unions were able to
    play a supportive role in labor disputes, and they had the right to
    demand government arbitration, a process the Government only recently
    began to address in its commercial courts and judicial training. The
    1987 Trade Union Organization Law defined ``labor disputes'' as
    collective conflicts arising between workers and employers over the
    provisions of the labor code and/or individual employment contracts.
    Government labor courts were empowered to rule on labor code violations
    and disagreements. MOLSA officials, who were also charged with ensuring
    that public- and private-sector employers provided workers government-
    mandated social security, pension, health care, and other benefits
    regardless of company size, readily acknowledged that enforcing these
    social safety net laws was more difficult without the partnership and
    cooperation of strong unions.
        Migrant workers are prohibited from collective bargaining rights
    and are not allowed to join unions. The absence of collective
    bargaining and collective contracts at national and local levels
    significantly diminished unions' power to defend workers' rights
    pertaining to their access to social protection.
        The laws and decrees did not prohibit antiunion discrimination by
    employers or others.
        There are no export processing zones.

        c. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor.--The law prohibits
    forced or compulsory labor; however this is not monitored or enforced.
    Migrant workers were sometimes subjected to abusive forced labor. The
    MOI, in coordination with MOLSA, reviewed applications for special
    worker status. According to MOLSA, most migrant applications were
    denied to protect domestic workers and industry. When the Government
    uncovered cases of exploitation of foreign workers, it worked in
    conjunction with international organizations to repatriate the victims.
    The Government did not have an effective means of monitoring or
    enforcing decent work standards for the workforce, both citizens and
    migrant workers.
        Also see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons
    Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        d. Prohibition of Child Labor and Minimum Age for Employment.--The
    constitution and law prohibit the worst forms of child labor. The
    Government was not able to monitor or enforce these laws effectively.
    The law limits working hours for workers younger than 18 and prohibits
    their employment in dangerous occupations. The minimum age for
    employment is 15. Employment of anyone younger than 16 in work that is
    detrimental to health, safety, or morals is prohibited. The MOLSA Child
    Labor Unit continued to enforce child labor standards, but its work
    suffered from insufficient personnel and budget resources. The ISF
    continued to make slow but steady progress in its ability to pursue and
    interdict nonviolent crimes such as child labor violations.
        Poor families routinely used children to augment their income-
    earning potential. This work often took the form of seasonal labor in
    rural areas or begging or peddling in urban settings. There were
    anecdotal reports of children working in hazardous family-owned
    automobile shops or on construction sites. Unconfirmed reports alleged
    the sale of children for indentured servitude.
        The Government introduced a targeted, means-tested social safety
    network program in 2005 to reduce poverty and protect children against
    deteriorating living conditions in their households. Millions of
    families received benefits and services administered by MOLSA, but
    child labor remained problematic. The package included a child
    allowance, conditional upon school attendance; the Government also
    funded programs to assist former and current street children.
    International organizations and NGOs funded additional projects to
    enhance the protection of children.

        e. Acceptable Conditions of Work.--Wages are set by contract in the
    private sector and set by the Government in the public sector. The
    national minimum wage for a skilled worker was less than 12,000 dinars
    (approximately $10) per day and for an unskilled worker less than 5,250
    dinars ($4.50) per day. The standard workday is eight hours with one or
    more rest periods. Up to four hours of overtime work per day is
    permitted, and premium pay for overtime is required. These regulations
    were almost entirely unenforced. The Central Organization of Statistics
    and Information Technology reported that the average salary in 2009--
    the latest year for which information was available--was approximately
    2.4 million dinars ($2,100) per year, an increase over the previous
    year's figure of 1.78 million dinars ($1,500). These earnings remained
    only marginally above poverty level and did not provide an adequate
    standard of living for a worker and family.
        According to international governmental organizations, NGOs, and
    press reports, some foreign workers in the country were subjected to
    abusive treatment, including confiscation of travel and identity
    documents, restrictions on movement and communication, physical abuse,
    sexual harassment and rape, withholding of wages, forced overtime, and
    hazardous working conditions. Migrant workers have no legal protections
    and were not allowed to form or join unions.
        The MOLSA occupational safety and health component had staff
    located throughout the country. The law provides that workers have the
    right to remove themselves from a situation endangering health and
    safety without prejudice to their employment; however, this right is
    not afforded to civil servants or migrant workers, who make up the
    majority of the country's workforce.

                                   __________

                      ISRAEL AND THE OCCUPIED TERRITORIES

        Israel is a multiparty parliamentary democracy with a population of
    approximately 7.7 million, including Israelis living in the occupied
    territories. Israel has no constitution, although a series of ``Basic
    Laws'' enumerate fundamental rights. Certain fundamental laws, orders,
    and regulations legally depend on the existence of a ``State of
    Emergency,'' which has been in effect since 1948. The 120-member,
    unicameral Knesset has the power to dissolve the Government and mandate
    elections. The February 2009 elections for the Knesset were considered
    free and fair. They resulted in a coalition government led by Prime
    Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Israeli security forces reported to
    civilian authorities. (An annex to this report covers human rights in
    the occupied territories. This report deals with human rights in Israel
    and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.)
        Principal human rights problems were institutional, legal, and
    societal discrimination against Arab citizens, Palestinian residents of
    the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, non-Orthodox Jews, and other
    religious groups; societal discrimination against persons with
    disabilities; and societal discrimination and domestic violence against
    women, particularly in Bedouin society. While trafficking in persons
    for the purpose of prostitution decreased in recent years, trafficking
    for the purpose of labor remained a serious problem, as did abuse of
    foreign workers and societal discrimination and incitement against
    asylum seekers.
                            RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

    Section 1. Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom
            From:
        a. Arbitrary or Unlawful Deprivation of Life.--The Government or
    its agents did not commit politically motivated killings.
        The petitioners withdrew their appeal to the High Court against the
    closure of the inquiry by the Department for Investigations against
    Police Officers' (DIPO) into the 2008 beating and subsequent coma and
    death of Sabri al-Jarjawi, a Bedouin. Instead, they appealed to DIPO,
    which denied the petitioners' appeal to reopen the case.
        At year's end, an internal Israel Prison Service (IPS)
    investigation continued into the 2007 killing of a Palestinian
    prisoner, Mohammed al-Askar, during a riot at Ketziot Prison. Prisoners
    alleged that security forces improperly used crowd-dispersal weapons,
    including rubber bullets and beanbag projectiles. The IPS investigation
    was on hold pending the outcome of legal proceedings in the Beer Sheva
    Magistrate Court regarding the cause of death.
        On July 21, the Supreme Court doubled the manslaughter sentence
    imposed by a lower court on police officer Shahar Mizrahi to 30 months
    in prison. The lower court convicted Mizrahi in 2009 of manslaughter in
    the 2006 shooting death of Mahmoud Ghanayem, who had attacked Mizrahi
    with a screwdriver when he tried to apprehend Ghanayem for suspected
    car theft.
        Terrorist groups routinely fired rockets and mortars from the Gaza
    Strip into Israel. According to the Government, terrorists fired
    approximately 235 rockets and mortar shells into the country from the
    Gaza Strip during the year, an increase from 195 in 2009. On March 19,
    a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip killed a Thai citizen near the city
    of Ashkelon.
        Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) Military Advocate General Mandelblit
    investigated all allegations relating to the 2008-09 Operation Cast
    Lead military incursion into the Gaza Strip, examining over 150
    incidents, including those contained in the UN Human Rights Council's
    2009 Goldstone report. In January and July, Mandelblit released updates
    on the majority of investigations, which included details of
    indictments against several soldiers for manslaughter, improper use of
    civilians in wartime, and misconduct. As of July the military advocate
    general launched 47 military police criminal investigations into IDF
    conduct during Operation Cast Lead and completed a significant number
    of them. On August 1, the IDF issued a new order appointing
    humanitarian affairs officers to each battalion to provide further
    protections for civilian populations during wartime planning and combat
    operations.
        During the year the Military Investigative Police launched 147
    investigations with regard to cases of death, violence, and property
    damage against residents of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. In these
    cases the military advocate general filed 10 indictments against 12
    soldiers suspected of committing criminal offenses against
    Palestinians. There were three convictions of four soldiers, no
    acquittals, closure of three cases by the military advocate general,
    and seven cases pending as of year's end.

        b. Disappearance.--There were no reports of politically motivated
    disappearances.

        c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or
    Punishment.--A 1999 High Court of Justice ruling held that, although
    torture and the application of physical or psychological pain are
    illegal, Israel Security Agency (ISA) interrogators may be exempt from
    criminal prosecution if they use such methods in extraordinary cases
    determined to involve an imminent threat, or ``ticking bomb'' scenario.
        During the year nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) filed numerous
    complaints alleging that security forces tortured or abused Palestinian
    residents of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. On April 26, the Supreme
    Court rejected a July 2009 appeal by the NGO Public Committee against
    Torture in Israel alleging authorities use painful shackling during
    interrogations. The court noted the Government's response that
    shackling was governed by strictly defined procedures and observed that
    the Government had recently made several policy adjustments, including
    no longer shackling a detainee's hands behind the back.
        On October 19, officers from the Ministry of Interior's Oz
    immigration unit allegedly beat and verbally abused with racial
    epithets five members of a black noncitizen family living in Ashkelon
    who had converted to Judaism and were awaiting a decision on their
    citizenship request. The immigration unit admitted detaining a family
    member in error but denied using physical force. The Ashkelon police
    department refused to allow the family to file a complaint against the
    officers.
        On May 12, due to a police procedural error, the Jerusalem
    Magistrates Court canceled the indictment and postponed the trial of
    two Border Guard officers accused in November 2009 of assaulting
    Muhtaseb Muqtada, an Arab resident of Jerusalem. Officers Maor
    Malianker and Yossi Dahan allegedly beat Muqtada with a baton after
    asking for his identification. Malianker was also indicted on two other
    counts for allegedly using a radio device to hit a Jerusalem resident
    and falsely reporting he was attacked during a search.
        The case of two border guards arrested by police in December 2009
    for allegedly beating and stealing NIS 700 ($197) from a Sudanese man
    in Eilat remained pending at year's end at the Beer Sheva District
    Court.
        The case of three police officers who reportedly detained and
    severely beat East Jerusalem resident Tareq Abu Laban in 2008 remained
    pending at year's end. In November 2009 evidentiary hearings began in
    the case following a DIPO investigation.
        In October evidentiary hearings began at the Beer Sheva
    Magistrates' Court in the case of police officers Iyad Huzeyl and Dani
    Havery, who were indicted for assault involving grievous injury against
    Fadi Darab'i, an undocumented Palestinian laborer, in 2008 in the town
    of Gan Yavneh.
        On June 13, a court acquitted three border police officers of
    charges of aggravated assault for physically abusing Abd Tareq Ahrub, a
    West Bank resident detained for being in Jerusalem without a permit in
    2006.

        Prison and Detention Center Conditions.--The law provides prisoners
    and detainees the right to conditions that do not harm their health or
    dignity. While various organizations found deficiencies, conditions in
    IPS facilities for common criminals and security prisoners generally
    met international standards according to international and domestic
    NGOs. (Conditions in four facilities for detainees are covered in the
    annex.)
        According to news reports, a classified report in December by the
    Israel Bar Association (IBA) found that most of the prison service's
    isolation cells did not meet international standards. The reports
    stated the IBA study also described many isolated inmates' development
    of mental and physical health problems such as paranoia, fits of rage,
    and eyesight loss due to lack of natural light. The Government
    acknowledged the need to improve conditions for Palestinian security
    prisoners in response to a 2008 IBA report on Sharon and Hadarim
    prisons that noted, among other points, poor health conditions in those
    facilities.
        The annual report of the Public Defender's Office describing
    conditions in prisons and detention centers in 2008 found grave
    deficiencies in the infrastructure of most prison facilities and the
    living conditions in many of them. In response to the report's claim
    that convicts in one-third of the prisons visited complained of violent
    and humiliating treatment, the Warden's Investigation Unit within the
    National Police (which is independent of the IPS) found complaints to
    be unfounded.
        According to a December 27 Haaretz article, there were on average
    13 unnatural deaths (from suicide, murder, or neglect) in prisons over
    the past decade. At year's end both the police and the prison service
    were conducting separate investigations into the causes of the
    unnatural deaths that occurred during the year. According to news
    reports, the state comptroller began an investigation into prison
    suicides in 2009 to determine their causes.
        On April 16, 27-year-old Raed Abu Hammad died while in solitary
    confinement in a prison in the southern part of the country. Hammad was
    halfway through a 10-year sentence for attempted murder and suffered
    from medical conditions. The prison service was investigating the death
    at year's end.
        As of December 14, there were 5,935 Arab security prisoners and
    detainees, 1,438 Palestinian criminal prisoners, 3,903 Israeli Arab
    criminal prisoners, 17 Jewish Israeli security prisoners, and 6,462
    Jewish criminal prisoners.
        Prisoners and detainees had reasonable access to visitors,
    including through a program of the International Committee of the Red
    Cross (ICRC) that brought relatives from the West Bank into the country
    for prison visits. The Government stopped a similar program for
    visitors from the Gaza Strip following the Hamas takeover of the Gaza
    Strip in 2007. In December 2009 the High Court ruled against a petition
    from prisoners' family members from the Gaza Strip, finding such visits
    did not constitute a humanitarian need. Travel restrictions into the
    country also affected Palestinian administrative prisoners' access to
    visitors and lawyers.
        Prisoners were permitted religious observance.
        The law allows prisoners to submit a petition to judicial
    authorities in response to substandard prison conditions, and the
    authorities investigated credible allegations of inhumane conditions
    and documented results of such investigations publicly.
        The ICRC regularly monitored IPS facilities, interrogation
    facilities, and the two IDF provisional detention centers but did not
    monitor security detainees in military detention centers. The
    Government also permitted the IBA and Public Defenders' Office to
    inspect IPS facilities, and they did so during the year.
        The state comptroller serves as ombudsman and investigates public
    complaints received through the Public Complaints Commission against
    government ministries, local authorities, state enterprises and
    institutions, government corporations, and government employees. It
    functions as an effective mechanism for handling accusations of
    discrimination within government and public institutions, and it
    forwards complaints to the appropriate oversight bodies of
    nongovernmental entities that serve the public including banks and
    insurance companies. Any person may make a complaint regardless of
    citizenship, residency, or visa status.

        d. Arbitrary Arrest or Detention.--The law prohibits arbitrary
    arrest and detention, and the Government generally observed these
    prohibitions for all citizens. Non-Israeli residents of the Israeli-
    annexed Golan Heights were subject to the same laws as Israeli
    citizens. Noncitizens of Palestinian origin detained on security
    grounds fell under military jurisdiction even if detained in Israel.

        Role of the Police and Security Apparatus.--Under the authority of
    the prime minister, the ISA combats terrorism and espionage in the
    country and the occupied territories. The National Police, including
    the Border Police and the Immigration Police, are under the authority
    of the Ministry of Internal Security. Civilian authorities maintained
    effective control over the ISA police forces, and the Government has
    effective mechanisms to investigate and punish abuse and corruption.
    There were no reports of impunity involving the security forces during
    the year. The military is responsible for external security and has no
    jurisdiction over citizens.
        DIPO investigates complaints against police officers and has the
    authority to indict or transfer cases for disciplinary trials.
    Continuing a plan to replace police with civil investigators, DIPO was
    staffed by 29 civil investigators and 19 police investigators at year's
    end.
        The National Police carried out training programs in coordination
    with academic institutions and human rights NGOs to promote human
    rights awareness and cultural sensitivity. During the year the National
    Police also provided mandatory Arabic language and culture classes for
    all new cadets.

        Arrest Procedures and Treatment While in Detention.--The law
    provides that an arrested citizen is considered innocent until proven
    guilty and has the right to be represented by an attorney. According to
    a report by the Public Defender's Office covering 2008-09, many persons
    arrested by police were informed of their right to consult an attorney
    only after they were questioned and transferred to a holding facility.
    Authorities allowed detainees to contact family members promptly. The
    Government may withhold evidence from defense lawyers on security
    grounds; however, the evidence must be made available to the court. A
    bail system exists, and a decision denying bail can be appealed. As a
    general practice, noncitizens of Palestinian origin detained for
    security violations were not granted bail. An individual suspected of a
    criminal offense may be held without charge for 24 hours before being
    brought before a judge, with limited exceptions allowing for up to 48
    hours. Authorities respected this right in practice.
        Suspects in nonsecurity cases are apprehended openly with warrants
    based on sufficient evidence and issued by an authorized official and
    generally were informed promptly of charges against them.
        Persons detained on security grounds may fall under one or more of
    the three legal regimes. First, under a 2006 ``temporary law'' on
    criminal procedures that has been renewed three times, the IPS may hold
    individuals suspected of a security offense for 48 hours before being
    brought to a judge, with limited exceptions allowing up to 96 hours
    before being brought to the senior judge of a district court. The law
    allows the court to authorize holding a detainee for up to 20 days
    without an indictment in exceptional cases for interrogation. On
    February 11, the Supreme Court annulled a section of the temporary law
    that had barred access to a lawyer for up to 21 days and had enabled a
    court to impose further extensions without the detainee being present
    or informed of the hearing.
        Second, the 1979 Emergency Powers Law allows the Defense Ministry
    to detain persons administratively without charge for up to six months,
    renewable indefinitely. Administrative detention was used as an
    exception when intelligence sources could not be presented as evidence
    in regular criminal proceedings. Such detainees, almost all of whom
    were Palestinian residents of the West Bank, were permitted legal
    representation within seven days, extendable to as long as 21 days in
    limited cases with the attorney general's approval. If necessary the
    Government provided free legal representation. An administrative
    detainee has the right to appeal any decision to lengthen detention to
    a military court of appeals and ultimately to the Supreme Court. The
    military courts may rely on classified evidence denied to detainees and
    their lawyers when determining whether to prolong administrative
    detention.
        At the end of the year, according to government figures reported by
    the NGO B'Tselem, there were 204 administrative detainees in IPS
    detention centers, including two minors. Most administrative detainees
    were held for less than one year, with 21 administrative detainees
    having been held consecutively for more than two years. Administrative
    detainees constituted 3.4 percent of the 5,954 security-related
    detainees.
        Third, the 2002 Illegal Combatant Law permits holding a detainee
    for 14 days before review by a district court judge, denying access to
    counsel for up to 21 days with the attorney general's approval, and
    allowing indefinite detention subject to twice-yearly district court
    reviews and appeals to the Supreme Court. In 2008 the Government
    extended for an additional four years a temporary provision that
    exempts law enforcement personnel from the law requiring them to film
    and audio record all interrogations of detainees suspected of security
    offenses. Amendments to the law in 2008 expanded its internment powers,
    which may be exercised in the event of ``widespread hostilities,'' an
    occurrence that has not happened to date. At the end of November,
    authorities held three Palestinian residents of the Gaza Strip in
    detention under the Illegal Combatant Law.
        Human rights groups alleged military commanders in the occupied
    territories used administrative security detention orders based on
    ``security reasons'' even when the accused posed no clear danger. NGOs
    complained these laws removed the standard procedural safeguards from
    security suspects.
        The law provides that foreign nationals suspected of immigration
    violations be afforded a hearing within four days of detention. They
    have the right to, but no assurance of, legal representation. According
    to the NGO Hotline for Migrant Workers (Hotline), interpreters in
    Ketziot, where most asylum seekers were detained, were rarely present
    during hearings despite a 2002 written commitment by the Government to
    the Supreme Court to provide interpreters, and persons held in
    immigration detention rarely were released prior to judicial
    determination of their status. Moreover, if the detainee's country of
    origin had no diplomatic or consular representation, the individual
    could remain in detention for months.

        e. Denial of Fair Public Trial.--The law provides for an
    independent judiciary, and the Government respected this provision in
    practice.
        The judicial branch comprises magistrate courts, six district
    courts, and the Supreme Court, which also sits as the High Court of
    Justice. Magistrate courts adjudicate misdemeanors and lesser civil
    disputes. District courts adjudicate felonies, serious civil cases,
    appeals from the magistrate courts, and several other largely
    administrative matters. There are also military, religious, labor
    relations, and administrative courts. The High Court of Justice
    exercises judicial review over the other branches of government and can
    exercise power on matters that are not within the jurisdiction of any
    other court or tribunal. The High Court of Justice is a court of first
    instance for claims against the Government. Its members also sit as the
    Supreme Court and hear appeals of lower court rulings, Knesset
    elections, administrative detentions, prisoners' petitions, and rulings
    of the Civil Service Commission and bar association. Religious courts
    have jurisdiction over matters of personal status for their adherents;
    there are no civil courts for marriage or divorce for the hundreds of
    thousands of citizens for whom religious courts are not a legal option.

        Trial Procedures.--The law provides for the right to a fair trial,
    and an independent judiciary generally enforced this right. However,
    administrative detainee hearings are not trials and do not follow trial
    procedures.
        By law an arrested citizen is considered innocent until proven
    guilty. There are no trials by jury. Trials are public except when the
    court determines that a closed trial is required to protect state
    security, foreign relations, a party's or witness's right to privacy,
    or a sexual offense victim. At the discretion of the court, security or
    military trials may be open to independent observers but not to the
    general public. Defendants have the right to be present and to consult
    with an attorney in a timely manner. All indigent defendants facing
    trial and imprisonment receive mandatory representation. According to
    the Government, counsel represented all defendants in district and
    Supreme Court trials and in approximately 80 percent of cases in the
    magistrate courts.
        Defendants have the right to question witnesses against them,
    present witnesses on their behalf, access evidence (except when the
    court determines such access would compromise state security), and
    appeal.
        Military courts provide some, but not all, of the procedural rights
    granted in civil criminal courts. The 1970 evidentiary rules governing
    trials of Palestinians and others applicable in the occupied
    territories under military law are the same as evidentiary rules in
    criminal cases. According to the Ministry of Justice, the law does not
    permit convictions to be based solely on confessions. In military
    trials, prosecutors often present secret evidence that is not available
    to the defendant or counsel. Counsel may assist the accused in such
    trials, and a judge may assign counsel to defendants. Indigent
    detainees do not automatically receive free legal counsel for military
    trials, but in practice almost all detainees had counsel even in minor
    cases. The defendant and public are read the indictment in Hebrew and,
    unless the defendant waives this right, in Arabic. In past years, many
    indictments were translated into Arabic, but, since according to the
    Government no requests for translations were made, the practice during
    the year was to provide written translations of indictments into Arabic
    only upon request. At least one interpreter is present for simultaneous
    interpretation in every military court hearing, unless the defendant
    waives that right. Defendants can appeal through the Military Court of
    Appeals and petition the High Court of Justice.

        Political Prisoners and Detainees.--There were no reports of
    citizen political prisoners or detainees, although NGOs alleged there
    were noncitizen political detainees.

        Civil Judicial Procedures and Remedies.--An independent and
    impartial judiciary adjudicates lawsuits seeking damages for, or
    cessation of, human rights violations. Administrative remedies exist,
    and court orders were usually enforced. On February 7, former deputy
    attorney general Yehudit Karp sent a memo to Attorney General Yehuda
    Weinstein listing 11 contempt of court ordinances and Supreme Court
    rulings that had not been implemented. On August 1, Attorney General
    Weinstein issued guidelines noting the need to implement court orders.

        f. Arbitrary Interference With Privacy, Family, Home, or
    Correspondence.--The law provides for protection of privacy of the
    individual and the home. In criminal cases, the law permits wiretapping
    under court order; in security cases, the Ministry of Defense must
    issue the order. Under emergency regulations, authorities may open and
    destroy mail on the basis of security considerations.
        The law provides for police officers and other public investigators
    to request court orders to obtain personal information from private
    communications companies, including landline and cellular telephones
    and Internet service providers. To access private communications
    records, investigators must demonstrate that their goal is to save or
    preserve life, investigate or prevent crime, or seize property in
    accordance with the law.
        Separate religious court systems adjudicate matters such as
    marriage and divorce for the Jewish, Muslim, Christian, and Druze
    communities. Jews can marry only in Orthodox Jewish services, although
    the great majority of Jewish Israelis are not Orthodox. Civil
    marriages, marriages of some non-Orthodox Jews, marriages in non-
    Orthodox ceremonies, or marriage of a Jew to a non-Jew must take place
    outside the country to be legal. According to the NGO New Family
    Organization, more than 5,000 couples married in civil ceremonies
    abroad each year, mostly in Cyprus, and then registered in Israel's
    population register. The Rabbinical Court presides over divorces if it
    recognizes both spouses as Jewish; the Family Matters Court grants
    divorces in all cases outside of the religious tribunal's jurisdiction.
    The Government allows consular marriages as long as both parties have
    no religion or belong to a religious community that the state does not
    recognize.
        The law prohibits dismissing a worker who becomes pregnant who has
    worked at least six months for the same employer. However, the law also
    mandates that foreign workers leave the country no later than three
    months after giving birth; those who stay lose their legal status. In
    2005 several NGOs appealed to the Supreme Court against this procedure;
    the appeal remained pending at year's end.
        Many Jewish citizens objected to exclusive Orthodox rabbinic
    control over aspects of their personal lives. Approximately 310,000
    citizens who immigrated, either as Jews or as family members of Jews,
    are not considered Jewish by the Orthodox Rabbinate. They cannot be
    married, divorced, or buried in Jewish cemeteries within the country.
    The estimated 20,000 Messianic Jews, who believe Jesus is the Messiah
    and consider themselves to be Jews, also often experienced this
    infringement on their personal lives, since the Orthodox Rabbinate did
    not consider them Jewish. A 1996 law requiring the Government to
    establish civil cemeteries has not been fully implemented, although
    eight civil cemeteries exist.
        The authority to grant status (citizenship and residency) to a non-
    Israeli spouse, including Palestinian and other non-Jewish foreign
    spouses, resides with the Ministry of Interior. On July 27, the Knesset
    extended for another year the temporary 2003 Citizenship and Entry Law,
    which prohibits a citizen's Palestinian spouse from the occupied
    territories not only from acquiring citizenship by marriage, but also
    from residing in the country. Palestinian male spouses who are 35 or
    older and female spouses who are 25 or older may apply for temporary
    visit permits. The Mossawa Advocacy Center for Arab Citizens in Israel
    (Mossawa) claimed the law affected more than 21,000 families, including
    couples with long-standing marriages. The Government originally enacted
    the law following 23 terrorist attacks involving suicide bombers from
    the occupied territories who had gained access to Israeli
    identification through family unification.

    Section 2. Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:
        a. Freedom of Speech and Press.--The law provides for freedom of
    speech and of the press, and the Government generally respected these
    rights in practice. Individuals may criticize the Government publicly
    and privately without reprisal. The law prohibits hate speech and
    incitement to violence, and the 1948 Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance
    prohibits expressing support for illegal or terrorist organizations.
        The independent media were active and expressed a wide variety of
    views without restriction. The country has 13 daily newspapers, at
    least 90 weekly newspapers, more than 250 periodicals, and a number of
    Internet news sites. All newspapers were privately owned and managed.
    Laws dating from the British mandate require licenses from the Interior
    Ministry for newspapers and allow the minister, under certain
    conditions, to close a newspaper.
        The state-owned Israel Broadcast Authority controls the Hebrew-
    language Israel Television and an Arabic-language channel, as well as
    Kol Israel (Voice of Israel) radio, which broadcasts news and other
    programming in Hebrew, Arabic, and other languages. The Second
    Television and Radio Authority, a public body, supervises the two
    privately owned commercial television channels and 14 privately owned
    radio stations.
        The Government prohibited all citizens, including journalists, from
    entering the Gaza Strip; those who entered were subject to legal
    penalties such as fines and restraining orders, but no journalists were
    fined during the year. All foreign journalists operating in the country
    require accreditation from the Government Press Office.
        All media organizations must submit to military censors any
    material relating to specific military issues or strategic
    infrastructure issues, such as oil and water supplies. The censor's
    decisions may be appealed to the High Court of Justice, and the censor
    cannot appeal a court judgment. The Interior Ministry has no authority
    over the military censor.
        News printed or broadcast abroad is subject to security censorship.
    The Government did not fine newspapers or other mass media for
    violating censorship regulations during the year. On June 6, the
    Supreme Court commuted to community service a sentence of two months in
    prison and six-month suspended sentence imposed by a district court on
    journalists Khader Shaheen and Muhammad Sarhan for breaching the
    military censorship law during the Gaza Strip offensive. Police had
    charged the two men in January 2009 with divulging secret information
    and transmitting information to the enemy in wartime. The charges were
    filming and broadcasting live to Iran the IDF movements toward the Gaza
    Strip a half hour before the start of the ground offensive.

        Internet Freedom.--There were no government restrictions on
    Internet access. Individuals and groups could engage in the peaceful
    expression of views via the Internet, including by e-mail, although the
    Government monitored cellular and landline telephones and Internet
    service providers for security purposes. The International
    Telecommunication Union reported that approximately 63 percent of the
    country's inhabitants were Internet users in 2009.

        Academic Freedom and Cultural Events.--There were no government
    restrictions on academic freedom or cultural events.
        Universities are required to justify to the IDF acceptance of
    Palestinian students from the occupied territories. According to
    revised government criteria submitted in response to a 2007 High Court
    of Justice order, no more than 70 students from the West Bank may
    pursue graduate studies in Israeli universities at any given time,
    provided there is no practical alternative and the chosen program is
    not in a field that could provide knowledge or skills that could be
    employed to harm the country. Students from the Gaza Strip are not
    eligible to apply.

        b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association.--Freedom of
    Assembly.--The law provides for freedom of assembly, and the Government
    generally respected this right in practice.
        Throughout the year weekly protests in the East Jerusalem
    neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah took place against the implementation of
    court decisions regarding property ownership. On January 15, police
    arrested 17 activists, including Association for Civil Rights in Israel
    (ACRI) Executive Director Hagai El-Ad, when they held a protest after
    being denied a permit. Two days later the Jerusalem Magistrate's Court
    ordered the protesters released and ruled that the police could not
    require a permit for the protests.
        Police have the authority to declare protests illegal and disperse
    them to uphold public safety. On November 17, police in Tel Aviv
    allowed a peaceful demonstration of students protesting a bill
    providing stipends solely to yeshiva students but declared the
    gathering illegal following protesters' use of smoke grenades and
    attempts to disrupt traffic. The students then violently clashed with
    police, resulting in 12 injured students.
        At year's end, a DIPO investigation continued into a complaint by
    NGOs Adalah and the Arab Association of Human Rights concerning police
    behavior during clashes with 15,000 Arab-Israeli demonstrators in 2008
    in the former Arab village of Safouriya, now a Jewish community. There
    were conflicting claims about responsibility for violence during the
    ``Nakba'' (catastrophe in Arabic) demonstration that marked the
    anniversary of the establishment of the State of Israel. Adalah
    released video footage that reportedly showed police beating or kicking
    some demonstrators in the head and face as they sat handcuffed on the
    ground. According to press and NGO reports, police attacked several
    local and international journalists, including a CNN correspondent, and
    in some cases confiscated cameras and erased footage.

        Freedom of Association.--The law provides for the right of
    association, and the Government generally respected this right in
    practice.
        Under the 1980 Law of Associations, NGOs must register and pay
    annual fees. Some registered NGOs were eligible to receive funding from
    government ministries. According to government figures, such funding
    amounted to approximately NIS 2.5 billion ($703 million) per year.
    Government funding for NGOs disproportionately favored Jewish NGOs,
    especially those that promote ``traditional and religious Jewish
    activities.''

        c. Freedom of Religion.--For a complete description of religious
    freedom, please see the 2010 International Religious Freedom Report at
    www.state.gov/g/drl/irf/rpt.

        d. Freedom of Movement, Internally Displaced Persons, Protection of
    Refugees, and Stateless Persons.--The law provides for freedom of
    movement within the country, foreign travel, emigration, and
    repatriation, and the Government respected them in practice for
    citizens. The Government cooperated with the Office of the UN High
    Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and other humanitarian organizations
    in providing protection and assistance to some refugees, asylum
    seekers, and other persons of concern.
        Citizens generally were free to travel abroad and to emigrate,
    provided they had no outstanding military obligations and no
    administrative restrictions. The Government may bar citizens from
    leaving the country based on security considerations. In addition no
    citizen is permitted to travel to any state officially at war with the
    country without government permission. All citizens required a special
    permit to enter area A (the area, according to the Interim Agreement,
    in which the Palestinian Authority exercises civil and security
    responsibility), although the Government allowed Arab citizens some
    access without permits. Arab citizens regularly complained of
    discrimination and degrading treatment by airport security officials. A
    Supreme Court decision in a 2007 petition by ACRI and Adalah regarding
    alleged ethnic profiling was still pending at year's end. The court
    postponed a December hearing on the Government's comparative legal
    analysis of its security screening methods.
        The law prohibits forced exile of citizens, and the Government
    respected this prohibition in practice.

        Protection of Refugees.--The Government has not enacted legislation
    implementing the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and
    its 1967 Protocol. NGOs criticized new asylum regulations released on
    December 13 that require applicants to submit claims within one year of
    arriving in the country; authorize the Ministry of Interior to reject
    applications without appeal even at the registration stage; and, in
    various accelerated procedures, exclude ``enemy nationals'' from
    receiving asylum in the country; and lack an independent appeal
    process. The Government arrested a number of persons immediately
    following rejection of their refugee status claims, causing a decrease
    in new applications. A number of formal and informal arrangements
    provide for the protection of some asylum seekers.
        The Interior Ministry's Authority for Immigration and Border
    Crossings implements government policy and is responsible for foreign
    nationals and population issues. The authority consolidates all
    relevant bodies dealing with immigration issues, including asylum
    seekers. In July 2009 the Government assumed from the UNHCR the process
    of registering and conducting determinations of refugee status for all
    asylum seekers; however, domestic NGOs argued that the new regulations
    and procedures for the registration and status determination of asylum
    seekers were flawed. According to the Tel Aviv University Refugee
    Rights Law Clinic, the Government failed to provide asylum seekers
    copies of their interview transcripts or sufficient explanations of
    their determinations. After an appeal by the Refugee Rights Law Clinic
    and other NGOs, the Supreme Court issued a temporary injunction
    mandating that asylum seekers be accompanied by legal representatives
    in interviews, but the Government continued to bar paralegals, and most
    asylum seekers could not afford counsel for hearings.
        The National Status Granting Board (NSGB), composed of four members
    from the ministries of interior, justice, and foreign affairs,
    processes asylum applications. It makes a recommendation that is sent
    to the minister of interior for final approval. Between 2008 and 2009,
    the NSGB reportedly reviewed 3,211 cases and provided positive
    recommendations in three. The UNHCR participated informally in NSGB
    sessions.
        The Government issued three-month ``conditional release visas'' for
    asylum seekers waiting for a decision from the NSGB and Sudanese and
    Eritreans who were not reviewed for refugee status. The visa did not
    provide for the right to work or social benefits such as health
    insurance or housing subsidies, but in practice the Government
    generally allowed refugees to work. The Government generally gave
    Eritreans and Sudanese, who constituted the majority of asylum seekers,
    conditional release visas with deferred deportation status and
    temporary protection, and it did not require or allow them to undergo
    refugee status determinations. Asylum seekers of other nationalities
    must report to the Ministry of Interior's Refugee Status Unit for
    determination of their refugee claim.
        On November 17, the Ministry of Interior instituted a new procedure
    of marking conditional release visas ``this is not a work visa.'' The
    new procedure led to many asylum seekers being fired, according to
    NGOs. In August, following a government decision to enforce a
    prohibition on employment, the Refugee Rights Law Clinic petitioned the
    Supreme Court on behalf of eight human rights organizations, asking the
    Government to clarify the right to work for asylum seekers and persons
    who are provided deferred deportation status. The case was pending at
    year's end.
        Refugees recommended by the UNHCR or the Ministry of Interior and
    recognized by the NSGB received six-month renewable visas, with status
    evaluated after one year. Asylum seekers at the appeal stage were not
    provided with this visa but were protected from detention and
    deportation by the letter informing them of the rejection of their
    claim.
        No legal option exists for a refugee to become a naturalized
    citizen. In 2009 the Refugee Rights Law Clinic petitioned the Jerusalem
    Administrative Court on behalf of an Ethiopian refugee who had been in
    the country as a recognized refugee for more than 10 years. The
    petitioners argued that under the 1951 Refugee Convention, a state is
    obliged to facilitate the naturalization of refugees. The case was
    pending at year's end.
        In 2009 the Ministry of Interior opened an office in Lod for asylum
    seekers to register to receive documents allowing legal residence
    without which they would be subject to arrest. The NGO Hotline reported
    that many refugees and asylum seekers complained about discriminatory
    treatment, inefficiency, refusal to renew papers, and lost documents at
    the Lod office, but noted some improvements in operation during the
    year.
        In practice the Government provided some protection against the
    expulsion or return of refugees to countries where their lives or
    freedom could be threatened on account of their race, religion,
    nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political
    opinion. At year's end the Supreme Court had not ruled on the question
    put to it in 2007 of whether it was safe to return asylum seekers to
    Egypt. Domestic and international NGOs and the UNHCR continued to be
    concerned with the practice of ``coordinated returns'' or ``hot
    returns'' of some asylum seekers to Egypt because of allegations that
    those individuals were later returned to their countries of origin in
    violation of their right to seek asylum and protection against such
    return. The Government stated that through October 10, it had summarily
    returned to Egypt 136 persons who had crossed the country's border.
    This was a decrease from 517 persons who returned to Egypt after
    crossing the border in 2008-09. In its petition Hotline submitted to
    the Supreme Court the testimony of an IDF soldier describing alleged
    incidents of ``hot returns'' he had witnessed at the Egyptian border.
    According to the testimony, while officially Egypt refused to accept
    asylum seekers returned to its territory, there was a field-level
    understanding between the border forces that the Egyptians would
    receive persons captured at the border or soon after crossing. NGOs
    asserted that these arrangements were temporary conditional agreements
    between Egyptian and Israeli border commands and not a uniform policy.
        The Government did not grant asylum to persons from states with
    which it was officially at war, such as Iraq, but stated that it
    attempted to find a third country to accept them. Sudanese, while also
    originating from an ``enemy state,'' in practice received conditional
    release visas. On December 13, the Government, with NGO assistance,
    carried out a voluntary return to Sudan of 150 refugees residing in the
    country.
        Refugees and asylum seekers were targets of violence. On December
    18, an unknown arsonist threw a burning tire at the apartment door of
    five Sudanese refugees in Ashdod, setting the apartment on fire. The
    Sudanese refugees escaped by breaking through the barred glass window
    and were treated for smoke inhalation. Local residents and storeowners
    claimed they were attacked because they were refugees from Sudan.
    Ashdod police began an investigation that continued at year's end.
        Also on December 18, a group of approximately 20 teenagers severely
    beat three 16-year-old daughters of African asylum seekers in the
    Hatikva neighborhood of Tel Aviv. The victims reportedly did not file a
    police report because they feared retribution.
        Rhetoric by government officials and community protests concerning
    asylum seekers also intensified during the year. On March 22, Knesset
    member Yaakov Katz issued a letter that called for the establishment of
    an ``infiltrator'' city to hold asylum seekers and stated that in 10
    years the ``infiltrators'' could ``ruin'' the country. On July 19,
    Minister of Interior Eli Yishai called for IDF soldiers to ``block
    infiltrators'' coming from the southern part of the country and stated,
    ``This is an existential threat to the State of Israel.'' On September
    2, Minister of Justice Yaakov Neeman stated that the ``infiltrators at
    the southern border create a real danger to the existence of the state
    of Israel, and Israel has to fight this phenomenon in every possible
    way.'' In July the mayor of Eilat called on city residents to
    demonstrate against the large community of ``infiltrators'' who had
    taken over the city, created a climate of fear, and lowered real estate
    value. Candidates for the October Eilat municipality elections also
    used anti-asylee campaigns as part of their platforms.
        The Government did not grant temporary status to persons with
    disputed nationalities, and prolonged detention of some of these
    persons continued throughout the year. According to Hotline and IPS, at
    year's end the Government was holding at least 1,000 asylum seekers for
    longer than 60 days in violation of the Entry of Israel Law. In
    addition authorities detained over 200 women and children in the
    Saaronim prison in cloth tents, with limited education services
    provided to the children for the detention period and insufficient
    health and medical treatment, according to NGOs. While authorities
    allowed the UNHCR full access to asylum seekers and refugees in
    detention, authorities curtailed access by NGOs to Saaronim prison
    following a 2008 petition by Hotline charging the IPS with inhumane
    treatment of prisoners. Hotline and a private law firm challenged the
    legality of several detention cases. In some decisions the district
    court ordered the release of asylum seekers with disputed nationalities
    and criticized the prolonged detention. According to an August 13
    report in Haaretz, 17 appeals were filed in the district court with
    regard to detention of refugees, and all of the asylum seekers were
    released. The UNHCR noted the country does not provide an adequate
    appeals procedure for asylum seekers, and many persons with disputed
    nationality remain in prison for long periods of time if their country
    of origin cannot be confirmed by the Ministry of Interior.
        According to the African Refugee Development Center, dozens of
    pregnant asylum seekers and single mothers were referred to the
    organization by authorities upon their release from prisons in the
    country. Despite many of them having been the victims of sexual and
    gender-based violence in Sinai and some allegedly having been held for
    ransom and forced labor there, the Government did not provide health
    insurance, pregnancy or postnatal related services, or trauma
    counseling to these women, according to Physicians for Human Rights-
    Israel. Authorities sent some female victims of trafficking in persons
    to government shelters during the year, but many others were not
    properly identified in prison as having been trafficking victims.
        For a monthly fee of NIS 185 ($52), health services were provided
    for minors who stayed continuously in the country for a period of six
    months and were not insured by the National Health Insurance Law. Those
    services do not apply to previous health conditions or to children of
    parents who are residents of the Palestinian territories. Physicians
    for Human Rights-Israel (PHR-I) estimated that one-third of families
    with children who are not legal residents were able to purchase medical
    insurance. Although the law provides for emergency medical care for
    every resident, 16 migrant workers and asylum seekers reportedly stated
    that they were denied access to emergency medical treatment in
    hospitals between September 2009 and September due to lack of health
    insurance and inability to pay the required fees.
        By law the Government should provide education to all children
    living in the country, regardless of their status in the Ministry of
    Interior's population registry. NGO and media reports cited instances
    in which children of asylum seekers allegedly were not provided access
    to the country's educational system due to decisions by local school
    and government officials. For example, according to Hotline, children
    of asylum seekers in Eilat were not accepted into the local school
    system during the year.

    Section 3. Respect for Political Rights: The Right of Citizens to
            Change Their Government
        The law provides citizens with the right to change their government
    peacefully, and citizens exercised this right in practice through
    periodic, free, and fair elections based on universal suffrage.

        Elections and Political Participation.--The country is a
    parliamentary democracy with an active multiparty system. Relatively
    small parties, including those primarily supported by Arab-Israelis,
    regularly win Knesset seats. The law requires that a party obtain 2
    percent of the vote to win Knesset seats. In 2008 Prime Minister Ehud
    Olmert resigned after declining to run in a Kadima Party primary
    election. When Kadima Party head Tzipi Livni was unable to form a
    government, Olmert remained as caretaker prime minister until a
    government was formed following February 2009 elections that were
    considered free and fair. In March 2009 following protracted
    negotiations, Benjamin Netanyahu became prime minister of a Likud-led
    coalition government.
        The Basic Law prohibits the candidacy of any party or individual
    that denies the existence of the State of Israel as the state of the
    Jewish people or the democratic character of the state, or that incites
    racism. Otherwise political parties operated without restriction or
    interference. In January 2009 the Supreme Court overturned a Central
    Elections Committee decision to ban the Knesset's two Arab political
    parties, the United Arab List-Ta'al and Balad, from participating in
    the February 2009 elections on the grounds that they did not recognize
    the state and called for armed conflict against it.
        At year's end the Knesset had 23 female and 14 Arab members. The
    30-member cabinet included two women, but no Arabs; three women were
    deputy ministers. Five members of the 15-member Supreme Court,
    including its president, were women. One Arab was on the Supreme Court.

    Section 4. Official Corruption and Government Transparency
        The law provides criminal penalties for official corruption, and
    the Government implemented the law effectively. There were reports of
    government corruption during the year, although impunity was not a
    problem. Media routinely reported on corruption. The National Police,
    the state comptroller, the attorney general, and the accountant general
    were responsible for combating official corruption. Senior officials
    were subject to comprehensive financial disclosure laws.
        During the year the Government investigated and prosecuted several
    senior political figures for alleged misconduct.
        On July 13, a court found Knesset Member and former minister of
    justice Tzachi Hanegbi guilty of perjury in a case related to political
    appointments. In November the judges ruled that the perjury involved
    ``moral turpitude,'' thereby forcing him to leave the Knesset
    immediately; he was also assessed a fine of NIS 10,000 ($2,813).
        In September the minister of defense appointed an IDF ombudsman to
    investigate allegations of corruption surrounding IDF appointment
    processes, widely known as the ``Galant Document'' affair.
        On December 30, the Tel Aviv District Court convicted former
    president Moshe Katsav of rape and obstruction of justice, as well as
    of sexual assault and sexual harassment of three government employees
    in 2006.
        On May 24, police recommended indicting Foreign Minister Avigdor
    Lieberman for breach of trust based on evidence that he received
    classified information about an ongoing corruption investigation
    against him. The attorney general did not decide whether to issue an
    indictment by year's end. In August 2009 police recommended the
    attorney general indict Lieberman on bribery, money laundering,
    obstruction of justice, and other charges. The attorney general had yet
    to make a decision at year's end.
        On April 14, police arrested former Jerusalem mayor Uri Lupolianski
    on suspicion of accepting NIS three million ($844,000) in bribes. On
    August 23, the police recommended indicting him and a list of
    individuals for taking a bribe, bribery mediating, and breach of trust
    in connection with Jerusalem's Holyland residential construction
    project. The list included former prime minister Ehud Olmert for
    receiving a bribe while he was mayor of Jerusalem; Bank HaPoalim
    Directorate Chairman Danny Dankner for bribery and tax offenses; former
    Israel Land Administration head Yaakov Efrati for fraud and breach of
    trust; former deputy mayor Yehoshua Polak for bribery, fraud, breach of
    trust, money laundering, and tax offenses; Holyland developer Hillel
    Cherney; and Olmert's former bureau chief, Shula Zaken. At year's end
    state prosecutors had yet to decide whether to indict those whom the
    police recommended.
        In August 2009 Attorney General Menachem Mazuz indicted former
    prime minister Olmert along with his former chief of staff Zaken on
    three charges involving breach of trust, falsifying corporate
    documents, and fraudulent conduct. Mazuz also charged Olmert with tax
    evasion and Zaken with illegal eavesdropping. Olmert and Zaken both
    pled not guilty to all charges. At year's end the investigation
    regarding Olmert's political appointments was completed and
    notification letters were sent to the suspects, but a hearing had not
    been scheduled. An additional six persons were indicted on related
    charges, including former tax authority chief Jacky Matza, three tax
    authority officials, and two businessmen.
        The Government did not effectively implement its 1998 Freedom of
    Information Law. Many government bodies did not disclose their internal
    regulations as required, and others failed to publish annual reports.
    The 2008 state comptroller's report found that approximately half of
    governmental authorities did not make available to the public their
    administrative directives or procedures for requesting information or
    services.
        On January 13, the High Court of Justice dismissed ACRI's 2005
    freedom of information petition to require the Government to provide
    timely public access to the ministries' unclassified archives. The
    court awarded legal expenses to ACRI, however, as it found the
    Government had adjusted its policies in the interim in response to the
    petition. In August the Government published the new archives'
    regulations shortening the limitation periods on archival materials and
    ensuring their public availability.

    Section 5. Governmental Attitude Regarding International and
            Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations of Human
            Rights
        Numerous domestic and international human rights groups operated
    without government restriction, investigating and publishing their
    findings on human rights cases. Human rights NGOs have standing to
    petition the Supreme Court directly regarding governmental policies and
    can appeal individual cases to the Supreme Court. Government officials
    were cooperative to varying degrees, and routinely invited domestic
    NGOs, including those critical of the Government, such as ACRI,
    Mossawa, Adalah, the PHR-I, and Gisha, among others, to participate in
    Knesset hearings on proposed legislation. A unit in the foreign
    ministry maintained relations with certain international and domestic
    NGOs. The Government responded publicly to criticisms that it believed
    to be unfounded.
        The state comptroller also served as ombudsman for human rights
    issues. The ombudsman investigates complaints against statutory bodies
    that are subject to audit by the state comptroller, including
    government ministries, local authorities, state enterprises and
    institutions, government corporations, and their employees. The
    ombudsman is entitled to use any relevant means of inquiry and has the
    capacity to order any person or body to assist in the inquiry.
        During the year the Ministry of Interior, operating under a 2002
    order, barred entry to foreign nationals affiliated with certain
    Palestinian human rights NGOs and solidarity organizations. The
    Government stated this was done on an individual basis, not according
    to the activities or platform of the NGOs with which they were
    affiliated.
        On September 22, the UN Human Rights Council released the report of
    a fact-finding mission that accused security forces of summarily
    executing six of the nine passengers killed on a Turkish NGO-organized
    flotilla of ships intending to reach the Gaza Strip. Prime Minister
    Netanyahu's office dismissed the report as ``biased'' and
    ``distorted.'' On July 12, the IDF investigation into the May 31 events
    concluded that the use of live fire was justified, although it
    criticized organizational and intelligence failures for not being
    prepared for the level of violence committed by some of the flotilla's
    passengers. The Turkel Commission, appointed by the Government on June
    14 as an independent public commission of inquiry with international
    observers, concluded that the blockade was legally imposed and enforced
    according to international law; it found no instance of excessive use
    of force.
        On November 22, the UN Children's Fund criticized the Government
    for not having a comprehensive strategy to protect the rights of
    children and for excluding the West Bank and the Gaza Strip from the
    application of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
        The Government made several policy changes in response to criticism
    from NGOs and international organizations, including the UN Goldstone
    Report, regarding the protection of human rights during the 2008-09
    Operation Cast Lead incursion into the Gaza Strip. Following IDF
    investigations, changes included new limitations on the use of white
    phosphorus in urban settings; the introduction of population assistance
    officers into combat brigades and battalions to focus on minimizing
    civilian casualties and hardship; new written procedures for planners
    to provide for civilian safe havens, evacuation routes, medical
    treatment, and humanitarian access; and new written policies governing
    the destruction of private property and civilian infrastructure.
        During the year the Government introduced several programs to spur
    economic development in Arab towns and to encourage greater hiring of
    minorities. On March 21, the Government allocated NIS 778 million ($219
    million) for the economic development of 13 Arab towns to raise
    employment, improve transportation, encourage housing development, and
    improve security and law enforcement.

    Section 6. Discrimination, Societal Abuses, and Trafficking in Persons
        The law prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, gender,
    marital status, political beliefs, disability, or age, and the
    Government effectively enforced these prohibitions.

        Women.--Rape, including spousal rape, is a felony, punishable by 16
    years in prison. The law doubles the penalty if the perpetrator
    assaults or rapes a relative. The Government reported 727 cases opened
    due to rape complaints through October. The Government effectively
    enforced rape laws during the year.
        On December 30, the Tel Aviv District Court convicted former
    president Moshe Katzav of two counts of rape (see section 4).
        NGOs supporting victims of sexual abuse reported a 13 percent rise
    in requests for assistance during the first half of the year in
    comparison with the same period in 2009. The NGOs reportedly received
    4,250 requests for assistance. More than 40 percent of applicants said
    they were victims of rape or attempted rape, and two-thirds said they
    were sexually assaulted before the age of 18. The law prohibits
    violence against women, but domestic violence against women was a
    problem. As of September women filed 11,123 domestic violence
    complaints with police, of which at year's end 2,688 were still being
    investigated, 4,364 were transferred to the State Attorney's Office,
    340 were heard by courts, and 3,741 were closed.
        The Ministry of Social Affairs operated a battered women's shelter
    and an abuse reporting hotline. The police operated a call center to
    inform victims about their cases. Women's organizations provided
    counseling, crisis intervention, legal assistance, and shelters.
        Women's rights NGO Kayan Feminist Organization (Kayan) and PHR-I
    petitioned the Supreme Court to require the Ministry of Health to
    provide health care to battered women living in shelters and to those
    who were without legal status in the country. The case was still
    pending at year's end.
        Several ``honor killings'' occurred within the Arab-Israeli
    community. On October 20, police arrested Ramadan and Khaled Musrati on
    suspicion of involvement in four ``honor killings'' in Lod. The victims
    were alleged to be two men and two women believed to be in
    relationships with each other that their families viewed as
    inappropriate.
        Sexual harassment is illegal but remains widespread. The law
    requires that suspected victims be informed of their right to
    assistance. Penalties for sexual harassment depend on the severity of
    the act and whether blackmail is involved; range from two to nine
    years' imprisonment.
        According to a survey by the Ministry of Industry published in
    June, 35 to 40 percent of women reported experiencing sexual harassment
    at work, one-third of whom experienced it in the previous 12 months.
    Among the women who reported harassment, 69 percent said they had
    received ``proposals,'' 47 percent reported comments of a sexual
    nature, 22 percent cited physical violation, 10 percent reported
    humiliation, and 7.7 percent reported extortion and threats.
        In November DIPO opened an investigation into allegations by a
    Public Security Ministry employee that police commander Uri Bar-Lev
    sexually harassed her. The investigation continued at year's end.
        ``Modesty patrols'' continued to harass women in Haredi
    neighborhoods. An article in Yediot Ahronot on March 3 reported that
    police arrested two Haredi men at the Western Wall compound on
    suspicion that they threw chairs at a group of praying women from the
    Woman of the Wall organization, a group occasionally targeted by
    religious groups for exercising their religion at holy sites.
        In March 2009 the Jerusalem District Court sentenced Elhanan
    Buzaglo to four years' imprisonment and required him to pay NIS 10,000
    ($2,813) in compensation to a woman who had divorced her husband and
    abandoned her religious way of life. Buzaglo and four other persons
    beat the woman at her home and threatened to kill her if she did not
    move out of the house.
        Couples and individuals had the right to decide the number,
    spacing, and timing of children, and had the information and means to
    do so free from discrimination. Access to information on contraception
    and skilled attendance at delivery and in postpartum care was widely
    available, although women in Haredi communities often had to seek
    approval from a rabbi to use contraception. According to data from the
    UN Population Fund for 2008, the maternal mortality rate in the country
    was seven per 100,000 births. Women and men were given equal access to
    diagnostic services and treatment for sexually transmitted diseases.
        In the secular judicial system, women and men enjoyed the same
    rights, but religious courts restricted the rights of Jewish and Muslim
    women. A Jewish woman is allowed to initiate divorce proceedings, but
    her husband must give his consent to make the divorce final. Because
    some men disappear or refuse to grant the divorce, thousands of so-
    called ``agunot'' (chained women) may not remarry or give birth to
    legitimate children. Rabbinical tribunals may, and sometimes did,
    sanction a husband who refused divorce but still did not grant a
    divorce without his consent.
        A Muslim woman may petition for and receive a divorce through the
    Sharia courts without her husband's consent under certain conditions,
    and a marriage contract may provide for other circumstances in which
    she may obtain a divorce without her husband's consent. A Muslim man
    may divorce his wife without her consent and without petitioning the
    court.
        Christians may seek official separations or divorces, depending on
    the denomination, through ecclesiastical courts. During the year Kayan
    criticized the Episcopal Ecclesiastical Court in Nazareth, which is not
    under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Justice, for lack of
    transparency, unnecessary delays, and a judge's refusal to rule in an
    alimony case.
        On September 28, the Supreme Court outlawed public gender
    segregation in Jerusalem's Haredi Mea Shearim neighborhood, in response
    to a petition submitted by NGOs and a Knesset Member asking the court
    to prevent enforcement of gender separation after conservative men
    physically and verbally assaulted women for walking on a designated
    men's only road. Dozens of women protested on September 29 to demand
    immediate enforcement of the court decision.
        According to its Web site, the Yad L'Achim's anti-assimilation
    department receives approximately 1,000 calls per year identifying
    Jewish women who become involved with foreign workers or Arab men. Yad
    L'Achim responded in some cases by what it termed ``launching military-
    like rescues from hostile Arab villages and setting the women up in
    'safe' houses around the country, where they could build new lives for
    themselves.'' A December 2009 ``rescue'' from the Gaza Strip of Oshrit
    Ohana and her four children, reportedly coordinated with the IDF and
    Interior Minister Eli Yishai, was widely popular among the public, but
    critics claimed such ``rescues'' sometimes disregarded the will of the
    women involved.
        Although the law prohibits discrimination based on gender in
    employment and wages and provides for class action suits, complaints of
    significant wage disparities between men and women persisted.
        A May 2009 Yediot Ahronot article described a new regulation in the
    ultra-Orthodox Shas' Maayan Torah education network that prohibits
    female workers from working without a head covering that completely
    covers their hair. Many Haredi women expressed disagreement with the
    new regulation that also bans the use of wigs as head coverings.
        The Government enacted a number of programs to improve the status
    of women in the work place and society. The Authority for the
    Advancement of the Status of Women in the Prime Minister's Office
    approved 289 scholarships for higher education for Druze, Bedouin, and
    Circassian female students in the north. The authority held
    professional training courses in Arab, Druze, and Circassian
    localities.

        Children.--Citizenship is derived by birth within or outside of the
    country to at least one citizen parent.
        On August 1, the cabinet established guidelines mandating that
    children of foreign workers may remain in the country with their
    parents only if they meet the following five criteria: the child
    studied the preceding year in the state school system; the child is
    enrolled for the current school year in the first grade or higher; the
    child has lived for at least five consecutive years in the country; the
    child's parents entered the country on a valid visa; and the child
    speaks Hebrew. According to government statistics released in August,
    20,000 children of foreign workers were residing in the country
    illegally during the year, 6,000 under the age of five. The Ministry of
    Interior threatened to deport hundreds of children who did not meet the
    established criteria, and some deportations began during the year. The
    Government ensured at least one parent was deported with a child.
        Education is compulsory through the ninth grade. The Government
    operated separate school systems for Hebrew-speaking children, Arabic-
    speaking children, and Orthodox Jews. Ultra-Orthodox Haredi political
    parties continued to oppose government regulation of their government-
    funded school systems. Large Haredi demonstrations were held in
    Jerusalem throughout the year following the Supreme Court's August 2009
    ruling that outlawed discrimination between Ashkenazi and Sephardic
    students in a religious girls' school in the Emmanuel Settlement.
        According to a National Council of the Child (NCC) report, in 2009
    hospitals and clinics identified 2,907 children who had suffered
    violence within the family and sexual abuse, in comparison with 1,989
    in 2000, a rise of 46 percent.
        The NCC received more than 10,000 complaints during the year
    covering issues of physical and sexual abuse of children, child
    pornography, and poor educational, health, and welfare services.
        According to the Ministry of Welfare, there were many cases of
    children with disabilities who were sexually assaulted that awaited
    investigation during the year.
        The country is a party to the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil
    Aspects of International Child Abduction. For information on
    international parental child abduction, please see the Department of
    State's annual report on compliance at http://travel.state.gov/
    abduction/resources/congressreport/congressreport--4308.html

        Trafficking in Persons.--For information on trafficking in persons,
    please see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons
    Report, at http://www.state.gov/g/tip/.

        Persons With Disabilities.--The law prohibits discrimination
    against persons with disabilities in employment, education, access to
    health care, or the provision of other state services. Legislation
    mandates access to buildings and transportation, as well as
    accommodations for persons with disabilities in services and the work
    place. The Government enforced the laws with limited success but did
    not formulate specific regulations. Societal discrimination and lack of
    accessibility persisted in employment and housing. Television channels
    include subtitles or sign language, and the courts accommodate
    testimony from persons with intellectual disabilities or mental
    illness. The law mandates accessibility to urban public transportation,
    but not interurban buses; as of September 2009, approximately 40
    percent of buses did not have such access. Most train stations
    maintained access for persons with disabilities.
        There are an estimated 120,000 to 160,000 persons with severe
    mental illness, and very few receive rehabilitation services, according
    to research published by the Myers-JDC-Brookdale Institute.
        Various ministries and agencies maintained responsibility for
    persons with disabilities. The Commission for Equal Rights of People
    with Disabilities within the Ministry of Justice is responsible for
    protecting the rights of persons with disabilities. It receives public
    inquiries, provides legal advice, represents clients, and educates and
    promotes best practices. It took legal action in the areas of
    accessibility and employment, and issued regulations to provide access
    to services and public sites. However, improvements were slow,
    according to Bizchut, a domestic NGO that advocates for the rights of
    persons with disabilities. On December 20, the commission released a
    report which stated that, of approximately 1.5 million citizens who
    consider themselves disabled, 43 percent of those with severe
    disabilities and 29 percent with moderate disabilities went without
    food at some stage over the past year, while more than one-third of
    those with severe disabilities and 23 percent with moderate
    disabilities could not afford essential medicine during at least one
    period in the year. In addition according to the report, 60 percent of
    persons with severe disabilities and nearly half of those with moderate
    disabilities could not afford heat, and 41 percent had their phone
    disconnected in the reporting period.
        During the year Bizchut's public inquiries hotline received 2,400
    calls from individuals alleging that their rights had been violated due
    to their disability. The main complaints focused on national insurance,
    education, housing, hospitalization, and legal assistance.
        In response to a petition to the Supreme Court submitted by NGOs
    including Bizchut, the Ministry of Education began a pilot program in
    one town to award each child with special needs a personal education
    budget. Bizchut continued to claim throughout the year that the
    education system did not provide adequate support to children with
    special needs.
        The Division for Integrating Persons with Disabilities in the Labor
    Market within the Ministry of Industry examines and promotes employment
    for persons with disabilities. In August 2009 an amendment to the
    National Insurance Law came into effect that allows persons who receive
    a disability pension to earn more by permitting a combination of income
    and pension, rather than requiring the total forfeiture of the
    disability pension.
        The Ministry of Social Affairs and Social Services provides out-of-
    home placement and sheltered employment for persons with cognitive,
    physical, and communication disabilities. It also handles criminal
    investigations involving persons with certain disabilities, either
    victims or offenders, when police request assistance.
        The National Insurance Agency provides financial benefits and
    stipends, the Ministry of Health provides mental health and
    rehabilitation services, and the Ministry of Education provides special
    education services. However, Bizchut continued to criticize the lack of
    services provided in practice to mainstreamed pupils, which effectively
    limited their integration into regular class settings.
        An article in Yediot Ahronot on July 25 described a new IDF program
    to allow persons with disabilities to complete basic army training; 19
    persons graduated from an initial course held in July.

        National/Racial/Ethnic Minorities.--Citizens of Arab origin and
    Palestinian residents of the West Bank and East Jerusalem living in the
    country faced discrimination in public and private life. Tensions
    between Arabs and Jews were high in areas where the two communities
    overlap, such as Jerusalem, the Galilee, and Negev, and in some cities
    with historically separate Jewish and Arab neighborhoods.
        On November 5, according to police and victim reports, a group of
    eight teenagers severely beat a Chilean tourist in downtown Jerusalem
    after mistaking him for an Arab. Police arrested the suspects on
    charges of committing an attack causing grave bodily harm.
        On December 21, police arrested a group of nine Jewish teenagers
    suspected of perpetrating a series of violent attacks against Arab
    youths in Jerusalem during November and December. In one case the group
    allegedly began beating a victim, asked for his identity card to
    determine whether he was Arab, and then continued beating him after the
    card showed that he was.
        In November Arab students in Safed reported experiencing anonymous
    harassment including telephone calls threatening to set their apartment
    on fire and one of their cars being spray painted, ``Arabs out.'' The
    students also alleged that a local rabbi asked them to leave the town
    and return to an Arab country, because ``Safed should be Jewish.''
        In December dozens of rabbis signed a letter urging Jewish owners
    of apartments not to rent their properties to Arabs, claiming it would
    deflate the value of their homes as well as those in the neighborhood.
    The rabbis also urged neighbors of anyone renting or selling property
    to Arabs to caution that individual and to inform the general public. A
    subsequent letter signed by 30 rabbis' wives urged Jewish women not to
    work, date, or do community service with non-Jews. Numerous government
    officials and senior rabbinic authorities expressed concern that the
    letters were encouraging racism in the Jewish population.
        At year's end a trial continued against Yaakov (Jack) Teitel, a
    Jewish settler in the West Bank who was indicted in 2009 for crimes
    including the 1997 killings of Palestinian shepherd Issa Jabrin near
    Hebron and Samir Akram Balbisi, an Arab taxi driver in Jerusalem, and
    the 2008 bombing deaths of professor Ze'ev Sternhell and a Messianic
    Jewish leader's 15-year-old son, Ami Ortiz. On August 30, the Jerusalem
    District Court ruled he was fit to stand trial.
        On January 6, the Tel Aviv District Court convicted Eliyahu Aharoni
    of conspiracy to commit arson with a racist motive and for illegally
    producing and carrying incendiary bombs. In 2008 police arrested him
    and five other young Jewish men in Tel Aviv for allegedly firebombing
    three Arab apartments in a Jewish neighborhood. The other five were not
    indicted due to lack of evidence.
        Arab and other minority residents of the country faced official and
    societal discrimination in a number of areas, including employment,
    education, land ownership, and naturalization.
        The law exempts Arab citizens, except for members of the Druze
    religion, from mandatory military service, but some serve voluntarily.
    Citizens who do not perform military service enjoy fewer social and
    economic benefits. Arab citizens generally were ineligible to work in
    companies with defense contracts or in security-related fields if they
    did not serve in the military. The Government managed a National Civil
    Service program for citizens not drafted for military service, giving
    Arab citizens, Haredi Jews, Orthodox Jewish women, and others the
    opportunity to provide public service in their own communities and thus
    be eligible for the same benefits accorded military veterans. Of the
    12,000 volunteers during the 2009-10 academic year, 1,256 were Arab
    citizens, half of whom served in education, 22 percent in health, 16
    percent in welfare, and the remainder in legal and environmental work
    and road accident prevention. Ninety percent of the Arab volunteers
    were women.
        The law requires that minorities have ``appropriate
    representation'' in the civil service and on the boards of government-
    owned corporations, but Arab citizens were underrepresented in most
    fields of employment, including the Government. According to data as of
    June reported by the Committee for the Examination of Appointments,
    which works to provide for appropriate representation, 39 out of the 98
    governmental corporations satisfied the requirement, and 18 others were
    exempt. One percent of government company employees were Arab, Druze,
    or Circassian; these groups formed about 20 percent of the overall
    population. An affirmative action program undertaken to promote the
    hiring of Arabs, Druze, and Circassians in the civil service has
    slightly increased their representation each year. According to the
    Government, 6.97 percent of government employees in 2009 were Arab,
    Druze, or Circassian, compared with 6.17 percent in 2007.
        Resources devoted to the education of Arab children were inferior
    to those devoted to Jewish children in the public education system. In
    January the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development
    (OECD) estimated that public spending for children in Arab localities
    was at least one-third lower than for children in Jewish
    municipalities. There were on average 25 Jewish schoolchildren per
    classroom, while Arab children averaged 29 per classroom.
        According to the NGO Pedagogic Council for Arab Education,
    disparities in education between Jewish and Arab students limit Arab
    students' access to higher education. According to the NGO Dirasat,
    Arab-Israelis composed just 10.6 percent of all university
    undergraduate students and less than 1 percent of all tenured
    professors. Of 4,012 tenured university professors, 38 were Arab (34
    men and four women).
        Approximately 93 percent of land was in the public domain,
    including approximately 12.5 percent owned by the NGO Jewish National
    Fund (JNF), whose statutes prohibit sale or lease of land to non-Jews.
    According to a 2005 attorney general ruling, the Government cannot
    discriminate against Arab citizens in marketing and allocating lands it
    manages, including those of the JNF. As an interim measure, the
    Government agreed to compensate the JNF for any land it leased to an
    Arab by transferring an equal amount of land from the Israel Lands
    Administration (ILA) to the JNF. Legal petitions against the JNF policy
    of leasing public land only to Jews were ongoing at year's end. The NGO
    Israel Land Fund continued its program to purchase Arab land throughout
    the country and market it to Jewish buyers, including in the diaspora;
    the organization claimed that all the land belonged to Jewish people
    and described as a ``danger'' the purchase of Jewish-owned lands by
    non-Jews.
        On November 8, the Supreme Court rejected a petition by Arab
    residents in Jaffa arguing that the ILA illegally leased public land to
    an organization that will market new apartments built on the land
    exclusively to Jewish citizens. The court stated that ILA is obligated
    to prevent discrimination, but it denied the petition because the land
    rights had already been sold.
        New construction is illegal in towns that do not have an authorized
    outline plan for development, which is the legal responsibility of
    local authorities. At year's end according to the Government, 41 of the
    country's 128 Arab communities had fully approved planning schemes, 28
    were awaiting approvals from district or national planning committees,
    35 had outline plans in the final stages of the localities' approval
    process, nine began developing their outline plans, and 15 were still
    working towards creating master plans. However, Arab advocacy
    organizations continued to challenge the demolition of illegal
    buildings in the Arab sector by claiming that the Government unfairly
    restricted building permits and rezoned open space areas to exclude
    Arabs from expanding built-up areas. In the country's 46 unrecognized
    Bedouin ``villages'' constructed haphazardly on state land in the Negev
    claimed by various tribes, all buildings were illegal since there were
    no recognized local authorities to promote an authorized detailed plan.
    Approximately 60,000 Bedouin resided in such unrecognized villages,
    while more than 120,000 lived in legally planned and constructed urban
    and suburban centers.
        On July 27, the police demolished the 45 structures of the
    unrecognized Bedouin ``village'' of al-Arakib, which had been built
    illegally on state land, after multiple eviction orders and a 2007
    Supreme Court decision. For decades the state had leased the area to
    Bedouins for agriculture, but in 1998 the el Tory tribe moved from
    Rahat and attempted to settle on the land they claimed was wrongly
    expropriated from their tribe in 1951. Despite 12 years of court
    proceedings producing repeated injunctions, including a 2003 evacuation
    notice against the nine individuals then found to be trespassing at Al-
    Arakib, the Bedouin clan continued to return to the site. Many advocacy
    groups criticized the demolition as enforcing the expropriation of
    property that the Bedouin clan claimed was its own prior to 1951,
    although it was unable to prove prior ownership in court. Police
    repeatedly demolished rebuilt structures on eight separate occasions by
    the end of the year.
        The law bars family reunification in cases where one spouse is a
    non-Jewish citizen of Iran, Iraq, Syria, or Lebanon. Male spouses who
    are 35 or older and female spouses who are 25 or older may apply for
    temporary visit permits but may not receive residency based on their
    marriage and have no path to citizenship. The Government originally
    enacted the law following 23 terrorist attacks involving suicide
    bombers from the occupied territories who had gained access to Israeli
    identification through family unification. During the year human rights
    NGOs and international organizations continued to criticize this ban,
    which primarily affected Palestinian spouses of Arab citizens. Mossawa
    claimed the law affected more than 21,000 families, including couples
    with long-standing marriages. In June 2009 in response to a petition by
    Kayan, PHR-I, and ACRI, the Supreme Court demanded an explanation
    within six months from the Government for its refusal to grant social
    and health insurance to an estimated 5,000 Palestinian spouses of
    citizens who were granted ``staying permits'' to reside legally in
    Israel. On January 27, the court recommended the Government provide a
    temporary solution that would be in place until an official policy
    could be formulated. On July 4, the Government requested an additional
    five months to formulate a response regarding the provision of social
    benefits to nonresidents.
        Public debate continued over the suggestion of some Jewish
    politicians, including the foreign minister and members of his Yisrael
    Beitenu party in media interviews and speeches throughout the year, of
    ``an exchange of populated territories'' of Arab villages in Israel to
    the West Bank (in return for transferring Jewish settlements in the
    West Bank to Israel, by way of adjusting the border) as part of a
    negotiated solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Arab citizens
    of Israel overwhelmingly condemned the proposal, while Jewish opinion
    ranged from support to condemnation.
        While Arab communities in the country generally faced economic
    difficulties (the NGO Dirasat, the Arab Center for Law and Policy,
    stated that 97 percent of all Arab local councils ranked in the bottom
    four economic development clusters on a national index), the Bedouin
    segment of the Arab population was the most disadvantaged. More than
    half of the population of about 160,000 Bedouin lived in seven state-
    planned communities, which were among the eight poorest communities in
    the country, according to a 2008 report by Human Rights Watch.
    Approximately 60,000 Bedouin lived in at least 46 unrecognized tent or
    shack villages that did not have water and electricity, and lacked
    educational, health, and welfare services.
        Government planners noted there were insufficient funds to relocate
    Bedouin living in unrecognized villages to new towns, and the average
    Bedouin family could not afford to purchase a home in existing towns;
    however, the Government maintained a program to encourage such movement
    by providing low-cost land and compensation for demolition of illegal
    structures for those willing to move to designated permanent locations.
    Many Bedouin complained that moving to government-planned towns
    required giving up claims to land they had lived on for generations,
    while the Government claimed it was difficult to provide services to
    clusters of buildings throughout the Negev that ignored planning
    procedures.
        At year's end a government implementation team was in the final
    stages of creating a plan for the Bedouin housing situation in the
    Negev, as recommended in 2008 by the Goldberg Committee.
        By year's end the Supreme Court had not ruled on a 2006 Adalah
    appeal of the Haifa District Court decision not to overturn a Water
    Tribunal decision denying water services to unrecognized villages.
    Bedouins living in established towns have municipal services; the
    Government additionally built water centers in six Bedouin localities.
        The Government prohibits Druze citizens, like all citizens, from
    visiting Syria. The Government allowed noncitizen Druze from the Golan
    Heights to visit holy sites in Syria through the ICRC-managed
    pilgrimage program, but it has prevented family visitations since 1982.
        A population of about 100,000 Ethiopian Jews faced persistent
    social discrimination although officials and the majority of citizens,
    quickly and publicly condemned discriminatory acts against them.
        On May 4, approximately 200 parents and children protested racial
    segregation in Beer Sheva's Otzar Haim kindergarten, where they claimed
    that Ethiopian Jewish children were educated in a separate room from
    the rest of the children. An official from the Industry, Trade, and
    Labor Ministry then visited the site and forced the school to cease the
    segregation.
        On July 13, the NGO Tebeka, Advocacy for Equality and Justice for
    Ethiopian Israelis, filed suit against an Egged bus driver in the Petah
    Tikvah Magistrates Court for refusing a student entry and then making
    racist statements against Ethiopian Jews. The bus company suspended the
    driver, and the Ministry of Transport filed suit against the driver and
    the bus company.
        In the Bnei Brak neighborhood of Tel Aviv in November, a resident
    assaulted an Ethiopian Jewish teenager after refusing to allow her to
    enter a religious ritual bath. Police arrested the suspect and he was
    indicted before the Tel Aviv Magistrates Court.
        During the year the Government introduced several programs to spur
    economic development and to encourage greater hiring of minorities.

        Societal Abuses, Discrimination, and Acts of Violence Based on
    Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.--The law prohibits
    discrimination based on sexual orientation, and the Government
    generally enforced these laws.
        Gay pride rallies occurred peacefully in Tel Aviv on June 11 and in
    Jerusalem on July 29. An estimated 2,000 persons participated in the
    Jerusalem rally. There were police authorization and protection for the
    participants. Three separate antigay rallies were held in conjunction
    with the Jerusalem rally, including one in Independence Park where
    protesters held up signs reading: ``Sick perverts, get out of
    Jerusalem,'' according to media reports. There was also a demonstration
    against the march in the ultra-Orthodox Jerusalem neighborhood of Mea
    Shearim.
        There were no reports of violence against the lesbian, gay,
    bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community during the year; however, in
    August 2009 a masked gunman killed Nir Katz, 26, and Liz Trobishi, 16,
    and wounded 15 others in the offices of the NGO GLBT Israel in Tel
    Aviv. At year's end, a police investigation continued, but the
    perpetrator had not been found. High-level politicians, including the
    president and prime minister, condemned the attacks. Authorities
    arrested settler Yaakov Teitel (see sections 1.a. and the annex) in
    October 2009 after he posted signs praising the attack, but police did
    not charge him with the killings. On August 30, in commemoration of the
    2009 attack, the Tel Aviv municipality launched an educational program
    for Tel Aviv schools focusing on LGBT issues, including the prevention
    of discrimination.
        There were cases of official and societal discrimination against
    the LGBT community during the year.
        On September 14, the Supreme Court ruled that the Jerusalem
    municipality discriminated against a LGBT community center by not
    providing similar funding that had been provided to similar community
    centers.
        An article in Yediot Ahronot on September 19 stated that Jerusalem
    Family Court Judge Phillip Marcus called on the Government to
    investigate whether LGBT petitioners are ``pedophiles or serial
    killers.''

        Other Societal Violence or Discrimination.--There were no reports
    of societal violation or discrimination against persons with HIV/AIDS.

    Section 7. Worker Rights
        a. The Right of Association.--The Government effectively
    implemented laws concerning the right of association and provided that
    citizens may join and establish independent labor organizations of
    their choice without previous authorization or excessive requirements.
    According to the Government, approximately 33 percent of the total
    workforce is unionized. The law allows unions to conduct their
    activities without government interference.
        Unions have the right to strike, and workers exercised this right.
    If essential public services are affected by a strike, the Government
    may appeal to labor courts for back-to-work orders while negotiations
    continue. Worker dismissals and the terms of severance arrangements
    traditionally have been the central issues of disputes.

        b. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively.--The law
    provides for the right for citizens to bargain collectively, and it was
    enforced. There were no restrictions on collective bargaining
    agreements, which covered approximately 58 percent of all workers.
    Collective bargaining agreements extend to nonunion workplaces in the
    same sector. The law specifically prohibits antiunion discrimination,
    and none was reported.
        There are no export processing zones.

        c. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor.--The law prohibits
    forced or compulsory labor and criminalizes labor exploitation.
    However, according to a March OECD review, the laws concerning minimum
    employment conditions and foreign workers were not effectively
    enforced.
        The law provides that foreign laborers have legal status, decent
    working conditions, health insurance, and a written employment
    contract; nonetheless, some employers continued to force individual
    laborers who entered the country, legally and illegally, to live under
    conditions that constituted involuntary servitude.
        A 2009 reorganization of the immigration and employment law
    enforcement functions left the Ministry of Interior's Population,
    Immigration, and Border Crossings Authority with the power to arrest
    and detain workers but not to enforce labor or trafficking laws against
    employers. As a result, according to Hotline, even in cases when an
    illegal worker was detained when working, inspectors were unable to
    charge the employer with labor law violations or illegal employment.
        Some workers faced conditions of forced labor, including through
    such practices as the unlawful withholding of passports, restrictions
    on movement, the inability to change or otherwise choose one's
    employer, nonpayment of wages, threats, and physical intimidation.
    There were numerous documented cases but few resulting employer
    prosecutions, concerning foreign laborers' living in harsh conditions
    and subject to debt bondage. The NGO Kav LaOved identified several
    dozen employees in the agricultural sector held under conditions of
    slavery and subjugation and facilitated their release to government-run
    shelters. Thai agricultural workers, Chinese construction workers, and
    nursing care workers from India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and the
    Philippines--particularly women--were at greatest risk for abuse,
    including trafficking, forced labor, nonpayment, and withholding of
    wages.
        On February 7, Kav LaOved filed a complaint with police alleging
    human trafficking of Thai agricultural workers. According to Kav
    LaOved, the employer paid the workers NIS 120 ($34) a day, far below
    minimum wage; forced them to work 14-hour days with only one day off
    every two weeks; and made them sign falsified reports of hours and
    salary. At year's end, police had taken no action against the employer,
    but authorities had moved the workers to a government-operated shelter
    and found them new jobs.
        Kav LaOved also filed complaints with police regarding trafficking
    at a moshav (privately owned farm) in the Beit Shean Valley,
    underpayment and harassment by an owner of a moshav near the Gaza
    Strip, and violations of the Work and Rest Hours Law, the Migrant
    Workers Law, and Minimum Wage Law by employers at a moshav in the Beit
    Shean Valley.
        In the caregiving sector, Kav LaOved filed complaints of violations
    in several cases, including allegations that a caregiver employed in
    Herzelia was forced to work without compensation in exchange for a
    ``fee'' for her visa, that two additional caregivers in Herzelia were
    not given sufficient food and had wages withheld, and that a caregiver
    employed in Ashdod was forced to have sex.
        In August 2009 following a complaint by Kav LaOved, a criminal
    indictment was filed in the Beer Sheva Magistrate's Court against the
    agricultural company Katif Venture and Development Limited and some of
    its employees, charging them with employing Thai and Nepalese
    agricultural workers in inhumane conditions. The charges included
    making the employees work for 15 to 20 hours each day, seven days per
    week, paying well below the minimum wage with no overtime compensation;
    constantly threatening to accelerate the employees' work pace lest they
    be returned to their home countries; and prohibiting use of a
    telephone. The workers were also required to live in extremely crowded
    conditions in temporary buildings that were completely exposed to the
    elements. The employers were charged with exploitation, fraud, and
    causing injury by negligence. The case was pending in court at year's
    end.
        Also see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons
    Report at www.state.gov/g.tip.

        d. Prohibition of Child Labor and Minimum Age for Employment.--Laws
    provide for protection of children from exploitation in the workplace
    and prohibit forced or compulsory labor; the Government generally
    enforced these laws.
        Children at least 14 years old may be employed during official
    school holidays in light work that will not harm their health. Children
    at least 15 years old who have completed education through grade nine
    may be employed as apprentices. Working hours for those children
    between16 and 18 years old are restricted in all sectors.
        During the year the Labor Laws Enforcement Division in the Ministry
    of Industry, Trade, and Labor initiated 250 investigations,
    investigated more than 1,000 employers for allegedly violating the law,
    filed 55 indictments against employers, and imposed 822 administrative
    fines totaling approximately NIS 10.5 million ($3 million).
        The Labor Law Enforcement Division also conducted national
    campaigns regarding employment terms of youth to promote the
    implementation of youth labor laws, especially during summer vacation.

        e. Acceptable Conditions of Work.--The Labor Inspection Service,
    along with union representatives, enforced labor, health, and safety
    standards in the workplace. Resource constraints affected overall
    enforcement, and according to the OECD the country continued to have a
    general problem of failing to enforce its labor laws.
        The minimum wage was NIS 3,850 ($1,083) per month for a 43-hour
    week. There are reduced minimum wages for youths and persons with
    disabilities. The Government considered the minimum wage, supplemented
    by special allowances for citizens, to provide a citizen worker a
    decent standard of living. Some union officials, NGOs, and social
    commentators disputed this claim. Noncitizen workers did not receive
    the special allowances. Resource constraints limited inspections,
    particularly of conditions in the settlements where many Thai citizens
    work.
        The law allows for citizens a maximum 43-hour workweek at regular
    pay. The law provides for citizens a daily break for a period of 45
    minutes, which may be divided into two breaks. Premium pay was 125
    percent for the first two hours and 150 percent for any additional
    hours, with a limit of 15 hours of overtime per week.
        The law applies to noncitizens, although with modifications, and
    enforcement was not adequate, according to Hotline and other NGOs.
    Migrant workers in the homecare sector are not covered by the Work and
    Rest Hours Law.
        The Government set occupational health and safety standards. The
    Ministry of Industry carried out inspections. Health and safety
    inspections in the homecare sector were particularly insufficient,
    according to Kav LaOved.
        Documented foreign workers were not entitled to many of the same
    benefits as citizens, including national health care. Employers are
    legally required to provide such insurance, and most employers did so.
    Female migrant workers in the homecare sector remained particularly
    vulnerable to abuse and forced labor. The live-in arrangements and lack
    of labor law enforcement led to many cases of women migrant workers
    working ``on a 24-hour basis,'' according to Kav LaOved. These workers
    also worked without suitable compensation for overtime and were forced
    to perform domestic tasks such as cleaning and cooking for all family
    members without compensation.
        According to Kav LaOved, foreign workers in the agricultural sector
    also remained vulnerable to health and safety violations; prolonged
    exposure to pesticides led to complaints of breathing difficulties,
    burns, skin allergies, and cases of cancer; and there were several
    complaints from agricultural foreign workers of nonpayment for
    overtime, excessive working hours, and poor living conditions.
        According to the Government, workers, including foreign workers,
    can remove themselves from a dangerous work situation and seek
    alternate employment. However, Kav LaOved maintained that in practice
    workers in the homecare and agricultural sectors were not able to seek
    alternative employment due to pressures from their sponsoring agencies.
        Brokers and employers collected hiring fees from migrant workers.
    The Government limited such fees to NIS 3,135 (approximately $883) per
    worker.
        On August 24, after complaints about excessive commission rates and
    profiteering over money transfers, the Ministry of Interior closed
    Interman Management Initiatives and Consultations Limited. The company,
    which brought migrant workers, largely from Thailand, to the country's
    agriculture sector, charged an average commission rate of NIS 35,546
    ($10,000) for each foreign worker.
        The Government reported that, during the last two years, it revoked
    at least18 companies' recruitment licenses and their special permits to
    recruit foreign workers. Investigations and administrative hearings led
    to the closure of some recruitment agencies.
        Workers may contest deportation orders, but lack of fluency in
    Hebrew placed them at a considerable disadvantage. Interpreters were
    provided when available, but no court-appointed attorneys were
    provided. According to Hotline, the lack of interpreters in various
    governmental agencies continued to be a ``grave problem,'' and public
    information in languages other than Hebrew was hard to obtain.
     the occupied territories (including areas subject to the jurisdiction
                         of the palestinian authority)
        Israel began occupying the Gaza Strip, Golan Heights, the West
    Bank, and East Jerusalem during the 1967 War and continued to occupy
    those areas during the year. (For information about the Israeli-
    occupied Golan Heights, please see the Israel report above.) During the
    year the Palestinian population of the West Bank was approximately 2.5
    million, and the Gaza Strip's population totaled 1.6 million, nearly
    all of whom were Palestinian. There were an estimated 260,000 Arabs
    living in East Jerusalem with residency permits rather than Israeli
    citizenship. Approximately 190,000 Israeli citizens, including a small
    number of Arab citizens of Israel, also lived in East Jerusalem;
    Israelis in the West Bank numbered approximately 300,000; and there
    were no Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip.
        The Palestinian Authority (PA) had a democratically elected
    president and legislative council. The PA exercised varying degrees of
    authority over the Palestinian population in the West Bank and none
    over Arab residents of East Jerusalem due to the Israel Defense Force's
    (IDF) continuing presence in the West Bank and Israel's extension of
    Israeli law and authority in 1967 to East Jerusalem; it had little
    authority in the Gaza Strip and none over Israeli residents of the West
    Bank.
        In 2005 Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Chairman Mahmoud
    Abbas won 62 percent of the vote in a presidential election regarded as
    generally free and fair. In the 2006 Palestinian Legislative Council
    (PLC) elections, Hamas (a terrorist organization)-backed candidates won
    74 of 132 seats in elections that generally met democratic standards.
    In 2007 President Abbas dismissed the national unity government after
    Hamas staged a violent takeover of PA government installations in the
    Gaza Strip and killed hundreds in the Fatah movement and PA security
    forces; he appointed a cabinet of independents led by Prime Minister
    Salam Fayyad that continued to govern the West Bank during the year.
    Elements of the Hamas government maintained authority in the Gaza
    Strip, where they selectively applied the laws and legal structures of
    the PA. West Bank authorities postponed municipal PA elections
    scheduled to be held in the West Bank in July; however, the Palestinian
    courts ruled the postponement illegal in November. Both Israeli and PA
    security forces reported to civilian authorities. Hamas maintained
    control of security forces in the Gaza Strip. Armed militias and
    terrorist organizations were still active in some areas in the West
    Bank and the Gaza Strip.
        Principal human rights problems related to the PA included
    mistreatment in detention, arbitrary and prolonged detention, poor
    prison conditions, impunity, corruption, and lack of transparency.
    Domestic abuse of women, societal discrimination against women and
    persons with disabilities, and child labor remained serious problems.
        Residents of the Gaza Strip under Hamas had no right to political
    participation or to choose their government. Other human rights
    problems in the Gaza Strip included reports that Hamas security forces
    continued to kill, torture, kidnap, arbitrarily detain, and harass
    Fatah members and other Palestinians with impunity. There were reports
    of abuse of prisoners and failure to provide fair trials to those
    accused. Hamas also strictly restricted the freedom of speech,
    religion, and movement of the Gaza Strip residents. Corruption
    reportedly was a problem. Hamas promoted gender discrimination against
    women. Domestic violence against women also remained a problem. Hamas
    and other Palestinian factions in the Gaza Strip launched rockets and
    mortars against civilian targets in Israel.
        Principal human rights problems related to Israeli authorities in
    the West Bank were reports of excessive use of force against civilians,
    including killings, torture of Palestinian detainees, improper use of
    security detention procedures, austere and overcrowded detention
    facilities, demolition and confiscation of Palestinian properties,
    limits on freedom of expression and assembly, and severe restrictions
    on Palestinians' internal and external freedom of movement.
    Additionally the IDF, in some cases, failed to pursue investigations
    and disciplinary actions related to violations. Violence by Israeli
    settlers was also reported. The IDF imposed serious restrictions on the
    importation of goods into the Gaza Strip and general prohibition on
    external travel for Gazans.
        (Note: Throughout the report, human rights concerns related to each
    actor (the PA, Hamas, and Israel) follow in sequential order.)
                            RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

    Section 1. Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom
            From:
        a. Arbitrary or Unlawful Deprivation of Life.--There were no
    reports that the PA committed political killings; however, PA forces
    killed at least one civilian during the year. There were multiple
    reports that Palestinian terrorist groups, including Hamas, committed
    unlawful killings. The Israeli government reportedly committed at least
    one targeted killing in the occupied territories during the year, and
    reports of Israeli security forces killing civilian Palestinians,
    including protesters, continued.
        There was one reported killing by Palestinian security forces
    during the year. On May 1, PA security forces shot and killed 18-year-
    old Rami Sa'id Salah al-Absi after he drove through a security
    checkpoint in Hebron; the PA actors reportedly suspected al-Absi was
    involved in the robbery of a Bethlehem clothing store. At year's end no
    action had resulted from an investigation of al-Absi's death.
        In July a Palestinian military court found five security officers
    negligent in the June 2009 death of Haitham Amer but acquitted the
    officers of more serious charges, according to Human Rights Watch
    (HRW). The court cited a lack of evidence in the case, despite an
    official Palestinian autopsy report stating that Amer had died during
    detention and interrogation at a General Intelligence Service facility
    in Hebron due to torture, as well as testimony by three detainees who
    witnessed his death.
        Civilian Palestinian factional violence during the year, including
    fights, family disputes, and manslaughter, resulted in 35 Palestinian
    fatalities in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, according to the quasi-
    governmental Independent Commission for Human Rights (ICHR). The PA was
    not responsible for these fatalities.
        Hamas-controlled security forces and other Palestinian terrorist
    groups continued to kill Israelis and Arabs in the West Bank and the
    Gaza Strip. According to Israeli government statistics, Palestinian
    terrorist acts emanating from the West Bank killed six Israelis,
    including four civilians. No Israeli civilians died in violence
    emanating from the Gaza Strip, although the Israeli government
    attributed the death of a Thai migrant worker in Israel to a rocket
    attack launched from the northern Gaza Strip.
        In the Gaza Strip, according to local media and the ICHR, masked
    gunmen affiliated with Hamas unlawfully executed at least 32 persons
    during the year. By law the PA president must ratify the death penalty,
    but Hamas did not contact the PA regarding the executions. In some
    cases, such as that of Mohammed Ismail and Nasser Abu Freh on April 15,
    the executions were based on allegations that the victims collaborated
    with Israel.
        Hamas summoned 52-year-old Jamil Shafiq Shaqura for questioning at
    an internal security facility in Khan Yunis in the Gaza Strip, where he
    was tortured, according to Israeli human rights NGO B'Tselem; he died
    on January 6 from a stroke as a result of his abuse.
        On June 14, unknown actors shot and killed an Israeli police
    officer, Yehushua Sofer, in an attack on his patrol car near the
    Hebron-area Israeli settlement of Beit Haggai, according to IDF
    reports. The attack injured two other police officers. Israeli
    authorities opened an investigation and arrested suspects with Hamas
    affiliations on July 22. At year's end there were no updates.
        On August 31, Hamas gunmen shot and killed four Israeli residents
    of the West Bank settlement of Beit Haggai, who were traveling by car
    near Hebron. The four victims were identified as married couple Yitzak
    and Talia Ames, Avishai Shindler, and Kochba Even-Chaim; retaliatory
    skirmishes occurred near a number of West Bank settlements, with
    Israeli settlers reportedly throwing stones and Molotov cocktails at
    Palestinian villagers.
        Israeli security forces killed 79 Palestinians during the year,
    including seven minors in the Gaza Strip and two minors in the West
    Bank, which was an increase from the 59 killings in 2009 (not including
    deaths during Operation Cast Lead), according to statistics maintained
    by B'Tselem. Israel described all IDF actions in the occupied
    territories as ``operational activities,'' preventing accountability
    for breaches of law and investigations, according to B'Tselem.
        The Israeli government was responsible for at least one targeted
    killing. On September 17, Israeli security personnel shot and killed
    Iyad As'ad Abu Shelbaya in his home at the Palestinian Nur ash-Shams
    refugee camp during the night. The Israeli government suspected that
    Abu Shelbaya, known for his reported links to Hamas, had taken part in
    an August 31 attack that killed four Israeli settlers (see above).
        At year's end there was no update or investigation into the death
    of Khaled Harb Khaled Sh'alan, a 23-year-old resident of Gaza City and
    a reported Islamic Jihad commander, who was killed by Israeli
    helicopter fire in March 2009.
        Reports of Israeli forces killing Palestinians in restricted areas
    in the Gaza Strip and in waters off the Gaza Strip coast continued
    during the year. Israel acknowledged the land ``buffer zone'' in May
    2009 to be 328 yards from the border fence, although it generally
    enforced the buffer zone at 547 yards, with reports of Palestinians
    being shot at as far away as 1,640 yards from the border fence. Israel
    barred access to fishing areas beyond three nautical miles from the
    shore; for example, in four incidents in October, Israeli naval forces
    fired ``warning'' shots at Palestinian fishing boats, forcing them
    ashore. Israel enforced these restrictions with the stated intention of
    preventing attacks by Palestinian armed factions. The IDF rarely
    launched investigations into buffer zone shootings, although on
    September 15, it announced that three Gazans, ages17, 21, and 91,
    killed by the IDF earlier in the year near the border fence, had not
    been involved in terrorist activities.
        On March 21, Israeli security forces shot and killed two
    Palestinian 19-year-olds looking for scrap metal on farmland east of
    the West Bank village of Awarta, according to several NGOs and press
    reports. The two were not in a restricted area. The Israeli soldiers
    claimed that Salah Muhammad Kamel Quareq and Muhammad Feisal Mahmoud
    Quareq told them that they were on their way to work in the fields but
    did not produce identification documents upon request and,
    subsequently, attempted to attack the border guards with a pitchfork.
    Medical reports indicated that the shots came from close range. The
    Israeli chief military prosecutor ordered an investigation into the
    killings, the results of which were not available at year's end,
    although authorities dismissed the soldiers' squad commander.
        On May 14, the IDF shot and killed 75-year-old Fouad Ahmad Yusef
    Abu Matar, a resident of Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip, when
    he approached the perimeter fence east of Jabalya Refugee Camp.
        On June 11, according to local media sources, Israeli border police
    shot and killed Ziad Jilani, a Palestinian resident of East Jerusalem,
    while he lay on the ground. Jilani had swerved his vehicle into a group
    of officers, injuring several, but eyewitnesses told the media that
    Jilani did not pose a danger at the time of the shooting. It was
    unclear if Jilani hit the officers deliberately; eyewitness accounts
    reported that Jilani swerved to avoid stones that bystanders had thrown
    at the officers.
        On September 24, according B'Tselem, Israeli naval force machine-
    gun fire killed 19-year-old Muhammad Mansur Omar Baqar while he was
    fishing off the coast of Jabalya in the Gaza Strip.
        Israeli security forces reportedly killed three demonstrators
    during the year. In most cases the protesters were demonstrating near
    restricted areas or the separation barrier.
        On March 20, Israeli security forces in the West Bank village of
    Iraq Burin shot and killed two Palestinian adolescents during a local
    demonstration related to a water dispute with a nearby settlement,
    according to several NGOs and press reports. There were conflicting
    reports as to whether Usaied Abd al-Naser Muhammad Qadous, 17 years
    old, and Muhammad Ibrahim 'Abd al-Qader Qadous, 15 years old, threw
    rocks at Israeli police during the demonstration. Israeli officials
    claimed that forces employed tear gas and rubber-coated bullets to
    disperse demonstrators but did not use live ammunition. Villagers,
    international protesters, PA officials, and Israeli NGOs all claimed
    that live ammunition caused the deaths, and PA medical personnel
    released an X ray to the media showing what doctors stated was a bullet
    lodged in the brain of one of the boys. On March 23, the IDF's chief
    prosecutor ordered the army to open an internal investigation into the
    circumstances that led the soldiers to open fire; no results were
    available at year's end.
        On April 28, an IDF soldier shot and killed Ahmad Suliman Salem
    Deeb, a 19-year-old resident of Gaza City who was taking part in a
    demonstration against the ``buffer zones,'' during which some
    demonstrators threw stones, according to press reports.
        On May 25, the Israeli central district prosecution filed an
    indictment for negligent manslaughter against an unidentified retired
    border policeman suspected of shooting 11-year-old Palestinian Ahmed
    Moussa in the West Bank in 2008. The incident was one of several
    connected to protests against construction of the separation barrier.
        On July 12, a judge advocate general (JAG) ordered the Military
    Police Investigation Unit to investigate the death of Bassem Abu
    Rahmah, who was struck in the chest by a tear gas canister during an
    antibarrier demonstration in April 2009. According to B'Tselem, the JAG
    initially declined to probe the incident but changed its stance after
    forensic evidence indicated that soldiers fired the canister directly
    at the victim, contrary to initial debriefing statements. Citing video
    footage of the incident, B'Tselem noted that Abu Rahmah remained on the
    Palestinian side of the fence and did not endanger soldiers. At year's
    end the IDF had not released an update in the case, according to local
    NGO reports.
        On December 31, Jawaher Abu Rahmah, a resident of the West Bank
    village of Bil'in, inhaled tear gas from canisters fired by the IDF to
    disrupt protests against the separation barrier, according to NGO and
    press reports. She died the following day of complications from the
    inhalation, according to the PA. The IDF claimed that she did not die
    as a result of the tear gas inhalation, but rather improper medical
    treatment.
        At year's end no findings were available from an Israeli
    investigation into the 2008 death of Yousif Ahmed Amira, whom IDF
    soldiers shot in the head during a protest.
        Israeli forces also killed civilians during episodes of conflict
    throughout the year, including killings from tank fire and tear gas.
    The IDF regularly used tanks and remote-controlled weapons stations to
    fire on Palestinians inside the Gaza Strip, according to reports from
    the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA).
    IDF personnel maintained secure stations every several hundred yards
    along the border fence; each station contained machine guns with a
    nearly one-mile firing range. The IDF also used tanks firing
    ``flechette'' projectiles, which explode in midair, releasing thousands
    of 1.5-inch metal darts. In July alone flechettes killed at least two
    civilians and injured 10, including four children, according to UNOCHA.
        On May 9, during hostilities at the Karmi Tsur settlement north of
    Hebron, a one-year-old boy from the southern West Bank village of Beit
    Ummar died, reportedly as the result of inhaling tear gas deployed by
    Israeli forces. The canister landed outside the boy's window, and he
    died of respiratory complications, according to press reports.
        B'Tselem reported that on December 9, Israeli tank fire killed 16-
    year-olds Husam Khaled Ibrahim Abu Sa'id and Isma'il Walid Muhammad Abu
    'Odeh and 91-year-old Ibrahim Abdallah Suliman Abu Sa'id near Biet
    Hanoun, while the three grazed livestock. According to B'Tselem, none
    had engaged in hostile activity.
        The 147 military police investigations of the killings or injuries
    of Palestinians by Israeli forces led to few convictions. The NGO Yesh
    Din reported that in 2009 only 2 percent of investigations by the
    Israeli Military Police Criminal Investigation Division led to
    indictment (four investigations). Between 2000 and 2009, the average
    rate of indictment was 6 percent. B'Tselem attributed such statistics
    to a procedural conflict of interest in the investigation process
    because Israeli forces involved in the fatality are also responsible
    for collecting the information that the JAG uses to determine whether
    to launch a military police investigation. Since 2001 B'Tselem has
    monitored 35 cases of Palestinians injured or killed from bullets fired
    by Israeli police and border police officers. Only 16 of the cases were
    investigated, of which only two cases resulted in indictments.
        Human rights organizations also complained that the IDF--through
    the JAG--initiated many investigations months or more than a year after
    the incident, making it difficult to find evidence or identify
    witnesses, and that the investigations unit lacked sufficient Arabic
    speakers.
        Israeli civilians killed two Palestinians. On May 13, a settler
    shot in the back and killed 15-year-old Aysar Yasser Fawaz Zaraqah, who
    threw stones at the settler's car near al-Mazra'a as-Sharqiya in the
    West Bank. There were no reports of an investigation into his death. On
    September 22, an Israeli private security guard shot and killed Samer
    Mahmoud Ahmad Sarhan in East Jerusalem. The guard responsible for
    Samer's death was released on bail. Yesh Din continued to claim that
    settler violence was insufficiently investigated. There was no evidence
    of a public investigation at year's end.
        The PA and Israel took steps to address and investigate allegations
    of abuses related to the 2008-09 Operation Cast Lead conflict; however,
    NGOs criticized Hamas for failing to investigate abuses adequately.
        During the year the PA established an independent commission to
    review the allegations against it in the context of the conflict.
        Amnesty International (AI) criticized Hamas authorities for failing
    to investigate fully abuses perpetrated by Gazans during the conflict,
    citing specifically the firing of indiscriminate rockets by Palestinian
    armed groups into southern Israel. AI claimed Hamas did not respond
    with legal or any other action against the al-Qassam Brigades, which
    claimed responsibility for rocket attacks aimed at civilian targets.
        During the year Israel provided specific examples of investigations
    relating to Operation Cast Lead and their outcomes, including new
    orders to enhance civilian protections. Local and international NGOs
    continued to criticize Israel's investigation and disciplinary action
    relating to casualties from Operation Cast Lead as insufficient.
    B'Tselem reported that 773 of the estimated 1,385 Palestinians killed
    were civilians. The Israeli government maintained that the civilian
    death count was 295 and noted that Hamas operated within civilian
    populations.
        Since 2009 the IDF has opened investigations into 150 incidents
    involving alleged violations of law of war by its forces. Various human
    rights organizations reiterated concern that Israeli army commanders or
    military police carried out the investigations, potentially reducing
    impartiality. NGOs also criticized the Israeli government's decision
    not to investigate fully allegations of serious violations, such as
    Israel's use of white phosphorus and the targeting of civilian
    infrastructure in the Gaza Strip.
        Israel issued two indictments related to Cast Lead in a human
    shield case (see section 2.c.) and in a civilian death during the year.
    The IDF reprimanded an officer and sanctioned two others for failing to
    exercise appropriate judgment during an incident that resulted in
    civilian casualties in the al-Maqadmah mosque during Operation Cast
    Lead. Additionally, an IDF brigadier general and a colonel were
    disciplined for approving the use of explosive shells in violation of
    the safety distances required in urban areas during Operation Cast
    Lead.
        In 2009 the IDF chief of staff ordered operational debriefings for
    at least 60 investigations focused on law of war violations during
    Operation Cast Lead. Held by the army under the Military Justice Law,
    operational debriefing delayed criminal investigations because
    information provided cannot be released or used as evidence in a court
    of law.

        b. Disappearance.--There were few reports of politically motivated
    kidnappings and disappearances in connection with internal Palestinian
    conflict, largely due to improved security conditions in the West Bank.
        In the Gaza Strip, Hamas security operatives carried out
    extrajudicial detentions based on political affiliation during the
    year; information concerning the whereabouts and welfare of those
    detained was not consistently or reliably available, nor were those
    detained offered due process or access to family and legal counsel.
        In 2006 Popular Resistance Committee and Hamas militants tunneled
    from the Gaza Strip to Israel, killed two soldiers, and abducted a
    third, Gilad Shalit. At year's end Shalit remained detained in the Gaza
    Strip.

        c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or
    Punishment.--The PA Basic Law prohibits torture or use of force against
    detainees; however, international human rights groups reported that
    torture remained a problem. Following allegations of abuse in the
    deaths of four prisoners in PA custody in 2009 (see section 1.a.),
    Prime Minister Fayyad dismissed a number of PA security officials and
    issued a directive against prisoner mistreatment, abuse, or torture,
    with a corresponding order for Palestinian prison and detention center
    monitoring. As a result the PA provided all security forces with
    written guidelines for interrogation and detention that remained in
    effect during the year, including a section on prisoners' rights.
    Nevertheless, according to HRW, reports of mistreatment were common
    during the year, and the PA was lax in prosecuting security officials
    for detainee mistreatment. Palestinian detainees registered 163
    complaints of torture with the ICHR during the year. Reported abuse by
    PA authorities in the West Bank included forcing prisoners to sit in a
    painful position for long periods, beating, punching, flogging,
    intimidation, and psychological pressure. International observers noted
    that abuse was not systematic or routinely practiced in PA prisons,
    although some prisoners experienced abuse during arrest or
    interrogation.
        A 2009 HRW report alleged abuses by Fatah-affiliated Palestinian
    security officials against Hamas members and supporters in the West
    Bank, as well as abuses by Hamas security forces against Fatah-
    affiliated officials in Gaza Strip. According to reports these trends
    continued during the year.
        On September 16 and 19, according to HRW, PA security authorities
    arrested an unidentified man and Ahmad Salhab and tortured them in
    custody in a facility in Jericho. The PA suspected both men of ties to
    Hamas. Authorities released the first man after 10 days but held Salhab
    until October 16, when they transferred him to a hospital to treat
    injuries reportedly related to torture, as well as torn spinal disks
    that were a previous result of mistreatment during confinement in 2008.
        Torture carried out by the Gaza Strip Hamas Executive Force was not
    restricted to security detainees but also included persons associated
    with the Fatah political party, those held on suspicion of
    ``collaboration'' with Israel, or those considered to engage in immoral
    activity. There were reports that Hamas deployed undercover officers to
    attack, beat, and (in some cases) detain these persons, usually without
    intent to kill. Hamas took no action to investigate reports of torture,
    and documentation of abuses was limited, due in part to fear of
    retribution by victims and, in part, to PA officials and NGOs lacking
    access to Gaza Strip prisoners. The ICHR reported that complaints of
    abuse included being forced to stand in an uncomfortable stress
    positions, flogging, hand binding, suspension, blindfolding, punching,
    and beatings with clubs or hoses.
        According to human rights NGO reports and photographic
    documentation released on May 12, Hamas forces beat Jamal Abu Qumsan,
    an unmarried art gallery owner, regarding the accusation that he had
    nonmarital sexual relations. Abu Qumsan sustained blows along his back,
    legs, and buttocks. Human rights organizations claimed that such
    attacks and interrogations were common, but victims were reticent to
    come forward.
        Hamas organized attacks in the West Bank. On September 1, Hamas
    members reportedly shot and wounded two Israeli residents of a Jordan
    Valley settlement near Ramallah; Hamas's military wing immediately
    claimed responsibility. On November 17, the PA arrested various Hamas
    members suspected of planning bomb attacks and abductions and targeting
    a prominent Palestinian government official.
        There were no reports that Hamas used human shields during the
    year. According to a 2009 report released by Israel's Ministry of
    Foreign Affairs, Hamas used human shields, including children, during
    Operation Cast Lead by placing launch pads and operation centers in
    civilian facilities.
        Israeli law, as interpreted by a 1999 High Court decision,
    prohibits torture and several interrogation techniques but allows
    ``moderate physical pressure'' against detainees considered to possess
    information about an imminent terrorist attack. The decision also
    indicates that interrogators who abuse detainees suspected of
    possessing such information may be immune from prosecution. Human
    rights organizations reported that ``moderate physical pressure'' in
    practice included beatings, requiring an individual to hold a stress
    position for long periods, and painful pressure from shackles or
    restraints applied to the forearms. Israeli NGOs continued to criticize
    what they termed abusive Israeli detention practices, including
    isolation, sleep deprivation, protracted handcuffing, shackling, and
    psychological abuse, such as threats to interrogate elderly parents or
    demolish family homes.
        The NGO Defense for Children International-Palestine Section (DCI-
    Palestine) claimed Israeli security authorities often tortured and
    abused minors in custody to coerce confessions during interrogation,
    employing tactics such as beatings, long-term handcuffing, threats,
    rape, and solitary confinement. In 40 affidavits collected by DCI-
    Palestine in the last six months of the year, 28 children arrested and
    detained by the IDF claimed they were beaten and kicked, 24 experienced
    some form of position abuse, seven were stripped naked, and three were
    subjected to electric shocks.
        On March 23, Israeli soldiers arrested a 16-year-old known as Basel
    from the West Bank village of at-Tabaqa. According to sworn testimony
    collected by DCI-Palestine, soldiers blindfolded, bound, and beat
    Basel, then transferred him to local settlers, who also beat him. He
    claimed he was pressured into confessing to throwing stones and that he
    was threatened with imprisonment and electric shocks. The IDF later
    left him barefoot on a road outside a West Bank settlement at 1 a.m.,
    approximately 10 miles from his home.
        On November 24, Israeli border police beat and kicked seven-year-
    old Adam in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan, according to a
    DCI-Palestine affidavit.
        In 2008, according to the NGO the Public Committee Against Torture
    in Israel (PCATI), the Israeli Security Agency (known as the Shin Bet
    or ISA) arrested Jalal Sawafta and interrogated him and his parents.
    The Shin Bet interrogator allegedly threatened to demolish the family
    home if Sawafta's parents did not convince Sawafta to confess to
    complicity in rigging a car bomb. PCATI reported that Sawafta's
    complaint about the incident was closed at year's end, but the State
    Attorney's Office provided no detailed explanation for its decision to
    close the complaint, and there had been no investigation.
        Degrading treatment by Israeli soldiers was documented on the
    Internet. In August former Israeli soldier Eden Abergil posted online
    photographs of herself posing with blindfolded and handcuffed
    Palestinian detainees. Although Israeli authorities condemned the act
    as degrading, there was no evidence of results in any investigation. In
    October the IDF launched an investigation into an online video,
    purportedly posted in 2008, featuring a soldier mocking and dancing
    around a blindfolded Palestinian detainee.
        At year's end two policemen from the Ma'ale Adumim police station,
    who were arrested in 2008 for severely abusing a Palestinian from
    Bethany, remained under house arrest, and investigations continued,
    according to PCATI.
        Israeli law, high court rulings, and an IDF order prohibit Israeli
    forces from using human shields, but the prohibition was reportedly not
    always observed. Israeli soldiers used civilians, including three
    children, according to DCI-Palestine, as human shields, endangering
    their lives by forcing them to remain in or near houses being used as
    military positions or carrying out dangerous tasks such as inspecting
    properties. According to the Israeli Ministry of Justice, when a human
    shield complaint is registered, the Investigative Military Police opens
    an investigation.
        On February 18, during a raid on a house in Nablus, Israeli
    soldiers reportedly forced 16-year-old Dua'a to search her home for
    potential booby traps. The soldiers ordered her to open closets and
    lift mattresses in the house, according to DCI-Palestine. There was no
    investigation or update at year's end.
        On April 16, two IDF soldiers detained 14-year-old Sabri in front
    of a school in Beit Ummar and forced him to walk in front of them while
    Palestinian protesters, urged by the IDF personnel, threw stones. The
    incident was photographed and published widely in Palestinian media. On
    October 19, the Israeli Military prosecutor for operational matters
    indicated that military police had opened an investigation into the
    case, but there was no update at year's end.
        On August 19, IDF soldiers near Nablus beat a 13-year-old boy known
    as Nazzal during a raid and forced him to guide them through an
    inspection of his uncle's house, according to DCI-Palestine. There was
    no investigation or update at year's end.
        In the first conviction by Israeli courts in any human shield case,
    on October 3, an Israeli military court convicted two unidentified
    Israeli soldiers from the Givati Brigade who used a nine-year-old boy,
    identified as Majid Abd Rabbo, to search bags believed to contain
    explosives in January 2009 during Operation Cast Lead. Authorities
    sentenced the soldiers to three-month suspended prison terms for
    exceeding their authority by endangering a life and behavior unbecoming
    a soldier; both were also demoted. The IDF also disciplined a
    lieutenant colonel for permitting Rabbo to enter a structure where
    combatants were present.
        Nonstate Palestinian groups attacked Israeli targets in the West
    Bank. For example, the Syria-based Abu Musa group claimed
    responsibility for the September 26 shooting of two Israelis south of
    Hebron.
        Israeli civilians committed violent acts against Palestinian
    civilians and their property with reportedly little or no intervention
    and no subsequent investigation by Israeli officials. Some settlers
    reportedly used violence against Palestinians to keep them away from
    settlements and land that settlers sought to expropriate. The Palestine
    Center estimated that between 2009 and mid-year, settlers committed
    approximately 1,000 acts of violence against Palestinians and their
    property. DCI-Palestine claimed in July that it had documented 38 cases
    of children attacked and injured by settlers between March 2008 and
    July 2010 near settlements in the vicinity of Bethlehem, Ramallah,
    Salfit, Hebron, and Nablus; in three of those incidents, children were
    killed. Six of the attacks, affecting eight children, reportedly
    occurred during the year. A November 2009 UNOCHA report cited settler
    violence as ``a key factor undermining the physical security and
    livelihoods of Palestinians in many areas throughout the West Bank.''
        On July 26, settlers conducted a series of attacks for more than 12
    hours on the Palestinian village of Burin, during which time settlers
    assaulted Palestinians, looted vehicles, and burned nearby Palestinian
    fields, according to NGO and media reports. Local officials and NGO
    field workers on site stated that the IDF largely observed the attacks
    and took no action to prevent the attackers from regrouping. Local
    officials claimed PA fire service crews were restricted for more than
    an hour from entering the area to put out the flames.
        On September 1, following a Hamas-related shooting that killed four
    Israeli settlers, approximately 50 settlers from the Kiryat Arba
    settlement near Hebron threw rocks at the nearby home of the
    Palestinian Idris family. Settlers knocked over outside fixtures and
    set fire to grass in front of the house. According to media reports,
    IDF soldiers accompanied the settlers and did not prevent the attacks.
    On the same day, another settler attack arbitrarily targeted
    Palestinian vehicles by breaking windows near the Jet junction, between
    Nablus and Qalqilya.
        On November 11, settlers targeted a Palestinian woman and her two
    children, ages 10 and 11 years old, with rocks as they went to school
    in Tuqu village, near Bethlehem in the West Bank, according to media
    reports. A Palestinian group later protested the incident by burning
    tires and throwing rocks at Israeli vehicles, and a clash with Israeli
    forces ensued.
        Settler violence against Palestinians in the Old City of Hebron
    continued to decline, according to local NGOs, attributed primarily to
    Palestinian video documentation of settler harassment. Nevertheless,
    residents and several former IDF soldiers reported that Israeli
    authorities in the Old City consistently refrained from protecting
    Palestinians against settler violence and failed to enforce law and
    order on assailants.
        In April 2009 two male settlers near Ma'on settlement attacked a
    woman who was eight months pregnant. The men, whose faces were covered,
    pushed her to the ground, kicked her, and beat her with sticks.
    Although B'Tselem reported that Hebron police in May stated that they
    had interrogated three suspects, at year's end there was no evidence of
    an investigation.

        Prison and Detention Center Conditions.--PA prison conditions
    improved in recent years, although the PA prison system remained
    significantly inadequate for the prison population it served. PA civil
    police prisons, which held nonsecurity prisoners, remained severely
    overcrowded. Space and capacity issues also reduced the availability of
    medical care and vocational or other programs for inmates in civil
    police prisons.
        Unlike in the previous year, there were no deaths reported in PA
    civil police prisons from adverse conditions.
        In December there were approximately 1,050 prisoners in the seven
    PA civil police prisons; women and male juveniles each constituted
    approximately 2 percent of the prison population, according to PA
    statistics. Male juveniles were at times housed with adult male
    prisoners. PA intelligence services held several hundred security
    detainees separately from the general population. PA authorities
    undertook prison improvement efforts at various facilities.
        All PA civil police prisons allowed visitations on a weekly basis,
    religious observance, a procedure for submitting complaints, and an
    investigation process for complaints. During the year the PA generally
    permitted the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) access to
    detainees and allowed regular inspections of prison conditions.
    Preliminary, unpublished accounts by human rights groups, humanitarian
    organizations, and lawyers indicated that, as in previous years, there
    were some difficulties gaining access to specific detainees, depending
    on which security organization managed the facility.
        Ombudsmen cannot serve on behalf of prisoners.
        In the Gaza Strip prison conditions were reportedly poor, and
    little information was available. Detention facilities were
    unofficially reported below international legal or humanitarian
    standards. Hamas authorities announced an inquiry into the 2008 death
    of Taleb Mohammed Abu Sitta, who died of injuries following Hamas
    police detention. As a result Hamas suspended several police officers
    from duty, but there were no reports that any were tried, according to
    AI. The ICRC conducted monitoring visits to some prisoners in the Gaza
    Strip, but Hamas authorities denied representatives permission to visit
    captured IDF soldier Gilad Shalit.
        IDF detention centers were less likely than Israeli civilian
    prisons to meet international standards, with some, such as the Ofer
    detention center, providing living space as small as 15 square feet per
    detainee. In November B'Tselem and Hamoked reported unsatisfactory
    conditions in Shin Bet's Petah Tikva Prison, including poor hygienic
    conditions. Prisoners also continued to claim inadequate medical care.
    According to the Israeli Ministry of Justice, the IDF continued to
    ameliorate living conditions in two detention centers in the West Bank.
    Also, in November 2009 Israel began building a new detention complex
    next to the Ofer Camp military courts.
        According to Israeli official figures, approximately 5,935
    Palestinians were held in Israeli civilian prisons in December.
    Palestinian minors arrested in the West Bank were subject to the
    Israeli military courts system, which recognizes persons 16 years of
    age or older as adults; all minors between the ages of 16 and 18 were
    held in pretrial or posttrial detention with adults. Israeli minors
    between the ages of 16 and 18 arrested in the West Bank were subject to
    Israeli criminal and civil courts.
        PCATI reported that approximately 650 prisoner complaints of
    mistreatment in Shin Bet facilities were not forwarded to police for
    criminal investigation between 2001 and November 2010.
        Israel permitted the ICRC to monitor prison conditions. The Israeli
    Bar Association and NGOs sent representatives to meet with prisoners
    and inspect conditions in prisons, detention centers, and IDF
    facilities. Human rights groups reported delays and difficulties in
    gaining access to specific detainees, frequent transfers of detainees
    without notice, and the limited ability of families of imprisoned
    Palestinians, particularly Gazans, to visit.

        d. Arbitrary Arrest or Detention.--Palestinian law prohibits
    arbitrary arrest and detention; however, in practice the PA failed to
    charge detainees promptly and regularly held detainees for months
    without trial. Hamas also charged that the PA detained individuals
    during the year solely on the basis of their Hamas affiliation.
        Reportedly Hamas practiced widespread arbitrary detention in the
    Gaza Strip.
        Israeli law prohibits arbitrary arrest and detention, but Israeli
    security services did not always abide by these prohibitions.
        Palestinian security detainees were under the jurisdiction of
    military law, which permits 10 days' detention without access to a
    lawyer or appearing before a court. There is no requirement that a
    detainee have access to a lawyer until after interrogation, a process
    that may last weeks.

        Role of the Police and Security Apparatus.--In West Bank
    Palestinian population centers, mostly ``Area A'' as defined by the
    Oslo-era agreements, the PA has formal responsibility for security and
    civil control; however, Israeli security forces since 2002 have
    conducted regular security operations in Area A cities without
    coordinating with PA security forces. In ``Area B'' territory in the
    West Bank, composed mostly of small Palestinian villages and farmland,
    the PA has civil control--including civil policing--but Israel retains
    responsibility for security control. In ``Area C,'' which contains
    Israeli settlements, military installations, some small Palestinian
    villages and farmland, and open countryside, Israel retains full civil
    and security control.
        Six PA security forces operated in the West Bank. The PA Civil
    Police has primary responsibility for civil and community policing. The
    National Security Force (NSF) conducts gendarmerie-style security
    operations in circumstances that exceed the capabilities of the Civil
    Police. The Military Intelligence agency, a subunit of the NSF, handles
    intelligence and criminal matters involving PA security force
    personnel, including accusations of abuse. The General Intelligence
    service is responsible for external intelligence gathering and
    operations; the Preventive Security Organization is responsible for
    these matters internally. The Presidential Guard protects facilities
    and provides dignitary protection. The Civil Defense service provides
    emergency services. PA security services are under the operational
    control of the minister of the interior. Military Intelligence is
    responsible for investigations into allegations of abuse and corruption
    involving PA security forces and can refer cases to court.
        In the Gaza Strip, forces under Hamas control maintained security.
    Press and NGO reports suggested Hamas enforced strict control across
    all sectors of society. Hamas police reportedly facilitated and
    benefited from illegal activity, such as the operation of smuggling
    tunnels.
        Israeli authorities maintained their West Bank security presence
    through the IDF, Shin Bet, the Israeli National Police, and the Border
    Police. Israeli authorities in some instances investigated and punished
    abuse and corruption, but there were several reports of failure to take
    disciplinary action in cases of abuse.
        According to Israeli and Palestinian NGO and press reports, the IDF
    was insufficiently responsive to violence perpetrated by Israeli
    settlers in the West Bank against Palestinians. The Association for
    Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) stated that Israeli security and justice
    officials operating in predominantly Arab East Jerusalem displayed bias
    against Arab residents in investigating incidents involving Arab and
    Israeli actors. Palestinian residents, in several cases, sought to
    press charges against Israeli settlers or their security guards, but
    many complaints went uninvestigated despite the availability of
    evidence. Most complaints filed by Arab residents of East Jerusalem
    were of police misconduct from the Shalem and David police stations,
    which are responsible for Jerusalem's Old City and surrounding Arab
    neighborhoods where some Israeli settlers maintained highly defended
    presences.

        Arrest Procedures and Treatment While in Detention.--PA law
    provides for prompt judicial determination of the legality of
    detention, and this provision was largely--but not uniformly--observed
    in practice. PA law allows police to hold detainees without charge for
    24 hours and with court approval for up to 45 days; it requires that a
    trial must start within six months or the detainee must be released. In
    several reported cases, PA security forces detained persons without
    warrants and without bringing them before judicial authorities within
    the required timeframe; however, PA judicial officials claimed no
    detentions extended beyond the time limit without trial. Bail and
    conditional release were available upon discretion of judicial
    authorities. Authorities generally informed detainees of the charges
    against them, albeit sometimes not until interrogation.
        PA Military Intelligence in a number of cases reportedly exceeded
    its legal authority to investigate other security services' officers
    and detained civilians suspected of ``security offenses'' such as
    terrorist activities. Hamas charged that the PA detained individuals
    during the year solely on the basis of their Hamas affiliation, but the
    PA presented evidence that many of these individuals had been charged
    with criminal offenses under civil or military codes. For example,
    Hamas stated that the PA unnecessarily targeted and in some cases
    carried out wave arrests of Hamas affiliates after PA officers detained
    seven members of an armed Hamas cell in the West Bank suspected of
    killing Israelis in shootings in Hebron and Ramallah on August 31 and
    September 2, respectively. Similarly, on December 9, PA authorities
    arrested 28 suspected Hamas supporters within 24 hours in Hebron,
    Nablus, Bethlehem, Tulkarem, Qalqilia, Salfit, and Jenin.
        As in 2009 the PA sought military judicial review and court orders
    for detaining civilians suspected of terrorist activity. In several
    such cases, the PA disregarded civilian court orders requiring the
    release of these suspects, citing countervailing military court orders.
    In most of these incidents, the PA was unwilling to provide evidence
    required by the civilian court system, and the military courts provided
    a more efficient system to deal with any shortcomings in providing
    evidence.
        There were reports that some PA security forces used
    disproportionate force during arrest operations. The PA General
    Administration for Reform and Rehabilitation Center, under the
    authority of the Ministry of Interior, operated a mechanism for
    reviewing complaints of prisoner abuse.
        In the Gaza Strip, Hamas reportedly detained a large but
    unverifiable number of persons during the year, largely without
    recourse to legal counsel, judicial review, or bail. Many of these
    detentions were apparently politically based, targeting former PA
    officials, Fatah party members, and those suspected of ties to Israel.
        In one case, on February 15, Hamas detained British journalist Paul
    Martin without charge and held him until March 11. Martin was
    reportedly suspected of espionage but never faced charges. He did not
    appear before a judge to assess the legality of his detention and had
    no access to his lawyer between February 19 and March 1. Reports also
    indicated that neither Martin nor his lawyer had access to the evidence
    that led to his arrest, according to HRW.
        Israeli authorities operate under military and legal codes in the
    occupied territories (see also Israel, section 1.d., Arrest Procedures
    and Treatment While in Detention). By law detainees can be held for up
    to 90 days without access to a lawyer. Israeli authorities stated that
    their policy is to post notification of arrests within 48 hours, but
    senior officers may delay notification for up to 12 days, effectively
    holding detainees incommunicado. A military commander may request that
    a judge extend this period indefinitely.
        Persons detained on security grounds fall under one or more of
    several legal regimes, which allow for the transfer of administrative
    detainees from the West Bank to detention in Israel. As a general
    practice, Arabs without Israeli citizenship detained for security
    violations were not granted bail.
        Several NGOs claimed that Israel continued to overuse the
    administrative detention process in unexceptional and nonsecurity cases
    and as an alternative to standard criminal proceedings, particularly in
    cases where evidence is insufficient or cannot be publicly presented.
    Administrative detainees, according to B'Tselem, were not provided
    sufficient information on the reasons for their detention or the
    charges against them; they were rarely given an opportunity to refute
    the suspicions or access the evidentiary material presented against
    them in court. At year's end, according to B'Tselem, Israel held 204
    Palestinians under ``administrative detention'' without having charged
    them with a crime; this was a decrease from the 278 held at the end of
    2009. A military judge can reportedly issue administrative detention
    orders for up to six months, renewable indefinitely. PCATI alleged
    military commanders in the occupied territories used administrative
    detention orders based on ``security reasons'' even when the accused
    posed no clear danger. On December 26, Israel released a 16-year-old
    known as Moatasem after holding him in administrative detention since
    March 20.
        Throughout the year there were reports that Israeli security forces
    in East Jerusalem and in the West Bank arbitrarily arrested and
    detained Palestinian protesters and activists, particularly those
    participating in antibarrier demonstrations. Israeli authorities
    generally provided Palestinians held in Israeli military custody inside
    Israel access to their lawyers, but impediments to movement on West
    Bank roads or at crossings often made consultation difficult and
    postponed trials and hearings. The Government frequently delayed
    notification to foreign government officials after detaining their
    citizens in the occupied territories.
        During the year the Shin Bet continued its practice of
    incommunicado detention, including isolation from the ICRC, legal
    counsel, and family, throughout the duration of interrogation. There
    were also reports of torture and cruel, inhuman, and degrading
    treatment during interrogation, often to elicit confessions (see
    section 1.c.). The Palestinian human rights organization Addameer
    reported that 39 Palestinians were held incommunicado during the year.
    In a study released in November, PCATI estimated that approximately
    8,000 to 10,000 of the 11,790 Palestinians held by Israeli authorities
    in the West Bank from 2005 and 2007 were for some period of time
    detained incommunicado. According to Physicians for Human Rights-Israel
    (PHR-Israel), isolation of prisoners with mental illness was common
    (see section 6, Persons with Disabilities). According to the Israeli
    government, the Israel Prison Service does not hold detainees in
    separate detention punitively or to induce confessions, but rather only
    when a detainee threatens himself or others and other options have been
    exhausted, or, in some cases, during interrogation to prevent
    disclosing information. In such cases the Israeli government maintained
    that the detainee had the right to meet with representatives of the
    ICRC, Israeli Prison Service personnel, and medical personnel if
    necessary.
        Nevertheless, NGOs reported that the Government constrained access
    to prisoners by the ICRC and other independent groups. On January 21,
    the deputy state attorney denied October 2009 requests from PCATI,
    ACRI, and PHR-Israel for representatives of the Public Defender's
    Office to visit Shin Bet facilities to provide counsel. A study by
    PCATI and the Palestinian Prisoner Society revealed in December that up
    to 90 percent of Palestinians in Shin Bet detention did not have access
    to legal counsel until after signing confessions.
        B'Tselem cited a rise in the rate of Palestinian minors arrested
    and detained throughout the year in East Jerusalem, particularly in
    Silwan, in violation of Israel's youth law, which prohibits arrest or
    interrogation of minors after nightfall. NGO reports claimed that
    Israeli authorities routinely arrested minors at checkpoints, on the
    street, at night, and in early morning house raids, and transferred
    them to one of eight detention facilities for interrogation. In
    particular B'Tselem reported lack of parental presence at
    interrogation, as is permitted by law. In most cases authorities
    reportedly failed to inform parents where their children would be
    taken. According to DCI-Palestine, authorities also tortured and abused
    minors to coerce confessions (see section 1.c.).

        e. Denial of Fair Public Trial.--The 2002 Palestinian Basic Law,
    amended in 2005, provides for an independent judiciary. In practice the
    PA generally respected judicial independence and the autonomy of the
    High Judicial Council, maintained authority over most court operations
    in the West Bank. PA courts operated more efficiently than in previous
    years, demonstrating improvements in several procedural capacities,
    including case management, organization, transparency, evidence
    collection, and recordkeeping. Case backlogs were largely related to
    restrictions on movement imposed by Israeli authorities (see section
    2.d.). Additionally, PA-affiliated prosecutors and judges stated that
    these prohibitions hampered their ability to dispense justice,
    including restrictions on their ability to transport detainees and
    collect witnesses. The PA increased financial allocations to the courts
    to fund additional court administrative staff, in response to an
    existing lack of personnel. Efforts to expand reforms continued at
    year's end. In some cases involving investigations by PA intelligence
    services in the West Bank, civilian defendants appeared before the PA's
    military court system, which has jurisdiction over security personnel
    and crimes by civilians against security forces. Palestinian NGOs
    criticized the practice of trying civilian defendants in military
    courts, while the PA defended the practice based on the security nature
    of the crimes involved.
        In 2007 Hamas appointees replaced PA-appointed prosecutors and
    judges in the Gaza Strip. The PA declared the action illegal; however,
    courts operated by Hamas appointees continued functioning in the Gaza
    Strip throughout the year.
        Israeli law provides for an independent judiciary, and the
    Government generally respected civil court independence in practice.
    The IDF tried Palestinians accused of security offenses (ranging from
    rock throwing to membership in a terrorist organization to incitement)
    in military courts. Israeli law defines security offenses to include a
    variety of different charges. Israeli military courts rarely acquitted
    Palestinians charged with security offenses; sentences occasionally
    were reduced on appeal. Israeli civil law applied to Palestinian
    residents of East Jerusalem, and Israeli civil courts generally tended
    to rule against Palestinians.
        Several NGOs claimed that Israeli military courts, which processed
    approximately 7,000 Palestinians in the West Bank during the year, were
    not equipped to adjudicate each case properly. In a 2007 study, the
    Israeli NGO Yesh Din stated that plea bargains had largely replaced
    full legal proceedings. In a sampling of 118 detention hearings
    observed, of both minors and adults, the average hearing lasted three
    minutes and four seconds. Of the 9,123 detention hearings for
    Palestinians in 2006, only 23 hearings, approximately 0.29 percent,
    resulted in the defendant being found not guilty. DCI-Palestine, which
    represented several hundred Palestinian minors each year in Israeli
    military courts, claimed Israeli military justice officials had made
    only negligible improvements since 2006.

        Trial Procedures.--PA law provides for the right to a fair trial,
    and an independent judiciary generally enforced this right. Defendants
    enjoy a presumption of innocence. Juries are not used. Trials are
    public, except when the court determines privacy is required by PA
    security, foreign relations, a party's or witness's right to privacy,
    or protection of a victim of a sexual offense or an ``honor'' crime.
    Defendants have the right to be present and to consult with an attorney
    in a timely matter during the trial, although during the investigation
    phase, the defendant only has the right to observe. The law provides
    for legal representation, at public expense if needed, in felony cases,
    but only during the trial phase. Defendants can confront or question
    witnesses against them or present witnesses and evidence during the
    trial, but not during the investigation phase; defendants may also
    review government-held evidence and have the right to appeal.
    Authorities generally observed these rights in practice.
        Hamas authorities in the Gaza Strip follow the same criminal
    procedure law as the PA in the West Bank. However, Hamas does not use
    the same penal code as the PA in the West Bank, following instead the
    1936 penal code enacted by the British during the mandate period.
        Palestinians held by Israeli authorities in the West Bank or in
    Israel were subject to trial in Israeli military courts. Israelis
    living in settlements in the West Bank and in East Jerusalem were tried
    under Israeli civil law in the nearest Israeli district court.
        Signed confessions by Palestinian minors, which were written in
    Hebrew, a language most cannot read, constituted a source of evidence
    against minors prosecuted in Israeli military courts. Every Palestinian
    minor prosecuted in Israeli military courts during the year pleaded
    guilty; lawyers stated they were often reluctant to run full
    evidentiary hearings for fear the minor would remain longer in
    detention.
        According to HRW the August conviction of Abdullah Abu Rahmah,
    charged in relation to antibarrier protests in 2005 and 2009, did not
    specify particular events related to the charges against him and relied
    on statements in Hebrew signed by children unable to read the language
    that were later retracted. A court validated Abdullah Abu Rahmah's
    allegations of unfair trial and lack of proper investigation but
    acquitted him only partially (see section 2.b.).

        Political Prisoners and Detainees.--The PA during the year tried
    approximately 10 cases in which Palestinians were accused of
    collaborating with Israel. Following a Supreme Court ruling that found
    military court prosecution of civilians illegal, an unknown number of
    cases were transferred to governorate authorities during the year.
    Independent reports claimed that a variety of these cases may have
    included political prisoners. There were no statistics available on the
    number of political prisoners and detainees the PA may have held during
    the year.
        Hamas detained several hundred persons, allegedly because of their
    political affiliation, and held them for varying periods of time.
    Numerous allegations of denial of due process and some executions were
    associated with these detentions.
        There was no information at year's end about access to political
    prisoners by international humanitarian organizations.
        In two politically motivated events on April 12, Fatah stated that
    Hamas security forces raided the home of Fatah Revolutionary Council
    member Abdullah Abu Samhadana and later arrested Fatah official Ibrahim
    at-Tahrawi.
        Israel held noncitizen Palestinians in detention in Israel and in
    prisons in the West Bank. On March 28, the High Court of Justice
    rejected an NGO petition that called for a cessation of Palestinian
    prisoner and detainee transfers to Israeli territory inside the Green
    Line and an end to the use of military courts in such cases. PA
    officials claimed that at year's end there were 130 Palestinians held
    inside Israel serving sentences of at least 20 years--most were
    political and security prisoners.
        Ten Palestinians held by Israel were members of the PLC.
        On March 19, Israeli authorities arrested and held in
    administrative detention Hamas-affiliated PLC members Nezar Ramadan and
    Azzam Salhab; they were released without trial or charges on September
    8, according to Addameer.
        On October 18, Israeli soldiers arrested PLC member Hatem Qafisha,
    affiliated with Hamas via the ``Reform and Change Movement'' (Hamas'
    electoral campaign platform, see Section 3). Previously, authorities
    arrested Qafisha in 2007 and held him in administrative detention
    without charges or trial until November 2009. There were reports that
    he faced six months of administrative detention.
        On December 30, Israeli authorities rearrested Hamas politician
    Khalil al-Rabai in his Hebron home; al-Rabai previously served a three-
    year prison term ending in 2009.

        Civil Judicial Procedures and Remedies.--The PA civil and
    magistrate courts handled civil suits and were able to provide an
    independent and impartial judiciary in most matters. However, there
    were unconfirmed reports of various factions trying to influence
    judicial decisions. A citizen can file a suit against the Government,
    including on matters related to alleged abuses of human rights, but
    this was uncommon. There are administrative remedies available in
    addition to judicial remedies, but they were seldom used. The execution
    of court orders was not systematic.
        Gaza Strip residents may file civil suits, including those related
    to human rights violations. Unofficial anecdotal reports claimed that
    Gaza Strip courts operated independently of the Hamas government and
    were, at times, impartial. There were reports that enforcement of court
    orders improved.
        Israeli law permits Palestinians residing in the occupied
    territories to seek compensation for death, injury, or property damage
    at the hands of the IDF, but a 2002 law denies Palestinians the
    possibility of obtaining compensation in most cases for human rights
    abuses or injuries resulting from illegal acts by Israeli security
    forces. Amendments in 2005, which the High Court in 2006 partially
    overturned, added obstacles to Palestinian plaintiffs seeking
    compensation.

        Property Restitution.--When the IDF offered opportunities for
    compensation for demolished or seized homes, subject to an appraisal,
    verification, and appeals process, Palestinians generally refused,
    citing a desire not to legalize the confiscation. Due to documentation
    dating from the Ottoman period, a traditional land tenure system with
    communal, family, and individual rights commingled. According to
    Israeli-imposed definitions of land ownership, Palestinians had
    difficulty verifying ownership in Israeli courts (see section 1.f.).

        f. Arbitrary Interference With Privacy, Family, Home, or
    Correspondence.--The PA required the attorney general to issue warrants
    for entry and searches of private property; however, Palestinian
    security services often ignored these requirements.
        Palestinian civilians targeted Israeli setters' properties. For
    example, on August 22, according to Israeli settlers in Shilo,
    Palestinians burned approximately 13 acres of settler-owned vineyards.
        Hamas authorities in the Gaza Strip frequently interfered
    arbitrarily with personal privacy, family, and home, according to
    reporting from local media and NGO sources.
        There were no reports that Israeli security monitored private
    communications or movement of individuals without legal process. Under
    occupation orders only IDF officers of lieutenant colonel rank and
    above could authorize entry into Palestinian private homes and
    institutions in the West Bank without a warrant, based upon military
    necessity. There were no reported cases of IDF soldiers punished for
    acting contrary to this requirement.
        In the West Bank, Israel continued to demolish homes, other
    buildings, and other property constructed by Palestinians in areas of
    the West Bank under Israeli civil control on the basis that these
    buildings lacked Israeli planning licenses. Compensation was generally
    not offered in these cases. Properties 328 yards from the separation
    barrier or IDF military installations also remained subject to
    demolition or confiscation. There were 141 demolitions during the year.
    B'Tselem reported in July that more than 20 percent of the settlements'
    built-up areas rested on areas that Israel recognized as private
    Palestinian land. Exceptions to the November 2009 moratorium (which
    expired in September) on new residential settlement construction
    occurred on a case-by-case basis for projects with preexisting
    foundations and for public construction such as schools and
    infrastructure.
        During the year Israeli authorities demolished 113 houses and 240
    other commercial or community-use structures in ``Area C,'' which is
    under the full jurisdiction of Israeli civil and military authority.
    The demolitions affected 13,847 persons, including 7,777 children. This
    was a significant increase from the 191 demolitions in 2009, which
    affected 572 persons, including 332 children, according to UNOCHA. Many
    of these demolitions occurred in Bedouin and herder communities in the
    Tubas Governorate, where Israeli policies largely prohibit Palestinian
    construction.
        In March IDF personnel leveled several acres of Palestinian
    farmland in the West Bank village of Beit Jala to continue construction
    of the separation barrier, in some cases clearing land within feet of
    existing residential structures, according to NGO reporting. Lawyers
    representing several of the affected families stated that the IDF did
    not have valid orders and that the families did not have an opportunity
    to appeal the confiscations legally. A Palestinian family in the
    Bethlehem area whose property straddled the Jerusalem municipal
    boundary was encircled with fencing and concertina wire by the IDF; the
    family was allowed limited access in and out of the residence.
        On July 19, IDF personnel demolished more than 70 structures in the
    small farming village of al-Farisiya in the Jordan Valley; the action
    displaced 113 persons, approximately half of whom were children,
    according to NGO and media reports. Residents reported the village was
    designated a ``closed military zone,'' although military activity was
    not observed during the year. IDF troops returned on August 5 and
    demolished rebuilt structures.
        On October 12, the IDF confiscated 250 acres of Palestinian-owned
    land in the West Bank village of Jaloud, near the Israeli settlement of
    Eli, for military purposes. This order followed a series of incidents
    on October 10-13 in which the IDF, as well as Israeli settlers,
    separately bulldozed what residents claimed was Palestinian-owned land
    in the vicinity of existing Israeli settlements.
        In East Jerusalem home demolitions decreased significantly compared
    with 2009, although the Jerusalem Municipality demolished twice as many
    nonresidential structures (54 during the year, compared with 23 in
    2009), often affecting private family businesses. The Jerusalem
    Municipality demolished 24 homes in East Jerusalem that it stated were
    built without municipal permits, compared with 57 in 2009, although
    seven additional homes were demolished during the year by their owners
    after receiving a demolition notice to avoid being charged by the
    municipality for the cost of demolition.
        Construction did not begin at the site of the historic Shepherd
    Hotel in East Jerusalem, although municipal authorities issued
    construction permits for the site in March. In July 2009 the Jerusalem
    Municipality approved plans to construct two apartment buildings on the
    site of the hotel, owned by the Palestinian Husseini family from 1945
    to 1967; it was confiscated as absentee property by the Government of
    Israel in 1967 and privately purchased in the 1980s.
        In 2009 the court ruled against two Palestinian families living in
    the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Shaykh Jarrah and ordered evictions
    for the Hanoun and al-Ghawi families, affecting 53 persons, including
    20 children. The Nakhalat Shimon group took control of the properties
    and submitted plans to demolish approximately 28 homes to make way for
    a new Israeli settlement, according to UNOCHA.
        In the Gaza Strip, B'Tselem reported that Israeli authorities
    destroyed 12 homes for alleged military purposes, displacing 38
    persons. The Israeli blockade on the Gaza Strip also inhibited all mail
    delivery and importation of construction supplies.
        There were reports that East Jerusalem municipal authorities
    invaded Arab residents' privacy. According to ACRI some security
    cameras positioned in Arab neighborhoods pointed directly inside homes.
    Palestinian residents in East Jerusalem and the West Bank also claimed
    Israeli settlers and security guards often arbitrarily videotaped them
    in public.
        Israeli settlers reportedly continued to confiscate and vandalize
    Palestinian property during the year. As in previous years, violence
    and vandalism occurred during the autumn olive harvest, prompting
    disputes over land. By October 25, Israeli authorities had recorded 27
    official complaints about settler theft of olives from Palestinian
    trees. Israeli human rights organizations stated that the olive-harvest
    incidents indicated a new trend of disruptive activity by settlers
    towards Palestinians in the West Bank. Rabbis for Human Rights reported
    that approximately 600 trees were harvested near the Havat Gilad
    settlement before being harvested by their Palestinian owners. The ICRC
    reported in February that settlers had cut down, burned, or uprooted
    approximately 10,000 olive trees since 2008. There were no known
    investigations into the incidents. Affected Palestinians and human
    rights NGOs reported that the IDF was largely unresponsive to actions
    against Palestinians in the West Bank. The Israeli NGO Yesh Din
    reported in October that more than 90 percent of investigations into
    offenses against Palestinians carried out by Israeli settlers in the
    West Bank were unsuccessful. Yesh Din monitored 97 complaints filed
    against Israeli settlers for damage caused to Palestinian-owned trees;
    police closed every case due to unidentifiable perpetrators or
    insufficient evidence. Although IDF and Palestinian officials took
    steps for the first time to mitigate olive-harvest violence, in some
    instances Israeli security authorities reportedly prevented Palestinian
    farmers from accessing their land to harvest the crop.
        On August 17, according to residents of the West Bank village of
    Qusra, Israeli settlers from newly established settlement outposts
    attacked Palestinian olive groves, causing damage to hundreds of trees.
        In incidents throughout September and October, Israeli settlers in
    Shilo and Ariel confiscated farmland and cut down hundreds of
    Palestinian-owned olive trees, prompting retaliations by Palestinians,
    who reportedly cut down more than 100 settler olive trees, according to
    both NGO and media reporting.
        In September Israeli settlers harvested olives from Palestinian
    olive trees near Nablus and Qalqiliya, several weeks ahead of the
    traditional harvest season.
        Settlers also exploited religious tensions to harass Palestinian
    villages by vandalizing, breaking into, or burning at least three
    mosques. These incidents aimed to accomplish political ends, such as
    warning Israeli officials against supporting policies that limit
    settlers' presence in the West Bank, in a policy the settlers publicly
    referred to as ``price tag.''

    Section 2. Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:
        a. Freedom of Speech and Press.--The PA Basic Law provides every
    person the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and expression,
    orally, in writing, or through any other form. The PA does not have
    laws specifically providing for freedom of press; however, PA
    institutions applied aspects of an unratified 1995 press law as de
    facto law. In practice, however, the PA security forces in the West
    Bank and members of the Hamas security apparatus in the Gaza Strip
    continued to restrict freedom of speech and press. Self-censorship
    continued as a result of political and social pressures.
        Although there is no PA law prohibiting criticism of the
    Government, there were reports that the Government was not fully
    tolerant of criticism. The PA prohibits calls for violence, displays of
    arms, and racist slogans but rarely enforced these provisions.
        Across the occupied territories, three Palestinian daily and
    several weekly newspapers, several monthly magazines, and three
    tabloids were published. There were approximately 25 television and 65
    radio stations; the PA operated one of each. Since 2008 several
    factional satellite stations opened, including the pro-Hamas al-Quds,
    established in 2008. Violence between Hamas and Fatah resulted in
    polarization of the Palestinian press. International news outlets
    continued to maintain offices and stringers in the Gaza Strip.
        During the year the PA ministries of information, interior, and
    telecommunications established and enforced the registration and
    licensing of local Palestinian television and radio stations.
    Registration fees ranged from 3,500 to 25,000 Jordanian dinars
    (approximately $5,000 to $35,000). During the year a number of smaller
    local radio and television stations were forced to close, at least
    temporarily, as they raised funds to cover the registration and annual
    licensing fees.
        PA security forces reportedly harassed, detained, and prosecuted
    journalists several times during the year due to their reporting. In
    the West Bank, PA security forces raided the offices of several
    independent media outlets suspected of filming local demonstrations.
    They confiscated videotapes and briefly detained several journalists
    working for Gaza-based media. PA security services reportedly
    threatened pro-Hamas journalists working in the West Bank and West
    Bank-based journalists working for the Gaza-based outlets.
        On May 11, PA intelligence services arrested Amer Abu Arfa, a
    correspondent of the Gaza-based Shihab news agency, in connection with
    his reporting. In June a PA court in Hebron sentenced him to three
    months in prison and a fine of 500 Jordanian dinars ($700) for
    ``resisting the policies of the authorities.'' According to the
    Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), the PA considered the Shihab
    news agency pro-Hamas.
        On July 17, PA security forces raided the offices of the
    independent Watan television, reportedly because the outlet filmed a
    demonstration by the pan-Islamic political organization Hizb al-Tahrir.
        In January, according to the CPJ, a PA military court sentenced
    Tareq Abu Zaid, a reporter for the Gaza-based al-Aqsa satellite
    channel, to 18 months in prison for allegedly ``transferring
    information and money.'' The Palestinian Center for Development and
    Media Freedoms (MADA) and the International Freedom of Expression
    Exchange (IFEX) reported that Abu Zaid was arrested in November 2009
    because of his work as a correspondent for al-Aqsa television. On
    November 14, according to IFEX, PA authorities released Abu Zaid. The
    PA banned the Hamas-affiliated al-Aqsa television in 2007; however,
    since it is a satellite station, Palestinians living outside the Gaza
    Strip maintained access to it.
        The PA maintained a distribution ban in the West Bank on the twice-
    weekly pro-Hamas al-Risala and the Filistin daily, both Gaza-based
    publications.
        For the first time in 10 years, the Palestinian Journalists
    Syndicate, a membership-based union representing the majority of
    Palestinian journalists based in East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and the
    Gaza Strip, with more than 400 journalists, held an election. The
    syndicate's new leadership laid out a detailed agenda of reforms,
    including the establishment and adoption of a set of bylaws and the
    development of ties with international organizations dedicated to the
    protection and promotion of journalists' rights.
        In the Gaza Strip, individuals publicly criticizing authorities
    risked reprisal by Hamas. On December 5, Hamas internal security forces
    dispersed a peace protest in which participants were criticizing the
    Government. In January 2009, according to HRW, an unidentified man
    criticized a Hamas leader in a conversation on the street. That
    evening, he stated, more than a dozen armed men with black masks took
    him from his home and shot him three times in the lower legs and
    ankles.
        Since 2007 only pro-Hamas broadcast media and the Voice of the
    People, a radio outlet affiliated with the terrorist organization
    Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, operated in the Gaza
    Strip. Hamas maintained the closure of all Fatah-affiliated television
    and radio broadcast outlets in the Gaza Strip. The Fatah-allied
    Palestinian television and Voice of Palestine radio continued operating
    in Ramallah after relocating there from the Gaza Strip in 2007. Two
    other Fatah-affiliated radio stations in the Gaza Strip, al-Hurriyah
    and al-Shabab, remained off the air during the year.
        Journalists faced arrest, harassment, and other pressure from Hamas
    due to their reporting or political affiliation (see also section 1.d.,
    Arrest Procedures and Treatment While in Detention). Hamas constrained
    journalists' freedom of movement during the year, banning access to
    Rafah and hospitals in the Gaza Strip. On several occasions during the
    year, according to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human
    Rights, Hamas detained journalists from independent and Fatah-
    affiliated outlets.
        On August 14, Hamas raided the Gaza City Reuters office, following
    Reuters reporting about a violent Hamas-Salafist incident in Rafah.
        On November 10, Hamas representatives raided the Ramattan News
    Agency to stop a press conference hosted by the Palestinian National
    Action Committee.
        On December 13, Hamas authorities detained and questioned Ziad
    Ismail Awad, a contributor to the Kuwaiti television channel Wasl and
    the office director at the Fatah parliamentary bloc in the Gaza Strip.
    According to MADA, Awad stated that he was questioned about producing a
    television program depicting Palestinian suffering in the Gaza Strip
    and about his connections to the PLC. He was released that evening but
    reported poor treatment in detention.
        During the year Hamas continued to ban distribution of the PA's
    official daily, al-Hayat al-Jadida, in the Gaza Strip. On July 6, local
    Palestinian media reported that Israeli authorities agreed to allow the
    distribution of Palestinian newspapers into the Gaza Strip starting the
    following day. The purported change in policy represented the first
    time since February 2009 that Israel agreed to allow Palestinian
    newspapers to enter the Gaza Strip. The following day, despite the
    well-publicized announcement, Israeli authorities at the border
    crossing refused to allow the newspapers to enter the Gaza Strip. Both
    Hamas and Israeli authorities claimed that the other prevented
    circulation of the dailies.
        Israeli authorities placed limits on certain forms of expression in
    the occupied territories. For instance, in East Jerusalem, displays of
    Palestinian political symbols were punishable by fines or imprisonment,
    as were public expressions of anti-Israeli sentiment and of support for
    terrorist groups. Authorities reviewed Arabic publications for material
    perceived as a security threat; this review pertained to all Jerusalem-
    based publications, but al-Quds was the only newspaper in the occupied
    territories subjected to regular Israeli censorship.
        As a general rule, Israeli media were able to cover the occupied
    territories, except for combat zones where the IDF temporarily
    restricted access, but closures, curfews, and checkpoints limited the
    ability of Palestinian and foreign journalists to do their jobs (see
    section 2.d.). Israel revoked the press credentials of the majority of
    Palestinian journalists during the Second Intifada in 2000, with the
    exception of a few Palestinian journalists who worked as stringers for
    prominent international media outlets. As a result most Palestinian
    journalists were unable to cover stories outside the Palestinian-
    controlled areas of the West Bank.
        There were reports of Israeli authorities detaining or assaulting
    journalists during the year.
        On January 12, Israeli authorities detained and later deported
    Jared Malsin, editor in chief of the English-language section of the
    independent Bethlehem-based Ma'an News Agency. The CPJ reported that
    interrogation transcripts indicated Malsin was deemed a security risk
    because of his political beliefs and reporting.
        On January 28, Israeli forces reportedly assaulted a group of
    Palestinian journalists covering olive tree planting in the West Bank
    village of Burin. According to reports by MADA and the CPJ, soldiers
    informed the journalists that photographs were prohibited because the
    area is a closed military zone. When the reporters refused to stop
    taking photographs, the soldiers hit the reporters and attempted to
    seize their cameras before employing tear gas and stun grenades.
    According to MADA, there was no investigation or prosecution as a
    result of the incident.
        On April 30, the IDF prevented al-Jazeera from covering an
    antibarrier demonstration in Bil'in. Security forces arrested al
    Jazeera camera operator Maidi Bannoura and his assistant Nader Abu Zer,
    according to media reports. According to al-Jazeera, no investigation
    or prosecution took place as a result of the incident.

        Internet Freedom.--According to a report issued by the Palestinian
    Central Bureau of Statistics in 2009, 32.3 percent of Palestinians had
    access to the Internet. There were no PA restrictions on access to the
    Internet or reports that the PA monitored e-mail or Internet chat
    rooms. Individuals and groups could engage in the peaceful expression
    of views via the Internet, including by e-mail.
        On October 31, PA authorities arrested Walid Husayin, a 26-year-old
    barber from Qalqilya, and charged him with insulting Islam after he
    posted provocative comments about atheism on his blog and on social
    media. At year's end he had not been granted a trial and remained in
    prison.
        Hamas did not restrict Internet access; however, based on anecdotal
    reports from Palestinian civil society organizations and social media
    practitioners, Hamas authorities monitored Internet activities and
    postings of Gaza Strip residents. Individuals posting negative reports
    or commentary about Hamas, its policies, or affiliated organizations
    faced questioning and were at times required to remove or modify online
    postings. No information was available regarding punishment for not
    complying with such demands.
        In June Hamas authorities arrested Sri Mohammed Qudwah, the editor
    of the online al-Sabah newspaper, and confiscated his equipment,
    according to Freedom House.
        Israeli authorities did not restrict access to the Internet;
    however, they monitored some Internet activity. In March 2009 the IDF
    central military censor began to monitor blogs, and there was at least
    one report that the IDF monitored Internet chat rooms during the year.
        On March 20, the IDF reportedly arrested Moatasem Nazzal, a 16-
    year-old from Qalandiya refugee camp, in his home and held him in
    administrative detention, which was renewed twice. During interrogation
    the IDF allegedly asked Nazzal about his Internet friendship with a
    Gaza Strip resident, whom he met in an Internet chat room.

        Academic Freedom and Cultural Events.--In the West Bank, the PA did
    not place restrictions on academic freedom or cultural events. During
    the year Palestinian authorities did not interfere with education;
    however, restrictions on movement adversely affected academic
    institutions in the West Bank, and violence affected them in the Gaza
    Strip (see section 2.b.).
        In the Gaza Strip, Hamas and other groups sought to disrupt UN-run
    academic programs that did not teach a strict interpretation of Islam.
    Twenty-five masked men of unknown affiliation burned and vandalized a
    UN summer camp on June 27; the perpetrators accused the UN of
    corrupting Gazan youth with a summer program of human rights studies,
    games, and sports.
        Israeli authorities generally did not permit students from the Gaza
    Strip to attend West Bank universities. On July 7, the Israeli High
    Court rejected a petition submitted by the Israeli NGO Gisha and the
    Palestinian NGO al-Mezan on behalf of Fatma Sharif, a human rights
    lawyer in the Gaza Strip, who had been accepted into a master's degree
    program in human rights and democracy studies at Bir Zeit University in
    the West Bank, explaining that it would not intervene with the existing
    policy.
        However, in August the Israeli coordinator of government activities
    in the occupied territories granted three Gazans short-term renewable
    permits to pursue their undergraduate studies in the West Bank.

        b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association.--Freedom of
    Assembly.--Palestinian law permits public meetings, processions, and
    assemblies within legal limits. It requires permits for rallies,
    demonstrations, and large cultural events, and authorities rarely
    denied them. However, there was at least one example of PA forces
    disrupting a meeting during the year.
        On August 25, according to several NGO and political activists, PA
    security officials disrupted a meeting of political activists and
    members of civil society organizations who were discussing Palestinian
    negotiations with Israel. NGOs and press reports claimed that
    plainclothes officers disrupted the event and initiated small
    altercations with the activists. On August 30, PA Prime Minister Fayyad
    issued a public apology for the disruption of the event; on September
    1, the organizers of the original conference staged a public rally
    without incident.
        Following the 2007 Fatah-Hamas clashes in the Gaza Strip, Hamas
    banned rallies and impeded freedom of assembly for Fatah members. In
    2008 Hamas decreed that any public assembly or celebration in the Gaza
    Strip required prior permission, in contradiction to the PA basic law.
        From the beginning of the year, according to B'Tselem reports, the
    IDF implemented for the first time since the Oslo peace process, a
    military order that effectively prohibited Palestinian demonstrations
    and limited freedom of speech in the West Bank. The regulations
    stipulate that a gathering of 10 or more persons requires a permit from
    the regional commander of military forces if the event relates to any
    ``political subject'' or might be construed as such. The penalty for a
    breach of the order is 10 years' imprisonment or a heavy fine.
    According to IDF statistics requested by B'Tselem, there was one
    conviction during the year under the order.
        Israeli security forces used force against Palestinians and others
    involved in demonstrations in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, killing
    two West Bank protesters and one antibarrier demonstrator during the
    year. The IDF used force particularly against protests by the Popular
    Resistance Committee against the construction of the separation
    barrier.
        On January 15, the Jerusalem District Police arrested 17
    demonstrators during a nonviolent protest in Jerusalem, including Hagai
    El-Ad, ACRI's executive director. The demonstrators claimed authorities
    detained them for 36 hours, then released them without condition after
    the Jerusalem Magistrate Court ruled that there was no legal cause for
    their arrest. ACRI stated the arrests exemplified what it described as
    a growing trend by the police to disperse demonstrators unlawfully and
    conduct arbitrary arrests to intimidate demonstrators.
        In February the IDF Central Command designated the areas adjacent
    to the separation barrier in the villages of Bil'in and Ni'lin as
    closed military areas every Friday during the hours in which
    Palestinian, Israeli, and international activists regularly
    demonstrated. There were frequent skirmishes between the antibarrier
    protesters and IDF personnel. IDF and Israeli police personnel
    stationed on the far side of the barrier during weekly protests in
    Bil'in and Ni'lin, for instance, responded to rock throwing with tear
    gas, stun grenades, sound bombs, and rubber-coated bullets. During the
    year Israeli forces began using a specially treated water to disperse
    the crowds; sprayed as a mist, it has an overwhelming odor of sewage
    that lasts for days and can induce vomiting. B'Tselem reported that
    Israeli forces also arrested many demonstration organizers, holding
    some of them without charge for periods of up to three weeks, and
    deported some foreign participants. The IDF continued to detain 80
    residents of Bil'in since 2005.
        In December 2009 Israeli authorities arrested Abdullah Abu Rahmah
    of the Bil'in Popular Committee and charged him in a military court
    with arms possession, stone throwing, incitement, and illegal assembly.
    In August the court acquitted Abu Rahmah of the charges of arms
    possession and stone throwing but convicted him on charges of
    incitement (defined as ``the attempt, verbally or otherwise, to
    influence public opinion in the area in a way that may disturb the
    public peace or public order'') and illegal assembly. On October 11,
    the court sentenced Abu Rahmah to one year in prison including time
    served, setting a release date of November 18. The military prosecutor
    appealed Abu Rahmah's sentence prior to his release date, asking that
    his release be delayed ``to serve as a deterrent not only to [Abu
    Rahmah] himself, but also to others who may follow in his footsteps.''
    The court increased Abu Rahmah's sentence to 16 months. Several NGOs
    estimated that the strict sentence was also an attempt by Israeli
    authorities to intimidate Palestinian protesters.
        During the year Israeli authorities also arrested demonstrators
    protesting land ownership decisions, particularly in the East Jerusalem
    neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah. On March 4, the Israeli High Court of
    Justice ruled that police in Jerusalem had been overly restrictive in
    barring protests near contested properties in the Sheikh Jarrah area;
    the ruling temporarily prompted increased turnout at the weekly
    protests.

        Freedom of Association.--In the West Bank, the PA law allowed for
    freedom of association, but it was sometimes limited in practice.
        In the Gaza Strip, Hamas attempted to prevent various organizations
    from operating. On October 12, security forces reportedly closed the
    Gaza headquarters of the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate without
    prior notification or explanation. In November Hamas blocked a
    conciliatory International Federation of Journalists meeting that aimed
    to connect West Bank and Gaza journalists.
        In July 2009 Hamas closed at least 45 NGO offices. Most of the NGOs
    were Fatah-affiliated, but a number were politically independent.
        Israel maintained prohibitions on at least seven prominent East
    Jerusalem-based Palestinian institutions--the Orient House, the de
    facto PLO office in Jerusalem, the East Jerusalem Chamber of Commerce,
    the Higher Arab Council for Tourism, the Palestine Research Center, the
    Palestinian Prisoners Club, and the Social Research Office--claiming
    that the groups violated the Oslo Accords by operating on behalf of the
    PA in Jerusalem.
        On January 11, IDF and Israeli immigration officials entered
    Ramallah and arrested a Czech activist with the International
    Solidarity Movement (ISM), later deporting her on the basis that she
    lacked a valid Israeli visa. On February 7, according to local press
    reports, Israeli officials detained two foreign ISM activists; both
    were released on February 8 following their agreement not to reenter
    the West Bank. The ISM's stated purpose is to strengthen Palestinian
    popular resistance to the Israeli occupation through ``direct-action''
    methods, such as demonstrations and protests.

        c. Freedom of Religion.--For a complete description of religious
    freedom, please see the 2010 International Religious Freedom Report at
    www.state.gov/g/drl/irf/rpt.

        d. Freedom of Movement, Internally Displaced Persons, Protection of
    Refugees, and Stateless Persons.--The Basic Law provides for freedom of
    movement, and the PA generally did not restrict freedom of movement.
    The Basic Law does not specify regulations regarding foreign travel,
    emigration, or repatriation.
        Hamas authorities in the Gaza Strip enforced movement restrictions
    on Gazans attempting to exit to Israel via the Erez Crossing and
    maintained more relaxed restrictions on transfer to Egypt via the Rafah
    Crossing; Hamas authorities did not appear to enforce routine
    restrictions on internal movement within the Gaza Strip, although there
    were some ``no go'' areas to which Hamas prohibited access.
        The PA, Hamas, and Israel governments generally cooperated with the
    Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and other humanitarian
    organizations in providing protection and assistance to internally
    displaced persons and refugees, although the ability of the UN Relief
    and Works Agency (UNRWA) to operate freely in Gaza was constrained by
    both Hamas and Israeli officials.
        The IDF restricted Palestinians' movement within the occupied
    territories and for foreign travel, and it heightened these
    restrictions at times, citing military necessity. Barriers to movement
    included checkpoints, a separation barrier between the West Bank and
    Israel, internal road closures, and a blockade on the Gaza Strip.
    Restrictions on movement affected virtually all aspects of life,
    including access to places of worship, employment, agricultural lands,
    schools, hospitals, and the conduct of journalism, humanitarian, and
    NGO activities. During the year the IDF relaxed restrictions at several
    checkpoints and roads that previously posed significant barriers to
    movement by Palestinian populations between the West Bank and urban
    centers. Nevertheless, according to UNOCHA, as of June there were 505
    obstacles to movement inside the West Bank, identified as follows: 66
    fully manned checkpoints, 20 occasionally manned checkpoints, 106 road
    gates, 167 earth mounds, 46 road barriers, 70 roadblocks, 20 earth
    walls, and 10 trenches.
        According to UNOCHA, the Israeli government largely halted the
    remaining planned construction of a separation barrier along parts of
    the Green Line (the 1949 Armistice line) and in the West Bank, mostly
    due to a lack of political will and an overall increase in security. If
    completed, the barrier would separate approximately 9.5 percent of the
    West Bank (135,000 acres inhabited by up to 50,000 Palestinians),
    including parts of Jerusalem, from the rest of the West Bank territory
    in a ``seam zone.'' Israel continued to restrict movement and
    development within this area, including access by some international
    organizations. During the year approximately 34 of the checkpoints
    along the separation barrier were restricted to Israelis and
    Palestinians with permits. Palestinians with worker permits were
    required to pass through one of 11 pedestrian crossings. Palestinians
    with permits, those working in international organizations, and
    biometric card holders and their immediate families were able to pass
    in vehicles through any of the crossings. A 2003 petition by the NGO
    HaMoked against the legality of the permit system had not been ruled on
    by year's end, although a 2004 International Criminal Court advisory
    body deemed the barrier contrary to international law.
        Private security companies employed by the Israeli government
    controlled points of access through the barrier, and international
    organizations and local human rights groups claimed these companies did
    not respond to requests to move goods and officials through the
    barrier. The barrier affected the commutes of school children living on
    its eastern side and attending school in Jerusalem. For example,
    students from Bir Nabala, which is surrounded by the barrier, took
    detours of seven to 10 miles to pass through checkpoints to reach
    school. The barrier and the permit system also affected some farmers
    who were separated from land and water resources, which curtailed
    agricultural practice and resulted in deterioration of the harvest
    quality and quantity.
        Operating hours of the accessible gates were limited and erratic,
    although usually announced. Crossing procedures were relaxed at some
    checkpoints to the east of the separation barrier; Israeli authorities
    lifted permit requirements, extended operating hours, and performed
    fewer searches and random documentation checks in comparison with
    previous years, especially during holidays.
        Israeli authorities frequently prohibited travel between some or
    all West Bank towns. Palestinians who lived in affected villages stated
    that such ``internal closures,'' which could last years, had negative
    economic effects. During periods of potential unrest and during major
    Israeli, Jewish, and Muslim holidays, Israeli authorities enacted
    ``comprehensive external closures,'' which precluded Palestinians from
    leaving the West Bank. The IDF also imposed temporary curfews confining
    Palestinians to their homes during arrest operations.
        Although Israeli authorities reopened Route 354 and Route 443, with
    some restrictions to Palestinian traffic, three other roadblocks on
    Route 60 impeded movement for tens of thousands of residents of
    Palestinian villages south of Hebron, cutting direct access for
    businesses to the city's commercial center. Palestinians not resident
    in the Jordan Valley generally were unable to drive on the main north-
    south route, Highway 90.
        The blockade on the Gaza Strip imposed by Israel since 2007
    continued its significant effect on the population in the Gaza Strip,
    according to the UNRWA and other humanitarian and human rights groups.
    The UN estimated that 80 percent of the population of the Gaza Strip
    relied on international food aid during the year. International and
    Israeli human rights organizations described the blockade as
    ``collective punishment'' of the residents of the Gaza Strip, as it
    restricted access to basic goods and prevented civilians from temporary
    travel abroad or changing their place of residence permanently. During
    the year Israel eased the blockade, but with only one open commercial
    crossing, the number of truckloads entering the Gaza Strip each week
    was less than 40 percent of that before the blockade began.
        Israel's strict closure on the Gaza Strip also resulted in the
    cessation of postal services. Humanitarian organizations reported that
    the closure significantly hindered their ability to operate and limited
    opportunities for Gazans to communicate with family and friends outside
    the Gaza Strip.
        The UNRWA operated 228 schools with more than 206,000 students in
    the Gaza Strip, but the agency claimed its capacity was severely
    overstretched by the Israeli blockade and that restrictions on movement
    and access undermined its ability to provide education. UNRWA schools
    in the Gaza Strip ran on a double-shift in ``compressed learning
    periods'' and were severely overcrowded with as many as 50 students per
    classroom. Thousands of students were schooled in makeshift classrooms,
    including one school serving 865 students built entirely from shipping
    containers.
        Essential infrastructure in the Gaza Strip, including water and
    sanitation services, was in a state of severe disrepair due in part to
    an inability to bring in spare parts and components under the blockade.
    The sewage and water systems were frequently inoperable, and as a
    result approximately 21 million gallons of raw or partially treated
    sewage was pumped into the ocean each day, according to the UNRWA.
    Israel prohibited private sector companies from importing cement and
    gravel; entry of these goods was permitted only for specific UN or
    other internationally coordinated projects. As a result Gaza Strip
    residents lacked the necessary supplies to rebuild homes destroyed
    during Operation Cast Lead.
        Personal travel in and out of the Gaza Strip was limited to one
    crossing point and was restricted to humanitarian cases only; however,
    Israeli authorities denied many Gazans access to Israel and Egypt for
    medical treatment and detained some during the year. PHR-Israel claimed
    that, based on security considerations, Israeli authorities did not
    issue medical or humanitarian exit permits to Palestinians in the Gaza
    Strip regardless of professional medical opinions. Israeli authorities
    also rejected requests for Palestinians to exit the Gaza Strip for
    medical treatment due to fears that the patients might emigrate and
    unite with family in the West Bank. On January 11, various NGOs,
    including al-Mezan Center for Human Rights, Adalah Legal Center, and
    PHR-Israel, petitioned the attorney general against the practice of
    detaining patients at the border, but on March 2, the General Security
    Service stated that Israel may legally arrest persons at the border
    seeking medical treatment.
        In March 2009 the Israeli Ministry of Defense released a detailed
    rubric for determining whether a resident of the Gaza Strip may be
    permitted exit and entry under exceptional humanitarian cases. Between
    January and June, Israel refused exit to all of the 1,095 orthopedic
    and neurology patients in need of medical treatment; in June Israeli
    authorities told PHR-Israel that hip and knee replacements did ``not
    meet the criteria `` for issuing exit permits. In January Israel
    prevented 17 patients from going to Ramallah for cornea transplants,
    resulting in the disposal of the donated organs.
        Movement to the West Bank from Gaza was severely restricted to a
    limited number of Palestinians holding Israeli-issued permits. In one
    case, Israeli authorities refused to allow Issam Hamdan, a 40-year-old
    man suffering severe back pain, to enter Israel to receive specialized
    medical care in Jerusalem because Israeli authorities suspected he
    might reunite with his wife and four children in the West Bank. On
    February 9, the NGOs PHR-Israel and Gisha filed a petition before the
    Supreme Court on behalf of Hamdan, prompting Israeli authorities to
    withdraw objection and allow him to seek treatment in Jerusalem.
        On October 16, two-year-old Gazan Nasma Abu Lashee died of
    treatable leukemia while waiting for permission from Israeli
    authorities to receive treatment in Israel.
        Israel continued to enforce restrictions on access to farmland in
    the Gaza Strip near the border with Israel and to fishing areas along
    the coast, with the stated intention of preventing attacks by
    Palestinian armed factions. Israel on average enforced an approximately
    1,000 yard-wide ``buffer zone'' and at times fired warning shots as far
    away as 1,640 yards from the border, according to UNOCHA (see also
    section 1.a.). The ``buffer zone'' encompassed approximately 24 square
    miles, representing 17 percent of the Gaza Strip's total land mass.
    UNOCHA estimated that nearly 35 percent of the Gaza Strip's cultivable
    land was located within the restricted area.
        Eighty percent of the maritime area designated accessible to Gazans
    under the Oslo Accords remained off-limits; the IDF implemented a
    three-nautical-mile-wide limit that was strictly enforced by Israeli
    naval patrol boats. In the northern Gaza Strip, Israel prevented
    Palestinians from accessing a 1.5-nautical-mile-wide strip along the
    maritime boundary with Israel and a one-nautical-mile-wide strip in the
    south, along the maritime boundary with Egypt, as established in the
    1994 Gaza-Jericho Agreement. Israeli naval forces regularly fired
    warning shots at Palestinian fishermen entering the restricted sea
    areas, in some cases directly targeting the fishermen, according to
    UNOCHA. The Israeli military often confiscated fishing boats
    intercepted in these areas and detained the fishermen.
        IDF soldiers at checkpoints sometimes subjected Palestine Red
    Crescent Society (PRCS) ambulances from the West Bank to delays or
    refused entry to Jerusalem, for security reasons. Patients were moved
    across checkpoints from one ambulance to another. The PRCS reported
    violations against its teams and humanitarian services during the year.
    Most incidents (159) included blocking access to those in need,
    preventing their transport to specialized medical centers, or
    maintaining delays on checkpoints for periods ranging from 30 minutes
    to two hours. Most incidents (142) took place on checkpoints leading to
    Jerusalem, while the remainder took place on other checkpoints circling
    the West Bank.
        On April 13, Israeli Military Order 1650 went into effect,
    broadening the definition of ``infiltrator'' in the Prevention of
    Infiltration Law to include anyone who enters the West Bank unlawfully
    or any persons in the West Bank without permits, making them subject to
    criminal charges and potential deportation to the Gaza Strip.
    Palestinians and human rights NGOs expressed concern about whether the
    order legalized the deportation of up to 35,000 Palestinians living in
    the West Bank with registered Gaza Strip addresses. In 2000 Israel
    stopped updating changes in address for Palestinians who moved from the
    Gaza Strip to the West Bank. As a result thousands of Palestinians,
    originally from the Gaza Strip but living in the West Bank for many
    years, continued to hold identity cards with home addresses in the Gaza
    Strip. There were reports that Palestinians were deported to the Gaza
    Strip border on these grounds during the year.
        On April 21, Israeli authorities transferred West Bank resident
    Ahmad Sabbah Said to the Gaza Strip following his release from an
    Israeli prison, where he had served a nine-year sentence on charges for
    offenses committed during the Second Intifada. Several NGOs claimed he
    was transferred immediately, without a judicial review. Authorities
    justified the deportation by his possession of an identity card issued
    in the Gaza Strip, where he lived for one year in the 1990s. Sabbah's
    wife and children remained in the West Bank city of Tulkarem.
        On April 27, the Israeli government expelled 19-year-old Hebron
    resident Fadi Aiada al-Azazma to the Gaza Strip. According to HaMoked,
    al-Azazma was taken into custody from his workplace and transferred to
    the Gaza Strip hours later, without a judicial review. Al-Azazma was
    born in the Gaza Strip but moved to the West Bank with his family when
    he was seven years old.
        Israeli authorities delivered both deportees to the Erez crossing
    point at the northern end of the Gaza Strip. According to press
    reports, Hamas refused to allow either Sabbah or al-Azazma to pass
    through a checkpoint inside the border so as not to ``legitimize''
    Israel's removal of Gazan identity card holders from the West Bank.
    Both remained in a tent for more than one month in the area between the
    Israeli and Hamas positions; however, both were living in the Gaza
    Strip at year's end, according to reports.
        The IDF since 2000 restricted Gazan students from studying in the
    West Bank or Israel and limited West Bank Palestinians from university
    study in East Jerusalem and Israel (see section 2.a.). During the year
    students were allowed to leave the Gaza Strip only when escorted by
    foreign diplomats or contractors of the country accepting them for
    study. Some students from the Gaza Strip accepted for university study
    abroad were unable to apply for visas in Jerusalem and were therefore
    prevented from leaving for further education abroad.
        The PA issued passports for Palestinians in the West Bank and the
    Gaza Strip. Because there were no commercial flights from the occupied
    territories, and permits to use Ben Gurion airport were not available,
    travelers departed by land to Jordan or Egypt. Foreign citizens of
    Palestinian ethnicity had difficulty obtaining or renewing visas
    permitting them to enter Israel from either Ben Gurion airport or land
    entry points.
        Palestinians possessing Jerusalem identity cards issued by the
    Israeli government needed special documents to travel abroad. Upon the
    individual request of Palestinians, the Jordanian government issued
    them passports.
        Residency restrictions affected family reunification, as it did not
    qualify as a reason to enter the West Bank. For any child, access to a
    parent in the West Bank was permitted only if no other relative was
    resident in the Gaza Strip. Israeli authorities did not permit
    Palestinians who were abroad during the 1967 War, or whose residence
    permits the Government subsequently withdrew, to reside permanently in
    the occupied territories. It was difficult for foreign-born spouses and
    children of Palestinians to obtain residency. Palestinian spouses of
    Jerusalem residents were required to obtain a residency permit and
    reported delays of several years in obtaining them. Palestinians in
    Jerusalem also reported delays in registering newborn children.
        The PA basic law prohibits forced exile, and the PA did not use
    forced exile.
        In practice Israeli revocations of Jerusalem identity cards
    amounted to forced exile to the occupied territories or abroad and have
    continued in recent years. There were no statistics on residency
    revocations available at year's end. According to HaMoked, the Ministry
    of Interior revoked the Jerusalem residency of more than 700
    Palestinians in 2009. In 2008 the Ministry of Interior revoked the
    residency of 4,577 Palestinians in East Jerusalem, including 99 minors.
    The number of cases of residency revocation in 2008 alone was equal to
    approximately one-half the total number of cases of residency
    revocation between 1967 and 2007. Reasons for revocation include having
    acquired residency or citizenship in a third country, living abroad for
    more than seven years, or, most commonly, being unable to prove a
    ``center of life'' in Jerusalem. Some Palestinians born in Jerusalem
    but who studied abroad reported losing their Jerusalem residency
    status.
        On June 3, the Israeli National Police notified four Hamas-
    affiliated PLC members of the revocation of their Jerusalem residency
    status, according to the Civic Coalition for Defending Palestinian
    Rights and press reports. The decision to revoke their Jerusalem
    residency permits came from the Israeli Ministry of Interior shortly
    after their election to the PLC in 2006. Israeli authorities arrested
    and detained the four individuals for three years; three were released
    during the year and continued to reside in Jerusalem under the
    administration of the ICRC, and the fourth remained in detention at
    year's end awaiting trial on illegal presence charges.

        Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).--There were approximately
    20,500 IDPs in the occupied territories, nearly all of whom remained
    displaced as a result of Operation Cast Lead. Although they have no
    specific legislation to protect IDPs along UN principles and
    guidelines, West Bank and Gaza Strip authorities are bound by
    international human rights laws underlying these obligations on
    displacement. The PA provided some assistance to those displaced
    through rental subsidies and financial assistance to reconstruct
    demolished houses. The UNRWA and humanitarian organizations provided
    services to aid IDPs in the Gaza Strip.
        During the year the UNRWA provided rental assistance to
    approximately 2,000 families whose shelters were destroyed during
    hostilities, assisted with the living expenses of 3,810 families whose
    shelters were destroyed or severely damaged during hostilities, and
    identified 10,283 families whose shelters needed to be fully rebuilt.
    In March the UNRWA received approval to import construction materials
    to complete the construction of 151 shelters in Khan Younis, which had
    been stalled since Israel imposed the Gaza Strip blockade in 2007.
    However, due to the requirement that UN projects be approved on a case-
    by-case basis and the general ban on the importation of cement and
    gravel, the UNRWA was unable to begin construction on any additional
    shelters. The UNRWA continued to provide psychological support and
    counseling, including for children traumatized by hostilities with
    Israel, through its community mental health program.
        During the year according to the UNRWA, the Israeli government
    obstructed IDP access to UNRWA-provided humanitarian assistance in
    refugee communities in at least 339 incidents in parts of the West
    Bank, causing lengthy detours.
        The Internal Displacement Monitoring Center reported that Israeli
    demolition of Palestinian property in East Jerusalem added to the
    threat of displacement for Palestinians (see section 1.f.).

        Protection of Refugees.--There were no reports of persons seeking
    asylum or residence in the occupied territories.

    Section 3. Respect for Political Rights: The Right of Citizens to
            Change Their Government
        Elections and Political Participation.--In 2006 the 132-member PLC
    was elected in a process under the Basic Law that international
    observers concluded generally met democratic standards in providing
    citizens the right to change their government peacefully. Hamas-backed
    candidates participated in the 2006 PLC elections under the name
    ``Reform and Change Movement,'' rather than ``Hamas,'' and won 74 of
    132 seats. Fatah won 45 seats; independents and candidates from third
    parties won the remaining seats. The PLC lacked a quorum and did not
    meet during the year. Although the Israeli government and the PA
    followed mutually agreed guidelines for Palestinians residing in
    Jerusalem to vote in 2005 and 2006, not all Palestinians were allowed
    to vote in East Jerusalem, and those who could vote were required to do
    so via post offices (of which there were few), thereby complicating
    their efforts to vote.
        On June 10, immediately before candidate registration ended, the PA
    canceled municipal elections scheduled for July. The Hamas and Islamic
    Jihad parties had pledged to boycott the elections, and various Fatah
    members claimed plans to run as independents. The Ministry of Local
    Government stated that the decision to postpone came in response to the
    demands of some Arab nations and a number of ``friends in the world.''
    The calls from abroad reportedly advised the PA to postpone the
    elections ``to pave the way for a successful end to the siege on the
    Gaza Strip and for continued efforts at unity,'' the statement
    explained.
        There were 17 women in the 132-member PLC (which was not called
    into session) and three women in the 16-member cabinet. There were
    seven Christians in the PLC and two in the cabinet.
        Civil society organizations in the Gaza Strip claimed Hamas
    authorities and other conservative Islamist groups did not tolerate
    public dissent, opponents, or the promotion of values that ran contrary
    to their political and religious ideology.

    Section 4. Official Corruption and Government Transparency
        Palestinian law provides criminal penalties for official
    corruption. The PA operated a functioning anticorruption commission,
    special prosecutors, and an anticorruption court consisting of a panel
    of three judges. PA ministers were subject to financial disclosure
    laws. The PA attorney general had official responsibility for combating
    government corruption. Nevertheless, there were allegations of corrupt
    practices among Fatah officials, particularly in the theft of public
    funds and international assistance money. Supervisors dismissed
    anticorruption unit head Fahmi Shabaneh in 2009 after he uncovered a
    sex scandal relating to one of President Abbas' aides.
        In the Gaza Strip, local observers and NGOs alleged instances of
    Hamas complicity in corrupt practices, including involvement by the
    Hamas Executive Force, but access to information and reporting were
    severely inhibited.
        PA law requires official PA institutions to ``facilitate''
    acquisition of requested documents or information by any Palestinian,
    but it does not require agencies to provide such information. Reasons
    for denial generally referred to privacy rights and security necessity.

    Section 5. Governmental Attitude Regarding International and
            Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations of Human
            Rights
        Palestinian human rights groups and several international
    organizations generally operated without PA restriction, and officials
    cooperated with their efforts to monitor the PA's human rights
    practices.
        PA officials generally cooperated with and permitted visits by UN
    representatives or other organizations, such as the ICRC. Several PA
    security agencies, including the General Intelligence Service and the
    Civil Police, appointed official liaisons with human rights groups.
        The quasi-governmental ICHR continued serving as the PA's ombudsman
    and human rights commission. The ICHR issued monthly and annual reports
    on human rights violations within Palestinian-controlled areas; the
    ICHR also issued formal recommendations to the PA.
        In the Gaza Strip, Hamas authorities pressed international and
    local aid organizations providing emergency assistance to coordinate
    relief efforts with the Hamas-controlled ``Ministry of Social
    Affairs.'' Several Gaza-based NGOs reported that Hamas prevented aid
    groups from distributing assistance after they refused to comply with
    Hamas regulations. Gaza-based NGOs reported that Hamas representatives
    appeared at their offices to assure compliance and summoned NGO
    representatives to police stations for questioning. On May 24, Hamas
    authorities prevented the ICHR from holding a press conference to
    release its annual human rights report.
        Israeli, Palestinian, and international NGOs monitored the Israeli
    government's practices in the occupied territories and published their
    findings, although restrictions on freedom of movement in the West
    Bank, fighting, and access restrictions in the Gaza Strip made it
    difficult to carry out their work. The Israeli government permitted
    some human rights groups to publish and hold press conferences; it
    provided the ICRC with access to most detainees.
        On January 31, several NGOs including B'Tselem, Gisha, Yesh Din,
    and PHR-Israel, submitted a complaint to Israel's president and prime
    minister regarding the Government's obstruction of their work in the
    occupied territories. They claimed that Shin Bet had summoned
    demonstrators and human rights activists for investigation and, in some
    cases, warned activists that they must refrain from political activity.
    The NGOs claimed that Israeli military authorities placed severe
    restrictions on organizations working in the occupied territories to
    provide medical care, accompany residents to their agricultural work
    and children to school, and help residents file complaints of violence
    by Israeli security forces or settlers.
        Also in January the Association of International Development
    Agencies (AIDA), an umbrella organization for NGOs operating in the
    occupied territories, reported that Israel ceased issuing the
    appropriate type of work visa to foreign nationals working for most
    international NGOs operating in the occupied territories. The
    Government instead issued most of these employees tourist visas, which
    do not permit employment, and some visas permitted only a single entry.
    AIDA claimed the new visa policy would impinge upon the international
    NGO community's ability to recruit international staff and operate in
    Jerusalem, where many NGOs keep offices. The decision does not apply to
    the 12 organizations, including the ICRC, that were active in the West
    Bank prior to 1967.
        International NGOs reported continued difficulty accessing ``seam
    zone'' communities in the northwestern West Bank, particularly Barta'a
    al-Sharqiya in the Jenin Governorate, due to excessive demands for
    searches of personnel, including UN employees, based on their
    nationality.
        Israeli authorities throughout the year prevented PHR-Israel's
    medical delegations from entering the Gaza Strip to provide treatment
    and medical counseling, perform surgery, train Palestinian medical
    staff, distribute medication, and refer patients for follow-up
    treatment in Israeli hospitals. Israeli authorities also rejected two
    requests by a medical delegation from the Musallam Center in Ramallah
    to enter the Gaza Strip to perform eye surgery and cornea transplants,
    according to PHR-Israel.
        UN organizations and international NGOs criticized the Israeli
    government in regard to the May 31 flotilla incident, exclusion of the
    West Bank and Gaza Strip from the application of the UN Convention on
    the Rights of the Child, and the protection of human rights during the
    2008-09 Operation Cast Lead incursion into the Gaza Strip (see Israel,
    section 5).

    Section 6. Discrimination and Societal Abuses
        Women.--Rape is illegal under PA law, but the legal definition does
    not address spousal rape. Punishment for rape is five to 15 years in
    prison.
        PA law does not explicitly prohibit domestic violence, but assault
    and battery are crimes. A woman must provide two eyewitnesses (who are
    not relatives) to initiate divorce on the grounds of spousal abuse.
    According to HRW few domestic violence cases have been successfully
    prosecuted in recent years. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau
    of Statistics, violence against wives, especially psychological
    violence, was common in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Specifically,
    a 2009 survey by the Palestinian Women's Information and Media Center
    found that 52 percent of Gazan women faced regular physical violence
    and 14 percent were subjected to sexual violence. Thirty-seven percent
    of women in the Gaza Strip cited domestic violence as the primary
    safety problem facing women and girls in their communities, according
    to a 2009 survey conducted by the UN Gender Task Force. The results
    reported increases in domestic violence against women among households
    displaced by conflict. Displaced women were more likely than other
    women to say they feel unsafe using a bathing or latrine facility, and
    they also cited a greater lack of reliable sanitary materials.
        During the year the UNRWA initiated a referral mechanism for
    refugee women who are victims of violence in the West Bank and the Gaza
    Strip. In some cases women approached village or religious leaders for
    assistance. The Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed
    Forces (DCAF) conducted a study of women's issues in the occupied
    territories in 2009, reporting that many women and girls were reluctant
    to resort to women's organizations, human rights organizations, or
    security and justice providers, such as the police and courts, because
    of the strong social stigma attached to reporting abuses. Many women
    and girls stated they believed the legal system discriminated against
    women.
        Sexual harassment was a highly sensitive issue in the occupied
    territories, particularly abuses committed by family members. The DCAF
    reported that Palestinian women and girls claimed public harassment was
    commonplace; reports of verbal harassment, unwanted flirting, and
    inappropriate touching were frequent, causing anxiety and apprehension
    in some young women and girls. The DCAF and other NGOs reported that
    for some women, cultural taboos and fear of scandal compelled them to
    remain silent. Some young women claimed that they were held responsible
    for ``provoking'' men's harassing behavior.
        The ICHR reported no ``honor'' killings in the Palestinian
    territories during the year. According to NGO reports, the Jordanian
    penal code, as applied in the West Bank by the PA, reduces the penalty
    for honor-based killings.
        Couples and individuals in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and East
    Jerusalem had access to contraception. Information regarding family
    planning was lacking, although the UNRWA held workshops for Palestinian
    men, underscoring their role in family planning. High workload, poor
    compensation, and resource shortages continued to affect skilled
    attendance during labor and postpartum care, much of which was provided
    by midwives. There was no reliable data on figures of maternal
    mortality in the occupied territories. While governmental authorities
    and community and international NGOs operated HIV/AIDS education,
    prevention, and screening programs, limited information was available
    about the equality of services provided for women.
        A Palestinian Ministry of Women's Affairs existed to promote
    women's rights. The law provides for equality of the sexes, but
    personal status law and traditional practices discriminate against
    women. For Muslims in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, personal status
    law is derived from Sharia (Islamic law), which includes inheritance
    and marriage laws. Women can inherit, but not as much as men. Men may
    take more than one wife, although they rarely did in urban areas (the
    practice was more common in small villages). Women may add conditions
    to marriage contracts to protect their interests in divorce and child
    custody but rarely did so. Muslim women were generally discouraged from
    including divorce arrangements in a marriage contract as a result of
    societal pressure.
        Hamas maintained control of the Gaza Strip and enforced a
    conservative interpretation of Islam on the Gaza Strip's Muslim
    populations, which particularly discriminated against women.
    Authorities prohibited any public mixing of the sexes. Plainclothes
    officers routinely stopped, separated, and questioned couples to
    determine if they were married; premarital sex is a crime punishable by
    imprisonment. Hamas's ``morality police'' also punished women for
    riding motorcycles and dressing ``inappropriately.'' Hamas operated a
    women's prison to hold women convicted of ``ethical crimes'' such as
    ``illegitimate pregnancy.'' On July 18, Hamas authorities banned women
    from smoking the traditional water pipe in public cafes on the grounds
    that it was inappropriate. According to media reports, plainclothes
    security officers enforced the decree, and several cafe owners were
    questioned or temporarily detained for nonenforcement. Although
    enforcement of ``ethical crimes'' was in some cases inconsistent,
    according to press reports, it continued to increase.
        Across the occupied territories, cultural restrictions associated
    with marriage occasionally prevented women from completing mandatory
    schooling or attending college. Families often disowned Muslim and
    Christian women who married outside their faith. Local officials
    sometimes advised such women to leave their communities to prevent
    harassment.
        Palestinian labor law states that work is the right of every
    capable citizen; however, it regulates the work of women, preventing
    them from taking employment in dangerous occupations. According to the
    UN Development Program's 2005 Arab Human Development Report,
    Palestinian women experienced a significant employment gap in
    comparison with their male counterparts, with women consisting of
    approximately 15 percent of the labor force. Women endured prejudice
    and, in some cases, repressive conditions at work. Additionally some
    employers reportedly provided preferential treatment to their male
    counterparts. According to Freedom House, women earned 65 percent of
    men's wages in the West Bank and 77 percent in the Gaza Strip.
        The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate, a membership-based union
    representing the majority of Palestinian journalists based in East
    Jerusalem, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip, did not allow female
    journalists' membership. There were specific reports that female
    journalists in the Gaza Strip faced hurdles in pursuing employment. The
    UN Development Fund for Women reported that gender-specific stereotypes
    restricted female journalists in their content coverage, limiting them
    to issues such as beauty, fashion, women, and children.
        Female education rates were high, particularly in the West Bank,
    and women's attendance at universities exceeded men's, but female
    university students reported discrimination by university
    administrators, professors, and their male peers, according to the
    DCAF. According to press and NGO reports, in some instances girls not
    wearing conservative attire in Hamas-run schools were sent home by
    teachers, although enforcement was not systematic.

        Children.--Israel registers the births of Palestinians in
    Jerusalem. The PA registers Palestinians born in the West Bank and the
    Gaza Strip, and Israel requires that the PA transmit this information
    to the Israeli Civil Administration. As the PA does not constitute a
    state, the PA does not determine ``citizenship'' alone. Children of
    Palestinian parents can receive a Palestinian identity card (issued by
    the Israeli Civil Administration) if they are born in the occupied
    territories to a father who holds a Palestinian identity card. The PA
    Ministry of the Interior and the Israeli Civil Administration both play
    a role in determining a person's eligibility.
        Education in PA-controlled areas is compulsory from age six through
    the ninth grade. Education is available to all Palestinians without
    cost through high school.
        In the Gaza Strip, primary education was not universal. The UNRWA
    and Hamas provided educational instruction.
        In Israeli-administered East Jerusalem, Palestinian children did
    not have access to the same educational resources as Israeli children
    (see section 6, Minorities).
        Child abuse was reportedly a widespread problem. The Basic Law
    prohibits violence against children; however, PA authorities rarely
    punished perpetrators of familial violence. A 2009 study by the UN
    Gender Task Force found that in the southern Gaza Strip, survey
    participants reported a high level of perceived domestic violence
    against children.
        Israeli security forces also participated in violence against
    children in custody or during arrest (see section 1.c.), according to
    NGO and UN reports. The IDF fired at minors working inside or near the
    Gaza Strip buffer zone; DCI-Palestine documented 23 cases between March
    and December of children shot while collecting building material and
    scrap metal, and in one case grazing goats, near the border fence with
    Israel. DCI-Palestine reported that most children were shot in the leg
    without intent to kill. The IDF fired on children as far as 875 yards
    from the border fence.
        There were reports of female genital mutilation performed on girls
    during the year, although the scope of the practice was unknown.
        The PA considers statutory rape a felony, based on the Jordanian
    penal code of 1960, which also outlaws all forms of pornography. The
    minimum age for consensual sex is 18. Palestinian judges reportedly
    issued harsher sentences to persons involved in pornography including
    images of children. Punishment for rape of a victim under the age of 15
    includes a minimum sentence of seven years.

        Anti-Semitism.--In both the Gaza Strip and the West Bank,
    Palestinian media published and broadcast material that included both
    anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic content, which sometimes amounted to
    incitement. Rhetoric by several Palestinian groups included expressions
    of anti-Semitism, as did sermons by some Muslim religious leaders. Some
    Palestinian religious leaders rejected the right of Israel to exist.
    Hamas's al-Aqsa television station carried shows for preschoolers
    extolling hatred of Jews and suicide bombings.
        Palestinian media not under the control of the PA, particularly
    those controlled by Hamas, continued to use inflammatory anti-Semitic
    language. Unofficial Palestinian television broadcast content that
    sometimes praised holy war to expel the Jewish presence in the region.
    Some children's programs shown on Hamas television legitimized the
    killing of Israelis and Jews via terrorist attacks.

        Persons With Disabilities.--The Basic Law states that all
    Palestinians are equal. There is no reference to discrimination or
    disability. Access to public facilities was not mandated.
        Palestinians with disabilities continued to receive poor quality
    services and care. The PA depended on UN agencies and NGOs to care for
    persons with physical disabilities and offered substandard care for
    persons with mental disabilities.
        Familial and societal discrimination against persons with
    disabilities existed. Press reports indicated that some parents in the
    West Bank performed hysterectomies on mentally ill girls to prevent
    them from becoming pregnant; most of these parents stated they intended
    to protect their daughters from rape.
        There were reports that Israeli authorities placed detainees deemed
    mentally ill or a threat to themselves or others in isolation without
    full medical evaluation. According to PHR-Israel, isolation of
    prisoners with mental disabilities was common. In March PHR-Israel and
    Addameer petitioned the Israeli High Court of Justice to amend article
    36 of the National Security Orders, which they claimed allows for
    indefinite detention of a Palestinian accused of a felony if the
    detainee is deemed unfit for punishment on mental health grounds. The
    NGOs filed the petition after PHR-Israel received a case in which
    Israel Prison Service authorities held an unnamed Palestinian found
    unfit for punishment for weeks in a prison psychiatric ward, although
    doctors determined it was not medically necessary.
        In another case PHR-Israel petitioned for the release of Ibrahim
    Abu Mustafa from isolation. Abu Mustafa had been detained in isolation
    since 2004 on the grounds that he posed a hazard to his surroundings
    due to his mental health condition. On August 25, the state notified
    Abu Mustafa that he would be released from isolation; however, at
    year's end his release was not confirmed.

        National/Racial/Ethnic Minorities.--Palestinians faced violence and
    discrimination in the occupied territories (see also sections 1.c. and
    1.f.). Access to social and commercial services, including housing,
    employment, education, and health care, in settlement areas in the West
    Bank was available only to Israelis. Israeli officials discriminated
    against Palestinians in the West Bank and Jerusalem regarding access to
    employment and legal housing by denying Palestinians access to
    registration paperwork. In both the West Bank and Jerusalem, Israeli
    authorities placed often insurmountable hurdles on Palestinian
    applicants for construction permits, including the requirement that
    they document land ownership in the absence of a uniform post-1967 land
    registration process, high application fees, and requirements that new
    housing be connected to often-unavailable municipal works. According to
    B'Tselem, since 2000 Israel has curtailed the Palestinian population
    registry, denying paperwork to Palestinians and effectively declaring
    Palestinians illegal residents. Some Palestinians defined as illegal
    residents faced harassment, arrest, or deportation to the Gaza Strip.
        Israeli settler radio stations broadcasting from the West Bank
    depicted Arabs as subhuman and called for expulsion of Palestinians
    from the West Bank.
        The Municipality of Ma'ale Adumim in the West Bank continued
    applying a 1965 Jordanian labor law to Palestinian employees that
    denied them some social benefits enshrined in Israeli labor law, such
    as rehabilitation pay, pensions, travel expenses, and education
    funding.
        Israel's system of water distribution in the West Bank
    discriminated against Palestinian populations and failed to provide
    Palestinian residents with a sufficient, regular, and safe water
    supply, according to ACRI. Israel controlled 85 percent of the water
    supply in the West Bank and allocated on average 16 gallons of water
    per person per day to Palestinians and 63 gallons per person per day to
    Israeli settlers. According to the World Health Organization, 26
    gallons per person per day is the minimum daily amount required to
    maintain basic hygiene standards and food security.
        In the West Bank, some NGOs reported an increase in settler
    expropriation of natural water springs located on privately owned
    Palestinian land. Yesh Din documented settler expropriation of 26
    springs and their conversion into recreational ``nature parks.''
    Palestinian residents reported that water supplies were intermittent,
    and settlers and their security guards denied Palestinians, including
    shepherd and farmers, access to the springs. PA officials in July
    stated that Israeli authorities closed five Palestinian wells in the
    Tubas Governorate, while the Israeli national water company, Mekorot,
    drilled 17 new wells in the governorate. Mekorot reduced the water
    ration for one Tubas Governorate village, Bardala, from 315 cubic yards
    per hour to 120 on average; 30 percent of Bardala residents received no
    water on some days.
        There were reports that Israeli authorities attempted to reduce the
    Palestinian population and limit their movement in areas under Israeli
    control. Military authorities severely restricted Palestinian vehicular
    and foot traffic in the commercial center of Hebron, citing a need to
    protect several hundred Israeli settler residents. Palestinians were
    prohibited from driving on most roads in downtown Hebron and from
    walking on Shuhada Street and other roads in the Old City; however,
    Israeli settlers were permitted free access on these roads. The
    prohibition, which began in 2000, has resulted in the closure of 1,829
    business and 1,014 Palestinian housing units, according to B'Tselem;
    the IDF closed most shops on the street and sealed entrances to
    Palestinian houses. Four Palestinian families who maintained residence
    on the street had access during the year.
        Jerusalem municipal and Israeli national policies aimed to decrease
    the number of Palestinian residents and increase Israeli claim to East
    Jerusalem. The Israeli government and Jerusalem Municipality used a
    combination of zoning restrictions on building by Palestinians,
    confiscation of Palestinian lands, and demolition of Palestinian homes
    to ``contain'' non-Israeli neighborhoods, while simultaneously
    permitting construction of new housing for Israeli residents in
    predominantly Palestinian East Jerusalem. The Jerusalem Municipality
    maintained its longstanding policy of city planning along
    ethnoreligious demographic lines across the city in an effort to keep
    the Jewish population at 70 percent.
        The Israeli NGOs Bimkom and Ir Amim claimed that Palestinians in
    East Jerusalem were unable to purchase property or build on land owned
    by the Israeli Land Authority. Land owned or populated by Arabs
    (including Palestinians and Israeli Arabs) was generally zoned for low
    residential growth. Approximately 30 percent of East Jerusalem was
    designated for Israeli residents; Arabs were able in some cases to rent
    Israeli-owned property but were generally unable to purchase property
    in an Israeli neighborhood due to citizenship or military duty
    requirements that Arabs were unable to meet. Israeli NGOs claimed that
    of all land designated for housing in West Jerusalem and in the Israeli
    neighborhoods of East Jerusalem, at least 79 percent was unavailable
    for Arab construction.
        The Jerusalem Municipality and Jewish organizations in Jerusalem
    made efforts to increase Israeli property ownership or underscore
    Jewish history in areas occupied by Arabs or Muslim institutions. The
    Jerusalem Municipality advocated increased Jewish influence and
    property ownership in East Jerusalem's Kidron Valley, or ``Holy
    Basin.'' On June 21, the Jerusalem Municipal Planning Council voted to
    demolish at least 22 Arab-owned properties in the al-Bustan
    neighborhood to make way for a Jewish-themed historical park. Israeli
    NGOs claimed that this project, the evictions in Sheikh Jarrah, and
    other projects effectively encircled Jerusalem's Old City and Haram al-
    Sharif/Temple Mount with Israeli-owned properties, severing Palestinian
    societal connections to the area.
        Although Israeli law entitles Arab residents of East Jerusalem to
    full and equal services provided by the municipality and other Israeli
    authorities, in practice the Jerusalem Municipality failed to provide
    sufficient social services, infrastructure, emergency planning, and
    postal service for Arab neighborhoods in East Jerusalem. ACRI reported
    in October that only 10.3 percent of the Arab population received
    social services. Approximately 160,000 Arab residents of East Jerusalem
    had no suitable or legal connection to the municipal water network.
    Trash collection was insufficient in most Arab neighborhoods of East
    Jerusalem and nonexistent in others.
        Disparities in social services provided by Israeli authorities in
    East Jerusalem correlated to ethnicity. The Jerusalem Municipality did
    not provide sufficient educational resources for Palestinian children
    in East Jerusalem, according to ACRI and the NGO Ir Amim, which claimed
    that thousands of Palestinian students studied in crowded classrooms,
    often in ill-fitting structures that did not meet municipal standards.
        Most municipal forms were not available in Arabic. Bus services in
    Jerusalem were largely segregated. According to ACRI, eight post office
    stations in East Jerusalem served a population of approximately
    300,000, whereas 42 post office stations in West Jerusalem served a
    population of 500,000. Only one postman, serving 260,000 residents,
    delivered mail in Arab neighborhoods of East Jerusalem.
        On August 6, the Israeli High Court ruled that an ultraorthodox
    school in the West Bank settlement of Emmanuel must stop separating
    students based on their ethnicity and remove all signs of
    discrimination. Since 2007 the school had separated students of
    different ethnic backgrounds and required them to wear different
    uniforms.

        Societal Abuses, Discrimination, and Acts of Violence Based on
    Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.--Palestinian law, based on the
    1960 Jordanian penal code, prohibits homosexual activity, although in
    practice the PA did not prosecute individuals suspected of such
    activity. Cultural and religious traditions rejected homosexuality, and
    some Palestinians claimed that PA security officers and neighbors
    harassed, abused, and sometimes arrested homosexuals because of their
    sexual orientation.
        Israeli press reported that Majed Koka, a gay Palestinian man from
    the West Bank who immigrated illegally to Israel, was continued to
    await a response from the Israeli Interior Ministry regarding his
    petition for legal residency on humanitarian grounds. Koka in September
    stated that he could not safely live in Nablus, his hometown, as an
    openly gay man.
        In the Gaza Strip, an unidentified 19-year-old man remained in
    prison without trial because of his homosexual orientation, according
    to HRW.

        Other Societal Violence or Discrimination.--The PA Ministry of
    Health provided treatment and privacy protections for patients with
    HIV/AIDS; however, societal discrimination against affected individuals
    was common.

    Section 7. Worker Rights
        a. The Right of Association.--The law permits workers to form and
    join independent unions of their choice, and this right was respected
    in practice. Labor unions in the Gaza Strip continued to operate
    despite a severely weakened economy. However, in many cases Hamas
    replaced Fatah-affiliated union leaders with Hamas members or
    sympathizers, and during the year Hamas detained a number of non-Hamas-
    affiliated union activists.
        The two most active unions were the General Union for Palestinian
    Workers and the Palestine General Federation of Trade Unions, which was
    a member of the International Trade Union Confederation. Both unions
    were registered with the PA Ministry of Labor. Membership in the Union
    of Arab Employees (UAE) is automatic and mandatory for all West Bank
    UNRWA employees.
        According to the NGO United Civilians for Peace, Palestinians
    working in West Bank settlements reported hostile responses to their
    efforts to organize unions.
        Workers in Jerusalem may establish unions but may not join West
    Bank federations. Despite this restriction the West Bank-based PA
    Employees' Union and Teachers' Union counted East Jerusalem members
    among their ranks, and Israeli authorities rarely took steps to enforce
    this restriction unless high-profile events or senior PA officials were
    involved. Workers holding Jerusalem identity cards may belong to the
    Israeli General Federation of Labor (Histadrut), but they may not vote
    in Histadrut elections.
        PA law provides for the right to strike. In practice, however,
    strikers had little protection from retribution. Prospective strikers
    must provide written warning two weeks in advance of the basis for the
    strike (four weeks in the case of public utilities), accept Ministry of
    Labor arbitration, and submit to disciplinary action if they reject the
    result. If the ministry cannot resolve a dispute, it can be referred to
    a special committee and eventually to a court. Accordingly, in practice
    the right to strike remained questionable.
        PA employees organized fewer strikes than in previous years, in
    large part because the PA was able to pay salaries during the year in
    the West Bank. In general PA employees staged strikes over nonpayment
    of wages, to protest disparities between union claims and official cost
    of living statistics, or to demand payment of arrears. There were no
    reports of private-sector strikes during the year.
        UAE employees called for strikes throughout the year. The union
    engaged in some coercive actions during employee strikes in October and
    November by physically preventing nonstriking employees from entering
    the workplace and reportedly engaging in physical violence in a few
    incidents.

        b. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively.--The law
    protects collective bargaining, and this was enforced in certain cases.
    However, there were reports that PA enforcement of collective
    bargaining rights for unions serving other than PA employees was
    limited. Collective bargaining agreements covered 20 percent of
    workers.
        Antiunion discrimination and employer interference in union
    functions are illegal, and the Government enforced these prohibitions.
        There are no export processing zones.

        c. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor.--While the PA labor
    law does not expressly forbid forced or compulsory labor, PA law states
    that work is a right and that the PA will attempt to provide it for any
    capable individual. The Ministry of Labor interpreted this statement to
    prohibit forced and compulsory labor. However, children were vulnerable
    to forced labor conditions.

        d. Prohibition of Child Labor and Minimum Age for Employment.--By
    law children under the age of 15 are not permitted to work in PA-
    administered areas, and Ministry of Labor inspectors enforced this
    prohibition through factory visits and inspections. PA officials
    reported that the Ministry of Labor employed 45 labor inspectors, who
    investigated child labor violations. However, they are not specifically
    trained for child labor inspections, and they perform this function as
    part of their other duties as inspectors. The ministry acknowledged
    their need for more inspectors. Hiring of children between the ages of
    15 and 18 for limited types of employment is permitted under set
    conditions, including limited hours and a prohibition on operating
    certain types of machines and equipment. The law states that children
    shall not be allowed to perform work that might damage their safety,
    health, or education and prohibits working at night, hard labor, and
    travel beyond their domicile. Nevertheless, many underage children--
    with estimates as high as 72 percent of Palestinian children--in PA-
    administered areas worked on family farms and in shops, as street
    vendors, in factories, or in small enterprises.
        In the Gaza Strip, the UN estimated that hundreds of children were
    forced to find work, as the poor economy made it difficult for families
    to provide adequate resources solely through parental income. Children
    worked in high-risk activities and zones, including as laborers in the
    tunnel networks between the Gaza Strip and Egypt and in collecting
    scrap materials from areas close to the Israeli border, where they were
    at risk of live fire from Israeli troops (see sections 1.c. and 6,
    Children). Some children were used as informants and human shields in
    armed conflict. Information on respect for child labor laws in the Gaza
    Strip was not available.
        The PA Ministry of Labor stated that Palestinian children working
    in Israeli settlements faced security problems, exploitation, and
    harassment since there was no enforceable law to monitor and protect
    child laborers, and there were no Israeli inspectors in West Bank
    settlements and industrial zones. The Israeli government stated that it
    did not issue permits for Palestinian West Bank residents younger than
    18 years old to work in Israeli settlements, except in the Jordan
    Valley, where the law allows work permits for persons from the age of
    16 and older. Migrant workers living in the Jordan Valley during the
    harvest season brought their families with them, but their children did
    not have proper structures for schools because the Israeli government
    prohibited the construction of classrooms.

        e. Acceptable Conditions of Work.--There was no minimum wage in
    Palestinian-controlled areas. Prior to 2000, average wages for full-
    time workers provided a decent living standard; however, living
    standards dropped significantly over the past decade due to increases
    in cost of living that outpaced salary increases. The average wage in
    the occupied territories was 1,000 Jordanian dinars (approximately
    $1,400) per month, approximately the same as the Israeli minimum wage.
        The NGO United Civilians for Peace and the Israeli NGO Kav laOved
    reported that the Israeli minimum wage was generally the highest wage
    paid to Palestinians working in settlements and that such workers
    complained of receiving much lower wages than Israelis working in the
    same areas. Palestinians reported that they continued to receive wages
    lower than the Israeli minimum wage, despite a 2008 high court ruling
    that Israeli labor laws apply to relations between Palestinian workers
    and Israeli employers in settlements in the occupied territories. The
    ruling granted Palestinian workers the same rights and benefits as
    workers in Israel. However, several cases brought by Palestinians
    against Israeli employers who offered less than the minimum wage
    remained pending in Israeli courts at year's end.
        On October 20, Palestinian workers in an Israeli Sol-Or factory on
    the Green Line went on strike for multiple days, demanding their legal
    entitlement to the Israeli minimum wage. The workers claimed they
    received an inadequate 90 shekels (approximately $24) for an eight-hour
    workday involving hazardous tasks.
        In the West Bank, the average workweek was 43 hours, and in the
    Gaza Strip it was approximately 40 hours, according to the Palestinian
    Central Bureau of Statistics. The maximum official Sunday to Thursday
    workweek was 48 hours. There were reports that PA government employees
    were pressured to work additional hours to be promoted. Employers are
    required to allow Christians to attend church on Sunday if the employee
    desires. Some employers offered Christians the option of not working on
    Sunday rather than Friday.
        The PA Ministry of Labor was responsible for safety standards, but
    its enforcement ability was limited. There were no reported exceptions
    for any sector, industry, or company to labor ministry standards.
    However, employees of small construction and service firms were at
    greatest risk for workplace injuries, according to union officials.
    Unions complained that the PA did not effectively monitor smaller
    worksites, which were at times below legal standards for safety.

                                   __________

                                     JORDAN

        The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan is a constitutional monarchy ruled
    by King Abdullah II bin Hussein, with a population of six million. The
    constitution concentrates executive and legislative authority in the
    king. The multiparty parliament consists of the 55-member House of
    Notables (Majlis al-Ayan), appointed by the king, and a 120-member
    elected lower house, the Chamber of Deputies (Majlis al-Nuwwab).
    Parliamentary elections, which international observers deemed credible,
    were held on November 9 after the king dissolved parliament in November
    2009. Security forces reported to civilian authorities.
        There were limitations on the right of citizens to change their
    government peacefully, and a newly drafted electoral law perpetuated
    the significant underrepresentation of urban areas and citizens of
    Palestinian origin in leadership positions. Domestic and international
    nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) reported cases of arbitrary
    deprivation of life, torture, poor prison conditions, impunity,
    arbitrary arrest and denial of due process through administrative
    detention, prolonged detention, and external interference in judicial
    decisions. Citizens continued to describe infringements on their
    privacy rights. Restrictive legislation and regulations limited
    freedoms of speech and press, and government interference in the media
    and threats of fines and detention further encouraged self-censorship,
    according to journalists and human rights organizations. The Government
    also continued to restrict freedoms of assembly and association. Legal
    and societal discrimination and harassment remained a problem for
    women, religious minorities, converts from Islam, members of the
    lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community, and some
    persons of Palestinian origin. Local human rights organizations
    reported widespread violence against women and children. The Government
    restricted labor rights, and local and international human rights
    organizations reported high levels of abuse of foreign domestic
    workers.
                            RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

    Section 1. Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom
            From:
        a. Arbitrary or Unlawful Deprivation of Life.--There were no
    reports during the year that the Government or its agents committed
    unlawful killings.
        In November 2009 Saddam al-Saoud died of injuries allegedly
    sustained in police custody at the Al Hussein Police Station. Saoud's
    family said Public Security Directorate (PSD) officers caused Saoud's
    injuries when they hit him on the head with a gun. At year's end,
    felony cases against six PSD officers remained pending.
        Also in November 2009 Fakhri Kreishan died of injuries sustained
    during an altercation with police two days earlier in the southern city
    of Ma'an. A police officer reportedly hit him on the head with a baton.
    At year's end, the felony case against the officer was pending.

        b. Disappearance.--There were no reports of politically motivated
    disappearances.

        c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or
    Punishment.--The law prohibits such practices; however, international
    NGOs continued to report incidences of torture and widespread
    mistreatment in police and security detention centers. Article 208 of
    the penal code prohibits torture by public officials, including
    psychological harm, and provides penalties of as long as three years'
    imprisonment for the use of torture, with an increased penalty of up to
    15 years if serious injury occurs. Human rights lawyers found the law
    ambiguous and supported amendments to better define ``torture'' and
    strengthen sentencing guidelines. The Government has not charged an
    individual under article 208.
        Local and international NGOs criticized the use of special police
    prosecutors and courts to try PSD personnel accused of torture and
    police misconduct as ineffective and not transparent. As part of the
    2009 reform process, the Government gave civilian prosecutors authority
    to assist in the investigation of torture allegations, even though such
    cases were tried in a police court.
        International and domestic organizations stated that security
    forces continued to practice torture, particularly in police stations;
    however, observers commented that allegations of torture in prisons
    decreased during the year. On May 14, as part of its periodic review
    process, the UN Committee against Torture expressed ``deep concern'' at
    ``the numerous, consistent, and credible allegations of a widespread
    and routine practice of torture and ill-treatment of detainees in
    detention facilities and that such allegations were seldom investigated
    or prosecuted.'' A August 30 National Center for Human Rights (NCHR)
    report on prisons and police detention centers cited 33 complaints of
    mistreatment in detention centers and three complaints from prison
    inmates between January 1 and June 30. The NCHR report also commented
    on individual violations perpetrated by law enforcement staff in some
    police stations and observed that several forms of torture were
    practiced against the defendants and detainees. A report issued in
    January by the international NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) also noted
    that torture continued to be practiced in the country's prisons and
    police stations. HRW claimed that the reform program does not address
    accountability for abuses and that initiatives by the NCHR and other
    groups were ``far from sufficient considering the lack of both
    political will and effective mechanisms to bring perpetrators to
    justice.''
        On March 1, members of the Criminal Investigation Unit with the
    Public Security Directorate in Irbid reportedly arrested Sayed Mahmoud
    Hamed Talafha on allegations of attempted robbery and beat him severely
    in custody. Officers reportedly struck him on the right leg where he
    had metal pins from a previous operation, hung him by the wrists to the
    back of a door, and pierced one wrist with a drill. The PSD
    spokesperson claimed that Talafha inflicted the wounds himself.
    According to his lawyer, on March 2, he had emergency surgery to repair
    his hand. The general prosecutor dropped the charges against Talafha on
    November 13, but he remained in administrative detention on the Maffraq
    governor's order. Talafha was released from administrative detention on
    December 2.
        In 2008 the director of the Sahab Police Station, a police officer
    of the Criminal Investigations Department, and the director of public
    security allegedly tortured and mistreated an individual known only as
    Raad. On March 22, Raad reportedly filed a civil case in the amount of
    7,000 dinars ($10,000) for psychological, physical, and moral damages
    resulting from torture, beatings, and other forms of cruel, inhuman,
    and degrading treatment at Sahab prison facility. Additionally he
    claimed the defendants forced him to remove his clothes, leaving him
    naked, and used an electric baton on him. Also in 2008 an individual
    known only as Wasfi, together with the directors of North Marka
    Security Center and the director of public security, allegedly beat and
    insulted an individual known only as Dawood. On March 10, Dawood filed
    a civil case for psychological, physical and moral damages resulting
    from torture and cruel and degrading treatment. Both cases were pending
    at year's end.

        Prison and Detention Center Conditions.--Significant problems
    remained in prisons, including poor legal services, understaffing,
    inadequate food and health care, poor sanitation standards, poor
    ventilation, extreme temperatures, inadequate access to potable water,
    ineffective prerelease and postrelease programs, and insufficient basic
    and emergency medical care. Some detainees reported abuse and
    mistreatment by guards during the year. Hunger strikes remained common,
    but prison riots and allegations of mistreatment reportedly decreased.
    Prisoners filed complaints of poor prison conditions with the PSD and
    the NCHR. The construction of four prisons during the year alleviated
    overcrowding to some extent.
        On July 19, a Web site published a report detailing stories of
    government authorities physically and verbally abusing children in
    government-run juvenile detention centers. In response to the
    allegations, the Ministry of Social Development (MOSD) investigated
    these claims and concluded that there was no evidence to support the
    children's claims; however, some local children's rights activists
    noted that abuse occurred in some government-run juvenile detention
    centers. In 2009 former and current residents and parents of children
    in several ministry-operated juvenile rehabilitation centers and
    orphanages reported verbal and physical abuse of children by
    supervisors. For example, parents of children in an Irbid juvenile
    center and former residents of an orphanage in Madaba reported physical
    abuse of children. At year's end, the Government investigation remained
    pending.
        In November 2009 the Council of Ministers passed amendments placing
    stiffer disciplinary measures, including salary deductions and
    termination, on civil servants who used corporal punishment on
    children, including those in schools and juvenile centers. However,
    authorities rarely used this punishment in practice.
        The PSD reported that some prisoners went on hunger strikes during
    the year to protest mistreatment, poor prison conditions, and a
    prisoner classification system under which some prisoners had been
    moved to different wards or prisons based on the type of crime, number
    of offenses, and other factors. The NCHR reported 205 prison strikes
    from January 1 to August 1.
        In February 2009 the Institute of Forensic Medicine, a part of the
    Ministry of Health, issued a report stating that prison clinic
    conditions were unsuitable and deteriorating and that inmates did not
    have access to basic health services. The report also criticized the
    lack of psychiatric treatment and follow-up care.
        According to government statistics, there were approximately 18,449
    inmates in 14 correctional and rehabilitation center (CRC) facilities.
    The Government generally held men, women, and juveniles in separate
    prisons and detention facilities; however, pretrial detainees were
    often held in the same detention facilities as convicted prisoners. The
    General Intelligence Directorate (GID) held some persons detained on
    national security charges in separate detention facilities. According
    to the NCHR, GID detainees are generally held in solitary confinement
    and are not allowed to meet unsupervised with visitors, including their
    lawyers. Islamist prisoners in Jweidah were held in a separate wing and
    kept in small-group isolation. International and domestic NGOs also
    reported that in some instances Islamist prisoners faced harsher prison
    conditions than other inmates.
        Prisoners and detainees had restricted access to visitors and were
    permitted religious observance. Authorities permitted prisoners and
    detainees to submit complaints to judicial authorities without
    censorship and to request investigation of credible allegations of
    inhumane conditions. Authorities did not investigate credible
    allegations of inhumane conditions. The Government investigated and
    monitored prison and detention center conditions.
        The Government permitted local and international human rights
    observers to visit prisons and conduct private interviews. During the
    year the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) visited
    prisoners and detainees in all prisons, including those controlled by
    the GID and the military intelligence directorate, according to
    standard ICRC modalities. The Ombudsman's Bureau, a national
    institution that receives complaints about federal agencies, is unable
    to serve on behalf of prisoners to consider matters such as
    alternatives to incarceration, although it is permitted to look into
    cases of inhumane treatment. The NCHR conducted routine and unannounced
    prison inspections during the year, including visits to GID facilities.
        The Government continued its large-scale, long-term prison reform
    to transfer CRC management from the PSD to the Ministry of Justice. At
    year's end the Government had finished constructing four new CRCs with
    cells that meet international standards, raising the number of prisons
    from 14 to 18.

        d. Arbitrary Arrest or Detention.--The law prohibits arbitrary
    arrest and detention. According to local and international human rights
    groups, the Government did not always observe these prohibitions in
    practice. In particular, the governors of the country's 12 governorates
    continued to use the Crime Prevention Law to administratively detain
    individuals without due process.

        Role of the Police and Security Apparatus.--The PSD controls
    general police functions. The PSD, GID, gendarmerie, Civil Defense
    Directorate, and military share responsibility for maintaining internal
    security. Members of the gendarmerie assist police in emergencies,
    provide diplomatic security, and respond to riots, protests, and
    demonstrations. The Civil Defense Directorate is responsible for public
    safety during natural disasters and civil disturbances. The PSD and
    gendarmerie report to the minister of interior with direct access to
    the king when necessary, and the GID in practice reports directly to
    the king.
        Civilian authorities maintained control over security forces.
    According to local and international NGOs, the Government did not
    thoroughly investigate and punish all credible reports of corruption or
    abuse by security forces. The Government used mechanisms to investigate
    abuse and corruption, but there were wide-scale allegations of
    impunity. Citizens may file complaints of police abuse or corruption
    with the PSD's human rights office or with one of 50 police prosecutors
    stationed throughout the country. Complaints of abuse and corruption by
    the gendarmerie may be filed directly with the gendarmerie. A GID
    liaison officer receives complaints against the GID and refers them to
    GID personnel for investigation. Complaints against the PSD,
    gendarmerie, and GID may also be filed with the NCHR or several other
    NGOs, such as the Arab Organization for Human Rights (AOHR). The PSD's
    preventive security office is tasked with investigating allegations of
    police corruption. The PSD and gendarmerie try their personnel
    internally with their own courts, judges, and prosecutors, in a manner
    not transparent to the public.
        Allegations of torture and mistreatment continued, according to
    numerous credible observers. During the year citizens filed 46
    complaints, including allegations of mistreatment against PSD
    personnel. NGOs noted that victims may be reluctant to file formal
    complaints due to impunity within the police and security apparatus.

        Arrest Procedures and Treatment While in Detention.--The law allows
    suspects to be detained for up to 24 hours without a warrant in all
    cases. The criminal code requires that police notify authorities within
    24 hours of an arrest and that authorities file formal charges within
    15 days of an arrest. Human rights observers claimed that police
    continued to make arrests before obtaining warrants and prosecutors did
    not file charges or seek extensions in a timely manner. The period to
    file formal charges can be extended for as long as six months for a
    felony and two months for a misdemeanor. Local NGOs stated that
    prosecutors routinely requested extensions and judges granted them.
    This practice generally lengthened pretrial detention for protracted
    periods. As of year's end, approximately 800 persons were reportedly
    being held in prison without formal charge. Bail is allowed under the
    penal code and used in some cases. Some detainees reported not being
    allowed timely access to a lawyer, but authorities generally permitted
    family member visits. Authorities appointed lawyers to represent
    indigent defendants charged with felonies, although legal aid services
    remained minimal. There were allegations of long periods of
    incommunicado detention in GID facilities, and the UN Committee against
    Torture's May 14 report expressed serious concern about the
    Government's failure in practice to afford all detainees, including
    detainees held in GID and PSD facilities, with ``all fundamental legal
    safeguards from the very outset of their detention,'' including the
    right to notify a relative and to be informed of their rights and
    charges against them at the time of detention.
        The State Security Court gives judicial police, charged with
    conducting criminal investigations, authority to arrest and keep
    persons in custody for 10 days. This authority includes arrests for
    alleged misdemeanors. In cases purportedly involving state security,
    the security forces arrested and detained citizens without warrants or
    judicial review, held defendants in lengthy pretrial detention without
    informing them of the charges against them, and did not allow
    defendants to meet with their lawyers or permitted meetings only
    shortly before trial. Defendants before the State Security Court
    usually met with their attorneys at the start of a trial or only one or
    two days before. A case may be postponed for more than 48 hours only
    under exceptional circumstances determined by the court. In practice,
    cases routinely involved postponements of more than 10 days between
    sessions with proceedings lasting for several months. In most cases the
    accused remained in detention without bail during the proceedings.
    Several inmates were in detention without charge at year's end.
        Under the Crime Prevention Law, provincial governors may detain
    individuals suspected of planning to commit a crime or those who
    allegedly shelter thieves, habitually steal, or constitute a danger to
    the public, and in practice they used this provision widely. Those
    accused are subject to imprisonment or house arrest as ``administrative
    detention'' without formal charges. A detention order may be for as
    long as one year, but governors can impose new orders to prolong
    detentions. During the year governors administratively detained 12,345
    individuals. Several international and national NGOs noted that
    governors routinely abused the law, imprisoning individuals when there
    was not enough evidence to convict them and prolonging detentions of
    prisoners whose sentences had expired. The law was also widely used to
    incarcerate women at risk of being honor crime victims. The NCHR and
    other human rights organizations called for the abolishment of the
    Crime Prevention Law.

        e. Denial of Fair Public Trial.--The law provides for an
    independent judiciary; however, the judiciary's independence in
    practice was compromised by allegations of nepotism and the influence
    of special interests. Unlike the previous year, there were no reports
    of interference by senior judges in junior judges' cases. The Judicial
    Council, a committee led by the president of the Court of Cassation, is
    composed of other high-ranking judges from various courts and the
    Ministry of Justice. The council approves judicial appointments after
    initial nominations by the ministry, and it assigns and evaluates
    judges. The executive branch, through the ministry, controls most
    judicial functions, giving the Government the ability to influence
    judicial decisions. The Judicial Council continued to lack the internal
    capacity to effectively manage judicial administrative and financial
    matters and therefore lacked independence. Unlike the previous year,
    there were no allegations that the former council's head reassigned
    judges or forced them to retire early for personal instead of policy
    reasons.

        Trial Procedures.--The law presumes that defendants are innocent.
    All civilian court trials, including state security court trials, are
    open to the public unless the court determines otherwise. Juries are
    not used. Defendants are entitled to legal counsel, provided at public
    expense for the indigent in cases involving the death penalty or
    potential life imprisonment. In many cases defendants have no legal
    representation. In July 2009 the Government passed an amendment that
    made court rulings legally binding without the presence of the
    defendant if an attorney for the defendant is present. Defendants could
    present witnesses on their behalf and question witnesses presented
    against them. Defense attorneys were generally granted access to
    government-held evidence relevant to their clients' cases. Defendants
    can appeal verdicts; appeals are automatic for cases involving the
    death penalty. In the State Security Court, defendants convicted of
    felonies have the right to appeal their sentences to the Court of
    Cassation, which is authorized to review issues of both fact and law.
    All citizens were accorded these rights. Civil, criminal, and
    commercial courts accord equal weight to the testimony of men and
    women; however, in Sharia courts, which have jurisdiction over Muslim
    marriage, divorce, and inheritance cases, the testimony of two women
    was equal to that of a man in most circumstances.

        Political Prisoners and Detainees.--Citizens and NGOs alleged that
    the Government continued to detain individuals, including political
    opposition members, for political reasons during the year, and that
    governors continued to use administrative detentions for what appeared
    to be political reasons. In a few cases, the media and human rights
    organizations reported that authorities kept detainees in solitary
    confinement and denied them access to lawyers.
        A 2008 HRW report stated that political prisoners, including
    Islamists convicted of crimes against national security, reportedly
    received greater abuse than other prisoners.

        Civil Judicial Procedures and Remedies.--There is an independent
    judiciary in civil matters. Individuals may bring lawsuits related to
    human rights violations and did so during the year. The High Court of
    Justice hears administrative complaints. The courts are open to all
    residents. Courts also have jurisdiction over any person in civil
    matters, including lawsuits in which the Government is a plaintiff or a
    defendant.
        During the year at least two individuals who alleged being tortured
    in 2008 filed civil cases for damages (see section 1.c.).

        f. Arbitrary Interference With Privacy, Family, Home, or
    Correspondence.--The law prohibits arbitrary interference in private
    matters, but the Government did not respect this prohibition in
    practice. Citizens widely believed that security officers monitored
    telephone conversations and Internet communication, read private
    correspondence, and engaged in surveillance without court orders.
        The law requires that security forces obtain a warrant from the
    prosecutor general or a judge before conducting searches; however,
    during the year foreign migrant workers with valid work and residency
    permits reported that police forcibly entered their homes without
    warrants as part of a joint police and labor inspection campaign to
    verify the legal status of workers.
        A few religious activists reported that the GID withheld their
    certificates of good behavior required for job applications or to open
    a business, or threatened not to allow their children to enter or
    graduate from university. The GID usually withholds a certificate of
    good behavior if there is a criminal record; however, there is no
    public information outlining the GID's policies for issuing the
    certificates.

    Section 2. Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:
        a. Freedom of Speech and Press.--The constitution provides for
    freedom of speech and of the press; however, the Government did not
    respect these rights in practice. A 2009 Freedom House report on media
    freedom called the country ``not free.'' On May 8, the Amman-based
    National Center for Defending the Freedom of Journalists (CDFJ) issued
    its 2009 annual report, which concluded that media freedoms
    deteriorated in 2009. Journalists reported that the threat of detention
    and imprisonment under the penal code for a variety of offenses, and
    stringent fines of as much as 20,000 dinars ($28,000) under the press
    and publications law for defamation led to self-censorship. There were
    several incidents during the year in which the Government prohibited
    journalists from reporting on high-profile court cases. The
    Government's use of ``soft containment'' of journalists, such as
    financial support, scholarships for relatives, and special invitations,
    led to significant control of media content. In March the Government
    amended the Press and Publication Law to remove administrative
    detention as a punishment for journalists and created a court to deal
    specifically with matters of freedom of expression and speech. The
    amended law prohibits journalists from being referred to State Security
    Courts for freedom of expression or speech issues, and none were
    referred there during the year.
        The law provides punishment up to three years' imprisonment for
    insulting the king, slandering the Government or foreign leaders,
    offending religious beliefs, or stirring sectarian strife and sedition.
    In practice citizens were generally able to criticize the Government,
    although they reportedly exercised caution in regard to the king, the
    royal family, the GID, and other sensitive topics such as religion.
        On February 13, in response to a lawsuit brought by private
    citizens, state security forces detained journalist Muwaffaq Mahadin
    and environmentalist Sufian al-Tal for two weeks for having given
    separate public interviews criticizing the army's security role in
    Afghanistan. State security charged them with ``harming relations with
    a foreign country,'' ``stirring sectarianism,'' ``harming the stature
    of the state and the army,'' instigation, and slander. The case was
    sent to the State Security Court, which did not have jurisdiction, then
    to the prosecutor general. At year's end, the court case was pending.
        In late February the GID arrested university student Imad al-Ash
    for allegedly sending an instant message that ``insulted the monarchy''
    and participating in online forums expressing ``controversial religious
    opinions.'' Ash denied the charges. On July 13, the security court
    sentenced him to two years in prison. Ash appealed the ruling, and the
    court upheld his two-year prison sentence on October 2.
        On July 25, PSD officers arrested university student Hatim al-
    Shuili on charges of ``causing national strife'' and ``insulting the
    monarchy'' over a poem he denied writing that reportedly criticized the
    king. Shuili was detained until September 8, when the king pardoned him
    along with 17 others accused of insulting the monarchy.
        As of year's end, the PSD had not yet released any findings in its
    alleged investigation of the October 2009 beating of opposition figure
    Layth Shbeilat in an Amman bakery. Shbeilat and many local observers
    connected the assault to a lecture he presented at the Socialist
    Thought Forum two days earlier in which he called for increased efforts
    to fight government corruption and the need to question and hold
    officials accountable.
        Independent print media existed, including several major daily
    newspapers; however, such publications must obtain licenses from the
    state to operate. The independent print and broadcast media largely
    operated without restriction, but media observers reported governmental
    pressure to avoid sensitive topics such as the royal family, the GID,
    and religion. Media organizations and journalists reported that the
    Government influenced the appointment of editors in chief at some major
    publications, whether by virtue of officials' positions on the boards
    of directors of government-affiliated publications or through
    undisclosed contacts. The Government has a majority share on the board
    of directors for one major daily newspaper and a minority share in
    another. The Governmental Audiovisual Commission, whose mandate is to
    license private broadcast agencies, has authority to recommend
    rejection of a broadcast license without a stated reason. Media
    observers note that when covering controversial subjects, government-
    owned Jordan Television, Jordan News Agency, and Radio Jordan reported
    only the Government's position.
        Apart from the arrest of Muwaffaq Mahadin, there were no reports of
    physical violence or harassment of journalists during the year. As of
    year's end, the Government had not released any findings of its alleged
    investigation into the January 2009 gendarmerie attack on an Al Jazeera
    television crew. There were no updates in the June 2009 case of poet
    and reporter Islam Samhan, sentenced to one year in prison and a fine
    of 10,000 dinars ($14,200) on charges of slandering Islam and insulting
    ``religious sentiment'' for his use of Qur'an verses and prophets in
    his poetry, or the 2008 arrest of El-Ekhbariya editor in chief Fayez
    Al-Ajrashi on charges of ``inflaming sectarian strife'' and ``sowing
    national discord.'' Both men remained free on bail at year's end.
        The Government directly and indirectly censored the media.
    Authorities monitored and censored printing presses and edited articles
    deemed offensive before they could be printed. Journalists claimed the
    Government used informants in newsrooms and that GID officials
    monitored reporting. Editors reportedly received telephone calls from
    security officials instructing them how to cover events or to refrain
    from covering certain topics or events. Government officials also
    reportedly bribed journalists to influence their reporting. According
    to a 2009 Center for Defending the Freedom of Journalists survey, 95
    percent of journalists polled exercised self-censorship. The survey
    also reported that 70 percent of journalists thought the Government
    used ``soft containment'' to control the media at a medium to high
    degree. Ninety-four percent said they avoid writing about or
    broadcasting military matters, and 83 percent said they avoid
    discussing religious topics.
        On March 10, a State Security Court attorney general prohibited the
    press from reporting or commenting on the case of the Jordan Petroleum
    Refinery Company expansion project without his personal approval,
    purportedly to allow the judicial authorities to work ``calmly'' on the
    case.
        The Government continued to enforce bans on the publication of
    selected books for religious, moral, and political reasons. Some
    foreign films were edited prior to release.

        Internet Freedom.--There were government restrictions on access to
    the Internet. Citizens and activists widely believed that the
    Government monitored electronic correspondence and Internet chat sites;
    therefore, they practiced self-censorship over such media. Individuals
    and groups were unable to express their views via the Internet,
    including by e-mail. According to the 2010 International Research and
    Exchange Board Jordan Media Strengthening Program, Internet usage was
    30 percent. Internet speech is regulated by the Press and Publication
    Law.
        On August 3, the Government issued the Information Systems Crime
    Law, a ``temporary'' law (see section 3) that would require law
    enforcement officials to have probable cause and a warrant before
    entering and searching any place suspected of being used to commit a
    cybercrime or to seize property and make arrests based on suspicion of
    illegal cybercrime activity.
        On August 5, authorities blocked 50 domestic news Web sites in
    government institutions and offices purportedly to ``end confusion
    about topics related to the Government.''
        During the year the Ministry of Interior continued to monitor
    Internet cafes for ``security reasons'' via video cameras. The ministry
    also required cafe owners to register users' personal data, submit
    records of visited Web sites, and prevent access to questionable Web
    sites, as defined by the ministry.

        Academic Freedom and Cultural Events.--The Government placed some
    limits on academic freedom. Some members of the academic community
    claimed there was an ongoing intelligence presence in academic
    institutions, including monitoring of academic conferences and
    lectures.
        On April 29, the administration of Hashemite University introduced
    an amendment requiring that candidates running for student elections
    must have participated in religious and national occasions and
    cultural, scientific, social, artistic, and voluntary activities at the
    university. Local organizations and the media criticized the amendment,
    calling it a government attempt to control student elections by
    ensuring that the candidate is familiar to the administration.
        In September 2009 the National Campaign for Defending Students'
    Rights criticized the interference of security services in student
    activities, especially in university student council elections.
    Security personnel reportedly told students to vote for specific
    candidates. The group also noted that universities had punished or
    expelled students for distributing literature expressing solidarity
    with Palestinians.

        b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association.--Freedom of
    Assembly.--The constitution provides for freedom of assembly, but the
    Government restricted this right. The Public Gatherings Law stipulates
    that organizations do not need approval to hold routine internal
    meetings and activities but that routine public meetings--including
    workshops and training sessions--require approval. Governors are not
    required to provide a legal reason for denial of permission to hold an
    event, and there is no standard in the law for what constitutes an
    impermissible public gathering. If an organization fails to apply for
    permission for an event, its members face imprisonment from one to six
    months and a fine of as much as 3,000 dinars ($4,300). If a governor
    does not issue a response within 48 hours, applicants are entitled to
    hold the event without legal liability.
        Throughout the year several civil society organizations and
    political parties accused the Government of being stringent in issuing
    permits for public gatherings based on political factors rather than
    security concerns. Governors sometimes denied requests for peaceful
    demonstrations and civil society gatherings. In some cases the
    Government granted approval at the last moment, making it difficult for
    organizers to plan events.
        On May 10, Muhammad al-Sunaid and Ahmad al-Luwansa, leaders of the
    Committee of Day Laborers, gathered with 30 other day laborers to hold
    a peaceful protest outside an office where the minister of agriculture
    was scheduled to speak. After the protest they attended the minister's
    speech, where they questioned the firing of day laborers working at the
    ministry and called for the minister's removal. The governor ordered
    the PSD to arrest Sunaid and al-Luwansa and charged them with holding
    an unlawful gathering. Luwansa was detained at the Security Directorate
    in Madaba for one day and was released without charges. Sunaid was
    detained for 10 days and was charged with ``unlawful gathering,'' which
    carries a sentence of up to one year. On July 27, the Security Court
    sentenced Sunaid to three months in prison, and he was appealing the
    sentence at year's end.
        In late October the Islamic Action Front requested permission to
    hold a protest. On November 3, the Government denied their request;
    however, on November 6, the group staged a sit-in to protest the
    rejection of their permit request. There was no response from the
    Government.
        On November 6, the governor of Amman rejected a sit-in request by
    the Popular Unity Party's ``boycotters for change'' campaign.
        Government investigation committees cleared the gendarmerie of
    excessive use of force in the January 2009 case when the gendarmerie
    allegedly used batons, tear gas, and water cannons to disperse
    demonstrators throwing rocks and protesting outside the Israeli
    embassy. The gendarmerie were also cleared in the July 2009 incident in
    which they were accused of using batons to disperse a sit-in at the
    Ministry of Agriculture protesting importation of Israeli fruit and
    vegetables.

        Freedom of Association.--The constitution provides for the right of
    association, but the Government limited this freedom in practice. The
    law gives the MOSD the right to reject applications to register an
    organization or to receive foreign funding for any reason, and it
    prohibits the use of associations for the benefit of any political
    organization. The law also gives the ministry significant control over
    the internal management of associations, including the ability to
    dissolve associations, appoint new boards of directors, send government
    representatives to any board meeting, prevent associations from merging
    their operations, and appoint an auditor to examine an association's
    finances for any reason. The law requires associations to inform the
    ministry of board meetings, submit all board decisions for approval,
    disclose members' names, and obtain the Ministry of Interior's security
    clearances for board members. The law includes severe penalties,
    including fines up to 10,000 dinars ($14,200).
        The MOSD advisory board overseeing NGOs is chaired by the minister
    of social development and includes representatives from seven other
    government bodies and four civil society representatives. As of year's
    end, the prime minister had not appointed the civil society
    representatives. Local and international NGOs claimed that the law
    severely restricted the work of independent organizations. During the
    year the Government did not deny any organizations permission to
    register or to receive foreign funding; however, a local NGO reported
    that prolonged bureaucratic procedures to secure government approval of
    foreign funding led to the organization losing the proposed funding.

        c. Freedom of Religion.--For a complete description of religious
    freedom, please see the 2010 International Religious Freedom Report at
    www.state.gov/g/drl/irf/rpt.

        d. Freedom of Movement, Internally Displaced Persons, Protection of
    Refugees, and Stateless Persons.--The law provides for freedom of
    movement within the country, foreign travel, emigration, and
    repatriation; however, there were some restrictions. The UN reported
    that the Government cooperated with the Office of the UN High
    Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the UN Relief and Works Agency for
    Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), and other humanitarian
    organizations in providing protection and assistance to internally
    displaced persons, refugees, returning refugees, asylum seekers,
    stateless persons, and other persons of concern.
        Some mothers claimed that they were prevented from departing the
    country with their children because authorities enforced requests from
    fathers to prevent their children from leaving. However, authorities
    did not stop fathers from exiting the country with their children when
    the mother objected. There were reports some women were required to
    obtain the permission of either their husband or father in order to
    acquire or renew a passport, despite the 2003 Passport Law, which
    stipulates that women do not need a custodian to renew passports. The
    GID sometimes withheld passports from citizens for alleged security
    reasons. Employers or authorities sometimes held the passports of
    foreign workers.
        Some persons of Palestinian origin living in the country were
    citizens and received passports; however, the Government reported that
    there were approximately 165,000 Palestinian refugees, mostly of Gazan
    origin, who did not qualify for citizenship. Approximately half of
    these persons received two-year travel documents that do not connote
    citizenship and do not contain a national number. West Bank residents
    without other travel documentation were eligible to receive five-year
    travel documents that do not connote citizenship. Local and
    international human rights organizations continued to charge that the
    Government did not consistently apply citizenship laws, especially in
    cases in which passports were taken from citizens of Palestinian origin
    or in which national identification numbers were revoked, thereby
    revoking citizenship.
        A HRW report issued in February claimed that more than 2,700
    Jordanians of Palestinian origin had their citizenship revoked between
    2004 and 2007. The Government maintained this policy was in line with
    its efforts to implement its disengagement from its former claims to
    the West Bank. For example, government officials stated that a national
    number may be revoked if an individual obtains Palestinian travel
    documents, works for any part of the Palestinian Authority, or does not
    renew a family reunification permit. Activists complained that the
    disengagement regulations did not outline such procedures, that the
    process was not transparent, and that the Ministry of Interior's appeal
    process was virtually nonexistent. Claimants reported that appeals were
    not resolved to their satisfaction. Human rights activists also claimed
    the Government refused to renew the passports of former residents of
    Palestinian origin at overseas embassies.
        The law prohibits internal and external forced exile, and the
    Government did not use forced exile in practice.

        Protection of Refugees.--The country is not a party to the 1951
    Convention relating to the Status of Refugees or its 1967 Protocol. Its
    laws do not provide for the granting of asylum or refugee status, and
    the Government has not established a formal system of providing
    protection to refugees and does not have any national legislation
    pertaining to the status and treatment of refugees. The Government
    respected the UNHCR's eligibility determinations regarding asylum
    seekers, including those who entered the country clandestinely. A 1998
    memorandum of understanding between the Government and the UNHCR
    contains the definition of a refugee, confirms the principle of
    nonrefoulement, and allows recognized refugees a maximum stay of six
    months, during which period the UNHCR must find a durable solution. In
    practice the Government provided protection against the expulsion or
    return of refugees to countries where their lives or freedom would be
    threatened on account of their race, religion, nationality, membership
    in a particular social group, or political opinion. However, according
    to observers, the Government did not accept refugees for resettlement
    from third countries or facilitate local integration, particularly of
    refugees in protracted situations.
        The UNRWA and the Government continued to provide services, such as
    health care, education, the right to work, and social services, to
    Palestinian refugees during the year. At year's end, approximately two
    million Palestinian refugees were registered with the UNRWA in the
    country.
        The Government granted nationality to approximately 700,000 persons
    displaced from former territories during the 1967 war with Israel. An
    additional 120,000 persons displaced during the 1967 war held temporary
    residency permits, and an additional 200,000 Palestinian refugees were
    also estimated to be living in the country without any direct
    assistance.
        The Government generally recognized the UNHCR's requests to grant
    temporary protection for all Iraqi asylum seekers, including new
    arrivals, rejected asylum or resettlement cases, and recognized
    refugees whose cases had been suspended by resettlement countries. The
    Government estimated there were 450,000 to 500,000 Iraqi refugees in
    the country; NGO estimates varied from 100,000 to 200,000. As of years'
    end, a total of 30,800 Iraqi refugees in the country were registered
    with the UNHCR. Most registered refugees received legal and material
    assistance from the UNHCR and other international and nongovernmental
    humanitarian organizations. The Government provided education and
    health care to Iraqis and tolerated the prolonged stay of many Iraqis
    beyond the expiration of the visit permits under which they entered the
    country. During the year the Government waived any overstay fines and
    exit fees for those returning to Iraq. Few Iraqi refugees received work
    permits due to bureaucratic hurdles and significant overstay fines they
    would have to pay when applying for such permits.

    Section 3. Respect for Political Rights: The Right of Citizens to
            Change Their Government
        The law does not provide citizens the right to change their monarch
    or government. The king appoints and dismisses the prime minister,
    cabinet, and the House of Notables, dissolves parliament, and directs
    major public policy initiatives. Citizens may participate in the
    political system through their elected representatives in the Chamber
    of Deputies. The cabinet, based on the prime minister's recommendation,
    appoints the mayors of Amman, Wadi Musa (Petra), and Aqaba, a special
    economic zone. The mayors of the other 93 municipalities are elected.
        The king proposes and dismisses extraordinary sessions of
    parliament and may postpone regular sessions for as long as 60 days. In
    November 2009 the king dissolved parliament and called for
    parliamentary elections in the final quarter of 2010. Although the
    constitution states that elections must be held within four months of
    parliament's dismissal or the previous parliament is reinstated, the
    king exercised his constitutional authority to extend this period. If
    the Government amends or enacts a law when parliament is not in
    session, it must submit the law to parliament for consideration during
    the next session; however, such ``temporary'' laws do not expire.
    Although they are technically subject to action by parliament when it
    returns to session, in practice they typically remain in force in the
    absence of legislative action.

        Elections and Political Participation.--On November 9, the country
    held parliamentary elections, which international observers stated in
    their preliminary reports were ``credible'' and ``a clear improvement
    over the nation's 2007 polls,'' while recommending future reforms such
    as establishing an independent electoral management body, preprinting
    ballots to mitigate concerns over voting procedures for the illiterate,
    strengthening representation for all citizens, and introducing
    regulations to allow for systematic appeals of the election results.
        The country was without an elected parliament for the majority of
    the year, during which time the cabinet issued a number of temporary
    laws. On May 19, the cabinet issued a ``temporary'' elections law that
    increased the women's quota in the parliament to 12, added four
    parliamentary seats to underrepresented urban districts, and divided
    the existing electoral districts into nongeographic subdistricts based
    on the number of seats within each district. The new subdistricting
    system served to change the rules for candidate registration by
    requiring candidates to run for a specific subdistrict, while still
    allowing voters to cast their single ballots for any candidate within
    the electoral district as a whole. Civil society groups and media
    commentators criticized the law for not going far enough in its reforms
    to address concerns about fairness and transparency, especially for
    persons of Palestinian origin. Many analysts commented that government
    did not adequately explain to citizens the new law's system of
    nongeographic subdistricts.
        The Government licensed political parties and other associations
    but prohibited membership in unlicensed political parties. The High
    Court of Justice may dissolve a party if it concludes that the party
    violated the constitution or the law. The law stipulates that a
    political party must have a minimum of 500 founding members from five
    governorates. Opposition parties complained that the law was
    unconstitutional and obstructed political dynamism. Political parties,
    NGOs, and independent candidates found the registration process onerous
    and costly and criticized the GID's annual screening process of
    founding party members. Political parties also complained that the
    mandated public funding of 50,000 dinars ($71,100) was insufficient to
    operate effective campaigns. Political analysts and opposition parties
    called on the Government to take active measures to promote party
    development, including amendments to the electoral system that would
    place greater emphasis on parties.
        Women have the right to vote. On November 9, 13 women were elected
    to parliament, exceeding the quota by one. There was one female
    governor, and three women served in the appointed 30-member cabinet.
    The law provides a 20 percent quota for women in municipal council
    seats and a 10 percent quota for women in the lower house of
    parliament.
        Citizens of Palestinian origin were underrepresented at all levels
    of government and the military. Many observers believed the electoral
    system was intended to reduce the representation of areas heavily
    populated by citizens of Palestinian origin in favor of tribal
    interests. The law allows voters to choose one candidate in multiple-
    seat districts, which in the largely tribal society meant citizens
    tended to cast their vote for members of their own tribe. The law
    reserves nine seats in the lower house of parliament for Christians and
    three seats for the Circassian and Chechen ethnic minorities together,
    constituting an overrepresentation for these minorities. No seats were
    reserved for the relatively small Druze population, but they were
    permitted to hold office under their government classification as
    Muslims. The law also stipulates that Muslims must hold all seats not
    reserved for specified minority religions. Christians served as cabinet
    ministers and ambassadors. The Government traditionally reserves some
    positions in the upper levels of the military for Christians (4
    percent); however, Muslims held all senior command positions.

    Section 4. Official Corruption and Government Transparency
        The law provides criminal penalties for official corruption;
    however, it remained a problem. Domestic and international NGOs noted
    the Government did not implement the law effectively and officials
    often engaged in corrupt practices with impunity. During the year the
    Government investigated allegations of corruption; however, there were
    few convictions. Many observers noted that investigations into official
    corruption typically focused on small-scale corruption. The use of
    family, business, and other personal connections to advance personal
    business interests was widespread. There were allegations of lack of
    transparency in government procurement, government appointments, and
    dispute settlement.
        During the year the Anticorruption Commission investigated 890
    cases of corruption. The cases dealt with fraud, misuse of public
    office, forgery, bribery, and embezzlement, as well as cases related to
    food and drug laws. Despite increased investigations, some local
    observers questioned the commission's effectiveness due to the limited
    amount of investigations involving senior officials or large government
    projects despite allegations against them.
        On July 7, the State Security Court sentenced three former
    officials--a former finance minister, a former Jordan Petroleum
    Refinery Company (JPRC) chairperson, and a former economic advisor to
    the prime minister--and a businessman to three years in prison after
    convicting them of bribery in connection with the JPRC expansion
    project. The defendants were acquitted on the charges of abuse of
    public office. The defendants appealed the conviction and were free on
    bail at year's end.
        In a 2009 high-profile case, the Government formed an ad hoc
    committee to investigate the embezzlement of 1.2 million dinars ($1.7
    million) from the Ministry of Agriculture. On August 31, the court
    found two men guilty of embezzlement and sentenced them to 22 years in
    prison.
        During the year citizens filed more than 2,776 complaints against
    public agencies with the Governmental Ombudsman Bureau. The bureau
    rejected 1,537 of the complaints because they did not fall under its
    mandate, but it amicably resolved 80 percent of the accepted cases and
    issued recommendations in 19 percent of the accepted cases. The bureau
    is charged with investigating complaints regarding any decision or
    action by public offices or their employees.
        The law requires certain government officials to declare their
    assets privately; in the event of a complaint, the chief justice may
    review the disclosures. Under the law failure to disclose assets could
    result in prison sentences from one week to three years or fines from
    five to 200 dinars ($7 to $280). As of year's end, no officials had
    been punished for failing to submit a disclosure.
        The law provides for public access to government information that
    is a matter of legal record but allows requests to be denied for
    reasons of ``national security, public health, and personal freedoms.''
    Journalists criticized the law, claiming it permits the Government to
    deny requests without justification. A 2008 study by the Al Urdun Al
    Jadid Research Center showed that 58 percent of journalists were
    unaware of the law and nearly 85 percent did not know they had the
    right to request information. Fifty percent of journalists who had
    attempted to obtain government information characterized the
    Government's response as inadequate, and 13.8 percent said their
    requests triggered verbal abuse. In a 2008 Higher Media Council survey,
    nearly half of the journalists surveyed reported difficulty accessing
    information or said their requests had been denied outright.

    Section 5. Governmental Attitude Regarding International and
            Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations of Human
            Rights
        Domestic and international human rights groups operated in the
    country with some restrictions. The law gives the Government the
    ability to control NGOs' internal affairs, including acceptance of
    foreign funding. NGOs were generally able to investigate and report
    publicly on human rights abuses throughout the year, although
    government officials were not always cooperative. Senior government
    officials accused local human rights organizations of having
    ``Western'' or foreign agendas and focusing only on the negative
    aspects of an issue. Major local human rights organizations included
    the NCHR and several independent organizations, such as the MIZAN Law
    Group for Human Rights, the Amman Center for Human Rights Studies, the
    AOHR, the CDFJ, and the Adaleh Center for Human Rights Studies.
    Government entities met with members of these organizations and
    participated in many projects the organizations undertook.
        The Government generally cooperated with international NGOs, the
    UN, and other international governmental organizations. On May 14, as
    part of its periodic review process, the UN Committee against Torture
    expressed ``deep concern'' at continuing allegations of torture and
    mistreatment of detainees in the country (see section 1.c.).
        The Government-funded NCHR's reporting was largely regarded as
    objective and critical, although some local human rights groups and
    activists complained that the NCHR did not speak out sufficiently
    during the year on some controversial issues, such as freedom of
    expression, students' rights, citizenship, and religious freedom. The
    prime minister appoints the NCHR board chair and commissioner general.
    In April the NCHR issued its sixth annual report on the state of human
    rights in the country, which highlighted a range of continuing human
    rights problems in 2009, including excessive use of administrative
    detention, new restrictions on the right to establish civil society and
    professional associations, limitations on protests and demonstrations,
    restrictions on the right to access information, and physical attacks
    by students against their professors and vice versa.

    Section 6. Discrimination, Societal Abuses, and Trafficking in Persons
        The constitution states that all citizens are equal under the law
    and prohibits discrimination based on race, language, and religion;
    however, discrimination on the basis of gender, disability, and social
    status is not specifically prohibited. The penal code does not address
    discrimination, thereby severely limiting judicial remedies.

        Women.--Violence and abuse against women continued, including
    widespread domestic violence, numerous honor crimes, and spousal rape.
    In rural areas violence against women was reported more frequently than
    in major cities, but women's rights activists speculated that many
    incidents in cities went unreported.
        The law stipulates a sentence of at least 10 years' imprisonment
    with hard labor for rape of a girl or woman age 15 years or older.
    Spousal rape is not illegal. During the year the PSD Family Protection
    Department (FPD) treated and investigated 395 cases of sexual assault,
    131 cases of rape against women, and 223 rape cases against children.
    There was no information available regarding prosecutions or
    convictions for rape during the year.
        In a survey of women in rural southern areas that the Higher
    Population Council and the Ministry of Health released in January 2009,
    30 percent of women 15 to 49 years old reported psychological abuse and
    20 percent reported physical abuse. Spousal abuse is technically
    grounds for divorce, but husbands can claim religious authority to
    strike their wives. A woman may file a complaint against her spouse for
    physical abuse with the FPD, certain NGOs, or directly with judicial
    authorities. During the year the FPD forwarded 2,021 complaints of
    domestic violence for prosecution. Violators of protection orders may
    face as long as six months in prison. Observers noted that judges
    generally supported a woman's claim of domestic abuse in court;
    however, due to societal and familial pressure, few women sought legal
    remedies. A 2007 survey by an international organization showed that
    only 22 percent of domestic violence victims sought any form of
    assistance. In 2008 the Jordan Center for Social Research conducted a
    survey indicating that women often did not admit they were subjected to
    violence and did not seek help because they were afraid of breaking up
    or damaging the reputation of their families. The results also showed
    some degree of acceptance of abuse, particularly among less-educated
    women. Of the respondents who reported a case of violence, 83 percent
    identified their husband, father, or brother as the perpetrator. There
    were few services available to victims of domestic violence, and most
    women were not aware of them.
        The Government-run shelter Dar al-Wafaq assisted approximately 730
    women and 160 children who were victims of domestic violence. It
    provided reconciliation services to victims and their families and
    worked with NGOs to provide services, such as legal and medical
    assistance. However, observers noted a lack of a comprehensive approach
    for victims and the absence of psychosocial counseling. The FPD
    continued to operate a domestic violence hotline during the year and
    received inquiries and complaints via the Internet and e-mail. The
    Jordanian Women's Union, a domestic NGO, maintained a hotline for
    victims of domestic violence and provided shelter to abuse victims. The
    Jordan River Foundation operated a child and family center in East
    Amman that provided shelter and assistance to domestic violence
    victims. During the year the quasi-governmental Jordanian National
    Commission for Women received 583 gender-related complaints ranging
    from domestic violence to discrimination.
        Authorities prosecuted 16 officially reported instances of
    homicides related to ``honor'' crimes that occurred over the past three
    years. Activists reported that many such crimes went unreported. An
    Information and Research Center study released in October 2009 on the
    causes of ``honor'' crimes in the country showed a high correlation
    between poverty and education with ``honor'' crimes. The study found
    that 73 percent of victims since 2000 were classified as poor, a group
    that constituted only 30 percent of the country's population. The
    brother of the victim was the perpetrator in 76 percent of the cases
    and the father in 13 percent.
        In July 2009 the Government established a specialized section
    within the criminal courts to hear all cases of ``honor'' crimes.
    During the year the court sentenced 15 perpetrators to 10 years in
    prison and one perpetrator to five years in prison. In most cases
    during the year, the family dropped the criminal charges, and the court
    issued a sentence of 10 years' imprisonment. Judges have the
    discretionary right, but not an obligation, to reduce sentences by as
    much as half if the victim's family does not press charges, even if the
    perpetrator and victim are from the same family.
        Prior to the creation of the specialized unit within the criminal
    court, some lower courts handed down 15-year sentences for second-
    degree murder, but in every case the court immediately cut the sentence
    in half. In previous years the courts usually found perpetrators of
    honor killings guilty of a ``crime of passion,'' which merited a
    maximum sentence of three years. Although defendants were almost always
    found guilty, they often received token sentences of no more than six
    months. The maximum sentence for first-degree murder is death.
        On June 1 in East Amman, a man stabbed his sister 30 times on a
    busy street with the assistance of his 19-year-old cousin. The brother
    suspected that his sister was pregnant. The victim was rushed to the
    hospital where she was declared dead on arrival. The prosecutor general
    charged the brother and cousin with premeditated murder, and at year's
    end the case was pending.
        On July 23 in Deir Alla, a man shot and killed his 16-year-old
    niece with a machine gun at her wedding, confessing he did it to
    ``cleanse his family's honor'' over suspicions the girl had lost her
    virginity a month earlier. The father and husband pressed criminal
    charges against the perpetrator; the case was pending at year's end.
        At year's end the March 2009 case of a man in Zarqa who beat to
    death his 19-year-old daughter with the assistance of two of her
    brothers remained pending at the criminal court.
        On April 23, the criminal court convicted and sentenced a man to 15
    years in prison for publicly stabbing his 24-year-old daughter 16 times
    on a main street in October 2009. The court reduced his sentence to 10
    years because the family dropped the charges.
        Through the administrative detention authority granted to governors
    under the Crime Prevention Act, authorities continued to place
    potential victims of honor crimes in involuntary protective custody in
    the Women's Correctional and Rehabilitation Center in Jweideh, a
    detention facility where some women had remained for more than four
    years. A woman detained in protective custody can be released only
    after her family signs a statement guaranteeing her safety and both the
    local governor and the woman agree to the release. During the year the
    Government released a number of women who had been detained for more
    than 10 years. Unlike in previous years, there were no cases of women
    being killed after release from protective custody. A human rights
    organization estimated that approximately 12 women were in protective
    custody. One NGO continued to work for the release of these women
    through mediation with their families. The NGO also provided a
    temporary but unofficial shelter for such women as an alternative to
    protective custody.
        According to the law, sexual harassment in the workplace is
    strictly prohibited. The law does not make a distinction between sexual
    assault and sexual harassment; both carry a minimum prison sentence of
    four years with hard labor. Women's groups stated that harassment was
    common, but many victims were hesitant to file a complaint and rarely
    did so because they often were blamed for inciting it, they feared
    losing their job, or they faced pressure to keep silent.
        Couples have the basic right to decide freely and responsibly the
    number, spacing, and timing of their children. Contraceptives were
    generally accessible to all men and women, both married and single, and
    provided free of charge in public clinics. Almost 99 percent of births
    in the country take place in hospitals with trained professionals.
    Comprehensive essential obstetric, prenatal, and postnatal care is
    provided throughout the country in the public and private sectors.
    According to data compiled by international organizations, in 2008
    there were approximately 59 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births.
    There was no discrimination against women in the diagnosis and
    treatment of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections.
        Women experienced legal discrimination in pension and social
    security benefits, inheritance, divorce, ability to travel, child
    custody, citizenship, and (in certain limited circumstances) the value
    of their Sharia court testimony.
        Under Sharia law as applied in the country, female heirs receive
    half the amount that male heirs receive, and non-Muslim widows of
    Muslim spouses have no inheritance rights; however, a Muslim spouse can
    designate some of his property to his non-Muslim spouse through a will.
    A sole female heir receives half of her parents' estate; the balance
    goes to designated male relatives. A sole male heir inherits both of
    his parents' property. Male Muslim heirs have the duty to provide for
    all family members who need assistance. The existing temporary divorce
    law allows women to seek divorces in return for waiving financial
    rights or alimony. The law allows retention of financial rights under
    specific circumstances, such as spousal abuse. Special courts for each
    denomination adjudicate marriage and divorce for Christians.
        The Government provided men with more generous social security
    benefits than it gave women. The Government continued pension payments
    of deceased male civil servants to their heirs, but it discontinued
    payments to heirs of deceased female civil servants. Laws and
    regulations governing health insurance for civil servants do not permit
    married women to extend their health insurance coverage to dependents
    or spouses. However, divorced and widowed women may extend coverage to
    their children.
        Women's rights activists complained that the law granting women
    equal pay for equal work was not enforced. Many women said traditional
    social pressures discouraged them from pursuing professional careers,
    especially after marriage. The official unemployment rate for women was
    20 percent, compared with 11.9 percent for the country as a whole. A
    Jordanian National Council for Family Affairs study released in April
    2009 found that women were often denied basic labor rights, such as pay
    equality and the working hours and conditions outlined in the labor
    law. The study called for legislative changes and awareness campaigns
    to inform women of their rights.
        The law states that a woman has the right to obtain or renew a
    passport without the written permission of her husband; however, some
    women reported that authorities required a male custodian's permission.
        Married women do not have the legal right to transmit citizenship
    to their children. In practical terms this affects thousands of
    families whose father is of Palestinian origin. Female citizens married
    to noncitizen men may pass citizenship to their children only with the
    permission of the cabinet; however, the cabinet rarely took such
    action, the public was widely unaware of this mechanism, and permission
    was usually not granted in cases in which the father was of Palestinian
    origin. Women may not petition for citizenship for their noncitizen
    husbands, who must apply for citizenship after fulfilling a requirement
    of 15 years' continuous residency. Once a husband has obtained
    citizenship, he may apply to transmit citizenship to his children.
    However, in practice such an application may take years, and the
    Government may deny the application, resulting in the children becoming
    stateless.
        During the year a female citizen married to a Palestinian man from
    Gaza was not allowed to enroll her son in preschool because her son was
    not considered Jordanian. Furthermore, her husband was unable to work
    legally because the family could not afford to renew his residency
    permit on a yearly basis.
        In 2009 a female citizen whose Egyptian husband died after falling
    at a construction site had to reapply annually for a residency permit
    for her three Egyptian-citizen children to continue to enable them to
    live legally in the country and have access to education and health
    services. The cost of applying for residency every year was a
    significant burden, and the Government's approval was not guaranteed.

        Children.--Citizenship is derived only through the father. Children
    of female citizens and noncitizen husbands receive the nationality of
    the father and lose the right to attend public school or to seek other
    government services if they do not hold legal residency, which must be
    applied for every year and is not guaranteed. The Government did not
    issue birth certificates to all children born inside the country during
    the year. The Government deemed some children--including children of
    unmarried women, certain interfaith marriages, and converts from Islam
    to another religion--illegitimate and denied them proper registration,
    making it difficult or impossible for them to attend school, access
    health services, or receive other documentation. In one such case in
    2009, a single mother had to illegally bury her baby who died during
    childbirth because she was unable to obtain a birth or death
    certificate.
        Education is compulsory from ages six through 16 years and free
    until age 18. However, no legislation exists to enforce the law or to
    punish guardians for violating it.
        During the year authorities received and investigated 128
    complaints of child abuse and 223 complaints of child rape. A February
    2009 UN Children's Fund report stated that 71 percent of children were
    subjected to verbal abuse and 57 percent had experienced some form of
    physical abuse in school. Statistics on child abuse within households
    were not available. The law specifies punishment for abuses against
    children. For example, conviction for rape of a child younger than 15
    years potentially carries the death penalty. However, local
    organizations working with abused children pointed to gaps in the legal
    system that regularly resulted in lenient sentencing, particularly for
    family members. For example, the penal code gives judges the ability to
    reduce a sentence when the victim's family does not press charges. In
    child abuse cases, judges routinely accorded leniency per the wishes of
    the family. The National Council for Family Affairs and other local
    organizations stated that legislation does not provide children
    sufficient protection from abuse, specifically citing the legal
    authorization for parents to discipline their children using force.
        Some local children's rights activists noted that abuse occurs in
    some government-run juvenile detention centers (see section 1.c.). The
    defendants in a February 2009 shaken baby syndrome case and April 2009
    torture and killing of a five-year-old boy remained in jail at year's
    end, pending the outcome of their court cases.
        The Government continued to fund a child protection center that
    provided temporary shelter and medical care for abused children between
    the ages of six and 12. During the year the shelter housed 158 abused
    children. Observers noted that the shelter lacked qualified staff,
    psychosocial counselors, and a comprehensive approach to deal with
    victims of abuse.
        The minimum age for marriage is 18. With the consent of both a
    judge and a guardian, a child as young as 15, in most cases a girl, may
    be married. Judicial statistics indicated that in 2008-09 judges
    granted consent in 14,000 cases in which at least one person was
    between 15 and 18 years old. According to the May 2010 Jordan
    Population and Family Health Survey conducted in 2009, 6 percent of
    persons between ages 15 and 19 were married, the majority of those
    having been married between the ages of 17 and19. Instances of forced
    marriage as an alternative to a potential honor killing were reported
    in rural areas during the year. Observers note that, if a woman marries
    her rapist, according to customary belief, her family members would not
    need to kill her to ``preserve the family's honor.''
        The country is not a party to the 1980 Hague Convention on the
    Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. For information on
    international parental child abduction, please see the Department of
    State's annual report on compliance at http://travel.state.gov/
    abduction/resources/congressreport/congressreport--4308.html, as well
    as country-specific information at http://travel.state.gov/abduction/
    country/country--3781.html.

        Anti-Semitism.--Anti-Semitism was present in the media, and
    editorial cartoons, articles, and opinion pieces sometimes depicted
    negative images of Jews without government response. Aside from
    expatriates, there was no resident Jewish community in the country.

        Trafficking in Persons.--For information on trafficking in persons,
    please see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons
    Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        Persons With Disabilities.--The law provides equal rights to
    persons with disabilities, who numbered around 200,000, according to
    government and NGO estimates. The Higher Council for the Affairs of
    People with Disabilities works with government ministries, the private
    sector, and NGOs to formulate and implement strategies to assist
    persons with disabilities. In July 2009 the council issued national
    accreditation standards for rehabilitation centers for persons with
    disabilities. According to the council there were more than 15,000
    students with disabilities attending 255 specialized centers and
    schools.
        Citizens and NGOs universally reported that persons with
    disabilities faced problems accessing education, transportation, and
    other services, particularly in rural areas. The Special Buildings Code
    Department is tasked to enforce accessibility provisions and oversees
    retrofitting of existing buildings to comply with building codes. Many
    private and public office buildings continued to have limited or no
    access for persons with disabilities.
        The law mandates that public and private sector establishments with
    between 25 and 50 workers employ at least one person with disabilities,
    and establishments with more than 50 workers must reserve 2 percent of
    their positions for persons with disabilities. However, these
    requirements were rarely enforced. Local organizations received
    complaints from persons with disabilities regarding employers who
    discriminated against them.
        In 2009 the Government provided monetary assistance to citizens
    with severe mental and multiple physical disabilities whose families
    earned less than 250 dinars ($360) per month, and the higher council
    and local NGOs operated assistance programs. During the year the higher
    council discontinued financial assistance previously provided to cover
    a portion of education, training, or rehabilitation expenses for
    persons with disabilities due to budget cuts.
        In September the Government announced that it would allow persons
    with disabilities to vote with the aid of personal assistants rather
    than verbally, ensuring them greater ballot secrecy and electoral
    access. Takafo, an NGO aiming to increase voter participation for
    persons with disabilities, confirmed that the Government made the
    necessary changes for the November 9 parliamentary elections to allow
    voters with disabilities greater accessibility and greater ballot
    secrecy.

        National/Ethnic/Racial Minorities.--There were three groups of
    Palestinians residing in the country, many of whom faced some
    discrimination. Those who migrated to the country and the Jordan-
    controlled West Bank after the 1948 Arab-Israeli war received full
    citizenship, as did those who migrated to the country after the 1967
    war and hold no residency entitlement in the West Bank. Those still
    residing in the West Bank after 1967 were no longer eligible to claim
    full citizenship but were allowed to obtain temporary travel documents
    without national identification numbers, provided they did not also
    carry a Palestinian Authority travel document. These individuals had
    access to some government services but paid noncitizen rates at
    hospitals, educational institutions, and training centers. Refugees who
    fled Gaza after 1967 were not entitled to citizenship and were issued
    temporary travel documents without national numbers. These persons had
    no access to government services and were almost completely dependent
    on UNRWA services.
        Several human rights organizations stated that the Ministry of
    Interior revoked national numbers of many longtime citizens of
    Palestinian origin during the year, despite codified passport issuance
    procedures (see section 2.d.).
        Palestinians were underrepresented in parliament and senior
    positions in the Government and the military, as well as in admission
    to public universities. They had limited access to university
    scholarships.
        During the year there were reports of societal discrimination
    against Iraqis living in the country. Some employers reportedly refused
    to pay or underpaid Iraqis working illegally, and some landlords
    reportedly would not rent or sell to Iraqis.

        Societal Abuses, Discrimination, and Acts of Violence Based on
    Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.--Homosexuality is not illegal
    in Jordan; however, societal discrimination against LGBT persons
    existed. A number of citizens reported sporadic police mistreatment of
    suspected LGBT persons. There were reports of individuals who left the
    country due to fear their families would punish them for their sexual
    orientation.
        In March 2009 the municipality of Amman reportedly denied an
    application to establish a gay rights organization.
        In 2008 security forces arrested four gays in a park in West Amman
    for ``lewd acts'' following a targeted operation by the police. The
    individuals were placed in solitary confinement in Jweidah Prison until
    they promised that they would not carry out any such acts in the
    future.

        Other Societal Violence or Discrimination.--HIV/AIDS was a largely
    taboo subject. Lack of public awareness remained a problem; many
    citizens believed the disease exclusively affected foreigners and gays.
    There was a social stigma against HIV-positive individuals in general.
    The Government continued efforts to inform the public about the disease
    and to eliminate negative attitudes against persons with HIV/AIDS,
    including a media strategy launched in September 2009. The Government
    continued to test all foreigners annually for HIV/AIDS, hepatitis B,
    syphilis, malaria, and tuberculosis, and it deported foreigners who
    tested HIV positive.

    Section 7. Worker Rights
        a. The Right of Association.--The law provides citizens working in
    the private sector, in some government-owned companies, and in certain
    professions in the public sector the right to form and join unions, but
    in practice this right was restricted. According to official figures,
    more than 10 percent of the workforce was organized into 17 unions
    which fall under a government-subsidized centralized federation, the
    General Federation of Jordanian Trade Unions (GFJTU). On August 15, the
    Ministry of Labor issued a temporary law that allows foreign workers to
    join unions; however, foreign workers are not permitted to create
    unions or hold key positions.
        Government influence in union policies and activities reportedly
    continued. The Government required unions to be members of the GFJTU,
    the sole trade union federation, and new unions must be directly linked
    to 17 professions and sectors in which unions already exist before
    being approved by the Ministry of Labor. The Government subsidized and
    audited the GFJTU's salaries and activities, and it monitored union
    elections. Observers noted that the minister of labor may dissolve
    unions without judicial due process.
        Teachers employed in public schools held several sit-ins during the
    year to demand their own professional association and better work
    conditions. The Government did not agree to establish an association
    but approved the creation of a teachers' union, which would have
    broader legal restrictions and less autonomy than associations. As of
    year's end, the teachers had not agreed to this proposal and were in
    negotiations with the Government. In June the Government forced
    approximately 40 teachers, many of whom were actively calling on the
    Government to create an independent association, into early retirement
    but reinstated them just before school started on September 14.
        On July 15, the Government issued an amendment to the labor law
    allowing companies with more than 25 employees to form workers'
    committees to look into labor conditions. The amendment also allowed up
    to 28 days of sick leave per year and the recalculation of annual leave
    to exclude weekends.
        The law permits workers to strike only under certain conditions,
    including a minimum 14 days' notice to both the employer and the
    Government. Strikes are prohibited if a labor dispute is under
    mediation or arbitration. In practice workers generally went on strike
    without notifying the Government in advance, and the union or workers
    requested penalty waivers for the illegal strike as part of subsequent
    labor negotiations. During the year the gendarmerie broke up one strike
    deemed illegal due to lack of prior notice and briefly detained some
    strikers.
        As of year's end, a joint PSD-gendarmerie investigation continued
    into the alleged July 2009 case of gendarmerie forces using excessive
    force to break up a sit-in by workers at the general cargo port in
    Aqaba. Workers held the two-day sit-in to protest job losses and a
    housing compensation agreement connected to the sale of the port. The
    Government transferred the strike leader from the port of Aqaba to
    another position in Amman. Labor activists and NGOs noted no
    significant improvements at the Aqaba port; however, the workers
    received some of their demands, such as monetary support of between
    3,000 and 5,000 dinars ($4,200-$7,000) for moving expenses.

        b. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively.--Unions have the
    right to bargain collectively, and in practice the Government respected
    this right, although observers stated that the legal procedures are
    cumbersome and discourage collective bargaining.
        The constitution prohibits antiunion discrimination, and the
    Ministry of Labor received no complaints of antiunion discrimination
    during the year; however, some nonunionized workers alleged retaliation
    from the Government based on strike activity and attempts to organize.
    This was particularly the case for foreign workers and contracted
    domestic employees, such as day laborers.
        Nearly 76 percent of the workers in the qualified industrial zones
    (QIZs) were noncitizens and for most of the year were not permitted to
    participate in unions or to engage in collective bargaining. As of
    year's end, foreign workers were not permitted to form unions but could
    join existing unions.

        c. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor.--The constitution
    prohibits forced or compulsory labor, except in a state of emergency
    such as war or natural disaster. However, there were reports of forced
    labor, particularly of domestic workers and garment sector factory
    workers. With the August 2009 passage of new domestic worker
    regulations, labor inspectors have the authority to inspect a labor
    complaint in a private home but only after receiving the employer's
    permission or with a court order. According to local NGOs, as of year's
    end, labor inspectors had not investigated reports of labor abuse in
    private homes. Domestic workers can file in-person complaints with the
    Ministry of Labor's Domestic Workers Directorate or the PSD; however,
    many domestic workers complained that there was no follow up to their
    cases either from the Ministry of Labor or the PSD. Domestic workers
    are covered by the labor laws, although not fully or effectively.
        Women, including some minors with forged documents, from countries
    including Sri Lanka, Indonesia, and the Philippines migrated to work as
    domestic servants, but some were subjected to conditions of forced
    labor, including withholding of passports, restrictions on movement,
    nonpayment of wages, threats, excessively long working hours, and
    physical or sexual abuse. The Philippines, Indonesia, and Sri Lanka
    prohibited the emigration of migrant workers for domestic work because
    of a high rate of employer abuse of domestic workers and administrative
    problems with overstay fines when employers filed to renew the
    employees' work permits. However, the prohibition did not reduce the
    flow of migrant workers.
        During the year an estimated 300 domestic workers from the
    Philippines, 275 Indonesian workers, and 400 Sri Lankan workers were
    sheltered at their respective embassies in Amman. Most had reportedly
    fled some form of forced labor, including unpaid wages and to a lesser
    extent sexual or physical abuse. By law employers are responsible for
    renewing residency permits but often fail to do this for their domestic
    helper employees. As a result most of the embassy-sheltered domestic
    workers were considered illegal residents, and many were stranded in
    the country because they were unable to pay the daily overstay fees of
    1.5 dinars ($3) to depart the country. Due to the large number of
    domestic workers sheltered at their respective embassies, the
    Government created a working group in August to examine the cases
    individually. In some cases this resulted in overstay fines being
    waived.
        Chinese, Bangladeshi, Indian, Sri Lankan, and Filipino men and
    women encountered conditions indicative of forced labor in some garment
    sector factories, including unlawful withholding of passports, late or
    nonpayment of wages, and excessive overtime. The Government actively
    inspected factories and investigated allegations of forced labor in
    garment factories, and reports of withholding of passports declined
    during the year. The Ministry of Labor required violators to conform to
    the requirements of the labor law and other governing legislation and
    imposed fines when appropriate. The ministry also publicized the
    outcomes of its findings.
        Also see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons
    Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        d. Prohibition of Child Labor and Minimum Age for Employment.--The
    labor law forbids employment for children younger than 16 years of age,
    except as apprentices in nonhazardous positions. The law provides that
    employers who hire a child younger than 16 must pay a fine of as much
    as 500 dinars ($710), which is doubled for repeat offenses. The law
    bans those between the ages of 16 and 18 from working in potentially
    hazardous jobs, limits working hours for such children to six hours per
    day, mandates one-hour breaks for every four consecutive working hours,
    and prohibits these children from working after 8 p.m., on national or
    religious holidays, and on weekends.
        Children worked in mechanical repair, agriculture, fishing,
    construction, and the hotel and restaurant industry, as well as in the
    informal sector as street vendors, carpenters, blacksmiths, domestic
    workers, and painters, and in small family businesses. Child labor was
    reportedly concentrated in larger cities, such as Amman, Zarqa, and
    Irbid. A 2008 Department of Statistics study estimated that more than
    32,000 children between the ages of five and 17 were working in the
    country. Activists estimated the number to be higher, as many
    businesses and families tended to hide the practice.
        During the year the Ministry of Labor conducted 53,825 labor
    inspections including 19,165 child labor visits. In June officials
    inspected 412 institutions, issuing warnings to 75 employers and fining
    another 19 for recruiting children under the age of 16, mostly in
    mechanic shops, bakeries, blacksmith shops, carpentries, restaurants,
    and gas stations.
        On September 20, the Ministry of Labor reported that 32.4 percent
    of working children were in Amman, with the remainder distributed
    across the country, mainly in impoverished areas. Eighty-nine percent
    of the working children were boys employed in the car repair
    (approximately 36 percent), agricultural (27 percent), or hotel and
    restaurant (4 percent) sectors.
        The Government's capacity to implement and enforce child labor laws
    was not sufficient to deter the practice. The Ministry of Labor's Child
    Labor Unit coordinates government action regarding child labor and
    receives, investigates, and addresses child labor complaints. The unit,
    with three employees, coordinated child labor inspections for the 129
    labor inspectors.
        In 2009 the Government reinstated the National Committee to Combat
    Child Labor and initiated development of a new national strategy;
    however, as of year's end, the Government had not implemented the new
    national strategy. During the year international organizations trained
    78 general labor inspectors on techniques of combating child labor.
    Sixty-two inspectors participated in several labor training courses
    during the year.
        Labor inspectors issue fines for child labor violations but
    reportedly attempt alternative approaches first, such as ensuring safe
    work conditions and cooperating with employers to permit working
    children to attend school concurrently.

        e. Acceptable Conditions of Work.--The national minimum wage was
    150 dinars ($213) per month, which did not provide a decent standard of
    living for a worker and family. Ministry of Labor inspectors enforced
    the minimum wage but were unable to ensure full compliance due to
    limited resources.
        The law requires overtime pay for hours worked in excess of the 48-
    hour standard workweek. The law prohibits compulsory overtime but
    allows the employer to require the employee to work more than 48 hours
    a week for specific purposes, such as conducting an annual inventory,
    closing accounts, preparing to sell goods at discounted prices,
    avoiding loss to goods that would otherwise be exposed to damage, and
    receiving special deliveries. In such cases actual working hours may
    not exceed 10 hours per day, the employee must be paid overtime, and
    the period may not last more than 30 days. Employees can lodge a
    complaint directly with the Ministry of Labor or through organizations
    such as their union or the NCHR. Employees are entitled to one day off
    per week. Provisions for domestic workers were similar.
        The law specifies a number of health and safety requirements that
    the Ministry of Labor is authorized to enforce; however, workers do not
    have a statutory right to remove themselves from hazardous conditions
    without risking the loss of their jobs and may be fired if they attempt
    to do so. Foreign workers were more susceptible to dangerous or unfair
    conditions.
        Foreign workers, who make up the vast majority of workers in the
    QIZs and Export Processing Zones, were vulnerable to poor work
    conditions such as mandatory overtime, withholding of passports, and
    unacceptable living conditions in dorms. On August 18, the Phoenix
    Center for Economic and Informatics Studies issued a report claiming
    that approximately 10,000 attendants and cafeteria staff in the health
    support services sector were denied basic rights such as annual leave,
    health and safety conditions, and minimum wage as guaranteed under the
    labor law. The report indicated that a majority of the 23,000 day
    laborers were being denied their rights to job security and safety.
    Throughout the year day laborers held several strikes and sit-ins to
    demand job security, payment of overdue wages, and wage increases.
        On December 1, the Government issued a directive making the
    International Labor Organization project, Better Work Jordan, mandatory
    in all garment factories in the country. The project aimed to improve
    labor standards compliance through monitoring of factories and
    reporting on conditions as well as providing technical assistance.

                                   __________

                                     KUWAIT

        Kuwait is a constitutional, hereditary emirate ruled by the Al
    Sabah family. The country has a population of 3.44 million, of whom 1.1
    million are citizens. Local observers and the press considered the May
    16, 2009, parliamentary election generally free and fair. Security
    forces reported to civilian authorities.
        Principal human rights problems included limitations on citizens'
    right to change their government. There were reports of security forces
    abusing prisoners. Authorities limited freedoms of speech, press,
    assembly, association, and religion. The Government limited freedom of
    movement for certain groups, including foreign workers and stateless
    Arab residents (called ``Bidoon''). The status of the Bidoon remained
    unresolved and they faced social and legal discrimination. Trafficking
    in persons remained a problem. Women did not enjoy equal rights. Worker
    rights were limited, and expatriate workers were subject to severe
    limitations of rights and discrimination as well, especially in the
    domestic and unskilled service sectors.

                            RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

    Section 1. Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom
            From:
        a. Arbitrary or Unlawful Deprivation of Life.--There were no
    reports that the Government or its agents committed arbitrary or
    unlawful killings.

        b. Disappearance.--There were no reports of politically motivated
    disappearances.

        c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or
    Punishment.--Articles 53, 159, and 184 of the criminal law code
    prohibit torture and other cruel, inhumane, or degrading treatment or
    punishment; however, there were reports that some police and members of
    the security forces abused detainees during the year. Police and
    security forces were more likely to inflict such abuse on noncitizens,
    particularly non-Gulf Arabs and Asians, and there were several reported
    accounts of police abuse of transgender persons. The Government stated
    that it investigated all allegations of abuse and punished some of the
    offenders; however, in most cases the Government did not make public
    either the findings of its investigations or any punishments it imposed
    (see section 6).
        In February the Court of Appeals upheld a two-year prison sentence
    for three police officers accused of torturing a young man in prison in
    2008.
        There were no further developments concerning the allegations that
    security officials abused hundreds of Bangladeshi workers in the wake
    of 2008 labor strikes.

        Prison and Detention Center Conditions.--The Ministry of Interior
    permitted independent monitoring of prison conditions by international
    and local human rights groups, the media, and the International
    Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). The ICRC visited all three prisons
    and the detention center and, unlike in 2009, the Government did not
    obstruct representatives of the Kuwait Human Rights Society from
    visiting prisons several prisoners during the year.
        The Central Prison Complex houses the country's only three prisons:
    a low-security men's prison, a high-security men's prison, and a
    women's prison. The prison complex exceeded its 3,200-person capacity;
    there were 201 inmates in the women's prison and 3,978 inmates in the
    men's prisons. Within the prisons, juveniles were detained separately
    from adults. The country also has a 1,000-person capacity deportation
    center in Talha that is not part of the prison complex. Some detention
    facilities lacked adequate sanitation and sufficient medical staff.
    There were reports of security forces abusing prisoners.
        Prisoners had reasonable access to personal visitors and were
    permitted religious observance. Authorities permitted prisoners and
    detainees to submit complaints to judicial authorities without
    censorship and to request investigation of credible allegations of
    inhumane conditions.
        Ombudsmen may not serve on behalf of prisoners.

        d. Arbitrary Arrest or Detention.--The law prohibits arbitrary
    arrest and detention, and the Government observed these prohibitions,
    apart from a few reports that police arbitrarily arrested nonnationals.

        Role of the Police and Security Apparatus.--The police have sole
    responsibility for the enforcement of laws not related to national
    security, and State Security oversees intelligence and national
    security matters; both are under the purview of civilian Interior
    Ministry authorities. The military is responsible for external
    security.
        The police were generally effective in carrying out core
    responsibilities. There were reports that some police stations did not
    take seriously the requests of complainants, especially foreign
    nationals. In cases of alleged police abuse, the district chief
    investigator examines abuse allegations and refers cases to the courts
    for trial; there was no evidence of police impunity.
        Security forces sometimes failed to respond effectively to societal
    violence against family members or domestic workers.

        Arrest Procedures and Treatment While in Detention.--A police
    officer generally must obtain an arrest warrant from a state prosecutor
    or a judge before making an arrest, except in cases of hot pursuit.
    There were few reports of police arresting and detaining foreign
    nationals without a warrant during the year. The courts generally do
    not accept cases without warrants issued prior to arrests. Detainees
    were generally allowed access to their lawyers and family members.
    However, in compliance with the penal code a suspected criminal may be
    held at a police station without charge for as long as four days,
    during which time authorities may prevent lawyers and family members
    from visiting. During this time lawyers are permitted to attend legal
    proceedings but are not allowed to have direct contact with their
    clients. The law provides the detained person the right to a prompt
    judicial determination about the detention's legality; however, this
    right was not always respected. If charges are filed, a prosecutor may
    remand a suspect to detention for an additional 21 days. Detainees were
    informed promptly of the charges against them. Prosecutors also may
    obtain court orders for further detention pending trial. There is a
    functioning bail system for defendants awaiting trial. The bar
    association provides lawyers for indigent defendants; in these cases
    defendants do not have the option of choosing which lawyer will be
    assigned to them.
        Of the 4,179 persons serving sentences or detained pending trial,
    an estimated 150 were held in the ``state security ward'' on security
    grounds, including some held for collaborating with Iraq during the
    1990-91 occupation. On March 23, the Ministry of Interior, in
    cooperation with the Kuwait Red Crescent Society, arranged for six
    Iraqi families to visit their relatives, imprisoned since 1991 for
    collaborating with Iraq during the occupation.
        Arbitrarily lengthy detention before trial was a problem, and
    approximately 10 percent of the prison population consisted of pretrial
    detainees. Pretrial detainees were held separately from convicted
    prisoners.
        During the year foreign nationals at the Talha Deportation Center
    were generally incarcerated between 10 days and two months awaiting
    deportation. Some prisoners were held for longer periods if they lacked
    required travel documents. There were reports of security forces
    abusing prisoners in the deportation center.

        e. Denial of Fair Public Trial.--The law provides for an
    independent judiciary and the right to a fair trial and states that
    ``judges shall not be subject to any authority;'' however, the emir
    appoints all judges, and the renewal of judicial appointments is
    subject to government approval. Judges who are citizens have lifetime
    appointments; however, many judges are noncitizens who hold one- to
    three-year renewable contracts. The Ministry of Justice may remove
    judges for cause but rarely does so. Foreign residents involved in
    legal disputes with citizens frequently claimed the courts showed bias
    in favor of citizens.

        Trial Procedures.--By law, criminal trials are public unless a
    court or the Government decides the ``maintenance of public order'' or
    the ``preservation of public morals'' necessitates closed proceedings.
    There is no trial by jury. Defendants enjoy a presumption of innocence
    and have the rights to confront their accusers and to appeal verdicts.
    Defendants in felony cases are required by law to be represented in
    court by legal counsel, which the courts provide in criminal cases. The
    bar association is obligated upon court request to appoint an attorney
    without charge for indigent defendants in civil, commercial, and
    criminal cases, and defendants used these services. Defendants have the
    right to confront witnesses against them and to present their own
    witnesses. Defendants and their attorneys generally have access to
    government-held evidence relevant to their cases and to appeal their
    cases to a higher court. The law affords these protections to all
    citizens.

        Political Prisoners and Detainees.--There were no reports of
    political prisoners or detainees.

        Civil Judicial Procedures and Remedies.--The law provides for an
    independent and impartial judiciary in civil matters; however, rulings
    occasionally were not enforced. Administrative punishments, such as
    travel bans, are also available in civil matters.

        f. Arbitrary Interference With Privacy, Family, Home, or
    Correspondence.--The law provides for individual privacy and the
    sanctity of the home, and the Government generally respected these
    rights in practice. The law permits security forces to monitor private
    communications with the approval of the attorney general, and this
    monitoring occurred occasionally.
        The law forbids marriage between Muslim women and non-Muslim men
    and requires male citizens serving in the police force or military to
    obtain government approval to marry foreign nationals. In practice the
    Government offered only nonbinding advice in such matters and did not
    prevent any such marriages.
        The Government may deny a citizenship application by a Bidoon
    resident based on security or criminal violations committed by the
    individual's family members.

    Section 2. Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:
        a. Freedom of Speech and Press.--The constitution provides for
    freedom of speech and of the press ``in accordance with the conditions
    and in the circumstances defined by law.'' In practice the Government
    sometimes did not respect these rights, and journalists and publishers
    practiced self-censorship. Restrictions on the country's press freedoms
    increased during the year.
        The Government restricted freedoms of the press and of speech,
    particularly in instances related to national security. The law also
    specifically prohibits the publication of material insulting Islam, the
    emir, the constitution, or the neutrality of the courts or public
    prosecutor's office. The law mandates jail terms for anyone who
    ``defames religion,'' and any Muslim citizen may file criminal charges
    against an author the citizen believes has defamed Islam, the ruling
    family, or public morals. The number of such cases filed against
    journalists and television stations continued to increase
    significantly; 678 were filed during the year, most of which resulted
    in fines. In comparison, fewer than 200 were filed in 2009.
        Pointed criticism of other ministers and other high-ranking
    government officials continued to be widespread and was permitted.
    During the reporting period, several individuals were charged with
    insulting the ruling family and, under separate legal provisions,
    slandering the prime minister.
        On March 7, parliamentarian Muhammad Hayef was fined 3,000 dinars
    (approximately $10,400) for comments he made in parliament during the
    May 2009 session deemed insulting to the ruling family. The daily
    newspaper Al-Ruia, which published his comments, was fined the same
    amount.
        Also on March 7, parliamentarian Marzouk al-Ghanem and the
    newspaper Al-Nahar were each fined 3,000 dinars ($10,400) for an
    article deemed insulting to the ruling family.
        On June 30, National Democratic Alliance head and Member of the
    National Assembly Khaled al-Fadala was sentenced to three months in
    prison and fined 150 dinars (approximately $525) for slandering the
    prime minister. On July 12, an appeals court released al-Fadala after
    reducing his sentence from three months to ten days.
        On December 13 authorities shut the local offices of the Al-Jazeera
    TV network and withdrew its accreditation after it broadcast footage of
    police using force to break up an unauthorized gathering of
    oppositions, and subsequently gave airtime to opposition
    parliamentarians who strongly criticized the Government for the
    police's actions.
        Journalist Muhammad Abdulqader al-Jassem continued facing various
    charges of insulting public officials. A lower court sentenced al-
    Jassem on April 1 to six months in jail and fined him 5,000 dinar
    (approximately $17,400) for making slanderous remarks about the prime
    minister in 2009, but an appeals court overturned the conviction on
    July 12. Police rearrested al-Jassem on May 11 on separate charges of
    undermining the emir's status, attacking the regime, and spreading
    false information damaging to the country's national interests. On June
    28, after posting a 2,000-dinar (approximately $7,000) bail, al-Jassem
    was released. The case was pending at year's end.
        On November 22, in a third case of allegedly defaming the prime
    minister in a blog post, which claimed that the premier engaged in
    embezzlement, money laundering, and association with Iranian
    intelligence agents, a court convicted and sentenced al-Jassem to one
    year in prison. On December 15, the sentence was reduced to three
    months following an appeal.
        Throughout the year the Government restricted media freedoms on
    national security grounds. On May 4, citing security concerns, an order
    prohibited the media from publishing any more reports about the alleged
    dismantling of an Iranian spy network.
        On September 20, the Government revoked the citizenship of exiled
    Shia cleric Yasser al-Habib on the grounds that he disparaged the wife
    and companions of the Prophet Muhammad. The Government briefly
    detained, but did not charge, Sunni Islamist Mubarak al-Bathali who, in
    response to al-Habib's statements, advocated violence against the Shia
    community and two Shia parliamentarians.
        On October 13, police arrested the owner of the Scope TV channel,
    Fajr al-Saeed, on charges that her channel's airing of the satirical
    comedy Sawtak Wasal (Your Voice Has Been Heard) fomented insurrection.
    On October 14, Al-Saeed's case was transferred to a criminal court
    where it was pending at year's end.
        On October 17, relatives of Faisal al-Homoud al-Malik al-Sabah, who
    believed he had been slandered by al-Saeed's brother, talk show host
    Muhammad Talal al-Saeed, attacked the Scope TV office.
        On December 12, police arrested Kuwait University law professor
    Obaid al-Wasmi, who had taken part in a December 8 diwaniya, an
    informal weekly social and political gathering that has generally been
    considered a space for free and open discourse on economic, political,
    and social issues, at parliamentarian Jam'an al-Hirbish's home that was
    deemed illegal and subsequently broken up by the police. Al-Wasmi was
    charged with spreading false news abroad, taking part in a public
    gathering with criminal intent, exhorting the security forces not to
    break up the diwaniya (i.e., to disobey a lawful instruction), and
    infringing on the emir's authority. His case was pending at year's end.
        All print media were privately owned, although their independence
    was limited. They exhibited a diversity of opinion, but censored
    themselves to avoid criminal charges or fines, or to keep their
    licenses. All forms of media may be banned by the Ministry of Commerce
    at the request of the Ministry of Information.
        By law newspaper publishers must obtain an operating license from
    the Ministry of Information. Publishers may lose their licenses if
    their publications do not appear for three months in the case of a
    daily newspaper, or six months in the case of a less frequent
    publication.
        There were no developments in the case former parliamentary
    candidate Muhammad al-Juwaihel, arrested in 2009 on charges of
    unlicensed broadcasting, making false claims, and compromising national
    security. The Government filed charges for public remarks broadcast by
    al-Juwaihel on his satellite outlet in which he reportedly insulted
    certain parliamentarians and made derogatory comments about Kuwaitis
    with dual citizenship and those of tribal and Bidoon origin. He was
    released on a 5,000-dinar (approximately $17,400) bail in December
    2009.
        Fuad al-Hashem of the daily newspaper Al-Watan continued to refuse
    to pay a 2008 fine of 7,190 dinars (approximately $25,000) for
    defamation as a result of convictions in three cases brought to court
    by the Qatari prime minister, who accused al-Hashem of harming his
    reputation in articles dealing with his relations with Israel.
        The Ministry of Information censored all books, commercial films,
    periodicals, videotapes, CDs, DVDs, and other imported material that it
    deemed morally offensive, although satellite dishes were widely
    available and allowed some citizens to receive unfiltered media.
    According to Ministry of Information censorship guidelines, material
    offensive to Islam or other religions, material which insults the emir
    and crown prince, and the display of immoral conduct are prohibited.
        The ministry also controlled the publication and distribution of
    all informational materials. In October, before the annual Kuwait
    international book fair, the ministry added 25 books to the thousands
    of titles already banned for being ``contrary to the fair and state
    policies.'' The newly forbidden titles included Egyptian Alaa al-
    Aswani's bestselling novel ``The Yacoubian Building.''

        Internet Freedom.--According to International Telecommunications
    Union statistics for 2009, approximately 39 percent of the country's
    inhabitants used the Internet. The Government monitored Internet
    communications, such as blogs and discussion groups, for defamation and
    security reasons. The Ministry of Communications continued to block Web
    sites considered to ``incite terrorism and instability'' and required
    Internet service providers to block religious and pornographic Web
    sites that ``violate Kuwait's customs and traditions,'' in addition to
    political sites which the Government finds offensive. For example, the
    Web site of UK-based Shia cleric Yasser al-Habib was blocked. There
    were reports that the Government attempted to collect the personally
    identifiable information of a person in connection with that person's
    peaceful expression of political, religious, or ideological opinion or
    beliefs. Internet cafe owners were obligated to obtain the names and
    civil identification numbers of customers and to submit the information
    to the Ministry of Communication upon request.

        Academic Freedom and Cultural Events.--The law provides for freedom
    of opinion and of research; however, academic freedom was limited by
    self-censorship, and the law prohibits academics from criticizing the
    emir or Islam.
        The Ministry of Interior reserved the right to approve or reject
    annual public events and rejected those it considered politically or
    morally inappropriate.
        According to the Middle East Studies Association, on February 11
    the Government revoked an entry visa for Madawi al-Rasheed, a professor
    at King's College London, who was scheduled to give a public lecture in
    the country on ``Suspended Political Reform in the Arab World'' to the
    Institute for Women's Development and Training. Although authorities
    issued a visa on January 26, it was reportedly revoked due to al-
    Rasheed's widely published theories that conservative Islam inhibits
    democratization. The Government gave no official reason for denying al-
    Rasheed's entry.
        In December 2009 authorities denied entry to Egyptian Qur'anic
    scholar Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd on the grounds that his already approved
    visa was invalid. Abu Zayd was scheduled to give two lectures on
    ``Religious Reform in the Constitutional State'' and on ``Women's
    Issues: Between the Qur'an and Accepted Jurisprudential Thought.''
        There were no updates in the Commercial Attorney's Office's
    investigation of a hotel owner and party organizers for sponsoring a
    mixed-gender dance in 2008.

        b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association.--Freedom of
    Assembly.--The law provides for freedom of assembly. Organizers of
    public gatherings of more than 20 persons must obtain prior approval
    from the Ministry of Interior.
        Many adult male citizens, including members of the Government and
    of the National Assembly, and increasing numbers of female citizens,
    hosted or attended diwaniyas. A few women held female-only diwaniyas,
    and a small number of diwaniyas were open to both sexes.
        Authorities curbed freedom of assembly in some political or
    security-related cases. On April 10, the Government deported 17
    Egyptian expatriates who participated in a meeting in support of
    Egyptian opposition presidential candidate Muhammad El Baradei on the
    grounds that the assembly was not approved by the Ministry of Interior.
        On September 13, the Government invoked the 1979 Public Gatherings
    Law (which had previously been only sporadically enforced) to ban
    gatherings of more than 20 persons in an effort to head off sectarian
    strife resulting from an exiled Shia cleric's disparaging the Prophet
    Muhammad's wife. On December 8, in accordance with the same law, the
    emir issued a formal decree banning outdoor public gatherings exceeding
    20 persons. Later that day Ministry of Interior forces enforced the
    decree, forcibly shutting down a seminar at Member of Parliament Jam'an
    al-Hirbish's diwaniya, which the Government contended was an illegal
    public gathering. On December 14, the police disbanded another similar
    public gathering without incident.

        Freedom of Association.--The law provides for freedom of
    association; however, the Government restricted this right in practice.
    The law prohibits officially licensed groups from engaging in political
    activities.
        The Government uses its power to license associations as a means of
    political control. There were 73 officially licensed nongovernmental
    organizations (NGOs) in the country, including a bar association,
    professional groups, and scientific bodies. The Ministry of Social
    Affairs and Labor (MOSAL) did not license any new NGOs during the year.
    There remained 149 NGOs pending licensing by the MOSAL; many have been
    waiting years for approval.
        The 45 NGOs licensed prior to 2004 continued to receive an annual
    government subsidy of 12,000 dinars (approximately $41,800) for their
    operating expenses, including travel to international conferences. NGOs
    licensed since 2004, when the MOSAL resumed issuing licenses following
    a period of refusing to do so, received no financial assistance. The
    only local independent NGOs dedicated specifically to human rights were
    the Kuwait Human Rights Society and the Kuwaiti Society for Fundamental
    Human Rights. The MOSAL rejected some license requests on the grounds
    that established NGOs already provided services similar to those the
    petitioners proposed. It can also reject an NGO's application if it
    deems that the NGO does not provide a public service. The minister has
    discretion to change a proposed NGO's name prior to licensing and
    sometimes did so on the grounds that the name was too close to that of
    an already existing NGO. Members of licensed NGOs must obtain
    permission from the MOSAL to attend international conferences as
    official representatives of their organization. The degree of
    government supervision and financing called into question the NGOs'
    independence and nongovernmental status.
        There were dozens of unlicensed civic groups, clubs, and unofficial
    NGOs in the country. These unofficial associations did not receive
    government subsidies and had no legal status.

        c. Freedom of Religion.--For a complete description of religious
    freedom, see the 2010 International Religious Freedom Report at
    www.state.gov/g/drl//irf/rpt.

        d. Freedom of Movement, Internally Displaced Persons, Protection of
    Refugees, and Stateless Persons.--The constitution generally provides
    for freedom of movement within the country; however, numerous laws
    constrain foreign travel, and the Government placed some limits on
    freedom of movement in practice. Although the Government contributed
    288,000 dinars (approximately $1 million) to the Office of the UN High
    Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) during the year, it was uncooperative
    with most UNHCR and other humanitarian organizations' efforts to
    provide implementation of protection and assistance to refugees,
    returning refugees, asylum seekers, stateless persons, and other
    persons of concern.
        Women and Bidoon faced problems with or restrictions on foreign
    travel. In October 2009 the Constitutional Court issued and began
    enforcing a final ruling confirming a woman's right to obtain a
    passport without her husband's approval. However, a husband may still
    request that immigration authorities prevent his wife's departure from
    the country for up to 24 hours, after which a court order may extend
    the travel ban. The Government restricted the ability of the Bidoon
    population to travel abroad. It permitted some Bidoon to travel to
    Saudi Arabia for the annual hajj and continued to issue ``Article 17''
    passports (temporary travel documents that do not confer nationality)
    for Bidoon.
        The law also permits travel bans on citizens or foreigners accused
    or suspected of violating the law, and it allows other citizens to
    petition authorities to do so. In practice, this resulted in arbitrary
    delays and difficulties for citizens or foreigners in leaving the
    country.
        The law prohibits the deportation or forced exile of citizens,
    although the Government can revoke citizenship of naturalized citizens
    for various causes, including felony conviction, and subsequently
    deport individuals. The Government cannot revoke the citizenship of an
    individual who is born a citizen, unless that individual has obtained a
    second nationality, which is against the country's law.
        During the year several hundred Bidoon emigrated.

        Protection of Refugees.--The country is not a party to the 1951
    Convention relating to the Status of Refugees or the 1967 Protocol
    relating to the Status of Refugees. The laws do not provide for
    granting asylum or refugee status. There is no system for providing
    protection to refugees, and the Government did not grant refugee status
    or asylum during the year. The country's immigration regulations
    prohibit local settlement for asylum seekers. In practice, however, the
    Government provided protection against the expulsion or return of
    refugees to countries where their lives or freedom would be threatened
    on account of their race, religion, nationality, membership in a
    particular social group, or political opinion. The constitution
    prohibits the extradition of political refugees; the Government often
    kept such persons in detention until they agreed to return to their
    home country or made alternative travel arrangements, and it rarely
    granted them permission to live and work in the country.

        Stateless Persons.--According to the law, citizenship is derived
    entirely from the father; children born to citizen mothers and
    nonnational fathers do not inherit citizenship unless the mother is
    divorced or widowed from the nonnational father. The law further fails
    to provide nonnationals, including Bidoon and non-Muslims, a clear or
    defined opportunity to gain nationality. In July, the Ministry of
    Interior issued a regulation that allows female citizens to sponsor
    their nonnational children (regardless of their age) and husbands for
    residency permits.
        Although the exact number of Bidoon residents was unknown, the
    Ministry of Planning estimated there were more than 100,000 Bidoon in
    the country at the end of 2006, the last year the Government collected
    those statistics. The Government continued to discriminate against
    Bidoon in areas such as education, employment, medical care, and
    freedom of movement. Bidoon children may not attend public schools. The
    Government accepted Bidoon in some government positions. Although some
    Bidoon worked in the armed forces or police and there are no legal
    strictures that prevent their service, the Bidoon have effectively been
    barred from enlisting in either force since 1985. Bidoon often faced
    difficulty in qualifying for the subsidized health care that citizens
    received, and the Government also made it difficult for Bidoon to
    obtain official documents necessary for employment or travel, such as
    birth certificates, civil identification cards, driver licenses, and
    marriage certificates.
        On March 19, the National Assembly's Health and Labor Committee
    issued a two-month ultimatum for the Ministry of Health to issue birth
    certificates to Bidoon newborns. On May 18, the Council of Ministers
    passed a resolution to issue birth certificates to all children of
    citizens married to Bidoon women. This resolution was based on
    precedents set in 2009. In March 2009 the Court of First Instance
    issued a marriage certificate to a Bidoon woman married to a citizen.
    In April 2009 and again in May 2009, the same court affirmed a Bidoon
    man's right to receive a marriage certificate and birth certificates
    for his children. Neither the justice nor health ministry complied with
    these 2009 court orders or the resolution of the Council of Ministers
    during the year.
        During the year as in 2009, the Government did not grant
    citizenship to any Bidoon. More than 80,000 Bidoon citizenship requests
    were pending at year's end. Many Bidoon were unable to provide
    documentation proving sufficient ties to the country or to present
    evidence of their original nationality. However, the Government
    maintained that the vast majority of Bidoon were concealing their true
    identities and were not actually stateless.

    Section 3. Respect for Political Rights: The Right of Citizens to
            Change Their Government
        Citizens had only a limited, indirect impact on control of the
    executive branch, as the constitution stipulates that the country is a
    hereditary emirate. The 50 elected National Assembly members (along
    with government-appointed ministers) must by majority vote approve the
    emir's choice of crown prince (the future emir). The crown prince must
    meet three requirements: that he has attained the age of majority, is
    of sound mind, and is a legitimate son of Muslim parents. The National
    Assembly may remove the emir from power with a two-thirds majority vote
    if it finds that any of these three conditions is no longer accurate.
    The law provides citizens with the right to change their
    representatives in the legislative branch of government, and citizens
    exercised this right in practice through elections.

        Elections and Political Participation.--In May 2009, two months
    after the emir dissolved the National Assembly, a parliamentary
    election was held that was generally considered free and fair. It was
    the third election in three years, due to the emir's constitutional
    dissolutions of parliament in May 2006, March 2008, and March 2009.
        The Government did not recognize any political parties or allow
    their formation, although no formal law bans political parties. Several
    tribal affiliations and well-organized unofficial blocs operated as
    political groupings and held illegal primary elections to maximize
    their impact in National Assembly. Tribal leaders excluded women from
    the tribal primaries. Assembly candidates must nominate themselves as
    individuals and may run for election in any of the country's electoral
    districts. Tribes dominated two of the five constituencies and exerted
    influence on the other three.

    Section 4. Official Corruption and Government Transparency
        The law mandates criminal penalties for official corruption;
    however, the Government did not implement the law effectively, and on
    occasion officials were believed to have engaged in corrupt practices
    with impunity. The Audit Bureau is the Government agency responsible
    for combating government corruption, and though it and a government-
    formed committee reported various allegations of corruption and
    irregularities, there were no public high-profile corruption cases
    before the courts during the year. Parliament also frequently announced
    inquiries into suspected misuses of public funds, but none of these
    resulted in prosecution during the year. The World Bank's Worldwide
    Governance Indicators for 2009 reflected a decline from 2008 in public
    authorities' perceived control of corruption, which remained a problem.
        There were also reports of citizens' complaints about having to pay
    intermediaries to receive routine government services. Additionally,
    there were some reports of police corruption, especially when one party
    to a dispute had a personal relationship with a police official
    involved in a case. In addition, there were widespread reports that
    police showed favoritism towards citizens.
        The Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Social Affairs and
    Labor revealed dozens of cases during the year of ministry employees
    forging documents to enable the importation of foreign workers.
    Violations were referred to investigative bodies within the ministries
    and then sent to the attorney general's office for action. Courts
    rarely took rigorous action against the violators.
        Public officials were not subject to financial disclosure laws.
        The law provides for public access to unclassified government
    information by citizens and noncitizens alike. The Government enforced
    the law.

    Section 5. Governmental Attitude Regarding International and
            Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations of Human
            Rights
        The Government restricted the operations of domestic and
    international human rights groups and limits cooperation with them. The
    law permits the existence of NGOs; however, the Government continued to
    deny licenses to some NGOs. NGOs may not engage in political activity
    and are prohibited from encouraging sectarianism. They must also
    demonstrate that their existence is in the public interest. The only
    local independent NGOs dedicated specifically to human rights were the
    Kuwait Human Rights Society (KHRS) and the Kuwaiti Society for
    Fundamental Human Rights. Local licensed NGOs devoted to specific
    groups, such as women, children, foreign workers, prisoners, and
    persons with disabilities, were permitted to operate without government
    interference. A few dozen local unlicensed human rights groups operated
    without government restriction during the year. The Government and
    various National Assembly committees met regularly with local NGOs, and
    responded to their inquiries.
        The Government permitted international human rights organizations
    to visit the country. In January, Human Rights Watch officials visited
    and conducted interviews, including with government officials,
    principally concerning the protection of foreign domestic workers.
        The Government cooperated with international governmental
    organizations and permitted visits of their representatives. On her
    visit on April 20-21, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay
    emphasized the desirability of eliminating the labor sponsorship system
    requiring migrant works to secure local sponsors.
        The National Assembly's Human Rights Committee, which operates
    independently of the Government, is an advisory body that primarily
    hears individual complaints of human rights abuses. Committee members
    also visited the Central Prison during the year (see section 1.c.). The
    committee had access to adequate resources and was considered
    effective; it did not issue reports.

    Section 6. Discrimination, Societal Abuses, and Trafficking in Persons
        The law prohibits discrimination based on race, origin, disability,
    or language; discrimination based on social status is not addressed. In
    practice the Government did not uniformly or consistently enforce laws
    against discrimination, and a number of laws and regulations
    discriminated against women, Bidoon, noncitizens, and domestic and
    expatriate workers.

        Women.--Violence against women continued to be a problem. Rape
    carries a maximum penalty of death, which the country occasionally
    imposed for the crime; however, spousal rape is not a crime. The media
    reported hundreds of rape cases during the year. Many of the victims
    were noncitizen domestic workers. Police occasionally arrested alleged
    rapists, and several were tried and convicted during the year; however,
    laws against rape were not always enforced effectively to protect
    noncitizen women.
        According to foreign diplomatic sources, victims reported that the
    majority of police stations and hospitals handled their cases in a
    professional way.
        The law does not specifically prohibit domestic violence; cases are
    tried instead as assault, and a victim of domestic violence may file a
    complaint with police requesting formal charges be brought against the
    alleged abuser. On March 21, the MOSAL released the results of an
    interministerial study of domestic violence, drawn from a sample of
    1,569 families. The study defined the phenomenon as physical, material,
    psychological, and sexual violence and found the causes to be divorce,
    continued disputes between the couples, deviation, infidelity, and
    psychological problems. One-third of the families reported that they
    had experienced domestic violence; 17 percent of women reported that
    they had experienced it, compared to 42 percent of men.
        Each of the country's 83 police stations reportedly received
    complaints of domestic abuse. However, poor incentive to report abuse
    resulted from the strong social stigma associated with publicly
    acknowledging such problems. Even with documented evidence of the
    abuse--such as eyewitness accounts, hospital reports, and social worker
    testimony--police officials rarely arrested perpetrators of domestic
    violence. Noncitizen women married to citizens reported domestic abuse
    and inaction or discrimination by police during the year. A woman may
    petition for divorce based on injury from abuse, but the law does not
    provide a clear legal standard as to what constitutes injury. In
    addition, a woman must provide at least two male witnesses (or a male
    witness and two female witnesses) to attest to the injury.
        Although courts found husbands guilty of spousal abuse in previous
    years, most domestic abuse cases were not reported, especially outside
    the capital, and individuals reportedly bribed police officials to
    ignore domestic abuse charges. Abusive husbands, if convicted, rarely
    faced severe penalties. There were no shelters or hotlines specifically
    for victims of domestic violence, although a temporary shelter for
    domestic workers housed victims during the year.
        Honor crimes, according to the penal code, are penalized as
    misdemeanors. The law states that a man who sees his wife, daughter,
    mother, or sister in the ``act of adultery'' and immediately kills her
    and/or the man with whom she is committing adultery faces a maximum
    punishment of three years' imprisonment and a 225 dinars (approximately
    $800) fine, slightly less than a month's earnings at the public sector
    minimum wage. There were no reported honor crimes in recent years.
        There is no specific law that addresses sexual harassment; however,
    the law criminalizes ``encroachment on honor,'' which encompasses
    everything from touching a woman against her will to rape, and police
    strictly enforced this law. During the year, the Government deployed
    female police officers specifically to combat sexual harassment in
    shopping malls and other public spaces. Perpetrators face fines and
    jail time. Human rights groups characterized sexual harassment against
    women in the workplace as a pervasive, yet unreported, problem.
        There were no reports of interference in the right to decide freely
    and responsibly the number, spacing, and timing of children, matters
    subject to agreement between husband and wife. Decisions regarding
    access to contraceptives, family size, and procedures involving
    reproductive and fertility treatments required the consent of both
    husband and wife. The information and means to make those decisions, as
    well as skilled attendance during childbirth were freely available.
    There was no formal family planning program; oral contraceptives were
    available over the counter. Women had ready access to essential
    obstetric and postpartum care. According to estimates developed by the
    World Health Organization, the UN Children's Fund, the United Nations
    Population Fund, and the World Bank, there were approximately nine
    maternal deaths per 100,000 live births in the country in 2008.
    Information was not available regarding diagnosis and treatment of
    sexually transmitted infections.
        Women have some political rights; however, they do not enjoy the
    same rights as men under family law, property law, or in the judicial
    system, and they continued to face discrimination in many social and
    legal areas. Nevertheless, some women attained prominent positions in
    government and business. A parliamentary committee for women's and
    family affairs exists, and female parliamentarians made up four of its
    five members.
        Women continued to experience legal, economic, and social
    discrimination. Sharia (Islamic law) discriminates against women in
    judicial proceedings, freedom of movement, and marriage. Inheritance is
    also governed by Sharia, which varies according to the school of
    Islamic jurisprudence that different populations in the country follow.
    In the absence of a direct male heir, a Shia woman may inherit all
    property, while a Sunni woman inherits only a portion, with the balance
    divided among brothers, uncles, and male cousins of the deceased.
        When the children of a divorced woman reach age 18, she loses her
    right to live in housing purchased through the Government loan program,
    regardless of any payments she may have made on the loan, and a female
    citizen married to a noncitizen cannot, by law, qualify for the loan
    program. On July 18, the Ministry of Interior issued a regulation that
    allows female citizens to sponsor their nonnational children
    (regardless of their age) and husbands for residency permits. Female
    citizens married to noncitizens were previously required to pay annual
    residence fees of 217 dinars (approximately $750) for their husbands
    and children and had previously been unable to obtain any residency for
    their husband if he was unemployed. Citizen women cannot pass
    citizenship to their noncitizen husbands or their children. Male
    citizens married to female noncitizens did not face such discrimination
    in law or practice. Sharia courts have jurisdiction over personal
    status and family law cases for Sunni and Shia Muslims. Secular courts
    allow anyone to testify and consider male and female testimony equally;
    however, in the Sharia courts the testimony of a man is equal to that
    of two women.
        The law provides for a woman to receive ``remuneration equal to
    that of a man provided she does the same work''; however, it prohibits
    women from working in ``dangerous industries'' and in trades
    ``harmful'' to health. In 2008 the Constitutional Court ruled that a
    housing benefits package which gave single women nothing while
    providing allowances for married men and women and unmarried men was
    unconstitutional. Educated women maintained that the conservative
    nature of society limited career opportunities, although there were
    limited improvements. Women accounted for 53 percent of the 270,000
    citizens working in the public sector, 44 percent of the 60,000 working
    in the private sector, and 72 percent of college graduates.
        The law requires that classes at all universities be segregated by
    gender. Public universities enforced this law more rigorously than
    private universities.
        Family matters are adjudicated in accordance with Sharia. The law
    prohibits marriage between Muslim women and non-Muslim men. A non-
    Muslim woman is not required by law to convert to Islam to marry a
    Muslim male; however, in practice many non-Muslim women faced strong
    economic and societal pressure to convert. Failure to convert would
    grant custody of children to the father in the event of a divorce. By
    law, a non-Muslim woman who fails to convert is also ineligible for
    naturalization as a citizen and cannot inherit her husband's property
    without being specified as a beneficiary in his will.
        There were no female judges. On April 14, the Constitutional Court
    rejected a lawsuit by a female lawyer who claimed that her application
    for appointment in the public prosecution was unconstitutionally
    rejected because of her gender.
        In July female police officers began working in public, including
    on patrols at malls and providing airport and VIP security. Female
    police officers, the first of whom graduated from the police academy in
    2009, were previously restricted to deskwork and training new cadets.

        Children.--The Government was generally committed to the rights and
    welfare of citizen children, although noncitizen children received less
    support and attention. The Government automatically granted citizenship
    to orphaned or abandoned infants, including Bidoon infants.
        By law education for citizen children is free through the
    university level and compulsory through the secondary level. Education
    is neither free nor compulsory for Bidoon and expatriate children. Some
    Bidoon children attended private schools, and some did not attend
    school at all. The Government-administered Charity Fund to Educate
    Needy Children paid school fees for all Bidoon children (approximately
    2,000) who applied for assistance during the 2009-2010 school year.
        There was no societal pattern of child abuse.
        The legal marriage age is 17 for men and 15 for women, but younger
    girls continued to marry earlier in some tribal groups. The Ministry of
    Justice estimated that underage marriages constituted 2 to 3 percent of
    total marriages.
        All pornography is illegal; there are no laws specific to child
    pornography. There is no statutory rape law or minimum age for
    consensual sexual relations; however, premarital sexual relations are
    illegal.
        The country is not a party to the 1980 Hague Convention on the
    Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. For information on
    international parental child abduction, please see the Department of
    State's annual report on compliance at http://travel.state.gov/
    abduction/resources/congressreport/congressreport--4308.html as well as
    country-specific information at http://travel.state.gov/abduction/
    country/country--3781.html.

        Anti-Semitism.--Negative commentary regarding Jews appeared in the
    media. Anti-Semitic rhetoric often originated from self-proclaimed
    Islamists or conservative opinion writers. These columnists often
    conflated Israeli actions with those of Jews more broadly, particularly
    after the May 31 Israeli interception of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla,
    which included several prominent Kuwaitis. School administrators have
    issued standing instructions to teachers to expunge English-language
    textbooks of any references to Israel or the Holocaust, and books
    dealing with these topics remained banned. The Government did not make
    any public statement on textbook censorship. There were no known Jewish
    citizens and an estimated few dozen Jewish foreign resident employees.

        Trafficking in Persons.--For information on trafficking in persons,
    please see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons
    Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        Persons With Disabilities.--The law prohibits discrimination
    against persons with physical, sensory, and mental disabilities and
    imposes penalties on employers who refrain without reasonable cause
    from hiring persons with disabilities. The law also mandates access to
    buildings for persons with disabilities. The Government generally
    enforced these provisions. There were no specific reports of
    discrimination against persons with disabilities; however, noncitizens
    with disabilities did not have access to government-operated facilities
    or receive stipends paid to citizens with disabilities, which covered
    transportation, housing, job training, and social welfare.
        In June the Government enacted a new disability law providing
    larger disability grants, reduced working hours, and improved housing
    loans for citizens and Bidoon with mental or physical disabilities. The
    law requires government employers with workforces of 50 persons or more
    to recruit at least 4 percent of their workforce from vocationally
    trained persons with special needs. The law also allows citizens with
    disabilities, or those with disabled children, to receive larger than
    normal housing grants and earlier pensions. Although Bidoons are not
    normally entitled to receive housing grants, the new law's provisions
    included disabled Bidoons, or those with disabled children.
        Representatives from ministries, other governmental bodies, Kuwait
    University, and several NGOs constitute the Government's Higher Council
    for Handicapped Affairs, which makes policy recommendations, provides
    direct financial aid to persons with disabilities, and facilitates
    their integration into schools, jobs, and other social institutions.
    The Government supervised and contributed to schools and job and
    training programs oriented to persons with special needs.

        Societal Abuses, Discrimination, and Acts of Violence Based on
    Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.--Homosexuality and cross-
    dressing are illegal. The law punishes homosexual behavior between men
    older than 21 with imprisonment of up of to seven years; those engaging
    in homosexual activity with men younger than 21 may be imprisoned for
    as long as 10 years. The law imposes a fine of 1,059 dinars
    (approximately $3,700) and imprisonment for one to three years for
    those imitating the appearance of the opposite sex in public. No laws
    criminalize sexual behavior between women.
        During the year there were more than a dozen reports of police
    arresting transgender persons at malls and markets, beating them in
    custody and shaving their heads, and then generally releasing them
    without charges. The Government did not condone abuse by officials of
    transgender persons, but it also did not punish the abusers. For
    example, on December 31, police arrested two women for allegedly
    dressing and acting like men, according to the local press; the women
    were released the next day. In March 2009 Criminal Investigations
    Division officers raided a cafe, arresting five men for cross-dressing.
    By year's end there were no updates in this case.
        There were no official NGOs focused on lesbian, gay, bisexual, or
    transgender matters, though unofficial ones existed. Societal
    discrimination based on sexual orientation was common; officials
    practiced to a lesser extent a de facto discrimination reflecting
    societal values and laws. There was no government response to either.

        Other Societal Violence or Discrimination.--There were no reports
    of societal violence or discrimination against persons with HIV/AIDS.
        Unmarried men continued to face housing discrimination based solely
    on marital status. The law prohibits single men from obtaining
    accommodation in many urban residential areas.

    Section 7. Worker Rights
        On February 20, a new private sector labor law was published,
    replacing a 1964 law that expanded rights for private sector employees
    but did not cover domestic servants. The sponsorship system for migrant
    workers rendered this group of workers vulnerable to abuse and
    mistreatment.

        a. The Right of Association.--With the exceptions of the country's
    domestic workers and maritime employees, the law provides that workers
    have restricted rights to join trade unions. The law gives workers the
    right to join unions without previous authorization. Nondomestic
    migrant workers can join unions, with restrictions, if they obtain a
    certificate of good conduct and moral standing from the Government, but
    they cannot run for seats or vote in board elections. An estimated
    100,000 persons, or 5 percent, of a total workforce of two million were
    organized into unions, mostly in the public sector and the oil, gas,
    and petrochemical industries.
        The Government restricted the right of association in forming
    unions. Only one union per occupational trade exists, and unions
    combine in the sole government-authorized federation. The Kuwait Trade
    Union Federation (KTUF) comprised 15 of the 47 licensed unions,
    amounting to the vast majority of union workers. The KTUF did not meet
    the needs of all workers and left many, such as bank workers and
    airline employees, dissatisfied. As a result, some unions or workers
    instead joined the unlicensed National Trade Union Federation.
        The law stipulates that any new union must include at least 100
    workers, 15 of them citizens and that union certification must be
    formally presented to them by the Government. Both the International
    Labor Organization and the International Trade Union Confederation
    criticized the citizenship requirement because it discouraged unions in
    sectors that employ few citizens, such as much of the private sector,
    especially construction and domestic workers.
        The Government essentially treated licensed unions as parastatal
    organizations, providing as much as 90 percent of their budgets and
    inspecting financial records. If a union ceases to exist, the
    Government, in turn, takes all its assets. Union leaders and board
    members are elected by citizen union members. The law prohibits unions
    from engaging political, religious, or sectarian issues. The law
    empowers the courts to dissolve any union for violating labor laws or
    for threatening ``public order and morals,'' although such a court
    decision may be appealed. By law the MOSAL can request the dissolution
    of a union by the Court of First Instance. The emir also may dissolve a
    union by decree. No union was dissolved during the year. The Government
    denied several public sector and oil sector unions' applications for
    official recognition during the year on the grounds that the law does
    not allow more than one union to represent the same profession or
    organization.
        The law denies foreign domestic workers (approximately 560,000 of
    the estimated 1.5-million noncitizen workforce) and maritime employees
    the right to associate and organize. It also discriminates against more
    than one million other foreign workers by denying union voting rights,
    the ability to stand for union leadership positions, and restricting
    membership to workers with at least five years of residence, although
    the KTUF stated that this last requirement was not widely enforced in
    practice.
        The law does not prevent the Government from interfering in union
    activities, including the right to strike. The requirements for
    conducting a legal strike were excessively lengthy and cumbersome in
    practice, and no legal strike took place during the year. To strike, a
    union must obtain permission from the Ministry of Interior, which did
    not grant permission for any of the strikes that took place during the
    year.
        Most labor disputes are resolved in compulsory negotiations; if
    not, either party may petition the ministry for mediation. If mediation
    fails the dispute is referred to a labor arbitration board composed of
    officials from the Court of Appeals, the Attorney General's Office, and
    the respective ministry involved. The law does not prohibit retaliation
    against strikers by employers. Employers generally tried to settle
    disputes with workers themselves in order to retain them.
        Foreign workers went on strike during the year. Most striking
    workers were employees of cleaning and security companies who claimed
    they either not been paid or had received insufficient salaries. In
    these instances the ministry responded by attempting to negotiate a
    settlement between the workers and the employers. However, the
    Government's Central Tenders Committee barred two cleaning companies
    for three months from bidding on government contracts because of a wage
    dispute that culminated in an October cleaners' strike affecting public
    sector buildings.

        b. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively.--The law
    provides workers, with the exceptions of domestic servants, maritime
    workers, and civil servants, the right to bargain collectively, subject
    to certain restrictions. In practice the Government generally respected
    the rights of those workers covered by the law. Collective agreements
    covered approximately 70 percent of the citizen labor force. There are
    no legal restrictions on collective bargaining. There is no minimum
    number of workers needed for such agreements.
        The law prohibits antiunion discrimination and employer
    interference with union functions, and the Government generally
    protected those rights. Any worker alleging antiunion discrimination
    has the right to appeal to the judiciary. By law employers found guilty
    of such discrimination must reinstate workers fired for union
    activities. There were no reports of discrimination against employees
    based on their affiliation with a union.
        There are no special laws or exemptions from regular labor laws in
    export processing zones.

        c. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor.--The law prohibits
    forced or compulsory labor, including by children, ``except in cases
    specified by law for national emergency and with just remuneration.''
    However, there were reports of such practices, usually made possible by
    employer misuse of the sponsorship system of noncitizen workers.
        Domestic servitude was the most common type of forced labor,
    principally involving foreign domestic workers who are employed under
    the sponsorship system. Many of these workers are subjected to
    restrictions on movement and communication, forced overtime, non-
    payment of wages, and some experience physical abuse. Female domestic
    workers are particularly vulnerable to sexual abuse. Police and courts
    were reluctant to prosecute citizens for abuse in private residences.
        There were frequent reports of domestic workers committing or
    attempting suicide related to desperation over abuse or poor working
    conditions. The number of such cases continued to increase.
        See also the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons
    Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        d. Prohibition of Child Labor and Minimum Age for Employment.--The
    law prohibits child labor, and the Government made efforts to enforce
    the law effectively. There were credible reports of underage workers,
    almost entirely concerning domestic servants of South Asian origin.
    Some underage workers, mostly domestic servants, entered the country on
    travel documents with falsified birth dates. Approximately 300
    inspectors from the MOSAL's Labor Inspection Department monitored
    private firms routinely for labor law compliance, including laws
    against child labor. Noncompliant employers faced fines or a forced
    suspension in their company operations. See also the Department of
    State's annual Trafficking in Persons Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.
        The legal minimum age for employment is 18; however, employers may
    obtain permits from the ministry to employ juveniles between the ages
    of 15 and 18 in nonhazardous trades. On September 6, the MOSAL issued a
    regulation further restricting the trades in which juveniles between
    the ages of 15 and 18 may be employed. Juveniles may work a maximum of
    six hours a day on the condition that they work no more than four
    consecutive hours followed by a one-hour rest period.

        e. Acceptable Conditions of Work.--On April 14, the MOSAL announced
    an increase in the national minimum wage for the private sector;
    however, this did not include domestic workers who earn up to 60 dinars
    (approximately $210) per month, which does not provide a decent
    standard of living for a worker and a family. The Government will not
    issue visas for dependents to accompany workers earning less than 250
    dinars per month (approximately $875).
        The law limits the standard workweek to 48 hours (40 hours for the
    petroleum industry) with one full day of rest per week and one hour of
    rest after every five consecutive hours of work. These standards were
    not well enforced, and domestic servants and other unskilled foreign
    workers in the private sector frequently worked in excess of 48 hours a
    week, often with no day of rest. Workers submitted complaints to the
    ministry's Labor Disputes Department.
        On February 22, a new private sector labor law, which does not
    apply to domestic workers, went into effect, increasing annual leave
    from 14 days to 30 days, mandating 70 days of paid maternity leave, and
    requiring that notices of termination be provided three months in
    advance (as opposed to a one-month notice). For work on Friday, workers
    are entitled to a day and a half's pay and a day off in the following
    week. The law also forbids requiring employees to work more than 60
    hours per week or 10 hours per day.
        In August 2009 the MOSAL issued a regulation to permit most foreign
    workers to change employers after three years of work without having to
    secure the permission of the original sponsor first. The regulation
    excludes domestic workers, public sector workers, and foreign workers
    involved in finance management, thereby applying to approximately two-
    thirds of the country's two million foreign workers.
        The Government issued occupational health and safety standards;
    however, compliance and enforcement by the MOSAL appeared poor,
    especially with respect to unskilled foreign laborers. To decrease
    accident rates, the Government periodically inspected enterprises to
    raise awareness among workers and employers and to ensure that they
    abided by safety rules, controlled pollution resulting from certain
    industries, trained workers to use machines, and reported violations.
    Workers have the right to remove themselves from dangerous work
    situations without jeopardizing their continued employment, and legal
    protection existed for both citizen and foreign workers who filed
    complaints about such conditions. Inspections do not, however, extend
    into the home which is the workplace of the majority of the country's
    domestic workers. In past years government attention to worker safety
    issues was limited, resulting in poor training of inspectors,
    inadequate injury reports, and no link between insurance payments and
    accident reports. No such cases were reported during the year.
        The law provides that all outdoor work stop between noon and 4:00
    p.m. during the months of June, July, and August, or when the
    temperature rises to 50 degrees Celsius (122 Fahrenheit) in the shade.
    The MOSAL monitored work sites to ensure compliance with these rules.
    There were no reports of violations during the year. Workers could
    report these violations to their embassies, to the Kuwait Trade Union
    Federation, or the Labor Disputes Department at the Ministry of Social
    Affairs and Labor.

                                   __________

                                    LEBANON

        Lebanon, with a population of approximately four million, is a
    parliamentary republic in which the president is a Maronite Christian,
    the prime minister a Sunni Muslim, and the speaker of the chamber of
    deputies a Shia Muslim. On June 7, the country held parliamentary
    elections international observers deemed generally free and fair. In
    May 2008 parliament elected President Michel Sleiman, who serves as the
    head of state. On June 27, the president and parliament appointed Saad
    Hariri prime minister-designate, and Hariri formed a cabinet November 9
    after lengthy negotiations. Civilian authorities generally maintained
    effective control of government security forces. UN Security Council
    (UNSC) resolutions 1559 and 1701 call upon the Government to take
    effective control of all Lebanese territory and disarm militia groups.
    Despite the presence of Lebanese and UN security forces, Hizballah
    retained significant influence over parts of the country, and the
    Government made no tangible progress toward disbanding and disarming
    armed militia groups, including Hizballah. Palestinian refugee camps
    continued to act as self-governed entities and maintained security and
    militia forces not under the direction of government officials.
        There were limitations on the right of citizens to change their
    government peacefully. Unknown actors committed unlawful killings, and
    there was one reported disappearance during the year that may have been
    politically motivated. Security forces arbitrarily arrested and
    detained individuals. Torture of detainees remained a problem, as did
    poor prison conditions, lengthy pretrial detention, and long delays in
    the court system. The Government violated citizens' privacy rights, and
    there were some restrictions on freedoms of speech and press, including
    intimidation of journalists. The Government suffered from corruption
    and lack of transparency. There were limitations on freedom of movement
    for unregistered refugees. Widespread, systematic discrimination
    against Palestinian refugees and minority groups continued. Domestic
    violence and societal discrimination against women continued, as did
    violence against children and child labor.

                            RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

    Section 1. Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom
            From:
        a. Arbitrary or Unlawful Deprivation of Life.--There were no
    reports the Government or its agents committed arbitrary or unlawful
    killings. There was at least one high-profile killing by unknown
    actors. On March 23, a roadside bomb blast close to Mieh Mieh, a
    Palestinian refugee camp east of Sidon, killed Kamal Medhat, deputy
    head of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in the country,
    along with Akram Daher, Khaled Daher, and Mohammed Shehadeh.
        There were few developments in killings by unknown actors from
    previous years.
        At year's end investigations were ongoing in two January 2008
    explosions: one targeted a diplomatic vehicle, killing three persons
    and injuring two security employees; the other killed Internal Security
    Forces (ISF) Information Technology Intelligence branch head Captain
    Wissam Eid and three others, and injured 36.
        During January 2008 riots protesting power outages in the
    predominantly Shia Muslim area of Shiyah, an unknown assailant shot and
    killed an Amal movement official. In response the riots turned violent,
    with protestors throwing stones and setting cars ablaze; seven
    civilians died, and more than 19 were injured. In February 2008 the
    Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) arrested 17 persons, including 11 soldiers
    and three officers, for excessive use of force in containing the
    protests. Authorities later released on bail the three officers, some
    of the soldiers, and other individuals.
        In September 2008 unknown persons planted a car bomb that killed
    Druze opposition figure Saleh Aridi and injured six others. Aridi
    reportedly played a major role in the reconciliation efforts of Druze
    leaders Walid Jumblatt and Talal Arslan following the May 2008 conflict
    with Hizballah. At year's end the investigation was ongoing.
        There were no developments in investigations following several 2007
    car bombing deaths, including those of member of parliament (MP) Walid
    Eido and 10 others in June and MP Antoine Ghanem and eight others in
    September. There were no developments in the investigation of the 2006
    killings of Islamic Jihad member Mahmoud Majzoub and his brother or of
    the roadside bombs in Rmeileh that injured ISF Lieutenant Colonel Samir
    Shehade and killed four of his bodyguards.
        It remained difficult to distinguish politically motivated crimes
    allegedly committed by opposition groups or terrorists from simple
    criminal acts or disputes, as the Government did not exercise control
    over all its territory and investigations of suspicious killings rarely
    led to prosecutions.
        In April 2008 Joseph and Tony Zouki, supporters of pro-March 8
    Alliance MP Elie Skaff, allegedly shot and killed two Phalange party
    supporters, Nasri Marouni and Salim Assi, during the inauguration of
    the Phalange headquarters in Zahle. At year's end Joseph and Tony Zouki
    remained at large.
        In May 2008 Hizballah-led opposition fighters occupied parts of
    downtown Beirut to protest two government decisions against Hizballah.
    Armed clashes ensued between the predominantly Shia opposition and
    Sunnis aligned with the majority. The occupiers targeted Sunni-run
    political party offices and media outlets. There were also armed
    clashes between Druze and Hizballah in the mountains and between Sunnis
    and Alawites in the north. The May 2008 conflict reportedly resulted in
    more than 80 deaths and 250 injuries.
        According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), during the May 2008
    conflict, members of the opposition groups Hizballah, Amal, and the
    Syrian Socialist National Party (SSNP) used small arms and rocket-
    propelled grenades (RPGs) in densely populated areas of Beirut, killing
    numerous civilians. For example, HRW reported opposition gunmen shot
    and killed Amal Baydoun and her son, Haytham Tabbarah, with an RPG
    while the two were trying to flee their Ras al-Nabaa neighborhood.
    Opposition gunmen shot and injured Tabbarah's two brothers later that
    day while they were trying to join their family at the hospital.
        Also in May 2008, supporters of the progovernment groups Future
    Movement and the Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) resorted to violence
    against civilians and offices associated with opposition groups in
    areas under the groups' control in northern Lebanon, the Biqa', and the
    Shouf. According to Hizballah, PSP fighters detained and then executed
    two Hizballah followers. After examining photos of the two Hizballah
    members, HRW reported PSP fighters shot at least one victim in the head
    at close range. In Halba, a village in the north, armed Sunnis killed
    members of the SSNP who had surrendered. According to HRW, the
    judiciary has issued only one indictment related to the May 2008
    clashes, against an individual who shot at civilians. Other
    investigations have stalled with no prosecutions by year's end.
        In May 2008 a blast killed soldier Ossama Hassan at an army
    intelligence post near the northern city of Tripoli. In August and
    September 2008, two separate bomb attacks targeted buses filled with
    LAF soldiers on their way to work in Tripoli, killing 20 persons,
    including 14 soldiers, and injuring more than 90. In October 2008 the
    public prosecutor issued charges against 34 suspects accused of
    carrying out terrorist attacks, including the attack on the
    intelligence post and the Tripoli bus bombings. At year's end,
    authorities continued to detain 26 suspects; eight others, including
    Fadi Ghassan Ibrahim, remained at large. Judicial authorities also
    accused Ibrahim, a suspected member of Fatah al-Islam (FAI), of killing
    Brigadier General Francois el-Hajj and his bodyguard in 2007.
        Four suspected members of FAI charged with leading the 2007 Ain
    Alaq twin bus bombings remained in detention at year's end, without
    formal convictions or progress toward a trial.
        On April 29, the UN-appointed Special Tribunal for Lebanon ordered
    the Government to release for lack of evidence four generals suspected
    of collaborating in the 2005 killing of former prime minister Rafiq al-
    Hariri and 22 other individuals. The officers were Major General Jamil
    Sayyed, former chief of Surete Generale (SG); Major General Ali Hajj,
    former ISF head; Brigadier General Raymond Azar, former chief of
    military intelligence; and Brigadier General Mustafa Hamdan, former
    commander of the presidential guard.
        Israeli cluster munitions from the 2006 conflict continued to kill
    and injure civilians during the year. In April the UN Interim Force in
    Lebanon (UNIFIL) estimated these munitions caused an ongoing average of
    two civilian casualties per month. The UN Mine Action Coordination
    Center estimated 560,000 to 1.1 million unexploded munitions remained,
    despite ongoing removal efforts. At year's end munitions had killed 44
    persons since the end of the conflict. On May 13, Israel provided
    strike data to the Lebanese government to assist in explosive ordnance
    disposal and demining efforts.

        b. Disappearance.--There was one report of an allegedly politically
    motivated disappearance during the year. On February 12, three masked
    men seized Middle East Airlines' Director of Information Technology
    Operational Services, Joseph Sader, as he got off a bus and walked to
    his office in the Rafiq Hariri Beirut International Airport. According
    to Sader's brother, the men threw Sader into a van and drove away. A
    small bus carrying army personnel who also witnessed the accident
    pursued but reportedly lost the van in heavy traffic. Although the ISF
    was investigating the disappearance, some expressed concern at
    government and security officials' refusal to discuss the case, and at
    least one source claimed the kidnappers transferred Sader to LAF
    intelligence, purportedly to investigate his relationship with an
    acquaintance who had connections to Israel. According to press reports,
    Bishop Elie Haddad, Melkite Roman Catholic Pastor of Sidon and Deir al-
    Qamar, said in an interview with television channel OTV Sader was still
    alive, and a local armed group without connections to Hizballah was
    holding him. Sader remained missing at year's end.
        In December 2008 plainclothes military intelligence officers took
    Syrian citizen and United National Alliance member Nawar Abboud and two
    of his employees from his office in Tripoli to al-Qubbeh military base
    for interrogation. Authorities reported they released all three over
    the next two days, but Abboud remained missing at year's end despite
    his family's reportedly extensive efforts to find him. On November 10,
    the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD), the body mandated
    to investigate complaints of arbitrary deprivation of liberty, declared
    Abboud's disappearance to have been arbitrary. The WGAD said the
    Government's response to its queries on Abboud's whereabouts had been
    ``brief and imprecise'' and urged the Government to ``show with
    precision the proof that he was liberated.'' At year's end Abboud's
    whereabouts were still unknown.
        There were no developments in the 2007 kidnapping and killing case
    of Ziad Ghandour and Ziad Qabalan, who were affiliated with PSP leader
    Walid Jamblatt. In September 2008 the public prosecutor issued charges
    against 14 persons, including brothers Mohammed, Shehadeh, Abdallah,
    Abbas, and Ali Shamas, who remained at large at year's end.
        More than 17,000 persons reportedly disappeared in the country
    during the 1975-1990 war. On October 23, judicial authorities ordered
    the Council of Ministers to release the official investigations report
    issued in 2000, of which only a three-page summary had been previously
    available. At year's end the report had not been published.

        c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or
    Punishment.--The law does not specifically prohibit torture or cruel,
    inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment, and there were reports
    government officials employed such practices. According to human rights
    groups--including Amnesty International (AI), the Lebanese Association
    for Education and Training (ALEF), and HRW--torture was common, and
    security forces abused detainees. Human rights organizations reported
    torture occurred in certain police stations, the Ministry of Defense
    (MOD), and the ISF's intelligence branch and Drug Repression Bureau
    detention facilities in Beirut and Zahle. At year's end the Government
    had not submitted its initial report under the Convention Against
    Torture--a report due in 2001. The Government also continued to deny
    the use of torture, although authorities acknowledged violent abuse
    sometimes occurred during preliminary investigations at police stations
    or military installations where suspects were interrogated without an
    attorney. Such abuse occurred despite national laws preventing judges
    from accepting confessions extracted under duress.
        Former prisoners, detainees, and reputable local human rights
    groups reported the methods of torture and abuse applied included
    hanging by the wrists tied behind the back, violent beatings, blows to
    the soles of the feet, electric shocks, sexual abuse, immersion in cold
    water, extended periods of sleep deprivation, being forced to stand for
    extended periods, threats of violence against relatives, deprivation of
    clothing, withholding of food, being deprived of toilet facilities, and
    continuous blindfolding.
        On January 22, LAF soldiers allegedly discovered two men engaged in
    homosexual activity in the lobby of an uninhabited building in Beirut.
    They dragged them to Sassine Sqaure in Beirut and severely beat them.
    According to reports soldiers punched, kicked, and jabbed the men with
    their rifle butts. The beating reportedly ended only when bystanders
    began to intercede, but the LAF detained the men at police barracks on
    the attorney general's order until their release a few days later.
        On July 8, LAF officials arrested and beat Mathieu Fever, a French
    citizen and son of Jean-Francois Fever, head of security for UN
    agencies in the country. The LAF alleged Fever had attempted to
    obstruct a convoy transferring a dangerous criminal and the convoy
    repeatedly warned Fever to move. Fever had a broken leg when the LAF
    released him two hours after the arrest. No new developments were
    reported in this case by year's end.
        From October to November 2008, authorities reportedly tortured Fadi
    Anwar Sabunah, who was in detention at the MOD. According to
    international nongovernmental organization (NGO) Alkarama (Dignity),
    officers tortured Sabunah before he reportedly signed a confession to
    end the torture. At year's end he faced criminal charges before the
    Beirut military tribunal related to May, August, and September 2008
    bomb attacks on LAF soldiers.
        From November 2007 to February 2008, according to Alkarama, ISF
    intelligence agents allegedly tortured Amer and Mosbah Hashash in
    incommunicado detention at the ISF Directorate General detention center
    in Beirut. Authorities reportedly tortured the brothers to force them
    to sign confessions they were not permitted to read. The brothers, who
    were charged with forming a terrorist group, were awaiting trial at
    year's end.
        In 2007 security forces arrested five men in Tripoli on suspicion
    of supplying weapons to FAI. Security forces reportedly broke one
    suspect's jaw while he was in detention and forced another to stand for
    long periods of time, beating him severely if he tried to rest. Police
    dropped charges against two suspects; the others remained in custody at
    year's end.
        According to the Lebanese Center for Human Rights (CLDH), on July
    31, the military court sentenced Faysal Ghazi Moqalled to life
    imprisonment for his 2006 interaction with the Mossad, the Israeli
    intelligence agency. Moqalled originally was illegally detained for
    five months in a Hizballah prison in 2006, where he was allegedly
    tortured. Subsequently the MOD detained him for 20 months, and he was
    allegedly tortured again. His trial on appeal was scheduled for
    February 2010.
        The army intelligence service arrested Mahmoud Qassem Rafeh in 2006
    on suspicion of being an Israeli agent and subsequently detained him at
    the MOD, where he was allegedly tortured and forced to sign a
    confession. Rafeh was detained for approximately two years before he
    was permitted access to a lawyer; at year's end he was in prison
    awaiting trial.

        Prison and Detention Center Conditions.--Prison and detention
    center conditions were poor and did not meet minimum international
    standards. Prisons were overcrowded and sanitary conditions,
    particularly in women's prisons, were very poor. NGOs working with
    prisoners reported three cases of prisoner-on-prisoner rape in Roumieh
    prison during the year. According to one NGO, 27 prisoners died during
    the year primarily due to authorities' negligence and failure to
    provide appropriate medical care. The Government did not consider
    prison reform a high priority.
        At year's end there were 4,800 prisoners and detainees, including
    pretrial detainees and remand prisoners, in facilities built to hold a
    maximum of 2,500 inmates. NGOs reported at the end of the year, 138
    minors and 336 women were incarcerated. Overcrowding and limited prison
    facilities meant pretrial detainees were often held together with
    convicted prisoners, and juveniles may have been held together with
    adults during the year. Men and women are held separately in similar
    conditions. The LAF carried out interrogations of security detainees in
    detention centers at the MOD. Authorities held FAI prisoners in
    separate cells at Roumieh prison.
        The Government permitted independent monitoring of prison
    conditions by local and international human rights groups and the
    International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), and such monitoring
    took place during the year. According to its 2008 annual report, the
    ICRC carried out 136 visits to 6,104 detainees in 21 prisons and
    detention centers.
        Nongovernmental entities such as Hizballah and Palestinian militias
    also operated detention facilities.
        The Government made modest efforts to rehabilitate some inmates
    through education and training programs. A 15-month project funded by
    the European Union and implemented by the Association for Defense of
    Rights and Freedoms used theater arts to help inmates express
    themselves and communicate with others.

        d. Arbitrary Arrest or Detention.--The law requires judicial
    warrants before arrests, except in immediate pursuit situations, but
    the Government arbitrarily arrested and detained persons.

        Role of the Police and Security Apparatus.--The ISF, under the
    Ministry of Interior (MOI), enforces laws, conducts searches and
    arrests, and refers cases to the judiciary. The State Security
    Apparatus, which reports to the prime minister, and the SG, under the
    MOI, control the borders. The LAF is responsible for external security
    but may also arrest and detain suspects in the country on national
    security grounds. Both the State Security Apparatus and the SG collect
    information on groups deemed possible threats to state security.
        Government security officials and agencies and the police force are
    subject to laws against bribery and extortion. In practice a lack of
    strong enforcement limited the laws' effectiveness. The Government
    acknowledged the need to reform law enforcement behavior. The ISF
    maintained three complaint hotlines. Hotline operators in North
    Lebanon, South Lebanon, Biqa', and Mount Lebanon each received
    approximately 50 calls per day; the Beirut operation center received
    approximately 100 calls per day. If the calls indicated urgency, the
    ISF dispatched its forces for assistance. During times of particular
    security instability, these centers received a greater number of calls.

        Arrest Procedures and Treatment While in Detention.--The law
    generally requires a warrant for arrest and provides the right to a
    lawyer, a medical examination, and referral to a prosecutor within 48
    hours of arrest. If authorities hold a detainee longer than 48 hours
    without formal charges, the arrest is considered arbitrary and the
    detainee must be released. In such cases officials responsible for the
    prolonged arrest may be prosecuted on charges of depriving personal
    freedom, but charges are rarely filed. A suspect caught in the act of
    committing a crime must be referred to an examining judge, who decides
    whether to issue an indictment or to order the release of the suspect.
    By law bail is available in all cases regardless of the charges,
    although the amounts demanded may be set prohibitively high.
        The law guarantees detainees prompt access to a lawyer and to
    family members. However, the state does not provide legal assistance,
    although the Beirut Bar Association provides lawyers for indigent
    defendants.
        Authorities did not observe many provisions of the law, and
    government security forces--as well as extralegal armed groups such as
    Hizballah--continued the practice of arbitrary arrest and detention. In
    addition, the law permits military intelligence personnel to make
    arrests without warrants in cases involving military personnel and
    those involving alleged espionage, treason, and weapons possession.
        According to the CLDH, there have been clear cases of arbitrary
    detention and torture among persons detained on spying charges. For
    example, the CLDH reported four individuals accused of spying
    complained various security services tortured them to force them to
    sign confessions.
        Bureaucratic inefficiency delayed some cases. According to the
    CLDH, on September 25, authorities summoned Haytham Zantout to the
    Shiyah police station, where they interrogated him concerning a
    financial case. Zantout spent a night at the police station and four
    nights at the Baabda Court jail before authorities transferred him to
    Roumieh prison. After three hearings the investigative magistrate
    ordered him released on October 19. However, due to a delay in
    transmitting the release order to prison authorities, Zantout was only
    released on December 10, seven weeks after his ordered release date.
        Palestinian refugees were subject to arbitrary arrest and detention
    by state security forces and rival Palestinian factions. No statistics
    on the number of such cases were available at year's end.
        For example, on September 5, Hizballah reportedly arrested Salah
    Ezzedine and conducted an interrogation into his alleged financial
    fraud scheme before remanding him to the custody of government law
    enforcement personnel. Both Ezzedine and his business partner Youssef
    Faour were charged with fraud, embezzlement, distributing worthless
    checks, and violating the country's fiscal law.
        Human rights activists believed as of 2008 there were at least 600
    Lebanese and Palestinians from Lebanon in prolonged and often secret
    detention in Syria. In August 2008 Minister of Justice Ibrahim Najjar
    stated in a televised interview there were 745 citizens missing in
    Syria, some of them convicted criminals, and some victims of ``enforced
    disappearances.'' Najjar was the first government official to classify
    the detainees publicly. By year's end the Syrian government had
    released 130 detainees; all of those released had been convicted as
    criminals. According to NGO Support of Lebanese in Detention and Exile,
    at year's end the Syrian delegation to the joint Syrian-Lebanese
    commission had not granted approval for the country's judges to check
    on the prisoners remaining in Syrian detention, although it had agreed
    in principle to do so.
        Pretrial detention was a serious problem. According to ISF
    statistics, of the 5,122 persons in prison in May, more than 3,200 had
    yet to go to trial. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner
    for Refugees (UNHCR) expressed concerns about arbitrary pretrial
    detention without access to legal representation and refused to support
    construction of new prisons until the issue of arbitrary pretrial
    detention was resolved.

        Amnesty.--On July 10, President Sleiman granted amnesty to
    Palestinian prisoner Youssef Shaaban, jailed since 1994 for allegedly
    killing a Jordanian diplomat. Shaaban's release came several years
    after the execution of the confessed killers in Jordan. Shaaban was
    sentenced on the basis of confessions intelligence services extracted
    from after torturing him. He had been claiming his innocence for 15
    years.

        e. Denial of Fair Public Trial.--The constitution provides for an
    independent judiciary; however, in practice the judiciary was subject
    to political pressure, particularly in the appointment of key
    prosecutors and investigating magistrates. Influential politicians and
    intelligence officers intervened at times and used their influence and
    connections to protect supporters from prosecution. Despite
    intimidation generated by a series of unresolved political
    assassinations by unidentified assailants beginning in 2004, the
    aftermath of the 2005 assassination of Rafiq Hariri led to the gradual
    reduction of Syrian influence over the judiciary.
        The Ministry of Justice (MOJ) appoints most judges, taking into
    account the sectarian affiliation of the prospective judge. A shortage
    of qualified judges impeded efforts to adjudicate cases that
    accumulated during the years of internal conflict. Trial delays were
    aggravated by the Government's inability to conduct investigations in
    areas outside of its control, specifically in the Hizballah-controlled
    areas in the south and in the 12 Palestinian-controlled refugee camps
    in the country.
        The judicial system consists of the civilian courts, a military
    court, the Judicial Council, and the Constitutional Council. There are
    tribunals for the 18 government-recognized religious affiliations to
    adjudicate matters of personal status, including marriage, divorce,
    inheritance, and child custody according to each confession's
    principles. Shia and Sunni religious communities use religious courts
    that apply Shari'a principles to resolve family legal matters. There
    are also religious family courts in the Christian sect and Druze
    communities. There was no universal or secular personal status civil
    court system, no full body of civil law, and no appeal mechanism for
    the confessional courts.
        The military court tries cases involving military personnel and
    civilians in security-related issues, but it also has jurisdiction over
    civilians in espionage, treason, weapons possession, and draft evasion
    cases. Civilians may be tried for security issues, and military
    personnel may be tried for civil issues. The military court has two
    tribunals: the permanent tribunal and the cassation tribunal. The
    latter hears appeals from the former. A civilian judge chairs the
    cassation court. Defendants on trial by military tribunals have the
    same procedural rights as defendants in ordinary courts.
        The Judicial Council is a permanent tribunal of five senior judges
    that adjudicates threats to national security and some high-profile
    cases. Upon the recommendation of the minister of justice, the cabinet
    decides whether to try a case before this tribunal. Defendants before
    the Judicial Council have the same procedural rights as other
    defendants, but there is no right to appeal, and judges have the
    discretion to order the sessions, which are generally public, be
    closed.

        Trial Procedures.--Defendants do not enjoy a presumption of
    innocence, and there is no trial by jury. Trials were generally public,
    but judges have the discretion to order a closed court session.
    Defendants have the right to be present at trial, to consult with an
    attorney in a timely manner, and to question witnesses against them,
    but they must do the latter through the court panel, which decides
    whether to permit the defendant's question. Although there was no
    state-funded public defender's office, the bar association operated an
    office for those who could not afford a lawyer, and a lawyer was often
    provided for indigent defendants, of whom 80 percent were foreigners. A
    member of the Beirut Bar Association's Legal Aid Committee estimated as
    many as 20 percent of such defendants believed they did not receive
    proper representation. Defendants may present witnesses and evidence,
    and their attorneys have access to government-held evidence relevant to
    their cases. Defendants have the right of appeal. These rights
    generally were observed and applied to all defendants, both citizens
    and foreigners.
        Palestinian groups in refugee camps operated an autonomous and
    arbitrary system of justice outside the control of the state. For
    example, local popular committees in the camps attempted to resolve
    disputes using tribal methods of reconciliation. If the case involved a
    killing, the committees occasionally transferred the perpetrator to
    state authorities for trial.

        Political Prisoners and Detainees.--There were no reports of
    political prisoners or detainees.

        Civil Judicial Procedures and Remedies.--There is an independent
    judiciary in civil matters. In practice it was seldom used to bring
    civil lawsuits seeking damages for human rights violations the
    Government allegedly committed. During the year there were no examples
    of a civil court awarding an individual compensation for human rights
    violations the Government committed against them. Many potential
    litigants perceived such litigation was not worth the effort because
    the process was lengthy and there were few precedents of successful
    outcomes.

        f. Arbitrary Interference With Privacy, Family, Home, or
    Correspondence.--Although the law prohibits such actions, authorities
    frequently interfered with the privacy of persons regarded as enemies
    of the Government. The law requires police obtain warrants before
    entering homes except when in close pursuit of armed attackers, and
    they generally did so.
        The Army Intelligence Service monitored the movements and
    activities of members of opposition groups. Security services continued
    to eavesdrop, although the law requires prior authorization. Defense
    Minister Elias Murr stated that Law 140, which regulates eavesdropping,
    was implemented as of February 3. The law allows the State Prosecutor's
    Office to request permission to tap telephone calls made in connection
    with ordinary crimes. It also allows the ministries of defense and
    interior to request the interception of calls related to political and
    terrorist activities. These ministries must first inform the Council of
    Ministers of their intention to request a particular telephone tap.
    Subsequently they must submit all specific requests to the relevant
    authorities. The law also provides for the formation of an independent
    judicial committee to receive telephone-tapping complaints and permits
    security services to monitor suspected criminals' telephones. On August
    17, the press reported the establishment of a new telephone-tapping
    center, operated by army officers, with the capacity of recording
    72,000 calls per day.
        Militias and non-Lebanese forces operating outside the area of
    central government authority also frequently violated citizens' privacy
    rights. Various factions used informer networks and telephone
    monitoring to obtain information regarding their perceived adversaries.

    Section 2. Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:
        a. Freedom of Speech and Press.--The law provides for freedom of
    speech and of the press, but political violence and extralegal
    intimidation in recent years have led to self-censorship among
    journalists. Individuals are free to criticize the Government but are
    legally prohibited from publicly criticizing the president and foreign
    leaders.
        Dozens of newspapers and hundreds of periodicals were published
    throughout the country, financed by and reflecting the views of local,
    sectarian, and foreign interest groups. In cooperation with the UN
    Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization's (UNESCO) regional
    office in Beirut, the Maharat Foundation released its annual report on
    the status of freedom of expression and opinion in the country for the
    year 2008. It noted the law restricts the freedom to issue, publish,
    and sell newspapers. The law also limits the number of political
    periodical publications to 25 per day for political publications and 20
    a day for provisional political publications; prohibits the release of
    any publication without a prior license from the minister of
    information in consultation with the Press Union; and outlaws owning or
    managing a printing press without informing the Ministry of
    Information. There was limited state ownership of newspapers and
    periodicals; of the nine television and 33 radio stations, all but one
    television and one radio station were privately owned. The majority of
    media outlets had political affiliations, which sometimes hampered
    their ability to operate freely in areas dominated by other political
    groups and affected the objectivity of their reporting.
        In November 2008 more than 15 supporters of the SSNP attacked
    Future News Television reporter Omar Harqous with sticks in Beirut's
    Hamra Street, injuring him in the head, neck, and chest. Harqous, who
    was admitted to a hospital for treatment, filed a complaint against the
    SSNP, its president, and the assailants, claiming the attack was
    motivated by his political reporting and editorials and that the
    assailants called him a Jew. The case was under appeal at year's end.
        During the year several journalists privately reported receiving
    threats from political parties, politicians, fellow journalists, and
    opposition militia figures who generally threatened violence against
    them and their families if they did not cease writing articles on
    sensitive political issues. During the May 2008 conflict, there were
    physical attacks on several journalists and photographers, and armed
    Hizballah fighters closed four government-affiliated media outlets for
    several days. According to the Maharat Foundation's 2008 survey, 10 of
    the 61 journalists interviewed had experienced a shooting or beating in
    2008, six had been threatened or intimidated, and four had been
    illegally detained.
        The law permits censorship of pornographic material, political
    opinion, and religious material considered a threat to national
    security or an offense to the dignity of the head of state or foreign
    leaders. The 1991 security agreement between the Government and the
    Syrian government, still in effect, contains a provision prohibiting
    the publication of any information deemed harmful to the security of
    either state. The SG reviews and censors all foreign newspapers,
    magazines, and books before they enter the country.
        On October 19, the media reported the Government forced a private
    school to remove pages reportedly describing Hizballah as a terrorist
    organization from a history book, following a complaint by former labor
    minister Mohammad Fneish. Any of the recognized religions may
    unilaterally request the SG ban any book. The Government may prosecute
    offending journalists and publications in the publications court.
        Officials also used libel laws to suppress criticism during the
    year. On July 31, security forces surrounded the headquarters of the
    Al-Jadeed television station to serve an arrest warrant against Ghada
    Eid, the host of weekly talk show Corruption, for allegedly slandering
    judge Shaheed Salameh during an episode of her show. The court issued
    an arrest warrant for Eid when she failed to appear at a hearing on the
    case; she claimed she had not received the summons. Eid avoided arrest
    on July 31 but surrendered to authorities on September 14. She was
    subsequently released on six million pounds ($4,000) bail. On November
    30, in a separate libel case against judge Afif Shamseddine, the press
    court sentenced Eid to three months' imprisonment and a fine of 30
    million pounds ($20,000). The court also demanded she read the
    accusation against her aloud on the first episode of her show following
    implementation of the sentence.
        In September 2008 the Execution Bureau of Beirut enforced a
    provisional seizure of property against Al-Jadeed in compliance with a
    decision by the Court of Publications. Former justice minister Charles
    Rizk had filed a lawsuit in 2007 against the head of the station's
    editorial department, Maryam al-Bassam, accusing her of libel. Ruling
    in favor of Rizk, the court judgment forced Al-Jadeed to pay 50 million
    pounds ($33,333) to Rizk as compensation and 13 million pounds ($8,666)
    to the state in penalty and judgment fees. Al-Jadeed paid the
    compensation to the state but appealed to the Supreme Court to avoid
    paying compensation to Rizk, who in turn requested the provisional
    seizure of Al-Jadeed's property. At year's end, there were no new
    developments. At year's end, authorities had not pursued most judicial
    cases launched in previous years against journalists.

        Internet Freedom.--The Government reportedly censored some Internet
    sites, but there were no reports the Government monitored e-mail or
    Internet chat rooms. Individuals and groups could generally engage in
    the peaceful expression of views via the Internet, including e-mail and
    Internet discussion groups. According to 2008 International
    Telecommunications Union statistics, approximately 23 percent of the
    country's inhabitants used the Internet. The SG and MOJ sometimes
    contacted Internet service providers to block pornographic and
    religiously provocative Web sites.

        Academic Freedom and Cultural Events.--There were no government
    restrictions on academic freedom, apart from libel and slander laws,
    but the Government censored films, plays, and other cultural events;
    filmmakers, playwrights, festival organizers, and others practiced
    self-censorship.
        The SG reviews all films and plays, and prohibits those deemed
    offensive to religious or social sensitivities. On February 16, the SG
    banned director Marc Abi Rached's film Help--about a homeless boy who
    meets a female prostitute living with a gay man--after having
    previously granted permission to screen the film. Help was subsequently
    presented at the October 7-14 Beirut International Film Festival,
    during which the SG banned the films Le Chant des Mariees, Confortorio,
    and Gostanza Da Libbiani for objectionable content. At year's end the
    SG's ban on the public screening of the Israeli animated film Waltz
    with Bashir remained in force.

        b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association.--The law provides
    for freedom of assembly, but the Government sometimes restricted this
    right in practice. The MOI required prior approval for rallies, and it
    sometimes did not grant permits to groups that opposed government
    positions.

        Freedom of Assembly.--Unlike previous years there were no reported
    cases of security forces abusing demonstrators or failing to prevent
    violence against them.

        Freedom of Association.--The law provides for freedom of
    association, but the Government imposed limits on this right. The law
    requires every new organization to submit a notification of formation
    to the MOI, which then issues a receipt. The MOI sometimes imposed
    additional and inconsistent restrictions and requirements and withheld
    receipts, turning the notification process into a de facto approval
    process. In some cases the MOI sent notification of formation papers to
    the security forces to initiate inquiries on an organization's founding
    members. Organizations must invite MOI representatives to any general
    assembly where members vote on by-law amendments or positions on the
    board of directors. The MOI must then validate the vote or election;
    failure to do so could result in the dissolution of the organization.
        The MOI did not immediately validate the February 2008 elections of
    the Israeli Communal Council, a legally registered Jewish organization
    representing the small Jewish community and Jewish property owners who
    do not reside in the country. As with the previous two such elections,
    the MOI did not validate them until May 2008, following diplomatic
    intervention.
        The cabinet must license all political parties (see section 3).

        c. Freedom of Religion.--The constitution provides for freedom of
    religion and the freedom to practice all religious rites, provided the
    public order is not disturbed. The Government generally respected these
    rights, but there were some restrictions.
        The Government must formally recognize a religious group for it to
    obtain official status. A group must submit a statement of its doctrine
    and moral principles for government review to ensure that such
    principles do not contradict popular values or the constitution. The
    group must ensure the number of its adherents is sufficient to maintain
    continuity. Alternatively, religious groups may apply for recognition
    through existing religious groups, all of which are variants of Islam
    or Christianity. Official recognition conveys certain benefits, such as
    exemption from taxes and the right to apply the recognized religion's
    codes to personal status matters. Each recognized religious group has
    its own courts for family law matters such as marriage, divorce, child
    custody, and inheritance. Although the Government did not recognize
    officially some Baha'i, Buddhist, Hindu, and Protestant Christian
    groups, the groups were allowed to practice their faith without
    government interference, but the law did not recognize their marriages,
    divorces, and inheritances in the country.
        Protestant evangelical churches are required to register with the
    Evangelical Synod, a nongovernmental advisory group that represents
    those churches to the Government. Representatives of some churches
    complained the Synod has refused to accept new members since 1975,
    thereby preventing their clergy from ministering to adherents in
    accordance with their beliefs.
        Although the law stipulates anyone who ``blasphemes God publicly''
    may face imprisonment for as long as one year, no prosecutions or
    arrests were reported under this law during the year.
        The unwritten ``National Pact'' of 1943 stipulates the president,
    the prime minister, and the speaker of parliament be a Maronite
    Christian, a Sunni Muslim, and a Shia Muslim, respectively. The 1989
    Ta'if Accord, which ended the country's 15-year civil war, reaffirmed
    this arrangement but also codified increased Muslim representation in
    parliament and reduced the power of the Maronite president.
        Religious affiliation is encoded on national identity cards and
    indicated on civil status registry documents but not on passports, and
    the Government complied with requests of citizens to change their civil
    records to reflect changes in religious status. On February 11, the MOI
    issued a circular informing citizens they would be allowed to remove
    their religious affiliations from their civil registry records. The MOI
    did not make public the number of persons who had taken advantage of
    this option during the year. Government documents refer to Jewish
    citizens as ``Israelites'' even though they are not Israeli citizens.
        The law provides that only religious authorities may perform
    marriages, but the Government recognized civil marriage ceremonies
    performed outside the country.
        Although there were no legal barriers to proselytizing, traditional
    attitudes and edicts of the clerical establishment strongly discouraged
    such activity.

        Societal Abuses and Discrimination.--Societal harassment and
    discrimination based on religious affiliation, belief, or practice
    occurred, often in relation to political events, and the Government
    failed to prevent or punish such actions.
        During the year there were examples of Maronite religious leaders
    attempting to prevent evangelical Christians from proselytizing to
    other Christians and of Druze religious figures hindering Maronite
    missionary efforts.
        At year's end there were approximately 100 Jews living in the
    country and 6,000 registered Jewish voters who lived abroad but had the
    right to vote in parliamentary elections.
        During the year Hizballah directed strong rhetoric against Israel
    and the Jewish population, and it cooperated in publishing and
    distributing anti-Semitic literature. Al-Manar TV, controlled and
    operated by Hizballah, continued to broadcast anti-Semitic material
    that drew no government criticism.
        On November 5, the Government censored The Diary of Anne Frank from
    a textbook used by the International College. The action followed a
    campaign by Hizballah claiming the work promoted Zionism. Hizballah's
    Al-Manar television channel ran a report condemning the book for
    focusing on the persecution of Jews.
        On September 28, Khaled Shebli Khelo allegedly threw a Molotov
    cocktail at the Maghen Abraham synagogue, the last remaining synagogue
    in the country. Security authorities arrested Khelo the same day, and
    investigations into the incident were ongoing at year's end.
        During the year representatives from the Israeli Communal Council
    reported continued acts of vandalism against a Jewish-owned cemetery in
    downtown Beirut. The Government had not arrested or prosecuted suspects
    for these crimes as of year's end.
        For a more detailed discussion, see the 2009 International
    Religious Freedom Report at http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf.

        d. Freedom of Movement, Internally Displaced Persons, Protection of
    Refugees, and Stateless Persons.--The law provides for freedom of
    movement within the country, foreign travel, emigration, and
    repatriation, and the Government generally respected these rights for
    citizens but placed limitations on the rights of Palestinian refugees.
    The Government cooperated with the UN Relief and Works Agency for
    Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), the UNHCR, and other humanitarian
    organizations in providing protection and assistance to internally
    displaced persons, refugees, returning refugees, asylum seekers, and
    other persons of concern.
        The Government maintained security checkpoints, primarily in
    military and other restricted areas. On main roads and in populated
    areas, security services used a few police checkpoints to conduct
    warrantless searches for smuggled goods, weapons, narcotics, and
    subversive literature. Government forces were unable to enforce the law
    in the predominantly Hizballah-controlled Beirut southern suburbs and
    did not typically enter Palestinian refugee camps.
        According to UNRWA, Palestinian refugees registered with the MOI's
    Directorate of Political and Refugee Affairs (DPRA) may travel from one
    area of the country to another. However, the DPRA must approve transfer
    of registration for refugees who reside in camps. UNRWA stated the DPRA
    generally approved such transfers. The LAF granted Palestinian refugees
    residing in the area adjacent to the Nahr el-Barid camp permanent
    permits, which they must produce at the LAF checkpoint to enter the
    area.
        The law prohibits direct travel to Israel.
        The law prohibits forced exile, and it was not used.

        Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).--According to international
    humanitarian organizations, a significant number of persons remained
    displaced as a consequence of the 1975-1990 civil war, the 2006 war,
    and the 2007 displacement of Palestinian refugees from the Nahr el-
    Barid camp. Many IDPs endured dangerous conditions, including lack of
    food, electricity, and potable water, during their displacement and
    after their return home. The Ministry of the Displaced paid
    compensation to IDPs to leave illegally occupied properties, removed
    debris from conflict-affected areas, provided rebuilding assistance,
    and initiated infrastructure projects. The High Relief Commission
    coordinated national international humanitarian assistance.
        The World Bank and the Ministry of the Displaced estimated the
    civil war displaced 500,000 to 800,000 persons. The Government set a
    2002 target date to complete returns, but as of 2002 an estimated
    300,000 remained displaced. In 2006 the Government reported 17,000
    persons remained displaced, but others estimated only 20 to 25 percent
    of the original number had returned home. Some IDPs displaced during
    the civil war have neither returned home nor attempted to reclaim and
    rebuild their property due to the hazardous social and economic
    situation in some areas.
        According to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center, at the
    height of the 2006 war between Israel and Hizballah, as many as one
    million persons fled their homes; approximately 735,000 were internally
    displaced, and approximately 230,000 fled to neighboring countries.
    According to government estimates, 90 percent of the IDPs returned home
    within four days of the ceasefire, but many homes had been destroyed,
    compensation was rarely sufficient for rebuilding, and unexploded
    ordnance restricted freedom of movement. In December 2008 the UNHCR
    estimated 40,000 to 70,000 such persons remained IDPs. UNRWA reported
    more than 20,000 Nahr el-Barid residents remained displaced at year's
    end.
        During the year there were no substantiated reports the Government
    deliberately attacked or forcibly resettled IDPs or made efforts to
    obstruct access by domestic or international humanitarian
    organizations.

        Protection of Refugees.--The country is not party to the 1951
    Convention relating to the Status of Refugees or its 1967 Protocol. Its
    laws do not provide for the granting of asylum or refugee status. As a
    result more than 70 percent of refugees registered with the UNHCR do
    not have any legal status and thus are liable to arrest for their
    illegal status. In practice the Government provided some protection
    against the expulsion or return of refugees to countries where their
    lives or freedom would be threatened on account of their race,
    religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or
    political opinion.
        Authorities repatriated refugees on a voluntary basis during the
    year. According to the UNHCR, domestic courts often sentenced refugees
    to one month's imprisonment and fines instead of deportation. Courts
    often referred to the Convention against Torture, to which the country
    is a party, which states no state party shall expel, return, or
    extradite a person to another state where there are substantial grounds
    for believing he or she would be in danger of being subjected to
    torture. After serving their sentences, most refugees remained in
    detention unless they found employment sponsors and the SG agreed to
    release them in coordination with the UNHCR.
        A 2003 agreement between the SG and the UNHCR recognizes and grants
    protection to non-Palestinian refugees, providing temporary relief for
    those seeking determination of refugee status. Those wishing to claim
    refugee status must do so within two months of arriving in the country.
    The SG issues residence permits, valid for three months, during which
    time the UNHCR must make a refugee status determination. The SG
    extended residency permits for as long as 12 months for those to whom
    the UNHCR accorded refugee status. The Government granted admission and
    temporary (six-month) refuge to asylum seekers, but not permanent
    asylum. The SG sometimes arbitrarily detained asylum seekers at its
    detention facility for more than a year and then deported them.
        The second largest group of refugees in the country were Iraqis. At
    year's end 10,288 Iraqis were registered with the UNHCR. The UNHCR
    estimated 30,000 to 50,000 Iraqis were living in the country; many
    entered the country illegally in search of jobs, education, and
    security. Local NGOs and community workers estimated approximately
    20,000 Iraqis were vulnerable and in need of assistance. During the
    year the Government provided limited services for Iraqi refugees but
    had no process for regularizing their status. The Government did not
    take action to provide a temporary protection regime for Iraqi asylum
    seekers, as advocated by the UNHCR, and the Government regularly
    deported Iraqis who may have had valid persecution claims. According to
    the SG there were 16 detained Iraqis in the country at year's end.
    During the year the SG deported 183 illegal Iraqi immigrants to Iraq.
    From February 18 until June 18, the SG granted a grace period for
    illegal immigrants, during which period Iraqis could regularize their
    status. The SG allowed Iraqi detainees an additional three months to
    arrange for new sponsors in the country if they did not wish to return
    to Iraq.
        By law Palestinian refugees are considered foreigners, although in
    several instances they are accorded poorer treatment than other
    foreigners due to the country's insistence on the principle of
    reciprocity, which is prejudicial to stateless Palestinians. UNRWA has
    the sole mandate to provide health, education, social services, and
    emergency assistance to Palestinian refugees residing in the country as
    well as in the West Bank, Gaza, Syria, and Jordan. As of June 30,
    421,993 UNRWA-registered Palestinian refugees were living in or near 12
    camps throughout the country. The majority of Palestinian refugees were
    those displaced during the Arab-Israeli war of 1948 and their
    descendants. Additional Palestinians arrived in 1967 after the Six-Day
    War and in the 1970s after many were expelled from Jordan.
        The amount of land allocated to official refugee camps in the
    country has only marginally changed since 1948, despite a four-fold
    increase in the registered refugee population. Consequently, most
    Palestinian refugees lived in overpopulated camps subject to repeated
    heavy damage during multiple conflicts. Poverty, drug addiction,
    prostitution, and crime reportedly prevailed in the camps, although
    reliable statistics were not available. In accordance with a 1969
    agreement with the PLO, PLO security committees, not the Government,
    provide security for refugees in the camps.
        During and after the 2007 fighting in Nahr el-Barid, which resulted
    in the displacement of an estimated 35,000 Palestinian refugees, LAF
    and ISF forces arbitrarily detained and physically abused some
    Palestinian refugees and citizens of other countries suspected of being
    militants. The LAF interrogated many men as they left the camp and
    detained those suspected of supporting or having information about FAI
    (see section 1.c.). FAI attacked members of international humanitarian
    organizations who attempted to enter the Nahr el-Barid camp to provide
    assistance. An FAI attack on a UN aid convoy claimed the lives of two
    Palestinian refugees. The Nahr el-Barid conflict caused multiple
    humanitarian concerns. Palestinian refugees and Lebanese displaced by
    the violence had no access to running water, sewage, or electricity for
    weeks. Refugees who left the camp were treated for dehydration,
    diarrhea, and stomach illnesses, and, due to security problems, UNRWA
    clinics in the camp were not fully functioning. The Government provided
    emergency relief with assistance from UNRWA, the international donor
    community, and humanitarian NGOs.
        During the year there were reports members of various Palestinian
    factions and foreign militias detained their rivals during clashes over
    territorial control of the camps, particularly in the north and south.
        At year's end 15,000 refugees had returned to areas adjacent to the
    camp. Displaced communities raised concerns about their security and
    freedom of movement, as security measures tightened in response to
    sporadic clashes in the northern part of the country. In June 2008
    UNRWA, the Government, and the World Bank launched a comprehensive,
    three-year plan to rebuild Nahr el-Barid camp and surrounding
    communities. Reconstruction in the official camp began in November
    following bureaucratic and political delays.
        According to human rights observers, Palestinian refugees faced
    severe restrictions in access to work opportunities. Few Palestinians
    received work permits, and those who found work usually were directed
    into unskilled occupations. In 2005 the minister of labor issued a
    memorandum authorizing Palestinian nationals born in the country and
    registered with the MOI to work in 50 (out of 72) professions otherwise
    banned to foreigners. There were no indications this memorandum was
    implemented consistently. Some Palestinian refugees worked in the
    informal sector, particularly in agriculture and construction.
    Palestinian incomes continued to decline in real terms. Iraqi refugees
    also faced significant restrictions on their ability to work, with many
    working in the informal labor sector. Seventy percent of registered
    Iraqi refugees were men, who were particularly at risk for labor
    exploitation and deportation.
        Palestinian refugees residing in the country were not able to
    obtain citizenship and were not citizens of any other country.
    Palestinian refugee women married to citizens were able to obtain
    citizenship and transmit citizenship to their children. Palestinian
    refugees, including children, had limited social and civil rights and
    no access to public health, education, or other social services. The
    majority relied entirely on UNRWA for education, health, relief, and
    social services. Children of Palestinian refugees faced discrimination
    in birth registration, and many reportedly had to leave school at an
    early age to earn income.
        Iraqi refugees had access to both the public and private education
    systems. The UNHCR reported approximately 1,000 Iraqi children were
    registered in schools, and it provided grants to the children to help
    defray the costs associated with attending school. Iraqi refugees also
    had access to the primary health care system. The UNHCR, through NGOs,
    provided secondary health care.
        Property laws do not explicitly target Palestinian refugees, but
    they bar persons who do not bear the nationality of a recognized state
    from owning land and property, which directly and effectively excludes
    Palestinians. Under this law Palestinians may not purchase property,
    and those who owned property before this law was issued in 2001 are
    prohibited from passing the property to their children. The parliament
    justified these restrictions on the grounds it was protecting the right
    of Palestinian refugees to return to the homes they fled after the
    creation of the state of Israel in 1948. Other foreigners may own
    limited-size plots of land.

        Stateless Persons.--Citizenship is derived exclusively from the
    father, which may result in statelessness for children of a citizen
    mother and a noncitizen father when registration under the father's
    nationality is not possible.
        Approximately 3,000 Palestinian refugees were registered neither
    with the UNRWA nor with the Government. Also known as undocumented, or
    non-ID, Palestinians, most moved to the country after the expulsion of
    the PLO from Jordan in 1971. Non-ID Palestinians were not eligible for
    assistance from UNRWA, faced restrictions on movement, and lacked
    access to fundamental rights under the law. The majority of non-ID
    Palestinians were men, many of them married to UNRWA refugees or
    citizen women, who could not transmit refugee status or citizenship to
    their husbands or children.
        In January 2008 the Government agreed to grant a new legal status
    to non-ID Palestinians. By the end of 2008, the LPDC and UNRWA had
    facilitated the issuance of identification cards to 1,200 non-ID
    Palestinians. However, the process was suspended during the year, and
    all the cards issued have expired.
        At year's end the MOI had not rendered a decision on the legal
    status of approximately 4,000 persons who stood to lose citizenship due
    to the State Consultative Council's 2003 decision to invalidate the
    1994 naturalization decree, which naturalized several thousand
    Palestinians.
        Approximately 1,000 to 1,500 of the 75,000 Kurds living in the
    country were without citizenship despite decades of family presence in
    the country. Most were descendants of migrants and refugees who left
    Turkey and Syria during World War I but had been denied the right to
    citizenship to preserve the country's sectarian balance. The Government
    issued a naturalization decree in June 1994, but high costs and other
    obstacles prevented many from acquiring official status. Some held an
    ``ID under consideration'' that states no date and place of birth.

    Section 3. Respect for Political Rights: The Right of Citizens to
            Change Their Government
        The law provides citizens the right to change their government
    peacefully in periodic, free, and fair elections based on universal
    suffrage; however, lack of government control over parts of the
    country, defects in the electoral process, and corruption in public
    office significantly restricted this right in practice. Elections for
    parliament must be held every four years, and parliament elects the
    president every six years to a single term. The president and
    parliament nominate the prime minister, who, with the president,
    chooses the cabinet.

        Elections and Political Participation.--On June 7, parliamentary
    elections were held in the 26 electoral districts. Observers concluded
    the elections were generally free and fair, with minor irregularities.
    In its final report, a EU observer team stated there were no major
    irregularities; that the elections benefited from legal improvements
    introduced in September 2008, such as an independent election
    commission, abolition of the voter card and multiday elections, and
    regulation of campaign finance and media; and voter turnout was higher
    than in previous elections, at almost 52 percent compared to 43 to 45
    percent in 2005. The September 2008 electoral law also established out-
    of-country voting provisions for the 2013 parliamentary elections.
        The cabinet must license all political parties. The Government
    scrutinized requests to establish political movements or parties and
    monitored their activities to some extent.
        The political system is based on confessional affiliation, and
    parliamentary seats are allotted on a sectarian basis. There were four
    major, and numerous smaller, political parties. The larger, sectarian-
    based parties maintained the greatest influence in the country's
    political system, although a number of smaller parties existed or were
    in the process of forming.
        There were significant cultural barriers to women's participation
    in politics. Prior to 2005 no woman held a cabinet position. One woman
    served as a member of the national unity cabinet formed in July 2008,
    and two women were appointed to the cabinet formed late in the year.
        Minorities were able to participate in politics to some extent.
    Regardless of the number of its adherents, every government-recognized
    religion was given at least one seat in parliament. Three
    parliamentarians representing minorities (one Syrian Orthodox and two
    Alawites) were elected in the June elections. These groups also held
    high positions in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the LAF. As
    Palestinian refugees are not citizens, they have no political rights.
    An estimated 17 Palestinian factions operated in the country, generally
    organized around prominent individuals. Most Palestinians lived in
    refugee camps that one or more factions controlled. Refugee leaders
    were not elected, but there were popular committees that met regularly
    with the UNRWA and visitors.

    Section 4. Official Corruption and Government Transparency
        The Government provides criminal penalties for official corruption,
    but the penalties were seldom enforced, and government corruption was a
    serious problem. A September Transparency Lebanon report enumerated
    types of corruption in the country, such as systemic clientelism;
    judicial failures, especially in investigations of politically
    motivated killings; electoral fraud from the absence of preprinted
    ballots; and bribery. According to the report, all bureaucratic
    transactions are facilitated through the payment of bribes; in addition
    to regular fees, customers pay bribes of at least 60,000 pounds ($40)
    for a new driver's license, 40,000 pounds ($27) for car registration,
    and 4.5 million to 45 million pounds ($3,000 to $30,000) to get a
    residential building permit.
        In its annual National Integrity System Study, the Lebanese
    Transparency Association (LTA) reported during the parliamentary
    elections LTA monitors witnessed vote buying through cash donations on
    election day in many electoral districts. LTA issued a press statement
    the day after the elections stating acts of vote-buying occurred in
    Metn, Zahle, Batroun, Zghorta, West Bekaa, and Saida. The report
    indicated the value of a vote reached from 90,000 pounds ($60) to
    150,000 pounds ($100) in Saida, 1,300,000 pounds ($800) in Zahle, and
    up to 4,500,000 pounds ($3,000) in Zgharta.
        On June 9, OTV broadcast a recording of a conversation between MP
    Michel Murr and Father Elias Akkary in which Murr asked Akkary to
    retrieve the preprinted ballots he had distributed on behalf of Murr's
    opponent or else face the secret services. Akkary had reportedly agreed
    to campaign for Murr but instead campaigned for Murr's opponent, MP
    Ibrahim Kenaan.
        The law requires public officials to disclose their financial
    assets to the Constitutional Council, but the information was not
    available to the public. The Court of Accounts, the Central Inspection
    Department, the Office of the Minister of State for Administrative
    Reform, the Central Bank's Special Investigation Committee, and the
    Disciplinary Board were tasked with fighting corruption.
        There are no laws regarding public access to government documents,
    and the Government did not respond to requests for documents.

    Section 5. Governmental Attitude Regarding International and
            Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations of Human
            Rights
        A number of domestic and international human rights groups
    generally operated without overt government restriction and
    investigated and published their findings on human rights cases.
    Domestic human rights groups included the Lebanese Association for
    Human Rights, the Foundation for Human and Humanitarian Rights-Lebanon,
    the Beirut Bar Association's Institute for Human Rights, and the
    National Association for the Rights of the Disabled. Government
    officials generally cooperated with NGOs, but following the 2007 Nahr
    el-Barid conflict, the Government obstructed a monitoring visit to the
    camp conducted jointly by several international and domestic NGOs,
    including HRW, ALEF, the Palestinian Human Rights Organization, and the
    Palestinian Foundation for Human Rights.
        The Government cooperated with international governmental
    organizations and permitted visits by UN representatives and other
    international bodies such as the ICRC. On May 27, the ICRC released its
    2008 annual report on its activities in the country. On April 22, the
    UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon wrote a letter to the parliamentary
    human rights committee reviewing his discussion with members about
    civil, political, economic, and social rights, including those of
    refugees, and reporting on treaty obligations.
        Parliament's Committee on Human Rights made little progress due to
    the absence of a government for most of the year. At year's end there
    was no evidence that the committee had begun implementing the existing
    national action plan calling for legal changes to guide ministries on
    protecting specific human rights and the implementation of certain
    measures, such as improving prison conditions.

    Section 6. Discrimination, Societal Abuses, and Trafficking in Persons
        The law prohibits discrimination based on race, gender, disability,
    language, or social status, and it provides for equality among all
    citizens. In practice some aspects of the law and traditional beliefs
    discriminated against women. Although the law reserves a percentage of
    private sector and government jobs for persons with disabilities, there
    were few accommodations for them. Discrimination based on race,
    language, or social status is illegal, but foreign domestic employees
    often were mistreated, sometimes suffered physical abuse, had pay
    withheld or unfairly reduced, or were forced to remain locked within
    their employer's home for the duration of their contracts.

        Women.--The law prohibits rape, and the Government effectively
    enforced the law. The minimum prison sentence for a person convicted of
    rape is five years, or seven years for raping a minor. Although the law
    does not provide for it, victims' families may offer rapists marriage
    as an alternative to preserve family honor. Spousal rape was not
    criminalized. According to the local NGO KAFA (Enough) Violence and
    Exploitation, nonspousal rape was relatively common. KAFA reported 80
    percent of domestic violence victims suffered spousal rape as well.
    Although there were no official statistics on the number of abusers who
    were prosecuted, prosecution was rare, according to KAFA.
        The law does not specifically prohibit domestic violence, and
    domestic violence, including spousal abuse, was a problem. There were
    no authoritative statistics on its extent. Despite a law that sets a
    maximum sentence of three years in prison for battery, some religious
    courts may legally require a battered wife to return to her home
    despite physical abuse. Women were sometimes compelled to remain in
    abusive marriages because of economic, social, and family pressures.
    Foreign domestic servants, usually women, were often mistreated,
    abused, and in some cases raped or placed in slavery-like conditions
    (see section 7.c.).
        The Government provided legal assistance to domestic violence
    victims who could not afford it, but in most cases police ignored
    complaints submitted by battered or abused women. A local NGO, the
    Lebanese Council to Resist Violence against Women, worked to reduce
    violence against women by offering counseling and legal aid and raising
    awareness about the problem. From January to September, KAFA assisted
    98 victims of domestic violence.
        The legal system was discriminatory in its handling of honor
    crimes. According to the penal code, a man who kills his wife or other
    female relative may receive a reduced sentence if he demonstrates he
    committed the crime in response to a socially unacceptable sexual
    relationship conducted by the victim. For example, although the penal
    code stipulates murder is punishable by either a life sentence or
    death, a defendant who can prove the killing was an honor crime
    receives a commuted sentence of a maximum of seven years' imprisonment.
    According to a March 2008 Agence France Presse article, although honor
    crimes were not widespread in the country, every year men killed a
    number of female relatives under the pretext of defending family honor.
        The law on prostitution requires brothels be licensed, including
    regular testing for disease. Government policy was to reject all new
    license requests for brothels in an attempt to eliminate prostitution;
    consequently most prostitution in the country was unlicensed and
    unregulated. The SG closely monitored women working in adult clubs.
    Foreign women's residency permits did not exceed six months, and they
    were deported if they were caught overstaying their permits.
        The law prohibits sexual harassment, but it was a widespread
    problem, and the law was not effectively enforced. Social pressure
    against women pursuing careers was strong in some parts of society. Men
    sometimes exercised considerable control over female relatives,
    restricting their activities outside the home or their contact with
    friends and relatives.
        Couples and individuals have the right to decide freely and
    responsibly the number, spacing, and timing of their children and to
    have the information and means to do so free from discrimination,
    coercion, and violence. There are no legal prohibitions or governmental
    encumbrances to equal access under the law for reproductive health care
    products or services, although the most advanced clinics and practices
    were in the larger metropolitan areas. The Government provided free
    hospital treatment and free antiretroviral drugs for all persons living
    with HIV/AIDS.
        Women suffered discrimination under the law and in practice.
        Many family and personal status laws, which varied widely across
    the various confessional court systems, discriminated against women.
    For example, Sunni civil courts apply an Islamic inheritance law that
    provides a son twice the inheritance of a daughter. Immigration law
    also discriminates against women, who may not confer citizenship on
    their spouses and children, except widows may confer citizenship on
    their minor children. By law women may own property, but they often
    ceded control of it to male relatives due to cultural reasons and
    family pressure. The law provides for equal pay for equal work for men
    and women, but in the private sector there was discrimination regarding
    the provision of benefits.

        Children.--Citizenship is derived exclusively from the father,
    which may result in statelessness for some children of a citizen mother
    and noncitizen father (see section 2.d.).
        The Government did not register the births of children born in the
    country to Palestinian refugees or non-ID Palestinian parents,
    resulting in the denial of citizenship and restricted access to public
    services, including school and health care. Children of citizen mothers
    and Palestinian fathers were not granted citizenship. According to the
    Government Higher Council for Childhood, although Palestinian refugee
    births were not officially registered, the General Directorate for
    Palestinian Refugees in Lebanon, which falls under the MOI, maintained
    birth figures.
        Iraqi, Sudanese, and Somali refugee children and children of
    foreign domestic workers also faced obstacles to equal treatment under
    the law, and NGOs reported ongoing discrimination against them,
    although some could attend school. According to an October 2008 report
    by the Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN), children born
    in the country of migrant domestic workers had no official identity.
        For Sri Lankans, Filipinos, and West Africans, the law allows a
    child who is already registered in a school to have residency. Many
    children of domestic workers faced marginalization and racism because
    of their parents' social status. No accurate statistics on the number
    of such children born in the country existed at year's end, although
    Caritas estimated there were approximately 75 children.
        In a joint KAFA-Save the Children Sweden study released in October
    2008, 16 to 20 percent of children eight to 17 years old admitted
    experiencing at least one form of sexual abuse at an average age of 10
    years. The survey also showed most sexual abuse occurred at home, and
    54 percent of the sexually abused children said they told someone about
    the abuse, most commonly their mother. Focus group discussions revealed
    a lack of knowledge about the prevalence of, or factors leading to,
    child sexual abuse; and also indicated gender bias in addressing such
    cases, as girls' experiences were treated with greater secrecy.

        Trafficking in Persons.--The law does not specifically prohibit
    trafficking in persons. However, the country was a destination and
    transit point for trafficked persons, and there were reports persons
    were trafficked to and through the country. The Government may
    prosecute traffickers under criminal law on abductions. Trafficking in
    persons remained a problem during the year.
        The country was a destination for Eastern European, Russian, and
    Syrian women who were contracted as dancers in adult clubs and sexually
    exploited. Most of these women engaged in voluntary illegal
    prostitution, but some reported intimidation or coercion and
    restrictions on freedom of movement.
        The country was also a destination for women from Africa and Asia,
    usually contracted as domestic workers. Some of these workers found
    themselves in situations of involuntary servitude including
    restrictions on movement, withholding of passports, nonpayment of
    wages, threats, and physical or sexual assault, with little practical
    legal recourse.
        Children were trafficked within the country for forced labor
    (mostly street vending) and sexual exploitation.
        A high percentage of traffickers were employers and employment
    agencies.
        Some foreign women became illegal workers due to their employer's
    failure to renew their work and residency permits or because they fled
    from their employer. The women were subject to detention, rendering
    them vulnerable to trafficking when abusive sponsors used the women's
    illegal immigration status to intimidate them and coerce them into
    labor. Unscrupulous employers sometimes falsely accused an employee of
    theft as a pretext to relinquish their contractual responsibilities to
    their employees and their obligation to pay taxes and provide a return
    airline ticket.
        At year's end 100 Ethiopian women were in detention awaiting trial
    for not having passports. The women claimed their passports had been
    taken from them when they started as domestic workers or that they
    never had passports. Authorities arrested most of the women on the
    street after they fled from their employers. Breaking their contracts
    deprived them of a guaranteed flight home on completion of their work.
        The penal code stipulates that abduction be punished by hard labor
    and that abductors who engage in sexual exploitation be sentenced to at
    least one year in prison. According to the MOJ, there were no
    prosecutions or convictions under this law during the year. NGOs and
    foreign embassies reported many victims of exploitation and abuse
    preferred quick administrative proceedings, which resulted in monetary
    settlements and repatriations, rather than legal proceedings that were
    often lengthy and difficult. Victims frequently dropped cases before
    prosecution was completed in exchange for compensation. A small number
    of exploited foreign workers won cases against their employers, but
    nonjudicial action resolved the majority of cases. As a result workers
    frequently were repatriated without further judicial action. A few
    cases were referred to the judiciary for further action, although the
    Government took minimal steps to prosecute traffickers.
        The SG, MOJ, and Ministry of Labor (MOL) have responsibilities for
    combating trafficking. The MOL regulates local employment agencies that
    place migrant workers with sponsors. In 2008 the MOL closed two
    employment agencies for violations of workers' rights, including
    physical abuse, and warned a number of others it found in noncompliance
    with MOL regulations. The Government did not provide trafficking
    victims with shelter, legal, medical, or psychological services, or
    relief from deportation. The SG allowed Caritas social workers
    unrestricted access to its retention center for foreign persons to
    provide detainees with counseling, assistance, and legal protection.
    The SG also continued to refer potential victims to Caritas. Once
    victims were identified, the Government transferred them to a ``safe
    house,'' and Caritas could assist them. The SG sometimes granted
    victims permission to remain in the country as long as two months to
    assist in investigation of their cases and prosecution of their
    abusers.
        The SG allows migrant workers who do not wish to be repatriated to
    their home countries to change their sponsors legally by means of a
    ``release paper'' from the original employer. A court may order an
    abusive employer to provide such a release paper as part of a decision,
    or this action may be part of a negotiated out-of-court settlement.
        The Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons Report can
    be found at: www.state.gov/g/tip.

        Persons With Disabilities.--Although prohibited by law,
    discrimination against persons with disabilities continued. The Civil
    Service Board, which is in charge of recruiting government employees,
    continued to refuse applications from persons with disabilities. The
    law stipulates at least 3 percent of all government and private sector
    positions be filled by persons with disabilities, provided such persons
    fulfill the qualifications for the position; however, there was no
    evidence the law was enforced in practice. The law mandates access to
    buildings by persons with disabilities, but the Government failed to
    amend building codes. Many persons with mental disabilities were cared
    for in private institutions, several of which the Government
    subsidized.
        A study by the UN Development Programme in 1990, just after the end
    of the civil war, estimated one in 10 citizens--as many as 300,000
    individuals--had disabilities, but the Ministry of Social Affairs had
    registered only 70,000 persons for official disability cards at year's
    end.
        The Ministry of Social Affairs and the National Council of Disabled
    are responsible for protecting the rights of persons with disabilities.
    According to the president of the Arab Organization of Disabled People,
    little progress has been made since the law on disabilities was passed
    in 2000. Approximately 100 relatively active but poorly funded private
    organizations made most of the efforts to assist persons with
    disabilities.
        On May 13, the MOI issued a decree to ensure accessibility to
    polling stations for persons with special needs during the June
    parliamentary voting. Following the decree the Lebanese Physically
    Handicapped Union, sponsored by the International Foundation for
    Election Systems, conducted a study mapping 1,741 polling stations
    throughout the country and assessed them according to the ministry's
    six accessibility criteria. The study showed that only six polling
    stations out of 1,741 satisfied all six criteria.

        National/Racial/Ethnic Minorities.--There were reports Syrian
    workers, usually employed in manual labor, continued to suffer
    discrimination following the 2005 withdrawal of Syrian forces, although
    to a lesser extent than in previous years. According to an IRIN report,
    many Syrians in the country have been attacked, robbed, beaten, and
    sometimes killed over the past four years.

        Societal Abuses, Discrimination, and Acts of Violence Based on
    Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.--Discrimination against
    homosexual activity persisted during the year. The law prohibits
    ``unnatural sexual intercourse,'' an offense punishable by up to one
    year in prison. The law was sometimes applied to men engaging in
    homosexual activity; it was rarely applied to women, although the
    domestic NGO Helem (from the Arabic acronym for Lebanese Protection for
    Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals, and Transgenders) reported police used the
    law to blackmail women.
        At year's end Helem reported on December 3, a judge in the Batroun
    District rendered the first decision determining ``unnatural sexual
    intercourse'' does not apply to homosexual activity, which he ruled a
    part of nature.
        Meem, the first NGO in the country exclusively for nonheterosexual
    women, hosted regular meetings in a safe house, provided counseling
    services, and carried out advocacy projects for nonheterosexual women.
        On February 25, Helem organized a demonstration in Beirut to
    protest an attack by security forces against two gay men (see section
    1.c.) and against the homophobic provisions of the law. On May 10 and
    on May 17, the International Day Against Homophobia, Helem in
    coordination with Meem and Gay-Straight Alliance organized gay rights
    demonstrations. The Government permitted these demonstrations, and
    there was no violence from any source reported against the
    demonstrators.

        Other Societal Violence or Discrimination.--Although there are no
    discriminatory laws, Helem reported during the year at least five HIV-
    positive individuals reported discrimination by dentists or hospital
    staff.

    Section 7. Worker Rights
        a. The Right of Association.--The law allows all workers except
    government employees to establish and join unions with government
    approval, and workers exercised this right in practice. The MOL must
    approve the formation of any union. The MOL controlled the conduct of
    all trade union elections, including election dates, procedures, and
    ratification of results. The law permitted the administrative
    dissolution of trade unions and forbade them to engage in political
    activity.
        The General Labor Confederation (GLC), the umbrella organization
    for trade unions, estimated there were approximately 900,000 workers in
    the active labor force. Approximately 5 to 7 percent of workers were
    members of some 450 to 500 labor unions and associations, half of which
    were believed to be inactive.
        The law provides that unions conduct activities free from
    interference, but the MOL at times interfered in union elections and
    registered unions not considered representative by the GLC. Unions have
    the right to demonstrate, with advance notice and approval by the MOI.
        Most unions belonged to federations. There were 52 federations that
    were voting members of the GLC, six of which the judiciary declared
    illegal in 2007 because they had failed to obtain the required GLC
    general directorate majority vote, although at year's end they remained
    members. Many others were reportedly unrepresentative and created by
    political interest groups to offset the votes of the 13 established
    labor federations that represent workers. The GLC remained the only
    organization the Government recognized as an interlocutor for workers,
    while approximately 13 federations that composed the ``Salvation
    Committee of the GLC'' no longer participated in GLC meetings but had
    not declared an official breakaway at year's end.
        Palestinian refugees may organize their own unions. Because of
    restrictions on their right to work, few Palestinians participated
    actively in trade unions. Palestinian refugees are legally barred from
    entering certain unionized professions such as engineering, law, and
    medicine.

        b. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively.--The law
    protects the right of workers to organize and to bargain collectively,
    and the Government supported this right in practice. Most worker groups
    engaged in some form of collective bargaining with their employers.
    There is no government mechanism to promote voluntary labor-management
    negotiations. The law protected workers against antiunion
    discrimination, although the law was weakly enforced.
        There are no export processing zones.

        c. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor.--The law does not
    specifically prohibit forced or compulsory labor, but articles within
    the law prohibit behavior that constitutes forced or compulsory labor.
    Nevertheless, children, foreign domestic workers, and other foreign
    workers sometimes were forced to remain in situations amounting to
    coerced or bonded labor. Women from Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe, and
    Russia were trafficked and forced to provide sexual or domestic
    services. Children from Lebanon, Iraq, and Syria were most subject to
    forced labor.
        Government regulations also prohibited employment agencies from
    withholding foreign workers' passports for any reason. In practice
    employment agencies and household employers often withheld domestic
    workers' passports. Recruitment agencies and employers were required to
    sign employment contracts with foreign workers. On February 5, the MOL
    published a standardized contract to be used by all employment agencies
    locally and overseas for all domestic workers. It regulates working
    hours and stipulates workers be given days off for vacations and
    holidays. According to NGOs assisting migrant workers, some employers
    did not pay their workers regularly and some withheld their salaries
    for the duration of the contract, which was usually two years. Asian
    and African female workers especially had no practical legal recourse
    because of their low status and isolation and because labor laws did
    not protect them. Due to the prevalence of such abuse, the Government
    prohibited foreign women from working if they were from countries
    without diplomatic representation in the country.

        d. Prohibition of Child Labor and Minimum Age for Employment.--
    There are laws to protect children from exploitation in the workplace,
    but the Government sometimes did not effectively enforce these laws.
    According to 2005 UNICEF statistics, 7 percent of children between five
    and 14 years old were involved in child labor. The International Labor
    Organization (ILO) estimated there were 100,000 child workers, of whom
    25,000 were thought to be in the tobacco industry, and a large
    percentage worked in informal sectors of the economy, including
    construction, agriculture, mechanics, and fisheries. Street children
    worked selling goods, polishing shoes, and washing car windows.
    Traffickers used children for commercial sexual exploitation and work
    under hazardous conditions in sectors, such as metalwork, construction,
    automobile repair, welding, and seasonal agriculture.
        The minimum age for employment is 14 years old. The law requires
    juveniles, defined as children between 14 and 18 years of age, undergo
    a medical exam to ensure their fitness for a particular position before
    beginning work. The labor code prohibits employment of juveniles
    younger than 18 years old for more than six hours per day and requires
    one hour of rest if work is more than four hours. Juveniles younger
    than 17 years old are prohibited from working in jobs that jeopardize
    their health, safety, or morals, or working between the hours of 7 p.m.
    and 7 a.m. The law prohibits the employment of juveniles younger than
    16 years old in industrial jobs or jobs physically demanding or harmful
    to their health.
        The MOL enforced these requirements through its Child Labor Unit,
    established in 2001 in cooperation with the ILO. Enforcement improved
    during the year, as the unit worked to train its inspectors and recruit
    new ones. At year's end the MOL employed approximately 130 labor
    inspectors and assistant inspectors who helped to enforce child labor
    laws. The Higher Council of Childhood provided education to families
    and children to help prevent child abuse.

        e. Acceptable Conditions of Work.--The legal minimum wage was
    500,000 pounds ($333) per month, which did not adequately provide a
    decent standard of living for a worker and family. The minimum wage for
    the private sector is set by the council of ministers; the minimum wage
    for the public sector is also set by the council of ministers, but
    requires additional approval from parliament.
        The law prescribes a standard 48-hour workweek with a 24-hour rest
    period per week. In practice workers in the industrial sector worked an
    average of 35 hours per week, and workers in other sectors worked an
    average of 30 hours per week. The law stipulates 48 hours is the
    maximum duration of work per week in most corporations except
    agricultural entities. A 12-hour day is permitted under certain
    conditions, including a stipulation the overtime provided is 50 percent
    higher than the pay for other hours.
        The law includes specific occupational health and safety
    regulations. Labor regulations require employers to take adequate
    precautions for employee safety. The MOL was responsible for enforcing
    these regulations but did so unevenly. Labor organizers reported
    workers did not have the right to remove themselves from hazardous
    conditions without jeopardizing their employment.
        Some private sector firms failed to provide employees with family
    and transport allowances as stipulated under the law, and did not
    register them with the National Social Security Fund (NSSF). Employers
    sometimes registered their employees with lower salaries, to decrease
    their contributions to the NSSF and their end-of-service pay to the
    employee. Some companies did not respect legal provisions governing
    occupational health and safety. Workers may report violations directly
    to the GLC, MOL, or NSSF. In most cases they preferred to remain silent
    for fear of arbitrary dismissal.
        The law does not protect foreign domestic workers. Some employers
    mistreated, abused, and raped foreign domestic workers, who were mostly
    of Asian and African origin, or placed them in situations of coerced
    labor or slavery-like conditions. Domestic workers often worked 18
    hours per day and in many cases did not receive vacations or holidays.
    There was no minimum wage for domestic workers. Official contracts
    stipulate a wage ranging from 150,000 to 450,000 pounds ($100 to $300)
    per month, depending on the nationality of the worker. Victims of
    trafficking or abusive labor may file civil suits or seek legal action,
    but most victims, counseled by their embassies or consulates, settled
    for an administrative solution that usually included monetary
    compensation and repatriation. The Government did not release
    information on legal actions filed, but NGOs indicated fewer than 10
    legal actions were undertaken during the year. On December 9, a
    criminal court judge in Batroun sentenced a woman who beat her Filipino
    domestic worker to 15 days in prison, a fine of 50,000 pounds ($33),
    and 10,800,000 pounds ($7,200) in compensation. The victim was in the
    Philippines when the verdict was announced, and the judge refused the
    request of the citizen woman to bring the victim before the court.
        In 2008 the MOL closed two employment agencies for violations of
    workers' rights, including physical abuse. Perpetrators of the abuses
    were not further prosecuted for a number of reasons, including the
    victims' refusal to press charges and lack of evidence. An unknown
    number of other cases of nonpayment of wages were settled through
    negotiation. According to source country embassies and consulates, many
    workers did not report violations of their labor contracts until after
    they returned to their home countries.

                                   __________

                                     LIBYA

        The Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya is an
    authoritarian regime with a population of approximately 6.3 million,
    ruled by Colonel Mu'ammar al-Qadhafi since 1969. The country's
    governing principles are derived predominantly from al-Qadhafi's Green
    Book ideology. In theory citizens rule the country through a pyramid of
    popular congresses, communes, and committees, as laid out in the 1969
    Constitutional Proclamation and the 1977 Declaration on the
    Establishment of the Authority of the People. After elections in March
    2009, Secretary of the General People's Committee al-Baghdadi al-
    Mahmoudi (prime minister equivalent) and the delegates of the 760-
    member General People's Congress began three-year terms. In practice
    al-Qadhafi and his inner circle monopolized all positions of leadership
    and political power. Security forces reported to civilian authorities.
        Citizens did not have the right to change their government.
    Continuing problems included reported disappearances, torture,
    arbitrary arrest and imprisonment, lengthy pretrial and sometimes
    incommunicado detention, official impunity, and poor prison conditions.
    Denial of fair public trial by an independent judiciary, detention and
    imprisonment of persons on political grounds, and the lack of judicial
    recourse for alleged human rights violations were also serious
    problems. The Government significantly restricted media freedom and
    continued to restrict freedom of speech (including Internet and
    academic freedom). It continued to severely impede the freedom of
    assembly, freedom of association, and civil liberties. The Government
    did not protect the rights of migrants, asylum seekers, and refugees,
    and in some cases participated in their abuse. Other problems included
    restrictions on freedom of religion; corruption and lack of
    transparency; discrimination against women, ethnic minorities, and
    foreign workers; trafficking in persons; and restriction of labor
    rights.

                            RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

    Section 1. Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom
            From:
        a. Arbitrary or Unlawful Deprivation of Life.--There were no
    confirmed reports that the Government or its agents committed arbitrary
    or unlawful killings.
        In May 2009 the Tripoli newspaper Oea reported that Ali al-Fakheri
    (also known as Ibn al-Sheikh al-Libi) had been found dead in his cell
    in Abu Salim Prison from an apparent suicide and that the General
    Prosecutor's Office (GPO) had begun an investigation. The
    nongovernmental organization (NGO) Human Rights Watch (HRW) had met
    briefly with al-Fakheri during a visit to the prison in April 2009, but
    he refused to be interviewed. In a May 2009 statement, HRW called on
    authorities to conduct a full and transparent investigation. The NGO
    Amnesty International (AI) visited Abu Salim prison after al-Fakheri's
    death in May, but authorities denied access to his guards, forensic
    doctors, and the autopsy report. At year's end no results of the GPO
    investigation had been made public.
        There were no developments in the case of Mohammed Adel Abu Ali,
    who died in custody in 2008 after his return to the country when his
    asylum claim was denied in Europe. According to HRW, he was tortured in
    detention. London-based As-Sharq Al-Awsat reported that he belonged to
    the oppositionist ``al-Tabu'' Front for the Liberation of Libya.

        b. Disappearance.--In mid-February authorities released Abdulrahman
    al Qutiwi, whom security forces had arrested in 2007, along with others
    who appeared subsequently in court to face criminal charges of
    attempting to foment rebellion and conducting unauthorized
    communications with a foreign government. During his detention
    authorities did not bring al-Qutiwi to trial and kept him in
    incommunicado detention with his whereabouts unknown.
        In November the families of Izzat Yousef al-Maqrif and Jaballah
    Matar, who disappeared in Cairo in 1990, filed cases with the UN Human
    Rights Committee. Al-Maqrif and Matar were prominent members of the
    National Front for the Salvation of Libya, a political opposition
    group. Human rights organizations report that Egyptian authorities
    arrested al-Maqrif and Matar and transferred them to Libyan custody,
    where they were held in Abu Salim prison. Their families requested
    information regarding their status or confirmation of their death from
    the Government, but at year's end no information had been made
    available.

        c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or
    Punishment.--The law prohibits such practices, but security personnel
    reportedly tortured and abused detainees and prisoners routinely during
    interrogations or as punishment. In December 2009 the Qadhafi
    International Charity and Development Foundation (QDF), an NGO founded
    and chaired by Muammar al-Qadhafi's son, Saif al-Islam al-Qadhafi, that
    is registered in Switzerland with executive offices in Tripoli,
    released a report on human rights practices in the country. In a
    statement accompanying the release, the QDF said during the year it had
    recorded ``several flagrant violations'' and received a ``large number
    of complaints'' of torture during imprisonment and called for the
    Government to waive immunities from prosecution for officials accused
    of torture.
        There were reports of torture and abuse during the year. On July 2,
    HRW reported that guards had beaten members of a group of more than 300
    Eritreans detained on charges of illegal immigration.
        In previous years reported methods of torture and abuse included
    chaining prisoners to a wall for hours; clubbing; applying electric
    shock; applying corkscrews to the back; pouring lemon juice in open
    wounds; breaking fingers and allowing the joints to heal without
    medical care; suffocating with plastic bags; depriving detainees of
    sleep, food, and water; hanging by the wrists; suspending from a pole
    inserted between the knees and elbows; burning with cigarettes;
    threatening with dog attacks; beatings on the soles of feet; being
    suspended by the arms; and denial of medical treatment.
        The law sanctioned corporal punishments such as amputation and
    flogging; no official cases were available for citation that such
    punishments were carried out.
        No further information was available at year's end concerning the
    2008 alleged abduction, interrogation, and torture of lawyer Dhaw al-
    Mansuri.
        In July Saif al-Islam al-Qadhafi conceded publicly that acts of
    torture and excessive violence had taken place in prisons. In a 2009
    meeting with HRW, Ministry of Justice officials complained that they
    were denied permission from the Ministry of Public Security to
    prosecute members of the Internal Security Organization (ISO) for
    alleged crimes committed within ISO-run prisons as well as arbitrary
    detentions outside of official detention centers.
        In April 2009 Ashraf Ahmad Jum'a al-Hajuj drew attention to his
    suit against the Government at a preparatory meeting for the Durban
    Review Conference, chaired by Libyan diplomat Najjat al-Hajjaji. Al-
    Hajuj, a Palestinian doctor, was arrested in 1999 on charges that he
    and five Bulgarian nurses working in Benghazi infected hundreds of
    children with HIV. In 2008 he filed suit in France and at the UN Human
    Rights Commission in Geneva, arguing he was tortured repeatedly in
    detention. According to his testimony, the torture included rape by a
    German shepherd, fingernails ripped off, and electric shocks. He also
    testified that he was present when the Bulgarian nurses detained with
    him were tortured. He said most of the torture occurred during the
    early period after his imprisonment in 1999. At year's end the case was
    awaiting further action in a French court.

        Prison and Detention Center Conditions.--According to diplomatic
    missions and international organizations, prison and detention center
    conditions ranged from poor to adequate. HRW and AI visited prisons
    during study tours in April and May 2009 respectively, but authorities
    did not allow full access to prisoners or facilities. During the year a
    United Kingdom-based NGO implementing a prison reform program in
    partnership with the General People's Committee for Justice had
    periodic access to some facilities. International organizations had
    some access to migrant detention centers throughout the country, but
    that access was restricted after an increase of at-sea interdiction of
    migrants, begun in May, led to severe overcrowding in the centers.
    Pretrial detainees, who reportedly accounted for more than half of the
    prison population, remained in the same facilities as convicts.
        There were effectively two prison systems in the country: one
    administered by the Ministry of Justice, and a second administered by
    security services. The security services administered Ain Zara and Abu
    Salim prisons, which housed approximately 500 prisoners at year's end,
    according to the Human Rights Society of Libya. Diplomats and foreign
    observers were allowed access to the Ministry of Justice prisons but
    were denied access to the security service prisons.
        In 2009, according to HRW, the minister of justice proclaimed that
    there were approximately 500 prisoners who had served their sentence or
    been acquitted by the courts but remained imprisoned under ISO orders.
    According to press reports, the minister asked to be relieved of his
    duties in light of his inability to enforce court orders to liberate
    acquitted prisoners, but he subsequently retained his position. HRW
    reported that the ISO head confirmed in December 2009 that his agency
    was detaining 330 prisoners who had completed their sentences or whom
    courts had acquitted, with no apparent legal authority to keep them in
    detention.
        In a September 2009 report, consultants from King's College of
    London reported that between 12,000 and 15,000 inmates were held in 34
    prison establishments in the country. The consultants reported that the
    prisons often were overcrowded. Periodic mass releases served to reduce
    pressure on prison facilities. Individual prison directors were unable
    to provide population estimates of their own prisons, and centralized
    records were not kept, according to prison authorities. Men and women
    were held in separate prisons and detention centers. Juvenile migrants
    generally were held with mothers while in detention.
        Based upon periodic visits to some Ministry of Justice detention
    facilities, foreign observers reported that prisoners and detainees had
    reasonable access to visitors and were permitted religious observance.
    Authorities permitted prisoners and detainees to submit complaints to
    judicial authorities without censorship and investigated credible
    allegations of inhumane conditions. In some cases there was retaliation
    for complaints of prison conditions. In November 2009 authorities
    summoned Jamal al-Haji to a state security court and detained him for
    filing complaints of inhumane treatment during a previous detention.
        In contrast to Ministry of Justice facilities, access to prisons
    maintained by state security services, such as Ain Zara and Abu Salim,
    was tightly controlled. Security forces reportedly subjected prisoners
    and detainees to cruel, inhuman, or degrading conditions and denied
    them adequate medical care. Prisoners did not have reasonable access to
    visitors, and there was no transparent, credible system for submitting
    complaints or investigating allegations of inhumane conditions in these
    prisons.
        The Ministry of Justice worked with the QDF to identify and release
    prisoners who had been acquitted or had served their sentences, and in
    March the Ministry of Justice announced the release of 80 prisoners who
    had been acquitted, followed by the release in August of 37 prisoners
    who had been acquitted. However, observers and government officials
    noted that several hundred remained in custody.
        The Government did not allow independent monitoring of prison
    conditions by independent NGOs, the media, or international human
    rights groups. There was not a credible ombudsman who could serve on
    behalf of prisoners and detainees to consider such matters as
    alternatives to incarceration for nonviolent offenders to alleviate
    overcrowding; addressing the status and circumstances of confinement of
    juvenile offenders; or improving pretrial detention, bail, and
    recordkeeping procedures to ensure that prisoners do not serve beyond
    the maximum sentence for the charged offense.
        There was scant public information about conditions inside prisons.
        The International Committee of the Red Cross did not have an office
    in the country, although it monitored prison conditions in the country
    from its regional office in Tunis, Tunisia. During the year prosecutors
    and directors of several migrant detention centers participated in
    training sessions implemented by the International Organization for
    Migration on prison conditions and reform.
        In September 2009 the minister of defense-equivalent Abubakr Yunis
    Jabir appointed Muhammad Bashir al-Khadhar to head an inquiry into the
    1996 Abu Salim prison riot, in which a large but unknown number of
    prisoners died. Yunis stated that the inquiry would be empowered to
    imprison any officials found guilty of wrongdoing. Press reports
    indicated the families of victims approved the appointment. The
    minister of justice reported to HRW in April 2009 that previous
    investigations had resulted in an estimated 800 families receiving
    certificates confirming death, but officials did not provide bodies or
    explain the causes of death, through mid-July. According to HRW,
    authorities offered compensation of 200,000 dinars ($166,666) to the
    family of each victim if the family agreed to halt legal proceedings.
        Family members of some of the victims reportedly killed in the 1996
    incident attended the December 2009 launch of HRW's report on the
    country, where several family members repeated their rejection of
    compensation offers and demanded that responsible officials be brought
    to justice.

        d. Arbitrary Arrest or Detention.--The criminal code establishes
    procedures for pretrial detention and prohibits arbitrary arrest and
    detention, but the Government did not observe these prohibitions. As in
    previous years, there were reports that security forces arbitrarily
    arrested and detained citizens. Security services detained individuals
    without formal charges and held them indefinitely without court
    convictions.
        On April 14, the Government released political dissident Jamal al-
    Hajj, arrested in December 2009 on charges of criminal defamation after
    he criticized the Ministry of Justice for his treatment as a political
    prisoner between 2007 and 2009.
        In January 2009 police arrested former secretary general of the
    Human Rights Society and QDF advisor Juma'a Atiga and charged him with
    being a member of a banned organization and participating in the
    killing of the Libyan ambassador in Rome in 1984. According to press
    accounts, Atiga was released after two weeks' detention.
        There were no developments reported in the case of regime critic
    Fouad Nassar al-Mahmoudi. In 2007 security services detained al-
    Mahmoudi upon his return from a long stay abroad and reportedly placed
    him in incommunicado detention.
        There were no developments in the case of Mahmoud Muhammad
    Boushima, a government critic resident abroad since 1981, whom police
    arrested during a 2005 trip to the country, according to an AI report.
    During an April 2009 visit to Abu Salim prison, HRW unsuccessfully
    requested a meeting with Boushima.

        Role of the Police and Security Apparatus.--The country maintains
    an extensive security apparatus that includes police and military
    units, multiple intelligence services, local ``revolutionary
    committees,'' people's committees, and ``purification'' committees. The
    result is a multilayered, pervasive surveillance system that monitors
    and controls the activities and everyday lives of individuals. In
    theory military and internal security forces are under direct civilian
    control under the Jamahiriya, or ``sovereignty of the masses'' system.
    In practice an inner circle of elites close to al-Qadhafi wields total
    control and uses security services to protect regime interests. The
    legal basis of security service authority is unclear; citizens have no
    obvious recourse against security services. Frequently cited laws are
    the 1971 and 1972 ``Protection of the Revolution'' laws, which
    criminalize activities based on political principles inconsistent with
    revolutionary ideology.
        The police and the ISO share responsibility for internal security.
    Armed forces and the External Security Service are responsible for
    external security. In practice it was unclear where authorities
    overlapped. Security forces were effective when combating internal and
    external threats against the regime. Security forces committed serious
    human rights abuses with impunity, including the lengthy extralegal
    detentions of political prisoners. They intimidated, harassed, and
    detained individuals without formal charges and held them indefinitely
    without court convictions, particularly in cases involving the
    political opposition. They regularly enjoyed impunity from criminal
    acts committed while performing their duties.
        In 2008 opposition members living abroad alleged that security
    forces battled Toubou tribesmen in the southeastern part of the
    country. Other observers within the country characterized clashes in
    the town of Kufra as societal violence between Toubou and Zawiya
    tribes. There were reports that between 11 and 30 civilians were killed
    in the fighting.
        In April AI reported that armed security personnel had forced
    evictions of Toubou tribespeople in Kufra and demolished their houses.
    AI also reported that Toubou tribespeople had alleged that authorities
    prohibited their children from attending school and refused to register
    the birth of Toubou children. Between November 2009 and April, dozens
    of Toubou were arrested after attempting to stop the demolitions,
    according to AI, and those who resisted were reportedly beaten with
    sticks.

        Arrest Procedures and Treatment While in Detention.--The law
    stipulates that authorities can obtain permission to detain persons for
    investigation without charge for as long as eight days after arrest. In
    practice security services at times held detainees indefinitely,
    arbitrarily, and secretly. Although the law requires that detainees be
    informed of the charges against them, the requirement was not enforced
    in practice. The law states that for a detention order to be renewed,
    detainees must be brought before a judicial authority at regular
    intervals of 30 days, but in practice security services detained
    persons for indefinite periods without a court order.
        The law provides for bail, access to counsel for pretrial
    detainees, and a public defender for anyone unable to afford a private
    attorney. However, detainees reportedly did not receive information on
    their right to legal representation during interrogation.
        Incommunicado detention remained a problem. The Government held
    many political detainees incommunicado for unlimited periods in
    unofficial detention centers controlled by branches of the security
    services. There were reports of nationals and foreigners detained
    without charge by the ISO. In November a British-Ghanian citizen filed
    suit in a London court claiming that the ISO had detained him
    incommunicado in a small cell for approximately four months. He charged
    that his captors threatened him with ``disappearance,'' beat him, and
    force-fed him narcotics.
        According to a June 2009 HRW report, migrants in Malta and Italy
    reported that authorities in Libya had subjected them to long periods
    of detention without recourse.
        The law allows women and girls, some of whom were victims of
    gender-based or domestic violence and who were suspected of violating
    moral codes, to be detained in ``social rehabilitation'' facilities.
    They could be detained indefinitely without access to legal
    representation or the opportunity to contest their detention in court.
    Women at these sites could be released only to their families, often
    the source of the threat to their safety. Women sometimes were
    subjected to forced marriage to strangers. HRW, which initially
    highlighted this phenomenon in a 2006 report, said the practice
    continued.

        Amnesty.--The Government regularly releases some prisoners to mark
    religious holidays. On August 31, as part of the annual Revolution Day
    commemoration, the Government reportedly pardoned 1,189 prisoners who
    had served at least half of their sentence, according to the Supreme
    Judicial Council.
        On March 24, authorities released from Abu Salim prison 214
    prisoners, including prisoners held for membership in the Libyan
    Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) and other jihadist groups. On August 31,
    authorities released an additional 37 prisoners from jihadist groups.
    In 2009 the LIFG stated that its 2007 merger with al-Qaida in the
    Islamic Maghreb was ``invalid'' and renounced violent jihad.

        e. Denial of Fair Public Trial.--The law provides for an
    independent judiciary, but the judicial system was not independent in
    practice. Although the law stipulates that every person has the right
    to resort to the courts, security forces had the authority to sentence
    without trial, particularly in cases involving the political
    opposition. The Government used summary judicial proceedings to
    suppress domestic dissent. At his discretion al-Qadhafi and his close
    associates may interfere in the administration of justice by altering
    court judgments, replacing judges, or manipulating the appeal system.
    The judiciary failed to incorporate international standards for fair
    trials, detention, and imprisonment. In December 2009 the Ministry of
    Justice reported to HRW that disagreements between the judiciary and
    the ISO led to unfair trials and detention. The ministry reported that
    hundreds of prisoners that had been acquitted or had served their
    sentences remained in prison due to differences in the two responsible
    ministries, and it worked to release several hundred such prisoners.
    According to HRW an estimated 117 prisoners had been released during
    the year, and approximately 200 remained in prison. Early in the year,
    the Ministry of Justice established a review committee to compensate
    victims of wrongful imprisonment. According to the Ministry of Justice,
    the committee began to disburse compensation payments to victims, and
    families of victims, of wrongful imprisonment in August.

        Trial Procedures.--The law provides for the presumption of
    innocence, informing defendants of the charges against them, and the
    right to legal counsel. Independent counsel was not always provided in
    practice. The presiding judge appoints defense lawyers automatically,
    even if the defendant has declined representation. In practice
    defendants often were not informed of the charges against them and
    usually had little contact, if any, with their lawyers. There were
    cases during the year in which officials did not present defendants
    with the charges against them until trial, and defendants did not
    always have access to evidence against them before trial.
        In November HRW, al-Karama, and the human rights NGO Track Impunity
    Always (commonly known as TRIAL) reported that they had obtained
    documents showing the ISO blocked a prosecutor's investigation into the
    role of security services officers in the 2006 death in detention of
    Ismail al-Khazmi. Authorities reportedly took Al-Khazmi from his
    workplace in 2006 and tortured him in a Tripoli prison. Authorities
    acknowledged his death one year later but did not provide information
    about the time and circumstances. The Government did not conduct a
    transparent inquiry into al-Khazmi's death.

        Political Prisoners and Detainees.--A large but unknown number of
    persons were in detention or prison for engaging in peaceful political
    activity or for belonging to an illegal political organization. The law
    bans any group activity based on any political ideology inconsistent
    with the principles of the 1969 revolution, in effect banning all
    political parties.
        On March 24, the Government reportedly released 214 political
    detainees from the Abu Salim prison, including those associated with
    banned Islamic groups, as part of a joint government-QDF terrorist
    rehabilitation program. On August 31, authorities released an
    additional 37 prisoners who were alleged members of jihadist groups who
    had undergone the terrorist rehabilitation program. Foreign observers
    reported that Ayn Zara and Abu Salim prisons at the end of the year
    housed an estimated 400 to 500 prisoners. In a 2009 report, HRW claimed
    dozens of political prisoners remained in jails. In 2008 human rights
    organizations and foreign diplomats speculated that there were 2,000
    political detainees, many held for years without trial. Hundreds of
    other detainees may have been held but for periods too brief to permit
    confirmation by outside observers.
        On April 14, the Government released political dissident Jamal al-
    Haji after several months' imprisonment. He had publicly held the
    Government responsible for the 2009 death of Fathi al-Jahmi and had
    alleged torture of himself during his previous two-year imprisonment
    for ``attempting to overthrow the political system'' and
    ``communication with enemy powers.''
        Geneva-based Solidarity for Human Rights, which describes itself as
    an independent human rights NGO, reported that Muhammad Bosadra, a
    prisoner who reportedly negotiated with guards during the 1996 Abu
    Salim Prison riots, had been transferred from prison and put under
    house arrest after his release from Abu Salim Prison in June 2009. He
    had been held incommunicado since 2005.
        In March authorities released Abdelnasser Al-Rabbasi, according to
    HRW. He had been jailed in 2003 and sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment
    for submitting a short story on corruption to the Arab Times. According
    to the human rights group al-Karama, he was initially held
    incommunicado for several months after his arrest and tortured by the
    ISO.
        In May 2009 political activist and al-Qadhafi critic Fathi al-Jahmi
    died in Jordan. Government authorities had held him in solitary
    confinement without adequate medical care before transferring him to
    Tripoli Medical Center and then releasing him from custody and sending
    him to a hospital in Jordan in May. He was released from jail in a coma
    and in grave medical condition and died 17 days later. With the
    exception of two weeks in 2004, the regime had continuously detained
    al-Jahmi since 2002 for publicly calling for democratic reforms and for
    giving media interviews criticizing the regime. According to HRW the
    Government contended that it arrested al-Jahmi for telephoning foreign
    officials and ``providing them with information with the purpose of
    making their countries hate the Great Jamahiriya'' and for conspiring
    to serve the interests of a foreign country. The formal charges were
    attempting to overthrow the Government, slandering al-Qadhafi, and
    communicating with a foreign official without permission.

        Civil Judicial Procedures and Remedies.--Citizens did not have
    access to courts to seek damages for or demand cessation of human
    rights violations, although some released political prisoners were able
    to seek compensation through the court system. In August the Ministry
    of Justice announced it would pay compensation to released prisoners
    for wrongful detention commensurate to time served. The ministry
    declared that such released prisoners would receive an estimated 2,000
    dinars ($1,600) for each month of imprisonment. Separately the Human
    Rights Society said it was assisting the Government in the
    rehabilitation of released former members of extremist groups by
    offering a stipend, mentoring, and a return to prior employment.
        Security services intimidated, harassed, and detained individuals
    extralegally and without judicial oversight. In practice individuals
    did not have the right to seek redress for security service actions in
    civil court.

        f. Arbitrary Interference With Privacy, Family, Home, or
    Correspondence.--The law prohibits such actions, but the Government did
    not respect the prohibitions. Security agencies often disregarded the
    legal requirement to obtain a warrant before entering a private home.
    They routinely monitored telephone calls and Internet usage, including
    e-mail communication with foreign countries. There was also physical
    surveillance of political activists and foreign organizations.
        Security agencies and the revolutionary committees oversaw an
    extensive network of informants engaged in surveillance for the
    Government. The Government threatened to seize and destroy property
    belonging to ``enemies of the people'' or those who ``cooperated'' with
    foreign powers. Exiled government opponents reported that authorities
    harassed their family members and threatened them with detention.
        Authorities inflicted collective punishment on the relatives of
    individuals, particularly those of convicted oppositionists.
    Punishments by law include denial of access to utilities (water,
    electricity, and telephone), fuel, food, and official documents; denial
    of participation in local assemblies; and termination of new economic
    projects and state subsidies. According to HRW some family members of
    victims of the 1996 Abu Salim prison killings reported that security
    services questioned them after they attended an HRW-hosted event in
    2009.
        There were no reports of application of the ``purge law'' that
    provides for the confiscation of private assets greater than a nominal
    amount. The law describes wealth in excess of such unspecified amounts
    as ``the fruits of exploitation or corruption.''

    Section 2. Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:
        a. Freedom of Speech and Press.--The law provides for freedom of
    speech ``within the limits of public interest and principles of the
    Revolution,'' but in practice freedom of speech and the press is
    severely limited, particularly criticism of government officials or
    policy. There are provisions in the penal code that criminalize
    ``insulting public officials.'' The Government tolerated some
    difference of opinion within governmental structures in people's
    committee meetings and at the General People's Congress. The
    Publication Act allows the Government to silence critics through
    slander and libel provisions.
        The Government prohibited all unofficial political activities as
    well as most forms of political speech or expression. The wide reach of
    security services and broad networks of informants resulted in
    pervasive self-censorship.
        In August 2009 the NGO Committee to Protect Journalists called for
    a credible and transparent inquiry into the reported 2007 trial and
    sentencing to death of three unnamed individuals for the 2005 killing
    of Daif al-Ghazal, a prominent opposition journalist and anticorruption
    activist.
        The Government owned and controlled virtually all print and
    broadcast media. The official news agency, the Jamahiriya News Agency,
    is the designated conduit for official views. Government-controlled
    media neither published nor broadcast opinions inconsistent with
    official policy. In 2008 the quasi-official al-Ghad Media Group, a QDF
    subsidiary controlled by Saif al-Islam al-Qadhafi, launched a satellite
    television station, a radio station, and two independent newspapers.
    According to the NGO Reporters without Borders (RSF), most of the
    journalists at these newspapers also worked for official media outlets,
    and the newspapers were printed on government presses. Local
    revolutionary committees in line with government opinion published
    several small newspapers.
        In 2009 the Government nationalized all privately owned news media.
    Al-Ghad newspapers Oea and Quryna suspended printing in January and
    resumed in July. The National Organization for Libyan Youth, an
    organization affiliated with al-Ghad, criticized the decision and said
    the Government's General Press Authority refused to print the two
    newspapers because of ``unauthorized'' reports of future appointments
    to the General People's Congress.
        On November 4, Secretary of the General People's Committee al-
    Baghdadi al-Mahoudi again suspended printing of Oea after the newspaper
    published reports that al-Baghdadi would lose his government position.
    Local press reported that during the next two days police arrested 20
    journalists working for al-Ghad and detained them for several days. Al-
    Mutawasit, an al-Ghad television station, began broadcasting from
    London in August 2009 but within days ran al-Jamahiriya programming in
    simulcast, ostensibly due to financial difficulties. In August the
    channel resumed original programming after a year-long hiatus, and at
    year's end it was broadcasting from London.
        According to HRW and AI, the ISO routinely harassed journalists,
    and overly broad provisions of the penal code served as the basis for
    frequent charges of criminal defamation.
        On February 17, authorities arrested four journalists working for
    Radio Benghazi program Massaa al-Kheir Benghazi (Good Evening Benghazi)
    and held them overnight, according to RSF. The program focused on
    exposing local government corruption as well as discussing politically
    sensitive issues such as the Abu Salim prison massacre. The station's
    director took the program off the air, dismissed the four journalists,
    and banned them from the station's premises.
        Some outlets in Tripoli had limited quantities of international
    weekly publications. Although the publications law restricts publishing
    rights to public entities, private companies were able to distribute
    newspapers and books in practice.
        Satellite television was widely available.

        Internet Freedom.--A single government-owned service provider
    offered Internet access. The number of Internet users was small but
    growing with improved broadband capability. According to 2009 data of
    the International Telecommunication Union, there were approximately
    82,500 Internet subscribers and 354,000 users. An estimated 5.5 percent
    of the population had access to the Internet. The Government reportedly
    monitored Internet communications. According to a 2009 report by the
    OpenNet Initiative, a partnership among several universities to analyze
    Internet filtering and surveillance, authorities selectively blocked
    some opposition Web sites and occasionally blocked others.
        In January the Government began filtering some Web sites, including
    YouTube, after the posting of videos of demonstrations by the families
    of Abu Salim victims, and of videos of al-Qadhafi's family members
    attending parties, according to RSF. Other independent and opposition
    Web sites also were blocked in January, including opposition sites such
    as Libya al-Youm, al-Manara, Jeel Libya, Akhbar Libya, and Libya al-
    Mostakbal, according to HRW. Access was later restored to some of the
    sites. These and other opposition Web sites were periodically hacked or
    blocked throughout the year. In January 2009 the Geneva-based NGO
    Libyan League for Human Rights reported that six opposition Web sites
    operating abroad had been hacked, with some pages replaced with
    proregime content. Human rights activists, journalists, and local
    citizens launched a Facebook campaign to restore access to the sites.
    RSF reported that recently the Government established a regulatory body
    (Niyabat al-Sahafa) to monitor journalists reporting on corruption
    cases. In November Blackberry service was launched, but data service
    was not consistently available.
        During the year most of these Web sites were accessible to users of
    the state-owned Internet provider. Many Internet cafes operated via
    satellite connection to Europe, bypassing potential blocking by the
    state, although security services regularly monitored Internet use at
    cafes. Users were generally able to access blocked content through
    proxies and Virtual Private Network.

        Academic Freedom and Cultural Events.--The Government severely
    restricted academic freedom. Professors and teachers who discussed
    politically sensitive topics faced the risk of government reprisal.
    Academic authorities encouraged selected students to study abroad, and
    some students were provided with government scholarships. According to
    HRW students were reportedly monitored by their embassies while abroad.
        All cultural events require advance government approval. Any group
    or individual seeking to organize a cultural event needs a government
    sponsor.

        b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association.--Freedom of
    Assembly.--The law stipulates that ``individuals may meet peacefully,
    and no police personnel are entitled to attend their meetings;
    moreover, they are not obliged to notify the police of such
    gatherings.'' The law also provides for the right to hold public
    meetings in accordance with the regulations set by law. In practice,
    however, the Government severely restricted these rights and permitted
    public assembly only with express advance approval.
        Families of the victims of the 1996 Abu Salim massacre regularly
    protested in Benghazi, and authorities generally tolerated their
    protests. In March 2009 authorities arrested five protesters and
    detained them incommunicado before their eventual release, according to
    AI.
        In October a group of lawyers who demanded new bar association
    elections met in the streets of Benghazi on at least two occasions,
    according to local Web sites. The lawyers were protesting what they
    viewed as government efforts to suppress the bar association's autonomy
    and prevent new leadership in the organization. The lawyers reportedly
    were allowed to assemble but were monitored by security services.

        Freedom of Association.--The Government severely restricted the
    right of association and generally only allowed institutions affiliated
    with the Government to operate. The Government did not allow the
    formation of groups based on political ideology inconsistent with the
    1969 revolution. In practice no nongovernmental organizations
    functioned in the country. The Government does not allow foreign
    funding to any organization or work of any political nature with
    foreign groups. In September, at a regional forum on civil society
    development in Tripoli, independent lawyers and journalists called for
    a revision of Law 19, which governs the formation of civil society
    groups, to enable greater freedom of association. Critics of the law
    said that it granted to security services undue authority to reject
    applications to form civil society organizations and that it gave the
    state wide-reaching authority to suspend organizations without cause.
    In September the Human Rights Society reported that it was urging the
    General People's Congress to review a draft law on civil society.

        c. Freedom of Religion.--For a complete description of religious
    freedom, see the 2010 International Religious Freedom Report at
    www.state.gov/g/drl/irf/rpt.

        d. Freedom of Movement, Internally Displaced Persons, Protection of
    Refugees, and Stateless Persons.--The law stipulates that ``each
    citizen, during times of peace, may move freely, choose the place where
    he or she wishes to live, and may return to the country and leave
    whenever he or she chooses.'' The Government generally did not restrict
    freedom of movement within the country, but freedom to travel outside
    the country was at times restricted by the arbitrary seizure or
    nonissuance of passports. Authorities routinely held the passports of
    foreign spouses of citizens when they entered the country.
        The law does not allow, nor did the Government impose, forced exile
    as a punishment. The QDF continued to encourage dissidents abroad to
    return and publicly promised their safety.
        Though the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
    was allowed to operate for the majority of the year and provide some
    services to refugees, the Government generally did not cooperate with
    the UNHCR and other humanitarian organizations in providing protection
    and assistance to internally displaced persons, refugees, returning
    refugees, asylum seekers, stateless persons, and other persons of
    concern.

        Protection of Refugees.--The country is not a party to the 1951
    Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 protocol.
    The country is a party to the Organization of African Unity Convention
    Governing the Specific Aspects of the Refugee Problem in Africa, in
    which states agree to cooperate with the UNHCR and agree that the
    convention is the regional complement to the 1951 convention. The
    Government has not established a system for providing protection to
    refugees or asylum seekers. Domestic laws do not recognize asylum
    seekers or refugees as classes distinct from migrants in the country
    without residency permits. As such, refugees and asylum seekers are
    subject to laws pertaining to illegal migrants and were held regularly
    in detention.
        During the year authorities reversed a policy of limited refugee
    resettlement to third countries, and in June the Ministry of Foreign
    Affairs ordered the UNHCR to close its office in Tripoli. The UNHCR was
    later allowed to continue processing its existing caseload but was
    forbidden from opening new cases. The Government denied requests for
    exit visas for some immigrants seeking refugee status.
        Until June the UNHCR operated in the country assisting refugees and
    asylum seekers despite the absence of a formal memorandum of
    understanding and the lack of a formal mechanism for individuals
    seeking protection in the country. At the time of its closing, the
    UNHCR reportedly had registered an estimated 9,000 refugees from the
    Palestinian territories, Iraq, Sudan, Somalia, and other African
    countries and identified approximately 3,700 asylum seekers in the
    country.
        In September 2009 HRW quoted Brigadier General Mohamed Bashir Al
    Shabbani, the director of the Office of Immigration at the General
    People's Committee for Public Security, as saying, ``There are no
    refugees in Libya. They are people who sneak into the country
    illegally, and they cannot be described as refugees. Anyone who enters
    this country without formal documents and permission is arrested.'' In
    June 2009, during his visit to Italy, al-Qadhafi responded to criticism
    about the country's treatment of asylum seekers by calling the reported
    situation ``a widespread lie.'' In meetings with embassy officials
    throughout the reporting period, government officials insisted on
    referring to illegal immigrants as ``guests'' rather than refugees.
        The Government operated at least 10 detention centers for
    undocumented migrants and asylum seekers, among others. International
    organizations and some foreign diplomats had occasional access to these
    detention centers. The UNHCR and the International Organization for
    Migration had occasional access to asylum seekers registered with the
    UNHCR and irregular migrants in prisons and detention facilities. The
    UNHCR staff had limited ability to conduct private interviews with
    asylum seekers at government-operated detention facilities with
    facilitation by the quasi-NGO International Organization for Peace,
    Care, and Relief (IOPCR). The UNHCR had regular access to government
    officials and detained refugees through the IOPCR. However, since
    August 2009, coincidental with an influx of returned migrants due to
    at-sea interdiction, authorities restricted access to detention
    centers.
        On September 12, Libyan authorities aboard a local patrol boat
    opened fire on an Italian fishing boat believed to be holding illegal
    immigrants. Although no one was killed in the incident, HRW criticized
    what seemed to be a policy that allows shooting at boats carrying
    migrants from the country to Italy. The Government asserted that firing
    on unarmed migrants would violate the law.
        In October Egyptian media reported that a group of 16 Egyptians
    alleged that authorities shot at their vessel after it had drifted into
    Libyan waters and that the authorities detained them for nine months,
    during which time they reportedly were beaten and humiliated.
        In 2009 joint sea patrols with Italy began hindering many asylum
    seekers and refugees from successfully leaving the country. The patrols
    returned interdicted migrants to the country. Once returned, their
    numbers swelled migration detention centers beyond capacity.
    International organizations reported that conditions in the centers
    worsened significantly and along with rights groups expressed concern
    that the joint patrols returned all interdicted migrants to the country
    without screening for asylum seekers, sick or injured persons, pregnant
    women, unaccompanied children, or victims of trafficking or other forms
    of violence against women. In a September 2009 report, HRW criticized
    the interdiction program for denying individuals access to asylum and
    sending migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers back to detention in
    inhuman and degrading conditions where they face abuse by authorities.
    International organization access to returned migrants to screen for
    the above classes varied according to the decision of each detention
    center director.
        In June the Government announced the release of more than 3,000
    illegal immigrants held in detention and a program to grant illegal
    immigrants a two- to three-month grace period to obtain legal working
    permits. The Government did not screen the immigrants for potential
    refugees.
        The law prohibits the extradition of political refugees. In
    practice the Government provided some protection against the expulsion
    or return of refugees to countries where their lives or freedom would
    be threatened on account of their race, religion, nationality,
    membership in a particular social group, or political opinion. Although
    the Government did not target UNHCR-recognized refugees for forcible
    deportation, the Government regularly and forcibly deported foreigners
    without properly screening refugees and asylum seekers from economic
    migrants.
        Government sources claimed in 2007 to have repatriated 30,940
    illegal migrants of the estimated 1.5 million to two million illegal
    migrants in the country, regardless of their status or claims to
    asylum.
        During the year the UNHCR registered approximately 9,000 refugees
    on its internal rolls, although it estimated there were 30,000 in the
    country. Of the total refugee population, an estimated 3,500 were in
    regular contact with the UNHCR mission in Tripoli. During the year the
    UNHCR reported an increase in the number of refugee applications, which
    contributed to an eight-month waiting period for asylum seekers to
    receive an appointment with the organization. The majority of refugees
    were Palestinians, Iraqis, Sudanese, Eritrean, and Somalis, followed by
    smaller but growing numbers from sub-Saharan Africa.
        The Government stipulates that any foreigner who enters the country
    illegally shall be arrested and deported. The Government operated
    detention camps to hold noncitizens pending deportation and did not
    routinely inform diplomatic representatives when their nationals were
    detained. Persons in detention camps reportedly were abused, including
    reports of sexual abuse of women. In May 2009 HRW interviewed an
    Eritrean migrant in Rome who alleged that authorities held him in a
    single room with more than 160 other individuals with limited access to
    toilets, food, or water and that guards had beaten him. Another
    Eritrean migrant claimed authorities transported him with 200 other
    persons by truck to an inland deportation site at Kufra. Rather than
    deporting migrants at the border, authorities reportedly left migrants
    in the desert or released them to smugglers who then demanded payment
    for transportation to the coast.

    Section 3. Respect for Political Rights: The Right of Citizens to
            Change Their Government
        The country does not have a constitution, and citizens do not have
    the right to change their government by peaceful means. The country's
    governing principles stem from al-Qadhafi's Green Book, which combines
    Islamic ideals with elements of socialism and pan-Arabism. The Green
    Book states that direct popular rule is the basis of the political
    system and that citizens play a role in popular congresses; in practice
    al-Qadhafi and his close associates monopolized every aspect of
    decision making in the Government.

        Elections and Political Participation.--The Government prohibits
    the creation of and membership in political parties. The 1977
    Declaration on the Establishment of the Authority of the People
    dictates how citizens exercise their political rights. The Government
    is structured in a pyramid of directly elected residential people's
    committees (roughly neighborhood voting districts), which in turn form
    the 424 basic people's congresses, municipal people's committees
    (sha'abiyas, formed of the basic people's congresses), the 760-member
    General People's Congress, and the 20 cabinet-level secretaries of the
    General People's Committee with a general secretary, each layer of
    which is involved in the selection of the next-higher level. Citizens
    participate through numerous organizations, including residential,
    vocational, professional, and skilled labor congresses. Voting for
    leaders of the local congresses is mandatory for all citizens 18 or
    older. In practice the regime exercised significant influence over
    legislation and enforcement of the General People's Congress'
    decisions.
        Elections to the General People's Committee occur at meetings of
    the General People's Congress. Elections generally are held every three
    years. The most recent elections were held in March 2009 with the
    people's congresses, the local bodies comprising all citizens, electing
    their leadership committees. The election process continues through the
    hierarchy of committees and congresses. Finally, the General People's
    Congress chooses the General People's Committee, which manages the
    daily affairs of the Government. Al-Qadhafi is considered the
    ``Brotherly Leader and Guide of the Revolution'' and is not elected by
    the citizens. He is structurally outside the political system but in
    practice retains authority over the Government.
        Revolutionary committees guard against political dissent and assure
    that citizens adhere to sanctioned ideology. These committees approve
    candidates for the General People's Congress. In practice revolutionary
    committees played an unclear role in enforcing official ideology,
    sometimes appearing increasingly marginalized and sometimes appearing
    active in political life.
        According to a 2009 report of the UN Committee on the Elimination
    of Discrimination against Women, women held 32 percent of the 760 seats
    in the General People's Congress. No reliable information existed on
    the representation of minorities in the Government.
        A state security court is responsible for hearing national security
    cases. The court's portfolio includes cases stemming from three laws:
    Law 80 of the 1975 penal code stipulating the death penalty for
    offenses against the security of the state; Law 71 of 1972, which
    classifies as ``treason'' all independent political activity; and a
    1969 revolutionary council decision that prohibits all forms of
    peaceful political opposition. Opposition groups and international
    human rights groups raised concerns that defendants in cases before the
    state security court may be denied access to an attorney and that cases
    are conducted in secret. The QDF called for the abolition of the court
    in its December 2009 report, and representatives of the organization
    stated that they were actively lobbying the Government to have the
    court dissolved. There was very little public information on the court,
    which according to AI was believed to convene within the confines of
    Abu Salim Prison in some instances. According to HRW no reports of
    state security court-ordered death penalties were carried out during
    the year, and there were no reports of any cases being tried in such a
    court.

    Section 4. Official Corruption and Government Transparency
        Laws stipulating criminal penalties for official corruption are
    unclear and inconsistently applied. The Administration Monitoring Board
    is the Government agency responsible for oversight of official
    activities and prevention of corrupt practices. Officials regularly
    engaged in corrupt practices with impunity. Government corruption
    coupled with favoritism based on family and tribal ties were perceived
    to be severe problems. Both contributed to government inefficiency.
        The law does not provide for financial disclosure by public
    officials or public access to government information, and the
    Government did not provide access in practice to citizens, pressure
    groups, or the media. The Government did not publicly provide detailed
    planning or budget documents.

    Section 5. Governmental Attitude Regarding International and
            Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations of Human
            Rights
        The Government prohibited the establishment of independent human
    rights NGOs. In practice no NGOs functioned in the country. A few
    foreign organizations have attempted to register but have been refused.
    The QDF moderately criticized the Government's human rights practices
    on issues ranging from corruption to prolonged detention of political
    prisoners. Until December the QDF sponsored a human rights society that
    issued reports on human rights in the country.
        Restrictive laws that impose imprisonment for forming or joining
    international organizations without government authorization forced
    individuals wishing to carry out human rights work to operate abroad.
    In May 2009 the QDF facilitated AI's first fact-finding visit to the
    country since 2004. It also facilitated HRW's visit in April 2009, more
    than a year after the group's previous visit, but HRW's access to
    prisons continued to be restricted during the more recent visit.
        The QDF facilitated the December 2009 launch of HRW's report,
    Libya: Truth and Justice Can't Wait, from Tripoli, the first such event
    in the country by an international human rights organization. The
    report documented human rights practices in the country over the past
    five years, concluding that there had been ``some expansion of the
    space for free expression despite severe criminal penalties for free
    speech and association.'' The report noted the Government's attempt to
    address the 1996 Abu Salim massacre by acknowledging the death of the
    prisoners for the first time in 13 years and offering compensation, but
    no investigation or prosecutions. Families of the Abu Salim massacre
    victims, public citizens, and government officials attended the event.
        Associations engaging in unauthorized political activity were
    illegal. The Libyan Arab Human Rights Committee, a government body, did
    not release any public reports. Opposition or political organizations
    were not allowed to operate in the country, including the National
    Conference of the Libyan Opposition, National Front for the Salvation
    of Libya, and the Committee for Libyan National Action in Europe.

    Section 6. Discrimination, Societal Abuses, and Trafficking in Persons
        The law prohibits discrimination based on race, sex, religion,
    disability, or social status. The Government did not enforce these
    prohibitions effectively, particularly with regard to women and
    minorities.

        Women.--The 1969 Constitutional Proclamation granted women equality
    under the law. In practice traditional attitudes and practices
    continued that discriminated against women. Sharia (Islamic law)
    governs inheritance, divorce, and the right to own property. The law
    does not distinguish between genders for crimes of domestic violence,
    rape, or sexual harassment. Women have societal restrictions on their
    movement, even to local destinations.
        The law prohibits domestic violence, but there was scant
    information on the penalties or the extent of violence against women.
    There were 563 cases of rape reported in 2007; statistics were not
    disaggregated by gender. In 2008 courts heard more than 900 cases
    involving sex crimes. In January 2009 members of the Committee on the
    Elimination of Discrimination Against Women criticized the Government
    for not presenting data on violence against women. Courts handed down
    prison terms of varying length to convicted rapists, according to a
    2009 government response to the UN Human Rights Committee. Domestic
    abuse rarely was discussed publicly; HRW reported that students
    conducting a study on sexual violence in April 2009 found that victims
    were reticent to discuss their experiences due to fears of social
    stigmatization. The quasigovernmental Waatasemu Charity Foundation,
    headed by Muammar al-Qadhafi's daughter, Aisha al-Qadhafi, partnered
    with the UN to promote awareness of domestic abuse and sponsored a
    hotline for domestic abuse victims.
        The law criminalizes rape. A convicted rapist must marry the
    victim, with her agreement, or serve a prison term of as long as 25
    years. Rape victims who failed to meet high evidentiary standards
    reportedly could face charges of adultery, according to HRW.
        The law does not address spousal rape. According to government
    officials responding to the UN Human Rights Committee, ``if a wife is
    raped by force or in a way that she does not accept, she may lodge a
    complaint and demand that her husband be prosecuted and punished.''
    There were 20 women's courts in Tripoli and in Benghazi to deal with
    cases that, according to government officials, could not be resolved
    privately and where women could avoid the social stigma of appearing in
    a court with violent criminals.
        The law does not prohibit female genital mutilation.
        The law allowed for arbitrary punishments for dishonoring family,
    and women and girls suspected of violating moral codes such as walking
    with a man unrelated to them could be detained indefinitely without
    being convicted or after having served a sentence and without the right
    to challenge their detention before a court (see section 1.d.). They
    were held in ``social rehabilitation'' facilities, in some cases
    because they had been raped and then ostracized by their families. The
    Government stated that a woman was free to leave a rehabilitation home
    when she reached ``legal age'' (18 years), consented to marriage, or
    was taken into the custody of a male relative. According to HRW,
    authorities transferred most women to these facilities against their
    will, and those who came of their own volition did so because no
    genuine shelters for survivors of violence existed. HRW maintained that
    the Government routinely violated women's and girls' human rights in
    ``social rehabilitation'' homes, including violations of due process,
    freedom of movement, personal dignity, and privacy. One example of
    these violations is the practice of ``virginity exams'' in ``social
    rehabilitation'' facilities, where medical providers conducted invasive
    examinations to determine whether women detained in such facilities had
    engaged in sexual intercourse. These exams were believed to be devoid
    of medical accuracy.
        The law criminalizes sexual harassment, but there were no reports
    on how this law was enforced in practice. Expatriate women reported
    occasional harassment, including men exposing themselves and following
    women.
        In October 2009 HRW and the Geneva-based NGO Human Rights
    Solidarity reported that a group of women living in a state-run care
    residence for women and girls organized a demonstration calling for an
    end to sexual harassment in the residence. The GPO subsequently opened
    an investigation into the claims and in October 2009 charged the
    director of the residence with sexual harassment. However, the director
    reportedly was released.
        Couples and individuals have the right to decide freely and
    responsibly the number, spacing and timing of their children and have
    the information and means to do so free from discrimination, coercion,
    and violence. Virtually all births took place in hospitals, and more
    than 90 percent of mothers received pre- and postnatal care. The
    lifetime risk of maternal death was low, at one for each 350 live
    births, and female life expectancy was 77 years and rising. All forms
    of contraception were available free of charge. Waatasemu, the UN
    Office on Drugs and Crime, and other groups actively promoted awareness
    of HIV and sexually transmitted infections and encouraged equal access
    to medical care for women and men.
        The Department of Social Affairs, under the supervision of a
    cabinet-level member of the General People's Committee, is charged with
    collecting data and oversees the integration of women into all spheres
    of public life, although data were often out of date and incomplete.
    Women occupied significant positions in government and the judiciary.
        The General Union of Women's Associations, which the Government
    established as a network of quasi-NGOs, addresses women's employment
    needs. According to 2008 data from the International Labor
    Organization, 26 percent of women older than 15 were economically
    active, compared with 77 percent of men. Traditional restrictions
    continued to discourage some women from playing an active role in the
    workplace.
        The Government is the country's largest employer. Civil service
    salaries are set according to education and experience. Women and men
    with similar qualifications are paid at the same grade for positions
    that are substantially similar. The emerging private sector does not
    formally discriminate on the basis of gender for access to employment
    or credit, although women tend to earn less than men for similar work.
        Women constituted the majority of university students and graduates
    and made up almost one-third of university faculty.

        Children.--Citizenship is derived from either the mother or the
    father and registered in a government-issued family book. In July the
    Government made public a law allowing women married to foreign spouses
    to pass their own nationality to their children.
        There were no data on the number of unregistered births.
        The Government subsidized primary, secondary, and university
    education. Secondary education was compulsory through grade nine for
    both boys and girls, and 100 percent of children between the ages of
    six and 14 were enrolled in basic educational institutions, according
    to the Government's Universal Periodic Review submission to the UN
    Human Rights Council. The law imposes high fees on noncitizens enrolled
    in primary and secondary schools. The UN Human Rights Council noted
    that schools discriminated against children born out of wedlock.
        The law prohibits child abuse, and that prohibition was respected
    in practice.
        Sex outside of marriage is defined as adultery in Law 70 of 1973
    and is a felony offense. Eighteen is the age of consent for marriage,
    although a woman younger than 18 can marry with her father's consent.
        The country was not a party to the 1980 Hague Convention on the
    Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction.

        Anti-Semitism.--Although no statistics were available during the
    year, the country's Jewish population was extremely small and possibly
    nonexistent. There was no functioning synagogue. Discussions between
    the Government and representatives of the former Jewish community on
    possible compensation for Jewish communal property the Government
    confiscated after 1948 have continued since 2004.
        In December the United Kingdom's Guardian reported that in 2008 a
    Marks and Spencer store in Tripoli had been the target of anti-Semitic
    accusations by Libya's government. The English-Jewish owned brand's
    store was closed twice in 2008 for being a ``Zionist entity'' that
    supported ``the killing of Palestinians.'' Officials had taken the
    store's employees in for questioning. Local contacts perceived the
    attacks as political and aimed at Libyan private business rather than
    rooted in anti-Semitism. The Marks and Spencer store reopened in 2009
    and continued to operate at year's end.

        Trafficking in Persons.--For information on trafficking in persons,
    please see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons
    Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        Persons With Disabilities.--The law provides for the rights of
    persons with physical, sensory, intellectual and mental disabilities
    and provides for monetary and other types of social assistance. A
    number of government-approved organizations cared for persons with
    disabilities and protected access to employment, education, health
    care, and other state services. Few public facilities had adequate
    access for persons with physical disabilities, and there was limited
    access to information or communications.

        National/Racial/Ethnic Minorities.--Arabic-speaking Muslims of
    mixed Arab-Amazigh (Berber) ancestry constituted 97 percent of
    citizens. The principal minorities were Amazighs and Tuaregs. Both
    minority groups are predominantly Sunni Muslims but identify with their
    respective cultural and linguistic heritage rather than with Arab
    traditions. Several nomadic groups live in areas along the country's
    desert borders, including members of Tuareg and Toubou tribes. The
    country is home to an estimated 1.5 million to two million foreign
    workers. Of those, nearly one million are thought to be of Sahelian or
    sub-Saharan African origin and are in the country as undocumented
    migrants.
        The 1969 Constitutional Declaration defined the country as an Arab
    nation and acknowledged Arabic as the country's only official language,
    and the regime officially denies the existence of non-Arab citizens.
        According to the Society for Threatened Peoples, Berber (Amazigh)
    people faced contradictory and at times threatening government
    policies. During the year the Government took steps to alleviate
    discrimination against the Berber minority. Unlike in previous years,
    limited exhibitions of Amazigh culture were permitted, including a
    televised history program. The Government allowed the written Amazigh
    language on more signs but reportedly prohibited it in official
    contexts. In August 2009 the QDF invited leading representatives of the
    World Amazigh Conference to Tripoli to discuss Berber culture and
    status in the country. Local politicians have also visited Berber towns
    in recent years. In 2007 the Government abolished a law prohibiting the
    use of Amazigh and Tuareg names.
        The Berber Web site Tawalt.com reported that revolutionary
    committee members in 2008 targeted Berber leaders near Yefren.
    Demonstrators reportedly chanted anti-Berber slogans, vandalized
    properties, and physically confronted counterprotesters. Opposition Web
    sites alleged the individuals acted in collusion with local police.
        According to the Society for Threatened Peoples and a 2008 MEED
    Business Intelligence report, the Toubou minority in the southeastern
    part of the country, especially in the town of Kufra, faced massive
    discrimination. An estimated 4,000 Toubou reportedly resided in Kufra.
    A government initiative to withdraw their citizenship and designate the
    Toubou as Chadian reportedly led to five days of fighting between
    security forces and the Toubou in 2008. As many as 33 persons
    reportedly died in the fighting. In April 2009, according to AI, armed
    security personnel used bulldozers to evict Toubou from their homes in
    Kufra, continuing a policy of forced evictions in place since November
    2009. AI reported that Toubou had complained that they were not allowed
    to attend local schools and were denied treatment at local hospitals
    because they lacked official identity documents.

        Societal Abuses, Discrimination, and Acts of Violence Based on
    Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.--There was societal and
    official abuse based on sexual orientation and sexual identity.
    Citizens tended to hold negative views of homosexual activity, and
    homosexuality is socially stigmatized. Homosexual acts are a criminal
    offense punishable by three to five years in prison. The law provides
    for punishment of both parties. In November a girl who announced on the
    Internet that she was gay sought asylum in France after she was
    allegedly arrested, raped, and nearly forced into a marriage.
        No public information was available on societal discrimination on
    the basis of sexual orientation or identity. There were no reports of
    legal discrimination based on sexual orientation in employment,
    housing, or access to education or health care.

        Other Societal Violence or Discrimination.--There were no reports
    of societal violence toward persons with HIV/AIDS. There were reports
    of societal stigmatization of persons living with HIV/AIDS, due to an
    association of the disease with drug use, sex outside marriage, and
    homosexuality. This stigma also resulted in underreporting of the
    disease. Treatment and medicine were provided to HIV/AIDS patients free
    of charge at special centers.

    Section 7. Worker Rights
        a. The Right of Association.--The law prohibits independent
    associations; workers automatically enrolled in the Government-
    organized General Trade Union Federation of Workers. The federation
    played an active role in the International Confederation of Arab Trade
    Unions, the Organization of African Trade Union Unity, and the World
    Federation of Trade Unions. The Government required candidates for
    trade union office to be citizens.
        The law does not give workers the right to strike. Although trade
    unions have existed officially for more than 25 years, workers
    historically have seen them as idle organizations under government
    control.

        b. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively.--The law
    circumscribes the conduct of union activities, and collective
    bargaining was restricted in practice. For example, the Government must
    approve all collective agreements between unions and employers to
    ensure that they are in line with the Government's economic and social
    objectives. The Government has the right to set and cut salaries
    without consulting the workers.
        A free trade zone in Misrata officially opened in 2004, although at
    year's end it was not operating due to bureaucratic delays. According
    to local contacts, the delays were both construction and regulatory.
    Free trade agreements have labor provisions, especially the newer ones;
    however, the Misrata free trade zone is independent of a free trade
    agreement.

        c. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor.--The law prohibits
    any form of forced or compulsory labor, including child labor.
    Nevertheless, there were some reports of forced labor of migrant
    workers, particularly Filipino, Indian, and sub-Saharan Africans
    working in the construction sector after they were smuggled into the
    country. For information on trafficking in persons, please see the
    Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons Report at
    www.state.gov/g/tip.

        d. Prohibition of Child Labor and Minimum Age for Employment.--The
    law forbids children younger than 18 from being employed, except when
    it is a form of apprenticeship. There was no information available on
    the prevalence of child labor, although there were no reports of child
    slavery, prostitution, or recruitment into armed conflict during the
    year.
        No information was available concerning whether the law limits
    working hours or sets occupational health and safety restrictions for
    children. The General People's Committee for Manpower, Employment, and
    Training is responsible for preventing child labor.

        e. Acceptable Conditions of Work.--The labor law defines the rights
    and duties of workers except for migrant workers and includes matters
    of compensation, pension rights, minimum rest periods, and working
    hours. Although some public sector categories, such as professors, have
    received pay increases in recent years, a freeze imposed more than a
    decade ago continued to depress earnings. The minimum wage was 250
    dinars ($208) per month. The Government paid an additional pension of
    90 dinars ($75) for a single person, 130 dinars ($108) for a married
    couple, and 180 dinars ($150) for a family of more than two. Although
    there was no information available regarding whether the average wage
    was sufficient to provide a worker and family with a decent standard of
    living, the Government heavily subsidized rent and utilities, and
    government workers received an additional 130 dinars ($108) per month
    for food staples during the year. Contracts, written in Arabic, exist
    for migrant workers and are the legal basis for granting visas for
    temporary workers. Contracts are only for legal immigrants and are a
    requirement for the hiring business to sponsor the worker; as a result,
    they are rare and generally only used if the business is closely
    monitored or regulated.
        The legal workweek is 40 hours. The law stipulates the minimum
    wage, standard working hours, night shift regulations, dismissal
    procedures, and training requirements. The law does not specifically
    prohibit excessive compulsory overtime.
        Labor inspectors were assigned by municipal governments to inspect
    places of work for compliance with government-defined health and safety
    standards, and the law grants workers the right to court hearings
    regarding these standards. Certain industries, such as the petroleum
    sector, attempted to maintain standards that foreign companies set.
    There was no information about whether workers could remove themselves
    from an unhealthy or unsafe work situation without jeopardizing their
    employment.
        Foreign workers reportedly constituted 1.6 million of the 3.2
    million-person workforce in 2004, but the labor law applies only to
    foreign workers who have work contracts, a fraction of the total. These
    workers are covered under the laws on acceptable conditions of work,
    while other migrants are considered to be illegally in the country.
    While the 2006 census counted 349,040 foreigners resident in the
    country, observers and diplomatic missions with large migrant
    populations in the country estimated during the year that the total
    number of undocumented workers was between 1.5 million and two million.
    Authorities permitted foreign workers to reside in the country only for
    the duration of their work contracts, and they could not send more than
    half of their earnings to their home countries. Foreign workers were
    subject to arbitrary pressures, such as changes in work rules and
    contracts, and had little choice other than to accept such changes or
    depart the country. Authorities deported many foreign workers for not
    having newly required work permits for unskilled jobs that they held at
    the time of arrest. In practice the Government had no practical means
    to track members of the informal foreign workforce or remittance flows,
    relying instead on the threat of deportation and random roundups to
    exercise authority. Roundups and deportation generally threatened only
    illegal or undocumented workers.

                                   __________

                                    MOROCCO

        Morocco is a monarchy with a constitution, an elected parliament,
    and a population of approximately 34 million. According to the
    constitution, ultimate authority rests with King Mohammed VI, who
    presides over the Council of Ministers and appoints or approves members
    of the Government. The king may dismiss ministers, dissolve parliament,
    call for new elections, and rule by decree. In the bicameral
    legislature, the lower house may dissolve the Government through a vote
    of no confidence. The 2007 multiparty parliamentary elections for the
    lower house went smoothly and were marked by transparency and
    professionalism. International observers judged that those elections
    were relatively free from government-sponsored irregularities. Security
    forces reported to civilian authorities.
        Citizens did not have the right to change the constitutional
    provisions establishing the country's monarchical form of government or
    those designating Islam the state religion. There were reports of
    torture and other abuses by various branches of the security forces.
    Prison conditions remained below international standards. Reports of
    arbitrary arrests, incommunicado detentions, and police and security
    force impunity continued. Politics, as well as corruption and
    inefficiency, influenced the judiciary, which was not fully
    independent. The Government restricted press freedoms. Corruption was a
    serious problem in all branches of government. Child labor,
    particularly in the unregulated informal sector, and trafficking in
    persons remained problems.

                            RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

    Section 1. Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom
            From:
        a. Arbitrary or Unlawful Deprivation of Life.--There were no
    reports that the Government or its agents committed any politically
    motivated killings; however, there were reports of deaths in police
    custody. On September 11, 37-year-old Fodeil Aberkane was arrested in
    Sale and charged with consuming cannabis. Released after 48 hours in
    jail, he returned after several days to reclaim his belongings, a
    motorcycle and a cell phone. An altercation followed and he was
    imprisoned, accused of ``assaulting officers during the exercise of
    their function.'' Two days later he was transferred to a Rabat hospital
    and pronounced dead. Authorities began an investigation but had not
    filed charges by year's end.
        In the 2008 case of Abderrezzak Kadiri, who died after a violent
    demonstration at Cadi Ayyad University in Marrakesh, a 2009 government
    autopsy determined his wounds were consistent with a criminal assault.
    In August the Government reported that police had arrested and charged
    a suspect with assault and battery in connection with Kadiri's death,
    and Kadiri's family dropped charges against the Government.
        Unlike in previous years, there were no reports implicating
    security forces in the deaths of migrants seeking to illegally transit
    the country to Europe (see section 2.c.). The Government provided no
    further information regarding the death of a migrant who international
    human rights NGOs claimed was killed by police at the Melilla border in
    January 2009.

        b. Disappearance.--The country's penal code requires security
    forces to inform detainees of charges and to inform the detainee's
    family of his or her whereabouts within 48 hours. The 2003
    antiterrorism law provides an exception to this rule by permitting
    authorities to detain suspects without informing their families for up
    to 96 hours. This initial detention period may be renewed twice, up to
    a total detention time of 12 days. In addition authorities may withhold
    information about the charges from the detainee's lawyer for up to two
    days after the initial four-day detention expires (see section 1.d.).
        The Government stated that it followed the law in all cases, and
    that there were no cases of disappearance. However, the domestic
    nongovernmental organization (NGO) the Moroccan Association for Human
    Rights (AMDH), international NGOs Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Amnesty
    International (AI), and the Party of Justice and Development (PJD), an
    Islamist-oriented political party, claimed that in at least 13 cases,
    authorities did not follow the provisions of the penal code or the
    antiterrorism law and that prolonged periods in unknown locations
    amounted to disappearances in these cases. The Government and the
    domestic NGO Moroccan Organization for Human Rights (OMDH) disputed
    these charges, claiming that arrest and pretrial detention were
    mistakenly equated with abduction and forced disappearances and that
    families were informed about the whereabouts of those detained.
        Regarding the unresolved cases of disappearance dating back to the
    1970s and 1980s, the Governmental Consultative Council on Human Rights
    (CCDH) continued to cooperate with the UN Office of the High
    Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) as it seeks to investigate claims
    of enforced and involuntary disappearances. The CCDH has provided the
    OHCHR with information regarding 56 cases that the OHCHR considers
    unresolved. The CCDH and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
    noted that occasional new claims regarding disappearances that occurred
    in the 1970s and 1980s continue to be reported. Since 2004 the Justice
    and Reconciliation Authority (IER) and CCDH, its successor
    organization, completed investigations of approximately 938 cases of
    forced, long-term disappearances of regime opponents between the
    country's 1956 independence and 1999. The IER and CCDH determined only
    290 cases amounted to state-enforced disappearances. The CCDH
    acknowledged that, due to a lack of evidence, it will likely be unable
    to resolve the 56 remaining cases. The CCDH has provided the OHCHR with
    information regarding these 56 unresolved cases.
        Human rights groups representing ethnic Sahrawis, who reside
    throughout the country and make up a majority of the population of
    Western Sahara, claimed that at least 114 cases remained unresolved and
    accused the CCDH and IER of failing to acknowledge many additional
    cases of disappearances that occurred between the country's
    independence in 1956 and 1999, especially from Western Sahara.
        By year's end the CCDH reported it had paid reparations to 15,000
    victims of disappearance or other abuses committed between 1956 and
    1999 or to their family members. During the year 331 individuals
    received reparation payments totaling 46,233,210 dirhams ($5,540,289).
    The CCDH noted that although it continued to receive and investigate
    reparation claims during the year, it had shifted its focus toward
    conducting community reparation projects, including providing medical
    insurance to victims' families. During the year the CCDH disbursed 979
    medical insurance cards to individuals living in both Morocco and the
    Western Sahara territory. Some NGOs alleged the CCDH was flawed
    administratively and its reparations process was nontransparent,
    resulting in unequal payments and a lack of objective criteria for
    awarding payments.
        In May the CCDH sponsored the return of the remains of Abdeslam
    Ahmed EttToud, whose body was found in a secret tomb in Ghfsy in 2005.
    EttToud was kidnapped by armed men affiliated with the Istiqlal party
    in June 1956.

        c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or
    Punishment.--The law prohibits such practices, and the Government
    denied that it used torture. However, numerous NGO reports and media
    articles alleged that members of security forces tortured and abused
    individuals in their custody, particularly during transport and
    pretrial detention.
        The CCDH did not publish any reports regarding overall trends for
    incidents of torture and other abuses during the year. However,
    independent news media and domestic human rights groups, including the
    AMDH and OMDH, expressed concerns regarding increasing reports of
    security forces' engagement in arbitrary arrests and torture in prisons
    and police stations.
        On June 28, police in Fes arrested seven members of the Justice and
    Charity Organization (JCO, also known as Al-Adl Wal Ihsane) at their
    homes and immediately transferred them to a jail in Casablanca. The men
    were charged with abducting and torturing a former member of their
    organization, armed robbery, violence, and membership in an
    unauthorized organization. Through their lawyers, family members, and
    other JCO members, Abdallah Bella, Mohamed Slimani, Tarik Mahla, Hicham
    Mesbahi, Azzedine Slimani, Abou Ali Lamnouar and Hicham Houari claimed
    that police beat them in front of their families prior to arrest, and
    then tortured them for three days in detention in Casablanca. During
    this time, the men reported that they were beaten, shocked with
    electricity, sodomized with pens, suspended in the air, denied medical
    treatment, and kept permanently blindfolded. The JCO, AMDH, and OMDH
    claimed that a government physician examined the seven men on July 7
    and 8 and found injuries indicative of torture and abuse. The
    Government denied the allegations, and stated that the men had been
    arrested in response to a complaint filed by Mohamed Elrahzy, a former
    JCO member and Fes-based attorney. Elrahzy alleged that on May 17 the
    seven men kidnapped, tortured, and later released him. The JCO, AMDH,
    OMDH, and two Moroccan political parties--the PJD and the Socialist
    Union of Popular Forces--publicly called for an independent
    investigation. On August 30, the defendants filed a complaint against
    the Judicial Police after the issuance of the medical report on their
    allegations of torture. On December 21, the Fes Court of Appeals
    dropped the charges against the defendants due to a lack of evidence.
        On July 16, the Rabat Criminal Chamber of the court of appeals
    upheld the 2008 convictions of 35 defendants for forming a terrorist
    group, plotting attacks, and committing robberies and other crimes to
    finance their operations. The court reduced to 10 years the prison
    sentences of four defendants associated with Islamist political parties
    and one journalist and released a socialist party politician from
    prison for time served. Many appealed the verdicts on various grounds,
    including that the court failed to refer their cases to a forensic
    expert as required by the law against torture; some defendants claimed
    that their confessions were falsified or obtained as a result of
    torture (see section 1.e.).
        On March 31, the Marrakesh Court of Appeals decided the appeal of
    11 students who alleged that they had been victims of police abuse and
    torture and were sentenced to prison for their involvement in violent
    demonstrations in 2008 at Cadi Ayyad University. The court upheld the
    convictions and lengthened the sentences of one student from two to
    three years and another student from two to four years. On May 15, the
    nine other students were released at the expiration of their sentences.
    According to domestic and international NGOs, the students alleged in
    their appeal that security forces employed torture, sexual harassment,
    and other abuse, especially during their arrest and pretrial detention.
    The court did not consider (and the Government did not investigate) the
    torture claims; it reaffirmed that police investigations had shown the
    students' injuries were a result of confrontations during the protests,
    in which students threw Molotov cocktails and stones at police officers
    and damaged public property. The Government provided no new information
    about the case of Qadimi El Ouali, who was severely injured in the 2008
    demonstrations at Cadi Ayyad.
        The Government continued to improve implementation of the 2006 law
    against torture, which requires judges to refer a detainee to a
    forensic medical expert when the detainee or his or her lawyer requests
    it or if judges notice suspicious physical marks on a detainee. The
    Government reported that as of September public prosecutors and
    magistrates had requested expert medical examinations for 31
    individuals, compared with 27 requests in 2009 and 49 requests in 2008.
    Media and human rights NGOs documented cases in which the antitorture
    law provision was not implemented.

        Prison and Detention Center Conditions.--Prison conditions remained
    poor and generally did not meet international standards. Prisons were
    overcrowded, resulting in poor hygienic conditions. There were no
    reports regarding inadequate provisions for ventilation, temperature,
    lighting, and access to potable water. The Moroccan Observatory of
    Prisons (OMP), an umbrella grouping of lawyers promoting better prison
    conditions, and other human rights NGOs continued to report during the
    year that prisons were overcrowded, prone to violence, and failed to
    meet local and international standards. The Government stated that its
    60 prisons held approximately 61,405 inmates as of August 31, allowing
    approximately 16 square feet per inmate, far short of the international
    standard of 97 square feet. Reports published by the OMP in 2008 and
    2009 maintained that the adult prison system operated at roughly 133
    percent capacity. Various NGOs estimated the number of minors in prison
    to range between 1,800 and 6,000. In many cases, those imprisoned as
    minors completed their sentences as adults.
        The Government reported that 84 inmates died in prison, 67 (80
    percent) of whom were hospitalized and under the care of the Ministry
    of Health; 26 (32 percent) of reported deaths were due to heart
    problems. Due to administrative constraints and lack of access to
    prisons, local human rights NGOs were unable to confirm or challenge
    these numbers. The Government acknowledged that providing adequate care
    was difficult given the overcrowded conditions and noted that prisons
    in cities such as Casablanca are especially overcrowded due to the
    refurbishment of nearby prisons, such as the one in Oukacha.
        Regarding the 2009 case of Mohamed Amine Akalai, who died in
    prison, authorities closed the case based on their determination that
    the death was the result of heart problems.
        The Directorate General for Prison Administration (DGAP), a
    separate agency that reports directly to the prime minister and
    informally to the king, has responsibility for managing all prisons in
    the country. It has its own budget and central administrative
    apparatus. The DGAP secured additional funds during the year to build
    new facilities, reduce crowding and increase living space per inmate,
    improve health care and other conditions, and improve security. The
    Ministry of Justice still directs the development and reform of penal
    policy.
        Although the law dictates that juvenile prisoners be separated from
    adults in prisons, this did not always occur in practice. There are
    three detention facilities, known officially as Reform and Education
    Centers (RECs), reserved exclusively for juveniles up to the age of 20.
    Several other adult prison facilities have dedicated areas for juvenile
    inmates. Due to the lack of juvenile prison facilities, authorities
    sometimes held juveniles with adults, particularly in pretrial
    detention and in police stations. As of August 31, the Government held
    4,851 juveniles under the age of 20 at various prisons. Human rights
    groups reported that young offenders were abused by other minors, older
    inmates, and prison guards. Offenders convicted of minor crimes are
    often placed in the same cell as those convicted of more serious
    offenses. Government figures indicated that only 3 percent of prisoners
    were women, and there was less overcrowding in the women's sections.
    Women were held separately from men.
        The Government began implementing vocational and educational
    training programs in prisons. The Mohammed VI Foundation for
    Reinsertion of Prisoners, managed directly by the king, provides
    educational and professional training to young inmates on the verge of
    release. The foundation runs RECs in 38 of the country's 60 prisons and
    works with more than 4,000 prisoners each year. Graduates of the
    foundation's training programs have a recidivism rate of 3 percent, in
    contrast to the national average of 40 percent. Since 2008 the
    Government has opened three new prison facilities in Khouribga,
    Tetouan, and Oued Zem. The Government has closed two prisons since
    2008, in Inzegane and Khouribga, due to poor sanitary conditions.
        The Government also runs 22 Child Protection Centers (CPCs), five
    of which are specifically for girls. The CPCs were originally intended
    to provide an alternative to prison for underage juvenile delinquents.
    However, the centers are now used to house delinquents, homeless
    children, victims of domestic violence, drug addicts and other
    ``children in distress'' who have committed no crime. Unlike the
    prisons, the CPCs are managed by the Ministry of Youth and Sports.
        Some human rights activists asserted that the prison administration
    reserved harsher treatment and conditions for certain prisoners, such
    as Islamists. The Government denied allegations that it accorded
    different levels of treatment to any inmates, and maintained that there
    were no political prisoners in the country. Prisoners frequently
    employed hunger strikes to demand improved prison conditions or to
    protest lengthy pretrial detentions. Most of these ended within several
    days in response to concessions from the Government or prison
    authorities. Although prison authorities provided meals to prisoners
    three times per day, the amount of food provided was inadequate, and
    families and friends regularly supplemented prisoners' diets.
        The Government permitted prison visits by independent human rights
    observers, including local human rights groups, but not by
    international groups or the media. As in years past, family members of
    prisoners accounted for the majority of prison visits. At least 600
    visits were by judiciary authorities for various oversight reasons. The
    DGAP also reported that 88 regional or parliamentary commissions made
    prison visits during the year. Authorities documented 132 visits by
    domestic NGOs during the first six months of the year. NGOs reported
    that although international NGOs visited prisons in previous years, the
    DGAP's new director general discouraged such visits, and they ceased.
    The International Committee of the Red Cross did not make any requests
    to visit prisoners.
        The quasigovernmental CCDH acted as an ombudsman for human rights
    and continued to expand the scope of its activities. The CCDH received
    complaints from prisoners and from family members writing on behalf of
    their imprisoned family members (see section 1.e.).
        Government policy permits NGOs that provide social, educational, or
    religious services to prisoners to enter prison facilities, but it does
    not permit NGOs that only have a human rights mandate to do so except
    with special authorization. There were no reports that prisoners and
    detainees were denied permission to practice their respective
    religions. Members of various NGOs, including the OMDH, AMDH, OMP, and
    Association of Victims of Grave Human Rights Abuses (ASVDH), visited
    prisoners regularly to distribute food and personal items and to check
    on their health and well-being as ``friends or family,'' not as human
    rights NGO representatives.

        d. Arbitrary Arrest or Detention.--The law does not prohibit
    arbitrary arrest or detention, and police used both practices. Police
    did not always observe due process. According to local NGOs and
    associations, police did not always identify themselves when arresting
    suspects or consistently obtain warrants. Police reportedly held some
    detainees without charging them. It was common practice for security
    forces to arrest a group of persons, take them to a police station to
    be questioned, and then release them without charge.

        Role of the Police and Security Apparatus.--The security apparatus
    includes several police and paramilitary organizations with overlapping
    authorities. The National Police (DGSN) manages the border and
    immigration services, as well as internal law enforcement, and reports
    to the Ministry of Interior. However, the borders are managed by
    different entities intervening in various capacities. For example, the
    Royal Armed Forces manage borders in Western Sahara and along the
    southern border with Algeria. Along the northern section of the eastern
    border with Algeria, the army, Auxiliary Forces, gendarmes, police, and
    customs authorities are present.
        The Auxiliary Forces are separate entities that have security
    responsibilities and also report to the Ministry of Interior. The
    Auxiliary Forces are often used to support gendarmes or police as
    necessary. The Royal Gendarmerie reports to the Ministry of Defense and
    is responsible for law enforcement in rural regions and on national
    highways. The main federal investigative body, the judicial police, is
    a hybrid DGSN and Justice Ministry entity. Both the Royal Gendarmerie
    and the judicial police report to the royal prosecutor, who orders
    investigations. The judicial police investigate violations of criminal
    law, terrorism, organized crime, and white-collar crime. The Department
    of Royal Security reports to the king.
        There was no systematic prosecution of security personnel who
    committed human rights abuses. Corruption and impunity reduced police
    effectiveness and respect for the rule of law. Petty corruption was
    widespread among the police and gendarmes, and broader, systemic
    corruption undermined law enforcement and the effectiveness of the
    judicial system.
        On February 23, the king issued a royal high directive designed to
    modernize and professionalize the national police force, the General
    Directorate for National Security, by making it an autonomous
    directorate. The Government stated that these changes were aimed at
    improving the quality of recruits and reducing corruption. Various
    components of the king's directive have been implemented. On October 1,
    traffic officers began wearing photo identification while performing
    their duties. This measure is expected to reduce widespread bribery by
    traffic officers and will allow citizens to report and document abuse.
    While the directive did not include provisions for additional training
    of security forces, the Government increased investigations,
    prosecutions, and training--including a human rights component--for
    security personnel.
        The Ministry of Interior increased investigations of abuse, human
    rights violations, and corruption across all security services under
    its purview. During the year the Government reported that it arrested,
    prosecuted, or opened investigations regarding 332 government
    authorities or security officials at all levels for crimes ranging from
    assault and battery to petty bribery throughout the country and Western
    Sahara. These included prosecutions for cases of drug trafficking or
    involvement in abetting illegal immigration against three chiefs of
    police, 25 police officers and customs agents, 21 staff members of the
    Auxiliary Forces, and 16 officers of the Royal Armed Forces and the
    Royal Navy. Information for the year was not available on the number of
    convictions and punishments, and many more incidents of alleged
    corruption were never investigated. Cases often languished in the
    investigatory or trial phases without resolution.

        Arrest Procedures and Treatment While in Detention.--Police may
    arrest an individual after a general prosecutor issues an oral or
    written warrant; in practice warrants were sometimes issued after the
    arrest. Warrants were generally issued on the basis of evidence and
    exclusively by authorized officials. Authorities denied defendants'
    access to counsel or family members during the initial 96 hours of
    detention under terrorism-related laws or 48 hours of detention for
    other charges, during which police interrogated detainees and alleged
    abuse or torture was most likely to occur.
        Under the antiterrorism law, after the first 96 hours, two
    additional 96-hour extensions are allowed at the prosecutor's
    discretion. Under the law a person may be detained without trial for as
    long as one year while an investigating magistrate completes work.
        NGOs continued to report that as many as 90 percent of incarcerated
    minors were in pretrial detention. The law provides for a limited
    system of bail, but bail was rarely granted. Some judges were unaware
    of legislation permitting the use of the bail system or other
    alternative sentencing provisions. The law does not require written
    authorization for a person to be released from detention. In some
    instances, judges released defendants on their own recognizance. The
    antiterrorism law does not include a system of bail. Under a separate
    military code, military authorities may detain members of the military
    without a warrant or public trial.
        According to the law, all defendants have the right to be
    represented by attorneys, and if a defendant cannot afford private
    counsel, a court-appointed attorney must be provided when the criminal
    penalty exceeds five years in prison. In practice effective counsel was
    not always provided. Police were required to notify a detainee's next
    of kin of the arrest as soon as possible after the initial 48-hour
    incommunicado detention in nonterrorism cases unless arresting
    authorities applied for and received an extension from a magistrate,
    but police did not always abide by this provision. Because of delays in
    notifying family, lawyers sometimes were not informed promptly of the
    date of arrest and were not able to monitor compliance with
    administrative detention limits, which authorities exceeded when
    individuals were suspected of links to terrorism.
        As of August 31, pretrial detainees made up 42 percent of the
    61,405 inmates in prison.

        Amnesty.--The Government used royal pardons rather than a parole
    system as the principal judicial mechanism for early release. The king
    pardoned 1,838 prisoners during the year. Pardons may take the form of
    release, sentence reduction, or transfer.

        e. Denial of Fair Public Trial.--The constitution provides for an
    independent judiciary, but in practice the courts often did not act
    independently and were weakened by corruption and extrajudicial
    influence. Corruption and extrajudicial influence was reportedly most
    acute in criminal, commercial, and civil law cases. Many judges did not
    consistently base rulings on new laws and, at times, referred to
    outdated laws in their decisions. The king heads the Supreme Judicial
    Council, and the minister of justice presides over it in his absence.
    The council has administrative authority to hire, dismiss, and promote
    judges and can decide which judges to appoint to certain positions.
        During the year the Government exhibited some efforts to address
    corruption. The inspector general of the Justice Ministry investigated
    65 criminal or ethics complaints against judges (up from 55 in 2009),
    which resulted in the referral of 16 judges to the Supreme Judicial
    Council for disciplinary measures.
        In the 2008 suspected terrorist trial of 35 defendants, whose
    convictions were upheld on July 16, defendants claimed that they were
    deprived of a fair trial based on the Minister of Interior's public
    statements prior to the trial alleging that the accused persons were
    assumed to be guilty.
        Serious state security charges against civilians, including those
    relating to the monarchy, Islam, or territorial integrity (i.e., the
    country's sovereignty claim over Western Sahara), are typically tried
    in civilian courts. Cases regarding treason must be tried before a
    military court. While cases regarding territorial integrity can also be
    referred to a military court, the conditions under which a case may be
    moved to a military court are not transparent. It is also unclear from
    where such a decision originates (see the Western Sahara report).
    Judgments by military tribunals may be appealed. Depending on the
    military tribunal's decision, cases are sometimes moved to a civilian
    appellate court. NGOs and judicial reform advocates alleged that the
    Government interfered with the judiciary, especially in political
    cases, sometimes undermining the fairness of the trial.
        In 2008 73-year-old Colonel-Major Kaddour Terhzaz was arrested for
    allegedly threatening the country's security through divulging national
    defense information. The Permanent Military Court of the Moroccan Armed
    Forces in Rabat tried Terhzaz, found him guilty, and sentenced him to
    12 years at the Sale prison. In 2009 the military court rejected a
    cassation of the verdict (a military court version of appeal). In May
    an attorney submitted one final brief requesting that the case be
    reopened to examine new evidence, but the tribunal rejected the brief.
    Terhzaz's family members and the AMDH claimed that before the initial
    trial, his defense attorney was not given adequate time to prepare for
    the case and that officials prevented his attorney from visiting him.
    Various NGOs stated that no witnesses were allowed to testify at his
    trial. Family members also reported that Terhzaz has been in solitary
    confinement since November 2009. As of November 2010 Terhzaz remained
    in solitary confinement. The Government maintains that the Terhzaz case
    is a matter of national security, and the legal proceedings against him
    were fair and transparent.
        Regarding the case of the seven Sahrawi activists arrested in
    October 2009 on charges of ``intelligence cooperation with a foreign
    entity'' and ``incitement to disturb public order'' after a trip to the
    Sahrawi refugee camps near Tindouf and Algiers in Algeria, all seven
    activists continued to faced charges of incitement to disturb public
    order at year's end; the intelligence cooperation charge was dismissed.
    Four of the activists were provisionally released during the year, and
    three remained in prison in Casablanca. After several attempts at a
    trial were disrupted, the three were awaiting trial before a civilian
    court at year's end (see the Western Sahara report).

        Trial Procedures.--Defendants are presumed innocent. The law
    provides for the right to a fair public trial for all citizens; this
    did not always occur in practice, especially for those protesting the
    incorporation of Western Sahara into the country. Juries are not used,
    in accordance with the Napoleonic legal system.
        Although the Government claims that accused persons are brought to
    trial within two months, prosecutors may request as many as five
    additional two-month extensions of pretrial detention. Technically an
    accused person may be kept in detention for as long as one year prior
    to trial. There were several reports that authorities routinely held
    detainees beyond the one-year limit.
        Defendants have the right to be present at their trial and to
    timely consultation with an attorney, although these rights were not
    always enforced in practice. Attorneys were not appointed in all cases
    or, if provided, were poorly paid or provided in an untimely fashion,
    often resulting in inadequate representation. According to law,
    defendants in criminal and human rights cases have access to government
    evidence against them. In practice judges sometimes prevented or
    delayed access. Under the law, defense attorneys may question
    witnesses. Some judges reportedly denied defense requests to question
    witnesses or to present mitigating witnesses or evidence.
        Individuals are arraigned before a court of first instance. If the
    judge determines that a confession was obtained under duress, the law
    requires that it be excluded from evidence. Human rights NGOs charged
    that judges often decided cases based on forced confessions, especially
    in cases of Sahrawis or individuals accused of terrorism. Police
    statements about detainees were used in place of defendants'
    confessions.
        The law extends rights regarding trial procedures to all citizens.
    Family courts generally adjudicated divorce and child custody cases for
    Muslim citizens according to the 2004 family law. A parallel family
    legal system handled matters for Jewish citizens in accordance with
    traditional Jewish law. Designated juvenile judges have jurisdiction
    over cases relating to alleged offenses by minors between the ages of
    12 and 18. However, NGOs reported that judges' ignorance of the
    statutes and their lack of training on human and children's rights
    meant that provisions affecting children were not used and many minors
    received prison time for minor offenses.

        Political Prisoners and Detainees.--Legislation does not define or
    recognize the concept of a political prisoner. The Government did not
    consider any of its prisoners to be political prisoners and stated that
    all individuals in prison in the country had been convicted or had been
    charged under criminal law and were awaiting trial. However, several
    NGOs, including the AMDH, Sahrawi organizations, and Amazigh (Berber)
    activist groups asserted that the Government imprisoned persons for
    political activities or beliefs under cover of criminal charges.

        Civil Judicial Procedures and Remedies.--Individuals had access to
    civil courts for lawsuits relating to human rights violations and filed
    such lawsuits; however, the courts were not entirely independent or
    impartial in civil matters due to extrajudicial influence and
    corruption. There are administrative as well as judicial remedies for
    alleged wrongs.
        A national ombudsman resolves civil matters when the judiciary is
    unable to do so and has gradually expanded the scope of its activities.
    As of July 31, the ombudsman received 2,476 complaints; it judged 1,835
    to be valid and referred those cases to other public administrations as
    appropriate. The CCDH did not take direct action on specific cases but
    continued to serve as a conduit through which citizens expressed
    complaints about government malfeasance or human rights violations.

        f. Arbitrary Interference With Privacy, Family, Home, or
    Correspondence.--The constitution states that an individual's home is
    inviolable, and that a search may take place only with a search
    warrant; however, authorities sometimes ignored these provisions in
    practice. The law stipulates that a prosecutor may issue a search
    warrant on good cause, particularly in cases of suspected terrorism,
    but the Government did not always observe these rights. Plainclothes
    security officers who did not identify themselves or present search
    warrants conducted home searches.
        As in previous years, authorities reportedly searched and shut down
    activities in the homes of members of the Justice and Charity
    Organization, an Islamist charitable and sociopolitical group the
    Government tolerated but did not officially recognize. Members used
    their homes for ``open houses'' where they held politically oriented
    meetings. On May 20 and 29, authorities detained for questioning 342
    male and female JCO members in the towns of Oujda, Tangiers, and Zaio.
    As in years past, during Ramadan authorities carried out raids,
    detained at least 21 JCO members, and forcibly dispersed meetings at
    private residences in several cities. JCO members claimed the DGST was
    responsible for the harassment. In almost every case, authorities
    detained, questioned, and later released JCO members without charges.
        Sahrawi activists reported that when NGOs held meetings at members'
    houses, both plainclothes and uniformed police occasionally intervened
    (see the Western Sahara report).

    Section 2. Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:
        a. Freedom of Speech and Press.--The law generally provides for
    freedom of speech and of the press; however, the Government continued
    to restrict freedom of the press through the legal system. Government-
    provided figures for this year showed that six journalists or media
    outlets faced criminal or civil charges, down from 56 such cases in
    2009 and 42 in 2008. These numbers included cases the Government
    initiated as well as private citizens' libel complaints. Numerous human
    rights groups criticized the steady stream of criminal prosecutions,
    newspaper closings, and libel suits.
        The law prohibits citizens from criticizing Islam or the
    institution of the monarchy. It is also illegal to voice opposition to
    the Government's official position regarding territorial integrity and
    Western Sahara. The press, however, reported on controversial and
    culturally sensitive topics involving the military, national security,
    and sexuality.
        The antiterror law and the press code impose financial penalties on
    journalists and publishers who violate restrictions related to
    defamation, libel, and insults, including critical discussion of the
    monarchy, state institutions, territorial integrity, and Islam. Prison
    sentences may be imposed on those convicted of libel.
        The press code lists threats to public order as one of the criteria
    for censorship. The Government also has the ability to revoke licenses
    and to suspend and confiscate publications.
        Politically diverse newspapers and weeklies published articles
    critical of high-ranking officials and policies. Although authorities
    overlooked most of these instances, a few publications paid significant
    financial penalties when articles came close to the ``red lines'' of
    monarchy or the Western Sahara. The Government levied substantial fines
    that publishers accused of violating the law could not afford to pay.
    In some cases, these substantial fines appeared to be designed to
    bankrupt the publisher and force it to close. Many journalists also
    noted that there was great inconsistency in the Government's responses
    to sensitive articles that touched on the ``red lines,'' and they had
    no way to know when they might face sanction.
        In January the Ministry of Communication announced it would expand
    the scope of regulations regarding foreign television stations and
    begin require foreign stations to receive ministry approval on a
    monthly basis (rather than annually as before) to report on or record
    individuals outside Rabat. Initially the new restrictions were aimed at
    Al Jazeera. The requirements have also affected the television channels
    Al Hurra, Al Arabiya, and BBC.
        On January 27, governmental judicial liquidators took control of
    newsweekly Le Journal Hebdomadaire after a Casablanca commercial
    appeals court declared on January 25 that the publication's former
    publishing group, Media Trust, and its current one, Trimedia, were
    bankrupt. According to credible sources, the publication owed a debt of
    five million dirhams ($599,161). Le Journal incurred some of this debt
    in September 2009 when the Supreme Court ordered the publication to pay
    2,652,022 dirhams ($317,797) in damages for a libel suit concerning its
    sources of funding for an article on the Western Sahara by the European
    Strategic Intelligence and Security Center, a Brussels-based think
    tank. On April 18, a Rabat appeals court upheld the amount of damages
    awarded. However, international NGOs including HRW and Reporters
    without Borders (RSF), as well as local civil society members, observed
    that the Government continually found reasons to fine the magazine and
    discouraged companies from advertising with it. The Government claimed
    it was following the law by forcing a judicial liquidation since the
    company's debt exceeded 14,025,755 dirhams ($1,680,738). According to
    the Government, in 2004 Media Trust and Trimedia stopped paying
    salaries to employees and stopped paying debts to banks, the National
    Fund for Social Security, and the Treasury.
        On March 8, authorities arrested Mohammed Attaoui--a correspondent
    for the Arabic-language daily Al Mounataf, president of a local
    environmental NGO, and an employee of the Tounfite municipality--for
    possession of hashish and extortion. The Government alleged that
    Attaoui threatened to denounce a local civil servant in the press and
    demanded a 1,000 dirhams ($120) bribe to stay silent. On March 22,
    authorities charged Attaoui with extortion and a court sentenced him on
    the same day to two years in prison. RSF and many local media outlets
    reported that his arrest was related to a February 16 article
    denouncing Taoufite community leaders' corruption and illegal cedar
    trafficking. At year's end Attaoui was awaiting his appellate hearing.
        On June 3, the High Authority of Audiovisual Communication
    suspended Radio Mars for 48 hours and fined the station 57,000 dirhams
    ($6,830) after a guest interviewee, Hicham Ayouch, jokingly remarked
    that he would like to become the president someday, a perceived
    challenge to the institution of the monarchy.
        Independent Arabic-language newspapers Al-Jarida Al-Oula, Al-Ahdath
    Al-Magrebia, and Al-Massae, which were fined 3.3 million dirhams
    ($395,446) in June 2009 for insulting a foreign head of state, appealed
    their cases in late 2009; the court upheld the original finding against
    them.
        The Government banned the importation of foreign media when they
    were considered to undermine the sanctity of the nation or public
    order. For example, throughout the week of December 14, the Government
    blocked the distribution of leading international newspapers Al-Quds
    Al-Arabi, El Pais, and Le Monde for printing Wikileaks-related articles
    critical of the Government.
        The Government's case against Ahmed Benchemsi, the publisher of Tel
    Quel and Nichane magazines who was charged in 2009 with failing to show
    ``due respect'' to the king, remained pending at year's end.
        The Government closed its case against Arabic-language weekly Al
    Michaal director Idriss Chahtane, who received a one-year prison
    sentence and a 10,000 dirhams ($1,198) fine for reporting false
    information on the king's health. The king pardoned Chahtane on June 11
    after he had served eight months of his sentence.
        The Ministry of Communications issued directives and guidance, and
    it subsidized publications including those critical of the Government.
    Direct government subsidies varied according to the percentage of the
    population reading the publication. The placement of government-
    directed advertising influenced print media outlets' revenue and may
    have influenced their coverage.
        The Government censored the media directly and indirectly through
    licensing and advertising. The Government registered and licensed
    domestic newspapers and journals. Journalists and publishers exercised
    self-censorship in response to the threat of government pressure or
    closure.
        Authorities temporarily suspended publications that the Government
    judged offensive. Authorities restricted the importation of and
    censored the February 25 edition of the French weekly Le Nouvel
    Observateur because it contained information on the case of Colonel
    Kaddour Terhzaz (see section 1.e.). The weekly was later distributed
    without the Terhzaz story.
        There were no private television stations. The Government-owned
    Societe Nationale de la Radiodiffusion et de la Television, which
    wholly or partly owned and operated several local television and radio
    stations. It also partially owned the 2M television and radio network.
    The Government purchased a majority stake in formerly private Medi-Sat
    television this year in an effort to save it from bankruptcy.
    Independent radio stations require licenses, and a government committee
    monitored radio broadcasts to assure adherence to license agreements.
    The Government owned or partially owned the only television stations
    whose broadcasts could be received in most parts of the country without
    decoders or satellite dishes.
        In 2008 the Government suspended Al-Jazeera's broadcasting license,
    forcing it to cease broadcasting its nightly Maghreb news bulletin from
    Rabat. The Ministry of Communications continued to refuse to issue
    accreditation documents to two journalists, Anaz Bensalah and Mohamed
    Bakkali, who work for the Al-Jazeera television channel. Authorities
    provided no reason for this decision. The two journalists filed suit
    against the ministry in September alleging arbitrary suspension of
    their accreditation and seeking to have their accreditation restored.
    Hassan Al-Rachidi, whose press credentials were suspended, paid 49,000
    dirhams ($5,872) in fines.
        Authorities subjected some journalists to harassment and
    intimidation during the year.
        On June 4, authorities entered and searched the Casablanca
    residence of journalist Zineb el Rhazoui without a warrant. El Rhazoui
    claimed that the authorities seized a hard drive, computer, memory card
    from a camera, and some personal effects, which they alleged that Ali
    Amar, who was at the residence at the time of the search, had stolen.
    El Rhazoui and Amar were then detained for 12 hours and released. Amar
    was arrested again on June 7, charged with theft, and held for 24
    hours. On July 1, the Ain Sbaa Court of First Instance found Amar
    guilty of theft and sentenced him to a three-month suspended sentence
    and fines of 40,500 dirhams ($4,853). Journalists and NGOs criticized
    the Government's handling of this case, alleging that authorities had
    targeted El Rhazoui and Amar because they were journalists who had
    worked for Le Journal Hebdomadaire, which authorities permanently
    closed in January. Amar also published a book in April 2009 in France
    that was critical of the Moroccan king, and El Rhazoui was the
    cofounder of a group that gained notoriety in September 2009 after
    authorities prevented its members from violating a law that prohibits
    breaking the Ramadan fast in public.
        In a case dating from September 2009, Rabat police questioned 10
    journalists from three Arabic-language newspapers that had published
    articles about the king's health. Authorities released eight of the
    journalists, but courts convicted two, Ali Anouzla and Bouchra Eddou of
    Al-Jarida al-Oula, of defamation. In December 2009 the Rabat appellate
    court confirmed the verdict, and on June 30, the Supreme Court rejected
    Anouzla and Eddou's final appeal. Al-Jarida al-Oula suspended
    publication in May 2009 due to financial problems, but its owner
    announced early in the year his intention to create a new weekly Arabic
    magazine.
        Books were subject to seizure or were forbidden entry and sale.
    During the year several books concerning the monarchy and some foreign
    magazines were not permitted to enter the country.

        Internet Freedom.--There are neither specific laws nor a body of
    judicial decisions concerning Internet content or access. The
    Government did not generally restrict access to the Internet.
    Individuals and groups were generally able to engage in peaceful
    exchanges of views via the Internet, including by e-mail. The
    International Telecommunication Union reported there were 41.3 Internet
    users per 100 inhabitants in 2009. The Government did not attempt to
    collect the personally identifiable information of persons over the
    Internet in connection with citizens' peaceful expression of political,
    religious, or ideological opinion or beliefs.
        In December 2009 bloggers Hazzam El Bachir, Boubaker Al-Yadib, and
    Abdelaziz Salami and Internet cafe owner Abdellah Boukfou alleged that
    police arrested them for their involvement in a student protest in
    Taghjijt. According to government reports, El Bachir and Boukfou
    participated in an unauthorized demonstration, destroyed public and
    private property, and seriously injured police officers on duty during
    the demonstration. Authorities further alleged that both men were in
    possession of publications aimed at inciting violence and racial
    discrimination. In December 2009 a court in Guelmim sentenced El Bachir
    to four months in prison, Boukfou to 12 months, and each to a fine of
    500 dirhams ($60). An appeals court reduced El Bachir's sentence to two
    months on February 8, and he was released the same day based on time
    served. The same appeals court reduced Boukfou's sentence to eight
    months, and he was released on August 4. On February 2, a Guelmim
    tribunal sentenced Al-Yadib and Salami to six months in prison and a
    500 dirhams ($60) fine; both were released after serving their full
    sentence.

        Academic Freedom and Cultural Events.--By law and in practice, the
    Government reserved the right to restrict presentations or discussions
    questioning the legitimacy of the monarchy, Islam, or the status of
    Western Sahara, and it did so on some occasions. The Government
    generally tolerated political and religious activism on university
    campuses. Islamist groups wielded considerable influence on campuses.
    In some cases they controlled student unions and acted to constrain
    academic freedom by intimidating or harassing students or professors.
    The Ministry of Interior approved the appointments of university
    rectors.

        b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association.--The constitution
    provides for freedom of assembly and association within the limits
    provided by law. In practice the Government sometimes used
    administrative delays and other methods to suppress or discourage
    demonstrations. However, both authorized and unauthorized sit-ins,
    demonstrations, and protests occurred frequently throughout the country
    and were almost always tolerated, unless they turned violent. The
    Government also prohibited or failed to recognize associations it
    deemed unqualified for NGO status.

        Freedom of Assembly.--The law conditions the right to freedom of
    public assembly on acquiring Ministry of Interior permission. However,
    authorities frequently allowed those who did not receive permission to
    nevertheless hold an assembly. Some NGOs complained that the approval
    process was often inconsistent. During the year police forcibly
    disrupted some demonstrations and mass gatherings. However, the media
    and NGOs made few reports of violent police actions against
    demonstrators and of police disrupting peaceful demonstrations. In one
    case, the Ministry of Interior refused to grant the domestic NGO
    Transparency Maroc a permit to hold a public gathering to present an
    anticorruption prize. The ministry did so through administrative means
    and without resorting to violence.

        Freedom of Association.--The constitution and the law provide for
    freedom of association, although on some occasions the Government has
    declined to officially recognize NGOs. The establishment and
    functioning of associations are governed by a 1958 decree. According to
    the Government, approximately 100,000 NGOs and associations were
    registered.
        New NGOs are required to register with the Ministry of Interior. A
    proposed organization must submit its objective, bylaws, address, and
    photocopies of members' identification cards to the ministry. In
    practice the Government has denied official recognition to NGOs that
    advocate against the monarchy, against Islam as the state religion, or
    against territorial integrity. The ministry issues a receipt to the
    organization that signifies formal approval. If the organization does
    not receive a receipt within 60 days, it is not formally registered.
    Many organizations the Government chose not to recognize functioned
    without the receipts, and the Government tolerated their activities.
    Several organizations, including the ASVDH and the JCO, have won
    administrative court judgments confirming that their applications for
    registration conform to the law; however, administrative courts have no
    enforcement powers beyond ruling that authorities exceeded their powers
    and cannot force government officials to recognize NGOs.
        Organizations supporting self-determination for Western Sahara were
    not permitted to register, including the ASVDH and the Sahrawi
    Collective of Human Rights Defenders. Unregistered organizations cannot
    access government funds or legally accept contributions. The ASVDH
    remained unregistered despite a 2005 Agadir administrative court
    decision requiring authorities to register it.
        During the year authorities continued to monitor JCO activities
    and, on occasion, disrupted them (see section 1.c.).

        c. Freedom of Religion.--For a complete description of religious
    freedom, please see the 2010 International Religious Freedom Report at
    www.state.gov/g/drl/irf/rpt.

        d. Freedom of Movement, Internally Displaced Persons, Protection of
    Refugees, and Stateless Persons.--The constitution provides for freedom
    of movement within the country, foreign travel, emigration, and
    repatriation. These rights were generally respected in practice,
    although the Government restricted movement in areas regarded as
    militarily sensitive, including the demilitarized zone in Western
    Sahara.
        The Government cooperated with the UNHCR and other humanitarian
    organizations in providing protection and assistance to internally
    displaced persons, refugees, returning refugees, asylum seekers,
    stateless persons, and other persons of concern.
        The Ministry of Interior restricted the freedom of civil servants
    to travel outside the country, including teachers and military
    personnel. Civil servants and soldiers must obtain written permission
    from their ministries to leave the country.
        The law provides for forced exile; however, there were no instances
    of forced exile in the country during the year.
        The Government encouraged the return of Sahrawi refugees if they
    acknowledged the Government's authority over Western Sahara. The
    Government continued to make travel documents available to Sahrawis,
    and there were fewer cases of Sahrawis being prevented from traveling
    (see the Western Sahara report).

        Protection of Refugees.--The Government has not yet established a
    national asylum procedure; it defers to the UNHCR as the sole agency in
    the country entitled to grant refugee status and verify asylum cases.
        In practice the Government provided protection against the
    expulsion or return of refugees to countries where their lives or
    freedom would be threatened on account of their race, religion,
    nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political
    opinion. Refugees recognized by the UNHCR are not returned under such
    circumstances, although the Government does not process or recognize
    their asylum claims. These refugees were therefore unable to obtain
    residence permits that would officially allow them access to the
    national health care system and the legal right to work; however, the
    Government generally permitted refugees to work upon presentation of a
    valid UNHCR refugee card. As of September the UNHCR reported
    approximately 750 refugees and 340 asylum seekers in the country.
        There were credible reports of government authorities expelling
    illegal migrants into the desert along the border with Algeria. NGOs
    reported that authorities left some migrants without food and water;
    however, unlike in previous years, there were no reports of migrant
    deaths as a result. The International Organization for Migration
    reported 1,119 cases of migrants' voluntary return to their country of
    origin during the year.

    Section 3. Respect for Political Rights: The Right of Citizens to
            Change Their Government
        The law provides for regular, free elections based on universal
    suffrage. Citizens directly elect municipal councils and the lower
    chamber of parliament, and they indirectly elect the upper chamber of
    parliament and the regional councils through representatives. Citizens
    did not have the right to change the country's monarchical form of
    government.
        The king may dissolve parliament at will and as head of state
    appoints or dismisses the prime minister, who is the titular head of
    government. The constitution authorizes the prime minister to nominate
    all government ministers, although the king also may nominate ministers
    and has the power to replace any minister. The king also appoints the
    constitutional council, which determines whether laws are
    constitutional.
        The constitution may not be changed without the king's approval.
    The constitution provides that neither the monarchical system nor
    measures related to the practice of Islam may be revised. Only the king
    has the power to put constitutional amendment proposals to a national
    referendum. The king or parliament may propose amendments, which must
    pass both houses with a two-thirds majority. Once a royal decree has
    been issued, the amendment may be sent to a national referendum; the
    king has the authority to bypass any national referendum.

        Elections and Political Participation.--Electoral law and
    regulations give the Ministry of Interior authority over elections,
    from drawing electoral districts to counting votes. Redistricting,
    which occurs before every nationwide election and addresses population
    changes, took place before the June 2009 local government elections.
    Districts contained significantly different numbers of voters, with
    rural districts having many fewer voters.
        In the 2007 legislative elections, the king mandated the royally
    chartered and appointed CCDH to supervise and facilitate the work of
    domestic and international observers. In the June 2009 communal
    elections, the CCDH again organized a wide range of domestic observers,
    and all political parties considered the elections free, fair, and
    transparent.
        International and domestic observers assessed the voting and noted
    the Government's effective administration of the 2007 election process.
    According to the Ministry of Interior, voter turnout was 52 percent.
    Independent media made numerous reports alleging preelection vote
    buying by political parties and some instances of official misconduct
    at the district level. The CCDH, the Government, and observers
    acknowledged that all parties likely engaged in such misconduct.
        Domestic observers and some political party leaders recommended the
    creation of an independent electoral commission rather than Interior
    Ministry administration.
        Political parties faced government-imposed restrictions. The
    Ministry of Interior must approve political parties, and legislation
    placed conditions on the establishment and functioning of political
    parties. The law requires parties to hold annual national congresses
    and to include women and youth in the leadership structures. Public
    funding is based on a party's total representation in parliament and
    the total number of votes it received nationally. Only registered
    members of a particular party may make private contributions. The
    Ministry of Interior can disband a party if it does not conform to the
    provisions stated in the law. To create a new party, organizers must
    submit to the ministry a declaration signed by at least 300 cofounding
    members from at least eight of the 16 regions of the country.
        Prime Minister Abbas El Fassi's 33-member cabinet included three
    female ministers and two female secretaries of state. There were 34
    female members of the 325-member lower house of parliament. There were
    no women on the Supreme Court.
        Women's representation in local government and political parties'
    decision-making structures increased dramatically in 2009 and continued
    to increase during the year. Before the June 2009 elections, women held
    fewer than 1 percent of elected positions at the local level, and only
    two women served as mayors. Following a 2008 agreement between the
    Government and political parties, a minimum of 12 percent of the local
    council seats (approximately 3,000 elected positions) were reserved for
    women. More than 20,000 female candidates ran for office, with 3,421
    winning seats (13 percent of the total). Twelve women were selected in
    subsequent indirect elections to head local councils as mayors or mayor
    equivalents, including the mayor of Marrakesh.

    Section 4. Official Corruption and Government Transparency
        The law provides criminal penalties for official corruption, but
    the Government did not implement the law effectively, and officials
    often engaged in corrupt practices with impunity. It was common
    knowledge that corruption was a serious problem in the executive,
    including the police, legislative, and judicial branches of government.
    There were reports of government corruption during the year, and the
    World Bank's Worldwide Governance Indicators indicated that corruption
    was a problem.
        The judiciary's lack of independence and susceptibility to
    influence were widely acknowledged, including by the king. In August
    2009 the king called for judicial system reform, including greater
    judicial independence and corruption prevention. Since 2007 the law has
    required judges, ministers, and members of parliament to submit
    financial disclosures.
        In 2008 the Government formed the Central Commission for the
    Prevention of Corruption (ICPC). In July 2009 the ICPC released its
    first report, stating that it had received 21 valid corruption
    complaints. At year's end the ICPC published investigations on
    corruption in the health and transport sector. The ICPC has initiated
    work on several draft anticorruption laws and in January instituted an
    ethics and corruption oversight body for the Customs Administration. On
    October 21, an interministerial government commission approved a two-
    year anticorruption program. As a result of this plan, the ICPC, in
    coordination with the General Confederation of Enterprises of Morocco
    (the country's largest business association) and the National Agency
    for Small and Medium Enterprises developed an Internet portal for
    enterprises to submit complaints about corruption and other problems.
    Through this Internet site as well as other means, the ICPC collects
    complaints of corruption and submits them to the Ministry of Justice.
    However, the ICPC does not have the authority to require response from
    government institutions on anticorruption cases. Officials attributed
    the low number of complaints in part to the lack of legislation
    protecting plaintiffs and witnesses in corruption cases. Subsequently,
    the ICPC launched an Internet portal for the civil society to identify
    instances of corruption, organized a regional conference of
    anticorruption authorities with the participation of the Organization
    for Economic Cooperation and Development, created a corruption
    database, launched a nationwide awareness-raising campaign, and
    developed curriculum about ethics and civism for usage in schools
    across the country. In addition to the commission, the ministry and the
    Government accountability court had jurisdiction over corruption
    issues.
        The Government investigated the mayor of Meknes on charges of
    mismanaging funds, resulting in his removal from office in January
    2009.
        In January authorities arrested 100 officials throughout the
    country for corruption, malfeasance, or abuse of office. The arrests
    capped a year-long audit by the Ministry of Interior's inspector
    general and the Government Accountability Court. At year's end 117
    officials had been charged with corruption.
        In July 2009 the High Judiciary Council sanctioned 70 judges on
    corruption-related charges, according to NGOs. According to observers,
    there was widespread petty corruption in the police force, especially
    below senior levels. The Government claimed to investigate corruption
    and other instances of police malfeasance through an internal
    mechanism. In August 2009 the Royal Gendarmerie launched an internal
    anticorruption awareness campaign and established a unit to track down
    corrupt agents (see section 1.d.).
        There is no freedom of information law. In practice the Government
    did not grant access to official information to citizens and
    noncitizens, including foreign media.

    Section 5. Governmental Attitude Regarding International and
            Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations of Human
            Rights
        The Government's attitude toward international human rights
    organizations varied, depending on the sensitivity of the issues.
    Domestic and international human rights groups generally operated in
    the country without government restriction, except those that advocated
    in favor of independence for Western Sahara, and these groups
    investigated and published findings on human rights cases. Government
    officials were generally cooperative and responsive to their views,
    except on Western Sahara.
        Domestic and independent human rights NGOs that the Government
    recognized included the OMDH and the Moroccan League for the Defense of
    Human Rights (LMDH). Since 2000 the Government has subsidized these two
    NGOs. However, the LMDH, which is a part of the Istiqlal party, was no
    longer active; the OMDH and AMDH were considered the main human rights
    NGOs. The AMDH did not cooperate officially with the Government but
    usually shared information informally with both the Government and
    government-affiliated organizations. The Government sometimes met with
    and responded to inquiries and recommendations from the OMDH and AMDH.
    Other groups that worked with the Government to try to improve human
    rights conditions or investigate alleged abuses included Friends of the
    Center for Reform and the Protection of Youth, more commonly known as
    Association Mama Assia, which focused on working with imprisoned youth.
    The Government also cooperated with the Forum for Truth and Justice,
    Transparency International, the OMP, and the local branch of AI.
        International NGOs such as HRW and AI cooperated with the
    Government on several human rights projects and generally reported
    unrestricted operation.
        The Government generally cooperated with international governmental
    organizations and permitted visits. For example, the Government hosted
    the third meeting of the Reflection Group on the Strengthening of the
    Human Rights Council in Rabat on May 27-28.
        The UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances
    (UNWGEID) met for its 88th session in June 2009 in Rabat. During its
    session, the working group reviewed 200 cases of enforced
    disappearances around the world, as well as past cases from 35
    countries. The UNWGEID also analyzed the IER, to collect lessons
    learned for other countries.
        The last visit by any UN special rapporteur was the 2006 visit of
    the special rapporteur on the right to education.
        The CCDH advised the king on human rights issues. A nonjudicial
    ombudsman considered allegations of governmental injustices, but in
    practice the CCDH filled many of the roles of national social
    ombudsman. The UNWGEID criticized the CCDH's pace in implementing the
    institutional changes recommended by the IER, but human rights NGOs and
    the public generally viewed the organization as a credible and
    proactive government advocate for institutional protection of human
    rights and vehicle to seek redress in individual cases.
        A parliamentary human rights committee exists but takes action only
    to investigate significant events. During the year it created a special
    parliamentary commission composed of both majority and minority
    political party representatives to investigate the Agdim Izik camp
    dismantlement in November in Western Sahara (see the Western Sahara
    report). The commission's report had not been released by year's end.

    Section 6. Discrimination, Societal Abuses, and Trafficking in Persons
        The constitution prohibits discrimination based on race, gender,
    disability, language, or social status. In practice societal
    discrimination against women continued to be a problem, particularly in
    rural areas.

        Women.--The law punishes men convicted of rape with prison terms of
    five to 10 years; when the conviction involves a minor, the prison
    sentence ranges from 10 to 20 years. Sexual assault can result in a
    prison sentence of up to one year and a fine of 15,000 dirhams
    ($1,797). Spousal rape is not a crime. However, the domestic advocacy
    group the Democratic League for Women's Rights (LDDF) reported that in
    eight out of 10 cases of violence against women, the perpetrator is the
    husband.
        Women's rights organizations pointed to numerous articles of the
    law on rape that they see as perpetuating unequal treatment for women
    and insufficient protection despite family law revisions. Defendants in
    rape prosecutions bear the burden of proving their innocence. Sexual
    assaults often were unreported. Victims' families may offer rapists
    marriage as an alternative to preserve family honor; a prosecution for
    statutory rape may be cancelled if the defendant agrees to marry the
    victim.
        The number of instances of rape in the country was not available at
    year's end; in 2008, the last year for which any rape statistics were
    available, the UN reported 1,130 instances of police-recorded rape in
    the country. Reports by women's shelters were limited in scope
    regarding the scale of violence against women and noted the
    Government's failure to implement existing legislation. According to
    women's rights organizations, the Government had failed to follow
    through on a campaign launched in 2006 to prevent violence against
    women.
        The law does not specifically prohibit domestic violence against
    women, but the general prohibitions of the criminal code address such
    violence. Physical abuse was legal grounds for divorce, although few
    women reported abuse to authorities. The law is lenient toward husbands
    who commit crimes against their wives. Police rarely became involved in
    domestic disputes. The penal code stipulates two types of domestic
    violence. High-level misdemeanors occur when the victim suffers
    injuries that result in 20 days of disability from work. Low-level
    misdemeanors occur for victims who suffer disability for less than 20
    days. However, NGOs reported that the courts rarely prosecuted
    perpetrators of low-level misdemeanors. A local NGO, the Global Women's
    Institute, reported that often laws are not implemented due to societal
    concerns regarding breaking up a family and due to the conservative
    mentality of some police and court officials.
        Observers criticize the lack of specific legislation protecting
    women and girls against violence. The UN Committee on the Elimination
    of Discrimination Against Women reiterated these concerns after the
    country's third and fourth periodic reports were submitted in 2008.
        The Government operated hotlines for victims of domestic violence
    in 20 centers nationwide. Three NGOs also operated counseling centers
    for legal and social services. The Anaruz Network operated 31 call-in
    listening centers, and the LDDF operated 12 centers. Counseling centers
    existed exclusively in urban areas. Services for victims of violence in
    rural areas were limited to local police. The Oxygen Association, a
    local NGO based in Ouarzazate Province, ran a confidential listening
    center, literacy program, and legal aid program. During the year the
    Oxygen Association conducted surveys that revealed that many battered
    women were between 15 and 18 years old and often did not report abuse.
    Data from the province indicated that half the province's population
    considered spousal violence a private matter.
        In February 2009 the Union for Women's Action (UAF), an NGO working
    against discrimination against women, and the Anaruz Network launched
    an awareness campaign for victims of violence in 16 municipal districts
    of Casablanca. During the summer, the UAF trained 1,200 of the 3,000
    women who were elected to municipal councils in 2009. Training focused
    on coalition-building and lobbying to help female politicians who face
    resistance from male colleagues.
        Many recognized NGOs worked to advance women's rights and promote
    women's issues. Among these were the Democratic Association of Moroccan
    Women (ADFM), Union for Women's Action, LDDF, and Moroccan Association
    for Women's Rights. All advocated enhanced political and civil rights
    for women. There were numerous NGOs that provided shelters for battered
    women, promoted literacy, and taught women basic hygiene, family
    planning, and child care.
        Sexual harassment in the workplace is a criminal offense, but only
    when committed by a superior, and it is defined as an abuse of
    authority. Authorities did not effectively enforce laws against sexual
    harassment. According to the Government, although the law allows
    victims to sue employers, only a few did so since most feared losing
    their job as a result or worried about the difficulty of proving the
    violation. On May 2, Casablanca police allegedly briefly detained
    journalist Zineb El Rhazoui and others in the Alternative Movement for
    Individual Liberties to prevent them from conducting a sit-in to raise
    awareness about sexual harassment.
        Contraception is legal, and most forms were widely available.
    Individuals and couples were able to decide freely and responsibly the
    number, spacing, and timing of their children and had the information
    and means to do so free from discrimination, coercion, and violence.
    The Ministry of Health ran two programs: one with mobile clinics
    providing maternal and child health and family planning services in
    remote rural areas and the other involving systematic home visits to
    encourage the use of contraception and to provide family planning and
    primary health care services. Emergency contraception (EC) became
    available in late 2008. In practice NGOs report that women often faced
    obstacles in obtaining EC from pharmacies. Skilled attendance at
    delivery and in postpartum care was available for women who could
    afford it. According to statistics compiled by the World Health
    Organization, UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), UN Population Fund, and
    World Bank, there were approximately 110 maternal deaths per 100,000
    live births in the country in 2008. Women and men had equal access to
    diagnostic services and treatment for sexually transmitted infections,
    including HIV/AIDS.
        Women's inheritances, which are determined by Sharia for Muslims,
    vary depending on circumstances, but are less than men's. Under Sharia,
    daughters receive half of what their brothers receive, and if a woman
    is the only child, she receives half and other relatives receive the
    other half. A sole male heir would receive the entire estate.
    Inheritance laws were not changed during the 2004 reform of the family
    code. Muslim women have the right to pass nationality to their
    children. Previously, nationality was passed only through the father.
    Citizenship can only be transferred to a child if both parents are
    Muslim and if their marriage is recognized by the law.
        The Ministry of Interior decreed in 1995 and 2004 that women are
    entitled to collective lands, which make up one-third of the country's
    territory. While ministry decrees carry the force of law,
    implementation has met considerable local resistance from men. Despite
    considerable lobbying by women's NGOs, implementation of these property
    laws remains poor and inconsistent. In July 2009, 900 women from tribes
    around the country protested male-dominated transfer and compensation
    practices for collectively used tribal lands. The ADFM reported that
    local authorities, in agreement with tribal representatives, secretly
    negotiated to provide compensation to men only and failed to publish
    the list of beneficiaries. In 2008 women of the Saknia tribe in Kenitra
    Province were excluded from collectively used lands benefits. In
    September 2009, on the eve of the celebration of the National Day of
    Moroccan Women, the courts and Ministry of Justice announced that the
    minister of interior had recognized that the tribal women had the same
    rights as men to benefit from the communal land cessions. In August,
    however, the ADFM reported that implementation stalled. According to
    the ADFM, if the legislation were to be implemented, up to 2.5 million
    women could benefit.
        The 2004 family code (Moudawana) changed the marriage age for women
    from 15 to 18 years, placed the family under the joint responsibility
    of both spouses, and rescinded the wife's duty of obedience to her
    husband. The Moudawana removed the requirement for woman to have a
    marital tutor as a condition of marriage, made divorce available by
    mutual consent, and placed legal limits on polygamy.
        Implementation of the controversial family law remained a concern
    because it is largely dependent on the judiciary's willingness to
    enforce it, and many judges did not agree with its intent. Corruption
    among working-level court clerks and a lack of knowledge about its
    provisions among lawyers were also obstacles to greater enforcement of
    the law.
        There were few legal obstacles to women's participation in business
    and other economic activities. Women were able to travel, receive
    loans, and start businesses without their husband's or father's
    permission. According to 2009 statistics provided by the Moroccan
    Association of Women Entrepreneurs, more than 5,000 female
    entrepreneurs operated businesses in the country's formal economic
    sectors; in addition nearly 2.7 million women worked outside the home,
    although 75 percent of these women worked in the informal sector.
    Studies showed that inadequate higher education for women was an
    impediment for female entrepreneurs in the country. The Government
    reported that between 2008 and 2009, approximately 656,000 citizens
    benefitted from government literacy programs, and statistics indicated
    that 80 percent of program beneficiaries were women. Only slightly more
    than 40 percent of urban women--and 25 percent of rural women--were
    literate, further hindering their opportunities for economic
    participation.

        Children.--Since 2007 the law has permitted female citizens to pass
    nationality to their children. Previously, nationality was passed only
    through the father.
        Girls continued to lag behind boys in literacy and school
    attendance beyond the primary level.
        Although NGOs, human rights groups, media outlets, and UNICEF
    claimed that child abuse was widespread, there were no conclusive
    government statistics on the extent of the problem. Anecdotal evidence
    also showed that abuse of child domestic servants was a problem.
        During the year the Ministry of Social Development, Family, and
    Solidarity operated child protection units in Casablanca and Marrakech.
    The units coordinated their work and shared statistics with other local
    agencies, monitored child abuse, offered counseling and legal guidance,
    and promoted children's rights.
        The legal age of marriage is 18 years, but parents may secure a
    waiver from a judge for underage marriage. The judiciary approved the
    vast majority of petitions for underage marriages, and approximately
    31,000 such marriages took place in 2008. An NGO reported that in many
    cases, a couple was already effectively in a marriage by consensus of
    their families when a request for underage marriage came before a judge
    for approval. In 2008 the LDDF issued a report criticizing the
    Government for the relative ease with which an underage marriage waiver
    can be obtained.
        Children were exploited through prostitution within the country and
    were victims of sex tourism.
        The Government maintained accords with Spain and Italy to
    repatriate unaccompanied minors, although this did not take place in
    practice. Repatriation remained slow due to the lack of agreement by
    local families to allow the minors to return home as well as the small
    number of spaces in reception centers for minors with no place to
    return.
        The country became a party to the 1980 Hague Convention on the
    Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction with an effective date
    of June 1. For information on international parental child abduction,
    please see the Department of State's annual report on compliance at
    http://travel.state.gov/abduction/resources/congressreport/
    congressreport--4308.html as well as country-specific information at
    http://travel.state.gov/abduction/country/country--3781.html.

        Anti-Semitism.--Community leaders estimated that the size of the
    country's Jewish population was 4,000 members. Jews generally lived in
    safety, and the Government provided them appropriate security. There
    were no reports of anti-Semitic acts, publications, or incitements to
    violence.

        Trafficking in Persons.--For information on trafficking in persons,
    please see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons
    Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        Persons With Disabilities.--The law prohibits discrimination
    against persons with physical, sensory, intellectual and mental
    disabilities in employment, education, and access to health care;
    however, the Government generally did not effectively enforce these
    provisions. The law provides for regulations and building codes that
    assure access for persons with disabilities, but the Government did not
    effectively implement the laws and programs. Although building codes
    require accessibility for all persons, the codes were rarely enforced.
    In many cases, builders and building inspectors were unaware of laws
    requiring accessibility. There is no legislation mandating public
    accessibility to information and communications. Persons with
    disabilities had equal access to information and communications;
    however, special communication devices for the blind and deaf were
    generally not widely available.
        The Ministry of Social Development, Family, and Solidarity has
    responsibility for protecting the rights of persons with disabilities
    and attempted to integrate persons with disabilities into society by
    implementing a quota of 7 percent for persons with disabilities in
    vocational training in the private and public sectors. In 2008 the
    Government created 217 integrated classes for children with
    disabilities. In practice integration was largely left to private
    charities. Typically, families supported persons with disabilities,
    although some survived by begging.

        National/Racial/Ethnic Minorities.--The official language is
    Arabic. Both French and Arabic are used in the news media and
    educational institutions. Educational reforms in the past decade
    emphasized the use of Arabic in secondary schools.
        Approximately 60 percent of the population claimed Amazigh
    heritage, including the royal family. Amazigh cultural groups contended
    that their traditions and language were being lost rapidly to
    Arabization. The Government provided television programs in the three
    Berber Amazigh dialects of Tarifit, Tashelhit, and Tamazight (the
    dialect spoken by the Amazigh Berbers). The Government also offered
    Berber Amazigh language classes in the curriculum of 3,470 schools; the
    language offered varied according to the main dialect spoken in each
    region. Programs in one of the three Berber Amazigh dialects were
    increasingly available on both radio and television. The Government
    also implemented compulsory Berber Amazigh instruction for students at
    the Ministry of Interior School for Administrators in Kenitra.
        Although the country is majority Amazigh, rural areas that are
    predominantly Amazigh are the poorest in the country. Illiteracy in
    some areas runs as high as 80 percent, and authorities often do not
    provide basic governmental services.
        During the year authorities began to register traditional Amazigh
    names of children; they had previously declined to register non-Arab
    names.

        Societal Abuses, Discrimination, and Acts of Violence Based on
    Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.--The penal code criminalizes
    homosexual activity, but these provisions were infrequently enforced.
    Homosexual conduct was addressed in the media and in public with more
    openness than in previous years.
        Consequent to the illegality of homosexual activity, there were no
    reports of societal discrimination, physical violence, or harassment
    based on sexual orientation, nor were there reports of official
    discrimination based on sexual orientation in employment, housing,
    statelessness, or access to education or health care. Sexual
    orientation occasionally constituted the basis for societal violence,
    harassment, blackmail, or other actions, generally at a local level.

        Other Societal Violence or Discrimination.--There were no reports
    of societal violence against individuals living with HIV/AIDS, but
    there was a stigma attached to being tested for HIV/AIDS. Persons
    living with HIV/AIDS in the country faced discrimination and had
    limited treatment options.

    Section 7. Worker Rights
        a. The Right of Association.--The constitution permits workers to
    form and join trade unions. In practice the laws were not implemented
    in some sectors as well as in some geographic areas. The law provides
    workers with the right to strike except for certain categories of
    government employees, including members of the armed forces, police,
    and judiciary. Domestic and agricultural workers are not covered by the
    labor code and do not have the right to form unions. Although most
    union federations were allied with political parties, unions were free
    from government interference. Approximately 5.5 percent of the
    country's workers were organized into unions. Any group of eight
    workers may organize a union, and a worker may change union affiliation
    easily.
        The law provides for government intervention in strikes when
    national security, domestic stability, or vital economic interests are
    threatened. Employers cannot initiate criminal prosecutions against
    workers for participating in strikes. Although the constitution
    provides for the right to strike, the trade unions complained that at
    times the Government has used article 288 of the penal code to
    prosecute workers for striking and to suppress strikes. Article 288
    provides for a criminal punishment for those who use fraud or violence
    to instigate a strike.
        The law concerning strikes requires compulsory arbitration of
    disputes, prohibits sit-ins, calls for a 10-day notice of a strike, and
    allows for hiring replacement workers. The Government can intervene in
    strikes, and a strike cannot take place around issues covered in a
    collective contract for one year after the contract comes into force.
    The Government has the authority to disperse demonstrations in public
    areas where strikes have not been authorized and to prevent the
    unauthorized occupancy of private space.
        Unions may not prevent nonstrikers from working and may not engage
    in sabotage. Any striking employee who prevents a replacement worker
    from working is subject to a seven-day suspension. A second offense
    within one year is punishable by a 15-day suspension.

        b. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively.--The right to
    organize and bargain collectively is protected by law, and the
    Government generally upheld this right. Less than 6 percent, or
    600,000, of the 11.3 million-strong workforce, belonged to a union. A
    worksite may contain several independent locals or locals affiliated
    with more than one labor federation. Only unions that have 35 percent
    of the workforce as members may be recognized as negotiating partners.
        Collective bargaining was prevalent in many sectors of the economy.
    According to the labor code, the wages and employment conditions of
    unionized workers should be agreed in discussions between employer and
    worker representatives; however, frequently employers unilaterally set
    wages for the majority of unionized and nonunionized workers. Labor
    disputes arose in some cases as the result of employers failing to
    implement collective bargaining agreements and withholding wages. The
    country's five largest unions negotiate with the Government about
    national level labor issues. At the sectoral level, any trade union may
    negotiate with private employers concerning minimum wage, compensation,
    and other concerns.
        Employers wishing to dismiss workers are legally required to notify
    the provincial governor through the labor inspector's office. When the
    employer plans to replace dismissed workers, a government labor
    inspector provides replacements and mediates the cases of workers who
    protest their dismissal.
        The law specifically prohibits antiunion discrimination and
    prohibits companies from dismissing workers for participating in
    legitimate union-organizing activities; the law was followed in
    practice. Family courts have the authority to reinstate arbitrarily
    dismissed workers and can enforce rulings that compel employers to pay
    damages and back pay. Unions may sue to ensure that the Government
    enforces labor laws, and employers may sue unions when they believe
    unions have overstepped their authority.
        There are no special laws or exemptions from standard labor laws in
    export processing zones.

        c. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor.--The law prohibits
    forced, compulsory, and clandestine labor, but there were reports that
    such practices occurred. Girls from rural areas are forced to work as
    maids in urban areas, and boys experience forced labor as apprentices
    in the artisan and construction industries and in mechanic shops. In
    practice the Government did not inspect the small workshops and private
    homes where the majority of such employment occurred, given the low
    number of inspectors and the low level of resources inspectors had at
    their disposal to investigate. Also see the Department of State's
    annual Trafficking in Persons Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        d. Prohibition of Child Labor and Minimum Age for Employment.--The
    law protects children from exploitation in the workplace and prohibits
    forced or compulsory labor; however, the Government did not effectively
    implement these laws, except in organized labor markets, primarily as a
    result of limited resources.
        According to the labor law, the minimum age for employment in all
    sectors is 15 years. Children younger than 16 years of age are
    prohibited from working more than 10 hours per day, with a break of at
    least one hour. Children younger than 16 are not permitted to work
    between the hours of 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. in nonagricultural work or
    between 8 p.m. and 5 a.m. in agriculture; however, seasonal agriculture
    work is excluded from the law. The law prohibits employment of children
    younger than 18 in stone quarries, mines, or any other positions the
    Government considers hazardous.
        Noncompliance with child labor laws was common, particularly in
    agriculture and in private urban residences where children worked as
    domestic employees. In 2006 domestic and international NGOs reported
    that as many as 87 percent of the country's underage workers worked on
    family farms. According to government statistics, during the first half
    of the year, labor inspectors issued 142 warnings and 45 fines to
    businesses for employing children between the ages of 15 and 18. In
    2009 15 businesses were fined for employing children under the age of
    15.
        In practice some children were apprenticed before the age of 12,
    particularly in small family-run workshops in the handicraft industry.
    Children also worked in the informal sector in textiles, carpets, and
    light manufacturing. Children's safety and health conditions and wages
    were often substandard. The labor code does not cover domestic labor
    and, therefore, does not prohibit the employment of child maids or
    domestics. The Government's statistical agency, the High Commission for
    Plans, published a report in 2009 estimating that approximately 170,000
    female children between the ages of seven and 15 worked illegally as
    child domestics.
        Credible reports of physical and psychological abuse of domestic
    servants were common. Some orphanages were accused of complicity in the
    practice. The public generally accepted the concept of adoptive
    servitude, and parents of children involved were frequently complicit
    and typically received compensation for their children's work. Most
    child domestics received food, lodging, and clothing instead of
    monetary payment. The Government put in place programs to combat and
    discourage these practices.
        According to reports, police, prosecutors, and judges rarely
    enforced legal provisions on child abuse or on ``forced labor in cases
    involving child domestics,'' and few parents of children working as
    domestics were willing or able to pursue legal avenues that were likely
    to provide any direct benefit.
        The Government prosecuted some instances in which employers abused
    child domestics. In August a woman in Casablanca was sentenced to one
    year in prison after it was discovered that she repeatedly beat and
    abused her 12-year-old domestic. In 2009 an Oujda court sentenced the
    wife of a judge to three years in prison for the abuse of a child
    domestic.
        The Ministry of Employment is responsible for implementing and
    enforcing child labor laws and regulations. The law provides for legal
    sanctions against employers who recruit children under the age of 15,
    with fines ranging from 27,000 to 32,000 dirhams ($3,235 to $3,835).
    Legal remedies to enforce child labor laws include criminal penalties,
    civil fines, and withdrawal or suspension of one or more civil,
    national, or family rights, including denial of legal residence in the
    country for five to 10 years. In practice the Government did not
    systematically enforce these sanctions due to a lack of resources.
        The formal and informal sectors continued to flout the application
    of the legal minimum employment age. According to Justice Ministry
    officials, no one has been convicted for employing a child domestic.
    Labor inspectors responsible for enforcing the labor code do not have
    jurisdiction to inspect private residences. The informal sector, where
    the majority of children work, was not monitored by the Ministry of
    Labor's small cadre of labor inspectors. There were no labor inspectors
    dedicated solely to child labor issues, and there were no reports of
    trainings specific to child labor.
        Under the 2006-15 National Plan of Action for Children, the
    Government expanded coordination with local, national, and
    international NGOs on education and training programs during the year.
    The Ministry of Employment and Professional Training, led by the Office
    of the Director of Work, in conjunction with NGOs, oversaw programs to
    deal with the issue of child labor. The programs sought to decrease
    incidents of child labor through awareness raising, financial
    assistance to needy families, and lowering obstacles to school
    attendance.
        See also the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons
    Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        e. Acceptable Conditions of Work.--The minimum wage was 10 dirhams
    ($1.20) per hour in the industrialized sector and 52.50 dirhams ($6.30)
    per day for agricultural workers. Informal businesses hired
    approximately 60 percent of the labor force and often ignored the
    minimum wage requirements. Neither minimum wage provided a decent
    standard of living for a worker and family, even with government
    subsidies. In many cases, several family members combined their incomes
    to support the family. Most workers in the industrial sector earned
    more than the minimum wage. Including traditional holiday-related
    bonuses, workers generally were paid the equivalent of 13 to 16 months'
    salary each year.
        The law provides for a 44 to 48 hour maximum workweek, with no more
    than 10 hours in any single day, premium pay for overtime, paid public
    and annual holidays, and minimum conditions for health and safety,
    including a prohibition on night work for women and minors. Employers
    did not observe these provisions universally, and the Government did
    not enforce them effectively in all sectors. The labor code does not
    cover domestic workers, who are primarily citizens of the country.
        Occupational health and safety standards were rudimentary, except
    for a prohibition on the employment of women and children in certain
    dangerous occupations. Labor inspectors attempted to monitor working
    conditions and investigate accidents, but they were too few in number
    and lacked sufficient resources. Although workers in principle had the
    right to remove themselves from work situations that endangered health
    and safety without jeopardizing their continued employment, there were
    no reports of workers attempting to exercise this right.

                                   __________

                                      OMAN

        The Sultanate of Oman is a hereditary monarchy with a population of
    3.3 million, including approximately one million nonnationals. Sultan
    Qaboos al-Said has ruled since 1970. The sultan has the sole authority
    to amend the country's laws through royal decree, although ministries
    draft laws and citizens provide input through the 84-member Majlis al-
    Shura (Consultative Council), an elected advisory institution. In 2007
    approximately 245,000 registered voters participated in generally free
    and fair elections for all of the council's seats. The Majlis al-Dawla
    (State Council), whose 71 members are appointed by the sultan, and the
    Majlis al-Shura review legislation, recommend policy, and conduct
    studies on public policy. The 32-member cabinet of ministers advises
    the sultan on government decisions. Security forces reported to
    civilian authorities.
        Citizens did not have the right to change their government;
    however, operating under the 1996 Basic Law, the Government generally
    respected the human rights of its citizens. The law and judiciary,
    including the establishment of a quasi-independent human rights
    commission, provided means of addressing individual instances of abuse.
    Principal human rights problems included the lack of consistent
    independent nongovernmental inspections of prisons and detention
    centers. Some restrictions on privacy and freedoms of speech, press,
    assembly, association, and religion remained, yet they were not
    universally applied. Women faced societal discrimination, and instances
    of domestic violence were reported. There were also isolated reports
    that some employers placed expatriate laborers in situations indicative
    of forced labor or abuse.

                            RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

    Section 1. Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom
            From:
        a. Arbitrary or Unlawful Deprivation of Life.--There were no
    reports that the Government or its agents committed arbitrary or
    unlawful killings.

        b. Disappearance.--There were no reports of politically motivated
    disappearances.

        c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or
    Punishment.--The law prohibits such practices, and there were no
    reports that government officials employed them.

        Prison and Detention Center Conditions.--Prison and detention
    center conditions generally met international standards, and the law
    permitted visits by independent human rights observers, although
    Freedom House reported in 2009 that access was irregular in practice.
    Prisoners and detainees had reasonable access to visitors and were
    permitted religious observance. Authorities allowed prisoners and
    detainees to submit complaints to judicial authorities without
    censorship and to request investigation of credible allegations of
    inhumane conditions. The Government investigated and monitored prison
    and detention center conditions, and authorities in some cases
    investigated such claims, but the results of investigations were not
    documented in a publicly accessible manner. In response to 102
    submitted complaints, the quasi-independent national human rights
    commission met with prison officials in December.
        Ombudsman cannot serve on behalf of prisoners and detainees.

        d. Arbitrary Arrest or Detention.--The law prohibits arbitrary
    arrest and detention, and the Government generally observed these
    prohibitions.

        Role of the Police and Security Apparatus.--The Royal Office, part
    of the cabinet, controls internal and external security and coordinates
    all intelligence and security policies. Under the Royal Office, the
    Internal Security Service investigates all matters related to domestic
    security, and the Sultan's Special Force has limited border security
    and antismuggling responsibilities. The Royal Oman Police (ROP), also
    part of the cabinet, performs regular police duties, provides security
    at points of entry, serves as the country's immigration and customs
    agency, and operates the coast guard. The Ministry of Defense, and in
    particular the army, is responsible for securing the borders and has
    limited domestic security responsibilities. The security forces
    performed their duties effectively.
        Civilian authorities maintained effective control over the Internal
    Security Service, the Sultan's Special Force, the Royal Army of Oman,
    and the ROP. There was no public information about ROP internal
    disciplinary action. Officers received human rights training as part of
    the police academy's standard training program.

        Arrest Procedures and Treatment While in Detention.--The law does
    not require police to obtain a warrant before making an arrest but
    provides that police must either release the person or refer the matter
    to the public prosecutor. Within 24 hours of referral, the public
    prosecutor must formally arrest or release the person. Court orders are
    necessary to hold suspects in pretrial detention. Judges may order
    detentions for 14 days to allow investigation and may grant extensions.
    Authorities respected these rights in practice. Authorities generally
    informed detainees promptly of the charges against them; however, there
    were isolated reports authorities detained without charge foreign
    workers suspected of being in the country illegally, pending
    confirmation of their immigration status. There was a functioning
    system of bail. Detainees generally had prompt access to a lawyer of
    their choice, and the state provided public attorneys to indigent
    detainees. Authorities generally allowed detainees prompt access to
    family members, but police sometimes failed to notify a detainee's
    family, or the detainee's sponsor in the case of an expatriate laborer,
    of the detention.

        e. Denial of Fair Public Trial.--The law provides for an
    independent judiciary; however, the sultan may act as a court of final
    appeal and exercise his power of pardon as chairman of the Supreme
    Judicial Council, the country's highest legal body, which is empowered
    to review all judicial decisions. Principles of Sharia (Islamic law)
    inform the civil, commercial, and criminal codes.
        On September 22, the sultan abolished the State Security Court by
    royal decree. Previously, the court reviewed cases involving national
    security and criminal matters deemed to require expeditious or
    especially sensitive handling. Civilian and military criminal courts
    now try such cases. The military tribunal system, to which military and
    security personnel are subject, has limited outside visibility or
    access.

        Trial Procedures.--The law provides for the right to a fair trial
    and stipulates the presumption of innocence. Citizens and legally
    resident noncitizens have the right to a public trial, except when the
    court decides to hold a session in private in the interest of public
    order or morals. There is no trial by jury.
        Defendants have the right to be present, consult with an attorney
    in a timely manner, present evidence, and confront witnesses. Courts
    provide public attorneys to indigent detainees and offer legal defense
    for defendants facing prison terms of three years or more. The
    prosecution and defense counsel direct questions to witnesses through
    the judge. Defendants and their lawyers generally had access to
    government-held evidence relevant to their cases. Those convicted in
    any court may appeal a jail sentence longer than three months and fines
    of over 480 rials (approximately $1,250). The right to appeal is
    universal for all cases and individuals. The judiciary generally
    enforced these rights for all citizens; however, in contravention to
    the law, some more traditional judges occasionally discriminated
    against female defendants by requesting they appear in court with their
    fathers or husbands. In such cases, women could seek redress for such
    treatment through the courts.

        Political Prisoners and Detainees.--There were no reports of
    political prisoners or detainees.

        Civil Judicial Procedures and Remedies.--Applicable civil procedure
    codes govern civil cases. Citizens and nationals of other countries
    were able to file cases in the courts, including lawsuits seeking
    damages for human rights violations. The judiciary was generally
    independent and impartial. The Administrative Court, under the
    authority of the Diwan of the Royal Court, reviews complaints about the
    misuse of governmental authority. It has the power to reverse decisions
    by government bodies and to award compensation. Appointments to this
    court are subject to the approval of the Administrative Affairs
    Council. The court's president and deputy president are appointed by
    royal decree based on the council's nomination. Citizens and foreign
    workers may file complaints regarding working conditions with the
    Ministry of Manpower (MoM) for alternative dispute resolution. The
    ministry may refer cases to the courts if it is unable to negotiate a
    solution.
        Court orders were enforced effectively for all persons in the
    country. There were instances in which courts ruled in favor of foreign
    domestic workers against their sponsors, requiring sponsors to return
    the workers' passports and allow them to break the employment contract.
    In some instances, the court issued orders to apprehend the sponsor and
    force appearance before the court.

        f. Arbitrary Interference With Privacy, Family, Home, or
    Correspondence.--The law provides for broad governmental discretion,
    which the Government exercised.
        The law does not require police to obtain search warrants before
    entering homes, but they often obtained warrants from the public
    prosecutor's office. The Government monitored private communications,
    including cell phones, e-mail, and Internet chat room exchanges.
        The Ministry of Interior required citizens to obtain permission to
    marry foreigners, except nationals of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)
    countries; permission was not granted automatically. Citizen marriage
    to a foreigner abroad without ministry approval may result in denial of
    entry for the foreign spouse at the border and preclude children from
    claiming citizenship rights.

    Section 2. Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:
        a. Freedom of Speech and Press.--The law provides for limited
    freedom of speech and of the press. The Government generally abridged
    these rights in practice. Journalists and writers exercised self-
    censorship.
        The law prohibits criticism of the sultan in any form or medium;
    ``material that leads to public discord, violates the security of the
    state, or abuses a person's dignity or his rights''; ``messages of any
    form that violate public order and morals or are harmful to a person's
    safety''; and ``defamation of character.'' Courts interpreted these
    laws to mean it is illegal to insult any public official, although
    media reports critical of government ministries occasionally occurred
    without repercussion.
        There are eight privately owned newspapers in the country, four in
    Arabic and four in English. Editorials generally were consistent with
    the Government's views, although authorities tolerated limited
    criticism regarding domestic and foreign affairs, including GCC
    policies. In addition there were two state-owned newspapers and more
    than 30 state-owned and privately owned magazines in circulation. The
    Government owned four radio stations and two television stations and
    licensed one privately owned satellite-based television station, none
    of which generally broadcast politically controversial material. There
    were three private radio stations broadcasting occasional news
    bulletins supplied by the state-owned Oman News Agency. Access to
    foreign broadcasts via satellite is permitted and was widespread. There
    was no permanent international media presence in the country.
    Occasional international reporting tended to focus on special events or
    human interest stories.
        Three authors remained barred from public and media appearances:
    Abdullah al-Riyami, a poet and human rights activist; Mohamed al-
    Yahyai, a journalist and author; and Mohamed al-Harthy, an author and
    poet. The Government used libel laws and national security concerns as
    grounds to suppress criticism of government figures and politically
    objectionable views. Al-Riyami and al-Yahyai were accused and convicted
    in 2005 of establishing an illegal organization for the purpose of
    overthrowing the Government. Although they later received royal
    pardons, their freedom of expression remained restricted throughout the
    year.
        Law permits the Ministry of Information to review all media
    products and books produced within or imported into the country, but in
    practice it only occasionally prohibited or censored material viewed as
    politically, culturally, or sexually offensive from domestic and
    imported publications. There were no major publishing houses in the
    country, and publication of books remained limited. All content in both
    public and private media print outlets was subject to an official,
    nontransparent review and approval process before publication.
        In March the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information and other
    organizations reported that authorities banned from sale a range of
    literature, poetry, and historical books prior to the Muscat
    International Book Fair. A local blog nevertheless published many of
    these works online in serial format.

        Internet Freedom.--The law restricts free speech via the Internet,
    and the Government enforced the restrictions. The Government's national
    telecommunications company and the one private telecommunications
    provider made Internet access available for a fee to citizens and
    foreign residents. Internet access was available via schools,
    workplaces, wide area networks at coffee shops, and other venues,
    especially in urban areas, and approximately 50 percent of the
    country's inhabitants used the Internet, according to a foreign
    government.
        The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority monitored the
    activities of telecommunications service providers, which then blocked
    access to numerous Web sites considered pornographic, culturally or
    politically sensitive, or competitive with local telecommunications
    services. The criteria for blocking access to Internet sites were not
    transparent or consistent, although Web logs were often blocked.
    Certain ministries blocked access to Web logs and chat rooms during
    working hours, including the country's most popular web forum, Sablah,
    purportedly to improve worker productivity. Authorities also blocked
    some Web sites used to circumvent censorship, such as virtual private
    networks.
        The Government placed warnings on other Web sites informing users
    that criticism of the sultan or personal criticism of government
    officials would be censored and could lead to police questioning,
    effectively increasing self-censorship.
        Web site administrators or moderators were cautious concerning
    content and were reportedly quick to delete potentially offensive
    material in chat rooms, on social networking fora, and on Web log
    postings, with at least one administrator removing material after the
    site was blocked whereupon the site became available.

        Academic Freedom and Cultural Events.--The Government limited
    academic freedom, particularly the publication or discussion of
    controversial matters such as domestic politics, through the threat of
    dismissal. Academics largely practiced self-censorship. There were no
    reported cases during the year in which the Government dismissed an
    academic on these grounds.
        Lamhaa, a politically-sensitive Indian film about the Kashmir
    conflict was banned in July in all GCC countries. Citing inappropriate
    content, the Government also banned Sex and the City 2 in May. The
    appropriate government authority must approve all public cultural
    events. There were indications that organizations avoided controversial
    issues due to the belief authorities might not approve such events.

        b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association.--Freedom of
    Assembly.--The law provides for circumscribed freedom of assembly, and
    the Government restricted the exercise of this right in practice. Prior
    government approval was necessary for all public gatherings.
    Authorities enforced this requirement with rare exceptions. The
    Government rarely restricted freedom of assembly for private religious
    gatherings.

        Freedom of Association.--The law provides for freedom of
    association ``for legitimate objectives and in a proper manner.'' The
    Council of Ministers approved the establishment of nongovernmental
    organizations (NGOs)--officially recognized as associations--to work on
    issues relating to women, children, the elderly, persons with
    disabilities, the environment, and other topics approved by the
    council. The council limited freedom of association in practice by
    prohibiting associations whose activities were deemed ``inimical to the
    social order'' or otherwise not appropriate and did not license groups
    regarded as a threat to the predominant social and political views or
    the interests of the country. Associations must also register with the
    Ministry of Social Development, which approves association bylaws. The
    average time required to receive approval and register an association
    was approximately two years, although the process could be as short as
    two months. Approval time varied based on the level of preparedness of
    the applying organization and was often longer when a group required
    significant help from the ministry to formalize its structure. Formal
    registration of nationality-based associations was limited to one
    association for each nationality.
        No association may receive funding from an international group
    without government approval. Individuals convicted of doing so may
    receive up to six months in jail and a fine of 500 rials (approximately
    $1,310). Heads of domestic NGOs reported that the Government
    periodically asked to review their financial records to confirm sources
    of funding and required NGOs to inform the Government of any meetings
    with foreign organizations or diplomatic missions.

        c. Freedom of Religion.--For a complete description of religious
    freedom, please see the 2010 International Religious Freedom Report at
    www.state.gov/g/drl/irf/rpt.

        d. Freedom of Movement, Internally Displaced Persons, Protection of
    Refugees, and Stateless Persons.--The law provides for freedom of
    movement within the country and repatriation, and the Government
    generally respected these rights in practice. The law does not
    specifically provide for foreign travel or emigration. In November the
    Government removed the requirement that a married woman obtain her
    husband's consent before receiving a passport.
        The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) did not
    visit the country during the year, and it did not maintain an office or
    personnel in the country. Some humanitarian organizations were
    restricted in their ability to provide refugees with assistance.
    Specifically, authorities prohibited the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF)
    from taking the role of UNHCR in its absence, although other entities
    had the ability to assist refugees.
        The law prohibits forced exile, and there were no reported cases
    during the year.

        Protection of Refugees.--The country is not a party to the 1951 UN
    Convention relating to the Status of Refugees or its 1967 Protocol.
    Nevertheless, the law provides for the granting of asylum or refugee
    status, and the Government has established a system for providing
    protection to refugees. The ROP is responsible for determining refugee
    status but did not grant asylum or accept refugees for resettlement
    during the year. The ROP's system for granting refugee status was not
    transparent, and the law does not specify a time frame in which the ROP
    must adjudicate an asylum application.
        In practice the Government did not provide protection against the
    return of refugees to countries where their lives or freedom would be
    threatened. Tight control over the entry of foreigners effectively
    limited access to protection for refugees and asylum seekers.
    Authorities apprehended and deported hundreds of Somalis, Yemenis,
    Ethiopians, and Eritreans who sought to enter the country illegally by
    land and sea in the South, and Afghans and Pakistanis who generally
    came to the country by boat via Iran in the North. Authorities
    generally detained these persons in centers in Salalah or the northern
    port city of Sohar, where they stayed an average of one month before
    deportation to their countries of origin.

    Section 3. Respect for Political Rights: The Right of Citizens to
            Change Their Government
        The law does not provide citizens with the right to change their
    government. The sultan retains ultimate authority on all foreign and
    domestic issues. With the exception of the military and security
    forces, all citizens 21 years old and older have the right to vote for
    the Consultative Council, which has no formal legislative powers, but
    provides a mechanism for citizen input into the establishment of laws.

        Elections and Political Participation.--In 2007 more than 60
    percent of almost 400,000 registered voters participated in elections
    for the Consultative Council. Electoral commissions reviewed potential
    candidates against a set of educational and character criteria before
    allowing candidates' names on the ballot. There were no notable or
    widespread allegations of fraud or improper government interference in
    the voting process. Although the Government did not permit independent
    monitoring of the elections, the Ministry of Information invited
    foreign journalists to cover the voting in several locations throughout
    the country. The next elections are scheduled for October 2011.
        The law does not provide for political parties. Civil society
    organizations, such as the Environmental Association of Oman and
    various women's associations, did not field political candidates, but
    provided input to the Consultative Council.
        There were 14 women in the 154-seat Council of Oman, which includes
    the Consultative Council and the State Council, whose members are
    appointed by the sultan. There were four appointed female ministers,
    three of whom served in the 32-member cabinet. The Council of Oman and
    the Cabinet of Ministers were composed of representatives from a
    variety of linguistic, religious, racial, and other backgrounds.

    Section 4. Official Corruption and Government Transparency
        The law provides criminal penalties for official corruption, and
    the Government generally implemented these laws effectively. There were
    isolated reports of government corruption during the year, including in
    the police and security apparatuses. Among other prosecutions, a widely
    publicized 1.3 million rials (approximately three million dollar)
    municipal embezzlement case resulted in public prosecution in August.
    In December a ministerial Deputy Director General was awarded a cash
    settlement, when a court found that he had been illegally transferred
    to prevent his promotion, in an abuse of ministerial authority.
        Public officials are not subject to financial disclosure laws.
        The law does not provide public access to government information.
    All royal decrees and ministerial decisions were published for public
    access.

    Section 5. Governmental Attitude Regarding International and
            Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations of Human
            Rights
        No registered domestic human rights NGOs or fully autonomous
    domestic human rights groups existed in the country. There were civil
    society groups, however, that advocated for persons protected under
    human rights conventions, particularly women and the disabled. In the
    absence of specific human rights groups, during the year the Government
    took an increasing role in human rights protection and establishing
    reporting mechanisms.
        The Government allowed several international organizations to work
    in the country without interference, including the UNICEF, the World
    Health Organization, and the International Labor Organization.
        The National Committee for Human Rights, a government-funded human
    rights commission made up of members from the public, private, and
    academic sectors, reported on human rights via the State Council to the
    sultan. The committee began investigating human rights conditions for
    the country's first national human rights report for submission to the
    UN Human Rights Council in 2011. By September approximately 72 cases of
    alleged human rights violations had been submitted to the committee for
    investigation, but no figures were available at year's end. The
    majority of complaints related to court rulings and labor issues,
    including mistreatment in the workplace and concerns over wages.

    Section 6. Discrimination, Societal Abuses, and Trafficking in Persons
        The law prohibits discrimination against citizens on the basis of
    gender, ethnic origin, race, language, religion, place of residence,
    and social class. The Government generally enforced prohibitions on
    discrimination effectively, although gays faced discrimination under
    the law and in practice; there were reports of prosecution for
    homosexual conduct, although information was limited. Social norms also
    enforced actual discrimination against lesbian, bisexual, and
    transgender persons.

        Women.--The law criminalizes rape with penalties up to 15 years in
    prison, but it does not criminalize spousal rape. The Government
    generally enforced the law when cases were reported, but cultural and
    societal influences may have prevented victims from reporting rape. As
    a result, there was no reliable estimate of the extent of the problem.
    Foreign nationals working as domestic employees occasionally reported
    they had been raped by their sponsors or by employees of labor
    recruitment agencies. According to officials in foreign missions,
    police investigations resulted in few rape convictions; sponsors
    repatriated most of the women who made the allegations.
        The law does not specifically address domestic violence. Assault,
    battery, and aggravated assault carry a maximum sentence of three years
    in prison. Allegations of spousal abuse in civil courts handling family
    law cases were reportedly common. Victims of domestic violence may file
    a complaint with police. Due to cultural and societal customs, women
    often sought private family intervention to protect them from violent
    domestic situations. Authorities generally enforced the law when they
    were aware such crimes had occurred.
        There is no law prohibiting female genital mutilation (FGM).
    According to a press report, the Ministry of Health conducted a study
    on the issue during the year and found that it was a broadly accepted
    practice by both men and women across all ages, especially in rural
    areas. The Ministry of Health maintains a prohibition on doctors from
    performing the procedure in hospitals or other health care facilities.
        The law does not specifically prohibit sexual harassment. In a 2009
    study, 11 percent of women surveyed said they had been sexually
    harassed.
        The Government recognized the basic right of couples and
    individuals to decide freely and responsibly the number, spacing, and
    timing of their children. Health clinics were able to operate freely in
    disseminating information on family planning under the guidance of the
    Ministry of Health. There are no legal restrictions on the right to
    access contraceptives. The Government provided for free childbirth
    services to citizens within the framework of universal health care.
    Prenatal and postnatal care was readily available and used. World
    Health Organization statistics from 2008 indicated a maternal mortality
    rate of 20 per 100,000 live births. Men and women received equal access
    to diagnosis and treatment for sexually transmitted infections,
    including HIV. Social and cultural taboos may prevent individuals from
    seeking treatment.
        Despite legal and some social progress, including the appointment
    of women as ministers, ambassadors, and senior government officials,
    some social and legal institutions discriminated against women. The law
    prohibits gender-based discrimination against citizens; however,
    aspects of Islamic law and tradition as interpreted in the country
    discriminated against women. In some personal status cases, such as
    divorce, a women's testimony is equal to half of a man's. The law
    favors male heirs in adjudicating inheritance. Women married to
    noncitizens may not transmit citizenship to their children and cannot
    sponsor their noncitizen husband's presence in the country.
        On May 6, the sultan awarded women the right to appeal marriage
    prevention claims previously dismissed by lower courts, thereby
    granting women legal avenues to marry without parental consent. Many
    women were reluctant to take an inheritance or marriage dispute to
    court for fear of alienating the family. Illiteracy among women 45
    years-old and older hampered their ability to own property, participate
    in the workforce, or inform themselves about their rights.
        Women may own property; however, government officials and banks
    applied different standards to female applicants for housing loans,
    resulting in fewer approvals for women. Approximately 0.4 percent of
    landowners were women. The law equalizes the treatment of men and women
    in receiving free government land for housing, and in April 2009 the
    Government began allocating land to women to address concerns about
    inequality in access to land ownership.
        Government policy provided women with equal opportunities for
    education, and educated women held positions of authority in
    government, business, and the media, but women still faced some job
    discrimination based on cultural norms. The law entitles women to
    gender-related protections in the workplace, such as the right to
    maternity leave and equal pay for equal work. The Government, the
    country's largest employer of women, observed such regulations, as did
    many private sector employers.
        The Ministry of Social Development is the umbrella ministry for
    women's affairs. The ministry provided support for women's economic
    development through the Oman Women's Association and local community
    development centers. The Government also formed a committee to monitor
    the country's compliance with the UN Convention on the Elimination of
    All Forms of Discrimination against Women.
        On October 17, the country celebrated the first annual National
    Oman Women's Day, with various events and activities to mark the
    progress made under the current sultan.

        Children.--Citizenship is derived from the father. Women married to
    noncitizens may not transmit citizenship to their children, yet there
    were no reported cases of statelessness. Most births were registered
    promptly; however, authorities granted birth certificates and
    identification paperwork to children born with nontraditional Omani
    names only after an unclear and lengthy civil appeals process.
        Primary school education for children, including noncitizen
    children, was free and universal, but not compulsory.
        One media article reported a government study which examined the
    practice of FGM. According to the article, FGM is performed on some
    girls between the ages of one to nine years-old, although the practice
    remained prohibited in hospitals and other health centers. Some cases
    of life-threatening consequences were reported. One girl was brought to
    a health center because she was bleeding excessively three days after
    the procedure.
        Oman is not a party to the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil
    Aspects of International Child Abduction. For information on
    international parental child abduction, please see the Department of
    State's annual report on compliance at http://travel.state.gov/
    abduction/resources/congressreport/congressreport--4308.html.

        Anti-Semitism.--There was no Jewish population, and there were no
    reports of anti-Semitic acts or public statements by community or
    national leaders vilifying Jews. Anti-Semitism was present in the
    media. Anti-Semitic editorial cartoons depicting stereotypical and
    negative images of Jews, along with Jewish symbols, were published
    during the year, primarily in the privately owned daily newspaper al-
    Watan. Unlike in 2009, no overtly anti-Semitic editorials or articles
    appeared in private or government-owned newspapers.

        Trafficking in Persons.--For information on trafficking in persons,
    please see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons
    Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        Persons With Disabilities.--The law provides persons with
    disabilities, including physical, sensory, intellectual, and mental
    disabilities the same rights prescribed for other citizens in
    employment, education, access to health care, or the provision of other
    state services or other areas. However, persons with disabilities
    continued to face some discrimination. The law mandates access to
    buildings for persons with disabilities, but many older buildings,
    including government buildings and schools, were not retrofitted to
    conform to the law. Law also requires private enterprises employing
    more than 50 persons to reserve at least 2 percent of positions for
    persons with disabilities. In practice this regulation was not widely
    enforced.
        There is no protective legislation to provide for equal educational
    opportunities for persons with disabilities.
        The Ministry of Social Development is responsible for protecting
    the rights of persons with disabilities.
        During the year the Government partnered with NGOs and the private
    sector to address the needs of persons with disabilities and combat
    cultural and societal discrimination against such persons through
    special seminars and vocational training. The Government provided
    alternative education opportunities for over 500 children with
    disabilities, including overseas schooling when appropriate; this was
    largely due to lack of capacity within the country. In addition the
    Ministry of Education in the past partnered with the International
    Council for Educational Reform and Development to create a curriculum
    for students with mental disabilities within the standard school
    system, which was in place throughout the year.

        Societal Abuses, Discrimination, and Acts of Violence Based on
    Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.--The penal code criminalizes
    homosexuality with a jail term of six months to three years. There were
    no reports of prosecutions for homosexual conduct during the year. Nine
    prosecutions for sodomy occurred in 2009.
        The discussion of sexual orientation in any context remained a
    social taboo, and authorities took steps to block lesbian, gay,
    bisexual or transgender (LGBT)- related Internet content. There was no
    official or overt societal discrimination based on sexual orientation
    in employment, housing, or access to education or health care.

        Other Societal Violence or Discrimination.--There were no reports
    of societal violence against persons with HIV/AIDS. The Government does
    not permit foreigners with HIV/AIDS to work in the country.

    Section 7. Worker Rights
        a. The Right of Association.--The Government recognizes workers'
    rights to form unions and a general federation to represent unions in
    regional and international fora. The law prohibits members of the armed
    forces, public security institutions, government employees, and
    domestic workers from forming or joining unions. At year's end,
    according to the MoM, there were nearly 100 unions at the enterprise
    level and one general federation of unions.
        The Government restricted union activities to some degree. The law
    prohibits unions from accepting grants or financial assistance from any
    source without the MoM's prior approval. Unions must notify the
    Government at least one month in advance of union meetings. The law
    permits only one general federation of unions.
        Workers have the right to strike, but strikes are subject to
    certain requirements. The law requires an absolute majority of an
    enterprise to approve the strike, and notice must be given to employers
    three weeks in advance of the strike. Strikes occurred and were
    generally resolved quickly, sometimes through government mediation.

        b. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively.--The law allows
    for collective bargaining, and regulations require employers to engage
    in collective bargaining on the terms and conditions of employment,
    including wages and hours of work. In cases where there is no trade
    union, collective bargaining may take place between the employer and
    five representatives selected by workers. The employer cannot object to
    any of the representatives selected. While negotiation is ongoing, the
    employer cannot act on decisions related to issues under discussion.
    The law prohibits employers from firing or imposing penalties for union
    activity.
        There are no special laws or exemptions from regular labor laws in
    export processing zones.

        c. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor.--The law prohibits
    forced or compulsory labor. There were reports that adult forced labor
    occurred. Some men and women from South and Southeast Asia, most of
    whom migrated voluntarily to the country as domestic servants or low-
    skilled workers in the construction, agriculture, and service sectors,
    faced working conditions indicative of involuntary servitude. Reports
    included instances of passports being withheld, restrictions on
    movement, nonpayment of wages, long working hours without food or rest,
    threats, and physical or sexual abuse. Some employers of domestic
    workers, contrary to the law, continued to withhold documents releasing
    the workers from employment contracts or demanded release fees totaling
    as much as 600 rials (approximately $1,560) before allowing the workers
    to change employers.
        Also see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons
    Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        d. Prohibition of Child Labor and Minimum Age for Employment.--The
    law prohibits all child labor. The minimum age for employment is 15
    years- old, or 18 years-old for certain hazardous occupations. Children
    between the ages of 15 and 18 may only work between the hours of 6 a.m.
    and 6 p.m. and are prohibited from working for more than six hours per
    day, on weekends, or on holidays.
        No instances of child labor were reported in the formal sector,
    where the MoM generally enforced the law effectively. Minor violations
    resulted in warnings, and employers were given time to correct
    practices; however, significant violations may result in immediate
    arrests. In practice enforcement often did not extend to small family
    businesses that employed underage children, particularly in the
    agricultural and fishing sectors. As a cultural practice, Bedouin
    children sometimes participated in unofficial camel races for their
    families, despite the 18 year-old minimum age for camel jockeys. All
    official races use robot jockeys.

        e. Acceptable Conditions of Work.--The private sector minimum wage
    for citizens of 140 rials (approximately $360) per month did not
    provide a decent standard of living for a worker and family. Minimum
    wage regulations did not apply to a variety of occupations and
    businesses, including small businesses employing fewer than five
    persons, dependent family members working for a family firm, some
    categories of manual laborers, and foreign workers There were reports
    that migrant laborers in some firms and households worked more than 12
    hours a day for as little as 30 rials (approximately $78) per month.
    The MoM effectively enforced the minimum wage for citizens.
        The private sector workweek was 40 to 45 hours and included a rest
    period from Thursday afternoon through Friday. Government workers had a
    35-hour workweek. Although the law does not designate the number of
    days in a workweek, it requires at least one 24-hour rest period per
    week and mandates overtime pay for hours in excess of 48 per week.
    Government regulations regarding hours of employment were not always
    enforced, especially for foreign workers. Employees who worked extra
    hours without compensation could file a complaint with the MoM's
    Directorate of Labor Care. The MoM processed complaints and acted as
    mediator. In a majority of cases, the plaintiff prevailed, gaining
    compensation, the opportunity to seek alternative employment, or return
    to their country of origin in the case of foreign laborers.
        The law states an employee may leave dangerous work without
    jeopardy to continued employment if the employer was aware of the
    danger and did not implement corrective measures. Employees covered
    under the labor law may receive compensation for job-related injury or
    illness through employer-provided medical insurance. Domestic workers
    are not covered under the labor law, but separate domestic employment
    regulations obligate the employer to provide domestic workers with free
    local medical treatment throughout the contract period. Penalties for
    noncompliance with health regulations are small, ranging from
    approximately 10 to 100 rials ($25 to $250), multiplying per occurrence
    per worker and doubled upon recurrence.
        Inspectors from the Department of Health and Safety of the Labor
    Care Directorate generally enforced the health and safety standard
    codes and made regular on-site inspections as required by law. These
    inspectors received additional training throughout the year in
    conjunction with the MoM's ``Decent Work'' program, developed in
    coordination with experts from the International Labor Organization to
    establish internationally accepted training mechanisms.

                                   __________

                                     QATAR

        Qatar is a constitutional monarchy headed by Emir Sheikh Hamad bin
    Khalifa al-Thani. The population is approximately 1.7 million, of whom
    approximately 225,000 are citizens. The emir exercises full executive
    power. The 2005 constitution provides for hereditary rule by the emir's
    male branch of the al-Thani family. Sharia (Islamic law) is a primary
    source of legislation. The emir approves or rejects legislation after
    consultation with the appointed 35-member Advisory Council and cabinet.
    There are no elections for national leadership, and the law forbids
    political parties. In 2007 citizens elected the 29 members of the
    Central Municipal Council. Reports based on monitoring by the
    Government-appointed National Human Rights Committee (NHRC) and
    informal observations by diplomatic missions noted no irregularities.
    Security forces reported to civilian authorities.
        Citizens lacked the right to change the leadership of their
    government by election. There were prolonged detentions in crowded
    facilities, often ending with deportation. The Government placed
    restrictions on civil liberties, including freedoms of speech, press
    (including the Internet), assembly, association, and religion. Foreign
    laborers faced restrictions on travel abroad. Trafficking in persons,
    primarily in the labor and domestic worker sectors, was a problem.
    Legal, institutional, and cultural discrimination against women limited
    their participation in society. The unresolved legal status of
    ``Bidoons'' (stateless persons with residency ties) resulted in
    discrimination against these noncitizens. Authorities severely
    restricted worker rights, especially for foreign laborers and domestic
    servants.

                            RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

    Section 1. Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom
            From:
        a. Arbitrary or Unlawful Deprivation of Life.--There were no
    reports that the Government or its agents committed arbitrary or
    unlawful killings.

        b. Disappearance.--There were no reports of politically motivated
    disappearances.

        c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or
    Punishment.--The constitution and law prohibit such practices, and
    there were no reports that government officials employed torture nor
    was there an underlying pattern of abuse or discrimination. The 2008
    NHRC report cited receipt of information in two cases of ``ill-
    treatment'' and indicated that authorities took ``due and necessary
    action.'' Documentation of abuses was limited, in part due to hesitancy
    of alleged victims to make public claims of torture or abuse. The
    Government interprets Sharia as allowing corporal punishment for
    certain criminal offenses.
        Under the constitution, the terms of all international agreements
    ratified by the Government become domestic law, and the Government
    considers its definition of torture to be the one contained in the UN
    convention. In June the Government amended some articles of the
    criminal law to correspond with the country's commitments in the UN
    convention, including adoption of the UN's definition of torture and
    the imposition of sentencing guidelines for abuse and torture. During
    the year the Government conducted training for law enforcement and
    military personnel which focused on the prohibition of torture.
        In March the Doha Court of First Instance sentenced a police
    officer to one year in prison for mistreating an Indian citizen who
    alleged that police intentionally burned him with cigarettes during
    interrogation in 2006. However, in June the Upper Court suspended the
    penalty, stating that it was the first time he committed such a crime
    and that he was unlikely to repeat the abuse.
        Courts ordered corporal punishment (flogging) prescribed by
    interpretation of Sharia in cases of alcohol consumption and
    extramarital sex by Muslims. On appeal the court typically reduced this
    sentence to imprisonment or fine. Authorities did not carry out
    corporal punishment during the year.
        Sources allege that at least 18 persons, mostly foreign nationals,
    were sentenced to flogging for offences related to ``illicit sexual
    relations'' or alcohol consumption. It was not known if any of the
    sentences were implemented.

        Prison and Detention Center Conditions.--In some prisons and
    detention centers, conditions did not meet international standards. The
    Capital Police Detention Center had improved conditions with beds and
    separation according to gender. In the state security prison,
    conditions were generally better than the central prison. The
    Deportation Detention Center (DDC) held some detainees awaiting civil
    trial together with persons awaiting deportation. The Ministry of
    Social Affairs had authority over juvenile detainees and held them
    separately under the supervision of a social worker.
        Prisoners and detainees generally had access to visitors, including
    their family members, embassy officials, and attorneys. Additionally
    they were able to observe their religions freely. Prison officials
    limited access to family and legal counsel at the state security
    prison. Authorities allowed prisoners and detainees to submit
    complaints to judicial and administrative authorities without
    censorship and to request investigation of credible allegations of
    inhumane treatment. The authorities investigated any allegations, but
    they did not document the results of these investigations in a publicly
    accessible manner.
        During the year there were no monitoring visits or requests to
    visit by independent human rights observers. The Government-appointed
    NHRC conducted regular visits to prisons, jails, detention centers, and
    the state security prison. Authorities informed the NHRC of the
    citizenship of prisoners and detainees, and the NHRC monitored the
    length of each person's detention. Ombudsmen cannot serve on behalf of
    prisoners and detainees.
        According to some embassies, the Government frequently delayed
    notification of arrest. In 2009 the NHRC reported that the DDC held an
    estimated 1,000 male and 300 female detainees during the year, although
    no updated statistics were available during the current year. The
    Government granted foreign embassy personnel regular access to the DDC,
    police detention centers, and the central prison. The Government did
    not approve requests to visit the state security prison but
    occasionally provided embassies access to state security prisoners at
    separate locations.

        d. Arbitrary Arrest or Detention.--The constitution prohibits
    arbitrary arrest and detention, and the Government generally observed
    these prohibitions. Authorities may detain individuals in the state
    security prison for indefinite periods under the Protection of Society
    and Combating Terrorism Law. Processing speed for deportations
    increased for most DDC detainees during the year with the period of
    detention ranging from two days to three months.

        Role of the Police and Security Apparatus.--Civilian authorities
    maintained effective control over the police under the Ministry of
    Interior and the state security forces, and the Government employed
    effective mechanisms to investigate and punish abuse. There were no
    reports of impunity involving the security forces during the year.

        Arrest Procedures and Treatment While in Detention.--Criminal law
    requires that persons be apprehended openly with warrants based on
    sufficient evidence and issued by a duly authorized official, be
    charged within 24 hours, and be brought before a court without undue
    delay. Authorities respected this in practice. The Protection of
    Society and Combating Terrorism Law provides an exception that permits
    detention without charge for as long as two years (in renewable six-
    month periods) and allows detention for as long as six months without
    charge for investigation, extendable indefinitely by the prime minister
    based on the recommendation of the minister of interior or the head of
    the security services. Decisions under the law are subject to appeal by
    the prime minister only. The law empowers the minister of interior to
    detain a defendant for crimes related to national security, honor, or
    impudence. Although generally unused, a provision of the law permits
    the prime minister to adjudicate complaints against these detentions.
        In most cases, a judge may order a suspect released, remanded to
    custody to await trial, held in pretrial detention pending
    investigation, or released on bail. Although suspects are entitled to
    bail (except in cases of violent crimes), it is used infrequently in
    practice. Authorities were more likely to grant citizens bail than
    noncitizens. Noncitizens charged with minor crimes may be released to
    their citizen sponsor, although they cannot leave the country until the
    case is resolved.
        Judges may also extend pretrial detention for one month at a time
    to provide authorities additional time to conduct investigations. The
    accused is entitled to legal representation throughout the process and
    prompt access to family members in nonsecurity cases. There are
    provisions for state-funded legal counsel for indigent prisoners in
    criminal cases, and this requirement was generally honored in practice.
    Authorities generally afforded suspects detained under the Protection
    of Society and Combating Terrorism Law access to counsel but delayed
    access to family members. Once convicted of state security violations,
    prisoners were transferred to the central prison.
        The Permanent Committee on Examining the Conditions of Inmates at
    the DDC was charged with reviewing and acting on the cases of those in
    custody for two months or longer.

        Amnesty.--A committee within the Ministry of Interior (MOI) reviews
    individual cases for possible leniency and makes recommendations to the
    emir, who customarily grants amnesties on holy days and other special
    occasions. During Ramadan and on Qatar's National Day, the emir granted
    amnesty to 134 prisoners. Unlike in previous years, there were no
    reports that the emir pardoned prisoners on National Human Rights Day.

        e. Denial of Fair Public Trial.--The constitution provides for an
    independent judiciary, but the emir, based on the recommendation of the
    Supreme Judicial Council, appoints all judges. They hold their
    positions at his discretion. Approximately 75 percent of the judges
    were foreign nationals dependent on residency permits granted by civil
    authorities. During the year there were no reports of political or
    governmental interference or corruption in the courts. Although the
    emir has the ability to remove judges, he has never exercised the
    power.

        Trial Procedures.--The law provides for the right to a fair trial
    for all citizens, and the judiciary generally enforced this right.
        The law provides defendants the presumption of innocence, and the
    public prosecution has the burden of proving the charges against the
    defendant at trial.
        Trials are by jury and open to the public, but the presiding judge
    can close the courtroom to the public if he deems the case to be
    sensitive. Due to a 2008 Court of Cassation (Supreme Court) ruling, the
    media has limited access to courts. The ruling followed from media
    coverage of cases that were still under trial that speculated on the
    expected verdict. Although journalists must obtain a judge's permission
    to attend, during the year this practice was suspended and journalists
    attended court sessions without any restrictions. All sentences are
    publicly announced.
        Lawyers prepare litigants and speak for them during the hearing,
    with interpreters provided for non-Arabic speakers. Defendants are
    entitled to legal representation throughout the pretrial and trial
    process. In matters involving religious issues, Shia and Sunni judges
    may apply their interpretations of Sharia for their groups. There were
    164 Sunni judges and one Shia judge, who independently represented the
    relatively small Shia population.
        The courts reached verdicts in criminal cases within one year of
    detention 81 percent of the time, according to yearly statistics from
    the Supreme Court. Normal felony cases generally took from four to six
    months to produce a verdict and misdemeanors took from two to four
    months.
        Defendants have the right to be present for trial and to consult
    with an attorney in a timely manner. Their attorneys have access to
    government-held evidence relevant to their cases, once the case has
    been filed in the court. Defendants have the right to confront and
    question witnesses against them and to present witnesses and evidence
    on their own behalf. Defendants have the right of appeal within 15 days
    of a decision, and use of the appellate process is common in practice.
        There are no separate Sharia courts, but the application of Sharia
    denied women equal status in certain civil proceedings such as
    marriage, divorce, and witness testimony. In such instances, a women's
    testimony was equal to half of a man's.
        The high fee for appealing to the Court of Cassation restricts the
    right to appeal. The appellant must deposit 20,000 riyals
    (approximately $5,500) for appeal in a case decided by the court of
    appeals and 5,000 riyals ($1,375) in a case decided by the court of
    first instance. Litigants must deposit 10,000 riyals ($2,750) for an
    appeal to the Constitutional Court. Deposits may be seized, in whole or
    in part, should the court decide to reject the appeal. In some cases,
    the courts waived the appellate fees if the appellant demonstrated
    financial hardship.

        Political Prisoners and Detainees.--There were no reports of
    political prisoners or detainees.

        Civil Judicial Procedures and Remedies.--The law and judiciary
    permit persons with civil grievances to seek redress in the court
    system, although the majority of administrative decisions by the
    executive authority are immune from judicial jurisdiction, according to
    the 2008 NHRC report. The judiciary is not completely impartial and
    independent in practice. There were reports that police officers tended
    to favor citizens over noncitizens when preparing reports of minor
    traffic accidents or disputes, but this favoritism did not occur in
    criminal or civil cases that reached the courts. For example, on
    October 14, the Court of Misdemeanors ruled against a prominent Qatari
    businessman who was withholding the passport of a noncitizen employee
    that he accused of embezzling money from him. The court mandated the
    return of the employee's passport, noting that the immigration law
    provides the right for workers to have access to their passports. The
    law specifies circumstances that necessitate a judge's removal from a
    case for conflict of interest, and these were observed in practice.
    There are civil and criminal remedies available for those seeking
    damages for, or cessation of, human rights violations, but there were
    no cases reported during the year.

        f. Arbitrary Interference With Privacy, Family, Home, or
    Correspondence.--The constitution and the criminal procedures code
    prohibit such actions, and the Government generally respected these
    prohibitions in practice. Traditional attitudes of respect for the
    sanctity of the home and the privacy of women provided protection
    against arbitrary intrusion for both citizens and noncitizens. Judicial
    authorities must grant a warrant before police may search a residence
    or business, except in cases involving national security or
    emergencies, although none were reported during the year. Police and
    security forces reportedly monitored telephone calls and e-mails. The
    Government prohibits all political activity, including membership in
    political parties for citizens and noncitizens alike.
        Citizens must obtain government permission, which was generally
    granted, to marry foreigners. Male citizens may apply for residency
    permits and citizenship for their foreign wives, but female citizens
    cannot apply for either residency or citizenship for their foreign
    husbands. There were reports that the Government continued to deny
    Qatari nationality (and entry) to hundreds of persons, most of whom
    were members of the al-Murra tribe, which was partly blamed for a coup
    attempt in 1996.

    Section 2. Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:
        a. Freedom of Speech and Press.--The constitution provides for
    freedom of speech and of the press in accordance with the law, but the
    Government limited these rights in practice. Journalists and publishers
    continued to self-censor due to political and economic pressures when
    reporting on government policies or material deemed hostile to Islam,
    the ruling family, and relations with neighboring states. There were no
    reports that security authorities threatened individuals and
    organizations to keep them from publishing certain articles According
    to journalists, editors would not permit printing the names of
    companies involved in labor cases. The law provides the press the right
    to attend the court proceedings, but reporters must obtain permission
    from judges to publish trial accounts even after the proceedings are
    complete.
        The 1979 Press and Publications Law provides for restrictive
    procedures on the establishment of newspapers with criminal penalties
    and prison sentences for libel and slander, including injury to
    dignity, as well as for closure and confiscation of assets of the
    publication. All cases involving the media fall under the jurisdiction
    of the criminal courts.
        In 2007 the emir established the Doha Center for Media Freedom
    (DCMF) to protect threatened journalists and to promote the free flow
    of news and information around the world. In February the DCMF
    organized a symposium to support issuing a new Press and Publications
    Law. Participants of the symposium agreed unanimously to abolish the
    1979 Press and Publication Law because it does not reflect the changing
    political and media environment in the country. The center has been
    largely inactive and its Web site has been unavailable for over a year.
        Citizens discussed sensitive political and religious issues.
    Members of the much larger foreign population did not express
    themselves on sensitive topics. The Government did not prosecute anyone
    for expression of views. During the year the Government-supported Qatar
    Foundation continued to fund the ``Doha Debates,'' a series of public
    debates broadcast by the BBC featuring citizens and noncitizens
    speaking about internationally controversial topics such as whether
    democracy is more important than wealth and whether France is right to
    ban the face veil.
        Although the seven daily newspapers, three in English and four in
    Arabic, were not state-owned, the proprietors were members of the
    ruling family or enjoyed close ties to government officials. The
    Government reviewed and censored foreign newspapers and magazines for
    objectionable sexual, religious, and political content. Local news
    vendors reported that Egyptian newspapers, such as al-Ahram, ``were
    critical of Qatar and were occasionally censored or not allowed in the
    country.''
        The Qatar Radio and Television Corporation and customs officials
    censored material. There were no specific reports of political
    censorship of foreign broadcast news media or foreign programs during
    the year.
        State-owned television and radio reflected government views.
    Callers to the state-owned radio station's popular morning show
    frequently discussed topics such as government inefficiency and the
    lack of responsiveness to citizens' needs.
        The Doha-based, Arabic-language al-Jazeera satellite television
    network focused coverage and commentary on international news. Al-
    Jazeera and the Government claimed that the channel was independent and
    free of government influence, but the Government exercised editorial
    and programmatic control of the channel through funding and selection
    of the station's management. Al-Jazeera covered local news when there
    was an international component. In May five Arab women presenters
    resigned from al-Jazeera after complaining that they were harassed by
    senior managers for not dressing modestly enough. An internal inquiry
    cleared the al-Jazeera official and asserted that the channel has the
    right to dictate how its presenters appear and that it held Arab and
    Qatari women broadcasters to much higher dress-standards.

        Internet Freedom.--The Government restricted the peaceful
    expression of views via the Internet and censored the Internet for
    political, religious, and pornographic content through a proxy server,
    which monitored and blocked Web sites, e-mail, and chat rooms through
    the state-owned Internet service provider. For example, the Government
    blocked access to the popular blog ``Ikhbareya'' which at times
    published articles critical of the Government. A user who believed a
    site was mistakenly censored could submit the Web address to have the
    site reviewed for suitability; there were no reports that any Web sites
    were unblocked based on this procedure. According to 2009 International
    Telecommunication Union data, there were an estimated 145,800 Internet
    subscribers, and 40 percent of the country's population used the
    Internet. There is no evidence that the Government attempted to
    collect, request, obtain, or disclose the personally identifiable
    information in connection with persons' peaceful expression of
    political, religious, or ideological opinion or belief.

        Academic Freedom and Cultural Events.--The constitution provides
    for freedom of expression and scientific research according to the
    conditions and circumstances stipulated by law. In practice instructors
    at Qatar University noted that they often exercised self-censorship.
    Instructors at foreign-based universities operating in the country
    reported enjoying academic freedom. There were no reported government
    restrictions on cultural events, although some groups organizing
    cultural events reported that they exercised self-censorship. Films are
    censored for political, religious, and sexual content, and for vulgar/
    obscene language.

        b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association.--Freedom of
    Assembly.--The constitution provides for, but regulates, freedom of
    assembly. Organizers must meet a number of restrictions and conditions
    to acquire a permit for a public meeting. For example, the director
    general of public security at the Ministry of Interior must give
    permission, a decision which is subject to appeal to the minister of
    interior who has the final decision. Demonstrations were rare, but
    there were reports of small demonstrations held at Qatar University and
    the Qatar Foundation in response to the Gaza flotilla incident in late
    May. Authorities did not intervene in the peaceful demonstrations.

        Freedom of Association.--The constitution provides for the right to
    form groups, defined by the Advisory Council as professional societies.
    A number of professional societies exist, but administrative obstacles,
    including the slow pace of procedures required to form such
    associations, limited this right in practice. The law imposes strict
    conditions on the establishment, management, and function of
    professional societies. They are prohibited from engaging in political
    matters and must obtain approval from the Ministry of Social Affairs,
    which can deny their establishment if it deems them a threat to the
    public interest. Professional societies must pay 50,000 riyals
    (approximately $13,740) in licensing fees and 10,000 riyals ($2,750) in
    annual fees. Registrations are valid for three years, after which an
    association must register again and pay new fees. An amendment to this
    law passed in June requires professional societies to have 10 million
    riyals (approximately $2.7 million) in capital funds to be registered.
    The law allows noncitizens to participate in private societies only in
    cases in which their participation is deemed necessary to the work of
    the society. The prime minister must approve their participation, and
    the number of noncitizens cannot exceed 20 percent of the total
    membership. Since 2004 the Government only approved 15 professional
    societies.
        No data was available on pending or rejected applications. Informal
    organizations, such as community support groups and activity clubs,
    operated without registration, but they may not engage in activities
    deemed political. The regulations prohibit international affiliation of
    associations.
        During the year the Government did not approve new nongovernmental
    organizations (NGOs). A 2006 law regarding the establishment of
    ``private establishments having public interest'' allows for relaxed
    requirements for the formation of independent local and international
    NGOs in the country. Although untested, the law allows the registration
    of independent NGOs without the administrative hurdles and monetary
    requirements of the previously enacted law governing the formation of
    professional societies.

        c. Freedom of Religion.--For a complete description of religious
    freedom, please see the 2010 International Religious Freedom Report at
    www.state.gov/g/drl/irf/rpt.

        d. Freedom of Movement, Internally Displaced Persons, Protection of
    Refugees, and Stateless Persons.--The constitution provides for freedom
    of movement within the country, foreign travel, emigration, and
    repatriation, but the Government did not fully respect this right in
    practice. The Government severely restricted foreign travel for
    noncitizens. All noncitizens require an exit permit from their
    employers to leave the country, and access to exit permits is dependent
    on the employer.
        There were no reports that the Office of the UN High Commissioner
    for Refugees (UNHCR) asked the Government to assist internally
    displaced persons, refugees, returning refugees, asylum seekers,
    stateless persons, and other persons of concern. The law does not
    explicitly provide for the granting of asylum or refugee status, but in
    practice the Government occasionally accepts such individuals as
    ``guests.''
        The only restrictions on in-country movement for citizens concerned
    sensitive military, oil, and industrial installations. Although there
    was less emphasis on setting and enforcing ``family times'' at
    entertainment areas in Doha, several local malls continued to restrict
    access to certain areas to foreign workers on weekends. There were also
    reports that South Asian laborers were prevented from entering Souq
    Waqif, one the city's main tourist sites.
        The Protection of Society and Combating Terrorism Law allows the
    Government to prevent some citizens from traveling abroad. Men may
    prevent adult female family members from leaving the country, but only
    by seeking and securing a court order. During the year there were no
    reports that women older than 18 years of age were prevented from
    traveling abroad.
        Official policy severely restricted foreign travel for expatriate
    workers. A 2009 Sponsorship Law outlawed the practice of employers
    withholding workers' passports but retained the provision requiring
    workers to obtain exit permits from their employers before leaving the
    country. In practice some employers continued to retain workers'
    passports. Although the law provides an administrative procedure for
    obtaining an exit permit without an employer's approval, the process
    was burdensome. Foreign embassies reported that the process was
    ineffective, and they continued to be requested to mediate disputes
    concerning exit permits between foreign workers and their sponsors.
        The constitution prohibits internal and external forced exile of
    citizens, and the Government respected this prohibition in practice.
        The constitution provides citizens who have left the country the
    right to return. Noncitizen women married to citizens received
    residence permits and could apply for citizenship, but they were
    required to relinquish their foreign citizenship. There were no
    restrictions on emigration from the country. Unlike in previous years,
    there were no reported cases of the revoking of citizenship.

        Protection of Refugees.--The constitution prohibits the extradition
    of political refugees. The country is not a party to the 1951 UN
    Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol,
    and the Government has not established a system for providing
    protection or status to refugees. The constitution empowers the
    Government to enact laws on asylum and refugee status. However, as no
    laws providing for asylum were enacted, the small number of persons
    granted residence on humanitarian grounds were legally classified as
    immigrants, not as refugees or asylees. Individuals who were able to
    obtain local sponsorship or employment were allowed to enter and could
    remain as long as they were sponsored, but without asylum status.
        The Government provided protection against the expulsion or
    forcible return of refugees to countries where their lives or freedom
    would be threatened on account of their race, religion, nationality,
    membership in a particular social group, or political opinion.

        Stateless Persons.--The Government provides a legal means for long-
    term residents to apply for and acquire citizenship; in practice
    restrictions and uneven application of the law prevented stateless
    persons from acquiring citizenship. The Nationality Law allows a
    maximum of 50 noncitizen residents per year to apply for citizenship
    after residing in the country 25 consecutive years.
        Citizenship derives solely from the father. Women do not transmit
    citizenship to their children, even if the child is born into wedlock
    in the country. A woman must obtain permission from authorities before
    marrying a foreign national, but she does not lose nationality upon
    marriage. According to the UNHCR, there were approximately 1,500
    ``Bidoon'' residents (stateless persons with residency ties) in the
    country. They suffered discrimination based upon their lack of
    nationality. The Bidoon were unable to register for services such as
    education and health care. There were no reports of summary deportation
    orders issued against long-term residents, including Bidoon persons.
    The Permanent Committee for Naturalization Affairs commissioned a study
    in 2008 to determine the extent of these practices, but the results of
    that study were never made public.

    Section 3. Respect for Political Rights: The Right of Citizens to
            Change Their Government
        The constitution does not provide citizens the right to change
    their government peacefully through elections. The constitution
    provides for hereditary rule by the emir's branch of the al-Thani
    family. The Advisory Council, whose members the emir appointed, plays
    an advisory role only and does not exercise significant influence over
    ministries. The constitutional provision for initiation of legislation
    by the Advisory Council remained unimplemented. The influence of family
    and tribal traditions was strong, and the Government did not permit
    political parties or opposition groups.

        Elections and Political Participation.--The emir exercises full
    executive powers, including appointment of cabinet members. In 2007
    citizens elected the 29 members of the third Central Municipal Council
    to four-year terms. The council advises the minister of municipal
    affairs and agriculture on local public services. Diplomatic missions
    noted no apparent irregularities in the elections. Nearly 50 percent of
    the fewer than 50,000 eligible voters participated.
        Approximately 75 percent of citizens could not vote in the 2007
    municipal elections, as this right was limited to families who were in
    the country prior to 1930. All citizens older than 21 years of age are
    eligible to run for seats on the council. The law limits political
    participation by persons whose citizenship was withdrawn but
    subsequently restored. These persons are denied the right to candidacy
    or nomination in any legislative body for 10 years from the date of
    restoration of their citizenship.
        In June the emir postponed national elections for the second time
    since 2008 and extended the tenure of the current Advisory Council
    until 2013.
        Although the influence of traditional attitudes and roles continued
    to limit women's participation in politics, women served in public
    office as chair of the Qatar Foundation, vice president of the Supreme
    Council for Family Affairs with ministerial rank, head of the General
    Authority for Museums, and president of Qatar University. One woman
    served on the Central Municipal Council and there was one woman serving
    as a judge on the Court of First Instance.

    Section 4. Official Corruption and Government Transparency
        The law provides criminal penalties for official corruption. There
    were no reported cases of corruption among police and security forces,
    and the Government maintained mechanisms to investigate and prosecute
    corruption cases. Public officials were not subject to financial
    disclosure laws.
        The National Committee for Accountability and Transparency is
    charged with implementing articles of the UN Convention for Combating
    Corruption, developing a national strategy to support transparency,
    implementing an awareness campaign, investigating complaints from the
    public, managing state properties, suggesting legislation, and training
    staff. The committee was considered effective in carrying out its
    mandate.
        In November the audit bureau reported it referred 13 cases
    throughout the year involving public sector corruption and misuse of
    public funds to the public prosecutor, six of which were referred to
    the appropriate courts.
        The Government published laws in the official gazette, and some
    information was available on the Internet. Although there is a
    mechanism for individuals and private institutions to request
    government information, access to information on the Government budget,
    expenditures, or draft laws was generally not available.

    Section 5. Governmental Attitude Regarding International and
            Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations of Human
            Rights
        There were few human rights organizations operating in the country,
    including the NHRC, Qatar Foundation for Combating Human Trafficking,
    Qatar Foundation for Protecting Women and Children, Qatar Society for
    Rehabilitation and Special Needs, which are all quasigovernmental human
    rights organizations. No international NGO or international
    organization focusing on human rights or humanitarian issues was
    resident in the country, with the exception the Solidarity Center,
    which has maintained a representative in Doha to work on labor rights
    issues since March 2009. During the year the Solidarity Center
    organized several training sessions for foreign communities in the
    country to explain their rights and obligations under the labor law and
    sponsorship law. Domestic associations or NGOs may not engage in
    political activity or be critical of the Government.
        The law provides the right to form private independent societies
    and associations, including NGOs but, since the law's enactment in
    2004, the Government approved only one application, which established
    the Qatar Society for Rehabilitation and Special Needs, an NGO
    supporting persons with disabilities.
        The Government-funded and appointed NHRC investigated local human
    rights conditions. In December the secretary-general of the NHRC stated
    that the committee handled 1,012 petitions for assistance during the
    preceding 12 months; 421 were submitted by citizens and 591 by
    expatriate workers. In October the Government reorganized the NHRC
    board and increased the number of members from 12 to 14, of whom four
    are from government ministries and 10 from civil society. Members from
    the Government ministries participated in the NHRC's deliberations, but
    their votes do not count when the NHRC board members vote on
    resolutions.
        During the year the NHRC issued a report on the status of human
    rights covering 2009.

    Section 6. Discrimination, Societal Abuses, and Trafficking in Persons
        The constitution prohibits discrimination based on nationality,
    race, language, religion, and disability, but not gender or social
    status. In practice custom heavily influenced government enforcement of
    nondiscrimination laws and legal, cultural, and institutional
    discrimination existed against women, noncitizens, and foreign workers.

        Women.--The law criminalizes domestic violence and rape but does
    not address spousal rape. There were publicized cases of rape involving
    foreigners, but none were reported involving citizens. In December an
    Asian man was convicted of raping his daughter and was sentenced to
    life in prison. The penalty for rape is 10 years imprisonment, or 14
    years if the victim is younger than 16 years old. If the perpetrator is
    the teacher, guardian, or caregiver of the victim, the penalty is life
    imprisonment. The Government's ability to enforce the law against rape
    was limited due to underreporting by victims who feared social stigma.
        There is no law criminalizing domestic violence. According to the
    NHRC, domestic violence may be prosecuted under the criminal law that
    provides a general prohibition against violence. According to the
    quasigovernmental Qatari Foundation for the Protection of Women and
    Children (QFPWC), domestic violence against women continued to be a
    problem. There were neither arrests nor convictions for family domestic
    violence among citizens publicized in the press, although there were
    reports of cases involving noncitizens. During the year 109 cases of
    domestic abuse against women were reported to the foundation. The QFPWC
    reported 10 cases of rape, eight cases against women, and two cases
    against children. The embassy of an Asian country reported that it
    received four complaints of rape from its citizens serving as domestic
    workers in Qatar. Three of the cases were settled out of court with the
    sponsor to avoid criminal investigation.
        A 2007 Qatar University study found that 63 percent of 2,778
    surveyed citizen and noncitizen female students reported they had been
    victims of physical abuse, with 52 reporting cases of ``strong
    violence,'' such as rape, and 120 reporting sexual harassment.
    Approximately 50 women reported they had considered suicide because
    they were afraid of the repercussions if they notified authorities.
        In 2007 the Supreme Council for Family Affairs (SCFA) established a
    shelter under the supervision of the QFPWC to accommodate abused women
    and children. During the year the shelter accommodated 14 women and
    five children. The shelter provided a variety of services, including
    financial assistance, legal aid, and psychological counseling.
        There were no reports of government interference in the right of
    couples and individuals to decide freely and responsibly the number,
    spacing, and timing of their children and to have the information and
    means to do so free from discrimination or coercion. There was no
    direct government support for access to means of contraception, but
    contraceptives were freely available without a prescription. Licensed
    medical professionals attended mothers at birth, and maternal care was
    readily available. The lifetime risk of maternal mortality in the
    country is one in every 2,700 women. Men and women were treated equally
    for sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). All STDs were reported to the
    Ministry of Health.
        The legal system allows leniency for a man found guilty of
    committing a so-called ``honor'' crime against a woman for perceived
    immodesty or deviant behavior. There were no reports of honor crimes
    during the year. In July there was a report of a foreign resident
    convicted in the 2007 murder of his wife whose sentence was limited to
    10 years because he was motivated by his wife's alleged sexual affairs.
        In some cases, sponsors sexually harassed and mistreated foreign
    domestic servants. Most domestic servants did not press charges for
    fear of losing their jobs. Sexual harassment is illegal and carries
    penalties of imprisonment or fines. A foreign embassy reported 700
    cases of sexual harassment against domestic employees in 2008, the
    majority by citizen employers. There were no updates to these
    statistics at year's end. When the domestic employees brought
    harassment to the attention of authorities, the employees were often
    deported and no charges were filed against the employer. There were
    reports of increases in the number of complaints alleging physical
    abuse and sexual harassment.
        The constitution asserts the principle of equality between citizens
    in rights and responsibilities, and the Civil Service Law, the Housing
    Law, and others consolidate this principle of equality. However,
    traditions and interpretation of Sharia disadvantaged women in certain
    cases. For example, the Government adhered to an interpretation of
    Sharia that recognizes Muslims have the automatic right to inherit from
    their Muslim spouses. A non-Muslim spouse (invariably a wife, since
    Muslim women cannot legally marry non-Muslims) does not inherit unless
    her spouse wills her a portion (as much as one-third of the total) of
    his estate. A Muslim husband does not automatically inherit the
    property of a non-Muslim wife. The proportion that women inherit
    depends upon their relationship to the deceased; in the cases of
    siblings, sisters inherit only one-half as much as their brothers.
        Citizen women faced legal discrimination in obtaining citizenship
    for their noncitizen husbands and their children.
        In cases of divorce, young children usually remain with the mother,
    regardless of her religion, unless she is found to be unfit. Sons
    remain in the custody of the mother until the age of 13 and daughters
    until the age of 15. In certain conditions, the court may extend the
    age of maternal custody to 15 years for sons and to the time of
    marriage for daughters. In exceptional cases, the mother retains
    custody of children with disabilities with no age limit stipulated.
    Women who are granted guardianship over their children by law receive
    their financial rights and associated right of residence.
        The law allows a female citizen married to a noncitizen man
    residing in the country for the previous five years to benefit from the
    Government housing system. Widows and divorced women may also benefit
    if they have children and have not inherited a house from a deceased
    husband. Unmarried men or women can benefit if they support parents,
    brothers, and sisters or are older than 35 years. The law is generally
    applied fairly in practice.
        Women may attend court proceedings and may represent themselves,
    but a male relative generally represented them. In cases involving
    financial transactions, the testimony of two women equals that of one
    man, but courts routinely evaluated evidence according to the overall
    credibility of the witness and the testimony being offered and not on
    the basis of gender. In 2008 the Government equalized the law on
    compensation that had previously set the level of compensation to be
    paid for the loss of a woman's life at half that of a man.
        A non-Muslim woman is not required to convert to Islam upon
    marriage to a Muslim, but many make a personal decision to do so.
    Children born to a Muslim father are considered Muslims. Female family
    members can travel freely unless a male family member notifies customs
    and immigration officials that his permission is required. There were
    no reports that the travel of any woman had been restricted in this
    fashion during the year.
        According to the Qatar Chamber of Commerce and Industry, women
    constituted approximately 13 percent of business owners, mainly
    operating design companies, fashion establishments, training centers,
    and beauty centers. Women served in the workforce as university
    professors, public school teachers, and police. Women served as
    professionals in government service, education, health, and private
    business. Women received equal pay for equal work but often lacked
    access to some positions and did not receive equal allowances for
    transportation, housing, and subsistence.
        The SCFA continued its efforts to improve the status of women and
    the family under both civil and Islamic law. The council contributed to
    a number of national and international conferences, studies, and
    reports on the status of women in the country, as well as the drafting
    of legislation affecting women and children.

        Children.--Citizenship is derived from one's father. The Government
    generally registered all births immediately, except for Bidoons. These
    services remained unavailable to stateless children since all persons
    must provide proof of nationality to access health care and education.
        The Government provides for the welfare of citizen children but not
    noncitizen children. The Government funds free public education
    (elementary through university) and health care for citizens. Education
    was compulsory for all children through the age of 18. In practice this
    requirement is not enforced for noncitizen children. Schooling is free
    through primary school (the equivalent of ninth grade) for noncitizen
    children whose parents work in the Government sector. There was
    generally no difference in attendance of girls and boys at the primary
    and secondary levels. Girls were the majority in postsecondary
    institutions.
        There was no societal pattern of child labor or abuse, although
    there were some cases of family violence and physical and sexual abuse.
    The QFPWC reported during the year it received 111 cases involving
    abuse of children. In July the country established a national
    multidisciplinary committee comprised of a medical team, forensic
    medical experts, and representatives from the MOI and Qatar Foundation
    to look into issues of child abuse or neglect in the country. Under
    section 280 of the criminal law, the penalty for having sexual
    relations with a person younger than 16 years old is life imprisonment.
    If the individual is the relative, guardian, caretaker, or servant of
    the victim, the penalty is death. There are laws prohibiting the
    marriage of children under the age of 16, but there were rare instances
    of child marriage within the Bidoon community.
        The Government-funded Qatar Orphan Foundation provided shelter,
    medical care, and education to orphans from birth to the age of 18. The
    children lived in a modern facility, segregated by age and gender, with
    adult supervision and medical care.
        The QFPWC conducted awareness campaigns on the rights of the child
    and maintained a special hotline that allowed both citizen and
    noncitizen children to call with questions and concerns ranging from
    school, health, and psychological problems to concerns about sexual
    harassment. This hotline operated in conjunction with the family abuse
    hotline; statistics on use were not available.
        The country is not a party to the 1980 Hague Convention on the
    Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. For information on
    international parental child abduction, please see the Department of
    State's annual report on compliance at http://travel.state.gov/
    abduction/resources/congressreport/congressreport--4308.html.

        Anti-Semitism.--Qatar does not have an indigenous Jewish community;
    the few Jews in the country during the reporting period were foreigners
    with no restrictions on traveling to or working in the country. On
    occasion, in response to political events and developments in the
    region, some of the country's privately owned Arabic-language
    newspapers carried cartoons depicting offensive caricatures of Jews and
    Jewish symbols and editorial comparisons of Israeli leaders and Israel
    to Hitler and the Nazis. These occurred primarily in the daily
    newspapers al-Watan, al-Sharq, al-Arab, and al-Raya, and drew no
    government response. In a January 2009 sermon on al-Jazeera, Sheikh
    Yusuf al-Qaradawi called for killing Jews ``down to the very last
    one.''

        Trafficking in Persons.--For information on trafficking in persons,
    please see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons
    Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        Persons With Disabilities.--The law requires the allocation of
    resources for persons with physical, sensory, intellectual, and mental
    disabilities in employment, education, access to health care, or the
    provision of other state services or other areas and prohibits
    discrimination against such persons. There was no underlying pattern of
    abuse of disabled persons at education facilities, mental health
    facilities, or prisons. The Government is charged with acting on
    complaints from individuals and the NHRC and enforcing compliance. The
    law requires that 2 percent of jobs in government agencies and public
    institutions are reserved for persons with disabilities. Private sector
    businesses employing a minimum of 25 persons were required to hire
    persons with disabilities. Employers who violated these employment
    provisions were subject to fines. There were no reports of any employer
    violating this law during the year.
        Private and independent schools in general provided most of the
    required services for students with disabilities, but government
    schools did not. Few public buildings met the required standards of
    accessibility for persons with disabilities, and new buildings
    generally did not comply with standards. The SCFA was charged with
    ensuring compliance with the rights and provisions mandated under the
    law, but compliance was not effectively enforced.

        National/Racial/Ethnic Minorities.--The Government distinguished
    between citizens and noncitizens in employment, education, housing, and
    health services. Noncitizens were required to pay for health care,
    electricity, water, and education (services provided without charge to
    citizens). Noncitizens were eligible for medical coverage at a nominal
    fee. Noncitizens generally could not own property, but the law provides
    for property ownership in three designated areas.

        Societal Abuses, Discrimination, and Acts of Violence Based on
    Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.--The law prohibits same-sex
    relations between men but is silent concerning same-sex relations
    between women. Under the criminal law, a man convicted of having sexual
    relations with another man or boy younger than 16 years old is subject
    to a sentence of life in prison. A man convicted of having sexual
    relations with another man older than 16 years old is subject to a
    sentence of seven years in prison under section 285 of the criminal
    law. There were an unknown number of cases before the courts during the
    year. There were no lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT)
    organizations in the country. During the year no violence was reported
    against LGBT persons, but there was an underlying pattern of
    discrimination towards LGBT persons based on conservative cultural and
    religious values prevalent in the society.

        Other Societal Violence or Discrimination.--There was
    discrimination against HIV-infected patients. HIV-positive foreigners,
    whose condition was typically diagnosed during their medical
    examinations upon arrival in the country, were deported. HIV-positive
    citizens were quarantined and received treatment.

    Section 7. Worker Rights
        a. The Right of Association.--The labor law and regulations provide
    for worker organizations for citizens older than 18 years old in
    private enterprises that have more than 100 citizen workers. In
    practice the law makes union formation difficult. The country's labor
    code allows for only one trade union: the General Union of Workers of
    Qatar. Noncitizens were not eligible to form worker committees, and
    foreign workers could only be members of joint labor-management
    committees. Those working in the Government sector were prohibited from
    joining a union. The law and regulations permit only the General Union
    for the Workers of Qatar (composed of various general committees for
    the workers in a trade or industry, which are in turn made up of worker
    committees at individual firms) and forbid affiliation with groups
    outside the country. There were no reported attempts to form unions
    during the year.
        The law grants workers the right to strike, but restrictive
    conditions made the likelihood of a legal strike extremely remote.
    Civil servants and domestic workers cannot strike, and strikes are not
    allowed at public utilities or at health or security service
    facilities. The labor law requires that a strike be approved by three-
    fourths of the company's workers committee. Such committees are
    composed of an equal number of representatives from management and
    labor, making it practically impossible for labor to gain a strike
    authorization. The Labor Department of the Ministry of Civil Service
    must rule on all industrial disputes before a strike can be called.
    During the year there were no strikes reported. Foreign embassies
    reported several cases in which they intervened to resolve labor
    disputes reported by their nationals working in the country. In the
    past, the Government responded to labor unrest by dispatching large
    numbers of police to the work sites or labor camps involved, and the
    strikes generally ended peacefully after these shows of force. In most
    cases, the Government summarily deported strike organizers. Government
    employees, domestic servants, and those in the public utility, health,
    and security services were prohibited from striking. These workers may
    legally seek permission to hold a public gathering, but there were no
    reports of such gatherings occurring during the year.
        On September 23, police arrested and deported approximately 90
    foreign laborers working for the al-Badar construction company after
    striking against the company, in violation of their contracts. Albadar
    refused to increase the workers' salaries by 10 percent as required by
    their contract and instead cut the workers' pay by 35 percent, from
    1,000 to 650 riyals per month (approximately $275 and $180,
    respectively). All of the workers were jailed for several days and then
    deported; those who had worked less than two years for the company had
    to pay for their return tickets home.

        b. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively.--The labor law
    grants workers in private enterprises that have more than 100 citizen
    workers the right to bargain collectively and to sign joint agreements
    between employer and worker regarding a work-related issue. However,
    the vast majority of private sector employees are noncitizens and are
    therefore not allowed to participate in union activities. The
    Government circumscribed the right through control over the rules and
    procedures of the bargaining and agreement processes. Collective
    bargaining was not freely practiced, and there were no workers under
    collective bargaining contracts.
        Private employers and workers set wages without government
    involvement. Local courts handled disputes between workers and
    employers. Foreign workers avoided drawing attention to problems with
    their employers for fear of retaliation and deportation. The Human
    Rights Office at the Ministry of Interior served as the point of
    contact for the complaints of foreign workers who are mostly from South
    and South East Asia. According to resident embassies of countries with
    foreign workers present and some individual migrant workers, the
    Ministry of Labor's Department of Labor Affairs was widely perceived to
    be objective within its narrow mandate when dealing with the nonpayment
    of wages. The department claimed that it resolved 80 percent of the
    4,046 complaints filed by workers. The ministry referred 282 cases to
    the labor courts for judgment. A limited number of labor complaints
    were referred to the criminal courts, but statistics were not publicly
    available.
        There are no export processing zones.

        c. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor.--The law prohibits
    all forms of forced or compulsory labor. However, there were reports
    that such practices occurred. Also see the Department of State's annual
    Trafficking in Persons Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.
        Foreign workers from Nepal, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, the
    Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Ethiopia, Sudan, Thailand,
    Egypt, Jordan, and China voluntarily entered the country for work only
    and, in many cases, worked under circumstances that constituted forced
    labor such as withholding of passports and travel documents, refusal to
    grant exit permits, and working under conditions they did not accept
    originally. These conditions were found primarily in the construction
    and domestic labor sectors.
        The Sponsorship Law that took effect in March 2009 gives the
    Ministry of Interior the power to transfer temporarily a worker's
    sponsorship to another employer if there is a legal dispute between the
    worker and the original employer. According to government figures, more
    than 85 percent of the workforce was composed of foreign workers who,
    dependent on their employer for residency rights, were vulnerable to
    abuse. For example, employers must consent to and the ministry must
    approve granting an exit permit to any foreign employee. Some employers
    temporarily withheld this consent to force foreign employees to work
    for longer periods than they wished. Workers could report such cases to
    the Human Rights Office. Unskilled workers and domestic servants were
    particularly vulnerable to nonpayment or late payment of wages.

        d. Prohibition of Child Labor and Minimum Age for Employment.--The
    law prohibits forced and compulsory labor by children, and the
    Government, specifically the Ministry of Labor, generally enforced this
    prohibition through labor inspections. The labor law stipulates the
    minimum age for employment is 16 years old. The labor law provides that
    minors between the ages of 16 and 18 can work with parental or guardian
    permission and some children worked in small, family-owned businesses
    such as small markets or as office clerks. Minors may not work more
    than six hours a day or more than 36 hours a week. Employers must
    provide the Labor Department with the names and occupations of their
    minor employees and obtain permission from the Ministry of Education to
    hire a minor. The Labor Department may prohibit the employment of
    minors in jobs judged dangerous to the health, safety, or morals of
    minors.
        Violators of the law banning child camel jockeys may receive six
    months' imprisonment or a fine of approximately 3,000 riyals
    (approximately $825). In other cases involving the employment of
    minors, the punishment is three years' imprisonment or a fine of
    approximately 10,000 riyals (approximately $2,748). During the year
    there were no reported cases, and there have been no prosecutions under
    this law.

        e. Acceptable Conditions of Work.--There is no minimum wage. The
    median wage of noncitizen workers did not provide a decent standard of
    living for a worker and family. The law prescribes a 48-hour workweek
    with a 24-hour rest period, but most government offices followed a 36-
    hour workweek. Employees who worked more than 48 hours per week or 36
    hours per week during the holy month of Ramadan were entitled to
    overtime pay of at least a 25 percent wage supplement. Government
    offices and major private sector companies adhered to this law; it was
    often not observed with respect to unskilled laborers, construction
    workers, and domestic and personal employees, the majority of whom were
    foreigners. Many such workers frequently worked seven days a week and
    more than 12 hours a day with few or no holidays, no overtime pay, and
    no effective means to redress grievances.
        The rights of noncitizen workers continued to be severely
    restricted. Some employers mistreated foreign domestic servants,
    predominantly those from South Asia, Indonesia, and the Philippines, by
    withholding wages or paying wages late, as well as withholding
    passports. Some cases involved rape and physical abuse. A number of
    foreign embassies provided temporary shelter to their nationals who
    left their employers because of abuse or disputes before transferring
    the cases to local government officials. According to these embassies,
    the majority of cases were resolved within 48 hours by their mediation
    efforts between employee and employer. Those not resolved within 48
    hours were transferred to the Criminal Evidence and Investigation
    Department of the MOI for a maximum of seven days. Cases not resolved
    within seven days were transferred to the labor court, a special
    section of the first instance civil court.
        One foreign embassy reported that it received approximately 3,000
    complaints during the year; most related to nonpayment of salaries,
    failure to pay overtime, alteration in promised job and salary scale,
    alteration in contact terms after arrival, overload of work, compelling
    company's workers to work as domestic helpers, delayed stamping of
    resident permit, poor access to health care facilities, maltreatment,
    and physical abuse. Changes in the sponsorship law accounted for a
    steep drop in the number of complaints against sponsors for retaining
    employees' passports. The fine for withholding an employee passport is
    10,000 riyals (approximately $2,747). Another foreign embassy received
    between 50 and 60 complaints of abuse a day, including sexual
    harassment, delay and nonpayment of salaries, forced labor, contract
    switching, passport retention, poor accommodations, nonrepatriation,
    termination and deportation without cause, physical torture or torment,
    overwork, imprisonment, and mistreatment. Abused domestic servants
    usually did not press charges for fear of losing their jobs. Laborers
    and domestic workers can report cases of physical abuse directly to the
    police and make all other labor complaints to the Department of Labor.
        According to a foreign embassy, 191 of its reported 300,000
    citizens working in the country died during the year with heart attacks
    claiming 103; traffic accidents, 46; work-related accidents, 19; and
    suicides, 23. Police investigated the work-related deaths, but the
    results were not made public. Local support groups believed authorities
    reported the cause of death as heart attacks to hide workplace deaths.
    A foreign embassy reported a decrease in the overall number of
    complaints during the year.
        There were government regulations regarding worker safety and
    health, but enforcement, which is the combined responsibility of the
    Ministry of Energy and Industry, the Ministry of Health, and the Labor
    Department, was uneven due to insufficient training and lack of
    personnel. Diplomatic representatives visited labor camps and found
    most unskilled foreign laborers living in cramped, dirty, and hazardous
    conditions, often without running water, electricity, or adequate food.
    The Labor Inspection Department conducted random inspections of labor
    camps and, when it found them below minimum standards, the operators
    received a warning, and authorities ordered them to remedy the
    violations within a specified period of one month. If they did not
    remedy the violations, the Labor Department referred the matter to the
    public prosecutor for action. From January to October, 11,311
    inspections took place, observing work and labor housing sites out of
    which 9,543 were found acceptable, 790 unacceptable, and 963 still
    under investigation. Foreign labor officials reported that conditions
    at most labor camps in the country remained far below international
    standards. A foreign embassy reported acceptable conditions at the
    three camps that house its nationals, and embassy staff were permitted
    to visit on a regular basis.
        The Department of Public Safety oversaw safety training and
    conditions, and the state-run petroleum company had its own safety
    standards and procedures. The regulations listed partial and permanent
    disabilities for which compensation may be awarded, some connected with
    handling chemicals and petroleum products or construction injuries. The
    law specifically set rates of payment and compensation. The Government
    provided free medical treatment to workers who suffered work-related
    sickness or injuries.
        Foreign workers may enter the country on a visitor's visa, but a
    sponsor is needed to convert a visitor's visa to a work visa and the
    worker must have a sponsor's permission to depart the country. In order
    to convert a visitor's visa to a work visa, the individual must find a
    job and have his prospective employer submit paperwork to the Ministry
    of Interior requesting the transfer of visa status. These requests
    usually are rejected, forcing the individual to travel out of Qatar and
    return immediately under the work visa.

                                   __________

                                  SAUDI ARABIA

        The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is a monarchy ruled by the Al Saud
    family. The population is approximately 28.5 million, including 5.8
    million foreigners. Since 2005 King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud has
    ruled under the title Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, a reference to
    his responsibility for Islam's two holiest sites in Mecca and Medina.
    The Government bases its legitimacy on its interpretation of Sharia
    (Islamic law) and the 1992 Basic Law. The Basic Law sets out the system
    of governance, rights of citizens, and powers and duties of the
    Government. The law also provides that the Qur'an and the Traditions
    (Sunna) of the Prophet Muhammad serve as the country's constitution. In
    2005 the country held male-only elections on a nonparty basis for half
    the members of municipal councils, the first elections for any
    government position since 1963. Security forces reported to civilian
    authorities.
        The following significant human rights problems were reported: no
    right to change the Government peacefully; torture and physical abuse;
    poor prison and detention center conditions; arbitrary arrest and
    incommunicado detention; denial of fair and public trials and lack of
    due process in the judicial system; political prisoners; restrictions
    on civil liberties such as freedoms of speech (including the Internet),
    assembly, association, movement, and severe restrictions on religious
    freedom; and corruption and lack of government transparency. Violence
    against women and a lack of equal rights for women, violations of the
    rights of children, trafficking in persons, and discrimination on the
    basis of gender, religion, sect, and ethnicity were common. The lack of
    workers' rights, including the employment sponsorship system, remained
    a severe problem.
        Increased efforts to protect women and children against domestic
    violence through the National Family Safety Program, as well as the
    Human Rights Commission, reflected a significant human rights
    achievement.

                            RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

    Section 1. Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom
            From:
        a. Arbitrary or Unlawful Deprivation of Life.--The Government or
    its agents were not known to have committed politically motivated
    killings during the year. However, closed court proceedings in capital
    cases made it impossible to determine whether the accused were allowed
    to present a defense or were granted basic due process, and there were
    reports that the Government killed civilians in conflict.
        The Government reportedly announced 26 executions during the year,
    all by beheading. Death sentences for two women and one man convicted
    of witchcraft and sorcery were reportedly vacated. On November 10, the
    Supreme Court overturned the death sentence for Lebanese national Ali
    Hussein Sibat convicted on charges of sorcery and requested that a new
    panel of judges reexamine the case and issue a less severe punishment,
    such as deportation. The Government executed 67 persons in 2009 and 102
    persons in 2008.
        There was no update on the reported June 2009 death in custody of
    Abdullah al-Rumian, a Saudi militant extradited from Iraq, in the state
    security detention center at Al-Ha'ir (security offenders are held in
    the detention center, criminal offenders in the prison).
        There were media reports that Saudi armed forces killed Yemeni
    civilians in cross-border air and artillery strikes against Houthi
    rebels from Yemen more than a week after a January 23 cease-fire.
    During the year the Houthis claimed there were 14 deaths through
    February 5, including some women and children. The Government claimed
    its attacks, which began in November 2009, were within Saudi territory
    and intended to eliminate armed groups of Houthi rebels who had killed
    three border guards and wounded 15 other members of the security forces
    in the border region of Jebel al-Dukhan. In December 2009, according to
    press reports, Saudi attacks killed 54 civilians in the town of Al-
    Nadheer and injured an unknown number.

        b. Disappearance.--There were no reports of politically motivated
    disappearances during the year.

        c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or
    Punishment.--Article 2 of the Law of Criminal Procedure and other legal
    provisions prohibit torture and hold criminal investigation officers
    accountable for any abuse of authority. Sharia, as interpreted in the
    country, prohibits judges from accepting confessions obtained under
    duress. Government officials claimed that Ministry of Interior (MOI)
    rules prohibiting torture assured that such practices did not occur in
    the penal system, and the president of the Governmental Human Rights
    Commission (HRC) conducted prison visits in 2009 to ascertain that
    torture did not occur in prisons or detention centers. Nevertheless,
    during the year there continued to be reports that authorities
    sometimes subjected prisoners and detainees to torture and other
    physical abuse.
        On December 1, 32-year-old Yemeni Sultan Muhammad Abdo Doais
    reportedly died in the custody of Qassim prison after four years of
    incommunicado detention. His brother reported to the unlicensed
    nongovernmental organization (NGO) the Saudi Civil and Political Rights
    Association (ACPRA) that investigator Nawaf Ibrahim Duwaysh had
    tortured Sultan to the point that his health had deteriorated and he
    had become mentally ill. His family was permitted to see him every four
    months.
        There were no updates in the reported cases of torture by prison
    officials stemming from the June 2009 claims by the NGO Yemeni Network
    for Human Rights concerning Saleh Salim, three other defendants in the
    same case, and hundreds of allegedly similar cases in the prisons.
        During the year Suliman al-Reshoudi remained in prison on charges
    of financing and supporting terrorism and was ``in and out'' of
    solitary confinement, according to the ACPRA. The royal family-funded
    NGO National Society for Human Rights (NSHR) confirmed that al-Reshoudi
    had been indicted and tried. In October 2009 the ACPRA wrote an open
    letter to King Abdullah highlighting that the 73-year-old al-Reshoudi,
    a member of the ACPRA, was subjected to ``severe physical and
    psychological tortures,'' including tying his feet to a bed frame with
    two separate chains and being forced into a sitting position throughout
    the day and shackled at night. The prisoner has been in solitary
    confinement for three years because of his reform advocacy and
    activism, according to ACPRA.
        There were reports of government officials and employees physically
    abusing persons during the year; however, the number of reported abuses
    and corporal punishment declined.
        The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice
    (CPVPV), a semiautonomous agency commonly known as the religious
    police, has the authority to monitor social behavior and enforce
    morality. There were no reports of police, employees, or volunteers of
    the CPVPV harassing women and men for being alone in the company of an
    unrelated person of the opposite sex, although there were arrests for
    such activities.
        Judicially sanctioned corporal punishments were carried out. For
    example, on March 13, the Riyadh Court of Appeals endorsed a verdict
    sentencing a man accused of sorcery to eight years in prison and 800
    lashes after the CPVPV had arrested him for practicing magic and being
    involved in other activities allegedly contrary to the teachings of
    Islam.
        On July 10, the daily newspaper Arab News reported that a diabetic
    prisoner confined to a wheelchair lost his eyesight after being whipped
    in a prison in Mecca. The prisoner reportedly had been charged with
    fraud and sentenced to six months in prison and 150 lashes. The NSHR
    reportedly investigated the case with prison officials and facilitated
    the prisoner's release and the payment of his debts. There was no
    indication that responsible prison officials were prosecuted.
        Unlike in the previous year, there were no judicially sanctioned
    amputations reported.
        On September 28, the Saudi Gazette reported that a court in Qatif
    sentenced two third-grade students to six months in prison and 120
    lashes for stealing examination papers.
        There were reports that rape and other sexual abuses were
    widespread during confinement in both men's and women's detention
    centers and prisons. Although there were some female guards in women's
    prisons, their supervisors were men. In 2009 local human rights
    watchers reported that prisoners had been sexually abused in the
    Buraida Prison in Qassim but did not alert prison authorities due to
    the stigma and penalties associated with homosexual activities. Human
    rights activists stated that the MOI was not responsive to requests
    from independent activists to investigate this allegation.

        Prison and Detention Center Conditions.--Prison and detention
    center conditions varied, and some did not meet international
    standards. No independent human rights observers visited prisons or
    detention centers during the year, but the Government permitted
    domestic organizations, such as the NSHR and the Governmental HRC, to
    perform some monitoring of prison conditions. In its 2009 annual
    report, the NSHR registered 682 cases involving prisoners who
    complained about conditions during the year. The NSHR reportedly
    monitored health care in prisons and brought deficiencies to the
    attention of the MOI, which administers prisons and detention centers.
        On October 20, the NSHR inspected the Taif Deportation and
    Detention Center. The Detention Center was dilapidated with inadequate
    air-conditioning and toilets, but the NSHR noted that living conditions
    in the Deportation Center were good, and there were no complaints about
    maltreatment.
        In its 2009 report, the HRC found prison conditions below
    acceptable levels, citing overcrowding and prolonged detention of
    prisoners and pretrial detainees who had served their sentence. Human
    rights observers stated that women's prisons were in especially poor
    condition. On January 29 and on September 22, riots took place at the
    Women's Correction Center in Mecca. In January the women had complained
    of poor conditions, including no access to medical care, no family
    visits, unhygienic food, and physical assaults. Both the
    nongovernmental NSHR and the MOI's Commission for Investigation and
    Public Prosecution (CIPP) investigated and verified the complaints, and
    the NSHR stated that it was monitoring the situation. The Ministry of
    Social Affairs (MOSA) issued a report recommending that the facility
    should not receive new prisoners for six months due to overcrowding,
    that it should employ additional female housekeeping staff, and that
    modern educational methods replace corporal punishment. The CIPP
    investigated the September incident; its findings were not reported by
    the end of the year.
        On August 25, the daily newspaper Al-Watan reported the deaths of
    five Ethiopians resulting from suffocation due to overcrowding in the
    Jizan Deportation Center. On August 30, the Arab News reported that the
    NSHR's supervisor general found the health conditions of many inmates
    in the deportation center to be poor. A governmental committee
    investigated the deaths; findings were not reported at the end of the
    year.
        There were approximately 29,000 prisoners and detainees, including
    juveniles and women, according to the UN 2007-08 Human Development
    Report. The maximum number of prisoners and detainees the facilities
    were meant to hold was not available.
        Pretrial detainees were held together with convicted prisoners.
    Persons suspected or convicted of terrorism offenses were separated
    from the general population, according to diplomatic sources, but held
    in similar facilities. Detainees and prisoners were permitted to
    perform religious observances. Security prisoners and some other
    prisoners did not have reasonable access to visitors. There was no
    information available whether prisoners were able to submit complaints
    to judicial authorities without censorship or whether credible
    allegations of inhumane conditions and treatment were investigated and
    made public. There was no ombudsman to act in behalf of prisoners and
    detainees.
        On July 18, local press reported that HRC President Bandar al-Aiban
    demanded that the shortcomings in the country's prisons be addressed
    and that prisoners be guaranteed their legal rights. The Ministry of
    Justice attempted to improve the pretrial detention process and insist
    on the prompt release of prisoners upon completion of their sentence.
    On July 10, the ministry directed courts to expedite prisoner releases
    so that prisoners were not held for longer than their sentence and
    stressed that the Penal Procedures Regulations gave prisoners a right
    to compensation in such cases. On October 5, the Saudi Gazette reported
    that the MOI's Expatriate Administration in Jeddah deported 1,000
    detainees who had been held in the Jeddah Deportation Center for
    violations of residency laws. Detentions can be prolonged due to delays
    in issuing required travel documents. Since 2008 the CIPP has reviewed
    cases of prisoners who served their sentence but remained imprisoned,
    although the results were not publicly available. According to the NSHR
    and the HRC, efforts to reduce the number of prisoners in prisons and
    detention centers included time away from prison and participation in
    work programs outside prison if warranted by a record of good behavior.
    In September 2009, in part to address the issue of overcrowding, the
    Council of Ministers authorized waivers of 15 percent of sentences for
    inmates with good behavior records who completed educational and
    vocational training programs in prison; this waiver program was in
    effect during the year.

        d. Arbitrary Arrest or Detention.--The Basic Law provides that a
    person's actions may not be restricted and a person may not be
    imprisoned, except under provisions of the law. Nonetheless, because of
    ambiguous implementation of the law and a lack of due process, the MOI,
    to which all forces with arrest power report, maintained broad powers
    to arrest and detain persons indefinitely without judicial oversight or
    effective access to legal counsel or family. In practice authorities
    held persons for weeks, months, and (sometimes) for years.

        Role of the Police and Security Apparatus.--The king, minister of
    interior, minister of defense, and Saudi Arabian National Guard (SANG)
    commander all have responsibility in law and in practice for law
    enforcement and maintenance of order. On November 17, Prince Miteb bin
    Abdullah replaced his father, King Abdullah, in command of the SANG.
    Crown Prince Sultan, the minister of defense and aviation, was
    responsible for all of that ministry's armed forces. The minister of
    interior, Prince Naif, exercised control over all internal security and
    police forces, except the General Intelligence Presidency, the
    Government's primary external intelligence agency that reports directly
    to the king and maintains its own forces. The civil police and the
    internal security police are authorized to arrest and detain
    individuals. The semiautonomous CPVPV, which monitors public behavior
    to enforce strict adherence to Saudi official interpretation of Islamic
    norms, reports to the king via the Royal Diwan (royal court) and to the
    MOI.
        Security forces were generally effective at maintaining law and
    order. The Board of Grievances, an administrative judicial commission
    responsible directly to the king, is the only formal mechanism
    available to investigate claims of abuse, but its findings were not
    public. Citizens may report abuses by security forces at any police
    station, to the HRC, or to the NSHR. The HRC and the NSHR maintained
    records of complaints and outcomes, but privacy laws protected
    information about individual cases, and information was not publicly
    available. During the year there were no reported prosecutions of
    security forces for human rights violations, but there was at least one
    investigation into wrongdoing. On August 4, authorities in the Tabuk
    region investigated a complaint against the CPVPV where they forced a
    man to come in for questioning under false pretenses. At year's end the
    outcome of the investigation was unknown.
        The HRC in cooperation with the Ministry of Education provided
    materials and training to police, security forces, and the CPVPV on
    protecting human rights. On May 17-18, Naif Arab University held a
    seminar to train members of the Supreme Judicial Council and judges on
    skills needed to combat trafficking in persons and coordinate with
    international organizations on the problem. On July 10, 540 CPVPV
    senior field staff participated in training at the University of Taif
    to acquaint themselves with regulations relevant to their work. The
    program consisted of 18 courses administered over six consecutive
    training periods. On July 27, members of the CPVPV participated in a
    five-hour workshop with 20 specialists to discuss the organization's
    performance, learn how to address its audience, and present a positive
    and professional image.

        Arrest Procedures and Treatment While in Detention.--According to
    the Law of Criminal Procedure, ``no person shall be arrested, searched,
    detained, or imprisoned except in cases provided by law, and any
    accused person shall have the right to seek the assistance of a lawyer
    or a representative to defend him during the investigation and trial
    stages.'' Authorities may summon any person for investigation, and an
    arrest warrant may be issued based on evidence, but warrants sometimes
    were not used, and they are not required in cases of probable cause.
    There was a functioning bail system for less serious criminal charges.
    The law does not specify a timeframe for access to a lawyer, although
    the law provides the accused the right to seek legal assistance; the
    practice is for the state to provide a lawyer for indigents. There were
    no established procedures providing detainees the right to contact
    family members following arrest. The law specifies a timeframe for
    judicial determination of the legality of detention by a 72-hour limit
    on the period of arrest without charges being filed and requiring trial
    of the detained within six months. Reportedly, authorities frequently
    failed to observe these legal protections.
        Incommunicado detention was sometimes a problem. According to an
    Amnesty International (AI) report during the year, thousands of
    individuals detained on security grounds were held in virtual secrecy,
    although the definition of virtual secrecy was unclear. There were
    reports of at least one incident involving torture or abuse of persons
    in such detention.
        There were reports of arbitrary arrest and detention. Although the
    law prohibits detention without charge, authorities detained without
    charge security suspects, persons who publicly criticized the
    Government, Shia religious leaders, and others who violated religious
    standards.
        On March 3, according to the ACPRA, the MOI's security arm, the
    Department of General Investigation, reportedly arrested human rights
    activist and student Thamer Abdulkareem al-Kather without charge in
    Qassim and transferred him to a prison in Riyadh. Al-Kather advocated
    for prisoners' rights and constitutional reform.
        On June 15, the Abu Dhabi newspaper, The National, reported that
    authorities in Jubail in the Eastern Province arrested and imprisoned
    human rights activist Mekhlef bin Daham al-Shammary without a formal
    charge. According to the NGO Human Rights First Society, which holds a
    power of attorney from al-Shammary, the charge in the prison file was
    ``annoying others'' (see section 2.a., Internet Freedom). Government
    sources stated that al-Shammary held unlicensed political meetings, an
    illegal activity.
        According to the ACPRA, the following activists were also among
    those detained without official indictment or court ruling at year's
    end: Abdulrahman al-Shomairi, Ali Khosifan al-Qarni, Mousa al-Qarni,
    Saud al-Hashemi, Abdulrahman bin Sadiq, Saifaldeen Faisal al-Sherif,
    Mansour al-Otha, Abdulrahman Khan, Muhammad al-Otaibi, and Khalid al-
    Omair. According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), most of these activists
    had been detained since 2007. The media reported allegations that the
    activists financed terrorism outside the country. The ACPRA claimed in
    an open letter to the king that the Government uses religion and the
    counterterror campaign to criminalize, incarcerate, and discredit
    advocates of reform. In 2008 the ACPRA and outside supporters organized
    a two-day hunger strike to protest these activists' ongoing detention.
    On August 28, authorities charged one of the activists, Suleiman al-
    Reshoudi, with financing and supporting terrorism after his lawyer
    filed a lawsuit based on the legal requirement that a detainee be
    released if court procedures have not begun within six months of his
    detention.
        Arbitrarily lengthy pretrial detention was a problem. According to
    the NSHR's 2009 report, the MOI did not respect the Punitive Procedures
    Law in arresting and detaining suspected terrorists. Suspects remained
    in detention in regions far from their families and for years without
    trial.
        In 2009, following its 2007 report claiming that some police
    officers detained individuals without justification or threatened them
    into making confessions or giving information relevant to an
    investigation, the NSHR called for a neutral party to evaluate
    defendants' claims of torture to obtain confessions by force.
        The CPVPV are required to have a police officer accompany them at
    the time of an arrest, although conformity to the regulation was
    sporadic. Particularly in the more conservative Nejd region, the CPVPV
    accosted, abused, and detained citizens and noncitizens, especially
    women, for allegedly violating dress and behavior standards.

        Amnesty.--During the year the king continued the tradition of
    tempering judicial punishments. The details of the cases varied, but
    the demonstration of royal mercy sometimes included reducing or
    eliminating corporal punishment, for example, rather than wiping the
    slate clean. However, the remaining sentence could be added to a new
    sentence if the pardoned prisoner committed a crime subsequent to his
    release. There were pardons or grants of amnesty on special occasions.
    On August 12, the Saudi Gazette reported that the king pardoned 60
    inmates from prisons in the Al-Baha region. On September 2, the king
    reportedly pardoned 60 prisoners in Al-Ahsa Prison as part of his
    traditional Ramadan pardon.

        e. Denial of Fair Public Trial.--The 2007 Law of the Judiciary
    provides that judges are independent and are subject to no authority
    other than the provisions of Sharia and laws in force. In practice the
    judiciary was not independent as it was required to cooperate with the
    executive and legislative authorities with the king as arbiter.
    Although allegations of interference with judicial independence were
    uncommon, the judiciary was subject to influence. The courts did not
    attempt to exercise jurisdiction over senior members of the royal
    family. There were problems enforcing court orders.
        Rather than a penal code, Sharia as interpreted in the country is
    the basis of the penal system. The Council of Senior Religious Scholars
    (Ulema), an autonomous advisory body, has the authority to determine
    how judges should interpret Sharia. The council consists of 21 senior
    religious jurists, including the minister of justice.
        Sharia is not based on precedent and rulings can diverge widely.
    Judges may base their decisions on any of the four Sunni schools of
    jurisprudence. In practice judges usually follow the Hanbali School of
    jurisprudence. Shia citizens use their own legal traditions, namely the
    Jaafari School, to adjudicate intra-Shia cases involving domestic
    problems, inheritance, and Islamic endowments and are subject to Sunni
    jurisprudence in all other disputes.
        The military justice system has jurisdiction over uniformed
    personnel and civil servants charged with violations of military
    regulations. The defense minister and the king review the decisions of
    military tribunals. Information on the existence of military tribunals
    separate from the military court system was not available.
        In 2008 the Government established a Specialized Criminal Court
    (SCC) within the existing court system to handle terrorist cases. In a
    decision to promote judicial efficiency and consistency, the Supreme
    Judicial Council was given jurisdiction to establish, abolish, and
    merge courts and specify a court's jurisdiction. The SCC follows the
    2007 Law of Criminal Procedure.
        In July 2009, without publicizing names or charges, the Ministry of
    Justice announced that the SCC had tried 330 persons since its
    creation; almost all were judged in closed trials, the first publicly
    reported trials since 2003 for terrorism offenses. Seven of the
    individuals were acquitted; sentences for the others ranged from fines
    to the death penalty.

        Trial Procedures.--Laws and regulations state that defendants
    should be treated equally in accordance with Sharia. The Law of
    Criminal Procedure states that court hearings shall be public; courts
    may be closed at the judge's discretion, and many trials during the
    year were closed. According to the Ministry of Justice, a trial may be
    closed depending on the sensitivity of the case to national security,
    the reputation of the defendant, or the safety of witnesses.
        According to the Law of Criminal Procedure, there is neither
    presumption of innocence nor trial by jury. The law provides defendants
    the right to be present at trial and to consult with a lawyer during
    the investigation and trial who may present arguments in criminal
    courts. According to the HRC, at the Government's discretion, an
    attorney may be provided to indigents at public expense. Defendants
    also have the right to confront or question witnesses against them and
    present witnesses in their behalf. However, the court presents the
    witnesses. The Law of Criminal Procedure provides that a CIPP-appointed
    investigator questions the witnesses called by the litigants before the
    initiation of a trial and may hear testimony of additional witnesses he
    deems necessary to determine the facts. There is no right to access to
    government-held evidence. Defendants may request to review evidence,
    and the court decides whether to grant the request. The court must
    inform convicted persons of their right to appeal rulings.
        Sharia as interpreted by the Government extends these provisions
    above to all citizens and noncitizens; however, the law and practice
    discriminate against women (see section 6), nonpracticing Sunni, Shia,
    and persons of other religions. For example, judges may discount the
    testimony of nonpracticing Sunni Muslims, Shia Muslims, or persons of
    other religions; sources reported that judges sometimes completely
    ignored testimony by Shia.
        On October 25, the Arab News reported and government sources
    confirmed that the High Court on September 25 rejected an appeal in
    Rizana Nafeek's death sentence case. In 2007 a court convicted Nafeek,
    a Sri Lankan domestic worker, of killing an infant in her care; she had
    no legal representation, and an initial appeal hearing revealed that
    her interpreter may not have been qualified.

        Political Prisoners and Detainees.--National security interests
    made it impossible to ascertain the legal basis for detention and
    whether it complied with international human rights norms and
    standards. Accordingly, the number of political prisoners or detainees
    who reportedly remained in prolonged detention without charge could not
    be ascertained during the year. The Government asserted that secret
    detentions were in conjunction with its efforts to combat terrorism.
    International NGOs, AI in particular, criticized the Government for
    abusing its antiterrorism prerogatives to arrest some members of the
    political opposition. Security detainees were not given the same
    protections as other prisoners or detainees. Security suspects arrested
    by the internal security police remained incommunicado in special
    prisons during the initial phase of investigations, which could last
    indefinitely. Authorities restricted family and legal access to
    detainees; no international humanitarian organizations had access to
    them.
        According to a March 23 HRW report, in November 2009 the domestic
    intelligence service arrested Munir Jassas, a Shia government critic
    who operated the ``Tahera'' Internet forum and allegedly commented
    publicly on articles critical of the royal family. He told his wife he
    had been arrested and held in solitary confinement for four months
    because of his Internet writings. He remained detained without charge
    at year's end.

        Civil Judicial Procedures and Remedies.--Rather than Sharia courts,
    specialized tribunals in the executive branch decide civil disputes
    relying on regulatory and legislative precepts and provide
    administrative remedies. These tribunals hear claims against the
    Government and enforce foreign judgments.
        On December 19, the Saudi Gazette reported that a family had lodged
    an appeal for the reinstatement of their citizenship with the Riyadh
    governorate. A tribal elder had stripped them of their citizenship by
    claiming to government authorities that the head of the family was not
    a Saudi citizen, reportedly in retaliation for a dispute over a bride.
    The case was pending at year's end. Contacts reported that the
    enforcement of civil court orders was problematic in the country.
        Claims for damages or an end to human rights violations can also be
    brought to the Higher Administrative Court, which specializes in cases
    against government departments and reports directly to the king. There
    were no reports of any such cases during the year or in the previous
    year. Instead, complainants generally referred their cases to the HRC,
    which either advocated on their behalf or provided courts with opinions
    on their cases. The HRC was generally responsive to complaints;
    domestic violence cases were the most common. During the year the HRC's
    caseload included 36 cases involving women seeking nationality for
    their children, 32 cases of women desiring to work or seeking a safe
    work environment, and 30 domestic abuse cases. The HRC took up the case
    of Hadi al-Muti, sentenced to an additional five years' imprisonment
    for criticizing the country's judicial system and human rights record
    (see section 2.a.).

        f. Arbitrary Interference With Privacy, Family, Home, or
    Correspondence.--The Basic Law and royal decrees provide that
    residences are inviolable and may not be entered or searched without
    their owner's permission, except in cases set forth in the law. Laws
    and regulations prohibit officials from intercepting mail and
    electronic communications, except when deemed necessary during internal
    security and criminal investigations; in such cases police must
    demonstrate reasonable cause and obtain permission from a provincial
    governor. The Basic Law provides for the privacy of correspondence. The
    Criminal Procedure Law requires authorities to obtain a warrant before
    searching a residence or a court order before perusing personal
    correspondence and documents.
        In practice the Government used the considerable latitude provided
    by the law to monitor situations legally and interfere where security,
    religion, or other national interests were deemed to be involved.
        For example, the Government strictly monitored all political
    activity and took punitive actions, including arrest and detention,
    against persons who appeared to oppose the Government. There were
    reports from human rights activists of government efforts to monitor or
    block mobile telephone or Internet usage ahead of planned
    demonstrations. The Government did not respect the privacy of
    correspondence or communications. Customs officials routinely opened
    mail and shipments to search for contraband. In some areas MOI
    informants reported ``seditious ideas,'' ``antigovernment activity,''
    or ``behavior contrary to Islam'' in their neighborhoods.
        On August 2, according to the NGO Arabic Network for Human Rights,
    members of the MOI's investigation service raided the farm of prominent
    Shia preacher Muhammad Muhammad Ali al-Emary in Medina, confiscating
    materials with Shia slogans and arresting al-Emary and his son, Kazim.
    Al-Emary's ranch includes a mosque and is considered a prominent Shia
    religious center in Medina.
        The CPVPV enforced strict standards of behavior; however, since
    there are no clear standards for what constitutes improper attire or
    prohibited gender mixing, enforcement of these rules was arbitrary. On
    March 17, the Saudi Gazette reported that the CPVPV allegedly assaulted
    a man in Medina and held him inside a restaurant because his trousers
    were regarded as ``immoral.'' Police took him into custody, held him at
    the police station for four hours, and then released him on bail. The
    CIPP was investigating the case.

    Section 2. Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:
        a. Freedom of Speech and Press.--The Government actively impeded
    criticism and monitored citizens' political activity. The law forbids
    apostasy. All public employees are enjoined from ``participating,
    directly or indirectly, in the preparation of any document, speech, or
    petition; engaging in dialogue with local and foreign media; or
    participating in any meetings intended to oppose the state's
    policies.''
        During the year authorities released university professor Sa'id Bin
    Zu'air from prison, according to the NSHR. According to AI, he was
    arrested in 2007 on charges of financially aiding terrorists; other
    sources claimed he was arrested to prevent him from appearing on Al
    Jazeera television and criticizing the Government.
        In September 2009 Hadi al-Mutif, a Shia imprisoned since 1994 for
    apostasy, received a further five-year sentence for statements on a
    smuggled video tape criticizing the judicial system and the
    Government's human rights record. He reportedly remained incarcerated
    in solitary confinement at year's end.
        The Government owned most print and broadcast media and book
    publication facilities in the country, and members of the royal family
    owned or influenced those that were privately owned and nominally
    independent, including various media outlets and widely circulated pan-
    Arab newspapers, such as Ash-Sharq Al-Awsat and Al-Hayat. The
    Government owned, operated, and censored most domestic television and
    radio outlets. Privately owned satellite television networks
    headquartered outside the country maintained local offices and operated
    under a system of self-censorship. Many other foreign satellite
    stations broadcast a wide range of programs into the country. Foreign
    media are subject to licensing requirements from the MOI and cannot
    operate freely.
        The legal structure permitted the Government broad leeway in
    controlling the media through lawful controls on newsprint, printing
    presses, licensing, and media content. The Ministry of Culture and
    Information must approve the appointment of all senior editors and has
    the authority to remove them. The Government provides guidelines to
    newspapers regarding controversial issues. A 1982 media policy
    statement urges journalists to uphold Islam, oppose atheism, promote
    Arab interests, and preserve cultural heritage. The Governmental Saudi
    Press Agency reports official government news.
        All newspapers in the country must be licensed by the Government.
    Media outlets can legally be banned or publication temporarily halted
    if the Government assesses that they promote ``mischief and discord,
    compromise the security of the state and its public image,'' or
    ``offend a man's dignity and rights''; these formulations provide the
    Government with latitude in using the law to define public discourse.
    The Government continued to restrict freedom of speech and press by
    interrupting publication and dissemination of news sources critical of
    the royal family or of Islam.
        Journalists occasionally faced harassment and intimidation through
    phone calls or e-mails. The Government could ban writers critical of
    the religious establishment, the Government's activities, or the royal
    family from publishing. On February 14, the Government banned
    journalist Muhammad al-Retyan from writing for Al-Watan after he wrote
    an article that negatively reflected on the visa issuance process in
    the country and indirectly criticized the system of privileges for
    relatives of the royal family.
        The Government directly or indirectly censored or restricted media
    content through laws or other mechanisms. The Law of Printed Materials
    and Publication governs printed materials; printing presses;
    bookstores; import, rent, and sale of films; television and radio; and
    foreign media offices and their correspondents. All media activities
    are subject to the MOI's prior censorship and licensing requirements.
    On January 27, according to the NGO Committee to Protect Journalists
    (CPJ), the Government-run satellite operator Arabsat cut the Iranian-
    owned Arabic-language satellite channel Al-Alam off the air without
    prior notice. Al-Alam had criticized the Government's involvement in
    the insurgency in Yemen, an Al-Alam spokesman told CPJ. Censorship
    resulted in situations such as the Al-Watan editor in chief Jamal
    Khashoggi's alleged forced resignation on May 17 after the newspaper
    published an opinion column questioning the country's adherence to a
    literal interpretation of the Qur'an (Wahhabism); Khashoggi said that
    the newspaper ``should not have allowed an article to question the
    essence of our faith.''
        The Consultative Council (Majlis as-Shura), a 150-member appointed
    body advising the king, frequently allowed print and broadcast media to
    observe its proceedings and meetings, but the council closed certain
    high-profile or controversial sessions to the media.
        Foreign and domestic journalists practiced self-censorship. In some
    cases individuals were able to criticize specific government bodies or
    actions publicly without repercussions. On January 3, the ACPRA wrote
    an open letter to the king calling the MOI an ``oppressive authority''
    that had blatantly and unlawfully arrested two peaceful activists. In
    the aftermath of the November 2009 Jeddah flood, government bodies
    followed the example of the king who demanded accountability from
    government bodies that seemed to have poorly handled the flood and its
    effects. On May 25, the Saudi Gazette printed a letter to the minister
    of education criticizing the lack of vision and clear strategic plan
    for the country's education. The letter called for greater investment
    in the latest scientific technologies and in teaching staff.
        On October 26, the general court in Qubba sentenced Fahd al-
    Jukhaidib to two months in prison and 50 lashes for instigating
    protests against and leading residents to the Government electricity
    company to demand action. Jukhaidib had written a front-page article in
    Al-Jazirah, a daily national newspaper, about public anger over
    electricity cuts. The case was treated as a security infraction, and
    the Ministry of Culture and Information was not involved in the
    prosecution.
        On December 5, the MOI arrested Muhammad Abdullah al-Abdulkareem, a
    professor of law at Imam Muhammad bin Saud Islamic University, for
    posting an article describing political factions in the royal family on
    his Facebook page. He remained in detention at year's end.
        Authorities prevented or delayed the distribution of foreign print
    media, effectively censoring these publications.
        Restrictions, including censorship, limited the operation of
    publishing houses. Under the Law of Printed Materials and Publication,
    every author must provide two copies of a prepublication manuscript to
    the MOI for approval or rejection.
        Although satellite dishes were technically illegal, the Government
    did not enforce restrictions on several million dishes that provided
    foreign television programming. Access to outside sources of
    information, such as Arabic and Western satellite television channels
    and the Internet, was widespread.

        Internet Freedom.--The Government restricted access to the
    Internet. According to 2009 International Telecommunications Union
    statistics, approximately 38 percent of the country's inhabitants used
    the Internet.
        The official Communications and Information Technology Commission
    (CITC) monitored e-mail and Internet chat rooms and blocked sites
    deemed incompatible with Sharia and national regulations. In addition
    to designating unacceptable sites, the CITC accepted requests from
    citizens to block or unblock sites. According to CITC's general
    manager, authorities received an average of 1,800 requests daily to
    block and unblock sites. According to the NGO Reporters Without
    Borders, authorities claimed to have blocked approximately 400,000 Web
    sites. The Government blocked access to and criminalized the
    publication or downloading of Web sites that it deemed offensive (such
    as sites involving sex or pornography); contrary to the principles of
    Islam and social norms, including radical religious sites or sites with
    controversial religious content (including pages about Hinduism,
    Judaism, Christianity, and radical Islam); politically sensitive
    (including human rights); or offensive to the Government or members of
    the royal family. All Web sites registered and hosted in the country
    must be authorized by agencies of the Ministry of Culture and
    Information.
        On August 23, the CITC reportedly blocked access to Internet sites
    that were interpreting fatwas in violation of the August 12 royal
    decree restricting the ability to issue fatwas to the Council of Senior
    Ulema. Clerics offering fatwas via text messages were also blocked.
        The CITC blocked the Web site of ACPRA and previous iterations
    since ACPRA's inception in late 2009. The Web site of the NGO Human
    Rights First Society (HRFS) was also blocked throughout the year. ACPRA
    reported that the sites of Human Rights Monitor in Saudi Arabia and The
    Platform of Dialogue and Creativity were also blocked.
        Social networking Web sites, including Orkut and Hi5, were often
    blocked; PostSecret and MySpace were blocked intermittently; but
    Facebook, with approximately three million users in the country, was
    blocked only once--on November 13.
        Access to the Internet was legally available only through
    government-controlled Internet service providers. Although the
    authorities blocked Web sites offering proxies, persistent Internet
    users could work around the blocked sites and continue to access the
    Internet via other proxy servers.
        Individuals and groups were increasingly able to engage in the
    peaceful exchange of views via the Internet, including e-mail.
    Throughout the year the Government used online media outlets and blogs
    to float ideas to the public on a range of issues previously not
    discussed in the country. Readers were allowed to post online opinions
    on issues ranging from child brides to women cashiers to trafficking in
    persons, and a wide range of respectfully written opinion was
    represented.
        On June 15, Saudi authorities rearrested Sunni activist and writer
    Mekhlef bin Daham al-Shammary, allegedly for writing articles critical
    of anti-Shia policy and clerics attacking Shia, according to HRW.
    Authorities had previously detained him on May 15 for writing Web site
    articles such as a January 1 article disagreeing with a Sunni
    preacher's description of Iraqi Shia leader Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani as
    an ``obscene, irreligious atheist'' and an April 23 article concerning
    religious leaders' insistence on focusing on the morality of mixing
    genders rather than on pressing problems such as unemployment and
    poverty. He was subsequently released on bail before he was arrested
    again on June 15. Government officials stated that al-Shammary was
    arrested for repeatedly holding political meetings with minority
    groups, which the Government viewed as holding gatherings without a
    permit. He remained in prison at year's end.
        The NSHR confirmed that Raafat al-Ghanem, a popular blogger and
    founder of a proreform Web site was released from prison during the
    year. In July 2009 security forces arrested and detained him,
    presumably for articles criticizing the CPVPV and for signing an appeal
    for the release of blogger Muhammad al-Otaibi and writer Khaled al-
    Omair.
        The 2007 Law to Fight Cyber Crime imposes up to 10 years'
    imprisonment and a 4.7 million riyal ($1.3 million) fine for anyone who
    creates or disseminates a Web site for a terrorist organization to
    facilitate communication with leaders of such organizations or promote
    the organization's radical views. Other laws criminalize defamation on
    the Internet, hacking, unauthorized access to government Web sites, and
    stealing information related to national security. By year's end no
    prosecutions had been reported under these laws despite at least two
    widely reported instances of hacking; Al-Watan's Web site was hacked in
    November 2009 and September 2010.
        The Government was able to collect personally identifiable
    information concerning the identity of persons peacefully expressing
    political, religious, or ideological opinion or beliefs. The Government
    regularly monitored personal conversations via the telephone, the
    Internet, or other communication devices.
        On August 6, the NGO Reporters Without Borders reported that the
    country threatened to suspend instant messaging and other Blackberry
    services because the manufacturer did not provide the country access to
    the user data, allegedly violating wiretapping laws and threatening
    national security. At year's end these services had not been blocked.

        Academic Freedom and Cultural Events.--The Government revised
    elementary and middle school curricula across the board to include more
    English, science, history, and social studies and to reduce the amount
    of religious studies. Informants reportedly monitored classroom
    discussions and reported to government and religious authorities, in
    part to curb the development of extremist thought at schools and
    universities. Academics practiced self-censorship.
        Despite self-censorship by organizers, authorities monitored,
    censored, and closed some cultural events. The Government censored
    public artistic expression and prohibited cinemas and public musical or
    theatrical performances apart from those considered folkloric and part
    of a government approved special event. On April 6, the Ministry of
    Culture and Information permitted a public ``blues'' music concert at
    the King Fahd Cultural Center in Riyadh. Approximately 1,000 men and
    women attended the mixed-gender event.
        On April 23, the Saudi Gazette reported that from February 18
    through March 1, the country participated in Jeddah's Asian Film
    Festival by screening local films to reflect traditions and culture.
    However, the events were open by invitation only. In July 2009 the
    Government canceled the widely advertised fourth annual Jeddah Film
    Festival, after temporarily lifting a restriction on the public showing
    of films with the screening of a movie in Jeddah and Taif in 2008.
    Local authorities continued to force closings of social forums in the
    majority-Shia region of Al-Ahsa.
        The ultra-conservative Al-Imam Muhammad bin Saud Islamic University
    in Riyadh, the principal training institution for judges and imams,
    hosted a week-long art exhibition entitled ``Picturing America.''

        b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association.--Freedom of
    Assembly.--The Basic Law does not provide for freedom of assembly,
    which the Government strictly limited in practice.
        Public meetings were usually segregated by gender. Meetings of the
    Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry and some other commercial and
    medical events included both men and women. Authorities monitored large
    nonfamily gatherings, particularly if women were present. The CPVPV
    dispersed any large nonfamily groups in public places, such as
    restaurants. Men and women could mix in restaurants of Western luxury
    hotels that catered primarily to noncitizens and in the family sections
    of an increasing number of restaurants, which generally ceased the
    practice of checking identification cards for relationship status.
        Security forces usually denied demonstration requests and disrupted
    and dispersed demonstrators or would-be demonstrators during the year.
    There were no government-permitted, peaceful political demonstrations
    during the year. It was a crime to participate in unauthorized public
    assemblies. On June 14 and on December 22, according to the ACPRA, the
    MOI prevented a public sit-in in Riyadh demanding that Israel lift the
    Gaza blockade and protesting prolonged detentions of human rights
    activists. On December 21, the MOI summoned the sit-in organizers for
    questioning but released them. The Saudi Gazette reported on August 30
    that 200 unemployed university graduates staged a protest outside the
    Ministry of Higher Education in Riyadh demanding jobs.
        In January 2009 police arrested Khaled al-Omair, Muhammad al-
    Otaibi, and at least 21 others in Riyadh and detained them in unknown
    locations after the men attempted to protest Israel's military action
    in Gaza through a public sit-in. Their whereabouts were later revealed,
    and in late June 2009 the Government charged al-Omair and al-Otaibi
    with participating in a protest. The charges subsequently were dropped,
    although 10 of the men (including al-Omair and al-Otaibi) remained in
    detention at year's end without publicly known charges (see section
    1.c.).
        In late February and early March 2009, security officers arrested
    more than 50 Shia citizens, including children, in the Eastern Province
    for engaging in a peaceful demonstration in solidarity with Shia
    arrested in the Medina clashes. Authorities held more than 24
    individuals until July 2009, when the king granted a pardon.

        Freedom of Association.--The Basic Law does not provide for freedom
    of association, and the Government strictly limited this right in
    practice. The Government prohibited the establishment of political
    parties or any group it considered as opposing or challenging the
    regime. All associations must be licensed by the MOI and comply with
    its regulations. Groups that hoped to change some element of the social
    or political order reported that their licensing requests went
    unanswered. The MOI reportedly used arbitrary means, such as requiring
    unreasonable types and quantities of information, effectively to deny
    associations licenses.
        At year's end the Government had not licensed the HRFS, whose
    founder, Ibrahim al-Mugaiteeb, applied for a license in 2002. The
    Government continued to permit its informal operation, but since the
    group was formally ``unlicensed,'' it remained unclear which activities
    were permitted and which could draw government criticism or punishment.
    Without a license the group was unable to raise operating funds, which
    severely limited its activities.
        In October 2009 the newly founded ACPRA wrote an open letter to the
    king to announce its purpose to promote human rights awareness in
    society and educate citizens on basic freedoms as elaborated in the
    Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The ACPRA reportedly did not
    apply for a license, given the presumed unlikelihood of one being
    issued, according to one of the group's founders. The 11 founding
    members of the organization were academics and human rights activists.
    The group had previously been operating as the Human Rights Civic
    Society Saudi Arabia organization, which was also unlicensed.
        Government-chartered associations observe citizen-only limitations.
    For example, the Saudi Journalists Association, which operates under a
    government charter, did not give voting rights in the organization to
    noncitizen members and prohibited them from attending the association's
    general assembly.

        c. Freedom of Religion.--For a complete description of religious
    freedom, please see the 2010 International Religious Freedom Report at
    www.state.gov/g/drl/irf/rpt.

        d. Freedom of Movement, Internally Displaced Persons, Protection of
    Refugees, and Stateless Persons.--The Basic Law does not contain
    provisions for freedom of movement within the country, foreign travel,
    or emigration and repatriation. The Government cooperated with the
    Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and other
    humanitarian organizations in providing protection and assistance to
    internally displaced persons, refugees, returning refugees, asylum
    seekers, stateless persons, and other persons of concern. The UNHCR's
    regional office in Riyadh managed operations in Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman,
    Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. The regional office focused on
    public awareness, fundraising, refugee status determination, and
    durable solutions for refugees.
        Generally the Government did not restrict the free movement of male
    citizens within the country or the right of citizens to change
    residence or workplace, provided they held a national identification
    card (NIC). The law requires all male citizens 15 years of age or older
    to hold an NIC. For women the NIC was optional, reflecting the
    different status of female citizens, and could be issued only if a
    woman's male guardian (grandfather, father, uncle, brother, husband,
    son, or nephew) consented in writing to its issuance or if she already
    held a valid passport, also issued only with a guardian's consent. Any
    transaction with a government agency or public institution required
    presentation of the NIC. During the year the Government continued to
    issue NICs to women, despite opposition from religious conservatives.
    The Government imposed restrictions on women's freedom of movement by
    prohibiting them from driving motor vehicles. The guardianship system
    requires a woman to have the permission of her male guardian to work or
    move freely in the country (see section 6).
        There are restrictions on foreign travel, including for women and
    members of minority groups. No one may leave the country without an
    exit visa and a passport. Women and minors (younger than 21 years old)
    require a male guardian's consent to have a passport and to travel
    abroad. A noncitizen wife needs permission from her husband to travel
    unless both partners sign a prenuptial agreement permitting the
    noncitizen wife to travel without the husband's permission. Government
    entities and male family members can ``blacklist'' women and minor
    children, prohibiting their travel. In cases involving custody
    disputes, the male guardian is legally able to prevent even adult
    children from leaving the country.
        According to a May 11 Arab News report, noncitizen Nazia Qazi
    succeeded in leaving the country. She had reportedly entered the
    country in 2007 on a three-month visitor visa to visit her father, who,
    without her knowledge, asserted his guardianship over her during the
    visit by submitting sponsorship documents, confiscated her Indian and
    Canadian passports, and refused to apply for her exit visa, without
    which she had not been allowed to leave the country.
        On July 21, the Arab News reported that a woman urged the MOI
    Passport Directorate to issue her a new passport because her husband
    had taken her passport, withdrawn his written permission allowing her
    to travel, and had absconded to another Arab country along with their
    children, leaving her unable to follow. At year's end no further
    information was available.
        The Government continued to impose travel bans on some social or
    political reform advocates. During the year the Government revoked the
    rights of some citizens to travel outside the country for political
    reasons but did not provide them with notification or opportunity to
    contest the restriction.
        During the year the Government reinstated the right to travel for
    human rights activist and lawyer Abdulrahman al-Lahem. His travel ban
    had been in effect since 2004. In 2008 the Government had prevented al-
    Lahem from traveling outside the country to receive two human rights
    awards.
        On February 12, authorities reportedly prohibited Fahad al-Orani,
    one of the cofounders of ACPRA, from leaving the country due to an
    ongoing travel ban. Authorities also imposed travel bans on Abdullah
    al-Hamed, a former professor and cofounder of ACPRA, and Matrouk al-
    Faleh, released in February 2009 after 235 days in arbitrary solitary
    detention.
        On March 2, according to the international human rights NGO
    FrontLine Defenders, Riyadh airport authorities confiscated human
    rights Internet activist Muhammad Saleh el-Beady's passport and
    informed him of a travel ban from July 2009 that he thought had been
    lifted.
        On November 3, the ACPRA announced its intent to file a lawsuit
    against the MOI for ``imposing unjust and arbitrary travel bans''
    without a judicial ruling in violation of the Basic Law.
        Movement and travel of foreign workers remained under the complete
    control of their employers or sponsors, who held their passports and
    were responsible for processing residence permits on their behalf.
        The Government did not use forced exile, but it has previously
    revoked the citizenship of opponents of the Government who resided
    outside the country.
        There are no prohibitions on the return of citizens who have left
    the country. The Government sometimes confiscated passports of
    suspected opposition members and their families, thereby restricting
    their freedom to travel.

        Protection of Refugees.--The country is not a party to the 1951
    Convention relating to the Status of Refugees or the 1967 Protocol
    relating to the Status of Refugees. The Basic Law provides that the
    ``state will grant political asylum if public interest so dictates.''
    The country has no legislation implementing this provision, and
    therefore the UNHCR is mandated to manage refugee and asylum matters. A
    temporary stay by UNHCR-recognized refugees is permitted pending
    identification of a durable solution. The Government generally does not
    grant asylum or accept refugees for settlement from third countries.
    Government policy is not to grant refugee status to persons who are in
    the country illegally or who have overstayed a pilgrimage visa. The
    Government strongly encourages persons who do not have residency to
    leave, and it threatens or imposes deportation. Access to
    naturalization is difficult for refugees. During the year the UNHCR
    registered more than 580 refugees in the country.
        In law and practice, the Government provided some protection
    against the expulsion or involuntary return of refugees to countries
    where their lives or freedom would be threatened because of race,
    religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or
    political opinion. Refugees with no residence permit are subject to
    payment of a fine at the time of departure.
        Access to basic services, including health care and social
    services, is reserved for citizens. Refugees' only access to basic
    services is through the UNHCR. The Government did not allow the
    enrollment of refugee children in public elementary schools. Refugees
    and asylum seekers are unable to work legally. The UNHCR office in
    Riyadh provided subsistence allowance to vulnerable families based on a
    needs assessment. Refugees did not have access to courts. There were no
    reports of mistreatment of refugees and asylum seekers.
        According to a UNHCR representative, since 1991 the UNHCR has
    facilitated the safe and voluntary refugee resettlement to third
    countries of more than 25,000 Iraqis and an estimated 300 Eritreans.

        Stateless Persons.--The country has a significant number of
    habitual residents who are legally stateless; data on the stateless
    population are scarce, and the Government was not open to discussing
    the matter. The UNHCR unofficially estimated that there were 70,000 to
    100,000 stateless persons in the country, almost all of whom were
    native-born Arab residents known as Bidoon; there were also some Baloch
    and West Africans.
        Bidoon are persons whose ancestors failed to obtain nationality,
    such as descendants of nomadic tribes not counted among the native
    tribes during the reign of the country's founder, King Abdulaziz;
    descendants of foreign-born fathers who arrived before there were laws
    regulating citizenship; and rural migrants whose parents failed to
    register their births. Since they were noncitizens, Bidoon were unable
    to obtain passports and had no ability to travel abroad. Their lack of
    citizenship denied them employment and educational opportunities, and
    their marginalized status made them among the poorest residents of the
    country. In recent years the Ministry of Education took steps to admit
    Bidoon children to school. The Government issued Bidoon five-year
    residency permits to facilitate their social integration in government-
    provided health care and other services, putting them on similar
    footing with sponsored foreign workers.
        The Government enforces an Arab League directive against
    naturalizing the estimated 500,000 Palestinian residents, so they will
    not ``lose their Palestinian identity'' and will ``preserve their right
    of return.''
        Several scenarios lead to statelessness of children under the
    Nationality Law: (1) A child born before his parents are married is not
    affiliated with his father legally, even if the father has recognized
    the child, and therefore is stateless; (2) When identification
    documents are withdrawn from a parent, the child also loses his or her
    identification and accompanying rights (this could happen when a
    naturalized parent denaturalizes voluntarily or loses citizenship
    through other acts); (3) Children of a citizen mother and a noncitizen
    father are without nationality, unless the father transfers his foreign
    nationality to the child; and (4) Children of a citizen father and a
    noncitizen mother are noncitizens, unless the Government has authorized
    the marriage of the parents in advance. In addition when government
    authorities seize a citizen's NIC, his or her children also lose their
    legal status and become stateless.

    Section 3. Respect for Political Rights: The Right of Citizens to
            Change Their Government
        Citizens did not have the right to change their government
    peacefully. The Basic Law states that the Government is established on
    the principle of consultation (shura) and requires the king and crown
    prince to hold meetings (majlis), open-door events where in theory any
    male citizen or noncitizen may express an opinion or a grievance. A
    prince or other important national or local official can also hold a
    majlis.
        The Basic Law provides citizens the right to communicate with
    public authorities on any matter. The Government interpreted this
    provision as a right to be exercised within traditional nonpublic
    means, not by the use of mass media.
        In May 2009 a group of 77 human rights civil society activists,
    including members of the ACPRA, sent a petition to the king condemning
    secret tribunals, seeking permission for human rights activists to
    monitor prisons, and demanding political and judicial reforms,
    including a constitutional monarchy and the limiting of the terms of
    appointed royal family members in government posts. The petition was
    copied to the Royal Diwan and 20 senior officials.

        Elections and Political Participation.--The Basic Law establishes
    monarchy as the political system. According to the family monarchy
    system enshrined in the Basic Law, only a few members of the ruling
    family have a voice in the choice of leaders, the composition of the
    Government, or changes to the political system. The Allegiance
    Commission, composed of 34 senior princes appointed by the king, is
    responsible for selecting a king and crown prince upon the death or
    incapacitation of either. The king serves as prime minister, and his
    crown prince serves as deputy prime minister. The king appoints all
    other ministers, who appoint subordinate officials with cabinet
    concurrence. The Consultative Council (Majlis as-Shura), a royally
    appointed 150-member body, advises the king and can propose legislation
    for further study.
        In May 2009 the state news agency reported that the Government
    postponed municipal advisory council (the only elected government
    office) elections scheduled for later that year to provide more time to
    study ``expanding the participation of citizens in running local
    affairs.'' In the 2005 elections, the first since 1963, only male,
    nonmilitary citizens at least 21 years old were eligible to vote. There
    were no independent election observers. Unofficial estimates were that
    between 10 and 15 percent of eligible voters actually voted. The king
    completed the formation of the councils in 2005 by appointing the other
    half of the council seats.
        Laws and traditional and cultural practices requiring strict
    segregation of genders encompassed every aspect of life; however, women
    increasingly participated in political life, albeit with significantly
    less status than men. During the year the number of female advisors on
    the Consultative Council increased from 10 to 13, according to local
    sources. There were no women on the High Court (women's ability to
    practice law is limited) or on the Supreme Judicial Council. There was
    one woman in a cabinet-level position, as deputy minister for women's
    education. On September 7, the Saudi Gazette reported that two women
    were appointed to the board of the Eastern Chamber of Commerce in the
    Eastern Province after three female candidates running for the election
    gathered an insufficient number of votes. In October 2009 the Jeddah
    Chamber of Commerce and Industry reelected one woman to its board of
    directors; she was chosen as vice chairman of the board. Two more women
    were appointed for a four-year term.
        There are no laws that prevent minorities from participating in
    political life on the same basis as other citizens, but the dominant
    societal norms marginalize the Shia population. The Consultative
    Council included only five Shia members. There were no religious
    minorities in the cabinet. At year's end there were some Shia judges,
    all in the Eastern Province.

    Section 4. Official Corruption and Government Transparency
        The law provides criminal penalties for official corruption by
    government employees. The Government did not implement the law
    effectively, and officials sometimes engaged in corrupt practices with
    impunity. There were reports of government corruption during the year,
    and the World Bank's Worldwide Governance Indicators reflected that
    corruption was a problem. There was widespread public perception of
    corruption by some members of the royal family and the executive branch
    of the Government. During the year the Government did not make publicly
    available information concerning specific instances of corruption,
    allegations regarding corruption, or government actions against
    corruption. However, on November 27, the Saudi Gazette reported that
    the Board of Grievances overturned 30 percent of all decisions rendered
    by government bodies during the year for overstepping their authority
    and other irregularities. Decisions from the Ministries of Health,
    Municipal and Rural Affairs, Transportation, Hajj, Education, and the
    Passports Department were affected. In 2008 the Consultative Council
    asked ministers to appear for questioning in exercise of its oversight
    responsibility, although some, notably the minister of finance, did not
    appear. There was no similar exercise in 2009. In 2008 the Court of
    Grievances delivered 2,695 verdicts on 1,368 criminal cases and 1,327
    disciplinary cases against public officials and agencies.
        On April 18, Al-Watan reported that the Board of Grievances in
    Riyadh began trials for 14 staff members of the Ministry of Justice in
    Jeddah on charges related to the abuse of power. They were allegedly
    involved in counterfeiting official documents concerning land belonging
    to King Abdullah University for Science and Technology. There was no
    further information available at year's end.
        On September 21, the Saudi Gazette reported that a Medina Control
    and Investigation Board report revealed financial and administrative
    corruption and abuse of power by senior officials at the Medina branch
    office of the Ministry of Hajj. Violations identified included
    appointment of unqualified employees to high-ranking positions,
    nepotism, and abuse of government property.
        Throughout the year the media reported investigations of municipal
    offices and government officials concerning the extensive damages of
    the 2009 Jeddah flood. Articles reported on the Court of Grievances'
    trials and on the court order to close the office of Jeddah's assistant
    mayor in the high-profile probe. In December 2009 the Saudi Gazette
    reported interim results of the king's order for an investigation into
    the reasons for the extensive harm caused by the flood, which was
    reportedly more destructive because bribe taking and corruption in
    construction, contracting, and land deals led to improper building and
    engineering. The Government detained and investigated 30 officials and
    contractors for their involvement in facilitating land ownership and
    approving government projects in flood zones. On November 25, the files
    of 20 government employees and contractors were referred to the Board
    of Grievances on charges of bribery, forgery, illegally profiting from
    a public position, abuse of power, deception, and breach of trust in
    connection with the 2009 Jeddah floods. Another group of suspects was
    under investigation and pending referral to the court.
        As of August 2009, the Jeddah Administrative Court had postponed
    the issuance of a verdict three times in a Taif municipality corruption
    and bribe-taking scandal totaling 1.4 million riyals ($373,000). In
    2008 the court had convicted 16 Taif municipality employees. Sentences
    included prison, dismissal from employment, and fines. Seven others
    accused were absolved of all charges, and two private businessmen were
    fined 150,000 riyals ($40,000) each. Appeals continued at year's end.
        In 2008 the Arab News requested an investigation into corruption
    involving contracts for the construction of roads, highlighting a
    project for which the Government paid 698 million riyals (approximately
    $186.1 million) and ultimately performed for only 18.2 million riyals
    ($4.9 million). There was no investigation.
        The MOI nominates the members of and administratively houses the
    Prosecution and Investigation Commission, a nominally independent body
    reporting to the Council of Ministers, that investigates cases of
    corruption against public service officials. During the first half of
    2008, the commission considered 12,466 cases involving public service
    officials and agencies. The commission identified instances of forgery,
    bribery, and public mistreatment, among other forms of misconduct.
    There was no new data from the commission concerning additional cases
    of corruption at year's end.
        Government employees who accept bribes face 10 years in prison or
    fines up to one million riyals (approximately $267,000). Public
    officials were not subject to financial disclosure laws.
        The law does not provide for public access to government
    information, including precision in sources of state revenue and
    expenditures, such as ministerial budgets or allocations to members of
    the royal family.

    Section 5. Governmental Attitude Regarding International and
            Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations of Human
            Rights
        The Basic Law provides that ``the State shall protect human rights
    in accordance with the Islamic Sharia''; however, there were government
    restrictions on, and the Government sometimes did not cooperate with,
    domestic and international human rights organizations in investigations
    of alleged violations of human rights.
        The MOI licensed one domestic human rights organization, the NSHR,
    funded through a trust fund from a member of the royal family. The NSHR
    received requests for assistance and complaints about government
    actions affecting human rights. The Government accepted the group's
    advice and opinion and sometimes accepted its recommendations.
        There were at least two unlicensed, active human rights groups, the
    HRFS and the ACPRA. The Government viewed these groups with suspicion
    and as illegitimately meddling in government affairs. A third, less
    active group, the National Saudi Committee of Human Rights, has tried
    unsuccessfully to register since 2003, according to HRW.
        On August 11, Okaz reported that the NSHR and Majid Garoub's law
    firm jointly organized a 10-day human rights training course for 22 law
    graduates. The training included information on institutions of
    litigation, the Consultative Council, human rights campaigns, the
    judiciary, work and rights of women in Islam, the Law of Criminal
    Procedure, and other topics.
        The Government viewed international human rights NGOs with
    suspicion. The HRC stated that the Government welcomed the visits of
    legitimate, unbiased human rights groups but added that the Government
    could not act on the ``hundreds of requests,'' in part because it was
    cumbersome to decide which domestic agency would be their interlocutor.
        In 2009 the Government privately invited some HRW staff members to
    visit the country, but the Government reportedly did not permit them to
    conduct research or visit any institutions. HRW's 2008 formal request
    to visit the country to observe trials of terrorism suspects remained
    pending at year's end. A 2008 HRW visit, facilitated by the HRC,
    focused on the review of four HRW reports with 11 ministries but did
    not permit independent research.
        From April 17 to 19, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
    Navanethem Pillay visited the country as part of a tour of the Gulf
    region. During her visit she remarked on the ``growing effectiveness''
    of the national human rights organizations, including the HRC, the
    NSHR, and the National Family Safety Program (NFSP), in the country. At
    the same time, she noted the importance of freedom of association,
    assembly, and expression; the continuation of discriminatory barriers
    hampering women's rights to shape their lives and fully participate in
    public life; and the need to protect the rights of vulnerable migrant
    workers, including replacement of the sponsorship system. On December
    27, a delegation of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human
    Rights visited the country to consult with the HRC, the Ministry of
    Justice, the Consultative Council, and other government institutions on
    human rights issues. In 2008 the Government permitted the visit of UN
    Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women Yakin Ertuerk.
        The Government-funded HRC acts as the Government's voice on human
    rights; its president has ministerial status and reports to the king.
    According to the NSHR's 2009 report, the HRC ``met with weak
    collaboration on the part of some governmental bodies in spite of the
    issuance of royal directives.'' The adequately resourced HRC was
    considered effective in highlighting problems but had limited capacity
    to effect change. The HRC worked directly with the king, with a
    committee composed of representatives of the Ministry of Labor,
    Consultative Council, MOSA, MOI, and with the Consultative Council's
    Committee for the Judiciary, Islamic Affairs, and Human Rights.
        The HRC launched a four-year human rights awareness campaign in
    January that includes extensive outreach at popular festivals, schools,
    and universities, and liaison work with embassies and through its
    offices in various parts of the country. On July 27, the HRC provided a
    two-day training course on human rights issues, regional and
    international agreements, and their reference to the rights of women
    and children. On October 13, the HRC held a workshop for several
    government ministries and NGOs to establish a long-term human rights
    strategy for the country and promote partnerships to eliminate
    discrimination and human trafficking. On October 26, the HRC president
    visited the International Labor Organization (ILO) in Geneva to discuss
    cooperation on trafficking in persons and labor issues. On December 7,
    the HRC's women's section hosted a workshop at Prince Sultan
    University's School of Law to promote human rights concepts, explain
    international human rights laws to which the country is a signatory,
    and address legal means available to abused women and the need for more
    shelters. On December 21, the HRC hosted a first-of-its-kind human
    rights symposium bringing together government ministries, the HRC, the
    NSHR, and delegates from labor-sending and Western diplomatic missions
    to collaborate on building human rights awareness and cooperation to
    combat human trafficking.

    Section 6. Discrimination, Societal Abuses, and Trafficking in Persons
        The law prohibits discrimination based on race, and Sharia
    traditions emphasize human dignity regardless of gender, color, or
    race. The Government generally effectively enforced prohibitions on
    disability, language, or social status but did not effectively enforce
    laws prohibiting discrimination based on race.

        Women.--Rape is a punishable criminal offense under Sharia with a
    wide range of penalties from flogging to execution. Generally the
    Government enforced the law based on its interpretation of Sharia, and
    courts punished both the victim and the perpetrator. The Government
    views marital relations between spouses as contractual and did not
    recognize spousal rape. By law a female rape victim is at fault for
    illegal ``mixing of genders'' and is punished along with the
    perpetrator. Statistics on incidents of rape were not available, but
    press reports and observers indicated rape against women and boys was a
    serious problem. The Government did not maintain public records on
    prosecutions, convictions, or punishments. Most rape cases were
    unreported because victims faced societal reprisal, diminished marriage
    opportunities, possible imprisonment, or accusations of adultery. For
    example, on January 20, the NGO Migrant Rights reported that
    authorities arrested a Filipina who claimed to have been raped by a
    Bangladeshi coworker and detained her at Hafer Al Baten Central Jail
    for having an illicit affair. Her employer contacted the Government to
    have her repatriated, and her pregnancy was discovered during the
    mandatory repatriation physical exam. On November 22, Arab News
    reported that police arrested two accomplices and were seeking the
    perpetrator of a gang rape. The perpetrator had established an online
    relationship with a woman and set up a meeting at an apartment where he
    and his friends raped her and then dropped her at a hospital. The
    victim was also considered a perpetrator and punished.
        There were no laws criminalizing violence against women. Officials
    stated that the Government did not clearly define domestic violence and
    that procedures concerning cases, and accordingly enforcement, varied
    from one government body to another. In the NSHR's 2009 annual report,
    in which it investigated 257 cases of domestic violence and violations
    of women's rights, violence was reported against both men and women and
    included a broad spectrum of abuse. The Government made efforts to
    combat domestic violence, and the HRC conducted outreach activities at
    the March Al-Janadriya Cultural Heritage Festival and at the November
    Children's Festival to educate the public on domestic violence issues
    as part of its four-year campaign to raise awareness of human rights
    issues.
        The Government supported family protection shelters, although
    societal criticism for helping women ``flee'' without properly
    investigating cases reduced the shelters' effectiveness, according to a
    July 2009 Arab News report. For example, on October 25, 29-year-old
    divorced Samar al-Badawi was released from Jeddah's Briman Prison after
    being held for seven months, ostensibly for disobeying her father
    regarding her choice of marriage partner. She was released after
    winning a countersuit to her father's disobedience suit, asking the
    court to terminate her father's guardianship based on physical and
    verbal abuse. In 2008 she had fled her father's home to reside in a
    shelter, was returned to the father's home, and fled to live with
    another relative. Badawi's father appealed the court's decision, and on
    October 18, the Supreme Judicial Council stated that it would
    investigate the lawfulness of the court proceedings. No further
    information was available at year's end.
        During the year the HRC fielded complaints of domestic abuse and
    referred them to other government offices. The HRC's women and
    children's branch in Riyadh received 233 complaints during the year, 13
    percent of which were domestic violence cases. On August 12, HRW
    requested the HRC intervene on behalf of Aisha Ali, a divorced mother
    of three whose guardian brothers reportedly forcibly confined her, beat
    her, and forced her into five subsequent marriages to which she did not
    consent. Authorities placed her in a temporary shelter for three months
    but allegedly returned her to her brothers.
        The media carried infrequent reports of sexual harassment as a
    social phenomenon. The extent of sexual harassment was difficult to
    measure. The Government's interpretation of Sharia guides courts on
    cases of sexual harassment. Workplaces maintained separate male and
    female workspaces where feasible. On January 25, a court in Rass
    sentenced Sawsan Salim to 300 lashes and one-and-one-half years in
    prison for filing ``spurious'' harassment complaints against government
    officials in court and for ``visiting government offices without a male
    guardian,'' according to HRW. One of the two judges deciding the case
    was one of the officials against whom she complained of harassment.
        The women's branch of the HRC in Riyadh, according to a December 14
    report in the daily newspaper Okaz, dealt with 233 cases, in the
    previous 12 months advising complainants and offering legal assistance
    to some women litigants. The organization provided facilities for their
    children distributed publications supporting women's rights in
    education, health care, development, work opportunities, and the rights
    of those with special needs.
        There were no reports of government interference in the right to
    decide freely and responsibly the number, spacing, and timing of
    children. However, decisions regarding access to contraceptives, family
    size, and procedures involving reproductive and fertility treatments
    require by law the consent of both husband and wife. The information
    and means to make those decisions, as well as skilled attendance during
    childbirth, were freely available. Women had ready access to essential
    prenatal, obstetric, and postpartum care. According to statistics
    compiled by international organizations, there were approximately 24
    maternal deaths per 100,000 live births in the country in 2008.
    Information was not available regarding equal diagnosis and treatment
    of sexually transmitted infections, including HIV.
        Discrimination against women was a significant problem. After her
    2008 visit, the UN special rapporteur on violence against women, while
    acknowledging progress in the status of women and particularly women's
    access to education, noted the lack of women's autonomy, freedom of
    movement, and economic independence; discriminatory practices
    surrounding divorce and child custody; the absence of a law
    criminalizing violence against women; and difficulties preventing women
    from escaping abusive environments.
        Women continued to face discrimination under the law and remained
    uninformed about their rights. Although they may legally own property
    and are entitled to financial support from their guardian, women have
    few political or social rights, and society does not treat them as
    equal members. The law prohibits women from marrying non-Muslims, but
    men may marry Christians and Jews. Women may not marry noncitizens
    without government permission; men must obtain government permission
    only if they intend to marry noncitizens from outside Bahrain, Kuwait,
    Oman, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates.
        The guardianship system requires that every woman have a close male
    relative as her ``guardian'' with the authority to approve her travel
    (see section 1.d.). A guardian also has authority to approve some types
    of business licenses and study at a university or college. Women can
    make their own determinations concerning hospital care. A husband who
    ``verbally'' divorces his wife or refuses to sign final divorce papers
    continues to be her legal guardian.
        Cultural norms restricted women in their use of public facilities.
    When unrelated men are present, women must sit in separate, specially
    designated family sections. They are not allowed to consume food in
    restaurants that do not have such sections. Women risk arrest for
    riding in a vehicle driven by a male who is not an employee or a close
    male relative. On September 13, Okaz reported that women were allowed
    to attend Eid-al-Fitr celebrations at a football stadium in Hail.
    Football stadiums previously were completely off-limits to women.
        During the year extremists targeted one cultural establishment that
    sought to integrate women in its cultural activities. On February 28,
    according to press reports, the Al-Jouf Culture Club, whose president
    also received a cell phone text message death threat, was burned for
    the second time in two years. The club had cancelled a February 23
    event entitled ``Criticism of women in the Kingdom: Reality and
    Aspirations.'' Unknown persons previously set the building on fire in
    January 2009 after the club hosted poetess Halima Muzafar.
        On June 5-11, the Al-Baysalan Art Center in al-Khobar in the
    Eastern Province featured a photography show entitled ``Through Her
    Eyes,'' which was open to men and women.
        Cultural norms require women to wear an abaya (a loose-fitting,
    full-length black cloak covering the entire body) in public and to
    conceal their hair. The CPVPV generally expected Muslim women to cover
    their faces and non-Muslim women from other Asian and African countries
    to comply more fully with local customs of dress than non-Muslim
    Western women. In rural areas and smaller cities, women adhered to the
    traditional dress code of covering the entire body, hands, feet, hair,
    and face.
        Women also faced discrimination in courts, where the testimony of
    one man equals that of two women. Female parties in court proceedings
    such as divorce and family law cases normally deputized male relatives
    to speak on their behalf. However, they have the option to speak for
    themselves. In divorce proceedings women must demonstrate legally
    specified grounds for divorce, but men can divorce without giving
    cause. In doing so men are required to pay immediately an amount of
    money agreed upon at the time of the marriage that serves as a one-time
    alimony payment. Women who demonstrate legal grounds for divorce also
    are entitled to alimony.
        Women faced discrimination under family law and under Sharia
    inheritance law. Courts awarded custody of children when they attained
    a specified age (seven years old for boys and nine years old for girls)
    to the divorced husband or the deceased husband's family. In numerous
    cases former husbands prevented divorced noncitizen women from visiting
    their children. Under Sharia inheritance laws, daughters receive half
    the inheritance awarded to their brothers.
        Women had access to free, but generally segregated, education
    through university level and constituted more than 58 percent of
    university students. The exception to segregation in higher education
    was the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, a
    coeducational graduate-level research university that opened in
    September 2009, with women permitted to work jointly with men, forgo
    the veil in coeducational classes, and drive cars on campus.
        Employment opportunities for women were limited, confined mainly to
    the education and health-care sectors, although increases were
    occurring in business and finance, social services, and government
    ministries. Women cannot work as judges or prosecutors.
        The law requires a woman to obtain the permission of a male
    guardian to work if the type of business is not ``deemed appropriate
    for a woman.'' A woman cannot accept a job in a rural area unless she
    lodges with an adult male relative who agrees to act as her guardian.
    The cultural requirement to separate the genders led to discrimination
    in employment. On August 26, Sheikh Yousef al-Ahmed called on shoppers
    to boycott the Panda supermarket chain that employed women cashiers
    because such employment contradicted Islamic principles and facilitated
    gender mixing. In response the grand mufti summoned al-Ahmed and
    ordered him to refrain from issuing unauthorized fatwas.
        Despite gender segregation, the law grants women the right to
    obtain business licenses for work in fields that might require them to
    supervise foreign workers, interact with male clients, or deal
    frequently with government officials. In medical settings and in the
    energy industry, women and men worked together, and in some instances
    women supervised male employees. Women who work in establishments with
    50 or more female employees have the right to maternity leave and
    childcare.
        On September 20, the Arab News reported that women investors urged
    the minister of education to investigate discriminatory conditions for
    women wishing to invest in the women's education sector. Reportedly,
    women investors needed to obtain a clearance certificate from their
    legal guardian before they could apply for a license and were required
    to meet 11 conditions, while men needed to meet only five. On July 21,
    a local woman reported that she was able to obtain a business license
    to conduct a translation business without needing the consent of a
    guardian.
        In June 2009 the Saudi Gazette cited a report by the Riyadh Chamber
    of Commerce and Industry stating that nearly 250,000 women worked in
    government departments and 45,000 others in private firms. By mid-2009
    the Government had established 120 special computer-training centers
    accredited by the Ministry of Civil Service to help women integrate
    into the work force.

        Children.--Citizenship derives from the father, and only the father
    can register a birth. There were cases of citizen children denied
    public services, including education and health care, because the
    Government failed to register the birth entirely or immediately. On
    November 1, the Saudi Gazette reported the HRC worked to provide legal
    documentation to children unable to receive government assistance due
    to lack of documentation. The number of unregistered births was
    unknown.
        The Government provided all citizen children with free education
    and medical care, but these benefits did not extend to noncitizen
    children. Gender segregation usually began in public and government-
    sponsored schools at the age of seven, but treatment and attendance at
    all educational levels was identical.
        Abuse of children was common. In 2009 the NSHR registered 72
    instances of violence against children, according to its annual report.
    The NGO Committee for Social Protection initiated a campaign to train
    health workers to identify signs of abuse. At least three NGOs--one in
    Riyadh, one in Qassim, and one in Jeddah--operated shelters for women
    and children.
        On April 1, the NSHR and the NGO NFSP launched a campaign against
    child abuse to increase awareness of human rights and child abuse. The
    NFSP works to counter violence against women and children. A NFSP
    national child abuse and child neglect registry at King Faisal Hospital
    in Riyadh tracks and assists abused children with treatment and follow-
    on counseling. On November 27, the NFSP trained doctors and nurses on
    diagnosing child abuse and neglect. The course addressed roots of
    violence, social risk factors, assessment, intervention, and child
    protection legislation. From October 24 to 27, the NFSP trained
    physicians in Jeddah and Dammam on advanced detection skills for
    physical and sexual abuse and neglect of children to promote child
    protection in the country. On July 9, Arab News ran an editorial on
    existing social barriers to addressing child sexual abuse in the
    country.
        The women's branch in Mecca of the HRC, according to a report in
    the daily newspaper Okaz, handled 536 cases during the year, including
    domestic violence cases, and conducted visits to orphanages and foster
    homes for girls, as well as the Family Protection Society, the women's
    Comprehensive Rehabilitation Center, and the women's division at Briman
    Prison.
        Sharia does not specify a minimum age for marriage but suggests
    girls may marry after reaching puberty. According to the Grand Mufti of
    the Kingdom, Abdulaziz Al al-Sheikh, girls as young as 10 years old may
    be married. Families sometimes arranged such marriages, principally in
    rural areas or often to settle family debts, without the consent of the
    girl. The HRC and the NSHR reported that child marriages rarely took
    place. On May 3, the Ministry of Justice issued a regulation requiring
    marriage registrars to record the bride's age at the time the family
    applies for the marriage license, allowing for the possibility of
    review where the ages are vastly different.
        All marriages are required to be registered prior to the
    consummation of the marriage. In 2009 the NSHR president said the
    Government had instructed marriage registrars not to register marriages
    involving children.
        The press reported marriages between children and of girls as young
    as nine years old being married to men older than 60 years old. On
    October 6, Al-Watan reported that a man in his 50s registered his
    marriage to a 13-year-old girl in Najran. According to the article, the
    girl consented to the marriage, which had been arranged by her father.
        On April 29, the Arab News reported that the August 2009 marriage
    of a nine-year-old girl to a 69-year-old man had been annulled with the
    assistance of the governor of Qassim after the return of the 30,000
    riyal ($8,000) dowry. The same article reported that the Buraida court
    granted a divorce in the August 2009 marriage of a 12-year-old girl to
    an 80-year-old man; the girl had fled to her aunt's house but was
    returned to her husband. Reform-minded activists, media, and local
    human rights organizations continued to call for an end to child
    marriage.
        There is no specific law providing penalties relating to child
    prostitution, no statutory rape law, and no minimum age for consensual
    sex. The law prohibits pornography, including child pornography.
        Children may not receive social services or attend schools or
    universities unless they hold NICs or valid residency permits and are
    properly registered in the family register, requirements that displaced
    children cannot meet.
        The kingdom is not a party to the 1980 Hague Convention on the
    Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. For information on
    international parental child abduction, please see the Department of
    State's annual report on compliance at http://travel.state.gov/
    abduction/resources/congressreport/congressreport--4308.html. as well
    as country-specific information at http://travel.state.gov/abduction/
    country/country--3781.html

        Anti-Semitism.--There were no known Jewish Saudi citizens and no
    available statistics concerning the religious denominations of
    foreigners.
        Some vendors at the annual government-sponsored book fair in Riyadh
    in March offered anti-Semitic publications, including the Protocols of
    the Elders of Zion. Editorial cartoons occasionally exhibited anti-
    Semitism characterized by stereotypical images of Jews along with
    Jewish symbols and comparisons of Israeli government actions to those
    of Nazis, particularly at times of heightened political tensions with
    Israel. On June 2, daily newspaper Al-Iqtisadiyya featured a cartoon of
    an Israeli flag with a swastika replacing the Star of David flying over
    a collection of bones, including skull and crossbones, spread across a
    Star of David. Anti-Semitic editorial comments appeared in government
    and private print and electronic media in response to regional
    political events. On September 15, daily newspaper Al-Madina showed a
    caricatured Jew whipping an Arab toward ``concessions'' in a new round
    of peace talks.
        There continued to be reports that Sunni imams, who receive
    government stipends, used anti-Jewish, anti-Christian, and anti-Shia
    language in their sermons. There were reports of imams in the Eastern
    Province who included calls for divine punishment of Jews as part of
    special prayers. There were reports that the Ministry of Islamic
    Affairs dismissed some imams for espousing intolerant ideas. During the
    year the ministry issued periodic circulars to clerics and imams in
    mosques directing them to include messages on the principles of
    justice, equality, and tolerance and encourage rejection of bigotry and
    all forms of racial discrimination in their sermons. Unlike in the
    previous year, there were no reports that prayers were projected over
    mosque speakers for the death of Jews and Christians.
        The Government's multiyear project to revise textbooks, curricula,
    and teaching methods to promote tolerance and remove content
    disparaging religions other than Islam began in 2007, but it had not
    been fully implemented by year's end. While more than 83 school
    districts in 13 provinces participated in the project, there continued
    to be anti-Semitic passages in textbooks used throughout the country.
    The Government mandated the removal of controversial terms from school
    textbooks and the substitution of such terms with the phrase ``there is
    no compulsion in religion.'' In September the Government introduced
    revised and newly written textbooks across the curriculum for most
    school grades. Nonetheless, for example, a 2010-11 seventh-grade text
    contained anti-Semitic language, such as, ``The nature of the Jews is
    duplicity, oath-breaking, and back-stabbing.'' Anti-Semitic material in
    Saudi textbooks was used in some schools abroad, some of which may not
    be funded by the Saudi government. Although textbook reviews and
    revisions continued at year's end, the revisions were insufficiently
    extensive to remove all language defaming non-Muslims and pronounced
    anti-Semitic perspectives.
        In May the King Abdulaziz Center for National Dialogue launched a
    massive public awareness campaign with 10 different public service
    announcements to promote dialogue, tolerance, and moderation. The
    announcements were broadcast during primetime television and major
    soccer matches and addressed a variety of themes, including promoting
    respect for others to address formal and informal discrimination and
    for laws and systems, revising teachers' conduct to encourage rather
    than disparage students, and handling conflicts cooperatively rather
    than aggressively. Throughout the year 1,555 certified trainers
    conducted 66 training programs and workshops on ``the culture and
    importance of open dialogue and communication skills'' for more than
    500 men and women. The workshops addressed all forms of prejudice and
    tolerance to nonmainstream groups. In 2008 the UN endorsed the king's
    Interfaith Dialogue Initiative, which brought together prominent
    officials and religious and academic scholars to discuss interfaith
    issues. A mix of high-level government and religious officials openly
    supported this campaign against religious extremism and intolerant
    language, especially in mosques and schools.

        Trafficking in Persons.--For information on trafficking in persons,
    please see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons
    Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        Persons With Disabilities.--The law does not prohibit
    discrimination against persons with physical, intellectual, sensory,
    intellectual, and mental disabilities in employment, education, access
    to health care, or the provision of other state services or other
    areas. There is no legislation mandating public accessibility to
    buildings, information, and communications. Newer commercial buildings
    often included such access, as did some newer government buildings.
    Persons with disabilities had equal access to information and
    communications; however, special communication devices for persons with
    sensory disabilities were generally not publicly available.
        There was NGO and government activity during the year to improve
    sign language literacy. During the year the Deaf Club of Jeddah
    concluded sign-language training of 40 media women and social workers
    and signed an agreement with the Government's Human Resources
    Development Fund to train 1,500 public and private sector employees in
    sign language. On September 5, the Saudi Gazette reported that the NGO
    Saudi Society for Hearing Disability launched a campaign to eradicate
    sign language illiteracy.
        Information about patterns of abuse of persons with disabilities in
    prisons and educational and mental health institutions was not
    available. The MOSA is responsible for protecting the rights of persons
    with disabilities. Vocational rehabilitation projects and social care
    programs increasingly brought persons with disabilities into the
    mainstream. The Government sponsored institutions for the care of
    paralyzed children in Riyadh and Taif. There were also five houses for
    vocational rehabilitation, two of which were for girls; three centers
    for social rehabilitation for those who have severe disabilities; and
    nine centers for total rehabilitation. The MOSA assisted families who
    care for relatives with disabilities. The labor law provides that
    employers of 25 or more employees allocate 4 percent of positions to
    persons with disabilities.

        National/Racial/Ethnic Minorities.--Although racial discrimination
    is illegal, societal discrimination against members of national, racial
    and ethnic, or tribal minorities was a problem. Foreign workers from
    Africa and Asia were subject to formal and informal discrimination. The
    tolerance campaign of the King Abdulaziz enter for National Dialogue
    sought to address some of these issues (see section 2.c.).
        There were numerous cases of assault against foreign workers and
    reports of widespread worker abuse. There were reports of racial
    discrimination against persons of non-Arab descent, especially persons
    of African descent. The Shia minority continued to suffer social,
    legal, economic, and political discrimination. In an effort to address
    the problem, the ministries of defense and interior and the National
    Guard held training courses in recent years for police and law
    enforcement officers to combat discrimination. There were no reports of
    training during the year or of the success rate of these programs.
        Unlike in 2008 there were no reports in 2009 or during the year of
    married couples forced to divorce because one spouse was from
    ``inappropriate lineage,'' that is, a nontribal family or an
    ``inferior'' tribe. On January 30, pursuant to a royal order, the High
    Court in Riyadh reconsidered and overturned the 2007 appeals court
    decision upholding the forced divorce of Fatima al-Timani and her
    husband. Al-Timani's half-brothers had successfully filed for her
    divorce because her husband had lied about his tribal lineage.

        Societal Abuses, Discrimination, and Acts of Violence Based on
    Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.--Under Sharia as interpreted in
    the country, sexual activity between two persons of the same gender is
    punishable by death or flogging. It is illegal for men ``to behave like
    women'' or to wear women's clothes and vice versa. Consequent to the
    illegality and severe punishment applicable, there were few reports of
    societal discrimination, physical violence, or harassment based on
    sexual orientation, and there was no official discrimination based on
    sexual orientation in employment, housing, statelessness, or access to
    education or health care. Sexual orientation could constitute the basis
    for harassment, blackmail, or other actions. No such cases were
    reported.
        On June 2, a Philippine news Web site reported that the Government
    banned the recruitment of gay and lesbian workers. According to the
    report, the Saudi Arabian embassy in the Philippines had issued a
    memorandum to recruitment agencies to screen applicants ``so that those
    belonging to the third sex are excluded.''
        On July 29, the daily newspaper Al-Riyadh reported the arrest of a
    man dressed in women's clothing near Qatif. He was sentenced to five
    months' imprisonment and 60 lashes for ``imitating women.''
        On November 8, Okaz reported that a Jeddah court sentenced a man,
    already imprisoned, to 500 lashes, five additional years in jail, and a
    fine of 50,000 riyals ($13,000) for ``committing homosexual acts,''
    imitating women, possessing pornographic video clips of himself, and
    publishing obscene photos of himself on the Internet.
        In June 2009 Riyadh police arrested and later released 67 men from
    the Philippines for drinking alcohol and dressing in women's clothing
    at a private party. Charges pressed were not publicized.

        Other Societal Violence or Discrimination.--There was no reported
    violence against persons with HIV/AIDS. On June 12, the Arab News
    reported that the Ministry of Health (MOH) recorded 1,287 new cases of
    HIV/AIDS, 481 of which were citizens. By law the Government deported
    foreign workers who tested positive for HIV/AIDS upon arrival or when
    hospitalized for other reasons. There was no indication that HIV-
    positive foreigners failed to receive antiretroviral treatment or that
    authorities isolated them during the year.
        On July 14, the MOH appointed a woman physician as the general
    manager of the HIV/AIDS program. On September 19, the Arab News
    reported that the MOH added four specialized centers for treating HIV/
    AIDS in Asir, Medina, Jouf, and Al-Ahsa and 20 clinics for confidential
    AIDS testing. The Society to Aid AIDS Patients, established in March
    2009, was the first NGO of its kind. It worked in collaboration with
    the MOH's national HIV/AIDS program in Mecca, providing HIV education,
    voluntary counseling, testing through mobile testing teams, and
    psychological help; fighting stigma and discrimination against persons
    with HIV/AIDS; and helping families with HIV-positive relatives to
    acquire medicine; however, it faced resource limitations.

    Section 7. Worker Rights
        a. The Right of Association.--The labor law does not address the
    right of workers to form and join independent unions, and there are no
    labor unions in the country. The Government allowed citizen-only labor
    committees with limitations on the right of association in workplaces
    with more than 100 employees. The Government was heavily involved in
    the formation and activities of these committees. Workers chose and the
    Ministry of Labor (MOL) approved committee members. Ministry
    representatives could attend committee meetings. Committees could make
    recommendations to company management to improve work conditions,
    increase productivity, improve health and safety, and recommend
    training programs. The labor law makes no provision for workers to
    strike legally and does not prohibit retaliation against strikers.
        The Government does not allow workers to strike, however some
    strikes occurred.
        For example, on March 23, the Saudi Gazette reported that 80
    maintenance workers at Habona General Hospital in Najran went on strike
    to protest a four-month delay in pay and benefits. The hospital was
    contracting with a new company for maintenance work at the time of the
    strike and promised that the replaced workers would be paid.
        On August 12, the Arab News reported that 150 workers went on
    strike for nine days because they had not been paid in more than six
    months. The workers lodged a complaint with the ministry, which
    reportedly resulted in the back payment of two months' wages.

        b. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively.--The law does
    not protect collective bargaining, and it did not take place. However,
    on October 23, the HRC president visited the ILO in Geneva to discuss
    labor law and labor issues, including trafficking in persons, in the
    country.
        There are no export processing zones.

        c. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor.--The labor law sets
    forth working conditions and pay, including for children, and thus
    implicitly prohibits forced labor of all forms. Nonetheless, there were
    reports that forced or compulsory labor occurred, especially among
    children and migrant workers. Also see the Department of State's annual
    Trafficking in Persons Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.
        The Government engaged in a news campaign highlighting the plight
    of abused workers, trained law enforcement and other officials on
    combating trafficking in persons, and worked with labor sending
    missions on getting information about labor rights to foreign workers.
    Reports of migrant workers who were subjected to forced labor
    conditions continued during the year.
        The sponsorship system inherently blocks freedom of movement, the
    right to choice, and the ability to change employers. Many incidents of
    abuse were reported, including the withholding of passports,
    restrictions of movement and communication, and nonpayment of wages.
    According to HRW there were approximately 1.5 million foreign domestic
    workers in the country during the year, most of them women.
        Noncitizens may reside or work in the country only under the
    sponsorship of a citizen or business. The law does not permit
    noncitizens to change their workplace without their sponsor's
    permission, thus forcing the worker to remain with the sponsor until
    the satisfaction of the contractual terms or to seek the assistance of
    the embassy to return home. Foreign workers were under the complete
    control of their sponsoring employers, who held their passports and
    were responsible for processing residence permits on their behalf,
    although the country has a law prohibiting the withholding of
    passports. Sponsors involved in a commercial or labor dispute with
    foreign employees could ask authorities to prohibit the employees from
    departing the country until the dispute is resolved. Workers can hire a
    lawyer or represent themselves in the arbitration or court proceedings
    to settle the contractual dispute.
        The labor law implicitly prohibits forced labor with fines and bans
    on future hiring on the sponsor violating labor law provisions, but the
    law does not apply to domestic employees, the largest group of workers
    susceptible to forced labor conditions. Domestic employees can contact
    the labor offices of their embassies for assistance as well as the NSHR
    and the MOL's Migrant Workers' Welfare Department, a department dealing
    with the welfare of foreign workers. According to the HRC, the Migrant
    Workers' Welfare Department provides services to safeguard migrant
    workers' rights and to protect them from abuse. Workers may also apply
    to the offices of regional governors and may lodge an appeal with the
    Board of Grievances against decisions from those authorities.
        The Government did not make public criminal investigations,
    prosecutions, convictions, or sentences for forced labor offenses under
    the labor law.
        In December 2009 a Web site reported that 40,000 Bangladeshis were
    deported during the previous nine months because they had overstayed
    their pilgrimage visas. The country does not permit work or the search
    for work on pilgrimage visas. According to sources in Bangladesh's
    Overseas Employment Ministry, the deportations were for provoking labor
    unrest, strikes, and protesting low wages and poor labor conditions.
    However, it was unclear if the Bangladeshis had work sponsors and
    resident status.

        d. Prohibition of Child Labor and Minimum Age for Employment.--
    Child labor occurred in the country, most commonly in the form of
    begging. Saudi children from poor families and foreign children
    trafficked into the country specifically for this purpose worked as
    beggars. During the year there were a reported 9,520 child beggars in
    the country. Children from other countries, primarily Yemen and
    Ethiopia, were forced into child begging rings, street vending, and
    family businesses. Also see the Department of State's annual
    Trafficking in Persons Report at www.state.gov/g/tip. There were
    reports of foreign domestic workers younger than 18 years old, some of
    whom traveled to the country with forged documents. The MOSA provides
    services designed to provide every citizen a decent standard of living.
    Such services are not available for noncitizens, who were likely to be
    deported.
        The labor law states no person younger than 15 years old may
    legally work unless that person is the only family worker. There is no
    minimum age for workers employed in family-owned businesses or in other
    areas considered extensions of the household, such as farming, herding,
    and domestic service. Children younger than 18 years old may not work
    in hazardous or harmful industries, such as mining, or industries with
    power-operated machinery.
        A 2008 study commissioned by the King Abdulaziz City for Science
    and Technology, an independent scientific organization reporting to the
    prime minister, found that child labor was a growing phenomenon.
    According to the study, 1.54 percent of children worked, including 2.3
    percent in the Eastern Province. In 2008 more than 83,000 children were
    working on the streets, according to a study by the King Abdullah
    Institute for Research and Studies reported in Okaz. In September 2009
    the Arab News reported that nine-year-old children were working long
    hours at the al-Atiqa fruit market south of Riyadh and sometimes moving
    goods three times their weight. The MOSA did not provide services to
    noncitizen children. There were orphanages and charities, but
    assistance was very limited.
        The Ministry of Justice has jurisdiction and has acted as plaintiff
    in the few cases that have arisen against alleged child labor
    violators. The MOSA maintained special offices in Mecca and Medina to
    combat the growing problem of child beggars.

        e. Acceptable Conditions of Work.--There is no national minimum
    wage. The unofficial private sector minimum wage for citizens was 1,500
    riyals ($400) per month, which appeared to provide a decent standard of
    living for a citizen worker and family (who also receive various
    government allowances). The country's estimated 6.3 million foreign
    noncitizen workers made up approximately 88 percent of the private
    sector workforce. Their work, wages, living quarters, and working
    conditions were negotiated and agreed prior to their arrival in the
    country, except for those who were already in the country and changing
    sponsors.
        Many of these workers, however, arrived to work but found
    themselves subjected to conditions to which they had not agreed. The
    MOL reportedly maintained a database of abusive employers who are
    prohibited from recruiting new foreign workers, but reports indicated
    that the Government did not effectively implement the blacklisting
    system. The ministry's Migrant Worker's Welfare Department addressed
    cases of abuse and exploitation. Noncitizen workers were able to submit
    complaints and to seek help from the 37 offices throughout the country,
    although the Government was not generally responsive. The ministry
    occasionally banned individuals and companies who mistreated noncitizen
    workers from sponsoring such workers for five years, although there
    were no publicly available statistics. The ministry may ban
    indefinitely employers who have repeated violations. Bilateral labor
    agreements stipulate conditions on minimum wages, housing, benefits,
    including leave, medical care, and other topics. Conditions vary
    depending on the country's relative bargaining leverage. Enforcement
    was problematic for workers from some countries.
        Labor regulations provided for a 48-hour standard workweek at
    regular pay; a weekly 24-hour rest period (normally on Fridays,
    although the employer may grant it on another day) based on hours
    worked; premium pay for overtime at time-and-a-half pay with a maximum
    of 12 additional hours of overtime; and the labor minister's
    determination on the maximum number of hours of compulsory overtime.
    While these standards were enforced for most workers, they did not
    apply to domestic workers. There were credible reports that female
    domestic employees were sometimes forced to work 16 to 20 hours per
    day, seven days per week, with little or no pay. The MOL's Migrant
    Worker's Welfare Department might assist workers with their claims of
    nonpayment of wages, as might the sending country's embassy. In some
    contract disputes, a sponsor held the employee in country until the
    dispute was resolved to force the employee to accept a disadvantageous
    settlement or risk deportation without any settlement.
        The labor law provides for safety inspections and enables MOL-
    appointed inspectors to examine materials used or handled in industrial
    and other operations and to submit samples of suspected hazardous
    materials or substances to government laboratories. The MOH's
    Occupational Health Service Directorate works with the MOL on health
    and safety matters. Regulations require employers to protect some
    workers from job-related hazards and disease, although violations
    occurred. These regulations did not cover farmers, herdsmen, domestic
    servants, or workers in family-operated businesses. Foreign nationals
    privately reported frequent failures to enforce health and safety
    standards.
        Embassy representatives from labor exporting countries stated that
    the number of cases of abused foreign domestic workers was increasing.
    During the year hundreds of domestic workers sought shelter at their
    embassies fleeing sexual abuse or other violence, and embassies
    received many reports of abuse. Some embassies from countries with
    large domestic employee populations maintained safe houses for citizens
    fleeing situations that amounted to bondage. According to embassy
    representatives, victims usually sought legal help from police and from
    embassies to obtain end-of-service benefits and exit visas. Criminal
    charges against abusive employers were rarely filed.
        Many noncitizen workers, particularly domestic employees, were not
    able to exercise their right to remove themselves from dangerous
    situations, and employers occasionally left them locked inside the home
    or threatened them with nonpayment if they left.
        On May 30, a Nepalese Web site called for the ministry to
    investigate labor violations at a large company in Dhahran and Riyadh,
    claiming that workers had not been paid for months. According to the
    report, many of the affected workers were in the country illegally,
    making it difficult for them to leave the company.
        On July 10, the Arab News reported that Mecca police arrested and
    questioned a number of demonstrators protesting poor living conditions
    at the approximately 3,000-man al-Shukiya labor housing compound.
    Reportedly, police arrested and questioned the compound manager to
    investigate the veracity of the workers' claims.
        In February 2009 the Arab News reported the problems of four
    Pakistani mechanics who were owed six years' wages, end-of-service
    benefits, return tickets to Pakistan, and medical treatment costs.
    Although the Preliminary Commission for Settlement of Labor Disputes in
    Mecca issued a decision in favor of the employees in 2006, at year's
    end there were no reports that the workers had received their
    compensation.

                                   __________

                                     SYRIA

        Syria, with a population of approximately 21 million, is a republic
    under the authoritarian regime of President Bashar al-Asad. The
    president makes key decisions with counsel from a small circle of
    security advisors, ministers, and senior members of the ruling Ba'ath
    (Arab Socialist Renaissance) Party. The constitution mandates the
    primacy of Ba'ath Party leaders in state institutions and society.
    President Asad and party leaders dominate all three branches of
    government. In 2007 Asad was confirmed president for his second seven-
    year term in a ``yes or no'' referendum that was neither free nor fair
    in the eyes of local and international human rights advocates. Security
    forces reported to civilian authorities.
        The Government systematically repressed citizens' ability to change
    their government. The security forces committed arbitrary or unlawful
    killings, caused politically motivated disappearances, and tortured and
    physically abused prisoners and detainees with impunity. Security
    forces arrested and detained individuals under poor conditions without
    due process. Lengthy pretrial and incommunicado detention remained a
    serious problem. The judiciary was not independent. There were
    political prisoners and detainees, and during the year the Government
    sentenced to prison several high-profile members of the human rights
    and civil society communities. The Government violated citizens'
    privacy rights. The Government imposed severe restrictions on civil
    liberties: freedoms of speech and press, including Internet and
    academic freedom; freedoms of assembly and of association, including
    severe restrictions on nongovernmental organizations (NGOs); and
    freedoms of religion and movement. An atmosphere of corruption pervaded
    the Government. Violence and societal discrimination against women
    continued, as did sexual exploitation, increasingly of Iraqi refugees,
    including minors. The Government discriminated against minorities,
    particularly Kurds, and severely restricted workers' rights.

                            RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

    Section 1. Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom
            From:
        a. Arbitrary or Unlawful Deprivation of Life.--During the year
    there were reports of arbitrary or unlawful deprivation of life.
        For example, on January 1, military security officers arrested
    Yusuf Jabouli, who reportedly taught Islamic studies at public schools
    in Aleppo and founded an e-mail group called al-Mishkaat (``The
    Lamp''). Jabouli died in custody and officers delivered his body to his
    family on January 7, according to human rights observers. Jabouli's
    family reportedly was not allowed inspect his body, and military
    security officials were present at the burial. The international NGO
    Amnesty International (AI) reported that unofficial sources alleged
    Jabouli was tortured to death. The authorities did not provide
    information about the case, and reasons for the arrest and death of
    Yusuf Jabouli remained unknown at year's end.
        On May 27, local police arrested Jalal al-Kubaisi, a vendor at the
    Souq Al-Hamadeya in Damascus and reportedly tortured him. On May 31,
    the police informed his family that Kubaisi had died while in custody,
    prompting the Government to launch a formal investigation into his
    death. At year's end, the reasons for the arrest remained unknown, and
    no details of the investigation were made public.
        On July 19, Wadee' Sha'booq, an engineer from Aleppo, died six days
    after he was assaulted by a criminal security unit. Human rights
    observers believe security forces attacked Sha'booq when he confronted
    them over his son's compulsory military service.
        On August 28, the body of Riyadh Ahmed Khalil, a 42-year-old Kurd,
    was handed to his family after he died of internal bleeding in an
    interrogation center. The security forces arrested Khalil and his sons,
    Ahmed and Dihmat, two months before his death. Khalil was buried on
    August 28 in Safita under tight security, without opportunity for
    examination of his body, and his sons remained in custody at year's
    end. It was rumored that Ahmad Khalil was a former member of the
    terrorist organization Kongra-Gel, (formerly the Kurdistan Workers
    Party-PKK) who had returned to the country and voluntarily turned
    himself in.
        Suspicious Kurdish conscript deaths continued throughout the year.
    Human rights observers reported that 11 Kurdish conscripts died during
    the year, purportedly by suicide or accident. Six of the 11 conscripts,
    Isa Khalaf, Osman Mustafa Bozan, Xebat Hesen Eliko, Hesen Mihemed Dero,
    Najm al-Din Hassan Daallo, and Shiar Osman Osman, reportedly committed
    suicide while in military service. Mustafa Abdo was reportedly killed
    on August 12 by a bullet from his own weapon while on duty; Mahmoud
    Sheikho allegedly committed suicide on October 9 but he is said to have
    suffered 14 bullet wounds. Joseph Farhan Qasim died on December 21
    reportedly from a landmine, but observers noted that his wounds did not
    match the reported cause of death. Some Kurdish leaders estimated that
    there have been nearly 40 mysterious conscript deaths in the last three
    years.
        At year's end there were no official or expected investigations or
    developments in the 2009 Kurdish conscript deaths of Barkhadan Kaled
    Hamo, Mahmud Hanan Khalil, Ahmad Saadun, Ahmad Abdulrahim Moustafa,
    Malek Shabo, Arif Abdul Aziz Said Osan, Mahmud Muhammad Halli, Ahmad
    Arif Omar, Mohamed Omer Khider, Hogir Rasol Haso, Ahmad Mustafa
    Ibrahim, Suleiman Faruq Diko, Firas Badri Ibrahim, Rezan Abdul Kareem
    Mirana, Sadiq Hussein Musa, Khalil Bosan, and Ez al-Din Morrow.
        There were no developments or investigations in the 2008 deaths of
    Muhammad Yahya Khalil, Muhammad Zaki, Muhammad Mahmoud Hussein,
    Zakariyya Affash, Muhammad Mahareesh, Mahmoud Abu Rashid, Abdul-Baqi
    Khattab, Ahmed Shalaq, Khaled Bilal, Mo'ayad al-Ali, Muhanad al-Omar,
    and Khidr Alloush; or any of 75 to 100 other inmates allegedly killed
    in the 2008 Sednaya Prison riots; or of Ahmed Musa al-Shukaifi, whom
    authorities allegedly tortured to death in 2008.

        b. Disappearance.--There were reports of enforced disappearances
    during the year, some of which were politically motivated.
        On July 4, AI issued a report, Your Son is Not Here: Disappearances
    from Syria's Saydnaya Military Prison, marking the second anniversary
    of the many reported disappearances from Sednaya. The report concluded
    that 18 out of the 52 missing were victims of enforced disappearance.
        On July 7, according to AI, political security forces arrested Shia
    cleric, and former member of the terrorist organization Hizballah,
    Sheikh Hassan Mchaymech at a border crossing while he was driving to
    Saudi Arabia with his mother and wife. The authorities failed to
    disclose the reason for his arrest or if he has been charged with a
    crime, despite repeated requests from the Lebanese government and
    Mchaymech's family. Mchaymech's whereabouts were not known at year's
    end.
        On August 23, attorney and human rights activist Ismail Abdi was
    arrested in Aleppo and ordered to appear before the intelligence
    service. The naturalized German citizen and his family were leaving
    after vacationing in the country. Abdi was arrested when he appeared
    before the intelligence service and has not been seen or heard from
    since. Human rights observers believe the arrest is related to his
    critiques of the regime and activities as chairman of the German branch
    of the Committee for the Defense of Democratic Freedoms and Human
    Rights in Syria.
        The Government continued to withhold information on the welfare and
    whereabouts of persons who disappeared in previous years; little was
    known other than the approximate date of their disappearance. For
    example, in May 2009, according to Kurdish human rights activists,
    General Intelligence Directorate (GID) forces arrested 24-year-old Kurd
    Hozan Nawaf Rashed, and his whereabouts and the reason for his arrest
    remained unknown at year's end. The Government had a long record of
    allegedly causing individuals to ``disappear,'' some of whom were
    believed to have died, whereas others were likely in long-term
    detention, and it did not investigate or punish any security force
    members for a role in disappearances.
        The Government continued to deny reports that security forces
    ``disappeared'' an estimated 17,000 persons in the late 1970s and early
    1980s. According to the international NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW), the
    disappeared persons were mostly detained Muslim Brotherhood members and
    other Syrian activists, as well as hundreds of Lebanese and
    Palestinians who were detained in Syria or abducted from Lebanon by
    Syrian forces or Lebanese and Palestinian militias.

        c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or
    Punishment.--The law prohibits such practices, and the penal code
    provides punishment of a maximum imprisonment of three years for
    abusers. Under article 28 of the constitution, ``no one may be tortured
    physically or mentally or treated in a humiliating manner.''
    Nevertheless, security forces reportedly continued to use torture
    frequently. Local human rights organizations continued to cite numerous
    credible cases of security forces allegedly abusing and torturing
    prisoners and detainees and claimed that many instances of abuse went
    unreported. Individuals who suffered torture or beatings while detained
    refused to allow their names or details of their cases to be reported
    for fear of government reprisal.
        Former prisoners, detainees, and reputable local human rights
    groups reported that methods of torture and abuse included electrical
    shocks; pulling out fingernails; burning genitalia; forcing objects
    into the rectum; beatings while the victim is suspended from the
    ceiling and on the soles of the feet; alternately dousing victims with
    freezing water and beating them in extremely cold rooms; hyperextending
    the spine; bending the body into the frame of a wheel and whipping
    exposed body parts; using a backward-bending chair to asphyxiate the
    victim or fracture the spine; and stripping prisoners naked for public
    view. In previous years AI documented 38 types of torture and
    mistreatment used against detainees in the country. AI reported that
    torture was most likely to occur while detainees were held at one of
    the many detention centers operated by the various security services in
    the country, particularly while authorities attempted to extract a
    confession or information. Courts systematically used ``confessions''
    extracted under duress as evidence, and defendants' claims of torture
    were almost never investigated.
        On May 25, the UN Committee Against Torture voiced its concern that
    the Government operates secret detention facilities where those
    detained are held incommunicado and routinely tortured, according to
    ``numerous, ongoing, and consistent allegations.'' The committee also
    highlighted its concern regarding treatment of Kurdish political
    activists and military courts' convictions on Kurdish detainees on
    vague charges of ``weakening national sentiment'' or ``spreading false
    or exaggerated information.''
        The report also asserted that abuses were ``intentionally and
    frequently inflicted on Kurds in Syria with the consent or
    acquiescence'' of officials and encouraged by the Government.
        On March 14, Berzani Karro was sentenced to five years'
    imprisonment--commuted to two and a half years--on charges of
    ``attempting to sever part of the Syrian territory and annex it to a
    foreign state,'' a charge commonly used against Kurds, according to AI.
    Political Security Directorate (PSD) agents arrested the 20-year-old
    Kurd at Damascus International Airport in June 2009 and held him
    incommunicado for three months, during which time human rights
    observers reported Karro was ``reportedly subjected to prolonged
    beatings'' and, according to a Kurdish rights Web site, subjected to
    electric shocks.
        At year's end no new information has been produced in the reported
    2009 security forces torture of several Kurdish youths--including
    Abdulazez Jamal, Shayar Masud, Serdar Abdulrahem, Ali Fawaz, Shahen
    Ibrahim, Dal Muhammad, and Khalid Jomaa--all of whom had participated
    in a demonstration organized by the Democratic Youth Movement in
    Hasaka.

        Prison and Detention Center Conditions.--Prison conditions were
    generally poor and did not meet international standards for health and
    sanitation. Facilities lacked proper ventilation, lighting, access to
    potable water, and sufficient sleeping quarters. It was also common for
    released prisoners to complain about sickness and injury due to the
    inadequate conditions. The Government did not permit visits by
    independent human rights observers.
        The Government did not give statistics on number of inmates or
    people detained in the country. Human rights observers estimate between
    2,500--3,000 political prisoners are currently detained, of whom
    approximately 1,400 are in Sednaya Prison. According to the 2010 Annual
    Prison Assessment, co-authored by the Syrian Association for Human
    Rights and the Arab Organization for Penal Reform, prisons suffered
    from severe overcrowding. The report states that cells made for 20
    inmates held 80 persons, and prisoners were forced to sleep on the
    floor and in corridors. The analysis also claimed that Adra Prison held
    9,000 inmates, although it was made to jail 2,000. According to the
    report, bribes were sometimes necessary to get access to visits, food,
    and other basic needs of prisoners.
        According to human rights observers, prisoners have the right to
    complain about treatment and prison center conditions; however,
    authorities rarely investigated these allegations or provided
    documentation of such to the public. Observers and activists claimed
    there is no ombudsman available to serve on behalf of the prisoners and
    detainees.
        Prison authorities denied all visits to inmates during the 2008
    Sednaya Prison riots and for the first six months of 2009. Severe
    overcrowding at several prisons forced inmates to sleep on the floor.
    Activists and former inmates reported that prison officials withheld
    food to punish inmates.
        According to local and international human rights organizations,
    the Government held prisoners and detainees without adequate basic and
    emergency medical care. Throughout the year local and international
    human rights organizations highlighted the case of political prisoner
    and prominent human rights lawyer Haitham al-Maleh, whom the court
    sentenced on July 4 to three years in prison. According to human rights
    observers, the 80-year-old suffered from diabetes and declining health.
        There was at least one instance during the year when the
    authorities failed to protect those in its custody. Prominent human
    rights activist and lawyer Mohannad al-Hasani was brutally attacked on
    October 28 by a violent cellmate whom the authorities left in the same
    cell for several days after the attack. There were reports in prior
    years of prisoners beating other prisoners while guards stood by and
    watched.
        There were separate detention facilities for men, women, and
    juveniles. The Government reportedly sometimes held minors in adult
    facilities. Pretrial detainees, particularly those held for political
    or security reasons, were usually held separately from convicted
    prisoners. According to local human rights organizations, political
    prisoners were sometimes deliberately placed in crowded cells with
    convicted and alleged felons and subjected to verbal and physical
    threats. Political prisoners also reported that they often slept on the
    ground due to lack of beds, were subject to frequent searches, and
    faced solitary confinement if authorities found impermissible items.
    Guards regularly eavesdropped on prisoners' conversations with their
    lawyers and visiting family members. Some former detainees and human
    rights observers reported that the Government denied political
    prisoners access to reading materials, including the Qur'an. Facilities
    for political or national security prisoners, especially accused
    Islamists, were generally much worse than those for common criminals.
    Each branch of the four security services operated its own detention
    centers. Most cases of reported torture or mistreatment occurred in
    these facilities, according to local human rights organizations.
        The Government prohibited independent monitoring of prison or
    detention center conditions and publishing of any materials on prison
    or detention center conditions, but diplomatic and consular officials
    were granted limited access in some cases during the year. Nuns from
    the Good Shepherd convent in Damascus were granted access to the
    women's prison in Duma to conduct vocational training and provide
    preschool services for inmates' children who lived in the prison when
    no other family member was available to care for them.

        d. Arbitrary Arrest or Detention.--The constitution prohibits
    arbitrary arrest and detention; in practice these activities persisted
    and remained significant problems.
        For example, on January 2, security forces detained journalist Ali
    Taha and photographer Ali Ahmad in the Sayyida Zaynab neighborhood of
    Damascus. Observers stated that Taha was released on February 7 and
    Ahmad a few days afterwards. They were not charged, and the reason for
    their arrest remained unknown at year's end.
        On December 4, human rights activists reported that Juan Yusuf
    Muhammad was arrested by members of the PSD for an unknown reason after
    he responded to a summons. The status of his case remained unknown at
    year's end.
        Abdel Hafez Abdel Rahman, board member of the unlicensed Kurdish
    human rights group MAF (``Right'' in Kurdish), was released on
    September 1. Military intelligence officers detained Rahman and his
    colleague Nadera Abdo on March 2 and continued to hold Rahman after
    releasing Abdo four days later.
        On September 21, Hasan al-Atrash, leading member of the Druze
    community and grandson of the leader of the Syrian revolution, was
    jailed for eight days. The cause for his detention was unknown;
    however, human rights observers believed his detention was politically
    motivated.

        Role of the Police and Security Apparatus.--The role of the
    security services extends far beyond strictly security matters under a
    continuing state of emergency originally declared by the Government in
    1963. The Emergency Law was justified on the basis of the conflict with
    Israel and threats from terrorist groups. There are four major branches
    of security forces, including Military Intelligence and Air Force
    Intelligence; the PSD, under the Ministry of Interior (MOI); and the
    GID, which is a stand-alone institution. The four branches operate
    independently and generally outside the control of the legal system,
    and all four repress internal dissent and monitor individual citizens.
    The MOI controls the four separate divisions of police forces:
    emergency police, traffic police, neighborhood police, and riot police.
        Impunity was a serious problem. In 2008 President Asad issued a law
    that mandates that only the General Command of the Army and Armed
    Forces may issue an arrest warrant in the case of a crime committed by
    a military officer, member of the internal security forces, or customs
    police officer in the pursuit of his normal duties, and that such cases
    must be tried in military courts. During the year there were no known
    prosecutions or convictions of police and security force personnel for
    human rights abuses. No mechanisms for investigations of security force
    abuse existed.
        A human rights police training program funded by the Swiss and
    Norwegian governments continued throughout the year. The Geneva
    Institute for Human Rights, with support from the MOI and the Office of
    the High Commissioner for Human Rights, began a third training course
    in October.

        Arrest Procedures and Treatment While in Detention.--Upon arrest,
    the individual is brought to a police station for processing and
    detained until a trial date is set. At the initial court hearing, which
    can be months or years after the arrest, the accused may retain an
    attorney at personal expense or be assigned a court-appointed attorney,
    although lawyers are not ensured access to their clients before trial.
    The individual is then tried in court, where a judge renders a verdict.
    Although the prison code provides for prompt access to family members,
    human rights organizations and families reported inconsistent
    application of the code, with some families waiting as long as a year
    to see relatives. Civil and criminal defendants had the right to bail
    hearings and possible release from detention on their own recognizance.
    This right was not applied consistently throughout the legal system and
    was rarely available to detainees under the 1963 Emergency Law.
        The Emergency Law authorizes the Government to conduct preventive
    arrests and overrides constitutional and penal code provisions against
    arbitrary arrest and detention, including the need to obtain warrants.
    In cases involving political or national security offenses, arrests
    were often carried out in secret with cases assigned in seemingly
    arbitrary manner to military, security, or criminal courts. Suspects
    were detained incommunicado for prolonged periods without charge or
    trial and denied the right to a judicial determination regarding
    pretrial detention. Unlike defendants in regular criminal and civil
    cases, security detainees did not have access to lawyers before or
    during questioning, or throughout the preparation and presentation of
    their defense. In most cases detainees were not informed of charges
    against them until their arraignment, which was often months after
    their arrest. Those suspected of political or national security
    offenses were arrested and prosecuted under ambiguous and broad
    articles of the penal code and were subsequently tried in either
    criminal or security courts.
        The Government often failed to notify foreign governments when
    their citizens were arrested or detained or did so only after the
    person was released or deported, especially when the person was
    detained on politically related charges.
        House arrest is available under judicial authority but observers
    claim it is rarely used and there were no significant cases of house
    arrest by year's end.
        Arbitrary and false arrests were problems, and detainees had no
    legal redress. The authorities used the Emergency Law to detain persons
    critical of the Government and charge them with a wide range of
    political crimes, including treason. Incommunicado detention was a
    severe problem. Many persons who disappeared were believed to be either
    in long-term detention without charge or possibly to have died while
    detained. Many detainees brought to trial were held incommunicado for
    years, and their trials were often marked by irregularities and lack of
    due process. A shortage of available courts and lack of legal
    provisions for a speedy trial or plea bargaining led to lengthy
    pretrial detentions.
        The Government arbitrarily arrested alleged Islamists, Muslim
    Brotherhood members, and civil society and human rights activists
    during the year. Under the authority of laws that criminalize
    membership and activity in organizations the Government deems illegal,
    observers estimated that security forces arrested hundreds of persons
    linked to local human rights groups and pro-democracy student groups,
    as well as minorities, particularly Kurds (see section 1.e.).
        On November 30, the Supreme State Security Court (SSSC)
    indefinitely postponed the hearing of Hasan Ibrahim Salih, Maruf Ahmad
    Mula Ahmad, and Mohamed Ahmad Mustafa, members of the Kurdish Yekiti
    Party. According to Kurdish observers, the three have been detained
    since their arrest in December 2009, including five months in
    incommunicado detention. Their hearing dates were continually postponed
    and rescheduled throughout the year.
        Ziad Ramadan remained on trial at the SSSC, after five years of
    detention without charge. Ramadan is a former work colleague of a man
    who confessed to participating in the 2005 killing of former Lebanese
    prime minister Rafiq al-Hariri and 22 other individuals. Authorities
    responded to a UN request by stating Ramadan was detained for his own
    protection as a key witness in the Hariri investigations.
        On March 17 a military judge dismissed charges against Bahjat
    Ibrahim, a 51-year-old Kurd, of membership in a banned political
    association, the Al-Wehda Party, an accusation he denied. Human rights
    observers believe he had been arbitrarily arrested without warrant on
    October 2009 by the Political Security branch.
        On July 1, Ayat Ahmed, a female university student, was released
    after 10 months' detention. Human rights observers believed that the
    security service arrested her in October 2009 for her religious beliefs
    and alleged involvement with Salafi ideology. She attended the Islamic
    institute of the late Sheikh Ahmad Kuftaro, and according to her
    parents, she had no links to any Islamist parties.
        Sheikh Salah Kuftaro, a prominent religious figure, who was tried
    in June 2009, was released from prison on August 26 after charges were
    dropped for lack of evidence.
        There were numerous reports from human rights organizations that
    security services arrested citizens who were not apparently involved in
    political activities. Security services provided no information on the
    reasons for the arrests, and in many cases family and friends had not
    obtained information on the whereabouts of the detained at year's end.

        Amnesty.--The president has the power to issue private and general
    pardons. On February 23, President Asad issued amnesty decree 22
    pardoning all misdemeanor offenders in the legal system, both in jail
    and on trial, with a few exceptions. All sick and elderly prisoners
    over the age of 70 were released, with the notable exception of well-
    known human rights lawyer Haitham al-Maleh.
        On February 16, President Asad gave a private amnesty to religious
    leader Abdul Rahman al-Kouki, who was arrested in 2009 and charged with
    provoking sectarian discord because of a comment he made on an Al-
    Jazeera television show criticizing Egyptian Grand Sheikh Tantawi for
    banning the niqab at a Cairo university.
        On April 6, the Government released Hasan Zahra, leader of the
    banned Communist Party, under decree 22 after a year's detention.
        On April 11, Youssef Najiyeh and Omar Darwish, two members of the
    Muslim Brotherhood, were released from prison pursuant to decree 22,
    after imprisonment for membership in the banned organization.

        e. Denial of Fair Public Trial.--The constitution provides for an
    independent judiciary, but courts were regularly subject to political
    influence. According to observers, approximately 95 percent of judges
    were Ba'athists or closely aligned to the Ba'ath Party.
        The judicial system is composed of civil and criminal courts, under
    the Ministry of Justice (MOJ), and religious courts, which adjudicate
    matters of personal status such as divorce and inheritance.
        Military courts have authority over cases involving soldiers or
    members of other military or police branches. If the charge against a
    soldier or member of the military or police branch is a misdemeanor,
    the sentence against the defendant is final. If the charge is a felony,
    the defendant has the right to appeal to the Military Chamber at the
    Court of Cassation. Military courts also have authority to try
    civilians in cases based on military law. Civilians have the right to
    appeal all sentences in military court. A military prosecutor decides
    the venue for a civilian defendant. In contrast to previous years,
    there were no reports during the year that the Government operated
    military field courts, which in the past observed fewer formal
    procedures than regular military courts, in locations outside
    established courtrooms.
        The SSSC tries political and national security cases and operates
    under the provisions of the 1963 Emergency Law, which authorizes the
    prosecution of anyone ``opposing the goals of the revolution'' and
    creating ``sectarian strife.''

        Trial Procedures.--Defendants before civil and criminal courts are
    entitled to legal representation of their choice; the courts appoint
    lawyers for indigents. Defendants are presumed innocent and are allowed
    to present evidence and to confront their accusers. Trials are public,
    except for those involving juveniles or sex offenses. Defendants can
    appeal verdicts to a provincial appeals court and ultimately to the
    Court of Cassation. Appeals are often difficult to win because the
    lower courts do not provide verbatim transcripts of cases, and only
    summaries prepared by the presiding judges are made available. There
    are no juries. Defendants and their attorneys have access to
    government-held evidence relevant to their cases. Human rights lawyers
    noted that in some politically charged cases, the prosecution case
    files that defense lawyers were allowed to see did not include any
    evidence.
        Some groups are denied some of these rights because parts of family
    and criminal law are based on Sharia, and do not treat men and women
    equally. Some personal status laws use Sharia regardless of the
    religion of those involved.
        The SSSC does not observe constitutional provisions safeguarding
    defendants' rights. Its verdicts are not subject to judicial appeal,
    but the minister of interior may ratify, nullify, or alter an SSSC
    ruling, and the president must approve the verdict or may ask for a
    retrial. Charges against defendants before the SSSC were usually vague,
    and authorities sometimes prevented defendants' access to their lawyers
    before trial. Under SSSC procedures, defendants and their lawyers are
    not present during the preliminary or investigative phase of the trial
    during which the prosecutor presents evidence. Lawyers submit written
    defense pleas rather than making oral presentations. Trials take place
    before one to three judges and usually remained closed to the public as
    well as to the defendants' families. Authorities did not permit human
    rights NGOs to visit the SSSC, but local lawyers affiliated with local
    NGOs acted as defense counsel in some cases. Diplomatic observers had
    limited access to the SSSC during the year.
        Human rights organizations estimated that the SSSC tried hundreds
    of cases annually. Most cases during the year involved charges relating
    to membership in banned political groups, including religious parties
    such as the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamic Liberation Party, and
    Syrian Kurdish parties. During the year the SSSC sentenced more than
    100 citizens to punishments ranging from three years' imprisonment to
    execution (all sentences for execution were commuted to 12-15 years'
    imprisonment during the year). The SSSC is not required to keep a
    regular schedule. Following the Sednaya Prison riots, the SSSC
    suspended operations for approximately eight months. Even when the SSSC
    scheduled a case on a given day, the court sometimes failed to convene,
    offering no reason.
        In an example of the SSSC trial procedures, Hassan Shaqi, Muhammad
    Sai'da, Mohammad Jadid, Ahmed Mousa, Yassir Dawri, Hussam Mahmoud, and
    Hassan al-Sham appeared in the SSSC on September 26, after almost four
    years in pretrial detention. All seven were convicted of ``membership
    in an association created to change the economic or social structure of
    the state through terrorist means,'' and sentenced from six to 10
    years.

        Political Prisoners and Detainees.--The number of political
    prisoners and detainees--both citizens and foreigners--remained
    difficult to determine due to the lack of official government
    information and because different branches of the security services,
    each of which maintained its own incarceration facilities, held
    significant numbers of such detainees. Authorities refused to divulge
    information regarding numbers or names of persons in detention on
    political or security-related charges. Local human rights observers
    estimated that 1,500 to 3,000 political prisoners, including accused
    Islamists, were in detention. The Government frequently held political
    detainees for extended periods without trial and without information
    provided to their families.
        The Government continued to try some political detainees in
    criminal court; once convicted on political or security-related
    charges, they were treated like common criminals. During the year
    police and security agents arrested individuals based on race,
    religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a particular
    group. The Government was especially harsh toward individuals allegedly
    involved in Kurdish political or civil society activism.
        On April 18, a security court sentenced four Kurdish activists to
    five years for their membership in Yekiti, a banned Kurdish political
    party. The NGO Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that Nazami
    Mohammad, Ahmed Darwish, Dalkash Mamo, and Yasha Kader were originally
    arrested in 2007 and held until their April sentencing.
        On April 19, arrested Yekiti leaders Hassan Saleh, Maaruf Mala
    Ahmed, and Muhammad Mustafa and Kurdish activist Anwar Nasso were all
    brought before a military prosecutor. On April 22, Anwar Nasso was
    released without charge while the other three prisoners remained in
    detention. The four men were arrested in December 2009 in Qamishli for
    participating in a Yekiti Party meeting. According to several activists
    and NGOs, the arrests were linked to a resolution passed at the meeting
    calling for autonomy for Syria's Kurdistan. On May 18 an AI press
    release claimed that Nasso was badly tortured. At year's end no
    additional details were available.
        In June, Salah Mohammad Said Younis and Mohammad Bashar al-Mahmud
    were released after serving a one-year sentence. According to civil
    society activists, the men were imprisoned for ``having engaged in a
    political or social organization of an international character'' and
    for ``inciting religious and ethnic sectarian strife.''
        On June 18, Akram Al-Bunni, Ahmad Tohme, and Jabr Al Shoufi were
    released from prison after serving prison sentences of two and a half
    years for ``weakening national morale.'' The three Damascus Declaration
    National Council members were the first of 12 to be released; all other
    members (Riad Seif, Walid al-Buni, Fayez Sarah, Muhammed Haji Darwish,
    Marwan al-Esh, Talal Abu Dan, Muhammad Yasser al-Eitti and Fidaa
    Horani) were subsequently released with the exception of Ali Abdullah
    (see below).
        On June 23, the Second Criminal Court of Damascus sentenced human
    rights lawyer Muhannad al-Hasani to three years in prison on charges of
    ``spreading false information that undermined national sentiment'' and
    ``spreading false information that demeaned the dignity of the state.''
    Hasani was arrested in July 2009 by GID agents; human rights observers
    reported that he was forced to sleep on the floor of an overcrowded
    cell and that guards searched his possessions daily for evidence of
    reading and writing materials. On October 28, Hasani was attacked by
    his new cellmate two weeks after receiving the Martin Ennals Award for
    Human Rights Defenders. The authorities kept Hasani's attacker in the
    same cell for five days after the attack. At year's end Hasani remained
    in prison.
        On August 31, the SSSC questioned Abbas Abbas, Tawfiq Omran, Ahmad
    Nihawi, and Ghassan on charges of belonging to a secret organization.
    The four men were arrested in May 2009 together with Hasan Zahra, who
    alone was released, due to an incurable illness in accordance with
    decree 22 (see section 1.d.). According to human rights activists, the
    men had gathered for illegal political activities associated with their
    membership in the Communist Labor Party. The trial resumed on October
    31 and there were no updates at year's end.
        At year's end Ali Abdullah faced the charge of ``doing acts that
    disturb the relations with a foreign country.'' Abdullah is the only
    Damascus Declaration National Council (DDNC) member still imprisoned
    from a 2007 campaign against DDNC. Abdullah was scheduled to be
    released on July 16, but authorities rearrested him for an article he
    authored in prison criticizing the Iranian elections.
        On November 25, Damascus Declaration National Council member Khalaf
    al-Jarbou was sentenced to two years in prison for committing ``damage
    to the dignity of the state.'' He was initially also charged with
    participating in an ``association aiming at changing the economic or
    social system of the State.'' The police arrested Jarbou in October
    2009 at the Lebanese border and transferred him to PSD custody.
        At year's end no new information was available regarding Hamad
    Ahmad al-Khuder. In July 2009, Khuder completed a five-year prison
    sentence, according to the Arabic Organization for Human Rights in
    Syria, but authorities reportedly failed to release Khuder and instead
    transferred him to Sednaya Prison.
        At year's end there was no new information in the case of
    Nassriddin Barhec, a member of the Kurdish Democratic Party in Syria
    ('' al-Party'') arrested by PSD agents in January 2009, according to a
    Kurdish human rights group.
        The Government did not permit regular access to political prisoners
    or detainees by local or international humanitarian organizations.
    Human rights groups reported that many political prisoners serving
    long-term sentences remained in prison after the expiration of their
    sentences. At year's end the Government has yet to release any
    additional information regarding the whereabouts of prisoner of
    conscience Nizar Rastanawi. April 18, 2008, marked the end of
    Rastanawi's jail term, but authorities did not release him, allow
    family visitation, or provide information regarding his whereabouts. In
    2006 the SSSC sentenced Rastanawi to four years in prison for his
    political activism and sent him to Sednaya Prison, where riots occurred
    in 2008. Rastanawi's family told local human rights activists that a
    Sednaya prisoner reported Rastanawi had been killed during the riots;
    human rights observers concurred.

        Civil Judicial Procedures and Remedies.--The law provides for an
    independent and impartial judiciary in civil matters; in practice the
    courts were neither independent nor impartial.

        Property Restitution.--Security forces routinely seized detainees'
    property and personal items, such as computers and cellular telephones.
    According to local human rights contacts, the phenomenon was too common
    to track or record specific cases. Security forces did not appropriate,
    confiscate, or catalogue these materials in accordance with the law,
    and although detained individuals theoretically had the right to
    retrieve the items after release, authorities did not return many
    former detainees' property.

        f. Arbitrary Interference With Privacy, Family, Home, or
    Correspondence.--The law prohibits such actions, but the Emergency Law
    authorizes security services to enter homes and conduct searches
    without warrants if broadly defined security matters are involved.
    Police bypassed the normal search warrant requirement in many instances
    by citing security reasons or emergency grounds for entry. Security
    services selectively monitored telephone conversations and fax
    transmissions. The Government opened mail addressed to both citizens
    and foreign residents. The Government routinely monitored Internet
    communications, including e-mail, and blocked or monitored access to
    some Web sites.
        The Government and the Ba'ath Party monitored and attempted to
    restrict some citizens' visits to foreign embassies and participation
    in cultural activities. There were reports during the year that persons
    invited to meet with diplomats or to attend diplomatic functions
    received telephone calls from the security services instructing them
    not to attend.
        The Government barred membership in some political organizations
    and did not permit the formation of new political parties or license
    politically based NGOs. In practice the Government tolerated some
    illegal political parties, such as the Communist Union Movement. In
    some cases authorities harassed illegal parties, such as the Communist
    Action Party, the People's Party, and the Arab Social Union, but did
    not arrest individuals for membership. The Government forbids
    membership in Islamist parties, and authorities arrested, and in some
    cases prior to the reporting year, executed these members.
        The Government detained relatives of detainees and fugitives to
    obtain a confession or surrender, respectively, and harassed and
    intimidated the families of activists and political prisoners. There
    were unconfirmed reports that security personnel forced prisoners to
    watch relatives being tortured to extract confessions.

    Section 2. Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:
        a. Freedom of Speech and Press.--The constitution provides for
    freedom of speech and the press. The Government significantly
    restricted these rights in practice, relying when necessary on
    Emergency Law provisions that suspend such rights and supersede
    constitutional practices. The Government strictly controlled the
    dissemination of information and prohibited criticism of the Government
    and discussion of sectarian issues, including religious and ethnic
    minority rights. Authorities detained and abused journalists, writers,
    and other individuals for expressions of opinion that violated these
    restrictions, leading them to practice self-censorship. Individuals
    could not criticize the Government publicly or privately without fear
    of reprisal. The Government also attempted to impede criticism through
    monitoring of political meetings and informer networks.
        Emergency Law and penal code articles dealing with crimes against
    state security allow the Government broad discretion to determine what
    constitutes illegal expression. The Emergency Law prohibits publication
    of ``false information'' that opposes ``the goals of the revolution.''
    Penal code articles prohibit acts or speech inciting sectarianism.
        The Government heavily influenced the media, and the Government or
    the Ba'ath Party owned most newspaper publishing houses. A number of
    quasi-independent periodicals, usually owned and produced by figures
    with government connections, were published during the year.
        The Government prohibited all Kurdish-language publications,
    although there were credible reports that such publications were
    available in the country. The Ministry of Information continued to deny
    permission to publish Al-Ousboua Al-Iqtissadi, a business weekly, and
    Al-Riyada wa Al-Shabab, a magazine for young sports fans. In May 2009
    Prime Minister Mohamad Naji al-Utri decreed that public-sector entities
    (e.g., businesses and education facilities) could not work with any
    media outlet except the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency. Civil
    society activists' concern the private media's access to social and
    economic information could be marginalized proved unfounded as public
    sector entities routinely worked with private media with little or no
    response from the Government.
        The print and electronic media were critical at times of the Ba'ath
    Party and government performance. They reported openly on a range of
    social and economic issues, such as corruption in the energy and
    communications sectors.
        The Government or the Ba'ath Party owned and operated some radio
    and most television companies, and the Ministry of Information closely
    monitored radio and television news and entertainment programs to
    ensure adherence to government policies. The Government did not
    interfere with broadcasts from abroad. Satellite dishes were widely
    used and available.
        As in previous years, government forces detained, arrested, and
    harassed journalists and other writers for works deemed critical of the
    state. Harassment included banning from the country, firing for
    association with international organizations, and failing to respond to
    requests for journalists' accreditation. The Government also arrested
    journalists and others who wrote in Kurdish or in favor of greater
    Kurdish rights.
        At year's end the trial of Raghda Hassan on charges of weakening
    national morale and spreading false information continued in a military
    court in the city of Homs. According to human rights observers,
    security forces arrested the 38-year-old writer on February 10 at her
    home in Tartous, confiscated her laptop and manuscripts, and held her
    in incommunicado detention, where she remained at year's end. AI
    believed she was arrested because of her intent to write a novel about
    sensitive political issues, in addition to suspicion that she belongs
    to an opposition party.
        In November 2009, human rights activists believed Maan Akel,
    journalist for Al-Thawra, a government owned newspaper, was arrested
    for his writings exposing corruption. Akel was held for three months
    without charge then released. After his release, Akel was demoted and
    barred from substantive writing.
        The Ministry of Information and the Ministry of Culture continued
    to censor domestic and foreign publications prior to circulation or
    importation and stopped circulation when content was judged to be
    critical or sensitive. Publication or distribution of any material
    security officials deemed threatening or embarrassing to the Government
    was prohibited. Censorship was usually greater for materials in Arabic.
    Journalists also practiced self-censorship.
        When in doubt, local journalists often shied away from criticism,
    but it was clearly understood that certain subjects were off-limits,
    such as writing about the Kurds or criticisms of the president and his
    family, the security services, or the Alawites. Foreign journalists who
    did not observe these guidelines were barred from the country, and some
    Syrian journalists lived outside the country and wrote for Internet
    publications.
        The law prohibits the publication of ``inaccurate'' information,
    particularly if it ``causes public unrest, disturbs international
    relations, violates the dignity of the state or national unity, affects
    the morale of the armed forces, or inflicts harm on the national
    economy and the safety of the monetary system.'' Persons found guilty
    of publishing such information are subject to prison terms ranging from
    one to three years and fines ranging from 500,000 to one million Syrian
    pounds (SYP) or ($10,000 to $20,000). The Government used these laws
    during the year to suppress criticism. The law also imposes strict
    punishments for reporters who do not reveal their government sources in
    response to government requests.

        Internet Freedom.--The Internet was widely available in both dial-
    up and high-speed wireless connections, and Internet cafes continued to
    proliferate throughout major cities. According to 2010 International
    Telecommunication Union statistics, approximately 18 percent of the
    country's inhabitants used the Internet. The Government relied on its
    press and publications laws, the penal code, and the Emergency Law to
    censor access to the Internet. The Government also monitored Internet
    usage and in some instances blocked access to Internet sites or Web-
    based e-mail that contained or transmitted information deemed
    politically sensitive.
        Human rights activists believed the Government often attempted to
    collect personally identifiable information of activists in connection
    with that person's ideology. Human rights activists also claimed that
    collected personal information was used in retaliation or to coerce
    activists.
        According to various human rights groups, all three of the
    country's Internet service providers regularly blocked access to a
    variety of Web sites; observers estimated approximately 180 sites were
    blocked. The Government blocked access to Web sites associated with
    Kurdish opposition groups, the Muslim Brotherhood, and the Syrian
    Muslim Brotherhood. The Government also restricted access to social
    networking Web site Facebook, video-sharing Web site YouTube, online
    pan-Arabic newspapers such as Asharq al-Awsat, the online telephone
    service Skype, and online news services such as LevantNews.com. The
    pro-reform Web site All4syria.org remained blocked within the country,
    as it has been since 2004. Cyberdissidents.org reported that at year's
    end, 12 cyber dissidents were either imprisoned or exiled.
        In December, 19-year-old Abdul-Rahman al-Shalabi was released after
    his May arrest by Air Force Intelligence in Homs, where he served in
    the Air Defense Unit. According to human rights groups, Shalabi was
    arrested after frequenting Internet cafes; observers believed that he
    was interrogated and tortured while detained incommunicado in Damascus
    and Homs.
        On June 23, Kamal Shieko was arrested for traveling with improper
    documentation. The 32-year-old is a member of the Committees for the
    Defense of Democratic Liberties and Human Rights in Syria and a known
    blogger. Many activists believed his human rights and blogging
    activities were the cause for his continued detention. Shieko's
    whereabouts remained unknown at year's end.
        The trial of detained 20-year-old female blogger Tal al-Mallouhi
    continued at year's end. The GID summoned Mallouhi to the state
    security bureau in Homs for questioning in December 2009 and held her
    incommunicado most of the year. Mallouhi's case garnered international
    attention, most notably after a September 19 demonstration outside the
    Syrian embassy in Cairo. Observers believed that international
    attention prompted authorities to release information about her case.
    In October, news reports in Syrian media outlets claimed that Mallouhi
    was being charged for espionage.
        In late February 2009 according to human rights contacts, the
    Government blocked the Syrian Organization for Human Rights (SWASIAH)
    Web site. Authorities also demanded that SWASIAH chairperson and human
    rights lawyer Muhanad al-Hasani, arrested later in the year (see
    section 1.e.), turn over all archived material to them.

        Academic Freedom and Cultural Events.--The Government restricted
    academic freedom and cultural events. Teachers generally were not
    permitted to express ideas contrary to government policy. Authorities
    permitted slightly more freedom of expression at the university level,
    but the Government imposed restrictions on the ability of public
    universities to associate with foreign cultural centers.
        The Ministry of Culture censored films and exercised the right of
    approval over films shown at cultural centers operated by foreign
    embassies. Observers claimed that films made by specific directors such
    as Steven Spielberg were banned due to perceived connections to the
    Israeli government.

        b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association.--Freedom of
    Assembly.--The constitution provides for the right of assembly, but
    Emergency Law provisions superseded this right, and the Government did
    not respect it in practice. MOI permission is required for
    demonstrations or any public gathering of more than three persons. The
    Government required political forums and discussion groups to obtain
    prior approval for lectures and seminars and to submit lists of all
    attendees. Several domestic human rights and civil society groups held
    meetings without registering with the Government or obtaining prior
    approval because they assumed permission would be denied, as has
    regularly been the case. In many instances the Government took steps to
    disrupt such gatherings or prevent them from occurring. Either the
    Government or the Ba'ath Party authorized and organized most public
    demonstrations.
        However, in the penal code there are a variety of laws under which
    freedom of assembly is restricted or prevented such as article 308
    (``membership in an organization that was created to incite sectarian,
    racial or religious strife''); article 355 (``attending a meeting that
    is not of a private nature ... where an individual issues calls for
    rioting or displays signs that perturb the general safety, or
    undertakes any form of rioting''); article 336 (``gathering or convoy
    in a public space is considered a riot if ... (b) there are at least
    seven people gathered to protest a decision or measure taken by the
    public authorities or (c) if they are more than 20 people and they
    appear in a way that can threaten general quiet'');and most notably
    article 288 (``political or social organization or an international
    group without the permission of the Government'').
        On January 10, the court of cassation sentenced three members of
    the illegal Kurdish Azadi Party, Mustafa Jumaa Bakr, Mohamad Saeed
    Hussein al Omar, and Saadoun Sheikho, to three years in prison. They
    were arrested in November 2009 and convicted of weakening national
    sentiment and undermining state security and were all high-ranking
    members of the Azadi Party, with Jumaa Bakr as the chairperson. Human
    rights observers believed these arrests were part of a larger effort to
    detain and charge Kurdish political activists.
        On June 20, a military judge in Qamishli sentenced Mohammed Safo, a
    leading member of the Kurdish Left Party, to one year in prison,
    according to human rights observers. Safo was summoned by security
    services and arrested on March 28, after which he was charged with
    inciting racial and sectarian hatred and leading a secret unlicensed
    association.

        Freedom of Association.--The constitution permits private
    associations but also grants the Government the right to limit their
    activities. In practice the Government restricted freedom of
    association, requiring prior registration and approval for private
    associations. The Government often denied requests for registration or
    failed to act on them, presumably on political grounds. None of the
    approximately 14 local human rights organizations operated with a
    license during the year. The Government continued to block the multi-
    year effort by journalists to form an association of journalists
    reporting for regional Arab media.
        The Government did not permit the legal establishment of
    independent political parties.
        The Government granted registration to some groups not engaged in
    political or other activities deemed sensitive. The Government
    restricted the activities of associations and their members, and the
    executive boards of professional associations were not independent.
        On July 15, state security services in Idleb arrested Mahmoud
    Barish, an opposition activist, for his dealings with the Damascus
    Declaration. Human rights observers stated that Barish will be charged
    with spreading false news that insults the general sentiment of the
    state. His trial at a military court was ongoing at year's end.
        On August 24, Mohammed Saadoun, a member of the Political Committee
    of the Azadi Party, appeared before a judge in Qamishli. According to
    human rights observers, Saadoun was charged with offenses related to
    freedom of speech and freedom of association. The trial was initially
    adjourned until September 5 but had not resumed by year's end.

        c. Freedom of Religion.--For a complete description of religious
    freedom, please see the 2010 International Religious Freedom Report at
    www.state.gov/g/drl/irf/rpt.

        d. Freedom of Movement, Internally Displaced Persons, Protection of
    Refugees, and Stateless Persons.--The constitution provides for freedom
    of movement ``within the territories of the state unless restricted by
    a judicial decision or by the implementation of laws.'' Although
    citizens are ostensibly free to travel internationally, in practice the
    Government limited freedom of movement for foreign travel and
    emigration by requiring citizens to apply for exit visas. In addition,
    the Government often imposed travel bans on oppositionist, human
    rights, and civil society activists. Diplomats are not permitted to
    travel in parts of the country, in particular the northeast.
        Human rights observers believed the actual number of activists
    affected by a travel ban was in the tens of thousands and increased
    throughout the reporting year, partly because many citizens learned of
    the ban against their travel only after they were prevented from
    departing the country. The Government also prohibits specific types of
    individuals from foreign travel based on their work. For example, in
    2008 the prime minister issued a foreign travel ban on all petroleum
    engineers, geologists, and geophysicists working in public oil
    companies, according to private Web site SyriaSteps.com. These experts
    were reportedly eligible to travel for training only with prior written
    permission from the prime minister or the minister of petroleum. The
    Government usually applied travel bans without explanation for their
    basis or duration, including cases when individuals needed to travel
    for health reasons.
        Individuals the Government banned from traveling internationally
    during the year included many of the Damascus Declaration National
    Council members, political activists and bloggers. Damascus Declaration
    National Council member Khalaf al-Jarbou was arrested in October 2009,
    trying to enter Lebanon while under a travel ban. Jarbou was not
    charged and tried until late 2010.
        The Government generally cooperated with the office of the UN High
    Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the UN Relief and Works Agency
    for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) in assisting
    Palestinian and Iraqi refugees. The presence of stateless Kurds in the
    country remained an issue; there were no reports of government aid for
    the stateless population.
        The Government maintained security checkpoints, primarily in
    military and other restricted areas. Security services used checkpoints
    to conduct searches without warrants for smuggled goods, weapons,
    narcotics, and subversive literature.
        Travel to Israel is illegal, and the Government restricted travel
    near the Golan Heights.
        Women older than 18 have the legal right to travel without the
    permission of male relatives, but a husband or a father may file a
    request with the MOI to prohibit the departure of his wife or minor
    dependents from the country.
        Emigrants who did not complete mandatory military service could pay
    a fee to avoid conscription while visiting the country. Persons of
    Syrian origin who were born in a foreign country but were able to
    demonstrate service in the army of the country of birth were exempt
    from military service without payment.
        The constitution prohibits forced exile, and there were no reports
    of forced exile during the year.
        The law provides for the prosecution of any person who attempts to
    seek refuge in another country to escape a penalty in Syria. Persons
    who have unsuccessfully sought asylum in other countries and who have
    past connections with the Muslim Brotherhood have been prosecuted upon
    their return to the country. The Government routinely arrested
    dissidents and former citizens with no known political affiliation who
    tried to return to the country after years or even decades in exile.

        Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).--Observers estimated that
    there were approximately 300,000 IDPs in the country with numerous
    media reports on the increasing numbers of internally displaced
    persons. According to the 2009 UN Syria Drought Response Plan, ``1.3
    million inhabitants were affected and 800,000 severely affected, more
    than 95 percent of whom lived in the three governorates of Al-Hassake,
    Dayr az Zawr, and Ar-Raqqa.'' The UN estimated that 29,000 to 30,000
    families migrated in 2009 from the region due to the drought and the
    search for employment. The Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) stated that
    60,000 families migrated from the northeast due to the drought in 2010.
    Outmigration from the al-Jazeera region to urban areas strained already
    limited resources in cities, increased urban unemployment, and led to
    the erection of tent communities on cities' fringes.
        It is unclear if there are laws and policies in place in accordance
    with the UN Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement. The Government
    provided limited food relief through the SARC. In cooperation with the
    SARC, international NGOs like the World Food Program and Danish Red
    Cross provided additional food and medical assistance. There were no
    government resettlement efforts for internally displaced persons.

        Protection of Refugees.--The Government is not a party to either
    the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees or its 1967
    Protocol. Laws provide for the granting of asylum or refugee status and
    the Government has established a system for providing protection to
    refugees. The Government respected the UNHCR's eligibility
    determinations regarding asylum seekers.
        Several laws regulate the legal status of Palestinian refugees in
    the country, including one that stipulates Palestinian refugees have
    the same rights as citizens except for those rights dependent on
    nationality. The law allows for the issuance of identity cards and the
    same government protections due to citizens. A 1963 law regulates the
    issuance of travel documents to Palestinian refugees residing in the
    country, on condition that they registered with the General
    Administration for Palestine Arab Refugees and hold Syrian provisional
    identity cards.
        In practice the Government provided some protection against the
    expulsion or return of refugees to countries where their lives or
    freedom would be threatened on account of their race, religion,
    nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political
    opinion. During the year the Government returned some Iraqi female
    refugees whom authorities had arrested on charges of prostitution,
    depositing them across the border in Iraq, where traffickers often
    subsequently brought them back into the country. There were also
    reports that the Government deported Iraqi refugees operating illegal
    Internet cafes. UN agencies reported that security services continued
    the practice of detaining Iraqi refugees for working without a permit.
        There were no reports of Ahvazis forcibly repatriated to Iran at
    year's end. The situation of Ahvazi refugees in the country reportedly
    remained precarious. The Government reportedly continued to deny
    departures for resettlement in other countries. As a result of these
    denials, Ahvazi refugees sometimes attempted illegal border crossings,
    usually to Turkey, Lebanon, or Jordan. Authorities apprehended and
    detained some of the refugees for illegal border crossing or use of
    forged documents. International NGOs knew of at least two Ahvazi
    refugees the Government accepted for resettlement, but both remained in
    detention at year's end.
        The UNRWA reported there were approximately 460,000 registered
    Palestinian refugees in the country during the year, approximately
    153,000 of whom resided in UNRWA-administered camps. The General
    Authority of Palestinian Arab Refugees in Syria, the Government agency
    established to coordinate assistance and protection to refugees,
    continued to provide assistance to Palestinian refugees during the
    year. Palestinian refugees with Syrian travel documents generally
    reported little difficulty traveling in and out of the country.
        At year's end there were approximately 444 Iraqi Palestinian
    refugees registered at al-Hol camp after moving there when al-Tanf camp
    on the Syrian-Iraqi border closed on February 1. Approximately 2,450
    Iraqi Palestinians lived in Damascus and its outlying areas at year's
    end, with the majority living in Al-Yarmouk camp. The refugees were
    registered with UNRWA and had access to its services. However, the
    Government does not consider their UNRWA registration legal and did not
    grant them the right to work.
        Approximately 13,250 Iraqi refugees registered for assistance with
    the UNHCR during the year, bringing the total number of registered
    refugees to 151,907. Most received legal and material assistance from
    the UNHCR and other international and nongovernmental humanitarian
    organizations. The UNHCR continued to estimate that between 200,000 to
    300,000 displaced Iraqis lived in the country but the estimate from the
    Ministry of Foreign Affairs was much higher. The total number of Iraqis
    in the country without visas is unknown. The Government generally
    continued to honor the UNHCR's request that states maintain temporary
    protection for all Iraqi asylum seekers and persons whose applications
    were rejected, and it recognized refugees whose cases resettlement
    countries had suspended during the year. Since 2007 the Government
    required all Iraqis to obtain a visa before entry; citizens of other
    Arab League countries were able to enter the country without a visa for
    a renewable period of as long as three months. The extent to which
    authorities enforced the policy at the border remained unclear. The
    Government rarely granted refugees a work permit and many refugees
    resorted to daily labor in the informal sector as guards, construction
    workers, street vendors, and in other manual jobs.
        Generally, Palestinians living in the country are divided into four
    groups, according to the year in which they arrived. According to the
    requirement criteria many Palestinians are excluded from legal work
    opportunities and paid illegally.
        There are no direct provisions in the law giving refugees the right
    to work. According to the UNRWA, the rules for employment of citizens
    are applicable to Palestinian refugees provided that they have been
    living in the country for at least 10 years.
        The Government allowed Iraqi children to attend schools, and
    according to a UNHCR estimate, 24,594 Iraqi children were enrolled in
    public schools in the 2009-10 academic year, compared with
    approximately 33,000 during 2008-09. Most public schools had difficulty
    accommodating the large number of children of Iraqi refugees. Many
    Iraqi children did not attend school for such reasons as overcrowding,
    difficulties with the curriculum, and previous psychological trauma of
    parents and children. However, the year-on-year decrease of student
    enrollment received international attention. Many observers believed it
    could be attributed to increased financial difficulties for Iraqi
    families, as they do not have the legal right to work in Syria, causing
    children to leave school for any paying job, legal or illegal.

        Stateless Persons.--Citizenship is derived solely from the father,
    living or deceased. Following the 1962 census, approximately 120,000
    Syrian Kurds lost their citizenship. As a result, those individuals and
    their descendants remained severely disadvantaged in terms of social
    and economic opportunities and in receiving government services
    including health and education, as well as employment open only to
    citizens. Stateless Kurds had limited access to university education,
    and lack of citizenship or identity documents restricted their travel
    to and from the country. In September, the UN special rapporteur on
    right to food stated that between 250,000 and 300,000 stateless Kurds
    remained in the country.
        Despite the president's repeated promises to resolve the matter of
    stateless Kurds, there was no progress during the year.

    Section 3. Respect for Political Rights: The Right of Citizens to
            Change Their Government
        Although the constitution provides the right for citizens to
    peacefully change their government through elections, in practice they
    did not have that right because elections were neither free nor fair.
    The constitution requires that the president be elected by referendum,
    and the parliament selects a presidential candidate at the discretion
    of the regional Ba'ath Party leadership. The presidential candidate is
    then approved by a majority of votes in a popular referendum. The
    president and his senior aides, particularly those in the military and
    security services, made most political and economic decisions with a
    limited degree of public accountability.

        Elections and Political Participation.--The most recent
    presidential, parliamentary, and local elections took place in 2007.
    The Government barred international election monitors from entering the
    country to observe the elections. Local and international human rights
    advocates judged all three elections as neither free nor fair and
    stated that they served to reassert the primacy and political monopoly
    of power Asad and the Ba'ath Party apparatus wielded. Although some
    opposition groups estimated voter turnout in the presidential election
    at significantly less than 50 percent, the Government's official
    statistics reported voter turnout to be 96 percent, and President Asad
    reportedly won 98 percent of the vote. Outside observers uniformly
    dismissed the voter statistics as fraudulent and not representative of
    observed participation.
        The president and the Ba'ath Party suppressed political opposition.
    The constitution provides that the Ba'ath Party is the ruling party and
    ensures that it has a majority in all government and popular
    associations, such as workers' and women's groups. The Ba'ath Party and
    nine other smaller satellite political parties constitute the National
    Progressive Front (NPF), a coalition of parties that accept the leading
    role of the Ba'ath Party. Originally established in 1971, the Ba'ath-
    dominated NPF represented the only framework for legal political party
    participation for citizens. The Ba'ath Party dominated the 250-member
    parliament, or People's Council. During the 2007 parliamentary and
    local elections, NPF candidates won an overwhelming majority of
    offices. Some independent candidates the Government had vetted were
    permitted to run and win seats at parliamentary and local levels.
        The Government did not permit the establishment of independent
    political parties. In recent years citizens sought to establish
    political parties but did not receive licenses from the Government. In
    practice the Government tolerated some political parties, such as the
    Communist Union Movement, and it subjected members of other parties,
    such as the Communist Action Party, the People's Party, and the Arab
    Social Union, to harassment but not automatic arrest for membership.
    Members of Islamist parties were subject to immediate arrest and, in
    previous years, execution. Including the Muslim Brotherhood and 12
    Syrian Kurdish parties, there were an estimated 30 illegal opposition
    political parties of varying sizes and influence operating in the
    country.
        Women and minorities generally participated in the political system
    without formal restriction. During the year a female vice president and
    three female cabinet ministers were in office. Thirty of the 250
    ministers of parliament were women. In addition, the president had two
    high-ranking female advisors.
        There was one Druze and one Kurdish minister in the parliament.
    Alawites, the ruling religious minority, held a large percentage of
    cabinet and parliamentary seats. According to human rights observers,
    ethnic and religious minorities outside the Alawite and Christian
    communities claimed they had no genuine representation in the
    Government and that minority representatives were often more responsive
    to the ruling party than to their minority constituencies.

    Section 4. Official Corruption and Government Transparency
        The law provides criminal penalties for official corruption;
    however, the Government did not implement the law effectively. There
    were reports of government corruption during the year, and the World
    Bank's Worldwide Governance Indicators reflected that corruption was a
    problem. Notwithstanding the investigation and dismissal of scores of
    mid- and low-level officials for corruption during the second half of
    2010, many other officials continued to engage in corrupt practices
    with impunity.
        Corruption continued to be a pervasive problem in the police forces
    and security services. During the year there were reports of prison
    guards demanding bribes from prisoners and their visitors. Visiting
    family members who paid higher bribes enjoyed visits to detainees
    without police surveillance. Bribes reportedly ranged from 200 to 3,300
    Syrian pounds ($4 to $75). Human rights lawyers and family members of
    detainees also cited solicitation of bribes for favorable decisions and
    provision of basic services by government officials throughout the
    legal process in both courts and prisons. Traffic police officers
    regularly solicited bribes from drivers, and child laborers reported
    bribing police to avoid arrest.
        There are no public financial disclosure laws for public officials.
    The prime minister's Central Commission for Control and Inspection is
    the main administrative body responsible for coordinating and
    monitoring public sector corruption. Each government body, including
    the ministries, has a Control and Inspection Department that reports
    directly to the Central Commission. There is no government body charged
    with monitoring private-sector corruption.
        In August the Government announced that the volume of official
    corruption during the past 19 months amounted to five billion Syrian
    pounds ($104 million). However, independent observers claimed the
    number was much higher. According to Transparency International,
    corruption worsened relative to the prior reporting year.
        There are no laws providing for public access to government
    information, and the Government granted no access in practice.

    Section 5. Governmental Attitude Regarding International and
            Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations of Human
            Rights
        There were no legal domestic human rights groups, but approximately
    14 human rights groups operated illegally in the country. During the
    year there were reports that the Government harassed domestic human
    rights activists by subjecting them to regular surveillance and
    imposing travel bans as activists sought to attend workshops and
    conferences outside the country.
        NGOs reported that they rarely received responses from the Ministry
    of Social Affairs and Labor. The Government normally responded to
    queries from human rights organizations and foreign embassies regarding
    specific cases by claiming that the case was still under investigation;
    that the prisoner in question had violated national security laws; or,
    if the case was in criminal court, that the executive could not
    interfere with the country's independent judiciary.
        In general, the Government remained highly suspicious of
    international human rights NGOs and typically did not allow them into
    the country. As a matter of policy, the Government denied to
    international human rights groups that it commits human rights abuses.
    The Government did not agree to a request from HRW to visit the country
    during the year.
        At year's end the Government had signed memoranda of understanding
    with at least 14 international humanitarian NGOs--including Premiere
    Urgence, the Danish Refugee Council, the Danish Red Cross,
    International Medical Corps, the Qatari Red Crescent, the Institut
    Europeen de Cooperation et de Developpement, the Turkish Blue Crescent,
    Enfants du Monde-Droits de l'Homme, HELP, International Rescue
    Committee, Mercy Corps, and the Islamic Relief France--primarily for
    projects related to assisting Iraqi refugees. The Government monitored
    this work closely and restricted outreach efforts.
        On June 20, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres
    visited the country, to commemorate World Refugee Day. On February 19-
    20, UNRWA Deputy Commissioner-General Filippo Grandi visited to discuss
    the situation in Gaza.
        There were two significant criticisms of the Government by UN
    bodies during the year. On May 3, the UN Committee Against Torture
    released a review highlighting the concern that ``[t]he state of
    emergency remained in force in Syria and that, under the applicable
    legal regime, the concept of a threat to national security was so broad
    that apparently almost anything could be covered by it.''
        On September 7, the UN special rapporteur on the right to food,
    Olivier De Schutter, acting on a mandate from the UN Human Rights
    Council, issued a report on the right to food, in regards to human
    rights and humanitarian situations in the country. The report
    highlighted the drought in the northeast and the severe effects that
    the Kurds faced in that region.

    Section 6. Discrimination, Societal Abuses, and Trafficking in Persons
        The constitution provides for equal rights and equal opportunity
    for all citizens, and discrimination based on race, gender, disability,
    language, or social status is prohibited. The Government did not
    enforce the law effectively. For example, membership in the Ba'ath
    Party or close familial relations with a prominent party member or
    powerful government official assisted in economic, social, or
    educational advancement. Party or government connections made it easier
    to gain admission into better elementary and secondary schools, to
    access lucrative employment, and to achieve greater power within the
    Government, the military, and the security services. The Government
    reserved certain prominent positions, such as provincial governorships,
    solely for Ba'ath Party members.

        Women.--A number of sections of family and criminal law are based
    on Sharia and do not treat men and women equally. Some personal status
    laws use Sharia regardless of the religion of those involved in the
    case. Rape is a felony, and the Government effectively enforced
    existing rape laws. There are no laws against spousal rape. According
    to article 439 of the penal code, ``rape is considered to occur when a
    man forces a woman who is not his wife to have intercourse,'' subject
    to punishment of at least 15 years in prison. Article 508 of the penal
    code stipulates: ``If there is a contracted marriage between the man
    who commits rape, sexual abuse, kidnapping, sexual harassment and the
    victim, then there is no charge or the punishment is stopped.'' If the
    individual who commits the crime agrees to marry the victim, he faces
    no punishment. The victim's family sometimes agrees to this arrangement
    to avoid the social stigma attached to rape. If the victim is too young
    for marriage, the rapist receives a longer prison sentence. While
    statistics on the matter are rare, observers claimed that there were a
    minimum of 1,300 cases of rape in 2009. Statistics on spousal rape were
    not available. Activists asserted that rape was a serious problem in
    the country; and the police and judiciary have shown a willingness to
    prosecute rapists.
        The law does not specifically prohibit domestic violence, and
    violence against women occurred during the year. The majority of
    domestic violence and sexual assault cases went unreported; victims
    have traditionally been reluctant to seek assistance outside the family
    for fear of social stigmatization. Observers reported that when some
    abused women tried to file a police report, the police did not respond
    to their claims aggressively, if at all. Women reported incidents at
    police stations of sexual harassment, verbal abuse, hair pulling, and
    slapping by police officers when attempting to file police reports,
    particularly at the criminal security branch at Bab Musallah in
    Damascus. Victims of domestic violence have the legal right to seek
    redress in court, but few did so because of the social stigma attached
    to such action.
        The Sisters of the Good Shepherd in Damascus continued to run a 24-
    hour emergency shelter and telephone hotline for female victims of
    domestic violence. The hotline was staffed by more than 40 people on
    rotating shifts. Shelter workers said police had been increasingly
    helpful in referring women to the shelter. The Association for Women's
    Role Development, Oasis of Hope, and the Syrian Family Planning
    Association also provided family and psychological counseling. There
    were at least four private shelters open to battered women in Damascus.
        Gender-based violence was a continuing concern among the Iraqi
    refugee population, with 461 known cases of sexual and gender-based
    violence as of June. Updated figures were not available at year's end.
    The UNHCR reportedly supported several ``safe houses'' in Damascus that
    provided accommodation, food, social counseling, vocational training,
    and legal and medical services for women and children who suffered any
    form of violence in Iraq or Syria.
        The Government kept no official statistics on honor crimes, and
    when cases were reported, full names were rarely given. Advocacy groups
    did not release full names to protect victims. There were numerous
    press and anecdotal reports of honor crimes throughout the year.
    According to the most recent MOI estimate, 38 honor crimes took place
    between June 2008 and June 2009. Women's rights observers estimated
    there were between 300 and 400 such killings during the year. Other
    women's rights activists also stated that the actual numbers were
    higher than reported. Further, families or friends willing to discuss
    the cases refused to divulge names for reasons of privacy or fear of
    retribution. Most honor criminals, human rights activists claimed, were
    convicted under article 192, which permits judges to reduce legal
    penalties in cases when an individual's motive for murder is a sense of
    honor.
        On May 19, Hasso Abdal, a resident of Hassakeh, murdered his 21-
    year-old daughter by shooting her in the head. Observers report that
    the daughter was married at age 16 and then divorced. A second marriage
    also resulted in divorce. The victim then ran away with a local
    policeman who promised to marry her. Soon after, the policeman was
    arrested and the woman was placed in the custody of her family, after
    which her father shot her.
        In September, according to observers, a man killed his 15-year-old
    daughter in a village near the city of Ifreen, in the Aleppo
    Governorate; the father surrendered to the police, claiming that he
    killed his daughter for a ``decent motive.''
        The UNHCR observed that there was a growing practice of muta'a, a
    temporary ``pleasure marriage'' conducted by some Shiite clerics. These
    marriages are of predetermined duration and become null and void once
    the agreed-upon term has passed. They can last as little as one day and
    primarily serve individuals seeking to legitimize patronizing
    prostitutes. Most Shiite clerics viewed the practice as suspect and did
    not conduct such marriages.
        The law prohibits sexual harassment and specifies different
    punishments depending on whether the victim is a minor or an adult.
    Sexual harassment was rarely reported.
        Couples and individuals generally have the right to decide freely
    and responsibly the number, spacing, and timing of their children and
    the means to do so free from discrimination, coercion, and violence.
    Although the supply of modern contraceptives was available to less than
    half of the public, most of the demand for family planning was
    satisfied in the country, according to the NGO Population Reference
    Bureau (PRB). In Damascus, grocery stores openly sold condoms. Skilled
    personnel attended approximately 98 percent of all births, and more
    than 80 percent of women who gave birth had access to postnatal care,
    according to the PRB. According to statistics compiled by international
    organizations, there were approximately 46 maternal deaths per 100,000
    live births in the country in 2008. Information was not available
    regarding diagnosis and treatment of sexually transmitted infections.
    According to the latest data, the rate of prevalence of HIV/AIDS was
    0.01 percent in 2001.
        The constitution provides for equality between men and women and
    for the ``right of every citizen to earn his wage according to the
    nature and yield of the work.'' The Government sought to overcome
    traditional discriminatory attitudes toward women and encouraged
    women's education by ensuring equal access to educational institutions,
    including universities. The Commission for Family Affairs, the MOJ, and
    the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor (MoSAL) shared responsibility
    for attempting to provide for equal legal rights of women.
        Personal status, retirement, or social security laws discriminate
    against women. Under criminal law, if a man and woman separately commit
    the same criminal act of adultery, the woman's punishment is double
    that of the man's. For Muslims, personal status law is based on the
    Government's interpretation and application of Sharia, which treats men
    and women differently.
        A divorced woman is not entitled to alimony in some cases, such as
    if she gave up her right to alimony to persuade her husband to agree to
    the divorce. In addition, under the law a divorced mother loses the
    right to physical custody of her sons when they reach the age of 13 and
    of her daughters at age 15. Guardianship or control over exercise of
    the legal rights of the children always goes to the paternal side of
    the family after the age of 13 and 15, respectively.
        Inheritance for all citizens except Catholics is based on the
    Government's interpretation of Sharia. Accordingly, Muslim women
    usually were granted half of the inheritance share of male heirs. In
    all communities, male heirs must provide financial support to the
    female relatives who inherit less. If they do not, females have the
    right to sue. During the year there were reports that in some regions
    custom prevailed over the law, and women were denied any inheritance.
        A woman's husband or any other male relative may request that his
    wife's and his minor dependents' travel abroad be prohibited. Although
    official statistics were not available, foreign embassies reported a
    number of such incidents during the year.
        Women participated actively in public life and were represented in
    most professions, including the armed forces. Women were not impeded
    from owning or managing land or other real property. Various sources
    observed that women constituted an appreciable minority of lawyers,
    university professors and other professions. According to the World
    Bank, 60 percent of secondary school teachers in 2008 were women.
    Additionally, women were represented in the judiciary, parliament, and
    high levels of government, including three cabinet ministers and one
    vice president.

        Children.--Citizenship is only passed through the father. There
    were reports of rare cases of persons granted Syrian citizenship after
    years in the country.
        The Government provided free public education to citizen children
    from primary school through university. Education is compulsory for all
    children between the ages of six and 12. Noncitizen children could also
    attend public schools free but required prior permission from the
    Ministry of Education. Societal pressure for early marriage and
    childbearing interfered with girls' educational progress, particularly
    in rural areas, where the dropout rates for female students remained
    high.
        In general, Palestinians and other noncitizens, including stateless
    Kurds, can send their children to school and universities. Stateless
    Kurds are ineligible to receive a degree documenting their academic
    achievement.
        The legal age for marriage is 18 for males and 17 for females.
    However, a male 15 years or older and a female 13 years or older may be
    married if a judge deems both to be willing parties to the marriage,
    both are ``physically mature,'' and the father or grandfather consent.
    Although underage marriage has declined considerably in the past
    decades, it remained common and occurred in all communities, albeit in
    greater numbers in rural and less developed regions.
        The country lacked a formal law protecting children from abuse.
    There were reports of children under the age of 18 engaging in
    prostitution, but the country was not considered a destination for
    child sex tourism. The penal code stipulates penalties for those found
    guilty of certain forms of child abuse associated with trafficking
    crimes--namely kidnapping and forced prostitution--both of which carry
    a penalty of up to three years in prison. Rape of a child under the age
    of 15 is punishable by up to 21 years in prison. Pre-marital sex is
    technically illegal, but observers claim the law is never enforced.
    Child pornography is a very serious offense: Article 5 of Decree 3, the
    country's first anti-trafficking law, stipulates that any form of child
    pornography is a trafficking crime.
        Violent schoolteacher behavior was reportedly not unusual, a
    perception strengthened by a video posted on September 14 on Facebook
    of teachers using a wooden stick strongly beating a boy on the soles of
    his feet and a girl on her hands. The perpetrators of the beating were
    subsequently identified and dismissed.
        Human rights organizations reported multiple cases in which
    security services detained minors and placed them in adult prisons.
        The country is not a party to the 1980 Hague Convention on the
    Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. For information on
    international parental child abduction, please see the Department of
    State's annual report on compliance at http://travel.state.gov/
    abduction/resources/congressreport/congressreport--4308.html.

        Anti-Semitism.--There were an estimated 100 to 200 Jews living in
    the country. Jewish leaders reported no acts of physical violence or
    specific instances of anti-Semitism against, or harassment of, Jewish
    persons. However, the media contained anti-Semitic material, such as a
    cartoon in the February 22 newspaper Abidh Wassoud titled ``Resistance
    Prevents Jews From Swallowing the World,'' which portrayed a Jewish man
    about to eat the world. Similarly, on November 25, a cartoon appeared
    in the English-language newspaper Syria News showing Uncle Sam's body
    with a stereotypical Jewish hat and head with the title ``Who's In
    Charge?'' On December 29, the newspaper Al-Thawra pictured Uncle Sam
    and an old Jewish man standing beside the hospital bed of a sick
    African child with the heading ``Jew, U.S. Fear for Darfur's Health-Due
    to Darfur Oil.''
        On June 9, a Syrian delegate in speaking to the UN Human Rights
    Council claimed that Jewish authorities taught hatred of Arabs to small
    children. Alluding to the blood libel, she alleged that children on
    buses in Israel were taught to sing a song as they went to school
    containing the words, ``With my teeth I will rip your flesh. With my
    mouth I will suck your blood.''

        Trafficking in Persons.--For information on trafficking in persons,
    please see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons
    Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        Persons With Disabilities.--The law prohibits discrimination
    against persons with disabilities and seeks to integrate them into the
    public sector workforce; but the Government did not effectively enforce
    these provisions. The law protects persons with disabilities from
    discrimination in education, access to health, or provision of other
    state services. Article 7 of Law 50 reserves 4 percent of government
    jobs for persons with disabilities. Article 136 of Law 17 reserves 2
    percent of private business jobs for persons with disabilities. Private
    businesses are eligible for tax exemptions after hiring persons with
    disabilities. The MoSAL is responsible for assisting persons with
    disabilities and worked through dedicated charities and organizations
    to provide assistance, often to promote self-sufficiency through
    vocational training. There were no reports of abuse patterns in mental
    health facilities.

        National/Racial/Ethnic Minorities.--The Government generally
    permitted national and ethnic minorities to conduct traditional,
    religious, and cultural activities but the Government's actions toward
    the Kurdish minority remained a significant exception. Security
    services arrested hundreds of Kurdish citizens during the year, and the
    SSSC prosecuted them, in some cases on charges of seeking to annex part
    of Syria to another country. These efforts were widely documented,
    including in a November 2009 Human Rights Watch report Repression of
    Kurdish Culture and Rights in Syria.
        For example, on March 21, security forces fired on a crowd of Kurds
    in Raqqah, a town in the northeast, during their annual Nowruz
    celebrations. According to HRW, Kurds congregated on the outskirts of
    Raqqah at about 9 a.m. at a gathering organized by the PYD (Hezb al-
    Ittihad al-Dimocrati), an unlicensed party in the country. Kurdish
    flags and pictures of Abdallah Ocalan, jailed leader of the terrorist
    organization Kongra-Gel, the former PKK, were displayed at the
    gathering. After a short time, uniformed and plainclothes security
    forces attempted to disperse the crowds by force. Kurdish human rights
    groups stated that two people were killed during the demonstrations,
    although only one death, that of Muhammad Omar Haydar, was confirmed by
    observers and human rights activists. Security forces arrested dozens
    of Kurds during and after the festival. At year's end no formal
    investigations had been undertaken. Nowruz festivals have had a history
    of being interrupted, sometimes violently, throughout the country.
        On September 7, UN special rapporteur on the right to food, Olivier
    De Schutter, acting on a mandate from the UN Human Rights Council,
    issued a report on the right to food, in regards to human rights and
    humanitarian situations in the country. One of the main recommendations
    of the detailed examination called on the Government to stop its
    discrimination against the 250,000 to 300,000 stateless Kurds, who
    among other handicaps, lacked access to the public distribution of
    subsidized food. The report concluded that ``nothing short of
    attribution of full citizenship rights is required'' for stateless
    Kurds to realize the full range of their human rights, particularly
    economic, social, and cultural rights.
        According to a Kurdish news Web site, on November 7, Kurdish lawyer
    and writer Mustafa Ismail was convicted of ``working to withhold part
    of Syrian territory and annex it to the foreign State'' and sentenced
    to seven years in prison. He was tried before a military judge in
    Aleppo when he pled not guilty to all charges against him.
        A Kurdish-run human rights watchdog, Kurdwatch.org, estimated that
    as of October 11, there had been 59 arrests and 38 convictions of
    Kurds. In addition, the Web site recounted that 26 of the 38
    convictions were for having connections to a political party.
        In December 2009 human rights observers reported that writer and
    activist Bir Rustom was arrested as a result of his travel to Iraqi
    Kurdistan. Rustom was summoned for questioning by security officials,
    and then detained. In response to his family's inquiries, security
    officials said they knew nothing about his status. At year's end
    Burstom had not been sentenced, and his whereabouts remained unknown.
        Many human rights observers believed that the Government
    deliberately attempted to stop any public display of ``Kurdishness.''
        Although the Government contended there was no discrimination
    against the Kurdish population, it placed limits on the use and
    teaching of the Kurdish language. It also restricted the publication of
    books and other materials in Kurdish, Kurdish cultural expression, and
    at times the celebration of Kurdish festivals. After beginning in 2009,
    authorities continued enforcement of an old ruling requiring that at
    least 60 percent of the words on signs in shops and restaurants be in
    Arabic. Officials reportedly sent patrols into commercial districts to
    threaten shop owners with closure if they refused to change the names
    of their stores into Arabic. Minority groups--especially Kurds, whom
    the Government appeared to target specifically--regarded the step as a
    further attempt to undermine their cultural identity.

        Societal Abuses, Discrimination, and Acts of Violence Based on
    Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.--The law criminalizing
    homosexual conduct states that each sexual act ``contrary to nature''
    is punishable by as long as three years in prison. Because homosexual
    conduct was both unlawful and considered shameful, the law made gays,
    lesbians, and transgendered individuals vulnerable to honor crime
    retaliation. Penal code Article 192 permits judges to reduce legal
    penalties in cases when an individual's motive for murder is a sense of
    honor.
        There were no reports of prosecutions under laws criminalizing
    homosexual conduct during the year nor evidence of honor crimes against
    gays and lesbians; however, reports indicated that dozens of gays and
    lesbians have been imprisoned over the past several years after being
    arrested on vague charges such as abusing social values, selling,
    buying or consuming illegal drugs, and organizing and promoting
    ``obscene'' parties. There were no reports of punishment for female
    homosexual behavior.
        The size of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT)
    community was unclear, as many individuals feared identifying
    themselves as such or forming LGBT associations due to societal
    discrimination and the potential for criminal charges. There were no
    NGOs focused on LGBT matters. There were several online networking
    communities, including Facebook pages, that served the local LGBT
    community. However, increasing Internet connectivity in the country,
    albeit under the Government's watchful eye, helped network the
    community.
        Human rights activists believed there was overt societal
    discrimination based on sexual orientation in all aspects of society.
    There are no official discriminatory laws based on sexual orientation
    in employment, as homosexuality is a crime in the country. There were
    no reports during the year of specific employment or government service
    discrimination based on sexual orientation.

        Other Societal Violence and Discrimination.--There were no reports
    of violence or discrimination against persons with HIV/AIDS. Human
    rights activists believed that the extent of the problem was widely
    underreported.

    Section 7. Worker Rights
        a. The Right of Association.--Although the constitution provides
    for the right of association and to form unions, in practice workers
    were not free to establish unions independent of the Government.
    Foreign workers may join the union representing their profession but
    may not run for election to union office, with the exception of
    Palestinians who can serve as elected officials in unions. While the
    law does not prohibit labor strikes, they are severely restricted by
    threat of punishment and fines. All unions belonged to the General
    Federation of Trade Unions (GFTU), which was dominated by the Ba'ath
    Party; it controlled most aspects of union activity, including which
    sectors or areas of activity can have a union.
        The GFTU advised the Government on legislation, organized workers,
    and formulated rules for member unions, effectively controlling nearly
    all aspects of union activity, and has the power to disband union
    governing bodies. Union elections were generally free of direct, overt
    GFTU interference, but successful campaigns usually required membership
    in the Ba'ath Party. The GFTU president was a senior member of the
    Ba'ath Party, and he and his deputy could attend cabinet meetings on
    economic affairs.
        Foreign workers can join unions according to sector but are
    prohibited from serving as elected officials, with the exception of
    Palestinians who can serve as elected officials in unions. And
    collective bargaining was not practiced in any meaningful way. By the
    end of the year, there were no reports that any individual union, the
    GFTU, or any cooperatives had exercised their right to collective
    bargaining. There were reports of a strike at a port in Tartous by more
    than 2,500 workers demanding better working conditions and pay raises,
    which they received. Observers claim that strikes are rare for fear of
    repercussions.
        The law does not prohibit strikes. However, strikes with more than
    20 workers in certain sectors including transportation and
    telecommunication are punishable by fines and prison sentences. Workers
    who strike in public places are subjected to fines and prison
    sentences. Previous government punishment, including fines and prison
    sentences, deterred workers from striking. Forced labor was imposed on
    individuals who caused ``prejudice to the general production plan.''
    There are no legal protections for self-employed workers even though
    they comprise more than 55 percent of the total workforce.

        b. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively.--The law
    provides for the right to bargain collectively; this right did not
    exist in practice, as the unions were effectively led by Ba'ath Party
    officials closely tied to the Government. Government representatives
    were part of the bargaining process in the public sector. Public sector
    unions did not normally bargain collectively on wage issues, but union
    representatives participated with representatives of employers from the
    Government-affiliated Chambers of Industry and Commerce and the
    supervising ministry in establishing minimum wages, hours, and
    conditions of employment in the private sector. Workers served on the
    boards of directors of public enterprises, and union representatives
    were included on the boards, but foreign workers were excluded from
    this right.
        The law provides for collective bargaining in the private sector,
    although past government repression dissuaded most workers from
    exercising this right.
        Unions have the right to litigate disputes over work contracts and
    other workers' interests with employers and may ask for binding
    arbitration. In practice labor and management representatives settled
    most disputes without resorting to legal remedies or arbitration.
    Management has the right to request arbitration, but that right seldom
    was exercised. Arbitration authority is vested in the MOJ's
    Administrative Petition Court. In practice this court did little more
    than certify agreements and had almost no role in arbitrating disputes,
    since such disputes did not occur often.
        There were no reports of antiunion discrimination and a mechanism
    to report this practice does not exist. Unions are part of the
    Government's bureaucratic structure and the law protects union members
    from discrimination.
        According to labor law all public-sector workers are members of a
    union. Firms in the free trade zones (FTZs) were exempt from the laws
    and regulations governing hiring and firing, although they were
    required to observe some provisions on health, safety, hours, and sick
    and annual leave. Ninety percent of the workers in the FTZs were
    citizens. The Ministry of Economy and Trade governs the FTZs and makes
    unannounced inspections.

        c. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor.--The law does not
    prohibit all forms of forced or compulsory labor, and the forced or
    compulsory labor existed in the country. Domestic workers such as
    housekeepers, cooks, and servants were subjected to excessive work
    hours, inadequate living quarters, restrictions on movement and
    communication, and emotional and physical abuse from employers.
        Also see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons
    Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        d. Prohibition of Child Labor and Minimum Age for Employment.--The
    labor law provides for the protection of children from exploitation in
    the workplace. Independent information and audits regarding government
    enforcement were not available. The Ministry of Social Affairs and
    Labor is the primary institution overseeing child labor but the exact
    monitoring mechanisms are unknown. The ministry is also responsible for
    tracking enrollment of children in schools up to age 15. Child labor is
    the main source of income for some Iraqi families in refugee camps as
    they are not allowed to legally work.
        The private-sector minimum age for employment is 15 years for most
    types of nonagricultural labor and 17 years for heavy work. Children of
    legal age may work only six hours a day and may not work during night
    shifts, weekends, or on official holidays. In all cases parental
    permission is required for children younger than 16 to work. Most
    children younger than 16 who worked did so for their parents in the
    agricultural sector without remuneration. Although the law prohibits
    children from working at night, it applies only to children who work
    for a salary. Those who work in family businesses and who are
    technically not paid a salary--a common occurrence--do not fall under
    the law. The law prohibits children younger than 15 from working in
    mines, at petroleum sites, or in other dangerous areas. Children are
    not allowed to lift, carry, or drag heavy objects.
        During the year increasing numbers of children were compelled to
    work, according to human rights advocates. The MoSAL reportedly
    asserted that 500 children were involved in child labor. The
    International Labor Organization (ILO) and the UN Children's Fund
    estimated the number to be 650,000.
        The MoSAL, with the ILO, launched a national program to eradicate
    child labor in Syria. On August 10, the World Health Organization
    sponsored a workshop on eliminating child labor, and the seminar
    focused on strengthening the national capacity to eliminate child
    labor.
        There was evidence that children engaged in some of the worst forms
    of child labor during the year, including forced labor and
    prostitution. Also see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in
    Persons Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.
        In August, according to local media, the Ministry announced new
    provisions to prevent child begging and solicitation. The provisions
    include fines ranging from SYP 23,000 to SYP 46,000 ($500 to $1,000),
    but monitoring and enforcement measures are unclear. Many observers
    were not aware of this law and details were not available at year's
    end.
        The MoSAL monitored employment conditions for persons younger than
    18, but there were too few inspectors to ensure compliance with the
    laws. The Labor Inspection Department performed unannounced spot checks
    of employers daily to enforce the law, but the scope of these checks
    was unknown. Also see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in
    Persons Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        e. Acceptable Conditions of Work.--The public sector minimum wage
    is divided into five categories based on job type and/or level of
    education. The minimum monthly wage for an individual with four to five
    years of university education was SYP 9,645 to 9,965 ($211 to $218),
    plus benefits; with a high school diploma up to two years of university
    education, SYP 7,750 to 8,465 ($169 to $185); with a junior high school
    diploma, SYP 6,765 ($148); for drivers, SYP 6,200 ($136); and laborers
    or janitors, SYP 6,010 ($132). Benefits included compensation for
    meals, uniforms, and transportation. The minimum wage did not provide a
    decent standard of living for a worker and family. Private-sector
    companies usually paid much higher wages. Many workers in both the
    public and private sectors took additional manual jobs or were
    supported by their extended families. Observers claimed that second
    jobs provided an extra SYP 4,500 to SYP 9,000 ($100 to $200) per month.
    The labor and social affairs minister was responsible for enforcing the
    minimum wage. The ministry has special inspectors who are tasked with
    unannounced inspections to ensure compliance with minimum wage,
    employee benefits, and child labor laws.
        The public-sector workweek was 35 hours; the private sector's was
    48 hours. Workers were guaranteed one 30-minute lunch break per day at
    minimum. Premium pay exists for overtime worked, and a prohibition on
    excessive compulsory overtime exists in several sectors.
        Officials from the Ministries of Health and Labor were designated
    to inspect work sites for compliance with health and safety standards;
    such inspections were sporadic, apart from those conducted in hotels
    and other facilities that catered to foreigners. The enforcement of
    labor laws in rural areas was more lax than in urban areas, where there
    were more inspectors. Workers may lodge complaints about health and
    safety conditions with special committees established to adjudicate
    such cases. Workers have the right to remove themselves from hazardous
    conditions without risking loss of employment. Migrant workers are not
    covered under these laws and are vulnerable to abuse.
        On March 29, the president issued Labor Law 17, which prohibits
    discrimination against workers based on race, skin color, sex, marital
    status, religion, political viewpoints, nationality, social background,
    or dress. The law further states that any worker can seek damages
    against any employer who is in violation of this law. Among other
    provisions it also increases employment-violation fines from SYP 200 to
    SYP 500,000 ($4.50 to $11,000); establishes a special court in each
    governorate to oversee employment disputes; and sets up a national
    committee on the minimum wage.

                                   __________

                                    TUNISIA

        Tunisia is a constitutional republic with a population of
    approximately 10 million, which during the year was dominated by a
    single political party, the Democratic Constitutional Rally (RCD). As
    of December 31, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, the country's president since
    1987, was still in office. In October 2009 President Ben Ali ran for
    reelection against three opposition candidates and was declared the
    winner with 89.6 percent of the popular vote to serve a fifth five-year
    term. In concurrent elections for the Chamber of Deputies, the RCD won
    161 of 214 seats. Restrictions imposed upon candidates and various
    procedural aspects of the elections raised doubts about whether either
    the presidential or legislative elections were free and fair. In 2008
    indirect elections for some seats in the Chamber of Advisors, the upper
    house of parliament, resulted in a heavily pro-RCD body. Security
    forces reported to civilian authorities.
        During the year there were significant limitations on citizens'
    right to change their government. There were reports of at least one
    arbitrary or unlawful killing. Local and international nongovernmental
    organizations (NGOs) reported that security forces tortured and
    physically abused prisoners and detainees and arbitrarily arrested and
    detained individuals. Security forces acted with impunity, sanctioned
    by high-ranking officials. There were also reports of lengthy pretrial
    and incommunicado detention. Severe government-imposed restrictions on
    freedoms of speech, press, and association worsened in the period
    leading to and following the October 2009 elections. The Government
    remained intolerant of public criticism, and there were widespread
    reports it used intimidation, criminal investigations, the judicial
    system, arbitrary arrests, residential restrictions, and travel
    controls to discourage criticism. Corruption among government officials
    was a problem.

                            RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

    Section 1. Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom
            From:
        a. Arbitrary or Unlawful Deprivation of Life.--During popular riots
    against President Ben Ali's rule that started on December 18, security
    forces in the town of Menzel Bouzaiene, in the central Sidi Bouzid
    region, used live ammunition on protesters and shot and killed Mohammed
    Ammari on December 24. Security forces claimed that Ammari was shot in
    self-defense after shots fired into the air failed to disperse scores
    of protesters who were setting police cars and buildings ablaze.
        There were no developments or reports of a government investigation
    in the 2008 death by electrocution of protester Hichem Alaimi at a
    power station in Redeyef, or the 2008 shootings of Hafnaoui Al-
    Maghzaoui and Abdelkhalak Amaidi by security forces during the 2008
    Gafsa protests. There were no reports of court cases opened into either
    case.

        b. Disappearance.--There were no reports of politically motivated
    disappearances.

        c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or
    Punishment.--The law prohibits such practices; however, according to
    several reports by independent domestic and international human rights
    organizations, security forces tortured detainees to elicit confessions
    and discourage resistance and engaged in beatings and other cruel
    treatments and punishments.
        Reported methods of torture included sexual abuse; sleep
    deprivation; electric shock; death threats; submersion of the head in
    water; beatings with hands, sticks, and police batons; suspension,
    sometimes manacled, from cell doors and rods, resulting in loss of
    consciousness; and cigarette burns. According to international human
    rights groups, on occasion police and prison officials used threats of
    sexual assault against prisoners' wives and daughters to extract
    information, intimidate, and punish.
        Charges of torture in specific cases were difficult to prove, and
    authorities generally did not take steps to investigate allegations or
    punish perpetrators. There were several allegations that authorities
    denied victims of torture access to medical care until evidence of
    abuse disappeared. The Government maintained that it investigated all
    complaints of torture and mistreatment filed with the Prosecutor's
    Office and noted alleged victims sometimes accused police of torture
    without filing a complaint, which is a prerequisite for an
    investigation. However, according to defense attorneys and local and
    international human rights groups, police routinely refused to register
    complaints. Judges sometimes dismissed complaints without investigation
    and accepted as evidence confessions allegedly extracted through
    torture. The Government can open an administrative investigation of
    allegations of torture or mistreatment of prisoners without a formal
    complaint; however, in such cases the results were not made public or
    available to the lawyers representing affected prisoners.
        Reports of torture were most frequently associated with the initial
    phases of interrogation and investigation and more often in pretrial
    detention centers than prisons. Human rights activists, citing prisoner
    accounts, identified facilities at the Ministry of Interior and Local
    Development as the most common location for torture. Political
    prisoners, Islamists, and persons detained on terrorism-related charges
    allegedly received harsher treatment than other prisoners and
    detainees, including reports of torture, solitary confinement, and
    cancellation of family visitation rights. Government forces also abused
    individuals outside custody, most commonly human rights or opposition
    activists, allegedly for purposes of intimidation or retaliation for
    unauthorized activities.
        On April 24, plainclothes police arrested human rights activist and
    independent journalist Zouheir Makhlouf at his home. Makhlouf stated
    that when he asked them for an arrest warrant, officers beat him in
    front of his wife and children and took him to the Borj Louzir police
    station in Tunis, where they interrogated him for seven hours. Makhlouf
    suffered from a broken nose and a black eye and reported his physician
    put him on bed rest for 21 days to recover from his injuries.
        On July 9, two police officers attacked and detained Ismail Debara,
    a journalist with the Democratic Progressive Party (PDP)'s Arabic
    biweekly, Al-Mowqif, in downtown Tunis. The officers seized his
    briefcase, confiscated his private papers, and took him to a police
    station in downtown Tunis, where they allegedly further threatened and
    verbally assaulted him. The police asked Debara to sign a statement
    stipulating that he was caught putting stickers and invitations to a
    PDP conference on the hoods of parked vehicles. Debara allegedly
    refused to sign and was subsequently released.
        On September 5, according to local human rights monitors, Mornaguia
    prison guards led by Ali Ouergli violently beat Ramzi Romdhani, causing
    him grievous bodily harm and perforating his right eardrum. Romdhani
    was then chained and placed in solitary confinement until September 9.
    Romdhani, who was serving a 29-year sentence on terrorism-related
    charges at Mornaguia Prison in Tunis, previously reported that guards
    tortured him in April 2009. The guards reportedly kicked him, causing
    him to lose several teeth, burned him with cigarettes, and submerged
    his head in a bucket of water until he fainted.
        On December 28, plainclothes police arrested human rights activist
    and lawyer Abderraouf Ayadi without an arrest warrant at his home.
    Ayadi was taken to an undisclosed location where he was detained for a
    day, interrogated, and severely beaten, resulting in numerous cuts and
    bruises to his back. He reported that he was arrested for a speech he
    made during demonstrations led by lawyers in Tunis on December 27.
        There were no developments in the March 2009 case of Abdelmottaleb
    Ben Marzoug, who alleged he was suspended in a ``roasted chicken''
    position by state security forces at an Interior Ministry detention
    center in an attempt to extract a confession of his alleged
    participation in a physical altercation at a bar. At year's end Marzoug
    remained in prison on terrorism charges, and the investigating judge
    had not ordered an investigation into Marzoug's allegations of torture.
        Wahid Brahmi dropped all claims of torture and rape against the
    Government. In September 2009 Brahmi published a letter in Al-Mowqif
    alleging that Gafsa prison officials had tortured and raped him in
    custody beginning in 2008. At year's end he was reported to be employed
    by the Government in his hometown of Sidi Bouzid.
        There were no developments in the May 2009 case of human rights
    activist Ammar Amroussia, allegedly assaulted by six police officers,
    including Gafsa police chief Sami Yahyaoui; the state security forces'
    June 2009 assault on human rights attorneys Abdel-Raouf Ayadi, Radia
    Nasraoui, and Abdelwahed Maatar; the June 2009 armed attack on the PDP
    secretary general Maya Jribi and other party members that police and
    security forces failed to stop; the alleged September 2009 assault on
    Radia Nasraoui and her husband and official spokesperson of the banned
    Communist Party of State Workers, Hamma Hammami, by plainclothes
    police; or the abduction of prominent independent journalist Slim
    Boukdhir, allegedly orchestrated by several plainclothes police
    officers.
        There were no developments in the 2008 cases of 68 protesters
    arrested and allegedly tortured during unemployment protests in Gafsa;
    the alleged rape in prison of opposition member Zakia Dhifaoui; the
    alleged assault by security forces on Fatma Ksila, secretary general of
    the Committee for the Respect of Freedom and Human Rights in Tunisia,
    and on Samia Abbou, a member of the Tunisian Association for Combating
    Terrorism, which prevented the two from meeting with torture victims'
    families; the assault on a PDP member who was selling copies of Al-
    Mowqif; or the assault on Hamma Hammami.

        Prison and Detention Center Conditions.--Prison conditions
    generally did not meet international standards. Overcrowding and
    limited medical care posed significant threats to prisoners' health.
    There were credible reports from former political prisoners, human
    rights activists, and family members of detainees that authorities
    sometimes denied injured or sick prisoners prompt access to medical
    care. The Government permitted the International Committee of the Red
    Cross (ICRC) access to prisons but did not grant access to other
    independent human rights observers.
        According to human rights organizations, prison conditions in the
    country continued to fall short of minimum adequate standards. Hygiene
    was extremely poor, and prisoners rarely had access to showers and
    washing facilities. Sources reported that 40 to 50 prisoners were
    typically confined to a single 194-square-foot cell, and as many as 140
    prisoners shared a 323-square-foot cell. Most prisoners were forced to
    share beds or sleep on the floor. Current and former prisoners reported
    that the lack of basic facilities forced inmates to share a single
    water and toilet facility with more than 100 cellmates, creating
    serious sanitation problems. Contagious diseases, particularly scabies,
    were widespread, and prisoners did not have access to adequate medical
    care. According to prisoners' families, the Government imposed
    arbitrary restrictions, such as limiting family visits, when prisoners
    sought redress for grievances about treatment and conditions.
        There were reports that prison officials arbitrarily decided when
    to grant or deny prisoners access to medication. According to the
    International Association for the Support of Political Prisoners
    (AISPP), the administration at Mornaguia Prison in Tunis on January 6
    denied prisoner Mohamed El-Lafi medication he needed for his high blood
    pressure and skin ailments. It did not report whether El-Lafi
    subsequently received medication.
        On January 15, according to local human rights monitors, Mornaguia
    prison authorities deprived Ramzi Romdhani of medical treatment and a
    surgical operation recommended by the prison physician. Human rights
    attorneys believed that Romdhani was denied treatment in retaliation
    for reporting to his family and attorney he had been tortured at an
    Interior Ministry facility (see section 1.c.).
        From July 21 to 27, Hatem Harmi reportedly went on a hunger strike
    in Mornaguia Prison to protest prison conditions; he alleged 100
    prisoners were confined in the same room and three prisoners had to
    share a single bed.
        There were no reports of an investigation into the January 2009
    death of Anouar Ferjani who, according to AISPP, died in custody in
    Mornaguia Prison as a result of deliberate neglect and denial of
    medical care. Ferjani had been sentenced to two years in prison in 2008
    on terrorism-related charges.
        Most political prisoners were separated from the general prison
    population and were under the authority of security forces working for
    the Department of State Security in the Ministry of Interior instead of
    Ministry of Justice and Human Rights officials. Prison administrators
    and guards allegedly instructed other inmates to stay away from
    political prisoners and punished the other inmates severely for making
    contact with the political prisoners. Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported
    in early 2008 the Government was keeping some political prisoners, most
    of whom were outlawed Islamist party An-Nahdha leaders, in small-group
    isolation (see section 1.e.). According to prisoner and detainee
    testimony, prison conditions for women were generally better than those
    for men. The law requires that pretrial detainees be held separately
    from convicted prisoners, but in practice they were not always
    separated.
        Prisoners and detainees had reasonable access to visitors and were
    permitted religious observance. Prisoners and detainees reported
    inhumane detention conditions to their lawyers and family members, but
    there were no reports of government investigations into these
    allegations of inhumane detention conditions. Civil society activists
    and lawyers reported prisoners on death row were denied access to
    visitors.
        The Governmental Higher Committee for Human Rights and Civil
    Liberties continued to make unannounced prison visits and inspections
    of Ministry of Justice facilities during the year; however, the
    committee's reports were not made public.
        The ICRC continued to visit detainees in prisons and detention
    facilities. The ICRC did not report the Government impeded its visits.
    Per its standard modalities, the ICRC shared its observations and
    recommendations with government authorities on a confidential and
    bilateral basis. According to its most recent annual report in 2009,
    the ICRC conducted 56 visits to 37 detention centers. These centers
    held a total of 23,319 detainees; the ICRC held individual interviews
    with 546 detainees. No updated figures were available at year's end.
    The Government did not permit media or independent local or
    international human rights groups to inspect or monitor prison
    conditions. Although the Government pledged to the UN Human Rights
    Committee in 2008 it would allow HRW to visit prisons, negotiations
    between the Government and HRW remained stagnant due to the
    Government's refusal to permit HRW to meet with specific prisoners.

        d. Arbitrary Arrest or Detention.--The law prohibits arbitrary
    arrest and detention, but the Government did not observe these
    prohibitions.

        Role of the Police and Security Apparatus.--The Ministry of
    Interior controls several law enforcement organizations including
    police, who have primary responsibility for law enforcement in the
    major cities; the National Guard, which has responsibility for border
    security and policing smaller cities and the countryside; and state
    security forces, which monitor groups and individuals that the
    Government viewed as posing a threat, such as opposition parties and
    leaders, the media, Islamists, and human rights activists.
        In general law enforcement groups were disciplined, organized, and
    effective; however, and police brutality took place. Law enforcement
    organizations sometimes operated with impunity, sanctioned by high-
    ranking officials. Police attacked dissidents and oppositionists.
        The Ministry of Interior's Higher Institute of Internal Security
    Forces and Customs has oversight of law enforcement officers in the
    ministries of interior and customs and the authority to investigate
    security force abuses. The organization's stated mission is to
    reinforce human rights and improve law enforcement; however, no
    information was available about its operations or any punishment of
    police or prison guards.

        Arrest Procedures and Treatment While in Detention.--The law
    provides that police must have a warrant to arrest a suspect, unless
    the crime committed is a felony or is in progress; however, arbitrary
    arrests and detentions occurred. The penal code permits detention for
    as long as six days before arraignment, during which time the
    Government may hold suspects incommunicado. This time limit was not
    always observed. Arresting officers must inform detainees of their
    rights, immediately inform detainees' families of the arrest, and make
    a complete record of the times and dates of such notifications, but
    police sometimes ignored those rules. Detainees not being held
    incommunicado were allowed access to family members, although the
    Government did not always facilitate the efforts of family members to
    identify the whereabouts of their detained relatives.
        Detainees have the right to know the grounds of their arrest before
    questioning and may request a medical examination. The Government did
    not regularly uphold these rights. Detainees do not have a right to
    legal representation during prearraignment detention. Attorneys, human
    rights monitors, and former detainees maintained authorities illegally
    extended detention by falsifying arrest dates. Police reportedly
    extorted money from families of detainees in exchange for dropping
    charges against them. The law permits the release of accused persons on
    bail, and detainees have the right to representation by counsel during
    arraignment. The Government provides legal representation for
    indigents. At arraignment the examining magistrate may decide to
    release the accused or remand the prisoner to pretrial detention.
        In cases involving crimes for which the sentence may exceed five
    years or that involve national security, pretrial detention may last an
    initial period of six months and may be extended by court order for two
    additional four-month periods. For crimes in which the sentence may not
    exceed five years, the court may extend the initial six-month pretrial
    detention only by an additional three months. During this pretrial
    stage, the court conducts an investigation, hears arguments, and
    accepts evidence and motions from both parties. Complaints of prolonged
    pretrial detention were common.
        On January 18, eight state security officers entered Walid
    Romdhani's home and arrested him in the presence of his family. Six of
    the officers searched the family home and confiscated documents,
    compact discs, and a computer. His family reported that the officers
    had no warrant for the arrest. Romdhani's arrest was believed to be
    linked to his efforts to expose the torture and prison conditions of
    his brother, Ramzi Romdhani (see section 1.c.). Walid Romdhani was held
    incommunicado until his release on January 20.
        On June 9, human rights lawyers reported officers of the National
    Guard in Chebba, in the governorate of Mahdia, arrested Jamel Ben
    Mohammed Ben Hassine without a warrant on allegations of involvement in
    illegal immigration activities. He was detained for three days, and
    authorities failed to inform his family of his whereabouts. Following
    his release Ben Hassine alleged he had been tortured, had not been
    brought before a judge, and no official charges against him had been
    filed.
        On September 15, police arrested student activist Khaled Gafsaoui
    at his home without a warrant and detained him for eight hours, during
    which they reportedly physically assaulted and verbally abused him.
    Following his release Gafsaoui reported that authorities had
    interrogated him about his activities with the independent General
    Union of Tunisian Students (UGET) and about his signature on a petition
    criticizing a campaign calling for President Ben Ali to present his
    candidacy in the 2014 presidential elections.
        On January 1, the student leader of the UGET, Mohamed Soudani, was
    conditionally released from prison. Authorities arrested Soudani in
    October 2009 after he met with two French journalists covering the 2009
    national and legislative elections. A court sentenced him to four
    months in prison for drunkenness and disorderly and immoral conduct.
        On May 26, the Court of First Instance in Tunis sentenced 11 men
    arrested in 2009 to prison terms ranging from four to 12 years on
    charges of funding an unnamed terrorist cell and recruiting new
    members. The total number remaining in pretrial detention was unknown
    at year's end.
        There were no developments in the 2008 arrest of Zied Fakraoui.
    Police failed to notify Zied's family of his whereabouts until local
    government officials told Fakraoui's lawyers he had been brought before
    an investigating magistrate without the presence of counsel. At year's
    end, Fakraoui was still believed to be in custody.
        According to international and domestic human rights organizations,
    police continued to arrest individuals suspected of membership in an
    armed cell that was reportedly plotting terrorist attacks. Families
    made inquiries about the individuals, but authorities provided no
    information. Local and international groups expressed concern that
    authorities held arrested persons in incommunicado detention at the
    Interior Ministry's State Security Department, where they would be at
    risk of torture and other mistreatment.

        e. Denial of Fair Public Trial.--The law provides for an
    independent judiciary; however, the executive branch and the president
    strongly influenced judicial procedures, particularly in cases
    involving political dissidents and oppositionists. The executive branch
    exercised indirect authority over the judiciary through the
    appointment, assignment, tenure, and transfer of judges, rendering the
    system susceptible to pressure. Defendants may request a different
    judge if they believe the one assigned is not impartial; however,
    judges are not required to recuse themselves. The president headed the
    Supreme Council of Judges, composed primarily of presidential
    appointees. There were reports of lack of judicial independence and
    impartiality.
        Military courts fall under the Ministry of Defense. Military
    tribunals have the authority to try cases involving military personnel
    and civilians accused of national security crimes. A defendant may
    appeal a military tribunal's verdict to the civilian Supreme Court.
    Some civilians accused of national security crimes were sentenced in
    military tribunals.

        Trial Procedures.--The law provides all citizens the right to a
    fair trial; however, according to international and domestic NGOs, this
    often did not occur in practice.
        The law provides that defendants are presumed innocent until proven
    guilty; however, that presumption was sometimes ignored in practice,
    especially in politically sensitive cases. Trials in the regular courts
    of first instance and in the courts of appeal are open to the public.
    Trials before military tribunals are not open to the public. The
    Government permitted observers from diplomatic missions and foreign
    journalists to monitor trials. Observers may be allowed to attend
    sessions of military tribunals at the court's discretion. There are no
    jury trials. By law, accused persons have the right to be present at
    trial, be represented by counsel (provided at public expense for the
    indigent), question witnesses against them, and present witnesses or
    evidence on their behalf; however, judges did not always observe these
    rights in practice. The law permits a trial in the absence of fugitives
    from the law. Both the accused and the prosecutor may appeal decisions
    of the lower courts.
        Lengthy trial delays remained a problem. Defendants do not have the
    right to a speedy trial, nor is there any time limit on cases. Defense
    lawyers claimed judges sometimes refused to let them call witnesses on
    their clients' behalf, to question key government witnesses, or to have
    adequate notice of trial dates to allow time to prepare their cases.
    Defense lawyers also reported judges restricted access to court records
    and evidence, especially to government-held records and evidence, and
    in some cases required all the lawyers working on a case to examine
    documents together on a single date in judges' chambers without
    allowing them to copy relevant documents.
        Lawyers and human rights organizations reported courts routinely
    failed to investigate allegations of torture and mistreatment and
    accepted as evidence confessions extracted through torture. These
    groups also reported the summary nature of court sessions sometimes
    prevented reasoned deliberation and erratic court schedules and
    procedures deterred would-be observers from attending politically
    motivated trials.
        Although family and inheritance law is codified, civil law judges
    were known to apply Sharia (Islamic law) in family cases if the two
    systems conflicted (see section 6).
        The number of political prisoners remained unknown. Human rights
    organizations alleged that the Government had arrested and imprisoned
    more than 2,000 persons under the terrorism law since 2005 without
    sufficient evidence they had committed or planned to commit terrorist
    acts. Human rights activists and lawyers alleged that many of these
    detainees were tortured in Interior Ministry facilities and forced to
    sign confessions under duress. In May 2009 then minister of justice and
    human rights Bechir Tekkari reportedly said the Government had
    sentenced only 300 individuals under the antiterrorism law.
        In 2008 the Government conditionally released the An-Nahdha leaders
    remaining in prison; however, shortly thereafter the Government
    rearrested former An-Nahda president Sadok Chorou after he gave an
    interview to the London-based satellite television station Al-Hiwar and
    sentenced him to one year in prison for membership in an unauthorized
    organization. In August 2009, according to local NGO Freedom and
    Equity, Chorou's wife visited him in prison. She subsequently alleged
    that prison officials had restricted Chorou to a diet of bread and
    olive oil for the previous 40 days and condoned inmates harassing him.
    At year's end Chorou was free but reportedly under constant police
    surveillance.
        Family members of political prisoners claimed that authorities
    treated prisoners poorly, limited visitation rights, insulted their
    religious beliefs, and arbitrarily subjected them to solitary
    confinement. Former political prisoners stated that upon their release,
    officials failed to return their identification cards, marked their
    identification cards in a specific way, or denied them certificates
    attesting that they had served their sentences and were permitted to
    work. They also reported that both uniformed and plainclothes police
    closely monitored them.
        The ICRC had access to political prisoners in Justice Ministry-
    controlled prisons and detention facilities but generally not to those
    in Interior Ministry facilities. The Government did not permit any
    other international humanitarian organizations access to such
    prisoners.

        Civil Judicial Procedures and Remedies.--Although a court system
    existed through which citizens could make human rights complaints, the
    judiciary was not independent and impartial in cases involving human
    rights violations when the Government was involved. Administrative
    remedies were available through the Office of the Ombudsman or the
    Administrative Court. These institutions' decisions were not binding,
    and other government departments and agencies often ignored them.

        f. Arbitrary Interference With Privacy, Family, Home, or
    Correspondence.--The law prohibits such actions ``except in exceptional
    cases defined by law''; however, the Government generally did not
    respect these prohibitions in practice. Police sometimes ignored the
    requirement to have a warrant before conducting searches if authorities
    cited state security considerations. Domestic NGOs and civil society
    activists reported that members of the security forces entered their
    offices and homes when they were not present and searched without a
    warrant (see section 1.d.).
        Authorities may invoke state security considerations to justify
    telephone surveillance. According to numerous reports by NGOs and the
    news media, the Government intercepted faxes and e-mails. The law does
    not explicitly authorize these activities, but state prosecutors,
    investigating magistrates, and Justice Ministry officials regularly
    claimed that the code of criminal procedure implicitly gives
    investigating magistrates such authority. Opposition political
    activists experienced frequent and sometimes extended interruptions of
    service to home and business telephones, faxes, and the Internet. Human
    rights activists accused the Government of using the postal code, with
    its broad and undefined prohibition against mail that threatens the
    public order, to interfere with their correspondence and interrupt the
    delivery of foreign publications. Authorities reportedly opened and
    read letters, many of which never reached their recipients. Security
    forces routinely monitored the activities, telephones, and Internet
    exchanges of opposition, Islamist, and human rights activists, as well
    as journalists, and placed some individuals under surveillance.
        Throughout the year plainclothes police maintained a limited but
    visible presence around the home of married activists Hamma Hammami and
    Radia Nasraoui. On February 12, following the release from prison of
    journalist Zouheir Makhlouf, a colleague and client of Nasraoui,
    plainclothes police surrounded Nasraoui's office in downtown Tunis and
    denied her all access to her clients for two days. Security forces
    assaulted the couple in June and September 2009.
        On September 15, according to the domestic NGO Freedom and Equity,
    approximately 25 uniformed and plainclothes policemen forcibly entered
    the farm of human rights activist and lawyer Mohamed Nouri. The
    officers allegedly destroyed the doors on the barn and stole 1,400
    frozen partridges. Human rights activists believed the forcible entry
    was a government reprisal against Nouri for publishing a statement
    against the campaign calling for President Ben Ali to present his
    candidacy in the 2014 elections. Nouri filed a complaint with the
    public prosecutor following the unlawful entry.
        Human rights activists claimed the Government punished family
    members of Islamist activists by denying them jobs, educational
    opportunities, business licenses, and travel, due to their relatives'
    activism. Police also kept under surveillance, detained, and questioned
    relatives of individuals affiliated with Islamist activists (see
    section 1.c.).
        Human rights activists reported that the Government made it
    difficult for suspected An-Nahda members who had been released from
    prison to find employment. Other released political prisoners, who had
    been detained but not convicted, found it hard to obtain Interior
    Ministry statements that they had no criminal records. Even when
    political activists and Islamists had not been imprisoned, security
    forces confiscated their identification cards, which negatively
    affected their ability to receive health care, sign a lease, buy or
    drive a car, and access bank accounts and pensions. Police may demand
    identification cards at any time and may detain those unable to produce
    their cards until police establish their identity. Authorities took
    AISPP member Lasaad Johri's identification card in 1999, and he
    remained without identification at year' end.

    Section 2. Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:
        a. Freedom of Speech and Press.--The constitution provides for
    limited freedom of speech and of the press; however, the Government
    generally did not respect these rights in practice. The Government
    restricted media freedom and severely intimidated journalists, editors,
    and publishers into practicing self-censorship. Security forces closely
    monitored both foreign and domestic media activity.
        Individuals were not free to criticize the Government without fear
    of reprisal, and the Government restricted some types of speech. The
    law prohibits individuals from discussing national politics on foreign
    radio or television channels during the two weeks prior to national
    elections, with a fine of up to 25,000 dinar ($20,833) per offense.
    Security forces often questioned citizens seen talking with foreign
    visitors or residents, particularly with visiting international human
    rights monitors and journalists. The Government also attempted to
    prevent private meetings of citizens with foreign diplomats and to
    influence public meetings by surrounding meeting places with scores of
    plainclothes police.
        On June 15, parliament amended article 61 of the penal code, which
    criminalizes any acts intended to damage the country's military and
    diplomatic interests and any contact ``with foreign parties that incite
    prejudice against vital economic interests,'' with penalties of five to
    12 years' imprisonment. The amendment defines ``vital interests'' as
    anything linked to the country's economic security, which would include
    deterring foreigners from investing in the country, influencing
    national loan acquisitions, affecting trade negotiations, incitement to
    boycott tourism, and obstructing the country's efforts to gain
    preferential cooperative arrangements with a foreign state.
        The Government does not require licensing of print media; however,
    it rigidly controls print media through a publishing permit process.
    Print media must request a copyright registration from the Ministry of
    Interior, which issues a receipt that constitutes an official permit to
    publish for one year. The press code requires that the receipt be
    issued before printing, effectively prohibiting any unlicensed
    publications. The code also requires the publisher to inform the
    ministry of any change of printer. Printers and publishers who violate
    these rules are subject to substantial, per copy, personal fines under
    the press code.
        The National Council for Liberties (CNLT) that operated the
    independent Internet radio station, Radio Kalima, also produced the
    online newsmagazine Kalima without a license, and accessible only from
    outside the country. In 2008 the CNLT made its fifth attempt to
    register Kalima, but government officials refused to acknowledge they
    had received their application. International human rights NGOs alleged
    that the Government refused to register Kalima due to its criticism of
    the Government. Also in 2008, according to Kalima staff, the Kalima Web
    site was hacked and its archives destroyed.
        The Government stated that 90 percent of domestic newspapers were
    ``privately owned and editorially independent.'' However, two of the
    eight mainstream dailies were government owned; the ruling party owned
    two, and two others, although nominally private, reportedly took
    editorial direction from senior government officials. All media were
    subject to significant governmental pressure regarding subject matter.
    There were seven opposition party newspapers with small circulations.
    Five received government subsidies under a law that provides government
    financing to papers representing opposition parties that have seats in
    parliament.
        Broadcast media must receive a grant of a frequency from the
    Tunisian Frequencies Agency, a part of the Ministry of Communications
    Technologies. Grants to these licenses are tightly restricted.
        In mid-August the Ministry of Communications Technologies granted a
    license for the creation of a new radio station, Shams FM, to the
    president's daughter, Cyrine Ben Ali Mabrouk. The station was scheduled
    to begin broadcasting in September.
        There were no developments in the January 2009 case of Radio
    Kalima, an independent Internet radio station that was critical of the
    Government. At year's end the Government continued to block access to
    the Radio Kalima office.
        There were no developments in the October 2009 Radio 6 shutdown; at
    year's end the station remained sealed, with all equipment in
    government custody.
        Government regulations required foreign correspondents to obtain
    written approval before recording video in public. The Government
    controlled the satellite transmissions of local correspondents
    reporting for foreign television stations by refusing to license
    correspondents and insisting that all correspondents use government-
    owned facilities for satellite connection.
        In May 2009 pro-government journalists initiated an open campaign
    against the executive board of the National Syndicate of Tunisian
    Journalists (SNJT) following the union's announcement of its second
    annual press freedom report. Progovernment members of the board
    resigned and began circulating a petition to the union membership
    calling for an extraordinary congress to conduct new elections. Some
    journalists were reportedly threatened with dismissal if they did not
    sign. After holding the congress in August 2009, the progovernment
    faction sued for control of the SNJT. In September 2009 plainclothes
    police surrounded the SNJT offices, and approximately 20 police
    officers beat SNJT president Neji B'ghouri as he attempted to access
    the offices. On the same day, a Tunis court ruled in favor of the
    progovernment faction. Police enforced the court order immediately and
    evicted the independent SNJT board from the offices. In August 2009
    B'ghouri's independent group filed a legal challenge to the
    progovernment takeover. At year's end the case remained pending.
        There were widespread reports during the year that the Government
    blocked most criticism of authorities in the mainstream press and that
    it harassed, arrested, and abused journalists, especially those active
    in opposition activities. The Government cited the need to preserve
    public order as grounds to suppress criticism and used defamation laws
    to prosecute journalists. Journalists most often faced charges of
    unrelated offenses (such as counterfeiting), frequently by private
    parties. The law authorizes prison sentences as long as five years for
    offensive written or spoken statements against the president and as
    long as three years for defamation of constitutional bodies including
    the Chamber of Deputies, Chamber of Advisors, constitutional councils,
    the administration, government members, or deputies.
        On April 27, authorities released independent journalist Taoufik
    Ben Brik after a six-month sentence. Civil society, independent
    journalists, and Ben Brik's lawyer described his October 2009 arrest on
    charges of public indecency, assault, defamation, destruction of
    private property, and blasphemy as a government attempt to silence
    legitimate and free journalism. The incident occurred after Ben Brik
    published opinion articles critical of the Government in French press
    sources in September 2009.
        On July 6, the Gafsa Court of Appeal affirmed the four-year
    sentence against independent journalist Fahem Boukadous, originally
    sentenced in 2008 on charges of ``belonging to a criminal association''
    and spreading materials ``likely to harm public order.'' Boukadous was
    taken into custody on July 15, one day after his discharge from a
    hospital at which he received treatment for respiratory ailments. The
    charges against Boukadous stemmed from his 2008 coverage of a series of
    unemployment protests that ended bloodshed in the impoverished Gafsa
    region. Boukadous was sentenced in his absence to six years in prison,
    but his conviction was vacated when he emerged from hiding, hoping to
    benefit from the conditional pardon granted by President Ben Ali in
    November 2009 that allowed for the release of the remaining prisoners
    arrested following the 2008 Gafsa protests. However, his case was
    reopened and Boukadous was convicted and sentenced to four years in
    prison on January 10.
        The law prohibits censorship of domestic newspapers, magazines, and
    books; however, the Government continued to censor international as
    well as domestic media. For example, the Government reportedly banned
    distribution of the July 29 issue of the The Economist and blocked its
    Web site for an article criticizing the country's human rights record
    and the lack of rule of law and political pluralism.
        The Government routinely seized and prevented distribution of
    domestic newspapers when it found articles or photographs contrary to
    government policies. For example, authorities reportedly suppressed and
    confiscated the March and July issues of the opposition weekly Al-
    Mowqif, which carried an article on a HRW report on abuses in the
    country, a call for President Ben Ali to respect the constitutional bar
    against presenting his candidacy in the 2014 elections, and a poem in
    solidarity with imprisoned journalist Fahem Boukadous, authored by
    Taoufik Ben Brik.
        According to journalists and other sources, senior government
    officials routinely called news directors and editors to inform them
    which issues they were forbidden to cover or publish and to direct
    editorial content and news coverage. The Government also often
    pressured newspapers to carry the Government wire service's version of
    an event, even when the newspapers' journalists were present. The
    Tunisian Agency for External Communications enforced these informal
    censorship mechanisms by favoring certain publications for placement of
    government advertising. Private companies that wanted to avoid
    association with publications the Government viewed unfavorably
    withdrew their advertisements from those publications.
        Directors and owners of existing private media, as well as
    journalists working for government- and ruling-party-owned media,
    practiced a high degree of self-censorship. Journalists in the
    mainstream media regularly refrained from investigative reporting on
    national issues. Only the small opposition media reported regularly on
    controversial national issues, and it was subject to regular and
    frequent government harassment.
        The law stipulates that the Government may restrict the
    publication, introduction, and circulation of foreign works. The
    Ministry of Culture required book fair publishing representatives to
    deposit publication titles in advance; it reportedly rejected 15
    publishing houses from participating in the country's international
    book fair, which opened on April 23, because the publishing houses
    allegedly presented books that contradicted the values of modernity,
    enlightenment, and innovation. Authorities also restricted the
    importation or sale of foreign publications that included articles
    deemed critical of the country or that the Government determined could
    prompt a security threat.

        Internet Freedom.--Widespread use and interest in the Internet
    remained the driving force behind the country's rapidly and
    continuously developing telecommunications infrastructure. According to
    this year's International Telecommunication Union statistics,
    approximately 34 percent of the country's inhabitants used the
    Internet. The Government monitored and restricted Internet usage and
    communications. In 2009 Reporters without Borders (RSF) named the
    country an ``Internet Enemy'' due to its harsh filtering and
    surveillance of the Internet.
        The law allows the Government to block or censor Internet content
    deemed obscene or content threatening public order, defined as
    ``incitement to hate, violence, terrorism, and all forms of
    discrimination and bigoted behavior that violate the integrity and
    dignity of the human person, or are prejudicial to children and
    adolescents.'' During the year the Government also blocked access to a
    wide variety of Internet sites that did not fit this definition. The
    quasi-governmental Tunisian Internet Agency controlled and censored
    Internet-based information. The Government blocked nearly all sites
    belonging to domestic human rights, opposition, and Islamist groups,
    including discussion sites. The Government also periodically blocked
    opposition news sites and Internet discussion sites throughout the
    year. Some foreign Web sites remained blocked at year's end, including
    RSF's site and YouTube. According to OpenNet Initiative, whose Web site
    was also blocked in the country, the Government used a commercial
    software filtering program in government-controlled servers to
    consistently block sites on the servers of the country's 11 Internet
    service providers (ISPs).
        On July 18, the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information
    reported that the Government blocked the Web site-based chat room Fadaa
    Jadal Democraty (A Space for Democratic Debate), although the site had
    not been officially launched and was in its testing phase.
        In addition to filtering software, the Government reportedly used
    regulatory means and surveillance to monitor and control Internet
    usage, and it prosecuted and punished individuals for expressing their
    views via the Internet. The law requires all ISPs to submit a monthly
    list of their subscribers to the Tunisian Internet Agency. Human rights
    attorneys and local human rights monitors reported that authorities
    sometimes arrested individuals for visiting Web sites that the
    Government associated with terrorism and detained them without proper
    legal procedures or sufficient evidence of commission of a crime.
        During the year human rights activist and independent journalist
    Zouheir Makhlouf reported that he continued to be subject to harassment
    and abuse by government forces (see section 1.c.). On February 12,
    authorities conditionally released Makhlouf from prison after he had
    served almost four months on charges of ``harming others on the
    Internet'' for having posted footage documenting environmental damage
    and dangerous working conditions in an industrial district of the town
    of Nabeul. The Government also targeted Makhlouf for contributing to an
    independent news Web site with antigovernment material and for posting
    material critical of the Government on Facebook and YouTube.
        On June 23, according to domestic NGO Freedom and Equity,
    plainclothes police arrested Heithem Mahjoubi and took him to an
    unknown police location, allegedly for posting on Facebook that he was
    facing extreme pressure and harassment from authorities in the
    governorate of Sfax for his decision to rent office space to the PDP.
    Mahjoubi also stated on Facebook that authorities had harassed his
    father and brother and threatened to close his brother's car wash
    business. He was released on the same day as his arrest. At year's end
    Mahjoubi had cancelled his lease agreement with the PDP.
        In December 2009 the Tunis Court of Appeals gave university
    professor Khedija Arfaoui an eight-month suspended sentence for posting
    a message on her Facebook page about rumored child kidnappings in the
    country. The message Arfaoui posted related to rumors that had already
    circulated within the country and had been discussed in local media.

        Academic Freedom and Cultural Events.--The Government limited
    academic freedom and fostered a culture of self-censorship in
    universities. The Government closely monitored administrators,
    teachers, and students to identify political activity. Both uniformed
    and plainclothes police maintained a significant presence on university
    campuses and discouraged students from openly expressing dissent.
        Authorities subjected academic publications to the Ministry of
    Culture's approval before publication, and university libraries did not
    purchase foreign books or subscribe to foreign magazines the ministry
    deemed critical of the Government. Close government control over
    academic research funds prevented university administrators from
    authorizing or applying for grants on research topics they believed the
    Government would find objectionable. Professors avoided teaching
    classes on subjects considered sensitive, such as legal courses on
    political systems, comparative politics, and classes on civil
    liberties. University professors often avoided discussion of subjects
    deemed sensitive enough to interest the Government, and faculty members
    reported that they were hesitant to gather outside the classroom.
    Faculty members had to request Ministry of Higher Education approval to
    hold conferences and were required to submit conference topics and
    invitee lists.
        In July 2009 the Government adopted a law requiring all foreign
    theatrical and artistic productions not sponsored by the Government to
    obtain Ministry of Culture clearance prior to public performance or
    release.

        b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association.--The law provides
    for freedom of assembly and association, but the Government severely
    restricted this right in practice.

        Freedom of Assembly.--The law requires groups wishing to hold a
    public meeting, rally, or march to obtain a permit from the Ministry of
    Interior at least three days prior to the proposed event and to submit
    a list of participants. Authorities routinely approved permits for
    groups supporting the Government and generally refused permission for
    dissenting groups. As in previous years, NGO leaders reported
    difficulty in renting space to hold large meetings, maintaining that
    police pressured venue managers not to rent to certain groups. Hotel
    managers and businesses denied any specific ban on renting space to
    opposition groups; however, they acknowledged cooperating with the
    ministry and accommodating its requests when possible. The Government
    blocked meetings of the Tunisian Human Rights League (LTDH) at the
    organization's Tunis headquarters and at its regional offices (see
    section 5).
        On March 24, the Government prevented HRW from holding a public
    press conference to announce the release of a report documenting the
    Government's treatment of former political prisoners. Several hotels in
    the country had previously offered venues for HRW to hold its press
    conference but subsequently withdrew their offers. A hotel suite that
    HRW staff had reserved to hold the conference on March 23 was flooded
    three hours prior to the press conference. HRW held the conference at
    the office of a civil society activist. Police allowed only one foreign
    diplomat and three other individuals to attend.
        In early May independent Web log writer Zied El-Heni and head of
    the ``Arab Free Radio Group'' Salah Forti announced plans for a
    peaceful demonstration in front of the Ministry of Communications
    Technologies on May 3. On May 2, police officers surrounded El-Heni's
    home and maintained surveillance until May 3. On May3, El-Heni reported
    that police followed him as he accompanied his children to school. The
    planned demonstration was not held.
        On July 26, several hours prior to a PDP public conference on the
    origins of the country's democratic movement, a large number of
    plainclothes police blocked all streets and access points to the PDP's
    headquarters in downtown Tunis. Police turned away members of civil
    society, journalists, and other invitees, as well as scheduled
    conference speakers, including independent journalist Lotfi Hajji and
    Tunisian historian Ali Marzouki.
        The Government used police and other state security forces to
    monitor, control, and sometimes disperse demonstrations. In general
    demonstrators and security forces did not resort to violence; however,
    there were some exceptions, such as scuffles ensuing from protesters'
    attempts to cross police lines barring access to a demonstration site
    or protesters refusing to disperse when police ordered them to do so.
        On December 18, protests erupted in the city of Sidi Bouzid
    expressing solidarity with Mohammed Bouazizi, a young university
    graduate who set himself on fire on December 17 to protest the
    Government's refusal to allow him to sell vegetables without a license.
    Security forces initially responded to the protests by using tear gas
    and arrested approximately 80 persons. The protests spread to
    neighboring cities. On December 24, in the city of Menzel Bouzaiane,
    security forces used live ammunition on the protesters. One protester,
    Mohamed Ammari, was killed by a bullet in the chest, and 10 protesters
    were reportedly wounded. The Government press stated that security
    forces acted to protect themselves after protesters attacked the
    National Guard office, a train, and several shops. The Government press
    also reported that two National Guardsmen were in comas after
    sustaining injuries during the protest.
        In protest against the shooting of Mohamed Ammari, further
    skirmishes erupted between security forces and protesters on December
    25 in the towns of Al-Ragab and Maknasi in central Tunisia. Several
    protesters were reportedly injured, and security forces arrested many
    others. Hundreds of protesters also rallied in front of the Tunisian
    General Labor Union (UGTT) headquarters in Tunis on December 26,
    calling for more equitable employment opportunities and a cessation of
    the security siege of the city of Sidi Bouzid.
        There were no further developments in the legal cases stemming from
    the unrest in the aftermath of the 2008 Gafsa protests; however, human
    rights lawyers reported that on April 3, a Gafsa court sentenced Adel
    Amaidia, Amine Khaldia, Aymen Amaied, and Fethi Amaied, all of whom had
    been arrested on March 12, to up to six months in prison for protesting
    the new recruitment process adopted by the Gafsa phosphate company in
    the aftermath of the protests. In 2008 authorities arrested dozens of
    demonstrators, fatally shot one demonstrator, and wounded 18 others.
    There were no developments in the investigation into the fatal
    shooting. The Government maintained that the protests were violent
    while domestic NGOs claimed they were peaceful.

        Freedom of Association.--The law provides for freedom of
    association; however, the Government generally did not respect this
    right in practice. The law requires that new NGOs apply for
    registration with the Government. If the Government does not reject the
    application within 90 days, the NGO is automatically registered. The
    Government routinely blocked registration of new independent NGOs by
    refusing to provide receipts for their applications. Without such a
    receipt, NGOs were unable to counter the Government's assertions that
    they had not applied to register and, therefore, were not allowed to
    operate. In such cases the Government could close these NGOs, seize
    their property, and prosecute their members for ``membership in an
    illegal organization.'' Authorities arrested and prosecuted several
    individuals on this charge after they participated in the 2008 Gafsa
    protests.
        There were reports that significant numbers of RCD members
    attempted to join independent NGOs or labor unions with the apparent
    intent of limiting the organizations' independence by gaining control
    through elections or disrupting operations. For example, on September
    8, a progovernment faction took over leadership of the journalists'
    union.
        Despite the introduction, at the Government's recommendation, of
    three prominent civil society figures to serve as neutral mediators to
    resolve the LTDH's leadership crisis, at year's end the LTDH had failed
    to regularize relations with the Government or hold a sixth congress.
    In June 2009 the Court of Cassation affirmed a 2001 ruling annulling
    all decisions and organs resulting from the LTDH's fifth congress,
    including its newly elected steering committee, and tasked the LTDH
    with holding a new congress. According to LTDH leadership, the only way
    for the LTDH to continue its human rights work was to ensure that
    progovernment members were elected to the NGO's steering committee.

        c. Freedom of Religion.--For a complete description of religious
    freedom, please see the 2010 International Religious Freedom Report at
    www.state.gov/g/drl/irf/rpt.

        d. Freedom of Movement, Internally Displaced Persons, Protection of
    Refugees, and Stateless Persons.--The law provides for freedom of
    movement within the country, foreign travel, emigration, and
    repatriation; however, the Government did not always respect these
    rights in practice. The Government restricted the in-country and
    foreign travel of some dissidents, Islamists, and their relatives. The
    law allows the Government to impose five years of ``administrative
    control'' at sentencing on certain former prisoners that constitutes a
    type of internal exile, limiting their ability to travel within and
    outside of the country.
        The Government generally cooperated with the Office of the UN High
    Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and other humanitarian organizations
    in assisting refugees, asylum seekers, and other persons of concern;
    however, the Government did not provide protection for such persons,
    nor did it permit the UNHCR access to detention centers. In the absence
    of specific legislation on refugee matters, refugees were treated like
    foreigners, and there was no official government restriction on their
    movement.
        The law authorizes the courts to cancel passports and contains
    broad provisions that permit courts and the Ministry of Interior to
    seize passports on national security grounds and deny citizens the
    right to present their cases against seizure or to appeal the judges'
    decision. The ministry is required to submit to the courts, through the
    public prosecutor, requests to seize or withhold a citizen's passport;
    however, it routinely bypassed the public prosecutor with impunity.
    Many citizens, particularly journalists, reported difficulty applying
    for or renewing their passports and accused the Government of blocking
    their applications solely on the basis of political opposition.
        The Government reportedly continued to ignore passport requests by
    Mohamed Nejib Krifi, a former political prisoner. Krifi, deprived of
    his passport since 1998, has sent seven requests to both the ministries
    of justice and interior since 2003, with no response.
        On April 3, police informed Al-Mowqif journalist Mohamed Hamrouni,
    who applied for a passport in May 2009, that the Ministry of Interior
    had rejected his application. Hamrouni alleged the rejection was due to
    his work as an opposition journalist.
        Journalist and former prisoner Slim Boukdhir remained without a
    passport at year's end. Boukdhir, who filed his original application in
    2003, was arrested in 2007 and spent nine months in prison on charges
    of insulting a public official, public indecency, and refusal to
    present his identity card to a security official.
        Former An-Nahdha leader Mohamed Sedki Labidi has been deprived of
    his passport for the last 14 years without a court decision.
        According to the constitution, no citizen can be exiled from the
    country nor prevented from returning; however, the Government used
    administrative control as a type of punitive internal exile.
    Administrative control measures, which take effect upon a convict's
    release from prison, are similar to parole restrictions, except that
    they may be applied to prisoners even after they have completed their
    sentences. The Government requires these individuals to stay ``in the
    area of their residence,'' which the Government determines and may be
    anywhere in the country. They also may be required to report to a
    police station frequently, at times determined only the previous
    evening. At the police station, they may be forced to wait hours before
    they are allowed to sign in, making normal employment impossible.
    Numerous Islamists released from prison in recent years have been
    subjected to such requirements.
        By law administrative control measures may only be imposed at
    sentencing; however, a former high school teacher and An-Nahdha member,
    Nouri Chniti, claimed he has been subject to extrajudicial
    administrative control measures since 1991, when he received a
    suspended sentence that did not include such measures.
        The Government prevented some political opponents in self-imposed
    exile abroad from obtaining or renewing their passports to return to
    the country.
        The country's laws provide for the granting of asylum or refugee
    status, but the Government has not established a system for providing
    protection to refugees or other persons of concern. In practice the
    Government did not protect against the expulsion or return of persons
    to countries where their lives or freedom would be threatened on
    account of their race, religion, nationality, membership in a
    particular social group, or political opinion.
        In the absence of official and specific refugee laws and
    administrative measures to govern refugee and asylum matters, the UNHCR
    conducted all refugee status-determination procedures. The UNHCR
    maintained a liaison with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in
    particular the consular service, in connection with all refugee
    determinations. Refugees requested residence permits from the Ministry
    of Foreign Affairs upon their proper determination as refugees by the
    UNHCR. Issuance and renewal of a residence permit was subject to the
    approval of the Government and was not automatic. In several cases the
    Government arbitrarily denied residence permits to certain refugees
    despite their classification as refugees by the UNHCR. Although the
    UNHCR under its mandate sought resettlement for refugees under specific
    protection needs, the Government did not approve any resettlement
    requests, and at year's end there were numerous cases pending of
    persons seeking naturalization.
        Refugees were subject to the foreign labor policies within the
    national labor code prior to qualifying for work permits. A large
    majority of refugees worked in the informal sector with risk of
    exploitation.

    Section 3. Respect for Political Rights: The Right of Citizens to
            Change Their Government
        The constitution provides citizens the right to change their
    government peacefully; however, there were significant limitations on
    citizens' right to do so. The law provides that citizens shall directly
    elect the president and members of the Chamber of Deputies for five-
    year terms, but irregularities routinely called into question the
    legitimacy of elections. The president appoints the prime minister, the
    cabinet, and the 24 governors. The ruling party has maintained power
    continuously since the country's independence in 1956, dominating the
    cabinet, the legislature, and regional and local governments.

        Elections and Political Participation.--In the October 2009
    national elections, President Ben Ali, who became president in 1987,
    faced three candidates and was reelected for a fifth five-year term.
    The Government reported electoral participation was at 89 percent of
    the 4.9 million eligible voters. Anecdotal observation suggested that
    the Government inflated this figure. The Government rejected 15 of the
    26 legislative candidate slates the PDP proposed and 12 of the 26
    proposed by the Ettajdid Movement. In some cases the Government
    rejected candidate slates without explanation. By contrast five
    ``opposition'' parties viewed as friendly to the Government had no more
    than five of their 26 candidate slates rejected.
        Irregularities and imbalances characterized the period prior to the
    elections. A coalition of three local independent NGOs--the LTDH, CNLT,
    and Tunisian Association of Democratic Women (ATFD)--cited as serious
    problems the opposition's lack of media access during the campaign and
    media bias in favor of the ruling party. Opposition candidates and
    other observers also cited voter intimidation as well as restrictions
    on disseminating campaign materials and organizing campaign events.
        Political parties other than the ruling RCD faced restrictions. By
    law the establishment of political parties based on religion, language,
    race, or gender is prohibited. The law also requires any presidential
    candidate to be an elected head of a political party and to have had
    held that position for at least two years. At least two opposition
    parties did not have candidates who met those criteria.
        The Government and the RCD are closely integrated; current and
    former senior government officials constitute the top ranks of the
    party. The president of the country is also the president of the RCD,
    and the party's vice president and secretary general hold the rank of
    minister. All members of the RCD politburo hold ministerial rank based
    on their current or former government service. RCD membership conferred
    tangible advantages. For example, there were widespread reports that
    RCD members and their families were more likely to receive educational
    and housing benefits, small business permits, and waivers on zoning
    restrictions.
        To reduce the advantages wielded by the ruling party, the electoral
    code reserves 25 percent of seats in the Chamber of Deputies for the
    seven officially recognized opposition parties and distributes them on
    a proportional basis to parties that won at least one directly elected
    district seat. In the October 2009 elections, five of the opposition
    parties gained seats under that provision. The RCD holds the remaining
    161 seats.
        The Government continued to refuse to recognize an environmental
    political party, the Green Tunisia Party; it first applied for
    recognition in 2004.
        There was one member of the Jewish community in the legislature.
    There was no set allocation of political party positions or
    parliamentary seats for members of a minority group.

    Section 4. Official Corruption and Government Transparency
        The law provides criminal penalties for official corruption.
    Anecdotal evidence suggested that the incidence of corruption was on
    the rise; however, corruption allegations were difficult to prove.
    Public officials are not subject to financial disclosure laws. The
    Higher Institute of Security Forces and Customs is tasked with
    reinforcing human rights, improving law enforcement, and reducing
    corruption. There were no public reports of the organization's
    activities during the year.
        On July 7, according to Kalima, government authorities interrogated
    more than 20 judges on bribery and corruption allegations leveled by
    the Ministry of Justice. At year's end there was no reported outcome
    from these alleged interrogations.
        There is no law that requires public access to government documents
    upon request. The Government did not grant access to government
    documents, including to foreign media.

    Section 5. Governmental Attitude Regarding International and
            Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations of Human
            Rights
        The Government actively hindered investigations of human rights
    abuses by domestic and international NGOs, who had difficulty
    investigating and publishing their findings, and the Government sought
    to monitor and control the activities of some foreign NGOs within the
    country.
        There were approximately 12 domestic human rights NGOs, although
    only six were authorized. Some NGOs loyal to the Government received
    government funding. The Government met with registered domestic human
    rights NGOs and, on occasion, responded to their inquiries; however, it
    also harassed, targeted, and prosecuted some individuals associated
    with registered and nonregistered NGOs.
        The LTDH traditionally was one of the most active independent
    advocacy organizations, with 41 branches throughout the country,
    although the Government's blockage of LTDH activities limited the
    organization's operational effectiveness (see section 2.b.). The
    organization received and investigated complaints and protested abuses,
    yet the Government rarely responded to LTDH communiques. The Government
    continued to block an EU grant to the LTDH, citing a law on NGO
    financing that includes broad prohibitions on the funding of NGOs
    without government approval.
        On February 8, unknown persons reportedly burglarized the
    organization's headquarters, despite the permanent assignment of
    plainclothes police to guard the building. According to the LTDH, the
    burglars stole specific items, such as organization files and the main
    computer server, but left behind many financially valuable goods,
    including televisions, paintings, and furniture.
        On May 22, the Government stationed plainclothes police on all
    access roads to the LTDH's headquarters, preventing guests from
    attending its 33rd anniversary celebration. Only LTDH steering
    committee members were allowed into the organization's headquarters,
    and all other guests, including foreign diplomats, were turned away.
        Since 1998 the Government has refused to authorize the CNLT's
    registration as an NGO. The CNLT issued statements sharply criticizing
    the Government's human rights practices. Government officials have
    accused CNLT members of violating the formalized submission
    requirements by publishing communiques without prior government
    approval.
        The Government sought to monitor and control the activities of some
    foreign NGOs within the country. The Government arbitrarily denied
    entry to some international NGO human rights observers and reportedly
    monitored the activities of those who were allowed into the country.
    For example, the Government refused to grant HRW permission to hold a
    press conference announcing the release of its report on former
    political prisoners (see section 2.b.).
        Although the Government generally maintained good working
    relationships with UN agencies and other international bodies operating
    in the country, it monitored and controlled their activities.
        The Government allowed Martin Scheinin, the UN special rapporteur
    on the promotion and protection of human rights while countering
    terrorism, to visit the country January 22-26, the first such visit
    since 1999. During the four-day visit, he met with various ministers
    and members of the diplomatic community and visited several detainees
    including Ramzi Romdhani (see section 1.c.). At year's end a report of
    his findings had not been publicly released.
        There were credible reports police prevented some family members of
    prisoners from visiting ICRC offices and that they monitored and
    occasionally harassed others.
        The Ministry of Justice has the lead on government policy regarding
    human rights, although other ministries also had human rights offices.
    The ministry did not release any public reports of cases or
    investigations. The Committee for Human Rights and Civil Liberties, a
    government-appointed and -funded body, received, addressed, and
    occasionally resolved human rights complaints about prison conditions,
    amnesty requests by families of prisoners, and other matters. The
    committee published two reports annually: one confidential, submitted
    directly to the president and not available to the public, and a second
    for public distribution. The public report detailed the committee's
    efforts in facilitating prison visits for families and improvements in
    some detention conditions.

    Section 6. Discrimination, Societal Abuses, and Trafficking in Persons
        The constitution provides that all citizens are equal before the
    law, and the Government generally respected this provision in practice;
    however, inheritance and family law, as well as biased gender-based
    provisions in the civil code, adversely affected women. Generally, the
    Government did not classify or interact with any group as a racial,
    ethnic, religious, or indigenous minority.

        Women.--The penal code specifically prohibits rape, including
    spousal rape, and the Government enforced the laws vigorously, giving
    significant press coverage to rape cases. There were no reports of
    prosecution for spousal rape. The penalty for rape with the use of
    violence or threat with a weapon is death. For all other rape cases,
    the penalty is life imprisonment. Cultural factors likely contributed
    to underreporting of rape, including spousal rape. No statistics
    regarding the pervasiveness of rape were available.
        Laws against domestic violence provide penalties for assault
    committed by a spouse or family member that are double those for the
    same crimes committed by an unrelated individual, but enforcement was
    rare. Domestic violence was considered a serious problem. According to
    the Government-sponsored National Union of Tunisian Women (UNFT), which
    operated a center to assist women and children in difficulty and
    sponsored national educational campaigns for women, the women's shelter
    in Tunis received new cases of domestic violence during the year, 218
    of which involved physical violence. In addition the shelter had more
    than 500 ongoing cases from earlier years.
        Sexual harassment was a problem, although there were no
    comprehensive data to measure its extent. Civil society groups
    criticized the law on harassment as too vague and susceptible to abuse.
    Victims of sexual harassment are required to file a complaint in
    criminal court where the allegations are then legally investigated.
    According to the criminal code, the penalty for sexual harassment is
    one year in prison and a 3,000 dinar ($2,307) fine.
        There were no reports of government interference in the right of
    couples and individuals to decide freely and responsibly the number,
    spacing, and timing of their children and to have the information and
    means to do so free from discrimination, coercion, and violence. Women
    had free access to contraception. In collaboration with NGOs, the
    Government maintained its national policy of keeping the national birth
    rate low through public awareness campaigns. The Government also
    provided essential healthcare for women, including skilled attendance
    during childbirth and treatment for sexually transmitted infections,
    including HIV. Several registered domestic NGOs also care for HIV-
    infected individuals. In 2008 the UN Population Fund estimated the
    maternal mortality ratio to be 60 per 100,000 live births.
        Women faced discrimination under the law. Codified civil law is
    based on the Napoleonic code, although judges often used Sharia as a
    basis for customary law in family and inheritance. Most property
    acquired during marriage, including property acquired solely by the
    wife, was held in the name of the husband. Married couples may choose
    between joint or separate property systems when they sign marriage
    contracts. Customary law based on Sharia prohibits women from marrying
    outside their religion. Application of Sharia inheritance law continued
    to discriminate against women, although some families avoided the
    application of Sharia by executing sales contracts between parents and
    children to ensure that daughters received shares of property equal to
    those of sons. There was a double standard in Sharia inheritance law
    based on gender and religion: non-Muslim women and Muslim men who are
    married may not inherit from each other. The Government considers all
    children from those marriages to be Muslim and forbids those children
    from inheriting from their mothers. Female citizens can transmit
    citizenship to children regardless of the father's citizenship. On
    November 23, the Government amended the national citizenship code
    granting women married to noncitizens the right to transmit their
    citizenship to their children without official consent from the
    noncitizen fathers.
        The law explicitly requires equal pay for equal work; however, it
    also allows some female employees in the public sector to engage in
    part-time work and receive two-thirds of their original full-time
    salary. The Government defended the law as allowing women to balance
    family and professional life, but some women's rights advocates,
    including the ATFD, believed treating women and men differently under
    the law was a major setback to women's rights.
        The Government continued to support and fund the UNFT, women's
    professional associations, and the Center for Research, Documentation,
    and Information on Women.

        Children.--Citizenship may be derived from a Tunisian father, a
    Tunisian mother and an unknown father, a Tunisian mother and a father
    who has no nationality, or birth in Tunisia to a Tunisian mother and a
    foreign father.
        The Government provided free education up to the university level,
    with mandatory attendance for children up to the age of 16 years old.
        Convictions for abandoning or assaulting minors carry severe
    penalties; however, there were no reported specific incidents of child
    abuse during the year. On July 26, the Government amended the penal
    code to criminalize corporal punishment of minors by their parents. Law
    No. 2010-40 amended article 319 of the penal code, making it a criminal
    offense to assault a child even slightly. Public media generally did
    not report on violence and abuse of children. Government social workers
    provided direct assistance to abused women and children in two shelters
    operated by the UNFT. The Ministry of Women's Affairs, Family,
    Children, and Elderly Persons employed a child protection delegate in
    each of the country's 24 districts to intervene in cases of sexual,
    economic, or criminal exploitation of children.
        There were no public reports of cases of children involved in
    prostitution for survival without third-party involvement. The law
    mandates a three- to five-year prison sentence for any party who forces
    a minor into prostitution and a three-year prison sentence for
    incitement of a minor to vice. The law sets the minimum age for
    consensual sex at 20 years old for both sexes. Consent must be given
    without material remuneration or it is considered ``clandestine
    prostitution.'' Parties under the age of 13 are not considered to have
    the legal capacity to consent. Sex with a party between 13 and 15 years
    old is punishable by six years in prison. If the party is older than 15
    but less than 20, it is punishable by five years in prison. The law
    prohibits and punishes with up to six years in prison and a monetary
    fine anyone who incites a minor to vice. Child pornography is covered
    under this law. The law also provides that marriage of the perpetrator
    and the victim suspends all criminal proceedings against the
    perpetrator. The perpetrator may still be criminally liable in the
    event of a divorce and an official request is made to the authorities
    to pursue criminal proceedings no later than two years following the
    divorce.
        The country is not a party to the 1980 Hague Convention on the
    Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. For more information on
    international parental child abduction, please see the Department of
    State's annual report on compliance at http://travel.state.gov/
    abduction/resources/congressreport/congressreport--4308.

        Anti-Semitism.--The Government cooperated closely with and
    protected the 1,600-person Jewish population. Jews faced some
    defamation in the media, particularly in reaction to the Gaza flotilla
    incident in March.

        Trafficking in Persons.--For information on trafficking in persons,
    please see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons
    Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        Persons With Disabilities.--The law prohibits discrimination
    against persons with physical or mental disabilities and mandates that
    at least 1 percent of public and private sector jobs be reserved for
    persons who have disabilities; however, NGOs reported that this law was
    not widely enforced, and many employers were unaware of its existence.
    There was some discrimination against persons with disabilities in
    employment, education, access to health care, and the provision of
    other state services. The Government increased vocational training
    programs in handicrafts geared toward persons who have disabilities,
    with the goal of future employment. As of 1991 all new public buildings
    must be accessible to persons who have physical disabilities, and this
    was enforced, but persons with disabilities did not have access to most
    buildings built before 1991. The Government issued cards to persons
    with disabilities for benefits such as unrestricted parking, priority
    medical services, preferential seating on public transportation, and
    consumer discounts. The Government provided tax incentives to companies
    to encourage the hiring of persons with physical disabilities, and it
    strongly supported NGOs working on behalf of persons with disabilities.
    The Ministry of Social Affairs, Solidarity, and Tunisians Abroad was
    charged with protecting the rights of persons with disabilities.
        There continued to be some social stigma associated with mental
    disabilities; however, several active NGOs provided educational,
    vocational, and recreational assistance to children and young adults
    with such disabilities, and the Government and international
    organizations funded several programs.

        Societal Abuses, Discrimination, and Acts of Violence Based on
    Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.--Homosexuality is illegal and
    the penal code (article 230) criminalizes homosexuality with sentences
    up to three years in prison. There was anecdotal evidence that gays
    faced discrimination, including allegations that police officers
    sometimes brutalized openly gay persons and accused them of being the
    source of AIDS. There were no reports of persons arrested for
    homosexual activity.

        Other Societal Violence or Discrimination.--There was anecdotal
    evidence that persons with HIV/AIDS faced some forms of discrimination,
    including in the quality of, and access to, medical care.

    Section 7. Worker Rights
        a. The Right of Association.--The law provides workers the right to
    organize and form unions, but this right was not always respected in
    practice. The UGTT was the country's only labor federation and claimed
    approximately 14 percent of the workforce as members, including civil
    servants and employees of state-owned enterprises. Union contracts
    covered a considerably larger proportion of the workforce than union
    membership.
        The UGTT and its member unions were legally independent of the
    Government and the ruling party and had the right to decide union
    leadership; however, they operated under regulations that limited their
    freedom of action, and union leaders who worked in government-owned
    companies were often harassed, threatened, and punished. During the
    year the UGTT again refused to submit a list of candidates for 14 UGTT-
    designated seats for elections to the newly created Chamber of
    Advisors, citing a lack of independence and democracy in the selection
    process and an unfair distribution of seats.
        On July 16, according to the UGTT, authorities prevented two
    members of the French labor union Force Ouvrisre from entering the
    country for a planned labor conference in the city of Bizerte.
        Unions, including those representing civil servants, have the right
    to strike, provided they give 10 days' advance notice to the UGTT and
    it grants approval. The decision to approve or deny is on a case-by-
    case basis. The International Trade Union Conference characterized the
    requirement for prior UGTT approval of strikes as a violation of worker
    rights, but unions rarely sought advance approval in practice. The law
    prohibited retribution against strikers, and the Government generally
    respected this provision. Conciliation panels, in which labor and
    management were represented equally, settle labor disputes. Tripartite
    regional arbitration commissions settle industrial disputes when
    conciliation fails. Members from the Ministry of Social Affairs, UGTT,
    and Tunisian Association for Industry, Commerce, and Handicraft
    composed the commissions.

        b. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively.--The law
    protects the right to organize and bargain collectively, and the
    Government protected this right in practice. The Government reported
    that in 2009 collective bargaining agreements covered more than 45
    percent, or 1.5 million, of the 3.3 million-person workforce. UGTT
    member unions, the Government, and employers set wages and working
    conditions in triennial negotiations, while the Government and
    employers represent the interests of workers not affiliated with the
    UGTT. Numerous collective bargaining agreements set standards for
    industries in the private sector and covered 80 percent of the private
    sector.
        The law prohibits antiunion discrimination by employers, although
    the UGTT claimed that there was antiunion activity among private-sector
    employers, such as firing union activists and using temporary workers
    to avoid unionization. In certain industries, such as textiles, hotels,
    and construction, temporary workers accounted for a strong majority of
    the workforce. The labor code protects temporary workers, but
    enforcement was more difficult than for permanent workers. A committee
    chaired by an officer from the Labor Division of the Office of the
    Inspector General approved all worker dismissals. The committee was
    composed of representatives from the Ministry of Social Affairs, UGTT,
    and company dismissing the worker. Legally workers have the right to
    reinstatement, but in practice this was not enforced.
        There are no special laws or exemptions from regular labor laws in
    export processing zones.

        c. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor.--The law prohibits
    forced and compulsory labor with penalties of up to 10 years'
    imprisonment for capturing, detaining, or sequestering a person for
    forced labor. Some girls were subjected to domestic servitude within
    the country, although the Government did not report that such practices
    occurred (see section 7.d.). A 2008 survey of 130 domestic workers in
    the greater Tunis region, conducted by a professor at the University of
    Tunis, found some indicators of possible forced labor: 52 percent of
    the workers were younger than 16 years old, 23 percent claimed to be
    victims of physical violence, 11 percent claimed to be victims of
    sexual violence, the majority received salaries below the minimum wage,
    and 99 percent indicated they had no work contracts. (For more
    information, please see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in
    Persons Report at www.state.gov/g/tip).

        d. Prohibition of Child Labor and Minimum Age for Employment.--The
    law generally prohibits the employment of children younger than 16
    years old, the age for completing educational requirements, and
    inspectors from the Ministry of Social Affairs examined the records of
    employees to verify that employers complied with the minimum-age law.
    There were no reports of sanctions, including convictions or fines,
    against offending employers. The law prohibits the employment of
    children younger than 18 years old in jobs that present serious threats
    to their health, security, and morality, and the UGTT and the National
    Social Security Fund conducted inspection tours of factories and
    industrial sites to ensure compliance.
        The minimum age for light work in the nonindustrial and
    agricultural sectors during nonschool hours was 13 years old. Workers
    between the ages of 14 and 18 must have 12 hours of rest per day, which
    must include the hours between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. In nonagricultural
    sectors, children between the ages of 14 and 16 may work no more than
    two hours per day. The total time that children spend at school and
    work may not exceed seven hours per day. Nonetheless, young children
    sometimes performed agricultural work in rural areas and worked as
    vendors in towns, primarily during the summer school vacation. Child
    labor also existed in the informal sector as apprenticeship,
    particularly in the handicraft industry. Older girls worked as domestic
    servants. A 2008 survey of 130 Tunis area workers found that 52 percent
    were younger than 16 years old. The penal code prescribes 10 years'
    imprisonment for capturing, detaining, or sequestering a person for
    forced labor and up to two years' imprisonment for forced child
    begging.
        The Department of Labor's 2009 findings on the Worst Forms of Child
    Labor reported children working in domestic service, in the
    agricultural sector, and as mechanics in small shops or street vendors
    of flowers, cigarettes, and other small items. (For more information,
    please see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons
    Report at www.state.gov/g/tip).

        e. Acceptable Conditions of Work.--The labor code provides for a
    range of administratively determined minimum wages. On July 10, the
    Government raised the industrial minimum wage to 274 dinars
    (approximately $188) per month for a 48-hour workweek and to 225 dinars
    ($173) per month for a 40-hour workweek. The agricultural daily minimum
    wage was eight dinars (six dollars) per day. With the addition of
    transportation and family allowances, the minimum wage provided a
    decent standard of living for a worker and family, although that income
    was enough to cover only essential costs. Regional labor inspectors
    enforced standards related to hourly wage regulations. The country's
    cadre of 380 inspectors inspected most firms approximately once every
    two years. The Government often had difficulty enforcing the minimum
    wage law, particularly in nonunionized sectors of the economy. More
    than 500,000 workers were employed in the informal sector, which labor
    laws did not cover.
        The labor code sets a standard 48-hour workweek for most sectors;
    requires one 24-hour rest period per week and 125 percent premium pay
    for overtime; and prohibits excessive compulsory overtime, although
    this prohibition is not always enforced. Although there is no standard
    practice for reporting labor code violations, workers have the right to
    report violations to regional labor inspectors.
        Special government regulations control employment in hazardous
    occupations such as mining, petroleum engineering, and construction.
    The Ministry of Social Affairs has responsibility for enforcing health
    and safety standards in the workplace. Working conditions and standards
    generally were better in export-oriented firms, which were mostly
    foreign owned, than in those firms producing exclusively for the
    domestic market. Workers were free to remove themselves from dangerous
    situations without jeopardizing their employment, and they could take
    legal action against employers who retaliated against them for
    exercising this right. There were no reported cases of employees taking
    such action against their employers.

                                   __________

                              UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

        The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is a federation of seven
    semiautonomous emirates with a resident population of approximately six
    million, of whom approximately 20 percent (one million) are citizens.
    The rulers of the seven emirates constitute the Federal Supreme
    Council, the country's highest legislative and executive body. The
    council selects a president and a vice president from its membership,
    and the president appoints the prime minister and cabinet. In 2004 the
    council selected Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahyan, ruler of Abu Dhabi
    Emirate, as head of state for a five-year term. In November 2009 the
    council reselected Sheikh Khalifa to a second term as president. The
    emirates are under patriarchal rule with political allegiance defined
    by loyalty to tribal leaders, to leaders of the individual emirates,
    and to leaders of the federation. There are no democratically elected
    legislative institutions or political parties. There are no general
    elections. Citizens can express their concerns directly to their
    leaders through traditional, consultative mechanisms such as the open
    ``majlis'' (forum). The Federal National Council (FNC), a consultative
    body, consists of 40 representatives, 20 elected by an appointed
    electorate in 2006. Security forces reported to civilian authorities.
        Citizens did not have the right to change their government. There
    were unverified reports of torture during the year, and security forces
    sometimes employed flogging as judicially sanctioned punishment.
    Arbitrary and incommunicado detention remained a problem. The judiciary
    lacked independence. The Government interfered with privacy and
    restricted civil liberties, including freedoms of speech, press
    (including the Internet), assembly, association, and religion. There
    were limited reports of corruption, and the Government lacked
    transparency. Domestic abuse of women remained a problem, and there
    were allegations that police sometimes enabled domestic abuse. Legal
    and societal discrimination against women and noncitizens was
    pervasive. Trafficking in persons continued, the Government severely
    restricted the rights of foreign workers, and abuse of foreign domestic
    servants remained problematic.

                            RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

    Section 1. Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom
            From:
        a. Arbitrary or Unlawful Deprivation of Life.--There were no
    reports that the Government or its agents committed arbitrary or
    unlawful killings.

        b. Disappearance.--There were no reports of politically motivated
    disappearances.

        c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or
    Punishment.--The constitution prohibits such practices; however, there
    were reports that government officials employed them, especially
    towards foreigners in detention. In January a court acquitted a member
    of the ruling family of Abu Dhabi, implicated by videotape for the 2004
    torture of a foreign national, allegedly over a business dispute. Human
    rights groups decried the acquittal as a sign of the lack of judicial
    independence.
        Sharia (Islamic law) courts occasionally imposed flogging as
    punishment for adultery, prostitution, consensual premarital sex,
    pregnancy outside marriage, defamation of character, and drug or
    alcohol abuse. Authorities used canes to administer floggings,
    resulting in substantial bruising, welts, and open wounds on those
    flogged.
        There were also reports of prison guard brutality during the year.
    On September 1, local media reported that 17 Indian nationals convicted
    of murder in March claimed in their appeal hearing that their
    confessions were obtained after a severe beating from police in Dubai.
    Their convictions were overturned on appeal in December.

        Prison and Detention Center Conditions.--Prison conditions varied
    widely between emirates. Some prisons were overcrowded, particularly in
    Abu Dhabi and Dubai. Conditions for female prisoners were equal to or
    slightly better than those for men. Prisoners convicted on national
    security grounds were held separately from the general population in
    special state security facilities. Conditions in these special sections
    were not different from other parts of the prisons. Prisoners had
    access to visitors, but it was unclear if they were permitted religious
    observance. Prisoners have a right to submit complaints to judicial
    authorities; however, details about investigations into complaints were
    not publicly available.
        There were credible reports that government officials discriminated
    against prisoners with HIV by separating them from the general prison
    population and by not granting commuted sentences or parole that other
    prisoners with similar records received. Others did not have access to
    appropriate health care in detention.
        On September 2, local media reported the suicide of an Emirati
    prisoner in a Dubai jail. The prisoner reportedly was mentally ill and
    held in solitary confinement, where he committed suicide.
        Police in Dubai and Abu Dhabi stated that nongovernmental
    organizations (NGOs) and the International Committee of the Red Cross
    had access to observe prison conditions if requested. The Government
    stated that it inspected and monitored prison and detention center
    conditions. However, in 2008 when members of the NGO Emirates Human
    Rights Association (EHRA) visited female inmates at Dubai's al-Aweer
    Detention Facility, prison authorities denied the monitors access ``to
    protect the prisoners' social and psychological rights.'' Charitable
    NGOs visited prisons during the year and were permitted to provide
    material support. They were unable to determine the welfare of the
    prisoners.
        Ombudsmen cannot serve on behalf of prisoners and detainees.

        d. Arbitrary Arrest or Detention.--The constitution prohibits
    arbitrary arrest and detention; however, there were reports that the
    Government held persons in official custody without charge or a
    preliminary judicial hearing. The Ministry of Interior detained foreign
    residents arbitrarily at times. The law permits indefinite, routine,
    incommunicado detention without appeal. Under this procedure, the
    detainee may contact only an attorney but is not permitted to see
    friends and family.

        Role of the Police and Security Apparatus.--The federal Ministry of
    Interior (Ministry of Interior) oversees police general directorates in
    all of the seven emirates; each emirate, under its corresponding police
    general directorate, maintains its own police force and supervises
    police stations. All emirate police forces are officially branches of
    the ministry; in practice they operated with considerable autonomy. The
    police forces are responsible for internal security, and the federal
    armed forces are responsible for external security.
        Local police are semiautonomous, and the Ministry of Interior has
    broad authority to investigate abuses.
        On August 25, courts in Dubai convicted two Emirati police officers
    of kidnapping, unlawful arrest, abuse of authority, and theft. The
    officers reportedly detained street vendors, locked them in police
    vehicles, and stole the vendors' money.
        On August 26, a Dubai court heard testimony from a British woman
    who alleged an Emirati soldier raped her. The victim claimed she was
    beaten and raped twice, once in the soldier's car and once in her Dubai
    apartment. The case continued at year's end.
        No information was available on the outcome of the 2009 case of a
    Sharjah police officer charged with kidnap and rape in Dubai.
        Civilian authorities maintained effective control over the local
    police forces, and the Government had effective mechanisms to
    investigate and punish abuse and corruption. There were no reports of
    impunity involving security forces during the year.

        Arrest Procedures and Treatment While in Detention.--The law
    prohibits arrest or search of citizens without probable cause; however,
    incidents occurred in practice. There were reports that security forces
    failed to obtain warrants in some cases.
        Police stations received complaints from the public, made arrests,
    and forwarded cases to the public prosecutor. The public prosecutor
    then transferred cases to the courts. In cases involving foreign
    defendants, especially for crimes of moral turpitude, authorities often
    summarily deported the defendants upon completion of their jail terms.
    Police must report an arrest within 48 hours to the public prosecutor,
    who then must determine within 24 hours whether to charge, release, or
    further detain the suspect. In practice the public prosecutor did not
    always meet the 24-hour time limit, although police usually adhered to
    their 48-hour deadline. Public prosecutors may order detainees held as
    long as 21 days without charge or longer, in some cases, with a court
    order. Courts may not grant an extension of more than 30 days of
    detention without charge; however, judges may renew 30-day extensions
    indefinitely. Public prosecutors may hold suspects in terrorism-related
    cases without charge for six months. Once a suspect is charged, the
    Supreme Court handles terrorism cases, which may extend the detention
    period indefinitely.
        There is no formal system of bail; however, authorities temporarily
    can release detainees who deposit money, a passport, or an unsecured
    personal guarantee statement signed by a third party. Defendants in
    cases involving loss of life, including involuntary manslaughter, may
    be denied release in accordance with the law. Some prisoners, detained
    on charges related to a person's death, were released after making a
    monetary payment to the victim's family, called a ``diya'' (or ``blood
    money'').
        A defendant is entitled to an attorney after police have completed
    their investigation. Police sometimes questioned the accused for weeks
    without access to an attorney. Generally authorities granted family
    members prompt access to those arrested on charges unrelated to state
    security. The Government may provide counsel, at its discretion, to
    indigent defendants charged with felonies that are punishable by
    imprisonment of three to 15 years.

        Amnesty.--On religious and national holidays, rulers of each
    emirate regularly pardon, and pay the debts of many prisoners.
    According to press reports, rulers pardoned at least 2,090 prisoners
    and paid their debts during the year. In October the new ruler of Ras
    Al Khaimah pardoned 140 individuals in honor of his late father. The
    Government deported most of the pardoned foreign nationals.

        e. Denial of Fair Public Trial.--The constitution provides for an
    independent judiciary; however, in practice court decisions remained
    subject to review by the political leadership and suffered greatly from
    nepotism. There were reports that the federal intelligence service, the
    Directorate of State Security, intervened in judicial affairs. The
    judiciary was composed largely of contracted foreign nationals subject
    to potential deportation. There was no functional separation between
    the executive and judicial branches.
        By tradition the local rulers' offices, or ``diwans,'' maintained
    the practice of reviewing some criminal and civil offenses before they
    referred cases to prosecutors. They also reviewed sentences judges
    passed, returned cases to the court on appeal if they did not approve
    of the verdict, and approved the release of every prisoner who had
    completed a sentence. The diwans' involvement--usually in cases between
    two citizens or between a citizen and noncitizen--led to lengthy delays
    prior to and following the judicial process and lengthened the time
    defendants served in prison. The diwan's decision in any court case is
    considered final and, when a judge and diwan disagree, the diwan's
    decision prevails.
        There is a dual court system. Sharia courts adjudicate criminal and
    family law matters based on each emirate's interpretation of Sharia.
    Civil courts adjudicate civil law matters and, except in the emirates
    of Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Ras al-Khaimah, are accountable to the Federal
    Supreme Court, which has the power of judicial review, as well as
    original jurisdiction in disputes between emirates or between the
    federal government and individual emirates. Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Ras
    al-Khaimah emirates are not subject to routine review by the Federal
    Supreme court, although they can refer individual cases to the court.
        The military has its own court system and military tribunals try
    only military personnel. Only the Federal Supreme Court hears national
    security cases.

        Trial Procedures.--According to the law, defendants are presumed
    innocent until proven guilty. The constitution provides the right to a
    public trial, except in national security cases or cases the judge
    deems harmful to public morality. There are no jury trials. Defendants
    have the right to be present at their trial and a limited right to
    legal counsel in court. While awaiting a decision on official charges
    at the police station or the prosecutor's office, a defendant is not
    entitled to legal counsel. In all cases involving a capital crime or
    possible life imprisonment, the defendant has a right to government-
    provided counsel. The Government may also provide counsel, at its
    discretion, to indigent defendants charged with felonies punishable by
    imprisonment of three to 15 years. The law provides prosecutors
    discretion to bar defense counsel from any investigation. Defendants
    and their attorneys can present witnesses and question witnesses
    against them. Defense counsel has access to relevant government-held
    evidence. By law all court proceedings are conducted in Arabic. Despite
    the defendant's procedural right to a translator, in some cases
    involving deportation of illegal residents, the court provided
    translation only at sentencing. The defense counsel often used a
    translator to communicate with the defendant.
        Each court system has an appeals process. Death sentences may be
    appealed to the ruler of the emirate in which the offense is committed
    or to the president of the federation. In murder cases, only the
    victim's family may commute a death sentence. The Government normally
    negotiates with victims' families for the defendant to offer diya in
    exchange for forgiveness and a commuted death sentence.
        In cases that end in acquittals, the prosecutor may appeal and
    provide new or additional evidence to a higher court. An appellate
    court must reach unanimous agreement to overturn an acquittal.
        In the ongoing case of an American citizen charged with financial
    crimes, the Courts and Prosecutor's office demonstrated preferential
    treatment to the Emirati codefendant. The court also used procedures
    that extended his incarceration. Police and prosecutor appeared to work
    to circumvent court orders that offered bail by holding cases in
    ``investigative'' status and raising additional cases against the
    defendant that require new rulings from the judge. These practices kept
    the accused incarcerated throughout the year, while other non-foreign
    and Emirati defendants in similar cases were allowed to defend their
    cases outside incarceration, in bail status.

        Political Prisoners and Detainees.--There were no reports of
    political prisoners or detainees; however, there were persons
    reportedly held incommunicado and without charge for unknown reasons.

        Civil Judicial Procedures and Remedies.--Citizens and noncitizens
    had access to the courts to seek damages for, or cessation of, human
    rights violations. The civil courts, like all courts in the country,
    lacked independence. Administrative remedies were available for labor
    complaints and were particularly common in cases regarding physical
    abuse of domestic workers.

        f. Arbitrary Interference With Privacy, Family, Home, or
    Correspondence.--The constitution prohibits entry into a home without
    the owner's permission, except when police present a warrant in
    accordance with the law, but there were credible reports that security
    forces occasionally failed to obtain warrants. Officers' actions in
    searching premises were subject to review by the Ministry of Interior,
    and officers were liable to disciplinary action if their actions were
    judged irresponsible. Unlike in the previous year, there were no
    reports of censorship of incoming international mail.
        The constitution provides for freedom and confidentiality of
    correspondence by mail, telegram, and all other means of communication.
    However, in July 2009 the primary telecommunications provider offered a
    BlackBerry user update that included surveillance and interception
    software. Citing a technical problem, later that month the firm
    provided customers instructions on how to remove the program. All
    electronic communication remained secure and private during the year.
        Local interpretation of Sharia prohibits Muslim women from marrying
    non-Muslims and Muslim men from marrying women not ``of the book,''
    meaning adherents of religions other than Islam, Christianity, and
    Judaism.

    Section 2. Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:
        a. Freedom of Speech and Press.--The constitution provides for
    freedom of speech and of the press; however, the Government restricted
    these rights in practice. The law prohibits criticism of rulers and
    speech that may create or encourage social unrest. Journalists and
    editors practiced extensive self-censorship for fear of government
    retribution, particularly since most journalists were foreign nationals
    and could be deported.
        Public criticism of the Government and ministers was permissible in
    a limited context, but criticism of ruling families, particularly
    sheikhs, was not permitted. Some books perceived as critical of the
    Government were not available for sale.
        In January authorities dismissed a government employee and advisor
    to the Ras al Khaimah crown prince after the employee criticized the
    lack of press freedom in the country in a television interview. The
    employee's passport was withheld, and no information on its return was
    available at year's end.
        The Government owned three of the country's newspapers and heavily
    influenced the privately owned media, particularly through government
    subsidies. A free trade zone in Dubai dedicated to media-related
    business is administered separately and operates under separate bylaws.
    Except for media located in this free zone and foreign language media
    targeted to foreign residents, most television and radio stations were
    government-owned and conformed to unpublished government reporting
    guidelines. Foreign journalists and news organizations operating from
    the Dubai Media Free Zone reported no restrictions on the content of
    print and broadcast material produced for use outside the country.
    Satellite-receiving dishes were widespread and provided access to
    international broadcasts without apparent censorship.
        By law the National Media Council (NMC), appointed by the
    president, licenses and censors all publications, including private
    association publications. Media outlets must inform the NMC of the
    appointment of editors, and the NMC is responsible for issuing press
    credentials. The law authorizes censorship of domestic and foreign
    publications to remove criticism of the Government, ruling families, or
    friendly governments, as well as other statements that ``threaten
    social stability.'' According to the council and Dubai police
    officials, journalists were not given specific publishing instructions;
    however, government officials reportedly warned journalists when they
    published material deemed politically or culturally sensitive.
    Journalists practiced extensive self-censorship regarding the issues
    they chose to cover.
        The Government used libel laws to suppress criticism of its
    leaders. No journalists have received prison sentences for defamation
    since 2007. Other punishments for violations of libel laws remained in
    force, including suspension of publishing for a specified period of
    time and penalties of five million dirhams (approximately $1.4 million)
    for disparaging senior officials or royal family members and 500,000
    dirhams (approximately $140,000) for misleading the public and harming
    the country's reputation, foreign relations, or economy. On September
    28, the international NGO the Committee to Protect Journalists issued a
    statement to the press calling for the fair treatment of a Dubai-based
    reporter, Mark Townsend, charged with defamation in August for
    allegedly criticizing his employer, Khaleej Times, in a series of
    online posts. Information on the trial was not available at year's end.
        The NMC censors reviewed all imported media and prohibited or
    censored before distribution any material considered pornographic,
    excessively violent, derogatory to Islam, supportive of certain Israeli
    government positions, unduly critical of friendly countries, or
    critical of the Government or ruling families. The authorities treated
    the publication of books in the same manner.

        Internet Freedom.--The Government restricted access to some Web
    sites and monitored chat rooms, instant messaging services, and blogs.
    There were few reports of government prosecution or punishment,
    although self-censorship was apparent in many chat rooms and blogs. The
    UN Human Development Report estimated there were more than 300 Internet
    users per 1,000 persons in 2009. Local media reported that the Ministry
    of Interior monitored Internet use in cybercafes.
        The country's only two service providers, used a proxy server to
    block material deemed inconsistent with the country's values, as
    defined by the Ministry of Interior. Blocked material included dating
    and matrimonial sites; gay and lesbian sites; sites concerning the
    Bahai faith; some sites originating in Israel; and sites explaining how
    to circumvent the proxy server. The proxy servers occasionally blocked
    broad categories of sites. Service providers populated their list of
    blocked sites primarily from lists purchased from private companies,
    although individuals also could report offensive sites. A social Web
    site and the politically oriented Web sites remained blocked during the
    year. Some sites that contained content critical of ruling families
    were blocked. The NMC was responsible for creating lists of blocked
    sites. Service providers do not have the authority to remove Web sites
    from block lists without government approval.
        The law explicitly criminalizes the use of the Internet to commit a
    wide variety of offenses and provides fines and prison terms for
    Internet users who violate political, social, and religious norms. The
    law also criminalizes acts commonly associated with ``cyber crimes,''
    such as hacking, ``phishing,'' and other forms of financial fraud. The
    law provides penalties for using the Internet to oppose Islam,
    proselytize Muslims to join other religions, ``abuse'' a holy shrine or
    ritual of any religion, insult any religion, incite someone to commit
    sin, or transcend ``family values'' by publishing news or photos
    pertaining to a person's private life or family.

        Academic Freedom and Cultural Events.--The Government restricted
    academic freedom and censored academic materials for schools. The
    Government prohibited students from reading texts featuring sexuality
    or pictures of the human body including in health and biology classes.
    The Government also restricted participation in certain cultural
    events, primarily events it deemed un-Islamic.
        Official permission was required for conferences that discussed
    political issues. In May the minister of social affairs ordered the
    cancellation of a meeting in Dubai of the Gulf Cooperation Council
    Association of Sociologists relating to social security, objecting to
    the topic of ``terrorism'' being addressed in conference white papers.
    The minister stated that the conference organizers had failed to obtain
    security clearance.

        b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association.--The constitution
    provides for freedoms of assembly and association; however, in practice
    the Government did not respect these rights.

        Freedom of Assembly.--The law requires a government-issued permit
    for organized public gatherings. In practice the Government did not
    interfere regularly with informal nonpolitical gatherings held without
    a government permit in public places unless there were complaints.
        In contrast to 2009, when there were at least two reports of
    unauthorized public gatherings dispersed by the police, none were
    reported during the year; however, in July there were credible reports
    that authorities arrested two citizens after they attempted to organize
    a protest over fuel price increases. The Government reportedly fired
    one of the organizers who worked for the Dubai police department in an
    administrative capacity.

        Freedom of Association.--Political organizations, political
    parties, and trade unions are illegal. All associations and NGOs were
    required to register with the Ministry of Social Affairs, and many
    received government subsidies. Approximately 100 domestic NGOs were
    registered with the ministry, mostly citizens' associations for
    economic, religious, social, cultural, athletic, and other purposes.
    More than 20 unregistered local NGOs that focused on nonpolitical
    topics operated with little to no government interference. Associations
    must follow the Government's censorship guidelines and receive prior
    government approval before publishing any material.

        c. Freedom of Religion.--For a complete description of religious
    freedom, please see the 2010 International Religious Freedom Report at
    www.state.gov/g/drl/irf/rpt.

        d. Freedom of Movement, Internally Displaced Persons, Protection of
    Refugees, and Stateless Persons.--The law provides for freedom of
    movement within the country, emigration, and repatriation, and the
    Government generally respected these rights in practice; however, the
    Government imposed legal restrictions on foreign travel. The Government
    cooperated with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees
    (UNHCR) and other humanitarian organizations on a humanitarian basis,
    but it did not grant refugee status or asylum.
        Male citizens involved in legal disputes under adjudication were
    not permitted to travel overseas. Custom dictates that a husband can
    prevent his wife, minor children, and adult unmarried daughters from
    leaving the country by taking custody of their passports. The
    Government may revoke naturalized citizens' passports and citizenship
    status for criminal or politically provocative actions. Such
    revocations are rare, and there were no such reports during the year.
        The constitution prohibits forced exile, and there were no reported
    cases during the year.

        Protection of Refugees.--The country's laws do not provide for the
    granting of asylum or refugees. The country is not a party to the 1951
    Convention relating to the Status of Refugees or the 1967 Protocol
    relating to the Status of Refugees. There is no system for providing
    protection to refugees, and the Government did not provide protection
    against the expulsion or return of refugees to countries where their
    lives or freedom would be threatened on account of their race,
    religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or
    political opinion.
        The Government continued to detain some persons seeking refugee
    status, particularly Palestinians and non-Arabs, while they awaited
    resettlement in third countries. As access to employment, education,
    and other public services is based on an individual's status as a legal
    resident, a refugee is not eligible for such benefits.

        Stateless Persons.--Estimates suggested that an unverified range of
    20,000 to 100,000 persons without any citizenship or proof of
    citizenship (known as ``Bidoon'') resided in the country. Although the
    Government improved the naturalization process in 2009, granting
    citizenship to 70 persons that year compared to 51 persons in 2008, no
    stateless person received citizenship during the year.
        The Government registered Bidoon births but did not grant
    citizenship to the children. Most Bidoon lacked citizenship because
    they did not have the preferred tribal affiliation used to determine
    citizenship when the country was established. Others had entered the
    country, legally or illegally, in search of employment. The Bidoon
    faced discrimination in employment and had restricted access to medical
    care and education. Without passports or other identity documents,
    their movement was restricted, both within the country and
    internationally. Local charities, some funded with government money,
    provided limited medical and educational services to Bidoon.
        Citizenship is derived generally from one's parents. Children of
    female citizens married to noncitizens do not acquire citizenship
    automatically at birth, but their mothers can obtain citizenship for
    the children after submitting an application, which the Government
    generally accepts. A foreign woman may receive citizenship through
    marriage to a citizen after 10 years of marriage, and anyone may
    receive a passport by presidential fiat.

    Section 3. Respect for Political Rights: The Right of Citizens to
            Change Their Government
        The law does not provide citizens the right to change their
    government peacefully. There were no democratic general elections or
    institutions, and citizens did not have the right to form political
    parties.
        Federal executive and legislative power is in the hands of the
    Federal Supreme Council, a body composed of the hereditary rulers of
    the seven emirates. It elects from its members the country's president
    and vice president. Decisions at the federal level generally
    represented consensus among the rulers, their families, and other
    leading families. The ruling families, in consultation with other
    prominent tribal figures, also choose new emirate rulers.
        Although the FNC has no legislative authority, it generally
    reviewed all federal draft laws and decrees before the Federal Supreme
    Council officially adopted them, and it could send legislation back for
    amendment. The FNC also has the authority to question any government
    minister, but it requires cabinet approval in order to raise a topic
    for discussion, and it lacks any enforcement mechanism.

        Elections and Political Participation.--In 2006 a 6,689-member-
    appointed electorate elected half of the 40-seat FNC; each emirate
    appoints a portion of the other 20 members. In 2008 the Federal Supreme
    Council announced a constitutional amendment that extended the term of
    FNC members from two to four years.
        Some traditional practices discouraged women from engaging in
    political participation. However, there were four women in the cabinet;
    nine women, one of whom was elected, served in the FNC; and several
    women served as public prosecutors or judges. In Sharjah seven women
    served on the 40-seat Consultative Council, and two women served as
    directors of local departments. A few women held nonfederal senior
    government positions in the other emirates. Women were only 17 percent
    of the approximately 7,000-person electorate handpicked by the
    emirates' rulers to vote in FNC elections.
        Except in the judiciary, minorities, including Shia, did not serve
    in senior federal positions. Many judges were contracted foreign
    nationals.

    Section 4. Official Corruption and Government Transparency
        The law provides criminal penalties for official corruption, and
    the Government generally implemented the law effectively. Government
    corruption reportedly occurred at the administrative level. There were
    no financial disclosure laws for public officials.
        Due to the lack of the independence of the courts, those in power
    or connected to the ruling families rarely were punished for
    corruption. Nepotism and corrupt financial and legal practices existed.
        In 2008 the Department of Accountability returned to the Ministry
    of Finance approximately 300 million dirhams (approximately $82
    million) that employees had embezzled. At year's end, there was no
    information regarding what had happened to the employees.
        The law provides for public access to government information, but
    the Government followed this provision selectively. Requests for access
    usually went unanswered.

    Section 5. Governmental Attitude Regarding International and
            Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations of Human
            Rights
        The Government generally did not permit organizations to focus on
    political issues. Two recognized local human rights organizations
    existed: the quasi-independent EHRA, which focused on human rights
    issues and complaints such as labor rights, stateless persons' rights,
    and prisoners' well-being and humane treatment; and the Government-
    subsidized Jurists' Association Human Rights Committee, which focused
    on human rights education and conducted seminars and symposia subject
    to government approval. Although a government prosecutor headed the
    EHRA, it generally operated without government interference, apart from
    the requirements that apply to all associations in the country. EHRA
    members met with Ministry of Interior officials and prisoners during
    visits to several detention facilities.
        The Government directed and subsidized participation by NGO members
    in events outside the country, such as for a human rights conference in
    Europe for members of EHRA. However, all participants must obtain
    government permission before attending such events, even if they are
    not speakers.
        In 2009 the Ministry of Social Affairs rejected applications by the
    Jurists' Association to join the Arab Coalition for Development,
    Democracy, and Human Rights and the International Bar Association, and
    the Government prevented Jurists' Association Human Rights Committee
    members from traveling to meetings outside the country, including
    meetings of the Arab Jurists Union and the Gulf Jurists Union.
        The Government did not allow international human rights NGOs to be
    based in the country but allowed representatives to visit on a limited
    basis. There were no transparent standards governing visits from
    international NGO representatives. On January 24, the international NGO
    Human Rights Watch held a press conference in Dubai where it released
    its annual report on human rights violations.
        The Government generally cooperated with other international
    organizations, including the UN Children's Fund and the UNHCR. The UN
    Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs maintained an
    office in the country, and in October the Government hosted the UN
    special rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution, and
    child pornography.

    Section 6. Discrimination, Societal Abuses, and Trafficking in Persons
        The constitution provides for equality for citizens without regard
    to race, nationality, or social status, and the law prohibits
    discrimination based on disability; however, legal and cultural
    discrimination existed and went unpunished. The constitution does not
    provide for equality for noncitizens.

        Women.--Rape is punishable by death under the penal code, but in
    Sharia courts the extremely high burden of proof often meant that there
    were few convictions. The penal code does not address spousal rape.
    There were widespread and frequent reports that foreign domestic
    workers were raped and sexually assaulted by their employers.
        Domestic abuse against women, including spousal abuse, was a common
    problem. The penal code allows men to use physical means, including
    violence, at their discretion against female and minor family members.
    Nevertheless, some domestic abuse cases may be filed as assault without
    intent to kill, punishable by 10 years in prison if death results,
    seven years for permanent disability, and one year for temporary
    injury. Such cases were rare. Victims of domestic abuse may file
    complaints with police units stationed in major public hospitals. There
    were several reports that police refused to protect women if they made
    such complaints; instead, police reportedly encouraged women to return
    home. In some cases, authorities contacted the allegedly abusive
    husbands to transport their wives home.
        On October 5, the Federal Supreme Court upheld a husband's right to
    ``chastise'' his wife and children with physical force, so long as the
    ``chastisement'' did not result in bruising. On October 8, the director
    of the Judicial Inspection Department at the Ministry of Justice,
    Humaid al Muhairi, released a statement clarifying the Government's
    position on domestic abuse, saying that the ``full force of the law
    will continue to be brought against those who may exercise chastisement
    of any kind, verbal or otherwise, beyond acceptable bounds.''
        Social workers and counselors, usually female, also maintained
    offices in public hospitals and police stations. Women often were
    reluctant to file formal charges of abuse for social, cultural, and
    economic reasons.
        The Government could prosecute harassment via the penal code
    prohibition on ``disgracing or dishonoring'' a person in public,
    punishable by a minimum of one year in prison and as long as 15 years
    if the victim is younger than 14-years-old; an ``infamous'' act against
    the rules of decency, which carries a penalty of six months in prison;
    or ``dishonoring a woman by word or deed on a public roadway,'' which
    could result in up to one year in prison and a 10,000 dirham
    (approximately $2,700) fine. However, such prosecutions rarely occurred
    in practice.
        Couples and individuals had the right to decide freely and
    responsibly the number, spacing, and timing of their children, and to
    have the information and means to do so free from discrimination,
    coercion, and violence. According to the most recent UN estimates, the
    maternal mortality rate in the country was 10 deaths per 100,000 live
    births in 2008. A study released by the UAE Women's Federation in
    November noted that skilled medical personnel attended 99 percent of
    births. There was no information on prenatal and postnatal care.
    Statistics on the use of modern contraceptive methods accessible to
    both married and single women were unavailable; however, various
    contraceptives were widely available. There was no information on
    whether men and women are treated and diagnosed equally treatment for
    sexually transmitted infections, including HIV.
        Women faced legal and economic discrimination. The Government's
    interpretation of Sharia applied in personal status cases and family
    law. Muslim women were forbidden to marry non-Muslims. Unlike men,
    female citizens married to noncitizens did not automatically pass
    citizenship to their children. The law permits a man to have as many as
    four wives. Women normally inherited less than men under the
    Government's interpretation of Sharia. For example, a son may inherit
    double what a daughter inherits when their parent dies.
        In order for a woman to obtain a divorce with a financial
    settlement, she must prove that her husband has inflicted physical or
    moral harm upon her, has abandoned her for at least three months, or
    has not maintained her upkeep or that of their children. Alternatively
    women may divorce by paying compensation or surrendering their dowry to
    their husbands. The law gives divorced fathers custody of female
    children above the age of 13 and male children above the age of 10.
        On August 23, the Federal Supreme Court ruled that, in decisions on
    child custody, the interests of the child come first. In the ruling,
    the court granted a divorced woman custody of her seven sons, despite
    the eldest being older than 10 years old. The court established a
    precedent essentially limiting the application of Sharia to custody
    cases.
        Fornication outside of marriage is a crime, and the Government may
    imprison and deport noncitizen women if they bear children out of
    wedlock. Paternity denial was an emerging problem in the courts.
    Despite DNA tests proving paternity, the courts could not force a man
    to accept paternal responsibility. In the absence of an acknowledged
    father, the mothers of these children faced potential legal charges of
    adultery, for which the punishment can be lashing, according to media
    reports.
        No law prohibits women from working or owning businesses, and a man
    has no right under the Government's interpretation of Sharia to ban his
    wife from working if she was employed at the time of their marriage;
    however, some husbands reportedly did so. Women who worked outside the
    home regularly did not receive equal benefits, and women also
    reportedly faced discrimination in promotions and earning equal wages.
        Women constituted approximately 75 percent of university students.
    Coeducation is prohibited in public schools and universities except in
    the United Arab Emirate University's Executive MBA program. Several
    private schools, private universities, and institutions were
    coeducational.

        Children.--The Government registered Bidoon births, but it did not
    grant citizenship to the children.
        Education is compulsory through the ninth grade; however,
    compulsory education was not enforced, and some children did not attend
    school, especially children of noncitizens. Noncitizen children could
    enroll in public schools only if they scored at least 90 percent on
    entrance examinations, which were given only in Arabic. The Government
    provided primary education free to citizens but not to noncitizens.
    Public schools were not coeducational after kindergarten.
    Statistically, girls and women in every age group were more
    academically successful and continued to higher levels of education
    than their male peers.
        Child abuse was limited, and there was some evidence that societal
    influences prevented cases from being reported. The law protects
    children from abuse and trafficking, and the Government provides some
    shelter and help for victims. The law does not address female genital
    mutilation (FGM), which some Somali, Omani, and Sudanese foreign
    residents practiced. The Ministry of Health prohibits hospitals and
    clinics from performing FGM.
        The United Arab Emirates is not a party to the 1980 Hague
    Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. For
    information on international parental child abduction, please see the
    Department of State's annual report on compliance at http://
    travel.state.gov/abduction/resources/congressreport/congressreport--
    4308.html.

        Anti-Semitism.--There were no synagogues for the small foreign
    Jewish population in residence. Anti-Semitism was apparent in news
    articles and editorials. These expressions occurred primarily in daily
    newspapers without government response.

        Trafficking in Persons.--For information on trafficking in persons,
    please see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons
    Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        Persons With Disabilities.--The law prohibits discrimination
    against persons who have physical and mental disabilities; however,
    such discrimination occurred in practice. Most public buildings
    provided some form of access for persons with disabilities in
    accordance with the law. Health care provided in the Ministry of
    Labor's five federal rehabilitation centers, as well as those in
    private centers, reportedly was inadequate.
        Various departments within the ministries of labor and education
    were responsible for protecting the rights of persons with
    disabilities, and the Government effectively enforced these rights. The
    Government reserved 1 percent of all federal government jobs and 2
    percent of government jobs in Abu Dhabi for persons with disabilities.
    On October 25, the Community Development Authority (CDA) in Dubai held
    a meeting with government and private sector human resource managers in
    an effort to promote employment opportunities for persons with
    disabilities. The CDA offers public and private corporations assistance
    in hiring persons with disabilities through a program called
    ``Elkayt.''

        National/Racial/Ethnic Minorities.--Approximately 80 percent of the
    country's residents were noncitizens originating primarily from the
    Indian subcontinent. Societal discrimination against noncitizens was
    prevalent and occurred in most areas of daily life, including
    employment, education, housing, social interaction, and health care.
        In March the UN special rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism,
    racial discrimination, xenophobia, and related intolerance released a
    report on his October 2009 visit. The report noted the country's unique
    situation, where non-nationals represent the vast majority of the
    population, and that the influx of foreign workers created tremendous
    challenges for society. The report concluded that the country should
    enact legislation, improve policies, and implement them effectively.

        Societal Abuses, Discrimination, and Acts of Violence Based on
    Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.--Both civil law and Sharia
    criminalize homosexual activity. Under Sharia the death penalty is the
    punishment for individuals who engage in consensual homosexual
    activity. There were no prosecutions for homosexual activity during the
    year. In 2009 there were reports that the Government deported and
    sentenced individuals to prison for openly homosexual activity.
        Under the law, cross-dressing is a punishable offense. The
    Government deported cross-dressing foreign residents and referred
    citizens to public prosecutors. At times the Government subjected
    persons to psychological treatment and counseling for homosexual
    activity.

        Other Societal Violence or Discrimination.--Persons with HIV/AIDS
    and other diseases faced discrimination. There were credible reports
    that government officials discriminated against prisoners with HIV by
    not granting commuted sentences or parole that other prisoners with
    similar records had received. Noncitizen residents infected with HIV,
    hepatitis types B and C, and tuberculosis were denied all health
    benefits, quarantined, and deported.

    Section 7. Worker Rights
        a. The Right of Association.--The law does not permit workers to
    form or join unions, and no unions existed. Professional organizations,
    such as lawyers' associations, existed; however, they had to receive
    government approval for international affiliations to exist and had to
    receive government approval for international affiliation.
        The law does not prohibit strikes by private sector workers, but it
    allows an employer to suspend an employee for striking. In addition the
    Government may cancel the work permit of and deport for up to one year
    any foreign worker who is absent from work for more than seven days
    without a valid reason.
        The Government forbids strikes by public sector employees, citing
    national security. A public sector employee may file an administrative
    grievance or a case in the civil courts to address a labor-related
    dispute or complaint; however, there was no evidence of any such
    grievances or cases.
        The Government generally did not punish workers for nonviolent
    protests in response to nonpayment of wages by employers, but it
    dispersed such protests during the year. Most grievances were related
    to unpaid wages and hazardous or abusive working conditions. The
    Ministry of Labor generally contacted the business owner, which usually
    prompted a settlement privately.

        b. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively.--Employees
    covered by the labor law--which excludes domestic, agricultural, and
    government workers--may file collective employment dispute complaints
    with the Ministry of Labor in person or via telephone, which serves as
    mediator between the parties. Employees may file unresolved disputes
    with the labor court system, which are in turn forwarded to the
    conciliation council. In practice most cases were resolved through
    direct negotiation. The Government granted some professional
    associations with a majority citizen membership a limited ability to
    raise work-related issues, to petition the Government for redress, and
    to file grievances with the Government. Foreign workers may belong to
    these professional associations as well; however, they do not have
    voting rights and cannot serve on the organizations' boards.
        Businesses in free trade zones (FTZs) are not subject to labor
    statutes. The Ministry of Labor does not regulate the FTZs; instead,
    each FTZ maintained its own labor department. Unions and strikes are
    not allowed in any FTZs.

        c. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor.--The law prohibits
    forced or compulsory labor, including by children; however, such
    practices occurred, predominantly involving migrant workers from South
    and East Asia who work as construction workers or as domestic
    employees.
        Many migrant workers were subjected to forced labor conditions such
    as restrictions on movement and communication, nonpayment of wages, and
    physical and sexual abuse. Reports of worker suicides continued. There
    were reports that some female migrant workers were forced into
    prostitution. Upon arrival to the country, some foreign workers signed
    contracts that had lower salaries or involved a different type of work
    than what was stated in contracts signed in their country of origin.
    This practice was known as ``contract switching.''
        Foreign workers frequently did not receive their wages, sometimes
    for extended periods. In 2008, to reduce the problem of unpaid wages,
    the Ministry of Labor and the Central Bank signed a memorandum of
    understanding that facilitated direct deposits of laborers' salaries,
    creating the Wage Protection System. On August 26, the Government
    announced that 500,000 laborers were receiving their wages in this
    manner and set a May 31 deadline for all employers to adopt the system,
    which would cover more than four million workers. In contrast to 2009
    when 500,000 workers received their salaries electronically, during the
    year 1.8 million workers enrolled in the Wage Protection System,
    according to the Ministry of Labor, which the Government claimed
    represents 100 percent of workers.
        Some domestic and agricultural workers were subjected to unpaid
    labor to repay their employers for hiring expenses. In most cases, the
    workers paid recruitment fees to the recruiter in their country of
    origin and were responsible for repaying them once beginning work.
    Employers routinely held employees' passports, severely restricting
    their freedom of movement. There were increasing incidents of employees
    prevented from changing jobs because their contracts stipulated that
    they were prohibited from working for a ``competitor'' for six months
    after their original employment ended. The only way to overcome the
    six-month restriction was to seek a letter of ``no objection'' from the
    original employer; some employers, as retribution for losing the
    employee to another employer, refused to sign such letters. Employees
    lack any recourse if this happens; they must leave the country and
    reenter. In December authorities announced a change in labor laws,
    effective in 2011, removing the requirement for employees to obtain a
    no objection certificate.
        The Ministry of Labor made exceptions during the year by not
    requiring ``no objection'' letters if the employee had completed three
    years in the original position or if the employer had withheld salary.
        In May local media reported that more than 1,000 workers in a labor
    camp outside Sharjah were stranded without work, wages, or legal
    residency documentation after their employer went bankrupt. On August
    31, 700 foreign workers outside Sharjah, abandoned by their employer,
    were without access to food or water. In both cases, local charities
    provided food for the workers, who were seeking redress from the
    courts. The Ministry of Labor worked to repatriate the individuals
    eventually.
        In another case in Ajman, workers were abandoned by their employer.
    Since these individuals were under contract to the Ministry of
    Education, the Ministry of Labor worked to repatriate the workers or
    find them new employers in the country.
        Also see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons
    Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        d. Prohibition of Child Labor and Minimum Age for Employment.--The
    law prohibits employment of persons younger than the age of 15 and has
    special provisions for employing persons between 15 and 18 years of
    age, including foreign resident children 16-years-old or older. The
    Ministry of Labor is responsible for enforcing these regulations and
    generally enforced them effectively. However, there were reports of
    foreign children who came to the country under their parents' work
    permits and subsequently were pressured to work. Additionally the
    traditional practice of using children as camel jockeys resumed in some
    privately held races.
        Also see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons
    Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        e. Acceptable Conditions of Work.--There is no established minimum
    wage, leaving much of the workforce without sufficient compensation for
    more than minimal subsistence. The average daily wage did provide a
    decent standard of living for a worker and family. Salaries, which
    depend on the occupation and employer, were estimated to be at least
    400 dirhams (approximately $110) per month for domestic or agricultural
    workers and 600 dirhams (approximately $164) per month for construction
    workers. Highly skilled and white-collar employees generally received
    much higher salaries.
        According to the labor law, the workday is eight hours and the
    workweek six days; however, these standards were not monitored or
    enforced. There were laws regulating minimum rest periods and hours
    worked, which varied depending on the nature of the work. There was no
    legal provision requiring overtime pay, nor was there a prohibition on
    excessive compulsory overtime. Domestic workers are under the
    jurisdiction of the Ministry of Interior, which has a special office
    for assisting domestic laborers; labor laws do not apply to domestic
    workers. The unregulated conditions of domestic workers left them
    vulnerable to long hours and underpayment.
        The Ministry of Labor extended the required summer midday work
    break from two months to three months for most outdoor laborers. This
    requirement begins in June and lasts until September. However, during
    July and August, the hottest months of the year, the Government
    exempted oil, asphalt, and cement companies from following the law. The
    Government routinely fined employers for violating the midday break
    rule and published compliance statistics. For the first offense, an
    employer is fined 10,000 dirhams (approximately $2,725) and is
    prohibited from issuing obtaining new labor permits for three months. A
    second offense results in a 20,000 dirham fine (approximately $5,450)
    and a six-month prohibition. A third offense carries a 30,000 dirham
    fine (approximately $8,175) and a one-year prohibition on new permits.
        The Ministry of Labor operated a toll-free hotline through which
    workers were able to report companies that violated break rules or
    delayed wage payments.
        The law requires employers to provide employees with a safe work
    and living environment; however, despite recent increases in the number
    of labor inspectors, the Government did not uniformly enforce health
    and safety standards. The ministry hired additional safety and health
    inspectors, bringing the total to more than 450. Inspections of
    workplaces--primarily construction sites--took place throughout the
    year, resulting in fines for employers who violated workplace safety or
    midday break rules. The ministry also employed language interpreters to
    assist foreign workers in understanding employment guidelines.
        Despite efforts to improve housing facilities, some low-skilled and
    foreign employees continued to face substandard living conditions,
    including overcrowded apartments or lodging in unsafe and unhygienic
    ``labor camps,'' which sometimes lacked electricity, potable water, and
    adequate cooking and bathing facilities. Construction of newer worker
    accommodations was ongoing. Individual emirates enforced their own
    standards for minimum conditions for labor accommodations.
        During the year the press reported a number of cases where workers
    were injured or killed on job sites due to inadequate safety measures.
    Although the law requires the Government to monitor job-related
    injuries and deaths, in practice the Government registered the cases
    but did not consistently follow up on them.
        Domestic workers routinely were subject to physical, sexual, and
    emotional abuse. There were reports that employers withheld the
    passports of their domestic workers; in some cases, they prevented
    workers from leaving the country. In August 2009 police in Ajman
    arrested a woman accused of beating her maid with an electrical cord,
    breaking her ribs, and burning her feet with an iron. Updated
    information on the court case was unavailable during the year.
        Workers' jobs were not protected if they removed themselves from
    what they considered to be unsafe working conditions; however, all
    workers have the right to lodge labor-related grievances to the
    Ministry of Labor. If ministry arbitration could not resolve the issue,
    it was referred to the judiciary.

                                   __________

                                 WESTERN SAHARA

        Morocco claims the Western Sahara territory and administers
    Moroccan law through Moroccan institutions in the estimated 85 percent
    of the territory it controls. However, the Popular Front for the
    Liberation of Saguia el Hamra and Rio de Oro (Polisario), an
    organization that has sought independence for the formerly Spanish
    territory since 1973, disputes Morocco's claim to sovereignty over the
    territory. The population of the territory was approximately 491,000,
    an estimated 100,000 of whom were attributable to Moroccan in-
    migration. The majority of Western Sahara's population is Sahrawi
    (literally ``people of the desert'' in Arabic) Sahrawis also live in
    the south of internationally recognized Morocco, in Algeria, and in
    Mauritania.
        The Moroccan government sent troops and settlers into the northern
    two provinces after Spain withdrew in 1975, and extended its
    administration to the third province after Mauritania renounced its
    claim in 1979. Moroccan and Polisario forces fought intermittently from
    1975 until a 1991 ceasefire and the deployment of a UN peacekeeping
    contingent, the UN Mission for a Referendum in Western Sahara
    (MINURSO), whose mandate does not include human rights monitoring. In
    the late 1980s, Morocco constructed a 1,250-mile stone and sand wall
    known as the ``berm'' that marks the effective limit of its
    administrative control.
        In 1988 Morocco and the Polisario agreed to settle the sovereignty
    dispute by referendum. The parties did not resolve disagreements over
    voter eligibility and which options for self-determination
    (integration, independence, or something in between) should be on the
    ballot; consequently, a referendum never took place.
        There have been several attempts to broker a solution. In 2007 the
    first face-to-face negotiations between representatives of the Moroccan
    government and the Polisario began under UN auspices. Morocco proposed
    autonomy for the territory within the kingdom; the Polisario proposed a
    referendum in which full independence would be an option. After four
    meetings in 2007 and 2008 produced little progress, both sides
    participated in informal meetings in August 2009, and during the year
    from February 10 to 11, from November 8 to 9, and from December 16 to
    18 under the auspices of Personal Envoy of the UN Secretary General for
    Western Sahara, Christopher Ross. Neither the November nor the December
    meetings yielded significant progress toward a permanent solution to
    the conflict.
        On April 30, the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 1920,
    extending MINURSO's mandate until April 30, 2011. The resolution also
    called on member states to consider voluntary contributions to
    confidence building measures carried out under the UN High Commissioner
    for Refugees intended to allow increased contact between family members
    separated by the dispute.
        Morocco considers the part of the territory that it administers to
    be an integral part of the kingdom with the same laws and structures
    conditioning the exercise of civil liberties and political rights.
    Accordingly, ultimate authority rests with King Mohammed VI, and human
    rights conditions in the territory tended to converge with those in the
    kingdom.
        There were reports that government security officials committed
    arbitrary or unlawful killings. There were unconfirmed reports of
    politically motivated disappearances.
        On October 10, 173 Saharawis set up approximately 40 tents outside
    of Laayoune in an area known as Agdem Izik to protest the Government's
    lack of response to poor social and economic conditions in the
    territory. The camp grew quickly, and by late October, according to
    most government and credible NGO estimates, as many as 16,000 persons
    lived in or spent significant time in the camp. On October 21, a
    delegation led by three regional walis, or regional governors, began
    negotiations with the organizers of the tent settlement to address the
    organizers' social and economic concerns, including housing conditions
    and employment. In order to control the growing number of individuals
    moving in and out of the community, authorities built a sand wall
    around the site and placed security checkpoints around the perimeter.
        On October 24, security forces shot and killed 14-year-old Al-Nagem
    Al-Qarhi and injured four other civilians while they were in a car at a
    checkpoint waiting to enter the Agdem Izik tent camp. In an official
    statement, the Ministry of the Interior stated that known criminals
    were riding in the vehicle and that they fired on the gendarmes who had
    attempted to detain them. An independent investigation, conducted by
    the domestic NGOs Mediator for Democracy and Human Rights (MDDH), the
    Forum for an Alternative Morocco, and the Moroccan Observatory for
    Public Liberties (OMLP), confirmed that a group of men in a 4X4 vehicle
    attempted to force their way past a Royal Gendarmerie checkpoint. The
    NGOs noted that gunfire ensued during the incident, but could not
    identify who fired first. Authorities opened an internal judicial
    investigation, which they had not concluded at year's end.
        After negotiations between Interior Ministry officials and camp
    organizers failed to result in a peaceful dismantling of the camp,
    authorities moved on November 8 to dismantle it using water cannons and
    truncheons. Police and gendarmes dispersed several thousand campers and
    quickly leveled the camp. When news of the dismantling reached
    Laayoune, it prompted widespread rioting, violent attacks, and
    confrontations between security forces and protestors.
        The Government, international human rights NGOs, and independent
    domestic NGOs reported that 11 members of the security forces were
    killed and over 200 injured in violent clashes with Agdem Izik campers
    or protestors in Laayoune. Two Sahrawis also died in the violence, and
    some international media sources reported that hundreds of Sahrawis
    were injured. The Government reported that a nonofficial vehicle
    accidentally struck and fatally injured 26-year-old Babi Gargar Brahim
    Ould Mahmud Hamadi in Laayoune. His brother and other eyewitnesses told
    a Human Rights Watch (HRW) investigator that a police vehicle
    purposefully struck him while he lay injured on the ground.
        Another civilian, 42-year-old Brahim Daoudi, died in police
    custody. The Government reported first that he suffered a fatal asthma
    attack at the Laayoune Military Hospital after security forces detained
    him. A second official press statement called the cause of death
    pneumonia. However, Daoudi's family members told Amnesty International
    (AI) and other NGOs that the Government never confirmed the cause or
    circumstances of his death. At the request of NGOs and the families,
    the Government opened investigations into both civilian deaths; by
    year's end, it had not concluded either investigation, and authorities
    had not provided autopsy reports to the family or to the public.
        In response to the November 8 events, the parliament, domestic
    human rights organization Association Marocaine des Droits de l'Homme
    (AMDH), and a separate consortium of 11 other domestic human rights
    NGOs launched investigations. The AMDH and HRW reports, which were
    available at year's end, confirmed the Government's claims that it did
    not use lethal force during the operation to dismantle Agdem Izik and
    that there were several casualties among security forces. However, AMDH
    and HRW also concluded that police and gendarmes used excessive force,
    including physical beatings to the point of unconsciousness, in
    suppressing the unrest in Laayoune. The reports also claimed that
    security forces mistreated detainees who were taken into custody
    following the violence, and that officials and pro-Moroccan civilians
    had attacked several Sahrawi homes in Laayoune. The parliament's and
    the consortium's reports had not been released by year's end.
        There were unconfirmed reports of politically motivated
    disappearances.
        On April 28, plainclothes police in Laayoune allegedly abducted
    Mohamad Abdellah Dayhani. His family reported to the Sahwari Collective
    of Human Rights Defenders (CODESA) that Dayhani was last seen near the
    residence of his relative and Sahrawi independence activist Abdallah
    Dayhani. His family allegedly inquired about his whereabouts at the
    police station and received no information. Government authorities
    claimed that although Dayhani's mother appeared at a police station to
    inquire into the whereabouts of her son, she never returned with the
    information that authorities requested she provide to launch an
    investigation.
        Regarding the 2007 discovery of a gravesite near the Laayoune
    Prison, the Government stated that judicial police who inspected the
    gravesite with the assistance of French forensics experts found human
    remains that appeared to date to 1938. There were no further
    developments.
        Regarding the still-unresolved cases of disappearance dating to the
    1970s and 1980s, the Governmental Consultative Council for Human Rights
    (CCDH) continues to cooperate with the UN Office of the High
    Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to investigate claims of enforced
    and involuntary disappearances. The CCDH has provided the OHCHR with
    information regarding 56 cases that the OHCHR considers unresolved.
    CCDH and UNCHR continued to receive occasional new claims regarding
    disappearances that occurred in the 1970s and 1980s. The CCHD
    acknowledged that due to a lack of evidence, it will likely be unable
    to resolve nine difficult cases. Sahrawi human rights groups and
    families, on the other hand, claimed that at least 114 cases remained
    unresolved and accused the CCDH and its predecessor, the Justice and
    Reconciliation Authority (IER), of failing to acknowledge many
    additional alleged disappearances, especially from Western Sahara.
        As it has done since 2000, the CCDH paid reparations during the
    year to victims of human rights abuses, including Sahrawis or family
    members of those Sahrawis who had disappeared or been detained during
    the 1970s and 1980s. During the year 331 individuals received
    reparation payments totaling 46,233,210 dirhams ($550,395). The CCDH
    reported that although it continued to receive and investigate
    reparation claims during the year, it had shifted its focus to
    community reparation projects, including providing medical insurance to
    victims' families. During the year CCDH disbursed 979 medical insurance
    cards to individuals living in both Morocco and in Western Sahara.
        There were credible reports that security forces engaged in
    torture, beatings, and other mistreatment of detainees. HRW, AI, and
    local NGOs continued to report abuses, especially of Sahrawi
    independence advocates.
        Moroccan authorities detained more than 300 civilians during the
    November 8 dismantling of the Adgem Izik camp and the subsequent
    violence in Laayoune. Authorities released without charge more than 100
    individuals within 48 hours, but by year's end, the Government had
    charged at least 60 with crimes. By year's end, the Government claimed
    that nearly all detainees had been arraigned before a civilian court
    and that 47 remained in custody at the Laayoune Prison awaiting trial.
    Authorities reported that they had arraigned and transferred 20
    additional detainees to the Sale Prison in internationally recognized
    Morocco, where they were awaiting trial before a military tribunal at
    year's end. However, NGOs alleged that the Government continued to hold
    as many as 131 detainees in either Sale or Laayoune and had not filed
    formal charges against some of them by year's end.
        Many of those released and many of the families of those still in
    custody claimed that security officials beat and otherwise abused them.
    International and domestic NGOs claimed that security forces beat some
    civilians to the extent that they sustained fractured limbs, open
    wounds, and loss of consciousness. NGOs and family members also claimed
    that the security forces used rubber bullets during the riots in
    Laayoune, although the Government denied this charge. AI reported that,
    in two cases, victims alleged that police raped them while in custody.
    In addition AI, the Association of Sahrawi Victims of Grave Human
    Rights Violations (ASVDH), and other domestic NGOs alleged that, in
    numerous instances, security officials threatened detainees with rape.
        In the ensuing protests and riots that occurred after the
    dismantlement of the camp on November 8, numerous eyewitnesses reported
    that police beat and used excessive force to detain protestors and
    bystanders. Police briefly detained and beat with fists and rubber
    batons an American journalist and a Sahrawi employee of HRW, who
    watched as police indiscriminately beat several other Sahrawis who had
    gathered in the area. Police took the two to a temporary holding
    station on the periphery of a city square and released them without
    charge.
        Regarding the February 2009 case of a Sahrawi independence activist
    who claimed that police had beaten and sodomized her, the Ministry of
    Justice rejected the case for lack of evidence after judicial police
    investigated. Western Sahara-based human rights NGOs criticized the
    decision and the lack of transparency in the investigation.
        The Procurer General also rejected for lack of evidence a well
    known human rights activist's August 2009 claim that police stripped
    her, left her naked on the outskirts of Laayoune, and threatened to
    post videos of her on the Internet. The Government confirmed that the
    victim had submitted a complaint to the Public Prosecutor in Laayoune
    in September 2009 and that the public prosecutor had investigated the
    accusation. Western Sahara-based human rights NGOs criticized the
    decision and the investigation.
        Authorities confirmed in November that the General Prosecutor at
    the Court of Appeals in Laayoune received a complaint from 20-year-old
    Chamad Marzouk, who alleged that two police officers beat him while he
    was in custody in September 2009. Authorities conducted an
    investigation, but the Attorney General ruled that Marzouk's
    allegations were unfounded due to a lack of evidence, including medical
    documentation or eyewitnesses.
        Sahrawi activist Yahya Mohamed El Hafed, convicted by a judge along
    with seven others of killing a security officer in 2008, remained in
    prison. The group claimed that the court convicted them based on
    confessions elicited through torture. The Government reported that it
    had released one of the convicted, Omar El Faquir, in 2008. There were
    no other developments in the case.
        There were several cases of violence breaking out at rallies or
    demonstrations between pro-independence Sahrawi groups and pro-union
    activists. In all these cases, the Government reported security forces
    responded adequately to prevent violence from becoming serious,
    although Sahrawi activists alleged that the security forces responded
    slowly and sometimes even tacitly encouraged violence.
        On April 6, a group of 11 Sahrawi independence activists returned
    to Laayoune after having traveled to Algiers and the Sahrawi refugee
    camps near Tindouf, Algeria, to meet with Algerian and Polisario
    officials. When various groups gathered at the airport to greet the
    activists, 31 nationalist Sahrawi associations clashed with several
    groups of pro-union activists. Independence activists claimed that
    plainclothes police encouraged pro-union demonstrators to attack them
    and deliberately delayed action to prevent the violence. While no one
    was seriously injured, crowds damaged the vehicles. The Government
    claimed that security forces acted professionally and prevented greater
    violence.
        On April 8, police stopped independence activists Sultana Khaya and
    others who had returned from Algiers on April 6 at a standard police
    checkpoint in Boujdour. The activists reported that a large group of
    pro-union activists had gathered at the checkpoint to await the group.
    While independence activists report that the pro-union group attacked
    first, pro-union activists allege that the independence activists
    provoked the ensuing violence. CODESA claimed that three individuals
    were injured. Authorities reported the scuffle and claim they
    maintained order.
        On May 7, ASVDH claimed that security forces intervened during a
    pro-independence Sahrawi demonstration in the Ma'atalah neighborhood of
    Laayoune, resulting in injuries to Dagna Moussaoui and her two sons,
    Jamal and Alyen Housaini. Authorities confirmed that a group of
    activists held a protest near a school where one police officer on a
    routine patrol dispersed the students, but claimed that their
    intervention was nonviolent.
        On July 18, several pro-independence activists gathered to welcome
    activists who had recently visited Algiers and Tindouf. The reception
    took place in the Al'Ina'ach neighborhood of Laayoune, which was
    reportedly surrounded by dozens of police cars and plainclothes
    security authorities. ASVDH reported that police verbally intimidated
    gatherers and attacked several individuals including Mohamed Manolo
    Hassan Dah, Khadjatou Lma'adal, Mary Salek Boudjemaa, and Kalthoum
    Lbsair.
        Police impunity remained a problem. According to several
    international, domestic, and Sahrawi NGOs, the number of alleged
    victims of human rights abuses to file complaints against police
    increased. The Government disputed the alleged increase and provided
    statistics indicating that through October, residents of Western Sahara
    filed 45 complaints against authorities based throughout the territory.
    Authorities referred all 45 complaints to the judicial police for
    investigation. The Public Prosecutor opened investigations into all 45
    complaints but dismissed 32 due to lack of evidence. Thirteen cases
    remain under investigation. International and domestic human rights
    organizations claimed that authorities dismissed nearly all complaints
    without collecting evidence beyond the police version of events.
        The Government stated that it increased investigations,
    prosecutions, and training (including a human rights component) to
    security personnel and took some steps aimed at reducing police abuse
    and impunity. The Government reported that some of these prosecutions
    involved officers who committed crimes in the territory; however, the
    exact number was uncertain because the Government did not disaggregate
    any of the data by region. Past practice has often left alleged abusers
    in leadership positions or transferred them to other positions.
        Allegations of abuse and substandard prison conditions persisted.
    Government policy permits NGOs that provide social or religious
    services to prisoners to enter prison facilities, but does not permit
    NGOs that solely have a human rights mission to enter except when
    authorities authorize them to do so. The Moroccan Observatory of
    Prisons (OMP), a government-subsidized local NGO consisting of lawyers
    and benevolent activists promoting better conditions for prisoners, and
    members of the CCDH continued regular visits to prisons and child
    protection centers, which host juvenile offenders, and relayed
    complaints of substandard prison conditions or detainee abuse to
    government authorities.
        In October OMP stated that overcrowding in the Laayoune Prison, the
    sole prison in Western Sahara, was no longer as serious a problem as in
    past years, and conditions had improved significantly. The prison had
    an initial capacity of 300. OMP reported in October that authorities
    had reduced the prison population from a high of 900 inmates in 2005 to
    448 through a program that transferred prisoners to other facilities in
    internationally recognized Morocco. Of the remaining 448 prisoners,
    there were 39 women and 31 teenagers, all of whom were separated from
    the men while in detention. However, overcrowding increased when
    authorities imprisoned up to 300 Sahrawis in connection with the Agdem
    Izik camp dismantling in November. Authorities held the majority of
    these prisoners for one to four days, then released them without
    charge, and government and NGO reports indicated that between 47 and
    111 Sahrawis detained in connection with the November 8 events remained
    in the Laayoune Prison, bringing the population at year's end to
    between 495 and 559. Human rights activists and NGOs continued to
    charge that the Government occasionally used its program to reduce
    overcrowding as a punishment for politically active prisoners by
    transferring them to facilities in Morocco far from their families. The
    Government and OMP acknowledged that transfers occurred, but stated
    that their purpose was apolitical and solely to improve prison
    conditions.
        In addition to the main Laayoune Prison, there are small holding
    cells in Smara, Boujdour, and Dakhla, which can hold approximately 20
    prisoners each. Overcrowding at these facilities was generally not a
    problem.
        Human rights and pro-independence activists continued to claim that
    authorities arrested them for their political activities but charged
    them with drug or other criminal offenses. Laws require authorities to
    investigate abuse allegations for any individual facing prosecution who
    requests an investigation, but local and international human rights
    advocates claimed that courts often refused to order medical
    examinations, or to consider medical examination results in cases of
    alleged torture.
        In September the Government reported that the public prosecutor and
    magistrates had requested expert medical examinations for 31
    individuals, compared with 27 requests in 2009 and 49 requests in 2008.
    An 11-member coalition of Moroccan NGOs reported that 52 Sahrawis
    arrested by security forces in connection with the November 8 camp
    dismantlement and ensuing protests alleged police torture and submitted
    requests for medical examinations. The Government's response to their
    requests was unknown at year's end.
        The Government stated that by law and in accordance with official
    policy, there are no political prisoners in Morocco or Western Sahara,
    and all detainees had been convicted of or charged with crimes.
    However, human rights and pro-independence groups alleged that there
    were approximately 52 Sahrawi ``political prisoners'' held either in
    Western Sahara or in prisons in internationally recognized Morocco. OMP
    noted that, at year's end, all known Sahrawi political activist
    prisoners were in detention facilities in Tiznit, Kenitra, Ben Slimane,
    Agadir, Taraghazout, Casablanca, and Sale.
        Students who made public displays of their support for Western
    Saharan independence were reportedly detained and mistreated. Student
    and human rights activists stated that authorities regularly took them
    into custody, beat them, and released them within 24 hours without
    formal arrest or charge.
        In September 2009 according to local NGOs, police allegedly threw
    demonstrator Mohamed Berkan from a window in Laayoune during an
    unauthorized demonstration. The Public Prosecutor officially refuted
    the NGOs' allegation and charged Berkan with assaulting an officer and
    other crimes. Berkan paid a 200 dirham ($25) fine, and authorities
    released him on September 27 after he completed his full one-year
    sentence.
        Law prohibits questioning the institution of the monarchy, Islam as
    the state religion, and Morocco's claim to sovereignty over Western
    Sahara (see country report on Morocco). The king announced, in a
    November 2009 speech, a policy of decreased tolerance for individuals
    who hold pro-independence views. As a result, individuals and the media
    engaged in self-censorship, and no views appeared in the media during
    the year supporting either independence or a referendum that included
    independence as an option.
        Authorities barred Moroccan and international journalists from
    travelling to Laayoune in the days preceding and subsequent to the
    November 8 camp dismantlement, making it difficult for the public to
    obtain and verify information regarding injury and death tolls. There
    were no reports of government action against Web log writers in the
    territory. During the year there continued to be credible reports that
    government authorities prevented some foreign journalists from meeting
    with pro-independence activists.
        Moroccan and international media, as well as satellite television,
    were available in the territory. There was no indication that Internet
    access in the territory differed from that in internationally
    recognized Morocco, which was generally open and unrestricted, although
    the Government blocked a small number of Morocco-based Web sites and
    proxies used to make activity on the Internet untraceable.
        The constitution provides for freedom of assembly and association
    within the limits provided by law. Although sit-ins, demonstrations,
    and protests occurred, in practice the Government used administrative
    delays and other methods to suppress or discourage demonstrations. The
    Government also prohibited or failed to recognize associations it
    deemed unqualified for NGO status.
        The Ministry of the Interior required persons wishing to hold
    public gatherings, including demonstrations, to obtain permission for
    public assemblies. However, authorities often allowed those who have
    not received permission to hold assemblies on an unofficial basis. NGOs
    have complained that the process is never consistent.
        The constitution and the law provide for freedom of association.
    Specifically, a 1958 decree, Dhahir 1-58-376, article 5 governs the
    establishment and functioning of establishments.
        Pro-independence organizations and some human rights NGOs stated
    that in recent years they have applied less frequently for legal
    permits to engage in sit-ins and demonstrations because police rarely
    granted the permits. In addition to these limitations, the
    organizations reported that holding organized demonstrations became
    more difficult because police increasingly harassed them following the
    king's November 2009 speech. The Government reported that as of
    October, (the last date for which figures are available) over 130
    demonstrations or protests had been held in Western Sahara. The
    majority of these regarded socioeconomic issues such as unemployment
    and housing concerns, but many also had political overtones.
        The Government enforced strict procedures governing the ability of
    NGOs and activists to meet with journalists. Foreign journalists needed
    prior official approval before meeting with pro-independence NGOs.
        As in previous years, the Government did not allow CODESA or ASVDH
    to register as official NGOs, limiting their ability to raise funds
    domestically and internationally and to secure space for public
    meetings. CODESA last submitted an application in 2008 by registered
    mail. ASVDH leadership reported that in 2005, an Agadir administrative
    court ordered the Government to register it; however, the Government
    did not do so.
        The Government continued to accuse the Polisario of withholding
    information regarding 213 Moroccans alleged to be missing since the
    1975-91 war, and the Polisario continued to accuse Morocco of
    withholding information concerning approximately 150 Algerians and
    Polisario supporters (including 58 soldiers). Morocco and the Polisario
    both denied that any former combatants remained in detention.
        Corruption among security forces and judicial officials was a
    problem.
        The laws and restrictions regarding religious organizations and
    religious freedom in the territory are the same as those in Morocco.
    For a complete description of religious freedom, please see the 2010
    International Religious Freedom Report at www.state.gov/g/drl/irf/rpt.
        HRW and ASVDH reported instances of authorities preventing foreign
    persons from meeting with pro-independence activists.
        Sahrawi independence activists alleged that on August 28,
    plainclothes security forces beat and arrested 14 Spanish activists
    protesting human rights violations in Western Sahara in front of the
    Hotel Negjir. ASVDH reported that authorities expelled the Spanish
    activists to the Canary Islands after hours of interrogation. Moroccan
    authorities claimed that police only intervened to prevent and manage a
    brawl that resulted when Moroccan youth leaving a soccer match came
    across the Spanish activists. In an August 30 statement, the Spanish
    Foreign Ministry confirmed that the Moroccan police had detained 11
    Spaniards and accepted Morocco's explanation that the police had
    intervened with the aim of defusing clashes between demonstrators and
    Moroccan citizens.
        Although in previous years, the Government occasionally restricted
    freedom to travel abroad, there were no reports that the Government
    restricted freedom to travel abroad during the year.
        In an October 2009 case, authorities detained and charged seven
    Sahrawi activists with ``intelligence cooperation with a foreign
    entity'' and incitement to disturb public order after they traveled to
    meet with Algerian and Polisario officials in Algiers and Tindouf.
    Government officials sent the case to a military tribunal in accordance
    with a law that gives military courts jurisdiction over cases involving
    treason or espionage. On January 28, the prison administration
    provisionally released one of the activists, Dakja Lashgar, due to
    health problems, but the Government did not drop official charges
    against her. After the remaining six activists engaged in a 41-day
    hunger strike, a separate civilian court in Sale ordered the
    provisional release of Yahdith Ettarouzi, Rachid Sghir, and Saleh
    Labihi on May 18, but also did not drop charges against them. On
    September 23, the military court in Sale dismissed the espionage
    charges against the seven and referred the case to the Casablanca civil
    appeals court for a hearing on the remaining charge of incitement. The
    remaining imprisoned activists, Ahmed Alansari, Brahim Dahane, and Ali
    Salem Tamek, appeared four times before the Casablanca court, but the
    judge postponed the case each time because pro-Moroccan activists in
    the courtroom caused chaos and physically threatened the three
    defendants. Numerous credible Sahrawi and Moroccan human rights NGOs
    claimed that authorities permitted the scenes of chaos inside the
    courtroom as a means of intimidating the detainees and any witnesses or
    family members who might have wished to attend. They also continued to
    maintain that the charges against the seven were politically motivated.
    The detainees' families reported that while their access to the
    detainees was limited during the first month of the activists'
    detainment, the Government generally allowed them access thereafter.
        CODESA leader Aminatou Haidar, whom authorities prevented from
    reentering the territory for 34 days in November and December 2009,
    returned on December 18, 2009. Since her return, Haidar has travelled
    freely in and out of the territory.
        Since 1977 the inhabitants of the Western Saharan provinces of
    Laayoune, Smara, Awsard, and Boujdour and, since 1983, Oued Ed-Dahab,
    have participated in Moroccan national and regional elections. In the
    June 2009 communal elections, the Government allowed only Sahrawis with
    pro-Moroccan political views to serve as candidates. Turnout exceeded
    70 percent of registered voters. Domestic observers leveled accusations
    of corruption, principally vote buying, in some races.
        Relatively little information was available on discrimination in
    the territory. In traditional tribal Sahrawi society, women
    participated more actively in political and economic activities than
    among other North African ethnic groups. Most Sahrawis in the territory
    lived in urban or semi-urban environments, and their circumstances
    paralleled the situation in Morocco proper. In the June 2009 communal
    elections, women won 13 percent of seats due partly to the
    implementation of the same new quota system used in internationally
    recognized Morocco, which required all political parties to include at
    least 12 percent women on their party slates.
        For information on trafficking in persons, please see the
    Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons Report at
    www.state.gov/g/tip.
        The Moroccan labor code applies in the Moroccan-controlled areas of
    the territory. Moroccan unions covering all sectors were present in
    those areas but were not active. The largest trade confederations
    maintain a nominal presence in Laayoune and Dakhla. These include the
    Moroccan Union of Labor, the Democratic Confederation of Labor, and the
    National Union of Moroccan Workers.
        The constitution and the labor code permit the right to strike, but
    there were no known labor strikes, other job actions, or collective
    bargaining agreements during the year. Most union members were
    employees of the Moroccan government or state-owned organizations.
    Unions were also active in the phosphate and fishing industries. Wage-
    sector workers in the territory earned up to 85 percent more than their
    counterparts in Morocco as an inducement for Moroccans to relocate to
    the territory. The Government exempted workers from income and value-
    added taxes.
        The labor code prohibited forced or bonded labor, and there were no
    reports that such practices occurred. Penalties for those who
    perpetrate forced labor range up to four years' imprisonment, and
    penalties for forced child labor are between one and three years in
    prison. Labor inspectors assigned to labor delegation offices enforce
    Moroccan labor laws. There are two delegations in Western Sahara, one
    in Laayoune and one in Oued Eddahab.
        Regulations on the minimum age of employment were the same as in
    Morocco. There were no reports regarding child labor in the formal wage
    sector. There were reports of children working in family-owned
    businesses and in the agricultural sector.
        The minimum wage and maximum hours of work in the territory were
    identical to those in Morocco. In practice during peak periods, workers
    in fish processing plants worked as many as 12 hours per day, six days
    per week. Occupational health and safety standards were the same as in
    Morocco and enforcement was rudimentary, except for a prohibition on
    the employment of women in dangerous occupations.

                                   __________

                                     YEMEN

        Yemen, with a population of approximately 23 million, is a republic
    whose law provides for presidential election by popular vote from among
    at least two candidates endorsed by parliament. In 2006 citizens
    reelected President Ali Abdullah Saleh to another seven-year term in a
    generally open and competitive election, but one characterized by
    multiple problems with the voting process and the use of state
    resources on behalf of the ruling party. Saleh has led the country
    since 1978. The president appoints the prime minister, who is the head
    of government. The prime minister, in consultation with the president,
    selects the Council of Ministers. Although there are a number of
    parties, President Saleh's General People's Congress (GPC) dominated
    the Government. Armed conflicts with the Houthi rebels in the North and
    with elements of the Southern Mobility Movement in southern
    governorates, as well as with Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP)
    terrorists, affected the Government's human rights performance. There
    were instances in which elements of the security forces acted
    independently of civilian control.
        Armed conflict in the northern Saada region declined markedly after
    a February 11 ceasefire. Nonetheless, violence and abuses persisted in
    connection with ongoing protests by the Southern Mobility Movement, a
    decentralized umbrella group formed in 2008 as a result of widespread
    antigovernment protests that sought more rights for southerners and
    during the year increasingly became associated with activists seeking
    to reestablish an independent South Yemen.
        During the year attacks, often by unknown actors, occurred on
    government security forces, usually attributed to AQAP, although
    government claims of AQAP responsibility could not be verified in many
    cases.
        The main government human rights abuses included severe limitations
    on citizens' ability to change their government due to, among other
    factors, corruption, fraudulent voter registration, administrative
    weakness, and close political-military relationships at high levels.
    Arbitrary and unlawful killings, politically motivated disappearances,
    and reports of torture and other physical abuse accompanied the use of
    excessive force against civilians in internal conflict. Prisons and
    detention centers were in poor condition, and some private, largely
    tribal, ones operated without legal authorization or control. Arbitrary
    arrest and detention, sometimes incommunicado, and denial of fair
    public trial were widespread. Official impunity was common. The
    Government restricted civil liberties, including freedoms of speech and
    of the press, including access to the Internet, peaceful assembly, and
    religious freedom. The judiciary was weak, corrupt, and lacked
    independence. Official corruption and lack of government transparency
    were severe problems. International humanitarian groups estimated more
    than 300,000 persons were internally displaced as a result of the Saada
    conflict. Pervasive discrimination against women continued, as did
    early marriage, child labor, and child trafficking. Discrimination on
    the basis of religion, sect, and ethnicity was common. Workers' rights
    were restricted.

                            RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

    Section 1. Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom
            From:
        a. Arbitrary or Unlawful Deprivation of Life.--There were reports
    that the Government or its agents committed arbitrary or unlawful
    killings during the year, including politically motivated killings.
    Security forces killed suspects during apprehension and public
    demonstrations in actions that appeared to be politically motivated.
    The vast majority of reported killings were related to the two internal
    conflicts (see section 1.g.). In the governorates of Saada and Amran in
    the North, government forces sought to end a long-festering conflict
    with Houthi tribal forces, who are Shia Muslims of the Zaydi sect
    motivated by a sense of political, social, and religious
    marginalization; Saudi Arabian military forces reportedly also killed
    Houthi citizens in Yemen. The conflict in the South saw lethal action
    against separatists and Islamic militants, usually associated with
    AQAP. Insurgent tribal elements in the North and separatists and
    Islamist militants in the South committed politically motivated
    killings. Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula claimed responsibility for
    some killings. Tribal violence against the Government, a regular
    feature of the country's politics, often led to governmental
    attribution of killings to AQAP, whose members frequently were linked
    by birth or marriage, rather than ideology, to belligerent tribes.
        Apart from the two internal conflicts, government forces also
    committed arbitrary killings. For example, on August 6, according to
    the domestic nongovernmental organization (NGO) the National Society
    for the Defense of Rights and Freedoms (HOOD), Abdul-Ghani al-Zamzani
    struck a cement barricade in Sana'a with his truck near the house of
    the father of the chief of staff of the Central Security Forces (CSF).
    House guards and CSF officers shot at Zamzani, who despite being
    wounded fled to his residence nearby, where a CSF officer shot and
    killed him at close range. The CSF officials prevented Zamzani from
    receiving medical care and also prevented local police from conducting
    an investigation.
        Some detainees died in custody. For example, on June 25, Ahmed al-
    Dirwish died while detained by police in Khor Maksar. According to a
    local NGO, he died because of injuries sustained from torture. Despite
    an order from the attorney general, investigators did not present the
    suspects responsible for the incident. An autopsy showed that Dirwish
    sustained broken ribs and substantial bruising and had ingested poison.
    On July 11, Faisal Al Goma'i died a month after suffering severe burns
    he received during a beating while in police custody at Al Shahid Al
    Ahmar Police Station in Sana'a. Police officials claimed the injuries
    were self-inflicted, and authorities did not conduct an adequate
    judicial investigation into the matter.
        Persistent, low-intensity conflict among tribes and between tribes
    and the Government resulted in killings and other abuses. On May 7,
    during the noon prayer, a group of armed men killed Houthi leader Yahya
    Al-Hames at the Muhammad Al-Ezzi mosque in Majez, Saada. On July 24, in
    Amran Governorate, according to the local press, clashes between
    Houthis and Sufian tribes over tribal properties killed at least 40
    persons. Other incidents of fatal shootings continued throughout the
    year. In most cases it was impossible to determine the perpetrator or
    motive, and there rarely were claims of responsibility. Some killings
    may have had criminal, religious, or political motives, while others
    appeared to involve land disputes or tribal revenge.
        There continued to be no investigation into the 2008 reported
    security force killings of Saleh Abubakr al-Sayed, Muhammad Ali
    Muhammad, Saleh Taleb Saeed, Abdelfatah Saif Abdullah, and Hisham Ahmed
    Muhsen.
        In November 2009 Saudi armed forces fought Houthi rebels, claiming
    that its attacks were within Saudi territory and intended to eliminate
    armed groups of Houthi rebels who had killed three border guards and
    wounded 15 other members of the security forces in the border region of
    Jebel al-Dukhan. According to media reports, Saudi forces continued to
    kill civilians in cross-border air and artillery strikes for more than
    a week after an initial January 23 ceasefire. The Houthis claimed there
    were 14 deaths, including some women and children, due to Saudi
    military action.
        The land was littered with mines and unexploded ordnance from
    several conflicts, including the 1962-70 war in the North between
    republicans and royalists, the 1963-67 war of independence in the
    South, the 1970-83 war against left-wing guerrillas, and the 1994 civil
    war. The majority of mines were in border areas between the former
    North Yemen and South Yemen and in the southern governorates. Many
    minefields in the southern governorates remained unmapped. According to
    the Governmental Yemen Executive Mine Action Center (YEMAC), during the
    year antipersonnel mines injured eight persons but caused no deaths.
    YEMAC tallied 15 deaths and 26 injuries from mines and explosive
    remnants of war during the year. YEMAC reported approximately 55 square
    miles of land remained to be demined at the end of the year.

        b. Disappearance.--During the year there were reports of
    politically motivated disappearances of individuals associated with
    southern protests and with the conflict in Saada in the North. Although
    many disappearances were short-term detentions followed by releases,
    the whereabouts of other individuals remained unknown for months or
    longer. Civil society groups accused the Government of using sporadic
    disappearances to intimidate the populace.
        Tribal kidnappings traditionally carried out to attract government
    attention to specific grievances occurred. On May 17, tribal gunmen
    kidnapped two foreign workers in Shabwa and released them two days
    later. On May 24, members of the Shardah tribe abducted two foreigners
    as well as their citizen driver and translator near al-Haima. They also
    were released after two days.
        On May 17, two German girls, kidnapped in June 2009, were released.
    There was no confirmed information concerning the fate of the remaining
    hostages: their infant brother, their parents, and a British engineer.

        c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or
    Punishment.--The constitution prohibits such practices, but domestic
    law lacks a comprehensive definition, according to the May 25 UN
    Committee Against Torture's Concluding Observations on the country.
    Human rights NGOs and former detainees and prisoners corroborated
    allegations of widespread practice of torture and mistreatment.
        The international NGO Amnesty International's (AI) 2010 annual
    report claimed that police brutality and torture of detainees were
    widespread and affected political as well as ordinary criminal
    detainees and prisoners, and that officials committed these acts with
    impunity. Reported techniques included beatings with fists, sticks, and
    rifle butts; kicking; scalding with hot water; using excessively tight
    handcuffs; prolonged blindfolding and suspending by the wrists or
    ankles; denying water or access to toilets; burning with cigarettes;
    stripping naked; denying food and prompt access to medical help; and
    threatening sexual abuse and death. Sleep deprivation and solitary
    confinement were other forms of abuse reported by local human rights
    NGOs to have occurred in Political Security Organization (PSO)
    detention centers.
        Ministry of Interior (MOI), which includes CSF and National
    Security Bureau (NSB), officers reportedly used force during
    interrogations, especially on those arrested for violent crimes,
    although according to the Ministry of Human Rights (MOHR), torture was
    not MOI policy. The PSO, a security apparatus reporting directly to the
    president, previously stated that torture did not occur at its
    facilities. New PSO officers must sign a document certifying they
    recognize torture is illegal according to the laws and constitution of
    the country and that those who torture prisoners would be punished
    according to the law.
        Penal law, based on the Government's interpretation of Shari'a
    (Islamic law), permits amputations and physical abuse, such as
    flogging, as punishments for some crimes.
        During the year the MOHR reported it received one complaint
    alleging torture at the hands of the military, police, or other
    security services but acknowledged that other isolated incidents might
    have occurred It stated that most complaints concerned prison
    conditions. HOOD claimed it received dozens of complaints of torture
    during the year; however, because the complainants often brought their
    cases weeks or months after the torture allegedly occurred, their
    claims were difficult to verify. If HOOD has the capacity and interest,
    it takes the Government to court on behalf of the victims. The domestic
    NGO Yemeni Organization for the Defense of Public Rights and Liberties
    (YODPRL) claimed to have documented 11 cases of detainees with chronic
    injuries resulting from torture during the year. On March 29, Mohammad
    al-Maqaleh, a journalist, claimed at a press conference held shortly
    after his release following six months of detention by the PSO that he
    was subjected to torture. He claimed he was held incommunicado and
    experienced the ``harshest of physical torture.''
        Some detainees, such as Ahmed al-Dirwish and Faisal Al Goma'i, died
    in custody allegedly after torture (see section 1.a.).
        According to the domestic NGO Women Journalists without Chains,
    Sana'a police officers tortured Fuad Ahmed Naji after detaining him in
    October at a demonstration in Sana'a supporting internally displaced
    persons (IDPs) from al-Djashen. He allegedly was subjected to electric
    shock, cigarette burns, and gun-butt strikes and was hospitalized for
    his injuries.

        Prison and Detention Center Conditions.--Local and international
    observers reported prison conditions remained poor and did not meet
    international standards. The Government permitted some visits by
    independent human rights observers. Prison conditions deteriorated
    during the year due to the marked increase in the number of prisoners,
    according to HOOD.
        Many prisons, particularly in rural areas, were overcrowded, with
    poor sanitary conditions, inadequate food, and inadequate medical care.
    In some cases prison authorities reportedly extracted bribes from
    prisoners to obtain privileges or refused to release prisoners who had
    completed their sentences until the prisoners' family members paid
    authorities.
        In some rural and women's prisons, children were held with adults.
    By custom young children and babies born in prison remained in custody
    with their mothers. Local NGOs asserted children were held with adults
    in Sana'a jails. Pretrial detainees were held with convicted criminals.
        Local tradition requires male relatives of female prisoners to
    arrange for their release. Authorities regularly held female prisoners
    in jail after the end of their sentences if male relatives refused to
    authorize their release, a practice that occurred because of the shame
    associated with the return of an imprisoned female family member or
    because families were unable to pay the ``blood money'' resulting from
    a court judgment. There were no female guards in female prisons or
    detention centers, except at the Hajjah Detention Center.
        The Department of Public Prosecutions has overall responsibility
    for overseeing and inspecting prisons. It performed investigative and
    monitoring functions without real effectiveness, hampered by a lack of
    authority over powerful security agencies and tribal leaders who
    controlled separate prison and detention fiefdoms. In the mosaic of
    different prison arrangements and authorities, several patterns
    emerged. Apart from incommunicado detention, visitor access was
    reasonable, and religious observance was permitted. There was no
    evidence that prisoners and detainees were permitted to submit
    complaints to judicial authorities without censorship or request
    investigation of credible allegations of inhumane conditions.
    Similarly, there was no evidence that the Government or local prison
    authorities investigated credible allegations of inhumane conditions
    and publicly documented the results. According to a HOOD statement on
    November 23, PSO prison officials in Sana'a incited detained Sunni al-
    Qaida suspects to beat severely Shia Houthi detainees on several
    occasions during the year.
        Authorities granted limited access to family members of PSO
    prisoners and detainees but routinely denied parliamentarians' and NGO
    requests for access to investigate human rights violation claims. The
    PSO argued that prospective visitors failed to comply with proper
    notification procedures.
        Prison authorities granted the MOHR and a few local NGOs, including
    HOOD, access to selected MOI prisons. NGO representatives met with MOI
    prisoners as private visitors. The MOHR said it met with NGOs
    frequently throughout the year and served as a mediator between NGOs
    and the Government. The MOHR also conducted awareness campaigns
    concerning civil rights in a number of governorates. The Government
    allowed independent human rights observers access to PSO prisons during
    the year, a departure from prior years.
        The MOHR stated it conducted more than 15 prison visits in 15
    governorates during the year, including surprise visits and visits
    conducted by the minister. It also inspected juvenile centers in
    approximately 15 governorates. The MOHR claimed the successful
    implementation of most recommendations in its 2007 report on prisons,
    such as the separation of incarcerated adults and minors and provision
    of educational instruction to prisoners.
        The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) suspended
    visits in 2004 to PSO facilities, citing the PSO's failure to agree to
    the ICRC's universally applied manner of conducting visits, which
    includes regular access to and private interviews with all detainees.
    During the year the ICRC determined the PSO was cooperative and by
    year's end had made three visits to PSO facilities (see section 5).
        During the year the Government provided a few independent human
    rights observers limited access to selected prisons. There was no
    ombudsman advocating for humane and bureaucratically correct treatment
    of prisoners and detainees.
        Unauthorized ``private'' prisons and detention centers in rural
    areas controlled by tribes continued to operate, holding persons
    subjected to tribal justice. Tribal leaders misused the prison system
    by placing ``problem'' tribesmen in private jails, sometimes simply
    rooms in a sheikh's house, either to punish them for noncriminal
    actions or to protect them from retaliation. Speakers of Parliament
    reportedly maintained a special section of one of the main government
    prisons in Sana'a for their own private prisoners. Persons often were
    detained in such circumstances for strictly personal or tribal reasons
    without trial, judicial sentencing, or other fundamental legal
    safeguards.
        The Government claimed that the influx of prisoners and detainees
    due to internal conflict and antiterrorism arrests constrained its
    ability to improve conditions in prisons and detention facilities.

        d. Arbitrary Arrest or Detention.--The law prohibits arbitrary
    arrest and detention, but the Government generally did not observe
    these prohibitions. Enforcement of the law was inconsistent,
    particularly in cases involving suspected security offenses.

        Role of the Police and Security Apparatus.--The primary state
    security and intelligence-gathering entities, the PSO and the NSB,
    report directly to the president. There was no clear definition of many
    of the NSB's duties, which have evolved from protecting the country
    from external threats to overlap with those of the PSO, which is
    domestically focused and charged with identifying and combating
    political crimes and acts of sabotage. The police Criminal
    Investigation Division reports to the MOI and conducted most criminal
    investigations and arrests. The Central Security Office, also a part of
    the MOI, maintains a paramilitary force the CSF, which was active in
    maintaining order in restive regions in the country and was often
    accused of using excessive force during crowd control; the CSO also
    maintains a Counter Terrorism Unit formed in 2003 to combat al-Qaida.
    Official impunity was a continuing problem.

        Arrest Procedures and Treatment While in Detention.--The law
    provides that an individual cannot be arrested unless apprehended in a
    criminal act or served with a summons and that a detainee must be
    arraigned within 24 hours or be released. The judge or prosecuting
    attorney must inform the accused of the basis for the arrest and decide
    whether detention is required. The law stipulates a detainee may not be
    held longer than seven days without a court order. Despite the law
    arbitrary arrest and prolonged detention without charge--or, if
    charged, without a public preliminary judicial hearing within a
    reasonable time--were common practices. For example, throughout the
    year authorities arbitrarily arrested numerous southern demonstration
    leaders and persons with alleged connections to the Houthi movement and
    detained them for prolonged periods. According to HOOD several thousand
    individuals detained during the last Houthi war remained imprisoned
    without trial at year's end. They were not arrested on the battlefield,
    so the Government does not consider them ``enemy combatants.'' In
    HOOD's opinion they would not be released as part of peace negotiations
    with the Houthis.
        There are legal provisions for bail, but some authorities abided by
    these provisions only if they received a bribe. The law prohibits
    incommunicado detention and provides detainees the right to inform
    their families of their arrests and to decline to answer questions
    without an attorney present, but these rights were not always
    respected. The law states that the Government must provide attorneys
    for indigent detainees, but in practice it often did not do so. Tribal
    mediators reportedly settled almost all rural cases without reference
    to the formal court system.
        Citizens regularly claimed security officials did not observe due
    process when arresting and detaining suspects and demonstrators. Some
    members of the security forces continued to arrest or detain persons
    for varying periods without charge, family notification, or hearings.
    Detainees were often unclear which investigating agency had arrested
    them, and the agencies frequently complicated determination by
    unofficially transferring custody of individuals among agencies.
    Security forces routinely detained relatives of fugitives as hostages
    until the suspect was located. Authorities stated they detained
    relatives only when the relatives obstructed justice. Human rights
    organizations rejected this claim.
        The UN Committee against Torture expressed concern in its May 25
    Concluding Observations report about the practice of hostage-taking,
    whereby the Government holds relatives of alleged criminals. For
    example, the committee noted the case of Muhammad al-Badani, abducted
    at the age of 14 in 2001 by a tribal chief for his father's failure to
    pay his debts, and who reportedly remained in a government prison at
    year's end.
        Estimates of the number of persons arrested in arbitrary
    circumstances ranged broadly, as many detainees' names were not
    recorded, some detainees were never transferred to official detention
    centers, and many were arrested and released multiple times during the
    year. Local NGOs estimated the number of individuals extrajudicially
    arrested during the year in connection with the northern Saada conflict
    to be between 100 and 200 persons and in connection with the southern
    protest movement to be approximately 650 (see section 1.g.).While the
    PSO was only a part of the system, HOOD recorded approximately 650 PSO
    extrajudicial detentions during the year in PSO facilities throughout
    the country.
        From January to April, the National Security Court sentenced a
    number of prominent Southern Mobility Movement activists to extended
    terms after they were held without formal charges. Ahmed Muhammad Ba
    Mo'alim received a 12-year term on March 23, and Fadi Ba'um, Qasim
    Askar, Hussein al-Aqil, and Salh al-Saqladi received sentences ranging
    from three to five years in prison.
        Although both denied it, the MOI and the PSO operated extrajudicial
    detention facilities, according to local and international NGO reports.
    Unauthorized private prisons and detention facilities also existed. One
    example was the private facility maintained by Sheikh Muhammad Ahmed
    al-Mansour in al-Djashen. Mansour reportedly detained without
    government review a significant number of al-Djashen residents for
    months at a time.
        Members of the security forces continued to detain journalists for
    publishing articles the Government deemed controversial (see section
    2.a.).
        According to YODPRL the Government arbitrarily detained eight
    persons for human rights advocacy. One activist, Walid Sharafuddin, was
    arrested in 2009 on charges of supporting the Houthis and spying for
    Iran. His attorney alleged that the PSO tortured him during his
    detention. Sharafuddin did not receive a fair trial by year's end.
    During the year the Government also continued to detain suspects
    accused of links to terrorism, at times without due process. HOOD
    reported the Government held 150 terrorist suspects detained during the
    year, as well as 100 persons in Sana'a and Hudeidah who remained
    detained since being arrested in 2009 on suspicion of terrorist
    affiliation or activities.

        Amnesty.--Following a May 22 general amnesty that President Saleh
    said would apply to ``all outlaws,'' releases were made of detainees
    and prisoners from the conflicts in the North and South, as well as
    journalists.

        e. Denial of Fair Public Trial.--The constitution provides for an
    independent judiciary, but it was weak and not independent in practice,
    as corruption and executive branch interference severely hampered its
    operations. Litigants maintained, and the Government acknowledged, that
    a judge's social ties and occasional bribery influenced verdicts. Many
    judges were poorly trained, and some were closely associated with the
    ruling party. The Government's frequent reluctance to enforce court
    orders further undermined the integrity and efficiency of the
    judiciary. Members of the judiciary were threatened and harassed.
        During the year the Specialized Criminal Court within the Ministry
    of Justice heard cases that were not security-related, despite its
    mandate to try persons charged with acts considered a ``public
    danger,'' such as banditry and sabotage. The specialized criminal court
    reportedly does not provide defendants with the same rights provided in
    the regular courts. AI and local NGOs characterized specialized
    criminal courts as unconstitutional. Defense lawyers reportedly did not
    have full access to the charges against their clients or relevant
    government evidence and court files. YODRPL recorded 113 persons who
    received sentences before the special court during the year, 36 of whom
    received the death penalty. One person sentenced to death, Qabous Said
    al-Mazigi, was 15 years old at sentencing.
        In May 2009 the Government for the first time established a press
    court, a special court to try media and publication cases. Trials of
    journalists and newspapers took place during the year. The court found
    most defendants guilty and suspended them from journalism for a number
    of months or assessed fines typically amounting to 50,000 riyals
    (approximately $235). The court imposed the most severe sentences on
    Al-Masdar editor Samir Jubran (subsequently released after the May 22
    amnesty) and journalist Munir al-Mawri, who received prison sentences
    and bans from practicing journalism (see section 2.a.). During the year
    the special court cleared its docket and reportedly no longer hears
    cases or issues rulings at the request of President Saleh.
        The military justice system has jurisdiction over uniformed
    personnel and civil servants charged with violations of military
    regulations. Decisions of military tribunals may be appealed to the
    courts of appeal. Information on the existence of military tribunals
    separate from the military court system was not available.

        Trial Procedures.--Laws are a mixture of Egyptian law, Napoleonic
    tradition, and Shari'a. The codified law, social custom, and Shari'a,
    as interpreted in the country, discriminated against women,
    particularly in domestic matters (see section 6). By law, but not in
    practice, prosecutors are a part of the judiciary and independent of
    the Government. Prosecutors investigate criminal cases. The police
    generally were poorly trained and played a limited role in developing
    cases.
        The security services (NSB, PSO, and MOI) continued to arrest,
    charge, and submit cases to the Prosecutor's Office of persons with
    alleged links to shootings, explosions, and other acts of violence,
    including terrorism. Citizens and human rights groups, especially in
    cases involving ``political crimes'' or the security services
    generally, alleged that the judiciary did not normally observe due
    process and extend the right to a fair trial to all citizens. Foreign
    litigants in commercial disputes complained of biased rulings.
        The accused are considered innocent until proven guilty. Trials are
    generally public, but all courts may conduct closed sessions ``for
    reasons of public security or morals.'' There are no jury trials.
    Judges, who play an active role in questioning witnesses and the
    accused, adjudicate criminal cases. Defendants have the right to be
    present and to consult with an attorney in a timely manner. Defendants
    can confront or question witnesses against them and present witnesses
    and evidence on their behalf; defendants and their attorneys have
    access to government-held evidence relevant to their cases. Defense
    attorneys are allowed to counsel their clients, address the court, and
    examine witnesses and any relevant evidence. The law provides for the
    Government to furnish attorneys for indigent defendants in serious
    criminal (felony) cases; in practice counsel was not always provided.
    All defendants, including women and minorities, have the right to
    appeal their sentences.
        In addition to regular courts, there is a system of tribal
    adjudication for noncriminal issues; in practice tribal judges often
    adjudicated criminal cases. The results carried the same, if not
    greater, weight as court judgments. Persons tried under the tribal
    system usually had not been formally charged with a crime but had been
    publicly accused.
        The law grants parliament exclusive jurisdiction over executive
    branch officials for crimes including bribery, interference, and
    embezzlement. No government official was investigated or tried under
    this law during the year.

        Political Prisoners and Detainees.--During the year there was a
    decrease in the number of political prisoners and detainees related to
    the southern protest movement and the conflict in Saada, where a
    ceasefire was announced on February 11 (see section 1.g.). Human rights
    organizations reported there were hundreds of political prisoners and
    detainees held during the year; many were arrested and released the
    same day, while others were held for weeks or months. In July the
    Government released more than 200 detainees associated with the
    southern movement after President Saleh issued a general amnesty.
    Confirmation of the number and assessment of the status of political
    prisoners or even detainees was difficult because the Government
    severely restricted or barred information and access by local or
    international humanitarian organizations, and the detainees were not
    publicly charged. For example, Ali al-Saqqaf, a campaigner for
    protection of the rights of detainees in the conflict in Saada and a
    member of the Yemeni Organization for Human Rights (YOHR), was detained
    in September 2009, was not charged, was denied access to legal counsel,
    and remained in custody of the PSO in Sana'a at year's end, according
    to the international NGO FrontLine.
        Absent charges, it was difficult to determine whether detainees'
    actions had gone beyond advocacy and dissent to committing acts of
    violence. At year's end the Government held more than 100 prisoners in
    connection with the Saada conflict, according to HOOD, which also
    reported that approximately 100 other detainees with suspected links to
    AQAP remained in PSO prisons without charge.

        Civil Judicial Procedures and Remedies.--The law provides for an
    independent and impartial judiciary in civil matters, but there were
    limitations in practice. A provision in the civil code permits the
    president to review any judicial decision after receiving permission
    from the Supreme Judicial Committee, over which the president
    reportedly exerted significant influence. The provision was challenged
    in court but remained in effect at year's end.

        f. Arbitrary Interference With Privacy, Family, Home, or
    Correspondence.--The law prohibits such action, but PSO, NSB, and MOI
    personnel, claiming security reasons, routinely searched homes and
    private offices, monitored telephone calls, read personal mail and e-
    mail, and otherwise intruded into personal matters. Human rights
    organizations claimed security forces undertook such activities without
    legally issued warrants or judicial supervision. The PSO and MOI
    rejected these claims. The PSO stated (that) its policies require the
    attorney general personally to authorize monitoring telephone calls and
    reading personal mail and e-mail. The PSO reported that to do a house
    search, it first obtains a warrant and a signed certification by the
    head of the neighborhood, and two neighbors who serve as witnesses
    accompany officers on the search.
        Throughout the year human rights activists and journalists reported
    receiving repeated threatening telephone calls day and night. Activists
    and journalists considered these calls to be attempts by authorities to
    intimidate them from speaking out about the Saada conflict and southern
    political discontent.
        The law prohibits arrests or the serving of a subpoena between
    sundown and dawn, but persons suspected of crimes were reportedly taken
    from their homes without warrants in the middle of the night.
        No citizen may marry a foreigner without permission from the MOI,
    but this regulation does not carry the force of law and appeared
    inconsistently enforced.
        Security forces routinely detained relatives of fugitives as
    hostages until the suspect was located (see section 1.d.). In other
    cases detention of family members continued while the families
    negotiated compensation for the alleged wrongdoing. Families,
    tribesmen, and other nongovernmental interlocutors commonly used
    arbitration and mediation to settle such cases.

        g. Use of Excessive Force and Other Abuses in Internal Conflicts.--
    During the year the Government responded with excessive force to
    domestic political problems with the Houthis in the Northwest and with
    protesters and secessionists in the Southern Movement. At the same
    time, Islamic militants associated with AQAP terrorism directed violent
    attacks largely against government personnel and installations,
    exacerbating the political and security situation in the South.
        The Houthis, a group of Zaydi Shia rebels intermittently in armed
    conflict since 2004 with the Government, called for greater resources
    and religious autonomy in Saada, along with a reduced government
    security force presence. The Government alleged the Houthis received
    support from Iran and sought to reestablish a separate Shia imamate.
        In northern Saada Governorate another round of intense fighting
    started in August 2009 and lasted until the parties announced partially
    observed January 23, then February 11 cease-fires, followed by
    President Saleh officially declaring the war ``over'' in a March 19
    television interview. Large-scale conflict erupted again in August-
    September and continued sporadically at low levels at year's end.
        According to the NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) and other
    humanitarian organizations, witnesses reported four separate air raids
    on September 16 in which government bombs killed almost 90 civilians,
    mostly women, children, and the elderly in Adl, near Harf Sufyan in
    Amran Governorate. On September 18, the Government announced a plan to
    investigate the deaths. By year's end no results of an investigation
    had been presented. Independent investigation into the shelling did not
    occur because of heightened insecurity in the region.
        YODPRL recorded more than 20 forcible disappearances attributed to
    government forces during the year in connection with the fighting in
    Saada.
        In fighting between government forces and Houthi rebels between
    August 2009 and February, international NGOs providing humanitarian
    assistance in Saada estimated more than 300,000 persons were displaced
    from their homes, then spreading across four northern governorates in
    search of aid (see section 2.d.).
        There were reports during the year of the use by both sides of
    antipersonnel mines, including antitank and improvised mines, during
    the conflict in northern Saada Governorate between rebel forces led by
    Abdul-Malik al-Houthi and government troops. Houthi rebels actively
    interfered with government demining efforts.
        The Government and local and international human rights
    organizations claimed that Houthis also committed human rights
    violations during the year. According to an August 2009 government
    report, Houthi abuses included unlawful killing, rape and sexual
    assault, looting and destruction of civilian property, and plunder and
    destruction of public buildings. Some human rights activists said
    Houthis used human shields and killed and threatened civilians who did
    not support them. Independent verification of these allegations was
    difficult because the Government and Houthi rebels blocked nearly all
    access to Saada during the year.
        Although the law barred the use of underage soldiers, local and
    international human rights organizations reported that both Houthis and
    government-affiliated tribes deployed child soldiers into armed
    conflict during the latest round of fighting in Saada (see section 6).
    For a more detailed discussion, see the Department of State's
    Trafficking in Persons Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.
        There was also serious conflict in the South. In response to a
    growing southern protest movement that began peacefully with sit-ins in
    2007, security forces killed at least 20 protesters and injured 87 in
    the southern governorates in the first six months of the year,
    according to AI. In the course of the year, security forces killed
    dozens of persons and injured hundreds of others in a series of
    increasingly violent demonstrations in Dhale, Lahj, Aden, Abyan, and
    Hadramout governorates.
        In March the military, the CSF, and other security services
    launched a security operation in the city of Dhale, killing three
    persons, injuring 44, arresting 81 others, and destroying 57 houses.
    More than 100 families were displaced. Local and international human
    rights observers noted the Government and local media outlets conflated
    the issues of the southern movement and al-Qaida, making it difficult
    to assess the goals and targets of such operations.
        During the year the Government launched mass preemptive arrest
    campaigns across the southern governorates and used excessive force to
    disperse demonstrations that sometimes involved tens of thousands of
    protesters. The Government arrested hundreds of southerners during the
    year, including members of opposition political parties, academics,
    members of parliament, journalists, and human rights activists. Some
    were released after a few hours of detention, and others remained in
    jail at year's end.
        Media and local NGOs reported that during August and September,
    government military forces bombed and shelled civilian areas in the
    southern governorates of Abyan and Shabwa. According to the Government,
    the shelling was an attack on members of Al-Qaida in the Arabian
    Peninsula.
        Terrorist activity increased during the year. For example, on June
    19, the intelligence headquarters in the city of Aden was attacked; the
    attack killed at least 11 persons. According to press reports, AQAP
    asserted responsibility for the attack, claiming it killed at least 24
    persons. On July 14, suspected al-Qaida militants attacked the
    intelligence headquarters in Zinjibar in the southern governorate of
    Abyan. Using heavy machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades, they
    killed at least 10 persons and wounded 13 others, according to press
    reports. On August 28, AQAP claimed responsibility for an attack on a
    checkpoint near Jaar in Abyan that killed eight soldiers and a civilian
    government employee.

    Section 2. Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:
        a. Freedom of Speech and Press.--The constitution provides for
    freedom of speech and of the press ``within the limits of the law'';
    however, the Government did not respect these rights in practice. On
    May 3, the international NGO Reporters Without Borders severely
    criticized President Saleh for creating the press court and for
    harassing and prosecuting a dozen journalists in an attempt to limit
    coverage of the conflicts in the North and South.
        The Government attempted to impede criticism, such as by using
    government informers to monitor meetings and assemblies. During the
    year--especially in the northern governorates of Sana'a, Amran, and
    Saada--there were reports that the Government monitored their speech
    and removed Houthi Zaydi imams from their positions in mosques.
        The Government limited press freedom, censoring and banning media
    outlets, which operated with restrictions. The 1990 Press and
    Publication Law criminalizes criticism of the person of the head of
    state,'' although not necessarily ``constructive'' criticism; the
    publication of ``false information'' that may spread ``chaos and
    confusion in the country''; and ``false stories intended to damage Arab
    and friendly countries or their relations'' with the country. The
    security apparatus, including the NSB and elements of the military,
    threatened and harassed journalists to influence media coverage.
    Journalists and publishers regularly practiced self-censorship.
        The press law specifies newspapers and magazines must apply
    annually to the Government for licensing renewal and must show
    continuing evidence of 700,000 riyals ($3,286) in operating capital.
    There were reports authorities made the registration process
    bureaucratically difficult for opposition figures or organizations,
    while progovernment or tribal newspapers received licenses quickly.
    Three independent newspapers owned their own presses; no papers
    associated with political opposition groups did.
        Harassment of journalists who reported on the southern protest
    movement and the Saada conflict continued during the year. The
    Government attempted to prevent details of the Saada conflict from
    becoming public knowledge. Measures included forbidding journalists and
    humanitarian workers from going to the conflict zone, disconnecting all
    but a select number of cell phone numbers in the governorate, warning
    journalists not to report on the conflict, and arresting persons who
    transmitted information about what they had seen or who could have such
    information because they had recently left the area.
        The Government continued to shut down newspapers during the year.
    For example, independent Aden-based newspaper Al-Tariq, barred from
    publication on February 21, was allowed to resume publication on March
    4 after its staff reported receiving warnings from the Government to
    moderate its content. On March 14, the Government shut down Taiz's only
    independent newspaper, the weekly Hadiith al-Medina, and ordered the
    Government-owned Jamhurriya printing press in Taiz--the city's only
    press--to stop printing Hadiith al-Medina until further notice. The
    newspaper remained closed at year's end. On March 24, authorities
    released Hisham Bashraheel, editor of Aden-based independent newspaper
    al-Ayyam, which has been suspended from publication since May 2009.
    Bashraheel had been detained since a January 4 exchange of gunfire at
    al-Ayyam's offices. The elderly Bashraheel was in poor health even
    before his arrest, and authorities cited ``health reasons'' for his
    release.
        On March 26, authorities released opposition writer Mohammad al-
    Maqaleh, arrested in September 2009 for criticizing military actions
    resulting in civilian casualties in the Saada war. His release closely
    followed statements by the Yemen Socialist Party and Yemen Journalists
    Syndicate alleging that he was being tortured in custody, and a March
    24 segment on Al Jazeera that showed Maqaleh's daughters pleading for
    his release. Official media cited ``health reasons'' for Maqaleh's
    release, and he went directly from PSO custody to a hospital in Sana'a.
    Unknown persons reportedly had abducted Al-Maqaleh on the street in
    Sana'a and held him incommunicado for five months in PSO custody
    without charges or appearance before judicial authorities.
        Physical attacks against journalists continued during the year,
    along with government harassment, including threats against journalists
    and their families, brief imprisonment, and personal surveillance. On
    July 11, al-Baidha's governor Muhammad al-Amry ordered Majed Karout, an
    al-Masdar correspondent in al-Baidha Governorate, to stop writing
    articles criticizing the local government. Similar incidents of
    government threats or harassment against journalists were reported in
    Taiz and Aden during the summer.
        On May 22, President Saleh released four journalists who had cases
    before courts or court rulings on public rights to mark the 20th
    anniversary of the country's unification, according to the Defense
    Ministry's 26sep.net news Web site. Subsequently, a number of prominent
    journalists were released, including Hussein al-Laswas, sentenced to a
    year's imprisonment on May 2 for ``defamation of a public official''
    for his reporting on government corruption and editor of the
    independent newspaper al-Tajdeed, and Hussein al-Aqel, a writer and
    Aden University lecturer. The Government also lifted the ban on al-
    Masdar's editor Samir Jubran from working as a journalist. The special
    press court dropped proceedings against 33 journalists. Taiz Governor
    Hamoud Khaled al-Soufi in announcing the president's decision stated
    the action was subject to their ``putting their pens in the service of
    their country and helping to consolidate national unity,'' according to
    press reports.
        During the year independent newspapers published statements by
    exiled southern leaders in which government security forces in the
    South were described as ``occupation forces'' and President Saleh was
    described as ``the tyrant.'' On August 3, quasi-independent news Web
    site Mareb Press cited statements by exiled Houthi leader and Member of
    Parliament Yahya al-Houthi boasting that Houthi rebels had the strength
    to invade President Saleh's home area of Sanhan in Sana'a Governorate.
        At times customs officials confiscated foreign publications they
    regarded as pornographic or objectionable due to religious or political
    content. During the year there were reports that authorities monitored
    foreign publications and banned those deemed harmful to national
    interests.
        The Government selected items for news broadcasts and rarely
    permitted broadcasts critical of the Government. The Government
    televised parliamentary debates and occasionally permitted broadcasts
    including aggressive criticism of ministries. The Ministry of
    Information influenced the media through control of printing presses,
    subsidies to newspapers, and ownership of the country's sole television
    and radio outlets.
        On March 11, government security forces entered without warrant the
    Sana'a offices of Al Jazeera and Al Arabiyya and seized the satellite
    television stations' broadcasting equipment. The Government claimed
    that the equipment was not properly licensed and that the seizure was
    in accordance with the law. The equipment was returned on March 18
    following a presidential directive.
        The Government required that book authors obtain certification from
    the Ministry of Culture (MOC) for publication and submit copies to the
    ministry. Publishers sometimes refused to deal with an author who had
    not obtained certification. The MOC approved most books, but long
    delays were frequent. Both the ministry and the PSO monitored and
    sometimes removed books from stores. A ban continued on publishers
    distributing books that espoused Zaydi Shia Islamic doctrine or were
    deemed pornographic. The Government denied that the media were subject
    to censorship by any security apparatus.

        Internet Freedom.--The Government restricted Internet use by
    intermittently blocking access to some political and religious Web
    sites and sites it deemed immoral. During the year the Government
    reportedly blocked for extended periods a number of independent and
    opposition news Web sites, such as al-Shura.net and Ishtiraki.net and
    the Web sites of independent newspapers al-Ayyam, al-Masdar, al-
    Tagheer, and al-Wasat. It also blocked Adenpress.com, a Web site that
    covered the southern demonstrations, and it allegedly blocked and
    changed content on Yemenhurra.net, a Web site that covered the Saada
    conflict.
        Physical attacks against Internet journalists continued during the
    year, along with government harassment, including threats against
    journalists and their families, brief imprisonment, and personal
    surveillance. Awadh Kashmiim, a journalist from Seiyun in Hadramaut
    Governorate, was detained by the PSO for 15 days in April for
    publishing ``separatist'' articles on his independent news Web site
    Hadramaut Press. Kashmiim claimed to continue to receive death threats
    from security officials.
        Several Internet journalists benefitted from the president's May 22
    decision to halt press law cases and release detained and imprisoned
    journalists: Fuad Rashed, editor of opposition news Web site Mukalla
    Press, Salah al-Saqladi, editor of opposition news Web site Khaleej
    Aden, and Muhammad al-Rabeedi, a blogger critical of the Government.
        In November 2009 hackers attacked the leading independent news Web
    site NewsYemen, causing the site to crash and erasing its five-year
    news archive. The Web site's editor blamed the Government, citing
    evidence the virus that destroyed the Web site originated in a ministry
    office.
        In June the country had an estimated 420,000 Internet users (1.8
    percent penetration). Many could not afford the Internet or were
    unfamiliar with the equipment and services needed to access it.
    Internet access was available from homes or Internet cafes in major
    urban areas.
        The Government limited the Internet content its citizens could
    access through commercially available filtering technology and control
    of its two Internet service providers, TeleYemen (operators of the
    service YNET) and YemenNet, via the Ministry of Telecommunications and
    Information Technology. Human rights organizations and other NGOs
    complained the Government restricted what journalists wrote and how
    citizens used the Internet through a variety of intimidation tactics.

        Academic Freedom and Cultural Events.--The Government restricted
    academic freedom, purportedly to prevent the politicization of
    university campuses. Political parties frequently attempted to
    influence academic appointments, as well as university faculty and
    student elections. During the year security officials were present on
    university campuses and at intellectual forums. PSO representatives had
    permanent offices on the campuses. Human rights NGOs reported that
    government informers monitored the activities of professors and
    students, especially those who were allegedly affiliated with
    opposition parties. Authorities reviewed prospective university
    professors and administrators for political acceptability before hiring
    them and commonly showed favoritism toward supporters of the ruling GPC
    party.
        Authorities intermittently enforced a ban on new student
    associations at Sana'a University. Opposition sources contended
    authorities did not enforce this regulation against GPC-affiliated
    organizations.

        b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association.--Freedom of
    Assembly.--The law provides for freedom of assembly, requiring a permit
    for demonstrations that the Government issues routinely. However, the
    Government limited this right in practice. The Government banned and
    disrupted some demonstrations, allegedly to prevent them from
    degenerating into riots and violence.
        For example, on May 26, security forces in Mukullah prevented a
    demonstration called to support detained journalist Foud Rashed; they
    detained and questioned dozens of protesters. On October 6, military
    personnel attempting to break up a sit-in for press freedom in Sana'a
    physically abused journalist and human rights advocate Tawakul Karman
    and other activists. The military took demonstrators' banners and broke
    cameras. On October 22, police arrested 20 persons in Taiz when they
    attempted to hold a demonstration calling for increased development for
    the region. The Government said the protesters did not have the
    appropriate permit. On November 30, police banned demonstrations by the
    southern protest movement marking the United Kingdom's 1967 withdrawal
    from the southern part of the country. The Government said it imposed
    the ban after two northerners were killed while traveling through the
    South in the days before the scheduled protests. Police arrested
    hundreds of persons planning to participate in the demonstrations.
        The southern protest movement that began in 2007 with a group of
    retired military and civilian officials of the People's Democratic
    Republic of Yemen grew during the year into a widespread political
    coalition across the southern governorates. The expanded movement
    continued to grow increasingly vocal in its calls for secession from
    the central government in Sana'a and organized dozens of relatively
    peaceful demonstrations in support of its cause. In response the
    Government conducted mass arrest campaigns before and during
    demonstrations organized by the southern protest movement and fired on
    demonstrators frequently throughout the year. The Government claimed
    that it was responding to violent acts on the part of some
    demonstrators.

        Freedom of Association.--The law provides for freedom of
    association, and the Government nominally respected this right in
    practice, but the ruling party retained control of professional
    associations through subsidies and by influencing internal elections.
    According to local observers, there were approximately 20 legally
    recognized NGOs independent of the ruling party operating in the
    country.
        All associations, including NGOs, are required to register annually
    with one of four ministries: Social Affairs and Labor (MSAL), Culture,
    Education, or Vocational Training and Technical Education. The
    Government cooperated to varying degrees depending on the issues with
    the country's more than 6,000 civil society organizations, including
    human rights NGOs, according to the MOHR. All registered associations
    were by law provided with an annual stipend, although in past years
    some organizations such as the Yemeni Journalists Syndicate said they
    did not receive their government stipends.

        c. Freedom of Religion.--For a description of religious freedom,
    see the Department of State's 2010 International Religious Freedom
    Report at www.state.gov/g/drl/irf/rpt.

        d. Freedom of Movement, Internally Displaced Persons, Protection of
    Refugees, and Stateless Persons.--The law provides for freedom of
    movement within the country, foreign travel, emigration, and
    repatriation, and the Government generally respected these rights with
    some restrictions. The Government limited the movement of women,
    foreign tourists, and other foreigners. The two latter groups were
    required to obtain government permission before leaving the country.
    The Government also restricted domestic travel by refusing to issue
    travel permits to conflict areas, and the army and security forces
    maintained checkpoints on major roads. The Government generally
    cooperated with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees
    (UNHCR) and other humanitarian organizations in providing protection
    and assistance to IDPs, refugees, returning refugees, asylum seekers,
    stateless persons, and other persons of concern. However, the
    Government was not always cooperative with the UNHCR regarding
    migrants, and the UNHCR was often not allowed to conduct refugee status
    determinations for Ethiopians and Eritreans, which often resulted in
    their forcible deportation.
        In certain areas armed tribesmen frequently operated their own
    checkpoints, sometimes with military or other security officials; they
    often subjected travelers to physical harassment, extortion, or theft.
        According to the law, government officials required women to have
    the permission of a male relative before applying for a passport or
    leaving the country. A women's rights NGO asserted that a husband or a
    male relative could bar a woman from leaving the country and that
    authorities strictly enforced this requirement when women traveled with
    children. During the year authorities reportedly turned back several
    women at the airport because they did not have the permission of a male
    relative.
        Security officials at government checkpoints often required
    immigrants and refugees traveling within the country to show they
    possessed resident status or refugee identification cards. There were
    reports that at times local officials did not honor official documents.
        The law prohibits forced exile, and there were no reports of forced
    exile during the year.
        During the year the Government continued to deport an unknown
    number of foreigners who were studying at Muslim religious schools and
    believed to be illegally residing in the country. The Government
    claimed these persons were suspected of inciting violence or engaging
    in criminal acts by promoting religious extremism. The Government
    required foreigners to register with police or immigration authorities
    within one month of arrival.

        Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).--The sixth round of fighting
    in the six-year conflict in Saada between the Government and Houthi
    rebels broke out in August 2009,diminished after the February 11 cease-
    fire, but continued throughout the year at lower levels as Houthi
    forces clashed with progovernment tribes.
        In October UNHCR representatives reported they had identified and
    registered more than 329,000 IDPs in the North who were displaced as a
    result of the fighting (see section 1.g.). The majority of IDPs lived
    outside of camps, but approximately 15 percent were located in camps in
    the four northern governorates of Saada, Hajja, Amran, and Al Jawf.
        By year's end the February cease-fire had not resulted in
    sufficiently improved security conditions in many of the affected areas
    to permit the safe and voluntary return of displaced persons. Fighting
    continued for a second year in and around Saada City, traditionally a
    gathering point for IDPs from the governorate's rural areas, and
    elsewhere in the North. Scattered land mines and unexploded ordnance,
    threats against returnees, and a lack of confidence that a long-term
    period of stability was at hand also contributed to continued
    displacement. According to the special representative of the UN
    secretary-general on the human rights of IDPs, Walter Kaelin, , other
    obstacles to return included the extensive destruction of houses and
    other infrastructure, loss of livestock and livelihoods, and lack of
    basic services. Humanitarian organizations continued to be denied
    access to many areas to assist potential returnees in rebuilding their
    livelihoods.
        Inaccessibility of certain districts of Saada, Al Jawf, and parts
    of Amran governorates prevented humanitarian assistance from reaching
    all IDPs. At times both the Government and Houthi rebels limited access
    to the region, preventing food, medical supplies, and other assistance
    from reaching IDPs. During his April 4-10 visit, the special
    representative spoke of ``good cooperation' between the Government and
    the UN in averting a disaster with IDPs during the armed conflict.
    Nonetheless, humanitarian organizations' access to IDPs remained
    problematic through the end of the year because of the general security
    situation and government restrictions.
        Most IDPs lived outside official camps wherever they could find
    shelter in scattered settlements, including with host families and
    relatives in communities or under trees and bridges and in school
    buildings. Journalists reported many IDPs were starving and lacked
    basic requirements such as clean water, food, and medicine. Surveys
    completed by the World Food Program and other international
    organizations in the North found elevated rates of acute malnutrition
    in displaced and other vulnerable children. The UNHCR reported that
    schools in some areas of the North remained closed as of October and
    that many children did not attend school, with girls' registration
    often half that of boys'.
        In October the UNHCR reported that only an estimated 16,000 IDPs
    had voluntarily returned to their areas of origin. There were no
    reports that the Government had attacked or forcibly returned IDPs. The
    Government committed to the rebuilding of Saada and other areas
    affected by the conflict as part of the cease-fire agreement and to
    encouraging safe and voluntary returns, but progress was minimal. The
    majority of IDPs were not likely to reintegrate into their host
    communities, although some may choose to do so. In general IDPs did not
    want to return to their areas of origin, and safe and voluntary returns
    were not possible because of security risks, lack of infrastructure or
    services, and mines and other unexploded ordnance.
        There were reports of brief displacements in the South as a result
    of fighting between the Government and al-Qaida from August to October.
    Small-scale displacement occurred primarily in Shabwa and Abyan
    governorates and was largely temporary. Government troops attempted to
    protect citizens from the fighting by encouraging them to leave towns
    before large campaigns against AQAP began. The UNHCR, Yemeni Red
    Crescent Society, government, and other organizations provided
    assistance to the displaced, who usually stayed with host families or
    in public buildings until fighting had ceased.

        Protection of Refugees.--The Government does not have a national
    law addressing the granting of refugee status or asylum, and the
    Government has not established a system for providing protection to
    refugees. In February President Saleh issued a decree making it
    possible to begin work on the legislation to establish a Bureau of
    Refugees and on the drafting of national refugee legislation.
        In practice the Government occasionally provided protection against
    the expulsion or return of persons to a country where their lives or
    freedom would be threatened on account of their race, religion,
    nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political
    opinion. The Government continued to grant prima facie refugee status
    to Somalis who arrived in the country after 1991. Non-Somali asylum
    seekers must undergo an individual refugee status determination
    conducted by the UNHCR, as the Government has no ability to conduct
    refugee status determinations on its own. The Government did not
    consistently allow the UNHCR to perform refugee status determinations
    for non-Somalis. An estimated 3,500 Ethiopians were recognized as
    refugees, but Ethiopians and Eritreans fleeing persecution and/or
    conflict did not receive prima facie status. The majority of Ethiopian
    and Eritrean asylum seekers were detained, generally without UNHCR
    access, and deported as economic migrants. During the year an estimated
    53,000 migrants from the Horn of Africa made the treacherous journey
    across the Gulf of Aden to Yemen in search of asylum or economic
    opportunity. Proper screening was therefore necessary to identify
    asylum seekers from the massive mixed-migratory flow. The UNHCR was
    unsuccessful in convincing the Government to do proper screening and
    registration of these asylum seekers.
        The Government continued to provide temporary protection for
    thousands of individuals from Iraq and the Darfur region of Sudan who
    may not qualify as refugees, although there were some reports of
    deportations. There were reports that authorities denied some Iraqis
    readmission into the country, blocking them from reuniting with their
    families.
        Generally, authorities allowed refugees to work and travel freely
    within the country, although refugees faced some difficulties. The vast
    majority of refugees lived in urban areas, while approximately 14,000
    resided in the Kharaz camp. There were isolated reports of refugees
    refused employment or passage at checkpoints. However, such refusals
    reportedly were due to lack of legal documentation rather than refugee
    status. Refugee children attended local schools, although facilities
    were limited and could not meet the demand in full.
        In 2005 the Government and the UNHCR signed a memorandum of
    understanding to establish six registration centers to register and
    provide greater legal protection to refugees. The UNHCR operated three
    reception centers in the South, the newest of which opened in 2008. The
    replacement of the head of the security force reduced harassment and
    abuse by security forces at a Somali refugee camp. Some potential
    asylum seekers were imprisoned while their status determinations were
    pending with the UNHCR, which had uneven access to these refugees;
    authorities generally released refugees from prison upon the completion
    of UNHCR processing.

    Section 3. Respect for Political Rights: The Right of Citizens to
            Change Their Government
        The law provides citizens with the right to change their government
    peacefully through periodic elections based on universal suffrage, but
    there were limitations in practice, particularly concerning the
    fairness of elections. The president, who has been in office since
    1978, held almost total decision-making authority. The president
    appoints the prime minister, who presides over a 35-member cabinet
    chosen by the president. The last change in the composition of the
    cabinet occurred in May. In practice the president, in association with
    the ruling GPC party, dominated the Government. The president can
    dissolve parliament, in which three parties were represented, and
    parliament was not an effective counterweight to the executive branch.

        Elections and Political Participation.--Parliamentary elections
    scheduled for April 2009 were postponed for two years in an agreement
    the ruling GPC party and the coalition of six opposition parties, the
    Joint Meeting Parties (JMP), signed in February 2009 after the two
    sides failed to agree on electoral reform. As a result of this
    agreement, parliament officially voted in April to extend its current
    six-year term by two years in order to avoid violating the
    constitution. The JMP and GPC also agreed to engage in a national
    dialogue process to discuss implementing electoral reforms. The process
    was formalized in July, when 100 delegates each from the JMP and GPC
    began to meet in a joint committee. A 30-member steering subcommittee
    was formed, which established a 16-member outreach committee to
    incorporate delegates from underrepresented opposition groups,
    including the Houthis and members of the Southern Movement, protesters
    as well as secessionists. The JMP and GPC reached an impasse in
    November over the timing of elections and election reform and were
    unable to reach formal agreement by the end of the year.
        In December 2009 the Government held hastily prepared by-elections
    for 12 vacant parliamentary seats, boycotted by the opposition JMP. The
    ruling GPC party won 10 seats, with two going to independent
    candidates.
        In 2008 the local councils of each of the 21 governorates elected
    governors. The election of governors, whom the president previously
    appointed, was proposed as an important step toward the
    decentralization of power. The influence of the ruling party in the
    majority of local councils and a boycott by the opposition, however,
    resulted in continuing ruling party dominance.
        Ali Abdullah Saleh won a seven-year term in the 2006 election, the
    country's second nationwide direct presidential race, securing 77
    percent of the votes. JMP candidate Faisal bin Shamlan received 22
    percent. The remaining three opposition and independent candidates had
    less than 1 percent each. According to the Supreme Council for
    Elections and Referenda (SCER), approximately 65 percent of eligible
    voters participated in the elections, and an estimated 42 percent of
    voters were female.
        International and local observers widely viewed the SCER, which
    administers and monitors elections, as unfairly biased towards the
    ruling GPC. Opposition parties called for its recomposition, but the
    membership of the SCER remained heavily weighted toward the GPC at the
    end of the year.
        International NGOs and the EU observer mission characterized the
    2006 polling as an important and unprecedented step in the country's
    democratic development. In its final postelection report, the EU
    mission noted that the GPC had an unfair electoral advantage because
    the state put significant resources at the disposal of GPC candidates
    for use during their campaigns. Opposition parties, while noting
    irregularities, also hailed the elections as the first genuinely
    competitive contest in the country's history. Unlike in previous years,
    international and local observers did not report significant
    difficulties in accessing voting centers or filing their reports.
        As reported by NGOs, poorly trained administrative staff,
    registration of a large number of underage and dead voters, and
    interference by security officials marred the 2006 voter registration
    process. The JMP refused to participate in the process due to
    allegations of SCER bias. The SCER therefore recruited voter
    registration staff on short notice and without meaningful training.
        Opposition parties or local constituencies never received a
    searchable electronic copy of the registration list to enable them to
    verify voter lists before the election. There were reports the SCER
    mistakenly removed eligible voters from lists in several
    constituencies. Many constituencies were redistricted a month before
    the election with new boundaries widely viewed as favoring the ruling
    party. Ballots for the local council elections went uncounted in some
    constituencies or were not secured after the count.
        Political parties could generally operate without restriction or
    outside interference. The law mandates that political parties be
    national organizations that cannot restrict their membership to a
    particular region, tribe, religious sect, class, or profession. The
    constitution prohibits the establishment of parties that are contrary
    to Islam, ``oppose the goals of the country's revolutions,'' or violate
    the country's international commitments. The law further stipulates
    that each party have at least 75 founders and 2,500 members. Candidates
    from any party may declare their candidacy for elections. The
    Government provided financial support to most of the 23 political
    parties, including a small stipend to publish party newspapers.
        The ruling GPC has been the dominant party since unification of the
    country. It controlled 238 of the 301 seats in parliament. Islah, the
    largest opposition party, controlled 46 seats. Tribalism distorted
    political participation and influenced the central government's
    composition. Observers noted individuals often were selected to run for
    office or given jobs in particular ministries based on tribal
    affiliation. Because patriarchal systems dominate in tribal areas, some
    tribal leaders reportedly influenced tribal members' votes.
        Although there were no formal restrictions limiting opposition
    participation, the Government made it difficult for some parties to
    organize. At year's end the Government continued to hold substantial
    assets of the opposition Yemeni Socialist Party, including land and
    buildings seized after the 1994 civil war.
        In 2007 the Government dissolved the al-Haq Party for it having
    reportedly violated the law on political parties. Civil society
    observers claimed the Government abolished the party because of its
    affiliation with the Houthi rebels and for its appeal to Zaydi Shia.
    The leader of the al-Haq Party, Hassan Zaid, claimed that he received
    death threats in August because of his political activities.
        Women voted and held office, but increasingly conservative cultural
    norms rooted in tribal traditions and patriarchal religious
    interpretation often limited their exercise of these rights. There was
    one woman in the 301-seat parliament. There were two women in the
    cabinet, the minister of human rights and the minister of social
    affairs and labor. The SCER women's department, responsible for
    addressing gender equality in the electoral process, conducted
    informational campaigns prior to the 2006 elections on the importance
    and mechanism of voting. In the elections, 164 women competed in local
    and provincial councils, and 38 won seats. Women's rights activists and
    female parliamentary candidates accused the ruling party and
    authorities of rigging the 2006 elections against women.
        Many members of the Akhdam community did not participate in the
    political process due to poverty and racial and social discrimination.
    There were no members of minority groups in parliament or the cabinet.

    Section 4. Official Corruption and Government Transparency
        The law provides criminal penalties for official corruption;
    however, the Government did not implement the law effectively, and
    officials frequently engaged in corrupt practices with impunity.
    Article 136 of the constitution states that a criminal investigation
    may not be conducted on a deputy minister or above without first
    securing a 1/5 approval vote in parliament. Subsequently, it requires a
    2/3 parliamentary vote and presidential permission to bring the case to
    the general prosecutor for indictment, which in essence creates a
    separate legal system for the political elite. The World Bank's
    Worldwide Governance Indicators reflected that there was a serious
    corruption problem, and a perception of corruption in every branch and
    level of a government with weak state institutions was widespread.
    International observers presumed that government officials and
    parliamentarians benefited from insider arrangements and embezzlement.
    Leaders and governmental agencies took negligible action to combat
    corruption.
        Corruption and impunity were serious problems throughout the
    military-security establishment and intelligence bureaucracy. There
    were no public governmental investigations of corruption in these areas
    during the year. Some police stations reportedly maintained an internal
    affairs section to investigate security force abuses, and citizens had
    the right to file complaints with the Prosecutor's Office. Enforcement
    of this right was inconsistent, and there were no effective
    investigations reported. The MOI had a fax line for citizens to file
    claims of abuse for investigation. It was unknown how many fax
    complaints the MOI received and how many it investigated.
        Government procurement was regularly impacted by corruption. In
    2007 the Government established the high tender board to review
    government tenders up to 213 million riyals ($1,000,000) and assess
    them for legality. The board conducted training sessions for government
    officials during the year.
        The Central Organization for Control and Audit (COCA) is the
    country's national auditing agency for public expenditures and
    investigative body for corruption. COCA presented its reports to
    parliament but did not make them publicly available. The president
    appointed its top officials. In cases involving high-level officials,
    COCA submitted reports directly to the president, who had the power to
    veto them. Only low-ranking officials have been prosecuted for
    corruption since COCA's inception in 1999. The actual extent of
    corruption was generally considered significantly greater than what was
    reported confidentially to parliament.
        The culture of corruption was pervasive, and petty corruption was
    widely reported in nearly every government office. Job candidates often
    were expected to purchase their positions. Tax inspectors were believed
    to undervalue assessments and pocket the difference. Many government
    officials received salaries for jobs they did not perform or multiple
    salaries for the same job.
        The independent Supreme National Authority for Combating Corruption
    (SNACC), formed in 2006, includes a council of government, civil
    society, and private sector representatives. In 2007 parliament elected
    11 members to the SNACC, whose chairman and deputy chairman serve a
    two-and-a-half-year term, renewable once with SNACC consent, whereas
    regular SNACC members can serve only one five-year term. Each board
    serves only one five-year term, and the current board's term was
    scheduled to end in July 2012. Members manage sectors such as media,
    criminal investigations, and contracts. On July28, the SNACC released a
    National Strategy for Combating Corruption.
        During the year 498 complaints were investigated, with 200
    individuals accused in 43 criminal cases referred to the Office of the
    General Prosecutor There were seven criminal convictions. An additional
    135 cases of failure of public officials to file asset declarations
    were referred to the Attorney General's Office. Approximately 200
    government officials were trained in criminal justice sector best
    practices, and dedicated anticorruption prosecutors were placed within
    the SNACC.
        Yemen Parliamentarians Against Corruption (Yemen PAC), the local
    branch of Arab PAC, is part of a network of parliamentarians organized
    to combat corruption and was founded in 2006 to fight corruption by
    legislative branch action. Without any legal mandate, Yemen PAC
    monitored the activities of anticorruption institutions like the SNACC
    and provided limited, unofficial oversight for their activities. It
    also attempted to push anticorruption laws through parliament. During
    the year the group formed and worked with anticorruption networks
    across the country, including in Marib, Taiz, and Aden governorates,
    and established local monitoring and awareness committees.
        The law requires a degree of transparency and public access to
    information, and the press and publications law provides for
    journalists to have some access to government reports and information;
    in practice the Government offered few procedures that could ensure
    transparency. The law requires public disclosure of government
    officials' assets, and the SNACC worked to implement this requirement
    during the year. The Government provided limited information via the
    Internet which, despite few citizens having access to the Internet,
    remained accessible to media, international observers, and NGOs.

    Section 5. Governmental Attitude Regarding International and
            Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations of Human
            Rights
        Domestic and international human rights groups operated with
    varying degrees of government restriction, many investigating and
    publishing their findings on human rights cases with little constraint.
    NGOs reported government officials were sometimes uncooperative and
    unresponsive to their views. The law on associations and foundations
    regulates the formation and activities of NGOs. The law exempts NGOs
    from taxes and tariffs and requires the Government to provide a reason
    for denying an NGO registration, such as if it perceives an NGO's
    activities as detrimental to the state. It also requires that any
    organization have at least 41 members to continue operation and forbids
    them from being involved in political activities.
        The law permits some foreign funding of NGOs and requires
    government observation of NGOs' internal elections. In 2008 the MOHR
    sponsored several initiatives to advance cooperation with local NGOs
    such as the Yemeni Women's Union and Violence Against Women.
        Domestic human rights NGOs operated throughout the year. The NGO
    landscape was complex. The Government provides a stipend to all
    registered NGOs; however, some ministries reportedly harassed NGOs
    critical of the Government by denying their annual registration and
    subsidy. Progovernment NGOs received support from the ruling party and
    the Government as well, while others received support from opposition
    parties or were fully independent. Some of the most active included the
    Human Rights Information and Training Center, HOOD, YOHR, the Democracy
    School, Media Women Forum, the Arab Sisters Forum for Human Rights,
    YODPRL, Seyaj, Shawthab Foundation, the National Organization for
    Developing Society, the Society for the Development of Women and
    Children, and the Women Journalists Without Chains (WJWC).
        Some NGOs limited their activities to avoid negative government
    attention. Some ministries reportedly harassed NGOs critical of the
    Government by delaying the procedures required for annual registration
    and licensing and through bureaucratic funding criteria. Unlike in
    previous years, the MSAL registered HOOD for a five-month trial period
    in July. After many months of denials, authorities finally renewed
    WJWC's license in March. Both HOOD and WJWC frequently were critical of
    the Government. In 2009, after a two-year wait due to its criticism of
    the Government for limiting media freedom, the MSAL issued a temporary
    two-year license to the Arab Sisters Forum for Human Rights. The
    Government requires NGOs to register annually or be declared illegal,
    but NGOs that were not granted licenses continued to operate during the
    year. In some instances the Government reportedly registered a
    progovernment clone version of an NGO, recognizing the clone as the
    legitimate NGO, thereby preventing the original NGO from renewing its
    registration under its original name. In such cases registration
    applications must be resubmitted under a new name.
        The Government monitored NGO finances. The Government reportedly
    used financial reviews as a pretext to harass or close NGOs. Some NGOs
    allegedly kept less than transparent records, a common practice in the
    country.
        The Government provided AI, HRW, the EU parliament, and the
    Committee to Protect Journalists limited access to records, detention
    centers, and prisons. The ICRC maintained a resident office to inspect
    prisons during the year and resumed inspections of PSO prisons in July
    after suspending inspections in 2004 (see section 1.c.). The ICRC also
    carried out humanitarian missions in Saada to support displaced
    populations during the war. The ICRC, Islamic Relief Yemen, UNHCR, UN
    Children's Fund, UN World Food Program, and UN Food and Agriculture
    Organization provided humanitarian assistance to Saada's displaced
    population. The ICRC did not face governmental restrictions in
    providing humanitarian assistance, but because of the dangerous
    security situation in Saada, it was unable to respond to emergencies in
    an adequate manner. Other organizations reported significantly
    restricted access to conflict areas of Saada that hindered their
    ability to support the displaced population (see section 2.d.).
        The MOHR attempted to raise awareness of human rights via public
    information campaigns, training of civil society organizations, and
    participation in numerous conferences in cooperation with NGOs. During
    the year the MOHR launched what it described as a major campaign to
    educate citizens about their rights under the law. The MOHR has a
    nationwide hotline to receive complaints about abuses of human rights
    but reported that the hotline did not receive any calls during the year
    due to cultural sensitivities. The MOHR also presented regular reports
    regarding its international commitments, such as a report on economic,
    social, and cultural rights and an antiviolence report.
        A Human Rights Committee in the legislature was one of the more
    vocal committees but rarely took action on real issues.

    Section 6. Discrimination, Societal Abuses, and Trafficking in Persons
        The law provides for equal rights and equal opportunity for all
    citizens; however, the Government did not effectively enforce the law.
    Discrimination based on race, gender, and disability remained a serious
    problem. There was no specific discrimination based on social status
    with the exception of the Akhdam. Entrenched general societal and
    patriarchal attitudes limited women's access to equal rights.

        Women.--The law criminalizes rape, although spousal rape is not
    criminalized because a woman may not refuse sexual relations with her
    husband. The Government did not effectively enforce the law. The
    punishment for rape is imprisonment for up to 15 years; however, the
    maximum sentence had never been imposed. There were no reliable
    statistics on the number of rapes. Most rape victims did not report the
    crime for fear of shaming the family and incurring violent retaliation.
    Rape victims often were prosecuted on charges of fornication after the
    perpetrator was freed. According to the law, if the accused does not
    confess, the defense must provide four female or two male witnesses to
    the crime. DNA technology was not available in criminal rape cases, and
    without witnesses cases were difficult to prosecute. Flagrant
    corruption often hindered investigation of rape cases. A leading local
    women's rights organization asserted that the judicial system failed to
    bring justice to victims of rape.
        The law, rarely enforced, provides women with protection against
    violence, but there were no laws specifically prohibiting domestic
    violence, including spousal abuse. Although spousal abuse occurred, it
    generally was undocumented. Violence against women and children was
    considered a family affair and usually went unreported to police. Due
    to social norms and customs, an abused woman was expected to take her
    complaint to a male relative (rather than to authorities) to intercede
    on her behalf or provide sanctuary to avoid publicizing the abuse and
    shaming the family.
        A small shelter for battered women in Aden assisted victims, and
    telephone hotlines operated with moderate success in Aden and Sana'a.
        The media and women's rights activists continued to investigate and
    report on violations of women's rights. During the year NGOs sponsored
    several women's rights conferences dealing with matters such as
    violence against women, increasing the political representation of
    women, and economic empowerment. The Ministry of Information broadcast
    programs on official television and radio stations promoting women's
    rights during the year.
        The penal code allows leniency for persons guilty of committing an
    honor crime, a violent assault, or killing committed against women for
    perceived immodest or defiant behavior. The law does not address other
    types of honor crimes, including beatings, forced isolation,
    imprisonment, and forced early marriage. The law regarding violence
    against women states a convicted man should be executed for killing a
    woman. A husband who kills his wife and her lover may receive a maximum
    sentence of a fine or imprisonment for up to one year.
        The MOI and PSO tolerated and unofficially facilitated sex tourism
    through corruption for financial and operational gain. Although no laws
    addressed sex tourism from outside the country, it was a problem,
    particularly in Aden and Sana'a.
        The extent, as well as a legal definition within the local context,
    of sexual harassment was difficult to determine, although direct
    observation and very infrequent media reports suggested it occurred
    both in the workplace and in the streets. There are no specific laws
    prohibiting sexual harassment.
        There were no reports of government interference in the right of
    couples and individuals to decide freely and responsibly the number,
    spacing, and timing of children. However, societal pressure, a lack of
    women's education, and the young age of marriage for many women and
    girls meant that many women in reality had little control over
    reproduction. Decisions regarding access to contraceptives, family
    size, and procedures involving reproductive and fertility treatments
    required the consent of both husband and wife. The information and
    means to make those decisions were freely available in cities, although
    contraception, obstetric care, and postpartum care were too costly for
    much of the population. Most women gave birth at home without skilled
    attendance and did not see a doctor during their pregnancies or after
    delivery. According to statistics compiled by international
    organizations, there were approximately 210 maternal deaths per 100,000
    live births in the country in 2008. Information was not available
    regarding women's equal diagnosis and treatment of sexually transmitted
    infections, including HIV.
        Social custom and local interpretation of Shari'a discriminated
    significantly against women in family law, property law, and in the
    judicial system.
        Men were permitted to take as many as four wives. A husband may
    divorce a wife without justifying the action in court. Under the formal
    court system, a woman has the legal right to divorce, but she must
    provide a justification, and there were practical, social, and
    financial considerations that impeded women from obtaining a divorce.
    However, in some regions under tribal customary law, a woman has the
    right to divorce without justification.
        Some interpretations of Shari'a prohibit a Muslim woman from
    marrying a non-Muslim man. A Muslim man is allowed to marry a non-
    Muslim woman. Women do not have the right to confer citizenship on
    their foreign-born spouses, but they may confer citizenship on children
    born of a foreign-born father if the father dies or abandons the child.
    The foreign wife of a male citizen must remain in the country for two
    years to obtain a residency permit.
        According to an MOI regulation, any citizen who wishes to marry a
    foreigner must obtain the permission of the ministry. A woman wishing
    to marry a foreigner must present to the MOI proof of her parents'
    approval. A foreign woman who wishes to marry a male citizen must prove
    to the ministry that she is ``of good conduct and behavior.'' A close
    male relative has the authority to approve her travel (see section
    2.d.).
        Women faced discrimination under family law and inheritance law.
    Courts awarded custody of children when they attained a specified age
    (seven years for boys and nine years for girls) to the divorced husband
    or the deceased husband's family. In numerous cases former husbands
    prevented divorced noncitizen women from visiting their children. Under
    Shari'a inheritance laws, daughters receive half the inheritance
    awarded to their brothers.
        Women also faced discrimination in courts, where the testimony of
    one man equals that of two women. Shari'a discriminates against women
    in calculating accidental death or injury compensation where women
    receive 50 percent of what men receive. Female parties in court
    proceedings such as divorce and family law cases normally deputized
    male relatives to speak on their behalf; however, they have the option
    to speak for themselves.
        Women experienced economic discrimination. The law stipulates women
    are equal to men in employment rights, but women's rights activists and
    NGOs reported that discrimination was a common practice in the public
    and private sectors.
        Governmental mechanisms to enforce equal protection were weak or
    nonexistent.
        According to the MSAL, there were more than 170 NGOs working for
    women's advancement. The Arab Sisters Forum for Human Rights worked
    with other NGOs, the Government, and donor countries to strengthen
    women's political participation. The Yemeni Women's Union and Women's
    National Committee (WNC) conducted workshops on women's rights. The
    Arab Sisters Forum, with funding from the Netherlands and in
    cooperation with the MSAL, established projects aimed at providing
    protection against violence for women and children.

        Children.--Children born to at least one citizen parent are
    eligible to receive citizenship. Children born in the country who do
    not have a citizen father, or a citizen mother and a noncitizen father
    that dies or abandons a child, are eligible to file for citizenship,
    but the Government rarely granted it. Children of foreign parents who
    did not receive citizenship were sometimes excluded from receiving
    government services, including education.
        There was no universal birth registration, and many children,
    especially in rural areas, were never registered or were registered
    several years after birth. Hospitals maintained official birth
    registries, but not all hospitals insisted on registration, and most
    children were not born in hospitals. Children must have birth
    certificates to register for school, but this requirement was not
    universally enforced. There were no reports of services being denied to
    children based on lack of registration.
        The law provides for universal, compulsory, and tuition-free
    education from age six to 15; however, compulsory attendance was not
    enforced, and books and school uniforms raised the cost of attendance
    to approximately 2,000 riyals ($9.40) per student per year, which some
    parents could not afford. Public schooling was available to children
    through the secondary school level. Attendance was mandatory through
    the ninth grade, but many children, especially girls, did not attend
    primary school. Secondary and postsecondary attendance for girls was
    less as well.
        The law provides for free medical care for children who hold
    citizenship; however, this was not always enforced. Male children
    received preferential treatment and had better health and survival
    rates.
        The law does not define or prohibit child abuse, and there was no
    reliable data on its extent.
        The law prohibits female genital mutilation (FGM), but it was a
    pervasive practice in the coastal areas on infants less than 40 days
    old. Although government health workers and officials discouraged the
    practice, women's groups reported FGM rates as high as 90 percent in
    some coastal areas, such as Mahara and Hudeidah. The WNC and the
    Ministry of Endowments and Religious Guidance provided a manual for
    religious leaders on women's health issues, including the negative
    health consequences of FGM.
        Child marriage was a significant problem in the country. There was
    no minimum age of marriage, and girls were married as young as age
    eight. A February 2009 law setting the minimum age for marriage at age
    17 was repealed. According to a 2009 MSAL study, a quarter of all girls
    were married before they were 15 years old. The law has a provision
    that forbids sex with underage brides until they are ``suitable for
    sexual intercourse,'' an age that is undefined. An Oxfam International
    study calculated that among 1,495 couples, 52 percent of women and 7
    percent of men were married at an early age. The report also
    highlighted that 15-16 years was generally considered the appropriate
    age of marriage for girls, depending on region and socioeconomic
    status. According to the MSAL, the Government did not promote public
    awareness campaigns on the negative effects of child marriage due to
    the cultural sensitivity of the issue.
        Media reports highlighted the problem of child marriage in the
    country. On April 2, three days after being married to a 23-year-old
    man, 12-year-old Elham Mahdi died from internal bleeding following
    intercourse. There were reports that underage citizen girls worked as
    prostitutes in major cities, particularly in Aden and Sana'a.
        There was no law defining statutory rape and no legal limits placed
    on the age for consensual sex. The law prohibits pornography, including
    child pornography.
        Reports of child soldiers increased in a number of armed conflicts
    across the country. According to the NGO Small Arms Survey, direct
    involvement in combat killed or injured hundreds of children annually.
        The intermittent conflict in Saada, which resumed in August 2009
    and ended in February, reportedly drew underage soldiers fighting for
    the Government and the rebel Houthis (see section 1.g.). The Houthis
    reportedly used children as runners between groups of fighters as well
    as to carry supplies and explosives, according to local children's
    rights NGO Seyaj. The use of child soldiers was forbidden by law, and
    the Government opposed the practice as a matter of policy. However,
    tribes the Government armed and financed to fight alongside the regular
    army used children in combat, according to reports by international
    NGOs such as Save the Children.
        Married boys, ages 12 to 15 years, were reportedly involved in
    armed conflicts in the northern tribal areas. According to tribal
    custom, boys who married were considered adults who owed allegiance to
    the tribe. As a result half of the tribal fighters in such conflicts
    were children who had volunteered to demonstrate their tribal
    allegiance, according to international and local human rights NGOs.
        The country is not a party to the 1980 Hague Convention on the
    Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. For information on
    international parental child abduction, please see the Department of
    State's annual report on compliance at http://travel.state.gov/
    abduction/resources/congressreport/congressreport--4308.html.

        Anti-Semitism.--The Government's stated policy was to protect the
    country's Jewish community. However, social pressure excluded Jewish
    citizens, who numbered fewer than 250, from certain occupations. They
    are not eligible to serve in the military or federal government.
        In October two packages containing explosives were sent as cargo on
    an airplane from the country addressed to former synagogues in the
    United States; Al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula took credit for the
    mailing.
        During the year a cleric resident in the country blogged and
    released online videos that included the vilification of Jews.
    According to a foreign NGO, in at least one video, he claimed that Jews
    had ``a hidden agenda'' and had infiltrated every government in the
    world.
        A December 19 cartoon in the newspaper Al-Jamhurriya represented a
    stereotypic individual wearing a hat with a Star of David and sucking
    on a straw, the caption of which read ``Jew sucks dry Palestinian
    identity.''
        In 2008 an explosive device was thrown at a Jewish home. The
    Government appeared unwilling or unable to increase security for the
    remaining Jewish population; perpetrators of violence against the
    community generally went unpunished.
        The historic Saada community of 45 Jews, relocated to Sana'a in
    2007 after a follower of the Houthis threatened it, remained under
    government protection in Sana'a. In 2008 a group of men ransacked and
    destroyed two homes in Saada Governorate that belonged to a member of
    the Jewish community living in Sana'a. The attack was believed to have
    been the work of Houthi rebels.

        Trafficking in Persons.--For information on trafficking in persons,
    please see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons
    Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        Persons With Disabilities.--Several laws mandate the rights and
    care of persons with disabilities, but there was discrimination against
    such persons. No national law mandates accessibility of buildings,
    information, and communications for persons with disabilities.
        Information about patterns of abuse of persons with disabilities in
    educational and mental health institutions was not available.
        Authorities imprisoned persons with mental disabilities without
    providing adequate medical care. According to the MOHR, nurses and
    doctors watched the inmates. In some instances authorities detained
    without charge persons with mental disabilities and placed them in
    prisons with criminals. The MOI reported that at times family members
    brought relatives with mental disabilities to MOI-run prisons, asking
    officers to imprison the individuals. At year's end MOI-run prisons in
    Sana'a, Aden, and Taiz operated in conjunction with the Red Crescent
    semiautonomous units for prisoners with mental disabilities; conditions
    in these units reportedly were deficient. At year's end neither the MOI
    nor Ministry of Health had acted on a 2005 MOI initiative to establish
    centers for persons with mental illness.
        The MSAL is responsible for protecting the rights of persons with
    disabilities. The Government's Social Fund for Development and the Fund
    for the Care and Rehabilitation of the Disabled, administered by the
    MSAL, provided limited basic services and supported more than 60 NGOs
    to assist persons with disabilities.
        By law 5 percent of government jobs should be reserved for persons
    with disabilities, and the law mandates the acceptance of persons with
    disabilities in universities, exempts them from paying tuition, and
    requires that schools be made more accessible to persons with
    disabilities. It was unclear to what extent these laws were
    implemented.

        National/Racial/Ethnic Minorities.--Although racial discrimination
    is illegal, racial and societal discrimination against the Akhdam (an
    estimated 2-5 percent of the population) was a problem. They generally
    lived in poverty and endured persistent social discrimination.
    According to a March 2009 study by the NGO Save the Children, the
    Akhdam community, a small ethnic minority descended from East Africans,
    was the social group most vulnerable to discrimination. The
    Government's social fund for development provided basic services to
    assist them.

        Societal Abuses, Discrimination, and Acts of Violence Based on
    Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.--Homosexual activity is a crime
    punishable by death under the country's interpretation of Islamic law.
    Due to the illegality and severe punishment applicable, there were no
    lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT) persons' organizations.
    There were no reports of official or societal discrimination, physical
    violence, or harassment based on sexual orientation, and there was no
    official discrimination based on sexual orientation in employment,
    housing, statelessness, or access to education or health care, largely
    because, since the activity was illegal, LGBT issues were not
    considered relevant. Few if any LGBT residents were open about their
    orientation or identity because of strong, hostile societal pressure.

        Other Societal Violence or Discrimination.--There was no societal
    violence or public reports of discrimination against persons with HIV/
    AIDS; however, the topic was socially sensitive and not discussed
    publicly.

    Section 7. Worker Rights
        a. The Right of Association.--The laws provide workers the right to
    form and join unions, except for the armed and other security forces
    and those holding high-level posts in the public sector, civil
    associations, cooperatives, and professional unions established under
    different laws than the Trade Union Law; however, the laws were not
    effectively implemented, and this right was restricted in practice with
    workers and unions facing many impediments in implementation,
    administration, and networking. The right to strike was also severely
    restricted, and the Government interfered in union activities.
        Although not required by law, in practice all unions are federated
    within the General Federation of Trade Unions of Yemen (GFTUY), a
    national umbrella organization. The GFTUY claimed approximately 42,000
    members in 21 unions during its 2007 elections. Each union had its own
    bylaws that organize its internal affairs, including elections.
    However, bylaws issued by the (MSAL require that union elections take
    place at least every three years, with MSAL officials present as
    witnesses. The GFTUY denied any association with the Government;
    however, it is the only official federation, acts as an umbrella
    organization for all unions, and works closely with the Government to
    resolve labor disputes through negotiation.
        The labor law provides unions with the right to strike only if
    prior attempts at negotiation and arbitration fail; workers exercised
    this right by conducting legal strikes.
        Political parties tried to place allies in union leadership
    positions to advance party interests, which resulted in division among
    workers and weakened associative action by unions and professional
    associations. In some instances political parties attempted to control
    professional associations by influencing internal elections or placing
    their own personnel, usually tied to the Government, in positions of
    influence in unions and professional associations. For example, there
    were two distinct teachers' unions during the year; one was tied to the
    ruling GPC party, and the other was linked to the opposition JMP
    coalition. The parties worked separately and sometimes at odds on
    matters affecting teachers.
        The proposal to strike must be submitted to at least 60 percent of
    all concerned workers, of whom 25 percent must vote in favor. Strikes
    for explicit ``political purposes'' were prohibited. In reality a
    union's ability to strike depended on its political strength and
    closeness to the ruling party. For example, the physicians and
    pharmacists' syndicate has never conducted a general strike, while the
    GPC-associated teachers' union successfully struck for a salary
    increase.

        b. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively.--The labor law
    protects collective bargaining. The law provides workers who are not
    public servants as well as foreign workers, day laborers, and domestic
    servants the right to organize and bargain collectively without
    government interference. This group constitutes the majority of the
    workforce. The drivers' union conducts annual negotiations with the
    Government regarding rights and benefits. The Government permitted
    these activities; however, at times it sought to influence them by
    placing its own personnel inside groups and organizations. Unions may
    negotiate wage settlements for their members and may resort to strikes
    or other actions to achieve their demands. Public-sector employees must
    take their grievances to court. The MSAL has veto power over collective
    bargaining agreements, although it has not exercised this power in
    recent years.
        The law generally protects employees from antiunion discrimination.
    An employer does not have the right to dismiss an employee for union
    activities; however, there were reports that private-sector employers
    discriminated against union members through transfers, demotions, and
    dismissals. The majority of employers in the private sector register
    only five to 10 employees, which allows them to avoid many social
    security and labor union regulations. Fewer than 100,000 employees
    worked for companies with more than 100 employees, making it difficult
    for the vast majority of workers to enjoy union protection and
    benefits.
        Employees may appeal any dispute, including cases of antiunion
    discrimination, to the MSAL. Employees also may take a case to the
    labor arbitration committee, which the MSAL chairs, composed of an
    employer representative and a GFTUY representative. Generally, all
    parties want to resolve cases via the committee system since court
    proceedings are costly and the system is often corrupt. National
    statistics on how many unionized employees used this system during the
    year were unavailable.
        There are no export processing zones.

        c. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor.--The law prohibits
    all forms of forced or compulsory labor, including by children;
    however, the Government did not effectively enforce such laws, and
    there were reports of such practices during the year. In some instances
    children were forced into domestic servitude and agricultural work,
    women were forced into domestic servitude or prostitution, and migrant
    workers were vulnerable to forced labor conditions. Children reportedly
    were trafficked from the country to work as child laborers in other
    countries, especially from the governorates of Hajja, Hudeidah, and
    Saada.
        See also the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons
    Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        d. Prohibition of Child Labor and Minimum Age for Employment.--The
    child rights law prohibits child labor; however, the Government did not
    effectively implement the law.
        The established minimum age for employment is 15 years in the
    private sector and 18 years in the public sector. By special permit
    children between the ages of 12 and 15 could work. The Government
    rarely enforced these provisions, especially in rural and remote areas.
    The Government also did not enforce laws requiring nine years of
    compulsory education for children.
        Child labor was common. Approximately 12 percent of children
    between the ages of six and 14 worked. In rural areas many children
    were required to work in subsistence farming due to family poverty. In
    urban areas children worked in stores and workshops, sold goods, and
    begged on the streets. Many children of school age worked instead of
    attending school, particularly in areas where schools were not easily
    accessible.
        Also see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons
    Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.
        The child labor unit at the MSAL was responsible for implementing
    and enforcing child labor laws and regulations; however, the unit's
    lack of resources hampered enforcement. Due to extensive budget cuts,
    MSAL employees were unable to travel to conduct their work during the
    year.
        Working children equaled 10 to 15 percent of the total work force.
    Approximately 52 percent of male children between the ages of 10 and 14
    were in the workforce, compared to 48 percent of female children in the
    same age group. An estimated 83 percent of working children worked for
    their families (including street beggars), and 17 percent worked
    outside the family. According to the MSAL, small factories and shops
    employed children working outside the family. The Government partnered
    with the International Labor Organization to offer remedial education,
    vocational training, counseling, and reintegration of child laborers
    into schools.

        e. Acceptable Conditions of Work.--There was no established minimum
    wage. The labor law provides equal wages for public-sector workers and
    civil servants. Private-sector workers, especially skilled technicians,
    earned a higher wage. The average daily wage did not provide a decent
    standard of living for a worker and family. During the year the minimum
    civil service wage did not meet the country's poverty level.
        The law specifies a maximum 48-hour workweek with a maximum eight-
    hour workday; however, many workshops and stores operated 10- to 12-
    hour shifts without penalty. The 35-hour workweek for government
    employees was seven hours per day from Saturday through Wednesday.
        The MSAL is responsible for regulating workplace health and safety
    conditions. The requisite legislation for regulating occupational
    health is contained in the labor law. However, enforcement was weak to
    nonexistent due to lack of MSAL capacity. The MSAL has a vocational
    safety department that relies on committees to conduct primary and
    periodic investigations of safety and health conditions in workplaces.
    Many workers were exposed to toxic industrial products regularly and
    developed respiratory illnesses. Some foreign-owned companies and major
    manufacturers implemented higher health, safety, and environmental
    standards than the Government required. Workers have the right to
    remove themselves from dangerous work situations and may challenge
    dismissals in court.

                                   __________

                             SOUTH AND CENTRAL ASIA

                                  ----------

                                  AFGHANISTAN

        Afghanistan is an Islamic republic; population estimates range from
    24 to 33 million. In August 2009, citizens voted in their second
    presidential and first-ever contested election; after his challenger
    withdrew from a run-off election, the Independent Electoral Commission
    (IEC) declared Hamid Karzai president for a second term. The elections
    were marred by serious allegations of widespread fraud. On September
    18, citizens voted in parliamentary elections. Citizens who
    participated in the elections faced threats of insurgent violence;
    insurgents killed at least 30 people election day. The elections were
    marred by widespread electoral fraud and irregularities, including: a
    Taliban offensive to disrupt the elections through public threats,
    fear-mongering, and violence; low voter turnout; and insufficient
    conditions for the full participation by women. Subsequent to the
    election, President Karzai appointed a special tribunal to review and
    investigate election results, a measure with uncertain consequences for
    future elections. There were instances in which security forces acted
    independently of civilian control.
        Human rights problems included extrajudicial killings; torture and
    other abuse; poor prison conditions; widespread official impunity;
    ineffective government investigations of abuses by local security
    forces; arbitrary arrest and detention; prolonged pretrial detention;
    judicial corruption; violations of privacy rights; restrictions on
    freedom of the press; limits on freedom of assembly; restrictions on
    freedom of religion, including on religious conversions; limits on
    freedom of movement; official corruption; violence and societal
    discrimination against women; sexual abuse of children; abuses against
    minorities; trafficking in persons; abuse of worker rights; and child
    labor.
        The Taliban and other insurgents killed numerous civilians, both in
    attacks and with car bombs and suicide bombs. The Taliban and other
    antigovernment elements continued to kill, threaten, rob, and attack
    villagers, foreigners, and nongovernmental organization (NGO) workers.

                            RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

    Section 1. Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom
            From:
        a. Arbitrary or Unlawful Deprivation of Life.--The Government or
    its agents did not commit any politically motivated killings; however,
    there were reports that security forces committed arbitrary or unlawful
    killings. For example, on February 6, Shamshad TV and Radio Azadi
    reported that Afghan Border Police mistakenly killed seven civilians
    who were collecting firewood near a checkpoint in the border town of
    Spin Boldak, Kandahar Province. Reports stated that the police
    officials involved in the shooting were taken into custody for
    interrogation. According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), in December 2009
    Abdul Basir died as a result of abuse in a National Directorate of
    Security (NDS) detention facility. Although NDS authorities claimed
    that Basir committed suicide, small dark circles on his forehead, cuts
    on his back, bruising in several places, and a large cut on the shin
    were found on Basir's body.
        According to Amnesty International (AI), operations by security
    forces resulted in an increase in civilian deaths during the first half
    of the year, as did operations by progovernment international forces
    (see section 1.g.). For example, according to the United Nations
    Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), 69 of the 223 civilian
    deaths during that period were caused by aerial attacks by the
    International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). HRW reported that
    timely and transparent inquiries or accountability for forces in the
    event of wrongdoing were often lacking when civilians were hurt or
    killed in night raids, airstrikes, or escalation of force incidents.
        Politically targeted killings by the Taliban and other insurgent
    groups increased. For example, the Taliban claimed responsibility for
    killing three candidates during the campaign period between July and
    August: Sayedullah Sayed, Najibullah Gulistani, and Haji Abdul Manan
    Noorzai. In August five campaign workers supporting Fauwzia Gilani in
    Herat were abducted and killed. There were also attacks on election
    officials. For example, in September insurgents killed two election
    staff in Balkh.
        The Taliban and other insurgents also killed numerous civilians,
    both in attacks and through use of bombs (see section 1.g.). Taliban
    and insurgent attacks escalated in both number and complexity during
    the year. The media reported that the Taliban issued ``night letters''
    threatening anyone who made peace with the Government, a charge Taliban
    spokesmen denied. Kabul continued to be a key terrorist target during
    the year, although violence occurred in many parts of the country.
        There were numerous reports of summary justice by the Taliban
    resulting in extrajudicial executions. For example, on August 9, the
    Taliban publicly executed a woman, Sanam Bibi (also referred to as Bibi
    Sanubar), for adultery in the Qadis District of Badghis Province. After
    a staged public trial, local Taliban commander Mohammad Yousuf publicly
    lashed Sanam Bibi 200 times, then shot her in the head three times. The
    man who allegedly had an affair with Sanam Bibi was not punished
    because he paid a fine of 150,000 afghanis (approximately $3,300). On
    August 15, the Taliban ordered a public execution by stoning in Kunduz
    Province, killing a young man and woman who had eloped. In October in
    Ghazni, the Taliban shot a woman to death for allegedly killing her
    mother-in-law.
        Three persons were arrested, tried, and convicted for the November
    2009 killing of Makhdoum Abdullah, the provincial head of the Red
    Crescent Society in Takhar: one was sentenced to execution; the second
    was convicted and sentenced to 16 years in prison; and the third was
    convicted and sentenced to 10 years in prison.
        According to Physicians for Human Rights, there were several known
    mass grave sites in the country, most notably outside the town of
    Shebergan in Jowzjan Province. On March 22, the media widely reported
    that a mass grave containing nearly 1,000 bodies was discovered in
    Jalalabad, Nangarhar Province. The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights
    Commission (AIHRC) reported that tampering with mass grave sites
    hampered independent investigations of the Jowzjan Province mass grave
    site, which allegedly contained the remains of 2,000 Taliban fighters
    killed during conflict in 2001.
        There were no new developments regarding the September 2009
    discovery of a mass grave in Kunduz Province or in Bamyan in October
    2009.

        b. Disappearance.--There were reports that insurgent groups and
    criminals were responsible for disappearances and abductions in
    connection with the ongoing insurgency (see section 1.g.). For example,
    in September, 28 election staff members were kidnapped in Baghlan.
        Observers alleged that noninsurgency-related kidnapping was a form
    of dispute resolution.

        c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or
    Punishment.--The constitution prohibits such practices; however, there
    were reports of serious abuses by government officials, security
    forces, detention center authorities, and police. Nongovernmental
    organizations reported that security forces continued to use excessive
    force, including torturing and beating civilians.
        Human rights organizations reported that local Ministry of Interior
    (MOI) and NDS detention center authorities tortured and abused
    detainees. Torture and abuse methods included, but were not limited to,
    beating by stick, scorching bar, or iron bar; flogging by cable;
    battering by rod; electric shock; deprivation of sleep, water, and
    food; abusive language; sexual humiliation; and rape. HRW received many
    reports of torture and mistreatment during interrogations by the NDS,
    including one case in December 2009 that resulted in death (see section
    1.a.).
        The Ministry of Women's Affairs (MOWA) and NGOs reported that
    police raped female detainees. NGOs also reported that authorities
    raped women in prison. There were reports of the sexual abuse of boys
    by members of the Afghan National Police (ANP) and the Afghan National
    Army (ANA).
        According to the AIHRC, Terre des Homme, and the UN Children's Fund
    (UNICEF), many of the children in detention centers and orphanages
    suffered physical abuse. There were credible reports of cases in which
    authorities threatened and mistreated juvenile detainees.
        There were no developments in the September 2009 arrest of three
    police officers in Dai Kundi Province for the rape of a 13-year-old
    girl.
        There were reports of torture and other abuses by the Taliban and
    other insurgent groups. Media reports and firsthand accounts accused
    the Taliban of employing torture in interrogations of persons they
    accused of supporting coalition forces and the central government. The
    Taliban contacted newspapers and television stations in several such
    cases to claim responsibility.

        Prison and Detention Center Conditions.--Prison conditions remained
    poor; however, the Government took some steps to improve conditions
    within the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) prisons and detention centers.
    Most prisons and detention centers, particularly MOI detention centers,
    were decrepit, severely overcrowded, and unsanitary and fell well short
    of international standards. The AIHRC and other observers continued to
    report that inadequate food and water, poor sanitation facilities,
    insufficient blankets, and infectious diseases were common in the
    country's prisons. However, some observers have found the food and
    water to be sufficient throughout the Central Prison Directorate (CPD).
    The CPD has a nationwide program to feed prisoners, but on an extremely
    limited budget. Many prisoners' families supplement food and other
    necessary living items.
        The AIHRC reported that many prisons and detention centers lacked
    potable water, adequate space, heating and cooling facilities, and
    adequate restrooms. Infirmaries, where they existed, were
    underequipped. Prisoners with contagious diseases and prisoners with
    mental illness rarely were separated from other prisoners; according to
    authorities this was for cultural reasons.
        There were reports of abuse of persons in detention. For example,
    in December 2009 Abdul Basir reportedly died as a result of abuse in an
    NDS detention facility (see section 1.a.). According to NGOs,
    authorities also raped women in prison. There were 34 provincial
    prisons under MOJ/CPD control and 187 active MOJ detention facilities.
    The total number of active detention facilities reportedly fluctuated
    from month to month. There were 30 juvenile rehabilitation centers. The
    MOI usually lacked sufficient detention facilities. No official
    information was available on the number of prisoners the NDS held or
    the number of facilities the NDS operated.
        Authorities generally did not have the infrastructural capacity to
    separate pretrial and posttrial inmates. In November the CPD reported
    4,764 male pretrial detainees, 12,953 male prisoners, 103 female
    detainees, and 463 female prisoners. In most instances limited
    infrastructure hindered housing prisoners by their classification, but
    where it was feasible the CPD separated them. Women were not imprisoned
    with men. In the two largest female prisons, the conditions and
    programs were better for women than men. Authorities generally did not
    have the infrastructural capacity to house juveniles according to the
    nature of the charges against them.
        Under the law, children younger than age seven are allowed to (and
    often do) live in prison with their mothers who have been convicted of
    a crime. However, in Kabul this practice was reduced significantly
    under the direction of the CPD and in conjunction with the opening of a
    children's support center in the city. A children's support center in
    Kunduz for children over five years of age, whose mothers were in
    prison, was scheduled to open in March 2011.
        The law provides prisoners with the right to leave prison for up to
    20 days for visits; however, the AIHRC reported in 2009 that this right
    was not observed in most prisons.
        On August 18, on the 91st anniversary of the country's
    independence, the president released 141 prisoners, including six
    women, and reduced the sentences of 239 prisoners. Between March and
    the end of the year, the CPD released an estimated 2,000 prisoners, and
    an estimated 5,000 prisoners had their sentences reduced as a result of
    presidential decrees.
        There is an informal grievance procedure within the CPD. The MOJ,
    the attorney general, and some governors monitored or assessed prison
    conditions, although investigations and monitoring did not fully meet
    international standards. The MOI and the MOJ permitted the AIHRC and
    UNICEF partners to visit correctional facilities operated by the two
    ministries. Security constraints occasionally prevented visits to some
    places of detention. Media reports indicated that the AIHRC did not
    have access to NDS facilities.
        UNAMA observed significant operational improvements in conjunction
    with international support to train and mentor prison staff in the
    provinces. International observers noted that the MOJ and the CPD
    leadership were actively striving to improve staff working conditions
    and prisoner living conditions, with the goal of meeting the UN minimum
    standards for prisoners and detainees. This included drafting 49
    standard operating procedures; beginning to implement a prisoner
    classification system; and beginning to implement the standard case
    management system.
        In government detention facilities, observers reported that
    prisoners were permitted religious observance.
        During the year the AIHRC received reports that private prisons
    existed in Dai Kundi and Kandahar Provinces but could not verify the
    reports, or the alleged number of prisoners, because AIHRC
    representatives could not visit the provinces due to lack of security.
    The AIHRC had reported in 2009 and earlier that private prisons existed
    and that it had successfully advocated for their closure and the
    release of their inmates.
        NGOs reported that powerful local leaders and insurgents, including
    the Taliban, continued to operate private prisons. In some cases tribal
    leaders may have held persons accused of crimes in private detention.
    The AIHRC did not have access to prisoners and hostages detained by
    insurgents.

        d. Arbitrary Arrest or Detention.--The law prohibits arbitrary
    arrest or detention; however, both remained serious problems. According
    to a January UN report, many citizens were detained without enjoying
    essential procedural protections.
        According to AI, hundreds of citizens continued to be arbitrarily
    detained, without clear legal authority and due process. Detainees
    handed over to the NDS reportedly were at risk of torture and other
    mistreatment, as well as unfair trials. AI's 2010 report stated that
    the NDS arrested and detained persons, including journalists, for acts
    deemed a risk to public or state security, which was vaguely defined in
    the law. Law enforcement officials also reportedly illegally detained--
    and in some cases tried--persons on charges not provided for in the
    penal code, related to matters such as family disputes and so-called
    moral crimes.

        Role of the Police and Security Apparatus.--Three ministries have
    responsibility both in law and in practice for providing security in
    the country. The ANP, under the MOI, has primary responsibility for
    internal order but increasingly was engaged in fighting the insurgency.
    The ANA, under the Ministry of Defense, is responsible for external
    security. The NDS has responsibility for investigating cases of
    national security and also functions as an intelligence agency. The
    investigative branch of the NDS has a facility in Kabul where it holds
    prisoners on a pretrial basis until the case is handed over to
    prosecutors. In some areas insurgents maintained considerable power as
    a result of the Government's failure to assert control. The ISAF
    remained a subordinate headquarters within the NATO command structure
    and continued to support development of the Afghan National Security
    Forces (ANSF).
        Official impunity was pervasive. According to HRW, police generally
    enjoyed impunity after they were accused of killing civilians. Many
    observers believed that ANP personnel were largely unaware of their
    responsibilities and defendants' rights under the law.
        There were reports in one province that police threatened to arrest
    entire villages if elders failed to produce a suspect for a crime. In
    the same province, observers reported that children were imprisoned for
    questionable violations of the law, in effect turning the juvenile
    criminal detention facility into a near ``foster home.'' There were
    also reports that local police extorted a ``tax'' at checkpoints.
    According to Integrity Watch Afghanistan, police officials used the
    threat of jail or beatings to extort bribes from citizens.
        International support for recruiting and training new ANP personnel
    continued, with the goal of professionalizing the police force,
    including the continuing implementation of the CPD staff prison reform
    and restructuring program. The international community worked with the
    Government to develop awareness and training programs, as well as
    internal investigation mechanisms to curb security force corruption and
    abuses. Training programs for police emphasized law enforcement, the
    constitution, police values and ethics, professional development, the
    prevention of domestic violence, and fundamental standards of human
    rights, in addition to core policing skills. The MOI reported that
    every new police officer received limited training in human rights. Two
    officers were responsible for human rights reporting in each province.
    In Kabul 81 officers were responsible for human rights, an increase of
    31 over 2009. A separate inspector general conducted investigations
    into internal police matters.
        Nevertheless, human rights problems persisted. Violations of human
    rights and women's rights within the MOI (for example, sexual
    harassment) reportedly were not dealt with adequately. According to
    international experts and a civil society organization, the MOI
    Inspector General's Office charged with investigating internal police
    issues lacked the ability or the will to take the direct action needed
    in cases involving disciplinary problems among police, including sexual
    harassment charges.
        NGOs and human rights activists noted that societal violence,
    especially against women, was widespread; in many cases the ANP did not
    prevent or respond to the violence.

        Arrest Procedures and Treatment While in Detention.--Arbitrary
    arrest and detention remained problems.
        The law provides for access to legal counsel and the use of
    warrants, and it limits how long detainees may be held without charge.
    The International Committee for the Red Cross, the AIHRC, and other
    observers reported that arbitrary and prolonged detention frequently
    occurred throughout the country. Authorities often did not inform
    detainees of the charges against them. Police have the right to detain
    a suspect as long as 72 hours to complete a preliminary investigation.
    If they decide to pursue a case, the file is transferred to the
    Attorney General's Office, which must interrogate the suspect within 48
    hours. The investigating prosecutor can continue to detain a suspect
    without formal charges for 15 days from the time of arrest while
    continuing the investigation. With court approval the investigating
    prosecutor may detain a suspect for an additional 15 days. The
    prosecutor must file an indictment or release the suspect within 30
    days of arrest. Investigation may continue even if an indictment cannot
    be completed within the 30 days.
        In practice many detainees did not benefit from any or all of these
    provisions, largely due to lack of resources. There is also a provision
    that upon request by defense counsel, the court shall release a
    detainee held over the 30-day period when an indictment is not filed.
    However, many detainees were held beyond 30 days, despite the lack of
    any indictment. Observers reported that prosecutors and police detained
    individuals on average for nine months without charging them, sometimes
    for actions that were not crimes under the law, in part because the
    judicial system was inadequate to process detainees in a timely
    fashion.
        In October 2009 all seven government entities involved in the
    criminal justice sector--the MOJ, Attorney General's Office, Supreme
    Court, MOI, NDS, Ministry of Defense, and High Office of Oversight--
    signed a memorandum of understanding to implement a standard case
    management system. The system provides for maintenance of uniform
    records on all inmates, thereby reducing opportunities for corruption
    through offers and demands for bribes to alter prisoner data.
    Information on 5,000 inmates, drawn from the 8,000 paper-based CPD
    files, was entered into the case management system by year's end. The
    CPD continued to enter the remaining data. As a result 128 inmates held
    beyond their sentences were released.
        The media and human rights organizations reported arbitrary arrests
    in most provinces. According to AI, the NDS continued to arrest and
    detain suspects arbitrarily without allowing access to defense lawyers,
    families, courts, or other outside bodies, and incommunicado detention
    remained a problem. Prompt access to a lawyer was rare. While detainees
    were allowed access to their families, there were many cases in which
    such access was not prompt. Scores of detainees were subjected to
    torture and other mistreatment, including being whipped, exposed to
    extreme cold, and deprived of food. UNAMA reported that police detained
    individuals for moral crimes, breaches of contracts, family disputes,
    and to extract confessions. Observers reported that those detained for
    moral crimes were almost exclusively women.
        There was little consistency in the length of time detainees were
    held before trial or arraignment. Postsentence detention also was
    reportedly common. According to a UNAMA report, in cases in which a
    prison sentence and a fine were handed down, impoverished prisoners
    sometimes remained in prison after their sentence had been completed.
        According to the MOJ, 81 children were detained on national
    security-related charges in juvenile rehabilitation centers during the
    year; all were male, six younger than the age of 15. The juvenile code
    presumes children should not be held to the same standards as adults.
    The code states that the arrest of a child ``should be a matter of last
    resort and should last for the shortest possible period.''
        Detained children typically were denied basic rights and many
    aspects of due process, including the presumption of innocence, the
    right to be informed of charges, access to defense lawyers, and the
    right not to be forced to confess. The juvenile code prohibits
    punishment of children, even for the purpose of correction or
    reprimand. The law states that police can only undertake initial
    inquiry, while the authority to review and conduct full investigations
    into a case against juveniles lies with the Special Court of Children
    and the Special Prosecution Office for Children. It is the
    responsibility of the prosecution to decide whether to refer such a
    case to court. The law provides for the creation of juvenile police,
    prosecution offices, and courts. Due to limited resources, the special
    juvenile courts functioned only in six large provinces (Kabul, Herat,
    Balkh, Kandahar, Jalalabad, and Kunduz). In provinces where special
    courts do not exist, children's cases fall under the ordinary courts.
    The law also mandates that children's cases be addressed in private and
    may involve three stages: primary, appeals, and the final stage at the
    Supreme Court.
        Some of the children in the criminal justice system were victims
    rather than perpetrators of crime. Particularly in cases of sexual
    exploitation, perpetrators were seldom imprisoned, as cases were seldom
    prosecuted; some victims were perceived as shameful and in need of
    punishment, having brought shame on their family by reporting the
    abuse. Some children allegedly were imprisoned as a family proxy for
    the actual perpetrator.
        ``Zina,'' the term for adultery or fornication, is a criminal act
    under the penal code. In practice police and legal officials often
    charged women with intent to commit zina to justify their arrest and
    incarceration for social offenses such as running away from home,
    defying family choice of a spouse, fleeing domestic violence or rape,
    or eloping. Police often detained women for zina at the request of
    family members. UNAMA reported cases of zina in nearly every province.
        Authorities imprisoned some women for reporting crimes perpetrated
    against them and some as proxies serving as substitutes for their
    husbands or male relatives convicted of crimes. During the year the
    AIHRC received reports of men being arrested in place of a male
    relative when a suspect could not be located, on the assumption that
    the suspect would turn himself in to free the family member.
        Authorities placed some women in protective custody to prevent
    violent retaliation by family members. Authorities also placed women
    who were victims of domestic violence in protective custody (including
    in a detention center), if there was no shelter facility available, to
    protect them from further abuse. Under the 2009 decree on the
    Elimination of Violence Against Women Act (EVAW), the police have the
    obligation to arrest those who abuse women; however, both the police
    and the courts were not yet fully familiar with the EVAW, and limited
    implementation occurred.
        Authorities frequently did not rearrest defendants even after an
    appellate court convicted them in absentia. There was no bond system,
    although a rudimentary personal recognizance system was utilized in
    some areas where international observers monitored cases; authorities
    justified posttrial detention because defendants released pending
    appeal often disappeared.
        Prosecutors did not exercise discretion in making decisions on
    charges. International mentors observed that prosecutors filed
    indictments in cases transferred to them by the police, even where
    there was a reasonable belief that no crime actually was committed.
        There were 2,842 practicing prosecutors, compared with 963 in 2009;
    many of these lacked any formal legal training. According to the Afghan
    Bar Association, the total number of registered and licensed defense
    lawyers was 1,020 (of whom 200 were women), compared with 850 in 2009
    (of whom only 80 were women). The MOJ had 82 legal aid providers in 16
    provinces, compared with 50 providers in 13 provinces in 2009.
    According to the MOJ, as of year's end, 18,949 persons were detained in
    correctional facilities nationwide (compared with 14,857 in 2009), of
    whom 14,219 had been tried and convicted (compared with 10,593 in
    2009); the remaining 4,730 were awaiting trial (compared with 4,264 in
    2009).
        The Criminal Law Reform Working Group, which included local legal
    experts and international rule-of-law advisors, completed its revision
    of the criminal procedure code in June 2009 and submitted it to the
    legislative drafting department of the MOJ for further consideration.
    The department did not respond to the Criminal Law Reform Working
    Group's recommendation by year's end.

        Amnesty.--The Law on National Reconciliation and Amnesty, published
    in December 2009, grants amnesty to all persons engaged in conflict
    during the previous 25 years, up until the establishment of the interim
    administration, providing immunity from prosecution for serious
    violations of human rights, including war crimes and crimes against
    humanity.
        The AIHRC stated that some members of the Taliban were released
    during the 2010 Peace Jirga and through presidential pardons under this
    law. In addition many alleged war criminals and human rights abusers
    remained in positions of power within the Government. Under the Afghan
    Peace and Reintegration Program (APRP), antigovernment elements were
    entitled to amnesty for political offenses if they agreed to live
    within the country's laws and renounced violence and terrorism. There
    is no legal framework for political amnesty and forgiveness of other
    crimes. In the absence of such a framework, the country was expected to
    continue to provide amnesty on an ad hoc basis to those who sought
    reintegration, subject to community vetting requirements. Hundreds of
    persons entered the APRP process by year's end.

        e. Denial of Fair Public Trial.--The law provides for an
    independent judiciary, but in practice the judiciary often was
    underfunded, understaffed, and subject to political influence and
    pervasive corruption. Bribery, corruption, and pressure from public
    officials, tribal leaders, families of accused persons, and individuals
    associated with the insurgency threatened judicial impartiality. The
    Counter Narcotics Tribunal in Kabul, whose members' salaries the
    international community supplemented and which worked within a secure
    compound, was an exception. International organizations reported no
    evidence of corruption or political influence involving its officials.
    Other courts administered justice unevenly, according to a mixture of
    codified law, Sharia (Islamic law), and local custom.
        The formal justice system was relatively strong in the urban
    centers, where the central government was strongest, and weaker in the
    rural areas, where approximately 72 percent of the population lived.
    Nationwide, fully functioning courts, police forces, and prisons were
    rare. The judicial system lacked the capacity to handle the large
    volume of new and amended legislation. A lack of qualified judicial
    personnel hindered the courts. Municipal and provincial authorities,
    including judges, had minimal training and often based their judgments
    on their personal understanding of Sharia, tribal codes of honor, or
    local custom.
        The majority of judges were graduates of madrassas or had Sharia
    training. Very few judges were graduates of a law school. Lack of
    access to legal codes and statutes hindered judges and prosecutors.
        There were widespread shortages of judges, primarily in insecure
    areas. The Supreme Court reported that there were an estimated 2,282
    judges at the primary, appellate, and Supreme Court levels, including
    120 female judges at year's end.
        In areas not under government control, the Taliban enforced a
    parallel judicial system. The Taliban issued punishments including
    beatings, cutting off fingers, beheadings, hangings, and stonings. On
    March 9, the Taliban killed a man for allegedly spying. On July 20, the
    Taliban beheaded six ANP officers in Baghlan Province, timed to
    coincide with the Kabul Conference. In major cities courts primarily
    decided criminal cases, as mandated by law. Civil cases often were
    resolved in the informal system. Because of the unreliable formal legal
    system, in rural areas local elders and shuras (consultative
    gatherings, usually of men selected by the community) were the primary
    means of settling both criminal matters and civil disputes; they also
    levied unsanctioned punishments. Some estimates suggested that 80
    percent of all cases went through shuras, which did not adhere to the
    constitutional rights of citizens and often violated the rights of
    women and minorities. In many rural communities, there were no judges
    or prosecutors, only ANP or criminal investigation division officers.
    As a result legal issues were settled through tribal elders and the
    informal justice sector.

        Trial Procedures.--Trial procedures rarely met internationally
    accepted standards. The administration and implementation of justice
    varied in different areas of the country. By law all citizens are
    entitled to a presumption of innocence. In practice the courts
    typically convicted defendants after sessions that lasted only a few
    minutes. Defendants have the right to be present at trial and to
    appeal; however, these rights were not always applied. Trials were
    usually public. Judges decided all criminal trials, since there is no
    right to a jury trial under the constitution. A defendant also has the
    right to consult with an advocate or counsel at public expense when
    resources allow. This right was inconsistently applied, in part due to
    a severe shortage of defense counsel. Defendants frequently were not
    allowed to confront or question witnesses. Citizens often were unaware
    of their constitutional rights. Defendants and attorneys were entitled
    to examine the physical evidence and the documents related to their
    case before trial; however, observers noted that in practice court
    documents often were not available for review before cases went to
    trial, despite defense lawyers' requests. AI reported that trial
    proceedings fell below international standards, including not providing
    adequate time for the accused to prepare their defense, lack of legal
    representation, reliance on insufficient evidence or evidence gathered
    through torture and other mistreatment, and the denial of the
    defendant's right to call and examine witnesses.
        When the accused is held in custody, the primary court must hear
    the trial within two months. The appellate court has two months to
    review the case of an incarcerated person. Either side may appeal; an
    accused defendant who is found innocent usually remains detained in the
    legal system until the case moves through all three levels of the
    judiciary: primary, appeals, and the Supreme Court. The decision of the
    primary court becomes final if an appeal is not filed within 20 days.
    Any second appeal must be filed within 30 days, after which the case
    moves to the Supreme Court, which must decide the case of the defendant
    within five months. If the appellate deadlines are not met, the law
    requires that the accused be released from custody. In many cases
    courts did not meet these deadlines.
        In cases lacking a clearly defined legal statute, or cases in which
    judges, prosecutors, or elders were unaware of the law, judges and
    informal shuras enforced customary law; this practice often resulted in
    outcomes that discriminated against women. This included the practice
    (``baadh'') of ordering the defendant to provide compensation in the
    form of a young girl to be married to a man whose family the defendant
    had wronged.

        Political Prisoners and Detainees.--The AIHRC stated that there
    were no reports that the Government held political prisoners or
    detainees.
        There were reports that a number of tribal leaders, sometimes
    affiliated with the Government, held prisoners and detainees.

        Civil Judicial Procedures and Remedies.--Citizens had limited
    access to justice for constitutional and human rights violations, and
    interpretations of religious doctrine often took precedence over human
    rights or constitutional rights. The judiciary did not play a
    significant role in civil matters due to corruption and lack of
    capacity. Land disputes remained the most common civil dispute and were
    most often resolved through the informal justice system.

        f. Arbitrary Interference With Privacy, Family, Home, or
    Correspondence.--The law prohibits arbitrary interference in matters of
    privacy; however, the Government did not respect these prohibitions in
    practice, and there were no legal protections for victims.
        Government officials forcibly entered homes and businesses of
    civilians without judicial authorization. UNAMA reported that community
    members alleged theft of possessions during home searches the military
    conducted. UNAMA also reported that searches by members of the military
    or security officials involved conduct toward women that contravened
    local customs and angered local communities.
        Authorities imprisoned men and women as substitutes for male
    relatives who were suspects or convicted criminals in order to induce
    those persons at large to surrender themselves (see section 1.d.).
        The law provides for wiretapping in certain cases, as was done
    during investigations of bribery and corruption in the case of Mohammad
    Zia Salehi. Wiretapping was permitted to track money laundering and
    narcotics trafficking.
        The Government's willingness to recognize the right to marry varied
    according to nationality, gender, and religion. The family court could
    register a marriage between a Jewish or Christian woman and a Muslim
    man, but the court required the couple to accept a Muslim ceremony. A
    non-Muslim woman had to convert to Islam before marrying a Muslim man.
    The court could not register a marriage between a Muslim woman and a
    non-Muslim man. These situations rarely occurred, however, as more than
    99 percent of the population was Muslim. The courts registered
    marriages between non-Muslims, however.

        g. Use of Excessive Force and Other Abuses in Internal Conflicts--
    Continuing internal conflict resulted in civilian deaths, abductions,
    prisoner abuse, property damage, and the displacement of residents. The
    security situation remained a problem during the year due to insurgent
    attacks. According to a December report of the UN secretary-general,
    civilians continued to bear the brunt of intensified armed conflict as
    civilian casualties, including death and injuries, increased by 20
    percent in the first 10 months of the year, compared with the same
    period in 2009.
        The large number of attacks by antigovernment elements limited the
    capability of the central government to protect human rights in many
    districts, especially in the south. Armed conflict intensified
    throughout the country, including previously unaffected areas. The
    marked deterioration in security posed a major challenge for the
    central government, hindering its ability to govern effectively, extend
    its influence, and deliver services, especially in rural areas.

        Killings.--Although international forces revised their rules of
    engagement to minimize civilian casualties, government and
    progovernment forces were responsible for civilian casualties. The
    joint AIHRC/UNAMA 2010 Annual Report on the Protection of Citizens in
    Armed Conflict stated that there were 2,777 conflict-related deaths
    during the year, an increase of 15 percent from 2009. However,
    progovernment forces were responsible for 440 deaths or 16 percent of
    total civilian deaths, a decrease of 26 percent.
        Airstrikes remained responsible for the largest percentage of
    civilian deaths caused by progovernment forces; UNAMA reported 171
    civilians were killed between January and December. The AIHRC/UNAMA
    report stated civilian deaths caused by aerial attacks decreased 52
    percent compared with in 2009.
        There were several incidents of alleged misuse of force by
    progovernment forces. Operations by progovernment forces resulted in
    civilian casualties due to ``escalation of force'' incidents, in which
    civilians were injured or killed at military checkpoints or within the
    vicinity of military convoys. These incidents accounted for 45 civilian
    deaths. The second leading cause of death of civilians at the hands of
    progovernment forces was action taken during search and seizure
    operations; the AIHRC/UNAMA report stated that 80 civilians were killed
    during the year, which represented an 18 percent decline from 2009.
        The MOI reported 1,286 civilians killed and 2,987 injured during
    the year. The AIHRC/UNAMA report documented 4,343 conflict-related
    civilian injuries, an increase of 22 percent from 2009. Antigovernment
    forces were responsible for 78 percent of the civilian injuries.
    Progovernment forces were responsible for 9 percent of the injuries.
    HRW reported that the third quarter of the year saw an increase in
    civilian casualties.
        The AIHRC and UNAMA noted that antigovernment elements remained
    responsible for the largest proportion of civilian casualties, which
    rose 28 percent over the same period in 2009.
        The Taliban and antigovernment elements continued to kill and
    attack villagers, foreigners, and NGO workers. The Taliban and other
    insurgents killed numerous civilians, both in attacks and with car
    bombs and suicide bombs. As in 2008 and 2009, suicide and improvised
    explosive device (IED) attacks killed more civilians than any other
    tactic, causing 1,141 deaths and 3,366 injuries during the year.
    Suicide attacks and IEDs accounted for 55 percent of all civilian
    deaths caused by antigovernment forces during the year.
        Increases in insurgent attacks caused civilian casualties to rise.
    Persistent Taliban and antigovernment activity, interfactional fighting
    between regional warlords, and criminal activity resulted in hundreds
    of unlawful killings and civilian casualties.
        HRW reported 2,135 civilian deaths in the first nine months of the
    year, an increase of more than 10 percent compared with the same period
    in 2009, largely due to increased insurgent attacks. The AIHRC and
    UNAMA stated that civilian casualties (including both deaths and
    injuries) numbered 7, 120. More than three quarters of all civilian
    casualties were linked to antigovernment elements.
        The UN secretary-general reported that the Taliban and
    antigovernment forces were responsible for 76 percent of civilian
    casualties, for a total of 5,446, (including both deaths and injuries)
    during the year.
        AIHRC and UNAMA stated in their annual report that antigovernment
    forces killed 462 civilians, an increase of 105 percent from 2009.
        Insurgents targeted national and government officials, foreigners,
    and local NGO employees. There were numerous accounts of insurgent
    violence against the civilian population. The Ministry of Education
    (MOE) reported that 20 schools were attacked using explosives and arson
    between March and October and that insurgents killed 126 students. The
    UNAMA mid-year report stated that antigovernment forces attacked
    educational facilities and harassed and intimidated students and
    teachers. The Taliban denied responsibility for the attacks, but HRW
    reported evidence of night letters with Taliban insignia that
    threatened attacks against teachers and schools. According to the
    United Nations Country Task Force Monitoring and Reporting on Grave
    Child Rights Violations, there were 13 attacks on girls' schools since
    April.
        On July 18, Taliban leader Mullah Omar issued new rules of
    engagement, calling on Taliban commanders to capture or kill civilians
    working for foreign forces or the Government. This order represented a
    reversal of the May 2009 rules (``Jihadi Layeha,'' or ``Regulations for
    Jihad''), to avoid targeting civilians. Whereas Jihadi Layeha was
    possibly issued in response to the ISAF's commitment to reduce civilian
    casualties, the new code of conduct amounted to battlefield guidelines
    for identifying targets, particularly those who cooperated with the
    Government.
        On January 7, media sources reported that a suicide attack killed
    10 persons and wounded 27 in Gardez, Paktia Province. On February 4, in
    Kandahar, a suicide bomb killed six persons and wounded approximately
    20. On February 6, a motorcycle-borne suicide bomb in Helmand Province
    killed three persons, including one child, and wounded at least 30
    others, including 17 children. On March 14, the Taliban killed 30
    persons and wounded 53 in a series of blasts that included four suicide
    bombs and three car bomb explosions in Kandahar Province; the
    casualties included four Pakistani workers and at least seven police
    officers who were killed, along with eight officers injured. On April
    3, a large suicide bomb attack in the Babaji area of Helmand Province
    killed 30 persons and injured more than 50. On June 21, the first
    reported suicide attack involving a woman occurred in Kunar Province;
    the Taliban took credit for this body-borne IED, which killed one
    person and injured 13, including nine children. On July 26, the Taliban
    attacked civilians in their cars in Parwan, killing seven members of
    one family and injuring five others.
        There were no developments in the May 2009 killing of the mayor of
    Mehterlam city in Laghman, along with six civilians or in the July 2009
    killing of Jan Mohammad, a candidate for provincial council in Kunduz.
    However, two persons were arrested in the case of the August 2009
    killing of Qari Jan Gir, the head of the Justice Department of Kunduz.
    The Antiterrorism Office of the Kunduz Police Headquarters forwarded
    the cases to the provincial NDS office, which forwarded the cases and
    the suspects, to Kabul for further investigation.

        Abductions.--The MOI reported 162 abductions during the year. The
    Afghanistan NGO Safety Office (ANSO) reported that insurgents and
    others kidnapped 19 aid workers during the year. In December the UN
    Secretary General reported 134 NGO staff members were abducted between
    June and the end of October. The AIHRC/UNAMA annual report for the year
    also stated that there was a total of 251 incidents of civilian
    abductions during the year, an 83 percent increase from 2009.
        On August 16, according to the Bakhtar News Agency, the Taliban
    abducted a doctor in Baghlan Province. Insurgents abducted British aid
    worker Linda Norgrove in Kunar Province in September; she was killed
    during a rescue operation in early October. Also in September the
    Taliban kidnapped a parliamentary candidate and several other election
    workers and campaign workers (see section 1.b.).
        There were no developments in the arrest of six suspects in the
    2008 kidnapping of Humayun Shah Asifi, a relative of the late King
    Zahir Shah.

        Physical Abuse, Punishment, and Torture.--Land mines and unexploded
    ordnance continued to cause deaths and injuries, restricted areas
    available for farming, and impeded the return of refugees. The Mine
    Action Coordination Center for Afghanistan reported that land mines and
    unexploded ordnance killed or injured an average of 40 persons each
    month. The MOE and NGOs conducted educational programs and mine
    awareness campaigns for more than one million persons, including women
    and children, throughout the country. At year's end land mines and
    unexploded ordnance imperiled 2,122 communities.

        Child Soldiers.--Officially the Government, with international
    assistance, vetted all recruits into the armed forces and police,
    rejecting applicants under the age of 18. However, an April report by
    the UN secretary-general stated that children were recruited and used
    for military purposes by the ANSF, and especially the ANP.
        UNAMA reported that progovernment militias, including the ANSF,
    recruited underage boys and sometimes sexually abused them in an
    environment of criminal impunity. Reports verified that some
    recruitment campaigns took place on school compounds. The AIHRC also
    stated that it received reports of child recruitment by progovernment
    militias in some provinces.
        The UN secretary-general's April report also noted that children
    were recruited and used for military purposes by several antigovernment
    and insurgent groups, including the Haqqani network, Hezb-e-Islami
    Gulbuddin (HIG), the Taliban, the Tora Bora Front, and the Jamat Sunat
    al-Dawa Salafia.
        Anecdotal evidence suggested that insurgent recruitment of underage
    soldiers was on the rise. There were numerous credible reports that the
    Taliban and other insurgent forces recruited children younger than age
    18, in some cases as suicide bombers and human shields and in other
    cases to assist with their work. NGOs and UN agencies reported that the
    Taliban tricked children, promised them money, or forced them to become
    suicide bombers.
        Also see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons
    Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        Other Conflict-Related Abuses.--The security environment had a
    negative effect on the ability of humanitarian organizations to operate
    freely in many parts of the country. Insurgents deliberately targeted
    government employees and aid workers.
        During the year antigovernment elements continued to attack
    progovernment religious leaders. According to the MOI, the Taliban
    killed at least 37 clerics and committed at least two acts of violence
    inside mosques and other religious facilities.
        The ANSO reported that attacks by armed opposition groups increased
    by 51 percent and that civilian casualty figures increased by 23
    percent since 2009. The ANSO and the UN Office for the Coordination of
    Humanitarian Affairs also reported that the number of security
    incidents involving humanitarian aid workers appeared to show a general
    decline compared with 2009. The decline was ascribed to armed
    opposition groups' preoccupation with the February Marjah campaign in
    the south and the possibility that they were beginning to value the aid
    community.
        Nonetheless, several high-profile incidents occurred. The most
    notable was on March 17, when two suicide bombers, one clad in a burqa,
    entered the International Relief and Development office in Helmand
    Province; police killed both men. On April 13, two men on motorbikes
    opened fired on a woman who worked at a local NGO and had been
    receiving threats for doing so. On April 15, two car bombings in the
    city of Kandahar left three persons dead and dozens wounded, including
    10 foreigners; one of the car bombs was aimed at houses rented by
    contracting companies. On July 2, the Taliban stormed a contractors'
    compound in Kunduz, killing six persons and wounding 23. On August 5,
    10 NGO health workers were killed in Badakhshan Province. Both the
    Taliban and HIG claimed responsibility, each stating that the victims
    were Christian missionaries trying to convert citizens, a claim the
    group denied; an investigation continued at year's end.
        As in 2009 suspected Taliban members fired on NGO vehicles and
    attacked NGO offices, guest houses, and hotels frequented by NGO
    employees. Violence and instability hampered development, relief, and
    reconstruction efforts. The ANSO reported 126 security incidents
    involving NGOs and aid workers. NGOs reported that insurgents, powerful
    local individuals, and militia leaders demanded bribes to allow groups
    to bring relief supplies into the country and distribute them.
        The Taliban continued to distribute threatening messages in
    attempts to curtail government and development activities. In addition
    to threats against persons working for the Government or NGOs, the
    Taliban distributed night letters (death threats) and text messages
    warning citizens not to vote in the September 18 elections.
        Insurgents regularly used civilians, including children as young as
    the age of three, as human shields, either by forcing them into the
    line of fire or by basing operations in civilian settings. UNAMA
    documented how insurgents deliberately deployed their forces in
    populated villages, with the intent of embarrassing international
    coalition forces and the Government and increasing civilian casualties
    from airstrikes.
        In the south and east, the Taliban and other antigovernment
    elements frequently forced local residents to provide food and shelter
    to their fighters. The Taliban also continued to attack schools, radio
    stations, and government offices. In September the Taliban threatened
    to blow up a local music store if the owner did not close it.

    Section 2. Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:
        a. Freedom of Speech and Press.--The law provides for freedom of
    speech and of the press; however, the Government and others restricted
    these rights. Some media observers contended that individuals could not
    criticize the Government publicly without fear of reprisal. HRW
    reported that threats, violence, and intimidations were used regularly
    to silence opposition politicians, particularly those who spoke out
    about impunity, war crimes, government officials, or powerful figures.
    Government officials intimidated journalists in an effort to influence
    reporting. Media sources reported instances in which provincial
    officials attempted to regulate the media based on their personal
    interests.
        HRW reported that there was widespread self-censorship as a result
    of the Government's repression of journalism it deemed critical.
    According to journalists many reporters exercised self-censorship by
    not asking substantive questions of government officials and by
    ignoring certain investigative stories. Powerful figures largely
    avoided media scrutiny. Members of the media reported that they did not
    interview Taliban commanders or leaders due to government pressure;
    police in Helmand Province jailed journalists for speaking to the
    Taliban. Some media observers considered it more difficult for
    journalists to operate in the areas of the country that the Government
    controlled than in Taliban-controlled areas.
        On March 1, the NDS and the MOI banned live television coverage of
    ongoing insurgent attacks, ostensibly in an effort to protect reporters
    and restrict the flow of information to insurgents. Media outlets
    immediately complained to the Ministry of Information and Culture
    (MOIC), which convened a series of meetings with independent media,
    resulting in an agreement on the parameters of media coverage of
    security incidents.
        On July 27, at the direction of President Karzai and the Council of
    Ministers, the MOIC banned Emrooz TV for ``provoking religious
    differences and disrupting national unity.'' While the ban was largely
    regarded as positive due to Emrooz TV's widely perceived anti-Shia
    stance, media observers noted that the process violated due process
    because the Council of Ministers should have complained formally to the
    Media Complaints Commission. There was little public debate about the
    matter. On the same day, the MOIC also banned two game shows, Tolo TV's
    Deal or No Deal and One TV's Del Wa Nadel. Media observers widely
    regarded the ban on the game shows as unfounded and a capitulation to
    conservative opinion against gambling, as well as political cover
    designed to illustrate the lack of a ministerial agenda against any one
    channel or individual.
        The Government banned a news Web site, Benawa, on September 10,
    reportedly for mistakenly reporting that Vice President Mohammed Qasim
    Fahim died, despite the fact that a correction was issued within 30
    minutes. Benawa officials accused Information Minister Sayed Makhdum
    Rahin of issuing the ban in retaliation for stories previously
    published about him.
        Violence against journalists continued. According to independent
    media and observers, a combination of government repression, armed
    groups, and manipulation by foreign groups and individuals prevented
    the media from operating freely. Journalists increasingly were
    vulnerable to physical harm and reported numerous instances of pressure
    from multiple sources to influence reporting, including national and
    provincial governments. According to Afghan Media Watch, violence
    against journalists decreased by 32 percent during the year. Afghan
    Media Watch registered 58 cases of violence against journalists and
    claimed that the Government was responsible for 22 of them.
        Media sources reported that police detained journalists without
    cause. There was at least one report that an ANA soldier assaulted two
    journalists who were filming a helicopter crash in Kabul on July 27.
    The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reported in September that
    journalist Hojatullah Mojadadi was arrested in Kapisa Province by the
    NDS. He was released a few days later without explanation.
        Reporters without Borders reported that media regulatory bodies
    were ``under the Government's thumb.''
        The Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) stated that
    broadcast media operated somewhat more freely than print media and that
    commercially viable stations experienced less government control than
    others.
        Television broadcasts appeared to avoid some of the restrictions
    imposed on print journalism. Satirical programming was widespread;
    every private television station had at least one comedy-satire program
    that openly criticized government officials.
        Some independent journalists and writers published magazines and
    newsletters, although circulation largely was confined to Kabul.
        Newspaper readership has progressed significantly, from almost nil
    under Taliban rule. Newspapers tended to reflect more openly on
    domestic developments in comparison to broadcasters.
        Prior to the September 18 elections, radio and television stations
    broadcast candidate debates, forums, and interviews. Several stations
    showed live coverage on election day. The Media Commission of the
    Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) did not find significant
    problems with candidate access to the media.
        The mass media law contains content restrictions that prohibit
    works and materials contrary to the principles of Islam or other
    religions and sects; works that publicize religions other than Islam;
    works and materials considered defamatory, insulting, offensive, or
    libelous, or that may cause damage to a person's personality or
    credibility; works and materials that are contrary to the constitution
    and penal code; disclosure of the identity and pictures of victims of
    violence and rape in a manner that damages their social dignity; and
    works and material that harm the psychological security and moral well-
    being of individuals, especially children and adolescents. The NGO Nai
    Media and the Afghan National Journalists Union reported that the MOIC
    failed to implement the law.
        Conservative values remained a strong force, and some private
    stations angered conservative Islamic religious elements. As a result
    many media outlets were accused of carrying morally offensive material.
    Some of this criticism came from the Commission for Monitoring Media
    Misconduct, a body set up by the MOIC. The IWPR stated that Internet
    service providers were told to block thousands of Web sites that
    contained pornography or were linked to insurgent groups like the
    Taliban.
        The constitution and the mass media law also cover foreign media;
    however, local power brokers sometimes restricted them from commenting
    negatively on Islam and from publishing materials considered a threat
    to the Government.
        Despite these obstacles media sources and observers asserted that
    the country's independent media continued to expand and became
    increasingly sophisticated. Independent media were active and reflected
    differing political views. Numerous international and local
    organizations provided regular training and mentoring for journalists.
        The number of female journalists remained low. According to the
    IWPR, female reporters found it difficult to practice their profession
    because of the region's conservative attitude. However, there were a
    few instances in which women oversaw radio stations across the country.
        Factional authorities reportedly controlled media in some parts of
    the country. In addition, according to many media sources, private
    Iranian, Pakistani, and Gulf state citizens actively influenced the
    media, shaping it through both ownership and threats. There were
    allegations that Iran intimidated reporters in the western provinces to
    increase antigovernment reporting and decrease anti-Iranian articles.
        According to independent media and observers, warlords, the drug
    mafia, foreign governments and individuals, and the Taliban and other
    insurgents harassed, intimidated, and threatened to commit violence
    against journalists. According to Afghan Media Watch, the Taliban were
    responsible for 12 cases of violence against journalists. The IWPR also
    reported intimidation by insurgent forces.
        The Taliban manipulated the media, especially print journalism,
    both directly and indirectly, by threatening to harm some journalists
    physically and by directly feeding news to others. Some sources
    asserted that the media underreported reconstruction efforts, for
    example, as a result of Taliban pressure to shape local opinion.
    Journalists reported receiving threats of harm if they did not publish
    stories released on Taliban Web sites, if they published anti-Taliban
    stories, or if they published stories favorable to the Government.
        The CPJ reported that local and foreign reporting teams continued
    to face a risk of kidnapping. In December 2009 the Taliban kidnapped
    French journalists Herve Ghesquisre and Stephane Taponier, along with
    their Afghan translator, Mohammad Reza. In April the Taliban threatened
    to kill the two kidnapped journalists unless their demands were met;
    the two remained in Taliban custody at year's end.

        Internet Freedom.--In general the Government did not restrict
    access to the Internet. However, on May 21, the MOIC banned access to
    all pornographic Web sites. The Government asked telecommunications
    providers to limit or ban access to online gambling and social dating
    Web sites, although the media reported that enforcement was weak and
    that citizens regularly could access pornographic and gambling sites.
    There were no reports that the Government monitored e-mail or Internet
    chat rooms. Some reports indicated that the Government increased its
    efforts to control independent online media through Internet Service
    Providers (ISPs). Individuals and groups could engage in the peaceful
    expression of views via the Internet, including e-mail messages.
        The CPJ reported that government regulators were not fully able to
    enforce their rules. Government requests for Internet bans were made to
    private ISPs; filtering equipment was not reported as widely used.
    However, the owner of the Benawa Web site told the CPJ that his site
    was banned on 97 percent of ISP servers in the country after the
    Government issued a ban on the site. Later reporting by the CPJ
    indicated that the site came back online after the case drew widespread
    attention.
        Lack of public infrastructure limited public access to the
    Internet; computer literacy and ownership rates were estimated at less
    than 10 percent of the population.

        Academic Freedom and Cultural Events.--The Government restricted
    academic freedom by forbidding course content it deemed un-Islamic. The
    Mass Media Law states that academic research ``shall be subject to
    prior approval of concerned ministries and institutions.'' Educators at
    public universities stated that they censored themselves when
    discussing questions of ethnicity. It was not clear whether the self-
    censorship was due to fear of official sanctions or to societal
    pressure.

        b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association--The constitution
    provides for freedom of assembly and association, and the Government
    generally respected these rights, although in some cases local
    officials restricted the right of free assembly.

        Freedom of Assembly--A lack of physical security, as well as
    interference from local authorities and security forces, inhibited
    freedom of assembly in some areas of the country where security was
    poor.
        There were numerous protests during the year, related to a variety
    of causes. Citizens frequently protested against civilian casualties
    allegedly caused by progovernment forces. Following the September 18
    parliamentary elections, there were numerous generally peaceful
    protests of the election results.
        On September 11, thousands of citizens protested in response to the
    plan announced by a cleric in another country to burn copies of the
    Qu'ran. Four demonstrators were seriously wounded when security forces
    opened fire as protesters attempted to storm several government
    buildings in Pul-e-Alam, Logar Province. On September 15, in Kabul
    media sources reported that demonstrators began throwing stones and
    shooting at security forces; police shot two demonstrators.

        Freedom of Association.--The law on political parties obliges
    parties to register with the MOJ and requires them to pursue objectives
    consistent with Islam. Political parties based on ethnicity, language,
    Islamic school of thought, and religion are not allowed. Antigovernment
    violence affected the ability of provincial council candidates and
    political parties to conduct activities in many areas of the country.

        c. Freedom of Religion.--For a complete description of religious
    freedom, please see the 2010 International Religious Freedom Report at
    www.state.gov/g/drl/irf/rpt.

        d. Freedom of Movement, Internally Displaced Persons, Protection of
    Refugees, and Stateless Persons.--The law provides for freedom of
    movement within the country, foreign travel, emigration, and
    repatriation; however, the Government sometimes limited citizens'
    movement for security reasons.
        Taxi, truck, and bus drivers reported that security forces operated
    illegal checkpoints and extorted money and goods. The number of such
    checkpoints increased at night, especially in the border provinces.
    Residents reported having to pay bribes to the ANP and border police
    officials at checkpoints and the Khyber Pass border crossing between
    Jalalabad and Pakistan.
        The greatest restriction to movement in some parts of the country
    was the lack of security. In many areas insurgent violence, banditry,
    land mines, and IEDs made travel extremely dangerous, especially at
    night.
        Armed insurgents also operated illegal checkpoints and extorted
    money and goods. The Taliban imposed nightly curfews on the local
    populace in regions where it exercised authority, mostly in the
    southeast.
        Social custom limited women's freedom of movement without male
    consent or chaperone.
        The law prohibits forced exile, and the Government did not use
    forced exile. The Government cooperated with the UN High Commissioner
    for Refugees (UNHCR), the International Organization for Migration, and
    other humanitarian organizations in providing protection and assistance
    to internally displaced persons, refugees, returning refugees, and
    other persons of concern but was limited by lack of infrastructure and
    capacity.

        Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs)--The country continued to
    experience high levels of internal population movements, triggered by
    irregular labor conditions, large numbers of refugees who returned,
    poor service infrastructure in rural areas, military operations, and
    the volatile security situation in some parts of the country. Severe
    flooding in several provinces rendered families homeless.
        As of December an estimated 351,907 persons were displaced,
    according to the UNHCR. Among these, 117,089 persons were recorded as
    displaced prior to December 2002 and were referred to as IDPs in
    protracted displacement. According to the UNHCR, 102,658 persons were
    displaced due to conflict during the year. The main areas in which
    conflict-induced displacement originated during the year were Helmand
    in the south, Badghis and Farah in the west, Faryab in the north, and
    Khost in the southeast. The displaced populations largely remained in
    their regions of origin. The key provinces that received IDPs, in order
    of the numbers displaced, were Helmand, Nangarhar, Herat, Kandahar, and
    Farah.
        Local governments provided access to land for basic accommodation,
    while international organizations and the Afghan Red Crescent Society
    provided shelter, food, and other life-saving aid. However, the UNHCR
    reported that access to land and rights for returnees and IDPs was
    hampered by a weak judiciary. Some IDPs in protracted displacement
    established self-sufficient settlements in the Herat, Kandahar,
    Helmand, and Jalalabad areas.
        Unverified populations, including IDPs and refugees who returned
    were also known to reside alongside urban slum dwellers in unauthorized
    informal settlements in the larger urban areas of Kabul, Jalalabad,
    Mazar-e-Sharif, and Herat. These settlements were prone to serious
    deficiencies in several areas, including health, education, security of
    tenure, and absence of registration of child births and identity cards.
        The UNHCR reported that restricted access due to poor security
    limited its efforts to assess the numbers of displaced persons and made
    it difficult to provide assistance.
        In August flooding across the country displaced 200,000 persons.
    Local authorities, the Afghan National Disaster Management Authority,
    various government ministries, the Afghan Red Crescent Society, NGOs,
    UN agencies, and donor governments provided emergency assistance.

        Protection of Refugees.--Laws do not provide for granting asylum or
    refugee status, and the Government has not established a system for
    providing protection to refugees. In accordance with an agreement among
    Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the UNHCR, repatriation must be voluntary.
        In practice the Government provided protection against the
    expulsion or return of refugees to countries where their lives or
    freedom would be threatened on account of their race, religion,
    nationality, membership in a particular group, or political opinion.
        The Government's capacity to absorb returned refugees remained low.
    The economic difficulties and security concerns discouraged numerous
    refugees from returning to the country, although returnees doubled
    compared with the previous year. Many refugees needed humanitarian
    assistance upon arrival. According to the AIHRC and the UNHCR, single
    women among refugee returnees and deportees were referred to a safe
    house until their families guaranteed their safety. The UNHCR referred
    25 women to safe houses. Common types of extreme vulnerability, as
    defined by the UNHCR, included minors unaccompanied by adult family
    members, drug addiction, mental illness, and severe physical illness.
    Returnees who came back due to flooding in Pakistan were also
    vulnerable.
        During the year 112,917 refugees were repatriated voluntarily from
    Pakistan with UNHCR assistance, an increase from the 54,552 refugees
    repatriated in 2009. Approximately 2.6 million Afghan refugees lived in
    Pakistan and Iran during the year.
        Iran continued to deport undocumented economic migrants back to
    Afghanistan.
        Migration to and from Iran was mostly temporary and cyclical, with
    more than 400,000 adult males staying on average for 3.5 years without
    their families. According to the UN, remittances from Iran exceeded 25
    billion afghanis ($500 million) annually.
        During the year Iran deported 286,662 undocumented Afghans, an 11
    percent decrease compared with 2009, during which 322,008 Afghans were
    expelled from Iran, through the border points at Islam Qala, Herat
    Province, and Zaranj, Nimroz Province.
        As of December an average of 785 Afghans were deported per day
    during the year. A total of 322,008 Afghans were deported from Iran in
    2009, averaging 882 persons per day.

    Section 3. Respect for Political Rights: The Right of Citizens to
            Change Their Government
        The constitution provides citizens with the right to change their
    government peacefully, and citizens exercised this right in the
    September parliamentary elections. In August 2009 citizens voted in
    their second presidential and first-ever contested election; after his
    challenger withdrew from a run-off election, the IEC declared Hamid
    Karzai president for a second term. Both elections were marked by
    serious allegations of widespread fraud.

        Elections and Political Parties--Approximately 4.3 million citizens
    voted in the September 18 parliamentary elections. Elections were held
    amid significant security and logistical challenges, including a
    prolonged intimidation campaign waged by insurgents, which led to fewer
    polling stations being opened than in previous elections. The electoral
    institutions and security forces greatly improved the preparations for,
    and holding of, the elections as compared with 2009. Although the
    elections generally followed the constitutional process, they were
    marred by widespread fraud and corruption.
        On November 25, Akhtar Mohammad, the former independent elections
    commission provincial elections officer for Nangarhar, was found guilty
    on charges of embezzlement and corruption and was sentenced to two
    years' imprisonment.
        Citizens elected 249 members of the Wolesi Jirga, the lower house
    of the national assembly; 396 of the 2,510 candidates for the election
    were women, representing a significant increase in female candidate
    participation compared with the 2005 parliamentary elections.
        International observers and civil society groups documented
    instances of fraud, including ballot stuffing, ghost polling stations,
    and some interference by staff of electoral bodies; fraud was
    especially notable in areas with high levels of insecurity and
    insufficient female electoral staff. While security arrangements were
    improved as compared to the 2009 election, it was still inadequate in
    many locations, and numerous irregularities occurred, including
    pervasive intimidation of voters, polling staff, and candidates,
    especially women. The IEC invalidated approximately 1.3 million votes
    during the tally process due to evidence of fraud at 2,543 polling
    stations identified through predetermined IEC triggers (for example,
    more than 600 votes at a polling station where only 600 ballots were
    allocated). According to the IEC, the final numbers for voter turnout
    could only be estimated as 4.27 million; approximately 23 percent of
    5.6 million ballots cast were invalidated.
        The Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) received 4,557 complaints
    of electoral irregularities, leading to the disqualification of an
    additional 334 polling stations. In addition the ECC disqualified the
    votes for 24 candidates due to allegations of fraud. These
    disqualifications brought the total number of candidates excluded by
    the IEC and ECC, both pre and postelection, to 142. No comprehensive
    list of the 334 polling stations was made public, making it difficult
    to track the reason for ECC decisions and whether these decisions were
    implemented by the IEC. Limited transparency on the part of the IEC and
    ECC during the tally and adjudication process fueled the perception
    that political interference may have affected the invalidation process.
    In December President Karzai appointed, per the Supreme Court's
    recommendation, a special tribunal to investigate the election results
    and resolve complaints. The IEC expressed concern regarding the special
    tribunal's legitimacy under the law and stated that the tribunal's
    intervention in electoral affairs was in violation of the law. The
    special tribunal remained in place through year's end.
        A total of 396 women ran for the 68 seats reserved for women. There
    were sufficient members to fill the seats reserved for women in each
    province.
        Both under- and over-registration of women were reported. Women
    voted in separate polling stations from men, yet the lack of sufficient
    numbers of female election workers, including female searchers,
    hindered women's participation. There was a lack of provision of
    security by the Government for female candidates. At some voting sites,
    women were turned away due to lack of available female workers. There
    was evidence that men also voted by proxy on behalf of women in many
    cases, as occurred in 2009.
        Insurgents targeted civilians and election officials in a campaign
    to disrupt the national elections. Insurgents killed 31 civilians,
    including 11 IEC officials, and injured 50 in attacks on election day.
    Night letters and direct threats were reported countrywide, including
    the threat to cut off fingers marked with voting ink. Some schools
    identified as polling places received threatening letters.
        As of November 21, the MOJ had accredited 33 political parties
    under a 2009 political parties law. However, very few parties were
    accredited in time for the September 18 elections, and very few of the
    candidates were shown to be affiliated with a party during the
    campaign. Political parties were not always able to conduct activities
    throughout the country, particularly in regions where antigovernment
    violence affected overall security.
        The Pashtun ethnic group had more seats than any other ethnic group
    in both houses but did not have more than 50 percent of the seats. It
    lost seats in the September 18 lower house elections. There was no
    evidence that there were societal groups that were specifically
    excluded. Traditional society practices that limit women's
    participation in politics and activities outside the home community
    likely influenced the central government's composition.
        Women active in public life faced disproportionate levels of
    threats and violence. Media sources reported that female parliamentary
    candidates were inundated with late-night threatening calls. Women were
    also the targets of attacks by the Taliban and other insurgent groups.
    Women who received threats often moved throughout the country to evade
    harassment. Most female members of parliament reportedly experienced
    some kind of threat or intimidation; many believed that the state could
    not or would not protect them.
        Various antigovernment forces attacked female candidates. One
    provincial council member was seriously injured and her bodyguard
    killed in Baghlan Province in a drive-by shooting by unknown
    assailants. Other unknown individuals attacked a Gereshk District,
    Helmand Province community council member, who was also a provincial
    council candidate. The assailants killed her husband and abducted her.
    She was later released. In August campaign workers supporting a female
    candidate were killed (see section 1.a.).
        In March media reported that the Taliban attacked the convoy of a
    female parliamentarian in the east of the country. According to the
    Free and Fair Election Foundation of Afghanistan, a female candidate in
    Ghor Province was forced under threat of violence to abandon her
    campaign and flee to Kabul.
        Women represented approximately 21 percent of the delegates to the
    Consultative Peace Jirga. Nine women were appointed members of the High
    Peace Council established in September.
        There were 69 female parliamentarians elected, one more than the
    required 68 minimum, and both seats in Nimroz Province were won by
    female candidates. There were 28 women in the Meshrano Jirga, the upper
    house of the national assembly. Three women served in the cabinet,
    heading the women's affairs; public health; and labor, social affairs,
    martyrs, and disabled ministries. No women served on the Supreme Court
    Council. There were 123 female judges, and 341 women served as staff.
        There were no laws preventing minorities from participating in
    political life; however, different ethnic groups complained that they
    did not have equal access to local government jobs in provinces where
    they were in the minority.
        Besides the Pashtuns, which have a majority in the country, all
    members of parliament and the legislature were members of ethnic
    minorities. The ethnic breakdown of the lower house of the national
    assembly included 39 percent Pashtuns, 28 percent Tajiks, 20 percent
    Hazaras, 7 percent Uzbeks, and 6 percent other minorities, according to
    the IEC certified results of the September 18 elections. As of July, 36
    percent of the cabinet was Pashtun, 29 percent Tajik, 15 percent Uzbek,
    11 percent Hazara, 3 percent Turkmen, 3 percent Arab, and another 3
    percent unknown.
        The constitution provides for seats for women and minorities in
    both houses of parliament. The constitution provides for at least 64
    female delegates in the lower house of the national assembly, while 10
    seats are provided for the Kuchi ethnic minority. Some members of
    parliament disagreed with this allotment, arguing that under the
    constitution all groups were to be treated equally. In the upper house,
    the president appoints one-third of the members, including two members
    with physical disabilities and two Kuchis. Fifty percent of the
    president's appointees to the upper house must be women.

    Section 4. Official Corruption and Government Transparency
        The law provides for criminal penalties for official corruption;
    however, the Government did not implement the law effectively, and
    officials frequently engaged in corrupt practices with impunity. The
    Government had limited success in bringing corruption cases, especially
    in cases involving low- and mid-level officials. More cases were opened
    against high-level officials, but successful prosecutions and
    convictions were rare, although they occurred. The progress made in
    initiating and prosecuting high-level corruption cases was due in large
    part to international assistance in creating special anticorruption law
    enforcement investigatory, prosecutorial, and judicial entities.
        Corruption was endemic throughout society, and the massive flows of
    money from the military, international donors, and the drug trade
    exacerbated the problem. Prisoners and local NGOs reported that
    corruption was widespread across the justice system, particularly in
    relation to the prosecution of criminal cases and ``buying'' release
    from prison. There were also numerous reports of money being paid to
    reduce prison sentences, halt an investigation, or have charges
    dismissed outright. In July the administrative head of President
    Karzai's National Security Office was arrested on the basis of an
    investigation by the anticorruption task force. Mohammad Zia Salehi was
    arrested by the Attorney General's Office and charged with soliciting
    bribes. Due to direct intervention by President Karzai, however, Salehi
    was freed within hours.
        Allegations of corruption surfaced around the Kabul Bank, the
    country's largest private financial institution. The media reported
    that the bank's top two directors were forced to resign and the
    chairman ordered to surrender $160 million worth of luxury villas
    bought with bank funds in Dubai.
        Provincial police benefited financially from corruption at police
    checkpoints and from the narcotics industry. Observers reported that
    ANP officers often had to pay money to the MOI to secure promotions. A
    lack of political accountability and low salaries exacerbated
    government corruption. The international community worked with the
    national and provincial governance structures to address the problem of
    low salaries. Salaries for the police, investigators, and judges
    increased significantly; however, the pay for prosecutors remained very
    low. The process of pay and grade reform for prosecutors made only
    slight progress during the year. Police mentors addressed problems of
    corruption among police and justice officials at provincial and
    district levels.
        Credible sources, including detainees, reported that local police
    in many parts of the country extorted a ``tax'' and inflicted violence
    at police checkpoints. Police also reportedly extorted bribes from
    civilians in exchange for release from prison or to avoid arrest.
    Police abuses generally declined following international police
    training efforts. Observers alleged that the high acquittal rate in
    courts reflected the lack of training of judges, poor investigations,
    lack of evidence, and possible bribes to legal officials. Lack of
    formal education and low literacy rates among the ANSF and the
    judiciary hampered the consistent delivery of justice.
        The Government made efforts to combat corruption in the security
    apparatus. Before the September 18 elections, the MOI trained and
    deployed provincial inspectors general (IGs) to investigate election-
    related claims against the police; however, they remained on duty after
    the election as general purpose IG officers. Merit-based promotion
    boards continued, with at least three candidates competing for each
    job; the process of instituting pay reform and electronic funds
    transfer for police salaries also continued. The MOI continued to
    obtain training for its IG office.
        The High Office of Oversight (HOO), which is intended to play the
    role of watchdog, introduced two programs that could provide a means to
    constrain corruption, if implemented effectively. The publication of
    asset declarations by senior government officials, if verified, could
    provide much needed transparency to the activities of senior officials.
    The HOO received asset declarations from 1,900 senior officials,
    including all ministers and governors. However, it published only 78 in
    a limited distribution official newspaper, and it did no external
    verification of the declarations. Nonetheless, the World Bank reported
    that in some cases the published declarations provided a basis for
    serious questions about the assets and sources of funds of government
    officials. The HOO also opened a hotline for those who wanted to report
    corruption. Through September the hotline received 149 complaints,
    including 24 regarding corruption. During the year the HOO turned over
    to the Attorney General's Office 13 cases for investigation and
    possible prosecution.
        The Government made electronic direct deposits of police and
    military salaries, making pay a more transparent and accountable
    process and less subject to corruption.
        Observers alleged that governors with reported involvement in the
    drug trade or past records of human rights violations received
    executive appointments and served with relative impunity.
        The constitution provides citizens the right to access government
    information, except when access might violate the rights of others. The
    Government generally provided access in practice, but officials at the
    local level were less cooperative in handling requests for information.
    Lack of government capacity also severely restricted access to
    information. On July 18, civil society groups launched a campaign
    demanding access to government information, arguing that access to
    information was a basic human right acknowledged in the constitution.

    Section 5. Governmental Attitude Regarding International and
            Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations of Human
            Rights
        A wide variety of domestic and international human rights groups
    generally operated without government restriction, investigating and
    publishing their findings on human rights cases. Government officials
    were somewhat cooperative and responsive to their views.
        The lack of security and instability in parts of the country
    severely reduced NGO activities. Insurgent groups and the Taliban
    directly targeted NGOs during the year (see section 1.g.).
        The constitutionally mandated AIHRC continued to address human
    rights problems and operated without government interference or
    funding. The AIHRC was effective in drawing attention to major human
    rights problems, publishing numerous reports on a range of topics.
        President Hamid Karzai signed the Action Plan for Peace, Justice,
    and Reconciliation in 2006; however, the Government did not take any
    affirmative action in support of transitional justice.
        Three parliamentary committees deal with human rights in the Wolesi
    Jirga: the Gender, Civil Society, and Human Rights Committee; the
    Counternarcotics, Intoxicating Items, and Ethical Abuse Committee; and
    the Judicial, Administrative Reform, and Anticorruption Committee. In
    the Meshrano Jirga, the Committee for Gender and Civil Society
    addresses human rights concerns. During the year these committees
    vetted several draft laws that went before parliament.

    Section 6. Discrimination, Societal Abuses, and Trafficking in Persons
        The constitution prohibits discrimination between citizens and
    provides for the equal rights of men and women; however, local customs
    and practices that discriminated against women prevailed in much of the
    country. The constitution does not explicitly address equal rights
    based on race, disability, language, or social status. There were
    reports of discrimination based on race, ethnicity, religion, and
    gender.

        Women.--Pursuant to the constitution, the 2009 Shia Personal Status
    Law governs family and marital issues for the 20 percent of the
    population who are Shia. Some groups hailed the law for officially
    recognizing the Shiite minority; however, the law was controversial
    both domestically and internationally due to its failure to promote
    gender equality. Articles in the law of particular concern include
    minimum age of marriage, polygamy, right of inheritance, right of self-
    determination, freedom of movement, sexual obligations, and
    guardianship.
        The EVAW law criminalizes violence against women, including rape,
    battery, or beating; forced or underage marriage; ``baahd'' (the giving
    of a female relative to another family to settle a debt or dispute);
    humiliation; intimidation; and the refusal of food. The law
    specifically punishes rape with life imprisonment, and if the act
    results in the death of the victim, the law provides for the death
    sentence for the perpetrator. The law punishes the ``violation of
    chastity of a woman. that does not result in adultery (such as
    touching)'' with imprisonment of up to seven years. Under the law rape
    does not include spousal rape. Sharia law, as interpreted in the local
    context and influenced by tribal customs, although uncodified, impeded
    successful prosecution of rape cases. Under one interpretation of
    Sharia, local tribal elders or religious leaders may treat rape as a
    form of adultery, punishable by stoning to death or 100 lashes (see
    section 1.a.). Under some interpretations of Sharia, a woman who brings
    a charge of rape sometimes must produce four witnesses to prove that
    the rape occurred as a result of force. The law was seen as only a
    small step forward due to lack of sufficient implementation.
        Accused men often claimed the victim agreed to consensual sex,
    which resulted in an adultery charge against the victim. The MOI
    reported 60 cases of rape during the year, and the AIHRC reported 60
    cases between January and September; the actual number of cases was
    probably much higher. The MOI reported 99 arrests in connection with
    rape cases. Statistics on convictions were unavailable. Rapes were
    difficult to document due to social stigma. Male victims seldom came
    forward. Peer sexual abuse was allegedly common. Female victims faced
    stringent societal reprisal, from being deemed unfit for marriage to
    being imprisoned. According to NGOs, authorities raped women in prison.
        On February 27, Kunduz police arrested a man in connection with the
    alleged rape of two women in the northern district of Imam Saheb. The
    women alleged that they were raped in December 2009 by five members of
    a local militia. Although the women reported the case to the police
    five days later, police in Imam Saheb did not conduct a thorough
    investigation. After the case received national attention, the Ministry
    of Interior sent a team to Kunduz to investigate. Kunduz police then
    reopened the case and arrested a suspect, with warrants outstanding for
    others.
        On March 2, Tolo TV and Ariana TV reported that a local mullah of a
    mosque raped a 13-year-old girl and married another underage girl in
    Dai Kundi Province.
        The penal code criminalizes assault, and courts entered judgments
    against domestic abusers under this provision. According to NGO
    reports, hundreds of thousands of women continued to suffer abuse at
    the hands of their husbands, fathers, brothers, armed individuals,
    parallel legal systems, and institutions of state such as police and
    justice systems. HRW reported that 87.2 percent of women had
    experienced at least one form of physical, sexual, or psychological
    violence or forced marriage in their lifetimes. Many elements of
    society tolerated and practiced violence against women. Killing and
    assault against women commonly involved family members as suspects.
    Women widely reported that they were victims of violence, especially
    sexual violence. The wide range of violence against women included
    honor killings, the exchange of women for dispute resolution,
    trafficking and abduction, early and forced marriages, and domestic
    violence.
        Police response to domestic violence was limited, a result of the
    crimes never being reported, sympathetic attitudes towards
    perpetrators, and limited protection for victims, even as witnesses to
    a serious crime. Generally police and judicial officials were not aware
    or convinced that rape was a serious criminal offense; therefore,
    investigating a rape case was rarely a priority.
        NGOs that ran women's shelters in Kabul reported an increase in
    referrals from police, possibly reflecting improved ANP training and
    awareness. Authorities rarely prosecuted abusers and only occasionally
    investigated complaints of violent attacks, rape, killings, or suicides
    of women. If cases came to court, the accused often were exonerated or
    punished lightly. NGOs confirmed that domestic violence occurred in
    most homes but went largely unreported due to societal acceptance of
    the practice. Most domestic violence cases involved beating women and
    children. In some cases men reportedly burned their wives in an attempt
    to mimic self-immolation.
        AI reported that NGOs were the only entities that defended most
    female victims, as the Government-funded defense attorneys mainly
    assisted men. According to the MOJ, neither Ghor, Badghis, nor Farah
    provinces had domestic violence prosecutors; the penal code does not
    differentiate between domestic violence and battery. Most provinces
    reported only one or two domestic violence prosecutions per year.
        Women sometimes resorted to self-immolation when they believed
    there was no escape from their situations. During the first nine months
    of the year, the AIHRC documented 111 cases of self-immolation,
    compared with 86 cases in 2009. Other organizations reported an overall
    increase during the past two years. On July 31, Faizullah Kakar,
    presidential advisor on health, reported that an estimated 2,400 women
    committed suicide every year because of depression resulting from fears
    and concerns over the continued conflicts; forced and underage
    marriages, including ``baahd'' to a rival tribe or family; domestic
    violence, including violence from in-laws; and sexual violence. Kakar
    estimated that 28 percent of women between the ages of 15 and 35
    suffered from depression and psychological problems.
        Policewomen trained to help victims of domestic violence complained
    that they were instructed not to reach out to victims but to wait for
    victims to come to police stations. This significantly hindered their
    work, as reporting domestic violence was not socially accepted, and
    many women could not travel to police stations alone. UNAMA reported
    that police leadership often did not provide female officers with
    equipment or vehicles to do outside investigations. The 42 family
    response units (29 in Kabul, seven in Mazar, four in Kunduz, two in
    Bamyan, and three opening in Jalalabad) were staffed primarily by
    female police officers who addressed violence and crimes against women,
    children, and families. Women serving in civilian and ANP positions in
    the MOI offered mediation and resources to prevent future domestic
    violence.
        There were 11 formal women's shelters across the country run by
    NGOs, and five informal shelters or referral centers run by NGOs or
    MOWA. The MOWA and other agencies referred women to the formal
    shelters, which provided protection, accommodation, food, training, and
    health care to women escaping violence in the home or seeking legal
    support due to family feuds. The MOWA reported receiving two to three
    new domestic violence victims a month; however, space at the formal
    shelters was limited. Women in need of shelter who could not find a
    place in the Kabul shelters often ended up in prison.
        According to a December UNAMA report, ``unaccompanied'' women were
    not accepted in society, so women who could not be reunified with their
    family had nowhere to go. The difficulty of finding durable solutions
    for women compelled to stay in a shelter was compounded by the societal
    attitude toward shelters, linked to the belief that ``running away from
    home'' was a serious violation of social mores. The misapprehension
    that safe houses were a safe haven for immoral women forced them to
    operate nearly clandestinely and in a precarious security situation. In
    lieu of relying on shelters, girls who sought to escape violence at
    home were reportedly sometimes ``married'' or ``engaged'' to older men
    as a means of providing them with safety; observers noted that
    officials across the justice sector promoted and accepted this
    practice. During the year Emrooz TV broadcast programs claiming that
    shelters were brothels, which civil society activists and women's
    rights groups argued to be baseless accusations. During the year Nasto
    Naderi, a television journalist, produced a series of comments accusing
    shelters of carrying out activities violating Islamic law. He did not
    provide proof of these claims.
        Religious organizations in some provinces reinforced the social
    unacceptability of women travelling or even leaving home without a male
    family member or other approved escort. One religious leader said that
    travel without a ``mahram,'' or unmarriageable relative, raised
    ``questions about a woman's piety.'' The Ulema Council for the Western
    Region issued a declaration that women traveling a distance of greater
    than 54 miles from home must be accompanied by a chaperone and
    forbidding female employees of foreign organizations from working alone
    in a room with a foreign man. For example, on July 8, the Pajhwok News
    Agency reported that the provincial Ulema council in Badakhshan issued
    a resolution asking all women not to leave their homes without a male
    member of their family.
        Women continued to face pervasive human rights violations and
    remained largely uninformed about their rights under the law.
    Discrimination was particularly acute in rural areas and villages.
        Denial of educational opportunities, limited employment options,
    and continuing security threats continued to impede the ability of many
    women to improve their situation, despite the progress women in urban
    areas made toward access to public life, education, health care, and
    employment. According to UNAMA, there was an increase in violence
    against women working in the public sector. There were no developments
    in the case of Sitara Achakzai, an outspoken human rights defender and
    local councilor in Kandahar, who was killed in April 2009.
        Societal discrimination against women persisted, including domestic
    abuse, rape, forced marriages, forced prostitution, exchange of girls
    to settle disputes, kidnappings, and honor killings. Cultural
    prohibitions on free travel and leaving the home unaccompanied by a
    male relative meant that many women could not work outside the home and
    often could not receive access to education, health care, police
    protection, and other social services.
        Bibi Aisha, the 16-year-old woman from Uruzgan Province whose
    husband and in-laws cut off her nose and ears in September 2009 because
    she had brought shame to the family by running away after years of
    domestic violence, received plastic surgery at a facility abroad. Media
    reported the father-in-law's arrest.
        Extended family violence was reportedly widespread. For example, on
    March 31, the former Kunar director of women's affairs and her husband
    were sentenced to death following a public trial for the January 21
    murder of their daughter-in-law. Their son--the victim's husband--was
    also convicted and sentenced to two years in prison. Doctors who
    evaluated the body testified that the daughter-in-law was beaten and
    tortured.
        There were no developments in the case of the 16-year-old whose
    mother-in-law doused her in gasoline and set her on fire in November
    2009.
        Although police, prosecutors, and judges discriminated against
    women in criminal and civil legal proceedings stemming from violence
    and forced marriages, increasing numbers of female attorneys
    successfully represented female clients in these types of cases in both
    formal courts.
        According to HRW and UN Women, more than 70 percent of marriages
    were forced, and despite laws banning the practice, a majority of
    brides were younger than the legal marriage age of 16 (or 15 with a
    guardian and a court's approval). According to the UN High Commissioner
    for Human Rights, only 5 percent of marriages were registered, leaving
    forced marriages outside legal control. The AIHRC recorded 28 cases
    from January to September of women given to another family for baahd,
    to settle disputes or as a debt settlement, although a presidential
    decree outlaws the practice. The unreported number was likely much
    higher. IRIN, the humanitarian news and analysis service of the UN
    Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, reported that drug
    smugglers often demanded young brides when farmers failed to produce
    opium and lacked other means to repay their loans. In a practice known
    as ``badal,'' a brother and a sister are married to another pair of
    siblings to avoid any payment having to be made.
        Local officials occasionally imprisoned women at the request of
    family members for opposing the family's choice of a marriage partner
    or being charged with adultery or bigamy. Women also faced bigamy
    charges from husbands who had deserted them and then reappeared after
    the woman had remarried. Local officials imprisoned women in place of a
    family member who had committed a crime but could not be located. Some
    women resided in detention facilities because they had run away from
    home to escape domestic violence or the prospect of forced marriage.
    Several girls between the ages of 17 and 21 remained detained in Pol-e-
    Charkhi Prison after fleeing abusive forced marriages.
        Due to the early marriage age, some women become widows in their
    20s and 30s. Since widows were perceived as their in-laws' property,
    they could be forced to marry a brother-in-law, who might already have
    a wife; the late husband's family seized any property he left.
        The AIHRC documented 44 ``honor killings'' throughout the first
    nine months of the year; however, the unreported number was believed to
    be much higher. Under the penal code, a man convicted of honor killing
    after finding his wife committing adultery cannot be sentenced to more
    than two years' imprisonment.
        Temporary marriages lasted from one day to a few months, in
    exchange for a dowry. Many observers considered ``temporary marriages''
    a form of prostitution.
        There is no law specifically prohibiting sexual harassment.
        Couples were free from government discrimination, coercion, and
    violence to decide the number, spacing, and timing of their children,
    but family and community pressures to reproduce, the high prevalence of
    child marriages, and lack of accurate biological knowledge limited
    their ability to do so. Oral contraceptives, intrauterine devices,
    injectables, and condoms were available commercially and through
    provincial hospitals. Men and women were diagnosed and treated equally
    for sexually transmitted infections, including HIV, when health care
    was available.
        NGOs reported that sexually transmitted diseases were widespread
    and typically went undiagnosed, since most persons suffered from
    numerous untreated medical conditions. According to UN estimates, there
    were approximately 1,400 deaths per 100,000 live births in the country
    in 2008. Only 24 percent of births had skilled attendants present, and
    only 36 percent of women received professional prenatal care. Early
    marriage and early pregnancy put girls at greater risk for premature
    labor, complications during delivery, and death in childbirth. Lack of
    skilled care during childbirth and lack of obstetric and postpartum
    care were key causes of maternal mortality. The number of trained
    midwives increased from 268 in 2002 to 2,685 during the year. There was
    a 15 percent contraceptive prevalence rate.
        Women who reported cases of abuse or who sought legal redress for
    other matters reported pervasive discrimination within the judicial
    system. Local practices were discriminatory toward women, and in parts
    of the country where courts were not functional or knowledge of the law
    was minimal, elders relied on an interpretation of Sharia and tribal
    customs, which generally were discriminatory toward women. Most women
    reported limited access to justice in tribal shuras, where all
    presiding elders were men; women in some villages were not allowed any
    access for dispute resolution. Women's advocacy groups reported that
    the Government intervened informally with local courts to encourage
    them to interpret laws in ways favorable to women.
        The MOWA and NGOs continued to promote women's rights and freedoms.
    According to UN Women, women made up 26 percent of government
    employees. The MOWA, the primary government agency responsible for
    addressing the needs of women, had provincial offices, but the
    organization suffered from a lack of capacity and resources. The
    provincial offices assisted hundreds of women by providing legal and
    family counseling and referring women they could not directly assist to
    relevant organizations.
        Women and children were overwhelmingly the victims of preventable
    deaths due to illness. Women constituted 68 percent of those infected
    with tuberculosis. Additionally, of the 25,000 citizens who died from
    tuberculosis each year, 16,000 were women. Many households could afford
    neither the cost of health care nor transport to health-care
    facilities, and many women were not permitted to travel to health
    facilities on their own. Observers reported that 60 percent of the
    population had access to primary health-care centers within two hours'
    walking distance from their homes, an increase from 9 percent in 2002.
        According to reports in the British medical journal The Lancet,
    both adults and children suffered from a broad spectrum of mental
    health problems, including depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic
    stress related to widespread social suffering and domestic violence, as
    well as acts of war.
        According to Save the Children, although there was some diversity
    in household decision-making practices throughout the country, women
    generally exercised little decision-making authority regarding
    marriage, timing of pregnancies, birthing practices, and child
    education. Informal social and familial pressure led the majority of
    women in rural areas to wear burqas, and most women covered their
    heads.
        Women face discrimination in access to or terms of employment and
    occupation.

        Children.--Citizenship is transmitted by a citizen father to his
    child. Birth in the country or to a citizen mother alone is not
    sufficient.
        Education is mandatory up to the secondary level (four years for
    primary school and three years for secondary), and the law provides for
    free education up to and including the college level.
        Boys made up nearly two-thirds of the school population. In most
    regions boys and girls attended primary classes together but were
    separated for intermediate and secondary-level education. Although the
    rate of secondary school for boys was 10 times the rate for girls, boys
    could be legally identifiable as ``heads of household'' as young as age
    15, and many boys were forced to leave school to work.
        Due to insecurity, inadequate facilities, poor quality of
    education, severe shortages of female teachers, early and forced
    marriages, the perceived need for girls to work at home, and cultural
    pressures, the status of girls and women in education remained a matter
    of concern. According to UNICEF more than two million girls were
    enrolled in grades one through 12. Most of the five million children
    who were estimated not to attend school were girls. According to the
    MOE, they were deprived education for economic reasons, security
    problems (especially in the southern provinces), cultural issues
    (especially girls), and the lack of schools within a short distance of
    their homes. In December 2009 HRW reported that the number of girls in
    school dropped 50 percent between sixth and seventh grades. In February
    a researcher for HRW reported that only 4 percent of secondary school-
    age girls reached grade 10. Since 2001 most girls enrolled in schools
    were the first generation in their family to receive formal education.
    The AIHRC worked with influential local figures to combat these harmful
    traditions.
        Violence impeded access to education in increasing sections of the
    country from 2008 through year's end. The Taliban and other extremists,
    as well as criminal gangs, threatened or attacked schools, especially
    girls' schools, school officials, teachers, and students. As in
    previous years, where schools remained open, parents were often afraid
    to send their children, particularly girls. The MOE reported that five
    million children were deprived of access to education. The AIHRC
    reported that half of schools did not have adequate, safe, and
    appropriate space for learning.
        According to HRW the Taliban and other insurgent groups continued
    to target schools (particularly those for girls over 10 years old),
    teachers, and students. The MOE reported that between March and
    October, 20 schools were attacked using explosives or arson, and
    insurgent attacks killed 126 students. For example, on April 2, the
    Taliban set fire to the girls' school in Gereshk, Helmand's commercial
    capital; reports indicated that three days earlier locals had been
    warned to vacate the school because it would be destroyed; this was the
    second attack on the school in two months. On April 3, Ariana TV and
    the Pajhwok News Agency reported that unidentified gunmen burned a
    girls' school in Faryab Province. On April 4, Tolo TV reported that
    unidentified men burned a girls' school in Sayedabad District, Maydan
    Wardak Province; the governor stated that armed opponents of the
    Government were responsible, but the Taliban denied any involvement.
    According to the Director of Education in Heart Province, in May female
    teachers and students in Guzara, Shindand, Koshke Rabat Sangi, and
    Kohna Districts were threatened to not attend schools. On May 28, the
    Taliban destroyed one school and threatened two others in the Lakan
    area of Khost; the attackers demanded that certain detainees be
    released before they would allow the schools to reopen. The Taliban
    also attacked the Zaku Khel School, a large project under construction
    by CARE International; 80 percent of the building, which was not yet
    operational, was destroyed. The attackers also left night letters at
    two other schools in Khost, warning students not to attend and turned
    students away on May 29. On July 14, during an interview with BBC Radio
    Dari/Pashtu Services, Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahed said that the
    Taliban did not oppose women's education as long as they gained that
    education ``in a secured environment'' and under Sharia. He also denied
    that the Taliban burned down schools or harmed women. The UNAMA mid-
    year report stated that as a result of threats by antigovernment
    forces, schools were destroyed or closed, denying educational
    opportunities for thousands of children, particularly in the southern,
    southeastern, northern, and central regions. According to the AIHRC,
    the Government was not able to bring most of the perpetrators of
    violence against women and children to justice, and the persistent
    culture of impunity exacerbated the situation.
        NGOs and aid agencies reported that insecurity, conservative
    attitudes, and poverty denied education to millions of school-age
    children, mainly in the southern and southeastern provinces.
        In some parts of the country, especially rural areas, girls'
    schools were closed due to societal bias or security issues. In some
    provinces, such as Kandahar and Helmand, girls' schools were open in
    the provincial capitals but not in outlying districts. According to the
    United Nations Country Task Force Monitoring and Reporting on Grave
    Child Rights Violations, there had been 13 attacks on girls' schools
    since April. In some areas individuals opened schools inside their
    homes or recruited local mullahs as teachers.
        Child abuse was endemic throughout the country, based on cultural
    beliefs about child-rearing, and included general neglect, physical
    abuse, sexual abuse, abandonment, and confined forced labor to pay off
    family debts. The Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs, Martyrs, and
    Disabled (MOLSA) stated that police frequently beat children. During
    the year drought and food shortages forced many families to send their
    children onto the streets to beg for food and money. NGOs reported a
    predominantly punitive and retributive approach to juvenile justice
    throughout the country. Although it was against the law, corporal
    punishment in schools, rehabilitation centers, and other public
    institutions remained common. The MOLSA also reported that more than
    five million children lived in need of humanitarian assistance.
        The legal age for marriage was 16 years old for girls and 18 years
    old for boys. International and local observers estimated that
    approximately 60 percent of girls were married younger than the age of
    16. Under the EVAW those who arrange forced or underage marriages may
    be sentenced to imprisonment of not less than two years; but there has
    been very limited, if any, implementation of this law. The Law on
    Marriage states that marriage of a minor may be conducted by a
    guardian. By law the marriage contract requires verification that the
    bride is 16 years of age; however, less than 10 percent of the
    population had birth certificates. Since the marriage registration
    process was officially legalized in 2008, the AIHRC has been promoting
    marriage registration as an important tool for preventing forced and
    underage marriages. The Herat regional office of the AIHRC conducted a
    campaign on the use and advantages of marriage registration in the
    western region.
        The custom of bride money may have motivated families facing
    poverty, indebtedness, and economic crisis to pledge daughters as young
    as six or seven years old, with the understanding that the actual
    marriage would be delayed until the child reached puberty. However,
    reports indicated that this delay was rarely observed and that young
    girls were sexually violated not only by the groom but also by older
    men in the family, particularly if the groom was also a child.
        Sexual abuse of children remained pervasive. NGOs noted that most
    child victims were abused by extended family members. A UNHCR report
    noted tribal leaders also abused boys. During the year the MOI recorded
    28 cases of child rape; the unreported number was believed to be much
    higher. According to the AIHRC, most child sexual abusers were not
    arrested. Numerous media outlets reported that harems of young boys
    were cloistered for ``bacha baazi,'' a practice in which young boys are
    sold to powerful local figures and businessmen and trained to dance in
    female clothes for male audiences and then used and traded for sex;
    however, credible statistics were difficult to acquire as the subject
    was a source of shame.
        The AIHRC reported that pornography is a crime but child
    pornography, reportedly widespread, is not specifically prohibited by
    law. Exploiting a child for sex purposes, as is done with bacha baazi,
    is a crime.
        Children were displaced due to the conflict. The MOLSA estimated
    that a large number of IDPs were children.
        NGOs estimated that there were 37,000 street children in urban
    areas. Street children had little or no access to government services,
    although several NGOs provided access to basic needs, such as shelter
    and food.
        Living conditions for children in orphanages were poor. The MOLSA
    oversaw 84 residential orphanages, designed to provide vocational
    training to children from destitute families. Of these 18 were private
    orphanages and 10 were official centers (but operated by NGOs by
    agreement with the ministry). NGOs reported that 60 to 80 percent of
    four- to 18-year-old children in the orphanages were not orphans but
    rather children whose families could not provide food, shelter, or
    schooling. Children in orphanages reported mental, physical, and sexual
    abuse; were sometimes trafficked; and did not always have access to
    running water, winter heating, indoor plumbing, health services,
    recreational facilities, or education.
        The AIHRC expressed concern about the living conditions and future
    of children who lived with their mothers in women's prisons.
        The country is not a party to the 1980 Hague Convention on the
    Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction.

        Anti-Semitism.--There were no reports of anti-Semitic acts. There
    was only one known Jewish resident in the country, caretaker of the one
    remaining synagogue in Kabul.

        Trafficking in Persons.--For information on trafficking in persons,
    please see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons
    Report, which can be found at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        Persons With Disabilities.--The constitution prohibits any kind of
    discrimination against citizens and requires the state to assist
    persons who have disabilities and to protect their rights, including
    the rights to health care and financial protection. The constitution
    also requires the state to adopt measures to reintegrate and ensure the
    active participation in society of persons with disabilities.
        One international organization reported that accurate figures on
    the number of persons with disabilities were not available, but it
    estimated that there were 800,000 mobility-impaired persons, of whom
    approximately 40,000 were limb amputees. The MOLSA stated that it
    provided financial support to 80,000 individuals with disabilities. A
    survey by HANDICAP reported that there were 800,000 such persons in the
    country. The MOLSA accorded special treatment to families of those
    killed in war. The AIHRC reported that of the nearly 200,000 school-age
    children with disabilities, only 22.4 percent attended school.
        In the Meshrano Jirga, two of the presidentially appointed seats
    were reserved for persons with disabilities.

        National/Racial/Ethnic Minorities.--Ethnic tensions between Pashtun
    and non-Pashtun groups resulted in conflict and occasional killings.
        Social discrimination against Shia Hazaras continued along class,
    race, and religious lines. Ethnic Hazaras reported occasionally being
    asked to pay additional bribes at border crossings where Pashtuns were
    allowed to pass freely. Sikhs and Hindus reportedly continued to face
    discrimination, including unequal access to government jobs; and verbal
    and physical abuse in public places. The UNHCR reported that Hindus,
    Sikhs, and Shiite Muslims--particularly those from the Hazara ethnic
    group--faced official obstacles and discrimination by the Sunni Muslim
    majority.
        On June 19, a Kuchi (Pashtun) encampment in a pistachio forest in
    Ab Kamari District, Badghis Province, was attacked, allegedly by Tajik
    militias. Six persons reportedly were killed and more than 30 injured;
    the attack appeared to be retaliation for the killing of Tajiks/Sunni
    Hazaras in Narab, Ab Kamari, by Taliban members who were demanding
    taxes from the village. There were rumors of ANSF involvement, possibly
    due to the fact that many villagers from Narab are members of the ANP.
    Long-standing disputes between the Kuchis (nomads) and Hazaras
    escalated during the year. In April tensions with Kuchis flared in
    Baraki Barak, Logar Province. Villagers claimed that the Kuchis allowed
    their animals to graze too close to the settled areas. At least one
    person was killed in the fighting. On April 8 in Wardak Province,
    senior government officials negotiated a settlement of a 30-year-old
    land dispute between the Hazaras and the Kuchis, but on May 19, Hazaras
    and Kuchis fought over land disputes. On August 14 and 15, fighting
    broke out over land disputes between Hazaras and Kuchis in western
    Kabul, and several persons were killed. Tolo TV reported that following
    the clash, unrest spread to the Kota-e Sangi, Dasht-e Barchi, Pol-e
    Sorkh, and Qala-e Shada areas of the capital. Shamshad TV reported that
    Hazaras attacked nomads in the Qala-e Qazi area of Kabul city, killing
    at least 10 persons, injuring more than 50 (including 24 police
    officers), and destroying hundreds of houses.
        Discrimination against Hazaras and other Shias continued in certain
    areas, in the form of extortion of money through illegal taxation,
    forced recruitment and forced labor, physical abuse, and detention.
        NGOs reported that Ismailis (a minority Shia Muslim group whose
    members follow the Aga Khan) were not generally targeted or seriously
    discriminated against. In February the Ismaili Council for Afghanistan
    hosted an event to commemorate Mowlud-e-Sharif. It was attended by
    members of parliament, government officials, and representatives from
    other communities.

        Societal Abuses, Discrimination, and Acts of Violence Based on
    Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.--The law criminalizes
    homosexual activity, but authorities only sporadically enforced the
    prohibition. Organizations devoted to the protection or exercise of
    freedom of sexual orientation remained underground. There were no
    reported instances of discrimination or violence based on sexual
    orientation, but social taboos remained strong.

        Other Societal Violence or Discrimination.--There were no known
    instances of discrimination or violence against persons with HIV/AIDS,
    but there was reportedly high social stigma against persons with AIDS.

    Section 7. Worker Rights
        a. The Right of Association.--The 2007 labor law allows workers to
    join and form unions under the 2002 Social Organizations Law. The
    Government allowed several unions, including the National Union of
    Afghanistan Employees (NUAE), the largest, and several smaller unions,
    to operate without interference. However, the International Trade Union
    Confederation did not accept the NUAE as an effective, independent
    representative of workers.
        Implementation of labor laws remained a problem due to lack of
    implementing regulations, funding, personnel, political will, and
    central enforcement authority. Workers were not aware of their rights.
    More than 80 percent of the workforce was in the informal or
    agricultural sector, and the Government employed the majority of formal
    sector workers. Formal private sector employees were a tiny fraction of
    the workforce. In the public sector, the National Union of Afghan
    Employees claimed that most civilian government workers are members of
    the union. In the private sector, there were virtually no unions.

        b. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively.--The 2007 labor
    law allows workers to join independent trade unions, but it provides no
    definition of a union nor its relationship with employers and members.
    The country lacked a tradition of genuine labor-management bargaining.
    Articles 145 and 146 of the labor law identify the Labor High Council
    established in the MOLSA as the highest labor tribunal and the MOLSA's
    Monitoring and Guidance Authority as the body investigating labor
    disputes; however, at year's end no implementing regulation to
    establish the council had been drafted.
        There are no export processing zones.

        c. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor.--The constitution
    prohibits forced or compulsory labor; however, there were reports that
    such practices occurred. Anecdotal reports suggested that women and
    girls were given away as household laborers to other families to settle
    disputes and debts. Anecdotal evidence suggested that forced child
    labor occurred, but there were no statistics available to indicate how
    pervasive the problem was.
        Nothing in the labor law provides a penalty for forced labor, and
    enforcement of the law was problematic.
        Also see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons
    Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        d. Prohibition of Child Labor and Minimum Age for Employment.--The
    labor law sets the minimum age for employment at 18 years old but
    permits children 15 years and older to do ``light work.'' Children
    between the ages of 16 and 18 may work only 35 hours per week. Children
    14 years old and older may work as apprentices. Children younger than
    age 13 are prohibited from work under any circumstances, although these
    laws were not observed in practice. Although the labor law prohibits
    the employment of children in work likely to threaten their health or
    cause disability, there is no defined list of hazardous jobs. There was
    no evidence that authorities in any part of the country enforced child
    labor laws.
        Child labor remained a pervasive problem. According to UNICEF
    estimates, at least 30 percent of primary school-age children undertook
    some form of work, and there were more than one million child laborers
    younger than the age of 14. Many child laborers worked as domestic
    servants, street vendors, peddlers, or shopkeepers. They also worked in
    several other sectors, including carpet weaving, brick making, and
    poppy harvesting. Children were also heavily employed in agriculture,
    mining (especially family-owned gem mines), and organized begging
    rings. Some sectors of child labor exposed children to land mines.
    According to the AIHRC, 85 percent of child laborers were boys. Girls
    performed domestic work in their homes. Many families stated that they
    needed the income their children provided, but many reportedly also
    believed that work was useful for children. The MOLSA and the Aschiana
    Foundation reported approximately 60,000 child laborers in Kabul alone,
    the majority of whom migrated to the city from other provinces.
    Children faced numerous health and safety risks at work, and some of
    them sustained serious injuries such as broken bones.
        Carpet weaving was especially dangerous for children, particularly
    in urban settings, as the enclosed spaces where they lived and worked
    exposed them to upper respiratory diseases, eyestrain, and spinal and
    muscular damage. Children were considered suitable to learn carpet
    weaving at age five, and many children began working in this sector at
    an early age; families typically worked together weaving carpets,
    earning 1,500 afghanis ($30) per month for their efforts, well below
    the minimum wage.
        Sectors in which there were allegations of children subject to
    forced labor, including its worst forms, included agriculture, brick
    kilns, carpet-making factories, domestic service, and organized
    begging.
        The Government made some progress in implementing its 2004 National
    Strategy for Children at Risk, including the passage of several laws,
    but it lacked a specific policy on child labor. The MOLSA's labor
    inspection function was weak, and the absence of implementing
    regulations for the labor law's child labor provisions mean that there
    were no rules to enforce. Generally poor institutional capacity, not
    unique to the MOLSA, was a serious impediment to effective enforcement
    of the labor law.
        There was a general lack of data on child labor and the worst forms
    of child labor, which hindered policy and program development. In
    addition fewer than 10 percent of children in the country had formal
    birth registrations, further limiting authorities' already weak
    capacity to enforce laws on the minimum age of employment and military
    recruitment.
        Also see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons
    Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        e. Acceptable Conditions of Work.--The minimum wage for government
    workers was 4,000 afghanis ($80) per month. There is no minimum wage in
    the private sector.
        The labor law makes no mention of day laborers or casual labor,
    which left them completely unprotected. This segment of the population
    was unprotected; in an interview one day laborer indicated that when
    such a person took a job it was ``always a gamble.'' Such workers might
    or might not get paid or get the pay that was agreed. Taking grievances
    to authorities might require bribes to have attention paid to such
    cases.
        The law defines the standard workweek for both public-sector and
    private-sector employees as 40 hours: eight hours per day with one hour
    for lunch and noon prayers. Reduced standard workweeks were stipulated
    for youth, pregnant women, nursing mothers, miners, and others in other
    occupations that present health risks. The law provides workers the
    right to receive wages, annual vacation time in addition to national
    holidays, compensation for injuries suffered in the line of work,
    overtime pay, health insurance for the employee and immediate family
    members, per diem for official trips, daily transportation, food
    allowances, night shift differentials, retirement rights, and
    compensation for funeral expenses in case of death while performing
    official duties. These standards were not effectively enforced, and
    citizens generally were not aware of the full extent of their labor
    rights under the law.
        Labor violations against migrant workers were common; many
    companies allegedly did not pay local laborers for months at a time.
        There were no occupational health and safety standards and no
    enforcement mechanisms. Employment was at will, and the MOLSA did not
    enforce the existing legal protections for workers. Workers did not
    have the right to remove themselves from situations that endangered
    their health or safety without jeopardizing their employment, as all
    employment could be terminated without cause. The MOLSA claimed that it
    was drafting regulations for occupational health and safety in
    collaboration with the Ministry of Health, but such regulations were
    not issued by year's end.

                                   __________

                                   BANGLADESH

        Bangladesh is a parliamentary democracy of 155 million citizens.
    Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wazed leads the Awami League (AL)
    alliance, a 14-party coalition with a large majority of parliamentary
    seats. International and domestic observers considered the 2008
    elections to be free and fair, with isolated irregularities and
    sporadic violence. There were instances in which elements of the
    security forces acted independently of civilian control.
        Security forces committed extrajudicial killings and were
    responsible for custodial deaths, torture, and arbitrary arrest and
    detention. The failure to investigate fully extrajudicial killings by
    security forces, including several deaths in custody of alleged
    criminals detained by the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), remained a
    matter of serious concern. Some members of the security forces acted
    with impunity. Prison conditions at times were life-threatening,
    lengthy pretrial detention continued to be a problem, and authorities
    infringed on citizens' privacy rights. An increasingly politicized
    judiciary exacerbated problems in an already overwhelmed judicial
    system and constrained access to justice for members of opposition
    parties. The Government limited freedom of speech and of the press,
    self-censorship continued, and security forces harassed journalists.
    The Government curbed freedom of assembly, and politically motivated
    violence remained a problem. Official corruption and related impunity
    continued. Discrimination against women, and violence against women and
    children remained serious problems, as did discrimination against
    persons with disabilities and against persons based on their sexual
    orientation. Trafficking in persons remained a serious problem.
    Violence against religious and ethnic minorities still occurred,
    although many government and civil society leaders stated that these
    acts often had political or economic motivations and could not be
    attributed only to religious belief or affiliation. Limits on worker
    rights and child labor remained problems.

                            RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

    Section 1. Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom
            From:
        a. Arbitrary or Unlawful Deprivation of Life.--Members of the
    security forces committed numerous extrajudicial killings. Police,
    Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) border force, and the RAB at times used
    unwarranted lethal force.
        The Government did not release statistics for total killings by all
    security personnel. The Government also did not take comprehensive
    measures to investigate cases, despite public statements by high-
    ranking officials that the Government would show ``zero tolerance'' and
    would fully investigate all extrajudicial killings by security forces.
    The number of killings by police and combined security forces also
    increased. According to the media and local human rights organizations,
    no case resulted in criminal punishment, and in the few instances in
    which the Government brought charges, those found guilty generally
    received administrative punishment. Some members of the security forces
    acted with impunity.
        According to media reports, local and international human rights
    organizations, and the Government, the RAB killed 68 persons during the
    year, compared with 41 the previous year. Combined security units
    consisting of RAB members killed 15 persons during the year. The
    deaths, some under unusual circumstances, occurred during raids,
    arrests, and other law enforcement operations, or, in some cases, while
    the accused were in custody. The Government often described these
    deaths as ``crossfire killings,'' ``gunfights,'' or ``encounter
    killings,'' terms it used to characterize exchanges of gunfire between
    the RAB or police and criminal gangs.
        According to media reports, local and international human rights
    organizations, and the Government, law enforcement officials were
    responsible for 127 deaths, 101 of which were attributed to crossfire.
    The RAB accounted for 65 crossfire killings, members of police were
    responsible for 21, and combined security units consisting of the RAB
    and police were responsible for 12.
        Since 2004 when the Minister for Law, Justice, and Parliamentary
    Affairs stated that crossfire deaths under RAB or police custody could
    not be considered custodial deaths, the Government has not disclosed
    any prosecution of a RAB officer for a killing.
        According to the human rights organization Ain O-Shalish Kendra
    (ASK), 133 deaths occurred in custody during the year, including 74
    deaths in prison. Many of the deaths were allegedly the result of
    torture.
        According to Odhikar, a Bangladeshi human rights organization, on
    May 11, Mohammad Manik was arrested after being named in a theft case.
    While in custody in the Kotowali police station, Manik allegedly was
    tortured to death by the subinspector, Yunus Miah. Following the
    incident, the High Court ordered a full investigation. When the police
    commissioner failed to comply with the order, the High Court ruled the
    commissioner and the subinspector to be in contempt of court.
        According to Odhikar, on May 24, RAB officials detained Abul Kalam
    Azad and his son. They were interrogated separately at RAB
    headquarters, after which Azad died. Azad's son claimed that the RAB
    tortured his father to death.
        According to Odhikar, on June 29, the Dhaka metropolitan police
    detained Mohammad Mizanur Rahman, along with three other persons. While
    they were in custody, officials took the four individuals to a bridge
    in Gulshan where a police subinspector, Anisur Rahman, interrogated and
    shot Mizanur and one other person. Doctors treated Mizanur at Dhaka
    Medical College Hospital, but he died as a result of his injuries. The
    Dhaka metropolitan police formed an inquiry committee to investigate
    the incident.
        There were no developments in the investigation into the January
    2009 case of Mohammed Habib. Police from Chandgaon Police Station
    arrested, tortured, and killed Habib and tortured his colleague Arif.
    According to police, the men were arrested on suspicion of importing
    drugs from India and were injured during their arrest. Following
    Habib's death, an ``unnatural death case'' was filed. According to the
    assistant police commissioner of the Chittagong metropolitan police,
    the three officers involved were suspended.
        According to media reports, 59 BDR members arrested in the wake of
    the February 2009 mutiny died in custody. Family members of the victims
    alleged that they died after being tortured. According to Odhikar,
    several BDR members taken into custody claimed the RAB and police
    physically assaulted and beat them, administered electric shocks,
    blindfolded them, and hung them upside down while in custody; NGOs
    alleged that army personnel also were involved in custodial deaths. The
    Government announced an investigation and promised to publish a report
    by July 2009 regarding the nature of the deaths but failed to publish
    any report. The Government investigation ruled that only two members
    died due to torture and that the others died because of illness or
    suicide. At year's end, the Government had not taken any action
    regarding the deaths or allegations of torture. Officials made little
    effort to investigate allegations of torture and deaths in custody.
        There were no developments in the March 2009 case of Nayak Mobarak
    Hossain, a detective in the BDR security unit of the 18th Rifle
    Battalion in Cox's Bazar, who died at the Dhaka Medical College
    Hospital after soldiers allegedly assaulted him, according to his
    family. Hossain allegedly had telephoned his wife to say he was being
    kept in poor conditions and tortured. His body reportedly showed signs
    of severe bruising, swelling of limbs, injuries to both palms, and
    broken joints. A local police subinspector in Dhaka, who was present at
    the medical examination, had opened a murder investigation.
        There were no developments in the May 2009 case in which police
    officers and RAB members allegedly shot and killed Sayeedur Rahman
    Sayeed in a crossfire killing in Alamdanga, Chuadanga. The RAB and
    police claimed they were conducting a raid on a cemetery where Sayeed
    and his accomplice were holding a meeting when the two men opened fire.
    The security forces allegedly returned fire, killing Sayeed. According
    to witnesses, no gunfight took place and police and RAB staged the
    incident.
        There were no developments in the May 2009 case in which a team
    from RAB allegedly killed two Dhaka Polytechnic Institute students,
    Mohammad Ali Jinnah and Mohsin Sheikh, in a shootout. Family members,
    fellow students, and teachers alleged Jinnah and Sheikh were members of
    the Bangladesh Chhatra League and did not have criminal records. The
    RAB alleged the two students were ``criminals'' and ``muggers,'' and
    that they had stopped the students at a checkpoint for acting
    suspiciously.
        The Government did not conduct any further investigations into the
    alleged 2008 death by torture of Abul Hossain Dahli by police in
    Botiyaghata.
        There were no new developments in the 2008 death of Fakir Chan in
    police custody in Maulvibazar. Chan's widow told Odhikar she was not
    financially able to pursue any legal case against his alleged killers.
        There were no developments in the case against 16 officers from RAB
    who allegedly tortured to death Afzal Khan in 2008. Khan's father
    reported receiving various threats from the accused. In May 2009,
    according to Odhikar, following a petition from the victim's father,
    the chief judicial magistrate ordered local police to file a case.
    There were no further developments in the 2008 killing of Moshiul Alam
    Sentu, allegedly by officers from RAB. According to Odhikar, Sentu's
    mother claimed that she tried to file a case against the RAB, but no
    lawyers would take it due to fear the RAB would target them.
        There was no further investigation into the 2008 killing of Mizanur
    Rahman Tutu by police officers. Family members told human rights groups
    they did not file a case.
        There were no further developments in the 2008 killing of Anwar
    Hossain by police officers.
        Politically motivated violence increased since the AL government
    assumed office, with opposition party supporters claiming harassment by
    ruling party supporters. Motivations for the violence often were
    unclear. According to Odhikar, 220 deaths were suspected of being
    politically motivated, compared with 251 the previous year.
        Individual members of student wings from all major parties were
    responsible for numerous acts of on-campus violence, During the year
    auxiliary student wings were formally severed from the political
    parties and, according to media and human rights sources, many
    incidents of violence were related to criminal activities or personal
    as opposed to political vendettas, Despite the ban, some politicians
    from all major parties mobilized members of student wings for movements
    and demonstrations.
        According to newspaper reports, on February 9, members of the
    Chhatra Shibir, the student wing linked to Jamaat-e-Islami, clashed
    with members of the Chhatra League, killing one Chhatra League member
    and injuring several others. Following the incident, police arrested
    dozens of Chhatra Shibir activists around the country and disrupted
    several of the organization's gatherings throughout the rest of the
    year.
        According to press reports, on October 8, AL and Chhatra League
    activists attacked a Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) rally in the
    Baraigram upazilla in the district of Natore, killing Upazilla
    Chairman, Sanaullah Noor Babu, and injuring several journalists. The
    case continued at of year's end.
        There were no further developments on the case of Manju Morshed
    Shipu, the BNP activist killed in Mohammadpur in June 2009, by year's
    end.
        There also were a significant number of reports of killings
    involving political party supporters, although there was no evidence of
    support from party leadership.
        According to information gathered by Odhikar, 16 persons were
    killed and 1,127 injured in political violence in July. There were also
    46 incidents of internal violence in the AL and four within the BNP. In
    addition four persons were killed in AL internal conflict while 410
    were injured; 45 persons were injured in internal BNP violence.
        According to information gathered by Odhikar, 220 persons were
    killed and 13,999 injured in political violence during the year. There
    were also 576 incidents of internal violence in the AL and 92 within
    the BNP. In addition 38 persons were killed and 5,614 persons were
    injured in AL internal conflict, and seven persons were killed and
    1,146 persons were injured in internal BNP violence.
        There were no developments in the June 2009 case in which seven to
    eight unknown assailants abducted and killed opposition BNP member
    Manju Morshed Shipu in Mohammadpur, Dhaka. According to police, Shipu
    had been shot in the left side of the forehead, and there were marks of
    beating on his arms, back, and feet. According to Shipu's wife, he was
    a potential candidate for ward commissioner in the city corporation
    elections. She believed his murder was politically motivated.
        There were no developments in the 2008 killing of Mohammad Farman
    Ali by political rivals or the death of an individual following gunfire
    between AL and BNP activists.
        At year's end, authorities still had not carried out death
    sentences in the case of three individuals from the banned Islamist
    organization Harkatul Jihad al Islami (HuJi) who were tried in 2007 for
    organizing a grenade attack at the Hazrat Shahjalal Shrine in Sylhet in
    2004. Two others sentenced to life imprisonment were serving their
    sentences.
        Vigilante killings occurred during the year, although figures
    suggested that the problem lessened or remained the same as in 2009.
    Odhikar reported at least 174 killings, but local human rights
    organizations acknowledged that the number of reported cases probably
    represented only a fraction of the actual incidents.
        According to the New Age, on July 18, a mob lynched six suspected
    robbers in the village of Enayetpur in Gazipur. There was no
    investigation as of the end of the reporting period.
        According to the Daily Star, a mob beat two suspected kidnappers to
    death in Kushtia Sadar on August 30. The deceased were identified as
    Somir Uddin and Ratan Kumar Das. Police were able to detain two members
    of the mob.
        There were no investigations in the July 2009 killing by a mob of a
    suspected robber in Naranpar village in Comilla, the September 2009
    beating to death of a carjacker by a mob in the Pallabi area of Dhaka,
    and the November 2009 beating to death of an alleged regional leader of
    an outlawed faction of the Purbo Banglar Communist Party in Roypur
    village in Gangni upazila.
        There was no further investigation into the 2008 vigilante killings
    in Nasirabad and Kaliakoir, near Dhaka.
        Violence along the border with India remained a problem, and the
    number of incidents increased by nearly 33 percent from the previous
    year. According to human rights organizations, the Indian Border
    Security Force killed 98 persons during the year. There were also
    reports that Bangladesh Border Guards, the new name adopted by the BDR,
    engaged in shootings along the border.
        According to Odhikar, on January 21, Indian forces detained and
    tortured a 15-year-old boy whose family lived adjacent to the border.
    The boy was swimming in the river that demarcates the border before his
    detention. After his release, the boy died from the injuries he
    sustained during torture.

        b. Disappearance.--Disappearances and kidnappings, allegedly by the
    security services, increased significantly during the year, but precise
    figures were unavailable. At least some of the kidnappings were
    politically motivated, although many were often for money or as a
    result of localized rivalries. According to Odhikar, there were nine
    disappearances with alleged ties to security personnel, although some
    incidents may have involved private citizens impersonating security
    personnel.
        According to the Bengali-language daily, Prothom Alo, on February
    28, RAB officials picked up Mohammad Selim, a fruit vendor in Gazipur.
    At year's end, his whereabouts were unknown.
        According to Odhikar, on March 19, RAB officials detained Mohammad
    Akbar Ali Shorder in Thakurgaon. He has not been seen or heard from
    since, and the RAB denied detaining him His wife filed a kidnapping
    case, but there was no progress as of year's end. On June 25, a group
    of men in a microbus abducted Mohammad Chowdhury Alam, a BNP city
    councilor in Dhaka. According to Odhikar, police foiled a previous
    attempt to abduct Alam earlier that month and detained the abductors.
    Odhikar's report stated that in detention the abductors identified
    themselves as agents of the RAB and subsequently were released. Several
    days later, a group of men in plainclothes pulled Alam from his car and
    placed him in a microbus. Both Odhikar and his family believe that the
    same group was involved in both incidents. As of year's end, Alam's
    location was unknown.
        According to the Bengali-language Shamakal, in June a group of nine
    persons identifying themselves as officers of RAB arrested Jahir Raihan
    Hiron at his house in Dhaka. The individuals wore uniforms and carried
    RAB identity cards. The group told Hiron and his family that he was
    being taken to the Dhanmondi Police Station for questioning. His
    whereabouts were unknown at year's end.
        There were no developments in the 2008 disappearance of Liakat
    Hossain, allegedly involving members of the RAB.
        There were no further developments in the 2008 case of 16 men
    charged with kidnapping nine members of an extended family. There were
    no further developments in the 2008 kidnapping of 40 anglers from the
    Kachikhali coast of Pathorghata.

        c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or
    Punishment--Although the constitution prohibits torture and cruel,
    inhuman, or degrading punishment, security forces including the RAB,
    and police frequently employed torture and severe physical and
    psychological abuse during arrests and interrogations. Abuse consisted
    of threats, beatings, and the use of electric shock. According to human
    rights organizations, security forces tortured at least 22 persons. The
    Government rarely charged, convicted, or punished those responsible,
    and a climate of impunity allowed such abuses by the RAB and police to
    continue.
        The criminal procedure code contained provisions allowing a
    magistrate to place a suspect in interrogative custody, known as
    remand, during which the suspect could be questioned without his or her
    lawyer present. During the year the Government made efforts to limit
    the amount of time allowed for remand; however, these efforts were
    largely ignored by local magistrates. Most abuses occur during periods
    of remand.
        According to Odhikar, on January 24, RAB officers arrested Mohammad
    Mohiuddin Arif and took him to the Pallabi police station. While in
    custody, officers moved him to the Dhaka Medical College Hospital for
    treatment and, at that time, he told his father that members of the RAB
    beat him on his chest and legs. Officers later took Arif back to the
    Pallabi police station, but he died after sustaining further injuries
    during subsequent interrogations. An unnatural death case was filed,
    but there was no arrest as of year's end.
        On December 15, police detained Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury on an
    arson case stemming from the BNP's June strike. The International War
    Crimes Tribunal later charged Chowdhury with war crimes related to the
    country's 1971 war of independence. Chowdhury's family alleged that he
    was tortured during his initial interrogation, but police denied the
    charges. Chowdhury was later moved into protective custody and allowed
    medical treatment, but serious concerns regarding his health persisted.
        According to Odhikar, on May 12, Rabiul Islam Khokon was tortured
    in remand, under court-ordered investigative custody, by subinspector
    Abdul Manan of the Noakhali Chatkhil police station. Khokon allegedly
    was beaten with metal rods, burned with cigarettes, stabbed with
    needles, and had several of his joints broken. After the torture,
    officials took Khokon the hospital where he died of his injuries.
    Officials arrested Abdul Manan on the charge of murder, and he was
    awaiting trial as of year's end.
        According to Amnesty International, on June 27, RAB personnel
    entered the house of BNP leader and former Dhaka mayor Mirza Abbas
    without a warrant during the opposition-led nationwide strike.
    Officials arrested Abbas earlier in the day on separate charges. During
    the incident, members of the RAB beat several members of Abbas' family
    and injured more than 20 persons. Officials made no further arrests,
    and no official investigation occurred after the incident.
        There were no developments in the June 2009 torture case of BNP
    student leader Morshed Habib Bhuiyan Jewel by Kahalu police in Bogra.
    Jewel alleged that several times while in custody at the Netrokona
    Model police station three to four police officers blindfolded him,
    suspended him from the ceiling with handcuffs, beat him with sticks
    from the waist down, and poured hot water into his nose and mouth.
        According to human rights organizations, there were at least six
    recorded incidents of rape and sexual abuse by police, officers, or
    armed forces personnel.
        According to Odhikar, on July 7, Manik Rana, a member of the
    Bangladesh Army, raped a female factory worker in Ashulia. After her
    brother filed a case in the Ashulia police station, Rana was taken into
    custody. The case continued at year's end.
        According to the Bengali-language newspaper, Amar Desh, on April
    24, a police subinspector in the Betai village in the Jhineda District
    raped a homemaker after she refused his request for sexual favors.
    After the incident, the victim was hospitalized and the perpetrator was
    arrested. His trial continued at year's end.
        According to Prothom Alo, on January 21,a police assistant
    subinspector in the town of Rangamati sexually assaulted and attempted
    to rape an underage girl. Police in the area only accepted the case
    after human rights organizations intervened. As of year's end, no
    charges were filed, and the officer was suspended but not fired.
        There were no new developments in the February 2009 case of a
    member of an ethnic minority woman in the Chittagong metropolitan area
    who was gang-raped by four police constables.
        There were no new developments in the 2008 rape of a 14-year-old
    girl in Sonargaon, Narayanganj, allegedly by RAB officer Abdul Gaffur,
    or in the 2008 rape of a young girl at Kamlapur Dhaka, allegedly by
    police subinspector Rezaul Karim.
        There were also incidents of nonlethal, politically motivated
    violence by student groups. For example, according to the New Age, on
    January 28, a group of Chhatra League activists attacked a group of
    left-leaning activists on the campus of the all-female Eden College,
    leaving five injured. Officials made no arrests.
        According to the Daily Star, on February 2, activists from the
    Chhatra League attacked a procession of the BNP's female student wing
    on the Dhaka University campus. According to the report, police at the
    scene were able to disperse the groups, but officials made no arrests.
        Student groups also attacked journalists (see section 2.a.).

        Prison and Detention Center Conditions.--Prison system conditions
    remained life threatening at times due to overcrowding, inadequate
    facilities, and lack of proper sanitation. Human rights observers
    stated that these conditions contributed to custodial deaths. Unlike in
    the previous year, there were no accounts of security forces holding
    detainees in temporary or military detention facilities.
        According to Odhikar, 46 persons died in prison and 109 persons
    died in the custody of police and other security forces during the
    year.
        According to the Government, the existing prison population at
    year's end was 69,650, or more than over 200 percent of the official
    prison capacity of 29,240. Of the entire prison population,
    approximately one-third of the detainees had been convicted. The rest
    were either awaiting trial or detained for investigation. Due to the
    severe backlog of cases, individuals awaiting trial often spent more
    time in jail than if they had been convicted and served a maximum
    sentence. In most cases, prisoners slept in shifts because of the
    overcrowding and did not have adequate bathroom facilities. During the
    year the Government ordered the release of 1,000 prisoners to help ease
    overcrowding. Some human rights groups expressed concern over the
    methods used to determine which prisoners qualified for the release.
    Conditions in prisons varied widely often within the same prison
    complex as some prisoners were subject to high temperatures, poor
    ventilation, and overcrowding while others were placed in
    ``divisional'' custody, which featured better conditions such as
    increased family visitation and access to household staff. Political
    and personal connections often influenced the conditions that a
    prisoner would be placed in. All prisoners have the right to water
    access and medical care; however, throughout the year, human rights
    organizations and the media stated that many prisoners did not enjoy
    these rights.
        The law requires that juveniles be detained separately from adults,
    but in practice many juveniles were incarcerated with adults. Over 300
    children were imprisoned (some with their mothers) despite laws and
    court decisions prohibiting the imprisonment of minors. In some places,
    the figure was much higher, mainly because there was no proper means of
    recording age in the criminal justice system. According to statistics
    from the 2008 International Centre for Prison Studies report, minors
    made up 0.4 percent of the prison population.
        Although the law prohibits women in ``safe custody'' (usually
    victims of rape, trafficking, and domestic violence) from being housed
    with criminals, in practice officials did not always provide separate
    facilities in these situations.
        In general the Government did not permit prison visits by
    independent human rights monitors, including the International
    Committee of the Red Cross.
        Government-appointed committees composed of prominent private
    citizens in each prison locality monitored prisons monthly but did not
    publicly release their findings. District judges occasionally visited
    prisons but rarely disclosed their findings to the public.
        In 2008 the inspector general of prisons tried to address prisoner
    morale by allowing low-level offenders to meet family and friends
    inside jail cells without any physical barriers between them. There
    were few additional efforts to improve the prison system during the
    year.

        d. Arbitrary Arrest or Detention.--The constitution prohibits
    arbitrary arrest and detention; however, the law permits authorities to
    arrest and detain persons suspected of criminal activity without an
    order from a magistrate or a warrant.
        On June 27, during the BNP's nationwide strike, police arrested
    former foreign secretary Shamsher Mobin Chowdhury and former mayor of
    Dhaka, Mirza Abbas, in Gulshan. Chowdhury remained in custody for
    several weeks while police interrogated him and eventually charged him
    with arson. Police did not mistreat Chowdhury and he was released on
    bail by year's end.

        Role of the Police and Security Apparatus.--Police are organized
    nationally under the Ministry of Home Affairs (MOHA) and have a mandate
    to maintain internal security and law and order. Under recent
    governments, police generally were ineffective and reluctant to
    investigate persons affiliated with the ruling party.
        The Government took steps to improve police professionalism,
    discipline, training, and responsiveness, and reduce corruption (see
    section 4).
        Plaintiffs rarely accused police in criminal cases due to lengthy
    trial procedures and fears of retribution. Reluctance to bring charges
    against police perpetuated a climate of impunity.

        Arrest Procedures and Treatment While in Detention.--The law
    provides for arrest without the use of warrants in certain cases. The
    criminal procedure code and the Dhaka Metropolitan Police Ordinance
    authorize detention of persons on suspicion of criminal activity
    without an order from a magistrate or a warrant, and the Government
    regularly used such provisions. The number of preventive and arbitrary
    arrests declined from the previous year. Since taking office, the AL
    government has not carried out any mass arrests. ASK, a domestic human
    rights organization, and media outlets estimated that authorities made
    more than 2,000 routine arrests daily. The majority of those arrested
    were released within one or two days, often on payment of a bribe.
        Under the existing Special Powers Act, the Government or a district
    magistrate may order a person detained for 30 days to prevent the
    commission of an act that could threaten national security; however,
    authorities held detainees for longer periods. The magistrate must
    inform the detainee of the grounds of detention, and an advisory board
    is required to examine the detainee's case after four months.
        Detainees had the right to appeal. Many detainees taken into
    custody during the caretaker government's anticorruption drive were
    held under this act, and during the period the Government sought and
    received numerous detention extensions from advisory boards, consisting
    of two judges and a government official. Use of the provisions of the
    Special Powers Act declined during the year.
        There was a functioning bail system in the regular courts. For
    example, the courts granted bail to almost all of the officials and
    former officials accused of corruption under the caretaker government;
    however, the system sometimes moved slower in cases that carried
    political implications. Additionally the attorney general ordered that
    his office have the final decision on bail cases in violation of the
    code of criminal procedure.
        Most criminal detainees charged with crimes were granted access to
    attorneys. The Government rarely provided detainees with state-funded
    defense attorneys, and there were few legal aid programs for detainees.
    Government-funded legal aid programs received little funding, and there
    were no efforts to expand those programs during the year.
        The Government generally permitted lawyers to meet with their
    clients only after formal charges were filed in the courts, which in
    some cases occurred several weeks or months after the initial arrest.
    Arbitrary arrests were common, and the Government held persons in
    detention without specific charges, often to collect information about
    other suspects.
        Arbitrary and lengthy pretrial detention continued to be a problem.
    There were an estimated two million pending civil and criminal cases. A
    2008 estimate from the International Center for Prison Studies found
    nearly 70 percent of prison inmates were in pretrial detention.

        e. Denial of Fair Public Trial.--The law provides for an
    independent judiciary, but in practice a longstanding temporary
    provision of the constitution placed the executive in charge of the
    lower courts, judicial appointments, and compensation for judicial
    officials. Legislation from 2007 separating the judiciary from the
    executive remained in effect throughout the year.
        Despite ostensible separation of the judiciary from the executive,
    the political authority made judicial appointments to the higher courts
    and allegedly influenced many judicial decisions on politically
    sensitive cases, including decisions regarding bail and detention for
    political opponents of the Government. On April 11, the AL government
    appointed 17 additional judges to the High Court Division of the
    Supreme Court triggering protests from the pro-opposition Supreme Court
    Bar Association leaders. The opposition argued that two of the
    appointees had criminal records that included murder charges and
    ransacking of court premises. Outgoing Chief Justice Fazlul Karim
    refused to administer oaths to the judges, which drew criticism from
    government leaders.
        On September 26, the Government appointed A.B.M. Khairul Haque as
    the new Chief Justice of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court,
    superseding two senior members of the Appellate Division. Opposition
    party leaders criticized the appointment, stating that Haque was chosen
    because of his perceived loyalty to the ruling party. According to a
    set timeline, Haque was scheduled to step down from the Chief Justice
    position in May 2012 when he would assume responsibility for heading a
    constitutionally mandated caretaker government that would be
    responsible for conducting the next round of parliamentary elections.
        In 2008 the Appellate Division overturned politically charged
    decisions by the High Court Division, usually to the benefit of the
    current government. In several cases, the Appellate Division overturned
    decisions granting bail to corruption suspects who were high-level
    leaders of opposition parties. Additionally corruption (see section 4),
    judicial inefficiency, lack of resources, and a large case backlog
    remained serious problems within the judiciary.
        On July 29, the Supreme Court's appellate division lifted the stay
    on a 2005 High Court ruling that an amendment to the constitution that
    legitimized martial law in the 1980s was unconstitutional. However,
    there was no effort to prosecute those involved in declaring martial
    law.

        Trial Procedures.--The law provides accused persons with the right
    to be represented by counsel, to review accusatory material, to call or
    question witnesses, and to appeal verdicts. Cases are decided by judges
    rather than juries, and trials are public. In practice a public
    defender is rarely provided to defendants. Defendants are presumed
    innocent and have the right to appeal, to be present, and to see the
    Government's evidence.
        Corruption and a substantial backlog of cases hindered the court
    system, and trials were typically marked by extended continuances that
    effectively prevented many defendants from obtaining fair trials due to
    witness tampering, victim intimidation, and missing evidence. Human
    rights observers stated that magistrates, attorneys, and court
    officials demanded bribes from defendants in many cases filed during
    the year.
        According to the National Human Rights Commission, 90 percent of
    those eventually brought to trial were not convicted.

        Political Prisoners and Detainees.--Former law minister Moudud
    Ahmed and former communications minister Anwar Hossain Manju remained
    free on bail, although their cases remained in process. Ahmed refused
    the Government's offer to drop the cases against him, and Manju
    continued to appeal two of his three sentences. The metropolitan public
    prosecutor decided to withdraw one of the cases against Ahmed for
    possessing alcohol at his residence in 2007. The High Court threw out
    one of Manju's convictions.
        During the year the court granted several continuances in the trial
    against journalist Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury, who was detained for
    his attempted 2003 travel to Israel and who faced capital charges of
    ``sedition, treason, and blasphemy.'' The Government allowed Choudhury
    to travel abroad while the case was pending.
        During the year the Government, through an interministerial
    committee, continued to identify and withdraw allegedly ``politically
    motivated'' cases initiated under the caretaker government. Initially,
    the majority of the cases recommended for withdrawal appeared to be
    those brought against AL members. However, in 2009 the committee
    recommended withdrawal of cases against BNP members Moudud Ahmed and
    Tarique Rahman.

        Civil Judicial Procedures and Remedies.--Administrative and
    judicial remedies are available for alleged wrongs. The Government did
    not interfere with civil judicial procedures. Corruption and outside
    influence were problems in the civil judicial system. Alternative
    dispute resolution for civil cases allows citizens to present their
    cases for mediation. According to government sources, wider use of
    mediation in civil cases quickened the administration of justice, but
    there was no assessment of its fairness or impartiality.

        f. Arbitrary Interference With Privacy, Family, Home, or
    Correspondence.--The law allows intelligence and law enforcement
    agencies to monitor private communications with the permission of the
    chief executive of the MOHA.
        According to media reports, the Government established a national
    monitoring center consisting of representatives from law enforcement
    and intelligence agencies to monitor and coordinate telephone taps in
    2008. Media and human rights groups complained that the Government
    continued to employ the practice of illegal telephone tapping. Police
    rarely obtained warrants as required, and officers violating these
    procedures were not punished. Human rights organizations indicated that
    the special branch of police, National Security Intelligence, and the
    Directorate General Forces Intelligence (DGFI) employed informers to
    conduct surveillance and report on citizens perceived as critical of
    the Government. The Government also routinely conducted surveillance on
    opposition politicians.

    Section 2. Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:
        a. Freedom of Speech and Press.--The constitution provides for
    freedom of speech and press, but the Government frequently failed to
    respect these rights in practice.
        Although public criticism of the Government was common, newspapers
    depended on government advertisements for a significant percentage of
    their revenue. As a result, self-censorship by newspapers practiced was
    common.
        There were hundreds of daily and weekly independent publications.
    Although there were improvements over the previous year, newspapers
    critical of the Government still experienced government pressure.
    Journalists perceived to be critical of the Government and those
    aligned with the opposition alleged harassment from unspecified wings
    of the security forces and members of the ruling party. In addition to
    one official government-owned news service, there were two private news
    services.
        Unlike in previous years, the military's Inter-Service Public
    Relations office and the DGFI did not directly restrict newspaper
    ownership or content. However, in May the information minister met with
    the owners of private television channels and suggested that they
    refrain from broadcasting content critical of the Government. Shortly
    thereafter, the Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission
    (BTRC) used a technicality in the communications law to shut down a
    private television station, Channel One, with close ties to the BNP.
    Channel One remained closed at year's end.
        On June 1, the deputy commissioner of Dhaka District ordered the
    closure of Amar Desh, an opposition newspaper, and the detention of its
    editor, Mahmudur Rahman, ostensibly for fraudulent editorial practices.
    Rahman remained in custody as police attempted to charge him with
    corruption or sedition. Amar Desh was closed for more than a month as
    its attorneys negotiated the convoluted appeals system. The newspaper
    was publishing under a stay ordered by the Appellate Division of the
    Supreme Court, pending a final verdict on its status at year's end.
        On August 19, officials charged Rahman with contempt of court after
    he published a commentary critical of the courts' neutrality, and he
    was sentenced to six months in prison. At year's end, Rahman remained
    in prison.
        Also on August 19, a second editor of Amar Desh, Waliullah Noman,
    was sentenced to one month in prison for an unrelated article
    criticizing the neutrality of two judicial appointments. According to
    the attorney general, this was the first time that the Appellate
    Division of the Supreme Court sentenced journalists to prison for
    contempt of court.
        The popular Bengali-language current affairs talk show, Point of
    Order, was removed from the air during the year. The host previously
    alleged that she received telephone calls from individuals identifying
    themselves as DGFI officials who warned her against promoting
    ``antigovernment and antistate propaganda.'' She also stated that
    sponsors of her program were encouraged to stop their support of her
    show. Before the cancellation of the show, she stated, it was
    practicing significant self-censorship in an attempt to remain on the
    air.
        The Government owned one radio station and one television station.
    The parliament passed a law mandating that the public television
    station, BTV, remain the country's only terrestrial broadcast channel.
    An estimated 60 percent of the population did not have access to
    private satellite channels.
        There were 10 private satellite television stations and three
    private radio stations in operation. There were two foreign-based and
    licensed satellite television stations that maintained domestic news
    operations. Cable operators generally functioned without government
    interference; however, Diganta Television, a private operator, received
    a letter from the Ministry of Information warning it to edit content
    critical of the Government or face a shutdown. As of year's end,
    Diganta continued to operate. The Government required all private
    stations to broadcast, without charge, selected government news
    programs and speeches by the prime minister.
        Since coming to power, the AL-led government has shut two
    television channels, Channel 1 and Jamuna-TV. Both remained off the air
    as of the end of the year.
        The Government issued new licenses to operate television channels
    to political supporters. This conformed to past practice and was not
    unique to the AL.
        Attacks on journalists continued to be a problem. There was an
    increase in individuals affiliated with the Government or ruling party
    harassing, arresting, or assaulting journalists. According to Odhikar
    and media watchdog groups, at least four journalists were killed, 118
    were injured, two were arrested, 43 were assaulted, 49 were threatened,
    and 12 had cases filed against them during the year. According to some
    journalists and human rights NGOs, journalists engaged in self-
    censorship due to fear of retribution from the Government.
        On August 17, in Damurhuda upazila, activists from the AL's local
    student wing, the Chhatra League, attacked a local correspondent from
    the Bengali language daily, Amader Shomoy, allegedly for publishing a
    report critical of the group's activities in the area.
        On September 1, activists from the Rajshahi University branch of
    the Chhatra League used sticks to attack a reporter from the English
    language newspaper, the Daily Star, over reports critical of the
    organization's campus activities.
        On September 25, an unknown assailant targeted the Rangpur
    correspondent from the Bengali-language Daily Jugantor and stabbed him
    in the back. The correspondent had published an article on tender
    manipulation by AL activists in the area during the year. His assailant
    remained at large at year's end.
        There were no further developments in the case of F.M. Masum, a
    reporter for the New Age newspaper. RABofficers arrested Masum and beat
    him in October 2009. Masum attempted to file a case, but was rebuffed.
    RAB headquarters released a statement expressing regret for the
    incident and transferred one of the officers involved.
        There were no new developments in the 2008 case of Rabiul Islam, a
    journalist for the Rajshahi-based Bengali language Daily Sunshine, who
    allegedly was tortured by local police.
        There were no developments in the case of the Jai Jai Din editor
    who was fired in 2008 because he published a cartoon critical of then
    army chief general Moeen Uddin Ahmed.
        There were no new developments in the case of Jahangir Alam Akash,
    who authorities reportedly tortured in 2008. Akash ran his own Web log
    devoted to press freedoms and human rights during the year.
        Unlike in previous years, the Government did not subject foreign
    publications and films to stringent reviews and censorship. A
    government-managed film censor board reviewed local and foreign films
    and had the authority to censor or ban films on the grounds of state
    security, law and order, religious sentiment, obscenity, foreign
    relations, defamation, or plagiarism, but this was less strict than in
    the past. In practice video rental libraries and DVD shops stocked a
    wide variety of films, and government efforts to enforce censorship on
    rentals were sporadic and ineffective.
        Unlike in the previous year, the Government only rarely exercised
    censorship in cases of immodest or obscene photographs, perceived
    misrepresentation or defamation of Islam, or objectionable comments
    regarding national leaders.

        Internet Freedom.--Although individuals and groups generally could
    engage in the peaceful expression of views via the Internet, local
    human rights organizations reported continued government monitoring of
    Internet communications. The most recent figures from the World Bank
    indicated that 5.8 percent of the population used the Internet in 2008.
    On May 28, the BTRC blocked access to the popular social networking
    site Facebook. The Government stated that the action was the result of
    pages depicting the Prophet Muhammed. Facebook was able to negotiate
    the reopening of the site which was again accessible as of June 5;
    however, pages other than those depicting the Prophet Muhammed also
    were blocked, including ones critical of the prime minister and the
    opposition leader. Opposition leaders alleged that security forces have
    attempted to their collect personally identifiable information;
    however, these allegations were not independently verified.

        Academic Freedom and Cultural Events.--The Government did little to
    limit academic freedom or cultural events; however, media groups
    reported that authorities discouraged research on sensitive religious
    and political topics. Additionally, on April 28, Dhaka University
    dismissed five teachers with BNP affiliations for overstaying their
    allotted leave, but failed to enforce the measure more broadly as 219
    teachers without BNP affiliations remained on leave.

        b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association.--The constitution
    provides for freedom of assembly and association, and the Government
    generally respected these rights in practice; however, at times the
    Government limited freedom of assembly.

        Freedom of Assembly--The Government generally permitted rallies to
    take place but on occasion used the criminal procedure code to prevent
    opposition political groups from holding meetings and demonstrations.
    The code authorizes the administration to ban assembly of more than
    four persons; according to ASK, the administration used this provision
    at least 93 times during the year. At times police or ruling party
    activists used force to disperse demonstrations.
        On July 28, the Dhaka Metropolitan Police issued an order banning
    all student protests in certain areas of the city, citing traffic
    concerns. All major political parties and student groups protested this
    ban, which remained in effect at year's end.
        According to the Daily Star, a rally on August 22 by the BNP's
    student wing, the Jubo Dal, met with police resistance. Police claimed
    that that the Jubo Dal failed to secure proper permission for the
    rally. At least 30 persons on both sides were injured.
        The Islamist Party, Jamaat-e-Islami, reported that its ability to
    secure permits for rallies or processions was severely hampered
    throughout the year.
        Local officials used the criminal procedure code prior to planned
    council meetings of the BNP to prevent clashes either between BNP and
    the ruling party or among rival factions of the BNP. In December 2009
    ruling party activists and police attacked individuals at a reception
    in honor of Moyeen Khan's selection as a party leader. BNP supporters
    clashed with police and AL supporters, causing dozens of injuries. No
    charges were filed before the end of the year.

        Freedom of Association.--The law provides for the right of every
    citizen to form associations, subject to ``reasonable restrictions'' in
    the interest of morality or public order, and the Government generally
    respected this right. Individuals were free to join private groups.
    Unlike previous years under the state of emergency, trade unions were
    able to conduct their normal activities; however, the law made it
    nearly impossible to form new trade unions in many sectors, such as the
    ready-made garment industry.

        c. Freedom of Religion.--For a complete description of religious
    freedom, see the 2010 International Religious Freedom Report at
    www.state.gov/g/drl/irf/rpt.

        d. Freedom of Movement, Internally Displaced Persons, Protection of
    Refugees, and Stateless Persons.--The law provides for freedom of
    movement within the country, foreign travel, emigration, and
    repatriation, and the Government generally respected these rights in
    practice except in the cases of some opposition political figures. As
    the Government moved to prosecute war crimes from the 1971 War of
    Independence, it created a list--consisting entirely of opposition
    party leaders--of those suspected of war crimes who it considered
    ineligible to travel outside the country. However, it did not move to
    strip these individuals of their passports. Immigration officials at
    Hajrat Shah Jalal International Airport in Dhaka prevented numerous
    politicians belonging to the opposition BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami from
    leaving the country, citing the no-fly list and instructions from
    undisclosed higher authorities. Some of the politicians successfully
    challenged the unannounced restrictions on their travel abroad and
    managed to depart and return to the country.
        On three occasions, immigration officers barred senior BNP leaders
    from travelling abroad in violation of high court orders. On July 28,
    officials barred BNP Vice President Shamsher Mobin Chowdhury from
    traveling to Singapore. Immigration officers told the Daily Star that
    they received verbal instructions to deny Chowdhury's travel. On August
    8, Shahiduddin Chowdhury Annie received similar treatment at the
    airport. Both individuals were on bail stemming from charges related to
    the BNP's general strike in June; however, both possessed high court
    permission to travel abroad. Both eventually were able to secure
    another court injunction and travel abroad.
        On September 14, BNP advisory committee member Reaz Rahman was
    stopped at the Dhaka airport as he attempted to board a flight to
    Kolkata and was told that his international travel was restricted by
    instructions from ``higher authorities.'' Rahman was not accused in any
    criminal cases and was able to obtain a high court injunction further
    verifying his right to travel.
        The law does not provide for exile, which was not practiced. The
    country's passports were invalid for travel to Israel.

        Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs)--According to the International
    Displacement Monitoring Center (IDMC) Web site, armed conflict broke
    out in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) in 1973 as the Government
    opposed the demands of the indigenous Jumma people for greater
    autonomy. During the conflict throughout the 1970s and 1980s, the
    Government relocated landless Bengalis from the plains, ensuring that
    the Jumma became a minority in the CHT. During this period, clashes
    with army-backed settlers displaced tens of thousands of Jumma within
    the country.
        The number of IDPs in the region is disputed. In 2000 a government
    task force estimated the number to be 500,000 but included
    nonindigenous persons in its estimate. During the same year, Amnesty
    International reported that there were approximately 60,000 IDPs, not
    counting the nonindigenous population. In 2008 the Government pledged
    assistance and reparation to those who lost their land during the
    conflict and set up a commission and task for rehabilitation of
    returnee Jumma IDPs and the elimination of military camps. According to
    IDMC, however, ``as of December 2009 there were still approximately 300
    military camps in the region, and the work of the land commission and
    task force was hindered by lack of funding and human resources.''
        The IDMC also reports that there is ``possibly a much larger number
    of members of religious minorities'' across the country who may have
    been ``forcibly displaced'' as a result of discriminatory legislation.
    The Hindu community in particular lost much of its land under the 1974
    Vested Property Act, which authorized government confiscation of
    property from individuals it deemed ``enemies of the state.'' According
    to IDMC, ``almost 750,000 Hindu families were dispossessed of
    agricultural land.'' Although the act was appealed in 2001, by year's
    end, the Government had not taken measures to provide restitution or
    compensation to those disposed of their property. There is no
    systematic reporting on the treatment of these widely scattered IDPs.
        IDPs in the CHT have limited physical security. IDMC reported that
    ``the army still holds authority over the general CHT administration,
    through an administrative order,'' and there are many reported cases of
    IDPs being subjected to arbitrary arrests, unlawful detentions,
    torture, rape, killings, and religious persecution. According to IDMC,
    ``several reports indicate that these violations of the rights of
    indigenous people by settlers, sometimes with the involvement of
    security forces, have been systematic.''
        IDPs in the CHT also lack access to courts and legal aid. According
    to the IDC, ``the CHT Commission, composed of experts from inside and
    outside Bangladesh seeking to promote respect for human rights,
    democracy, participatory development, and land rights in the Hill
    Tracts, found that the lack of information and available lawyers to
    assist the indigenous people additionally hinder their access to
    justice.
        On February 19, Bengali settlers in the Baghaihat area of Sajek
    Union in Rangamati reportedly carried out arson attacks on more than
    200 homes of indigenous IDPs. Several shops, a church, a Buddhist
    temple and a village center also were burned. At least two indigenous
    people were killed, allegedly by army personnel, and dozens were
    injured. On October 5, the CHT Commission issued a press release in
    which it recommended that the Government institute a high level
    independent inquiry into the arson attacks and killings, amend the 2001
    CHT Land Dispute Settlement Commission Act in accordance with the
    articles of the CHT Accord, and ``ensure that all future decisions of
    the Land Commission are made with the agreement of Pahari leaders who
    are members of the Commission.'' The commission also recommended the
    ``phased withdrawal of temporary military camps in the region in
    accordance with the CHT Accord'' and the full implementation of the CHT
    Accord.

        Protection of Refugees.--The country is not a party to the 1951
    Convention relating to the Status of Refugees or the 1967 Protocol. As
    a result, and in the absence of any national legislation, the law does
    not provide a legal framework for the granting of asylum or refugee
    status. The Government had no formal system for providing protection to
    refugees. In practice the Government provided some protection against
    the expulsion or return of refugees to countries where their lives or
    freedoms would be threatened on account of their race, religion,
    nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political
    opinion. The Government cooperated with the Office of the UN High
    Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and other humanitarian organizations
    in providing protection and assistance to refugees. However, delays in
    granting FD6 approvals by the Government's NGO Affairs Bureau have led
    to extended delays in allowing NGOs to operate in country and implement
    assistance programs.
        The Government continued to deny asylum to Rohingya arriving from
    Burma. The Government categorized them as illegal economic migrants and
    turned back many at the border; however, the border was porous, and
    attempts to stem the tide of migration proved unsuccessful. According
    to the UNHCR, some of the individuals who were turned back likely were
    entitled to refugee status. Some unregistered persons in UNHCR camps
    returned to the country illegally after their official repatriation to
    Burma. On a number of occasions, local police detained unregistered
    persons outside the camps and imprisoned them under the Foreigners Act.
        Working with the UNHCR, the Government provided temporary
    protection to approximately 28,000 registered Rohingya refugees at two
    official refugee camps and to individual asylum seekers that the UNHCR
    interviewed and recognized as refugees on a case-by-case basis.
    According to the UNHCR, there were some discrepancies between the
    Government's official list of registered refugees and the UNHCR's. The
    UNHCR worked to resolve these discrepancies with the Government and
    began a harmonization exercise in September, The initial results were
    mixed with UNHCR and the Government agreeing to only approximately 40
    percent of the cases, but the Government was willing to work with UNHCR
    on negotiating the cases that remained. According to international aid
    organizations active in the area, there were an estimated 200,000 to
    500,000 Rohingya not officially recognized as refugees living among the
    local population in the surrounding area of Teknaf and Cox's Bazar,
    including approximately 25,000 to 30,000 at an unofficial site adjacent
    to the official Kutupalong refugee camp. International NGOs generally
    were unable to work officially with unregistered refugees because the
    NGO Affairs Bureau refused to grant permission for such projects. There
    were no repatriations of Rohingya during the year.
        Working with the UNHCR, the Government continued to improve
    conditions in refugee camps following findings in recent years that
    sanitation, nutrition, and shelter conditions had fallen below minimum
    international standards. The Government permitted the UNHCR to build
    replacements for shelters and latrines and permitted more NGOs to work
    in the camps on skills training, education, and health for residents.
        According to the UNHCR, there were cases of abuse against refugees,
    including rape, assault, domestic abuse, deprivation of food, arbitrary
    detention, and documentation problems. However, conditions in the camps
    continued to improve as sanitation, medical, and education facilities
    were built and improved.
        As in previous years, the Government continued to ignore UNHCR
    requests to allow Rohingya refugees who were unable to return to Burma
    to work locally, obtain medical care, or attend school outside the
    camps. The Government began to allow the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) to
    operate schools through grade five in the camps. In practice, however,
    the provision of basic services from the UNHCR and other NGOs meant
    that registered refugees often received better medical care than
    individuals in surrounding villages. The Government insisted that all
    Rohingya refugees remain in camps until their return to Burma. The
    Government claimed that Rohingya refugees were not allowed to possess
    money and that money in their possession could be confiscated. In
    practice enforcement of these rules remained sporadic and depended on
    local authorities. For example, many refugees worked illegally as
    manual laborers or rickshaw pullers in the unregulated economy, and
    small numbers of students studied with the assistance of private tutors
    and participated in countrywide school exams through the high school
    level.
        The Government repeatedly rejected a UNHCR proposal to grant
    refugees rights for temporary stay and freedom of movement under a
    self-reliance program.

        Stateless Persons--In 2008 the High Court ruled that Biharis living
    in the country, once considered stateless, were citizens. Approximately
    160,000 to 200,000 non-Bengali Bihari Muslims who immigrated to the
    former East Pakistan during the 1947 partition, a large number of whom
    supported Pakistan during the 1971 war, continued to live in camps
    throughout the country. According to Refugees International, many of
    these persons lived in unsanitary conditions with little access to
    education and medical resources. Some Biharis declined citizenship in
    1972, and a minority awaited repatriation to Pakistan, where the
    Government was reluctant to accept them. Many in the Bihari community
    were born after 1972, and the vast majority of this population has been
    assimilated into the mainstream Bengali-speaking environment, although
    social barriers to upward mobility remained.
        Approximately 90 percent of all adult Biharis, or 184,000 persons,
    were registered as voters following voter registration drives prior to
    the 2008 elections.

    Section 3. Respect for Political Rights: The Right of Citizens to
            Change Their Government
        The constitution provides citizens the right to change their
    government peacefully, and citizens exercised this right in practice
    through periodic, free, and fair elections held on the basis of
    universal suffrage.
        The Representation of the People's Order (Amendment) Ordinance 2008
    significantly changed the electoral law that had been in place since
    1972, in an attempt to address corruption in politics. The major
    political parties considered some of the new provisions in the bill,
    such as the abolition of students' and women's wings and foreign
    chapters, to be undemocratic, but they accepted the changes with some
    reluctance and revised their party constitutions. Under the amended
    ordinance, candidates must reveal information about their education,
    wealth, and criminal records when they file to run for parliament. Most
    political parties submitted statements to the election commission
    outlining expenditures and sources of funds by the September deadline.
        On February 2, the Appellate Panel of the Supreme Court upheld a
    2005 high court order nullifying the Fifth Amendment to the
    constitution, which had legitimized martial law as proclaimed by
    Khandker Mushtaq Ahmed, who succeeded former president Sheikh Mujibur
    Rahman in 1975. The Supreme Court, however, retained the Fifth
    Amendment provisions that restored multiparty democracy, freedom of the
    press and the judiciary, and validated the routine government actions
    carried out by that government.
        On July 21, the parliament constituted a 15-member committee to
    review the constitution and make recommendations for further
    amendments. Opposition members of parliament (MPs) refused to join the
    committee.
        On August 26, a high court panel, in a similar judgment, nullified
    the Seventh Amendment to the constitution, which had legitimized the
    seizure of power by then army chief of staff, H.M. Ershad, from an
    elected government and his government's activities under martial law.
    As of year's end, the High Court judgment was pending review by the
    appellate panel.
        In April 2009 the parliament passed the Upazila Parishad
    (Amendment) Act to reintroduce a tier of the local government abolished
    in 1991. The act made it mandatory for the updazila parishads, or
    councils, to accept the advice of the local MP. Under the act, upazila
    parishads could not communicate directly with the central government
    without their local MP's advice. As a result, the upazila parishads
    remained largely dysfunctional, as the Government failed to give them
    clear authority to carry out administrative and development activities
    at the subdistrict level. The reluctance of bureaucrats to work under
    the authority of the elected leaders of the upazila parishads and the
    domination of the MPs were partly responsible for the slow progress of
    this tier of local government.
        The parliament had 345 members, 300 of whom were directly elected.
    The remaining 45 seats were reserved for women nominated by the
    political parties, based on their proportional representation within
    the 300-member group of directly elected MPs. Party leaders appointed
    candidates for elections, and there were allegations that wealthy
    candidates could purchase nominations from party leaders with campaign
    contributions or personal gifts.

        Elections and Political Participation.--Sheikh Hasina, leader of
    the AL, became prime minister in January 2009, following the
    parliamentary elections in 2008. The 14-party AL alliance won 230 of
    299 seats in the elections, which international and local observers
    deemed free and fair. Hasina's cabinet included representatives from
    the other parties in her coalition. Hasina replaced Fakhruddin Ahmed,
    chief advisor to the caretaker government, as the head of government.
    BNP chairperson and former prime minister Khaleda Zia became leader of
    the opposition.
        On April 24, sporadic violence, stuffing of ballot boxes, and
    intimidation of voters marred a parliamentary by-election in the
    southern district of Bhola. The ruling AL candidate won this election
    by a wide margin against his BNP rival. In contrast the June 17
    election to the Chittagong City Corporation was held peacefully and
    without any major incidents. The BNP-backed mayoral candidate narrowly
    defeated his AL-backed incumbent rival.
        Having walked out several times in the previous year, the
    opposition MPs returned to parliament on February 11 but resumed their
    boycott only a few hours later. They demanded fair treatment by the
    speaker and the ruling party legislators as preconditions for their
    return to the house. The parliament formed all 48 standing committees
    in the first session with participation from opposition parties. The
    opposition MPs continued to participate in standing committee meetings
    despite their absence from parliament.
        There were 64 women serving in parliament, 19 of them were directly
    elected. According to the law, women are eligible to contest and win
    any number of seats among the 345 MPs, but 45 seats were reserved for
    women. Six women, including Prime Minister Hasina, held the status of
    cabinet minister, including the ministers of home affairs, foreign
    affairs, and agriculture. The prime minister also retained the defense
    portfolio. Khaleda Zia, as the leader of the opposition, and Sajeda
    Chowdhury, as the deputy leader of parliament, also had the status of
    cabinet minister. Two women were appointed as state ministers, and a
    third was serving as a whip of parliament with the status of a state
    minister. In the January 22 upazila elections, 481 female vice
    chairpersons were elected to reserved positions for women. Seven of the
    95 Supreme Court judges were women.
        There was no provision to provide parliamentary seats for
    minorities. Members of minority groups constituted approximately 10.3
    percent of the population but held approximately 5 percent of seats in
    parliament.

    Section 4. Official Corruption and Government Transparency
        The law provides criminal penalties for official corruption, but
    the Government did not implement the law effectively, and officials
    frequently engaged in corrupt practices with impunity.
        Gholam Rahman, the former chair of the Bangladesh Energy Regulatory
    Commission, was appointed as the new chairman of the Anti-Corruption
    Commission (ACC) in May 2009. As in prior years, the ACC focused its
    efforts during the year on developing cases involving public persons
    who failed to disclose income.
        In previous years, the ACC filed more than 1,000 cases related to
    the endemic corruption that marked previous governments. As the ACC has
    lost much of its influence, most of these cases have been withdrawn. In
    2009 under its new chairman, the ACC filed a money-laundering case
    against Koko Rahman, the son of BNP leader Khaleda Zia. A separate
    money-laundering case was also filed against Koko Rahman and Khaleda
    Zia's other son, Tarique Rahman. Both were living outside the country
    on bail at year's end.
        According to a World Bank Country Assistance Strategy, the
    Government is trying to undercut the authority of the ACC and is
    severely hampering the prosecution of corruption throughout the
    country. The reports states that the current government has filed far
    fewer corruption cases than the caretaker government, and a government
    commission has recommended that the ACC drop thousands of corruption
    cases, mostly involving AL members. The report acknowledged that the
    Government has stated a commitment to countering corruption through
    preventive measures.
        According to Transparency International Bangladesh, the Government
    has approved an amendment that would significantly cripple the ACC. One
    provision of the amendment would require the ACC to obtain governmental
    approval before bringing proceedings against an individual. The
    proposed amendment was approved by the cabinet but was not brought to a
    vote in parliament by year's end.
        A review committee headed by the state minister for law, justice,
    and parliamentary affairs recommended the withdrawal of politically
    motivated cases that the Government and ACC filed prior to 2009. The
    committee recommended the withdrawal of approximately 1,817 cases,
    filed mostly against AL leaders, including all the cases filed against
    Sheikh Hasina. Other cases recommended for withdrawal included one case
    against BNP leader Khaleda Zia's son, Tarique Rahman; one against BNP
    leader and former law minister Moudud Ahmed; and one against Jatiya
    Party secretary general Ruhul Amin Howlader. Ahmed refused the
    Government's offer to withdraw all cases against him and demanded the
    withdrawal of all politically motivated cases against BNP leaders,
    including Khaleda Zia and her sons.
        The release of many corruption suspects continued to draw comment
    from some members of civil society, who stated that the Government was
    not serious about fighting corruption. Government leaders argued that
    the Government and the ACC would continue to pursue corruption cases
    despite the release of some suspects on bail.
        The Government took steps to address widespread police corruption.
    The inspector general of police continued to implement a new strategy,
    partially funded by international donors, for training police,
    addressing corruption, and creating a more responsive police force.
        The judiciary was subject to political pressure from the
    Government. In several cases, the appellate division overturned
    decisions granting bail to high-level corruption suspects who were
    leaders of opposition parties. Corruption remained a serious problem
    within the judiciary. Corruption was a factor in lengthy delays of
    trials, which were subject to witness tampering and intimidation of
    victims. Human rights observers contended that magistrates, attorneys,
    and court officials demanded bribes from defendants in many cases filed
    during the year.
        There were allegations that candidates could purchase nominations
    from party leaders with campaign contributions or personal gifts.
        In March 2009 parliament passed the Right to Information Act, in
    line with a lapsed 2008 ordinance promulgated by the caretaker
    government. This law effectively annulled the Official Secrets Act,
    which had denied the public access to government information.

    Section 5. Governmental Attitude Regarding International and
            Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations of Human
            Rights
        A wide variety of domestic and international human rights groups
    generally operated independently and without government restriction,
    investigating and publishing their findings on human rights cases.
    Although human rights groups often were sharply critical of the
    Government, they also practiced some self-censorship.
        The Government required all NGOs, including religious
    organizations, to register with the Ministry of Social Welfare. Local
    and international NGOs, including Odhikar, Medecines Sans Frontieres
    (MSF), Action Contre la Faim (ACF), and the American Center for
    International Labor Solidarity (ACILS), reported that the Government
    sought to impede their work, either by canceling projects or subjecting
    them to restrictive operating requirements.
        In August 2009 Odhikar received a letter from the NGO Affairs
    Bureau (NAB), the office within the prime minister's office that
    approves NGO projects, canceling its approval of a continuing human
    rights training and advocacy project. Odhikar experienced similar
    trouble gaining NAB approval for a separate project and was navigating
    the appeals process at year's end, with the case still pending.
        According to the ACILS, during the year the NAB delayed approval
    for the release of foreign funding and delayed approval for its foreign
    donation (FD) registration. Additionally the NAB canceled the FD
    approval for one of its implementing partners, the Bangladesh Center
    for Workers Solidarity (BCWS) stating that the BCWS was operating
    outside of its geographical and operational mandate.
        During the year both MSF and ACF lost their FD approval. Both
    organizations were working with Rohingya refugees in the Cox's Bazar
    district, in addition to other programs throughout the country. The
    loss of their FD approval forced both organizations to suspend much of
    their operations. The situation was not resolved by year's end.
        There were no developments in the case of RAB officers allegedly
    harassing Odhikar in 2008. According to Odhikar, the RAB continued some
    harassment of the organization during the year.
        In July 2009 parliament passed the National Human Rights Commission
    Act, reconstituting the country's seven-member Human Rights Commission.
    The new commissioner, Mizanur Rahman, pledged to address all human
    rights violations, with emphasis on extrajudicial killings; however,
    the commission was not fully functional by year's end.

    Section 6. Discrimination, Societal Abuses, and Trafficking in Persons
        Laws specifically prohibit certain forms of discrimination against
    women, provide special procedures for persons accused of violence
    against women and children, call for harsh penalties, provide
    compensation to victims, and require action against investigating
    officers for negligence or willful failure of duty; however.
    enforcement of these laws was weak. In 2003 parliament passed an
    amendment to the law, weakening provisions for dowry crimes and
    addressing the issue of suicides of female victims of acts of dishonor.
    Women, children, minority groups, and persons with disabilities were
    often confronted with social and economic disadvantages.

        Women.--The law prohibits rape and physical spousal abuse but makes
    no specific provision for spousal rape. According to Odhikar, there
    were 556 reported incidents of rape against females during the year,
    including 308 against female children. According to human rights
    monitors, the actual number of rape cases was higher because many rape
    victims did not report the incidents due to social stigma. Prosecution
    of rapists was not consistent. Of the 556 rape victims, 93 were victims
    of gang rape; 30 were killed after their rape. According to ASK, there
    were only 323 rape cases filed during the year.
        According to the Daily Jugantor, on May 17, a health worker raped a
    mentally disabled woman in the village of Aliyara in Comilla. The local
    community detained the perpetrator, but police freed him after he paid
    a 50,000 taka ($725) fine.
        According to Odhikar and the Bengali-language Shamakal newspaper,
    on July 5, several students affiliated with the AL's Chhatra League
    abducted a female student in the village of Kaharta in Tangail. The
    students raped her while accomplices filmed the incident. The victim
    filed a case with the local police station, and one of the perpetrators
    was arrested; however, the leader of the group was not arrested.
        According to Odhikar, on October 18, three or four men raped a
    mentally disabled teenager from Bhuiyanbagh area in Narayanganj city,
    while she was on her way to her father's grocery shop. The men,
    including one named Rassel, raped her and videotaped the incident.
    After this assault, the criminals demanded 20,000 taka ($666) from the
    victim's family.
        In October parliament passed the Domestic Violence (Protection and
    Prevention) Bill, which criminalized domestic violence. Women's rights
    groups previously criticized the Government for its inaction on the
    issue, which was widespread and increased during the year, although
    data quantifying it was difficult to obtain. After the passage of the
    bill, critics expressed doubts about its effectiveness. A 2000 study by
    the UN Population Fund indicated that at least 50 percent of women
    experienced domestic violence at least once in their lives. The
    Bangladesh National Women Lawyers' Association (BNWLA) filed 1,721
    cases related to violence against women during the year and received
    over 6,000 reports of violence against women. Most efforts to combat
    domestic violence were funded by NGOs with little assistance from the
    Government. Some of the reported violence against women was related to
    disputes over dowries. There was an increase in the number of dowry-
    related killings during the year. ASK reported 395 cases of dowry-
    related violence, including physical torture, acid attacks, and
    killings-an increase from 227 the previous year. There are no adequate
    support groups for victims of domestic violence.
        According to the Daily Star, on September 4, police arrested Delwar
    Hossain, a resident of Dhaka, for beating his wife to death over a
    failed dowry payment. Her family was able to file a case for the
    murder, which continued at year's end.
        In July 2009 according to media reports, a man beat his wife and
    allegedly forced her to drink poison in Narsingdi. The woman died on
    the way to the hospital; her husband claimed she had committed suicide.
    When the wife's relatives confronted the husband about her death, he
    allegedly attacked them, seriously injuring six men. According to
    relatives, the husband regularly beat his wife because he was upset
    that he had not received a dowry from her parents. A case was filed
    with police and was pending at year's end.
        NGOs such as the BNWLA operated facilities to provide shelter to
    destitute persons and distressed women and children. According to the
    BSEHR, persons in ``safe custody'' were no longer housed in prisons.
    Courts sent most of them to shelter homes. In a few cases, they were
    sent to prison as a transit destination for short periods.
        A 2001 high court ruling banned fatwas (religious edicts). Islamic
    tradition dictated that only those muftis (religious scholars) with
    expertise in Islamic law were authorized to declare a fatwa. Despite
    these restrictions, village religious leaders sometimes made such a
    declaration in an individual case and called the declaration a fatwa.
    Such declarations could result in extrajudicial punishments, often
    against women for alleged moral transgressions. On May 24, the High
    Court ruled that extrajudicial punishments consistent with Sharia law
    were illegal and ordered that passages discouraging such punishment be
    added to school textbooks.
        Incidents of vigilantism against women--sometimes led by religious
    leaders by means of fatwas--occurred. According to ASK, 22 incidents of
    vigilante justice against women occurred during the year, and only four
    incidents resulted in police action. The punishments included whipping,
    beating, and other forms of physical violence.
        According to the Bengali-language Prothom Alo, on May 19, three
    imams in the village of Purbohati in Brahmanbaria issued a fatwa
    demanding that a 17-year-old girl be whipped 101 times and exiled from
    the village for an alleged extramarital affair. No punishment was
    included for the man involved in the affair. The girl lost
    consciousness after 25 lashes. The president of the local AL chapter
    presided over the arbitration that resulted in the fatwa.
        According to Odhikar, on August 3, the husband and in-laws of a
    homemaker in Jatrabari allegedly killed her after a sonogram confirmed
    that she was pregnant with a female child. Her husband, Mohammad Sohel,
    and his family members, killed her through repeated physical abuse. She
    also was previously mistreated periodically due to dowry demands.
        In May 2009 a fatwa committee in Bitteshwar union ordered a 26-
    year-old woman whipped 100 times, according to the Daily Star. The
    woman, an unwed mother, sought to have her son's paternity socially
    acknowledged, a claim the alleged father denied. The woman was whipped
    until she lost consciousness; at this point, village leaders asked her
    father to tie her hands as they continued to whip her. Police filed
    cases against six men, but only three were arrested. The trial was
    pending at year's end.
        Acid attacks remained a serious problem. Assailants threw acid in
    the faces of victims--usually women--and left them disfigured and often
    blind. Acid attacks often related to allegations of spousal infidelity.
    During the year according to Odhikar, 137 persons were attacked with
    acid. Of these victims, 84 of the victims were women, 32 were men, and
    16 were children.
        According to Odhikar, a housewife in the village of Ilishpur in
    Shatkhira was attacked with acid, doused with gasoline, and set on fire
    after she filed for divorce on the grounds of persistent domestic
    abuse. The victim was admitted to Khulna Hospital and died of her
    injuries. A case was filed, and two of the three perpetrators were
    arrested. The case continued at year's end.
        The law provides for speedier prosecutions of acid-throwing cases
    in special tribunals and generally does not allow bail. The Women and
    Child Repression Control Act seeks to control the availability of acid
    and reduce acid-related violence directed toward women, but lack of
    awareness of the law and poor enforcement limited the law's effect.
    According to the Acid Survivors Foundation, the special tribunals were
    not entirely effective; prosecutors were able to obtain a conviction in
    an estimated 10 to 12 percent of attacks each year.
        Deputy Attorney General Rajik Al Jalil has stated that the
    guidelines covered verbal abuse and physical attacks, including the
    sending of suggestive text messages. Sexual harassment in schools,
    workplaces, and in other public spaces remained a problem during the
    year. A study published in May 2009 by the Journal of Interpersonal
    Violence found that out of 5,106 unmarried adolescent girls in rural
    areas surveyed in 2004, 35 percent experienced harassment, 34 percent
    experienced unwanted sexual attention, and 14 percent experienced
    sexual intimidation.
        Reproductive health information was freely available, but income
    and education often served as barriers to access. Pharmacies carried a
    wide range of family planning options; however, traditional family
    roles often hindered free access.
        According to 2008 UN estimates, the maternal mortality rate in the
    country is 340 deaths per 100,000 live births. The World Health
    Organization noted some of the major causes of maternal death,
    including postpartum hemorrhage, obstructed labor, eclampsia,
    postpartum sepsis, and violence or injuries. According to the
    Government's 2007 Demographic and Health Survey, approximately 85
    percent of women give birth at home, and only 18 percent had access to
    a skilled birth attendant. Sixty percent of women attended one of four
    recommended prenatal visits; only 21 percent attended all four. Only 30
    percent of women attend one or more postnatal visits. Most of the
    programs offered by the Government and NGOS to prevent and treat HIV/
    AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases were focused on women.
        Women remained in a subordinate position in society, and the
    Government did not act effectively to protect their basic rights. For
    example, inheritance laws comply with the religion of the parties
    involved. Under traditional Islamic inheritance laws, daughters
    inherited only half that of sons, and, in the absence of sons, they may
    inherit only what remains after settling all debts and other
    obligations. Under Hindu inheritance laws, a widow's rights to her
    deceased husband's property are limited to her lifetime and revert to
    the male heirs upon her death.
        Employment opportunities increased at a greater rate for women than
    for men in the last decade, largely due to the growth of the export
    garment industry. Women constituted approximately 80 percent of garment
    factory workers. There were some disparities in pay in the overall
    economy between men and women, but in the garments sector wages were
    roughly comparable.
        In September 2009 the AL government vowed to reinstate the National
    Women's Development Policy that the previous AL government established
    in 1997. The policy's features included reservation of seats for women
    in parliament, initiatives to appoint women in senior posts in the
    administration and in all spheres of employment, and greater legal
    measures to end discrimination against women. There were no further
    developments at year's end.

        Children.--The Government, with the assistance of local and foreign
    NGOs, worked to improve children's rights and welfare, enabling the
    country to make significant progress in improving children's health,
    nutrition, and education. Despite some progress, a 2009 Household Food
    Security and Nutrition Assessment jointly conducted by the Government,
    the World Food Program, and UNICEF found that 48.6 percent of all
    children remained chronically malnourished.
        The law does not grant citizenship automatically by birth within
    the country. Individuals become citizens if they, their fathers, or
    grandfathers were born in the territories that are now part of the
    country. If a person qualifies for citizenship through ancestry, the
    father or grandfather must have been a permanent resident of these
    territories on March 25, 1971. Birth registrations were available only
    to approximately 10 percent of the population.
        Primary education was free and compulsory, but the implementation
    of compulsory education fell short, in part because parents kept
    children out of school to work for money or help with household chores.
    Government incentives to families that sent children to school
    contributed significantly to the rise in primary school enrollments in
    recent years. Despite these efforts and contrary to established
    policies, public schools imposed fees that were burdensome for poor
    families and created a disincentive to attend school.
        Although the legal age of marriage is 18 years old for women and 21
    years old for men, underage marriage was a widespread problem. Reliable
    statistics concerning underage marriage were difficult to find because
    marriage registrations were sporadic and birth registrations rare. A
    local human rights NGO, Mass Line Media, concluded from a 2004 survey
    that an estimated 40 percent of all marriages could be considered child
    marriages. There was no indication that this had changed in the time
    since the survey was taken. In an effort to reduce child marriages, the
    Government offered stipends for girls' school expenses if parents
    promised to delay their daughters' marriage until at least the age of
    18.
        According to human rights monitors, child abandonment, kidnapping,
    and trafficking continued to be serious and widespread problems.
    Despite advances, including a monitoring agency in the Ministry of Home
    Affairs, trafficking of children continued to be a problem.
        Child labor remained a problem in certain industries, mostly in the
    informal sector. It frequently resulted in the abuse of children,
    mainly through mistreatment by employers during domestic service.
    According to a 2006 study by the Bangladesh Institute of Labor Studies,
    attacks on children constituted more than 50 percent of the deaths,
    injuries, and sexual assaults reported among domestic workers during
    the year.
        The country is not a party to the 1980 Hague Convention on the
    Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. For information on
    international parental child abduction, please see the Department of
    State's annual report on compliance at http://travel.state.gov/
    abduction/resources/congressreport/congressreport--4308.html.

        Anti-Semitism.--There was no Jewish community in the country, and
    there were no reports of anti-Semitic acts against locals, but some
    newspapers occasionally printed anti-Semitic articles and commentary.

        Trafficking in Persons.--For information on trafficking in persons,
    please see the State Department's annual Trafficking in Persons Report,
    which can be found at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        Persons With Disabilities.--The law provides for equal treatment
    and freedom from discrimination for persons with disabilities; in
    practice persons with disabilities faced social and economic
    discrimination. The law focuses on prevention of disability, treatment,
    education, rehabilitation and employment, transport accessibility, and
    advocacy.
        The Ministry of Social Welfare, the Department of Social Services,
    and the National Foundation for the Development of the Disabled were
    the Government agencies responsible for protecting the rights of
    persons with disabilities. Government facilities for treating persons
    with mental disabilities were inadequate. Several private initiatives
    existed for medical and vocational rehabilitation, as well as for
    employment of persons with disabilities, Several NGOs including
    Handicap International have programs focusing on helping and raising
    awareness about the persons with disabilities. Persons with
    disabilities were legally afforded the same access to information
    rights as those without disabilities; however, family dynamics often
    influenced whether or not these rights were used.

        Indigenous People.--Indigenous populations had marginal ability to
    influence decisions concerning the use of their lands. There was some
    progress in the implementation of the 1997 CHT Peace Accord. The
    Government reconstituted the CHT Land Commission, which announced its
    decision to conduct a land survey beginning in October 2009; however,
    indigenous rights groups have criticized this decision since they
    believe Bengali settlers will be able to obtain false documents
    detailing ownership of traditionally indigenous lands. The National
    Committee for Implementation of the CHT Peace Accord also was
    reconstituted, with Deputy Leader of Parliament Sajeda Chowdhury as
    chairman, on December 27, the National Committee for the Implementation
    of the Chittagong Hill Tracts Peace Accords, suspended the activities
    of the land commission pending further review, the Government ceded
    some key functions, such as primary education, to local authorities,
    but it did not cede responsibility for other key functions, such as
    land use and natural resources as the accord specified. Law and order
    problems and alleged human rights violations continued, as did
    dissatisfaction with the implementation of the peace accord.
        The Government allowed some cell phone and Internet coverage to the
    three Hill Tract districts in 2008. Although the Government cited
    security concerns as the reason for limiting coverage, human rights
    groups and local officials claimed lack of coverage was also aimed at
    stunting the development of the region. The land commission dealing
    with land disputes between ethnically indigenous individuals and
    Bengali settlers did not function effectively in addressing critical
    land disputes after the signing of the peace accord. Indigenous leaders
    remained disappointed with the lack of assistance to those who left the
    area during the insurgency.
        In 2007 the Government withdrew 16 temporary camps of security
    forces in the Rangamati area of the Hill Tracts. Since the signing of
    the 1997 Peace Agreement, the Government had withdrawn 212 camps,
    leaving approximately 235 camps. During the year indigenous leaders
    continued to protest the army's presence and called publicly called for
    its removal.
        The conflict continued between the Parbattya Chattagram Jono
    Sanghati Samity, which signed the 1997 Peace Agreement with the
    Government, and the United Peoples' Democratic Front , which opposed
    the peace agreement.
        On February 19 and 20, according to NGO and press reports, there
    were a number of skirmishes between Bengali settlers and the indigenous
    community in Baghaihat in the Chittagong Hill Tracts. During the
    incidents, parties set fire to several homes and attacked the residents
    with sticks and firearms, resulting in the deaths of two indigenous
    persons. A report by the Chittagong Hill Tracts Commission alleged that
    army personnel were present during the attacks but did not attempt to
    restore peace. The Government immediately responded by moving several
    senior officers from of the area; however, there were no arrests.
        Indigenous communities in other areas continued to report loss of
    land to Bengali Muslims. The Government neither cancelled work on
    national park projects on land traditionally owned by indigenous
    communities in the Moulvibazar and Modhupur forest areas, nor did it
    undertake any new activities. In addition indigenous communities, local
    human rights organizations, and churches in the area continued to claim
    the Government had yet to withdraw thousands of false charges the
    Forestry Department filed against indigenous residents.

        Societal Abuses, Discrimination, and Acts of Violence Based on
    Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.--Homosexual acts remained
    illegal, but in practice the law was rarely enforced. There were a few
    informal support networks for gay men, but organizations to assist
    lesbians were rare. Informal organizations reported that they were
    unable to organize, do outreach, petition for changes to the law, or
    set up permanent establishments because of the possibility of police
    raids. One gay rights organization stated that gay men and lesbians
    also often faced extreme family pressure to marry opposite sex
    partners.
        Attacks on lesbians and gay men occurred on occasion, but those
    offenses were difficult to document because victims desired
    confidentiality. Strong social stigma based on sexual orientation was
    common and repressed open discussion about the subject. Local human
    rights groups did not monitor the problem, and there were few studies
    on homosexuality in the country.
        Although overt discrimination against lesbians, gays, bisexuals,
    and transgender individuals was fairly rare--partly because few
    individuals openly identified their orientation--there was significant
    societal discrimination. Openly gay individuals, particularly those
    from less affluent backgrounds, found that their families and local
    communities ostracized them. Some sought refuge in the transgender or
    ``hijra'' community.

        Other Societal Violence or Discrimination.--There were no reported
    cases of violence or discrimination against HIV/AIDS patients. NGOs
    believed that this was partly a function of the refusal of victims to
    self-identify and an absence of research given the relatively low rate
    of HIV/AIDS in the country.

    Section 7. Worker Rights
        a. The Right of Association.--The law provides for the right to
    join unions and, with government approval, the right to form a union,
    although numerous restrictions on union registration remained. For
    example, the law requires more than 30 percent of an enterprise's total
    workforce to be members before approval, and the union can be dissolved
    if membership falls below 30 percent; no more than three trade unions
    can be registered in any establishment; and managerial staff and other
    employees designated by employers as ``confidential'' may not join
    unions.
        Civil service and security force employees were legally prohibited
    from forming unions. In 2006 new categories of workers, including
    teachers and NGO workers, were permitted to form unions; however, due
    to the broad limitations on union organizing during the state of
    emergency, these regulations were not formally instituted.
        The total labor force was approximately 50 million, of whom
    approximately 1.9 million belonged to unions, many of which were
    affiliated with political parties. There were approximately 4,000
    garment factories employing 2.5 million workers; more than 80 percent
    were women. No reliable labor statistics were available for the large
    informal sector in which the majority (nearly 80 percent) of citizens
    worked.
        The 2006 Bangladesh Labor Act (BLA) consolidated laws from 25
    separate acts into one comprehensive law. The director of labor is
    responsible for the registration and dissolution of unions The
    registrar of trade unions may deregister unions with the approval of
    the labor court and, during the year, some unions were deregistered,
    primarily for labor law violations. The law afforded unions the right
    of appeal in the case of dissolution or denial of registration.
        The law recognized the right to strike; however, many restrictions
    on this right remained. For example, 75 percent of union membership
    must consent to a strike before it can proceed. The Government can shut
    down any strikes lasting more than 30 days and refer the matter to
    labor courts for adjudication. In addition strikes are banned for the
    first three years of commercial production or if the factory was built
    with foreign investment or owned by a foreign investor. In practice few
    strikes followed legal requirements, which are cumbersome; strikes or
    walk-outs often occurred based on the spontaneous decisions of workers.
        The Government filed cases against some striking labor leaders and
    workers for destruction of property, blocking roads, or for labor
    unrest, stemming from the June and December minimum wage-related
    protests (see section 7e). These cases remained unresolved as of year's
    end.
        Throughout the year, labor organizers reported acts of intimidation
    and abuse, as well as increased scrutiny by security forces and the
    National Security Intelligence Agency. Sporadic, occasionally intense,
    labor unrest occurred throughout the country, particularly in the
    ready-made garment sector. Labor organizers reported frequent acts of
    intimidation and abuse, arbitrary lock outs, firing of employees, and
    increased scrutiny by security forces. Authorities sometimes arrested
    labor organizers for destruction of property and other charges, in what
    some NGOs considered repression of labor rights activists. In June the
    NGO Affairs Bureau did not renew the foreign donation approval of the
    Bangladesh Center for Workers' Solidarity (BCWS) asserting that the
    BCWS had violated its terms of registration; however, the BCWS was
    unable to use proper channels to appeal the decision, and its
    registration status remained in limbo at year's end. In August three
    BCWS leaders were arrested for alleged involvement in the violent
    unrest following the ready-made garment minimum wage announcement. They
    were released on bail, and their trial was pending as of year's end.
        The law establishes mechanisms for conciliation, arbitration, and
    labor court dispute resolution. Workers have the right to strike in the
    event of a failure to reach settlement. The Government filed cases
    against some striking labor leaders and workers for destruction of
    property, blocking roads, or for labor unrest stemming from the minimum
    wage announcement. The cases remain unresolved as of year's end. Civil
    servants and security forces have little recourse for grievances;
    however, they can file cases in the regular court system.
        Unions were highly politicized but were independent of the
    Government and were strongest in state-owned enterprises, including
    jute mills, textile mills, chemical industries, and the Government-run
    Port of Chittagong.

        b. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively.--The law
    protects the rights of workers to organize and bargain collectively
    without interference, but this right was not always effectively
    enforced. The BLA includes provisions protecting unions from employer
    interference in organizing activities; however, employers often sought
    to curtail this right, particularly in the ready-made garment industry.
    Implementation of the law's provisions was uneven and many private
    sector employers discouraged union activity. There were reports that
    employers in the shrimp and fish processing plants in Khulna fired
    workers over union activities. Many workers appealed their termination
    and the dispute continued at year's end.
        The Director of Labor ruled on union-organizing discrimination
    complaints except in Export Processing Zones (EPZs). Throughout the
    year, the Labor Court ordered reinstatement of workers who had been
    fired for union activities, but a large backlog of unresolved cases
    remained. The majority of workers in such cases, however, sought
    financial compensation rather than reinstatement. Increasingly, labor
    disputes were settled informally prior to scheduled hearing dates in
    the labor court.
        Under the BLA, legally registered unions are entitled to bargain
    collectively with employers; however, this was rarely implemented in
    practice. The BLA simplified and clarified the procedure for selecting
    a collective bargaining agent and specified time limits for steps in
    the process. Labor organizations reported that in some companies,
    workers feared reprisals and did not exercise their collective
    bargaining rights.
        Overall, labor conditions in the EPZs improved somewhat, although
    the legal situation continued to be questionable. In August parliament
    passed the EPZ Workers' Welfare Society and Industrial Relations Act
    (EWWSIRA), which, among other things, specifies association rights in
    the EPZs. Under EWWSIRA Workers Representation and Welfare Committees
    (WRWC) formed under the previous law expire four years after their
    constitution. In place of the WRWCs, workers were to form Workers
    Welfare Societies (WWS), although EWWSIRA did not set a date for the
    elections of the leadership of the new WWSs. Under EWWSIRA, the WWSs
    have many of the same basic powers as workers' associations, including
    the right to strike and engage in collective bargaining. The EPZ will
    expire in 2013, and the Government declared a minimum wage for shrimp
    sector workers. The date for the elections of the leadership of these
    new WWSs, an issue never fully resolved for WRWCs, was not set. The
    EWWSIRA also determined that until a separate labor tribunal was
    established for the EPZs, the present Labor Court would function as the
    EPZ Labor Tribunal, EPZ workers can file complaints to enforce broader
    legal rights in the EPZs.
        WWSs are prohibited from establishing any connection to outside
    political parties or NGOs. Under the previous law, no provision barring
    affiliation with NGOs had existed. It was unclear if the EWWSIRA will
    allow several existing labor and health organization programs to
    continue to operate in the EPZs. Additionally the EWWSIRA prohibited
    strikes in the EPZs until October 31, 2013. Despite the ban, worker
    unrest in the Chittagong EPZ in mid-December shut the EPZ for several
    days. Some labor groups welcomed the EWWSIRA while others protested its
    measures and pushed for full rights for unions in the EPZs.
        In November 2009 the labor law was amended to limit trade union
    activities at the Chittagong and Mongla ports, Under the amendment,
    each port can only have one trade union, which had to be organized
    within six months of the day of enactment of the amendment. All
    existing trade union bodies were to be dissolved. Only workers who had
    completed one year's service could be registered as members of these
    trade unions.
        Many workers associations were not formally registered because
    employees attempting to organize associations faced difficulties from
    some factory owners. Some factory managers strongly discouraged workers
    from meeting outside labor groups and sometimes terminated workers who
    did.
        Federations of workers associations within the EPZ were permitted,
    but federations with enterprises in other EPZs or with enterprises
    outside EPZs were banned.
        EPZ officials had interpreted EWAIRA regulations and applicable
    laws narrowly and claimed they were exempt from the broader labor law.
    Labor groups challenged this claim. Workers filed legal cases against
    EPZ factories that did not follow the BLA, and they remain unresolved.
    In 2008 the Government amended the labor law to make it illegal for a
    trade union office to be located inside or within 200 meters of any
    industrial institution or group of institutions. Therefore, any trade
    union offices within these limits had to be moved within three months
    of the date that the amendment was implemented. In November 2009 the
    BLA was amended to reduce the penalty for persons who violate the law.
    Labor activists protested this amendment, alleging it had been intended
    to favor the employers, although there was no strict enforcement of the
    law.

        c. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor.--The penal code
    prohibits forced or bonded labor; however, the prescribed penalty of
    imprisonment for up to one year or a fine was not sufficiently
    stringent to deter the offense, and the Government did not enforce the
    prohibitions effectively. The BLA created inspection mechanisms to
    strengthen laws against forced labor, but these laws were not enforced.
        Some Bangladeshi men who are recruited for work overseas with
    fraudulent employment offers are subsequently exploited under
    conditions of forced labor or debt bondage abroad.
        Though relatively uncommon in urban areas, bonded labor remained
    common in rural areas and in domestic service. Bangladeshi children and
    adults are forced into domestic servitude and bonded labor, including
    restricted movement, nonpayment of wages, threats, and physical or
    sexual abuse. Faced with extreme poverty and unemployment, rural
    workers, including entire families, were engaged in bonded labor, often
    facing physical abuse and sometimes death. Also see the Department of
    State's annual Trafficking in Persons Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        d. Prohibition of Child Labor and Minimum Age for Employment.--
    Under the law every child must attend school through grade five or the
    age of 10 years, but there is no effective legal mechanism to enforce
    this provision, and child labor is widespread. The BLA regulates child
    employment depending on the type of work and the child's age. In 2006
    the International Labor Organization (ILO) estimated that of the 2.2
    million workers in 45 targeted hazardous sectors, 532,000 child workers
    between the ages of five and 17 performed hazardous labor.
        During the year Services and Solutions International, a Dhaka-based
    research institution, found children frequently worked in the informal
    sector in industries like road transport, such as rickshaw pulling,
    automotive repair, and minibus assistance; in machine shops, salt and
    match factories, and tanneries; and in the manufacturing of bricks,
    cigarettes, dried fish, footwear, steel furniture, glass, textiles,
    garments, and soap. Children were engaged in the following hazardous
    activities: printing, fabrication, stone breaking, dyeing operations,
    blacksmith assistance, and construction. Children also worked in the
    service industry in hotels and restaurants. According to a 2003
    government survey of urban areas, street children, mostly boys, engaged
    in various forms of work, such as begging, portering, shining shoes,
    collecting paper, and selling flowers. Boys and girls, often those
    living on the streets, were exploited in illicit activities, including
    smuggling and trading arms and drugs.
        Children routinely performed domestic work. The Government
    occasionally brought criminal charges against employers who abused
    domestic servants. In 2009 the ILO and the Bangladesh Bureau of
    Statistics completed a baseline survey on commercial sexual
    exploitation of children. According to the survey, among 18,902 child
    victims of sexual exploitation, 83 percent were girls, 9 percent
    transgender children, and 8 percent boys. Forty percent of the girls
    and 53 percent of the boys were below the age of 16. Fourteen percent
    of the girls and 6x percent of the boys were trafficking victims.
        The Ministry of Labor's enforcement mechanisms were insufficient
    for the large, urban informal sector, and there was little enforcement
    of child labor legislation outside the export garment and shrimp
    processing sectors. The law specifies penalties for child labor
    violations, typically nominal fines of less than 5,000 taka ($80).
    Agriculture and other informal sectors that had no government oversight
    employed large numbers of children.
        In 2008 the Government, with ILO support, established a child labor
    unit at the Ministry of Labor and Employment to coordinate planning and
    execution of all child-related labor interventions.
        Also see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons
    Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        e. Acceptable Conditions of Work.--For the five year period 2007-
    12, the National Minimum Wage Board (NMWB) established the minimum
    monthly wage at 1,800 taka ($25.33) for all economic sectors not
    covered by industry-specific wages. The NMWB convenes every five years
    in a tripartite forum to set wages and benefits industry by industry.
    In the garment industry, the Ministry of Labor raised the minimum wage
    in June from 1,662 taka ($24) per month to 3,000 taka ($44) per month;
    however, wages were sometimes higher than the minimum wage. Workers had
    demanded a minimum wage increase to 5,000 taka ($73) per month, and the
    announcement of the lower figure triggered some unrest throughout the
    country but centered in Dhaka from late June through July. Wages in the
    EPZs were typically higher than general national wage levels. None of
    the set minimum wages provided a sufficient standard of living for
    urban dwellers. It was common practice for garment factories to force
    workers to work overtime, delay their pay for months, and deny full
    leave benefits. In May 2009 the Government declared a minimum wage for
    shrimp sector workers. The minimum monthly wage was 2,510 taka ($36).
        On December 12, garment workers protesting implementation of the
    minimum wage increase in the Chittagong EPZ clashed with police,
    leaving four persons dead including one rickshaw puller. The protests
    caused a one-day shutdown of the Chittagong EPZ. After the December 12
    violence, the Government decided to form a tripartite steering
    committee to oversee the implementation of the new pay scale and
    replaced the chair of the Bangladesh Export Processing Zone Authority.
        The BLA established occupational health and safety standards.
    Workers groups stated that legally established standards were
    sufficient, but they were rarely implemented. Workers may resort to
    legal action for enforcement of the law's provisions, but few cases
    were pursued legally. Enforcement by the Labor Ministry's industrial
    inspectors was weak, due to the low number of labor inspectors.
    Inspections were unannounced, but, in many cases, labor groups alleged
    that factory owners in collusion with inspectors received advance
    warning. There were 95 inspectors serving nationwide and 59 vacant
    positions. Many workers alleged there was systemic and endemic
    corruption and inefficiency among inspectors.
        Safety conditions at many workplaces were extremely poor. Because
    of high unemployment rates and inadequate enforcement of laws, workers
    demanding redress of dangerous working conditions or who refused to
    work under hazardous conditions risked losing their jobs. According to
    a report during the year by SweatFree Communities, during the first six
    months of the year, 356 garment workers were killed in work-related
    incidents arising from unsafe work environments. The report singled out
    the garment sector for deadly fires and the collapse of buildings,
    including a February fire at the Garib and Garib Sweater Factory in
    Dhaka that killed 21 workers; locked exits that prevented workers from
    escaping the factory contributed to the death toll. On December 14, a
    fire at a factory owned by the Ha-Mim Group at Ashulia in Savar killed
    at least 31 persons; blocked exits and allegedly locked doors
    contributed to the death toll in this case as well, as some workers
    jumped to their deaths from the ninth and 10th floors.
        A standard workday is eight hours, but workers may work 10 hours a
    day in certain instances. Overtime is permitted, but the employer must
    pay double the basic wage and other allowances and interim wages for
    the overtime work. A standard workweek is 48 hours but can be extended
    up to 60 hours, subject to the payment of overtime allowances. By law
    the average workweek should not exceed 56 hours. Workers must have one
    hour of rest if they work for more than six hours a day, a half-hour of
    rest for more than five hours a day, and one hour's rest at intervals
    for more than eight hours' work in a day. Factory workers receive one
    day off every week. Shop workers receive one and a half days off per
    week.
        In practice these legal limits were routinely violated and
    enforcement of these provisions was weak. In the ready-made garment
    sector, employers often required workers to work 12 hours a day or more
    to meet export deadlines, but they did not always properly compensate
    workers for their time. It was common practice for employers to delay
    workers' pay for months and deny full leave benefits,
        Forced labor among Bangladeshi workers overseas remained common, in
    part because the Government failed to exert effective controls on high
    recruitment fees and other forms of fraudulent recruitment.

                                   __________

                                     BHUTAN

        Bhutan is a democratic, constitutional monarchy with a population
    of approximately 700,000. The king, Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, is
    the head of state, and executive power is vested in the cabinet, headed
    by Prime Minister, Jigme Thinley. The country held its first general
    election for the National Assembly in 2008. A European Union monitoring
    team reported that the elections generally met international standards,
    although the team noted problems with freedom of expression and
    association during the campaign. Security forces reported to civilian
    authorities.
        Principal human rights problems included the regulation of religion
    and discrimination against the Nepali-speaking minority.

                            RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

    Section 1. Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom
            From:
        a. Arbitrary or Unlawful Deprivation of Life.--There were no
    reports that the Government or its agents committed arbitrary or
    unlawful killings.

        b. Disappearance.--During the year there were no reports of
    politically motivated disappearances.
        The UN Human Rights Council's Working Group on Enforced or
    Involuntary Disappearances reported that it retransmitted five
    outstanding cases of disappearance from 2003 to the Government between
    November 14, 2009 and November 12; however, the Government had not
    responded by year's end. The cases were first transmitted to the
    Government in 2004. Four cases involved alleged members of the illegal
    United Liberation Front of Assam who were reportedly arrested by the
    country's army and subsequently handed over to the Indian Army. The
    fifth case concerned the publicity secretary of the National Democratic
    Front of Bodoland who was reportedly arrested by the army at a hotel in
    Thimphu and subsequently disappeared.

        c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or
    Punishment.--The law prohibits such practices, but the South Asia Human
    Rights Documentation Center (SAHRDC) received anecdotal information
    from Indian border towns that the Government detained Maoist leaders
    and denied them food and medical treatment.
        Prison guards used torture on inmates. In a letter to Nebahat
    Albayrak, the chairwoman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House
    of Representatives in The Hague, the Bhutanese community in the
    Netherlands alleged that in the country's prisons ``.torture is
    extreme. Torture through mind control devices, electric ironing at the
    back, beating on the soles of the feet, hanging with heads down, water
    boarding, and wheel on the neck is common.'' The letter cited the case
    of Tek Nath Rizal, who reportedly spent 10 years in prison and alleged
    that beatings ``were routinely carried out on a daily basis.and
    [detainees] were also forced to fight against each other..They were
    tied to a post outside the jail compound and left overnight in freezing
    temperatures.''

        Prison and Detention Center Conditions.--Inmates and members of
    civil society reported that prison conditions generally were
    satisfactory, and buildings and installations were in fairly good
    condition. According to the 1982 Prison Act, men and women should be
    detained separately, and juveniles (younger than 18) should be kept
    separate from adults. NGOs were unable to confirm reports that
    officials did not observe these provisions during the year.
        Visitors were allowed reasonable access to prisoners and detainees.
    The Government allowed visitors from the refugee camps in Nepal access
    to prisoners in Chamgang Prison near Thimphu by providing them with
    transport to and from the India-Bhutan border.
        In June the Government released a report on prisons to the National
    Assembly's Human Rights Committee. The report's recommendations
    included: improving infrastructure and facilities; building separate
    prison facilities for men, women, and juvenile delinquents; reducing
    overcrowding; establishing vocational training; and providing
    healthcare. While there were reports that prisons, with the exception
    of Chamgang, were in poor condition, there were no reports specifying
    inadequate provisions for sanitation, ventilation, temperature,
    lighting, basic and emergency medical care, and access to potable
    water. Authorities allowed prisoners to observe religious practices in
    Chamgang Prison.
        The Government continued to extend the International Committee of
    the Red Cross (ICRC) prison visits program. During the year the ICRC
    visited 86 persons held at Chamgang Prison. However, the Government did
    not grant other international human rights groups prison access.

        d. Arbitrary Arrest or Detention.--The law prohibits arbitrary
    arrest and detention, and the Government generally observed these
    prohibitions. However, the SAHRDC stated that its contacts in the
    country reported officials continued to detain 50 members of the Bhutan
    Communist Party Marxist-Leninist-Maoist, who were arrested in
    connection with bombings in 2008. No new information was available
    regarding their whereabouts or whether the Government brought official
    charges against them.

        Role of the Police and Security Apparatus.--The Royal Bhutan Police
    (RBP) agency, which reports to the Ministry of Home and Cultural
    Affairs, is responsible for internal security. The Royal Bhutan Army is
    responsible for external threats but also has responsibility for some
    internal security functions, including conducting counterinsurgency
    operations, guarding forests, and providing security for prominent
    persons. The army and police both have procedures in place for
    conducting internal investigations of alleged officer misconduct;
    official courts of inquiry adjudicate the allegations. The king or
    other senior official makes the final determination of the outcome of a
    case. There were no reports that impunity was a problem.
        The Government adopted the Royal Bhutan Police Act in 2009 to
    address human rights abuses by police. Under the act a Police Service
    Board, made up of senior police personnel, and a Ministry of Home and
    Cultural Affairs representative investigate cases of abuse. Police
    officers can face criminal prosecution for human rights violations. The
    RBP has institutional reviews, human rights training for its personnel,
    and accountability procedures. There were no reported incidents in
    which security forces failed to prevent or respond to societal
    violence.

        Arrest Procedures and Treatment While in Detention.--Under the law
    police may not arrest a person without a warrant, and in practice
    police generally respected the law. According to the law authorities
    must issue an immediate statement of charges and engage in reasonable
    efforts to inform the family of the accused. The law requires
    authorities to bring an arrested person before a court within 24 hours,
    exclusive of travel time from the place of arrest. Bail is available
    depending on the severity of charges and the suspect's criminal record,
    flight risk, and potential threat to the public. The law provides for
    prompt access to a lawyer provided by the state.

        e. Denial of Fair Public Trial.--The Judiciary Services Act
    establishes the formal separation of the judiciary from the executive,
    setting professional standards for judges and other judicial service
    personnel. In practice the judiciary generally enforced the right to a
    fair trial. The National Judicial Commission (NJC) oversees the
    judiciary.
        On February 21, according to the Annual Report for the Judiciary of
    the Kingdom, the Supreme Court was established with the appointment of
    the chief justice and three associate justices. The Supreme Court
    oversees the interpretation and application of the constitution and
    serves as the highest appellate authority. The NJC nominates, and the
    king confirms, judges to the high court and 20 district court justices.
    The king may remove, suspend, or censure judges only at the request of
    the NJC.

        Trial Procedures.--The law stipulates that defendants must receive
    fair and speedy trials, and the Government generally respected this
    right in practice. A preliminary hearing must be convened within 10
    days of registration of a criminal matter with the appropriate court.
    Before registering any plea, courts must determine whether an accused
    is mentally sound and understands the consequences of entering a plea.
    Defendants enjoy a presumption of innocence, and cases must be proved
    beyond a reasonable doubt to obtain convictions. There is no trial by
    jury. Punishments include imprisonment, probation, fines, or a
    requirement for restitution of loss. Defendants have the right to
    appeal to the High Court and may make a final appeal to the king, who
    traditionally delegates the decision to the Royal Advisory Council.
    Trials are conducted publicly, except for cases involving family law
    and juveniles. The law grants defendants and their attorneys access to
    state evidence; however, only the court can determine if there is a
    need to question witnesses, after which the prosecutor and defendants
    are allowed to conduct cross-examinations.
        Courts try criminal and civil cases under both customary and the
    legal code. State-appointed Office of Legal Affairs (OLA) prosecutors
    are responsible for filing charges and prosecuting cases for offenses
    against the state. In other cases relevant organizations or government
    departments file charges and conduct prosecutions.
        Although most litigants represented themselves before the court,
    the law provides for the right to representation in criminal cases,
    including provision of counsel for defendants who cannot afford
    representation. In practice there were no known instances of the
    Government providing free legal counsel to political opponents, and
    many citizens who were unable to afford representation did not receive
    professional legal assistance. The law states that defendants may
    choose legal representation from a list of government licensed
    advocates, and the Government promoted the use of judiciary websites
    for legal information as a means of offering self-help to defendants.
    The OLA stated that most defendants sought professional legal
    assistance only in serious criminal cases. There were no reports that
    any groups were denied the right to trial.

        Political Prisoners and Detainees.--The Society for Threatened
    Peoples reported to the UN Human Rights Council that at least 200
    political prisoners remained imprisoned in the country. According to
    media reports, on December 9, expatriates from Europe and the Western
    Hemisphere submitted petitions to various human rights organizations
    and representatives, including the UN secretary general, seeking
    assistance in obtaining the release of hundreds of political prisoners,
    naming 89 prisoners specifically. The petitioners alleged that some
    political prisoners were held incommunicado and that international
    observers were denied access to them.

        Civil Judicial Procedures and Remedies.--The Civil and Criminal
    Procedure Code (CCPC) governs the resolution of criminal matters and
    most civil matters. The CCPC states that a suit may be initiated by a
    litigant or a member of the litigant's family. Traditional Buddhist or
    Hindu law governs questions of family law. Village leaders adjudicate
    minor offenses.

        f. Arbitrary Interference With Privacy, Family, Home, or
    Correspondence.--The constitution states that persons ``shall not be
    subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with his or her
    privacy, family, home, or correspondence nor to unlawful attacks on the
    person's honor and reputation,'' and the Government generally respected
    these prohibitions.
        While the law requires citizens to adhere to a national dress code
    in government buildings during daylight hours, NGOs reported that
    enforcement of this regulation varied by district and was relaxed due
    to international pressure. As a result the Government allowed
    individuals to wear casual dress in public.
        The law bars non-Bhutanese individuals who are married to citizens
    from promoting a religion other than Buddhism. The 1980 Marriage Act
    also states that a Bhutanese married to a non-Bhutanese shall not be
    entitled to facilities enjoyed by other citizens, including the
    distribution of land, cash loans, and education or training abroad.

    Section 2. Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:
        a. Freedom of Speech and Press.--The law provides for freedom of
    speech and of the press; but the Government sometimes did not respect
    these rights in practice. The Government restricted the ownership of
    media outlets and licensing of journalists.
        A law adopted in 1992 prohibits criticism of the king and the
    political system, but criticism of the Government was allowed in some
    instances, including postings of criticism on government Web sites.
        According to Freedom House's annual report, the media law adopted
    in 2006 led to the establishment of two independent radio stations, but
    did not provide specific protections for journalists or guarantee
    freedom of information. Two independent weeklies and a state-owned
    newspaper generally published articles favorable to the Government and
    covered criticism of the Government only occasionally.
        Unlike in previous years, no journalists were arrested.
        Shanti Ram Acharya, a journalist working for the Bhutan Reporter, a
    monthly periodical published by refugees in Nepal, was sentenced to
    seven and a half years in prison in January 2009. He had been arrested
    for alleged subversive activities (photographing an army outpost) while
    visiting the country and remained incarcerated at year's end.
        Media sources suggested that while there is commitment at the
    highest levels to provide the media with information, some media
    professionals continued to find it difficult to get access to
    information from bureaucrats and public officials.

        Internet Freedom.--Individuals and groups generally were permitted
    to engage in peaceful expression of views via the Internet, although
    there were some reports of government restrictions. The Government
    continued to monitor material on the Internet and blocked what it
    deemed pornographic. According to the International Telecommunication
    Union, there were approximately 30,000 Internet users (0.4 percent of
    the population) during the year.

        Academic Freedom and Cultural Events.--There were government
    restrictions on academic freedom or cultural events.
        According to dissident groups, in predominantly Nepali-speaking
    areas in the southern portion of the country, local schools that were
    seized by the Government in the early 1990s now lay in ruins. The few
    children who were able to attend public schools were forced to learn in
    the Government-imposed language, practice the official religion, and
    follow its traditions. Unverified reports during the year, however,
    indicated that some relaxation in prohibitions against Nepali-language
    education has occurred.

        b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association.--Freedom of
    Assembly.--The constitution provides for the right to assemble
    peacefully; however, the Government restricted this right. All
    protesters must first obtain government approval before staging public
    demonstrations. NGOs reported that no demonstrations occurred during
    the reporting period. According to Freedom House, in recent years
    security forces have arrested Southern Bhutanese refugees based in
    Nepal who entered the country to demonstrate for the right to return
    home.

        Freedom of Association.--The constitution provides for freedom of
    association, and the Government permitted the registration of some
    political parties and organizations but only for groups ``not harmful
    to the peace and unity of the country.'' The Government regarded
    political parties organized by ethnic Nepalese living in refugee camps
    as illegal, terrorist, and antinational in nature. According to Freedom
    House, the Government did not allow NGOs that work on human rights,
    refugee issues, or other sensitive matters to operate legally and
    prohibits independent trade unions (see sections 5 and 7). The 2007
    Civil Society Organization Act requires all new NGOs to register with
    the Government.
        The Human Rights Organization of Nepal (HURON) reported that a
    Bhutanese official in October prevented the shipment of a ballot box to
    India during the Tibetan government-in-exile's general election being
    conducted for the 1,298 Tibetan refugees residing in Bhutan.

        c. Freedom of Religion.--For a complete description of religious
    freedom, please see the 2010 International Religious Freedom Report at
    www.state.gov/g/drl/irf/rpt.

        d. Freedom of Movement, Internally Displaced Persons, Protection of
    Refugees, and Stateless Persons.--The law provides for freedom of
    movement within the country, foreign travel, emigration, and
    repatriation, but the Government limited freedom of movement and
    repatriation in practice.
        The law does not address forced exile, but the Government forced
    the majority of its Nepali-speaking population to leave the country in
    the early 1990s following a series of steps taken during the 1970s and
    1980s to deprive the Nepali-speaking population of their citizenship.
    There were no reported cases of forced exile during the year.
        As of December 31, 72,242 Bhutanese refugees were living in refugee
    camps in Nepal administered by the Office of the UN High Commissioner
    for Refugees (UNHCR). Resettlement of the refugees was announced by the
    Government of Nepal in November 2007. As of December 31, 41,462
    Bhutanese refugees had been resettled in foreign countries, with 35,279
    of those resettled in the United States.
        The Government continued to criticize the UNHCR for its failure to
    screen individuals who entered camps in Nepal in the early 1990s to
    determine whether they were genuine citizens of the country. The
    Government maintained that individuals who entered the camps before the
    establishment of screening and registration mechanisms were not
    citizens and were using the camps as a base for terrorist activities
    against the country.
        The Druk National Congress, a political organization operating in
    exile, reported that 30-year-old Bhim Bhadur Rai from Beldangi Refugee
    camp in Nepal was arrested on May 5, at the Indo-Bhutan border.

        Protection of Refugees.--The country was not a party to the 1951
    Convention relating to the Status of Refugees or the 1967 Protocol
    relating to the Status of Refugees. Its laws do not provide for the
    granting of asylum or refugee status, and the Government has not
    established a system for providing protection to refugees.
        The Central Tibetan Administration reported that there were
    approximately 1,298 Tibetan refugees in seven settlements in Bhutan.
    Many Tibetan refugees in the past have accepted Bhutanese citizenship
    and many continued to seek citizenship. Tibetan refugees were permitted
    to travel to India freely but often could not obtain security
    clearances for government jobs, enroll in higher education, or obtain
    licenses to run private businesses.

        Stateless Persons--Implementation of a nationwide government census
    in 1985 resulted in the denationalization of many ethnic Nepalese in
    the country because land ownership documents from 1958 were required to
    receive citizenship. The census was repeated in 1988-89 in the southern
    districts, and those who lost citizenship in 1985 were at that time
    permitted to reapply for citizenship provided they met certain
    conditions. The Government then labeled as illegal immigrants those who
    could not meet the new, more stringent citizenship requirements.
    Beginning in 1990 the Government expelled large numbers of ethnic
    Nepalese individuals under the 1985 citizenship law, many of whom
    resided in refugee camps in Nepal.
        The law provides for revocation of the citizenship of any
    naturalized citizen who ``has shown by act or speech to be disloyal in
    any manner whatsoever to the King, country, and people.'' The Ministry
    of Home Affairs later declared that any nationals leaving the country
    to assist ``anti-nationals,'' and the families of such persons, would
    forfeit their citizenship. The law permits reapplication for
    citizenship after a two-year probationary period. The Government
    reissues citizenship upon successful completion of the probation period
    and a finding that the person in question is not responsible for any
    act against the Government. There were no reports of successful
    application of this provision.
        According to the 2010 UNHCR country operations profile for Nepal,
    there were approximately 89,000 Nepali-speaking Bhutanese refugees
    living in Nepal who did not have citizenship in any country and were
    thereby rendered stateless. According to the UNHCR, most of the
    refugees who arrived in Nepal between 1990 and 1993 were recognized on
    a prima facie basis. A large-scale resettlement program was initiated
    in 2007. As of September 2009, more than 78,000 refugees had expressed
    their interest in resettlement, and over 20,000 had left the camps in
    Nepal for third countries.

    Section 3. Respect for Political Rights: The Right of Citizens to
            Change Their Government
        The country completed a successful transition from an absolute
    hereditary monarchy to a constitutional monarchy with a bicameral
    elected parliament in 2008, marking the final step in the transition to
    a parliamentary democracy. The law provides limited rights for changing
    the Government, and it provides for a separation of powers. In February
    the country held a human rights workshop with government
    representatives from different institutions.

        Elections and Political Participation.--In 2008 voters elected the
    country's first National Assembly, the lower house of the parliament.
    The ruling Druk Phensum Tshogpa (DPT) party won 45 of 47 seats. Human
    Rights Watch reported that the Government excluded 13 percent of the
    Nepali-speaking population from voting because they were considered
    ``non-nationals'' in the 2005 census. Nonetheless, nine Nepali-speaking
    candidates were elected. International monitors reported that generally
    the elections were free and fair, met international standards for
    democratic elections, and formed a solid foundation for a credible
    democracy. There were no reports of irregularities during the election
    process, including restrictions on access to media, ballot stuffing,
    fraud, campaigning at polling stations, lack of ballot secrecy, family
    voting, intimidation, or violence.
        In 2007 the Government began allowing political parties to register
    under the terms of a draft constitution. Three parties registered with
    the Election Commission, which disqualified the Bhutan People's United
    Party (BPUP) for ``failing to prove its credibility'' as a national
    political party. The Election Commission indicated that BPUP candidates
    did not meet the commission's education requirements. The Election Act
    specifies that candidates for parliament must have earned at least a
    bachelor's degree to run for office. The Government took no action in
    response to the party's appeal of the decision.
        Other parties, such as the Druk National Congress, established in
    1994, continued to claim that the Government denied independent parties
    the ability to operate effectively. Both parties that participated in
    the 2008 national elections--the ruling DPT party and opposing People's
    Democratic Party (PDP)--had ties to the royal family. The Government
    regarded political parties organized by ethnic Nepalese living in
    refugee camps as illegal, terrorist, and antinational in nature. These
    parties, which sought repatriation of refugees and democratic reforms,
    were unable to conduct activities inside the country.
        There are 25 members of the National Council, the upper house of
    parliament; the king appoints five members and the remaining members
    are elected. In 2007 elections for the National Council, voters elected
    three women, two Nepali speakers, one Hindu, and one Christian.
    International monitors judged the elections free and fair.
        Women constituted 26 percent of civil service employees and held
    more than 30 percent of positions at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
    There were no women on the High Court, although there was one female
    judge in a district court. Women in parliament increased from 9 percent
    in 2005 to 14 percent during the year. There was no provision for
    allocating a set number or percentage of parliamentary seats for women
    or members of minority groups.
        In September 2009 the Government passed the Local Governments Act,
    which established 20 local governments, one for each dzongkhags
    (province). The act calls upon the local governments to provide social
    and economic services and to promote the development and well-being of
    constituents. The act does not provide these governments with
    legislative powers but grants them the authority to collect taxes, make
    rules and regulations consistent with national legislation, and receive
    funds from the national government to fulfill their duties. Bhutanese
    officials confirmed in October that parliament's inability to form a
    consensus around the drawing of district lines continued to delay local
    elections. A date for local elections had not been scheduled by year's
    end.

    Section 4. Official Corruption and Government Transparency
        The law provides criminal penalties for official corruption, and
    the Government generally implemented these laws effectively. The
    Government took an active role in addressing the issue through the
    public accounts committee in the National Assembly and the Royal Audit
    Authority, which monitored the use of government funds. The
    Government's Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) is authorized to
    investigate cases of official corruption and allows citizens to post
    information on its Web site regarding corrupt practices. The National
    Council adopted the Anti-Corruption Amendment Bill of 2010 in September
    and the National Assembly passed the bill on December 3.
        In October the ACC presented the Gap Analysis Report to the
    Government, which described the steps the Government needed to take to
    comply with the UN Convention Against Corruption. According to a
    November 2009 article in the Bhutan Observer, 428 complaints of
    corruption were made during the year to the ACC.
        There is no law providing public access to government information,
    but NGOs reported that the Government regularly provided unclassified
    information upon request.

    Section 5. Governmental Attitude Regarding International and
            Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations of Human
            Rights
        There were no independent human rights organizations operating in
    the country. The Government regarded human rights groups established by
    the exiled Nepali-speaking minority as political organizations and did
    not permit them to operate. The ICRC was the only human rights
    monitoring group officially operating in the country. According to
    international NGOs, local civil society organizations practiced self-
    censorship to avoid conflict with the Government, and the majority of
    them focused on women's rights or environmental issues.
        Various civil society organizations functioned locally and
    informally. The Civil Society Organization (CSO) Authority was
    established by the Civil Society Act of Bhutan 2007. On January 18, the
    CSO Authority received staffing approval for its secretariat. The
    Government mandated the CSO Authority to oversee the accountability and
    transparency of civil society operations. Critics, including the
    Committee on the Rights of the Child, stated that they feared the CSO
    Act could result in restrictions on, rather than promotion of,
    independent civil society organizations.
        On February 10, the Committee on Human Rights in the National
    Assembly conducted a workshop on human rights awareness that included
    participants from law enforcement, the judiciary, the ACC, National
    Commission for Women Children, and UN agencies.

    Section 6. Discrimination, Societal Abuses, and Trafficking in Persons
        The constitution prohibits discrimination on the basis of race,
    sex, disability, language, or social status.

        Women.--The law contains a clear definition of criminal sexual
    assault and specifies penalties. In cases of rape involving minors,
    sentences range from five to 17 years in prison. In extreme cases a
    rapist may be imprisoned for life. There was no evidence that rape or
    spousal abuse were extensive problems, but NGOs reported that many
    women did not report rape because of cultural taboos or because they
    were unaware of their rights. Spousal rape is illegal.
        The law protects against domestic violence. Penalties against
    offenders of domestic violence range from a jail sentence of a minimum
    of one month to a maximum of three years. Offenders are also fined a
    daily minimum national wage of 90 days. According to the Committee on
    the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the Government
    commissioned a report on violence against women, set up mobile police
    stations, trained police on gender issues, and allowed civil society
    groups to undertake further efforts, including the opening of a crisis
    and rehabilitation center. The CEDAW committee expressed concern over
    reports of violence against women by their spouses or other family
    members and at work.
        The Labor Employment Act has specific provisions to address sexual
    harassment in the workplace. The CEDAW expressed concern about the
    large number of reported sexual harassment cases in the workplace.
        The country has no legal restrictions regarding the number,
    spacing, or timing of children, and there were no reports of coercion
    regarding reproduction. According to World Health Organization (WHO)
    estimates, the maternal mortality ratio in 2008 was 200 deaths per
    100,000 live births. WHO's figures from 2005 showed that skilled
    personnel attended 51 percent of births. In 2000 WHO stated that
    contraceptive prevalence was at 31 percent and information about, and
    access to, contraception was readily available. NGOs reported that
    women faced little overt discrimination and had equal access to health
    care, education, and public services, including for HIV/AIDS treatment
    and services.
        The law covers questions related to family issues, including
    divorce, child custody, and inheritance. The minimum age of marriage
    for women is 18. Polygamy is allowed provided the first wife gives her
    permission. Polyandry is permitted but was rare. Marriages were
    arranged by the marriage partners themselves or by their parents. The
    law requires registration of all marriages with the Government.
        Women were accorded respect in the traditions of most ethnic groups
    and participated relatively freely in the social and economic life of
    the country. Inheritance law provides for equal inheritance for sons
    and daughters, but traditional inheritance practices, which varied
    among ethnic groups, may be observed if the heirs choose to forgo legal
    challenges. Traditional inheritance laws for the majority of Buddhists
    stipulate that daughters inherit family land. As a result, 60 percent
    of rural women held land registration titles, accounting for the large
    number of women who owned shops and businesses. Tradition dictates that
    the most capable member of the family runs the household, which often
    resulted in the mother or eldest daughter holding this position. Within
    the household men and women were relatively equal. Employers generally
    paid women in unskilled jobs slightly less than men in the same
    positions. According to the Government's 2009 Labor Force Survey
    Report, 46 percent of the country's workforce was female. Dowries were
    not customary in the country.
        The law mandates that the Government take appropriate measures to
    eliminate all forms of discrimination and exploitation of women,
    including trafficking, abuse, violence, harassment, and intimidation,
    at work and at home, and generally the law was enforced. The CEDAW
    reviewed the country during 2009 and commended the Government for
    establishing the National Commission on Women and Children (NCWC) Plan
    of Action for Gender and recognizing gender in the five-year plan of
    the Gross National Happiness Commission. The CEDAW expressed concerns,
    however, that the constitution does not adequately define
    discrimination to include both direct and indirect forms and noted that
    the Government failed to adopt implementation legislation for its
    international treaty obligations related to women's rights or to
    provide adequate resources to the NCWC to allow it to operate
    effectively.
        The National Women's Association, one of the few registered NGOs,
    tried to improve women's living standards and socioeconomic status. The
    NCWC actively defended the rights of women and children during the
    year, although CEDAW questioned the limited resources of the NCWC and
    its potential lack of independence from government influence.

        Children.--Under the constitution only children whose parents are
    both citizens become citizens at birth. According to the Bhutanese
    Refugee Support Group, existing citizenship laws contained inadequate
    provisions for a child to acquire nationality at birth, and persons who
    are designated as ``non-nationals'' (for example, ethnic Nepalese
    Bhutanese) are rendered essentially stateless (see section 2.d.).
    Births in remote areas are less likely to be registered. NGOs asserted
    births of children to nonregistered ethnic Nepalese Bhutanese may not
    be registered. The failure of timely birth registration had negative
    consequences and made it difficult for some children to access
    educational and other services.
        The Government provides 11 years of universal, free education to
    children who are recognized as citizens. Education is not compulsory,
    and some schools charged fees. In March the Ministry of Education
    reported that girls comprised approximately 50 percent of the
    enrollment in schools. The ministry's report stated that approximately
    37 percent of university students were female and 45 percent of the
    students receiving scholarships to study abroad were female.
        There is no law barring Nepali-speaking children from attending
    school, but there were unconfirmed reports that the Government denied
    ``no objection certificates,'' which were necessary for admission to
    schools, to some Nepali-speaking children.
        Child abuse was rare. Although corporal punishment is banned in
    schools, there were some incidents in schools and monasteries.
        The country is not a party to the 1980 Hague Convention on the
    Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction.

        Anti-Semitism.--The country does not have a Jewish population, and
    there were no reports of anti-Semitic acts.

        Trafficking in Persons.--During the year there were no reports that
    persons were trafficked to, from, or within the country.

        Persons With Disabilities.--The law does not specifically protect
    the rights of citizens with disabilities, but it does direct the
    Government to try to provide security in the ``event of sickness and
    disability.'' There was no evidence of official discrimination against
    persons with disabilities in matters of employment, education, access
    to health care, or the provision of other state services. The law
    stipulates that new buildings must be constructed to allow access for
    persons with disabilities, but the Government did not enforce the law
    consistently. Under the Disability Prevention and Rehabilitation
    Program, the Government seeks to provide medical and vocational
    rehabilitation for persons with all types of disabilities, promote
    integration of children with disabilities into schools, and foster
    community awareness and social integration. The approximately 22,000
    (3.4 percent of the population according to the most recent estimates
    released in 2005) persons with physical disabilities living in the
    country lacked necessary infrastructure. The Royal Government of Bhutan
    does not have a government agency specifically responsible for
    protecting the rights of persons with disabilities.
        There are three special education institutes for students with
    disabilities, including the National Institute for the Disabled in
    Khaling, which educates visually impaired children, and an education
    resource unit for the hearing impaired in Paro. There also were special
    education facilities in Thimphu designed to meet the needs of children
    who have physical and mental disabilities. Although there were no
    government-sponsored social welfare services available for persons with
    disabilities, the National Pension and Provident Fund granted benefits
    to persons with disabilities.

        National/Racial/Ethnic Minorities.--Organizations representing
    exiled Nepali-speaking Bhutanese claimed they were subjected to
    discrimination and prejudice in employment, but the Government stated
    they were proportionally represented in civil service and government
    jobs.
        English and Dzongkha languages are the mediums of instruction
    taught in all schools. No instruction in Nepali as a second language
    was required or offered, although there were unconfirmed reports that
    some instruction in Nepali may have been permitted during the year. The
    Committee on the Rights of the Child expressed concern about the rights
    of minority children, specifically the Nepali-speaking minority, to
    take part in their culture, practice their religion, or use their
    language.

        Societal Abuses, Discrimination, and Acts of Violence Based on
    Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.--Same-sex relationships are
    illegal in the country and punishable as a petty misdemeanor with a
    prison sentence ranging from one month to one year. Under Article 213
    in Chapter 14 of the Penal Code, a person can be imprisoned for as long
    as one year for engaging in ``sodomy or any other sexual conduct that
    is against the order of nature.'' There were, however, no reported
    cases of such charges.

        Other Societal Violence or Discrimination.--Different observers
    assessed varying levels of stigma associated with HIV/AIDS. Persons
    with HIV/AIDS received free medical and counseling services, and the
    Government maintained programs meant to prevent discrimination.

    Section 7. Worker Rights
        a. The Right of Association.--The law allows workers to form
    workers' associations but does not allow for the formation of unions or
    for strikes. The law allows employees to form an association in one
    workplace if at least 12 employees join the association. The law was
    first tested in 2008 when national telecommunications employees decided
    to form an association after they accused management and the Government
    of discriminatory behavior in promotions.
        The Human Rights Organization of Bhutan (HUROB) stated that there
    is a drivers' association and a contractors' association. Associations
    were subject to government interference. For example, in July drivers
    working for Hindustan Construction Company in a hydroelectricity
    project called a strike to demand a higher salary. During the strike
    Labor Minister Dorji Wangdi threatened to inform the police that their
    actions were prohibited.

        b. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively.--The law does
    not authorize collective bargaining. The 2007 Labor and Employment Act
    grants workers the right to pursue litigation.
        There are no export processing zones.

        c. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor.--The Government
    prohibits forced or compulsory labor and there were no confirmed
    reports that forced or compulsory labor occurred during the reporting
    period.

        d. Prohibition of Child Labor and Minimum Age for Employment.--
    According to the law, the minimum age of employment is 18 years, but
    child labor remained prevalent. However, the law allows for employment
    of children between the ages of 13 and 17 in environments that will not
    be harmful to their health or safety. Children younger than 18 often
    performed agricultural and construction work, completed chores on
    family farms, or worked in shops and restaurants after school and
    during holidays. Girls were employed primarily as domestic workers,
    where they were vulnerable to abuse and exploitation. UNICEF estimated
    that 19 percent of children between five and 14 years of age were child
    laborers. Labor inspectors operating under the Ministry of Labor and
    Human Resources enforced child labor laws sporadically.

        e. Acceptable Conditions of Work.--The law addresses issues such as
    minimum wage, sexual harassment, workers' associations, acceptable
    forms of child labor, and labor inspection regulations. According to a
    news article on September 27, the national minimum wage rate was Nu
    3,000 ($67) per month, and the labor minister stated that half the
    country's workers earned more than the minimum wage. The workday was
    defined as eight hours with a one-hour lunch break, and employers must
    grant regular days of rest. Work in excess of this must be paid at 1.5
    times the normal rate.
        All citizens were entitled to free medical care. The Government
    transported persons who could not receive adequate care in the country
    to other countries (usually India) for treatment. Workers were eligible
    for compensation in the case of partial or total disability, and in the
    event of death, their families were entitled to compensation. Existing
    labor regulations did not grant workers the right to leave work
    situations that endangered their health and safety without jeopardizing
    their continued employment.

                                   __________

                                     INDIA

        India is a multiparty federal, parliamentary democracy with a
    bicameral parliament and a population of approximately 1.2 billion. The
    president, elected by an electoral college, is the chief of state, and
    the prime minister is the head of the Government. India's
    constitution--the source of authority--provides the legal framework for
    the guarantee of human rights through its Fundamental Rights and
    Directive Principles. Under the constitution, the 28 states have a high
    degree of autonomy and have primary responsibility for issues of law
    and order. President Pratibha Patil was elected in 2007 to a five-year
    term with 65.8 percent of the vote, and Manmohan Singh became prime
    minister for a second term following the Congress Party-led coalition's
    victory in the 2009 general elections, which were considered free and
    fair, despite scattered instances of violence. Separatist insurgents
    and terrorists committed numerous serious abuses. Security forces
    reported to civilian authorities; unlike in previous years, there were
    no reported instances of security forces acting independently of
    government authority.
        Major human rights problems included reported extrajudicial
    killings of persons in custody, killings of protesters, and torture and
    rape by police and other security forces. Investigations into
    individual abuses and legal punishment for perpetrators occurred, but
    for many abuses, a lack of accountability due to weak law enforcement,
    a lack of trained police, and an overburdened court system created an
    atmosphere of impunity; lengthy court backlogs prolong the latter. Poor
    prison conditions and lengthy detentions were significant problems.
    Unlike in previous years (2008 and 2009), there were no instances of
    officials using antiterrorism legislation to justify excessive use of
    force; however, indiscriminate use of force by Border Security Forces
    was a problem. Corruption existed at all levels of government and
    police. There were reports of delays in obtaining legal redress for
    past attacks against minorities. The law in some states restricted
    religious conversion, but there were no reports of convictions under
    these restrictions. Violence associated with caste bias occurred.
    Domestic violence, child marriage, bonded labor, dowry-related deaths,
    honor crimes, and female feticide remained serious problems.Separatist
    insurgents and terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir, the Northeastern
    States, and the Naxalite belt committed numerous serious abuses,
    including killing armed forces personnel, police, government officials,
    and civilians. Insurgents engaged in widespread torture, rape,
    beheadings, kidnapping, and extortion. The number of incidents,
    however, declined compared with the previous year.

                            RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

    Section 1. Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom
            From:
        a. Arbitrary or Unlawful Deprivation of Life.--There were numerous
    reports that the Government and its agents committed arbitrary or
    unlawful killings, including extrajudicial killings of suspected
    criminals and insurgents, especially in areas of conflict such as Jammu
    and Kashmir, the Northeastern States, and the Naxalite belt, where
    nongovernmental forces also committed such killings (see section 1.g.).
    According to the Institute for Conflict Management, as of October 17,
    there were 1,616 fatalities in the country--including members of
    security forces, individuals classified by the Government as
    terrorists, and civilians--which represented a decrease from 2,231
    fatalities in 2009.
        Most encounter killings, in which security forces and police
    extrajudicially killed alleged criminals or insurgents, occurred in
    areas in conflict, but the practice reportedly occurred elsewhere in
    the country as well.
        In March a number of media outlets reported that in response to a
    Right to Information (RTI) request the National Human Rights Commission
    (NHRC) provided data indicating that 1,224 of the 2,560 police
    encounter cases reviewed since 1993 had been staged by security forces.
    Despite the NHRC's published recommendations that the Criminal
    Investigations Department investigate all police encounter deaths, many
    states did not follow the guidelines and continued to conduct internal
    reviews only at the discretion of senior officers.The Asian Human
    Rights Commission (AHRC) reported that on January 21 Manipur security
    personnel abducted and killed a shop owner in Chekon. Memcha Fazeruddin
    stated that her husband's body was returned with 15 bullet holes, but
    the body was clad in combat dress that was free of any bullet holes,
    which suggested tampering with the body. Police claimed that Fazeruddin
    had been shot in an encounter with troops from the 33 Assam Rifles in
    Kwakta Khuman and that they had found arms and ammunition on his body.
    In a meeting set up by community members, the Manipur chief minister
    assured Fezeruddin's wife that he would give her family compensation
    and find a suitable job for one of her relatives. The AHRC stated that
    the official did not offer to investigate the matter.
        On March 14, according to the ACHR, members of the Manipur State
    Police Commando Unit arrested Chongtham Nanao. The next morning police
    informed the local village head that they had recovered a dead body
    from the location of an alleged exchange of gunfire between police and
    armed militants. Nanao's relatives later identified his body. The local
    media stated that a combined team of Thoubal Police Commandos and 21
    Assam Rifles were involved in the killing.
        Also according to the AHRC, on April 8, Irengbam Gunindro was
    abducted and killed in Manipur. The local police reported that evening
    that they had killed him in an armed encounter. On April 10, a local
    daily newspaper quoted the inspector general of the Assam Rifles as
    saying that the 28 Assam Rifles killed Gunindro in an encounter killing
    and that a nine-millimeter pistol had been recovered from Gunindro's
    body. According to his family, Gunindro had no known history of
    previous involvement with police and no known prior criminal record.
        In September the state government reinstated the four police
    officials allegedly involved in the May 2009 killing of Neelofar Jan
    and Asiya Jan in the Shopian district of Jammu and Kashmir. On June 28,
    Shakeel Ahmad Ahangar, Neelofar's husband and Asiya's brother, filed a
    petition to reinstate inquiry into the killings of the two women. The
    petition remained pending before a Srinagar court at year's end.
    Relatives and police discovered the bodies of Neelofar and Asiya in a
    stream, and local residents and examining doctors alleged that Indian
    Security Forces gang-raped and killed Neelofar and Asiya. In addition
    several government officials stated that police involvement in the
    killings could not be ruled out. In July 2009 the High Court ordered
    the arrest of four police officers on charges of suppressing and
    destroying evidence in the case. In September 2009 the court granted
    bail to the officers, and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)
    took charge of the case from the Special Investigation Team. In
    December 2009 the CBI submitted its report to the High Court,
    concluding the women died of drowning and ruling out foul play. The
    report prompted renewed protests and a general strike in the state. The
    CBI formally concluded its investigations into the incident, dismissing
    charges against police.
        There were no updates in the May 2009 incident in which Mumbai
    police killed alleged criminal Anil Mhatre or the June 2009 incident in
    which Maharashtra police killed Vishwanath Munna Katari in Nasik.
        On September 9, the CBI charged nine members from the Manipur Rapid
    Action Police Force with the July 2009 killing of Chongkham Sanjit in
    Imphal. Officials initially claimed they shot him after he fired on
    them, but a local photographer published pictures of the incident that
    showed police escorting Sanjit calmly into a pharmacy. When police
    emerged from the pharmacy, a witness photographed the officers dragging
    Sanjit's corpse to a waiting truck. Although the CBI charged them with
    the nonbailable offence of murder, none were arrested, and on September
    27, the chief judicial magistrate granted them bail, despite the
    opposition of the CBI. At the end of the year, seven of the nine were
    suspended; two remained working as law enforcement officers.
        Custodial deaths, in which prisoners were killed or died in police
    custody, also remained a serious problem, and authorities often delayed
    or failed to pursue prosecutions against members of the police or
    security forces. In April the AHRC reported that, ``according to the
    [most recent] statistics submitted to parliament by the MHA . under the
    United Progressive Alliance (UPA) rule from 2004-2005 to 2007-2008,
    prison custody deaths increased by 70.72 percent''; there was no
    current data regarding custodial deaths. While the NHRC published
    guidelines that directed all the state governments to report to it
    within 48 hours all cases of deaths in police actions, state
    governments did not consistently comply with the guidelines. In
    addition the armed forces were not required to report custodial deaths
    to the NHRC, and the commission did not have the power to investigate
    the armed forces. The NHRC was empowered to seek only reports from the
    central government regarding deaths in custody, and the central
    government was not bound by its recommendations.
        On April 11, according to a report in India Today, 28-year old
    Naresh Yadav died after spending a week in pretrial detention in Jamui
    prison (in the state of Bihar) on charges of being a Maoist. He had
    complained that his ribcage ached and was transported to a hospital,
    where he died a few hours later. Yadav's wife stated, ``They tortured
    him in captivity. He succumbed to internal injuries.''
        On December 10, following a petition submitted by the deceased's
    relatives, the High Court of Kerala ordered the CBI to submit the case
    diary before the court in connection with the March 2009 custodial
    death of Sampath. Sampath died in police custody prior to his trial on
    charges of murder. According to media reports, an autopsy revealed
    Sampath had multiple injuries, including bleeding in the brain from
    head trauma. In May 2009 the Kerala High Court transferred the
    investigation from the state police to the CBI.
        Security forces killed demonstrators during the year, including
    during the protests that occurred between June and September in Jammu
    and Kashmir (see section 1.g.).
        On September 13, according to Reuters news service, four persons
    were killed in Kashmir when police fired on Muslim protesters who set
    fire to a Christian missionary school to denounce international reports
    that copies of the Qur'an had been defaced.
        The Government made no progress in holding officials accountable
    for abuses that occurred during the period of the Punjab
    counterinsurgency between 1984 and 1994. In January the Human Rights
    Data Analysis group published research findings that supported claims
    by human rights groups that ``.more Amritdharis (or baptized Sikhs)
    were the victims of state-attributed lethal violence than non-
    Amritdharis, that most victims of state-based lethal violence were
    young males of military age, and that police, although claiming to
    carry out a focused counterinsurgency against members of the militancy,
    ended up killing and disappearing a sizable number of individuals who
    were not known to have any links to the militancy.''
        The Government made some movement in holding police and security
    officials accountable for killings committed during the Delhi anti-Sikh
    violence of 1984. On July 7, a Delhi court brought charges of murder
    and rioting against senior Congress Party leader Sajjan Kumar and
    others in connection with an incident in which six persons were killed
    in New Delhi. On September 20, the Supreme Court rejected Kumar's
    petition challenging initiation of criminal proceedings against him and
    directed the trial court to continue proceedings against him. The court
    had not issued a verdict in the case by year's end.
        There were media reports and allegations by nongovernmental
    organizations (NGOs) of excessive use of force by the Indian Border
    Security Force (BSF) along the India-Bangladesh border. According to
    the NGO Odhikar, between 2000 and the end of the year, the BSF killed
    approximately 1,000 Bangladeshi nationals. The BSF usually explained
    these killings by stating that those individuals were evading arrest or
    that security force members had to fire in self-defense. Human Rights
    Watch (HRW) found that those who were killed had been armed only with
    sickles, sticks, and knives, which are tools commonly carried by
    villagers. HRW also reported that the BSF seldom mentioned injuries
    received by its own personnel, which suggested that the BSF may have
    used lethal force instead of attempting arrest. In many cases those
    killed had been shot in the back, indicating that they may have been
    shot while running away. There also were reports that Bangladesh Border
    Guards engaged in shootings along the border as well.
        On January 21, according to Odhikar, a Bangladesh human rights
    organization, Indian forces detained and tortured a 15-year-old boy
    whose family lived adjacent to the border. The boy was swimming in the
    river that demarcates the border. After his release the boy died from
    the injuries that he reportedly sustained during torture.
        On February 5, according to HRW, the BSF killed Bangladeshi Farid
    Hossian, who reportedly crossed the border illegally to transport a cow
    into Bangladesh. An autopsy revealed he had bullet wounds to his chest.
        There was at least one killing during the year attributed to a
    political figure. On July 21, two individuals on a motorcycle,
    allegedly Shailesh Pandya and Pachan Shiva, shot and killed Amit
    Jethwa, an RTI Act activist. Jethwa was campaigning against illegal
    mining in the Gir forest and had filed a public interest lawsuit in the
    Gujarat High Court in June. Jethwa's lawsuit named politician Dinubhai
    ``Dinu'' Boghabhai Solanki and his family members as parties
    responsible for the illegal activity. On September 6, police arrested
    Shiva Solanki, Dinu's nephew, also a politician, based on reports that
    he had asked police constable Bahadursinh Wadher to arrange Jehwah's
    killing. On November 10, Gujarat police filed charges in the case. At
    year's end, the hearing had not begun, and Pandya, Shiva, Wadher, and
    Solanki remained in prison.
        There were multiple killings related to societal violence,
    including honor killings and mobs killing members of Scheduled Castes
    (see section 6). According to the Ministry of Home Affairs' (MHA) most
    recent annual report, 125 persons died in violent altercations between
    religious communities in 2009.
        Civil society activists continued to express concern about the
    Gujarat government's failure to arrest those responsible for communal
    violence in 2002 that resulted in the killing of more than 1,200
    persons, the majority of whom were Muslim. In one instance in 2002, an
    armed group attacked the Gulbarg Society, a lower middle-class Muslim
    neighborhood in Chamanpura, Ahmedabad. The attackers burned many
    houses, and at least 69 persons (including former Congress Party member
    of parliament Ehsan Jafri) died in the fires.
        The Gujarat government appointed the Nanavati-Mehta Commission to
    investigate the violence in 2002, and the Supreme Court appointed a
    Special Investigative Team (SIT) in 2008. Several witnesses accused the
    SIT of pressuring them to change earlier testimony given before the
    commission. Many cases tried in Gujarat's lower courts resulted in
    acquittals as a result of a lack of evidence or changes in testimony.
    By the end of January, the Gujarat government completed paying
    compensation to the next of kin to all victims, including those of 228
    missing persons whom the Government declared dead in February 2009.
        During the year Citizens for Justice and Peace, an advocacy group
    for victims of the 2002 violence, raised doubts about the impartiality
    of the SIT investigations in 10 cases. On February 9, the Supreme Court
    appointed Solicitor General Gopal Subramanian to study the SIT reports,
    and it halted the Gulberg Society trial on March 15. On March 27, at
    the request of the Supreme Court, the SIT questioned Gujarat Chief
    Minister Narendra Modi regarding a complaint filed by Zakia Jafri, a
    survivor of the Gulberg Society events. Since 2006 Jafri had sought to
    register a formal complaint against Modi and 60 other high-level state
    officials for their alleged role in the 2002 violence. On April 6, the
    Supreme Court ordered the removal of two high-level officers from the
    SIT and, on May 14, ordered the appointment of two new officers. The
    SIT submitted its final report on the Jafri complaint to the Supreme
    Court on May 14. The court did not release the contents of the report
    to the public.

        b. Disappearance.--There were reports that police throughout the
    country failed to file required arrest reports for detained persons,
    resulting in hundreds of unresolved and unreported disappearances.
    Police and government officials typically denied these claims. The
    central government reported that state government screening committees
    that determined which detainees were eligible for release provided
    information about detainees to their families, but credible sources
    stated that families often needed to bribe prison guards to confirm
    detention of their relatives.
        Disappearances attributed to governmental forces occurred in areas
    of conflict during the year (see section 1.g.).

        c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or
    Punishment.--The law prohibits torture, but many NGOs alleged that such
    practices were common, especially in areas of conflict (see section
    1.g.). In December parliament passed the Prevention of Torture Bill to
    comply with the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman,
    or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, but a number of nongovernmental
    activists expressed concerns about the act's provisions. Activists were
    concerned that the act requires that complaints regarding torture be
    made within six months, that previous sanctions by appropriate
    government bodies must be sought before a court is empowered to
    consider a complaint, that the legal framework to address cases of
    torture is insufficient because there is no independent agency to
    receive torture complaints and conduct prompt investigations, and that
    there is no effective procedure for victims to receive redress and
    rehabilitation.
        The law generally does not permit authorities to admit into
    evidence confessions that have been coerced, but NGOs and citizens
    alleged that authorities used torture to coerce confessions, which in
    some instances were submitted as evidentiary support for death
    sentences. Authorities allegedly also used torture to extort money or
    as summary punishment.
        The ACHR stated in its April report, Torture in India 2010,
    ``[t]orture in police custody remains a widespread and systematic
    practice in the country'' and ``[t]he lack of any effective system of
    independent monitoring of all places of detention facilitates
    torture.'' NGOs asserted that custodial torture was common in Tamil
    Nadu, and credible sources claimed police stations in Punjab, Andhra
    Pradesh, Haryana, and Chandigarh used torture to obtain desired
    testimony. The AHRC claimed police used torture and assault in Kerala
    and Gujarat as a means of criminal investigation. While guidelines
    against torture exist, states reportedly continued to use it to extract
    information or obtain statements from those in custody.
        A report by the AHRC detailed inhuman and degrading treatment of a
    woman from Delhi's Mayapuri area. On May 22, the woman went to the
    Rajouri Garden Police Outpost in Delhi to inquire about her two sons
    (ages 10 and 12 years old) who had been detained at police station on
    accusations that they had stolen money. The AHRC stated that police
    used torture and abuse to force the 12-year-old boy to confess and
    return the money. On May 23, the officers reportedly forced the mother
    to strip naked and ordered her to have sex with her son. Upon her
    refusal one of the officers ordered the woman to have sex with him. The
    woman later filed a complaint with the Office of the Delhi Police
    Commissioner, who suspended three of the officers. The assistant sub-
    inspector who was in charge of the outpost was transferred as a result
    of the incident.
        According to an October 29 report by India Today, an unknown source
    filmed three men in khaki clothing torturing a fraud suspect inside a
    police station in Punjab's Jalandhar district. The report stated that
    police officers made the suspect lie face-down on the floor and beat
    him with belts, causing the victim serious injuries. The district
    police instituted a probe and suspended three police personnel after
    the film became public.
        On December 22, Maharashtra police arrested sub-inspector Munir
    Shaikh in Mumbai on the charge of abetting the suicide of domestic
    worker Kunda Shinde. According to media reports, the inspector
    illegally detained Shinde on the basis of a theft complaint made by her
    neighbor. Police allegedly tortured her for two days, after which she
    committed suicide while in custody. Police arrested Shaikh for
    ``abetment to suicide, wrongful restraint, and wrongful confinement to
    extort confession from a person.''
        No action was taken by Delhi police regarding the human rights
    complaint filed in 2009 by Joel Elliott, a journalist who has written
    for The Christian Science Monitor, The New York Times, and other
    publications. Elliott suffered severe wounds on his head, legs, and
    back and a black eye when police allegedly beat and tortured him during
    the six to seven hours he was in custody.
        On December 16, the Andhra Pradesh (AP) state government admitted
    that police tortured 21 Muslim detainees after the 2007 Mecca Masjid
    bombing; however, at year's end the Government had not initiated
    criminal proceedings against any police officers involved. AP Home
    Minister Sabita Reddy stated that the Government was waiting for the
    final report of Justice V Bhaskara Rao commission's probe into the
    events following the attack and that the Government would take action
    against any police officers found guilty of misconduct based on the
    report.
        On October 25, the Supreme Court sentenced three police officers
    from Rajasthan for cutting off the genitals of a man suspected of
    having an illicit affair in 1994. The court sentenced Kishore Singh to
    life imprisonment, Sumer Dan to 10 years' imprisonment, and Sohan Singh
    to six months' imprisonment. In its decision overturning a high court
    verdict that had given lighter sentences, the Supreme Court stated,
    ``Policemen who commit criminal acts deserve harsher punishment than
    others . because it is the duty of the policemen to protect the people
    and not break the law themselves.''
        NGOs claimed the NHRC underestimated the number of rapes that
    police committed. Due to the lack of oversight and accountability, some
    rape victims, especially if the perpetrator is a police or other
    official, are unlikely to come forward and report the crime; victims
    often feel shame and fear retribution. Many of the reported rapes by
    security forces occurred in relation to internal conflicts and
    insurgencies (see section 1.g.).
        There were no updates in the investigation of the alleged gang rape
    by Madhya Pradesh police officers of a Dalit woman in Betul district in
    June 2009.
        Despite an ongoing investigation, there were no updates to the 2008
    case in which two commandos from the Haryana police allegedly raped a
    woman after pulling her out of a moving rickshaw.

        Prison and Detention Center Conditions.--Prison conditions were
    frequently life threatening and did not meet international standards.
    Prisons were severely overcrowded, sanitation and other environmental
    conditions often did not meet international standards, and food and
    medical care were inadequate. The state's 64 prisons were designed to
    40,000 prisoners but reportedly housed approximately 90,000 prisoners
    during the year. India Today also indicated that the average capacity
    of each of the 58 district jails, five central jails, and one model
    jail in the state's 73 districts was 500 to 800 inmates, but each
    contained approximately 2,400 to 3,000 inmates. According to the
    report, the overcrowding caused extremely inhuman conditions in most
    facilities, which reportedly caused high rates of disease and the
    deaths of an average of 300 inmates per year in the various state
    prisons.
        In 2009 the NHRC asked Uttar Pradesh's director general of police
    for a detailed report concerning allegations that the conditions in
    Mirzapur prison for female inmates were extremely poor; that the prison
    lacked medical facilities; and that authorities were holding minor
    female prisoners with adult prisoners instead of in government homes
    for children, in violation of the law. At the end of the year, the NHRC
    had not published the report.
        There was no information as to whether the Maharashtra health
    secretary had submitted to the Mumbai High Court a report on AIDS-
    related deaths in prison, pending at the end of 2009.
        The physical status of the prison and detention center
    infrastructure often did not meet international standards. On December
    8, the MHA informed parliament that according to the federal Home
    Ministry's National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), at the end of 2008,
    the 1,356 prisons across the country were 30 percent over capacity. In
    2008 there were 384,753 inmates despite an authorized capacity of
    297,777, and there were 19,670 vacant prison staff positions. The NCRB
    did not release more recent statistics during the year.
        Two-thirds of the prison population reportedly consisted of persons
    awaiting trial. Female prisoners accounted for approximately 4 percent
    of the total prison population, and juveniles composed less than 1
    percent. Men and women were held separately. The law requires juveniles
    to be detained in rehabilitative facilities, although at times they
    were detained in prison, especially in the rural areas. Pretrial
    detainees were held with convicted prisoners.
        Prisoners were permitted reasonable access to visitors, although
    some family members stated they were denied access to relatives held in
    detention, particularly in areas of conflict, including Jammu and
    Kashmir. Prisoners have the right to engage in religious observances,
    and in most cases that right was respected in practice. As in previous
    years, the Government allowed some NGOs to provide assistance to
    prisoners, within specific guidelines.
        Investigations of the prisoner complaints were within the purview
    of the NHRC, which received and investigated prisoner complaints of
    human right violations throughout the year, but some activists
    indicated that many complaints were not filed due to fear of
    retribution by prison guards or officials. Most investigation findings
    and NHRC recommendations were published on the NHRC Web site; however,
    there were allegations by NGOs that investigations and recommendations
    of controversial issues were not disclosed.
        Most state governments permitted prison monitoring by independent
    groups such as the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and
    the NHRC. During the year the central government rescinded the
    requirement of obtaining permission prior to visiting the Manipur,
    Nagaland, and Mizoram, and the special permits are no longer required.
    In many states the NHRC made surprise visits to state prisons but not
    to military detention centers. The NHRC lacks jurisdiction over the
    armed forces and their detention centers.
        According to the most recent statistics, in 2009 the ICRC visited
    860 detainees and interviewed 826 individually during 73 visits to 36
    detention centers. The ICRC was not authorized to visit interrogation
    or transit centers in the northeastern states of Manipur, Mizoram, and
    Nagaland. NGOs' observations of prison conditions often remained
    confidential due to agreements with the Government.
        The NHRC had a special rapporteur to ensure that state prison
    authorities performed medical checkups on all inmates. The rapporteur
    visited prisons on a regular basis throughout the year.
        A report released on March 31 by the Comptroller and Auditor
    General stated that the National Commission of Women (NCW) had failed
    to make the mandatory jail visits to assess the living conditions of
    women for the past four years.
        In an effort to improve conditions, the MHA acknowledged in its
    2009-10 annual report that prisons were overcrowded and required
    repairs and renovations, including improvements in sanitation and water
    supply. During the year the central government began implementing a
    plan to modernize the prisons. According to the MHA 2009-10 annual
    report, the plan had been implemented in 27 states and resulted in the
    construction of 99 new jails and 1,365 additional barracks in existing
    prisons.
        In April Maharashtra State created an ``open'' prison for women in
    Pune, where reportedly women are to be offered paid employment
    opportunities outside jail premises under minimal supervision. Some
    prisons gained recognition for their efforts to help inmates gain
    useful skills during their time detained. In December the Bureau of
    Standards granted a quality license to the Indira Gandhi National Open
    University Centre at Tihar Jail (New Delhi), where inmates can enroll
    in degree or certificate programs.

        d. Arbitrary Arrest or Detention.--The law prohibits arbitrary
    arrest and detention, but both occurred during the year. The HRW
    country summary for the year described the situation as follows:
    ``[police] abuses occur in part because of failure by the Government to
    properly train or modernize its police force. Police officers face
    dismal working conditions and recruitment lags far behind increasing
    duties, creating an overstretched force that is likely to take short-
    cuts to gain convictions. Embittered and overworked, the police regard
    themselves as enforcers of the law--but not beholden to it.''
        Police also used special security laws to delay judicial review of
    arrests. Pretrial detention was arbitrarily lengthy and sometimes
    exceeded the sentence given.

        Role of the Police and Security Apparatus.--Although the central
    government provides guidance and support, the 28 states and seven union
    territories have primary responsibility for maintaining law and order.
    The MHA controls most paramilitary forces, the internal intelligence
    bureaus, and the nationwide police service, and it provides training
    for senior police officers of the state-organized police forces.
    According to HRW, cases of arbitrary arrest, torture, and forced
    confessions by security forces were common. Several laws, including
    part of the criminal procedure code and the Armed Forces Special Powers
    Act (AFSPA), were used to provide legal protection for members of
    security forces who violated human rights.
        Officers at all levels acted with impunity, and officials rarely
    held them accountable for illegal actions. Military courts investigated
    cases of abuse by security officials. When a court found an officer
    guilty of a crime, the punishment often was a transfer.
        According to the MHA's 2008-09 report, citizens filed 1,185 reports
    of human rights violations countrywide against army and central
    paramilitary personnel. Authorities investigated 1,162 cases, found
    1,129 false, and judged 33 genuine. The military imposed penalties on
    69 individuals and awarded compensation in six cases.
        On September 7, Defense Minister A.K. Antony ordered a new inquiry
    into the death of Captain Sumit Kohli. The army claimed Kohli committed
    suicide while serving in Lolab Valley, Jammu and Kashmir in 2006, but
    family members claimed Kohli had been killed because he found out about
    an extrajudicial killing of four railway porters staged by his senior
    officers. On December 4, Kohlis' mother rejected the claim by Antony
    that her son's death was suicide and announced to the media her intent
    to file a petition with the Punjab and Haryana High Court. At year's
    end the petition had not been filed.
        On November 10, the Ministry of Defense informed parliament that
    the army had taken disciplinary action against personnel for violating
    human rights. Thirty-eight officers, 12 junior commissioned officers,
    and 79 individuals of other ranks were found guilty of violations and
    given punishments including imprisonment, dismissal from service, or
    termination.
        On January 6, in an effort to promote reform, the Indira Gandhi
    National Open University (IGNOU) announced the launch of sensitization
    programs for police officers. The NHRC and IGNOU agreed in 2009 to
    develop and conduct jointly courses for police personnel covering
    issues related to human rights and best practices. On December 11,
    IGNOU, in partnership with the MHA, announced an antitrafficking
    certificate course to accelerate improvement in the sensitization,
    awareness, and training of law enforcement officials, prosecutors,
    governmental departments, and NGOs.

        Arrest Procedures and Treatment While in Detention.--Under the code
    of criminal procedure, a magistrate may authorize the precharge
    detention of an accused person for a period of no more than 90 days.
    Under the regular criminal procedure, the accused must be released on
    bail after 90 days. Article nine of the code prohibits arbitrary arrest
    or detention. Those detained on criminal charges must be promptly
    informed of the charges against them and of their rights to legal
    counsel. Article 39A of the constitution mandates free legal aid to the
    poor and weaker sections of society; however, need is not assessed
    systematically. By law authorities must allow family members access to
    detainees. In practice authorities granted access only occasionally.
    Arraignment of detainees must occur within 24 hours, unless the suspect
    is held under a preventive detention law.
        Authorities could also arrest and detain individuals under several
    other laws. In a February 11 report, HRW stated, ``[S]tate police, jail
    officials, and other authorities have committed a range of human rights
    violations, including arbitrary arrest and detention..'' HRW called for
    the repeal of the ``unlawful provisions of counterterrorism laws,
    including overly broad definitions of terrorism, expanded police powers
    of search and seizure, the presumption of guilt under certain
    circumstances, and draconian precharge detention periods.'' The ACHR
    stated in its April report, Torture in India 2010, ``There are no
    [legal] safeguards to ensure that a person taken into custody will have
    his detention recorded, have prompt access to a lawyer, or have an
    impartial medical examination upon his arrival at the place of
    detention or at the time of his release.''
        In 2008 parliament passed the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act
    (UAPA), which gives authorities the ability to detain persons without
    charge in cases where insurgency or terrorism was suspected. Under the
    UAPA police can detain an individual without charge for up to 30 days.
    The UAPA also permits authorities to hold a detainee in judicial
    custody without charge for up to 180 days (including the 30 days in
    police custody). A court can authorize an initial period of 90 days
    precharge detention without special grounds and can extend detention
    for up to 90 days if the public prosecutor files a report with the
    court indicating the progress of the investigation. The UAPA also
    denies bail for foreigners and makes it easier for courts to deny bail
    in the case of detained Indian citizens. It presumes the accused to be
    guilty if the prosecution can produce certain incriminating evidence
    against the accused, such as the possession of arms or explosives or
    the presence of fingerprints at the crime scene, regardless of whether
    criminal intent exists.
        State governments also held persons without bail for extended
    periods before filing formal charges under the UAPA. For example,
    Maharashtra police arrested four alleged Naxalite sympathizers (Arun
    Ferreira, Sridhar Srinivasan, Murali Ashok Reddy, and Vernon Gonsalves)
    under the UAPA in 2007. In December 2009 the four were acquitted in one
    of the cases against them. However, the four remained in a jail near
    Mumbai at year's end.
        In 2004 the Government repealed the Prevention of Terrorism Act
    (POTA), which created special courts, allowed the identity of witnesses
    to be withheld, and allowed admission into evidence of custodial
    confessions. By law, however, persons arrested under a prior law
    continue to be prosecuted under that law even after its repeal. There
    were conflicting reports during the year of how many persons remained
    detained under POTA. In 2008 Union Minister Kapil Sibal announced there
    were between 90 and 100 pending POTA cases.
        During the year 85 Muslims detained in the 2002 Godhra train
    burning case remained in jail in Gujarat under POTA, despite a 2005
    POTA review committee ruling that POTA did not apply to them, a 2008
    ruling by the Supreme Court granting their release, and a Gujarat high
    court ruling in February 2009 that POTA charges did not apply to the
    accused and that they should be granted bail. Of the original 134
    persons accused, 104 were formally charged, five died, and 14 were
    released on bail. By year's end the trial in Gujarat had concluded, but
    judgment had not been released pending the Supreme Court's permission
    to the lower court to announce the verdict.
        The National Security Act (NSA) allows police to detain persons
    considered security risks anywhere in the country, except Jammu and
    Kashmir, without charge or trial for as long as one year. The law
    stipulates that family members and lawyers can visit NSA detainees and
    that authorities must inform a detainee of the grounds for detention
    within five days (10 to 15 days in exceptional circumstances). In
    practice these rights sometimes were not enforced.
        On July 18, the Tamil Nadu government detained film director
    Sebastian Seeman under the NSA. Seeman was trying to secure bail after
    being arrested on charges of engaging in inflammatory speech. After the
    court dismissed his bail plea, the city police commissioner ordered his
    detention under NSA. On December 10, the Madras High Court overturned
    the preventive detention of Seeman and ordered his release. Seeman was
    released from jail the same day.
        On September 9, railway police arrested four poultry farm workers
    for allegedly placing stones on the railway track between Erode and
    Uttukuli stations in Tamil Nadu. The Erode district collector ordered
    the suspects be charged under the NSA. At year's end there was no
    further information about the four.
        In June 2009 police detained five Manipur University students in
    Imphal under the NSA on charges of connection with militant
    organizations involved in the killing of a professor. On April 19, the
    court ordered the release of one of the students. At year's end the CBI
    continued to investigate the matter, and the other students remained in
    custody.
        The Public Safety Act (PSA), which applies only in Jammu and
    Kashmir, permits state authorities to detain persons without charge or
    judicial review for as long as two years. During this time family
    members do not have access to detainees, and detainees do not have
    access to legal counsel. In 2005 the NHRC set guidelines regarding
    arrest under the PSA that included establishing reasonable belief of
    guilt, avoiding detention if bail is an option, protecting the dignity
    of those arrested, prohibiting public display or parading, and allowing
    access to a lawyer during interrogation. In practice police routinely
    employed arbitrary detention and denied detainees, particularly the
    destitute, access to lawyers and medical attention.
        On February 24, the Jammu and Kashmir governor stated that 728
    persons had been detained under the PSA during 2008-10. On December 29,
    a Kashmir newspaper reported more than 3,500 youths were arrested and
    120 persons detained under the PSA during the June to September
    protests in the Kashmir valley.
        In 2005 the Chhattisgarh state government enacted the Special
    Public Security Act (SPSA), which permits detention for as long as
    three years for loosely defined unlawful activities. NGOs criticized
    the law as overly broad. Human rights groups voiced concerns that the
    law criminalizes any support given to Naxalites (Maoists), even support
    provided under duress.
        At year's end the Chhattisgarh High Court had not yet heard the
    petition filed by the People's Union of Civil Liberties (PUCL) in April
    2009 challenging the SPSA's constitutionality. Police arrested PUCL
    human rights activist and physician, Dr. Binayak Sen in 2007 for
    alleged links with the Maoists. On December 24, the Raipur Sessions
    Court sentenced Sen to life imprisonment under the SPSA on the charge
    of sedition. Prominent intellectuals and members of the ruling Congress
    Party criticized the verdict.
        The AFSPA remained in effect in Nagaland, Manipur, Assam, and parts
    of Tripura, and a version of the law was in effect in Jammu and
    Kashmir. Under the AFSPA the Government can declare any state or union
    territory a ``disturbed area,'' a declaration that allows security
    forces to fire on any person to ``maintain law and order'' and to
    arrest any person ``against whom reasonable suspicion exists'' without
    informing the detainee of the grounds for arrest. The law also gives
    security forces immunity from prosecution for acts committed under the
    AFSPA. There were no records available for acts committed under the
    AFSPA.
        On September 29, the Jammu and Kashmir state government created two
    committees to review areas in the state in which AFSPA could be lifted;
    however, the committees did not meet during the year.
        A number of arbitrary arrests occurred during the year. According
    to media reports, on January 31, Devi Singh Rawat, a human rights
    lawyer, was arbitrarily arrested for ``voluntarily causing hurt to
    deter a public servant from his duty'' and ``assault or criminal force
    to deter public servant from discharge of his duty'' during a fight
    between members of the public and police officials during Panchayati
    Raj Institution elections in the village of Palra. He was released on
    bail on February 2. NGOs claimed that his arrest was due to his work on
    human rights.
        On April 9, according to the AHRC, security forces arrested 14-
    year-old Mushtaq Ahmad Sheikh for allegedly throwing stones in
    Srinagar. He was detained for eight days before being released on bail,
    but, on April 21, he was once again detained without charge or trial.
    At year's end he remained in jail.
        On May 23, according to the AHRC, Central Reserve Police Force
    (CRPF) personnel killed Iskandar Ali Barbhuiy when they opened fire
    indiscriminately in Panchaboti, a small market place in Cachar, Assam.
    They later arbitrarily arrested Moniruddin Barbhuiya and Abdul Khalik.
    Police claimed they opened fire on and arrested the individuals due to
    suspicious behavior during a routine patrol of the market; witnesses
    said that the CRPF did not warn the people before approximately 10 CRPF
    started firing, causing all to run in panic.
        In many states police made ``preventive arrests'' in the name of
    curbing public unrest. For example, in Maharashtra, on September 29,
    the day before the judgment on a contentious case that was to be
    delivered regarding the Babri Mosque-Ram Temple dispute in Ayodhya,
    Uttar Pradesh, Mumbai police officials detained approximately 4,000
    individuals for one day, purportedly to ``prevent disturbances.''
        Arbitrarily lengthy detention was a major problem as a result of
    overburdened court systems and lack of sufficient safeguards and
    oversight of the law. On September 13, Chief Justice Kurian Joseph said
    the number of pending cases in the high court decreased from 54,000 in
    February to 45,000 in August. Some of the cases dated to 1987. The
    chief justice said the goal was to clear all pending cases up to 2001,
    bringing the number of pending cases to approximately 20,000.
        The Government continued efforts to reduce lengthy detention and
    alleviate prison overcrowding by using ``fast-track'' courts, which
    specify a trial date or timeline and directions for case management and
    encourage use of bail. Critics contended that poor detainees were
    unable to make bail and would remain in detention. As of November 25,
    there were 1,292 functional fast-track courts across the country, which
    disposed of more than 16,000 cases in 2008 and 14,000 cases in 2009.

        e. Denial of Fair Public Trial.--The law provides for an
    independent judiciary, and the Government generally respected judicial
    independence in practice, although citizens reported that judicial
    corruption was widespread. In Jammu and Kashmir, insurgents sought to
    threaten and intimidate members of the judiciary.
        The legal system was seriously overburdened and lacked modern case
    management systems, often delaying or denying justice. The court system
    had an estimated backlog of 30 million cases; one estimate during the
    year was that courts would require 320 years to clear that backlog.
        Many citizens reported that they offered bribes to move cases
    through the overburdened court system. In 2009 Minister of Law Veerappa
    Moily reported there were four million civil and criminal cases pending
    in the country's 21 high courts and 27 million pending civil and
    criminal cases in the lower courts. According to Moily the average time
    for a case to work its way through court was 15 years.
        There were allegations of bias in cases stemming from the 2002
    Gujarat violence (see section 1.a.).

        Trial Procedures.--The criminal procedure code provides for public
    trials, except in proceedings that involve official secrets, trials in
    which someone might make statements prejudicial to the safety of the
    state, or under provisions of special security legislation. Defendants
    enjoy the presumption of innocence and can choose their counsel. The
    state provides free legal counsel to indigent defendants, but in
    practice access to competent counsel often was limited, especially for
    the poor, and the overburdened justice system usually resulted in major
    delays in court cases.
        The law allows defendants access to relevant government evidence in
    most civil and criminal cases; the Government reserved the right to
    withhold information and did so in cases it considered sensitive. While
    defendants have the legal right to question witnesses against them, in
    practice underprivileged defendants sometimes did not enjoy this right.
    Courts must announce sentences publicly, and there are effective
    channels for appeal at most levels of the judicial system.
        Courts in Jammu and Kashmir often were reluctant to hear cases
    involving insurgent and terrorist crimes and failed to act
    expeditiously, if at all, on habeas corpus cases. According to a study
    by the South Asia Forum for Human Rights and the Centre for Law and
    Development, thousands of habeas corpus cases were pending in the
    courts throughout the Kashmir valley.

        Political Prisoners and Detainees.--There were reports of political
    prisoners or detainees in the country. NGOs reported that the Jammu and
    Kashmir government held political prisoners and also temporarily
    detained hundreds of persons characterized as terrorists, insurgents,
    or separatists. Human rights activists based in Jammu and Kashmir
    estimated there were 150 political prisoners in detention, and on
    December 23, members of the central government in Jammu and Kashmir
    announced that 2,950 political detainees who were arrested during the
    June-September protests had been released while 50 remained in prison.
    Prisoners arrested under one of the special antiterrorism laws often
    were not formally charged, nor did their family or other visitors have
    access to them.
        In West Bengal, 150 political prisoners remained in detention at
    year's end awaiting trial. Most were arrested in 2008 on charges of
    collaborating with the Maoists. On December 10, the prisoners at
    Mednipur Central Jail began a hunger strike protesting prison
    conditions and the noninitiation of court trials, and they demanded
    that a dialogue begin between the Government and the People's Committee
    Against Police Atrocities. The hunger strike continued at the end of
    the year.
        In May All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) chairman Mirwaiz Umar
    Farooq was placed under house arrest. Activists argued the arrest was
    made to prevent him from leading a rally to be held in Shopian in
    connection with the May 2009 killing of two women there (see section
    1.a.). In August 2009 the APHC released a list of 19 activists arrested
    as a result of protests of the Shopian incident; the activists were all
    released within several days of arrest.
        Kartam Joga, an indigenous political activist, arrested on
    September 14, remained imprisoned in Chhattisgarh at year's end on
    charges of collaborating with Maoists in ambushing and killing 76 CRPF
    personnel on April 6, murdering a leader of the ruling Bharatiya Janata
    Party Budhram Sodi in May, killing the father of a special police
    officer attached to the CRPF in August, and ambushing a truck and
    killing four persons in December 2009. Amnesty International maintained
    that the Government held Joga to prevent his peaceful political
    activities as an activist of the Communist Party of India (CPI) and an
    elected member of a local district government body and to deter him
    from defending the rights of adivasi (indigenous) communities.
        At year's end the trial of Marimuthu Barathan, a Dalit supporter
    with the Human Rights Education and Protection Council, for his alleged
    involvement in a January 2009 triple murder case had not begun. In June
    2009 authorities released Barathan from prison on bail.

        Civil Judicial Procedures and Remedies.--The NHRC is an independent
    and impartial investigatory and advisory body. It has a mandate to
    address public servants' violations of human rights or negligence in
    the prevention of violations, intervene in judicial proceedings
    involving allegations of human rights violations, and review any
    factors (including acts of terrorism) that infringe on human rights.
    The NHRC has the ability to summon and enforce witness attendance,
    produce documentation, and requisition public records. The NHRC also
    recommends appropriate remedies for alleged wrongs by offering
    compensation to the families of individuals killed or harmed
    extrajudicially by government personnel; however, it cannot force the
    implementation of its recommendations. The NHRC is not empowered to
    address allegations against military and paramilitary personnel.
        Nineteen states also have human rights commissions, which hold
    independent investigations but work under the NHRC.
        On October 12, the NHRC chair reported that the NHRC received
    82,021 complaints related to human rights violations in 2009-10, a
    decrease from the 90,946 complaints received in 2008-09.
        Individuals or NGOs can file ``public interest litigation'' (PIL)
    petitions in any high court or directly in the Supreme Court to seek
    judicial redress of public injury. These injuries may have been a
    result of a breach of public duty by a government agent or as a result
    of a violation of a provision of the constitution. NGOs credited PIL
    petitions for making government officials accountable to civil society
    organizations in cases involving allegations of corruption and
    partiality.

        f. Arbitrary Interference With Privacy, Family, Home, or
    Correspondence.--The law prohibits such actions, and the Government
    generally respected these laws in practice; however, at times the
    authorities infringed upon the right to privacy. Police are required to
    obtain warrants to conduct searches and seizures, except in cases in
    which such actions would cause undue delay. Police must justify
    warrantless searches in writing to the nearest magistrate with
    jurisdiction over the offense. In Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, and
    Manipur, authorities have special powers to search and arrest without a
    warrant, and in terrorism cases under UAPA (amended), police are
    provided greater discretion to conduct searches and seizures.
        The Information Technology Act allows police under certain
    circumstances to search premises and arrest individuals without a
    warrant. The act specifies a one-year sentence for persons who fail to
    provide information to the Government on request and a five-year
    sentence for transmitting ``lascivious'' material.
        The Telegraph Act authorizes the surveillance of communications,
    including monitoring telephone conversations and intercepting personal
    mail in cases of public emergency or ``in the interest of the public
    safety or tranquility.'' The central government and state governments
    used these surveillance techniques during the year.
        Although the Telegraph Act gives police the power to intercept
    telephone conversations, that evidence is generally inadmissible in
    court. The UAPA allows use of evidence obtained from intercepted
    communications in terrorist cases.
        On January 8, the central government defended its November 2009
    decision to ban prepaid mobile services in Jammu and Kashmir,
    explaining that terrorists used such services to detonate landmines
    targeting military convoys in the state. On January 21, the Government
    lifted the ban but placed strict conditions on telecommunications
    providers for verification of customers for both prepaid and postpaid
    connections. On June 29, the state government blocked mobile phone and
    messaging (SMS) services in the Kashmir Valley for one day to prevent
    further violence there but restored mobile services the next day.
        On August 15, the Department of Telecommunications and the
    country's security agencies issued a warning to Research in Motion
    (RIM), the creators of the Blackberry mobile device and its related
    services, that unlimited access to their devices was now a requirement.
    The department declared that if RIM did not grant unconstrained access
    to e-mails, text messages, and other communications in real time, the
    Government would ban their services. On October 15, the Prime
    Minister's Office intervened, delaying the deadline from October 31 to
    January 31, 2011. At year's end RIM and the Government remained in
    negotiations, and Blackberry service continued uninterrupted.

        g. Use of Excessive Force and Other Abuses in Internal Conflicts--
    During the year the country's armed forces, individual states' security
    forces, and paramilitary forces continued to engage in armed conflict
    with insurgent groups in Jammu and Kashmir, in several northeastern
    states, and in the Naxalite belt in the central and eastern parts of
    the country. All parties to the conflict used excessive force on
    occasion, killing and injuring conflict participants and civilians. The
    central and state governments and the armed forces investigated
    complaints and punished human rights violations committed by their own
    forces, and they arrested and tried insurgents under terrorism-related
    legislation. Investigations and prosecutions into human rights
    violations, however, were slow and few in number. There was no evidence
    that insurgent forces made attempts to prevent or punish human rights
    violations by their members.
        In November the Ministry of Defense informed parliament there had
    been 230 complaints of human rights violations lodged against armed
    forces personnel in the country since 2007. Of those complaints, 175
    personnel were demerited (mark on permanent record), and in four cases
    eight personnel were found guilty and punished.In Jammu and Kashmir,
    between June and September, security forces killed demonstrators during
    protests and injured many others. According to the Government, many of
    the protests turned violent after protesters threw stones and rocks at
    security forces, and security forces retaliated with excessive or
    deadly force. Deaths and injuries to protesters, including a number of
    children, spurred anger and renewed protests, deepening a cycle of
    violence. The MHA reported 101 civilians were killed from June 11 to
    October 31. In September the Government sought to calm tempers through
    dialogue, by releasing arrested protesters and providing financial
    compensation for deaths. During the violence the state government
    arrested 2,266 individuals; 81 of them were charged under the PSA for
    leading the protests.
        On October 6, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah stated
    that his government had ordered judicial inquiries into 13 cases of
    alleged human rights violations in the state in the past 20 months and
    an inquiry commission into 17 cases of civilian casualties during
    disturbances between June 11 and July 29.
        The conflicts in Jammu and Kashmir also resulted in the
    mistreatment and abuse of individuals. On April 1, the Jammu and
    Kashmir State Human Rights Commission informed the state assembly that
    there were 404 cases of human rights violations, including six rapes,
    43 disappearances, and six custodial deaths in 2008-09, 11 of which
    were specific complaints against paramilitary forces and the Jammu and
    Kashmir police. In three cases the army courts-martial court granted
    permission for the prosecution of the violators.
        The army prosecuted and punished some soldiers for human rights
    violations; on October 20, the army's Northern Command informed the
    media that 104 soldiers, including 48 officers, had either been
    dismissed from service or suspended for human rights violations in
    Jammu and Kashmir in the last 20 years. However, government
    investigations generally revealed a large percentage of the claims to
    be false and unjustified. The Northern Command reported that their
    investigations determined 97 percent of the 1,508 claims it
    investigated over the past 20 years were false. Similarly, on March 2,
    the Jammu and Kashmir government stated that as many as 384 complaints
    of the 623 human rights violations made to the State Human Rights
    Commission in the past two years were found to be false.
        The MHA's most recent annual report showed a decline in the number
    of violent incidents and people arrested and killed in the Northeastern
    tates, where a variety of ethnic groups sought independence or greater
    autonomy. According to the United NGO Mission of Manipur, human rights
    violations and excessive use of force by federal security forces in the
    state decreased, but there was an increase in the number of human
    rights violation committed by local security forces.
        In West Bengal's Naxalite (Maoist) affected districts, there were
    continued reports of excessive use of force by security agencies. The
    Andhra Pradesh police noted that large-scale Maoist (Naxalite) violence
    had declined in the state during the year, although there was a
    marginal increase in targeted killings as compared with 2009.

        Killings.--According to the South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP)
    database, total terrorism and insurgency-related fatalities continued
    to decrease from the previous year. There were reports that government
    security forces committed extrajudicial killings of persons in custody,
    including staging encounter killings to cover up the deaths of captured
    militants. Human rights groups claimed police refused to turn over
    bodies in cases of suspected staged encounters. In 2002 the Supreme
    Court ordered the central government and local authorities to conduct
    regular checks on police stations to monitor custodial violence, but
    government officials often failed to comply with the order. The armed
    forces are not required to report custodial deaths to the NHRC.
        The Institute for Conflict Management reported as of October 17,
    there were 375 fatalities in Jammu and Kashmir, including 270 alleged
    terrorists, 69 members of the security forces, and 36 civilians.
        There was no information about fatalities related to insurgencies
    during the year in the Northeastern States; they dropped from 1,054 in
    2008 to 843 in 2009.
        The ACHR reported that casualties among civilians and security
    forces resulting from Naxalite (Maoist) violence across at least 15
    states exceeded those resulting from violence by separatist insurgents
    in Jammu and Kashmir. The SATP database reported that during the year
    990 persons--including 212 militants, 250 security force personnel, and
    528 civilians--were killed as a result of Naxalite (Maoist) violence.
    Maoist-related fatalities in West Bengal, which had the most civilian
    fatalities during the year, have increased exponentially since 2005.
        On January 24, according to media reports, security forces
    allegedly used civilian Mushtaq Ahmad as a human shield. Police said he
    was caught in the exchange of gunfire during the operation to flush out
    insurgents at Karimpora village in south Kashmir's Pulwama. Locals,
    however, alleged that Mushtaq, son of the village headman, was used as
    a human shield against a barrage of fire directed at the forces.
        On February 3, crossfire between security forces and United
    Liberation Front of Asom militants in Udaigiri district, Orissa, killed
    10-year-old student Lakhya Jytoi Deka.
        On February 5, 17-year-old Zahid Farooq was shot dead in Srinagar.
    Police investigations found the involvement of BSF personnel in the
    crime. Two months after Farooq's killing, which sparked widespread
    protests, the Jammu and Kashmir police charged BSF Commandant R K
    Birdhi and Constable Lakhvinder Kumar Singh with the murder. The
    killing of Zahid Farooq followed the death of 14-year-old Wamiq Farooq
    on January 31, who died when he was struck by a tear gas canister as
    police tried to disperse a crowd protesting Indian rule in Kashmir.
        On April 24, personnel of the Rashtriya Rifles paramilitary force
    allegedly killed civilian Ghulam Muhammad Kalas and injured four others
    in Shopian district, Jammu and Kashmir. The NHRC sought a detailed
    report from the central government regarding the allegation. At year's
    end there was no further update.
        On May 29, an army major, a special police officer, and three army
    soldiers, were charged with murdering three civilians--Shahzad Ahmad
    Khan, Riyaz Ahmad Lone, and Muhammad Shafi Lone--on April 30. The
    officials allegedly promised the civilians a wage of 2,000 rupees ($45)
    per day to work as army porters in the Machil sector of the Line-of-
    Control. Instead, they took them to Sogam village and shot them. The
    accused claimed the civilians were armed terrorists who died in a
    foiled infiltration attempt. Army investigators established that
    security forces killed the villagers extrajudicially, and the Jammu and
    Kashmir government owed the families compensation. On August 14, the
    media reported the victims' kin had received unsigned checks for
    100,000 rupees ($2,222). The Government administrators promised to
    reissue the checks, but there was no information about whether they had
    done so by year's end.
        On July 15, police charged 11 persons, including a colonel and two
    majors from the army, in connection with a fake encounter case that led
    to the killings of three youths in the Kupwara district, Jammu and
    Kashmir, on April 30. The 11 were charged with allegedly conspiring and
    kidnapping the three youths on the pretext of giving them jobs and
    later killing them in the higher reaches of Kupwara, claiming they were
    terrorists.
        On July 25, police allegedly tortured to death Tariq Ahmed Dar from
    Varmul District, Jammu and Kashmir, in custody. Police claimed he was a
    Laskar-e-Toiba (LeT) operative. His family filed a formal complaint,
    and at year's end investigations continued.
        On September 30, soldiers from the Nagaland unit of Indian Reserve
    Battalion shot at a vehicle and killed its two occupants near
    Balarampur town of West Bengal's Purulia District, reportedly without
    provocation. There were also reports of abuses by armed militias
    (``harmads''), affiliated with the CPI-M party, in West Bengal.
        There were no developments in the case of police allegedly killing
    19 persons in a staged encounter in Chhattisgarh in January 2009.
    Police claimed that Naxalite insurgents engaged them and that they
    recovered large amounts of explosives and weapons. Local villagers and
    journalists claimed, however, that the persons killed by police had no
    connection to Naxalites. According to villagers' reports, 150 to 170
    special police officers assembled villagers and forced them to put on
    Naxalite uniforms before shooting them. Villagers also alleged the
    officers raped female victims. At year's end the case continued in the
    state's high court.
        There were no developments in the January 2009 report of the army's
    high-level inquiry into the shooting death of Abdur Ahad Reshi, a deaf
    and mute man in Veer Saran Pahalgam in Kashmir.
        In March 2009 the army ordered disciplinary action against three
    soldiers found guilty of killing two civilians in February 2009 in
    Bumai, Jammu and Kashmir. Army authorities initially claimed the
    victims died as a result of an exchange of gun fire between militants
    and security forces. An army inquiry determined, however, that the
    three soldiers did not exercise adequate restraint in the use of their
    weapons.
        There were no updates regarding the March 2009 report that CRPF
    members killed Sahbir Ahmad Ahangar in Nowhatta, Jammu and Kashmir.
        In May 2009 the army ordered an inquiry into the alleged custodial
    death of Manzoor Ahmed Beig, who was found dead after Special Operation
    Group (SOG) inspector Khurshid Ahmad had summoned him to the SOG camp.
    At year's end Ahmad remained under suspension, but criminal proceedings
    had not been initiated against him.
        In September the Assam government paid 500,000 rupees ($11,000)
    each to the families of Ram Nath Chauhan and Jawahar Singh Gour,
    following recommendations of the NHRC. The two were victims of
    excessive use of firearms against protesters by police in Kabi Anglong
    district in 2008.
        On July 26, the family of Jalil Andrabi, human rights lawyer and
    activist, filed a petition before the Budgam chief judicial magistrate
    for further investigation into Andrabi's 1996 death in Srinagar, Jammu
    and Kashmir. The city court replied that it did not possess the power
    to reopen the case.
        On February 21, the Jammu and Kashmir State Human Rights Commission
    sought sanction from the MHA and Ministry of Defense to prosecute two
    army officers indicted in the custodial killing of Muhammed Ayub Bhatt
    in 1991.
        Insurgents in the three conflict zones also committed killings
    during the year.
        On March 16, insurgent forces attacked a group of policemen in
    Baramulla district, Jammu and Kashmir, killing one policeman and one
    civilian and injuring six others.
        On April 6 and 10, Naxalites killed 75 and 76 police personnel,
    respectively.
        On May 2, two grenade blasts by insurgent forces in Doda district,
    Jammu and Kashmir, injured four civilians, including two children.
        On May 17, Naxalites blew up a private bus killing more than 40
    persons, including 18 local special police officers, in Dantewada,
    Chhattisgarh.
        On May 28, the Gyaneshwari Express derailed in West Bengal,
    resulting in the deaths of 148 passengers. It was disputed as to
    whether sabotage or a bomb caused damage on the railway track, which in
    turn led to a train's derailment before an oncoming freight train hit
    the loose carriages. An inquiry by the railway blamed ``sabotage'' for
    the train accident. The Maoist-backed People's Committee against Police
    Atrocities claimed responsibility. Police arrested several leaders with
    Maoist links, and on August 27, key suspect Umakanto Mahato was killed
    in an overnight encounter in Mohanpur forest.
        On May 3, a special fast-track court in Mumbai found Mohammed Ajmal
    Amir Kasab, the lone LeT terrorist captured alive from the 2008
    terrorist attacks in Mumbai, guilty of murder and waging war against
    the country and sentenced him to death. On October 18, the Mumbai High
    Court began hearing an appeal filed by Kasap against the death penalty.
    At year's end there was no verdict.

        Abductions.--Human rights groups maintained that military,
    paramilitary, and insurgent forces abducted numerous persons in Jammu
    and Kashmir, the Northeastern States, and the Naxalite belt. Human
    rights activists feared that some of the unacknowledged prisoners were
    tortured or killed during detention.
        Estimates of the number of missing persons varied. Human rights
    organizations stated there were 8,000 to 10,000 people missing in
    custody in Jammu and Kashmir. The Jammu and Kashmir government reported
    in 2009 that 3,429 persons were missing from their homes and 110
    disappeared after arrest from 1999 to July 2009. During the year the
    Jammu and Kashmir government revised these figures and reported that
    1,105 persons had disappeared from the state since 1989.
        The Jammu and Kashmir Human Rights Commission handled 43
    disappearance cases in 2008-09. During the year there were no
    verifiable, documented disappearance cases involving security forces,
    police, or Naxalites.
        On August 3, personnel from the 12 Maratha Light Infantry arrested
    Leimakhujam Kokulo Singh at a checkpoint near Patsoi Lai Umang along
    the Imphal-Sangaithel Road. Kokulo was returning home with his wife and
    sister in an auto rickshaw. According to witnesses, security forces
    asked him to exit the vehicle, questioned and searched him, and dragged
    him into a white vehicle. The army did not issue an arrest memo, which
    is mandatory according to the guidelines of the Supreme Court. Kokulo's
    whereabouts remained unknown at year's end.
        On July 2, the Central Information Commissioner, Wajahat
    Habibullah, summoned to Delhi two top officials of the BSF in Jammu and
    Kashmir to provide information regarding the alleged disappearance of
    Muhammed Ashraf Yatoo in 1990 from Bandipora, Jammu and Kashmir. The
    BSF officials were summoned after Kashmir-based activist Raja Muzaffar
    Bhat filed an RTI request regarding Yatoo's death. No further action
    was taken against the BSF.
        Naxalites also abducted individuals during the year. On August 29,
    Naxalites abducted four policemen in Lakhisarai District, Bihar. The
    insurgent group killed one but released the others on September 6.
    According to media reports, the abduction was in retaliation for the
    July security force killing of Naxal leader Cherukuri Rajkumar (alias
    Azad).
        In October Naxalites abducted an intelligence officer and a teacher
    in West Bengal. At year's end their whereabouts were unknown.

        Physical Abuse, Punishment, and Torture.--There were reports that
    government security forces tortured, raped, and mistreated insurgents
    and alleged terrorists in custody and injured demonstrators. All
    parties to the conflicts injured civilians on occasion.
        The NHRC looked into media reports and photographs that were
    published on June 18 of what appeared to be security force members
    carrying the dead bodies of Naxalites, including women, with their
    hands and feet tied to bamboo poles. It was alleged that the
    photographs were taken following an anti-Maoist operation in West
    Midnapore, West Bengal. The security members included members of armed
    CRPF counterinsurgency units and West Bengal police. The NHRC requested
    and received a report on the matter from the MHA and closed the case; a
    PIL petition requesting the reason why the security forces transported
    the dead bodies in such a manner was pending before the Kolkata High
    Court at year's end. The Government of West Bengal stated that security
    personnel had no intention of carrying the victims trussed in bamboo
    poles but were forced to as they were facing a hostile situation. At
    year's end the Kolkata High Court had held two sessions but had not
    pronounced a verdict.
        On September 5, police registered a case against Battalion 46 of
    the Rashtriya Rifles for opening fire and causing injury to five
    civilians in Baramulla, Jammu and Kashmir.
        On September 14, Amnesty International urged authorities to carry
    out an effective investigation into a three-minute video clip,
    allegedly recorded by one of the security force members, that showed
    Jammu and Kashmir police and CRPF personnel herding at least four naked
    youth to a nearby police station.
        Unlike in the previous two years, there were no reports of
    significant violence against out-of-state migrants by the regional
    political party Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS). Investigations
    continued in the violent incidents perpetrated by MNS members in 2008
    and February 2009. Several MNS activists were arrested, but at year's
    end they were released on bail.

        Child Soldiers.--There were no credible reports of any government
    security forces using child soldiers during the year; however,
    insurgent groups reportedly used child soldiers. According to an April
    13 UN secretary-general report on children and armed conflict, there
    were reports that Naxalites recruited and used child soldiers,
    especially in Chhattisgarh. According to an October 2009 MHA statement,
    intelligence information indicated forced recruitment of children by
    the Naxals in areas south of Chhattisgarh. In 2008 the NHRC stated that
    the Naxals forced many families to send at least one adolescent boy or
    girl to join their ranks. NGOs alleged that militants often used
    children as shields against government security forces. The UN
    conducted investigations into these allegations throughout the year.
        On November 23, the media reported on the escape of a 13-year-old
    tribal girl from a Maoist hideout near Bankura, West Bengal.

        Other Conflict-Related Abuses.--The conflicts in Jammu and Kashmir,
    the Northeastern States, and the Naxalite belt have displaced an
    estimated 621,000 persons; most remained without permanent homes during
    the year.
        In the Kashmir Valley region, from 1990 onwards, Islamist militants
    threatened, abducted, and killed Pandits and demanded that they leave.
    Tens of thousands of Kashmiri Pandits fled to Jammu, Delhi, and other
    areas in the country because of conflict between the Indian army and
    Muslim insurgents. As of June, 250,000 Kashmiri Pandits were displaced,
    most of them in camps in Jammu and Delhi. During the year protests in
    the Kashmir Valley region against Indian rule continued to make their
    return unlikely. According to the MHA's 2009-10 annual report, there
    were 57,863 Kashmiri Pandit migrant families, of whom 37,285 resided in
    Jammu, 19,338 in Delhi, and 1,240 in other states and territories. A
    February 2009 survey found 2,865 Kashmiri Pandits residing in Jammu and
    Kashmir, compared with 19,900 in 1998. The Governments of Jammu and
    Kashmir, the National Capital Territory of Delhi, and other states and
    territories provided aid to resident Kashmiri Pandit displaced
    families.
        In response to the deteriorating conditions of the camps, in 2004
    the prime minister announced the construction of approximately 5,000
    apartments for the Kashmiri Pandits, scheduled to be inhabited as of
    December; however, as of June only half had been completed. The plan
    was based on the assumption that all displaced Kashmiri Pandit families
    would eventually return to Kashmir.
        In the Northeast, violence between communal groups in the states of
    Assam, Manipur, and Mizoram displaced more than 25,000 persons from
    January 2009 through June; more than 202,000 remained displaced from
    previous incidents of communal violence from as early as 1993.
    According to the MHA's 2008-09 annual report, the central government
    began discussions with the northeastern state of Mizoram regarding
    repatriation to Mizoram of 32,500 Brus (also known as Reang) internally
    displaced persons (IDPs) living in six relief camps in Tripura. In 2005
    the Supreme Court ordered the MHA, the election commission, and the
    Governments of Mizoram and Tripura to resettle approximately 30,000
    displaced Brus (Reangs) and add them to the electoral rolls. A 2007
    survey by the Mizoram Bru Displaced Peoples Forum (MBDPF) of 5,328
    families found that more than 94 percent of camp inmates possessed at
    least one document issued by national or Mizoram authorities proving
    they were residents of Mizoram State. The first phase of the
    resettlement was delayed due to a November 2009 arson following the
    killing of a Mizo youth, which resulted in renewed Mizo-Bru violence
    and the displacement of an additional 5,000 Brus from Mizoram to
    Tripura. On May 1, 115 Brus displaced to Tripura in 2009 returned to
    Mizoram. As of August a census performed by the MBDPF counted 31,703
    Brus remaining in camps in Tripura. Most had been displaced in 1997;
    2,183 were displaced in 2009.
        In central India armed conflicts over land and mineral resources in
    tribal forest areas continued, and fighting between Naxalite (Maoist)
    insurgents and government security forces, supported by state-
    supported, civilian anti-Naxalite Salwa Judum militia and Special
    Police Officers, affected more than 200 of the country's 626 districts
    in 20 of its 29 states. Most of the conflict areas overlap with the
    Dandakaranya forest, which covers parts of West Bengal, Jharkhand,
    Orissa, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, and Maharashtra. The forest also
    has large deposits of mineral resources, such as bauxite, iron ore, and
    uranium, and is home to millions of tribal people. The Ministry of
    Rural Development in 2009 estimated up to 400,000 individuals have been
    displaced since the conflict began.
        In 2009 the Government initiated Operation Green Hunt against
    Naxalites in Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa, and West Bengal,
    including in the Dandakaranya forest. Human rights advocates argued
    that the operation seeks not only to suppress the Naxalites but also to
    force these tribal people off their land, allowing for commercial
    development. Also in 2009 the British newspaper The Guardian reported
    that the Government had signed several hundred memorandums of
    understanding with companies to build power plants, dams, and steel
    factories in the affected areas.
        IDP camps that opened in Chhattisgarh for displaced tribal persons
    caught in fighting between Naxalites and the Salwa Judum in 2006
    continued to operate. A 2008 NHRC report identified 23 government
    relief camps, with an estimated camp population of 40,000 IDPs, reduced
    from 27 camps with as many as 60,000 IDPs in 2006. The camps lacked
    adequate shelter, food, health care, education, and security. Civil
    society groups alleged that some men, women, and children from the
    camps were trafficked for labor and sexual exploitation. Some sources
    alleged that both Naxalites and Salwa Judum activists armed displaced
    children, but there was no confirmed evidence. Police acknowledged that
    some displaced minors may have been armed unintentionally by police
    officers but stated that police dismissed minors upon learning their
    ages. NGOs alleged that hundreds of Chhattisgarh IDPs settled in forest
    reserve areas in Andhra Pradesh were denied basic assistance, including
    food, water, shelter, medical facilities, and sanitation. Little was
    known about the population or their living conditions.

    Section 2. Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:
        a. Freedom of Speech and Press.--The constitution provides for
    freedom of speech and expression, but it does not explicitly mention
    freedom of the press. While the Government generally respected freedom
    of speech and press in practice, certain forms of expression, such as
    obscenity or speech that the Government feared might disrupt public
    order, are not protected. In addition both the state and central
    governments imposed restrictions on media in Jammu and Kashmir during
    the violent protests in the summer as they attempted to restore law and
    order.
        Individuals could generally criticize the Government publicly or
    privately without reprisal; however, on June 29, the Jammu and Kashmir
    government blocked SMS in North Kashmir and, on June 30, expanded its
    blockage to all parts of Jammu and Kashmir. Official justified the
    blockage as a measure to prevent ``antinational'' elements and
    separatists from ``misusing'' the service. The ban was lifted on
    December 22.
        In October law enforcement authorities began investigating writer
    and activist Arundhati Roy and four others for sedition regarding
    public comments they made regarding the status of Jammu and Kashmir. At
    year's end no charges had been filed against Roy or the others.
        The independent media were active and expressed a wide variety of
    views without restriction. Independent newspapers and magazines were
    regularly published, and television channels broadcast investigative
    reports, including allegations of government wrongdoing. The media
    generally promoted human rights and criticized perceived government
    violations.
        AM radio broadcasting remained a government monopoly. Private FM
    radio station ownership was legal, but licenses authorized only
    entertainment and educational content. With the exception of radio,
    foreign media generally operated freely. Widely distributed private
    satellite television provided competition for Doordarshan, the
    Government-owned television network. There were allegations that the
    Government network manipulated the news. Some privately owned satellite
    channels promoted the platforms of political parties their owners
    supported.
        The Press Council, a statutory body of journalists, publishers,
    academics, and politicians with a government-appointed chairman,
    investigates what it considers irresponsible journalism and sets a
    self-regulated code of conduct for publishers. The code includes
    injunctions against publishing stories that might incite caste or
    communal violence. The council publicly criticized those it believed
    had broken the code.
        On July 1, the Jammu and Kashmir government banned publication of
    three daily newspapers after allegations of inflammatory reporting. The
    ban was lifted on July 6.
        On July 30, the Jammu and Kashmir government banned transmissions
    of two local television channels accused of broadcasting
    ``provocative'' telecasts and creating law and order problems. The
    channels allegedly violated the 1995 Cable Television Network
    (Regulation) Act and were restricted to broadcasting news for only 15
    minutes at a predetermined time.
        Journalists experienced violence and harassment as a result of
    their reporting during the year.
        On January 7, police in Srinagar fired upon Amaan Farooq and Yawar
    Nazir after demanding the journalists cease photographing the scene
    following a battle between police and armed militants. Police assaulted
    three other journalists at the scene.
        On March 3, unidentified men attacked the Mangalore offices of
    Kannada Prabha and New Indian Express, reportedly in response to an
    article written by Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen that argued
    against the wearing of the burqa. Protests against the publication
    allegedly led to street violence in Shimoga and Hassan that killed two
    persons.
        On April 26, security forces in Srinagar beat Gowhar Bhat for
    covering a demonstration of the People's Democratic Party.
        On July 12, the Government refused to renew the work visa for Japan
    Broadcasting Corporation New Delhi bureau chief, Shogo Takahashi,
    purportedly due to his documentary programs that touched on the caste
    system.
        Local media reported 12 attacks and six instances of intimidation
    against journalists in Orissa from January through July.
        The central government banned some books from being imported or
    sold in the country because they contained material that government
    censors deemed inflammatory and apt to provoke communal or religious
    tensions.

        Internet Freedom.--There were some government restrictions on
    access to the Internet and reports that the Government occasionally
    monitored users of digital media. A 2008 amendment to the Information
    Technology Act reinforced the Government's power to block Internet
    sites and content, and it criminalized sending messages it deemed
    inflammatory or offensive. Both central and state governments have the
    power to issue directions for the interception, monitoring, or
    decryption of computer information. The Information Technology Ministry
    is responsible for enforcing the rules and regulations.
        According to International Telecommunication Union statistics
    during the year, 6.9 percent of the country's inhabitants used the
    Internet. Lack of infrastructure limited public access to the Internet,
    but large segments of the population (706 million) had mobile phones
    and used SMS to send and receive information.
        On August 20, the central government delayed implementation of a
    ban on Blackberry devices (see section 1.f.).

        Academic Freedom and Cultural Events.--The Government continued to
    apply restrictions to the travel and activities of a few visiting
    experts and scholars. Academic guidelines issued by the Ministry of
    Human Resources Development in 2003 required all central universities
    to obtain the ministry's permission before organizing ``all forms of
    foreign collaborations and other international academic exchange
    activities,'' including seminars, conferences, workshops, guest
    lectures, and research. Although the restrictions remained in force, in
    most cases the ministry permitted the international academic exchanges
    to take place after bureaucratic delays.

        b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association.--The law provides
    for freedoms of assembly and association, and the Government generally
    respected these rights in practice.

        Freedom of Assembly--The law provides for freedom of assembly.
    Authorities normally required permits and notification before parades
    or demonstrations, and local governments generally respected the right
    to protest peacefully, except in Jammu and Kashmir, where the local
    government sometimes denied permits to separatist parties for public
    gatherings and security forces occasionally detained and assaulted
    separatists engaged in peaceful protest (see section 1.g.). During
    periods of civil tension, authorities used the criminal procedure code
    to ban public assemblies or impose a curfew.

        Freedom of Association.--The law provides for the freedom of
    association, and the Government generally respected this right in
    practice; however, there were restrictions on foreign funding and
    organization of international conferences (see section 5).

        c. Freedom of Religion.--For a complete description of religious
    freedom, please see the 2010 International Religious Freedom Report at
    www.state.gov/g/drl/irf/rpt.

        d. Freedom of Movement, Internally Displaced Persons, Protection of
    Refugees, and Stateless Persons.--The law provides for freedom of
    movement within the country, foreign travel, emigration, and
    repatriation, and the Government generally respected these rights in
    practice. At year's end the Government lifted the requirement for
    nationals and foreigners, except persons from Pakistan and China, to
    apply for a special permit to travel to Manipur, Mizoram, or Nagaland;
    however, it continued to require special permits to travel to Jammu and
    Kashmir.
        The Government generally cooperated with the Office of the UN High
    Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and other humanitarian organizations
    in providing protection and assistance to some but not all IDPs,
    refugees, returning refugees, asylum seekers, stateless persons, and
    other persons of concern.
        Security forces often searched and questioned vehicle occupants at
    checkpoints, mostly in troubled areas in the Kashmir Valley, before
    public events in New Delhi or after major terrorist attacks. The
    Government maintained a 330-mile security fence along the Line-of-
    Control in Jammu and Kashmir, causing difficulties as the fence cuts
    through some villages and agricultural lands.
        The Government legally may deny a passport to any applicant who it
    believes may engage in activities outside the country ``prejudicial to
    the sovereignty and integrity of the nation.'' Unlike in previous
    years, there were no reports of the Government using the issuance of
    passports or travel documents to restrict travel of separatist leaders
    in Jammu and Kashmir.
        Citizens from Jammu and Kashmir continued to face extended delays,
    often as long as two years, before the Ministry of External Affairs
    would issue or renew their passports. The Government subjected
    applicants born in Jammu and Kashmir--even children born to military
    officers during their deployment in the state--to additional scrutiny,
    requests for bribes, and police clearances before issuing them
    passports.
        The law allows for forced exile; however, the Government did not
    use forced exile in practice, and there were no reports of it during
    the year.

        Internally Displaced Persons.--There were several groups of IDPs in
    various locations in the country, including those displaced by internal
    armed conflicts in Jammu and Kashmir, the Naxalite belt, and the
    Northeast (see section 1.g.), as well as in Gujurat. In September the
    Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) estimated that regional conflicts had
    displaced at least 650,000 persons, and the Internal Displacement
    Monitoring Center, operated by the NRC and the UN, put the total number
    of IDPs at approximately 500,000. It was difficult to estimate the
    exact number of those displaced by conflict or violence as there was no
    central government agency responsible for monitoring the numbers of
    those displaced or returning, and humanitarian and human rights
    agencies had limited access to camps and affected regions. While those
    who resided in IDP camps were registered, an unknown number stayed
    outside the camps.
        The violence in Gujarat in 2002 displaced more than 250,000
    persons, many of them Muslims from Gujarati villages and cities.
    According to the NRC, 19,000 IDPs remained in camps as of September 2,
    living in 86 relief colonies that lacked adequate infrastructure.
        The Government has no national policy or legislation to address
    internal displacement resulting from armed conflict and ethnic or
    communal violence, and the responsibility for protecting and assisting
    the displaced has often been delegated to the state governments and
    district authorities. The lack of a central policy allowed states to
    remain unaccountable for internal displacement and to claim they are
    unable to protect or assist displaced people. When state- or district-
    level authorities provide assistance, it is often temporary and varied.
    The Government provided assistance to IDPs and allowed them access to
    NGO and human rights organizations, but neither access nor assistance
    was standard for all IDPs or situations. As in previous years, there
    were no reports that the Government attacked or forcibly resettled
    IDPs.

        Protection of Refugees.--The country is not a party to the 1951
    Convention relating to the Status of Refugees or the 1967 Protocol
    relating to the Status of Refugees, and there is no law or clear policy
    for refugees. The 1946 Foreigners Act, the law consulted by authorities
    with regard to refugees and asylum seekers, does not contain the term
    ``refugee''; the word ``foreigner'' is used, placing refugees,
    migrants, and tourists in the same category. Under this act physical
    presence in the country without valid travel or residential documents
    is a criminal offense, rendering refugees without appropriate
    documentation eligible to be deported; nevertheless, there were no
    reports that the Government deported refugees during the year. The
    Government generally provided protection against the expulsion or
    return of refugees to countries where their lives or freedom would be
    threatened on account of their race, religion, nationality, membership
    in a particular social group, or political opinion.
        Although the Government lacks a legal framework for addressing
    refugees, it used an ad hoc approach and occasionally granted asylum
    and refugee status on humanitarian grounds in accordance with
    international law. However, this approach resulted in varying standards
    of protection for different refugee groups. The Government recognizes
    refugees of Tibet and Sri Lanka and honors UNHCR decisions on refugee
    status determination for individuals from other countries. According to
    the UNHCR, as of January there were 185,323 refugees in the country,
    including approximately 72,000 Sri Lankan refugees, 100,000 Tibetan
    refugees, and more than 14,000 urban refugees from other countries
    living in New Delhi. Of the 6,037 asylum seekers and 15,216 refugees
    registered with the UNHCR in New Delhi, a majority were from
    Afghanistan and Burma.
        The UNHCR had no formal status in the country, but the Government
    permitted its staff access to refugees in urban centers and allowed it
    to maintain a local office in Tamil Nadu; however, the UNHCR was not
    permitted direct access to Sri Lankan refugee camps, Tibetan
    settlements, or asylum seekers in Mizoram. In contrast the Government
    generally permitted NGOs, international humanitarian organizations, and
    foreign governments access to Sri Lankan refugee camps and Tibetan
    settlements but also generally denied them access to asylum seeker
    populations in Mizoram.
        As of December approximately 70,000 Sri Lankan Tamil refugees lived
    in 112 refugee camps throughout Tamil Nadu and one camp in Orissa. The
    central government and the state of Tamil Nadu jointly provided monthly
    cash payments and food subsidies to the refugees. According to NGOs,
    conditions in the Sri Lankan Tamil refugee camps in Tamil Nadu were
    generally acceptable, although much of the housing, as well as water
    and sanitation facilities, was of poor quality. There were some reports
    of gender-based violence including domestic violence, sexual abuse, and
    early marriage. The Government of Tamil Nadu estimated that there were
    an estimated 33,000 Sri Lankan refugees living at large in the state.
        The UNHCR provided refugee status and assistance to approximately
    3,000 to 4,000 Burmese living in Delhi, primarily Chins, but did not
    have access to the larger population of ethnic Chins living in the
    northeastern states. NGOs estimated that there were between 50,000 and
    100,000 Burmese Chin asylum seekers in Mizoram. Chin refugees generally
    reported fair access to housing, education, and health services.
    However, because most Chin refugees lacked legal status and were unable
    to work legally, they had inadequate income to meet their basic needs
    and remained vulnerable to abuse, discrimination, and harassment.
        While the Government respected the UNHCR's mandate of protection
    for UNHCR-recognized groups in New Delhi and provided residential
    permits to many of the UNHCR-recognized urban refugees, the Government
    did not recognize these populations in Delhi and other cities as
    ``refugees,'' leaving them ineligible for certain rights and services
    and vulnerable to harassment and gender-based violence. They did not
    have the legal right to work and thus often worked for low wages in the
    informal market. Many refugees did not have sufficient access to
    education or basic services, although they received medical care in
    free clinics. Refugees without residency permits or other official
    documents did not have access to police or courts. One organization
    also reported a number of cases of abuse of refugees and arbitrary
    detentions. The organization noted that many urban refugees worked in
    the informal sector or in highly visible occupations such as street
    vendors, where they were subject to police extortion, nonpayment, and
    exploitation.

        Stateless Persons--According to the 1955 Citizenship Act,
    citizenship is derived by one's parents; birth within the country does
    not guarantee citizenship. A person born within the country is
    considered a citizen only if at least one parent is a citizen and the
    other is not an illegal migrant. Citizenship can also be obtained
    through registration under specific categories and via naturalization
    after residing in the country for 12 years.
        According to the UNHCR and NGOs, the country has a large population
    of stateless persons, but there were no accurate estimates of the
    number. Stateless populations include Chakmas and Hajongs, who migrated
    to India from East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), and groups affected by
    the 1947 partition of the Indian Subcontinent into India and Pakistan.
    The UNHCR was working to identify and map stateless groups. In addition
    as of May, there were approximately 28,500 stateless Sri Lankan Tamils
    living in refugee camps in Tamil Nadu. The Sri Lankan government passed
    laws to grant citizenship to the Tamil refugees in 2009, but
    restoration of citizenship to the refugees was a slow process.

    Section 3. Respect for Political Rights: The Right of Citizens to
            Change Their Government
        The constitution provides citizens the right to change their
    government peacefully, and citizens exercised this right in practice
    through periodic, free, and fair elections based on universal suffrage.

        Elections and Political Participation.--The country held a five-
    phase national election in April and May 2009 that included 714 million
    eligible voters. National and local security forces helped to ensure a
    relatively smooth election, although 65 persons were killed in voting-
    related violence. The Congress-led United Progress Alliance government
    (a coalition of parties), headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh,
    returned to power for a second term.
        Citizens elected state governments and local municipal or village
    council governments at regular intervals. During the year free and fair
    assembly elections were held in Bihar. While no voters were killed in
    election violence in Bihar, a bomb planted by Naxalites, who had urged
    a boycott of the election, killed two law enforcement officers.
        There were also cases of political violence during the year in
    Uttar Pradesh. For example, on October 11, four persons were killed and
    more than 36 others were injured during violence in the Uttar Pradesh
    Panchayat elections. The districts of Farukkhabad, Allahabad, Auraiya,
    Sitapur, Lucknow, and Gorakhpur reported incidents of booth capturing
    and seizure of ballot boxes. As of October 31, a reported total of nine
    persons had been killed and 59 others had been injured in the Uttar
    Pradesh Panchayat elections. On December 22, two persons were killed
    and several others were injured during violence between supporters of
    the ruling Bahujan Samaj Party and the opposition Samajwadi Party in
    the Block president elections in Uttar Pradesh.
        Political parties could operate without restriction or outside
    interference; however, violence between political parties that began
    following the 2009 Lok Sabha (lower house of parliament) polls
    continued in West Bengal. Between mid-May 2009 and June 30, 245 Left
    Front members and about 240 Trinamool Congress workers were killed in
    West Bengal.
        Women held many high-level political offices, including the
    presidency, leader of the ruling Congress Party, 78 members (including
    the speaker) of the Lok Sabha, railways minister, chief minister
    position in Uttar Pradesh, and one seat on the Supreme Court bench.
    Women participated in politics throughout the country at all levels,
    including more than one million women in local village councils
    (panchayats).
        Implementation of an amendment increasing the quota for women in
    elected village councils from 33 percent to 50 percent continued at
    year's end. The state of Kerala began implementation in October.
        The constitution stipulates that to protect historically
    marginalized groups and to assure representation in the lower house of
    parliament, each state must reserve seats for scheduled castes and
    scheduled tribes in proportion to their population in the state. Only
    candidates belonging to these groups can contest elections in reserved
    constituencies. In the 2009 elections, 84 seats for candidates from
    scheduled castes and 47 seats from scheduled tribes were reserved,
    representing 24 percent of the total seats in the lower house.

    Section 4. Official Corruption and Government Transparency
        The law provides criminal penalties for official corruption;
    however, the Government did not implement the law effectively, and
    officials frequently engaged in corrupt practices with impunity. During
    the year Transparency International (TI) reported that the perception
    of corruption in the country had again increased. TI reported that 54
    percent of the population admitted to bribing authorities, with lower-
    income earners reportedly paying more bribes. Bribes were typically
    paid to speed procedures such as police protection, school admission,
    water supply, or government assistance. Half of bribes were paid for
    the benefit of registering for government assistance. The report also
    stated that the population considered political parties to be the most
    corrupt institution in the country.
        According to a survey released in January 2009 by Trace
    International, a not-for-profit association that helps companies combat
    bribery, 91 percent of bribe demands came from government officials.
    Police officers accounted for 30 percent of bribe demands; the national
    customs office, 13 percent; and the national offices of taxation and
    water, 9 percent each. A May 2009 HRW report corroborated that
    corruption in the police force was pervasive, which several government
    officials reportedly acknowledged. Human rights activists and NGOs
    reported that citizens often had to pay bribes to receive police
    services. Many citizens reported they offered bribes to move cases
    through the court system. Government officials often demanded bribes
    for applicants from Jammu and Kashmir who required special clearances
    for passports.
        Both the Election Commission and the Supreme Court upheld mandatory
    disclosures of criminal and financial records for election candidates.
    Election campaigns for parliament and state legislatures often were
    funded with unreported money, and the Government failed to control the
    practice.
        The law mandates asset declarations for all Indian Administrative
    Service officers. On January 13, the Delhi High Court upheld the
    November 2009 ruling that required judges to declare their assets. On
    December 30, newspapers reported that the Bihar chief minister had
    requested all state government employees to make annual declarations of
    their assets, as part of a campaign to eliminate corruption in the
    state. Previously the minister established a special vigilance unit to
    stop corrupt officials.
        To increase transparency, on December 2, the Central Vigilance
    Commission (CVC) established a toll-free hotline so that persons across
    the country could lodge complaints against corrupt government
    officials. The number was advertised in newspapers, on television, and
    circulated to the public via an SMS.
        On December 9, International Anticorruption Day, the CVC launched a
    new portal, VIGEYE (Vigilance Eye), a platform to share information
    between the public government agencies and the vigilance commission.
    Registered users could upload video or audio acts of corruption. The
    portal was launched in an attempt to stop corruption.
        There was at least one killing during the year attributed to
    corrupt politicians (see section 1.a.).
        On November 16, following press accusations, the national
    comptroller general and auditor reported to parliament that
    mismanagement in 2007 by Telecommunications Minister Andimuthu Raja in
    the issuance of radio spectrum licenses to mobile phone companies had
    led to a notional loss to the Government of 1.72 trillion rupees ($38.1
    billion). On November 15, Raja resigned his post. The issue paralyzed
    parliament during the entire winter session as opposition party members
    forced daily adjournments by shouting slogans and demanding the
    formation of a special investigatory parliamentary committee. At year's
    end the CBI was investigating the allegations to determine whether
    criminal charges should be filed.
        On October 3-14, New Delhi hosted the Commonwealth Games, which
    were plagued by allegations of financial mismanagement, work safety
    violations, construction accidents, and massive delays. On October 16,
    the prime minister ordered a probe into the games' organizing
    committee, and on November 30, the CBI raided the homes and offices of
    two organizing committee officials, T.S. Darbari and Sanjay Mahindroo,
    charging them with criminal conspiracy, misuse of official post,
    cheating, and forgery. On December 24, the CBI raided the homes and
    offices of organizing committee head Suresh Kalmadi. The probe
    continued at year's end.
        On November 9, the Congress Party forced Ashok Chavan, chief
    minister of Maharashtra state, to resign due to his alleged involvement
    in a housing fraud in which Congress Party politicians, bureaucrats,
    and military officials were implicated in the sale of apartments
    reserved for veterans and war widows. The CBI began investigations, and
    the Government rescinded permissions that allowed owners to occupy the
    apartments.
        On November 24, the CBI arrested five officials from public-sector
    banks who were accused of taking bribes to facilitate large corporate
    loans. Those arrested included senior officials of Central Bank of
    India, Punjab National Bank, and the Bank of India.
        The following 2009 cases remained pending in court at year's end:
    the April cases of senior government bureaucrats in Tamil Nadu for
    corruption, accepting bribes, and abuse of official position for
    monetary gain; the August cases of the director of medical and rural
    health services in Tamil Nadu, who would have allegedly received
    853,000 rupees ($17,700) in exchange for a 150 million rupee ($3.1
    million) drug supply contract, and the vice chancellor of Coimbatore
    Anna University for accepting bribes; and the November case of former
    Jharkhand chief minister Madhu Koda for allegedly possessing assets
    disproportionate to his income and laundering 50 million rupees
    (approximately $1.1 million).
        The law provides for public access to information. Although the
    Government was often slow in response to requests, local community
    members as well as noncitizens could access the RTI online portal to
    get information on personal documentation, city plans, and other public
    records. RTI information can be requested only by citizens, not foreign
    nationals or foreign media. The Government charged 10 rupees
    (approximately $0.21) as a fee at the time of the request. If a request
    is denied, one can appeal to the Central Information Commission and
    then to the high court. Study findings announced in August 2009
    revealed that public authorities had not planned adequately in their
    implementation of the 2005 RTI Act, hindering the supply of
    information, and that rural inhabitants were not always aware of their
    rights under the act. Many states, including Jammu and Kashmir, also
    have right-to-information laws.
        On August 16, media reported that 11 persons, including three
    senior officials of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, had been
    arrested in two separate cases for allegedly harassing and threatening
    individuals who had sought information under the RTI.

    Section 5. Governmental Attitude Regarding International and
            Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations of Human
            Rights
        A wide variety of domestic and international human rights groups
    generally operated without government restriction, investigating and
    publishing their findings on human rights cases; however, in a few
    circumstances, groups faced restrictions. Government officials were
    somewhat cooperative and responsive to their views. The country hosts
    more than three million NGOs that advocate for social justice,
    sustainable development, and human rights. The Government generally met
    with domestic NGOs, responded to their inquiries, and took action in
    response to their reports or recommendations. The NHRC works
    cooperatively with numerous NGOs, and NGOs are present on several NHRC
    committees. However, while human rights monitors in Jammu and Kashmir
    were able to document human rights violations, security forces,
    counterinsurgents, and police at times restrained or harassed them.
        On September 15, parliament passed a new Foreign Contributions
    (Regulation) Act (FCRA). Many NGOs believed the law's revised
    regulations were vague and were concerned the ban on funding for
    organizations of a ``political nature'' made the law vulnerable to
    abuse and corruption by government officials. On November 16, the MHA
    informed parliament that 41 NGOs were banned from receiving foreign
    contributions due to complaints of corruption and/or irregularities in
    the use of funds received under the FCRA.
        NGOs must secure approval from the MHA before organizing
    international conferences; permission was typically granted, but the
    process was lengthy. Human rights groups contended that this practice
    provided the Government with political control over the work of NGOs
    and restricted their freedom of assembly and association.
        International human rights NGOs faced difficulties obtaining visas
    for their representatives, and occasional official harassment and
    restrictions limited the public distribution of materials.
        The Government permitted representatives of the UN and other
    international humanitarian organizations, such as the ICRC, access to
    the Northeastern States and Naxalite-controlled areas.
        On December 3, the ICRC, along with the Indian Red Cross,
    relaunched a physical rehabilitation center in Dimapur, Nagaland. The
    ICRC also worked with the Indian Red Cross in Chhattisgarh and Assam,
    where teams provided household items, water, and sanitation facilities
    for persons displaced by ethnic violence.
        The Government-appointed NHRC generally acted independently, but
    some human rights groups claimed institutional and legal weaknesses
    hampered it. The president appoints members after recommendations from
    parliament. While the NHRC has the authority to initiate
    investigations, inquire into complaints, or request that a state
    government submit a report--a request that state governments often
    ignored--it does not have the statutory power to enforce requests,
    initiate proceedings for prosecution, or grant interim compensation,
    nor could it inquire independently into human rights violations by the
    armed forces. Human rights NGOs criticized the NHRC's financial
    dependence on the Government and its failure to investigate abuses more
    than one year old. They claimed the NHRC did not register all
    complaints, dismissed cases on frivolous grounds, failed to investigate
    cases thoroughly, and did not adequately protect complainants.
        Nineteen of the 28 states had human rights commissions at year's
    end. Human rights groups alleged that state human rights commissions
    were limited by local politics and less likely to offer fair judgments
    than the NHRC. For example, the Jammu and Kashmir commission did not
    have authority to investigate alleged human rights violations committed
    by members of paramilitary security forces.
        The Government has also designated chief vigilance officers to
    address public complaints and grievances in the banking, insurance, and
    other sectors that are serviced by private, public, and corporate
    bodies. In addition several states had Lokpal or Lokayukta offices,
    which serve as ombudsmen with the authority to investigate allegations
    of corruption and poor administration.

    Section 6. Discrimination, Societal Abuses, and Trafficking in Persons
        The law prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, gender,
    disability, language, religion, place of birth, or social status, and
    the Government worked with varying degrees of success to enforce these
    provisions.

        Women.--Crimes against women were common. The NCRB estimated there
    were 194,787 crimes against women during the year and noted that
    underreporting of such crimes was likely. The MHA informed parliament
    it recorded 109,559 cases of crime against women--including
    molestation, sexual harassment, rape, dowry deaths, and abduction--
    through August 2009. The state of Andhra Pradesh recorded the worst
    record with 23,224 crimes against women, including 1,188 cases of rape,
    1,526 cases of kidnapping and abduction, 546 cases of dowry deaths, and
    11,297 cases of domestic violence. Uttar Pradesh recorded 22,941 cases
    of violence, including 2,232 cases of dowry deaths, 1,759 cases of
    rape, and 5,078 cases of kidnapping. Bihar reported that 2,532 married
    women were victims of domestic violence and recorded 7,480 cases of
    violence against women, including 929 rape cases, 1,295 dowry deaths,
    and 1,986 kidnapping and abduction cases.
        According to a joint survey released on July 8 by the Delhi
    Department of Women and Child Development, the NGO Jagori, and the UN
    Development Fund for Women, approximately 80 percent of women in Delhi
    feared for their safety.
        The law criminalizes rape, including spousal rape. Punishment
    ranged from prison terms as long as one year, a fine of 19,800 rupees
    (approximately $450), or both. Official statistics point to rape as the
    fastest growing crime in the country, even when compared to murder,
    robbery, and kidnapping. Despite assurances from law enforcement, the
    NCRB states that a woman is raped in the country every 30 minutes.
    Since 1971 when rape cases were first recorded officially, the NCRB has
    registered a 678 percent increase in the crime. According to the NCRB,
    there were 21,397 rape cases registered in the country in 2009. Law
    enforcement and legal avenues for rape victims are inadequate,
    overburdened, and unable to address the issue effectively.
        Women in conflict situations, such as in Jammu and Kashmir, and
    vulnerable women, including lower-caste or tribal women, were often
    victims of rape.
        On November 26, a call center employee from Mizoram was allegedly
    abducted from the Dhaula Kuan area of Delhi and gang-raped in a moving
    car, then dumped in a different part of the city. She had been
    returning from work and was walking home after her colleague dropped
    her off a few blocks from her home. The victim was able to identify two
    persons, Shamshad and Osman, who were put in judicial custody. At
    year's end the case continued, and the victims name had not been
    publicly released.
        The law provides for protection from all forms of abuse against
    women in the home, including physical, sexual, verbal, emotional, or
    economic abuse, as well as threat of abuse; however, domestic abuse
    remained a serious problem. The law recognizes the right of a woman to
    reside in a shared household with her spouse or partner while the
    dispute continues, although a woman can be provided with alternative
    accommodations at the partner's expense. The law also provides women
    with the right to police assistance, legal aid, shelter, and access to
    medical care.
        While the Ministry of Women and Child Development has issued
    guidelines for the establishment of these social services, in practice
    lack of funding, personnel, and proper training resulted in limited
    services, primarily available in metropolitan areas.
        The Delhi Commission for Women received 1,975 complaints of
    violence against women in 2009-10, of which 1,122 complaints related to
    domestic violence. The Ministry of Women and Child Development informed
    parliament that 2,256 cases were registered under the Domestic Violence
    Act and 349 convictions took place in 2008. Lack of law enforcement
    safeguards and pervasive corruption limit the effectiveness of the law.
        Another form of societal violence targeting women occurred in
    October 2009 when villagers branded five Muslim widows in Pattharghatia
    village, Jharkhand, as witches and forced them to eat human excrement.
    Police arrested four persons and placed the victims under police
    protection. At year's end there was no update.
        The law forbids the provision or acceptance of a dowry, but
    families continued to offer and accept dowries, and dowry disputes
    remained a serious problem. The law also bans harassment in the form of
    dowry demands and empowers magistrates to issue protection orders.
    Deaths associated with the nonpayment of dowries rose in the past
    several years. According to the NCRB, in 2009 there were 8,383 reported
    dowry deaths. However, since many cases were not reported and not
    properly monitored, statistics were not accurate.
        Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, Bihar, and several other states had a chief
    dowry prevention officer, although it was unclear whether these
    officers were effective. Madhya Pradesh required all state government
    employees to produce sworn affidavits that no dowry was exchanged. On
    November 23, the Supreme Court made it mandatory for all trial courts
    across the country to add the charge of murder against persons accused
    in dowry death cases.
        So-called honor killings continued to be a problem, especially in
    Punjab and Haryana, where as many as 10 percent of all killings were
    honor killings. Although statistics for honor killings are difficult to
    verify, on October 10, The Guardian reported police officially recorded
    19 honor killings in the northern part of the country between April 19
    and June 30. According to the same report, one recent study estimated
    more than 1,000 honor killings every year, most of them occurring in
    the northern states of Haryana, Punjab, and Uttar Pradesh. The most
    common justification for the killings offered by those accused or by
    their relatives was that the victim married against their family's
    wishes. During the year a survey conducted by the NCW along with the
    NGO Shakti Vahini revealed that in 88.9 percent of the cases, the
    perpetrators of the honor killing were the girl's family members. In
    2009 the MHA issued an advisory to all state governments and union
    territories to review their policies and tackle the problem of such
    killings.
        On May 13, relatives of newlywed bride Gurleen Kaur killed Kaur and
    her mother-in-law and injured the groom, reportedly because the couple
    had married against the wishes of the bride's family. Police had
    registered cases against eight persons at year's end. The incident
    happened despite the couple being under the protection of the Punjab
    and Haryana High Court after their marriage.
        On June 22, two male cousins killed their sisters for marrying
    outside of their caste in New Delhi.
        On July 15, Aisha Saini's father and uncle beat Saini and Yogesh
    Kumar, both 19 years old, with rods and electrocuted them to death
    allegedly because they disapproved of the teenagers' relationship. At
    year's end police had arrested the girl's father and uncle, but three
    other accused remained at large.
        On March 30, five men were sentenced to death and one jailed for
    life for the 2007 murder of a young couple, Manoj Banwala and Babli,
    who married outside the wishes of village elders in Haryana.
        A 2009 nationwide study by NGO Gram Niyojan Kendra commissioned by
    the Ministry for Women and Child Development studied 68 places of
    tourist interest and found that sex tourism occurred in major cities
    and places for sightseeing and that pilgrim centers were a growing hub
    of sex tourism. The report said that domestic tourists were
    ``overwhelmingly involved'' in sex with commercial sex workers and
    pointed to the lack of legislation at the state level or effective
    measures to control sex offenders from revisiting sites. In response to
    the study, the tourism ministry began working on a code of conduct for
    ethical tourism.
        There are no legislative enactments or statutory policies against
    sexual harassment and abuse at work places; all charges of sexual
    harassment use the guidelines set forth in a 1997 judgment. The
    guidelines are treated as law declared by the Supreme Court and
    enforceable. The law does not provide for penalties; it outlines what
    conduct is considered harassment and makes it incumbent on the employer
    to include a prohibition of sexual harassment in employees' rules of
    conduct and discipline. All state departments and institutions with
    more than 50 employees are required to have committees to deal with
    matters of sexual harassment. According to the NCRB, 11,009 cases of
    sexual harassment were reported in 2009, the latest year for which
    figures were released. In 2008 the NCW reported 153 cases of sexual
    harassment registered from 2006-08. The UN-Jagori survey report
    revealed that two of three women in Delhi had been victims of sexual
    harassment. Eighty percent of respondents reported incidents of verbal
    harassment, and 45 percent reported incidents of stalking. Fifty-four
    percent reported feeling unsafe and vulnerable in crowded public
    transports and at bus stops. Only 0.8 percent reported these incidents,
    due to lack of confidence in police.
        The Government permits health clinics and local health NGOs to
    operate freely in disseminating information about family planning.
    There are no restrictions on the right to access contraceptives. Laws
    favoring families that have no more than two children remained in place
    in seven states, but authorities seldom enforced them. The laws provide
    reservations for government jobs and subsidies to those who have no
    more than two children and reduced subsidies and access to health care
    for those who have more than two. National health officials noted that
    the central government did not have authority to regulate state
    decisions on population issues.
        In 2008 the World Bank estimated 53 percent of births were attended
    by skilled help. The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) estimated 49 percent
    of women did not receive prenatal care. According to 2008 UN estimates,
    the maternal mortality rate was 230 deaths per 100,000 live births.
        The Government and NGOs have advanced numerous initiatives to
    improve women and children's health, including providing financial
    incentives for women willing to give birth in a hospital, improving
    midwife training, and increasing prenatal care via SMS, which provide
    information on vaccinations, exercise, diet, medication, and how to
    deal with emergencies that may arrive during pregnancy.
        Female feticide (aborting a fetus after determining that its gender
    is female) occurred in some states, such as Punjab and Haryana, and
    there were reports of relatives forcing women to engage in female
    feticide.
        In May 2009 Mitu Khurana became the first woman to file formal
    charges against her husband under the Preconception and Prenatal
    Diagnostic Techniques Act. She accused her husband and his family of
    having tried to force her to abort her twin female fetuses. When she
    refused to abort the fetuses, she was harassed, starved, and beaten.
    After giving birth she left her husband's home when her mother-in-law
    physically harmed one of the twins. Khurana filed the complaint after
    her husband filed for divorce. Supporters of Khurana claimed that a
    high court judge asked her to drop the case and settle with her
    husband.
        There were no new developments in the June 2009 complaint by a
    woman in Gujarat against her husband and in-laws claiming that they
    forced her to abort five female fetuses.
        The Gujarat state government launched a ``Beti Bachao Andolan''
    (Save the Girl Child movement) in the areas practicing female feticide.
    Security forces conducted raids of medical offices and seized medical
    equipment, and civil society leaders pledged to end the practice.
    During the year a survey conducted by the Gujarat State Health
    Department revealed that the sex ratio in the state had improved from
    883 girls per 1,000 boys in 2001 to 905 girls per 1,000 boys in 2009.
    Numerous NGOs throughout India had Save the Girl Child campaigns, and
    the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare launched a national Save the
    Girl Child campaign in 2007.
        The National AIDS Control Organization (NACO), which formulates and
    implements programs for the prevention and control of HIV and AIDS,
    reported that women accounted for approximately one million of the
    estimated 2.27 million citizens with HIV/AIDS. Women were equally
    diagnosed and treated for sexually transmitted infections, including
    HIV; however denial of treatment occurred due to lack of access to
    medical facilities (particularly in rural areas), lack of money, and
    societal taboos on dispensing aid to members of other religions or
    other castes. Infection rates for women were highest in urban
    communities, and care was least available in rural areas. In 2007 NACO
    noted that traditional gender norms left women especially vulnerable to
    infection. NACO reportedly worked with NGOs to train women's HIV/AIDS
    self-help groups.
        Many tribal land systems, notably in Bihar, denied tribal women the
    right to own land. Sharia (Islamic law) determines land inheritance for
    Muslim women, allotting them less than men. Other laws relating to the
    ownership of assets and land accorded women little control over land
    use, retention, or sale. Several exceptions existed, such as in Ladakh,
    Meghalaya, and Himachal Pradesh, where women traditionally controlled
    family property and enjoyed full inheritance rights.
        The law prohibits discrimination in the workplace; in practice
    employers paid women less than men for the same job, discriminated
    against women in employment and credit applications, and promoted women
    less frequently than men.
        In March the Delhi High Court ordered the country's armed forces to
    grant permanent commissions to women in noncombat roles. Women would be
    eligible for permanent commissions as long as they are not in branches
    where there is the possibility of direct contact with the enemy.
    Previously women in the armed forces were granted short-term
    commissions and then forced to retire after a specified time frame. On
    July 17, the air force agreed to grant permanent commissions to women
    officers in nonmedical fields; however, at year's end no woman had been
    granted a permanent commission.

        Children.--The law establishes state governments' procedures for
    birth registration. According to the National Commission on Population,
    approximately 55 percent of national births were registered at year's
    end, and the registration rate varied substantially across states. Any
    person born in the country on or after January 26, 1950, but before
    July 1, 1987, obtained citizenship by birth. A person born in the
    country on or after July 1, 1987, obtained citizenship if either parent
    was a citizen at the time of the child's birth. Those born in the
    country on or after December 3, 2004, were considered citizens only if
    at least one parent was a citizen and the other was not an illegal
    migrant at the time of the child's birth. Persons born outside the
    country on or after December 10, 1992, were considered citizens if
    either parent was a citizen at the time of birth; however, those born
    outside the country since December 3, 2004, were not considered
    citizens unless their birth was registered at an Indian consulate
    within one year of the date of birth. Only in certain circumstances and
    with the permission of the central government was it possible to
    register after one year. Children lacking citizenship or registration
    may not be able to access public services, enroll in school, or obtain
    identification documents later in life (see also section 2.d.).
        The constitution provides free education for children from six to
    14 years of age, but the Government did not enforce this provision.
    According to the World Bank, the number of children reportedly enrolled
    in elementary education in the country increased from 57 million to 192
    million between 2003 and 2009; however, in 2009 8.1 million children
    between the ages of six and 14 did not attend school.
        On April 1, the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education
    Act, passed by parliament in August 2009, became legally enforceable.
    The act makes education a fundamental right for children and enables
    every child between the ages of six and 14 years to demand free
    elementary education. At year's end the central and state governments
    were negotiating over funding mechanisms and regulations to implement
    the act.
        In a 2009 UNICEF report, UNICEF stated that school attendance among
    girls between the ages of six and 10 had increased from 61 percent to
    81 percent during 2005-06. Once girls reach puberty, their dropout rate
    increases, particularly in rural areas. Reasons include family
    pressure, lack of dedicated sanitation facilities for girls, and lack
    of secondary schools in rural areas.
        The law provides for protection against various forms of child
    abuse, but child abuse remained common, including in school and
    institutional settings, and the Government failed to educate the public
    adequately against child abuse or enforce the law. Although corporal
    punishment is banned, teachers often used it. According to the MHA
    2009-10 annual report, there were 22,500 cases of crime reported
    against children in 2008.
        According to a 2007 study by the Ministry of Women and Child
    Development, approximately 69 percent of children reported having been
    physically abused, 65 percent of schoolchildren reported receiving
    corporal punishment at school, 53 percent of children reported sexual
    abuse, 48 percent of children reported emotional abuse, and 71 percent
    of female children reported neglect.
        According to the NCRB, 5,368 cases of child rape were registered in
    2009. On October 26, a survey conducted by London-based Plan
    International estimated that 50 percent of children had faced sexual
    abuse. The survey covered 12,500 school children in 13 states between
    the ages of five to 18. The survey found corporal punishment was
    widespread in the country and 54 percent of boys and 45 percent of
    girls had been victims of such punishment. On October 31, the National
    Commission for Protection of Child Rights noted that it had received
    785 reports of child abuse, including cases of corporal punishment.
        On October 4, police arrested the principal and three teachers of
    Kolkata's La Martiniere School for Boys in connection with the death of
    an eighth-grade student who committed suicide in February after being
    caned by the principal. At year's end the four were free on bail but
    faced charges of voluntarily causing hurt, punishment without grave
    provocation, and negligence of duty.
        In April 2009 a female student, Shanno Khan, died after teachers
    from the Municipal Corporation of Delhi Girls Primary School in New
    Delhi forced her to stand in the sun for more than one hour the
    previous day. The municipal commissioner ordered an inquiry and
    suspended the principal and teacher. There was no update at year's end.
        In September 2009 a teacher from Chhattisgarh's Koriya District
    reportedly forced primary school students to strip, dance, and play
    field games naked in a wooded area near the school. The children
    complained that the teacher slapped those who disobeyed. As of December
    2009, police had not arrested the teacher, who fled the area when angry
    parents stormed the school. There was no update at year's end.
        The Government sponsored a toll-free 24-hour helpline for children
    in distress in 72 cities. A network of NGOs staffed the ``Childline
    1098 Service'' number, accessible by either a child or an adult to
    request immediate assistance, including medical care, shelter,
    restoration, rescue, sponsorship, and counseling.
        The law sets the legal age of marriage for women at 18 years old
    and men at 21 years old. The law prohibits child marriage in any form
    and empowers courts to annul such marriages. It also sets penalties for
    individuals who perform, arrange, or participate in such marriages.
    However, in practice the law was not enforced. The law does not
    characterize a marriage between a girl below 18 years old and boy below
    21 years old as illegal but recognizes such unions as void and
    voidable, providing grounds for such unions to be challenged in court.
        A National Family Health Survey from 2006-07 reported that more
    than 50 percent of women were married before the age of 18. In
    comparison men married at a median age of 23.4 years. On February 20,
    media reports announced the latest demographic indicators provided by
    the Health and Family Welfare Ministry revealed that the national
    average age of marriage for women was 20.6 years in 2008, up from 18.3
    years in 2001. According to a 2005 UNICEF report, women married as
    children were often victims of domestic violence and often became
    mothers early, contributing to the country's high infant and maternal
    mortality.
        The law establishes a full-time child marriage prohibition officer
    in every state to prevent and police child marriage. These individuals
    have the power to intervene when a child marriage is taking place,
    document violations of the law, and remove a child from a dangerous
    situation in order to deliver them to local child protection
    authorities.
        While the country is home to a small population of Bohra Muslims,
    who practice various forms of female genital mutilation (FGM), there
    were no reported cases of FGM being practiced during the year. There is
    no national law addressing the practice of FGM.
        The law prohibits child pornography and states that the legal age
    of consent is 18 years old. According to the law it is illegal to
    procure a minor by any means and induce a minor into prostitution or
    any form of ``illicit sexual intercourse'' or to sell or buy a minor
    for the purposes of prostitution. Violators are subject to 10 years'
    imprisonment and a fine. Nevertheless, according to UNICEF
    approximately 1.2 million children were prostituted and enslaved
    throughout the country, and the country was a destination for child sex
    tourism. To prevent child sex tourism, the Ministry of Tourism advised
    all state governments to deploy tourist police; 13 state governments
    had done so by the end of the year. On July 1, the Ministry of Tourism
    adopted a code of conduct for safe tourism; the guide was later posted
    on their Web site and informed readers that human trafficking and
    sexual relationships with children are illegal.
        No information was available on how many persons under the age of
    18 were serving in the armed forces. There were unproven allegations
    that government-supported anti-Naxalite village defense forces
    recruited children. Armed groups, including Naxalites and groups in
    Jammu and Kashmir and in the Northeast, were reported to be using
    children (see section 1.g.).
        Displaced children, including refugees, IDPs, and street children,
    faced limits on access to government services (see also section 2.d.)
    and were often unable to obtain medical care, education, proper
    nutrition, or shelter. Such children were often physically and sexually
    abused and were forced to work in hazardous jobs such as rag pickers
    (sorting garbage for recyclable material).
        Weak enforcement of laws and lack of safeguards encouraged an
    atmosphere of impunity in group homes and orphanages. NGOs alleged that
    many such homes for children were operating without government
    oversight or approval. According to a 2007 study by the Ministry of
    Women and Child Development, approximately 56 percent of
    institutionalized children reported that staff physically abused them.
    In some states the percentage was higher; in Uttar Pradesh and Assam,
    for example, more than 80 percent of such children reported physical
    abuse. The reported incidence of abuse was also higher among children
    housed in special homes due to ``conflict with the law'' than among
    children institutionalized for other reasons.
        The country is not a party to the 1980 Hague Convention on the
    Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. For information on
    international parental child abduction, please see the Department of
    State's annual report on compliance at http://travel.state.gov/
    abduction/resources/congressreport/congressreport--4308.html, as well
    as country-specific information at http://travel.state.gov/abduction/
    country/country--3781.html.

        Anti-Semitism.--Jewish groups and the 1,500-person Jewish
    population cited no instances of anti-Semitism during the year.

        Trafficking in Persons.--For information on trafficking in persons,
    please see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons
    Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        Persons With Disabilities.--The constitution does not explicitly
    mention disability as a prohibited ground for discrimination. The
    Persons with Disabilities Act (PDA) provides equal rights for persons
    with the following disabilities: blindness, low vision, leprosy-cured
    (those cured of leprosy but who still lack sensation in extremities or
    suffer from deformity), hearing impairment, locomotor disability,
    mental retardation, and mental illness. The law is weakened by a clause
    that links implementation of programs to the ``economic capacity and
    development'' of the Government. There were approximately 200
    government-run centers across the country that provided comprehensive,
    integrated rehabilitation services to persons with disabilities.
        During the year the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment
    (MSJE) launched its redesigned accessible Web site and called on states
    to do the same.
        Discrimination against persons with physical and mental
    disabilities in employment, education, and access to health care was
    more pervasive in rural areas. Despite legislation that all public
    buildings and transport be accessible to the disabled, there was
    limited accessibility. One notable exception was the recently
    constructed Delhi metro system, designed to be accessible to those with
    physical disabilities.
        On August 8, the Haryana state government announced free travel for
    persons with 100 percent physical disability on buses traveling on
    state roadways and on buses to Delhi or Chandigarh if traveling to a
    hospital for treatment.
        The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare estimated that 6 to 7
    percent of the population suffered from a mental disorder and that 25
    percent of the mentally ill were homeless. Continued lack of awareness
    about the symptoms of mental illnesses led many patients, particularly
    in rural areas, to seek treatment from traditional healers before
    seeking regular medical treatment. Most of the mentally ill were
    dependent on public health-care facilities, and fewer than half of
    those who required treatment received it. There was a severe shortage
    of trained staff; a World Health Organization report released in
    September estimated that the country had less than one psychiatrist for
    every 300,000 individuals; most psychiatrists worked in urban areas in
    this largely rural nation. In rural areas, the ratio shrank to less
    than one psychiatrist per one million persons.
        The PDA requires 3 percent of public-sector jobs be reserved for
    persons with physical, hearing, or visual disabilities. The Government
    continued to allocate funds to programs and NGO partners to improve the
    number of filled jobs. Private-sector employment of persons with
    disabilities remained low despite PDA benefits to private companies
    where persons with disabilities constituted more than 5 percent of the
    workforce.
        On November 27, in Lucknow, the Allahabad High Court stayed all the
    appointments in the state government for three months, until the
    backlog vacancies of the blind and persons with disabilities were
    filled.
        On December 4, the Karnataka State Commission for Persons with
    Disabilities announced that persons with disabilities accounted for
    3,650 of the estimated 525,000 state government employees.
        The law also stipulates that 3 percent of all educational places be
    reserved for persons with disabilities, but the MSJE stated that
    students with disabilities made up only an estimated 1 percent of all
    students. A survey by the NGO Child Relief and You (CRY) of 30
    prominent Kolkata schools found that the percentage of children with
    disabilities was only 0.16 in government schools and 0.31 in private
    schools. Some schools continued to segregate children with disabilities
    or deny their enrollment due to lack of infrastructure, equipment, and
    trained staff. UNICEF estimated that between 6 and 10 percent of all
    children in the country are born with disabilities.
        The MSJE offered 500 scholarships to persons with disabilities to
    pursue higher education. University enrollment of students with
    disabilities remained low for reasons including inaccessible
    infrastructure, limited availability of resource materials,
    nonimplementation of the 3 percent reservation, and harassment.
        The Government made efforts to increase enrollment during the year.
    For example, in January the Central Board of Secondary Education in
    Delhi issued a notice threatening to disaffiliate schools that used
    various pretexts to deny admission to children with disabilities, and
    the Minister of Human Resource Development, Kapil Sibal, announced that
    the percentage of schools with access ramps increased from 27 percent
    in 2007 to 40 percent by the end of 2009.
        In May 2009 the Delhi High Court noted that 650 New Delhi
    government schools and 1,800 Municipal Corporation of Delhi schools had
    not hired any teachers dedicated for the 10,000 students with
    disabilities. The Delhi High Court directed the state government to
    develop an action plan to hire teachers and build facilities for
    students with disabilities. On February 18, the Ministry of Human
    Resource Development announced that every child with disabilities was
    entitled to an increased annual allocation of 3,000 rupees ($65). In
    February Delhi's Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA--Education for All) began
    training teachers to provide home tutoring for children with
    disabilities. Fifty teachers were deployed, and more were being hired
    at year's end. Home tutoring continued in Himachal Pradesh and Tamil
    Nadu.

        National/Racial/Ethnic Minorities.--The national census does not
    recognize racial or ethnic groups; population is categorized by
    language spoken. Society has traditionally been divided into castes or
    clans. Caste is a complex Hindu social hierarchy traditionally based on
    occupations. While caste was outlawed in 1949, the registration of
    scheduled caste and tribes remains for the purpose of affirmative
    action programs. Article 15 of the constitution prohibits
    discrimination on the basis of caste, and the Government continued to
    implement various programs to empower members of the low castes. The
    law gives the president the authority to identify historically
    disadvantaged castes and tribes (who are outside of the caste system)
    for special quotas and benefits.
        The term Dalit, derived from the Sanskrit ``oppressed'' or
    ``crushed,'' refers to members of what are traditionally regarded as
    the lowest Hindu castes, which are the Scheduled Castes (SC). While
    discrimination based on caste is officially illegal, it remained
    prevalent, particularly in rural areas. Many SC members continued to
    face impediments to social advancement. According to the 2001 census,
    SC members comprised 16 percent (168.6 million) of the population. The
    MHA 2009-10 annual report noted 33,615 cases of registered crimes
    against SC members in 2008, compared with 30,031 cases in 2007.
        Although the law protects Dalits, in practice they faced violence
    and significant discrimination in access to services such as health
    care and education, attending temples, and marriage. Reports from the
    UN's Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination described
    systematic abuse of Dalits, including extrajudicial killings and sexual
    violence against Dalit women. According to credible NGOs, lower caste
    individuals were also accused of witchcraft.
        Many Dalits were malnourished. Most bonded laborers were Dalits.
    Dalits who asserted their rights were often attacked, especially in
    rural areas. As agricultural laborers for higher-caste landowners,
    Dalits often worked without remuneration. Crimes committed by upper-
    caste Hindus against Dalits often went unpunished, either because the
    authorities failed to prosecute or because victims did not report the
    crimes for fear of retaliation.
        The Tamil Nadu Untouchability Eradication Front (TNUEF) held a
    state conference in May to highlight continuing caste-based
    discrimination in the state. According to the TNUEF, many Dalits were
    not permitted to walk on public pathways, wear footwear, access water
    from public taps in upper-caste neighborhoods, participate in some
    temple festivals, bathe in public pools, or use some cremation grounds.
        A June 2009 study by a domestic NGO reflected that Dalit children
    often dropped out of school due to discrimination. There were reports
    of school officials barring Dalit children from morning prayers, asking
    Dalit children to sit at the back of the class, or forcing Dalit
    children to clean school toilets while denying them access to the same
    facilities.
        The federal and state governments continued to implement various
    programs for scheduled caste members, ostensibly to provide better
    quality housing, reserve seats in schools and government jobs, and
    access to subsidized foods, but critics claimed that many programs
    suffered from poor implementation and corruption. For example, on
    December 15, Tamil Nadu officials announced the distribution of 20,000
    free color television sets to SC members. On December 21, the National
    Commission for Scheduled Castes announced a series of awareness camps
    across the country to educate Dalits about their rights and how to
    obtain benefits from the various government programs meant for them.
        On February 17, police inspector Kailashnath Dwiwedi beat a Dalit
    woman accused of murdering her husband in Uttar Pradesh. Authorities
    found the inspector guilty of misconduct and dismissed him.
        On April 21, members of the Jat community, the dominant caste in
    the village of Mirchpur, Haryana, burned 10 Dalit homes, killing 70-
    year-old Tara Chand and his disabled daughter Suman and injuring more
    than a dozen other individuals. Approximately 150 Dalit families fled
    the village after the attacks. In response the Haryana government
    allocated four million rupees ($88,888) as compensation and provided
    jobs, housing assistance, and a permanent police post for victims'
    families. The district police arrested 27 persons, including a police
    officer and a revenue official, after an order from the court. After a
    series of hearings in which several witnesses turned hostile, the
    Haryana Supreme Court transferred the court cases to New Delhi. In
    November the Supreme Court heard allegations that members of the
    dominant caste that allegedly perpetrated the violence were
    intimidating witnesses who testified in the case. The Supreme Court
    directed the trial court to submit its orders and the affidavits to the
    Supreme Court for review. In response to continuing protests, the state
    government agreed to submit the case to the CBI for further
    investigation.
        On May 5, the Madras High Court directed the local Virudhunagar and
    Aruppukottai, Tamil Nadu, officials to assure that basic amenities were
    provided to Dalit residences and to restore their rights to live with
    dignity as provided by the constitution. The Dalits had been denied
    access to products sold at a local ration shop.
        On August 28, police in Rajasthan registered a case against five
    persons after a Dalit woman from Jhalara village complained they had
    accused her of witchcraft, tied her to a tree, and beaten her.
        On October 18, police and revenue officials dismantled a fence that
    had prevented eight Dalit families from using roads in a hamlet near
    Krishnagiri. Tamil Nadu police threatened the non-Dalits with severe
    action if they rebuilt the fence.
        District authorities coordinated peace meetings between Dalit and
    higher caste individuals in a village in Virudhunagar, Tamil Nadu. In
    October 2009 several Dalit families in the village questioned their
    exclusion from the state government's Kalaignar medical insurance
    scheme for the poor. Some higher caste individuals beat members of the
    families and evicted them from the village. Police, instead of helping,
    initially allowed the higher-caste members to file First Incident
    Reports (FIRs) against the Dalits, but they then also recorded FIRs
    against the higher-caste members.
        Police investigated the 2008 incident in which residents of a
    Jharkhand village accused Ghuchara Pahan, his son Kisun, and daughter-
    in-law Mukta of practicing witchcraft and then beat them to death;
    however, the perpetrators continued to evade justice at year's end.

        Indigenous People.--The constitution provides social, economic, and
    political guarantees to disadvantaged groups of indigenous people, and
    the law provides special status for indigenous people, but authorities
    often denied them their rights. According to the Ministry of Tribal
    Affairs 2009-10 annual report, there are more than 700 Scheduled Tribes
    in the country, and the 2001 census revealed the population of
    scheduled tribes as 84.3 million, approximately 8 percent of the total
    population. Activists claimed that approximately half of the indigenous
    population lived in extreme poverty, compared to 27 percent of the
    total population.
        In most of the Northeast, where indigenous groups constitute the
    majority of the states' population, the laws provide for tribal rights,
    although some local authorities attempted to violate these provisions.
    The laws prohibit any nontribal person, including citizens from other
    states, from crossing an inner boundary without a valid permit. No
    rubber, wax, ivory, or other forest products may be removed from
    protected areas without prior authorization. Tribal authorities must
    approve the sale of land to nontribal persons.
        According to the MHA 2009-10 annual report, there were 5,582
    criminal cases reported against members of Scheduled Tribes in 2008, a
    slight increase over the 5,532 cases reported in 2007. Tribal women
    employed as domestic workers were often neither properly paid nor
    protected from sexual exploitation. Land encroachment on tribal lands
    continued in almost every state, despite limited efforts by the states
    to combat it, as businesses and private parties continued to exert
    political influence and pressure on local governments. Those displaced
    by the encroachments were typically not provided with appropriate
    relief and rehabilitation packages.
        Numerous tribal movements demanded the protection of tribal land
    and property rights. The Government created tribal-majority states in
    2000 from the Jharkhand area of Bihar and the Chhattisgarh region of
    Madhya Pradesh, and authorities provided local autonomy to some tribes
    in the northeast.
        On February 8, Anil Dubey, a former leader of the Hindu chauvinist
    political party Shiv Sena, raped and set on fire a 19-year-old tribal
    teacher in Barwani, Madhya Pradesh. The victim suffered serious burns
    and was hospitalized. Police arrested Dubey and charged him under the
    Scheduled Castes and Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. At year's
    end the trial continued.
        On August 25, the Ministry of Environment and Forests rejected the
    Vedanta firm's mining project in Orissa's Niyamgiri hills, home of the
    Dongria Kondh tribe, citing breach of environmental law and concerns
    over the rights of local tribes in his decision. Local activists
    claimed that the rights of tribal and rural groups under the Forest Act
    continued to be manipulated in other regions. Weak enforcement of the
    act often circumvented the free and informed consent of tribal and
    rural groups prior to development.
        On December 21, Rajasthan Gujjars began protesting delays in the
    implementation of a 5 percent quota for employment and educational
    positions. The protest continued at year's end, forcing the closure of
    major Rajasthani towns due to blocked roads, highways, and rail routes.
    The Rajasthan High Court prevented implementation of the quota, which
    had been approved by the previous state government, on the grounds that
    the new quota would exceed the 50 percent ceiling for total affirmative
    action quotas imposed by a 1992 Supreme Court judgment.
        According to media reports, the enmity between the Gujjar tribe and
    the Meena caste in the state of Rajasthan decreased during the year as
    politicians from both communities worked to improve relations. In 2008
    clashes with police killed 41 persons after the Gujjar tribe demanded
    affirmative action quotas via inclusion on the List of Scheduled
    Tribes. Members of the Meena caste had opposed the demand, which they
    saw as a threat to their own affirmative action quotas.
        Civil rights organizations working with indigenous people in Kodagu
    district of Karnataka alleged that more than 1,600 families had been
    evicted since 1972 in state efforts to promote tourism. The Karnataka
    state government initiated measures to identify households eligible for
    property restitution or remuneration for those families that did not
    want to be resettled in the area. However, civil rights organizations
    voiced concern that corrupt political party workers would use political
    influence and pressure to interfere with any distribution, preventing
    indigenous people from benefiting. At year's end no family had received
    compensation.

        Societal Abuses, Discrimination, and Acts of Violence Based on
    Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.--The law permits consensual
    sexual activities between adults. In July 2009 the Delhi High Court
    overturned a portion of section 377 of the penal code, which prohibited
    same-sex relations. Section 377 still applies to cases involving minors
    or coercive sex. While a few groups and individuals challenged the
    ruling in the Supreme Court within a few days of the announcement, the
    Government decided not to oppose the verdict. At year's end the Supreme
    Court had not rendered a judgment on the appeal. The law was previously
    used to target, harass, and punish lesbian, gay, bisexual, and
    transgender (LGBT) persons.
        Although LGBT groups were active throughout the country, sponsoring
    events and activities including rallies, gay pride marches, film
    series, and speeches, they faced discrimination and violence in many
    areas of society, particularly in rural areas. Activists reported that
    transgender persons who were HIV-positive often had difficulty
    obtaining medical treatment. Activists also reported some employers
    fired LGBT persons who did not hide their orientations. LGBT persons
    also faced physical attacks, rape, and blackmail. Some police committed
    crimes against LGBT persons and used the threat of arrest to coerce
    victims not to report the incidents, although several states, with the
    aid of NGOs, had police education and sensitivity trainings.
        During the week of April 3, transgender activist Laxmi Tripathi was
    banished from the elite Bombay Gymkhana club in Mumbai. After the club
    CEO told the dinner party's organizer that Tripathi had to leave, the
    entire group walked out of the club.
        On April 10, a FIR was filed against six persons in the April 7
    death of Srinivas Ramachandra Siras, a professor at Aligarh Muslim
    University (AMU) who was found dead in his home. In February, shortly
    before his retirement, the professor was secretly filmed having
    consensual sexual relations with another man. AMU suspended him without
    an inquiry, which he challenged in the Allahabad High Court. On April
    2, the court ordered his reinstatement and stayed his unlawful removal
    from his official accommodation. On April 8, police claimed that
    preliminary investigations indicated suicide.
        On May 6, the country's first transgender television host, Rose
    Venkatesan, officially announced her new gender status after undergoing
    sex reassignment surgery.
        There were a few positive developments for transgender persons
    during the year. In April the state of Tamil Nadu hosted a weeklong
    transgender festival to facilitate the acceptance of transgender
    persons into mainstream society. The state, which established a
    transgender welfare board in 2008, continued to provide separate
    identity and ration cards to transgender persons. In November the
    central government announced that transgender persons would have the
    option to be counted as ``Other'' in the 2011 national census. On
    November 12, the state of Karnataka announced transgender persons would
    be included in the ``Backward Classes'' list, making them eligible for
    pensions, ration cards, and housing assistance through special
    programs.

        Other Societal Violence or Discrimination.--According to the 2009-
    10 annual report of NACO, the Government agency responsible for
    monitoring HIV/AIDS, there were approximately 2.27 million persons with
    HIV/AIDS in the country, and according to the International Labor
    Organization (ILO), as many as 70 percent faced discrimination. HRW
    reported that many doctors refused to treat HIV-positive children; some
    schools expelled or segregated children because they or their parents
    were HIV-positive. Many orphanages and other residential institutions
    rejected HIV-positive children or denied them housing. Incidents of
    discrimination were more frequent in rural areas.
        In June 2009 in Rajkot, Gujarat, two government health
    functionaries put a label marked ``HIV positive'' on a female patient's
    forehead and paraded her through different wards in a government
    hospital. The two were found guilty of negligence, fined, and suspended
    from duty for several days.
        On October 11, approximately 800 participants attended a two-day
    summit in Bangalore supported by UNICEF to discuss the crisis of stigma
    and discrimination of those affected by HIV in the country. Social
    activists working with HIV-affected individuals claimed that they were
    being denied basic rights to education, employment, and nutrition.

    Section 7. Worker Rights

        a. The Right of Association--The law allows workers to form and
    join unions of their choice without previous authorization or excessive
    requirements, and the Government generally respected this right. Public
    servants have limited organizing rights. Although there were more than
    400 million persons in the country's active workforce, only 30 million
    worked in the formal sector; the rest were informal agricultural
    workers and, to a lesser extent, urban nonindustrial laborers. Most of
    the country's estimated 13 to 15 million union members were in the
    formal sector; trade unions represented a small number of agricultural
    and informal sector workers. An estimated 80 percent of unionized
    workers were members of unions affiliated with one of five major trade
    federations. Unaffiliated unions generally were not able to secure the
    protections and rights the law provides. In practice legal protections
    of worker rights, including freedom of association, were effective only
    in the organized industrial sector, in which authorities generally
    prosecuted and punished persons responsible for intimidation or
    suppression of legitimate trade union activities.
        Employers are not legally obligated to recognize a union, and some
    employers established and recognized company unions or ``worker
    committees'' rather than allowing representational unions.
        The law allows unions to conduct their activities without
    interference, and the Government protected this right in the formal
    industrial sector, including the right to strike. The Essential
    Services Maintenance Act allows the Government to ban strikes in
    government-owned enterprises and requires arbitration in specified
    essential industries; the act is subject to varying interpretations
    from state to state. State and local authorities occasionally used
    their power to declare strikes illegal and to force adjudication. The
    Industrial Disputes Act prohibits retribution by employers against
    employees involved in legal strike actions, and this prohibition was
    observed in practice.
        On September 21, after weeks of negotiations, a group of Foxconn
    India employees went on strike at a facility in Chennai. They demanded
    wage increases and union recognition. On September 22, the Tamil Nadu
    Labor Department declared the strike illegal because no prior notice
    was given to Foxconn management. On October 6, more than 500 employees
    occupied the Foxconn facility; police arrested 319 of them, but they
    were granted bail almost immediately. At year's end Foxconn management
    had not recognized the union.

        b. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively.--The Government
    protects collective bargaining under the law, but employers are not
    legally obligated to engage in collective bargaining. When parties
    cannot agree on equitable wages, the Government may establish a board
    of union, management, and government representatives to make a
    determination. Specialized labor courts adjudicated labor disputes, but
    there were long delays and a backlog of unresolved cases.
        The law prohibits discrimination against union members and
    organizers, and employers were penalized if they discriminated against
    employees engaged in union activities.
        The law provides workers in export processing zones (EPZs) the
    right to join trade unions and bargain collectively; however, unions in
    the EPZs faced restrictions, such as a 45-day notice-of-strike
    requirement due to the EPZs' designation as ``public utilities'' and
    employee-only restrictions on entry to the EPZs, which limited union
    organizers. EPZ workers often were employed on temporary contracts.
    Workers feared that complaints about substandard working conditions
    would result in their dismissal.

        c. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor.--The law prohibits
    forced or bonded labor, but such practices remained widespread.
    Estimates of the number of bonded laborers in the country varied
    widely; several NGOs placed the number in the millions.
        Most bonded labor occurred in agriculture; according to NGOs,
    nonagricultural sectors that had a high incidence of bonded labor were
    stone quarries, brick kilns, rice mills, construction, and beedi
    production (hand-rolled cigarettes).
        Members of Scheduled Castes and Tribes lived and worked under
    traditional arrangements of servitude in many areas of the country. In
    Arunachal Pradesh the Nishi tribe traditionally subjugated Sulungs or
    Puroiks as customary slaves.
        Prison sentences for employers of forced laborers could be as long
    as three years, but successful prosecutions were rare. Enforcement and
    compensation for victims were the responsibility of state and local
    governments and varied in effectiveness due to inadequate resources and
    societal tolerance of forced labor. When inspectors referred violations
    for prosecution, long court backlogs and inadequate prosecution
    sometimes resulted in acquittals.
        Ministry of Labor and Employment statistics showed a large decrease
    in the number of bonded labor cases brought before the courts, although
    the extent to which this reflected a decrease in bonded labor was
    unclear.
        The Ministry of Labor continued to partner with the NHRC and NGOs
    to investigate allegations of bonded labor. In partnership with state
    governments (Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, and Orissa) and the
    ILO, in 2009-10 the ministry launched a new approach to prevent bonded
    labor, targeting historically vulnerable populations. The initiative
    integrated existing government programs to target workers vulnerable to
    bonded labor, starting with the brick kiln and construction sectors.
    Since 1976 the Ministry of Labor has freed and rehabilitated
    approximately 270,000 bonded laborers from 18 states across the
    country. Also see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in
    Persons Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        d. Prohibition of Child Labor and Minimum Age for Employment.--
    There is no overall minimum age for child labor. Child labor was
    widespread due to social tolerance of the practice, weak state and
    federal government enforcement of existing laws, and poverty. The
    absence of a minimum age for employment increased the risk of children
    falling victim to the worst forms of child labor.
        Children of any age may be employed, with some restrictions. In
    occupations and processes in which child labor is permitted, children
    may work only for six hours a day, between 8 a.m. and 7 p.m., with one
    day's rest weekly. Employers who failed to abide by the law were
    subject to penalties specified in the Child Labor (Prohibition and
    Abolition) Act (CLPAA). The penalty for employers of children in
    hazardous industries is 20,000 rupees (approximately $454) per child
    employed. The fines go into a welfare fund for formerly employed
    children. The law requires the Government to find employment for an
    adult member of an unlawfully employed child's family or pay 5,000
    rupees ($114) to the family. NGOs noted that requiring the Government
    to pay the family of a child laborer or find the adult family member a
    job could be a disincentive to investigating violations. The law does
    not apply to family farms or family businesses, both large sectors of
    the economy.
        The minimum age for hazardous work is 14 years old; the
    international age standard for hazardous work is 18 years old. The
    Government defines hazardous occupations and processes and prohibits
    work by children under 14 years old in factories, mines, domestic
    service, carpet weaving, roadside eateries, and other areas. During the
    year the Government added circus work and elephant care to the list of
    occupations prohibited for children.
        Estimates of the number of child laborers varied widely. The
    Government's 2004 national survey estimated the number of working
    children between the ages five and 14 at 16.4 million. NGOs claimed the
    number of child laborers was between 55 and 87 million.
        The majority of child labor occurred in agriculture and the
    informal economy. The following industries also reportedly used child
    labor: leather goods, carpets, embroidered textiles, brassware,
    fireworks, footwear, hand-blown glass bangles, handmade locks, hand-
    dipped matches, hand-quarried stones, hand-spun silk thread, hand-
    loomed silk cloth, handmade bricks, roadside restaurants, roadside auto
    repair, illegal mining, rice milling, sorting trash for items to resell
    or recycle, and beedi production. A number of these industries exposed
    children to hazardous work conditions.
        Forced child labor, including as bonded labor, remained a serious
    problem. Children performed forced or indentured labor as factory
    workers, domestic servants, and beggars, as well as in gemstone
    cutting, quarrying, hybrid seed production, circuses, brick kilns, rice
    mills, garment assembly, silk thread production, and textile
    embroidery.
        According to the Carpet Export Promotion Council, the incidence of
    bonded child labor declined in formal sector carpet production due to a
    combination of changing market preferences and campaigns to end child
    labor by the Government and NGOs.
        According to a 2009 UNICEF report, private companies in Andhra
    Pradesh reportedly employed 200,000 children in the hybrid seed
    industry. Most were girls between the ages of seven and 14 years old;
    the children were predominantly Dalits and members of economically
    disadvantaged castes and tribal groups forced to work in debt bondage.
    They were routinely abused, exposed to dangerous pesticides, and denied
    access to education.
        State governments enforce labor laws and employ labor inspectors,
    while the Ministry of Labor provides oversight and coordination;
    however, enforcement was inadequate. During 2008-09, the ministry
    reported 12,244 labor prosecutions and 566 convictions nationwide.
    Employers in cottage industries often claimed child laborers were
    assisting their families, an exemption under the CLPAA. Labor
    inspectors also generally did not investigate family businesses,
    including farms, as these are not covered under the labor law. The
    ministry reportedly conducted 2,860 inspections for domestic child
    labor (that is, in a home) during 2008-09, noted 2,277 violations, and
    pursued two prosecutions, but there were no convictions.
        On February 1, police registered a case of domestic child labor
    against a senior bureaucrat in New Delhi for abusing an 11-year-old boy
    at his home. The boy was made to work from 5 a.m. until midnight every
    day. At year's end the case continued.
        The Ministry of Labor reported more than 40,000 child laborers
    rescued between January and December 2009. During the year New Delhi's
    state government rescued more than 100 children from forced labor,
    including the May rescue of 54 trafficked children found enslaved in
    six small factories making buttons under hazardous conditions with
    meager pay. During Child Labor Action Week in June, the NGO Bachpan
    Bachao Andolan--working with state governments and local police--
    rescued more than 370 bonded child laborers from various parts of the
    country. All rescued children were entitled to rehabilitation packages
    of 20,000 rupees ($420) and priority access to government housing and
    education.
        In November local police and two NGOs rescued 27 children between
    nine and 14 years old from forced labor conditions in a circus company
    in Chittoor, Andhra Pradesh. Local police cooperated with two NGOs in
    the rescue. Nine of the children had been trafficked from Nepal.
        According to the Ministry of Labor, as of July 2009 states had
    provided welfare to 507,450 former child laborers during the year.
        The Ministry of Labor continued to raise awareness about child
    labor and coordinated its efforts with states. On July 31, the ministry
    launched a five-year, 308.25 million rupees ($6.85 million) child labor
    prevention program, with an emphasis on children vulnerable to
    trafficking, in the areas of Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat,
    Jharkhand, and Bihar. Some states were in the process of implementing
    action plans to eliminate child labor from hazardous industries.
        The Government and NGOs anticipated that the Right to Education
    Act, which came into force on April 1, would help reduce child labor
    and trafficking in the long term by increasing school enrollment among
    otherwise vulnerable children.
        See also the State Department's annual Trafficking in Persons
    Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        e. Acceptable Conditions of Work.--State government laws set
    minimum wages, hours of work, and safety and health standards. During
    the year the federal government increased its floor minimum wages from
    80 rupees ($1.80) to 100 rupees ($2.20), suggesting it would pay a
    minimum of 100 rupees for any employment. Minimum wages varied
    according to the state and to the sector of industry, but generally did
    not provide a decent standard of living for a worker and family.
    However, most workers subject to the Factories Act received more than
    the minimum wage, including mandated bonuses and other benefits. State
    governments set a separate minimum wage for agricultural workers but
    did not effectively enforce it.
        In October the People's Union for Democratic Rights alleged that
    several contractors and government agencies had flouted labor laws by
    not paying minimum wages to many of the more than 70,000 laborers who
    built the infrastructure and buildings used for the October 3 to 14
    Commonwealth Games in New Delhi. The Delhi High Court ordered various
    government agencies to submit by November 11 information related to the
    deaths of and injuries to workers at Commonwealth Games construction
    sites, as well as to the compensation paid to them; however, there was
    no information available at year's end.
        The Factories Act mandates a maximum eight-hour workday and 48-hour
    workweek, as well as safe working conditions, which include adequate
    provisions for restrooms, canteens, medical facilities, and
    ventilation. The law mandates a minimum rest period of 30 minutes after
    every four hours of work and premium pay for overtime. These standards
    generally were enforced in the modern industrial sector; they generally
    were not observed in the informal economy, which employed nearly 93
    percent of the workforce.
        Enforcement of safety and health standards was poor, especially in
    the informal sector but also in some formal sector industries. The
    country's undocumented foreign workers did not receive basic
    occupational health and safety protections.
        In a study conducted in 2009 and during the year, the National
    Referral Centre for Lead Poisoning Prevention in India found dangerous
    levels of lead in blood samples collected from a cross-company study of
    workers in the country's battery industry. The Government has not
    established biological exposure indices for lead or other hazardous
    chemicals for the workplace.
        Industrial accidents occurred frequently. Chemical industries had
    the highest number of accidents. Safety conditions were in general
    better in the EPZs than in the manufacturing sector outside the EPZs.
        Coal mines located in Jaintia District, Meghalaya, had poor working
    conditions. The privately owned mines employed mostly young adults who
    were not provided any protective gear. The mines had no safety systems
    or hardware, were unregulated, and did not fall under the ambit of the
    safety regulations.
        Members of Scheduled Castes and Tribes, including children, often
    worked as rag pickers, recycling trash under hazardous and generally
    deplorable conditions. Workers from these groups also cleaned sewers
    and drains of human excrement without proper equipment and under
    extremely unsanitary conditions.
        The law does not give workers the right to leave workplaces that
    endanger health and safety without jeopardizing their continued
    employment.

                                   __________

                                   KAZAKHSTAN

        The Republic of Kazakhstan, with a population of approximately 15.6
    million, has a parliamentary system dominated by President Nursultan
    Nazarbayev's Nur Otan Party. The constitution concentrates power in the
    presidency, permitting the president to control regional and local
    governments and to exercise significant influence over the legislature
    and judiciary. Changes or amendments to the constitution require
    presidential consent. The 2007 national elections for the Mazhilis
    (lower house of parliament) fell short of international standards. Nur
    Otan received 88 percent of the vote, winning every seat in the
    chamber. Security forces reported to civilian authorities.
        The following human rights problems were reported: severe limits on
    citizens' rights to change their government; military hazing that led
    to deaths; detainee and prisoner torture and other abuse; unhealthy
    prison conditions; arbitrary arrest and detention; lack of an
    independent judiciary; restrictions on freedom of speech, the press,
    assembly, and association; pervasive corruption, especially in law
    enforcement and the judicial system; prohibitive political party
    registration requirements; restrictions on the activities of
    nongovernmental organizations (NGOs); discrimination and violence
    against women; trafficking in persons; and societal discrimination
    against gays, lesbians, bisexuals, transgender persons, and those with
    HIV/AIDS.

                            RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

    Section 1. Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom
            From:
        a. Arbitrary or Unlawful Deprivation of Life.--There were reports
    that the Government or its agents committed arbitrary or unlawful
    killings.
        On February 9, the prosecutor general denied a request for an
    inquiry into the death of Azamat Karibayev, who died in prison in
    December 2009. Three months after authorities sentenced Karibayev on
    terrorism charges, his body was found in his prison cell with evidence
    of abuse. Karibayev's widow claimed that a stranger alerted her by
    phone that her husband had been killed and said that the Committee for
    National Security (KNB) tortured him to force him to abandon his
    ``nonofficial'' form of Islam. Prior to his death, human rights
    activists considered his trial fraught with irregularities.
        On July 22, Maksim Kozhanov, an inmate of the Dolinka prison near
    Karaganda, reportedly committed suicide. Kozhanov had produced a video
    showing an inmate beaten by a prison officer, which prison authorities
    and independent NGO observers later proved to be falsified. To protest
    subsequent punishment, a group of inmates, including Kozhanov, cut open
    their abdomens as an act of group self-mutilation. Officials placed
    Kozhanov in the prison hospital, where he was found hanged the next
    day. On November 11, a court sentenced the inmates who helped
    orchestrate the video to an additional year in prison.
        Military hazing led to deaths, suicides, and serious injuries. The
    Government reported 93 incidents of nonlethal military hazing during
    the year. The Government did not publish statistics on the number of
    deaths linked to hazing during the year. The number of suicides in the
    army did not significantly change from the previous year. Authorities
    reported 17 suicides; there were 16 in 2009.
        On March 4, a contract-service sergeant in the Almaty-garrisoned
    Air Defense Brigade apparently beat several conscripts severely,
    causing the death of Azamat Orazbayev and seriously injuring two other
    conscripts. Authorities arrested the sergeant, fired the garrison
    commander, and initiated an ongoing investigation.
        On May 15, authorities found Yerlan Torebekov's body in a military
    hospital maintenance facility, where the main Military Prosecutor's
    Office alleged he had swallowed a needle while repairing his shirt.
    Officials later claimed he hanged himself. Torebekov's parents exhumed
    their son's body and discovered evidence of abuse. Authorities
    initiated an ongoing investigation into the death.

        b. Disappearance.--On August 14, Edgar Salduzi, a prominent
    businessman involved in a highly publicized business dispute with Maira
    Nazarbayeva, President Nazarbayev's sister-in-law, disappeared after
    leaving his home to meet with a business partner. Almaty police and the
    city department of the National Security Committee found the kidnapped
    businessman alive on September 27.

        c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or
    Punishment.--The law prohibits torture; nevertheless, the police and
    prison officials regularly beat and abused detainees, often to obtain
    confessions. Human rights activists asserted that the legal definition
    of torture was too vague and did not meet UN standards and that the
    penalties for the crime were too lenient. The Prosecutor General's
    Office (PGO), the Presidential Human Rights Commission, and the human
    rights ombudsman acknowledged that some law enforcement officers used
    torture and other illegal methods of investigation. Human rights and
    international legal observers noted investigative and prosecutorial
    practices that overemphasized a defendant's confession of guilt over
    collecting other types of evidence in building a criminal case against
    a defendant. Courts generally ignored allegations by defendants that
    their confessions were obtained by torture or duress.
        From September 29 to October 1, Manfred Nowak, the UN special
    rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment
    or punishment, met with government officials and NGOs to discuss
    recommendations made during his May 2009 visit, during which he
    inspected several prisons and detention facilities. At an event hosted
    by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and
    several NGOs, Nowak stated that, in his six years in office, Kazakhstan
    was the only country that attempted to conceal the actual situation in
    its prisons. According to his assessment, torture was not widespread,
    although a culture of impunity allowed police to use extreme methods,
    such as heavy beating and asphyxiation, to obtain confessions. Nowak
    stated that police rarely investigated complaints of torture.
        The human rights ombudsman reviewed prisoner and detainee
    complaints. The ombudsman can either issue a recommendation directly to
    the relevant agency or release a public statement, though it legally
    cannot force compliance with its recommendations. The Coalition of NGOs
    against Torture received 263 complaints during the year. Local NGOs
    reported that, in contrast with past practice, the Government
    acknowledged publicly that torture was a problem.
        On March 20, according to a Coalition of NGOs report, a group of
    prison officers and prisoners severely beat Zhandos Sagatov, a convict
    in the Zarechniy prison near Almaty, for several hours. Responding to
    NGO pressure, prosecutors brought charges of torture against prison
    officials in an ongoing investigation. On October 6, prisoner Kanat
    Mukhambetkaliyev died in the hospital after experiencing kidney
    failure. Multiple NGOs reported that prison authorities severely beat
    him causing bruises on his body, which later resulted in his death. As
    of November 17, authorities had charged two prison officers, Nikolay
    Sidorovich and Gabit Baytishkin, with abuse of power in an ongoing
    investigation.
        At year's end authorities continued the case against three
    fishermen who were detained in April 2009 on suspicion of poaching and
    reportedly beaten in detention. The KNB asserted that they released the
    fishermen, although the fishermen told the media they escaped from the
    detention facility. All three were hospitalized for internal injuries,
    and one fisherman suffered from a concussion. The KNB denied any
    wrongdoing and opened a criminal investigation against the men for
    poaching.
        The Government charged 162 military service members with crimes
    related to military hazing and abuse of power during the year, compared
    with 167 in 2009.
        The Government investigated some allegations of conscript hazing
    and prosecuted soldiers who engaged in this abuse, forwarding 32 hazing
    cases to the courts. The Ministry of Defense continued unannounced
    inspections and required systematic reports from senior officers about
    hazing in their units.

        Prison and Detention Center Conditions.--Prison conditions remained
    harsh and facilities did not meet international health standards.
    Scarcity of medical care continued to be a problem. NGOs reported that
    approximately half of the inmate population needed professional
    treatment, especially for HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and other infectious
    diseases. Abuse occurred in police cells, pretrial detention
    facilities, and prisons. Observers cited severe overcrowding, poor
    treatment of inmates and detainees, and the lack of professional
    training programs for administrators.
        According to observers prisoners and detainees generally had
    reasonable access to visitors, and there were no complaints concerning
    religious observance. The Coalition of NGOs against Torture reported an
    increase in the submission of all complaints from prisoners. Due to new
    regulations that mandate civil society engagement in torture
    complaints, Prison Reform International (PRI) representatives stated
    that authorities granted media and independent monitors increased
    access to report on prison conditions. PRI credited these monitors with
    ensuring prison officials' accountability in a handful of cases.
        During the year the Government reported 31 deaths in pretrial
    detention centers and police cells, compared with 43 in 2009, and PRI
    reported 351 deaths during the first 10 months of 2010 among both
    detainees and prisoners. The Government reported 40 suicides in 2010--a
    decrease from 2009--of which three occurred in pretrial detention
    facilities, 36 in prisons, and one in a police cell.
        According to the latest statistics available from prison monitoring
    NGOs, there were approximately 55,000 prisoners and detainees in
    pretrial facilities. Men, women, and juveniles were held separately.
    Detainees were lodged apart from prisoners. There were no reports that
    political prisoners were held separately from the rest of the prison
    population.
        Incidents of inmates' self-mutilation as a protest against harsh
    prison conditions and abuse continued, with 87 cases involving 174
    inmates reported during the year; 27 were group mutilations. NGOs
    reported that the increase of reports on prison abuse did not reflect
    worsening conditions but rather increased transparency throughout the
    prison system.
        On February 1, several inmates in Eastern Kazakhstan prison 156/17,
    designated for former law enforcement officers, committed self-
    mutilation to protest the lack of heat and hot water during the winter.
        On July 3, 14 inmates from Stepnoy village prison 166/26 committed
    self-mutilation to protest abuse by prison personnel. The authorities
    pressed criminal charges of abuse of power and torture against two
    officials, including the deputy director of Akmolinsk regional
    penitentiary committee, whom they also fired. The prosecutor's office
    concluded its investigation, and a court hearing was pending. On July
    5, another group of inmates committed self-mutilation. The inmates'
    relatives and prisoners' rights advocates disseminated to the media
    images and videos of the mutilation taken with cell phones.
        On July 22, 37 inmates from prison 164/4 in Gorni village, North
    Kazakhstan, committed group self-mutilation to protest abuse. After an
    investigation authorities transferred 12 inmates to other prisons.
        On July 30, according to the Kazakhstan International Human Rights
    Bureau, four prisoners from the Almaty pretrial detention facility cut
    their abdomens. Following subsequent reports that authorities severely
    beat the four prisoners, their relatives protested in front of the
    detention facility. Approximately 40 prisoners submitted written
    complaints to the prosecutor general. According to Ardak Zhanabilova,
    leader of the Public Monitoring Commission, all reasonable complaints
    have been satisfied.
        On August 9, approximately 300 inmates from prison 166/25 in
    Granitni village, Akmolinsk region, engaged in a group self-mutilation
    protest. Because of an ensuing riot to which authorities dispatched
    troops, two inmates died, 100 were injured, and 70 were hospitalized.
        On August 24, Yermek Narymbayev went on a hunger strike in an
    attempt to urge the Almaty Court of Appeals to review his case. His
    initial 15-day sentence for holding an unsanctioned demonstration in
    May turned into four years when claims of violent behavior toward
    police surfaced.
        Civil society activists worked with the councils for public
    oversight of the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Internal
    Affairs, as well as the human rights ombudsman's Countertorture Working
    Group, to monitor the situation in prisons and detention facilities.
    Many observers criticized the councils for lacking independence and
    clearly defined authority or power.
        The Government addressed systemic patterns that encouraged prisoner
    abuse by increasing access for regional penitentiary oversight
    commissions, training programs for prison officials, and police
    seminars. By year's end, authorities had investigated 48 law
    enforcement officials and prosecuted 15 for abuses. Courts convicted
    four law enforcement officers on torture charges.

        d. Arbitrary Arrest or Detention.--The law prohibits arbitrary
    arrest and detention, but problems remained.

        Role of the Police and Security Apparatus.--The Ministry of
    Internal Affairs supervises the national police force, which has
    primary responsibility for internal security, including investigation
    and prevention of crimes and administrative offenses and maintenance of
    public order and security. The Agency for Combating Economic and
    Corruption Crimes (Financial Police) has administrative and criminal
    investigative powers. The KNB plays a role in border security, internal
    security, antiterrorism efforts, and the investigation and interdiction
    of illegal or unregistered groups, such as extremist groups, military
    groups, political parties, religious groups, and trade unions. In
    February 2009 the Government established a separate external
    intelligence service, Syrbar, which reports directly to the president.
    The Financial Police and the KNB report directly to the president.
        During the year the Government maintained Ministry of Internal
    Affairs hotlines and received more than 13,617 complaints about police
    corruption and abuse. The majority of ministers, including the prime
    minister, maintained personal blogs where citizens could submit their
    complaints.
        The prosecutor general chaired a council for coordination of law
    enforcement operations. Staff included heads of other law enforcement
    agencies. Among its many duties, the council reviewed complaints
    against law enforcement.
        The Ministry of Internal Affairs cooperated with NGOs to provide
    human rights training programs for local police. The Government
    cooperated with international organizations to provide limited law
    enforcement training courses aimed at decreasing abuse by emphasizing
    investigative skill development.

        Arrest Procedures and Treatment While in Detention.--In 2008 the
    Government passed legislation to transfer the power to sanction arrest
    from prosecutors to the judiciary. Independent observers reported that
    judges usually sanctioned prosecutors' requests. Of the suspects
    detained by police in 2009, 98 percent were arrested, compared with
    91.3 to 92 percent between 2006 and 2008.
        Prosecutors continued to have the power to authorize investigative
    actions, such as search and seizure. The law allows police to hold a
    detainee for 72 hours before bringing charges. Human rights observers
    criticized this period as too lengthy and said that authorities often
    used this detention to exert pressure and extract confessions. A bail
    system exists but was not widely used, and many individuals remained in
    pretrial detention until their trial. By law prisoners are granted
    prompt access to family members; however, prisoners sometimes are sent
    to facilities located far from their home and relatives, restricting
    access for those who could not afford the travel.
        Persons detained, arrested, or accused of committing a crime have
    the right to the assistance of a defense lawyer from the moment of
    detention, arrest, or accusation. The law does not require police to
    inform detainees that they have the right to an attorney, and in
    practice police did not do so. Human rights observers alleged that law
    enforcement officials dissuaded detainees from seeing an attorney,
    gathered evidence through preliminary questioning before a detainee's
    attorney arrived, and, in some cases, used corrupt defense attorneys to
    gather evidence. The law states that the Government must provide an
    attorney for an indigent suspect or defendant when the suspect is a
    minor, has physical or mental disabilities, or faces serious criminal
    charges. In practice public defenders often lacked the necessary
    experience and training to assist defendants.
        Some defendants were barred from freely choosing their defense
    counsel because the cases against them involved state secrets, and the
    law only allows lawyers who have special clearance to work on such
    cases. In the embezzlement case that resulted in the March 15
    conviction of the Mukhtar Dzhakishev, former manager of the state-owned
    uranium company KazAtomProm, the KNB barred Dzhakishev from meeting
    with his attorney because the lawyer lacked the necessary clearance.
    Dzhakishev eventually chose an attorney from the list of approved
    lawyers and was allowed to meet with him.
        Prosecutors reported continuing problems with arbitrary arrest and
    detention of citizens. During the first nine months of 2010,
    authorities released 1,000 persons from illegal pretrial detention and
    973 from illegal custody in police offices.
        The Government occasionally arrested and detained government
    opponents and critics, sometimes for minor infractions such as
    unsanctioned assembly. Nevertheless, there were no allegations of
    prolonged detention for political offenses.

        e. Denial of Fair Public Trial.--The law does not provide for an
    independent judiciary. The executive branch limited judicial
    independence. Prosecutors enjoyed a quasijudicial role and had
    authority to suspend court decisions.
        Corruption was evident at every stage of the judicial process.
    Although judges were among the most highly paid government employees,
    lawyers and human rights monitors alleged that judges, prosecutors, and
    other officials solicited bribes in exchange for favorable rulings in
    the majority of criminal cases.
        Military courts have jurisdiction over civilian criminal defendants
    allegedly connected to military personnel undergoing a criminal trial.
    Military courts use the same criminal code as civilian courts.

        Trial Procedures.--All defendants enjoy a presumption of innocence
    and are protected from self-incrimination. Trials were public except in
    instances that could compromise state secrets or when necessary to
    protect the private life or personal family concerns of a citizen.
    Nevertheless, there were several reported cases of journalists and
    observers denied access to open court hearings. Only defendants charged
    with capital crimes are entitled to trial by jury.
        Courts conducted jury trials for aggravated murder cases, pursuant
    to legislation enacted in 2006. Observers noted that the juror
    selection process was inconsistent and that judges, who deliberate with
    the jurors, tended to dominate the process. Through the first 11 months
    of 2010, courts conducted 206 jury trials involving 286 defendants;
    jurors acquitted 19.
        Defendants in criminal cases have the right to counsel and to a
    government-provided attorney if they cannot afford counsel. Under the
    criminal procedure code a defendant must be represented by an attorney
    when the defendant is a minor, has mental or physical disabilities,
    does not speak the language of the court, or faces 10 or more years of
    imprisonment. In practice defense attorneys reportedly participated in
    only half of all criminal cases, in part because the Government did not
    provide sufficient funds to pay them. The law also provides defendants
    the right to be present at their trials, to be heard in court, to
    confront witnesses against them, and to call witnesses for the defense.
    They have the right to appeal a decision to a higher court. According
    to observers, defense attorneys play a narrow role in trials, which are
    dominated by prosecutors.
        Kazakhstani and international human rights organizations reported
    numerous problems in the judicial system, including lack of access to
    court proceedings, lack of access to government-held evidence, frequent
    procedural violations, poor explanation of rights to defendants, denial
    of defense counsel motions, and failure of judges to investigate
    allegations that confessions had been extracted through torture or
    duress. Activists called for the use of juries for a wider range of
    trials. Lack of due process was a problem, particularly in a handful of
    politically motivated trials involving protests by opposition activists
    and in cases when improper political or financial influence was
    alleged.
        On April 26, the Supreme Court Panel for Procedural Review rejected
    a petition submitted by Vitaly Voronov, a lawyer for prominent human
    rights defender Yevgeniy Zhovtis, to review the lower-court ruling that
    convicted Zhovtis for vehicular manslaughter and sentenced him to four
    years in prison. The charge stemmed from a July 2009 accident in which
    Zhovtis struck and killed a pedestrian with his car. In December 2009
    an Almaty district court judicial review panel refused to review the
    appellate court's decision based on a request by Zhovtis' defense team.
    Local and international observers strongly criticized the trial for
    numerous procedural violations. Some observers alleged that the
    sentence imposed on Zhovtis, a critic of the Government, was harsh and
    politically motivated.
        On August 9, the Supreme Court rejected an appeal by Vremya
    journalist Tokhniyaz Kuchukov for a more lenient sentence for his
    involvement in a fatal vehicular accident in 2009.
        On December 6, the Supreme Court rejected an appeal by Aydos
    Sadykov, an opposition journalist found guilty of ``hooliganism'' and
    resisting police in July. There were reports the two-year sentence was
    politically motivated.

        Political Prisoners and Detainees.--Local and international human
    rights NGOs asserted that the prison sentence imposed on Yevgeniy
    Zhovtis amounted to political persecution to silence the Government's
    most vocal critic in advance of the country's 2010 chairmanship of the
    Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). Although
    Zhovtis was closely monitored and was the only prisoner not allowed to
    work or spend weekends outside of his penal colony, he was allowed to
    publish articles and release statements.

        Civil Judicial Procedures and Remedies.--Economic and
    administrative court judges handle civil cases under a court structure
    that largely mirrors the criminal court structure. The law and
    constitution provide for the resolution of civil disputes in court. In
    practice observers viewed civil courts as corrupt and unreliable.
    Observers noted that litigants experienced difficulty in enforcing
    judgments, particularly if they did not agree to pay a percentage to
    the court administrator.

        f. Arbitrary Interference With Privacy, Family, Home, or
    Correspondence.--The constitution and law prohibit privacy violations;
    however, the Government at times infringed on these rights.
        The law provides prosecutors with extensive authority to limit
    citizens' constitutional rights. The KNB, the Ministry of Internal
    Affairs, Financial Police, and other agencies, with the concurrence of
    the PGO, may infringe on the secrecy of private communications and
    financial records as well as on the inviolability of the home. Courts
    may hear an appeal of a prosecutor's decision but cannot issue an
    immediate injunction to cease an infringement. In June 2009 parliament
    amended the criminal procedure code to expand the range of cases in
    which police could wiretap and record communications without a warrant,
    allowing it in cases of medium gravity as well as in urgent and grave
    ones, which was previously the standard.
        Government opponents and their family members continued to report
    that the Government occasionally monitored their movements and
    telephone calls.

    Section 2. Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:
        a. Freedom of Speech and Press.--The constitution and the law
    provide for freedom of speech and of the press; however, the Government
    used a variety of means, including laws, harassment, licensing
    regulations, Internet restrictions, and criminal and administrative
    charges to control the media and limit freedom of expression. Judicial
    actions against journalists and media outlets, including civil and
    criminal libel suits filed by government officials, contributed to the
    suspension of media outlets and self-censorship.
        The Government limited individuals' ability to criticize the
    country's leadership, and regional leaders attempted to limit local
    media outlets' criticism of them. The law prohibits insulting the
    president, the president's family, and other senior officials. The
    Government continued to characterize the distribution of pamphlets by
    Hizb ut-Tahrir, a prohibited extremist political organization, as
    incitement for political and terrorist purposes and beyond the bounds
    of constitutionally protected free speech.
        According to government statistics, approximately 20 percent of the
    2,973 media outlets were government-owned. Many privately owned
    newspapers and television stations received government subsidies. The
    majority of broadcast media that the Government did not own, including
    the larger outlets, nonetheless were owned by holding companies
    believed to be controlled by members of the president's family or by
    loyal associates. Media observers believed that most of the seven
    nationwide television broadcasters were owned wholly or partly by the
    Government. Regional governments owned several frequencies, and the
    Ministry of Communications and Information distributed them to
    independent broadcasters via a tender system.
        All media were required to register with the Ministry of
    Communications and Information, although Web sites were exempt from
    this requirement. In February 2009 the president signed amendments to
    the media law that removed requirements for media to reregister if
    their senior leadership changes and to obtain permission to record
    interviews. The State Commission on the Distribution of Television and
    Radio Frequencies did not meet in 2010, which made new licensing
    impossible. As a result of a 2009 government tender, all radio
    frequencies in major cities and regions went to one company that the
    Government favored. Similarly, in 2008 the Government conducted a
    tender for new licenses for television frequencies, but media monitors
    charged that the Government predetermined the results and awarded all
    new television frequencies to companies that it favored.
        The law limits the rebroadcast of foreign-produced programming to
    20 percent of a station's total airtime. This provision burdened
    smaller, less developed regional television stations that lacked
    resources to develop programs, although the Government did not sanction
    any media outlet under this provision.
        Harassment of and violence against journalists remained a problem.
    During the year press advocacy NGO Adil Soz recorded eight attacks on
    newspaper offices and journalists, five threats to journalists, and
    three cases of forced suspension or discontinuance of a publication.
    Reporters were prevented from performing their professional duties in
    24 instances, and journalists were denied or given significantly
    restricted access to public information 210 times, according to the
    NGO. Journalists working in opposition media and those covering
    corruption reported harassment and intimidation by government officials
    and private actors.
        There were no developments in the January 2009 attack by unknown
    assailants on Yermek Boltay, Web site editor and part-time contributor
    to Radio Free Europe and Radio Azzatyk. Several men reportedly
    approached Boltay on the street and asked him for money; when he
    refused, they assaulted him. The police treated the case as a
    ``hooligan attack.''
        On July 6, jailed and ailing Ramazan Yesergepov, owner and editor
    in chief of the Alma-Ata Info newspaper, went on a hunger strike to
    protest his imprisonment. In an August 2009 closed hearing, a Taraz
    city court found Yesergepov guilty of divulging classified documents
    and sentenced him to three years in prison. The charge stemmed from a
    2008 article in Alma-Ata Info on government corruption that contained
    ostensibly secret KNB documents. In August 2009 in a separate hearing,
    the Supreme Court ruled against Alma-Ata Info and upheld a lower
    court's ruling that suspended the newspaper for three months for
    publishing classified documents. In October 2009 the Zhambyl regional
    court denied Yesergepov's appeal and upheld the original conviction.
        On December 15, AKI Press news agency reported that the PGO
    provided Kyrgyzstani authorities with suspects in the case of
    Kyrgyzstani opposition journalist Gennadi Pavlyuk, who died in Almaty
    in December 2009 from injuries sustained after unknown assailants
    allegedly bound his hands and feet and pushed him from a sixth-floor
    window. On December 1, a court in Almaty issued an arrest warrant for
    one of the suspects, Aldayar Ismankulov, on charges of kidnapping and
    extortion. According to media reports, Pavlyuk intended to establish an
    opposition newspaper and Internet portal in Kyrgyzstan. In December
    2009 the Ministry of Internal Affairs claimed it had identified several
    suspects in the case, all of whom were Kyrgyz nationals. The Ministry
    of Internal Affairs did not provide further details on the suspects or
    their possible motives.
        Incidents of local government pressure on the media continued. On
    October 7, Adil Soz reported that the Ust-Kamenogorsk deputy akim
    advised Internet portal Stan.TV correspondent Alla Stepanova to refrain
    from covering a protest rally and threatened her with criminal charges.
    Following her publication of these allegations, the deputy threatened
    to sue Stepanova for defamation.
        There were no reports of forced closures under the restrictive
    media law enacted in 2006. The amendment to the media law included
    tightened government control, requiring media owners to reregister upon
    any change in editor, address, or frequency of publishing; a
    prohibition on persons convicted of libel to hold a managing editor
    position at another media outlet; a prohibition on registering an
    outlet under a name similar to one that had been closed by court
    action; and imposition of fines against broadcasters for failing to
    offer the required 50/50 mix of Kazakh- and Russian-language
    programming time.
        The law enables the Government to restrict media content under
    amendments that prohibit undermining state security or advocating
    class, social, race, national, or religious superiority, or cruelty and
    violence. Owners, editors, distributors, and journalists may be held
    civilly and criminally responsible for content unless it came from an
    official source. The Government used this provision to limit media
    freedom. The law prohibits publication of any statement that promotes
    or glorifies ``extremism,'' a term that international legal experts
    said the Government had not clearly defined.
        The Government subjected media outlets willing to criticize the
    president directly to intimidation such as law enforcement actions or
    civil suits. Although these actions had a chilling effect on media
    outlets, criticism of government policies continued.
        The law on state secrets makes it a criminal offense to release
    information regarding the health, finances, or private life of the
    president as well as economic information, such as mineral reserves and
    government debt owed to foreign creditors. To avoid possible legal
    problems, media outlets often practiced self-censorship regarding
    information on the president or his family.
        Private parties could initiate criminal libel suits without
    independent action by the Government, and an individual filing such a
    suit would be able to file a civil suit as well, based upon the same
    allegations. Officials increasingly used the law's restrictive libel
    and defamation provisions to constrain media outlets from publishing
    unflattering information. Both the criminal and civil codes contain
    articles establishing broad liability for libel. The requirement that
    owners, editors, distributors, publishing houses, and journalists prove
    the veracity of published information, regardless of its source,
    promoted self-censorship at each level. In 2009 Respublika ceased its
    printing operations because it could not pay exorbitant libel claims.
        NGOs and monitors reported that libel cases against journalists and
    media outlets remained a problem. During the year, according to Adil
    Soz, seven local journalists were prosecuted for libel. A total of 54
    civil lawsuits, including 24 from state officials and 21 from private
    citizens, were brought against media outlets and claimed moral damages
    amounting to 7.5 million tenge ($5.14 million). During the year five
    journalists were serving prison sentences.

        Internet Freedom.--Observers reported that the Government monitored
    e-mail and Internet activity, blocked or slowed access to opposition
    Web sites, and planted progovernment propaganda in Internet chat rooms.
    The state regulated the country's three Internet service providers,
    including the state-owned Kaztelecom. Nevertheless, Web sites expressed
    a wide variety of views, including viewpoints critical of the
    Government. According to an independent marketing firm, there were 4.3
    million regular (primarily urban) Internet users in the country (26.5
    percent of the population).
        During the year Adil Soz reported that no media outlets or Web
    sites were shut down for inciting ethnic violence following a 2009 law
    that made it easier for the Government to shut down media outlets,
    including Web sites, for violations during electoral periods or for
    inciting interethnic violence. The law reclassified all Web sites,
    including chat rooms and blogs, as ``media outlets,'' making them
    subject to the media law. It broadened the definition of ``disseminated
    media products'' to include information posted on the Internet.
        The Government did not attempt to collect, request, obtain or
    disclose personally identifiable information of a person in connection
    with that person's peaceful expression of political, religious, or
    ideological opinion or belief.
        The Ministry of Communications and Information controlled the
    registration of .kz Internet domains. Authorities may suspend or revoke
    registration for failure to locate servers in the country. Observers
    criticized the registration process as unduly restrictive and
    vulnerable to abuse.
        Adil Soz reported 12 cases of government blocking or restricting
    access to Web sites and the Government's continuing intermittent
    blocking of the Web site LiveJournal throughout the year, although the
    site remained accessible through other servers. Bloggers reported
    anecdotally that their sites were periodically blocked.
        The opposition-oriented Web site zona.kz reported coordinated cyber
    attacks against it in February and April, and a 10-day attack in May.
        Throughout the year the Committee to Protect Journalists reported
    the Web site of opposition newspaper Respublika remained inaccessible
    by Kaztelecom users, the Government-owned Internet service provider.
    Users were able to access the newspaper online by use of alternative
    Web addresses. On February 2, an Almaty court prohibited the
    distribution of Respublika's printed newspaper due to the publication's
    inability to pay 60 million tenge (approximately $400,000) after it
    lost a 2009 lawsuit filed by BTA Bank.

        Academic Freedom and Cultural Events.--The Government generally did
    not restrict academic freedom, although academics, as with other
    citizens, were prohibited from infringing on the dignity and honor of
    the president and his family.
        In August the administration of the Eurasian National University of
    Astana denied the appointment of Aleksander Ukhman as a permanent
    lecturer, reportedly because the Ministry of Internal Affairs did not
    want the job given to a Communist Party member. According to Ukhman,
    during a conflict with the local police in Karaganda city on July 10, a
    police officer, Major Kiril Korniyenko, threatened to jeopardize
    Ukhman's employment prospects at the university.

        b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association.--Freedom of
    Assembly.--The law provides for limited freedom of assembly. There were
    significant restrictions on this right in practice, and police used
    force to disrupt peaceful demonstrations. The law defines national
    security threats to include unsanctioned gatherings, public meetings,
    marches, demonstrations, illegal picketing, and strikes that upset
    social and political stability.
        Under the laws governing public assembly, organizations must apply
    to local authorities for a permit to hold a demonstration or public
    meeting at least 10 days in advance. Opposition and human rights
    monitors complained that complicated and vague procedures and the 10-
    day notification period made it difficult for groups to organize public
    meetings and demonstrations, and noted that local authorities turned
    down most applications for demonstrations. Authorities often detained
    briefly and fined organizers of unsanctioned gatherings, including
    political party gatherings. Authorities designated locations for
    sanctioned protests in less populous city outskirts.
        The National Human Rights Action Plan 2009-12 noted that the
    country's legal norms on public gatherings at times contradicted
    international standards.
        On March 16, a court fined Bakhytzhan Toregozhina, chairperson of
    the Ar.Rukh.Khak public fund, 56,520 tenge ($382) for holding a ``flash
    mob'' (a spontaneous demonstration organized using mobile technology)
    on March 11 in a public garden in Almaty. The representatives of the
    prosecutor's office who observed the event failed to warn her that the
    action was illegal.
        On March 26, a court sentenced the chairman of the unregistered
    Alga political party to 10 days in prison for distributing booklets
    with biographical information about the former head of the KazAtomProm
    Company, Mukhtar Dzhakishev. The courts considered booklet distribution
    an unsanctioned demonstration.
        On May 5, an Almaty court sentenced the leader of the Alga party,
    Vladimir Kozlov, to a 15-day sentence for organizing an unsanctioned
    rally. The Alga and Communist Parties organized the rally on May 1,
    with more than 500 activists in the yard of the Alga office in Almaty.
    Following the rally police blocked the yard entrance to prevent
    activists from marching en masse and detained a number of activists,
    including journalist Zhanna Baytelova and the leader of the Arman
    movement, Yermek Narymbayev.
        On June 21, journalist Yekaterina Belyayeva approached the Monument
    of Independence in Almaty alone and unfolded a poster to protest of the
    Leader of the Nation Law. Police seized the poster, tore it apart, and
    detained Belyayeva for five hours.
        On July 10, local police dispersed a gathering of residents in
    Karaganda. The district akim, who had promised to meet residents to
    discuss water supply problems, did not show up. The residents picketed
    his office, but local police reportedly provoked a scuffle, dispersed
    the gathering, and detained three activists, Andrey Tsukonov, A.
    Bomdarenko, and Aleksander Ukhman. Police reportedly beat Ukhman during
    questioning at the police station. On July 12, the Administrative Court
    of Karaganda City sentenced Tsukanov and Ukhman to a one-day jail term
    for disobedience to the police.

        Freedom of Association.--The law provides for limited freedom of
    association. There were significant restrictions on this right in
    practice. Any public organization set up by citizens, including
    religious groups, must be registered with the Ministry of Justice as
    well as with ministry branches in every region in which the
    organization conducts activities. The law requires public or religious
    associations to define their specific activities, and associations that
    act outside the scope of their charter may be warned, fined, suspended,
    or ultimately prohibited. Participation in unregistered public
    organizations may result in administrative or criminal liability, such
    as fines, dissolution, probation, or imprisonment.
        The prohibition on unregistered organizations often provided a
    pretext for authorities to interfere with the activities of
    organizations. Membership organizations, including religious groups,
    must have 10 members in order to register at the local level and must
    have branches in more than half of the regions for national
    registration. The Government considered political parties and labor
    unions to be membership organizations but had additional specific
    registration requirements for them. The law requires 40,000 signatures
    for registration. If authorities challenge the applications alleging
    irregular signatures, the registration process can continue as long as
    the total number of eligible signatures remains above the minimum. The
    law prohibits parties established on an ethnic, gender, or religious
    basis. The law prohibits members of the armed forces, employees of
    national security and law enforcement organizations, and judges from
    participating in trade unions or political parties.
        On June 28, Vladimir Kozlov, leader of the unregistered political
    party Alga, and his lawyer Sergey Utkin, received an Almaty Tax
    Committee letter stating that they owed an additional six million tenge
    ($41,000). In calculating the tax, the tax committee included party
    branch office buildings in every region of the country as Kozlov's
    property. Kozlov stated that Alga party members could not legally
    conduct political party-related business during the year because the
    party had not been registered. The group continued its activities
    through public associations registered at a regional level. On October
    28, the Government began an investigation of Kozlov for a possible tax
    evasion charge, claiming he owed over three million tenge ($20,000).
        In July the Ministry of Justice refused to reregister the Azat
    National Social Democratic Party (ANSDP) due to discrepancies between
    the Russian and Kazakh versions of the party charter.
        NGOs reported that the NGO registration process was fairly
    straightforward, although corruption in the process was common. NGOs
    involved in human rights advocacy and political activities faced
    greater administrative delays and obstacles, although there were no
    reports that the Government denied registration or closed
    organizations.
        The 2005 extremism law criminalizes membership in certain
    prohibited organizations. Hizb ut-Tahrir was the only organization
    prohibited under this law. Although it maintained that it was committed
    to nonviolence, Hizb ut-Tahrir promoted hate and praised acts of
    terrorism. The party's virulently anti-Semitic and anti-Western
    literature called for the overthrow of secular governments, including
    those in Central Asia, to be replaced with a worldwide Islamic
    government.

        c. Freedom of Religion.--For a complete description of religious
    freedom, please see the 2010 International Religious Freedom Report at
    www.state.gov/g/drl/irf/rpt.

        d. Freedom of Movement, Internally Displaced Persons, Protection of
    Refugees, and Stateless Persons.--The law provides for freedom of
    movement, but there were some regulatory restrictions. The Government
    generally respected the right in practice, and citizens were able to
    move within the country with relative ease. The Government cooperated
    with the UNHCR and other organizations to provide some protection and
    assistance to refugees, asylum seekers, and other persons of concern.
        The Government required citizens and foreigners who remained in the
    country for more than five days to register with migration police.
    Foreigners entering the country may register at certain border posts.
    Registration in most of the country generally was routine; nonetheless,
    some foreign citizens reported that local authorities occasionally
    requested bribes before completing registration. Migration police
    routinely checked the registration of foreigners, including labor
    migrants, and reportedly requested bribes. Some foreigners experienced
    problems travelling to regions outside their registration area.
        During the first nine months of the year, the Ministry of Internal
    Affairs deported 11,677 foreigners for alleged gross violations of the
    visitor rules; the majority of the foreigners were citizens of
    countries in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). The
    Government required persons who were suspects in criminal
    investigations to sign statements that they would not leave their place
    of residence and detained individuals routinely for identity checks
    without suspicion of a criminal offense.
        Although the Government did not require exit visas for the
    temporary travel of citizens, there were certain instances in which the
    Government could deny exit from the country, including for travelers
    subject to pending criminal or civil legal proceedings, unfulfilled
    prison sentences, or compulsory military duty. Travelers who presented
    false documentation during the exit process could be denied exit, and
    authorities controlled travel by active-duty military. The law on
    national security requires that persons who had access to state secrets
    obtain permission from their employing government agency for temporary
    exit from the country.
        The law prohibits forced exile, and the Government did not employ
    it.
        The law provides for the right to emigrate and the right to
    repatriate, and the Government generally respected these rights in
    practice. An exception is the law on national security, which prohibits
    persons who had access to state secrets from taking up permanent
    residence abroad for five years after leaving government service. The
    Government required a permanent exit visa for emigration; obtaining
    this visa required criminal checks, credit checks, and letters from
    parents and any dependents expressing no objection to exit visa
    issuance.
        Authorities required foreigners to obtain prior permission to
    travel to certain border areas with China and cities in close proximity
    to military installations. The Government continued to declare
    particular areas closed to foreigners due to their proximity to
    military bases and the space launch center at Baikonur. In practice
    foreigners could visit these areas with prior permission from the
    Ministry of Internal Affairs.

        Protection of Refugees.--The Government provided protection against
    the expulsion or return of refugees to countries where their lives or
    freedom would be threatened on account of their race, religion,
    nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political
    opinion. The Government did not forcibly return any refugees during the
    year.
        In April, the country temporarily closed its border with Kyrgyzstan
    following the unrest leading to the ouster of former Kyrgyz president
    Bakiyev.
        In January a new law on refugees came into force that outlines
    refugee status determination (RSD) procedures and access to state
    services, including the right to be registered and issued documents.
    With UNHCR encouragement, the Committee on Migration under the Ministry
    of Labor and Social Protection assumed responsibility for RSD
    procedures formerly performed by the UNHCR for CIS citizens and Chinese
    Uighurs. Former UNHCR mandate refugees had to reapply for refugee
    status through the Government beginning in April; if granted,
    applicants must reapply every year to maintain their refugee status.
    Observers stated that council representatives suffered from lack of
    expertise, which the UNHCR attributed to rushed implementation of the
    law. While the law stipulates that refugees have the right to education
    and social services, administrative regulations and prohibitive costs
    for services often precluded this right in practice. In January
    authorities formed an interministerial working group with the UNHCR to
    address these problems.
        In June the media reported that the Ministry of Internal Affairs
    and local Almaty law enforcement detained 30 Uzbek and one Uighur
    asylum seekers for security reasons. The UNHCR maintained regular
    access to all detainees and did not report abuse.
        During the year the KNB launched a probe into a September 2009
    incident in which armed and masked men, later identified as Almaty KNB
    officers, detained three Uzbek and Chinese Uighur national refugees and
    two asylum seekers, and held them for three hours. Some reported the
    KNB officers threatened them with deportation or put plastic bags on
    their heads. In response to the UNHCR's inquiry, the KNB said it was
    running checks on the detainees. The detainees reported that the KNB
    officers accused them of killing a police officer in Uzbekistan. The
    UNHCR had sent a formal protest letter to the Government. The KNB did
    not release results of the probe by year's end.
        The Government generally registered asylum seekers and determined
    their status in consultation with the UNHCR. In some cases the
    Government allowed asylum seekers and refugees to stay in the country
    while the UNHCR found third countries that would accept them. Although
    the Government registered refugees already present in the country, it
    did not accept any refugees for resettlement and naturalization. The
    Government also provided temporary protection to individuals, including
    some Afghans who would not qualify as refugees.
        During the year the UNHCR reported generally excellent cooperation
    from the Government in assisting refugees and asylum seekers. The
    Government usually allowed the UNHCR access to detained foreigners to
    ensure proper treatment and fair determination of status. The
    Government was generally tolerant in its treatment of local refugee
    populations, except for a few citizens from former Soviet republics.
    The Government often did not allow refugees without passports or those
    who had entered the country illegally to register.
        The Committee on Migration in the Ministry of Labor and Social
    Protection continued to work with the UNHCR and a local NGO, Kazakhstan
    Refugee Legal Support, to review refugee claims. Consistent with the
    Minsk Convention on Migration within the CIS, the Government did not
    recognize Chechens as refugees. Chechens were eligible for temporary
    legal resident status for up to 180 days, as are any other CIS
    citizens. This temporary registration was renewable, but local
    migration officials have discretion over the renewal process. In some
    cases they solicited bribes, exploiting the vulnerability of Chechens
    due to their inability to return safely to Chechnya. The Government has
    an agreement with China not to tolerate the presence of ethnic
    separatists from one country on the territory of the other. Human
    rights monitors remained concerned about the effect of this agreement
    on Uighurs from China living in the country, especially following the
    transfer of RSD for Uighurs from the UNHCR to the Government.

        Stateless Persons--According to government statistics, 7,585
    documented stateless persons resided in the country. The UNHCR
    estimated that the number of stateless persons was 60-100,000. This
    group largely constituted holders of Soviet passports who failed to
    renew their documents since independence, ethnic Kazakh repatriates,
    and labor migrants. There was no reliable source of data on stateless
    persons. Although provided with the same rights as individuals with
    resident permits, stateless persons reported difficulty finding legal
    employment and limited access to education and health care.

    Section 3. Respect for Political Rights: The Right of Citizens to
            Change Their Government
        The constitution and law provide for a democratic government with
    universal suffrage for those older than 18 years of age; in practice,
    the Government severely limited the right of citizens to change their
    government.
        On December 23, a group of government supporters initiated, in
    accordance with Kazakhstani law, a petition process to replace two
    scheduled presidential elections with a 2011 referendum to extend
    President Nazarbayev's term until 2020. By the end of the year, the
    referendum movement collected approximately 2.5 million signatures--
    well more than the required 200,000--although there were credible
    reports many were obtained by coercion. Although parliament expedited
    constitutional amendments to allow the referendum to take place, the
    referendum bid ultimately failed and was replaced by an early
    presidential election.
        Although the 2007 constitutional amendments increased legislative
    authority in some spheres, the constitution continues to concentrate
    power in the presidency. The president appoints and dismisses most
    high-level government officials, including the prime minister, the
    cabinet, the prosecutor general, the KNB chief, Supreme Court and
    lower-level judges, regional governors, and the chairman and two
    members of the Central Election Commission (CEC), which oversees
    presidential and parliamentary elections. The Mazhilis (lower house of
    parliament) must confirm the president's choice of prime minister, and
    the senate must confirm the president's choice of prosecutor general,
    chief of the KNB, Supreme Court judges, and head of the national bank.
    The parliament has never failed to confirm a presidential nomination.
    Modifying or amending the constitution effectively requires the
    president's consent. The 2007 constitutional amendments exempted
    President Nazarbayev from the two-term presidential term limit, and an
    amendment passed during the year gave him protection from prosecution.
        On June 15, two leader-of-the-nation laws came into force. The
    measures established President Nazarbayev as chair of the Kazakhstan
    People's Assembly, granted him lifetime membership on the
    Constitutional and Security Councils, allowed him ``to address the
    people of Kazakhstan at any time,'' and stipulated that all
    ``initiatives on the country's development'' must be coordinated
    through him. Despite a public rejection of the law by Nazarbayev, the
    presidential administration failed to return the law to parliament,
    which brought it into force after 30 days.
        The Government took no further steps toward meeting the democratic
    reform commitments it made at the 2007 OSCE Ministerial. In February
    2009 the president signed into law amendments on political parties,
    parliamentary elections, and the media. Some civil society
    representatives and opposition party members criticized the legislation
    for not going far enough with reforms and claimed that the legislative
    process lacked transparency.

        Elections and Political Participation.--In the 2007 elections for
    the Mazhilis, President Nazarbayev's Nur Otan party, the country's
    dominant political force, received 88 percent of the vote, winning
    every seat in the chamber. No other party received the necessary seven
    percent of the vote to obtain Mazhilis seats.
        An OSCE election assessment noted several areas of improvement in
    the conduct of previous national elections, including increased
    transparency on the part of the CEC. Nevertheless, the assessment
    criticized a number of legal provisions related to the election,
    including excessive requirements for registration of political parties;
    limitations on the right to seek public office, such as 10-year
    residency and party membership requirements; and a provision allowing
    the Assembly of People of Kazakhstan--an unelected body whose members
    President Nazarbayev appointed--to choose nine of the 107 members of
    the Mazhilis. Opposition leaders filed 400 court cases alleging
    violations. The courts dismissed or denied the majority of the cases.
        The Government permitted all registered parties that sought to
    compete in the 2007 elections to do so, although the system introduced
    by 2007 constitutional amendments makes no provision for independent
    candidates in parliamentary elections. Political parties must register
    members' personal information, including date and place of birth,
    address, and place of employment. This requirement discouraged many
    citizens from joining political parties. There were credible
    allegations that authorities pressured persons entering government
    service to join the Nur Otan party.
        At year's end there were 10 registered political parties, including
    the opposition parties Ak Zhol, Azat, the National Social Democratic
    Party, and the Communist Party of Kazakhstan.
        In order to register, a political party must hold a founding
    congress with minimum attendance of 1,000 delegates from two-thirds of
    the oblasts and the cities of Astana and Almaty. Parties must obtain at
    least 700 signatures from each oblast and the cities of Astana and
    Almaty, registration from the CEC, and registration from each oblast-
    level election commission.
        The February 2009 amendments to the law on elections require that
    the party with the second-highest vote count automatically receives
    seats in the Mazhilis, even if it fails to reach the 7 percent
    threshold.
        The law prohibits parties established on an ethnic, gender, or
    religious basis.
        In May 2009 the Almaty District Court found Azat chairman Bulat
    Abilov, Shanyrak movement's Asylbek Kazhakhmetov, and oppositionist
    Tolen Tokhtasynov guilty of concealing the whereabouts of a suspect in
    a murder investigation. The court did not impose a sentence on the
    three oppositionists, because the statute of limitations on the case
    had run out. The three appealed the charges, claiming the allegations
    were politically motivated. In July 2009 the Almaty City Appellate
    Court denied the appeal. There were no further updates on this case.
        There were two women in the 47-seat senate and 19 women in the 107-
    member Mazhilis. There were three women in the cabinet. Traditional
    attitudes sometimes hindered women from holding high office or playing
    active roles in political life, although there were no legal
    restrictions on the participation of women and minorities in politics.
    There were nine non-Kazakhs in the senate and 27 in the Mazhilis. There
    were two non-Kazakh cabinet members. Under the 2007 constitutional
    amendments, the president gained the ability to appoint 15 members of
    the senate, with the requirement that the appointments facilitate
    representation of different ethnic and cultural groups.

    Section 4. Official Corruption and Government Transparency
        The law provides criminal penalties for official corruption;
    however, the Government did not implement the law effectively, and
    officials frequently engaged in corrupt practices with impunity.
    Corruption was widespread in the executive branch, various law
    enforcement agencies, local government administrations, the education
    system, and the judiciary. The Ministry of Internal Affairs, Financial
    Police, the KNB, and the Disciplinary State Service Commission are
    responsible for combating corruption. Opposition leaders and human
    rights NGOs accused the Government of rampant corruption. According to
    the World Bank's Worldwide Governance Indicators, corruption in the
    country was a problem.
        On February 24, the Akmola garrison military court sentenced the
    former deputy defense minister, Lieutenant-General Kazhimurat
    Mayermanov, to 11 years in prison for corruption and abuse of office.
    On April 29, Murat Zhumanbay claimed the Financial Police initiated 87
    criminal cases under the state program ``100 schools, 100 hospitals,''
    which was designed to build schools and hospitals in disadvantaged
    communities. On May 7, the Special Interdistrict Court of Astana
    sentenced the former vice minister for emergency situations, Ablay
    Sabdalin, to 10 years in prison for bribery and abuse of power. On
    September 17, the head of the Financial Police, Kayrat Kozhamzharov,
    announced that the Government had convicted 473 individuals for
    corruption offenses, including one minister and five to six vice
    ministers and akims (mayors) since the beginning of the year. In a
    press release, the Customs Committee announced that the Government had
    filed 81 criminal cases against officials and 66 corruption offenses
    were uncovered during the year.
        On October 12, the Financial Police initiated two criminal
    investigations against former health minister Zhaksylyk Doskaliyev for
    abuse of power and accepting a bribe. At year's end Doskaliyev remained
    in detention as the investigation was ongoing.
        In March 2009 a court sentenced former aide to the president Serik
    Burkitbayev to six years in prison for committing economic crimes. In
    May 2009 the KNB arrested the chairman of the state uranium company,
    Mukhtar Dzhakishev, on charges of abuse of office. A court convicted
    him in March and sentenced him to 14 years in prison.
        Lower- and middle-ranking officials and minor political figures
    were penalized on corruption charges. The Government reported that
    during the first 11 months of the year, 1,852 corruption crimes were
    disclosed, and 662 government officials were convicted. In July the
    Customs Committee announced that 190 criminal cases had been opened
    against corrupt customs officials since the beginning of the year. On
    July 19, Supreme Court Chairman Musabek Alimbekov told the media that
    24 judges had been fired for incompetence since the beginning of the
    year. Two judges were convicted for corruption. Authorities dismissed
    61 law enforcement officers for corruption during the year.
        In September 2009 President Nazarbayev publicly ordered that all
    new legislation undergo an ``anticorruption examination'' to eliminate
    loopholes that could lead to bribery or embezzlement.
        The law mandates that the Government, public associations,
    officials, and media outlets provide citizens with information that
    affects their rights and interests; in practice citizens' requests for
    information were not fulfilled in a timely manner. In an NGO Poll, 70.7
    percent of respondents stated they could not get information from state
    agencies and cited red tape, poor content on official Web sites, and
    long lines in state agencies. Government and public employees,
    including parliamentarians and their spouses, are subject to financial
    disclosure requirements.
        Although parliament published several draft laws, some
    parliamentary debates, and occasionally its voting record, many
    parliamentary activities remained outside public view. Accredited
    journalists and representatives of public associations could observe
    some parliamentary sessions via video link from a separate room.
    Transcripts of parliamentary sessions were not available to the public.
    During the year parliament closed public and media access to discussion
    of controversial legislation.

    Section 5. Governmental Attitude Regarding International and
            Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations of Human
            Rights
        A number of domestic and international human rights groups
    generally operated effectively, with relative freedom to investigate
    and publish their findings on human rights cases. However, some
    government restrictions on domestic and international human rights NGO
    activities remained. International human rights groups reported that
    the Government continued to monitor the activities of NGOs that worked
    on sensitive issues and noted government harassment, including police
    visits and surveillance, of NGO offices and personnel.
        The Almaty Helsinki Commission, the Republican Network of
    Independent Monitors, the Charter for Human Rights, PRI, and Adil Soz
    were among the most active local human rights NGOs and occasionally
    faced difficulties in registering and acquiring office space and
    technical facilities. They also reported the Government audited their
    records and imposed various legal constraints. Roza Akylbekova, acting
    director for the Kazakhstan International Bureau of Human Rights
    (KIBHR), stated that KIBHR activists faced no government interference
    in their work during the year and that KIBHR participation in
    government meetings, workshops, and discussions on human rights issues
    increased.
        On September 27, Ayman Kurmanov, the head of the Talmas public
    association, stated that the investigation into the September 2009
    assault against him was still pending. Although he was not aware of any
    actions taken by the police, he was questioned by police early in the
    year. In September 2009 unidentified persons assaulted Kurmanov near
    his home. Kurmanov and Azat party representatives claimed that the
    attack directly related to his work with trade unions and alleged that
    the authorities were involved with the attack.
        In general the Government did not prevent international NGOs and
    multilateral institutions dealing with human rights from visiting the
    country and meeting with local human rights groups and government
    officials. The Government cooperated with the OSCE and its field
    mission. The UN, the International Organization for Migration, and the
    Red Crescent Society also operated freely in the country.
        National security laws prohibit foreigners, international
    organizations, NGOs, and other nonprofit organizations from engaging in
    political activities. The law stipulates that a noncommercial
    organization must provide information to tax authorities on its
    founders, activities, and foreign sources of funding, as well as
    income, property, expenses, and employee records. International
    organizations are prohibited from funding unregistered entities.
        The Presidential Commission on Human Rights is a consultative and
    advisory body that includes members from the public appointed by the
    president. The commission reviews and investigates complaints, issues
    recommendations, monitors fulfillment of international human rights
    conventions, and publishes annual human rights reports. The commission
    does not have legal authority to remedy human rights violations or
    implement its recommendations.
        The presidentially appointed human rights ombudsman investigated
    complaints by citizens of violations of their rights by state agencies,
    although the ombudsman was not authorized to investigate complaints
    concerning the president, heads of government agencies, the parliament,
    the cabinet, the Constitutional Council, the PGO, the CEC, or the
    courts. The Ombudsman's Office has authority to appeal to the
    president, cabinet, or parliament to resolve citizens' complaints, to
    cooperate with international human rights organizations and NGOs, to
    meet with government officials concerning human rights violations, to
    visit certain facilities such as military units and prisons, and to
    publicize the results of investigations in the media. The Ombudsman's
    Office also published an annual human rights report. During the year
    the Ombudsman's Office occasionally briefed the media and issued
    reports discussing complaints it had investigated. According to the
    2009 ombudsman's report submitted on March 29, the office received
    1,348 complaints in 2009, 273 more than in 2008. Of the total
    complaints, 20 percent were directed against law enforcement agencies
    and 17.3 percent concerned court rulings. However, the Ombudsman's
    Office rejected complaints about court rulings because the office has
    no jurisdiction over the judicial system.
        Domestic human rights observers noted that, although government
    human rights investigators did some laudable work, particularly with
    less controversial social problems and issues involving lower-level
    elements of the bureaucracy, the Ombudsman's Office and the human
    rights commission were limited in their ability to stop human rights
    abuses or to punish perpetrators. Observers noted that the commission
    and the ombudsman avoided addressing underlying structural problems
    that led to human rights violations.

    Section 6. Discrimination, Societal Abuses, and Trafficking in Persons
        The law prohibits discrimination based on race, gender, disability,
    language, or social status; however, the Government did not effectively
    enforce the law. Violence against women, trafficking in persons, and
    discrimination against non-Kazakhs in government, persons with
    disabilities, and those involved with homosexual activity were
    problems.

        Women.--The law criminalizes rape. The punishment for rape,
    including spousal rape, ranges from three to 15 years' imprisonment.
    Among 1,234 officially reported rape cases, authorities charged 540
    with criminal rape and convicted 372. Under the law a prosecutor cannot
    initiate a rape case absent aggravating circumstances, such as gang
    rape, unless the victim files a complaint. Once a complaint is filed,
    the criminal investigation cannot be dismissed if the rape victim
    recants or refuses to cooperate further with the investigation. This
    provision was intended to protect victims from coercion. There were
    anecdotal reports of police and judicial reluctance to act on rape and
    spousal rape cases.
        Violence against women, including domestic violence, was a problem.
    In December 2009 President Nazarbayev signed a new law on domestic
    violence. The law defines for the first time ``domestic violence'' and
    ``victim;'' identifies various types of violence, such as physical,
    psychological, sexual, and economic; and outlines the responsibilities
    of the local and national governments and NGOs in providing support to
    domestic violence victims. The law also outlines mechanisms for
    issuance of restraining orders and provides for the 24-hour
    administrative detention of abusers. The criminal procedure code sets
    the maximum sentence for spousal assault and battery at 10 years in
    prison, which is the same as for any beating.
        NGOs allege that the domestic violence law does not have an
    effective mechanism for implementation. According to NGOs, domestic
    violence remained a serious problem. Although official statistics were
    scarce, activists assessed that one in four families experienced
    domestic violence. Among 16,197 official domestic violence reports,
    authorities initiated 1,311 criminal investigations. NGOs reported that
    40 percent of such crimes went unreported. In a May 5, interview to
    Kazakhstanskaya Pravda, Zhakyp Asanov, a Mazhilis member and former
    vice minister of justice, reported that police annually registered over
    10,000 domestic violence incidents, some of which resulted in deaths.
    According to Asanov, 715 women and 129 children died in 2008 as a
    result of domestic violence. The Union of Crisis Centers claimed that
    about 500 women died annually as a result of domestic conflicts.
        Police intervened in family disputes only when they believed the
    abuse was life-threatening. According to NGO estimates, police
    investigated approximately 10 percent of such cases. NGOs conducted
    training for police officers on how to handle victims of domestic
    violence.
        NGOs reported that women often withdrew their complaints because of
    economic insecurity. When victims pressed charges for domestic violence
    or spousal rape, police occasionally tried to persuade them not to
    pursue a case. When domestic violence cases came to trial, the charge
    was most often light battery, for which judges sentenced domestic
    abusers to incarceration at a minimum-security labor colony and 120 to
    180 hours of work. Sentences for more serious cases of battery,
    including spousal battery, range from three months to three years of
    imprisonment; the maximum sentence for aggravated battery is 10 years
    of imprisonment.
        According to the Government there were 25 crisis centers in the
    country providing assistance to women and two centers providing
    assistance to men. All the crisis centers received funding through
    government and international grants to NGOs. A number of smaller NGOs
    provided assistance to victims, and six of the crisis centers also
    provided shelter for victims of violence.
        Sexual harassment remained a problem. The law prohibits some forms
    of sexual harassment, but legal and gender experts regarded the
    legislation as inadequate. There were reports of incidents of
    harassment, but in no instance was the law utilized to protect the
    victim, nor were there reports of any cases prosecuted.
        According to the Population Reference Bureau (PRB), the birth rate
    in the country was 23 births annually per 1,000 members of the
    population, and the infant mortality rate was 26 infant deaths per
    1,000 live births, compared with 32 in 2009.
        Couples and individuals have the right to decide the number,
    spacing, and timing of their children, and have the means to do so free
    from discrimination, coercion, or violence. Modern contraceptive
    methods were widely available. Less than 1 percent of women between the
    ages 15 and 24 and less than 1 percent of the adult population between
    the ages of 15 and 49 years had contracted or were living with HIV/AIDS
    between the years 2007 and 2009. Women and men received equal treatment
    for sexually transmitted infections, including HIV. Skilled personnel
    attended 100 percent of births, and 100 percent of women received at
    least one postnatal care visit, according to the PRB. According to the
    United Nations Population Fund, the maternal mortality ratio was 36.9
    deaths per 100,000 live births in 2009.
        The constitution and law provide for equal rights and freedoms for
    men and women. In December 2009 the president signed a new gender
    equality law that defines the terms ``gender,'' ``gender equality,''
    ``sexual discrimination,'' and ``equal opportunity'' and prohibits
    discrimination based on gender. The financial and economic crisis
    affected women more than men, with more women than men losing their
    jobs. According to observers, women in rural areas faced greater
    discrimination than women in urban areas and suffered from a greater
    incidence of domestic violence, limited education and employment
    opportunities, limited access to information, and discrimination in
    their land and property rights.

        Children.--Citizenship is derived both by birth within the
    country's territory and from one's parents. The Government has a duty
    to register all births immediately.
        Children's rights are governed by the Law on the Rights of the
    Child, the Marriage, and Family, the Law on Prevention of Juvenile
    Delinquency, the Law on Social and Medical Support to Children with
    Disabilities, and related UN conventions to which the country is a
    party. In 2006 the Government established a Committee on the Protection
    of Children's Rights within the Ministry of Education and Science.
        Education is mandatory through 16 years of age or secondary school;
    elementary schooling generally begins at age six. Primary and secondary
    education is free and universal. The law provides equal access to
    education for boys and girls. The law provides for access to public
    education for refugee and illegal migrant children. In some cases these
    children were denied access to schools or their parents did not enroll
    them for fear of discovery and deportation. According to the Ministry
    of Education, more than 10,000 children were identified as ``street
    children'' during the year. According to media reporting, homeless
    children found by police were placed in centers for temporary
    detention, where they received medical and psychological assistance
    before they were released or sent to orphanages. On August 17,
    President Nazarbayev issued a decree on Law Enforcement Reform, which
    includes the transfer of temporary detention centers for delinquent and
    street children from the police to the Ministry of Education.
        There were reports of child abuse, although there was no societal
    pattern. NGOs estimated that more than half of all children younger
    than 14 experienced at least one incident of physical or psychological
    abuse by adults. Abuse was more common in rural areas. During the year
    the Ministry of Internal Affairs permanently terminated custody rights
    of 1,054 abusive parents. Minors who are 16 or older have the right to
    file petitions related to their interests directly with a court.
        NGOs reported a high number of incidents of violence against
    children in orphanages, boarding schools, and detention facilities for
    delinquent children, and there were increased media reports on abuses
    in orphanages and other institutions. According to media reports,
    incidents of illegal placement of children in special correction
    facilities (prisons for underage criminals) and in facilities for the
    mentally ill occurred.
        On March 23, a group of orphans in Pavlodar filed a complaint
    against the institution's director, Bibigul Karimova, accusing her of
    abuse. A preliminary investigation confirmed their claims, and Pavlodar
    police initiated a criminal investigation against Karimova for failure
    to perform duties to raise an underage child. The investigation was
    ongoing at year's end.
        In June 2009 the courts convicted D. Seytkhanov, a teacher at the
    Zyrianovsk boarding school for children with mental disabilities, for
    ``inappropriate performance of duties in the education of underage
    persons related to abusive treatment.'' The court sentenced Seytkhanov
    to one year of restricted freedom of movement and a two-year
    prohibition from teaching.
        The minimum age for consensual sex is not specified in any article
    of the criminal code, but an article provides for 5 to 10 years in
    prison as punishment for individuals who force underage (less than 18)
    boys or girls to have sexual intercourse.
        During the year the country introduced a criminal statute on the
    production and distribution of child pornography, and expanded
    administrative penalties to cover the sale of pornographic materials to
    minors. The country retains administrative penalties for child
    pornography.
        The country is a not a party to the 1980 Hague Convention on the
    Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. For information on
    international parental child abduction, please see the Department of
    State's annual report on compliance at http://travel.state.gov/
    abduction/resources/congressreport/congressreport--4308.html.

        Anti-Semitism.--Approximately 30,000 to 40,000 Jews lived in the
    country. There were no reports of anti-Semitic acts apart from the
    distribution of anti-Semitic literature by Hizb ut-Tahrir. Leaders of
    the Jewish community reported no cases of anti-Semitism by the
    Government or in society.

        Trafficking in Persons.--For information on trafficking in persons
    please see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons
    Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        Persons With Disabilities.--According to the Ministry of Labor and
    Social Protection, there were 455,600 disabled persons (3 percent of
    the total population) in the country, although analysts argued that the
    real number was higher. The law prohibits discrimination against
    persons with disabilities in employment, education, access to health
    care, and in the provision of other state services or other areas.
        The Law on Social Support to Disabled People protects access to
    information for persons with disabilities. The Government produced
    periodicals, scientific journals, reference literature, and fictional
    works that were either recorded on disk or in Braille. The law requires
    one national television channel to broadcast news programs with sign-
    language translation. NGOs believed that implementation of the laws on
    disability was lacking, and the Nur Otan Party's Institute of
    Parliamentary Development assessed that access for disabled persons to
    information and communications was insufficient.
        The law requires companies to set aside 3 percent of their jobs for
    persons with disabilities. International and local observers noted some
    improvement regarding the rights of persons with disabilities.
    Nevertheless, there were reports that persons with disabilities faced
    difficulty integrating into society and finding employment. The law
    mandates access to buildings for persons with disabilities. Vice
    Minister of Labor and Social Protection Assel Nusupova identified the
    two biggest problems facing persons with disabilities as poor
    infrastructure and lack of access to education. Persons with
    disabilities had difficulty accessing public transportation. The
    Government did not make a concerted effort to address these problems.
        Citizens with mental disabilities could be committed to state-run
    institutions without their consent or judicial review. In practice the
    Government committed persons at a young age with permission of their
    families. Institutions were poorly managed and inadequately funded.
        There are no regulations regarding the rights of patients in mental
    hospitals; human rights observers believed this led to mass abuse of
    patients' rights. NGOs reported that patients often were drugged and
    isolated for minor infractions, and experienced poor conditions and a
    complete lack of privacy. NGOs reported orphanages for children with
    physical and mental disabilities were overcrowded and unsanitary, with
    insufficient staff to care adequately for children's needs. The KIBHR
    observed that the Government provided almost no care for persons with
    mental disabilities.
        The Government did not restrict the right of persons with
    disabilities to vote and arranged home voting for individuals who could
    not travel to polling places as a result of their disability.
        The Ministry of Labor and Social Protection was the primary
    government agency responsible for protecting the rights of persons with
    disabilities; the Ministries of Health and Education also assisted in
    their protection. In 2009 the human rights ombudsman received five
    complaints from patients of mental hospitals who disagreed with their
    placement in these institutions or with treatment they received; the
    ombudsman did not report any further developments in the cases.

        National/Racial/Ethnic Minorities.--The Government continued to
    discriminate in favor of ethnic Kazakhs in senior government
    employment. Minorities experienced ethnic prejudice and hostility;
    encountered incidents of insult, humiliation, or other offenses; and
    were discriminated against in employment or job retention.
        Ethnic Kazakh migrants (oralmans) who returned to the country from
    abroad experienced domestic discrimination, including problems with
    housing, employment, and access to social services.
        Kazakh is the official state language, although organizations and
    bodies of local self-administration officially may use Russian on an
    equal basis with Kazakh. The language law was intended to strengthen
    the use of Kazakh without infringing on the rights of citizens to use
    other languages. By law the ability to speak Kazakh is not required for
    entry into the civil service, but most government agencies officially
    have switched to conducting business in Kazakh, which elicited protests
    from non-Kazakh speakers against language discrimination. The Election
    Law requires presidential candidates to be fluent in Kazakh.
        Among other forms of discrimination, critics mentioned a scarcity
    of representatives of non-Kazakh ethnicities in the Government, the
    fact that only two of the 20 cabinet members were non-Kazakhs, and a
    reduction in the number of Russian-language schools.

        Societal Abuses, Discrimination, and Acts of Violence Based on
    Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.--Although there were no
    official statistics on discrimination or violence based on sexual
    orientation, there were reports of such discrimination. Representatives
    of international organizations reported that negative social attitudes
    towards marginalized groups, including lesbian, gay, bisexual, and
    transgender (LGBT) persons, impeded these groups' willingness to come
    forward and consequently hindered their access to HIV/AIDS programs.
        LGBT individuals, particularly gay men, were among the most
    oppressed groups, although the country does not outlaw homosexual
    conduct. According to a 2009 Soros Foundation study, 64.1 percent of
    LGBT respondents said they did not face open discrimination in the work
    place, although LGBT individuals often concealed their sexual
    orientation to avoid such discrimination. LGBT individuals whose sexual
    orientation was known publicly risked physical and verbal abuse,
    possible loss of work, and unwanted attention from police and
    authorities. Several LGBT organizations operating in the country
    reported that government-run HIV clinics occasionally breached
    confidentiality and reported patients' sexual orientation to their
    families and employers. Attempts to report violence against gay,
    lesbian and transgender persons to law enforcement officers
    occasionally were met with resistance and hostility.

        Other Societal Violence or Discrimination.--The law prohibits
    discrimination against persons with HIV and AIDS. Observers reported
    that cultural stigmas against drug users and other at-risk groups
    continued to affect general access to information, services, treatment,
    and care.

    Section 7. Worker Rights
        a. The Right of Association.--The law provides for the right to
    organize and form unions. On March 1, officials reported that 47,362
    collective agreements were signed as a result of a prounion collective
    bargaining campaign initiated following a widely publicized 2008 mining
    accident in Satpayev. The campaign, designed to empower workers,
    increased the number of agreements by 2.4 percent since 2008.
    Independent union organizers described this campaign as a significant
    change in policy. During the year the Government began to encourage the
    signing of memorandums of understanding (MoUs) in lieu of unionization.
    By May the Federation of Trade Unions' chairman claimed that more than
    8,000 large and medium-size businesses employing approximately one
    million persons had signed MoUs to guarantee jobs and labor rights.
    Nevertheless, organizers reported that the Government continued to
    restrict the right to organize, and most workers were not able to join
    or form trade unions of their choice.
        The Government exercised considerable influence on organized labor
    and favored state-affiliated unions over independent unions. At least
    one-third of the workforce was unionized. The largest trade union
    association, the Federation of Trade Unions, successor to formerly
    state-sponsored Soviet-era labor organizations, remained affiliated
    with the Government. The federation united 25 national unions and 13
    regional industrial unions. The industrial unions represented workers
    in a wide range of industries, including oil and gas, construction,
    textiles, education, and public health. Each union elects its own
    leader and has a representative on the General Council, which elects
    the 14-member Executive Committee. The committee runs the federation's
    day-to-day operations and deals with issues of social and economic
    protection, labor protection, organization, and international
    cooperation.
        To obtain legal status, a trade union must apply for registration
    with the Ministry of Justice. The registration procedure is broadly
    similar to that of other membership organizations.
        The law prohibits the operation of foreign unions and prohibits the
    financing of unions by foreign legal entities and citizens, foreign
    states, and international organizations. Foreign workers have the right
    to join unions.
        Workers are protected by law against antiunion discrimination, but
    in practice there were violations of this right. The violations ranged
    from threats of being fired, which would lead to the loss of social
    benefits to physical intimidation and assault.
        The law provides for the right to strike, but exercising this right
    is subject to numerous legal limitations. The Government maintained a
    list of industries and enterprises providing essential services, such
    as railway, civil aviation, military, law enforcement, fire services,
    health, and other services that provide for major life needs where
    strikes were permitted only under limited conditions. In general
    workers may strike only if a labor dispute has not been resolved
    through existing compulsory arbitration procedures. Striking workers
    must give 15-day advance notice to employers. The law neither sanctions
    nor prohibits the firing of employees for participation in an illegal
    strike. In practice there were reports of employers providing arbitrary
    justifications for firing employees who had attempted to organize
    strikes.
        The Miners' Family Public Organization, an association of miners'
    widows that has increasingly taken on traditional trade union
    functions, experienced several incidents of harassment during the year.
    On June 7, it cancelled a meeting in its Karaganda office to discuss
    labor issues with workers following a warning several days earlier from
    the city prosecutor to the organization's leader, Nataliya Tomilova,
    not to hold the meeting. On September 12, her landlord evicted Tomilova
    from her apartment, reportedly after local authorities pressured the
    landlord, and after authorities cut her water, electricity, and phone
    service. On October 11, the garage of the organization's deputy
    director exploded and caught fire, destroying a vehicle used by the
    organization to visit homes of workplace accident victims and to attend
    court hearings for victims' families. During October and November,
    local authorities pressured and threatened the landlord of the building
    in which the organization's offices were located, eventually convincing
    him to evict the organization. The group ultimately relocated.
        On June 15, 300 workers from a CNPC-Aktobemunaigas joint
    Kazakhstani-Chinese venture went on strike to demand a salary increase
    as well as equipment and vehicle improvements. The CNPC filed a lawsuit
    against the strikers and won the case because the court considered the
    strike illegal. Company management fired three organizers, Karlybay
    Tolybayev, Kosain Kulmuratov, and Serik Bitikbayev.
        On July 1, police detained a trade union leader, Asylkhan Musin,
    human rights activist M. Bokayev, and five other activists for an
    illegal strike in which over 200 workers of Dossrmunaigas and
    EmbasMunaiGas companies, branches of the national KazMunaiGas company,
    stopped operations in the Atyrau and Mangistau oil production
    facilities. The court sentenced Musin and Bokayev to seven days of
    administrative arrest, and all others were released with a reprimand.
    The company later fired Musin. Musin subsequently filed a lawsuit for
    reinstatement, which was still pending at year's end.
        On August 18, a coalition of NGOs and independent trade unions
    issued a statement to protest escalating pressure on Kazakhstan's
    independent labor movement. The statement accused the Government of
    contributing to the punishment of labor activists. NGOs expressed
    concern over the growing number of persons fired for labor union
    activity and over the persistent media campaign to discredit trade
    union leaders.
        In September the Almaty Electric Car Repair Plant fired Yessenbek
    Ukteshbayev, who organized a June 30-July 2 plant wide strike to demand
    increased salaries and nationalization of the enterprise.
        As of year's end the Government had not released its findings from
    an investigation into the 2008 attack on Confederation of Free Trade
    Unions (CFTU) vice president Mukhtar Umbetov. Umbetov, an active
    participant in many labor disputes, was beaten by two masked assailants
    after receiving threatening telephone calls.
        There were no further developments in the May 2009 public beating
    of two independent labor union activists by company managers at the oil
    company UzenMunaiGas in Aktau or the August 2009 shooting and wounding
    of Zhondeu company labor union leader Yklas Shangereyev by unknown
    attackers. Representatives of the independent labor union community
    unanimously believed that the shooting directly resulted from
    Shangereyev's activism.

        b. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively.--The law
    protects the rights of unions to conduct their activities without
    interference, and unions were free to recruit new members, conduct
    meetings, and bargain collectively with employers. The law permits
    collective bargaining and collective agreements; unions and
    associations engaged in collective bargaining in practice. The
    Government continued its efforts to encourage collective bargaining.
    Officials report 47,362 collective bargaining agreements. Activists
    stressed that political pressure was driving the rapid conclusion of
    agreements.
        Union demands unacceptable to management may be presented to a
    tripartite commission composed of government, employer association, and
    labor union representatives. The Government was supposed to be the
    neutral broker on the commissions, but there were cases in which it
    favored the interests of labor unions or employers. The tripartite
    commission is responsible for developing and signing annual agreements
    governing most aspects of labor relations. Through this mechanism,
    labor unions raised the minimal wage for several industries, including
    mining and metallurgy, and forced employers to pay back salaries in a
    number of industrial areas during the year.
        The labor law provides for an individual contract between an
    employer and each employee that sets the employee's wage and outlines
    the rights and responsibilities of the employee and the employer.
    Employers occasionally used individual contracts to weaken collective
    bargaining power.
        There are no export processing zones.

        c. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor.--The law prohibits
    forced or compulsory labor, except at the sentence of the court or in
    conditions of a state of emergency or martial law; however, there were
    reports that such practices occurred. There were reports that some
    employers abused migrant workers by confiscating their passports or
    using debt bondage, violence, or threats of violence to compel them to
    work. The majority of migrant workers came from Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan,
    and Uzbekistan and were primarily employed in agriculture and
    construction. The Ministry of Labor and Social Protection was
    responsible for dealing with issues of migrant workers.
        For further information, please see the Department of State's
    annual Trafficking in Persons Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        d. Prohibition of Child Labor and Minimum Age for Employment.--The
    law protects children from exploitation in the workplace. The minimum
    age for employment is 16; children who are between 14 to 16 years of
    age can perform, with parental permission, light work that does not
    interfere with their health or education. The law also restricts the
    length of the workday for employees younger than 18. The Government
    conducted labor inspections to enforce the minimum age for employment,
    but enforcement was uneven.
        The Government concluded an agreement with national employer
    associations that committed them to eradicate the use of forced labor
    and the worst forms of child labor and to develop alternative
    employment opportunities for children and their families. The Ministry
    of Education's 2007-11 Children of Kazakhstan program continued to
    address child labor problems. Nevertheless, NGOs contended that the
    Government's efforts were insufficient to address fully the use of
    child labor.
        The Government did not maintain statistics on child labor. NGOs and
    activists reported that child labor occurred in agriculture, especially
    during harvest season. Children were involved in growing cotton and
    tobacco. Past NGO studies have found that more than 70 percent of the
    children employed in this work were from migrant families, primarily
    Uzbek and Kyrgyz. Labor conditions frequently presented a physical
    health risk, and some children suffered from inadequate rest and
    nutrition. Many child workers lacked proper clothing to protect them
    from harmful chemicals used in agriculture and harsh weather
    conditions. In urban areas, the country's increasingly formalized labor
    market led to a decrease in many forms of child labor. Nevertheless,
    there were reports of children begging, unloading freight, delivering
    goods in markets, washing cars, and working at gas stations.
        The Ministry of Labor and Social Protection is responsible for
    enforcement of child labor laws and for administrative offenses
    punishable by fines. The Ministry of Internal Affairs is responsible
    for investigating criminal offenses. During the year, the Government
    reported no crimes related to illegal child labor. The Government
    cooperated with trade unions, employers, and NGOs to raise awareness
    and promote interagency cooperation in eliminating child labor.
        For further information, please see the Department of State's
    annual Trafficking in Persons Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        e. Acceptable Conditions of Work.--The national monthly minimum
    wage of 14,952 tenge (approximately $102) did not provide a decent
    standard of living for a worker and family. It was common for working-
    class families to have more than one wage earner, and most workers
    earned above minimum wage in urban areas.
        The law stipulates that the normal workweek should not exceed 40
    hours and limits heavy manual labor or hazardous work to no more than
    36 hours a week. The law limits overtime to two hours in a day or one
    hour a day for heavy manual labor, and requires overtime to be paid at
    least a 50-percent premium. Overtime is prohibited for work in
    hazardous conditions. The law provides that labor agreements may
    stipulate the length of working time, holidays, and paid annual leave
    for each worker.
        The Ministry of Labor and Social Protection enforced minimum wages,
    work hours restrictions, and overtime. Ministry inspectors conducted
    random inspections of employers. Labor advocates reported that some
    employers regularly violated these laws.
        The law provides for the right to safe and hygienic working
    conditions, but working and safety conditions in the industrial,
    agricultural, and construction sectors were often substandard. Workers
    in factories usually lacked protective clothing and worked in
    conditions of poor visibility and ventilation.
        There were reports that management ignored regulations concerning
    occupational health and safety. In the first 11 months of the year, the
    Ministry of Labor and Social Protection reported 16,883 inspections and
    68,283 violations of occupational health and safety standards and
    rules. In addition to inspections by the ministry, unions conducted
    inspections of unionized enterprises and reported their findings to
    authorities for investigation. The law requires employers to suspend
    work that could endanger the life or health of workers and to warn
    workers about any harmful or dangerous work conditions or the
    possibility of any occupational disease. The law specifically grants
    workers the right to remove themselves from situations that endanger
    their health or safety without losing their job. In practice some
    workers, particularly in the construction industry, were not free to
    exercise this right without jeopardizing their employment.
        During the first 11 months of the year, the Government reported
    1,918 workplace injuries, compared with 1,811 during the first 11
    months of 2009. The Government reported 319 workplace deaths during the
    first 11 months of the year, compared with 298 deaths reported in the
    first 11 months of 2009. According to officials at the Federation of
    Trade Unions, many of the deaths were due to antiquated equipment,
    Soviet-era infrastructure, and disregard for safety regulations in the
    mining and metallurgy sectors.

                                   __________

                                KYRGYZ REPUBLIC

        The Kyrgyz Republic's new constitution defines the country as a
    sovereign, democratic, secular, unitary, and social state governed by
    the rule of law. The country, with a population of approximately 5.4
    million, had a violent change of government on April 7 and then
    approved a new constitution and a temporary president in a June 27
    national referendum. Parliamentary elections took place on October 10,
    resulting in representatives from five political parties represented in
    the new parliament. According to independent election observers, the
    elections were generally free and fair. In mid-June, widespread
    violence occurred in the southern oblasts (provinces) of Osh and
    Jalalabad between ethnic Kyrgyz and ethnic Uzbeks. There were instances
    in which elements of the security forces acted independently of
    civilian control.
        The following human rights problems were reported: arbitrary
    killings, torture, and abuse by law enforcement officials; impunity;
    poor prison conditions; arbitrary arrest and detention; lack of
    judicial independence; pressure on nongovernmental organizations (NGOs)
    and opposition leaders, including government harassment; pressure on
    independent media; government detention of assembly organizers;
    authorities' failure to protect refugees adequately; pervasive
    corruption; discrimination against women, persons with disabilities,
    ethnic and religious minorities, and other persons based on sexual
    orientation or gender identity; child abuse; trafficking in persons;
    and child labor.

                            RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

    Section 1. Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom
            From:
        a. Arbitrary or Unlawful Deprivation of Life.--There were reports
    of indiscriminate killings during the year in connection with the
    overthrow of the Government in April and during the June interethnic
    violence in Osh and Jalalabad oblasts (see section 1.g.).
        On April 17, Omurbek Osmonov was found dead with multiple knife
    wounds in a village outside of Bishkek. In March 2009 Osmonov was
    implicated in the death of former presidential chief of staff Medet
    Sadyrkulov and two other men when he fled the scene after he crashed
    into their vehicle. Opposition activists claimed Osmonov was framed by
    officials to cover Sadyrkulov's assassination. On April 29, the
    Prosecutor General's Office announced that it would reopen the
    investigation into the deaths of Sadyrkulov and the two men; however,
    fires earlier in the month destroyed numerous files relevant to the
    case.
        On July 11, Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported Khairullo Amanbaev
    died in the hospital after reportedly falling out of the Osh City
    Police Department's second-floor window. Authorities detained him on
    June 30 in connection with the interethnic violence and severely beat
    him. Family members suspected he was hung by his feet and reported
    there were bruises on his body likely caused by a rifle butt.
        On September 11, the Supreme Court heard an appeal by Abdufarid
    Rasulov and upheld his 20-year prison sentence for killing journalist
    Alisher Saipov, who wrote articles critical of the Uzbek government in
    2007. Rasulov was detained in February 2009 after a police officer
    found on him a pistol that was used in the murder. The victim's father,
    Avas Saipov, claimed that authorities improperly targeted Rasulov and
    that he was innocent.
        On February 24, a court found two police officers guilty of beating
    to death Almaz Tashiev, a freelance journalist, in July 2009 and issued
    both a two-year suspension. Tashiev's attorney was not allowed to
    attend the trial.
        On October 6, Kazakhstan's Interior Ministry announced the arrest
    of two persons in connection with Gennady Pavlyuk's death in December
    2009. Pavlyuk, a prominent opposition journalist and government critic,
    died in the hospital after allegedly being thrown from a building in
    Almaty.

        b. Disappearance.--HRW documented several instances of hostage-
    taking during and after the interethnic violence in June in Osh and
    Jalalabad oblasts. Reports of ethnic Uzbeks arrested and held by law
    enforcement agencies without any opportunity to contact their families
    or attorneys surfaced following the violence (see section 1.g.).

        c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or
    Punishment.--The law prohibits torture and other cruel, inhuman, or
    degrading treatment or punishment; however, police and State Committee
    on National Security (GKNB) forces employed them. At times police beat
    detainees and prisoners to extract confessions.
        According to the NGO Golos Svobody, there were 97 complaints
    alleging use of torture by law enforcement or GKNB officers filed with
    the Prosecutor General's Office during the year. In 71 of those cases,
    the Prosecutor General's Office did not open a criminal case.
        Following the interethnic violence in June in Osh and Jalalabad
    oblasts, there were multiple reports of detainees being tortured while
    in custody of police or other security agencies (see section 1.g.).
        On May 18, the provisional government issued a decree of amnesty
    for the 32 persons arrested and convicted in connection with the 2008
    Nookat protest (see section 1.e.).
        Starting July 2, police interrogated ``Akram A.'' (a false name
    used by the victim to protect his identity) for three days about the
    killing of an officer, according to HRW. Police suffocated him by
    putting a gas mask over his head and beat him multiple times. Due to
    fear for his own safety, Akram did not seek justice.
        On July 8, HRW reported 15 police officers detained ``Mokhamadzhon
    M.'' (a cover name used by him to protect his identity) and beat him
    with a rubber baton while interrogating him about a local killing.
    Police released Mokhamadzhon later that day after a relative, an
    official in the local administration, intervened.
        A commission formed by the Ombudsman's Office released a report in
    February 2009 that documented incidents of Ministry of Internal Affairs
    and GKNB officers beating detainees, removing their fingernails,
    burning their beards, and shaving female detainees' heads. In January
    2009 the Russian human rights organization Memorial published a report
    documenting similar abuses. At year's end the Government had taken no
    action to investigate the allegations further or reprimand the officers
    involved.
        The NGO Committee of Soldiers' Mothers reported one registered case
    of military hazing during the year, which involved physical abuse by
    three noncommissioned officers. Military authorities provided medical
    treatment to the victim. One of the perpetrators was sentenced to two
    years in prison, and the others received suspended sentences of one
    year.

        Prison and Detention Center Conditions.--Prison conditions were
    poor and included food and medicine shortages, substandard health care,
    and lack of heat and other necessities. Pretrial and temporary
    detention facilities were particularly overcrowded, and conditions and
    mistreatment generally were worse than in prisons. Nevertheless,
    morbidity and mortality rates continued to decline, particularly those
    resulting from tuberculosis (TB). Approximately 515 prisoners had TB,
    of whom 164 had multi-drug-resistant strains. In the first 11 months of
    the year, 84 prisoners died, 29 of them from TB.
        The prison population of 10,163 (including approximately 460 women)
    was substantially less than the Government's estimate of its total
    prison capacity of 14,000. However, some international organizations
    believed the actual capacity was significantly less and that prison
    overcrowding was a significant problem. Authorities generally held
    juveniles separately from adults but occasionally held them with adults
    in overcrowded temporary detention centers. At times convicted
    prisoners remained in pretrial detention centers while their cases were
    under appeal.
        Prisoners had reasonable access to visitors and were permitted
    religious observance. Prisoners have the right to file complaints with
    prison officials or with higher authorities. However, the NGO Citizens
    Against Corruption reported that complaints were not well documented
    and were not always passed along by prison staff.
        The Government continued to permit international and domestic human
    rights observers, including from the Office of Democratic Institutions
    and Human Rights of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in
    Europe (OSCE) and the NGO Penal Reform International, to visit
    detainees in Justice Ministry prisons and in temporary detention
    centers. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) was able
    to conduct visits in accordance with its standard modalities.
        Following up on its 2008 reports of poor living conditions,
    corruption of prison personnel, drug activity, and excessive use of
    force by both prison and investigative officials in several prisons,
    the NGO Citizens Against Corruption worked with the Ministry of
    Justice's Public Council to provide food and toiletries to prisoners
    during the year.
        The ombudsman for human rights is empowered to request alternatives
    to incarceration for nonviolent offenders, improvements to pretrial
    detention, and proper release at the end of sentences.

        d. Arbitrary Arrest or Detention.--The law prohibits arbitrary
    arrest and detention; however, police arrested persons based on the
    fact that they could not provide proper identification documents. At
    times police used false charges to arrest persons and solicited bribes
    in exchange for their release. The NGO Golos Svobody reported it was
    aware of approximately 300 cases of arbitrary arrest that had taken
    place during the year.

        Role of the Police and Security Apparatus.--Law enforcement
    responsibilities are divided between the Ministry of Internal Affairs
    for general crime, the GKNB for state-level crime, and the Prosecutor's
    Office for both types of crimes. In 2009 President Bakiyev signed into
    law measures that empowered the military to intervene in domestic
    political conflicts and gave the Presidential Security Service law
    enforcement powers, including authorization to conduct interrogations,
    intercept communications, and carry out surveillance and other covert
    activity.
        Police impunity remained a problem; however, Ministry of Internal
    Affairs officials were dismissed and prosecuted for various offenses,
    including corruption, abuse of authority, and police brutality. Unlike
    in previous years, the ministry's internal investigations unit did not
    provide statistics on citizen complaints, subsequent investigations, or
    officers dismissed after criminal convictions during the year, nor did
    the Ombudsman's Office track the number of Internal Affairs, GKNB, and
    Financial Police employees who were subjected to criminal investigation
    during the year.

        Arrest Procedures and Treatment While In Detention--In 2008
    parliament passed amendments to the criminal procedure code that
    returned some judicial powers to prosecutors, primarily the authority
    to issue search and seizure warrants. Prosecutors have the burden of
    proof in persuading the judge that a defendant should be detained
    pending trial. In 2008 parliament approved amendments to the code that
    reduced the period that authorities can hold a detainee before charging
    him from 72 to 48 hours. The limit was generally enforced in practice.
    The law requires investigators to notify a detainee's family within 12
    hours of detention; however, often this requirement was not observed in
    practice. The courts have discretion to hold suspects in pretrial
    detention up to one year, after which the courts are legally required
    to release the suspect.
        All persons arrested or charged with crimes have the right to
    defense counsel at public expense. By law the accused has the right to
    consult with defense counsel immediately upon arrest, but in practice
    the first meeting often did not happen until trial. Human rights groups
    noted that authorities usually denied attorneys to arrested minors,
    often holding them without parental notification and questioning them
    without parents or attorneys present, despite laws forbidding these
    practices. Authorities often intimidated minors into signing
    confessions.
        The law authorizes house arrest for certain categories of suspects.
    There were also reports that law enforcement officials selectively
    incarcerated persons suspected of minor crimes while other persons
    suspected of more serious crimes remained at large. There was a
    functioning bail system.

        e. Denial of Fair Public Trial.--The law provides for an
    independent judiciary; however, the executive branch at times
    interfered with the judiciary. Lawyers and citizens commonly believed
    that judges were open to bribes or susceptible to outside pressure. Low
    salaries for judges remained a contributing factor.
        Cases originate in local courts and can move to appeals courts at
    the municipal or regional level and finally to the Supreme Court. There
    were separate military courts as well as a separate arbitration court
    system for economic disputes. Civilians may be tried in a military
    court if a codefendant is a member of the military. Military court
    cases can be appealed to a military appellate court and ultimately to
    the Supreme Court. The Constitutional Court, which was dissolved by the
    June 27 referendum, was limited to constitutional questions and could
    not intervene with other courts except on the issue of
    constitutionality. Traditional elders' courts handle property, family
    law matters, and low-level crime. Elders' courts are under the
    supervision of the Prosecutor's Office but do not receive close
    oversight because of their location in remote regions. Their decisions
    can be appealed to the corresponding regional court. Military courts
    and elders' courts follow the same rules and procedures as general
    courts.
        Ethnic Uzbeks arrested for instigating or carrying out violence
    against ethnic Kyrgyz in June received trials that fell significantly
    short of requirements under local law. Reported problems included
    pressure on defendants to confess, including torture; no access to an
    attorney; threats and violence against defendants and defense
    attorneys, including within the courtroom; intimidation of trial judges
    by friends and family members of victims; and convictions in the
    absence of condemning evidence or in spite of exculpatory evidence.
        On September 15, a Jalalabad court sentenced human rights activist
    Azimjon Askarov to life imprisonment, following his arrest on June 13
    for the alleged killing of a police officer and inciting ethnic hatred.
    Four other codefendants received life sentences, two received 20-year
    sentences, and one received a nine-year sentence. On November 10, an
    appeals court upheld the sentences. Human rights organizations reported
    that Askarov was tortured while in custody and that trial sessions were
    marked by threats and abuse against defendants and assaults against
    their attorneys. At year's end authorities had moved Askarov to a
    prison hospital in Bishkek, and the Supreme Court had agreed to hear an
    appeal of the case.
        On October 29, a court sentenced five ethnic Uzbeks to life in
    prison and four others to various terms for killing a local police
    chief, Adylbek Sultanov, and his driver, Uran Shamurzaev, during the
    ethnic clashes in June. The trial process had significant shortcomings,
    including threats and abuse in the courtroom against defendants and
    their attorneys. The defendants claimed that they had confessed under
    torture and appealed their sentences. On December 27, the judge upheld
    the original sentences and increased the sentence of one defendant,
    Abdulaziz Azimov, from eight years to life imprisonment.
        On August 10, authorities charged Ulugbek Abdusalamov, editor of
    the Uzbek-language newspaper Didor, with ``organizing and participating
    in mass disorder,'' ``inciting ethnic hatred,'' and ``separatist
    activities aimed at destroying the territorial integrity of the
    state.'' According to human rights organizations, Abdusalamov had heart
    problems that may have resulted from beatings in prison and caused his
    trial to be postponed. At year's end Abdusalamov's attorney said that
    his client and his family were missing and that no one knew their
    whereabouts.

        Trial Procedures.--State prosecutors bring cases before courts, and
    judges direct criminal proceedings. A criminal case is conducted by one
    judge; appellate cases, by three judges. If a court renders a case
    indeterminable, it returns the case to the investigative bodies for
    further investigation, and suspects may remain under detention. As of
    year's end, the Government had not implemented a 2007 law allowing jury
    trials in the cities of Bishkek and Osh. The law provides for
    transparency of court proceedings. Trials are generally open to the
    public, unless state secrets or the privacy of defendants is involved;
    however, the verdict is publicly announced, even in closed proceedings.
        The law provides for defendants' rights, including the presumption
    of innocence. In practice, however, such rights were not always
    respected. The judicial system continued to follow customs and
    practices that provided no presumption of innocence, and the focus of
    pretrial investigation was to collect evidence sufficient to show
    guilt. The law provides for an unlimited number of visits between an
    attorney and a client during a trial. Official permission for such
    visits is required and was usually granted. Indigent defendants were
    provided attorneys at public expense, and defendants could refuse
    attorney support and defend themselves. The law permits defendants and
    counsel the right to access all evidence the prosecutor gathers, attend
    all proceedings, question witnesses, and present evidence; however,
    these rights often were not respected in practice. Witnesses generally
    have to present their testimony in court, but under certain
    circumstances testimony can be presented at trial via audio or video
    recording. Defendants and prosecutors have the right to appeal the
    court's decision.
        On May 18, the provisional government issued a decree of amnesty
    for the 32 prisoners convicted in 2008 in connection with a protest in
    Nookat, which followed a decision by local authorities to ban a public
    gathering for the Muslim holiday Orozo Ait (Eid al-Fitr).

        Political Prisoners and Detainees.--On January 26, a court found
    political opposition leader Ishenbai Kadyrbekov, a former State Agency
    director, guilty of abuse of power and gave him a six-year suspended
    sentence. Police detained him for several months before releasing him
    in November 2009.
        On March 23, a court found political opposition leader Alikbek
    Jekshenkulov, a former foreign minister, guilty of misusing state funds
    and gave him a five-year suspended sentence.
        On April 7, a crowd of demonstrators freed Ismail Isakov from
    prison, and subsequently a military court retroactively acquitted him
    of charges on April 15. A court had sentenced him to eight years in
    prison on January 11 for illegally transferring an apartment to his son
    while he was serving as defense minister. Opposition leaders and human
    rights activists asserted that these charges were baseless.
        On April 9, the provisional government released from jail Green
    Party leader Erkin Bulekbayev, as well as Sapar Argymbayev and Uran
    Ryskulov, and dropped charges that they had instigated ethnic discord
    in the village of Petrovka, outside Bishkek, in April 2009.
        On May 14, the Supreme Court found not guilty 19 individuals who
    were sentenced in December 2009 for protesting in Balykchy against the
    flawed July 2009 presidential election. Human rights groups claimed
    that the detention and particularly severe charges facing the Balykchy
    protesters were politically motivated (see section 2.b.).
        On October 25, authorities charged Iskhak Masaliev, a former member
    of parliament and leader of the country's communist party, and Usen
    Sydykov, a former chief of staff for former president Bakiyev, with
    attempting to overthrow the Government. Officials detained both on May
    14, after the public release of a recording of a telephone conversation
    in which the two allegedly discussed plans for armed takeovers of
    government buildings.
        On November 9, a court sentenced Rustam Jeenbekov and Cholpon
    Aljanov to 20 and 25 years' imprisonment, respectively, for killing two
    Uzbeks on June 13. Jeenbekov and Aljanov's lawyer, Almaz Niyazov,
    stated that authorities pressured both men to confess.
        On November 17, the trial of 28 persons accused of complicity in
    the shooting deaths of protestors on April 7 opened in a Bishkek sports
    palace. Several persons were tried in absentia, including former
    president Bakiyev, his brother Janysh Bakiyev, the former head of the
    Presidential Guard Service, and former prime minister Daniyar Usenov.
    Other defendants included Oksana Malevanaya, the former head of the
    Presidential Secretariat, and several special GKNB operations officers.
    Human rights activists claimed that the charges against the defendants
    were arbitrary and that they were not allowed to see all of the
    evidence against them, as is required by law. During the first session
    of the trial, members of the audience surged onto the stage,
    threatening defendants and their attorneys, who subsequently refused to
    participate in the trial unless the Government ensured their security.
    At year's end, following the explosion of a bomb outside the trial
    site, the trial was on hold while authorities looked for a more secure
    venue.
        Prisoners arrested in connection with political activity received
    the same protections as other prisoners.

        Civil Judicial Procedures and Remedies.--The constitution and law
    provide for an independent and impartial judiciary in civil matters. As
    with criminal matters, citizens believed the civil judicial system was
    subject to influence from the outside, including by the Government.
    Local courts address civil, criminal, economic, administrative, and
    other cases. The Supreme Court is the highest judicial authority.

        f. Arbitrary Interference With Privacy, Family, Home, or
    Correspondence.--The law prohibits such actions; however, the
    Government at times violated these prohibitions. The law requires
    approval from the prosecutor general for wiretaps, home searches, mail
    interception, and similar acts, including in cases relating to national
    security.
        In July 2009 President Bakiyev signed into law an amendment to the
    Law on Defense and Armed Forces authorizing the military to confiscate
    private property for the purpose of state security. There were no
    reports of such confiscations during the year.

        g. Use of Excessive Force and Other Abuses in Internal Conflicts.--
    Killings.--On April 7, government security forces on the roof of the
    presidential administration building fired repeatedly into a crowd of
    armed demonstrators. By nightfall the demonstrators forced government
    officials to flee the capital. As a result of the clashes between
    government forces and demonstrators, more than 80 persons were killed
    and more than 1,500 injured.
        Between June 10 and 14, widespread ethnic violence between ethnic
    Kyrgyz and ethnic Uzbeks in Osh and Jalalabad oblasts took place, with
    reports of deaths ranging from approximately 400 to 2,000 individuals.
    According to data released by an investigating commission, out of 426
    confirmed deaths, 276 were ethnic Uzbek and 105 were ethnic Kyrgyz. At
    year's end there had been no public finding regarding the causes of
    violence, nor any systematic investigation to establish guilt for the
    violence, but both a national and an international investigation were
    scheduled to deliver their findings in early 2011. Security forces,
    mainly composed of ethnic Kyrgyz, did not prevent the violence.
    Multiple reports surfaced that some units may have surrendered their
    vehicles, weapons, and uniforms to groups attacking ethnic Uzbek
    neighborhoods.

        Physical Abuse, Punishment, and Torture.--Authorities claimed that
    they investigated the June violence without regard to ethnicity.
    However, human rights groups reported that the vast majority of those
    arrested in connection with the violence, on charges ranging from
    destruction of property to killing, were ethnic Uzbeks. Many of those
    arrested were tortured. According to a report by HRW, prolonged and
    extensive beatings by fist, club, or rifle butt were the primary form
    of abuse used. Victims also reported being suffocated with hoods or gas
    masks and burned with cigarette butts. Government officials in those
    oblasts denied that such abuses took place.
        Families of arrestees frequently had to pay law enforcement
    officers to obtain the arrestee's release or to stop the arrestee from
    being beaten.

    Section 2. Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:
        a. Freedom of Speech and Press.--The law provides for freedom of
    speech and of the press, and following the April change of government,
    the Government took steps toward ensuring that those rights were
    respected in practice. However, there were some continued reports of
    intimidation of journalists and self-censorship, particularly in the
    south. All independent Uzbek-language media in the south stopped
    operating after the June violence, and at year's end had not resumed.
    In some of those cases, there were reports that the media outlets
    stopped operating because of local government pressure. On July 9,
    security agents raided Osh TV and briefly detained its director, Khalil
    Khudoyberdyev, who later sold the company to an ethnic Kyrgyz and fled
    the country.
        A 2008 law, yet to be fully implemented, places significant
    restrictions on television and radio broadcast companies and
    establishes new Kyrgyz-language and local content requirements. Human
    rights activists asserted that the law is unconstitutional because it
    conflicts with constitutional rights to freedom of speech and access to
    information. After the change of government in April, Kyrgyz National
    Television and Radio Broadcasting (NTRK) made significant steps towards
    becoming a public television station, including the establishment of a
    board of directors to oversee operations.
        During the April 6-8 violence in Bishkek, the Government
    temporarily closed access to independent Internet news sites and some
    print media.
        On June 11, the GKNB seized 158 copies of a book published by a
    local Uighur activist Tursun Islamov entitled China Threatens the
    World. On September 24, the GKNB shut down the public showing of a film
    about Uighur activist Rebiya Kadeer.
        Individuals could criticize the Government publicly or privately
    without reprisal. There were 40 to 50 regularly printed newspapers and
    magazines, eight of which were state-owned with varying degrees of
    independence. The independent printing press run by the nongovernmental
    Media Support Center was the leading newspaper publisher in the
    country. Approximately 50 state-owned and private television and radio
    stations operated in the country, with two television stations, both
    state-owned, broadcasting nationwide. Government newspaper, television,
    and radio outlets continued to receive state subsidies.
        The Ministry of Justice requires all media to register and receive
    ministry approval in order to operate. The registration process
    nominally takes one month but in practice often took much longer. It
    included checks on the background of each media outlet's owner and its
    source of financing, including financing by international donor
    organizations.
        Foreign media operated freely. The law prohibits foreign ownership
    of domestic media; however, there was a small degree of foreign
    ownership of media through local partners. Russian-language television
    stations dominated coverage and local ratings. A number of Russia-based
    media outlets operated freely in the country; the Government treated
    them as domestic media. Although several broadcast media companies
    applied for new licenses and frequency assignments, the Government has
    not approved any requests for new broadcasters since 2006.
        There were continued reports of media harassment. Prior to the
    April change of government, the NGO Committee to Protect Journalists
    (CPJ), along with other media watchdog organizations and human rights
    groups, reported several incidents in which unknown attackers harassed
    journalists associated with opposition news media. The CPJ also
    reported that two ethnic-Uzbek Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL)
    journalists in Osh received threats that forced them to stop working
    and leave the region temporarily. They had produced eyewitness reports
    of the ethnic unrest that differed from the reports produced by most
    domestic media outlets.
        On August 10, authorities charged Ulugbek Abdusalamov, editor of
    the Uzbek-language newspaper Didor, with crimes related to the June
    unrest (see section 1.e.).
        The Government allowed RFE/RL Kyrgyz service, known as Radio
    Azattyk, to resume broadcasting on NTRK after April 7. In 2008 NTRK
    ended transmissions of RFE/RL programming allegedly due to its failure
    to meet financial obligations, although it also criticized RFE/RL
    programs for favoring the political opposition.
        Under the new constitution, libel is no longer a criminal offense;
    however, at the end of the year, parliament had not passed legislation
    to change the previous law. Until it does, libel remains a criminal
    offense punishable by up to three years in prison. There were no
    reports of officials using libel lawsuits against opposition newspapers
    to suppress criticism.
        After the April change of government, Cholpon Orozobekova, former
    chief editor of the opposition newspaper De Fakto, returned from
    Switzerland, where she had fled after the Government raided the
    newspaper's offices and sued it for libel in 2008, forcing it to close.

        Internet Freedom.--On April 6, the Bakiyev government blocked
    Internet and cell phone access due to civil unrest in Talas and
    Bishkek. After the April 7 change in government, there were no official
    restrictions on access to the Internet or reports that the Government
    monitored e-mail or Internet chat rooms. Individuals and groups could
    engage in peaceful expression of views via the Internet, including e-
    mail, online forums, and blogs. According to 2009 International
    Telecommunication Union statistics, approximately 40 percent of the
    country's inhabitants used the Internet.

        Academic Freedom and Cultural Events.--There were no government
    restrictions on academic freedom or cultural events. Religious higher
    educational institutions must follow strict reporting policies.

        b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association.--Freedom of
    Assembly.--The law provides for limited freedom of assembly, and the
    Government generally respected this right in practice, although
    authorities imposed restrictions. A 2008 law prohibits protesters from
    gathering near government entities, including the parliament,
    presidential residences, schools, military establishments, motorways,
    and gas pipelines. The law also requires that organizers apply for
    permits at least 12 days prior to an event, thus making any spontaneous
    demonstrations illegal.
        On May 18, a court acquitted 19 persons found guilty of multiple
    charges after participating in a demonstration in Balakchy against
    electoral fraud during the July 2009 presidential election.

        Freedom of Association.--The law provides for freedom of
    association, and the Government generally respected this right. NGOs,
    labor unions, political parties, and cultural associations must
    register with the Ministry of Justice. NGOs are required to have at
    least three members, and all other organizations at least 10 members.
    The Ministry of Justice did not refuse to register any domestic NGOs
    during the year, and following the April 7 change of government, it
    allowed the Norwegian Helsinki Commission to operate in the country
    (see section 5). The law prohibits foreign-funded political parties and
    NGOs, including their representative offices and branches, from
    pursuing political goals.
        The Government continued its ban on five organizations--Hizb ut-
    Tahrir (HT), the Islamic Party of Turkestan, the Organization for
    Freeing Eastern Turkestan, the Eastern Turkestan Islamic Party, and
    Tablighi Jamaat--that it alleged had ties to international terrorist
    organizations. Arrests and prosecution of persons accused of possessing
    and distributing HT literature continued. Although most arrests of
    alleged HT members in the past occurred in the south and involved
    ethnic Uzbeks, media reports tracked a continuing increase in
    detentions of ethnic Kyrgyz for HT-related activity in the north. The
    majority of those arrested were charged with distribution of literature
    inciting ethnic, racial, or religious hatred.

        c. Freedom of Religion.--For a complete description of religious
    freedom, please see the 2010 International Religious Freedom Report at
    http://www.state.gov/g/drl/irf/rpt.

        d. Freedom of Movement, Internally Displaced Persons, Protection of
    Refugees, and Stateless Persons.--The law on internal migration
    provides for freedom of movement. The Government generally respected
    the right in practice, and citizens were able to move within the
    country with relative ease. However, certain policies continued to
    restrict internal migration, resettlement, and travel abroad. The
    Government cooperated with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for
    Refugees (UNHCR) and other organizations to provide some protection and
    assistance to refugees, asylum seekers, stateless persons, and other
    persons of concern. The law requires all persons to possess an official
    residence registration to work and live in a particular area of the
    country. Applicants for residence registration must file a request with
    the local police and be able to prove they have a place to live in the
    area. Individuals who do not register, or who are registered in a town
    other than where they live, can be denied access to subsidized health
    care or schooling.
        The law on migration prohibits travel abroad by citizens who have
    or had access to information classified as state secrets.
        The law neither provides for nor prohibits forced exile; there were
    no reports that the Government employed it.
        As in past years, several local citizens sought asylum in foreign
    countries, claiming they would face repression or legal persecution if
    they returned to the country.
        According to the UNHCR, the June violence in Osh and Jalalabad
    oblasts displaced approximately 300,000 persons internally, as well as
    75,000 persons who temporarily fled to Uzbekistan and later returned.
    The UNHCR announced on December 10 that all victims of the violence had
    been provided with temporary shelter. However, the UNHCR cautioned that
    significant numbers remained displaced and were living with other
    families or in temporary shelters on the plots of their destroyed
    homes, or had left the country.
        Some journalists were living in self-imposed exile during the year
    (see section 2.a.).

        Protection of Refugees.--The laws provide for the granting of
    asylum or refugee status, and the Government has established a system
    for doing so. During the year the Government cooperated with the UNHCR
    and other organizations to provide some protection against the
    expulsion or return of refugees to countries where their lives or
    freedom would be threatened on account of their race, religion,
    nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political
    opinion. According to the UNHCR, Uighurs remained at risk of
    deportation or extradition, particularly if they were involved with
    political and religious activities in China or if the Chinese
    government requested their return. The Government also continued to
    deny Chechen refugees official refugee status, but it granted them
    asylum seeker status, which provided some legal protection. There were
    continued reports of Uzbek refugees hiding in the country due to fear
    of persecution by the Uzbek government.
        According to the State Committee for Migration and Employment
    (SCME), there were approximately 205 refugees and 130 asylum seekers in
    the country at year's end. Refugees were primarily from Afghanistan
    (194), along with several from Syria, Iran, and North Korea. Among the
    asylum seekers officially registered with the Government were 41 from
    Afghanistan, 116 from Uzbekistan, 15 from Russia, and 15 from other
    countries.

        Stateless Persons--A UNHCR-funded survey conducted by local NGOs in
    late 2008 exposed a problem of statelessness in the country. The report
    identified nearly 13,000 individuals living in the three southern
    oblasts who lacked any official documentation confirming their
    citizenship. The report listed several categories of stateless persons:
    Uzbek women who married Kyrgyz citizens but never received Kyrgyz
    citizenship (many such women allowed their Uzbek passports to expire,
    and regulations obstructed their efforts to gain Kyrgyz citizenship);
    individuals who continued to hold outdated Union of Soviet Socialist
    Republics (USSR) passports because they failed to exchange their
    passports or never applied for citizenship; children born to one or
    both parents who are stateless; and children of migrant workers who had
    renounced their Kyrgyz citizenship in the hope of becoming Russian
    citizens. Stateless persons were denied state social benefits and
    prevented from working in legitimate jobs. The UNHCR estimated the
    total number of stateless persons in the country (both de jure and de
    facto) at approximately 20,000.
        In September 2009 the UNHCR announced a plan of action for dealing
    with the problem of statelessness, including increasing public
    awareness and working with the Government to improve the process for
    applying for citizenship. The UNHCR estimated that as a result of the
    plan of action, approximately 10,000 persons had been documented as
    citizens during the year.

    Section 3. Respect for Political Rights: The Right of Citizens to
            Change Their Government
        The law provides citizens with the right to change their government
    peacefully, although this right remained restricted in practice until a
    violent change of government on April 7. A provisional government
    composed of opposition party leaders took power on April 8 and
    conducted a constitutional referendum on June 27 and parliamentary
    elections on October 10.
        Under the new constitution, the powers of the president,
    parliament, and government (headed by a prime minister), are divided.
    The president, who serves a six-year term, can veto legislation and
    appoint the heads of national security bodies. Members of parliament
    are elected to five-year terms on party lists and vote to approve a
    proposed government. Parliament can also vote to express no confidence
    in the Government, after which the president may dissolve it. The
    constitution does not provide any officeholder with immunity from
    prosecution after the individual leaves office.

        Elections and Political Participation.--On June 27, the country
    held a referendum, asking voters to approve the draft constitution and
    the law on its enactment, to confirm Roza Otunbayeva as interim
    president until December 31, 2011, and dismiss the Constitutional
    Court. With a 69 percent turnout, 91 percent voted ``yes'' and 8
    percent voted ``no.'' Security conditions prevented international
    bodies from observing the balloting in all parts of the country, but
    there were no reports of systematic fraud. International observers
    criticized the organization of the ballot, noting that it was only
    possible for voters to make one yes-or-no decision on all three
    questions.
        On October 10, 1.6 million of the three million registered voters
    cast ballots in parliamentary elections, resulting in five parties
    receiving seats in parliament out of the 29 parties competing. Local
    and international observers found that the balloting was generally free
    and fair. On December 17, three of the five parties represented in
    parliament formed a coalition government and announced a cabinet.
        There were no legal restrictions on the participation of women in
    politics; however, with the notable exception of President Roza
    Otunbayeva, traditional attitudes at times hindered women from holding
    high office or playing active roles in political life. Twenty-eight
    women representing five political parties occupied seats in parliament
    as a result of the parliamentary election code mandate that male and
    female candidates cannot be more than three spaces apart on party lists
    and that no more than 70 percent of candidates on a party list can be
    of the same gender.
        National minorities, which make up 35 percent of the population,
    were generally underrepresented in government positions, particularly
    Russians and Uzbeks, the two largest ethnic minority groups. Fourteen
    of the 120 parliament members belonged to a national minority. The law
    requires that at least 15 percent of party lists be made up of
    minorities.
        At the end of the year, there were no women or ethnic minorities
    represented in cabinet-level government positions.

    Section 4. Official Corruption and Government Transparency
        Corruption remained endemic at all levels of society. The law
    provides criminal penalties for official corruption; however, the
    Government did not implement the law effectively, and officials engaged
    in corrupt practices with impunity. During the year the Government took
    limited steps to address the problem, including arrests of government
    officials on corruption charges.
        The payment of bribes to avoid investigation or prosecution was a
    major problem at all levels of law enforcement.
        On September 1, President Otunbayeva signed a decree on polygraph
    testing in the civil service system. The purpose of the decree is to
    screen for corruption within the civil service, especially with the
    Financial Police and the State Tax Service.
        In June the provisional government eliminated the National
    Anticorruption Agency. For the rest of the year, the Anticorruption
    Business Council, which separated from the National Anticorruption
    Agency in May 2009, performed as a public anticorruption institution.
    According to the Anticorruption Business Council, during the year more
    than two-thirds of the complaints they received dealt with the State
    Border Guard Service and the State Customs Service.
        On January 26, a court found former director of the State Agency
    for Architecture and Construction Ishenbai Kadyrbekov guilty of abuse
    of power and gave him a six-year suspended sentence. On March 23, a
    court found former foreign minister Alikbek Jekshenkulov guilty of
    misusing state funds and gave him a five-year suspended sentence.
        In May 2009 the Ministry of Internal Affairs, working with the
    National Anticorruption Agency and the Prosecutor General's Office,
    arrested Stalbek Momunaliev, a Leninski District police investigator,
    in Bishkek. Momunaliev allegedly had demanded a bribe of 8,000 soms
    ($170) from a foreign citizen. At year's end no additional information
    was available regarding the case.
        In 2009 officials completed a criminal investigation on the judge
    of the Moscow District Court of the Chui Oblast and referred the case
    to the Jaiyl District Court for prosecution. In 2008 GKNB officers
    detained the judge for accepting a bribe of 98,545 soms ($2,100). At
    year's end no additional information was available regarding the case.
        The law gives persons the right to request information from the
    Government, and the Government generally complied with such requests;
    however, the process is generally slow, rendering the service less
    useful.

    Section 5. Governmental Attitude Regarding International and
            Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations of Human
            Rights
        The new government lessened restrictions on the activities of
    domestic and international organizations that report on human rights in
    the country. However, local law enforcement agencies in the south
    harassed and threatened human rights activists who reported on abuses
    committed during and after the June ethnic violence. Although the
    central government regularly met with local and international
    organizations to discuss their activities and acknowledge their
    concerns, it failed to respond to some international organizations'
    questions, requests, or reports.
        On September 28, President Otunbayeva signed Terms of Reference for
    an International Independent Commission of Inquiry (COI), led by
    Special Representative for Central Asia of the OSCE Parliamentary
    Assembly Kimmo Kiljunen, to investigate the cause and circumstances of
    the June ethnic violence in the south. The Government and the National
    Commission of Inquiry cooperated with the COI. At year's end the COI
    had not finished its investigation.
        The Government permitted visits by representatives of the UN and
    other organizations, including the OSCE, ICRC, and International
    Organization for Migration (IOM). The ban prohibiting the Norwegian
    Helsinki Committee from entering the country, which had been in place
    since 2008, was lifted.
        A 2008 decree disbanded the State Commission on Human Rights and
    transferred its authority to the Office of the Ombudsman. The ombudsman
    acts as an independent advocate for human rights on behalf of private
    citizens and NGOs and has authority to recommend cases to courts for
    review. The Ombudsman's Office actively advocated for individual
    rights. The ombudsman told parliament that his office had received
    1,862 complaints during the year and had addressed all of them.

    Section 6. Discrimination, Societal Abuses, and Trafficking in Persons
        The law prohibits discrimination based on race, gender, disability,
    language, or social status; however, rights activists claimed
    authorities failed to apprehend or punish perpetrators of crimes of
    discrimination during the year.

        Women.--Rape, including spousal rape, is illegal; however, the
    Government failed to enforce the law effectively. Activists continued
    to note a growing number of rape cases, although this may have been due
    to increased reporting of attacks. NGOs claimed that rape cases were
    dramatically underreported and were rarely brought to court. No
    statistics relating to the number of cases or convictions during the
    year were available. Experts noted that defendants often used bribery
    to curtail rape investigations.
        The law specifically prohibits domestic violence and spousal abuse;
    however, violence against women remained a problem. According to a poll
    conducted in 2008-09 by the Association of Crisis Centers, 83 percent
    of respondents stated there was physical violence against women in the
    home. The UN Women's Development Fund also stated that from 40 to 50
    women and girls were hospitalized in the Bishkek city hospital every
    month because of domestic violence. According to the Ministry of
    Internal Affairs, police respond to almost 10,000 cases of family
    conflict annually, and nearly 15 percent of crimes committed during
    family conflicts result in death or serious injury. Many crimes against
    women were not reported due to psychological pressure, cultural
    traditions, and apathy among law enforcement officials. Furthermore,
    there were reports of spouses retaliating against women who reported
    abuse. Penalties for domestic violence ranged from fines to 15 years'
    imprisonment (if abuse resulted in death).
        Several local NGOs provided services for victims of domestic
    violence, including legal, medical, and psychological assistance, a
    crisis hotline, shelters, and prevention programs. In 2009, according
    to the Association of Crisis Centers, their 13 member shelters had
    6,620 women as clients. Organizations assisting battered women also
    lobbied to streamline the legal process for obtaining protection
    orders. The Government provided offices for the Sezim Shelter for
    victims of domestic abuse and paid its bills.
        Although prohibited by law, the traditional practice of kidnapping
    women and girls for forced marriage continued in rural areas. Cultural
    traditions discouraged victims from going to the authorities.
    Reportedly, some victims went to the local police and obtained
    protective orders, but the orders were often poorly enforced.
        According to an expert at the local NGO Shans, sexual harassment
    was widespread, especially in private sector workplaces and among
    university students, but was rarely reported or prosecuted. The law
    prohibits physical sexual assault but not verbal sexual harassment.
    Penalties for sexual assault range from three to eight years'
    imprisonment.
        Citizens--couples and individuals--are free to decide the number,
    spacing, and timing of their children and to have the information and
    means to do so free from discrimination, coercion, and violence.
    National health regulations require that family planning counseling and
    services are readily available through a range of health professionals,
    including not only obstetricians and gynecologists but also family
    doctors, paramedics, and nurse-midwives. At the level of primary health
    care, regulations require that women who request contraceptives can
    receive them regardless of ability to pay. The country's Essential Drug
    List (a list of drugs and other medical items that all government
    medical clinics should have in supply and available to patients) also
    includes different types of contraceptives. National health protocols
    require that women be offered postpartum care and counseling on methods
    and services related to family planning. The Government offers special
    programs to meet the needs of vulnerable target groups, such as
    adolescents, internally displaced persons, new urban migrants, persons
    in prostitution, and the very poor. No information was available
    relating to gender differences in diagnosis or access to treatment for
    sexually transmitted infections, including HIV.
        According to statistics provided by the Population Reference
    Bureau, access to contraception and maternal health care was widely
    available, and virtually all births in urban areas, and 96 percent of
    births in rural areas, were attended by skilled personnel. According to
    UN estimates, the maternal mortality ratio in the country was 81 deaths
    per 100,000 live births in 2008.
        In 2008 President Bakiyev signed a law providing for equal rights
    for men and women. According to the presidential press service, the
    ``document establishes state guarantees in terms of providing equal
    rights and opportunities for persons of various sexes in political,
    social, economic, cultural, and other fields...and aims to protect men
    and women against discrimination on the basis of sex.'' Women have the
    same rights as men, including under family law, property law, and in
    the judicial system, although discrimination against women persisted in
    practice. According to an expert from the NGO Women's Educational
    Coalition for Equal Rights, Development, and Peace, the property rights
    of women from Muslim families were not protected, and those women were
    subject to discrimination when applying for jobs or entering
    educational institutions. The National Council on the Issues of Family,
    Women, and Gender Development, which reports to the president, is
    responsible for women's issues.
        Average wages for women were substantially less than for men. Women
    made up the majority of pensioners, a group particularly vulnerable to
    deteriorating economic conditions. In the countryside traditional
    attitudes toward women limited them to the roles of wife and mother and
    curtailed educational opportunities. Data from NGOs working on women's
    issues indicated that women were less healthy, more abused, less able
    to work outside the home, and less able than men to determine
    independently the disposition of their earnings. According to the UN
    Development Fund for Women and domestic NGOs, women did not face
    discrimination in access to credit or owning businesses.
        The annual government-sponsored media campaign to combat violence
    against women took place during the year. According to NGOs the
    campaign helped to coordinate the efforts of groups combating violence
    against women and give them a greater voice.

        Children.--According to articles 19 and 20 of the children's code,
    every child born in the country has the right to receive a birth
    certificate, local registration, and citizenship; however, some
    children were stateless (see section 2.d.).
        The law provides for compulsory and free education for the first
    nine years of schooling, or until age 14; secondary education is free
    and universal until age 17. However, financial constraints prevented
    the Government from providing free basic education for all students,
    and the system of residence registration restricted access to social
    services, including education, for certain children, such as refugees,
    migrants, and noncitizens. The law carries penalties for parents who do
    not send their children to school or who obstruct their attendance.
    This law was only sporadically enforced, particularly in rural areas.
    Families who kept children in public schools often had to pay
    burdensome and illegal administrative fees. The Government continued to
    fund two programs that provide school supplies and textbooks to low-
    income children and children with mental or physical disabilities.
    Legally, all textbooks should be free of charge, but the Government was
    unable to provide them to all students.
        The Government provided health care for children; however, refugee,
    migrant, noncitizen, and internally displaced children had problems
    accessing health care due to the system of residence registration.
        Child abuse--including beatings, child labor, and commercial sexual
    exploitation of boys and girls--continued to be a problem. In addition
    gang-related child-on-child violence in schools was a growing trend.
        Although illegal, the practice of bride kidnapping continued, and
    many underage abductions during the year were likely not reported.
    Children who are 16 and 17 may legally marry with the consent of local
    authorities, but marriage before age 16 is prohibited under all
    circumstances. The Government did not have a program to address the
    problem of child marriage. Instead, local authorities handled reports
    of its occurrence on a case-by-case basis. According to a report by the
    UN Committee on Children, between 2003 and 2009 the Prosecutor
    General's Office initiated 27 cases against underage bride kidnapping
    and forced marriage.
        As in previous years, there were numerous reports of child
    abandonment due to parents' lack of resources, and large numbers of
    children lived in institutions, in foster care, or on the streets.
    Approximately 80 percent of street children were internal migrants.
    Street children had difficulty accessing educational and medical
    services. Police detained street children and either sent them home (if
    an address was known) or to a rehabilitation center or orphanage. The
    Rehabilitation Center for Street Children in Bishkek, maintained by the
    Ministry of Internal Affairs, continued to lack sufficient food,
    clothes, and medicine and remained in poor condition. In 2007 it
    provided rehabilitation assistance to approximately 400 children and
    sheltered 70, according to the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF). In 2008 the
    IOM, with foreign government funding and SCME assistance, renovated the
    Rehabilitation Center for Children in Osh, staffed it with personnel
    from an IOM-trained NGO, Ulybka, and stocked it with food and supplies.
    According to Ulybka employees, in 2009, 698 children received shelter,
    rehabilitation, and psychological counseling; 55 of the children were
    found to have been victims of child labor or sexual exploitation.
        State orphanages and foster homes lacked resources and often were
    unable to provide proper care. Some older children were transferred to
    mental health care facilities even when they did not exhibit mental
    health problems. According to data provided by the Presidential
    Administration, at the end of 2008 there were 5,390 children housed in
    the 39 state shelters, of whom 20 percent were orphans.
        The country is not a party to the 1980 Hague Convention on the
    Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. For information on
    international parental child abduction, please see the Department of
    State's annual report on compliance at http://travel.state.gov/
    abduction/resources/congressreport/congressreport--4308.html.

        Anti-Semitism.--On April 8, immediately following the April 7
    change of government, a banner hung in Bishek's main square which wrote
    ``Dirty Jews and such like Maxim have no place in Kyrgyzstan.'' Maxim
    Bakiyev, former president Bakiyev's son, had been criticized by some
    media outlets for having Jewish advisors.
        On April 9, an unknown person set off three gasoline bombs on the
    grounds of the Bishkek Synagogue, and on September 9, an unknown person
    threw an apparently homemade bomb packed with nails and screws into the
    courtyard of the same synagogue. No one was injured in either incident.
    At year's end authorities were investigating, but no suspects had been
    identified in either case.
        Approximately 1,500 Jews live in the country.

        Trafficking in Persons.--For information on trafficking in persons,
    please see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons
    Report at http://www.state.gov/g/tip.

        Persons With Disabilities.--The law prohibits discrimination
    against persons with physical and intellectual disabilities, but in
    practice such persons faced discrimination in employment, education,
    access to health care, and the provision of other state services. The
    law mandates access to buildings for persons with disabilities and
    requires access to public transportation and parking, and it authorizes
    subsidies to make mass media available to persons with hearing or
    visual disabilities and free plots of land for the construction of a
    home; however, the Government generally did not ensure that these
    provisions of the law were implemented. In addition persons with
    disabilities often had difficulty finding employment because of
    negative societal attitudes and high unemployment among the general
    population.
        The lack of resources made it difficult for persons with
    disabilities to receive adequate education. Although children with
    disabilities have the right to an education, Gulbara Nurdavletova of
    the Association of Parents of Children with Disabilities stated that
    most were denied entry into schools. Parents sometimes established
    special educational centers for their children, but they did not
    receive government assistance.
        Serious problems continued within psychiatric hospitals. The
    Government did not provide basic needs such as food, water, clothing,
    heating, and health care, and facilities were often overcrowded.
    Inadequate funding played a critical factor. In 2008 a parliamentary
    commission reported violations of patients' rights in a number of
    mental hospitals, mainly due to lack of funding.
        Authorities usually placed children with mental disabilities in
    psychiatric hospitals rather than integrating them with other children.
    Other patients were also committed involuntarily, including children
    without mental disabilities who were too old to remain in orphanages.
    The Youth Human Rights Group monitored the protection of children's
    rights in institutions for children with mental and physical
    disabilities. The group noted gross violations by staff at several
    institutions, including depriving young patients of sufficient
    nourishment and physically abusing them.
        The Office of the Prosecutor General is responsible for protecting
    the rights of psychiatric patients and persons with disabilities.
    According to local NGO lawyers, the members of the Prosecutor's Office
    had no training and little knowledge of the protection of these rights
    and were ineffective in assisting citizens with disabilities. Most
    judges lacked the experience and training to determine whether persons
    should be referred to psychiatric hospitals, and the practice of
    institutionalizing individuals against their will continued.

        National/Racial/Ethnic Minorities.--Minorities alleged
    discrimination in hiring, promotion, and housing, but no official
    reports were registered with local authorities.
        On December 13, a court found five persons guilty when a mob
    attacked a settlement of ethnic Meskhetian Turks on April 19 in the
    village of Maevka, outside of Bishkek. The court sentenced four persons
    to probation and one person to four years and four months'
    imprisonment. Three ethnic Turks were killed, 40 persons injured, and
    four houses and seven cars set on fire. The ethnic Turks report
    continuing harassment, threats, and pressure to sell their property and
    leave the village.
        There were no reported incidents between ethnic Kurds and other
    groups during the year. In April 2009 an estimated 300 ethnic Kyrgyz
    and Russian residents of Petrovka village in Chui Oblast damaged
    Kurdish homes and vehicles and demanded that Kurdish residents leave
    the village. The riot followed a report that a Kurdish man had raped a
    four-year-old Russian girl but had bribed officials not to arrest him.
    Riot police ended the violence and detained 80 persons. Authorities
    released all but three detainees who were prominent opposition
    activists (see section 3). In August 2009 the court convicted the
    Kurdish man of rape and sentenced him to 20 years in prison.
        The law designates Kyrgyz as the state language and Russian as an
    official language, and it provides for preservation, and equal and free
    development, of minority languages. Non-Kyrgyz-speaking citizens
    alleged that a ceiling precluded promotion beyond a certain level in
    government service. They also alleged that unfair language examinations
    disqualified some candidates for office. A government initiative to
    increase official use of Kyrgyz further raised concerns among non-
    Kyrgyz ethnic groups about possible discrimination.

        Societal Abuses, Discrimination, and Acts of Violence Based on
    Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.--There is no law against
    homosexual practice; however, according to HRW and a local NGO,
    lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals faced severe
    oppression, and the Government failed to protect their rights. Persons
    whose nontraditional sexual orientation was publicly known risked
    physical and verbal abuse, possible loss of work, and unwanted
    attention from police and authorities. Inmates and officials often
    openly victimized incarcerated gay men. Doctors sometimes refused to
    treat LGBT individuals. Forced marriages for lesbian and bisexual women
    also occurred.
        A single NGO supported advocacy campaigns, conducted training,
    organized festivals, and operated a community center and shelter in
    support of LGBT individuals.

        Other Societal Violence or Discrimination.--In October 2009, during
    an interparliamentaryconference in Bishkek, local human rights
    organizations and government officials formally recognized that persons
    with HIV/AIDS in the country faced societal discrimination.

    Section 7. Worker Rights
        a. The Right of Association.--The law permits citizens to form and
    join trade unions. The Federation of Trade Unions (FTU), with an
    unconfirmed membership of 200,000 workers, or 9 percent of the
    workforce, remained the only umbrella trade union in the country.
    Unions were not required to belong to the FTU, and there were several
    smaller unaffiliated unions. One of the largest of these was the Union
    of Entrepreneurs and Small Business Workers, with a claimed membership
    of approximately 60,000.
        There were no reported cases of government interference in unions,
    however, union leaders generally cooperated with the Government, and
    international observers judged that unions represented the interests of
    their members poorly.
        The law grants the right to strike, but the conditions required to
    receive formal approval made the procedure difficult and complicated.
    The law does not prohibit retaliation against strikers. The law on
    government service prohibits government employees from striking, but
    the prohibition does not apply to teachers, medical professionals, or
    members of the armed forces.

        b. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively.--The law allows
    unions to conduct their activities without interference, and there were
    no reports of external interference in union affairs during the year.
    However, according to labor experts, many unions still operated as
    quasi-official institutions and took state interests into account,
    rather than representing exclusively the interests of workers.
        The law recognizes the right of unions to organize and bargain
    collectively, and trade unions exercised this right on behalf of their
    members.
        There are no special laws or exemptions from regular labor laws in
    the free economic zones that function as export processing zones.

        c. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor.--The law prohibits
    forced or compulsory labor, including by children; however, there were
    reports that such practices occurred, especially involving foreign
    laborers in agriculture. Unlike in previous years, there were no
    reports by the NGO Mental Health and Society during the year that
    psychiatric hospital patients were forced to work or provide domestic
    service for doctors and local farmers.
        For more information on forced labor, see the Department of State's
    annual Trafficking in Persons Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        d. Prohibition of Child Labor and Minimum Age for Employment.--The
    law provides for the protection of children from economic exploitation
    and from work that poses a danger to their health or development;
    however, child labor remained a widespread problem. The minimum legal
    age for basic employment is 16, except for work considered by the
    Government to be ``light,'' such as selling newspapers. In addition,
    children as young as 14 years old may work with the permission of a
    parent or guardian. The law prohibits the employment of persons under
    18 at night, underground, or in difficult or dangerous conditions,
    including the metal, oil, and gas industries; mining and prospecting;
    the food industry; entertainment; and machine building. Children who
    are 14 or 15 years old may work up to five hours a day; children who
    are 16 to 18 may work up to seven hours a day. These laws also apply to
    children with disabilities.
        A UNICEF report covering the period 2003 through 2009 cited NGO
    reports of child labor used in coal mining in the village of Sulukta
    and in sifting uranium tailings in the village of Orlovka.
        According to a speech by the deputy minister of labor, employment
    and migration in June, 670,000 children between the ages of five and 17
    were working, primarily in agriculture on tobacco, rice, and cotton
    plantations, but also in car washes, trading, and other activities.
        Internal trafficking of children for the purposes of commercial
    sexual exploitation and forced labor remained a problem. A 2008 study
    funded by the International Labor Organization found an increase in the
    employment of trafficked children to sell and distribute illicit drugs.
        For more information on trafficking, see the Department of State's
    annual Trafficking in Persons Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.
        The Prosecutor General's Office and the State Labor Inspectorate
    are responsible for enforcing employers' compliance with the labor
    code. During the year inspectors conducted spot checks of child labor
    law compliance, but these were infrequent and ineffective. The
    Prosecutor General's Office identified 184 cases of illegal use of
    child labor in the first 10 months of 2009. The office dealt with most
    cases administratively but also opened two criminal cases. Since many
    children worked for their families or were self-employed, it was
    difficult for the Government to determine whether work complied with
    the labor code. Government enforcement efforts also suffered from a
    lack of resources. Although employers found violating the labor code
    could be charged with financial or criminal penalties, punishment was
    usually minimal.
        The Government supported several social programs to prevent the
    engagement of children in exploitative child labor.

        e. Acceptable Conditions of Work.--There was no minimum wage. The
    Government used a nominal national minimum monthly wage of 340 soms
    ($7.20) for administrative purposes, such as determining fines imposed
    by the courts; this amount did not provide a decent standard of living
    for a worker and family. Employers generally paid somewhat higher
    wages.
        The standard workweek is 40 hours, usually within a five-day week.
    For state-owned industries, there is a mandated 24-hour rest period in
    the workweek. According to the labor code, overtime work cannot exceed
    four hours per day or 20 hours per week and must be compensated with
    compensatory leave or with premium pay of between 150 and 200 percent
    of the hourly wage. These provisions were mainly enforced at large
    companies and organizations with strong trade unions. Small and
    informal firms had no union representation.
        Safety and health conditions in factories were poor. The law
    establishes occupational health and safety standards, but the
    Government generally did not enforce them. The State Labor Inspectorate
    is responsible for protecting workers and carrying out inspections for
    all types of labor problems, but its activities were limited, and
    business compliance was uneven. The FTU and other trade unions are
    empowered to enforce all labor laws. Workers in all industries have the
    right to remove themselves from dangerous workplaces without
    jeopardizing their employment, and workers sometimes exercised this
    right in practice.
        Unregistered foreign workers in the country could not exercise the
    same rights as registered workers.
        Government licensing rules place strict requirements on companies
    recruiting Kyrgyz citizens to work abroad, and companies must be
    licensed by the Ministry of Labor, Employment, and Migration before
    they can recruit. The Government regularly published a list of licensed
    and vetted firms. Recruiters are required to monitor employer
    compliance with employment terms and the working conditions of labor
    migrants while a work contract is in effect. Recruiters are also
    required to provide workers with their employment contract prior to
    their departure. The Government also took steps to streamline labor
    migration by adopting a program on the regulation of migration
    processes and collaborating with the Governments of Russia, South
    Korea, and Kazakhstan to improve the protection of rights of Kyrgyz
    labor migrants working abroad. The Ministry of Labor had
    representatives in several Russian cities to assist Kyrgyz labor
    migrants who sometimes encountered discrimination, poor working
    conditions, or violence.
        The Ministry of Labor, with IOM support, operated a hotline to
    provide information to potential migrants and to help victims of labor
    trafficking. According to the ministry, in 2009 and 2010 more than
    3,000 persons used the hotline. On April 1, the ministry and IOM began
    a campaign to raise awareness of the hotline and other information
    resources for potential labor migrants.

                                   __________

                                    MALDIVES

        The Republic of Maldives is a multiparty constitutional democracy
    with a population of approximately 395,000. In 2008 parliament ratified
    a new constitution that provided for the first multiparty presidential
    elections. In October 2008 Mohamed Nasheed became the country's first
    directly elected president in relatively free and fair elections. The
    constitution establishes a bill of rights and mandates a strict
    separation of powers among all the branches of government. Since the
    first multiparty parliamentary elections in May 2009, the parties in
    parliament have had difficulty working together, although the
    parliament functioned. Security forces reported to civilian
    authorities.
        Human rights problems included allegations of arbitrary arrest,
    unauthorized recording of telephone conversations, harassment of
    journalists, restrictions on religious rights, unequal treatment of
    women, and violations of worker rights.

                            RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

    Section 1. Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom
            From:
        a. Arbitrary or Unlawful Deprivation of Life.--There were no
    reports that the Government or its agents committed arbitrary or
    unlawful killings.
        On January 27, Mohamed Nooz died while in police custody. There
    were media reports of an undertaker who said he witnessed injuries and
    scars on Nooz's body. The Police Integrity Commission (PIC) evaluated
    the case in which one undertaker claimed a small white mark on Nooz's
    back was a sign of injury, while two undertakers stated that there were
    no signs of injury on Nooz's body, and ruled the death was due to a
    heart attack resulting from drug withdrawal. The PIC did not file a
    case with the prosecutor general and the case was closed.
        In August the PIC found the Maldives Police Service was responsible
    for the death of Ibrahim Afzal on June 4, while he was in custody,
    after he self-immolated in the Gahdhoo police station. However, the PIC
    did not file a case with the prosecutor general for police negligence
    due to a lack of evidence, and at year's end, the case was closed.
        On February 6, the Maldives Democracy Network (MDN) reported that
    Hassan Ahmed, convicted of drug charges, died in Maafushi Prison.
    Several inmates alleged that Ahmed complained of chest pain but doctors
    failed to diagnose him. The Department of Penitentiary and
    Rehabilitation Services (DPRS) denied the charge. There have been no
    further developments in this case at year's end.

        b. Disappearance.--There were no reports of politically motivated
    disappearances.

        c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or
    Punishment.--The law prohibits such practices, although there were
    reports of mistreatment of persons by security forces.
        According to the PIC, records show that between July 15 and 20,
    police forcibly detained 21 juvenile detainees. Some of those detained
    were as young as 14 years of age. While in detention, police shaved
    their heads and confiscated their personal items. The Maldives National
    Defense Force detained the men as part of continued joint operations
    with Maldives police to curb gang violence, and 10 of the detainees
    were formally arrested. PIC sent the case to the prosecutor general in
    November, asking the prosecutor general to press criminal charges
    against Maldives Police Service (MPS) for causing injuries to
    detainees. At year's end, the prosecutor general was evaluating the
    case.
        On October 29, police reportedly assaulted a group of journalists
    reporting on a protest organized by the opposition Dhivehi Rayyithunge
    Party (DRP) in Male. According to the police, the journalists were
    ``moved away by force'' because some journalists refused to stay in the
    security zone and tried to break through police lines. No journalists
    were jailed.
        The law permits flogging as a form of punishment. During the year
    there were no public reports of flogging. According to sources, the
    practice continued and targeted women accused of adultery. In July 2009
    local and international media reported authorities sentenced an
    estimated 180 persons to public flogging for engaging in extramarital
    affairs. Abdulla Mohamed, head of the country's Criminal Court, told
    the local media then that flogging was meant as a deterrent and not
    designed to cause injury, as regulations prohibit those carrying out
    the sentences from raising their arms above their shoulders.

        Prison and Detention Center Conditions.--Prison conditions
    generally met international standards, and the Government permitted
    visits by independent human rights observers. Officials did not hold
    pretrial detainees separately from convicted prisoners. The DPRS
    oversees the operation of three prison facilities: Maafushi Prison,
    Asseryi Prison, and Male Prison. Male Prison is located in the capital
    city, and the other prisons are located on separate islands within a
    one-hour boat ride from the capital city. DPRS incarcerates only
    convicted prisoners. Pretrial detainees are held in separate jails
    under jurisdiction of the MPS. Women are held separately from men in
    the Maafushi prison. Juveniles awaiting sentencing are held in a
    juvenile correctional facility on Feydhoofinolhu Island run by police
    under the Ministry of Home Affairs' jurisdiction. Most juveniles
    convicted are held under house arrest because there are no juvenile
    detention centers in the country.
        The DRPS prison system has an estimated capacity of 765 prisoners,
    and the total prison population is 830. Of this population, 790 are men
    and 40 are women. Drug-related offenses account for 80 percent of the
    DPRS prisoners, although many of those offenses are simple possession
    (three grams or less) or drug-use sentences.
        In late February, a temporary jail, established in 2009 on Addu
    atoll Gan following the October 2009 prison riots at Maafushi jail,
    closed. A report on the temporary jail published by the Human Rights
    Commission of Maldives (HRCM) reported that prisoners had been locked
    in metal cages, some of which were not accessible to toilet facilities.
        On April 20, a riot occurred at Maafushi prison and 15 inmates were
    injured, none seriously. In a press release, the HRCM reported that
    DRPS had lost control of Maafushi Prison, and that the lack of proper
    prisoner control supplies left prison officials vulnerable.
        In July, according to the MDN, 236 inmates at Maafushi Prison sent
    a petition to President Nasheed complaining that the conditions in the
    prison had deteriorated. Inmates claimed that while the capacity for
    each unit was 35 persons, there were 90 to 100 inmates in each unit.
    Inmates alleged that they were not given opportunities to conduct
    Islamic prayers or Friday prayers; there was an increase in hygiene-
    related issues; there was a shortage of doctors working in the prison
    system to attend to drug users suffering from withdrawal and to examine
    patients before prescribing medication; pillows, mattresses, and bed-
    sheets were not provided; and light bulbs, fans, and other electrical
    equipment were restricted, leaving inmates in complete darkness at
    night. The DRPS took steps to correct the situation, and in September a
    foreign embassy-sponsored humanitarian team conducted an assessment of
    DPRS and associated prison facilities. The assessment team reported
    they were granted unlimited access at all of the facilities, and all of
    their questions were answered in a candid, forthright manner. Prisoners
    did not hesitate to speak to the assessors in the presence of DPRS
    staff, even when they criticized various aspects of their
    incarceration.
        The team concluded that facilities were clean, sanitary, and
    orderly. Prisoners appeared to receive ample food and water, sufficient
    recreation opportunities, visitation rights, religious observance,
    phone calls, mail access, and legal representation. Education and
    vocational training was available. The team noted a lack of bed space
    capacity and overcrowding, especially at the Male Prison, where there
    were as many as 10 prisoners in cells designed for four. Many of the
    prisoners in a cell slept on the floor. The team did not observe signs
    of systematic prisoner abuse or mistreatment.
        The foreign assessment team identified shortcomings as the lack of
    a formal prisoner classification system; lack of a formal and effective
    internal affairs process; management challenges due to civil service
    regulations that did not support the discipline, integrity, and
    professionalism of the corrections force; and inconsistently applied
    correctional practices and procedures, such as poor key control. The
    team reported also that prison officers lacked essential communication
    equipment, such as radios, which inhibited their ability to respond
    quickly and effectively to disturbances.
        The Government generally permitted regular prison visits by the
    HRCM, the MDN, and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
    In its 2009 annual report, the ICRC stated that it visited detainees
    regularly and shared its findings and recommendations confidentially
    with authorities.
        The National Preventive Mechanism (NPM) established by the HRCM
    monitors any death or other allegations related to prisons or prison
    authorities. The HRCM maintains a Web site in which reports on
    occasional jail visits, other human rights investigations, and annual
    reports are available.
        During the year the NPM visited five police custodial centers:
    Maafushi Prison; the temporary jail that was opened in Gan that has now
    been closed; a drug rehabilitation center in Himmafushi; a drug
    rehabilitation center in Villingili; and two centers for persons with
    disabilities.
        The HRCM operates a complaints department to address prisoner
    complaints about conditions, and until this year, they released their
    findings in an annual report. In addition the NPM makes a visit plan a
    year ahead, conducts visits throughout the year according to this plan,
    and publishes an annual report of its findings. However, during the
    year the NPM decided not to make full detention reports available to
    the public. It now publishes a short summary of each visit and sends
    the full detention report to the president, parliament, and other
    relevant stakeholders, depending on the case. HRCM shared its Prison
    Visit and Complaints Report 2010 in November with relevant authorities,
    Ministry of Home Affairs, and the DPRS. The HRCM decided not to publish
    full detention reports in order to reduce public backlash against the
    relevant authorities and to facilitate constructive dialogue and good
    relations with them. According to the HRCM, following this decision,
    relations have improved between the HRCM and other stakeholders and the
    HRCM is better able to persuade the relevant authorities to improve
    detention facilities and practices.
        By August the Government had partially completed construction of a
    new jail for 300 persons adjacent to Maafushi prison. The new facility
    was designed to relieve overcrowding at Maafushi, and prisoners were
    transferred to the facility in early August. Men and women are held
    separately and there are currently 40 women at the Pentagon prison.
    Conditions in the women's area are similar to the men's area, although
    the women are guarded by female prison officers and there are fewer
    cellmates per cell.

        d. Arbitrary Arrest or Detention.--The law prohibits arbitrary
    arrest and detention, and the Government generally observed these
    prohibitions. The constitution also provides compensation for those
    detained without legal justification.
        Amnesty International (AI) reported that police arbitrarily
    arrested and detained opposition member of parliament (MP) Abdullah
    Yameen on July 14 without charge. He was released on July 24. According
    to AI, authorities failed to respect a court order to produce Yameen
    before a judge or charge him with a recognizable criminal offense.
    President Nasheed argued that Yameen was in custody to protect him from
    threats of violence from political mobs. Yameen alleged that the crowd
    of people who attacked his house July 14 consisted of government
    activists.

        Role of the Police and Security Apparatus.--The MNDF is responsible
    for external security and also handles disaster relief operations and
    national emergencies. The director of the MNDF reports to the minister
    of defense. The president is commander-in-chief of the MNDF and since
    December holds the portfolio of minister of defense. In 2008 the Majlis
    enacted a new Armed Forces Act that established legal parameters for
    the MNDF's role. The MNDF also provides defense force reporting to the
    president. The MNDF has a program of human rights-type awareness
    courses for personnel.
        The MPS, which is responsible for internal security, public safety,
    and law and order, was separated from the MNDF in 2004 and is
    subordinate to the Ministry of Home Affairs. The president appoints the
    MPS commissioner, who reports to the minister of home affairs. The MPS
    generally has functioned effectively to fulfill its responsibilities
    and has established internal organs and mechanisms with a human rights
    focus. These include: the Professional Standards Directorate, which is
    mandated to promote police compliance with the highest ethical and
    human rights standards; and a designated Human Rights Liaison Officer,
    who is responsible for mainstreaming human rights issues within the
    service. It is now mandatory for all new police personnel to undergo
    human rights training.
        The prosecutor general referred cases to the appropriate court
    based on the results of police investigations. The authorities
    generally kept the details of a case confidential until they were
    confident that the charges were likely to be upheld. Three units under
    the Special Operations and Security Department of the MPS replaced the
    Star Force, formerly an elite unit of the MPS. These units are the
    Special Weapons and Tactic Team, the Industrial and Personal Security
    Unit, and the Riot Police.
        The PIC, established in 2006 to investigate allegations of police
    corruption and impunity, is the primary mechanism available to
    investigate security force abuses. During the year the PIC investigated
    136 complaints, of which 74 have been concluded; they made
    recommendations on 12 cases. The PIC is limited to making
    recommendations. In general the recommendations have been followed.

        Arrest Procedures and Treatment While in Detention.--The law of
    arrest requires that no person be arrested unless the arresting officer
    observed the offence, had reasonable evidence, or had an arrest warrant
    issued by a court. The constitution provides for an arrestee to be
    informed of the reason for arrest within 24 hours and provides for the
    right to hire a lawyer. The law also requires that an arrestee be
    informed of the right to a lawyer at the time of arrest. Prisoners had
    the right to a ruling on bail within 36 hours; however, reports
    indicated that bail procedures were not publicized adequately,
    explained, or implemented consistently. Under the 2008 constitution, a
    lawyer may be appointed by the court in serious criminal cases if the
    accused cannot afford one. According to the Attorney General (AG),
    police normally informed the arrestee's family of the arrest within 24
    hours, although the law does not require that police inform the family
    of the grounds for the arrest. Authorities generally permitted
    detainees to have counsel present during police questioning.
        The law provides for investigative detention. Once a person is
    detained, the arresting officer must present evidence to a court within
    24 hours to justify continued detention. Based on the evidence
    presented, the prosecutor general has the authority to determine
    whether charges will be made. If law enforcement authorities are unable
    to present sufficient evidence within 24 hours, the prisoner is
    eligible for release. Judges have the authority to extend detention
    upon receiving an arresting officer's petition, citing factors such as
    the detainee's previous criminal record, the status of the
    investigation, the type of offense in question, and whether the
    detainee would pose a threat if released.
        Sources reported that police held suspects under the investigative
    detention provision without formal arrest for a few hours to a few
    days. Such a procedure allegedly has been used to remove groups from
    the streets and control gang activities. There is no formal record of
    investigative detentions as there would be with an arrest.
        On June 29, two opposition MPs were detained on treason and bribery
    charges and released to house arrest several days later on Supreme
    Court orders. A third opposition MP was arrested several days later.
    Over the next several weeks, a series of conflicting court rulings was
    made determining the arrests as valid under the constitution and later
    invalid. The courts ultimately ruled the police did not follow proper
    procedures, and the arrests were invalid. On July 24, the last detainee
    was released.
        On February 4, President Nasheed announced clemency to Himandhoo
    prisoners in Maafushi Jail and offered amnesty to help them become
    productive citizens. There were about 50 individuals arrested in 2007
    on charges of resisting police efforts to find suspects responsible for
    Sultan Park bombings and for inciting violence. Police imprisoned 16 of
    those arrested. The Islamic Ministry assumed the responsibility of
    rehabilitating these prisoners.
        The president reduced the sentences for two prisoners involved in
    the Sultan Park bombing under the Clemency Act, and these prisoners
    were released in August.

        e. Denial of Fair Public Trial.--The law and constitution provide
    for an independent judiciary, and the Government generally respected
    judicial independence in practice.
        Prior to 2008, the president was the highest legal authority
    responsible for settling appeals from lower courts. In 2008 President
    Gayoom established an interim Supreme Court and appointed five interim
    judges to serve during the two-year transitional constitution period.
    In August the transitional period ended, and the Government made final
    appointments to the Supreme Court. The seven-member court is
    independent from the executive. It hears appeals from the High Court
    and considers constitutional matters brought directly before it.
        In 2008 the Supreme Court reported only 31 percent of cases filed
    in 2008 were completed that year. The Judicial Services Administration
    published a 2008 report that identified a backlog of 2,676 cases in
    lower courts, with 78 percent of cases filed in the lower courts having
    been completed by year's end. There have not been any updated reports
    since 2008.

        Trial Procedures.--The law provides that an accused person is
    presumed innocent until proven guilty. There were no jury trials. Most
    trials were public and were conducted by judges and magistrates, some
    of whom were trained in Islamic, civil, or criminal law. Regulations
    rather than laws govern trial procedures. The prosecution collects all
    evidence and presents it to a judge, who has the discretion to choose
    what evidence he will share with the defense. Judges question the
    concerned parties and attempt to establish the facts of a case. An
    accused person has the right to defend himself or herself ``in
    accordance with Sharia.'' During a trial, the accused may call
    witnesses and has the right to be represented by a lawyer. Under the
    constitution, a lawyer may be appointed by the court in serious
    criminal cases if the accused cannot afford one. The judiciary
    generally enforced these rights.
        Both defendants and their attorneys have full access to all
    evidence relating to their case, they have opportunity to cross examine
    any witnesses presented by state, and can present their own witnesses
    and evidence.
        Under the constitution, the prosecutor general is a separate and
    independent body subject only to general policy directives by the AG on
    the conduct of criminal proceedings. The prosecutor general's mandate
    includes supervising prosecution of all criminal cases and determining
    whether charges should be pursued based on evidence presented by
    investigating authorities.
        Civil law was subordinate to Sharia, which was applied in
    situations not covered by civil law, as well as in family matters such
    as divorce and adultery. Courts adjudicating matrimonial and criminal
    cases generally did not allow legal counsel in court because, according
    to local interpretation of Sharia, all answers and submissions should
    come directly from the parties involved. The High Court, however,
    allows legal counsel in all cases, including those in which the right
    to counsel was denied in a lower court. Those convicted had the right
    to appeal. The testimony of women is equal to that of men for finance
    and contract matters. The testimony of women is not equal to that of
    men for inheritance cases, but in practice witness testimony is seldom
    required as most of the property of the deceased such as land, estates,
    boats, vehicles, shares, and bank accounts is registered. Male heirs
    get twice the share of female heirs, but the most valuable property
    (that is, land) of the deceased is usually shared equally as most of
    the land is owned by the state and not privately owned. If the land is
    privately owned, then Sharia applies. The right to defend is not
    related to Sharia. The right to defend, as it is in chapter two of the
    constitution, is in accordance with international human rights
    instruments.

        Political Prisoners and Detainees.--There were no reports of
    political prisoners or detainees. Local nongovernmental organizations
    (NGOs) confirmed that no one had been arrested solely for his or her
    political beliefs since the inauguration of the new government. As for
    previous political prisoners, government observers claimed that they
    had been released after the charges against them were withdrawn or
    found to be without merit. AI stated that ``it continues to be
    concerned about the detention of Prisoners of Conscience who have been
    imprisoned solely for their political beliefs'' but did not cite
    specific cases or provide a number of political detainees.

        Civil Judicial Procedures and Remedies.--A civil court addressed
    noncriminal cases. In February 2009 Mariyam Manike filed a civil suit
    against the ministry of defense over the killing of her son Evan Naseem
    in 2003 by eight former security officers at Maafushi prison. The case
    was closed because Mariyam Manike failed to appear for the hearing.

        f. Arbitrary Interference With Privacy, Family, Home, or
    Correspondence.--The law prohibits security officials from opening or
    reading wireless messages, letters, telegrams, or monitoring telephone
    conversations, ``except as expressly provided by law.'' In practice the
    Government generally respected privacy rights. Security forces may open
    the mail of private citizens and monitor telephone conversations if
    authorized to do so by a court during a criminal investigation.
        The constitution provides that residential premises and dwellings
    should be inviolable and can be entered without consent of the resident
    only under exigent circumstances or under the authorization of a court.
        On July 4, three recordings of personal telephone calls were posted
    on the Internet. The Government claimed the recordings provided
    evidence of a corruption conspiracy and proposed using them as evidence
    for corruption charges. Due to the absence of an Evidence Act, there is
    uncertainty as to whether the recording will be accepted as evidence in
    court. The source of these recordings was not determined. The
    telecommunications authority claimed that only the police or the MNDF
    had the capability to make recordings. At year's end, there had been no
    determination on the legality of the recordings.

    Section 2. Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:
        a. Freedom of Speech and Press.--The constitution provides for
    freedom of speech and of the press, and the Government generally
    respected these rights in practice. An independent press, an effective
    judiciary, and a functioning democratic political system combined to
    ensure freedom of speech and of the press in most cases. However, the
    law limits a citizen's right to freedom of expression in order to
    protect the ``basic tenets of Islam'' and prohibits inciting citizens
    against the Government.
        There are almost 200 independent newspapers and periodicals, and
    government ministers owned several of the daily publications. The
    Maldives Media Council Act established the Media Council as an
    independent, self-regulatory body. In April the Government enacted a
    bill establishing the Maldives Broadcasting Corporation as a 100
    percent government-owned company. The Government wanted the corporation
    to be free from political and commercial influence and to televise
    public service announcements and matters of the state (such as
    President Nasheed's speeches) at no cost to the Government. There have
    been ongoing unresolved disputes between parliament and the executive
    over which institution should have jurisdiction over the state
    broadcasters. In November 2009 the Government passed amendments to the
    penal code making defamation a civil rather than criminal offence.
        Criticism of the Government and debates on difficult societal
    issues are commonplace, but there were a few incidents of journalists
    being threatened or attacked by both government and opposition
    supporters. In March the Department of Information withdrew five out of
    100 points from the broadcast license of the radio station DhiFM
    following its coverage of the protest outside the president's residence
    on January 28. Every six months the Department of Information grants
    100 points to all license holders. If a broadcaster loses more than 50
    points during the allocated six month period, license can be revoked
    from six to 30 days and a fee of Rf 6,000 ($469) to Rf 30,000 ($2,344)
    can be charged depending on the number of points deducted. Also in
    March a group tried to enter the FM radio station Dhifm, threatened and
    attacked Dhitv Television Station's staff, and stabbed a staff member
    of Haveeru daily newspaper. These attacks followed the arrest of
    Ibrahim Nafiz, known as ``Chika,'' a known figure in the local world of
    illegal narcotics; according to sources, the instigators were gang
    members loyal to Chika.
        In September the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ)
    issued a press statement expressing alarm at increasing hostile actions
    against independent media. The IFJ cited incidents of vandalism by
    unknown persons against the private broadcaster VTV, which coincided
    with threats against the station made by MP ``Reeko'' Moosa Manik. In
    addition IFJ expressed concern that the head of the Male municipality
    reportedly attacked a cameraman with private broadcaster DhiTV and
    confiscated his camera. The Maldives Journalists' Association (MJA)
    stated that these actions contributed to ``a climate of intolerance''
    against the broadcaster.
        NGO sources also stated that in general the media practiced self-
    censorship on issues related to Islam due to fears of being labeled
    ``anti-Islamic'' and subsequently being harassed.
        In June the Government held a Commonwealth media development
    workshop, a four-day event conducted by the Commonwealth in
    collaboration with the MJA. There were no legal prohibitions on the
    import of foreign publications except for those containing pornography
    or material otherwise deemed objectionable to Islamic values.

        Internet Freedom.--There were no government restrictions on access
    to the Internet or reports that the Government monitored e-mail or
    Internet chat rooms. Individuals and groups could engage in the
    peaceful expression of views via the Internet, including by e-mail,
    which was widely available in the capital and increasingly present in
    outlying atolls.
        The Ministry of Islamic Affairs continued to block Web sites
    considered anti-Islamic or pornographic. In March 2009 the
    Telecommunications Authority of Maldives announced that it had blocked
    nine Web sites with anti-Islamic and pornographic content at the
    request of the Ministry of Islamic Affairs. The Ministry also blocked
    Web sites with information on Christianity and another Web site
    containing information on Islam. One of the Web sites posted an audio
    clip of a Ministry of Islamic Affairs official reportedly threatening
    an imam. Such blocks continued at year's end.
        Statistics from the Internet regulator of Maldives indicated that
    there were approximately 12,000 broadband Internet subscribers in
    October.

        Academic Freedom and Cultural Events.--The law prohibits public
    statements contrary to government policy or to the Government's
    interpretation of Islam. In response to the law, there were credible
    reports that academics practiced self-censorship. The Government
    censored course content and curriculum. Islam is the only religion
    taught in the schools.

        b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association.--Freedom of
    Assembly.--The constitution provides for ``freedom of peaceful assembly
    without prior permission of the State,'' and the Government generally
    respected this in practice.
        There were allegations by reporters that the MNDF and police at
    times used force to disperse protestors. According to Minivan News,
    some reporters claimed that during the Maldives Democratic Party (MDP)-
    led demonstrations calling for Yameen and Gasim's arrest, the MNDF and
    police beat the gathered protestors with their batons. Police
    spokesperson reported that nine police officers and six civilians were
    injured during the riots.
        A journalist from Miadhu, three journalists from DhiTV, two
    journalists from VillaTV, one from newspaper Miadhu, and a photographer
    from Haveeru reported they were attacked by police during a DRP-led
    protest in October.

        Freedom of Association.--The constitution provides for freedom of
    association; however, the Government imposed some limits on this
    freedom in practice. The Government registered clubs and other private
    associations only if they did not contravene Islamic or civil law.

        c. Freedom of Religion.--For a complete description of religious
    freedom, please see the 2010 International Religious Freedom Report at
    www.state.gov/g/drl/irf/rpt.

        d. Freedom of Movement, Internally Displaced Persons, Protection of
    Refugees, and Stateless Persons.--The law provides for freedom of
    movement within the country, foreign travel, emigration, and
    repatriation, and the Government generally respected these rights in
    practice. Employers often housed foreign workers at their worksites.
        The law allows for banishment to a remote atoll as a punishment,
    but the provision was seldom practiced.
        There were no known cases of the Government discovering converts
    and rescinding citizenship as a result of conversion.
        There are no government restrictions on free movement within the
    country or for foreign travel.

        Protection of Refugees.--The country is not a party to the 1951
    Convention relating to the Status of Refugees or its 1967 protocol, and
    the Government has not established a system for providing protection to
    refugees or persons seeking asylum. The Government has cooperated in
    the past with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees
    (UNHCR). In practice the Government provided protection against the
    expulsion or return of refugees to countries where their lives or
    freedom would be threatened on account of their race, religion,
    nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political
    opinion. There have been no reports of abuse of refugees or asylum
    seekers.

    Section 3. Respect for Political Rights: The Right of Citizens to
            Change Their Government
        The law provides citizens the right to change their government
    peacefully, and citizens exercised this right in practice through
    periodic, free, and fair elections based on universal suffrage.

        Elections and Political Participation.--In May 2009 the country
    held its first multiparty parliamentary elections. Although there were
    sporadic confrontations and reports of electoral irregularities,
    including allegations of bribery and intimidation, election observer
    groups, such as Transparency Maldives and the Commonwealth, reported
    the elections to be generally free and fair. Political parties operated
    without restriction or outside interference.
        On October 9, the island consolidation plan went to referendum.
    Voters rejected the Government's proposal for administrative
    consolidation and the creation of city councils.
        There are five women in the 77-member Maldivian Parliament. There
    are three women in the 10-person cabinet. These include the Minister of
    Health and Family, Minister of Education, and Minister of Tourism,
    Arts, and Culture. Parliament approved a woman as commissioner of the
    Human Rights Commission, but the female nominee for vice commissioner
    was not approved by parliament because parliamentarians expressed
    concern about having two women leading the commission.

    Section 4. Official Corruption and Government Transparency
        The law provides criminal penalties for official corruption;
    however, the Government did not implement the law effectively, and
    officials occasionally engaged in corrupt practices with impunity. In
    2008 the Government established an independent Anti-Corruption
    Commission (ACC) to investigate corruption charges involving senior
    government officials.
        Approximately 150 cases from the previous board were transferred to
    the new commission. In May 2009 President Nasheed established a
    presidential commission to investigate allegations of widespread
    corruption by high-level officials from the previous government,
    including former president Gayoom. The Government created the
    commission after the ACC and independent audit reports revealed
    cronyism and misappropriation of state funds. The commission has
    authority to summon, interrogate, and take statements that may be used
    as evidence in court. At year's end, the investigation continued, and
    no additional information was available.
        There are no laws that provide for access to government
    information.

    Section 5. Governmental Attitude Regarding International and
            Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations of Human
            Rights
        A number of domestic and international human rights groups
    generally operated without government restriction, investigating and
    publishing their findings on human rights cases. Government officials
    often were cooperative and responsive to their views.
        The HRCM was fully functional, with Ahmed Saleem serving as interim
    president. On October 4, the Government confirmed Mariyam Azra as
    commissioner of the HRCM.
        In 2009 the HRCM established an NGO Network to support and assist
    human rights NGOs and to secure the cooperation of NGOs. There are
    currently 48 NGOs in this network. The commission provides technical,
    financial, and other forms of assistance to NGOs that have joined the
    Human Rights NGO Network; the commission's objectives are to assist and
    provide encouragement in their work as human rights defenders and also
    to seek their assistance in the work of the HRCM.
        The Maldives Democracy Network (MDN) is one of the largest human
    rights NGOs and has established a network of human rights defenders to
    train a volunteer network of dedicated individuals to advocate for and
    monitor human rights across the country. This network gives MDN the
    ability to promote human rights, assess the human rights situation, and
    monitor specific violations on a nationwide scale.

    Section 6. Discrimination, Societal Abuses, and Trafficking in Persons
        The law provides for the equality of all citizens, but there is no
    specific provision to prohibit discrimination based on race, gender,
    religion, disability, or social status. Women traditionally were
    disadvantaged, particularly in the application of Sharia in matters
    such as divorce, education, inheritance, and testimony in legal
    proceedings.

        Women.--In 2008 the Government changed the Ministry of Gender and
    Family to the Ministry of Health and Family to pursue a policy of
    gender mainstreaming to provide for gender equality. The empowerment of
    women was a key aspect of all government policy initiatives,
    activities, and planning.
        Rape is not classified as a separate offence in the current penal
    code and cannot be prosecuted under any act. Other provisions of the
    law are used to criminalize rape. For example, the Prosecutor General's
    office uses sexual assault or misconduct charges depending on the
    gravity of the offence. A man can be convicted of rape in the absence
    of a confession only if there are two male witnesses or four female
    witnesses willing to testify. In March 2009 Mazeena Jameel, Permanent
    Secretary of the Ministry of Health and Family, stated that out of 10
    rape cases reported, only two led to convictions, partly due to the
    difficulty of proving rape.
        Under the law, spousal rape is not a crime.
        The Domestic Violence bill was proposed during the year and is
    currently in parliament. The bill is the first effort to pass
    legislation criminalizing domestic violence in the country. There are
    currently no laws regarding domestic violence against women or
    workplace sexual harassment, nor were there recent firm data on the
    extent of violence against women. However, a 2006 Ministry of Gender
    and Family study on women's health and life experiences noted that one
    in three women between the ages of 15 and 49 years reported some form
    of physical or sexual violence at least once in their lives. One in
    five women between the ages of 15 and 49 years reported physical or
    sexual violence by a partner, and one in nine reported experiencing
    severe violence. One in six women in Male and one in eight countrywide
    reported experiencing childhood sexual abuse under the age of 15 years.
    Of those women between the ages of 15 and 49 years who had ever been
    pregnant, 6 percent reported having been physically or sexually abused
    during pregnancy. The survey reported that many respondents perceived
    women to be subordinate to men, and that men used Islam to justify
    restrictions and violence against women.
        Media reports of violence against women and rape are common. In
    January a woman in Foah Mulaku was gang raped in front of her husband
    while he was tied to a tree. Police apprehended suspects and conducted
    an investigation. Also in January, a woman in G.A. Villingilli reported
    an attempted rape. In February a group of men in Laamu Atoll allegedly
    broke into a house, tied electrical wires to the feet of a woman, and
    gave her electric shocks. In March on S. Hitadhoo, a group of 15 men
    drugged and raped a 20-year-old girl. There were several other rapes
    reported over the summer in Male but no follow-up information on
    arrests or prosecution was published. On July 12, the Prosecutor
    General submitted the 2009 murder case against the boyfriend of Mariyam
    Shereen, whose body was found under a pile of sandbags in a
    construction site. At year's end, the case continued at the Criminal
    Court.
        The Police Annual Report for the year listed 455 cases of sexual
    assault (under which rape is included) reported in 2008, 563 cases
    reported in 2009, and 523 cases in during the year. There were 172
    cases of domestic violence reported to police in 2008, 156 cases were
    reported in 2009, and 135 cases during the year. Information on the
    number of cases sent to the prosecutor general's office and to court
    for prosecution is not available. However, in March a coalition of NGOs
    condemned the performance of the judiciary and the Government for its
    treatment of criminal cases, especially those concerning rape, citing a
    ``failure of the state and responsible authorities to convict those
    responsible for these crimes.'' The statement noted the number of
    crimes such as murder, rape, child abuse, assault with sharp weapons,
    and threats to journalists and others that are reported in the media
    far outnumber the number of crimes investigated by police, sent to the
    prosecutor general's office, and tried in the Criminal Court.
        In 2008 the Ministry of Gender and Family released data showing an
    increase in the reported cases of violence against women, although NGOs
    believed that most cases remained unreported. Several reasons were
    cited for the silence on the issue, including fear of reprisals from
    abusers, losing custody of children, lack of economic independence,
    insensitivity of police when dealing with victims, absence of
    regulation in media concerning the privacy of the victim, dealing with
    the stigma attached to being a victim, and low conviction rates.
        In May 2009 an official of the Ministry of Health and Family,
    formerly the Ministry of Gender and Family, stated to the local media
    that access to justice was one of the biggest obstacles to eliminating
    gender-based violence.
        The Department of Gender and Family Protection Service (DGFPS),
    under the Health Ministry, provides a range of services from
    protection, rehabilitation programs, vocational skills development, and
    legal services to imparting coping strategies; these are designed to
    enhance victims' knowledge and skills, to empower themselves and
    others, and assist them to be reintegrated into the society at large.
    According to the Health Ministry, at the end of the year, four rape
    cases were referred to DGFPS requesting assistance, three of which were
    gang rapes. Support services are also available from the Society for
    Health Education, an NGO focusing on women and health care issues,
    which provides professional counseling for abused women. At present
    there are no safe houses for abused women, although provisions for
    their creation are included in the Domestic Violence bill that is
    before parliament.
        There are Family and Children's Centers (FCSC) on every atoll in
    the country. They are intended to help streamline the process of
    reporting abuse against women and children. The centers had a shortage
    of trained staff and faced legal challenges, such as collecting
    evidence about abuse cases.
        In May 2009 the Government in partnership with the UN launched a
    two-year program to deal with gender-based violence. The program's
    objectives include raising awareness of gender-based violence,
    developing social support and counseling, providing women with legal
    options, and advising them on economic opportunities that would empower
    them to leave abusive relationships. The action plan was to involve
    various stakeholders in government including police, health ministry,
    religious leaders, and the judiciary to ensure cooperation and
    accountability. As part of this project, the UN has drafted guidelines
    on operating a separate women's shelter next to the orphanage on the
    island of Villingili. This would be a safe house for women who suffer
    from domestic violence and abuse. The UN held a week-long training
    session for 25 people on how to analyze gender-based violence cases and
    held a one-day workshop with the Ministry of Islamic Affairs with the
    goal of informing key actors in the field how domestic violence is
    treated in Islam.
        Couples and individuals have the right to decide freely and
    responsibly the number, spacing, and timing of children, and to have
    the information and means to do so free from discrimination, coercion,
    and violence. Access to information on contraception and skilled
    attendance at delivery and in postpartum care was widely available.
    Women and men were given equal access to diagnostic services and
    treatment for sexually transmitted infections, including HIV.
        According to the 2009 Demographic and Health survey conducted by
    the Ministry of Health and Family, 99 percent of women received
    prenatal care from a skilled provider (92 percent saw a gynecologist, 7
    percent received care from a doctor other than a gynecologist, and less
    than 1 percent received care from a trained nurse or midwife, a
    community health worker, or a traditional birth attendant). According
    to the survey, 95 percent of births in the five years preceding the
    survey were assisted by a skilled health worker (gynecologist, doctor,
    nurse, midwife, or community and family health worker). The maternal
    mortality rate in the country is 37 deaths per 100,000 live births.
    Only 6 percent of women did not receive any postnatal care. Women who
    live in Male have the highest rate of care (96 percent) from a
    gynecologist, doctor, nurse, or midwife versus 90 percent in rural
    areas.
        Although women traditionally played a subordinate role in society,
    they participated in public life. Women constituted approximately 40
    percent of government employees. The literacy rate for women was
    approximately 98 percent. In 2007 the Government appointed the first
    female judges.
        The minimum age of marriage for women was 18 years old, but
    marriages at an earlier age occurred. Some of these marriages occurred
    in Pakistan and India, and those that occurred in Maldives were usually
    not registered in the court. As a result, it was difficult to know how
    many cases there were during the year. According to the Ministry of
    Health, if a minor wished to marry, the ministry would undertake an
    assessment to ensure the physical and mental well-being of the child.
    These children can then marry with their parent's consent. Most
    applications were from girls between the ages of 16 and 18, but the
    ministry did not provide a count of how many applications they
    considered. In addition the ministry stopped accepting applications to
    consider underage marriages. Under Islamic practice, husbands may
    divorce their wives more easily than vice versa, absent mutual
    agreement to divorce. Sharia also governs estate inheritance, granting
    male heirs twice the share of female heirs. In practice the country's
    inheritance laws are complex. According to the prosecutor general's
    office, unless the men in the family demand a larger share, property is
    divided equally among siblings.
        During the year a Global Gender Gap Report by the World Economic
    Forum found women who worked for wages received about 65 percent of
    what men in the same positions received. According to an HRCM report
    published in August 2009, despite provisions in the constitution and
    the 2008 Employment Act, there were no policies in place that provided
    equal opportunities for women's employment. The absence of childcare
    facilities made it difficult for women to remain employed after they
    had children; it was socially unacceptable for women to stay on resort
    islands for extended periods, which discouraged women from working at
    tourist resorts. The HRCM also received reports that some employers
    discouraged women from marriage or pregnancy, as it could result in
    termination or demotion.
        In March 2009 the Government established an Rf 10 million
    ($780,000) Fund for the Economic Development of Women. Provided by the
    Asian Development Bank as part-loan and part-grant, the project
    encouraged economic independence by assisting women to establish small-
    and medium-sized enterprises.

        Children.--Citizenship is derived through one's parents. A child
    born of a citizen father or mother, regardless of the child's place of
    birth, can derive citizenship.
        Education is not compulsory, but there was universal access to free
    primary education. In many instances, parents curtailed education for
    girls after the seventh grade by not allowing them to leave their home
    island to attend secondary school on another island.
        Government policy provides for equal access to educational and
    health programs for both male and female children.
        The law sought to protect children from physical and psychological
    abuse, including at the hands of teachers or parents. The Ministry of
    Health and Family has the authority to enforce the law and receives
    strong popular support. The ministry reported child abuse, including
    sexual abuse. In November 2009 parliament passed the Child Sex Abuse
    Act, which codified child sex offenses for the first time and outlined
    sentences of up to 25 years for those convicted. However, under article
    14 of the act, if a person is legally married to a minor under Islamic
    Sharia, none of the offences specified in the legislation would be
    considered a crime. There were reports that, although the courts had
    the power to detain perpetrators, most were released pending sentencing
    and were allowed to return to the communities of their victims.
        In March 2009 the FCSC stated that the biggest challenge it faced
    in efforts to protect children's rights was the release of pedophiles
    into the communities of their victims.
        According to statistics from the MPS, police received 162 cases of
    child sexual abuse during the year, and 104 of these were forwarded to
    the Prosecutor General's Office after investigation. In addition police
    arrested 117 pedophiles during the year compared to 23 in 2009. Of the
    117 arrested, two were females.
        In February DGFPS reported the cases of child abuse in 2009 had
    doubled compared with 2008. The department stated that cases of sexual
    abuse were increasing, and underage marriage and pregnancy was a major
    concern. The increase in the cases reported appeared to be due to
    increased public awareness.
        DGFPS reported 1,042 cases of abuse during the year, including 246
    cases of child sexual abuse cases, 111 cases of physical abuse, 126
    cases of neglect, 175 disciplinary cases, 45 cases of emotional abuse,
    131 custody and family issues, and two cases of child prostitution.
    There are no laws or regulations dealing with cases of neglect.
        The former Bangladeshi High Commissioner reported a case of a
    Bangladeshi girl who was forced into prostitution in Maldives and noted
    cases of young boys working in guest houses who were physically
    assaulted. These crimes were not reported due to fears of retaliation,
    but the Bangladesh High Commission has ceased attesting work permits
    for Bangladeshi women.
        The country is not a party to the 1980 Hague Convention on the
    Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. For information on
    international parental child abduction, please see the Department of
    State's annual report on compliance at http://travel.state.gov/
    abduction/resources/congressreport/congressreport--4308.html.

        Anti-Semitism.--There were no known Jewish citizens or residents,
    and there were anti-Jewish protests in response to an Israeli
    humanitarian mission.
        When it was announced a team of Israeli doctors was due to arrive
    in the country to treat eye patients in December, the Islamic
    Foundation of the Maldives called on the Government to break off all
    diplomatic ties with Israel. The Islamic Foundation claimed that it was
    against Islam to have ``relationships with Jews'' and called on the
    president to ``shun all medical aid from the Zionist regime.'' When the
    medical team arrived, there were protests against the eye doctors and
    Israeli flags were burned. The protests were fairly small and Minivan
    News reported that over 200 Maldivians registered for eye care with the
    Israeli team.

        Trafficking in Persons.--For information on trafficking in persons,
    please see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons
    Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        Persons With Disabilities.--The constitution provides for the
    rights and freedom from discrimination of persons with disabilities and
    a Special Needs Act was put in place in July. The purpose of the act is
    to protect the rights of persons with disabilities and to provide them
    with financial assistance. The president created the Council to Protect
    the Rights of People with Disabilities in August. As mandated in the
    act, anyone with disabilities is entitled to Rf 2,000 ($156) every
    month. The Ministry of Health and Family maintains a list of persons
    with disabilities. By December 26, the ministry received 3,384
    applications. The ministry planned to start disseminating the allowance
    in January 2011. Government programs provided services for persons with
    disabilities, including special educational programs for persons with
    sensory disabilities. Inadequate facilities made it difficult for
    persons with disabilities to participate in the workforce.
        There were multiple NGOs working to improve the rights of persons
    with disabilities, including Hand in Hand, the Association of
    Disability and Development, Handicap International, and the Care
    Society.
        In April the HRCM, in conjunction with the United Nations
    Development Program, released a report on the rights of persons with
    disabilities. The report found that most schools only took children
    with very limited to moderate disabilities and not those with more
    severe disabilities. There virtually was no access to or transition to
    secondary-level education for children with disabilities. Additionally
    there was no mental healthcare available in Male; there were only two
    psychiatrists working in the country who dealt mostly with drug
    rehabilitation. There also was a lack of quality residential care.
    There were more than 31 persons with disabilities waiting for a place
    at the Home for People with Special Needs as of March.
        In July 2009 the Maldives Deaf Association received funding from
    the Ministry of Human Resources, Youth, and Sports to facilitate arts
    and crafts courses for persons with auditory disabilities between the
    ages of 18 and 35 years old.
        In October 2009 President Nasheed launched the country's first
    sign-language dictionary. The objective of the book was to serve as a
    bridge between persons with auditory disabilities and the rest of
    society. Handicap International funded the project.
        The Government established disability awareness and empowerment
    campaigns on some of the more populous islands. The Government
    integrated students with physical disabilities into mainstream
    educational programs. Families usually cared for persons with
    disabilities; when family care was unavailable, persons with
    disabilities lived in the Ministry of Health and Family's Institute for
    Needy People, which also assisted elderly persons. When requested the
    Government provided free medication for all persons with mental
    disabilities on the islands, but follow-up care was infrequent. The
    Government also provided assistive devices, such as wheelchairs,
    crutches, spectacles, hearing aids, and special seats for children with
    cerebral palsy.

        Societal Abuses, Discrimination, and Acts of Violence Based on
    Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.--The law prohibits homosexual
    conduct, and it was considered socially unacceptable. The punishment
    for men includes banishment for nine months to one year or 10 to 30
    lashes. For women the punishment is house arrest for nine months to one
    year. There were no organizations concerned with lesbian, gay,
    bisexual, or transgender (LGBT) issues in the country. There have not
    been any reports of officials complicit in abuses against the LGBT
    community. Due to societal intolerance of homosexual conduct, there are
    few openly homosexual individuals acknowledged in the country. Thus
    there is no information on official or societal discrimination based on
    sexual orientation in employment, housing, access to education, or
    health care.

        Other Societal Violence or Discrimination.--The country had a very
    low prevalence of HIV (approximately 0.01 percent). Of 14 HIV-infected
    Maldivians, 12 are male, two are female, 11 have developed AIDS, and 10
    have died. Since 2008 no new HIV cases were reported in the country,
    but during the year 19 foreign workers were reported with HIV. Maldives
    did not systematically collect statistics on HIV infection, indicating
    that these numbers likely underrepresented the actual situation.
        According to a 2009 Demographic and Health survey, most women
    surveyed were willing to care for a relative with AIDS at home (86
    percent), buy fresh vegetables from a shopkeeper with AIDS (79
    percent), allow a female teacher with AIDS to continue teaching (61
    percent), or allow a male teacher with AIDS to continue teaching (59
    percent). Three of four women said that they would be open about having
    an HIV-positive family member. Only 37 percent of women expressed
    accepting attitudes on all four indicators, indicating some stigma
    associated with HIV/AIDS.

    Section 7. Worker Rights
        a. The Right of Association.--The 2008 constitution recognizes the
    right to freedom of association and states explicitly that all rights
    and freedoms in the statute apply to ``everyone'' in the country,
    including migrant workers.
        The 2008 Employment Act does not address the formation of trade
    unions, and the law does not specify protection against antiunion
    discrimination. Some workers' organizations have been established,
    particularly in the tourism and education sectors, although these
    function more as associations rather than real unions. Among the most
    active: Teachers Association of the Maldives, the Tourism Employees
    Association of the Maldives (TEAM), and a fishermen's association.
    According to a report by the Human Rights Commission of the Maldives
    (HCRM), worker associations' ability to defend employee rights was
    hampered by the uncertainties surrounding their status and mandate and
    a lack of laws defining their role and the procedures by which they may
    negotiate with employers. In the absence of real trade unions, the
    concept of collective bargaining remains unknown.
        The constitution states that every person employed in the country
    has the freedom to stop work and to strike. This right was exercised
    frequently during the year, particularly in the construction and
    tourism sectors. TEAM organized work stoppages to protest against
    unfair working conditions, low wages, and long working hours. Police
    sometimes employed force to suppress strikes.
        The Employment Act does not cover emergency workers, air and sea
    crews, police, armed forces, and executive staff of any company, and
    workers who are on call.
        In February the parliament passed an Employment Tribunal
    Regulation, which details procedures for revising and adjudicating
    employment matters, and other matters to do with the functioning of the
    Employment Tribunal under the Employment Act. The Employment Tribunal
    was established in 2009 to examine and adjudicate legal matters arising
    between employers and employees and other employment issues. In its
    first four days, the tribunal received over 400 cases. Of the 137 valid
    claims filed in 2009, the tribunal completed 54 cases and resolved 19;
    64 cases continued at the end of the year. During the year the tribunal
    received 276 cases, of which 110 were completed at year's end. A
    completed case is one in which the tribunal delivers a verdict and
    provides recommendations but does not know whether the defendant acted
    upon the recommendation. Twenty-two cases were resolved, meaning that
    the complainant and the defendant came to an agreement or the defendant
    abided by the tribunal's recommendations. Eleven cases were withdrawn,
    and 21 cases were cancelled due to absence of complainants at hearings
    or due to lack of necessary information. There were 38 cases during the
    year that were not resolved by year's end. Most cases dealt with unfair
    dismissal in the private sector, including tourist resorts, utility
    companies, and other businesses. The tribunal also received some cases
    of unfair dismissal in the civil service.

        b. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively.--The
    constitution and Employment Act do not address workers' rights to
    collective bargaining. In practice informal collective bargaining
    involving employee associations, primarily in the tourism sector, began
    shortly after both laws took effect. Wages in the private sector were
    commonly set by contract between employers and employees and were based
    on rates for similar work in the public sector.
        TEAM, a resort workers association, claimed resort workers were
    systematically denied recognition by employers, employers refused to
    negotiate collectively, and employers threatened workers.
        There are no export processing zones.

        c. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor.--The constitution
    prohibits forced or compulsory labor; however, there were reports that
    forced labor occurred. The HRCM reported that some domestic workers,
    especially migrant female domestic workers, were in some cases trapped
    in forced labor situations, in which employers used threats and
    intimidation to prevent them from leaving.
        The expatriate worker population of Maldives is estimated at
    80,000, which is an estimated 25 percent of the population. The
    Maldives Immigration Controller estimates there are a minimum of 30,000
    illegal foreign workers; over half of these workers come from
    Bangladesh with others from India and other south Asian countries.
    Department of Immigration statistics state 18,000 new foreign workers
    came to the country between January and October. These workers were
    predominantly employed in the construction and tourism sectors, where
    some experienced forced labor and even debt bondage. Most victims of
    forced labor were reportedly coerced to work through one or more of the
    following practices: holding of passports by employers, fraudulent
    offers of employment, not being paid the promised salary, and not being
    paid at all.
        Under the law, foreign workers arriving in the country must have a
    work permit issued by the Immigration Department. This is obtained
    through an employer or agent, who must first request a foreign worker
    quota stating the number of employees needed from the Ministry of Human
    Resources, Youth, and Sports. These quotas are easy to obtain, and
    there is little enforcement. In an effort to control the flow of
    workers into the country, the Bangladeshi High Commission also requires
    that work permits for their nationals be attested by the local
    commission before they are considered valid. However, forged
    documentation is common. In June the Human Resources Ministry and the
    Maldives Police Service conducted operations to find and deport illegal
    workers in the atolls. The outcome of these operations had not been
    reported at year's end.
        The Ministry of Human Resources blacklists companies who violated
    the provisions of the Employment Act, precluding violators from
    bringing in new workers until violations were rectified. The law allows
    for a fine of not more than Rf 5,000 ($397) for forced labor and other
    violations of the Employment Act. During the year 16 employers were
    blacklisted.

        d. Prohibition of Child Labor and Minimum Age for Employment.--The
    Employment Act sets 16 years of age as the minimum age for employment,
    with an exception for children who voluntarily participate in family
    businesses. The Employment Act also prohibits employment of children in
    ``any work that may have a detrimental effect on health, education,
    safety, or conduct.'' Child labor, however, was a problem in the
    fishing sector, small commercial activities, and family enterprises.
    Adolescent children who were sent from islands with inadequate
    education facilities to Male or other areas for educational purposes
    sometimes worked as domestics in exchange for food and lodging. The
    HRCM reported the domestic work of children living with host families
    while attending school was sometimes coerced.
        DGFPS of the Ministry of Health and Family was responsible for
    monitoring compliance with the law regarding child labor. Based on the
    limited information available, the ministry's enforcement appeared to
    be effective. The Ministry of Health and Family, the Ministry of Human
    Resources, Youth, and Sports, and the Family and Child Protection Unit
    of Maldives Police Service received complaints of child labor,
    conducted inquiries, and initiated legal action. According to the Labor
    Relations Authority, none of the 477 claim/complaint forms that it
    received last year related to child labor or employment of minors.
    Additionally no cases of child labor were found during its regular
    labor inspections during the year.

        e. Acceptable Conditions of Work.--The 2008 Employment Act
    establishes maximum hours of work, overtime, annual and sick leave,
    maternity leave, and guidelines for work-place safety. In 2008 the
    Government established a Labor Relations Authority and an Employment
    Tribunal to implement the Employment Law. The Labor Relations
    Authority, under the Ministry of Human Resources, Youth, and Sports was
    not staffed until September, when 15 people were hired. The office
    conducted investigations and provided dispute resolution mechanisms to
    address complaints from workers. Since September the authority had
    completed an estimated 100 inspections.
        The act provides a mechanism to establish a minimum wage in the
    private sector. The minimum wage in the Government sector was
    approximately Rf 3,100 ($241) per month, which was inadequate for a
    decent standard of living for a worker and family. Because of the tight
    labor market, private sector employers generally offered competitive
    pay and conditions to attract skilled workers.
        The Employment Act provides for a 48-hour per week limit on work
    with a compulsory 24-hour break if employees work six days
    consecutively. Overtime is possible; for example, employees in tourist
    resorts may work an additional two hours per day paid at overtime
    rates. The Employment Act states that employees working overtime shall
    be paid 125 percent of their hourly working wage and, if working on a
    Friday or a public holiday, they shall be paid 150 percent of their
    hourly working wage. The public sector provides a seven-hour workday
    and a five-day workweek. According to a rapid assessment done by the
    HRCM on the employment situation in the country during 2009, the
    enforcement of the Employment Act was poor. Government corporations
    were working to reconcile their employment agreements according to the
    act and many private companies had not started to sign employment
    agreements with their employees. Furthermore, HRCM alleged that many
    small employers did not show any intention of entering into agreements
    with their employees. The notable achievements of the act have been the
    creation of an Employment Tribunal and a Labor Relations Authority.
        Migrant workers were particularly vulnerable to exploitation and,
    upon arrival in the country, often found unacceptable work conditions,
    but they were forced to accept work at whatever wage was offered for
    debt repayment to the employment agency. The HRCM found many instances
    of nonpayment of wages to migrant workers and inadequate housing.
    Former Bangladeshi High Commissioner Selina Mohsin reported that 110
    Bangladeshi migrant workers died in 2009 from construction-related
    injuries such as falls, heart attacks, extreme tension and stress, and
    the effects of working in hazardous environments without proper
    ventilation. There is no indication that conditions have improved
    during the year. The status of migrant workers employed in the
    categories of senior management, professionals, and skilled workers was
    generally better.
        Under the Employment Act, workers have the right to refuse work
    that is dangerous; it was unclear whether workers exercised this right
    in practice. The Employment Act mandates the implementation of a safe
    work place; procurement of secure tools and machinery; ensuring the
    continued safety of the equipment, provision of protective equipment to
    eliminate health hazards, and training of employees in the use of
    protective gear; and the provision of appropriate medical care.
    Currently all employers are obliged to buy a health insurance scheme
    for foreign workers. Regulatory requirements in certain industries,
    such as construction and transport, require employers to provide a safe
    working environment and ensure the observance of safety measures.
    According to an HRCM report in August 2009, there were no national
    standards for safety measures and, as a result, such measures were at
    the discretion of employers. Some employers that produce for export
    have adopted health and safety standards. Employers in other sectors,
    most notably the tourism and construction industries, however, have
    reportedly not taken similar measures. The Employment Act grants
    workers the right to compensation if fired without cause. The act
    specifically bans discrimination based on race or color, but it notes
    that ``any preference given to Maldivians by an employer in granting
    employment shall not be deemed discrimination.''
        The 2009 HRCM report stated the highest number of job-related
    complaints, 139, came from resort workers. Most of these complaints
    related to employers disregarding workers' rights included in the 2008
    Employment Act. The three most common types of cases were nonpayment of
    wages, unfair and illegal dismissal, and nonpayment of due benefits and
    allowances.
        In 2009 the HRCM heard labor disputes because the Employment
    Tribunal was not in place, and the courts refused to hear labor cases.
    Since the Labor Relations Authority (LRA) was staffed in September, the
    HRCM now refers all labor disputes to the Employment Tribunal. The LRA
    reported that of the 477 complaints made during the year, 80 percent
    were from workers in the construction industry, and most complaints
    were about nonpayment of wages, termination without notice, lack of
    written contracts, expiration of employment approval, and employers not
    providing food and accommodation. According to the LRA, 50 percent of
    the cases reported during the year were resolved and 45 percent of the
    cases continued, while the remaining 5 percent of the cases were
    pending due to the absence of the employer or the employee. In cases
    where the employer or the employee failed to show up for three months,
    the case was closed.
        In May 2009 the Government acceded to the International Labor
    Organization (ILO). The country continued to work with the ILO to
    implement the ILO Work Plan for 2009-10, which included strengthening
    labor administration, promoting tripartism and social dialogue,
    ratifying selected international labor standards, and developing a
    social security floor to provide vulnerable and socially excluded
    groups with systematic benefits. At year's end, these efforts were
    still in process.

                                   __________

                                     NEPAL

        Nepal, with a population of approximately 29 million, is a federal
    democratic republic. The political system is based on the Interim
    Constitution of Nepal 2063 (of 2007), with a prime minister as the
    chief executive, and the 601-member Constituent Assembly (CA), which is
    responsible for drafting a new constitution. After failing to deliver a
    new constitution on May 28, as required by the interim constitution,
    the CA extended its deadline for one additional year. Prime Minister
    Madhav Kumar Nepal, of the Communist Party of Nepal-United Marxist
    Leninist (UML), tendered his resignation on June 30, but after numerous
    rounds of voting the parliament had not elected a new prime minister by
    year's end. Domestic and international observers generally
    characterized the 2008 election results as credible, although there
    were reports of political violence, intimidation, and voting
    irregularities. Security forces reported to civilian authorities, but
    there were frequent instances in which elements of the security forces
    acted independently of civilian control.
        Members of the security forces committed human rights abuses.
    Members of the Nepal Police (NP) and Armed Police Force (APF) committed
    extrajudicial killings and tortured numerous persons. Security forces
    used arbitrary arrest and detention. Impunity for human rights
    violators continued. The Government continued to restrict the freedoms
    of Tibetans. Societal discrimination against women, persons of lower
    castes, some ethnic groups, and persons with disabilities remained a
    problem. Violence against women and children continued.
        The Sanyukta Jatiya Mukti Morcha (SJMM), an armed group, used
    threats to force the en masse resignations of Village Development
    Committee secretaries (VDCs) from various parts of the country. Members
    of the Maoist militias, the Maoist-affiliated Young Communist League
    (YCL), and members of other small, ethnically-based armed groups
    engaged in arbitrary and unlawful use of lethal force. Numerous armed
    groups, largely in the Terai region in the lowland area near the Indian
    border, attacked civilians, government officials, members of particular
    ethnic groups, each other, or Maoist militias. Armed groups, criminals,
    and political parties used threats of violence to intimidate
    journalists throughout the country.

                            RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

    Section 1. Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom
            From:
        a. Arbitrary or Unlawful Deprivation of Life.--There were numerous
    reports that the Government or its agents committed arbitrary or
    unlawful killings. The Informal Sector Service Center (INSEC), a local
    human rights organization, reported that security forces or other armed
    groups killed 140 persons during the year. Security forces killed at
    least 27 individuals; the Maoist party and its affiliate, the YCL, were
    believed to have killed three persons; armed groups operating in Terai
    killed more than 21 persons; and unidentified groups killed 86 persons.
        On March 10, members of the Nepal Army (NA) killed two Dalit
    (``untouchable'' lower-caste) women--Devisara BK and Amrita BK--and a
    12-year-old girl, Chandrakala BK, inside the Bardiya National Park in
    Surkhet District. Although the NA alleged that the group was armed and
    involved in poaching, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC)
    investigation concluded that the three women were shot in the back from
    a distance. The NHRC recommended action against those involved in the
    incident, including 15 army personnel of the Jwala Dal Batallion led by
    Captain Subodh Kunwar. The NHRC also recommended compensation to the
    families of 300,000 rupees ($4,152) for each of those killed and free
    education for the children of the deceased women. The NA had not taken
    action against those involved by year's end.
        In its report on extrajudicial killings, the Office of the UN High
    Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) documented 39 credible
    allegations of extrajudicial killings, which resulted in 57 deaths,
    attributed to the NP from 2008 until June 2010. In most cases, the NP
    alleged that the person killed was a criminal and was fleeing the
    police. The NHRC expressed concern about the ``extreme use of force''
    in the cases of extrajudicial killings.
        On February 12, police in Panchthar District arrested four men on
    suspicion of theft. A reliable NGO reported that police tortured the
    men, killing Dal Bahadur Gyanmi Magar and Bikram Gyanmi Magar, a father
    and son (see section 1.c.).
        On May 28, Sanu Sunar of Lalitpur died while in police detention,
    according to the NHRC. An autopsy revealed that the cause of death was
    blunt force head injury. The NHRC recommended legal action against
    those police personnel in charge of the Kalimati police circle,
    including Bhola Bahadur Raut, who had taken Sunar into custody without
    following proper procedure. The police department suspended assistant
    police inspector Madhusudan Bista and constables Roshan Bista and
    Krishna Khatiwada but took no action against Bahadur Raut.
        On July 4, 15-year-old Dharmendra Barai of Puraini, Rupendehi
    District, died while in police custody. Eyewitnesses reported seeing
    blue and black marks, allegedly from electric shocks, on the feet,
    shoulders, and other parts of the boy's body. The Home Ministry formed
    a high-level team to investigate the matter. A district-level
    investigative committee concluded that Dharmendra died due to police
    negligence and recommended departmental action against the
    perpetrators. According to a respected human rights group, the case was
    being registered in the Morang appellate court at year's end. There
    were also reports that police offered a financial settlement to the
    victim's father.
        In August Sujit BK, a former district leader in the YCL, was
    arrested for the March 2009 killing of UML-affiliated Youth Force (YF)
    leader Prachanda Man Thaiba in Butwal. The Maoist leadership suspended
    Sujit BK from party membership following news of his involvement in the
    killing. He remained in detention awaiting trial at year's end.
        There were no further developments in the April 2009 case of YCL
    members who allegedly killed YF member Anuj Thapa Magar in Biratnagar.
    The First Information Report (FIR) filed by his family members named
    three persons and noted another 10 to 12 unidentified persons who were
    involved. YCL district leadership denied involvement.
        There were no further developments in the July 2009 case of
    villagers from Dhunchepakha and Chapacho who killed three persons for
    allegedly trying to kidnap village children. Three persons were
    arrested and sent to the central jail in Nakkhu, where they remained
    under pretrial detention at year's end.
        The November 10 hearing in Chitwan district court for the 2008
    killing of Ram Hari Shrestha was postponed indefinitely. Five United
    Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (UCPN-M) members were charged in
    connection with the killing but at year's end had not submitted their
    response. A hearing date had not been set. Beginning on July 12, the NP
    investigated one of the suspects, Kali Bahadur Kham, a senior Maoist
    leader, in connection with a robbery of three Chinese businessmen in
    Kathmandu. Police raided Kham's residence and found incriminating
    evidence, including ammunition and counterfeit government stamps. The
    Kathmandu District Court issued an arrest warrant for Kham on charges
    of robbery, but Kham remained at large at year's end.
        No one has been held responsible in the 2004 killing of 15-year-old
    Maina Sunuwar, one of the emblematic cases identified by human rights
    groups. The Kavre District Court reported that the NA had partially
    cooperated with the court's order to hand over documents, although the
    NA did not suspend or hand over one of the accused, Major Niranjan
    Basnet. An internal military investigation found Basnet innocent.
    According to statements given during the NA investigation, Basnet was
    present during Sunuwar's detention and interrogation, which included
    ``water pouring'' and ``electric shock'' interrogation techniques.
        According to INSEC, land mines and improvised explosive devices
    (IEDs) injured 40 persons, including 20 children, during the year.
    During the year the UN Mine Action Team (UNMAT) cleared 16
    antipersonnel minefields, bringing the total cleared to 33 of the 53
    the NA laid, and 33 IED fields, bringing the total to 138 of the 312
    the NA laid.
        The Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) and the 2006 agreement on
    Monitoring of the Management of Arms and Armies called for all
    landmines to be identified and located within 30 days and removed
    completely within 60 days. According to UNMAT, more square meters of
    minefield land were cleared from January to June than had been cleared
    in the previous three years combined. According to UNMAT, out of a
    total 304 IEDS, the NA cleared 33 of the 53 land mines it was scheduled
    to clear during the fiscal year. Twenty additional mines are
    anticipated to be cleared by July 2011.

        b. Disappearance.--According to INSEC, there were 185 total
    abductions during the year. Most abductions were for ransom and
    occurred in the Terai, where armed groups operated with relative
    impunity.
        The fate of most of those who disappeared during the 10-year Maoist
    insurgency (1996-2006) remained unknown. According to NHRC estimates,
    there were 861 unresolved cases of disappearances at year's end, 614
    believed to involve the state and 201 believed to involve the Maoists.
    Disappearances involving unknown groups totaled 46. The International
    Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) estimated the number of persons who
    disappeared during the conflict at more than 1,348, although this
    included only persons whose families had met with ICRC representatives.
    A significant number of those who disappeared were young, married men
    who were the primary income earners for their families. At year's end,
    the Government had not prosecuted any government officials or Maoists
    for involvement in disappearances, nor had it released any information
    about the whereabouts of the 614 persons the NHRC identified as
    disappeared with state involvement.
        The Government did not respond to a 2006 OHCHR report on 49
    disappeared persons who had been arrested and detained at the
    Maharajgunj barracks in Kathmandu in 2003 on suspicion of being linked
    to the Maoists, nor did it respond to the 2008 OHCHR report on the
    Bardiya District, where at least 170 persons disappeared between 2001
    and 2004. Human rights organizations repeatedly called on the
    Government to investigate the human rights violations at Maharajgunj
    barracks, including the responsibility of those within the chain of
    command. On January 24, the Supreme Court vacated a stay order issued
    following a legal challenge to the December 2009 promotion of Major
    General Toran Bahadur Singh, who was the commander of the 10th Brigade
    and had chain of command responsibility for the Maharajgunj barracks,
    to the rank of lieutenant general and second in command of the NA.

        c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or
    Punishment.--Although the interim constitution prohibits torture, the
    law does not clearly criminalize torture, and no one has been
    prosecuted for torture. Some police tortured and otherwise abused
    citizens. The Torture Compensation Act (TCA) provides for compensation
    to victims of torture; the victim must file a complaint and pursue the
    case through the courts. During the year Advocacy Forum-Nepal (AF)
    filed 13 new cases under the TCA. At year's end, the cases were pending
    in the district court. At year's end, of the 30 TCA cases filed since
    2009, two cases had been withdrawn due to out of court settlement, five
    cases had been dismissed because the victim failed to appear before the
    court within the time permitted, and the remaining cases were still
    pending before the courts.
        During the period between January and July 31, AF documented 497
    cases of torture by both state and nonstate actors. AF attributed
    responsibility for more than 387 cases to the NP, 25 cases to the NA,
    and more than 14 cases to the APF. AF attributed responsibility for 36
    cases to the Maoists and one case to the YCL. The Government failed to
    conduct thorough and independent investigations of reports of security
    force or Maoist/YCL brutality and generally did not take significant
    disciplinary action against those involved.
        A credible nongovernmental organization (NGO) reported that, of the
    4,198 detainees interviewed between January and December in 57
    detention centers, 811 claimed that they had been tortured. Some
    detainees were afraid to bring cases against the police due to fear of
    reprisal. The 15.8 percent of detainees who claimed that they had been
    tortured during the period from June to December represented an
    increase of 6.7 percent compared with the same period in 2009. The data
    showed that those held under certain charges, such as attempted rape,
    kidnapping, possession of arms and ammunitions, and theft, had a higher
    chance of being mistreated.
        Child Workers in Nepal Concerned Center (CWIN), a credible local
    child rights NGO, reported that between January and March, 34 of 255
    juveniles interviewed claimed that they were subjected to torture and
    ill-treatment by law enforcement personnel. In the past, such abuses
    have included kicking, punching, inserting metal objects under
    toenails, and beating with bamboo sticks and plastic pipes. Police
    harshly mistreated children more frequently than adults. Among the
    juveniles interviewed, 138 were between 10 and 16 years of age and one
    juvenile was under age 10.
        There were two cases of persons who died in police custody,
    reportedly after torture or other abuse (see section 1.a.).
        According to reliable eyewitnesses, during a February 9 meeting
    between the deputy superintendant of police in Kavre Police Station,
    Dhulikhel District, and the father of a crime victim, the deputy
    superintendant offered to bring the 17-year-old criminal suspect to the
    police station to ``torture him'' for three days. When asked to clarify
    what he meant, the official reiterated that he had indeed offered to
    ``torture'' the suspect.
        In March police beat journalists (see section 2.a.) and injured
    protesters (see section 2.b.).
        On December 9, a hearing in Morang District Court was held on the
    January 2009 case where uniformed police arrested and tortured Narayan
    Thapa. A decision was expected after the results of a medical report
    are submitted to the court.
        In July 2009 the OHCHR investigated allegations of torture and ill-
    treatment of Sushan Limbu and Bhakta Rai in the Urlabari DPO (District
    Police Office) in Morang. The OHCHR reported that one of the detainees
    had undergone surgery for injuries he suffered while in detention. The
    NP Human Rights Directorate investigated and, on August 20, found four
    police personnel guilty of committing abuses: Inspector Chakra Bahadur
    Basnet, Head Constable Netra Bahadur Magar, and police officers Bhesh
    Raj Acharya and Seman Khatri. On August 24, NP headquarters issued a
    formal warning to the four and closed the case. After the human rights
    directorate of the NP completed its investigation, Basnet returned to
    the Urlabari DPO and resumed work despite the serious allegations
    against him. According to sources, Limbu did not file a case under the
    torture law because police pressured him and offered him money not to.
    Limbu never received any money and was later arrested for violating a
    law relating to arms and ammunition.
        In 2009 APF personnel allegedly tortured 10 Bhutanese refugees at
    the APF camp in Beldangi-2 refugee camp and at the Pathibara Gan APF
    camp in Padajungi, Jhapa District; 13 persons in Dhanusha District; and
    nine persons in Udayapur District. According to a reliable NGO, no
    cases were filed under the TCA related to these cases.
        On February 12, police in Panchthar District arrested four men on
    suspicion of theft. Police tortured the men, killing two of them (see
    section 1.a.), while a third was physically abused until he confessed
    to the crime. Police also reportedly allowed villagers to abuse the
    men. The family of the deceased filed FIRs; however, the FIRs do not
    name all of the alleged perpetrators, reportedly due to political
    pressure. At year's end, the cases had not gone to trial, and a
    reliable human rights NGO reported that the family of the victims had
    been pressured by police not to proceed further with the cases.

        Prison and Detention Center Conditions.--Prison conditions were
    extremely poor and did not meet international standards, while
    conditions at detention centers were worse. The Government generally
    allowed visits by independent human rights observers.
        According to the Department of Prison Management, as of December
    15, 10,739 prisoners--10,002 men, 737 women, 76 dependent children of
    imprisoned parents, and 648 foreign nationals--remained in custody.
    Although there generally were separate facilities for men and women, in
    some overcrowded prisons men and women were in the same prison but in
    segregated cells. In January the OHCHR observed that the detention cell
    in the Kaski District Police Office held almost a hundred detainees
    while the capacity was estimated at 30. Sanitation provisions were
    inadequate and medical care was poor for prisoners with serious
    conditions.
        Due to a lack of adequate juvenile detention facilities, children
    occasionally were incarcerated with adults or were allowed to remain in
    jails with their incarcerated parents.
        There is only one functional government-run juvenile reform home,
    Sano Thimi in Bhaktapur. According to the Department of Jail
    Management, pretrial juvenile detainees are sent to the sole juvenile
    correction home and are not kept with convicted prisoners. Adult
    pretrial detainees were kept with convicted prisoners due to inadequate
    pretrial detention space.
        Prisoners and detainees had reasonable access to visitors and were
    permitted religious observance. There were also procedures in place for
    prisoners to submit complaints, although the authorities were quicker
    to respond to allegations when NGOs or international organizations were
    aware of the complaints.
        The Government generally permitted the NHRC, ICRC, and OHCHR to
    make unannounced visits to prisons and detainees in army and police
    custody. Although the NHRC is authorized to request government action,
    the Government often denied the NHRC the right to intervene.

        d. Arbitrary Arrest or Detention.--The law prohibits arbitrary
    arrest and detention, but security forces arbitrarily arrested persons
    during the year. Police routinely abused their 48-hour detention
    authority by holding persons unlawfully (i.e., without proper access to
    counsel, food, and medicine, or in adequate facilities), often at the
    behest of the chief district officer (CDO) or assistant CDO. It was not
    unusual for CDOs to direct police to arrest individuals for minor,
    petty infractions (e.g., unpaid taxes), and many of those orders (which
    were frequently verbal) were undocumented and appeared politically
    motivated.

        Role of the Police and Security Apparatus.--The NP is responsible
    for enforcing law and order across the country, and the APF provides
    back-up support. Police did not respond to most incidents of violence,
    particularly events involving Maoists and armed groups in the Terai.
    There were multiple incidents in which police detained persons for
    illegal acts, but political leaders sometimes pressured the NP to
    release detainees.
        The NP, APF, and NA have human rights cells to investigate cases of
    abuse, although they tend to limit their activities to training and
    capacity building rather than investigating cases; corruption and
    impunity remained problems. The NP is generally unarmed and has the
    role of preventing and investigating nonterrorist criminal behavior.
        At the district level, the NP often operated without significant
    guidance from superiors, allowing considerable discretion in the
    enforcement of laws. There continued to be many reports of police abuse
    and bribery. The NP, APF, and NA have mechanisms for investigating
    abuses by security forces; however, the investigations are internal and
    not fully transparent.

        Arrest Procedure and Treatment While in Detention--The law
    stipulates that, except in cases involving suspected security and
    narcotics violations, authorities must obtain a warrant for arrest and
    arraign or release a suspect within 24 hours of arrest. There were
    still instances in which detainees were kept in illegal detention for
    several days after their arrest.
        If the court upholds a detention, the law authorizes police to hold
    the suspect for up to 25 days to complete an investigation, with a
    possible extension of seven days, although security forces occasionally
    held prisoners for longer periods. In some cases the Supreme Court
    ordered the release of detainees held longer than 24 hours without a
    court appearance. Some foreigners, including refugees, reported
    difficulty in obtaining bail. The interim constitution provides for
    access to a state-appointed lawyer or one of the detainee's choice even
    if charges have not been filed; however, few detainees could afford
    their own lawyer.
        Detainees have the legal right to receive visits by family members.
    In practice, however, family access to prisoners varied from prison to
    prison. There is a system of bail, but bonds were too expensive for
    most citizens. Pretrial detention often exceeded the period to which
    persons subsequently were sentenced after a trial and conviction. Time
    served is credited to a prisoner's sentence.
        Under the Public Security Act (PSA), security forces may detain
    persons who allegedly threaten domestic security and tranquility,
    amicable relations with other countries, or relations between citizens
    of different classes or religions. The Government may detain persons in
    preventive detention for as long as 12 months without charging them
    with a crime, as long as the detention complies with PSA procedural
    requirements. The court does not have any substantive legal role in
    preventative detentions under the PSA.
        Other laws, including the Public Offenses Act, permit detention
    without charge for as long as 25 days. This act covers crimes such as
    disturbing the peace, vandalism, rioting, and fighting. Human rights
    monitors expressed concern that the act vests too much discretionary
    power in the CDO. Police frequently arrested citizens under this act
    and detained them for short periods without charge.
        According to AF, in some cases detainees were brought before
    judicial authorities well after the legally mandated 24-hour limit,
    allegedly to allow injuries from mistreatment by police to heal.
        NGOs expressed concern about police use of private houses to hold
    detainees after arrest.

        e. Denial of Fair Public Trial.--The law provides for an
    independent judiciary, but courts remained vulnerable to political
    pressure, bribery, and intimidation.
        The Supreme Court has the right to review the constitutionality of
    legislation passed by parliament. Appellate and district courts showed
    independence and impartiality in many cases, although they remained
    susceptible to political pressures.
        The judicial system consists of three levels: district courts,
    appellate courts, and the Supreme Court. The Constitutional Council,
    chaired by the prime minister, nominates the chief justice of the
    Supreme Court. After an advisory hearing before the Parliamentary
    Special Hearing Committee, the president may then appoint the new chief
    justice. After advisory hearings the chief justice, on recommendation
    of the Judicial Council, appoints other Supreme Court justices. The
    council also is responsible for the assignment of judges, disciplinary
    action, and other administrative matters. A special court has
    jurisdiction over corruption, but other cases are heard by the district
    court.
        Delays in the administration of justice were a severe problem. As
    of December 15, the Supreme Court reported a backlog of 10,023 cases.
    There was no indication that this backlog lessened during the year.

        Trial Procedures.--Although the law provides for the right to
    counsel, equal protection under the law, protection from double
    jeopardy, protection from retroactive application of the law, and
    public trials, these rights were not applied equally, except in a few
    security and customs cases. Defendants enjoy the presumption of
    innocence except in some cases, like human trafficking and drug
    trafficking, where the burden of proof is on the defendant. Judges
    decide cases; there is no jury system. All lower court decisions,
    including acquittals, are subject to appeal. The Supreme Court is the
    court of last resort. The law provides detainees with the right to
    legal representation and a court-appointed lawyer, a government lawyer,
    or access to private attorneys; however, the Government provided legal
    counsel only upon request. Persons who are unaware of their rights may
    be deprived of legal representation. Defense lawyers may cross examine
    accusers. By law they are entitled to have access to government-held
    evidence, but it was very difficult to obtain this access.
        Military courts adjudicate cases concerning military personnel
    under the military code, which provides military personnel the same
    basic rights as civilians. Military personnel are immune from
    prosecution in civilian courts, except in cases of homicide or rape
    involving a civilian. The NA has argued that military personnel are
    immune from prosecution in civilian courts for conflict-era violations,
    an interpretation of law that is not shared by the human rights
    community and inconsistent with Supreme Court decisions. Military
    courts cannot try civilians for crimes, even if the crimes involve the
    military services; civilian courts handle these cases.
        Authorities may prosecute terrorism or treason cases under the
    Treason Act. Specially constituted tribunals hear these trials in
    closed sessions, but no such trials have occurred since 1991.
        Although the Maoists announced the dissolution of their parallel
    government structures and courts in 2007, according to police and NGO
    reporting, they continued to function in some districts, particularly
    in rural areas. In areas where they no longer functioned, the Maoists
    often expected previous decisions and sentences to be carried out.
    These courts had no due process and handled both criminal and civil
    cases. According to the OHCHR, these courts did not provide minimum
    guarantees of due process and fair trials.

        Political Prisoners and Detainees.--There were no reports of
    political prisoners or detainees.

        Civil Judicial Procedures and Remedies.--During the year there were
    some allegations of government abuses of civil procedures, including
    bribery and intimidation by political leaders.

        Property Restitution--The Maoists returned some previously seized
    property as the CPA requires but kept other illegally seized lands and
    properties in their possession; they also seized additional properties.

        f. Arbitrary Interference With Privacy, Family, Home, or
    Correspondence.--The law allows police forces to conduct searches and
    seizures without a warrant if there is probable cause that a crime has
    been committed. In that case, a search may be conducted as long as two
    or more persons of ``good character'' are present. If an officer has
    reasonable cause to believe that a suspect may have material evidence
    present, then the officer must submit a written request to another
    police office, and there must be another official present who is at
    least at the rank of assistant subinspector when searching a person or
    place.
        Security personnel frequently conducted vehicle and body searches
    at roadblocks in many areas of the country.
        On February 25, the Supreme Court ordered the Government and
    private sector to end discriminatory maternity leave restrictions
    against mothers on the basis of number of children.
        There were no reports of the Government forcing civilians to
    resettle. Some persons who had resettled to escape Maoist extortion,
    recruitment, or retaliation could not return home.
        The YCL occasionally conducted illegal forced searches of
    businesses, civilian homes, and property. On January 22, YCL members
    raided a hotel in Chitwan and turned over to police 13 couples they
    believed to be involved in ``illicit'' activities there. The police
    later released the couples, and the CDO called the YCL's actions
    ``condemnable.''

        g. Use of Excessive Force and Other Abuses in Internal Conflicts--
    There was continuing conflict in the Terai. Numerous armed groups, many
    ethnically based, clashed with each other and with the local
    population. Police were unable fully to promote law and order. Members
    of the Maoists, the Maoist-affiliated YCL, and other ethnically based
    splinter groups in the Terai frequently committed acts of violence,
    extortion, and intimidation throughout the year.
        On February 6, an IED exploded in front of the district court in
    Janakpur, Dhanusha District, and on February 7, two IEDs exploded in
    Birgunj, Parsa District. Another IED, discovered near a temple in
    Janakpur, was defused by a bomb disposal team from the NA. On March 28,
    an IED exploded at the UCPN-M party office in Nepalgunj, Banke
    District, injuring three persons, including a child.
        According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian
    Affairs (OCHA), VDC secretaries from various parts of the country
    resigned, citing insecurity after receiving threats from the
    underground group SJMM. The SJMM demanded the resignation of the
    secretaries, stating that it would establish a parallel administration
    in villages. Since January, 1,239 VDC secretaries in 23 districts
    received threats; as a result, 514 VDC secretaries in 11 districts
    reportedly resigned. Local administration officials stated that
    secretaries would be requested to withdraw their resignation after
    consultations with political parties and others concerned.

        Killings.--On June 26, Kashinath Tiwari, the chairman of Hindu Yuva
    Sangh, was killed in Birgunj. A complaint was lodged against seven
    UCPN-M activists. However, the Maoists in the district denied their
    involvement in the incident.
        On July 9, a group of unidentified persons killed Chhabi Lal Karki,
    district leader of the UML from Okhaldhunga. The UML accused the
    Maoists of the killing. On August 20, a joint report prepared by
    Campaign for Human Rights and Social Transformation Nepal and Joint
    Forum for Human Rights concluded the murder was motivated by politics
    and family rivalries.
        There were no developments in the 2007 killing of Ram Babu Sharma
    Neupane by cadres of the Janatantrik Terai Mukti Morcha-Goit faction.

        Child Soldiers.--The 2006 Agreement on the Monitoring of the
    Management of Arms and Armies forbids the use of children younger than
    18 as soldiers in the armies of either side. In addition the Maoists
    agreed to release Maoist army personnel who were found to be child
    soldiers during the verification process. On January 7, the Maoist army
    started the official discharge of the 2,973 child soldiers that were in
    the Maoist army cantonments. The discharge process was completed on
    February 9. During the year the OHCHR and UN Children's Fund monitored
    the former child soldiers to ensure that Maoist militant groups did not
    recruit them again or attempt to recruit new child soldiers.

        Other Conflict-Related Abuses.--Maoists and Maoist-affiliated
    organizations continued to commit abuses during the year in
    contravention of the CPA. Maoists regularly extorted money from
    businesses, workers, private citizens, and NGOs. When individuals or
    companies refused or were unable to pay, Maoists retaliated violently
    or threatened violence.
        Maoists attacked political opponents on several occasions. On May
    6, according to the OHCHR, YCL members allegedly attacked the president
    of the Nepal Teachers' Union and member of political party the Nepali
    Congress (NC), Rup Narayan Jabegu, in Panchthar District. While he took
    refuge in the district headquarters, the armed group reportedly
    vandalized his house, assaulted him with a knife, and shot at him. The
    group left when villagers gathered to protest. On May 7, approximately
    100 to 150 NC members surrounded the houses of the YCL cadres who were
    allegedly involved and vandalized one of the houses.
        There were no developments in the May 2009 case in which a group of
    27 YCL cadres allegedly attacked the NC's Kalikot district president,
    Mukti Prasad Neupane.
        In preparation for its May protests, the UCPN-M increased its
    collection of funds from local residents and provided combat training
    to its cadres in Dang and Baglung districts. YCL members in Dang
    District trained using lathis (sticks) and khukuris (knives). The OHCHR
    received information that in several instances UCPN-M cadres forced
    people to make monetary contributions before, during, and after the
    nationwide May protests. Throughout the protest there were reports that
    Maoists vandalized and destroyed property, including shops and other
    businesses, that did not comply with Maoist orders to remain closed.
    The threat of violence by protesters armed with sticks intimidated many
    to make ``donations.'' On May 10 and 12, UCPN-M cadres in Megu and
    Achham districts forced local teachers and businessmen to pay money to
    the party, while in Surkhet District, Maoists solicited ``support''
    from VDC secretaries and government staff.

    Section 2. Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:
        a. Freedom of Speech and Press.--The law provides for freedom of
    speech and of the press; however, the Government's failure to
    effectively enforce the law undermined such freedoms. In one case,
    police beat journalists.
        Citizens often voice critical opinions in the media via letters to
    the editor and by posting comments on Web sites. Generally, citizens
    felt they could voice their opinions freely. The Home Ministry's
    efforts to block Internet sites considered obscene were met with mixed
    reactions from the public and raised concerns about freedom of
    expression among some members of the press and free speech advocates
    (see Internet Freedom).
        On March 21, in the southern Nepali town of Janakpur, police beat
    13 journalists reporting on demonstrations by local residents demanding
    action against a police officer for raping a newlywed bride (see
    section 6, women). Three journalists were seriously injured and had to
    be brought to Kathmandu for treatment. The police hit the journalists
    with the butt of their guns and kicked them, according to the
    Federation of Nepali Journalists (FNJ). The FNJ organized rallies in
    Janakpur and Kathmandu on March 22 and 23 to protest the police action.
        The interim constitution protects media licenses from revocation
    based on the content of what is printed or broadcast. The Government
    owned two television stations, Nepal TV and Nepal TV Metro, and
    controlled one radio station that broadcast both AM and FM signals.
    Radio remained the primary source of information, with more than 150
    independent radio stations reaching more than 90 percent of the
    population.
        The independent media were active and expressed a wide variety of
    views. Hundreds of independent vernacular and English-language
    newspapers were available, representing various political viewpoints.
        Foreign publications were widely available, and none were banned or
    censored during the year. Foreign print media were present, and
    reporting on the country was allowed without restrictions.
        Armed groups, criminals, and political parties deliberately
    targeted media owners and journalists throughout the country, killing
    three media owners and attacking or threatening more than 50 others.
    Three media owners were killed within a period of six months, from
    February to July. Armed groups and persons claiming to be members of
    political parties attacked journalists and printing presses. There were
    frequent reports that Maoist protesters threatened and attacked
    journalists during the nationwide protests in May. The Government
    promised action against those targeting journalists; however, it failed
    to identify and punish the perpetrators. This impunity encouraged
    others to resort to threats of violence to silence critics in the
    media.
        On February 7, unknown gunmen shot and killed Jamin Shah, the
    chairman of a popular news and current affairs channel and the largest
    cable operator in the country, Space Time Network.
        On March 1, Arun Singhaniya, the chairperson of Janakpur Today
    Publications, was shot and killed in Janakpur, Dhanusha District. Two
    armed groups--the Terai Janatantrik Party (Madesh) and the Janatantrik
    Terai Mukti Morcha--claimed responsibility for the killing. A FIR was
    registered by the police, and the case remained under investigation at
    year's end.
        Excessive force was often used against journalists. For example, on
    May 18, employees of Unity Life International (ULI), a large-scale,
    illegal business network, beat up reporters of Kantipur Television,
    Rajanish Bhandari, and Bikash Adhikary as they were reporting the
    police crackdown on the offices of ULI. Police arrested three persons
    in connection with the assault, but the case had not been prosecuted as
    of year's end.
        On June 30, a journalist was abducted by an unidentified group in
    Pyuthan District, reportedly for criticizing a political party's
    activities. He was released on July 1, but no arrests were made in the
    case.
        On July 22, an unidentified group of five men in the midwestern
    Dang District killed the chairperson of Tulsipur Radio, Devi Prasad
    Dhital (also known as Hemraj). The authorities were not able to
    identify or arrest the perpetrators.
        On July 26, in Bhaktapur, former king Gyanendra Shah's security
    personnel physically assaulted journalists and destroyed camera
    equipment after they asked the former king political questions.
        The Maoists also influenced media outlets through their powerful
    trade unions. In the Terai and the eastern hills, armed groups coerced
    journalists, resulting in self-censorship and fear for personal safety.
    Armed groups and political parties burned copies of newspapers that
    they found objectionable.
        Numerous armed groups in Terai and three armed ethnic groups in the
    hills--the Kirati Janawadi Workers' Party, the Unified Limbuwan State
    Council, and Khambuwan--extorted money from journalists, according to
    the FNJ, although victims did not report these cases due to concerns
    for their personal safety.
        On January 22, in Kathmandu, a group of masked men entered the
    apartment of Yashoda Timsina, a journalist who reportedly was
    investigating the killing of Uma Singh. When they determined Timsina
    was not at home, they threatened her housekeeper. Timsina decided not
    to pursue this matter further.
        On April 9, Madhesi Janadhikar Forum cadres torched copies of
    Kantipur, Nagarik, and Naya Patrika dailies in the southern Nepali town
    of Birgunj. They accused the newspapers of not properly highlighting
    their two-day Terai strike.
        On May 9, Maoists attacked photojournalist Prabin Maharjan in
    Kathmandu and harassed several media representatives who were covering
    a Maoist protest program in front of Singha Durbar, the Government
    complex where the prime minister's office and most ministries are
    located. Maharjan received 13 stitches for skull injuries. Similarly,
    Maoist cadres harassed Shruti Niroula, a reporter for Sagarmatha Radio,
    for an hour. Maoists also attacked Rabindra Shrestha, a reporter for
    Avenues Television, hitting him with metal rods and sticks, and
    destroyed his camera.
        On May 28, UCPN-M cadres torched copies of Nagarik and Republica,
    reportedly over prior unfavorable reporting. Maoist cadres later called
    local journalists to take responsibility for the torching. On May 29,
    Maoists cadres in the southern Terai district of Chitwan set fire to a
    van along with 9,500 copies of the same two dailies, allegedly over the
    same matter.
        There were no further developments in the January 2009 killing of
    Uma Singh, a female journalist who reported on women's rights and
    against the caste system for Janakpur Today Radio, an FM radio station.
    The Government also failed to produce any significant leads in two
    other 2009 attacks against female journalists Manika Jha and Tika
    Bista.
        The country limited freedom of expression for the Tibetan
    community.
        On February 14, police seized Tibetan flags from Tibetans and did
    not allow them to wear T-shirts displaying the flags during a
    candlelight program in Kathmandu, according to reports received by the
    OHCHR.

        Internet Freedom.--There were some government restrictions on
    access to the Internet but no reports that the Government monitored e-
    mail or Internet chat rooms. Individuals and groups could engage in the
    peaceful expression of views via the Internet, including by e-mail,
    although the Home Ministry's threat to use the Electronic Transmission
    Act to prosecute violators of its antiobscenity decrees further raised
    concerns about Internet censorship. As of June approximately 625,800,
    or 2.2 percent of the population, used the Internet.

        Academic Freedom and Cultural Events.--There were no government
    restrictions on academic freedom or cultural events.
        The country's media continued to report instances of abduction,
    extortion, and intimidation of school officials by armed groups.

        b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association.--The law provides
    for freedom of assembly and association; however, the Government
    sometimes restricted freedom of assembly.

        Freedom of Assembly--The law provides for freedom of assembly, and
    it was generally respected for citizens and legal residents of the
    country, despite some restrictions. The law authorizes CDOs to impose
    curfews if there is a possibility that demonstrations or riots may
    disturb the peace.
        According to the OHCHR, the NP and APF occasionally responded to
    provocations and protests with excessive and lethal force. For example,
    on March 31, according to the OHCHR, police injured nine members of
    Women Security Pressure Group (WSPG) during a clash in Chitwan District
    when the group tried to organize a protest on the highway. Police
    arrested 10 WSPG members but released them without charges the same
    evening.
        In May the Maoist party held a nearly week-long nationwide strike
    during which Maoist protesters blocked roads, limited vehicular
    movement, and forced businesses to remain closed during much of the
    day. Although the Government allowed the protests, there were some
    confrontations between business owners, private citizens, and
    protesters. Security forces largely stayed away from the protesters.
        The country limited freedom of assembly for the Tibetan community.
        On March 9 and 10, the NP and APF arrested 28 Tibetans who staged
    protests to mark the 51st anniversary of the Tibetan uprising against
    the Chinese in Tibet. On July 6, police set up checkpoints at different
    locations, stopping members of the Tibetan community and other vehicles
    heading toward the birthday celebrations of the Dalai Lama in
    Kathmandu. More than 100 persons reportedly were detained at the
    Lalitpur District Police Office. On October 3, the Government seized
    ballot boxes from at least three locations in Kathmandu during an
    election held by the Central Tibet Administration; at year's end, the
    Government continued to hold the boxes.

        Freedom of Association.--The law provides for freedom of
    association, and the Government generally respected this right in
    practice.

        c. Freedom of Religion.--For a complete description of religious
    freedom, please see the 2010 International Religious Freedom Report at
    www.state.gov/g/drl/irf/rpt.

        d. Freedom of Movement, Internally Displaced Persons, Protection of
    Refugees, and Stateless Persons.--The law provides for freedom of
    movement except for most refugees, whose freedom of movement within the
    country is legally limited. Constraints on refugee movements were
    enforced unevenly and more often against the Tibetan than the Bhutanese
    refugee population. The Government did not always cooperate with the
    Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and other
    humanitarian organizations in providing protection and assistance to
    internally displaced persons, refugees, returning refugees, stateless
    persons, and other persons of concern. In contrast to 2009, the
    Government detained some newly arrived Tibetans, rather than releasing
    them to the UNHCR.
        Numerous political groups restricted freedom of movement within the
    country, including forcing transportation strikes, known locally as
    ``bandhs,'' to bring attention to political issues. Ethnic groups in
    the Terai called most bandhs.
        The law prohibits forced exile, and it was not used during the
    year. The Government allowed citizens to emigrate and those abroad to
    return and was not known to revoke citizenship for political reasons.

        Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs)--Although the Government and
    Maoists agreed to support the voluntary return in safety and dignity of
    IDPs to their homes following the 10-year civil war, in practice the
    agreement was not implemented. Several UN agencies, including the
    UNHCR, the OHCHR, and the UN Development Program, continued working
    with the Government to develop an IDP policy consistent with
    international principles. Civil society and international organizations
    estimated there were as many as 70,000 IDPs in the country. The
    Ministry of Peace and Reconstruction estimated that 78,689 people were
    displaced from 1996 to 2006. Unrest in the Terai region led to more
    displacement during the year.
        The Government allowed several international organizations, such as
    the Norwegian Refugee Council, the ICRC, Caritas, International Relief
    and Development, and Action Aid Nepal to initiate programs to assist
    IDPs. Middle- and lower-caste IDPs faced severe problems in obtaining
    adequate shelter and food. According to UN agencies and international
    NGOs, the main obstacles preventing most IDPs from returning to their
    homes continued to be fear of Maoist reprisal, local Maoist commanders'
    noncompliance, and conflict with those occupying the houses and lands
    of the IDPs. According to the Nepal IDP Working Group, most of the IDPs
    in the country were unwilling to return to their homes, due not only to
    a lack of security but also to economic concerns, primarily involving
    property, housing, and employment opportunities.
        Children of people who were killed or displaced during the conflict
    were often unable to access government benefits because they were
    unable to register with local authorities because of fear of
    retribution by Maoists or inability to confirm the death of a family
    member who disappeared during the conflict. According to Caritas, the
    Government made little effort to aid or monitor the movement of
    postconflict IDPs.

        Protection of Refugees.--The country is not a party to the 1951
    Convention relating to the Status of Refugees or the 1967 Protocol
    relating to the Status of Refugees, and federal laws do not provide for
    the granting of asylum or refugee status. The Government has in place
    ad hoc administrative directives that provide some protection for
    Bhutanese and Tibetan refugees.
        The Government officially restricted freedom of movement and work
    for the approximately 75,000 Bhutanese refugees living in the country
    during the year, but those restrictions were largely unenforced for
    this population. In 2007 the Government agreed to permit third-country
    resettlement for Bhutanese refugees. Since resettlement began, more
    than 40,000 Bhutanese refugees have been resettled.
        Tibetans who arrived in the country after 1989 are not recognized
    as refugees. Consequently, most Tibetans who arrived since then have
    transited to India, although an unknown number of such Tibetans
    remained in Nepal or returned to the country after visiting India.
    After the People's Republic of China heightened security along its
    border and increased restrictions on internal freedom of movement in
    2008, the number of Tibetans who transited the country dropped
    significantly. On May 11, the Government notified the UNHCR that it
    would refuse to issue exit permits to new arrivals until the Department
    of Immigration conducted a full investigation into individual cases.
    Following negotiations with the UNHCR, the Government resumed issuing
    exit permits.
        There continued to be reports of harassment by Chinese officials
    within Nepal's borders, including a credible report that Chinese police
    crossed the border into Nepal on August 3 or 4 and arrested three
    Tibetan persons. There were instances in which local police assisted
    and protected Tibetans who were found along the border region; however,
    there were other reports of newly arrived Tibetans who were pushed back
    to the border and/or were detained and charged for illegal entry into
    Nepal. In early June, there was an incident in which seven Tibetans,
    including four minors, hid in the woods to evade Chinese police
    searching for them inside Nepal.
        In practice the Government did not provide full protection against
    the expulsion or return of refugees to countries where their lives or
    freedom would be threatened on account of their race, religion,
    nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political
    opinion. In June there was a confirmed forcible return of three
    Tibetans, the first since 2003. According to reports received by the
    UNHCR, two of the three Tibetans forcibly returned to China are now in
    prison.
        Many of the Tibetans who live in the country did not have legal
    resident status. Many who arrived after 1990, and their Nepal-born
    children, were without legal status and had no documentation. Even
    those with acknowledged refugee status had no legal rights beyond the
    ability to remain in the country, and the Nepal-born children of
    Tibetans with legal status often lacked documentation. Tibetan refugees
    had no entitlement to obtain access to higher education, business
    ownership or licenses, or legal transactions, including documentation
    of births, marriages, and deaths, although bribery often made these
    possible.
        There were numerous reports that police and other local officials
    harassed Tibetans engaged in daily activities. Police reportedly
    conducted random checks of identity documents of Tibetans, including
    monks. These checks sometimes included threats of deportation, followed
    by requests for bribes. On February 17, 13 Tibetan youths were arrested
    in Thamel while they were celebrating the Lhosar festival. In April
    nine Tibetans were charged and sentenced to long-term detention for
    entering the country illegally. On October 29, a local NGO reported
    that members of the Tibetan community were prevented from participating
    in a religious celebration held at Namgyal Middle School in Swoyambhu.
    Five Tibetans were arrested on November 11 in Boudha. Police claimed
    the arrests were prompted by reports that the Tibetans were planning to
    protest outside the Chinese Embassy.
        The country also hosted approximately 250 refugees from other
    countries, including Somalia, Burma, and Pakistan. The Government
    continued to deny these groups recognition as refugees and required
    prohibitive fines to obtain permission to exit. However, the Government
    permitted the waiver of the fines in a few instances in which there
    were compelling humanitarian concerns. The Government also allowed the
    UNHCR to provide some services for these refugees. These refugees did
    not have legal access to education or the right to work.

        Stateless Persons--In 1995 the Government-established Dhanapati
    Commission estimated that 3.4 million individuals in the country were
    de facto stateless. Although the Government acknowledged that these
    individuals were Nepalis, they did not hold the citizenship certificate
    (issued to citizens at the age of 16 if born to a Nepali parent) needed
    to obtain many rights of citizenship (see section 6, women and
    children). Although the 2006 Citizenship Act allowed more than 2.6
    million persons to receive certificates, NGOs estimated that
    approximately 800,000 de facto stateless persons remained in the
    country. There was no further progress during the year on this issue.
        Nepal employs discriminatory gender laws that prevent women married
    to foreign men from transmitting citizenship to their spouse. According
    to the law, citizenship is conferred to children if either the mother
    or father is a citizen. Despite the law, in practice local officials
    have generally refused to issue citizenship documents to children on
    the basis of their mother's citizenship certificate alone. The issue of
    citizenship rights was under review in the Constituent Assembly during
    the year.
        Stateless persons did not experience violence; however, they did
    experience discrimination in employment, education, housing, health
    services, marriage, birth registration, access to courts/judicial
    procedures, and land or property ownership.

    Section 3. Respect for Political Rights: The Right of Citizens to
            Change Their Government
        The law provides citizens the right to change their government
    peacefully. Domestic and international observers generally
    characterized the 2008 election results as credible, although there
    were reports of political violence, intimidation, and voting
    irregularities.

        Elections and Political Participation.--In 2008 citizens elected
    members for the Constituent Assembly (CA) to serve as both a
    legislature and constitution drafting body. Domestic and international
    observers found the election results credible, although there were
    reports of political violence, intimidation, and voting irregularities.
    The most recent local elections, held in 2006, were not considered free
    and fair.
        The CA consists of 601 members, with 240 elected by a first-past-
    the-post system; 335 by proportional representation; quotas for Dalits,
    oppressed caste/indigenous ethnic groups, Madhesis, women, and other
    underrepresented groups; and 26 nominated by the cabinet. CA members
    classified as oppressed or members of minority ethnic groups
    constituted 35 percent of the total, and 33 percent were women. The
    president and vice president belong to the historically disadvantaged
    Madhesi ethnic community.
        Political parties generally operated without restriction or outside
    interference, although there were some allegations that activists from
    the UCPN-M do not allow other political parties to organize and
    campaign freely in certain districts.
        There are no specific laws that restrict women, indigenous people,
    or minorities from voting or participating in government or in
    political parties, but tradition limited the roles of women and some
    castes and ethnicities in the political process. Members of certain
    castes traditionally held more power than others. There are 195 women
    out of a total of 596 currently serving as members of the CA. Of the
    44-member cabinet, seven members were from ethnic minority communities,
    five were women, and four were Dalits. Most of the larger political
    parties had associated youth wings, trade unions, and social
    organizations.

    Section 4. Official Corruption and Government Transparency
        The law provides criminal penalties for official corruption;
    however, the Government did not implement the law effectively. The
    Commission for the Investigation of the Abuse of Authority (CIAA),
    mandated to investigate official acts of corruption, claimed a 75
    percent success rate concerning corruption cases it filed, but some
    cases involving politicians were not filed or were defeated in court.
    Most civil society organizations believed the CIAA was not an effective
    commission. Public officials are subject to financial disclosure laws;
    however, according to the National Vigilance Center (NVC), 77 CA
    members and 34,000 civil servants have not submitted their property
    details as required by law. The law requires civil servants to submit
    their property details within 60 days of the end of each fiscal year.
    Those who do not may face a fine of up to 5,000 rupees ($69).
        There were numerous reports of corruption by ministers and CA
    members. For example, on April 21, the CIAA directed the Nepal
    Investment Bank to freeze the account of the financial relief fund
    being operated by the minister of women, children, and social welfare,
    Sarvadev Ojha, after suspecting malfeasance. According to the CIAA,
    Ojha had been depositing amounts received from foreign donors and also
    using the account according to his discretion without approval from the
    ministry or the CA. The CIAA asked Ojha to submit an explanation; as of
    year's end, there was no response. There were reports that the CIAA
    secretary faced political pressure not to prosecute ministers.
        On August 31, the CIAA arrested CA member Dol Bahadur Karki and his
    accomplice, Brahmananda Udaseen, after Karki allegedly received a
    100,000 rupee ($1,384) bribe to help a man get appointed to the NP. A
    special court remanded Karki to temporary custody to investigate the
    charges, and a court hearing was set for January 2011.
        On July 15, the Supreme Court stayed the Government's attempt to
    withdraw pending criminal cases due to the Government's failure to
    provide sufficient reason to justify the withdrawals. Almost two dozen
    accused persons were affected by the decision. All the cases were
    forwarded to the district attorneys' offices for evaluation of the
    individual cases' merits and were pending at year's end.
        In December the UN expressed concern about the effectiveness of the
    NP unit in Darfur, since the unit was unable to use its armored
    personnel carriers (APCs). A Parliamentary Investigation Committee
    report stated that a lack of transparency, including possible
    embezzlement, during the procurement process resulted in the
    procurement of nonfunctional APCs.
        Corruption and impunity remained problems within the NP. According
    to international observers, there was a severe shortage of senior-level
    officers. At the district level, this shortage resulted in untrained
    constables making policies and decisions outside of their authority and
    without supervision, creating space for bribery, corruption,
    misinterpretation, and abuse of authority.
        In 2007 the interim parliament passed the Right to Information Law,
    which mandated that public organizations provide citizens with
    information as quickly as possible and respond within 15 days. In
    practice the Government generally met this requirement. If authorities
    deny individuals access to information, officials must provide a valid
    explanation. The law provides five exemptions for withholding
    information: to facilitate the investigation and filing of criminal
    cases, to protect the economic and commercial interests of the country,
    to preserve banking and commercial secrecy, to prevent disruption of
    communal harmony, or to prevent disruption to personal life or
    security.

    Section 5. Governmental Attitude Regarding International and
            Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations of Human
            Rights
        A number of domestic and international human rights groups
    generally operated without government restriction, investigating and
    publishing their findings on human rights cases. Government officials
    were somewhat cooperative and responsive to their views.
        Many independent domestic human rights NGOs operated in the
    country. The Nepal Law Society also monitored human rights abuses, and
    a number of other NGOs focused on specific areas, such as torture,
    child labor, women's rights, and ethnic minorities.
        According to OCHA, there were occasional credible claims that
    Maoists interfered with the operations of international NGOs.
        On June 26, Agni Sapkota, a senior Maoist leader, was denied
    participation in a leadership training program due to serious and
    specific human rights allegations associated with his conduct during
    the insurgency. The UCPN-M party publicly castigated some lawyers and
    human rights defenders for their possible role in informing the
    decision to exclude Sapkota. Members of the Maoist party made threats
    against specific human rights defenders. On July 16, the OHCHR released
    a press statement that stressed the importance of respecting the
    professional freedoms of lawyers and human rights defenders.
        The Government welcomed and regularly granted visas to
    international NGOs and other human rights monitors, including members
    of Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. Authorities generally
    gave international observers access to barracks and places of
    detention. International observers were not granted access to courts
    martial and military investigations.
        As set out in the 2006 CPA, the OHCHR continued its work with the
    Government to formulate and implement policies and programs for the
    promotion and protection of human rights. The OHCHR's mandate was
    extended until June 2011, although the Government required the OHCHR to
    close all its regional offices.
        During the year the OHCHR issued 28 press releases. The media
    covered all reports freely.
        The NHRC investigates past and current allegations of abuses.
    Resource constraints and insufficient manpower restricted the number of
    cases the commission investigated. Once the NHRC completes an
    investigation and makes a recommendation, the Government has three
    months to respond. The commission received 488 complaints of human
    rights violations from July 2009 to June 2010. The NHRC also
    investigated the illegal detention and arrest of acquitted persons and
    reported that it had open access to government detainees across the
    country.
        The NHRC stated that the Government had helped promote impunity in
    the nation by not implementing its recommendations. Of 386
    recommendations the NHRC made during the previous 10 years, the
    Government implemented 34 fully and 138 partially. The Government had
    not acted on 214 recommendations at year's end.

    Section 6. Discrimination, Societal Abuses, and Trafficking in Persons
        The law specifies that the Government shall not discriminate
    against citizens on grounds of race, sex, caste, or ideology; however,
    a rigid caste system continued to operate throughout the country in
    many areas of religious, professional, and daily life. Societal
    discrimination against lower castes, women, and persons with
    disabilities remained common, especially in rural areas.

        Women.--Under the civil code, sentencing provisions for rape vary
    between five and 12 years, depending on the female victim's age. The
    sentencing provisions also mandate five years' additional imprisonment
    in the case of gang rape or rape of pregnant women or women with
    disabilities. The victim's compensation depends on the degree of mental
    and physical torture. Under the law, the definition of rape includes
    marital rape, and the husband can be jailed for three to six months.
    Most incidents of rape went unreported, although in those rape cases
    reported, the police and the courts were responsive. During fiscal year
    2009-10, 376 cases of rape and 101 cases of attempted rape were filed
    in the court, according to the Women's Police Cell, a special unit of
    the NP that investigates crimes against women.
        On March 20, a police subinspector allegedly raped an 18-year-old
    Indian woman in the railway police station in Janakpur, Dhanusha
    District. Large crowds clashed with police after hearing the news of
    the rape, and more than 280 persons were injured (see section 2.a.).
    The victim of the rape filed a FIR with the Dhanusha DPO, and the
    subinspector was initially suspended but was later cleared of the
    charges because the victim failed to appear before the court. According
    to the Women's Police Cell, the medical report did not provide any
    evidence in support of the case.
        On June 10, a group of five persons allegedly accosted a 52-year-
    old woman outside the Vishwa Hindu Mahasangh (VHM) office in the
    capital, dragged her to the fourth floor of the office building, and
    raped her. Police arrested and planned to charge the 70-year-old
    caretaker of the VHM office and others involved with rape. Two men were
    jailed, and three others were released on bail. As of year's end, the
    case had not come to trial.
        In September 2009 police interrogated a 14-year-old rape victim in
    front of a large crowd outside the Sunsari Police Station in Dharan.
    One of the alleged rapists was a police officer who offered the family
    30,000 rupees ($415) to withdraw the case against him. According to
    district police, the case was dismissed.
        Domestic violence against women remained a serious problem; while
    few cases were reported, there was much anecdotal evidence that
    physical and verbal abuse was common. However, during the year the
    Government passed regulations to implement the Domestic Violence Act
    (2009) and in November endorsed a national action plan for the
    implementation of UN Security Council Resolutions 1325 and 1820, which
    address issues of women in conflict, peace, and security and gender-
    based violence.
        Educational programs by NGOs for police, politicians, and the
    general public aimed to promote greater awareness of domestic violence.
    Police claimed to have women's cells in all of the country's 75
    districts, although this claim could not be confirmed. Female officers
    in the cells received special training in dealing with victims of
    domestic violence and trafficking. Police directives instruct all
    officers to treat domestic violence as a criminal offense, but the
    directives were difficult to enforce because of entrenched
    discriminatory attitudes among police. Even if police made arrests,
    often neither the victim nor the Government pursued prosecution.
    Shelters are provided in all districts, and usually not inside the
    police station. There are toll-free hotlines for various services.
        The law imposes a fine of 3,000 to 25,000 rupees ($41 to $346), six
    months' imprisonment, or both on persons who commit domestic violence.
    Repeat offenders receive twice the punishment. Any person holding a
    position of public responsibility is subject to 10 percent greater
    punishment than is a person who does not hold such a position. Anyone
    who does not follow a court order is subject to a fine of 2,000 to
    15,000 rupees ($28 to $208), four months' imprisonment, or both.
        A reliable study published in March found that suicide was the
    leading cause of death among women of reproductive age (between the
    ages of 15 to 49). Analysts suggested that family issues, including
    domestic mental and physical abuse, were key factors in the high
    suicide rate among women.
        Although the law prohibits polygamy, it persisted. Polygamists are
    subject to a two-month prison term and fine, but the second marriage is
    not invalidated. Violence surrounding polygamy remained a problem.
        The dowry tradition was strong in the Terai districts bordering
    India, and there were sporadic incidences of bride killing over dowry
    disputes. More often, husbands or in-laws seeking additional dowry
    physically abused wives or forced women to leave so the men could
    remarry.
        In April 2009 Bishnu Bhatta of Daiji Champapur was arrested for
    severely beating his daughter-in-law, Laxmi Devi Bhatta, for not
    providing sufficient dowry. As of year's end, there was no additional
    information available about the case.
        Traditional beliefs about witchcraft negatively affected elderly
    rural women and widows. Shamans or other local authority figures
    publicly beat and physically abused alleged witches as part of an
    exorcism ceremony. The media and NGOs reported numerous cases of this
    violence during the year. For example, on July 12, a couple was killed
    in Satbariya, Dang District, after a local faith healer branded them
    witches. Police arrested three persons, including the faith healers, in
    connection with the killing. Similar incidents occurred in other parts
    of the country. There was no government mechanism to prevent such
    abuses or to provide compensation to the abused.
        There were no significant developments in the March 2009 case in
    which residents of Pyutar village in Lalitpur District accused Kalli
    Biswokarma of practicing witchcraft, alleging that she cast evil spells
    on a teacher who had fallen ill. Villagers forcibly took Biswokarma
    from her home, physically abused her, and forced her to eat human feces
    until she confessed. Members from civil society organizations
    successfully rescued Biswokarma and her family from the village,
    although villagers protested and attempted to resist the rescue.
    Efforts by the chief district police officer and superintendent of
    police failed to result in any arrests by year's end; however, a
    working committee of civil society and human rights organizations was
    formed to help the victim. Maiti Nepal, an NGO that does anti-human
    trafficking work, provided shelter to the victim and her family who
    later returned to their village.
        There were no developments in the July 2009 case in which villagers
    in Tengar beat and forced Patambari Devi Das to eat human excrement
    because they believed her to be a witch. According to traditional
    beliefs, witches lose their power after this treatment.
        An estimated 7,500 women from the country were forced into
    commercial sexual exploitation in other countries and increasingly
    within the country.
        The law contains a provision against sexual harassment, the maximum
    penalty for which is a one-year prison sentence and a fine of 10,000
    rupees ($138). Government enforcement was weak. Sexual harassment was a
    problem, but lack of awareness as to what constitutes sexual harassment
    caused victims to not report most incidents.
        Couples and individuals generally may decide freely the number,
    spacing, and timing of their children and were not subject to
    discrimination, coercion, or violence regarding these choices.
    Contraception was available to both men and women, and 45 percent of
    married women used a modern contraceptive method. According to a
    reliable health survey published in March, 55 percent of married women
    had an unmet need for family planning. Forty-eight percent of mothers
    received antenatal care from a doctor, nurse, or midwife. Most births
    (73 percent) were at home, and approximately 70 percent of mothers
    received no postnatal care. According to a survey of eight districts
    from mid-2008 to mid-2009, the maternal mortality rate was 229 deaths
    per 100,000 live births.
        Uterine prolapse, which occurs when a woman's uterus falls into the
    vaginal canal, is thought to affect roughly 10 percent of all women of
    reproductive age. Studies by the Women's Reproductive Rights Program, a
    domestic women's advocacy group, suggest that the high prevalence of
    this problem is due to medical, social, and economic pressures that
    affect women in the country and amount to serious and systematic abuse,
    including poor birthing practices, early marriage, pressure to return
    to work soon after giving birth, domestic violence, and other
    traditional practices, including the practice of women ``portering''
    bricks and stones in baskets on their backs. Many women with uterine
    prolapse were abandoned by their husbands or physically abused,
    especially among the Muslim community in Terai.
        Men and women generally were diagnosed and treated equally for
    sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including HIV. According to a
    2009 survey by the National Center for AIDS and STI Control, 63,528
    persons tested positive for HIV. The total included females in
    prostitution (605), ``low risk'' (nondrug user and nonsex worker) women
    (16,800), labor migrants (17,653), and ``low risk'' males (15,697).
        Although the law provides protections for women, including equal
    pay for equal work, the Government did not implement those provisions,
    even in many state industries.
        Women faced systemic discrimination, particularly in rural areas,
    where religious and cultural traditions, lack of education, and
    ignorance of the law remained severe impediments to the exercise of
    basic rights, such as the right to vote or to hold property in one's
    own name.
        According to the law, citizenship is automatically conferred
    through either Nepali parent (see section 6, children). In practice,
    however, government officials often refused to grant citizenship
    documents based on the mother's citizenship if a father's identity was
    unknown or when he was a foreign national.
        Women may register birth and death information. Women did not need
    permission from their husband or parents to get a passport. Unmarried,
    widowed, and divorced women were able to inherit parental property.
    Women did not need the permission of their husband, son, or parents if
    they wished to sell or hand over ownership of property.
        Despite the 2006 Gender Equality Act, discriminatory provisions
    remain in the law. According to INSEC, 62 laws have discriminatory
    provisions against women. For example, the law on property rights
    favors men in its provisions for land tenancy and the division of
    family property. The Foreign Employment Act requires a woman to get
    permission from the Government and her guardian before seeking work
    through a foreign employment agency. The law encourages bigamy by
    allowing men to remarry without divorcing the first wife if she becomes
    incapacitated or infertile.
        According to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination
    against Women, there are limitations to women's access to fixed
    property and credits.
        According to the Nepal Labor Force Survey 2008, the female literacy
    rate was 43 percent, compared with 71 percent for men.
        NGOs focused on integrating women into active civil society and the
    economy. Most political parties had women's groups that advocated for
    women's rights and brought women's issues before the party leadership.

        Children.--According to the 2006 Nepal Citizenship Act, citizenship
    is derived from one of the parents with Nepali nationality. Despite the
    Supreme Court's 2009 decision that the right to choose whether to seek
    citizenship through one's father or mother rests on the applicant, many
    were still denied citizenship due to lack of access to local
    authorities or lack of awareness of the law by applicants or government
    officials. This has led to problems in attaining citizenship and
    difficulty in school admissions. Children living without parents, such
    as street children whose parents' whereabouts are not known, faced many
    hurdles, although children in institutional care can attain citizenship
    with the guardianship of their respective institutions. Children found
    within the borders of the country without parental identity are
    considered citizens on the basis of lineage until the parents of the
    child are identified (see section 2.d., stateless persons.). According
    to a fiscal year 2009-10 economic survey by the Ministry of Finance,
    approximately 20 percent of births were registered.
        Although the law provides for the welfare and education of
    children, its implementation was uneven. Education was not compulsory.
    Government policy provided free primary education for all children
    between the ages of six and 12, although in a majority of cases
    students have some costs for examinations and they must buy uniforms
    themselves. Approximately 70 to 75 percent of boys who worked went to
    school, compared to only 50 to 60 percent of the girls who worked.
    Human rights groups reported that girls attended secondary schools at a
    rate half that of boys. The Government reported that 91.9 percent of
    school-age children were attending public schools but that girls were
    the majority of those deprived of basic education. A reported 1,058
    legally registered madrassas functioned throughout the country.
        The Government provided basic health care free to children and
    adults, but government clinics were inaccessible for a majority of the
    population and often poorly equipped, with serious deficiencies in
    facilities and medical supplies. Although access to medical services
    was available on an equal basis, prevalent parental discrimination
    against girls often resulted in parents giving priority to their boys
    when seeking medical services.
        Violence against children was widespread, though rarely prosecuted.
    The Government established some mechanisms to respond to child abuse
    and violence against children, such as the Central Child Welfare Board,
    which has chapters in all 75 districts.
        The law forbids discrimination based on gender; however, in
    practice there was considerable discrimination against girls.
        The law prohibits marriage for girls before the age of 18; however,
    families in many parts of the country sometimes forced their young
    children to marry. In some areas in the eastern part of the country,
    many young girls were married off to escape large dowry payments, which
    increase with the age of the girl. Social, economic, and religious
    values promoted the practice of child marriages. According to the
    Ministry of Health, girls' average age of marriage was 16 years and
    boys' average age was 18. An age difference in marriage often was cited
    as a cause of domestic violence. The incidence of child marriage did
    not significantly increase during the year.
        Commercial sexual exploitation of children remained a serious
    problem. There were reports of boys and girls living on the streets who
    survived through prostitution and of underage girls employed in dance
    bars, massage parlors, and cabin restaurants. Prostitution rings that
    brought underage girls from villages to work in brothels in urban areas
    were often sustained by complicit public officials. The minimum age for
    consensual sex is 16 years, and the penalties for rape vary according
    to age of the victim and relation. Conviction for rape can result in
    six to 10 years' imprisonment if the victim is under 14 years of age,
    or three to five years' imprisonment if the woman is 14 or older.
    Attempted rape may be punished with half the sentence of a convicted
    rapist.
        Child pornography is against the law. However, ambiguous
    interpretation of the law made it difficult to prosecute pornographers.
    Children's rights advocates considered the penalty for such offenses--a
    fine of up to 10,000 rupees ($138), imprisonment for up to one year, or
    both--inadequate as a deterrent.
        Internal displacement due to the decade-long Maoist conflict
    continued to be a problem, with estimates of the number displaced
    ranging widely (see section 1.g., child soldiers). As IDPs, children
    experienced poor social reintegration, with inadequate access to food,
    shelter, and health care, and limited access to education. Security
    forces often abused and arrested street children in order to ``clean
    up'' the streets.
        According to CWIN, 223 boys and 87 girls were reported missing.
    Many of the missing children were presumed to have been trafficked. Of
    the 174 missing children, police records indicated that 104 boys and 70
    girls were later found. Cases of ``abandoned'' children put up for
    adoption by orphanages despite lack of verifiable parental consent
    raised concerns of fraud. Information regarding how children arrived at
    orphanages was consistently inadequate, and documents presented to
    establish that a child was found abandoned were unreliable.
        The country is not a party to the 1980 Hague Convention on the
    Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. For information on
    international parental child abduction, please see the Department of
    State's annual report on compliance at http://travel.state.gov/
    abduction/resources/congressreport/congressreport--4308.html.

        Anti-Semitism.--There were no reports of anti-Semitic acts.

        Trafficking in Persons.--For information on trafficking in persons,
    please see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons
    Report at http://www.state.gov/g/tip.

        Persons With Disabilities.--The interim constitution does not
    address the rights of persons with disabilities. The Government's
    inability to enforce laws and regulations has limited the effectiveness
    of efforts to improve rights and benefits for persons with
    disabilities.
        According to Handicap International, persons with physical and
    mental disabilities faced discrimination in employment, education,
    access to health care, and in the provision of other state services.
    The law mandates access to buildings, transportation, employment,
    education, and other state services, but these provisions generally
    were not enforced. The Government did not implement effectively or
    enforce laws regarding persons with disabilities. The Ministry of
    Women, Children, and Social Welfare was responsible for the protection
    of persons with disabilities; the Ministry of Education provides
    scholarships for children with disabilities; and the Ministry of Local
    Development was responsible for allocating 5 percent of the budget of
    local development agencies for disability programs. Some NGOs working
    with persons with disabilities received funding from the Government;
    however, most persons with physical or mental disabilities relied
    almost exclusively on family members for assistance.

        National/Racial/Ethnic Minorities.--The law provides that each
    community shall have the right ``to preserve and promote its language,
    script, and culture'' and to operate schools at the primary level in
    its native language. In practice the Government generally upheld these
    provisions.
        There were more than 75 ethnic groups in the country who spoke 50
    different languages. In remote areas, school lessons and radio
    broadcasts often were in the local language. In urban areas, education
    was almost exclusively offered in Nepali or English.
        Discrimination against lower castes and some ethnic groups,
    particularly Madhesis and ethnic minorities, was especially common in
    the Terai and in rural areas in the western part of the country, even
    though the Government outlawed the public shunning of Dalits and made
    an effort to protect the rights of disadvantaged castes. Better
    education and higher levels of prosperity, especially in the Kathmandu
    valley, were slowly reducing caste distinctions and increasing
    opportunities for lower socioeconomic groups. Better educated, urban-
    oriented castes continued to dominate politics and senior
    administrative and military positions and to control a disproportionate
    share of natural resources.
        Caste-based discrimination is illegal; however, Dalits occasionally
    were barred from entering temples and sharing water sources. Progress
    in reducing discrimination was more successful in urban areas.
        In March a group of persons in Darchula District physically
    mistreated a Dalit man because of his caste. After filing a complaint
    of caste-based discrimination at the DPO, the court issued its first-
    ever verdict in a caste-based discrimination case and imposed a fine of
    2,000 rupees ($28) against the main perpetrator.
        On June 21, 12 villagers in Kailali District beat a Dalit woman and
    forced her and her daughters to leave the village. The Dalit woman, who
    is a human rights defender, filed an FIR under the Public Offenses Act.
    The National Women's Commission investigated the case, and a fact-
    finding mission report was made public.
        In a March court ruling in Baitadi District, a man was fined and
    sentenced to two years' imprisonment for a caste-based discrimination
    offense in July 2009; he did not serve the sentence and was believed to
    have fled the country.
        Resistance to intercaste marriage (upper and lower caste) remained
    high and in some cases resulted in forced expulsion from the community.
    Dalits who participated in wedding ceremonies traditionally reserved
    for non-Dalits, such as riding a horse, were sometimes assaulted;
    however, the courts have shown a willingness to prosecute such cases of
    discrimination.

        Societal Abuses, Discrimination, and Acts of Violence Based on
    Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.--The country has no laws that
    specifically criminalize homosexuality; however, government
    authorities, especially police, sometimes harassed and abused
    homosexual persons. According to Blue Diamond Society, a local NGO,
    harassment of such persons was common by both government and citizens.
        On August 17, the Government granted permission for the first gay
    pride parade in the country during the Gai Jatra Festival.
        In a series of rulings in 2007 and 2008, the Supreme Court directed
    the Government to enact laws to protect lesbian, gay, bisexual,
    transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) persons' fundamental rights, enable
    third-gender citizenship, and amend all laws that are sexually
    discriminatory. Nevertheless, many mainstream political parties
    included pro-LGBTI legislation in their party manifestos, and LGBTI
    activists continued to press for protections for sexual minorities in
    the new constitution.
        In May the Supreme Court dismissed an appeal by Sergeant Bhakti
    Shah, who had been fired by the NA for being a lesbian while serving as
    an instructor at the military academy in 2007.
        NGOs working on LGBTI issues reported that police harassment of
    sexual minorities occurred in rural areas of the country, especially in
    the Terai.

        Other Societal Violence or Discrimination.--There was no official
    discrimination against those who provided HIV prevention services or
    against high-risk groups likely to spread HIV/AIDS, although there was
    societal discrimination against these groups. Discrimination against
    women infected with HIV/AIDS was greater than for men, even though men
    who traveled to other countries for work were at higher risk of
    contracting the disease and spreading it to their wives.

    Section 7. Worker Rights
        a. The Right of Association.--The law grants workers, including
    noncitizens, the freedom to establish and join unions and associations,
    but the Government protected these rights unevenly in practice. The law
    permits the prohibiting of unions only in cases of subversion,
    sedition, or similar conditions. Members of the armed forces and the
    police are not permitted to form a union, and members of the management
    of private or public enterprises are not permitted to take part in
    union activities. In the public sector, employees under the level of
    undersecretary can join a union. Trade unions developed administrative
    structures to organize workers, bargain collectively, and conduct
    worker education programs. The three largest trade unions were
    affiliated with political parties.
        Only 10 percent of the total work force was in the formal sector;
    the remaining 90 percent worked in the informal sector. Of the formal
    sector work force, 75 percent participated in unions. The law contains
    enabling regulations; however, the Government did not fully implement
    acts protecting trade unions. The law defines procedures for
    establishing trade unions, associations, and federations.
        The Government enforced some barriers to the participation in union
    federations through minimum required thresholds for the formation of
    trade union federations and confederations. The Government did not
    restrict unions from joining international labor bodies. Several trade
    federations and union organizations maintained a variety of
    international affiliations. Seven trade unions, including UCPN-M-
    affiliated trade unions, united to establish the Joint Trade Union
    Coordination Committee.
        The law provides the right to strike except by employees in
    essential services, and workers regularly exercised this right. The
    Government used the legislation to ban strikes in sectors, including
    several that go beyond international standards for essential services,
    such as banking, hotels, and restaurants. The law empowers the
    Government to halt a strike or to suspend a union's activities if the
    union disturbs the peace or if the strike adversely affects the
    nation's economic interests. The process for conducting a legal strike
    is cumbersome, as 60 percent of a union's membership must vote in favor
    of a strike in a secret ballot, and the union is required to give
    notice 30 days before a strike.

        b. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively.--The law
    provides for collective bargaining, but the Government did not
    effectively enforce these provisions. The law also provides for
    protection of unions and union officials from lawsuits arising from
    actions taken in the discharge of union duties, including collective
    bargaining, and prohibits employers from discriminating against trade
    union members or organizers.
        Collective bargaining agreements covered an estimated 10 percent of
    wage earners in the organized sector. Labor leaders faced challenges in
    reaching collective bargaining agreements due to political infighting
    among trade unions, and the Government did not effectively enforce
    protections regarding antiunion retaliation due to legal obstacles to
    striking, insufficient capacity, and employer resistance. According to
    the General Federation of Nepalese Trade Unions, collective bargaining
    was not effective in new factories and industries, but it was
    successful in some of the well-established factories and industries.
    Workers often faced threats or dismissal for attempting to organize a
    union, and the Government did not effectively enforce protections
    regarding antiunion retaliation.
        There are no export processing zones.

        c. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor.--The law prohibits
    forced or compulsory labor. In practice there were reports that forced
    labor occurred, especially in domestic servitude, in factories, food
    services, and the embroidered textiles and pornography industries, and
    in begging and in circus entertainment. Many citizens migrated
    willingly for work but subsequently faced conditions of forced labor.
        Bonded labor remained a problem primarily in the agricultural
    sector as well as the small formal sector, which included brick and
    kiln works and food services, such as tea shops and restaurants.
        The Kamaiya system, a form of bonded labor, was formally outlawed
    in 2002, but government enforcement of the law was uneven, and social
    reintegration remained difficult. During the year the Government
    rehabilitated an additional 6,870 Kamaiyas, bringing the total number
    of rehabilitated persons to 22,402 out of a total Kamaiya population of
    27,570, most of whom lived in Dang, Banke, and Kanchanpur districts.
    Most unrehabilitated Kamaiyas lived in Bardiya and Kailali districts.
    On March 30, freed Kamaiyas staged a demonstration to ask the
    Government for appropriate rehabilitation and implementation of past
    agreements.
        In April a man beat unconscious his renter, a young Kamalari (minor
    female Kamaiya), in Tikapur, Kailali District. Civil society
    organizations in the district staged protests and demanded legal action
    against the landlord. The case remained under investigation at year's
    end.
        The Ministry of Labor enforced laws against forced labor only in
    the small formal sector.
        Also see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons
    Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        d. Prohibition of Child Labor and Minimum Age for Employment.--The
    law establishes a minimum age of 16 for employment in industry and 14
    for employment in agriculture and mandates acceptable working
    conditions for children. Employers must maintain records of all
    laborers between the ages of 14 and 16. The law also establishes
    specific penalties for those who unlawfully employ children, but
    regulations to enforce the law have not been fully implemented. The law
    stipulates that children shall not be employed in factories, mines, or
    60 other categories of hazardous work and limits children between the
    ages of 14 and 16 years to a 36-hour workweek (six hours a day between
    6 a.m. and 6 p.m. and six days a week). The Child Labor Act of 2000
    applies only to formal sectors of the economy, such as tourism,
    cigarette or carpet factories, and mines.
        Child labor was a significant problem, particularly in the large
    informal sector, including agriculture, domestic service, portering,
    rag picking, transportation, and rock breaking. Depending on the
    sector, children work long hours, carry heavy loads, are at risk of
    sexual exploitation, or suffer from ear, eye, or skin disorders or
    musculoskeletal problems. Forced child labor was reported in the brick,
    carpet, embroidered textile, and stone industries. Children working in
    textiles and embroidery faced hazards, as they were confined to small,
    poorly ventilated rooms where they worked with sharp needles.
        Resources devoted to enforcement were limited. According to the
    International Labor Organization (ILO), the agricultural sector
    accounted for fewer than 87.7 percent of all working children.
    According to the Nepal Labor Force Survey 2008, which was the most
    recent survey available, the labor force participation rate was 13.4
    percent for children aged five to nine and 52.7 percent for children
    aged 10 to 14. Of those, 1.6 million children worked full time.
    According to the ILO and the Ministry of Labor, inspectors found no
    children working, and no legal action was taken in the formal sector.
    At the same time, an estimated 89.5 percent of children who worked also
    attended school.
        The Ministry of Labor, responsible for enforcing child labor laws
    and practices, had a mixed enforcement record, and a significant amount
    of child labor occurs in sectors not covered by national labor laws.
    According to the ministry, there were 12 labor inspectors employed
    during the year. The ministry reported that it carried out 600 labor
    inspections across the country during a 10-month period. The Home
    Ministry raided restaurants and brothels and rescued and rehabilitated
    68 children.

        e. Acceptable Conditions of Work.--The minimum wage for unskilled
    laborers was approximately 4,600 rupees per month (approximately $63).
    The wage for semiskilled workers was set at 4,650 rupees ($64), for
    skilled workers at 4,760 rupees ($66), and for highly skilled workers
    at 4,950 rupees ($68). None of these minimum wages was sufficient to
    provide a decent standard of living for a worker and family, and
    inflation in the cost of food and other household expenses magnified
    the difficulties for low-wage workers. Wages in the informal service
    sector and in agriculture ranged from 170 to 250 rupees per day ($2.35
    to $3.46). The law calls for a 48-hour workweek, with one day off per
    week and one-half hour of rest per eight hours worked, and limits
    overtime to 20 hours per week with a 50 percent overtime premium per
    hour. In practice these laws were effectively enforced. Labor
    regulations also apply to foreign and migrant workers.
        The Government sets occupational health and safety standards, and
    the law establishes other benefits such as a provident fund and
    maternity benefits. Implementation of the law was slow, as the
    Government did not create the necessary regulatory or administrative
    structures to enforce the law's provisions. Workers did not have the
    right to remove themselves from dangerous work situations without fear
    of losing their jobs. Although the law authorizes labor officers to
    order employers to rectify unsafe conditions, enforcement of safety
    standards remained minimal.
        The Government regulated labor contracting, or ``manpower''
    agencies that recruited workers for overseas jobs. However, according
    to several credible NGOs, government officials were often complicit in
    falsifying travel documents and overlooking recruiting violations by
    labor contractors.

                                   __________

                                    PAKISTAN

        Pakistan is a federal republic with a population of approximately
    176 million. In 2008 democratic rule was restored in the country
    through elections that international observers deemed competitive and
    reflective of the people's will. Asif Ali Zardari, the widower of
    assassinated Pakistan People's Party (PPP) leader Benazir Bhutto,
    became president and head of state on September 6, 2008. Syed Yousuf
    Raza Gilani was the prime minister and head of government. The PPP and
    its federal coalition partners controlled the executive and legislative
    branches of the national government and three of the four provincial
    assemblies. Security forces did not report to civilian authorities and
    operated independently from the civilian government.
        The major human rights problems included extrajudicial killings,
    disappearances, and torture. Although the Government initiated an
    investigation into an Internet video showing men in military uniforms
    apparently committing extrajudicial killings, a failure to credibly
    investigate allegations, impose disciplinary or accountability
    measures, and consistently prosecute those responsible for abuses
    contributed to a culture of impunity. Poor prison conditions, instances
    of arbitrary detention, lengthy pretrial detentions, a weak criminal
    justice system, insufficient training for prosecutors and criminal
    investigators, a lack of judicial independence in the lower courts, and
    infringements on citizens' privacy remained problems. Harassment of
    journalists, some censorship, and self-censorship were problems. There
    were some restrictions on freedom of assembly. Corruption was
    widespread within the Government and lower levels of the police forces,
    and the Government made few attempts to combat the problem. Rape,
    domestic violence, sexual harassment, honor crimes, abuse, and
    discrimination against women remained serious problems. Religious
    freedom violations, as well as violence and discrimination against
    religious minorities continued. Child abuse and exploitive child labor
    were problems. Widespread human trafficking, including exploitation of
    bonded laborers by land owners; forced child labor; and commercial
    sexual exploitation of children remained problems, as did lack of
    respect for worker rights.
        A new law to increase protection against sexual harassment was
    passed, and more than 40 ministries and departments incorporated the
    new code of conduct into their policies, although women's rights groups
    sought more effective implementation. The minister for minorities took
    an active role in assisting victims of religiously motivated attacks on
    Christians and Ahmadis; the Government allocated four reserved Senate
    seats for religious minorities, one from each province; and police
    freed more than 1,000 bonded laborers.

                            RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

    Section 1. Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom
            From:
        a. Arbitrary or Unlawful Deprivation of Life.--There were several
    reports that the Government or its agents committed arbitrary or
    unlawful killings. Politically motivated killings and societal
    violence, including killings by angry mobs, continued. There were
    reports of extrajudicial killings in connection with conflicts in the
    Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP,
    formerly known as the North West Frontier Province) (see section 1.g.).
        Some killings of individuals accused of crimes allegedly resulted
    from extreme physical abuse while in official custody. During the year
    the nongovernmental organization (NGO) Society for Human Rights and
    Prisoners' Aid (SHARP) reported 72 civilian deaths after encounters
    with police and 168 deaths in jails, an increase from the previous
    year. The police stated that these deaths occurred when suspects
    attempted to escape, resisted arrest, or committed suicide. Human
    rights observers, family members, and the media reported that security
    forces staged many of the deaths. Lengthy trial delays and failures to
    discipline and consistently prosecute those responsible for abuses
    contributed to a culture of impunity.
        On March 7, Pakistani newspaper Dawn reported that the Pasrur city
    police in Punjab registered a case against the station's former station
    house officer (SHO) and other officers for allegedly torturing a
    suspect in custody. The suspect, Ghulam Farid, died in jail on February
    26.
        On March 29, Dawn reported that Naveed Shah was tortured to death
    by police at the Sangi police station in Sindh. The Government
    immediately responded, and on March 30, the Sindh High Court Bench
    ordered that a murder case be filed against the SHO and other officers.
        On May 26, Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported that Farman Ali, a
    resident of Swat who had surrendered to the army in March, was found
    dead in a field with a gunshot to the head.
        In mid-January HRW reported that 12 corpses were found near the
    Swat River riddled with bullets and bearing marks of torture. The dead
    were believed to include missing villagers whom the army picked up
    earlier.
        January 2, HRW reported the body of ``Humanyun'' (an alias) was
    found dumped outside his house. The remains showed visible marks of
    torture and broken bones. The military allegedly detained him and his
    brother on October 27 on their return to Swat. According to HRW,
    Humanyun's brother was released on December 29. He had been tortured,
    and both of his legs had been broken.
        HRW reported on January 10 that the body of Ghani was found in a
    field in Kuza Bandi with one bullet wound in the head and three in the
    chest. He was allegedly picked up and publicly beaten by the army in
    July 2009.
        HRW reported that on February 21, the bodies of Mohammad Aalim
    (alias Mullah Banorey), Shams ul Hadi (alias Mullah Shanko), Murad, and
    Saleem were found in the Maidan subdistrict. According to HRW, all four
    men were rounded up four months earlier in a military raid and
    transferred to an unknown military detention center upon arrest.
    Residents reported that the corpses of Mullah Banorey and Mullah
    Shanko, who locals reported to be Taliban commanders, were tied behind
    military vehicles and dragged publicly, as persons were encouraged to
    spit at and throw garbage on the men. Military commanders claimed that
    all four men were killed in an ``encounter.''
        The Human Rights Commission Pakistan (HRCP) called upon the Punjab
    government to hold an inquiry into the death of Hafiz Abdullah in Dera
    Ghazi Khan (DG Khan). It was alleged that after killing Hafiz Abdullah,
    the police officers involved threw his body outside and set it on fire
    in front of a crowd that had gathered outside the police station in
    Mian Chowk Choti Zareen. Senior civil judge Fayyaz Ahmad Zaheer of DG
    Khan appointed a one-man inquiry tribunal to probe an alleged
    extrajudicial killing by police officers in DG Khan on August 18. The
    Government had not brought any charges against the perpetrators by
    year's end.
        On September 25, the Daily Times reported that Abdul Sattar was
    allegedly tortured to death by the Burki Investigation Police in
    Lahore. The police termed the killing a suicide, although the police
    officer in charge was discharged soon after the incident. Family
    members of the victim stated that police officials killed Sattar
    despite receiving money for his release.
        According to the Express Tribune, on September 26, Muhammad Akram
    Thaheem was arrested by police on betting charges and died later that
    day while in custody at Mumtazabad Police Station. Police officials
    alleged that he died of cardiac arrest, whereas medical reports suggest
    he died after being castrated. The 10 police officers wanted in the
    case fled from the Mumtazabad police station soon after the
    registration of First Information Reports (FIRs) against them.
        During the year extrajudicial killings from 2009 came to light,
    including in September a video posted on the Internet of men in
    military uniforms executing six young men in civilian clothes. The
    young men were shown blindfolded and lined up with their hands tied
    behind their backs. On October 8, Chief of Army Staff General Kayani
    issued a statement ordering the establishment of a board of inquiry to
    determine the identities of the uniformed personnel seen in the
    Internet video. By the end of the year, the military had not publicly
    announced the conclusions of its investigation into the video, and no
    one had been held accountable. The video appeared to have been taken in
    the Swat Valley during the 2009 military counterinsurgency campaign.
        Days after this video surfaced on the Internet, another video
    emerged on the Internet showing men in military uniforms beating
    prisoners in a remote location.
        The HRCP and HRW reported that the army was responsible for more
    than 200 extrajudicial killings in the Swat region during the past
    year. The HRCP reported that residents described mass graves in Kukarai
    village and in areas between the villages of Daulai and Shah Dheri.
        In total, according to the HRCP, approximately 2,600 suspected
    militants were detained in Swat during the military's operational
    phase, but none of them were charged or produced before a court. The
    HRCP also believed that an additional 2,800 cases were lodged against
    suspected terrorists after the military operation in Swat concluded,
    but they also were not brought before a court of law.
        There were no developments in the April 2009 killings of Baloch
    National Movement (BNM) President Ghulam Muhammad Baloch and Baloch
    Republic Party (BRP) members Sher Muhammad Baloch and Lala Munir Baloch
    in Turbat, Balochistan. They were abducted by men in civilian clothing
    from their lawyer's office on the same day that the antiterrorism court
    cleared them of charges of causing unrest. They were reportedly taken
    away in Frontier Corps vehicles. They were later found dead on April 8.
        On August 23, in Uthal, Balochistan, assailants abducted and killed
    Central Joint Secretary of the BNM Rasool Bakhsh Mengal. According to
    the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), the BNM and other nationalist
    groups suspected that armed Frontier Constabulary or intelligence
    officials abducted Mengal and tortured him in military cells. His body
    was found hanging from a tree in Bela on August 31, with signs of
    apparent torture, including cigarette burns and words carved into his
    skin. His death sparked violence in Khuzdar and Makshay.
        In September 2009, after two days of police questioning, Robert
    Fanish, a Christian detained on blasphemy charges, was found dead in
    his cell in a jail in Sialkot, Punjab. His family members and NGOs
    alleged that he died of police torture; the police maintained Fanish
    hanged himself. The Joint Action Committee for People's Rights, an
    alliance of more than 30 human rights groups, stated that witnesses saw
    marks of torture on his body. Activists staged numerous demonstrations
    across the country, and two days after Fanish's body was found the
    chief minister of Punjab Province ordered an inquiry into the death. At
    the end of the year, the inquiry remained pending.
        HRW reported that in November 2009 the army picked up Ayub Khan at
    his home in Lunday Kase, Mingora (Swat), beat him in front of his
    family, and took him away in a military vehicle. In December 2009 local
    residents reportedly heard a shot, found his body covered with marks of
    torture, and saw an army vehicle driving away.
        HRW also reported that in October 2009 Islam Khan was picked up
    from his house in Imam Dheri, Swat, in an army raid. His body was found
    15 days later near the Swat River with extensive marks of torture. His
    hands and legs were broken. Reportedly, shortly after the body was
    recovered, a team of soldiers and police came to his house, told his
    family not to mention the incident or their house would be demolished,
    and took the body away.
        According to the media, in August 2009 the corpses of individuals
    who had been killed extrajudicially began appearing in Swat, Khyber
    Pakhtunkhwa, formerly the North West Frontier Province (NWFP).
    According to Dawn, on August 24, residents found 15 bodies in a town
    east of Mingora, and on August 15, residents discovered 18 more bodies
    in different parts of Swat. At year's end responsible parties had not
    been identified.
        The New York Times reported that on September 1, a group of
    soldiers arrested Akhtar Ali in his electrical shop in Mingora. Family
    members went to army headquarters the day after his arrest, and
    authorities assured them that Ali would be released. The family filed a
    petition stating that on September 5, security forces dropped Ali's
    body on their doorstep. According to his family, ``there was no place
    on his body not tortured.'' There were no developments or arrests in
    this case.
        There were no developments in the following 2008 cases: the death
    of Allah Bakhsh while in custody in Khanewal, Punjab; the deaths of
    Irfan Khan and John Masih in custody; the alleged torture of Rafique
    Masih by Jafar Husain in a Lahore police station; the death of Idris
    Ahmad while he was in Sihala Jail near Rawalpindi; the alleged torture
    of Falak Sher in Sheikhupura by Punjab police in August; or the killing
    of four inmates at Karachi's Malir District Jail.
        During the year there were numerous reports of politically
    motivated killings by political factions or unknown assailants in the
    city of Karachi, Sindh. According to a report by Dawn, 1,981 persons
    were killed in political violence in Karachi, of which 748 were
    targeted killings. Nationalist leaders in Balochistan also remained
    targets of attacks during the year. Balochistan National Party (BNP)
    President Akhtar Mengal accused the Government and its functionaries of
    carrying out targeted killings of Baloch leaders and activists.
    According to HRW, militant groups increased attacks against non-Baloch
    civilians.
        The Daily Times quoted police sources as saying that targeted
    killings in Balochistan claimed 87 lives and injured 303 persons in 168
    incidents between January and May.
        According to Dawn, on March 3, two students of Khuzdar Engineering
    University were killed and nine others injured when a bomb exploded on
    the university premises during a Balochi cultural performance by the
    students.
        On March 7, a local leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and
    his guard were killed and two guards injured when armed men on a
    motorbike opened fire on their car in Khuzdar town.
        On March 18, a retired superintendent of police, Usman, alias
    Tikkah Khan Rodani, was killed in Quetta as he exited his house. Dawn's
    sources said the assailants were on a motorbike, and the incident was
    considered another targeted killing.
        On March 22, Professor Fazal Bari was shot and killed by unknown
    assailants, prompting the Tameer-i-Nau Trust to close its newly
    established school in the Quetta city's Takhtani eastern bypass area.
        According to Dawn, on April 27, Nazima Talib, a professor at
    Balochistan University, was killed when two masked men on a motorcycle
    opened fire on her. A spokesman for the Baloch Liberation Army claimed
    responsibility for Nazima's killing. Teachers and educators from
    different institutions termed her killing a conspiracy to discourage
    female teachers from performing their duties.
        On May 24, Mohammad Ashfaq, vice principal of the Pak-German
    Technical Training Centre in Hub, was shot and killed in a targeted
    killing.
        On July 12, National Party (NP) leader Maula Bukhsh Dasti was shot
    and killed by unknown assailants in Turbat, Balochistan. Only two days
    later former senator and secretary-general of the Balochistan National
    Party-Mengal(BNP-M) Habib Jalib Baloch was killed in Quetta. On July
    21, another BNP-M leader, Liaquat Ali, was shot and killed in Kalat
    District in Balochistan. These incidents led to widespread protests
    across the province. On July 27, unidentified gunmen killed the son of
    NP central leader Tufail Sabir in Khuzdar.
        According to the Daily Times, on August 31, BNP-M leader Nawabuddin
    Nechari and two friends were traveling on a national highway when
    unidentified assailants opened indiscriminate fire on their vehicle,
    killing Nechari and one of his friends.
        On September 6, the dead body of a kidnapped lawyer Zaman Marri was
    found in Mastung. According to sources at the hospital, the victim was
    shot in the head, and his body bore marks of torture.
        On September 8, three persons, among them a political leader and a
    police officer, were killed and five others injured in a bomb blast in
    Hub. Hundreds of persons, mostly women and children, were shopping in
    Rind Market when the explosive device placed in a shop exploded. Abdul
    Khaliq, a leader of BNP, and Police Inspector Abdul Sattar were killed.
        On September 9, Balochistan finance minister Mir Asim Kurd had a
    narrow escape when a suicide bomber detonated himself inside the
    minister's residence in Quetta, killing five persons and injuring four
    others. The blast occurred moments after Kurd, the Pakistan Muslim
    League-Quaid's parliamentary leader in the Balochistan Assembly, left
    for his office.
        On September 28, three persons were shot and killed in the
    Hazarganji area, and a kidnapped trader was found dead in Sariab area.
        On September 30, Interior Minister Rehman Malik reported that
    security in Balochistan had improved to a great extent and that
    targeted killings in Quetta had stopped. He stated that 97 individuals
    involved in the killings had been arrested. In Panjgur 28 persons were
    arrested, and FIRs were lodged against them.
        On October 3, two local leaders of the Balochistan National Party-
    Awami (BNP-A) and two other persons were shot and killed in separate
    incidents in Turbat and Quetta. BNP-A leaders Mullah Abdul Latif and
    Mohammad Aslam were travelling in a pick-up when gunmen on a motorbike
    opened fire on them near Tutak area of Turbat. Mohammad Ishaq Lehri and
    Mansoor Lehri were shot and killed by unidentified attackers near
    Irrigation Colony on Sariab Road in Quetta.
        On October 4, the Express Tribune reported that 21 bullet-riddled
    bodies of missing persons, including two lawyers, were found across
    Balochistan including in Quetta, Mastung, and Khuzdar since July 4. All
    of the victims were Baloch, and all were killed in a similar manner.
        On October 4, Abdul Aziz Rahi Mengal, former director-general of
    middle education in Balochistan, was killed in Khuzdar. Sources said
    that Mengal was in his van when he was attacked by gunmen on a
    motorcycle at Azadi chowk.
        According to the Daily Times, on October 13, unidentified
    assailants shot and killed BNP-M senior leader Mir Nooruddin Mengal
    near his residence in Kalat.
        According to Dawn, on October 25, Sheikh Mohammad Ayub Khan, the
    Zhob district chief of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, was shot and killed.
        On October 31, the president of Baloch Students Organization-Azad,
    Multan chapter, Asim Karim Baloch, was found dead in Khanozai-Ziarat
    cross area.
        On November 9, three persons were killed when gunmen on motorbikes
    attacked a vehicle in Quetta. In Turbat armed men entered a house and
    opened fire on the residents.
        On November 22, the HRCP and Dawn reported the killing of six
    persons missing from various parts of Balochistan over the Eid
    holidays. According to the BBC, Nawab Aslam Raisani, the chief minister
    of Balochistan, stated that extrajudicial killings in Balochistan were
    carried out by security agencies.
        According to the Daily Times, on December 16, another BNP activist,
    Rais Ali Ahmed Langou, was shot and killed in Kalat, approximately 90
    miles from the provincial capital. No one claimed responsibility for
    the killing, but the BNP blamed a government ``death squad'' for the
    assassination.
        On December 17-19, three bullet-riddled bodies were found in
    different parts of Balochistan. Sources said that two bodies were found
    in Pidrak area in Turbat. According to sources, the victims were
    kidnapped near Shahraq area some three days before the recovery of
    bodies. ``The victims were shot in the head, and there were also marks
    of torture on their bodies,'' hospital sources said.
        On December 26, the bodies of four missing Baloch were found in
    Quetta and Mastung. The two bodies found in Quetta were shot in their
    heads with their hands tied behind their backs, according to hospital
    sources. Police recovered the other two bodies from the Dasht area of
    Mastung District.
        The elected civilian government, especially the coalition partner
    Awami National Party (ANP) in KP Province, remained the target of
    attacks. On July 24, the son of KP information minister Mian Iftikhar
    Hussain, Mian Rashid Hussain, was shot and killed. Three days later, a
    suicide bomber blew himself up near Hussain's home in Peshawar, killing
    at least eight persons and injuring 15. The Tehrik-ie-Taliban Pakistan
    (TTP) claimed responsibility for the blast and warned of more attacks
    on leaders and workers of the ANP. On March 13, Lal Badshah, chief of
    the Peace Committee of Baizai Tehsi, and his two official guards were
    killed in Bakhshi Pul area on the outskirts of Peshawar, KP. On August
    2, a Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) leader and member of the Sindh
    Assembly, Raza Haider, and his security guard were shot and killed by
    unidentified assailants inside a mosque in Karachi, Sindh. More than
    100 persons died in the ensuing riots between supporters of MQM, the
    PPP, and the ANP.
        On November 30, Balochistan Governor Nawab Zulfiqar Magsi escaped
    harm from a targeted remote-controlled bomb attack in Kalat. The
    Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) claimed responsibility for the
    attack. On December 7, Balochistan chief minister Nawab Aslam Raisani
    narrowly escaped harm, but 10 others were injured, during an attack on
    his motorcade in Quetta. The Baloch Liberation United Front claimed
    responsibility.
        There were no developments in the August 2009 abduction and killing
    of Central Joint Secretary of the BNP-M Rasool Bakhsh Mengal in Uthal,
    Balochistan. In November his younger brother, Nisar Baloch, was
    abducted from Lasbela district.
        There were no developments in the following 2009 incidents: the
    February 11 remote-control bomb attack in Peshawar which killed Alamzeb
    Khan, an ANP member of the provincial assembly, and injured seven
    others; the March 11 suicide bombers' assassination attempt against
    Bashir Bilour, a senior ANP leader and senior minister in the KP
    government, which killed four persons; or the December 1 suicide blast
    in Swat which killed ANP provincial assembly member Shamsher Ali Khan
    and injured 11 others.
        On June 22, the Daily Times reported that the Karachi Police and
    Antiextremism Cell arrested Asmatullah of the TTP in connection with
    the case of two suicide bombers who killed more than 130 civilians and
    11 police officers in Karachi during a procession to welcome former
    prime minister Benazir Bhutto's return in 2007. Asmatullah's brother,
    Wahab, was the alleged organizer of the attack.
        On April 15, a three-member UN commission presented its
    investigation report of the 2007 assassination of former prime minister
    Bhutto. The report stated that the former government led by Pervez
    Musharraf failed to protect Bhutto and that intelligence agencies
    hindered the subsequent investigation. The widely publicized report
    concluded that the suicide bombing that killed Bhutto ``could have been
    prevented'' and that police action, including the hosing down of the
    crime scene and failure to collect and preserve evidence, inflicted
    irreparable harm on the investigation.'' As of September five suspects
    were in custody for the 2007 assassination.
        Mob violence remained a problem. On August 15, a mob beat to death
    two young brothers, Hafiz Mughees, age 15, and Hafiz Muneeb, age 19,
    and hung their bodies up in Sialkot, Punjab. It was reported that the
    young men were mistaken for robbers. The brothers died in the presence
    of dozens of onlookers and police officers, who took no action to stop
    the violence. The Supreme Court, acting on its own, ordered an inquiry,
    and according to the press, 17 persons were arrested for the killings,
    including a subinspector of police and several police officers. The
    head of the Sialkot District police was also jailed on the basis of
    judicial remand.

        b. Disappearance.--During the year politically motivated
    disappearances continued. There were reports of disappearances in
    nearly all areas of the country. Some police and security forces held
    prisoners incommunicado, refusing to disclose their location. Human
    rights organizations reported many Sindhi and Baloch nationalists were
    among the missing. There were reports of disappearances during the year
    in connection with the conflicts in FATA and KP (see section 1.g.).
        The Supreme Court continued its hearings on missing persons cases.
    In March the federal government formed a three-member judicial
    commission headed by a retired supreme court judge to look into the
    issue of disappearances. The commission's mandate included preparing a
    comprehensive list of missing persons, suggesting ways to trace the
    missing persons, and finding those responsible for their disappearance.
    In May the commission held several meetings and recorded statements of
    family members and government officials. The HRCP reported that the
    creation of a commission on enforced disappearances did not appear to
    satisfy the hopes for an early resolution of the matter for the
    families of those who disappeared.
        In some cases children also disappeared. According to the AHRC, on
    October 18, a 14-year-old boy, Adbul Majeed, son of a well-known
    trader, was abducted, allegedly by the Frontier Corps. On October 24,
    his body was found in the Koshak River in the Khuzdar District. There
    were bullet wounds in his head and chest. He was an activist of the
    Baloch Student Organization Azad.
        Amnesty International reported on August 18 that the army stated it
    was holding 900 prisoners arrested in Swat who would be handed over to
    relevant agencies. Their identity, whereabouts, and fate remained
    unknown.
        Disappearances from Balochistan remained a problem during the year,
    with Baloch political groups demanding greater political and human
    rights. In February Balochistan chief minister Nawab Aslam Raisani told
    the Daily Times that 999 persons from Balochistan were missing.
    According to the Voice for Baloch Missing Persons (VBMP), more than 785
    persons disappeared since January; the bodies of 35 of them were found
    in different areas in Balochistan. The VBMP estimated that more than
    11,000 persons had disappeared in Balochistan since 2001. Ghulam
    Mohammad Baloch was a member of a committee formed to ascertain the
    identity of some 800 victims of enforced disappearance. The Balochistan
    High Court set up a judicial inquiry in April and in September called
    on the intelligence agencies to assist the investigation of the
    killings after police complained about their lack of cooperation.
        Amnesty International reported that according to family members,
    Zakir Majeed Baloch, a social worker and vice-chairman of the Baloch
    Students Organization, was picked up on June 8 by intelligence agency
    personnel near Mastung, Balochistan. Police refused to register the
    family's complaint. His fate and whereabouts remained unknown.
        There was no update in the case of Jaleel Rakei, a member of the
    BRP. According to the HRCP, security forces arrested Rakei in February
    2009 during a raid on his house in Sariab Kechi Beg. the HRCP also
    reported that in August 2009 armed law enforcement personnel abducted
    Saadullah Baloch in Khuzdar, Balochistan. At year's end both men
    remained missing.
        There were reports of disappearances in Sindh Province, where
    nationalist political parties claimed that some of their members were
    in the custody of intelligence agencies. Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz (JSQM)
    leader Sikander Aaksh Mallah and his aide, Noor Mohammad Khaskheli,
    allegedly were picked up from Hyderabad, Sindh, in October 2009 by the
    police and intelligence agencies and never seen again. On May 29, JSQM
    workers held a protest in Karachi over their disappearance.

        c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or
    Punishment.--The law prohibits torture and other cruel, inhuman, or
    degrading treatment, but there were reports that security forces,
    including intelligence services, tortured and abused individuals in
    custody. During the year the NGO SHARP reported 4,069 cases of torture
    by police, of which 2,690 allegedly occurred in Punjab alone. During
    the year a significant increase in the total number of torture and rape
    cases was observed, almost double the number compared with 2009. Human
    rights organizations reported that methods of torture included beating
    with batons and whips, burning with cigarettes, whipping soles of the
    feet, prolonged isolation, electric shock, denial of food or sleep,
    hanging upside down, and forced spreading of the legs with bar fetters.
    Torture occasionally resulted in death or serious injury. Observers
    noted the underreporting of torture throughout the country.
        The country ratified the International Covenant on Civil and
    Political Rights (ICCPR) and the Convention Against Torture in 2010.
    Concerns have been raised over the number and breadth of its
    substantive reservations, as well as its reservation to the authority
    of the Human Rights Committee to request and receive periodic reports
    on the country's implementation of the ICCPR.
        There were accusations of security forces raping women during
    interrogations. The Government rarely took action against those
    responsible. According to the Women's Action Forum, although the 2006
    Women's Protection Act (WPA) amended the Hudood Ordinance, women were
    still in prison awaiting trial under these laws; however, there was a
    decline with the passage of the WPA.
        On January 24, Dawn reported that relatives of a man police say
    committed suicide while in custody alleged that he was tortured to
    death after his detention for suspected involvement in a kidnapping
    case. The relatives rejected the claim that Liaquat Ali Bughio hanged
    himself with a belt. Rasheed Bughio, a cousin of Liaquat, told
    journalists that police arrested Liaquat four days before his death. He
    said his cousin had told him that police were torturing him to force
    him to confess his involvement in the kidnapping.
        On March 3, news channels across the country showed footage of
    police publicly humiliating seven robbery suspects at the Bhawana
    police station in Chiniot, Punjab. The victims were first stripped and
    then tortured in front of a large number of persons. Five police
    officials, including the SHO, were arrested after the Supreme Court
    initiated action and called for strict action against the officials.
        On May 19, The News reported that a 13-year-old girl named Natasha
    allegedly was raped for 21 days by police after they illegally detained
    her at the Wah Cantonment Police Station in January. On its own
    authority the Lahore High Court ordered an inquiry. After the initial
    investigations by the Rawalpindi police, police arrested the two
    accused police officials; two others remained at large.
        On May 25, Dawn reported that a female prisoner, Abida Hameed,
    allegedly was tortured by police officials in the Sialkot central jail
    after being sexually harassed. An inquiry was initiated on the orders
    of the Supreme Court, after which a case against 31 persons, including
    police officers, was lodged for torturing the woman.
        On August 10, the AHRC reported, that Ruby Masih of Karachi
    allegedly was raped in a private police detention center for more than
    50 days by police officers. The victim and her family reportedly were
    currently in hiding because of continual police threats.
        On October 11, the HRCP criticized the torture and humiliation of
    several death row prisoners at the Singh District prison. Three
    prisoners allegedly were stripped naked and were not allowed to urinate
    for hours, despite being forced to drink several liters of water. The
    HRCP brought this incident to the attention of the Punjab prison chief
    but never received a response.
        By year's end the Government had not taken steps to prosecute
    Subinspector Shujat Ali Malhi and other police officers responsible for
    the 2008 alleged torture and rape of an unnamed 17-year-old girl in
    Faisalabad. There were no developments in the 2008 case of Agha Mahboob
    Ahmed, who was arrested on suspicion of involvement in a bank robbery
    and allegedly tortured at the Hyderabad Criminal Investigation Agency
    center.
        On March 1, The Nation reported that Faisalabad remained tense as
    factions belonging to two different sects clashed over the issue of a
    disputed mosque. The angry mob burned dozens of cars and bikes and the
    local police station in Usman Town, Mithopura, within Sargodha Road
    Police Station's area. The clashes erupted when unknown armed men
    resorted to indiscriminate firing on the procession near Goll Mosque,
    critically injuring three persons.
        On August 4, Dawn reported that a hand grenade attack inside a
    North Nazimabad mosque in Karachi during prayers left five persons
    injured, followed by day-long violence that included arson attacks and
    shooting incidents claiming at least 22 lives in and around Karachi.
        The 2009 the HRCP annual report stated there were ``592 cases of
    kidnapping for ransom in the NWFP, 241 in Balochistan, 244 in Punjab,
    and 163 in Sindh.''

        Prison and Detention Center Conditions.--Prison conditions were
    often extremely poor and failed to meet international standards.
    Overcrowding was common, except for the cells of wealthy or influential
    prisoners. Prisons and detention centers were largely managed by the
    provincial governments. Human rights groups that surveyed prison
    conditions found sexual abuse, torture, and prolonged detention
    prevalent. Prisons in could not be classified as correctional
    institutions, because the conditions in many of the prisons are so
    inhumane that criminals often leave more hardened than before their
    arrest.
        Inadequate food and medical care in prisons led to chronic health
    problems and malnutrition for those unable to supplement their diet
    with help from family or friends. In many facilities provisions for
    sanitation, ventilation, temperature, lighting, and access to potable
    water were inadequate.
        Most prison facilities were of antiquated construction, without the
    capacity to control indoor temperatures. A system existed for basic and
    emergency medical care; however, in practice it did not always function
    effectively. Prisoners sometimes also had to pay bribes, and
    bureaucratic procedures slowed access to medical care. Foreign
    prisoners often remained in prison long after completion of their
    sentences because they were unable to pay for deportation to their home
    countries. There were various reports of prison riots during the year.
    Grievances that provoked the riots included overcrowding, deprivation
    of legal rights, slow disposition of cases, behavior of the jail
    administration, and lack of facilities.
        Christian and Ahmadi communities claimed that their members were
    more likely to be abused in prison facilities. Minority prisoners
    generally were afforded poorer facilities than Muslim inmates and often
    suffered violence at the hands of fellow inmates. Police reportedly
    sometimes tortured and mistreated those in custody and at times engaged
    in extrajudicial killings.
        According to SHARP, more than 100,000 prisoners occupied 73 jails
    originally built to hold approximately 36,000 persons. According to an
    estimate, the prisoner per capita ratio is 50 per 100,000. According to
    an August 17 Dawn report, all 32 jails in Punjab Province faced acute
    overcrowding. According to official figures, these jails operated at 42
    percent over capacity. According to Punjab Prisons Department
    officials, overcrowding not only caused security, accommodation, and
    health problems for inmates but also adversely affected the general
    administration of jails. The report noted that as of June 30,
    approximately 52,162 prisoners were in Punjab's prisons, which had an
    authorized capacity of 21,527 inmates. Of these, 696 were women, and
    708 were juveniles.
        An official from the Sindh Prison Department noted that in his
    province the jails were overcrowded but that the department had noted a
    drop in the number of prisoners. As of the end of the year, a total of
    12,908 prisoners were imprisoned in jails with a capacity of 10,450.
    This indicated a decline from August statistics, which showed an
    occupancy of 13,886 prisoners in 25 jails across the province. Central
    Jail Larkana and Malir Jail Karachi were the most crowded in the
    province. Central Jail Larkana had the highest number of AIDS patients
    in Sindh. In Sindh jails there were 118 female prisoners and 277
    juvenile prisoners.
        Police often did not segregate detainees from convicted criminals.
    Prisoners with mental illness usually lacked adequate care and were not
    segregated from the general prison population. Prison officials often
    kept juvenile offenders in the same facilities as adults, but in
    separate barracks. Despite keeping juveniles in separate barracks, at
    some point during their imprisonment, children would be mixed with the
    general prison population. Often children were subject to abuse, rape,
    and violence from other prisoners and prison staff.
        On July 2, the Society for the Protection of the Rights of the
    Child (SPARC) issued a report on the 10th anniversary of the 2000
    Juvenile Justice System Ordinance (JJSO), under which jails that held
    at least 1,300 juvenile prisoners, and as many as 10,000 children, were
    facing criminal litigation. SPARC noted that the number of juvenile
    prisoners represented a significant decline from more than 5,000 when
    the JJSO was issued in 2000. SPARC stated that juvenile prisoners, the
    majority of whom were awaiting trial, were among the worst off in the
    country. The jail conditions in which they were held were extremely
    poor, and they were subject to a slow process and lack of special
    juvenile courts or judges. Many spent longer periods behind bars
    because they were unable to pay bail. A fair and just juvenile justice
    system does not exist in the country, according to SPARC. SPARC's
    regular visits to juvenile sections across the country revealed that
    little had changed since the introduction of the JJSO in 2000.
        According to SPARC, child prisoners languished in prison, victims
    of an overburdened, undercommitted, and uncaring justice system and the
    circumstances that brought them in conflict with the law. Rather than
    being rehabilitated, the majority of child prisoners became hardened
    criminals by spending long periods in the company of adult prisoners.
        Women were held in separate spaces from men in some, but not all,
    prisons. There were many reports of violence against women and rape in
    the prisons.
        The 18th amendment to the constitution, passed in April, mandates
    that religious-minority prisoners be given places to worship inside
    jails. There is an ombudsman for detainees, with a central office in
    Islamabad and one in each province. It was unlikely that this office
    would work on alternatives to incarceration or bail. A complaint system
    existed for prisoners to submit grievances; however, in practice it did
    not function effectively. Inspectors general of prisons visit prisons
    and detention facilities to monitor conditions, but visits were not
    regular. According to government officials, this system was based on
    complaints filed by individuals reporting misbehavior of civil
    servants.
        According to SHARP, by law prison authorities must permit prisoners
    and detainees to submit complaints to judicial authorities without
    censorship and to request investigation of credible allegations of
    inhumane conditions. After submitting the complaint, the inmates must
    remain in the same prison with the same prison authorities. Therefore,
    although there were many problems and an available channel for
    complaints, the prisoners remained silent to avoid confrontation with
    the jail authorities.
        The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) reported great
    difficulties in accessing detention sites, in particular those holding
    security-related detainees. In mid-year the ICRC suspended prison
    visits in Punjab, as access to detainees was no longer conducive to
    ICRC working modalities. Despite ongoing dialogue with the Government,
    ICRC visits were not authorized in any detention sites in the provinces
    most affected by violence, namely KP, FATA, and Balochistan. The
    Governments of Sindh, Gilgit-Baltistan, and Pakistan-administered
    Kashmir permitted the ICRC to conduct independent monitoring in civil
    prisons. ICRC delegates made confidential reports on their findings and
    offered recommendations to authorities and, where relevant, initiated
    water-sanitation improvement projects.
        Authorities at the local, provincial, and national level permitted
    some human rights groups and journalists to monitor prison conditions
    for juveniles and female inmates.
        According to SHARP, the Government did little to improve conditions
    in detention facilities and failed to monitor existing conditions. As a
    result the situation appeared to deteriorate. Reports of torture
    increased during the year.

        d. Arbitrary Arrest or Detention.--The law prohibited arbitrary
    arrest and detention, but authorities did not always comply.

        Role of the Police and Security Apparatus.--Police have primary
    internal security responsibilities for most of the country. By law
    control of local police falls under the Ministry of Interior. The
    Rangers are a paramilitary organization under the authority of the
    Ministry of Interior, with branches in Sindh and Punjab. The armed
    forces are responsible for external security. At times during the year
    they also were assigned domestic security responsibilities.
        Law and order in FATA is administered under the Frontier Crimes
    Regulations (FCR) through a political agent, who reports to the
    president through the KP governor. In lieu of police, multiple law
    enforcement entities operated in FATA. These included the paramilitary
    Frontier Scouts, which report to the Ministry of Interior in peacetime
    and the army in times of conflict; the Frontier Constabulary, which
    patrols the area between FATA and the KP; levies, which operate in FATA
    and report to the political agent; khassadars (hereditary tribal
    police), which help the political agent maintain order; and lashkars
    (tribal militias), which are convoked by tribal leaders and political
    agents to deal with temporary law and order disturbances.
        Police effectiveness varied greatly by district, ranging from
    reasonably good to ineffective.
        Police often failed to protect members of religious minorities,
    including Christians, Ahmadis, and Shia Muslims, from attacks (see
    section 2.c.). Some members of the police committed human rights abuses
    or were responsive to political interests.
        Frequent failure to punish abuses created a climate of impunity.
    Police and prison officials frequently used the threat of abuse to
    extort money from prisoners and their families. The inspectors general,
    district police officers, district nazims (a chief elected official of
    a local government or mayor equivalent), provincial interior or chief
    ministers, federal interior minister, prime minister, or courts can
    order internal investigations into abuses and order administrative
    sanctions. Executive branch and police officials can recommend, and the
    courts can order, criminal prosecution. These mechanisms were sometimes
    used.
        The court system remained the only mechanism available to
    investigate abuses by security forces.
        There were improvements in police professionalism during the year.
    As in previous years, the Punjab provincial government conducted
    regular training and retraining in technical skills and protection of
    human rights for police at all levels.
        In March the Islamabad Capital Police established a human rights
    cell to encourage persons to report cases of human rights violations
    either in person, through a telephone hotline, or via e-mail. Islamabad
    police also decided to appoint human rights officers (HROs) and members
    of the community at all police stations. HROs could visit police
    stations at different times and had authority to interview arrested
    individuals. If a police officer was reported to be involved in
    torturing or detaining persons at police stations without
    justification, HROs could recommend disciplinary action against the
    officer involved. Provincial and federal law enforcement officers also
    attended a training course that included human rights, victims' rights,
    and women's rights. Since 2008 SHARP has provided training to more than
    2,000 police officers in human rights.

        Arrest Procedures and Treatment While in Detention.--A FIR is the
    legal basis for any arrest. For certain crimes the police may initiate
    an FIR. Police ability to initiate an FIR is limited. Often a different
    party must file the FIR, depending on the type of crime, not whether
    there is reasonable proof of a crime. An FIR allows police to detain a
    suspect for 24 hours, after which a magistrate can order detention for
    an additional 14 days if police show that such detention is material to
    their investigation. In practice some authorities did not observe these
    limits on detention. There were reports that authorities filed FIRs
    without supporting evidence to harass or intimidate detainees or did
    not file them when adequate evidence was provided unless the
    complainant paid a bribe. There were reports that some police detained
    individuals arbitrarily without charge or on false charges to extort
    payment for their release. There were reports that some police also
    detained relatives of wanted individuals to compel suspects to
    surrender.
        Police routinely did not seek a magistrate's approval for
    investigative detention and often held detainees without charge until a
    court challenged the detention. Some women in detention were sexually
    abused. When requested, magistrates approved investigative detention
    without determining its cause. In cases of insufficient evidence,
    police and magistrates sometimes colluded to issue new FIRs, thereby
    extending detention beyond the 14-day period.
        Courts appointed attorneys for indigents only in capital cases.
    Individuals frequently had to pay bribes to visit a prisoner. Foreign
    diplomats could meet with prisoners when they appeared in court and
    could usually meet with citizens of their countries in prison visits.
        The district coordination officer may recommend preventive
    detention for as long as 90 days to the provincial home department and,
    with the approval of the Home Department, can extend it for an
    additional 90 days.
        The law stipulates that detainees must be brought to trial within
    30 days of their arrest. Under both the Hudood Ordinance and standard
    criminal codes, there are bailable and nonbailable offenses. The Hudood
    Ordinance was a law enacted in 1979 by the then military ruler Zia-ul-
    Haq to implement Islamic Sharia law by enforcing punishments mentioned
    in the Qur'an and Sunnah for zina (extramarital sex), qazf (false
    accusation of zina), offense against property (theft), and prohibition
    (the drinking of alcohol).
        Bail pending trial is required for bailable offenses and permitted
    at a court's discretion for nonbailable offenses with sentences of less
    than 10 years. Judges sometimes denied bail at the request of police or
    the community or upon payment of bribes. In some cases trials did not
    start until six months after the FIR, and in some cases individuals
    remained in pretrial detention for periods longer than the maximum
    sentence for the crime with which they were charged. In detention
    facilities, individuals frequently had to pay bribes to visit a
    prisoner. SHARP estimated that approximately 55 percent of the prison
    population was awaiting trial. This situation remained unchanged due to
    lack of change in the judicial system. The high number of inmates
    awaiting trial remained a large burden on the country's jails. In some
    cases detainees were informed promptly of charges brought against them.
        Special rules apply to cases brought to court by the National
    Accountability Bureau (NAB), which under the 2009 NAB Ordinance
    established courts for corruption cases. Suspects may be detained for
    15 days without charge (renewable with judicial concurrence) and, prior
    to being charged, may be deprived of access to counsel. During the year
    the NAB rarely exercised this power. All offenses under the NAB are
    nonbailable, and only the NAB chairman has power to decide whether to
    release detainees. In 2009 the Government removed the NAB's authority
    to prosecute politicians on new charges.
        Under the FCR in FATA, political agents have legal authority to
    impose collective punishment, preventively detain individuals for as
    long as three years, and require ``bonds'' to prevent undesired
    activity. Assistant political agents, overseen by political agents and
    supported by tribal elders of their choosing, are legally responsible
    for justice in FATA and conduct hearings according to Islamic law and
    tribal custom.
        Accused persons have no right to legal representation or bail, and
    relatives or members of the same tribe sometimes were detained. Under
    section 40 of the FCR, even minors can be detained for up to three
    years. The FCR assigns collective punishment without individual rights,
    contrary to accepted judicial principles of individual responsibility.
    Militants in FATA and briefly in Swat imposed their version of Sharia
    law in makeshift courts; their punishments included public beheadings,
    stonings, lashings, and fines (see section 1.g.). Antiterrorism courts
    had the discretion not to grant bail for some charges if the court had
    reasonable grounds to believe the accused was guilty.
        In FATA and the less-governed areas of the Provincially
    Administered Tribal Areas (PATA), security forces may, under the FCR,
    restrict the activities of terrorism suspects, seize their assets for
    up to 48 hours, and detain them for as long as one year without
    charges. Human rights and international organizations reported that an
    unknown number of individuals allegedly affiliated with terrorist
    organizations were held indefinitely in preventive detention and were
    tortured and abused. In many cases these prisoners were held
    incommunicado and were not allowed prompt access to a lawyer of their
    choice; often times family members were not allowed prompt access to
    detainees.
        On January 16, the Government filed a petition challenging the
    Supreme Court's 2009 decision to rule the 2007 National Reconciliation
    Ordinance (NRO) unconstitutional. Then president Musharraf promulgated
    the NRO to provide an amnesty mechanism for public officeholders who
    were charged, but not convicted, in cases filed between 1986 and 1999.
    During the year the hearing of the review petition against the
    judgment, as well as petitions challenging the NRO, continued.

        e. Denial of Fair Public Trial.--The law provides for an
    independent judiciary; in practice the judiciary was often subject to
    external influences, such as fear of reprisal in terrorism cases. In
    nonpolitical cases, the media and the public generally considered the
    high court and the Supreme Court credible.
        There were extensive case backlogs in the lower and superior
    courts, as well as other problems that undermined the right to
    effective remedy and the right to a fair and public hearing. According
    to the Law and Justice Commission of Pakistan, as of May more than 1.1
    million cases were pending with the country's lower courts, 150,000
    cases awaited the four provincial high courts, and 17,500 cases awaited
    the Supreme Court. Delays in justice in civil and criminal cases arose
    due to antiquated procedural rules, weak case management systems,
    costly litigation to keep a case moving in the system, and weak legal
    education.
        The jurisdiction of the Supreme Court and the high courts does not
    extend to several areas that operated separate judicial systems. In
    FATA, under the FCR accused persons have no right to legal
    representation or bail. In specific areas noted in the Nizam-e-Adl
    regulation (often informally called the Sharia law) in PATA, Sharia law
    is imposed, and judges, known as qazis, are assisted by religious
    scholars. Azad Kashmir has its own elected president, prime minister,
    legislature, and high court. The Gilgit-Baltistan Self Governance Order
    of 2009 instituted a separate judiciary, legislature, and election
    commission for the region.
        Informal justice systems that lack the legal protections of
    institutionalized justice systems continued, especially in rural areas,
    and often resulted in human rights violations. Lower courts remained
    corrupt, inefficient, and subject to pressure from prominent wealthy,
    religious, and political figures. The politicized nature of judicial
    promotions increased the Government's control over the court system.
    Unfilled judgeships and inefficient court procedures continued to
    result in severe backlogs at both the trial and appellate levels.
    Feudal landlords and other community leaders in Sindh and Punjab and
    tribal leaders in Pashtun and Baloch areas continued to hold local
    council meetings (known as panchayats or jirgas), at times in defiance
    of the established legal system. Such councils settled feuds and
    imposed tribal penalties on perceived wrongdoers, including fines,
    imprisonment, or even the death penalty. Women often were sentenced to
    violent punishments or death for honor-related crimes (see section 6).
    In Pashtun areas such councils were held under the outlines of the FCR.
    Under the code a man, his family, and his tribe are obligated to take
    revenge for wrongs, real or perceived, to redeem their honor.
    Frequently disputes arose over women and land and often resulted in
    violence.
        The traditional settling of family feuds in tribal areas,
    particularly those involving killing, could result in giving daughters
    of the accused in marriage to the bereaved. Many tribal councils
    instituted harsh punishments, such as the death penalty, ``honor
    killings,'' or watta-satta marriages (exchange of brides between clans
    or tribes). The Sindh minister for human rights, Nadia Gabol, called
    for a ban on jirgas in July. Over the past few years, there were a
    growing number of reports of militants running their own courts in
    several tribal agencies and briefly in Swat, dispensing quick justice
    with little due process or transparency in their deliberations.
        The AHRC reported that since 2002 more than 4,000 individuals, two-
    thirds of them women, have died by order of jirga courts in the
    country. Although the superior courts declared these rulings illegal,
    the AHRC reported that some of those involved in implementing jirgas
    were members of parliament. Militants in the Malakand Division enforced
    their own form of Islamic justice until the start of military
    operations in April.
        In March 2009 a video was released on national and international
    media outlets showing militants flogging a teenage girl in Swat.
    According to press reports, militants flogged the girl as punishment
    for being seen in a public bazaar with a man who was not her husband.
    Although it was not shown in the video, the militants also flogged the
    man who accompanied her to the market. In response a spokesman for the
    militants defended their right to flog female shoppers who were
    inappropriately dressed, stating that it was permitted under Islamic
    law. The video's release was instrumental in building national support
    against militants in the Malakand Division. In April 2009 the chief
    justice of the Supreme Court, Iftikhar Chaudhry, ordered police and
    government officials from KP's Swat District to bring the girl to the
    court and called for a court hearing into the public flogging. Prime
    Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani strongly condemned the ``shameful''
    incident in a statement issued by his office. Gilani stated that it was
    contrary to Islamic principles, which teach men to treat women politely
    and gently.

        Trial Procedures.--The civil, criminal, and family court systems
    provide for public trial, presumption of innocence, cross-examination
    by an attorney, and appeal of sentences. There are no jury trials.
    Defendants have the right to be present and to consult with an
    attorney. Defendants bear the cost of legal representation in lower
    courts, but a lawyer can be provided at public expense in session and
    appellate courts. Defendants can confront or question witnesses brought
    by the prosecution and present witnesses and evidence on their behalf.
    Defendants and attorneys have legal access to government-held evidence
    relevant to their cases. Due to the limited number of judges, a heavy
    backlog of cases, lengthy court procedures, frequent adjournment, and
    political pressure, cases routinely took years, and defendants had to
    make frequent court appearances.
        The Anti-Terrorism Act allows the Government to use special
    streamlined courts to try persons charged with violent crimes,
    terrorist activities, acts or speech designed to foment religious
    hatred, and crimes against the state. After arrest, suspects must be
    brought before the antiterrorism courts within seven working days, but
    the courts were free to extend the period. Under normal procedures, the
    high court and the Supreme Court heard appeals from these courts. Human
    rights activists criticized the expedited parallel system, charging it
    was more vulnerable to political manipulation.
        Cases under the Hudood Ordinances are first appealed in the Federal
    Shariat Court. The Supreme Court has ruled that in cases in which a
    provincial high court decides in error to hear an appeal in a Hudood
    case, the Shariat courts lacks authority to review the provincial high
    court's decision. The Shariat Appellate Bench of the Supreme Court is
    the final court of appeal for Shariat court cases. A 2005 ruling allows
    the Supreme Court to bypass the Shariat bench and assume jurisdiction
    in such appellate cases. The Shariat courts may overturn legislation it
    judges inconsistent with Islamic tenets, but such cases are appealed to
    the Shariat Appellate Bench of the Supreme Court and ultimately may be
    heard by the full bench of the Supreme Court.
        Under the FCR in FATA, residents may appeal judgments within the
    civil bureaucracy. Some observers faulted the procedures for not
    allowing cases to be heard on appeal by the judiciary. Human rights
    NGOs expressed concern about the concept of collective responsibility,
    as authorities used it as a pretense to detain members of fugitives'
    tribes, demolish their homes, confiscate or destroy their property, or
    lay siege to a fugitive's village pending his surrender or punishment
    by his own tribe in accordance with local tradition.
        Courts routinely failed to protect the rights of religious
    minorities. Judges were sometimes pressured to take strong action
    against any perceived offense to Sunni orthodoxy. Laws prohibiting
    blasphemy continued to be used discriminatorily against Muslims,
    Christians, Ahmadis, and members of other religious groups. Lower
    courts often did not require adequate evidence in blasphemy cases,
    which led to some accused and convicted persons spending years in jail
    before higher courts eventually overturned their convictions or ordered
    them freed.
        During the year an Ahmadi man, Iqbal, was acquitted of charges of
    blasphemy after spending six years in prison. NGOs reported that bail
    was sometimes denied in blasphemy cases under the premise that, because
    defendants faced the death penalty, they were likely to flee.
        In 2009 the Muslim colleagues of a Christian woman, Aasia Bibi,
    accused her of blasphemy after a dispute at work. Police arrested Bibi,
    and she was denied bail under the blasphemy laws. In November Bibi was
    sentenced to death for her crime, becoming the first woman sentenced to
    death for blasphemy. The verdict in the case touched off a massive
    debate within the country about the blasphemy laws, with religious
    extremists calling for her execution and more moderate voices calling
    for her pardon or an appeal to the guilty verdict. At year's end Bibi
    was awaiting her appeal to the Lahore High Court (also see the 2010
    International Religious Freedom Report at www.state.gov/g/drl/irf/rpt).
        There were many changes in PATA's judicial administration during
    the year. PATA, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, including parts of the former
    princely states of Swat, Dir, and Chitral, are governed under Sharia
    law. Due to the country's military intervention in Swat, religious
    extremists and militants were no longer administering parallel judicial
    and administrative processes in the Malakand Division (which
    encompasses the district of Swat.) In addition, in 2009 the country's
    parliament and president formally enacted the Nizam-e-Adl Regulation
    2009. The interpretation and enforcement of the law was sufficiently
    flexible that it was criticized by the Taliban that was formerly
    located in Swat. Contrary to Taliban desires, judges were appointed
    from the existing cadre of the country's judiciary and not from among
    ``religious scholars.''
        In combination with a new judicial policy originated by the Supreme
    Court, which provided strict time frames for the initiation of both
    criminal and civil prosecutions, as well as significant efforts by
    lawyers and judges to meet the new time lines, the backlog of cases in
    the Malakand Division was reduced dramatically, in some areas up to 90
    percent. In turn this reduced the amount of time that accused
    individuals spent in jail without benefit of active court process.
        Azad Kashmir has a court system independent of the country's
    judiciary.
        Gilgit-Baltistan (formerly known as the Northern Areas) also has a
    separate judicial system. The Gilgit-Baltistan Self-governance Order
    2009 instituted a separate judiciary, legislature, and election
    commission for the region. Formerly the laws of the country were
    extended to the Gilgit-Baltistan at the discretion of the Ministry for
    Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan. The Gilgit-Baltistan Chief Court did not
    have all the powers of a high court.

        Political Prisoners and Detainees.--Some Sindhi and Baloch
    nationalist groups claimed that their members were marked for arrest
    and detained based on their political affiliation or beliefs. Under the
    November 2009 Aghaz-e-Huqooqe Balochistan package (which addressed the
    province's political, social, and economic problems), the Government
    announced a general amnesty for all Baloch political prisoners,
    leaders, and activists in exile as well as those allegedly involved in
    ``antistate'' activities, dropping all cases against Baloch leaders.
    Despite the amnesty some Baloch groups claimed that the illegal
    detention of nationalist leaders by state agencies continued. The
    Karachi-based Baloch Rights Council claimed that as of September, there
    were 1,600 Baloch political prisoners in the custody of security and
    intelligence agencies.
        Some nationalist parties in Sindh, including the JSQM, claimed that
    their members remained in the custody of government agencies. In a
    statement issued in August, the Asian Legal Resource Center claimed
    that in Sindh Province, more than 100 Sindhi nationalists had been
    arrested or had disappeared and were believed to be held by the
    military.

        Civil Judicial Procedures and Remedies.--Persons may petition the
    courts to seek redress for various human rights violations, and courts
    often take such actions. Individuals may seek redress in civil courts
    against government officials, including on grounds of denial of human
    rights in civil courts. Observers reported that civil courts seldom, if
    ever, issued official judgments in such cases, and most cases were
    settled out of court. Although there were no official procedures for
    administrative redress, informal reparations were common.

        f. Arbitrary Interference With Privacy, Family, Home, or
    Correspondence.--The law requires court-issued search warrants for
    property but not for persons. Police sometimes ignored this requirement
    and at times stole items during searches. Police were seldom punished
    for illegal entry. Sometimes police detained family members to induce a
    suspect to surrender (see section 1.d.). In cases pursued under the
    Antiterrorism Act, security forces were allowed to search and seize
    property related to the case without a warrant.
        Several domestic intelligence services monitored politicians,
    political activists, suspected terrorists, and the media. These
    services included the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), the police
    Special Branch, and Military Intelligence. Credible reports indicated
    that authorities routinely used wiretaps and intercepted and opened
    mail without the requisite court approval. NGOs suspected that
    authorities were monitoring mobile phones and electronic
    correspondence.
        Although the Government generally did not interfere with the right
    to marry, local officials on occasion assisted influential families in
    preventing marriages to which the families were opposed. The Government
    also failed to prosecute cases in which families punished members
    (generally women) for marrying or seeking a divorce against the wishes
    of other family members. In some cases authorities detained relatives
    to force a family member who was the subject of an arrest warrant to
    surrender. NGOs alleged that intelligence personnel often harassed
    family members of Baloch nationalists. Collective punishment, which
    involved detention of relatives or members of the same tribe, took
    place in FATA under the FCR.

        g. Use of Excessive Force and Other Abuses in Internal Conflicts--
    During the year militant and terrorist activity continued in different
    areas of KP and FATA, and there were numerous suicide and bomb attacks
    in all four provinces and FATA. Militants and terrorist groups,
    including the TTP, the main Taliban militant umbrella group in the
    country, targeted civilians, journalists, schools, progovernment
    community leaders, security forces, and law enforcement agents, killing
    hundreds and injuring thousands with bombs, suicide attacks, and other
    forms of violence. Militant and terrorist groups often attacked
    religious minorities (see section 2.c.). A low-level insurgency
    continued in Balochistan.
        The Government implemented measures to protect the population. The
    military engaged in active combat operations to clear militants or
    security operations to restore security in Khyber, Bajaur, Kurram,
    Mohmand, Orakzai, and South Waziristan agencies in FATA, and Swat and
    the Malakand Division in KP. The Government also took actions to shut
    down and weaken terrorist ties around the country and prevent
    recruitment into militant organizations. Police arrested Karachi gang
    members and TTP commanders who provided logistical support to militants
    in the tribal areas. The Government shifted 100,000 troops from the
    Indian frontier to spearhead a crackdown on the Taliban along the
    Afghanistan border. Police arrested would-be suicide bombers in major
    cities of the country, confiscating arms, suicide vests, and attack
    planning materials. The Government continued to operate a center in
    Swat to rehabilitate and educate former child soldiers.
        Due to poor security, intimidation by security forces and
    militants, and the control the Government and security forces exercised
    over access by nonresidents to FATA, human rights organizations and
    journalists continued to find it difficult to report on military abuses
    in the region.
        In August and September, there was a spate of sectarian violence
    around the country as government agencies, including the military,
    dealt with massive flooding.

        Killings.--During the year there were reports of civilian
    casualties and extrajudicial killings committed by government security
    forces during operations against militants. The human rights situation
    in KP and FATA did not improve. As many as 977 persons were killed
    there, while another 1,765 were injured in suicide attacks and
    bombings. Militants in KP and FATA blew up 85 boys' and 55 girls'
    schools.
        In July HRW released an article about extrajudicial killings in
    Swat. Since February HRW researched alleged human rights violations in
    Swat based on a list of more than 200 suspicious killings provided by
    local sources and the independent HRCP. HRW corroborated 50 of the
    cases. In no case examined by HRW was a killing falsely reported,
    suggesting that the total number of killings was as high as or greater
    than that reported.
        In April HRW reported that approximately 200 persons were killed
    extrajudicially by the Pakistan Army in Swat between August 2009 and
    March 2010. On May 27, an HRCP fact-finding mission reported that
    security forces had restored peace in Swat and that there were no
    reports of any Taliban presence. However, it also found that there were
    approximately 28 extrajudicial killings in Swat after the military
    operation ended in July 2009 and that dead bodies had typically been
    found in the hours at the end of curfew.
        Militant and terrorist bombings in all four provinces and in FATA
    resulted in hundreds of deaths and thousands of injuries. As of
    September 5, according to data collected by the South Asia Terrorism
    Portal, the media had reported 473 bombings in all four provinces and
    in FATA that killed more than 1,500 persons and injured 3,500 others.
    Of these, 49 were suicide attacks that killed 1,100 persons and injured
    more than 2,100.
        There were also reports of attacks on civilians in Balochistan by
    groups prohibited by the Government. According to the report, terrorist
    and extremist attacks and operations to combat terrorism and extremism
    resulted in 7,400 deaths, of which nearly 1,800 were civilians, more
    than 450 were security forces, and more than 5,100 were terrorists or
    insurgents.
        There were numerous militant and terrorist attacks during the year.
    For example, on January 8, eight persons were killed and 11 injured
    when a suicide bomber blew himself up at the gate of the headquarters
    of the militant group Ansar-ul-Islam in the Tirah area of the Khyber
    Agency in FATA. The bomber was reportedly a member of the rival
    militant group Lashkar-e-Islam.
        On February 3, four female students were among nine persons killed
    when a bomb targeted a military-led convoy in Lower Dir of KP. At least
    115 persons, including 95 schoolgirls, also were injured in the attack.
    The TTP claimed responsibility for the attack.
        On March 9, a suicide bomber blew up a vehicle outside the
    Government interrogation center of the Special Investigation Agency in
    Lahore, killing at least 14 persons and injuring 89 others.
        On March 12, militants in Lahore targeted the military in a twin-
    suicide attack that killed at least 50 persons. The bombers targeted an
    area that was home to army officials and military installations, as
    well as hospitals and schools run by the military.
        On April 19, two members of a progovernment village defense
    committee were shot and killed and three others, including a woman,
    were injured by assailants in the Koza Bandai area of Swat District.
        On April 27, Nazima Talib Mehdi, an assistant professor at
    Balochistan University, was shot and killed in Quetta, Balochistan. The
    BLA, a group banned by the Government and fighting for an independent
    Balochistan, claimed responsibility for the killing, threatened more
    killings, and accused security forces of mistreating Baloch women.
        On July 9, 108 persons, including women and children, were killed
    and 69 injured when two suicide bombers attacked political offices in
    Yakka Ghund in FATA.
        On August 4 in Peshawar, Frontier Constabulary Chief Safwat Ghagyer
    and three bystanders were killed by a teenage suicide bomber. The TTP
    took responsibility for the attack, which was widely seen as part of a
    militant campaign to target high- profile law enforcement and political
    leaders.
        On August 23, 26 persons, including a former member of the National
    Assembly, were killed and 40 injured when a suicide bomber blew himself
    up inside a mosque in Wana town of South Waziristan in FATA.
        On September 6, nine police officers and four students were among
    those killed by an attack in Lakki Marwat, KP. The TTP claimed
    responsibility and stated that it would continue to target security
    forces with suicide attacks.
        On September 7, at least 20 persons were killed and more than 90
    injured in a remote-controlled bomb explosion, allegedly by the
    Taliban, inside a police colony in Kohat, KP.
        On September 15, four persons were killed in Bajaur Agency, FATA,
    in a militant attack on the home of a progovernment tribal elder.
        In September a video appeared on the Internet of Taliban militants
    gathering around a woman with a black hood over her head. The video,
    which was allegedly taken in KP, shows the militants stoning the woman
    to death.
        On October 3, Mohammad Farooq Khan, a moderate religious scholar
    and vice chancellor of Swat Islamic University, was shot and killed in
    his clinic in Mardan along with one of his assistants.
        On October 7, two suspected suicide bombers blew themselves up at
    Karachi's Abdullah Shah Ghazi shrine, killing at least eight persons
    and leaving more than 60 injured.
        On October 18, militants shot a peace committee chief in Doaba
    Bazaar of Hangu district and put the heads of two other persons on
    display in Orakzai agency as a warning against resisting the militants.
        According to the Daily Times, on October 22, unidentified
    assailants killed the ANP's former district president, Khogh Badshah,
    in Hangu. Unknown gunmen reportedly opened fire upon Badshah and his
    security guard in the Doaba area of Hangu.
        On November 30, Balochistan Governor Nawab Zulfiqar Ali Magsi
    escaped unharmed when his convoy was targeted with a remote-controlled
    bomb. The bomb exploded minutes after the convoy passed in Mongechar
    area of Kalat District, approximately 75 miles from Quetta.
        On December 7, Balochistan Chief Minister Nawab Aslam Raisani was
    unharmed by a suicide bomb attack on his motorcade in Quetta that
    killed one of his bodyguards.
        According to the Daily Times, on December 15, the Taliban attacked
    a shrine in Peshawar and killed three of its custodians. Police said
    terrorists attacked the shrine of Ghazi Baba at Badabher and shot the
    custodians. Three of them died on the spot, while the fourth sustained
    injuries. In a separate incident, three persons were injured when a
    police vehicle was targeted with a remote-controlled improvised
    explosive device in Nagman area of Peshawar.
        According to the Daily Times, on December 25, a female suicide
    bomber attacked a gathering of conflict-affected persons waiting to
    receive food in Bajuar Agency, killing at least 42 persons, including
    women and children, and injuring scores of others. A local official
    reported that the suicide attack took place at a World Food Program
    (WFP) food distribution center in Khar. The bomber was a woman who
    appeared in full veil and blew herself up while being searched at the
    center. Witnesses said she threw hand grenades before detonating the
    bomb. TTP spokesman Azam Tariq claimed responsibility for the attack
    and stated that it was in retaliation for the Salarzai tribe's
    activities against the Taliban. The WFP temporarily stopped its food
    distribution operation in Bajaur following the attack.

        Abductions.--During the year there were reports of civilians
    kidnapped or taken hostage by militant groups in FATA, KP, and
    Balochistan.
        On February 20, The News reported that four officials of the
    international NGO Mercy Corps were kidnapped by unidentified armed men
    at gunpoint in the Shankai area of District Qillah Saifullah. On June
    15, one of the officials, the driver, was killed. The three other
    officials were released in July.
        Dawn reported that on March 7, a progovernment tribal elder was
    found dead in Ferozkhel Mela area of Orakzai tribal region. Malik Taj
    Mohammed was kidnapped a few days before he was found. According to
    family sources, the kidnappers never demanded a ransom. At least 23
    elders have been killed in Orakzai for supporting government action
    against militants, and as a result more than 500 elders have moved to
    other areas.
        On May 16, Dawn reported that militants ambushed a convoy being
    escorted by security forces and kidnapped 60 passengers, including
    women and children, in the Toor Ghar area of Hangu district, KP. After
    talks with tribal leaders, militants freed 40 of them; 10 remained in
    the custody of the militants, and another 10 escaped.
        On September 7, Ajmal Khan, vice chancellor of the Islamia College
    University of Peshawar and a cousin of ANP leader Asfandyar Wali Khan,
    was kidnapped by alleged terrorists in Peshawar.
        In April the Government successfully negotiated the release of
    Thanasis Lerounis, a Greek volunteer for a humanitarian organization in
    KP, who had been kidnapped by the Afghan Taliban in September 2009.

        Child Soldiers.--Nonstate militant groups, including the TTP,
    kidnapped boys and girls and coerced parents with fraudulent promises
    into giving away children as young as age 12 to spy, fight, or die as
    suicide bombers. The militants sometimes offered parents money, often
    sexually and physically abused the children, and used psychological
    coercion to convince the children that the acts they committed were
    justified.
        In September 2009 the Government opened a rehabilitation center and
    school in Swat to assist former child soldiers rescued from militants.
    The center included a team of doctors, psychiatrists, and teachers. As
    of August there were more than 120 boys, some as young as age 12,
    attending school and receiving psychological counseling.

        Other Conflict-Related Abuses.--Militants bombed government
    buildings and attacked and killed female teachers. The TTP particularly
    targeted girls' schools, pronouncing its opposition to girls'
    education; however, the TTP also destroyed boys' schools. As of July,
    93 schools were destroyed in Bajaur Agency in FATA. Military operations
    created hardships for the local civilian population when militants
    closed key access roads and tunnels and attacked communications and
    energy networks, disrupting commerce and food and water distribution.
        In KP elected civilian government officials and their families were
    major targets of attacks, especially those representing the ANP party.
    On July 24, the son of KP's information minister, Mian Iftikhar
    Hussain, was shot and killed. Three days later, during the funeral a
    suicide bomber blew himself up near Hussain's home in Peshawar, killing
    eight persons and injuring 15.
        As a result of militant activity and military operations in KP and
    FATA that began in 2008 and continued throughout the year, large
    population displacements occurred. Although an estimated 1.9 million
    conflict-affected persons returned home during the year, there were
    still more than one million internally displaced persons (IDPs) living
    with host communities, in rented accommodation, or in camps. The
    Government and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees
    (UNHCR) collaborated to provide assistance and protection to those
    affected by the conflict and to assist in their return home (see
    section 2.d.).

    Section 2. Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:
        a. Freedom of Speech and Press.--The law provides for freedom of
    speech and of the press, and the Government respected these rights in
    practice. Citizens generally were free to criticize the Government
    publicly or privately without reprisal; however, they were restricted
    when criticizing the military. The Government impeded criticism by
    monitoring political activity and controlling the media, and security
    forces at times harassed journalists. There were instances of the
    Government shutting down private television channels and blocking
    certain media outlets from broadcasting. Journalists and their families
    were arrested, beaten, kidnapped, and intimidated by militants and
    criminal elements, leading many to practice self-censorship.
        The independent media were active. Previously unreported events,
    such as persecution of minorities, were covered; however, the media
    faced some restrictions. There were numerous independent English and
    Urdu daily and weekly newspapers and magazines. The Ministry of
    Information and Broadcasting controlled and managed the country's
    primary wire service, the Associated Press of Pakistan, the official
    carrier of government and international news to the local media. The
    NGO Intermedia reported that the state broadcaster, Pakistan Television
    (PTV), did not operate under the purview of the law and benefitted from
    a monopoly on broadcast license fees. The military had its own media
    monitoring wing, Inter Services Public Relations.
        The few small, privately owned wire services and privately owned
    media outfits generally practiced self-censorship, especially on news
    reports involving the military. To publish within Azad Kashmir, owners
    of newspapers and periodicals had to obtain permission from the Kashmir
    Council and the Ministry of Kashmir Affairs. The Government-owned and
    government-controlled PTV and Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation
    operated radio stations throughout the country. The Pakistan Electronic
    Media Regulatory Authority Ordinance did not extend to FATA or the
    PATA, and independent radio stations were allowed to broadcast in FATA
    with the permission of FATA Secretariat.
        Foreign magazines and newspapers were available, while
    international press agencies maintained in-country correspondents who
    operated freely, although some had difficulty receiving journalist
    visas. There were few restrictions on international media, with the
    important exception of a complete blockade of Indian television news
    channels. Private cable and satellite channels broadcast domestic news
    and were critical of the Government, despite some self-censorship.
    Private radio stations existed in major cities, but their licenses
    prohibited news programming. Some channels evaded this restriction by
    discussing news in talk shows. International radio broadcasts,
    including the BBC and the Voice of America, were available, but
    sometimes were shut down for periods of time by the Pakistan Electronic
    Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA).
        In December 2009 the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting
    issued PEMRA Rules 2009, which contained regulations regarding
    television channels and a code of conduct for media channels as well as
    cable operators. The broadcasters asserted that the language of the
    broadcast laws had been kept vague, leading to instances of abuse and
    arbitrary broadcast restrictions by PEMRA. According to a September 20
    PEMRA press release, ``PEMRA has undertaken a series of crackdown
    against cable operators relaying channels that are not in consonance
    with PEMRA Laws. This action is in addition to the 50 cable networks
    seized by PEMRA Authority last week on account of similar violation
    (unlicensed and unauthorized channels).'' In the month of August alone,
    PEMRA shut down 43 television channels that did not comply with the
    rules.
        On August 8, the transmissions of two of the country's private
    television news channels, Geo TV and ARY News, were blocked. According
    to the Daily Mail, the Government prohibited the media from covering an
    August shoe-throwing incident against President Zardari during a
    meeting with British Pakistanis in the United Kingdom. The two
    Pakistani television channels managed to secure footage of the
    incident, but they had their transmission blocked. According to the
    Guardian, when some cable operators refused to obey the prohibition and
    broadcast the footage, gunmen fired at their staff and offices. The
    offices of two cable operators in Karachi were set on fire when
    operators refused to shut down transmissions of feeds from GEO TV and
    ARY News. The Government denied any role in the attacks and termed them
    a result of a clash between cable operators and the television networks
    in question. However, a private company blocked the television
    channels' news signals. In addition, copies of The News and the Daily
    Jang newspapers were burned, allegedly by activists of the ruling PPP,
    because they printed news about the shoe incident. According to The
    Nation, on October 17, the ruling PPP announced a decision to boycott
    Geo and Jang Group for distributing propaganda against the party since
    it assumed control of the Government. On October 23, the PPP issued a
    show-cause notice to former minister of information and current PPP
    member of the National Assembly Sherry Rehman and suspended Safdar
    Abbasi, a close confidant of slain former premier Benazir Bhutto, for
    appearing on Geo TV programs. PPP party supporters later launched
    violent protests outside Rehman's house in Karachi.
        The Government continued to restrict and censor some published
    material. Foreign books needed to pass government censors before being
    reprinted, but there were no reports of book bans during the year.
    Books and magazines could be imported freely but were subject to
    censorship for objectionable sexual or religious content. Obscene
    literature, a category the Government defined broadly, was subject to
    seizure.
        During the year media outlets and journalists and their families
    were subject to violence and harassment by security forces, political
    parties, militants, and other groups. Journalists also were abducted.
    Media outlets that did not practice self-censorship were often the
    targets of retribution.
        According to a report published in December by the Committee to
    Protect Journalists (CPJ), eight journalists were killed during the
    year. There were no reports that authorities had identified suspects in
    any of the cases, which included the following:
        The Daily Times reported that on September 14, journalist Misri
    Khan was killed in Hangu District, KP, by militants from the TTP, who
    claimed that ``he twisted facts whenever we gave him any reports'' and
    ``leaned towards the army.''
        On September 16, journalist Mujeebur Rehman Saddiqui, a Daily
    Pakistan correspondent, was killed by gunmen in Dargai, KP.
        According to the CPJ, on November 18, the body of journalist Lala
    Hameed Baloch, who had been kidnapped in late October, was found along
    with the body of a second journalist, Hameed Ismail, with gunshot
    wounds outside of Turbat, Balochistan Province. Baloch's family, local
    journalists, and the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists believed
    that he was seized by security officials and targeted for his political
    activism.
        During the year there were also a number of reports of journalists
    being subjected to physical attack, harassment, intimidation, or other
    forms of pressure, which included the following:
        On July 7, the Taliban threw a grenade at the home of Din News
    television reporter Imran Khan in Bajaur, FATA, injuring eight members
    of his family. He and his sister had been hospitalized earlier for
    injuries sustained in a kidnapping attempt.
        On July 22, Sarfraz Wistro, the chief reporter of the Daily Ibrat
    newspaper, was attacked and beaten unconscious by five men near his
    home in Hyderabad, Sindh.
        On September 4, Umar Cheema--the senior member of the investigation
    cell of a leading media group, The News--was abducted and taken to an
    unknown location, where he was blindfolded and beaten, had his hair
    shaved off his head, and was hung upside down and tortured. His
    abductors threatened more torture if ``he didn't mend his ways'' and
    told him the editor of investigations, Ansar Abbassi, would be next. He
    was dropped outside of Islamabad six hours later. Cheema went public
    with the abuse, and The News covered his abduction in detail in print,
    as did television channels. Police filed a case immediately against the
    accused, the Government formed a joint investigation team to probe the
    incident, and the Lahore High Court took notice of the case. As of
    year's end, and after nearly four months of investigation, the team had
    not issued any conclusive findings.
        On July 9, the Punjab Assembly unanimously passed a resolution
    criticizing certain sections of the media for their ``irresponsible
    role'' against political and nonpolitical personalities in the wake of
    reporting on parliamentarians allegedly holding fake or nonrecognized
    higher education degrees. After widespread criticism and protest
    rallies by the media and civil society organizations, another promedia
    resolution was passed by the Punjab Assembly on July 13, acknowledging
    ``journalists' role in the movements for restoration of democracy and
    supremacy of judiciary.'' Media groups continued to demand the
    withdrawal of the July 9 resolution.
        In August 2009 Daily Asaap, the most widely circulated Urdu-
    language newspaper in Balochistan Province, suspended publication,
    citing harassment from security forces. At year's end the Daily Asaap
    remained closed.
        In December 2009, according to the New York Times, Kamran Shafi, a
    leading columnist and a former army officer who wrote critically of the
    military, was harassed and his house allegedly was attacked by elements
    linked to the security establishment.

        Internet Freedom.--Individuals and groups could engage in the
    expression of views via the Internet, including by e-mail. However,
    there were reports of some restrictions on access to the Internet and
    reports that the Government monitored the Internet, some e-mail, and
    Internet chat rooms. There were also reports that the Government
    attempted to control some Web sites, including extremist and
    proindependence Baloch Web sites.
        The Prevention of Electronic Crimes Ordinance of 2008, promulgated
    by President Zardari, is in effect. The ordinance created a number of
    offenses involving the misuse of electronic media and systems and the
    use of such data in other crimes. It also stipulated that
    cyberterrorism resulting in a death would be punishable by the death
    penalty or life imprisonment.
        In June the Government announced monitoring of major Web sites for
    anti-Islamic content. The Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA)
    was given the responsibility by the Ministry of Information and
    Broadcasting to monitor major Web sites, including Google, Yahoo,
    Amazon, and MSN, while 17 Web sites containing ``blasphemous material''
    were also blocked. The actions were taken after the Lahore High Court,
    which was hearing private petitions against blasphemous Web sites,
    ordered the Government to monitor or block such sites. PTA officials,
    however, contended that it was not possible to monitor all such Web
    sites and that such ``interference'' could affect businesses and
    discourage on-line commercial activities.
        The International Telecommunication Union estimated that there were
    more than 18.5 million Internet users in the country as of June, and
    service existed in nearly all of the country's urban and semiurban
    areas. Intermedia reported that broadband Internet was accessible in
    170 cities and towns. Lack of infrastructure limited public access in
    rural areas.
        There were no reports that the Government attempted to obtain or
    disclose the personally identifiable information of a person in
    connection with that person's expression of beliefs.
        In May the PTA blocked the popular social networking Web site
    Facebook nationwide for 10 days after the Lahore High Court ordered its
    closure when members utilized the site for a competition to draw
    caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad.

        Academic Freedom and Cultural Events.--The Government generally did
    not restrict academic freedom. However, members of student
    organizations, typically with ties to political parties, fostered an
    atmosphere of violence and intolerance that limited the academic
    freedom of fellow students. On some university campuses in Karachi,
    armed groups of students, most commonly associated with the All
    Pakistan Mutahidda Students Organization (affiliated with the MQM) and
    the Islami Jamiat Talaba (affiliated with Jamaat-e-Islam,), clashed
    with and intimidated other students, instructors, and administrators
    over issues such as language, syllabus content, examination policies,
    grades, doctrines, and dress. These groups frequently influenced the
    hiring of staff, admissions to universities, and sometimes the use of
    institutional funds. They generally achieved such influence through a
    combination of protest rallies, control of campus media, and threats of
    mass violence. In response university authorities prohibited political
    activity on many campuses, but the ban had limited effect.
        There was no government interference with most art exhibitions or
    other musical or cultural activities. However, the Ministry of Culture
    operated the Central Board of Film Censors, which previewed and
    censored sexual content in foreign and domestic films before exhibition
    in the country.

        b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association.--The law provides
    for freedom of assembly and freedom of association, subject to
    restrictions imposed by law.

        Freedom of Assembly--Although the constitution provides for this
    right, in practice the Government placed selective restrictions on the
    right to assemble. By law district authorities can prevent gatherings
    of more than four persons without police authorization. Under the
    criminal procedure code, the Government can place a ban on all kinds of
    rallies and processions, except funeral processions, based on security
    considerations.
        There were reports that police beat demonstrators and shelled them
    with tear gas. For example, on May 27, police charged teachers
    protesting in front of the Governor's House in Karachi, Sindh,
    resulting in injury to approximately 30 persons and dozens of arrests.
    Ahmadis also were prohibited from holding conferences or gatherings.

        Freedom of Association.--The constitution provides for the right of
    association subject to restrictions imposed by law. According to the
    Ministry of Social Welfare and Special Education, there were more than
    100,000 NGOs working in the country; however, due to the fragmented
    legal and regulatory framework, the exact number of NGOs was not known.
        During the year threats to civil society continued, with ``softer
    targets'' such as schools, becoming more frequent focuses of attacks.
    Toward the end of the year, a trend emerged, particularly in the
    vicinity of Peshawar, of bombs being planted and detonated at schools
    during times when children could be expected to be present. During the
    year five such bombings killed 13 students and injured 112.
        Security was a problem for NGO workers due to the instability in
    the FATA and the KP and threats to organizations that promoted women's
    rights. By year's end seven NGO workers had been killed, seven had been
    kidnapped but later released, and several others had received threats.
        International NGOs faced difficulties in obtaining visas for staff
    members. There were reports that security agencies blocked the issuance
    of visas for international staff members due to concerns about their
    activities and links to foreign governments.

        c. Freedom of Religion.--For a complete description of religious
    freedom, please see the 2010 International Religious Freedom Report at
    www.state.gov/g/drl/irf/rpt.

        d. Freedom of Movement, Internally Displaced Persons, Protection of
    Refugees, and Stateless Persons.--The law provides for freedom of
    movement within the country, and for uninhibited foreign travel,
    emigration, and repatriation; the Government limited these rights in
    practice. The law prohibits travel to Israel, and the country's
    passports include a statement that they are ``valid for all countries
    except Israel.'' Government employees and students must obtain ``no
    objection certificates'' from the Government before traveling abroad.
    This requirement rarely was enforced for students.
        The Government cooperated with the UNHCR and other humanitarian
    organizations in providing protection and assistance to IDPs, refugees,
    returning refugees, asylum seekers, and other persons of concern.
    However, the Government's restrictions on access to certain areas of
    FATA, KP, and Balochistan, often due to security concerns, hindered the
    ability of humanitarian assistance providers to deliver aid to
    vulnerable populations.
        Persons on the Exit Control List (ECL) were prohibited from foreign
    travel. Although the ECL was intended to prevent those with pending
    criminal cases from traveling abroad, no judicial action was required
    for the Ministry of Interior to add a name to the ECL. The ECL
    sometimes was used to harass human rights activists or leaders of
    nationalist parties. Those on the list had the right to appeal to the
    courts for removal of their names.
        There were no reports of restrictions on emigration or prohibition
    against repatriation. The law prohibits forced exile, and no case of
    forced exile was reported during the year.

        Internally Displaced Persons.--The Government does not have laws to
    protect IDPs, but implemented policies to assist them, meeting some of
    the UN Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement. The National
    Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) registered most IDPs and
    provided them with identity cards in 2009 and early 2010. Registration
    of women and Ahmadis continued to be a problem. In more conservative
    regions within the country, particularly rural areas, a women's right
    to vote or be registered is not recognized. As Ahmadis are not
    recognized as Muslims in the country, they must declare themselves to
    be non-Muslim in order to receive a NADRA identity card. For this
    reason many Ahmadis refused to register. The registration served as a
    basis for the distribution of cash assistance for many IDPs displaced
    by conflicts. However, the registration process did not reach all IDPs,
    since the Government denied registration to IDPs from specific
    geographical areas that it did not consider conflict areas.
        During the year the number of IDPs fluctuated due to militant
    activity and military operations in KP and FATA, as well as nationwide
    flooding during the months of August and September.
        Population displacement due to militant activity in FATA and KP
    began in 2008 and a larger population displacement from Lower Dir,
    Buner, and Swat districts of the KP occurred as a result of military
    operations beginning in April 2009. The total number of conflict IDPs
    at its peak in April/May 2009 rose to 3.4 million nationwide. In July
    2009 the KP government and the humanitarian community came to an
    agreement for a voluntary, informed, dignified, safe, and sustainable
    return of the IDPs. KP authorities, in coordination with the
    international humanitarian assistance community, implemented a phased,
    facilitated return plan.
        Military operations in FATA at the beginning of the year led to
    approximately 20,000 new IDPs coming from the Orakzai Agency and the
    Kurram Agency. Continuing sectarian violence in Kurram further
    increased the number of displaced families, possibly by an additional
    2,000. The military operation launched in September 2009 in Bara
    (Khyber Agency, FATA) created hundreds of thousands of IDPs,
    approximately 30,000 of whom continued to be sheltered in Jalozai Camp.
    A sizeable number continued to live with host families and rented
    houses away from Bara.
        As of mid-December, approximately 1.2 million persons remained
    displaced in KP. The majority of conflict-affected IDPs resided with
    host families, in rented accommodations, or, to a lesser extent, in
    camps. The Government continued to consolidate and close IDP camps
    during the year. Of the few remaining, Jalozai camp in Nowshera
    District of KP hosted the largest in-camp conflict-affected IDP
    population, with an estimated 96,000 residents, mostly from Bajaur
    Agency.
        A survey conducted in October by the UNHCR among IDPs from South
    Waziristan sheltering in Dera Ismail (DI) Khan and Tank districts
    revealed that 85 percent of those surveyed wanted to return to their
    areas of origin; of this number, 44 percent felt comfortable returning
    immediately. The Government continued to facilitate voluntary returns
    to Orakzai and South Waziristan agencies with support from the
    international humanitarian community. As of December 23, the UN
    reported that 4,664 families had returned to Orakzai and 307 families
    had returned to South Waziristan.
        The Government severely restricted humanitarian organizations'
    access to parts of FATA and KP, particularly to South and North
    Waziristan and DI Khan and Tank districts, during the year. With the
    onset of the flooding, however, some humanitarian space opened in
    northwest Pakistan, with the Government easing access requirements,
    such as temporarily waiving certain requirements for visas and no-
    objection certificates.
        The HRCP invited the Government to develop a template for
    protection and assistance of IDPs. In its report, Internal Displacement
    in Pakistan: Contemporary Challenges, the commission recommended
    proactive measures for averting displacement, mainly by early
    identification of threats, close and continued assessment and
    monitoring of risks, and adoption of appropriate responses. The report
    noted that ``provisions must be made for individuals who face
    additional vulnerabilities on account of their age, gender, religious
    beliefs, health condition and physical and mental disabilities.''
    Referring to the UN Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, the
    report also noted that prior to any decision requiring the displacement
    of persons, authorities should ensure that all feasible alternatives
    are explored to avoid displacement altogether. Where no alternatives
    exist, all measures shall be taken to minimize displacement and its
    adverse effects. The report underlined the need for making efforts to
    mitigate the impact on the affected population in cases where
    displacement is unavoidable, adding that there must be greater
    recognition of the importance of assisting the displaced persons beyond
    the immediate emergency response and of assessing and responding to the
    needs of the affected population throughout the various phases of
    displacement.
        According to the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), nearly 50 percent of
    the estimated two million IDPs from Swat in July 2009 were children,
    many of them in urgent need of health and educational services,
    nutritional support, access to clean water and sanitation, in addition
    to protection.
        According to The News, children in KP were most vulnerable to the
    effects of the insurgency before, during, and after their displacement.
    Loss of family members and exposure to horrific violence left many
    struggling with a sense of uncertainty, insecurity, and fear.
        On July 29, floods of unprecedented proportions began. By the end
    of August, approximately 61,800 square miles were flooded. The flooding
    created a humanitarian crisis throughout the country, killing more than
    1,900 persons and affecting approximately 20 million others. The number
    and location of citizens displaced fluctuated as the waters moved
    downstream, overflowing both banks of the Indus River. According to the
    UNHCR, as of December 14, the number of camps for flood-affected
    persons in Sindh Province had dropped significantly from 4,800 at the
    height of the crisis to 340, with dozens of camps being closed daily;
    the camp population in Sindh in mid-December stood at 128,000. In
    Balochistan Province, an analysis conducted by the Balochistan Rural
    Support Program indicated that 7,759 families were residing in camps in
    the province during the first week of the emergency, while the number
    had dropped to 4,315 families in week eight. The UNHCR reported that
    only 12 IDP camps remained operational in Balochistan as of mid-
    December. In KP Province in mid-December, the UNHCR was profiling 3,300
    families scattered in 39 spontaneous camps. In Punjab Province, more
    than 95 percent of the flood-affected persons had gone back to their
    homes by mid-December.
        The Government (including provincial governments) launched rescue
    and relief operations conducted by the National Disaster Management
    Authority (NDMA) at the federal level and by relevant agencies at the
    provincial level, assisted by the country's military, foreign military
    units, various UN agencies, the Pakistani Red Crescent, and the ICRC.
    More than 20,000 army troops including medical teams, along with dozens
    of helicopters, several C-130 aircraft, and over 1,000 boats, were
    mobilized to undertake flood relief and search and rescue operations
    throughout the country and distribute relief supplies to displaced and
    isolated populations. Simultaneous work was undertaken to strengthen
    banks vulnerable to floods. In some places breaches were engineered to
    control floods and disrupted communication networks were quickly
    restored by temporary structures.
        On September 8, the NDMA announced the registration and
    compensation process for flood-affected families. The program called
    for providing 20,000 rupees (approximately $235) to each of the
    approximately 3.4 million flood-affected families. The compensation
    registration process was to be led by provincial social welfare
    departments, with assistance from the UNHCR and the NADRA.
        As of late October, the NDMA reported the distribution of more than
    1.1 million blankets, 184,035 tons of food items, and the rescue of
    almost 1.4 million persons. A broad range of NGOs also worked with the
    Government to provide emergency relief and early recovery support to
    the affected populations throughout the country, including clean water,
    food, shelter, and basic health care.
        The country's media and humanitarian assistance providers reported
    instances of alleged discrimination in the distribution of food and
    relief items on ethnic, nationality, religious, social, or other
    grounds, including gender. The Government asked humanitarian
    organizations to report any such instances to NDMA. In Balochistan, the
    UNHCR reported cases where beneficiaries were charged money to receive
    Watan cards (government-provided cash cards) and instances of gender-
    based violence related to the abduction of girls, forced marriages, and
    domestic violence.
        The Government coordinated with the Office of the High Commissioner
    for Human Rights for the voluntary and safe return of IDPs. For IDPs
    that were not ready to return, the Government coordinated support for
    IDP camps with the UNHCR and other international organizations. The WFP
    distributed food rations to the IDPs displaced by conflict.

        Protection of Refugees.--The country is not a party to the 1951 UN
    Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol.
    There is no legislation that provides for asylum or refugee status.
    Although there is no legislation excluding asylum seekers and refugees
    from the provisions of the Foreigners Act regarding illegal entry and
    stay or conferring legal status, the Government in most cases provided
    protection against the expulsion or involuntary return of refugees to
    countries where their lives or freedom would be threatened. The country
    is a member of the UNHCR's governing executive committee and cooperated
    with the UNHCR in protecting, assisting, and repatriating Afghan
    refugees.
        Since 1979 the Government has provided temporary protection to
    millions of refugees from Afghanistan. According to the UNHCR, at the
    end of the year, an estimated 1.6 million registered Afghan refugees
    remained in the country, while another 104,331 voluntarily repatriated
    to Afghanistan during the year. There were no credible estimates of how
    many Afghans were undocumented or unregistered, but rough estimates put
    the number at more than one million. At the end of December 2009,
    Afghan refugees' proof of registration (PoR) cards expired; however, on
    March 24, Prime Minister Gilani extended PoR status through December
    2012. The new PoR cards were more durable and had features that made
    duplication more difficult (i.e., holographic lamination). In addition,
    as of September the NADRA agreed to issue Afghan birth certificates at
    PoR card renewal centers to all Afghan children under the age of 18
    born in the country (as opposed to only issuing birth certificates to
    Afghans born in refugee camps).
        On May 7, the UNHCR-Afghanistan-Pakistan Tripartite Agreement
    governing the voluntary repatriation of registered Afghan refugees was
    extended until the end of 2012. Under the agreement the three parties
    reaffirmed their commitment to the voluntary, gradual, and dignified
    return of Afghan refugees. However, from January to July, the
    Government deported 240 Afghans with PoR cards. There were also
    credible allegations that the Government deported between 50 and 60
    unregistered Afghans per week.
        According to the UNHCR, less than half of registered Afghan
    refugees lived in 84 refugee villages in KP (71), Balochistan (12,) and
    Punjab (one). Close to 60 percent of the registered Afghans lived in
    urban areas. More than half of this population came from five provinces
    in Afghanistan: Nangarhar, Kabul, Kunduz, Logar, and Paktya.
        Refugees were not allowed to work legally. Refugees often were
    exploited in the informal labor market. Refugee women and children were
    particularly vulnerable, accepting underpaid and undesirable positions
    in workplaces such as morgues.
        Police in some cases demanded bribes from refugees. There were
    credible reports that members of the intelligence services also
    harassed refugees. Refugees faced societal discrimination and abuse
    from local communities, which resented economic competition and blamed
    refugees for high crime rates and terrorism. Single women, female-led
    households, and children working on the streets were particularly
    vulnerable to abuse and trafficking.
        The floods did not affect refugee access to services, except in the
    case of the Afghan refugee village of Azakhel, KP, where the Government
    did not authorize the former residents to return to their destroyed
    village to rebuild it. At the end of the year, 3,000 refugee families
    were still displaced, living in tents in the proximity of the village,
    or staying with relatives or in rented rooms. The UNHCR was assisting
    these families until the Government authorized them to return to the
    village, which stands on valuable land over which there are competing
    property claims.
        Afghan refugees could avail themselves of the services of police
    and courts, but some, particularly the poor, were afraid to do so.
    Every refugee who registered with both the UNHCR and the Government-run
    Commission for Afghan Refugees was granted admission to public
    education facilities after filing the proper paperwork. In practice
    there were no reports of refugees being denied access to health
    facilities.
        The country lacks a legal and regulatory framework for the
    management of refugees and migration.
        In many instances the rights of refugees and services to which
    Afghans can or cannot have access were open to local government or even
    individual interpretation. For example, the State Bank governor decided
    that Afghans could not have bank accounts, but NADRA regularly verified
    for banks the identity of refugees who wished to open accounts.
        Although there is no legislation specifically permitting Afghans to
    obtain a driver's license, Afghans drove a large percentage of the
    trucks in the KP. Although there were a number of Afghan schools funded
    by foreign assistance, Afghan children usually had no problem attending
    the country's primary schools. For older students, particularly in
    cities, access was harder. Even Afghans who grew up in the country
    needed a student visa to attend the country's universities, but they
    qualified for a student visa on the basis of their PoR card. In some
    cases of particularly serious crimes, the UNHCR took up legal cases on
    behalf of refugee victims.
        The Government did not accept refugees for resettlement from other
    countries or facilitate local integration. While the Government did not
    have a system to confer refugee status or asylum, it generally
    abstained from forcibly returning Afghans and other foreigners with PoR
    cards.

        Stateless Persons--The UNHCR reported that statelessness emerged as
    an issue in the country during the year. There is no national
    legislation on statelessness. The stateless persons in the country were
    primarily individuals with links to Bangladesh. The UNHCR reported that
    while accurate data was not available, various sources put the number
    of affected persons in the thousands.

    Section 3. Respect for Political Rights: The Right of Citizens to
            Change Their Government
        The law provides the majority of citizens with the right to change
    their government peacefully, and the country held national and
    provincial elections in 2008 that brought opposition parties to power.
    Gilgit-Baltistan, Azad Kashmir, and FATA had different political
    systems, and of these only FATA had representation in the national
    parliament. Under the 18th amendment to the constitution, adopted in
    April, the president's power to dissolve parliament was relinquished
    and shifted to the prime minister.
        Residents of Gilgit-Baltistan did not have representation in the
    national parliament. In September 2009 President Zardari signed the
    Gilgit-Baltistan Empowerment and Self-Governance Order, under which the
    portions of the country known as the Northern Areas were afforded
    attributes of a province and renamed Gilgit-Baltistan (although still
    without parliamentary representation).
        Residents of FATA were represented in the national parliament but
    did not have a voice in federal decision-making over the tribal areas,
    an authority that belongs to the president. Tribal residents did not
    have the right to change their local government, since unelected civil
    bureaucrats nominally ran the tribal agencies. The elected councils in
    FATA, set up in 2007 to provide local representation within the tribal
    areas, have not been given an active role in governing the tribal
    areas. The Political Parties Act does not apply to FATA, and no
    political party can legally campaign or operate an office there. In
    March Prime Minister Gilani announced the Government's intention to
    extend the act to FATA after peace is restored there; by year's end he
    had not signed the necessary order. Some political parties asserted
    that this prohibition on political party activity was void because
    religious-based parties openly campaigned in FATA, despite the law.
        Azad Kashmir did not have representation in the national
    parliament. Azad Kashmir has an interim constitution, an elected
    unicameral assembly, a prime minister, and a president who is elected
    by the assembly. Both the president and legislators serve five-year
    terms. Of the 49 assembly seats, 41 are filled through direct
    elections, and eight are reserved seats (five for women and one each
    for representatives of overseas Kashmiris, technocrats, and religious
    leaders). However, the federal government exercises considerable
    control over the structures of government and electoral politics. Its
    approval is required to pass legislation, and the federal minister for
    Kashmir affairs exercises significant influence over daily
    administration and the budget. The Kashmir Council, composed of federal
    officials and Kashmiri assembly members and chaired by the federal
    prime minister, also holds some executive, legislative, and judicial
    powers. The military retains a guiding role on issues of politics and
    governance. Those who do not support Azad Kashmir's accession to the
    country were barred from the political process, government employment,
    and educational institutions. They were also subject to surveillance,
    harassment, and sometimes imprisonment by security services. The 2006
    legislative elections in Azad Kashmir were marred by allegations of
    rigging.

        Elections and Political Participation.--In 2008 the country held
    national parliamentary elections that brought former opposition parties
    into a coalition government led by the PPP under the leadership of
    Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Gilani. The elections were postponed
    multiple times, the last time due to the assassination of PPP leader
    Benazir Bhutto in 2007. In the 2008 indirect presidential election,
    Asif Ali Zardari, the widower of Bhutto, became president, succeeding
    Pervez Musharraf, who had resigned. The broad coalition government was
    dissolved in 2009, leaving the PPP to govern with a smaller majority in
    league with several partners.
        For the 2008 elections, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP)
    reportedly accredited approximately 25,000 domestic observers, the
    majority of whom were from the Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN).
    The EU and Democracy International also observed. In 2008, for the
    first time in the country's history, the ECP released the certified
    results of the elections broken down by polling station, a step toward
    greater transparency.
        The Government permitted all existing political parties to contest
    the elections; although several boycotted, the largest parties
    participated. The Government required voters to indicate their religion
    when registering to vote. The Ahmadi community rejected the country's
    legal prohibition on the Ahmadis being called Muslims. In order to
    register to vote, the Government required Ahmadis to declare themselves
    as non-Muslims; as a result, the Ahmadis boycotted the elections.
    International and domestic observers found the 2008 parliamentary
    election competitive and noted that the results appeared to reflect the
    will of the voters, despite significant flaws in the process.
        Security services and feudal landlords intimidated voters and
    political parties throughout the country, according to FAFEN. In
    particular, observers noted that some police pressured candidates and
    political party workers by threatening to register cases against them.
    Police often reportedly did not allow rallies for opposition parties
    and pressured individuals to vote for certain parties. FAFEN documented
    cases in which intelligence services pressured candidates to withdraw.
        The International Foundation for Electoral Systems noted that
    formal adjudication of challenges of disputed election results was weak
    and that the high courts did not meet statutorily prescribed deadlines
    for adjudication in the majority of cases.
        There are no laws that prevent women from voting; however, cultural
    and traditional barriers in tribal and rural areas impeded some women.
    Women participated in political life. There were 60 seats in the
    National Assembly reserved for women, and an additional 16 women won
    directly elected seats in the 342-seat National Assembly. The reserved
    seats were apportioned on the basis of total votes secured by the
    candidates of each political party contesting elections to the general
    seats. There were five women in the federal cabinet. In 2008, for the
    first time in the country's history, the National Assembly elected a
    female speaker, Fahmida Mirza. Of the 758 seats in provincial
    assemblies, there were 128 reserved for women. One-third of the seats
    in local councils were reserved for women. Provincial chief ministers
    named women to serve in their cabinets. In some districts, social and
    religious conservatives prevented women from becoming candidates. Women
    also participated actively as political party members, but were not
    always successful in securing leadership positions within parties, with
    the exception of in the women's wing.
        The 18th amendment to the constitution that passed in April
    reserved four seats to the Senate for religious minorities. There were
    10 religious minority members in reserved seats in the National
    Assembly, and one served in the cabinet as the federal minister of
    minorities. Such seats were apportioned to parties based on the
    percentage of seats each won in the assembly. Under the law minorities
    held 23 reserved seats in the provincial assemblies: eight in Punjab;
    nine in Sindh; three in the KP; and three in Balochistan.
        The first elections in Gilgit Baltistan were held in November 2009
    for a 24-member legislative assembly, with the PPP winning the majority
    of the votes. Syed Mehdi Shah of the PPP was chosen as the first-ever
    chief minister, replacing direct rule by the federal government.
    According to a preelection analysis by FAFEN, government interference,
    weak administration, procedural irregularities, and erroneous voter
    lists affected the election results. Although the election was largely
    peaceful, two persons were killed and at least 40 were injured in
    several incidents of violence. On March 23, Shama Khalid took the oath
    as governor of Gilgit-Baltistan, becoming the country's second-ever
    female governor of a province; however, she died from cancer on
    September 15.

    Section 4. Official Corruption and Government Transparency
        The law provides for criminal penalties for official corruption;
    however, the Government did not implement the law effectively, and
    officials frequently engaged in corrupt practices with impunity. The
    NAB established accountability courts to consider corruption cases (see
    section 1.d., arrest procedures). Some human rights groups charged that
    the NAB was a deviation from the normal justice system and that the
    Government influenced the NAB. However, the NAB took on cases of
    embezzlement, bank loan defaults, pension scams, and illegal kickback
    schemes, among others.
        Corruption was pervasive in politics and government and various
    politicians and public office holders faced allegations of corruption,
    including bribery, extortion, cronyism, nepotism, patronage, graft, and
    embezzlement. According to a July Transparency International report,
    corruption perception worsened compared with 2009. The report indicated
    a rise in corruption, to 223 billion rupees ($2.6 billion) during the
    year from 195 billion rupees ($2.3 billion) in 2009. The police and the
    bureaucracy continued to be seen as the two most corrupt public sector
    institutions.
        A 2007 NRO, promulgated under President Musharraf, provided an
    amnesty mechanism for public officials who were charged, but not
    convicted, in cases filed between 1986 and 1999. In December 2009 the
    Supreme Court declared the NRO null and void, reopening all 8,000 cases
    against those who had received amnesty, including the president,
    ministers, and parliamentarians. However, on January 16, the Zardari
    government filed a petition challenging the Supreme Court's 2009
    decision, requesting its review. As of year's end, the issue remained
    unresolved.
        In light of the NRO being struck down, the Supreme Court ordered
    the Government to request that Swiss authorities reopen the money
    laundering case in Switzerland that had been brought against President
    Zardari. As of year's end, the Government had not complied with the
    order. In addition, Swiss judicial authorities reportedly cited
    presidential immunity and did not independently reopen the case. Both
    President Zardari and the late PPP leader Benazir Bhutto had been
    convicted by a Geneva court in 2003 of laundering $13 million linked to
    kickbacks, but the verdict was overturned on appeal. In 2008 Swiss
    judicial authorities stated that they had closed the money laundering
    case against Zardari and had released $60 million frozen for a decade
    in Swiss accounts.
        In another high profile case in May, the NAB assisted in
    extraditing former Punjab Bank president Hamesh Khan. He was accused in
    a nine-billion-rupee ($105 million-dollar) scam. His case was pending
    at year's end.
        Corruption within the lower levels of the police was common. The
    July survey by Transparency International noted that the major cause of
    corruption was lack of accountability, followed by lack of merit and
    low salaries. Some police were known to charge fees to register genuine
    complaints and accepted money for registering false complaints. Bribes
    to avoid charges were commonplace. Critics charged that SHOs'
    appointments were politicized.
        Anecdotal reports persisted about corruption in the district and
    sessions courts, including reports of small-scale facilitation payments
    requested by court staff. Lower-court judges lacked the requisite
    independence and sometimes were pressured by superior court judges how
    to decide a case. Lower courts remained corrupt, inefficient, and
    subject to pressure from prominent wealthy, religious, and political
    figures. Government involvement in judicial appointments increased the
    Government's control over the court system.
        The 2002 Freedom of Information Ordinance allows any citizen access
    to public records held by a public body of the federal government,
    including ministries, departments, boards, councils, courts, and
    tribunals. It does not apply to government-owned corporations or
    provincial governments. The bodies must respond to requests for access
    within 21 days. Certain records are restricted from public access,
    including classified documents, those that would be harmful to a law
    enforcement case or an individual, or those that would cause grave and
    significant damage to the economy or the interests of the nation. NGOs
    criticized the ordinance for having too many exempt categories and for
    not encouraging proactive disclosure.

    Section 5. Governmental Attitude Regarding International and
            Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations of Human
            Rights
        A wide variety of domestic and international human rights groups
    generally operated without government restriction, investigating and
    publishing their findings on human rights cases. Other groups that
    reported on issues implicating the Government, military, or
    intelligence services faced restrictions on their operations. There
    were very few NGOs with access to KP, the FATA, and some areas in
    Balochistan. While government officials were sometimes cooperative,
    they were only somewhat responsive to these groups' views. The PPP-led
    government delayed or blocked issuance of visas to international staff
    members of organizations whose work challenged the image of the
    Government.
        The Government sometimes sought NGO technical cooperation,
    especially from international NGOs, in the fields of humanitarian
    relief, development, environment, election operations, and human
    trafficking. Human rights groups reported they generally had access to
    police stations and prisons.
        The Government permitted international nongovernmental human rights
    observers to visit the country. The ICRC and many agencies of the UN
    had offices in the country, including the UNHCR, UNICEF, and the UN
    Development Program.
        The Senate and National Assembly Standing Committees on Law,
    Justice, Minorities, and Human Rights held hearings on a range of
    problems, including honor crimes, police abuse of the blasphemy law,
    and the Hudood Ordinance. The committees served as useful forums in
    which to raise public awareness of such problems, but their final
    decisions generally adhered to government policy. The committees did
    not have the resources to do more than conduct broad oversight. The
    Parliamentarians' Commission for Human Rights, an interparty caucus of
    parliamentarians, lobbied for reform in several areas.

    Section 6. Discrimination, Societal Abuses, and Trafficking in Persons
        The constitution provides for equality for all citizens and broadly
    prohibits discrimination based on race, religion, caste, residence, or
    place of birth; in practice there was significant discrimination based
    on each of these factors.

        Women.--Rape, other than by one's spouse, is a criminal offense,
    with punishment that ranges from a minimum of 10 to 25 years in prison
    and a fine to the death penalty. The penalty for gang rape is either
    death or life imprisonment, but sentences were often less severe.
    Although rape was frequent, prosecutions were rare.
        The 2006 WPA brought the crime of rape under the jurisdiction of
    criminal rather than Islamic courts. Previously, under the rape
    provision of the Hudood Ordinance, a woman was compelled to produce
    four male witnesses to corroborate her charge. Under the WPA police are
    not allowed to arrest or hold a woman overnight at a police station
    without a civil court judge's consent. A provision in the WPA also
    modified the complaint procedure in rape cases. Instead of a FIR, it
    requires a complaint to be made directly to a sessions court. After
    recording the victim's statement, the sessions court judge officially
    lodges a complaint, after which police can then make any arrests. While
    this procedure was meant to eliminate problems relating to social norms
    that make it difficult for women to go to the police, NGOs reported
    that this created other barriers for rape victims who did not have
    money or access to the courts. A February 2009 ruling by the Federal
    Shariat Court invalidated a 25-year-old legal provision allowing a man
    accused of rape to question the credibility of the victim by offering
    evidence that she was ``of generally immoral character.''
        There were no reliable national statistics on rape due to the
    underreporting and the lack of a central law enforcement data
    collection system. However, based on media reports, the NGO Aurat
    Foundation reported that 928 women were raped during the year.
        Prosecutions of reported rapes were rare. Police and NGOs reported
    that false rape charges sometimes were filed in different types of
    disputes, reducing the ability of police to assess real cases and
    proceed with prosecution. NGOs reported that police at times were
    implicated in rape cases. NGOs also alleged that police sometimes
    abused or threatened victims, demanding that they drop charges,
    especially when police received a bribe from suspected perpetrators.
    Some police demanded bribes from some victims before registering rape
    charges, and investigations were sometimes superficial. While the use
    of postrape medical testing increased during the year, medical
    personnel in many areas did not have sufficient training or equipment,
    which further complicated prosecutions.
        On June 27, the Daily Times reported that the body of Sabir Soomro,
    the brother of Kainat Soomro, a 2007 gang rape victim, was found near
    Khuzdar, Balochistan. He had disappeared in March on his way to his
    sister's hearing. The family alleged that the perpetrators kidnapped
    him with the help of police to pressure the family into withdrawing the
    case. All four accused men previously had been acquitted and released.
    On June 28, President Zardari took notice of the case and ordered a new
    inquiry; at year's end there was no new information on the inquiry.
        There were no developments in the July 2009 case of Assiya Rafiq,
    who allegedly was held for eight months, repeatedly raped, and then
    handed over to the Khanewal, Punjab, police, who allegedly raped her
    over the course of 14 days.
        According to a report by the Interior Ministry, during the previous
    three years, the number of cases of torture and rape by police
    officials increased by 60 percent. The report stated that 178 police
    officers in Punjab were involved in rape and other human rights
    violations, of which 89 were sent to jail. The report found that,
    during the previous two years, 10 police officers in Balochistan were
    found guilty of human rights violations and violence against women.
        On February 21, the HRCP reported that a 17-year-old Hindu girl,
    Kasturi Kohli, from Nagarparker, Sindh, was kidnapped on January 24 and
    gang-raped by an influential landlord, Ramzan Khoso, and his
    accomplices. Community members protested police reluctance to register
    the case and approached the Sindh High Court, which then ordered the
    police to file a FIR. Four persons were charged: Habibullah Khoso,
    Ramzan Khoso, Ghulam Nabi Khoso, and Veroo Mehraj. No arrests had been
    made by year's end.
        According to the AHRC, on October 26, 13-year-old Naveeda Kalhoro
    of Sindh Province allegedly was abducted and gang-raped by two lawyers
    from the Peoples Lawyer Forum, a legal body affiliated with the ruling
    PPP. Charges were later dropped by police due to pressure from the
    ruling party and a member of the provincial assembly from the area.
        The AHRC reported that Ruby Masih was picked up by police officers
    and taken to a private detention center, where she was gang-raped for
    more than 50 days (from August 10 until September 30). Masih's case
    against the accused officers was dropped due to a jurisdictional issue.
        There were no new developments reported in the June 2009 case of
    the alleged gang rape and killing of a 15-year-old girl by Iftikhar
    Ahmad and other hospital staff in Sheikhupura, Punjab, or in the
    October 2009 case of 16-year-old Ruby Perveen, who was allegedly
    kidnapped and gang-raped by five men, including Qiaser Shahzad, Adeel
    Shahzad, and Irshad Shahzad, sons of a political party leader. The
    girl's family disputed the police claim that an out-of-court settlement
    was arranged.
        In November 2009 three of the five alleged perpetrators in the 2008
    gang rape case of an 18-year-old woman in Mazar-e-Quaid, Karachi,
    Sindh, were arrested. According to reports, two were released by
    police. There were no other updates on the case.
        There were no developments in the 2008 rape case of a seven-year-
    old girl by two men in Lahore; the 2008 case in which a group of men
    kidnapped, raped, and killed a 13-year-old schoolgirl in Rawalpindi; or
    the 2008 case of a woman in Mandi Bahauddin, who was kidnapped, gang-
    raped, and severely burned with acid before being killed.
        During the year there were no developments in the Supreme Court
    case brought against the men involved in the 2002 gang rape of Mukhtar
    Mai. In 2005 the Supreme Court ordered that five men, whose original
    conviction the Lahore High Court overturned, be rearrested and held
    without bail. During the year Mai lived in her village in Punjab with
    police protection, and the 13 men allegedly involved in the gang rape
    were in prison.
        Domestic violence was a widespread and serious problem. Husbands
    reportedly beat and occasionally killed their wives. Other forms of
    domestic violence included torture, physical disfigurement, and shaving
    the eyebrows and hair off women's heads. In-laws abused and harassed
    the wives of their sons. Dowry and family-related disputes often
    resulted in death or disfigurement by burning or acid.
        According to the Aurat Foundation, the cases of reported violence
    against women increased 12.5 percent from the previous year. The
    foundation reported that during the year 1,436 women were killed, 2,236
    were abducted, 486 were victims of domestic violence, 74 were sexually
    assaulted, 32 were victims of acid attacks, and 633 women committed
    suicide. The HRCP reported that there were 371 incidents of domestic
    violence against women, including 82 attempted killings, 62 being set
    on fire, 12 burned by kerosene stoves, and 30 acid attacks. In
    addition, 655 women committed suicide, and another 382 women attempted
    suicide.
        According to a 2008 HRCP report, 80 percent of wives in rural
    Punjab feared violence from their husbands, and nearly 50 percent of
    wives in developed urban areas admitted that their husbands beat them.
        Women who tried to report abuse faced serious challenges. Police
    and judges were sometimes reluctant to take action in domestic violence
    cases, viewing them as family problems. Instead of filing charges,
    police typically responded by encouraging the parties to reconcile.
    Abused women usually were returned to their abusive family members.
    Women were reluctant to pursue charges because of the stigma attached
    to divorce and their economic and psychological dependence on
    relatives. Relatives were hesitant to report abuse due to fear of
    dishonoring the family.
        To address societal norms that frown on victims who report gender-
    based violence and abuse, the Government established women's police
    stations, staffed by female officers, to offer women a safe haven where
    they could safely report complaints and file charges. There were at
    least eight women's police stations in the country, located in Quetta,
    Islamabad, Peshawar, Karachi, Hyderabad, Larkana, Lahore, and
    Faisalabad. The first was established in 1994 in Karachi. However, they
    were poorly staffed and equipped.
        There is no specific law against domestic violence.
        The Government operated the Crisis Center for Women in Distress,
    which referred abused women to NGOs for assistance. A total of 26
    government-funded Shaheed Benazir Bhutto centers for women across the
    country provided women with temporary shelter, legal aid, medical
    treatment, and psychosocial counseling. These centers served women who
    were victims of exploitation and violence. Victims were later referred
    to ``darul aman'' (approximately 200 centers for women and child
    victims established under the Provincial Women Development Department
    funds). These centers provided shelter, access to medical treatment,
    limited legal representation, and some vocational training. Many
    government centers were full beyond capacity and lacked sufficient
    staff and resources. In some cases women were abused at the Government-
    run shelters. Women were victims of various types of societal violence
    and abuse, including ``honor killings,'' mutilation, forced marriages,
    imposed isolation, and being used to settle disputes. Women often were
    treated as the property or goods of their families, and perpetrators
    were often husbands and other male family members.
        Every year hundreds of women reportedly were killed in the name of
    honor. Many cases went unreported and unpunished. The News reported
    that in 2009, 29 women and 15 men were killed in 25 honor-killing
    incidents in KP. During the year 39 women and 29 men were killed in 20
    incidents of honor killing. The HRCP reported that during the year
    there were790 honor killings in the country. The practice of ``karo-
    kari,'' which occurred in Sindh Province, continued across the country.
    Karo-kari is a form of premeditated honor killing that occurs if a
    tribal court or jirga determines that adultery or some other ``crime of
    honor'' occurred. Karo-kari means ``black male'' (karo) and ``black
    female'' (kari), metaphoric terms for someone who has dishonored the
    family or is an adulterer and adulteress. Once a woman is labeled as a
    kari, male family members have the self-authorized justification to
    kill her and any coaccused karo to restore family honor. In many cases
    the karo is not killed or is able to flee.
        The Criminal Law (Amendment) Act of 2005 increased penalties for
    karo-kari and other forms of honor killing. However, human rights
    groups criticized the act because it allows the victim or the victim's
    heirs to negotiate physical or monetary restitution with the
    perpetrator in exchange for dropping charges, known as ``qisas'' and
    ``diyat.''
        Police in Sindh have established karo-kari cells with a toll-free
    telephone number in the districts of Sukkur, Ghotki, Khairpur, and
    Nausharo Feroze for persons to report karo-kari incidents. Because
    honor crimes generally occurred within families, many went unreported.
    However, police and NGOs reported that increased media coverage enabled
    law enforcement to take action against perpetrators.
        Many young girls and women were victims of forced marriages
    arranged by their families. Forced marriage was made a criminal offense
    in 2007; while many cases were filed, prosecution remained a problem.
    There were reports of citizens abroad bringing their daughters back to
    the country, taking away their legal documents, and forcing them into
    marriage against their will.
        The practice of buying and selling brides also continued in rural
    areas, although prohibited by law. Many tribes, communities, or
    families continued the practice of sequestering women from all contact
    with men other than their relatives. Despite prohibitions on handing
    over women as compensation for crimes or as a resolution of a dispute
    (also known as ``vani'' or ``swara''), the practice continued in Punjab
    and the KP. In rural Sindh landowning families continued the practice
    of ``marriage to the Qur'an'' to avoid division of property. Property
    of women married to the Qur'an remains under the legal control of their
    father or eldest brother, and such women are prohibited from contact
    with any man older than 14. These women are expected to stay in the
    home and not contact anyone outside their family.
        There continued to be cases of societal violence and abuses
    directed at women. For example, in September a Dubai-based television
    station, Al-Aan, released a video of a veiled woman being stoned to
    death in the northwest by Taliban militants. It was reported that she
    was punished because she was seen with a man.
        On January 19, a 12-year-old Christian housemaid named Shazia Masih
    was tortured in Lahore by her employers and died three days later from
    her injuries. A case was filed against her employers, including the
    main person accused, Chaudhry Naeem, a former head of the Lahore Bar
    Association. Prior to the trial, more than 300 lawyers reportedly
    mobbed preliminary court hearings and threatened to burn the home of
    any prosecution lawyer for Masih's family. According to The Nation, on
    November 25, Judge Chaudhry Ameer Muhammad Khan acquitted Naeem, as the
    prosecution failed to prove charges against the accused. The court also
    acquitted Naeem's son, Haris Naeem, and wife, Ghazala Naeem. The judge
    exonerated another individual accused of taking Masih to the lawyer's
    family as a child laborer.
        In May the AHRC reported that a tribal court in Khaipur Mirs,
    Sindh, determined 21-year-old Azra Ali Drigh to be a kari and sentenced
    her to death for wanting to marry outside of her tribe. The court
    allegedly was chaired by the bride's uncle, a police officer, and her
    father, also an officer. Sindh Minister for Human Rights Nadia Gabol
    ordered the inspector general of police to investigate the case and
    take action against officials who had refused to register the case. At
    year's end the sentence had not been carried out.
        On July 1, the Express Tribune reported that 17-year-old Sania Bibi
    was killed by her uncle near Islamabad for allegedly marrying a person
    of her own choice and going against the family's will. Earlier, Bibi's
    family had lodged a kidnapping case against the man she decided to
    marry; however, Bibi told the court that no kidnapping had occurred.
        On July 5, Dawn reported that a group of 14 persons stripped naked
    a 50-year-old woman, Allah Wasai, and her 14-year-old daughter, Ashraf
    Mai, in Shehr Sultan, Punjab, while a crowd of onlookers offered them
    no assistance. According to police, the accused claimed that their
    actions were in retaliation for an earlier dispute with another group
    (with which the women were associated) over irrigation water. Several
    persons from both groups were injured during the dispute. After the
    Lahore High Court initiated action, police arrested three of the
    accused, while the others remained at large.
        On July 20, the Express Tribune reported that 13-year-old Sadia
    fled her home in Sheikhupura, Punjab, the night before her father and
    uncle could force her to marry a 55-year-old man in exchange for 70,000
    rupees (approximately $800). The Lahore High Court ordered the police
    to provide her with protection and to have her summoned on July 27.
    However, on July 25, she was kidnapped, allegedly by other male
    relatives, and remained missing at year's end.
        There were no developments in the June 2009 case of a woman who had
    married against her family's wishes and was later killed, along with
    her husband's father, mother, and sister, in Charsadda, KP.
        There were no developments in the 2008 case of two teenage girls
    and three women in Baba Kot, Balochistan, who allegedly were buried
    alive in an honor killing. After the case prompted media controversy
    and criticism by politicians and human rights groups, the federal
    government and the provincial government initiated an investigation,
    and police arrested seven suspects. At year's end the case was pending
    in court.
        Sexual harassment was a widespread problem. Press reports indicated
    that harassment was especially high among domestic workers and nurses.
    In a survey conducted by the Daily Times in August, female government
    and private-sector employees complained about the abusive behavior of
    their male colleagues as well as senior officials. They said that some
    officers sought ``undue favors'' by blocking salaries, benefits,
    promotions, as well as transfers and postings.
        In March the Government passed two laws against sexual harassment
    in the workplace. The Criminal Law (Amendment) Act amended the penal
    code and the code of criminal procedure, making workplace harassment
    against women punishable with imprisonment of up to three years or a
    fine of 500,000 rupees ($5,880) or both.
        The second, more comprehensive law, the Protection against
    Harassment at the Workplace Act of 2010, includes a more detailed
    definition of harassment and proposes a code of conduct as a guideline
    for workplace behavior. The law requires every institution, public or
    private, to form a committee to receive complaints of sexual harassment
    and to institute a code of conduct prescribed by the law as a part of
    its human resource policies. On July 5, the National Commission on the
    Status of Women informed the media that 40 ministries and departments
    working under the federal government had complied with the law and
    incorporated the code of conduct into their policies. However, women's
    rights groups demanded further implementation.
        According to the AHRC, in May 2009 Maheen Usmani, a senior
    anchorperson for Dunya Television News in Islamabad, allegedly received
    two late-night telephone calls from Yusuf Baig Mirza, the channel's
    managing director, in which he made inappropriate comments. Usmani
    informed the channel's director of news and chief executive officer,
    but no action was taken. She claimed that she experienced professional
    setbacks; on June 15, she resigned, citing ``continued harassment,
    coercion, and highly unethical conduct of the top management of Dunya
    News.'' An internal investigation committee and the National Press Club
    investigated the claim, but there was no progress by year's end. Mirza
    filed two defamation lawsuits against Usmani, who was approached with
    offers of money and jobs in exchange for dropping the case.
        According to The Nation, M. Zar Nigar Ali of PTV accused the head
    of the current affairs department, Tahir Mahmood, of sexual harassment
    and threatening behavior. Ali allegedly received late-night telephone
    calls from Mahmood in which he made threats if she did not reciprocate
    his advances.
        Couples and individuals have the right to decide the number,
    spacing, and timing of children but often lacked the information and
    means to do so. Young girls and women were especially vulnerable to
    problems related to sexual and reproductive health and rights and often
    lacked information and means to access care. Spousal opposition also
    contributed to the challenges women faced in obtaining contraception or
    delaying pregnancy.
        According to the UN Population Fund's (UNFPA) 2007 data, 22 percent
    of women between the ages 15 and 49 used modern contraceptive methods.
    Access to contraception remained very low in the rural areas compared
    with urban areas (18 percent and 30 percent, respectively). Only 39
    percent of births took place in the presence of a skilled birth
    attendant. An assessment by the Population Council of postpartum care
    in low socioeconomic-level settlements, where few women attended the
    recommended six weekly postpartum visits, indicated that spousal
    opposition was the main reason for not opting to delay the next
    pregnancy and use contraception. According to the 2006-2007 Demographic
    and Health Survey, 35 percent of women received no prenatal care.
        According to a 2007 UNFPA estimate, only 17 percent of the
    country's women between the ages of 15 and 24 knew that a person could
    reduce HIV risk through condom use. According to UNICEF's 2009 State of
    the World's Children Report, the country had a rate of 276 maternal
    deaths per 100,000 live births; the high maternal mortality rate was
    attributed to lack of information and services. Women in rural areas
    were twice at risk of dying of birth-related causes than women in urban
    areas (maternal mortality rates of 319 and 175 deaths per 100,000 live
    births, respectively). The rate increased to 785 deaths per 100,000
    live births in Balochistan Province. Few women in rural areas had
    access to skilled attendants during childbirth, including essential
    obstetrics and postpartum care. According to UNICEF, the situation for
    mothers and children in the country was complicated by deteriorating
    security, which caused displacement and affected access to medical
    services, especially in KP and FATA. In a conservative society, women
    and children are also the most vulnerable to economic shocks and
    natural disasters.
        Women were less likely than men to be diagnosed and treated for
    sexually transmitted infections, including HIV, due to the social
    stigma attached to visiting a doctor, among other factors. According to
    the National AIDS Control Program, the country had an estimated 97,400
    HIV cases, of which approximately 27,000 were women age 15 or older.
    Although HIV prevalence among women was less than 1 percent, some
    groups of women, including professional prostitutes, women and girls
    forced into prostitution, and wives of migrant workers were highly
    vulnerable.
        Women also faced legal and economic discrimination. The law
    prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex, but in practice this
    provision was not enforced. Women faced discrimination in family law,
    property law, and the judicial system. Family law provides protection
    for women in cases of divorce, including requirements for maintenance,
    and lays out clear guidelines for custody of minor children and their
    maintenance. However, many women were unaware of these legal
    protections or unable to obtain legal counsel to enforce them. Divorced
    women often were left with no means of support as their families
    ostracized them. Women are legally free to marry without family
    consent, but women who did so were often ostracized or faced becoming
    the victims of honor crimes.
        The country's inheritance law also clearly discriminates against
    women. Female children are entitled to one-half the inheritance of male
    children. Wives inherit one-eighth of their husband's estate. In
    practice women often received far less than their legal entitlement.
        Women also faced significant discrimination in employment and were
    frequently paid less than men for similar work. In many rural areas of
    the country, strong societal pressure prevented women from working
    outside the home. Some tribes continued the traditional practice of
    sequestering women from all contact with men other than relatives.

        Children.--Citizenship is derived through the citizenship of the
    father or grandfather, who must have been Pakistani citizens before
    1971.
        Women can acquire citizenship through marriage to a Pakistani man;
    it is unclear whether a man can acquire citizenship through marriage to
    a Pakistani woman. Reporting of births is voluntary, and records are
    not uniformly kept, particularly in rural areas where children are born
    at home. In lieu of a birth certificate, individuals often used school
    records attested by the headmaster or principal of the school or
    matriculation certificates, both of which identify the father and the
    date of birth. NADRA issues identity documents, including birth
    certificates, and uses mobile teams to register children in rural
    areas. The number of unregistered births was not available. While the
    Government sometimes reported that more than 75 percent of the
    population was registered, actual figures may be lower. Public
    services, such as education and health care, were still available to
    children without a birth certificate.
        The 18th amendment to the constitution mandates that the Government
    provide free and compulsory education to all children between the ages
    of five and 16. In practice government schools often charged parents
    for the cost of books, uniforms, and other materials. Parents of lower
    socioeconomic means sometimes chose to send children to madrassas,
    where they received free room and board, or to NGO-operated schools.
    Studies showed that one-third of the children who attended school
    attended nongovernmental schools.
        Slightly more than 50 percent of the population over the age of 10
    is literate. More than 40 percent of girls never enroll in school. This
    was often perceived as parental lack of desire to send girls to school;
    however, a 2009 survey indicated that only 6 percent of the population
    was in favor of banning girls' education. The biggest barrier to girls'
    education is the lack of access. Public schools, particularly beyond
    the primary grades, were not available in many rural areas, and those
    that existed were often too far away for a girl to travel
    unaccompanied. In addition, despite cultural beliefs that boys and
    girls should be separate after primary school, the Government often
    failed to take measures to provide separate restroom facilities or
    separate classrooms, and there were more government schools for boys
    than for girls. The attendance rates for girls in primary, secondary,
    and postsecondary schools were lower than boys across the board.
        On February 3, extremists in KP bombed a girls' school, which had
    just been rebuilt after a previous attack. Four students were killed,
    and more than 60 were injured. On November 21, Geo News reported that
    extremists bombed a government-run girls' primary school in KP.
        Although boys and girls had equal access to government facilities,
    families were more likely to seek medical assistance for boys.
        Child abuse was widespread. Young girls and boys used as domestic
    servants were abused, beaten, and made to work long hours by employers,
    who in some cases were relatives. Lawyers for Human Rights and Legal
    Aid (LHRLA) reported that, of 5,120 cases of reported violence and
    abuse against children, 2,209 cases were reported from the Punjab,
    1,529 from Sindh, 929 from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, and 453 from
    Balochistan. According to the data from the LHRLA, 1,062 children were
    killed and 916 others were injured. In addition, there were reports of
    288 children being raped, 149 sodomized, and 211 otherwise sexually
    assaulted. Similarly, there were reports of 648 children molested, 572
    tortured, 200 trafficked, and 364 missing, while 202 children committed
    suicide. One hundred and twenty-one children were killed on the pretext
    of karo-kari, 799 were kidnapped, and 167 were forced to marry. Despite
    the Child Marriage Restraint Act, which prohibits child marriage, child
    marriages occurred. The act sets the legal age of marriage at 18 for
    men and 16 for women and prescribes punishment and fines, ranging from
    imprisonment up to a month, 1,000 rupees (approximately $12), or both.
    In practice the penalties were too low to have any deterrent effect.
    Also, the lower minimum age for girls was discriminatory. During the
    year the LHRLA reported 70 cases of forced and ``vani'' marriages
    (handing over women as compensation for crimes or for resolution of a
    dispute), some of which may have been child marriages.
        A World Population Foundation survey in 2009 found that 49 percent
    of women between the ages of 20 and 24 were married before the age of
    18. In 2008 the Family Planning Association of Pakistan estimated that
    child marriages made up 32 percent of marriages in the country. In
    rural areas poor parents sometimes sold their daughters into marriage,
    in some cases to settle debts or disputes.
        The penal code defines statutory rape as sexual intercourse with a
    female younger than 16. The punishment for rape is death or
    imprisonment for 10 to 25 years and a fine. Gang rape is punishable by
    death or life imprisonment. Child pornography is illegal under
    obscenity laws. According to the Edhi Foundation, there were 1,210 dead
    infants found during the year, up from 890 in 2008 and 999 in 2009. The
    death toll was far greater among girls; nine of 10 dead babies that the
    charity found were girls. Edhi reported that up to 200 babies are left
    in its 400 cradles nationwide each year and that it handles thousands
    of requests for adoption by childless couples. According to law anyone
    found to have abandoned an infant can be jailed for seven years, while
    anyone guilty of secretly burying a child can be imprisoned for two
    years. Murder is punishable by life imprisonment, but the crime of
    infanticide was rarely prosecuted.
        Juveniles accused of terrorism or narcotics offenses were not
    protected under the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance. SPARC reported
    that children as young as 12 were arrested under the Antiterrorism Act.
    Children convicted under the act could be sentenced to death, although
    no case existed of a child being executed under the act. There were no
    known limits on child IDPs' access to government services, although
    some civil society organizations demanded improvement in these
    services.
        The country is not a party to the 1980 Hague Convention on the
    Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. For information on
    international parental child abduction, please see the Department of
    State's annual report on compliance at http://travel.state.gov/
    abduction/resources/congressreport/congressreport--4308.html, as well
    as country-specific information at http://travel.state.gov/abduction/
    country/country--3781.html.

        Anti-Semitism.--Although there were no known Jewish communities in
    the country, anti-Semitic sentiments were commonly found in the
    vernacular press.

        Trafficking in Persons.--For information on trafficking in persons,
    please see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons
    Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        Persons With Disabilities.--The law provides for equality of the
    rights of persons with disabilities, but the provisions were not always
    implemented in practice. The Ministry of Social Welfare and Special
    Education and its affiliated departments, including the Directorate
    General for Special Education, National Council for the Rehabilitation
    of the Disabled (NCRD), and National Trust for the Disabled, are
    responsible for protecting the rights of persons with disabilities. In
    the provinces social welfare departments worked for the welfare and
    education of persons with disabilities. In Sindh the minister for
    bonded labor and special education is mandated to address the education
    needs of disabled persons.
        There are employment quotas at federal and provincial levels that
    require public and private organizations to reserve at least 2 percent
    of jobs for qualified persons with disabilities. In practice this right
    was only partially protected due to a lack of adequate enforcement
    mechanisms. Families cared for most individuals who had physical and
    mental disabilities. In some cases criminals forced persons with
    disabilities into begging and took most of the proceeds they received.
        Organizations that refused to hire persons with disabilities could
    choose to pay a fine to a disability assistance fund. This obligation
    was rarely enforced. The NCRD provided job placement and loan
    facilities as well as subsistence funding. The council also operated
    the Pakistan Society for the Rehabilitation of the Disabled, which
    provided rehabilitation, vocational training, and medical support to
    persons with disabilities.
        In August 2009 President Zardari launched the ``special persons-
    special cards'' initiative, under which persons with disabilities
    received reduced prices for a number of services, including
    transportation and financial services. The initiative also included
    measures to provide disabled persons with greater physical access to
    public facilities. On July 7, The News quoted Federal Minister for
    Social Welfare and Special Education Samina Khalid Ghurki as saying
    that her ministry had issued 100,000 special identity cards to persons
    with disabilities that allowed them to receive discounted passenger
    fares on Pakistan International Airlines and Pakistan Railways.
        There were no restrictions on the rights of persons with
    disabilities to vote or participate in civil affairs.

        Societal Abuses, Discrimination, and Acts of Violence Based on
    Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.--Systematic discrimination
    against national, ethnic, and racial minorities was widely acknowledged
    privately, but insufficient data existed for accurate reporting on
    these forms of discrimination.
        Homosexual intercourse is a criminal offense; in practice, the
    Government rarely prosecuted cases. Gays and lesbians rarely revealed
    their sexual orientation. There are no laws to protect against
    discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
        Society generally shunned transvestites, eunuchs, and
    hermaphrodites, referred to as ``hijras,'' who often lived together in
    slum communities and survived by begging and dancing at carnivals and
    weddings. Some also were involved in prostitution. Hijras often were
    denied places in schools or admission to hospitals, and landlords often
    refused to rent or sell property to them. Hijras' families often denied
    them their fair share of inherited property.
        On May 25, police arrested a fertilizer dealer, Malik Mohammed
    Iqbal, and a teenage eunuch in Peshawar for trying to marry. The police
    proposed the charge of ``unnatural sexual offense'' against the
    accused, for which the maximum punishment is life imprisonment.
        In July 2009 the Supreme Court stated that hijras were equal
    citizens and ordered provincial social welfare departments to survey
    and register hijras and to provide them benefits from the Government's
    financial support mechanisms, such as the Benazir Income Support
    Program. In December 2009 the Supreme Court ordered authorities to
    allow transvestites and eunuchs to identify themselves as a distinct
    gender and ordered the Government to give national identity cards to
    members of the community. The Supreme Court also ordered that district
    administrations assist them in obtaining inheritance rights after
    tracing their families.

        Other Societal Violence or Discrimination.--Societal attitudes
    toward HIV-positive individuals were changing, but social
    discrimination continued. Cases of discrimination often went unreported
    due to the stigma faced by HIV/AIDS patients. The National Aids Control
    Program (NACP) estimated that there were approximately 97,400 HIV-
    positive individuals but that only 5 percent were recorded. In addition
    to operating treatment centers, the NACP held rallies and public
    campaigns and spoke in mosques about birth control and AIDS awareness.
    The Ministry of Health has established 13 HIV treatment and care
    centers nationwide that provided comprehensive HIV care services.

    Section 7. Worker Rights
        a. The Right of Association.--The constitution states that ``every
    citizen shall have the right to form associations or unions, subject to
    any reasonable restriction imposed by law.'' According to NGOs and the
    Economic Survey of Pakistan, the total workforce was approximately 51.8
    million. Labor groups and International Labor Organization figures
    indicated that approximately 3 percent of the total estimated workforce
    was unionized.
        The 18th amendment to the constitution devolved matters pertaining
    to labor legislation and policies to the four provinces. It stipulates
    that in the interim period, laws would remain in force ``until altered,
    repealed or amended by the competent authority'' (i.e., the provincial
    governments). An 18th amendment commission was established to implement
    the transition by June 30, 2011.
        Labor groups, international organizations, and NGOs expressed
    concern about the devolution, noting that certain labor issues were the
    purview of the federal government, including minimum wages, workers'
    rights, national labor standards, and observance of international labor
    conventions. Observers also raised concerns about the provinces'
    varying capacity and commitment to adopt and enforce adequate labor
    laws. Labor unions submitted at least two petitions to the Supreme
    Court challenging the full devolution of labor issues to the provinces.
        Ten days after the 18th amendment went into effect at the end of
    April, the Industrial Relations Act 2008 (IRA) expired. The IRA had
    provided the terms for worker rights, including the rights of
    association, organizing, and collective bargaining. The IRA also dealt
    with the registration of trade unions and the establishment of labor
    courts, a labor appellate tribunal, and the National Industrial
    Relations Commission.
        The IRA had been considered weak legislation by labor unions and
    workers' rights groups, and the Ministry of Labor and Manpower had been
    working on draft legislation since its passage to strengthen the
    ordinance. At year's end the Federal Ministry of Labor no longer had
    legislative authority, and all four provinces had passed their own
    versions of the IRA. All four provinces used almost the exact same
    language as the IRA in their legislation. However, labor groups noted
    this was done without consultation and without any attempt to address
    previously identified shortcomings of the IRA. At year's end, numerous
    questions remained unresolved, including the status of national labor
    unions and the Pakistani Workers Fund.
        The constitution protects the right of association, but according
    to the 1973 Civil Servants Act, civil servants may establish
    associations but may not form or join trade unions. The IRA expanded
    the right of association to workers and employers in the private sector
    but continued to exclude nonprofit organizations, self-employed
    workers, and agricultural and other informal sector workers. The
    informal workers included approximately 8.5 million (predominantly
    female) home-based workers, more than 15,000 employees working in the
    country's 12 export processing zones (EPZs), as well as most public
    sector employees, including medical staff, firefighters, teachers, and
    state enterprise employees; these groups do not have the right of
    association. NGOs and the Government estimated that agriculture
    accounted for approximately 45 percent of the labor force and that
    other informal sectors accounted for 20 percent; this left more than 65
    percent of the labor force without the right of association.
        Under the IRA, EPZ workers are prohibited from joining unions,
    bargaining collectively, or striking. The EPZ Authority is empowered to
    draft labor laws within the EPZs, but no such laws have been drafted.
        The IRA somewhat lessened government control of membership and
    participation by eliminating the previous requirement for collective
    bargaining agents to affiliate with a national-level registered
    federation. Under the IRA trade unions have the right to join any
    federation or confederation of their choice, and the registrar of trade
    unions cannot cancel a trade union's registration. There were no
    reported incidents of the Government dissolving a union without due
    process.
        According to the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC),
    the IRA did not articulate the rights of workers to conduct sympathy
    strikes, and under the IRA it takes at least one month before a strike
    can be legally declared. The federal government has wide powers to
    prohibit a strike if it lasts for more than 30 days and causes
    ``serious hardship to the community'' or is ``prejudicial to the
    national interest.'' In the case of public utility services, strikes
    may be prohibited at any time before or after the strike begins. The
    Antiterrorist Ordinance of 1999 defines illegal strikes, picketing, and
    other types of protests as ``civil commotion,'' which carries a penalty
    of up to life imprisonment. The code of criminal procedure also deems
    any gathering of four or more persons as subject to police
    authorization, a provision that authorities used against trade union
    gatherings. In previous years the Essential Services (Maintenance) Act
    of 1952 (ESMA) was invoked to limit or prohibit strikes by public
    sector workers and to curtail collective bargaining rights; labor
    groups reported that the ESMA was not applied during the year.

        b. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively.--Collective
    bargaining for some workforce sectors was protected under the IRA
    before it expired at the end of April. After its expiration the
    provinces each passed their own labor laws with essentially the same
    provisions as the federal IRA. Groups excluded from collective
    bargaining rights were the same as those excluded from freedom of
    association under the IRA: nonprofit organizations, self-employed
    workers, agricultural laborers, other informal sector workers, and most
    public sector employees, including medical staff, firefighters, and
    teachers. The IRA prohibited employers from retaliating against workers
    for union activity, and any employer found to have engaged in serious
    violations was liable for fines but not imprisonment. In practice the
    IRA and provincial labor laws were not fully enforced.
        The ITUC reported that employers disqualified workers from union
    membership by promoting them to nominal managerial status. According to
    the ITUC, management sometimes resorted to intimidation, dismissal, and
    blacklisting to prevent unionization.
        On July 27, the International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel,
    Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco, and Allied Workers' Associations (IUF),
    the U.S.-based Coca-Cola Company, and Coca-Cola Icecek (Turkey) reached
    a comprehensive agreement over longstanding labor and union rights
    disputes at Coca Cola Beverages Pakistan. At the Coca-Cola plant in
    Multan, members and leaders of the IUF-People's Employees Union (PEU)
    had faced targeted harassment, threats, extortion, and other
    intimidation from management. Attempting to derail the union, which was
    formed in June 2009, plant management reportedly created a so-called
    yellow union and claimed that direct-hire union members were actually
    subcontractors and thus not eligible for collective bargaining. Under
    the agreement the company agreed to recognize the PEU and assure no
    further harassment or victimization of union members and officers; all
    unfairly dismissed workers were to be reinstated with full
    compensation.

        c. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor.--The law prohibits
    slavery and all forms of forced labor. In practice the Government did
    not enforce the prohibitions effectively, and there were numerous
    instances in which such practices occurred. Also see the Department of
    State's annual Trafficking in Persons Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.
        The Bonded Labor System (Abolition) Act of 1992 outlaws bonded
    labor, cancels all existing debts, forbids lawsuits for the recovery of
    such debts, and establishes the district vigilance committee system to
    implement the act. Due to technical flaws, federal and local government
    structural changes, and a lack of budget for implementation, the act
    was largely unenforced. As a result law enforcement registered bonded
    labor offenses under other sections of the penal code, including
    kidnapping and illegal confinement.
        NGOs reported that more than one million persons were in bondage,
    primarily in Sindh and Punjab. A large proportion of bonded laborers
    were low-caste Hindus, and lower socioeconomic level Christians and
    Muslims. Bonded labor was most common in agriculture and in the brick,
    glass, carpet, and fishing industries. Bonded laborers often were
    unable to determine when their debts were fully paid, in part because
    contracts were rare and employers were able to take advantage of bonded
    laborers' illiteracy to alter debt amounts or the price laborers paid
    for seed and fertilizer. In some cases landowners restricted laborers'
    movements with the use of armed guards or sold laborers to other
    employers for the price of the laborers' debt.
        There were no updates on charges brought against three landlords
    who were reported in Time in October 2009 to have held more than 150
    bonded laborers against their will in Sindh Province for more than 30
    days. Lawyers provided by local NGOs filed petitions in district courts
    for the release of the laborers, who were all in bonded employment. The
    laborers, a third of whom were children, were landless peasants. Sindh
    law enforcement authorities secured the release of all the laborers,
    and criminal charges were filed against one of the landlords.
        A 2008 Freedom House report noted that bonded laborers sometimes
    sold their organs, particularly kidneys, to make money to escape
    servitude. Despite the February 2010 Human Organs and Tissues
    Transplant Ordinance, which regulates the removal, storage, and
    transplantation of human organs and tissues and criminalizes the
    practice of kidney sale and purchase, the media continued to report
    instances in which laborers sold their kidneys for as little as 40,000
    rupees ($470).
        Some bonded laborers returned to their former status after being
    freed due to a lack of alternative employment options. Ties existed
    between landowners and brick kiln owners and influential politicians,
    which hampered effective elimination of the problem. For example, some
    local police were unable to effectively pursue landowners or brick kiln
    owners, because they believed that their efforts to carry out
    investigations according to the law would not be supported by higher-
    ranking officers who would be pressured by politicians or the owners
    themselves.
        During the year the KP Ministry of Labor began a project to
    register brick kiln workers in the province, although it was in initial
    phases. The Punjab and Sindh ministries of labor continued to register
    brick kilns and workers to better regulate the industry and ensure that
    workers had access to labor courts and other entitled services. By
    year's end the Sindh Department of Labor and the Social Employees
    Security Services Institutions, in collaboration with SPARC, had
    registered more than 590 brick kilns in Sindh. The Punjab Department of
    Labor also continued a 123-million rupee ($1.4 million) project to
    combat bonded labor in brick kilns, through which it helped brick kiln
    workers obtain national identity cards and interest-free loans and
    opened schools at brick kiln sites.
        On July 27, the Mirpurkhas District police in Sindh, in
    collaboration with SPARC, inaugurated the country's first antibonded
    labor cell. The cell was introduced to improve police and NGO work on
    forced and bonded labor cases through the provision of specialized
    training for police and to provide laborers an accessible location to
    file FIRs required for police to initiate investigation of an employer.
        Boys and girls are also bought, sold, rented, or kidnapped to work
    in organized, illegal begging rings, in domestic servitude, and in
    agriculture as bonded laborers. Illegal labor agents charged high fees
    to parents with false promises of decent work for their children, who
    were later exploited and subjected to forced labor in domestic
    servitude, unskilled labor, small shops, and other sectors. NGOs and
    police reported markets where girls and women were bought and sold for
    labor.

        d. Prohibition of Child Labor and Minimum Age for Employment.--
    National legislation protects children from exploitation in the
    workplace; however, enforcement of child labor laws was weak, and child
    labor, including forced or bonded labor, remained a serious, pervasive
    problem.
        The law limits a child's workday to seven hours, including a one-
    hour break after three hours of labor, and sets permissible times of
    day for work and time off. No child is allowed to work overtime or at
    night, and a child should have one day off per week. In addition, the
    law requires employers to keep a register of children working for them
    for labor inspectors to verify. These prohibitions and regulations do
    not apply to family businesses or government schools.
        The law protects all children younger than 18 from exploitation and
    defines exploitative entertainment as all activities related to human
    sports or sexual practices and other abusive practices. Parents who
    exploit their children are also liable under the law. The law makes
    bonded labor by children punishable by up to five years in prison and
    50,000 rupees ($590) in fines. The law prohibits the employment of
    children younger than 14 in factories, mines, railways, rag picking,
    port areas, fireworks, and other hazardous occupations and regulates
    their work conditions. The Government considers four occupations and 34
    processes illegal for children, including street vending, surgical
    instrument manufacturing, deep sea fishing, leather manufacturing,
    brick making, production of soccer balls, and carpet weaving.
        Enforcement was a serious problem. According to the HRCP and SPARC,
    there were 10 million to 11.5 million child laborers, many of them in
    agriculture and domestic work.
        Approximately 70 percent of nonagricultural child labor took place
    in small workshops, complicating efforts to enforce child labor laws,
    since by law inspectors may not inspect facilities employing fewer than
    10 persons. The Ministry of Labor, Manpower, and Overseas Pakistanis
    had a small group of specialized labor inspectors empowered to inspect
    all facilities under the child labor law. In reality enforcement
    efforts were not adequate to meet the scale of the problem. Inspectors
    had little training and insufficient resources and were susceptible to
    corruption. Authorities allowed NGOs to perform inspections without
    interference, and SPARC noted that government officials usually
    cooperated with their visits.
        The law allows fines of as much as 20,200 rupees ($240) for
    violations of child labor laws. Authorities often did not impose
    penalties on violators; when they did, the penalties were not a
    significant deterrent. Although law enforcement authorities obtained
    hundreds of convictions for violations of child labor laws, the fines
    the courts levied ranged from an average of 364 rupees ($4) in KP to an
    average of 7,344 rupees ($86) in Balochistan.
        Children were forced to work in the brick kiln, glass bangle, and
    carpet-weaving industries as well as in agriculture as part of
    fulfilling their families' debt obligation to feudal landowners or
    brick kiln owners. UNICEF estimated the number of children working in
    brick kilns at approximately 250,000. In a March 2009 report, the
    National Coalition against Child Labor stated that there were 1.7
    million persons in bonded labor in the agricultural sector, including
    children.
        Poor rural families sometimes sold their children into domestic
    servitude or other types of work or paid agents to arrange for such
    work, often believing their children would work under decent
    conditions. Some children sent to work for relatives or acquaintances
    in exchange for education or other opportunities ended up in
    exploitative conditions or forced labor.
        On January 19, a 12-year-old Christian housemaid was tortured in
    Lahore by her employers and died of her injuries three days later (see
    section 6, Women).
        Children also were kidnapped and/or sold into organized begging
    rings, domestic servitude, and child prostitution.
        In September the KP government passed the Child Protection, Welfare
    Bill of 2010.
        For information on forced child labor, see also the Department of
    State's annual Trafficking in Persons Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        e. Acceptable Conditions of Work.--On May 1, the Government
    announced that the minimum monthly wage for unskilled workers would be
    increased to 7,000 rupees ($82) per month from the previous wage of
    6,000 ($71) per month. (There are 54 categories of workers with various
    minimum wage levels.) The national minimum wage for unskilled workers
    did not provide a decent standard of living for a worker and family and
    fell short of the Pakistan Workers' Federation demand for a minimum
    wage of 12,000 rupees ($141) per month. Significant sectors of the
    workforce, such as those in the informal sector, domestic servants, and
    agricultural workers, were not covered.
        The Government was unable to combat or regulate illegal practices
    by labor agents who recruited persons for work abroad. Agents charged
    fees for their services well above the legal ceiling set by the
    Government; agents also changed contracts or drafted unclear contracts
    to reduce agreed-upon wages. The Government's inability to regulate
    such transactions highlighted its inability to protect workers against
    further exploitive situations, including human trafficking.
        Federal law provides for a maximum workweek of 48 hours (54 hours
    for seasonal factories) with rest periods during the workday and paid
    annual holidays. Additional benefits required under the federal labor
    code include official government holidays, overtime pay, annual and
    sick leave, health care, education for workers' children, social
    security, old age benefits, and a workers' welfare fund.
        These regulations did not apply to agricultural workers, workers in
    factories with fewer than 10 employees, domestic workers, and
    contractors. In addition, such workers did not have the right to access
    ``worker courts'' to seek redress of grievances and were otherwise
    extremely vulnerable to exploitation. The inapplicability of many labor
    laws and the lack of enforcement by the Government gave employers in
    many sectors relative impunity with regard to working conditions,
    treatment, work hours, and pay. For example, in November a lower-caste
    Hindu agricultural laborer died of burns suffered after he was tortured
    and set on fire, allegedly to elicit a confession for stealing cotton.
    The accused perpetrator, a well-connected local landlord, had not been
    arrested by year's end.
        Even prior to adoption of the 18th amendment, provincial
    governments had primary responsibility for enforcing national labor
    regulations. Enforcement was ineffective due to limited resources,
    corruption, and inadequate regulatory structures. According to the
    ITUC, labor inspectors exempted certain employers from inspection in
    Sindh and Punjab. Many workers remained unaware of their rights,
    especially in the informal sectors.
        Health and safety standards were poor in all sectors. There was a
    serious lack of adherence to mine safety and health protocols. For
    example, many mines had only one opening for entry, egress, and
    ventilation. Workers could not remove themselves from dangerous working
    conditions without risking loss of employment.

                                   __________

                                   SRI LANKA

        Sri Lanka is a constitutional, multiparty republic with a
    population estimated at 21 million. President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who
    was reelected to a second six-year term in January, and the parliament,
    which was elected in April, share constitutional power. The Government
    is dominated by the president's family; two of the president's brothers
    hold key executive branch posts as defense secretary and minister of
    economic development, while a third brother is the speaker of
    parliament. Independent observers generally characterized the
    presidential and parliamentary elections as problematic. Both elections
    were fraught with violations of the election law by all major parties
    and were influenced by the governing coalition's massive use of state
    resources. There were instances in which elements of the security
    forces acted independently of civilian control.
        The Government and its agents continued to be responsible for
    serious human rights problems. Security forces committed arbitrary and
    unlawful killings, although the number of extrajudicial killings
    declined. Disappearances continued to be a problem, although the total
    also declined. Many independent observers cited a continued climate of
    fear among minority populations, in large part based on past incidents.
    Security forces tortured and abused detainees; poor prison conditions
    remained a problem; and authorities arbitrarily arrested and detained
    citizens. Repercussions of the nearly 30-year war against the
    Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) continued to have an effect on
    human rights, despite the defeat of the LTTE in May 2009. In an effort
    to prevent any violent separatist resurgence, the Government continued
    to search for and detain persons it suspected of being LTTE
    sympathizers or operatives. Official impunity was a problem; there were
    no public indications or reports that civilian or military courts
    convicted any military or police members for human rights abuses. The
    Government established a post-war Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation
    Commission (LLRC). Denial of fair public trial remained a problem; the
    judiciary was subject to executive influence; and the Government
    infringed on citizens' privacy rights. There were instances when the
    Government restricted freedom of speech and of the press, and there
    were incidents of restrictions on freedom of assembly and association.
    Authorities harassed journalists critical of the Government.
    Infringement on freedom of movement was lower than in the previous
    year, and citizens were able to travel almost anywhere in the island;
    in practice police and military checkpoints were still a frequent sight
    in Colombo and elsewhere, and numerous High Security Zones (HSZs) and
    other areas remained off limits to citizens. Election law violations
    and government influence created doubts about the fairness of both the
    presidential and the parliamentary elections. Official corruption, with
    impunity, and lack of transparency were serious problems, and the
    Government hampered the work of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs).
    With the passage of the 18th amendment in September, the mechanism by
    which the seats on the Constitutional Council and its subsidiary
    councils are filled was changed. The president now holds the authority
    to name all members to each of these councils, with only the
    requirement to ``seek advice,'' but not approval, of the parliament.
    Violence and discrimination against women were problems, as were abuse
    of children and trafficking in persons. Discrimination against persons
    with disabilities, persons with HIV/AIDS, and the ethnic Tamil minority
    continued, and a disproportionate number of victims of human rights
    violations were Tamils. Discrimination and violence against persons
    based on their sexual orientation were problems. Trafficking in
    persons, limits on workers' rights, and child labor remained problems,
    although the parliament implemented new regulations on child labor at
    the end of the year.

                            RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

    Section 1. Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom
            From:
        a. Arbitrary or Unlawful Deprivation of Life.--There were reports
    that the Government or its agents committed arbitrary or unlawful
    killings, but reliable statistics on such killings by the Government or
    its paramilitary allies were difficult to obtain because past
    complainants were killed and families feared reprisals if they filed
    complaints.
        Among these arbitrary and unlawful killings, a number of suspects
    detained by police or other security forces died under questionable
    circumstances.
        On May 23, police arrested Pattiyage Komako Lalan Peiris in what
    observers stated later was a case of mistaken identity. The next
    morning he was found dead handcuffed to a table in a police station
    cell. Police officials explained the cause of death as a heart attack,
    but an autopsy carried out later at the insistence of the family
    revealed signs of torture.
        On August 25, Jayasekara Arachchige Roshan Jayasekara was arrested
    near Kiribathgoda for stealing a mobile phone. One day later his body
    was brought to the local hospital by police. A post mortem examination
    showed multiple blunt-force trauma injuries.
        According to official accounts, some deaths occurred when security
    forces took the suspects to the scenes of their alleged crimes, shot,
    and killed them while they allegedly were trying to escape. On August
    31, police officers attached to the Special Task Force (STF) arrested
    Jayakody Arachchilage Oman Perera. During the journey by jeep to
    Colombo, one of the officers shot Perera because he allegedly tried to
    escape. He died in the hospital that same day.
        On September 4, Suresh Kumar was arrested by police officers and
    taken to show them a hidden cache of weapons. The police claimed that
    he attempted to throw a hand grenade at the officers while they
    traveled to the location. His body later was found on the roadside.
        On September 18, police shot and killed Ranmukage Ajith Prasanna as
    they transported him to show them the location of a hidden stash of
    weapons. Police claimed Prasanna attempted to grab a firearm from one
    of the police while being transported, but there was no explanation why
    he was not properly restrained. Prasanna was arrested the day before,
    and family members insisted he was not involved in any criminal
    activity.
        The overall number of extrajudicial killings dropped significantly
    from the previous year. Nevertheless, during the year unknown actors
    suspected of association with progovernment paramilitary groups
    committed killings and assaults of civilians. These included the Tamil
    Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal (TMVP), led by breakaway LTTE eastern
    commanders Vinayagamurthi Muralitharan, alias ``Karuna,'' and
    Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan, alias ``Pillaiyan,'' in the east, as
    well as the Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP), led by Minister of
    Social Services and Social Welfare Douglas Devananda, in Jaffna. These
    and other progovernment paramilitaries also were active in Mannar and
    Vavuniya. All of these groups endeavored to operate political
    organizations, some with more success than others, and there were
    persistent reports of close, ground-level ties between paramilitaries
    and government security forces. Whereas these groups served more of a
    military function during the war, often working in coordination with
    security forces, the paramilitaries now took on increasingly criminal
    characteristics as they sought to solidify their territory and revenue
    sources in the postwar environment.
        On December 31, unidentified armed men entered the home of
    Ketheeswaran Thevarajah near Jaffna and killed him. He recently had
    posted photos of illegal sand excavation on his Facebook profile. Many
    local Jaffna residents suspect EPDP subsidiaries were illegally mining
    sand in the Jaffna region, causing environmental damage.
        The Government did not conduct any further inquiries into the high
    profile cases investigated by the Commission of Inquiry (COI),
    including the 2006 killing of 17 local staff of the French NGO Action
    Against Hunger (ACF) in Mutur. The COI was disbanded in June 2009
    without issuing a public report, and with reports that the commission
    had blamed ACF for allowing its workers to be in an unsafe location, at
    the same time exonerating all government security forces from any
    possible involvement in the killing of the aid workers.
        A separate commission set up under retired Supreme Court justice
    Mahanama Tillekeratne to investigate abductions, disappearances,
    killings, and unidentified bodies was to submit a final report to the
    president early in the year. Although the commission gave an interim
    report to President Rajapaksa in February, and the commission's mandate
    ended on March 16, there was no indication that a final report was
    given to the president.
        There was no progress on the January 2009 killing of the chief
    editor of the Sunday Leader and Morning Leader newspapers, Lasantha
    Wickrematunga, by four assailants.
        There were no updates on the March 2009 deaths of four persons in
    the Trincomalee area who were in police custody in connection with the
    killing of a schoolgirl.
        There were no new developments in the case of M.B. Dinesh Tharanga
    Fernando and Dhanushka Udayanga Aponsu, who were arrested by local
    police in Angulana in August 2009 and then found dead the following
    morning with gunshot wounds.
        The Government commissioned four experts to evaluate the
    authenticity of the footage broadcast in August 2009 on a UK Channel 4
    News video that purported to show army soldiers executing two bound and
    nude Tamil captives. Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka, the
    original source of the video, claimed that the killings had been filmed
    in January 2009 by a soldier using a mobile phone camera. Channel 4
    broadcast a longer version allegedly of the same video on November 30
    and concluded that the footage was shot May 18, 2009 rather than in
    January 2009. In September 2009, the Government reported to the UN
    Human Rights Council that four separate investigations scientifically
    determined that the video was ``fake.'' However, Philip Alston--the
    United Nations Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary, or
    arbitrary executions--based on the report of a separate independent
    group of forensic experts concluded in January that there was strong
    evidence to suggest the video was authentic.
        There was no progress on the investigation into the killing of a
    young man at a polling station in a Colombo suburb in April 2009, which
    was tied to Duminda Silva, a member of the Western Provincial Council
    from the president's United Peoples Freedom Alliance. Incidentally,
    Silva also was acquitted in November by the Colombo High Court on
    charges of rape, after the attorney for the victim told the court that
    the victim was suffering from depression because of the incident and
    did not want to take part in any further legal proceedings.

        b. Disappearance.--Disappearances continued to be a problem, but at
    a lower rate than during the war. While disappearances in previous
    years often appeared related to the conflict, during the year they most
    often appeared connected with extortion and other criminal activity,
    sometimes involving government actors. Reliable statistics on the
    number of disappearances were difficult to obtain, with one estimate of
    77 persons missing during the year. Most observers concurred that the
    majority of disappearances occurred in the north and east, while some
    took place in Colombo. Government reports on disappearances often
    claimed that most cases actually involved persons who had left the
    country for foreign employment and had not informed family members;
    however, civil society and human rights organizations strongly disputed
    this interpretation.
        Prageeth Eknaliagoda, a journalist and cartoonist for Lanka-e-news,
    disappeared on January 24, just before the presidential election.
    Police launched an investigation, and government statements promised
    imminent progress on the case several times, but by year's end there
    were no announced suspects or visible progress on the case.
        During the year the Government did not publish any investigations
    into past disappearances, nor did it publish information on any
    indictments or convictions of anyone involved in cases related to
    disappearances.
        On July 21, a group of unknown persons abducted Thirimadura Upali
    Mendis in Tangalle. His family stated he had been in a business dispute
    with a prominent local businessman over a plot of land. Police in
    Tangalle took a missing persons report but made no progress in the case
    at year's end.
        There was no progress in solving the May 2009 disappearance of
    Stephen Sunthararaj, project manager at the Center for Human Rights and
    Development. Sunthararaj had been held by police without charges since
    February of that year and was abducted by four persons in a white van
    wearing army uniforms shortly after he was released on a court order.
        There was no progress in the investigation of the October 2009
    disappearance of Sankarapillai Shantha Kumar, a member of the NGO
    consortium in Akkaraipattu, Ampara District. Credible sources had
    linked the incident to the TMVP.
        Reports of abductions for extortion and ransom increased during the
    year, particularly in the north and east. Local residents blamed such
    abductions in the Jaffna Peninsula on armed members of the EPDP, led by
    government ally and Member of Parliament Douglas Devananda. In other
    areas of the north and east, however, it was difficult to identify the
    perpetrators. Whereas in the past local citizens often reported they
    were reasonably certain which paramilitary groups were behind
    abductions and killings, during the year they more often stated that
    they were unsure of which group was involved in a particular incident.

        c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or
    Punishment.--The law makes torture a punishable offense and mandates a
    sentence of not less than seven years' imprisonment; however, security
    forces tortured and abused citizens. Human rights groups alleged that
    some security forces believed torture to be allowed under specific
    circumstances. Following a 2007 visit, UN Special Rapporteur (UNSR) on
    Torture Manfred Nowak concluded that ``torture is widely practiced in
    Sri Lanka.'' There was no indication that such practices had subsided.
    No accurate, publicly released statistics on reported torture cases
    were available.
        Civil society groups and former prisoners reported on several
    torture cases. For example, former detainees of the Terrorist
    Investigation Division (TID) at Boosa Prison in Galle confirmed reports
    of torture methods used there. These included beatings, often with
    cricket bats, iron bars, or rubber hoses filled with sand; electric
    shock; suspending individuals by the wrists or feet in contorted
    positions; abrading knees across rough cement; burning with metal
    objects and cigarettes; genital abuse; blows to the ears; asphyxiation
    with plastic bags containing chili pepper mixed with gasoline; and
    near-drowning. Detainees reported broken bones and other serious
    injuries as a result of their mistreatment.
        In the east and the north, military intelligence and other security
    personnel, sometimes working with armed paramilitaries, carried out
    documented and undocumented detentions of civilians suspected of LTTE
    connections. The detentions reportedly were followed by interrogations
    that frequently included torture. There were reported cases of
    detainees being released with a warning not to reveal information about
    their arrests under the threat of rearrest or death if they divulged
    information about their detention. There were also previous reports of
    secret government facilities where suspected LTTE sympathizers were
    taken, tortured, and often killed.
        Human rights groups estimated that approximately 2,400 LTTE
    suspects were in regular detention centers. An unknown additional
    number of unidentified detainees, estimated by some organizations to be
    as high as 1,200, were thought to be held in police stations, the
    Criminal Investigation Division (CID), the TID, army or paramilitary
    camps, or other informal detention facilities. At the beginning of the
    year the Government held approximately 11,700 former LTTE combatants in
    detention centers near Vavuniya. Some observers were concerned that
    these ex-combatants were subjected to abuse or torture, since
    independent observers had only limited access to these detainees and
    there was no formal legal framework for their detention. Due to limited
    access to these detainees, details about their treatment and whether
    such treatment met international standards were unavailable. However,
    independent observers who met with those released saw no evidence of
    systematic torture or abuse. By the end of the year the Government
    formally charged approximately 1,400 of these detainees and released
    approximately half of the remaining 10,000 after rehabilitation.
        On May 26, police officers in Ahangama arrested Ganegoda Sinhage
    Haritha Lakmal and severely beat him. His injuries required surgery and
    reportedly almost caused his death.
        According to the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), on August
    23, police officers arrested Jesu Andrew in the district of Kandy for
    allegedly stealing jewelry from a woman's handbag and took him to the
    Panwila Police Station, where they tortured him. He was allegedly
    stripped naked, forced to lie down on a bench, and beaten severely with
    a pole over various parts of his body. The officers also rubbed chili
    powder on his genitalia. While torturing him, the officers tried to
    force him to confess that he had stolen the jewelry. When he refused to
    plead guilty, he was allegedly thrown into a police cell and beaten
    again.
        On November 10, S.I. Udayange of the CID from Beruwella detained
    Samarasinhage Psupakumara on suspicion of involvement with robberies in
    the area. Psupakumara was beaten and threatened with death. Udayange
    held him for several days before releasing him without any formal
    charges.

        Prison and Detention Center Conditions.--Prison conditions did not
    meet international standards due to overcrowding and the lack of
    sanitary facilities. According to prison officials and civil society
    sources, prisons designed for approximately 10,000 inmates held an
    estimated 26,000 prisoners. Approximately 1,400 of these were women.
    Some 12,000 of these total prisoners were convicted, while the
    remaining 14,000 were in detention either awaiting or undergoing trial.
    In some cases juveniles were not held separately from adults. Pretrial
    detainees often were not held separately from those convicted. In many
    cases prisoners were reported to be sleeping on concrete floors and
    often without natural light or sufficient ventilation. Female prisoners
    were held separately from male prisoners and in generally better
    conditions, but some human rights groups alleged that isolated
    incidents of degrading treatment occurred, including corporal
    punishment, overcrowding, maltreatment, or abuse. According to the
    assessment by UNSR Nowak, ``the combination of severe overcrowding and
    antiquated infrastructure of certain prison facilities places
    unbearable strains on services and resources, which for detainees in
    certain prisons, such as the Colombo Remand Prison, amounts to
    degrading treatment.'' Nowak also noted the absence of an independent
    institution responsible for monitoring conditions in detention
    facilities, holding private interviews, and conducting medical
    evaluations of detainees.
        There appeared to be no formal procedure without going through
    prison officials by which prisoners and detainees could submit
    complaints of poor conditions or abusive treatment to judicial
    authorities.
        The Government permitted independent human rights observers and the
    International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to visit to regular and
    remand prisons, but not those facilities holding LTTE ex-combatants yet
    to be formally charged. The Government did not provide access to any
    detention facilities operated by military intelligence, stating that
    none existed. The ICRC was not allowed to visit suspected illegal
    detention facilities operated by paramilitaries. In December, the
    Government requested the ICRC to close their offices in the North.

        d. Arbitrary Arrest or Detention.--TThe law prohibits arbitrary
    arrest and detention; however, in practice such incidents occurred.
    Under the arrest and detention standards imposed by the Emergency
    Regulations, the law does not clearly define what constitutes an
    arbitrary arrest. Data concerning arrests made during the year under
    the Emergency Regulations were fragmentary and unreliable. The
    Government detained an unknown number of individuals at least
    temporarily. Observers stated that, although many were released within
    two days if no official detention order was produced, others were known
    to be detained for much longer. Although in May the Government relaxed
    a portion of the Emergency Regulations, including provisions that
    previously had allowed security forces wide latitude in conducting
    searches without judicial warrants, the remaining portions of the
    regulations allowed detentions without charges or warrants.
        According to Amnesty International, on March 26, more than 300
    persons, most of them Tamil, were arrested in a search operation
    conducted between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. in the town of Gampaha 24
    kilometers (15 miles) northwest of Colombo.
        According to AHRC, on June 17, two officers from Balagolla Police
    Station violently arrested Alhaj Farook Mohomad Ikram close to his
    home. The victim was not told the reason for his arrest. He was
    released on the same evening without being charged, although his
    eardrum was damaged in the assault and he was hospitalized for a number
    of days. He received no replies from the authorities regarding his
    requests for redress and compensation.
        Some arrests appeared arbitrary. In September several university
    students were detained for hooting at the Minister of Education during
    a public event. These arrests contributed to a wave of student protests
    in September and October, resulting in additional arrests and
    detentions of students. By year's end 76 university students were
    banned from attending lectures because of participation in protests and
    related incidents. The Government blamed the protests and incidents on
    left-wing opposition parties.

        Role of the Police and Security Apparatus.--The inspector general
    of police (IGP) is responsible for the 86,000-member Sri Lanka Police
    Service (SLPS). The SLPS conducts civilian police functions, such as
    enforcing criminal and traffic laws, enhancing public safety, and
    maintaining order. The IGP reports to the secretary of the Ministry of
    Defense (in a separate chain of command from that of the armed forces
    and other military units). The 5,850-member paramilitary STF is within
    the structure of the SLPS, although joint operations with military
    units in the recent defeat of the LTTE led to questions among observers
    about who actually was directing the STF. Bureaucratic adjustments
    during the year placed the police more firmly under the control of the
    Ministry of Defense. There was no independent authority to investigate
    complaints. Senior officials in the police force handled complaints
    against the police.
        Few police officers serving in Tamil majority areas were Tamil, and
    most did not speak Tamil or English, although the Government began
    hiring and training ethnic Tamils in an effort to improve this
    situation. Estimates of ethnic Tamils and Muslims in the police
    numbered several thousand. Since late in 2009 the Government recruited
    approximately 500 new Tamil-speaking police from the Jaffna region to
    serve in the North Jaffna Peninsula, and these officers underwent
    training for most of the year. There had been concern that many of
    these newly hired officers were members of Tamil paramilitary groups,
    but whether that concern was warranted was unclear. At year's end more
    than 300 of these Tamil officers were within a week of graduating from
    training and were scheduled to be posted in Tamil-speaking areas in the
    north. Among this group were 20 women.
        Impunity, particularly for cases of alleged police torture and
    corruption, was a serious problem. A 2007 AHRC assessment cited the
    Government's tolerance of pervasive corruption as a major reason for
    the police force's incapacity to investigate and prosecute cases
    effectively.

        Arrest Procedures and Treatment While in Detention.--Under the law
    authorities are required to inform an arrested person of the reason for
    arrest and bring that person before a magistrate within 24 hours, but
    in practice often several days and sometimes weeks or months elapsed
    before detained persons appeared before a magistrate. A magistrate
    could authorize bail or continued pretrial detention for up to three
    months or longer. Police do not need an arrest warrant for certain
    offenses, such as murder, theft, robbery, and rape. In the case of
    murder, the magistrate is required to remand the suspect, and only the
    High Court can grant bail. In all cases suspects have the right to
    legal representation. Counsel is provided for indigent defendants in
    criminal cases before the High Court and the Courts of Appeal, but not
    in other cases. Outside of alleged secret, and therefore incommunicado,
    detentions and prisons, detainees were allowed access to family
    members.
        A number of observers complained about the slow pace of the
    judicial process, with some estimates claiming that more than half
    those in prison were either awaiting or undergoing trial.
        Under the Emergency Regulations, the armed forces have the legal
    authority to arrest persons, but they are required to transfer suspects
    to the police within 24 hours. Police could detain a person for a
    period of not more than one year under detention orders issued by a
    deputy inspector general of police or by the secretary of defense. The
    defense secretary extended some detentions beyond one year under the
    Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA). Numerous NGOs and individuals
    complained that the armed forces and their paramilitary allies arrested
    suspected LTTE sympathizers and did not surrender them to the police,
    blurring the line between arrests and abductions. Credible reports
    alleged that security forces and paramilitaries often tortured and
    killed those arrested rather than follow legal safeguards, although
    this appeared to diminish after the end of the war.
        In cases in which security force personnel allegedly committed
    human rights abuses, the Government generally did not seek to identify
    those responsible or bring them to justice. Case law generally failed
    to uphold the doctrine of command responsibility for human rights
    abuses.
        According to human rights organizations, obtaining medical evidence
    of torture in the country was difficult, since there were fewer than 25
    forensic specialists, equipment was lacking, and medical practitioners
    untrained in the field of torture assessment examined most torture
    victims. In some cases police intimidated doctors responsible for
    collecting evidence, and any potential victim receiving a medical
    examination usually was accompanied by the person holding him or her in
    detention, often the person who allegedly had committed the torture. At
    year's end there was no functioning witness protection program.
        Persons convicted and undergoing appeal did not receive credit
    towards their original sentence for time served in prison while the
    appeal continued. Appeals often took several years to resolve.

        Amnesty.--The president granted amnesty to a number of prisoners
    throughout the year, sometimes for national holidays or other
    occasions. The criteria for determining who benefitted from such
    releases were not clear. One report stated 1,312 prisoners were given a
    presidential pardon in September, with unsubstantiated reports of
    payments to government officials in return.

        e. Denial of Fair Public Trial.--With the passage of the 18th
    amendment in September, the mechanism by which the seats on the
    Constitutional Council and its subsidiary councils are filled,
    including the Judicial Service Commission, was changed. The president
    now holds the authority to name all members to each of these councils,
    with the requirement only to ``seek advice,'' but not approval, of the
    parliament. In spite of this new power, the president had not appointed
    any of these councils by the end of the year. With the passage of the
    18th amendment, executive influence over the judiciary significantly
    increased. The president appoints judges to the Supreme Court, the High
    Court, and the courts of appeal. A judicial service commission,
    composed of the chief justice and two Supreme Court judges, appoints
    and transfers lower court judges. Although there were allegations of
    instances when the president may have intervened to assign judges
    favorable to his position in high-profile cases, there were other
    instances where judicial decisions clearly went against what the
    president might have preferred. During the year the Government again
    failed to appoint the Constitutional Council, whose function is to
    ensure the independence of such constitutional bodies as the Judicial
    Service Commission. As a result a series of important checks on
    executive power were absent. Judges may be removed for misbehavior or
    incapacity but only after an investigation followed by joint action of
    the president and the parliament.
        For much of the year there was no procedure in place to address the
    legal status of the majority of the approximately 11,700 former LTTE
    combatants held in detention centers since the end of the war.
    Approximately 5,000 were released throughout the year, while an
    additional 1,400 were transferred into the regular prison system and
    charged with various crimes related to LTTE activity.
        Lawyers who defended human rights cases sometimes were under
    physical and verbal threats. There was no progress in the investigation
    of a 2008 grenade attack on the home of J.C. Weliamuna, a local human
    rights lawyer and the then director of Transparency International in
    the country.

        Trial Procedures.--In criminal cases juries try defendants in
    public. Defendants are informed of the charges and evidence against
    them, and they have the right to counsel and the right to appeal. There
    are no formal procedures for ensuring how quickly an arrested person
    may contact family or a lawyer; in practice they are allowed to make
    calls on their mobile phone to such persons. The Government provides
    counsel for indigent persons tried on criminal charges in the High
    Court and the courts of appeal but not in cases before lower courts.
    Private legal aid organizations assisted some defendants. Juries were
    not used in cases brought under the PTA, but defendants in such cases
    had the right to appeal.
        Defendants are presumed innocent. Confessions obtained by coercive
    means, including torture, are inadmissible in criminal courts, except
    in PTA cases. The case of journalist J.S. Tissainayagam was one such
    example, as he had testified in court that his alleged confession was
    the result of torture by members of the TID (see section 1.e.,
    Political Prisoners and Detainees). The alleged confession nonetheless
    was allowed as evidence in his trial in 2009. Defendants bear the
    burden of proof, however, to show that their confessions were obtained
    by coercion.
        Defendants have the right to question prosecution witnesses during
    their trials and are allowed access to the prosecution's evidence.
    Subject to judicial review, in certain cases defendants may spend up to
    18 months in prison on administrative order waiting for their cases to
    be heard. Once their cases came to trial, decisions usually were made
    relatively quickly.
        The law requires court proceedings and other legislation to be
    available in English, Sinhala, and Tamil. In practice most courts
    outside of Jaffna and the northern parts of the country conducted
    business in English or Sinhala. A shortage of court-appointed
    interpreters restricted the ability of Tamil-speaking defendants to
    receive a fair hearing in many locations, but trials and hearings in
    the north were in Tamil and English. Few legal textbooks existed in
    Tamil.

        Political Prisoners and Detainees.--During the year the Government
    detained and imprisoned a small number of persons for political
    reasons. However, the Government permitted access to such persons on a
    regular basis by international humanitarian organizations.
        Most prominent among these political prisoners was main opposition
    presidential candidate and former army commander Sarath Fonseka, who
    was detained on February 8 by the military, held in detention for the
    rest of the year, brought before several military courts martial and
    civil courts on various charges, and ultimately sentenced to 30 months
    in prison at hard labor, which he was serving at the Welikada Prison at
    year's end. He also was stripped of his rank and pension, and all
    references to Fonseka on military plaques, etc., were ordered expunged.
    The accusations made against Fonseka after he initially was detained
    were vague, with suggestions by government officials that he had been
    plotting a coup. After more than a month, formal charges were brought
    under two courts martial on corruption in military procurement and
    violating military regulations by engaging in politics as a serving
    military officer. No charges were ever brought on the coup allegations.
    Later, he also was charged in civil court under the PTA for allegedly
    fomenting civil unrest by making statements in December 2009 to the
    press about Defense Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa's alleged order that
    surrendering LTTE cadres be shot (the ``white flag'' incident). Fonseka
    later denied making these claims. In August the two courts martial
    found Fonseka guilty of the corruption charges and of engaging in
    politics while still in the military. At the end of the year the
    Supreme Court was considering whether the court martial verdict
    qualified as a civilian verdict for purposes of removing him from his
    parliamentary seat. At year's end Fonseka remained on trial for several
    charges, including revealing state secrets, for the ``white-flag''
    case.
        Despite his incarceration Fonseka ran successfully for a
    parliamentary seat on the ticket of the opposition Democratic National
    Alliance in the April elections and until his sentencing to prison in
    September was allowed out of detention to attend sittings of
    parliament. A number of human rights organizations accused Fonseka of
    being involved in a wide range of human rights abuses during the war,
    including extrajudicial killings, disappearances, and indiscriminate
    firing on civilians in the war zone. Nevertheless, many independent
    observers concluded that Fonseka was detained, prosecuted, and
    sentenced for political reasons, because of the initial lack of clarity
    in the allegations against Fonseka, the fact that no formal charges
    were brought against him for more than a month after his detention, the
    selective way in which laws were ultimately applied (some progovernment
    military officers spoke publicly in favor of the president during the
    campaign and were not similarly charged or punished), and the
    disproportionate nature of the sentences in the courts martial, which
    appeared to be designed to humiliate Fonseka and to deprive him of his
    seat in parliament.
        Twenty-two other individuals involved with Fonseka's campaign were
    arrested, most in connection with the allegations of a coup attempt. By
    November, however, all 22 were released from detention with no charges
    pending, leaving only Fonseka in prison.
        There were other cases in which persons were detained for what
    appeared to be simply their opposition to the Government and its top
    leaders. There were numerous cases of police arresting persons for
    putting up or simply possessing posters critical of the Government.
    Police arrested Jayampathi Bulathsinhala, a local printer, in September
    for printing posters critical of President Rajapaksa and the 18th
    amendment.
        Journalist J.S. Tissainayagam, convicted under the PTA in 2009 and
    sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment at hard labor for what appeared to
    be purely political reasons (see section 1.e., Trial Procedures), was
    released on bail on January 15. He was formally pardoned by President
    Rajapaksa in May.

        Civil Judicial Procedures and Remedies.--Citizens were allowed to
    file fundamental rights cases to seek redress of human rights
    violations. The judiciary exhibited some independence and impartiality
    in adjudicating these types of cases, and plaintiffs were awarded
    damages in a number of instances. Observers cited bureaucratic
    inefficiencies in this system, leading to delays in the resolution of
    many cases; cases filed by persons suspected of having ties to the LTTE
    appeared to be subject to delays much more frequently. Where damages
    were awarded, there were relatively few problems in enforcing the court
    orders.

        f. Arbitrary Interference With Privacy, Family, Home, or
    Correspondence.--The law provides for the right to privacy; however,
    the Government infringed on these rights, particularly when conducting
    cordon and search operations in Tamil neighborhoods. The Emergency
    Regulations allowed security forces to conduct searches of property and
    to engage in wiretapping and surveillance of private citizens with
    little judicial oversight.
        Seizure of private lands by various actors remained a problem
    across the country. Disputes over land ownership in war-torn areas of
    the north and east increased significantly as many former residents
    began returning to areas they had left many years before. The military
    seized significant amounts of land during the war to create security
    buffer zones around military bases and other high-value targets, which
    the Government called HSZs. The declaration of HSZs displaced a number
    of persons, particularly in the Jaffna Peninsula, and rendered inactive
    approximately 24 square miles of agricultural lands. A degree of
    progress was made in reducing the size of the HSZs during the year,
    with some lands being returned to their owners, in the area surrounding
    the Palaly Air Base in the Jaffna Peninsula, for example. Many of those
    affected by the HSZs continued to complain, however, that the pace of
    these returns was too slow and that the Government was holding back on
    the return of lands it might see as economically valuable. The
    Government cited the need to conduct careful demining prior to the
    handover of these lands, but questions persisted about whether land
    cleared of mines was always immediately returned to its original
    owners.
        Paramilitary actors were often cited as being responsible for other
    land seizures. While a legal process exists for private landowners to
    contest such seizures, in practice it proved very slow, and many
    victims did not take advantage of it for fear of violent reprisals by
    those who had seized the property in question.
        Land ownership disputes between private individuals in former war
    zones also escalated during the year. Multiple displacements occurred
    in the northern and eastern areas over the many years of war, and land
    often changed hands several times. Documentation of land claims was
    difficult for a number of reasons. Many persons who had been displaced
    multiple times were not able to preserve original land deeds as they
    moved and some official government land records were damaged or
    destroyed during intense fighting between government and LTTE troops.
    Through the LLRC, the Government was seeking to address these issues.

    Section 2. Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:
        a. Freedom of Speech and Press.--The law provides for freedom of
    speech and of the press, but in practice this was not always supported.
    Government officials criticized, pressured, and harassed the media, and
    most journalists practiced self-censorship.
        The Government owned the country's largest newspaper chain, two
    major television stations, and a radio station. However, private owners
    operated a variety of independent newspapers, journals, and radio and
    television stations. The Government imposed no political restrictions
    on the establishment of new media enterprises. While foreign media
    outlets operated in the country, foreign journalists were required to
    obtain clearance from the Ministry of Defense to travel to the north.
    There were occasions when foreign journalists were not granted this
    permission and thus were unable to report on key events in the north.
    On several occasions the Ministry of Defense prevented foreign
    journalists from the BBC from attending public sessions held by the
    LLRC in the north. This appeared to have been resolved by year's end,
    however, and a BBC reporter was granted ministry permission to attend
    an upcoming LLRC session in Mannar.
        Media freedom suffered from severe government pressure throughout
    the island, and most journalists practiced self-censorship,
    particularly on problems critical of top government officials. National
    and international media freedom organizations and journalists'
    associations expressed concern over media freedom and were sharply
    critical of the Government's role in harassing and intimidating
    journalists. The police, under the authority of the Ministry of
    Defense, reportedly maintained a special unit to monitor and control
    all references in the media to members of the Rajapaksa family.
        Senior government officials repeatedly accused critical journalists
    of treason and often pressured editors and publishers to print stories
    that portrayed the Government in a positive light. This pressure
    reportedly was exerted sometimes directly through threats and
    intimidation and sometimes through orders to government and private
    firms to cease advertising in critical newspapers. Threats led some
    journalists to choose self-exile (see section 2.d.).
        In addition to the high-profile disappearance of Prageeth
    Eknaliyagoda in January, (see section 1.b.), media personnel often were
    subject to threats and harassment during the year. Statements by
    government and military officials contributed to an environment in
    which journalists who published articles critical of the Government
    felt under threat.
        Masked assailants attacked the premises of Siyatha television on
    July 30, burning the studios and injuring two employees. Witnesses
    reported similarities in the manner in which this attack was carried
    out and the January 2009 attack on MTV/MBC studios, and some local
    groups suspected Ministry of Defense personnel were behind the attack.
        The Government made no progress in the investigation into the
    January 2009 attack on the broadcasting station of MTV/MBC in
    Pannipitiya.
        There was no further investigation into the June 2009 abduction and
    severe beating of journalist Poddala Jayantha, head of the Sri Lanka
    Working Journalists Association. Jayantha was attacked shortly after
    photographs of him and several other journalists were shown on state-
    run television during comments by the Inspector General of Police
    Jayantha Wickramaratne, in which he called journalists traitors who
    should be ``dealt with.''
        On several occasions during the year government authorities at the
    international airport confiscated copies of The Economist magazine,
    preventing their release to the magazine's local distributor. This
    occurred when articles in the issue were critical of the Government.
    The Government stated that the confiscations were merely temporary and
    only occurred when there was a legitimate security concern. The issues
    containing the critical articles were not seen on newsstands once the
    Government released them, however, since a new issue had already
    arrived to replace them.
        In November persons with suspected affiliation with the EPDP
    paramilitary group made threatening gestures to local journalists
    attending a public session of the LLRC in Kayts, off the Jaffna
    Peninsula. The journalists were attempting to photograph the men as the
    latter wrote down names and other identifying details of local
    residents describing abductions that occurred in the area during the
    war.
        In July 2009 the Government officially reactivated the Press
    Council Act of 1973. This act, which includes power to impose punitive
    measures including fines and lengthy prison terms, proscribed the
    publishing of articles that discussed internal communications of the
    Government, decisions of the cabinet, matters relating to the military
    that could affect national security, and details of economic policy
    that could lead to artificial shortages or speculative price increases.
    Several demonstrations by journalists took place throughout the latter
    part of 2009 against the resurrection of this council.

        Internet Freedom.--There appeared to be some limited government
    restrictions on access to the Internet, including government blocking
    of Web sites it deemed pornographic. There were suspicions that the
    Government was behind the blocking of Internet access to several Tamil
    news Web sites, including the pro-LTTE TamilNet.
        High-speed Internet was available in major cities and towns,
    including Jaffna, with more widespread use among younger and urban
    populations. Cell-phone use, including text messaging, was high across
    a broad spectrum of society without government restriction. The
    Ministry of Defense attempted to impose regulations requiring the
    registration of all SIM card purchases, but there appeared to be
    sizable gaps in the implementation and enforcement of these
    regulations.
        According to International Telecommunication Union statistics for
    2009, approximately 8.8 percent of the country's inhabitants used the
    Internet.

        Academic Freedom and Cultural Events.--There were reports that
    government officials occasionally informally inhibited cultural
    productions originating from ethnic minorities. Theater productions
    written by Tamils were not performed at a festival, allegedly because
    the Government did not have a Tamil translator available to approve the
    content. There were allegations that university officials, in many
    cases from the ranks of academia, prevented professors from criticizing
    government officials, and the administration of a university in Colombo
    prevented the UN from holding an event on school premises that
    highlighted a number of human rights defenders as part of a celebration
    of International Human Rights Day in December. Academics were
    intimidated into practicing self-censorship.

        b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association.--Freedom of
    Assembly.--The law provides for freedom of assembly, and the Government
    generally respected this right in practice; however, some restrictions
    existed. For example, the 2005 Emergency Regulations gives the
    president the power to restrict meetings, assemblies, and processions.
    The law states that rallies and demonstrations of a political nature
    may not be held when a referendum is scheduled, but the Government
    generally granted permits for demonstrations, including those by
    opposition parties and minority groups. A number of university students
    were detained in October following demonstrations at several
    universities in protest of plans to develop private universities in the
    country. The Government alleged that these demonstrations were
    unauthorized and deliberately set up with the help of leftist political
    parties to disrupt classes and clash with police.

        Freedom of Association.--The law provides for freedom of
    association, and the Government generally respected this right in
    practice; however, some restrictions existed, such as those under the
    Emergency Regulations. The Government often used informants to target
    individuals for arrests and interrogation based on their association.

        c. Freedom of Religion.--For a complete description of religious
    freedom, please see the 2010 International Religious Freedom Report at
    www.state.gov/g/drl/irf/rpt.

        d. Freedom of Movement, Internally Displaced Persons, Protection of
    Refugees, and Stateless Persons.--The law grants every citizen
    ``freedom of movement and of choosing his residence'' and ``freedom to
    return to the country.'' In practice, however, the Government
    restricted this right on multiple occasions. The additional police and
    military checkpoints on travelers from the north and the east and on
    movement to and in Colombo remained in effect. The number of formal,
    stationary checkpoints declined from the previous year, in particular
    in Colombo. Many observers noted an increase in temporary, roving
    checkpoints, however, especially at night in Colombo.
        Ethnic Tamils' national identification cards were the only cards
    printed in both Sinhala and Tamil.
        Security forces at army checkpoints in Colombo frequently harassed
    Tamils. Both the Government and the TMVP continued to operate
    checkpoints in the east that impeded the free movement of residents,
    especially Tamils.
        The Government no longer restricted travel by Sri Lankan citizens
    on the A-9 highway leading north from Vavuniya to Jaffna. Foreigners,
    however, were required to get permission from the Ministry of Defense
    before traveling to northern areas. The Government continued security
    checks on movements in all directions north of a key junction near
    Medawachiya, although they were less stringent than during the war.
        Limited access continued near military bases and the HSZs where
    civilians could not enter. The HSZs extended in an approximately 2.5-
    mile radius from the fences of most military camps. Some observers
    claimed that the HSZs were excessive and unfairly affected Tamil
    agricultural lands, particularly in Jaffna. There were allegations
    after the war ended that the Government was allowing non-Tamil
    businesses to locate inside HSZs, taking over valuable land before
    local citizens were allowed to return.
        The Government did not expel citizens from one part of the country
    to another, nor did it forcibly exile any citizens abroad, but it
    allowed citizens to leave the country under self-exile unless they were
    accused of breaking the law. More than a dozen journalists, having
    received physical threats, were in self-exile due to safety fears.
        In July the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) released
    updated eligibility guidelines for assessing the international
    protection needs of asylum seekers from the country. The report noted
    that due to the cessation of hostilities, Sri Lankans originating from
    the northern part of the country were no longer in need of
    international protection under broader refugee criteria or
    complementary forms of protection solely on the basis of risk of
    indiscriminate harm and that, in light of the improved human rights and
    security situation in the country, there was no longer a need for
    group-based protection mechanisms or for a presumption of eligibility
    for Sri Lankans of Tamil ethnicity originating from northern part of
    the country. The report noted that refugee status determinations of Sri
    Lankan asylum seekers of Tamil ethnicity should be assessed upon five
    potential risk profiles: (1) persons suspected of links to the LTTE (in
    these cases, exclusion criteria would also apply); (2) journalists and
    other media professionals; (3) civil society and human rights
    activists; (4) women and children with certain profiles; and (5)
    lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals. As of
    November 1, the number of Tamil refugees from the country living in
    southern India included slightly more than 70,000 in refugee camps and
    an additional 32,000 living outside of camps among the Indian
    population. This represented the vast majority of approximately 146,000
    total Sri Lankan refugees registered with the UNHCR in 64 different
    countries, including the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and other
    countries. Some Tamil refugees returned to the country, with 2,054
    returning during the year via UNHCR assistance, up from 843 in 2009,
    and an additional 2,742 refugees returned on their own during the year.

        Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs)--The country had a significant
    population of IDPs. Almost all IDPs were ethnically Tamil, although
    approximately 80,000 of the total displaced population were Tamil-
    speaking Muslims who were displaced from Jaffna by the LTTE in 1990.
    Although approximately 108,000 more recent IDPs remained in government-
    run camps at the beginning of the year, most of these had returned to
    their home districts by year's end, with approximately 20,200 still in
    camps at that time. An estimated 66,000 individuals remained displaced
    in host communities, primarily in Jaffna, Mannar, and Vavuniya
    districts. At the Manik Farm camp near Vavuniya, 19,000 of the 20,200
    were housed, and an additional 1,200 at the Ramavil camp in the Jaffna
    Peninsula. Of those at the Manik Farm camp, approximately 97 percent
    came from heavily mined areas in the Mullaitivu District. Many IDPs who
    were able to return to their home districts were nevertheless unable to
    move back onto their own property due to uncleared land mines,
    restrictions that have designated their home areas as HSZs, and other
    war-related destruction. Living conditions for these persons were often
    difficult.
        In addition to this group of newer IDPs, there were an estimated
    200,000 displaced Tamils, most of whom were displaced prior to the last
    major offensive by the military in 2008 and were living with either
    relatives or friends. It was unclear at year's end how or when they
    might return to their places of origin, or whether some would prefer to
    settle permanently at their current location after being displaced for
    many years. Some returns of pre-2008 IDPs occurred throughout the year.
        For the IDP camps the Government accepted assistance from and
    provided access to NGOs and international actors. Management of the
    camps and control of assistance was under the military rather than
    civilian authorities, but civilian government agencies provided
    services to IDPs in the camps while working in concert with the
    military.
        The Government released IDPs throughout the year for return to
    their areas of origin, but in some cases the Government did not
    effectively coordinate with local or international aid agencies that
    were asked to provide assistance on short notice. The Government
    sometimes failed to coordinate consistently with military personnel in
    the IDPs' home locations.
        Among the long-term displaced were approximately 73,000 Muslims
    evicted from Jaffna in 1990 by the LTTE, many of whom spent nearly 20
    years in IDP camps in and around Puttalam. A number of these, one
    estimate suggesting as many as 43,000, returned to Jaffna throughout
    the year, but this was difficult to verify. How many of those remaining
    in Puttalam would return home also was unclear, as many had younger
    family members who felt more at home in Puttalam. The Government did
    not permit some other IDPs, primarily Tamils, to return home because
    their places of origin remained inside HSZs, despite announcements
    during the year that these HSZs would soon be reduced or eliminated.
        The Government generally cooperated with the UNHCR and some other
    humanitarian organizations in assisting IDPs; however, it restricted
    access to the north by NGOs and some international organizations,
    requiring them to obtain authorization for projects and access from the
    Presidential Task Force. While the UN and its organizations were given
    fairly effective access, other international NGOs had difficulty in
    operating projects they saw as needed, and permission for some
    humanitarian organizations to operate was denied or rescinded.

        Protection of Refugees.--The country is not a party to the 1951
    Convention relating to the Status of Refugees or its 1967 Protocol. The
    country's laws do not provide for the granting of asylum or refugee
    status, and the Government had not established a system for providing
    protection to refugees. In practice the Government provided protection
    against the expulsion or return of refugees to countries where their
    lives or freedom would be threatened on account of their race,
    religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or
    political opinion.

        Stateless Persons--The 2003 Grant of Citizenship to Persons of
    Indian Origin Act recognized the country's nationality of previously
    stateless persons, particularly hill-country Tamils. The Government
    made limited progress towards naturalizing and providing citizenship
    documentation to stateless persons. By December approximately 20,000
    hill-country Tamils in the country lacked identity cards and
    citizenship documents, compared with 30,000 at the beginning of 2009
    and 70,000 in 2008. Those lacking identity cards were at higher risk of
    arbitrary arrest and detention, but there were no reports of such
    incidents during the year.
        The Government passed laws in 2009 to grant citizenship to hill-
    country Tamils living among other Sri Lankan ethnic Tamils in refugee
    camps in India's Tamil Nadu, but progress on finding and registering
    these persons and granting them citizenship was slow.

    Section 3. Respect for Political Rights: The Right of Citizens to
            Change Their Government
        The law provides citizens the right to change their government
    peacefully, and citizens exercised this right in practice through
    periodic elections held on the basis of universal suffrage.

        Elections and Political Participation.--The president, who was
    reelected in January for a second six-year term, holds executive power,
    while the 225-member parliament, elected in April, exercises
    legislative power.
        The Government invited the Commonwealth of Nations and other
    international organizations to send election observers, but few
    international observers agreed to be present for the January
    presidential election. Several local elections observer organizations
    monitored the campaign and election day. This was the first island-wide
    election since the end of the war, and although participation in some
    northern areas was low compared with the rest of the island, it was
    significantly higher than during the 2005 presidential election, when
    the LTTE enforced a boycott of the polls in areas under its control.
        A number of violent incidents occurred during the campaign period,
    with five deaths connected to election-related violence, but there were
    few reported incidents of election-related violence or election law
    violations on election day. However, independent observers reported
    countless violations of election law by the president's ruling
    coalition and, to a lesser extent, by the main opposition parties
    during the weeks leading up to election day. The president's ruling
    coalition was accused of massive use of state resources in support of
    the president's campaign, including the repeated use of official
    vehicles, offices, and personnel to hold campaign events and to conduct
    voter education efforts that favored the president.
        The final vote count gave President Rajapaksa approximately 58
    percent of the vote, with the main opposition candidate, retired
    general Sarath Fonseka, receiving just over 40 percent. There were no
    reliable public opinion polls conducted during the election campaign
    with which to compare these results. There were allegations of possible
    fraud occurring at counting centers, as ballots were tallied and totals
    reported to the elections commissioner. In several counting centers
    opposition party observers were chased away by government supporters.
    While many observers questioned the size of Rajapaksa's margin of
    victory, most believed that the results represented the will of the
    electorate. There were calls for a recount of ballots, but the
    elections commissioner refused to do so. By law election ballots are
    retained for one year following an election in case of a dispute. The
    elections commissioner has the power to release them, but he refused to
    allow any independent inspection of the ballots, even after a formal
    request by local election monitoring organizations to do so. Imprisoned
    opposition candidate Fonseka filed a petition in court to overturn the
    results of the election, based on the allegations of elections law
    violations and counting fraud, but on October 29 the Supreme Court
    dismissed the case on technical grounds without rendering a decision on
    the merits of the case, stating that it would be impossible to prove in
    court whether the alleged fraud and violations occurred to the point of
    justifying the disqualification of Rajapaksa as a candidate.
        There were reports that several thousand IDPs housed at the Manik
    Farm camp in Vavuniya were not able to vote because buses arranged for
    transporting them to local polling sites were late.
        Several small explosions occurred in the area around Jaffna early
    on the morning of the election, but no injuries were reported as a
    result. However, some local observers reported that these may have
    dissuaded voters from going to the polls in those areas.
        The parliamentary elections in April experienced some violence as
    well, but it was based largely on intraparty squabbles, as local
    candidates competed for preference votes within their own party
    constituencies.
        There were reports of complications in the registration of some
    IDPs in the north later in the year as elections officials prepared for
    a full round of local and provincial elections expected in early 2011.
    The numbers of voters reportedly affected by these complications were
    relatively small.
        Political parties largely were free to operate and name candidates
    as they wished.
        There were 10 women in the 225-member parliament, two female
    ministers, and two women out of 11 justices on the Supreme Court. There
    were 28 Tamils and 17 Muslims in the parliament. There was no provision
    for, or allocation of, a set number or percentage of political party
    positions for women or minorities. Women's participation in politics
    was approximately 5 percent in the parliament and the provincial
    councils.

    Section 4. Official Corruption and Government Transparency
        The law provides criminal penalties for official corruption;
    however, the Government did not implement the law effectively, and
    officials in all three branches of the Government frequently engaged in
    corrupt practices with impunity.
        The mandate of the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery
    or Corruption expired during the year and had not been renewed by
    year's end.
        The tendering and procurement process for government contracts was
    not transparent, leading to allegations of corruption by the losing
    bidders. Senior officials served as corporate officers of several
    quasi-public corporations, including Lanka Logistics and Technologies,
    which the Government established in 2007 and designated as the sole
    procurement agency for all military equipment. Critics alleged that
    large kickbacks were paid during the awarding of certain defense
    contracts. In 2007 the Government used state pension funds to set up a
    new budget airline, Mihin Air, with many of the same officials serving
    as corporate officers. In May 2009 Mihin Air went bankrupt, but the
    2009 budget allocated several million dollars to restart operations and
    continue leasing planes for the airline. Parliamentarians from the
    Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (People's Liberation Front) complained in
    session that the airline's officials did not follow proper tender
    procedures in acquiring the planes.
        In 2008 the Supreme Court found then treasury secretary P.B.
    Jayasundera guilty of a violation of procedure in the awarding of a
    large contract for the expansion of the Port of Colombo. The court
    barred him from holding the treasury position. In June 2009, after
    President Rajapaksa named a new Supreme Court chief justice, the
    Supreme Court allowed Jayasundera to proceed with a fundamental rights
    case protesting the original decision. The Supreme Court then
    overturned the previous decision and allowed Jayasundera to be
    reinstated as secretary of the treasury.
        Although members of parliament are asked to complete financial
    disclosure reports upon their election, there was no follow-up to
    ensure compliance, and little or no reporting ultimately was done.
        There was no law providing for public access to government
    information.

    Section 5. Governmental Attitude Regarding International and
            Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations of Human
            Rights
        A number of domestic and international human rights groups
    continued to investigate and publish their findings on human rights
    cases, despite increasing government restrictions and physical threats
    to their work. The Government often criticized local NGOs critical of
    government actions, failed to respond to requests for assistance, and
    put pressure on those who sought such assistance. For example, the
    Government failed to investigate a death threat in August 2009 against
    one prominent civil society leader and instead opened an investigation
    of those who signed a public petition calling for an investigation.
        NGOs which proposed undertaking projects in northern and eastern
    areas address such matters as psychosocial counseling, good governance
    training for local citizens, and legal aid often had difficulty in
    obtaining government work permits. Government officials sometimes made
    generic criticisms of local NGOs that accepted funding from
    international sources.
        Although the ICRC did not have an overall operating mandate since
    July 2009, and the Government told ICRC in December to close its
    offices in Jaffna and Vavuniya, it was able nonetheless to conduct a
    number of its functions including prison visits and other monitoring.
        International personnel of NGOs often had trouble getting visa
    renewals to continue working in the country.
        The Government continued to refuse the request by the UN's Office
    of the High Commissioner for Human Rights for an expanded mission and
    an independent presence in the country.
        The UN Secretary-General established an advisory panel of experts
    in June to advise him on the country's accountability mechanisms with
    regard to alleged violation of international human rights and
    humanitarian law during the final stages of the war in 2009. The
    Government responded by stating the panel was an ``unwarranted and
    unnecessary interference,'' and that the secretary-general did not have
    the authority to establish such a panel. Shortly after the secretary-
    general's announcement, Wimal Weerawansa, minister of housing and
    construction, led a protest that surrounded the entrance to the main UN
    compound in Colombo, preventing staff inside from leaving for several
    hours. The secretary general called upon the Government to live up to
    its responsibilities as a host country to ensure the continuation of
    the UN's work. The protest continued for several days, with Weerawansa
    threatening to fast to the death unless the panel of experts was
    disbanded. The president asked Weerawansa to end the protest four days
    after it began. Although there were reports that the Government had
    agreed to allow members of the panel to visit the country as part of
    its research, at year's end the visit had not yet occurred.
        By statute the Sri Lanka Human Rights Commission (SLHRC) had wide
    powers and resources and could not be called as a witness in any court
    of law or be sued for matters relating to its official duties. However,
    in practice the SLHRC rarely used its powers, and there were reports of
    a large backlog of cases with virtually no action by the commission
    during the year. Rather than taking an investigative approach to
    determining the facts and details of human rights cases, the SLHRC
    instead took a more tribunal-like approach, weighing only the evidence
    brought to it in deciding whether to pursue a case. In 2007 the
    International Coordinating Committee of National Human Rights
    Institutions downgraded the SLHRC to observer status, citing
    governmental interference in the work of the SLHRC.
        In May the Government established the LLRC, a presidential
    commission with a six-month mandate to investigate the reasons for the
    breakdown of the Cease-Fire Agreement and the subsequent resumption of
    conflict until the end of the war. An eight-member panel of
    commissioners, including one Tamil and one Muslim, was appointed to
    collect evidence and testimony and to present a report to the
    president. Some international observers criticized the country's lack
    of witness protection, the limited scope of the LLRC--which did not
    have an explicit mandate to investigate alleged war crimes--as well as
    the impartiality of its Chairman, C.R. de Silva, whom they believe was
    responsible in part for the failure of a previous commission of
    inquiry. The Government extended the LLRC's mandate for another six
    months in November, a move criticized by some international observers
    as a tactic to delay addressing accountability. The time extension,
    however, did allow the LLRC additional time to gather testimony from
    hundreds of civilians, largely ethnic Tamils in the war-torn north and
    east, to provide the commission with testimony about missing family
    members and other war-related strife.
        A significant number of witnesses were heard at LLRC sessions in
    Colombo, including historians, religious leaders, military officials,
    academics, and political figures. A wide variety of opinions were
    expressed at these sessions, including discussions on the origins of
    the conflict, the role of language, devolution, and the successes or
    failures of past political leadership.
        The LLRC also held a large number of field sessions in towns and
    villages throughout the former conflict areas in the north and east,
    where it accepted oral and written testimony from civilians who were
    affected by the war. Missing persons reports were accepted from
    hundreds of persons who had lost close relatives either during the
    fighting or in the mass exodus of Tamil civilians from the final
    conflict zone in the immediate aftermath of the end of the war. Many of
    these reports cited forced recruitment tactics by the LTTE, but others
    blamed government military and police for arresting their relatives,
    with no word from them since. Others told of the deaths of relatives
    from shelling and indiscriminate firing by both the LTTE and the
    Government in civilian areas and so-called no-fire zones.
        On September 13, the LLRC made a number of interim recommendations
    to the president on steps to help alleviate continued ethnic tensions
    and respond to individuals' most pressing requests but made no mention
    of investigation of allegations of war crimes. The Government created
    an interagency committee in late October to implement these interim
    recommendations, which addressed detentions, land-ownership concerns,
    law and order, language problems, and economic and livelihood
    development. At year's end the interagency committee was working on
    implementation of the recommendations. The LLRC also created a website
    on which it published testimony from a number of individuals who
    appeared before the commission, including some from individuals whose
    family members disappeared during the war.

    Section 6. Discrimination, Societal Abuses, and Trafficking in Persons
        The law prohibits discrimination based on race, gender, disability,
    language, or social status, and the Government generally respected
    these rights in practice; however, there were instances wherein which
    gender and ethnic-based discrimination occurred.

        Women.--The law prohibits rape and domestic violence but it was not
    effectively enforced. Sexual assault, rape, and spousal abuse were
    pervasive societal problems. The law specifically addresses sexual
    abuse and exploitation, and it contains provisions in rape cases for an
    equitable burden of proof and stringent punishments. Marital rape is
    considered an offense only in cases of spouses legally separated. While
    in theory the law could address some of the problems of sexual assault,
    many women's organizations believed that greater sensitization of
    police and the judiciary was necessary to see progress in combating
    these crimes. The Bureau for the Protection of Children and Women
    (BPCW) within the police conducted awareness programs in schools and at
    the grassroots level, prompting women to file complaints. The BPCW
    received 714 complaints of grave violent crimes and 2,391 minor crimes
    against women during 2009.
        There were reports that individual cases of gender-based violence
    perpetrated by members of the security forces occurred in areas with
    heavy security force presence, but others stated that military
    officials were responsive to reports of such incidents and showed a
    willingness to prosecute the offenders. The Government did not release
    any details about prosecutions or punishments for such offenses, and
    some observers suggested that there was reluctance by victims to report
    such incidents in northern and eastern areas where security forces were
    much more prevalent. Statistics on numbers of such cases also were
    unavailable because few victims reported such incidents. Human rights
    groups in northern districts alleged that the wives of men who were
    killed as a result of the conflict often fell victim to prostitution
    because of their economic vulnerability.
        According to the BPCW 175 reported incidents of rape occurred
    through August 2009 throughout the island, but reported incidences of
    rape were unreliable indicators of the degree of this problem, as most
    victims were unwilling to file reports. Services to assist victims of
    rape and domestic violence, such as crisis centers, legal aid, and
    counseling, were generally scarce due to a lack of funding.
        Sexual harassment was a criminal offense carrying a maximum
    sentence of five years in prison. Some observers acknowledged sexual
    harassment to be widespread; however, enforcement of the law was not
    effective. Domestic violence was also thought to be widespread,
    although, as with sexual harassment, discussion of these problems was
    not common.
        Couples and individuals were generally free to decide the number,
    spacing, and timing of their children. An estimated 40 percent of the
    population used modern contraceptives, and skilled attendance during
    childbirth was estimated at approximately 97 percent. According to 2008
    UN estimates, the maternal mortality rate in the country was 39 deaths
    per 100,000 live births. Women appeared to be equally diagnosed and
    treated for sexually transmitted infections, including HIV. The UN and
    World Health Organization estimated approximately 4,000 persons were
    infected with HIV in 2007.
        The law provides for equal employment opportunity in the public
    sector. In practice women had no legal protection against
    discrimination in the private sector, where they sometimes were paid
    less than men for equal work and experienced difficulty in rising to
    supervisory positions. Although women constituted approximately half of
    the formal workforce, according to the Asian Development Bank, the
    quality of employment available to women was less than that available
    to men. The demand for female labor was mainly for casual and low-paid,
    low-skill jobs.
        Women had equal rights under civil and criminal law. However,
    adjudication according to the customary law of each ethnic or religious
    group of questions related to family law, including divorce, child
    custody, and inheritance, resulted in de facto discrimination.

        Children.--Citizenship was obtained by birth within the territory
    of the country and from a child's parents if born to citizen parents
    overseas. The law requires children between the ages of five and 14 to
    attend school. The Government provided extensive systems of public
    education and medical care. Education was free through the university
    level.
        Under the law the definition of child abuse includes all acts of
    sexual violence against, trafficking in, and cruelty to children. The
    law also prohibits the use of children in exploitative labor or illegal
    activities, or in any way contrary to compulsory education regulations.
    It also defines child abuse to include the involvement of children in
    war.
        NGOs attributed the problem of exploitation of children to the lack
    of enforcement, rather than inadequate legislation. The BPCW conducted
    investigations into crimes against children and women, and the National
    Child Protection Authority (NCPA) included representatives from the
    education, medical, police, and legal professions and reported directly
    to the president. During 2009 the BPCW received 1,974 complaints of
    grave violent crimes and 986 of minor crimes against children.
        The Government advocated greater international cooperation to bring
    those guilty of sexual exploitation of children to justice. Although
    the Government did not keep records of particular types of violations,
    the law prohibits sexual violations against children, defined as
    persons less than 18 years of age, particularly in regard to child
    pornography, child prostitution, and the trafficking of children.
    Penalties for violations related to pornography and prostitution range
    from two to five years' imprisonment. The penalties for sexual assault
    of children range from five to 20 years' imprisonment and an
    unspecified fine. By the end of 2009 the Government opened 1,575 files,
    of which 497 resulted in indictments for sexual assault and
    exploitation of children, including kidnapping, cruelty to children,
    rape, and statutory rape; 299 cases were dismissed, and 303 cases were
    referred to the police for further investigation. The remaining were
    pending at the end of 2009, and no further details were available at
    year's end.
        Commercial sexual exploitation of children remained a problem in
    coastal resort areas. Private groups estimated that approximately 6,000
    children were exploited for commercial sex in the country and that
    local citizens were responsible for much of the exploitation. Other
    groups believed foreign tourists were more frequently the exploiters of
    thousands of children, especially boys, for commercial sex, most of
    whom were reportedly forced into prostitution by traffickers. There was
    little solid data to elucidate these reports, and some observers stated
    the problem was much less prevalent than approximately 10 years ago.
    The Department of Probation and Child Care Services provided protection
    to child victims of abuse and sexual exploitation and worked with local
    NGOs that provided shelter. The tourist bureau halted programs to raise
    awareness for at-risk children in resort regions prone to sex tourism
    due to a lack of funding.
        Children in the IDP camps and resettled areas were exposed to the
    same difficult conditions as adult IDPs and returnees in these areas.
    School facilities were being demined and reconstructed, but many were
    in poor condition and lacked basic supplies. Medical care in these
    areas was limited, but improvements continued throughout the year.
        The country is a party to the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil
    Aspects of International Child Abduction. For information on
    international parental child abduction, please see the Department of
    State's annual report on compliance at http://travel.state.gov/
    abduction/resources/congressreport/congressreport--4308.html.

        Anti-Semitism.--The Jewish population remained very small, and
    there were no reports of anti-Semitic acts.

        Trafficking in Persons.--For information on trafficking in persons,
    please see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons
    Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        Persons With Disabilities.--The law forbids discrimination against
    any person with physical, sensory, intellectual, or mental
    disabilities; however, in practice discrimination occurred in
    employment, education, and provision of state services. The Department
    of Social Services operated eight vocational training schools for
    persons with physical and mental disabilities and sponsored a program
    of job training and placement for graduates. The Government provided
    financial support to NGOs that assisted persons with disabilities,
    including subsidizing prosthetic devices, making purchases from
    suppliers with disabilities, and registering 74 NGO-run schools and
    training institutions for persons with disabilities. Due to a lack of
    funding, the Department of Social Services reportedly discontinued a
    program that allowed job placement officers to help the estimated
    200,000 work-eligible persons with disabilities find jobs. This program
    assisted 147 persons with disabilities in finding jobs in 2008. Persons
    with disabilities faced difficulties due to negative attitudes and
    societal discrimination. In some rural areas the belief of many
    residents that physical and mental disabilities were contagious led to
    long-term isolation of such persons who in some cases rarely or never
    left their homes.
        In October 2009 the Supreme Court directed that steps be taken to
    provide easy access for persons with disabilities to public buildings,
    but little progress occurred. There were regulations on accessibility,
    but in practice accommodation for access to buildings for persons with
    disabilities was rare. The Department of Social Services provided
    housing grants, self-employment grants, and medical assistance to
    persons with disabilities. During the year the department provided a
    monthly allowance grant of approximately 3,200 rupees ($29) to
    approximately 2,100 families of persons with disabilities.

        National/Racial/Ethnic Minorities.--Both local and Indian-origin
    Tamils maintained that they suffered long-standing, systematic
    discrimination in university education, government employment, and
    other matters controlled by the Government. According to the SLHRC,
    Tamils also experienced discrimination in housing. Landlords were
    required to register any Tamil tenants and to report their presence to
    the police, although in practice many landlords did not comply.
        Tamils throughout the country, but especially in the conflict-
    affected north and east, reported frequent harassment of young and
    middle-age Tamil men by security forces and paramilitary groups.
        A small ethnic group known as Kaffari or Kaffirs existed in very
    small numbers, mostly in the coastal areas of Negombo, Trincomalee, and
    Batticaloa. They were thought to be the descendants of African slaves
    originally brought to the country by the Portuguese sometime in the
    16th century. They numbered approximately 1,000 and had dwindled in
    number largely due to many years of intermarriage. They did not appear
    to suffer from any overt discrimination, but because of their small
    number they struggled to maintain any distinct cultural identity.

        Indigenous People.--The country's indigenous people, known as
    Veddas, by some estimates numbered fewer than 1,000. Some preferred to
    maintain their traditional way of life and were nominally protected by
    the law. There were no legal restrictions on their participation in
    political or economic life. However, the lack of legal documents was a
    problem for many. Vedda communities complained that they were pushed
    off their lands by the creation of protected forest areas, which
    deprived them of traditional livelihoods.

        Societal Abuses, Discrimination, and Acts of Violence Based on
    Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.--The law criminalizes
    homosexual activity but was not officially enforced. Some NGOs working
    on LGBT problems did not register with the Government. In recent years
    human rights organizations reported that, while not actively arresting
    and prosecuting those who engaged in LGBT activity, police harassed and
    extorted money or sexual favors from those persons and assaulted gays
    and lesbians in Colombo and other areas. This led to many incidents of
    crimes against members of the LGBT community going unreported. There
    were LGBT organizations, and several events were held throughout the
    year. In addition to pressure, harassment, and assaults by police,
    there remained significant societal pressure against members and
    organizations of the LGBT community. There were no legal safeguards to
    prevent discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
    There were reports that persons undergoing gender reassignment
    procedures had difficulty in amending government documents to reflect
    those changes.

        Other Societal Violence or Discrimination.--There was no official
    discrimination against those who provided HIV prevention services or
    against high-risk groups likely to spread HIV/AIDS, although there were
    reports of societal discrimination against these groups.

    Section 7. Worker Rights
        a. The Right of Association.--The law allows workers to form and
    join unions of their choice without previous authorization, with the
    exception of members of the armed forces and police officers, who may
    not unionize. Seven workers may form a union, adopt a charter, elect
    leaders, and publicize their views; however, a union must represent 40
    percent of workers at a given enterprise before the employer is legally
    obligated to bargain with it. By law public sector unions are not
    allowed to form federations or represent workers from more than one
    branch or department of government, although the law was not generally
    enforced.
        Approximately 10 percent of the national workforce of 7.5 million
    and more than 70 percent of the plantation workforce was unionized.
    Approximately 11 percent of the nonagricultural workforce in the
    private sector was unionized. Unions represented workers in large
    private firms, but workers in small-scale agriculture and small
    businesses usually did not belong to unions. Public sector employees
    were unionized at very high rates.
        In practice the right of association was impeded by the management
    of individual factories and by administrative delays by the Government
    in registering unions.
        Approximately 122,000 persons were employed within the country's 12
    export processing zones (EPZs), where the Board of Investment (BOI) set
    minimum wages and working conditions. Although EPZ employees have the
    same rights to join unions as other workers, forming trade unions was
    more difficult in the zones. The BOI controlled access to the EPZs;
    union representatives seeking to organize workers and other outsiders
    could enter only at the invitation of factory owners or the BOI. Unions
    claimed their lack of access to the zones drove the EPZs' low rate of
    unionization. They also reported that some employers actively
    undermined the formation of EPZ unions. Many employers claimed that low
    unionization was due to higher relative wages in the EPZs and to a
    relatively transient workforce.
        To address concerns about working conditions and freedom of
    association, the Labor Ministry set up offices, also known as mediation
    centers, in the three largest EPZs. For the first time, the ministry
    began conducting its own unannounced inspections in the EPZs and placed
    labor inspectors on-site in several of the largest EPZs.
        Most large unions were affiliated with political parties and played
    a prominent role in the political process, although some unions in the
    public sector were politically independent. The Department of Labor is
    authorized to cancel a union's registration if the union fails to
    submit an annual report for three years.
        By law all workers, other than police, armed forces, prison
    service, and those in essential services, have the right to strike, but
    the Government did not enforce this law uniformly. The president has
    broad discretion to declare sectors ``essential,'' as these can include
    ``any service which is of public utility or is essential for national
    security or for the preservation of public order or to the life of the
    community and includes any Department of the Government or branch
    thereof.'' The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) claimed
    the Government misused its power to declare an industry ``of public
    utility'' in order to make strikes illegal.
        The law prohibits retribution against strikers in nonessential
    sectors; in practice, however, employees sometimes were fired for
    striking.
        The law allows unions to conduct their activities without
    interference, but the Government enforced the law unevenly. Union
    activists and officials remained subject to harassment, intimidation,
    and other retaliatory practices. There were reports that employers
    arbitrarily transferred union members, and there were numerous reports
    of unfair dismissals of union members.
        On November 28, two trade unionists were arrested and charged with
    causing incitement for rioting by distributing pamphlets that raised
    concerns over the possible economic and environmental affect of a
    proposed development project.

        b. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively.--The law
    provides for the right to collective bargaining; however, the
    Government did not effectively enforce it in all instances. All
    collective agreements are required to be registered with the Department
    of Labor. Collective agreements normally were for three years.
        Employers found guilty of antiunion discrimination were required to
    reinstate workers fired for union activities but could transfer them to
    different locations. Antiunion discrimination was a punishable offense
    liable for a fine of 20,000 rupees ($177).
        According to the Government only the Department of Labor, a
    division under the Ministry of Labor, has standing to pursue an unfair
    labor practice case, including for antiunion discrimination. Citing
    routine government inaction on alleged violations of labor rights,
    unions have long pressed for standing. Since 1999 the Department of
    Labor filed two cases against companies for unfair labor practices
    under the Industrial Disputes Act, in 2009 and 2010. Those cases
    continued at the end of the year. Workers brought some labor violations
    to court under various other labor laws instead, such as the Wages
    Board or Employees Provident Fund Acts. Several employers were under
    investigation under these statutes.
        In practice employers often indefinitely delayed recognition of
    unions for collective bargaining. The ITUC and other organizations
    reported that employers used these delays to delay or prevent the
    formation of a union, to decrease support for unionization, and to
    identify, terminate, and sometimes assault or threaten union activists.
        There were credible reports that employers in the EPZs financed and
    supported employees' councils which then engaged in some labor and
    management negotiations. Labor organizations asserted these councils
    were a means of discouraging organization of and participation in
    traditional unions, and that they significantly weakened the bargaining
    positions of employees. The Government disputed these allegations and
    stated the higher number of worker councils reflected employee
    preferences to resolve disputes at the company level rather than via
    large unions.
        Unions argued that restricted access to the EPZs for union and NGO
    representatives hindered efforts to organize workers. According to the
    BOI, as of December there were 14 trade unions active in 39 of the
    EPZs' 267 factories; worker councils were active in 144.

        c. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor.--The law prohibited
    forced or bonded labor; however, there were reports that such practices
    occurred. The country's men and women emigrated to many countries,
    where some found themselves in conditions of forced labor. The risk of
    forced labor was increased by indebtedness and fraud from recruitment
    fees incurred in the country before departure. There were unconfirmed
    reports that children were subjected to bonded labor in dry-zone
    farming areas, on plantations, and to a lesser extent, in the fireworks
    and fish-drying industries. Bonded labor reportedly occurred in the
    agriculture, mining, and rope-making sectors, although those
    allegations were not confirmed.
        Also see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons
    Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        d. Prohibition of Child Labor and Minimum Age for Employment.--The
    minimum age for employment was 14, although the law permitted the
    employment of younger children by their parents or guardians in limited
    family agriculture work or in technical training. Persons under age 18
    could not be employed in any public enterprise in which the work was
    considered dangerous.
        The largest sector for child labor, both legal and illegal, was
    agriculture, where children under 18 sometimes were employed in the
    plantation sectors and in nonplantation agriculture during harvest
    periods. Children were engaged in hazardous and exploitative child
    labor as street and mobile vendors, and domestic helpers. They also
    worked in agriculture, mining, construction, manufacturing, and
    transport services. There were also reports that children performed
    dangerous work in the tile, fishing, construction, and mining
    industries. Children displaced by the war had a higher risk of being
    employed in hazardous labor.
        Sources indicated many thousands of children between 14 years and
    18 years of age were employed in domestic service in urban households,
    although this situation was not regulated or documented. Some child
    domestics reportedly were subjected to physical, sexual, and emotional
    abuse, and there were also reports of rural children in debt bondage in
    urban households. Employment of children commonly occurred in family
    enterprises such as family farms, crafts, small trade establishments,
    restaurants, and repair shops.
        There were no reports of children employed in the EPZs, the garment
    industry, or any other export industry.
        The NCPA was the central agency for coordinating and monitoring the
    protection of children, with the specific mandate to enforce laws on
    child labor and hazardous child labor. The Department of Labor, the
    Department of Probation and Child Care Services, and the police, which
    operated a specially designated Children's and Women's Bureau to
    enforce child labor laws, were also responsible for the enforcement of
    child labor laws. The NCPA received approximately 154 complaints of
    child employment during the year, compared with 79 in 2009. Other
    agencies also collected reports of child labor, however, and it was
    difficult to tell when there were multiple reports of the same
    instance. The police's Children's and Women's Desk had received 211
    complaints by June, compared with 247 during the same period in 2009.
    The Department of Labor received 150 complaints by October, compared
    with 149 during the same period in 2009. Information on litigation
    during the year was not available. Penalties for employing minors are
    10,000 rupees ($89) or 12 months' imprisonment. From January to
    October, the Department of Labor carried out 150 inspections on child
    labor and found 11 cases of child labor violations.
        During the year the Government published a road map for the
    elimination of worst forms of child labor by 2016. This plan was
    developed with assistance from workers representatives, the
    International Labor Organization, and UN Children's Fund. In December
    the parliament named 51 occupations as hazardous and prohibited for
    children.
        Also see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons
    Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        e. Acceptable Conditions of Work.--While there was no national
    minimum wage, 43 wage boards established by the Ministry of Labor
    Relations and Manpower set minimum wages and working conditions by
    sector and industry in consultation with unions and employers. The
    minimum monthly wage in the private sectors covered by wage boards was
    6,900 ($62) rupees plus an extra allowance of 1,000 rupees ($9), for a
    total of 7,900 rupees ($71). The minimum wage in the public sector was
    11,730 rupees ($105). Workers in sectors not covered by wage boards,
    including informal sector workers, were not covered by any minimum
    wage.
        The law prohibits most full-time workers from regularly working
    more than 45 hours per week (a five-and-a-half-day workweek). In
    addition the law stipulates a rest period of one hour per day.
    Regulations limit the maximum overtime hours to 15 per week. Overtime
    pay is 1.5 times the wage and is paid for work done on either Sundays
    or holidays.
        According to labor organizations, employers in EPZs frequently
    failed to pay wages owed when downsizing or closing factories.
        Several laws protect the safety and health of industrial workers,
    but the Ministry of Labor Relations and Manpower's efforts were
    inadequate to enforce compliance. Health and safety regulations do not
    fully meet international standards. Workers have the statutory right to
    remove themselves from dangerous situations, but many workers were
    unaware of such rights or feared they would lose their jobs if they
    removed themselves from the work situation.
        Emigrant laborers also faced abuse. There were cases in which
    recruitment agencies promised one type of job to a Sri Lankan migrant
    but changed the job, employer, or salary after the employee arrived in
    the other country.

                                   __________

                                   TAJIKISTAN

        Tajikistan, with a population of more than seven million, is an
    authoritarian state, and President Emomali Rahmon and his supporters,
    drawn mainly from one region of the country, dominated political life.
    The constitution provides for a multiparty political system, but in
    practice the Government obstructed political pluralism. The
    parliamentary elections conducted during the year were marked by
    widespread fraud committed by government officials to ensure victories
    for members of the ruling People's Democratic Party of Tajikistan
    (PDPT). The PDPT, progovernment independents, and government-affiliated
    political parties dominate the 63-member parliament. The opposition
    Islamic Revival Party of Tajikistan (IRPT) and Communist Party of
    Tajikistan have two seats each in parliament. Security forces reported
    to civilian authorities.
        The following human rights problems were reported: restricted right
    of citizens to change their government; torture and abuse of detainees
    and other persons by security forces; impunity for security forces;
    denial of right to fair trial; harsh and life-threatening prison
    conditions; prohibition of international monitor access to prisons;
    restrictions on freedoms of speech, press, association, and religion;
    corruption, which hampered democratic and social reform; violence and
    discrimination against women; arbitrary arrest; and trafficking in
    persons.

                            RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

    Section 1. Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom
            From:
        a. Arbitrary or Unlawful Deprivation of Life.--There were no
    reports that the Government or its agents committed arbitrary or
    unlawful killings, but at least one individual died while in government
    custody during a period when he was subjected to interrogation (see
    section 1. c.).
        On September 3, unknown individuals attacked a government building
    in Khujand, resulting in four deaths and 28 injuries.
        On September 25, armed gunmen attacked government troops in the
    Rasht valley, killing at least 23 soldiers returning from a patrol. The
    Government launched a security operation in the area and battled armed
    militants; hostilities resulted in an unknown number of government,
    militant, and civilian casualties. Though active operations have
    largely ended, the Government maintains a significant law enforcement
    and military presence in the area.
        According to the Tajikistan Mine Action Center and the Landmine
    Monitor, there were five casualties in three incidents due to
    unexploded ordnance during the year. On February 19, three children in
    Panj District found a shell while playing. The shell exploded, killing
    two and injuring one. On May 5, an antipersonnel mine injured a
    military deminer during clearance activities in Vanj District, Gorno-
    Badakhshan Autonomous Region. On October 12, an antipersonnel mine
    explosion injured a deminer in the Tavildara district during clearance
    activities.

        b. Disappearance.--There were no reports of politically motivated
    disappearances.

        c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or
    Punishment.--The constitution prohibits the use of torture, but there
    is no specific definition of torture in the law, or a provision of
    criminal liability for committing an act of torture. An article in the
    new Criminal Procedure Code (CPC) states that evidence acquired through
    torture is inadmissible. Some security officials reportedly continued
    to use beatings or other forms of coercion to extract confessions
    during interrogations. Officials did not grant sufficient access to
    information to allow human rights organizations to investigate claims
    of torture.
        In July a military conscript, Anvarjon Muhammadjonov, died while
    serving with his unit. The military reported that he died of exposure
    to electricity, but his body allegedly showed signs of being beaten.
        In March Usman Boboev died while being investigated by security
    officials in the Sughd region. Authorities suspected Boboev of
    membership in the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. There are reports
    that his body was marked with signs of physical abuse from his time in
    government custody. On April 27, officials arrested two police officers
    in connection with Boboev's death. The officers returned to duty in
    September. Sughd officials reported that the investigation is ongoing.
        In April officials from the Anti-Organized Crime Police arrested
    two former members of the United Tajik Opposition, Zarifjon Rahimov and
    Nosirjon Shunkhorov. The individuals spent two days in custody. Rahimov
    and Shunkhorov claimed police agents tortured them in an effort to
    extract false confessions of crimes. Ministry of Interior (MOI)
    officials stated the allegations were groundless and did not take any
    action against the officials who allegedly tortured the former
    opposition members.

        Prison and Detention Center Conditions.--The Government did not
    permit international observers access to monitor its prisons. Exact
    conditions in the prisons remain unknown. However, there have been
    reports that overall prison conditions were poor. Detainees and inmates
    described harsh and life-threatening prison conditions, including
    extreme overcrowding and unsanitary conditions. Disease and hunger were
    serious problems. UN agencies reported that infection rates of
    tuberculosis and HIV in prisons were significant, and the quality of
    medical treatment was poor.
        The Government operates eight prisons, including one for females,
    and four pretrial detention facilities.
        The Ministry of Justice (MOJ) continued to deny access to prisons
    or detention facilities to representatives of the international
    community and civil society seeking to investigate claims of harsh
    treatment or conditions. Some foreign diplomatic missions and
    nongovernmental organizations (NGOs were given access to implement
    assistance programs or carry out consular functions, but their
    representatives were limited to administrative or medical sections, and
    MOJ personnel accompanied them. The Government did not sign an
    agreement with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to
    allow free and unhindered access to prisons and detention centers, and
    the ICRC's international monitoring staff has not returned to the
    country since 2007. Prisoners are permitted to pray within their cells.
    There are no known cases of prisoners submitting formal complaints
    regarding conditions.

        d. Arbitrary Arrest or Detention.--The new Criminal Procedures Code
    that went into effect on April 1 states that individuals may appeal
    investigators' actions and decisions to the prosecutor supervising the
    execution of the law during pretrial investigation. The prosecutor's
    actions and decisions can be appealed to a higher prosecutor or the
    court. The law does not explicitly prohibit arbitrary arrests and, in
    practice, arbitrary arrests were common. Few citizens were aware of
    their right to protest an arrest, and there were few checks on the
    power of police and military officers to detain individuals. Police
    often detained men wearing beards, for example, and questioned them on
    suspicion of extremism.

        Role of the Police and Security Apparatus.--The MOI, Drug Control
    Agency (DCA), Agency on State Financial Control and Fight Against
    Corruption (an anticorruption agency), State Committee for National
    Security (SCNS), State Tax Committee, and Customs Service shared
    civilian law enforcement responsibilities. The MOI is responsible
    primarily for public order and controls the police force. The DCA,
    anticorruption agency, and State Tax Committee each have a mandate to
    investigate specific crimes, and they report to the president. The SCNS
    has responsibility for intelligence and controls the Border Service,
    but it also investigated cases linked to alleged extremist activity.
    The Customs Service reports directly to the president. The Prosecutor
    General's Office oversees criminal investigations that these agencies
    conduct.
        The agencies' responsibilities overlapped significantly, and law
    enforcement organizations deferred to the SCNS. Law enforcement
    agencies were not effective in investigating organized criminal gangs
    because the gangs maintained high-level connections with government
    officials and security agencies. Narcotics agencies, for example, are
    regularly ordered off of investigations by high-level officials with
    ties to drug traffickers.
        Victims of police abuse may submit a formal complaint in writing to
    the officer's superior or the Office of the Ombudsman. Most victims
    chose to remain silent rather than risking retaliation by the
    authorities. The Ombudsman's Office for Human Rights opened in May 2009
    and made efforts to respond to complaints about civil rights
    violations. The office lacked full independence, and the ombudsman
    rarely intervened in cases in cases when government officials violated
    human rights.

        Arrest Procedures and Treatment While in Detention.--According to
    the new CPC, police may detain an individual at a police station up to
    12 hours before they must file criminal charges. If charges are not
    filed after 12 hours, the individual must be released. Defense
    advocates alleged that prosecutors often held suspects for longer
    periods and only registered the initial arrest when the suspect was
    ready to confess; individuals often were not informed the reason for
    their arrest. If criminal charges were filed, the police may detain an
    individual 72 hours from the moment of detention before they must
    present their charges to a judge for an indictment hearing. The judge
    is empowered to order detention, house arrest, or bail, pending trial.
    In most cases, pretrial detention lasted from one to three months, but
    could extend as long as 15 months in exceptional circumstances. Law
    enforcement officials must request an extension from a judge to detain
    an individual in pretrial detention after two, six, and 12 months.
        According to the CPC, family members are allowed access to
    prisoners after indictment; officials occasionally denied attorneys and
    family members access to detainees. Authorities held detainees charged
    in crimes related to national security or extremism for extended
    periods without formally charging them.
        The Government generally provided a rationale for arrests, although
    some detainees claimed that authorities falsified charges or inflated
    minor problems to make politically motivated arrests. Some police and
    judicial officials regularly accepted bribes in exchange for lenient
    sentencing or release.

        e. Denial of Fair Public Trial.--Although the law provides for an
    independent judiciary, in practice the executive branch exerted
    pressure on prosecutors and judges. Corruption and inefficiency were
    significant problems.

        Trial Procedures.--Defendants are legally afforded a presumption of
    innocence, but they do not enjoy it in practice. Nearly all defendants
    are found guilty. In Sughd Province, for example, there was only one
    acquittal out of 1,650 court verdicts during the year. Trials are
    presided over by a judge, who issues verdicts. There is no system of
    trial by jury. Defendants generally were able to consult with an
    attorney in a timely manner during trials, but were often denied the
    right to an attorney during the pretrial and investigatory periods. By
    law the Government should provide an attorney at public expense if
    requested, but the Government rarely provided free legal aid. A number
    of local and international NGOs provided free legal counsel to
    defendants.
        Defendants may present witnesses and evidence at trial with the
    consent of the judge. Defendants and attorneys have the right to review
    all government evidence, confront and question witnesses, and present
    evidence and testimony. No groups are barred from testifying, and, in
    principle, all testimony receives equal consideration. In practice
    courts generally gave prosecutorial testimony more consideration than
    defense testimony. The law provides for the right to appeal. The law
    extends the rights of defendants in trial procedures to all citizens.
        Low wages for judges and prosecutors left them vulnerable to
    bribery, which was a common practice. Government officials subjected
    judges to political influence.
        On January 14, a defense attorney presented a recording of Nur
    Nurov admitting that he issued long sentences to 31 Isfara residents on
    politically motivated orders from high-ranking government officials.
    The Government did not investigate the allegations, nor were the
    convictions against the 31 Isfarans reexamined. Nurov continued working
    as a judge and the 31 Isfarans remained in prison. Nurov and two other
    judges sued three newspapers for libel for publishing the allegations.
    At close of the reporting period, the libel cases remained open (see
    section 2. a.).
        The Government addressed problems of judicial integrity by holding
    some judges and prosecutors accountable for criminal conduct. During
    the year the Government arrested three judges for corruption.
        Trials are public, except in cases involving national security.
    NGOs reported they generally were permitted to monitor trials, although
    they were sometimes denied without explanation.

        Political Prisoners and Detainees.--Authorities claimed that there
    were no political prisoners and that they did not make any politically
    motivated arrests. Opposition parties and local observers claimed the
    Government selectively prosecuted political opponents. There was no
    reliable estimate of the number of political prisoners, but the
    Government held many former members of the UTO in prison.
        In December Abdusattor Boboy, a 69-year-old resident of Zafarobod
    District, was arrested and charged with ``inciting national enmity''
    for publicly disagreeing with government policies regarding the Roghun
    hydroelectric dam (see section 4). He remained in detention at close of
    the reporting period.
        On June 10, courts convicted IRPT member Muhammadruzi Burhonov to
    one year in prison for election fraud for allegedly voting on behalf of
    his family members during the February elections. Family voting,
    although illegal, was ubiquitous during the elections, leading many
    observers to conclude that Burhonov was subjected to selective
    prosecution because of his party affiliation. Despite numerous reports
    of government officials changing vote totals to ensure victories for
    PDPT candidates, Burhonov was the only individual convicted of an
    election- related crime during the election. He was granted early
    release in November.
        Former Democratic Party of Tajikistan Chairman Mahmadruzi
    Iskandarov remained in prison serving a 23-year sentence following his
    2005 conviction for terrorism and other charges. He was arrested in
    Russia prior to the 2005 parliamentary elections and transferred to
    Tajikistan. In September the European Court of Human Rights ruled that
    Russian law enforcement authorities violated Iskandarov's rights by
    unlawfully extraditing him. The court ordered Russian law enforcement
    authorities to pay 30,000 euros ($40,200) to Iskandarov for moral
    damage and 3,000 euros ($4,020) for legal costs.

        Civil Judicial Procedures and Remedies.--Civil cases are heard in
    general civil courts, economic courts, and military courts. Judges may
    order monetary compensation for victims in criminal cases. There have
    been no known cases of individuals filing civil cases for alleged
    violations of human rights.

        Property Restitution--The Government has on several occasions taken
    private property with little or no justification, public notice, or
    debate. By law the Government must offer residents compensation equal
    to the value of their abandoned property, but compensation property was
    often of lesser value. Judges ruled in favor of the Government when
    residents challenged the inadequacy of compensation.
        In May 2009 a new synagogue opened in Dushanbe, in a building
    provided by Hasan Asadullozoda, the head of Orion Bank and brother-in-
    law of the president. In 2008 officials demolished the country's former
    synagogue to make way for a new presidential palace after a local court
    upheld an eviction order against the Dushanbe Jewish community, despite
    significant irregularities in the process.

        f. Arbitrary Interference With Privacy, Family, Home, or
    Correspondence.--The constitution states that the home of a person is
    inviolable. With certain exceptions, it is illegal to enter the home of
    a person by force and deprive a person of a home. The CPC states that
    police cannot enter and search a private home without the approval of a
    judge. Searches may be carried out with only a prosecutor's
    authorization in exceptional cases, ``where there is an actual risk
    that the object searched for and subject to seizure may cause a
    possible delay in discovering it, be lost, damaged or used for criminal
    purposes, or a fugitive may escape.'' The law states that courts must
    be notified of such searches within 24 hours. In practice police
    frequently ignored these laws and infringed on citizens' right to
    privacy, and citizens were sometimes searched without a warrant.
        According to the CPC, ``when sufficient grounds exist to believe
    that information, documents, or objects that are relevant to the
    criminal case may be contained in letters, telegrams, radiograms,
    packages, parcels, or other mail and telegraph correspondence, they may
    be intercepted'' with a warrant issued by a judge. The law says only a
    judge may authorize monitoring of telephone or other communication. In
    practice government security organs often monitored communication
    without judicial authorization.
        There were no reports of government restrictions or interference
    with the right of men and women of full age to marry or have children,
    including the timing and spacing of children.

    Section 2. Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:
        a. Freedom of Speech and Press.--The law provides for freedom of
    speech and of the press, but in practice the Government restricted
    these rights. Under the law, a person can be imprisoned for as long as
    five years for insulting the president.
        Independent media were active, despite significant pressure by the
    Government on media outlets. Journalists regularly practiced self-
    censorship to avoid retribution from officials. Although some print
    media published political commentary and investigatory material
    critical of the Government, journalists observed that certain topics
    were considered off limits, including derogatory information about the
    president or his family members, or questions about financial
    impropriety by those close to the president.
        From September to December, the Government blocked five Web sites
    and stopped the publication of three newspapers. The blockages occurred
    during a period of violence in the Rasht Valley. On October 6, printing
    houses denied publication to two independent newspapers: Paykon, and
    Farazh. On October 20, printing houses refused to publish a third
    newspaper, Nigoh. Printing houses refused to print the newspapers due
    to ``technical difficulties,'' but media observers believed the
    Government pressured the printing houses to refuse publication.
    Printing houses resumed printing Nigoh on November 18, Paykon on
    November 24, and Farazh on December 30.
        On November 23, Makhmadyusuf Ismoilov, a reporter with the
    Dushanbe-based independent weekly Nuri Zindagi, was arrested in Asht
    District and later charged with inciting religious and national hatred,
    slander, insulting honor and dignity of an individual, and extortion.
    Media analysts alleged that the charges were politically motivated.
    Ismoilov wrote several articles documenting corrupt acts committed by
    Asht District officials. He remained in detention at year's end.
        On October 4, the minister of defense accused journalists of
    supporting terrorism through their coverage of events in the Rasht
    Valley.
        On September 3, independent journalists were briefly detained when
    attempting to photograph the results of a terrorist attack against the
    Government which happened the same day in Khujand and their images were
    confiscated.
        In January 29, three judges filed a libel lawsuit against three
    independent newspapers: Asia-Plus, Ozodagon, and Farazh. The newspapers
    had reported a lawyer's allegations that the judges had convicted
    individuals based on pressure from high-level government officials (see
    section 1.e.). Also in January, the Ministry of Agriculture filed a
    libel lawsuit against the independent newspaper Millat after it
    published a report on corruption at the ministry. Judges referred the
    cases to the Academy of Sciences for analysis. A 2009 libel case filed
    by the country's product-licensing agency, Tojikstandard, against the
    newspaper remains open. All five newspapers continued to operate at
    year's end, but the cases against them remained open.
        There were four state-run television channels that broadcast
    throughout the country and five state-run television stations that
    broadcast regionally. There was one national and several regional
    state-run radio stations. Several independent television and radio
    stations were available in a small portion of the country, but the
    Government controlled most broadcasting transmission facilities. The
    Government refrained from inviting independent media to press
    conferences and other events.
        Independent radio and television stations experienced bureaucratic
    delays to registration. New stations must be licensed by the Commission
    of the National Committee on Television and Radio, which directly
    managed the national television and radio stations. The Government
    restricted issuance of licenses to new stations, in part through an
    excessively complex application process. A Dushanbe-based media outlet
    was given permission to produce audio and video products. According to
    media analysts, more than 20 privately owned broadcasting organizations
    were unable to begin working because the licensing commission had
    rejected their documents over the last four years. The Government
    promised to process these documents but made no further progress in
    this area. Media NGOs have called for an end to the National Committee
    on Television and Radio's control of licensing, noting the committee's
    conflict of interest due to its management of the national stations.
    Only a few of the privately held television stations were genuinely
    independent, and government officials at times interfered with their
    operations.
        The Government allowed some international media to operate freely
    and also permitted rebroadcasts of Russian television and radio
    programs. The Government continued to deny BBC a renewal of its license
    to broadcast on FM radio. BBC broadcast a Persian-language television
    station via satellite. Community radio stations continued to experience
    registration and licensing problems that prevented them from
    broadcasting. The Russian language K Plus operated in the country and
    broadcast via satellite from Kyrgyzstan. International media were not
    invited to events held at the presidential palace and other official
    functions. The authorities denied a visa to a journalist from a Web
    site.
        Opposition politicians had limited access to state-run television.
    The Government gave opposition parties minimal airtime to express their
    political views, while the president's party had numerous opportunities
    to broadcast their messages.
        The Government exercised some restrictions on the distribution of
    materials. All newspapers and magazines with circulations exceeding 99
    recipients were required to register with the Ministry of Culture
    (MOC). According to the MOC, there were 244 registered newspapers and
    magazines, 128 of them private. A new daily newspaper, ImruzNews, began
    publishing in September. Hassan Asadullzoda, President Rahmon's
    brother-in-law, owns the newspaper. Asia-Plus began publishing twice a
    week; the remaining newspapers published weekly. There were 10
    information agencies, nine of them private. Several of these were
    independent, several were strongly influenced by the Government, and
    several were nonfunctioning. The Government distributed state
    newspapers via the national mail service, forcing state agencies, local
    administrations, and schools to receive subscriptions. No attempts were
    made to use the mail service to facilitate the distribution of
    independent newspapers to the country's least accessible regions.
        The Government continued to control all major printing presses and
    the supply of newsprint.

        Internet Freedom.--There were some government restrictions on
    access to Internet Web sites. In October Deputy Minister of Transport
    and Communications, Bek Zuhurov, ordered Internet providers to block
    five independent news Web sites. Two sites were unblocked on October 12
    and 30, respectively. A group of foreign ambassadors brought their
    concern over the Web site blocking and the stoppage of newspapers to
    the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
        Individuals and groups could engage in the expression of views via
    the Internet, including by e-mail. A cybercrimes and communications
    unit of the Combating Organized Crime Department was formed in August.
    One of its tasks is to monitor activity in Internet cafes and
    electronic gaming centers. According to the International
    Telecommunication Union, 9.3 percent of the population used the
    Internet. A lack of infrastructure limited the public's access to the
    Internet.

        Academic Freedom and Cultural Events.--The Ministry of Education
    revoked the license of the country's only private higher education
    institution, the Institute of Innovative Technologies and Communication
    (IITC), claiming that it ``failed to meet the ministry's standards.''
    Dushanbe courts upheld the revocation despite the failure of the
    Ministry of Education to present any significant violations of academic
    standards committed by the IITC. The IITC employed several prominent
    members of opposition political parties, and observers alleged that its
    closure was politically motivated. The Ministry of Education began its
    actions to close IITC in 2008, after the institute fired a rector,
    Khayol Boboev, for corruption. Boboev was reportedly an associate of
    the Education Minister, Abdujabbor Rahmonov.
        The Ministry of Education maintained a dress code that bans the
    hijab (a head covering traditionally worn by Muslim women) in schools
    and universities; several students and at least one teacher at Tajik
    National University were expelled and fired for wearing it. Women
    wearing a traditional local head covering, a scarf that covers hair but
    not the neck, were allowed to study in schools and universities. In
    September Minister of Education Rahmonov publicly mocked and threatened
    a group of parents and students at a school opening ceremony because
    the students' mothers were in hijab. He threatened to expel the
    students and called the women in hijab ``monkeys.''
        The Ministry of Education maintained its ban on beards for teachers
    younger than 50 years old. Teachers older than the age of 50 may not
    wear beards longer than one and one-fourth inches.

        b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association.--Freedom of
    Assembly.--The constitution provides the right to freedom of assembly,
    but the Government requires that individuals obtain permission from the
    Government to stage public demonstrations. Individuals considering
    staging peaceful protests chose not to do so out of fear of government
    reprisal.
        On April 12 and 13, several hundred persons protested the
    imposition of new toll stations on the road from Dushanbe to Khujand.
    Villagers that would be affected by the new tolls allegedly organized
    the protests. Government officials first promised to accede to
    protesters' demands that local residents should be exempt from the
    tolls, but the next day threatened them with imprisonment if they did
    not end their protest.

        Freedom of Association.--The constitution protects freedom of
    association. In practice the Government restricted this right. The Law
    on Observing National Traditions and Rituals provided a basis for the
    Government to infringe on individuals' ability to hold private events
    such as weddings and funeral ceremonies. The law limits the number of
    wedding guests and controls ceremonial gift presentations and other
    traditional rituals. The law also regulates the number of guests at
    funerals and memorial services. Some citizens reported that government
    officials monitored weddings and funerals to assure that all parties
    obeyed the law.

        c. Freedom of Religion.--For a complete description of religious
    freedom, please see the 2010 International Religious Freedom Report at
    http://www.state.gov/g/drl/irf/2010/.

        d. Freedom of Movement, Internally Displaced Persons, Protection of
    Refugees, and Stateless Persons.--The law provides for freedom of
    movement, but in practice the Government imposed some restrictions.
    Foreigners are prohibited from traveling within a 15-mile zone along
    the country's borders with China and Afghanistan unless they obtain
    permission from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Officials did not
    always enforce the restrictions along the western border with
    Afghanistan, although the Government continued to require travelers
    (including international workers and diplomats) to obtain special
    permits to visit Gorno-Badakhshan. Diplomats and international aid
    workers could travel to the Afghanistan border without prior
    authorization.
        There are no laws that provide for exile, and there were no reports
    of forced exile. Some government opponents remained in self-imposed
    exile in Russia.
        The Government provided protection and modest assistance to
    resettle any citizens who returned voluntarily, and it cooperated with
    international organizations that helped to fund assistance and
    resettlement programs.

        Protection of Refugees.--The Government generally provided
    protection against the expulsion or return of refugees to countries
    where their lives or freedom would be threatened. However, in May the
    Government extradited Kyrgyz asylum-seeker Nematullo Botakuziev after
    holding him incommunicado for nearly three months in a State Committee
    for National Security detention facility. The Government denied
    Botakuziev access to his lawyer and representatives from the UN High
    Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), despite repeated requests, before
    finally extraditing him to Kyrgyzstan. The UNHCR did not report other
    deportations of individuals registered as refugees during the year. The
    Government otherwise respected protection letters issued by the UNHCR
    and allowed those holding the letters to remain in the country while
    the UNHCR considered their claims.
        According to the UNHCR, the inflow of refugees from Afghanistan
    continued unabated during the year. By December the Government had
    2,538 registered refugees in country with an additional 1,676 asylum
    seekers trying to receive refugee status. However, the UNHCR believed
    the Government might have underestimated these figures. Official
    government statistics showed Afghan, Iranian, and Kyrgyz refugees as
    well as asylum seekers. As in previous years, approximately 98 percent
    of all these refugees and asylum seekers were Afghan. Following
    conflict between ethnic Uzbeks and Kyrgyz in neighboring Kyrgyzstan, a
    small number of ethnic Uzbeks from the south of Kyrgyzstan crossed into
    the country seeking asylum in June and July. These asylum seekers were
    processed through the refugee protection system, and approximately 70
    such refugees remained in the country. Overall the Government continued
    to cooperate with the UNHCR, which retained its observer status in the
    Refugee Status Determination Commission.
        The Government generally succeeded in registering those with a
    claim to refugee or asylum seeker status, but it also placed
    significant restrictions on claimants. Officials continued to enforce a
    2000 law prohibiting asylum seekers and refugees from residing in urban
    areas. Security officials regularly monitored refugee populations. The
    Government continued to demonstrate a particular concern about the
    country's population of Afghan refugees. Refugees and asylum seekers
    who were believed to be residing in prohibited areas were subject to
    police raids throughout the year.
        The process for making asylum status determinations remained
    problematic and nontransparent. The Government processed asylum
    applications through the National Refugee Status Determination
    Commission and granted applicants documents to regularize their stay
    and to prevent deportation. When denying refugee status, officials
    usually cited lack of evidence of persecution in the refugee's home
    country or ``malpractice'' on the part of refugees applying to renew
    their status--such as violation of the prohibition of living in
    Dushanbe. Unofficially some refugees claimed the authorities could deny
    cases if sufficiently high bribes were not paid.
        Although the law stipulates that refugee status should be granted
    for as long as three years, the transfer of refugee processing to the
    Ministry of the Interior in 2009 resulted in much shorter periods.
    During the year many Afghan refugees were granted status for up to one
    year, after which they had to reapply for status to stay in the
    country. Although the law officially allows refugees to apply for
    citizenship after two and a half years, very few cases have been
    granted citizenship in the past. The several citizenship cases the
    UNHCR submitted for direct consideration this year were either refused
    or remained pending.
        Refugees and asylum seekers generally were required to secure
    employment, food, shelter, education, and access to basic services
    themselves, although the UNHCR provided significant assistance. By law
    registered refugees should have equal access to law enforcement and the
    judicial system. The UNHCR is not aware of any cases of refugees being
    denied access to the courts or judicial process. An increasing
    percentage of refugees entering the country do not possess professional
    backgrounds or job skills, and many face discrimination by the local
    Tajik population. Requirement to live outside urban areas created
    additional problems for finding adequate work. The UNHCR provided some
    assistance to women refugees by providing vocational job training in
    skills such as sewing, cooking, and hairdressing. Most male refugees
    worked for small enterprises. Most women refugees did not work and
    remained in the home, in accordance with traditional cultures. Refugees
    and asylum seekers are legally entitled to education and health
    services alongside Tajik citizens. The Ministry of Education allows
    Afghan parents to send their children to local schools without paying
    fees. UNHCR partners provide books and school uniforms and some
    language classes to these children and assist with their medical
    expenses.
        In 2008 during a visit of the UNHCR High Commissioner, the
    Government and UNHCR signed an agreement regarding local integration of
    refugees into the general population as a more durable solution to the
    refugee situation. The Government promised to consider individual
    refugee cases for citizenship. Many of these cases remain pending.
        The Tajik Migration Service has 326 individuals registered as
    stateless persons. These statistics, which may reflect a number of
    Tajiks who left the country to live in Uzbekistan during the civil war
    from 1992-97 and later returned, are not considered reliable by the
    UNHCR.

    Section 3. Respect for Political Rights: The Right of Citizens to
            Change Their Government
        The law provides citizens with the right to change their government
    peacefully through elections. In practice the Government restricted
    this right.
        The president and his supporters, primarily from his home region of
    Dangara, continued to dominate the Government. The president's
    political party, the People's Democratic Party of Tajikistan (PDPT),
    dominated both houses of parliament. Members of the PDPT held most
    government positions. The president had broad authority to appoint and
    dismiss officials, and he exercised that authority throughout the year.

        Elections and Political Participation.--In February the Government
    held national elections of the lower house of the parliament, the
    Majlisi Namoyandagon. There were reports that officials obstructed some
    meetings organized by IRPT and Social Democratic Party of Tajikistan
    campaign workers during election season. Official media allotted only
    minimal time for opposition political parties in state media. The
    elections were marked by widespread fraud committed by government
    officials to suppress vote totals of opposition political parties,
    particularly the IRPT, and ensure victories for the ruling PDPT.
    Despite the presence of international monitors, officials openly
    changed vote registers to inflate PDPT totals. The observation report
    of the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights stated that
    the parliamentary elections failed to meet many key commitments of the
    Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). Despite
    widespread reports of fraud, no government officials were charged with
    fraud related to the elections.
        There were eight legally registered political parties, including
    the PDPT. Observers considered only three of these parties to be
    independent of the Government. Opposition political parties had
    moderate popular support, and faced scrutiny by the Government. All
    senior members of President Rahmon's government were PDPT members,
    except one minister who was chairman of the progovernment Party of
    Economic Reforms. Most members of the country's 97-seat parliament were
    members of the PDPT, belonged to progovernment parties, or were PDPT-
    affiliated independents.
        In the lower, 63-member chamber of the parliament there were 12
    female members and one minority group member. In the upper, 33-member
    chamber of parliament there were five women and one member of a
    minority group. Cultural practices discouraged female participation in
    politics, although the Government and political parties made efforts to
    promote their involvement.
        There were no female ministers or ministers from minority groups.
    The deputy prime minister was a woman; several women held deputy
    minister positions.

    Section 4. Official Corruption and Government Transparency
        The law provides criminal penalties for official corruption, but
    the Government did not implement the law effectively. Officials
    frequently engaged in corrupt practices with impunity. Corruption,
    nepotism, and regional hiring bias were pervasive at all levels of
    government.
        Government officials at all levels and in all regions extorted
    money from citizens and businesses in a state campaign to raise funds
    to build the Roghun hydroelectric dam during the first half of the
    year. Those directly on the public payroll were the most vulnerable.
    Teachers, doctors, and government employees were instructed to buy
    shares or their employers would fire them. University students were
    forced to show their professors share certificates before being allowed
    to sit for exams. Businesses were told they would be assessed fines for
    failing to purchase shares. The amounts demanded varied widely.
    According to some reports, poor villagers had to pool resources to buy
    one share at TJS 100 ($22.70). Students had to buy between one and four
    shares. University professors were forced to buy as much as TJS 4,452
    ($1,000) in shares; some doctors had to spend as much as TJS 22,261
    ($5,000). The country's few large companies were told to pay many
    millions of dollars.
        The Government raised more than TJS 845 million ($190 million) in
    Roghun shares. High-level government officials insisted that the
    purchases were voluntary, while first-person accounts from low-level
    officials admitting their use of coercion indicated precisely the
    opposite. Reports of forced purchases declined quickly after the
    Government agreed to a request by the International Monetary Fund to
    end the campaign in June.
        The forced sales had a negative effect on poverty and corruption.
    Customs officers at Dushanbe's international airport were required to
    buy Roghun shares amounting to many times their monthly salaries, with
    the expectation that they would need to extract bribes to obtain money
    to buy Roghun shares.
        In March the Government began charging tolls on Tajikistan's main
    highway, the road from Dushanbe to the country's second-largest city,
    Khujand. The Government stated that the contract to manage the road
    (and collect the tolls) was awarded based on a competitive bidding
    process, but no tender was ever announced, and almost nothing is known
    about the company that received the contract, ``Innovative Road
    Solutions'' (IRS). The company appears to be based in the British
    Virgin Islands, and reports have circulated that it is run by a member
    of the president's family. Officials have refused to provide the public
    with information regarding the Government's relationship to IRS,
    calling it a ``state commercial secret.'' Anger over the tolls,
    especially among residents who live along the route and must pay to
    travel very short stretches to and from work, led to several protests
    during the year (see section 2. b.)
        Corruption in the Education Ministry was systemic. Prospective
    students were required to pay as much as TJS 66,674 ($15,000) in bribes
    to enter the country's most prestigious universities, while even
    provincial colleges required several hundred dollars. Students often
    paid additional bribes to receive good grades on exams. After the IITC
    fired an associate of Education Minister Abdujabbor Rahmonov for
    corruption in 2009, the ministry took legal actions to revoke the
    institute's academic license (see section 2. a.).
        Many traffic police retained fines they collected for violations.
    Traffic police posted at regular intervals along roads arbitrarily
    pulled over drivers to ask for bribes. The problem was systemic, in
    part due to the low official wages paid to traffic police. According to
    reports, many traffic police must pay for their jobs, a down payment
    they try to recoup by extracting bribes from motorists.
        The MOI and Prosecutor General's Office are responsible for
    investigating, arresting, and prosecuting corrupt officials. The
    Government acknowledged a problem with corruption and took some steps
    to combat it, including putting lower-level officials on trial for
    taking bribes. The Government did not charge high-level officials with
    corruption.
        The prosecutor general investigated some cases of corruption by
    government employees, but the bulk of the cases involved mid- or lower-
    level officials, and none involved large-scale abuses. Public officials
    were not subject to financial disclosure laws. According to the
    anticorruption agency, the Government identified 510 cases of
    corruption by government officials. The Government dismissed 77
    officials for misconduct.
        In April the head of the state anticorruption agency reported that
    the Deputy Commander of the Border Guards, Saymuddin Mirzoyev, was
    detained on suspicion of accepting a TJS 66,674 ($15,000) bribe from
    drug traffickers.
        Public budgets, particularly those involving major state-owned
    enterprises, lacked transparency. Although parliament had oversight
    over the state budget, in practice it passed annual budgets almost
    without comment despite large, unexplained, and undefined expenses. In
    May the Government released a report on budget performance for the
    previous year; the report contained numerous details about education,
    health, and other social sector spending. Since then, however, no
    further reports have emerged. A considerable amount of government
    spending appeared to occur off-budget, including major buildings,
    parks, and other special projects such as summer residences for the
    president.
        TALCO, the state-owned aluminum smelter that consumed as much as 50
    percent of the country's energy resources and produced the country's
    major export, agreed to a financial audit in 2008, to be published on
    its Web site by the end of 2009. To date only the company's financial
    statements, not the full audit, have been posted. TALCO's offshore
    management company, which is reportedly owned by senior politicians,
    agreed to undergo its own audit, but the results were not released at
    year's end. Promised audits of country's electricity-grid operator,
    Barqi Tojik, revealed very little about a state-owned enterprise widely
    suspected to be employing questionable financial practices.

    Section 5. Governmental Attitude Regarding International and
            Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations of Human
            Rights
        As in previous years, domestic and international human rights
    groups usually were able to monitor and report on the general human
    rights situation in the country. NGOs and journalists were careful,
    however, to avoid public criticism of the president or other high-
    ranking officials.
        The Office of the Human Rights Ombudsman made efforts to respond to
    civil complaints during the year, but its limited staff and budget
    constrained its capacity to do so. The Ombudsman's Office met with NGOs
    to discuss specific human rights cases and general human rights issues
    in the country. The office lacked full independence; the ombudsman
    publicly defended some government policies that violated human rights,
    such as the actions by officials to force citizens to contribute money
    to the Roghun campaign.
        The Government generally cooperated with international NGOs. It
    facilitated visits by high-ranking officials from the United Nations,
    OSCE, and other international organizations.
        The Government continued to deny ICRC access to prison facilities.
    The Government's Office for Constitutional Guarantees of Citizens'
    Rights continued to investigate and answer citizens' complaints, but
    staffing inadequacies and uneven cooperation from other government
    institutions hampered the office's effectiveness. The parliamentary
    committee on legislation and human rights examined proposed legislation
    for compliance with human rights obligations, but, according to
    observers, it did not fulfill its primary responsibility to raise human
    rights concerns in new legislation.

    Section 6. Discrimination, Societal Abuses, and Trafficking in Persons
        The law provides for the rights and freedoms of every person
    regardless of race, gender, disability, language, or social status, but
    in practice there was discrimination against women and persons with
    disabilities. Trafficking in persons remained a problem.

        Women.--The law prohibits rape, which is punishable by up to 20
    years' imprisonment. There is no separate statute for spousal rape.
    According to official data from the Ministry of Interior, 78 cases of
    rape were registered during the year. The Prosecutor General's Office
    was unable to provide statistics on the number of convictions. Law
    enforcement officials usually advise women not to file charges, but
    register cases on insistence of the victim. Most observers believed the
    majority of cases were unreported because victims wish to avoid being
    stigmatized.
        Violence against women, including spousal abuse, remained a
    widespread problem. The 2009 Amnesty International (AI) report Violence
    is Not Just a Family Affair: Women Face Abuse in Tajikistan stated,
    ``surveys have shown that between a third and a half of Tajik women
    have suffered violence from a family member. 42.5 percent of women
    reported cases of spousal rape.''
        On August 19, in Dushanbe the Government, with OSCE financial
    support, opened the first police station fully equipped to work with
    domestic violence victims. The station was one of the five nationwide
    staffed with police officers who have been trained, also with OSCE
    support, to respond to family violence cases and to address the needs
    of victims in a gender-sensitive manner.
        There was one comprehensive shelter for domestic violence in the
    country, supported by the OSCE and operated by an NGO in Khujand. The
    Government and NGOs operated additional crisis centers and hotlines for
    women in rural areas, where women could seek guidance on domestic
    violence problems and legal assistance, but many centers lacked funding
    and resources. Local governments donated the premises for three of the
    shelters. The Committee for Women's Affairs (within the Office of the
    President) had limited resources to assist domestic violence victims,
    but local committee representatives referred women to the crisis
    shelters for assistance.
        In November the Dushanbe mayor opened the Dushanbe Center of
    Women's Self-Awareness. The center provides legal and psychological
    support to vulnerable women and is fully supported by the Dushanbe city
    administration.
        There is no comprehensive law against domestic violence. The
    Government took some steps to conduct public information campaigns and
    collect information on domestic violence, but most cases of domestic
    abuse went unreported. Authorities seldom investigated reported cases,
    and few alleged perpetrators were prosecuted. By law police cannot act
    without a written complaint from the victim, even if there were other
    witnesses, and police often gave only warnings, short-term detentions,
    or fines for committing ``administrative offenses'' in cases of
    domestic violence.
        In some rural areas, officials observed a continued trend of female
    suicide; domestic abuse by in-laws or labor migration may have been
    contributing causes. According to the AI report, studies have shown
    that domestic violence was the most frequent reason cited by women for
    attempted suicide.
        The Government did not interfere with the rights of individuals and
    couples to decide freely and responsibly the number, spacing, and
    timing of their children and to have the information and means to do so
    free from discrimination, coercion, and violence. According to the
    Population Reference Bureau (PRB), 14 percent of women between the ages
    of 15 and 49 used modern forms of contraception and 83 percent of
    births were attended by skilled personnel. The PRB also reported that
    77 percent of women received postpartum care and that the maternal
    mortality rate was approximately 625 per 100,000 births.
        Women were increasingly vulnerable to HIV infection because of
    social taboos on discussion of sex education issues and popular
    sentiment against the use of condoms, especially within relationships.
    Women remained a minority of HIV infections overall, but the figures
    were on the rise. According to the Government's AIDS center, 1,004 new
    cases of HIV infection were detected in the country during the year,
    including 797 men and 207 women. Women made up 20.6 percent of these
    newly registered HIV cases, an increase from 14.8 percent in 2005. The
    total number of officially registered HIV cases in the country is 2,857
    individuals, including 2,280 men and 577 women.
        The law protects women's rights in marriage and family matters, but
    some female minors were pressured to marry against their will. NGOs
    estimated as many as 10 percent of Tajik men practice polygamy,
    although the practice is illegal. Women in polygamous marriages often
    were married in religious ceremonies, but not registered with the
    Government. Husbands who simply repeated a phrase in front of two
    witnesses could easily divorce unregistered wives. Inheritance laws do
    not discriminate against women, although in practice some inheritances
    passed disproportionately to sons.
        The 2004 Council of Ulemo fatwa (religious edict) prohibiting women
    from praying in mosques remained in effect. The Government supported
    the fatwa and directed the IRPT to close an unregistered place of
    worship that allowed women to pray despite the fatwa.
        Women were underrepresented in decision-making processes at all
    levels of political institutions. Female representation in all branches
    of power was less than 30 percent. The country had no female ministers
    or ambassadors. AI also noted gender segregation in employment, ``with
    the vast majority of the working female population (86 percent) working
    in the low-paid sectors, such as agriculture (75 percent), public
    health services, and education: Wages in these branches are
    approximately four to seven times lower than in other spheres (as in
    industry, construction, transportation, and communication).
    Furthermore, a significant number of women of employable age are
    engaged in housekeeping or in the informal sector of the economy.'' The
    law provides that women receive equal pay as men for equal work, but
    cultural barriers continued to restrict the professional opportunities
    available to women. There was no specific statute banning sexual
    harassment in the workplace. Victims often did not report incidents
    because of fear of social stigma.

        Children.--Citizenship is derived both by birth within the
    country's territory and from one's parents. The Government is required
    to register all births. Many parents do not register births until a
    child is ready to enter school, since birth registration is required to
    receive public services.
        Free and universal public education is compulsory until the age of
    16 or completion of the ninth grade. The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF)
    indicated that school attendance was generally good through the primary
    grades, but girls faced disadvantages, especially in rural school
    systems where families elected to keep them home after primary grades
    to take care of siblings or work in agriculture. Underage marriage was
    widespread in some rural areas, and many parents directed their
    daughters to quit school after the ninth grade. In July President
    Rahmon raised the legal age of marriage to 18 years old in an effort to
    lower the number of child marriages.
        The Committee on Women and Family Affairs and regional Child Rights
    Protection Departments were responsible for addressing issues of
    violence against children. Girls who have been subject to all kinds of
    violence could receive support from several centers throughout the
    country. The Women of Science of Tajikistan Association, supported by
    UNICEF and the Dushanbe mayor's office, organized a hotline for free
    legal and psychological consultations for girls who were victims of
    violence.
        The country is not a party to the 1980 Hague Convention on the
    Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. For information on
    international parental child abduction, please see the Department of
    State's annual report on compliance at http://travel.state.gov/
    abduction/resources/congressreport/congressreport--4308.html.

        Anti-Semitism.--There were no reports of anti-Semitic acts.

        Trafficking in Persons.--For information on trafficking in persons,
    please see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons
    Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        Persons With Disabilities.--The law on social protection of persons
    with disabilities applies to individuals having either physical or
    mental disabilities.
        The Government's Commission on Fulfillment of International Human
    Rights, the Society of Invalids, and local and regional governmental
    structures were charged with protecting the rights of persons with
    disabilities.
        The law prohibits discrimination against persons with disabilities
    in employment, education, access to health care, and provision of other
    state services, but public and private institutions generally did not
    have the resources to provide legal safeguards. The law required
    government buildings, schools, hospitals, and transportation to be
    accessible to persons with disabilities, but the Government did not
    enforce these provisions. To attend school, children must be deemed
    ``medically fit'' by doctors. Many children with disabilities were not
    able to attend school because doctors considered them to be not
    ``medically fit.'' Although the Government maintained group living and
    medical facilities for persons with disabilities, funding was limited,
    and facilities were in poor condition.

        National/Racial/Ethnic Minorities.--Generally discrimination was
    not a significant problem. There were reports that some law enforcement
    officials harassed ethnic Afghans and Uzbeks, but such reports were not
    common.

        Societal Abuses, Discrimination, and Acts of Violence Based on
    Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.--Gay and lesbian relationships
    have been legal in the country since 1998, and the age of consent is
    the same as for heterosexual relationships. Throughout the country,
    there was significant societal discrimination against lesbian, gay,
    bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) persons, and there was little to no
    public activism on their behalf. There were no known acts of violence
    against members of LGBT communities, and there were no documented cases
    of government discrimination against LGBT persons.

        Other Societal Violence or Discrimination.--There was societal
    discrimination against individuals with HIV/AIDS. The Government
    offered HIV testing free of charge at 140 facilities, and partner
    notification was mandatory and anonymous. The World Health Organization
    noted officials systematically offered HIV testing to prisoners,
    military recruits, street children, refugees, and persons seeking
    visas, residence, or citizenship.

    Section 7. Worker Rights
        a. The Right of Association.--The law allows workers to form and
    join unions, and they did so in practice. The Government used informal
    means to exercise considerable influence over organized labor,
    including influencing the selection of labor union leaders. The
    umbrella Federation of Trade Unions of Tajikistan did not effectively
    represent worker interests. There were reports that the Government
    compelled some citizens to join state-endorsed trade unions and impeded
    formation of independent unions. According to official figures, 1.3
    million persons belonged to unions, approximately 63 percent of the
    active work force. The law requires all NGOs, including trade unions,
    to be registered. The law does not specifically prohibit antiunion
    discrimination, but there were no reports that it occurred during the
    year.
        Citizens were reluctant to strike due to fear of government
    retaliation.

        b. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively.--The law allows
    unions to conduct activities without interference, except ``in cases
    specified by law,'' but the law does not define those cases. The Law on
    Meetings did not restrict the right to strike, but it requires that
    meetings and other mass actions have prior official authorization,
    limiting trade unions' ability to organize meetings or demonstrations.
    The law provides for the right to organize and bargain collectively,
    but workers did not exercise this right in practice. Ninety percent of
    workers were covered by collective bargaining contracts.
        There are four Special Economic Zones--Khujand, Panj, Ishkoshim,
    and Dangara--which are granted special trade privileges and exceptions
    from taxation.

        c. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor.--The law prohibits
    forced or compulsory labor, including of children, except in cases
    defined in the law, and this year it appeared that that law was
    enforced. Since the Soviet-era, local officials compelled state
    workers, particularly in the Khatlon and Sughd regions, to pick cotton
    during the annual cotton harvest. Independent reports indicate that
    these practices were not used during the year. For the first time,
    children remained in school, and adults were not given quotas of cotton
    to harvest.
        Also see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons
    Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        d. Prohibition of Child Labor and Minimum Age for Employment.--
    Child labor remained a problem, but the Government made significant
    efforts to effectively enforce child labor laws by working with the
    International Organization for Migration to prevent the use of forced
    child labor in the autumn cotton harvest. The highest incidences of
    child labor were in the domestic and agricultural sectors.
        The minimum age for children to work is 16 years old, although
    children may work at the age of 15 with local trade union permission.
    By law children younger than 18 years old may work no more than six
    hours a day and 36 hours per week. Children as young as seven years old
    may participate in household labor and agricultural work, which were
    separately classified as family assistance. Many children younger than
    10 years old worked in bazaars or sold goods on the street.
        The Inter-Ministerial Commission to Combat Trafficking in Persons
    disseminated a directive to local officials reiterating existing
    prohibitions. The Government accredited NGOs working through the
    International Organization for Migration (IOM) to monitor the cotton
    harvest. These NGOs, with the cooperation of the Government, conducted
    monitoring visits to cotton fields and schools. Government officials
    accompanying IOM representatives met with local officials to reiterate
    the existing law's prohibition against forced child labor. Site visits
    by Western diplomats confirmed monitors' observations that government
    efforts resulted in a significant reduction in the use of forced child
    labor. The Government also distributed a second draft National Action
    Plan on Trafficking in Persons, including benchmarks and strategies for
    combating child labor for NGO and diplomatic community comment.
        Enforcement of child labor laws is the responsibility of the
    Prosecutor's Office, the MOJ, the Ministry of Social Welfare, the MOI,
    and appropriate local and regional governmental offices. Unions also
    are responsible for reporting any violations in the employment of
    minors. Citizens can bring unresolved cases between unions and
    employers before the prosecutor general for investigation. Few
    violations were reported, because most children worked under the family
    assistance exception.

        e. Acceptable Conditions of Work.--The estimated average monthly
    wage was TJS 322 (approximately $73), but in many sectors the average
    wages were far lower. In the agricultural sector, for example, the
    average wage was estimated at TJS108 ($24.50). The Government
    acknowledged the problem of low wages and provided subsidies for
    workers and their families who earned the minimum wage of TJS 60 ($17)
    per month. Some establishments compensated their employees with food
    commodities or with enterprise-produced products, which employees
    either sold or bartered in local markets.
        The law provides for a standard workweek of 40 hours for adults
    older than 18 years old. The law mandates overtime payment, with the
    first two hours paid at one and half times the normal rate and the
    remainder at double the rate. Overtime payment was inconsistent in all
    sectors of the labor force. The Ministry of Finance enforces financial
    aspects of the labor law, and the Agency of Financial Control of the
    presidential administration oversees other aspects of the law.
        There are laws that establish relatively strict occupational health
    and safety standards. In practice the Government did not fully comply
    with these standards, partly because of the degree of corruption and
    the low salaries paid to inspectors. The State Technical Supervision
    Committee under the Council of Ministers was responsible for enforcing
    health and safety standards. The law permits workers to remove
    themselves from hazardous conditions without risking loss of
    employment. This law was not enforced effectively, and in practice few
    workers removed themselves.
        Farmers and agricultural workers, accounting for approximately 50
    percent of the workforce, continued to work under difficult
    circumstances. There was no system to monitor or regulate working
    conditions in the agricultural sector. Wages were low, and many workers
    were paid in kind. Despite some changes, the Government's failure to
    introduce and implement comprehensive property and land usage reforms
    continued to limit its ability to protect agricultural workers' rights.

                                   __________

                                  TURKMENISTAN

        Although the constitution declares Turkmenistan to be a secular
    democracy and a presidential republic, it is an authoritarian state of
    approximately five million. The Democratic Party is the country's only
    political party. The president, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, was elected
    in a 2007 presidential election that did not meet international
    standards. December 2008 parliamentary elections also fell short of
    international standards. Security forces reported to civilian
    authorities.
        Human rights problems included citizens' inability to change their
    government; reports of torture and mistreatment of detainees;
    incommunicado and prolonged detention; arbitrary arrest and detention;
    denial of due process and fair trial; arbitrary interference with
    privacy, home, and correspondence; restrictions on freedom of speech,
    press, assembly, and association; restrictions on religious freedom,
    including continued harassment of religious minority group members;
    restrictions on freedom of movement for some citizens; violence against
    women; and restrictions on free association of workers.

                            RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

    Section 1. Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom
            From:
        a. Arbitrary or Unlawful Deprivation of Life.--There were no
    reports that the Government or its agents committed arbitrary or
    unlawful killings.

        b. Disappearance.--There were no reports of politically motivated
    disappearances.

        c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or
    Punishment.--The constitution and law prohibit such practices; however,
    security officials trying to extract confessions from detainees
    tortured, beat, and used excessive force against criminal suspects,
    prisoners, and individuals critical of the Government. According to
    survey findings included in a report issued in February by
    Turkmenistan's Independent Lawyers Association (TILA) and the Turkmen
    Initiative for Human Rights, ``. . . among suspects placed in the
    temporary holding facility, every second person was exposed to varying
    types of abusive treatment and torture.'' The report also stated that
    the ``. . . beating and rape of inmates by the (penal) colony staff
    [and] the use of torture and psychological pressure are rampant. Such
    treatment of inmates results in frequent suicide attempts among the
    prison population. This reason was accountable for the death of eight
    female convicts in the years of 2008-09.''
        On October 27, the United Nations Human Rights Committee concluded
    that the conditions of Omar Faruk Bozbey's confinement in 2004, after
    the Ashgabat District Court illegally convicted him of economic crimes,
    constituted ``a violation of his right to be treated with humanity and
    with respect for the inherent dignity of the human person.''
        A 2008 decision of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) stated
    that ``any criminal suspect held in custody ran a serious risk of being
    subjected to torture or inhuman or degrading treatment.'' The ECHR also
    reported that the country lacked an effective system to prevent
    torture.
        In contrast with previous years, there were no reports during the
    year that authorities detained persons in psychiatric hospitals as
    punishment. In February Neweurasia.net reported on the experiences of
    former psychiatric hospital inmate Kakabay Tedzhenov, held for 10
    months in 2006. He stated that during his detention, he was subjected
    to punitive psychiatry including the misuse of psychoactive drugs,
    isolation, prolonged detention, and physical abuse.
        Article 16 of the 2009 Law on the Status and Social Protection of a
    Military Serviceman states that the Government provides for the health
    and lives of servicemen. Members of the military reported, however,
    that hazing of conscripts occurred widely and involved violations of
    human dignity and morale including brutality, verbal abuse, and rape.
    These incidents often resulted in physical injury and psychological
    damage to conscripts. The hazing reportedly was often based on ethnic,
    geographic, or tribal affiliation, and soldiers from minority tribes
    reportedly were hazed more than others, as were conscripts from Lebap
    and Dashoguz provinces.
        In 2009 a source from the Ashgabat Central Directorate for Military
    Health reported that military death statistics and suicides were
    significantly higher in 2008 as compared with other years, despite a
    reduction in the length of compulsory service for conscripts.
    Reportedly, the majority of these deaths were related to military
    hazing. Officers usually concealed hazing incidents. A military source
    reported that officers at a unit in Ashgabat hid the suicide note of a
    conscript who hanged himself because it revealed he had been beaten and
    raped during hazing.
        On September 23, Eurasianet reported that there was a `` . . . case
    of apparent hazing in the Turkmen army at the Officers' Club in
    Ashgabat that reportedly led to the suicide of a young soldier.''

        Prison and Detention Center Conditions.--Prison conditions were
    unsanitary, overcrowded, and unsafe. Some facilities, such as the
    minimum security camp LBK-12, are located in areas that result in
    inmates experiencing extremely harsh climate conditions, with excessive
    heat in the summers and frigid temperatures in the winter. There were
    reports of physical abuse of prisoners by both prison officials and by
    other prisoners. According to a report issued in February by TILA and
    the Turkmen Initiative for Human Rights, the total imprisonment
    capacity in the colonies and prisons (excluding the military penal
    battalion) was 8,100 inmates. According to the TILA report, prior to
    the amnesty act announced in December 2009, the inmate population in
    prisons and colonies in Turkmenistan totaled 26,720 persons. This
    inmate population figure did not include detainees kept in pretrial
    detention facilities, police-run temporary holding facilities,
    occupational therapy rehabilitation centers, and the penal battalion.
    The detainees in pretrial detention facilities were predominantly
    individuals who had already received a court verdict but who had not
    been transferred to colonies. In the six pretrial detention facilities
    designed for a total of 1,120 persons, it was estimated that three to
    four times more inmates were being accommodated.
        The TILA report also noted that guards and other prisoners engaged
    in widespread violence against inmates. According to the February TILA
    report, in the LBK-12 facility, a minimum security regime colony,
    ``physical abuse is used against inmates by the colony personnel and
    other individuals with the consent and often following the instructions
    of the colony's administration.'' The report also noted that there were
    several inmate groups organized on a ``tribal principle'' and that
    ``real fights with knives and knuckles occur between the groups, which
    result in a high death toll among the prison population. In 2008 over
    30 inmates died in such fights.''
        Diseases, particularly tuberculosis (TB), were widespread. Due to
    overcrowding, inmates diagnosed with TB and skin diseases reportedly
    were held with healthy detainees, contributing to the spread of
    disease. There continued to be concerns that the Government did not
    adequately test and treat prisoners with TB before they were released
    into the general population, although the Government reported that it
    screened prisoners for TB and other diseases. The Government reported
    that it transferred prisoners diagnosed with TB to a special Ministry
    of Interior hospital in Mary Province for treatment and arranged for
    continuing treatment for released prisoners at their residences.
        The nutritional value of prison food was poor, and the majority of
    prisoners suffered from malnutrition. Prisoners depended on relatives
    to supplement inadequate prison food supplies. Some family members and
    inmates stated that prison officials sometimes confiscated these food
    parcels.
        In past years sources familiar with prison conditions at Owadan
    Depe Prison reported that former high-level officials were denied
    proper medical treatment and suffered beatings and verbal intimidation
    to coerce confessions.
        Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) reported in July that
    Muslim cleric Shiri Geldimuradov died in Tejen prison under unexplained
    circumstances. The date of Geldimuradov's death was not known.
        Authorities typically incarcerated men and women in separate
    facilities. The total number of prisoners and detainees was not
    available, but according to the TILA report there were 2,010 female
    prisoners held at the DZK/8 facility in Dashoguz, including 215 girls.
    Juveniles routinely were housed with the adult population. Complete
    data on the average time or numbers of incarcerated juveniles were not
    available, since pretrial detention data were not systematically
    collected or centralized. There was a pretrial detention facility under
    the jurisdiction of the Interior Ministry that housed adults and
    juveniles, accommodating approximately 800 persons; these included
    individuals either on remand or already convicted but not yet
    transferred to colonies.
        According to relatives, prisoners convicted of treason were unable
    to receive supplies, and family members often were denied access to the
    prisoners. The Government did not report whether prisoners were
    permitted religious observance. There was a complaint submitted to
    government authorities on behalf of prisoners who were denied family
    visits and food parcels and had been wrongfully placed in isolation
    cells. Following the complaint, conditions improved and the Government
    began allowing family visits. The Government reported no systematic
    monitoring of prison and detention center conditions.
        Government officials disregarded inquiries from family members and
    foreign diplomats about political prisoners' locations or condition.
    Government officials continued to refuse to permit family members,
    foreign diplomats, or international observers, including the
    International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), access to detainees or
    prisoners associated with the 2002 attack on then President Niyazov.
    The Government and the ICRC have been unable to agree on acceptable
    conditions for prison visits. As a result, the ICRC did not conduct any
    prison visits during the year. Prisoners' family members reported that
    the Government also held political prisoners in facilities near
    Turkmenbashy and in Mary Province.

        d. Arbitrary Arrest or Detention.--The law prohibits arbitrary
    arrest and detention; however, they remained serious problems.

        Role of the Police and Security Apparatus.--The Ministry of
    Internal Affairs directs the criminal police, who work closely with the
    Ministry of National Security (MNB) on matters of national security.
    The MNB plays a role in personnel changes in other ministries and
    enforces presidential decrees. Both the MNB and criminal police
    operated with impunity. According to reports by Amnesty International
    (AI) and Human Rights Watch, Farid Tukhbatullin, a Vienna-based
    expatriate human rights activist, received credible warnings that he
    was the target of a plot against his life by agents of the Ministry of
    National Security. The Government did not initiate a public
    investigation of these charges.
        The presidential commission designated to review citizens'
    complaints of abuse by law enforcement agencies, created in 2007, did
    not conduct any known inquiries that resulted in members of the
    security forces being held accountable for any abuses.

        Arrest Procedures and Treatment While in Detention.--A warrant is
    not required for arrest when officials catch a suspect in the act of
    committing an offense. The prosecutor general issues an authorization
    for arrest within 72 hours of detention. If, within 10 days of
    detention, investigating authorities do not find proof of guilt, they
    must release the detainee. If officials identify evidence of guilt, the
    investigation can last as long as two months. A provincial or national-
    level prosecutor may extend the investigation period to six months. The
    national prosecutor general or deputy prosecutor general may extend the
    investigation period to a maximum of one year. Following the
    investigation, the prosecutor prepares a bill of indictment and the
    case is transferred to the court. These procedures generally were
    respected in practice, and the prosecutor promptly informed detainees
    of the charges against them.
        The criminal procedure code (CPC) provides for a bail system and
    surety; however, these provisions were not implemented. The law
    provides that detainees are entitled to immediate access to an attorney
    of their choice after a formal accusation, but in practice detainees
    did not have prompt or regular access to legal counsel. Authorities
    denied some prisoners visits by family members during the year.
    Families sometimes did not know the whereabouts of imprisoned
    relatives. Incommunicado detention was a problem. The scope of these
    problems in the criminal justice system was unclear. Authorities
    legally had to issue a formal indictment within 10 days of arrest to
    hold detainees longer. However, authorities did not adhere to these
    provisions in practice.
        The law characterizes any opposition to the Government as treason.
    Those convicted of treason face life imprisonment and are ineligible
    for amnesty or reduction of sentence. There were, however, no known
    treason convictions during the year. In the past the Government
    arrested and filed charges against those expressing critical or
    differing views on economic or criminal charges.
        Pretrial detention legally may last no longer than two months, but
    in exceptional cases it can be extended to one year if an investigator
    made such a request to the prosecutor general. For minor crimes a much
    shorter investigation period applies. In contrast with previous years,
    authorities rarely exceeded legal limits for pretrial detention. In the
    past chronic corruption and cumbersome bureaucratic processes
    contributed to lengthy trial delays; however, the Government's
    anticorruption efforts and the establishment of the Academy of State
    Service to improve state employees' qualifications generally eliminated
    such delays.
        Although in past years the Government detained regime opponents
    under house arrest without due process, no provision in the CPC
    authorizes such punishment. The law provides for internal exile,
    requiring an individual to reside in a certain area for a fixed term of
    two to five years.
        There were regular reports of persons being cited for violations
    such as possessing religious literature or driving a dirty car. Others
    were ordered to do something, such as removing an air conditioner from
    the exterior of a building or vacating a premises for demolition, for
    which government officials were not able to provide the legal basis for
    their action. At times these cases resulted in fines or violations of
    person's rights.

        Amnesty.--The Government pardoned an unannounced number of
    prisoners on May 6 in honor of Victory Day in World War II and on May
    28 in honor of International Children's Protection Day. On September 3,
    the Government pardoned 3,999 prisoners in advance of the Night of
    Omnipotence holiday. On December 10, the president signed a decree
    granting amnesty to approximately 2,000 prisoners in connection with
    the Neutrality Day holiday. The Government did not release any
    prisoners of international concern or prisoners associated with the
    2002 attack on the former president's motorcade.

        e. Denial of Fair Public Trial.--The law provides for an
    independent judiciary; however, in practice the judiciary was
    subordinate to the president. There was no legislative review of the
    president's judicial appointments and dismissals, except for the
    chairman (chief justice) of the Supreme Court, whom parliament
    nominally reviewed. The president had sole authority to dismiss any
    judge. The judiciary was widely reputed to be both corrupt and
    inefficient.

        Trial Procedures.--The law provides due process for defendants,
    including a public trial, access to accusatory material, the right to
    call witnesses to testify on their behalf, a defense attorney or a
    court-appointed lawyer if the defendant cannot afford one, and the
    right to represent oneself in court. In practice authorities often
    denied these rights. Defendants frequently did not enjoy a presumption
    of innocence. There was no jury system. The Government permitted the
    public to attend most trials but closed some trials, especially those
    it considered politically sensitive. There were few independent lawyers
    available to represent defendants. The CPC provides that defendants be
    present at their trials and consult with their attorneys in a timely
    manner. The law sets no restrictions on a defendant's access to an
    attorney. If a defendant cannot afford to pay for attorney's services,
    an attorney is provided at public expense. The court at times did not
    allow defendants to confront or question a witness against them and
    denied the defendants and their attorney access to government evidence.
    In some cases courts refused to accept exculpatory evidence provided by
    defense attorneys, even if that evidence would have changed the outcome
    of the trial.
        On October 21, a court sentenced Pastor Ilmurad Nurliev to four
    years in prison after being convicted on charges of swindling. The
    trial did not meet international standards. According to a report by
    Turkmen Initiative for Human Rights, the trial lasted only two hours
    and the presiding judge excluded 12 defense witnesses. The state
    originally assigned an attorney to Nurliev, and his personal attorney
    did not gain access to the evidence against him until five days before
    the trial commenced. The court excluded international observers from
    the proceedings, which were conducted in Turkmen. Nurliev speaks
    Russian and reportedly did not understand much of the trial.
        Even when the courts observed due process, the authority of the
    Government prosecutor far exceeded that of the defense attorney, making
    it difficult for the defendant to receive a fair trial. Court
    transcripts frequently were flawed or incomplete, especially when
    defendants' testimony had to be translated from Russian to Turkmen.
    Defendants could appeal a lower court's decision and petition the
    president for clemency. There were credible reports that judges and
    prosecutors often predetermined the outcome of the trial and sentence.

        Political Prisoners and Detainees.--The Government provided no
    further information about the case of former civil activist and former
    political prisoner Gulgeldy Annaniyazov, whom authorities arrested in
    June 2008 after he reentered the country and was sentenced in a closed
    court trial the next month to 11 years in prison. Annaniyazov received
    asylum in Norway in 2002 after serving five years in a Turkmenbashy
    prison for his role in a 1995 political demonstration.
        On November 4, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary
    Detention publicly released its opinion that the arrest and continued
    detention of Annakurban Amanklichev and Sapardurdy Hajiyev violated
    international law and that they should be released immediately. The
    Government provided no credible information updating the cases of
    journalists Amanklichev and Hajiyev, who presumably remained in jail.
    In 2006 authorities charged them and journalist Ogulsapar Myradova with
    weapons possession after they received journalism equipment from
    foreign sources. In 2006 Myradova died in police custody under
    suspicious circumstances.
        Opposition groups and some international organizations stated the
    Government held other political prisoners and detainees, although the
    precise number of these individuals--who included persons convicted of
    involvement in the 2002 attack on former President Niayzov--remained
    unknown. Among those individuals from 2002 was a former ambassador to
    the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Batyr
    Berdiev, whose whereabouts and fate continued to be unknown.

        Civil Judicial Procedures and Remedies.--The civil judiciary system
    was neither independent nor impartial; the president appointed all
    judges. According to the law, evidence gathered during a criminal
    investigation can be used as the basis for a civil action in a process
    called ``civil lawsuit in criminal justice.'' In the past there were
    reports of bribes in the civil court system to ensure a particular
    outcome. In cases in which the state had interests regarding an
    individual citizen, it imposed court orders. The most commonly enforced
    court orders were eviction notices.

        Property Restitution--The Government failed to enforce the law
    consistently with respect to restitution or compensation for
    confiscation of private property. In 2007 President Berdimuhamedov
    announced there would be no housing demolition unless replacement
    housing was available. Nonetheless, during the year the Government
    continued to demolish some private homes in and around Ashgabat as part
    of an urban renewal program without adequately compensating the owners.
        As in previous years, there were reports that the Government gave
    persons as few as 72 hours to vacate their homes and did not provide
    homeowners with alternative accommodations or compensation.

        f. Arbitrary Interference With Privacy, Family, Home, or
    Correspondence.--The constitution and law prohibit such actions;
    however, authorities frequently did not respect these prohibitions in
    practice. In some cases authorities forcibly searched the homes of some
    minority religious group members without independent judicial
    authorization. The law does not regulate surveillance by the state
    security apparatus, which regularly monitored the activities of
    officials, citizens, opponents and critics of the Government, and
    foreigners. Security officials used physical surveillance, telephone
    tapping, electronic eavesdropping, and informers. The Government
    reportedly intercepted surface mail before delivery, and letters and
    parcels taken to the post office had to remain unsealed for government
    inspection.
        A regulation stating that a noncitizen may marry a citizen only
    after residing in the country for one year places a restriction on
    right of men and women of full age to marry.
        Individuals who were harassed, detained, or arrested by
    authorities, and their family members reported that the Government
    caused family members to be fired from their jobs or expelled from
    school and that authorities sometimes detained and interrogated the
    family members.

    Section 2. Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:
        a. Freedom of Speech and Press.--The constitution and law provide
    for freedom of speech and of the press, but the Government did not
    respect these rights in practice. The Government warned critics against
    speaking with visiting journalists or other foreigners about human
    rights problems. There were reports that law enforcement officials
    harassed and detained Turkmen journalists who worked for foreign media
    outlets.
        The Government financed and controlled almost all print media The
    Government imposed significant restrictions on the importation of
    foreign newspapers except for the private but government-sanctioned
    Turkish newspaper Zaman, which reflected the views of the state
    newspapers.
        The Government controlled radio and local television, but satellite
    dishes providing access to foreign television programming were
    widespread throughout the country. Citizens also received international
    radio programs through satellite access.
        On December 15, authorities suspended the operation of the
    privately owned and Moscow-based service provider Mobile TeleSystems
    (MTS), leaving approximately 2.5 million persons--half of the country's
    population and 80 percent of the mobile-phone users--without use of
    their mobile phones or access to the Internet, impairing the ability of
    citizens to send or receive information.
        During the year government agents reportedly detained, harassed,
    and intimidated journalists and their families. According to Reporters
    Without Borders, journalists often were ``summoned for questioning,
    threatened with prosecution, and fired from their jobs, while their
    relatives are also exposed to the possibility of reprisals.'' In
    particular, journalists working for RFE/RL reported frequent
    surveillance and harassment by government authorities.
        During the year there were several reports that the Government used
    restrictions on travel abroad to punish independent journalists and
    individuals who openly criticized the Government. The Government also
    restricted the travel of journalists' family members. Throughout the
    year the Government continued to monitor the activities of RFE/RL
    reporter Halmyrat Gylychdurdyev.
        Both Reporters Without Borders and RFE/RL reported that Prague-
    based RFE/RL broadcaster Allamurad Rakhimov, a Turkmen native, was
    denied entry into the country on May 19 and put on a flight returning
    to Prague without explanation, although he had a valid visa.
        RFE/RL reporter Osman Halliyev remained under constant
    surveillance, and family members remained unable to find employment or
    travel outside the country.
        As in previous years, the Government required state journalists to
    obtain permission to cover specific events as well as to publish or
    broadcast the subject matter they had covered.
        Domestic journalists and foreign news correspondents engaged in
    self-censorship due to fear of government reprisal. The Government
    continued to censor newspapers and prohibit reporting of opposition
    political views or of any criticism of the president.
        To regulate domestic printing and copying activities, the
    Government required all publishing houses and printing and photocopying
    establishments to obtain registration licenses for their equipment. The
    Government required the registration of all photocopiers and mandated
    that a single individual be responsible for all photocopying. The
    Government owned all publishing companies. The Government censored
    works on topics that were out of favor with the Government, including
    some works of fiction.
        The Government continued its ban on subscriptions to foreign
    periodicals by nongovernmental entities, although copies of the Russian
    newspaper Argumenti I Fakti and other nonpolitical periodicals appeared
    occasionally in the bazaars.
        There was no independent oversight of media accreditation, no
    defined criteria for allocating press cards, no assured provision for
    receiving accreditation when space was available, and no protection
    against the withdrawal of accreditation for political reasons. The
    Government required all foreign correspondents to apply for
    accreditation. It granted visas to journalists from outside the country
    only to cover specific events, such as international conferences and
    summit meetings, where their activities could be monitored. On July 13,
    RFE/RL stated on its Web site that Turkmenistan is among the countries
    where journalists ``are routinely denied accreditation, and yet
    unaccredited journalists face harassment, detention, and threats.''
    Despite submitting official applications repeatedly over several years,
    RFE/RL has never received a response from the Turkmen government to
    accredit correspondents there.
        At least seven journalists representing foreign media organizations
    were accredited. Turkish news services had eight correspondents in the
    country, at least five of whom reportedly were accredited. As many as
    11 correspondents representing foreign media services operated without
    accreditation. Visiting foreign journalists reported harassment and
    denial of their freedom of movement when they attempted to report
    outside official channels. Additionally the Government severely
    restricted the issuance of visas to visiting journalists.

        Internet Freedom.--During the year Internet access for the general
    population increased to approximately 80,000 users, according to the
    International Telecommunication Union. Government-owned Turkmentelecom
    remained the main provider to the general population, but government
    agents monitored and filtered its service.
        The Government continued to monitor citizens' e-mail and Internet
    activity, and reports indicated that the Ministry of National Security
    controlled the main access gateway, monitored users' browsing, and
    blocked access to certain sensitive Web sites, cutting service in
    certain cases. The Russian cellular company MTS reportedly provided
    unfettered mobile Internet service to its customers; however, the price
    was prohibitively high for most citizens. According to a report by
    Reporters Without Borders, officials monitored citizen's personal e-
    mail accounts to identify potential dissidents, rather than blocking
    them.

        Academic Freedom and Cultural Events.--The Government did not
    recognize academic degrees received abroad, except those obtained
    abroad through government- approved education programs. Officials
    allowed only government-selected students to participate in government-
    approved exchange programs. The Ministry of Education (MOE) did not
    recognize degrees from nonstate institutions of higher education in
    former Soviet Union countries. The MOE closely scrutinized exchanges at
    the university level, and by law the Council of Ministers must approve
    all programs.
        The MOE took no action on the president's 2007 request that the
    ministry facilitate recognition of foreign degrees, apart from the
    earlier established process of validation, based on passing Ruhnama,
    History of Turkmenistan, and specialized exams in Turkmen. The
    validation process was available only for degrees from state higher
    educational institutions that offered a full-time enrollment program.
        During the year the Government continued some restrictions on
    student travel. On September 24, Forum 18 stated that Muslims who want
    to serve as clerics were not allowed to travel abroad for religious
    education. In 2009 government restrictions on freedom of movement
    blocked more than 150 students from departing to study at the American
    University of Central Asia in Bishkek. Eventually, after several months
    delay, officials allowed the students to leave the country, but not to
    return to the American University of Central Asia.
        The Government did not tolerate criticism of government policy or
    the president in academic circles and curtailed research into areas it
    considered politically sensitive, such as comparative law, history,
    ethnic relations, and theology.
        Officials from the MOE and provincial authorities sought to prevent
    students who were not ethnic Turkmen from entering exchange programs.
        The school curriculum continued to include works by Niyazov, such
    as the Ruhnama, and students were required to pass examinations on them
    for advancement, graduation, or admission to higher educational
    institutions. Teachers reported, however, that the administration
    required them to spend substantially less class time studying Niyazov's
    works than in the past and instead intensified study of books and
    speeches by President Berdimuhamedov. Ruhnama studies as a separate
    course was still required for primary school students. The newspaper
    Mugallymlar gazeti (Teachers' Newspaper) published the new government-
    provided curriculum for schools.
        Most secondary school textbooks have been revised to remove all
    text devoted to Niyazov and his family; however, a picture of Niyazov
    continued to appear on the first page of each textbook. Text devoted to
    President Berdimuhamedov's ``New Revival'' ideology replaced the
    previous text on Niyazov and his family. Despite a 2008 MOE report
    stating that all textbooks had been completely revised, only
    approximately one-half of them had been revised at year's end.
        The Government continued to require teachers and students to
    participate in state-sponsored extracurricular events, and it allocated
    approximately 70 to 80 academic days per year to compulsory
    participation in festivals and greetings for high-level visitors,
    significantly reducing instruction time. This previously informal
    practice was formalized at secondary schools by requiring teachers to
    sign an agreement accepting salary cuts for not participating in these
    government events. Participating students were given the equivalent of
    an ``A'' for the day, which provided further incentive to attend the
    event rather than to be in the classroom.
        A government committee created in 2009 approved all cultural
    products produced in the country for the general public, including
    books, movies, theatrical plays, art, and any other cultural program.
        Although restrictions eased somewhat, the Government continued to
    control attendance at nonindigenous cultural events and refused to
    permit the production of some foreign plays and performances in state
    theaters. Only the Russian theater in Ashgabat continued to stage
    foreign plays in Russian, and those plays were invariably apolitical.
        The Ministry of Culture censored and monitored all public
    exhibitions, including music, art, and cultural events.

        b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association.--Freedom of
    Assembly.--The constitution and law provide for freedom of assembly,
    but the Government restricted this right in practice. Authorities
    neither granted the required permits for public meetings and
    demonstrations during the year nor allowed unregistered organizations,
    particularly those perceived to have political agendas, to hold
    demonstrations.

        Freedom of Association.--Although the constitution and law provide
    for freedom of association, the Government restricted this right in
    practice. The law requires all nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to
    register with the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) and all foreign assistance
    to be registered with the MOJ and the Ministry of Economics and
    Development and coordinated through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
    Unregistered NGO activity is punishable by a fine, short-term
    detention, and confiscation of property. In December the Government
    registered a public association called the Society of Guitarists, the
    first nongovernmental association to be registered since 2008.
        Of the 90 registered NGOs, international organizations recognized
    only eight as being independent. NGOs reported that the Government
    presented a number of administrative obstacles to NGOs that attempted
    to register. Some applications were repeatedly returned on technical
    grounds. Some organizations awaiting registration found alternate ways
    to carry out activities, such as registering as businesses or
    subsidiaries of other registered groups, but others temporarily
    suspended or limited their activities.
        Sources noted a number of barriers to the formation and functioning
    of civil society in the country, including government requirements that
    founders of associations be citizens and that associations operating
    nationally have at least 500 members to be registered. Other barriers
    included regulations that permitted the MOJ to send representatives to
    association events and meetings, and requirements that associations
    must notify the Government about their planned activities.
        There were no independent political groups (see section 3). The
    only registered political party was the ruling Democratic Party, the
    former Communist Party of Turkmenistan. The Government did not
    officially prohibit membership in political organizations; however, in
    practice there were no reports of persons who claimed membership in
    political organizations other than the Democratic Party. According to
    the Jamestown Foundation, the Government did not permit opposition
    movements outside the country, including the National Democratic
    Movement of Turkmenistan, the Republican Party of Turkmenistan, and the
    Fatherland (Watan) Party, to operate within the country.
        There were no reports during the year that government authorities
    harassed recipients of foreign grants.

        c. Freedom of Religion.--For a complete description of religious
    freedom, please see the 2010 International Religious Freedom Report at
    www.state.gov/g/drl/irf/rpt.

        d. Freedom of Movement, Internally Displaced Persons, Protection of
    Refugees, and Stateless Persons.--The constitution and law do not
    provide for full freedom of movement. The law requires internal
    passports and residency permits. The Government cooperated with the
    Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and other
    humanitarian organizations in providing protection and assistance to
    refugees, returning refugees, asylum seekers, stateless persons, and
    other persons of concern. The border permit requirement remained in
    effect for all foreigners.
        Citizens are not allowed to hold dual citizenship, and this
    requirement was enforced sporadically. Officials pressured dual
    citizens departing the country to renounce one of their citizenships
    before officials allowed them to leave. Individuals who indicated dual
    citizenship when applying for new-style international passports were
    denied new-style passports, whereas persons reporting only Turkmen
    citizenship received them.
        The Government denied it maintained a list of persons not permitted
    to depart the country; however, it continued to bar certain citizens
    from departing. On August 16, AI issued a statement expressing concern
    about reports of a presidential decree that prohibits the exit and
    entry to the country of thousands of individuals. According to AI's
    source, the decree explicitly bars 37,057 individuals from leaving the
    country and forbids entry to international human rights organizations,
    as well as more than 8,000 named individuals of various nationalities.
    According to AI's source, 73foreign journalists also were banned from
    entering the country.
        A 2005 migration law forbids travel by any citizen who has access
    to state secrets, has falsified personal information, has committed a
    serious crime, is under surveillance, might become a trafficking
    victim, has previously violated the law of the destination country, or
    whose travel contradicts the interests of national security. The
    education law allows the Government to impose limitations on obtaining
    education in specific professions and specialties, which has been
    applied to prevent students from travelling abroad to study.
        Citizens were able to inquire at the State Migration Service about
    their travel status; however, those who inquired rarely received
    information.
        On June 28, husband-and-wife journalists Annamamed Myatyiev and
    Elena Myatiyeva were forbidden from travelling abroad when they tried
    to board a flight to the Netherlands at Ashgabat international airport.
    They were given no clear reason for the ban. Officials allowed them to
    depart on July 10.

        Protection of Refugees.--In 2009 the Government assumed
    responsibility from the UNHCR for making refugee status determinations.
    While formally there is a system for granting refugee status, in
    practice it is inactive due to a lack of cases. There have been no
    reports of asylum seekers since 2005. The Government has not developed
    support services for individuals awaiting a refugee status
    determination. Prior to January 2009, the UNHCR issued a refugee paper
    that was the only official evidence of a refugee's legal status. There
    were 60 UNHCR-mandate refugees in the country. The UNHCR provided
    protection against the expulsion or return of refugees to countries
    where their lives or freedom would be threatened on account of their
    race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group,
    or political opinion. The UNHCR has observer status at government-run
    refugee determination hearings. Individuals not determined to be
    refugees by the Government would have recourse to the UNHCR to obtain
    mandate refugee status. There was no information indicating that
    whether or not the Government provided protection against the expulsion
    or return of refugees to countries where their lives or freedom would
    be threatened on account of their race, religion, nationality,
    membership in a particular social group, or political opinion.
        Refugees had access to basic services such as health care and
    primary and secondary education; however, they were not eligible for
    government employment and did not have the right to own property or a
    company.

        Stateless Persons--The State Migration Service has registered
    approximately 12,000 adult persons who have problems with determining
    their nationality. The UNHCR considered these individuals as
    effectively stateless or at risk of becoming stateless. They were
    largely undocumented residents who held Soviet Union passports when the
    Soviet Union dissolved and who did not have a state affiliation
    selected when those passports expired in 1999. The Government may have
    administratively processed some of these residents and issued them
    residency permits while considerations of state affiliation continued.
    To obtain citizenship, a person needs to verify that he is not a
    citizen of another country, a process that can be extremely difficult
    to accomplish. Turkmen citizenship has not been granted to any
    individuals since 2005.

    Section 3. Respect for Political Rights: The Right of Citizens to
            Change Their Government
        Citizens could not freely choose and change the laws and officials
    that governed them. The constitution declares the country to be a
    secular democracy in the form of a presidential republic. It calls for
    separation of powers among the branches of government but vests a
    disproportionate share of power in the presidency. In practice the
    president's power over the state continued to be absolute.
        According to the OSCE, the election law does not meet OSCE
    standards.
        In a February letter commenting on the European Bank for
    Reconstruction and Development's 2010 Country Strategy Review, the Open
    Society Institute stated that ``activists who have tried to register as
    independent candidates have found themselves under pressure from the
    Ministry of National Security. As an example, Abdurakhman Rakhmanov,
    who formed and headed the Ilkindjiler civic group--rather than joining
    the officially approved Galkynysh national organization--tried to
    nominate himself as a deputy to the parliament, only to be arrested on
    charges of tax evasion before the election and sentenced to up to 15
    years in prison. In this context it should be noted that, while the
    Turkmen government hailed the December 2008 parliamentary elections as
    an example of the country's pluralism, this poll was contested only by
    288 government-approved candidates from the president's party.
    Furthermore, only one candidate was of non-Turkmen ethnicity.''

        Elections and Political Participation.--District people's council
    elections took place in December. Local council (``gengesh'') elections
    were held in July 2009 in rural areas under a law that had been revised
    in April to bring electoral procedures into line with the 2008
    constitution and electoral law. The 2008 constitution gave broader
    powers to the Mejlis (parliament), increased the president's powers,
    and abolished the Halk Maslahaty (Peoples' Council) as a political
    body.
        There were 21 women in the 125-member parliament, including the
    Mejlis speaker, who was reelected in 2008. Women served in a few
    prominent government positions: deputy chairman of the Cabinet of
    Ministers for Culture and Television (a vice premier position),
    minister of education, minister of textile industry, director of the
    State Archives, director of the Institute for Democracy and Human
    Rights, the chairpersons of two of five parliamentary committees, and
    the chairperson of the state publishing service.
        The Government gave preference for appointed government positions
    to ethnic Turkmen, but ethnic minorities occupied several senior
    government positions. Members of the country's largest tribe, the
    president's Teke tribe, held the most prominent roles in cultural and
    political life.

    Section 4. Official Corruption and Government Transparency
        The law provides criminal penalties for official corruption;
    however, the Government did not implement the law effectively, and
    officials reportedly often engaged in corrupt practices with impunity.
    Corruption existed in the security forces. Widespread corruption
    existed in all social and economic sectors. Factors included the
    existence of patronage networks, a lack of transparency and
    accountability mechanisms, and fear of government reprisal. According
    to the World Bank's Worldwide Governance Indicators, the country had a
    severe corruption problem.
        The president reprimanded a number of ministers and government
    officials, dismissing some from their positions; others were
    investigated and arrested for alleged malfeasance, although a lack of
    information about their cases made it difficult to determine whether
    their arrests were politically motivated.
        On November 6, the New York Times reported that six oil and gas
    service companies and a prominent freight-forwarding company agreed to
    pay criminal and civil penalties for bribery. Most of the bribes were
    paid to circumvent local rules and regulations in a number of
    countries, including Turkmenistan.
        Financial disclosure requirements are neither transparent nor
    consistent with international norms. Government enterprises are not
    required to publicize financial statements, even to foreign partners.
    Financial audits are often conducted by local auditors, not
    internationally recognized firms.
        There is no law that allows for public access to government
    information, and in practice the Government did not provide access.
    Authorities denied requests for specific information on the grounds
    that the information was a state secret. Some statistical data were
    considered state secrets. There was no public disclosure of demographic
    data, and officials published manipulated economic and financial data
    to justify state policies and expenditures.

    Section 5. Governmental Attitude Regarding International and
            Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations of Human
            Rights
        There were no domestic human rights NGOs due to the Government's
    refusal to register such organizations and to government restrictions
    that made activity by unregistered organizations illegal. During the
    year the Government continued to monitor the activities of nonpolitical
    social and cultural organizations.
        There was no international human rights NGO with a continued
    permanent presence in the country; however, the Government permitted
    international organizations, including the OSCE and the UNHCR, to have
    resident missions. Government restrictions on freedom of speech, press,
    and association severely restricted international organizations'
    ability to investigate, understand, and fully evaluate the Government's
    human rights policies and practices.
        The Government appeared to have relaxed somewhat its past efforts
    to control citizens' access to international organizations and missions
    and to discourage citizens from cooperating with foreigners. The
    Government allowed unfettered access to the OSCE Center, which was not
    the case prior to October 2007. There were no reports that citizens
    were discouraged from contacting other international organizations.
        On April 16, World Alliance for Citizen Participation (CIVICUS)
    reported that the Government initiated a wave of interrogations against
    activists and health care practitioners who were suspected of
    contributing to an April Medicins Sans Frontieres report that
    criticized the Government's health care system and policies.
        During the year, the Government did not implement any of the
    recommendations made in January 2009 by the UN special rapporteur on
    freedom of religion or belief.
        On April 2, the UN secretary general met with the president, the
    Cabinet of Ministers, and the head of the national Institute for
    Democracy and Human Rights (IDHR). The UN reported that there were
    several discussions addressing human rights. The secretary general
    called on the Government to fulfill all obligations under international
    human rights law and the treaties to which it is a signatory and urged
    positive responses to the human rights recommendations put forward by
    the UN member states during the Universal Periodic Review in 2008.
        The Government-run IDHR, established in 1996 with a mandate to
    support democratization and monitor the protection of human rights, was
    not an independent body. Its ability to obtain redress for citizens was
    limited. Nonetheless, it played an unofficial ombudsman's role to
    resolve some citizen human rights-related petitions during the year. In
    2007 the Government established the Human Rights Commission, which
    reports to the president, to oversee institutional human rights reform.
    In 2005 the president established the parliamentary Committee on the
    Protection of Human Rights and Liberties to oversee human rights-
    related legislation. No information about their human rights activity
    for the year was available.

    Section 6. Discrimination, Societal Abuses, and Trafficking in Persons
        Although the law prohibits discrimination based on race, gender,
    disability, language, ethnic minority status, or social status,
    discrimination continued to be a problem, as did violence against
    women.

        Women.--Rape, including spousal rape, is illegal, with penalties of
    three to 25 years based on the level of violence of the incident and
    whether the attacker was a repeat offender. A cultural bias against
    reporting or acknowledging rape made it difficult to determine the
    extent of the problem, but some sources indicated rape was not
    uncommon.
        The law prohibits domestic violence, including spousal abuse, but
    the Government did not enforce the law effectively. Penalties are based
    on the extent of the injury. According to indicators published by the
    United Nations Development Program in 2009, Turkmenistan is included in
    the category of countries in which ``there are no or weak laws against
    domestic violence, rape, and marital rape, and these laws are not
    generally enforced. Honor killings may occur and are either ignored or
    generally accepted.''
        Anecdotal reports indicated domestic violence against women was
    common; most victims of domestic violence kept silent because they were
    unaware of their rights or afraid of increased violence from husbands
    and relatives. There were a few court cases and occasional references
    to domestic violence in the media. One official women's group in
    Ashgabat and several informal groups in other regions assisted victims
    of domestic violence. A local organization continued to operate a
    domestic violence hotline with support from the OSCE Center in
    Ashgabat. The same NGO also provided free legal consultations and
    psychological assistance to victims of domestic violence and organized
    awareness-raising seminars on domestic violence for the general public.
        There is no law specifically prohibiting sexual harassment, and
    reports suggested sexual harassment existed in the workforce.
        Couples and individuals have the right to decide freely and
    responsibly the number, spacing, and timing of their children and have
    the means to do so free from discrimination, coercion, and violence.
        According to the Population Reference Bureau, 99 percent of births
    were attended by skilled personnel, and 99 percent of women receive at
    least one postnatal care visit. According to UN interagency estimates,
    the maternal mortality rate for 2008 was approximately 77 deaths per
    100,000 live births and the lifetime risk of maternal death was one in
    500. Modern contraceptive methods were available to 99 percent of the
    public. Statistics on contraceptive use by single women were
    unavailable, but 53 percent of married women used some form of modern
    contraceptives. Due to cultural attitudes, almost one-third of married
    women opposed the use of family-planning methods. A local source that
    worked for an HIV/AIDs project confirmed that women and men are
    diagnosed and treated equally for sexually transmitted infections,
    including HIV.
        Women had equal rights under family law and property law and in the
    judicial system. In 2007 the Mejlis approved and began implementing a
    new law on women's rights after consultation with international
    partners. The Mejlis Committee on Human Rights and Liberties was
    responsible for drafting human rights and gender legislation,
    integrating a new gender program into the education curriculum, and
    publishing regular bulletins on national and international gender laws.
    By law women are equal to men in all spheres, including wages, loans,
    starting businesses, and working in government. Nevertheless, in
    practice, women continued to experience discrimination due to cultural
    biases. Employers allegedly gave preference to men to avoid
    productivity losses due to pregnancy or child-care responsibilities.
    Women were underrepresented in the upper levels of government-owned
    economic enterprises and were concentrated in health care, education,
    and service professions. The Government restricted women from working
    in some dangerous and environmentally unsafe jobs.
        The Government did not acknowledge, address, or report on
    discrimination against women. There is no special government office
    that promotes the legal rights of women, but there is the Women's Union
    (a government-affiliated ``NGO'') and the National Institute of
    Democracy and Human Rights that work on women's legal rights.

        Children.--According to the law, a child's citizenship is derived
    from one's parents. In the event a child is born to stateless persons
    possessing permanent resident status in Turkmenistan, the child is
    considered a citizen. The Government took modest steps to address the
    welfare of children, including increased cooperation with the UN
    Children's Fund (UNICEF) and other international organizations on
    programs designed to improve children's health, such as the
    reinstatement in 2007 of the 10th year of mandatory schooling.
        UNICEF reported that 96 percent of urban children and 95 percent of
    rural children had their births registered.
        UNICEF also reported that, during the period 2003-08, the
    proportion of attendance at primary school was 99 percent for both
    girls and boys and 84 percent for both girls and boys at the secondary
    level.
        There were isolated reports of child abuse. In 2006 the UN
    Committee on the Rights of the Child issued recommendations that called
    on the Government to focus efforts on issues of family and alternative
    care, juvenile justice, child abuse prevention, health and welfare,
    education, children with disabilities, and special protection measures.
        According to most recent data provided in a 2006 UNICEF report, 9
    percent of marriages involved minors. According to an Interpol report,
    the criminal code `` . . . enacts criminal liability for involvement of
    minors into prostitution.''
        The legal age of consent is 16 years. Production of pornographic
    materials or objects for the purposes of distribution or advertisement
    and trade in printings, movies or videos, depictions, or other objects
    of a pornographic nature alike, including those of children, are
    punishable in accordance with article 164 of the criminal code.
        The country is not party to the 1980 Hague Convention on the civil
    Aspects of International Child Abduction. For information on
    international parental child abduction, please see the Department of
    State's annual report on compliance at http://travel.state.gov/
    abduction/resources/congressreport/congressreport--4308.html, as well
    as country-specific information at http://travel.state.gov/abduction/
    country/country--3781.html.

        Anti-Semitism.--There were an estimated 300 Jews, predominately in
    Ashgabat, but no organized Jewish community. There were no reports of
    anti-Semitic acts.

        Trafficking in Persons.--For information on trafficking in persons,
    please see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons
    Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        Persons With Disabilities.--The law prohibits discrimination
    against persons with physical sensory, intellectual, and mental
    disabilities in employment, education, access to health care, or the
    provision of other state services or other areas; however, in practice
    persons with disabilities encountered discrimination and were regularly
    denied work, education, and access to health care and other state
    services because of strong cultural biases.
        The Government provided subsidies and pensions for persons with
    disabilities, although the assistance was inadequate to meet basic
    needs. The Government considered persons with disabilities who received
    subsidies as being ``employed'' and therefore ineligible to compete for
    jobs in the Government, which is the country's largest employer.
        Some groups of students with disabilities were unable to obtain
    education because there were no qualified teachers and facilities were
    not accessible for persons with disabilities. Students with
    disabilities did not fit the unofficial university student profile and
    were not admitted to universities. Children with disabilities,
    including those with mental disabilities, were placed in boarding
    schools through which they were to be provided with educational and
    future employment opportunities, if their condition allowed them to
    work; in practice neither was provided. Special schools for the persons
    with sensory disabilities existed in the larger cities. The Government
    began construction of boarding schools with rehabilitation centers for
    persons with disabilities in each province and in Ashgabat.
        Although the law requires new construction projects to include
    facilities that allow access by persons with disabilities, compliance
    was inconsistent and older buildings remained inaccessible. A lack of
    consistent accessibility standards resulted in some new buildings with
    inappropriately designed access ramps. The Ministry of Social Welfare
    was responsible for protecting the rights of persons with disabilities.
    This ministry provided venues and organizational support for activities
    conducted by NGOs that assist persons with disabilities.
        The Government ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons
    with Disabilities in 2008 and the Optional Protocol in November.

        National/Racial/Ethnic Minorities.--The law provides for equal
    rights and freedoms for all citizens. Several minority groups tried to
    register as NGOs to have legal status to conduct cultural events, but
    no minority groups succeeded in registering during the year.
        The law designates Turkmen as the official language, although it
    also provides for the rights of speakers of minority languages. Russian
    remained prevalent in commerce and everyday life in the capital, even
    as the Government continued its campaign to conduct official business
    solely in Turkmen. The Government required ministry employees to pass
    tests demonstrating knowledge of professional subjects in Turkmen;
    employees who failed the exam were dismissed. The Government
    systematically replaced teachers and staff at Turkish schools with
    ethnic Turkmen. The Government dedicated resources to provide Turkmen
    language instruction for non-Turkmen speakers only in primary and
    secondary schools.
        Non-Turkmen speakers noted that some avenues for promotion and job
    advancement were closed to them, and only a handful of non-Turkmen
    occupied high-level jobs in government ministries. In some cases
    applicants for government jobs had to provide information about
    ethnicity going back three generations. The Government often targeted
    non-Turkmen first for dismissal when government layoffs occurred.

        Societal Abuses, Discrimination, and Acts of Violence Based on
    Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.--Homosexual conduct between men
    is illegal and punishable by up to two years in prison; the law does
    not mention women. According to one human rights NGO, homosexuality is
    considered a mental disorder, and gays were sometimes sent to
    psychiatric institutions for treatment.
        There were no recorded cases of violence or other human rights
    abuses based on sexual orientation and gender identity, and no
    information was available regarding discrimination against lesbian,
    gay, bisexual, and transgendered individuals in employment, housing,
    statelessness, access to education, or health care.

        Other Societal Violence or Discrimination.--There was no reported
    societal violence or discrimination against persons with HIV/AIDS. The
    Government did not officially recognize any cases of HIV/AIDS in the
    country.

    Section 7. Worker Rights
        a. The Right of Association.--The law allows citizens to join
    independent unions, but in practice all existing trade and professional
    unions were government-controlled. The Government did not permit
    private citizens to form independent unions.
        The Government permitted the existence of only the umbrella
    organization Center for Professional Unions (CPU). Led by a
    presidential appointee, the CPU included professional unions in most
    fields, including medicine, construction, banking, accounting,
    economics, entrepreneurship, and lease holding. All unions were
    government appendages and had no independent voice in their own
    activities. There is no law addressing strikes or retaliation against
    strikers, and strikes were rare.

        b. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively.--The law does
    not protect the right to bargain collectively.
        The law does not prohibit antiunion discrimination by employers
    against union members and organizers. There are no mechanisms for
    resolving complaints of discrimination.
        There are no special laws or exemptions from regular labor laws in
    export processing zones.

        c. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor.--The law prohibits
    forced or compulsory labor. In contrast with previous years, there were
    no reports of such practices.
        A 2005 presidential decree bans child labor, specifying that
    children are not permitted to participate in the cotton harvest. During
    the year the Government enforced this policy.

        d. Prohibition of Child Labor and Minimum Age for Employment.--
    There are laws and policies to protect children from exploitation in
    the workplace, but they were not effectively enforced. The minimum age
    for employment of children is 16 years of age; in a few heavy
    industries, it is 18 years. The law prohibits children between the ages
    of 16 and 18 from working more than six hours per day. A 15-year-old
    may work four to six hours per day with parental and trade union
    permission, although such permission was rarely granted. The MOJ and
    the Prosecutor General's Office were responsible for enforcing child
    labor laws.

        e. Acceptable Conditions of Work.--The state sector minimum monthly
    wage of 330 manat ($116) did not provide for the basic needs of workers
    and their families.
        The standard legal workweek is 40 hours with weekends off. In
    practice, government and many private sector employees are required to
    work 10 hours a day or a sixth day without compensation. Reports
    indicated that many public sector employees worked at least one-half
    day on Saturdays. The law states overtime or holiday pay should be
    double the regular payment. Maximum overtime in a year is 120 hours and
    cannot exceed four hours in two consecutive days; however, this law was
    not enforced.
        The Government did not set comprehensive standards for occupational
    health and safety. Industrial workers in older factories often labored
    in unsafe environments and were not provided proper protective
    equipment. Some agricultural workers were subjected to environmental
    health hazards related to the application of defoliants in preparing
    cotton fields for mechanical harvesting. Workers did not have the right
    to remove themselves from work situations that endangered their health
    or safety without jeopardy to their continued employment.

                                   __________

                                   UZBEKISTAN

        Uzbekistan is an authoritarian state with a population of
    approximately 27.6 million. The constitution provides for a
    presidential system with separation of powers among the executive,
    legislative, and judicial branches. In practice President Islam Karimov
    and the centralized executive branch dominated political life and
    exercised nearly complete control over the other branches. Of the 150
    members of the lower house of parliament, 135 are elected, and the
    remaining 15 were reserved for the newly established Ecological
    Movement of Uzbekistan. Eighty-four of the 100 senators are chosen in
    limited elections open only to elected members of local councils, and
    the president appoints the remaining 16. In 2007 the country elected
    President Karimov to a third term in office; however, according to the
    limited observer mission from the Organization for Security and
    Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the Government deprived voters of a
    genuine choice. Parliamentary elections took place in December 2009.
    While observers reported noticeable procedural improvements in
    comparison to the 2004 parliamentary elections, the 2009 elections were
    not considered free and fair due to government restrictions on eligible
    candidates and government control of media and campaign financing.
    Security forces reported to civilian authorities.
        Human rights problems included citizens' inability to change their
    government peacefully; tightly controlled electoral processes with
    limited opportunities for choice; instances of torture and mistreatment
    of detainees by security forces; incommunicado and prolonged detention;
    occasional life-threatening prison conditions; arbitrary arrest and
    detention; denial of due process and fair trial; restrictions on
    freedom of speech, press, assembly, and association; governmental
    control of civil society activity; restrictions on religious freedom
    including harassment and imprisonment of religious minority group
    members; restrictions on freedom of movement for citizens; violence
    against women; and government-compelled forced labor in cotton
    harvesting. Human rights activists and journalists who criticized the
    Government were subject to physical attack, harassment, arbitrary
    arrest, and politically motivated prosecution and detention.
        Following ethnic violence in Kyrgyzstan in June, Uzbekistan
    accepted more than 100,000 Kyrgyzstani refugees into its territory and
    worked closely with the international community to provide food, water,
    and shelter for those in need.

                            RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

    Section 1. Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom
            From:
        a. Arbitrary or Unlawful Deprivation of Life.--There were no
    confirmed reports that the Government or its agents committed arbitrary
    or unlawful killings.
        The Government did not authorize an independent international
    investigation of the alleged killing of numerous unarmed civilians
    during the violent disturbances in Andijan in 2005, despite ongoing
    calls by international organizations for the Government to do so. The
    Government stated after its 2005 investigation that armed individuals
    initiated violence by firing on government forces. The death toll
    varied between the Government's report of 187 and eyewitness' reports
    of several hundred individuals. The Government never held anyone
    publically accountable for the civilian casualties.

        b. Disappearance.--There were no reports of politically motivated
    disappearances. Unconfirmed reports of disappearances of persons who
    were present at the violent disturbances in Andijan in 2005 persisted.
        There was no update to the 2009 case of an Uzbek man and his son
    abducted in Kyrgyzstan and reportedly returned there after a lengthy
    interrogation. In August 2009 masked men kidnapped Mahmud Suyunov and
    Zokir Hismatullin, according to family members. Later their names
    appeared on a list of suspects involved in an exchange of gunfire in
    Tashkent in August 2009 and a bombing in Andijan earlier in the year.
    Family members have tried unsuccessfully to locate these men in
    government custody.

        c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or
    Punishment.--Although the constitution and law prohibit such practices,
    law enforcement and security officers routinely beat and otherwise
    mistreated detainees to obtain confessions or incriminating
    information. Sources reported that torture and abuse were common in
    prisons, pretrial facilities, and local police and security service
    precincts. Reported methods of torture included severe beatings, denial
    of food, sexual abuse, tying and hanging by the hands, and electric
    shock. Family members of prisoners reported several cases of medical
    abuse, and one person reportedly remained in forced psychiatric
    treatment. The Government reported that during the first six months of
    the year, it opened 226 criminal cases against 285 employees of law
    enforcement bodies. Of these, 75 persons were accused of charges
    related to abuse of power, and four were charged with torture or other
    brutal or degrading treatment. The remaining cases were for unspecified
    offenses. During the first nine months of the year, the Government
    dismissed and brought criminal charges against 186 employees of law
    enforcement bodies for unstated reasons.
        The UN Human Rights Committee in its five-year review of the
    country under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
    (ICCPR Review) expressed concerns in a March 25 publication that the
    country's definition of torture in the criminal code is not in
    conformity with Article 1 of the Convention against Torture and Other
    Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, to which the
    country is a party.
        In a joint statement submitted for the ICCPR Review, the Human
    Rights Alliance of Uzbekistan, the Committee for the Liberation of
    Prisoners of Conscience, and the Uzbek-German Forum for Human Rights
    stated that torture and abuse by police and investigating authorities
    remain ``systematic, unpunished, and encouraged'' by senior government
    officials. The report noted that judges and prosecutors routinely
    failed to investigate allegations of torture, and that the country's
    leadership, including heads of law enforcement agencies, failed to
    condemn publicly the use of torture.
        In February an independent news Web site reported that family
    members of prisoner Sanjar Narmuradov, serving a 13-year sentence on
    extremism charges, stated he was tortured and mistreated in a Tashkent
    Region prison.
        In March, 12 of 25 defendants charged with religious extremism
    reported to a Jizzakh court that they were tortured in pretrial
    detention facilities. The court ordered an investigation of these
    claims, but concluded there was no evidence of torture.
        On March 29, a Bukhara court convicted Kurban Kadyrov of
    participation in anticonstitutional activity as a member of a religious
    extremist group, sentencing him to eight years in prison. The court did
    not address Kadyrov's complaints that he only signed a confession
    because he was tortured during interrogation. On April 29, a regional
    Bukhara court upheld his conviction and sentence on appeal.
        In April the Initiative Group of Independent Human Rights Defenders
    of Uzbekistan (IGIHRDU) reported that prisoner Dilshodbek Amanturdiev
    complained to family members that during the first four months of the
    year fellow inmates subjected him to torture instigated by the prison
    administration. Amanturdiev reportedly stated that in one incident, he
    was beaten unconscious.
        Also in April an independent news Web site reported that family
    members of Rustam Usmanov visited him in prison and observed extensive
    bruises on his body. According to the report, Usmanov told them that
    prison guards tortured and tried to kill him.
        On May 12, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty published a letter
    signed by 121 prisoners from a Kashkadarya prison to a human rights
    group. The letter alleged that guards routinely raped the prisoners
    with a club, subjected prisoners to enemas with red pepper solutions,
    and beat their heels until they bled.
        In June the IGIHRDU reported that a group of criminals headed by a
    prison guard tortured Alijon Halimov for one week during August 2009.
        In December 2009 two sisters serving prison sentences alleged that
    officers raped and mistreated them in prison. One of the sisters
    subsequently gave birth to a child in prison. The Tashkent City
    Criminal Court initiated a criminal case and reportedly did DNA testing
    of several officers, but no formal charges resulted during the year.
        Authorities reportedly meted out harsher than typical treatment to
    individuals suspected of Islamist extremism throughout the year,
    especially to pretrial detainees who were allegedly members of banned
    religious extremist political organizations or to the Nur group, which
    is not officially banned. Local human rights workers reported that
    authorities often offered payment or other inducements to inmates to
    beat other inmates suspected of religious extremism.
        During the year there were reports of politically motivated medical
    abuse. Victims could request, through legal counsel, to have an expert
    medical board review their cases. In practice, however, such bodies
    generally did not conduct impartial reviews and typically supported the
    decisions of law enforcement authorities.
        Family members of several inmates whom the international community
    considers political prisoners asserted that officials did not grant
    prisoners' requests for medical evaluation and treatment. Among these
    prisoners were Alisher Karamatov, Yusuf Juma, Norboy Kholjigitov, Agzam
    Turgunov, Habibulla Okpulatov, and journalist Dilmurod Sayid.
        There was no update on the case of Jamshid Karimov, a journalist,
    human rights activist, and nephew of President Karimov, whom officials
    have forcibly detained at Samarkand Psychiatric Hospital since 2006.

        Prison and Detention Center Conditions.--Prison conditions were in
    some circumstances life threatening. Officials reported that the prison
    system is filled to only 74 percent of capacity, but reports of
    overcrowding were common, as were reports of severe abuse and shortages
    of medicine. Inmates and their families reported that food and water
    were of poor quality but generally available. There were reports of
    political prisoners being held in cells without proper ventilation, and
    prisoners occasionally were subjected to extreme temperatures. Family
    members of inmates reported incidents of sexual abuse. Family members
    also reported that officials frequently withheld or delayed delivery of
    food and medicine intended for prisoners.
        Relatives of prisoners reported the deaths of several prisoners
    serving sentences, most of whom received sentences related to religious
    extremism. In some cases, family members reported that the body of the
    prisoner showed signs of beating or other abuse, but authorities
    pressured the family to bury the body before examination by a medical
    professional. Reported cases that fit this pattern included those of
    Nurullo Musaev and Shavkat Alimhojaev. There were no updates to the
    reported cases in 2009 that fit this pattern, including the deaths of
    Abdulatif Ayupov, Ismat Hudoyberdiyev, Negmat Zufarov, and Golib
    Mullajonov.
        The IGIHRDU reported that on March 20 prisoner Yiginov Farmon died
    in prison after being subjected to torture and on March 27, an unnamed
    Tashkent native died in a Bukhara prison as a result of torture.
        On June 17, Sunnatillo Zaripov died in prison, where he had been
    serving a 15-year term. Relatives reported to the press that he died as
    a result of torture.
        In November family members of inmates housed in the Jaslyk prison
    reported that several Jaslyk inmates participated in a hunger strike
    for three to four days after 14 fellow inmates were taken to a separate
    area in the prison and severely beaten.
        There were no updates to the cases of Muhammad Artykov, Nozimjon
    Mamadaliev, and family members of Nurillo Mazsudov. The family members
    reportedly died after being tortured in prison in 2008.
        According to family members and some NGOs, authorities failed to
    release prisoners, especially those convicted of religious extremism,
    at the end of their terms. Prison authorities often extended inmates'
    terms by accusing them of additional crimes or claiming the prisoners
    represented a continuing danger to society. For example, on July 15,
    Habibullo Madmarov, the son of human rights activist Akhmadjan
    Madmarov, had his prison term extended for getting out of bed to pray
    before the prison's daily wake up call, in violation of internal prison
    regulations. Trials for such offenses took place within the prisons,
    and defendants often were not given access to lawyers or relatives.
    Although it is technically possible for inmates to appeal such
    decisions, many inmates did not have the expertise to initiate an
    appeal.
        According to 2009 statistics, the Government held approximately
    42,000 inmates at 58 detention facilities. Men, women, and juvenile
    offenders were held in separate facilities. There were reports that in
    some facilities inmates convicted of attempting to overturn the
    constitutional order were held separately, and prison officials did not
    allow inmates convicted under religious extremism charges to interact
    with other inmates. Officials also held former law enforcement officers
    in a separate facility.
        Prison officials generally allowed family members to visit
    prisoners for up to four hours two to four times per month. Officials
    also permitted visits of one to three days duration, two to four times
    per year, depending on the type of prison facility. Family members of
    political prisoners reported that officials frequently delayed or
    severely shortened visits arbitrarily. The Government stated that
    prisoners have the right to practice any religion or no religion, but
    prisoners frequently complained to family members that they were not
    able to observe religious rituals that conflicted with prison
    scheduling. Such rituals included engaging in traditional Islamic
    morning prayers. Prisoners also were not allowed access to religious
    materials.
        According to a 2009 law, authorities at pretrial detention
    facilities are required to arrange a meeting between a detainee and a
    representative from the Human Rights Ombudsman's Office upon a
    detainee's request. Officials allowed detainees in prison facilities to
    submit confidential complaints to the Ombudsman's Office and to the
    Prosecutor General's Office, and both offices were authorized to
    initiate investigations into complaints. In its 2009 report, the
    Ombudsman's Office reported it received 48 prisoner complaints during
    the year and considered 31 of those cases, representing an increase
    from the 29 complaints it considered in 2008. The Ombudsman's Office
    reported it was able to intervene successfully in four of the 29 cases.
    The Ombudsman's Office is empowered to make recommendations on behalf
    of prisoners, including requesting changes to sentences to make them
    more appropriate to nonviolent offenders.
        The Ministry of Interior (MOI) performs regular inspections of all
    prison facilities, and representatives of other state bodies, including
    the parliament, the National Human Rights Center, and the Cabinet of
    Ministers also are allowed to access the prison system upon request.
        The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) monitors all
    facilities under the responsibility of the prison administration,
    assessing the conditions of detention and the treatment of detainees.
    ICRC does not have access to pretrial detention facilities under the
    authority of the National Security Service. Between January and
    September, the ICRC carried out 37 humanitarian visits, visiting 19,906
    detainees held in 17 places of detention. During these visits, ICRC
    representatives monitored the cases of 647 detainees, including 117
    women and 67 minors. The ICRC also facilitated the exchange of 283 Red
    Cross messages between detainees and their relatives. The ICRC kept its
    findings confidential and shared them only with the Government. The
    Government also allowed limited independent prison monitoring by a
    local group in Bukhara.
        Prison administration officials reported that the World Health
    Organization has an active TB program in the prisons both to treat and
    stop the spread of tuberculosis, and an HIV/AIDS treatment and
    prevention program has been in place since 2008. Officials reported
    that hepatitis was not present in high numbers, and hepatitis patients
    are treated in existing medical facilities and programs.
        On May 11 and 12, the prison administration in conjunction with the
    OSCE trained 50 prison administration employees on the maintenance of
    human rights in the prison system. On May 20, the prison administration
    trained 20 medical personnel on identifying physical torture or banned
    cruel treatment.

        d. Arbitrary Arrest or Detention.--The constitution and law
    prohibit arbitrary arrest and detention; however, authorities continued
    to engage in such practices.

        Role of the Police and Security Apparatus.--The Government
    authorizes three different organizations to investigate criminal
    activity. The Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) controls the police,
    who are responsible for law enforcement and maintenance of order and
    investigate general crime. The National Security Service (NSS), headed
    by a chairman who reports directly to the president, deals with a broad
    range of national security and intelligence issues, including
    terrorism, corruption, organized crime, and narcotics. Prosecutors
    investigate violent crimes such as murder, as well as corruption by
    officials and abuse of power. Where jurisdictions overlap, the agencies
    determine among themselves which should take the lead. The MIA's main
    investigations directorate maintained internal procedures to
    investigate abuses and discipline officers accused of human rights
    violations, but in practice the Government rarely punished officials
    who committed human rights abuses. A human rights and legal education
    department within the Ministry of Interior investigated some police
    brutality cases. The Human Rights Ombudsman's Office, affiliated with
    the parliament, also had the power to investigate cases, although its
    decisions on such investigations had no binding authority.
        In July the MIA trained 52 employees from various agencies and
    departments on fulfillment of the Convention Against Torture with
    respect to law enforcement bodies. In November the MIA in coordination
    with UNDP held seminars for police officers in two regions on
    ``Implementation of the Convention against Torture in Police
    Activities,'' pursuant to its national action plan on implementation of
    the Convention.

        Arrest Procedures and Treatment While in Detention.--Under the law,
    a judge must review any decision to arrest accused individuals or
    suspects, and defendants have the right to legal counsel from the time
    of arrest, although officials do not always grant that right in
    practice.
        According to judicial reforms made in 2008, detainees have the
    right to request hearings before a judge to determine whether they
    remain incarcerated or are released. The arresting authority is
    required to notify a relative of the detainee about the detention and
    to question the detainee within 24 hours of being taken into custody.
    Suspects have the right to remain silent. Detention without formal
    charges is limited to 72 hours, although a prosecutor can request an
    additional 48 hours, after which time the person must be charged or
    released. Implementation of these reforms has been slow. In practice
    judges granted arrest warrants in most cases, and authorities continued
    to hold suspects after the allowable period of time. The judge
    conducting the arrest hearing was allowed to sit on the panel of judges
    during the individual's trial. There were complaints that authorities
    tortured suspects before notifying either family members or attorneys
    of their arrests.
        Once authorities file charges, suspects can be held in pretrial
    detention for as long as three months while investigations proceed. The
    law permits an extension of the investigation period for up to one year
    at the discretion of the appropriate court upon a motion by the
    investigating authority. A prosecutor may release a prisoner on bond
    pending trial, although in practice authorities frequently ignored
    these legal protections. Those arrested and charged with a crime may be
    released without bail until trial on the condition that they provide
    assurance that they will appear at trial and register each day at a
    local police station. State-appointed attorneys are available for those
    who do not hire private counsel.
        In March 2009 the Cabinet of Ministers adopted a decree requiring
    that all defense attorneys pass a comprehensive relicensing
    examination. Several experienced and knowledgeable defense lawyers who
    had represented human rights activists and independent journalists lost
    their licenses in the process. As a result, several other activists and
    defendants faced difficulties in finding attorneys to represent them.
    Amendments to the criminal procedure code in 2008 abolished provisions
    that allowed unlicensed advocates to represent individuals in criminal
    and civil hearings; however, a court has the discretion to allow such
    an advocate if the advocate belongs to a registered organization.
        There were reports that police arrested persons on false charges of
    extortion, drug possession, or tax evasion as an intimidation tactic to
    prevent them or their family members from exposing corruption or
    interfering in local criminal activities.
        Authorities continued to arrest persons arbitrarily on charges of
    extremist sentiments or activities and association with banned
    religious groups. Local human rights activists reported that police and
    security service officers, acting under pressure to break up extremist
    cells, frequently detained and mistreated family members and close
    associates of suspected members of religious extremist groups. Coerced
    confessions and testimony in such cases were commonplace.
        Many of the year's arrests related to religious extremism resulted
    from two high-profile killings, an additional homicide attempt, and one
    exchange of gunfire that took place in Tashkent during the summer of
    2009. Between January and April, courts convicted at least 50 persons
    on charges of extremism in closed trials, issuing verdicts ranging from
    suspended sentences to 18 years in prison. There were reports that as
    many as 150 other persons were convicted in related trials across the
    country. The families of several defendants accused authorities of
    using torture and coercion to obtain confessions, and many raised
    questions regarding due process provisions.
        In general prosecutors exercised discretion over most aspects of
    criminal procedures, including pretrial detention. Detainees had no
    access to a court to challenge the length or validity of pretrial
    detention. Even when authorities filed no charges, police and
    prosecutors frequently sought to evade restrictions on the duration a
    person could be held without charges by holding persons as witnesses
    rather than as suspects. During the year pretrial detention typically
    ranged from one to three months. The Government did not provide the
    number of persons held in pretrial detention centers.

        Amnesty.--On August 28, the senate issued an amnesty decree.
    According to its terms, women, minors, men over 60 years old, foreign
    citizens, disabled individuals, and those who had developed serious
    illnesses in prison could apply for amnesty. Some first-time offenders
    were also eligible. Amnesty actions included full exemption from
    further incarceration, transfer to a prison with less severe
    conditions, or conclusion of a criminal case at the pretrial or trial
    stage. The Government reported that as of October 25, 84 women and
    1,101 men were released from their prison sentences as a result of the
    amnesty decree.
        Local prison authorities have considerable discretion in
    determining who qualifies for release as they determine whether a
    prisoner is ``following the way of correction'' or ``systematically
    violating'' the terms of incarceration. Officials often cited
    ``violation of internal prison rules'' as a reason for denying amnesty
    and for extending sentences. Officials often determined that political
    and religious prisoners were ineligible for amnesty based on these
    provisions. For example, family members of Alisher Karamatov, widely
    considered a political prisoner, reported that shortly before the
    amnesty decree was announced, prison officials determined that he was
    ineligible because of prison dress code violations. In 2009 Jehovah's
    Witnesses Olim Turayev, Abdubannov Akmedov, and Farrukh Zaripov,
    convicted in 2008 for activities related to religion, applied for
    amnesty, but they were found ineligible due to violations of internal
    prison regulations.

        e. Denial of Fair Public Trial.--Although the constitution provides
    for an independent judiciary, the judicial branch often took direction
    from the executive branch.
        Under the law, the president appoints all judges for renewable
    five-year terms. Removal of Supreme Court judges must be confirmed by
    parliament, which in practice generally complied with the president's
    wishes.
        The Karakalpakstan Supreme Court has jurisdiction over the
    Karakalpakstan Republic, a semiautonomous region of the country, and
    defendants may appeal decisions of district and provincial courts to it
    within 10 days of a ruling. In addition a constitutional court review
    laws, decrees and judicial decisions to ensure compliance with the
    constitution. Military courts handle all civil and criminal matters
    that occur within the military. The Supreme Court is a court of general
    jurisdiction that handles selected cases of national significance.

        Trial Procedures.--The criminal code specifies a presumption of
    innocence. There are no jury trials. Most trials are officially open to
    the public, although access was sometimes restricted in practice.
    Judges may close trials in exceptional cases, such as those involving
    state secrets or to protect victims and witnesses. Courts often
    demanded that international observers obtain written permission from
    the court chairman or from the Supreme Court before being allowed to
    observe proceedings. Judges granted international observers, including
    foreign diplomats, access to certain hearings. Authorities generally
    announced trials only one or two days before they began.
        Generally, a panel of one professional judge and two lay assessors,
    selected by either committees of worker collectives or neighborhood
    committees, presided over trials. The lay judges rarely spoke, and the
    professional judge usually accepted prosecutor recommendations on
    procedural rulings and sentencing.
        Defendants have the right to attend court proceedings, confront
    witnesses, and present evidence. The Government generally observed
    these rights, including in high-profile human rights and political
    cases. In the vast majority of criminal cases brought to court, the
    verdict was guilty.
        Defendants have the right to hire an attorney, and the Government
    improved access to attorneys after establishing a 24-hour on-call
    system in 2008. The Government provides legal counsel without charge
    when necessary. According to reports, state-appointed defense attorneys
    acted routinely in the interest of the Government rather than of their
    clients.
        By law a prosecutor must request an arrest order from a court, but
    it was rare for a court to deny such a request. Prosecutors have
    considerable power after obtaining an arrest order; they direct
    investigations, prepare criminal cases, and recommend sentences. The
    prosecutor decides whether a suspect is released on bail or stays in
    pretrial detention after formal charges are filed. Although the
    criminal code specifies a presumption of innocence, in practice a
    prosecutor's recommendations generally prevail. If a judge's sentence
    does not correspond with the prosecutor's recommendation, the
    prosecutor may ``protest'' (appeal) the sentence to a higher court.
    Judges often base their verdicts solely on confessions and witness
    testimony, which may be extracted through torture, threats to family
    members, or other means of coercion. Legal protections against double
    jeopardy are not applied in practice.
        The law provides a right of appeal to all defendants, but appeals
    rarely resulted in reversals of convictions. In some cases, however,
    appeals resulted in reduced or suspended sentences.
        According to 2009 reforms to the criminal procedure code, defense
    attorneys may access government-held evidence relevant to their
    clients' cases once the initial investigation is completed and the
    prosecutor files formal charges. There is an exception, however, for
    evidence that contains information that if released could pose a threat
    to state security. During the year courts invoked that exception
    frequently, leading to complaints that its primary purpose is to allow
    prosecutors to avoid sharing evidence with defense attorneys. In many
    cases, prosecution was based solely upon defendants' confessions or
    incriminating testimony from state witnesses, particularly in cases
    involving suspected religious extremists. Lawyers may, and occasionally
    did, call on judges to reject confessions and investigate claims of
    torture. Judges often did not respond to such claims or dismissed them
    as groundless.

        Political Prisoners and Detainees.--Observers estimated that
    authorities held 13 to 25 individuals on political grounds. Officials
    released one political prisoner during the year, but at least one other
    individual was imprisoned on what appeared to be politically motivated
    charges. Family members of several political prisoners reported abuse
    in prison and deterioration of the prisoners' health.
        On January 13, an appellate court upheld the verdict and sentencing
    of human rights activist Ganikhon Mamatkhanov, who was sentenced to
    five years in prison on what were widely believed to be false charges
    of extortion and attempted bribery.
        On January 18, a Kashkadarya court sentenced human rights activist
    Gaybullo Jalilov for membership in an extremist religious group that
    allegedly planned terrorist attacks against a regional airport.
    Jalilov, who had been active in assisting others accused of extremism,
    claimed officials mistreated him while he was in custody and coerced
    him into signing a confession. On March 9, the Kashkadarya Regional
    Criminal Court upheld his conviction and sentence. Jalilov reportedly
    came to his appellate hearing with a swollen eye and told relatives
    that he had been punched and kicked repeatedly in his cell. In a closed
    hearing on August 5, the Kashkadarya court extended his sentence by
    four years for conducting anticonstitutional activities in prison.
        On April 30, an Andijan court sentenced Diloram Abdukadirova to 10
    years in prison for illegal border crossing and threatening the
    constitutional order. Abdukadirova fled the country after witnessing
    the 2005 Andijan events. She returned to the country in January after
    authorities reportedly gave repeated assurances to her family that she
    could come home without fear of prosecution, but she was immediately
    detained and later charged. A family member reported that Abdukodirova
    had bruises on her face during her trial.
        In June police charged Dmitry Tikhonov, a human rights activist
    from Angren, with attempted murder. His colleagues report that the
    charges are in retaliation for his attempts to expose local factory
    corruption and police collusion. The case had not been brought to trial
    by year's end.
        On July 28, a Kashkadarya court convicted political activist Azamat
    Azimov, a member of the opposition Birdamlik movement, of drug
    possession with intent to sell and sentenced him to seven years in
    prison. Azimov's colleagues reported that the charges were a result of
    his political activities.
        On September 16, a Tashkent court found human rights activist
    Anatoly Volkov guilty on charges of ``swindling'' money from a 90-year-
    old pensioner who claimed that Volkov had represented him in court and
    not transferred money due him from the defendant. Many believed the
    case was retaliation for Volkov's human rights activities. Volkov
    appealed the decision on September 22, but the court did not issue a
    decision by year's end.
        On September 6, authorities arrested Matlyuba Kamilova, a human
    rights activist and school principal from Angren, for drug possession.
    Friends of Kamilova say that police planted the drugs in her purse in
    retaliation for her efforts to expose police corruption. At year's end,
    Kamilova was being held in a pretrial detention facility in Tashkent.
        In September a Tashkent court charged human rights activist Tatyana
    Dovlatova with ``hooliganism'' under the criminal code. Dovlatova was
    particularly active defending property owners' rights, and was working
    on exposing the involvement of officials in a black market currency
    exchange operation. Her trial was ongoing at year's end.
        On December 1, authorities released human rights activist Farhad
    Mukhtarov, who was sentenced in October 2009 to four years in prison on
    what many analysts believe were politically motivated charges of fraud
    and bribery. Under the terms of his parole, the court continued to
    require that he perform correctional work for another two-and-a-half
    years. Mukhtarov fled the country, however, because he feared
    government harassment.
        On December 20, a Yangiyul criminal court convicted human rights
    activist Habibulla Ilmuradov of fraud and drug possession and sentenced
    him to 14 years in prison. Ilmuradov's family claimed that police
    planted drugs in his home in retaliation for complaints he made about
    alleged unlawful actions of a local prosecutor and security officials.

        Civil Judicial Procedures and Remedies.--Although the constitution
    provides for it, the judiciary is not independent or impartial in civil
    matters. Citizens may file suit in civil courts, if appropriate, on
    cases of alleged human rights violations. While no specific cases were
    reported this year, there were reports in the past that bribes to
    judges influenced civil court decisions.
        Civil courts operate on the city, interdistrict, and regional
    levels. Defendants in civil cases from the Karakalpakstan Republic may
    appeal to the Supreme Court.
        Economic courts with jurisdiction over the individual provinces,
    the city of Tashkent, and the Karakalpakstan Republic handle commercial
    disputes between legal entities. Litigants may appeal decisions of
    these courts to the High Economic Court.

        f. Arbitrary Interference With Privacy, Family, Home, or
    Correspondence.--The constitution and law forbid such actions; however,
    authorities did not respect these prohibitions in practice. The law
    requires a search warrant for electronic surveillance, but there is no
    provision for judicial review of such warrants.
        There were reports that police and other security forces entered
    the homes of human rights activists and members of some religious
    groups without a warrant. On numerous occasions, members of Protestant
    churches who held worship services in private homes reported that armed
    security officers raided services and detained and fined church members
    for religious activity deemed illegal under the administrative or
    criminal code. On February 23, a court convicted 13 members of an
    unregistered Baptist church in Almalyk of unauthorized teaching of
    religion following a police raid on a private home and fined each
    defendant 3.2 million soum ($2,500). In March authorities in Kagan
    raided 11 houses belonging to Jehovah's Witnesses on the day that the
    Jehovah's Witnesses commemorate the death of Jesus Christ. Authorities
    convicted four persons of administrative violations and fined them
    accordingly.
        Human rights activists and political opposition figures generally
    assumed that security agencies monitored their telephone calls and
    covertly surveilled their activities.
        The Government continued to use an estimated 12,000 neighborhood
    committees (``mahallas'') as a source of information on potential
    extremists. Committees served varied social support functions, but they
    also functioned as a link among local society, government, and law
    enforcement. Mahalla committees in rural areas tended to be more
    influential than those located in cities.
        There were credible reports that police, employers, and mahallah
    committees harassed family members of human rights activists. In
    September officials threatened the son of human rights group Ezgulik's
    chairperson, Vasila Inoyatova , with criminal charges after he was
    stabbed by an unknown assailant on September 7. Inoyatova claimed her
    son's treatment by authorities was a direct result of her human rights
    activities. In November an Internet news source reported that the son
    of Habibulla Ilmuradov, a human rights activist charged with drug
    possession, was fired from his job on November 1 as part of a campaign
    against his father.

    Section 2. Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:
        a. Freedom of Speech and Press.--The constitution and law provide
    for freedom of speech and the press, but the Government generally did
    not respect these rights in practice. Freedom of expression was
    severely limited.
        The law limits criticism of the president, and public insult to the
    president is a crime punishable by up to five years in prison. The law
    specifically prohibits publication of articles that incite religious
    confrontation and ethnic discord or that advocate subverting or
    overthrowing the constitutional order.
        The law holds all foreign and domestic media organizations
    accountable for the accuracy of their reporting, bans foreign
    journalists from working in the country without official accreditation,
    and requires that foreign media outlets be subject to mass media laws.
    The Government prohibits the promotion of religious extremism,
    separatism, and fundamentalism, as well as the instigation of ethnic
    and religious hatred. It bars legal entities with more than 30 percent
    foreign ownership from establishing media outlets in the country.
        During the year police arrested individuals who possessed
    literature and audio-video materials from groups considered to be
    religious extremist groups.
        The Uzbekistan National News Agency (UzA) cooperated closely with
    presidential staff to prepare and distribute all officially sanctioned
    news and information. In June the Uzbek Agency for Press and
    Information reported that 1,172 newspapers, magazines, news agencies,
    electronic media outlets, and Web sites were registered with the
    Government. The Office of the Cabinet of Ministers owns and controls
    three of the country's most influential national daily newspapers,
    Pravda Vostoka (Russian language), Halq So'zi (Uzbek language), and
    Narodnoe Slovo (Russian language). The Government, or government-
    controlled political parties or social movements, and the Tashkent
    municipal government and regional ``hokimiyats'' (administrations) own
    or control several other daily and weekly publications. Articles in
    state-controlled newspapers reflected the Government's viewpoint. The
    main government newspaper published selected international wire
    stories.
        The Government also published news stories on the official Internet
    sites of various ministries. A few purportedly independent Web sites
    consistently reported the Government's viewpoint.
        The Government allowed publication of a few private newspapers with
    limited circulation containing advertising, horoscopes, and some
    substantive local news, including infrequent stories critical of
    government socioeconomic policies. Three private national Russian-
    language newspapers carried news and editorials exclusively favorable
    to the Government, as did two Uzbek-language newspapers. Russian
    Federation newspapers and a variety of Russian Federation tabloids and
    lifestyle publications were available, and a modest selection of other
    foreign periodicals was available in Tashkent.
        The four state-run channels dominated television broadcasting.
    Cable and satellite television channels also were watched widely in
    Tashkent and other major cities. Much of the programming available via
    cable and satellite was from Russia. Numerous privately owned regional
    television stations and privately owned radio stations were influential
    among local audiences.
        The Government tightly controlled broadcast and print media.
    Journalists and senior editorial staff in state media organizations
    reported that there were officials whose responsibilities included
    censorship. Government officials allegedly provided verbal directives
    to journalists to refrain from covering certain events sponsored by
    foreign embassies. There were reports, however, that regional
    television outlets broadcast some moderately critical stories on local
    issues.
        The Government continued to refuse Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty,
    Voice of America, and BBC World Service permission to broadcast from
    within the country. It also continued to use accreditation rules to
    deny foreign journalists and media outlets, as well as international
    NGOs, the opportunity to work in the country. Among Western media
    outlets, only Agence France Press (AFP) had a reporter working in the
    country with official accreditation, and AFP must renew the
    accreditation every six months. In June a few Western reporters,
    including from CNN and BBC, were able to enter and work in the country
    following the violence in Kyrgyzstan and ensuing refugee crisis. Those
    reporters left the country when the crisis ended.
        During the year harassment of journalists increased. Police and
    security services subjected print and broadcast journalists to arrest,
    harassment, intimidation, and violence, as well as to bureaucratic
    restrictions on their activity.
        On January 7, the Tashkent City Prosecutor's office called in for
    questioning six well-known journalists who worked for foreign media
    outlets. After presenting them with the Government-compiled files on
    their work, prosecutors questioned them about their articles, finances,
    and ties to foreign governments. In some cases, prosecutors told
    journalists that they possessed information that could lead to their
    arrests. One journalist, fearing prosecution, departed the country
    later in the year.
        On March 13, officials detained Vasily Markov, a freelance
    independent journalist covering the detention of a local human rights
    activist in the city of Parkent. Officials released him the same day.
    In June officials detained him again for several days in Andijan, where
    Markov had been covering the influx of ethnic Uzbek refugees from
    Kyrgyzstan. Officials did not formally charge him in either case.
        On May 27, a Tashkent court sentenced Hayrulla Khamidov, a well-
    known sports commentator, Deputy Editor in Chief of Champion newspaper,
    and popular speaker on religious topics, to six years in prison for
    being a ``jihadist'' and for ``illegal distribution of materials that
    threaten the public order.'' Local human rights activists claimed that
    the Government targeted Khamidov for his public speeches and
    discussions involving sensitive subject matters. Khamidov did not
    appeal the decision.
        On June 13, authorities detained independent journalist Aleksei
    Volosevich after he was seen filming ethnic Uzbek refugees fleeing
    ethnic violence in Kyrgyzstan. Officials detained him for three days
    before releasing him without charges.
        On August 23, two employees from Yoshlar (``Youth'') television
    station complained in a press conference that the channel was subjected
    to censorship and corruption. They asserted that officials had
    forbidden the broadcasting of reports critical of the Government. A
    station editor later denied the accusations. The journalists held a
    short protest on December 6 without interference, but on December 9,
    the station leadership dismissed them from their positions. Both
    journalists have reported harassment by authorities since their August
    press conference.
        On October 13, a Tashkent court found Russian citizen Vladimir
    Berezovsky guilty of libel and insult against the Uzbek people but
    immediately granted him amnesty from sentencing. Berezovsky was the
    editor of the news Web site vesti.uz and also reported for Russia's
    Parlamentskaya Gazeta. Berezovsky did not author several of the
    articles that prosecutors submitted as evidence during the trial, but
    posted them on the Web site. On October 29, a Tashkent city criminal
    court upheld the decision.
        On October 15, a Tashkent court found Voice of America (VOA)
    journalist Abdumalik Boboev guilty of libel, insult, and distribution
    of materials that pose a threat to public safety, based solely on his
    VOA reporting. The court imposed a fine of approximately 18 million
    soum ($11,000), and appellate courts sustained the verdict and sentence
    on November 12 and December 28.
        During the year there were no new developments regarding eight
    journalists from Yetti Iqlim newspaper and Irmoq magazine (private,
    Uzbek language, scientific publications) who were convicted in 2009 of
    membership in the banned Nur religious movement. Sentences in those
    cases ranged from six-and-one-half years to 12 years in prison.
        Independent journalist Dilmurod Sayid appealed his 2009 conviction
    based on charges of extortion and bribery that were widely believed to
    be fabricated. On August 10, the Supreme Court upheld the conviction
    and the resulting 12-and-one-half year prison term. In an open letter
    to the United Nations Secretary General written from his prison
    hospital bed, Sayid stated that while in prison he had lost a
    significant amount of weight and continued to suffer from significant
    health problems.
        Independent journalist Salijon Abdurahmanov from Nukus served the
    second year of his 10-year sentence for what were widely considered
    politically motivated drug charges. His family reported that his health
    improved after he was treated for a stomach ailment early in the year.
        During the year the Government harassed journalists from state-run
    and independent media outlets in retaliation for their contacts with
    foreign diplomats, specifically questioning them about such contacts.
    Some journalists refused to meet with foreign diplomats face-to-face
    because doing so in the past resulted in harassment and questioning by
    the NSS.
        Government security services and other offices regularly directed
    publishers to print articles and letters under fictitious bylines and
    gave explicit instructions about the types of stories permitted for
    publication. Often there was little distinction between the editorial
    content of a government or privately owned newspaper. Journalists
    engaged in little independent investigative reporting. The number of
    critical newspaper articles remained low and narrow in their scope.
    Widely read tabloids, however, were able to publish some articles that
    presented mild criticism of government policies or which discussed some
    problems that the Government considered sensitive, such as trafficking
    in persons.
        The criminal and administrative codes impose significant fines for
    libel and defamation. The Government used charges of libel, slander,
    and defamation to punish journalists, human rights activists, and
    others who criticized the president or the Government.
        On February 10, a Tashkent court found photographer Umida Ahmedova
    guilty of defaming the Uzbek people through a book of photography and a
    documentary film but immediately granted her amnesty from punishment.
    On March 17, an appellate court upheld both the conviction and the
    amnesty. In May Ahmedova appealed to the Supreme Court, but there was
    no response by year's end.
        In February it was reported that in September 2009, a Tashkent
    court sentenced Maxim Popov, a psychologist and HIV/AIDS activist, to
    seven years in prison on charges related to an HIV/AIDS prevention
    booklet, as well as financial improprieties related to grant funding
    the NGO had received. None of the international organizations that had
    funded Izis, the NGO at which Popov had been Executive Director, had
    complained about his grant management, and it was widely believed that
    the Government targeted him because of the sensitive nature of his
    work.
        On September 28, a Tashkent court found for the plaintiff in a
    libel case against human rights defender Surat Ikramov, ordering that
    he pay 100,000 soum ($66) in damages and that he retract statements he
    made in an earlier report. Ikramov believed that the plaintiff brought
    the civil suit at the behest of law enforcement officials Ikramov had
    implicated in his reporting on the death of a popular singer. A court
    imposed fines of 550,000 soum ($370) against Ezgulik on libel charges
    related to the same case.

        Internet Freedom.--The Government allowed access to the Internet
    and reported that the number of Internet users in the country during
    the year was more than 2.9 million, exceeding 10 percent of the
    population. However, Internet service providers, at the Government's
    request, routinely blocked access to Web sites or certain pages of Web
    sites the Government considered objectionable. The Government blocked
    several domestic and international news Web sites and those operated by
    opposition political parties. On July 28, authorities blocked the Web
    site of the ``Expert Working Group,'' an unregistered think tank that
    comments on various political and economic issues.
        The media law defines Web sites as media outlets, requiring them,
    as is the case with all local and foreign media, to register with the
    authorities and provide the names of their founder, chief editor, and
    staff members. Web sites were not required to submit to the Government
    hard copies of publications, as was required of traditional media
    outlets.
        Several active online forums allowed registered users to post
    comments and read discussions on a range of social issues facing the
    country. In order to become a registered user in these forums,
    individuals were required to provide personally identifiable
    information. It is not clear whether the Government attempted to
    collect this information.
        A decree requires that all Web sites seeking ``.uz'' domain must
    register with the state Agency for Press and Information. The decree
    generally affected only government-owned or government-controlled Web
    sites. Opposition Web sites and those operated by international NGOs or
    media outlets tended to have domain names registered outside the
    country.
        Some human rights activists stated they believe their e-mail was
    monitored by the Government, but there was no corroborating evidence to
    support those claims. According to a Forum 18 March16 report, the
    Government prevented some individuals and groups from engaging in
    peaceful expressions of views via the Internet by blocking access to a
    number of sites, especially those with religious content.

        Academic Freedom and Cultural Events.--The Government continued to
    limit academic freedom and cultural events. Authorities occasionally
    required department head approval for university lectures or lecture
    notes, and university professors generally practiced self-censorship.
    Numerous university students reported that universities taught
    mandatory courses on books and speeches of the president and that
    missing any of these seminars constituted grounds for expulsion.
        Although a decree prohibits cooperation between higher educational
    institutions and foreign entities without the explicit prior approval
    of the Government, foreign institutions often were able to obtain such
    approval by working with the MFA, especially for foreign language
    projects. Some school and university administrations, however,
    continued to pressure teachers and students to refrain from
    participating in conferences sponsored by diplomatic missions.
        There were a few instances of individuals choosing not to
    participate in international exchange programs after government
    officials threatened them with the loss of their jobs, but there were
    no reports of individuals losing their jobs after participating in such
    programs.

        b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association.--Freedom of
    Assembly.--The constitution and law provide for freedom of assembly,
    but in practice the Government often restricted this right. Authorities
    have the right to suspend or prohibit rallies, meetings, and
    demonstrations for security reasons. The Government often did not grant
    the required permits for demonstrations. Citizens are subject to large
    fines for facilitating unsanctioned rallies, meetings, or
    demonstrations by providing space or other facilities or materials, as
    well as for violating procedures concerning the organizing of meetings,
    rallies, and demonstrations.
        Authorities dispersed and sometimes detained those involved in
    peaceful protests, and sometimes pressed administrative charges as a
    result of protest actions.
        On November 25, police detained and interrogated Gulshan Karaeva
    and Nodir Akhatov, members of the Karshi branch of the Human Rights
    Society of Uzbekistan (HRSU), for alleged involvement in a protest
    organized by a group of Muslim women over the arrest of their family
    members on extremism charges. On November 27, police summoned Karaeva
    and Akhatov to the local prosecutor's office and interrogated them for
    several hours about the incident.
        On December 6, police arrested human rights activists Abdullo
    Tadjiboy-ogli, Vladimir Khusainov, Victoria Bazhenova, and Dmitry
    Tikhonov for protesting in Tashkent's Independence Square. A court
    found them guilty of holding an unsanctioned protest and imposed fines
    between three million and 3.5 million soum ($2,000 to $2,300). In
    response, the leader of the Human Rights Alliance of Uzbekistan, Elena
    Urlaeva, called on authorities to adopt a law on a citizen''s right to
    non-violent protest. Urlaeva herself engaged in several protest actions
    throughout the year, and although authorities frequently detained her,
    they did not press charges.
        In several other cases, human rights activists reported that local
    residents protested economic conditions, and human rights activists
    occasionally held small protests, without interference and apparently
    without prior permission of the authorities.

        Freedom of Association.--While the law provides for freedom of
    association, the Government continued to restrict this right in
    practice. The Government sought to control NGO activity and expressed
    concerns about internationally funded NGOs fomenting public dissent and
    unregulated Islamic and minority religious groups. There are strict
    legal restrictions on the types of groups that may be formed, and the
    law requires that all organizations be registered formally with the
    Government. The law allows for a six-month grace period for new
    organizations to operate while awaiting registration from the Ministry
    of Justice (MOJ), during which time the Government officially
    classifies them as ``initiative groups.'' Several NGOs continued to
    function as initiative groups for periods longer than six months.
        NGOs that intend to address sensitive issues such as HIV/AIDS or
    refugee issues often faced increased difficulties in obtaining
    registration. The Government allowed nonpolitical associations and
    social organizations to register, but complicated rules and a
    cumbersome government bureaucracy made the process difficult and
    allowed opportunities for government obstruction. The Government
    compelled most local NGOs to join a government-controlled NGO
    association that allowed the Government some control over the NGOs'
    funding and activities. The degree to which NGOs were able to operate
    varied by region because some local officials were more tolerant of NGO
    activities.
        The administrative liability code imposes large fines for
    violations of procedures governing NGO activity, as well as for
    ``involving others'' in illegal NGOs. The law does not specify whether
    ``illegal NGOs'' are those that the Government suspended or closed or
    those that were simply unregistered. The administrative code also
    imposes penalties against international NGOs for engaging in political
    activities, activities inconsistent with their charters, or activities
    the Government did not approve in advance. The Government enforced the
    2004 banking decree that, although ostensibly designed to combat money
    laundering, also complicated efforts by registered and unregistered
    NGOs to receive outside funding. The MOJ requires NGOs to submit
    detailed reports every six months on any grant funding received, events
    conducted, and planned events for the next period.
        The Government reported that in October there were more than 5,000
    registered NGOs. Credible sources estimated approximately 400
    independent NGOs remained following the closure of more than 300 local
    NGOs and 17 or more foreign-funded NGOs in the post-Andijan period. The
    Government also reported that there were 17 professional unions and
    more than 100 sports associations.
        In 2009, the Finance Ministry issued an order requiring all
    humanitarian aid and technical assistance recipients to submit
    information about their bank transactions, and that requirement
    remained in force during the year.
        The law criminalizes membership in organizations the Government
    deems extremist, including ``jihadchilar'' and other groups branded
    with the general term ``Wahhabi.'' The law also banned the extremist
    Islamist political organization Hizb-ut Tahrir (HT), stating it
    promoted hate and condoned acts of terrorism.
        Following the 2005 Andijan events, the Government pressured and
    prosecuted members of the now-disbanded Islamic group Akromiya
    (Akromiylar). Independent religious experts claimed that Akromiya was
    an informal association promoting business along Islamic religious
    principles. The Government claimed that it was a branch of HT and that
    it attempted, together with the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU),
    to overthrow the Government through armed rebellion. During the year
    there were no reported criminal cases against Akromiya members, but
    family members of those who fled the country or were imprisoned
    following the Andijan events reported continued harassment, including
    police summons for interrogation and threats of confiscation of
    property.

        c. Freedom of Religion.--For a complete description of religious
    freedom, please see the 2010 International Religious Freedom Report at
    www.state.gov/g/drl/irf/rpt.

        d. Freedom of Movement, Internally Displaced Persons, Protection of
    Refugees, and Stateless Persons.--The constitution and law provide for
    freedom of movement within the country and across its borders, although
    the Government limited this right in practice. The Government at times
    delayed domestic and foreign travel and emigration during the visa
    application process. The Government allowed more than 100,000 refugees
    from the Kyrgyz Republic to enter the country following ethnic violence
    in June but closed the border after their return. Subsequently, it
    tightly controlled vehicular and pedestrian traffic to and from the
    Kyrgyz Republic, frequently closing the border for short periods with
    no advance notice.
        On May 24, officials reportedly closed the border with Tajikistan
    for 10 days following several reported cases of polio in Tajikistan.
    Borders are sometimes closed around national holidays due to security
    concerns. Permission from local authorities is required to move to
    Tashkent City or Tashkent Region. The Government rarely granted
    permission to move to Tashkent, and local observers reported that
    persons had to pay bribes of approximately 1,500,000 soum ($1,000) to
    obtain the registration documents required to move.
        Citizens are required to have a domicile registration stamp in
    their passport before traveling domestically or leaving the country.
    The Government also requires citizens to obtain exit visas for foreign
    travel or emigration, although it generally grants the visas. For
    expedited issuance, local officials often demanded bribes. There were
    reports during the year that the Government delayed exit visas for
    human rights activists to prevent their travel abroad; in some cases,
    they were delayed for many months. Citizens generally continued to be
    able to travel to neighboring states. Land travel to Afghanistan
    remained difficult. Citizens needed permission from the NSS to cross
    the border.
        The Government requires hotels to register foreign visitors with
    the Government on a daily basis. Foreigners who stay in private homes
    are required to register their location within three days of arrival.
    Government officials closely monitor foreigners in border areas, but
    foreigners generally can move within the country without restriction.
        The law does not provide for dual citizenship. In theory returning
    citizens must prove to authorities that they did not acquire foreign
    citizenship while abroad or face loss of citizenship. In practice
    citizens who possessed dual citizenship generally traveled without
    impediment.
        The Government noted that citizens residing outside the country for
    more than six months can register with the country's consulates, and
    such registration was voluntary. Unlike in some previous years, there
    were no reports that failure to register rendered citizens residing
    abroad and children born abroad stateless.
        The law does not address forced exile. In 2009, however, political
    opposition leader Bahodir Choriev, an Uzbek citizen with U.S.
    residency, was forced to leave the country after he returned and tried
    to organize a ``founding congress'' for his party. No persons were
    forcibly exiled during the year.

        Protection of Refugees.--Following an outbreak of ethnic violence
    in Kyrgyzstan in June, the Government accepted approximately 100,000
    ethnic Uzbek refugees into its territory. In cooperation with the
    international community, the Government provided food, water, and
    shelter, in addition to limited medical and psychological services
    between June 11 and June 25. For the first time since the 2005 Andijan
    events, the Government invited the Office of the UN High Commissioner
    for Refugees (UNHCR) into its territory to help meet refugee needs, and
    officials from UNHCR and other international organizations reported
    high levels of cooperation throughout the crisis.
        After approximately two weeks, the Government in concert with the
    Government of Kyrgyzstan sought to repatriate the refugees. The
    majority of refugees reportedly returned voluntarily, although there
    were some reports of coercive tactics employed by authorities from both
    countries to return some of the refugees to Kyrgyzstan. The Government
    provided no resettlement options that would allow the refugees to
    reside in the country legally and permanently, but neither did it
    pressure the remaining refugees to depart its territory. There were
    some reports of Kyrgyzstani refugees buying property without government
    impediment in anticipation of permanent relocation. The Government did
    not approve a UNHCR request to maintain a continuing presence in the
    country, and all UNHCR personnel were required to depart not long after
    the crisis ended.
        The country is not a party to the 1951 Convention relating to the
    Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol. Its laws do not provide for
    the granting of asylum or refugee status, and the Government has not
    established a system for providing protection to refugees. In practice
    the Government provided some protection against the expulsion or return
    of refugees to countries where their lives or freedom would be
    threatened due to their race, religion, nationality, membership in a
    particular social group, or political opinion. In a departure from the
    previous two years, there were no reported cases of the Government
    forcibly removing Afghan refugees from the country.
        During the first 10 months of the year, the UN Development Program
    (UNDP) continued to assist with monitoring and resettlement to another
    country of approximately 370 refugees, most of them Afghans, who
    remained in the country. The UNDP also performed some of the UNHCR's
    humanitarian functions, as it has done since the UNHCR office closed in
    2006.
        Since 2007 the MFA has not considered UNHCR mandate certificates as
    the basis for extended legal residence, and persons carrying such
    certificates must apply for the appropriate visa or face possible
    deportation. The Government considered the UNHCR mandate refugees from
    Afghanistan and Tajikistan to be economic migrants, and officials
    sometimes subjected them to harassment and bribery. Most refugees from
    Tajikistan were ethnic Uzbeks; and, unlike refugees from Afghanistan,
    those from Tajikistan were able to integrate into the local
    communities, and the local population supported them. Some refugees
    from Tajikistan were officially stateless or faced the possibility of
    becoming officially stateless, as many carried only old Soviet
    passports rather than Tajik or Uzbek passports.
        The UNHCR reported that Afghan refugees had no access to legal
    employment and therefore had limited means to earn a livelihood. There
    have been reports that Afghan refugees frequently failed to seek police
    protection or redress through the courts because they feared harassment
    or retribution by officials. The Government provided access to
    education and some basic services, but the Government does not provide
    for durable solutions such as naturalization.

    Section 3. Respect for Political Rights: The Right of Citizens to
            Change Their Government
        The constitution and law provide citizens with the right to change
    their government peacefully. In practice this was not possible through
    peaceful and democratic means. The Government severely restricted
    freedom of expression and suppressed political opposition. The
    Government was highly centralized and ruled by President Karimov and
    the executive branch through sweeping decree powers, primary authority
    for drafting legislation, and control over government appointments,
    most of the economy, and the security forces.

        Elections and Political Participation.--In 2008 President Karimov
    began a third term as president as a result of elections held in 2007
    that did not meet international democratic standards. The OSCE's
    limited election observation mission noted that while there were more
    candidates than in previous elections, all the candidates publicly
    endorsed President Karimov's policies. There was no expression of
    competing political views. Administrative hurdles kept some potential
    candidates off the ballot, and the Government tightly controlled the
    media coverage of the election. The OSCE mission noted procedural
    problems and irregularities in vote tabulation.
        The constitution prohibits a president from seeking a third term in
    office, an apparent contradiction the Government has never addressed
    publicly. The OSCE declined to monitor the 2000 election in which
    President Karimov was reelected to a second term, determining that
    preconditions did not exist for it to be free and fair. A 2002
    referendum, which multilateral organizations and foreign embassies also
    refused to observe, extended presidential terms from five to seven
    years.
        The country held parliamentary elections in December 2009. Changes
    to election law ensured that only members of political parties (all of
    whom supported the president) were eligible to run for office. For the
    first time, however, the political parties engaged in debate and
    criticized each other's proposed policies. Election observers noted
    that the elections themselves appeared to be conducted with fewer
    irregularities than in previous years. Multiple voting instances were
    the most commonly observed problem, attributed to a tradition of
    ``family voting,'' in which one person casts votes for an entire
    family. The OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights'
    Election Assessment Mission acknowledged that the elections were
    administered ``in a competent manner and according to schedule,'' but
    that the ``field of candidates did not offer real political
    alternatives to voters,'' and that some ``serious irregularities
    undermined the principle of equality of the vote and raised questions
    about the integrity of the elections.''
        Registered political parties included Milliy Tiklanish (``National
    Rebirth''), the People's Democratic Party of Uzbekistan, the Adolat
    (``Justice'') Social-Democratic Party, and the Liberal Democratic Party
    of Uzbekistan. The Government controlled all registered political
    parties and provided their funding.
        The law allows independent political parties, but the MOJ has broad
    powers to interfere with parties and to withhold financial and legal
    support to parties that they judge as being opposed to the Government.
        The law makes it extremely difficult for genuinely independent
    political parties to organize, nominate candidates, and campaign. To
    register a new party requires 20,000 signatures. The procedures to
    register a candidate are burdensome. The law allows the MOJ to suspend
    parties for as long as six months without a court order. The Government
    also exercised control over established parties by controlling their
    financing and media exposure.
        Only registered political parties may nominate candidates. In 2008
    the number of deputies in parliament's lower house (the Oliy Majlis)
    expanded from 120 to 150, with half of the new seats reserved for
    members of the new ``Ecological Movement of Uzbekistan.'' With this
    change, 10 percent of the Oliy Majlis members were appointed rather
    than elected. All members of the senate either are appointed by the
    president (16 members) or chosen in limited elections open only to
    elected members of local councils (84 members). The executive branch
    can initiate legislation, and a Tashkent-based research group reported
    that between 2004 and 2009, the executive branch initiated 93 percent
    of all legislative acts. In this year's opening session of parliament,
    President Karimov urged members of parliament to take a more active
    role in initiating and developing legislation.
        The law prohibits judges, public prosecutors, NSS officials,
    persons serving in the armed forces, foreign citizens, and stateless
    persons from joining political parties. The law prohibits parties based
    on religion or ethnicity; those that oppose the sovereignty, integrity,
    security of the country, and the constitutional rights and freedoms of
    citizens; those that promote war or social, national, or religious
    hostility; and those that seek to overthrow the Government.
        The Government banned or denied registration to several political
    parties following the 2005 Andijan events. Former party leaders
    remained in exile, and their parties struggled to remain relevant
    without a strong domestic base.
        There were 32 women in the 150-member lower chamber of the
    parliament and 15 women in the 100-member senate, along with one woman
    in the 28-member cabinet. In 2008 Dilorom Toshmuhammedova, leader of
    the progovernment Adolat Social-Democratic party and one of four
    officially recognized presidential candidates in the December 2007
    election, became the first female speaker of the lower house of
    parliament, the highest government position a woman has held.
        There were 11 members of ethnic minorities in the lower house of
    parliament and 11 members of ethnic minorities in the senate.

    Section 4. Official Corruption and Government Transparency
        The law provides criminal penalties for official corruption;
    however, the Government did not implement the law effectively, and
    officials frequently engaged in corrupt practices with impunity.
        Corruption among law enforcement personnel remained a problem.
    Police routinely and arbitrarily detained citizens to extort bribes.
    There were at least 11 publicized prosecutions of law enforcement
    officials on corruption-related charges during the year, representing a
    substantial increase over previous years. In a speech on December 7 to
    mark Constitution Day, the president notably stated that the time has
    come to ``stop tolerating'' cases of corruption, extortion, and abuse
    of office.
        The Government reported that during the year, it convicted 6,025
    government officials on corruption-related charges, including 245
    representatives of law enforcement bodies. Of these, 945 were sentenced
    to imprisonment, 3,272 to correctional work, 1,615 to financial
    penalties, and four to suspended sentences. Under the amnesty decree,
    1,098 persons were excused from punishment. Some of the charges against
    these persons were embezzlement, tax evasion, abuse of office,
    excessive use of power, official negligence, forgery, and bribery.
        In 2008 the president signed a law ratifying the United Nations
    Convention Against Corruption. The law states that all government
    agencies must provide citizens with the opportunity to examine
    documents, decisions, and other materials affecting their freedoms.
    Implementation of the law was inconsistent; but in July the Prosecutor
    General's Office created a special working group to bring the
    legislation in line with the UN convention. That office charged the
    working group with developing a five-year national action plan of anti-
    corruption measures that will seek to address prevention and detection
    of corruption, as well as legal education for citizens.
        The World Bank corruption indicators gave the country particularly
    low marks for accountability and control of corruption, with both
    indicators dropping over the last five years. The public generally did
    not have access to government information, and the Government seldom
    reported information normally considered in the public domain.
        Corruption was a severe problem in the university, law, and traffic
    enforcement systems. There were several reports that bribes to judges
    influenced the outcomes of civil suits. On January 15, a state-
    controlled television station broadcast a report on corruption in the
    education system in the Samarkand region. The report questioned the
    value of a corrupted education system and highlighted cases of teachers
    arrested and sentenced for taking bribes.
        An independent Web site reported on August 16 that officials
    arrested the provost of the Tashkent Institute of Law for bribery. On
    August 14, it reported that officials also arrested two deputy mayors
    and the head of public education in the Jizzakh region's Zarbdor
    district for taking bribes. On August 4, the same Web site reported
    that the Tashkent region criminal court sentenced former head of the
    interrogation office of Parkent district to 11 years in prison for
    bribery.
        On February 19, a state-controlled newspaper reported that the
    Government sentenced three investigators from the Tashkent region to
    15, 12, and seven years in prison for taking bribes to cover up cases
    of fraud and embezzlement.
        On March 24, a state-controlled newspaper reported that the
    Kashkadarya regional court sentenced two police investigators from the
    Nishon district to 10.5 and 11 years in prison for extortion.
        On March 31, an independent Web site reported that the Government
    launched criminal cases against at least 10 officials in the Jizzakh
    region accused of taking bribes, including eight from the tax
    department. On May 14, the same source reported that a former deputy
    governor of the Samarkand region and a deputy head of the Kattakurgan
    region had been sentenced to 11 and eight years respectively in prison
    for taking bribes.
        On June 27, an independent Web site reported that a Tashkent city
    prosecutor fired in May was arrested for abuse of office and bribery.
        On July 16, a state-controlled newspaper reported that the
    Surkhandarya regional criminal court sentenced the mayor of the town of
    Termez to 11 years in prison for abuse of office and taking bribes.
        On October 22, a state-controlled newspaper reported that a
    Surhandarya Regional court convicted Korahon Tursunov, the mayor of
    Termez city, of bribery, extortion, and abuse of office and sentenced
    him to 11 years in prison.
        On December 17, the president personally removed Uktam Barnoyev
    from his position as the governor of the Samarkand Region, reportedly
    for corruption and abuse of authority.

    Section 5. Governmental Attitude Regarding International and
            Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations of Human
            Rights
        A number of domestic human rights groups operated in the country,
    although the Government often hampered their activities by creating
    fear of official retaliation. The Government frequently harassed,
    arrested, and prosecuted human rights activists.
        The Government officially acknowledged two domestic human rights
    NGOs--Ezgulik and the Independent Human Rights Organization of
    Uzbekistan. Others were unable to register but continued to function at
    both the national and local levels. Between January and September, the
    Humanitarian Legal Center in Bukhara submitted four applications for
    registration and each time was denied without explanation. The NGO
    continued to conduct activities, however, and local authorities even
    participated in round table discussions on certain topics.
        Organizations that attempted to register in previous years and
    remained unregistered included the HRSU, the Expert Working Group
    (EWG), and Mazlum (``Oppressed''). These organizations do not exist as
    legal entities, but they continued to function despite difficulty
    renting offices and conducting financial transactions. They could not
    open bank accounts, making it virtually impossible to receive funds
    legally. Unregistered groups were vulnerable to government prosecution.
    In rare cases, however, government representatives participated with
    unregistered groups in certain events. For example, the EWG held a
    half-day seminar involving migration issues that was attended by
    members of government-organized entities.
        Government officials spoke informally with domestic human rights
    defenders, some of whom noted that they were able to resolve cases of
    human rights abuses through direct engagement with authorities.
        Police and security forces continued to harass domestic human
    rights activists and NGOs during the year. Security forces regularly
    threatened and intimidated human rights activists to prevent their
    activities and dissuade them from meeting with foreign diplomats;
    occasionally police and other government authorities ordered activists
    to cease contact with foreigners. Unknown assailants occasionally
    attacked human rights activists. Authorities regularly detained or
    arrested human rights activists and subjected them to house arrest or
    false criminal charges. One activist reported being kept under house
    arrest on April 5 during the visit of UN Secretary General Bank Ki Moon
    and of being under strict control during the annual meeting of the
    Asian Development Bank in the first week of May. At least seven
    activists were effectively under house arrest on May 13, the five-year
    anniversary of the Andijan events. Eight activists reported being under
    house arrest or strict control of law enforcement officers for two days
    around the September 1 Independence Day holiday.
        On December 17, an unknown assailant struck human rights activist
    Dmitriy Tikhonov in the leg with a metal bar, injuring his left knee.
    Tikhonov believed the assault was in retaliation for his human rights
    activities.
        The Government continued to restrict the work of international
    bodies and foreign diplomatic missions and severely criticized their
    human rights monitoring activities and policies. The Government
    followed a standard policy of auditing all international NGOs annually.
        The Government required that NGOs coordinate their training
    sessions or seminars with government authorities. NGO managers believed
    this amounted to a requirement for prior official permission from the
    Government for all NGO program activities.
        Human Rights Watch (HRW) remained registered, but has not been able
    to obtain accreditation for an international staff person since 2008.
    In October the Government granted a short-term visa to HRW's proposed
    director for its Tashkent office, who immediately applied for
    accreditation. The Government extended the term of the visa while the
    proposed director waited for a decision, but on December 24, the
    Government denied the accreditation request.
        Although the OSCE has been able to do only limited work on human
    rights issues since 2006, the Government approved several proposed OSCE
    projects during the year, including in the ``human dimension,'' the
    human rights part of the OSCE's work.
        The Human Rights Ombudsman's Office stated that its goals included
    promoting observance and public awareness of fundamental human rights,
    assisting in shaping legislation to bring it into accordance with
    international human rights norms, and resolving cases of alleged abuse.
    The Ombudsman's Office mediates disputes between citizens who contact
    it and makes recommendations to modify or uphold decisions of
    government agencies, but its recommendations are not binding. The
    ombudsman has offices in all provinces of the country, as well as in
    the Karakalpakstan Republic and Tashkent. The Ombudsman's Office
    reported that in 2009, it received 10,409 petitions throughout the
    country. The central office in Tashkent received 7,394 complaints, took
    action in 3,515 of those, and positively resolved 452 complaints. The
    majority of these complaints dealt with the rights to life, freedom,
    privacy, human treatment, and respect for dignity, as well as the right
    to a fair trial.
        Throughout the year, the Ombudsman's Office hosted meetings and
    conferences with law enforcement, judicial representatives, and limited
    international NGO participation to discuss its mediation work and means
    of facilitating protection of human rights.
        The National Human Rights Center is a government agency responsible
    for educating the population and officials on the principles of human
    rights and democracy and for ensuring that the Government complies with
    its international obligations to provide human rights information.
    During the year the center's director responded to questions under the
    ICCPR Review, accepting some criticism but denying many of the
    allegations or stating that the issues involved the country's internal
    affairs.

    Section 6. Discrimination, Societal Abuses, and Trafficking in Persons
        The law and constitution prohibits discrimination on the bases of
    race, gender, disability, language, and social status. However,
    societal discrimination against women and persons with disabilities
    existed, and child abuse persisted.

        Women.--The law prohibits rape, including rape of a ``close
    relative,'' but the criminal code does not specifically prohibit
    marital rape, and the court did not try any known cases. Cultural norms
    discouraged women and their families from speaking openly about rape,
    and the press rarely reported instances of rape.
        The law does not specifically prohibit domestic violence, which
    remained common. While the law punishes physical assault, police often
    discouraged women from making complaints against abusive partners, and
    officials rarely removed abusers from their homes or took them into
    custody. Society considered the physical abuse of women to be a
    personal affair rather than a criminal act. Family members or elders
    within the mahallah usually handled such cases, and they rarely came to
    court. Local authorities emphasized reconciling husband and wife,
    rather than addressing the abuse. Although prohibited by law, polygamy
    still existed.
        As in past years, there were reported cases in which women
    attempted or committed suicide as a result of domestic violence. Those
    active in women's issues suggested that many cases went unreported, and
    there were no reliable statistics on the problem's extent. Observers
    cited conflict with a husband or mother-in-law, who by tradition
    exercises complete control over a wife, as the usual reason for
    suicide. There were no government-run shelters or hotlines for victims
    of domestic abuse, and very few NGOs focused on domestic violence.
        The law does not explicitly prohibit sexual harassment, but it is
    illegal for a man to coerce a woman who has a business or financial
    dependency into a sexual relationship. Social norms and the lack of
    legal recourse made it difficult to assess the scope of the problem.
        The Government generally allowed couples and individuals to decide
    freely and responsibly the number, spacing, and timing of their
    children, and it granted access to information and the means to do so
    free from discrimination, coercion, and violence. There were, however,
    several reports of involuntary sterilizations of women and allegations
    that the Government pressured doctors to sterilize women to control the
    birth rate. The Government's official policy is for doctors to
    encourage all forms of family planning including sterilization, which
    may not be done without the informed consent of the patient.
        Contraception generally was available to both men and women. In
    most districts, maternity clinics were available and staffed by fully
    trained doctors, who gave a wide range of prenatal and postpartum care.
    There were reports that women in rural areas chose in greater numbers
    than in urban areas to give birth at home without the presence of
    skilled medical attendants.
        Men and women generally are diagnosed and treated equally for
    sexually transmitted infections, including HIV.
        The law prohibits discrimination based on gender, and the National
    Women's Committee (NWC) exists to promote the legal rights of women.
    Women historically have held leadership positions across all sectors of
    society, although not with the same prevalence as men, but cultural and
    religious practices limited their role. The Government provided little
    data that could be used to determine whether women experienced
    discrimination in access to employment, credit, or pay equity for
    substantially similar work.
        The NWC works with the UNDP on implementation of both the UN
    Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against
    Women (CEDAW) and the 2007 National Action Plan to address
    recommendations of the CEDAW committee.

        Children.--Citizenship is derived by birth within the country's
    territory and from one's parents. The Government generally registers
    all births immediately.
        On September 29, the president signed a new law on the prevention
    of child neglect and juvenile delinquency, with the stated intentions
    of preventing child neglect, homelessness of children, and the criminal
    and antisocial activities of minors, and identifying and addressing the
    causes and conditions contributing to such problems. The law provides
    for children's rights and for free compulsory education for 12 years
    through basic and secondary school, and does so equally for both boys
    and girls. In practice shortages and budget difficulties meant many
    families had to pay education expenses. Teachers earned extremely low
    salaries and often expected regular payments from students and their
    parents in return for good grades.
        The Government subsidized health care, including for children, and
    boys and girls enjoyed equal access. As with education, low wages for
    doctors and poor funding of the health sector led to a widespread
    system of informal payments for services; in some cases, this was a
    barrier to access for the poor. With some exceptions, those without an
    officially registered address, such as street children and children of
    migrant workers, did not have access to government health facilities.
        Society generally considered child abuse to be an internal family
    matter, and government officials were reluctant to discuss the issue
    openly with international organizations. Elders on neighborhood
    committees frequently took an interest at the local level in line with
    the committees' responsibilities to maintain harmony and order within
    the community.
        The law states that the minimum age for marriage is 17 years old
    for women and 18 years old for men, but a mayor of a district may lower
    the age by one year in exceptional cases. Child marriage was not
    prevalent, although in some rural areas girls as young as 15
    occasionally were married in religious ceremonies not officially
    recognized by the state.
        The law protects children from ``all forms of exploitation,''
    including involvement in criminal activity and prostitution. Involving
    a child in prostitution is punishable with a fine of 25 to 50 times the
    minimum monthly wage and prison time of an unspecified length.
        A statutory rape law states that a child younger than 16 years old
    cannot legally consent to having sexual relations with an adult, and
    the punishment for statutory rape is 15 to 20 years of imprisonment.
    The production, demonstration, and distribution of child pornography
    (of persons younger than 21years old) are punishable by fine or up to
    three years' imprisonment.
        There were isolated reports of women being pressured into
    institutionalizing children who were born with birth defects or other
    illnesses. According to these reports, this action was more likely to
    occur when the mother was single or had no means to care for the child.
        Men are required to serve one year of military duty at the age of
    18. The Government offers ``alternate service'' to a person who has
    been designated by a medical commission to be physically unable to
    serve. The alternative usually means paying 30 percent of one's salary
    to the Ministry of Defense for one year. University students can defer
    their service, and some universities have programs that will substitute
    for military service. There were other options to pay a fee in lieu of
    service.
        The country is a party to the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil
    Aspects of International Child Abduction. For information on
    international parental child abduction, please see the Department of
    State's annual Report on Compliance with the Hague Convention on the
    Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction at http://
    travel.state.gov/abduction/resources/congressreport/congressreport--
    4308.html well as country-specific information at http://
    travel.state.gov/abduction/country/country--3781.html.

        Anti-Semitism.--Jewish leaders reported high levels of acceptance
    in society. There were no reports of anti-Semitic acts or patterns of
    discrimination against Jews. The Jewish community was unable to meet
    the registration requirements necessary to have a centrally registered
    organization, but there were eight registered Jewish congregations
    throughout the country. Observers estimated the Jewish population to be
    approximately 10,000 persons, concentrated mostly in Tashkent,
    Samarkand, and Bukhara. Their numbers continued to decline due to
    emigration, largely for economic reasons.

        Trafficking in Persons.--For information on trafficking in persons,
    please see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons
    Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        Persons With Disabilities.--The law prohibits discrimination
    against persons with disabilities. In 2009 the Government signed the UN
    Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The convention
    clarifies the rights of persons with disabilities and identifies areas
    where adaptations must be made to allow persons with disabilities to
    exercise their rights effectively. The Government has not yet ratified
    the convention.
        Between January and March, the National Center for Children's
    Social Adaptation held a series of trainings on inclusive education,
    with the intention of working toward better integration of children
    with disabilities into both education and society.
        In April the Government began a campaign to confirm the disability
    levels of citizens who receive government disability benefits.
    Ostensibly, the confirmations were conducted to ensure the legitimacy
    of the payments, but there were reports that some persons with
    disabilities had their benefits unfairly reduced in this process.
        There was some societal discrimination against persons with
    disabilities. The Government provided care for persons with mental
    disabilities in special homes.
        The Ministry of Labor and Social Protection continued to
    participate in the Accessibility, Civic Consciousness, Employment, and
    Society Support for Persons with Disabilities (ACCESS) project with
    several international partners, including the UNDP. The purpose of the
    project is to combat societal discrimination against persons with
    disabilities and expand social integration, employment, and inclusive
    educational opportunities, in addition to improving the implementation
    of national legislation. In July ACCESS coordinators held a two-day
    training session for professionals of the State Architecture and
    Construction Committee to ensure the accessibility of newly planned and
    constructed public buildings; a three-day training for media
    representatives on understanding and media coverage of disability
    issues; and a conference on the implementation of the UN Convention on
    the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Disability activists report
    that accessibility remains inadequate, noting that many of the high
    schools constructed in the last few years have exterior ramps, but no
    interior modifications that would allow wheelchair accessibility.
        During the year there were no reports of fines imposed for
    facilities being inaccessible to persons with disabilities. In 2008 the
    Government amended the law to include provisions imposing stiff fines
    for such violations.
        Although many public places lacked access for persons with
    disabilities, there was some wheelchair access throughout the country.
    The law does not provide effective safeguards against arbitrary or
    involuntary institutionalization. There were no reports this year of
    persons being held at psychiatric hospitals despite showing no signs of
    mental illness. The Ministry of Health controlled access to health care
    for persons with disabilities, and the Ministry of Labor and Social
    Protection facilitated employment of persons with disabilities. There
    were no reports of problems regarding accessibility of information and
    communications. No information was available regarding patterns of
    abuse in educational and mental health facilities.

        National/Racial/Ethnic Minorities.--The constitution states that
    all citizens are equal, regardless of ethnic background, and provides
    equal protection by the courts to all residents irrespective of
    national, racial, or ethnic origin. The country has significant Tajik
    (5 percent) and Russian (5.5 percent) minorities and smaller Kazakh and
    Kyrgyz minorities. There also was a small Romani population in
    Tashkent, estimated at less than 50,000 individuals. Complaints of
    societal violence or discrimination against members of these groups
    were rare.
        The constitution also provides for the right of all citizens to
    work and to choose their occupations. Although the law prohibits
    employment discrimination on the bases of ethnicity or national origin,
    ethnic Russians and other minorities occasionally expressed concern
    about limited job opportunities. Officials reportedly reserved senior
    positions in the Government bureaucracy and business for ethnic Uzbeks,
    although there were numerous exceptions.
        The law does not require Uzbek language ability to obtain
    citizenship, but language often was a sensitive issue. Uzbek is the
    state language, and the constitution requires that the president speak
    it. The law also provides that Russian is ``the language of interethnic
    communication.'' Russian is spoken widely in the main cities, and Tajik
    is spoken widely in Samarkand and Bukhara.

        Societal Abuses, Discrimination, and Acts of Violence Based on
    Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.--Homosexual activity among men
    is punishable by up to three years' imprisonment. Although convictions
    under this criminal provision are rare, there were reports that police
    used informants to extract heavy bribes from gay men. The law does not
    criminalize sexual activity among women.
        Homosexuality generally was a taboo subject in society, and there
    were no known lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT)
    organizations. There was also no known perpetrated or condoned violence
    against the LGBT community. There were no known reports of official or
    societal discrimination based on sexual orientation in employment,
    housing, statelessness, or access to education or health care, but this
    circumstance may be attributed to the social taboo against discussing
    homosexual activity rather than to equality in such matters.

        Other Societal Violence or Discrimination.--There was a social
    stigma against HIV/AIDS patients. Persons living with HIV reported
    social isolation by neighbors, public agency workers, health personnel,
    law enforcement officers, landlords, and employers after their HIV
    status became known. The military summarily expelled recruits in the
    armed services found to be HIV-positive. The Government's restrictions
    on local NGOs left only a handful of functioning NGOs to assist and
    protect the rights of persons with HIV/AIDS.

    Section 7. Worker Rights
        a. The Right of Association.--The law provides workers the right to
    form and join unions of their choice. In practice workers generally did
    not exercise this right out of fear that attempts to create alternative
    unions would be quickly repressed. The law declares unions independent
    of governmental administrative and economic bodies, except where
    provided for by other laws; in practice unions remained centralized and
    dependent on the Government. The state-run Board of the Trade Union
    Federation of Uzbekistan was the largest union, with official reports
    of 60 percent of employees in the country participating. Leaders of the
    federation are appointed by the president's office rather than elected
    by the union board. All regional and industrial trade unions at the
    local level were state-managed. There were no independent unions. The
    law prohibits discrimination against union members and officers, but
    this prohibition was irrelevant due to the unions' close relationship
    with the Government. The law neither provides for nor prohibits the
    right to strike.

        b. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively.--Unions and
    their leaders were not free to conduct activities without interference
    from the employer or from government-controlled institutions. The law
    provides the right to organize and to bargain collectively; in practice
    this right was not exercised. Unions were government-organized
    institutions with little bargaining power aside from some influence on
    health and work safety issues.
        The law states that unions may conclude agreements with
    enterprises, but because the state heavily influenced the unions,
    collective bargaining in any meaningful sense did not occur. The
    Ministry of Labor and Social Protection and the Ministry of Finance, in
    consultation with the Council of the Federation of Trade Unions, set
    wages for government employees. In the small private sector, management
    established wages or negotiated them individually with persons who
    contracted for employment. There is no state institution responsible
    for labor arbitration.
        The law gives unions oversight for individual and collective labor
    disputes.
        There are no special laws or exemptions from regular labor law
    within the free trade zone established in Navoi.

        c. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor.--The constitution and
    law prohibit forced or compulsory labor, including by children, except
    as legal punishment for such offenses as robbery, fraud, or tax
    evasion, or as specified by law. However, such practices occurred
    during the cotton harvest, when authorities compelled schoolchildren,
    university students, teachers, medical workers, government personnel,
    military personnel, and nonworking segments of the population to pick
    cotton. Credible reporting indicated the use of forced adult labor
    during the cotton harvest was higher than in the previous year. Local
    officials, under central authority, reportedly compelled the adults
    under threats of adverse employment actions or denial of social benefit
    payments. Authorities expected teachers and school administrators to
    participate in the harvest either as supervisors or by picking cotton
    themselves; schoolteachers often bore responsibility for ensuring their
    students met quotas. Students and adults who did not make their quotas
    were sometimes subject to ridicule or abuse by local administrators or
    police. The loss of public sector workers during the cotton harvest
    adversely affected communities, as medical procedures often were
    deferred, essential public services delayed, and internationally funded
    development projects put on hold while implementing partners worked the
    fields.

        d. Prohibition of Child Labor and Minimum Age for Employment.--Laws
    to protect children from exploitation in the workplace provide both
    criminal and administrative sanctions against violators of the child
    labor laws; however, these laws were not effectively enforced. Children
    worked in family businesses in cities during school holidays and
    vacations, and some children worked as street vendors, often helping
    their parents.
        Children also worked in the planting and picking of cotton. Many
    thousands of schoolchildren and university students worked in the
    cotton fields during the annual harvest as a result of government
    mobilization. The national labor code establishes the minimum working
    age at 16 years old and provides that work must not interfere with the
    studies of those younger than 18 years old. The law establishes a right
    to a part-time job beginning at age 15, and children with permission
    from their parents may work a maximum of 24 hours per week when school
    is not in session and 12 hours per week when school is in session.
    Amendments in 2009 abolished a provision that allowed 14-year-olds to
    be involved with ``light work'' that did not interfere with education
    or hinder the health or development of the child. Children between the
    ages of 16 and 18 years old may work 36 hours per week while school is
    not in session and 18 hours per week while school is in session.
        The use of forced child labor in the cotton sector was widespread.
    During the fall harvest, local administrators throughout the country
    closed schools and universities for up to eight weeks and transported
    students to work in the cotton fields. Although the majority of
    students appeared to be over the age of 12 years old, 11-year-olds were
    not uncommon, and there were isolated reports of some students as young
    as 10-years-old having to work in the fields. Observers reported that
    older students often worked 10-hour days and frequently were housed in
    tents or barracks away from their families. For the second year in a
    row, the majority of classes remained in operation at the younger grade
    levels.
        Students and adults made between 100 and 120 soum ($.06) per kilo
    (2.2 pounds) of cotton picked. Younger students were expected to pick
    20 to 45 kilograms of cotton per day, while older students and adults
    were expected to pick 50 to 60 kilos per day. The resulting daily wage
    was between 2,000 and 5,400 soum ($1.30 to $3.60) for younger students
    and 5,000 to 7,200 soum ($3.30 and $4.80) per day for older students.
    Many universities reportedly threatened to expel students who did not
    participate in the harvest, and at least one university expelled a
    student for refusing to participate.
        Working conditions varied greatly by region. There were some
    reports of inadequate food and lodging for the children; there were
    also reports of students without access to clean drinking water.
        For additional information on forced child labor, see the
    Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons Report at
    www.state.gov/g/tip.
        In 2009 Ministry of Labor and Social Security (MOL) and Ministry of
    Health (MOH) published a joint decree prohibiting the employment of
    minors under 18 years old in occupations on the list of hazardous work
    that included the manual harvesting of cotton. A February joint decree
    from MOL and MOH states that the law prohibits children under 18 years
    old from working in any of the unfavorable conditions of work listed by
    the ministries. The law stipulates that public officials who violate
    labor legislation involving a minor are subject to stiff fines and
    private individuals to fines of lesser amounts.
        Labor legislation does not explicitly provide jurisdiction for
    inspectors from the MOL to focus on child labor enforcement.
    Enforcement of child labor laws is under the jurisdiction of the MOL,
    the prosecutor general, the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA), and MIA
    general criminal investigators. It is unclear whether the MIA conducts
    inspections in the agricultural sector. There were no known
    prosecutions for using child labor during the year.
        The Government's 2008 National Action Plan called for an end to the
    worst forms of child labor, including forced labor; however, most of
    its goals have not been reached. The Government does not allow
    independent organizations to assess comprehensively child labor in the
    cotton sector, nor does it provide figures on the use of child labor in
    the country.

        e. Acceptable Conditions of Work.--The minimum wage from December
    2009 until August was 37,680 soum ($25) per month; on August 1, it was
    raised to 45,215 soum ($28). This wage did not provide a decent
    standard of living for a worker and family.
        The law establishes a standard workweek of 40 hours and requires a
    24-hour rest period. Overtime pay exists in theory, but it rarely was
    paid in practice.
        The MOL establishes and enforces occupational health and safety
    standards in consultation with unions. Reports suggested that
    enforcement was not effective. Although regulations provide for
    safeguards, workers in hazardous jobs often lacked protective clothing
    and equipment. Labor inspectors conducted inspections of small- and
    medium-sized businesses once every four years and inspected larger
    enterprises once every three years. The MOL or a local governor's
    office can initiate a selective inspection of a business as well, and
    special inspections are conducted in response to accidents or
    complaints. In accordance with the Law on Workers' Safety, workers
    legally may remove themselves from hazardous work if an employer has
    failed to provide adequate safety measures for the job. Generally
    workers did not exercise this right as it was not effectively enforced,
    and employees feared retribution by employers. According to a 2009 law,
    employers are required to insure against civil liability for damage
    caused to the life or health of an employee in connection with a work
    injury, occupational disease, or other injury to health caused by the
    employee's performance on the job. No cases have been reported under
    this law to date.
        The country has bilateral labor migration agreements with Russia
    and South Korea to increase protections on a range of labor rights for
    the country's labor migrants.

                                   __________

                               WESTERN HEMISPHERE

                                  ----------

                              ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA

        Antigua and Barbuda is a multiparty, parliamentary democracy with a
    population of approximately 100,000. In parliamentary elections in
    March 2009, which observers described as generally free and fair, the
    United Progressive Party (UPP) defeated the ruling Antigua Labour Party
    (ALP), and Baldwin Spencer was reelected as prime minister. Security
    forces reported to civilian authorities.
        There were human rights problems in some areas, including excessive
    use of force by police, poor prison conditions, some limits on press
    freedom, societal discrimination and violence against women, sexual
    abuse of children, and discrimination against homosexuality.

                            RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

    Section 1. Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom
            From:
        a. Arbitrary or Unlawful Deprivation of Life.--There were no
    reports that the Government or its agents committed arbitrary or
    unlawful killings.

        b. Disappearance.--There were no reports of politically motivated
    disappearances.

        c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or
    Punishment.--The constitution specifically prohibits such practices,
    and the authorities generally respected these prohibitions in practice.
    Nonetheless, there were occasional reports of police brutality,
    corruption, excessive force, discrimination against persons on basis of
    sexual orientation or gender identity, and allegations of abuse by
    prison guards.
        In response to several incidents during 2009 involving foreign
    citizens in which police used excessive force and threats of violence,
    police received training regarding international conventions and
    consular access, the latter of which reportedly improved.
        In 2008 authorities placed a police officer on administrative leave
    for the beating of a 17-year-old. The deputy police commissioner
    promised an investigation, and the officer retired. Although the
    officer faced criminal charges, he was never prosecuted.

        Prison and Detention Center Conditions.--Prison conditions were
    very poor. Her Majesty's Prison, the country's only prison, was
    overcrowded, did not have toilet facilities, and slop pails were used
    in all 122 cells. It held 295 convicted prisoners as of December 15.
        Prison overcrowding was attributed in part to a law that limits the
    ability of magistrates to grant bail to those accused of certain
    offenses. This resulted in an increase in the number of persons held on
    remand or awaiting trial. Due to space limitations, authorities
    sometimes held persons on remand together with convicted prisoners.
        Seven female prisoners were held in a separate section and were not
    subject to the same overcrowding problems encountered in the men's
    prison. Seven juvenile prisoners were held with adult inmates.
        Prisoners and detainees had reasonable access to visitors, were
    permitted religious observances, and had reasonable access to complaint
    mechanisms and the ability to request inquiry into conditions.
        The Government investigated and monitored prison conditions and
    permitted prison visits by independent human rights observers, although
    no such visits were known to have occurred during the year.

        d. Arbitrary Arrest or Detention.--The constitution prohibits
    arbitrary arrest and detention, and the Government generally observed
    these prohibitions.

        Role of the Police and Security Apparatus.--Security forces consist
    of a police force, the small Antigua and Barbuda Defence Force, and the
    Office of National Drug Control Policy, which coordinates law
    enforcement and prosecutorial action to counter narcotics trafficking.
    The police force had approximately 750 officers.
        The police discipline department, which investigates complaints
    against the police, is headed by the deputy police commissioner and
    decides whether an investigation is conducted. The police fall under
    the prime minister's area of responsibility; the prime minister can
    call for an independent investigation into an incident as needed.

        Arrest Procedures and Treatment While in Detention.--The law
    permits police to arrest without a warrant persons suspected of
    committing a crime. Criminal defendants have the right to a prompt
    judicial determination of the legality of their detention. The police
    must bring detainees before a court within 48 hours of arrest or
    detention. Criminal detainees were allowed prompt access to counsel and
    family members. There were cases in which authorities denied foreign
    national criminal detainees prompt consular access and delayed
    notification of detention to the foreign government, although training
    appeared to improve access and notification. In 2009 some foreign
    national detainees claimed police used excessive force and threats of
    violence against them while in detention; the Government investigated
    these allegations and found no evidence to support them. The bail
    system requires those accused of more serious crimes to appeal to the
    High Court for bail, taking this responsibility away from the lower
    court magistrates.

        e. Denial of Fair Public Trial.--The constitution provides for an
    independent judiciary, and the Government generally respected judicial
    independence in practice.

        Trial Procedures.--The constitution provides that criminal
    defendants should receive a fair, open, and public trial, and an
    independent judiciary generally enforced this right. Trials are by
    jury. Defendants enjoy a presumption of innocence, have timely access
    to counsel, may confront or question witnesses, and have the right to
    appeal. In capital cases only, the Government provides legal assistance
    at public expense to persons without the means to retain a private
    attorney. Courts often reached verdicts quickly, with some cases coming
    to conclusion in a matter of days.

        Political Prisoners and Detainees.--There were no reports of
    political prisoners or detainees.

        Civil Judicial Procedures and Remedies.--A court of summary
    jurisdiction, which sits without a jury, deals with civil cases
    involving sums of up to EC$1,500 ($550); three magistrate's courts deal
    with summary offenses and civil cases of not more than EC$500 ($185) in
    value. Persons may apply to the High Court for redress of alleged
    violations of their constitutional rights.

        f. Arbitrary Interference With Privacy, Family, Home, or
    Correspondence.--The constitution prohibits such actions, and the
    Government generally respected these prohibitions in practice.

    Section 2. Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:
        a. Freedom of Speech and Press.--The constitution provides for
    freedom of speech and of the press, but the Government respected these
    rights on a somewhat limited basis. Privately owned print media,
    including daily and weekly newspapers, were active and offered a range
    of opinion. Politicians in both parties often filed libel cases against
    members of the other party.
        There was continued tension between the Government and ZDK Radio,
    which is owned by the family of Lester Bird, the former prime minister
    and leader of the opposition ALP. The ALP claimed that government-
    operated ABS TV and Radio did not allow fair access to the opposition.

        Internet Freedom.--There were no government restrictions on access
    to the Internet or reports that government monitored e-mail or Internet
    chat rooms. Individuals and groups could engage in the peaceful
    expression of views via the Internet, including by e-mail. There were
    75 Internet users per 100 inhabitants, according to Internet World
    Statistics.

        Academic Freedom and Cultural Events.--There were no government
    restrictions on academic freedom or cultural events.

        b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association.--The constitution
    provides for freedom of assembly and association, and the Government
    generally respected these rights in practice.

        c. Freedom of Religion.--For a complete description of religious
    freedom, see the 2010 International Religious Freedom Report at
    www.state.gov/g/drl/irf/rpt.

        d. Freedom of Movement, Internally Displaced Persons, Protection of
    Refugees, and Stateless Persons.--The law provides for freedom of
    movement within the country, foreign travel, emigration, and
    repatriation, and the Government generally respected these rights in
    practice.
        The law prohibits forced exile, and the Government did not use it
    in practice.

        Protection of Refugees.--The Government has not established a
    system for providing protection to refugees. The Government did not
    expel or return refugees to a country where their lives or freedom
    would be threatened on account of their race, religion, nationality,
    membership in a particular social group, or political opinion; however,
    no such cases arose during the year.
        The Government did not grant refugee status or asylum during the
    year. The Government cooperated with the Office of the UN High
    Commissioner for Refugees and other humanitarian organizations in
    assisting refugees and asylum seekers, but normally the Government
    immediately deported foreigners who could not provide legal
    documentation.

    Section 3. Respect for Political Rights: The Right of Citizens to
            Change Their Government
        The constitution provides citizens with the right to change their
    government peacefully, and citizens exercised this right in practice
    through periodic, free, and fair elections held on the basis of
    universal suffrage.

        Elections and Political Participation.--In the March 2009 elections
    the then opposition UPP won nine of 17 seats in the House of
    Representatives and 50 percent of the popular vote. Members of the
    Organization of American States observer group reported that the
    elections were generally free and fair. After the opposition ALP
    challenged the results of election, the Court of Appeal upheld the
    decision despite some technical problems in the election process.
        Political parties could operate freely without restriction or
    outside interference.
        There were two women in the 19-seat House of Representatives and
    five women appointed to the 17-seat Senate. The governor general, the
    speaker of the House of Representatives, and the president of the
    Senate, all appointed positions, were women. There were two women in
    the cabinet.
        There was one member of a minority in parliament.

    Section 4. Official Corruption and Government Transparency
        The law provides criminal penalties for official corruption, and
    the Government generally implemented these laws effectively. There were
    isolated reports of government corruption during the year. Both
    political parties frequently accused the other of corruption, but
    investigations yielded little or no results.
        The Integrity in Public Life Act requires public officials to
    disclose all income, assets (including those of spouses and children),
    and personal gifts while in public office. The law established an
    Integrity Commission, appointed by the governor general, to receive and
    investigate complaints regarding noncompliance with or contravention of
    any provisions of this law or the Prevention of Corruption Act. The
    commission responded to isolated reports of corruption, administered
    the act, and received the required disclosure reports.
        The Freedom of Information Act gives citizens the statutory right
    to access official documents from public authorities and agencies, and
    it created a commissioner to oversee the process. In practice citizens
    found it difficult to obtain documents, possibly due to government
    funding constraints rather than obstruction.

    Section 5. Governmental Attitude Regarding International and
            Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations of Human
            Rights
        A number of domestic and international human rights groups
    generally operated without government restriction, investigating and
    publishing their findings on human rights cases. Government officials
    were cooperative and responsive to their views.
        The Government cooperated with international organizations and
    consulted regularly with UN representatives.
        There is an ombudsman, an independent authority appointed by the
    prime minister, to deal with complaints regarding police and other
    government officials. However, the office lacked the resources to
    provide effective oversight for the entire government and did not
    produce regular reports.

    Section 6. Discrimination, Societal Abuses, and Trafficking in Persons
        The constitution prohibits discrimination based on race, sex,
    creed, language, or social status, and the Government generally
    respected these prohibitions in practice.

        Women.--Rape, including spousal rape, is illegal and carries
    maximum sentences (rarely imposed) ranging from 10 years' to life
    imprisonment. It was a pervasive problem, with multiple rapes reported
    every month. The Directorate of Gender Affairs, part of the Ministry of
    Labor, Public Administration, and Empowerment, established and
    publicized a crisis hotline for victims and witnesses to sexual
    assault, and managed a sexual assault center that coordinates responses
    to sexual assault. When rape cases are reported to the police, a female
    police officer accompanies the victim for both questioning and medical
    examinations at the center. Once the doctor's report is completed, an
    investigation commences. If a suspect is arrested, he is placed in a
    line-up and must be identified by the victim face to face, without use
    of a one-way mirror. There were nine rape cases and 37cases of unlawful
    sexual intercourse reported, of which four rape cases and 30 unlawful
    sexual intercourse cases led to prosecution during the year. In
    situations where the victim did not know her assailant, the cases
    rarely came to trial.
        Violence against women, including spousal abuse, was a problem. The
    law prohibits and provides penalties for domestic violence, but many
    women were reluctant to testify against their abusers. The Directorate
    of Gender Affairs operated a domestic violence program that included
    training for police officers, magistrates, and judges. The directorate
    also ran a domestic abuse hotline and worked with a nongovernmental
    organization (NGO) to provide safe havens for abused women and
    children. Services for victims of domestic violence included counseling
    and an advocacy case worker who accompanied the victim to the hospital
    and police station.
        Sexual harassment is illegal, but it was rarely prosecuted.
    According to the Labor Department, there was a high incidence of sexual
    harassment incurred by employees in both the private and public
    sectors. However, only approximately 20 cases were formally reported
    during the year; the small number was believed to result from concerns
    about retaliation.
        Reproductive rights of women were protected. Couples and
    individuals had the right to decide freely and responsibly the number,
    spacing, and timing of their children and had the information to do so
    free from discrimination, coercion, and violence. There was adequate
    access to contraception. Most pregnant women had at least one antenatal
    care visit, and most women gave birth in hospitals. A 2008 UNICEF
    report indicated that skilled attendance at birth was 100 percent and
    estimated the contraceptive prevalence rate at 53 percent. Incidence of
    maternal mortality was not available. Women were equally diagnosed and
    treated for sexually transmitted infections, including HIV.
        Women in society enjoy the same rights as men under the law.
    However, economic conditions in rural areas tended to limit women to
    home and family, although some women worked as domestics, in
    agriculture, or in the large tourism sector. Despite these limitations,
    women were well represented in the private and public sectors. There
    was no legislation requiring equal pay for equal work, but women faced
    no restrictions involving ownership of property. The Directorate of
    Gender Affairs is charged with promoting the rights of women.

        Children.--Citizenship is acquired by birth in the country, and all
    children were registered at birth. Children born to citizen parents
    abroad can be registered by either of their parents.
        Child abuse remained a problem. The press reported regularly on the
    rape and sexual abuse of children. Adult men having regular sexual
    relations with young girls was also a problem. According to one
    regional human rights group, the girls were often the daughters of
    single mothers with whom the perpetrators also had regular sexual
    relations.
        Statutory rape is illegal; the minimum age for consensual sex is
    14. Despite a maximum penalty of 10 years to life, authorities brought
    charges against few offenders, and those convicted did not serve long
    jail terms due to lack of witness cooperation. Child pornography is
    illegal and subject to fines of up to EC$250,000 ($92,500) and 10 years
    in prison.
        The Government is not a party to the 1980 Hague Convention on
    International Child Abduction. For information on international
    parental child abduction, please see the Department of State's annual
    report on compliance at http://travel.state.gov/abduction/resources/
    congressreport/congressreport--4308.html, as well as country specific
    information at http://travel.state.gov/abduction/country/country--
    3781.html.

        Anti-Semitism.--The Jewish community was very small, and there were
    no reports of anti-Semitic acts.

        Trafficking in Persons.--For information on trafficking in persons,
    please see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons
    Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        Persons With Disabilities.--There was no reported discrimination
    against persons with disabilities in employment, education, access to
    health care, or in the provision of other state services. Although the
    constitution contains antidiscrimination provisions, no specific laws
    prohibit discrimination against, or mandate accessibility for, persons
    with disabilities.

        Societal Abuses, Discrimination, and Acts of Violence Based on
    Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.--Homosexual acts for both sexes
    are illegal under indecency statues, and some male homosexual acts are
    also illegal under anal intercourse laws. Indecency statutes carry a
    maximum penalty of five years, and anal intercourse carries a maximum
    penalty of 15 years in prison.
        Societal attitudes towards homosexuality impede operation and free
    association of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT)
    organizations. Some LGBT persons claimed that being openly LGBT would
    result in discrimination and possible violence. However, there were no
    reports of actual violence or discrimination based on sexual
    orientation.

        Other Societal Violence or Discrimination.--Rastafarians complained
    of discrimination, especially in hiring and in schools, but the
    Government took no specific action to address such complaints.
        Some LGBT persons claimed that homophobia impairs the willingness
    of HIV-positive persons to obtain treatment; however, there were no
    reports of violence or discrimination directed toward persons with HIV/
    AIDS. The Ministry of Health supported local NGO efforts to register
    human rights complaints and seek assistance related to cases of
    discrimination against those with HIV/AIDS. The Ministry of Labor
    encouraged employers to be more sensitive to employees with HIV/AIDS.

    Section 7. Worker Rights
        a. The Right of Association.--Workers have the right to associate
    freely and to form labor unions. Approximately 60 percent of workers in
    the formal sector belonged to a union. Unions were free to conduct
    their activities without government interference. Labor unions formed
    an important part of the base of both political parties.
        The labor code provides for the right to strike, but the Industrial
    Relations Court may limit this right in a given dispute. Workers who
    provide essential services (including bus, telephone, port, petroleum,
    health, and safety workers) must give 21 days' notice of intent to
    strike. Once either party to a dispute requests court mediation,
    strikes are prohibited under penalty of imprisonment. Because of the
    delays caused by mediation and required notice periods, unions often
    resolved labor disputes before calling a strike. The Industrial
    Relations Court may issue an injunction against a legal strike when the
    national interest is threatened or affected.
        Labor law prohibits retaliation against strikers, and the
    Government effectively enforced this prohibition.

        b. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively.--The law allows
    labor organizations to organize and bargain collectively without
    interference, and the Government protected this right. The law
    prohibits antiunion discrimination by employers but does not
    specifically require reinstatement of workers illegally fired for union
    activity.
        There were no special laws or exemptions from regular labor laws in
    export processing zones (EPZs). There was one inactive EPZ, with no
    workers.

        c. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor.--The constitution
    prohibits forced or compulsory labor, including by children. For more
    information, please see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in
    Persons Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        d. Prohibition of Child Labor and Minimum Age for Employment.--The
    law stipulates a minimum working age of 16 years, which corresponds
    with the provisions of the Education Act. In addition persons under 18
    years of age must have a medical clearance to work and may not work
    later than 10 p.m. The Ministry of Labor, which is required by law to
    conduct periodic inspections of workplaces, effectively enforced this
    law. The Labor Commissioner's Office also had an inspectorate that
    investigated child labor.

        e. Acceptable Conditions of Work.--The labor code provides that the
    minister of labor may issue orders, which have the force of law, to
    establish a minimum wage. Tripartite consultations helped set the
    minimum wage. The minimum wage was EC$7.00 ($2.59) an hour for all
    categories of labor, which provided a barely adequate standard of
    living for a worker and family. In practice the great majority of
    workers earned substantially more than the minimum wage.
        The law provides that workers are not required to work more than a
    48-hour, six-day workweek, but in practice the standard workweek was 40
    hours in five days. Laws provide for overtime work in excess of the
    standard workweek; excessive or compulsory overtime is not specifically
    prohibited.
        Although the Government had not developed occupational health and
    safety laws or regulations apart from those regarding child labor, the
    labor code includes provisions regarding occupational safety and
    health. While not specifically provided for by law, in practice workers
    could leave a dangerous workplace situation without jeopardy to
    continued employment.

                                   __________

                                   ARGENTINA

        Argentina is a federal constitutional republic with a population of
    approximately 40.1 million. Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner won the
    presidency in October 2007 in multiparty elections that media and
    various nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) described as generally
    free and fair. Security forces reported to civilian authorities, but
    occasionally acted independently of civilian control.
        The following human rights problems were reported: killings and use
    of excessive force by police or security forces; police abuse and
    alleged torture of criminal suspects and prison guard brutality toward
    prisoners; overcrowded and substandard prison and jail conditions;
    occasional arbitrary arrest and detention; prolonged pretrial
    detention; continued concerns about judicial efficiency and
    independence; official corruption; domestic violence against women;
    child abuse; trafficking in persons for sexual and labor exploitation,
    primarily within the country; and child labor.

                            RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

    Section 1. Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom
            From:
        a. Arbitrary or Unlawful Deprivation of Life.--The Government or
    its agents did not commit any politically motivated killings; however,
    there were reports of deaths as a result of police using unwarranted or
    excessive force.
        A November report by the NGO Coordinator Against Police Repression
    claimed that security forces using excessive force killed 219 persons
    between mid-November 2009 and mid-November of this year. The Center for
    Legal and Social Studies (CELS) reported a 12 percent increase in
    deaths as a result of police using unwarranted or excessive force from
    June 2008 to June 2009.
        On June 17, police officer Sergio Colombil reportedly shot and
    killed 15-year-old Diego Alexandre Bonefoi in Bariloche. Police claimed
    Bonefoi was attempting to escape from an armed robbery. A provincial
    court charged Colombil with homicide qualified by abuse of his
    authority as a police officer. On December 23, a Bariloche criminal
    court judge announced the case would go to trial. Colombi remained in
    pretrial detention at year's end. At a march to protest Bonefoi's death
    hours after the shooting, police shot and killed teenagers Nicolas
    Carrasco and Sergio Cardenas. An investigation into the killings
    continued at year's end.
        On August 12, a trial began in the case of an off-duty police
    officer who killed a 26-year-old man at a nightclub in Zarate in July
    2009. On September 7, the First Oral Tribunal of Zarate sentenced the
    officer to life imprisonment for homocide.
        Officers Daniel Alberto Fern dez and Jorge Alberto Conde,who
    reportedly shot 15-year-old Juan Carlos Quiroz in Pergamino in October
    2009, were arrested during the year according to a report by CELS. Fern
    ndez was charged with homicide qualified by abuse of authority, and
    Conde was charged as a participant in the crime. Both remained in
    pretrial detention at year's end.
        On December 21, a trial began in the case of Sergeant Sergio
    Borgino,charged with the 2009 killing of a 16-year-old boy in Mendoza
    Province. The trial continued at year's end.
        There was no prosecution or investigation in the case against two
    police officers allegedly involved in the 2008 killing of Sergio Enciso
    in Buenos Aires Province.
        On April 30, a criminal court in La Plata sentenced ex-sergeant
    Santiago Regalia to life imprisonment for the 2007 killing a 17-year-
    old who was handcuffed in a patrol car.
        On August 25, a criminal court annulled the 2009 acquittal of five
    police officers and the police chief of Ramos Mejia in Buenos Aires
    Province, who were charged with the 2008 murder of Gaston Duffau. The
    court called for the officers to be retried.
        The investigation regarding the 1991 police killing of Walter
    Bulacio continued as recommended by the Inter-American Court on Human
    Rights. On September 20, CELS requested that the Council of Magistrates
    initiate a suit against Alicia Lemini, the judge in charge of the
    Bulacio case, for ``favoring impunity'' in the investigation.

        b. Disappearance.--There were no reports of politically motivated
    disappearances.
        Authorities continued to investigate and prosecute individuals
    implicated in disappearances, killings, and torture committed during
    the 1976-83 military dictatorship, a focus of the Government's human
    rights policy. CELS estimated that there were 284 ongoing judicial
    investigations and 726 persons charged for crimes against humanity
    committed during the military dictatorship. Of those charged, 422
    remained in pretrial detention. According to the Supreme Court's Office
    for Follow-up on Crimes Against Humanity, during the year the courts
    convicted 98 perpetrators of human rights abuses committed during the
    1976-83 military dictatorship and continued trials that were suspended
    in 1989-90 when the Government pardoned such perpetrators. An
    additional 70 cases were pending at year's end. High-profile cases
    included:
        OnApril 13, the Federal Court of Santa Fe sentenced former military
    intelligence officer Horacio Americo Barcos to 11 years in prison for
    illegal deprivation of freedom and torture in two cases. This
    conviction combined with an earlier punishment for extortion increased
    Barcos' total sentence to 15 years' imprisonment.
        On April 21, a federal criminal court convicted and sentenced
    former president and general Reynaldo Benito Antonio Bignone to 25
    years in prison for crimes committed during the military regime.
    Bignone, along with five other military officers, was convicted on 56
    counts of kidnapping and torture at Campo de Mayo, one of the country's
    largest clandestine detention centers during the military dictatorship.
        On June 3, a trial for 10 former military officers involved in the
    ``Margarita Belen Massacre'' began at the Federal Court of Resistencia.
    The officers were accused of torturing and killing more than 20
    political prisoners on December 13, 1976, in the province of Chaco. The
    trial continued at year's end.
        On July 2, a trial began in Cordoba against ex-president Jorge
    Rafael Videla. Videla, former military general Luciano Benjamin
    Menendez, and 29 other defendants were charged for the murder of 31
    political prisoners between April and October of 1976. In the trial,
    Videla declared that he accepted responsibility as the highest military
    authority during the dictatorship, and subordinates followed his
    orders. On July 8, Menendez was sentenced to life imprisonment for
    illegal deprivation of freedom, aggravated torture, and homicide. On
    December 22, Videla was sentenced to life imprisonment for the torture
    and murder of the 31 prisoners.
        There were no developments in the investigation of Ernesto
    Barreiro, who remained in pretrial detention for human rights abuses he
    allegedly committed while serving as army officer and chief
    interrogator at the La Perla clandestine torture center during the
    military dictatorship.
        There were no developments in the trial of former police officers
    Fernando Esvedes and Carlos Vercellone, arrested in 2008 for their
    alleged role in political kidnappings and torture in the clandestine
    detention center Pozo de Arana during the military dictatorship.
        Judicial authorities continued to investigate cases of kidnapping
    and illegal adoption by members of the former military dictatorship of
    children born to detained dissidents. At year's end, 102 of an
    estimated 500 persons born to detained and disappeared dissidents and
    illegally adopted had been identified and made aware of their
    backgrounds, according to the NGO Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo.

        c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or
    Punishment.--The law prohibits torture and other cruel, inhuman, or
    degrading treatment or punishment and provides penalties for torture
    similar to those for homicide. However, CELS, The National Public
    Prosecutor, Amnesty International (AI), the Buenos Aires Provincial
    Memory Commission's Committee against Torture, and the Inter-American
    Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) rapporteur on the rights of persons
    deprived of liberty, reported that some police and prison guards
    continued to employ torture and brutality.
        CELS and the National Public Prosecutor reported police brutality
    and occasional alleged torture of suspects, particularly during prison
    transfers. While the Government investigated such reports, there were
    few convictions.
        A Neuquen court announced on May 4 that it would hear a case
    against 27 correctional service officers for alleged torture committed
    against 45 detainees at detention facilities in the province in 2004.
    On May 27, the court sentenced six officers to three to four years in
    prison for ``severe brutality and humiliation,'' declaring that the
    case lacked the specific conditions to qualify as torture. The court
    acquitted the remaining 21 officers.
        According to a June report of the Buenos Aires Provincial Memory
    Commission's Committee against Torture, an autonomous office
    established by the provincial government, practices such as beatings,
    the use of a cattle prod, cold water showers, and forced isolations
    within Buenos Aires prisons were common.
        In June the IACHR rapporteur on the rights of persons deprived of
    liberty expressed ``deep concern'' about detention center conditions.
    The rapporteur reported that from February to June, there were 241
    cases involving alleged torture and other cruel, inhumane, or degrading
    treatment, of which 115 cases were formally reported to authorities.

        Prison and Detention Center Conditions.--Prison conditions often
    were poor. Inmates in many facilities suffered from extreme
    overcrowding, poor nutrition, inadequate medical and psychological
    treatment, inadequate sanitation, limited family visits, and frequent
    degrading treatment, according to various reports by human rights
    organizations and research centers. The number of prisoners in Buenos
    Aires provincial penitentiaries exceeded facility capacity by an
    estimated 66 percent. A UN Human Rights Committee report released in
    March commented on the frequent use of torture and cruel or degrading
    treatment in police stations and prisons.
        A report by the Center for Studies in Criminal Policy and Human
    Rights (CEPOC), an NGO that promotes public policies that respect
    prisoners' rights, estimated that there were 80 prison deaths in 2009.
    Of these deaths, 37 percent were by hanging while others were
    attributed to fights, general injuries, and diseases. CEPOC indicated
    the majority of suicides were linked to poor prison conditions.
        In November 2009 the Supreme Court of Justice ordered Mendoza
    Province to improve the Boulogne Sur Mer prison facilities, giving the
    province 60 days to develop a working plan. In February a group of
    human rights lawyers from Mendoza appealed to the Inter-American Court
    of Human Rights on behalf of prisoners, claiming that the Government of
    Mendoza failed to develop such a plan.
        While women were held separately from men, the law permits children
    to stay in prison with their mothers until age four. According to the
    Federal Penitentiary Service, 50 children under the age of four lived
    with their mothers in federal prisons as of August. CELS reported that
    91 children remained with their mothers in Buenos Aires provincial
    prisons as of July. There were 789 women in federal prisons as of
    December. Women constituted 9 percent of the overall prison population,
    which included 30,000 in the Buenos Aires provincial prisons. In
    general men's prisons were more violent, dangerous, and crowded than
    women's prisons.
        Overcrowding in juvenile facilities often resulted in minors being
    held in police station facilities, although separate from adult
    detainees. The Buenos Aires Provincial Memory Commission's Committee
    against Torture estimated overcrowding in Buenos Aires Province
    juvenile facilities at 30 percent.
        According to the NGO United Civil Association for Justice, juvenile
    detention facilities in Buenos Aires Province were often in a poor
    state of security, health, and infrastructure. The association reported
    overcrowded conditions, with inadequate psychological services and
    understaffing. The Buenos Aires Provincial Memory Commission's
    Committee Against Torture indicated that approximately 6,500 complaints
    of human rights violations against juvenile detainees were filed in
    provincial prisons and juvenile detention facilities in Buenos Aires
    Province in 2008, the majority of which were pending investigation at
    year's end. The Provincial Memory Commission's 2010 annual report
    indicated that there is a grave lack of information published by the
    Government about juvenile prisons. The commission reported that
    currently neither the provincial ministry of social development nor the
    provincial ministry of security has published statistics describing the
    situation of juvenile detainees. CELS estimated that 53 percent of
    those in federal prison were awaiting trial. According to 2009 press
    reports, 85 percent of female pretrial detainees and 76 percent of male
    pretrial detainees were held in locations with convicted prisoners.
        In October an appeals court in La Plata acquitted 15 prison guards
    accused of abandoning prisoners in a 2005 fire that killed 33
    prisoners. However, on December 10, the Buenos Aires Provincial Memory
    Commission announced it would appeal the decision. The Provincial
    Prison Director, Carlos Tejeda, remained under investigation for
    manslaughter at year's end.
        Prisoners and detainees had reasonable access to visitors and were
    permitted religious observance. Authorities permitted prisoners and
    detainees to submit complaints to judicial authorities without
    censorship and to request investigation of credible allegations of
    inhumane conditions.
        The IAHCR rapporteur reported examples of authorities unwilling to
    investigate cases and reprimand officials found of wrongdoing and
    document the results of such investigations in a publicy accessible
    manner.
        The Government permitted independent prison visits by local and
    international human rights observers, and such visits took place during
    the year. The Government investigated and monitored prison and
    detention center conditions. The National Public Prosecutor's Office,
    which serves as an ombudsman on behalf of prisoners and detainees, was
    established as an autonomous governmental institution when congress
    ratified the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention Against Torture in
    2004.
        The IACHR rapporteur reported government efforts to improve prison
    conditions in the province of Buenos Aires. Provincial authorities
    informed the rapporteur about a program to build 23 departmental
    detention centers with a new system for provisional detention, and the
    provincial government inaugurated the first center built under the
    program on December 13. The provincial government also operated a group
    home program for prisoners in order to deal with the issue of
    overcrowding, with 12 houses for 108 prisoners in use as of May,
    according to press reports.

        d. Arbitrary Arrest or Detention.--The law prohibits arbitrary
    arrest and detention, and the Government generally observed these
    prohibitions; however, police reportedly arrested and detained citizens
    arbitrarily on occasion.

        Role of the Police and Security Apparatus.--The federal police have
    jurisdiction for maintaining law and order in the federal capital and
    for federal crimes in the provinces. Other federal police authorities
    include the airport security police, the gendarmerie, the Coast Guard,
    and the bureau of prisons. Additionally, each province has its own
    police force that responds to a provincial security ministry or
    secretariat, and the City of Buenos Aires formed its own metropolitan
    police force in 2008. Individual forces varied considerably in their
    effectiveness and respect for human rights.
        The federal security forces have the authority to conduct internal
    investigations into alleged abuses and to fire individuals who have
    allegedly committed a human rights violation. The federal government
    can also file complaints with the federal courts; provincial
    governments may do the same for provincial security forces. Members of
    security forces convicted of a crime were subject to stiff penalties.
    Generally, officers accused of wrongdoing were administratively
    suspended until completion of an investigation. Authorities
    investigated and, in some cases, detained, prosecuted, and convicted
    the officers involved. The Government established a new Ministry of
    Security in December, in part to address police abuse and corruption.
        According to the Ombudsman's Office of the City of Buenos Aires,
    complaints of police misconduct increased since 2008. The Ombudsman
    Office's report, issued in December 2009, analyzed 20 cases involving
    the federal police and warned of a tendency toward excessive or
    disproportionate use of force, often applied against persons from
    vulnerable social sectors. The Ombudsman's Office concluded that such
    cases failed to comply with international standards of human rights and
    constituted crimes worthy of investigation by criminal courts.
    According to a follow-up report the Ombudsman's Office released on
    September 23, excessive use of force by federal police continued to be
    a grave problem during the year, and the Government took no significant
    actions to address it.

        Arrest Procedures and Treatment While in Detention.--Persons
    generally were apprehended openly with warrants based on sufficient
    evidence and issued by a duly authorized official; however, police may
    detain suspects for up to 10 hours without an arrest warrant if the
    authorities have a well-founded belief that the suspects have
    committed, or are about to commit, a crime or are unable to determine
    the suspected person's identity. Human rights groups reported that the
    police occasionally arrested persons arbitrarily and detained suspects
    longer than 10 hours.
        The law provides a person in detention with the right to a prompt
    determination of the legality of the detention, which entails
    appearance before a lower criminal court judge, who determines whether
    to proceed with an investigation. There were some delays in this
    process and in informing detainees of the charges against them.
        The law provides for the right to bail, except in cases involving
    narcotics, violent crimes, and firearms violations. In April the City
    of Buenos Aires passed a law reducing the possibility of bail for
    crimes in which firearms were involved and for crimes committed by
    minors. Although the bail system was used, civil rights groups claimed
    that the new law encouraged judges to order the holding of indicted
    suspects in preventive or pretrial detention instead of allowing
    suspects to remain free pending their trial, putting extra stress on
    already-overcrowded prisons.
        Detainees were allowed prompt access to counsel, and public
    defenders were provided for detainees unable to afford counsel,
    although such access sometimes was delayed due to an overburdened
    system. Strong demand and a lack of resources for the Public Defender's
    Office resulted in an excessive caseload for public defense attorneys.
    Although there were no official statistics on the percentage of
    detainees requesting public defense attorneys, human rights
    organizations estimated that 80 percent requested public defense
    attorneys. According to the Provincial Memory Commission's Committee
    against Torture, 95 to 97 percent of pretrial detainees in Buenos Aires
    Province cannot afford a lawyer. Detainees were allowed access to
    family members, although not always promptly.
        The law provides for investigative detention of up to two years for
    indicted persons awaiting or undergoing trial; the period may be
    extended for one year in limited situations. The slow pace of the
    justice system often resulted in lengthy detentions beyond the period
    stipulated by law. CELS reported that prisoners waited an average of
    three years to be tried, with some cases taking as long as six years. A
    convicted prisoner usually received credit for time already served.
        CELS indicated that nearly 74 percent of detainees in Buenos Aires
    Province were in pretrial detention. According to several human rights
    organizations, 30 percent of pretrial detainees were eventually
    acquitted.
        During the year there were occasional reports of arbitrary arrests
    for expressing views critical of the Government. According to press
    reports, Guillermo Gonzalez del Castillo, a journalist from Corrientes,
    was beaten while detained following a minor altercation in April, two
    years after he had criticized the former governor of Corrientes for
    alleged embezzlement of government advertising funds.
        In April 2009 a witness to the burning of a prison in Santiago del
    Estero was detained without court order and did not receive
    notification of a trial. A local court rejected his release without
    having formalized his detention. While in prison, he was reportedly
    beaten by prison guards and raped by another prisoner since being
    incarcerated.

        e. Denial of Fair Public Trial.--The law provides for the right to
    a fair trial, and the judiciary generally enforced this right. However,
    judicial scholars continued to report inefficiencies and delays in the
    judicial system. Additionally, there were complaints that judges were
    at times subject to political manipulation.
        The Study Forum on the Administration of Justice and the
    Association for Civil Rights expressed concern for an increasing number
    of public clashes between the Supreme Court and the executive branch.
    On several occasions, the forum asserted that the executive failed to
    take actions prescribed by certain rulings, high-level officials
    exerted public pressure on judges, and the executive branch imposed
    budgetary restrictions upon the court. For example, the federal
    government refused to enforce a Supreme Court order to restore a
    previously dismissed official to his position. In October NGOs Poder
    Ciudadano and the Center for the Implementation of Public Policies for
    Equity and Growth sent a letter to the UN Human Rights Committee's
    special rapporteur on magistrate and lawyer independence to express
    concern over the situation. Other analysts commented that the Supreme
    Court exerted its independence over the executive branch in these
    conflicts.
        The judicial system was hampered by delays, procedural logjams,
    changes of judges, inadequate administrative support, and general
    inefficiency. Judges have broad discretion as to whether and how to
    pursue investigations, contributing to a public perception that many
    decisions were arbitrary. Allegations of corruption in provincial
    courts as well as in federal courts located in the provinces were more
    frequent than in federal courts with jurisdiction over the city and
    province of Buenos Aires, which reflected strong connections between
    the executive and judicial branches at the provincial level.
        The country continued to lack a sufficient number of judges. As of
    September, 208 federal judgeships ( approximately 20 percent of the
    total) were vacant. Candidates for 113 of those positions had been
    nominated by the Council of Magistrates and awaited executive approval.
    Approximately 50 judgeships were held by justice officials acting as
    temporary judges, a mechanism ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme
    Court in 2007.

        Trial Procedures.--Trials are public, and defendants have the right
    to legal counsel and to call defense witnesses in federal courts and
    some provincial courts that have an accusatory system of criminal
    justice. Defendants enjoy a presumption of innocence and have the right
    to appeal. If needed, a public defender is provided at public expense
    when defendants face serious criminal charges. During the investigative
    stage, defendants can submit questions in writing to the investigating
    judge. A panel of judges decides guilt or innocence. Although
    defendants and their attorneys have access to government-held evidence,
    in practice they sometimes experienced obstacles or delays in obtaining
    such evidence. Lengthy delays in trials occurred nationwide, with many
    cases taking five or more years to resolve.
        Federal and provincial courts continued the transition to trials
    with oral arguments in criminal cases, replacing the old system of
    written submissions. Although the 1994 constitution provides for trial
    by jury, implementing legislation had not been passed by year's end. In
    Cordoba Province, however, defendants accused of certain serious crimes
    have the right to a trial by jury.
        The human rights organization, Fundacion Sur, observed that the
    juvenile justice system does not provide adolescents due process
    protections equal to the rights extended to adult defendants in
    criminal trials. In addition this organization expressed concern that
    the broad discretion judges have in such cases increased the
    possibility of arbitrary rulings. Fundacion Sur asserted that 16- and
    17-year-old offenders frequently were transferred to adult criminal
    courts or held in juvenile detention facilities for longer periods than
    warranted by their offenses.
        An unofficially organized juvenile justice system operated in eight
    of 18 districts in Buenos Aires City. It provides minors between the
    ages of 16 and 18 with the same procedural rights as adults and limits
    sentences to 180 days in prison.

        Political Prisoners and Detainees.--There were no reports of
    political prisoners or detainees.

        Civil Judicial Procedures and Remedies.--There is an independent
    and impartial judiciary in civil matters. Citizens have access to the
    courts to bring lawsuits seeking damages or the protection of rights
    provided by the constitution. Administrative and judicial remedies are
    available for alleged wrongs.

        f. Arbitrary Interference With Privacy, Family, Home, or
    Correspondence.--The constitution prohibits such actions, and the
    Government generally respected these prohibitions in practice. However,
    there were press reports and judicial investigations of electronic
    eavesdropping, possibly perpetrated by government agents without due
    authorization.
        Opposition leaders, journalists, and judges continued to allege
    that the Kirchner administration used the intelligence community to
    wiretap private conversations. In July the opposition in congress
    initiated an investigation into these claims through the Joint
    Intelligence and Security Agency Oversight Committee.
        Allegations of wiretapping extended beyond the federal level of
    government. Ciro James, a former federal police officer with alleged
    links to the Government of Buenos Aires City,who had been arrested and
    indicted for illegally wiretapping numerous individuals, was released
    from pretrial detention on December 23 and remained free at year's end.
    As a consequence of the highly politicized scandal, federal prosecutors
    also initiated a case against Buenos Aires Mayor Mauricio Macri. The
    case and investigation led by a special committee in the city
    legislature continued at year's end.

    Section 2. Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:
        a. Freedom of Speech and Press.--The constitution provides for
    freedom of speech and of the press, and the Government generally
    respected these rights in practice.
        The independent media were numerous and active, expressing a wide
    variety of views.
        Most media outlets were owned by large, private holding companies
    that had a wide range of outside business interests and political
    connections that influenced the content of reporting. Observers noted
    that some media conglomerates used media as a tool to generate
    criticism of government policies, while certain progovernment outlets
    consistently ran stories supporting the Government's critical line
    against specific media organizations and individuals.
        On March 20, the Inter American Press Association released a report
    asserting that the Government conducted ``campaigns against the right
    to inform'' and attempted to ``damage the credibility of the media.''
    Less than a month later, the Association of Press Institutions of
    Argentina issued a statement warning that the press was ``facing one of
    its worst moments in history, as a result of the high level of
    intolerance to information and dissident opinion.''
        During the year critics noted that the Government sought to silence
    dissenting opinions in the media through various actions. NGOs Poder
    Ciudadano and the Association for Civil Rights asserted that state
    advertising was used as a tool to support progovernment media and
    undermine reporting critical of the Government. In addition the
    Government's decree enacting the 2009 media law reduced the number of
    broadcast licenses an individual or company can hold from 24 to 10 and
    barred cable providers from owning open-air television channels. The
    media law set a one-year deadline for private companies to comply with
    its regulations. Clarin Group, the country's largest media
    conglomerate, filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the
    one-year deadline, and on October 5 the Supreme Court upheld a lower
    court's temporary suspension of it.
        The Government also introduced a resolution to reorganize cable
    television channel grids as of October 1 and to regulate content in
    prime time television. Cable companies legally challenged the
    resolution, arguing the changes would negatively affect their
    businesses and favor progovernment news channels. Two court rulings
    suspended the Government's resolution on the grounds that it would
    ``harm freedom of expression.''
        On March 27, the car of Adela Gomez, a journalist who had
    investigated allegations of corruption in the local government in the
    province of Santa Cruz, was set on fire. Gomez declared she would leave
    her profession and accused government supporters of trying to silence
    her investigations with the attack.
        On April 29, the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, an NGO with a public
    television program on the Government-financed channel Canal 7, carried
    out mock trials known as ``ethics trials'' against seven journalists
    and five publishers who allegedly failed to report human rights
    violations during the former military dictatorship. The head of the
    Chamber of Deputies Press Freedom Committee, in collaboration with
    opposition lawmakers, submitted a report to the Special Rapporteur for
    Freedom of Expression of the Inter American Human Rights Commission
    denouncing the ``ethics trials.''
        On August 24, in a televised national address President Fernandez
    de Kirchner accused private shareholders of Papel Prensa, the only
    active manufacturer of newsprint in the country, of having made an
    ``illegal pact'' to favor newspapers Clarin, La Nacion, and La Razon
    with discretionary prices that hindered their competitors. Clarin had
    an approximately 50 percent stake in Papel Prensa, while La Nacion and
    the Government each owned 25 percent of the company. During the
    address, President Fernandez de Kirchner declared that the production
    and distribution of newsprint paper should be a ``matter of public
    interest'' under governmental supervision. The Inter American Press
    Association and some opposition congressmen criticized the declaration
    as a violation of the national constitution.
        The Government formally requested the judiciary to investigate the
    directors and former directors of Clarin, La Nacion, and La Razon for
    their involvement in alleged human rights abuses and irregularities in
    the sale of Papel Prensa in 1976-77. The Government's petition asserted
    that Clarin Group chief executive officer, Hector Magnetto, and the
    group's main shareholder, Ernestina Herrera de Noble, as well as former
    owners of La Nacion and La Razon, colluded with the 1976-83 military
    dictatorship and pressured Papel Prensa's owners, the Graiver family,
    to sell their shares in the company under duress from the 1976-83
    military dictatorship. The Government claimed that such alleged actions
    represented human rights violations against the Graivers and therefore
    invalidated the sale of the stock.

        Internet Freedom.--There were no government restrictions on access
    to the Internet or reports that the Government monitored e-mail or
    Internet chat rooms. Individuals and groups could engage in the
    peaceful expression of views via the Internet, including by e-mail. The
    International Telecommunication Union reported that 30 percent of the
    population used the Internet.
        Consumer protection advocates expressed concerns over a government
    resolution ordering one of the country's leading Internet providers to
    halt operations. On August 20, the Ministry of Planning ordered
    Fibertel, an Internet provider owned by the Clarin Group, to halt
    operations within 90 days because its license had expired. The
    Government announced that Fibertel's approximately one million users
    should transfer to other providers and should be allowed to do so free
    of charge.
        On September 24, the Court of Civil and Commercial Affairs in the
    city of La Plata ordered the Government to refrain from implementing
    the Ministry of Planning's ordered shut-down of Fibertel on the grounds
    that it would violate rights established by the national constitution.
    In late December the Federal Appeals Court of La Plata overturned the
    decision and ruled in favor of the Government, while in a separate case
    on the same issue a federal judge in the Cordoba District ruled in
    favor of Fibertel. Despite the conflicting rulings, Fibertel held the
    right to appeal to the Supreme Court, barring the Government from
    enforcing the shut-down and continued to operate at year's end.

        Academic Freedom and Cultural Events.--There were no government
    restrictions on academic freedom or cultural events.

        b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association.--The constitution
    provides for freedom of assembly and association, and the Government
    generally respected these rights in practice.

        c. Freedom of Religion.--For a complete description of religious
    freedom, please see the 2010 International Religious Freedom Report at
    www.state.gov/g/drl/irf/rpt.

        d. Freedom of Movement, Internally Displaced Persons, Protection of
    Refugees, and Stateless Persons.--The constitution provides for freedom
    of movement within the country, foreign travel, emigration, and
    repatriation, and the Government generally respected these rights in
    practice.
        The Government cooperated with the Office of the UN High
    Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and other humanitarian organizations
    in providing protection and assistance to refugees, asylum seekers, and
    other persons of concern.
        The law prohibits forced exile, and the Government did not employ
    it.

        Protection of Refugees.--The laws provide for the granting of
    refugee status, and the Government has established a system for
    providing protection to refugees.
        The National Committee for Refugees (CONARE), an interministerial
    body under the Ministry of the Interior, held regular sessions to study
    requests and make decisions. During the first nine months of the year,
    562 persons sought asylum, and the National Committee for Refugees
    granted refugee status to 30 persons. Colombians and Africans
    constituted the majority of the resettlements, with a lesser number
    from Asia.
        In May the Government passed legislation to implement the National
    Migration Law. It provides full recognition of migrants' rights.
        In practice the Government provided protection against the
    expulsion or return of refugees to countries where their lives or
    freedom would be threatened on account of their race, religion,
    nationality, membership in particular social group, or political
    opinion.
        In late September CONARE granted refugee status to Galvarino Sergio
    Apablaza Guerra, a former Chilean guerrilla leader and spouse of an
    Argentinian government official for whom a Chilean extradition request
    was pending in connection with the 1991 killing of Chilean Senator
    Jaime Guzman Errazuriz and the kidnapping of Christian Edwards. Chilean
    President Sebastian Pinera criticized the decision, as did many local
    and international observers.
        The law allows the Government to provide temporary protection for
    humanitarian reasons, including family reunification, to individuals
    who may not qualify as refugees and provided it to approximately 12
    persons during the year. Legislation implemented by executive decree in
    May provides for temporary protection for humanitarian reasons to
    victims of trafficking in persons and victims of natural catastrophes.

    Section 3. Respect for Political Rights: The Right of Citizens to
            Change Their Government
        The constitution provides citizens the right to change their
    government peacefully, and citizens exercised this right in practice
    through periodic, free, and fair elections based on universal suffrage.

        Elections and Political Participation.--In October 2007 Cristina
    Fernandez de Kirchner of the Front for Victory Party won the presidency
    in elections described by media and various NGOs as free and fair. In
    legislative elections in 2009, voters elected one-half of the members
    of the chamber of deputies representing all 24 provinces and one-third
    of those in the senate representing eight provinces. Local observers
    considered these elections generally free and fair.
        Political parties generally operated without restriction.
        Decrees provide that one-third of the members of both houses of
    congress must be women, a goal achieved through balanced election
    slates. There were 26 women in the 72-seat senate and 99 women in the
    257-seat chamber of deputies. The president, two of the seven Supreme
    Court justices, and three cabinet ministers were women. Women
    constituted approximately 17 percent of top executive-branch positions
    at the federal level.
        One indigenous person served in the chamber of deputies. There were
    no other known ethnic or racial minorities in the national legislature.
    There were no known indigenous, ethnic, or racial minorities in the
    cabinet or on the Supreme Court.

    Section 4. Official Corruption and Government Transparency
        The law provides criminal penalties for official corruption;
    however, there were frequent press reports that executive, legislative,
    and judicial officials engaged in corrupt practices, suggesting a
    failure to implement the law effectively.
        According to the World Bank's worldwide governance indicators,
    corruption was a serious problem. Weak institutions and an often
    ineffective and politicized judicial system made eliminating corruption
    in any systemic fashion difficult.
        Cases of corruption were reported in some security forces. The most
    frequent abuses included extortion of, and protection for, those
    involved in drug trafficking and prostitution. Internal controls to
    counter police abuses were weak.
        According to La Nacion newspaper, federal security forces opened
    new investigations into police officials on a daily basis for suspected
    participation in ``serious administrative infractions'' during the
    year. These infractions included exploiting their position of authority
    for financial gain.
        La Nacion reported that in 2008-09, authorities investigated 13,619
    police for acts of corruption, violence, or irregularities in job
    performance in Buenos Aires Province, representing approximately 25
    percent of the provincial police force and a 75 percent increase in
    investigations from 2006-07. Of those investigated, 872 were relieved
    of duty and 1,779 were reassigned to different positions. Between
    January and December, approximately 300 officers were relieved of duty
    for acts of corruption, violence, or irregularities in job performance.
        Public officials are subject to financial disclosure laws, and the
    Ministry of Justice's Anti-Corruption Office (ACO) is responsible for
    analyzing and investigating federal executive branch officials based on
    their financial disclosure forms. The ACO is also responsible for
    investigating corruption within the federal executive branch or in
    matters involving federal funds, except for funds transferred to the
    provinces. As part of the executive branch, the ACO does not have
    authority to prosecute cases independently, but it can refer cases to
    other agencies or serve as the plaintiff and request a judge to
    initiate a case.
        The ACO issued a report in August regarding the case of Ricardo
    Echegaray, the head of the Federal Agency for Tax Collection. The ACO
    alleged that Echegaray had used his authority as head of the National
    Office for Agricultural Commercial Oversight to grant subsidies to
    companies he owned. Opposition members in the chamber of deputies
    initiated a congressional investigation of Echegaray's actions, which
    continued at year's end.
        During the year evidence of illegal campaign financing emerged from
    the investigation of an alleged money laundering scheme involving drug
    distribution companies, according to press reports. Judge Norberto
    Oyarbide charged President Fernandez de Kirchner's 2007 chief
    fundraiser and former supervisor of health services, Hector Capaccioli,
    for his involvement in the operation. On December 22, Capaccioli
    testified before Judge Oyarbide, denied accusations of wrongdoing, and
    at year's end awaited the judge's decision whether to continue the
    trial.
        Ricardo Jaime, the former secretary of transportation, was indicted
    on April 21on 15 charges of corruption that reportedly occurred during
    his tenure. He was also indicted on December 3 for allegedly receiving
    gifts and favors from transportation companies and for questions
    regarding his annual income. Jaime remained free and the investigation
    continued at year's end.
        On April 20, the country's ambassador to Venezuela from 2002 to
    2005, Eduardo Sadous, testified to congress that, while at his post in
    Caracas, he observed that Argentine companies were allowed to export
    farm equipment to Venezuela only in exchange for making side payments
    to officials in the Argentine Planning Ministry. A federal case
    investigating these allegations continued at year's end.
        Several judicial investigations into alleged fraud committed by
    prosecutors and judges filling vacancies at the federal level
    continued. Some applicants reportedly negotiated with members of the
    examining board to receive answers to questions before taking the exam.
    On August 13, Alberto Pravia, a former member of an examining board,
    renounced his post as judge facing accusations of fraud during the
    examination process.

    Section 5. Governmental Attitude Regarding International and
            Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations of Human
            Rights
        A wide variety of domestic and international human rights groups
    generally operated without government restriction, investigating and
    publishing their findings on human rights cases. Government officials
    usually were cooperative and generally responsive to their views.
        During the year the Government met with representatives of numerous
    international and nongovernmental human rights groups, including
    representatives from Human Rights Watch, the UN Human Rights Committee,
    the International Labor Organization (ILO), and the IACHR to discuss
    human rights.
        The Government cooperated with international governmental
    organizations and permitted visits by UN representatives and other
    organizations during the year.
        The Government has a Human Rights Secretariat. Its main objective
    is to collaborate with the secretary of justice, security, and human
    rights to promote policies, plans, and programs for the protection of
    human rights. During the year it published leaflets and books on a
    range of human rights topics.
        The Government also has a Human Rights Ombudsman's Office. It
    focuses on the defense and protection of rights, guarantees, and
    interests granted by the national constitution. The Ombudsman's Office
    publishes an annual report based on the cases it receives throughout
    the year.

    Section 6. Discrimination, Societal Abuses, and Trafficking in Persons
        The law prohibits discrimination based on race, gender, disability,
    language, or social status, and the Government generally enforced these
    prohibitions in practice.

        Women.--Rape, including spousal rape, is a crime, but evidentiary
    requirements, either in the form of clear physical injury or the
    testimony of a witness, often presented difficulties in prosecuting
    such crimes. The penalties for rape ranged up to 20 years'
    imprisonment. There were no reports of police or judicial reluctance to
    act on rape cases; however, women's rights advocates claimed that
    police, hospital, and court attitudes toward sexual violence victims
    often revictimized the individual.
        The Rape Victims' Association reported more than 1,500 rape cases
    in Buenos Aires City and Buenos Aires Province during the year and
    clarified that more than 9,000 such cases were reported between 2003
    and 2009. Eighty percent of those cases involved victims under the age
    of 18, representing an increase of 20 percent from 2009. The NGO noted
    that these figures did not include rapes reported directly to the
    municipal, provincial, and national governments. According to the
    Attorney General's Office, complaints were filed in three out of every
    10 cases, and one in three of these cases was prosecuted.
        The law prohibits domestic violence, including spousal abuse,
    although the law defines violence against women as a misdemeanor, and
    complaints are addressed in civil rather than criminal courts. Family
    court judges have the right to bar a perpetrator from a victim's home
    or workplace. The law, however, prescribes penalties for domestic
    violence only when it involves crimes against sexual integrity, in
    which case the penalty can be as much as 20 years' imprisonment.
    However, lack of vigilance on the part of the police and the judicial
    system often led to a lack of protection for victims.
        The law enacted in March 2009 to prevent and punish violence
    against women came into full effect on July 19, when the president
    signed the regulatory implementing decree. The National Council of
    Women (NCW) is the implementing body for standards pertaining to the
    law. Human rights organizations in the country as well as the UN Human
    Rights Committee criticized the low budget allocated to the NCW. The
    NCW had a 2010 budget of six million pesos ($1,495,000), while just one
    program, a domestic violence telephone hotline in the province of
    Buenos Aires, required three million pesos ($747,000) to operate.
        Domestic violence against women was a problem. In October 2009 AI
    reported that a woman died every three days as a result of domestic
    violence. The civil society organization La Casa del Encuentro reported
    that 260 women died during the year as a result of domestic or gender-
    based violence, an increase of 12 percent from 2009 figures.
    Approximately one third of these cases occurred in Buenos Aires
    Province. Of these murders, 64 percent involved a husband, boyfriend,
    or ex-boyfriend; in 27 cases, the woman had filed a complaint against
    the aggressor for domestic violence. In six cases, the woman had
    obtained a restraining order.
        The Office of Domestic Violence provided protection and resources
    to victims of domestic violence 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
    During the year the office hired additional staff members to handle the
    approximately 600 cases of domestic violence it received each month. An
    estimated 80 percent of adult domestic violence cases received by the
    office involved violence against women. The office also carried out
    risk assessments necessary to obtain a restraining order, a service it
    completed for victims in three days as opposed to three or four months
    before the office opened. Between February 2009 and August 2010, 2,080
    women received free legal assistance through the office. During the
    year ending September, 12,762 persons had cases filed against them for
    acts of domestic violence.
        Family and civil courts in Buenos Aires Province, in compliance
    with a provincial Supreme Court order, created hotlines to receive
    complaints of domestic violence and assist victims after normal hours.
    Criminal courts worked with police stations, police offices for women's
    issues, and prosecutors' offices to enable victims to file domestic
    violence complaints 24 hours a day.
        The Ministry of Justice continued to operate mobile units to assist
    victims of sexual and domestic violence in Buenos Aires City. A free
    hotline servicing the city offered consultations and received
    complaints.
        Public and private institutions offered prevention programs and
    provided support and treatment for abused women. The Buenos Aires
    municipal government operated a small shelter for battered women;
    however, few other shelters existed.
        Sexual harassment in the public sector is prohibited under laws
    that impose disciplinary or corrective measures. In some jurisdictions,
    such as Buenos Aires City, sexual harassment may lead to the abuser's
    dismissal, whereas in others, such as Santa Fe Province, the maximum
    penalty is five days in prison. There was no information on the extent
    of the problem.
        Couples and individuals generally had the right to decide the
    number, spacing, and timing of children, and had the information and
    means to do so free from discrimination, coercion, and violence. Access
    to information on contraception, and skilled attendance at delivery and
    in postpartum care were widely available. The UN Population Fund
    reported in 2008 the maternal mortality rate at 70 deaths for every
    100,000 live births. Women and men were given equal access to
    diagnostic services and treatment for sexually transmitted infections.
    In May the National Health Ministry created a national free hotline to
    answer questions about where to find reproductive health care services
    and register complaints.
        In August Human Rights Watch released a report documenting the
    obstacles women and girls faced in obtaining access to reproductive
    health care services such as contraception and voluntary sterilization
    procedures. The most common barriers to care were long delays in
    providing services, unnecessary referrals to other clinics, demands for
    spousal permission contrary to law, and, in some cases, denial of care.
    The report also identified a lack of oversight and accountability for
    carrying out existing laws regarding reproductive rights. The
    Population Reference Bureau recorded modern contraceptive use of 64
    percent among married women.
        Although women enjoyed equality under the law, including property
    rights, they encountered economic discrimination and held a
    disproportionately high number of lower-paying jobs. According to a
    study released by the Center for Women and Labor Studies in Argentina,
    women earned on average 24 percent less than men in similar positions.
    The report emphasized that, despite the country's overall economic
    growth, gender gaps persisted in the workplace.
        The Office of Women was established by the Supreme Court in 2009
    with the aim of training judges, secretaries, and clerks to deal with
    cases related to women. Its key function is to sensitize judicial
    actors to domestic violence, victims of abuse, trafficking in persons,
    and other women's issues. The office also seeks to ensure equal access
    for women to positions in the court system. In September the office
    carried out its first training workshop for 120 provincial Supreme
    Court actors.
        The National Council of Women carried out programs to promote equal
    social, political, and economic opportunities for women. The council
    worked with the special representative for international women's
    issues, the Ministry of Labor, and union and business organizations to
    form the Tripartite Committee on Equal Opportunity for Men and Women in
    the Workplace, which sought to foster equal treatment and opportunities
    for men and women in the job market.

        Children.--The country provided universal birth registration, and
    citizenship was derived both by birth within the country's territory
    and from one's parents.
        Parents have 40 days within which to register births, and the state
    has an additional 20 days to do so. A February 2009 decree permits the
    Ministry of Interior to issue birth certificates to children under age
    12 whose births have not been previously registered.
        Child abuse was not uncommon; for example, a University of Buenos
    Aires study released in April found that 9 percent of university
    students in Buenos Aires claimed to have suffered some form of sexual
    abuse before the age of 19. The survey investigated child abuse among a
    sample of 2,750 persons.
        According to media sources, approximately 5,000 children are
    recruited every year for pornography and sex tourism. The minimum age
    of consensual sex is 18. There is a statutory rape law with penalties
    ranging from three to 15 years in prison, depending on the age of the
    victim. Additionally, regardless of age, if a judge finds evidence of
    deception, violence, threats, abuse of authority, or any other form of
    intimidation or coercion, the minimum sentence increases to 10 years.
        The law prohibits the production and distribution of child
    pornography with penalties ranging from six months to four years in
    prison. While the law does not prohibit the possession of child
    pornography by individuals for personal use, it provides penalties
    ranging from four months to two years in prison for possession with the
    intent to distribute child pornography. Additionally, the law provides
    penalties ranging from one month to three years of imprisonment for
    facilitating access to pornographic shows or materials to minors under
    the age of 14. During the year prosecutors and police pursued cases of
    Internet child pornography. On November 25, federal police arrested a
    31-year-old man accused of filming and distributing child pornography
    through an international network. According to press reports, during a
    search of the man's house, police found approximately 90 hours of
    pornographic footage and 26,000 photos of children ages six to nine
    years old. The man remained in pretrial detention at year's end.
        Several cases of child sexual abuse were reported during the year.
    In May the Oral Court of San Martin sentenced nine persons to prison
    sentences ranging from 25 to 42 years for sexual abuse of a 16-year-
    old. In July a court sentenced a man to seven and a half years in
    prison for sexual abuse of an 11-year-old girl.
        On September 14, a criminal appeals court in the province of Buenos
    Aires confirmed the sentence of priest Julio Cesar Grassi to 15 years
    in prison for two aggravated charges of sexual abuse of minors. On
    September 21, the Oral Court of Moron refused the request of
    prosecutors that Grassi be detained, claiming that the possibility of
    appeal remained. Grassi remained free at year's end.
        According to credible local press reports, dozens of child victims
    of violence from poor families were lodged in juvenile detention
    facilities under judicial protection orders. City government observers
    continued to be barred from visiting the centers.
        The National Council for Children, Adolescents, and the Family
    continued to conduct public awareness campaigns and operated a national
    hotline, which children used to call for advice, make complaints, and
    report instances of abuse or other rights violations.
        The country is a party to the 1980 Hague Convention on
    International Child Abduction. For information on international
    parental child abduction, please see the Department of State's annual
    report on the convention at http://travel.state.gov/abduction/
    resources/congressreport/congressreport--4308.html.

        Anti-Semitism.--Sporadic acts of discrimination and vandalism
    continued against religious minorities, particularly the Jewish
    community, consisting of 250,000 to 300,000 members. The Delegation of
    Jewish Argentine Associations (DAIA) received 503 complaints of anti-
    Semitism during 2009, representing an increase of 60 percent over 2008.
    DAIA indicated that the spike in anti-Semitic acts was related to
    conflicts in the Gaza Strip in early 2009.
        The most commonly reported incidents were anti-Semitic graffiti,
    verbal slurs, and the desecration of Jewish cemeteries, including 40
    graves at the Jewish cemetery in Misiones in May. A majority of the
    complaints were filed in Buenos Aires City. DAIA claimed that cases in
    the provinces were likely underreported.
        In February a judge sentenced Juan Carlos Beica, the leader of a
    minority left-wing party, to a six-month suspended sentence for his
    role in organizing the January 2009 anti-Israeli demonstrations in
    Buenos Aires in protest of Israeli military operations in Gaza. The
    protests, which took placeoutside the Israeli embassy, AMIA's
    headquarters, and a hotel owned by a Jewish Argentine businessman and
    treasurer of the World Jewish Congress, exhibited anti-Semitic imagery.
    On July 21, a Buenos Aires Appeals Court absolved Beica of the charges
    and revoked the six-month sentence.
        In November an Appeals Court cleared Revolutionary Action Front
    leader Roberto Martino of charges for an anti-Semitic attack outside
    the Israeli embassy in 2009. Despite the ruling, Martino remained in
    pretrial detention at year's end on separate charges, which provoked
    some left-wing groups supporting Martino to block main transit routes
    in downtown Buenos Aires to protest his detention.
        The investigation into the 1994 bombing of the AMIA building in
    Buenos Aires that killed 85 persons continued. With Interpol
    assistance, the federal prosecutor investigating the case continued to
    seek the arrest of eight Iranians for their alleged involvement in the
    bombing. In March AMIA case prosecutor Alberto Nisman met with Iranian
    officials at Interpol's headquarters. The Iranians rejected a proposal
    for a third state to provide for a fair trial. In September President
    Fernandez de Kirchner advocated the third-state proposal during her
    address to the UN General Assembly, but the Government of Iran again
    rejected the proposal in a September 28 letter to the UN.
        In March a federal appeals court confirmed the 2009 decision to
    prosecute former president Carlos Menem, former secretary of
    intelligence Hugo Anzorreguy, and former federal judge Juan Jose
    Galeano for their alleged role in the bombing ``cover-up.'' In August a
    federal judge publicly urged prosecutor Nisman to speed up the
    investigation regarding Carlos Telledin to bring the case to oral
    trial. The investigation continued at year's end.
        The Government continued to support public dialogue to highlight
    past discrimination and to encourage religious tolerance, including the
    celebration of Freedom of Religion Day. In October the Ministry of
    Education and the Ministry of Tourism cosponsored an international
    colloquium entitled ``Two Argentine Centuries of Christian-Judeo-
    Islamic Multiculturalism.'' The event included documentaries,
    exhibitions, and religious community speakers.

        Trafficking in Persons.--For information on trafficking in persons,
    please see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons
    Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        Persons With Disabilities.--The constitution and laws prohibit
    discrimination against persons with physical, sensory, intellectual,
    and mental disabilities in employment, education, access to health
    care, or the provision of other state services. A specific law also
    mandates access to buildings for persons with disabilities. While the
    federal government has protective laws, many states have not adopted
    the laws and have no mechanisms to ensure enforcement. While the
    Government does not restrict the right of persons with disabilities to
    vote or participate in civic affairs, access to a voting location is
    often not possible for those with disabilities, and the required
    accommodations are often not met. There are accounts of persons with
    mental health conditions being denied the right to vote by election
    officials.
        On June 1, the Supreme Court declared unconstitutional an article
    of a law putting certain limits on the right to travel on buses free of
    charge between home and places of work, assistance, education, or other
    social integration. The ruling effectively widened access to public
    transportation for persons with disabilities.
        On November 3, congress unanimously passed a law requiring all
    government entities to respect international Web site design standards,
    facilitating equal access to Web information for persons with
    disabilities. The law gives entities two years to comply with design
    standards.
        On November 25, congress passed the Mental Health Act, which
    broadens the number of treatment alternatives for persons with mental
    health conditions. It prohibits the creation of new psychiatric
    asylums, promotes medical care at general hospitals, and incorporates
    issues related to addiction into the mental health field. A 2007 CELS
    report indicated that 25,000 persons were confined to psychiatric
    asylums and that 80 percent of those persons were confined for more
    than one year.
        An estimated 82 percent of persons with disabilities lacked
    employment. Due to lengthy procedures for obtaining a certificate of
    disability, a key document to access services including rehabilitation,
    only 15 percent of unemployed persons with disabilities received a
    certificate of disability.
        The National Advisory Committee for the Integration of People with
    Disabilities, under the National Council for Coordination of Social
    Policies, has formal responsibility for actions to accommodate persons
    with disabilities.
        The Government took a number of actions to improve respect for the
    rights of persons with disabilities. Santa Fe Province passed a law
    that mandates provincial tax forms in Braille be provided upon request
    to persons with visual disabilities. Chaco Province established a free
    hotline offering persons with disabilities information regarding their
    rights and benefits and general assistance.
        The Government responded to civil society requests to improve
    respect for the rights of persons with disabilities in education. In
    Neuquen approximately 1,000 students received approval from the
    Provincial Education Council to leave a special education school and
    enter the general public school system upon request of their parents.
    The National University of Cordoba, in response to requests from blind
    students, digitized 20,000 pages of text in five different fields of
    study to make them accessible to the visually impaired.
        The Government's Secretariat of University Policies signed an
    agreement in June at the Ministry of Education to finance renovations
    to make university buildings accessible to persons with disabilities
    seeking to ensure that the buildings and grounds of all national
    universities are safe and accessible for all users.

        National/Racial/Ethnic Minorities.--Although discrimination against
    national, racial, and ethnic minorities was generally not a problem, in
    June the DAIA published a book describing instances of discrimination
    faced by 16 minorities, including Afro-Argentines, Koreans, Chinese,
    and other immigrants in 2008-09. The book outlined historical
    prejudices faced by the various groups; examples of discrimination
    against them in employment, education, and housing; and modern-day
    stereotypes, often based on physical appearance.
        In October the Government carried out the first census to contain a
    question recognizing the Afro-Argentine population. INADI underlined
    the importance of using the data to recognize the importance of the
    population's cultural and historical contribution to social diversity.

        Indigenous People.--The constitution recognizes the ethnic and
    cultural identities of indigenous people and states that the congress
    shall protect their right to bilingual education, recognize their
    communities and the communal ownership of their ancestral lands, and
    allow for their participation in the management of their natural
    resources. In practice indigenous people did not fully participate in
    the management of their lands or natural resources, in part because
    responsibility for implementing the law is delegated to the 23
    provinces, only 11 of which have constitutions recognizing indigenous
    rights.
        Although there is no formal process to recognize indigenous tribes
    or determine who is an indigenous person, indigenous communities can
    register with the provincial or federal government as civic
    associations.
        Estimates of the indigenous population ranged from 700,000 to 1.5
    million. Poverty rates were higher than average in areas with large
    indigenous populations. Indigenous people had greater than average
    rates of illiteracy, chronic disease, and unemployment. The lack of
    trained teachers hampered government efforts to offer bilingual
    education opportunities to indigenous people.
        Deforestation in Salta Province continued in violation of a 2008
    Supreme Court ruling that ordered the Salta governor to suspend
    clearing of forested areas pending completion of a study on the
    environmental effect of deforestation on indigenous persons living in
    the area. On April 22, representatives of indigenous groups met with
    the chief justice of the Supreme Court to advocate for the enforcement
    of the 2008 ruling. The representatives also highlighted the lack of
    national and international laws that protect the land rights of
    indigenous communities against encroachment by soy farming, logging
    companies, and other business interests. On September 15, the Supreme
    Court rejected a request from the indigenous communities to investigate
    and verify claims of deforestation in Salta using satellite images of
    the province.
        In July the NGO Human Rights Watch released a report, Indigenous
    Peoples in Argentina, denouncing the ``institutionalized
    discrimination'' against the Mapuche people in Neuquen Province. It
    described repression of the aboriginal community, the criminalization
    of indigenous protests, and the failure of private companies and the
    provincial goverment to comply with laws protecting indigenous rights.
    The report cited specifically the provincial government's expropriation
    of Mapuche lands.
        The two former policemen and one landowner charged with an October
    2009 killing of an indigenous person were released from pretrial
    detention, although charges remained pending.
        The Lhaka Honhat indigenous association continued to advocate for
    an IACHR decision on the petition regarding the national government's
    failure to implement a titling policy that would return their
    traditional land.
        An April report by AI investigating the situation of the indigenous
    population of Formosa Province concluded that the indigenous
    inhabitants had experienced a ``systematic violation of human rights''
    by a state apparatus that ``marginalizes and coerces indigenous
    peoples.'' The report alleged violation of constitutional rights and
    international laws that protect indigenous peoples, as well as
    institutional abuse and discrimination in violation of Law 26.160,
    which prohibits forced evictions. AI cited violations of community
    property rights when the provincial government appropriated land and
    dug deep canals, which had a negative effect on resources available to
    the indigenous population.
        On November 23, police clashed with protestors from the indigenous
    Toba group of Formosa, leaving dead an indigenous man and a police
    officer as well as numerous serious injuries according to press
    reports. The violence came after protestors barricaded a provincial
    road for four months to demand the return of claimed ancestral lands,
    which the provincial government sought to use for a proposed university
    campus. The Ombudsman's Office of the Nation, national legislators,
    indigeneous leaders, and AI expressed concern for the role of the
    provincial government in the clash.

        Societal Abuses, Discrimination, and Acts of Violence Based on
    Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.--Three provinces still have
    laws that either criminalize transgender behavior or single out
    homosexual activity when referring to prostitution; however, INADI
    reported that these laws were rarely enforced. During the year nine
    provinces enacted laws to repeal articles criminalizing transgender
    behavior in prostitution.
        During the year INADI received 96 complaints of discrimination on
    the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.
        Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender organizations operated
    freely. They worked closely with academic institutions, NGOs, and
    government authorities without interference.
        Numerous gay pride marches occurred throughout the country and
    received government authorization. Police provided protection to
    participants.
        On July 15, Congress passed a law to legalize same-sex marriages.
    The legislation removes all gender specification from existing marriage
    laws; permits gay and lesbian couples to marry; grants spouses
    immigration rights, medical benefits, pensions, and social security;
    and defines rights of inheritance for such couples by marriage law.
    Although the right to adopt children jointly is not explicitly granted
    in the bill, the removal of gender from the framework of marriage means
    that gay and lesbian parents receive the same treatment as heterosexual
    parents.
        Following the passage of the law, approximately 835 same-sex
    couples were married as of late December, according to figures provided
    by the Federation of Gays, Lesbians, Transvestites, and Bisexuals.
        In December 2009 the First Criminal Court of Salta sentenced Sergio
    Alfredo Nunez and Silvio Elias Soria to life imprisonment for their
    roles in the 2006 killing of transgender activist Pelusa Liendro.
        There was no official or overt societal discrimination based on
    sexual orientation in employment, housing, statelessness, or access to
    education or healthcare.

        Other Societal Violence or Discrimination.--There were no known
    reports of societal violence against persons with HIV/AIDs, but there
    were occasional reports of discrimination against persons with HIV/
    AIDS.
        There was an increase in reports of violence against the elderly in
    Buenos Aires City. More than 800 complaints of violence against the
    elderly were recorded during the first four months of the year.

    Section 7. Worker Rights
        a. The Right of Association.--The law provides all workers, with
    the exception of military and law enforcement personnel, the right to
    form and join ``free and democratic labor unions, recognized by
    inscription in a special register,'' and workers exercised this right.
    An estimated 42 percent of the workforce was organized. Union
    participation varied among sectors; affiliation was as high as 99
    percent of the Electrical Workers Union and 70 percent in the Food
    Workers Union.
        The law allows unions to register without prior authorization, and
    registered trade union organizations may engage in certain activites to
    represent their members-including petitioning the Government and
    employers and adopting direct action measures. However, the law grants
    official trade union status to only one union deemed ``most
    representative'' per industrial sector within a specific geographical
    region. Only unions with such official recognition receive trade union
    immunity for their officials, are permitted to directly deduct union
    dues, and may bargain collectively. The International Labor
    Organization (ILO) raised concerns with the Government with respect to
    these provisions of the law.
        The Argentine Workers Central (CTA) and other labor groups not
    affiliated with the General Confederation of Labor continued to contend
    that the legal recognition of only one union per sector conflicts with
    ILO Convention 87 and prevents these unions from obtaining full legal
    standing. Despite a 2009 Supreme Court ruling in favor of the CTA and
    other unions seeking formal legal recognition, which would necesitate
    changes to current legislation and practice, the legislature had not
    modified labor legislation and the executive branch had not granted
    such recognition to the CTA at year's end. The IACHR continued to
    review the CTA's 2004 petition at year's end. In April the UN Human
    Rights Committee expressed concern with the Government's noncompliance
    with ILO Convention 87 and suggested it take measures to grant the CTA
    full legal standing.
        Unions have the right to strike, and workers exercised this right
    in practice. However, civil servants and workers in essential services
    may strike only after a compulsory 15-day conciliation process, and
    they are subject to the condition that undefined ``minimum services''
    are rendered. Although ``minimum services'' have been defined in
    collective bargaining agreements in some cases, the law does not define
    ``minimum services.'' Once the conciliation term expires, civil
    servants and workers in essential services must give five days' notice
    to the administrative authority and the public agency that they intend
    to strike. If ``minimum services'' have not previously been defined in
    a collective bargaining agreement, all parties then negotiate which
    minimum services will continue to be provided and a schedule for their
    provision. The public agency, in turn, must provide two days' notice to
    users about the intended strike. According to the Ministry of Labor,
    there were 497 labor conflicts that led to strikes in the first half of
    the year; 756,260 workers participated in the strikes.

        b. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively.--The law
    provides trade unions with official status the right to negotiate
    collective bargaining agreements, including recourse to conciliation
    and arbitration; this was effectively enforced in practice. The most
    representative union bargains on behalf of all workers and collective
    agreements cover both union members and nonmembers in the sector.
    Unions without official trade union status recognition by the
    Government (that is, those that are not the ``most representative'') in
    their sector, have made membership gains within the workplace. Some
    leaders of unions with official status reported that membership gains
    in unofficial unions impaired their ability to negotiate. The law
    requires the Ministry of Labor, Employment, and Social Security to
    ratify collective bargaining agreements, which covered approximately 75
    percent of the formally employed workforce. There were no known cases
    during the year of the Government refusing to approve a collective
    agreement.
        There are no special laws or exemptions from regular labor laws in
    the three functioning export processing zones.

        c. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor.--While the law
    prohibits forced or compulsory labor, there were reports that such
    practices occurred.
        Through December the International Organization for Migration
    assisted 29 victims and seven minor dependents that had been trafficked
    from Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Brazil, and Argentina, nine of whom were
    exploited in sweatshops. Victims of forced labor also included eight
    persons working in fruit and vegetable stores, three in domestic
    services, two in street vending, and seven in other activities.
    Additionally, on December 30, the Government discovered 130 forced
    labor victims working in San Pedro for the Nidera agricultural company.
    The victims were predominantly from the provinces of Santiago del
    Estero and Tucuman in Argentina and included 30 children.
        In April police raided three textile workshops in La Matanza, where
    they found more than 80 Bolivian citizens working in an overcrowded
    environment. A police report suggested that the workers were underfed.
    A federal court was investigating the case for violations for the
    country's antihuman trafficking law at year's end.
        The 2008 case of 30 Bolivians working in exploitative conditions at
    a poultry farm in Buenos Aires Province had not gone to trial at year's
    end. Press reports indicated the company had not paid the fine by
    year's end. The Ministry of Labor was reviewing additional forced labor
    complaints, including two deaths, lodged against the company at year's
    end.
        Also see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons
    Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        d. Prohibition of Child Labor and Minimum Age for Employment.--
    While the law protects children from exploitation in the workplace,
    child labor persisted. A 2004 government survey revealed that an
    estimated 450,000 children were working, or 7 percent of children
    between the ages of five and 13 years old and 20 percent of children
    over the age of 14.
        In May the minimum age for employment was raised to 16 years old.
    In rare cases, the Ministry of Education may authorize a younger child
    to work as part of a family unit. Children between the ages of 16 and
    18 years old may work in a limited number of job categories and for
    limited hours if they have completed compulsory schooling, which
    normally ends at age 18. Legal penalties for employing underage workers
    ranged from 1,000 to 5,000 pesos ($269 to $1,344) for each child
    employed. Provincial governments and the city government of Buenos
    Aires are responsible for labor law enforcement.
        In rural areas, children worked in family and third-party farms
    producing such goods as blueberries, cotton, garlic, grapes, olives,
    strawberries, tobacco, tomatoes, and yerba mate. Children working in
    the agriculture sector often handled pesticides without proper
    protection. In urban areas, some children engaged in domestic service
    and worked on the street selling goods, shining shoes, and recycling
    trash. According to government sources, some children worked in the
    manufacturing sector producing such goods as bricks, matches,
    fireworks, and garments. Children were also found working in the
    mining, fishing, and construction sectors.
        The National Commission for the Eradication of Child Labor (CONAETI
    ) continued to conduct seminars with the 22 provincial commissions for
    the eradication of child labor to train provincial authorities
    responsible for enforcing labor laws and raising awareness regarding
    exploitive child labor. It also continued providing technical
    assistance to NGOs addressing child labor in the tobacco and trash-
    picking sectors, including workshops with tobacco producers to
    encourage corporate social responsibility on child labor issues.
    CONAETI also trained members of the Network of Businesses against Child
    Labor and developed ``Harvest Gardens'' which provided seven daycare
    centers for children in tobacco-producing zones.
        In 2009 the Government extended its Heads of Household initiative,
    a cash transfer and employment training program, to workers in the
    informal economy. The program targets vulnerable and unemployed
    populations with at least one child under the age of 18 by improving
    employability, reducing dependence on income from children's work, and
    providing scholarships. The Government provided scholarships to 13,684
    children and incorporated 653 adults into the Heads of Household
    program during the year. Also, as part of the implementation of the
    National Plan for the Prevention and Eradication of Child Labor,
    CONAETI implemented awareness raising activities such as a national
    campaign against forced child labor as part of the ILO's World Day
    Against Child Labor; identified and strengthened direct action programs
    to prevent and combat child labor; and conducted trainings for health
    professionals on child labor.

        e. Acceptable Conditions of Work.--The Government increased the
    monthly minimum wage in September to 1,740 pesos ($435). This exceeded
    the amount of 1,252 ($315) a month that the National Census and
    Statistics Institute (INDEC) estimated was needed by a family of four
    to maintain a ``decent'' standard of living. Most workers in the formal
    sector earned significantly more than the minimum wage. Generally
    speaking, the minimum wage served to mark the minimum pay an informal
    worker should get, although formal workers' pay was usually higher. In
    July La Nacion reported that, according to INDEC, wages of workers in
    the informal sector grew at a faster rate than workers in the formal
    sector. The Ministry of Labor, which is responsible for enforcing
    legislation related to working conditions, continued inspections to get
    companies to register their informal workers. According to a 2007 ILO
    study, 60 percent of employed citizens ages 15 to 24 were engaged in
    informal labor.
        Federal labor law sets standards in the areas of health, safety,
    and hours. The maximum workday is eight hours, and the maximum workweek
    is 48 hours. Overtime pay is required for hours worked in excess of
    these limits. The law sets minimums for periods of rest, requiring a
    minimum of 12 hours of rest to start a new workday. Sundays are
    holidays, and those required to work on Sundays are paid double.
    However, laws governing acceptable conditions of work were not enforced
    universally, particularly for workers in the informal sector.
        The law requires employers to insure their employees against
    accidents at the workplace and when traveling to and from work.The law
    requires that employers either provide insurance through a Labor Risk
    Insurance (ART) entity or provide its own insurance to employees to
    meet specified requirements set forth by the national insurance
    regulator.
        The Superintendence of Labor Risks serves as the enforcement agency
    to monitor compliance of health and safety laws and the activities of
    the Labor Risk Insurance companies. Workers have the right to remove
    themselves from dangerous or unhealthy work situations without jeopardy
    to continued employment. However, workers who leave the workplace
    before it has been proven unsafe risk being fired; in such cases, the
    worker has the right to judicial appeal, but the process was typically
    very lengthy.

                                   __________

                                  BAHAMAS, THE

        The Commonwealth of The Bahamas is a constitutional, parliamentary
    democracy with a population of approximately 354,000, including an
    estimated 30,000 undocumented Haitians. Prime Minister Hubert
    Ingraham's Free National Movement (FNM) regained control of the
    Government in May 2007 elections that observers found to be generally
    free and fair. Security forces reported to civilian authorities.
        Human rights problems reported included complaints of abuse by
    police and prison and detention center guards; poor detention
    conditions; a poorly functioning judicial system, leading to delays in
    trials and lengthy pretrial detention; violence against women and
    children; and discrimination against persons of Haitian descent.

                            RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

    Section 1. Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom
            From:
        a. Arbitrary or Unlawful Deprivation of Life.--The Government or
    its agents did not commit any politically motivated killings; however,
    police fatally shot individuals in the performance of their duties.
    Police investigated such incidents and referred them to a coroner's
    court when necessary for further evaluation. The public expressed
    concerns about escalation of force after several fatal shootings during
    the year.
        The May 4 fatal police shooting of Ricardo Knowles, who escaped
    from police custody, was before the coroner's court at year's end.
        An investigation determined that a 13-year-old boy who died in
    police custody in July died of natural causes. His family claimed he
    was choked to death.
        A patrol officer fatally shot a man on Bay Street in September
    after a verbal altercation allegedly resulted in the man brandishing a
    box cutter. Onlookers told the press that the man asked to be left
    alone and was walking away from the scene when the officer followed him
    and a scuffle ensued. Police launched an investigation into the
    shooting.
        On November 20, police fatally shot a young man in Bain Town after
    he was stopped and questioned about an illegal firearm. The police
    commissioner told the press an investigation into the matter had been
    launched and an autopsy scheduled.
        In March 2009 police shot a Nassau man in disputed circumstances.
    The victim later died, and the case was before the court at year's end.
        The May 2009 case in which a 15-year-old boy allegedly hanged
    himself in a holding cell while in police custody was ruled a suicide,
    although family members alleged that the hanging was a cover-up for a
    beating by police.
        The coroner's court received the case of the 2007 fatal shooting by
    police of two armed men who failed to stop when fleeing the scene of a
    crime. An investigation continued into another 2007 incident involving
    an individual killed by police at Rand Memorial Hospital on Grand
    Bahama.
        Authorities brought manslaughter charges against two officers in
    connection with the 2007 fatal beating of a suspect, Desmond Key. The
    case was before a magistrate's court at year's end.
        At year's end a magistrate's court was hearing the case against the
    police officer who fatally shot a man on Bimini Island in 2007.
        The coroner's court faced a heavy backlog of more than 129 cases,
    including 10 police shootings.

        b. Disappearance.--There were no reports of politically motivated
    disappearances.

        c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or
    Punishment.--The constitution prohibits such practices, but human
    rights monitors and members of the public expressed concern over
    continued instances of police abuse of criminal suspects. Police
    officials, while denying systematic or chronic abuses, acknowledged
    that police on occasion abused their authority.
        A government investigation was under way into a complaint filed by
    Deborah Bostfield alleging that police beat her son, Jermaine Storr,
    outside a nightclub in January.
        Authorities charged police reservist Craig Hepburn with having
    unlawful intercourse with a 13-year-old girl in February and forcing
    her to cohabit with him. The matter was before the courts at year's
    end.
        An investigation was under way into allegations made by Lynette K.
    Oliver, who claimed she was repeatedly punched in the face and choked
    by police on April 25.
        In June a police reservist was convicted of sexually assaulting a
    woman during a traffic stop. He remained in custody pending sentencing.
        Police were awaiting forensic analysis results in an investigation
    opened after a woman in Grand Bahama accused police of sexual assault
    and death threats in September.
        In November police arrested Godfrey Hepburn in connection with a
    robbery. Hepburn's attorney told the magistrate that he was brutalized
    while in police custody.
        An investigation was conducted into allegations made by Barry
    McPhee Jr., who claimed he was violently beaten and given an electric
    shock after being arrested for stealing a cell phone in January 2009.
    The investigation was completed, and the matter was referred to the
    Police Tribunal.
        At year's end the investigation continued in the case of police
    officer Dwight Williamson, accused of raping a 15-year-old girl at the
    police station in August 2009.
        In December 2009 authorities charged police constable Daniel Paul
    Smith with raping a 19-year-old girl while on duty, suspended him, and
    placed him on half-pay. At year's end Smith's case was pending trial.
        An investigation continued into allegations that Royal Bahamas
    Defence Force officers Vaughn Saunders and Kendrick Ferguson beat James
    Demeritte in November 2009.
        Amnesty International reported that Emmanuel McKenzie, chairman of
    an environmental organization, was harassed and assaulted by police and
    defense forces during a fundraising event in April 2008. The Government
    responded to a UN Human Rights Committee request on this matter, denied
    the allegations of abuse, and stated that McKenzie was the subject of a
    criminal trial for possession of dangerous drugs with the intent to
    supply. A government investigation into McKenzie's claims that officers
    stole his property and abused him concluded that there was insufficient
    evidence to substantiate his claims.
        In February a court acquitted police officer Vaughn Pratt, arrested
    and accused of having sex with two minors in 2007. In July a court
    sentenced police reservist Charles Prince to five years in prison for
    the rape of a teenage girl in 2007.
        There were other allegations of police beatings and brutality
    throughout the year. The Government stated that no official complaints
    were received in reference to many of these allegations. Victims'
    families and community activists claimed that many officers had their
    cases thrown out of court or dropped by the Attorney General's Office.
    In addition many officers waited years for their court date, only to
    return to work without having their names cleared.

        Prison and Detention Center Conditions.--Conditions at Fox Hill
    Prison, the country's only prison, remained harsh for many prisoners.
    Overcrowding was a major problem in the men's maximum-security block.
    Originally built in 1953 to hold 450 inmates, it held 624 of the
    country's 1,322 prisoners. The remaining prisoners were held in medium-
    and minimum-security units that were at intended capacity. Male
    prisoners in the maximum-security unit were crowded into poorly
    ventilated and poorly lit cells that generally lacked regular running
    water. During the year authorities installed composting toilets and
    acquired 100 mattresses for the maximum security unit, expanded access
    to medical and dental services, and expanded access to technical and
    vocational services. Despite these upgrades prisoners continued to
    report sleeping on concrete floors and inadequate access to medical
    care. A classroom within the maximum-security facility provided
    educational programs to high-risk offenders who could not attend
    classes within the correctional training institute. Maximum-security
    inmates were allowed outside for exercise four days a week for one hour
    per day. Inmates complained of inadequate potable water, lack of
    medical care, and poor treatment.
        Family members of prisoners raised concerns about the lack of
    potable water at the prison, but the Government insisted there was no
    shortage of potable water. Four reverse osmosis units were installed at
    various housing units from which each inmate was able to extract a
    minimum of one gallon of potable water during exercise time each day,
    free of charge. In addition bottled water was available for purchase
    from the inmate commissary.
        A remand center held 602 detainees; it has a medical facility and
    exercise yard, as well as a well-equipped health diagnostic unit and a
    pharmacy. That facility had water treatment units installed and the
    dental unit renovated and refurbished.
        There continued to be allegations of abuse by prison guards. Local
    attorneys and human rights observers asserted that the prison's
    internal affairs unit lacked the independence needed to investigate
    impartially allegations of abuse and misconduct; it conducted 128
    investigations during the year.
        Conditions for female prisoners were less severe than for men;
    however, women did not have access to the same work-release programs
    available to male prisoners.
        The prison has a separate section for juvenile offenders between
    the ages of 16 and 18. There was occasional mixing of juveniles with
    adult inmates depending on the severity of their crimes. Offenders
    younger than 16, along with children made wards of the court by their
    parents because of ``uncontrollable behavior,'' were held at the
    Simpson Penn Center for Boys and the Williamae Pratt Center for Girls.
        The Carmichael Road Immigrant Detention Center held up to 500
    detainees (with tent space for an additional 500), and women and men
    were held separately. Haitians and Jamaicans were the most commonly
    interdicted migrants. The highest occupancy during the year was
    approximately 252. Observers complained of continuing abuse by guards,
    although immigration officials stated that no such complaints were
    filed during the year. Human rights groups expressed concern that
    complaint investigations were handled internally without independent
    review and oversight. Children under the age of 14 were held in the
    women's dormitory. Many children arriving with both parents were not
    allowed contact with the father except during weekly visitation.
    Despite the possibility of being held for months, children did not have
    access to education.
        The Government investigated and monitored prison and detention
    center conditions. A team of community leaders conducted a fact-finding
    mission during the year, but the results were not made public.
    Prisoners and detainees had reasonable access to visitors and were
    permitted religious observance. The Government asserted that there were
    no requests to submit complaints to judicial authorities during the
    year. However, officials stated that all credible allegations were
    investigated.
        Neither domestic nor international human rights groups made any
    requests to visit the detention center or prison during the year.
    However, organizations providing aid, counseling services, and
    religious instruction had regular access to inmates.

        d. Arbitrary Arrest or Detention.--The constitution prohibits
    arbitrary arrest and detention, and the Government generally observed
    these prohibitions, although police occasionally were accused of
    arresting and detaining persons arbitrarily.

        Role of the Police and Security Apparatus.--The Royal Bahamas
    Police Force (RBPF) maintains internal security, and the small Royal
    Bahamas Defense Force (RBDF) is responsible for external security,
    security at the Carmichael Road Detention Center, and some minor
    domestic security functions such as guarding foreign embassies and
    ambassadors. The Ministry of National Security oversees the RBPF and
    the RBDF.
        A police officer involved in shooting or killing a suspect is
    automatically placed under investigation. The Police Complaints and
    Corruption Branch (PCCB), which reports directly to the deputy
    commissioner, was responsible for investigating allegations of police
    brutality. This unit determines if enough evidence of abuse or
    misconduct exists in a particular case to warrant disciplinary action
    within the police system or, in some cases, criminal prosecution by the
    attorney general. Due to concern that the PCCB lacked independence and
    that a perceived lack of impartiality discouraged full reporting of
    complaints, in August a new independent body--the Police Complaints
    Inspectorate Office--was established on New Providence and Grand Bahama
    in August to investigate complaints against police. The body was to be
    staffed by independent members of the public to probe complaints of
    police corruption and brutality.
        The Government reported that no official complaint was made after a
    police officer was accused of savagely beating his girlfriend in May
    2009. The 2009 case of four police officers charged with armed robbery
    and extortion was pending trial at year's end. The Government reported
    that no official complaint was made after authorities arrested two
    police officers for an unauthorized raid on a bar in November 2009.
        There were 233 complaints against police through October, compared
    with 257 in 2009. Of these cases, the PCCB recommended 23 to the Police
    Tribunal, informally resolved 19, found 31to be unsubstantiated,
    determined that 65 were unfounded, concluded that 57 had insufficient
    evidence, and discharged 11 officers in other cases. Complainants
    withdrew 25 cases, and two required no further police action. The
    overwhelming number of complaints involved allegations of assault,
    followed by unethical behavior and missing property.

        Arrest Procedures and Treatment While in Detention.--In general the
    authorities conducted arrests openly and, when required, obtained
    judicially issued warrants. Serious cases, including those of suspected
    narcotics or firearms offenses, do not require warrants where probable
    cause exists. The law provides that a suspect must be charged within 48
    hours of arrest. Arrested persons appear before a magistrate within 48
    hours (or by the next business day for cases arising on weekends and
    holidays) to hear the charges against them. Police can apply for a 48-
    hour extension upon simple request to the court and for longer
    extensions with sufficient showing of need. Some persons on remand
    claimed they were not brought before a magistrate within the 48-hour
    time frame. The Government generally respected the right to a judicial
    determination of the legality of arrests. The constitution provides the
    right for those arrested or detained to retain an attorney at their own
    expense; volunteer legal aides were sometimes available. Minors under
    the age of 18 have the right to communicate with a parent or guardian.
        There is a functioning bail system. Judges sometimes authorized
    cash bail for foreigners arrested on minor charges; however, in
    practice foreign suspects generally preferred to plead guilty and pay a
    fine rather than pursue their right to defend themselves, in view of
    possible delays in court cases and harsh conditions in the prison.
        Attorneys and other prisoner advocates continued to complain of
    excessive pretrial detention due to the failure of the criminal justice
    system to try even the most serious cases in a timely manner. The
    constitution provides that suspects can be held for a ``reasonable
    period of time'' before trial. Government officials stated that
    approximately 600 of the 1,332 prisoners at Fox Hill Prison were
    awaiting trial. Available government statistics suggested that
    approximately 100 prisoners had been held on remand without trial for
    more than two years. This was recognized as a major problem in the
    justice system, as criminals accused of serious crimes made bail, while
    many others were held indefinitely without trial.
        The authorities detained illegal immigrants, primarily Haitians,
    until arrangements could be made for them to leave the country or they
    obtained legal status. The average length of detention varied
    significantly by nationality, willingness of governments to accept
    their nationals back in a timely manner, and availability of funds to
    pay for repatriation. Haitians usually were repatriated within one
    week, while Cubans were held for much longer periods. Illegal
    immigrants convicted of crimes other than immigration violations were
    held at Fox Hill Prison, where they often remained for weeks or months
    after serving their sentences, pending deportation.

        e. Denial of Fair Public Trial.--The constitution provides for an
    independent judiciary, and the Government generally respected judicial
    independence in practice.

        Trial Procedures.--The constitution provides for the right to a
    fair trial, and an independent judiciary generally enforced this right.
    Defendants enjoy a presumption of innocence until proven guilty and are
    permitted to question witnesses at trial and view government evidence.
    Defendants have a right to appeal. There is a functioning bail system,
    but individuals who could not post bail were held on remand
    indefinitely. Defendants can elect to use a jury in criminal cases;
    serious offenses such as murder and fraud automatically go to a jury.
        During the year the Supreme Court reported a backlog of 450 cases,
    and other courts had a large and steadily expanding backlog of cases,
    which included hundreds of cases of the most serious violent crime.
    Estimates of the backlog in other courts ranged from 40,000 to 95,000
    cases. Delays reportedly lasted five years or more. Local legal
    professionals attributed delays to a variety of longstanding systemic
    problems, such as slow police investigation, inefficient prosecution
    strategies, lack of judicial capacity, lengthy legal procedures, staff
    shortages, and judicial inefficiency compounded by financial and space
    constraints.
        Defendants may hire an attorney of their choice, but the Government
    provided legal representation only to destitute suspects charged with
    capital crimes, leaving large numbers of defendants without adequate
    legal representation. Lack of representation contributed to excessive
    pretrial detention, as some accused lacked the means to pursue the case
    toward trial.

        Political Prisoners and Detainees.--There were no reports of
    political prisoners or detainees.

        Civil Judicial Procedures and Remedies.--There is an independent
    and impartial judiciary in civil matters, and there is access to a
    court to bring lawsuits seeking damages for, or cessation of, a human
    rights violation.

        f. Arbitrary Interference With Privacy, Family, Home, or
    Correspondence.--The constitution prohibits such actions, and the
    Government generally respected these prohibitions in practice.
        While the law usually requires a court order for entry into or
    search of a private residence, a police inspector or more senior police
    official may authorize a search without a court order where probable
    cause to suspect a weapons violation or drug possession exists.
        In January the Court of Appeal affirmed the constitutionality of
    the Listening Devices Act, which had been challenged during an
    extradition hearing in 2008.

    Section 2. Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:
        a. Freedom of Speech and Press.--The constitution provides for
    freedom of speech and of the press, and the Government generally
    respected these rights in practice. An independent press, an effective
    judiciary, and a functioning democratic political system combined to
    ensure freedom of speech and of the press. The independent media were
    active and expressed a wide variety of views without significant
    restriction.

        Internet Freedom.--The Government did not impose restrictions on
    public access to the Internet. There were no reports that the
    Government monitored e-mail or Internet chat rooms. Individuals and
    groups could engage in the peaceful expression of views via the
    Internet, including by e-mail. According to the International
    Telecommunication Union, there were 42 Internet users per 100
    inhabitants in 2009.

        Academic Freedom and Cultural Events.--There were no government
    restrictions on academic freedom or cultural events. However, the Plays
    and Films Control Board rates and censors entertainment.

        b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association.--The constitution
    provides for freedom of assembly and association, and the Government
    generally respected these rights in practice.

        c. Freedom of Religion.--For a complete description of religious
    freedom, please see the 2010 International Religious Freedom Report at
    www.state.gov/g/drl/irf/rpt.

        d. Freedom of Movement, Internally Displaced Persons, Protection of
    Refugees, and Stateless Persons.--The constitution provides for freedom
    of movement within the country, foreign travel, emigration, and
    repatriation, and the Government generally respected these rights in
    practice.
        The law prohibits forced exile, and the Government did not use it.

        Protection of Refugees.--The Government has not established a
    consistent system for providing protection to all refugees and asylum
    seekers. In practice the Government provided some protection against
    the expulsion or return of refugees to countries where their lives or
    freedom would be threatened. When they occur, applications for
    political asylum were adjudicated on a case-by-case basis at the
    cabinet level. The authorities did not receive any requests nor grant
    asylum during the year.
        The Government generally cooperated with the Office of the UN High
    Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and other humanitarian organizations
    in assisting refugees and asylum seekers. The Government did not
    systematically share its prescreening notes with the UNHCR but did seek
    UNHCR advice on specific cases of concern.
        Local and international human rights observers criticized the
    Government for failing to screen potential asylum applicants
    adequately. Those requesting asylum screening often lacked access to
    legal counsel. Human rights observers claimed that the Government
    detained Cuban migrants for excessive periods. The Government asserted
    that all migrants who claim asylum are interviewed and screened
    adequately by trained immigration officials.

        Stateless Persons.--The Government has not effectively implemented
    laws and policies to provide certain habitual residents the opportunity
    to gain nationality in a timely manner and on a nondiscriminatory
    basis. Children born to non-Bahamian parents or to a Bahamian mother
    and a non-Bahamian father born outside the Bahamas do not automatically
    acquire citizenship. Bahamian-born persons of foreign heritage must
    apply for citizenship during the year after their 18th birthday,
    sometimes waiting many years for a government response. The narrow
    window for application, difficult documentary requirements, and long
    waiting times created generations of de facto stateless persons.
    However, the Government did not consider many of these individuals
    stateless, because they were often eligible for the citizenship of
    their parents and could apply for Bahamian citizenship on their 18th
    birthday. Individuals born in the country to Haitian parents were not
    required to pay the college tuition rate for foreign students while
    waiting for their request for citizenship to be processed. There were
    no reliable estimates of the number of de facto stateless persons.

    Section 3. Respect for Political Rights: The Right of Citizens to
            Change Their Government
        The constitution provides citizens with the right to change their
    government peacefully, and citizens exercised this right in practice
    through periodic, free, and fair elections based on universal suffrage.

        Elections and Political Participation.--The two principal political
    parties are the governing FNM and the opposition Progressive Liberal
    Party (PLP). In 2007 national elections generally considered free and
    fair, the FNM won 23 of 41 seats in the House of Assembly and formed
    the new government under Hubert Ingraham. The election campaign under
    the incumbent PLP, however, was marred by instances of violence,
    alleged favoritism by the influential state-owned electronic media
    toward government candidates, and allegations of vote-buying.
        The House of Assembly had five elected female members; there were
    five appointed female senators, including its president, in the 14-seat
    Senate. There was one woman in the cabinet.
        Information on racial background was not collected, but there were
    several members of minorities in prominent positions in parliament and
    the cabinet.

    Section 4. Official Corruption and Government Transparency
        The law provides criminal penalties for official corruption, and
    the Government generally implemented these laws effectively. There were
    isolated reports of government corruption during the year.
        Senior public officials, such as senators and members of
    parliament, were subject to financial disclosure under the Public
    Disclosure Act. Antibribery legislation designates the attorney general
    responsible for combating government corruption.
        The RBPF operated a complaints and corruption branch, which
    received 11 corruption reports during the year: it sent one to the
    police tribunal, found that one was unsubstantiated, recommended
    criminal charges in one case, and had eight cases under investigation
    at year's end.
        Police investigated two extortion cases involving the alleged
    corruption of police officers. One case was determined to have
    insufficient evidence, and one matter was under investigation at year's
    end. In March authorities accused several female police officers of
    operating an illegal male strip show. The matter was before the courts
    at year's end.
        At year's end an investigation continued into the March allegations
    of conspiracy to commit fraud against police officer Eddie Florival and
    prison officer Freeman Basden.
        Police charged Corporal Jay Sergeant and Constable Harold Sands
    with aiding the escape of two inmates at the Central Police Station;
    the matter was before the court at year's end.
        Authorities charged one person from the Department of Immigration's
    Passport Office with corruption in a bribery scheme; at year's end the
    matter was before the courts.
        In September authorities accused two paramedics of extortion after
    they reportedly forced injured tourists to prepay for treatment and
    transport to the hospital. Emergency Medical Services director Avery
    Hanna suspended the crew pending an official investigation of the
    matter.
        In August the RBPF discharged from the force police Constable
    Ricardo Kevin Bauld, arrested in 2007, after he was convicted of drug
    possession.
        Media reports alleged that millions of dollars in government
    contracts were awarded inappropriately to the close friend of a senior
    civil servant. Both political parties were subject to corruption
    allegations concerning the inappropriate transfer of government-owned
    land. The opposition party also charged the FNM government with
    corruption in relation to a controversial relocation of the container
    port.
        In January 2009 authorities charged a former PLP senator and an
    ambulance driver with conspiracy and abetting an alleged extortion
    attempt. A mistrial was declared in the first trial and the defendants
    faced retrial, but the complainant declined to pursue the case at
    year's end. At year's end an investigation continued in the July 2009
    case of a former PLP treasurer who was indicted on money laundering
    charges in a foreign jurisdiction.
        In July 2009 authorities suspended 16 customs officials over
    allegations that included falsifying documents, bribery, stealing, and
    evasion of customs duties. Later, authorities dismissed nine of the
    officers, retired four in the public interest, and redeployed two
    elsewhere in the public service. Police investigations into government
    contract corruption in the wake of 2004 hurricanes Frances and Jeanne
    continued at year's end.
        The PLP accused Minister of the Environment Earl Deveaux of
    corruption after he submitted development plans from the same company
    for which he accepted free helicopter rides. The prime minister
    declined Deveaux's letter of resignation and told the press he did not
    believe the incident was a dismissible offense.
        Media representatives criticized the lack of laws providing for
    public access to government information. Members of the local press
    also complained that the Government failed to provide regular, open
    access to information, including information regarding alleged human
    rights violations. Specifically, press and local human rights groups
    complained that the Government was not forthcoming about alleged human
    rights abuses by police and prison and detention center guards, citing
    a lack of transparency in investigations and publication of
    investigative reports.

    Section 5. Governmental Attitude Regarding International and
            Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations of Human
            Rights
        A number of domestic and international human rights groups
    generally operated without government restriction, investigating and
    publishing their findings on human rights cases. Government officials
    usually were cooperative and responsive to their views.
        A governmental ``commissioner'' with ombudsman-like duties enjoyed
    the Government's cooperation and was considered effective.

    Section 6. Discrimination, Societal Abuses, and Trafficking in Persons
        The constitution prohibits discrimination on the basis of race,
    place of origin, political opinion, or creed, and the Government
    generally enforced these prohibitions. However, the constitution and
    the law contain provisions that discriminate against women.
        The country consists of 700 islands and cays, 30 of which are
    inhabited. Information reflects the situation in the highly populated
    areas on New Providence and Grand Bahama. Limited information was
    available from the lesser populated out islands.

        Women.--Rape is illegal, but the law does not address spousal rape,
    except if the couple is separating, in the process of divorce, or if
    there is a restraining order in place. The maximum penalty for all
    offenses, including a first-time offense, is life imprisonment.
    According to the RBPF, 72 rapes were reported by October 14, a decrease
    from 90 reported in 2009. Prosecutions and convictions on rape charges
    were common. In August the RBPF activated a Victim Support Unit on the
    island of Grand Bahama to assist victims of rape and other serious
    crimes, a new unit created in response to a sharp increase in reports
    of rape on that island.
        Violence against women continued to be a serious, widespread
    problem. The law prohibits domestic violence as a crime separate from
    assault and battery, and the Government generally enforced the law. The
    police reported that eight of 78 killings recorded through October were
    related to domestic violence. Women's rights groups cited a general
    reluctance on the part of law enforcement authorities to intervene in
    domestic disputes. The police recognized domestic violence as a high
    priority, provided specialized training for all incoming officers, and
    offered continuing training in domestic violence.
        The Government operated a toll-free hotline in New Providence and
    Grand Bahama, with trained volunteers to respond to emergency calls 24
    hours a day. Government and private women's organizations continued
    public awareness campaigns highlighting the problems of abuse and
    domestic violence. The Ministry of Labor and Social Development's
    Department of Social Services, in partnership with a private
    organization, operated a safe house to assist battered women. The
    ministry's Bureau of Women's Affairs was responsible for promoting and
    protecting women's rights.
        The law prohibits criminal ``quid pro quo'' sexual harassment and
    authorizes penalties of up to B$5,000 ($5,000) and a maximum of two
    years' imprisonment. The Ministry of Labor and Social Development
    received 10 reports of workplace sexual harassment during the year.
    Civil rights advocates complained that criminal prohibitions were not
    enforced effectively and that civil remedies, including a prohibition
    on ``hostile environment'' sexual harassment, were needed.
        Couples and individuals generally could decide freely and
    responsibly the number, spacing, and timing of their children, and were
    not subject to discrimination, coercion, or violence regarding these
    choices. Access to family planning was universally available to persons
    age 18 and older and to younger persons with the consent of an adult.
    Pregnant teens were removed from government educational institutions
    and placed in a special school, Providing Access to Continued
    Education, until after the birth of their children. The Maternal and
    Child Health Unit of the Ministry of Health provided information
    pamphlets on maternal and child health to clinics. A government Web
    site provided information for maternal and child healthcare services
    provided by various clinics throughout the country. Women had access to
    maternal health services. According to UN data, skilled personnel
    attended 99 percent of births, and 98 percent of mothers received
    prenatal and postpartum care. UN agencies estimated the maternal
    mortality rate to be 49 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2008. The
    Population Reference Bureau estimated the infant mortality rate at 14
    per 1,000 live births. Services were available on a nondiscriminatory
    basis, although some illegal immigrants did not receive postpartum care
    because they had no fixed address.
        The law does not provide women with the same right as men to
    transmit citizenship to their foreign-born spouses. The law also makes
    it easier for men with foreign spouses than for women with foreign
    spouses to confer citizenship on their children. The law does not
    include gender as a basis for protection from discrimination. Women
    were generally free of economic discrimination, and the law provides
    for equal pay for equal work.

        Children.--Children born to non-Bahamian parents or to a Bahamian
    mother and a non-Bahamian father born outside of the Bahamas do not
    automatically acquire citizenship. Otherwise, citizenship is acquired
    by birth in the country. There is universal birth registration; all
    births must be registered within 21 days of delivery. All residents,
    regardless of immigration status, had free access to education and
    social programs.
        Both the Government and civic organizations conducted public
    education programs aimed at child abuse and appropriate parenting
    behavior; however, child abuse and neglect remained serious problems.
    The RBPF operated a hotline regarding missing or exploited children.
    The Child Protection Act of 2007 included increased penalties for child
    abuse, mandatory reporting to police of all forms of child abuse, a
    provision for fathers of children born out of wedlock to pursue custody
    of the children, and a provision for mothers of children born out of
    wedlock to pursue maintenance of those children up to age 18.
        The Department of Social Services reported 483 cases of child abuse
    between January and November. They included 55 cases of physical abuse,
    243 cases of neglect, eight cases of incest, and two cases of emotional
    abuse. All other forms of abuse accounted for less than 10 cases each.
    The ministry believed that only a minority of cases were reported. The
    Ministry of Education conducted investigations into allegations of
    sexual impropriety against 29 teachers during the year. The Public
    Service Commission terminated 18 teachers, five cases were pending
    before the courts, and insufficient evidence was found in the remaining
    six.
        The law requires all persons having contact with a child they
    believe to have been physically or sexually abused to report their
    suspicions to the police. Sexual exploitation of children through
    incestuous relationships occurred, and anecdotal reports suggested that
    this was a particular problem in the out islands. Observers generally
    acknowledged that a small number of children were involved in illicit
    or unlawful activities. The ministry may remove children from abusive
    situations if the court deems it necessary. The ministry provided
    services to abused and neglected children through a public-private
    center for children, through the public hospital family violence
    program, and through a nonprofit crisis center.
        The Department of Social Services is responsible for abandoned
    children up to 18 years of age but had very limited resources at its
    disposal. The Government found foster homes for some children, and the
    Government hospital housed abandoned children with physical
    disabilities when foster homes could not be found.
        The law prohibits statutory rape of persons under the age of 16;
    victims between the ages of 14 and 16 carry penalties of up to 14
    years' imprisonment, with harsher penalties involving persons under age
    14. While a victim's consent is insufficient defense against
    allegations of statutory rape, it is sufficient defense if an
    individual can demonstrate that the accused had ``reasonable cause to
    believe that the victim was above 16 years of age,'' provided the
    accused was under age 18.
        Child pornography is against the law. A person who produces it is
    liable to life imprisonment; dissemination or possession of it calls
    for a penalty of 20 years' imprisonment.
        The country is a party to the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil
    Aspects of International Child Abduction. For information on
    international parental child abduction, please see the Department of
    State's annual report on compliance at www.travel.state.gov/abduction/
    resources/congressreport/congressreport--4308 .html, as well as
    country-specific information at www.travel.state.gov/abduction/country/
    country--3781.html.

        Anti-Semitism.--There were no reports of anti-Semitic acts. The
    local Jewish community numbered approximately 200 persons.

        Trafficking in Persons.--For information on trafficking in persons,
    please see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons
    Report www.state.gov/g/tip.

        Persons With Disabilities.--There is no specific law protecting
    persons with physical or mental disabilities from discrimination in
    employment, education, access to health care, or in the provision of
    other state services. However, provisions in other legislation address
    the rights of persons with disabilities, including a prohibition of
    discrimination on the basis of disability. Although the law mandates
    access for persons with physical disabilities in new public buildings,
    the authorities rarely enforced this requirement, and very few
    buildings and public facilities were accessible to persons with
    disabilities. Advocates for persons with disabilities complained of
    widespread job discrimination and general apathy on the part of private
    employers and political leaders toward the need for training and equal
    opportunity.
        In its attempt to counter all forms of discrimination against
    persons with disabilities the Government, through its Disability
    Affairs Division, engaged in several outreach efforts. The division
    collaborated with disability-related NGOs and the community of persons
    with disabilities in the formulation of national antidiscrimination
    legislation, which was in its final stages of preparation. The division
    also established a national registry for persons with disabilities in
    order to obtain statistical data that provides the kind of information
    needed for the creation of inclusive policies and support services
    necessary for equal participation in all aspects of society. Daily sign
    language interpretation for national evening news broadcasts was
    provided.
        New measures were taken to provide training, education, and job
    placement services for adults and children with disabilities. The
    Government provided financial assistance for computer classes and
    technical skills training at the Bahamas Technical Vocational
    Institute. A disability allowance was provided to children with
    disabilities under the age of 16 to assist with caring for a child with
    special needs. Monthly self-esteem building support groups were held
    for men and women with disabilities. Free Braille classes were provided
    for individuals with vision loss as well as free sign language
    interpretation for individuals with hearing loss. Adaptive technology
    was provided for children with multiple disabilities at the Bahamas
    Association for the Physically Disabled (a school for children with
    multiple disabilities).
        In June media reports indicated a patient died, possibly due to
    neglect, at the Sandilands Psychiatric Hospital. The Government
    conducted a comprehensive investigation which included detailed
    accounts from medical and support personnel, as well as the submission
    of closed circuit television footage. The Government found that there
    was no evidence of negligence on the part of staff in this matter.
        The Social Development Ministry's Disability Affairs Unit worked
    with the Bahamas National Council for Disability, an umbrella
    organization of nongovernmental organizations that offered services for
    persons with disabilities, to provide a coordinated public and private
    sector approach to the needs of such persons. A mix of government and
    private residential and nonresidential institutions provided education,
    training, counseling, and job placement services for adults and
    children with both physical and mental disabilities.

        National/Racial/Ethnic Minorities.--The country's racial and ethnic
    groups generally coexisted in a climate of peace and mutual respect
    without overt racial or other tensions. However, anti-Haitian prejudice
    and resentment regarding Haitian immigration was common. According to
    unofficial estimates, between 10 and 25 percent of the population were
    Haitians or persons of Haitian descent, making them the largest ethnic
    minority. Many persons of Haitian origin lived in shantytowns with
    limited sewage and garbage services, law enforcement, or other
    infrastructure. Haitian children generally were granted access to
    education and social services, but interethnic tensions and inequities
    persisted. The Haitian community was characterized by high poverty,
    high unemployment, poor educational achievement, and poor health
    conditions. Haitians generally had difficulty in securing citizenship,
    residence, or work permits.
        Lawyers for an illegal Haitian resident in Nassau, whom an RBDF
    officer shot and injured in 2007, continued their civil suit seeking
    damages against the officer, the commander of the RBDF, and the
    attorney general, even though the man was subsequently deported. The
    case was scheduled to be heard in June 2011.
        Members of the Haitian community complained of discrimination in
    the job market, specifically that identity and work permit documents
    were controlled by employers seeking leverage by threat of deportation.
    Some also complained of tactics used by immigration officials in raids
    of Haitian or suspected Haitian communities. The economic recession led
    to an increase in resentment against the Haitian population and a
    tendency to blame Haitians for rising crime rates.

        Societal Abuses, Discrimination, and Acts of Violence Based on
    Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.--Societal discrimination
    against gay men and lesbians occurred, with some persons reporting job
    and housing discrimination based upon sexual orientation. Although
    homosexual activities between consenting adults are legal, no
    legislation addresses the human rights concerns of gay, lesbian,
    bisexual, or transgender persons. The 2006 Constitutional Review
    Commission found that sexual orientation did not deserve protection
    against discrimination.
        A jury acquitted Troyniko McNeil, accused of the 2008 killing of a
    reportedly gay person, handbag designer Harl Taylor. At year's end the
    Public Service Commission was still investigating two other 2008
    killings of reportedly gay individuals.

        Other Societal Violence or Discrimination.--Stigma and
    discrimination against persons with HIV/AIDS was high, but there were
    no reports of violence against persons with HIV/AIDS. Children with
    HIV/AIDS also faced discrimination, and teachers often were not told
    that a child was HIV positive for fear of verbal abuse from both
    educators and peers. The Government maintained a home for orphaned
    children infected with HIV/AIDS.

    Section 7. Worker Rights
        a. The Right of Association.--The law allows workers to form and
    join unions without previous authorization or excessive requirements,
    and those laws were applied in practice. Almost one-quarter of the
    workforce (and 80 percent of the workers in the hospitality industry)
    belonged to unions. Members of the police force, defense force, fire
    brigade, and prison guards may not organize or join unions.
        The law provides for the right to strike, and workers exercised
    this right in practice.

        b. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively.--Workers freely
    exercised their right to organize and participate in collective
    bargaining, which the law protects. Employers can apply to have union
    recognition revoked if a collective agreement is not reached after 12
    months. Unions and employers negotiated wage rates without government
    interference.
        The law prohibits antiunion discrimination, and employers can be
    compelled to reinstate workers illegally fired for union activity. This
    law was generally enforced. Under the law, labor disputes first are
    filed with the Labor Ministry and then, if not resolved, are
    transferred to an industrial tribunal. The tribunal's decision is final
    and can be appealed in court only on a strict question of law. Some
    employers complained the industrial tribunal was biased unfairly in
    favor of employees. After a massive ``sick out'' by the Bahamas Nurses
    Union in 2009 over a health insurance dispute, the Government announced
    it would prosecute doctors who falsified sick notes. The nurses
    returned to work and secured health coverage during the year.
        Freeport is a specially designated free trade zone. Labor law and
    practice in this zone do not differ from those in the rest of the
    country. There are no export processing zones.

        c. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor.--Although the law
    prohibits forced or compulsory labor, including by children, there were
    reports that such practices occurred.
        There were reports that Haitian laborers suffered abuses at the
    hands of their employers. Local sources indicated that labor
    exploitation of undocumented Haitians could be widespread, and some
    immigrants may be subjected to conditions of involuntary servitude.
    Employers could coerce migrants to work long hours for no pay or below
    the minimum wage by withholding documents or threatening arrest and
    deportation. Migrant workers usually did not have access to labor
    protections under local law.
        Smuggling rings continued to take advantage of the demand for labor
    by bringing in irregular migrants from Haiti. See also the Department
    of State's annual Trafficking in Persons Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        d. Prohibition of Child Labor and Minimum Age for Employment.--
    Although the law prohibits the employment of children under the age of
    14 for industrial work or work during school hours, some children
    worked part-time in light industry and service jobs. Children under the
    age of 16 may not work at night. There was no legal minimum age for
    employment in other sectors. The Labor Ministry is responsible for
    enforcing these laws and did so adequately.

        e. Acceptable Conditions of Work.--The minimum wage was $4 per hour
    for hourly workers, B$30 ($30) per day for daily workers and B$150
    ($150) per week for weekly-paid workers. The Labor Ministry was
    responsible for enforcing the minimum wage but did not do so
    effectively. Undocumented migrant workers often earned less than the
    minimum wage. The minimum wage did not provide a decent standard of
    living for a worker and family.
        The law provides for a 40-hour workweek, a 24-hour rest period, and
    time-and-a-half payment for hours worked beyond the standard workweek.
    These standards were enforced effectively.
        The Labor Ministry is responsible for enforcing labor laws and had
    a team of inspectors that conducted on-site visits to enforce
    occupational health and safety standards and investigate employee
    concerns and complaints, although inspections occurred infrequently.
    The ministry normally announced inspection visits in advance, and
    employers generally cooperated with inspectors to implement safety
    standards. It was uncertain whether these inspections effectively
    enforced health and safety standards, although the ministry actively
    sought international assistance to improve performance. The law does
    not provide a right for workers to remove themselves from dangerous
    work situations without jeopardy to continued employment.

                                   __________

                                    BARBADOS

        Barbados is a parliamentary democracy with a population of
    approximately 276,000. In January 2008 general elections the Democratic
    Labour Party (DLP), which had been in opposition since 1994, defeated
    the Barbados Labour Party (BLP), and DLP leader David Thompson became
    prime minister. In October Thompson died in office and was replaced by
    Deputy Prime Minister Freundel Stuart. Security forces reported to
    civilian authorities.
        Human rights problems included occasional use of excessive force by
    the police and societal violence against women and children.

                            RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

    Section 1. Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom
            From:
        a. Arbitrary or Unlawful Deprivation of Life.--The Government or
    its agents did not commit any politically motivated killings, but on
    rare occasions, there were police killings in the line of duty. All
    such killings were investigated and referred to a coroner's inquiry
    when appropriate.
        Both the June and December 2009 police killings of Hugh Springer
    and Denzil Headley, respectively, remained under investigation at
    year's end. The hearing in the Springer case began in November; one in
    the Headley case had not been scheduled by year's end. There was no
    information available about the outcome of investigations into the 2007
    police killing of Michael Davis or the 2006 killing of Richard Gordon.

        b. Disappearance.--There were no reports of politically motivated
    disappearances.

        c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or
    Punishment.--The constitution specifically prohibits torture and
    inhuman or degrading punishment or other treatment, but sometimes there
    were reports that police used excessive force. Most complaints against
    the police alleged unprofessional conduct and beating or assault.
    Police occasionally were accused of beating suspects to obtain
    confessions, and suspects often recanted their confessions during their
    trial. In many cases the only evidence against the accused was a
    confession. Suspects and their family members continued to allege
    coercion by police, but there was no evidence of systematic police
    abuse.

        Prison and Detention Center Conditions.--Prison and detention
    center conditions generally met international standards. Dodds Prison,
    built in 2007 in St. Philip, was designed to meet modern international
    standards with a capacity of approximately 1,250 prisoners. According
    to prison officials, in October it held 910 prisoners, including
    pretrial detainees. Although prisoners occasionally complained about
    the quality of the food, Dodds has a canteen program permitting family
    members to make deposits into inmate accounts, and inmates may purchase
    popular food, snacks, toiletries, and dry goods. Prisoners may submit
    complaints to the officer in charge. If that officer cannot resolve the
    problem, it is referred to the warden.
        There were 37 female prisoners held in a separate wing. There were
    separate juvenile facilities for boys and girls.
        Authorities permitted reasonable access to visitors, and the
    Government permitted prison visits by independent human rights
    monitors.

        d. Arbitrary Arrest or Detention.--The constitution prohibits
    arbitrary arrest and imprisonment, and the Government generally
    observed these prohibitions.

        Role of the Police and Security Apparatus.--At year's end the Royal
    Barbados Police Force (RBPF) numbered 1,452--including 74 special
    constables--and is responsible for internal law enforcement. While
    still a male-dominated profession, the number of female recruits
    increased to 238. The small Barbados Defence Force (BDF) protects
    national security and may be called upon to maintain public order in
    times of crisis, emergency, or other specific need. The RBPF reports to
    the minister of home affairs, and the BDF reports to the minister of
    defense and security. Although the police largely were unarmed, special
    RBPF foot patrols in high-crime areas carried firearms. An armed
    special rapid-response unit continued to operate. The law provides that
    the police can request BDF assistance with special joint patrols.
        In 2004 the Police Complaints Authority (PCA) replaced the Office
    of Professional Responsibility in handling public complaints of
    inappropriate police conduct. The authority is headed by a retired
    judge. The authorities did not report the number of cases the PCA
    handled but stated that several cases have been heard. There were no
    convictions of police for unlawful conduct or abuse of authority.
        There were no reports of impunity involving the security forces
    during the year.

        Arrest Procedures and Treatment While in Detention.--Police are
    authorized to arrest persons suspected of criminal activity; a warrant
    is typically required. The constitution permits detainees to be held
    without charge for up to five days; however, once charged, detainees
    must be brought before a court without unnecessary delay. There is a
    functioning bail system. Criminal detainees were given prompt access to
    counsel and were advised of that right immediately after arrest. Access
    to family members generally was permitted.
        Police procedures provide that, except when expressly permitted by
    a senior divisional officer to do otherwise, the police may question
    suspects and other persons they hold only at a police station. An
    officer must visit detainees at least once every three hours to inquire
    about the detainees' condition. After 24 hours the detaining authority
    must submit a written report to the deputy commissioner. The
    authorities must approve and record all movements of detainees between
    stations.
        There were between 50 and 100 persons in pretrial detention at
    various times during the year. While length of pretrial detention can
    vary from one case to another, there were no reports of extended
    periods of pretrial detention or abuse of the practice.

        e. Denial of Fair Public Trial.--The constitution provides for an
    independent judiciary, and the Government generally respected judicial
    independence in practice.

        Trial Procedures.--The constitution provides that persons charged
    with criminal offenses be given a fair public hearing without
    unnecessary delay by an independent, impartial court and a trial by
    jury. The Government generally respected these rights in practice.
    Defendants have the right to be present and to consult with an attorney
    in a timely manner. The Government provided free legal aid to the
    indigent in family matters, child support, serious criminal cases such
    as rape or murder, and all cases involving minors. Defendants are
    allowed to confront and question witnesses and present evidence on
    their own behalf. Defendants and their attorneys have access to
    government-held evidence relevant to their case. Defendants are
    presumed innocent until proven guilty and have the right of appeal.

        Political Prisoners and Detainees.--There were no reports of
    political prisoners or detainees.

        Civil Judicial Procedures and Remedies.--Magistrate's courts have
    both civil and criminal jurisdiction, but the civil judicial system
    experienced heavy backlogs. Citizens can seek redress for human rights
    or other abuses through the civil system.

        f. Arbitrary Interference With Privacy, Family, Home, or
    Correspondence.--The constitution prohibits such actions, and the
    Government generally respected these prohibitions in practice.

    Section 2. Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:
        a. Freedom of Speech and Press.--The constitution provides for
    freedom of speech and of the press, and the Government generally
    respected these rights in practice. An independent press, an effective
    judiciary, and a functioning democratic political system combined to
    ensure freedom of speech and of the press.
        In March 2009 the director of public prosecutions officially
    dropped the charges against two journalists who were arrested when
    attempting to cover the arraignment of a police officer charged with
    drug possession and trafficking charges in 2008.
        The Government restricted the receipt and importation of foreign
    publications deemed to be pornographic.

        Internet Freedom.--There were no government restrictions on access
    to the Internet or reports that the Government monitored e-mail or
    Internet chat rooms. Individuals and groups could engage in the
    peaceful expression of views via the Internet, including by e-mail.
    According to the International Telecommunication Union, there were 74
    Internet users per 100 inhabitants in 2010.

        Academic Freedom and Cultural Events.--There were no government
    restrictions on academic freedom or cultural events.

        b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association.--The constitution
    provides for freedom of assembly and association, and the Government
    generally respected these rights in practice.

        c. Freedom of Religion.--For a complete description of religious
    freedom, see the 2010 International Religious Freedom Report at
    www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/rpt.

        d. Freedom of Movement, Internally Displaced Persons, Protection of
    Refugees, and Stateless Persons.--The constitution and the law provide
    for freedom of movement within the country, foreign travel, emigration,
    and repatriation, and the Government generally respected these rights
    in practice.
        The law prohibits forced exile, and it was not used.

        Protection of Refugees.--The Government has not established a
    system for providing protection to refugees. The Government did not
    expel or return refugees to a country where their lives or freedom
    would be threatened on account of their race, religion, nationality,
    membership in a particular social group, or political opinion, although
    no known cases occurred.
        The Government did not grant refugee status or asylum during the
    year. The Government was prepared to cooperate with the Office of the
    UN High Commissioner for Refugees and other humanitarian organizations
    in assisting refugees, asylum seekers, and other persons of concern.

    Section 3. Respect for Political Rights: The Right of Citizens to
            Change Their Government
        The constitution provides citizens the right to change their
    government peacefully, and citizens exercised this right in practice
    through periodic, free, and fair elections based on universal suffrage.

        Elections and Political Participation.--In general elections held
    in January 2008, the DLP, which had been in opposition since 1994,
    defeated the BLP, led by then prime minister Owen Arthur. The DLP won
    20 of the 30 seats in the parliament's House of Assembly, and DLP
    leader David Thompson became prime minister. Following Thompson's death
    in October, the DLP parliamentary group selected Deputy Prime Minister
    Freundel Stuart to become prime minister.
        There were no restrictions on the political opposition. Individuals
    and parties were free to declare their candidacy and stand for
    election.
        Two cabinet members were female; there were three women in the
    House of Assembly. There were four women and three minorities in the
    21-member appointed Senate.

    Section 4. Official Corruption and Government Transparency
        The law provides criminal penalties for official corruption, and
    the Government generally implemented these laws effectively.
        After she was fired in August, the National Housing Corporation's
    (NHC) former board chairman alleged that the minister of housing
    improperly bypassed the NHC board in issuing insurance and building
    contracts. The opposition BLP threatened to draft a resolution of
    investigation and bring the matter to the Public Accounts Committee of
    Parliament.
        There is no law that subjects public officials to financial
    disclosure. Parliament's Public Accounts Committee and the auditor
    general conduct investigations of all government public accounts, which
    include ministries, departments, and statutory bodies.
        There is no law providing citizens access to information held by
    the Government. While access to information was provided on government
    Web sites, responses to requests for specific government information by
    citizens and other interested parties often were slow.

    Section 5. Governmental Attitude Regarding International and
            Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations of Human
            Rights
        A number of domestic human rights groups generally operated without
    government restriction, investigating and publishing their findings on
    human rights cases. Government officials were cooperative and
    responsive to their views.
        The Ombudsman's Office hears complaints against government offices
    for alleged injuries or injustices resulting from administrative
    conduct. The governor general appoints the ombudsman on the
    recommendation of the prime minister in consultation with the leader of
    the opposition; Parliament must approve the appointment. The ombudsman
    submits annual reports to Parliament, which contain both
    recommendations on changes to laws and descriptions of actions taken by
    the Ombudsman's Office.

    Section 6. Discrimination, Societal Abuses, and Trafficking in Persons
        The constitution provides for equal treatment regardless of race,
    origin, political opinion, color, creed, or sex, and the Government
    effectively enforced these provisions.

        Women.--The law criminalizes rape, including spousal rape, and the
    maximum penalty for it is life imprisonment. There were legal
    protections against spousal rape for women holding a court-issued
    divorce decree, separation order, or nonmolestation order. Authorities
    charged 112 persons with sex-related offenses, compared with 109 in
    2009. Charges were brought in 44 cases of rape, compared with 65 in
    2009; 19 cases of sex with a minor, compared with 17 in 2009; 42 cases
    of indecent assault, compared with 35 in 2009; and seven cases on other
    charges, compared with five in 2009 (some persons faced more than one
    charge). Many cases were pending in the courts for months or years.
        Violence and abuse against women continued to be significant social
    problems. The law prohibits domestic violence, provides protection to
    all members of the family, including men and children, and applies
    equally to marriages and to common-law relationships. Penalties depend
    on the severity of the charges and range from a fine for first-time
    offenders (unless the injury is serious) up to the death penalty for a
    killing. Victims may request restraining orders, which the courts often
    issued. The courts can sentence an offender to jail for breaching such
    an order. The police have a victim support unit, made up of civilian
    volunteers, which offered assistance primarily to female victims of
    violent crimes.
        There were public and private counseling services for victims of
    domestic violence, rape, and child abuse. The Business and Professional
    Women's Club operated a crisis center staffed by trained counselors and
    provided legal and medical referral services. The Government funded one
    shelter for battered women, operated by nongovernmental organizations
    (NGOs), which accommodated up to 20 women and children. The shelter
    offered the services of trained psychological counselors to victims of
    domestic violence.
        The Bureau of Gender Affairs cited a lack of specific information
    and an appropriate mechanism for collecting and evaluating data on
    incidents of domestic violence as the major impediments to tackling
    gender-based violence.
        The law does not specifically address sexual harassment, which was
    a problem. There were no statistics available on the prevalence of
    sexual harassment cases. Media reports often indicated that women were
    afraid to report sexual harassment because they feared retribution in
    the workplace.
        Couples and individuals had the right to decide the number,
    spacing, and timing of children, and had the information and means to
    do so free from discrimination. Skilled attendance at delivery and in
    postpartum care were widely available, as was access to information on
    contraception. According to UN data, there were an estimated 64
    maternal deaths per 100,000 live births in 2008. Women and men were
    given equal access to diagnostic services and treatment for sexually
    transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS.
        The Office of Gender Affairs in the Ministry of Family worked to
    ensure the rights of women. Women have equal property rights, including
    in a divorce settlement. Women actively participated in all aspects of
    national life and were well represented at all levels of the public and
    private sectors. According to the World Economic Forum's 2010 Global
    Gender Gap Report, women earned 26 percent less than men for comparable
    work. A government poverty eradication fund focused on encouraging
    entrepreneurial activities to increase employment for women and youth.

        Children.--Citizenship is obtained by birth in the country. There
    was universal birth registration.
        Violence and abuse against children remained serious problems.
        Pornography is illegal, but there was no information available
    about any specific prohibitions dealing with child pornography.
        The Ministry of Labor did not receive any complaints about child
    labor during the year. The Ministry of Family, Culture, Youth and
    Sports acknowledged that child prostitution occurred; however, there
    was no research to document that problem.
        The Child Care Board has a mandate for the care and protection of
    children, which involved investigating day care centers and cases of
    child abuse or child labor and providing counseling services,
    residential placement, and foster care. The Welfare Department offered
    counseling on a broad range of family related issues, and the Child
    Care Board conducted counseling for child abuse victims.
        The country is not a party to the 1980 Hague Convention on the
    Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. For information on
    international parental child abduction, please see the Department of
    State's annual report on compliance at http://travel.state.gov/
    abduction/resources/congressreport/congressreport--4308. html, as well
    as country-specific information at http://travel.state.gov/abduction/
    country/country--3781.html.

        Anti-Semitism.--The Jewish community was very small, and there were
    no reports of anti-Semitic acts.

        Trafficking in Persons.--For information on trafficking in persons,
    please see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons
    Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        Persons With Disabilities.--There are no laws that specifically
    prohibit discrimination against persons with disabilities in
    employment, education, or the provision of other state services, other
    than constitutional provisions asserting equality for all. In practice
    persons with disabilities faced some discrimination. The Ministry of
    Social Care, Constituency Empowerment and Community Development
    operated a disabilities unit to address the concerns of persons with
    disabilities, but parents complained of added fees and transport
    difficulties for children with disabilities at public schools.
        While no legislation mandates provision of accessibility to public
    thoroughfares or public or private buildings, the Town and Country
    Planning Department set provisions for all public buildings to include
    accessibility to persons with disabilities. As a result, most new
    buildings had ramps, reserved parking, and special sanitary facilities
    for such persons.
        The Government's National Disabilities Unit continued numerous
    programs for persons with disabilities, including Call-a-Ride and Dial-
    a-Ride public transportation programs, sensitization workshops for
    public transportation operators, inspections of public transportation
    vehicles, sign language education programs, integrated summer camps,
    and accessibility programs. In April the unit, along with the Barbados
    Fire Service, launched a program to install fire detectors in the homes
    of persons with disabilities.

        Societal Abuses, Discrimination, and Acts of Violence Based on
    Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.--The law criminalizes
    consensual homosexual relations, and there are no laws that prohibit
    discrimination against a person on the basis of sexual orientation in
    employment, housing, education, or health care. Although no statistics
    were available, anecdotal evidence suggested that societal
    discrimination against gays and lesbians occurred.

        Other Societal Violence or Discrimination.--The Government
    continued a large country-wide media campaign to discourage
    discrimination against HIV/AIDS-infected persons and others living with
    them. While there was no systematic discrimination, HIV/AIDS-infected
    persons did not commonly disclose the condition due to lack of social
    acceptance.

    Section 7. Worker Rights
        a. The Right of Association.--Workers freely exercised their right
    to form and belong to trade unions. Approximately 40 percent of the
    125,000-person workforce was unionized; unionized workers were
    concentrated in key sectors such as transportation, government, the
    hotel sector, and agriculture. There were two major unions, the
    National Union of Public Workers (NUPW) in the public sector and the
    Barbados Workers Union (BWU), focused on the private sector, with some
    overlapping representation in the state-owned enterprise sector. Of the
    20,000-member public sector workforce, 50 percent belonged to the NUPW,
    and an estimated 20 percent of private sector workers also belonged to
    that union. The unions wielded significant influence. Both unions
    belong to the Congress of Trade Unions and Staff Associations of
    Barbados (CTUSAB), which brings together all unions and staff
    associations. Police, firefighters, and prison officers are not allowed
    to unionize, but their associations function as quasi-unions and are
    members of the CTUSAB.
        The law provides for the right to strike, and workers exercised
    this right in practice. All private sector employees are permitted to
    strike, but the Trade Union Act and the Better Service Act prohibit
    essential workers, such as police, firefighters, electricity, and water
    company employees, from engaging in strikes.

        b. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively.--Workers
    exercised the legal right to organize and bargain collectively.
    Negotiated protocols contained provisions for increases in basic wages
    and increases based on productivity. Government, private sector, and
    labor representatives signed a fifth such protocol in 2005. At year's
    end it was still in place, and a sixth protocol was under discussion.
    The Social Partnership Agreement provides for monthly meetings of
    labor, management, and government and is chaired by the prime minister
    or the minister responsible for labor affairs.
        The Trade Union Act governs trade union activities. Under the act,
    companies are not obligated to recognize unions or to accept collective
    bargaining. Although employers were under no legal obligation to
    recognize unions, most did so when a significant percentage of their
    employees expressed a desire to be represented by a registered union.
    In practice most major employers recognized unions, but smaller
    companies were often not unionized. The 25,000-member BWU took a number
    of actions when it had reason to believe companies were not respecting
    the rights of union members.
        While there is no specific law that prohibits discrimination
    against union activity, the courts provide a method of redress for
    employees who allege wrongful dismissal. The courts commonly awarded
    monetary compensation but rarely ordered reemployment. Labor unions
    reported some companies engaged in antiunion discrimination and
    complained to the Labor Ministry on a number of occasions about what
    they deemed antiunion activity by employers. According to the BWU
    general secretary, some unspecified foreign firms engaged in antiunion
    activities.
        There are no export processing zones.

        c. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor.--The constitution
    prohibits forced or compulsory labor, including by children, and there
    were no reports that such practices occurred.

        d. Prohibition of Child Labor and Minimum Age for Employment.--The
    law provides for a minimum working age of 16, and this provision
    generally was observed in practice. Compulsory primary and secondary
    education policies reinforced minimum age requirements. The Labor
    Department had a small cadre of labor inspectors who conducted spot
    investigations of enterprises and checked records to verify compliance
    with the law. These inspectors may take legal action against an
    employer who is found to have underage workers. According to the chief
    labor inspector, no underage employment cases were filed during the
    past few years.

        e. Acceptable Conditions of Work.--The Shop Keepers Act provides
    for, and the authorities established, minimum wage rates for specified
    categories of workers. The categories of workers with a formally
    regulated minimum wage are household domestics and shop assistants. The
    minimum wage for these employees was BDS5 (approximately $2.50) per
    hour, which was only marginally sufficient to provide a decent standard
    of living for a worker and family. The Ministry of Labor recommended
    companies use this as the de facto minimum wage, and the prevailing
    wage on the island was higher than the legal minimum wage. The Labor
    Department within that ministry was charged with enforcing the minimum
    wage. There were occasional press reports alleging that migrant workers
    received less than the minimum wage, but the chief labor inspector
    insisted all workers' salaries were above the minimum wage.
        The standard legal workweek is 40 hours in five days, and the law
    requires overtime payment of time and one-half for hours worked in
    excess. The law prescribes that all overtime must be voluntary.
        The 2005 Occupational Safety and Health at Work Act was never
    promulgated into law, as it was passed at the end of the last
    administration and was therefore still under review. The Labor
    Department enforced other health and safety standards, such as those in
    the 1986 Factories (Amendment) Act, and in most cases followed up to
    ensure that management corrected problems cited. The law requires that
    in certain sectors, firms employing more than 50 workers create a
    safety committee that could challenge the decisions of management
    concerning the occupational safety and health environment. The Ministry
    of Labor conducted a two-week basic occupational and safety standards
    course for business, government, and trade union officials.
        Civic organizations such as the Barbados Employer's Confederation
    worked closely with the Government to ensure worker safety was
    protected despite the nonimplementation of the 2005 law. Trade union
    monitors identified safety problems for government health and safety
    inspectors to ensure the enforcement of safety and health regulations
    and effective correction by management. The Labor Department's Health
    and Safety Inspection Unit conducted several routine annual inspections
    of government-operated corporations and manufacturing plants, with no
    serious problems noted. Workers had the right to remove themselves from
    dangerous or hazardous job situations without jeopardizing their
    continued employment.

                                   __________

                                     BELIZE

        Belize is a constitutional parliamentary democracy with an
    estimated population of 333,000. In February 2008 Prime Minister Dean
    Barrow's United Democratic Party (UDP) won 25 of the 31 seats in the
    House of Representatives following generally free and fair multiparty
    elections. There were instances in which elements of the security
    forces acted independently of civilian control.
        Human rights abuses included civilian killings and the use of
    excessive force by security forces, which the Government took steps to
    prosecute administratively in some cases. Other problems included
    lengthy pretrial detention, domestic violence, discrimination against
    women, sexual abuse of children, trafficking in persons, discrimination
    based on sexual orientation, and child labor.

                            RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

    Section 1. Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom
            From:
        a. Arbitrary or Unlawful Deprivation of Life.--The Government or
    its agents did not commit any politically motivated killings; however,
    there were isolated reports and allegations that security forces
    committed arbitrary or unlawful killings.
        In February a Ladyville police officer shot and killed a Jamaican
    as he was riding away from a fight outside a bar. Eyewitnesses alleged
    that the victim posed no threat to the officers, but the police claimed
    that he carried a shiny object the officer mistook for a gun.
    Authorities charged a police corporal with manslaughter and another
    constable with abetment to commit manslaughter. The case against the
    officers was adjourned to January 2011.
        In March an unknown person, shooting from a vehicle, killed a 21-
    year-old university student on a bicycle. The victim reportedly had
    been involved in an altercation with a police officer earlier the same
    evening, and the family alleged that a police officer committed the
    killing. The police commissioner stated that witnesses pinpointed ``no
    specific officer,'' and an investigation remained pending at year's
    end.
        In May a Caye Caulker police constable allegedly shot and killed a
    man who was in police custody after being arrested for disorderly
    conduct and assaulting a police officer. Authorities charged the
    constable with murder. The case was adjourned to January 2011.
        In September Carlos Espat, the older brother of a well-known
    opposition party member, was found dead in his home. An autopsy
    determined the cause of death was blunt trauma to the head and chest.
    An investigation remained pending at year's end.
        In March the Ministry of National Security presented the results of
    its inquiry into the December 2009 killing of Christopher Galvez, which
    family members alleged was committed by a police officer. While the
    inquiry reported irregularities and breach of Belize Police Department
    (BPD) standing orders, it found no evidence of professional misconduct
    in the police investigation itself. The investigation into the killing
    continued at year's end, while the family complained publicly of police
    harassment and threats.
        In February the trial of a police constable charged with murder in
    the 2008 killing of a man shot as he was pursued by police ended when
    the Supreme Court instructed the jury to find the officer not guilty;
    the decision followed a successful ``no case'' submission by the
    officer's legal counsel.

        b. Disappearance.--There were no reports of politically motivated
    disappearances.

        c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or
    Punishment.--While the constitution prohibits torture or other inhuman
    punishment, there were numerous reports that police used excessive
    force.
        The Government occasionally ignored reports of abuses, withheld
    action until the case had faded from the public's attention, and then
    failed to take punitive action or transferred accused officers to other
    districts.
        Through December the BPD held 38 officers on interdiction or
    suspension as a result of alleged misconduct ranging, inter alia, from
    murder (two), manslaughter (three), extortion (six), keeping unlicensed
    ammunition (five) and theft (three). The Office of the Ombudsman
    reported that during the year its office received 104 complaints
    against the police department and its personnel, including 37
    allegations of police brutality.
        In March authorities charged an off-duty police officer with
    kidnapping, robbery and aggravated assault of a vegetable vendor in San
    Pedro. According to the victim, the police officer, accompanied by a
    Belize Defense Force (BDF) soldier, went to the vendor's boat, searched
    his premises, and robbed him of BZ$350 ($175). BDF authorities did not
    charge the soldier because he reportedly remained on the wharf where
    the vessel was moored and did not assist his confederate on the boat.
    The case against the police officer was adjourned until January 2011.
        In March a Dangriga policeman shot a fisherman in the back. Police
    asserted that the fisherman resisted arrest and tried to take the
    officer's weapon, but the victim and witnesses claimed he was running
    from the police when shot. Authorities did not charge the police
    officer despite a recommendation from the Office of Internal Affairs
    that the case be referred to the Office of Director of Prosecutions.
        In April a Belize City police inspector shot a man in the head when
    he fired upon the vehicle in which the victim was riding. Contrary to
    eyewitness accounts to the media, police claimed the inspector fired
    accidentally; a police spokesman said that the vehicle was similar to
    one used in another offense earlier that night. Authorities arrested
    the inspector on charges of attempted murder and dangerous harm and
    suspended him from duty, but the Supreme Court granted him bail in
    June. The victim remained partially paralyzed as a result of the
    incident. The case was adjourned to February 2011.
        In May authorities charged six Belize City policemen with wounding
    an electrical mechanic at the Mile Four police checkpoint on the
    Western highway. Reportedly police believed the mechanic fired shots at
    the checkpoint as he was driving past. In October the prosecution
    withdrew charges against four of the six police constables for lack of
    evidence. The other two officers were subsequently acquitted of the
    charges and remained employed by the police department.
        As of August the BDF reported four unresolved complaints of
    excessive force made against military personnel, including two where
    investigations resulted in charges and in which the cases were pending
    before the courts at year's end. One case involved a BDF soldier who
    was charged with aggravated assault in March and then released on bail.
        In a 2009 case in which a police and BDF patrol shot a man in
    Orange Walk District, BDF authorities reported that the patrol sought
    to subdue the man, who was intoxicated, and that he was shot in the leg
    only after he failed to respond to warning shots. The man subsequently
    succumbed to his injury while in the hospital. BDF authorities
    suggested that death resulted from negligent medical care. The case
    remained pending in court at year's end.
        In August the Office of the Director of Public Prosecution
    determined there was insufficient evidence to substantiate a case
    against a police corporal charged in November 2009 with sexual assault
    while on duty.
        There were no known developments, and none were expected, in the
    December 2009 case of a 14-year-old crime suspect who claimed that he
    had been beaten and sexually assaulted while in police custody.

        Prison and Detention Center Conditions.--Prison conditions were
    poor and did not meet international standards. Belize Central Prison,
    the country's only prison, is administered by a local nonprofit
    organization, the Kolbe Foundation, which also operates the
    Government's parole program. Although the Foundation received a
    government payment of BZ$13 ($6.50) per prisoner per day for operating
    costs and supplementary funding from independent sources, it operated
    with a deficit during the year and suspended some services, such as
    facility repair.
        The regular prison population was held in cells each accommodating
    approximately four to six persons. Prisoners on remand were held in a
    newer facility approximately three to four in a cell. Prisoners in the
    maximum security (Tango 10) facility were also held in the newer
    facility usually one inmate per cell. Isolation in a small, unlit,
    unventilated punishment cell, called a ``reflection room,'' was used to
    discipline inmates in the youth section.
        At the end of December, prison authorities reported approximately
    20 incidents of inmate-on-inmate violence, approximately 10 of which
    resulted in hospitalization and one resulted in death. Authorities
    investigated a complaint that a prison guard's use of pepper spray on
    an inmate constituted brutality but found no evidence that the prisoner
    had been abused.
        At the end of December, the prison held 1,410 inmates (190 fewer
    than capacity), of whom 24 were women and 47 were juveniles. In
    December the prison held approximately 400 prisoners in pretrial
    detention, approximately 48 percent of its capacity for such prisoners.
        Women and men were held in separate facilities. The prison includes
    a separate facility for women located 200 yards outside of the main
    compound. Conditions in the women's facility were significantly better
    than those in the men's compound. The judicial system occasionally sent
    female juveniles to the Belize Central Prison; however, there was no
    separate facility for female minors. In April the prison held five
    female minors for two weeks; they were held in a cell separate from
    other women.
        Male juveniles, both on remand and convicted, were held separately
    at the Wagner Youth Facility within the prison compound. They lived in
    a dormitory facility, not in cells. Prison authorities considered this
    a risky confinement arrangement, since most sentenced juvenile males
    were convicted of murder and many were gang members.
        The Belize Central Prison, which investigated formal complaints
    regarding prison conditions, reported no cases of abuse or excessive
    force by prison officials. The prison holds officer tribunals
    approximately twice a month to deal with officer misconduct, including
    such issues as absence without leave, dereliction of duty, and
    disobeying the rules. Disciplinary actions were taken in 80 to 90
    percent of the cases brought before the tribunal; 30 percent of those
    actions resulted in termination of employment. Prison officers
    committing criminal offenses do not go through the tribunal process but
    are immediately detained and processed through the judicial system.
        Inmates were given daily access to visitors, and there is no
    restriction on religious observance. A full-time chaplain coordinates
    visits by ministers from different denominations. The facilities have a
    hall where church services take place.
        The Government retains overall oversight and monitoring
    responsibility for management of the prison. Government authorities
    made few monitoring visits during the year. The ombudsman, who visited
    the prison in 2009, reportedly did not request such a visit during the
    year; however, then Chief Justice Abdulai Conteh and various
    magistrates did visit the prison early in the year.
        The Ombudsman Act authorizes inmates to make complaints to the
    ombudsman through prison authorities; however, prison authorities
    stated that inmates and their family members frequently submitted such
    complaints directly to the ombudsman.

        d. Arbitrary Arrest or Detention.--Although the constitution and
    law prohibit arbitrary arrest and detention, there were occasional
    charges that the Government failed to observe these prohibitions.

        Role of the Police and Security Apparatus.--National and local
    security personnel operate under two separate ministerial authorities.
    In June the Ministry of National Security split into two separate
    ministries: the Ministry of Defense and Immigration supervises the BDF
    and the Department of Immigration, while the Ministry of Police and
    Public Security supervises the BPD. Although primarily charged with
    external security, the BDF provides domestic security support to civil
    authorities, and increasing numbers of BDF soldiers worked alongside
    police officials, particularly in Belize City. BDF authorities
    indicated that BDF personnel assisting police have no powers of arrest,
    which remain with the police. Inadequate government resources, low pay
    for security officers, and corruption remained problems. During the
    year there were no reported cases of impunity for security-force
    members.

        Arrest Procedures and Treatment While in Detention.--Police must
    obtain search or arrest warrants issued by a magistrate, except in
    cases of hot pursuit, when there is probable cause, or when the
    presence of a firearm is suspected. The law requires police to inform a
    detainee in writing of the cause of detention within 48 hours of arrest
    and to bring the person before a magistrate to be charged within a
    reasonable time (normally 24 hours). In practice, arresting police
    officers informed detainees immediately of the charges against them.
        The law requires police to follow the Judges' Rules, a code of
    conduct governing police interaction with arrested persons. Although
    cases sometimes were dismissed when the Judges' Rules were violated,
    more commonly a confession obtained through violation of these rules
    was deemed invalid. Detainees usually were granted timely access to
    family members and lawyers, although there were occasional complaints
    that inmates were denied access or a telephone call after arrest.
        Every person charged with an offense is eligible for bail; however,
    persons charged with prescribed crimes, such as murder, gang activity,
    and specified drug-trafficking or sexual offenses, must apply to the
    Supreme Court for bail.
        Case backlogs in the docket often caused considerable delays and
    postponement of hearings, occasionally resulting in prolonged pretrial
    detention. The time lag between arrests, trials, and convictions ranged
    from eight months to as long as two years.

        e. Denial of Fair Public Trial.--The constitution provides for an
    independent judiciary, and the Government generally respected judicial
    independence. The constitution is the supreme law of the land, and
    persons have the right to bring legal actions for alleged violations of
    rights protected under the constitution, regardless of whether there is
    also implementing legislation.

        Trial Procedures.--The law provides for all citizens the right to a
    fair trial and trial by jury for serious crimes, and an independent
    judiciary generally enforced these rights. Decisions and judgments for
    lesser crimes are generally issued by a magistrate after deliberating
    on the arguments presented by the prosecution and defense. Defendants
    enjoy a presumption of innocence and have the right to defense by
    counsel (but only in capital cases), a public trial, and appeal.
    Defendants also have the right to be present at their trial unless the
    court determines that the opposing party has a substantiated fear for
    their safety, in which case the court can grant interim provisions that
    both parties be addressed individually.
        A Legal Aid and Advice Center, staffed by one attorney, provides
    legal services in civil and noncapital criminal cases in various courts
    including the Magistrate's Court, the Family Court, and the Supreme
    Court. The Supreme Court's registrar is responsible to appoint an
    attorney to act on behalf of indigent defendants charged with murder.
    There were, nevertheless, cases where defendants were unrepresented.
    For example, in August a jury returned a guilty verdict against a
    defendant charged with rape after proceedings in which the defendant
    was unrepresented.
        The constitution and law allow defendants to confront and question
    witnesses against them and to present witnesses on their behalf.
    Defendants have the right to produce evidence in their defense and to
    examine evidence held by the opposing party or within the hands of the
    court.
        Lengthy trial backlogs remained during the year, attributable in
    large part to an underresourced prosecution service and poor
    communication between police file readers, investigators, and
    prosecutors. Judges were often slow to issue rulings, sometimes taking
    a year or longer.
        The rate of acquittals and cases dropped from prosecution
    increased, particularly for murder and gang-related cases, often due to
    failure of witnesses to testify because of fear for life and personal
    safety. According to the director of public prosecution, approximately
    30 percent of all cases heard by the Supreme Court concluded with the
    witness not testifying. A law passed during the year allows written
    statements by witnesses to be admitted into evidence in place of court
    appearances, which has led judges to require a high degree of proof
    prior to admitting such statements.

        Political Prisoners and Detainees.--There were no reports of
    political prisoners or detainees.

        Civil Judicial Procedures and Remedies.--Most civil suits are heard
    in the Supreme Court; however, the magistrates' courts have
    jurisdiction over civil cases involving sums of less than BZ$5,000
    ($2,500). In addition to civil cases, the Supreme Court has
    jurisdiction over cases involving human rights issues. The backlog of
    civil cases in the Supreme Court increased during the year due to an
    increase in the number of cases.

        f. Arbitrary Interference With Privacy, Family, Home, or
    Correspondence.--The constitution prohibits such practices, and
    government authorities generally respected these prohibitions in
    practice.
        The Interception of Communication Act, which entered into force in
    December, provides for the use of intercepting software to allow law-
    enforcement agencies to obtain information in the interest of
    ``national security, public order, public morals, and public safety.''
    The act encompasses the possibility to intercept telephone
    conversations, facsimile communications, e-mails, and chat and text
    messages. The Government stated these measures were necessary to the
    war on crime and maintained that sufficient safeguards were
    incorporated to ensure respect of the right to privacy. Other
    observers, especially members of the opposition party, criticized the
    measure as being too broad in scope and subject to abuse.

    Section 2. Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:
        a. Freedom of Speech and Press.--The law provides for freedom of
    speech and of the press, and the Government generally respected these
    rights in practice. The constitution, however, permits authorities to
    forbid any citizen from questioning the validity of financial
    disclosure statements submitted by public officials. Anyone who
    questions these statements orally or in writing outside a rigidly
    prescribed procedure is subject to a fine of up to BZ$5,000 ($2,500),
    imprisonment of up to three years, or both. There were no reports that
    this prohibition was invoked during the year.
        The independent media were active and expressed a wide variety of
    viewpoints without restriction. All newspapers were subject to libel
    laws that were enforced during the year.
        The Belize Broadcasting Authority regulated broadcasting and has
    the right to preview certain broadcasts, such as those with political
    content, and to delete any defamatory or libelous material. This right
    was not exercised during the year.

        Internet Freedom.--There were few government restrictions on access
    to the Internet and no reports that the Government monitored e-mail or
    Internet chat rooms. Individuals and groups could engage in the
    peaceful expression of views via the Internet, including by e-mail.
    Lack of infrastructure and high costs limited public access to the
    Internet. The International Telecommunication Union reported that in
    2009 there were 12 Internet users per 100 inhabitants.
        The Interception of Communication Act, which entered into force in
    December, allows law-enforcement agencies to intercept telephone
    conversations, facsimile communications, e-mails, and chat and text
    messages (see section l.f.).

        Academic Freedom and Cultural Events.--There were no government
    restrictions on academic freedom or cultural events.

        b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association.--The law provides
    for freedom of assembly and association, and the Government generally
    respected these rights in practice.

        c. Freedom of Religion.--For a complete description of religious
    freedom, please see the 2010 International Religious Freedom Report at
    www.state.gov/g/drl/irf/rpt.

        d. Freedom of Movement, Internally Displaced Persons, Protection of
    Refugees, and Stateless Persons.--The constitution provides for freedom
    of movement within the country, foreign travel, emigration, and
    repatriation, and the Government generally respected these rights in
    practice. The Government cooperated with the Office of the UN High
    Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and other humanitarian organizations
    in providing protection and assistance to internally displaced persons,
    refugees, returning refugees, asylum seekers, stateless persons, and
    other persons of concern.
        The constitution prohibits forced internal or external exile of
    citizens, and the Government did not use it.

        Protection of Refugees.--The laws provide for the granting of
    asylum or refugee status, but the Government does not have an
    established system for providing protection to refugees. The
    nongovernmental organization (NGO) Help For Progress, the UNHCR's
    implementing partner in the country, assisted with refugee and asylum
    cases. The Immigration and Nationality Department handled individual
    cases.
        A one-person refugee desk in the Immigration Department deals
    solely with renewing refugee residency visas; no refugee permits have
    been issued in almost 15 years.
        In cases of individuals claiming refugee status or asylum, the
    Immigration Department works with Help for Progress to determine if the
    individual is indeed eligible for refugee status. Help for Progress
    also operated a government-subsidized shelter for asylum applicants and
    refugees.
        Two Cubans remained in detention in the Belize Central Prison
    despite completing their sentence for entering the country illegally.
    Hubel Rodriguez was unable to return to Cuba because he left without
    following the proper channels. No other country was willing to accept
    him because of his criminal record. The second detainee, Pedro Venero
    Castro, lost his refugee status in Costa Rica after leaving the country
    without following the proper procedures.

    Section 3. Respect for Political Rights: The Right of Citizens to
            Change Their Government
        The constitution provides citizens the right to change their
    government peacefully, and citizens exercised this right in practice
    through periodic, free, and fair elections held by secret ballot and on
    the basis of universal suffrage for all citizens age 18 and older.

        Elections and Political Participation.--In February 2008 the UDP
    obtained a parliamentary majority in generally free and fair elections.
    There were five women, among them the president, in the 12-member
    appointed Senate, but there were no women in the 31-seat House of
    Representatives. Mestizo, Creole, Maya, Garifuna, Mennonite, and other
    minority and immigrant groups were represented in the National Assembly
    and at the highest levels of government.
        The two major political parties and independent candidates
    participated in village council elections held between April 11 and
    June 6. The governing UDP claimed to have won 122 out of 191 villages
    contested, and women accounted for approximately 10 percent of those
    elected as village council chairpersons.

    Section 4. Official Corruption and Government Transparency
        The law provides criminal penalties for official corruption;
    however, there have been no successful prosecutions for official
    corruption. The World Bank's worldwide governance indicators reflected
    that corruption was an increasing problem.
        In February authorities detained three city council employees for
    misappropriation of BZ$60,000 ($30,000) from the Belize City Council
    between the period November 2009 and February 2010. An Audit Department
    investigation continued at year's end. Police reportedly recovered a
    portion of the funds.
        In March authorities charged a police constable and two other men
    with attempted robbery of a restaurant in Belize City. The charges were
    subsequently changed to conspiracy to commit robbery. The case
    continued at year's end and was adjourned to January 2011. The officers
    were suspended from duty.
        The Immigration Department opened internal investigations of
    alleged corruption among its officials. For instance, during the year
    an internal investigation verified allegations of fraud by an officer
    and forwarded the case to the Public Services Commission, after which
    the officer was demoted. In October authorities charged six immigration
    officials with offenses relating to the transit of 33 Chinese nationals
    through the country during September and October. While police
    investigations continued, the case against the immigration officials
    was pending before the court. In November the director of immigration
    was transferred to another office, although the prime minister stated
    that the move was not disciplinary.
        In 2009 authorities charged Belize City Mayor Zenaida Moya and
    three other council employees with 22 counts of ``uttering upon false
    documents'' and two additional counts of failing to comply with
    accounting regulations of the City Council. The charges were levied in
    relation to 22 false receipts for gasoline amounting to a total of
    BZ$1,540 ($770) paid by the council. Moya was expelled from her
    political party but continued to serve as mayor. One council employee
    died before court proceedings in his case started. In October a court
    dismissed charges against two other council members, and in November
    the charges against the mayor were similarly dismissed.
        The Prevention of Corruption in Public Life Act requires public
    officials to submit annual financial statements, which are to be
    reviewed by the Integrity Commission.
        The law provides for public access to documents of a ministry or
    prescribed authority upon written request, although it protects a
    number of categories, such as documents from the courts or those
    related to national security, defense, or foreign relations. The
    Government must supply to the Office of the Ombudsman a written reason
    for any denial of access, the name of the person making the decision,
    and information on the right to appeal.

    Section 5. Governmental Attitude Regarding International and
            Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations of Human
            Rights
        A variety of domestic human rights groups generally operated
    without government restriction, investigating and publishing their
    findings on human rights cases. Government officials often were
    cooperative and responsive to their views.
        The ombudsman, although appointed by the Government, acts as an
    independent check on governmental abuses. The Office of the Ombudsman,
    consisting of the ombudsman, an investigator, and a secretary, is
    vested with a range of procedural and investigative powers, including
    the right to enter any premise to gather documentation and the right to
    summon persons. However, the office operated under both staffing and
    financial constraints. The ombudsman reported an inability to complete
    his 2009 report as provided for by law. According to unpublished data,
    between January and December, the ombudsman dealt with 131 formal and
    158 informal complaints, primarily relating to police brutality and
    land rights issues. Despite complaints of police brutality, there
    continued to be difficulty in receiving information from the BPD
    regarding those allegations. Similarly, the Human Rights Commission
    continued to operate but was constrained by funding and staffing
    limitations.

    Section 6. Discrimination, Societal Abuses, and Trafficking in Persons
        The constitution prohibits discrimination based on race, gender,
    disability, language, or social status, and the Government effectively
    enforced these prohibitions.

        Women.--The criminal code criminalizes rape, including spousal
    rape. The code states that a person convicted of rape or marital rape
    shall be sentenced to imprisonment of eight years to life although in
    practice sentences were often much lighter. Generally, challenges to
    the wider justice system have resulted in poor conviction rates for
    rape offenses. A number of cases resulted in acquittals or
    discontinuance because the accusing party dropped the charges or
    refused to testify at trial (see section 1.e.,Trial Procedures). In
    many instances the failure to proceed with a case was sparked by fear
    for personal safety on the victim's part. BPD statistics reported 19
    cases and 14 arrests made in relation to rape through September.
        The law prohibits domestic violence and contains penalties,
    including fines or imprisonment for violations, depending on the crime.
    The law empowers the Family Court to issue protection orders against
    accused offenders. Persons who may apply for protection orders against
    domestic violence include de facto spouses or persons in visiting
    relations. Protection orders may remain in place for up to three years
    and may include a requirement for child maintenance where applicable.
        The Women's Department continued its program of ``gender
    sensitization,'' as well as its campaign against gender-based and
    domestic violence. In March the Women's Department organized a legal
    clinic in Punta Gorda on family issues and gender-based violence. The
    department also initiated a batterers' intervention and prevention
    program for men who are abusive to women. It is court-connected and
    received its referrals from both the criminal and civil jurisdictions
    of the court. The 16-week program consisted of 12 participants.
        Despite these efforts domestic violence against women remained a
    significant problem. Through September the Epidemiology Unit of the
    Ministry of Health reported that police and health authorities recorded
    1,162 cases of domestic violence. Domestic violence was most prevalent
    in the Belize District, which includes Belize City. There were two
    women's shelters in the country (with a total of 18 beds) that offered
    short-term housing.
        Although sexual harassment legislation exists, consultative reviews
    undertaken by the Women's Department have determined that it remains
    largely ineffective, since the fear of dismissal without compensation
    remained a major deterrence to filing complaints.
        Couples and individuals have the right to decide freely and
    responsibly the number, spacing, and timing of their children, and they
    had the information and means to do so free from discrimination,
    coercion, and violence. Programs undertaken by the Ministry of Health
    and the Belize Family Life Association provided for information and
    access to family planning and reproductive health services. The
    reported contraceptive rate for women was 34 percent, and the estimated
    maternal mortality rate in 2008 was 94 deaths per 100,000 live births.
    Women and men were afforded equal access to diagnostic services and
    treatment for sexually transmitted infections, including HIV.
        Despite legal provisions for gender equality, the media continued
    to report that women faced social and economic discrimination. There
    were no legal impediments to women owning or managing land or other
    real property. Women participated in all spheres of national life but
    held relatively few top managerial positions. Although the law mandates
    equal pay for equal work, women tended to earn less than men and
    experienced a more rapidly increasing unemployment rate than men.
        The Women's Department under the Ministry of Human Development and
    Social Transformation is responsible for developing programs to improve
    the status of women. A number of officially registered women's groups
    also worked closely with various government ministries to promote
    social awareness programs.

        Children.--Citizenship is derived by birth within the country's
    territory, regardless of the nationality of the parents. Citizenship
    may also be acquired by descent if at least one parent is a citizen of
    the country; however, citizenship by descent is not automatic for a
    child born outside the country. The law requires the registration of
    the birth of children, and it was effectively enforced.
        Through June the Epidemiology Unit at the Ministry of Health
    recorded 81 cases of domestic violence and 18 cases of sexual abuse
    against children under 14, and the police reported 36 cases of carnal
    knowledge as of September. In many cases the Government was unable to
    prosecute individuals for sexual abuse and carnal knowledge because the
    victims or their families were reluctant to press charges.
        The law allows authorities to remove a child from an abusive home
    environment and requires parents to maintain and support children until
    the age of 18. The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) expressed concern about
    the criminal justice system's response to cases, as many of the
    perpetrators were not prosecuted and many cases were withdrawn due to
    lack of evidence and poor-quality investigations.
        The Family Services Division in the Ministry of Human Development
    and Social Transformation is the Government office devoted to
    children's issues. The division coordinated programs for children who
    were victims of domestic violence, advocated remedies in specific cases
    before the Family Court, conducted public education campaigns,
    investigated cases of trafficking in children, and worked with local
    and international NGOs and UNICEF to promote children's welfare.
        The legal age for consensual sex is 16. Carnal knowledge of a
    female child under the age of 14, with or without her consent, is an
    offense punishable by 12 years' to life imprisonment. Carnal knowledge
    of a girl who is 14 to 16 is an offense punishable by five to 10 years'
    imprisonment.
        There were reports children of both sexes were involved in
    prostitution, including sex tourism. Paid sex with a 16- or 17-year-old
    is a crime. The law criminalizes the procurement or attempted
    procurement of unlawful carnal knowledge with a female who is under the
    age of 18 and who is not a common prostitute or of ``known immoral
    character;'' an offender is liable to five years' imprisonment.
        There are no laws against pornography; however, the criminal code
    establishes a penalty of two years' imprisonment for persons convicted
    of publishing or offering for sale any obscene book, writing, or
    representation.
        The country is a party to the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil
    Aspects of International Child Abduction. For information on
    international parental child abduction, please see the Department of
    State's annual report on compliance at http://travel.state.gov/
    abduction/resources/congressreport/congressreport--4308.html.

        Anti-Semitism.--There were no reports of societal abuses or
    discrimination, including anti-Semitic acts. There were fewer than 10
    members in the Jewish community.

        Trafficking in Persons.--For information on trafficking in persons,
    please see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons
    Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        Persons With Disabilities.--Although the law does not expressly
    prohibit discrimination against persons with physical and mental
    disabilities, the constitution provides for the protection of all
    citizens from any type of discrimination. The law does not provide for
    accessibility for persons with disabilities. There were two schools
    (the Cayo Deaf Institute in Central Farm and the Stella Maris School
    for disabled children in Belize City) and four special education
    centers (located in Corozal, Punta Gorda, Orange Walk, and Dangriga)
    for children with disabilities.
        Informal government-organized committees for persons with
    disabilities were tasked with public education and enforcing
    protection. Private companies and NGOs, such as the Parents Association
    for Children with Special Needs and the Belize Council for the Visually
    Impaired, provided services to persons with disabilities. The Ministry
    of Education maintained an educational unit offering limited special
    education programs within the regular school system.
        During the year Kim Simplis-Barrow, the prime minister's wife, was
    named the official spokesperson for persons with disabilities. She
    launched public announcements, participated in numerous advocacy
    campaigns on behalf of persons with disabilities, and partnered with
    CARE-Belize to promote schools that made positive efforts to create
    inclusive environments for persons with disabilities.

        National/Racial/Ethnic Minorities.--Ethnic tension, particularly
    resentment of recently arrived Central American and Asian immigrants,
    continued to be a problem, resulting in discrimination characterized
    largely by verbal mistreatment.

        Indigenous People.--The country's pluralistic society comprised
    several ethnic minorities and indigenous Mayan groups. Among the
    country's indigenous population, the Mopan and Kekchi historically were
    characterized under the general term Maya, although self-proclaimed
    leaders more recently asserted that they should be identified as the
    Masenal (``common people''). The Maya Leaders' Alliance, which
    comprised the Toledo Maya Cultural Council, the Kekchi Council of
    Belize, the Toledo Alcaldes Association, and the Toledo Maya Women's
    Council, monitored development in the Toledo District with the goal of
    protecting Mayan land and culture.
        In June the then chief justice, Abdulai Conteh, issued a Supreme
    Court judgment affirming Maya customary land tenure rights in 33 Mayan
    villages in the southern district of Toledo. The decision also ordered
    the Government not to take any action contrary to Maya land tenure
    practices, including leasing lands or resources or granting concessions
    for logging, mining, or petroleum exploration.

        Societal Abuses, Discrimination, and Acts of Violence Based on
    Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.--The law does not protect
    sexual orientation or gender identity. The criminal code states that
    ``carnal intercourse'' with ``any person'' ``against the order of
    nature'' shall receive a punishment of 10 years' imprisonment. The law
    is interpreted as affecting male-to-male sex but not female-to-female
    sex.
        The extent of discrimination based on sexual orientation was
    difficult to ascertain due to lack of reporting of instances of
    discrimination through official channels.
        The country's sole lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender advocacy
    organization, UNIBAM, reported that continuing harassment and insults
    by the general public and police affected its activities; however, its
    members were reluctant to file complaints. There were no gay pride
    marches organized in the past year due to UNIBAM membership concerns
    over the public's possible adverse reaction.

        Other Societal Violence or Discrimination.--There was some societal
    discrimination against persons with HIV/AIDS, and the Government worked
    to combat it through the public education efforts of the National AIDS
    Commission under the Ministry of Human Development and through the Pan
    American Social Marketing Organization.

    Section 7. Worker Rights
        a. The Right of Association.--By law and in practice, workers were
    generally free to establish and join trade unions. Twelve independent
    unions, whose members constituted approximately 8 to 10 percent of the
    labor force, represented a cross section of workers, including most
    civil service employees. The Ministry of Labor recognizes unions and
    employers associations after they are registered. Both law and practice
    effectively protect unions against dissolution or suspension by
    administrative authority.
        In the event that negotiations under the auspices of the Labor
    Commissioner fail, the law permits unions to strike. However, this
    right is limited for public and private sector employees who provide
    ``essential services.'' The Settlement of Disputes in Essential
    Services Act empowers authorities to refer disputes for essential
    services to compulsory arbitration, prohibit strike, termination
    actions. Once a dispute involving an essential service is notified to
    the authorities, it may be refer the dispute to a tribunal. The
    national fire service, postal service, monetary and financial services,
    civil aviation and airport security services and the port authority
    pilots and security services are deemed to be essential services. The
    tribunal has 21 days from the date of reference to declare an award or
    furnish advice. The decision of the tribunal is binding on the parties.

        b. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively.--The law
    protects collective bargaining and it was freely practiced. The Trade
    Union and Employee's Organizations Act of 2000 establishes procedures
    for the registration and status of trade unions and employers'
    organizations and for collective bargaining. A trade union must be
    certified as a bargaining agent by the Labor Tripartite Body.
    Additionally, a trade union can only be certified as a bargaining agent
    if it receives 51 per cent of the vote of the employees. The Labor
    Commissioner has the authority to act as a mediator in deadlocked
    collective bargaining negotiations, offering nonbinding counsel.
    Additionally, the Act prohibits termination of employment of an
    employee on the ground of trade union membership and union activities.
        Although the law prohibits antiunion discrimination, in practice
    some employers blocked union organization by terminating the employment
    of key union sympathizers or members, usually on grounds purportedly
    unrelated to union activities. While a worker can file a complaint with
    the Labor Department, it is difficult to prove that a termination was
    due to union activity. Additionally, an aggrieved employee can seek
    redress from the courts. The judgments in the Christine Perriot and
    Maya King cases are examples where complaints were filed by aggrieved
    workers in the telecommunication and banana industries, respectively.
        In June the trade union movement registered what it considered a
    major achievement when the Supreme Court determined that the 2007
    termination of Christine Perriott violated the Trade Unions and
    Employers Organizations Act. Perriot was serving as the General
    Secretary of the Belize Communication Workers' Union at the time of her
    termination by the Belize Telemedia Limited. The court awarded her
    compensation of BZ$350,000 ($175,000) for her illegal termination.
        While a 2009 decision awarding each of six banana workers who were
    terminated from Maya King Farm BZ$70,000 ($35,000) for wrongful
    termination was an important milestone for the unions, in October the
    Court of Appeal reduced the award to BZ$40, 000 ($20,000) for each
    employee.
        There are no special laws or exemptions from regular labor laws in
    export processing zones (EPZs). Export processing zones are subject to
    the labor laws of the country just as any other place of business. Even
    though unions are not banned, there is no union presence in the EPZs.

        c. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor.--The constitution
    prohibits forced or compulsory labor, including by children. There were
    no verifiable reports of forced or compulsory labor, including by
    children.

        d. Prohibition of Child Labor and Minimum Age for Employment.--The
    Labor Act prohibits the employment of children under age 14. Persons
    ages 14 to 18 may only be employed in an occupation that a labor
    officer has determined is ``not injurious to the moral or physical
    development of nonadults,'' typically light work that is not harmful to
    life, health, or education. Children under age 16 are excluded from
    work in factories and those under age 18 are excluded from working at
    night or in certain kinds of employment deemed dangerous. The National
    Child Labor Policy has an indicative list of hazardous occupations for
    young workers.
        The law permits children to work on family farms and in family-run
    businesses. Children in rural areas worked on family plots and family
    businesses after school, on weekends, and during vacations. National
    legislation does not address a situation in which child labor is
    contracted between a parent and the employer.
        Children in urban areas commonly shined shoes and sold food,
    crafts, and other small items. Children crossed from Guatemala on a
    daily basis to attend school in Benque and Arenal.
        The National Child Labor Policy distinguishes between children
    engaged in work that is beneficial to their development and those
    engaged in the worst forms of child labor. The policy identifies
    children involved in the worst forms of child labor as those engaged in
    hazardous work, in trafficking and child slavery, in commercial sexual
    activities, and in illicit activities. Credible sources expressed
    growing concern regarding commercial sexual exploitation of children
    with respect to sex tourism and intergenerational transactional sex.
        The Department of Labor has primary responsibility for implementing
    labor policies and enforcing labor laws but has limited resources to
    investigate complaints. Inspectors from the Departments of Labor and
    Education are responsible for enforcing these regulations. There were
    no current reports on whether child labor laws were well enforced.
        Under the National Child Labor Policy, the Labor Department is the
    primary stakeholder agency with oversight for child labor. There is
    also a Child Labor Sub-Committee under the National Committee for
    Families and Children.
        Also see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons
    Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        e. Acceptable Conditions of Work.--The Ministry of Labor was
    charged with enforcing the minimum wage, which generally was respected
    in practice. In August the national minimum wage was adjusted to an
    across-the-board minimum wage of BZ$3.10 ($1.55) per hour. The law sets
    the workweek at no more than six days or 45 hours and requires premium
    payment for overtime work. The exploitation of undocumented Central
    American workers, particularly young service workers and agricultural
    workers, continued to be a problem.
        Several different health and safety regulations covered numerous
    industries, and the Ministry of Labor enforced these regulations to
    varying degrees due to limited resources. The law prescribes that it is
    the duty of the employer to take reasonable care for the safety of his
    employees in the course of their employment. Labor law further states
    that every employer who provides or arranges accommodation for workers
    to reside at or in the vicinity of a place of employment shall provide
    and maintain sufficient and hygienic housing accommodations, a
    sufficient supply of wholesome water, and sufficient and proper
    sanitary arrangements. Workers have the legal right to leave a
    dangerous workplace situation without jeopardy to continued employment.

                                   __________

                                    BOLIVIA

        Bolivia is a constitutional, multiparty democracy with a population
    of approximately 9.7 million. In December 2009 in a process deemed free
    and fair by international observers, citizens reelected Evo Morales
    Ayma, leader of the Movement Toward Socialism (MAS) party, as
    president. Security forces reported to civilian authorities.
        The principal human rights problems reported were killings and
    torture by security forces; harsh prison conditions; allegations of
    arbitrary arrest and detention; an ineffective, overburdened, and
    corrupt judiciary; a ``partly free'' media; corruption and a lack of
    transparency in the Government; trafficking in persons; child labor;
    forced or coerced labor; and harsh working conditions in the mining
    sector.

                            RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

    Section 1. Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom
            From:
        a. Arbitrary or Unlawful Deprivation of Life.--The Government or
    its agents did not commit any politically motivated killings; however,
    in May police killed two youths during violent protests, and in July a
    man was killed while in police custody.
        On May 8, Bolivian National Police (BNP) officers killed two
    youths, Fidel Jimenez and Mario Hernani, during a conflict in the La
    Paz departmental town of Caranavi. Reports by the Government's
    ombudsperson, the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights
    (UNHCHR), and the independent Permanent Assembly of Human Rights of
    Bolivia concluded that the deaths resulted from the use of excessive
    force; however, the parliament's Human Rights Committee concluded that
    the Government responded properly.
        On July 6, El Alto resident David Olorio Apaza allegedly was
    tortured and killed while in BNP custody. Police detained him for
    suspected robbery of a tollbooth. According to the report by the
    Government's ombudsman, BNP Colonel Israel Vega ordered Olorio removed
    from his cell for questioning during which he was allegedly tortured
    and killed. The autopsy revealed his cause of death to be asphyxia due
    to compression of the neck and chest. The prosecutor's office
    investigation involving the actions of Vega and BNP officers Lieutenant
    Omar Antezana, Sergeant Juan de la Cruz, and Officers Juan Villa and
    Luis Aquino Mamani, was ongoing at year's end. According to media
    reports and a report by the ombudsman, the prosecutor in charge
    received threats surrounding the case, and the members of the judiciary
    involved in the case wore bulletproof jackets to a September hearing in
    response to threats. The ombudsman's report stated that the prosecutor
    should investigate the involvement of police at higher levels than
    those who were on trial and included proceedings against Prosecutor
    Veronica Angula Viscarra, who the ombudsman alleged made false
    statements to the public during the initial hearings.
        Although the prosecutor has continued the investigation into the
    2009 killing of three alleged terrorists in Santa Cruz, there have been
    no developments in the use of force by police during this event.
        Mob violence, sometimes characterized by perpetrators as
    ``indigenous justice'' or ``community justice,'' led to some violent
    deaths. Although the constitution discusses the concept of ``indigenous
    justice,'' the Government rejected the interpretation that it permits
    mob violence, noting that the constitution specifically bans capital
    punishment. Many observers attributed such ``community justice'' to the
    absence of effective police and judicial presence in many urban and
    rural areas. Killings committed in the name of community justice
    occurred during the year. While there were no official statistics for
    such crimes, the media reported approximately 15 cases of community
    justice that resulted in one or more deaths. According to the UNHCHR,
    lynching increased, especially in El Alto and Santa Cruz.
        On May 23, community members captured, reportedly tortured, and
    executed four police officers in the Potosi town of Uncia. The police
    officers, Nelson Alcocer Casano, Ruben Cruz Aruquipa, Esteban Alave
    Arias, and Miguel Ramos Palluni, were part of the BNP's Vehicle Robbery
    Prevention Unit. Community members claimed the police officers had a
    history of extorting bribes and killing those who could not pay.
    Government authorities and families of the slain police officers did
    not recover the bodies until after two weeks of negotiations with the
    community members. The Government's ombudsperson criticized the
    Government's slow reaction to the killings and unwillingness to order
    police to enter the community in force. Police arrested and detained
    community members Filomena Muruchi, Juan Coyo Rojas, Angel Coyo Aro,
    Eloy Janayo Choque, Anacleto Mendoza Aro, and Hilarion Escapa Gallego.
    Gallego was the only defendant to plead not guilty and requested
    termination of his detention, which was denied at a hearing on November
    5. The investigation was ongoing at year's end.
        On September 15, community members buried alive three brothers,
    Basil, Sabino, and Ignacio Flores, in the Cochabamba town of Tapacari.
    According to an ongoing investigation by Cochabamba Police Commander
    Hernan Trujillo, the brothers were killed following a border conflict
    among several farming communities that had left one farmer dead.
        On September 11, witnesses began testifying in the ongoing
    investigation of the 2008 deaths of 13 persons in the cities of
    Porvenir and Cobija in Pando. A June 19 Amnesty International statement
    urged that the judiciary proceed with this case. On October 12, within
    the 18-month period allowed for investigation, prosecutors brought
    formal charges against former prefect (governor) Leopoldo Fernandez and
    other defendants for their alleged roles in the 2008 Pando conflict.
    Fernandez remained in detention while awaiting completion of the trial.
    During the court sessions, the lawyer for Fernandez stated that due
    process was violated. There were no other developments at year's end.
        There were no developments in the prosecutor's investigation into
    the 2008 deaths of two miners during a confrontation with police in
    Cahuasi, near the border of Oruro and Cochabamba departments, or in the
    2008 request by the Supreme Court to authorize an impeachment trial for
    members of the Ministry of Government, including former government
    minister Alfredo Rada, implicated in the 2007 killings of three persons
    in Sucre allegedly by security forces.

        b. Disappearance.--There were no reports of politically motivated
    disappearances.
        On February 17, after a nine-month standoff, Armed Forces Commander
    in Chief General Ramiro de la Fuente denied a civilian investigator
    access to archives that reportedly contained information regarding
    approximately 150 persons ``disappeared'' during the country's military
    dictatorship period. The minister of defense had previously assured the
    public that the investigator would have free access to the archives.
    There were no further developments by year's end.

        c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or
    Punishment.--The constitution and laws prohibit such practices;
    however, there were several reports of torture by security forces.
        On March 16, six police officers of the Special Tactical Crime
    Investigation Group in Cochabamba reportedly tortured Colombian citizen
    Mauricio Escobar Suarez whom they arrested for suspected involvement in
    weapons trafficking and robbery. The victim claimed that he was
    tortured by electric shocks and suffocation that resulted in what the
    victim claims was physical and mental torture. Both the Ombudsman's
    Office and the district attorney requested an official investigation
    into the police officers who participated in the arrest of the victim.
    However, the prosecutor assigned to the case rejected the claim of
    torture, stating that there were no grounds to support a charge. The
    Cochabamba Office for Professional Responsibility began disciplinary
    processes, but by year's end there was no update on criminal
    proceedings.
        On April 17, Justo Romero Limon, an employee of a fishing and
    hunting store in Santa Cruz, alleged he was held and tortured for four
    hours by persons who he claimed were members of the BNP investigating a
    weapons-trafficking case. He stated that BNP officers covered him with
    a plastic bag and beat him while asking him where the weapons were
    located. The BNP refused to accept his formal complaints several days
    after the incident.
        On July 6, BNP officers allegedly tortured David Olorio Apaza
    before he was killed in El Alto according to a report by the ombudsman
    (see section 1.a.).
        There were no developments concerning allegations of abuse during
    the April 2009 arrest of Mario Tadic and Elod Toaso in connection with
    alleged terrorist activities or in the May 2009 claim of torture by
    Jhenieffer Wissemberg.
        On September 25, national television broadcast videotapes from 2009
    showing military trainers beating and apparently waterboarding
    conscripts, specifically conscript Guido Alvaro Lopez Cortez of Oruro.
    President Morales declared the allegations of torture as very serious
    and stated the perpetrators would be brought to justice. The ombudsman
    confirmed that said actions were torture. The accused military persons
    were suspended, but despite government pledges of cooperation,
    prosecutors in the case criticized the military's lack of
    responsiveness. The investigation continued at year's end.
        Two incidents of nonlethal mob violence were reported. On August 3,
    mobs attacked Potosi Governor Felix Gonzales with stones during a 19-
    day blockade and strike. In the same protest, mobs attacked the home of
    Vice Minister for Coordination with Social Movements Cesar Navarro
    before being dispersed by police. During the week of December 27, mob
    violence was reported in La Paz and El Alto in reaction to the December
    26 government decree to remove gasoline subsidies. The protests ended
    after the Government repealed the decree on December 31.
        Following the 2009 mob invasion of his home, former vice president
    Victor Hugo Cardenas initiated criminal investigations against Alfredo
    Huanapaco, Cruz Alarcon, Beatriz Quispe, and Gonzalo Aduviri for not
    returning his home and property. The judge in the case has not yet
    given Cardenas permission to return to his house, and the trial was
    ongoing at year's end.
        In May 2009 the pro-MAS Federation of Indigenous People of Eastern
    Bolivia (CIDOB) announced they had applied ``community justice'' to
    Beni Department Director of Indigenous Development Marcial Fabricano by
    publicly whipping him 50 times. CIDOB leader Adolfo Chavez stated that
    Fabricano was punished for not appointing MAS leaders to prominent
    positions in Beni. Fabricano opened a case against CIDOB leaders, and
    the Government disavowed the attack and started a formal investigation.
    No results were announced by year's end.

        Prison and Detention Center Conditions.--Prison conditions were
    harsh. Prisons were overcrowded and in poor condition. Government
    authorities effectively controlled only the outer security perimeter of
    each prison. Prisoners usually maintained control, and gangs directed
    criminal activity from their cells.
        Violence among prisoners, and in some cases the involvement of
    prison officials in violence against prisoners, were problems.
        On November 25, in the maximum-security prison Chonchocoro La Paz,
    inmate Angel Fernando Mantilla Apaza, who had been declared a
    ``dangerous'' inmate by then director of Chonchocoro prison Hernan
    Ramirez Mendez, killed Peruvian national Junco Alberto Caceres by
    multiple gunshots. According to his relatives, Caceres was killed
    because he had threatened to disclose alleged links between police and
    robbers in the Olorio Apaza case (see section 1.a.). Research by the
    Ombudsman's Office revealed that the prisons did not transfer dangerous
    inmates, including Mantilla Apaza, as they had stated they would. An
    investigation was initiated into the prison system's role in the death
    of Ramirez Mendez and continued at year's end.
        Corruption was a problem among low-ranking and poorly paid guards
    and prison wardens. Overcrowding and poor conditions in detention
    centers remained a problem. A prisoner's wealth often determined cell
    size, visiting privileges, day-pass eligibility, and place or length of
    confinement. Inmates reportedly paid fees to prior cell occupants or to
    prisoners who controlled cellblocks.
        The standard prison diet was insufficient, and prisoners who could
    afford to do so supplemented rations by buying food.
        The law provides that prisoners have access to medical care, but
    care was inadequate, and it was difficult for prisoners to get
    permission for outside medical treatment. NGOs and prisoners reported
    cases of tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS in jails. However, affluent
    prisoners could obtain transfers to preferred prisons or even to
    outside private institutional care for ``medical'' reasons. Inmates who
    could pay had access to drugs and alcohol, and sometimes they used
    children to traffic drugs inside the prisons. There were 8,300 inmates
    in facilities designed to hold 4,700 prisoners. There were separate
    prisons for women, except for Morros Blancos Prison in Tarija, where
    men and women shared facilities. Conditions for female inmates were
    similar to those for men; however, overcrowding at the San Sebastian
    women's prison in Cochabamba was worse than in most prisons for men.
        According to Ministry of Government officials, 700 convicted
    juveniles (16 to 21 years old) were not segregated from adult prisoners
    in jails. According to interviews, adult inmates sometimes abused the
    juvenile prisoners. Rehabilitation programs for juveniles or other
    prisoners were scarce to nonexistent. Pretrial detainees were held with
    convicted prisoners.
        Although the law permits children up to six years old to live with
    an incarcerated parent, children as old as 12 lived with their parents
    in prisons. (The law also permits spouses to live in prison.)
    Approximately 1,400 children lived with a parent in prison as an
    alternative to being left homeless. During school vacations the number
    of children in prison with parents sometimes doubled.
        Prison detainees had reasonable access to visitors and were
    permitted religious observance. Authorities permitted prisoners to
    submit complaints periodically to a commission of district judges,
    which then investigate; however, many complaints of abuses are not
    submitted because inmates were afraid of prison retaliation.
        The Government generally permitted prison visits by independent
    human rights observers, judges, and media representatives, and such
    visits took place during the year.

        d. Arbitrary Arrest or Detention.--The law prohibits arbitrary
    arrest and detention; however, in one case security forces seized and
    held an individual under legally questionable circumstances.
        On March 10, police arrested and temporarily detained Eduardo Paz,
    president of the Santa Cruz Chamber of Industry, Trade, Services, and
    Tourism, for alleged connection to the 2009 terrorism case in Santa
    Cruz. There was no warrant or arraignment order against him, nor was
    there a subpoena for him to testify. There were no subsequent
    developments in this case.
        Jorge Melgar Quete remained in a La Paz jail awaiting trial after
    his 2008 arrest for publicly calling for the ``liquidation'' of
    President Morales. The opposition maintained Melgar was jailed for
    disseminating video of Presidency Minister Quintana calling for the
    ``political burial'' of then Pando prefect Leopoldo Fernandez.

        Role of the Police and Security Apparatus.--The national police
    have primary responsibility for internal security, but military forces
    may be called upon for help in critical situations. The national police
    disciplined officers by issuing 826 administrative sanctions and
    arrested 281 police officers, suspending them from duty. Prosecutors
    were sometimes reluctant to prosecute security officials for alleged
    offenses committed while on duty, in part because they relied on the
    Judicial Technical Police to investigate its own officers. NGOs charged
    that several investigations into potential human rights violations by
    the military stalled or proceeded slowly due to an administrative
    policy prohibiting the military from commenting on its activities, a
    policy that can be overruled by civilian judges.
        During the year the Government provided in-depth human rights
    training to 3,129 police officers.

        Arrest Procedures and Treatment While in Detention.--Arrests were
    generally carried out openly, but there were credible reports of
    arbitrary arrests and detentions.
        The law requires an arrest warrant, and police must inform the
    prosecutor of an arrest within eight hours. The law requires that a
    detainee see a judge within 24 hours (except under a declared state of
    siege, in which a detainee may be held for 48 hours), at which time the
    judge must determine the appropriateness of continued pretrial
    detention or release on bail. The judge must order the detainee's
    release if the prosecutor fails to show sufficient grounds for arrest.
    Credible reports indicated that in some cases detainees were held for
    more than 24 hours without court approval.
        More than 75 percent of detainees awaited sentencing, but the
    courts provided release on bail for some detainees. Judges have the
    authority to order preventive detention for suspects deemed a flight
    risk. If a suspect is not detained, a judge may order significant
    restrictions on the suspect's movements. Detainees generally had prompt
    access to their families and were allowed access to lawyers, but
    approximately 70 percent could not afford legal counsel, and public
    defenders were scarce and overburdened.
        Denial of justice through prolonged detention remained a problem.
    Although the law establishes that a case's investigatory phase cannot
    exceed a maximum of 18 months and that the trial phase cannot exceed
    three years, some suspects were held in preventive detention longer
    than the legal limits. If the investigatory process is not completed in
    18 months, the detainee may request release by a judge; however,
    judicial corruption, a shortage of public defenders, inadequate case-
    tracking mechanisms, and complex criminal justice procedures kept some
    persons jailed for more than 18 months before trial.
        Children from 11 to 16 years of age may be detained indefinitely in
    children's centers for known or suspected offenses, or for their
    protection, on the orders of a social worker. There is no judicial
    review of such orders.

        e. Denial of Fair Public Trial.--The law provides for an
    independent judiciary, but the judiciary was widely considered corrupt,
    overburdened, and weakened by vacancies at its highest levels.
        On June 9, Amnesty International characterized the justice system
    as beset by ``the pervasive culture of impunity and the widespread lack
    of trust in the justice system,'' while a representative of the Office
    of the UNHCHR expressed concerns about the politicization of the
    judicial process.
        The constitution states that high-level court judges should be
    elected by national elections. However, a controversial ``short law''
    allowed President Morales to appoint 18 judges to vacancies on the
    Supreme Court, Constitutional Tribunal, and Judicial Council. The
    appointments continue until judicial elections (scheduled for April or
    May 2011) are held. Critics asserted that the interim arrangement
    compromised the judiciary's independence.
        The Supreme Court faced a backlog of more than 8,000 pending
    requests, some dating back to 2003. According to former president of
    the Supreme Court Julio Ortiz, during the year the court settled 1,600
    cases. The Supreme Court had only one vacancy compared with 2009 when
    five of the 12 positions were vacant.
        President Morales also filled all the vacancies on the
    Constitutional Tribunal, which had not functioned for almost a year.
        The Judicial Council, a legal oversight body created to fight
    corruption and malpractice by judges, had a backlog of more than 100
    disciplinary cases. The military justice system generally was
    susceptible to senior-level influence and tended to avoid rulings that
    would embarrass the military. When a military member is accused of a
    crime related to his military service, the commander of the affected
    unit assigns an officer to conduct an inquiry and prepare a report. The
    results are forwarded to a judicial advisor, usually at the division
    level, who then recommends a finding of innocence or guilt. For major
    infractions the case is forwarded to a military court, except that
    military personnel are supposed to be tried in civilian courts for
    human rights violations.

        Trial Procedures.--Defendants have constitutional rights to a
    presumption of innocence, to a speedy and public trial by jury, to
    remain silent, to have an attorney, to confront witnesses, to present
    evidence on their own behalf, to due process, to appeal, and to
    confront legal charges with government prosecutors before a formal
    court process is initiated.
        In practice the rights to an attorney and to a speedy trial were
    not protected systematically. According to the Public Defender's
    Office, its staffing for the country's nine departments included only
    55 public defenders and 11 legal assistants. A study by the Inter-
    American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) released in December 2009,
    indicated that only 55 percent of municipalities had judges, 23 percent
    government investigators, and 3 percent public defenders.
        The law provides for a system of transparent oral trials in
    criminal cases, requires that no pretrial detention exceed 18 months
    without charges, provides for a maximum period of detention of 24
    months in cases in which a sentence is being appealed, and mandates a
    three-year maximum duration for a trial. The law provides that the
    prosecutor is in charge of the investigative stage of a case and that
    he must give suspects an opportunity to confront charges before a trial
    formally begins. However, the law was unevenly applied, and there were
    delays.
        The prosecutor instructs police regarding witness statements and
    evidence necessary to prosecute. The prosecutor pursues misdemeanor
    cases (with possible sentences of less than four years) before a
    sentencing judge and felony cases (with possible sentences of more than
    four years) before sentencing courts. Sentencing courts feature a five-
    member panel of three citizens and two judges.

        Political Prisoners and Detainees.--Unlike last year, there were no
    reports of political prisoners or detainees. In 2009 the opposition
    alleged that former Pando prefect Leopoldo Fernandez and three others
    were held as political prisoners, while the Government maintained they
    were being held legally under judicial order (see section 1.d.) The
    Government allowed Fernandez to receive visitors, including
    international monitors, but did not allow press to enter the prison to
    interview Fernandez as part of his national election campaign. The
    UNHCHR continued to monitor this case at year's end.

        Civil Judicial Procedures and Remedies.--There is an independent
    and impartial judiciary for civil matters. The law provides criminal
    remedies for human rights violations, and at the conclusion of a
    criminal trial, the complainant can initiate a civil trial to seek
    damages. Administratively, the ombudsman for human rights can issue
    resolutions on specific human rights cases, which the Government may
    enforce.

        f. Arbitrary Interference With Privacy, Family, Home, or
    Correspondence.--The law prohibits such actions, and the Government
    generally respected these prohibitions.
        In connection with the May 8 killing of two youths in La Paz
    Department, authorities twice raided the homes of the victims' lawyers,
    Jorge Quiroz and Claudia Lecona, after they filed suit against National
    Police Commander Oscar Nina and Government Minister Sacha Llorenti.
    According to the ombudsman's report, these raids violated the lawyers'
    human rights. The investigation continued at year's end.

    Section 2. Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:
        a. Freedom of Speech and Press.--The law provides for freedom of
    speech and of the press. Although the Government generally respected
    these rights, it maintained an antagonistic relationship with the
    press. In one example, on November 25, President Morales stated in
    response to a journalist's question, ``the largest and the greatest
    opposition [to this government] are the journalists. Who can deny that?
    Can you deny this? The greatest opposition, in reality, is the media,
    the owners of the media, and how they use our friends the
    journalists.'' Opposition members charged President Morales and
    government officials with making disparaging statements regarding the
    press, politicizing state-produced media content, and taking actions
    designed to restrict independent media or to encourage self-censorship.
        There were multiple independent media outlets, including printed
    press, television, and radio, and the airing of various viewpoints,
    many expressing opposition to the Government, continued. Radio and
    television stations generally operated freely. However, in rural areas
    state radio was often the only available media source.
        The law provides that persons found guilty of insulting, defaming,
    or slandering public officials for carrying out their duties may be
    jailed from one month to two years. Insults directed against the
    president, vice president, or a minister increase the sentence by half.
    Journalists accused of violating the constitution or citizens' rights
    are referred to the 40-person Press Tribunal, an independent body
    authorized to evaluate journalists' practices and to apply sanctions.
        In its 2010 Freedom of the Press report, the NGO Freedom House
    characterized the country's press as ``partly free.'' Freedom House
    reported ``significant slides continued'' in the country ``as attacks
    and official rhetoric against the media escalated.''
        On October 8, President Morales signed into law ``the Law against
    Racism and All Forms of Discrimination.'' While expressing their
    support for the general principles of the law, journalists, media
    groups, and the Catholic Church criticized two specific articles that
    would sanction media outlets that broadcast or print racist or
    discriminatory content. Media organizations held large protests and
    collected signatures calling for the articles in question to be
    removed. They claimed the sanctions could be applied selectively to
    restrict freedom of the press. Addressing the debate over the law, UN
    High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay stated during a visit in
    November that ``international law requires that the limitations (to
    freedom of expression) be stipulated by law, be defined in a clear and
    precise way, and be implemented by an independent entity.''
        On September 20, the offices of Radio Virtual 94.7 were damaged by
    a fire that consumed much of their office and equipment. The police
    continued to investigate this case, and the cause of the fire had yet
    to be determined at year's end.
        In March 2009 the Government sued the leading daily newspaper, La
    Prensa, for slander for publishing a story linking President Morales
    and Presidency Minister Juan Ramon Quintana to a plan to smuggle 33
    truckloads of contraband into Brazil. La Prensa editors rejected the
    claim and said they considered the trial an attempt to silence the
    press. The case had not been resolved at year's end.
        According to data from local NGO Unir's National Media Observatory,
    there were 60 reported cases of aggression (physical and verbal attacks
    and threats) affecting 111 journalists.
        In addition to the Anti-Racism Law, media organizations expressed
    concern over other legislation that they argued would restrict press
    freedom. They charged that the new Electoral Regime Law prohibited the
    media from discussing, in any way, candidates standing for election to
    Supreme Court and Constitutional Tribunal.

        Internet Freedom.--There were no government restrictions on access
    to the Internet or reports that the Government monitored e-mail or
    Internet chat rooms. Individuals and groups could engage in the
    peaceful expression of views via the Internet, including by e-mail. The
    International Telecommunication Union reported that in 2009 there were
    11 Internet users per 100 inhabitants.

        Academic Freedom and Cultural Events.--There were no government
    restrictions on academic freedom or cultural events.

        b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association.--Freedom of
    Assembly.--The law provides for freedom of peaceful assembly, and
    authorities generally respected this right in practice. While the law
    requires a permit for most demonstrations, security forces rarely
    enforced the law, and most protesters demonstrated without obtaining
    permits, frequently blockading major thoroughfares and highways.
        While most demonstrations were peaceful, occasionally demonstrators
    carried weapons, including clubs, machetes, firearms, and dynamite.
    Security forces (police and occasionally the military) were frequently
    called upon to break up protest groups carrying weapons or threatening
    government and private facilities.

        Freedom of Association.--The law provides for freedom of
    association, and the Government generally respected this right in
    practice.

        c. Freedom of Religion.--For a complete description of religious
    freedom, please see the 2010 International Religious Freedom Report at
    www.state.gov/g/drl/irf/rpt.

        d. Freedom of Movement, Internally Displaced Persons, Protection of
    Refugees, and Stateless Persons.--The law provides for freedom of
    movement within the country, foreign travel, emigration, and
    repatriation, and the Government generally respected these rights in
    practice. However, throughout the year both progovernment and
    opposition protesters as well as trade and industry groups prevented
    movement within the country by blockading major highways.
        The law prohibits the forced exile of citizens, and the Government
    did not employ the practice.

        Protection of Refugees.--The law provides for the granting of
    asylum or refugee status, and the Government has established a system
    for providing protection to refugees. In practice the Government
    provided some protection against the expulsion or return of refugees to
    countries where their lives or freedom would be threatened on account
    of their race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social
    group, or political opinion.
        The Government cooperated with the Office of the UN High
    Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and other humanitarian organizations
    in providing protection and assistance to refugees, asylum seekers,
    stateless persons, and other persons of concern. The UNHCR reported
    that the recognized refugee population in the country was 737 persons,
    compared with 673 persons in 2009. The Government completed processing
    and agreed to provide refugee protection in 28 cases and denied refugee
    status to 13 cases. There were 46 new applications during the year.
        Several hundred thousand citizens lacked basic identity documents,
    which prevented them from obtaining international travel documents and
    accessing other government services. Some experts estimated the number
    of citizens lacking documents had decreased due to government efforts.

    Section 3. Respect for Political Rights: The Right of Citizens to
            Change Their Government
        The law provides citizens the right to change their government
    peacefully, and citizens exercised this right through periodic, free,
    and fair elections based on universal suffrage. Many citizens of voting
    age, particularly in rural areas, lacked the identity documents
    necessary to vote. A broad spectrum of political parties and citizens'
    groups functioned openly. Elections for national offices and municipal
    governments are scheduled every five years.

        Elections and Political Participation.--Monitoring groups,
    including the Carter Center and the EU, proclaimed the April 4
    gubernatorial and municipal elections peaceful, free, and fair. There
    were some allegations of fraud in the departments of Beni, Pando,
    Tarija, and Santa Cruz that led the electoral courts to invalidate some
    votes from polling stations in which fraud and irregularities were
    confirmed. Voters enrolled at these stations were called to recast
    their votes on April 18. President Morales and MAS members publicly
    denounced those election results as fraud-marred and initiated lawsuits
    against the four departmental electoral courts.
        Monitoring groups from the Organization of American States, the EU,
    and the Carter Center considered the December 2009 national
    presidential and legislative elections peaceful, free, and fair.
    Implementation of a new biometric electoral register greatly reduced
    accusations of fraud. There were no reports of significant violence.
        Every second candidate on municipal election ballots must be a
    woman, a requirement that had increased female representation to
    approximately 30 percent of municipal council positions. There were 52
    women among Congress' 166 deputies and senators and 10 women in the 18-
    member cabinet. The number of indigenous members of Congress was
    estimated at 17 percent.
        The constitution and electoral law set aside seven special
    indigenous districts to increase indigenous political participation in
    the Plurinational Assembly (Congress). President Morales considered
    himself indigenous. Three of the nine departmental governors were
    indigenous.

    Section 4. Official Corruption and Government Transparency
        The law provides criminal penalties for official corruption;
    however, the Government did not implement the law effectively, and
    officials in the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of
    government often engaged in corrupt practices with impunity. Laws to
    combat corruption and promote transparency include the Financial
    Administration and Control Law, the State Employees Statute Act, and
    the Sworn Declaration of Property and Income Law. A cabinet-level
    presidential appointee is empowered to investigate corruption at any
    level in any branch of government.
        According to the World Bank's 2009 worldwide governance indicators,
    government corruption and lack of transparency were serious and
    worsening problems.
        Police corruption was a significant problem, partially due to low
    salaries and lack of training, although no reliable statistics existed
    to quantify the depth of the problem.
        In August the criminal court in La Paz put former vice minister of
    interior Gustavo Torrico under house arrest after an announcement by
    Presidency Minister Oscar Coca that Torrico was involved in extortion
    of Mennonite citizens in Santa Cruz. German citizen Dirk Schmidt, who
    helped create the network intended to extort money, was sentenced to
    prison for his involvement in the case.
        In September former president Jorge ``Tuto'' Quiroga was sentenced
    to two years and eight months in prison for slander and defamation for
    statements he made in February 2009 alleging corruption in a bank.
    Quiroga claims the sentencing is politically motivated and has filed an
    appeal.
        There were no developments in the January 2009 case of the killing
    of an oil executive and robbery of briefcases believed to be linked to
    a corruption scandal involving the state petroleum company.
        There were no developments in the April 2009 case regarding the
    purchase of land in Santa Cruz for mining purposes. The case centered
    on allegations that government officials profited illegally from the
    sale.
        A patchwork of laws requires public officials to report potential
    personal and financial conflicts of interest. Cases involving
    allegations of corruption against public officials require
    congressional approval before prosecutors can initiate legal
    proceedings.
        There were no laws providing access to government information.

    Section 5. Governmental Attitude Regarding International and
            Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations of Human
            Rights
        A number of domestic and international human rights groups
    generally operated without government restriction, investigating and
    publishing their findings on human rights cases. Government officials
    generally were cooperative and responsive to their views; however, NGOs
    and the human rights ombudsman complained that government security
    forces and ministries occasionally refused to cooperate with their
    investigations.
        The human rights ombudsperson is a position with a six-year term
    established in the constitution. Congress chooses the ombudsperson by a
    two-thirds majority vote. The ombudsman is charged with providing
    oversight of the defense and promotion of human rights, specifically to
    defend citizens against government abuses. The ombudsman operated
    without party influence and with adequate resources from the Government
    and foreign NGOs. The ombudsman issued annual reports, and the
    Government usually accepted the recommendations. In May, Congress
    elected Rolando Villena Villegas as the new ombudsman. Villena then
    named new departmental ombudspersons. The lower house of congress
    includes a permanent commission on human rights, which proposes laws
    and policies to promote human rights. Congressional deputies sit on the
    commission for one-year terms.
        In August and September, Villena released reports criticizing the
    Government's role in the deaths of two youths in Caranavi and in what
    the office reported as the torture and death of David Olorio Apaza (see
    section 1.a.). Villena also released an end-of-year report that was
    critical of the Government and the speed of the judicial process.
        In the aftermath of the April 2009 killing of three alleged
    international terrorists in Santa Cruz (see section 1.a.), President
    Morales initially rejected calls by the Governments of Hungary,
    Ireland, and Croatia for an international investigation but
    subsequently authorized police to cooperate with investigators from the
    three countries. An investigation by the Irish government concluded
    that the postmortem on one of the alleged terrorists, Michael Dwyer,
    was incomplete. There were no new developments by year's end.

    Section 6. Discrimination, Societal Abuses, and Trafficking in Persons
        The constitution explicitly prohibits discrimination based on race,
    gender, language, sexual orientation, or social status. According to
    the human rights ombudsperson, there was significant discrimination
    against (in descending order) persons with HIV/AIDS, indigenous
    persons, gay persons, and women.

        Women.--Rape was a serious and underreported problem. . The law
    criminalizes statutory rape, with prison terms of 15 to 20 years for
    the rape of a child under the age of 14. In cases involving consensual
    sex with an adolescent 14 to 18 years of age, the penalty is two to six
    years' imprisonment. Forcible rape of an adult is punishable by
    sentences ranging from four to 10 years' imprisonment. . Spousal rape
    is not a crime.
        Violence against women was also a pervasive and underreported
    problem. According to the NGO Center for the Information and
    Development of Women (CIDEM), 70 percent of women suffered some form of
    abuse. CIDEM noted that the statistics ``did not reflect the full
    magnitude of the problem of violence against women'' and that ``a great
    number of women'' did not report the aggression they faced on a daily
    basis.
        Family laws prohibiting mental, physical, and sexual violence
    provide for fines or up to four days in jail, unless the case becomes a
    public crime subject to the penal code; however, these laws were
    enforced irregularly. The Government took few meaningful or concrete
    steps to combat domestic violence.
        Through November, the police Family Protection Brigade handled
    70,792 cases nationally. However, the police brigade lacked financial
    support, structural support, and personnel to follow up and pursue all
    reported cases. Most cases of domestic violence went unreported.
        The law considers sexual harassment a civil crime. There were no
    statistics on the incidence of sexual harassment, but it generally was
    acknowledged to be widespread.
        Legal services offices devoted to family and women's rights
    operated throughout the country. The Maternal and Infant Health
    Insurance Program provided health services to women of reproductive age
    and to children under age five.
        The Government recognized the basic right of couples and
    individuals to decide freely and responsibly the number, spacing, and
    timing of their children. Health clinics and local health NGOs were
    permitted to operate freely in disseminating information on family
    planning under the guidance of the Ministry of Public Health. The
    Government provided direct cash transfers to expecting and new mothers
    to encourage the use of basic public health services that contribute to
    reducing maternal and infant mortality. According to the 2008
    Demographic and Health Survey, the maternal mortality ratio was
    estimated to be 310 per 100,000 live births, and the reported
    contraceptive prevalence rate among women was 61 percent; however, only
    37 percent of women using contraceptives used modern methods.
        The 2008 Demographic and Health Survey reported that 90 and 71
    percent of women received prenatal care and services of skilled birth
    attendants, respectively. The survey reported that 85 percent of
    mothers and infants received postnatal care. Improvement in these
    indicators were explained by the Ministry of Public Health policy of
    providing cash in the form of bonuses to women that register at a
    health center and return for their prenatal visits, delivery, and
    postpartum care.
        Women are entitled to the same legal rights as men; however, many
    women were unaware of their legal rights. Women generally did not enjoy
    a social status equal to that of men. Traditional prejudices and social
    conditions remained obstacles to advancement. In rural areas
    traditional practices restricting land inheritance for women remained a
    problem. The minimum wage law treats men and women equally; however,
    women generally earned less than men for equal work. Women sometimes
    complained that employers were reluctant to hire them because of the
    additional costs (mainly maternal) in a woman's benefits package. The
    gender gap in hiring appeared widest in the higher education brackets.
    Most women in urban areas worked in the informal economy and the
    services and trade sectors, including domestic service and
    microbusiness, whereas in rural areas the majority of economically
    active women worked in agriculture. Young girls often left school early
    to work at home or in the informal economy.
        Numerous domestic and international women's rights groups worked to
    advance women's rights and integrate women into the mainstream of
    society.

        Children.--Citizenship is derived through both birth within the
    country's territory (unless on diplomatic status) and from one's
    Bolivian parent(s). Birth certificates were registered either via a
    notary's affirmation of the certificate or through testimony of two
    adults regarding a child's parentage. Registered birth certificates
    were necessary to obtain national identification cards.
        Corporal punishment and verbal abuse were common in schools.
    Children from 11 to 16 years of age may be detained indefinitely in
    children's centers for suspected offenses or for their own protection
    on the orders of a social worker. Many children also lived on the
    streets of major cities. The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)
    estimated in 2007 that more than 3,700 children and adolescents lived
    on the streets in the cities of La Paz, El Alto, Santa Cruz,
    Cochabamba, Tarija, and Sucre. Child prostitution was a problem,
    particularly in urban areas and in the Chapare region. There were
    reports of children trafficked for forced labor to neighboring
    countries. According to a report by Pastoral de Movilidad Humana in
    2008, the local representative of the UNHCR, each month between nine
    and 11 children in the southern part of the country disappeared and
    were presumed victims of trafficking. Several NGOs had active programs
    to combat child prostitution.
        There were 194 Defender of Children and Adolescents offices to
    protect children's rights and interests nationwide. The Government's
    plan to combat child labor included a public information campaign
    against child prostitution and raids on brothels.
        The country is not a party to the 1980 Hague Convention on the
    Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. For information on
    international parental child abduction, please see the Department of
    State's annual report on compliance at http://travel.state.gov/
    abduction/resources/congressreport/congressreport--4308.html.

        Anti-Semitism.--There were no reports of anti-Semitic acts. The
    Jewish community numbered approximately 650 persons.

        Trafficking in Persons.--For information on trafficking in persons,
    please see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons
    Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        Persons With Disabilities.--The law prohibits discrimination
    against persons with disabilities and identifies the rights and
    benefits afforded them. There was no official discrimination against
    persons with disabilities in employment, education, access to health
    care, or the provision of other state services. The Government did not
    effectively enforce these provisions, however, and societal
    discrimination kept many persons with disabilities at home from an
    early age, limiting their integration into society. The Law on
    Disabilities requires wheelchair access to all public and private
    buildings, duty-free import of orthopedic devices, a 50 percent
    reduction in public transportation fares, and expanded teaching of sign
    language and Braille.
        The National Committee for Handicapped Persons was responsible for
    protecting the rights of persons with disabilities.

        National/Racial/Ethnic Minorities.--In October the Government
    enacted a new Anti-Racism Law making it illegal to discriminate or use
    racist language (see section 2.a.). This law includes punishments of up
    to a 360-day suspension of media outlets for use of alleged racist
    language. It also includes a mandate for all forms of media to
    highlight antiracism programming or literature in their shows and
    publications. There was societal and systemic discrimination against
    the small black minority, which generally remained at the low end of
    the socioeconomic scale and faced severe disadvantages in health, life
    expectancy, education, income, literacy, and employment. The majority
    of the estimated 35,000 Afro-Bolivians lived in the Yungas region of La
    Paz Department.

        Indigenous People.--In the 2001 census, approximately 62 percent of
    the population over 15 years of age identified themselves as
    indigenous, primarily from the Quechua and Aymara groups. The IACHR
    reported that 70 percent of indigenous persons lived in poverty or
    extreme poverty with little access to education or minimal services to
    support human health such as clean drinking water and sanitation
    systems. The Government carried out a wide-ranging program to increase
    access to potable water and sanitation in rural areas where indigenous
    persons predominated.
        Indigenous lands are not demarcated fully, and land reform remained
    a central political issue. Historically, a majority of indigenous
    persons shared lands collectively under the ``ayllu'' system, a system
    that was not legally recognized during the transition to private
    property laws. Despite laws mandating reallocation and titling of
    lands, recognition and demarcation of indigenous lands have not been
    fully accomplished. Indigenous people protested outside exploitation of
    their resources and sometimes complained that authorities did not
    properly consult them. The law states that indigenous peoples have the
    right to control natural resources in their territories.
        Indigenous peasants occupied several private properties that they
    did not own, often with the backing of the Landless Movement. Since
    2007 at least eight illegal seizures of mines by campesinos have been
    reported. In August campesinos seized Potosi mines during the 19-day
    blockade and strikes within the region. On August 16, the federal
    government met with the leaders of the strike and agreed to several of
    their requests to end the blockade and strikes, including: a commission
    to address a disputed border with neighboring Oruro; a commission to
    study the use and preservation of the Cerro Rico mountain in Potosi
    city; a declaration to construct an international airport; pledges to
    construct cement factories; and extended state control over the
    Karachipampa smelter upon completion of arbitration with Atlas Precious
    Metals Company. At year's end there were no further developments.
        Indigenous persons continued to be underrepresented in government
    and politics and bore a disproportionate share of poverty and
    unemployment. Government educational and health services remained
    unavailable to many indigenous groups living in remote areas. The
    Government continued to try to improve individual and family situations
    through the delivery of cash conditional transfer (money given to
    individuals if they meet a condition) and retirement payments to low-
    income and the elderly. For example, under the cash conditional
    transfer program, pregnant women and children under the age of two
    receive money if they attend their medical checkups (an attempt to
    decrease infant mortality).

        Societal Abuses, Discrimination, and Acts of Violence Based on
    Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.--The law prohibits
    discrimination based on sexual orientation, including by police, and
    citizens are allowed to change their name and gender on their official
    identity cards. However, societal discrimination against gay, lesbian,
    bisexual, and transgendered persons was common and noted in local media
    editorials. Organizations advocating for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and
    transgender persons existed and marches occurred, including a small
    annual gay pride parade, which received appropriate government approval
    and police protection. One student was reportedly expelled from high
    school for being gay, although school authorities denied that was the
    reason for the expulsion.

        Other Societal Violence or Discrimination.--The human rights
    ombudsman reported that persons with HIV/AIDS faced pervasive
    discrimination. There were few if any registered acts of violence
    against persons with HIV/AIDS. No formal government programs existed to
    combat HIV/AIDS discrimination.

    Section 7. Worker Rights
        a. The Right of Association.--The law allows workers to form and
    join trade unions, including in the public sector, with some
    exceptions. In practice this right was limited by government
    regulations and inefficient labor courts.
        The law requires prior government authorization to establish a
    union and confirm its elected leadership, permits only one union per
    enterprise, and allows the Government to dissolve unions by
    administrative fiat. The law also places restrictions on unions'
    internal affairs. For example, members of union executive boards must
    be Bolivian by birth, and labor inspectors are allowed to attend union
    meetings and to monitor union activities.
        Workers may form a union in any private company of 20 or more
    employees with at least 50 percent of the workforce in favor. The
    minimum requirement of 20 workers proved a heavy restriction, as an
    estimated 72 percent of enterprises had fewer than 20 employees.
    Approximately 25 percent of workers in the formal economy, which
    employed an estimated 30 percent of all workers, belonged to unions.
    Bolivian unions may not join international organizations.
        The law provides most workers with the right to strike but requires
    unions to seek prior government mediation; the law requires the same of
    employers before they initiate a lockout. According to the law, a legal
    strike requires the support of 75 percent of the workers. Workers who
    participate in an unlawful strike may be sentenced to prison terms of
    one to five years.
        The Government may initiate compulsory arbitration to end a strike
    or collective dispute in non-essential sectors. Public service
    employees, including those in banks and public markets, are prohibited
    from striking which exceeds the International Labor Organization (ILO)
    definition of essential services.
        Workers in the public sector (including teachers, transportation
    workers, and health care workers) frequently went on strike and were
    not penalized for such strike activities. General and solidarity
    strikes are illegal, but the Government neither prosecuted nor imposed
    penalties in such cases.
        The central government had close ties with certain umbrella labor
    organizations such as the Bolivian Workers' Union and the Confederation
    of Farm Workers. The Government exerted pressure on national leadership
    and local chapters of many of these organizations and funded parallel
    chapters in areas where the Government had less influence.

        b. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively.--The law
    provides workers the right to organize and bargain collectively;
    however, collective bargaining and voluntary direct negotiations
    between employers and workers without government participation was
    limited. Most collective bargaining agreements were restricted to
    addressing wages.
        The law prohibits antiunion discrimination and requires
    reinstatement of employees illegally fired for engaging in union
    activity. The National Labor Court handles complaints of antiunion
    discrimination, but rulings can take a year or more. The court ruled in
    favor of discharged workers in some cases and successfully required
    their reinstatement. However, union leaders stated that problems often
    were resolved or obsolete by the time the court ruled.
        There are no special laws or exemptions from regular labor laws in
    special duty-free zones.

        c. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor.--The law prohibits
    forced or compulsory labor, including by children; however, the
    practices of child apprenticeship and agricultural servitude by
    indigenous workers continued, as did some alleged individual cases of
    household workers effectively held captive by their employers.
        In many cases indigenous Guarani families worked land owned by
    landlords in exchange for housing and food but were not paid the
    minimum wage. As a result they incurred large debts to their landlords
    and were not permitted to leave the property without satisfying their
    debt. Many of these families lived in very poor conditions without
    water, electricity, medical care, or schools.
        Some workers, mostly indigenous persons, were forced to work
    harvesting Brazil nuts in Beni Department. The work was seasonal,
    lasting approximately three months per year. During that time landlords
    sold basic foodstuffs to workers at inflated prices; workers
    subsequently incurred large debts and were not permitted to leave the
    property until the debts were satisfied. Similar conditions existed in
    the sugar, cattle, corn, and peanut industries in Santa Cruz
    Department.

        d. Prohibition of Child Labor and Minimum Age for Employment.--
    Child labor remained a serious problem. The law prohibits all paid work
    by children under the age of 14; however, in practice the Ministry of
    Labor generally did not enforce child labor laws, including those
    pertaining to the minimum age and maximum hours for child workers,
    school completion requirements, and health and safety conditions for
    children in the workplace. The law prohibits a range of dangerous,
    immoral, and unhealthy work for minors under the age of 18. Labor law
    permits apprenticeship for 12- to 14-year-old children under various
    formal but poorly enforced restrictions which have been criticized by
    the ILO and were considered by some to be tantamount to bondage.
        The Ministry of Labor is responsible for enforcing child labor
    provisions but enforced them unevenly throughout the country. According
    to the ILO, 848,000 children between the ages of five to 17 worked.
    Roughly 800,000 children were under the age of 14 years and were
    working in risky labor conditions ,354,000 in urban areas and 446,000
    in rural areas.
        There was also evidence of exploitation of indigenous children in
    the Chaco region, the departments of Beni and Santa Cruz, and in cities
    across the country wherever individuals were migrating from the
    countryside. Urban children sold goods, shined shoes, and assisted
    transport operators. Rural children often worked with parents from an
    early age, generally in subsistence agriculture. Children generally
    were not employed in factories or formal businesses but, when employed,
    often worked the same hours as adults. Children also worked in mining
    gold, silver, tin, and zinc, as well as in other dangerous occupations
    in the informal sector.
        Child prostitution remained a problem. According to the human
    rights ombudsman, 3,000 children lived in the streets, and many were
    exploited sexually. The report stated that more than 100,000 children
    worked eight to 12 hours a day. The International Organization for
    Migration estimated that 2,000 girls worked, or were forced to work, as
    prostitutes.
        The traditional practice of ``criadito'' service persisted in some
    parts of the country. Criaditos are indigenous children of both sexes,
    usually 10- to 12-year-olds, whom their parents indenture to middle-and
    upper-class families to perform household work in exchange for
    education, clothing, room, and board. Such work is illegal, and there
    were no controls over the benefits to, or treatment of, such children.
        In addition significant numbers of children faced forced-labor
    situations in the production of sugarcane and Brazil nuts, mining,
    agriculture, and domestic service. See also the Department of State's
    annual Trafficking in Persons Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.
        The Government devoted limited resources to investigating child
    labor cases, but NGOs and international organizations such as UNICEF
    supplemented the Government's efforts. The Government continued its
    efforts to eliminate child labor in its worst forms, working with NGOs
    to discourage the use of child labor in the mining and sugar sectors by
    participating in internationally funded programs to provide educational
    alternatives to children who otherwise would work in mines or sugarcane
    fields. Nonetheless, according to the human rights ombudsman in 2009,
    3,800 children worked in mining.

        e. Acceptable Conditions of Work.--During the year the Government
    raised the minimum monthly wage 5 percent to 680 bolivianos ($97) for
    the public and private sectors, from 647 bolivianos ($92) in 2009. The
    minimum wage did not provide a decent standard of living for a worker
    and family. Most private-sector workers earned more than the minimum
    wage. While the minimum wage fell below prevailing wages in most jobs,
    certain benefit calculations were pegged to it. Many independent
    workers were part of the informal economy and did not receive the
    minimum wage.
        Labor laws establish a maximum workweek of 48 hours, limit women to
    a workday one hour shorter than that of men, prohibit women from
    working at night, mandate rest periods, and require premium pay for
    work above a standard workweek. In practice the Government did not
    effectively enforce these laws.
        The Ministry of Labor's Bureau of Occupational Safety has
    responsibility for protection of workers' health and safety, but
    relevant standards were poorly enforced. There were fewer than 37
    inspectors in the entire country. While the Government did not maintain
    official statistics, there were reports that workers died due to unsafe
    conditions, particularly in the mining and construction sectors. A
    national tripartite committee of business, labor, and government
    representatives was responsible for monitoring and improving
    occupational safety and health standards. The Ministry of Labor
    maintained an office for worker inquiries, complaints, and reports of
    unfair labor practices and unsafe working conditions.
        Working conditions in cooperative-operated mines remained poor.
    Miners continued to work with no scheduled rest for long periods in
    dangerous, unhealthy conditions and earned relatively little for their
    efforts; some earned only seven bolivianos ($1) per hour. Conditions
    have changed little in the past decades, as independent miners'
    cooperatives lacked the financial and technical resources needed to
    improve mine infrastructure. The law provides workers the right to
    remove themselves from dangerous situations without fear of losing
    their jobs. Since most miners in these conditions are self-employed,
    they leave mine work when prices are lower, often to work in the
    Chapare as coca growers. However, few have transferrable skills. Miners
    return to work in the mines when prices are high and they can earn
    higher wages.

                                   __________

                                     BRAZIL

        Brazil is a constitutional federal republic with a population of
    approximately 191million. In a second-round vote on October 31, voters
    elected Dilma Rousseff as president for a four-year term. The elections
    were generally free and fair. There were instances in which security
    forces acted independently of civilian control. State-level security
    forces committed numerous human rights abuses.
        The following human rights problems were reported: unlawful
    killings; excessive force, beatings, abuse, and torture of detainees
    and inmates by police and prison security forces; inability to protect
    witnesses involved in criminal cases; harsh prison conditions;
    prolonged pretrial detention and inordinate delays of trials;
    reluctance to prosecute as well as inefficiency in prosecuting
    government officials for corruption; violence and discrimination
    against women; violence against children, including sexual abuse;
    trafficking in persons; discrimination against indigenous persons and
    minorities; failure to enforce labor laws; forced labor; and child
    labor in the informal sector. Human rights violators often enjoyed
    impunity.

                            RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

    Section 1. Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom
            From:
        a. Arbitrary or Unlawful Deprivation of Life.--The federal
    government or its agents did not commit politically motivated killings,
    but unlawful killings by state police (military and civil) were
    widespread, particularly in the populous states of Sao Paulo and Rio de
    Janeiro.
        In many cases police officers employed indiscriminate lethal force
    during apprehensions. In some cases civilian deaths followed severe
    harassment or torture by law enforcement officials.
        Credible reports indicated the continuing involvement of state
    police officials in revenge killings and the intimidation and killing
    of witnesses involved in testifying against police officials.
        In Rio de Janeiro, both on- and off-duty police employed
    indiscriminate use of force, including killings, primarily in the
    city's poorer northern section. Residents of the city's approximately
    1,050 favelas (shantytowns), where approximately 1.2 million persons
    lived, were at particular risk. Impunity for such killings remained a
    problem. According to Amnesty International (AI), specialized Police
    Pacification Units (Unidades Pol!cia Pacificadora, UPP) significantly
    reduced violence in a dozen communities, but AI stated that policing in
    Rio de Janeiro continued to depend on repressive methods. On November
    26, AI claimed that Rio police killed more than 500 persons during the
    year in ``acts of resistance,'' often without sufficient or independent
    investigations of whether the suspects were resisting arrest and
    threatening the life of police officers or the public.
        AI reported that few killings were effectively or independently
    investigated and that perpetrators were seldom prosecuted successfully.
    Under its Favela Pacification Program, the Rio de Janeiro State
    Secretariat for Public Security assigned 12 specially trained
    community-policing units to 12 different favelas. A poll by the
    Brazilian Institute of Social Research found that 93 percent of
    residents in UPP areas felt safer. According to that poll, 70 percent
    of residents of communities without UPPs would like to have one.
        In mid-December there were 13 community-policing units in 16
    different favelas. Implementations of UPP police units assigned to
    these communities occurred with no reported casualties.
        On November 28, Rio de Janeiro police units supported by the
    military entered the massive Complexo do Alemao slum as part of the
    wider Favela Pacification Program and in response to a wave of violent
    attacks against the population by drug gangs. Ensuing clashes between
    the suspected drug traffickers and the police killed 42 persons, some
    of them bystanders, including a 14-year-old girl, as reported by O
    Globo newspaper. Citizens and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs)
    reported excessive use of force on the part of law enforcement during
    the pacification. Then secretary of human rights Paulo Vannuchi
    undertook to investigate alleged human rights violations, while also
    attributing the relatively low number of deaths for such a large
    operation to restraint on the part of law enforcement.
        The Sao Paulo State Secretariat for Public Security reported that
    Sao Paulo State police (civil and military) killed 392 civilians in the
    state from January to September, compared with 400 during the same
    period in 2009. Cases involving extrajudicial executions were either
    under police investigation or before the state courts; observers
    believed that it could take years to resolve such cases. During the
    year there were reports of multiple killings (called chacinas) in Sao
    Paulo State, often drug related with suspected police involvement; in
    the Sao Paulo metropolitan region, there were 12 chacinas resulting in
    46 deaths from January to October.
        Between April 17 and 26, a group of approximately five military
    police officers on the coast of Sao Paulo State killed at least 23
    persons, reportedly in retaliation for the April 18 killing of a fellow
    officer. The case remained under investigation at year's end.
        On May 27, the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary, or
    arbitrary executions presented a follow-up report to her 2007 findings
    and recommendations. The 2007 report included recommendations in the
    areas of policing strategies, police involvement in organized crime,
    police accountability, forensic evidence, witness protection, public
    prosecutors, judicial and legal framework, and prisons.
        The follow-up report noted some improvements made by police
    officials in Rio de Janeiro, Pernambuco, Paraiba, and Sao Paulo in
    implementing recommendations to reduce the activities of groups
    conducting extrajudicial killings, for example, by investigating
    militias and arresting those involved in the killings, but noted that
    such groups continued to operate. In September nine militia members
    arrested during Operation Leviathian II in Rio de Janeiro were found
    guilty of conspiracy and illegal possession of firearms and sentenced
    to prison terms ranging from eight to 12 years.
        Groups with links to law enforcement officials carried out
    killings, in some cases with police participation. Although new
    statistics on such killings were not provided in the special
    rapporteur's follow-up report, it was noted that the state governments
    of Pernambuco and Para!ba made efforts to address extrajudicial
    killings. The state government of Pernambuco reported that it
    imprisoned approximately 400 individuals, and the state government of
    Para!ba investigated a group that may be responsible for as many as 300
    killings. Credible, local human rights groups reported the existence in
    some states of groups linked to police forces that targeted suspected
    criminals and persons considered problematic or undesirable by
    landowners. States where such groups were known to operate included Sao
    Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Pernambuco, and Paraiba.
        In August 2009 authorities arrested five suspects, including
    military policemen, in the January 2009 killing in Pitimbu, Paraiba, of
    Manoel Bezerra de Mattos Neto, vice president of the Pernambuco branch
    of the Workers' Party and a human rights advocate. The NGO Global
    Justice reported that on June 9, Maximiano Rodrigues Alves, a witness
    in the investigation, was shot in Itambe, Pernambuco, in an attempt on
    his life allegedly stemming from the Mattos case. On October 27, in
    response to an appeal from the Pernambuco branch of the Brazilian Bar
    Association, the Superior Court of Justice transferred the Mattos case
    and those of other killings suspected to be the work of off-duty police
    to the federal courts. The case was pending trial at the federal court
    in Paraiba at year's end.
        The case of the March 2009 killing by military police in Rio de
    Janeiro of Jose Carlos Barbosa remained under investigation at year's
    end. According to the Rio de Janeiro Bar Association Human Rights
    Commission, witnesses testified in the case despite receiving threats.
        In April 2009 in Santa Teresa, Rio de Janeiro, police killed six
    youths allegedly involved in drug trafficking in Morro da Coroa favela.
    According to the NGO Rede Contra a Violencia, prosecutors brought
    charges against four police officers (Vagner Barbosa Santana, Carlos
    Eduardo Virginio dos Santos, Jubson Alencar Cruz Souza, and Leonardo
    Jose de Jesus Gomes) for the killings. The case remained pending at
    year's end.
        At year's end two military police officers were in jail pending
    trial for the 2009 killings of four persons in Guaratiba District, Rio
    de Janeiro.
        On July 30, a court sentenced four military police officers to 18
    years and eight months for the 2008 murder of Antonio Carlos Silva
    Alves. The four, all of the 37th Battalion (Sao Paulo), were among 14
    military police officers arrested in 2009 following an investigation
    into the activities linked to organized crime. Nine of the 14 remained
    in custody at year's end, pending the outcome of judicial proceedings.
        There were no known developments in the following cases:
        The August 2009 killing of Elton Brumda Silva during a military
    police operation to remove Silva and approximately 500 other Landless
    Rural Workers Movement members from a farm in Sao Gabriel, Rio Grande
    do Sul State.
        The August 2009 arrest of retired police sergeant Jairo Francisco
    Franco for killing an unknown black man in the greater Sao Paulo area.
        The investigation of military policeman Pascoal dos Santos Lima in
    connection with the 2008 killing in Sao Paulo of military police
    Colonel Jose Herminio Rodrigues, who was investigating extrajudicial
    killings allegedly committed by Lima, who was serving a prison sentence
    related to another conviction.
        More than 40 deaths that occurred during November 2009 military
    police operations in Rio de Janeiro favela communities following an
    October 2009 helicopter shoot-down.
        The 2008 beating death in Rio de Janeiro of Andreu Luis da Silva
    Carvalho at a detention facility. The NGO Legal Project reported that
    prosecutors did not bring charges against the five agents allegedly
    involved in the killing, and Legal Project filed a suit in August
    against Rio de Janeiro State seeking compensation for the family of the
    victim.
        On April 12, a jury in Para sentenced Vitalmiro ``Bida'' Bastos
    Moura to 30 years in prison for the 2005 murder of Catholic nun Dorothy
    Mae Stang. On May 18, Judge Maria de Nazare Gouveia, of the state
    superior court of Para, ruled that Reginaldo Pereira Galvao, also
    accused in the killing, and originally sentenced to 30 years, would
    remain free while awaiting an appeal.
        On September 29, Rio de Janeiro Military Police Officer Paulo Marco
    da Silva Em!lio, was acquitted of killing Thiago da Costa Correia da
    Silva and three other youths in Borel favela, in northern Rio de
    Janeiro in 2003. According to Rede Contra a Violencia, three of the
    five Rio de Janeiro military police officers charged were acquitted.
    Washington Luis de Oliveira Avelino was awaiting trial, and Marcos
    Duarte Ramalho, whose conviction was cancelled in March 2009, was
    awaiting a new trial at year's end.
        There were no known developments in the death-in-custody case,
    reopened in September 2009, of Manoel Fiel Filho, who was arrested and
    allegedly tortured before his death in 1976. Authorities charged a
    police detective, a specialist, and the medical examiner who performed
    the autopsy with murder and cover-up.

        b. Disappearance.--There were no reports of politically motivated
    disappearances.

        c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or
    Punishment.--Although the constitution prohibits such treatment and
    provides severe legal penalties for its use, torture and other cruel
    treatment by police and prison guards remained a serious and widespread
    problem. In 2009 the federal government's Special Secretariat for Human
    Rights (SEDH) acknowledged that police institutions have been
    historically marked with violence, generating a cycle of insecurity,
    inefficiency, abuse, torture, and impunity.
        Fourteen of the country's 26 states have formally adhered to the
    National Plan for the Prevention and Control of Torture, which includes
    the installation of cameras in prisons and penitentiaries; frequent
    unannounced visits by prosecutors, public defenders, and NGOs; and
    videotaping of interrogations.
        During the first half of the year, the Sao Paulo State Ombudsman's
    Office received 13 complaints of torture by police, compared with seven
    during the same period of 2009.
        According to the Rio de Janeiro State Police ombudsman, Luiz Sergio
    Wigderowitz, there were two complaints of torture by the police in Rio.
        According to the Minas Gerais State Ombudsman's Office, it received
    87 complaints of physical aggression by police during the first six
    months of the year but no complaints of torture. Comparatively, in the
    first six months of 2009 it received 105 complaints of physical
    aggression and 17 complaints of torture by the police.
        The Bahia State Ombudsman's Office reported 27 complaints of
    physical aggression by the police and no complaints of torture from
    January to December 17. In 2009 it reported 79 complaints of physical
    aggression and no complaints of torture.
        Police continued to abuse transvestite prostitutes in Rio de
    Janeiro, Belo Horizonte, and Salvador, according to the NGO Bahia Gay
    Rights Group. Complaints were investigated but rarely resulted in
    punishment (see section 6, Societal Abuses).
        In Rio de Janeiro, militia members--many of them off-duty or former
    law enforcement officers--reportedly continued to use physical abuse,
    degrading treatment, and torture to spread fear and establish control
    over favela residents.
        In the June 2009 case in which five indigenous Tupinambas in
    Ilheus, Bahia, charged that Federal Police officers applied electric
    shocks to their backs and genitals, a Federal Police investigation
    found that there was no abuse of power by the agents, as the Government
    did not consider pepper spray or Tasers to constitute weapons. The
    Federal Police internal investigation reportedly cleared Federal Police
    officers of acting inappropriately.
        There were no known developments regarding the prosecution of an
    individual arrested in 2008 and three police officers arrested in
    January 2009 in the cases of two O Dia newspaper investigative
    journalists and their driver who were kidnapped, tortured, and released
    in Batan favela, Rio de Janeiro, in 2008. Two other militia leaders
    charged in the case were convicted and sentenced in August 2009.

        Prison and Detention Center Conditions.--Prison conditions
    throughout the country often ranged from poor to life threatening;
    however, some states made efforts to improve conditions. Abuse by
    prison guards, poor medical care, and severe overcrowding occurred at
    many facilities.
        Prison officials frequently resorted to brutal treatment of
    prisoners. Harsh or dangerous working conditions, official negligence,
    poor sanitary conditions, abuse and mistreatment by guards, and lack of
    medical care led to deaths in prisons. Poor working conditions and low
    pay for prison guards encouraged widespread corruption. Prisoners who
    committed petty crimes were held with murderers. According to the
    National Penitentiary Department, in June there were 494,237 prisoners,
    including 29,707 women, incarcerated in a prison system designed for
    approximately 300,000.
        The federal constitution prevents minors who are less than 18 years
    old from being tried as adults and being incarcerated in federal,
    state, or city prisons. Crimes or misdemeanors committed by minors are
    classified as infractions. The penalties for such acts are classified
    as socioeducational measures. By law juveniles should not be held
    together in jails with adults, but this was not always respected in
    practice. Multiple sources reported accounts of adolescents jailed with
    adults in prison units in inhumane, poor, and crowded conditions.
    Insufficient capacity in juvenile detention centers was widespread. A
    government official from the Secretariat of Human Rights reported a
    first-hand account of adolescent boys and girls incarcerated with
    adults in a prison in Goias during the year. Moreover, in May a news
    source reported minors being held with adults in an overcrowded prison
    in the state of Sao Paulo.
        According to the SEDH, 60,000 adolescents were sentenced to
    socioeducational corrective measures. The majority of these youth were
    not confined, but 14,000 were detained in special youth detention
    centers found in every state and the Federal District. Of these, 3,000
    were confined under a work release regime. The detention centers were
    marked by the same overcrowding and violence faced by the prison system
    for adults. The National Council of Justice noted, for example, that
    the detention center CAJE (Center for Training Skilled Youth) in
    Brasilia was built to house 160 adolescents and had a population of
    more than 320. In September the Council for the Rights of Children and
    Adolescents recommended that CAJE be closed down, claiming that since
    2004 more than 20 adolescents under its supervision died and that it
    received numerous reports of other forms of violence such as the
    beatings of those being detained, riots, and arson by the inmates.
        The Government was aware of the abuse that takes place in both its
    prisons and juvenile detention centers and took steps to address the
    problem, as evidenced by its sponsoring of the First National Seminar
    on Torture and Violence in the Prison System and in the System for
    Socio-Educational Measures through the President's Secretariat for
    Human Rights and the National Council of Justice in November.
        In Rio de Janeiro and most other states, pretrial detainees were
    held with convicted prisoners due to overcrowding.
        Police killed three prisoners and injured 24 during a prison riot
    in Recife in May at a facility with a capacity of 1,400 that held 3,600
    men. Police reported killing at least three prisoners in an 18-hour
    hostage situation during a prison uprising in January at the state of
    Parana's central penitentiary. On February 25, detainees rioted at
    Serrinha Prison in Bahia, demanding transfer to a different
    penitentiary in the state. Prisoners killed a fellow inmate during the
    riot. On November 9, at least 18 prisoners were killed in two separate
    riots in Sao Luis, Maranhao. The rioters were demanding better
    conditions, including adequate food and an end to overcrowded
    conditions.
        The NGO Conectas reported that penitentiary centers in the Sao
    Paulo metropolitan area remained overcrowded. There were seven centers
    in the city of Sao Paulo, each holding a population that was double its
    intended capacity. The Vila Independencia Center, for instance, had
    space for 768 inmates but held approximately 1,900. According to a
    Conectas representative, these centers were temporary prisons for those
    awaiting trial or a more permanent situation in the penitentiary
    system. Because these prisons are temporary, they are not held to the
    same standard as the long-term prison system, and the buildings were
    old with few facilities. Conectas reported that some individuals were
    held in these centers for years without sentencing.
        In 2009 the National Council for Criminal and Penitentiary Policy
    reported seriously deficient conditions at two detention facilities in
    Serra, Espirito Santo. At the Cascuvi facility in Viana city, 25
    individuals guarded more than 1,170 prisoners crowded into three spaces
    lacking individual cells in a facility designed for 370 persons. The
    report described the absence of electricity and showers, privacy, legal
    counsel, inmate advocacy, and reformative activity; rodents and pests
    roaming freely; drinking water provided once daily; food served
    sporadically; limited medical access; inmate skin disease; and
    allegations of inmate-on-inmate attacks. According to Global Justice,
    authorities demolished the penitentiary in Cascuvi in May to build a
    provisional detention center (CDP). In 2009 the state government of
    Espirito Santo created CDPs as maximum-security prisons, which are part
    of the state's program of modernization and improvement of the prisons
    system.
        Global Justice, however, reported that the CDPs held both pretrial
    detainees and convicted prisoners and were already at capacity.
        In August Espirito Santo prison officials announced that they would
    discontinue the use of metal ship-container cells as holding
    facilities. Global Justice reported a lack of information from prison
    officials on prisoner status and conditions in its facilities. Global
    Justice also asserted that there was no information available
    concerning the investigation or punishment of the agents and detainees
    involved in cases of killings and torture in Espirito Santo
    penitentiaries. The NGO reported a lack of information on the
    whereabouts and status of the prisoners who were transferred from the
    penitentiaries that used metal ship-container cells.
        In June 2009 the Inter-American Court of Human Rights granted
    precautionary measures for inmates of the Polinter-Neves penitentiary
    in Sao Goncalo, Rio de Janeiro State, because of inadequate access to
    medical services and asked the Government to ensure adequate medical
    care, reduce overcrowding, and report its actions to the court. There
    was no government response to the Inter-American Court, and according
    to the NGO Rio de Paz, the situation at Polinter-Neves penitentiary
    remained unchanged. The facility has capacity for 350 detainees but
    held 656 at year's end. The Public Defender's Association reported
    filing suits to shut down the penitentiary. According to the
    Coordinator of the Rio de Janeiro Public Defenders Association, Denis
    Sampaio, the suits were pending resolution and the penitentiary
    continued functioning at year's end.
        On June 24, the Legislative Assembly of Rio de Janeiro approved a
    law creating a Torture Prevention Committee and Mechanism. The law
    provides for state monitoring and supervision of jails, penitentiaries,
    socioeducational centers, and mental institutions. Implementation of
    this law continued at year's end.
        The situation in the Women's Penitentiary of Santana in Sao Paulo
    remained poor, although there were some improvements in the areas of
    health care and food quality. The prison, a converted men's facility in
    an old, deteriorating building, was overcrowded and did not have
    educational and social development programs for inmates. Women who give
    birth in prison or are the mothers of newborns when arrested are
    permitted to keep their babies with them in the facility for six
    months. The Santana Penitentiary provides special cells and assistance
    for 120 inmates and their children. These facilities are located in the
    hospital building.
        Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo states and the Federal District
    provided separate prison facilities for women; elsewhere, according to
    the NGO Pastoral Carceraria, women were held with men in some
    facilities. Male officers who served in women's prisons abused and
    extorted the prisoners for sexual favors.
        While authorities attempted to hold pretrial detainees separately
    from convicted prisoners, overcrowding often required holding convicted
    criminals in pretrial detention facilities. Abuses continued in
    municipal jails and detention centers throughout the country.
        There were no developments reported concerning the 12 persons,
    including 10 police officers, indicted but never jailed for the 2007
    repeated sexual abuse of a 15-year-old girl in a cell in Abaetetuba,
    Para. However, on April 20, the National Council of Justice unanimously
    decided to force the retirement of the judge who sent the girl to the
    cell but took no action when she became aware of the abuse suffered by
    the victim.
        Prisoners and detainees had reasonable access to visitors. They
    were permitted religious observance and permitted to submit complaints
    to judicial authorities, although this was not always respected in
    practice.
        Government policy permits prison visits by independent human rights
    observers; however, in practice authorities did not always follow this
    policy. A Conectas representative confirmed that it was at times
    difficult for outside observers to obtain permission to visit prisons.
        Human rights advocates visiting juvenile detention centers in Sao
    Paulo reported continuing improvements in their general conditions. The
    foundation Center for the Socio-Educational Care of the Adolescent
    dismantled large out-of-date detention centers prone to inmate violence
    and built smaller facilities for easier management of the inmate
    population. This process began in 2006 and has continued, with five new
    centers opening during the year, which brought the total to 132. Each
    center had space for 56 adolescents, with approximately 7,000 held in
    the system. Conectas reported that the new facilities improved living
    conditions and that there were no cases of physical abuse, riots, or
    deaths in the smaller facilities. However, the temporary center for
    juvenile criminals did not have facilities for social and educational
    activities.

        d. Arbitrary Arrest or Detention.--The law prohibits arbitrary
    arrest and detention and limits arrests to those caught in the act of
    committing a crime or arrested by order of a judicial authority;
    however, police at times did not respect this prohibition in practice.

        Role of the Police and Security Apparatus.--The Federal Police,
    operating under Ministry of Justice oversight, is small, primarily
    investigative, and plays a minor role in routine law enforcement. Most
    police forces fall under the control of the states, where they are
    divided into two distinct units: The civil police are plainclothes
    officers with an investigative role, while the military police are
    uniformed officers charged with maintaining order and preventing crime.
    Although the individual state governments control their respective
    military police forces, the constitution provides for calling them into
    active military service in the event of an emergency, and they maintain
    some military characteristics and privileges, including a separate
    judicial system.
        In Rio de Janeiro's favelas, militia groups often begun as off-duty
    and former law enforcement officers took community policing into their
    own hands. However, many militia groups came to resemble drug-
    trafficker groups in intimidating residents and conducting illegal
    activity such as extorting protection money, imposing tribute fees, and
    providing pirated utility services. Punishing police involved in
    militia activity was difficult due to solidarity and fear of reprisals.
    Police often did not operate in militia-dominated communities. State
    authorities estimated that militias had taken over nearly 100 favelas
    from drug-trafficker control, mostly in the city's west.
        In a September media interview, former Rio de Janeiro State
    secretary for public security Marcelo Itagiba alleged that communities
    controlled by militias increased from 42 to 171 over the past four
    years.
        In October the local press reported that Rio de Janeiro military
    police officers arrested eight members of the militia gang Piraque,
    which included a civil police officer, two military police officers,
    and an army officer. Press reports alleged the gang charged local
    residents for the provision of security and utility services.
        In January the Rio de Janeiro State Secretariat for Public Security
    and Civil Police started a human rights training course for Rio de
    Janeiro military police officers. During the year an estimated 500
    officers received the course, a ``train-the-trainer'' program, that
    ultimately was delivered to approximately 38,000 officers. According to
    the secretariat, human rights courses were a mandatory component of
    training for entry-level military police officers. Other states, such
    as Santa Catarina, also integrated human rights elements into police
    training.
        The Rio de Janeiro State Secretariat for Public Security reported
    that 29,873 police officers took online training courses in human
    rights during the year, in partnership with the National Secretariat
    for Public Security.

        Arrest Procedures and Treatment While in Detention.--With the
    exception of arrests of suspects caught in the act of committing a
    crime, arrests must be made with a warrant. The use of force during an
    arrest is prohibited unless the suspect attempts to escape or resists
    arrest. Suspects must be advised of their rights at the time of arrest
    or before being taken into custody for interrogation.
        Authorities generally respected the constitutional right to a
    prompt judicial determination of the legality of detention. Detainees
    generally were informed promptly of the charges against them. The law
    permits provisional detention for up to five days under specified
    conditions during a police investigation, but a judge may extend this
    period. A judge may also order temporary detention for an additional
    five days for paperwork processing. Preventive detention for an initial
    period of 15 days is permitted if police have indications that a
    suspect may leave the area. This may be renewed under specific
    circumstances. Occasionally detainees--typically poor and uneducated--
    were held longer than the provisional period.
        Defendants arrested in the act of committing a crime must be
    charged within 30 days of arrest. Other defendants must be charged
    within 45 days, although this period may be extended. In practice the
    backlog in the courts almost always resulted in extending the period
    for charging defendants. Bail was available for most crimes, and
    defendants facing charges on all but the most serious crimes had the
    right to a bail hearing. In general prison authorities allowed
    detainees prompt access to a lawyer; indigent detainees had the right
    to a lawyer provided by the state. Detainees were also allowed prompt
    access to family members.
        Human rights observers stated that civil and uniformed police
    regularly detained persons illegally to extort money or favors.
        The law does not provide for a maximum period for pretrial
    detention, which is defined on a case-by-case basis. Time in detention
    before trial is subtracted from the sentence.

        e. Denial of Fair Public Trial.--The constitution provides for an
    independent judiciary, and the Government generally respected judicial
    independence in practice; however, the judiciary was underfunded,
    inefficient, and often subject to intimidation and to political and
    economic influences, particularly at the state level, a situation that
    resulted in vigilante action. A number of senior judges remained under
    investigation nationwide on a variety of charges.
        Although the law requires that trials be held within a set period
    of time, which is defined according to individual circumstances, the
    nationwide backlog in state and federal cases frequently led courts to
    dismiss old cases unheard.

        Trial Procedures.--The right to a fair public trial as provided by
    law generally was respected in practice, although in some regions--
    particularly in rural areas--the judiciary was less professionally
    capable and more subject to external influences. For instance, when
    cases involved gunmen hired by landowners to kill land activists or
    rural union activists, local police often were less diligent in
    investigating, prosecutors were reluctant to initiate proceedings, and
    judges found reasons to delay. After an arrest a judge reviews the
    case, determines whether it should proceed, and, if so, assigns it to a
    state prosecutor who decides whether to issue an indictment. The law
    recognizes the competence of a jury to hear cases involving capital
    crimes. Judges try those accused of lesser crimes.
        Defendants enjoy a presumption of innocence and have the rights to
    confront and question witnesses and to appeal. A large case backlog
    hindered the ability of appellate-level courts to ensure fair and
    expeditious trials.
        While the law provides for the right to counsel, the Ministry of
    Justice estimated that approximately 90 percent of prisoners could not
    afford an attorney. In most cases the court must furnish a public
    defender or private attorney at public expense. The Public Ministry
    continued hiring public defenders, but staffing deficits remained in
    all states. For example, according to the Human Rights Commission of
    the Rio de Janeiro Bar Association, there were 700 public defenders in
    Rio de Janeiro State, a personnel deficit of 18 percent.
        The law mandates that special police courts exercise jurisdiction
    over state military police except those charged with ``willful crimes
    against life,'' primarily homicide. In all but the most egregious
    cases, police tribunals decided whether or not the killing was willful.
    As a result civilian courts, which have jurisdiction over killings by
    police, received very few case referrals involving police killings. In
    addition the requirement that the initial investigation be carried out
    by police internal affairs officers increased the potential for drawn-
    out investigations. The police themselves were often responsible for
    investigating charges of torture and excessive force carried out by
    fellow officers, although independent investigations increased. Long
    delays in the special military police courts allowed many cases of
    alleged torture and lesser charges to expire due to statutes of
    limitations.

        Political Prisoners and Detainees.--There were no reports of
    political prisoners or detainees.

        Civil Judicial Procedures and Remedies.--While the justice system
    provides for an independent civil judiciary, courts were overburdened
    with significant backlogs and sometimes were subject to corruption,
    political influence, and intimidation. Citizens have access to bring
    lawsuits before the courts for human rights violations.

        f. Arbitrary Interference With Privacy, Family, Home, or
    Correspondence.--The law prohibits such actions, but NGOs credibly
    reported that police conducted searches without warrants. Human rights
    groups, other NGOs, and the media reported frequent incidents of
    violent police invasions in shantytowns and poor neighborhoods. During
    these operations police stopped and questioned persons and searched
    cars, residences, and business establishments without warrants. During
    its law-enforcement operations in November and December, the military
    entered the massive Complexo do Alemao slum as part of the wider Favela
    Pacification Program. NGOs, including Rede Contra Violencia, claimed
    those authorities forcibly entered homes without warrants and looted
    some residences. Victims reported searches without warrants, including
    abusive and violent searches of women. Wiretaps authorized by judicial
    authority were permitted. The inviolability of private correspondence
    generally was respected.
        On June 22, a Brazilian Bar Association spokesman denounced the
    installation by federal authorities of recording equipment in visiting
    rooms reserved for conversations between lawyers and federal prisoners
    in four prisons in the country as a violation of attorney-client
    privilege, making it ``impossible to exercise the right of defense.''
    Seven correctional officers in a maximum security federal penitentiary
    in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul brought the installation to the
    attention of the bar association. Federal authorities stated that the
    equipment was there purely for security purposes and that attorney-
    client conversations were not regularly recorded unless authorized by a
    judge.
        On September 27, a federal judge in Sao Paulo ruled evidence gained
    by illegal wiretaps inadmissible in a case involving racketeering
    charges against 12 persons, including two tax officials, stemming from
    a 2007 investigation.

    Section 2. Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:
        a. Freedom of Speech and Press.--The law provides for freedom of
    speech and of the press, and the authorities generally respected these
    rights in practice. The independent media were active and expressed a
    wide variety of views with minimal restriction; however, criminal as
    well as other elements, such as political party activists, continued to
    subject journalists to violence because of their professional
    activities (see also sections 1.a. and 1.c.).
        The National Association of Newspapers (ANJ) continued to report
    cases of imprisonment, aggression, censorship, and failure to respect
    freedom of the press. Between August 2008 and November 2010, the ANJ
    reported 74 cases of censorship, threats, direct violence against
    journalists, and other forms of pressure against news organizations and
    professionals. Of these, 34 occurred during the year, including two
    deaths, one imprisonment, 11 cases of censorship, 10 of assault and
    battery, and two bombings. Of the 74 cases, 26 represented court
    decisions, and 10 were electoral court decisions restricting the
    ability of journalists to report on specific election stories. In four
    cases members of the judiciary were plaintiffs in legal actions
    involving news reports mentioning them.
        On October 19, a gunman shot and killed journalist Francisco Gomes
    de Medeiros, of Radio Caico in Rio Grande do Norte. According to
    police, the defendant killed Gomes de Medeiros because of accusations
    the journalist made on the radio, connecting the assailant with drug
    trafficking. The Union of Professional Journalists of Rio Grande do
    Norte considered the case an intimidating example of organized crime
    retaliation.
        The ANJ regarded the most serious threat to press freedom to be the
    growing number of court decisions prohibiting the media from reporting
    on certain activities. Among the highest-profile cases reported by the
    ANJ were two instances of judicial prior censorship where the courts
    barred newspapers from reporting on continuing investigations.
        In September the Regional Federal Court in Tocantins State forbade
    84 publications--including O Estado de S. Paulo and leading circulation
    newsmagazine Veja--from reporting on an investigation by the Sao Paulo
    State Prosecutor's Office against the Tocantins governor and candidate
    for reelection, Carlos Gaguim. The ruling was subsequently lifted, but
    not before the local police were dispatched to the airport at the state
    capital to seize a shipment of a national circulation magazine
    containing a report on that subject.
        Pursuant to a July 2009 court ruling, the newspaper O Estado de S.
    Paulo and its associated Web site remained barred from reporting on the
    Federal Police investigation of alleged corruption by Fernando Sarney,
    the son of the Senate president.
        In August during the Eighth Congress of Brazilian Newspapers
    (sponsored by the ANJ), presidential candidates Jose Serra and Dilma
    Rousseff signed the Chaputelpec Declaration, which obliges its
    signatories to respect and defend the freedom of the press.
        On August 26, in response to an appeal by the Brazilian Association
    of Radio and Television Broadcasters, the Supreme Federal Tribunal
    (STF) suspended legislation prohibiting satire of politicians during
    the electoral campaign, The NGO Reporters Without Borders had called
    the law a vestige of the authoritarian period.
        During the final stage of the election campaign in September,
    President Lula publicly criticized press reporting of the resignation
    of Chief of Staff Erenice Guerra for alleged influence peddling,
    claiming the reporting was politically motivated.

        Internet Freedom.--There were no government restrictions on access
    to the Internet or reports that the Government monitored e-mail or
    Internet chat rooms. Individuals and groups could engage in the
    peaceful expression of views via the Internet, including by e-mail. In
    March Google reported high rates of government requests for content to
    be removed and high levels of requests for personal data. Observers
    attributed this to government investigations into child pornography and
    racism and to the relative ease in filing private lawsuits to demand
    removal of content and to request data to identify the original poster.
        As with freedom of expression in the press, government restrictions
    on freedom of expression extended to the Internet with court orders
    requiring the removal of a wide variety of material, far more than
    child pornography. Information ordered taken down included coverage of
    judicial misconduct and business dealings. The Committee to Protect
    Journalists (CPJ) estimated that one congressional representative filed
    more than 44 lawsuits against 38 journalists.
        The IBOPE-Nielsen Net Ratings reported that 39.2 million persons
    regularly used the Internet in their home, and the International
    Telecommunication Union reported that Internet usage increased to
    approximately 39 percent in 2009.
        In July new electoral rules were issued regulating presidential
    campaigns on the Internet, allowing debates to take place on blogs,
    social networks, and Web sites, along with advertising via e-mail and
    short message service (SMS) messages. The new rules prohibited
    candidates from buying advertising space online, restricting online
    campaign presences to sites run by the candidate. The regulations also
    required that all Web sites be registered with the Electoral Court and
    made online slander and defamation punishable by fine.

        Academic Freedom and Cultural Events.--There were no government
    restrictions on academic freedom or cultural events.

        b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association.--The law provides
    for freedom of assembly and association, and the Government generally
    respected these rights in practice.

        c. Freedom of Religion.--For a complete description of religious
    freedom, please see the 2010 International Religious Freedom Report at
    www.state.gov/g/drl/irf/rpt.

        d. Freedom of Movement, Internally Displaced Persons, Protection of
    Refugees, and Stateless Persons.--The constitution provides for freedom
    of movement within the country, foreign travel, emigration, and
    repatriation, and the Government generally respected these rights in
    practice, although there were restrictions on entry into protected
    indigenous areas.
        The Government cooperated with the Office of the UN High
    Commissioner for Refugees and other humanitarian organizations in
    providing protection and assistance to refugees, asylum seekers, and
    other persons of concern.
        The law prohibits forced exile, and no instances of forced exile
    occurred.

        Protection of Refugees.--The law provides for the granting of
    asylum or refugee status, and the Government has established a system
    for providing protection to refugees. In practice the Government
    provided protection against the expulsion or return of refugees to
    countries where their lives or freedom would be threatened on account
    of their race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social
    group, or political opinion. In July 2009 President Lula approved a law
    that allowed foreigners who arrived in the country illegally by
    February 1 to apply for a two-year temporary residency; by February
    approximately 43,000 persons received amnesty under the new law. The
    largest group of beneficiaries, an estimated 17,000, were Bolivians,
    many of whom benefitted from regularized status to leave exploitive
    labor conditions.
        According to the Interministerial and Interinstitutional National
    Committee for Refugees, of the 4,294 recognized refugees from 76
    different countries in the country as of June, the largest numbers were
    from Angola (1,688), Colombia (589), and the Democratic Republic of
    Congo (420); 132 were from Cuba. Two-thirds were women, and 399 were
    resettled in the country.

    Section 3. Respect for Political Rights: The Right of Citizens to
            Change Their Government
        The law provides citizens the right to change their government
    peacefully, and citizens exercised this right in practice through
    periodic, free, and fair elections based on universal suffrage.
    Military conscripts may not vote.

        Elections and Political Participation.--In the 2010 national
    election, generally considered free and fair, Workers' Party candidate
    Dilma Rousseff won a four-year term as president. According to the
    Electoral Supreme Court (TSE), more than 150 international observers
    from 36 nations accepted invitations to witness the October elections.
    Among those represented were the Organization of American States,
    Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries, Mercosur, and various NGOs
    from Africa and Haiti.
        Political parties operated without restriction or outside
    interference.
        Women have full political rights, and in October the country
    elected its first woman president. The law requires that 30 percent of
    the candidates registered by each political party must be women, but
    this was not always respected in practice. According to the TSE, there
    were 3,968 female candidates in the October elections, compared with
    15,504 male candidates. In the October elections, 11 women were elected
    to the 81-member Senate and 43 women to the 513-member Chamber of
    Deputies. Of the 27 governors elected, two were women. There were three
    women in the outgoing 37-member cabinet, two on the 11-member Federal
    Supreme Court, five on the 33-member Superior Court of Justice, and one
    on the 14-member Military Superior Court. Women won 12.9 percent of
    elected seats at the state level (a slight increase from 11.2 percent
    in 2006) and 12.6 percent at the municipal level. In December
    President-elect Rousseff selected nine women to join her cabinet to be
    sworn in on January 1, 2011.
        There were 25 Afro-Brazilians elected to Congress (three senators
    and 22 deputies), and 21 Afro-Brazilians elected to state assemblies,
    according to the Institute of Politics, Public and Business
    Administration and Technologies. There were two self-identified Afro-
    Brazilians in the cabinet and one each on the Federal Supreme Court and
    Superior Court of Justice.

    Section 4. Official Corruption and Government Transparency
        The law provides criminal penalties for official corruption and
    strengthened penalties for corruption during the year; however, the
    Government did not always implement the law effectively, and officials
    frequently engaged in corrupt practices with impunity. The World Bank's
    worldwide governance indicators reflected that corruption continued to
    be a serious problem.
        The Government recovered $390 million diverted from public funds
    via corruption, a 35 percent increase over 2009. During the year the
    Office of the Federal Solicitor General (AGU), a government
    accountability body that provides legal guidance to the executive
    branch, ensures government compliance with legal and administrative
    requirements, and can represent the Government in court, filed 3,706
    actions in an effort to recover a total of $2.498 billion suspected to
    have been diverted by corruption. According to the AGU's Web site, more
    than $566 million of that amount was found in bank accounts of mayors,
    former mayors, public servants, and business executives involved in
    illegal operations. The funds in question have been blocked or seized
    pending filings by the AGU.
        The Ficha Limpa (Clean Record) law passed by Congress in May bars
    politicians from seeking elected office if they face corruption
    charges. A lower federal court in June ruled that Ficha Limpa,
    originally set to take effect only for the 2012 elections, would also
    apply to the state and national elections during the year. On October
    28, the STF upheld the September decision by the TSE to apply the law
    for the October elections, in cases where a politician previously
    resigned from elective office to avoid impeachment. The decision
    involved an appeal by disqualified Senate candidate Jader Barbalho of
    Para.
        In cases where candidates were removed from previous office by
    rulings or impeachment, the STF's October 28 decision did not apply,
    leaving the several other legislators elected on October 3 awaiting
    decisions on individual appeals. In September previous electoral court
    decisions that Ficha Limpa would apply forced some politicians facing
    corruption allegations, such as former Federal District governor
    Joaquim Roriz, to withdraw from races because they subsequently could
    be found ineligible to hold office.
        In November 2009 videotapes became public of then Federal District
    governor Jose Roberto Arruda and several of his political allies in
    state government apparently receiving bribes in past years. In February
    Arruda stepped down and subsequently was arrested and held without bail
    for two months. On March 16, the Regional Electoral Tribunal ruled to
    remove Arruda from office. On April 12, he was released on bail and was
    awaiting trial at year's end. The story received national press
    coverage and Arruda did not run for reelection.
        On September 10, the Federal Police arrested Amapa Governor Pedro
    Paulo Dias and 17 others on charges of corruption. The previous
    governor and then Senate candidate Waldez Goes was among those
    arrested, for theft of public funds and involvement with organized
    crime. On September 18, the governor was released, along with the
    former governor, and returned to assume his office for the remainder of
    his term, which ended December 31. Dias lost his reelection bid on
    October 31.
        There were no known developments in the trial of Romero Menezes,
    former executive director of the Federal Police and its second-ranking
    official, suspected of leaking information to his brother about a fraud
    investigation and fired in 2008.
        Public officials were subject to financial disclosure laws. A 2009
    law required more transparency in campaign financing. Federal
    government entities such as the Federal Audit Court, the Federal
    Controller General, the Public Ministry, the Federal Police, the
    judiciary, the Department of Revenue and Control of Financial
    Activities, and the Federal Treasury existed to fight corruption. The
    agencies identified public spending as a source of financial
    corruption; however, they had limited powers to function effectively.
        The law provides for public access to unclassified government
    information upon application to the Commission for Public Ethics,
    although the release of such information was often slow.

    Section 5. Governmental Attitude Regarding International and
            Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations of Human
            Rights
        A number of domestic and international human rights groups
    generally operated without government restriction, investigating and
    publishing their findings on human rights cases. Federal officials
    often were cooperative and responsive to their views. Although federal
    and state officials in many cases sought the aid and cooperation of
    domestic and international NGOs in addressing human rights problems,
    human rights monitors occasionally were threatened and harassed--
    particularly by members of the state police--for their efforts to
    identify and take action against human rights abusers.
        While most states had police ombudsmen, NGOs and human rights
    observers questioned their independence and effectiveness. The
    ombudsmen's accomplishments varied considerably, depending on such
    factors as funding and outside political pressure, and they issued no
    significant reports or recommendations during the year.
        The Chamber of Deputies and the Senate had human rights commissions
    that operated without interference and participated in several
    activities nationwide in coordination with domestic and international
    human rights organizations.

    Section 6. Discrimination, Societal Abuses, and Trafficking in Persons
        Although the law prohibits and penalizes discrimination on the
    basis of race, gender, disability, or social status, discrimination
    against women, Afro-Brazilians, gays and lesbians, and indigenous
    persons continued.

        Women.--Rape, including spousal rape, is a crime punishable by
    eight to 10 years' imprisonment; however, men who killed, sexually
    assaulted, or committed other crimes against women were unlikely to be
    brought to trial. From January to June, the Sao Paulo State Secretariat
    for Public Safety registered 4,796 rape cases, compared with 1,996
    during the same period in 2009. Part of this sharp increase was
    attributable to enactment of a federal law broadening the definition of
    rape and therefore the number of cases included in the statistic.
        Domestic violence remained both widespread and underreported to the
    authorities, although reporting increased. The federal government
    continued to operate a toll-free 24-hour nationwide hotline for women.
    Of the domestic violence complaints registered through the hotline
    during the year, 78 percent were considered physical violence, and 22
    percent were threats. For such cases the Maria da Penha law increases
    the penalty from one to three years in prison and created special
    courts. There was no information available on the numbers of
    prosecutions or convictions for domestic violence, although in July CNN
    reported 10 women were killed in domestic violence each day. The
    Institute of Public Safety reported that in Rio de Janeiro 128 women
    were threatened by their husbands every day while 44 suffered attempts
    by their spouses to kill them.
        According to hotline data from January to September recorded by the
    Special Secretariat of Policies for Women, the number of registered
    calls received nationwide rose to 552,034, a 23 percent increase over
    the same period in 2009. Of the complaints received, 51,736 concerned
    physical abuse, a 113 percent increase from the previous year. In
    almost 70 percent of reported cases, children were said to have
    witnessed the abuse. Fifty-eight percent of the callers reported daily
    physical abuse; the majority blamed domestic partners, who were
    commonly under the influence of alcohol or drugs. According to press
    reports, 58 percent of the registered cases involved partners living
    with the victim, 58 percent of whom were married. Another 15 percent of
    the cases involved ex-boyfriends.
        Officials considered the increase in reports of domestic violence a
    sign that more women overcame fear and societal pressure and were
    willing to break their silence over abuse. Federal District Civil
    Police Chief Sandra Gomes Melo, chief of the central district's
    Delegacia de Mulher (Women's Precinct), stated that the increase in
    reporting did not signify increased violence, but more awareness among
    women in the Federal District of all ages, education levels, and social
    classes. Approximately 4,000 cases a year were filed in the precinct,
    out of approximately 9,000 in the Federal District (population 2.5
    million). According to Chief Gomes Melo, perhaps one-third of reports
    result in a prosecution, but many judges opted for alternative
    sentencing such as therapy. The lack of confidence that the judicial
    system or the police could protect abused women contributed to the
    reluctance on the part of some women to bring lawsuits against their
    abusers.
        According to a nationwide Avon Institute/Brazilian Institute of
    Public Opinion and Statistics poll conducted in February 2009, 62
    percent of women and 48 percent of men knew a woman who suffered from
    domestic violence. Of those interviewed, 24 percent said that women
    continued to stay with an abusive partner for economic reasons; 23
    percent, for the well-being of children; and 17 percent, because of
    fear for their lives. Fifty-six percent of those polled lacked
    confidence that the police or judicial system could protect an abused
    woman.
        Protection of women who reported threats was not always adequate.
    In October in Itajai, Santa Catarina, Marcia Regina de Souza Pacheco
    was killed by her ex-husband in front of a police station after filing
    seven reports of aggression and threat. In January in Belo Horizonte,
    Minas Gerais, Maria Islaine de Morais, a hairdresser, was killed at her
    workplace by her ex-husband. She had previously reported him five times
    to the authorities for threatening to kill her.
        Since March 2009 the federal government has encouraged the creation
    of special courts for domestic and family violence, and according to
    the National Council of Justice, in October there were 43 special
    courts in 23 of the 26 states plus the Federal District. Sao Paulo
    State's Special Court of Domestic and Family Violence against Women
    doubled its capacity to handle cases.
        Each state secretariat for public security operated police stations
    dedicated exclusively to addressing crimes against women (DEAMs), for a
    total of 475 countrywide, in 397 municipalities (7 percent of the
    country's 5,565 municipalities). The quality of services varied, and
    availability was particularly limited in rural areas. For example, most
    of the DEAMs were in the south and southeast while the north and
    northeast regions, which contained approximately 35 percent of the
    country's population, possessed only 24 percent of the country's DEAMs.
    The stations provided psychological counseling, temporary shelter, and
    hospital treatment for victims of domestic violence and rape (including
    treatment for HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases) as well as
    criminal prosecution assistance by investigating and forwarding
    evidence to courts. There were also 496 reference centers and 262
    women's shelters.
        The DEAM in the Federal District, considered a model, included 24-
    hour coverage by shift consisting of a female police chief, four
    policewomen, and a clerk, as well as a social anthropologists, two
    psychologists, and a social worker. Women who came to the precinct had
    a right to shelter, a forensic examination, and a kit containing
    clothing and toiletries. A mobile unit precinct van also provided
    service to underserved communities and trained community leaders,
    doctors, teachers, and volunteer prosecutors.
        In Rio de Janeiro the city's Special Coordination to Promote Policy
    for Gender Equality (CEPIG) provided assistance to female victims of
    domestic violence who received death threats. When necessary, victims
    were sent to specific shelters, which also provided psychological and
    legal aid. CEPIG operated the Cora Coralina shelters to assist 42
    domestic violence victims, two other municipal governments operated
    shelters (in Campos and Volta Redonda), and the state government
    operated one shelter with a capacity to assist 80 women. In addition to
    CEPIG, domestic violence victims could obtain assistance at the Center
    for Women's Support, an initiative of the Rio de Janeiro state
    government that offered a complaint hotline, shelters, and
    psychological and legal aid. CEPIG reported that Rio de Janeiro's
    Municipal Government launched a temporary shelter to assist women
    victims of domestic violence who need assistance when other shelters
    are closed.
        The law requires health facilities to contact the police regarding
    cases in which a woman was harmed physically, sexually, or
    psychologically in order to collect evidence and statements should the
    victim decide to prosecute.
        While no specific laws address sex tourism, it is punishable under
    other criminal offenses. The Government issued a code of conduct to
    combat sex tourism and sexual exploitation and conducted campaigns in
    the most affected areas. The Federal District and the states of Rio de
    Janeiro, Bahia, Pernambuco, Espirito Santo, Amazonas, and Parana have
    laws requiring certain businesses to display signs listing the
    penalties for having sexual intercourse with a minor. Women's groups
    reported that prostitutes encountered discrimination when seeking free
    medical care.
        Sexual harassment is a criminal offense, punishable by up to two
    years in prison. The law encompasses sexual advances in the workplace
    or in educational institutions and between service providers or
    clients. In the workplace it applies only in hierarchical situations,
    where the harasser is of higher rank or position than the victim.
    Although the law was enforced, accusations were rare, and the extent of
    the problem was not documented.
        Couples and individuals had the right to decide the number,
    spacing, and timing of children, and had the information and means to
    do so free from discrimination. Access to information on contraception
    and skilled attendance at delivery and in postpartum care was generally
    available in urban, but not in rural, areas. The Population Reference
    Bureau recorded contraceptive use among married women at 81 percent,
    and the estimated maternal mortality rate in 2008 was 58 deaths per
    100,000 live births. Women and men were given equal access to
    diagnostic services and treatment for sexually transmitted infections,
    including HIV.
        Women have the same political and legal rights as men, and in
    October a woman was elected president (see section 3).
        A cabinet-level office, the Secretariat for Women's Policy,
    oversees a special entity charged with ensuring the legal rights of
    women. Although the law prohibits discrimination based on gender in
    employment and wages, there were significant wage disparities between
    men and women. According to the Ministry of Labor and Employment (MTE),
    women were often paid less than men in the same functions. According to
    research published in December by the Institute of Applied Economics
    and based on data from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and
    Statistics (IBGE), there were significant wage disparities between men
    and women.
        The law provides 120 days of paid maternity leave to women and
    seven days of paternity leave to men. The law also prohibits employers
    from requiring applicants or employees to take pregnancy tests or
    present sterilization certificates, but some employers sought
    sterilization certificates from female job applicants or tried to avoid
    hiring women of childbearing age. Violations of the law are punishable
    by jail terms of up to two years for employers, while the company may
    be fined 10 times the salary of its highest-paid employee.

        Children.--Citizenship is derived from birth in the country or from
    a parent. According to the SEDH, approximately 9 percent of the
    children born in the country in 2008 were not registered, and an
    estimated total of 248,000 children did not have birth certificates.
    The federal government's year-old campaign to increase reported births
    and standardize certification focused on the north and northeast
    regions and on the more vulnerable and rural populations and aimed to
    reduce unregistered births to5 percent by year's end. However,
    registration discrepancies remained between the more affluent states of
    the south and southeast and the poorer states of the north and
    northeast regions of the country. The states with the highest incidence
    of unregistered children were Amazonas, Para, and Maranhao. On
    September 6, the National Justice Council published a provision
    establishing a network between registries and hospitals intended to
    speed up the process of issuing birth certificates.
        While the law prohibits subjecting any child or adolescent to
    negligence or abuse, such abuse was a major problem and included rape,
    molestation, and impregnation of girls by family members. The SEDH
    oversees the National Program to Confront Sexual Violence Against
    Children and Adolescents, which established nationwide strategies for
    combating child sexual abuse and best practices for treating victims.
    The SEDH funded municipal and NGO projects throughout the country to
    support services for victims of sexual abuse.
        From January to June, the SEDH-operated National Hotline of Sexual
    Abuse and Exploitation against Children and Adolescents registered
    20,263 reports of abuse, approximately the same as for that period in
    2009. There were 2,478 reported cases of sexual exploitation, 4,741
    cases of sexual abuse, 5,769 cases of neglect, and 7,209 of physical or
    psychological violence. Approximately 58 percent of the victims were
    girls; in such cases, the usual complaints were negligence and sexual
    violence. Approximately 80 percent of victims of child and adolescent
    sexual abuse were girls, who also suffered slightly more than boys from
    physical and psychological aggression. Allegations of abuse of minors
    and prosecution of crimes against children were not pursued adequately
    or aggressively.
        According to the NGO Children's Network to Combat Violence, which
    operated three centers in the Sao Paulo municipal area, the number of
    reported cases of sexual abuse and physical aggression against children
    increased, outpacing the centers' capacity and creating a waiting list
    for those seeking treatment. The NGO reported a decrease in the average
    age of victims.
        Child prostitution was a problem, with extreme poverty the primary
    contributor. The Federal Police continued to estimate that more than
    250,000 children were involved in prostitution. The law sets a minimum
    age for consensual sex of 14 years, with the penalty for statutory rape
    ranging between eight and 15 years in prison. The national telephone
    hotline registered 9,600 reported cases of sexual exploitation of
    children and adolescents between January and September.
        On August 23, the SEDH signed an agreement with 24 major state and
    private companies, including Petrobras and Vale, to combat sexual
    exploitation of children and adolescents related to major construction
    projects throughout the country.
        According to the NGO Reference Center on Children and Adolescents,
    patterns of sexual exploitation of children corresponded to the
    distinct economic and social profiles of the country's regions. In the
    Amazon region, sexual exploitation of children took place in brothels
    that catered to mining settlements. In large urban centers, girls who
    left home to escape abuse or sexual exploitation often prostituted
    themselves on the streets to survive. In the cities along the northeast
    coast, sex tourism exploiting children continued and involved networks
    of travel agents, hotel workers, taxi drivers, and others who actively
    recruited children and trafficked them outside the country. Child
    prostitution also developed in the areas served by the country's
    navigable rivers, particularly in ports and at international borders.
        The law criminalizes child pornography. The penalty for possession
    of child pornography is up to four years in prison and a fine. Those
    who produce, reproduce, or offer for sale child pornography or recruit
    a child to participate in a pornographic production may be imprisoned
    up to eight years and fined.
        Although the country is not a large-scale producer of child
    pornography, such material was spread during the year on social-
    networking Web sites.
        The primary federal program to assist child victims of commercial
    sexual exploitation, according to the Ministry of Social Development,
    was the Service to Fight Violence, Abuse, and Sexual Exploitation of
    Children and Adolescents (formerly the Sentinel Program). It provided
    victims with psychological, social, and legal services through Social
    Assistance Specialized Reference Centers that are managed locally and
    raised awareness through information campaigns, workshops, and
    partnerships.
        The Ministry of Tourism continued to promote the code of conduct it
    developed to prevent the commercial sexual exploitation of children in
    the tourism industry, distributed public awareness campaign materials
    for display within tourism-related establishments, and continued to
    distribute awards to entities responsible for combating sexual
    exploitation of children within the industry. Five states had laws
    requiring businesses such as hotels and restaurants to display such
    materials. The Federal Highway Police and the International Labor
    Organization (ILO) published data on places such as gas stations, bars,
    restaurants, motels, and nightclubs along highways considered to be
    areas for sexual exploitation of children and adolescents.
        The SEDH provided federal government support for programs to
    identify, protect, and assist victims of child sexual abuse in the 26
    state capitals and in the Federal District. In the city of Rio de
    Janeiro, the Secretariat for Social Assistance coordinated aid to
    street children and minors who were victims of sexual abuse and
    exploitation. According to the Rio de Janeiro Human Rights Center, the
    city maintained five centers that provided social services, counseling,
    and shelter, although the city discontinued its hotline for reporting
    cases of child sexual abuse and exploitation in January. The Sao Paulo
    city government continued to operate several programs for street
    children, including one that used rehabilitation and social reinsertion
    into other geographic areas to save the lives of adolescents condemned
    to death by drug traffickers.
        Rio de Janeiro's Municipal Specialized Reference Centers of Social
    Assistance (CREA) reported that in the first half of the year, 13.3
    percent of victims that received CREA support were children and
    adolescents, up from 8.6 percent in 2009 and 5.4 percent in 2008. The
    Rio de Janeiro Municipal Secretariat for Social Assistance had 11 CREAs
    and 17 shelters (eight public and nine private) to provide assistance
    to child and adolescent victims of sexual abuse and exploitation.
        The country is a party to the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil
    Aspects of International Child Abduction. For information on
    international parental child abduction, please see the Department of
    State's annual report on compliance at http://travel.state.gov/
    abduction/resources/congressreport/congressreport--4308.html as well as
    country-specific information at http://travel.state.gov/abduction/
    country/country--3781.html.

        Anti-Semitism.--According to the country's Jewish Confederation,
    there were approximately 125,000 Jewish residents, of whom
    approximately 65,000 were in Sao Paulo State and 40,000 in Rio de
    Janeiro State. It is illegal to write, edit, publish, or sell books
    that promote anti-Semitism or racism. The law enables courts to fine or
    imprison anyone who displays, distributes, or broadcasts anti-Semitic
    materials and mandates a two- to five-year prison term. Nonetheless,
    there were manifestations of anti-Semitism in the comparison of Israel
    to Nazis in the media.
        Anti-Semitism was rare; however, there were reports of anti-Semitic
    graffiti, other acts of vandalism, harassment, and threats via
    telephone and e-mail. Anti-Semitic Web sites continued to operate.
    Small groups of skinheads, neo-Nazis, and white supremacists operated
    on the political fringe in Rio Grande do Sul and Sao Paulo states,
    perpetrating harassment and violence toward Jews and other minority
    groups. Law enforcement agents monitored these groups.
        Jewish community leaders expressed concern over the continued
    appearance on Web sites of anti-Semitic material compiled by neo-Nazi
    and ``skinhead'' groups. The Jewish Federation of Sao Paulo reported
    that the violence against Jews decreased within the state due to the
    police work to control skinhead group's actions, but there were anti-
    Semitic epithets directed at Orthodox Jews in some of Sao Paulo's
    traditionally Jewish neighborhoods.
        In Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, members of the political Party
    of Socialism and Liberty called for the end of the Israeli state during
    their allotted electoral campaign television time. The city of Porto
    Alegre, which has an estimated 15,000 Jews, experienced several neo-
    Nazi attacks in the past, including the desecration of a cemetery and
    synagogue. A 2009 plot to bomb two synagogues was also discovered.

        Trafficking in Persons.--For information on trafficking in persons,
    please see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons
    Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        Persons With Disabilities.--The law prohibits discrimination
    against persons with physical and mental disabilities in employment,
    education, and access to health care, and the federal government
    effectively enforced these provisions. However, state governments
    failed to meet legally mandated targets for educational opportunities
    and work placement. While federal and state laws have provisions
    ensuring access to buildings for persons with disabilities, states did
    not have programs to enforce them effectively. For instance, while the
    Sao Paulo State labor code requires that meeting places for more than
    100 persons or other facilities for 600 persons or more provide
    modified entrances and other accommodations for persons with
    disabilities, such persons had continued difficulty in securing
    necessary accommodations.
        Federal laws establish the basic rights to accessibility and access
    to information for persons with disabilities. According to the IBGE, 30
    million citizens had some form of disability. The 2010 census included
    improved reporting techniques identifying persons with disabilities for
    the purpose of creating reliable statistics to be used for the creation
    of future public policy. The National Council for the Rights of
    Handicapped Persons and the National Council for the Rights of the
    Elderly, both within the SEDH, have primary responsibility for
    promoting the rights of persons with disabilities. According to the
    Secretariat of Human Rights, specific challenges included the short
    supply of affordable orthotics and prosthetics for those who could
    benefit from them but could not afford them; availability of affordable
    housing with special adaptations to those with special needs;
    accessibility to public transport able to accommodate the needs of
    physically disabled persons, (for example, by adapting bus and subway
    terminals with handicap ramps, elevators); accessibility to schools
    with facilities (restrooms, classrooms, sidewalks, ramps) for
    physically challenged persons; combating social exclusion; and raising
    awareness of the rights of persons with disabilities through the
    advancement of Internet access and media campaigns.

        National/Racial/Ethnic Minorities.--Although the law prohibits
    racial discrimination, darker-skinned citizens, particularly Afro-
    Brazilians, frequently encountered discrimination.
        The law specifically prohibits denial of public or private
    facilities, employment, or housing to anyone based on race. The law
    also prohibits, and provides jail terms for, the incitement of racial
    discrimination or prejudice and the dissemination of racially offensive
    symbols and epithets.
        Afro-Brazilians, representing approximately 45 percent of the
    population, were significantly underrepresented in the Government,
    professional positions, and the middle and upper classes. They
    experienced a higher rate of unemployment and earned average wages
    below those of whites in similar positions. There was also a sizeable
    racial education gap.
        The Racial Equality Statute was approved by the Senate on June 16
    and signed into law by the president on July 20. Among its many
    provisions, the new law provides for the establishment of nonquota
    affirmative action policies in education and employment, stipulates
    access to health care, reaffirms compulsory teaching of African and
    Brazilian black history in schools, and recognizes the right of
    communities of descendants of escaped slaves (quilombos) to receive
    title to their land.
        Seventy universities maintained affirmative action programs,
    including 18 major public universities in the Federal District and the
    states of Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Parana, Mato Grosso, Minas Gerais,
    Espirito Santo, and Bahia. For instance, the University of Brasilia
    (UnB) was the first federal university to establish quotas, in 2005,
    and 18 percent of students taking the entrance exam that year were
    beneficiaries. Prior to the quota, approximately 2 percent of UnB
    students were black. The UnB enrolled 963 self-declared students of
    color during the year, compared with 785 in 2009, using a 20 percent
    quota for admissions tests. Approximately 17 percent of the total
    number of enrolled UnB undergraduates at the end of 2009 benefitted
    from quotas, including small numbers of indigenous students.

        Indigenous People.--The National Indigenous Foundation (FUNAI)
    estimated that there were more than 600,000 indigenous persons in 225
    societies on indigenous lands, speaking 170 different languages. These
    indigenous persons lived in 4,774 villages in 615 indigenous lands
    covering 12 percent of the national territory. Approximately 99 percent
    of the indigenous lands were concentrated in the Amazon and center-west
    of the country. An additional 100,000 to 190,000 indigenous persons
    lived outside these indigenous lands, including in urban environments.
    The newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo reported increased indigenous
    political representation, including five mayors and 90 city council
    members.
        The Government estimated that more than half of the country's
    indigenous persons lived in communities whose traditional ways of life
    were threatened on a variety of fronts, including land development,
    agricultural expansion, and mining. FUNAI reported that indigenous
    persons also faced other problems, including disease, poor health care,
    and loss of native culture.
        The law grants the indigenous population broad protection of their
    cultural patrimony and exclusive use of their traditional lands.
    Although problems persisted, the Government made some progress in
    securing these rights. The law provides indigenous persons exclusive
    beneficial use of the soil, waters, and minerals on indigenous lands,
    but Congress must approve each case. The Government administered the
    lands but must consider the views of affected communities regarding
    their development or use, and communities had the right to
    ``participate'' in the benefits gained from such use. However,
    indigenous leaders and activists complained that indigenous persons had
    only limited participation in decisions taken by the Government
    affecting their land, cultures, traditions, and allocation of national
    resources. In February the Government decided to proceed with
    construction of the Belo Monte hydroelectric dam on the Xingu River in
    Altamira, Para, despite the objections of indigenous leaders.
        While the 1988 constitution charges the federal government with
    demarcating indigenous areas within five years, the Government had not
    completed the four phases of demarcation (identification, declaration,
    approval, and registration).
        The landmark March 2009 decision by the Supreme Court upholding
    demarcation of the Raposa Serra do Sol indigenous reserve bordering
    Venezuela and Guyana set a precedent in favor of demarcation of
    indigenous lands as single contiguous territories.
        A December 2009 presidential decree defined significant structural
    changes to FUNAI, including closure of many field posts. In protest
    against what was perceived as limited dialogue with indigenous leaders,
    a large number of indigenous men, women, and children camped in front
    of the Congress and Justice Ministry in Brasilia early in the year.
    Attempted forced removal of this group in April by Federal District
    police led to charges of violence and police brutality.
        Most conflicts between indigenous and nonindigenous persons
    concerned land ownership or resource exploitation rights. In Mato
    Grosso do Sul State, denial of access to traditional lands as well as
    extreme poverty and related social ills led to high rates of infant
    mortality and violence, including murder and suicide. There were no
    known developments in the investigation into the January 2009 suicides
    of six members of the Guarani-Kaiowa tribe in Mato Grosso do Sul.
        There were no known developments in the Public Ministry
    investigation into the September 2009 attack on the Guarani-Kaiowa
    community of Apyk'y.
        A March 24 provisional measure by the federal government created
    the Special Indigenous Health Secretariat. After approval by both
    houses of Congress, President Lula signed creation of this special
    secretariat into law on October 19. The project transfers
    responsibility for all indigenous health and village sanitation matters
    from the National Health Foundation to the Ministry of Health.
        According to the Ministry of Education, 70 state and federal
    universities continued to reserve entrance slots for indigenous
    persons. The number of indigenous university students, almost 5,000 or
    approximately 1 percent of total university students, remained
    unchanged.

        Societal Abuses, Discrimination, and Acts of Violence Based on
    Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.--Federal law does not prohibit
    discrimination based on sexual orientation, but several states and
    municipalities such as Sao Paulo had administrative regulations that
    bar discrimination based on sexual orientation and provide for equal
    access to government services.
        On April 27, the STF decided in favor of a gay couple adopting a
    child, rejecting a request from the state prosecutor's office of Rio
    Grande do Sul that the STF overturn a state court decision in favor of
    the couple.
        NGOs organized gay pride or sexual diversity parades in
    approximately 30 cities during the year, with cooperation and support
    from most large municipal governments. The Sao Paulo Gay Pride Parade
    Association estimated that more than three million persons participated
    in the annual parade on June 6.
        Many municipalities conducted public awareness programs during the
    year aimed at reducing homophobia. In August the Rio de Janeiro state
    Secretariat for Public Security created a public security taskforce to
    promote lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender rights and established
    a hotline for reporting crimes motivated by homophobia. This taskforce
    also informed training courses for military police recruits.
        Between January and September, the NGO Bahia Gay Group received 165
    reports of killings in the country based on sexual orientation and
    gender identity, an increase from 115 during the same period in 2009.
    Gay men were the most affected group, followed by transvestites and
    lesbians. On June 21, 14-year-old Alexandre Thome Ivo Rajao was beaten
    and killed after he and his friends reported threats by a group of
    skinheads to a police precinct in Rio de Janeiro; three suspects were
    arrested. Activist groups claimed that violence against gay, lesbian,
    and transgender persons and, in particular transvestites, was
    underreported (see also section 1.a.). NGOs reported routine police
    harassment of transvestite prostitutes.
        On December 7, military police announced their intention to
    increase foot patrols on Avenida Paulista, a major thoroughfare in Sao
    Paulo, after what were believed to be homophobia-related attacks on
    five persons in the space of three weeks. On November 14, a group of
    five individuals allegedly beat four persons in three separate attacks
    while shouting homophobic epithets. Authorities arrested four suspects
    in the case.
        In January the Rio de Janeiro state government created the
    Reference Center against Homophobia and Religious Intolerance. The
    center provides legal, psychological, and social assistance to the
    victims of violence and/or discrimination.

        Other Societal Violence or Discrimination.--There were no reported
    cases of societal violence or discrimination based on persons with HIV/
    AIDS during the year.

    Section 7. Worker Rights
        a. The Right of Association.--The law provides for union
    representation of all workers (except members of the military, the
    uniformed police, and firefighters) but imposes a hierarchical, unitary
    system funded by a mandatory union tax on workers and employers. New
    unions must register with the MTE, which accepts the registration
    unless objections are filed by other unions. Unions that represent
    workers in the same geographical area and professional category may
    contest registration, in which case the MTE Secretariat for Labor
    Relations has 15 days to consider the validity of the objection. If the
    objection is found valid, the MTE does not register the union. Union
    organizers may challenge this decision in labor courts.
        The law stipulates certain restrictions, such as ``unicidade'' (one
    per city), which limits freedom of association by prohibiting multiple,
    competing unions of the same professional category in a given
    geographical area. Most elements of the labor movement and the
    International Trade Union Confederation criticized unicidade. While a
    number of competing unions existed, the MTE and the courts enforced
    unicidade in decisions regarding the registration of new unions.
        The law extends legal recognition to trade union centrals that meet
    certain requirements regarding membership and regional representation.
    Such recognition allows qualifying centrals legally to represent
    workers in courts, public councils, and other bodies.
        The Single Central Organization of Workers estimated in 2009 that
    20 to 25 percent of workers were unionized. Most informal sector
    workers, including self-employed workers and those not formally
    registered with the MTE, fell outside the official union structure;
    they therefore did not enjoy union representation and usually were
    unable to exercise their labor rights fully. According to government
    statistics, the informal sector accounted in 2009 for 28.2 percent of
    the labor force, a decrease from 2008; most unregistered workers were
    in agriculture.
        Intimidation and killings of rural union organizers and their
    agents continued. The Catholic Church's Pastoral Land Commission
    reported that violence in rural areas victimized labor leaders, with
    most perpetrators enjoying impunity (see section 1.a.).
        There were no known developments in the August 2009 shooting of
    Elio Neves, president of the Rural Salaried Employees of Sao Paulo
    State and known for his representation of sugarcane workers, in Riberao
    Bonito, Sao Paulo. Neves survived the shooting.
        The law provides the right to strike to all workers except the
    armed forces, military police, and firefighters. The civil police are
    allowed to conduct strikes, and workers exercised this right in
    practice.
        The law stipulates that a strike may be ruled ``abusive'' by labor
    courts and be punishable if a number of conditions are not met, such as
    maintaining essential services during a strike, notifying employers at
    least 48 hours before the beginning of a walkout, and ending a strike
    after a labor court decision. Employers may not hire substitute workers
    during a legal strike or fire workers for strike-related activity,
    provided that the strike is not ruled abusive. In practice employers
    fired strike organizers for reasons ostensibly unrelated to strikes,
    and legal recourse related to retaliatory discharge was often a
    protracted process.

        b. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively.--Collective
    bargaining was widespread in the formal sector. The law obliges a union
    to negotiate on behalf of all registered workers in the professional
    category and geographical area it represents, regardless of whether an
    employee pays voluntary membership dues to it.
        The law permits the Government to reject clauses of collective
    bargaining agreements that conflict with government policy. The ILO
    Committee of Experts has called for this provision's repeal. Collective
    bargaining is effectively prohibited in the public sector; the
    constitution allows it, but implementing legislation has never been
    enacted.
        The law prohibits the dismissal of employees who are candidates for
    or holders of union leadership positions and requires employers to
    reinstate workers fired for union activity; however, authorities at
    times did not effectively enforce laws protecting union members from
    discrimination. Labor courts charged with resolving these and other
    disputes involving unfair dismissal, working conditions, salary
    disputes, and other grievances were slow and cumbersome, averaging six
    years for resolution. Parties generally agreed that when ultimately
    resolved, cases were decided fairly and on their merits. Most
    complaints were resolved in the first hearing; however, the appeals
    process introduced many delays, and some cases remained unresolved for
    up to 10 years.
        There are no special laws or exemptions from regular labor laws in
    the country's free trade zones.

        c. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor.--The law prohibits
    ``reducing someone to a condition analogous to slavery,'' and the
    Government acted to enforce the law. The concept of slave labor
    includes not only forced and compulsory labor but also extremely
    arduous labor and labor performed in degrading working conditions. Such
    labor, including by children, occurred in some states, in activities
    such as forest clearing to provide cattle pastureland, logging, raising
    livestock, and agriculture, such as citrus cultivation. According to
    the MTE's Secretariat of Labor Inspections, forced labor in production
    of charcoal and harvesting sugarcane decreased. Forced labor often
    involved young men drawn from the impoverished northeast states--
    Maranhao, Piaui, Tocantins, Para, and Ceara--and Goias, to work in the
    northern and central-western regions of the country. Women and
    adolescents, the latter typically working with their parents, also were
    involved in forced labor activities. The ILO estimated that there were
    approximately 25,000 forced laborers at any given time during the year.
        The National Commission to Eradicate Slave Labor coordinated the
    Government's efforts to eliminate forced labor. The MTE's enforcement
    arm, the Special Group for Mobile Inspection, had responsibility for
    locating and freeing victims of forced labor, and the MTE increased
    resources dedicated to conducting inspections. Federal Police
    accompanied mobile unit inspectors on raids to provide protection. The
    Federal Labor Prosecutor's Office participated in inspections by
    receiving complaints and establishing fines that violators had to pay
    to receive financing and credit, sell products, have their accounts
    unfrozen, or obtain access to governmental loans. Mobile teams levied
    fines on estate owners who used forced labor and required employers to
    provide back pay and benefits to workers before returning the workers
    to their municipalities of origin. Although mobile units enjoyed some
    success in freeing those working in slave-like conditions, inspectors
    faced resistance and often worked under dangerous conditions.
        Labor intermediaries trafficked many forced laborers to remote
    estates, where victims were forced to work in harsh conditions until
    they repaid inflated debts related to travel, tools, clothing, or food.
    Armed guards sometimes were used to retain laborers, but the remoteness
    of the location, confiscation of documents, and threats of legal action
    or physical harm usually were sufficient to prevent laborers from
    fleeing.
        Violators of forced or compulsory labor laws faced sentencing of up
    to eight years in prison. The law also provides penalties for various
    crimes related to forced labor, such as recruiting or transporting
    workers or obliging them to incur debt as part of a forced labor
    scheme. The abolition of forced labor was hindered by failure to impose
    effective penalties, the impunity of those responsible, delays in
    judicial procedure, and the absence of coordination between various
    government bodies. There were few criminal prosecutions relating to
    forced labor because of the lack of a clear legal definition; local
    political pressure; weak coordination among the police, the judiciary,
    and prosecutors; the remoteness of areas in which forced labor was
    practiced; witnesses' fear of retaliation; and police failure to
    conduct criminal investigations when accompanying labor inspectors on
    raids. In March 2009 there were 27 prosecutions in one landmark
    decision from a federal judge in Para. The 2009 decision to clarify the
    competence for forced and child labor cases rests with the federal
    judiciary, and not the states, has brought an increase in sentences.
    However, the 12-year statute of limitations and long case backlogs
    allows for employers to avoid serving their sentences. The large number
    of labor courts makes it difficult for the judiciary to compile
    accurate statistics on prosecutions.
        The number of labor inspections conducted by the MTE increased
    during the year. From the beginning of the year through September 17,
    the MTE's Mobile Inspection Unit freed 1,479 slave laborers in 69
    operations on 168 properties. Of the workers freed, 338 were in Para,
    343 in Goais, and 228 in Santa Catarina. Payments of indemnities to the
    workers totaled approximately 5.4 million reais ($3.2 million).
        There were the following notable cases:
        On March 17, labor inspectors in Sao Paulo State conducted a raid
    in which 16 Bolivian nationals and one Peruvian were found working in a
    sweatshop under forced labor conditions. Labor inspectors recorded 43
    infractions and issued fines totaling 637,000 reais ($381,000). Workers
    were constantly monitored and paid by the piece for sewing women's
    clothing for suppliers of a national retail chain. Their documents were
    withheld, and they had to work to pay inflated debts incurred while
    crossing the border illegally. They worked, ate, and slept in
    unsanitary conditions in a workshop in Vila Nova Cachoerinha, an area
    in the northern part of greater Sao Paulo.
        On August 11, an MTE Mobile Inspection Unit released 45 rural
    workers working under forced labor conditions at the Fazenda Zonga in
    Maranhao State, the sixth such federal intervention made at this firm
    in the previous 14 years. Workers received less than minimum wage, the
    housing offered was a small wooden shack shared by 30 men with hammocks
    for beds, there were no showers, and according to an inspection by the
    Federal Police, the food served was rotten and contained worms. The
    owner of the fazenda had never been convicted for any of these crimes,
    although federal courts have filed four lawsuits since 2003.
        On December 1, Sao Paulo labor inspectors conducted a raid on a
    facility between the city of Sao Paulo and the port city of Santos.
    Authorities found approximately 40 persons in forced labor conditions,
    with their documents and salary withheld. The men, half of whom were
    from the northeastern part of the country, were hired to do maintenance
    on railroad tracks. Inspectors found overcrowded housing, poor
    sanitation, and unsafe living conditions (primarily related to faulty
    electrical wiring), as well as reports of physical threats and verbal
    abuse. Authorities arrested the owner of the company, a subcontractor,
    and investigated possible fines for others who had benefited
    financially from the forced labor.
        In November 2009 a judge convicted Eduardo Dall Magro, owner of a
    rice and soy plantation in Ribeiro Goncalves, Piaui State, for having
    21 workers in conditions analogous to slavery and sentenced him to
    three years and four months in prison, his farm manager to two years
    and eight months in prison, and his labor recruiter to three years'
    imprisonment. All three were also fined and, at year's end, were free
    pending appeal.
        The MTE punished those who used slave labor by imposing fines,
    requiring that indemnities be paid to workers, and placing the names of
    violators on a ``dirty list'' (lista suja) that is published every six
    months on the Internet. The December 31 list included 220 employers in
    19 states that used their workforce in conditions analogous to slave
    labor, with 88 new names of employers listed and 17 removed. A large
    number of companies listed were in the states of Para, Maranhao, and
    Mato Grosso. Each listed employer is reviewed after two years to
    determine if the irregularities identified have been corrected, in
    which case the employer is removed from the list. Although the decree
    that created the list does not prohibit granting credit to listed
    persons or companies, the Ministry of National Integration recommended
    denying financing and other assistance to violators, and some financial
    institutions decided to do so on their own initiative. The Bank of
    Brazil, National Development Bank, and the Caixa Economica Federal
    denied credit to landowners using slave labor, and some sectors of the
    economy refused to buy products from producers on the list. In one case
    involving the world's largest sugarcane producer, its listing generated
    legal action that resulted in a ruling on January 8 by the federal
    Superior Labor Court requiring that the company be removed from the
    list.
        On September 8, a judge in Para upheld civil penalties in the 2008
    slave labor case against a cacao plantation employer in Placas, Para.
        The National Pact for the Eradication of Slave Labor is a
    multistakeholder initiative that included more than 220 companies and
    NGOs with a public commitment to restrict economic relations with
    anyone who uses slave labor. The NGOs Social Observatory Institute,
    ETHOS Institute, and Reporter Brasil monitored the actions to combat
    forced labor implemented by those who signed the pact. Companies that
    have signed the pact represent more than 20 percent of the country's
    gross domestic product.

        d. Prohibition of Child Labor and Minimum Age for Employment.--
    Although child labor is prohibited, it continued to be a problem,
    particularly in homes and the informal sector. Children were found
    working on cotton, manioc, pineapple, rice, and tobacco farms. A 2008
    study by the Government's Applied Economic Research Institute showed
    that 1.7 million children between the ages of five and 14
    (approximately 5 percent of the total in that age group) worked in the
    country's economy, based on data from the 2007 National Household
    Survey . According to the 2009 National Household Survey conducted by
    the IBGE, the number of children between the ages of five and 17
    working in the economy fell from 8.4 million in 1992 to 4.25 million in
    2009. According to the IBGE's National Household Survey, 0.7 percent of
    the population age five to nine was working, 6.9 percent of the
    population aged 10 to 14, and 27.4 percent of the population age15 to
    17. In a quadrennial report released on May 7, the ILO recognized the
    country's government and civil society for their comprehensive efforts
    aimed at preventing and eliminating child labor, as well as cooperation
    with other countries such as South Africa and India. The Government
    continued to cooperate with the ILO in projects to eradicate child
    labor in the states of Bahia and Mato Grosso.
        The minimum working age is 16 years, and apprenticeships may begin
    at age 14. The law bars all minors under age 18 from work that
    constitutes a physical strain or that occurs in nocturnal, unhealthy,
    dangerous, or morally harmful conditions; however, authorities rarely
    enforced additional legal restrictions intended to protect working
    minors under age 18. The law requires parental permission for minors to
    work as apprentices, and apprentices must attend school through the
    primary grades. Inspectors may punish violators of child labor laws by
    drawing up infringement assessments and issuing fines.
        Approximately half of child laborers received no income, and 90
    percent worked in the unregistered informal sector. Slightly more than
    half of child laborers worked in rural areas, and two-thirds were boys.
    The ILO estimated that approximately 9 percent of 10- to 14-year-old
    girls worked as household domestics. Most of these workers received
    less than half the minimum wage and worked in excess of 40 hours a
    week.
        Children were involved in a range of activities, including
    livestock raising and agriculture, including sugarcane, cotton, rice,
    pineapples, and manioc, as well as the production of ceramics, bricks,
    charcoal, and sisal. The hidden and informal nature of child labor made
    children especially vulnerable to workplace accidents. They suffered
    from dismemberments, gastrointestinal disease, lacerations, blindness,
    and burns caused by applying chemical products with inadequate
    protection.
        The MTE is responsible for inspecting worksites to enforce child
    labor laws; its regional offices have special groups to enforce child
    labor laws, principally by gathering data and developing plans for
    child labor inspection. Nonetheless, most inspections of children in
    the workplace were driven by complaints brought by workers, teachers,
    unions, NGOs, and the media. Labor inspectors continued to prioritize
    inspections in the informal sector, but they remained unable to enter
    private homes and farms, where much of the nation's child labor was
    found.
        The MTE reported that from January to August, inspectors found and
    released 2,656 children and adolescents working illegally, a decrease
    compared with 2009. MTE units dedicated to detecting illegal child
    labor conducted 1,741 inspections during that period, representing an
    increase over the previous year. In most cases inspectors reportedly
    attempted to reach agreements and convince employers to desist from
    labor law violations before levying fines of 402 reais (approximately
    $240) per violation up to a maximum fine of 2,013 reais ($1,205); the
    fine doubles for a second violation and triples for a third. In
    practice few employers received fines for employing children.
        The Government implemented innovative programs to prevent child
    labor, including the Program to Eradicate Child Labor (PETI),
    coordinated by the Ministry of Social Development and Combating Hunger
    with state and local authorities. Through PETI, families with children
    seven to 15 years of age working in selected hazardous activities
    receive monthly cash stipends to keep their children in school, and the
    children may participate in after-school programs that provide
    nutritional snacks, sports, art, and cultural activities. Through the
    Social Development Ministry, the Bolsa Familia program provided a
    monthly stipend to low-income families that keep their children up to
    age 17 in school and meet certain child-health requirements. PETI
    serviced more than 850,000 children in 3,500 municipalities. The Bolsa
    Familia served more than 12 million households nationwide.
        The NGO, Centers for the Defense of Children and Adolescents, was
    active in many parts of the country and reported violations of
    children's rights to the guardianship councils, the social assistance
    network, and the organizations that defended children and family
    rights.
        In collaboration with the Government, civil society also took
    actions to prevent and abolish child labor. The National Forum for the
    Eradication and Prevention of Child Labor, which includes governmental
    and civil society representatives, mobilized institutional agents
    involved in developing policies and programs to eliminate child labor.
    The toy industry's Foundation for Children's Rights operated a labeling
    program that identified companies with child-friendly policies and a
    commitment to eliminate child labor. All major labor organizations had
    programs to educate union members about the hazards of child labor and
    encouraged members to report instances of child labor to authorities.

        e. Acceptable Conditions of Work.--The Government adjusts the
    minimum wage annually through a provisional measure from the president,
    citing a percentage increase for inclusion in the annual budget based
    on consultations among the Ministries of Finance and Social Security,
    Congress, and the presidency (but not with workers or employers). In
    January the minimum wage increased to 510 reais (approximately $310)
    per month. The IBGE estimated that approximately 26 percent of workers
    earned the minimum wage or less in 2008. According to the IGBE, 19
    percent of urban families' income was less than half the minimum wage
    per capita in 2009, down from a reported 26 percent in 2008. In the
    North (30.7 percent) and Northeast (36.3 percent), percentages were
    higher than the national average; the region with the least poverty was
    the South (10.9 percent in this situation), followed by the Southeast
    (12.2 percent) and Central West (16.4 percent). The national minimum
    wage did not provide a decent standard of living for a worker and
    family. According to the Department of Statistics and Socioeconomic
    Studies, a worker would need a monthly salary of 2,223 reais to cover
    basic living expenses, a figure 4.35 times the minimum wage.
        The law limits the workweek to 44 hours and specifies a weekly rest
    period of 24 consecutive hours, preferably on Sundays. The law also
    prohibits excessive compulsory overtime and stipulates that hours
    worked above the weekly limit must be compensated at time-and-a-half
    pay; these provisions generally were enforced in the formal sector.
        The MTE sets occupational, health, and safety standards that are
    consistent with internationally recognized norms. MTE labor inspectors
    worked closely with the Federal Labor Prosecutor's Office, an
    independent agency responsible for prosecuting labor infractions.
    However, the Government devoted insufficient resources for adequate
    inspection and enforcement of standards.
        Unsafe working conditions were prevalent throughout the country.
    There were no figures available on workplace accidents during the year.
    According to data from the Ministry of Social Security, the Government
    granted benefits to 32,949 persons for work-related accidents from
    January to September. Employees or their unions may file claims related
    to worker safety with regional labor courts, although this was
    frequently a protracted process.
        The law requires employers to establish internal committees for
    accident prevention in workplaces. It also protects employee members of
    these committees from being fired for their committee activities.
    However, such firings occurred, and legal recourse usually required
    years for a resolution. The Federal Prosecutor's Labor Office reported
    that numerous firms used computerized records to compile ``black
    lists'' identifying workers who had filed claims in labor courts.
    Individual workers did not have the legal right to remove themselves
    from the workplace when faced with hazardous working conditions, but
    workers could express such concerns to a company committee for an
    immediate investigation.

                                   __________

                                     CANADA

        Canada, with a population of 34.2 million, is a constitutional
    monarchy with a federal parliamentary form of government. In a free and
    fair multiparty federal election held in 2008, the Conservative Party,
    led by Stephen Harper, won a plurality of seats and formed a second
    successive minority government. Security forces reported to civilian
    authorities.
        Human rights problems included harassment of religious minorities,
    violence against women, and trafficking in persons.

                            RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

    Section 1. Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom
            From:
        a. Arbitrary or Unlawful Deprivation of Life.--The Government or
    its agents did not commit any politically motivated killings, but a few
    law enforcement-related deaths remained under investigation.
        On June 24, an Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) officer shot Aron
    Firman with a Taser during a confrontation in Collingwood, Ontario.
    Firman subsequently died at a nearby hospital. On December 7, the
    Special Investigations Unit (SIU) released a report concluding that the
    Taser caused Firman's death but that the officer's use of the Taser did
    not constitute excessive force because the officer was not aware that
    the Taser could be lethal.
        On July 17, Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officers shot and
    killed Corey Lewis of Okotoks, Alberta, after a three-hour standoff at
    Lewis' home. A preliminary investigation by the Alberta Serious
    Incidents Response Team found that Lewis was holding an umbrella,
    rather than a weapon, when the RCMP officers killed him.
        On August 29, a Pickering, Ontario, police officer fatally shot
    Reyal Jensen Jardine-Douglas after a confrontation between the officer
    and Jardine-Douglas. The family of Jardine-Douglas asserted that he
    suffered from a mental illness. An SIU inquiry remained pending at
    year's end.
        On September 29, Toronto police shot and killed Eric Osawe during
    the execution of a search warrant at Osawe's apartment. On December 1,
    the SIU charged Constable David Cavanaugh with manslaughter in
    connection with Osawe's death after finding ``reasonable grounds'' to
    believe that Cavanaugh had committed a criminal offense.
        After reviewing the recommendations of a December 2009 Policing
    Standards Advisory Council report on Tasers, on March 29, Ontario
    announced new guidelines and training standards for the police use of
    Tasers. The new guidelines state that Tasers ``are generally intended
    for use in situations where subjects are threatening or displaying
    assaultive behavior,'' but police could use them in other
    circumstances, taking into account the need for control of a suspect.
    The guidelines standardize rules for Taser training and recommend that
    officers avoid using Tasers on ``vulnerable'' subjects, including
    persons who are handcuffed, pregnant, elderly, young, visibly frail, or
    in control of a moving vehicle.
        On May 5, the RCMP announced that it had tightened its rules for
    the use of Tasers. The new guidelines restrict Taser use to cases in
    which a person is causing bodily harm or an officer has ``reasonable
    grounds'' to believe a person will ``imminently'' harm someone. The
    guidelines also require a verbal warning ``when tactically feasible''
    before an officer fires a Taser.
        On December 12, the Commission for Public Complaints Against the
    RCMP issued a report stating that RMCP officers were still hog-tieing
    suspects even though RCMP regulations generally forbade the technique.
    The RCMP had used the hog-tieing method in 40 percent of cases in which
    a suspect died after being hit by a Taser. The Commission recommended
    that RCMP officers receive more training on identifying, dealing with,
    and using force on the mentally ill and those with drug and alcohol
    problems. It also suggested the creation of a national database of all
    deaths occurring in police custody.
        There were no developments in the inquests into two 2008 deaths at
    the hands of Peel, Ontario police: the shooting of Gregg Moynagh of
    Mississauga and the Taser death of Sean Reilly of Brampton.
        On July 19, the mother of Michael Langan filed a civil lawsuit
    against the city of Winnipeg, several Winnipeg police officers, and
    Taser International, Inc. in connection with the 2008 death of her son
    after Winnipeg police stunned him with a Taser.
        On April 1, the RCMP issued a formal apology to, and reached a
    financial settlement with, the mother of Robert Dziekanski, who died in
    2007 after four RCMP officers used a Taser to subdue him at the
    Vancouver International Airport. On April 2, the Commissioner of the
    RCMP acknowledged that its officers ``fell short'' in handling the
    Dziekanski case and stated that investigation of future incidents
    involving RCMP officers would be turned over to British Columbia's
    civilian oversight body. On June 18, a British Columbia inquiry into
    the fatality issued the second of two reports. The report found that
    the four RCMP officers were ``not justified'' in using a Taser during
    the incident and that the deployment of the Taser ``contributed
    substantially'' to Dziekanski's death. The report recommended, among
    other measures, that British Columbia create a civilian-based criminal
    investigative body to investigate all incidents occurring in the
    province in which a person suffers ``serious harm'' at the hands of the
    police. On June 30, the British Columbia attorney general announced the
    appointment of a special prosecutor to reexamine whether the province
    should bring criminal charges against the RCMP officers involved in
    Dziekanski's death. The attorney general also stated that the province
    would within one year establish an independent civilian agency to
    investigate police-related deaths and serious injuries. The agency
    would have the authority to investigate the RCMP and municipal police.

        b. Disappearance.--There were no reports of politically motivated
    disappearances.

        c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or
    Punishment.--The law prohibits such practices, and there were no
    reports that government officials employed them.

        Prison and Detention Center Conditions.--Prison and detention
    center conditions generally met international standards, and the
    Government permitted monitoring visits by independent human rights
    observers.
        There were on average 38,000 prisoners and detainees, including
    1,900 juveniles, on any given day in 2008, the year for which
    statistics were most recently available. Women composed approximately 4
    to 6 percent of the total number of prisoners. Prisoners and detainees
    had reasonable access to visitors and prison officials permitted
    religious observance. Authorities permitted prisoners and detainees to
    submit complaints to judicial authorities without censorship and to
    request investigation of credible allegations of inhumane conditions.
    Authorities investigated credible allegations of inhumane behavior and
    documented the results of such investigations in a publicly accessible
    manner. The Government investigated and monitored prison and detention
    center conditions.
        On September 8, the Correctional Investigator of Canada (CIC)
    issued a report concerning deaths in official custody. The report
    reviewed the 2007 death of a mentally ill teenager in prison and nine
    other deaths in custody. The report recommended that prisons avoid
    placing mentally ill detainees in prolonged segregation, provide round-
    the-clock health-care coverage, and train front-line staff on how to
    manage prisoners at risk of self-injury.
        On September 23, the CIC reported that the prison system was
    ``warehousing'' mentally ill offenders because of a lack of funding for
    services and gaps in accountability. The CIC focused on the
    correctional service's failure to implement ``intermediate'' mental
    health care for those who fell between needing primary care and acute
    inpatient care. The CIC contended that many inmates suffering from
    mental illness ``fell through the cracks'' because they do not meet the
    admission criteria for psychiatric hospitals. The CIC recommended that
    Correctional Services Canada fully fund its mental health program,
    develop mental health delivery partnerships with the provinces, and
    focus on care guidelines for mentally ill prisoners.
        On December 7, the Ottawa Police Service (OPS) asked the OPP to
    investigate allegations of abuse arising from videotapes that allegedly
    showed Ottawa police officers kneeing, kicking, and strip searching
    prisoners in the OPS's cellblocks. On December 19, a former detainee
    filed a C$1.2 million ($1.17 million) lawsuit against the OPS,
    contending the police violated her rights after an officer kicked her
    and cut off her bra and shirt while she was in custody.

        d. Arbitrary Arrest or Detention.--The law prohibits arbitrary
    arrest and detention, and the Government generally observed these
    prohibitions.

        Role of the Police and Security Apparatus.--Civilian authorities
    maintained effective control over the RCMP and provincial and municipal
    police forces, and the Government has effective mechanisms to
    investigate and punish abuse and corruption. There were no reports of
    impunity involving the security forces during the year.

        Arrest Procedures and Treatment While in Detention.--Authorities
    generally apprehended persons openly with warrants. A judge may issue a
    warrant after being satisfied that a criminal offense may have been
    committed. A person arrested for a criminal offense has the right to a
    prompt, independent judicial determination of the legality of the
    detention; authorities respected this right in practice. Authorities
    provided detainees with timely information as to the reason for the
    arrest, ensured prompt access to a lawyer of the detainees' choice,
    and, if indigent, to one provided by the state, and granted prompt
    access to family members. Bail generally was available. Detainees were
    released immediately after being charged, unless a judge deemed
    continued detention necessary to ensure the detainee's attendance in
    court, for the protection or safety of the public, or due to the
    gravity of the offense.
        In late June police arrested approximately 1,105 individuals for
    alleged criminal acts related to protests, vandalism, and property
    damage during the G20 leaders' summit in Toronto. Police held
    individuals in a temporary detention facility. Civil liberties groups
    alleged that police arrested individuals arbitrarily, detained some
    individuals for longer than 36 hours, denied them access to lawyers,
    threatened them, or used excessive force. Police released more than 800
    individuals unconditionally or without filing charges. According to the
    Ontario attorney general, police charged 304 individuals. After court
    appearances, authorities dismissed, stayed, or withdrew charges in 166
    cases, six individuals pled guilty, and police issued arrest warrants
    for four individuals who failed to appear at court. Charges against 128
    individuals remained pending at year's end.
        The Ontario attorney general, the SIU, the Toronto Police Services
    Board, and the Ontario ombudsman announced that they would launch
    separate investigations of police conduct during the G20 summit. The
    Toronto police also initiated an internal review of police methods
    employed during the protests.
        On August 6, a plaintiff filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of
    the estimated 800 persons whom police arrested and released without
    charge. On September 1, two individuals filed a second class action
    lawsuit on behalf of those the police detained at the temporary
    detention center.
        On November 3, the chief of the Toronto police announced that the
    Toronto Police Service would bring administrative charges against
    ``approximately 90 officers'' for removing their name tags during the
    G20 summit protests.
        On November 23, the SIU announced that after investigating six
    separate cases involving the Toronto police's alleged use of excessive
    force during the G20 summit, it would not bring any charges. The SIU
    stated that although ``reasonable grounds'' existed to believe that the
    police used excessive force, it could not identify the individual
    officers involved. On December 1, the SIU reopened its investigation
    after receiving new evidence about the Toronto police's alleged use of
    excessive force. On December 21, the SIU charged Police Constable Babak
    Andalib-Goortani with one count of assault with a weapon for his
    involvement in the arrest of a bystander.
        On December 7, the Ontario ombudsman released a report criticizing
    the Government of Ontario for using ``in secret'' a World War II-era
    law to grant the police extra powers to question and detain individuals
    during the G20 summit. The ombudsman said Ontario's action was ``likely
    illegal and unconstitutional.'' The ombudsman recommended that the
    provincial government should either repeal the law or revise it so that
    the public had more notice when it was invoked.
        The investigations of the Ontario attorney general, the Toronto
    Police Services Board, the Toronto police, and the lawsuits remained
    pending at year's end.
        Noncitizens may be detained and deported on national security
    grounds under immigration security certificates. The Government issues
    certificates on the basis of confidential evidence presented to two
    cabinet ministers by intelligence or police agencies and reviewed by a
    federal court judge who determines its ``reasonableness'' and upholds
    or revokes the certificate. A judge may order an individual detained
    during the security certificate removal process if the Government
    considers that the individual presents a danger to national security or
    is unlikely to appear at the proceeding for removal. If a judge
    determines that an individual faces a risk of torture or death in the
    individual's country of origin greater than the risk the person poses
    by remaining in the country, the judge may stay the removal order, and
    the individual may be detained pending deportation or released subject
    to monitoring.
        Individuals subject to a security certificate may see a summary of
    confidential evidence against them. Authorities provide full disclosure
    to court-appointed, security-cleared lawyers (``special advocates'')
    who can review and challenge the evidence on the behalf of these
    individuals, but may not show to or discuss the material with them. The
    law establishes strict rules on disclosure and use of secret evidence,
    prohibits the use of evidence if there are reasonable grounds to
    believe authorities obtained it as a result of torture, and provides
    mechanisms for review and appeal.
        At year's end three individuals were subject to security
    certificates. On December 9, the Federal Court of Canada upheld the
    reasonableness of a certificate against one of the individuals who
    continued to live in the community under strict conditions pending
    appeal or deportation. Hearings into the validity of the certificates
    against the two other suspects remained in progress. Both lived in the
    community subject to restrictions. There were no reported developments
    in the December 2009 government review of the national security
    certificate program.

        e. Denial of Fair Public Trial.--The law provides for an
    independent judiciary, and the Government generally respected judicial
    independence in practice.

        Trial Procedures.--The law provides for the right to a fair trial,
    and an independent judiciary generally enforced this right. The
    judicial system is based on English common law at the federal level as
    well as in most provinces. In Quebec, civil law is derived from the
    Napoleonic Code; however, criminal law is the same nationwide. The
    Government appoints judges. Trials are public, and defendants have a
    right to have their case heard before a judge alone or, for more
    serious cases, before a judge and jury. Defendants have the right to be
    present and to consult with an attorney in a timely manner. The
    Government provides an attorney at public expense if needed when
    defendants face serious criminal charges, and defendants can confront
    or question witnesses against them and present witnesses and evidence
    on their behalf. Defendants and their attorneys generally have access
    to government-held evidence relevant to their cases. Defendants also
    enjoy a presumption of innocence and have a right of appeal.

        Political Prisoners and Detainees.--There were no reports of
    political prisoners or detainees.

        Civil Judicial Procedures and Remedies.--There is an independent
    and impartial judiciary in civil matters and access to a court to bring
    a suit seeking damages for, or cessation of, a human rights violation.
    Remedies can be monetary, declaratory, or injunctive. Federal or
    provincial human rights commissions may also hear alleged human rights
    violations, although these bodies follow differing standards and
    procedures.

        f. Arbitrary Interference With Privacy, Family, Home, or
    Correspondence.--The law prohibits such actions, and the Government
    generally respected these prohibitions in practice.

    Section 2. Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:
        a. Freedom of Speech and Press.--The law provides for freedom of
    speech and of the press, and the Government generally respected these
    rights in practice. An independent press, an effective judiciary, and a
    functioning democratic political system combined to ensure freedom of
    speech and of the press. Individuals could criticize the Government
    publicly or privately without reprisal. The independent media were
    active and expressed a wide variety of views without restriction.
        The Supreme Court has ruled that the Government may limit free
    speech in the name of goals such as ending discrimination, ensuring
    social harmony, or promoting gender equality. It also has ruled that
    the benefits of limiting hate speech and promoting equality are
    sufficient to outweigh the freedom of speech clause in the Charter of
    Rights and Freedoms, the country's constitutional bill of rights.
    Provincial-level film censorship, broadcast licensing procedures,
    broadcasters' voluntary codes curbing graphic violence, and laws
    against hate literature and pornography also impose some restrictions
    on the media.
        Inciting hatred (in certain cases) or genocide is a criminal
    offense, but the Supreme Court has set a high threshold for such cases,
    specifying that these acts must be proven to be willful and public.
    Laws prohibit speech or programming containing any abusive comment that
    would expose individuals or groups to hatred or contempt and empower
    the federal Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC) and the federal
    Canadian Human Rights Tribunal (CHRT) to enforce the law in areas of
    federal jurisdiction. In addition, each province has its own human
    rights code. Some persons argued that the hate speech laws limit
    freedom of speech and criticized the requirement that commissions
    process all complaints received, the procedures commissions used to
    investigate and adjudicate complaints, and the ability of complainants
    to file identical complaints with several provincial commissions, each
    of which may adjudicate without attention to others.
        On May 7, the Supreme Court found that journalists do not have a
    constitutional right to conceal confidential sources from law
    enforcement. The Court declared that journalists enjoy a qualified
    privilege to withhold confidential documents. However, the Court placed
    the burden on the media to invoke this privilege and emphasized that
    lower courts needed to consider each case on its own merits.
        On September 27, the Federal Court dismissed an appeal of the
    Government's decision to bar George Galloway, a former member of the
    British Parliament, from entering Canada. The court found that the
    Government's decision was based on its disagreement with Galloway's
    political views but rejected the appeal, brought by individuals who had
    invited Galloway to speak, because Galloway never actually tried to
    enter the country.
        On March 30, an individual filed an appeal of a December 2009
    Alberta provincial court decision that had overturned a 2008 order of
    the Alberta Human Rights and Citizenship Commission against Reverend
    Stephen Boissoin. The Commission found that Boissoin violated the
    province's human rights code by writing a letter critical of homosexual
    conduct. The appeal remained pending at the end of the reporting
    period.

        Internet Freedom.--There were no government restrictions on access
    to the Internet and no reports that the Government monitored e-mail or
    chat rooms. Individuals and groups could engage in the peaceful
    expression of views via the Internet, including by e-mail. Internet
    access was readily available and widely used. The International
    Telecommunication Union reported that there were 80 Internet users per
    100 inhabitants in 2009.
        The CHRC investigates complaints about hate messages on Web sites
    and may forward cases to the CHRT for action.
        There were no known developments in the CHRC's appeal to the
    Federal Court of the CHRT's decision finding section 13(1) of the Human
    Rights Act, which prohibits the telephonic dissemination of hate
    speech, unconstitutional under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

        Academic Freedom and Cultural Events.--There were no government
    restrictions on academic freedom or cultural events.

        b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association.--The law provides
    for freedom of assembly and association, and the Government generally
    respected these rights in practice.

        c. Freedom of Religion.--For a complete discussion, please see the
    2010 International Religious Freedom Report at www.state.gov/g/drl/irf/
    rpt.

        d. Freedom of Movement, Internally Displaced Persons, Protection of
    Refugees, and Stateless Persons.--The law provides for freedom of
    movement within the country, foreign travel, emigration, and
    repatriation, and the Government generally respected these rights in
    practice. The Government cooperated with the Office of the UN High
    Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and other humanitarian organizations
    in providing protection and assistance to internally displaced persons,
    refugees, returning refugees, asylum seekers, stateless persons, and
    other persons of concern.
        The law prohibits forced exile, and the Government did not use it.

        Protection of Refugees.--The country's laws provide for the
    granting of asylum or refugee status, and the Government has
    established a system for providing protection to refugees. In practice
    the Government provided protection against the expulsion or return of
    refugees to a country where their lives or freedom would be threatened
    on account of their race, religion, nationality, membership in a
    particular social group, or political opinion. The Government offered
    alternatives to refugee claimants whose cases were refused by the
    Immigration and Refugee Board. The option for judicial review through
    the Federal Court exists. Two other remedies of last resort are
    available through the Department of Citizenship and Immigration,
    including a ``pre-removal risk assessment'' as well as an appeal to the
    minister of citizenship and immigration for a waiver based on
    humanitarian and compassionate grounds. The Government accepted
    refugees for resettlement from third countries and facilitated local
    integration (including access to naturalization), particularly of
    refugees in protracted situations.
        On June 28, the country passed legislation to expedite processing
    times for refugee claims and ensure timely removals of failed
    claimants. Effective in 2011-12, the Immigration and Refugee Board
    (IRB) will interview an applicant within 15 days of the initial claim,
    conduct a hearing within 60 days, and render a decision within 90 days
    (or 60 days for applicants from countries designated as unlikely to
    generate legitimate refugee claims). The legislation created a new
    Refugee Appeal Division (RAD) within the IRB, which will rule on
    appeals within 120 days, or within 30 days for claimants from safe
    countries of origin. The legislation aims to remove refugee applicants
    from Canada within one year after a negative decision from the IRB.

    Section 3. Respect for Political Rights: The Right of Citizens to
            Change Their Government
        The law provides citizens the right to change their government
    peacefully, and citizens exercised this right in practice through
    periodic, free, and fair elections based on universal suffrage.

        Elections and Political Participation.--Political parties operated
    without restriction or outside interference.
        There were 67 women and five indigenous persons in the 308-member
    federal House of Commons; 37 members were born outside the country.
    There were 37 women and six indigenous persons in the 105-seat Senate
    (whose members are appointed by the governor general on the advice of
    the prime minister); 13 members were born outside the country. Women
    held 10 seats in the 38-member cabinet. Four of the nine members of the
    Supreme Court, including the chief justice, were women.

    Section 4. Official Corruption and Government Transparency
        The law provides criminal penalties for official corruption, and
    the Government generally implemented these laws effectively. There were
    isolated reports of government corruption during the year. The Federal
    Accountability Act provides for transparency and accountability in
    government. The Office of the Public Sector Integrity Commissioner
    reports annually on allegations of corruption. A commissioner of
    lobbying administers a national registry of lobbying of designated
    public office holders.
        A conflict of interest and ethics commissioner administers the
    conflict of interest code for members of the House of Commons, as well
    as the Conflict of Interest Act in relation to public office holders.
    Provincial governments provide independent audits of government
    business and ombudsman services. Elected office holders (but not other
    public officials) are subject to financial disclosure laws for personal
    assets.
        The law permits public access to government information, and in
    practice the Government granted access for citizens and noncitizens,
    including foreign media. The law provides for denial of legal requests
    for information on limited and specific grounds, for which reasons are
    given and cited in law, and there is a mechanism to appeal denials. The
    Government released quarterly information on the public expenditures of
    senior government officials and also published expense information on
    individual ministerial Web sites and on a centralized Web site.
        On June 17, the Supreme Court announced a limited constitutional
    right to obtain suppressed information if the person seeking the
    documents shows that withholding them ``precludes meaningful discussion
    on matters of public interest.'' However, the Government may still
    refuse to produce the requested information if it is privileged or its
    disclosure would ``impact the proper functioning of affected
    institutions,'' said the Court.

    Section 5. Governmental Attitude Regarding International and
            Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations of Human
            Rights
        A wide variety of domestic and international human rights groups
    generally operated without government restriction, investigating and
    publishing their findings on human rights cases. Government officials
    were cooperative and responsive to their views.
        Federal and provincial human rights commissions enjoyed government
    cooperation, operated without government or party interference, and had
    adequate resources. Observers considered them effective. Parliamentary
    human rights committees operated in the House of Commons and the
    Senate. The committees acted independently of government, conducted
    public hearings, and issued reports and recommendations to which the
    Government provided written, public, and timely responses.
        On January 29, the Supreme Court ruled that the Government must
    provide a remedy for breaching the constitutional rights of Omar Khadr,
    a Canadian citizen detained at Guantanamo Bay, when Canadian officials
    questioned him in custody in 2003 and 2004. The Supreme Court declined
    to specify an appropriate remedy, deferring relief to the discretion of
    the Government in recognition of the executive's exclusive jurisdiction
    over foreign affairs. On July 5, in a separate motion, the Federal
    Court of Canada found the Government's redress to Khadr insufficient,
    and directed the Government to submit a list of remedies (including
    potential repatriation) to the court by July 12. On July 22, the
    Federal Court of Appeal stayed the lower court's order pending appeal.
    On July 21, Khadr filed a contempt of court motion against the prime
    minister and the foreign minister for failing to meet the deadline for
    redress stated in the Federal Court order. The contempt motion remained
    pending at year's end. On October 25, Khadr pled guilty to five
    charges, including war crimes, murder, and providing material support
    to terrorism, as part of a plea bargain that capped his sentence at
    eight years in custody. After serving one year of his sentence, Khadr
    will become eligible to request a transfer to serve his remaining
    prison term in Canada.
        There were no further developments in the November 2009 arrest of
    Rwandan immigrant Jacques Mungwarere on war crimes charges related to
    the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Mungwarere was the second individual to be
    charged under the country's Crimes against Humanity and War Crimes Act.

    Section 6. Discrimination, Societal Abuses, and Trafficking in Persons
        The constitution and law prohibit discrimination based on race,
    gender, disability, language, or social status, and the Government
    enforced the law effectively.

        Women.--The law criminalizes rape, including spousal rape, as
    sexual assault, and the Government enforced the law effectively.
    Penalties for sexual assault carry sentences of up to 10 years in
    prison, up to 14 years for sexual assault with a restricted or
    prohibited firearm, and between four years and life imprisonment for
    aggravated sexual assault with a firearm or committed for the benefit
    of, at the direction of, or in association with, a criminal
    organization. The Government's statistical office reported there were
    20,931 reported incidents of sexual assault, sexual assault with a
    weapon or firearm causing bodily harm, and aggravated sexual assault in
    2009 against female and male victims. Government studies indicated that
    sexual assault victims reported less than one in 10 incidents to police
    and that the rate of sexual victimization for females was approximately
    five times the rate for males.
        The law prohibits domestic violence. Although the criminal code
    does not define specific domestic violence offenses, an abuser can be
    charged with an applicable offense, such as assault, aggravated
    assault, intimidation, mischief, or sexual assault. Persons convicted
    of assault receive up to five years in prison. Assaults involving
    weapons, threats, or injuries, carry terms of up to 10 years, and
    aggravated assault or endangerment of life carry prison sentences of up
    to 14 years. The Government enforced the law effectively. Studies
    indicated that victims of domestic violence and spousal abuse
    underreported incidents.
        Indigenous (Aboriginal) persons were more than three times more
    likely to be victims of spousal violence than nonindigenous persons.
        The federal statistical agency reported that there were
    approximately 569 shelters for abused women; the shelters provided
    emergency care, transition housing, counseling, and referrals to legal
    and social service agencies. Shelters admitted more than 101,000 women
    and children in 2008, of whom approximately three-quarters had fled
    abusive situations. Police received training in treating domestic
    violence, and agencies provided abuse hotlines. The Government's family
    violence initiative involved 12 departments and a cabinet ministry, the
    Status of Women Canada. These entities worked to eliminate systemic
    violence against women and advance women's human rights.
        Studies of culturally driven violence against women estimated that
    12 ``honor'' killings had occurred in the country since 2002. The law
    does not define the specific offense of ``honor'' killings. Police may
    charge suspects with homicide, which carries a maximum penalty of life
    in prison. The Government enforced the law effectively.
        On November 23, an Ontario court sentenced a Toronto-area Tamil man
    to five years in prison after he pled guilty to three counts of
    aggravated assault for ramming his teenage daughter, her boyfriend, and
    another family member with his minivan in 2007. The father allegedly
    disapproved of the boyfriend because he was of a lower social caste and
    because the father believed that his daughter's relationship with the
    youth would dishonor the family. In its ruling, the court emphasized
    that individuals could not use cultural differences to justify
    committing criminal acts.
        The law does not contain a specific offense of ``sexual
    harassment'' but criminalizes harassment (stalking), punishable by up
    to 10 years' imprisonment, and sexual assault, with penalties ranging
    from 10 years for nonaggravated sexual assault to life imprisonment for
    aggravated sexual assault. The Government generally enforced these
    prohibitions. Most harassment cases were settled out of court.
        Couples and individuals freely exercised their reproductive rights.
    The publicly funded medical system provided access to contraceptive
    services and information, prenatal care, skilled attendance during
    childbirth, and essential obstetric and postpartum care. In 2008,
    according to UN Inter-Agency estimates, the maternal mortality rate was
    12 deaths per 100,000 live births. Women had equal access with men to
    diagnosis and treatment for sexually transmitted infections, including
    HIV. A 2009 Canadian university obstetrical study indicated that 85
    percent of Canadian sexually active female respondents used some form
    of birth control.
        Women were well represented in the labor force, including business
    and the professions. Women did not experience economic discrimination
    in access to or in the terms of employment, credit, or pay equity for
    substantially similar work, or owning and/or managing businesses,
    although some equality and labor groups reported an erosion in women's
    economic and social status, including access to child care, and
    resources to protect equality rights. Status of Women Canada, headed by
    a cabinet-level minister, promoted the legal rights of women. According
    to the federal statistical agency, 62.6 percent of women age 15 and
    older were employed in the workforce in 2009. Employment equity laws
    and regulations cover federal employees in all but the security and
    defense services. Women have marriage and property rights, as well as
    rights in the judicial system, equal to those of men. However,
    Aboriginal women living on reserves (where land is held communally)
    lack matrimonial property rights.
        On November 15, an adjudicator appointed by the Newfoundland-
    Labrador Human Rights Commission found that a private ambulance
    operator in the province had discriminated against a female applicant
    on the basis of gender in its hiring decisions and awarded her C$7,000
    ($6,862) in damages.
        On December 16, the Supreme Court agreed to hear an appeal by the
    Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), a national trade union, and
    the Canadian Human Rights Commission of a lengthy pay equity case
    against Canada Post. The union had deemed a 2005 C$150 million ($123.9
    million in 2005 dollars) award by the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal
    insufficient and appealed to the Federal Court of Canada. However, the
    Federal Court overturned the award in 2008, and the Federal Court of
    Appeal upheld the lower court decision. The case originated with a
    complaint by PSAC in 1983 that Canada Post discriminated against 6,000
    female employees by paying them less than men working in jobs of equal
    value. The appeal remained pending at year's end.

        Children.--The country provided universal birth registration, and
    citizenship was derived both by birth within the country's territory
    and from one's parents.
        The federal statistical agency recorded that more than 75,000
    children and youth were victims of police-reported violent crime in
    2008, including approximately 42,000 assaults and 13,600 sexual
    assaults. Studies indicated that family members or individuals known to
    the victim most commonly victimized children and youth and that
    incidents of violence, abuse or neglect of children and youth were
    underreported.
        Children under the age of 18 years were engaged in prostitution.
    Persons convicted of living off the earnings of prostitution of a child
    under age 18 face between two and 14 years' imprisonment. Persons who
    aid, counsel, compel, us, or threaten to use violence, intimidation or
    coercion in relation to a child under age 18 to engage in prostitution
    face between five and 14 years' imprisonment. Persons who solicit or
    obtain the sexual services of a child under age 18 face between six
    months and five years' imprisonment. On June 29, the Government amended
    the law to impose a mandatory minimum prison sentence of five years up
    to a maximum of 14 years for trafficking a child under 18 years of age
    for the purpose of exploitation. A minimum sentence of six years to a
    maximum term of life in prison is applied for trafficking of a child
    under 18 years if an offender kidnapped, committed an aggravated
    assault, aggravated sexual assault, or caused the death of a victim
    during the commission of the trafficking offence.
        The minimum age of consensual sex is 16 years. The country does not
    have a statutory rape law but prosecutes a range of sexual offenses
    against children. Penalties for each offense range from 14 days to 10
    years' imprisonment.
        The law prohibits accessing, producing, distributing, and
    possessing child pornography. Maximum penalties range from 18 months'
    imprisonment for summary offenses to 10 years' imprisonment for
    indictable offenses. On July 15, the Supreme Court narrowed the legal
    defense against child luring, tightening the interpretation of
    ``reasonable steps'' required of adults under the criminal code to
    verify that persons with whom they communicate over the Internet for
    sexual purposes are 18 years of age or older.
        The country is a party to the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil
    Aspects of International Child Abduction. For information on
    international parental child abduction, please see the Department of
    State's annual report on compliance with the Convention at http://
    travel.state.gov/abduction/resources/congressreport/congressreport--
    4308.html as well as country-specific information at http://
    travel.state.gov/abduction/country/country--3781.html

        Anti-Semitism.--Approximately 1.1 percent of the population was
    Jewish.
        The B'nai Brith Canada League for Human Rights received 1,264
    reports of anti-Semitic incidents in 2009, an 11 percent increase from
    2008. Four-fifths of such reports came from the provinces of Ontario
    and Quebec (672 and 373 incidents, respectively); the vast majority of
    the country's Jewish population resides in these two provinces. The
    1,264 reports included 884 cases of harassment, 348 cases of vandalism,
    and 32 cases of violence. There were 185 cases involving attacks on
    synagogues, Jewish homes, community centers, or cemeteries. Jewish
    students reported 137 cases of anti-Semitic incidents on university
    campuses in 2009, compared with 76 in 2008; another 73 involved primary
    and secondary school settings, compared with 57 in 2008. B'nai Brith
    also received 435 reports of Web-based hate activity, an 8 percent
    increase from 2008.
        In April a group of individuals in Gatineau, Quebec, allegedly
    struck a man on the head, yelled anti-Semitic slurs, and chased the man
    and his Jewish companion with a machete. The Gatineau police closed
    their investigation of the incident for lack of evidence.
        On March 18, police arrested a teenager for the November 2009
    spray-painting of anti-Semitic slogans on the Calgary Jewish Centre,
    the Holocaust War Memorial, and private residential property in
    Calgary. On July 19, he pled guilty to incitement of hatred to an
    identifiable group, and mischief against a religious facility.
    Sentencing remained pending at the end of the reporting period. The
    conviction constituted the city's first confirmed hate crime.

        Trafficking in Persons.--For information on trafficking in persons,
    please see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons
    Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        Persons With Disabilities.--The law prohibits discrimination
    against persons with physical, sensory, intellectual and mental
    disabilities in employment, education, access to health care, or the
    provision of other state services or in other areas, and the Government
    effectively enforced these prohibitions. The Government effectively
    implemented laws and programs mandating access to buildings,
    information, and communications for persons with disabilities.
        The federal, provincial, and territorial governments share
    responsibility for protecting the rights of persons with disabilities.
    The Office for Disability Issues, the federal government's focal point,
    funded a range of programs, including programs to enable participation
    of persons with disabilities in the workforce, to improve physical
    accessibility infrastructure, to build the capacity of the voluntary
    sector, and to raise public education and awareness of disability
    issues.
        On July 28, an Ontario court accepted a class-action lawsuit by
    former residents of the Huronia Regional Centre, a former facility
    operated by the province of Ontario for persons with developmental
    disabilities. Former residents and their family members alleged
    systemic neglect and abuse at the institution over a prolonged period
    before it closed in 2009. The suit is the first against a government-
    run residential institution for the developmentally disabled in
    Ontario.

        National/Racial/Ethnic Minorities.--The Charter of Rights and
    Freedoms protects the linguistic and cultural rights of minorities and
    establishes English and French as the country's two official languages.
    Despite the federal policy of bilingualism, native English speakers in
    Quebec (5.7 percent of the province's population in 2006) and French
    speakers in other parts of the country generally lived and worked in
    the language of the majority. Provinces may grant French or English the
    status of an official language, but only New Brunswick has granted the
    two languages equal status.
        The Charter of the French Language in Quebec makes French the
    official language of the province; requires the use of French in
    commerce, the workplace, education, and government; and protects
    minority language rights. The charter also restricts access to publicly
    funded English-language education to children who have received or are
    receiving elementary or secondary instruction in English and whose
    parents are citizens, and to students who are temporary residents in
    the province or have serious learning disabilities and who have
    obtained a waiver.
        The federal statistical agency reported 1,036 incidents of police-
    reported hate crimes in 2008 (an increase of 35 percent from 2007), of
    which 55 percent or 563 incidents were motivated by race or ethnic
    bias. Blacks constituted the most commonly targeted racial group,
    accounting for 37 percent of racially-motivated incidents, followed by
    South Asians at 21 percent. Hate crimes that targeted multiple racial
    or ethnic groups constituted 53 percent of cases. Police classified 38
    percent of the racially motivated incidents as violent.
        In February the Ontario Human Rights Commission ordered the owner
    of an Ontario trucking company to pay a C$25,000 ($24,500) fine, create
    a workplace antiharassment policy, and undergo racial sensitivity
    training for subjecting an employee to racial taunts and subsequently
    firing her. The ruling also awarded the employee C$6,750 ($6,617) in
    lost wages.
        In February the mayor of the Halifax Regional Municipality in Nova
    Scotia issued a public apology to the former residents of the black
    community of Africville for their forced removal in the 1960s to make
    way for new urban projects. The city, federal, and provincial
    governments provided a total of C$3 million ($3 million) for
    construction of a replica of a community church on the former site.
        On March 10, the Quebec Human Rights Commission announced hearings
    into alleged police racial profiling in the province. The commission
    reported that it had received at least 100 complaints of racial
    profiling since 2005.
        On October 1, one individual pled guilty to criminal harassment and
    in November was found guilty of public incitement of hatred for
    planting a burning cross on the lawn of an interracial couple in Hants
    County, Nova Scotia, on February 20, and for yelling racial slurs.
    Authorities dropped two other charges of uttering threats and mischief.
    Also in November, a court convicted a second individual of criminal
    harassment and public incitement of hatred in the same case. At year's
    end, both individuals awaited sentencing. The police also started an
    investigation of a separate incident in April in which unknown vandals
    torched a car belonging to the couple, but closed the investigation
    without bringing charges.
        On October 18, voters in Calgary elected the city's first visible
    minority mayor. Naheed Nenshi was also the first Muslim to become mayor
    of a major Canadian city.
        On October 19, the Quebec government passed legislation to tighten
    an exemption under the province's French language law for access to
    minority English education rights in the public education system. In
    October 2009 the Supreme Court had struck down as unconstitutional a
    law that had closed a legal loophole that had permitted parents to
    enroll their children in private elementary English schools in the
    province to establish their eligibility for minority English education
    rights, before transferring them to the public English education system
    to complete their education. The court had suspended its ruling for one
    year to allow the Government to rewrite the law. Under the legislation,
    the Government restricted publicly funded English-language education
    rights to students who had studied for at least three years in an
    approved, private English school and who had received specific
    permission to continue their education in English from provincial
    education officials.
        On November 8, masked assailants invaded the Calgary, Alberta, home
    of an anti-racism activist and beat the homeowner and his guest with a
    bat, hammer and other weapons. The homeowner suffered welts and
    bruises, and the guest a broken arm. Police said the victims were
    targeted, although they could not confirm whether the attack occurred
    in retaliation for the homeowner's public anti-racism activities. A
    police investigation into the attack remained pending at year's end.
        There were no developments in the coroner's inquest into the
    Montreal police's 2008 shooting death of a teenage immigrant from
    Honduras.

        Indigenous People.--The law recognizes three different groups of
    indigenous (also known as Aboriginal) persons: Indians (generally
    called First Nations), Inuit (formerly called Eskimos), and Metis
    (persons of mixed Indian-European ancestry). According to the 2006
    census, indigenous persons constituted approximately 4 percent of the
    national population and higher percentages in the country's three
    territories: Yukon, 25 percent; Northwest Territories, 50 percent; and
    Nunavut, 85 percent. Disputes over land claims, self-government, treaty
    rights, taxation, duty-free imports, fishing and hunting rights, and
    alleged police harassment continued to be sources of tension.
    Indigenous persons remained underrepresented in the workforce,
    overrepresented on welfare rolls and in prison populations, and more
    susceptible to suicide, poverty, and sexual violence than other groups.
    On January 25, the Canadian Medical Association reported that 70
    percent of Aboriginal preschoolers in Nunavut lived in homes with a
    shortage of food. According to a government study issued on March 10,
    Aboriginals experienced an infection rate for tuberculosis at a rate of
    27.8 cases per 100,000 persons, compared with a rate of 4.8 cases per
    100,000 persons for the entire Canadian population.
        The law recognizes and specifically protects indigenous rights,
    including those established by historical land claims settlements.
    Treaties with indigenous groups form the basis for the Government's
    policies in the eastern part of the country, but there were legal
    challenges to the Government's interpretation and implementation of
    treaty rights. Indigenous groups in the west that never signed treaties
    continued to claim land and resources, and many continued to seek legal
    resolution of outstanding issues. As a result, the evolution of the
    Government's policy toward indigenous rights, particularly land claims,
    frequently depended on legal challenges. According to an August 2009
    Amnesty International report, approximately 60 Aboriginal claims over
    territory previously excluded from treaty making remained unresolved.
    An additional 765 specific claims related to interpretation of historic
    treaties remained unresolved.
        In its 2009 annual report to Parliament on March 30, the CHRC
    highlighted the plight of Aboriginal persons in Canada, stating that
    many ``do not have access to basic necessities.'' The CHRC stated that
    it is working to improve access to the Human Rights Act for more than
    700,000 Aboriginal Canadians who live on reserve who were specifically
    excluded from the ability to file complaints under the Act before 2008.
    Aboriginals on reserve are scheduled to receive protection under the
    Act in June 2011 when a three-year transitional period expires. The
    CHRC accepted Aboriginal complaints under the Act, and reported an
    ``incremental increase'' in the small number of complaints in 2010
    (over 2009), but did not process them pending full application of the
    Act in 2011)
        On April 6, the Grassy Narrows First Nation released an independent
    medical study which stated that 79 percent of 187 persons tested at the
    Grassy Narrows reserve from 2002 to 2004 had, or may have had, Minimata
    disease, a condition arising from exposure to methyl mercury. In the
    1970s, the Ontario government banned fishing in the nearby Wabigoon-
    English river system due to mercury pollution from a paper mill on the
    river in the 1960s. Reserve residents claimed that the Government had
    stopped testing individuals for mercury levels.
        On April 22, an NGO released a report that found that 62 indigenous
    women and girls either disappeared or were murdered in 2009. The report
    stated that nearly half of all murder cases involving First Nation,
    Metis, and Inuit women and girls were unsolved, compared with an 84
    percent clearance rate for murder cases involving nonindigenous women
    and girls.
        On July 7, the Government signed a land claim agreement with the
    Cree of Itschee in Quebec that settled longstanding land claims. The
    agreement covered 24,700 square miles along the Quebec shore in James
    Bay and southeastern Hudson Bay. Under the agreement, the Government
    agreed to pay the Cree C$50 million ($48.5 million) over 10 years,
    transfer title to more than 390 square miles, and establish a joint
    management scheme with the Cree and the territory of Nunavut.
        In July Nunavut's chief justice warned in a letter to the federal
    justice minister that Nunavut's court system faced an ``impending
    crisis'' due to insufficient resources and asked for the appointment of
    additional judges to the Nunavut Court of Justice to handle the rising
    rate of violent crime in the Territory. According to reports, Nunavut
    authorities bring sexual assault charges at a per capita rate that is
    10 times the national average. The court system relied on roving short-
    term judicial visits from the outside to handle increasing workloads.
        On August 18, the Government apologized for the forced relocation
    of Inuit families in the 1950s from their traditional communities to
    the High Arctic.
        In September 800 Aboriginal persons from Vancouver Island joined a
    class-action lawsuit filed in August 2009 by former students of
    Aboriginal day schools in Manitoba against the federal government
    seeking C$15 billion ($14.7 billion) for alleged abuse suffered in the
    schools.
        In October the federal government settled one of Canada's largest
    single land claims with the Manitoba Peguis First Nation. The
    Government paid C$118 million ($115.6 million) to the approximately 900
    members of the Nation. On November 19, an Ontario court ordered the
    Haudenosaunee/Six Nations band to cease a campaign against development
    on land claimed by the band near Brantford, Ontario. The judge
    instructed the band to cease blockading construction sites, threatening
    construction workers, and collecting unauthorized fees from developers.
    The court found that the band's claim to the land was ``exceedingly
    weak.''
        On December 15, the Government passed legislation to implement an
    April 2009 decision by the Court of Appeal of British Columbia to
    ensure gender equity in Indian registration. The Appeal Court had ruled
    that the Indian Act unconstitutionally discriminated between men and
    women by denying registration under the Indian Act to the grandchildren
    of indigenous women who previously lost their Indian status by marrying
    a non-Indian.
        There were no developments in negotiations to settle four land
    claims of the Haudenosaunee/Six Nations in Ontario.
        The Government continued the process of claim settlements and self-
    government negotiations with more than 350 First Nations communities.

        Societal Abuses, Discrimination, and Acts of Violence Based on
    Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.--The federal statistical agency
    reported 159 incidents of police-reported hate crimes motivated by
    sexual orientation in 2008, constituting 16 percent of all hate
    incidents. The total almost doubled from 2007, and 75 percent of
    incidents involved a violent offense. The law prohibits discrimination
    based on sexual orientation or gender identity, and the criminal code
    provides penalties for crimes motivated by bias, prejudice, or hate
    based on personal characteristics, including sexual orientation.
    Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender organizations operated
    independently and without restriction. Federal, provincial, and
    municipal governments authorized, and sometimes provided financial
    support for, gay pride marches in communities across the country and
    provided police protection to marchers. There was no official
    discrimination based on sexual orientation in employment and
    occupation, housing, statelessness, or access to education or health
    care.
        On July 1, police charged two men with assault causing bodily harm
    in connection with a violent attack on a gay male couple in Vancouver,
    British Columbia, on June 12. The assailants allegedly uttered
    homophobic slurs during the attack.
        In June the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission closed its
    investigation into the 2009 complaint of a former employee of a
    provincial youth facility who had alleged that he had experienced
    severe and prolonged sexual harassment in the workplace based on his
    sexual orientation. The parties agreed that the facility would provide
    workplace programs and services to address discrimination against
    vulnerable groups, including homosexual youth.
        In June a gay man withdrew his complaint before the Ontario Human
    Rights Tribunal that his parish priest had removed him from his
    volunteer position as a church altar server in 2009 because of his
    sexual orientation. The complainant reconciled with church officials.
        There were no developments in a 2009 lesbian couple's complaint
    filed with the Manitoba Human Rights Commission alleging that a family
    doctor declined to accept them as patients because their sexual
    orientation offended her religious beliefs and because she had no
    experience treating gay patients.
        In May a provincial court heard an appeal of a lower court ruling
    that upheld a fine imposed by the Saskatchewan Human Rights Tribunal on
    a provincial marriage commissioner in 2008 for refusing to conduct a
    same-sex ceremony contrary to his religious beliefs. The appellant
    argued for a duty exemption on the basis of his constitutional right to
    freedom of religion. The case remained pending at year's end.
        In April a British Columbia court sentenced an individual to 17
    months in prison for a 2008 hate-motivated violent assault on a gay
    couple in Vancouver.
        In November a British Columbia court sentenced an individual to six
    years in prison for a March 2009 aggravated sexual assault on a gay bar
    patron that left the victim permanently brain damaged. The judge found
    that the attack constituted a hate crime.
        On December 21, the Alberta government deleted homosexuality from
    its official diagnostic guide to mental disorders for physicians
    practicing in the publicly-funded medical system, and ordered a review
    of the wording of the manual.

        Other Societal Violence or Societal Discrimination.--There were no
    known reports of societal violence or discrimination against persons
    with HIV/AIDS. The criminal code provides penalties for violence
    against individuals. Courts generally interpreted prohibitions against
    discrimination on the basis of disability in federal and provincial
    human rights statutes to include discrimination against persons with
    HIV/AIDS.

    Section 7. Worker Rights
        a. The Right of Association.--The law allows workers in both the
    public (except armed forces and police) and the private sectors to form
    and join unions of their choice without previous authorization or
    excessive requirements, and the Government applied the law effectively.
    The law allows unions to operate without government interference. An
    estimated 30 percent of the civilian labor force belonged to a trade
    union.
        All workers have the right to strike, and workers exercised this
    right in practice. However, workers in the public sector who provide
    essential services, including police and armed forces, do not have the
    right to strike, but have mechanisms to ensure due process and protect
    workers' rights. Workers in essential services had recourse to binding
    arbitration if labor negotiations failed. The law prohibits employer
    retribution against strikers and union leaders, and the Government
    generally enforced this provision in practice. Provincial governments
    have, and enforce, their own labor laws that apply to provincially
    regulated occupations.

        b. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively.--The law
    protects collective bargaining, and the Government effectively enforced
    this right. Workers freely practiced collective bargaining and
    collective agreements covered an estimated 25 percent of workers. The
    law prohibits antiunion discrimination and employer interference in
    union functions, and the Government protected this right in practice.
    Agricultural workers in Alberta, Ontario, and New Brunswick do not have
    the right to organize and/or bargain collectively under provincial law.
        In April the Quebec labor relations board struck down a provision
    in the provincial labor code that effectively barred foreign migrant
    farm workers from joining unions. The law had restricted eligibility
    for unionization to farms with at least three permanent employees.
        There were no developments in an appeal before the Supreme Court of
    a 2008 Ontario Court of Appeal ruling that struck down a provincial law
    prohibiting an estimated 32,000 agricultural workers (including foreign
    migrants) from bargaining collectively. On November 18, the
    International Labor Organization (ILO) reported that the law violated
    the human rights of agricultural workers. This was the second time in
    10 years that the ILO found that the Ontario government had denied farm
    workers the right to freedom of association.
        There are no export processing zones.

        c. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor.--The law prohibits
    forced or compulsory labor; however, there were reports that foreign
    (or noncitizen or foreign-born) adults were subjected to forced labor
    in the agricultural sector, food processing, hospitality industry,
    domestic servitude, and prostitution. NGOs reported that bonded labor
    and domestic servitude constituted the majority of cases of
    exploitation. The Government enforced the law, and federal and some
    provincial governments implemented programs to combat forced labor, to
    inform workers of their legal rights, and to hold employers of foreign
    migrant workers accountable. Also see the Department of State's annual
    Trafficking in Persons Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        d. Prohibition of Child Labor and Minimum Age for Employment.--
    Child labor legislation varies by province and there are sufficient
    laws to protect children from exploitation in the workplace. Most
    provinces restrict the number of hours of work, and prohibit children
    under age 15 or 16 from working without parental consent, at night, or
    in any hazardous employment. During official school or academic breaks,
    the federal government has employed youths under age 17 for work that
    is unlikely to endanger their health or safety.
        Child labor laws and policies were effectively enforced and the
    child labor inspections were carried out by federal and provincial
    labor ministries.

        e. Acceptable Conditions of Work.--Provincial and territorial
    governments set minimum wage rates and enforced them effectively
    through their respective departments of labor. In federally regulated
    industries, the minimum wage constitutes the general adult minimum wage
    of the province or territory in which the work is performed. Some
    provinces have minimum wage boards that represent the interests of
    employers and employees, and may recommend nonbinding changes to rates.
    Four provinces have legislation requiring an annual or biennial review
    of the minimum wage, but no governments have a legislated obligation to
    increase or otherwise modify rates. Minimum wage rates ranged from
    C$8.00 to C$10.25 ($7.84 to $10.04). Some provinces exempt
    agricultural, hospitality, and other specific categories of workers
    from minimum wage rates, and Ontario and British Columbia have a
    minimum wage rate for youths lower than their respective minimums for
    adult workers. The minimum wage did not provide a decent standard of
    living for a worker and family. The federal statistical agency
    calculates annual averages, or Low Income Cut Offs (LICOs), which vary
    by urban, rural, and size of community, below which individuals and
    families spend significantly more on food, shelter, and necessities
    than the average. During the year, the maximum national LICO for a
    family of four with a before-tax income of less than C$41,198 ($40,
    390) qualified as low income.
        Standard work hours vary by province, but in each, the limit is 40
    or 48 hours per week, with at least 24 hours of rest. The law requires
    payment of a premium for work above the standard workweek. Authorities
    effectively enforced these standards. There is no specific prohibition
    on excessive compulsory overtime, which is regulated by means of the
    required rest periods in the labor code that differ by industry.
        Federal law provides safety and health standards for employees
    under federal jurisdiction, while provincial and territorial
    legislation provides for all other employees, including foreign and
    migrant workers. Federal and provincial labor departments monitored and
    enforced these standards, and conducted inspections proactively through
    scheduled visits, reactively in response to complaints, and at random.
        Enforcement measures included a graduated response, with a
    preference for resolution via voluntary compliance, negotiation, and
    education, and prosecution and fines as a last resort. Some trade
    unions argued that limited resources hampered the Government's
    inspection and enforcement efforts. Federal, provincial, and
    territorial laws protect the right of workers with ``reasonable cause''
    to refuse dangerous work and remove themselves from hazardous work
    conditions, and authorities effectively enforced this right.
        On August 16, the Alberta Employment and Immigration Ministry
    announced a 10-point plan to improve workplace safety via improved
    enforcement of the province's occupational health and workplace safety
    regulations. The plan proposes the hiring of additional inspectors,
    implementing updated compliance and enforcement procedures, publishing
    safety records of Alberta companies, and piloting a weekend and evening
    worksite inspection regimen.
        On September 10, two Jamaican migrant agricultural workers died in
    a job-related incident at an Ontario apple orchard and processing
    facility. Provincial police and the Ontario Ministry of Labour opened
    an investigation into the fatalities.
        From October 8 to November 22, a team drawn from Alberta's 94
    Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) inspectors conducted a safety
    ``blitz'' inspecting 146 construction employers at 70 worksites across
    the province, and issuing 39 safety-related stop work orders.
        On November 5, the Alberta Federation of Labor (AFL) released its
    own 10-point proposal to improve the province's health and safety
    record, including increased inspections, more resources for
    prosecutions for workplace safety violations, extension of health and
    safety and employment standards legislation to farm workers, mandatory
    joint health and safety committees for workers and employers, and
    publishing employer safety records. The AFL claimed that Alberta had
    the highest number of workplace fatalities in the country and the most
    lax health and safety policies.
        On December 14, Alberta's employment and immigration minister
    updated the results of the province-wide safety blitz. He stated that
    it had resulted in 298 initial and follow-up inspections which brought
    70 worksites into conformity with provincial requirements. OHS
    inspectors had issued an additional 49 stop work orders for worksites
    that lacked adequate safety measures.
        On December 16, the AFL released a report that criticized the
    provincial government for inadequate monitoring and enforcement of
    policies to prevent abuse of temporary foreign workers. The AFL
    recommended the tightening of provincial and federal regulations on
    employment brokers and recruiters, increased inspections and more
    vigorous enforcement of employment standards, and easier access to
    permanent residency for foreign migrant workers.
        Also on December 16, an Ontario government panel recommended a
    major overhaul of the province's workplace health and safety system.
    The recommendations included the creation of a new office of accident
    prevention headed by a designated chief prevention officer within the
    provincial Labor Ministry, mandatory safety training for construction
    workers, and a major outreach campaign to educate vulnerable workers
    (including those in the ``underground'' economy) of their labor rights.
    The province commissioned the official report, and a year-long
    comprehensive review of health and safety practices and provincial
    legislation, in January following the December 2009 deaths of four
    immigrant unregulated workers in Toronto, and the critical injury of a
    fifth, due to unsafe working practices. In July the provincial
    government launched a three-month workplace safety campaign that
    targeted construction sites across the province.

                                   __________

                                     CHILE

        Chile is a multiparty democracy with a population of approximately
    17 million. On January 17, in free and fair elections voters chose
    Sebastian Pinera Echenique of the center-right Coalition for Change as
    president. Security forces reported to civilian authorities.
        There were isolated reports of excessive use of force and
    mistreatment by police forces, physical abuse in jails and prisons, and
    generally substandard prison conditions. The Government generally took
    steps to investigate and punish abusers.

                            RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

    Section 1. Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom
            From:
        a. Arbitrary or Unlawful Deprivation of Life.--The Government or
    its agents did not commit any politically motivated killings; however,
    there were reports of two killings by security forces.
        On March 10, in Hualpen, a naval patrol allegedly detained and beat
    David Riquelme to death during the curfew imposed after the February 27
    earthquake. A military court accused five sailors of unnecessary
    violence resulting in death, and the case was pending at year's end.
        On June 26, police in Cabrero detained and beat Francisco Coronado,
    who died in the police van before it reached the police station. A
    military court indicted police Corporal Rafael Diaz of homicide, and
    the case was pending at year's end.
        On August 20, a military court convicted carabineros (the uniformed
    national police) Corporal Walter Ramirez of ``unnecessary violence
    resulting in death'' and sentenced him to three years on parole for the
    2008 shooting of Matias Catrileo during an indigenous occupation of
    private land. At year's end Ramirez continued on active duty, and an
    appeal was pending before the Supreme Court. On November 8, a military
    prosecutor recommended a sentence of 15 years for police Corporal
    Miguel Patricio Jara, indicted for the August 2009 shooting of Jaime
    Mendoza during an indigenous land occupation. The case was pending
    before a military judge at year's end (see section 6, Indigenous
    People).
        On September 10, Judge Alejandro Madrid convicted 14 former
    military officers of kidnapping, homicide, and criminal conspiracy in
    the 1991 kidnapping and subsequent death of former National
    Intelligence Directorate (DINA) agent Eugenio Berrios. The emblematic
    case uncovered actions of dictatorship security agents took to evade
    justice after the 1991 transition to democracy.
        In December 2009 Judge Madrid charged six persons in the poisoning
    death of former president Eduardo Frei Montalva in 1982. A DINA agent,
    a doctor, and Frei's driver were charged with murder; two other doctors
    who allegedly falsified the autopsy were charged as accessories to the
    crime, and another doctor was charged as an accomplice. The case
    remained pending at year's end.
        On April 28, the Supreme Court rejected an appeal to reopen the
    1993 kidnapping and murder case of dual Chilean-Spanish citizen Carmelo
    Soria, who was killed by DINA agents in 1976. The Supreme Court closed
    the case with no convictions in 1996, after applying the amnesty law.
    In September 2009 Judge Madrid charged seven former army officials with
    obstruction of justice in the Soria case. One of the seven was Sergio
    Cea, the military prosecutor in charge of investigating Soria's death.
    The case remained pending at year's end.
        On July 8, the Supreme Court upheld the 2008 convictions of nine
    former DINA agents, including former DINA director Manuel Contreras and
    two civilians, for the 1974 car-bomb assassination of former army
    commander Carlos Prats and his wife. However, the high court reduced
    some sentences, gradually applying the statute of limitations, which
    allows for the discretionary reduction of sentences.
        On November 15, the Santiago Appellate Court ordered Judge Jorge
    Zepeda to reopen his investigation into the 1974 death of former
    interior minister Jose Toha, characterized as a suicide at the time.
    The case was pending at year's end.

        b. Disappearance.--There were no reports of politically motivated
    disappearances.
        Courts prosecuted a number of historical cases based on plaintiffs'
    arguments that the abduction of political prisoners constituted a
    continuing crime, not covered by amnesty, unless the subsequent
    execution of the prisoner could be established concretely by
    identification of remains. In some cases, the Supreme Court upheld the
    statute of limitations or lessened sentences using the gradual
    application of the statute of limitations, allowing the convicted
    persons to serve time outside of prison.
        The Diego Portales University's Human Rights Observatory reported
    that as of July the Supreme Court had paroled or reduced sentences of
    approximately two-thirds of 213 former security agents convicted of
    dictatorship-era human rights abuses, including disappearance,
    execution, and torture, whose cases had reached the high court.
        Judge Zepeda continued his investigation into the 1985
    disappearance case of U.S. citizen Boris Weisfeiler. On March 4,
    Weisfeiler family members resubmitted the case to the Advisory
    Commission on the Classification of Disappearances, Political
    Executions, and Victims of Political Imprisonment and Torture (Valech
    Commission), which in February began accepting new and resubmitted
    requests to recognize dictatorship-era cases as human rights violations
    (see section 5). The first truth and reconciliation commission in 1991
    did not recognize the Weisfeiler disappearance as a human rights
    violation. A decision on the family's application was pending at year's
    end.
        More than 120 indictments of former members of the military,
    carabineros, plainclothes Investigations Police (PDI), and prison
    system (gendarmeria) for ``permanent kidnappings'' perpetrated by DINA
    agents from 1974 to 1976 were issued in September 2009 and remained
    pending at year's end.

        c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or
    Punishment.--Although the constitution prohibits such practices,
    nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) received reports of abuse and
    mistreatment by carabineros, PDI members, and prison guards. Few
    reports of abuse or mistreatment led to convictions.
        On December 14, six carabineros were relieved from duty following
    allegations of psychological abuse against Juan Berrios, who was
    detained in a police van and threatened at gunpoint with
    ``disappearance.'' The events were caught on video and broadcast on the
    local news. Lorena Fries, Director of the National Institute of Human
    Rights, called the actions torture and cruel, inhuman, and degrading
    treatment. The case remained pending at year's end.
        The gendarmeria opened administrative investigations into 38
    allegations of abuse through June, compared with 88 in all of 2009. Of
    the 2009 cases, one resulted in officials receiving sanctions, 11 were
    closed, and 76 were pending at year's end.

        Prison and Detention Center Conditions.--Prison conditions
    generally were poor. Prisons often were overcrowded and antiquated,
    with substandard sanitary conditions. The 2010 Diego Portales
    University Law School Annual Report on Human Rights reported that
    overcrowded prisons with substandard sanitary, food, and medical
    services were a problem in some prisons. It also described cases of
    prisoner abuse and use of excessive force.
        In isolated instances, prisoners died due to lack of clear prison
    procedures and insufficient medical resources. Prison officials
    reported that there were 61 deaths from preventable causes as of
    September, compared with 73 in all of 2009. Prisoners with HIV/AIDS and
    mental disabilities failed to receive adequate medical attention in
    some prisons.
        As of September government sources indicated there were
    approximately 56,000 prisoners in prisons designed to hold 34,000
    inmates. Prisons in the Santiago area were at nearly double their
    capacity. Prisoners included 4,697 women, who were held in separate
    sections of the same facilities. As of June there were 1,477 minors
    held in specially designated facilities. Nearly 800 minors were held
    provisionally during their trial.
        On December 8, 81 inmates died in a fire started during a fight
    between rival gangs at the San Miguel Prison in Santiago. Although
    reports varied, it is estimated that the prison held approximately
    1,900 prisoners although designed to hold only 1,100. A prosecutor's
    investigation remained pending at year's end.
        On December 21, 36 inmates, six guards, and one police officer were
    injured during an uprising at the Antofagasta prison. Prisoners were
    protesting the nationwide suspension of privileges following the
    December 8 prison fire at San Miguel. Approximately 800 inmates were
    also participating in a hunger strike in support of the San Miguel
    prisoners. The Antofagasta prison, which was designed to hold 684
    prisoners, held 1,326 at the time of the riot.
        The prosecutor's investigation of an April 2009 fire the Colina II
    penitentiary center that resulted in 10 deaths remained pending at
    year's end.
        In December 2009 an agreement to stay proceedings conditionally was
    reached in the case of six former employees of the National Children's
    Service (SENAME) charged with manslaughter for the 2008 death of 10
    adolescents in their care at the Tiempo de Crecer juvenile detention
    center in Puerto Montt.
        Prisoners and detainees had reasonable access to visitors and were
    permitted religious observance. Authorities permitted prisoners and
    detainees to submit complaints to judicial authorities without
    censorship and to request investigation of credible allegations of
    inhumane conditions. Authorities generally investigated these
    allegations and documented the results in a publicly accessible manner.
        The Government generally investigated and monitored prison and
    detention center conditions.
        The Government permitted prison visits by independent human rights
    observers, and such visits took place at both government and privately
    operated facilities. Prisoner and human rights groups continued to
    investigate alleged use of abuse or excessive force against detainees.

        d. Arbitrary Arrest or Detention.--The constitution prohibits
    arbitrary arrest and detention, and the Government generally observed
    these prohibitions.

        Role of the Police and Security Apparatus.--Civilian authorities
    maintained effective control over the carabineros, overseen by the
    Ministry of Defense, and the PDI, overseen by the Ministry of Interior.
    The Government has effective mechanisms to investigate and punish abuse
    and corruption. There were no reports of impunity involving the
    security forces during the year.

        Arrest Procedures and Treatment While in Detention.--Only public
    officials expressly authorized by law can arrest or detain citizens and
    generally did so openly with warrants based on sufficient evidence
    brought before an independent judiciary. Authorities must immediately
    inform a prosecutor of an arrest and generally did so in practice.
        The prosecutor must open an investigation, receive a statement from
    the detainee, and ensure that the detainee is held at a local police
    station until the detention control hearing. Detention control hearings
    are held twice daily, allowing for a judicial determination of the
    legality of the detention within 24 hours of arrest. Detainees must be
    informed of their rights, including the right to an attorney and the
    right to remain silent until an attorney is present. Public defenders
    are provided to detainees if they do not select a lawyer of choice.
    Authorities must expedite notification of the detention to family
    members. If authorities do not inform the detainees of their rights
    upon detention, the process can be declared unlawful by the judge
    during the detention control hearing.
        The law allows judges to set bail, grant provisional liberty, or
    order continued detention as necessary to the investigation or for the
    protection of the prisoner or the public.
        The law affords detainees 30 minutes of immediate and subsequent
    daily access to a lawyer (in the presence of a prison guard) and to a
    doctor to verify their physical condition. Regular visits by family
    members are allowed.

        e. Denial of Fair Public Trial.--The law provides for an
    independent judiciary, and the Government generally respected judicial
    independence in practice.

        Trial Procedures.--Defendants enjoy a presumption of innocence and
    have a right of appeal. The law provides for the right to a fair trial,
    and an independent judiciary generally enforced this right. National
    and regional prosecutors investigate crimes, formulate charges, and
    prosecute cases. Three-judge panels form the court of first instance;
    the process is oral and adversarial, trials are public, defendants have
    the right to be present and to consult with an attorney in a timely
    manner, and judges rule on guilt and dictate sentences. Court records,
    rulings, and findings were generally accessible to the public.
        The law provides for the right to legal counsel and public
    defender's offices across the country provide professional legal
    counsel to anyone seeking such assistance. Defendants can confront or
    question witnesses against them and present witnesses and evidence on
    their behalf, although the law does provide for protected witnesses in
    certain circumstances. Defendants and their attorneys generally have
    access to government-held evidence relevant to their cases with some
    exceptions. When requested by other human rights organizations or
    family members, the NGO Corporation for the Promotion and Defense of
    the Rights of the People and other lawyers working pro bono assisted
    detainees during interrogation and trial.
        For crimes committed prior to the implementation of the 2005
    judicial reforms, criminal proceedings are inquisitorial rather than
    adversarial. At year's end two inquisitorial criminal courts remained
    open: each had extensive waits for trial.

        Political Prisoners and Detainees.--There were no reports of
    political prisoners or detainees, although some indigenous Mapuche
    awaiting trial claimed to be political prisoners.

        Regional Human Rights Court Decisions.--On September 17, the Inter-
    American Commission of Human Rights (IACHR) filed a case with the
    Inter-American Court on Human Rights in the 2004 petition of Karen
    Atala, a lesbian judge who claimed discrimination in the loss of
    custody of her three daughters. In April the IACHR had issued a report,
    which concluded that Atala's rights were violated and urged the
    Government to make reparations to her and to adopt legislation, policy,
    and programs to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation. In
    response the Pinera administration announced it would set up a working
    group to address the IACHR's recommendations, but the Supreme Court
    refused to participate.

        Civil Judicial Procedures and Remedies.--There is an independent
    and impartial judiciary in civil matters, which permits access for
    lawsuits regarding human rights violations. However, the civil justice
    system retains antiquated and inefficient procedures. The average civil
    trial lasted approximately five years and civil suits could continue
    for decades. There are administrative and judicial remedies available
    for alleged wrongs.

        f. Arbitrary Interference With Privacy, Family, Home, or
    Correspondence.--The constitution prohibits such actions, and the
    Government generally respected these prohibitions in practice.

    Section 2. Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:
        a. Freedom of Speech and Press.--The constitution provides for
    freedom of speech and of the press, and the Government generally
    respected these rights in practice. An independent press, an effective
    judiciary, and a functioning democratic political system combined to
    ensure freedom of speech and of the press.
        Military courts may charge and try civilians for defamation of
    military personnel and for sedition, but their rulings can be appealed
    to the Supreme Court.
        The independent media were active and expressed a wide variety of
    views without restriction. President Pinera owned Chilevision (CHV),
    one of three major networks, until he completed sale of the company on
    October 6.
        The Government-funded National Television Council (CNTV) is
    responsible for ensuring that television programming respects ``the
    moral and cultural values of the nation.'' The CNTV's principal role is
    to regulate violence and sexual explicitness in both broadcast and
    cable television programming. Films and other programs judged by the
    CNTV to be excessively violent, to have obscene language, or to depict
    sexually explicit scenes may be shown only after 10 p.m., when ``family
    viewing hours'' end. The CNTV occasionally levied fines or pressured
    stations to reschedule programs. For instance, on October 5, CNTV
    sanctioned television channel CHV (Chilevision) for broadcasting a
    parody of Jesus Christ on a comedy club show in April.
        On January 18, a Santiago tribunal dismissed criminal libel charges
    brought against freelance journalist Pascale Bonnefoy in 2006.
        On April 22, the Villarrica penal court acquitted documentary
    filmmaker Elena Varela Lopez, who had been charged with ``illegal
    association with intent to commit an offense'' and ``links with a
    terrorist group'' related to bank raids in 2004-05.

        Internet Freedom.--There were no government restrictions on access
    to the Internet or reports that the Government monitored e-mail or
    Internet chat rooms. Individuals and groups could engage in the
    peaceful expression of views via the Internet, including by e-mail.
    Internet access was widely available to citizens, and the International
    Telecommunication Union reported that there were 41 Internet users per
    100 inhabitants in 2009.
        The Net Neutrality Law, which prohibits Internet Service Providers
    from arbitrarily blocking, interfering with, or discriminating against
    access to Internet content or applications, went into effect on August
    26. The reform also establishes the obligation to make information
    about connection plans transparent.

        Academic Freedom and Cultural Events.--There were no government
    restrictions on academic freedom or cultural events.

        b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association.--The constitution
    provides for freedoms of assembly and association, and the Government
    generally respected these rights in practice.

        c. Freedom of Religion.--For a complete description of religious
    freedom, please see the 2010 International Religious Freedom Report at
    www.state.gov/g/drl/irf/rpt.

        d. Freedom of Movement, Internally Displaced Persons, Protection of
    Refugees, and Stateless Persons.--The constitution provides for freedom
    of movement within the country, foreign travel, emigration, and
    repatriation, and the Government generally respected these rights in
    practice.
        The Government cooperated with the Office of the UN High
    Commissioner for Refugees and other humanitarian organizations in
    providing protection and assistance to internally displaced persons,
    refugees, returning refugees, asylum seekers, stateless persons, and
    other persons of concern.
        The law prohibits forced exile and the Government did not use it.

        Protection of Refugees.--The country's laws provide for the
    granting of asylum or refugee status, and the Government has
    established a system for providing protection to refugees.
        In practice the Government provided protection against the
    expulsion or return of refugees to countries where their lives or
    freedom would be threatened on account of their race, religion,
    nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political
    opinion. During the year 75 residents were given recognized refugee
    status, for a total of 1,614 residents with that status at year's end.

    Section 3. Respect for Political Rights: The Right of Citizens to
            Change Their Government
        The law provides citizens the right to change their government
    peacefully, and citizens exercised this right in practice through
    periodic, free, and fair elections based on universal suffrage.

        Elections and Political Participation.--On January 17, voters in a
    free and fair run-off election chose Sebastian Pinera Echenique of the
    center-right Coalition for Change as president. In December 2009 voters
    also elected 18 of the 38 senators and all members of the Chamber of
    Deputies in elections generally considered free and fair.
        Political parties can operate without restriction or outside
    interference.
        There were 17 women in the 120-seat Chamber of Deputies and five
    women in the 38-seat Senate. There were six women in the 22-member
    cabinet, down from 10 in 2009. Women were underrepresented in other
    elective offices.
        Indigenous people have the legal right to participate freely in the
    political process, but relatively few were active. No member of the
    legislature or the cabinet identified himself or herself as indigenous.

    Section 4. Official Corruption and Government Transparency
        The law provides criminal penalties for official corruption, and
    the Government generally implemented these laws effectively. There were
    isolated reports of government corruption during the year.
        On January 21, a judge convicted Andres Contardo, a former
    consultant for both the Civil Registry and Tata Consultancy Services,
    of disclosing secret civil registry information regarding a public
    tender for a new technology platform. Contardo was sentenced to more
    than four years in prison but was released on parole. On May 28, the
    prosecutor in charge indicted 37 other individuals, including the
    former Civil Registry director and Tata executives, for fraud, bribery,
    and disclosure of secret information. On July 20, three of the accused
    were convicted of being accomplices. On July 21, the prosecutor agreed
    to a stay in proceedings for 11 others who cooperated with the
    investigation and agreed to complete community service and return
    public funds. On November 8, a judge temporarily stayed proceedings
    until defense attorneys had full access to the case files, a decision
    upheld in December by the Santiago Appellate Court. The remainder of
    those indicted awaited trial at year's end.
        On January 1, a Santiago court absolved three former State Railroad
    Company executives, including former president of the board Luis
    Ajenjo, of fraud in a high-profile case dating from 2006.
        On July 1, a judge convicted Carlos Cruz, former minister of public
    works, transportation, and telecommunications, and Sergio Cortes,
    former finance director of the ministry's Highways Division of fraud
    for approximately 800 million pesos ($1.57 million) in a 2001 case.
    Cruz and Cortes were sentenced to prison but released on parole. In
    total the judge convicted 13 individuals and absolved 17 others in the
    case.
        On July 13, Public Prosecutor Victor Vidal brought charges against
    Margarita Cuadros Aedo for criminal association, bribery, falsification
    of public documents, and obstruction of an investigation into judicial
    corruption. Vidal also charged four former officials for their role in
    the ring. In 2009, 17 individuals from corruption rings within the
    judicial system were convicted of the same crimes. The criminal rings
    falsified certifications that a prisoner had completed time, misplaced
    files, and falsified judicial decisions. Those convicted included six
    current and two former PDI officers, two carabineros, and two judicial
    officials.
        The law subjects public officials to financial disclosure and
    assigns responsibility to the comptroller for conducting audits of
    government agencies and to the Public Prosecutor's Office for
    initiating criminal investigations of official corruption.
        The constitution requires the Government and its agencies to make
    all unclassified information about their activities available to the
    public. In practice the Government granted citizens and noncitizens,
    including foreign media, access to all unclassified information. An
    autonomous transparency council provides for the right of access to
    information and rules on cases in which information is denied. In such
    cases reasons for denial are generally provided and have legal basis.
    For the year the Transparency Council considered 985 cases of denials
    for information requests. The Council made decisions on 85 percent of
    those, while the remaining cases were under analysis.

    Section 5. Governmental Attitude Regarding International and
            Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations of Human
            Rights
        A number of domestic and international human rights groups
    generally operated without government restriction, investigating and
    publishing their findings on human rights cases. Government officials
    often were cooperative and responsive to their views.
        There is no human rights ombudsman. During the year the autonomous
    National Institute of Human Rights (INDH), created by a December 2009
    law, began functioning with a mandate to submit a human rights report
    to government bodies and international organizations, propose changes
    to government agencies to ensure the promotion and protection of human
    rights, and initiate legal action for gross human rights violations. On
    December 9, the INDH published its first annual report. The Senate and
    Chamber of Deputies also have standing Human Rights Committees that are
    responsible for drafting human rights legislation.
        On February 7, the Valech Commission began accepting new and
    resubmitted requests to recognize dictatorship-era cases of execution,
    disappearance, and torture as human rights violations. The application
    process was open for six months, and the Commission received more than
    32,500 petitions. In cases recognized as involving human rights
    violations, victims' family members and survivors are eligible for
    reparations. In addition the Ministry of Interior's Human Rights
    Program can become a plaintiff in cases recognized as human rights
    violations.

    Section 6. Discrimination, Societal Abuses, and Trafficking in Persons
        The law prohibits discrimination based on race, gender, disability,
    language, or social status, and the Government enforced these
    prohibitions. However, such discrimination continued to occur.

        Women.--The law criminalizes rape, including spousal rape.
    Penalties for rape range from five to 15 years' imprisonment, and the
    Government generally enforced the law.
        The law protects the privacy and safety of the victim making the
    charge. During the year the Public Prosecutor's Office investigated
    4,803 cases of rape, and the courts handed down 942 rape convictions.
    Experts, however, believed that most rape cases went unreported.
        The Ministry of Justice and the PDI operated several offices
    specifically dedicated to providing counseling and assistance in rape
    cases.
        Domestic violence against women remained a serious problem. During
    the year, 49 women were killed as a result of domestic or sexual
    violence, compared with 55 in 2009.
        The law prohibits domestic violence. Family courts handle cases of
    domestic violence and penalize offenders with fines up to 556,680 pesos
    ($1,092). Additional sanctions include eviction of the offender from
    the residence shared with the victim, restraining orders, confiscation
    of firearms, and court-ordered counseling. Cases of habitual
    psychological abuse and physical abuse cases in which there are
    physical injuries are prosecuted in the criminal justice system.
    Penalties are based on the gravity of injuries and range from 61 to 540
    days' imprisonment. During the year the Public Prosecutor's Office
    initiated investigations into 117,475 cases of family violence, and
    14,257 offenders were convicted for domestic violence. The authorities
    generally enforced the law in cases reported to them. However, experts
    believed that most domestic violence cases went unreported.
        Government actions to confront domestic violence included a more
    aggressive national awareness campaign that began in October and a
    dating violence awareness campaign launched in November. The National
    Women's Service operated 92 assistance centers and 24 shelters for
    women and maintained partnerships with NGOs to provide training for
    police officers and judicial and municipal authorities on the legal and
    psychological aspects of domestic violence.
        On December 18, the Femicide Law went into effect, characterizing
    the murder of a woman by her husband or partner, current or past, as a
    crime in the Penal Code. The new law penalizes those convicted of
    femicide to the highest murder sentence possible (15 to 40 years'
    imprisonment).
        Sexual harassment generally was a problem. The law provides
    protection to victims of sexual harassment by employers and coworkers.
    It also provides severance pay to victims who resign due to sexual
    harassment if they have completed at least one year with the employer.
    By law sexual harassment is cause for immediate dismissal. The law
    requires employers to define internal procedures for investigating
    sexual harassment, and employers may face fines and additional
    financial compensation to victims if internal procedures are not met.
    The authorities generally enforced the law in cases reported to them.
    Through November the Labor Directorate received 82 complaints of sexual
    harassment.
        Couples and individuals had the right to decide freely and
    responsibly the number, spacing, and timing of children and had the
    information and means to do so free from discrimination, coercion, and
    violence. Contraception and skilled attendance during childbirth,
    prenatal care, and essential obstetric and postpartum care were
    available. The Population Reference Bureau reported that the rate of
    contraceptive use among married women was 64 percent, and the incidence
    of maternal mortality in 2008 was 26 per 100,000 live births. On
    January 28, the Regulation of Fertility Law establishing norms for
    family planning and sexual health information and services went into
    effect. The law provides for the free distribution of emergency
    contraception in the public health system. It also mandates the
    establishment of sexual education programs in high schools.
        Women faced significant obstacles to preventing HIV infection,
    including socio-cultural norms, gender-based violence, and lack of
    information.
        The law on surgical sterilizations requires voluntary informed
    consent. However, in the Center for Reproductive Rights study, some
    HIV-positive women reported that healthcare workers pressured or forced
    them to undergo surgical sterilization.
        Women enjoy most of the same legal rights as men. Despite the
    possibility of a ``community property'' marital arrangement, in which
    each spouse maintains separate control of the assets brought into the
    marriage, the default and most common marital arrangement is ``conjugal
    society,'' which gives a husband the right to administer joint
    property, including his wife's property. Under a 2007 agreement with
    the IACHR, the Government committed to modify the law to give women and
    men equal rights and responsibilities in marriage. Implementing
    legislation remained pending at year's end.
        The commercial code provides that unless a woman is married under
    the separate estate regime, she may not enter into a commercial
    partnership agreement without permission from her husband; a man may
    enter into such an agreement without permission from his wife.
        The 2009 Supplemental Survey of Incomes estimated the overall
    gender income gap at 29 percent. Among those with university education,
    the income gap was 34.5 percent. In December 2009 a law providing for
    equal pay for equal work went into effect. The law requires companies
    with 10 or more workers to establish a formal internal complaint
    procedure, while those with 200 or more workers must also generate a
    registry detailing employee positions and functions. The labor code
    provides specific benefits for pregnant workers and mothers of children
    under two years old, including a prohibition against dismissal during
    pregnancy and throughout the 449 days after the birth of a child. The
    National Women's Service is in charge of protecting women's legal
    rights.

        Children.--Citizenship is derived by birth within the country's
    territory or from one's parents or grandparents.
        Violence against children was a significant problem. According to
    press reports, there were almost 55,000 reported cases of child abuse
    between January and August, an increase of 2,000 from the same period
    in 2009.
        The law prohibits sexual abuse of minors and suspends the statute
    of limitations in such cases. During the year the Public Prosecutor's
    Office investigated 418 cases of commercial juvenile sexual
    exploitation, compared with 333 in 2009. During the year SENAME
    assisted 1,084 victims of commercial juvenile sexual exploitation,
    compared with 1,062 in all of 2009. SENAME ran 16 programs specifically
    for victims of commercial sexual exploitation and 84 additional
    programs for children and youth in high-risk situations, including
    commercial sexual exploitation. SENAME also collaborated with municipal
    governments to run 114 local branches of the Office for the Protection
    of Children's Rights throughout the country. SENAME, the carabineros,
    and the PDI cooperated with schools and NGOs to identify children in
    abusive situations, to provide counseling and other social services to
    abused children, and to keep families intact.
        Child prostitution was a problem. Children engaged in prostitution
    for survival with and without third party involvement. The criminal
    code considers 18 the age for consensual sex. Sex with a girl between
    ages 14 and 18 may be considered statutory rape, and sex with a child
    under age 14 is considered rape, regardless of consent or the victim's
    gender. Penalties for statutory rape range from three to 10 years in
    prison. Child pornography is a crime; penalties for producing child
    pornography range from 541 days to five years in prison.
        On July 7, the press reported that preparations continued for a
    trial against 10 individuals charged in 2009 for their involvement in a
    child prostitution ring in Valparaiso. On December 31, a Valparaiso
    penal court found four of the 10 guilty of obtaining sexual services
    from persons over 14 but under 18. Sentences were not decided as of
    year's end.
        On September 22, SENAME closed their internal investigation into
    commercial sexual exploitation of residents at their Capullo youth home
    in the Bio-Bio region without bringing charges against any of its
    officials. However, PDI detectives arrested nine individuals for
    alleged sexual exploitation of adolescent girls in exchange for small
    sums of money, drugs, food, or clothing. Four lawsuits resulted, three
    of which ended in convictions, while the fourth remained pending at
    year's end.
        The country is a party to the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil
    Aspects of International Child Abduction. For information on
    international parental child abduction, please see the Department of
    State's annual report on compliance at http://travel.state.gov/
    abduction/resources/congressreport/congressreport--4308.html.

        Anti-Semitism.--There were various reports of anti-Semitic
    incidents during the year, such as acts of vandalism, verbal slurs,
    bomb threats, and online harassment. Vandalism included desecration of
    Jewish community institutions, such as schools, synagogues, and
    cemeteries. In an October 6 press article, the vice president of the
    Jewish Community of Chile noted various acts of vandalism of homes in
    Santiago, Lota, and Puerto Montt. There were approximately 15,000
    members of the Jewish community.
        Neo-Nazi and skinhead groups engaged in gang-type criminal
    activities and violence against immigrants, gays and lesbians, punk
    rockers, and anarchists. Some skinhead groups shared the anti-Semitic
    rhetoric of neo-Nazi groups.
        On June 17, the Vina del Mar penal court convicted Elliot Quijada,
    a neo-Nazi militant, of illegal arms possession as well as of hate
    crimes for his September 2009 harassment of Lily Perez, who is Jewish,
    during her campaign for senator. The court sentenced Quijada to 600
    days of prison for illegal arms possession and fined him approximately
    1.85 million pesos ($3,565) for hate speech.

        Trafficking in Persons.--For information on trafficking in persons,
    please see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons
    Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        Persons With Disabilities.--The law prohibits discrimination
    against persons with physical, sensory, intellectual, and mental
    disabilities in employment, education, access to health care, and
    access to state services, and the Government effectively enforced these
    provisions. However, such persons suffered forms of de facto
    discrimination. In 2008 the New Faces Foundation, an NGO that provides
    attention to impoverished adults with mental or psychological
    disabilities, reported an estimated 60,000 persons suffered from
    moderate or severe mental disability, nearly half of whom received no
    mental health attention. Approximately 100,000 persons under the age of
    27 with disabilities did not receive any special care or education.
        The Government did not effectively implement laws and programs to
    ensure that persons with disabilities have access to buildings,
    information, and communications. A majority of public buildings did not
    comply with legal accessibility mandates. An improved transportation
    system in Santiago provided additional, but still limited,
    accessibility for persons with disabilities. Public transportation
    outside of the capital remained problematic.
        The National Fund for Persons with Disabilities under the
    jurisdiction of the Ministry of Planning has responsibility for
    protecting the rights of persons with disabilities and for creating
    programs to promote their better integration into society.

        National/Racial/Ethnic Minorities.--In general, societal violence
    or discrimination against members of national, racial, or ethnic
    minorities or groups was not a problem. However, on December 27, the
    regional director of the Solidarity and Social Investment Fund (a part
    of the Ministry of Planning) in Arica-Parinacota resigned after an
    employee of African descent, who had been fired, accused him of racism
    and discrimination based on his skin color.

        Indigenous People.--The law gives indigenous persons (approximately
    5 percent of the total population) the right to participate in
    decisions affecting their lands, cultures, and traditions; and provides
    for bilingual education in schools with indigenous populations.
    However, both internal factors and governmental policies limited the
    participation of indigenous persons in these decisions. Indigenous
    persons also experienced some societal discrimination, and there were
    reported incidents in which they were attacked and harassed.
        There were isolated instances of violence between the Mapuche and
    landowners, logging companies, and police in the southern part of the
    country. The actions usually took the form of protests regarding
    historic Mapuche concerns about their rights to ancestral lands.
    Instances of rock throwing; land occupations; and burning crops,
    buildings, or vehicles occurred. Mapuche activists and police forces
    stationed in the area to guard private lands sometimes engaged in
    skirmishes.
        The Citizens' Observatory (OC) reported police searches of Mapuche
    homes without a warrant, arrests and releases of Mapuche individuals
    without a detention control hearing, and police use of intimidation and
    discriminatory statements against Mapuche individuals, including
    minors. The OC also reported that alleged police abuse of Mapuche
    individuals often occurred during the implementation of court-ordered
    arrests or search warrants.
        On November 16, the Temuco Appellate Court found that carabineros
    had violated the constitutional rights of children from the Mapuche
    community Muko Bajo. Carabineros had conducted interviews at the Blanco
    Lepin Rewe Kimun School during school hours, allegedly for the purpose
    of gaining information from youths about Mapuche individuals under
    investigation under the antiterrorism law. The students reported that
    they were harassed by the police. The appellate court put in place a
    protective order prohibiting such actions without a court order. The
    same appellate court put in place a similar protective order after PDI
    officers interrogated children from the same community on May 18. On
    December 3, the press reported that carabineros had again interviewed a
    10-year-old from the same indigenous community.
        On November 8, military prosecutor Rodrigo Vera completed his
    investigation and recommended a sentence of 15 years for Special Forces
    police Corporal Miguel Patricio Jara, indicted for the August 2009
    death of Jaime Mendoza. Mendoza was shot and killed while he and
    approximately 30 other Mapuche individuals occupied private land in
    Ercilla. The military prosecutor's report established that Jara was not
    attacked and that Mendoza did not use a firearm. The case was pending
    before a military judge in Valdivia at year's end.
        On August 20, a Santiago military court convicted carabineros
    Corporal Walter Ramirez of ``unnecessary violence resulting in death''
    and sentenced him to three years in prison for the 2008 shooting of
    Matias Catrileo during an occupation by indigenous persons of private
    land. The ruling increased the sentence handed down by a Valdivia
    military tribunal on January 15, but allowed Ramirez to serve time on
    parole. Ramirez remained on active duty, and an appeal before the
    Supreme Court was pending at year's end.
        The Ethical Commission Against Torture's annual report noted that
    as of June the Government used the antiterrorism law to prosecute 57
    Mapuche individuals or sympathizers whose protests included destruction
    of property, attacks on farms, or confrontations with police. In
    addition seven Mapuche individuals were under prosecution in the
    military justice system. In 2009 the Working Group on the UN Human
    Rights Council Universal Periodic Review, the UN Committee on the
    Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination, and the UN
    rapporteur on indigenous peoples all recommended that the Government
    limit its application of the antiterrorism law in the context of
    Mapuche protests.
        On July 12, more than 30 Mapuche prisoners, the majority of whom
    were awaiting trial, went on a hunger strike to protest their
    prosecution under the antiterrorism law and the military justice
    system. The Government entered into negotiations with the hunger
    strikers in September, and on October 1, a majority of them called off
    their strike after the Government agreed to reclassify its charges
    against the Mapuche prisoners under the ordinary penal code and to push
    forward reform of the military justice system. Congress passed reforms
    to the antiterrorism law September 30. The remaining Mapuche prisoners
    ceased their hunger strike on October 9 after the Government agreed to
    present legislation that would provide constitutional recognition of
    the country's indigenous peoples.
        However, trials of Mapuche individuals under the antiterrorism law
    continued at year's end. On November 8, a criminal trial began in
    Canete against 18 Mapuches charged by the public prosecutor with a
    series of antiterrorist crimes, including terrorist illicit association
    and frustrated homicide during a 2008 attack on a public prosecutor and
    police. The trial was pending at year's end. Five of the 18 were
    simultaneously prosecuted in the military justice system. On December
    16, the five individuals were acquitted by a military court in Valdivia
    on grounds of insufficient evidence.
        On December 11, the Network of NGOs for Children and the Support
    for Unprotected Children Foundation began an online campaign to protest
    the continued application of the antiterrorism law to three Mapuche
    youth held in a SENAME juvenile justice facility awaiting trial. On
    December 31, the Temuco Appellate Court upheld a lower court's denial
    of conditional release for one of the youths.
        On December 30, a legal reform of the military justice system went
    into effect that restricts the jurisdiction of the military courts to
    members of the armed forces and carabineros and explicitly prohibits
    the prosecution of minors in the military justice system. The law
    includes transition measures and procedures for the transfer more than
    4,600 cases to the ordinary criminal justice system. The reform did not
    change the jurisdiction of the military justice system for prosecuting
    all types of crimes committed by members of the Armed Forces or
    carabineros.
        The National Corporation for Indigenous Development (CONADI), which
    included directly elected indigenous representatives, advised and
    directed government programs to assist the economic development of
    indigenous people. CONADI also administered the Land and Water Fund,
    which provides mechanisms and financing for the acquisition of lands
    and water rights by indigenous communities. Indigenous rights experts
    pointed out that the majority of land transferred to indigenous
    communities via the Land and Water Fund was land already in use by
    indigenous communities. During the year indigenous groups staged
    protests over ancestral land disputes.
        On July 31, indigenous Rapa Nui families on Easter Island began a
    sit-in at private and public buildings, including Hotel Hanga Roa, to
    demand the restitution of ancestral lands. On September 7, a police
    contingent, accused of using excessive force, evicted the protesters.
    Protesters reoccupied the buildings afterwards, and the sit-in
    continued at some of the buildings at year's end. The press reported
    that the Rapa Nui protesters filed for a protection order before the
    IACHR on October 1 to prevent the violation of their civil and property
    rights. On December 3, a police contingent evicted 11 Rapa Nui
    protesters who had been occupying a government-owned property and
    detained three of them. Protesters alleged that the police used
    excessive force at that time and hours later when a group of Rapa Nui
    individuals returned to the site. The press reported nearly 40 injured
    in the clash, including three Rapa Nui and one carabinero who were
    airlifted to the continent for medical treatment. The Government
    announced a significant increase in the police contingent on the
    island. On December 27, a public prosecutor announced that he would
    indict 17 protesters involved in the Hotel Hanga Roa sit-in. On
    December 28, the Valparaiso Appellate Court agreed to process a
    protective order in favor of the Rapa Nui injured on December 3. On
    December 29, a police contingent evicted protesters from the Hanga Roa
    civic plaza, where they had constructed makeshift shelters and had been
    demonstrating since March; 10 protesters were injured and nine were
    arrested. On December 30, the INDH issued a statement deploring
    excessive use of force by police.
        In its 2010 annual report, the Observatory for the Protection of
    Human Rights reported arbitrary detention, intimidation, and harassment
    of Mapuche community leaders and legal representatives, as well as of
    NGOs associated with the promotion of indigenous rights and journalists
    who cover the issue.

        Societal Abuses, Discrimination, and Acts of Violence Based on
    Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.--Gay marches and rallies
    occurred in Santiago and elsewhere in the country without violence or
    other incidents. The events received appropriate government
    authorization. The Movement for Homosexual Integration and Liberation
    (MOVILH) reported 124 cases of discrimination due to sexual orientation
    in 2009, compared with 65 reported cases in 2008, an increase the
    MOVILH attributed to the open debate over the rights of sexual
    minorities during the 2009 presidential campaign, the publication of a
    manual on diversity and sexual orientation education, and a decision by
    the family court to grant a gay man custody of his two children.
        In May 2009 a LGBT couple (former carabineros) sued the state for
    50 million pesos each ($96,000), alleging that their superiors
    threatened to make public their sexual orientations if they did not
    resign. The case remained pending at year's end.

        Other Societal Violence or Discrimination.--The law prohibits
    discrimination against persons on the basis of their HIV status, and in
    the area of healthcare, the law provides that neither public nor
    private health institutions can deny access to healthcare services on
    the basis of a person's serological status. However, several HIV-
    positive women interviewed for a study by the Center for Reproductive
    Rights recounted receiving discriminatory treatment in the healthcare
    setting, especially in reproductive health services. Problems included
    delayed care, verbal abuse, pressure not to have children, or refusal
    of treatment.

    Section 7. Worker Rights
        a. The Right of Association.--Workers have the right to form and
    join independent unions of their choice without previous authorization.
    The law enables some government interference in union political and
    financial activity. Union leaders are restricted from being members of
    political parties, and the Directorate of Labor has broad powers to
    monitor union accounts and financial transactions. The Government
    estimated that 13 percent of the total workforce (approximately 6.7
    million) was unionized in 9,801 registered unions. Police and military
    personnel may not organize.
        The law allows strikes, with some limitations, and the Government
    protected this right in practice. Public employees do not enjoy the
    right to strike, however, public sector strikes sometimes occurred. On
    August 26, an estimated 80,000 public employees began a 24-hour strike
    to protest significant layoffs in the public sector; on November 24, a
    reported 400,000 employees began an open-ended strike for higher wages.
    The strike ended on December 16 when public employees agreed to the
    originally offered 4.2 percent pay increase.
        While employees in the private sector have the right to strike, the
    Government regulated and placed some restrictions on this right.
    Strikes by agricultural workers during the harvest season are
    prohibited. The law also proscribes employees of 31 private sector
    companies, largely providers of services such as water and electricity,
    from striking, and stipulates compulsory arbitration to resolve
    disputes in these companies.
        The law does not specifically prohibit employers from dismissing
    striking workers; however, employers must show cause and pay severance
    benefits if they dismiss strikers.

        b. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively.--Collective
    bargaining is protected by law, but the right of some public employees,
    entertainers, and temporary agricultural, construction, and port
    workers to bargain collectively is limited. The Government guarantees
    collective bargaining rights only at the company level, and where the
    employer agrees to negotiate with the collective. Collective bargaining
    in the agricultural sector remained dependent on employers' agreeing to
    negotiate. Intercompany unions are permitted to bargain collectively
    only when the individual employers agrees to negotiate under such
    terms.
        According to Freedom House and the International Trade Union
    Confederation, antiunion practices--including violence against union
    leaders, unfair dismissals of union leaders, and replacement of
    striking workers--continued to occur. NGOs reported companies also used
    subcontracts and temporary contracts as a form of antiunion
    discrimination and to increase the size of the workforce without
    collective bargaining rights.
        There are no export processing zones.

        c. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor.--The law prohibits
    forced or compulsory labor; however, there were reports that such
    practices occurred, primarily for domestic servitude and forced
    prostitution, including by children. Child prostitution remained a
    problem, and some children were forcibly employed in the drug trade.
    Foreign citizens were trafficked into the country for forced labor,
    notably in domestic servitude, mining, and agriculture.
        Also see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons
    Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        d. Prohibition of Child Labor and Minimum Age for Employment.--The
    law protects children from exploitation in the workplace, and the
    Government generally enforced these laws. However, despite laws
    restricting child labor, the employment of children was a problem in
    the informal economy and in agriculture. Children worked in the
    production of ceramics and books, and in the repair of shoes and
    garments. In urban areas boys commonly worked and carried loads in
    agricultural loading docks and assisted in construction activities,
    while girls sold goods on the streets and worked as domestic servants.
    Children in rural areas were involved in caring for farm animals, as
    well as harvesting, collecting, and selling crops, such as wheat,
    potatoes, oats, and quinoa. Children also worked in fishing and
    forestry. Children continued to be exploited for commercial sex and
    used in the production and sale of drugs and to transport drugs in the
    border area with Peru and Bolivia.
        The law provides that children between the ages of 15 and 18 may
    work with the express permission of their parents or guardians, so long
    as they attend school. They may perform only light work that does not
    require hard physical labor or constitute a threat to health or the
    child's development. When attending school, children may not work more
    than 30 hours a week and in no case more than eight hours a day or
    between the hours of 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. Employers at the local Ministry
    of Labor inspector's office must register their work contracts.
        During the year there were 571 detected cases of children and
    adolescents involved in the worst forms of child labor, compared with
    288 cases in 2009; 44 percent of these cases involved girls. Most
    reported child and adolescent labor cases involved children over the
    age of 15 and children not enrolled in school. Examples included
    commercial sexual exploitation, workplaces lacking minimum safety and
    health conditions, and illegal activities.
        Ministry of Labor inspectors enforced regulations, and while
    compliance in the formal economy was high, children were employed in
    the informal economy. During the year the Ministry of Labor imposed
    some form of sanction in 104 cases involving violations of child labor
    laws, compared with 47 cases from January to October 2009.
        The Government devoted considerable resources and oversight to
    child labor policies. SENAME, in coordination with labor inspectors,
    identified and assisted children in abusive or dangerous situations.
    SENAME also implemented public education programs to raise awareness
    and worked with the International Labor Organization to operate
    rehabilitation programs. The Ministry of Labor convened regular
    meetings of a business-labor-government group to monitor progress in
    eradicating child labor.

        e. Acceptable Conditions of Work.--The minimum wage is set by law
    and is subject to annual adjustment. A committee composed of
    government, employer, and labor representatives normally suggests a
    minimum wage based on projected inflation and increases in
    productivity. On July 1, the minimum wage increased 4.2 percent to
    172,000 pesos ($331) a month. This wage did not provide a worker and
    family with a decent standard of living. As of March 1, the minimum
    wage for domestic servants was 92 percent of that for other
    occupations. The minimum wage for workers over age 65 and under 18 was
    128,400 pesos ($247) a month. 720,000 Chileans (11 percent of the
    workforce) make the minimum wage or less; over 1 million make between 1
    and 1.25 times the minimum wage. The Labor Directorate, under the
    Ministry of Labor, was responsible for enforcing minimum wage and other
    labor laws and regulations, and it did so effectively.
        The law sets the legal workweek at six days or 45 hours. The
    maximum workday length is 10 hours (including two hours of overtime
    pay), but some categories, such as caretakers and domestic servants,
    are exempt. The law mandates at least one 24-hour rest period during
    the workweek, except for workers at high altitudes, who may exchange a
    work-free day each week for several consecutive work-free days every
    two weeks. The law establishes fines for employers who compel workers
    to work in excess of 10 hours a day or do not provide adequate rest
    days. The Government effectively enforced these standards.
        The law establishes occupational safety and health standards, which
    were administered by the Ministries of Health and Labor and effectively
    enforced. Insurance mutual funds provide workers' compensation and
    occupational safety training for the private and public sectors. The
    law protects employment of workers who remove themselves from dangerous
    situations if labor inspectors from the Labor Directorate and
    occupational safety and health inspectors from the country's Safety
    Association determine conditions that endanger their health or safety
    exist. Authorities effectively enforced the standards and frequently
    imposed fines for workplace violations.

                                   __________

                                    COLOMBIA

        Colombia is a constitutional, multiparty democracy with a
    population of approximately 45 million. On June 20, Unity Party
    presidential candidate Juan Manuel Santos was elected in elections that
    were considered generally free and fair. On August 7, President Santos
    assumed office from President Alvaro Uribe. The 46-year internal armed
    conflict continued between the Government and terrorist organizations,
    particularly the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the
    National Liberation Army (ELN). Security forces reported to civilian
    authorities. There were instances in which elements of the security
    forces acted independently of civilian control.
        The following societal problems and governmental human rights
    abuses were reported during the year: unlawful and extrajudicial
    killings; insubordinate military collaboration with new illegal armed
    groups and paramilitary members who refused to demobilize; forced
    disappearances; torture and mistreatment of detainees; overcrowded and
    insecure prisons; arbitrary detentions; impunity and an inefficient
    judiciary subject to intimidation; illegal surveillance of civilian
    groups, political opponents, and government agencies; occasional
    harassment and intimidation of journalists; unhygienic conditions at
    settlements for displaced persons, with limited access to health care,
    education, or employment; corruption; harassment of human rights groups
    and activists, including unfounded prosecutions; violence against
    women, including rape; violence against Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and
    Transgender (LGBT) persons based on sexual orientation; child abuse and
    child prostitution; trafficking in women and children for the purpose
    of sexual exploitation; some societal discrimination against women,
    indigenous persons, and Afro-Colombians; and illegal child labor.
        The FARC and ELN committed the following human rights abuses:
    political killings; killings of members of the public security forces
    and local officials; widespread use of landmines; kidnappings and
    forced disappearances; massive forced displacements; subornation and
    intimidation of judges, prosecutors, and witnesses; infringement on
    citizens' privacy rights; restrictions on freedom of movement;
    widespread recruitment and use of child soldiers; attacks against human
    rights activists; violence against women, including rape and forced
    abortions; and harassment, intimidation, and killings of teachers and
    trade unionists.
        New illegal armed groups, which included some former paramilitary
    members, also committed numerous human rights abuses. The last United
    Self Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) bloc demobilized in 2006, but AUC
    members who refused to demobilize, AUC members who demobilized but
    later abandoned the peace process, and other new illegal armed groups
    remained targets of arrest and criminal prosecution. These new groups
    lacked the political agenda, organization, reach, and military capacity
    of the former AUC and focused primarily on narcotics trafficking and
    extortion. The AUC demobilization led to a reduction in killings and
    other human rights abuses, but paramilitary members who refused to
    demobilize and new illegal armed groups continued to commit numerous
    unlawful acts and related abuses, including: political killings and
    kidnappings; physical violence; forced displacement; subornation and
    intimidation of judges, prosecutors, and witnesses; infringement on
    citizens' privacy rights; restrictions on freedom of movement;
    recruitment and use of child soldiers; violence against women,
    including rape; and harassment, intimidation, and killings of human
    rights workers, journalists, teachers, and trade unionists.
        The Government made demonstrable advances in improving the human
    rights environment. The Santos administration strengthened the
    Government's relationship with the human rights community by publicly
    expressing support for human rights defenders and engaging them in
    dialogue. In addition, the Santos administration implemented new
    policies to accelerate the return of land to displaced families and
    advanced a Land and Victims Law to provide for land restitution and
    victims' reparations. Extrajudicial executions continued to decline,
    and several senior military officers were convicted of human rights
    abuses.

                            RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

    Section 1. Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom
            From:
        a. Arbitrary or Unlawful Deprivation of Life.--Political and
    unlawful killings remained an extremely serious problem, and there were
    some reports that members of the security forces committed
    extrajudicial killings during the internal armed conflict (see section
    1.g.). There were significantly fewer reports of military officials
    presenting murdered civilians as killed in combat than in 2008 or 2009.
        The Jesuit-founded Center for Popular Research and Education
    (CINEP), a local human rights nongovernmental organization (NGO),
    reported excessive police violence against civilians. For example, on
    April 23, in Chiquinquira, Boyaca, police officers allegedly beat 67-
    year-old Jaime Elias Rozo Salinas after arresting him for public
    drunkenness. The following day he was found seriously injured on a park
    bench. Rozo Salinas remained in a coma until he died from his injuries
    on June 29. The Prosecutor General's Office was investigating the case
    at year's end.
        CINEP reported that there were at least 155 political and unlawful
    killings, committed by all actors, during the first six months of the
    year, 37 fewer than those reported in the same period in 2009. Some
    NGOs, such as CINEP, considered the new illegal armed groups to be a
    continuation of the paramilitary groups and attributed reports of human
    rights violations committed by these groups directly to the Government.
    Those NGOs also included killings by these groups in their definition
    of ``unlawful killings'' (see section 1.g.).
        Some members of government security forces, including enlisted
    personnel, noncommissioned officers, and senior officials, in violation
    of orders from the president and the military high command,
    collaborated with or tolerated the activities of new illegal armed
    groups, which included some former paramilitary members. Such
    collaboration occasionally facilitated unlawful killings and may have
    involved direct participation in atrocities.
        For example, CINEP reported:
        On January 27, army troops in Miraflores, Guavire, allegedly
    committed the extrajudicial killing of two civilians, Jose Heli Gamboa
    Benilla and Henry Lopez Romero, who were farmers and representatives of
    their community. Men presumed to be soldiers arrived at Lopez Romero's
    farm and forced him, his family, and 12 others to the floor and killed
    the two men. Soldiers took their bodies to San Jose de Guaviare and
    presented them as having been killed in combat. The case was pending at
    year's end.
        On March 31, near Oripaya, North Santander, police officers
    allegedly committed the extrajudicial killing of Pedro Gustavo Ladino
    Sierra. Ladino Sierra, a publicist, was traveling on motorcycle between
    Cucuta and Puerto Santander when he was stopped at a police roadblock.
    His body was found on April 2. The case was pending at year's end.
        In certain areas, such as Medellin, Antioquia; Tierralta, Cordoba;
    Tumaco, Narino; Buenaventura, Valle del Cauca; the Uraba region of
    Antioquia and Choco; and Meta, corrupt dealings reportedly continued
    between local military and police forces and new illegal armed groups,
    which included some former paramilitary members. Although impunity for
    these military personnel remained a problem, the Ministry of Defense
    carried out investigations and handed over culpable parties to civilian
    authorities in a number of high-profile cases during the year. On
    December 30, Commander of the Army General Alejandro Navas said the
    army was investigating more than 100 soldiers for possible ties to an
    illegal armed group in Meta and Guaviare. Authorities continued to
    investigate the 2009 case of 11 members of the police accused of
    collaborating with the illegal group Oficina de Envigado.
        In conformity with the law, military or civilian authorities
    investigated killings committed by security forces. In December the
    Supreme Court elected a new prosecutor general after a 16-month
    vacancy. Investigations of past killings proceeded, albeit slowly. Some
    high-profile cases against military personnel resulted in convictions
    or were reopened in large part due to testimony in the Justice and
    Peace process.
        According to the NGO Landmine Monitor, nongovernmental actors,
    particularly the FARC and ELN, planted new landmines (see section
    1.g.).
        Guerrillas, notably the FARC and ELN, committed unlawful killings
    (see section 1.g.).
        New illegal armed groups, which included some former paramilitary
    members, committed numerous political and unlawful killings, primarily
    in areas under dispute with guerrillas or without a strong government
    presence (see section 1.g.).
        The Presidential Program for Human Rights reported that through the
    end of August, illegal armed groups killed 127 persons in 26 massacres
    (defined by the Government as killings of four or more persons), a 65
    percent increase in the number of massacre victims from the same period
    in 2009 (see section 1.g.).

        b. Disappearance.--Forced disappearances, many of them politically
    motivated, continued to occur. A joint report by NGOs Latin America
    Working Group and U.S. Office on Colombia in December reported that the
    Government's National Search Commission had documented a total of
    51,000 forced disappearances registered in Colombia as of November
    2010, with 7,197 found alive, 1,366 found dead, and 460 listed as
    ``annulled.'' The report said more than 42,000 either remained
    disappeared or may have been victims of forced disappearance. The
    Prosecutor General's Office charged three members of the armed forces
    in cases of forced disappearance during the year. According to the
    Presidential Program and the Disappeared Persons registry, coordinated
    by the National Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Science, 2,900
    persons were reported as forcibly disappeared during the first eight
    months of year. In 2009 the Government presented a new interagency plan
    to improve efforts to identify remains of victims of forced
    disappearances. The Government returned 1,295 remains to family
    members.
        On July 7, retired colonel Alfonso Plazas Vega was sentenced to 30
    years in prison for his role in the forced disappearance of 11 persons
    during the 1985 Palace of Justice siege. Plazas Vega was not convicted
    for violence that occurred during the siege, but rather for the forced
    disappearance of 11 survivors, who went missing after they left the
    Palace in military custody. At year's end Plazas Vega remained in
    custody in a military base and had not been transferred to prison while
    his case was pending appeal.
        In June 2009 the Prosecutor General's Office reopened the 1989 case
    of the Rochela massacre, in which paramilitary forces, working in
    collaboration with elements of the military, killed 12 judicial
    officials investigating the forced disappearances of 19 merchants.
    Retired generals Juan Salcedo Lora and Alfonso Vaca Perilla were
    implicated in the massacre and were under investigation. The case was
    pending at year's end.
        Kidnapping, both for ransom and for political reasons, remained a
    serious problem. The Government's National Fund for the Defense of
    Personal Liberty (Fondelibertad) estimated 282 people were kidnapped
    during the year (64 by the FARC, 35 by the ELN, and the rest by other
    illegal groups). Fondelibertad reported that 188 of the kidnappings
    were for extortion, an increase of more than 17 percent from 2009.
    Fondelibertad reported that 79 people were held in captivity as of
    April and more than 600 cases were under review. Some human rights
    groups questioned the Government statistics, arguing that many cases
    went unreported and that several hundred kidnapping victims were held
    at year's end.
        The Unified Action Groups for Personal Liberty, military, and
    police entities formed to combat kidnapping and extortion, and other
    elements of the security forces freed more than 60 hostages during the
    year; Fondelibertad reported that at least six kidnapping victims died
    in captivity through August, compared with two in 2009. The FARC and
    ELN, as well as new illegal armed groups, which included some former
    paramilitary members, and bands of common criminals continued the
    practice of kidnapping. All illegal groups, including guerrillas,
    sometimes killed kidnapping victims (see section 1.g.). The FARC
    voluntarily released 26 individuals through August.

        c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or
    Punishment.--Although the law prohibits such practices, there were
    reports that the police, military, and prison guards sometimes
    mistreated and tortured detainees. Members of the military and police
    accused of torture generally were tried in civilian rather than
    military courts. CINEP asserted that during the first six months of the
    year, government security forces were involved in 16 incidents of
    torture, the same as in the first six months of 2009. The Human Rights
    Unit of the Prosecutor General's Office charged three members of the
    armed forces with torture during the year. On December 31, a court in
    Antioquia sentenced one army officer and four professional soldiers to
    40 years in prison for the May 2005 torture and death of Maria Graciela
    Santamaria Galeano.
        CINEP reported, for example, that:
        On April 7, members of the 19th Mobile Brigade arbitrarily detained
    and beat three individuals at a roadblock. Soldiers allegedly pushed
    the men to the ground and beat and kicked them while the men held their
    hands on their heads.
        On April 20, a prison guard at the Dona Juana Penitentiary
    allegedly grabbed inmate Rigoberto Garcia Gutierrez by the neck,
    dragged him to the dining room and beat and kicked him before sending
    him to the prison infirmary.
        There were no developments in the following cases from 2009: the
    alleged detainment and torture of Gerardo Barona Avirama and James
    Barona Avirama; the alleged torture of 16-year-old Neftali Blanco; and
    the alleged detainment and torture of Oscar Gomez Zapata.
        CINEP reported that demobilized paramilitary members were
    responsible for at least seven cases of torture through June, compared
    with 24 in the same period of 2009.
        On October 14, three children were found dead in a shallow grave in
    Arauca; the eldest, a 14-year-old girl, had been raped. On November 2,
    Commander of the Army, General Navas, announced that he was suspending
    seven soldiers from the army's Fifth Mobile Brigade for failing to
    control their troops: Lt. Col. German Belalcazar Arciniegas, Lt. Col.
    James Edison Pineda Parra, Maj. James Alberto Granada, Lt. Raul Munoz
    Linares, Sgt. Luis Giovani Torrijos Medina, Cpl. Juan Estevan Sanchez
    Bonilla, and Cpl. Robinson Javier Castro. On November 3, the Prosecutor
    General's Office charged Lieutenant Raul Munoz Linares with raping the
    girl and killing her and her brothers and with raping another
    adolescent girl on October 2. The case remained under investigation by
    the civilian justice system at year's end.

        Prison and Detention Center Conditions.--With the exception of new
    facilities, prison conditions were poor, particularly for prisoners
    without significant outside support. The National Prison Institute
    (INPEC) runs the country's 142 national prisons and is responsible for
    inspecting municipal jails. A 2009 Committee in Solidarity with
    Political Prisoners (CSPP) report on prison conditions noted
    overcrowding contributed to poor ventilation, overtaxed sanitary and
    medical facilities, and inadequate food in some detention centers.
    Prisoners in some high-altitude facilities complained of inadequate
    blankets and warm clothing, while prisoners in more tropical facilities
    complained that overcrowding and inadequate ventilation caused high
    temperatures in prison cells.
        Overcrowding, lack of security, and an insufficient budget remained
    serious problems in the prison system. More than 84,000 prisoners were
    held in facilities designed to hold fewer than 64,000; overcrowding
    rates exceeded 29 percent. Many of INPEC's prison guards were poorly
    trained, but the NGO CSPP noted that improved training, increased
    supervision, and more accountability for prison guards helped. INPEC
    spent 5,300 pesos ($2.95) per day on each inmate for food. Private
    sources continued to supplement food rations of many prisoners.
        INPEC reported that through August there were16 violent deaths
    among inmates related to fighting and the 26 riots that occurred at
    various penal institutions. The Prosecutor General's Office continued
    to investigate allegations that some prison guards routinely used
    excessive force and treated inmates brutally. According to INPEC, 23
    prison guards were convicted of extortion and conspiracy during the
    year.
        The law prohibits holding pretrial detainees with convicted
    prisoners, although this sometimes occurred. Minors were not held with
    adults; however, minor children of some of the 5,684 female prisoners
    could stay with their mothers in some cases.
        The Government permitted independent monitoring of prison
    conditions by local and international human rights groups, and such
    monitoring occurred during the year. Prisoners had reasonable access to
    visitors and were allowed to continue their religious practices.
    Prisoners were allowed access to legal representatives and the ability
    to submit complaints to judicial authorities and request investigations
    of inhumane conditions. While authorities investigated such claims,
    some prisoners complained that the investigations were slow and not
    accessible to the public. The Government continued a pilot program with
    local universities and other organizations to identify and attend to
    human rights issues within prisons. Prisoners could seek out third
    parties from local NGOs or government entities such as the Ombudsman's
    Office to represent them in legal matters and in seeking investigations
    of prison conditions.
        The FARC and ELN continued to deny the International Committee of
    the Red Cross (ICRC) access to police and military hostages.

        d. Arbitrary Arrest or Detention.--Although the law prohibits
    arbitrary arrest and detention, there were allegations that authorities
    detained citizens arbitrarily.

        Role of the Police and Security Apparatus.--The National Police are
    responsible for internal law enforcement and are under the jurisdiction
    of the Ministry of Defense. Law enforcement duties are shared with the
    Administrative Department of Security (DAS) and the Prosecutor
    General's Corps of Technical Investigators (CTI). The army also shared
    limited responsibility for law enforcement and maintenance of order
    within the country. For example, military units sometimes provided
    logistical support and security for criminal investigators to collect
    evidence in high-conflict or hard-to-reach areas. The Government
    continued to expand education and training for the armed forces in
    human rights and international humanitarian law (IHL). The Government's
    comprehensive human rights and IHL policy for the public security
    forces emphasized designing better instruction processes and practical
    training in human rights. During the year the Prosecutor General's
    Human Rights Unit issued 28 arrest orders for armed forces personnel
    involved in extrajudicial killings, the majority of which occurred
    before 2010. However, claims of impunity continued to be widespread,
    due in some cases to obstruction of justice, a lack of resources for
    investigations and protection for witnesses and investigators, delay
    tactics by defense attorneys, and inadequate coordination among
    government entities that sometimes caused terms of incarceration to
    end, thereby resulting in a defendant's release from jail before trial.
    Many human rights groups criticized the Prosecutor General's Office for
    indicting low-ranking military personnel while avoiding investigations
    of high-ranking intellectual authors. The Ministry of Defense relieved
    from duty four officers and 10 noncommissioned officers and soldiers of
    the armed forces for inefficiency, unethical conduct, corruption, and
    other reasons through the end of August. Since 2000, 496 officers and
    1,245 noncommissioned officers and soldiers have been retired from the
    army for these reasons.

        Arrest Procedures and Treatment While in Detention.--Police
    apprehended suspects with warrants issued by prosecutors based on
    probable cause. However, a warrant is not required to arrest criminals
    caught in the act or fleeing the scene of a crime. Members of the armed
    forces detained members of illegal armed groups captured in combat but
    were not authorized to execute arrest warrants; however, members of the
    CTI, who accompanied military units, could issue such warrants.
        Under the accusatorial system that took effect nationwide in
    January 2008, persons detained must be brought before a judge within 36
    hours to determine the validity of the detention. Formal charges must
    then be brought within 30 days, and a trial must start within 90 days
    of the initial detention.
        Bail is available for all but serious crimes such as murder,
    rebellion, or narcotics trafficking. Nearly 1,600 public defenders from
    the Office of the Human Rights Ombudsman assisted indigent defendants.
    Detainees were granted prompt access to legal counsel and family as
    provided for under the law.
        Prominent human rights NGOs complained that the Government
    arbitrarily detained hundreds of persons, particularly social leaders,
    labor activists, and human rights defenders. CINEP reported that
    security forces arbitrarily detained 30 persons during the first six
    months of the year, compared with 113 in the same period of 2009. Many
    of these detentions took place in high-conflict areas (notably in the
    departments of Caqueta, Antioquia, and Putumayo) where the military was
    engaged in fighting insurgents.
        The Government and prominent local NGOs frequently disagreed on
    what constituted ``arbitrary detention.'' While the Government
    characterized detentions based on compliance with legal requirements,
    NGOs applied other criteria in defining ``arbitrary detention,'' such
    as arrests based on tips from informants about persons linked to
    guerrilla activities, detentions by members of the security forces
    without a judicial order, detentions based on administrative authority,
    detentions during military operations, large-scale detentions, and
    detentions of persons while they were ``exercising their fundamental
    rights.''
        Failure on the part of many local military commanders and jail
    supervisors to keep mandatory detention records or follow notification
    procedures made accounting for all detainees difficult.

        e. Denial of Fair Public Trial.--While the law provides for an
    independent judiciary, much of the judicial system was overburdened,
    inefficient, and hindered by subornation and intimidation of judges,
    prosecutors, and witnesses. In these circumstances impunity remained a
    serious problem, although the Government took action to address these
    issues. The Superior Judicial Council (CSJ) reported that the civilian
    judicial system suffered from a significant backlog of cases, which led
    to large numbers of pretrial detainees. Implementation of the oral
    accusatory system, which was enacted throughout the criminal justice
    system in 2008, significantly increased conviction rates on newer cases
    while also lessening the delays and getting rid of the secrecy that
    encumbered the old system. However, a large backlog of old-system cases
    remained.
        Judicial authorities were subjected to threats and acts of
    violence. According to the protection program in the Prosecutor
    General's Office, from January through August 119 judicial employees
    sought varying forms of protection from the CSJ for reasons including
    threats. Although the Prosecutor General's Office ran a witness
    protection program for witnesses in criminal cases, witnesses who did
    not enter the program remained vulnerable to intimidation, and many
    refused to testify.
        There was little change in situation reported in 2009 by the UN
    special rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers that the
    existence of a high level of threats and attacks against judicial
    personnel contributed to a high rate of impunity.
        The military justice system may investigate and prosecute active
    duty military and police personnel for crimes ``related to acts of
    military service.'' The military penal code specifically defines
    torture, genocide, massacre, and forced disappearance as crimes
    unrelated to military service. All human rights violations are
    considered unrelated to military service and must be handled by the
    civilian justice system, although this did not always happen in
    practice. More than 231 homicide cases were transferred during the year
    from the military to the civilian justice system. Of these, 140 were
    sent directly by the military system. In 91 cases the Superior Judicial
    Council decided jurisdiction in favor of the civilian courts. The
    military penal code specifically excludes civilians from military
    jurisdiction, and civilian courts must try retired military and police
    personnel, although military courts are responsible for service-related
    acts committed prior to their retirement.
        The military penal code denies commanders the power to impose
    military justice discipline on their subordinates and extends legal
    protection to service members who refuse to obey orders to commit human
    rights abuses. The army has discretionary authority to dismiss
    personnel who may be implicated in human rights abuses.
        The Prosecutor General's Office is responsible for investigations
    and prosecutions of criminal offenses. Its Human Rights Unit, which
    includes 13 satellite offices, specializes in investigating human
    rights crimes, and its 100 specialized prosecutors were handling a
    total of 5,728 active cases at the end of November.
        The Inspector General's Office investigates allegations of
    misconduct by public employees, including members of the state security
    forces. The Inspector General's Office referred all cases of human
    rights violations it received to the Prosecutor General's Human Rights
    Unit.
        During the year the Inspector General's Office opened disciplinary
    processes against 34 members of the armed forces for human rights
    offenses. In addition, the Prosecutor General's Office achieved
    convictions of 95 military personnel during the year.

        Trial Procedures.--Under the new accusatorial criminal procedure
    code, the prosecutor presents an accusation and evidence before an
    impartial judge at an oral, public trial. The defendant is presumed
    innocent and has the right to confront the evidence against him at
    trial and to present his own evidence. No juries are involved. Crimes
    committed before implementation of the new code were processed under
    the prior written inquisitorial system in which the prosecutor is an
    investigating magistrate who investigates, determines evidence, and
    makes a finding of guilt or innocence. The ``trial'' was actually the
    presentation of evidence and finding of guilt to a judge for
    ratification or rejection.
        In the military justice system, military judges preside over
    courts-martial without juries. Counsel may represent the accused and
    call witnesses, but the majority of fact-finding takes place during the
    investigative stage. Military trial judges issue rulings within eight
    days of a court-martial hearing. Representatives of the civilian
    Inspector General's Office are required to be present at courts-
    martial.
        Criminal procedure within the military justice system includes
    elements of the inquisitorial and accusatorial systems. Defendants are
    considered innocent until proven guilty and have the right to timely
    consultation with counsel. A Constitutional Court ruling forbids
    military attorneys from undertaking defense counsel duties. Defendants
    must retain counsel at their own expense or rely on defenders paid by a
    private fund.
        On August 17, Congress passed law 1407, which creates the legal
    mechanism for the military justice system to transition to an oral
    accusatory system and allows for government-appointed defense attorneys
    for military personnel accused of crimes. The roll-out of the new
    system occurred regionally and was scheduled to be completed in 2012.
        Civilian courts convicted military members for past human rights
    violations, for instance:
        On January 14, a judge from the San Juan del Cesar circuit court in
    La Guajira sentenced three officers and four professional soldiers to
    24 years for the homicides of four job seekers who were presented as
    combat deaths in 2006.
        On May 5, the Superior Court of Medellin sentenced four officers
    and six professional soldiers to 30 years in prison for the homicides
    of two street vendors presented as combat kills in 2005.
        On July 21, the Third Circuit Court of Antioquia sentenced seven
    soldiers from the Pedro Nel Ospina Battalion to 31 years in prison for
    the 2005 death of an 18-year-old student who was presented as killed in
    combat.

        Political Prisoners and Detainees.--The Government stated that it
    did not hold political prisoners. Some human rights advocacy groups
    characterized as political detainees were held on charges of rebellion
    or terrorism in what the groups reported were harassment tactics by the
    Government against human rights advocates (see section 5). According to
    INPEC, there were 1,829 detainees accused or convicted of rebellion or
    aiding and abetting insurgence. The Government provided the ICRC access
    to these prisoners.

        Civil Judicial Procedures and Remedies.--Citizens can sue a state
    agent or body in the Administrative Court of Litigation for damages for
    a human rights violation. Although critics complained of delays in the
    process, the court generally was considered impartial and effective.
        On April 21, the Supreme Court declared inadmissible tutelas, writs
    of protection of fundamental rights, which can be filed before any
    judge of any court at any stage of the judicial process to seek
    compensation from the Government. The court announced that those
    wishing to file such a protection may still appear before competent
    judicial and administrative authorities to seek redress.

        Property Restitution.--The Santos administration proposed a new
    Land and Victims Law that would provide a means for some victims of
    violence, including internally displaced persons and victims of state
    violence, to recuperate land and receive compensation. The legislation
    was approved by the House of Representatives in December and was
    awaiting Senate approval at year's end. In addition, the Santos
    administration began implementing a land restitution ``shock plan'' to
    return land to displaced families in high-priority areas. Through
    December the Government had delivered titles for more than 300,000
    acres--including approximately 65,000 acres to indigenous communities
    and 223,000 acres to Afro-Colombian communities--to 38,167 families.
    For many small landowners, formal land titling remained inaccessible.
    Government agencies and human rights groups estimated that illegal
    groups, including guerrillas, have seized between 1.1 and 2.7 million
    acres of land from small landowners during the decades-long conflict.
    Paramilitary groups had stolen the majority, only a fraction of which
    was reclaimed by the Government after the demobilization of the AUC in
    2006.

        f. Arbitrary Interference With Privacy, Family, Home, or
    Correspondence.--The law prohibits such actions; while the Government
    generally respected these prohibitions in practice, there were notable
    exceptions by some intelligence agencies. The law requires government
    authorities to obtain a warrant signed by a senior prosecutor to enter
    a private home without the owner's consent unless the suspect has been
    caught in hot pursuit, and government authorities generally adhered to
    these regulations.
        Government authorities generally need a judicial order to intercept
    mail or monitor telephone conversations, even in prisons. However,
    government intelligence agencies investigating terrorist organizations
    sometimes monitored telephone conversations without judicial
    authorization, although evidence obtained in such a manner could not be
    used in court.
        Surveillance by the DAS of high court magistrates, journalists,
    human rights organizations and activists, opposition leaders, and the
    Vice Presidency prompted an investigation by the CTI in 2009 that
    continued at year's end. Press reports indicated DAS surveillance
    included physical monitoring of individuals and their families,
    telephone and e-mail intercepts, and collection of personal and
    financial data. A CTI report described a two-fold strategy to mount
    prosecutions against the victims of the surveillance and to disrupt
    human rights groups' activities through ``offensive intelligence.'' A
    2009 report by the National and International Campaign for the Right to
    Defend Human Rights cited examples of DAS harassment, including
    operations involving diverse attacks, setups, and death threats.
    Reporters Without Borders published a report in May, Chuzadas:
    Colombian Media Targeted by Intelligence Services, that described DAS
    activities against journalists. In December local NGO Foundation for
    Press Freedom (FLIP) published a report, Espionage Against Journalists:
    The Word of Justice, in which FLIP describes DAS activities against
    journalists and progress in the administrative and criminal
    investigations. During the year the Prosecutor General's Office
    investigated numerous DAS employees and had achieved four convictions
    by year's end.
        On October 20, the Bogota Superior Court sentenced Jorge Alberto
    Lagos, who served as the DAS's counterintelligence subdirector between
    2005 and 2009, to eight years in prison for his role in directing and
    coordinating illegal activities against Supreme Court judges and former
    senators Piedad Cordoba and Gustavo Petro.
        On December 16, the Bogota Superior Court sentenced DAS's former
    intelligence director Fernando Tabares to eight years in prison for
    illegal wiretapping of magistrates, journalists, opposition leaders,
    and human rights defenders.
        Lagos and Tabares both received reduced sentences in exchange for
    providing information on the illegal wiretaps.
        On October 4, the Inspector General's Office suspended several
    former DAS employees from future government service for their role in
    the scandal, including Jorge Noguera, ex-director of the DAS and Jose
    Miguel Narvaez, ex-subdirector, both suspended for 20 years. The office
    suspended for 18 years Bernardo Moreno, former secretary to former
    president Uribe; Maria del Pilar Hurtado, former director of the DAS;
    and Mario Aranguren, former director of the Treasury Ministry's
    Information and Financial Analysis Unit. On October 12, an
    investigative commission in the House of Representatives opened an
    investigation into former president Uribe's role in the illegal
    wiretapping scandal. On November 19, Maria del Pilar Hurtado was
    granted asylum in Panama, days before the Prosecutor General's Office
    reportedly was set to file criminal charges against her. DAS Director
    Felipe Munoz told the press on December 28 that disciplinary processes
    had been opened against more than 900 employees, more than 160
    employees had been fired, and more than 45 legal complaints had been
    filed against employees. Criminal and administrative investigations
    into the surveillance continued at year's end.
        The Government continued to use voluntary civilian informants to
    identify terrorists, report terrorist activities, and gather
    information on criminal gangs. Some national and international human
    rights groups criticized this practice as subject to abuse and a threat
    to privacy and other civil liberties.
        New illegal armed groups, which included some former paramilitary
    members, and FARC and ELN guerrillas routinely interfered with the
    right to privacy. These groups forcibly entered private homes,
    monitored private communications, and engaged in forced displacement
    and conscription. The standing orders of the FARC, which had large
    numbers of female combatants, prohibited pregnancies among its troops.
    There were numerous credible reports of compulsory abortions to enforce
    the order.

        g. Use of Excessive Force and Other Abuses in Internal Conflicts.--
    The country's 46-year-long internal armed conflict, involving
    government forces, two terrorist guerrilla groups (FARC and ELN), and
    new illegal armed groups, which included some former paramilitary
    members, continued. The conflict and narcotics trafficking, which both
    fueled and prospered from the conflict, were the central causes of
    multiple violations of human rights.
        After the conclusion of a process in which approximately 34,000
    paramilitary personnel demobilized between 2003 and 2006, the
    Government confronted militarily any groups that did not demobilize, as
    well as new illegal armed groups. The Organization of American States
    (OAS) continued to verify all stages of demobilization and
    reincorporation of former combatants into society.

        Killings.--Security forces were responsible for alleged unlawful
    killings. CINEP reported that there were 37 such killings during the
    first six months of the year, compared with 45 in the same period of
    2009. The Human Rights Unit in the Prosecutor General's Office was
    assigned 1,488 cases, involving 2,491 victims (2,262 men, 111 women,
    and 118 minors) of extrajudicial killings by the armed forces that
    occurred between 1985 and 2010. The majority of the killings under
    investigation by the unit occurred in the departments of Antioquia
    (413), Meta (115), Caqueta (81), and Norte de Santander (80). A large
    number of the reported cases involved army members. During the year the
    Prosecutor General's Office achieved convictions of 95 members of the
    armed forces for extrajudicial killings in 44 cases; complete
    information was unavailable on those convicted during the year. At
    year's end the Prosecutor General's Office was investigating 19
    colonels, 14 lieutenant colonels, 51 majors, and 93 captains and
    hundreds of lower-ranked military personnel.
        According to CINEP, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
    (UNHCHR), and the Presidential Program for Human Rights, reports of
    extrajudicial killings falsely reported as killed in combat fell
    significantly compared to previous years. CINEP reported four cases
    involving seven victims through June. The Prosecutor General's Human
    Rights Unit opened nine new cases of extrajudicial killings alleged to
    have occurred during the year. The cases reported by CINEP, included:
        On March 17, in Cali, police Lieutenant Nelson Rodrigo Gomez Gamez
    allegedly killed 18-year-old Nelson Rodrigo Lozano Zapata and later
    claimed that Lozano had threatened police with a weapon. Gomez Gamez
    was arrested on May 14, on charges of aggravated homicide, fraud, and
    threatening witnesses. His case was pending at year's end.
        On March 25, near Aipe, Huila, soldiers from the army's Ninth
    Brigade allegedly executed Didier Alexander Clavijo Jimenez and Jorge
    Eliecer Soto Mahecha and presented them as killed in combat. An
    investigation by the Prosecutor General's Office continued at year's
    end.
        According to CINEP, unlike in 2009, there were no cases of ``social
    cleansing'' killings of vagrants, gay men, lesbians, and other
    ``undesirables'' attributed to the Government. Three cases reported in
    2009 remained under investigation.
        On January 7, a judge released from pretrial detention 17
    defendants in the 2008 Soacha killings because they had been detained
    for 209 days. The judge restricted the defendants to the 13th Artillery
    Battalion's base. Human rights organizations and former president Uribe
    criticized the decision. The court cases were pending at year's end.
        Among cases involving killings that took place before 2008:
        A Superior Tribunal court of Cali upheld a lower court's denial of
    a request to release seven soldiers implicated in the trial of former
    sergeant Luis Eduardo Mahecha Hernandez of the Third Brigade's High
    Mountain Battalion for the 2006 killing of Jose Orlando Giraldo. The
    court case was pending at year's end.
        On March 16, retired army Captain Guillermo Armando Gordillo
    Sanchez was sentenced to 20 years in prison for his role in the
    massacre of eight people from the peace community in San Jose de
    Apartado, Antioquia, in 2005. Gordillo served as a cooperating witness
    and formally accepted the charges against him of criminal conspiracy,
    homicide of a protected person, and barbaric acts for his participation
    in the massacre. On August 4, a judge in Antioquia found seven of
    Gordillo's subordinate soldiers from the 47th Infantry Battalion of the
    17th Brigade innocent in the same case. Appeals by the inspector
    general, prosecutor general, and the citizens' representative were
    pending before the Superior Court of Antioquia at year's end.
        The Government continued reforms to improve the human rights
    performance of the security forces. The Ministry of Defense began
    implementing an agreement with the UNHCHR to monitor seven of the
    Ministry's 15 measures to improve adherence to human rights. The
    reforms included strengthening the new human rights school established
    in 2009, training more than 3,500 soldiers in human rights issues
    regarding minority populations (e.g. indigenous, Afro-Colombians),
    conducting human rights trainings in conjunction with international
    organizations, establishing a new human rights department under the
    command of a brigadier general, providing additional training for
    ``operational legal advisors'' who provide legal advice on planning,
    follow-up, and control of military operations and ensuring all soldiers
    are trained in the new rules of engagement. The Ministry also created
    four offices of indigenous affairs in each of the military commands and
    named 41 officials to liaise with indigenous communities.
        New illegal armed groups, which included some former paramilitary
    members, killed journalists, local politicians, human rights activists,
    indigenous leaders, labor leaders, and others who threatened to
    interfere with their criminal activities, showed leftist sympathies, or
    were suspected of collaboration with the FARC. They also reportedly
    committed massacres or ``social cleansing'' killings of prostitutes,
    gay men and lesbians, drug users, vagrants, and gang members in city
    neighborhoods they controlled. New illegal armed groups, which included
    some former paramilitary members, according to CINEP, were responsible
    for the deaths of 174 civilians through June, a 62 percent decrease
    from the 279 deaths reported during the same period in 2009.
        Guerrilla group members continued to demobilize. According to the
    Ministry of Defense, during the year 2,446 members of guerrilla groups
    demobilized, compared with an estimated 2,638 demobilized in 2009, an 8
    percent reduction in demobilizations.
        FARC and ELN guerrillas killed alleged paramilitary collaborators
    and members of government security forces. The FARC used civilians to
    carry out attacks on government security forces. For example:
        On March 25, in El Charco, Narino, the FARC convinced an
    unsuspecting 12-year-old child to carry an explosive device to the
    local police station. Once he was inside, the FARC detonated the bomb,
    killing the child and wounding five, including two police officers.
        On November 30, FARC members in Vegalarga, Huila, deceived a bus
    driver into carrying a powerful bomb hidden in a crate of oranges. The
    FARC detonated the explosive while the bus was parked in front of a
    police station, killing the driver and wounding 10 police officers and
    a civilian.
        In many areas of the country, the 8,000- to 9,000-member FARC and
    the 2,000-member ELN worked together to attack government forces or
    demobilized paramilitary members; in other areas, especially in Arauca,
    Valle del Cauca, Cauca, and Narino departments, they fought each other.
    Various courts convicted members of the FARC Secretariat in absentia on
    charges including aggravated homicide.
        The FARC killed persons it suspected of collaborating with
    government authorities or alleged paramilitary groups. The Presidential
    Program for Human Rights reported that through August, the FARC killed
    at least 129 civilians, while another 110 persons were killed in
    massacres in which the perpetrators remained unidentified. For example:
        On May 25, the FARC murdered bus driver Diego Enrique Soto by
    setting fire to his bus near Miranda, Cauca.
        On May 31, the FARC murdered three civilians in Puerto Asis,
    Putumayo, and threw their bodies into the Putumayo River.
        On November 17, the FARC murdered a man and his 8-year-old
    granddaughter with a bomb intended for a police patrol passing by in La
    Llanada, Narino.

        Abductions.--New illegal armed groups, which included some former
    paramilitary members, FARC and ELN guerrillas, and common criminals
    continued to take hostages for ransom. According to Fondelibertad, of
    the 282 individuals kidnapped during the year, 188 were kidnapped for
    extortion and 162 were attributed to common crime.
        Fondelibertad reported that new illegal group members continued to
    be responsible for kidnappings. During the year government statistics
    tracked kidnappings by new illegal armed groups as organized crime,
    which accounted for 21 kidnappings.
        The FARC and ELN continued to commit numerous kidnappings, which
    remained a major source of revenue. The FARC also held politicians,
    prominent citizens, and members of the security forces to use as pawns
    in prisoner exchanges. Fondelibertad reported that guerrillas kidnapped
    99 persons (the FARC 64 individuals, and the ELN 35).
        On March 19, in Tame, Arauca, the FARC kidnapped five oil company
    workers, who were freed several days later in a military operation.
        On December 28, near San Antonio, Tolima, the FARC kidnapped a
    police officer serving as the bodyguard of the mayor of the
    municipality of San Antonio.
        In the afternoon of December 28, near Santo Domingo, Arauca, the
    FARC kidnapped a family of five, including a three-year-old child,
    while they were traveling towards Tame. On the morning of December 29,
    the Colombian military rescued the family; no one was injured in the
    rescue.
        Military action freed 60 kidnap victims through the end of August,
    including the June 13 rescue of four high-profile military and police
    hostages.
        FARC members were convicted for kidnappings. On December 28, a
    court in Villavicencio, Meta, sentenced Eli Mejia Mendoza alias
    ``Martin Sombra'' to 24 years in prison for the kidnapping of 61 police
    officers in Mitu, Vaupes, in 1998.
        In a December report summarizing 12 years of kidnapping data and
    policy, Foundation Free Country criticized Fondelibertad's numbers and
    said that simple kidnappings were not comprehensively documented. It
    estimated that over 600 cases of kidnap victims from the previous 12
    years were not included in Fondelibertad's database. As a result,
    families of kidnap victims who were not officially declared as
    ``kidnapped'' were unable to obtain government benefits.

        Physical Abuse, Punishment, and Torture.--According to preliminary
    reporting from the Presidential Program of Integrated Action Against
    Anti-personnel Mines, landmines, used primarily by the FARC and ELN,
    caused 28 deaths and 260 injuries through August, a 43 percent decrease
    in such incidents from the same period in 2009. Approximately 67
    percent of landmine victims during the year were military personnel.
    The International Campaign to Ban Landmines stated that the FARC
    continued to be the largest individual user of land mines and that the
    ELN also continued to use land mines. Government Humanitarian De-mining
    (HD) brigades cleared more than 155,000 square yards and destroyed 96
    improvised explosive devices and unexploded munitions. Military de-
    mining personnel cleared more than 34,000 square yards and destroyed
    388 landmines and 27 unexploded munitions. The Government has signed
    the Cartagena Action Plan, which commits the Government to ensuring
    landmine victims receive timely and affordable assistance.

        Child Soldiers.--Guerrillas and other illegal armed groups used
    children as soldiers. The recruitment and use of children by illegal
    armed groups was widespread. The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) estimated
    the number of children participating in all illegal armed groups ranged
    from 10,000 to 13,000. The Colombian Family Welfare Institute (ICBF)
    reported that it was impossible to know how many children were serving
    as child soldiers for the FARC. During the year 338 children who were
    former members of illegal armed groups surrendered to state security
    forces and were transferred to the ICBF, which operated a reintegration
    program for former child soldiers. This represents a 21 percent
    decrease from 415 child soldiers in 2008. The UN reported that FARC
    used children to fight, recruit other children to act as spies, gather
    intelligence, serve as sex slaves, and provide logistics support. The
    penalty for leaders of armed groups who use child soldiers was life
    imprisonment. The Government agreed to the International Criminal
    Court's penalty for child recruitment when it ratified the Rome Statute
    in 2002 but delayed application of the law to provide an incentive to
    all illegal groups, especially the FARC, to free recruited children.
    The Office for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) linked the
    phenomenon of forced displacement of families to that of forced
    recruitment of children. The FARC continued to issue letters to
    indigenous communities outlining a policy to conduct child recruitment
    and warning recipients not to challenge it.
        Also see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons
    Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        Other Conflict-Related Abuses.--There were no updates to 2009 cases
    involving the following: the January 12 FARC burning of six cars, the
    February 28 Tomas Vernaza kidnapping, and the May 18 FARC killing of
    Jesus Duran Aseanio.
        Guerrilla groups and new illegal armed groups, which included some
    former paramilitary members, prevented or limited the delivery of food
    and medicines to towns and regions in contested drug trafficking
    corridors, straining local economies and increasing forced
    displacement.
        Guerrillas forcibly displaced peasants to clear key drug and
    weapons transit routes in strategic zones and to remove individuals who
    collaborated with the Government or new illegal armed groups, which
    included paramilitary members who refused to demobilize. Guerrillas
    also imposed de facto blockades of communities in regions where they
    had significant influence. For example, international organizations
    reported many incidents in which illegal armed groups forcibly
    recruited indigenous people or obligated them to collaborate,
    restricted their freedom of movement, and blockaded their communities.
    After a July visit to Colombia, the United Nations Permanent Forum on
    Indigenous Issues noted its concern about the situation of extreme
    vulnerability and abuses committed against indigenous women and
    children. The Forum received reports of acts of rape, forced
    recruitment, and use of minors as informants, among other abuses in the
    context of conflict.
        New illegal armed groups and former paramilitary members continued
    to displace civilians residing along key drug and weapons transit
    corridors (see section 2.d.).
        International organizations reported there was a pattern of
    systemic sexual violence against women and girls by some armed actors
    in the conflict. Organizations including Sisma Mujer reported sexual
    violence remained one of the main causes of forced displacement.

    Section 2. Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:
        a. Freedom of Speech and Press.--The law provides for freedom of
    speech and of the press, and the Government generally respected these
    rights in practice.
        The independent media were active and expressed a wide variety of
    views without restriction. A number of independent newspapers and
    magazines published freely, and all print media were owned privately.
    Privately owned radio and television stations broadcast freely.
        Government security forces and corrupt officials occasionally
    subjected journalists to harassment, intimidation, or violence (see
    section 1.f.). A May Reporters Without Borders' report, Chuzadas:
    Colombian Media Targeted by Intelligence Services, described how the
    DAS allegedly followed, harassed, and intimidated journalists.
        Members of illegal armed groups intimidated, threatened, kidnapped,
    and killed journalists. National and international NGOs reported that
    local media representatives regularly practiced self-censorship because
    of threats of violence. During the year 175 journalists received
    protection from the Ministry of the Interior and Justice's protection
    program. The ministry also supported an alert network organized for
    journalists by providing a small number of radios and an emergency
    telephone hotline. The Prosecutor General's Human Rights Unit was
    investigating 43 cases of crimes against journalists involving 65
    victims. The Unit achieved 23 convictions, and 52 additional defendants
    were standing trial at year's end.
        According to the NGO Foundation for Press Freedom, during the year
    two journalists were killed for reasons related to their work, compared
    with one in 2009.
        On March 19, Clodomiro Castilla Ospino, editor and owner of the
    magazine El Pulso del Tiempo, was killed outside his house in Monteria,
    Cordoba. Castilla had participated in a government-run protection
    program from August 2006 to February 2009, but he later refused
    continued government protection. After his death, the Government
    offered a 50 million peso reward (approximately $25,000) for
    information about his death.
        On October 14 in Cauca Department, two armed men entered the home
    of indigenous leader and journalist Rodolfo Maya Aricape and shot and
    killed him in front of his wife and two daughters. Maya was the
    secretary of the Lopez Adentro Indigenous Council and a correspondent
    for a community radio station. The Inter-American Commission on Human
    Rights' (IACHR) special rapporteur for freedom of expression called on
    the Government to investigate the crime, identify and punish the
    perpetrators, and provide redress to the victims. The case was under
    investigation at year's end.
        There was progress in cases from previous years. For example:
        On October 20, a court in Florencia sentenced the former mayor of
    Curillo, Caqueta, Esneider Mayorga Corrales, and the convicted
    murderer, Elber Parra Cuellar, to 42 years in prison for the May 2009
    murder of journalist Hernando Salas Rojas. Mayorga Corrales hired Parra
    Cuellar to kill Salas Rojas after he had launched a movement to remove
    the mayor from office.
        On December 31, the Prosecutor General's Office charged former
    paramilitary Orlando Villa Zapata , alias ``Ruben,'' with the 2003
    killing of journalist Luis Eduardo Alfonso Parada.
        According to the Foundation for Press Freedom, a total of 56
    journalists received death threats, compared with 65 in 2009. Two
    journalists went into voluntary exile as a result of threats, compared
    with four in 2009.

        Internet Freedom.--There were no government restrictions on access
    to the Internet. Individuals could engage in the peaceful expression of
    views via the Internet, including by e-mail. The International
    Telecommunication Union reported that in 2009 there were 45 users of
    the Internet per 100 inhabitants.

        Academic Freedom and Cultural Events.--There were no government
    restrictions on academic freedom or cultural events. However,
    guerrillas maintained a presence on many university campuses to
    generate political support for their respective causes and undermine
    support for their enemies through both violent and nonviolent means.
    New illegal armed groups, which included some former paramilitary
    members, and FARC and ELN guerrillas threatened, displaced, and killed
    educators and their families for political and financial reasons, often
    because teachers represented the only government presence in the remote
    areas where the murders occurred. According to the Presidential Program
    for Human Rights, various assailants killed 29 educators, an increase
    of 35 percent from the same period in 2009. The teachers union,
    Colombian Federation of Educators, reported 27 educators were killed
    during the year. Threats and harassment caused many educators and
    students to adopt lower profiles and avoid discussing controversial
    topics.

        b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association.--The law provides
    for freedom of assembly and association, and the Government generally
    respected these rights in practice. Freedom of association was limited
    in practice by threats and acts of violence committed by illegal armed
    groups against NGOs, indigenous groups, and labor unions (see section
    1.g.).
        Although the Government does not prohibit membership in most
    political organizations, membership in organizations that espoused or
    carried out acts of violence, such as the FARC, ELN, and paramilitary
    groups, was illegal.

        c. Freedom of Religion.--For a complete description of religious
    freedom, please see the 2010 International Religious Freedom Report at
    www.state.gov/g/drl/irf/rpt.

        d. Freedom of Movement, Internally Displaced Persons, Protection of
    Refugees, and Stateless Persons.--The law provides for freedom of
    movement within the country, foreign travel, emigration, and
    repatriation, and while the Government generally respected these rights
    in practice, there were exceptions. Military operations and occupation
    of certain rural areas restricted freedom of movement in conflict
    areas.
        The Government cooperated with the UNHCR and other humanitarian
    organizations in providing protection and assistance to internally
    displaced persons (IDPs), refugees, returning refugees, asylum seekers,
    stateless persons, and other persons of concern.
        New illegal armed groups, which included some former paramilitary
    members, and FARC and ELN guerrillas continued to establish illegal
    checkpoints on rural highways and rivers, but an enhanced government
    security presence along major highways suppressed kidnappings. The
    Ministry of Defense reported only one kidnapping at an illegal
    roadblock in the department of Narino during the year (see section
    1.b.). International organizations also reported that illegal armed
    groups confined rural communities, hindered return, and prevented the
    free movement of people, especially in areas where narcotics
    cultivation and trafficking persist.
        The law prohibits forced exile, and the Government did not employ
    it. However, many persons went into self-imposed exile because of
    threats from new illegal armed groups, which included some former
    paramilitary members, and FARC and ELN guerrillas.

        Internally Displaced Persons.--The internal armed conflict,
    especially in remote areas, was the major cause of internal
    displacement. The Government, international organizations, and civil
    society identified various factors driving displacement including
    threats and violence by illegal armed groups against civilian
    populations; competition among illegal armed groups for resources and
    territorial control; confrontations between security forces,
    guerrillas, and new illegal armed groups; and forced recruitment of
    children. Some NGOs complained that counternarcotics efforts and large-
    scale economic projects in rural areas also contributed to
    displacement. On September 27, the Santos administration introduced a
    bill to Congress that would provide for the restitution of land stolen
    by illegal armed groups from IDPs and other victims. On December 13,
    the House of Representatives approved the bill. The bill was pending
    consideration by the Senate at year's end. Many international
    organizations and NGOs expressed support for the land restitution bill
    as a means to provide reparations to IDPs and to guarantee their
    rights.
        Estimates of the numbers of IDPs varied. Accion Social, the
    Government's internal displacement welfare and international assistance
    coordination agency, registered 95,043 new displacements during the
    year, a 15 percent decline from the same period in 2009 and the third
    consecutive year of decline in new displacements.
        Accion Social cited continued improvement in security and
    territorial control and enhanced verification of IDP claims as
    contributing factors in the decline in new displacements. The
    Government and international organizations also pointed out that the
    conflict and displacement took place in remote, less populated areas.
    Accion Social noted that new displacements primarily occur in areas
    where narcotics cultivation and trafficking persist, especially where
    guerrilla groups and new illegal armed groups are present, such as the
    Bajo Cauca area of the department of Antioquia, as well as in the
    departments of Cauca, Choco, Narino, and Meta. According to Accion
    Social, during the year, the department of Antioquia registered the
    highest number of IDPs (18,262), followed by Narino (15,242), Caqueta
    (8,232), Cauca (7,568), and Tolima (5,948). The NGO Consultancy for
    Human Rights and Displacement (CODHES) estimated that 280,041 persons
    were displaced during the year, a 2 percent reduction from CODHES'
    estimate for 2009. This follows a 25 percent decline in CODHES'
    estimate between 2008 (380,863 IDPs) and 2009 (286,389 IDPs).
        The Government has registered an accumulated total of 3.6 million
    persons displaced since 1997 (including those displaced in years before
    the registration system was established), while CODHES estimated that
    more than five million persons have been displaced as a result of the
    conflict since 1985. Accion Social attributed a large part of the
    growth in cumulative IDP registrations in recent years to a 2008
    Administrative Court (Consejo de Estado) order requiring the Government
    to include displacements from all previous years in the national IDP
    registry. Under the previous system, an IDP only had one calendar year
    from displacement to register. This order also prohibited the
    Government from removing an individual from the IDP registry regardless
    of how many years had passed since displacement. During the year 67
    percent of the 288,087 IDP registrations included in the national
    registry were from displacements occurring in 2009 and previous years.
        The Government's national registry includes registered IDPs whose
    applications for recognition had been accepted under defined criteria,
    while CODHES estimates new displacements based on information from the
    media, civil society, and fieldwork. CODHES also included as IDPs an
    undetermined number of coca and opium poppy producers who migrated in
    response to government drug eradication efforts, as well as those who
    migrated due to poor economic conditions and food insecurity resulting
    from the armed conflict.
        Despite improvements in the Government registration system,
    international organizations and NGOs remained concerned about under-
    registration of IDPs. CODHES cited the Government's denial of many
    registrations, lack of access to the registration system in some areas,
    and fear of retaliation from illegal armed groups as obstacles to full
    registration. On July 1, Accion Social reported to the Constitutional
    Court that under-registration had been significantly reduced in recent
    years as a result of improvements in the registration system as
    demonstrated by the large number of IDPs registered from previous
    years. The Monitoring Commission for Public Policy on Forced
    Displacement, a civil society body that evaluates and reports on
    internal displacement, noted important advances in the inclusion of
    IDPs in the national system, but expressed concern with a rising rate
    of refusals. During the year Accion Social refused approximately 47
    percent of IDP registrations as ineligible, compared with a 40 percent
    refusal rate in 2009. Accion Social reported that the increased refusal
    rate was a result of improved verification of IDPs. The Government does
    provide for an appeals process.
        FARC and ELN guerrillas and new illegal armed groups, which
    included some former paramilitary members, continued to use forced
    displacement to gain control over strategic or economically valuable
    territory, weaken their opponents' base of support, and undermine
    government control and authority. Illegal armed groups also used
    landmines and roadblocks to confine entire villages in order to protect
    illicit crops and prevent pursuit by state security forces. The FARC,
    ELN, and new illegal armed groups continued to use force, intimidation,
    and disinformation to discourage IDPs from registering with the
    Government; guerrilla agents often forced local leaders and community
    members to demonstrate against illicit crop eradication efforts,
    including causing mass displacements. International organizations and
    civil society expressed concern with the increase in urban displacement
    caused by violence. During the year the Government registered 4,766
    persons as intra-urban IDPs.
        During the year the Government registered 4,128 new IDPs who
    identified themselves as indigenous and 17,118 new IDPs who identified
    themselves as Afro-Colombian. The indigenous made up 4 percent of new
    IDPs registered by the Government and Afro-Colombians 18 percent. The
    Government reported that indigenous people made up 2.5 percent and
    Afro-Colombians 8.8 percent of the total IDP population. The ICRC and
    UNHCR reported, however, that indigenous and Afro-Colombian groups were
    disproportionately affected by displacement in some departments. The
    National Indigenous Organization of Colombia (ONIC) estimated the
    number of displaced indigenous people to be much higher than the
    Government reports, since many indigenous people did not have adequate
    access to registration locations, due to geographic remoteness,
    language barriers, or unfamiliarity with the national registration
    system. In October ONIC Director Javier Sanchez told the IACHR that at
    least 64 indigenous communities risked extinction as a result of the
    conflict, the primary cause for the displacement of indigenous peoples.
    CODHES estimated that 7,925 indigenous people were displaced during the
    year, a 27 percent increase from 2009. The departments with the highest
    level of displacement of indigenous included Putumayo, Cordoba, Choco,
    Cauca, Narino, Caqueta, Meta, and Guaviare. The local NGO Association
    of Internally Displaced Afro-Colombians (AFRODES) reported that 76
    percent of displaced who register do not answer the question about
    ethnicity; therefore official statistics underrepresent the impact of
    displacement on Afro-Colombian communities. AFRODES estimates Afro-
    Colombians could make up as much as 25 percent of the total displaced
    population. CODHES estimated that 70,010 Afro-Colombians were displaced
    during the year.
        In a July report to the Constitutional Court, Accion Social stated
    that the Government had improved the participation of ethnic minority
    groups in the planning process for relevant policies and programs,
    including strengthening the prior consultation process with Afro-
    Colombian and indigenous communities. The report also mentioned that
    during the year the Government launched and supported programs for
    ethnic minority groups as previously ordered by the Constitutional
    Court, providing for the protection of IDP women (including a specific
    program for indigenous IDP women), and the implementation of law 1381,
    passed in 2010 to improve the quality and access of education for Afro-
    Colombian children.
        International organizations identified recruitment of indigenous
    youth by illegal armed groups as a serious concern. In a May report, UN
    Special Rapporteur on Indigenous People S. James Anaya urged illegal
    armed groups to cease recruiting indigenous youth into hostile
    activities, calling the practice a grave violation of human rights and
    international humanitarian rights. Anaya also acknowledged the
    Government's disposition toward recognizing the rights of indigenous
    peoples, as shown in the development of plans and budgets to address
    indigenous issues. However, the Special Rapporteur expressed concern
    with indications that the situation of the indigenous peoples in the
    country had not been confronted with the urgency that the ``grave
    situation merited.'' On August 6, as part of its recognition of the
    International Day of the World's Indigenous People, UNHCR warned that
    many of Colombia's indigenous groups are in danger of extinction due to
    murder, threats of violence, and forced displacement. In 2009 the
    Constitutional Court ordered the Government to provide specific
    protection mechanisms for 34 indigenous groups at risk for physical and
    cultural extinction. CODHES reported that 14 mass displacement events
    during the year affected approximately 4,000 people belonging to Nasa,
    Embera, Eperara Siapidara, and Jiw indigenous groups.
        The local NGO AFRODES stated that threats and violence against
    Afro-Colombian leaders and communities continued to cause high levels
    of forced displacement, especially in the Pacific Coast region. AFRODES
    and other local NGOs also repeatedly expressed concern about large-
    scale economic projects, such as agriculture, mining, and cattle,
    contributing to displacement in their communities.
        On February 15, UN Independent Expert on Minority Issues Gay
    McDougall urged the Government to improve the situation for Afro-
    Colombians, especially in terms of issues related to displacement, land
    dispossession, poverty, and violence against communities and
    individuals. McDougall acknowledged that the Government had instituted
    an ``impressive and commendable legislative framework that recognizes
    the rights of Afro-Colombians;'' however, she also found the
    Government's implementation of the legislation supporting Afro-
    Colombian rights ``inadequate, limited, and sporadic.''
        The Government, international humanitarian assistance
    organizations, and civil society observed that mass displacements
    continued, representing 6 percent of the total 95,043 persons displaced
    during the year. Accion Social reported 58 mass displacement events
    affecting 13,752 persons during the year, of which 46 mass displacement
    events affecting 5,848 persons were included in the national registry.
    This is compared with 42 mass displacement events affecting 10,443
    persons in 2009. According to Accion Social, the departments with the
    highest numbers of IDPs from mass displacements in the year were
    Antioquia (2,577), Narino (1,820), and Cordoba (559). During the year,
    ICRC assisted 9,769 persons, including 5,504 women and 4,824 children,
    affected by 34 mass displacement events. The UNHCR and the UN Office of
    the Commissioner for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported that:
        From the last week of January through February, rumors of the
    presence of 200 members of an unknown illegal armed group and direct
    threats against community leaders displaced more than 1,000 persons
    from an indigenous reservation along the Purricha River in the Bajo
    Baudo area of Caqueta Department.
        On February 20, confrontations between the army and the FARC
    displaced more than 500 indigenous families from rural areas of Caldono
    and Jambalo in Cauca Department.
        From March 13 to 16, more than 770 indigenous persons from four
    different rural communities around the town of Caloto, Cauca, fled
    their homes to avoid clashes between state security forces and the
    FARC. Indigenous authorities reported one killed and one injured.
        During the last week of September, threats by the new illegal group
    Black Eagles displaced 52 Afro-Colombian families from rural villages
    in Olaya Herrera, Narino.
        OCHA, the UNHCR, and other international organizations reported on
    mass displacements in other departments throughout the year:
        On April 3, 900 persons fled the area of Ituango, Antioquia, as a
    result of threats against community leaders and the growing use of
    landmines in the area by illegal armed groups.
        On August 2, confrontations between the FARC and security forces in
    the rural area of El Charco, Narino, displaced more than 300 persons.
    El Charco recorded more than 18,000 IDPs in the last three years.
        On October 1, 183 persons from El Charco, Narino, fled to the
    municipality of Santa Barbara de Iscuande after members of an illegal
    armed group killed five persons of the community.
        On November 7, unknown assailants killed four members of the Awa
    indigenous community (including a pregnant woman) in the rural area of
    Barbacoas, Narino. In a separate incident on November 15, two Colombian
    soldiers and two civilians were killed and two civilians wounded in an
    armed engagement between FARC and Colombian military units. Awa
    authorities warned that an escalation of hostilities in Awa indigenous
    territories in recent years has contributed to an ongoing high risk of
    mass displacement in the area.
        CODHES also reported that at least eight IDP community and land
    rights leaders were killed during the year, bringing the number of such
    leaders killed since 2002 to 41. On May 18, unknown assailants killed
    Rogelio Martinez of the National Movement of Victims of State Crimes
    (MOVICE) in San Onofre, Sucre. On June 22, Accion Social issued a
    statement condemning threats against Afro-Colombian community leaders.
    On July 17, unknown assailants killed Jair Murillo, an Afro-Colombian
    IDP leader, in Buenaventura, Valle de Cauca. On September 19, unknown
    assailants killed Hernando Perez, leader of the Association of Victims
    for the Restitution of Land and Assets, hours after he participated in
    a ceremony where the Government delivered land titles to 35 displaced
    families in Turbo, Antioquia. Authorities were still investigating the
    cases at year's end. International organizations and NGOs condemned the
    attacks and continuing threats against human rights and IDP leaders and
    groups.
        There were no updates on the 2009 killings of IDP activists Ana
    Isabel Gomez Perez (April) and Guillermo Ramos Rosso (July).
        The Government budgeted 1.5 trillion pesos (approximately $800
    million) to provide assistance to IDPs during the year. Assistance to
    registered IDPs was delivered through Accion Social, the ICBF, the
    Ministry of Social Protection (MSP), and other governmental ministries
    and agencies. During the year Accion Social provided emergency food
    assistance to 600,000 persons, primarily IDPs. Accion Social also
    coordinated the return of approximately 150,000 IDPs during the year.
    International organizations and NGOs acknowledged the Government's
    significant progress in improving programs and budgets for IDP
    assistance, but maintained that the quality of programs providing
    emergency assistance, housing, income generation, and land restitution
    needed more improvement. On July 21, the Superior Court of Bogota
    overturned a decision that ordered Accion Social to pay 30 billion
    pesos (approximately $15 million) in retroactive humanitarian
    assistance to more than 1,500 victims of forced displacement. The
    decision asserted that humanitarian assistance is temporary and
    immediate. On November 3, Accion Social, the Prosecutor General's
    Office, and the Colombian National Police (CNP) established a
    specialized unit to investigate and prosecute cases of forced
    displacement and disappearances. The unit included 22 prosecutors from
    the Prosecutor General's Office, 44 prosecutor and judicial assistants,
    and 85 investigators from the National Judicial Police. At year's end,
    the displacement unit was working to transfer approximately 50,000
    pending complaints from other units in the Prosecutor General's Office
    for possible investigation.
        Assistance organizations pointed out that emergency response to
    mass displacements was more difficult and costly to mount, since most
    displacements took place in more remote locations; however, the speed
    and effectiveness of the response has improved in recent years. Accion
    Social and other government agencies could start the response to most
    mass displacement events immediately. International organizations and
    civil society reported that a lack of local capacity to accept
    registrations in high-displacement areas often delayed by several weeks
    or months assistance to persons displaced individually or in smaller
    groups. Intense fighting and insecurity in conflict zones, including
    areas in the departments of Antioquia, Cauca, and Narino, sometimes
    delayed national and international aid organizations from accessing
    newly displaced populations. The Government took steps with
    international organizations and NGOs to improve the registration system
    and reduce the wait time, including prioritizing the vulnerable cases,
    holding registration fairs in high-displacement areas and deploying
    more resources and equipment.
        Despite several government initiatives to enhance IDP access to
    services and knowledge of their rights and notable improvements in
    meeting their social and economic needs, many IDPs continued to live in
    poverty with unhygienic conditions and limited access to health care,
    education, or employment. In 2004 the Constitutional Court initially
    found the Government's response to displacement an ``unconstitutional
    state of affairs'' and ordered the Government to reformulate its IDP
    programs and policies, including improving the IDP registration system.
    In following years, the court also ordered the Government to implement
    specific protection and assistance programs for displaced indigenous
    people, Afro-Colombians, women and children, disabled persons, and IDP
    community leaders. In its July 1 report to the Constitutional Court,
    Accion Social cited improvements in institutional and territorial
    coordination, enhanced registration systems, involvement of IDP and
    community authorities and associations, increased IDP policy and
    program budget, and improved monitoring and evaluation of assistance
    and rights. The Monitoring Commission for Public Policy on Forced
    Displacement acknowledged some of the improvements cited in the
    Government response but asserted that significant gaps remained. On
    December 10, the Constitutional Court issued four new orders pertaining
    to internal displacement, including provisions requiring the Government
    to implement special protection measures for the Hitnu indigenous
    community in the department of Arauca and Afro-Colombian communities in
    Jiguamiando and Curvarado in the department of Choco, as well as to
    establish timeframes for improving coordination between national and
    local government entities in providing assistance to IDPs. In order
    385, referring to Accion Social's July report, the Constitutional Court
    acknowledged advances in the Government's response for IDPs, but found
    that the ``unconstitutional state of affairs'' persisted, stating that
    the Government had not yet achieved ``a systematic and integrated
    advance'' in guaranteeing minimum protection and effective enjoyment of
    rights. Several international organizations and domestic nonprofit
    groups, such as the International Organization for Migration (IOM),
    World Food Program (WFP), ICRC, and Colombian Red Cross, coordinated
    with the Government to provide emergency relief and long-term
    assistance to displaced populations.
        Displaced persons also sought protection across international
    borders as a result of the internal armed conflict in the country.
    UNHCR reported in the 2009 Global Trends Report released in June that
    Colombia was the country of origin for 104,388 refugees and 64,335
    asylum seekers. The majority of these refugees and asylum-seekers lived
    in Ecuador, Venezuela, Costa Rica, and Panama. During the year, the
    Governments of Colombia and Ecuador formed a bilateral refugee
    commission to discuss the situation of Colombian refugees in Ecuador,
    including plans for voluntary returns. The bilateral refugee commission
    met three times during the year.

        Protection of Refugees.--The law provides for the granting of
    asylum or refugee status, and the Government has established a system
    for providing protection to refugees. In practice the Government
    provided protection against the expulsion or return of refugees to
    countries where their lives or freedom would be threatened on account
    of their race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social
    group, or political opinion. The Government reserved the right to
    determine eligibility for asylum, based upon its own assessment of the
    nature of an applicant's claim. According to the Government, 101
    recognized refugees resided in the country. During the year the
    Government received 131 applications for refugee status, including from
    persons from Cuba, Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Afghanistan. Of these cases,
    two persons were approved for refugee status, 112 were rejected, and 17
    were pending at year's end. The Government also reported an increase in
    the smuggling of migrants from outside the region, primarily from Asia
    and East Africa, en route to the United States and Canada. The
    Government regularly provided access to the asylum process for such
    persons who requested international protection; however, nearly all
    abandoned their applications and continued on the migration route
    before a refugee status determination was completed.

    Section 3. Respect for Political Rights: The Right of Citizens to
            Change Their Government
        The law provides citizens with the right to change their government
    peacefully, and citizens exercised this right in practice through
    periodic, generally free and fair elections held on the basis of nearly
    universal suffrage. Active duty members of the armed forces and police
    may not vote or participate in the political process. Civilian public
    employees are eligible to vote, although they may participate in
    partisan politics only during the four months immediately preceding a
    national election.

        Elections and Political Participation.--In June Unity Party
    candidate Juan Manuel Santos won a four-year term as president in
    elections considered generally free and fair. The OAS electoral
    observation mission stated that the ``electoral process was conducted
    successfully, and this should be understood as an achievement for the
    Colombian government and people.'' The OAS mission also noted that the
    2010 elections experienced the lowest levels of violence in 30 years.
        Political parties could operate without restrictions or outside
    interference. The Liberal and Conservative parties previously dominated
    politics. The election of President Santos and the second-place showing
    of Antanas Mockus of the newly established Green Party reflected a
    continued widening of the political arena. More than a dozen political
    parties from across the political spectrum were represented in
    Congress.
        New illegal armed groups, which included some former paramilitary
    members, and the FARC threatened and killed government officials (see
    section 1.g.). According to the Presidential Program for Human Rights,
    five municipal council members were killed through August, the same
    number as were killed in the same period in 2009.
        Some local officials resigned because of threats from the FARC. A
    program by the Ministry of Interior and Justice provided protection to
    353 mayors, 120 members of Congress, and 3,705 council members at
    year's end.
        The law requires that women be placed in at least 30 percent of
    appointed government posts and that the Government report to Congress
    each year the percentage of women in high-level government positions.
    There were 16 women in the 102-member Senate and 31 in the 166-member
    House of Representatives. There were four women in the 13-member
    cabinet and four on the 23-member Supreme Court. In December the
    Supreme Court elected the country's first ever woman Prosecutor
    General.
        Two indigenous senators and two indigenous members of the House of
    Representatives occupied seats reserved for indigenous persons. There
    were no indigenous cabinet members and no indigenous persons on any of
    the nation's high courts.
        Eleven Afro-Colombians served in Congress. There were eight self-
    identified Afro-Colombian members of the House of Representatives; six
    were elected and two occupied seats reserved for Afro-Colombians. The
    representative from San Andres, which has a large Afro-Colombian
    population, was not Afro-Colombian but was a member of the Afro-
    Colombian caucus. Although there were no seats reserved for Afro-
    Colombians in the Senate, there were three Afro-Colombian Senators.
    There were two Afro-Colombians serving as deputy magistrates on the
    Constitutional Court. There were no Afro-Colombian cabinet ministers.

    Section 4. Official Corruption and Government Transparency
        The law provides criminal penalties for official corruption, and
    the Government actively prosecuted cases of governmental corruption;
    however, officials sometimes engaged in corrupt practices with
    impunity. The World Bank's worldwide governance indicators reflected
    that government corruption was a problem. Drug trafficking revenues
    exacerbated corruption.
        On March 17, the Inspector General's Office suspended the governor
    of Casanare for irregularities in contracting procedures and expenses
    in 2008 and 2009. Other officials from the Casanare government were
    suspended in late 2009 on similar charges. The suspensions without pay,
    initially issued for three months, continued at year's end while the
    Inspector General's Office continued to investigate.
        On October 25, the Prosecutor General's Office summoned the mayor
    of Bogota and 17 other local government employees to testify about
    irregularities in contracting processes in the city. On November 11,
    the Office of the Inspector General also ordered an investigation of
    the mayor and a senator, the mayor's brother, who was also allegedly
    involved. The investigations followed the Democratic Pole party's own
    internal investigation that found the mayor had benefitted from
    contracting processes that were not transparent. The investigations by
    the prosecutor general and inspector general were pending at year's
    end.
        On September 21, five senior officials from the Ministry of
    Transportation and the National Concessions Institute, including its
    director, were forced to resign after recorded telephone conversations
    implicated them in soliciting bribes in connection with the Central
    Magdalena railroad concession. Investigations continued at the end of
    the year.
        Investigations into a 2009 corruption scandal involving
    inappropriate use of the Agriculture Ministry's irrigation and drainage
    loan program continued during the year. On September 7, a prosecutor
    from the Anti-Corruption Unit called on a former agriculture minister
    to testify. In October the inspector general also announced an
    investigation into the former agriculture minister as well as the
    former vice minister and seven other government officials.
    Investigations continued at the end of the year.
        In November investigations began into a possible corruption scandal
    at the Government agency Fondelibertad, which manages anti-kidnapping
    efforts and assistance for the families of kidnapping victims.
    Preliminary investigations by the controller general in November found
    irregularities in contracting procedures and documentation. On December
    28, the Prosecutor General's Anti-Corruption Unit began formally
    questioning the former director of Fondelibertad about contracting
    procedures. Investigations continued at year's end.
        The Justice and Peace Law (JPL) process continued to expose
    corruption and paramilitary ties within the Government and security
    forces. The president continued funding for the Supreme Court's
    investigative unit, which investigated members of Congress and senior
    government officials. By year's end a total of 15 sitting or previous
    congressmen had been convicted, 25 were in jail pending the Supreme
    Court's ruling in their cases, 20 had been acquitted, and eight
    senators were being investigated. For the Congress that ended in June
    2010, 93 members were subjects of criminal investigation.
        On September 14, the Supreme Court ordered the incarceration of
    former senator Javier Caceres after former paramilitary leaders
    including Salvatore Mancuso and Rodrigo Tovar alias ``Jorge 40'' said
    that Caceres participated in multiple meetings with them.
        In March a group of 25 politicians were arrested for ties to
    paramilitaries in Uraba. The group included the then presiding mayor of
    Arboletes, and several former mayors of other nearby towns.
        The primary government body to investigate corruption is the
    Presidential Program for the Fight Against Corruption.
        By law public officials must file annual financial disclosure
    forms.
        The law provides for public access to government information, and
    the Government generally provided such access in practice. While there
    are no prohibitive fees to access government information, there were
    reports that some low-level officials insisted on bribes to expedite
    access to information.

    Section 5. Governmental Attitude Regarding International and
            Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations of Human
            Rights
        A wide variety of domestic and international human rights groups
    generally operated without government restriction, investigating and
    publishing their findings on human rights cases. The Government and
    local human rights groups often differed in their evaluations and
    analyses of the human rights situation. NGOs reported that criticism
    from high-level officials, including former president Uribe, linking
    them to guerrilla groups put them at risk of retaliation by new illegal
    armed groups, which included some former paramilitary members. Many
    NGOs, however, noted a more positive, conciliatory tone by the Santos
    government. Many domestic NGOs also said that the Government
    arbitrarily arrested and detained human rights activists, particularly
    in high-conflict areas. NGOs claimed that the Prosecutor General's
    Office had pursued numerous unfounded judicial cases against legitimate
    human rights defenders with the purpose of discrediting their work. The
    Government charged that some human rights activists engaged in
    activities that supported terrorism (see section 1.e.).
        On December 28, the Prosecutor General's Office charged a former
    vice president and former presidential advisor with criminal slander
    for statements made in 2007 suggesting that three unions were
    associated with terrorist organizations. The trial was ongoing at
    year's end.
        President Santos and Vice President Garzon made numerous public
    statements in support of human rights defenders during the year. On
    October 22, after the U.S.-based NGO Washington Office on Latin America
    and AFRODES received threats, President Santos issued a press release
    that reiterated the Government's concern about the threats, asked
    authorities to investigate the threats, and expressed the Government's
    commitment to strengthen protection for human rights defenders. For
    example, on September 22 the Government announced it was adding 20
    billion pesos ($11 million) to the Ministry of Interior and Justice's
    protection program. Santos also indicated his support for a bill that
    would increase the penalty for threatening or killing human rights
    defenders; the bill passed Congress on December 14 and was awaiting
    Santos' signature at year's end. On October 20, President Santos met
    with representatives from Human Rights Watch to discuss how to improve
    human rights. The Ministry of Interior and Justice's protection program
    covered 685 human rights defenders.
        According to the NGO We are Defenders (Somos Defensores), seven
    human rights activists were killed and 51 threatened during the first
    half of the year. Two were female IDP leaders and two were LGBT
    activists. CODHES reported a rising trend of attacks against women
    leaders of the IDP population and activists seeking land restitution.
        Several NGOs reported receiving threats in the form of e-mail,
    mail, telephone calls, obituaries, objects, or directly from unknown
    individuals. According to the UNHCHR, reports of threats continued to
    increase during the year. The Government condemned the threats and
    called on the Prosecutor General's Office to investigate them. The
    Prosecutor General's Office investigated 291 cases of threats against
    human rights defenders during the year. None of the investigations had
    resulted in a prosecution at year's end.
        A Ministry of Interior and Justice program provided protection to
    more than 685 human rights activists (see section 2.a.) and enhanced or
    provided new security at more than 49 NGO offices.
        The Government continued to meet with the UNHCHR, local NGOs, and
    members of the diplomatic corps to discuss steps it had taken to comply
    with UNHCHR recommendations on improving human rights practices. While
    acknowledging progress on several recommendations, the UNHCHR and local
    NGOs reported that the Government had not fully implemented all of them
    by year's end. In October the Government extended UNHCHR's mandate for
    three years. On November 22, the Government signed a joint declaration
    with civil society organizations, the UN, the OAS, and the G24 (a group
    of 24 diplomatic missions including the United States), to jointly
    monitor human rights and to work together towards a unified national
    human rights conference in December 2011 that would establish a
    government-wide policy on human rights.
        The human rights ombudsman is independent, submits an annual report
    to the House of Representatives, and has responsibility for ensuring
    the promotion and exercise of human rights. The ombudsman's Bogota
    office was the headquarters of a national Early Warning System designed
    to alert public security forces and the national and regional
    governments of impending massive human rights violations. The
    Ombudsman's Office was underfunded, which limited its ability to
    monitor human rights violations effectively. Some human rights groups
    complained that the Government lacked the political will to publish
    Early Warning System reports and that a significant number of regional
    reports were never published. Members of the ombudsman's regional
    offices were under constant threat from illegal armed groups via
    pamphlets, e-mails, and violent actions.
        The Presidential Program for Human Rights, which operated under the
    authority of the vice president, coordinated national human rights
    policy and actions taken by government entities to promote or protect
    human rights. The program was the Government's primary interlocutor
    with domestic and international NGOs and with foreign governments on
    human rights issues. The program published the Human Rights Observer
    magazine, which provided analyses of major human rights issues and the
    human rights situation in various regions of the country.
        Both the Senate and House of Representatives have human rights
    committees. The committees serve as forums for discussion of human
    rights issues but have no authority to draft legislation.
        Implementation of the 2005 JPL continued. The Justice and Peace
    Unit in the Prosecutor General's Office is responsible for the required
    investigation and prosecution of demobilized persons under the law, and
    an interinstitutional commission on Justice and Peace was created to
    coordinate its implementation. At year's end, 4,072 persons had been
    presented as eligible for the JPL; 3,633 of these were former
    paramilitary members, including 29 commanders, and 439 were former
    guerrilla members. More than 2,433 testimonies or versiones libres had
    been taken, in which the Prosecutor General's Office identified 52,263
    crimes, more than 46,000 of them homicides. There were 66,773 victims
    involved in the 52,263 identified crimes. At year's end a total of
    323,765 victims had registered with the Prosecutor General's Office,
    and 3,079 graves had been exhumed involving the remains of 3,763
    persons; remains of 1,384 victims had been identified, and 1,295 had
    been returned to their families. Testimony from the voluntary
    confessions also triggered investigations of politicians, military
    members, major agricultural producers, and government officials' ties
    to paramilitary forces.
        The application of the law continued to face many challenges,
    including thousands of former paramilitary members who remained in
    legal limbo, and there was little land or money confiscated from
    paramilitary leaders. There were three convictions of paramilitary
    leaders since the law's implementation in 2005. NGOs and victims
    criticized the process' slow pace, while the Prosecutor General's
    Office said pressure to reveal all truths behind paramilitary crimes
    delayed prosecutions. Victims remained susceptible to killings,
    threats, and intimidation.
        The Government's Program of Administrative Reparations paid 300
    billion pesos ($150 million) in reparations to victims of illegal armed
    groups. The Victim Protection Program under the Ministry of Interior
    and Justice protected 88 victims involved in the Justice and Peace
    process, and during the year the Government spent 121 billion pesos
    (approximately $65 million) on the program. The National Commission for
    Reparation and Reconciliation maintained offices in twelve cities,
    including Sincelejo, Pasto, Quibdo, and Medellin. The offices contained
    one-stop informational centers for victims and assisted victims with
    enrollment and receipt of legal and psychological support.

    Section 6. Discrimination, Societal Abuses, and Trafficking in Persons
        Although the law specifically prohibits discrimination based on
    race, gender, disability, language, or social status, many of these
    prohibitions were not enforced in practice.

        Women.--Although prohibited by law, rape, including spousal rape,
    remained a serious problem. The law provides for sentences ranging from
    eight to 30 years of imprisonment for violent sexual assault. For acts
    of spousal sexual violence, the law mandates sentences of six months to
    two years and denies probation or bail to offenders who disobey
    restraining orders. The National Institute for Legal Medicine and
    Forensic Science reported 18,038 cases of suspected sex crimes,
    including rape, but indicated that many cases went unreported. New
    illegal group members, former paramilitary members, and guerrillas
    raped, sexually abused, and sometimes sexually mutilated women and
    children for fraternizing with the enemy, working as prostitutes,
    having sexual relations outside of marriage, or violating imposed codes
    of conduct or restrictions on dress (see section 1.g.). The ICBF
    provided psychosocial, medical, and legal support to victims of sexual
    violence.
        Although prohibited by law, domestic violence, including spousal
    abuse, remained a serious problem. Judicial authorities may remove an
    abuser from the household and require therapy or reeducation. The law
    provides prison time if the abuser causes grave harm or the abuse is
    recurrent; however, provisions for fines were not applied. The National
    Institute for Legal Medicine and Forensic Science reported
    approximately 45,000 cases of domestic violence against women, but it
    noted that only a small percentage of cases were brought to its
    attention for investigation and follow-up. The law requires the
    Government to provide victims of domestic violence with immediate
    protection from further physical or psychological abuse. The ICBF
    provided safe houses and counseling for victims, but its services could
    not meet the magnitude of the problem. In addition to fulfilling
    traditional family counseling functions, ICBF family ombudsmen handled
    domestic violence cases. The Human Rights Ombudsman's Office conducted
    regional training workshops to promote the application of domestic
    violence statutes. The law provides measures to discourage and punish
    harassment at the workplace, such as sexual harassment, verbal abuse or
    derision, aggression, and discrimination. Nonetheless, sexual
    harassment remained a pervasive problem.
        Couples and individuals had the right to decide on the number,
    spacing, and timing of children and had the information and means to do
    so free from discrimination. Women and men had access to contraception.
    The Population Reference Bureau reported 78 percent use of
    contraception among married women between ages 15 and 49, and the UN
    Population Fund estimated the maternal mortality ratio in 2008 to be 85
    deaths per 100,000 live births. Women have equal access to health care
    and diagnosis for sexually transmitted diseases.
        Although women enjoy the same legal rights as men, discrimination
    against women persisted. Women faced hiring discrimination, were
    disproportionately affected by unemployment, and had salaries that
    generally were incompatible with their education and experience.
    According to the 2010 World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap Report,
    women earned 41 percent less than men for comparable work. Female
    workers in rural areas were affected most by wage discrimination and
    unemployment.
        The president's advisor for equality of women has primary
    responsibility for combating discrimination against women. The advisor
    managed a program to help women who were microbusiness entrepreneurs
    and heads of families to get favorable lines of credit for their
    companies. The previous advisor ended her tenure when President Santos
    was inaugurated, and at year's end a new advisor had not been named.
    Through the end of August, the Government provided 3,933 microcredit
    loans to women, in the amount of 4.5 billion pesos (approximately $2.4
    million). During the year 12,490 women attended 21 government-sponsored
    seminars on establishing microbusinesses. On January 25, the president
    created an interagency commission dedicated to the eradication of
    gender-based violence through Decree 164. The Government demonstrated
    its support of the OAS' declaration of 2010 as the Inter-American Year
    of Women by hosting a Summit of Women Entrepreneurs in Cali from June
    23 to 27. On November 2, the Government launched an outreach campaign
    to eradicate gender-based violence as required by Law 1257 of 2008 and
    a 2008 Constitutional Court decision. The interagency government-
    sponsored program Mujer Tienes Derechos, Estamos Contigo (Women: You
    Have Rights, We are With You) intends to increase public education
    about violence against women and provide resources for victims. On
    November 3, the Minister of Defense launched a new compulsory program
    of gender equality and sexual rights training for all members of the
    armed forces. The program includes training that was developed jointly
    with the United Nations Population Fund.

        Children.--Citizenship is derived by birth within the country's
    territory. By law primary education was compulsory, free, and
    universal, but this was not always true in practice. Rural schools
    often could not offer classes because they lacked teachers.
        Child abuse was a serious problem. The National Institute for Legal
    Medicine and Forensic Sciences reported more than 11,000 cases of child
    abuse. The ICBF reported 7,625 cases of sexual abuse against children.
    The institute also estimated that approximately 86 percent of reported
    sex crimes involved sexual abuse of children, most of whom were under
    age 14.
        The 20,000-person Embera Chami indigenous community in Risaralda
    continued its two-year suspension of female genital mutilation.
        According to the ICBF, through November there were 441 reports of
    minors engaging in independent or forced prostitution; many other cases
    went unreported. According to the ICBF, through November there were 42
    cases reported of children engaged in child pornography. In 2009 the
    president approved a law that increased the penalties for sexual
    tourism involving minors, and ICBF identified 29 children through
    November engaged in these activities. The law authorizes the Government
    to confiscate profits from hotels and other establishments where sex
    with minors is performed.
        Guerrillas forcibly recruited and used children as soldiers,
    including indigenous children (see section 1.g.). Children were caught
    in clashes between illegal armed groups and national security forces.
    According to the UN, illegal armed groups killed or threatened children
    with death on suspicion of being informants for the Colombian military.
        According to government registrations, 52 percent of IDPs during
    the year were women and 36 percent were children. Displaced children
    were particularly vulnerable to physical abuse, sexual exploitation,
    and recruitment by criminals.
        The country is a party to the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil
    Aspects of International Child Abduction. For information on
    international parental child abduction, please see the Department of
    State's annual report on the convention at http://travel.state.gov/
    abduction/resources/congressreport/congressreport--4308.html as well as
    country-specific information at http://travel.state.gov/abduction/
    country/country--3781.html.

        Anti-Semitism.--There were reports of societal abuses or
    discrimination, including anti-Semitism, based on religious
    affiliation, belief, or practice. Anti-Semitic acts included graffiti
    painted on the exterior walls of synagogues and anti-Semitic statements
    in pamphlets published by small anti-Semitic organizations. The Jewish
    community had an estimated 5,000 members.

        Trafficking in Persons.--For information on trafficking in persons,
    please see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons
    Report can be found at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        Persons With Disabilities.--The law prohibits discrimination
    against persons with physical and mental disabilities in employment,
    education, access to health care, or the provision of other state
    services, and the Government sought to enforce these prohibitions. No
    law mandates access to public buildings, information, and
    telecommunications for persons with disabilities, thus limiting the
    power of the Government to penalize those schools or offices without
    access, but both national and local governments addressed this with
    programs aimed at improving access. The law provides persons with
    physical disabilities access to voting stations. The Presidential
    Program for Human Rights is responsible for protecting the rights of
    persons with disabilities.

        National/Racial/Ethnic Minorities.--According to the 2005 national
    census, approximately 4.5 million persons, or 10 percent of the
    population, described themselves of African descent. However, human
    rights groups and Afro-Colombian organizations estimated that Afro-
    Colombians comprised up to 20 to 25 percent of the population. While
    Afro-Colombians are entitled to all constitutional rights and
    protections, they faced significant economic and social discrimination.
    Choco, the department with the highest percentage of Afro-Colombian
    residents, had the lowest per capita level of social investment and
    ranked last in terms of education, health, and infrastructure. It also
    continued to experience some of the country's worst political violence,
    as new illegal armed groups, which included some former paramilitary
    members, and FARC and ELN guerrillas struggled for control of the
    department's drug- and weapons-smuggling corridor (see section 1.g.).
        On January 12, Colombia and the United States signed the Joint
    Action Plan on Racial and Ethnic Equality. The plan called on the
    public and private sectors in both countries to implement programs to
    share best practices to combat racial inequality and discrimination.
        In May the Government approved a policy to promote equal
    opportunity for black, Afro-Colombian, Palenquera, and Raizal
    populations in Colombia. Palenquera populations along some parts of the
    country's Caribbean coast, Raizal populations in the San Andres
    archipelago, and blacks and Afro-Colombians are all Afrodescendents who
    self-identify slightly differently based on their unique linguistic and
    cultural heritages. The plan, developed by over 20 different government
    agencies, described actions for the Government to take to improve
    access and quality of education, training, development, and diversity
    in government. Among the plan's recommendations was the proposal that
    the Ministry of Interior and Justice present a law criminalizing racial
    discrimination.
        In October President Santos created the Presidential Program for
    Afro-Colombian Affairs, housed in the Office of the Vice Presidency, to
    address Afro-Colombian needs at the presidential level.

        Indigenous People.--The constitution and laws give special
    recognition to the fundamental rights of indigenous people, who
    comprise approximately 3.4 percent of the population, and require that
    the Government consult beforehand with indigenous groups regarding
    governmental actions that could affect them.
        The law accords indigenous groups perpetual rights to their
    ancestral lands. Traditional indigenous authorities operated 778
    reservations, accounting for 30 percent of the country's territory,
    with officials selected according to indigenous traditions. However,
    many indigenous communities had no legal title to lands they claimed,
    and illegal armed groups often violently contested indigenous land
    ownership.
        The law provides for special criminal and civil jurisdictions
    within indigenous territories based on traditional community laws.
    Proceedings in these jurisdictions were subject to manipulation and
    often rendered punishments that were more lenient than those imposed by
    regular civilian courts. The law permits indigenous communities to
    educate their children in traditional dialects and in the observance of
    cultural and religious customs. Indigenous people are not subject to
    the national military draft.
        Indigenous leaders complained about the occasional presence of
    government security forces on indigenous reservations and asked that
    the Government consult with indigenous authorities prior to taking
    military action against illegal armed groups operating in or around
    such areas. On March 26, former president Uribe signed a presidential
    directive which establishes national ethnic groups' fundamental right
    to prior consultation and reiterates the legal requirement to consult
    with those communities before any activity with cultural, social,
    economic, or environmental impact. Some indigenous groups came out
    against this directive arguing that it was not constitutional, not
    prepared in consultation with indigenous groups, and that it still did
    not solve the problem of unclear mechanisms for previous consultation.
        The Government stated that for security reasons it could not
    provide advance notice of most military operations and that it
    consulted with indigenous leaders when possible before accessing land
    held by the communities. The law permits the presence of government
    security forces on indigenous lands; however, Ministry of Defense
    directives instructed security forces to respect the integrity of
    indigenous communities, particularly during military and police
    operations. The Ministry of Defense's Integrated Policy on Human Rights
    stresses the importance of protecting indigenous communities.
        The Ministry of Interior and Justice, through its Office of
    Indigenous Affairs, is responsible for protecting the territorial,
    cultural, and traditional rights of indigenous people. Ministry
    representatives, together with inspector general and human rights
    ombudsman representatives, worked with other governmental human rights
    organizations and NGOs to promote indigenous interests and protect
    their rights by investigating violations of indigenous rights. The
    ministry is also responsible for buying land to add to indigenous
    reserves.
        Despite special legal protections and government assistance
    programs, indigenous people continued to suffer discrimination and
    often lived on the margins of society. The indigenous people were the
    country's poorest population and had the highest age-specific mortality
    rates.
        The Presidential Program for Human Rights reported that through
    August 31 there were 40 homicides of indigenous people, a decrease of
    50 percent from the same period in 2009. Unlike in 2009, there were no
    reported massacres of indigenous people.
        On August 13, unknown assailants entered the home of U'wa leader
    Carmen Elisa Mora Uncacia and attacked and killed her. Mora, who was
    pregnant, worked as coordinator of the Office of Indigenous Affairs in
    the mayor's office in Saravena, Arauca.
        On August 26, unknown assailants kidnapped and killed Ramiro
    Inampues and his wife Taita Ramiro. Their bodies were found two days
    later in El Corso in the Guachucal indigenous reserve in Narino
    Department. Inampues served as governor of the Guachucal reserve and as
    a council member in the municipality of Guachucal.
        On December 17, unknown assailants shot and killed Medardo Mera
    Sandoval as he was leaving church in Caldono, Cauca Department. The
    following day, President Santos condemned the killing of Mera Sandoval,
    an indigenous leader and community council member, and called on police
    to investigate the crime. The investigation continued at year's end.
        The IACHR condemned these deaths and called on the Government to
    fully investigate and prosecute those responsible.
        There were developments in killings of indigenous people in 2009.
    On October 7, three men were sentenced to 52 years in prison for the
    August 2009 massacre of 12 Awa.
        In October President Santos created the Presidential Program for
    Indigenous Affairs, housed in the Office of the Vice Presidency, to
    address indigenous needs at the presidential level.
        The UNHCHR continued to denounce threats and violence against
    indigenous communities, characterized government investigations of
    human rights violations against indigenous groups as inadequate, and
    appealed to the Government to do more to protect indigenous people.

        Societal Abuses, Discrimination, and Acts of Violence Based on
    Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.--Colombia Diversa, an NGO
    focused on violence and discrimination due to sexual orientation,
    reported at least 50 killings during the year due to prejudice
    regarding sexual orientation. On October 2, two unknown male assailants
    shot and killed transgender Raiza Valencia Cuero in the ``El Rodeo''
    neighborhood of Cali. LGBT activists were the subjects of ``social
    cleansing'' threats and attacks (see section 1.g.). The Constitutional
    Court recognized the right of same-sex couples to a pension;
    nevertheless, Colombia Diversa reported the law was frequently not
    applied due to lack of knowledge by government employees. In a 5-to-4
    vote on November 11, the Constitutional Court upheld Colombia's ban on
    same-sex marriage. The Court decided that the case before them did not
    contain a sufficient legal argument and additional information was
    needed. At year's end the Constitutional Court was reviewing a case
    regarding adoptions by same-sex couples but had not released a
    decision. The city of Bogota implemented an outreach campaign regarding
    LGBT issues, and every administrative department in the municipal
    government has a specialist on LGBT issues. The mayor of Cartagena also
    called for increased outreach on LGBT issues. There was no official
    discrimination based on sexual orientation in employment, housing,
    statelessness, or access to education or health care. The city of
    Bogota's Department of Sexual Diversity released a study which reported
    98 percent of the LGBT community faced discrimination, particularly in
    schools and workplaces. The report showed that 53 percent of the LGBT
    community has been physically attacked for their sexual orientation or
    gender identity identity, and in 61 percent of cases the attacker is
    closely related to the victim. Transgender individuals were victimized
    the most (64 percent of the community), followed by lesbians (57
    percent of the community). This data aligned with reports from Colombia
    Diversa about societal discrimination. Colombia Diversa reported cases
    of police abuse against persons due to their sexual orientation, with
    the majority of complaints coming from transgender individuals. On May
    17, in Bucaramanga police beat and pepper sprayed three LGBT youths
    while insulting them for their sexual orientation. According to LGBT
    NGOs these attacks frequently occurred, but victims did not pursue
    cases for fear of retaliation.
        On February 24, the CNP issued Permanent Directive 004 to continue
    procedures within the CNP to ensure the LGBT community receives respect
    and protection of its rights. Colombia Diversa and Cali-based NGO
    Santamaria Foundation claimed that the directives were insufficient to
    measure the CNP's progress and that violations had not decreased.
        Due to increased pressure not only from Colombian LGBT activists,
    but also the international community, the state government of Valle del
    Cauca included sexual diversity in its Human Rights Action and
    Development Plan. The state government worked with ten municipalities
    and developed an awareness and training program for government
    employees, along with victim assistance and health-related programs.
    The city of Cali created a consultative group regarding sexual
    diversity that includes representatives from NGOs like Santamaria. A
    report by the mayor's office cited high levels of discrimination,
    exclusion, and human rights violations in the transgender community.
    Programs about sexual diversity were included in schools, with the
    inclusion of transgender women, in an effort to shift cultural norms;
    in August the program was suspended. The city of Cali's Secretary of
    Education received complaints from parents and other community members
    that the program would promote homosexuality or transgender activities
    by students and decided to halt the program.
        In recognition of World AIDS Day on December 1, the Ministry of
    Social Protection in collaboration with the United Nations Population
    Fund (UNFPA) launched a communications campaign to combat the
    stigmatization and discrimination of those living with HIV/AIDS. The
    campaign, ``We Are Different, But Equal,'' featured transgender
    activist Valentina from the Santamaria Foundation. UNFPA explained the
    campaign intended to highlight the diverse population affected by the
    disease including some members of the transgender community.
        The Office of the Inspector General launched a program,
    ``Strengthening the Preventive Role of the Inspector General on LGBT
    Population Rights,'' to provide monitoring of public policies, ensure
    compliance with judicial decisions, and recommend international
    tribunals regarding LGBT cases. In addition, it implemented a civil
    servant training program that involved over 300 public employees on
    respecting the rights of LGBT individuals including updates to case
    law, providing differentiated services, and the development, and
    dissemination of a preventive action plan.
        Despite these efforts, Colombia Diversa asserted that members of
    the Inspector General's Office continued to publicly oppose same sex
    marriage to the Constitutional Court. NGOs claimed that violence in
    prisons against persons due to their sexual orientation remained a
    problem, and they reported confinement and isolation of incarcerated
    lesbians resulted in the suicide of Dayana Perez on October 25, in the
    Jamundi Prison. In addition, there have been instances where medical
    services for transgender men have been denied.
        Colombia Diversa reported several cases of threats against human
    rights defenders working on LGBT issues. Colombia Diversa cited a high
    level of impunity for crimes against members of the LGBT community.
    Government-authorized gay pride marches took place in several cities on
    June 26; there were no reports of insufficient security for the
    participants.

        Other Societal Violence or Discrimination.--There were no confirmed
    reports of societal violence or discrimination towards persons with
    HIV/AIDS.

    Section 7. Worker Rights
        a. The Right of Association.--The law allows some workers to form
    and join unions and the Government generally respected this right in
    practice; however, there exist a number of legal restrictions to
    forming and joining a union, particularly in indirect contracting
    situations, but unions have been formed despite these legal
    restrictions. The law does not extend this right to members of the
    armed forces or police. Approximately 820,000 workers (4.4 percent of
    the workforce of 18.4 million) were union members. Almost 60 percent of
    the workforce was employed in the informal sector.
        The labor code provides for automatic recognition of unions that
    obtain 25 signatures from potential members and comply with a
    registration process. While barriers to registration have been
    overcome, unions cited multiple companies that fired employees that
    formed new unions. The Ministry of Social Protection continued to
    investigate a number of claims at year's end.
        Threats and harassment of trade unionists continued to affect the
    exercise of the right to freedom of association, as violence and
    discrimination against union members discouraged some workers from
    joining and engaging in union activities. The Presidential Program for
    Human Rights reported that 34 trade unionists were killed during the
    year, compared with 28 in 2009, while the National Union School (ENS),
    a labor rights NGO and think tank, reported that 51 trade unionists
    were killed during the year, compared with 47 in 2009. ENS and
    government figures differed because of different methodological
    definitions of trade union membership; however, due to increased
    dialogue between ENS and the Presidential Program for Human Rights,
    multiple cases of murdered unionists were identified which were
    previously not categorized as such because the Government selects only
    one category, which causes exclusion of unionists from final numbers.
        On February 10, in Montecristo, Bolivar, an armed group shot and
    killed Jose de Jesus Retrepo and Omar Alonso Restrepo Ospina, leaders
    of the mining union FEDEAGROMISBOL. Local residents claimed the murders
    were carried out by paramilitaries. On June 5, in Calle, Valle de
    Cauca, unknown assailants on a motorcycle shot and killed Hernan Abdiel
    Ordonez Dorado, leader of the prison workers union ASEINPEC. Both cases
    were under investigation at year's end.
        On August 12, in Medellin, Antioquia, an unknown assailant shot and
    killed Luis German Restrepo Maldonado, leader of the packaging union
    Sintraempaques. On December 12, the police arrested John Bayron Cardona
    Sep#lveda, alias ``Jimy,'' Alejandro Perez Perez, alias ``Alejo,''
    Alexander Correa Rodriguez, alias ``Alex,'' and Hern n Molina
    Saldarriaga, alias ``Pacheco,'' for Restrepo's murder. Correa, Molina,
    and Perez accepted charges of aggravated homicide and possession of
    illegal firearms. All four were in prison awaiting sentencing at year's
    end. Molina previously served six years of a 32-year sentence for
    illegal gun possession, but was conditionally released prior to
    Restrepo's murder. The Prosecutor General's Office believed that the
    four individuals murdered Restrepo in a joint FARC-ELN operation.
        The ENS and other labor groups acknowledged the continued decline
    in the murder rate but asserted focusing on murders alone masked the
    true nature and scope of the antiunion violence. About 25 percent of
    the 11,579 ``violations of life, liberty, and integrity'' of unionists
    tallied by ENS since 1986 were murders; the rest ranged from death
    threats and disappearances to harassment and illegal searches. Labor
    groups noted that in some regions nonlethal violations were on the
    rise. ENS reported 443 total violations for the year--in addition to
    the 51 reported homicides, there were 306 death threats, 20 nonlethal
    attacks, six disappearances, three arbitrary detentions, three illegal
    searches, 33 cases of forced displacement, 16 cases of harassment, and
    five kidnappings.
        Teachers made up the largest percentage of union members and were
    the largest percentage of victims of violence by illegal armed groups,
    both because they constituted 27 percent of all registered unionists
    and because of their presence in rural, conflict-ridden parts of the
    country. The Presidential Program for Human Rights reported that 18 of
    the 34 unionists killed during the year were teachers, while ENS
    reported 29 of 51 unionists killed were teachers. The teachers union
    Colombian Federation of Educators (FECODE) reported one nonunion
    educator was killed during the year, for a total of 27.
        The Ministry of Interior and Justice provided protection to 10,806
    at-risk individuals of whom 1,454 were trade union leaders (others
    protected included journalists, human rights advocates, and social
    leaders); the protection program received annual funding of 144 billion
    pesos ($72 million). In September the Minister of Interior and Justice,
    citing the continued risks posed to human rights defenders and labor
    leaders, announced that the Government would increase the protection
    program's budget by 20 billion pesos ($11 million). The Ministry of
    Education managed a separate protection (transfer) program for
    educators, the majority of whom are unionized. On November 24, Vice
    President Garzon announced a plan to better protect unionized teachers,
    based on a proposal from FECODE. At year's end details of the plan had
    not been released.
        Since 2000 the Prosecutor General's Office obtained 353 convictions
    for violent acts against trade unionists, including 76 during the year.
    A special Labor Sub-Unit set up in 2006 was assigned 1,387 cases to
    investigate and process. The majority of the 1,387 cases remained under
    investigation or in the preliminary stages of the prosecutorial
    process. Labor groups recognized important advances made by the Labor
    Sub-Unit of the Prosecutor General's Office, but said more needed to be
    done to end impunity for perpetrators of violence against trade
    unionists. They also claimed prosecutors charged with carrying out
    investigations into historic impunity cases failed to look for evidence
    of anti union biases as a motive for abuses.
        Steps within the legal system have been taken to prosecute and
    punish criminals associated with labor-related cases. Since 2008 the
    Colombian judiciary, per a tripartite International Labor Organization
    (ILO) agreement, has assigned three specialized judges to exclusively
    hear cases involving violence against unionists. A 2009 law increased
    prison sentences and the statute of limitations for homicides of union
    members. During the year the Prosecutor General's Office reported
    convictions in several high-profile cases:
        On June 8, the 11th Criminal Circuit Court of Bogota, responsible
    for priority cases as designated by a tripartite agreement at the ILO,
    sentenced a former AUC member to 39 years in jail for the 2003 murders
    of a union-affiliated teacher and a photographer in Palmira, Valle del
    Cauca.
        On July 23, the 11th Criminal Circuit Court of Bogota responsible
    for priority cases as designated by a tripartite agreement at the ILO
    cases sentenced a former paramilitary member to 15 years in prison for
    the 2001 murders of Drummond union leaders Valmore Locarno Rodriguez
    and Victor Hugo Orcasita Amaya in Cesar.
        The law provides for the right to strike, and workers exercised
    this right in practice. According to the ILO, members of the national
    labor federations and confederations, armed forces, police, and persons
    performing ``essential public services'' were not permitted to strike.
    During the year the courts declared three work stoppages illegal.
        Before conducting a strike, unions must follow prescribed legal
    procedures and give advance notice to their employers and local
    authorities. The law dictates that a strike can only occur during
    contract negotiations or collective bargaining procedures. The law
    prohibits the use of strikebreakers. The law prohibiting public
    employees from striking was often ignored. Employees are not required
    to accept binding arbitration if they cannot reach an agreement.

        b. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively.--The law
    provides workers the right to organize and bargain collectively, and
    the Government respected this right in the private sector; however,
    collective bargaining was not implemented fully in the public sector.
    Labor unions assessed that high unemployment, a large informal economy,
    antiunion attitudes, and violence against trade union leaders
    contributed to making organizing difficult, limiting workers'
    bargaining power across sectors. Some economists also suggested that
    mandatory high nonwage benefits to provide a source of funds for
    vocational training and family welfare programs such as day care
    centers, nutrition programs for low-income families, and counseling in
    the formal sector depressed formal employment and thus union
    membership, and increased informal employment. According to the ENS, in
    2009, 1.36 percent of the workforce was covered by a collective
    bargaining agreement. No new data for 2010 was available at year's end.
        There were no examples of public sector collective bargaining
    agreements since the law prohibits them. Public sector employees can
    negotiate ``concentrated agreements,'' but by definition these are not
    collective bargaining agreements. Employers continued to hire workers
    through temporary contracts, service agencies, and associated workers'
    cooperatives (CTAs). This practice limited worker rights and undermined
    worker protections by preventing unionization and collective bargaining
    among seasonal, temporary, and contract workers. The continued growth
    and prevalence of CTAs diminished collective bargaining and other
    worker rights because CTA workers were not covered by the labor code
    and hence could not bargain collectively. Law 1233 of 2008 requires
    CTAs to register with the Government and provide compensation at least
    equivalent to the minimum wage and the same health and retirement
    benefits normally offered to directly hired employees, however, it did
    not extend collective bargaining rights to CTA workers.
        Decree 4588 prohibits the use of CTAs as subcontractors when they
    do not own the means of production, when they are used to perform core
    functions for a company, and when a company itself directly disciplines
    CTA workers. Evidence suggests many cooperatives nonetheless engaged in
    illegal forms of subcontracting, and in some cases private-sector
    employers forced workers to join CTAs they themselves managed. The
    Government has the authority to fine labor rights violators but seldom
    shuts down repeat offenders. During the year the Government
    investigated 907 cooperatives and pre-cooperatives and sanctioned 102.
    The total amount of the fines levied against these 102 cooperatives and
    pre-cooperatives was approximately 395 million pesos ($219,000). In
    practice nominal fines assessed by the Government did little to
    dissuade violators.
        While Law 1233 of 2008 and Decree 4588 were designed to better
    regulate CTAs, unions continued to voice reservations about the
    strength of the law and decree, and the Government's ability to
    adequately regulate due to labor inspector shortages. Congress passed
    legislation on December 16 on labor cooperatives, and it was signed
    into law by President Santos on December 29; the provision was folded
    into President Santos' larger employment formalization bill. This
    change to CTAs would provide a mechanism for dissolution of CTAs that
    violate labor rights and do not adhere to labor law. Further, it would
    levy heavy fines for those in noncompliance starting in July 2013.
        Collective pacts between individual workers and their employers
    were also used as an alternative, often weakening or replacing the
    benefits of a collective bargaining agreement. Collective pacts give
    employers the right to negotiate accords on pay and labor conditions
    with groups of workers at any time in workplaces where no union is
    present or where a union represents less than one-third of employees.
    Labor groups noted that when a minority union presented a collective
    bargaining proposal, employers offered some workers better conditions
    and pay in exchange for their leaving the union and joining the pact,
    which undermined organized labor's ability to bargain collectively.
        Roughly 75 percent of the workforce in Colombia's ports is employed
    under flexible non-labor contracts and consequently not allowed to join
    unions or bargain collectively. Sugar and ethanol refineries also
    utilized CTAs as a means of sub-contracting labor to third parties, and
    many sugarcane cutters, predominantly Afro-descendent and indigenous
    men, were required to belong to a CTA in order to gain employment. In
    the example of sugarcane cutters, the workers formed unions in order to
    enhance collaboration. The law does not clearly define if this is
    legally permissible, but the unions were respected throughout the
    sugarcane sector.
        Unionists continued to advocate for revision to the labor code,
    which currently defines a ``worker'' as a direct hire with an
    employment contract, to cover a greater percentage of the workforce.
        While the law prohibits antiunion discrimination, other
    longstanding ILO and international criticisms of the labor code
    remained unaddressed, including employers' right to fire trade
    unionists who participate in illegal strikes or work stoppages as
    determined by the courts, and the prohibition of strikes in a wide
    range of public services that are not strictly ``essential,'' as
    defined by the ILO.
        There are no special laws or exemptions from regular labor laws in
    export processing zones. The labor law applies in the country's 58 free
    trade zones, where its standards were enforced.

        c. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor.--The law prohibits
    forced or compulsory labor, including by children, but there were some
    reports that such practices occurred (see section 7.d.). Also see the
    Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons Report at http://
    www.state.gov/g/tip.
        New illegal armed groups, which included some former paramilitary
    members, and FARC and ELN guerrillas practiced forced conscription.
    These groups also retaliated against deserters by threatening them and
    their families. Some deserters were killed. There were some reports
    that FARC and ELN guerrillas and new illegal armed groups, which
    included some former paramilitary members, used forced labor, including
    forced child labor in coca cultivation, in areas outside government
    control (see section 1.g.). Forced labor, including organized begging,
    and forced commercial sexual exploitation, often of internally
    trafficked women and children, remained a serious problem.

        d. Prohibition of Child Labor and Minimum Age for Employment.--
    While there are laws to protect children from exploitation in the
    workplace, child labor remained a problem in the informal and illicit
    sectors. Significant incidences occurred in the production of clay
    bricks, coal, emeralds, gold, coca, and pornography. The ICBF reported
    1,149 complaints of labor exploitation and 562 child victims of
    commercial sexual exploitation (481 in prostitution, 44 in child
    pornography, and 37 in sex tourism). The ICBF assisted 1,240 children
    victimized by commercial sexual exploitation throughout the country.
        The minimum age of employment is 18. Children aged 15 to 18 may
    work no more than 15 hours per week with signed documentation filed by
    their parents and approved by the MSP. Children under the age of 15 may
    work as apprentices in a family-owned enterprise if it is located on
    the same property as the family's residence, with MSP's permission.
    Labor law strictly states that children under the age of 15 cannot work
    outside of family enterprises. While labor law (Resolution 1677 of
    2008) includes agricultural work as a ``worst form of child labor,''
    exceptions exist. For example, the Government has approved some
    agricultural apprenticeship programs for children from 14 to 17 through
    the National Service Learning Agency (SENA).
        According to the last National Administrative Department of
    Statistics (DANE) study, conducted in 2007, there were 11.3 million
    children between the ages of five and 17, of whom approximately 787,000
    worked. Member organizations of the National Inter-Agency Committee to
    reduce the worst forms of child labor and to protect minor workers
    reported that up to two million children worked, the majority
    illegally. NGOs reported that 37.6 percent of children who worked did
    not receive payment.
        The legal minimum age for work was consistent with completing basic
    education. Child workers are prohibited from working at night or
    performing work where there is a risk of bodily harm or exposure to
    excessive heat, cold, or noise. Although children were prohibited from
    working in a number of specific occupations, including mining and
    construction, in practice these prohibitions were largely ignored.
    Children worked in artisanal mining of coal, clay, emeralds, and gold
    under dangerous conditions and in many instances with the approval and/
    or insistence of their parents.
        While children are prohibited from working in most agricultural
    activities in accordance with Resolution 1677 of 2008, some educational
    institutions modify schedules during harvest seasons so that children
    may help on the family farm.
        The ICBF identified and assisted 3,413 children working in illegal
    mining operations during the year. Most children were found working in
    the departments of Tolima (1,200), Narino (587), and Antioquia (585).
    Estimates of the total number of children who worked in illegal mining
    operations varied from 10,000 to 200,000. The Government reported that
    approximately 8,500 children were working in illegal mining. The labor
    code provides for fines of up to 40 times the minimum monthly wage for
    violations of child labor laws. A violation deemed to endanger a
    child's life or threaten moral values may be punished by temporary or
    permanent closure of the responsible establishment.
        There were instances of forced child labor in mines, quarries, and
    private homes. According to the DANE, children also worked, sometimes
    forcibly, in the illegal drug trade and other illicit activities.
    Several thousand children were forced to serve as combatants,
    prostitutes, or coca pickers for the FARC, ELN, and new illegal armed
    groups, which included some former paramilitaries (see section 1.g).
    Also see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons Report
    at http://www.state.gov/g/tip.
        The MSP's 423 labor inspectors nationwide were responsible for
    enforcing child labor laws; in the formal sector (which covered
    approximately 20 percent of the child labor force), they did so through
    periodic inspections. However, resources remained inadequate for
    effective enforcement. With assistance from the ILO, the Government
    worked to improve cooperation among national, regional, and municipal
    governments through its national plan to eradicate child labor and
    protect working youth. The Government also sought to reduce demand for
    child labor through public awareness and training efforts, often
    working with international organizations. The Colombian Sugar Cane
    Producers Association (ASOCANA) continued to support a child labor
    awareness project at approximately 3.6 billion pesos ($2 million). The
    program educates parents and children about the importance of
    education, and provides additional opportunities for parents to earn
    income for their household rather than having their children work.
    ASOCANA's program promotes and consolidates coordination with public
    and private sectors; this outreach has facilitated the participation of
    22 municipal governments. In addition, the association continues to
    support the ILO's project in Colombia to eradicate child labor.
        The Colombian National Emerald Federation (Fedesmeraldas) signed an
    agreement with the IOM, ICBF, and USAID to support mining community
    families to improve living conditions, to prevent child labor in
    emerald mines, and prevent recruitment of children by illegal armed
    groups.
        The MSP, with ILO assistance, developed a ``virtual'' training
    program for labor inspectors in the departments of Cundinamarca,
    Boyaca, Tolima, and Meta. The 40-hour training program was sufficient
    to provide inspectors with details on how to approach situations where
    the worst forms of child labor were discovered.
        In November the Government announced an increase in government
    support to eradicate child labor to complement the Government's 2008
    national strategy to prevent and eradicate child labor. The plan
    utilizes inter-agency coordination to promote the overall welfare of
    children--including access to education and health services. The
    Government, in conjunction with the IOM and UNICEF, provided services
    to former child soldiers and carried out awareness-raising campaigns to
    prevent the recruitment of children by armed groups.

        e. Acceptable Conditions of Work.--The law requires an annual
    meeting of a tripartite ``Commission of Salary and Labor Policies''
    comprising organized labor, business, and government representatives to
    negotiate the minimum wage. When the commission cannot reach an
    agreement--as seen again in 2010--the Government can establish the
    minimum wage. The Government establishes a uniform minimum wage every
    January, which serves as a benchmark for wage bargaining. The monthly
    minimum wage was approximately 515,000 pesos ($285), a 3.6 percent
    increase from the previous year. The national minimum wage did not
    provide a decent standard of living for a worker and family.
    Furthermore, the Government remained unable to enforce the minimum wage
    in the informal sector.
        The labor code provides for a regular workweek of 48 hours and a
    minimum rest period of eight hours within the week. The code stipulates
    that workers are entitled to receive premium compensation for
    additional hours worked over the regular workweek of 48 hours and for
    work performed on Sundays. Compulsory overtime is permitted only in
    exceptional cases where the work is considered essential for the
    company's functioning.
        Security forces and other officials closed 56 illegal mines as part
    of a comprehensive inter-agency initiative that began after President
    Santos took office. At year's end the Ministry of Mining and Energy
    continued to review the legality of 3,000 mines. In addition, reports
    indicate that the CNP in conjunction with the Ministry of Mining and
    Energy investigated possible illegal mines in the department of
    Bolivar, in particular those connected to the FARC. Investigators
    reported that the FARC's Magdalena Medio Bloc controlled approximately
    15 gold mines in Bolivar Department and was actively involved in the
    extortion of heavy-equipment operators. According to the investigation,
    the FARC could be receiving approximately 1.6 billion pesos
    (approximately $850 million) per year from these activities.
        The law provides protection for workers' occupational safety and
    health in the formal sector, which the MSP enforced through periodic
    inspections. However, a scarcity of government inspectors, poor public
    safety awareness, and inadequate attention by unions resulted in a high
    level of industrial accidents and unhealthy working conditions in the
    formal sector. Similar conditions were even more common in the informal
    sector, where workers sometimes suffered physical or sexual abuse. The
    law provides workers with the right to leave a hazardous work situation
    without jeopardizing continued employment, and the Government enforced
    this right. Nonunion workers, particularly those in the agricultural
    and port sectors, reportedly worked under hazardous conditions because
    they feared losing their jobs if they criticized abuses. The Colombian
    Flower Industry Association (ASOCOLFLORES) continued to implement
    voluntary principles on environmental and worker safety practices and
    reduced the use of pesticides. Nevertheless, problems remained,
    particularly among producers who remained unaffiliated to ASOCOLFLORES.

                                   __________

                                   COSTA RICA

        Costa Rica is a constitutional democracy with a population of
    approximately 4.5 million and governed by a president and a unicameral
    Legislative Assembly that are directly elected in multiparty elections
    every four years. On February 7, Laura Chinchilla Miranda of the
    National Liberation Party (PLN) was elected the country's first female
    president in elections that were generally considered free and fair.
    Security forces reported to civilian authorities.
        The following human rights problems were reported: substantial
    judicial process delays (particularly in pretrial detention and civil,
    criminal, and labor cases), domestic violence against women and
    children, child prostitution, trafficking in persons, and child labor.

                            RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

    Section 1. Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom
            From:
        a. Arbitrary or Unlawful Deprivation of Life.--There were no
    reports that the Government or its agents committed arbitrary or
    unlawful killings.
        On May 27, a trial court sentenced two uniformed police officers to
    72 years in prison for the 2008 killing of two persons.
        There were no developments in the 2007 case of a police officer
    involved in the killing of a robbery suspect.

        b. Disappearance.--There were no reports of politically motivated
    disappearances.

        c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or
    Punishment.--Although the constitution prohibits such practices and the
    Government generally respected this prohibition, some members of the
    security forces committed abuses. Any statement obtained through
    coercion is invalid, and the Government investigated, prosecuted, and
    punished agents responsible for confirmed cases of abuse.
        During the year the Ombudsman's Office recorded 27 complaints of
    police abuse; as of December 31, two complaints had been resolved and
    25 remained under investigation. The ombudsman conducted investigations
    as a preliminary step, with any recommendation for action forwarded to
    the respective agency for investigation or follow up.

        Prison and Detention Center Conditions.--Although the Government
    continued to improve prison conditions during the year, overcrowding,
    poor sanitation, lack of health services, and violence among prisoners
    remained a problem in some prison facilities. The Ombudsman's Office
    investigated all complaints and referred serious cases of abuse to the
    public prosecutor. Illegal narcotics were readily available in the
    prisons, and drug abuse was common.
        Prison overcrowding continued to increase. On December 15, the
    Justice Ministry's Social Adaptation Division reported a total
    population of 20,564 under its supervision (including 10,586 prisoners
    in closed regime centers, 1,049 persons required to spend nights and
    weekends in jail, 8,452 in supervised work programs requiring no jail
    time, and 477 juveniles) and indicated that on average prison
    populations exceeded designed capacity by 22 percent. The Social
    Adaptation Division also reported that there were 629 prisoners at the
    San Jose women's prison and 27 women prisoners at the Liberia prison as
    of December.
        The San Sebastian, San Carlos, Cartago, Liberia, Perez Zeledon,
    Puntarenas, Limon, La Reforma, Gerardo Rodriguez, Buen Pastor, and
    Pococi prisons remained overcrowded at year's end, with the population
    in pretrial detention experiencing the most overcrowding. In San
    Sebastian, where most prisoners in pretrial detention were held, 983
    prisoners lived in unsanitary conditions in a facility with a capacity
    of 632. To mitigate these conditions, some pretrial detainees were held
    together with convicted prisoners in long-term detention facilities
    throughout the country.
        Medical care at most facilities was generally adequate for routine
    illnesses and injuries, and there was a doctor on duty at all prisons.
    However, prisoners were referred to the social service system for
    complex medical problems, such as HIV/AIDS, with consequent treatment
    delays.
        In June the Ombudsman's Office reported that some prisons had
    inadequate space available for resting: prisoners had to sleep on
    deteriorated mattresses on the floors, underneath the beds of other
    prisoners, or even in hallways and bathrooms. Overcrowding also raised
    questions of health risks, since many prisoners claimed that they had
    to wait months for medical attention. There were long lines for
    bathrooms, water, telephones, and recreation within prisons, and the
    Ombudsman's Office reported that security and administrative staffing
    was insufficient to care for the increasing prison population. There
    was an average of three corrections officers to oversee 100 inmates.
        Prisoners generally were separated by age, gender, and level of
    security (minimum, medium, and maximum), but overcrowding sometimes
    prevented proper security level separation.
        Prisoners had reasonable access to visitors and were permitted
    religious observance. Authorities permitted prisoners and detainees to
    submit complaints to judicial authorities without censorship and to
    request investigation of credible allegations of inhumane conditions.
    In the event such complaints were not processed, prisoners could submit
    them to the Ombudsman's Office. The Ombudsman's Office, through the
    National Prevention Mechanism against Torture, periodically inspected
    all detention centers.
        The Government permitted independent monitoring of prison
    conditions by international and local human rights observers, including
    representatives from the Ombudsman's Office. Human rights observers
    were allowed to speak to prisoners and prison employees in confidence
    and without the presence of prison staff or other third parties.
        In March new prison units with a capacity for 23 additional inmates
    went into service at the San Carlos and the Older Adult prisons. In
    December the Ministry of Justice reported that it began the contracting
    process for the construction of additional units to increase capacity
    for 640 inmates at the Liberia, San Carlos, Perez Zeledon, Limon, San
    Rafael, and Puntarenas prisons.

        d. Arbitrary Arrest or Detention.--The constitution prohibits
    arbitrary arrest and detention, and the Government generally observed
    these prohibitions.

        Role of the Police and Security Apparatus.--The country has no
    military. Civilian authorities maintained effective control over the 13
    agencies that have law enforcement components, including the judicial
    branch's Judicial Investigative Organization. The Ministry of Public
    Security is responsible for the uniformed police force, the drug
    control police, the border police, and the coast guard. The Ministry of
    Public Works and Transportation operated the traffic police, and the
    Ministry of Justice operated the penitentiary police.
        There were no reports of impunity involving the security forces.

        Arrest Procedures and Treatment While in Detention.--The law
    requires issuance of judicial warrants before making arrests, except
    where probable cause is evident to the arresting officer. The law
    entitles a detainee to a judicial determination of the legality of
    detention during arraignment before a judge within 24 hours of arrest.
    The law provides for the right to post bail and prompt access to an
    attorney and to family members; authorities generally observed these
    rights in practice. Indigent persons are provided a public attorney at
    government expense. Even those with sufficient personal funds are able
    to use the services of a public defender. With judicial authorization,
    authorities may hold suspects incommunicado for 48 hours after arrest
    or, under special circumstances, for up to 10 days if preventive
    detention is previously ordered and there are reasons to believe that
    suspects may reach an agreement with accomplices or may obstruct the
    investigation in any other way. Suspects are allowed access to
    attorneys immediately before submitting declarations. Authorities
    promptly inform the suspects of any offenses under investigation.
        A criminal court may hold suspects in pretrial detention for
    periods of up to one year, and the Court of Appeals may extend this
    period to two years in especially complex cases. The law requires court
    review every three months of cases of suspects in pretrial detention to
    determine the appropriateness of continued detention. Under the 2009
    organized crime law, if a judge declares a case is related to organized
    crime, special procedural rules apply that extend the maximum period of
    preventive detention from 12 months to 24 months; the statute of
    limitations is 10 years from the date of the last crime. According to
    the Ministry of Justice, as of December 15, there were 2,733 persons in
    pretrial detention, constituting approximately 26 percent of the prison
    population.

        e. Denial of Fair Public Trial.--The constitution provides for an
    independent judiciary, and the Government generally respected judicial
    independence in practice. The legal system faced many challenges,
    including significant delays in the adjudication of civil disputes and
    a growing workload. In 2009 approximately 230,000 criminal complaints
    were filed with the judicial branch, 7,000 of which went to trial, with
    a conviction rate of 56 percent.

        Trial Procedures.--The law provides for the right to a fair trial,
    and an independent judiciary generally enforced this right.
        All trials, except those that include juvenile defendants, are
    public. There are no jury trials. A trial is presided over by a single
    judge or by a three-judge panel, depending on the potential penalties
    arising from the charges. Trials that involve victims or witnesses who
    are minors are closed during the portion of the trial where the minor
    is called to testify. Defendants have the right to be present during
    the trial and consult with an attorney in a timely manner. Victims can
    request special arrangements in the courtroom to avoid unwanted contact
    with defendants. Accused persons can select attorneys to represent
    them, and the law provides for access to counsel at state expense for
    indigent persons. The law provides for detainee and attorney access to
    government held evidence, and during the trial defendants can question
    witnesses and present witnesses on their own behalf. Defendants enjoy a
    presumption of innocence and, if convicted, have the right of appeal.
    The law extends these rights to citizens and noncitizens alike.
        Authorities continued to expand the use of fast track courts in the
    provinces to expedite prosecution of criminal cases when the suspect
    was arrested while committing a crime. On April 15, the judicial branch
    opened a fast track court in Limon. Fast track courts provide the same
    protections and rights as other courts.

        Regional Human Rights Court Decisions.--In 2009 the Inter-American
    Court of Human Rights ruled that reforms to the judicial appeals system
    did not comply with the Inter-American Convention on Human Rights,
    clarifying its 2004 ruling that required the Government to reform its
    appeals system. On May 31, the Government submitted a new compliance
    report stating that it had established criminal courts of appeal. On
    November 22, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights reported that the
    country complied with the judgment.

        Political Prisoners and Detainees.--There were no reports of
    political prisoners or detainees.

        Civil Judicial Procedures and Remedies.--There is an independent
    and impartial judiciary that presides over lawsuits in civil matters,
    including human rights violations. Administrative and judicial remedies
    for alleged wrongs are available.

        Property Restitution.--The law grants considerable rights to
    squatters who invade uncultivated land, regardless of who may hold
    title to the property. In some cases, property rights were irregularly
    enforced and duplicate registrations occurred.

        f. Arbitrary Interference With Privacy, Family, Home, or
    Correspondence.--The constitution prohibits such practices, and the
    Government generally respected these prohibitions in practice. Judges
    may approve the use of wiretaps during the investigation of certain
    crimes, but restrictive legal guidelines made the use of wiretaps
    infrequent. The 2009 law against organized crime reformed electronic
    surveillance procedures by mandating the creation of a communications
    investigation center under the judicial branch to run all wiretapping.
    The center was not operational at year's end.

    Section 2. Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:
        a. Freedom of Speech and Press.--The constitution provides for
    freedom of speech and of the press, and the Government generally
    respected these rights in practice. The independent media were active
    and expressed a wide variety of views without restriction.
        Journalists and media company owners continued to criticize
    legislation that imposes criminal penalties, including lengthy jail
    sentences instead of civil fines, for common press infractions and
    argued that such legislation promoted self-censorship.
        The law provides persons criticized in the media with an
    opportunity to reply with equal attention and at equal length. In
    February the Supreme Court's High Court of Criminal Appeals overturned
    a 50-day prison sentence against a journalist accused of libel in 2004.
    The court decision invalidated an article of the press law that made
    offenses against honor punishable with prison.

        Internet Freedom.--There were no government restrictions on access
    to the Internet or reports that the Government monitored e-mail or
    Internet chat rooms. Individuals and groups could engage in the
    expression of views via the Internet, including by e-mail.
        In July the Supreme Court ruled that Internet access is a
    fundamental right. A study published during the year by a subsidiary of
    the Electricity Institute reported that nearly 30 percent of households
    had Internet access, and the International Telecommunication Union
    reported that there were 34 Internet users per 100 inhabitants in 2009.
    More than a million citizens had access to Internet from their
    households, with an average of three hours of access a day and three
    persons in the household using the service. Other locations where
    citizens had access to Internet were educational institutions,
    workplaces, Internet cafes, and Wi-Fi hotspots.

        Academic Freedom and Cultural Events.--There were no government
    restrictions on academic freedom or cultural events.
        The Commission on Control and Rating of Public Performances rates
    films and has the authority to restrict or prohibit the showing of
    films deemed pornographic, violent in nature, or likely to incite crime
    or vice. The commission has similar powers over television and radio
    programs and stage plays. In addition, the commission regulates the
    sale and distribution of written material deemed pornographic,
    enforcing specific packaging and display regulations. A tribunal
    reviews appeals of the commission's actions.

        b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association.--The constitution
    provides for freedom of assembly and association, and the Government
    generally respected these rights in practice.

        c. Freedom of Religion.--For a complete description of religious
    freedom, please see the 2010 International Religious Freedom Report at
    www.state.gov/g/drl/irf/rpt.

        d. Freedom of Movement, Internally Displaced Persons, Protection of
    Refugees, and Stateless Persons.--The constitution and law provide for
    freedom of movement within the country, foreign travel, emigration, and
    repatriation, and the Government generally respected these rights in
    practice. The Government cooperated with the Office of the UN High
    Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and other humanitarian organizations
    in providing protection and assistance to refugees, asylum seekers,
    stateless persons, and other persons of concern.
        The law requires that adults carry national identification cards at
    all times. Persons who fail to produce such documents at security
    checkpoints may be detained until their identity and immigration status
    are verified.
        The constitution prohibits forced internal or external exile, and
    the Government did not use it in practice.

        Protection of Refugees.--The laws provide for the granting of
    asylum or refugee status and the Government has established a system
    for providing protection to refugees.
        In practice the Government provided protection against the
    expulsion or return of refugees to countries where their lives or
    freedom would be threatened on account of their race, religion,
    nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political
    opinion.
        The General Directorate of Immigration is in charge of refugee
    status determination. The law requires adjudication of claims within
    three months of receipt; however, in practice, decisions took from six
    to eight months. According to reports from the directorate's refugee
    department, from July to October, 120 cases were denied review by the
    commission and were in an appeal process at the end of the year.
    Applicants cannot work legally until the directorate approves their
    cases. Applicants have access to education.
        The General Directorate of Immigration reported 8,678 refugees as
    of August, compared with 12,298 recognized refugees reported by the
    UNHCR at the end of 2009, most of whom were from Colombia. The decrease
    was largely attributable to the fact that, once refugees obtained
    permanent residency in the country, the General Directorate no longer
    counted them as refugees. There were 168 extraregional asylum seekers
    during the year, according to official data of the Immigration
    Directorate. According to the UNHCR, there were 231 such cases and a
    total of 920 asylum requests during the year. Many asylum-seekers did
    not appear at the Immigration Directorate to carry on with their status
    application process. The Government and the UNHCR reported that most of
    these individuals simply used the asylum request as a means of
    obtaining a document that enabled them to cross the country on their
    journey toward the United States. Due to the low recognition rates, the
    UNHCR had to consider an increasing number of rejected asylum seekers
    as ``persons of concern'' in need of international protection. The
    UNHCR estimated that annually there were some 400 to 500 persons of
    concern, whose cases it checked to determine whether they needed
    international protection.
        An immigration law that took effect in March creates a separate
    office within the General Directorate of Immigration to deal
    specifically with refugee problems. The law also creates a commission,
    which is responsible for the granting of refugee status, and an
    immigration review tribunal for the appeals process. The commission
    began its work in July, but the tribunal had not been constituted as of
    year's end.

        Stateless Persons.--There were occasional problems of statelessness
    in the border areas with Panama and Nicaragua. Members of the Ngobe-
    Bugle indigenous group from Panama came to work on Costa Rican
    plantations, and sometimes their children were born in rudimentary
    structures on the plantations. In these cases the children were not
    registered as Costa Rican citizens because the families did not think
    it necessary to register the births, but when the families returned to
    Panama, the children were not registered there either. A similar
    problem occurred with Nicaraguan families that migrated to work on
    coffee plantations. The Government attempted to advise the migrant
    population to register at birth all children born in the country. As of
    September, immigration authorities reported that the Ministry of
    Foreign Affairs granted four persons the immigration category of
    stateless person and the Immigration Office provided them with
    documents. The Government detected and assisted these immigrants under
    UN parameters.

    Section 3. Respect for Political Rights: The Right of Citizens to
            Change Their Government
        The constitution provides citizens the right to change their
    government peacefully, and citizens exercised this right in practice
    through free and fair elections based on universal suffrage conducted
    by secret ballot every four years. The independent Supreme Electoral
    Tribunal ensured the integrity of the elections, and the authorities
    and citizens respected the election results.

        Elections and Political Participation.--In national elections held
    on February 7, Laura Chinchilla Miranda of the PLN won the presidency
    and became the country's first female president in elections that
    generally were considered free and fair. The Organization of American
    States team that monitored the election praised the peaceful and normal
    way in which the process unfolded.
        Political parties operated without restriction or outside
    interference. The constitution and the electoral code establish the
    right of all citizens to organize themselves in parties to participate
    in national politics. The internal structure and operation of parties
    should be democratic according to the law.
        The Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) requires that a minimum of 50
    percent of candidates for elective office be female and that women's
    names be placed alternately with men on the ballots by party slate. In
    August the TSE reported that 49 percent of the candidates running for
    office in the December local government election were women. There were
    nine women in the cabinet. There were 22 women in the 57-seat
    Legislative Assembly, including the vice president of the assembly, the
    Government party leader, and nine legislative committee chairwomen,
    representing 38.6 percent of seats. The deputy chief justice of the
    Supreme Court, the presidents of the High Court of Civil Appeals and
    the Constitutional Chamber were women.
        Indigenous persons did not play significant roles in politics or
    government except on problems directly affecting their welfare, largely
    because of their relatively small numbers and physical isolation by
    their own preference. There were no indigenous or black members in the
    Legislative Assembly or the cabinet. There was one black head of a
    government agency.

    Section 4. Official Corruption and Government Transparency
        The law provides criminal penalties for official corruption and the
    Government generally implemented these laws; however, there were
    isolated cases of officials engaged in corrupt practices with impunity.
    The Government took the following actions to combat corruption. In June
    the Office of the Comptroller General, the Office of the Solicitor
    General, the Chief Prosecutor's Office, and the Institute against Drugs
    signed a letter of intent to establish an alliance to fight corruption.
    The Office of Public Ethics developed a national plan of action to
    comply with recommendations from the Committee of Experts of the
    Mechanism for Follow-up on the Implementation of the Inter-American
    Convention against Corruption. The Office of Public Ethics initiated a
    strategy to promote the right of access to public information. The
    passage of the 2009 Law on the Protection of Victims, Witnesses, and
    other Persons Involved in Criminal Proceedings improved protection of
    public servants and private citizens who in good faith report acts of
    corruption.
        Public officials were subject to financial disclosure laws. This
    law requires senior officials to submit sworn declarations of income,
    assets, and liabilities. The public ethics prosecutor, the comptroller
    general, the attorney general, and the ombudsman are all responsible
    for combating government corruption. The main function of the public
    ethics prosecutor is to take the administrative steps necessary to
    prevent, detect, and eradicate corruption and to raise ethical and
    transparency standards in the public service.
        Judicial investigations continued in the 2008 case of the housing
    minister who resigned following controversy over using a foreign
    donation to pay fees to various government consultants and to purchase
    equipment. The Government also continued to investigate a 2009 case of
    the former minister of the environment on allegations that he
    preferentially awarded government bids to a corporation that had
    connections with his family.
        In June the Supreme Court's Constitutional Chamber ruled partially
    in favor of a former legislator accused of using a government airplane
    to attend a campaign event. The TSE had sought to remove her from her
    position because the law stipulates that political parties cannot use
    public resources for campaigns. The court found that the constitution
    does not give the TSE authority to remove legislators for unethical
    actions and instructed the TSE to formulate a reform to the
    constitution and regulations. The trial of former president Miguel
    Angel Rodriguez, which began in April 2009, remained pending at year's
    end. In August the judges imposed precautionary measures against
    Rodriguez for obstructing the process by trying to prevent a witness
    from testifying.
        The law provides for public access to government information, and
    the Government generally respected this right to access for citizens
    and noncitizens, including foreign media. Government institutions
    published reports that detailed the year's activities. The Ombudsman's
    Office operated a Web page dedicated to enhancing transparency by
    improving citizens' access to public information.

    Section 5. Governmental Attitude Regarding International and
            Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations of Human
            Rights
        A number of domestic and international human rights groups operated
    without government restriction. Government officials were cooperative
    and responsive to their views.
        The Ombudsman's Office has six regional offices and more than 150
    employees to review government action or inaction that affects
    citizens' rights and interests. The ombudsman is accountable to the
    Legislative Assembly, which appoints him or her to a four-year term and
    funds office operations. The ombudsman participates in the drafting and
    approval of legislation, promotes good administration and transparency,
    and reports annually to the Legislative Assembly with nonbinding
    recommendations. The position carries strong moral and symbolic weight.
        A special committee at the Legislative Assembly studies and reports
    on problems relating to the violation of human rights and reviews bills
    relating to human rights and international humanitarian law. The
    committee also follows up on recommendations from the Ombudsman's
    Office.

    Section 6. Discrimination, Societal Abuses, and Trafficking in Persons
        The constitution prohibits discrimination based on race, gender,
    disability, language, or social status, and the Government generally
    enforced these prohibitions effectively.

        Women.--The law criminalizes rape and provides penalties from 10 to
    18 years in prison for rape. The length of the sentence depends on the
    victim's age and other factors, such as the assailant's use of violence
    or position of influence over the victim. The judiciary effectively
    enforced the rape law and provided due process for both victim and
    defendant. According to the National Institute for Women (INAMU), the
    rape law applies to spousal rape, although spousal rape cases in
    practice were much more difficult to prove.
        Authorities acknowledged that many known rape cases were not
    investigated because either the victim or the victim's family were
    reluctant to press charges against the perpetrator. According to the
    judicial branch's statistics office, courts tried 373 cases of rape or
    attempted rape in 2009 and sentenced 184 defendants. According to
    official statistics, the number of cases of sexual violence increased
    during the year. A domestic NGO assisted 83 victims during the year,
    but only 10 percent of those submitted police reports.
        The Government continued to identify domestic violence against
    women and children as a serious and growing societal problem. The law
    prohibits domestic violence and provides measures for the protection of
    domestic violence victims. Criminal penalties range from 10 to 100 days
    in prison for aggravated threats and up to 35 years in prison for
    aggravated homicide, including a sentence of 20 to 35 years for men who
    kill their partners. If a domestic violence offender has no violent
    criminal record and the sentence received is less than three years'
    imprisonment, the law also provides for alternative sanctions, such as
    weekend detentions, and assistance including referrals for social
    services and rehabilitation.
        INAMU assists women and their children who are victims of domestic
    violence in its regional office located in San Jose as well as in three
    other specialized centers and temporary shelters in remote areas. INAMU
    reported that, during the year, 39 women and girls died from domestic
    violence, the same as reported in 2009. INAMU maintained a domestic
    abuse hotline connected to the 911 emergency system and provided
    counseling to 4,578 women as of September. According to the judicial
    branch's statistics office, in 2009 authorities opened 10,510 cases of
    domestic violence throughout the country, compared with 14,706 cases in
    2008. In 2009, there were 245 cases tried and 119 persons sentenced for
    crimes of violence against women.
        The public prosecutor, police, and ombudsman have offices dedicated
    to domestic violence problems.
        There are no specific laws against sex tourism, which was growing.
    However, law enforcement agencies initiated investigations under
    existing legislation. The Government and several advocacy groups
    continued awareness campaigns publicizing the dangers of sex tourism
    and its association with child sexual exploitation.
        The law prohibits sexual harassment in the workplace and
    educational institutions, and the Ministry of Labor and Social Security
    generally enforced this prohibition. The law imposes penalties ranging
    from a letter of reprimand to dismissal, with more serious incidents
    subject to criminal prosecution. The Ombudsman's Office received 210
    complaints of sexual harassment in the workplace during the year, the
    vast majority of which came from employees of the uniformed police
    force (part of the Ministry of Public Security). On June 2, an
    amendment to the law entered into force that establishes a procedure
    for sanctioning sexual harassment offenses committed by public
    officials elected by popular vote.
        Individuals have the right to obtain information and access safe
    methods of contraception from public hospitals and medical attention
    centers, as well as the right to receive medical care during pregnancy
    and childbirth. Women have equal access to diagnosis and treatment for
    sexually transmitted infections, including HIV. Women generally did not
    experience barriers to reproductive health services. The public health
    care system plays a major role in how women may access contraception,
    including access to sterilization. In public as well as private health
    care, the right to obtain and use contraceptives extends to all members
    of the population. The Population Reference Bureau reported that the
    rate of contraceptive use among married women was 80 percent.
    Approximately 94 percent of women had skilled attendance during
    childbirth in the public healthcare system. The UN Population Fund
    estimated the maternal mortality ratio in 2008 to be 30 deaths per
    100,000 live births.
        The law prohibits discrimination against women and obligates the
    Government to promote political, economic, social, and cultural
    equality. The Government maintained offices for gender problems in most
    ministries and parastatal organizations. The Labor Ministry is
    responsible for investigating allegations of gender discrimination.
    INAMU implemented programs that promoted gender equality and publicized
    the rights of women. During the year INAMU implemented a training
    program for men and the uniformed police that discussed male attitudes
    towards women. INAMU provided training that addressed gender-based
    violence, trafficking in persons, and commercial sexual exploitation
    during the year. INAMU also supervised basic courses on HIV prevention
    and attention. In addition INAMU developed a system of accreditation
    for offender assistance programs as stipulated by the violence against
    women law.
        In 2009 the Census Institute (INEC) reported that women represented
    42.1 percent of the labor force. Approximately 3.5 percent worked in
    agriculture, 11.5 percent in manufacturing, and 85 percent in the
    service sector. Women occupied 47.4 percent of professional and
    technical positions, 18.8 percent of high-level managerial/executive
    positions, and 33.9 percent of nonprofessional positions. The law
    requires that women and men receive equal pay for equal work. However,
    INEC estimated that earnings for women were 91.6 percent of earned
    income for men.

        Children.--Citizenship is derived by birth within the country's
    territory or from either of one's parents. According to the UN
    Children's Fund, skilled medical staff attended 99 percent of births in
    hospitals, where all births are registered immediately. There were
    occasional problems encountered in the registration at birth of
    children born of migrant parents (see section 2.d.).
        Abuse of children remained a problem. For 2009 the judicial
    branch's statistics office reported 691 cases of sexual abuse of minors
    and 16 cases of attempted abuse, with 355 and nine perpetrators
    convicted, respectively. In addition, 33 cases involved sex with
    minors, 16 involved cases of sex with minors with payment involved, and
    four involved the sexual corruption of minors. During the year the
    autonomous National Institute for Children (PANI) assisted 2,533
    children and adolescents, including 3,330 cases of physical abuse, 769
    cases of intrafamily sexual abuse, and 537 cases of extrafamilial
    sexual abuse. Traditional attitudes and the inclination to treat sexual
    and psychological abuse as misdemeanors occasionally hampered legal
    proceedings against those who committed crimes against children.
        The Government, security officials, and child advocacy
    organizations acknowledged that commercial sexual exploitation of
    children remained a serious problem. PANI estimated that a significant
    number of children suffered from commercial sexual exploitation. Street
    children in the urban areas of San Jose, Limon, and Puntarenas were
    particularly at risk. During the year, PANI reported that it assisted
    minors in 104 separate cases of commercial sexual exploitation. The law
    against commercial sexual exploitation includes sanctions for
    possession of child pornography, greater protection for children
    younger than 14 years, and an extended statute of limitations for child
    abuse. In addition, PANI continued programs of comprehensive care for
    children and adolescents at risk and in vulnerable situations, combined
    with a program to help adolescent mothers return to school. The
    Government also identified child sexual tourism as a serious problem.
    The law criminalizes the commercial sexual exploitation of children and
    provides sanctions of up 18 years in prison. During 2009 and the first
    six months of the current year, PANI reported assisting 34 minor
    victims of trafficking in persons and smuggling; of the 34 cases, 29
    took place in San Jose and the Central Pacific coast of the country.
    During 2009 there were 103 cases of commercial sexual exploitation of
    minors in the Central Pacific coast, the Brunca, and the Atlantic
    regions where there were greater incidences of poverty, unemployment,
    school desertion, and drug addiction.
        The minimum age of consensual sex is 18 years. The law provides for
    sentences from two to 10 years in prison for statutory rape and
    sentences from three to eight years in prison for child pornography.
    Sentences are lengthier in aggravated circumstances: for example, rape
    involving physical violence or a victim under age 13 is punishable by
    10 to 16 years' imprisonment.
        The country is a party to the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil
    Aspects of International Child Abduction. For information on
    international parental child abduction, please see the Department of
    State's annual report on compliance at http://travel.state.gov/
    abduction/resources/congressreport/congressreport--4308.html.

        Anti-Semitism.--There were some reports of anti-Semitic verbal
    abuse in public and occasional instances of anti-Semitic graffiti at
    public universities. The alleged victims did not press charges. Jewish
    Zionist Center estimated that there were 3,000 Jews in the country.

        Trafficking in Persons.--For information on trafficking in persons,
    please see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons
    Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        Persons With Disabilities.--The constitution prohibits
    discrimination against persons with physical, sensory, intellectual,
    and mental disabilities in employment, education, health care access,
    or other state services. There were no reports of such discriminatory
    practices in education or in the provision of other state services.
    However, the Ombudsman's Office reported that, although there were some
    institutional efforts to improve the situation, there were isolated
    instances where a lack of interagency coordination prevented the
    implementation of comprehensive strategies to protect the fundamental
    rights of persons with disabilities. The Ombudsman's Office reported
    problems in access to employment for persons with disabilities.
        Although the law mandates access to buildings for persons with
    disabilities, the Government did not enforce this provision in
    practice, and many buildings remained inaccessible to persons with
    disabilities. In 2009 the Supreme Court's Constitutional Chamber upheld
    an appeal in favor of the right of persons with disabilities to gain
    access to state-owned or private facilities open to the public. Public
    transportation services improved access slightly for persons using
    wheelchairs. During the year the Ombudsman's Office received and
    investigated 29 complaints about violations of the law that protects
    equal opportunities for persons with disabilities.
        The TSE, with the assistance of the National Council on Disability
    (CNREE), implemented a program to facilitate the right of persons with
    disabilities to vote and participate in electoral activities. The TSE
    provided voting equipment (a Braille template) which enabled blind
    voters to vote independently and privately.
        The Ministry of Education continued to operate a program for
    persons with disabilities, including a national resource center that
    provided parents, students, and teachers with advanced counseling,
    training, and information services. There were 24 special education
    centers exclusively to assist special education students and those with
    disabilities, two more inside state hospitals, and an additional
    institute for the blind. In addition, 2,129 schools had programs to
    provide some support to students with disabilities, and the ministry
    provided special education to 14,815 students who registered in 2009.
        The CNREE is responsible for protecting the rights of persons with
    disabilities and for coordinating all organizations working on issues
    related to persons with disabilities.
        A political party, Accessibility without Exclusion, represented the
    interests of persons with disabilities and held four seats in the
    Legislative Assembly. In addition, a member of this party was elected
    mayor of the city of Liberia.

        National/Racial/Ethnic Minorities.--There were sporadic reports of
    discrimination, including labor discrimination, usually directed
    against Nicaraguans. At a November 12 information fair funded by a
    foreign government, approximately 1,000 migrants, mainly Nicaraguans,
    received information about their labor, economic, and human rights.

        Indigenous People.--The 2000 census recorded 63,876 indigenous
    persons from eight ethnic groups, accounting for 1.7 percent of the
    population. Seventy-three percent of the indigenous population lived in
    traditional communities on 24 reserves, most in remote locations. The
    law nominally protects reserve land as the collective, nontransferable
    property of the indigenous communities. Some indigenous landowners,
    however, illegally sold their land to nonindigenous persons to pay off
    debts. The Ombudsman's Office sought to return reserve land to
    indigenous groups. During the year the Ombudsman's Office received six
    complaints of discrimination against indigenous persons, including
    problems related to documentation, community development, and the right
    to be consulted about national legislation that might affect indigenous
    life, territories, or culture.
        The Ombudsman's Office reported that the Government excluded
    indigenous persons from decision-making processes regarding education,
    infrastructure, housing, and public services. The indigenous
    communities of Terraba, Curre, and Boruca were concerned about the
    sociocultural and environmental impact in their reserves of the
    development of the Diquis hydroelectric dam project. The Ombudsman's
    Office opened an investigation on this case, which continued at year's
    end.
        At year's end, nonindigenous property owners continued to hold
    title to land on approximately 39 percent of the reserves legally set
    aside for indigenous ownership. The law requires that the Government
    purchase all preexisting land titles within the reserves in order to
    secure exclusive use and ownership rights for indigenous populations.

        Societal Abuses, Discrimination, and Acts of Violence Based on
    Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.--There are no laws prohibiting
    discrimination against persons based on sexual orientation, and there
    were isolated cases of discrimination against persons based on sexual
    orientation.
        Organizations for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender persons
    operated freely and lobbied for legal reforms. On June 27, a gay pride
    march occurred in San Jose; police authorized the march and provided
    protection to marchers.
        The Ombudsman's Office resolved one of four complaints of
    discrimination based on sexual orientation that it received during the
    year. In August the Supreme Court's Constitutional Chamber rejected a
    proposed referendum vote on civil unions between individuals of the
    same sex. The ruling annulled a TSE resolution that authorized the
    collection of signatures for a referendum vote to be held during the
    December municipal elections. The justices ruled that such a referendum
    would put the minority gay and lesbian population at a disadvantage,
    requiring government authorities to protect their rights. The court
    stated that the decision on homosexual civil union is a legislative,
    not an electoral issue.
        In June the TSE issued new rules for national identification cards
    to respect sexual identity on photographs. The new rules must be
    applied in the TSE regional offices and consulates abroad.

        Other Societal Violence or Discrimination.--The law and a
    presidential decree prohibit discrimination based on HIV/AIDS in health
    care, employment, and education. During the year the Ombudsman's Office
    reported receiving one complaint of discrimination against patients
    with HIV/AIDS. In February the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme
    Court ruled that the HIV test must not be a requirement for employment.

    Section 7. Worker Rights
        a. The Right of Association.--The law allows workers to form and
    join unions of their choice without prior authorization. Workers
    exercised this right in practice; however, restrictions on the minimum
    number of employees (12) needed to form a union may have hampered
    freedom of association in small enterprises. The law permits foreign
    workers to join unions but prohibits them from holding positions of
    authority within the unions. In July the Ministry of Labor and Social
    Security reported that approximately 11.5 percent of workers were
    unionized in 295 active unions.
        The law allows unions to conduct their activities without
    government interference. However, leadership of SINTRAJAP, the union
    for the country's largest ports, alleged that government officials
    colluded with a dissident group within the union to remove them from
    office because the union board opposed the concession of the ports of
    Limon and Moin. Through a series of questionable actions, the board
    members were removed in January and replaced with a new board that
    supported the concession of the ports. On August 25, the Supreme
    Court's Constitutional Chamber found that there had been a violation of
    due process, annulled the decision to remove the prior board, and
    ordered the Ministry of Labor to reinstate the ousted leadership. In
    September the Legislative Assembly formed a special committee to
    investigate and analyze all current and future concession processes and
    to provide recommendations to improve the concession model. As of
    December, the committee was exclusively devoted to investigating the
    concession of the highway to the Pacific coast.
        The law provides for the right to strike and workers exercised this
    right in practice, but at least 60 percent of the workers in an
    enterprise must support the strike. ILO considered this requirement
    excessive.
        Restrictions on the right to strike apply to those services
    designated as essential services by the Government, including those
    that concern the national economy or public health. The ILO noted that
    this also includes sectors such as oil refineries and ports that are
    not considered essential under international standards. Unions argued
    that the Government's broad definition of ``essential services'' denied
    many workers the right to strike.

        b. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively.--The
    constitution protects the right of workers to organize and bargain
    collectively; however, there were barriers to exercising these rights
    in practice. The Labor Ministry did not have data available to
    determine the percentage of the workforce covered by collective
    bargaining agreements. As of October, the Labor Ministry reported the
    signing of 13 collective bargaining agreements, nine of them in the
    public sector and four in the private sector.
        Although public sector employees are permitted to bargain
    collectively, a 2006 decision of the Constitutional Chamber of the
    Supreme Court held that some fringe benefits received by certain public
    employees were disproportionate and unreasonable; it repealed sections
    of collective bargaining agreements between public sector unions and
    government agencies, thus restricting this right in practice.
        According to the Labor Ministry, there were further developments in
    agreements signed in 2009 and substantive changes regarding the right
    of public sector employees to bargain collectively. The ministry
    reported that the Labor Chamber of the Supreme Court concluded that
    collective agreements negotiated by employers and public employees,
    whose labor relations are regulated by labor law, are constitutional.
    However, there are restrictions in certain cases; for exmple,
    agreements in the public sector are legal so long as they do not
    regulate the working conditions of workers engaged in the
    administration of public affairs (in executive positions). The
    Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court also rejected some
    unconstitutionality petitions against collective bargaining agreements
    in the public sector. Such labor and constitutional rulings could
    reduce the number of future petitions against approved clauses in
    collective bargaining.
        The law requires employers to initiate the bargaining process with
    a trade union if more than one-third of the total workforce, including
    union and nonunion members, requests collective bargaining. The
    Government enforced this law in practice. In the private sector,
    however, ``direct bargaining arrangements'' between employers and
    nonunionized workers occurred more commonly. Such direct agreements
    were permitted in both unionized and nonunionized businesses. In a 2008
    study, the ILO concluded that such direct bargaining agreements
    disadvantaged workers because they did not result from balanced
    negotiations of two independent, adequately equipped parties. The
    Ministry of Labor reported 33 new direct agreements in the private
    sector as of October.
        The law permits the formation of ``solidarity associations,'' which
    provide access to credit for housing, education, and health, funded by
    contributions from both workers and employers. These associations were
    often organized by employers. The law prohibits such associations from
    representing workers in collective bargaining negotiations or in any
    other way that assumes the functions or inhibits the formation of trade
    unions. However, labor unions asserted that in practice solidarity
    associations conducted negotiations and that employers sometimes
    required membership in a solidarity association as a condition for
    employment. Trade union leaders contended that the existence of worker
    solidarity associations in many enterprises displaced unions and
    discouraged collective bargaining. Under solidarity associations, both
    employers and employees directly contribute to the financing of the
    association. According to the ILO, such associations, to the extent
    that they displaced trade unions, discouraged collective bargaining,
    affected the independence of workers' organizations from employers'
    influence, and contravened ILO Convention 98 on the right to organize
    and bargain collectively. As of July, 1,423 solidarity associations had
    approximately 255,492 members, representing 15 percent of the country's
    workers; 84 percent of these workers were in the private sector.
        Although the law prohibits antiunion discrimination and employer
    interference in union activity, there continued to be a pattern of
    employers firing employees who wanted to unionize. There were reports
    that some employers preferred to use ``flexible,'' or short-term
    contracts, making it difficult for workers to organize and collectively
    bargain. There were also reports that migrant workers in agriculture
    were often hired on short-term contracts through intermediaries. These
    workers faced antiunion discrimination, challenges in organizing, and
    were often more vulnerable to labor exploitation.
        Although the Government reviewed cases of antiunion discrimination,
    the ILO continued to note that such cases often took an extremely long
    time to obtain a final ruling in the court, often due to numerous
    appeals. Similarly, the International Trade Union Confederation noted
    that the reinstatement process for workers that have been unfairly
    dismissed averaged three years. There was some progress in increasing
    the overall efficiency of judicial proceedings, but it was unclear what
    direct impact this has had on labor cases. Government mediation centers
    also continued to help alleviate caseload and address some labor
    disputes. The Labor Ministry reported 7,620 requests for conciliation
    during the year, 3,824 of which led to hearings; of these, 2,638 ended
    with agreements. However, trade unionists continued to assert that
    employer positions in these proceedings were often imposed on workers.
    The Ministry of Labor received 10 complaints of antiunion
    discrimination. As of November, six cases were pending, and the
    remaining four were closed.
        There are no special laws or exemptions from regular labor laws in
    export processing zones (EPZs). Labor unions alleged, however, that
    efforts of EPZ workers to organize were met by illegal terminations of
    activists, threats, and intimidation. Unions also claimed that
    employers in the zones maintained blacklists of workers identified as
    activists. The ILO confirmed it found no trade unions operating in the
    country's EPZs but also identified the zones as a hostile environment
    for organizing.

        c. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor.--The law prohibits
    forced or compulsory labor; however, there were reports that such
    practices occurred.
        The National Coalition against Trafficking identified and studied
    two possible cases of trafficking in persons for the purpose of forced
    labor (in the fishing sector) during the year. One case involved 10
    victims and the other involved 41 victims, all from Asian countries.
    The coalition referred them to the judicial authorities for
    investigation. Also see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in
    Persons Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        d. Prohibition of Child Labor and Minimum Age for Employment.--The
    law provides special occupational protection for minors. The code of
    children and young persons prohibits labor of all children under age 15
    without any exceptions; it supersedes the minimum working age of 12
    established in the labor code. Adolescents between the ages of 15 and
    18 may work for a maximum of six hours daily and 36 hours weekly. The
    law prohibits night work and overtime for minors. The law prohibits
    those under age 18 from engaging in hazardous or unhealthy activities.
    On December 20, the Legislative Assembly approved the list of
    activities considered hazardous, although its publication in the
    official gazette was pending at year's end. Under the code of children,
    working minors are entitled to attend educational establishments
    through flexible programs adapted to their interests and employment
    conditions and to participate in apprenticeship training programs.
    According to the ILO and the Labor Ministry, working minors between the
    ages of 15 and 18 sometimes received less than the minimum wage.
        Child labor, including the worst forms of child labor, occurred in
    several sectors of the economy, including in agriculture, fishing,
    construction, and service sectors of the economy--such as street
    vending, car washing, and domestic service. Child labor was mainly an
    issue in the informal economy; however, in some cases child labor was
    used in production on family farms and small third-party farms.
        The Ministry of Labor is responsible for enforcing child labor laws
    and policies; the Office for the Eradication of Child Labor (OATIA) is
    responsible for coordinating government efforts against child labor.
    The ministry coordinated with National Institute for Children (PANI) on
    child protection issues. In general, the ministry effectively enforced
    child labor regulations in the formal sector through inspections.
    Resource limitations constrained government efforts to enforce child
    labor laws in the informal labor sector.
        During the year, PANI received 40 complaints of child labor
    exploitation. From January to November, the OATIA detected and assisted
    237 minors working mainly in agriculture, construction, domestic
    service, car washing, and street sales. During 2009 the Labor
    Ministry's Inspections Office conducted 149 child labor inspections. In
    the same year, the OATIA identified 16 minors below the age of 15
    engaged in hazardous work as well as 33 minors older than 15 but
    younger than 18 engaged in such work. The OATIA assisted 388 working
    minors and referred them to government institutions to be included in
    social programs that contribute to the progressive elimination of child
    labor and which favor reinsertion and permanence of children and
    adolescent workers in the educational system.
        The OATIA continued four projects aimed at improving the life and
    work conditions of adolescent workers and eradicating child labor. The
    OATIA with assistance from ILO's International Program on the
    Elimination of Child Labor developed a road map to combat child labor,
    connected to the national strategic plan to achieve the goals
    established by the ILO's Decent Work Agenda for the Hemisphere (2006-
    15).

        e. Acceptable Conditions of Work.--Monthly minimum wages for the
    private sector ranged from 128,526 colones (approximately $254) for
    household workers to 473,758 colones ($935) for university graduates.
    The Labor Ministry effectively enforced minimum wages in the San Jose
    area, but generally was not effective in enforcing the minimum wage law
    in rural areas, particularly where large numbers of migrants were
    employed. The national minimum wage also applied for migrant workers.
    The minimum wage did not provide a decent standard of living for a
    worker and family. In August the Labor Ministry publicly recognized
    that many workers, including in the formal sector, received less than
    minimum wage. Unions also reported systematic violations of labor
    rights and provisions concerning working conditions, overtime, and
    wages in the EPZs.
        Inspectors are not authorized to establish fines and sanctions for
    employers who do not comply with labor laws. Inspectors investigate and
    refer noncompliance results to labor courts. The process to fine
    companies and get back wages and/or overtime pay may take years.
        The constitution sets workday hours, overtime remuneration, days of
    rest, and annual vacation rights. Workers generally may work a maximum
    of eight hours a day or 48 hours weekly. Overtime work is paid at a
    rate of 50 percent above the stipulated wages or salaries. All workers
    are entitled to one day of rest after six consecutive days of work and
    annual paid vacations. Although there is no statutory prohibition
    against compulsory overtime, the labor code stipulates that the workday
    may not exceed 12 hours.
        Nonagricultural workers must receive an overtime premium of 50
    percent of regular wages for work in excess of the daily shift.
    However, agricultural workers did not receive overtime pay if they
    worked voluntarily beyond their normal hours. Hourly work regulations
    were generally enforced in the formal labor market in San Jose but
    poorly enforced in rural areas and in the informal sector.
        Labor unions reported that overtime pay violations, such as
    nonpayment, and mandatory overtime were common in the private sector
    and particularly in EPZ industries. Unions asserted that overtime was
    required to preserve employment, that there were violations of premium
    payment requirements for overtime work, and, in some cases, that
    workers did not receive payment for some of their required overtime
    work.
        While the Labor and Health Ministries shared responsibility for
    drafting and enforcing occupational health and safety standards, they
    did not enforce these standards effectively. The law requires
    industrial, agricultural, and commercial firms with 10 or more workers
    to establish a joint management-labor committee on workplace conditions
    and also allows the Government to inspect workplaces and fine employers
    for violations. Most firms established such committees but did not use
    them effectively. There were reports that agricultural workers,
    particularly migrant laborers in the pineapple industry, worked in
    unsafe conditions, including being exposed to chemicals without proper
    training. The Chamber of Pineapple Producers and Exporters disagreed
    with the reports. The Ministry of Labor, in coordination with the
    Health Ministry and the National Insurance Institute, conducted three
    inspections in the provinces of Alajuela, Puntarenas, and Heredia and
    took concrete actions through the Inspection Directorate and the
    Occupation Safety Council to address labor problems identified in the
    pineapple industry.
        Although resource constraints continued to hinder the Labor
    Ministry Inspection Directorate's ability to carry out its inspection
    mandate, there were 14,385 inspections conducted in 2009. According to
    the Ministry of Labor, inspections occurred in response to complaints,
    per advanced scheduling, and at random in specific regions or
    activities. Workers who considered a work condition to be unhealthy or
    unsafe must make a written request for protection from the Labor or
    Health Ministry in order to remove themselves from the condition
    without jeopardizing their employment. The ministries generally
    addressed these complaints effectively by sending inspection teams to
    investigate them and coordinate with each other on follow-up actions.

                                   __________

                                      CUBA

        Cuba, with a population of approximately 11.4 million, is a
    totalitarian state led by Raul Castro, who held the positions of chief
    of state, president of the council of state and council of ministers,
    and commander in chief of the Revolutionary Armed Forces. The
    constitution recognizes the Communist Party (CP) as the only legal
    party and ``the superior leading force of society and of the state.''
    Fidel Castro, who formally relinquished power to his brother in 2008,
    remained the First Secretary of the CP. The 2008 legislative elections
    were neither free nor fair; a CP candidacy commission preapproved all
    candidates, resulting in the CP candidates and their allies winning
    98.7 percent of the vote and 607 of 614 seats in the National Assembly.
    Security forces reported to civilian authorities.
        The Government denied citizens the right to change their
    government. In addition, the following human rights abuses were
    reported: harassment, beatings, and threats against political opponents
    by government-organized mobs and state security officials acting with
    impunity; harsh and life-threatening prison conditions, including
    selective denial of medical care; arbitrary detention of human rights
    advocates and members of independent organizations; and selective
    prosecution and denial of fair trial. Authorities interfered with
    privacy and engaged in pervasive monitoring of private communications.
    The Government also placed severe limitations on freedom of speech and
    press, constrained the right of peaceful assembly and association,
    restricted freedom of movement, and limited freedom of religion. The
    Government refused to recognize independent human rights groups or
    permit them to function legally. In addition, the Government continued
    to place severe restrictions on worker rights, including the right to
    form independent unions.
        The Government released more than 40 political prisoners, including
    many notable human rights activists arrested in 2003. Although most of
    these were released on the condition they leave the country, during the
    reporting period the Government allowed one to remain in the country.
    The releases, mediated by the Cuban Catholic Church, came in the wake
    of street protests and severe international criticism following the
    death from hunger-strike of political prisoner Orlando Zapata Tamayo.
    During conversations with the church, the Government indicated that it
    planned to release all political prisoners in the near future.

                            RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

    Section 1. Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom
            From:
        a. Arbitrary or Unlawful Deprivation of Life.--There were no
    reports that the Government or its agents committed arbitrary or
    unlawful killings.

        b. Disappearance.--There were no reports of politically motivated
    disappearances.

        c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or
    Punishment.--The law prohibits abusive treatment of detainees and
    prisoners. However, there were verified reports that members of the
    security forces harassed and sometimes physically assaulted human
    rights and prodemocracy advocates, dissidents, detainees, and
    prisoners, and did so with impunity. Some detainees and prisoners
    endured physical abuse, sometimes by other inmates with the
    acquiescence of guards, or long periods in isolation cells.
        The Government continued to stage public protests to harass and
    abuse activists and their families. Although the Government
    characterized the mobs as spontaneous, participants frequently arrived
    in government-owned vehicles or were recruited by local CP leaders from
    nearby workplaces or schools. In extreme cases, government-orchestrated
    mobs assaulted the targets or damaged their homes or property.
    Undercover police and agents from the Ministry of the Interior's
    General Directorate for State Security (DGSE) were often present and
    coordinated activities with mob leaders. Government officials at the
    scene did not arrest those who physically attacked the victims or
    respond to victims' complaints. On more than one occasion, officials
    took part in the beatings.
        Many of these state-orchestrated ``acts of repudiation'' were
    directed against the Damas de Blanco (``Ladies in White''), a group of
    mostly female relatives and supporters of political prisoners, many of
    those prisoners were arrested in the spring of 2003.
        During the week leading up to the March 18 anniversary of the 2003
    arrests, the Damas held daily marches to commemorate the anniversary.
    On March 16, the Government bused in approximately 100 counter-
    demonstrators who surrounded the Damas and shouted insults and
    progovernment slogans. On March 17, the Damas attempted to march
    through a neighborhood on the outskirts of Havana, but as the march
    progressed, approximately 300 progovernment counterdemonstrators
    arrived on buses, surrounded the Damas, shouted insults, and physically
    assaulted the marchers. Plainclothes police formed a ring around the
    Damas, providing protection from the worst of the blows, while state
    security officers were observed coordinating with mob leaders.
    Eventually, the mob completely blocked the path of the Damas, and
    police dragged the marchers onto a waiting bus. Foreign diplomats also
    observed state security officials drag a male relative of one of the
    marchers away, then repeatedly kick and punch him. All participants in
    the march were detained briefly and then released without charges.
        In the first half of the year, the Government also tried to prevent
    the Damas from staging their weekly march after Sunday Mass, which they
    had been doing unimpeded since their spouses were arrested in 2003. The
    confrontation escalated over the subsequent weeks, as the crowd of
    counterdemonstrators swelled in numbers and intensity, while police
    prevented all but a handful of Damas from reaching the church. On April
    18, progovernment forces surrounded the Damas as they left the church
    and prevented them from marching, screaming insults and obscenities
    while banging on pots and pans. On April 25, they again were surrounded
    after leaving church, forced into a nearby public park where they were
    assaulted, taunted, including with sexual and ethnic insults, and
    prevented from moving for more than seven hours. State security
    officials intervened and forced the ladies onto a public bus. The
    standoffs ended the following week, when Catholic Cardinal Jaime Ortega
    received assurances from President Castro that the Damas would be
    allowed to resume their Sunday marches.

        Prison and Detention Center Conditions.--Prison conditions
    continued to be harsh and life threatening. The Government did not
    permit independent monitoring of prison conditions by international or
    national human rights groups and did not permit access to detainees by
    international humanitarian organizations. Food shortages were
    widespread, available food was often spoiled or infested with vermin,
    and many prisoners relied on family parcels of up to 30 pounds of food
    and other basic supplies that were brought during each visit.
        Prison cells lacked adequate water, sanitation, space, light,
    ventilation, and temperature control. Running water was rare and, if
    available, generally ran only for a limited time. Water for drinking
    and bathing was foul and frequently contaminated with parasites. Many
    prisoners reported receiving only one small glass of water per day,
    even when confined to sweltering cells during the summer. Vermin and
    insect infestations were common, with inmates reporting rats,
    cockroaches, fleas, lice, bedbugs, stinging ants, flies, and
    mosquitoes. Prisoners reported that they lacked access to basic and
    emergency medical care, including dental care. Prisoners engaged in
    hunger strikes throughout the year to demand medical treatment.
        Reports of beatings of prisoners were commonplace, and included
    beatings by prison officials as well as among prisoners. There were
    some reports of prisoner-on-prisoner sexual assaults, generally due to
    lax security by prison guards, and at least one report of rape by
    prison guards, although reports of sexual abuse were generally rare.
        On February 24, political prisoner Orlando Zapata Tamayo died in
    government custody after conducting an 11-week hunger strike. Zapata's
    family alleged that prison officials denied him adequate care and
    medical treatment during the strike. Government officials, including
    President Castro, countered that Zapata received adequate treatment and
    had been informed of the health risks of a hunger strike.
        On June 12, the Government released political prisoner Ariel Sigler
    Amaya, who suffered from paraplegia as a side effect of severe
    malnutrition, after seven years in prison. On July 28, Sigler Amaya
    departed the country to seek medical treatment abroad.
        Prison cells were overcrowded, requiring prisoners to sleep on the
    floor and limiting freedom of movement during the day. Prisoners often
    slept on concrete bunks without a mattress. Where available, mattresses
    were thin and often infested with vermin. Prisoners reported that
    slight improvements at the end of 2009 (such as increases in mattress
    distributions and some alleviation of overcrowding) did not continue
    during the year.
        Prisoners, family members, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs)
    reported inadequate health care, which led to or aggravated
    hypertension, diabetes, heart conditions, asthma, skin disease,
    infections, digestive disorders, and conjunctivitis, among other
    maladies. Prisoners also reported outbreaks of dengue, tuberculosis,
    and hepatitis. Prison health workers often reused syringes, despite the
    existence of communicable diseases among inmates.
        The Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation
    (CCDHRN) reported multiple prison deaths from heart attacks, asthma
    attacks, and other chronic medical conditions, as well as from suicide.
        The Government did not publish the number of prisoners or
    detainees, nor did it provide information regarding the number or
    location of detention centers, which included not only prisons but also
    work camps and other kinds of detention facilities. Estimates from
    unofficial sources of the prison and detention center population size
    vary widely, from as low as 30,000 to as high as 80,000. Men and women
    were held in separate prisons and police detention facilities.
    Generally, women reported suffering the same poor prison conditions as
    men, including lack of access to basic and emergency medical care.
    Women also reported lack of access to feminine hygiene products and
    adequate prenatal care. The Government did not release information on
    the treatment of minors at either youth or adult prisons or detention
    centers. There were reports of inmates as young as 15 in maximum-
    security prisons.
        Political prisoners and the general prison population were kept in
    similar conditions. By refusing to wear standard prison uniforms,
    political prisoners frequently were denied certain privileges such as
    access to prison libraries and standard reductions in the severity of
    their sentence (for example, being transferred from a maximum security
    to a medium security prison, or to a work camp). Political prisoners
    also reported being threatened or harassed by fellow inmates whom they
    thought were acting on orders of prison authorities.
        Prisoners reported that solitary confinement was a common
    punishment for misconduct and that some had been held in isolation for
    months or even years at a time. In general prisoners in isolation had
    restrictions on family visits. The Government sometimes placed healthy
    prisoners in cells with mentally disturbed inmates.
        Prisoners and pretrial detainees had access to visitors, although
    some political prisoners' relatives reported that prison officials
    arbitrarily canceled scheduled visits. Prisoners were permitted limited
    religious observance. Both the Catholic Church and the Cuban Council of
    Churches (CCC) reported improved access to prisoners during the
    reporting period. In 2009 member churches of the CCC began holding
    regular services in selected prisons, mostly in the province of Havana.
    The CCC reported that the Government allowed continued expansion of
    this program during the year, with services offered in most if not all
    provinces. As in 2009, there were isolated reports that prison
    authorities did not inform inmates of their right to religious
    assistance, delayed months before responding to such requests, and
    limited visits to a maximum of two or three times a year.
        By law, prisoners and detainees may seek redress regarding prison
    conditions and procedural violations, such as continued incarceration
    after their prison sentence has expired. Prisoners reported that in
    practice government officials often refused to allow or accept
    complaints, or failed to respond to the complaints once submitted.
    However, the family of a political prisoner reported that central
    authorities resolved their complaints regarding prison living
    conditions after local authorities failed to do so. In another case,
    central government authorities instructed the local prison to stop
    denying privileges to a political prisoner who refused to wear the
    prison uniform. It is not clear whether the Government investigated or
    monitored allegations of inhumane conditions. If investigations did
    occur, the results were not publicly accessible.
        Although the Government had invited the UN special rapporteur for
    torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment,
    to conduct a fact-finding mission to the country, no such visit
    occurred during the year. In June Special Rapporteur Manfred Nowak
    announced that the Government had failed to provide him with a date for
    the visit, despite several attempts on his part to come to an
    agreement. Nowak was not able to conduct the mission before his mandate
    expired on October 31.

        d. Arbitrary Arrest or Detention.--The code of criminal procedure
    broadly governs arrests, pretrial, and trial procedures. Police have
    wide discretion to stop citizens and request their identification and
    to carry out arrests and searches.
        The law provides that police officials provide suspects with a
    signed ``act of detention,'' noting the basis, date, and location of
    any detention in a police facility, and a registry of any personal
    items seized during a police search. In practice police officials
    routinely failed to comply with these requirements during detentions or
    searches. Arbitrary stops and searches were most common in urban areas
    and at government-controlled checkpoints located at the entrances to
    provinces and municipalities. There were reports that police
    disproportionately stopped and questioned Afro-Cubans, particularly
    within Havana and in tourist areas.
        Police and security officials frequently utilized short-term
    detentions to prevent those it perceived as government opponents from
    assembling freely. Detentions generally lasted from several hours to
    several days. For example, on December 10 police detained dozens of
    political activists who attempted to participate in demonstrations
    marking International Human Rights Day. Most of the detainees were
    released within a few hours, after the demonstrations had been
    prevented.
        The CCDHRN reported that the Government increasingly relied on
    short-term preventive detentions to harass opponents rather than
    prosecution and incarceration, citing at least 2074 such detentions
    during the year, compared with fewer than 900 in 2009. Long-term
    incarcerations to punish opponents decreased, according to the CCDHRN.
    However, sources reported several cases late in the year in which the
    Government detained human rights activists who remained in detention at
    year's end.
        On December 25, brothers Marcos Maikel Lima Cruz and Antonio Michel
    Lima Cruz were detained for accusations of desecrating the Cuban flag
    and public disorder. The detentions followed a celebration the night
    before in which they reportedly danced on the street with the Cuban
    flag to the music of a well-known rap group that is sometimes critical
    of the Government. On December 9, Guantanamo-based activist Nestor
    Rodriguez Lobaina was detained as he was preparing to participate in
    events marking International Human Rights Day on December 10. On
    December 13, Rodriguez was moved to a maximum security prison. In
    November independent journalist Jose Agramonte Leyva was detained in
    Camaguey. At the end of the reporting period, all four continued to be
    held without charges.
        House detention without due process was another method commonly
    employed by the Government to prevent free assembly. Throughout April
    supporters of the Damas de Blanco reported being told that they would
    be arrested if they attempted to join public demonstrations. In Holguin
    Province the mother and supporters of deceased hunger striker and
    prisoner of conscience Orlando Zapata Tamayo reported throughout the
    summer and fall that state security agents, uniformed police, and
    government-organized mobs prevented them from visiting the nearby
    Catholic Church or Zapata's grave by blockading their neighborhood. The
    mobs often directed insults and ethnic slurs against Zapata's family,
    and there were reports that some of their supporters were roughed up.
    During house detentions, plainclothes state security officers or
    uniformed police officers stood directly in front of their homes or at
    the corner of their block.

        Role of the Police and Security Apparatus.--The Ministry of the
    Interior (MOI) exercises control over police, the internal security
    forces, and the prison system. The National Revolutionary Police (PNR)
    is the primary law enforcement organization and was moderately
    effective in investigating common crimes. Specialized units of the
    MOI's state security service are responsible for monitoring,
    infiltrating, and suppressing opposition political groups. The PNR
    supports the MOI by carrying out house searches, arresting persons of
    interest to the MOI, and providing interrogation facilities for state
    security agents.
        Police routinely violated procedural laws with impunity and often
    failed or refused to provide citizens with legally required
    documentation, particularly during arbitrary detentions and searches.
    Members of the security forces acted with impunity in committing
    numerous, serious civil rights and human rights abuses. While the PNR
    ethics code and MOI regulations forbid brutality, security forces
    continued to employ aggressive and physically abusive tactics. The
    Government did not announce any investigations into police misconduct
    during the year.
        Although the law on criminal procedure prohibits the use of
    coercion during investigative interrogations, police and security
    forces routinely relied on threats and harassment during questioning.
    Detainees reported that officers threatened them with long-term
    detention, loss of child custody rights, denial of permission to depart
    the country, and suggestions designed to intimidate, such as that an
    elderly relative might suffer an accident or that a child might not
    pass the end-of-year exams.
        For example, during a December 1 detention, state security officers
    told former political prisoner Darsi Ferrer and his wife that if they
    continued to engage in dissident activity, the Government might take
    custody of their nine-year-old son.
        There were no mechanisms available to investigate government
    abuses.

        Arrest Procedures and Treatment While in Detention.--The code of
    criminal procedure broadly governs arrests, pretrial, and trial
    procedures, including investigative and pretrial detention. After an
    arrest, police have 24 hours to present a criminal complaint to a
    police official called an instructor. The instructor then has 72 hours
    to investigate and prepare a report for the prosecutor. The prosecutor
    then has an additional 72 hours to recommend to the appropriate court
    whether to open a criminal investigation.
        Detainees have no right to counsel during this period. By law,
    after the 168-hour detention period, detainees must be informed of the
    basis for the arrest and criminal investigation, and have access to
    legal representation. Detainees facing formal charges must retain
    counsel within five days of being charged or the state can appoint an
    attorney on their behalf. Those charged can be released on bail, placed
    in home detention, or held in continued investigative detention.
        In practice, however, officials often disregard many of these
    procedures. Suspects often are detained longer than 168 hours without
    being informed of the nature of the arrest or being afforded legal
    counsel. In a survey of fellow prisoners conducted in 2009 and 2010, a
    noted dissident reported that 64 percent of pretrial detainees where he
    was being held had spent weeks and sometimes months without having ever
    seen an attorney or being informed of the charges against them.
        Once the accused has an attorney, the defense has five days to
    respond to the prosecution's charges, after which a court date usually
    is set. There were many reports that defendants with public defenders
    met their attorneys for the first time only minutes before their
    trials. Prosecutors can demand summary trials ``in extraordinary
    circumstances'' and in cases involving crimes against state security.
        Bail was available, although typically not granted in cases
    involving alleged antigovernment activity. Time in detention before
    trial counted toward time served if convicted.
        Detainees can be interrogated at any time during detention and have
    no right to request the presence of counsel. Detainees have the right
    to remain silent, but officials do not have a legal obligation to
    inform them specifically of that right.
        By law, investigators must complete criminal investigations within
    60 days. Prosecutors may grant investigators two 60-day extensions upon
    request, for a total of 180 days of investigative time. This deadline,
    however, can be waived by the supervising court in ``extraordinary
    circumstances'' and upon special request by the prosecutor. In that
    instance, no additional legal requirement exists to complete an
    investigation and file criminal charges. Detainees have been held for
    months or years in investigative detention, in both political and
    nonpolitical cases. In nonpolitical cases delays were often due to
    bureaucratic inefficiencies, a lack of checks on police, and
    prosecutorial or judicial excesses.
        Foreign development worker Alan Gross was arrested in December 2009
    and at year's end had been held for over a year without having been
    informed of the charges against him or ever having been brought before
    the courts. Darsi Ferrer was held for 11 months before being formally
    charged, tried, convicted, sentenced, and released for time served, all
    on June 21. In August prosecutors charged political dissidents Ihosvani
    Suris de la Torre, Santiago Padron Quintero, and Maximo Pradera Valdez,
    who had been detained without charges since 2001.

        e. Denial of Fair Public Trial.--While the constitution recognizes
    the independence of the judiciary, the judiciary is subordinate to the
    imperatives of the socialist state. The National Assembly appoints all
    judges and can remove them at any time. Through the National Assembly,
    the state exerted near-total influence over the courts and their
    rulings.
        Civilian courts existed at the municipal, provincial, and Supreme
    Court levels. Military tribunals, which are governed by a special law,
    assumed jurisdiction for certain ``counterrevolutionary'' civilian
    cases (almost always political in nature). Military tribunals may also
    have jurisdiction over civilians in cases where any of the defendants
    were members of the military, police force, or other law enforcement
    agency. In these tribunals defendants have the right to know the
    charges, the right to an attorney, and the right to appeal.

        Trial Procedures.--Due process rights applied equally to all
    citizens as well as foreigners, but courts often failed to protect or
    observe these rights. The law presumes defendants are innocent until
    proven guilty, but authorities often ignored this in practice, placing
    the burden on the defendant to prove innocence rather than on the
    prosecution to prove guilt.
        Defendants generally have the right to a public trial, but
    politically motivated trials are often held in secret, citing
    exceptions for crimes involving ``state security'' or ``extraordinary
    circumstances.'' The law does not provide for jury trials. Almost all
    cases concluded in less than one day.
        The law provides the accused with the right to be present during
    trial and requires that defendants be represented by an attorney at
    trial, if necessary at public expense. Defendants' attorneys can cross-
    examine state witnesses and/or present witnesses and evidence on the
    defendants' behalf.
        Criteria for presenting evidence were often arbitrary and
    discriminatory. According to numerous reports, prosecutors routinely
    introduced irrelevant or unreliable evidence, such as character
    witnesses who testified about the revolutionary background of a
    defendant.
        Defense attorneys have the right to review the police investigation
    file at any time, unless the investigation involves ``crimes against
    the security of the state.'' In these cases defense attorneys are not
    allowed access to the file until charges have been filed. In practice
    many detainees reported that their attorneys had difficulties accessing
    their files due to bureaucratic and administrative obstacles. Attorneys
    of political detainees reported that they often had greater difficulty
    gaining access to their clients' files.
        The Penal Code includes the concept of ``potential dangerousness,''
    defined as the ``special proclivity of a person to commit crimes,
    demonstrated by his conduct in manifest contradiction of socialist
    norms.'' The authorities mostly applied this law to target prostitutes,
    alcoholics, young persons who refused to report to work centers, and
    repeat offenders of laws restricting change of domicile. The CCDHRN
    estimated 200-300 people were convicted on charges of potential
    dangerousness during the reporting period.
        On September 15, twenty-five-year-old Yanisleidys Ramirez Teruel of
    Ciego de Avila was sentenced to four years in prison on dangerousness
    charges. According to trial documents, the prosecutor alleged that
    since July 23, Ramirez had engaged in sexual relationships with
    foreigners in Havana ``with the goal of obtaining economic benefits.''
    Family members reported that Ramirez had been living in Havana with her
    aunt, and that both she and her family were longstanding opponents of
    the Government. They also noted that Ramirez's pre-trial interrogations
    focused on her connections to various political opposition groups.
        Ramirez's defense attorney was allowed 13 minutes before the trial
    to review the prosecution's evidence and speak with Ramirez. Because
    dangerousness is a ``precriminal'' sanction, the law does not require
    evidence of the commission of a crime in order to convict. The court
    recounted the prosecution's allegations in its sentence and stated
    that, because Ramirez had failed to show a ``positive change'' in her
    behavior despite two meetings with local authorities, ``it was
    necessary to remove her from her current environment in order to
    reeducate and, afterward, reincorporate [her] into society.'' The court
    then sentenced Ramirez to four years in a ``Specialized Center for Work
    or Study'' (known locally as a ``reeducation camp''). Ramirez was given
    three days to appeal her sentence; her appeal was denied on September
    24 in a thirty minute trial.
        The law recognizes the right of appeal in municipal courts but
    limits it in provincial courts to cases involving lengthy prison terms
    or the death penalty. In December, for instance, the Supreme Court
    reduced the death sentences of two Salvadoran nationals to life
    imprisonment, following an appeal.

        Political Prisoners and Detainees.--During the year the Catholic
    Church mediated the release of dozens of political prisoners and
    prisoners of conscience. The Government indicated that it not only
    would release the remaining 52 political prisoners arrested in March
    2003, but that it would release all political prisoners, including
    dozens of civil society activists like independent journalist Santiago
    Du Bouchet Hernandez, who was arrested in April 2009 and Agustin
    Cervantes, a leader in the Christian Liberation Movement's Varela
    Project, who was arrested in September 2009.
        At year's end the CCDHRN reported that at least 105 political
    prisoners remained in jail, compared to 194 at the end of 2009. The
    Government continued to deny the existence of political prisoners,
    claiming that all of the country's prisoners had been justly convicted.
    International and domestic NGOs and opposition figures note that the
    law criminalizes even peaceful anti-government activity or expression.
        Political prisoners were charged with crimes such as: ``aiding a
    foreign power,'' distributing ``enemy propaganda,'' ``contempt'' of
    authorities, ``sabotage,'' and violating national security. Others were
    convicted of attempting to leave the country illegally, assault, or
    social dangerousness.
        Lack of governmental transparency and systemic violations of due
    process rights obfuscated the true nature of criminal prosecutions and
    investigations, allowing government authorities to prosecute and
    sentence human rights activists for common crimes. This issue continued
    to complicate attempts by observers to calculate the number of
    political prisoners.
        Political prisoners were not given the same protections as other
    prisoners or detainees. In particular they were frequently denied early
    parole or transfers to lower-security facilities that were commonly
    granted to other prisoners. Political prisoners also generally were
    denied access to home visits, prison classes, phone calls, and on
    occasion, family visits. Some political prisoners refused to wear a
    prison uniform. Although prison authorities generally punished such
    refusals, many prisoners reported that they were eventually given
    permission to wear clothing of their own choosing.
        The Government continued to refuse international humanitarian
    organizations access to political prisoners, although many political
    prisoners were able to communicate information about their living
    conditions through phone calls to human rights observers and reports to
    family members.

        Civil Judicial Procedures and Remedies.--Civil courts exist at the
    municipal, provincial, and Supreme Court levels, and oversee civil,
    administrative, labor, and economic matters. These can include child
    custody determinations, marriage annulments, contractual disputes,
    claims for economic damages, forced expropriations, and other matters
    existing between either natural or legal persons, so long as one party
    to the dispute is Cuban. Civil courts, like all courts in the country,
    lack an independent or impartial judiciary as well as effective
    procedural guarantees. Although it is legally possible to seek judicial
    remedies through civil courts for violations of administrative
    determinations, contacts noted that general procedural and bureaucratic
    inefficiencies often delayed or undermined the enforcement of both
    administrative determinations and civil court orders. No courts allowed
    claimants to bring lawsuits seeking remedies for human rights
    violations.

        f. Arbitrary Interference With Privacy, Family, Home, or
    Correspondence.--The constitution protects citizens' privacy rights in
    their homes and correspondence, and police must have a warrant signed
    by the prosecutor or magistrate before entering or conducting a search.
    In practice, however, police searched homes and seized personal goods
    without the legally required documentation. The Government also
    physically and electronically monitored civil society activists. The
    MOI employed a system of informants and block committees (known as
    ``Committees for the Defense of the Revolution'' or CDRs) to monitor
    government opponents and report on their activities. DGSE agents
    subjected foreign journalists and diplomats to occasional harassment
    and surveillance, including electronic surveillance and surreptitious
    entry into their homes.
        To fend off criticism after the death of political prisoner Orlando
    Zapata Tamayo, the Government aired on state television footage of
    meetings between Zapata Tamayo's physicians and family, taken without
    their knowledge and used without their consent.
        The CP is the only legally recognized political party, and the
    Government actively suppressed attempts to form other parties. Party
    membership is not required to obtain common government services, like
    rations, housing, or medical care. However, the Government encouraged
    mass political mobilization and favored citizens who actively
    participated, especially when awarding valued public benefits like
    admissions to higher education, fellowships, jobs and other benefits.
        Relatives of political dissidents sometimes suffered reprisals.
    Some wives and children of opposition figures were denied employment
    for being ``untrustworthy,'' prevented from enrolling at universities,
    or denied academic distinctions or exit permits to leave the country
    and return.

    Section 2. Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:
        a. Freedom of Speech and Press.--The constitution provides for
    freedom of speech and of the press only insofar as they ``conform to
    the aims of socialist society.'' In practice the Government had little
    tolerance for public criticism of government officials or programs.
    Laws banning criticism of government leaders and distribution of
    antigovernment propaganda carry penalties ranging from three months' to
    15 years' imprisonment.
        The Government directly owned and the CP controlled all print and
    broadcast media outlets and did not allow editorial independence. News
    and information programming was nearly uniform across all outlets.
    Controls on information were so tight that even the state-run media
    complained at times, as evidenced by an op-ed that appeared briefly on
    the CP Youth newspaper's website before being pulled down. The
    Government also controlled nearly all book publications, requiring CP
    approval before materials could go to press.
        The Government does not recognize independent journalism, and
    subjected some independent journalists to travel bans, detentions,
    harassment, equipment seizures, and threats of imprisonment. DGSE
    agents have been known to pose as independent journalists in order to
    gather information. Twenty of the political prisoners that the
    Government released into exile this year had worked as independent
    journalists prior to their imprisonment in 2003; at least five others
    remained in prison.
        Catholic priests and other clergy were able to deliver sermons
    without prior government approval and in some cases criticized the
    Government without reprisals. Priests and senior clergy openly and
    publicly criticized President Castro and the country's leadership in
    church publications and media interviews without reprisals, openly
    questioning how the country's leadership dealt with criticism and
    managed the economy. Catholic publications in Havana and Pinar del Rio
    often challenged government policies and assumptions. In February the
    Cuban Council of Churches issued a statement lamenting the death of
    hunger striker Zapata.
        The Catholic Church received permission to broadcast Easter Mass on
    state-run stations, in addition to the broadcast of Christmas Mass that
    has been permitted since the 1990s. On August 8, the Government also
    allowed the broadcast of a special Mass marking the beginning of a
    year-long celebration for the 400th anniversary of the Virgin of
    Charity, named by the Catholic Church as the patron saint of the
    country. In addition, the Government authorized the CCC, the
    Government-recognized Protestant umbrella organization, to host a
    series of hour-long radio broadcasts throughout the country.
        The law prohibits distribution of printed material from foreign
    sources that are considered ``counterrevolutionary'' or critical of the
    Government. Foreign newspapers or magazines were generally unavailable.
    Distribution of material with political content, interpreted broadly to
    include the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, was not allowed and
    resulted in harassment and even detention. The Government continued to
    jam the transmissions of Radio Marti and Television Marti.
        The Government sometimes barred independent libraries from
    receiving materials from abroad and sometimes seized materials donated
    by foreign governments.

        Internet Freedom.--There were significant government restrictions
    on access to the Internet and widespread reports that the Government
    monitored e-mail and Internet chat rooms and browsing. The Government
    controlled all Internet access, with the exception of extremely limited
    facilities provided by a few diplomatic missions and some black market
    facilities. While the Government claimed 14 percent of the population
    had access to the Internet, in many cases this access was limited to a
    domestic ``intranet'' which offered only e-mail or highly restricted
    access to the World Wide Web.
        Since there is no fiber optic cable connection to the country, all
    Internet traffic passes through dial-up or limited satellite
    connections. Citing these limitations, the Government granted Internet
    access only to a chosen few, consisting mostly of government officials,
    established professionals, professors, students, journalists, and
    artists. Others could access limited e-mail and Internet services
    through government-sponsored ``youth clubs'' or Internet centers
    approved and regulated by the Ministry for Information Technology and
    Communications.
        Authorities reviewed the browsing history of authorized users,
    reviewed and censored e-mail, employed Internet search filters, and
    blocked access to Web sites considered objectionable. Numerous human
    rights groups reported that authorities used mobile patrols to search
    for unauthorized Internet and satellite television equipment. When
    police discovered violators, they confiscated the equipment and fined
    the owners.
        While the law does not set specific penalties for unauthorized
    Internet use, it is illegal to own a satellite dish that would provide
    uncensored Internet access. In 2008 the Government instructed providers
    of public Internet access to block access to sites ``whose contents are
    contrary to social and moral interests and community standards'' or
    applications that ``affect the integrity or the security of the
    state.'' The same resolution ordered Internet providers to prevent the
    use of encryption software and the transfer of encrypted files. Despite
    the limited access, the harassment, and the infrastructure challenges,
    a growing number of citizens maintained blogs where they often posted
    opinions critical of the Government, with help from foreign supporters
    who often built and kept the blog sites. Local access to the majority
    of these blogs was blocked.
        Both foreigners and citizens were allowed to buy Internet access
    cards from the national telecommunications provider and to use hotel
    business centers, where Internet access could be purchased only in hard
    currency. Access usually cost between five and 10 convertible pesos
    ($5.40 to $10.80) an hour, a rate beyond the means of most citizens.

        Academic Freedom and Cultural Events.--The Government restricted
    academic freedom and controlled the curriculum at all schools and
    universities, emphasizing the importance of reinforcing ``revolutionary
    ideology'' and ``discipline.'' Most academics refrained from meeting
    with foreigners, including diplomats, journalists, and academics,
    without prior government approval, and those permitted to travel abroad
    were aware that their actions, if deemed politically unfavorable, could
    negatively affect them and their relatives back home.
        In a well-publicized case in June, the CP expelled Professor
    Esteban Morales from the party after he published an article addressing
    the challenges posed by government corruption. Morales, a senior
    University of Havana professor, had been a frequent guest on the state-
    run television nightly news program Mesa Redonda (``Roundtable'') prior
    to the publication of the article but has not appeared on the show
    since.
        Public libraries required a letter of permission from an employer
    or academic institution for access to books or information.

        b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association.--Although the
    constitution grants limited rights of assembly and association, these
    rights are subject to the requirement that they may not be ``exercised
    against the existence and objectives of the socialist state.''

        Freedom of Assembly--Unauthorized assemblies of more than three
    persons, including those for private religious services in private
    homes, can be punished by up to three months in prison and a fine,
    although these meetings were more likely to be broken up than
    prosecuted. The Government did not grant permission to antigovernment
    demonstrators or approve public meetings by human rights groups. Early
    in the year, the Government tried to prevent the Damas de Blanco from
    marching without permits, but their defiance in the face of state-
    organized mobs eventually led the Government to relent (see section 1.
    c).
        Civil society organizations reported continued suppression of the
    right to assemble. On October 29, more than three dozen independent
    lawyers, journalists, and human rights activists attempted to gather in
    a private home to discuss UN treaties and domestic laws that affect
    civil society organizations. In the hours before the scheduled meeting,
    plainclothes security forces surrounded the building and demanded
    identification from the people who attempted to enter. With assistance
    from uniformed police, several prominent attendees were detained and
    driven to police stations where they were held for several hours, then
    released without charges.
        The Government continued to allow religious processions in
    celebration of important religious holidays, and at least two religious
    groups held public processions without obtaining a permit without
    repercussions.
        Human rights activists reported frequent government monitoring and
    disruption of cell phone and landline services prior to planned events
    or key anniversaries related to human rights.

        Freedom of Association.--The Government routinely denied its
    citizens freedom of association, and did not recognize independent
    associations. The constitution proscribes any political organization
    that is not officially recognized. Authorities have never recognized an
    independent human rights organization; however, a number of independent
    organizations and professional associations operated as NGOs without
    legal recognition.
        Recognized churches, the Roman Catholic humanitarian organization
    Caritas, the Freemason movement, and a number of fraternal and
    professional organizations were the only associations legally permitted
    to function outside the formal structure of the state, the CP, and the
    Government-organized organizations. All religious groups are
    accountable to the Government's Office of Religious Affairs, which has
    the authority to deny permits for religious activities and exerts
    pressure on church leaders. The authorities continued to ignore
    applications for legal recognition from new groups, including several
    new religious groups as well as women's rights and gay rights
    organizations, thereby subjecting members to potential charges of
    illegal association.

        c. Freedom of Religion.--For a complete description of religious
    freedom, please see the 2010 International Religious Freedom Report at
    www.state.gov/g/drl/irf/rpt.

        d. Freedom of Movement, Internally Displaced Persons, Protection of
    Refugees, and Stateless Persons.--There are severe restrictions on
    freedom of movement within the country, on foreign travel, and on
    migration with the right of return.
        The Government tightly restricted foreign and domestic travel and
    limited internal migration from rural areas to Havana. Some dissidents
    reported that they were prevented from leaving their home provinces or
    detained by authorities and returned.
        Although the constitution allows all citizens to travel anywhere
    within the country, changes of residence were heavily restricted. The
    local housing commission and provincial government authorities must
    authorize any change of residence. Anyone living in a location
    illegally may be fined and sent back to their place of residence. While
    the regulation was in effect nationwide, it was applied most frequently
    in Havana. Thousands of people lived in Havana illegally and without
    access to food rations or local identification cards. There were cases
    where police had threatened to prosecute for ``dangerousness'' anyone
    who returned to Havana after having been expelled.
        The Government restricted both migration and temporary foreign
    travel, by requiring exit permits and forcing would-be migrants to
    forfeit most of their belongings, including houses. The Government
    allowed the majority of persons who qualified for immigrant or refugee
    status in other countries to depart. However, at least 300 citizens who
    had received foreign travel documents were denied exit permits during
    the year. Persons routinely denied exit permits included medical
    personnel, men of military age, former military or security personnel,
    and members of the opposition. The Government requires university
    graduates to perform social service work for periods that run for up to
    five years, during which they are not allowed to leave the country.
        The Government denied exit permits for several years to relatives
    of individuals who migrated illegally (for example, merchant seamen and
    sports figures who defected while out of the country). The Government
    frequently withheld exit visas from dissidents.
        Juan Juan Almeida, son of deceased leader of the Cuban Revolution
    Juan Almeida Bosque, was repeatedly denied an exit permit to seek
    medical treatment. Early in the year, he launched a blog featuring the
    stories of others who had been denied exit permits, and in June he
    began a hunger strike to demand the right to leave. In August Cardinal
    Ortega intervened, and the Government let Almeida depart.
        The law permits authorities to bar an individual from a certain
    area, or to restrict an individual to a certain area, for a period of
    one to 10 years. Under this provision, authorities may internally exile
    any person whose presence in a given location is considered ``socially
    dangerous.''
        Those seeking to migrate legally alleged they also faced police
    interrogation, fines, house searches, harassment, and intimidation by
    the Government, including involuntary dismissal from employment.
    Government employees who applied to migrate legally to the United
    States sometimes were fired from their jobs when their plans became
    known.
        Fees for medical exams, exit permissions, passport costs, and
    airport taxes are payable only in hard currency and amounted to
    approximately 630 convertible pesos (approximately $680) for an adult,
    or nearly three years' salary. These fees represented a significant
    hardship, particularly for migrants who had been forced from their jobs
    and had no income. At year's end some would-be migrants were unable to
    leave the country because of their inability to pay exit fees.
    Authorities dispossessed migrants and their families of their homes and
    most of their belongings before permitting them to leave the country.
        The law provides for imprisonment of up to three years or a fine of
    300 to 1,000 pesos (approximately $11 to $38) for unauthorized
    departures by boat or raft. In practice, however, most were detained
    for no more than two to three weeks and given a fine. The Government
    sometimes applied a law on human smuggling to would-be migrants charged
    with organizing or promoting illegal exits. The law provides for
    imprisonment from two to five years for those who organize, promote, or
    incite illegal exit from national territory. The CCDHRN estimated that
    at year's end approximately 300 citizens had been fined, were awaiting
    charges, or were serving sentences on smuggling charges. Jail terms
    were more common for persons attempting to flee to the United States
    through the Guantanamo U.S. Naval Base. Under the terms of the 1994
    U.S. Cuba Migration Accord, the Government agreed not to prosecute or
    retaliate against migrants returned from international or U.S. waters,
    or from the U.S. Naval Station at Guantanamo, after attempting to
    emigrate illegally if they had not committed a separate criminal
    offense. However, in practice some would-be migrants experienced
    harassment and discrimination such as fines, expulsion from school, and
    job loss.
        The Government generally refused to accept nationals returned from
    U.S. territory beyond the limits of the Migration Accord.

        Protection of Refugees.--The country is not a party to the 1951
    Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 protocol,
    but the constitution provides for the granting of asylum to individuals
    persecuted for their ideals or actions involving a number of specified
    political grounds. Although the Government has no formal mechanism to
    process asylum for foreign nationals, in practice it provided
    protection against the expulsion or return of refugees to countries
    where their lives or freedom would be threatened on account of their
    race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group,
    or political opinion. These protections were also provided to some
    fugitives from justice, whom the Government defined as refugees for
    political reasons.
        The Government worked with the Office of the UN High Commissioner
    for Refugees (UNHCR) and other humanitarian organizations in providing
    protection and assistance to the small number of refugees and asylum
    seekers in the country while third country settlement was being sought.
    In addition the Government allowed foreign medical students who feared
    persecution in their home countries to remain in the country after the
    end of their studies so that an investigation of their concerns could
    be conducted.

    Section 3. Respect for Political Rights: The Right of Citizens to
            Change Their Government
        While the constitution provides for direct election of provincial,
    municipal, and National Assembly members, citizens do not have the
    right to change their government, and the Government retaliated against
    those who sought peaceful political change.
        In 2008 the National Assembly unanimously elected Raul Castro to
    succeed his brother as chief of state and president.
        In the 2008 National Assembly elections, the Government promoted a
    unified CP-approved slate of candidates. The CP candidates and their
    allies won 98.7 percent of the vote and 607 of 614 seats in the
    National Assembly.

        Elections and Political Participation.--Candidates for provincial
    and national office must be approved in advance by state-run mass
    organizations, such as the women's and CP youth organizations. A small
    group of leaders selected all senior positions, including the
    presidency and vice presidencies, the Council of State, and the members
    of the CP Politburo and the Central Committee, to be rubber stamped by
    the larger bodies of the National Assembly or the CP. In theory, non CP
    members could contest elections, but in practice CP membership was a
    prerequisite for high-level official positions except for municipal
    assemblies, the lowest elected bodies which are largely symbolic. All
    candidates must be approved by CP dominated candidacy commissions that
    approve only one candidate per office.
        There was one woman in the 24 member Politburo and 15 in the 107
    member Central Committee. Women held eight seats in the 27 member
    Council of State and 265 seats in the 614 seat National Assembly.
        Persons of African descent held five seats in the Politburo.
    Following the selection of the National Assembly in 2008, the
    Government reported the Assembly's composition as 64 percent white, 19
    percent black, and 16 percent mixed race.

    Section 4. Official Corruption and Government Transparency
        The law provides criminal penalties for official corruption, and
    the Government is highly sensitive to corruption allegations and often
    conducts anticorruption crackdowns. In 2009 it created the post of
    comptroller to handle better the growing problem of corruption, while
    during the year, over a dozen high-level officials and prominent
    business people were detained under suspicion of corruption. The World
    Bank's worldwide governance indicators reflected that government
    corruption was a growing problem.
        There were widespread reports of corruption in the police and
    courts. Multiple sources reported that police sometimes conducted
    searches of homes and vehicles, then sought bribes in place of fines or
    arrests. A prominent independent lawyer reported that prosecutors and
    judges accepted money in exchange for reduced charges or shorter
    sentences.
        Government officials were not subject to special financial
    disclosure laws. The law provides for three to eight years'
    imprisonment for ``illegal enrichment'' by authorities or government
    employees. All government agencies, especially the Ministry of Auditing
    and Control and the Ministry of the Interior, were tasked with
    combating corruption, including through prosecution of government
    officials.
        The law provides for public access to government information, but
    in practice requests for information were routinely rejected.

    Section 5. Governmental Attitude Regarding International and
            Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations of Human
            Rights
        The Government did not recognize domestic human rights groups or
    permit them to function legally. Several human rights organizations
    continued to function outside the law, including the CCDHRN, the
    Christian Liberation Movement (MCL), the Assembly to Promote Civil
    Society, and the Lawton Foundation for Human Rights. The Government
    subjected domestic human rights advocates to intimidation and
    harassment.
        There are no officially recognized, independent NGOs that monitor
    human rights. The Government refused to recognize or meet with any
    unauthorized NGOs who monitor human rights.
        The Government continued to deny human rights organizations, the
    UN, and the International Committee of the Red Cross access to all
    prisoners and detainees.

    Section 6. Discrimination, Societal Abuses, and Trafficking in Persons
        The constitution prohibits discrimination based on race, gender,
    disability, or social status; however, racial discrimination occurred
    frequently.

        Women.--The law criminalizes rape, including spousal rape, and the
    Government enforced the law. The Government did not release statistics
    during the year on arrests, prosecutions, or convictions for rape, and
    no reliable information regarding the incidence of rape was available.
        The law does not recognize domestic violence as a distinct category
    of violence but prohibits threats and violence, including those
    associated with domestic violence. Penalties for domestic violence are
    covered by the laws against assault and range from fines to prison
    sentences of varying lengths, depending on the severity of the offense.
        To raise awareness about domestic violence, the Government
    continued to carry out media campaigns during the year. In addition a
    few government-organized organizations held conferences and worked with
    local communities to improve services. UNICEF reported that the
    Government ran shelters for women and children in most communities,
    with staff trained in assisting victims of abuse. The director of the
    Center for Women's Studies (part of the state-run Federation of Cuban
    Women) acknowledged the problem during a conference held in November
    and expressed the organization's commitment to improving services,
    especially in rural areas. Other conference participants discussed
    reasons many women did not report domestic violence and ways to
    encourage more women to come forward.
        The law provides penalties for sexual harassment, with potential
    sentences of three months to five years' imprisonment. The Government
    did not release any statistics on arrests, prosecutions, or convictions
    for offenses related to sexual harassment.
        Couples and individuals had the right to decide the number,
    spacing, and timing of children, and had the information and means to
    do so free from discrimination. Women and men were given equal access
    to diagnostic services and treatment for sexually transmitted
    infections, including HIV. Access to information on contraception and
    skilled attendance at delivery and in postpartum care were widely
    available. The UN Population Fund reported in 2008 that 77 percent of
    women ages15 to 49 used some form of birth control and UNICEF reported
    that the maternal mortality ratio in 2008 was 53 maternal deaths per
    100,000 live births.
        The law accords women and men equal rights and responsibilities
    regarding marriage, divorce, raising children, maintaining the home,
    and pursuing a career. The law grants working mothers preferential
    access to goods and services. The law provides for equal pay for equal
    work, and women generally received pay comparable to men for similar
    work.

        Children.--Citizenship is derived by birth within the country's
    territory.
        There was no societal pattern of child abuse.
        While there were reports of underage prostitution, there were no
    reliable statistics available regarding its extent. The minimum age of
    consent for consensual sex is 16. There is no statutory rape law;
    however, penalties for rape increase as the age of the victim
    decreases. While the law does not specifically prohibit child
    pornography, it prohibits the production or distribution of any kind of
    obscene graphic material, with possible sanctions ranging from three
    months to one year in prison and a fine.
        The Government, in cooperation with the British government and a
    British NGO, ran a center in Havana for the treatment of child sexual
    abuse victims, including victims of trafficking. The center employed
    modern treatment techniques, including the preparation of children to
    be witnesses in criminal prosecutions.
        The country is not a party to the 1980 Hague Convention on the
    Civil Aspects of Child Abduction. For information on international
    parental child abduction, please see the Department of State's annual
    report on compliance at http://travel.state.gov/abduction/resources/
    congressreport/congressreport--4308.html.

        Anti-Semitism.--There were between 1,000 and 1,500 members of the
    Jewish community. There were no reports of anti-Semitic acts or other
    societal abuses or discrimination based on religious affiliation,
    belief, or practice.

        Trafficking in Persons.--For information on trafficking in persons,
    please see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons
    Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        Persons With Disabilities.--There was no known law prohibiting
    official discrimination against persons with disabilities in
    employment, education, access to health care, or in the provision of
    other state services. However, a Ministry of Labor and Social Security
    resolution gives persons with disabilities the right to equal
    employment opportunities and to equal pay for equal work. There was no
    official discrimination against persons with disabilities. There are no
    laws mandating accessibility to buildings, communications facilities or
    information for persons with disabilities, and in practice facilities
    and services were rarely accessible to persons with disabilities.
        The Special Education Division of the Ministry of Education is
    responsible for the education and training of children with
    disabilities. The Ministry of Labor and Social Security is in charge of
    the Job Program for the Handicapped.
        In January at least 26 patients died at the Government-run
    ``Mazorra'' Pyschiatric Hospital in Havana when temperatures dropped to
    near freezing. Havana residents familiar with the hospital alleged that
    the deaths were due to negligence, and reported that the patients, many
    of them elderly, suffered from severe malnutrition, lived in unheated
    rooms with broken windows, and lacked jackets or blankets. On January
    16, the Ministry of Public Health acknowledged the deaths, cited
    ``deficiencies'' in the hospital's administration, and stated that
    responsible officials would face criminal charges. On July 22,
    President Castro replaced the minister of public health. Unofficial
    reports at the end of the year indicated that the Government was
    preparing charges against several people involved in the case.

        National/Racial/Ethnic Minorities.--Afro Cubans often suffered
    racial discrimination, including disproportionate stops for identity
    checks and searches, and could be subject to racial epithets. Afro
    Cubans were represented disproportionately in neighborhoods with the
    worst housing conditions and were economically disadvantaged.
        At a conference in July, a prominent University of Havana professor
    led an open discussion on racism and discrimination against Afro-
    Cubans. Students, community leaders, and local residents participated
    in the discussion, shared personal stories of discrimination, and
    discussed policy and educational approaches to improving the situation.

        Societal Abuses, Discrimination, and Acts of Violence Based on
    Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.--Officially, there was no
    discrimination based on sexual orientation in employment, housing,
    statelessness, or access to education or health care. However, societal
    discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity
    persisted, and police occasionally conducted sweeps in areas where gay
    men congregated. In November gay rights activists reported that police
    conducted raids on several areas frequented by gay men in Santa Clara
    and detained a number of gay men. The men were taken to local police
    stations where they were fined and threatened with prosecution for
    social dangerousness.
        In September during an interview with the foreign press, former
    president Fidel Castro acknowledged and accepted responsibility for the
    mistreatment of gays and lesbians during the 1960s and 70s, when they
    were considered ``counter-revolutionaries'' and many were sent to re-
    education camps. Mariela Castro, President Castro's daughter, headed
    the national Center for Sexual Education and continued to be outspoken
    in promoting gay rights. In January she acknowledged publicly that some
    discrimination continued to exist against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and
    transgender (LGBT) persons and called on the CP to take steps to
    eliminate it. Despite these efforts, several nongovernment gay rights
    activists asserted that the Government had not done enough to stop
    harassment of LGBT persons.

        Other Societal Violence or Discrimination.--Some persons with HIV/
    AIDS suffered job discrimination or were rejected by their families.
    The Government operated four prisons exclusively for inmates with HIV/
    AIDS; some inmates were serving sentences for ``propagating an
    epidemic.''

    Section 7. Worker Rights
        a. The Right of Association.--The law does not allow workers to
    form and join independent unions of their choice. The only legal labor
    union in the country was the Central de Trabajadores de Cuba (CTC), or
    the Workers' Central Union of Cuba, whose leaders were chosen by the
    CP. The CTC's principal responsibility was to ensure that government
    production goals were met. It did not bargain collectively, promote
    worker rights, or protect the right to strike. Most workers were
    required to belong to the CTC, and promotions frequently were limited
    to CP members who took part in mandatory marches, public humiliations
    of dissidents, and other state organized activities.
        The CTC took a lead role in disseminating information regarding the
    Government's planned layoffs of one million government workers, which
    began in October. This will affect approximately one-fifth of the
    active workforce of approximately five million. Although the CTC stated
    its role included defending workers by ensuring that the layoff process
    was fair, it was not clear what, if any, action the CTC took in this
    regard. It further stated that ``our state cannot and should not
    continue supporting businesses, production entities, and services with
    inflated payrolls; it will no longer be possible to apply a formula of
    protecting and subsidizing salaries on an unlimited basis to workers.''
        The Government can determine that a worker is ``unfit'' to work,
    resulting in job loss and the denial of job opportunities. Persons were
    deemed unfit for their political beliefs, including their refusal to
    join the official union, or for trying to depart the country illegally.
    Several small independent labor organizations operated without legal
    recognition, including the Union of Bicycle Taxi Drivers, the Christian
    Labor Organization, and the National Independent Workers' Confederation
    of Cuba. These organizations were subject to police harassment and
    infiltration by government agents and were unable to represent workers
    effectively or work on their behalf.
        The law does not provide for the right to strike, and no strikes
    were known to have occurred during the year.
        Of the 75 dissidents jailed in 2003, seven were independent labor
    leaders. All but one (Iv n Hern ndez Carillo) were released during the
    year.

        b. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively.--The law does
    not provide for collective bargaining, though it does provide a
    complicated process for collective agreements. The International Labor
    Organization's Committee (ILO) of Experts on the Application of
    Conventions and Recommendations continued to raise concerns with
    restrictions on collective bargaining and agreements, in particular
    that government authorities and CTC officials had the final say on all
    such agreements. The CTC was the only legally recognized trade union,
    and the Government continued to take active steps to prevent the
    formation of independent trade unions in all sectors.
        Foreign embassies and multinational corporations generally did not
    directly hire Cuban citizens, but were required to contract them
    through a government agency. Multinationals set wages for their
    employees, and wages and benefits are generally reported to be in line
    with national averages. No minimum wage applies to the private sector.
        There are no export processing zones.

        c. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor.--While the law does
    not specifically prohibit forced or compulsory labor by adults,
    statutes forbidding slavery, bondage, and kidnapping would apply to
    situations of compulsory or forced labor. Convicts were often forced to
    work on farms or in construction, agricultural, or metal work.
        The law prohibits forced or compulsory labor by children; in
    contrast to previous years, there were no reports that such practices
    occurred. Also see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in
    Persons Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        d. Prohibition of Child Labor and Minimum Age for Employment.--The
    legal minimum working age is 17, although the labor code permits the
    employment of 15 and 16 year old children to obtain training or to fill
    labor shortages. However, in practice it was rare that children under
    17 worked. The labor code does not permit 15 and 16 year olds to work
    more than seven hours per day or 40 hours per week, or on holidays.
    Children ages 13 to 18 cannot work in specified hazardous occupations,
    such as mining, or at night.
        There were no known government programs to prevent child labor or
    remove children from such labor.

        e. Acceptable Conditions of Work.--The monthly minimum wage, which
    is established and enforced by the Ministry of Labor and Social
    Security, was fixed at 225 pesos (approximately $10). There is no fixed
    period for review or revision of the minimum wage, which was last
    revised in 2005. The ministry enforced the minimum wage requirement
    through offices at the national, provincial, and municipal level and
    did so effectively. The minimum wage requirement does not apply to the
    small non-state sector. The Government supplemented the minimum wage
    with free education, subsidized medical care (daily pay is reduced by
    40 percent after the third day of a hospital stay), housing, and some
    food. Even with subsidies, the Government acknowledged that the average
    wage of 415 pesos per month (approximately $18) did not provide a
    reasonable standard of living.
        Multinational companies continued to operate in a limited number of
    sectors, such as hotels, tourism, and mining. Such companies operate on
    the basis of a joint venture policy, in which the employers are
    prohibited from paying the workers directly, though many reportedly
    made supplemental payments under the table. The Government is the
    exclusive labor contractor and received the foreign exchange from such
    multinational companies. The Government subsequently paid the workers
    in pesos, an amount which was a small fraction of what the company paid
    the state for labor costs. Multinational companies set wages for their
    employees.
        The standard workweek is 44 hours, with shorter workweeks in
    hazardous occupations, such as mining. The law provides workers with a
    weekly 24 hour rest period. These standards applied to state workers as
    well as to the small non-state sector (but not to the self-employed)
    and were effectively enforced. The law does not provide for premium pay
    for overtime or prohibit obligatory overtime but generally caps the
    number of overtime hours at twelve per week or 160 per year. The
    Ministry of Labor has the authority to establish different caps as
    needed. Compensation for overtime is paid either in cash at the regular
    hourly rate or in additional rest time, particularly for workers
    directly linked to production or services, and does not apply to
    management. Workers frequently complained that overtime compensation
    was either not paid or not paid in a timely manner. The law provides
    little grounds for a worker to refuse to work overtime. Refusal to work
    overtime could result in a notation in the employee's official work
    history that could imperil subsequent requests for vacation time.
        Laws providing for workplace environmental and safety controls were
    inadequate and the Government lacked effective enforcement mechanisms.
    The law provides that a worker who considers his life in danger because
    of hazardous conditions has the right to refuse to work in a position
    or not to engage in specific activities until such risks are
    eliminated; the worker remains obligated to work temporarily in
    whatever other position may be assigned at a salary provided for under
    the law.
        The independent and illegal Confederation of Independent Workers of
    Cuba reported numerous violations of health and safety laws at
    worksites throughout the country, including inadequate and poorly
    maintained equipment and protective gear. The CTC seldom informed
    workers of their rights and did not respond to or assist workers who
    complained about hazardous workplace conditions.

                                   __________

                                    DOMINICA

        Dominica is a multiparty, parliamentary democracy with a population
    of approximately 72,800. Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit's Dominica
    Labour Party (DLP) prevailed over the opposition United Workers Party
    (UWP) by a margin of 18 seats to three seats in elections in December
    2009. Although outside observers found the elections generally free and
    fair, the opposition boycotted Parliament over alleged electoral
    abuses. Security forces reported to civilian authorities.
        There were human rights problems in a few areas, primarily an
    overcrowded prison, domestic violence against women and children, and
    adverse conditions experienced by indigenous Kalinago (Carib).

                            RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

    Section 1. Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom
            From:
        a. Arbitrary or Unlawful Deprivation of Life.--There were no
    reports that the Government or its agents committed arbitrary or
    unlawful killings.
        The criminal prosecution of two police officers for the 2007 murder
    of Stan Bruney remained pending before the chief magistrate. Some
    witnesses had already testified, and the prosecution was proceeding in
    this case.

        b. Disappearance.--There were no reports of politically motivated
    disappearances.

        c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or
    Punishment.--The constitution prohibits such practices, and there were
    no reports that government officials employed them.
        A civil case filed in 2006 accusing police officers of beating a
    man was settled for monetary damages in the amount of EC $8,000
    ($2,963).

        Prison and Detention Center Conditions.--Although overcrowded,
    prison and detention conditions generally met international standards
    and the Government permitted visits by independent human rights
    observers, although no such visits were known to have occurred during
    the year.
        The prison has an authorized capacity of 200 inmates but held 289
    inmates, including 62 detainees on remand from the court, as of
    December 29. The inmates included six women and 15 juveniles, who were
    separated from the adult population.
        There was one suicide by hanging, which occurred in a detention
    center at a police station.
        Prisoners and detainees have reasonable access to visitors and are
    permitted religious observance. Prison authorities permitted prisoners
    and detainees to submit complaints, and the Government investigated
    complaints and monitored prison and detention center conditions.
        The Government used prison labor to improve the facilities, and a
    new mess hall and ancillary buildings were still under construction at
    year's end.

        d. Arbitrary Arrest or Detention.--The law prohibits arbitrary
    arrest and detention, and the Government generally observed these
    prohibitions.

        Role of the Police and Security Apparatus.--The Ministry of
    National Security, Labor, and Immigration oversees the Dominica Police,
    the country's only security force. The force of approximately 450
    officers effectively carried out its responsibilities to maintain
    public order. The police have a formal complaint procedure to handle
    allegations of excessive force or abuse by police officers.
        The police Internal Affairs Department investigates public
    complaints against the police and provides officers with counseling.
    There were no cases of misconduct filed during the year, nor were there
    any reports of impunity involving the security forces during the year.

        Arrest Procedures and Treatment While in Detention.--The police
    apprehend persons openly with warrants issued by a judicial authority.
    The law requires that the authorities inform persons of the reasons for
    arrest within 24 hours after arrest and bring the detainee to court
    within 72 hours. This requirement generally was honored in practice. If
    the authorities are unable to bring a detainee to court within the
    requisite period, the detainee may be released and rearrested at a
    later time. There is a functioning system of bail. Criminal detainees
    were provided prompt access to counsel and family members.
        Lengthy detention before trial was a problem due to judicial staff
    shortages. On average prisoners remained in remand status for more than
    three months.

        e. Denial of Fair Public Trial.--The constitution provides for an
    independent judiciary, and the Government generally respected judicial
    independence in practice.
        Inadequate prosecutorial and police staffing and resources for
    investigations, together with a lack of judges, resulted in severe
    backlogs and other problems in the judicial system.

        Trial Procedures.--The constitution provides for the right to a
    fair trial, and an independent judiciary generally enforced this right.
    There are public trials by jury, and defendants have the right to be
    present, to consult with an attorney in a timely manner, and to
    confront or question witnesses. Criminal defendants are presumed
    innocent until proven guilty, are allowed legal counsel, and have the
    right to appeal. Courts provide free legal counsel to juveniles unable
    to obtain their own counsel, regardless of the crime committed, and to
    the indigent, but only in cases involving serious crimes. Defendants
    and their attorneys have access to government-held evidence relevant to
    their cases.

        Political Prisoners and Detainees.--There were no reports of
    political prisoners or detainees.

        Civil Judicial Procedures and Remedies.--There is an independent,
    impartial judiciary in civil matters where one can bring lawsuits
    seeking damages for a human rights violation.

        f. Arbitrary Interference With Privacy, Family, Home, or
    Correspondence.--The constitution prohibits such actions, and the
    Government generally respected these prohibitions in practice.

    Section 2. Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:
        a. Freedom of Speech and Press.--The constitution provides for
    freedom of speech and of the press, and the Government generally
    respected these rights in practice. An independent press, an effective
    judiciary, and a functioning democratic political system combined to
    ensure freedom of speech and of the press.
        In the December 2009 election campaign, the opposition claimed that
    the Government blocked its access to the main government-owned radio
    station and purchased all the advertising time on the largest private
    station, restricting the opposition to a smaller private station that
    only reached about one quarter of the country. In January individual
    members of the opposition filed an election challenge in court raising
    these claims and other election-related complaints. In August the
    Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court struck out the access to media claims,
    finding no supporting material facts for the assertion of denial or
    refusal of access. The opposition subsequently filed an appeal of the
    court ruling.

        Internet Freedom.--There were no government restrictions on access
    to the Internet or reports that the Government monitored e-mail or
    Internet chat rooms. Individuals and groups could engage in expression
    of views via the Internet, including by e-mail. The Internet was
    largely available in homes, offices, and Internet cafes in urban areas,
    but infrastructure limitations restricted Internet access in villages.
    According to the International Telecommunication Union, there were 42
    Internet users per 100 inhabitants in 2009.

        Academic Freedom and Cultural Events.--There were no government
    restrictions on academic freedom or cultural events.

        b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association.--The constitution
    provides for freedoms of assembly and association, and the Government
    generally respected these rights in practice.

        c. Freedom of Religion.--For a complete description of religious
    freedom, please see the 2010 International Religious Freedom Report at
    www.state.gov/g/drl/irf/rpt.

        d. Freedom of Movement, Internally Displaced Persons, Protection of
    Refugees, and Stateless Persons.--The constitution and the law provide
    for freedom of movement within the country, foreign travel, emigration,
    and repatriation, and the Government generally respected these rights
    in practice.
        The only internal restriction on movement applies to the Carib
    Reserve area. Since all the land is collectively owned by the community
    and managed by the Carib Council, for a newcomer to live in the
    territory, the council would have to grant permission to use the land.
        Although no known cases occurred, the Government was prepared to
    cooperate with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and
    other humanitarian organizations in providing protection and assistance
    to internally displaced persons, refugees, returning refugees, asylum
    seekers, stateless persons, and other persons of concern.
        The constitution prohibits forced exile, and the Government did not
    use it.

        Protection of Refugees.--The Government has not established a
    procedural system for providing protection to refugees. While the law
    provides for asylum or refugee status, the Government did not grant
    refugee status or asylum during the year.
        The Government did not expel or return refugees to a country where
    their lives or freedom would be threatened on account of their race,
    religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or
    political opinion; however, no such cases arose during the year.

    Section 3. Respect for Political Rights: The Right of Citizens to
            Change Their Government
        The constitution provides citizens the right to change their
    government peacefully, and citizens exercised this right in practice
    through periodic, free, and fair elections based on universal suffrage.

        Elections and Political Participation.--In parliamentary elections
    held in December 2009, the ruling DLP won 18 seats in the House of
    Assembly, defeating the UWP, which won three seats. Two of the three
    opposition members boycotted Parliament to pressure the Government to
    call new elections with increased protections in place. As a result of
    the boycott, after six months the Government declared the two seats
    vacant and called by-elections in those two constituencies, both won
    again by the opposition.
        The Caribbean Community and the Organization of American States
    sent teams of election observers. Both organizations declared the
    election to be fair and transparent, but the OAS report recommended
    that the Government implement a voter identification system, provide
    for equal access to purchase advertising from media, and implement
    campaign finance laws to govern and define the appropriate use of funds
    to bring voters to the polls without impeding the diaspora members'
    franchise. The law does not require a voter identification card, does
    not contain any campaign finance provisions, and only requires a voter
    outside the country to be present in the country one time during a
    five-year period and be on the electors list in order to vote. After
    the 2009 election, the opposition filed court complaints of election
    irregularities regarding these issues, and in August the court rejected
    all the claims with the exception of ineligibility to hold office
    claims against two ministers over dual-nationality issues. At year's
    end these dual-nationality claims were in pretrial proceedings, with an
    expected trial date in early 2011.
        Political parties could operate without restriction or outside
    interference.
        For most of the year, women held three cabinet positions: the
    minister for social services, community development, and gender
    affairs; the minister for culture, youth, and sports; and the attorney
    general. Voters elected two women to the House of Assembly. The
    appointed Speaker of the House of Assembly was a woman.
        The parliamentary representative for the constituency that includes
    the Carib Territory was a Carib.

    Section 4. Official Corruption and Government Transparency
        The law provides criminal penalties for official corruption, and
    the Government generally implemented these laws effectively. However,
    there were isolated allegations publicly reported by members of the
    political opposition and related groups of corruption in the
    Government, including accusations that some government officials
    engaged in property speculation. The same opposition groups accused
    government ministers of receiving unreported money from foreign
    sources. However, no charges were filed and none of these allegations
    were proven in the courts.
        In November 2008 a government commission to implement the 2004
    Integrity in Public Service Act began operating to minimize government
    corruption. The act requires government officials to account annually
    for their income and assets and those of their immediate family, as
    well as any gifts they have received. The commission is required to
    examine each declaration and determine its validity. This declaration
    is private, and the only disclosure is whether the commission has
    received it and if it has been deemed valid. If misrepresentation is
    found, the official can be liable for a fine of EC$20,000 ($7,500) or
    two years' imprisonment, with additional penalties for bribery,
    possession of unaccounted property, and other provisions. The
    commission referred 44 public officials for prosecution for failure to
    comply with the Integrity in Public Service Act by failing to declare
    their assets. After a review of the evidence, the director of public
    prosecution (DPP) filed criminal charges against 25 of these public
    officials; trial dates were set for early 2011.The commission receives
    complaints from the public as well and was involved in investigating
    complaints filed against public officials.
        The Financial Intelligence Unit is the chief government agency
    responsible for identifying and combating government corruption. In
    addition the police force and customs service have internal watchdog
    offices. The independent DPP is responsible for prosecuting major
    crimes, including corruption offenses, and routinely files charges of
    theft, false accounting, fraud, theft by deception, and related
    offenses. The DPP worked closely with the Financial Intelligence Unit.
    However, the DPP lacked adequate manpower and resources for
    concentration on complicated money laundering and public corruption
    cases.
        The law does not provide for public access to government
    information, and the Government did not provide routine access in
    practice. The Government maintained a Web page and a government
    information service, where it posted information such as directories of
    officials and a summary of laws and press releases. The Government
    budget and an audit of that budget were both publicly available on the
    Web site.

    Section 5. Governmental Attitude Regarding International and
            Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations of Human
            Rights
        There were no government restrictions on the formation of local
    human rights organizations, although no such groups existed. Several
    advocacy groups, such as the Association of Disabled People, the
    Dominica National Council of Women (DNCW), and a women's and children's
    self-help organization, operated freely and without government
    interference.
        There were no requests for investigations of human rights abuses
    from international or regional human rights groups. A parliamentary
    commissioner has responsibility to investigate complaints against the
    Government.

    Section 6. Discrimination, Societal Abuses, and Trafficking in Persons
        The law specifically prohibits discrimination based on race,
    gender, place of origin, color, and creed, and the authorities
    generally respected this prohibition in practice.

        Women.--The law criminalizes rape but not spousal rape. Police were
    not reluctant to arrest or prosecute offenders; whenever possible,
    female police officers handled rape cases. Although the maximum
    sentence for sexual molestation (rape or incest) is 25 years'
    imprisonment, the normal sentence given was five to seven years, except
    in the case of murder. The Bureau of Gender Affairs of the Ministry of
    Social Services, Community Development, and Gender Affairs assisted
    victims of abuse by finding temporary shelter, providing counseling to
    both parties, or recommending police action.
        Sexual violence and domestic violence cases were common, and the
    problem became more apparent as government officials participated in
    public awareness and outreach programs. Although no specific laws
    criminalize spousal abuse, spouses could bring charges against their
    partners for battery. However, victims were often reluctant to press
    charges due to their reliance on financial assistance of the abuser.
    Shelters were operated in private homes to preserve the privacy of the
    victims, but the location of a shelter was hard to keep secret. During
    the year the Government opened a new shelter. The law allows abused
    persons to appear before a magistrate without an attorney and request a
    protective order. The court also may order the alleged perpetrator to
    be removed from the home to allow the victims, usually women and
    children, to remain in the home while the matter is investigated.
    However, inadequate police resources made enforcement of these
    restraining orders difficult. Police officers continued to receive
    training in dealing with domestic abuse cases.
        The Bureau of Gender Affairs reported that both men and women
    sought assistance in dealing with domestic violence. Despite the range
    of programs offered, there were insufficient support systems to deal
    with the problem. In addition to counseling services offered by the
    DNCW and the bureau, there was a legal aid clinic, and the Government's
    legal department offered assistance as well.
        The DNCW provided preventive education about domestic violence and
    maintained a shelter where counseling and mediation services were
    available daily. Funding constraints limited stays at the shelter to
    several days at a time; however, if needed, additional housing was
    provided in private homes for up to three weeks. Because of the
    country's small size, abusive spouses commonly found and visited the
    victims at the shelter, making private homes a safer option in many
    cases. The Catholic Church continued to be active in educating the
    public about domestic violence.
        The law does not prohibit sexual harassment, and it remained a
    problem. Government enforcement was not an effective deterrent.
        There were no restrictions on reproductive rights, as women were
    free to choose the number, spacing, and timing of their children. There
    was no information available regarding maternal mortality. Access to
    contraception and treatment for sexually transmitted diseases,
    including HIV/AIDS, was widely available.
        The Government has a national gender policy to eliminate
    discrimination against women in the areas of health, economic
    development, domestic violence and violence-producing conditions,
    education and skills training, and participation in power and decision-
    making positions. At year's end this policy was still in the process of
    full implementation.
        Women enjoy the same rights as men, and the ministry promotes the
    legal rights of women. While there was little open discrimination
    against women, instances of cultural discrimination existed. Also,
    property ownership continued to be deeded to heads of households, who
    were usually male. The inheritance law provides that intestate
    succession leaves the surviving spouse with only a life estate.
    However, the title registration act was amended to accommodate transfer
    of property between spouses, which boosted married women's property
    ownership. The law establishes pay rates for civil service jobs without
    regard to gender. Although there were some women in managerial or high-
    level positions, most women worked as shopkeepers, nurses, or in
    education, and the unemployment rate for women was high.
        The Bureau of Gender Affairs is charged with promoting and ensuring
    the legal rights of women. The bureau provides lobbying, research,
    support, counseling, training, and education services. The bureau
    worked with the DNCW and other organizations to help the Government,
    NGO, and police sectors coordinate work on women's issues, particularly
    in data collection and information sharing.

        Children.--Citizenship is derived by birth to a Dominican parent.
    Birth certificates were provided to the parents on a timely basis.
        Child abuse continued to be a pervasive problem, and it became more
    evident as government officials participated in public awareness
    programs and outreach to communities following several publicly
    reported prosecutions of child sexual abuse. The Welfare Department of
    the Ministry of Social Services, Community Development, and Gender
    Affairs handled reports of child abuse; 80 percent of the victims were
    girls. Judicial magistrates and other officials estimated that 60 to 70
    percent of child welfare cases sent to the high court involved sexual
    abuse of children. The Welfare Department also assisted victims of
    abuse by finding temporary shelter, providing counseling to both
    parties, or recommending police action. That department reported all
    severe cases of abuse to the police. Lack of staff and resources
    continued to hamper enforcement of children's rights laws.
        The age of consent for sexual relations is 16 years. No specific
    laws prohibit commercial sexual exploitation of children, but such
    activity could be prosecuted under laws against prostitution or
    trafficking. There was no information available about laws dealing with
    child pornography. The Government was reviewing amending the Sexual
    Offences Act to strengthen penalties and further penalize criminal acts
    against children. Incest carries a maximum of 25 years if committed by
    an adult with a person under 14 years of age. In cases of sexual
    intercourse with a person age 14 to 16, a maximum prison term of 14
    years may be imposed. Prosecutions were often thwarted by out of court
    settlements for money, which the Government stated it wanted to
    criminalize through amendments to the law.
        The country is not a party to the 1980 Hague Convention on the
    Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. For information on
    international parental child abduction, please see the Department of
    State's annual report on compliance at http://travel.state.gov/
    abduction/resources/congressreport/congressreport--4308.html, as well
    as country-specific information at http://travel.state./gov/abduction/
    country/country--3781.html.

        Anti-Semitism.--There was no organized Jewish community, and there
    were no reports of discrimination or any anti-Semitic acts.

        Trafficking in Persons.--In 2009 there were no reports that persons
    were trafficked to, from, or within the country.

        Persons With Disabilities.--Although the law does not specifically
    prohibit discrimination against persons with disabilities, there was no
    reported formal discrimination against them in employment, education,
    access to health care, or the provision of other state services.
    However, many employers refused to hire persons with disabilities, and
    unemployment among them was very high.
        There is no legal requirement mandating access to buildings for
    persons with disabilities.
        The Government funded a special school for the hearing impaired and
    partially assisted two other schools for vision impaired and mentally
    challenged children. One of the public schools also had a program for
    autistic children. However, the education of children with disabilities
    remained a serious challenge, as many of the disabled children were in
    rural areas.

        Indigenous People.--There was a Kalinago, or Carib, population,
    estimated at about 3,000 persons, most of whom lived in the 3,782-acre
    Carib Territory. The law establishing the Carib Territory does not
    delineate clearly its territorial boundaries. There were four
    preschools and two primary schools in the Carib Territory and two
    secondary schools in nearby communities attended by Kalinago children;
    a new school was completed during the year in Salybia. Despite these
    schools, however, the Carib language has almost completely disappeared,
    and students elsewhere in the country were not taught about pre-
    Columbian history or the role played by Caribs in shaping the country's
    society. The Ministry of Education covered tuition for Kalinago
    students at the Dominica State College and awarded scholarships to
    Kalinago students for study throughout the Caribbean.
        The Carib Act states that any child of a Kalinago is also Kalinago.
    Non-Kalinagos may become Kalinagos if they are invited to live in the
    Carib Territory and do so continuously for 12 years.
        Every five years Kalinagos over the age of 18 who reside in the
    territory may vote for the chief and six members of the Council of
    Advisors. They also are eligible to vote in national elections. In
    national elections, persons who are registered in the district but
    reside outside, either in another part of the country or
    internationally, are still allowed to vote in the Carib Territory. A
    Kalinago headed the Ministry of Carib Affairs and was elected chief of
    the Council of Advisors in August 2009.
        The Kalinago people continued to suffer from low levels of
    unofficial and societal discrimination. Unemployment in the territory
    generally was higher than in the rest of the country, and mean income
    was below the national mean. There were few jobs in the territory,
    because of the decline of the agricultural sector and the inability to
    obtain bank financing due to the lack of collateral in terms of
    privately owned land. Many Kalinagos who moved to the capital city of
    Roseau did not report any significant discrimination. The vast majority
    of Kalinagos have intermarried, and it was not always easy to identify
    someone as Kalinago.

        Societal Abuses, Discrimination, and Acts of Violence Based on
    Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.--The law criminalizes
    consensual homosexual relations. Although no statistics were available,
    anecdotal evidence suggested that societal discrimination against gays
    and lesbians was common in the socially conservative society. There
    were very few openly gay men or lesbians. Family members of a September
    murder victim publicly claimed that the perpetrator attacked the victim
    because the attacker believed the victim was a member of the LGBT
    community.

        Other Societal Violence or Discrimination.--The Government and the
    Dominica Planned Parenthood Association initiated programs designed to
    discourage discrimination against HIV/AIDS-infected persons and those
    living with them.

    Section 7. Worker Rights
        a. The Right of Association.--Workers exercised the legal right to
    organize and choose their representatives. Unions represented
    approximately 13 percent of the total workforce; approximately half of
    government workers were unionized, but less than 30 percent of private
    sector workers were unionized. The informal sector accounts for close
    to 50 percent of total employment, and workers in that sector are not
    unionized. There were six unions: the Public Service Union representing
    the public sector, the teachers union representing teachers in both
    public and private schools, and four competing unions for the private
    sector. There was no labor confederation. Prison guards and
    firefighters do not have a staff association or quasi-union, but the
    police welfare association functioned as a quasi-union.
        The law provides for the right to strike, and workers exercised
    this right in practice. However, emergency, port, electricity,
    telecommunications, and prison services, as well as banana, coconut,
    and citrus fruit cultivation industries, were deemed essential, which
    effectively prohibited workers in these sectors from going on strike.
    Nonetheless, in practice essential workers have gone on strike and did
    not suffer reprisals. The procedure for essential workers to strike is
    cumbersome, involving giving appropriate notice and submitting the
    grievance to the labor commissioner for possible mediation. Most such
    actions were resolved through mediation through the office of the labor
    commissioner.

        b. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively.--Unions have
    legally defined rights to organize workers and to bargain with
    employers. Workers exercised this right, particularly in the
    nonagricultural sectors of the economy, including in government
    service. Government mediation and arbitration were also available; few
    disputes escalated to industrial action. A company, a union
    representative, or an individual can request mediation by the Labor
    Commissioner's Office. In most cases the labor commissioner was able to
    resolve the matter. In the agricultural sector most workers were not
    unionized, as most agricultural work is performed on small family owned
    farms. With the collapse of the large-scale banana plantations, most
    agricultural workers no longer worked for larger plantations.
        The law provides that employers must reinstate workers who file a
    complaint of illegal dismissal, which can cover being fired for
    engaging in union activities or other grounds of dismissal, and
    employers generally did so in practice.
        There are no export processing zones.

        c. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor.--The law prohibits
    forced or compulsory labor, and there were no reports that such
    practices occurred.

        d. Prohibition of Child Labor and Minimum Age for Employment.--
    Although two laws prohibit employment of children, one law defines a
    ``child'' as under age 12 and the other as under age 14. The Government
    defined 15 years as the minimum age for employment and enforced this
    standard in principle; it was taking steps toward amending the laws.
    Education is compulsory until age 16, and most children attend school
    until that age. Children between the ages of 12 and 14 were allowed to
    work only in certain family enterprises such as farming. Safety
    standards limit the type of work, conditions, and hours of work for
    children over the age of 14. The Government effectively enforced these
    standards.

        e. Acceptable Conditions of Work.--The minimum wage law establishes
    a base wage of EC$5.00 (approximately $1.87) per hour for all public
    and private workers. The minimum wage was last updated in June 2008 and
    varies according to category of worker, with the lowest minimum wage
    set at EC$4.00 ($1.50), and the maximum at EC$5.50 ($2.06) per hour.
    The minimum wage did not provide a decent standard of living for a
    worker and family. However, most workers (including domestic employees)
    earned more than the legislated minimum wage as prevailing wages were
    much higher than statutory minimum wages. Enforcement was the
    responsibility of the labor commissioner.
        Labor laws provide that the labor commissioner may authorize the
    employment of a person with disabilities at a wage lower than the
    minimum rate to enable that person to be employed gainfully. In
    practice such persons were generally paid more than the minimum, and
    the labor commissioner had not authorized subminimum wages for the last
    few years.
        The standard legal workweek is 40 hours in five days. The law
    provides overtime pay for work above the standard workweek; however,
    excessive overtime is not prohibited. The Government effectively
    enforced these standards.
        The Employment Safety Act provides occupational health and safety
    regulations that are consistent with international standards.
    Inspectors from the Environmental Health Department of the Ministry of
    Health conducted health and safety surveys. Inspectors from the
    Department of Labor in the Ministry of National Security, Immigration,
    and Labor conducted inspections that prescribe specific compliance
    measures, impose fines, and can result in prosecution of offenders.
    Workers have the right to remove themselves from unsafe work
    environments without jeopardy to continued employment, and the
    authorities effectively enforced this right.

                                   __________

                               DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

        The Dominican Republic is a representative constitutional democracy
    with a population of approximately 9.7 million, plus an estimated
    900,000 to 1.2 million undocumented immigrants, mostly Haitians or
    their descendents living in the country. In 2008 voters elected
    President Leonel Fernandez of the Dominican Liberation Party (PLD) for
    a third term, and in 2010 elections the PLD and its allies won
    majorities in both chambers of Congress. Impartial outside observers
    assessed these elections as generally free and fair. There were
    instances in which elements of the security forces acted independently
    of civilian control.
        Serious human rights problems included unlawful killings; beatings
    and other abuse of suspects, detainees, and prisoners; fair to harsh
    prison conditions; arbitrary arrest and detention of suspects; a large
    number of functionally stateless persons; widespread corruption;
    harassment of certain human rights groups; violence and discrimination
    against women; child prostitution and other abuses of children;
    trafficking in persons; severe discrimination against Haitian migrants
    and their descendants; violence and discrimination against persons
    based on sexual orientation; ineffective enforcement of labor laws; and
    child labor.

                            RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

    Section 1. Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom
            From:
        a. Arbitrary or Unlawful Deprivation of Life.--The Government or
    its agents did not commit any politically motivated killings; however,
    there were numerous reports that security forces were involved in many
    killings that were unlawful, unwarranted, or involved excessive use of
    force.
        According to National Police statistics, police killed 268 persons
    in 32 jurisdictions in the course of duty from January to December, a
    decrease from 346 police killings reported in 2009 by the Attorney
    General's Office. However, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC),
    a nongovernmental organization (NGO), reported 478 police killings,
    although the methodology used to arrive at this figure was unclear.
    Lack of training, accountability, and inadequate supervision by
    superiors contributed to these police killings. Human rights NGOs
    asserted that, as in previous years, the police continued to employ
    unwarranted deadly force against criminal suspects. The National Police
    regularly justified the use of deadly force by claiming that the deaths
    occurred during an ``exchange of gunfire.'' This often did appear to be
    the case. According to the police, 43 officers died from January to
    June, although it was unclear if all died while on duty.
        On January 2, a police officer in La Romana killed 28-year-old
    Francis Gomez Alfonseca. According to witnesses, Gomez was driving in a
    traffic jam and asked a police officer to make room for him to pass;
    the police officer instead forcibly took one of his companions out of
    the car, threatened him, and then returned to shoot Gomez. Witnesses
    said that Gomez, who was not carrying a weapon, had asked the officer
    to explain the treatment of his companion.
        According to media reports, on February 13, members of the National
    Army and the Specialized Frontier Corps (CESFRONT) shot and killed two
    Haitians as they attempted to cross the border around the area of La
    Vig!a in Dajabon.
        On May 14, members of CESFRONT shot 28-year-old Pedro Daniel Feliz
    (Mello) of Barahona after he threw away more than two pounds of
    marijuana and attempted to run away from CESFRONT officers in
    Pedernales. CESFRONT Captain Rafael Montero Concepcion told the media
    that the soldier who shot Feliz was under investigation and added that
    the victim had a criminal record. Montero Concepcion also claimed that
    the victim had lunged at the soldier and tried to remove his weapon,
    but other witnesses disputed the captain's claim.
        On June 26, a police officer shot and killed 23-year-old Abraham
    Ramos Morel, a law student at the Autonomous University of Santo
    Domingo, when he failed to follow a policeman's order to stop in a dark
    area. Attorney General Radhames Jimenez Pena ordered an investigation
    of the case, and police officers Manuel de Jesus Martinez and Elvis
    Vinicio Montero were arrested. Authorities sent Martinez to prison as a
    ``preventive'' measure pending the investigation and fined Vinicio
    75,000 pesos (approximately $2,000), put him on probation, and ordered
    him not to leave the country pending the final outcome of the criminal
    investigation. On December 3, a judge referred the two accused police
    officers to a formal trial but did not set a trial date.
        On July 3, police officers shot and killed an 81-year-old man, Elio
    Reyes Severino, a passenger in a vehicle ordered to stop while driving
    between Santo Domingo and Samana. Afterwards, authorities arrested
    National Police Major Jose Estrella Fernandez, Second Lieutenant Carlos
    Alberto Peguero Ortiz, Sergeant Edwin Galvez Fernandez, and Sergeant
    Majors Richard Urbaez Gomez and Miguel Antonio Frias de Jesus and sent
    them to prison for three months as a preventive measure pending the
    final outcome of the criminal investigation into the shooting. The
    incident was one of a number of cases where police officers allegedly
    killed persons for not stopping their vehicles when asked to do so,
    which led an NGO and groups of transportation workers to start a
    campaign to raise awareness of police violence. Transportation workers
    and supporters wore T-shirts with the phrase ``Police, don't kill me, I
    will stop in a well-lit area.''
        On August 18, a Metropolitan Transit Authority officer shot and
    killed 26-year-old Juanito Jimenez Montero. The incident occurred
    during a confrontation between the transit police and a group of
    motorcycle taxis in Santo Domingo. Law enforcement arrested the
    officers involved and initiated an investigation. The Attorney
    General's Office also began an investigation of the case.
        On October 12, a 32-year-old student, Alfredo Gomez, was killed
    during a protest in the province of Moca. Gomez was killed during what
    the police term an ``exchange of gunfire'' between some protesters and
    law enforcement officials. At year's end police were carrying out an
    investigation.
        In April a judge sentenced police officers Pedro Antonio Cabrera
    Garc!a and Jes#s L zaro Cabrera Garc!a to 30 years in prison for the
    murder of Miguel Antonio Prestol Aquino, who was beaten to death by the
    officers in February 2009 in Santo Domingo East.
        There were no developments in the 2009 police killings of 19-year-
    old Jose Gomez Taveras; of two suspected kidnappers in Guayabin,
    Montecristo Province; of Lisandro Cuevas Ferreras; or of two persons
    killed during a demonstration in Santo Domingo.
        In March the Santo Domingo district court sentenced police Major
    Domingo Antonio Diaz Rodriguez and First Lieutenant Nicolas Martinez to
    30 years in prison and fined them 10 million pesos ($275,000) after
    finding them guilty of the 2008 murders of Nairobi Caminero de los
    Santos, Landri Bertan, and Jason Jeffrex Mena in Santo Domingo East.
        There was no information available about the police killing of
    three minors who were suspected in a store robbery, or in the case of a
    minor killed during a demonstration, or a 17-year-old killed while
    playing basketball near a demonstration, all during 2008.
        On a number of occasions reported in the media, citizens attacked
    and killed alleged criminals in vigilante-style reprisals for theft,
    robbery, or burglary. These incidents were attributed to an increase in
    crime and the inability of security forces to stem or combat these
    crimes. In August a mob chased, shot, and beat a man to death who
    allegedly attempted to steal a motorcycle in Barahona.
        Judicial authorities charged two men as accomplices in the
    vigilante killing of three Haitians near Jimani in October 2009, but no
    further information was available at year's end.

        b. Disappearance.--There were no reports of politically motivated
    disappearances.
        In October the human rights group ``Derechos Vigentes'' and family
    members accused the minister of the interior and the police of
    complicity in the September 2009 disappearance of Juan Almonte.
    Authorities denied the charges and considered Almonte to be a fugitive
    from justice since he was suspected of complicity in a 2009 kidnapping
    case.
        In response to a December 2009 request from the Inter-American
    Commission of Human Rights, the Public Ministry continued the
    investigation into the case of journalist Narciso Gonzalez, who
    disappeared in 1994 after allegedly criticizing the Government. The
    investigation remained open at year's end.

        c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or
    Punishment.--Although the law prohibits torture, beating, and physical
    abuse of detainees and prisoners, members of the security forces,
    primarily police, continued such practices. The Attorney General's
    Office reported that the police were involved in incidents that
    resulted in maiming or severely injuring unarmed civilians. However,
    improvements in oversight, awareness, and accountability led to a
    perception that the police were making efforts to reduce incidents of
    physical abuse of detainees. Nonetheless, there were also reports of
    use of excessive force against demonstrators and protesters by members
    of the security forces. Human rights organizations stated that
    uniformed vigilantism persisted on a nonlethal level.
        The law provides penalties for torture and physical abuse,
    including sentences from 10 to 15 years in prison. Civilian prosecutors
    sometimes filed charges against police and military officials alleging
    torture, physical abuse, and related crimes. Authorities sent abuse and
    torture cases to civilian criminal courts rather than police tribunals.
        Senior police officials treated the prohibition on torture and
    physical abuse seriously, but lack of supervision and training through
    much of the law enforcement and corrections systems undercut efforts to
    contain the problem. Although observers agreed that conditions improved
    somewhat due to an increase in professionally trained corrections
    officers, human rights groups and prisoners reported physical abuse of
    detainees, most commonly beatings. The National Human Rights Commission
    reported that the police continued to use different types of torture to
    obtain confessions from detained suspects, including beatings that left
    lifelong scars.
        On July 4, police shot Elvis Gutierrez. According to Gutierrez, he
    was driving with his wife and a friend around 1 a.m. when the police
    signaled him to stop. Instead of stopping in a poorly-lit area,
    Gutierrez kept driving and stopped in a better lit area. Police ordered
    him to step out of the car and to lay down face-front. As soon as he
    lay down, he was shot in his left leg.
        There were no developments, and none were expected, in the 2008
    beating of a missionary who refused to remove her clothing for
    examination at the Najayo prison.
        Lawyers from the National District prosecutor's office monitored
    the investigative process to ensure that detainees' rights were
    respected in high-volume police stations and in several National Drug
    Control Directorate (DNCD) offices. Assistant prosecutors at times
    reportedly acquiesced in improper police practices rather than
    insisting they be changed to conform to constitutional standards.

        Prison and Detention Center Conditions.--While prison conditions
    generally ranged from fair to extremely harsh, the Government made
    advances with newer ``model prisons'' known as Correctional and
    Rehabilitation Centers (CRCs) where prisoners experienced improved
    conditions in comparison with other facilities. The CRC program had 13
    model prisons, with more to come, based on the concept that most
    detainees will eventually return to their communities, and thus the
    CRCs should serve to prepare them for a second opportunity in life. The
    CRCs, which held 16 percent of all prisoners, strive to provide
    educational, labor, and artistic opportunities necessary to
    rehabilitate detainees in a setting of respect and discipline. In
    contrast to the traditional prisons, the model prisons were run
    entirely by trained civilian guards, were not overcrowded, and met the
    basic nutritional need of the inmates. According to the Director of
    Prisons, per capita expenditure for CRC prisoners was three times more
    than that spent in conventional prisons. However, this improvement for
    some prisoners came at the expense of others in the system, because
    when a facility was converted to a model prison, excess or dangerous
    inmates were transferred to other locations, increasing the strain on
    the already-overcrowded prison system.
        According to the Directorate of Prisons, there were 20,609
    prisoners and detainees, of which 552 were female, held in 40 prisons,
    with an intended capacity of 11,055. The new CRCs held 3,315 of these
    prisoners. Virtually all prisons, other than the CRCs, experienced
    extreme overcrowding. La Victoria prison, the largest in the country,
    held 5,309 prisoners in a facility designed for 2,000. The prison in
    Santiago Rodriguez was the most overcrowded prison, holding 135 inmates
    in a prison with an intended capacity of 23. Air circulation was a
    problem, and the danger of a fire outbreak was high.
        Reports of mistreatment and inmate violence in prisons were common,
    as were reports of harassment, extortion, and inappropriate searches of
    prison visitors. Health and sanitary conditions were poor, and some
    prisons effectively were out of the control of authorities and run by
    criminal gangs of armed inmates. In August the National Police accused
    three prisoners of killing inmate Jose Gabriel Arias Castillo, ``Alex
    el Pelotero,'' at La Victoria Prison in what was believed to have been
    a drug-related contract killing. A common sentiment among prison
    wardens at conventional prisons was that while the wardens may control
    the perimeter, inside the prison the inmates often made their own rules
    and had their own system of justice. In general this situation differed
    from the CRCs, where specialized prison guards increased control of
    prison areas. The attorney general, who oversaw the model prisons,
    reported that the incidence of corruption within the CRCs remained
    minimal.
        Most inmates in conventional prisons begged for or purchased food
    from persons in the vicinity of the prison or obtained it from family
    members. Prisoners were often not taken to their trials unless they
    paid bribes to the guards, and visitors often had to bribe prison
    guards in order to visit prisoners. Similarly, detainees had to pay
    bribes to be allowed to attend vocational training offered at some
    facilities. Prison officials accepted money in exchange for a
    recommendation that a prisoner be furloughed or released for health
    reasons. There were credible allegations that prisoners could obtain
    early release on parole for a bribe.
        Prisons often did not provide adequate medical care to inmates.
    According to the Directorate for the Control of Sexually Transmitted
    Diseases and HIV/AIDS, three prisons in the system provided HIV/AIDS
    treatment and care services as of June. A 2006 study reported that in
    four prisons in the country the rate of tuberculosis in prisoners was
    as high as 100 cases per 10,000 inmates compared with the general
    population, which the World Health Organization estimated to have 8.5
    cases per 10,000 persons. Prisoners with severe cases of AIDS or who
    had terminal illnesses were not transferred to hospitals.
        The National Directorate of Prisons reported 72 prisoner deaths
    during the year, 59 of which were due to natural causes. Four deaths
    resulted from inmate upon inmate violence; none of the deaths were
    attributed to guards. The majority of the deaths were related to
    various illnesses, including tuberculosis and AIDS.
        Although a warden who reports to the attorney general was
    technically responsible for running each prison, in practice police or
    military officers (generally appointed for a period of only three to
    six months and responsible for providing security) were usually in
    charge of most conventional prisons. Approximately 80 percent of prison
    guards were military or police officers rather than civilian
    correctional officers, who were employed exclusively at the CRCs.
        There were continued allegations of drug and arms trafficking,
    prostitution, and sexual abuse within the prisons. There continued to
    be special sections within prisons where police officers convicted of
    criminal activity, including a few known human rights abusers, were
    held.
        Female inmates generally were separated from male inmates. Half of
    all female inmates were held in prisons only for women, and two of the
    13 CRCs were female-only. Conditions in the prison wings for women
    generally were better than those in prison wings for men. During the
    year the Government began allowing female inmates conjugal visits.
    Those who gave birth while incarcerated were permitted to keep their
    babies with them up to a year.
        Juveniles were processed using specialized juvenile courts and,
    with increasingly rare exceptions, were held in one of seven juvenile
    facilities, although the press reported that some juveniles were being
    held in regular prisons.
        Although the law states that prisoners must be separated according
    to the severity of the criminal offense, in general authorities did not
    attempt to do so. Pretrial detainees were held together with convicted
    prisoners in most cases, although in the CRCs convicted felons were
    separated from those in preventive custody. The Directorate of Prisons
    estimated that 65 percent of the prisoners were in preventive custody,
    awaiting trial. This figure was difficult to verify, as many prisoners
    were considered to be in preventive custody after an initial conviction
    because they were awaiting an appeal. The law states that the pretrial
    waiting period should not exceed three months, but it can be extended
    up to 18 months in certain complex cases.
        There were also insufficient efforts to segregate and provide
    services to the mentally ill.
        Prisoners had access to visitors and were permitted religious
    observance. Prisoners could submit complaints about their treatment to
    district attorneys who made monthly prison visits for this purpose.
    Complaints were referred to the prison director and, if necessary, to
    the Directorate of Prisons.
        The Government permitted prison visits by independent human rights
    observers and the media, and such visits took place during the year.

        d. Arbitrary Arrest or Detention.--The criminal procedures code
    (CPC) prohibits detention without a warrant unless a suspect is
    apprehended during the commission of a criminal act or in other limited
    circumstances. By law authorities may detain a person without charges
    for up to 48 hours. However, arbitrary arrest and detention continued
    to be problems, and there were numerous reports of individuals held and
    later released with little or no explanation for the detention.

        Role of the Police and Security Apparatus.--The National Police,
    the National Department of Intelligence (DNI), the DNCD, the Airport
    Security Authority (CESA), the Port Security Authority (CESEP),
    CESFRONT, and the armed forces (army, air force, and navy) form the
    security forces. The Secretariat of Interior and Police is responsible
    for making policy decisions affecting the police force. The military,
    CESA, CESEP, and CESFRONT are under the minister of the armed forces;
    the DNI and the DNCD, which have personnel both from the police and
    military, report directly to the president.
        Police officers were fired or prosecuted through the criminal
    justice system when found to have acted outside of established police
    procedures. From January to October, authorities dismissed 157 members
    of the police force and referred 684 to the judicial system for
    prosecution.
        The Internal Affairs Unit effectively investigated charges of gross
    misconduct by members of the National Police. These cases involved
    physical or verbal aggression, death threats, improper use of a
    firearm, muggings, and theft. By December Internal Affairs had
    conducted 1,964 investigations that resulted in 157 dismissals and 805
    sanctions.
        Training for military and DNCD enlisted personnel and officers
    included instruction on human rights. The Military Institute of Human
    Rights offered diploma courses in human rights and regularly sent
    representatives to border units to conduct mandatory human rights
    training. The Ministry of the Armed Forces provided human rights
    training or orientation to 228 officers of various ranks as well as
    civilians during the year.

        Arrest Procedures and Treatment While in Detention.--Like its
    predecessor, the new constitution implemented in January provides that
    an accused person may be detained for up to 48 hours without a warrant
    before being presented to judicial authorities. It also provides for
    recourse to habeas corpus proceedings to request the release of those
    unlawfully held. The CPC establishes a more restrictive 24-hour time
    limit in which to make formal charges, which was generally observed.
    Any prisoner detained for more than 48 hours without being formally
    charged is entitled to file a motion of habeas corpus. The presiding
    judge at the habeas corpus hearing is empowered to order the prisoner's
    release when the prisoner has been detained for more than 48 hours
    without being formally charged or when there is insufficient evidence
    that the arrestee committed a crime that warrants further detention.
    The judge's decision to release a prisoner is subject to appeal by the
    district attorney.
        The law also permits police authorities to apprehend without an
    arrest warrant an accused person when the person is caught at the
    moment of committing a crime or could be reasonably linked to a crime
    (e.g., escaped from prison or detention facility, hot pursuit).
        Despite the foregoing provisions, at times the police detained
    suspects for investigation or interrogation longer than 48 hours.
    Police often detained all suspects and witnesses in a crime and used
    the investigative process to determine the individuals who were
    innocent and merited release and those whom they should continue to
    hold. Even so, successful habeas corpus hearings reduced these abuses
    significantly.
        Although previously granted only to a few defendants, bail became
    more common under the CPC, which requires judicial review of detentions
    at an earlier point in a criminal case, but the system proved
    inadequate to prevent defendants from going into hiding. In some cases
    observers suspected that the granting of bail and subsequent
    disappearance of the suspect were due to corruption or inefficiencies
    within the judicial system.
        The new constitution gives public defenders constitutional
    recognition, and the law requires provision of counsel to indigent
    defendants. However, most detainees and prisoners unable to afford
    defense services did not have prompt access to a lawyer. The National
    Office of Public Defense provided legal advice and representation to
    indigent persons, but resource constraints resulted in inadequate
    levels of staffing. Nationwide there were 19 public defense offices,
    with 171 public defenders, 21 part-time defense lawyers, and eight
    investigators. The Government continued its program to train public
    defenders on relevant changes caused by implementation of the CPC and
    expanded training for prosecutors.
        Police continued the practice, albeit less frequently than in
    previous years, of making sporadic sweeps or roundups in low-income,
    high-crime communities, during which they arrested and detained
    individuals without warrants, allegedly to fight delinquency. During
    these sweeps police arrested large numbers of residents and seized
    personal property allegedly used in criminal activity.
        Many suspects endured long pretrial detention. Under the CPC the
    judge has authority to order a detainee to remain in police custody
    between three months and one year. According to the Directorate of
    Prisons, average pretrial detention typically was between three and six
    months. Time served in pretrial detention counted toward completing a
    sentence. The Public Ministry continued implementing an automated case-
    tracking system that permitted prosecutors to adhere more effectively
    to pretrial detention regulations and thereby reduce the number of
    occasions when the CPC time limits were exceeded. This system covered
    15 of 32 district attorney offices.
        The law prohibits interrogation of juveniles by the police or in
    the presence of police. Prosecutors and judges handled juvenile
    interrogations.
        The failure of prison authorities to produce the accused for court
    hearings caused a significant percentage of trial postponements.
    Inmates often had their court dates postponed because they were not
    taken from prison to court or because their lawyer, codefendants, or
    witnesses did not appear. The Government did not provide funding to
    transport all defendants between prison and court. Despite additional
    protections for defendants in the CPC, in some cases the authorities
    continued to hold inmates beyond the mandated deadlines even though
    there were no formal charges against them.
        The judiciary has judicial service offices in La Vega, Santiago,
    Moca, and Puerta Plata. These offices allowed urgent matters in need of
    a judge (such as obtaining an arrest or search warrant and conducting
    arraignments) to be attended to 24 hours a day. These judicial service
    offices were part of an effort to increase efficiency and reorganize
    the courts so they operate in conformance with the CPC. This
    reorganization proceeded at a steady, if not rapid, pace.

        e. Denial of Fair Public Trial.--The law provides for an
    independent judiciary; however, despite increasing independence in the
    judiciary, instances of political influence in decision making were
    still evident. Interference by public entities, when it occurred,
    tended toward public pronouncements regarding active cases and
    selective prosecution, as opposed to direct intervention in existing
    cases. On occasion, however, it appeared that judges in superior courts
    attempted to influence lower-court decisions. In addition, corruption
    continued to be a serious problem (see section 4).
        The new constitution mandated the creation within one year of a
    Constitutional Court composed of 13 judges to review the
    constitutionality of laws and decrees. A Magistrate's Council selects
    Supreme Court and Constitutional Court justices based on factors such
    as general reputation and time in service, although the politicized
    composition of the council leaves open the possibility for appointments
    based on political loyalties. Lower-court judges are appointed
    following passage of rigorous entrance examinations, completion of a
    training program, and successful completion of an examination. Public
    defenders and public prosecutors were typically well qualified; their
    particular organizations required passage of objective examinations for
    employment.

        Trial Procedures.--The law provides for a presumption of innocence,
    the right of appeal, and the right to confront or question witnesses.
    The law establishes a citizen's right not to be deprived of liberty
    without trial or legal formalities or for reasons other than those
    provided by law, the right against self-incrimination, and the right to
    a defense in an impartial and public trial. Defendants have the right
    to remain silent. The law also provides for a public defense attorney
    for every person that cannot afford an attorney. Trials are public, but
    no juries are used. According to the constitution and the law
    defendants have the right to be present and consult with an attorney in
    a timely manner.
        There were credible allegations that authorities violated these
    rights in some cases, but there was improved adherence to due process
    as authorities became increasingly familiar with the modifications to
    the CPC. The district attorney's office must notify the defendant and
    attorney about the criminal charges as well as the evidence the
    district attorney's office will present in court. Defendants and
    attorneys have access to government-held evidence, but only after the
    preliminary hearing, when the indictment is approved by the judge.
        Military and police tribunals shared jurisdiction over cases
    involving members of the security forces. While the tribunals have
    jurisdiction over cases involving breaking internal rules and
    regulations, civilian criminal courts handled cases of killings and
    other serious crimes allegedly committed by members of the security
    forces.

        Political Prisoners and Detainees.--There were no reports of
    political prisoners or detainees.

        Civil Judicial Procedures and Remedies.--There are separate court
    systems for claims under criminal law, commercial and civil law, and
    labor law. Commercial and civil courts reportedly suffered lengthy
    delays in adjudicating cases, although their decisions were generally
    enforced. As in criminal courts, undue political or economic influence
    in civil court decisions remained a problem.
        Citizens had recourse to the remedy of amparo, an action to seek
    redress of any violation of a constitutional right, including
    violations by judicial officials. Although this remedy was rarely used
    except by those with sophisticated legal counsel, civil society and
    journalists sought amparo in some major cases during the year.

        f. Arbitrary Interference With Privacy, Family, Home, or
    Correspondence.--The law prohibits arbitrary entry into a private
    residence, except when police are in hot pursuit of a suspect or when a
    suspect is caught in the act of committing a crime. The law provides
    that all other entries into a private residence require an arrest
    warrant or search warrant issued by a judge. In practice, however, the
    police conducted illegal searches and seizures, including raids without
    warrants on private residences in many poor Santo Domingo
    neighborhoods.
        Although the Government denied using unauthorized wiretapping or
    other surreptitious methods to interfere with the private lives of
    individuals and families, human rights groups and opposition
    politicians alleged such interference continued.
        The NHRC reported several cases in which law enforcement officials
    punished family members for alleged crimes committed by individuals.
    The NGO reported that the mother of a 23-year-old man wanted for
    killing an individual was repeatedly abused and threatened by the
    police. The police allegedly took her to their headquarters, handcuffed
    her, leaving bruises on her arms, and threatened to have her fired from
    her job if her son did not surrender. In another instance, the NHRC
    reported that law enforcement repeatedly detained the brother of an
    alleged killer and handcuffed him, leaving bruises. The brother
    eventually was left alone after the alleged killer was found dead.

    Section 2. Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:
        a. Freedom of Speech and Press.--The law provides for freedom of
    speech and of the press, and the Government generally respected these
    rights in practice. Individuals or groups generally were able to
    criticize the Government publicly and privately without reprisal,
    although a national journalists' association reported threats against
    and physical intimidation of journalists. The new constitution provides
    complete protection of the confidentiality of journalists' sources and
    introduced a ``conscience clause'' allowing journalists to refuse
    assignments. Nonetheless, a journalists' association and a prominent
    television producer reported that self-censorship was becoming more
    common, particularly when coverage could adversely affect the economic
    or political interests of media owners.
        In March the Dominican Telecommunications Institute (INDOTEL) shut
    down Channel 53 in Santiago for broadcasting without the appropriate
    license the day after the producer used incendiary language against the
    president and his cabinet. Other sources, however, cited the use of
    obscene and often homophobic language on air as the reason for the
    station's closure. The station's owners sued INDOTEL for the necessary
    broadcast license, and the case was still in the court system at year's
    end.
        The National Journalists' Union reported that during the months
    prior to the May Congressional elections, other television channels
    also closed down or experienced interruptions in broadcasting due to
    political pressure. In other instances certain stations experienced
    broadcasting interruptions following reports critical of government
    officials and conflicts over selling broadcast time already reserved by
    other individuals to political parties.
        In June the media rallied around television investigative
    journalist Alicia Ortega after the director of the Dominican Agrarian
    Institute (IAD), Hector Rodriguez Pimentel, upset over Ortega's reports
    linking him to corruption, sent letters to 50 advertisers threatening
    to include them in suits for defamation if they continued to place
    commercials on Ortega's program. Minister of the Presidency Cesar Pina
    Toribio sought to distance the Government from Rodriguez's actions,
    insisting that Rodriguez was acting in his private capacity, even
    though he identified himself as IAD director in his letters to the
    advertisers. As the media outcry over threats to press freedom
    escalated, Rodriguez retracted his threat to sue the advertisers,
    although he reserved the right to sue Ortega and her television
    channel, Noticias SIN, if they continued what he characterized as a
    baseless ``slander'' campaign against him.
        Two of the country's leading investigative publications, the weekly
    newspaper Clave and its sister Internet publication Clave Digital,
    ceased operations on August 5. While Clave's publisher publicly stated
    that the closure was temporary and due to economic reasons, a
    communique signed by more than 200 members of the media implied that
    the media organs closed in response to pressure and threats following
    Clave's reporting on former police chief Rafael Guzman Fermin's alleged
    close connections to a Spanish narcotics trafficker. In the days prior
    to the closing of the publication, two gunmen shot and killed a man who
    looked like the Clave director in a park in Santo Domingo.
        In September a judge revoked a previous decision to exclude the
    press during sections of the high-profile narcotics money laundering
    trial of the narcotics trafficker Jose David Figueroa Agosta. The
    revocation came after the president of the Supreme Court made a public
    statement regarding the constitutional right to freedom of information
    and the need to maintain transparency in judicial processes.
        On January 12, police arrested Jaimi Antonio Flete, alleged
    mastermind of the 2008 Santiago killing of cameraman Normando Garcia.
    Authorities charged Flete with hiring two men to kill the cameraman and
    also charged them with murder.
        The National Journalists' Union reported that civil, police, and
    military authorities, criminals, and other persons assaulted or
    threatened 65 journalists during the year. In May the NGO Reporters
    Without Borders' evaluation of press freedom in the country cited a
    high index of violence, harassment, and abuse against news
    organizations and journalists but noted that physical attacks against
    the media declined. The Government did little to investigate the
    threats of violence or physical attacks on journalists.

        Internet Freedom.--There were no government restrictions on access
    to the Internet or reports that the Government monitored e-mail or
    Internet chat rooms. Individuals and groups could engage in the
    peaceful expression of views via the Internet, including by e-mail.
    Internet access was widely available, including wireless hotspots. Blog
    functions were also available on several local press sites that allowed
    strongly stated views against the Government and other powerful
    sectors. According to the International Telecommunication Union, there
    were 27 Internet users per 100 inhabitants in 2009.

        Academic Freedom and Cultural Events.--There were no government
    restrictions on academic freedom or cultural events.

        b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association.--Freedom of
    Assembly.--The law provides for freedom of assembly, but outdoor public
    marches and meetings require permits, which the Government usually
    granted. On several occasions, police officers used force to break up
    spontaneous demonstrations and killed or injured demonstrators or
    bystanders (see section 1.a.).

        Freedom of Association.--The law provides for freedom of
    association, and the Government generally respected this right in
    practice.

        c. Freedom of Religion.--For a complete description of religious
    freedom, please see the 2010 International Religious Freedom Report at
    www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf.

        d. Freedom of Movement, Internally Displaced Persons, Protection of
    Refugees, and Stateless Persons.--The law provides for freedom of
    movement within the country, foreign travel, emigration, and
    repatriation, and the Government generally respected these rights in
    practice; however, there were some exceptions. Local and international
    human rights groups reported that hundreds of thousands of persons
    without proper documentation, including Haitian migrants and other
    persons of Haitian descent, faced obstacles in traveling both within
    and outside of the country.
        Following the January 12 earthquake in Haiti, the president
    announced a moratorium on all deportations of Haitians living in the
    country. According to the Directorate of Migration (DGM), the policy
    remained in effect as of year's end. Although the Government claimed it
    no longer practiced mass deportation, such practices were still
    reported. According to the International Organization for Migration
    (IOM), the Government reduced the number of deportations of Haitians
    living outside the border region since the earthquake. The DGM reported
    3,185 Haitians expelled to Haiti during the year, although other
    reports from border crossing posts reflected a higher number. NGOs
    reported that in the majority of these cases, the Government's agents
    did not follow due process or internal basic human rights guidelines,
    despite the terms of a bilateral agreement with Haiti regarding
    repatriation of undocumented Haitians and express instructions from the
    director of migration to follow the guidelines. One NGO reported that
    seven children were repatriated in one roundup in Jimani in September.
        The law prohibits forced exile, and there were no reports of its
    use.

        Protection of Refugees.--The Government established a system for
    providing protection to refugees but has not implemented it
    effectively. An applicant for refugee status must be referred by the
    National Office of Refugees in the Migration Directorate to the
    Technical Subcommittee of the National Commission for Refugees, which
    is chaired by the Foreign Ministry. The subcommittee has the
    responsibility of making a recommendation to the commission, consisting
    of members from the Foreign Ministry, the DNI, and the Migration
    Directorate. The full commission has the responsibility for the final
    decision on the application but met only twice during the past 16
    years.
        As of December the Migration Directorate reported between 400 and
    500 asylum applications, nearly all made by Haitians. Some of these
    cases had been awaiting decision since 2000, but five cases were
    approved (three Russians, one Haitian, and one Guatemalan) in 2009, and
    15 new cases were filed during the year. According to NGOs, hundreds of
    other asylum seekers submitted claims that had not been processed,
    leaving those individuals in a state of legal limbo for years. Most of
    these individuals lacked documentation sufficient to obtain permission
    to work legally and to exercise other rights, such as obtaining
    documentation for their children.
        Although the Government provided some protection against the
    expulsion or return of persons to countries where their lives or
    freedom might be threatened on account of their race, religion,
    nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political
    opinion, there was still a risk of deportation. Protection generally
    applied to individuals who gained access to the refugee process and had
    been issued proof that they were refugees or had applications pending.
    The documents provided do not bestow significant legal rights,
    including residency, or prevent disruption of educational studies past
    eighth grade to children of refugees. Due to lack of training, these
    documents may not be recognized by all officials who might apprehend
    such a person.
        There were reports that children born to Haitian refugees--even
    those born to holders of migration documents--were routinely denied
    birth certificates as well as education, health, and security
    documentation.

        Stateless Persons.--The new constitution provides that anyone born
    in the country is a Dominican national, except children born to
    diplomats, children born to parents who are ``in transit,'' or children
    born to parents who are in the country illegally. The exception for
    children of parents illegally in the country is an addition to what the
    previous constitution provided and reflects a 2005 Supreme Court ruling
    that children born to parents who were in the country illegally did not
    qualify as citizens. Thus, even before implementation of the new
    constitution, children of illegal migrants were denied Dominican
    nationality. According to the UN Universal Periodic Review in 2009, the
    Government asserted that even children born of Haitian parents who were
    legal permanent residents in the Dominican Republic could not be
    registered as Dominican nationals because the Haitian government does
    not recognize dual nationality, and the Haitian constitution states
    that any child born to Haitian parents is a Haitian national. However,
    the new Dominican constitution does recognize dual nationality and
    would confer citizenship on children born to legal resident Haitians.
        Haitian consulates reported that they were legally authorized to
    register only those births that were declared within two years. Parents
    declaring a birth were required to submit valid forms of identification
    in order to file a claim. These requirements could not be met by a
    significant number of persons of Haitian descent in the country, and
    thus their children remained undocumented. Consequently, hundreds of
    thousands of Dominican-born persons of Haitian descent were
    functionally stateless. From January to October, the Haitian consulate
    in Santo Domingo registered 471 children. In 2009 the Government
    informed the UN Human Rights Council that an estimated 900,000 to 1.2
    million undocumented immigrants, mostly of Haitian descent, were in the
    country. The IOM estimated that following the January 12 earthquake,
    there was an influx of approximately 130,000 additional undocumented
    migrants. Street Action, a Santiago-based NGO that works with
    unaccompanied street children, reported that it had seen an increase in
    the percentage of children from Haiti in its caseload. In October the
    Director of Migration stated that approximately 200,000 more Haitians
    were living in the country illegally since the earthquake.
        Dominican-born persons of Haitian descent who lacked citizenship or
    identity documents faced obstacles in traveling both within and outside
    of the country. In addition undocumented persons cannot obtain the
    national identification card (cedula) or a voting card. Persons without
    a cedula had limited access to formal sector jobs, public education
    past the eighth grade, marriage and birth registration, formal economy
    services such as banks and loans, access to courts and judicial
    procedures, and ownership of land or property.
        Government officials continued to take strong measures against
    citizenship for persons of Haitian descent, including retroactive
    cancellation of birth and identity documents, many pertaining to
    persons of Haitian descent. The Government stated that such
    cancellations were based on evidence of fraudulent documentation, but
    advocacy groups alleged that the revocations targeted persons whose
    parents were Haitian or whose names sounded Haitian and that the number
    of revocations was in the thousands. As of March the Central Electoral
    Board (JCE) had provisionally revoked the birth certificates and
    cedulas of 126 children born to Haitian migrants and their children.
    Some of the births had been recorded decades ago, with several from the
    early 1970s. The JCE also cancelled 65 cedulas issued to foreign
    nationals on grounds of fraud, 12 of which were held by Haitians.
        In one case reported by the Jesuit Service for Refugees and
    Migrants (SJRM), the Civil Registry Office denied a 24-year-old woman
    with a Dominican passport and cedula a copy of her birth certificate.
    The registry placed her case in ``observation'' status, claiming that
    her parents' legal status at the time of her birth needed to be
    verified. That person cannot register for university without the copy
    of the birth certificate.
        In 2007 the JCE also created a registration system (the foreigner's
    book) that allowed children born in the country of parents who were not
    legal residents to receive a special birth certificate. Such children
    whose parents had documentation from their home country may be
    registered in the book, after which the parents would be given an
    official report of birth, which does not confer citizenship. Local and
    international NGOs reported that since implementation of the
    foreigner's book, hospitals and civil registries did not register
    numerous children of Haitian migrants and their descendents. An
    estimated 10,000 to 20,000 children are born to Haitian migrants and
    their descendants each year, but in October 2009 the JCE reported only
    631 children registered in the foreigner's book were of Haitian
    descent. NGOs reported that some Haitian parents who were in the
    country legally, and whose children were Dominican nationals under
    Dominican law, were required to register their children's births in the
    foreigner's book.

    Section 3. Respect for Political Rights: The Right of Citizens to
            Change Their Government
        The law provides citizens the right to change their government
    peacefully, and citizens exercised this right in practice through
    periodic, free, and fair elections held on the basis of nearly
    universal suffrage. Active-duty police and military personnel may not
    vote or participate in partisan political activity.

        Elections and Political Participation.--In May 2008 PLD candidate
    Leonel Fernandez won the presidency in an election described as
    generally free and fair by the Organization of American States, other
    independent observers, and the Government electoral board. Observers
    also described the May congressional and municipal elections as
    generally free and fair.
        By law parties must reserve for women 33 percent of positions on
    their lists of candidates for the House of Representatives and city
    councils; in practice the parties often placed women low on the lists.
    There were four women in the 32-member Senate, 38 women in the 178-
    member House of Representatives, two women in the cabinet, and five
    women on the 16-seat Supreme Court. The law requires each party's
    candidates for mayor and deputy mayor to be of different genders, and
    there were 12 female mayors and 145 female deputy mayors.

    Section 4. Official Corruption and Government Transparency
        The law provides criminal penalties for official corruption;
    however, the Government did not implement the law effectively, and
    administration officials who engaged in corrupt practices were not
    prosecuted, although some were removed from office and others were
    submitted to the Office for the Prosecution of Corruption for
    investigation. The World Bank's worldwide governance indicators
    continued to reflect that government corruption was a serious problem,
    and the World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness report also listed
    corruption as the most problematic factor for doing business in the
    country.
        On October 20, the Participative Anti-Corruption Initiative (IPAC)
    presented 30 recommendations to combat corruption to the president and
    other officials, various NGOs, and the media. These recommendations-
    developed by government officials, civil society representatives and
    the donor community and covering a variety of issues such as government
    procurement transparency, energy, and water-were the fruits of the IPAC
    process, which was born of the president's 2009 request to the
    international community for help in dealing with the ``perception'' of
    corruption in the country. President Fernandez welcomed the
    recommendations but provided no timelines for implementation and
    downplayed the extent of corruption in the country.
        Government officials continued to be reluctant to investigate
    seriously and prepare for trial cases involving senior government
    officials of either the current or former government. The attorney
    general concluded six corruption cases against lower and mid-level
    officials, either by conviction or acquittal, the same number as was
    reported in 2009.
        On many occasions police officials attempted to solicit bribes from
    individuals facing arrest or imposition of fines. Local human rights
    observers reported on a few occasions that immigration and police
    authorities rounded up undocumented construction workers and other
    manual laborers of Haitian origin or descent to extort money from them.
    NGOs alleged corruption among the military and migration officials
    stationed at border posts and checkpoints and noted that these
    officials were often complicit in the illegal transit of Haitian
    workers into the country. The SJRM and the coordinator for the National
    Migration Roundtable reported that an undocumented migrant paid an
    average cost of 3,000 to 5,000 pesos ($82 to $137) to be transported
    from Jimani, the largest border post, to Santo Domingo. The SJRM report
    stated that transporters paid an average bribe of 100 pesos ($2.70) per
    person at each of the 16 checkpoints from Jimani to the capital.
        Although the newly constituted Court of Accounts submitted a number
    of audit reports to Congress with significant findings of misuse of
    public funds and lack of proper procedures, there were no known follow-
    up measures or sanctions taken. The use of nonjudicial sanctions
    continued. These measures included the dismissal or transfer of armed
    forces members, police officers, judges, and other minor government
    officials engaged in bribe taking and other corrupt behavior. Society's
    widespread attitude of tolerance toward at least some forms of
    corruption complicated the effort to reduce corruption.
        The Commission for Ethics and Combating Corruption continued to
    operate, although with minimal practical results as it lacked well-
    defined authorities and decision-making structures.
        In September 2009 the Supreme Court approved a change of venue for
    the prosecution of several naval officers and a former police officer
    in Bani for their alleged involvement in killing seven supposed drug
    traffickers after some of the accused threatened prosecutors and
    judges. On December 3, three judges sentenced 16 of the 22 suspects in
    the case to prison terms and acquitted six defendants for lack of
    evidence. Seven of the 16 convicted, including five former members of
    the Navy, were sentenced to 30 years' imprisonment, while four others,
    including a former sailor, will be in jail for 20 years. The only woman
    involved was sentenced to 10 years in prison. A number of those
    convicted were also ordered to pay fines of 50,000 pesos ($1,350). Some
    of those convicted announced they would appeal.
        The law requires that the president and vice president, members of
    Congress, some agency heads, and other officials such as mayors and
    council members, as well as income tax and customs duty collectors,
    make declarations of their personal and real property within a month of
    being hired, as well as when they ``end their responsibilities.'' The
    new constitution further requires public officials not only to declare
    their property but also to explain its provenance. The Department of
    Prosecution of Corruption, an office within the Public Ministry, is in
    charge of reviewing these declarations. Although the press reported a
    number of incidents in which newly elected members of congress and
    other government officials did not comply with these disclosure
    requirements, according to the department, government officials
    generally complied with the law. Any benefits of previous disclosures
    were unclear, since government officials were not then required to
    explain the sources of their property.
        The new constitution provides for public access to government
    information. The law places limits on the availability of such
    information only under specified circumstances (such as to protect
    national security). It also provided for penalties of up two years in
    prison and a five-year ban from positions of public trust for
    government officials who obstruct access to public information. A court
    may review the decision of an agency to deny access to information.
    While often timely, responses were also often incomplete, and the
    Government rejected subsequent requests. Moreover, there was little
    consistency in the determination of what was considered public
    information and what was not. In a 2009 report, Citizen Participation,
    an NGO focused on increasing civil society participation in the
    political process, found that overall government compliance with the
    freedom of information law was low. However, certain government
    institutions, including the Attorney General's Office, were an
    exception to the general trend and displayed a high degree of
    transparency.

    Section 5. Governmental Attitude Regarding International and
            Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations of Human
            Rights
        A number of domestic and international human rights groups
    generally operated without government restriction, investigating and
    publishing their findings on human rights cases. While government
    officials generally were cooperative and responsive to their views,
    human rights groups who advocated for the rights of Haitians and
    persons of Haitian descent were an important exception and faced
    occasional government harassment and threats.
        Principal domestic NGOs included the Dominican Human Rights
    Committee, the National Human Rights Commission, and the Santo Domingo
    Institute of Human Rights. There were also several smaller secular and
    religious organizations that addressed women's rights, labor issues,
    and the rights of Haitians and their descendants in the country.
        The new constitution establishes the position of ombudsman,
    although the Government never implemented a 2001 law mandating the
    creation of a human rights ombudsman's office. The ombudsman's
    functions as outlined in the constitution are to safeguard the
    fundamental human rights of persons and to protect collective interests
    established in the constitution and the law.

    Section 6. Discrimination, Societal Abuses, and Trafficking in Persons
        Although the new constitution prohibits discrimination based on
    race, gender, disability, language, and social status, such
    discrimination existed, and the Government seldom acknowledged its
    existence or made efforts to combat it.

        Women.--Rape was a serious and widely underreported problem. The
    law provides penalties for rape of from 10 to 15 years in prison (or 10
    to 20 years in case of rape of a vulnerable person, a child, or if
    occurred under other egregious circumstances) and a fine of 100,000 to
    200,000 pesos (approximately $2,770 to $5,540). The state may prosecute
    a suspect for rape even if the victim does not file charges, and rape
    victims may press charges against spouses. Victims often did not report
    cases of rape because of fear of social stigma, as well as the
    perception that the police and the judiciary would fail to provide
    redress. Police were reluctant to handle rape cases and often
    encouraged victims to seek assistance from NGOs.
        According to the Third International Report on Partner Violence
    against Women, published by the Queen Sofia Center, the country had a
    high number of killings of women related to domestic violence,
    approximately 22 out of every million women. Despite some government
    efforts to improve the situation, violence against women continued to
    be common and increased during the year. Under the Law against Domestic
    Violence, the state can prosecute rape, incest, sexual aggression, and
    other forms of domestic violence. Penalties for these crimes range from
    one to 30 years in prison and fines from 700 to 245,000 pesos
    (approximately $20 to $6,800). A local NGO estimated that 20 percent of
    women between the ages of 15 and 49 had been victims of physical abuse
    at some point in their lives. Between January and June, the Attorney
    General's Office reported 57 women killed as a result of domestic
    violence. In December two women's rights organizations, the Women's
    Forum and the Movement for a Life without Violence, reported 150 women
    killed as a result of domestic violence.
        The district attorney of Santo Domingo in the National District,
    which includes approximately 10 percent of the country's population,
    had a specialized Violence Prevention and Attention Unit with 14
    satellite offices around the city. At these offices victims of violence
    could file criminal complaints, obtain free legal counsel, and receive
    psychological and medical attention. Police were instructed to forward
    all domestic violence and sexual assault cases to these offices. Each
    office had professional psychologists on staff to counsel victims of
    violence and to assess the threat of impending danger associated with a
    complaint. These offices had the authority to issue temporary
    restraining orders immediately after receiving complaints and to serve
    as messengers for the victims, which prevented contact between the
    victim and the abuser.
        As of December, 7,114 complaints had been made to the Violence
    Prevention and Attention Unit. The cases reported were either settled
    through mediation, remained in investigation, or were taken to court.
        The National Directorate for Assistance to Victims coordinated
    efforts of official and nongovernmental institutions that offer
    services to victims of violence. It had three offices in Santo Domingo
    and two others elsewhere. These offices not only accepted criminal
    complaints from victims of violence throughout the country but also
    provided counseling and protection services and, when necessary,
    referrals to medical or psychological specialists. The Attorney
    General's Office, the Secretariat of Women, and various NGOs conducted
    outreach and training programs on domestic violence and legal rights.
    Additionally, the Attorney General's Office established a public
    information campaign against sexual and labor exploitation and launched
    a national hotline for prevention and victim assistance.
        The Secretariat of Women also operated two shelters for victims of
    domestic violence in undisclosed locations, where abuse victims could
    make a report to the police and receive counseling.
        Sex tourism existed throughout the country, particularly in Las
    Terrenas, Cabarete, Sosua, and Boca Chica. NGOs conducted programs
    about it for hotel and industrial zone workers, male and female
    prostitutes, and other high-risk groups.
        Sexual harassment in the workplace is a misdemeanor and carries a
    possible penalty of one year in prison and a fine of up to 10,000 pesos
    (approximately $277); however, union leaders reported that the law was
    not enforced, and sexual harassment remained a problem.
        Reproductive rights generally were respected. While contraceptives
    were freely available, many low-income women used contraceptives
    inconsistently due to both irregular availability of contraceptives
    from public agencies as well as social and religious bias against
    family planning. The Population Reference Bureau reported a 73 percent
    rate of some method of contraceptive use among married women. Maternal
    mortality remained high (estimated at 100 deaths per 100,000 live
    births in 2008 UN data), yet 98 percent of deliveries took place in
    hospital settings. Despite the high percentage of institutional
    deliveries, there were groups of women with limited access to qualified
    care. Such is the case of the border province of Elias Pina where,
    according to a 2007 survey, 14 percent of the deliveries took place at
    home.
        Most maternal and neonatal deaths were due to poor quality of care
    and failure to adhere to standards norms and protocols, resulting in
    mismanagement of both normal and complicated deliveries. Most women had
    access to some postnatal care although the lack of postnatal care was
    higher among young, uneducated women and those in the lowest economic
    quintiles. In some poor provinces such as Pedernales, 29 percent of
    women received no postnatal care. Access to diagnostic services and
    treatment of sexually transmitted diseases was limited by technical,
    financial, and management issues, which equally affected both men and
    women. Approximately 15,500 persons with HIV/AIDS--the majority of whom
    were women--had access to antiretroviral treatment.
        Although the law provides that women have the same legal status as
    men, in practice women experienced discrimination. Women did not enjoy
    social and economic status or opportunity equal to those of men, and
    men held most leadership positions in all sectors. In many instances
    women received less pay than men in jobs of equal content and requiring
    equal skills. Some employers reportedly gave pregnancy tests to women
    before hiring them, as part of a required medical examination. Although
    it is illegal to discriminate based on such tests, NGO leaders reported
    that pregnant women often were not hired and that female employees who
    became pregnant sometimes were fired. There were no effective
    government programs to combat economic discrimination against women.

        Children.--Citizenship is acquired by birth in the country, except
    children born to diplomats, to those who are ``in transit,'' or to
    parents who are illegally in the country (see section 2.d.). A child
    not registered at birth is undocumented until a late declaration is
    made, and there were limitations on late declarations. The most recent
    report by the NGO Profamilia and the UN Children's Fund indicated that
    13 percent of children under 15 were not registered. Undocumented
    children, particularly those of Haitian descent, faced challenges in
    accessing primary public education.
        Abuse of children, including physical, sexual, and psychological
    abuse, was a serious problem. The Attorney General's Office has a
    special Children and Adolescent's Unit, which maintains a hotline where
    persons may call in to report cases of child abuse. The hotline
    received about 30 calls a month. As of September, 1,888 complaints had
    been filed in the National District, which primarily represents the
    capital city of Santo Domingo. Of these, more than half were awaiting a
    court appointment. Few such cases reached the courts, due to fear of
    family embarrassment, lack of economic resources, or lack of knowledge
    regarding available legal assistance. The Santo Domingo district
    attorney's office reported that in most abuse cases, the accused was a
    person close to the child, such as a family member or close family
    friend. The law provides for removal of a mistreated child to a
    protective environment.
        Local observers believed that instances of child abuse were
    underreported because of the widespread belief that such problems
    should be dealt with inside the family. The law contains provisions
    concerning child abuse, including physical and emotional mistreatment,
    sexual exploitation, and child labor. The law provides penalties of
    between two and five years' incarceration and a fine of three to five
    times the monthly minimum wage for persons found guilty of abuse of a
    minor. The penalty is doubled if the abuse is related to trafficking.
        The law covers statutory rape, and the age of consent is 18.
    Penalties for statutory rape are 10 to 20 years in prison and a fine of
    100,000 to 200,000 pesos ($2,778 to $5, 556) if rape is committed
    against a child or adolescent. The law also contains specific
    provisions that prohibit child pornography and child prostitution,
    prescribing penalties for sexual abuse of children of 20 to 30 years'
    imprisonment and fines from 100 to 150 times the minimum wage.
        The Government's National Directorate for Assistance to Victims
    coordinated efforts of official and nongovernmental organizations to
    assist children who were victims of violence and abuse.
        Trafficking, sexual exploitation of children, and child sex tourism
    remained serious problems, particularly in major urban areas and
    popular tourist destinations. Child prostitution often was based on
    economic need, and the Government conducted several programs to combat
    the sexual exploitation of minors, including notices in airports and
    targeted programs in popular tourist locations.
        The Ministry of Labor continued a program to combat the commercial
    sexual exploitation of minors in popular tourist destinations such as
    Boca Chica, Sosua, and Las Terrenas. These programs provided
    psychological support and medical assistance, returned children to
    classrooms, and reunited children with their families and communities
    whenever possible. The programs also provided legal assistance to child
    victims and their families to arrest and convict exploiters.
        The Government is a party to the 1980 Hague Convention on
    International Child Abduction. For information on international
    parental child abduction, please see the Department of State's annual
    report on compliance at http://travel.state.gov/abduction/resources/
    congressreport/congressreport--4308.html.

        Anti-Semitism.--The Jewish community was very small, about 300
    persons, and there were no reports of anti-Semitic acts.

        Trafficking in Persons.--For information on trafficking in persons,
    please see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons
    Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        Persons With Disabilities.--Although the law prohibits
    discrimination against persons with disabilities, these individuals
    encountered discrimination in employment and in obtaining other
    services. The law provides for physical access for persons with
    disabilities to all new public and private buildings, but the
    authorities did not enforce this provision. The Dominican Association
    for Rehabilitation, which had 23 branches around the country, received
    a large subsidy from the Secretariat of Public Health and from the
    Presidency to provide rehabilitation assistance to persons with
    physical and learning disabilities. The association cited the lack of
    accessible public transportation for persons with disabilities as a
    major impediment. The 2000 disability law states that the Government
    should ensure that people with disabilities have access to the labor
    market and cultural, recreational, and religious activities.
        Discrimination against persons with mental illness was common
    across all public and private sectors, and there were few resources
    dedicated to the mentally ill.

        National/Racial/Ethnic Minorities.--There was significant evidence
    of racial prejudice and discrimination against persons of dark
    complexion, but the Government denied that such prejudice or
    discrimination existed and, consequently, did little to address the
    problem.
        There were also strong prejudices against Haitians, which
    disadvantaged many Haitians and Dominicans of Haitian ancestry, as well
    as other foreigners of dark complexion. Few government officials
    acknowledged the existence of this discrimination; others regularly and
    publicly denied that it existed.
        Local NGOs reported incidents where darker-skinned persons were
    denied access or services in banks, service in restaurants and stores,
    entry into nightclubs, enrollment in private schools, and birth
    registration in hospitals. In a 2007 report, the UN special rapporteurs
    for racism and the rights of minorities urged authorities to recognize
    the existence of racism and discrimination against minorities, adopt a
    national action plan to address the problem, revise a JCE rule that
    resulted in revocation of identity documents for Haitians, and cease
    mass repatriations of Haitians. Government officials responded to the
    report with a denial that racism existed in the country, referencing
    comments that the country was a mulatto community. The Government's
    2009 UN Universal Periodic Review report asserted that the JCE rule
    focused on fraud and that Haitians in the country could receive their
    identity documents in Haiti. The Government also claimed there were no
    grounds to state that black Dominicans were being repatriated to Haiti
    and noted that authorities suspended repatriations on Fridays to
    prevent employers from using this as a tool to avoid paying laborers
    for the week's work.
        Haitians continued to immigrate to the country in search of
    economic opportunity and relief, especially following the January
    earthquake. According to the Directorate of Migration, there was no
    repatriation or deportation of Haitians since the earthquake in
    accordance with the president's policy to halt them in the aftermath of
    the crisis. However, the directorate continued to carry out
    devoluciones or ``returns'' of undocumented Haitians to Haiti.
    Officials claimed that these removals should not be considered
    repatriations or deportations, although the distinction between the two
    was unclear. Some of those removed from the country reported that they
    were denied the opportunity to demonstrate that they were legal
    residents, to make arrangements for their families or property, or to
    express a credible fear of persecution or torture if returned to Haiti.
    NGOs reported that migration officials and security forces sometimes
    confiscated and destroyed expellees' residency documents and passports
    despite standing government orders to respect the human rights of the
    expellees. In some cases expellees with appropriate legal documents
    received permission to return.
        Some Haitian immigrants and others lived in shantytowns or
    sugarcane work camps known as bateyes. As in many poor areas in other
    parts of the country, these were harsh environments with limited or no
    electricity, running water, sanitary facilities, or adequate schooling.
    In many bateyes medical assistance either was rudimentary or not
    readily available, and clean water was rarely available. Many batey
    residents, lacking documentation, felt they had little choice but to
    remain in their communities, where they felt relatively safe from the
    risks of deportation and harassment that existed elsewhere in the
    country.
        Private enterprises in the sugar sector continued to make
    improvements at their facilities, a process that began in 2007,
    including new schools and both new and renovated housing. In Nuevo
    Cayacoa, more than 40 families were living in the new facilities, and
    the school enrolled 325 students from the batey and neighboring areas.
    The community also had a clinic where batey workers and their families
    received medical care from a doctor. A neighboring batey located at the
    area where the sugarcane is processed had a school with 620 students
    from bateyes and the bordering neighborhoods.
        During the year there were reports of vigilante violence (see
    section 1.a.).

        Societal Abuses, Discrimination, and Acts of Violence Based on
    Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.--Treatment of lesbian, gay,
    bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals ranged from ambivalent
    tolerance to staunch homophobia. While no law criminalizes
    homosexuality, members of the LGBT community continued to be
    discriminated against in all areas of society, including health,
    education, and work, since no law protects individuals against
    discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
    Transgender individuals were particularly at risk of being victims of
    violence.
        NGOs reported widespread social discrimination against persons
    based on sexual orientation. Numerous credible reports indicated
    members of the LGBT community were expelled from public school,
    arrested without reason, fired from work, or denied access to rent or
    own homes.
        Gay and lesbian persons faced physical attacks, intimidation,
    harassment, and threats of violence. NGOs reported that these groups
    were reluctant to file charges or complain to authorities due to fear
    of reprisal or humiliation. Several killings during the year were
    linked to the victims' sexual orientation.
        On March 30, Ramon de Jesus Crisostomo de Leon (``Monchina''), a
    transgender sex worker, was killed. On May 11, authorities arrested a
    suspect, who later confessed to the crime, claiming he was the victim
    of deception since he thought Crisostomo was ``a woman and not a
    transsexual person.''
        On July 1, three male clients allegedly stabbed and killed Daniel
    Corporan Suero (``Arenita''), a 22-year-old transgender sex worker in
    Santo Domingo.
        Several LGBT advocates confirmed reports that authorities denied
    members of the LGBT community the right to congregate in public spaces,
    specifically Duarte Park, a traditional LGBT gathering place in Santo
    Domingo's Colonial Zone. On April 6, the newspaper Listin Diario ran
    several articles citing concerns by Catholic Cardinal Nicolas de Jesus
    Lopez Rodriguez regarding the ``vulgarities'' carried out by couples of
    the same sex late at night. Additionally, some members of the local
    neighborhood association complained of sexual exhibitionism by gays,
    lesbians, and heterosexuals alike and charged that the LGBT community
    in particular was not respectful of morality and tradition. The
    Cardinal's concerns led the National Police to increase the number of
    police patrolling the area. The inability to freely associate and
    gather in Duarte Park became a point of contention between government
    authorities and members of the LGBT community, who claimed they are the
    victims of police harassment whenever they gather in public places.
        Since the first gay pride celebration in 2001, authorities rejected
    or delayed all other permission requests by gay and lesbian
    organizations. Activists reported that these organizations substituted
    marches and concentrations by small informal gatherings in recreational
    spaces, activities that do not require any type of permission from
    authorities.

        Other Societal Violence or Discrimination.--Persons with HIV/AIDS
    faced discrimination in the workplace and elsewhere. According to the
    UN agency UNAIDS, an estimated 52,000 to 71,000 persons were infected
    with the disease. A study by the Network of Persons Living with HIV,
    Profamilia, and Alianza Solidaria revealed that, among the sample of
    persons living with HIV who were interviewed, 62 percent reported being
    the subject of gossip, 30 percent were the victims of verbal
    aggression, 27 percent were the victims of verbal threats, and 14
    percent were victims of attacks or physical threats.
        According to Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, workers
    in many industries faced obligatory HIV testing in the workplace or
    when seeking medical care or medical insurance. Many workers or
    patients found to have the disease were not hired or were fired from
    their jobs or denied adequate health care. Although the law prohibits
    the use of HIV testing to screen employees or for medical services
    unrelated to the disease, there were no known instances where this was
    enforced, despite reports that official complaints had been filed.

    Section 7. Worker Rights
        a. The Right of Association.--The law provides for the freedom to
    organize labor unions; all workers, except the military and the police,
    were free to form and join unions of their choice. There were some
    restrictions placed on civil servants for union formation; 40 percent
    of civil servant employees must agree to join the union in a given
    government entity for it to be formed. Organized labor represented an
    estimated 8 percent of the work force. Although the law requires that
    unions be registered by the Ministry of Labor in order to be legal, it
    provides for automatic recognition of a union if the ministry has not
    acted on the application within 30 days.
        The law allows unions to conduct their activities without
    government interference. In June the National Council of United Unions
    (CNUS), one of the largest confederations, brought a complaint against
    the Government before the International Labor Organization (ILO) for
    obstructing the right to unionize and to register unions in companies.
    CNUS accused the Labor Ministry's national director of labor of
    obstructing the registration of unions in major companies, including
    Barrick Gold. CNUS claimed that the director was blocking the formation
    of unions by rejecting their registration applications and delaying
    approvals. The Ministry of Labor argued that the only reason unions
    were not allowed to register was because of their lack of compliance
    with (unspecified) ILO regulations. Following the filing of the ILO
    complaint, the ministry approved the Workers Union of the Barrick Gold
    Company and other unions whose registrations had previously been
    rejected. The complaint is scheduled to be reviewed by the ILO at the
    next International Labor Conference scheduled for June 2011.
        A few labor unions represented a small number of Haitian workers,
    who are covered by the labor code regardless of legal status. Persons
    who join unions must have documentation, but enforcement of
    documentation rules for union members was lax allowing some
    undocumented Haitians to participate in practice. Various NGOs
    continued to report that many Haitian laborers and Dominicans of
    Haitian descent in the agricultural and construction industries did not
    exercise their rights, fearing firing or deportation.
        The law provides for the right of most workers to strike but
    includes a number of requirements for the strike to be legal, and
    formal strikes were not common. Formal requirements for a strike
    include the support of an absolute majority of all company workers
    whether unionized or not, a prior attempt to resolve the conflict
    through mediation, written notification to the Ministry of Labor, and a
    10-day waiting period following notification before proceeding with the
    strike.
        All government workers and essential public service personnel are
    not allowed to strike. The labor code defines essential public service
    personnel as those working in communications, water supply, gas and
    electricity supply for domestic and street lighting, and hospital
    pharmacists. The Ministry of Labor offered a worker-employer
    conciliation process in an effort to provide due process to protect
    workers' rights.

        b. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively.--The law
    protects the right of private sector employees to organize and bargain
    collectively. While the law requires that collective bargaining be used
    in firms in which a union has gained the support of an absolute
    majority of the workers, it does not allow for collective bargaining
    unless a trade union represents an absolute majority of the workers.
    The ILO considered this requirement to be excessive and an impediment
    to collective bargaining. Few companies had collective bargaining
    pacts, partly because companies created obstacles to union formation
    and could afford to go through lengthy judicial processes that nascent
    unions could not afford.
        The ILO noted that the law did not specifically address the right
    to collective bargaining of public servants not engaged in the
    administration of the state. Public sector workers are allowed to form
    associations registered through the Office of Public Administration,
    not the Ministry of Labor.
        The law establishes a system of labor courts for dealing with
    disputes. This process was often long, with cases remaining pending for
    several years. Although the Government stated that there have been some
    improvements in this process, unions noted that the process remained
    long. In smaller municipalities the system can be shorter, taking about
    one year, but in the more populated cities, including Santiago and
    Santo Domingo, the process continued to take several years. The most
    recent study by the Foundation for Institutionalism and Justice, a
    local NGO, showed that the average case resolution time was 15.3 months
    in courts of first instance and 16.4 months in appeals court. Various
    NGOs reported that companies took advantage of the slow and ineffective
    legal system to appeal cases, which left workers without labor rights
    protection in the interim.
        Public officials reported that the ministry's nonbinding
    conciliation process, involving 37 mediators in eight locations, was
    the most effective method for resolving worker-company disputes though
    other sources reported that the conciliation process's effectiveness
    has diminished in the past two years.
        The law forbidding companies from firing union organizers or
    members was enforced inconsistently, and penalties were insufficient to
    deter employers from violating worker rights. Some NGOs continued to
    report that workers who tried to form unions were routinely fired.
    There were reports of harassment and intimidation by employers in an
    effort to prevent union activity, especially in the free trade zones
    (FTZs). The Dominican Federation of Free Trade Zone Workers
    (FEDOTRAZONAS) noted incidents of antiunion activity at Gildan Active
    Wear, Kola Real, Barrick Gold, Universal Aloe, and Peruvia Motors.
    FEDOTRAZONAS complained that the management of these companies or their
    subcontractors conducted public antiunion campaigns, which included
    threats to fire union members, and engaged in activities to forestall
    attainment of union membership sufficient to establish collective
    bargaining rights under the labor code.
        According to the National Labor Force survey completed by the
    Central Bank, about 56 percent of the workforce is in the informal
    sector. In view of the scarcity of formal sector employment, the fear
    of reprisal greatly limited worker ability to freely associate. Workers
    were often asked to sign documents agreeing not to participate in union
    activities. Companies often created and supported ``yellow'' or
    company-backed unions to counter free and democratic unions. In
    addition the use of short-term contracts and subcontracting was
    increasing--often making union organizing and collective bargaining
    more difficult.
        There were no new developments in the Ministry of Labor's 2008
    investigation of labor rights violations--including discrimination
    against union members, forced overtime, and minimum wage violations--
    reportedly committed by an agricultural export company in the north of
    the country. FEDOTRAZONAS reported that the company continued to
    discriminate openly against its members during the year.
        The labor code applies in the 57 established FTZs, which employed
    approximately 115,000 workers. According to the National Council of
    Labor Unions, unions were active in only 12 or 13 businesses out of
    approximately 200 companies in the FTZs, and only four unions had
    established collective bargaining rights. Workplace regulations and
    their enforcement in the FTZs did not differ from those in the country
    at large. Working conditions were reportedly sometimes better, and the
    pay in the FTZs was occasionally higher than in the public or
    agricultural sectors. At the same time, mandatory overtime was a common
    practice.
        There were reports of widespread covert intimidation by employers
    in the FTZs to prevent union activity, as well as reports of firing of
    workers for union activity and blacklisting of trade unionists. Unions
    in the FTZs reported that their members hesitated to discuss union
    activity at work, even during break time, for fear of losing their
    jobs. Unions accused some FTZ companies of discharging workers who
    attempted to organize unions. The majority of the unions in the FTZs
    were affiliated with the National Federation of Free Trade Zone Workers
    or with FEDOTRAZONAS. FEDOTRAZONAS estimated that fewer than 10 percent
    of the workers in the FTZs were unionized. Many of the major
    manufacturers in the FTZs had voluntary codes of conduct that included
    worker rights protection clauses generally consistent with the ILO
    Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work. However,
    workers were not always aware of such codes or of the principles they
    contained.

        c. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor.--The law prohibits
    forced or compulsory labor, but there were reports of forced labor of
    both children and adults within the country. There were reports that
    both adults and children were forced to work as domestic servants (see
    section 7.d.).
        Haitian workers' lack of documentation and legal status in the
    country often placed them in a tenuous situation and made them
    vulnerable to forced labor. Although specific data on the issue were
    limited, there continued to be reports that some Haitian nationals may
    have been subjected to forced labor in the service, construction, and
    agricultural sectors.
        Labor conditions in sugar cane plantations remained harsh. There
    continued to be conflicting views regarding whether or not forced labor
    was used in the production of sugar. Some credible NGOs reported that,
    although undocumented Haitian workers were vulnerable to exploitation,
    forced labor was no longer used in the sugar industry. However, there
    also continued to be some reports of exploitive labor practices that
    some observers maintained could constitute forced labor when considered
    together. These reports included deceptive recruiting practices,
    nonpayment or payment in vouchers which were difficult to convert into
    cash, and restrictions on some workers' ability to leave plantations--
    including forcible capture and return of workers, withholding of
    documents, and threats of deportation. Private sugar producers noted
    that the overall number of workers in the sugar industry has declined
    with increased mechanization and a decrease in the relative importance
    of sugar production in the economy. They acknowledged that they
    continued to hire some undocumented Haitian workers already residing
    and working in the country but insisted that they did not force these
    individuals to work.
        Also see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons
    Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        d. Prohibition of Child Labor and Minimum Age for Employment.--
    While the law prohibits employment of children younger than 14 years of
    age and places restrictions on the employment of children under the age
    of 16, child labor remained a serious problem, although there was some
    evidence it lessened during the year. One NGO estimated that 364,000
    minors between five and 17 years of age worked illegally. Regulations
    limited working hours of those between the ages of 14 and 16 to six
    hours per day; for those under age 18, the law limited night work and
    prohibited employment in hazardous occupations, under unhealthy working
    conditions, or in establishments serving alcohol. Fines and legal
    sanctions may be applied to firms employing underage children. While
    the Government effectively enforced these regulations in the formal
    sector, child labor in the informal sector was a problem largely beyond
    regulatory reach.
        Child labor took place primarily in the informal economy, small
    businesses, private households, and agriculture. In particular, there
    were reports that children worked in the production of garlic,
    potatoes, coffee, tomatoes, and rice. The Ministry of Labor, following
    site inspections conducted throughout the country, including in sugar
    growing areas, reported that the sugar consortium's bateyes no longer
    used child labor on their property. However, others continued to report
    that children work in sugar plantations alongside their parents. NGOs
    and the Ministry of Labor also reported that many children worked in
    the service sector in a number of jobs including as domestic servants
    in households, as street vendors, as well as in shoe shining, and
    washing car windows. Children often accompanied their parents to work
    in agricultural fields, in part because parents had nowhere else to
    leave their children, since schools were usually in session only for a
    few hours a day. The commercial sexual exploitation of children
    remained a problem, especially in popular tourist destinations and
    urban areas (see section 6, children).
        Children also worked as domestic servants, and many appeared to be
    victims of forced labor. There were credible reports that poor Haitian
    families arranged for Dominican families to ``adopt'' and employ their
    children. In some cases adoptive parents reportedly did not treat the
    children as full family members, expecting them to work in the
    households or family businesses rather than to attend school, which
    resulted in a kind of indentured servitude for children and
    adolescents. (Also see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in
    Persons Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.) Some NGOS reported an increase
    in the number of Haitian children working on the streets shoe-shining,
    window-washing and begging (also see section 6, children).
        The Ministry of Labor in coordination with the National Council for
    Children and Adolescents (CONANI) is responsible for enforcing child
    labor laws. The Ministry of Labor and CONANI did not always effectively
    enforce the law, particularly in the large informal sector. The
    Ministry of Labor employed 222 labor inspectors, all of whom received
    special training to locate and eliminate illegal child labor. From
    January to April, the ministry inspectors completed 70,925 inspections
    at which inspectors only found child labor violations on three
    occasions.
        The National Steering Committee against Child Labor's plan to
    eliminate the worst forms of child labor set objectives, identified
    priorities, and assigned responsibilities so that exploitive labor
    could be efficiently tackled and the number of child laborers
    significantly reduced. In 2008 the Ministry of Labor launched a program
    to support public-private partnerships aimed at preventing hazardous
    child labor with a goal of withdrawing 8,500 children from exploitive
    labor. It exceeded that goal and had withdrawn 12,044 children by
    August 31. Nine other programs focused on children working in coffee,
    tomato and rice production, street vending, domestic labor, and the sex
    industry. According to the Ministry of Labor, these programs have
    prevented 63,000 children from entering or continuing in the labor
    force since 1997. They helped reduce the number of children exposed to
    the worst forms of child labor from 9.3 percent in 2004 to 6.4 percent
    in 2008.

        e. Acceptable Conditions of Work.--In practice the Ministry of
    Labor did not always enforce the minimum wage. The minimum monthly
    salary was 5,400 pesos (approximately $145) in the FTZs, an increase
    from 2009, and between 5,158 and 8,465 pesos ($138 and $227) depending
    upon the size of the company, outside the FTZs. The minimum wage for
    the public sector was 5,117 pesos ($137) per month. The daily minimum
    wage for farm workers covered by minimum wage regulations was 175 pesos
    ($4.70), based on a 10-hour day, which includes all agricultural
    products except sugarcane. Cane workers were subject to a special,
    lower minimum wage for the sugar industry of 110 pesos ($2.95) per 8-
    hour work day, an increase from 2009. The national minimum wage did not
    provide a decent standard of living in any industry for a worker and
    family. All workers, including migrants, are covered by minimum wage
    provisions.
        The law establishes a standard work period of 44 hours per week and
    stipulates that all workers are entitled to 36 hours of uninterrupted
    rest each week. The law provides for premium pay for overtime, although
    enforcement was ineffective. At some firms in the FTZs, overtime was
    mandatory. Mandatory overtime continued to be a common practice in
    factories and was sometimes enforced through loss of pay or employment
    for those who refused. The FEDOTRAZONAS reported that some companies
    set up ``4x4'' work schedules, in which employees work 12-hour shifts
    for four days. Employees working the 4x4 schedules were not paid
    overtime for hours worked in excess of maximum work hours allowed under
    labor laws. The Ministry of Labor took no corrective action to address
    this issue. Some companies also started a practice to pay every eight
    days instead of every seven days, which resulted in a loss of wages for
    workers.
        On sugar plantations cane cutters usually were paid by the weight
    of cane cut rather than the hours worked. Cane cutters continued to
    suspect fraud by weigh station operators and noted that employers
    sometimes did not provide trucks or carts to transport the newly cut
    cane at the end of the workday, causing workers to receive lower
    compensation because the cane dried out overnight and weighed less.
    Company officials denied that there were delays in transporting cane,
    noting that any delay would be detrimental to their business operation.
    The amount of cane a worker could cut varied, but most young able-
    bodied workers were able to cut two to three tons of cane in a workday,
    yielding a daily wage of 160-240 pesos (approximately $4.30-$6.40).
    However, less able-bodied workers, who were often older, were paid only
    for the amount of the cane they actually cut, even if the amount was
    less than the minimum wage. During the six-month off-season, some
    workers in sugar plantations who opted to remain in their communities
    were offered part-time jobs such as clearing land or cleaning
    sugarcane. Such workers generally were not paid the legally mandated
    minimum wage.
        Conditions for agricultural workers were poor, with many workers
    working long hours and exposed to hazardous working conditions
    including the exposure to pesticides, excessive exposure to the sun,
    and use of sharp and heavy tools. Many activists reported that workers
    in the sugarcane industry who lived in company-owned bateyes had
    inadequate access to schools, medical facilities, running water, and
    sewage systems. Sugarcane workers often did not receive medical
    services or pensions due to the lack of documentation even though
    deductions were taken from their pay.
        The Dominican Social Security Institute (IDSS) sets workplace
    safety and health conditions. Both the IDSS and the Ministry of Labor
    had a small corps of inspectors charged with enforcing standards.
    Although the inspectors noted over 2,000 infractions, the findings of
    these inspections were not effectively enforced. Workers complained
    that inspectors were not trained, did not respond to health and safety
    complaints, and more quickly responded to requests from employers than
    workers. While the law requires that employers provide a safe working
    environment, in practice workers could not remove themselves from
    hazardous working situations without losing their jobs.

                                   __________

                                    ECUADOR

        Ecuador is a constitutional republic with a population of
    approximately 14.3 million. In 2008 voters approved a referendum on a
    new constitution, which became effective in October of that year,
    although many of its provisions continued to be implemented. In April
    2009 voters reelected Rafael Correa for his second presidential term
    and chose members of the National Assembly in elections that were
    considered generally free and fair. Security forces reported to
    civilian authorities.
        The following human rights problems continued: isolated unlawful
    killings and use of excessive force by security forces, sometimes with
    impunity; poor prison conditions; arbitrary arrest and detention;
    corruption and other abuses by security forces; a high number of
    pretrial detainees; and corruption and denial of due process within the
    judicial system. President Correa and his administration continued
    verbal and legal attacks against the independent media. Societal
    problems continued, including physical aggression against journalists;
    violence against women; discrimination against women, indigenous
    persons, Afro-Ecuadorians, and lesbians and gay men; trafficking in
    persons and sexual exploitation of minors; and child labor.

                            RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

    Section 1. Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom
            From:
        a. Arbitrary or Unlawful Deprivation of Life.--The Government or
    its agents did not commit any politically motivated killings; however,
    there continued to be credible reports that security forces used
    excessive force and committed isolated unlawful killings.
        On April 23, the Government's Unit for the Fight against Organized
    Crime released a report exposing the existence of a gang of hit men
    composed of active-duty police. The report stated that police were part
    of a ``social cleansing group'' that killed delinquents in Quevedo, Los
    Rios Province. In July the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial
    executions, Philip Alston, called attention to ``shocking'' levels of
    impunity for killings in the country throughout the year. He accused
    police of failing to investigate cases they label as ``settling of
    accounts'' between different gangs or criminal groups and stated that
    this ``creates an easy cover for police who are themselves implicated
    in killings.''
        On August 1, police officers Nixon Guaman and Rolando Gualapanti
    alledegly shot and killed Christian Quimis Lozano. Police stated that
    gang members shot Quimis Lozano before police found him, while family
    members asserted that they saw police pursue and shoot him. The police
    opened an investigation into the case, but the two officers remained on
    active duty. The accused officers did not appear at the first hearing,
    and the case was rescheduled.
        In 2008 the bodies of three men were found in a car in Manta. One
    of the victims was Yandry Velez, who had allegedly fled to Manta to
    hide from Diego Erazo, chief of the operational support unit of the
    Judicial Police in Pichincha Province. The family asserted that police
    killed Velez and his friends on orders from the mayor. The case was
    dismissed by year's end on grounds of insufficient evidence.
        On June 5, the presidential commission established in 2007 to
    investigate human rights violations committed between 1984 and 2008
    issued its final report. The commission reported that it had found
    numerous serious violations, including killings, during that period
    (see section 5).
        Vigilante justice remained a problem. Such violence occurred
    particularly in indigenous communities and poor neighborhoods of major
    cities where there was little police presence.
        On May 25, Victor Eduardo Naranjo Morejon and Pedro Mesias Velasco
    Morejon were beaten and burned to death by the local community in
    Orellana Province. One of the men had fought violently with a local
    indigenous teacher. After the killing, police took eight persons into
    custody and the prosecutor opened an investigation, which was ongoing
    at year's end.
        On July 13, in Chimborazo Province, community members broke into a
    police detachment and proceeded to assault and burn alive Jose Ariel
    Pichu Toledo and Antonio Alfredo Delgado Navarrete, who were accused of
    robbing $4,000 (the U.S. dollar is the official currency) from a woman
    and killing a taxi driver. Antonio Delgado died five days later from
    burn injuries. The provincial prosecutor stated that the case was under
    investigation, but no arrests had been made by year's end.
        On July 25, Angel Molina was burned alive by community members in
    Azuay Province for robbing gasoline canisters. Molina died shortly
    thereafter in a local hospital. The police opened an investigation, but
    no arrests had been made by year's end.

        b. Disappearance.--There were no reports of politically motivated
    disappearances.
        In September authorities opened an investigation and detained 17
    police officers in connection with the reported disappearance in
    September 2009 of Georgy Cedeno (see section 1.c.).
        Criminal kidnapping for profit was a growing problem in selected
    regions of the country. There were reports of extortion and threats of
    kidnapping of ranchers, farmers, and businessmen along the Colombian
    border. From January through November, police reported 25 kidnappings
    and an estimated 700 ``express kidnappings'' (in which a person is
    detained in a taxi and forced to make automatic withdrawals of personal
    funds), compared with 28 kidnapping cases and 347 ``express
    kidnappings'' in 2009.

        c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or
    Punishment--While the constitution and laws prohibit torture and
    similar forms of intimidation and punishment, some police officers
    reportedly tortured and abused suspects and prisoners, sometimes with
    impunity. In July the ombudsman acknowledged that ``torture is a
    practice that has taken root.''
        The constitution makes ``any form of torture'' illegal; the
    criminal procedures code (CPC) has a similar provision and criminalizes
    the use of torture to force confessions by state authorities and
    members of the police or military. The Prosecutor General's Office
    tracked information on imprisonment of alleged torturers, but
    classified these cases as ``crimes against persons'' and not as
    ``torture.'' Those found guilty were often fined rather than
    imprisoned. According to the Judicial Council's Registration and
    Control Unit, during the year, 17 cases of torture were filed, with 12
    defendants in prison awaiting trial and one conviction.
        Through November the Ecumenical Human Rights Commission (CEDHU)
    registered 159 cases of alleged ``torture'' or ``unwarranted physical
    aggression'' by police forces. CEDHU reported that police beat suspects
    and used tear gas during arrests, and that police beat and threatened
    suspects throughout interrogations to force them to confess to crimes.
        On July 25, Omar Vidal accused five police officers of attacking
    and arbitrarily detaining him. Vidal called the police after a robbery
    but stated that police attacked him and hit him in the face.
    Prosecutors opened an investigation and requested video from the street
    surveillance cameras for evidence in the case. On August 20, because of
    the investigation, two of the accused police officers, Wilmer German
    Galarza Loor and Armando Patricio Campoverde Llamuca, were separated
    from service. Another officer, Jorge Macias Moreira, was suspended.
        In March the interior minister requested that the public prosecutor
    investigate the case of three siblings, Jenny Karina Pico Suarez,
    Fabricio Colon Pico Suarez, and Javier Universi Pico Suarez, and their
    stepfather, Georgy Hernan Cedeno Saltos. The Pico Suarez family accused
    seven members of the National Police Operations Support Group of
    illegally detaining and torturing them in northern Quito on September
    30 and October 1, 2009. The family asserted that Cedeno disappeared
    after being detained with the others. The brothers filed a complaint
    with police, who initially refused to open an investigation. On
    September 8, authorities initiated an investigation and subsequently
    detained 15 police officers from the Operations Support Group and two
    from the Motorized Operations Group and charged them with involvement
    in arbitrary detention and torture. On October 30, a judge released the
    suspects from the Motorized Operations Group, ruling that they were
    following orders of their superiors.
        On September 6, the interior minister asked the National Police to
    reopen an investigation into seven police officers involved in the 2008
    case of three men in Quito who claimed police tortured them to force
    confessions that they had taken part in a robbery. In 2009 all charges
    against the robbery suspects were dropped. While the prosecutor
    requested that the case against all police officers be dropped, the
    charges against lower-ranked officers were kept. The investigation
    remained open, and all officers continued in active service.
        From 2007 through August 2010, the National Police held 503
    disciplinary tribunals for abuses committed by police. As a result, 367
    police officers were dismissed, 171 were arrested, and 68 were
    sanctioned. On September 7, the interior minister reopened 290 cases of
    possible police abuses. Tribunals continued at year's end.

        Prison and Detention Center Conditions.--Conditions in prisons and
    detention centers were generally poor and tended to be worse in the
    tropical coastal areas than in the temperate highlands. Justice
    Minister Jose Serrano stated that existing facilities were overcrowded
    by 93 percent.
        A number of prisons experienced serious outbreaks of disease, and
    medical care was often inadequate. The daily allocation for prison
    rations was one dollar per inmate; prisoners often supplemented these
    rations by buying their own food. The National Agency for Social
    Rehabilitation (DNRS) reported that 42 prisoners died during the year,
    compared with six deaths in 2009.
        Overcrowding continued to be a problem in most prison facilities,
    although the number of detainees dropped sharply in 2009 primarily due
    to a law that limits the period prisoners may be held before conviction
    or sentencing. The decrease also reflected the continuing work of a
    temporary public defenders' unit that hired more than 150 lawyers to
    defend poor prisoners, especially those awaiting sentencing. As of
    July, the DNRS reported that 38 facilities designed to hold 8,480
    prisoners were holding 11,800 prisoners, compared with 10,808 in the
    previous year. According to a report by the international
    nongovernmental organization (NGO) Prisoners Abroad, resources in the
    prisons were minimal and prisoners (and their families) were expected
    to provide almost all mattresses, clothing, and medicines. Three very
    basic meals a day were provided, but prisoners reported that the
    quality of food could be very poor. There was usually hot water in the
    women's prison, although not in the men's prison. Water shortages were
    common in the women's prison in Quito. Chronic overcrowding and lack of
    preventive healthcare measures meant that disease spread very quickly.
    Healthcare provision was minimal and only sufficient for emergencies.
        Conditions were notably better in the Quito women's prison than in
    men's facilities. There were no adolescents or children more than three
    years old living with their incarcerated mothers. Detention centers
    provided day-care facilities for children younger than three who could
    not be separated from their mothers. Pretrial detainees were held with
    convicted prisoners. According to CEDHU, male guards were responsible
    for guarding female inmates, and female inmates reported that male
    guards requested sexual favors in return for assistance.
        Although in most instances the Government permitted prison visits
    by independent human rights observers, authorities occasionally did not
    permit observers to visit prisoners who had been placed in isolation
    cells after they allegedly had been beaten. The DNRS stated that all
    properly identified officials and representatives from NGOs were able
    to visit prisoners, yet many times observers and authorities were not
    able to find prisoners because of poor record keeping and corruption of
    prison officials. According to a report by Prisoners Abroad, prisoners
    were allowed all-day visits three days a week and, in the men's
    prisons, women could stay overnight every other Saturday.
        One new maximum-security facility, with more than 70 double-
    occupancy cells, opened in July in Guayaquil. An additional Social
    Rehabilitation Center opened in Santo Domingo in October when 80
    prisoners were transferred there. When finished, the facility will
    accommodate up to 1,054 prisoners in both men's and women's sections.
    On August 31, the Government declared that the penitentiary system was
    in a state of emergency due to overcrowding and poor conditions and
    budgeted $40 million to start construction on four new facilities in
    2011.

        d. Arbitrary Arrest or Detention.--While the constitution prohibits
    arbitrary arrest and detention, in 2006 the UN Working Group on
    Arbitrary Detention noted that provisions in the CPC, the penal code,
    and some regulations adopted by central or provincial authorities
    ``undermine the guarantees and protection offered.''

        Role of the Police and Security Apparatus.--The National Police are
    under the authority of the Ministry of Interior. National Police
    effectiveness was impaired by corruption, poor hiring procedures, and
    insufficient training, supervision, and resources. NGOs provided human
    rights training for police officers at the request of the National
    Police. The Government undertook major initiatives to improve the
    preparedness of police, including increasing funding and salaries and
    purchasing equipment.
        Some municipalities, such as Quito and Guayaquil, have their own
    metropolitan police forces in addition to the National Police. Guayas
    Province also has an autonomous transit police department. A police
    internal affairs office investigates complaints against police officers
    and can refer cases to the courts. According to reliable NGOs, members
    of the Quito and Guayaquil metropolitan police occasionally used
    excessive force.
        On September 30, the National Police at Quito's First Regiment
    barracks staged a strike over benefits, which quickly spread to other
    police detachments nationwide and some military units. The protest in
    Quito became violent, and when visiting the barracks in an attempt to
    convince the protesters to end their strike, President Correa was
    assaulted, aggravating an injury to his recently operated knee. Correa
    sought refuge and received treatment at the National Police Hospital;
    he eventually was rescued that night in a combined police/military
    operation after expressing fear for his personal safety, based on the
    actions of police protesters in and around the hospital throughout the
    day.
        On September 30, President Correa declared a nationwide five-day
    state of exception, covering the whole country, to allow the military
    to assume the responsibilities of the police and restore order.
    Beginning October 1 and in the following days, the military assumed
    police duties and patrolled the streets. Police began to resume their
    duties on October 1 and within a few days returned to their normal
    patrols in coordination with the military.
        On October 5, the state of exception was extended for three
    additional days nationwide. On October 9, President Correa extended the
    state of exception only for Quito, allowing the military to continue to
    exercise police duties in protection of government installations,
    including the National Assembly. The state of exception in Quito
    expired on December 7.
        Following the protest, the Prosecutor General's Office opened 10
    different investigations for attempting to assassinate the president,
    threatening internal security, murder, rebellion, and sabotage. All 10
    investigations were ongoing at the end of the year. Prosecutors
    formally charged at least 65 persons and heard testimony from over 700.
    The National Police also carried out internal investigations resulting
    in administrative sanctions for police who disobeyed orders. Twenty-
    three persons reportedly remained in pretrial detention while the
    investigations continued, and 33 were released on bail. Fourteen
    employees in two ministries were accused of paralyzing public services
    during the protest and were fired from their jobs.

        Arrest Procedures and Treatment While in Detention.--The law
    requires authorities to issue specific written arrest orders prior to
    detention, and they must charge a suspect with a specific criminal
    offense within 24 hours of arrest. Within 24 hours of arrest, detained
    persons may challenge the legality of their detention through a habeas
    corpus petition to a judge in the locality where detention took place.
    The constitution provides that a prisoner may be released only by court
    order.
        The law stipulates that pregnant women cannot be held in prison
    facilities during pretrial detention, although women who are pregnant
    or become pregnant after sentencing must remain incarcerated. However,
    according to reliable NGOs, police sources, and press reports, many
    pregnant women were jailed rather than being confined to their homes
    during pretrial detention.
        Bail is allowed only in the case of crimes punishable with prison
    terms of less than five years and is prohibited for hate, sexual, and
    domestic-violence crimes and in cases where, in the judge's opinion,
    release may result in public alarm.
        Investigative detention up to and including trial is legal if a
    judge determines that it is necessary and if evidence is presented that
    a crime has been committed. The law limits immediate detention to 24
    hours for in flagrante crimes or to allow investigation to begin. In
    most jurisdictions, immediate detention is often considerably longer.
    If the initial investigation report is detrimental, the judge, if
    requested by the prosecutor, may order preventive detention, which is
    limited to six months for minor offenses and one year for major
    offenses.
        The law limits the period that detainees may be held after
    indictments have been issued, but before conviction or sentencing, to
    six months in the case of less serious crimes (those punishable with
    ``correctional imprisonment'') and one year in the case of major
    crimes. However, authorities repeatedly circumvented this provision by
    filing new charges when the limit was close to expiring. Most accused
    persons remained in prison during the investigation phase. According to
    government data as of July, approximately 53 percent of prisoners had
    not been sentenced.
        Although the law entitles detainees prompt access to lawyers and
    family members, there were delays depending on the circumstances and
    officials' willingness to enforce the law; alleged narcotics
    traffickers commonly waited 24 to 48 hours for these visits. Detainees
    with sufficient resources bribed prison officials to facilitate access
    and carry cell telephones. CEDHU reported that Judicial Police
    facilities holding persons for preliminary investigation did not allow
    visits by family or counsel.
        Although the law prohibits incommunicado detention, human rights
    organizations continued to report occasional violations. Authorities
    charged with determining the validity of detention often allowed
    frivolous charges to be brought, either because they were overworked or
    because the accuser bribed them. The system frequently was used as a
    means of harassment in civil cases in which one party sought to have
    the other arrested on criminal charges.

        e. Denial of Fair Public Trial.--While the constitution provides
    for an independent judiciary, in practice the judiciary was at times
    susceptible to outside pressure and corruption. The media reported on
    the susceptibility of the judiciary to bribes for favorable decisions
    and resolution of legal cases and on judges parceling out cases to
    outside lawyers, who wrote the judicial sentences and sent them back to
    the presiding judge for signature. Judges occasionally reached
    decisions based on media influence or political and economic pressures.
        The constitution provides for a unified judicial system, which
    abolished separate military and police judicial systems. On April 27,
    the National Assembly passed a law integrating the members of the
    former military and police courts in the ordinary judicial system; as a
    result, the ordinary judicial system tries military and police cases.
        The 2005 appeal by 27 Supreme Court justices who were replaced by
    Congress in 2004 remained pending with the Inter-American Commission on
    Human Rights.

        Trial Procedures.--Despite efforts to modernize the court system,
    the judiciary continued to operate slowly and inconsistently. There
    were lengthy delays before most cases came to trial. Judges reportedly
    rendered decisions more quickly or more slowly due to political
    pressure or, in some cases, the payment of bribes. The failures of the
    justice system contributed to cases in which communities took the law
    into their own hands, such as mob violence against suspected criminals.
        There are no juries in the justice system. Defendants are presumed
    innocent until proven guilty and convicted in trial, and have the right
    to a public trial, defense attorneys, and appeal. They may present
    evidence, invoke the privilege against self-incrimination, and confront
    and cross-examine witnesses. The law extends these rights to all
    citizens. The Transitory Public Defense Unit, established in 2007,
    became the autonomous Public Defense Office and has 127 criminal
    defense lawyers in charge of 4,800 cases. An additional 300 attorneys
    were contracted from legal services centers, and they handled about
    7,800 additional cases.
        Civil society groups, lawyers' associations, and universities--some
    contracted by the Transitory Public Defense Unit--continued to provide
    support for vulnerable groups that did not have access to legal
    defense.
        The regular court system tried most defendants, although some
    indigenous groups tried members independently for violations of tribal
    law. While the law and the constitution recognize indigenous
    communities' right to exercise their own systems of justice based on
    their traditions and customs, they do not specify how this right is to
    be implemented. This parallel system raised questions of both
    jurisdiction and conformity with the right to a fair trial, as well as
    the possibility of inconsistent results between systems.
        Reforms to the CPC in 2009 distorted the criminal justice system by
    limiting the length of detention prior to conviction but allowing
    prosecutors to amend charges or charge the same defendant with
    different crimes in order to continue detaining the person. In addition
    the constitution places the Prosecutor General's Office within the
    judicial branch and under its supervision, giving the Judicial Council
    exclusive power to train, evaluate, and sanction prosecutors. This
    judicial oversight threatened prosecutorial independence over which
    cases to investigate and charge. Under the current system, some
    prosecutorial decisions may be subject to review by a magistrate at an
    adversarial evidentiary hearing conducted during the investigative
    phase of the trial. CPC reforms aimed at providing criminal procedural
    protection also created a complex, sometimes confusing, system and
    slowed the judicial process by retaining vestiges of the old
    inquisitorial system, which required that certain matters be submitted
    in writing. Some protections for defendants increased. For example, up
    to 20 preparation hearings (similar to a preliminary hearing) including
    ruling on motions related to evidentiary matters are possible before
    the actual trial proceedings.

        Political Prisoners and Detainees.--There were no reports of
    political prisoners or detainees.

        Civil Judicial Procedures and Remedies.--Civilian courts and the
    Administrative Conflicts Tribunal, generally considered independent and
    impartial, handle lawsuits seeking damages for, or cessation of, human
    rights violations. However, civilian lawsuits seeking damages for
    alleged wrongs by the state were rarely filed, since such suits were
    time-consuming and difficult to prosecute, with judges taking up to a
    decade to rule on the merits.

        f. Arbitrary Interference with Privacy, Family, Home, or
    Correspondence--The constitution and the law prohibit such actions, and
    the Government generally respected these prohibitions in practice.

    Section 2. Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:
        a. Freedom of Speech and Press.--The constitution provides for
    freedom of speech and of the press, but the Government restricted these
    rights in practice. Verbal and legal attacks against the press by
    President Correa and his government continued during the year. The
    relationship between the press and the Government continued to
    deteriorate, and there were reports of indirect censorship and self-
    censorship. During the year several well-known television and radio
    political commentators resigned, publicly attributing their decisions
    to government pressure on their media outlets.
        Generally, individuals could criticize the Government publicly or
    privately without reprisal. However, it is illegal to threaten or
    insult the president or executive branch, and violators can be
    reprimanded with six months' to two years' imprisonment or a fine of
    $16 to $77. While the independent media remained active and expressed a
    wide variety of views, including those critical of the Government, the
    NGO Monitoring Network of Threats to Press Freedom reported 151 cases
    of harassment (threats, attacks, or arrests) against journalists or
    other representatives of the press.
        On January 17, unidentified persons broke into the home of Alfredo
    Negrete, the executive director of the Ecuadorian Association of
    Journalists. While the house was carefully searched, only items of
    little value were missing.
        On January 27, police detained Carlos Julio Solano nine hours for
    supposedly making an obscene gesture at the president while he exited a
    television station. President Correa later apologized for the abuses of
    the police.
        A March 3 Inter-American Press Association report asserted that the
    Government ``redoubled its offensive'' against press freedom. According
    to the 2009 Report of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights'
    special rapporteur for freedom of expression, ``Ecuador has seen a
    rising climate of polarization in which attacks on and threats against
    journalists and media outlets of all editorial positions have
    increased.''
        On March 13, President Correa encouraged citizens to organize and
    oversee the activity of media outlets and promote lawsuits against
    journalists whose activities may violate human rights.
        On May 16, a journalist from El Mercurio newspaper in the city of
    Manta was allegedly assaulted by police officers and taken into custody
    for more than an hour for refusing to hand over his camera. The
    journalist was covering a car accident in an area where police used
    tear gas to control an incident.
        In June and July, during the broadcast of the Soccer World Cup
    matches, the Government ran a media campaign against the press,
    referring to media outlets as corrupt and delinquent. The campaign
    featured expressions such as ``nobody believes them anymore'' and
    images, such as a snake jumping out of the television screen. Several
    media outlets requested that the Government clarify who were the
    targets of the accusation. On July 9, the national legal secretary,
    Alexis Mera, stated that the Government was not legally obligated to
    respond to these inquiries.
        On June 25, a nationwide government broadcast criticized Jorge
    Ortiz of Teleamazonas for making statements critical of President
    Correa during his television show on June 20. The Government required
    that its broadcast be shown during Ortiz's live television program on
    June 25. Teleamazonas later apologized for having misreported the
    information on which Ortiz based his comments. Ortiz's program was
    suspended on July 23, and he resigned from Teleamazonas on August 28.
        On several occasions, crowds or individuals within crowds assaulted
    and yelled insults at journalists covering a protest or event. There
    also were a few high-profile cases of indirect censorship of the media
    by the Government.
        President Correa regularly used his weekly radio and television
    address and other public appearances to criticize the media, question
    its competence and professionalism, and accuse it of bias, frequently
    naming specific reporters and outlets. Several journalists and
    individuals involved in local press associations reported that Correa's
    ``systematic'' verbal attacks against the media created ``a hostile
    environment for journalists.'' They also noted similar behavior
    exhibited by other high-level government officials. Journalists stated
    that these attacks caused them to practice self-censorship.
        On April 5, 20 editorialists of the Government-run newspaper El
    Telegrafo resigned, asserting that the newspaper censored content.
        There were also instances of the Government using legal mechanisms
    to restrict the media, including use of libel laws to suppress
    criticism. On March 26, a judge sentenced journalist Emilio Palacio to
    serve three years in prison and pay a $10,000 fine for having offended
    government official Camilo Saman in an article entitled ``Camilo, the
    Bully'' that was published in August 2009. Palacio appealed the
    decision based on a May 21 court ruling establishing that the judge who
    convicted Palacio did not have jurisdiction to rule on the case. Before
    the appeal was resolved, Saman withdrew the charges.
        Following up a May 2009 audit commission examination of radio and
    television frequency concessions, in August the Comptroller General's
    Office issued a report making recommendations; however, these reports
    had little effect on transmissions.
        On January 20, authorities dropped charges against Giancarlo Zunino
    and Felix Pilco, who were arrested and detained in October 2009 on
    charges of ``separatism,'' stemming from placards critical of the
    president that they had hung in Guayaquil.
        In 2009 the Government investigated the independent television
    station Teleamazonas for broadcasting alleged misinformation about gas
    exploration on the island of Puna. The investigation resulted in a 72-
    hour suspension of programming in December 2009. (Teleamazonas was also
    sanctioned for two other broadcasts in 2009.) On February 3,
    Teleamazonas won an appeal before a provincial court, which ordered the
    Government to compensate the station for the suspension of programming.
    The superintendent of telecommunications appealed this decision to the
    Constitutional Court. On November 18, the Constitutional Court
    overturned the ruling of the provincial court. Teleamazonas has the
    right to file a new appeal.
        In December 2009 the Office of the Superintendent of
    Telecommunications (SUPERTEL) announced that the radio station La Voz
    de Arutam, broadcasting in Morona Santiago Province to the Shuar
    indigenous community, would lose its frequency rights for inciting
    violence during indigenous protests in September 2009 that led to the
    death of Bosco Wisuma, a Shuar protester. The station appealed the
    decision and lost. However, on January 26, the National Council of
    Telecommunications reversed its decision to close down the radio
    station and instead referred the case to the Prosecutor General's
    Office for a criminal investigation of four persons suspected of
    inciting violence over the radio (see section 2.b.).
        The constitution declares the frequency spectrum a state-owned
    nonrenewable resource and mandates that the state receive no less
    benefit than the company involved in the exploitation of that resource.
    It prohibits oligopolies or monopolies in the ownership of means of
    communications and in the use of frequencies and precludes financial
    groups, their legal representatives, stockholders, and board members
    from controlling the ``social means of communication'' through capital
    and investment. It also mandates that all public and private media
    organizations and regulatory bodies assure the exercise of the rights
    of communication, information, and freedom of expression.
        The Correa administration enforced a provision in the Radio and
    Television Broadcasting Law that requires all stations to broadcast
    government programs on education and health issues for up to an hour
    per day (Mondays through Saturdays) at no charge. This law also
    mandates the broadcast of messages and reports by the president and his
    cabinet free of charge. The Government regularly asked media stations
    to broadcast statements by the president and other leaders, and this
    cut into the stations' paid programming. During police protests on
    September 30, the Government forced all stations to broadcast the
    Government channel for about six hours, which virtually eliminated all
    independent reporting during the crisis.
        The constitution provides for the right of all persons to receive
    information that is true, verified, timely, contextualized,
    pluralistic, and without prior censorship. It also states that the law
    would regulate the informational, educational, and cultural content of
    the programming of communication outlets.
        On April 20, a law on citizen participation became effective. The
    law requires the independent media to disclose financial information
    once a year if the public so requests.

        Internet Freedom.--There were no government restrictions on access
    to the Internet or reports that the Government monitored e-mail or
    Internet chat rooms. Individuals and groups could engage in the
    expression of views via the Internet, including by e-mail. In September
    SUPERTEL reported that there were three million Internet users,
    approximately 21 percent of the population. Internet access was widely
    available in larger cities, but access in the most remote locations was
    poor.

        Academic Freedom and Cultural Events.--There were no government
    restrictions on academic freedom or cultural events.

        b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association.--Freedom of
    Assembly.--The constitution provides for freedom of peaceful assembly,
    and the Government generally respected this right in practice, although
    some exceptions occurred. Public rallies required prior government
    permits, which were generally granted with some exceptions.
        On April 30, high school student Xavier Gallardo lost his eye while
    protesting the increase of the price of milk. Preliminary police
    reports were unclear whether the cause was a police rubber bullet or a
    stone. In May the vice president announced that the Government would
    help the student with all medical care and a prosthesis. An
    investigation continued at year's end.
        On July 5, the prosecutor's office opened an investigation of
    indigenous leaders Marlon Santi and Delfin Tenesaca for clashes with
    police caused by protesters during demonstrations surrounding the
    Bolivarian Alliance of the Americas' summit in Otavalo, Imbabura
    Province. The case was pending at year's end.
        In July a government investigation into the death of Bosco Wisuma,
    killed in September 2009 during a Shuar indigenous protest, found that
    Wisuma died of pellet wounds similar to those caused by indigenous
    weapons used for hunting, thereby exonerating police from the killing.
    A French forensics specialist conducted the autopsy with government and
    indigenous representatives present. Indigenous National Assembly
    members and leaders rejected the investigation results, claiming that
    police killed Wisuma and that the investigation was politically
    influenced. At the recommendation of the National Assembly, the Truth
    Commission organized two expert investigations, one ballistic and one
    forensic. The investigations determined that Wisuma was killed by a
    pellet, indicating that it was not a police bullet but rather came from
    the crowd of protesters.

        Freedom of Association.--The law provides for freedom of
    association, and the Government generally respected this right in
    practice.
        The Government began requiring reregistration of organizations
    based on a 2008 decree that provides the Government discretion to
    dissolve organizations (including civil society, foundations, and
    churches) on multiple grounds, including compromising the interests of
    the state, not posting the names of all of their members on a public
    Web site, or not providing access to information requested by the
    Government. Some groups found particularly onerous an interpretation
    that would require a ten-fold increase in the minimum asset requirement
    to register.

        c. Freedom of Religion.--For a complete description of religious
    freedom, please see the 2010 International Religious Freedom Report at
    www.state.gov/g/drl/irf/rpt.

        d. Freedom of Movement, Internally Displaced Persons, Protection of
    Refugees, and Stateless Persons.--The law provides for freedom of
    movement within the country, foreign travel, emigration, and
    repatriation, and the Government generally respected these rights in
    practice.
        The Government cooperated with the Office of the UN High
    Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and other humanitarian organizations,
    such as the International Organization for Migration, in providing
    protection and assistance to internally displaced persons, refugees,
    returning refugees, asylum seekers, stateless persons, and other
    persons of concern.
        The law prohibits forced exile, and the Government did not use it
    in practice.

        Protection of Refugees.--The constitution recognizes the rights of
    asylum and refuge, including ``special protection in view of
    guaranteeing the full exercise of their rights.'' The law provides for
    the granting of asylum or refugee status, and the Government has
    established a system for providing protection to refugees. In practice
    the Government provided protection against the expulsion or return of
    refugees to countries where their lives or freedom would be threatened
    on account of their race, religion, nationality, membership in a
    particular social group, or political opinion.
        The Government reported that, from January through September, it
    received 24,761 applications for regular refugee status and recognized
    7,577 refugees. The enhanced registration program, implemented in 2009
    and part of 2010, targeted Colombian refugees for expedited
    registration and documentation over a 12-month period in the northern
    border region. Applicants rejected in either the regular or the
    enhanced refugee process had a legal right to appeal; after appeals are
    exhausted, they have 30 days to leave the country. There were reports
    of police detaining and attempting to unlawfully deport Colombians in
    the northern border region in May and June. The UNHCR confirmed two
    possible cases of forced repatriation from that time.
        There were 52,452 recognized refugees in the country as of
    September. The Government and the UNHCR estimated that approximately
    155,000 persons were in need of international protection by the end of
    the year, of whom approximately 30,000 had cases pending and the rest
    were not registered in the asylum process. In September the Government
    reported that it received 10,000 asylum requests a month.
        Colombians accounted for 98 percent of asylum seekers, and the rest
    originated from a wide variety of countries, including Cuba, Peru,
    Haiti, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. The law provides persons
    granted refugee status the right to work; however, this right is not
    extended to asylum seekers. The law also provides recognized refugees
    and asylum seekers the same access to public health services as
    citizens. The presentation of any identity document is sufficient to
    provide access to public educational institutions. However, numerous
    NGOs asserted that local school authorities frequently prohibited non-
    Ecuadorian children from enrolling in school. Various NGOs reported
    that the Civil Registry did not always cooperate in registering refugee
    children or registering children of refugees born in Ecuador, despite
    legal requirements to do so.
        The Government provided temporary protection to individuals who may
    not qualify as refugees. The Government and NGOs also provided
    humanitarian aid and additional services, such as legal, health,
    education, and psychological assistance, to Colombians recorded as
    having crossed the border during the year. Most aid was cut off if
    official refugee status was denied. The Government opened new refugee
    offices in Guayaquil, Esmeraldas, Tulcan, and Ibarra.

    Section 3. Respect for Political Rights: The Right of Citizens to
            Change Their Government
        The law provides citizens the right to change their government
    peacefully, and citizens exercised this right in practice through
    periodic, free, and fair elections based on universal suffrage.

        Elections and Political Participation.--Elections for offices at
    all levels of government, including the presidency and the multiparty
    National Assembly, were held in April and June 2009. Organization of
    American States and European Union observers concluded that the
    elections were generally free and fair, with local irregularities, and
    highlighted areas for further improvement in subsequent elections.
    Domestic observers also observed elections throughout the country.
    Although the international and domestic observation teams reported no
    major fraud, there were some reports of missing or marked ballots,
    counting and vote calculation irregularities, and incidents of
    violence.
        In 2008 voters approved a ``transition regime,'' which regulated
    the transition to the new institutional order. The interim
    Constitutional Court and National Court of Justice remained in place
    during the year. The permanent Citizen Participation and Social Control
    Council, an institution under the newly created Transparency and Social
    Control branch of government, was selected in March, and it began
    working on the selection of permanent government officials, a process
    expected to conclude in 2011.
        The constitution mandated the reregistration of political
    organizations after the 2009 elections. On March 3, the National
    Electoral Council approved the required rules for reregistration. While
    there is no deadline for registration, in order to compete in
    elections, political organizations must be legally recognized at least
    six months prior to elections. Only two political organizations
    completed the reregistration requirements by year's end.
        The constitution provides for state-promoted, gender-balanced
    representation in the public sector, including in the lists of
    political parties' candidates for the National Assembly and other
    representative institutions. As of December 1, there were 42 women in
    the 124-seat National Assembly, 12 women in the 27-member cabinet, and
    two female secretaries of state with the rank of minister.
        There were seven Afro-Ecuadorians and indigenous persons in the
    National Assembly, but no Asian-Ecuadorians. There was one Afro-
    Ecuadorian but no Asian-Ecuadorians or indigenous persons in the
    cabinet.

    Section 4. Official Corruption and Government Transparency
        The law provides criminal penalties for official corruption;
    however, the Government did not implement the law effectively, and
    officials sometimes engaged in corrupt practices with impunity. The
    World Bank's worldwide governance indicators reflected that government
    corruption was a serious problem.
        There were media reports of police corruption. Labor leaders and
    business owners reported corruption among inspectors (see section
    7.e.).
        On November 17, 11 prison guards at the Center for Social
    Rehabilitation in Guayaquil were detained for corruption. An
    investigation of 52 guards found evidence that the guards allowed drug
    trafficking within the prison and demanded bribes from prisoners in
    return for security.
        The National Secretariat for Management Transparency is tasked with
    investigating and reporting public complaints of corruption and with
    promoting transparent practices in the public administration. The
    Presidency's Secretariat for Transparency of the Public Administration
    investigates corruption cases brought by the Government.
        In March the Prosecutor General's Office initiated an investigation
    of Juan Xavier Aguinaga, former under secretary of foreign affairs for
    the Ministry of the Coast Region, along with several notary publics,
    for alleged involvement in the illegal naturalization of Cuban
    citizens. On April 1, police temporarily detained Aguinaga and two
    other persons. The prosecutor opened cases against 74 persons, and two
    notary publics were suspended. The National Secretariat for Management
    Transparency and the Ministry of the Interior also began
    investigations. In early September the foreign ministry annulled 174
    naturalizations because of fraud. On November 8, press reports
    indicated that Aguinaga had fled the country. On December 16, police
    detained the director of immigration in the same investigation into
    visa fraud. Press reports stated that up to 2,000 visas might have been
    issued illegally.
        In February 2009 former solicitor general Xavier Garaicoa was
    charged with violating public contracting and public spending laws by
    giving out $10,000 bonuses to 348 employees in the Solicitor General's
    Office. On July 14, the National Court ordered that Garaicoa be placed
    in pretrial detention, but the arrest warrant was overturned before he
    was detained. The case was pending at year's end.
        In June 2009 the media reported that companies allegedly associated
    with businessman Fabricio Correa, the brother of the president, had
    signed large public-sector contracts during the Correa administration.
    In September 2009 President Correa announced he would nullify all
    government contracts connected to companies with which his brother was
    allegedly involved. These companies were registered as unfulfilled
    contractors in the State's Public Procurement Web site; this action
    impedes them from receiving contracts with the state from September
    through November 2014, depending on the company. In July the Prosecutor
    General's Office rejected the accusations against Fabricio Correa in
    the following cases: the bidding process for the construction of the
    bridge over the River Paute (July 7), the signing of the contract for
    the construction of the road Milagro-Indanza-Gualaquiza (July 7), and
    the Ivanhoe case (July 28). At year's end, the Office of the
    Comptroller General and the National Secretariat for Management
    Transparency continued to investigate other cases, and citizen
    oversight committees examined contracts linked to companies with which
    Fabricio Correa is alleged to have a relationship. In response to the
    nullification of his contracts, Fabricio Correa leveled his own
    accusations of corruption against his brother's administration and
    maintained demands against the state for an estimated $60 million and
    five criminal procedures against two government officers.
        In August 2009 the multinational oil company Chevron provided
    Ecuadorian government authorities with secretly recorded videos it had
    obtained from two individuals. The company claimed the videos exposed a
    bribery scheme involving Juan Nunez, the presiding judge in the
    multibillion dollar environmental lawsuit pending against the company
    in an Ecuadorian court (see section 6). In September 2009 Nunez recused
    himself under pressure from the prosecutor general. On September 29,
    the National Judicial Council disbarred Nunez for breaking the law by
    expressing his opinion on the case before its conclusion.
        On May 3, the prosecutor general requested that the National Court
    of Justice initiate a proceeding against two attorneys representing
    Chevron and seven former government officials related to allegations of
    fraud in an environmental remediation release agreement between Chevron
    and the Government. A preliminary hearing to determine if charges
    should be filed had not taken place by year's end. The company claimed
    the action was politically motivated and that previous prosecutors
    general had dismissed the same allegations.
        On August 4, the prosecutor general requested that the National
    Court of Justice file charges against former minister of energy and
    mines Pablo Teran. The case involves accusations that Teran had
    benefitted financially from a pipeline construction contract with
    Oleoducto de Crudos Pesados. Teran claimed the case against him was
    politically motivated. The case was originally opened in 2003 by the
    Prosecutor General's Office to investigate the allegations, but was
    suspended in 2005 for lack of evidence. The prosecutor general reopened
    the investigation in April 2008. The court had not filed charges
    against Teran by year's end.
        Fraud charges remained pending against former minister of sports
    Raul Carrion for contracting irregularities in the construction of a
    stadium in Morona Santiago Province. On July 5 and September 23, the
    prosecutor general filed two new embezzlement charges. Carrion had
    three cases pending against him at year's end.
        The constitution states that all persons have the right to access
    information gathered by public or private organizations receiving state
    funds. It further requires that the information be available in the
    native language of the citizen. The law requires all organizations
    (public and private) that receive public funds to respond to written
    requests for information; publish specific information on their Web
    site; and submit an annual report to the Ombudsman's Office that
    details their compliance with the transparency law. Personal
    information about individual citizens and information regarding
    national security are excluded from the transparency law requirements.
    Government officials are required to declare their financial holdings
    upon taking office and if requested in an investigation, and all
    agencies must disclose salary information annually. As a result,
    government agencies increasingly put budget information, functions,
    organizational information, lists of government officers, and official
    notices on the Internet in addition to responding to written requests.
        An NGO that monitored the implementation of this law found that
    compliance with some of the law's requirements improved dramatically.
    According to the NGO Citizen Participation, in 2009 only 36 percent of
    the organizations surveyed complied with the requirements to publish
    information on their Web page. During the year, 72 percent of those
    same organizations complied with the Web site requirements. Despite
    this improvement, there were still some compliance problems, especially
    with respect to submission of annual reports to the Ombudsman's Office.
    In June, Fernando Gutierrez, the interim ombudsman, stated that only
    470 entities out of 4,800 had submitted the required annual report
    detailing their compliance with the law.

    Section 5. Governmental Attitude Regarding International and
            Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations of Human
            Rights
        A number of domestic and international human rights groups
    generally operated without government restriction, investigating and
    publishing their findings on human rights cases. Government officials
    cooperated with the groups but often did not act on their
    recommendations.
        The Ombudsman's Office focused on human rights problems. The
    constitution describes the Ombudsman's Office as an administratively
    and financially independent body under the Transparency and Social
    Control branch of government. As of June, the office had 65 lawyers and
    regularly presented cases to the prosecutor's office, but with limited
    success. In 2008 the Constituent Assembly appointed an interim
    ombudsman, who served pending appointment of a permanent ombudsmen
    through a process managed by the Citizen Participation and Social
    Control Council.
        On June 5, the Truth Commission established by the Government in
    2007 issued its final report. The commission investigated human rights
    violations committed from 1984 to 2008, with a focus on violations
    under the Government of Leon Febres Cordero (1984-88). The commission
    reported that, during Febres Cordero's government, illegal arrests,
    acts of torture, extrajudicial executions, and forced disappearances
    were carried out in a systematic and generalized manner and that human
    rights violations continued during subsequent administrations (between
    1988 and 2008). The report stated that, over the 24 year period, 456
    individuals were victims of human rights violations, 78 percent of
    which occurred in the Febres Cordero period.
        The Truth Commission identified 458 individuals allegedly
    responsible for crimes against humanity. The commission requested
    investigation, trial, and punishment against those found responsible.
    The commission also recommended the implementation of an administrative
    program dedicated to reparations. The commission's mandate was extended
    through December to help implement its recommendations.

    Section 6. Discrimination, Societal Abuses, and Trafficking in Persons
        The constitution prohibits discrimination based on race, gender,
    disability, language, or social status; however, women, persons with
    disabilities, indigenous persons, Afro-Ecuadorians, and gay, lesbian,
    bisexual, and transgender persons continued to face discrimination.

        Women.--Although the law prohibits violence against women,
    including within marriage, abuses were widespread. On March 8, the
    Ombudsman's Office released a report stating that approximately 83,000
    women annually suffered some sort of violence or abuse. The report also
    noted that 7,000 women were assaulted monthly and that more than 200
    women were victims of some sort of violence on a daily basis.
        The law criminalizes rape and provides penalties of up to 25 years
    in prison. Under family law, spousal rape is considered a type of
    violence and may be prosecuted under the criminal code. The penalty for
    rape where death occurred is from 16 to 25 years' imprisonment. The
    prosecutor general received reports of 4,045 rapes from January to
    November, with 329 convictions and 87 acquittals. Many rapes were not
    reported due to the victim's reluctance to confront the perpetrator.
        The most pervasive violations of women's rights involved domestic
    and sexual violence. Although prohibited by law, both were widespread
    and vastly underreported. The Ministry of Interior's Office of Gender
    reported, based on partial reports it had received as of December 2009,
    a total during the year of 63,837 cases of sexual, psychological, or
    physical mistreatment of women. Although authorities referred many
    women who reported domestic abuse or sexual crimes to the judicial
    system, cultural prejudices, financial dependence, family pressure, and
    the victim's fear of testifying at a trial contributed to a large
    number of charges against perpetrators being dropped.
        In April the Government initiated a campaign against sexism titled
    React Ecuador, Sexism is Violence, which sought to eradicate gender
    violence by improving the justice system, protecting victims of
    violence, and raising awareness of violence against women as a human
    rights violation. A study published by the campaign indicated that in
    2009 approximately 64 percent of deaths among women were due to gender-
    based violence. According to the campaign, 80 percent of women
    experienced physical, psychological, or sexual violence.
        Governmental joint service centers provided assistance on legal
    issues, social and medical assistance, and police protection free of
    charge to victims of domestic and gender violence. According to family
    law, domestic violence may be punished with a fine for ``damages, pain
    and suffering'' ranging in value from $320 to $4,800, depending on the
    severity of the crime. The law also gives family courts the power to
    remove an abusive spouse from the home if continued cohabitation
    creates a risk to the victim of abuse. In 2009, 31 government centers
    for women received almost 73,000 complaints.
        The constitution provides for courts specializing in women and
    family issues. These courts, under the judicial branch, have the power
    to authorize restraining orders prohibiting the abusive spouse from
    approaching the victim or the victim's place of employment or study and
    from persecuting or intimidating the victim or any family member; to
    reinsert the victim into the family home, if shared, while
    simultaneously removing the abusive spouse from the premises; and to
    order any treatment deemed beneficial to the affected family.
        The constitution affords women an array of benefits in the
    economic, political, and social areas. The law stipulates that the
    Government should formulate and implement policies to achieve gender
    equality, incorporate a gender focus into plans and programs, and
    provide technical assistance to implement the law in the public sector.
        Despite the legal prohibition of sexual harassment, women's rights
    organizations described harassment in the workplace as common. Between
    January and June, the national police received 325 reports and
    complaints of sexual harassment.
        The law acknowledges sexual and reproductive rights, including the
    basic right of couples and individuals to decide freely and responsibly
    the number, spacing, and timing of their children. The Free Maternity
    Care Law protects the sexual and reproductive rights of women and calls
    for free prenatal care, family planning services, and cancer screening.
    The law also promotes a role for men in care giving by providing
    paternity leave of up to 10 days. During the year the Ministry of
    Health's budget for applying the law was $27 million. According to
    statistics from the Population Reference Bureau, 69 percent of women
    had skilled attendants present during childbirth in 2009. The Ministry
    of Public Health stated that only 30 percent of births to self-
    identified indigenous mothers took place in hospitals or health
    centers. The UN Population Fund estimated that the maternal mortality
    rate in 2008 was 140 deaths per 100,000 live births.
        The 2005 National Demographic and Maternal Health Survey (the
    latest available information) reported rural and urban contraceptive
    prevalence rates of 67 percent and 77 percent, respectively. The
    Population Reference Bureau reported in 2009 that more than 36 percent
    of modern contraceptive method users received these services through
    government-sponsored programs.
        The Government continued to implement a national HIV/AIDS program
    begun in 2009 to prevent mother-to-child transmission of the disease
    and provided free screening for all women. Information was not
    available on whether women were equally diagnosed and treated for
    sexually transmitted infections, including HIV; however, women may
    receive more screening than men, since 84 percent received antenatal
    care according to the Population Reference Bureau.
        Despite legal protection of women's rights in politics, the home,
    and employment, societal discrimination against women was pervasive,
    particularly with respect to educational and economic opportunities for
    older women and for those in the lower economic strata. Although women
    enjoyed the same legal status as men, women often did not receive equal
    rights in practice. According to the World Economic Forum's 2010 Global
    Gender Gap Report, for example, women received approximately 61 percent
    of the pay received by men for equal work. Women's advocates alleged
    that culture and tradition inhibited achievement of full equality for
    women. There were fewer women than men employed in professional work
    and skilled trades. Little reliable data existed regarding the
    situation of women within the tightly knit indigenous communities.

        Children.--Citizenship is acquired either through birth in the
    country or by birth to an Ecuadorian mother or father abroad (until the
    third generation). A registration campaign by the Social Registry, the
    Ministry of Social and Economic Inclusion, and the Child and Family
    Institute called Put Your Name Down registered approximately 60,000
    children throughout the country during the year. In 2009, according to
    the Observatory of the Rights of Children and Adolescents, there were
    300,000 unregistered children in the country. Health centers and
    hospitals had the ability to register births at their facility, so all
    children born in hospitals should be registered shortly after birth.
        In May newspapers reported an excessive demand for civil
    registration by parents whose children needed to be registered in order
    to enroll in public schools. Although the law prohibits this
    requirement, some schools set their own requirements. President Correa
    threatened legal action against schools requiring civil registry
    documents and ordered the education minister to investigate. Other
    government services, including welfare payments and free primary health
    care, require some form of identification.
        The constitution requires a minimum of 15 years of schooling. The
    Ministry of Education reported that most children achieved a sixth-
    grade education; however, in some provinces, public schools denied
    entry to students due to the lack of space. By law, education was free
    through high school, but additional costs, such as for uniforms and
    books, and a lack of space in public schools prevented many adolescents
    from attending school.
        There were reports of abuse against children. According to the
    Government, 21 percent of children had suffered some form of sexual
    abuse. Projects sponsored by local NGOs reported that children living
    in the streets suffered exploitative conditions. In the last two
    decades there was an increase in abandoned children and teenage mothers
    in the streets or hospitals. Most of these abandoned children came from
    poor indigenous families.
        Commercial sexual exploitation of minors remained a problem. The
    law prohibits child pornography, with penalties of six to 16 years'
    imprisonment. The law covers statutory rape where the age of consent is
    14. The penalty for statutory rape is 16 to 25 years' imprisonment.
        The country is a party to the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil
    Aspects of International Child Abduction. For information on
    international parental child abduction, please see the Department of
    State's annual report on compliance at http://travel.state.gov/
    abduction/resources/congressreport/congressreport--4308.html.

        Anti-Semitism.--There were no reports of anti-Semitic acts. There
    was a small Jewish community, including an estimated 250 families in
    Quito, according to the local synagogue.

        Trafficking in Persons.--For information on trafficking in persons,
    please see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons
    Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        Persons With Disabilities.--The constitution prohibits
    discrimination against persons with physical and mental disabilities in
    employment, education, access to health care, and the provision of
    other state services. The interagency National Council on Disabilities
    oversees government policies regarding persons with disabilities.
    Although the law mandates access to buildings and public transportation
    for persons with disabilities, the Government did not fully enforce it.
        The constitution extends benefits to persons with disabilities,
    particularly in the areas of education, employment, and access to
    social security. The law requires that percent of employees in all
    public and private enterprises with more than 25 employees be persons
    with disabilities. On May 8, Vice President Lenin Moreno stated that
    government agencies were fully compliant with the law and that private
    companies would face stiff fines for noncompliance. According to
    government information, only 35 percent of the 1,532 audited companies
    complied with this law. Through the beginning of June, nine companies
    were fined a total of $600,000 for not complying with the law.
        An initiative called Ecuador without Barriers, led by the vice
    president, helped create an unspecified number of jobs for persons with
    disabilities, provided funding to more than 200 municipalities to
    improve access to public buildings, and opened training and
    rehabilitation centers. The initiative also created a record to show
    the degree of compliance by companies that hire persons with
    disabilities. In addition to this program, the Government was building
    centers for those considered intellectually disabled.
        The vice president also led an initiative to conduct a census,
    registry, and survey of living conditions of persons with disabilities.
    As of early December, the initiative had registered 294,166 persons
    with disabilities nationwide. In addition, the caregivers of persons
    with severe disabilities received a government subsidy equivalent to
    the minimum monthly wage. In 2009 the municipality of Guayaquil, the
    country's largest city, passed a regulation requiring all businesses
    and public institutions to improve access for the disabled and the
    elderly. Also in 2009, seven municipalities located in areas of high
    risk of natural disasters finished developing guidelines for the rescue
    and assistance of persons with disabilities during and following a
    disaster.

        National/Racial/Ethnic Minorities.--Afro-Ecuadorian citizens, who
    account for approximately 3 percent of the population, suffered
    pervasive discrimination, particularly with regard to educational and
    economic opportunity.
        Afro-Ecuadorian organizations noted that, despite the absence of
    official discrimination, societal discrimination and stereotyping
    continued to affect them. For example, they continued to assert that
    police stopped Afro-Ecuadorians for document checks more frequently
    than they stopped other citizens and that employers often would not
    interview persons whose job applications carried Afro-Ecuadorian
    photos. There were no special government efforts to address these
    problems, except for the Municipality of Quito, which in 2008
    prohibited private and public institutions in Quito from accepting
    curriculum vitae with pictures.
        The Corporation for the Development of Afro-Ecuadorians (CODAE)
    noted that Afro-Ecuadorians still lacked access to basic education.
    CODAE stated that the school registration rate for Afro-Ecuadorian
    children was 87 percent, below the national average. A national survey
    by CODAE revealed that high levels of racism and discrimination against
    minority groups persisted and that 88 and 71 percent of Afro-
    Ecuadorians and indigenous persons, respectively, had been victims of
    racism and discrimination.
        The constitution declares the state to be plurinational and affirms
    the principle of nondiscrimination by recognizing the right of
    indigenous, Afro-Ecuadorian, and Montubio (a rural, farming population
    recognized as an independent ethnic group) communities to restitution
    for acts of discrimination. It also mandates affirmative action
    policies to provide for the representation of minorities. A 2009
    executive decree calls for all public-sector bodies to ensure that
    ``access to labor'' reflects the percentage of the population of
    indigenous persons, Afro-Ecuadorians, and Montubios.

        Indigenous People.--An estimated 7-30 percent of the population
    maintained their indigenous cultural identity and lived in indigenous
    communities. The vast majority of indigenous citizens resided in rural
    areas, including the highlands and Amazonian provinces. Despite their
    political influence and advocacy efforts of grassroots community
    groups, indigenous persons continued to suffer discrimination at many
    levels of society and, with few exceptions, were at the bottom of the
    socioeconomic scale.
        Arable land was scarce in the more heavily populated highland
    areas, where high infant mortality, malnutrition, and epidemic disease
    were common among the indigenous population. Electricity and potable
    water often were unavailable. Although the rural education system was
    seriously deficient, many indigenous groups participated with the
    Ministry of Education in the development of the bilingual education
    program used in rural public schools. The literacy rate among the
    indigenous population was approximately 72 percent.
        The constitution strengthens the rights of indigenous persons; it
    declares the state plurinational, recognizing Kichwa and Shuar as
    ``official languages of intercultural relations,'' and specifically
    recognizes indigenous justice. However, the lack of a clearly defined
    relationship between indigenous justice and the regular justice system
    led to a number of legal conflicts between the Government and
    indigenous leaders. According to press reports, there were 18 cases of
    indigenous justice during the year.
        The law also recognizes the rights of indigenous communities to
    hold property communally. Land in many cases is titled to the
    indigenous community. In other cases, indigenous groups managed a
    reserve that the Government set aside for biodiversity protection.
    Although indigenous persons have the same civil and political rights as
    other citizens, some of their leaders reported discrimination and
    prosecution.
        The constitution grants indigenous persons and communities the
    right to be consulted and participate in decisions about the
    exploitation of nonrenewable resources that are located in their lands
    and that could affect their culture or environment. In May indigenous
    organizations opposed a government project to regulate water resources
    by participating in protests in different parts of the country. In one
    of those protests, two indigenous persons and 11 police officials were
    injured. Indigenous groups claimed that newly passed or proposed laws
    covering mining, water resources, and hydrocarbon resources did not
    take indigenous viewpoints sufficiently into account and furthermore
    intruded upon indigenous autonomy over their lands and resources.
    According to an April ruling by the Constitutional Court, the National
    Assembly must consult with affected communities on water issues before
    the legislature can vote on the draft laws.
        The constitution allows indigenous persons to participate in the
    benefits that projects may bring and to receive compensation for any
    damages that result. It mandates, in the case of environmental damage,
    immediate corrective government action and full restitution from the
    responsible company, although some indigenous organizations asserted a
    lack of consultation and remedial action.
        An environmental lawsuit brought by certain indigenous communities
    against the multinational oil company Chevron was pending at year's end
    under the jurisdiction of the Sucumbios Provincial Court (see Section
    4). The lawsuit, which was filed in Ecuador in 2003, is a continuation
    of a lawsuit originally launched in 1993 in the United States for
    damage allegedly caused by oil production activities of Texaco (later
    purchased by Chevron) prior to its 1992 departure from Ecuador. The
    plaintiffs, representing 30,000 indigenous persons who claimed that
    their health, welfare, and livelihoods were affected by environmental
    damage caused by Texaco, revised their damages estimate from $27
    billion up to $113 billion in September 2010.
        Indigenous groups lobbied the Government, enlisted the help of
    foreign and domestic NGOs, and mounted protests in attempts to win a
    greater share of oil revenues and a greater voice in natural resource
    and development decisions. Settlers, including those from other
    indigenous groups, drug traffickers, and loggers illegally encroached
    into indigenous territory. Corrupt local officials, a lack of political
    will, and divisions among and within indigenous communities undermined
    indigenous efforts to stop the flow of illegally harvested timber.
    Widespread environmental damage, in part due to deforestation and
    petroleum production, constituted another serious problem. Small-scale
    mining, often on the part of indigenous communities themselves, also
    contributed to serious environmental damage.

        Societal Abuses, Discrimination, and Acts of Violence Based on
    Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity--The constitution includes the
    principle of nondiscrimination and establishes choice of sexual
    orientation as a right. Transsexual persons have the right to identify
    themselves by their chosen gender on their national identification
    cards, according to a court case in Pichincha Province. Although the
    law prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation, gays,
    lesbians, transgender persons, and transvestites continued to suffer
    discrimination from both public and private bodies.
        Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) organizations
    reported no incidents of violence perpetrated by police or other
    government agents towards their organizations. Such groups organized
    multiple gay-pride marches in the preceding decade, including one in
    Quito on July 4, with the authorization of pertinent authorities and
    received police protection. An LGBT film festival was organized in six
    cities in September. However, LGBT groups claimed that police and
    prosecutors did not thoroughly investigate deaths of LGBT individuals,
    including when there is suspicion that the killing was because of
    sexual orientation.
        Societal discrimination was present. Members of the LGBT community
    continued to report that their right of equal access to formal
    education was violated frequently. The LGBT population involved in the
    sex industry reported abusive situations, extortion, and mistreatment
    by security forces but did not file or press charges in the Office of
    the Public Prosecutor.

        Other Societal Violence or Discrimination.--The constitution
    specifically prohibits discrimination directed at persons with HIV/
    AIDS. There was no societal violence against persons with HIV/AIDS;
    however, NGOs reported that individuals with HIV/AIDS believed they
    were discriminated against, including on issues such as equal
    employment opportunities and access to appropriate health care.

    Section 7. Worker Rights
        a. The Right of Association.--While the law provides most workers
    with the rights to form and join trade unions of their choice, legal
    protections of these rights were inadequate, sometimes failing to deter
    employers from retaliating against workers for organizing. There were a
    number of cases reported in which workers were fired for union
    activities, despite the law. Members of the police, the military, and
    most public-sector employees (those who fall under the civil service
    law) were not free to form trade unions. Approximately 1--3 percent of
    the workforce was organized.
        The constitution terms worker rights ``irrevocable;'' it provides
    for the right to unionize and to strike (except in instances which
    might cause ``paralysis'' in strategic sectors) and commits state
    support for democratic unions. The worker-rights provisions in the
    constitution require the adoption of additional implementing laws.
        The law does not require reinstatement of workers fired for union
    activity but does require compensation and fines.
        The law prohibits the majority of public-sector employees from
    joining unions or exercising collective bargaining rights. Under the
    law, employees that fall into the technical, administrative, or
    professional categories may not join a union or bargain collectively.
    Most public employees maintained membership in a labor-sector
    association, but such associations are not allowed to strike or bargain
    collectively. The labor code and the constitution require workers in
    state enterprises to be represented by a single labor union.
        The law does not provide the majority of public workers with the
    right to strike. Public-sector employees in strategic sectors may not
    take any action that paralyzes those sectors, including striking. The
    constitution designates health; environmental sanitation; education;
    justice; the fire brigade; social security; electrical energy; drinking
    water and sewerage; hydrocarbon production; the processing, transport
    and distribution of fuel; public transport; and post and
    telecommunications as strategic sectors. Some of the sectors defined as
    strategic exceeded the International Labor Organization (ILO) standard
    for essential services.
        The law includes a provision that striking public-sector workers
    are liable to between two and five years in prison. The ILO has noted
    repeatedly that this law could lead to compulsory labor as punishment
    for participation in peaceful strikes, a violation of international
    labor standards.
        There were few restrictions on the right of private-sector workers
    to strike, although a 10-day period is required before a strike can be
    declared. The law allows solidarity strikes or boycotts of three days
    if the Ministry of Labor Relations approves them. In some industries,
    during a legal strike, workers may take possession of the factory or
    workplace (thus ending production at the site) and receive police
    protection during the takeover. In other industries, such as
    agriculture, the law requires a 20-day waiting period from the day the
    strike is called. During this time workers and employers must agree on
    how many workers are needed to ensure a minimum level of service, and
    at least 20 percent of the workforce must continue to work to provide
    essential services. The law provides that ``the employer may contract
    substitute personnel'' only when striking workers refuse to send the
    number of workers required to provide the minimum necessary services,
    although in practice this law was not enforced. The law protects
    strikers and their leaders from retaliation.
        In January, 19 employees were summarily dismissed, with the
    approval of the Ministry of Labor, from an electricity generating
    company in Guayaquil for interrupting services to the public and
    ``insulting the majesty of the president'' as a result of protests in
    2009. The employees were charged with sabotage and terrorism, but the
    charges were dismissed by the prosecutor on March 29, a decision
    confirmed by a judge on May 30. In October the workers went to the
    Labor Commission of the National Assembly to demand reinstatement and
    hired lawyers to fight for their case.
        On July 29, the Provincial Court of Justice overturned the
    tripartite commission's ruling in favor of the union in a 2009 case
    involving striking workers at a tire manufacturing company. On
    September 23, the company, workers, and the Ministry of Labor Relations
    reached an agreement. On September 29, the company fired 120 former
    strikers (the strike had officially ended); the firings were declared
    legal by the Ministry of Labor Relations so long as the appropriate
    severance payouts were made. The workers protested the firings and were
    attempting to be reinstated at the end of the year.
        The constitution prohibits the use of outsourcing and of
    discriminatory criteria in hiring. Outsourcing includes subcontracting,
    third party, and hourly contracts. The law grants an exemption for
    outsourcing services that are not an integral part of the company's
    productive processes. Public sector enterprises may subcontract for
    certain technical workers with the Ministry of Labor's approval. The
    law permits part-time contracts, but only with full-time employee
    benefits.
        The new Public Service Law expanded the definition of workers
    classified as technical and administrative workers and subject to the
    Civil Service and Administrative Career Law (LOSCA) rather than the
    labor code. Workers who fall under LOSCA have limited rights to
    collective bargaining and freedom of association. Also, those who work
    in strategic sectors are not legally permitted to strike, although they
    may participate in collective bargaining negotiations.
        Individual workers may take complaints against employers to the
    Labor Inspection Office if they are still employed by the firm or to
    courts charged with protecting labor rights if they are no longer
    employed by the organization. Unions may also take complaints to a
    tripartite (union, employer, government) arbitration board established
    to hear these complaints.

        b. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively.--All private
    employers with 30 or more workers belonging to a union are required to
    negotiate collectively when the union so requests. However, the law
    requires a minimum of 30 workers for the creation of associations, work
    committees, or assemblies to organize work committees, and does not
    allow foreign citizens to serve as trade union officers. The ILO
    considered these requirements impediments to the right to organize.
    According to the International Confederation of Trade Unions, to form a
    works council, the approval of 50 percent plus one of the workforce is
    required. If the works council had more members than the union, the
    union would have no bargaining power in the workplace.
        Collective bargaining agreements covered only 140,000 workers of
    the total workforce of 4.3 million. Most of the economically active
    population was employed in the agricultural sector or the urban
    informal sector; the vast majority of these workers were not organized.
    The law allows businesses to hire workers on individual contracts.
        The law prohibits the dismissal of workers from the moment a union
    notifies the labor inspector of its general assembly until the
    formation of its first executive board. However, labor leaders have
    reported many cases in which employees were fired after the employers
    were notified of the formation of the union. Even if the workers win a
    legal case against the employer, the law does not require
    reinstatement, only a fine, which is limited to between $50 and $200.
        There is special legislation regulating labor in export processing
    zones. Most workers in export processing zones are hired on temporary
    contracts, and, while technically covered by the labor code,
    enforcement of the code was weak.

        c. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor.--The law prohibits
    forced or compulsory labor, including by children; however, there were
    reports that children were subjected to forced labor. Children were
    exploited (or forced to work) as street vendors or domestic servants.
    In June the UN special rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery
    reported adult forced labor in the palm oil industry and among domestic
    workers.

        d. Prohibition of Child Labor and Minimum Age for Employment.--The
    law prohibits the exploitation of children in the workplace and forced
    or compulsory labor; however, the Government did not effectively
    enforce the law, and child labor remained a problem, especially in
    informal sectors. According to the UN special rapporteur on
    contemporary forms of slavery, child labor continued to be an obstacle
    to the development of the country. Areas in which child workers were
    most likely to be found were banana plantations and garbage dumps.
    Children also worked in the production of broccoli, sugarcane, and
    strawberries. They were also involved in brick-making and small-scale
    gold mining.
        Forced child labor took the form of involuntary domestic work,
    forced begging, and forced labor in mines. Also, see the Department of
    State's annual Trafficking in Persons Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.
        The labor code, the child and adolescent code, and the constitution
    set the minimum working age for minors at 15 for all types of labor,
    and the maximum hours a minor may work at six hours per day, five days
    per week. The law lists jobs that are not suitable for children and
    prohibits minors from working in hazardous conditions, including in
    agriculture, mines, domestic work, garbage dumps, slaughterhouses, or
    in jobs requiring exposure to toxic or dangerous substances or loud
    noises. The law requires employers to pay minors the same wages
    received by adults for the same type of employment. Penalties for
    violations of the child labor laws include fines of $50 to $300 for
    parents or guardians and fines of $200 to $1,000 for employers hiring
    children less than age 15. An employer's business is subject to closure
    for repeated infractions.
        The Ministries of Labor and of Economic and Social Inclusion and
    the Minors' Tribunal enforce child labor laws, but enforcement, while
    improving, was not fully effective. The 2006 National Institute of
    Statistics and Census's Child Labor National Survey (the latest
    available information) found that 367,000 children between the ages of
    five and 14 were engaged in labor not permitted by law, primarily
    working in rural areas or in the informal sector, compared with 550,000
    in 2001. UNICEF estimated the number of child laborers at around
    340,000. From January to May, the National Directorate of Police for
    Children and Adolescents received 75 reports of child labor, the
    majority for forced begging.
        In March the Government combined the child labor inspectors with
    the regular labor inspections force. The force of approximately 110
    inspectors is in charge of enforcing all labor laws, including those
    for child labor. In addition, the Ministry of Mines and Energy had an
    agreement with the Ministry of Labor Relations that allowed Ministry of
    Mines' inspectors to enforce child labor laws and impose sanctions for
    violations found in mines. During the year over 2,000 children were
    removed from different sectors working in conditions that violated
    labor laws.
        While the Ministry of Labor's Social Service Directorate monitored
    child labor in businesses such as factories, enforcement in most
    sectors of the economy remained limited. In urban areas many children
    under the age of 15 worked in family-owned businesses in the informal
    sector, shining shoes, or as street peddlers. Other children were
    employed in commerce, messenger services, domestic services, and
    begging. Children as young as five or six often sold newspapers or
    candy on the street to support themselves or augment family income.
        In March the Government announced a program, Ecuador without Child
    Labor, aimed at eliminating all forms of illegal child labor. The UN
    Committee on the Rights of Children in January noted the amendment
    regarding the minimum age of 15 and the National Plan for the
    Prevention and Progressive Elimination of Child Labor. Nevertheless, it
    expressed concern that many children were still performing harmful
    work, such as domestic work with characteristics of slavery, and
    executing dangerous tasks around garbage dumps, banana plantations, and
    within the small-scale mining industry, including forced labor. In most
    of these cases, children did not attend school or receive any type of
    education. In December the Government announced that it had practically
    eradicated child labor in garbage dumps, reducing the number of
    children working there from around 2,000 to only 29.

        e. Acceptable Conditions of Work.--The constitution mandates an
    annual revision of the minimum wage to match the cost of a family's
    basic needs. The National Council on Salaries, a technical agency under
    the Labor Ministry, acted as the negotiating and arbitration arm. On
    January 15, the minimum monthly wage was raised from $218 to $240. The
    statutory minimum wage did not provide a decent standard of living for
    a worker and family. The basic national shopping basket cost
    approximately $535 a month per household. The Ministry of Labor
    Relations enforced the minimum wage. Most organized workers in state
    industries and formal-sector private enterprises earned substantially
    more than the minimum wage and received other significant benefits
    through collective bargaining agreements. However, most workers worked
    in the large informal and rural sectors without obtaining the minimum
    wage or legally mandated benefits.
        A campaign, Decent Domestic Employment, was launched on March 19 by
    the Ministry of Labor Relations to educate domestic employees and
    employers about labor laws, including the need for a contract,
    registration of the employee with the Ecuadorian Social Security
    Institute (IESS), and the payment of the minimum wage, two bonus-month
    salaries, and social security taxes. The campaign also included a
    registration drive for the IESS and nationwide inspections by the
    Ministry of Labor Relations to confirm the legal employment of domestic
    workers.
        The law limits the standard work period to 40 hours a week, eight
    hours a day, with two consecutive days of rest per week. Underground
    workers, such as miners, are limited to six hours a day and may only
    work one additional hour a day with premium pay. Premium pay is 1.5
    times the basic salary for work done from 6:00 a.m. to 12:00 a.m. Work
    done from 12:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m. receives twice the basic salary,
    although workers whose standard shift is at night receive a premium of
    25 percent. Premium pay also applies to work done on weekends and
    holidays. Overtime is limited to no more than four hours a day and a
    total of 12 hours a week. Mandatory overtime is prohibited. Foreign and
    migrant workers are subject to the same labor standards. Violators are
    subject to fines and other legal action.
        The constitution provides for the health and safety of workers and
    there are health and safety standards in the labor code, to be enforced
    by the Ministry of Labor Relations and the Social Security Department
    of Hazards. In the formal sector, occupational health and safety was
    not a significant problem. There were no specific regulations governing
    health and safety standards in the small-scale agricultural sector. The
    labor code singles out the health and safety of miners; however, there
    was no enforcement of safety rules in the small mines that made up the
    vast majority of enterprises in the mining sector.
        The Ministry of Labor Relations did not deploy sufficient resources
    to enforce labor laws, and violations were common. Workers do not have
    the right to remove themselves from situations that endanger health or
    safety without jeopardy to their employment.
        Labor inspections may be conducted by appointment, although this
    was uncommon, or after a worker complaint. If a worker requests an
    inspection and a Ministry of Labor Relations inspector confirms a
    workplace hazard; that inspector then may close down the workplace.
    Inspections also occurred after other types of labor complaints. Labor
    inspections generally occurred because of complaints, not as a
    preventative measure. In some cases, violations were remedied, but
    other cases were subject to legal challenges that delayed changes for
    months. Various NGOs claimed that complaints by certain classes of
    workers, such as migrants and refugees, were rarely investigated. Labor
    leaders and business owners also claimed corruption was common among
    the inspectors. During the year the Ministry of Labor Relations began
    implementing a series of reforms aimed at improving labor rights
    enforcement, including in labor inspections. For example, labor
    inspectors were assigned functional areas, such as layoffs and
    compensation issues; a new electronic system helped significantly
    reduce the wait for an appointment for a hearing with an inspector.
        If a worker is fired after filing a complaint and the complaint is
    found to be valid, the worker is eligible to receive severance pay. A
    company is liable for medical care and compensation to a worker injured
    through noncompliance with safety standards. The Government admitted
    the number of on-the-job injuries was seriously underreported in the
    country. According to the IESS, the Ministry of Labor Relations, and
    the Ministry of Health, approximately 15,000 on-the-job injuries were
    reported each year. The ILO estimated the number should be
    approximately 160,000. Violations were reportedly common in the banana,
    palm oil, flower, and gold-mining industries, particularly involving
    exposure to toxic chemicals.
        The UN special rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery reported
    severe abuses and little government oversight in the palm oil industry,
    where many workers were Colombian migrants. The abuses included
    excessive work hours, very low or no wages, and inhumane living
    conditions. Additional abuses were found in the banana, flower, and
    small-scale gold-mining industries.
        The constitution protects self-employed workers who work in public
    areas and prohibits the confiscation of their products or work tools, a
    provision intended to benefit informal sector workers, such as street
    vendors.

                                   __________

                                  EL SALVADOR

        El Salvador is a constitutional, multiparty democracy with a
    population of approximately 6.1 million. In March 2009 voters elected
    Carlos Mauricio Funes Cartagena of the Farabundo Marti National
    Liberation Front (FMLN) as president for a five-year term in generally
    free and fair elections. Security forces reported to civilian
    authorities.
        Human rights problems included isolated unlawful killings by
    security forces; harsh, violent, and overcrowded prison conditions;
    lengthy pretrial detention; high levels of impunity for crime and abuse
    of official authority; official corruption; violence and discrimination
    against women; child abuse and forced child prostitution; trafficking
    in persons; violence and discrimination against sexual minorities;
    child labor; and inadequate enforcement of labor laws.

                            RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

    Section 1. Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom
            From:
        a. Arbitrary or Unlawful Deprivation of Life.--There were no
    verified reports that the Government or its agents committed
    politically motivated killings; however, there were reports that
    security forces were involved in unlawful killings. During the year the
    Office of the Ombudsman for Human Rights (PDDH) received eight
    complaints of alleged unlawful killings by the National Civilian Police
    (PNC), three killings by the Prison Authority, and two killings by the
    armed forces. Although the PDDH defines all killings by government
    entities as ``extrajudicial killings,'' there were no verifiable
    reports of deliberate unlawful killings carried out by order of the
    Government or with its complicity. The PNC Office of the Inspector
    General (OIG) reported that through December, 20 PNC officers were
    accused of homicide and that PNC officers had killed 14 persons.
        On September 21, a court convicted three of the six gang members
    implicated in the June 2009 killing of community activist Marcelo
    Rivera of murder and sentenced them to 40 years in prison; the other
    three received three-year sentences as accessories.
        The Office of the Attorney General (Fiscalia or OAG) continued to
    investigate the September 2009 killing of Roque Feller Melgar, a former
    legislative deputy for the Christian Democratic Party and mayoral
    candidate for the National Republican Alliance (ARENA) party. Four
    suspects have been identified, but no arrests have been made.
        Authorities believed that the December 2009 killings of Ramiro
    Rivera Gomez and Dora Santos Sorto Rodriguez were related to an
    interfamilial feud. Nine purported gang members were arrested for the
    killings.
        There was no further information regarding the 2008 fatal shooting
    of Rafaela Hernandez Delgado while she was riding a public bus.
        On April 30, the Third Court of Instruction in San Miguel
    recommended dismissing charges against Shefick Cruz Vasquez and
    Edilberto Paiz Morales, who were accused of the 2008 killing of Garcia
    Amaya. The court convicted two other PNC officers, Sergeant Nelson
    Arriaza Antonio Carlos Delgado and Agent Chevez Geovanny Hidalgo, for
    the murder, dismissed them from the PNC, and sentenced them to 40 years
    in prison.
        The OAG' s 2008 appeal of the Supreme Court's acquittal of Edwin
    Rene Sanchez Canjura for two counts of murder and 17 counts of
    attempted murder, in relation to the 2006 killings of two police
    officers remained pending.
        In November 2009 authorities dismissed charges against Rosa Elba
    Zelaya de Ortiz for the 2004 murder of teamster union activist Gilberto
    Soto. Santos Sanchez, also charged with the murder, remained at large
    with a warrant for his arrest.
        There were no new developments regarding the 2008 Hector Ventura
    murder case.
        On March 24, President Funes on behalf of the Salvadoran State
    publicly asked for forgiveness for the killing of Monsignor Oscar
    Arnulfo Romero in 1980. Funes stated that the amnesty law approved
    after the civil war was not an obstacle to investigating the killings
    of Monsignor Romero or of six Jesuit priests in 1989. Funes also stated
    that his government would not promote the annulment of the amnesty law,
    as requested by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).
    On November 18, the IACHR notified the Government that it had accepted
    the case of the extrajudicial killings of Rufino and Teresa Ramirez.
        On May 21, the Supreme Court Constitutional Chamber denied a
    judicial request for information from a Spanish court on the 1989
    murder of six Jesuit priests; the decision was based on the 1992
    amnesty law and statute of limitations.

        b. Disappearance.--There were no reports of politically motivated
    disappearances. On January 16, President Funes publicly asked families
    of citizens who disappeared during the civil war to forgive the actions
    of the Government, and created the National Commission for the Search
    for Disappeared Children. The commission, which is to cooperate with
    and recognize cases brought forward by the nongovernmental organization
    (NGO) Association for the Search for Missing Children (Pro-Busqueda),
    was sworn in on August 31. Pro-Busqueda received 28 new complaints
    regarding children who disappeared during the civil war, continued
    investigating 519 cases, and resolved nine other cases by year's end.
        In July the Human Rights Institute of the University of Central
    America (IDHUCA) filed a complaint before the Inter-American Court of
    Human Rights, alleging that the Government failed to act on a request
    by the IACHR to investigate the disappearances of six children from
    1981 to 1983: Gregoria Herminia, Serapio Cristian, Julia Ines
    Contreras, Jose Ruben Rivera, and Ana Julia and Carmelina Mejia
    Ramirez. Pro-Busqueda presented evidence to the court on October 13. On
    September 22 and in November, the IACHR notified the Government that it
    had accepted the cases of the alleged disappearances in 1982 of
    Patricia Emilie Cuellar Sandoval, Mauricio Cuellar Cuellar, Julia
    Orbelina Perez, Natividad de Jesus Ramirez, Guadalupe Roble, Jose Elias
    Ramirez, and Jorge Alberto Ramirez.
        In November 2009 the IACHR heard the Government's response to Pro-
    Busqueda's complaints, alleging the forced disappearances of Santos
    Ernesto Salinas and Emelinda Lorena Hernandez in 1981 and of Manuel
    Antonio Bonilla and Ricardo Ayala Abarca in 1982. The cases remained
    pending awaiting a response from the Government.
        In 2008 the Supreme Court rejected the OAG' s appeal of a lower
    court's 2008 dismissal of charges against Juan Antonio Lopez, the
    western regional chief of the Office of the Public Defender in relation
    to the kidnapping of a 12-year-old boy.

        c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or
    Punishment.--The constitution prohibits such practices; however,
    through December the PDDH received 558 complaints alleging the use of
    excessive force or mistreatment of detainees, compared with 562 such
    complaints during 2009. The PDDH received 57 complaints specifically
    against PNC officers for excessive use of force, 10 against members of
    the armed forces, and three against prison authorities. It also
    received 46 complaints of torture against PNC officers, five against
    members of the armed forces, and nine against the prison authorities.
    The OIG reported 13 complaints of torture by PNC officers through
    August but did not report if any were punished. The PDDH reported
    allegations that women were raped by male guards in pretrial detention
    centers. The OIG reported three complaints of rape by PNC officers, all
    of whom were sanctioned.
        On August 9, authorities arrested PNC Officer Juan Fidel Salazar
    Castaneda for raping a 14-year-old girl in the Metapan police station
    on August 7 after she had escaped from a National Children's Shelter.
    The case was presented to a disciplinary court on November 15 and was
    pending decision at year's end.
        In July 2009 on-duty PNC officers Jose Juan Cruz Carias and Julio
    German Garcia Herrera were arrested for raping a woman in custody in
    the Montserrat police station. The OAG reported the officers were
    cleared of all charges due to a lack of cooperation by the victim.
        On January 14, authorities dropped the charges in the 2008 case of
    the alleged police beating of Abraham Kattan.

        Prison and Detention Center Conditions.--Prison and detention
    center conditions remained harsh and dangerous. Overcrowding
    constituted a serious threat to prisoners' health and lives. In many
    facilities there were inadequate provisions for sanitation, potable
    water, ventilation, temperature and lighting. On October 20, the IACHR
    called prison conditions deplorable, stating that there were
    construction deficiencies that led to safety hazards, a lack of
    sanitation and potable water that led to a high incidence of disease,
    and a lack of opportunity for children to visit in some prisons.
        Prison authorities reported that 57 prisoners died during the year
    due to natural causes, homicide, and suicide. As of December there had
    been 11 riots, resulting in three deaths.
        On November 10, a fire killed 27 inmates at a youth detention
    center in Ilobasco. An investigation by the OAG of charges of
    negligence by the guards in not extinguishing the fire continued at
    year's end.
        On July 19, Ombudsman for Human Rights Oscar Luna stated that
    corruption and the lack of judicial decisions to use alternatives to
    imprisonment (fines, bail release, and others) had increased
    overcrowding in prisons.
        The prison authority reported that as of December, there were
    24,283 prisoners held in 19 correctional facilities and two secure
    hospital wards, with a combined designed capacity for 8,080. As of
    August there were 781 inmates in four prisons for juvenile offenders
    and in one prison for juveniles becoming adults during their sentence
    with a total capacity of 750 inmates. Due to a lack of holding cells,
    pretrial detainees were often held in regular prisons together with
    violent criminals.
        Gang activities in prisons and juvenile-holding facilities remained
    a serious problem. Of the total population in detention center
    facilities, 8,406 adult and 394 juvenile inmates were current or former
    gang members. Gang members were separated from the regular prison
    population when possible. Gangs continued to exercise influence within
    the prisons and the judicial system.
        Prisoners reportedly conducted criminal activities from their
    cells, at times with the complicity of prison guards. Smuggling of
    weapons, drugs, and contraband such as cell phones and cell phone chips
    was a major problem in the prisons. In August 2009, as a means to
    combat increased inmate extortion using cell phones, authorities
    continued body cavity searches of prisoners, instituted in 2009, to
    detect cell phones. Additionally, President Funes ordered the armed
    forces to reinforce the perimeter security of the prisons holding the
    most dangerous criminals.
        Authorities sanctioned prison staff suspected of corruption and
    arrested others on other charges, including rape, robbery, and assault,
    although not necessarily in relation to their work duties.
        Prisoners and detainees had reasonable access to visitors and were
    permitted to participate in religious observance.
        Prison authorities permitted prisoners and detainees to submit
    complaints to judicial authorities without censorship and to request
    investigation of credible allegations of inhumane conditions. Prison
    authorities investigated such allegations, although investigation
    results were not always documented in a publicly accessible manner.
    Through December the PDDH received six complaints against prison guards
    from inmates. Through December, the prison authority received 49 formal
    complaints from inmates and 213 from family members.
        The Government investigated and monitored prison and detention
    center conditions, and permitted prison-monitoring visits by
    independent human rights observers, NGOs, and the media, and such
    visits occurred during the year.

        d. Arbitrary Arrest or Detention.--Although the constitution
    prohibits arbitrary arrest and detention, there were complaints that
    the PNC arbitrarily arrested and detained persons. The PDDH reported
    receiving 228 complaints of arbitrary arrest or detention and 143
    complaints of illegal detentions during the year.

        Role of the Police and Security Apparatus.--The PNC is responsible
    for maintaining public security and the Ministry of Defense for
    maintaining national security. President Funes authorized the military
    to provide temporary support of indefinite duration for PNC patrols in
    rural and urban areas and gave support to law enforcement agencies for
    specific activities, including antinarcotics and antigang efforts. The
    Ministry of Public Security headed the antigang task force. In 2009
    military personnel were deployed to join the police on patrols and
    antigang and other task forces, and in May military personnel were
    assigned to assist in guarding the prison system. As of December 3,676
    military personnel were assigned to assist the PNC, 1,553 to the Prison
    Authority, and 694 to the border patrol. Military personnel do not have
    arrest authority. The Government has not indicated a concluding date
    for the temporary assignment of the military to police duties.
        Inadequate training, insufficient government funding, lack of a
    uniform code of evidence, and isolated instances of corruption and
    outright criminality interfered with the PNC' s effectiveness. During
    the year the OIG had received 2,690 complaints of alleged police
    misconduct, referred 73 cases of these to special investigation units,
    and sanctioned 1,127 officers in response to complaints filed during
    the year and prior years. These sanctions included 133 officers
    dismissed for misconduct and 583 suspended without pay for minor and
    serious infractions.
        On September 14, the conservative parties in the Legislative
    Assembly approved a special committee to investigate PNC Inspector
    General Zaira Navas. Committee members charged that the OIG selected
    only high-ranking PNC officials appointed by prior conservative
    governments for her investigation. President Funes supported the OIG.
        The OIG reported that most PNC officers and police academy cadets
    received human rights awareness training during the year, including
    training by the Salvadoran Institute for the Development of Women
    (ISDEMU) concerning rape prevention, child abuse, and related offenses.
    During the year the PNC Human Rights Unit trained 1,302 police officers
    on general human rights topics. There was additional training of 91
    police officers, 30 prosecutors, 14 judges, five prison officials and
    31 officials and technical advisors, including workers in the
    immigration, customs, public safety and airport authorities, included
    human rights awareness components.

        Arrest Procedures and Treatment While in Detention.--The
    constitution requires a written warrant for arrest, except in cases
    where an individual is arrested in the act of committing a crime. In
    practice authorities apprehended persons openly and with warrants based
    on sufficient evidence and issued by a duly authorized official and
    brought them before appropriate judicial officials. The constitution
    grants detainees the right to a prompt judicial determination of the
    legality of their detention, and authorities generally respected this
    right in practice. In general detainees were promptly informed of
    charges against them.
        The law permits release on bail for detainees who are unlikely to
    flee or whose release would not impede the investigation of the case.
    The bail system functioned adequately in most cases. Because it may
    take several years for a case to come to trial, some prisoners were
    incarcerated longer than the maximum legal sentences for their crimes.
    In such circumstances detainees could request a Supreme Court review of
    their continued detention.
        The courts generally enforced a ruling that interrogation without
    the presence of counsel is coercion and that any evidence obtained in
    such a manner is inadmissible. As a result, PNC authorities generally
    delayed questioning until a public defender or an attorney arrived.
    Family members were allowed prompt access to detainees. Detainees
    generally had prompt access to counsel of their choosing or to an
    attorney provided by the state.
        The constitution permits the PNC to hold a person for 72 hours
    before delivering the suspect to court, after which the judge may order
    detention for an additional 72 hours to determine if an investigation
    is warranted. The law allows up to six months for investigation of
    serious crimes before requiring either a trial or dismissal of the
    case. In exceptionally complicated cases, the prosecutor may ask an
    appeals court to extend the deadline for three or six months, depending
    on the seriousness of the crime. Many cases were not completed within
    the legally prescribed time frame. As of August within the prison
    population there were 8,163 individuals in pretrial detention or in
    detention awaiting final judgment.

        e. Denial of Fair Public Trial.--Although the constitution provides
    for an independent judiciary, the judiciary suffered from inefficiency,
    corruption, political infighting, and insufficient resources.
    Substantial corruption in the judicial system contributed to a high
    level of impunity, undermining the rule of law and the public's respect
    for the judiciary. The criminal conviction rate was less than 5
    percent. An ineffective public security strategy, inadequate government
    funding and training of the PNC, and ineffective senior-level
    leadership made it difficult to identify, arrest, and prosecute
    perpetrators of human rights abuses and other crimes, thus diminishing
    public confidence in the justice system. Intimidation and killing of
    police officers, crime victims and witnesses created a climate of fear
    complicating investigation of violent crime and alleged human rights
    abuses.
        The Ministry of Justice's Witness Protection Program operated
    witness and victim protection programs that provided protection during
    the year to 3,151 persons, of whom 149 were protected under
    extraordinary measures. The PNC provided protection to 104 persons
    during the year. Nonetheless street gang intimidation and violence
    against witnesses contributed to a climate of impunity from criminal
    prosecution.
        On July 28, a judge of the First Court in Zacatecoluca ordered a
    preliminary hearing against Carlos Antonio Miranda Gonzales in
    connection with the high-profile 1999 kidnapping, rape, and murder of
    nine-year-old Katya Miranda, his granddaughter and the niece of a
    former senior PNC officer. A date for a public hearing remained pending
    at year's end.
        During the year the PDDH received 43 complaints against the OAG,
    including prevention of access to justice in 20 cases, violation of due
    process in seven cases, and failure to protect constitutional rights in
    seven cases.
        The OAG reported that the cases of Jose Israel Bonilla Granados and
    Wilfredo Antonio Reyes Martinez, members of the Los Perrones narcotics
    and human-trafficking organization, which is associated with two judges
    who made controversial decisions in the prosecutions of Los Perrones,
    remained pending. The judges were recused from the case in 2009.
        Through August the OAG investigated four judges and two magistrates
    for alleged misconduct. As of September these cases remained under
    investigation. During the year the Supreme Court received 160
    complaints against judges for alleged irregularities and sanctioned
    three judges for improper conduct. Also during the year, the OAG
    investigated 177 complaints against prosecutors for misconduct,
    compared with 261 complaints during 2009; the investigations resulted
    in the dismissal of 13 prosecutors and suspensions of 34 others for
    corruption and other serious infractions.

        Trial Procedures.--In general the law provides for trial by jury
    only in select cases. Although juries were used for specific charges,
    including environmental pollution and certain misdemeanors, judges
    decided most cases. By law juries hear only cases that the law does not
    assign to sentencing courts. After the jury's determination of
    innocence or guilt, a tribunal decides the sentence.
        Defendants have the right to be present in court, question
    witnesses, and present witnesses and evidence. Although the
    constitution further provides for the presumption of innocence,
    protection from self-incrimination, the right to legal counsel, freedom
    from coercion, access for defendants and their attorneys to government-
    held evidence relevant to their cases, and government-provided legal
    counsel for the indigent, these legal rights and protections were not
    always respected in practice. Although a jury's verdict is final, a
    judge's verdict can be appealed. Trials are public. The law extends
    these rights to all citizens.

        Political Prisoners and Detainees.--There were no reports of
    political prisoners or detainees.

        Regional Human Rights Court Decisions.--As of August the Government
    had not responded to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights'
    published findings in 2006 regarding the Jose Adrian Hernandez Rochac
    1980 disappearance case. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported that,
    following a February 3 IACHR decision regarding violations of judicial
    guarantees and rights in the 1994 killing of Mauricio Garcia Prieto,
    the Government on June 10 published an apology to the Garcia Prieto
    family for the actions of the state against them and has entered into
    dialogue with the Ministry of Health to provide counseling and support
    to the family.

        Civil Judicial Procedures and Remedies.--Although the law provides
    for access to the courts, enabling litigants to bring civil lawsuits
    seeking damages for, as well as cessation of, human rights violations,
    the judiciary was not independent or impartial. Judges were subject to
    outside influence. Some persons sought to bring their cases before
    international bodies, such as the IACHR and the Inter-American Court of
    Human Rights, because they believed that these organizations would
    adjudicate their claims with greater fairness and impartiality. The law
    provides administrative remedies for alleged wrongs through the PDDH,
    the Solicitor's Office, the Government Ethics Tribunal, and the Center
    for Consumer Protection, as well as administrative offices within the
    various ministries. There were problems in enforcing domestic court
    orders.

        f. Arbitrary Interference With Privacy, Family, Home, or
    Correspondence.--The constitution prohibits such actions, and the
    Government generally respected these prohibitions in practice. On May
    27, the Legislative Assembly amended the constitution to permit the
    judicially authorized interception of telecommunications in criminal
    investigations and passed implementing legislation that permits the use
    of such evidence at criminal trial. The provisions had not been
    implemented by year's end.

    Section 2. Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:
        a. Freedom of Speech and Press.--The constitution provides for
    freedom of speech and of the press, and the Government generally
    respected these rights in practice. Individuals could criticize the
    Government publicly or privately without reprisal, and the Government
    generally did not interfere with such criticism.
        The independent media were active and expressed a variety of views
    without restriction. The Salvadoran Journalists' Association noted that
    journalists reporting on narcotics trafficking were subject to threats
    and intimidation, which led to media self-censorship in reporting about
    narcotics trafficking.
        Although international NGOs generally commented positively on the
    status of press freedom in the country, newspaper editors and radio
    directors occasionally discouraged journalists from reporting on topics
    that the owners or publishers might not view favorably. Government
    advertising accounted for a significant portion of press advertising
    income, although exact data on such spending was not publicly
    available.
        The law permits the executive branch to use the emergency
    broadcasting service to take over temporarily all broadcast and cable
    networks to televise political programming.
        On September 24, the Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional the third
    section of Criminal Code Article 191that provided immunity to the
    publishers and owners of media against charges of defamation, slander,
    and libel. Most media saw this ruling as potentially infringing on
    freedom of the press.
        On September 14, an appellate court imposed a token fine on La
    Prensa Grafica, a leading newspaper, for publishing photos showing the
    face of a 17-year-old-boy in the act of killing another boy.
        Authorities continued to provide protection to radio journalists
    Ludwing Iraheta, Jose Beltran, and Vladimir Abarca, who received death
    threats from unknown actors in July 2009.
        During the year authorities indicted 37 gang members for planning
    the September 2009 killing of French-Spanish documentary filmmaker
    Christian Poveda in Soyapango; 31 suspects were apprehended and in
    custody, awaiting trial.

        Internet Freedom.--There were no government restrictions on access
    to the Internet or reports that the Government monitored e-mail or
    Internet chat rooms or attempted to collect personally identifiable
    information. Individuals and groups could engage in the expression of
    views via the Internet, including by e-mail. Internet service was
    available in the major cities. According to International
    Telecommunication Union statistics from 2009, approximately 14 percent
    of the country's inhabitants used the Internet.

        Academic and Cultural Freedom.--There were no government
    restrictions on academic freedom or cultural events.

        b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association.--Freedom of
    Assembly.--The constitution provides for freedom of assembly, and the
    Government generally respected this right in practice.

        Freedom of Association.--The constitution provides for freedom of
    association, and the Government generally respected this right in
    practice.

        c. Freedom of Religion.--For a complete description of religious
    freedom, please see the 2010 International Religious Freedom Report at
    www.state.gov/g/drl/irf/rpt.

        d. Freedom of Movement, Internally Displaced Persons, Protection of
    Refugees, and Stateless Persons.--The constitution provides for freedom
    of movement within the country, foreign travel, emigration, and
    repatriation, and the Government generally respected these rights in
    practice. The Government cooperated with the Office of the UN High
    Commissioner for Refugees and other humanitarian organizations in
    providing protection and assistance to internally displaced persons,
    refugees, returning refugees, asylum seekers, stateless persons, and
    other persons of concern.
        The constitution prohibits forced exile, and the Government
    observed this prohibition in practice.

        Protection of Refugees.--The country's laws provide for the
    granting refugee status or asylum, and the Government has established a
    system for providing protection to refugees. During the year the
    Government received 59 refugee petitions and granted eight persons full
    refugee status (seven Honduran nationals and one Iranian) and was
    finalizing refugee status for 14 others; 16 petitions were not
    approved, and 13 remained pending at year's end.
        The law provides protection against the expulsion or return of
    persons to countries where their lives or freedom would be threatened
    on account of their race, religion, nationality, membership in a
    particular social group, or political opinion.
        The Government received no requests for temporary protection for
    individuals who may not qualify as refugees under the 1951 UN
    Convention and its 1967 protocol. The law does not provide this type of
    temporary protection.

    Section 3. Respect for Political Rights: The Right of Citizens to
            Change Their Government
        The constitution provides the right of citizens to change their
    government peacefully, and citizens exercised this right in practice
    through periodic, free, and fair elections based on universal suffrage.

        Elections and Political Participation.--In March 2009 FMLN
    candidate Carlos Mauricio Funes Cartagena won the presidential
    election, which the Organization of American States and other
    international observers reported was generally free and fair with few
    irregularities. During the 2009 elections, as in prior elections, both
    ARENA and the FMLN accused each other of registering voters from other
    countries under the current registration law (which allows a person to
    register with two witnesses who swear to his/her identity); however, no
    parties filed any formal complaints after the election.
        In the January 2009 legislative elections, described as free and
    fair by international observers, no party won an outright majority. In
    San Isidro, Cabanas Department, the FMLN, Democratic Christian Party
    (PDC), National Conciliation Party (PCN), and Democratic Change party
    (CD) political parties halted voting following accusations of
    ineligible voting by persons from other departments and countries. The
    ARENA candidate won after voting resumed a week later.
        Political parties could operate without restrictions or outside
    interference. In October 2009 the ARENA party split, and 12 of its 32
    deputies formed a new party named GANA.
        Individuals cannot freely declare their candidacy and stand for
    election without membership in a political party. On July 29, a Supreme
    Court decision determined that independent candidates should be allowed
    to run for election. The Legislative Assembly took steps to reverse the
    decision by amending the constitution, but adoption requires
    ratification by the next Legislative Assembly in 2012.
        There were 16 women in the 84-member Legislative Assembly, five
    women on the 15-member Supreme Court, and two women in the 13-member
    cabinet. No persons in the Supreme Court, legislature, or other
    government entities identified themselves as members of an ethnic
    minority or indigenous community, and there were no political party
    positions or parliamentary seats designated for ethnic minorities.

    Section 4. Official Corruption and Government Transparency
        The law provides criminal penalties for official corruption;
    however, the Government did not implement the law effectively, and
    officials, particularly in the judicial system, engaged in corrupt
    practices with impunity. The World Bank's broad-based indicators
    reflected that government corruption was a serious problem, a finding
    that was consistent with public perceptions in the country.
        On December 10, authorities dismissed the entire 95-person staff of
    the Zacatecoluca maximum-security prison on suspicion of corruption,
    notably providing gang members with cell phones and other assistance.
    On December 13, an additional 235 employees were dismissed from the
    overall prison system for the same reasons, and by year's end more than
    500 prison authority staff had been dismissed under suspicion of
    corruption.
        NGOs, such as the Foundation for Studies in Legal Application and
    the Salvadoran Foundation for Economic and Social Development
    (FUSADES), alleged that the Supreme Court did not adequately address
    judicial delays, inefficiency, and unqualified and corrupt judges.
    FUSADES reported that the public had minimal confidence in the judicial
    system due to a lack of access to justice and accountability, a
    judicial backlog, and corruption. FUSADES maintained a Web site that
    makes judicial proceedings and records available to the public.
        Public officials were not subject to financial disclosure laws. The
    Court of Accounts, the Anticorruption Unit of the OAG, and the
    Government Ethics Tribunal (TEG) share responsibility for combating
    corruption.
        On August 18, the Second Justice of Peace in Zacatecoluca sentenced
    Candelaria Campos de Rivas, the worker's rights section coordinator in
    the San Miguel Solicitor's Office, to three years' imprisonment,
    following a conviction on corruption charges. She had offered to obtain
    a release order for a prisoner in exchange for $5,000 (the U.S. dollar
    is the national currency). Five days later the same justice ordered the
    trial of a prosecutor in the OAG in Sonsonate on charges of promising
    to release a prisoner in exchange for $600.
        On September 13, the Court of Accounts sentenced former minister of
    public works David Gutierrez to repay the Government $3.2 million that
    was unaccounted for due to irregularities in bidding for the
    construction of Diego de Holguin highway in San Salvador.
        The Legislative Assembly has not audited the Court of Accounts, the
    Government agency charged with auditing the National Treasury and the
    Federal Budget, since 1995, despite a law mandating an annual audit. In
    July 2009 the Court of Accounts, which has traditionally been
    controlled by one of the smaller political parties, rejected a budget
    and procedural audit based on legal technicalities.
        The Legislative Assembly restricted public access to its monthly
    committee reports and required that a Board of Directors member approve
    such requests. During the year the TEG received 403 ethics complaints
    against public servants, and opened 265 investigations, resulting in
    public reprimands for three government officials and the suspension of
    one. To combat public sector corruption, the TEG operated ethics
    commissions within 79 of the 81 government entities required by law.
    The TEG conducted a year-long public awareness campaign against
    corruption.
        Although the law provides for public access to government
    information, in practice inconsistent legislation impeded such access.
    There is no freedom of information law. Citizens could access via the
    Internet some information regarding the national budget and certain
    cases before the Supreme Court. The Government usually did not give
    reasons for denying public access to information. There are no
    mechanisms to appeal denials.
        On December 3, the National Assembly passed a Public Information
    Access law, effective June 2011, requiring a new information office to
    make publicly available, free of charge, to any Salvadoran, information
    about public servants' salaries; official communications; government
    purchasing, budgets and financing; and Supreme Court proceedings.

    Section 5. Governmental Attitude Regarding International and
            Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations of Human
            Rights
        A variety of domestic and international human rights groups
    generally operated without government restriction, investigating and
    publishing their findings on human rights cases. Although government
    officials generally were cooperative and responsive to these groups,
    officials at times were reluctant to discuss worker rights issues with
    NGOs and the PDDH. Domestic and international NGOs were required to
    register with the Government, and some reported difficulties (see
    section 6).
        The principal human rights investigative and monitoring body is the
    autonomous PDDH, whose head is elected by the Legislative Assembly to a
    three-year term. The PDDH regularly issued reports (14 during the year)
    and press releases on prominent human rights cases and monitored the
    year's presidential and legislative elections. The PDDH enjoyed
    government cooperation and operated without government or party
    interference, had adequate resources, and was considered generally
    effective.
        On January 21, unknown actors made death threats against Ombudsman
    for Human Rights Oscar Luna and his family. The PNC doubled his
    protective detail. As of December the case remained under
    investigation.
        The PDDH maintained a constructive dialogue with the president's
    office. The Government publicly acknowledged receipt of the PDDH's
    reports, although in some cases it did not take action on PDDH
    recommendations, which are not legally binding.
        On October 12, the UN Human Rights Council issued its sixth report
    on El Salvador. The report noted the high level of domestic violence, a
    need for reform of the judicial and criminal justice system, and
    concerns about a rise in preventative detentions. The report also took
    note of the significant steps taken since the 1980s to improve the
    human rights situation.

    Section 6. Discrimination, Societal Abuses, and Trafficking in Persons
        Although the constitution and the legal code provide that all
    persons are equal before the law and prohibit discrimination regardless
    of race, gender, disability, language, or social status, in practice
    the Government did not effectively enforce these prohibitions. There
    was discrimination against women; persons with disabilities; lesbian,
    gay, bisexual, and transgender persons, and indigenous people. The
    Secretariat for Social Inclusion, created in June 2009 by President
    Funes, who named the first lady Vanda Pignato as secretary, made
    efforts to overcome traditional bias in all these areas.

        Women.--The law criminalizes rape. While not specifically addressed
    in the law, spousal rape may be considered a crime if the actions meet
    the criminal code definition of rape. The OAG may prosecute rape cases
    with or without a complaint from the victim, and the law does not
    permit the victim's pardon to nullify the criminal charge. The penalty
    for rape is six to 10 years' imprisonment, but the law provides for a
    maximum sentence of 20 years for rape of certain classes of victims,
    including children and persons with disabilities.
        Incidents of rape continued to be underreported for a number of
    reasons, including societal and cultural pressures against victims,
    fears of reprisal, ineffective and unsupportive responses by the
    authorities toward victims, fear of publicity, and a perception among
    victims that cases were unlikely to be prosecuted. Laws against rape
    were not effectively enforced.
        Rape and other sexual crimes against women were widespread. The PNC
    reported 2,193 cases of rape during the year. The OAG received reports
    of 676 cases of rape of adults through July, which resulted in 262
    trials and 76 convictions.
        During the year ISDEMU provided health and psychological assistance
    to 787 women and girls who suffered sexual abuse, compared with 1,013
    in all of 2009, and 1,447 girls who suffered physical abuse, compared
    with 2,512 in all of 2009.
        The law prohibits domestic violence and provides for sentences
    ranging from one to three years in prison. The law also permits
    obtaining restraining orders against offenders. Domestic violence was
    considered socially acceptable by a large portion of the population,
    and, as with rape, its incidence was underreported.
        Violence against women, including domestic violence, was a
    widespread and serious problem and during the year resulted in the
    death of 551 women. Laws against domestic violence were not well
    enforced, and cases were not effectively prosecuted. During the year
    ISDEMU received 4,732 reports of domestic violence, compared with 6,514
    complaints in 2009. The PNC reported 2,852 cases of domestic violence
    through December. Through July the OAG investigated 661 cases of
    domestic violence, which resulted in three convictions and 71 cases
    resolved through mediation.
        ISDEMU coordinated with the judicial and executive branches and
    civil society groups to conduct public awareness campaigns against
    domestic violence and sexual abuse. The PDDH, OAG, Supreme Court,
    Public Defender's Office, and PNC collaborated with NGOs and other
    organizations to combat violence against women through education,
    increased enforcement of the law and NGO support programs for victims.
    The Secretariat for Social Inclusion, through ISDEMU, defined policies,
    programs, and projects on domestic violence and continued to maintain a
    telephone hotline and a shelter for victims of domestic abuse and child
    victims of commercial sexual exploitation. The Government's efforts to
    combat domestic violence were minimally effective.
        On November 25, the National Assembly passed a comprehensive law
    targeting all forms of violence, harassment and discrimination against
    women. The law, which takes effect in November 2011, strengthens
    penalties for existing crimes, defines new ones not previously
    penalized, and mandates a public education component and unified
    statistical methodology. ISDEMU, the Government agency charged with
    promoting the legal rights of women, has responsibility to monitor the
    law's implementation.
        The Government did not enforce sexual harassment laws effectively.
    Since underreporting by victims of sexual harassment appeared to be
    widespread, it was difficult to estimate the extent of the problem. The
    OAG reported 367 complaints of sexual harassment through July, which
    resulted in 138 trials and 11 convictions.
        The law defines sexual harassment as any unwanted physical sexual
    contact and stipulates penalties of three to five years in prison (or
    four to eight years in cases where the victim is under age 15 at the
    time of the offense). The law, however, does not clearly recognize
    nonphysical sexual harassment as a crime. Fines are added to the prison
    term in cases where the perpetrator is in a position of authority or
    trust over the victim.
        Couples and individuals had the right to decide the number,
    spacing, and timing of children, and information about and access to
    contraception was widely available. Demographic Health Surveys
    indicated that 72 percent of married women used some method of family
    planning. Prenatal care and skilled attendance at delivery were also
    widely available. The UN Population Fund estimated that the maternal
    mortality rate in 2008 of 110 deaths per 100,000 live births Women and
    men have equal access to diagnostic services and treatment for sexually
    transmitted infections, including HIV.
        The constitution grants women and men the same legal rights under
    family and property law, but women did not receive equal treatment in
    practice. The law establishes sentences of one to three years in prison
    for public officials who deny a person's civil rights based on gender,
    and six months to two years for employers who discriminate against
    women in the workplace. However, employees generally did not report
    such violations due to fear of employer reprisals.
        Pregnancy testing as a condition for employment is illegal. Some
    businesses allegedly required female job applicants to present
    pregnancy test results, and some businesses illegally fired pregnant
    workers (see section 7.b.).
        Although the law prohibits discrimination based on gender, women
    suffered from cultural, economic, and societal discrimination. Men
    often received priority in job placement and promotions, and women were
    not accorded equal treatment in traditional male-dominated sectors,
    such as agriculture and business. Training for women generally was
    confined to low-wage occupational areas where women already held most
    positions, in fields such as teaching, nursing, apparel assembly, home
    industries, and small businesses.
        Gender-based wage disparity remained a problem. The 2007 Household
    Survey, the latest available, indicated that, on average, women's
    monthly wages were $247 and men's were $304. In sectors of the economy
    where women constituted the majority of the labor force, men held most
    positions in both management and in departments where employees
    received higher wages.
        A 2008 ISDEMU report on women in the workplace indicated that 41
    percent of women worked, but received on average only 80 percent of the
    salary levels received by men; 55 percent of the female workforce was
    in the informal sector, and 47 percent of working women were
    underemployed. The average monthly salary for female factory workers
    was $163.00 and $113.36 for domestic workers.

        Children.--Citizenship is derived by birth within the country and
    from one's parent(s). The law requires parents to register a child
    within 15 days of birth or else pay a $2.86 fine. There were no firm
    statistics, but many births were not registered. Unregistered children
    had access to public health care but not to public education.
        Child abuse was a serious and widespread problem. Incidents of rape
    continued to be underreported for a number of reasons, including
    societal and cultural pressures against victims, fears of reprisal
    against the children, ineffective and unsupportive responses by the
    authorities toward victims, fear of publicity, and a perception among
    victims that cases were unlikely to be prosecuted. The Salvadoran
    Institute for Children and Adolescents (ISNA), an autonomous government
    entity, defined policies, programs, and projects on child abuse,
    maintained a shelter for child victims of abuse and commercial sexual
    exploitation, and conducted a violence awareness campaign to combat
    child abuse. During the year ISNA reported sheltering 883 abused
    children, including 231 cases of children living on the street, 299
    cases of sexual abuse, 113 cases of abandonment, 72 cases of children
    employed as beggars or being economically exploited, and 38 cases of
    commercial sexual exploitation.
        There were credible reports that the PNC targeted minors
    specifically for harassment or arbitrary detention, as some PNC
    officers perceived youth on the street as more likely to be gang
    members.
        The law classifies statutory rape as sexual relations with anyone
    under 18 years of age and provides for penalties between four and 20
    years' imprisonment for those convicted of the crime. During the year
    the PNC reported 1,216 cases of rape of persons under 18 (of a total of
    2,193 rape cases) and 1,186 cases of sexual abuse. Through July the OAG
    reported prosecuting 561 cases of rape of persons under 18 and 479
    cases of sexual abuse, molestation and corrupting a minor.
        The law prohibits participating in, facilitating, or purchasing
    materials containing child pornography and provides for prison
    sentences of up to 16 years' imprisonment. During the year the PNC made
    four arrests against persons for child pornography.
        The law prohibits paying anyone under the age of 18 for sexual
    services. There were credible reports that girls were forced into
    prostitution. Through December ISDEMU registered seven cases of
    commercial sexual exploitation of children.
        On August 31, UN Special Rapporteur for the Rights of the Child
    Najat Maalla M' jid urged the Government to take effective measures to
    protect children's rights against trafficking in persons, child
    prostitution, and pornography. She also criticized the lack of uniform
    statistics from the children's agencies and the OAG.
        In March 2009 the Legislative Assembly passed a law strengthening
    penalties against child trafficking and child abuse and prohibiting
    publication of pictures of minors by the mass media to prevent
    identification of potential exploitation victims.
        The country is a party to the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil
    Aspects of International Child Abduction. For information on
    international parental child abduction, please see the Department of
    State's annual report on compliance at http://travel.state.gov/
    abduction/resources/congressreport/congressreport--4308.html.

        Anti-Semitism.--There were no reports of anti-Semitic acts. The
    Jewish community totaled approximately 150 persons.

        Trafficking in Persons.--For information on trafficking in persons,
    please see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons
    Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        Persons With Disabilities.--The law prohibits discrimination
    against persons with physical and mental disabilities in employment,
    education, access to health care, or the provision of other state
    services. According to the National Council for Disabled Persons
    (CONAIPD), the Government did not allocate sufficient resources to
    enforce these prohibitions effectively, particularly in education,
    employment, and transportation, and did not effectively enforce legal
    requirements for access to buildings, information and communications
    for persons with disabilities. There are almost no access ramps in the
    country, nor are provisions made for the mobility of persons with sight
    and hearing disabilities.
        Several public and private organizations promoted the rights of
    persons with disabilities. CONAIPD is the Government agency responsible
    for protecting those rights. There were no reported patterns of abuse
    in prisons or in educational or mental health facilities, although
    CONAIPD reported isolated incidents, including sexual abuse, in such
    facilities. There are no statistics or formal mechanisms for complaint
    for abuse of persons with disabilities.
        CONAIPD reported that persons were fired after becoming disabled,
    that persons with disabilities were not considered for work they were
    qualified for, and that some schools would not accept children with
    disabilities due to lack of facilities and resources. There is no
    formal system for filing a complaint with the Government.
        CONAIPD conducted awareness campaigns, provided sensitivity
    training to 1,173 persons in 15 institutions from the public and
    private sectors, promoted the hiring of persons with disabilities, and
    trained doctors and teachers about the rights of the disabled. The
    Government's Fund for the Protection of Persons with Disabilities
    assisted financially individuals who were wounded or had a disability
    as a result of the civil war but had not yet paid some obligations
    through 2009. President Funes stated the Government would pay owed
    pensions. The Rehabilitation Foundation, in cooperation with the
    Salvadoran Institute for the Rehabilitation of the Disabled (ISRI),
    continued to operate a treatment center for persons with disabilities.
    However, CONAIPD reported that the Government provided minimal funding
    for ISRI. The vast majority of persons with disabilities received care
    at home by relatives with little or no government support or
    supervision.

        Indigenous People.--While the constitution states that native
    languages are part of the national heritage and should be preserved and
    respected, the law does not recognize indigenous communities and
    accords no special rights to indigenous people. According to the 2007
    census, indigenous persons formed approximately 0.2 percent of the
    national population in three principal groups: Nahua-Pipiles in western
    and central areas of the country and Lencas and Cacaoperas in the
    eastern region. Indigenous rights groups and the PDDH complained that
    the Government's methodology used to determine indigenous self-
    identification underestimated the actual size of the indigenous
    population. For example, indigenous rights groups stated that
    Nahuizalco, a town in the department of Sonsonate, may have up to
    39,000 indigenous inhabitants, approximately 0.7 percent of the
    country's population. Births of indigenous persons were reportedly more
    likely not to be registered officially, reducing educational
    opportunities since school registration requires a birth certificate.
        Although few individuals publicly identified themselves as
    indigenous, there were a few small indigenous communities whose members
    continued to maintain traditional customs without repression or
    interference by the Government or nonindigenous groups. Government
    estimates in 2004, the most recent available, indicated that
    approximately 99 percent of indigenous persons lived below the poverty
    level.
        There are no laws giving indigenous people rights to share in
    revenue from exploitation of natural resources on indigenous lands. The
    Government did not demarcate any lands as belonging to indigenous
    communities. Access to land was a problem for indigenous persons.
    Because few possessed title to land, opportunities for bank loans and
    other forms of credit were extremely limited.
        The municipality of Nahuizalco passed a law on October 24
    recognizing the origin and existence of indigenous persons and their
    right to practice their customs and beliefs, outlawing any form of
    discrimination, and pledging assistance in maternal care.
        There were no government programs dedicated to combating
    discrimination against or communicating with indigenous persons. The
    PDDH reported that indigenous persons faced employment and workplace
    discrimination. In practice citizens are not able to register their
    children with indigenous names under a 1990 law, which allows municipal
    workers to require an appeal to the mayor's office if a proposed name
    is considered improper.
        On October 10, President Funes publicly apologized to the country's
    indigenous people for the persecution and ``extermination'' they have
    suffered over the past five centuries. He acknowledged the country as a
    multiethnic and multicultural society.

        Societal Abuses, Discrimination, and Acts of Violence Based on
    Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.--Although the law prohibits
    discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, in practice
    discrimination was widespread, especially against transgender persons.
    In January the new administration approved the legal registration
    application filed in August 2009 by the gay rights NGO Entre Amigos.
    This is the first NGO focused on sexual minorities registered by the
    Government whose primary declared work was other than the prevention of
    HIV/AIDS.
        There was widespread official and societal discrimination based on
    sexual orientation in employment and access to health care and identity
    documents. Entre Amigos reported that public officials, including the
    police, engaged in violence and discrimination against sexual
    minorities. Persons from the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender
    (LGBT) community stated that the PNC and OAG ridiculed them when they
    reported cases of violence against LGBT persons. The Government
    responded to these abuses primarily through PDDH reports that
    publicized specific cases of violence and discrimination against sexual
    minorities.
        On May 13, President Funes signed an order forbidding workplace
    discrimination in government offices based on sexual orientation. The
    order also created the Office of Sexual Diversity within the
    Secretariat of Social Inclusion. In general violence and discrimination
    against sexual minorities went unpunished.
        LGBT rights supporters held one gay pride march, for which the
    municipality of San Salvador provided authorization. The Government
    provided sufficient police security for marchers.
        Entre Amigos reported the killings of two persons from the LGBT
    community during the year, compared with 23 during 2009. Entre Amigos
    attributed the decline to the end of the debate over a proposed
    constitutional amendment to define marriage as only between a man and a
    woman.

        Other Societal Violence or Discrimination.--Although the law
    prohibits discrimination on the basis of HIV/AIDS status, in practice
    discrimination was widespread. Lack of public information remained a
    problem in confronting discrimination against persons with HIV/AIDS or
    in assisting persons suffering from HIV/AIDS. The Ministry of Health
    reported that 25,530 persons were infected with HIV, of whom 8,000 had
    AIDS. A UN Development Program survey conducted during the year
    reported that 31.4 percent of persons infected with HIV/AIDS
    experienced some form of discrimination, including credible reports of
    denial of public services (such as schooling) and loss of employment.
    Persons denied entry into the armed forces charged that the military
    illegally required HIV testing for its soldiers.
        In August 2009 the Ministry of Public Health launched an awareness
    campaign aimed at reducing stigmatization of HIV-positive persons. A
    number of NGOs worked without government interference to produce media
    and outreach campaigns to promote HIV/AIDS awareness and testing.
        Reports indicated that rape and other sexual abuse of males was
    substantially underreported to authorities. The PNC reported 258 cases
    of rape against males during the year, and ISDEMU provided health and
    psychological assistance to 165 men and boys who were victims of
    physical or sexual abuse.

    Section 7. Worker Rights
        a. The Right of Association.--The constitution provides for the
    right of workers, except military personnel, national police, judges,
    high-level public officers, and workers who are in ``positions of
    trust,'' to form and join unions of their choice. In 2009 the
    Government amended the constitution to grant legal status to public
    worker unions. Workers do not require prior authorization from the
    Government to organize, but must meet certain requirements to be
    legally registered. According to official census figures, the country
    had a workforce of 2.365 million in 2009, of which 215,000 were in the
    agricultural and fishing industries. Among the requirements to obtain
    legal standing, unions must have a minimum of 35 members in the
    workplace, hold a convention, and elect officers. The constitution
    permits the participation of noncitizens in unions, but requires that
    union leaders be citizens.
        The Ministry of Labor encouraged the formation of new unions and
    streamlined the registration process. The law permits unions to conduct
    their activities without government interference. Some unions alleged
    the Ministry of Labor interfered with their activities by encouraging
    and facilitating the formation of ``parallel unions,'' which supported
    the FMLN.
        As of September there were 557 unions, of which 294 were in the
    private sector, 18 were in autonomous government organizations, and 55
    in the public sector. The Ministry of Labor reported it registered 51
    unions during the year, of which 24 were in the public sector and 27 in
    the private sector, including in autonomous government organizations.
    The Ministry of Labor also reported that 31 unions had become defunct,
    while 159 were either without leadership or inactive.
        The ministry denied registration to three unions--a public sector
    municipal workers' union (SITESMUES) and two private sector unions, the
    transportation workers' union (STITCPAS) and the independent workers'
    Movement for Democracy, Development and Peace (Movimiento para la
    Democracia, el Desarrollo y la Paz)--because they did not meet legal
    requirements.
        On December 14, the Administrative Court of Justice declared
    illegal the Ministry of Labor's February 1 refusal to recognize the
    results of the January elections of a construction workers' union,
    Sindicato Union de Trabajadores de la Construccion (SUTC), and the
    ministry carried out the court's instruction to credential the union's
    board of directors on December 17.
        On November 6, the Legislative Assembly refused a request by the
    union of workers of the Legislative Assembly (SITRAL) to represent its
    workers, on the grounds that the workers were in ``positions of
    trust.'' In December the employment contract of the SITRAL's secretary
    general Luis Ortega was not renewed.
        There were some reported instances of violence against union
    leaders. On January 15, Santa Ana municipal workers (SITRAMSA) union
    leader Abel Victorio Vega was murdered in an execution-style killing by
    six assailants at a public plaza in Santa Ana, according to official
    PNC reports. The OAG reported in August that it was investigating the
    possibility that the killing was linked to Vega's unionizing
    activities. However, by year's end, no charges had been brought in the
    case.
        In October SITRAMSA reported that its workers had received death
    threats when the union announced it would strike over alleged
    intimidation and withholding of workers' pay by the municipality. The
    union reported that the municipality had also withdrawn security guards
    from worksites. The subsequent strike was later declared illegal by the
    Santa Ana Labor Court. The municipality reduced the strikers' wages by
    approximately 50 percent for the time they were striking. At year's end
    the case was on appeal.
        The constitution recognizes the right to strike, except for public
    and municipal employees and workers in essential services. The law does
    not specifically designate which services are considered essential.
    Although the law contains complex and cumbersome registration
    procedures for conducting a legal strike, workers freely exercised this
    right in practice.
        A legal strike must be supported by 51 percent of workers in an
    enterprise, including workers not represented by the union. Unions may
    strike only after the expiration of a collective bargaining agreement
    or to protect professional rights. Unions must seek to resolve
    differences through direct negotiation, mediation, and arbitration
    before striking. A strike must aim to obtain or modify a collective
    bargaining agreement and to defend the professional interests of
    workers. Union members must approve a decision to strike through secret
    ballot, and the union must name a strike committee to serve as a
    negotiator and send the list of names to the Ministry of Labor, which
    notifies the employer. The union must wait four days from the time the
    Ministry of Labor notifies the employer before striking. The law
    prohibits workers from appealing a government decision declaring a
    strike illegal. In practice, workers engaged in strikes regardless of
    whether the legal requirements were met. Although the Ministry of Labor
    did not approve any strikes during the year, it did not report any
    instances where the right to strike was denied.

        b. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively.--The law permits
    collective bargaining by employees in the private and public sectors,
    but the Government enforced rules on collective bargaining selectively.
    In October the Ministry of Labor reported that 51,885 workers,
    including 3.5 percent of the urban workforce, are covered by collective
    bargaining agreements.
        The law prohibits antiunion discrimination, and the Government
    enforced the law. However, there were reports of antiunion
    discrimination, including dismissals of workers attempting to unionize
    and threats against labor union members. The Ministry of Labor imposed
    10 fines for illegally dismissing unionized workers. There are no
    special laws or exemptions from regular labor laws inside the free
    trade zones.
        There were reports that security guard agencies COSASE, which
    provides security for the Government, and COARMI dismissed workers
    trying to unionize during the year, and failed to provide the dismissed
    workers with back pay, vacation, social security and bonuses due to
    them.
        During the year auto shop owners alleged that the Ministry of Labor
    required them to bargain with the Union Federation of El Salvador
    (FESS), although FESS did not meet the minimum requirement of having at
    least 35 workers to form a union. The Ministry of Labor denied the
    allegation that it required the owners to accept the agreement with
    FESS.
        The OAG reported that between January and July it opened 426
    investigations against employers for illegally retaining social
    security and pension payments, two investigations for violations of
    labor safety conditions, three investigation for labor discrimination,
    and four investigations for violations against freedom of association
    and the right to strike.
        During the year the Ministry of Labor reportedly conducted 507
    inspections and 255 reinspections in the textile sector. The ministry
    conducted an additional 212 inspections and 103 reinspections for
    gender discrimination, covering 61,478 apparel assembly workers. The
    ministry imposed 240 fines for labor violations.
        As of October, the Ministry of Labor had reported 50 complaints of
    illegal firings of union leaders, 22 of which were resolved. The
    ministry imposed fines in 24 cases involving 97 workers (71 men and 26
    women). The ministry also received 68 complaints for dismissals of
    pregnant workers. Of these, 44 cases were resolved. The ministry
    imposed fines in 13 cases involving 62 workers. It did not receive any
    complaints concerning mandatory HIV tests as a condition of employment.
        The law specifies 18 reasons for which an employer can legally
    suspend workers, and employers can invoke 11 of these reasons without
    prior administrative or judicial authorization. Workers reported
    instances where employers sought to undermine union organizing,
    including dismissing union members. As of September the Ministry of
    Labor reported no instances of blacklisting workers who were union
    members, and no instances of employers refusing to negotiate with
    unions.
        The Labor Code does not require employers to reinstate illegally
    dismissed workers. Reinstatement is generally handled through mediation
    by the courts and the Ministry of Labor. Although not required by law,
    the Ministry of Labor requested some employers to rehire 256 fired
    workers during the year, basing its requests on International Labor
    Organization (ILO) Administrative Court rulings.

        c. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor.--The constitution
    prohibits forced or compulsory labor except in the case of natural
    catastrophe and other instances specified by law. The Ministry of Labor
    reported it had received no complaints of forced labor during the year.
    However, some forced labor was believed to occur. In October the
    Government's Migration Office reported that there was anecdotal
    evidence that forced labor occurred in the informal sector, for
    instance among migrant domestic workers, and may also occur among
    subcontracted construction workers.
        Also see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons
    Report at http://www.state.gov/g/tip.

        d. Prohibition of Child Labor and Minimum Age for Employment.--The
    law prohibits the employment of children under the age of 14, but child
    labor remained a serious and widespread problem.
        Children age 12 and older are allowed to engage in light work, so
    long as it does not harm their health or interfere with their
    education. Children under 16 years of age are prohibited from working
    more than seven hours per day and 34 hours per week; those under age 18
    are prohibited from working at night or in occupations considered
    hazardous. The Ministry of Labor was responsible for enforcing child
    labor laws. In practice, labor inspectors focused almost exclusively on
    the formal sector.
        According to the 2008 School Registration Census, the most recent
    available, there were approximately 110,000 child workers, with the
    largest numbers engaged in coffee, sugarcane, and other agricultural
    activities; domestic work; street vending; and fishing. Child labor in
    its worst forms was a serious problem in coffee and sugarcane
    cultivation, fishing, mollusk extraction, and fireworks production.
    There were reports of children engaging in garbage scavenging. Orphans
    and children from poor families frequently worked for survival as
    street vendors and general laborers in small businesses. Children also
    worked as domestic servants.
        The Ministry of Labor reported receiving few complaints of
    violations of child labor laws, primarily because many Salvadorans view
    child labor as an essential component of family income rather than as a
    human rights problem. During the year the Government increased
    inspections of child labor but lacked adequate resources to effectively
    enforce child labor laws in agricultural activities, especially coffee
    and sugarcane production, or in the large informal sector. Most reports
    were made by telephone or through third parties, according to the Labor
    Ministry.
        The Government made significant efforts to combat child labor
    during the year. The Ministry of Labor reported that its 208 nationwide
    labor inspectors were trained in child labor, including 10 from the
    Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, as well as four specialists in
    child labor issues and six liaison officers trained in child labor
    issues in branch offices in Santa Ana, San Miguel, Sonsonate, La Paz,
    Usulutan, and La Union. The Ministry of Labor reported that it also
    changed inspection hours to correspond with times children were likely
    to be working.
        The Ministry of Labor led a government interagency program to
    advance its ``Road Map'' to eliminate child labor in its worst forms by
    2015 and in its entirety by 2020. As part of its implementation, the
    Government participated in a new, $10 million ILO project that seeks to
    provide educational opportunities to children while offering livelihood
    alternatives for their families. It also developed a series of events
    to raise awareness about child labor in local communities. The
    Government also participated in a four-year, $3.4 million ILO project
    that ended in July. This project provided educational opportunities to
    more than 13,000 children who worked or were at risk of working.
        The Ministry of Education promoted child labor awareness and
    encouraged school attendance. The Ministry of Labor reported that the
    Government continued operating 134 after-school programs during the
    year and was assisted by funding from Intervida, Plan Internacional,
    and the Fundacion Telefonica. The Government also incorporated material
    on combating child labor into its elementary school curriculum, and
    provided lunches, uniforms, school supplies and shoes to impoverished
    students.
        The Ministry of Labor reported that when inspectors encountered
    incidents of child labor, the Government removed the victims and placed
    them in educational programs. As of September the ministry reported
    that 13 children had been removed from child labor. The ministry
    reported it verified that these situations did not reoccur, and that it
    continues to monitor the area where this work was identified. There was
    no information on specific investigations or prosecutions.

        e. Acceptable Conditions of Work.--There is no national minimum
    wage; the minimum wage is determined by sector. The minimum daily wage
    was $6.92 for retail and service employees, $6.77 for industrial
    laborers, and $5.79 for apparel assembly workers. The agricultural
    minimum wage was $3.24. The minimum wage did not provide a decent
    standard of living for a worker and family. The highest monthly minimum
    wage nationally was $207.60. The lowest monthly minimum wage, for
    agricultural workers, was $97.20. The Consumer Defense Center (an NGO)
    reported that basic subsistence costs for food during the year were
    $184.94 per month. The Government reported slightly different costs,
    indicating that the amount needed for subsistence in urban areas was
    $171.19 and in rural areas $120.03.
        In 2009 the Social Security Institute confirmed that Joaquin
    Salvador Montalvo Machado had complied with the Third Sentencing
    Court's fine of $144,724 imposed in 2006 for illegally retaining social
    security and pension payments of workers at the Hermosa Manufacturing
    apparel assembly plant. On May 23, 10 Hermosa workers received
    severance pay and other compensation following a favorable verdict from
    the Apopa Court of Instruction. Ten other workers received severance
    pay and other compensation after mediation by the OAG on June 29. The
    Salvadoran Social Security Institute also plans to provide medical care
    for Hermosa workers suffering from cancer. However, as of September the
    Ministry of Labor reported that Montalvo had not paid legally required
    severance and other payments to all workers, and 34 workers who lost
    their labor cases plan to file fraud charges against Montalvo, with the
    support of the Ministry of Labor.
        During the year the Ministry of Labor reported 37 complaints for
    unpaid back wages and social security payments against the Miretex
    apparel factory, of which 22 were resolved.
        The Ministry of Labor reported that in November, the Royal Textiles
    Flexiler factory illegally withheld workers' social security and
    pension payments. The case was ongoing at year's end.
        The Ministry of Labor reported conducting 9,206 inspections,
    including 305 in the coffee sector, 111 in the sugar sector, 65 in the
    fireworks industry, and 1,493 in the fishing industry. There were 1,732
    inspections in the industrial sector, 1,275 in the commercial sector,
    and 2,607 in the service sector. The ministry also conducted 437
    inspections for workplace discrimination covering 63,924 workers, 84 of
    whom were pregnant workers. The ministry reported that, as of
    September, 183 employers had been sanctioned, resulting in 186 fines
    for nonpayment of minimum wages. The average fine was $54.43. The
    Government reportedly effectively enforced the minimum wage law in the
    formal sector but not in the informal sector.
        The Government increased its inspection force from 159 to 208
    during the year, and provided updated training to its inspectors for
    both occupational safety and labor standards. There continued to be
    allegations of corruption among labor inspectors in the apparel
    assembly industry.
        The law sets a maximum normal workweek of 44 hours, limited to no
    more than six days, and to no more than eight hours per day, but allows
    overtime if a bonus is paid. The law mandates that full-time employees
    be paid for an eight-hour day of rest in addition to the 44-hour normal
    workweek. The law prohibits compulsory overtime.
        The Government's gender and labor discrimination unit reported that
    assembly plants generally respected the laws on overtime. However, some
    of these plants required workers to work extra days in order to meet
    production goals, with a promise of incentive pay in addition to
    overtime. There were no reports of workers not receiving incentive pay.
        During the year the Ministry of Labor received 375 complaints
    regarding unpaid overtime from industrial and commercial workers, and
    none from agricultural workers.
        As of October the Ministry of Labor reported that it had received
    2,085 complaints of unpaid salaries; 452 complaints of unpaid overtime,
    involving 2,380 and 533 workers, respectively. During the year the
    Ministry of Labor imposed 62 fines for unpaid salaries. There were
    reports from unions that the Ministry of Labor failed to enforce the
    minimum wage for subcontracted workers hired for public reconstruction
    contracts.
        The Ministry of Labor is responsible for setting workplace safety
    standards, and the law on occupational health and safety standards
    establishes a tripartite committee to review the standards. The law
    requires all employers to take steps to ensure that employees are not
    placed at risk to their health and safety in the workplace. This
    includes prohibitions on the employment of persons under age 18 in
    occupations considered hazardous or morally dangerous.
        The Legislative Assembly passed a new workplace safety law in
    January, which will take effect in May 2011. The new law is based on
    ILO Convention 155. It promotes occupational safety, training, and
    worker participation in occupational health and safety matters. The new
    law also addresses sexual harassment and violence against women as well
    as other workplace harassment issues. The law requires that employers
    provide preventive safety measures, including proper equipment and
    training, to employees, and a violence-free workplace, in order to
    reasonably ensure the safety and health of workers. Employers who
    violate the law can be fined. The Ministry of Labor is charged with
    enforcing the law.
        From June 2009 to June 2010, the Ministry of Labor reported that it
    trained 300 companies on occupational safety and created 127 committees
    of occupational health and safety.
        The Ministry of Labor reported contradictory information regarding
    whether workers have the right to remove themselves from hazardous
    situations without jeopardy to their continued employment. The ministry
    noted that the Government's ratification of ILO Convention 155 provides
    workers with the right to remove themselves. At the same time, the
    ministry also reported workers can be fired for refusing to undertake
    hazardous work, although they must be compensated. In practice workers
    were not informed about this right. The Ministry of Labor reported
    conducting 8,390 inspections and 6,449 reinspections for workplace
    health and safety and 1,680 environmental studies during the year. It
    also reported reaccreditation of 500 workplace safety committees and
    the formation of 387 new committees.

                                   __________

                                    GRENADA

        Grenada is a parliamentary democracy with a bicameral legislature.
    Grenada and two smaller islands, Carriacou and Petite Martinique, have
    a population of approximately 105,000. In generally free and fair
    elections in July 2008, the National Democratic Congress won 11 of 15
    seats in Parliament, and Tillman Thomas was sworn in as prime minister.
    Security forces reported to civilian authorities.
        Human rights problems included allegations of corruption, violence
    against women, and instances of child abuse.

                            RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

    Section 1. Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom
            From:
        a. Arbitrary or Unlawful Deprivation of Life.--There were no
    reports that the Government or its agents committed arbitrary or
    unlawful killings.

        b. Disappearance.--There were no reports of politically motivated
    disappearances.

        c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or
    Punishment.--The constitution and law prohibit such practices, and
    there were no formal complaints or confirmed reports that government
    officials employed them. While young detainees occasionally claimed to
    have been roughed up by the police to family and friends, no one
    appealed to the press or approached the authorities with allegations.
    Flogging, a legal form of punishment for sex crimes and assault, was
    not uncommon.

        Prison and Detention Center Conditions.--Overcrowding was a
    significant problem; in the sole penitentiary there were 440 prisoners,
    of whom 16 were women, held in space designed for 98 persons. Some
    prisoners slept on mattresses or blankets on the ground. The prison
    initiated an education program for the inmates and hired a counselor to
    work with the prison population.
        Women were held in a separate section of the prison from men. There
    was no separate facility for its six juveniles, who mix with the
    general prison population in the course of the day.
        Prison conditions are monitored by the Government's Prison Visiting
    Committee. The Government permits monitoring of prison conditions by
    independent human rights groups, but no such visits were requested
    during the year.

        d. Arbitrary Arrest or Detention.--The constitution and law
    prohibit arbitrary arrest and detention, and the Government generally
    observed these prohibitions.

        Role of the Police and Security Apparatus.--The country does not
    have a military. The 1,011-person Royal Grenada Police Force (RGPF) is
    headed by the police commissioner and encompasses the Coast Guard, the
    Special Services Unit, the Fire Fighting Unit, and other specialized
    units. The RGPF is supplemented by 260 rural constables. The RGPF
    generally was effective at responding to complaints and maintained a
    community policing program.
        The police report to the minister for national security, who is
    also the prime minister. The police commissioner can discipline
    officers (up to the rank of sergeant) in cases of brutality with
    penalties that include dismissal. Only the Public Service Commission
    can discipline officers with the rank of inspector or above. Civilian
    authorities maintained effective control over the RGPF, and the
    Government had effective mechanisms to investigate and punish abuse and
    corruption. There were no reports of impunity involving the security
    forces during the year.

        Arrest Procedures and Treatment While in Detention.--The
    constitution and law permit police to detain persons on suspicion
    without a warrant, but they must bring formal charges within 48 hours,
    and this limit generally was respected. In practice detainees were
    provided access to a lawyer and family members within 24 hours. The law
    provides for a judicial determination of the legality of detention
    within 15 days after arrest on a criminal charge. The police must
    formally arraign or release a detained person within 60 days, and the
    authorities generally followed these procedures. There is a functioning
    system of bail, although persons charged with capital offenses are not
    eligible. Persons charged with treason may be accorded bail only upon
    the recommendation of the governor general. The court appoints a lawyer
    for the indigent in cases of murder and other capital crimes.

        e. Denial of Fair Public Trial.--The constitution and law provide
    for an independent judiciary, and the Government generally respected
    judicial independence in practice.

        Trial Procedures.--The constitution and law provide for the right
    to a fair trial, and an independent judiciary generally enforced this
    right.
        There is a presumption of innocence, and the law protects persons
    against self-incrimination and requires the police to explain a
    person's rights upon arrest. The accused has the right to remain silent
    and to seek the advice of legal counsel. The law allows for a defense
    lawyer to be present during interrogation and to advise the accused how
    to respond or not to respond to questions. The accused has the right to
    confront his accuser and has the right of appeal. There are jury trials
    in the High Court only; trials are open to the public unless the
    charges are sexual in nature or a minor is involved.
        The court appoints attorneys for indigents only in cases of murder
    or other capital crimes. In other criminal cases that reach the
    appellate stage, the court appoints a lawyer to represent the accused
    if the defendant was not represented previously or reappoints earlier
    counsel if the appellant can no longer afford that lawyer's services.
    With the exception of foreign-born drug suspects or persons charged
    with murder, the courts granted most defendants bail while awaiting
    trial.

        Political Prisoners and Detainees.--There were no reports of
    political prisoners or detainees.

        Civil Judicial Procedures and Remedies.--There is an independent
    and impartial judiciary for civil matters. The civil court system
    encompasses a number of seats around the country at which magistrates
    preside over cases.

        f. Arbitrary Interference With Privacy, Family, Home, or
    Correspondence.--The constitution and law prohibit such actions, and
    the Government generally respected these prohibitions in practice.

    Section 2. Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:
        a. Freedom of Speech and Press.--The constitution and law provide
    for freedom of speech and of the press, and the Government generally
    respected these rights in practice. In November the Media Workers
    Association of Grenada (MWAG) criticized the prime minister for
    characterizing a blogger as ``dangerous to Grenada'' and ``trying to
    create instability.'' MWAG's statement generated debate among
    journalists about whether the prime minister's comment constituted
    intimidation.

        Internet Freedom.--There were no government restrictions on access
    to the Internet or reports that the Government monitored e-mail or
    Internet chat rooms. Individuals and groups could engage in the
    peaceful expression of views via the Internet, including by e-mail. The
    International Telecommunication Union reported that there were 24
    Internet users per 100 inhabitants in 2009.

        Academic Freedom and Cultural Events.--There were no government
    restrictions on academic freedom or cultural events.

        b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association.--The constitution
    and law provide for freedom of assembly and association, and the
    Government respected these rights in practice.

        c. Freedom of Religion.--For a complete description of religious
    freedom, please see the 2010 International Religious Freedom Report at
    www.state.gov/drl/irf/rpt.

        d. Freedom of Movement, Internally Displaced Persons, Protection of
    Refugees, and Stateless Persons.--The constitution and law provide for
    freedom of movement within the country, foreign travel, emigration, and
    repatriation, and the Government generally respected these rights in
    practice.
        The Government cooperated with the Office of the UN High
    Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and other humanitarian organizations
    in the single instance where assistance was requested with regard to
    refugees and asylum seekers. In this case, the Government agreed not to
    deport a family that claimed political asylum while UNHCR sought a
    country for resettlement.
        The law does not address forced exile. The Government did not
    resort to it.

        Protection of Refugees.--The country is not a party to the 1951
    Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol.
    The Government has no formal channels for providing protection to
    refugees or asylum seekers. The Government provided protection against
    the expulsion or return of refugees to countries where their lives or
    freedom would be threatened on account of their race, religion,
    nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political
    opinion.

    Section 3. Respect for Political Rights: The Right of Citizens to
            Change Their Government
        The constitution and law provide citizens the right to change their
    government peacefully, and citizens exercised this right in practice
    through periodic, free, and fair elections based on universal suffrage.

        Elections and Political Participation.--The most recent general
    elections were held in July 2008, when the National Democratic Congress
    won 11 of the 15 seats in the House of Representatives, defeating the
    New National Party, which had governed for 13 years. The Organization
    of American States led a 25-member election observer mission, which
    deemed the elections free and fair.
        Political parties could operate without restriction or outside
    interference.
        Two women served in the House of Representatives. Four of the 13
    appointed senators are women, including the president of the senate.
    Three female legislators served as ministers of government. In the
    civil service, women held 17 of the 19 most senior positions--permanent
    secretaries.

    Section 4. Official Corruption and Government Transparency
        Although the law provides criminal penalties for official
    corruption, the Government did not implement the law effectively.
    Allegations continued to surface that present or former officials
    engaged in corrupt practices with impunity, but few investigations were
    concluded during the year. The World Bank's governance indicators
    reflected that corruption remained a problem.
        In 2007 Parliament passed the country's first anticorruption laws,
    including a bill establishing an Integrity Commission. In October 2009
    the Government appointed seven persons to the Integrity Commission,
    which met but was not yet operational at the end of the year.
        Although the anticorruption laws require all public servants to
    report their income and assets, the appropriate regulations had not
    been promulgated by year's end.
        There are no laws mandating transparent reporting of political
    donations or limiting the amount of political donations from outside
    the country.
        Although there is no law providing for public access to government
    information, citizens may request access to any information that is not
    deemed classified. However, government responsiveness to those requests
    was not tracked.

    Section 5. Governmental Attitude Regarding International and
            Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations of Human
            Rights
        A number of domestic and international human rights groups
    generally operated without government restriction, investigating and
    publishing their findings on human rights cases. Government officials
    often were cooperative and responsive to their views.
        The country's first ombudsman, a career public servant who
    previously served as cabinet secretary, assumed office in 2009. The
    ombudsman has authority to investigate complaints from persons who
    object to government actions they deem to be unfair, an abuse of power,
    contrary to law, discriminatory, or negligent. By December the Office
    of the Ombudsman handled approximately 60 complaints. While several
    complaints involved nongovernment institutions and fell outside the
    ombudsman's jurisdiction, most complaints were forwarded to the
    appropriate ministries for action and remained under consideration. In
    two cases, the ombudsman opened formal investigations when the
    referrals did not resolve the complaint. The ombudsman planned to
    submit his first annual report to Parliament in 2011.

    Section 6. Discrimination, Societal Abuses, and Trafficking in Persons
        The constitution and law prohibit discrimination based on race,
    place of origin, political opinion, color, creed, or gender, and the
    Government generally upheld these prohibitions.

        Women.--The law criminalizes rape, including spousal rape, and
    stipulates a sentence of flogging or up to 15 years' imprisonment for a
    conviction of any nonconsensual form of sex. Authorities referred 42
    charges involving rape or related charges for prosecution, and the
    court convicted 34 persons during the year.
        Women's rights monitors noted that violence against women remained
    a serious problem. A new Domestic Violence Bill expanded the range of
    eligible relationships subject to domestic violence provisions, persons
    who may apply for assistance on behalf of victims, and the definition
    of abuse, which now includes harassment and damage against property.
    The law prohibits domestic violence and provides for penalties at the
    discretion of the presiding judge based on the severity of the offense.
    Police and judicial authorities usually acted promptly in cases of
    domestic violence. Sentences for assault against a spouse vary
    according to the severity of the incident. A shelter accommodating
    approximately 18 battered and abused women and their children operated
    in the northern part of the country, staffed by medical and
    psychological counseling personnel. Victims and persons seeking to
    report cases of abuse contact the Ministry of Social Development and
    local ministry offices in three parishes and the island of Carriacou.
        The law prohibits sexual harassment, but there are no criminal
    penalties for it. It is the responsibility of the complainant to bring
    a civil suit against an alleged harasser.
        Couples and individuals have the right to decide freely and
    responsibly the number, spacing, and timing of their children and had
    access to contraception as well as obstetric and post-natal care. Life-
    style choices (such as tobacco and alcohol use) contributed to a high
    percentage of premature births, which resulted in an infant mortality
    rate of 15 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2008. Incidence of maternal
    mortality was not available. Essential obstetric and postpartum care
    was widely available, as were skilled attendants at births. Women and
    men had equal access to treatment for HIV/AIDS.
        Women generally enjoyed the same rights as men, and there was no
    evidence of official discrimination in health care, employment, or
    education; however, women frequently earned less than men performing
    the same work. Due in part to factors like post-hurricane
    reconstruction, the poor economy, and high levels of unemployment,
    women moved into nontraditional fields such as carpentry and
    construction. Television and radio public service announcements
    continued to combat spousal abuse and raise women's awareness of their
    rights.

        Children.--Citizenship is derived from birth in the country or, if
    abroad, by birth to a Grenadian parent upon petition. There is
    universal birth registration.
        The Social Welfare Division within the Ministry of Social
    Development provided probationary and rehabilitative services to youth,
    day-care services and social work programs to families, assistance to
    families wishing to adopt or provide foster care to children, and
    financial assistance to the six children's homes run by private
    organizations.
        Government social service agencies reported 92 cases of physical
    abuse, 23 cases of sexual abuse, and 13 incest cases involving minors
    during the year. Government officials attributed the rise in reported
    cases over previous years to a growing awareness among youth and others
    of the availability of support for victims. Abused children were placed
    either in a government-run home or in private foster homes. The law
    stipulates penalties ranging from five to 15 years' imprisonment for
    those convicted of child abuse and disallows the victim's alleged
    ``consent'' as a defense in cases of incest. In October Parliament
    passed the Child Protection and Adoption Bill, which mandates reporting
    of suspected child abuse cases by education, health care, and other
    professionals. The Government used television and radio spots to raise
    awareness within the population about child abuse and incest.
        A statutory rape law applies to children 16 years and under.
    Penalties are 15 years' imprisonment if the victim was less than 14 and
    five years' imprisonment if the victim was 14 to 16 years of age. No
    specific laws address child pornography; but the law does prohibit the
    importation, sale, and public display of pornography. The criminal code
    prohibits sale and trafficking of girls for prostitution, for the
    production of pornography, or for pornographic performances, but lacks
    similar prohibitions that apply to boys.
        The Government is not a party to the 1980 Hague Convention on
    International Child Abduction. For information on international
    parental child abduction, please see the Department of State's annual
    report on compliance at http://travel.state.gov/abduction/resources/
    congressreport/congressreport--4308.html, as well as country specific
    information at http://travel.state.gov/abduction/country/country--
    3781.html

        Anti-Semitism.--There was no organized Jewish community, and there
    were no reports of anti-Semitic acts.

        Trafficking in Persons.--In 2009 there were no reports that persons
    were trafficked to, from, or within the country.

        Persons With Disabilities.--The constitution and law do not protect
    job seekers with disabilities from discrimination in employment.
    Although the law does not mandate access to public buildings or
    services, building owners increasingly incorporated disabled access
    into new construction and premises renovation. Although public schools
    accepted special needs children and sought to meet their needs, many
    parents chose to send their children to three special education schools
    operating in the country. Persons with disabilities had full access to
    the health care system and other public services, faced no
    discrimination in access to information and communication, and suffered
    no restrictions on the right to vote or to participate fully in civic
    affairs. The Government and NGOs continued to provide training and work
    opportunities for such persons. The Ministry of Social Services
    includes an office responsible for looking after persons with
    disabilities, as well as the Council for the Disabled, which reviews
    disability-related issues.

        National/Racial/Ethnic Minorities.--Approximately 8 percent of
    citizens are descendants of individuals who came to the country from
    India as indentured servants, many of whom found themselves in slave-
    like conditions. Some complained of residual discrimination based on
    their origins, although most have intermarried with persons of European
    or African descent.

        Societal Abuses, Discrimination, and Acts of Violence Based on
    Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.--The law criminalizes
    consensual homosexual relations, providing penalties of up to 10 years'
    imprisonment. Society generally was intolerant of homosexuality, and
    many churches condemned it. Members of sexual minorities generally did
    not acknowledge openly their sexual orientation. The Grenada Caribbean
    HIV AIDS Program (GrenCHAP) participated on the National AIDS Council
    and served as an advocate for sexual minorities and at-risk
    populations. There were no reports of violence linked to sexual
    orientation. There were no reports that sexual orientation affected
    employment and occupation, housing, statelessness, or access to
    education or health care.

        Other Societal Violence or Discrimination.--It was not uncommon for
    persons to be shunned by family members or face discrimination in
    housing and employment should their HIV-positive status become known.
    According to civil society contacts, fear of disclosing their status
    prevented some persons with HIV/AIDS from seeking services provided by
    government or civil society. While the Government acted to ameliorate
    concerns by the public about persons with HIV, it moved less quickly to
    finalize policies in draft or to act on recommendations provided by the
    HIV-positive community. The Government encouraged citizens to be tested
    and to get treatment. NGOs such as GRENCHAP and Hope Pals provided
    counseling to those affected by HIV/AIDS; made recommendations to the
    Government on outreach and policy; and urged local companies to educate
    themselves and their workers about HIV/AIDS in the workplace and not to
    discriminate against employees with the disease.

    Section 7. Worker Rights
        a. The Right of Association.--The constitution and law allow
    workers to form and join independent labor unions. All major unions
    belong to one umbrella labor federation, the Grenada Trades Union
    Council, which was subsidized by the Government. Labor ministry
    officials estimated that in 2009, 52 percent of the work force was
    unionized.
        The law does not oblige employers to recognize a union formed by
    their employees if the majority of the work force does not belong to
    the union; however, employers generally did so in practice.
    Renegotiation of contracts between the Government and government worker
    unions, which expired in December 2008, remained pending.
        The law provides workers with the right to strike, and workers
    exercised this right in practice. The Technical and Allied Workers
    Union conducted six brief strikes or work stoppages during the year.
    The Commercial and Industrial Union conducted one. In addition there
    was a strike by the Leeward Islands Airline Pilots Association in June
    against a regional carrier. While essential workers have the right to
    strike, the labor minister may refer disputes involving essential
    services to compulsory arbitration. The Government's list of essential
    services is broad and includes services no longer regarded by the
    International Labor Organization as essential. A revision of the list
    was under discussion between government and labor.

        b. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively.--Workers
    exercised the legal right to organize and to participate in collective
    bargaining. The law requires employers to recognize a union that
    represents the majority of workers in a particular business.
        The law prohibits antiunion discrimination, and employers can be
    forced to rehire employees or otherwise compensate the employee if a
    court finds they were discharged illegally. No such violation of law
    came to the notice of government during the year.
        There are no export processing zones.

        c. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor.--The Government
    prohibits forced or compulsory labor, and there were no reports that
    such practices occurred.

        d. Prohibition of Child Labor and Minimum Age for Employment.--The
    statutory minimum age for employment of children is 18 years.
    Inspectors from the labor ministry enforced this provision in the
    formal sector through periodic checks, but enforcement in the informal
    sector remained a problem, particularly for family farms. The Labor
    Ministry inspected family farms for child workers upon receipt of child
    labor allegations.
        The legal code does not specifically prohibit the sale and
    trafficking of children for exploitive labor. Also see the Department
    of State's annual Trafficking in Persons Report at www.state.gov/g/
    tip/.

        e. Acceptable Conditions of Work.--The Ministry of Labor last
    updated minimum wages in 2002. In 2008 a tripartite committee reviewed
    wage levels. Although the committee provided its recommendations to the
    Government in April 2009, no further action has been taken. Under the
    2002 minimum wage levels, wages are linked to various categories of
    workers; for example, agricultural workers were classified into male
    and female workers. Rates for men were EC$5.00 ($1.85) per hour and for
    women EC$4.75 ($1.75) per hour; however, if a woman performed the same
    task as a man, her rate of pay was the same. The minimum wage for
    domestic workers was set at EC$400 ($148) monthly. The national minimum
    wage did not provide a decent standard of living for a worker and
    family. In 2009 approximately 30 percent of the population earned less
    than the official poverty line, which was drawn at EC$599 ($222) per
    month. The Government effectively enforced minimum wages. While not
    subject to minimum wage provisions, most foreign contract workers
    earned more than minimum wage.
        The law provides for a 40-hour maximum workweek. The law does not
    stipulate rest periods, although no one can be asked to work for longer
    than five hours consecutively without a one-hour meal break. In
    addition domestic employees may not, by law, be asked to work longer
    than a 10-hour period without at least two hours of breaks for meals
    and rest periods. Union-negotiated contracts often mandated rest
    breaks. The law requires a premium for work above the standard workweek
    and prohibits excessive or compulsory overtime. There were no
    exceptions for foreign contract workers. No violations of the law were
    brought to the notice of government authorities.
        The Government sets health and safety standards, but the
    authorities enforced them inconsistently. Workers have the right to
    remove themselves from dangerous workplace situations without jeopardy
    to their continued employment.

                                   __________

                                   GUATEMALA

        Guatemala is a democratic, multiparty republic with a population
    estimated at 14.4 million. Alvaro Colom of the National Unity of Hope
    (UNE) party won the 2007 presidential election, which international
    observers generally considered free and fair, and began his four-year
    term in January 2008. Although security forces reported to civilian
    authorities, there were instances in which members of the security
    forces acted independently of civilian control.
        Human rights abuses included the following: the Government's
    failure to investigate and punish unlawful killings committed by
    members of the security forces; widespread societal violence, including
    numerous killings; corruption and substantial inadequacies in the
    police and judicial sectors; police involvement in serious crimes,
    including unlawful killings, drug trafficking, and extortion; impunity
    for criminal activity; harsh and dangerous prison conditions; arbitrary
    arrest and detention; failure of the judicial system to ensure full and
    timely investigations and fair trials; failure to protect judicial
    sector officials, witnesses, and civil society representatives from
    intimidation; threats and intimidation against, and killings of,
    journalists and trade unionists; discrimination and violence against
    women; trafficking in persons; discrimination against indigenous
    communities; discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and
    gender identity; and ineffective enforcement of labor laws and child
    labor provisions.

                            RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

    Section 1. Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom
            From:
        a. Arbitrary or Unlawful Deprivation of Life.--Although there were
    no reports that the Government or its agents committed politically
    motivated killings, members of the police force committed unlawful
    killings. Corruption, intimidation, and ineffectiveness within the
    police and other institutions prevented adequate investigation of many
    such killings as well as the arrest and successful prosecution of
    perpetrators.
        The National Civilian Police (PNC) and its Office of Professional
    Responsibility (ORP) reported that they investigated 10 accusations of
    killings involving 10 PNC agents, all of whom remained under
    investigation at year's end.
        On February 11, authorities arrested army Major Hugo Leonel Zielke
    Puac, PNC officials Ernesto Gutierrez Cos, Jairo Manuel Orozco, Osmandi
    Lopez Fuentes and Jorge Amilcar Ramirez Cerna, and Korean businessmen
    Woo Kun Yang and Young Gag Lee for the January 18 killing of Te Paek
    Soung Kim, whose body was found in Palin, Escuintla. The press reported
    that Te Paek died after the kidnappers tried to extort from him 12
    million quetzales ($1.5 million) that he won at an illegal casino
    operated by Woo Kun Yang and Young Gag Lee. At year's end the suspects
    remained in preventative prison and an investigation continued.
        On June 23, authorities arrested PNC officials Juan Carlos Rojas
    Salguero and Martir Garcia Hernandez for the January 2009 unlawful
    killing of PNC officer Marco Aurelio Sandoval. Authorities were also
    investigating the two officials for participating in an organized crime
    band engaged in kidnappings and killings for hire.
        At year's end PNC officers Mynor Joel Loarca Morales and Isaias
    Miguel Pineda remained in preventative detention awaiting trial for the
    January 2009 killing of Walter Garcia Suruy in Guatemala City.
        PNC agents Mario Luiz Paz Mejia, Wilfredo Antonio Paz Mejia, and
    Carlos Humberto Aragon Cardona and 10 others remained under detention
    awaiting trial for the April 2009 killing of coffee grower and
    businessman Khalil Musa and his daughter, Marjorie, in Guatemala City.
        On July 15, authorities convicted 11 members of an organized crime
    group, including police agents Mario Luis Paz Mejia, Wilfredo Antonio
    Paz Mejia, Carlos Humberto Aragon Cardona, three former police
    officers, and one retired member of the military for planning and
    carrying out the May 2009 murder of Rodrigo Rosenberg. At year's end
    the brothers Francisco and Estuardo Valdez Paiz, accused of homicide in
    the Rosenberg case, were awaiting trial; other suspects remained at
    large.
        On February 26, soldiers Cacao Coy and Garcia Ramirez were
    convicted of manslaughter in the May 2009 killing of 15-year-old Pedro
    de Jesus Sacul Pop when the driver of the truck in which Sacul Pop was
    a passenger failed to stop in Alta Verapaz.
        At year's end Jeiner Estanislao Vasquez Garcia, prosecutors Mario
    Adolfo Soberanis Pinelo, Oscar Efrain Vasquez Fuentes, and Rigoberto
    Arturo Castanon Mejia, and PNC officers Marlon Josue Garcia Lopez and
    David Ezequiel Vasquez continued to remain in custody in relation to
    the killing in 2009 of Castulo and Ana Leticia Vasquez Garcia.
        At year's end, there were no further developments, and none were
    expected, in the case involving PNC agents Omar Evidan Godoy Arana and
    Gendy Misael Chinchilla Samayoa, who remained in custody awaiting trial
    for the 2008 killing of bus assistant Jose Angel Hernandez.
        On June 7, authorities sentenced Juan Carlos Policarpio to 820
    years in prison for murder in the 2008 killing of 16 passengers of a
    Nicaraguan bus in eastern Guatemala. Authorities sentenced Rony Eduardo
    Terraza Hernandez at the same time to three years' imprisonment for
    attempting to conceal the crime. At year's end nine other suspects,
    including Marvin Montel Marin, alleged leader of the assailants,
    remained at large.
        On July 28, authorities arrested Cesar Augusto Paiz Cordova,
    Aurelio Ruiz, Nelson Oswaldo Milian Giron, and Santiago Enrique Sis
    Garcia for the killing in 2008 of former PNC official and government
    advisor Victor Rivera. At year's end, Paiz, Milian, and Garcia remained
    in prison awaiting trial. Seven other suspects, including Rivera's
    former secretary Maria del Rosario Melgar Martinez, remained at large.
        By year's end authorities had dropped obstruction of justice and
    conspiracy charges against assistant prosecutors Denys Billy Herrera
    Arita and Carlos Rodriguez Serrano, but former chief homicide
    prosecutor Alvaro Matus, assistant prosecutor Pedro Pablo Giron, and
    Public Ministry deputy chief Leyla Susana Lemus Arriaga were out on
    bail awaiting trial in relation to the 2008 killing of Victor Rivera.
        At year's end a trial had begun for nine PNC officers for the 2007
    killing of Antonio de Leon Lopez in Huehuetenango during an
    antinarcotics operation. ; a tenth officer remained at large.
        On December 2, Jutiapa mayor-elect and former member of Congress
    Manuel de Jesus Castillo was convicted of masterminding the 2007
    killings of three Salvadoran members of the Central American Parliament
    (PARLACEN) and their driver. Seven other suspects were also convicted,
    and another was absolved, for participating in the killings, including
    former PNC agent Marvin Contreras Natareno. Sentences ranged between 17
    and 210 years in jail.
        There were no further developments in the case against the former
    director of El Boqueron prison, Manuel Antonio Recinos Aguirre; his
    deputy, Baldimiro Rodene Lopez y Lopez; and several police officers
    with alleged ties to narcotics trafficking who continued to remain in
    custody awaiting trial in connection with the killing of four PNC
    suspects in the 2007 PARLACEN case.
        On August 17, authorities arrested former prison director Alejandro
    Giammattei and former PNC criminal investigation department chief
    Victor Soto for alleged extrajudicial killings of inmates during the
    retaking of Pavon Prison in 2006. At years's end a Spanish court was
    considering a request filed by the Government of Guatemala to extradite
    former minister of government Carlos Vielmann for involvement in the
    killings. The Government also filed arrest warrants for former PNC
    director Erwin Sperinsen and former deputy director Javier Figueroa,
    who continued to remain at large at year's end.
        At year's end there were no further developments in the court's
    reopening and reinvestigation in December 2009 of the 1993
    assassination of former presidential candidate and journalist Jorge
    Carpio Nicolle and the killing of three of his political associates.
        At year's end there were no further developments in the Supreme
    Court's order of December 2009 to reopen and reinvestigate the 1990
    ``street children case'' and the ``white van case,'' of 1987 and 1988,
    involving kidnappings, torture, and killings by state security agents.
        On February 12, authorities arrested retired army special forces
    members Manuel Pop Sun and Reyes Collin Gualip for participating in the
    1982 Dos Erres massacre in which military officials killed an estimated
    252 men, women, and children. On March 1, authorities arrested retired
    colonel Carlos Antonio Carias Lopez, also in connection with the Dos
    Erres massacre. At year's end the three suspects remained in preventive
    detention awaiting trial, and 13 other suspects remained at large.
        At year's end there were no new developments in the case of former
    army captain Jose Antonio Solares Gonzalez and former Civil Defense
    Patrol members Ambrosio Perez Laju and Domingo Chen--three suspects
    sought for the 1982 killings of 177 civilians in Rio Negro, Baja
    Verapaz.
        According to PNC statistics, vigilante mobs (most often in rural
    indigenous communities) killed 33 persons and injured 36 in lynchings
    and attempted lynchings during the year. Many observers attributed the
    lynchings to public frustration with the failure of police and judicial
    authorities to provide security and to the emergence of local citizen-
    security groups. There were continued reports of community lynchings of
    individuals suspected of rape, kidnapping, or attempted kidnapping of
    children to sell for adoption. In many instances PNC agents refused to
    intervene out of fear for their own safety.
        At year's end there was no information, and none was expected,
    regarding:
        The January 22 lynching of three robbery suspects, including an 11-
    year-old boy, by students from University Rafael Landivar in Guatemala
    City;
        Any investigation regarding a February 14 mob lynching and
    dismemberment of three men suspected of assaulting passengers in a bus
    and of killing a bus assistant in the town of Patzutzun, Solola;
        Any investigation regarding the April 9, beating and killing by
    villagers from Chichicastenango of three brothers suspected of
    extortion.

        b. Disappearance.--Although there were no reports of politically
    motivated disappearances, there were reports of police involvement in
    kidnappings for ransom. The PNC's ORP reported that during the year
    there were five complaints of kidnapping by PNC personnel.
        On September 22, the Constitutional Court overturned the Supreme
    Court's December 2009 decision to reopen the case of the forced
    disappearance of Efrain Bamaca Velasquez in 1992 in accordance with an
    order issued in 2002 by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. In
    explaining its decision, the Constitutional Court noted that the Inter-
    American Court of Human Rights decision ordered the Government to
    conduct a new investigation rather than to reopen the case. In response
    to the Constitutional Court's decision, on December 10, the Inter-
    American Court of Human Rights ordered the Government to fully
    investigate the case.
        On October 29, former PNC officer Hector Roderico Rodriguez Rios
    and retired PNC officer Abraham Lancerio Gomez were sentenced to 40
    years each in jail for the 1984 forced disappearance of labor leader
    Edgar Fernando Garcia; two additional suspects, Hugo Rolando Gomez
    Osorio and Alfonso Guillermo de Leon Marroquin, remained at large, and
    their whereabouts were unknown.

        c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or
    Punishment.--Although the constitution and the law prohibit such
    practices, government agents did not always respect these provisions.
    There were credible reports of torture, abuse, and other mistreatment
    by PNC members. Complaints typically related to the use of excessive
    force during police operations.
        On October 14, police officers Carlos Alberto Fuentes Gomes and
    Lisandro Florentino Jochin Lopez were arrested for allegedly beating to
    death Byron Canadro Gomez when he resisted arrest on September 28. At
    year's end there were no further developments regarding this case.
        During the year there were a number of reported incidents
    throughout the country, particularly in rural areas, of vigilante mobs
    publicly beating, humiliating, and sometimes killing, persons suspected
    of criminal acts. There were no reports regarding investigations of
    these incidents.

        Prison and Detention Center Conditions.--Prison conditions remained
    harsh and dangerous, and there were multiple instances of killings by
    inmates. The prison system continued to suffer from a severe lack of
    resources, particularly in the areas of prison security and medical
    services and facilities. Prisoners complained of inadequate food and
    medical care. Prisons had inadequate provisions for sanitation,
    ventilation, temperature, lighting, basic emergency and medical care,
    and access to potable water. Illegal drug sales and use were
    widespread. Prison officials reported frequent escape attempts, gang
    fights, and other manifestations of prisoner unrest. Prisoners
    reportedly used cell phones frequently to demand extortion payments,
    coordinate kidnappings for ransom and killings of bus drivers and
    assistants, and direct other criminal activity both inside and outside
    the prison. Several prisons installed equipment to block such calls,
    but this equipment frequently did not operate.
        Inadequate security measures undermined the penitentiary system's
    ability to control prisoners effectively; there were only 2,250 prison
    guards nationwide. In the prisons, 16 percent of inmates reportedly
    belonged to gangs, which were active in these prisons and occasionally
    attacked prison guards. Prison work and educational programs were
    inadequate to rehabilitate prisoners and decrease the 90 percent
    recidivism rate.
        The media and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) reported that
    physical and sexual abuse of women and juvenile inmates was a serious
    problem. Many of the abused juvenile inmates were suspected gang
    members.
        Prison overcrowding continued to be a problem. According to the
    prison system registry, as of mid-July, 19 prisons and jails designed
    to hold 6,974 persons held 11,140 inmates. Of the national penitentiary
    system population, approximately 50 percent was in pretrial detention;
    743 were adult women.
        At year's end Jorge Torres, director of the Pavoncito Preventive
    Prison and seven prison guards were in preventive detention awaiting
    trial for alleged involvement in the February 2009 escape of inmate
    Leonel Giovanni Herrera Reyes.
        At year's end inmates Byron Alberto Morales Villatoro, Carlos
    Esteban Galindo Pardo, Jose Armando Sapon Ola, and Leopoldo Zaid
    Castillo Belloso, who escaped in September 2009 from Quetzaltenango
    Preventive Prison, remained at large. During the year, Wilmer Armando
    Argueta and Bartoleme Teni Cuc were recaptured and returned to
    preventative prison. On September 3, PNC officials Gonzalo David
    Morales, Hilario Antonio Lopez, Juan Carlos Mendez, Jose Pedro Rojas,
    and Francisco Javier Agustin were sentenced to 10 years in prison for
    their role in allowing the escape.
        On rare occasions, male and female detainees in immigration
    facilities were held together. Pretrial detainees sometimes were held
    in the same prison blocks with the general prison population; on rare
    occasions, juveniles and adults were held together. Prisoners and
    detainees had reasonable access to visitors and were permitted
    religious observance. Authorities permitted prisoners and detainees to
    submit complaints to judicial authorities without censorship and to
    request investigation of credible allegations of inhumane conditions.
    Authorities did not regularly investigate credible allegations of
    inhumane conditions and document the results of such investigations in
    a publicly accessible manner. The Government investigated and monitored
    prison and detention center conditions.
        The Government permitted prison-monitoring visits by local and
    international human rights groups, the Organization of American States,
    public defenders, religious groups, and family members; such visits
    took place throughout the year.
        The human rights ombudsmen does not have authority to serve on
    behalf of prisoners and detainees to consider such matters as
    alternatives to incarceration for nonviolent offenders in order to
    alleviate inhumane overcrowding, to address the status and
    circumstances of confinement of juvenile offenders, or to improve
    pretrial detention, bail and recordkeeping procedures to ensure
    prisoners do not serve beyond the maximum sentence for the charged
    offense.

        d. Arbitrary Arrest or Detention.--The constitution and the law
    prohibit arbitrary arrest and detention, but there were credible
    reports of arrests without judicial warrants, illegal detentions, and
    failure to adhere to prescribed time limits in legal proceedings. In
    practice, arresting officers sometimes failed to bring suspects before
    magistrates within the legally mandated six-hour deadline, and
    magistrates sometimes failed to hold a hearing within the legally
    mandated 24-hour period.

        Role of the Police and Security Apparatus.--The 24,260-member PNC,
    headed by a director general appointed by the minister of government,
    has responsibility in law and practice for law enforcement and
    maintenance of order in the country. The PNC remained understaffed,
    inadequately trained, and insufficiently funded, which substantially
    impeded its effectiveness.
        While no active members of the military served in the police
    command structure, the Government continued to employ the military to
    support police units in response to rising crime. Joint police and
    military operations under PNC operational control continued in
    Guatemala City high-crime areas as well as other areas.
        Police impunity for criminal activities remained a serious problem.
    There were credible reports that individual PNC officers and some
    police units or persons disguised as police officers stopped cars and
    buses to demand bribes or steal private property, and in some cases
    kidnapped, assaulted, and raped victims. Police and immigration
    officials reportedly extorted and mistreated persons attempting to
    enter the country illegally. The PNC routinely transferred officers
    suspected of wrongdoing rather than investigating and punishing them.
        Police threatened persons engaged in prostitution and other
    commercial sexual activities with false drug charges to extort money or
    sexual favors and harassed lesbian, gay, and transvestite persons with
    similar threats. Critics accused police of indiscriminate and illegal
    detentions when conducting antigang operations in some high-crime
    neighborhoods. Security officials allegedly arrested and imprisoned
    suspected gang members without warrants or sometimes on false drug
    charges.
        At year's end the Public Ministry continued its investigation of
    former PNC officials Porfirio Perez Paniagua, Victor de Jesus Lopez,
    and Hector David Castellanos Soto in relation to an alleged attempted
    theft of a large quantity of cocaine during a counternarcotics
    operation in 2009. At year's end former police officials Porfirio Perez
    Paniagua, Benigno Lopez Fuentes and Mario Roberto Castillo remained in
    custody awaiting trial for allegedly stealing $350,000 in cash in 2009.
        At year's end there were no developments, and none were expected,
    regarding the arrest in 2008 of two deputy PNC commissioners and 12
    other PNC officers for alleged involvement in a Guatemala City criminal
    group.
        The PNC's Office of Professional Responsibility (ORP), which is the
    mechanism for investigating security force abuse, conducted internal
    investigations of misconduct by police officers. During the year the
    ORP reported receiving 1,009 complaints, which included three
    complaints of killings, three forced disappearances, five kidnappings,
    34 illegal detentions, 46 thefts, five rapes, 60 threats, and 224 cases
    of abuse of authority.
        During the year the ORP investigated 787 police officers; 439 of
    these were exonerated. While no officers were fired as a result of
    these investigations, the ORP referred 348 cases with sufficient
    evidence of criminal activity to the Public Ministry for further
    investigation and possible prosecution. Few such cases went to trial.
    The PNC trained 3,001 cadets in human rights and professional ethics.
    The army required civil affairs officers at each command to plan and
    document human rights training provided to soldiers. As of year's end,
    6,490 military officers and soldiers had received human rights
    training, according to the Ministry of Defense.
        Approximately two-thirds of police districts remained understaffed.
    Indigenous rights advocates asserted that continuing lack of
    sensitivity by security authorities to indigenous cultural norms and
    practices engendered misunderstandings and complained that few
    indigenous police officers worked in their own ethnic or linguistic
    communities.

        Arrest Procedures and Treatment While in Detention.--The
    constitution and the law require that a court-issued arrest warrant be
    presented to a suspect prior to arrest unless the suspect is caught in
    the act of committing a crime. Police may not detain a suspect for more
    than six hours without bringing the case before a judge. However, this
    right was not respected effectively in practice. Detainees often were
    not promptly informed of the charges filed against them. Once a suspect
    has been arraigned, the prosecutor generally has three months to
    complete the investigation and file the case in court or seek a formal
    extension of the detention period. The law prohibits the execution of
    search warrants between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. unless a state of siege has
    been declared. The law provides for access to lawyers and bail for most
    crimes. The Government provided legal representation for indigent
    detainees, and detainees had access to family members. A judge has the
    discretion to determine whether bail is necessary or permissible for
    pretrial detainees, depending on the circumstances of the charges.
        During the year the ORP received 34 accusations of illegal
    detention. There were no reliable data on the number of arbitrary
    detentions, although most accounts indicated that police forces
    routinely ignored writs of habeas corpus in cases of illegal detention,
    particularly during neighborhood antigang operations.
        In high-crime areas of Guatemala City, Mixco, and Villa Nueva the
    Government continued to operate five 24-hour court pilot projects that
    significantly reduced the number of cases dismissed for lack of merit
    or on technical grounds and increased the prosecution rate in the
    Guatemala City metropolitan area. These projects enhanced the
    Government's ability to comply with legal requirements to bring
    suspects before a judge within six hours of initial detention.
        Although the law establishes a three-month limit for pretrial
    detention, prisoners often were detained past their legal trial or
    release dates. Authorities did not release some prisoners in a timely
    fashion after completing full sentences due to the failure of judges to
    issue the necessary court order or due to other bureaucratic problems.

        e. Denial of Fair Public Trial.--While the constitution and the law
    provide for an independent judiciary, the judicial system often failed
    to provide fair or timely trials due to inefficiency; corruption;
    insufficient personnel and funds; and intimidation of judges,
    prosecutors, and witnesses. The judiciary was generally independent in
    practice. Very few reported crimes were investigated or prosecuted;
    fewer resulted in conviction. Many high-profile criminal cases remained
    pending in the courts for long periods, as defense attorneys employed
    successive appeals and motions.
        There were numerous reports of ineffectiveness and manipulation of
    the judiciary. Judges, prosecutors, plaintiffs, and witnesses also
    continued to report threats, intimidation, and surveillance. During the
    year the special prosecutor for crimes against judicial workers
    received 154 cases of threats or aggression against workers in the
    judicial branch, compared with 68 in 2009.
        The Ministry of Government assigned police officers to the
    International Commission to Combat Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) to
    augment security. The CICIG-vetted prosecutor unit, created by the
    Public Ministry, continued to be directly supervised by a senior CICIG
    prosecutor. At year's end CICIG continued its investigation of 27 high-
    profile cases, 11 prosecutions, and various cases involving killings of
    women, bus drivers, and assistants; trafficking in persons; and attacks
    against and killings of unionists and human rights defenders.
        There were credible reports of killings of witnesses. On April 18,
    unknown assailants shot to death Lidia Estela Estrada Navas in El
    Chaguite, Jalapa. Estrada was the sole survivor and witness to a
    massacre committed in April 2009, which resulted in the death of five
    of her family members. Estrada had reported to authorities that she
    received death threats, but the Public Ministry did not provide her
    with requested protection. By year's end 178 persons were in the Public
    Ministry's witness protection program.
        At year's end there were no developments, and none were expected,
    in the 2008 killings by unknown gunmen of Judge Jose Vidal Barillas
    Monzon, president of the Appeals Court of Retalhuleu and Assistant
    Homicide Prosecutor Juan Carlos Martinez.
        The Supreme Court continued to seek the suspension of judges and to
    conduct criminal investigations for improprieties or irregularities in
    cases under its jurisdiction. The Judicial Disciplinary Unit
    investigated 906 complaints of wrongdoing and held hearings for 888
    complaints during the year and applied sanctions to several cases,
    ranging from written notice to 30-day suspension. Between January and
    July, the Judicial Disciplinary Unit sanctioned 10 judges.

        Trial Procedures.--The constitution provides for the right to a
    fair public trial, the presumption of innocence, the right to be
    present at trial, and the right to counsel in a timely manner. Juries
    are not used at trials. The Government provides at public expense
    attorneys for defendants facing serious criminal charges. Defendants
    and their attorneys have access to government-held evidence relevant to
    their case. The law provides for plea bargaining, and the right of
    appeal. Three-judge panels render verdicts. The law provides for oral
    trials and mandates language interpretation for those needing it, in
    particular the large number of indigenous persons who are not fluent in
    Spanish, although inadequate government funding limited effective
    application of this requirement. The Public Ministry utilized 20
    interpreters nationwide, including in former conflict areas of the
    country, and the Office of the Public Defender employed 44 bilingual
    public defenders in locations where they could also serve as
    translators.
        The Public Ministry, acting semi-independently of the executive
    branch, may initiate criminal proceedings on its own or in response to
    a complaint. Private parties may participate in the prosecution of
    criminal cases as plaintiffs. Lengthy investigations and frequent
    procedural motions used by both defense and prosecution often led to
    excessively long pretrial detention, frequently delaying trials for
    months or years.

        Political Prisoners and Detainees.--There were no reports of
    political prisoners or detainees.

        Civil Judicial Procedures and Remedies.--Citizens had access to
    administrative and judicial remedies to bring lawsuits seeking damages
    for, or cessation of, a human rights violation or other alleged wrongs.
    While the judiciary was generally impartial and independent in civil
    matters, it suffered from inefficiency and institutional weaknesses.
    There were problems in enforcing civil court orders. Some killings
    resulted from PNC failure to enforce restraining orders promptly.

        f. Arbitrary Interference With Privacy, Family, Home, or
    Correspondence.--The constitution and the law prohibit such actions,
    and the Government generally respected these prohibitions in practice.
        On October 13, authorities absolved Chief of Presidential Security
    Carlos Quintanilla of charges he had placed listening devices in the
    offices of the president and first lady. At year's end Gustavo Solano,
    former head of the Secretariat of Strategic Analysis, was awaiting
    trial on the same charges.

    Section 2. Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:
        a. Freedom of Speech and Press.--The constitution and the law
    provide for freedom of speech and press, and the Government generally
    respected these rights in practice.
        The independent media, including international news organizations,
    operated freely and actively and expressed a wide variety of views
    without overt government restriction. Some members of the press
    reported receiving pressure by various public officials regarding the
    selection and content of reporting. Some owners and members of the
    media also accused the Government of following a discriminatory
    advertising policy, particularly with respect to leading print and
    broadcast media that expressed news or commentary perceived as critical
    of the president, his administration, the first lady, or public
    officials and programs.
        Members of the press claimed that increasing levels of impunity and
    violence in the country, particularly associated with narcotics
    trafficking, threatened the practice of free and open journalism. The
    press also complained of threats made against them by organized crime
    and drug-trafficking organizations, noting that these threats increased
    their sense of vulnerability.
        The Special Prosecutor's Unit for Crimes against Journalists and
    Unionists received 25 complaints of attacks and other acts of
    intimidation against journalists. The MP reported 13 incidents of
    intimidation of journalists, compared with 24 during 2009.
        On February 26, the Public Ministry reportedly sent two prosecutors
    to harass La Hora newspaper for reporting about Mi Familia Progressa
    government cash transfer program for the impoverished.
        On April 8, an unknown assailant shot and injured journalist, Luis
    Felipe Valenzuela. At year's end no one had been arrested in relation
    to the shooting, and the case remained open.
        On June 24 and again on September 29, unknown persons broke into
    the home and stole computer files of El Periodico reporter Marvin del
    Cid Acevedo, who had been undertaking investigative reporting on
    corruption. There were no arrests by year's end.
        There were no developments, and none were expected, in the
    following cases from 2008: the killing of Prensa Libre correspondent
    Jorge Merida Perez in Coatepeque, Quetzaltenango; the death threat
    against Prensa Libre news correspondent Danilo Lopez in Suichitepequez,
    and the shooting attack on the home of Radio Punto news correspondent
    Edin Rodelmiro Maaz Bol in Coban.

        Internet Freedom.--There were no government restrictions on access
    to the Internet or reports that the Government monitored e-mail or
    Internet chat rooms. Leading independent print, broadcast media, and a
    growing number of small and medium-size news organizations featured
    Internet editions and operated freely. Individuals and groups engaged
    in the peaceful expression of views via the Internet, including by e-
    mail. The International Telecommunication Union reported that there
    were 16 Internet users per 100 inhabitants.

        Academic Freedom and Cultural Events.--There were no government
    restrictions on academic freedom or cultural events.

        b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association.--The constitution
    and the law provide for freedoms of assembly and association, and the
    Government generally respected these rights in practice.

        c. Freedom of Religion.--For a complete description of religious
    freedom, please see the 2010 International Religious Freedom Report at
    www.state.gov/g/drl/irf/rpt.

        d. Freedom of Movement, Internally Displaced Persons, Protection of
    Refugees, and Stateless Persons.--The constitution and the law provide
    for freedom of movement within the country, foreign travel, emigration,
    and repatriation; and the Government generally respected these rights
    in practice.
        The Government cooperated with the Office of the UN High
    Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and other humanitarian organizations
    in providing protection and assistance to internally displaced persons,
    refugees, returning refugees, asylum seekers, stateless persons, and
    other persons of concern.
        The law prohibits forced exile, and the Government did not use
    forced exile (internal or external) in practice.

        Protection of Refugees.--The constitution and the law provide for
    the granting of asylum or refugee status, and the Government has
    established a system for providing protection to refugees. In practice
    the Government provided protection against the expulsion or return of
    refugees to countries where their lives or freedom would be threatened
    on account of their race, religion, nationality, membership in a
    particular social group, or political opinion.
        During the year the Government received 10 requests for refugee
    status and accorded asylum, or refugee status to seven persons.

    Section 3. Respect for Political Rights: The Right of Citizens to
            Change Their Government
        The constitution and the law provide citizens the right to change
    their government peacefully, and citizens exercised this right in
    practice, including choosing the president, through periodic, free, and
    fair elections held on the basis of nearly universal suffrage for those
    18 years of age and older. Members of the armed forces and police are
    not permitted to vote.

        Elections and Political Participation.--In 2007 Alvaro Colom of the
    UNE party won a four-year term as president with approximately 53
    percent of the vote. The Organization of American States international
    observation mission characterized the elections as generally free and
    fair. Amnesty International reported an estimated 26 killings of
    political activists during the election campaign.
        There were 20 women in the 158-seat Congress. A total of 319 women
    served as judges nationwide, including one each on the Supreme Court
    and the Constitutional Court. There were no women in the 13-member
    cabinet. Six of the country's 332 mayors were women.
        There was one indigenous cabinet member, no indigenous Supreme
    Court justices, 113 indigenous mayors, and approximately 20 indigenous
    members of Congress.

    Section 4. Official Corruption and Government Transparency
        The law provides criminal penalties for official corruption;
    however, the Government did not implement the law effectively, and
    officials frequently engaged in corrupt practices with impunity. There
    was substantial corruption within the police force and the judiciary.
        Government corruption was widely perceived to be a serious problem
    and was so reflected in World Bank governance indicators. The Public
    Ministry continued to prosecute for corruption former president Alfonso
    Portillo, former vice president Reyes Lopez, and other senior members
    of previous governments.
        On March 8, Congresswoman Nineth Montenegro announced that unknown
    persons had made death threats against her. The press reported that
    Montenegro had been conducting corruption audits on public spending by
    the National Peace Fund. At year's end the case remained open, and no
    arrests had been made.
        On May 14, authorities fired Deputy Director of the Prison System
    Carlos Schwarz for allegedly extorting inmates.
        By year's end several former government officials were under
    arrest, awaiting trial, or fugitives from justice on corruption-related
    charges involving refurbishing the Fraijanes II Detention Center. On
    May 28, authorities arrested Oscar Humberto Andrade Elizondo and
    Ricardo Gustavo Maldonado Ortega, and Ricardo Alfonso Lancerio Ignacio
    on suspicion of stealing 17 million quetzales ($2.1 million). The three
    had served as officers for the Foundation for Development and
    Technology (Fundtech). In September authorities arrested Rodrigo
    Lainfiestaon on fraud and money laundering charges, for receiving a
    check for 600,000 quetzales ($75,000) from Fundtech, and former Office
    of the Comptroller General's auditors Fernando Rodriguez Trejo,
    Francisco Javier Alvarado, Carlos Enrique Lopez Gutierrez, Luis Alvarez
    Pereira and Francisco Villatoro for alleged corrupt activities related
    to Fundtech. Authorities were also investigating former minister of
    government Raul Velasquez and former minister of government Salvador
    Gandara in relation to this case.
        On July 23, authorities placed under house arrest former minister
    of government Francisco Jimenez on suspicion of abuse of authority and
    conspiracy to commit fraud with respect to a 2006 contract between the
    National Register (RENAP) and the private company Easy Marketing to
    issue the new national identification documents. Other public officers
    under investigation in relation to the case included former RENAP
    director Enrique Cossich, former RENAP directorate member Mauricio
    Radford, Electoral Tribunal magistrate Patricia Cervantes, and former
    vice minister of government Angel Rodriguez Tello.
        On August 25, authorities sentenced former PNC Director Baltazar
    Gomez and former PNC Deputy Logistics Director Hector Lepoyeu to five
    years each in prison for their role in embezzling 52 million quetzales
    ($6.5 million) in gasoline coupons for PNC patrol units. Former
    Minister of Government Raul Velasquez and former secretary of
    presidential administrative affairs Juan Carlos Leal Medina remained at
    large for their alleged participation in the case.
        At year's end there were no developments regarding the case of
    former minister of defense and former minister of government Eduardo
    Arevalo Lacs, who remained in custody awaiting trial since 2009 for
    embezzling 120 million quetzales ($15 million). At year's end former
    president of Congress Eduardo Meyer and Ruben Dario Morales remained
    under house arrest, and Mercado de Futuro General Manager Raul Giron
    remained in preventive prison in connection with the illegal transfer
    in 2008 by private secretary Byron Sanchez of 83 million quetzales
    ($10.3 million). Sanchez and former congressional chief financial
    officer Jose Conde, also wanted in the case, remained at large.
        At year's end the Public Ministry continued its investigation that
    began in 2009 of former president of Congress Ruben Dario Morales, who
    remained under house arrest for embezzlement and fraud of 300,000
    quetzales ($37,500) of congressional funds in 2007.
        At year's end the Constitutional Court had accepted a request, but
    had not taken further action, to extradite former President Portillo to
    the United States to face charges of embezzlement allegedly committed
    during his presidency. Portillo and former minister of finance Manuel
    Maza, arrested on March 12 for his involvement in the case, remained in
    preventive prison.
        As of November authorities continued investigating retired general
    Enrique Rios Sosa, Captain Pedro Adolfo Catalan Munoz, and retired
    lieutenant Miguel Angel Salguero Torres, as well as 29 other members of
    the military in relation to alleged document forgery and embezzlement
    between 2001 and 2003 during the Portillo administration. Rios Sosa,
    Catalan Munoz, and Salguero Torres remained under arrest in detention,
    and retired colonel Sergio Hugo Cardenas Sagastume, Captain Rodolfo
    Leonel Chacon Alvarez, and Colonel Luis Alberto Gomez Guillermo
    remained under house arrest.
        Public officials who earn more than 8,000 quetzales ($1,000) per
    month or who manage public funds are subject to financial disclosure
    laws overseen and enforced by the Controller General's Office. Lack of
    political will and rampant impunity facilitated government corruption.
        The law provides for the right of citizens to access public
    information and establishes fines for government agencies that obstruct
    such access. In practice the Government granted, but at times in a slow
    and incomplete manner, access for citizens and noncitizens, including
    foreign media, to public information. If the Government denied requests
    for information, it at times provided unclear reasons for denying the
    request. There is no formal mechanism to appeal such denials. However,
    petitioners often appealed to the Office of the Human Rights for
    assistance relating to a government denial of public information. The
    press criticized the Government for not having provided sufficient
    resources to allow government and publicly funded offices to comply
    fully with the access to public information law.

    Section 5. Governmental Attitude Regarding International and
            Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations of Human
            Rights
        A variety of domestic and international human rights groups
    generally operated without government restriction, investigating and
    publishing their findings on human rights cases. Government officials
    were generally cooperative, open to their views, responded to their
    inquiries, and at times took action in response to their reports and
    recommendations.
        A number of NGOs, human rights workers, and trade unionists
    reported threats or intimidation by unidentified persons, many with
    reputed links to organized crime, private security companies, and
    ``social cleansing'' groups, and complained that the Government did
    little to investigate these reports or to prevent further incidents.
        The Office of the Special Prosecutor for Human Rights opened new
    cases involving anonymous telephone or written threats, physical
    assaults, and surveillance of workplaces, residences, and vehicular
    movements. The majority of such cases remained pending for lengthy
    periods without investigation or languished in the court system.
        The NGO Guatemalan Human Rights Defenders Protection Unit reported
    that there had been eight killings of human rights defenders during the
    year. On January 14, unknown persons in Quetzaltenango shot to death
    Evelinda Ramirez Reyes, president of the NGO Resistance Front in the
    Defense of Natural Resources (FRENA), which had demonstrated against
    electric company Union Fenosa. On February 17, unknown assailants in
    Malacatan shot to death FRENA member Octavio Roblero.
        On December 7, unknown persons in Huehuetenango kidnapped driver
    Victor Lopez and Emilia Margarita Quan Staackmann, an anthropologist
    working for Guatemala Western Border Center for Studies and
    Documentation (CEDFOG). Lopez was released by the kidnappers. Quan, who
    had been hit and tied up, was found dead a day later. Police arrested
    Evelio Aristides Rivas and Jorge Hernan Lopez, two of the four
    suspects. Local persons lynched the two suspects before they could be
    interrogated by authorities regarding the crime and their motive for
    committing it. At year's end there were no further developments in the
    case.
        There were no known developments, and none were expected, in the
    Public Ministry's investigations of cases reportedly involving violence
    and intimidation against human rights defenders: death threats in 2008
    against Bishop Alvaro Ramazzini, indigenous leader Amilcar Pop, and a
    family member of Norma Cruz, director of the Survivors Foundation; and
    the killing of indigenous community leader Antonio Morales Lopez.
        The resident Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
    advised and assisted the Government and monitored the human rights
    situation. The Government cooperated with the office and other
    international organizations, including the International Commission to
    combat Impunity in Guatemala. Between May 12 and 18, UN Special
    Rapporteur on the Right to Health Anand Grover visited the country to
    review health issues. Between June 14 and 15, UN Special Rapporteur on
    the Rights of Indigenous People James Anaya visited the country to hold
    consultations and collect information about licensing of natural
    resources extraction on indigenous lands.
        The Office of the Human Rights Ombudsman (PDH), headed by Sergio
    Morales, reports to Congress and monitors the human rights set forth in
    the constitution. The PDH operated without government or party
    interference, had the Government's cooperation, and issued reports and
    recommendations that were made public, including an annual report to
    Congress on fulfillment of its mandate. The PDH did not have adequate
    resources but was considered reasonably effective and trusted by the
    public.
        The President's Commission on Human Rights (COPREDEH), led by Ruth
    del Valle, is charged with formulating and promoting the Government's
    human rights policy, representing the Government before the IACHR, and
    negotiating amicable settlements in cases before the Inter-American
    Court of Human Rights. COPREDEH also led coordination of police
    protection for various human rights and labor activists during the
    year. COPREDEH enjoyed the Government's cooperation and operated
    without government or party interference. It did not have adequate
    resources but was considered reasonably effective and had the trust of
    the public.
        The Congressional Committee on Human Rights drafts and provides
    advice on legislation regarding human rights matters. By law all
    political parties represented in Congress are required to have a
    representative on the committee. NGOs reported that they considered the
    committee to be an effective public forum for promoting and protecting
    human rights. The committee was not independent of party or government
    influence.

    Section 6. Discrimination, Societal Abuses, and Trafficking in Persons
        The constitution and the law prohibit discrimination based on race,
    gender, disability, language, or social status. In practice the
    Government frequently did not enforce these provisions due to
    inadequate resources, corruption, and a dysfunctional judicial system.

        Women.--Rape and other sexual offenses remained serious problems.
    However, there were no reliable statistics to approximate the
    pervasiveness of these crimes. The law criminalizes rape, including
    spousal rape and aggravated rape, and sets penalties between five and
    50 years in prison. The law also establishes penalties for physical,
    economic, and psychological violence committed against women because of
    their gender. However, the Government did not enforce the law
    effectively. At year's end 786 cases of economic abuse, including
    withholding earnings of victims, and 43,803 cases of sexual abuse and
    other forms of physical violence had been reported.
        On September 10, a court sentenced Abelino Mendez to 37 years in
    jail for 14 rapes he committed between 2007 and 2008. Victims
    complained that the court did not base the sentence on new legal
    provisions, which provide harsher penalties for perpetrators of
    violence against women.
        Police had minimal training or capacity to investigate sexual
    crimes or assist victims of such crimes. The Government maintained the
    PNC Special Unit for Sex Crimes, the Office of Attention to Victims,
    the Office of the Special Prosecutor for Crimes against Women, and a
    special unit for trafficking in persons and illegal adoptions within
    the Special Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime. According to NGOs,
    rape victims frequently did not report crimes due to lack of confidence
    in the justice system and fear of reprisals.
        Violence against women, including domestic violence, remained a
    common and serious problem. Economic difficulties resulting from
    flooding and other natural disasters during the year contributed to
    increases in violence against women, as measured by increased police
    reporting and victim use of NGO counseling and shelter services. The
    law prohibits domestic abuse, provides for the issuance of restraining
    orders against alleged aggressors and police protection for victims,
    and requires the PNC to intervene in violent situations in the home. In
    practice, the PNC often failed to respond to requests for assistance
    related to domestic violence. Women's groups commented that few
    officers were trained to deal with domestic violence or assist victims.
        The Institute of Public Criminal Defense continued to provide free
    legal, medical, and psychological assistance to victims of domestic
    violence. By year's end the project had attended to 12,641 cases of
    domestic violence.
        According to press reports, the Government's Program for Prevention
    and Eradication of Intrafamily Violence, under the first lady's
    Secretariat of Social Work, received on average seven calls daily from
    battered women and children via its three emergency hotlines. At year's
    end the Public Ministry reported that it received more than 43,803
    complaints of violence against women and children, including domestic
    violence, economic violence, and sexual crimes. Of the 4,365 complaints
    of sexual crimes, at year's end the Government reported 45 convictions.
    The Public Ministry did not provide data on punishment.
        Justices of the peace issued an unspecified number of restraining
    orders against domestic violence aggressors and ordered police
    protection for victims. Full investigation and prosecution of domestic
    violence and rape cases usually took an average of one year. Although
    the law affords protection, including shelter, to victims of domestic
    violence, in practice there were insufficient facilities for this
    purpose.
        The Office of the Ombudsman for Indigenous Women within COPREDEH
    provided social services for victims of domestic or social violence, as
    well as mediation, conflict resolution, and legal services for
    indigenous women. The office also coordinated and promoted action by
    government institutions and NGOs to prevent violence and discrimination
    against indigenous women but lacked human resources and logistical
    capacity to perform its functions on a national level. There were no
    firm statistics available on the number of cases the office handled.
        Killings of all types continued, including those with reported
    evidence of sexual assault, torture, and mutilation of women. The PNC
    reported 5,960 killings during the year, including 695 killings of
    women, compared with 6,498 total killings, including 720 women, in
    2009. There were 13 prosecutions for killings of women in Guatemala
    City during the year, but few prosecutions resulted in convictions.
        The Ministry of Government continued to operate eight shelters for
    victims of abuse in departments with the greatest incidence of domestic
    violence. The centers provided legal and psychological support and
    temporary accommodation. The Institute of Public Criminal Defense
    hotline to assist female victims of physical violence received 59,319
    calls during the year.
        A Guatemala City women's shelter for victims of violence continued
    to operate with capacity to house 20 victims and their families for six
    months at a time. There were also two other shelters for women and
    their children, with a capacity to house 40 persons each, in Guatemala
    City and Quetzaltenango. The Government, along with foreign donors,
    provided funding for these three shelters. There were also an unknown
    number of smaller private shelters operating in the countryside.
        The law does not prohibit sexual harassment, and there were no
    accurate estimates of its incidence. Human rights organizations
    reported, however, that sexual harassment was widespread, especially in
    industries in which the workforce was primarily female, such as the
    textile and apparel sectors; it was also a problem in the police force.
        Couples and individuals had the right to decide freely and
    responsibly the number, spacing, and timing of children, free from
    discrimination, coercion, and violence. The Government provided access
    to family planning information and sex education throughout the public
    health system. Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) noted,
    however, that among the population in general, there was a low level of
    knowledge regarding family planning methods and the female reproductive
    cycle. The Population Reference Bureau reported a contraceptive use of
    43 percent among married women. The PPFA reported that access to
    reproductive health care was not equal throughout the country, with
    cultural, geographic, and linguistic barriers, particularly in
    indigenous areas, preventing women and men from accessing reproductive
    health services.
        Discriminatory attitudes among health care providers and a lack of
    culturally sensitive maternal health services deterred many indigenous
    women from accessing these services. The UN Population Fund estimated
    that the maternal mortality rate was 110 deaths per 100,000 live births
    in 2008. The PPFA reported that hemorrhages and other obstetrical
    complications during pregnancy, birth, and the postpartum period were
    principal causes of maternal mortality. The National Survey on Infant
    and Maternal Health reported that between 2008 and 2009, among women
    who received prenatal care, 63 percent of rural women used services at
    home or from a traditional midwife, and 76 percent of urban women went
    to clinics or hospitals.
        Women and men had equal access to diagnosis and treatment for HIV
    and other sexually transmitted infections.
        While the law establishes the principle of gender equality, in
    practice women faced job discrimination and were less likely to hold
    management positions. Women were employed primarily in low-wage jobs in
    agriculture, retail businesses, the service sector, the textile and
    apparel industries, and the Government. They were more likely than men
    to be employed in the informal sector, where pay and benefits generally
    were lower. Women may legally own, manage, and inherit property on an
    equal basis with men, including in situations involving divorce.
        The Government's Secretariat for Women's Affairs advised the
    president on interagency coordination of policies affecting women and
    their development. The secretariat's activities included seminars,
    outreach, and providing information on discrimination against women.

        Children.--Citizenship is derived by birth within the country's
    territory and from one's parents. The UNHCR reported that there were
    problems in registering births, especially in indigenous communities,
    due to inadequate government registration and documentation systems.
    Cultural factors, such as the need to travel to unfamiliar urban areas
    and interact with nonindigenous male government officials, at times
    inhibited indigenous women from registering themselves and their
    children. Lack of registration sometimes restricted children's access
    to public services.
        Child abuse remained a serious problem. The Special Prosecutor's
    Office for Women, Unit of Adolescent and Child Victims, investigated
    cases of child abuse. It achieved 55 convictions in the 67 child abuse
    cases.
        The Secretariat of Social Welfare, with oversight for children's
    treatment, training, special education, and welfare programs, provided
    shelter and assistance to children who were victims of abuse but
    sometimes placed children under its care in shelters with juveniles who
    had criminal records.
        There were credible reports of forced early marriages in some rural
    indigenous communities. There were no reported government efforts to
    combat child marriage.
        Child prostitution remained a problem. Child sex tourism was a
    growing problem, with credible reports of child sex tourism in Antigua,
    Guatemala City, and Solola. The minimum age of consensual sex is 18.
    The Law against Sexual Violence, Exploitation, and Trafficking in
    Persons provides sentences ranging from 13 to 24 years in prison,
    depending on the victim's age, for sex with a minor. The law also
    prohibits child pornography and establishes penalties of six to 10
    years in prison for the production, promotion, and selling of child
    pornography and two to four years' imprisonment for possession of it.
        Rescue operations conducted by the Government during the course of
    the year resulted in the rescue of approximately 21 sexually exploited
    minors under age 18. The Secretariat of Social Welfare handled two
    child protection cases, including cases of sexually exploited minors,
    as part of a national plan to combat the commercial sexual exploitation
    of children. The Office of the Attorney General achieved convictions in
    two cases of child prostitution.
        Credible estimates put the number of children who were members of
    street gangs at 3,000 nationwide. Many street children had left home
    after being abused. Criminals often recruited street children for
    purposes of stealing, transporting contraband, prostitution, and
    illegal drug activities. The NGO Mutual Support Group reported that
    through October, 55 minors suffered violent deaths nationwide. NGOs
    dealing with gangs and other youth reported concerns that street youth
    detained by police were subject to abusive treatment, including
    physical assaults.
        The Government operated a girl's shelter in Antigua and a boy's
    shelter in San Jose Pinula. Two other shelters in Quetzaltenango and
    Zacapa served both boys and girls. The Government devoted insufficient
    funds to shelters, and authorities often preferred to send juveniles to
    youth shelters operated by NGOs. The Government provided no funding
    assistance for shelter costs to these NGOs. Security authorities
    incarcerated juvenile offenders at separate youth detention facilities.
        The country is a party to the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil
    Aspects of International Child Abduction. For information on
    international parental child abduction, please see the Department of
    State's annual report on compliance at http://travel.state.gov/
    abduction/resources/congressreport/congressreport--4308.html as well as
    country specific information at http://travel.state.gov/abduction/
    country/country--3781.html.

        Anti-Semitism.--There were no reports of anti-Semitic acts. The
    Jewish population numbered approximately 2,000 persons.

        Trafficking in Persons.--For information on trafficking in persons,
    please see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons
    Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        Persons With Disabilities.--The constitution contains no specific
    prohibitions against discrimination based on physical, sensory,
    intellectual, and mental disabilities in employment, education, access
    to health care, or the provision of other state services or other
    areas. The law, however, mandates equal access to public facilities and
    provides some other legal protections. In many cases, persons with
    physical and mental disabilities did not enjoy these rights, and the
    Government devoted few resources to addressing the problem. The law
    does not mandate that persons with disabilities have access to
    information or communications.
        There were minimal educational resources for persons with special
    needs, and the majority of universities did not have accessibility
    facilities for persons with disabilities. The National Hospital for
    Mental Health, the principal health provider for persons with mental
    illness, lacked basic supplies, equipment, hygienic living conditions,
    and adequate professional staffing. The National Council for the
    Disabled, composed of representatives of relevant government ministries
    and agencies, is the principal government organ responsible for
    protecting the rights of persons with disabilities. It met regularly to
    discuss initiatives and had a budget of five million quetzales
    ($625,000).

        Indigenous People.--Indigenous persons from 22 ethnic groups
    constituted an estimated 43 percent of the population. The law provides
    for equal rights for indigenous persons and obliges the Government to
    recognize, respect, and promote their lifestyles, customs, traditions,
    social organizations, and manner of dress.
        Although some indigenous persons attained high positions as judges
    and government officials, they generally were underrepresented in
    politics and remained largely outside the country's political,
    economic, social, and cultural mainstream due to limited educational
    opportunities, poverty, lack of awareness of their rights, and
    pervasive discrimination. While the indigenous population increased its
    political participation, some civil society representatives questioned
    whether such participation had resulted in greater influence in the
    national political party structure. Indigenous lands often were not
    effectively demarcated, making formal recognition of titles to land
    they occupied or claimed frequently problematic.
        In March unknown actors made telephone death threats against Jorge
    Morales Toj, community organizer and lawyer for the Mayan Youth
    Movement, reportedly to force him to discontinue his efforts to raise
    public awareness about environmental degradation in indigenous
    communities. At year's end there was no information regarding any
    investigation of these incidents.
        On August 25, unknown assailants in Solola killed Mayan cultural
    activist and community leader Leonardo Lisandro Guarcax Gonzalez. In
    May 2009 Jesus Ernesto and Carlos Emilio Guarcax Gonzales, Mayan
    activists and cousins of Lisandro Guarcax, were also killed
    attributably in connection with extortion, retribution from corrupt
    local government officials, or community territorial power struggles.
    At year's end there was no information available regarding any
    investigations of these killings.
        Many indigenous persons were illiterate, and approximately 29
    percent did not speak Spanish, according to the 2006 National
    Statistics Institute National Survey of Life Conditions report, the
    latest data available. While the average nonindigenous child from seven
    to 17 years of age had received 4.4 years of schooling, indigenous
    children of the same age range had received an average of 3.7 years,
    according to the same report. More than 50 percent of indigenous women
    over the age of 15 were illiterate, and a disproportionate number of
    indigenous girls did not attend school. According to the Ministry of
    Education 93,987 preschool- and kindergarten-age indigenous children
    were enrolled in Spanish-indigenous language bilingual education
    programs.
        The Department of Indigenous People in the Ministry of Labor,
    tasked with investigating cases of discrimination and representing
    indigenous rights, counseled indigenous persons on their rights. This
    department had a budget of 40,000 quetzales ($5,000) and only three
    employees to investigate discrimination claims.
        Legally mandated court interpreters for criminal proceedings were
    rarely available, placing indigenous persons arrested for crimes at a
    disadvantage due to their sometimes limited comprehension of Spanish.
    There were 118 judges who spoke Mayan languages among the 536 tribunals
    in the country. There were 110 court interpreters, including 101
    bilingual Mayan speakers, and the Supreme Court reported that the
    judicial system had 1,027 employees who spoke indigenous languages.
    However, in many instances bilingual judicial personnel continued to be
    assigned to areas where their second language was not spoken.

        Societal Abuses, Discrimination, and Acts of Violence Based on
    Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.--Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and
    transgender (LGBT) rights support groups alleged that members of the
    police sometimes waited outside clubs and bars frequented by sexual
    minorities and demanded that persons engaged in commercial sexual
    activities provide protection money. A lack of trust in the judicial
    system and a fear of further persecution or social recrimination
    discouraged victims from filing complaints. There was general societal
    discrimination against LGBT persons in access to education and health
    care, employment, statelessness, and housing. The Government undertook
    minimal efforts to address this discrimination.

        Other Societal Violence or Discrimination.--The law does not
    expressly include HIV/AIDS status among the categories prohibited from
    discrimination, and there was societal discrimination against persons
    with HIV/AIDS.

    Section 7. Worker Rights
        a. The Right of Association.--While the law provides all workers,
    with the exception of security force members, the right to form and
    join trade unions of their choice, violence against unionists and
    worker activists combined with weak and ineffective enforcement of
    labor and employment laws restricted this right in practice.
        The 2009 official report reviewing a 2008 public submission under
    the Dominican Republic-Central American-U.S. Free Trade Agreement
    (CAFTA-DR) noted serious, systemic problems regarding labor law
    enforcement in the areas of freedom of association, collective
    bargaining and acceptable conditions of work. The Government took part
    in formal cooperative labor consultations under CAFTA-DR during the
    year but failed to take concrete enforcement action to measurably
    improve compliance with the country's labor laws.
        According to figures compiled by the Guatemalan Labor, Indigenous,
    and Peasant Movement, only 2.2 percent of the country's economically
    active workforce of 5.4 million workers was unionized. Of the 118,017
    workers that belonged to unions, only 12.5 percent, or 13,103, were
    workers in the private sector. The remaining 91,890 unionized workers
    belonged to unions in the public sector.
        Legal recognition of a new industry wide union requires that the
    membership constitute 50 percent-plus-one majority of the workers in an
    industry. The International Labor Organization reiterated its concern
    that the requirement restricted the free formation of unions. The law
    also restricts union leadership to Guatemalan citizens.
        The Ministry of Labor granted legal status to 29 labor unions,
    compared with 72 during 2009. Most of these new organizations were
    small unions in the countryside, primarily in the agricultural and
    municipal sectors. Although there were 2,035 legally registered labor
    unions, administrative registration records indicated that about two
    thirds appeared to be active. The law allows unions to conduct their
    activities without government interference.
        Violence and threats against trade unionists remained serious
    problems. Several labor leaders were killed and others reported
    receiving death threats and being targets of other acts of
    intimidation. The Unit for the Protection of Guatemalan Human Rights
    Defenders indicated in its annual report that 36 trade unionists had
    been attacked and at least three of these killed by unknown assailants.
    The International Labor Organization (ILO) Committee of Experts
    stressed its deep concern regarding violence against trade union
    leaders and members and also concluded that the Government had not
    demonstrated sufficient political will to combat violence against trade
    union leaders and members or combat impunity.
        On January 29, Pedro Antonio Garcia, a leader in the Malacatan
    Municipal Workers Union in the department of San Marcos was murdered.
    Prior to his death, the union was involved in a labor dispute with the
    municipality regarding its alleged failure to comply with a collective
    agreement and the payment of wages.
        On March 6, Luis Felipe Cho, a member of the Consultative Council
    of the Santa Cruz Municipal Workers' Union in the department of Alta
    Verapaz was killed following threats related to his trade union
    activities.
        The deaths of four union members belonging to the Guatemalan
    National Health Care Workers' Union and the serious wounding of a fifth
    in a series of separate shooting incidents during the second half of
    the year may have been related to union activity although no evidence
    emerged to indicate that the shootings were directly related. At year's
    end, no one had been arrested in the shootings, which were under
    investigation as common crimes by local prosecutors rather than by the
    Special Prosecutor's Unit for Crimes against Journalists and Unionists.
        On January 6, unknown actors kidnapped and tortured Maria Vasquez,
    deputy secretary general of the union of the company Winners, S.A. The
    Guatemalan Labor, Indigenous and Campesino Movement reported that the
    incident occurred shortly after Vasquez was named the union's deputy
    secretary general and raised concerns that the company was not
    complying with several labor laws.
        On July 31, unknown assailants shot and wounded Rodrigo Garcia
    Cunen, secretary general of the Soledad Farm Workers' Union. Cunen had
    previously reported receiving death threats and requested, but did not
    receive, protective measures from the Government.
        In May Jose Gabriel Zelada and Nilda Ileana Quex de Sincal of the
    NGO Center for Studies and Support for Local Development that promoted
    labor rights and supported a worker rights center in Chimaltenango,
    reported receiving phone calls containing death threats.
        On October 18, Silvia Hernandez Ibarra, a member of a union-
    organizing committee at the Avandia apparel factory, received a letter
    threatening her with death if she did not quit her union position. The
    threat occurred a few days after a meeting between Hernandez and
    auditors from Worldwide Responsible Accredited Production.
        It was generally difficult to identify motives for killings, since
    most were not well investigated and went unprosecuted. Local unions
    urged that the killings of unionists be investigated and called for
    increased security for union leaders and members. The Special
    Prosecutor's Unit for Crimes against Journalists and Unionists within
    the Office of the Special Prosecutor for Human Rights was charged with
    investigating attacks against union members. The unit's small size (two
    full-time prosecutors and six assistant prosecutors) limited its
    effectiveness. The unit accepted 47 new union-related cases during the
    year, but did not report data regarding convictions for crimes against
    trade unionists.
        There were no known developments in the Public Ministry's
    investigations in the following cases highlighted as examples of
    violence and intimidation against labor leaders and activists:
        The April 2009 attack by gunmen on the house of Edgar Neftaly
    Aldana Valencia, secretary general of the National Health Professionals
    Union, San Benito branch, which reportedly has complained of corruption
    and discrimination at San Benito Hospital, Peten.
        The October 2009 killing of Victor Galvez, a union leader who had
    demonstrated in front of the National Electricity Institute.
        The 2008 killing of labor leader Miguel Angel Ramirez Enriquez, a
    founder of the Union of Banana Workers of the South.
        The 2008 killing of Carlos Enrique Cruz Hernandez, a member of the
    Union of Banana Workers of Izabal.
        The 2008 killing of Freddy Morales Villagran, a member of the
    Consultative Council of the Peten Distributor Employees Union.
        The 2008 killing of Edvin Portillo, treasurer of the Pension
    Administration Board and member of the port workers union of the
    National Santo Tomas Port Company.
        Workers have the right to strike, but by law must have the support
    of 51 percent of a company's workforce. Such procedural hurdles,
    combined with the small number of unionized workers and ongoing
    impunity for employers ignoring court orders protecting freedom of
    association and collective bargaining, limited this right in practice.
    The judiciary's statistical department reported that there were two
    legal strikes during the year. However, teachers, health-care workers,
    farm workers, and other labor groups organized and participated in
    various protests, marches, and demonstrations.
        The law prohibits employer retaliation against strikers engaged in
    legal strikes. However, employers may suspend or fire workers for
    absence without leave if authorities have not recognized a strike as
    legal. The law calls for binding arbitration if no agreement is reached
    after 30 days of negotiation.
        The law empowers the president and cabinet to suspend any strike
    deemed ``gravely prejudicial to the country's essential activities and
    public services.'' The Government defined ``essential services''
    broadly, thus denying the right to strike to a large number of public
    workers, such as those working in education; postal services;
    transport; and energy production, transport, and distribution. Workers
    in such essential services and public services sectors may address
    grievances by means of mediation and arbitration through the Ministry
    of Labor's General Inspectorate of Labor and also directly through the
    labor courts.
        Organized labor continued to object to the Government's use of
    national security and emergency arguments to enjoin what organized
    labor considered ``legal'' strikes. Unions also continued to criticize
    arrests, incarcerations, and fines imposed against protesters as
    violations of ILO conventions on the right to strike.

        b. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively.--The law
    provides the right to organize and allows unions to bargain
    collectively. In practice, the Government did little to investigate,
    prosecute, and punish employers who violated this law. The law requires
    that union members approve a collective bargaining agreement by simple
    majority; however, the small number of unionized workers and
    restrictions on union formation limited the practice of collective
    bargaining. In particular, formation restrictions effectively
    eliminated the possibility for workers to exercise their rights to
    negotiate and engage employers formally at an industry level (see
    section 7.a.).
        According to the law, a factory or business owner is not obligated
    to negotiate a collective bargaining agreement unless at least 25
    percent of the total number of workers in that factory or business are
    union members and request negotiations. Many employers ignored judicial
    rulings requiring the employer to negotiate with recognized unions.
    Most workers, including those organized in trade unions, did not have
    collective contracts documenting their wages and working conditions,
    nor did they have individual contracts as required by law. The Ministry
    of Labor reported that there were 27 new collective bargaining
    agreements, including agreements reached with teachers and health
    workers unions, during the year.
        Although the law stipulates that trade unions have an exclusive
    right to negotiate work conditions on behalf of workers, unions
    asserted that management promoted solidarity associations to discourage
    the formation of trade unions or to compete with existing labor unions.
        An active ``Solidarismo'' (a national solidarity association
    movement) claimed to have 90 affiliated associations with approximately
    30,000 members. Another 95 independent, nonaffiliated associations
    claimed approximately 60,000 members. Unions may operate legally in
    workplaces that have solidarity associations, and workers have the
    right to belong to either or both.
        The law prohibits antiunion discrimination and employer
    interference in union activities, but enforcement of these provisions
    remained weak. Many employers routinely resisted union formation
    attempts and there were credible reports of retaliation by employers
    against workers who tried to exercise their labor rights. Common
    practices included termination and harassment of workers who attempted
    to form workplace unions, creation of illegal company-supported unions
    to counter legally established unions, blacklisting of union
    organizers, and threats of factory closures. Employers threatened to
    not renew contracts or offer subcontracted workers permanent employment
    if the worker joined a union or refused to disaffiliate. There
    continued to be reports that management or persons hired by management
    harassed and made death threats against workers who did not accept
    employer dismissals or refused to forfeit their right to reinstatement.
        Local unions reported that businesses continued to use fraudulent
    bankruptcies, ownership substitution, and re-registration of companies
    to circumvent legal obligations to recognize newly formed or
    established unions. Unions and workers also reported that employers
    subdivided into smaller companies in order to make it more difficult
    for nascent unions to find the 20 supporters required. Government
    institutions continued to tolerate these practices.
        The law requires employers to reinstate workers dismissed illegally
    for union-organizing activities. In practice employers often failed to
    comply with reinstatement orders. During the year workers who suffered
    illegal dismissal won 221court injunctions ordering reinstatement.
    Appeals by employers, along with legal recourse such as reincorporation
    as a different entity, often prolonged reinstatement proceedings. The
    labor courts rarely dismissed frivolous cases or appeals, did not
    operate in a timely manner, and did not ensure enforcement of their
    decisions. According to Labor Ministry officials, authorities rarely
    sanctioned employers for ignoring legally binding court orders.
    Employers often failed to pay the full amount of legally required
    severances to workers with impunity.
        Some employers refused to permit labor inspectors to enter
    facilities to investigate worker complaints. In some instances,
    inspectors failed to take action to ensure access to worksites.
    Penalties for labor law violations were inadequate and rarely enforced.
    This was further compounded by the fact that only labor courts, and not
    labor inspectors, have the authority to impose sanctions for labor law
    violations. Procedures to impose and enforce penalties were not
    utilized, utilized late, or never enforced, thus making them typically
    slow and ineffective. The labor courts had a backlog of cases regarding
    the reinstatement of workers. The length of time to process such cases
    was excessive, with cases often taking two to four years and some
    lasting more than 10 years. The delay in processing legal complaints,
    from submission to final resolution, facilitated impunity for
    employers.
        During the year the labor courts received 1,099 cases from the
    Labor Inspectorate and issued 401 decisions. Court decisions favorable
    to workers were rarely enforced due to frequent refusals by employers
    to honor the decisions.
        There are no special laws or exemptions from regular labor laws in
    the 16 active export processing zones (EPZs) and within the garment
    factories that operated under an EPZ-like regime. Due to inadequate
    enforcement of labor laws and illegal measures taken by employers to
    prevent the formation of new unions or undermine existing unions, there
    were few successes in organizing workers in EPZs and in the garment
    sector. Some factories closed and then reopened with a new name and new
    tax exemption status. Of the 247 companies operating in the EPZs, only
    11 had recognized trade unions; none had collective bargaining
    agreements. There were systemic violations of wage and hour laws,
    mandatory overtime at nonpremium pay, terminations of workers who tried
    to form unions, withholding of social security payments, and illegal
    pregnancy testing as a condition to obtain and retain employment.

        c. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor.--The constitution and
    the law prohibit forced or compulsory labor; however, there were
    reports that Guatemalan men and women were subjected to forced labor in
    agriculture and domestic service. There were also reports of forced
    child labor (see section 7d.).
        Also see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons
    Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        d. Prohibition of Child Labor and Minimum Age for Employment.--
    Although the law bars employment of minors under the age of 14 without
    written permission from parents or the Ministry of Labor, child labor
    was a widespread problem. The law prohibits persons under the age of 18
    from work where alcoholic beverages are served, in unhealthy or
    dangerous conditions, and at night or overtime. The legal workday for
    persons younger than 14 is six hours; for persons 14 to 17 years of
    age, seven hours. Despite these protections, some child laborers of all
    ages worked on average in excess of 45 hours per week.
        The NGO Asociacion Proyecto Conrado de la Cruz estimated that the
    workforce includes approximately one million children between the ages
    of 5 and 17. In 2009 the ILO expressed deep concern about the situation
    of children under 14 years working in the country, noted that it
    appeared very difficult to apply in practice the national child labor
    legislation, and encouraged the Government to increase efforts to
    improve the situation of child laborers under age 14.
        Most child labor occurred in rural indigenous areas. The informal
    and agricultural sectors regularly employed children below 14 years of
    age, usually in small family enterprises, and there were reports during
    the year that child labor existed in the production of broccoli,
    coffee, corn, fireworks, gravel, and sugar. Indigenous children also
    worked frequently in street sales, rubber and timber production, and as
    shoe shiners and bricklayer assistants.
        Children, primarily indigenous girls, worked as domestic servants
    and were often vulnerable to physical and sexual abuse. In the Mexican
    border area, there were reports of forced child labor in municipal
    dumps and in street begging. Also see the Department of State's annual
    Trafficking in Persons Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.
        The Ministry of Labor's Child Worker Protection Unit is charged
    with enforcing restrictions on child labor and educating minors, their
    parents, and employers on the rights of minors in the labor market. The
    Government did not effectively enforce laws governing the employment of
    minors, a situation exacerbated by the weakness of the labor-inspection
    and labor-court systems. While in exceptional cases the Labor
    Inspectorate may authorize children under the age of 14 to work, the
    Ministry of Labor has committed, in accordance with the applicable ILO
    convention, not to provide such authorizations. In keeping with this
    commitment, the Labor Inspectorate reported that it had not made such
    authorizations during the year. The Government devoted insufficient
    resources to prevention programs.

        e. Acceptable Conditions of Work.--The law set national minimum
    wages for agricultural and nonagricultural work and work in garment
    factories. The minimum wage was 63.70 quetzales ($7.96) per day for
    agricultural and nonagricultural work and 59.45 quetzales ($7.43) per
    day for work in garment factories.
        The minimum wage did not provide a decent standard of living for a
    worker and family. In December the National Statistics Institute
    estimated that the minimum food budget for a family of five was 2,149
    quetzales ($268) per month. The basic basket for vital needs, including
    food and housing, was 3,922 quetzales ($490). Labor representatives
    noted that even where both parents worked, the minimum wage did not
    enable a family to meet the basic basket of vital needs.
        The Ministry of Labor conducted inspections to monitor compliance
    with minimum-wage law provisions, but the Government allocated
    inadequate resources to enable inspectors to enforce the law
    adequately, especially in the very large informal sector. Noncompliance
    with minimum wage provisions in the informal sector was widespread.
    Advocacy groups focused on rural sector matters estimated that more
    than half of the workers in rural areas who engaged in day-long
    employment did not receive the wages, benefits, and social security
    allocations required by law. According to credible estimates, between
    65 and 75 percent of the workforce continued to work within the
    informal sector and outside the basic protections afforded by law.
        The legal workweek is 48 hours with at least one paid 24-hour rest
    period. Daily and weekly maximum hour limits do not apply to domestic
    workers. Time-and-a-half pay is required for overtime work. Although
    the law prohibits excessive compulsory overtime, trade union leaders
    and human rights groups charged that employers forced workers to work
    overtime without legally mandated premium pay with impunity. Management
    often manipulated employer-provided transportation to force employees
    to work overtime, especially in EPZs located in isolated areas with
    limited transportation alternatives. Labor inspectors reported
    uncovering numerous instances of overtime abuses, but effective
    enforcement was undermined due to inadequate fines, labor court
    inefficiencies, employer refusals to permit labor inspectors into
    facilities or provide access to payroll records and other
    documentation, and inspectors' lack of effective follow-up in the face
    of such refusals. Moreover, labor inspectors were not empowered to
    adopt administrative measures or to impose fines, but had to send
    alleged violations to the labor courts, where decisions favorable to
    workers were rarely enforced.
        The Ministry of Labor operated a call center that received 51,647
    calls to request information or advice, or register complaints about
    labor law violations. Complaints were referred to labor inspectors and
    labor courts for further action. Local unions continued to highlight
    and protest violations by employers who failed to pay employer and
    employee contributions to the national social security system despite
    employee contribution deductions from workers' paychecks. These
    violations, particularly common in the private sector and export
    industries, resulted in limiting or denying employees access to the
    public health system and reducing or underpaying workers' pension
    benefits during their retirement years.
        The Government sets occupational health and safety standards, which
    were inadequate and poorly enforced. When serious or fatal industrial
    accidents occurred, the authorities often failed to investigate fully
    or assign responsibility for negligence. Employers rarely were
    sanctioned for failing to provide a safe workplace. Legislation
    requiring companies with more than 50 employees to provide onsite
    medical facilities for their workers was not enforced. Workers have the
    legal right to remove themselves from dangerous work situations without
    reprisal. Few workers, however, were willing to jeopardize their jobs
    by complaining about unsafe working conditions.

                                   __________

                                     GUYANA

        The Co-operative Republic of Guyana is a multiparty democracy with
    a population of approximately 760,000. President Bharrat Jagdeo was
    reelected to a second full term in 2006 elections that international
    observers considered generally free and fair. President Jagdeo's
    People's Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) has been the majority party in
    Parliament since 1992. Security forces reported to civilian
    authorities.
        The principal human rights abuses were complaints of unlawful
    killings by police, mistreatment of suspects and detainees by security
    forces, poor prison and jail conditions, and lengthy pretrial
    detention. Other problems included allegations of government
    corruption, including among police officials, and sexual and domestic
    violence against women and abuse of minors.

                            RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

    Section 1. Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom
            From:
        a. Arbitrary or Unlawful Deprivation of Life.--The Government or
    its agents did not commit any politically motivated killings; however,
    the Police Complaints Authority (PCA) received 13 complaints of
    unlawful killings.
        On June 7, police officers, responding to a disturbance at a high
    school, shot and killed 16-year-old student Kelvin Fraser. The police
    said Fraser was shot during a scuffle, while an eyewitness said that
    Fraser was fleeing the scene at the time he was shot. A post-mortem
    examination found that Fraser died of shock and hemorrhage from trauma
    caused by gunshots fired at close range. On June 28, authorities
    charged police officer Quancy John with the murder. He was remanded to
    prison, and the case was transferred to the Wales Magistrate's Court
    and was pending at year's end.
        There were no known developments in the investigation by the Office
    of the Director of Public Prosecutions in the April 2009 fatal shooting
    by an off-duty member of the Presidential Guard.
        Murder charges remained pending against three on-duty members of
    the Coast Guard for the August 2009 killing of businessman Dweive Kant
    Ramdass. The case was set for a court hearing in early 2011.
        At year's end prison officials Kurt Corbin and Gladwin Samuels
    awaited trial in the High Court for a 2008 manslaughter case.
        In the 2008 case of extreme violence in Lusignan in which 11
    persons were killed, Mark Williams, Dwane Williams, and James Hiles
    awaited trial in the High Court.
        In the 2008 case of extreme violence in Bartica, in which 12
    persons were killed, authorities in May 2009 charged five individuals:
    Mark Williams, Dennis Williams, Clebert Reece, Michael Caesar, and
    Roger Simon. The preliminary investigation concluded, and the case was
    scheduled for a court hearing in early 2011.

        b. Disappearance.--There were no reports of politically motivated
    disappearances.

        c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or
    Punishment.--The law prohibits such practices, however; there were
    reports alleging mistreatment of inmates by prison officials. There
    were also allegations of police abuse of suspects and detainees;
    however, unlike in 2009, there were no reports of torture.
        During the year the PCA received 11 complaints of unnecessary use
    of violence. Local media reported several cases of random police
    brutality, arrest, and interrogation prior to investigation.
        On December 9, Detective Corporal Ricardo Inniss was accused of
    raping a 21-year-old woman who was in custody at the Turkeyen Police
    Station. The woman alleged that the detective, who was on duty,
    threatened her with continued confinement, took her into a room, and
    had sex with her against her will. The woman reported the incident, and
    the detective was detained. No charges had been filed at year's end.
        The October 2009 case against three police officers, Sergeant
    Narine Lall, Constable Mohanram Dolai, and Corporal Oswald Foo, for
    maliciously wounding three suspects, 14-year-old Twyon Thomas,
    Deonarine Rafick, and Nouravie Wilfred, during a murder investigation
    remained pending at year's end. The complainants did not respond to
    court orders to appear to testify.
        The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions recommended
    dismissal from the Guyana Police Force (GPF) of police officer Lennox
    King, who allegedly sexually harassed and attempted to rape a Brazilian
    woman in November 2009.
        In December 2009 authorities remanded police constable Gavin Holder
    to prison on charges of indecently assaulting a 15-year-old girl who
    was in police custody; authorities also charged police constable Gary
    Verwayne for the same offense. A court sentenced Gary Verwayne to two
    months' imprisonment, while Gavin Holder's case remained pending at
    year's end.
        In December 2009 authorities arrested police constable Colin Jonas
    and an accomplice for robbing a businessperson of cash and jewelry
    worth 500,000 Guyanese dollars ($2,500) at his shop in Crabwood Creek.
    The suspects were released on bail of 300,000 Guyanese dollars ($1,500)
    in December 2009, and the case remained pending at year's end.

        Prison and Detention Center Conditions.--Prison and jail conditions
    were poor and deteriorating, particularly in police holding cells.
    Capacity and resource constraints were a problem. The Prison Authority
    reported that at the end of October, there were 2,122 prisoners in five
    facilities, which had a combined design capacity of 1,580.
    Approximately half of the prisoners were in Georgetown's Camp Street
    Prison, which was designed to hold 600 inmates but held 1,060.
    Overcrowding was in large part due to backlogs of pretrial detainees,
    who constituted approximately 41 percent of the total prison
    population. Government medical officers visit each prison location on a
    monthly basis. In addition, a medical staff consisting of a medical
    examiner, registered nurses, and assistant nurses provide daily
    treatment and monitor the sick as advised by the medical doctors. There
    were 83 female prisoners, all at the New Amsterdam prison. There were
    no juveniles in custody.
        Unlike in past years when all newly hired prison guards received
    limited human rights training from the Guyana Human Rights Association,
    the association was not invited to perform training during the year.
        Conditions improved at the Brickdam facility lockups this year,
    after the facility reopened following renovations, including improved
    cells and bathroom facilities. Although precinct jails were intended to
    serve only as pretrial holding areas, some suspects were detained there
    as long as two years, awaiting judicial action on their cases.
        There were reported cases of death in prisons due to neglect or
    prison official abuse. On February 5, two prisoners died following a
    fight at the Georgetown Prison. An investigation concluded that inmate
    Soloman Blackman stabbed inmate Dyal Singh. Other inmates then beat and
    killed Blackman. Blackman had been diagnosed by a prison psychiatrist
    as mentally ill but was returned to the general prison population after
    he showed signs of improvement following medical treatment. Following
    the incident, the Guyana Prison Service announced measures to keep
    mentally unstable inmates segregated from the general prison population
    until construction of a separate facility to hold them.
        Prisoners and detainees had reasonable access to visitors and were
    permitted religious observance. Prison chaplains representing the major
    faiths in the country were appointed to all prison facilities.
    Prisoners and detainees are able to submit complaints to judicial
    authorities without censorship and to request investigation of credible
    allegations of inhumane conditions. Prisoners often circumvent
    procedures for submitting complaints by passing letters addressed to
    government officials to family members. The Government investigated and
    monitored prison and detention center conditions. On October 1, the
    minister of home affairs appointed chairmen and members to the prison
    visiting committees of the Georgetown, Mazaruni, New Amsterdam, and
    Timehri prisons. These committees are required to monitor prison
    conditions and report findings to the Ministry of Home Affairs and the
    Prison Administration.
        Juvenile offenders 16 years of age and older were held with the
    adult prison population. Juvenile offenders ages 15 and younger were
    held in the New Opportunity Corp (NOC), a juvenile correctional center
    that offered primary education, vocational training, and basic medical
    care. Problems at the NOC included lax security and understaffing.
    There were complaints that juvenile runaways, or those out of their
    guardians' care, were placed with juveniles who had committed crimes
    leading some petty offenders to become involved in more serious
    criminal activity.
        The Prison Authority reported that there were 83 female inmates in
    the women's prison located in New Amsterdam. Due to inadequate
    facilities, juvenile female pretrial detainees were sometimes held with
    adult female pretrial detainees.
        The Prison Authority offered rehabilitation programs focused on
    vocational training and education; however, such programs did not
    adequately address the needs of prisoners with substance abuse
    problems.
        While the constitution provides for the appointment of an ombudsman
    who may investigate any action taken by any government department or
    authority in relation to the administrative functions of that
    department or authority, the position has been vacant since 2005. There
    was no indication that the Government declined to permit independent
    monitoring of prison conditions, but there were no known monitoring
    visits during the year.

        d. Arbitrary Arrest or Detention.--The law prohibits arbitrary
    arrest and detention; however, during the year the PCA received 50
    complaints of unlawful arrest.

        Role of the Police and Security Apparatus.--The GPF, which is
    headed by the commissioner of police and overseen by the Ministry of
    Home Affairs, employed 2,884 officers and is responsible for
    maintaining internal security. The Guyana Defence Force (GDF) duties
    include defending the country's territorial integrity, assisting civil
    authorities to maintain law and order, and contributing to economic
    development. The GDF, headed by the chief of staff, consisted of
    approximately 2,600 troops; it falls under the purview of the Defense
    Board, which the president chairs.
        Inadequate training, poor equipment, and acute budgetary
    constraints severely limited the GPF's effectiveness. Public confidence
    in, and cooperation with, the police remained low. There were reports
    of corruption in the police force. Police force abuses may be reported
    to the PCA; however, the PCA does not possess an independent
    investigation unit. On occasion the GPF reportedly failed to respond
    adequately to narcotics-related violence.
        The PCA received approximately 400 written and oral complaints, 230
    of which were sent from the commissioner of police, primarily for
    police neglect of duties or misconduct in public places, unlawful
    arrest, illegal search, corrupt transactions, and unnecessary use of
    force.
        As of November the GPF Office of Professional Responsibility
    received 186 complaints; it concluded 144 investigations, and 13 were
    sent to the director of public prosecutions. PCA efforts to conduct
    impartial and transparent assessment of the accusations it received
    were obstructed by staff shortages (five of eight full-time positions
    were filled), as well as the lack of an investigative unit. By law the
    police commissioner must comply with the PCA's recommendations on
    complaints, but the PCA relied on the GPF to conduct investigations
    into complaints against its own officers. Long delays in receiving
    reports from the commissioner also thwarted the complaints process.
    Most cases involving charges against police officers were heard by
    lower magistrates' courts, where specially trained police officers
    served as the prosecutors.

        Arrest Procedures and Treatment While in Detention.--An arrest
    requires a warrant issued by a court official, unless an officer who
    witnesses a crime believes there is good cause to suspect that a crime
    or a breach of the peace has been or will be committed. The law
    requires that a person arrested and held for more than 72 hours be
    brought before a court to be charged; authorities generally observed
    this requirement in practice. Bail was generally available except in
    cases of capital offenses and narcotics trafficking.
        Although the law provides criminal detainees prompt access to a
    lawyer of their choice and to family members, in practice these rights
    sometimes were not fully respected. The state provides legal counsel
    for indigent persons only when such persons are charged with a capital
    offense. However, the Legal Aid Clinic provides legal counsel at a
    reduced fee in certain circumstances, as determined by the Clinic.
    Police routinely required permission from the senior investigating
    officer, who was seldom on the premises, before permitting counsel
    access to a client.
        Lengthy pretrial detention, due primarily to judicial inefficiency,
    staff shortages, and cumbersome legal procedures, remained a problem.
    Pretrial detainees constituted 41 percent of the prison and detainee
    population. The average length of pretrial detention ranged from six to
    18 months for those awaiting trial at a magistrate's court and for
    those awaiting trial in the High Court.

        e. Denial of Fair Public Trial.--The law provides for an
    independent judiciary, and the Government generally respected this
    provision in practice.
        Delays and inefficiencies undermined judicial due process. Prisoner
    Justin John was taken into custody in 2003 and charged with murder; his
    trial was scheduled to begin in 2008, but in May 2010, he was among 23
    prisoners who requested an early trial; he was freed on June 16 after
    the state was unable to produce witnesses in support of its case.
        In May according to prison records, 132 inmates of the Georgetown
    Prison were scheduled to stand trial in the High Court; some had been
    incarcerated since 2003. Delays were caused by shortages of trained
    court personnel and magistrates, inadequate resources, postponements at
    the request of the defense or prosecution, occasional allegations of
    bribery, poor tracking of cases, and the slowness of police in
    preparing cases for trial.

        Trial Procedures.--Trials are public and defendants enjoy a
    presumption of innocence. Cases in magistrates' courts are tried
    without jury. Cases involving more serious crimes are tried by jury in
    the High Court. Defendants can confront witnesses against them and have
    access to relevant government-held evidence. Defendants have the right
    to appeal. Trial postponements were granted routinely to both the
    defense and the prosecution. The law extends these rights to all
    citizens.
        The law recognizes the right to legal counsel; however, it was
    limited to those who could afford to pay, except in cases involving
    capital crimes. Although there is no public defender system, a
    defendant in a murder case that reaches the High Court receives a
    court-appointed attorney. The Georgetown Legal Aid Clinic, with
    government and private support, provided advice to persons who could
    not afford a lawyer, particularly victims of domestic violence and
    violence against women.

        Political Prisoners and Detainees.--There were no reports of
    political prisoners or detainees.
        The case of former GDF officer Oliver Hinckson, whose indictment in
    2008 for sedition some observers claimed was politically motivated, was
    dismissed on June 28.

        Civil Judicial Procedures and Remedies.--The law provides for an
    independent and impartial judiciary in civil matters, and the
    Government generally respected this provision in practice. There is
    access to courts to bring lawsuits seeking damages for, or cessation
    of, some human rights violations. The magistrates' courts deal with
    both criminal and civil matters. Delays, inefficiencies, and corruption
    in the magistrate court system affected the ability of citizens to seek
    timely remedies in civil matters, and there was a large backlog of
    civil cases.

        f. Arbitrary Interference With Privacy, Family, Home, or
    Correspondence.--The law prohibits such actions, and the Government
    generally respected these prohibitions in practice.

    Section 2. Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:
        a. Freedom of Speech and Press.--The law provides for freedom of
    speech and of the press, and the Government generally respected these
    rights in practice; however, the Government's monopoly on radio
    broadcasting continued. The Government attempted to censor or restrict
    content; the Government sought indirectly to censor the print media by
    controlling advertising.
        On August 9, the Government announced the establishment of a Web
    site through which procurement opportunities must be advertised. This
    announcement was made following the passage of legislation in the
    National Assembly to permit the publication of government procurement
    opportunities on a freely accessible Web site. Stabroek News claimed
    that after the announcement the Government Information Agency (GINA)
    placed no advertisements in Stabroek News or any other private
    newspapers, although some appeared in the Government-run Guyana
    Chronicle. Another newspaper, Kaieteur News, offered the Government
    free placements of advertisements based on the availability of space.
    Some attributed this pattern to a government attempt to deprive
    independent newspapers of advertising earnings.
        Government officials used libel laws to suppress criticism, and the
    Government closed the UN-funded Media Monitoring Unit, established in
    2006 to monitor media in advance of the elections.
        On July 12, President Bharrat Jagdeo filed a libel suit for 10
    million Guyanese dollars ($50,000) against the publishers of the
    Kaieteur News; its editor in chief, Adam Harris; and columnist
    Frederick Kissoon. The suit stemmed from statements in a June 28
    article, ``King Kong sent his goons to disrupt the conference.'' On
    July 13, the acting chief justice, Ian Chang, granted an interim
    injunction, restraining Kissoon, Harris, and the National Media and
    Publishing Company Limited, publisher of Kaieteur News, from reprinting
    the words or similar ones as contained in the column. The suit contends
    that the article contained ``false and manufactured allegations'' and
    was also ``malicious, irresponsible, and inflammatory, calculated and
    designed to excite racial hostilities amongst the people of Guyana.''
    The case remained pending at year's end.
        On November 23, Minister of Agriculture Robert Persaud sued
    businessman and presidential hopeful Peter Ramsaroop and Property
    Holdings Inc. (owners of WRHM Channel 7) for 10 million Guyanese
    dollars ($50,000) following the broadcast of a taped television show on
    November 7. The minister claimed he was libeled in that broadcast. On
    November 23, a judge granted an injunction barring the channel and
    Ramsaroop from repeating the alleged libel. The minister asserted that
    statements on the program suggested that ``he is dishonest, had
    committed malfeasance in public office,'' and was ``guilty of fraud and
    other kindred criminal offenses.'' The case remained pending at year's
    end.
        On August 5, reporters Gary Eleazar from Kaieteur News; Colin
    Smith, editor of the Catholic Standard and local BBC correspondent;
    Arianna Gordon of the Guyana Times; and Victor Vanvield of Prime News
    were turned away from a press briefing at the Office of the President
    for not having a GINA pass. They were informed that they would not be
    allowed in without a GINA pass and that the Guyana Press Association
    accreditation was not acceptable. Cabinet Secretary Roger Luncheon
    stated that the Government would not surrender accreditation to any
    firm or entity other than GINA.
        All radio stations operating on the electromagnetic spectrum are
    government controlled. In October 2009 the Court of Appeal ruled that
    the Government had an unlawful monopoly on the airwaves and that the
    National Frequency Management Unit was not adequately considering radio
    license applications. The Government's monopoly on radio broadcasting
    continued, limiting the expression of opposition views.

        Internet Freedom.--There were no government restrictions on access
    to the Internet or reports that the Government monitored e-mail or
    Internet chat rooms. Individuals and groups could engage in the
    peaceful expression of views via the Internet, including by e-mail. The
    International Telecommunication Union reported that there were an
    estimated 29 Internet users per 100 inhabitants in 2009.

        Academic Freedom and Cultural Events.--There were no government
    restrictions on academic freedom or cultural events.

        b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association.--The law provides
    for freedoms of assembly and association, and the Government generally
    respected these rights in practice.

        c. Freedom of Religion.--For a complete description of religious
    freedom, please see the 2010 International Religious Freedom Report at
    www.state.gov/g/drl/irf/rpt.

        d. Freedom of Movement, Internally Displaced Persons, Protection of
    Refugees, and Stateless Persons.--The law provides for freedom of
    movement within the country, foreign travel, emigration, and
    repatriation, and the Government generally respected these rights in
    practice.
        The Government cooperated with the UN Development Program Office
    and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and other
    humanitarian organizations in providing protection and assistance to
    internally displaced persons, refugees, returning refugees, asylum
    seekers, stateless persons, and other persons of concern.
        The Amerindian Act requires that the local village council grant
    permission for travel to Amerindian areas. In practice most persons
    traveled throughout these areas without a permit.
        The law prohibits forced exile, and the Government did not use it.

        Protection of Refugees.--The Government has not established a
    system for providing protection to refugees. In practice the Government
    did not expel or return refugees to a country where their lives or
    freedom would be threatened on account of their race, religion,
    nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political
    opinion; however, no such cases arose during the year.

    Section 3. Respect for Political Rights: The Right of Citizens to
            Change Their Government
        The law provides citizens the right to change their government
    peacefully, and citizens exercised this right in practice through
    periodic, free, and fair national elections based on universal
    suffrage. However, local government elections, which the law provides
    should be held every three years, have not been carried out since 1994.
    On December 2, the National Assembly passed the Local Authorities
    (Elections) (Amendment) Bill, which extended to December 1, 2011, the
    date for holding local-government elections. Political parties operated
    without restrictions or outside interference.

        Elections and Political Participation.--The most recent elections
    took place in 2006, when citizens voted in a generally free election to
    keep the PPP/C government in office. Incumbent President Bharrat Jagdeo
    was reelected to a five-year term. International observers, including
    teams from the Organization of American States, the Caribbean
    Community, the Carter Center, and the Commonwealth, noted isolated
    irregularities not sufficient to change the outcome, declared the
    election substantially free and fair but found that ruling party use of
    government resources during the campaign disadvantaged opposition
    parties.
        On February 16, the chief justice dismissed an election petition
    filed in the High Court by the minority party, Alliance for Change
    (AFC), in which the AFC claimed that incorrect vote counting in Region
    10 in the 2006 national elections had wrongly awarded a seat to the
    PPP/C that should have gone to the AFC. The chief justice ruled that
    the party had breached a mandatory procedure by not filing the
    affidavit of service in a timely manner. The AFC filed the document 10
    months after the petition, which the chief justice ruled was too long.
    The case was dismissed approximately three years after it was filed.
        The constitution requires that one-third of each party list of
    candidates be women but does not require the parties to select women
    for seats. There were 20 women in the 65-seat National Assembly and
    five women in the 21-member cabinet.
        While supporters of the two major parties (the PPP/C and the
    People's National Congress/Reform) were drawn largely from the Indo-
    Guyanese and Afro-Guyanese communities, respectively, political party
    leadership was more diverse. The ethnically diverse National Assembly
    included three indigenous members. The cabinet was also ethnically
    diverse, mirroring the ethnic makeup of the general population. Five of
    the 21 cabinet members were Afro-Guyanese, including the prime minister
    and the head of the presidential secretariat; there were also two
    Amerindian cabinet ministers.

    Section 4. Official Corruption and Government Transparency
        The law provides for criminal penalties for official corruption;
    however, there were reports alleging government corruption and
    complacency in enforcing these laws with respect to officials engaged
    in corrupt practices. The World Bank's worldwide governance indicators
    reflected that government corruption was a serious problem. There was a
    widespread public perception of serious corruption in the Government,
    including law enforcement and the judicial system. Low-wage public
    servants were easy targets for bribery. In January there were 62 GPF
    members before the courts charged with various crimes including
    robbery, simply larceny, bribery, and indecent assault.
        Public officials are subject to financial disclosure laws and are
    required to submit information about personal assets to the Integrity
    Commission, but compliance was uneven and the commission had no
    resources for enforcement or investigations.
        The law does not provide for public access to government
    information. Government officials were generally reluctant to provide
    information without approval from senior administration officials.

    Section 5. Governmental Attitude Regarding International and
            Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations of Human
            Rights
        A few domestic human rights groups generally operated without
    government restriction, investigating and publishing their findings on
    human rights cases. Groups at times, however, complained that
    government officials were uncooperative and unresponsive to their
    views; when they did respond, it was generally to criticize.
        The constitution allows for a governmental human rights commission,
    but it has not been established. While the constitution provides for an
    Office of the Ombudsman to provide redress to government employees, the
    ombudsman position has been vacant since 2005.

    Section 6. Discrimination, Societal Abuses, and Trafficking in Persons
        While the constitution prohibits discrimination based on race,
    gender, disability, language, social status, religion, or national
    origin, the Government did not always effectively enforce these
    prohibitions.

        Women.--Rape and incest are illegal but were neither frequently
    reported nor successfully prosecuted. Rape is a problem and pervasive
    in society. Ineffective police and prosecutors resulted in few charges
    and fewer convictions.
        On May 24, the president signed into law a Sexual Offenses Bill
    that broadened the definition of rape to include spousal rape,
    coercion, new child-sex offenses, and the creation of offenses for
    vulnerable adults with a learning disability or mental disorder. Other
    offenses, such as indecent exposure, voyeurism, and bestiality are
    included; the assumption that males under the age of 14 years are
    incapable of sexual intercourse was abolished.
        A judge has discretion to issue a sentence of any length in a rape
    conviction, depending upon the circumstances and severity of the act
    committed. The apparent norm appeared to be a sentence of five to 10
    years' imprisonment. During the year 42 persons were charged with rape
    and 20 were convicted (a figure that includes persons charged in
    preceding years). Additionally, during the year, 201 persons were
    charged with statutory rape and 53 were convicted (including persons
    charged in preceding years).
        Domestic violence and violence against women, including spousal
    abuse, was widespread and crossed racial and socioeconomic lines. The
    law prohibits domestic violence and allows victims to seek prompt
    protection, occupation, or tenancy orders from a magistrate. Penalties
    for violation of protection orders include fines up to 10,000 Guyanese
    dollars ($500) and 12 months' imprisonment; however, this legislation
    frequently was not enforced because of a lack of willingness to press
    charges on behalf of the victims and/or a lack of confidence in
    obtaining a remedy through the courts. Some victims preferred to reach
    a pecuniary settlement out of court. There were reports of police
    accepting bribes and other reports of magistrates applying inadequate
    sentences to convictions. Additionally, cases that appear for a
    violation of protective order tend to be categorized as assault cases.
        According to the nongovernmental organization (NGO) Help and
    Shelter, the GPF refurbished police units, which are required to
    include domestic violence units where victims can be counseled in
    private. The group noted discrepancies in police training for domestic
    violence, with some divisions actively involved in training, while
    others remained unfamiliar with the basic violence protection order.
    The GPF reported that it had established domestic violence units in
    four police divisions by year's end.
        Help and Shelter handled 346 cases of abuse and violence, including
    child, spousal, and other domestic abuse, of which 24 were formally
    filed in a court. Of these, three were prosecuted and one was dismissed
    during the year. Investigations in the remaining 20 cases continued at
    year's end.
        During the year the Ministry of Labour, Human Services and Social
    Security established a Task Force on Violence Against Women. A
    representative from Help and Shelter sits on the Task Force.
        Help and Shelter ran a free shelter for victims of domestic
    violence and operated a hotline to counsel victims with the funds it
    received from both private donors and the Government. During the year
    Help and Shelter conducted 36 workshops and 132 awareness sessions in
    sensitizing individuals about domestic violence, reaching 4,313
    individuals, and 929 were counseled for domestic abuse or violence
    during face-to-face counseling sessions and via the telephone hotline.
        Sexual harassment is prohibited under the Prevention of
    Discrimination Act, which provides for monetary penalties and award of
    damages to victims, but its application is confined to the workplace.
    Harassment in schools, for instance, is not covered under the law. Any
    act of sexual harassment involving physical assault can also be
    prosecuted under relevant criminal statutes. Although reports of sexual
    harassment were common, there were no known prosecutions for sexual
    harassment under the Prevention of Discrimination Act, and charges of
    sexual harassment were often settled out of court.
        Couples and individuals had the right to decide freely the number,
    spacing, and timing of their children and had the information and means
    to do so free from discrimination, coercion, and violence. Access to
    contraception and skilled attendance at delivery and in postpartum care
    were widely available. The UN Children's Fund reported that 83 percent
    of births had a skilled attendant. The UN Population Fund reported a
    contraceptive prevalence rate of 34 percent. The UN Population Fund
    estimated the maternal mortality ratio in 2008 at 270 deaths per
    100,000 live births. The Guyana Responsible Parenthood Association
    (GRPA), established in 1973, collaborated closely with the Ministry of
    Health's Maternal and Child Health Department to lecture on safe
    parenthood. GRPA has offered contraceptive services at its headquarters
    and government clinics since the early 1980s.
        Women and men had equal access to diagnostic services and treatment
    for sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS.
        The law prohibits discrimination based on gender, but there was no
    legal protection against such discrimination in the workplace. Although
    women constituted a significant proportion of the workforce, there were
    credible reports that they were treated unequally as well as faced
    disadvantages in promotion. Job vacancy notices routinely specified
    that the employer sought only male or only female applicants. The
    Women's Affairs Bureau of the Ministry of Labor monitored the legal
    rights of women, but its role was limited to employment-related
    services. The bureau also held seminars on leadership and gender equity
    issues for women throughout the country. The constitution provides for
    a Women and Gender Equality Commission, whose chairperson was sworn in
    during April.
        The law protects women's property rights in common law marriages.
    It entitles a woman who separates or divorces to one-half of the
    couple's property if she had regular employment during the marriage and
    one-third of the property if she had not been employed. In practice
    women's property rights were generally observed.

        Children.--Citizenship is derived by birth within the country's
    territory or by birth to a Guyanese citizen abroad.
        There were some reports of physical and sexual abuse of children.
    During the year Help and Shelter handled 78 cases of child abuse and
    nine child abuse cases were filed with the courts, of which one was
    committed to the High Court, two were dismissed and six were ongoing.
    Law enforcement officials and NGOs believed that the vast majority of
    child rape and criminal child abuse cases were not reported. As with
    cases of domestic abuse, NGOs noted reports that some police officers
    and magistrates could be bribed to make cases of child abuse ``go
    away.''
        The Child Care and Protection Agency, established in 2009, operated
    a hotline to take calls regarding suspected abuse of children. The
    hotline received 447 child abuse reports, involving 770 children.
        The age of sexual consent is 16. Under the law anyone who has
    sexual relations with a girl under 16 can be found guilty of a felony
    and imprisoned for life. There were reports of child prostitution,
    although there were no indications that the country is a destination
    for child sex tourism.
        There is no specific legal prohibition of child pornography.
    However, the law regulates selling, publishing, or exhibiting obscene
    material, defined as anything that could deprive or corrupt those open
    to immoral influences.
        The country is not a party to the 1980 Hague Convention on the
    Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. For information on
    international parental child abduction, please see the Department of
    State's annual report on compliance at http://travel.state.gov/
    abduction/resources/congressreport/congressreport--4308.html.

        Anti-Semitism.--The Jewish community was very small, perhaps fewer
    than 50 members. There were no reports of anti-Semitism.

        Trafficking in Persons.--For information on trafficking in persons,
    see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons Report at
    www.state.gov/g/tip.

        Persons With Disabilities.--The constitution mandates the state to
    ``take legislative and other measures'' designed to protect
    disadvantaged persons and persons with disabilities. On November 2,
    President Jagdeo signed the Persons with Disabilities Act, which
    provides for equal protection under the law. The act stipulates that
    the National Commission on Disabilities shall comprise 12 members
    appointed by the president; it charges the commission with advising the
    Government, coordinating actions on issues affecting persons with
    disabilities, and addressing implementation and monitoring of the act's
    provisions. Regardless, lack of appropriate infrastructure to provide
    access to both public and private facilities made it difficult for
    persons with disabilities to be employed outside their homes. The Open
    Door Center offered assistance and training to persons with
    disabilities throughout the year.

        Indigenous People.--According to the 2002 census, the indigenous
    population constituted 9 percent of the population. There were nine
    tribal groups, and 90 percent of indigenous communities were located in
    the remote interior. Their standard of living was lower than that of
    most citizens, and they had limited ability to participate in decisions
    affecting their lands, cultures, traditions, and allocation of natural
    resources. Indigenous communities had limited access to education and
    health care. All indigenous communities had primary schools, and there
    were 13 secondary schools with an enrollment of 5,547 in remote
    regions. The secondary schools had dormitories that housed
    approximately 1,000 to 1,700 students at government expense. Government
    programs trained health workers, who staffed rudimentary health
    facilities in most communities.
        By law persons wishing to enter indigenous lands must obtain prior
    permission from the local village council, but most visitors traveled
    in these areas without a permit. Rules enacted by the village council
    require approval from the minister of Amerindian affairs before
    entering into force.
        Since passage of the Amerindian Act of 2006, which took effect on
    December 1, the Government has increased the number of communal land
    titles for Indigenous communities from 74 to 97, more than doubling the
    area from 6.5 percent of the national territory so designated to 14
    percent. At year's end 134 communities had collective land titles.
        To earn cash some villages contracted with loggers, saw millers,
    and miners to exploit timber and other natural resources on their land.
    Some indigenous groups and others perceived President Jagdeo's Low
    Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) as another government ``land grab.''
    The Jagdeo administration conducted consultations with several
    indigenous communities on the LCDS, but many observers described the
    sessions as one-way presentations by government officials. The
    Government made efforts to grant land titles to indigenous communities,
    and these titles are to receive payments under the LCDS.

        Societal Abuses, Discrimination, and Acts of Violence Based on
    Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.--Sodomy is punishable with a
    maximum sentence of life in prison. There are no laws concerning
    female-to-female sex.
        In February 2009 police arrested several transgender persons and
    took them before the acting chief magistrate, who ordered levied a fine
    of 7,500 Guyanese dollars ($37). The magistrate told them they were
    ``confused'' about their sexuality and gender, stating ``it's a curse
    on the family.'' Following this incident the Society Against Sexual
    Orientation Discrimination and four of the individuals filed a motion
    in the High Court against the law criminalizing cross dressing; the
    case remained pending at year end.

        Other Societal Violence or Discrimination.--Violence and
    discrimination against persons with HIV/AIDS were not widely reported.

    Section 7. Worker Rights
        a. The Right of Association.--The constitution provides for the
    right of association and allows workers to form and join trade unions,
    and workers generally exercised this right in practice. However, the
    constitution bars military and paramilitary members from unionizing or
    associating with any established union. According to the Ministry of
    Labor, approximately 25 percent of the work force was unionized.
        The law provides workers with the right to strike, and workers
    exercised this right in practice. Strikes may be declared illegal if
    the union leadership did not approve them or if they did not meet the
    requirements specified in collective bargaining agreements. Public
    employees providing essential services may strike if they provide the
    required one-month notice to the Ministry of Labor and leave a skeleton
    staff in place, although the International Labor Organization (ILO)
    continued to note that not all of the services deemed essential by the
    Government were considered essential under international definitions.
    Arbitration is compulsory for public employees, and employees engaging
    in illegal strikes are subject to sanctions or imprisonment. The ILO
    noted that such restrictions compromised workers' right to strike. The
    law defines and places limits on the retaliatory actions employers may
    take against strikers.

        b. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively.--Public and
    private sector employees possessed and exercised the right to organize
    and bargain collectively. Eight collective bargaining agreements were
    signed in the first half of the year. The ILO noted that 40 percent of
    workers must be covered to conclude a collective bargaining agreement;
    22 percent of the workforce was covered by collective bargaining
    agreements. The Ministry of Labor is required to certify all collective
    bargaining agreements, and there were no reports that it refused to
    certify any specific agreement. Individual unions directly negotiate
    collective bargaining status.
        The law prohibits antiunion discrimination by employers; however,
    some public-sector employee unions continued to allege antiunion
    discrimination by the Government. The Guyana Public Service Union and
    the Guyana Bauxite and General Workers' Union continued to allege
    antiunion discrimination by the Government. Trade union worker rights
    continued to be violated, and the Government did not effectively
    enforce its laws. There are no export processing zones.

        c. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor.--The law prohibits
    forced or compulsory labor; there were reports of forced child labor,
    mainly involving the sexual exploitation of children. In February
    authorities rescued a child from a forced child-prostitution situation
    and charged a suspect in March. The case remained pending at year's
    end.

        d. Prohibition of Child Labor and Minimum Age for Employment.--
    Although the law sets minimum age requirements for employment of
    children, child labor in the informal sector was a problem. The law
    prohibits the employment of children younger than 15 with some
    exceptions. Technical schools may employ children age 14 provided
    public authority approves and supervises such work. No person under 16
    may be employed at night, except under regulated circumstances. The law
    permits children under 16 to be employed only in enterprises in which
    members of the same family are also employed.
        Child labor was most prevalent in family-based businesses, farming,
    bars and restaurants, domestic work, and street vending. Small numbers
    of children also performed hazardous work in the construction, logging,
    farming, fishing, manufacturing, and mining industries. Isolated
    incidents of the worst forms of child labor occurred, mainly in gold
    mining, prostitution, and forced labor activities. Children who worked
    in gold mines operated dangerous mining equipment and were exposed to
    hazardous chemicals.
        There were also reports of sexual exploitation of children, most
    commonly in mining areas. Also see the Department of State's annual
    Trafficking in Persons Report at f.state.gov/g/tip.
        The Ministry of Labor collaborated with the Ministry of Education
    and the GPF to enforce child labor laws. The Ministry of Labor employed
    20 labor inspectors who were charged with investigating child and
    exploitative labor activities; however, these were not sufficient to
    enforce existing laws effectively. Despite conducting approximately
    4,000 worksite inspections, no fines or penalties were assessed, and no
    employers were charged.

        e. Acceptable Conditions of Work.--The public sector minimum wage
    is 33,207 Guyanese dollars ($165) per month, and it is applicable to
    both public and private sectors; however, the Government set wage
    adjustments unilaterally for public-sector employees. Although the
    minimum wage is across the board, the private-sector wages/salaries are
    higher than that of the public sector for similar categories of workers
    such as clerks and drivers. The Ministry of Labor was responsible for
    enforcing the minimum wage, and although enforcement mechanisms exist
    they were not used effectively. Unorganized workers, particularly women
    and children in the informal sector, often were paid less than the
    service-sector legal minimum wage. The legal minimum wage did not
    provide a decent standard of living for a worker and family.
        The law sets hours of employment, which vary by industry and
    sector. In general, work in excess of a 44-hour workweek required an
    overtime payment rate. The law does not require a minimum weekly rest
    period but does state that a person cannot be compelled to work
    overtime. These standards were effectively enforced, according to the
    Ministry of Labor.
        The law also establishes workplace safety and health standards. The
    Occupational Health and Safety Division of the Ministry of Labor is
    charged with conducting factory inspections and investigating
    complaints of substandard workplace conditions. Inadequate resources
    prevented the ministry from effectively carrying out this function.
    According to the Ministry of Labour, there were 24 fatal industrial
    accidents during the year. Fifty percent of these accidents were in the
    mining sector and 17 percent in the forestry sector. More than half of
    those who died in these sectors were 15 to 35 years of age.
        The Ministry of Labor moderately enforced inspection findings;
    responsible employers were more likely to follow standards. Workers
    could not remove themselves from dangerous work situations without
    jeopardizing continued employment.

                                   __________

                                     HAITI

        Haiti is a constitutional republic with a population of
    approximately 9.9 million. On January 12, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake
    struck the country, killing an estimated 230,000 persons and directly
    affecting approximately three million others. The country has a
    multiparty political system. Presidential and legislative elections
    occurred on November 28. Allegations of fraud and irregularities raised
    questions regarding the preliminary tally and prompted the president
    and the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) to request a review by the
    Organization of American States. The CEP subsequently announced the
    final first round results; since none of the candidates received a
    majority of the vote, a runoff election between the two leading
    candidates was scheduled for March 2011. Elements of the security
    forces occasionally acted independently of civilian control.
        Human rights problems included allegations of extrajudicial
    killings by Haitian National Police (HNP) officers, findings of
    excessive use of force against prisoners, overcrowding and poor
    sanitation in prisons, prolonged pretrial detention, an inefficient
    judiciary subject to significant influence by the executive and
    legislative branches, severe corruption in all branches of government,
    violence and societal discrimination against women, child abuse, human
    trafficking, and ineffective enforcement of worker rights.

                            RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

    Section 1. Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom
            From:
        a. Arbitrary or Unlawful Deprivation of Life.--The Government or
    its agents did not commit any known politically motivated killings;
    however, there were allegations of HSP involvement in extrajudicial
    killings. HNP officers killed several persons who were armed and
    resisting arrest. Some cases of arbitrary killings were referred to the
    Office of the Inspector General for investigation.
        On January 19, in the aftermath of the earthquake, inmates in Les
    Cayes prison rioted. Officers from the departmental riot control police
    (UDMO) intervened, killing 12 inmates, while 22 others escaped and
    scores of others were injured. Three investigations were launched: one
    by the chief inspector general of the HNP, a second by the Government
    with the UN, and a third by the investigating judge in Les Cayes, in
    cooperation with the Government's Office of Citizen Protection (OPC).
    The chief inspector general concluded that the action of the joint
    departmental SWAT team and corrections officers caused the deaths of 10
    of the 12 inmates. Two other prisoners died of unrelated causes. The
    report noted that ``if the intervention was legitimate, the force used
    was excessive and disproportionate,'' and that ``a measured use of
    force was possible under the circumstances.'' The inspector general
    issued six recommendations, including the dismissal of prison warden
    Sylvestre Larack and the suspension of Les Cayes Police Chief Olrich
    Beaubrun. A joint HNP-UN report called the killings a grave violation
    of human rights and urged the justice system to prosecute those
    responsible. On May 27, the HNP placed Larack in preventive detention,
    as it reopened the chief inspector general's investigation and
    recommended that Frantz Dehonnet, the deputy administrator of prisons,
    resign. Authorities charged Beaubrun and ten other officers with
    homicide. At year's end their cases had yet to be tried, Beaubrun had
    not yet been arrested, and Dehonnet still held his post as deputy
    administrator of prisons.
        On January 21, police shot and killed Gentile Cherie for stealing
    rice. Foreign journalists saw police stop two men who had taken a bag
    of rice that had fallen from a truck; witnesses claimed that the
    officers shot the men in the back and left them on the sidewalk. The
    Office of the Inspector General had not received an official complaint
    nor opened an investigation into the matter.
        On December 6, unknown assailants shot and killed former inspector
    general of the HNP Etienne Saint Gourdin. Officials opened an
    investigation into his death.
        There were no further developments in the 2009 case concerning
    seven individuals, including two active police officers and one former
    police officer, who were arrested for killing the manager of a money-
    exchange outlet during an armed robbery in Port-au-Prince. The case was
    under investigation by the court at year's end.
        The HNP Internal Investigations Unit completed its investigation of
    the 2008 death of Renece Charon while in police custody and sent the
    case to the criminal court, which found that other prisoners beat
    Charon to death.
        Residents in some areas resorted to vigilante justice. In November
    and December mobs attacked and killed Vodou (voodoo) practitioners
    accused of spreading cholera by placing contaminated powder into rivers
    and waterways. According to the HNP, 31 people were confirmed killed by
    the end of the year. Credible sources reported an additional 22
    possible killings. Two ministerial-level officials publicly denounced
    the killings, and local police confiscated 16 firearms, but made no
    arrests.
        Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) also reported vigilante
    incidents including shootings, beatings, and lynchings in rural areas,
    where effective judicial and law enforcement institutions largely were
    absent. Police statistics documented 83 vigilante incidents through the
    end of the year, but police made no arrests. Observers attributed the
    majority of vigilante justice incidents to accusations of theft,
    witchcraft, or kidnapping.

        b. Disappearance.--There were no reports of politically motivated
    disappearances by government agents.
        Current and former HNP officers were accused of participation in
    kidnappings.
        The number of reported kidnappings nearly doubled from the previous
    year. There were 121 reported kidnapping victims during the year,
    compared with 66 through October 2009.
        Gonaives Police Commissioner Ernst Dorfeuille Bouquet, who was
    arrested and charged for the 2008 kidnapping and killing of Monica
    Pierre, escaped from the National Penitentiary on January 12, but later
    turned himself in to police in Petionville. At year's end he was
    awaiting trial after being returned to prison.
        There were no known developments in the following cases:
        The January 2009 abduction of Joseph Francois Robert Martello, the
    director of the National Commission of Public Markets (CNMP).
        The 2008 arrests of three Cap-Haitien police officers for allegedly
    heading a gang responsible for multiple kidnappings.

        c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or
    Punishment.--The law prohibits such practices, but there were some
    reports of degrading treatment, most notably in prisons, during the
    year.
        The Sri Lankan Ministry of Defense provided an update in 2009 on
    the status of 23 Sri Lankan UN peacekeepers who were convicted in late
    2008 of sexually exploiting and abusing children while they were
    stationed in Haiti under UN auspices in 2007: 20 of them were
    discharged, demoted, formally reprimanded, or otherwise punished; and
    the other three were killed in military action.

        Prison and Detention Center Conditions.--Prisoners reported
    physical abuse by correctional officers; prisons also suffered from
    corruption and neglect. Due to insufficient staffing, equipment, and
    security officers avoided some cellblocks. At times officials used
    lethal force against prisoners to quell inmate uprisings (see section
    1.a.).
        Prisons and detention centers throughout the country remained
    overcrowded, poorly maintained, and unsanitary. Overcrowding was
    severe; in some prisons detainees slept in shifts due to lack of space.
    The earthquake, which damaged several prisons, intensified the existing
    problems. The earthquake damage compromised the holding capacity at
    facilities in Carrefour, Delmas, Jacmel, and the National Penitentiary
    in Port-au-Prince. Over 5,000 detainees escaped in the wake of the
    earthquake, including all 4,215 persons held at the National
    Penitentiary. Some prisons had no beds for detainees; some cells had no
    access to sunlight. Many prison facilities lacked basic services such
    as medical services, water, electricity, and medical isolation units
    for contagious patients. Many prisoners and detainees suffered from a
    lack of basic hygiene, malnutrition, poor quality health care, and
    illness caused by the presence of rodents. Some prisons did not allow
    prisoners out of their cells for exercise.
        On October 17, prisoners at the National Penitentiary overpowered
    guards in an attempted prison break, taking seven persons, including UN
    Police (UNPOL) officers and visiting Swedish police officers, hostage
    for several hours. The authorities regained control of the
    penitentiary, but three prisoners were killed in the process; two were
    shot, and one was reportedly trampled by other prisoners.
        In some prisons the incidence of preventable diseases such as AIDS,
    malaria, and drug-resistant tuberculosis remained a serious problem.
    The cholera outbreak also affected the prisons. Within the first week
    of the outbreak, five detainees in the Mirebalais Prison died. The
    Bureau of Prisons responded by limiting outside contact.
        At year's end the total prison population, including both pretrial
    detainees and sentenced prisoners in the country's 17 prisons, was more
    than three times the planned capacity of the country's prisons.
    Pretrial detention and its effect on overcrowding remained a serious
    problem during the year (see section 1.d.).
        The overburdened prison system had insufficient holding facilities.
    The Civil Prison of Port-au-Prince (CPPP) contained approximately half
    of the country's prisoners and pretrial detainees in its intake room.
    Provincial authorities, in particular, incarcerated many convicted
    prisoners for terms of months or even years in temporary holding cells.
    Severely overcrowded police stations served as prisons in the cities of
    Gonaives and Petit Goave, whose prisons were destroyed in 2004.
    Gonaives, for example, held 140 long-term prisoners in its local police
    station in October.
        Port-au-Prince maintained separate penitentiaries for adult men and
    women, but in other prisons, there were instances of male and female
    prisoners being held together due to space constraints. Children 16 and
    older were confined with adults. Minors and adults sometimes occupied
    the same cells due to lack of available space. Pretrial detainees were
    held together with convicted prisoners in the women's prison. When
    space was available, boys were held in a separate cell of a facility in
    Port-au-Prince. By law that facility may hold only boys ages 13 to 15,
    although a few child inmates claimed to be as young as age 10. Girls
    were not held separately from women at the Petionville Women's
    Penitentiary.
        For most of the year, prisoners and detainees had reasonable access
    to visitors, who were allowed to bring them food and clothing. Inmates
    also were permitted religious observance and could request to see a
    Protestant minister, a Catholic priest, or a Vodou (voodoo) leader.
    However, these policies were suspended at the end of October in
    response to the nationwide cholera outbreak. The Administration of
    Prisons barred any outsider from entering prisons, in an attempt to
    curb the spread of cholera. Prisoners and detainees were permitted to
    make a written or verbal complaint regarding their conditions to the
    facility supervisor. If their complaint was regarding the supervisor,
    they were given the option to refer it up the chain of command for
    investigation.
        The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the UN
    Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), the local NGO National Human
    Rights Network for Haiti, and the OPC monitored prison conditions in
    cooperation with the Department of Prison Administration.
        Authorities freely permitted the ICRC, the Haitian Red Cross, and
    human rights groups to enter prisons and police stations, monitor
    conditions, and assist prisoners and detainees with medical care, food,
    and legal aid. Primary concerns for most groups monitoring the
    conditions in the prisons related to adequate water, food, and
    sanitation. Although some programs, such as efforts to improve
    sanitation and health care delivery at the CPPP reported success, the
    Government did not implement many changes recommended by NGOs and donor
    governments.
        Authorities took some measures to improve prison conditions. In
    response to the prison killings in Les Cayes, Minister of Justice Paul
    Denis began a series of unannounced prison visits, beginning with the
    Women's prison in Petionville followed by the National Penitentiary. In
    addition, the Government started releasing defendants who had been held
    in preventive detention for unacceptably long periods, pending formal
    charges and trial. Officials implemented a pilot project at the
    Petionville Women's Prison, establishing a special correctional
    tribunal to deal with the 257 detainees awaiting formal charges.
    Between June 8 and 14, the tribunal heard 15 cases, including three
    involving juveniles; 14 defendants were released, including an inmate
    who had served her sentence but remained incarcerated. The Ministry of
    Justice held hearings in August and September to reduce the pretrial
    detention backlog in the National Penitentiary, and the court committee
    released 30 inmates as a result. Still, since most of the 1,570
    detainees awaiting trial in the Penitentiary were held for serious
    crimes that warranted a jury trial, they were effectively denied the
    right to a prompt trial. An estimated 15 percent of detainees in the
    National Penitentiary had been convicted by year's end.
        The ICRC, in collaboration with the Prison Authority, renovated and
    refurbished the earthquake-damaged civil prison in Jacmel.

        d. Arbitrary Arrest or Detention.--The law prohibits arbitrary
    arrest and detention, and the constitution stipulates that a person may
    be arrested only if apprehended during the commission of a crime or on
    the basis of a warrant by a legally competent official such as a
    justice of the peace or magistrate. The authorities must bring the
    detainee before a judge within 48 hours of arrest. Officials frequently
    did not comply with these provisions in practice.

        Role of the Police and Security Apparatus.--MINUSTAH, deploying
    8,766 soldiers, 3,082 police officers, and 481 civilian UN officials,
    trained and supported the national police force, provided disaster
    recovery assistance, and assisted the Government in suppressing gang-
    related violence.
        The approximately 8,500-member HNP has sole responsibility for law
    enforcement and maintenance of order; there are no military forces. The
    UN has estimated that the country needs a force of at least 14,000
    police officers, although it recommended 18,000 to 22,000.Women make up
    less than 10 percent of the total police force, however the HNP
    established a recruiting drive for female officers in 2008, and 350 of
    the 2,755 recruits hired in the past four years were women. The HNP is
    officially an autonomous civilian institution under the authority of a
    director general and includes police, corrections, and coast guard
    functions in separate units. The Ministry of Justice and Public
    Security, through its minister and the secretary of state for public
    security, provides oversight.
        The HNP lost 142 officers in the January earthquake (72 confirmed
    deceased and 70 missing), and an additional 253 were injured.
    Approximately 40 police stations and offices were damaged. The HNP
    worked with UNPOL and MINUSTAH to provide security for aid operations
    and to patrol internally displaced person (IDP) camps.
        The Inspector General's (IG) Office of the HNP accepts and
    investigates allegations from any complainant of police wrongdoing,
    including human rights violations, complicity in criminal acts, and
    other violations. IG investigations revealing criminal activity were
    referred to the regional prosecutor. The IG also conducted vetting with
    MINUSTAH to certify that members of the HNP had no serious disciplinary
    violations or accusations of human rights abuses pending against them.
        Reform and professionalization of the HNP continued as
    international programs and foreign governments provided human rights
    and other training and equipment for new recruits and for existing
    officers; police station upgrades; security and humanitarian
    improvements to prisons; vehicles, computers, communications equipment;
    and other technical assistance. Some units, notably the Anti-Kidnapping
    Unit, made significant improvements.
        Although the HNP's efforts resulted in significantly increased
    levels of physical security and policing effectiveness, the HNP often
    could not prevent or respond to gang-related and other societal
    violence, such as vigilante justice, due to an insufficient number of
    officers and inadequate equipment or training.

        Arrest Procedures and Treatment While in Detention.--The law
    permits police officers to make arrests when a suspect is caught during
    the commission of a crime, or later with a court-authorized warrant.
    Police sometimes apprehended persons without warrants or with warrants
    not issued by a duly authorized official. The authorities occasionally
    detained individuals on unspecified charges or pending investigation.
        The Government frequently did not observe the legal requirement to
    present detainees before a judge within 48 hours, and prolonged
    pretrial detention remained a serious problem. Many detainees were held
    in pretrial detention for extended periods--in some cases up to five
    years--without being informed of charges against them.
        Investigative judges granted bail at their discretion. Bail
    hearings were not routine, and judges usually granted bail only for
    minor cases and based on compelling humanitarian grounds, such as a
    need for medical attention. Detainees generally were allowed access to
    family members and a lawyer of their own choosing. Many detainees could
    not afford the services of an attorney, and the Government routinely
    did not provide free counsel.
        Some returnees, some of whom spent substantial portions or most of
    their lives abroad, alleged corruption, widespread discrimination, and
    social abuse after returning home. Reported discriminatory practices
    included arbitrary arrests, false accusations about their activities to
    local police, and extortion attempts against them and their families
    abroad during the initial detention phase, in exchange for quicker
    release from administrative quarantine.
        Lengthy pretrial detention was a problem during the year. By the
    end of the year, of the 5,331 persons in custody, only 1,722 had been
    tried and sentenced, while 3,609 awaited trial. Approximately one third
    of those awaiting trial had been incarcerated for a year or longer.
        Prison population statistics did not include the large number of
    persons held in police stations around the country in prolonged
    pretrial detention (without a hearing or filed charges) for longer than
    the constitutionally mandated 48-hour maximum detention period.
    Inadequate record keeping and data entry at the police stations made it
    difficult to estimate the number of persons held in prolonged
    detention.

        e. Denial of Fair Public Trial.--The justice system sustained
    significant losses in the January earthquake. The Ministry of Justice
    and the Palais de Justice (Supreme Court) were destroyed, and 27 court
    and tribunal buildings were damaged. A subsequent fire at the Palais de
    Justice destroyed all the records, including records of cases pending
    trial. Although the law provides for an independent judiciary, in
    practice the executive and legislative branches exerted significant
    influence on the judicial branch. Judges assigned to politically
    sensitive cases complained about interference from the executive
    branch. Credible reports of judicial corruption were commonplace (see
    section 4).
        Pervasive and long-standing problems--including a shortage of
    funding and adequately trained and qualified justices of the peace,
    judges, and prosecutors as well as failure to convene court sessions on
    the schedule provided by law--contributed to the large backlog of
    criminal cases, and many detainees waited years for a court date. The
    Government took steps during the year to reduce the pretrial backlog
    (see section 1.c.).
        The code of criminal procedure does not assign clear responsibility
    for criminal investigations and divides authority among police,
    justices of the peace, prosecutors, and investigative magistrates.
    Authorities often failed to question witnesses or complete
    investigations and rarely conducted autopsies, and examining
    magistrates often received incomplete files.
        An outdated juridical fee scale created another barrier for crime
    victims requesting investigation of their cases. After a citizen
    reported being the victim of a crime, some justices of the peace
    charged varying ``fees'' to initiate criminal prosecutions based on
    their perceptions of what a service should cost.
        Long distances and limited transportation between citizens'
    residences and the courts also limited access to the judicial system.
    In most regions judges lacked basic resources and professional
    training.
        The School for Magistrates was the temporary seat of the Supreme
    Court after the January earthquake. The school continued in-service
    training for justices of the peace, and the majority of justices from
    all 18 jurisdictions had completed the intensive six-week training
    program. However, the school had not had a class of magistrates in more
    than five years. An internationally funded program continued to provide
    training for judges, prosecutors, and other court personnel; furnished
    technical assistance in drafting rules and procedures; and assisted in
    curriculum planning for the school. The Judicial Strengthening Program
    begun by the National Center for State Courts provided assistance with
    training and curricula for judges and court personnel.

        Trial Procedures.--The judicial apparatus follows a civil law
    system based on the Napoleonic Code, largely unchanged since 1880. In
    practice authorities widely ignored the constitutionally provided right
    to a fair public trial. The constitution also expressly denies police
    and judicial authorities the right to interrogate suspects unless legal
    counsel or a representative of the suspect's choice is present or they
    waive this right. Most accused persons could not afford legal counsel
    for interrogation or trial, and the law does not require that the
    Government provide legal representation. Defendants who could not
    afford representation were more vulnerable to interrogation without
    counsel. However, some defendants had access to counsel during trials.
    With the support of the national government and the local legal
    community, international groups provided funds to indigent defendants
    for professional legal representation.
        While the constitution provides defendants with a presumption of
    innocence, the right to be present at trial, the right to confront
    witnesses against them, and the right to present witnesses and evidence
    on their own behalf, judges frequently denied defendants these rights.
    The lack of a witness protection program and widespread impunity
    discouraged some witnesses from testifying at trials. Defendants and
    their attorneys had access to government-held evidence before trial.
    Defendants had the right to appeal.

        Political Prisoners and Detainees.--There were no reports of
    political prisoners or detainees.

        Civil Judicial Procedures and Remedies.--Victims of alleged human
    rights abuses are able to bring their cases before a judge for
    cessation of the violation. Damages can be awarded if the claim is
    brought as a civil suit and the judge convicts the perpetrator. Seeking
    legal remedies for human rights abuses is difficult, especially in the
    aftermath of the January earthquake, since very few organizations had
    the resources to start and maintain a case through its duration in the
    system.

        f. Arbitrary Interference With Privacy, Family, Home, or
    Correspondence.--The law prohibits such actions, and the Government
    generally respected these prohibitions in practice.

    Section 2. Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:
        a. Freedom of Speech and Press.--The law provides for freedom of
    speech and of the press, and the Government and elected officials
    generally respected these rights in practice. However, there were a few
    incidents of local government officers and elected officials harassing
    or threatening journalists.
        On September 16, several agents in the Cite Soleil police station
    shoved and beat female journalist, Orpha Dessources, from Radio
    Boukman. She was there to attend a press conference by Cite Soleil
    police on the arrest of a notorious gangster. The journalist filed a
    complaint with the Office of the Inspector General of the HNP. The
    motivation for the attack was unknown. The HNP spokesperson, Commissar
    Leurebours, said that the incident was being investigated and made
    recommendations to journalists about how to behave in police stations.
    However, the HNP Internal Investigations Unit (IG) stated at year's end
    that they had never received a complaint on the issue and never opened
    an investigation.
        There were no further developments in the case of radio journalist
    Sainlus Augustin, who was publicly harassed, struck, and threatened by
    the brother and other supporters of senatorial candidate Wilot Joseph,
    allegedly because they objected to Augustin's attempt to interview
    supporters of the political opposition in 2009. Repeated anonymous
    death threats forced Augustin into hiding.
        In December 2009, HNP officers in Port-au-Prince beat journalist
    Edwige Joseph Watson and destroyed his equipment when he attempted to
    take photographs of a peaceful student demonstration. Following an
    investigation by the Office of the Inspector General, one police
    officer was given an administrative sanction of 40 days' suspension
    without pay. His case was then referred to the criminal court for
    investigation.
        There were no further developments in the 2008 attack on news
    correspondent Joachim Marcel by the deputy mayor of Cap-Haitien and his
    bodyguards, allegedly in retaliation for Marcel's investigation of
    voting corruption.

        Internet Freedom.--There were no government restrictions on access
    to the Internet or reports that the Government monitored e-mail or
    Internet chat rooms. Individuals and groups could engage in the
    expression of views via the Internet, including by e-mail.
    Approximately 30 percent of the population had routine access to the
    Internet during the year, primarily via Internet cafes. Lack of
    infrastructure limited public access to the Internet.

        Academic Freedom and Cultural Events.--There were no government
    restrictions on academic freedom or cultural events.

        b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association.--The law provides
    for freedom of assembly and association, and the Government generally
    respected these rights in practice. Citizens must apply for a permit to
    hold legal demonstrations; the HNP regularly issued permits.
        Demonstrations were infrequent during the first part of the year,
    but starting in August, political parties, displaced persons, and
    students staged protests. An uptick in protests and demonstrations
    occurred in the days preceding the November 28 election and continued
    into December. Demonstrators fired shots, threw rocks, and blocked
    roadways.
        On October 8, Jean Philbert Louis was injured during a
    demonstration for quality education when a tear gas canister fired by a
    police officer hit him in the head. The next day, Louis died in the
    hospital. Authorities arrested the officer who shot the canister, and
    the case was investigated by the IG, who found wrongdoing and forwarded
    the case to the parquet (prosecutor's office). At year's end the
    incident remained under investigation at the parquet.
        On December 9, a group of four armed men began firing openly on
    supporters of presidential candidate Michel Martelly in the Champ de
    Mars area. The Martelly supporters were planning a demonstration as
    President Preval's motorcade passed through the area. Authorities
    arrested the four men but then released them without charge by order of
    the prosecutor's office.
        In June 2009 bystander Kerel Pascal was killed during a public
    funeral, allegedly by peacekeeping forces. Television cameras recorded
    a force member discharging a weapon in the general direction of Pascal.
    MINUSTAH began an investigation and conducted an autopsy. At year's end
    MINUSTAH Human Rights section reported that the inquiry was
    inconclusive as to whether MINUSTAH forces fired the shot that killed
    Pascal.

        c. Freedom of Religion.--For a complete description of religious
    freedom, please see the 2010 International Religious Freedom Report at
    www.state.gov/g/drl/irf/rpt.

        d. Freedom of Movement, Internally Displaced Persons, Protection of
    Refugees, and Stateless Persons--The law provides for freedom of
    movement within the country, foreign travel, emigration, and
    repatriation, and the Government generally respected these rights in
    practice. Persons deported from other countries were sometimes
    subjected to amendments in their Haitian passports by the Immigration
    office, denoting the infraction for which they were deported.
        The Government coordinated with the Office of the UN High
    Commissioner for Refugees and other governments and humanitarian
    organizations in providing protection and assistance to internally
    displaced persons.
        The law prohibits forced exile, and there were no reports of its
    use. However, according to anecdotal reports, former government
    officials sometimes abandoned the country with their families for fear
    of retaliation or prosecution by political enemies.

        Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).--More than a million people
    were displaced by the January 12 earthquake. Approximately 500,000 IDPs
    left for other parts of the country to stay with family or friends, and
    an estimated 20 percent of those who fled the city remained in the
    provinces, severely straining provincial and other resources. By the
    end of December, approximately one million earthquake-affected
    individuals remained displaced in more than 1,150 spontaneous and
    planned settlement sites in and around Port -au-Prince, with temporary
    housing and difficult living conditions. The Government worked with
    domestic and international humanitarian organizations, through a
    combination of mechanisms, to coordinate the oversight of and the
    provision of assistance to IDPs. The Government continued to work with
    foreign government agencies, international organizations, the UN, and
    NGOs to coordinate humanitarian efforts and to facilitate the
    transition from emergency relief activities to recovery and
    reconstruction.
        To provide displaced persons with the opportunity to return to
    their former residences, the Ministry of Public Works assessed
    approximately 400,000 buildings for habitability and safety. The
    assessment found that 51 percent of houses were safe for habitation,
    with another 26 percent classified as dwellings that could be made safe
    with repairs, and the remaining 23 percent deemed unsafe for habitation
    and requiring major repairs or demolition. IDPs were encouraged to
    return to safe houses, and humanitarian groups completed repairs on
    some near-safe houses. Reconstruction focused on enabling earthquake-
    affected families to return to their neighborhoods of origin where they
    maintained family and social ties and employment possibilities.
    However, those whose homes were destroyed or uninhabitable remained in
    IDP camps. The problem of resettlement has been magnified by lack of
    land tenure and contradictory land registry records, as well as a slow
    government response.
        MINUSTAH estimated that more than 8,000 displaced individuals have
    been subject to forced evictions (especially from land that was the
    location of ongoing concerns such as schools, places of worship, and
    businesses) by private property owners or gang members who seek to
    resume pre-earthquake operations. More than 11,000 others remained in
    situations that place them at risk of involuntary evictions and
    secondary displacement by private property owners.

        Protection of Refugees.--The law provides for the granting of
    refugee status or asylum, and the Government has established a system
    for providing protection to refugees. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
    usually through missions or consulates abroad, handled asylum and
    refugee requests. In practice the Government provided protection
    against the expulsion or return of refugees to a country where their
    lives or freedom would be threatened on account of their race,
    religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or
    political opinion; however, the Government did not routinely grant
    refugee status or asylum.

    Section 3. Respect for Political Rights: The Right of Citizens to
            Change Their Government
        The law provides citizens the right to change their government
    peacefully, however in practice citizens were not always able to
    exercise this right. The November elections were marred by fraud,
    flawed voter registration lists, ballot stuffing, intimidation, and
    some violence at the polls.

        Elections and Political Participation.--Multiparty presidential and
    parliamentary elections in November were marked by irregularities and
    criticism from multiple sources. Several presidential candidates
    denounced the elections as fraudulent before the voting concluded.
    Independent election observers and NGOs noted irregularities at many
    polling stations. The preliminary results released on December 7 called
    into question the legitimacy of the electoral process, resulting in
    public protests and prompting the CEP to review the vote tally. On
    December 29, as part of an agreement between the Government and the
    Organization of American States, electoral and legal experts began
    reviewing the results of the first-round elections.
        Some restrictions were placed on certain political parties. In
    November 2009 the CEP considered 69 political parties for the 2010
    parliamentary elections and approved 53. The CEP rejected 16 parties,
    including, for the second time during the year, former president Jean-
    Bertrand Aristide's party, Fanmi Lavalas, for documentation that was
    inconsistent, lacked notarization, and did not conform to legal
    requirements. Other rejected major parties included Union, Popular
    Solidarity Alliance, Struggling People's Organization, and Fusion. The
    latter two groups allied under a new party banner, Alternative, which
    officially boycotted the elections, although many of the party's
    legislative candidates participated in the elections.
        The constitution requires that following local and municipal
    elections, local officials must hold a series of indirect elections to
    staff departmental organs of self-government and an interdepartmental
    council to advise the national government and nominate candidates for
    the CEP. The law requires that the three branches of the national
    government select from among these nominees the council's nine members.
    Since these indirect elections have not taken place since the
    constitution was written, the country continued to operate with the
    presidentially appointed CEP.
        The electoral legislation mandated that political parties
    nominating at least 30 percent female candidates and electing 20
    percent of those nominated receive twice as much public financing for
    those same positions in the next election. None of the political
    parties met these criteria in the November election. On November 28,
    two women ran as candidates for president, eight for the Senate, and 55
    for deputy seats. Of the deputy candidates, two won their seats
    outright in the first round, and seven qualified to run in the second
    round. Mirlande Manigat, one of the female presidential candidates, won
    approximately 30 percent of the vote, qualifying her to run in the
    second round.
        The monetary deposit required of female candidates for political
    office (if sponsored by a recognized party) was one-half that required
    of male candidates. Six women served in the outgoing Senate and Chamber
    of Deputies, which had a combined membership of 129 legislators; three
    women served in the 18-member cabinet; and no women served on the
    Supreme Court.

    Section 4. Official Corruption and Government Transparency
        The law provides criminal penalties for official corruption;
    however, the Government did not implement the law effectively, and
    officials often engaged in corrupt practices with impunity. According
    to the World Bank's worldwide governance indicators, government
    corruption was a severe problem. Corruption remained widespread in all
    branches and at all levels of government. The constitution mandates
    that high-level officials and parliament members accused of official
    corruption be prosecuted before the Senate, not within the judicial
    system. However, the Senate brought no such prosecutions.
        In July the Government's Anti-Corruption Unit (ULCC) investigated
    charges of corruption against Jean Enel Desir, a member of the CEP who
    represented the Catholic Church. He resigned from his position, and the
    ULCC's investigation revealed evidence to support the charges. The
    prosecutor's office had the file but put the investigation on hold
    because Desir was deemed too ill to stand trial.
        In October the Ministry of Justice replaced two judges in Les Cayes
    who were accused of corruption. There were no further developments in
    the case at year's end.
        There were reports of corruption in the HNP. For instance, affluent
    prisoners at times obtained favorable conditions of detention. The HNP
    investigated allegations of police malfeasance, leading to the arrest
    or termination of employment of some officers. For example in
    September, the HNP arrested seven officers for alleged involvement in
    kidnapping and drug gangs. The HNP, with the assistance of UN civilian
    police, continued efforts to eliminate corruption within its ranks, and
    the Government continued to investigate individuals in the business
    sector and in government for corruption but brought no charges. The
    Center for Pleas and Legal Assistance offered judicial assistance to
    victims and witnesses of government corruption and widely disseminated
    telephone and e-mail contact information.
        Authorities arrested or detained a few low-level public servants,
    mainly customs officials, on corruption or corruption-related charges.
        The director of the Social Security Agency, Sandro Joseph, who was
    arrested in May 2009 on charges of misuse of funds within the social
    security system, escaped from prison on January 12. His case had not
    yet gone to trial.
        The ULCC investigation into the use of approximately HTG7.9 billion
    ($197 million) of humanitarian assistance provided to the country by
    Petrocaribe in the aftermath of the 2008 storm season continued at
    year's end.
        The Financial Control and Information Office has responsibility for
    combating financial crimes. By law the president, the prime minister,
    cabinet ministers, other high-level public officials, and members of
    the HNP must declare assets. The ULCC reported in December that 444
    public officials had observed the law and filed disclosure statements
    by the August 30 deadline. This number includes only four senators and
    27 deputies, and accounts for less than 10 percent of all public
    officials. Public officials who do not fulfill this obligation are
    subject first to a 50 percent reduction in salary, followed by
    suspension, until they file their statements. However, by the end of
    the year the Government sanctioned no officials for failure to file the
    disclosures.
        The National Commission for Public Markets is charged with
    certifying and adjudicating public procurement contracts. In September
    2009 the law was amended by presidential decree to raise the threshold
    of contracts subject to oversight. The certification requirement
    applies for supplies contracts in excess of 300,000 Haitian gourdes
    (HTG, or approximately $7,440), public works contracts in excess of
    HTG800,000 (approximately $19,840), and services contracts in excess of
    HTG2,500,000 (approximately $62,000).
        No law requires public access to government information, but there
    were no reports that the Government prevented public access to
    government information.

    Section 5. Governmental Attitude Regarding International and
            Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations of Human
            Rights
        A number of domestic and international human rights groups
    generally operated without government restriction, investigating and
    publishing their findings on human rights cases. The Government
    cooperated with the various human rights observation missions and
    generally acknowledged their views but lacked the capacity to implement
    their recommendations. The Government permitted special missions and
    the continued presence of UN bodies and other international
    organizations such as the ICRC.
        The OPC is mandated to protect individuals against any form of
    abuse by the Government. The OPC offered free legal assistance to any
    citizen who appeared before a court regarding a filed complaint. The
    OPC took an active role in investigating allegations of government
    abuse, and worked collaboratively with international organizations.
        The Chamber of Deputies and the Senate each had a human rights
    committee; however, neither committee published any reports or
    introduced any legislation during the year.

    Section 6. Discrimination, Societal Abuses, and Trafficking in Persons
        The law does not specifically prohibit discrimination on the
    grounds of race, gender, disability, language, or social status. It
    does provide for equal working conditions regardless of gender,
    beliefs, or marital status. However, no effective governmental
    mechanism administered or enforced these provisions.

        Women.--The law prohibits and provides penalties for rape but does
    not recognize spousal rape as a crime. The penalty for rape is a
    minimum of 10 years of forced labor, increasing to a mandatory 15 years
    if the victim was less than 16 years old. In the case of gang rape, the
    maximum penalty is lifelong forced labor. Prosecution was often not
    pursued due to lack of reporting and follow-up on victims' claims.
    Actual sentences were often less rigorous, with sentences for
    convictions in the past year averaging approximately three years. The
    criminal code excuses a husband who kills his wife or her partner found
    engaging in an act of adultery in his home, but a wife who kills her
    husband under similar circumstances is subject to prosecution.
    Anecdotal evidence suggested that some younger women were detained
    after violently resisting sexual attackers, who were sometimes family
    members. Kidnappers often raped their female abductees.
        Reported sexual assault cases increased significantly. HNP
    statistics showed that 974 rapes were reported by the end of the year,
    compared with 218 through October 2009. Of these, 84 victims were
    minors. NGOs noted alarming increases in sexual violence against women
    in IDP camps. In addition, the increase in the number of reported rapes
    may be in part a result of the referral and awareness campaign
    initiated by the UN, in partnership with the HNP and NGOs. On December
    22, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights recommended that the
    Government adopt ``urgent measures'' to prevent, report, and address
    violence against women and girls in the IDP camps of the Port-au-Prince
    area. By year's end, the Government had not addressed the commission's
    recommendations.
        In Saint-Marc the Federation for Women of the Lower Artibonite
    reported that it provided shelter services for 516 women and girls and
    assisted 909 victims of violence during the year.
        Rape was especially common in areas with minimal police presence.
    Many credible NGOs and government sources believed that urban gangs
    used rape as a systematic instrument of intimidation. Women's shelters
    and organizations reported that armed gangs frequently raped and
    harassed girls and women.
        Rape was often treated in society as a relatively minor infraction
    or a family or community matter instead of a prosecutable offense.
    Substantial disincentives discouraging victims from reporting rapes
    included: victims' desire to protect themselves from the social or
    physical consequences of bringing accusations against the perpetrators,
    who often lived in the community; tacit cultural acceptance of sexual
    assault; the lack of sufficient facilities or services at police
    stations to aid rape victims; the long distances between homes and
    qualified tribunals; and finally, the slow-moving judicial system that
    fosters a perception of impunity. However, cases that were heard in
    court, particularly in Port-au-Prince and Port-de-Paix, sometimes
    resulted in convictions and stiff penalties. In the 12-month period
    between October 2009 and October 2010, 48 individuals were convicted
    for rape. Their sentences ranged from a fine to a life sentence of
    forced labor. The average sentence was three to 10 years.
        MINUSTAH's Gender-Based Violence (GBV) unit, in partnership with
    the HNP, mapped GBV referral services to identify organizations
    providing GBV services by type, assessed the quality of services, and
    provided more complete information for GBV referral cards. The unit
    distributed referral cards to community workers and local and
    international NGOs to facilitate survivor access to appropriate
    medical, psychosocial, and legal services. MINUSTAH also provided an
    18-officer Gender Mobile Unit, staffed mostly with female UNPOL
    Officers. The two HNP referral centers for victims of sexual violence
    were damaged by the earthquake. They remained operational, but worked
    out of limited space in a tent, which they shared with a collocated
    police station. The HNP does not have a sexual assault or domestic
    violence unit. The Criminal Unit investigates violence against adult
    women and the Brigade for the Protection of Minors (BPM) investigates
    assaults on children. In Saint-Marc the local government commissioner
    worked closely with the only local NGO offering comprehensive services
    to sexual assault victims in the region to protect victims' safety and
    access to the justice system.
        The law prohibits and provides penalties for domestic violence
    against minors, but does not classify domestic violence against adults
    as a distinct crime. Instead, the Criminal Unit processes crimes of
    domestic violence against adults (e.g. assault, rape, harassment,
    etc.). Police figures reported 30 incidents of domestic violence
    against minors during the year (compared with 38 incidents from January
    to October of 2009). Women's rights groups and human rights
    organizations reported that domestic violence against women remained
    commonplace and underreported. Police rarely arrested the perpetrators
    or investigated the incidents, and the victims sometimes suffered
    further harassment and reprisals from perpetrators, sometimes prompting
    secondary displacement of victims within IDP camps. Corrupt judges
    often released suspects arrested for domestic violence and rape.
        The Government, with the support of international donors, sponsored
    a program for victims of violence that provided medical and legal
    assistance for victims, as well as a campaign denouncing violence
    against women.
        The law does not specifically prohibit sexual harassment, although
    the labor code states that men and women have the same rights and
    obligations. Data concerning sexual harassment in the workplace were
    not available, although observers suggested that sexual harassment was
    common. Such incidents went unreported because of high unemployment and
    because citizens had little confidence in the ability of the judicial
    system to protect them.
        Couples and individuals have the legal right to decide the number,
    spacing, and timing of children. UNICEF data indicated that 32 percent
    of women ages 15-49 used modern contraceptive methods in 2008. Despite
    high levels of general knowledge of contraceptive methods, women had
    few opportunities to acquire additional information on family planning
    methods. The UN Population Fund estimated the maternal mortality ratio
    in 2008 at 300 deaths per 100,000 live births. Although UNICEF reported
    that 85 percent of pregnant women received prenatal care at least once
    during their pregnancy, only 26 percent had a skilled attendant at
    delivery in 2008. The vast majority of women delivered their babies at
    home without the benefits of a skilled birth attendant or the ability
    to find adequate care in the event of complications. Women and men had
    equal access to diagnostic services and treatment for sexually
    transmitted infections, including HIV.
        Women did not enjoy the same social and economic status as men. In
    some social strata, tradition limited women's roles. The majority of
    women in rural areas remained in the traditional occupations of
    farming, marketing, and domestic labor. Very poor female heads of
    household in urban areas also often faced limited employment
    opportunities, working in domestic labor and sales. Government and
    private sectors seldom promoted women to supervisory positions.

        Children.--Citizenship is derived through an individual's parents;
    only one parent of either sex is necessary to transmit citizenship.
    Citizenship can also be acquired through a formal request to the
    Ministry of the Interior.
        The Government did not register all births immediately and did not
    keep statistics concerning the number of births unregistered each year.
    One government report estimated births of more than 10 percent of
    Haitians were not registered. Birth documents are legally necessary to
    register for school, open a bank account, apply for credit, gain
    admission to a hospital, and vote. Individuals without required birth
    documents were not denied emergency medical services or educational
    opportunities on that basis. Many official documents were destroyed in
    the earthquake. The National Archives saw its requests for certified
    copies of documents more than triple upon reopening after the
    earthquake, and the Office of National Identification faced long lines
    for months as people sought to replace lost or damaged identification
    cards. Both institutions were overwhelmed by the demand, but addressed
    the backlog incrementally.
        Primary and secondary education was not compulsory, free, and
    universal. Before January 12, only half of school-age children were
    enrolled in classes. Almost 5,000 school buildings in the earthquake
    zone were destroyed or damaged on January 12. Hundreds of teachers and
    thousands of students were killed. After the earthquake, most schools
    remained closed through the summer, and reopened in early October.
    International donors and NGOs worked to build and repair schools. Many
    families who were not able to get their children into a public school
    paid for their children to attend private schools, which were generally
    unaccredited and unregulated.
        Credible sources reported that over 200,000 domestically trafficked
    children worked as indentured household servants, or ``restaveks'' (see
    section 7.c.). Approximately 65 percent of these children are girls,
    and nearly three quarters of them work as servants in the home of
    relatives. Governmental agencies and programs promoted children's
    rights and welfare, but the Government lacked sufficient resources to
    support or enforce existing mechanisms adequately.
        Children also reportedly worked on the street and in IDP camps in
    prostitution. Recruitment of children for sexual exploitation,
    pornography, and illicit activities is illegal. The law prohibits the
    corruption of youth under the age of 21 years, including by
    prostitution, with penalties ranging from six months' to three years'
    imprisonment.
        The minimum age of consensual sex is 18. Inefficiencies in
    reporting and investigating allegations of rape contributed to
    uncertainties regarding penalties, if any, for statutory rape.
        The January earthquake created a large number of displaced children
    and left many as orphans. In cooperation with the Government, NGOs and
    international donors established health clinics and child-friendly
    spaces in many of the camps; nevertheless, security issues posed a risk
    as many children were left on their own during the day.
        Port-au-Prince's population of several thousand street children
    included many who were dismissed from or fled employers' homes or
    abusive families, but also some children who lost parents or caretakers
    in the earthquake. Almost 75 percent of street children were boys,
    according to estimates. NGOs reported that street children were likely
    to be sexually or otherwise abused, received little or no education,
    and were easily exploited by trafficking recruiters. Criminal gangs
    also reportedly enlisted minors to commit illegal acts.
        The Ministry of Social Affairs provided some assistance, such as
    food and temporary shelter, to street children.
        In the aftermath of the January earthquake, many orphans were
    evacuated to other countries for expedited adoption. The Institute of
    Social Welfare and Research (IBERS), which oversaw adoptions and
    orphanages, resumed operations in March. Because IBERS had limited
    resources, many orphanages remain unregistered and unmonitored. Lack of
    sanitation, overcrowding, insufficient food, an absence of education,
    and poor adult supervision characterized many facilities.
        The country is not a party to the 1980 Hague Convention on the
    Civil Aspects of Child Abduction. For information on international
    parental child abduction, please see the Department of State's annual
    report on compliance at http://travel.state.gov/abduction/resources/
    congressreport/congressreport--4308.html.

        Anti-Semitism.--The Jewish community was very small. There were no
    reports of anti-Semitic acts or other societal abuses or discrimination
    based on religious affiliation, belief, or practice.

        Trafficking in Persons.--For information on trafficking in persons,
    please see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons
    Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        Persons With Disabilities.--The constitution and laws do not
    explicitly prohibit discrimination against persons with physical and
    mental disabilities, and there were no reports of discrimination by the
    Government against persons with disabilities in employment, education,
    access to health care, or the provision of other state services.
    However, because of widespread and chronic poverty, a shortage of
    public services, and limited educational opportunities, persons with
    disabilities were severely disadvantaged. According to the National
    Network for the Defense of Human Rights (RNDDH), approximately 805,000
    persons lived with a physical disability during the year. The
    earthquake exacerbated the difficulties faced by persons with
    disabilities, with the RNDDH reporting that 6,000 persons were left
    with an amputated limb as a result of the earthquake. Only 3 percent of
    children with disabilities have access to schools.
        The Secretariat of State for the Integration of Handicapped Persons
    (SEIPH) is the lead government agency responsible for providing
    assistance to and ensuring that the concerns of the disabled are taken
    into account, especially during the reconstruction phase. SEIPH worked
    with the UN Health Cluster to coordinate the Injury, Rehabilitation,
    and Disability working group, which coordinated all activity concerning
    the rehabilitation of injured persons, the fitting of orthopedic
    devices, and the provision of assistance to persons with disabilities.
    SEIPH also signed an agreement with foreign donors to enable the
    construction in the coming year of a rehabilitation center for persons
    with disabilities. The center will train teachers and technicians and
    will provide prostheses and hearing aids. SEIPH's broader mandate is to
    improve the living conditions of persons with disabilities, raise
    public awareness on national and international disability issues,
    strengthen the response capacity of associations or institutions that
    work on disability issues, and to establish a legal framework for
    persons with disabilities.
        There were no reports of abuse in mental health facilities.

        Societal Abuses, Discrimination, and Acts of Violence Based on
    Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.--There was a minimal presence
    of lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT) advocacy NGOs operating
    within the country.
        There were no officially confirmed reports of discrimination
    against the LGBT community, but local NGOs reported that LGBT persons
    faced widespread societal discrimination including social stigma,
    targeted physical violence, sexual assault, and employment insecurity.
    NGOs also reported that such persons did not report human rights
    violations due to fear of reprisal.

        Other Societal Violence or Discrimination.--Societal discrimination
    occurred against persons with HIV/AIDS, particularly women, but
    educational programs sponsored by foreign donors and efforts by HIV/
    AIDS activists attempted to change that stigma.

    Section 7. Worker Rights
        a. The Right of Association.--The law allows some workers,
    excluding public-sector employees, to form and join unions of their
    choice. The law also prohibits employers, management, and anyone who
    represents the interests of employers from joining a union. Freelance
    workers and workers in the informal economy are not covered under the
    Labor Code. The law requires that a union must have a minimum of 10
    members and register with the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs
    within 60 days of its formation. Any association with more than 20
    members must obtain prior authorization from the Government in order to
    be recognized. In practice most unions were not independent
    organizations, but extensions of political parties. There were nine
    principal labor federations representing approximately 5 percent of the
    labor force.
        The labor code provides for the right to strike, with restrictions,
    and workers exercised this right in practice. The Haitian Labor Code
    considers four types of strikes legal: workers striking while remaining
    at their posts; striking without abandoning the institution; walking
    out and abandoning the institution; and striking in solidarity with
    another strike. Managers, administrators, other heads of
    establishments, public utility service workers, and public sector
    enterprise workers may not strike. The labor code defines public
    utility service employees as essential workers who ``cannot suspend
    their activities without causing serious harm to public health and
    security.'' A 48-hour notice period is compulsory for all strikes, and
    strikes may not exceed one day.
        Despite the prohibition there were a few public sector strikes,
    usually related to the Government's failure to pay staff. On April 20,
    bailiffs and clerks went on strike to demand higher wages from the
    Ministry of Justice. On July 1, teachers from both public and private
    schools struck to oblige the Ministry of Education to maintain its
    commitment to subsidize schools damaged by the earthquake. On July 22,
    transport workers called for a general strike and urged President Rene
    Preval to replace the CEP and to satisfy key demands of Haitian drivers
    and workers. They also protested a ``toll'' imposed by Haitian
    authorities at the Malpasse/Jimani border with the Dominican Republic.

        b. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively.--While the law
    protects trade union organizing activities and stipulates fines for
    those who interfere with this right, in practice the Government made
    little effort to enforce the law. High unemployment rates and antiunion
    sentiment among some factory workers and most employers limited the
    success of union organizing efforts. Collective bargaining was
    nonexistent, and employers set wages unilaterally.
        Although workers had access to labor courts established to resolve
    common labor-management disputes, the courts' judgments were not
    enforced, and as a result labor courts were considered weak and
    ineffective. Under the supervision of the Ministry of Labor and Social
    Affairs, the courts are responsible for adjudicating minor conflicts;
    however unions stated that the process was ineffective. Seven labor
    courts operated in Port-au-Prince, and in the provinces, plaintiffs
    utilized municipal courts.
        The law prohibits antiunion discrimination by employers, who are
    liable to a monetary fine for each individual violation. Although
    illegally fired workers have the right to recoup any compensation to
    which they are entitled, the law does not specify that employers must
    reinstate workers illegally fired for union activity.
        There are no special laws or exemptions from regular labor laws in
    the export processing zone in Ouanaminthe, a town on the Dominican
    border.

        c. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor.--The law prohibits
    forced or compulsory labor, including of children; however, there were
    reports that such practices occurred, namely instances of forced labor
    among child domestics or restaveks. Also see the Department of State's
    annual Trafficking in Persons Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        d. Prohibition of Child Labor and Minimum Age for Employment.--The
    minimum employment age for employment in industrial, agricultural, or
    commercial companies is 15. The minimum age for apprenticeships is 14.
    There is no minimum age restriction for work in domestic service and
    there are no legal penalties for employing children in domestic labor
    unless the nature or condition of domestic service harms their health,
    safety, or morals. The law prohibits the exploitation of children,
    which includes servitude and forced or compulsory labor. The law also
    prohibits minors from working under dangerous conditions and prohibits
    night work in industrial enterprises for minors under 18. Fierce adult
    competition for jobs ensured child labor was not a factor in the
    industrial sector. However, children under the age of 15 commonly
    worked in the informal sector to supplement family income. Activities
    and sectors in which children commonly work include domestic work,
    subsistence agriculture, and street trades, such as selling goods,
    washing cars, serving as porters in public markets and bus stations,
    and begging. Children also commonly worked with parents on small family
    farms, although the high unemployment rate among adults kept children
    from employment on commercial farms in significant numbers.
        Parents unable to care for their children have traditionally sent
    them to relatives or strangers, who were expected to provide the
    children with food, shelter, and an education in exchange for
    housework. Such children were known as restaveks. The practice was so
    entrenched that even poor families routinely kept one or more restaveks
    who came from even poorer families. Parents often offered their
    children as restaveks when they were six years old or younger. Domestic
    work as a restavek was the primary form of child employment, and there
    was no legal penalty for families that employed restaveks. While some
    host families cared for restaveks and sent them to school, most
    restaveks were subjected to abuse and involuntary domestic servitude.
    Also see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons Report
    at www.state.gov/g/tip.
        Government and NGO estimates of the number of restaveks ranged
    between 90,000 and 300,000. A 2009 survey estimated 225,000 children
    work as restaveks in urban areas of Haiti alone. The majority of
    restaveks were girls between the ages of six and 14. Host family
    exploitation of restaveks typically included forcing the children to
    work excessive hours on physically demanding tasks without pay or
    adequate food, not sending them to school, and subjecting them to
    physical and/or sexual abuse. Girls were generally placed in domestic
    servitude in private urban homes, while boys more frequently were
    exploited for labor on farms. Restaveks who did not run away usually
    remained with the host family until age 14. Labor laws require
    employers to pay domestic workers over 15 years old, so many host
    families forced restaveks from the household before that age. Others
    ignored the law, which was not well enforced. Abandoned and runaway
    restaveks constituted a significant proportion of the large population
    of children living on the street, where many were forced into
    prostitution or street crime by criminal gangs, while others became
    street vendors or beggars. The thousands of individuals displaced and/
    or orphaned as a result of the January earthquake likely increased the
    number of both restaveks and street children.
        Although the Government charged it with implementation and
    enforcement of child labor laws and regulations, the Institute of
    Social Well-Being and Research (IBESR) lacked adequate funding to
    investigate exploitive child labor cases effectively. Other factors
    contributing to ineffective investigation and lack of judicial recourse
    were border permeability and lack of an adequately trained and equipped
    police force. Since the January 12 earthquake, there has been improved
    collaboration between IBESR and the BPM, the 35-person HNP unit
    responsible for child protection, to remove children from child labor
    and other dangerous and violent situations. Prior to January 12, the
    Government of Haiti also established a program in Carrefour to provide
    basic education, lodging, and food to street children.

        e. Acceptable Conditions of Work.--On October 1, the daily minimum
    wage increased from HTG125 (approximately $3.00) to HTG150
    (approximately $3.60) in the textile sector and remained at HTG200
    (approximately $4.80) in the commercial and industrial sectors. Workers
    paid at a piecework rate received a minimum of HTG200 per day. For all
    other industrial and commercial establishments, the daily minimum wage
    was fixed at HTG200 for eight hours of work. The minimum wage would put
    a household's income at about twice the average in Haiti, but still
    provided for only a minimal standard of living. Minimum wage levels
    were often not effectively enforced.
        Most citizens worked in the informal sector and subsistence
    agriculture, in which minimum wage legislation does not apply, and
    daily wages of HTG15 ($0.37) were common. Many women worked as domestic
    employees, an area of work also exempted from minimum wage legislation.
        The law sets the standard workday for industrial, commercial, and
    agricultural establishments at eight hours and the workweek at 48
    hours, with 24 hours of rest. It also provides for the payment of
    overtime and prohibits excessive compulsory overtime. However, the law
    grants exemptions to health care, lodging, food and beverage, and
    entertainment establishments; managerial positions; and family
    establishments that employ only family members. The Labor Directorate
    may grant exemptions for other employers not specifically exempted by
    the law. These laws were not effectively enforced. The law is also
    silent concerning public sector employees. Due to staff shortages and
    special events, salaried HNP officers sometimes worked 12-hour shifts
    six days per week and received no overtime, although they received
    standardized bonuses at year's end. HNP officers had also not been
    incorporated into the standardized government schedule of benefits
    after their initial three-year probationary contracts. In severely
    understaffed regions, officers sometimes worked longer hours to serve
    the needs of their communities.
        The law also establishes minimum health and safety regulations. The
    industrial and assembly sectors largely observed these guidelines, but
    the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs did not effectively enforce
    them. No group collected formal data, but unions alleged job-related
    injuries occurred frequently in the construction and public works
    sectors. Although they have the legal right to do so, in practice
    workers could not exercise the right to remove themselves from
    dangerous work situations without jeopardizing their continued
    employment.

                                   __________

                                    HONDURAS

        Honduras is a constitutional multiparty republic with a population
    of approximately eight million. Pursuant to November 2009 elections,
    which the international community generally recognized as free and
    fair, on January 27, Porfirio ``Pepe'' Lobo assumed the presidency and
    formed a government of national unity representing all five registered
    political parties. The Lobo government undertook efforts to reintegrate
    the country into the international community and address political
    polarization and human rights concerns that had arisen out of the June
    2009 coup. There were instances in which elements of the security
    forces acted independently of civilian control.
        Human rights problems reported included the following: unlawful
    killings by police and government agents, which the Government took
    some steps to prosecute; arbitrary and summary killings committed by
    vigilantes and former members of the security forces; harsh prison
    conditions; violence against detainees; corruption and impunity within
    the security forces; lengthy pretrial detention and failure to provide
    due process of law; politicization, corruption, and institutional
    weakness of the judiciary; corruption in the legislative and executive
    branches; government restrictions on the recognition of some civil
    society groups; violence and discrimination against women; child
    prostitution and abuse; trafficking in persons; discrimination against
    indigenous communities; violence and discrimination against persons
    based on sexual orientation; ineffective enforcement of labor laws; and
    child labor.
        On November 22, the Government swore in Ana Pineda as minister of
    the Secretariat of State for Human Rights and Justice, created by the
    legislature on September 28 to promote inter-institutional coordination
    of respect for human rights and to design policies and programs to
    strengthen rule of law, access to justice, and protection of vulnerable
    groups. On December 20, the National Congress allocated 35 million
    lempiras ($1,842,100), of 50 million lempiras ($2,632,500) requested
    for the operation of the secretariat.

                            RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

    Section 1. Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom
            From:
        a. Arbitrary or Unlawful Deprivation of Life.--During the year
    confrontations over a long-standing land dispute between owners of
    African palm plantations and protesting rural agricultural workers in
    the Aguan Valley, Colon Department resulted in the deaths or injuries
    of approximately 17 agricultural workers, 13 private security guards,
    and one police officer. Human rights groups alleged that police and
    private security guards used disproportionate force against protesting
    workers. Plantation owners asserted that on several occasions some
    armed members of the Unified Aguan Agricultural Workers' Movement
    (MUCA) invaded their plantations, resulting in the killings of security
    guards. Following a November 15 confrontation between agricultural
    workers belonging to the Peasant Movement of the Aguan (MCA) and
    private security guards at the Tumbador Farm, which left at least four
    agricultural workers dead, the Government dispatched a 400-person,
    civilian-led contingent of police and military officials to Aguan, with
    the stated mission to disarm the opposing groups involved in the
    confrontation. The Government also dispatched prosecutors to Aguan to
    assist in police investigations, but as of year's end there were no
    reported investigations of the killings.
        On February 4, unknown actors abducted and strangled Vanessa Zepeda
    in Tegucigalpa. The victim's parents alleged that her death was
    connected to her involvement in the anticoup Resistance movement
    (Resistance). On March 15, authorities arrested and charged with murder
    Rafael Alejandro Sierra Linares for the killing. By year's end a police
    investigation had concluded that the killing was not related to
    Zepeda's political activities, and Sierra Linares was in detention
    awaiting trial.
        Human rights nongovernmental organization (NGO) Committee of
    Relatives of Detained and Disappeared in Honduras (COFADEH) reported
    that on February 15, four unknown men in Comayaguela fatally shot Julio
    Funes, a member of the water and sewer workers union (SITRASANAA) and a
    local leader of the Resistance. COFADEH alleged that Funes had received
    death threats due to his anticoup activities. Police identified as
    suspects several gang members and stated that the killing was linked to
    Funes' antigang activism. At year's end there was no further
    information available regarding the killing.
        COFADEH reported that on February 24, four unidentified persons
    fatally shot Claudia Larissa Brizuela at her home in San Pedro Sula.
    The victim's father, Pedro Brizuela, alleged that his daughter's death
    was related to his Resistance activities. A police investigation
    concluded that there was no indication that the killing was politically
    motivated. At year's end an investigation continued.
        Human rights groups alleged that on March 12, unknown persons
    dressed as police officers entered the home of Resistance member Ramon
    Ulises Castellanos and that several hours later the bodies of
    Castellanos and Miguel Sauceda were found by neighbors. Both victims
    had been shot and killed. Police asserted that the unknown persons were
    impersonating policemen. At year's end an investigation continued.
        On March 17, unknown persons reportedly shot and killed Francisco
    Castillo in Tegucigalpa. Castillo had a pending application for
    protective measures with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
    (IACHR) due to his alleged anticoup activities. At year's end an
    investigation continued.
        On March 23, unknown persons shot and killed Jose Manuel Flores
    outside the public school where he worked in Tegucigalpa. Human rights
    organizations stated that Flores was active in the Resistance. Police
    identified a 14-year-old boy as the primary suspect. At year's end an
    investigation continued.
        On May 26, unknown gunmen shot and killed in Tegucigalpa Pedro
    Antonio Gomez and Oscar Tulio Martinez, respectively the brother and
    brother-in-law of Arcadia Gomez, minister of social affairs in the
    Government of former president Jose Manuel ``Mel'' Zelaya. The NGO
    Committee for the Defense of Human Rights in Honduras (CODEH) reported
    that Antonio Gomez and Martinez were active in the Resistance, and that
    gunmen had entered the house asking for Arcadia Gomez. The IACHR had
    requested that the Government provide protective measures to Arcadia
    Gomez due to threats she allegedly received for her anticoup political
    activity. At year's end an investigation continued.
        In August authorities arrested 10 police officers for the reported
    June 2 beating to death of Mario Orlando Sequeira at a hotel room in
    Siguatepeque after management reported that Sequiera was causing a
    disturbance. At an August 6 hearing, a court denied the prosecutor's
    request for preventive arrest but required the accused to appear before
    the court on a weekly basis. On September 17, authorities brought
    charges of homicide, torture, and illegal detention against the police
    chief of Siguatepeque and seven other police officers. By year's end
    the police chief had been dismissed, pending the results of a trial, a
    date for which had not been set.
        On June 20, the body of 17-year-old Oscar Yovani Ramirez was found
    shot with 15 bullet holes at the La Aurora African palm farm in the
    Aguan Valley, Tocoa. Police reported that before authorities received
    information about the location of the body, they apprehended and
    detained at the farm's entrance five agricultural workers who had been
    discharging rifles. After police learned about the discovery of
    Ramirez' body, agricultural workers reportedly refused to allow
    officers to enter and investigate the site. In detention the workers
    told police that Ramirez was not with them at the time of the arrival
    of the police on June 20 and that Ramirez was last seen on the morning
    of June 19. Human rights organizations alleged that police and private
    security guards killed Ramirez. At year's end the prosecutor in Tocoa
    continued investigating the case.
        Casa Alianza reported a lack of investigation by the authorities in
    relation to a substantial increase, in comparison with previous years,
    of execution-style killings by unknown persons of adolescents and
    children. As of September the Government reported receiving 108
    complaints of killings of children, of which 36 were at the trial
    stage, 20 for which arrest warrants had been issued, 51 under
    investigation, and one for which charges had been dismissed.
        There were a number of reported hate crime killings by unknown
    actors of members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT)
    community, including the May and August fatal shootings respectively of
    Neraldys and Imperia Gamaniel, leaders of the NGO Colectivo TTT (see
    section 6).
        At year's end an investigation continued following the January 2009
    arrest of Norman Gilberto Reyes for the January 2009 carjacking and
    fatal shooting of Rodrigo Eugenio Valladares Pineda, son of former
    human rights commissioner Leo Rodrigo Valladares Lanza, Edmund Jeffry
    Trochez, and Isaiah Nahum Bonilla Escobar.
        At year's end an investigation continued regarding the February
    2009 fatal shooting by unknown assailants of National Party
    congressional candidate Marco Tulio Velasquez in Santa Rosa de Copan.
        There was no information available regarding the investigation of
    the February 2009 fatal shooting by unknown assailants of
    environmentalist Jose Miguel Pagoada Tercero, who had been assisting in
    the Hato de Enmedio community's reforestation.
        At year's end an investigation continued into the March 2009 fatal
    shooting by unknown assailants of Liberal Party congressional candidate
    and adviser to the mayor of San Pedro Sula Oscar Heberto Mejia
    Villafranca.
        At year's end authorities had identified a suspect in the March
    2009 fatal shooting by two unknown persons of land-rights activist
    Miguel Angel Reyes in Cofradia. In September authorities reported that
    a trial would be scheduled for Adan Rodriguez Cabrera accused in the
    April 2009 fatal shooting of Cofradia land rights activist Juan Angel
    Rivera Gonzalez. At year's end there was no further information
    regarding the scheduling of the trial. An investigation continued into
    the April 2009 fatal shooting of Odilio Acosta and Santos Aguilar of
    the Campesino Movement of Rigores in Trujillo, Colon.
        At year's end an investigation continued into the June 2009 fatal
    shooting by unknown persons wearing police uniforms of Andres Reyes,
    Marlon Javier Turcios, Heber Rendon, Felix Omar Mayorquin, Dagner
    Canales, Santos Sabillon, Carlos Villatoro, Allan Belis, and Harry
    Plama in Saba, Colon Department.
        On August 2, the civil society groups Center for Investigation and
    Promotion of Human Rights in Honduras (CIPRODEH), Movement for Dignity
    and Justice, and Team for Reflection, Investigation, and Communication
    of the Society of Jesus submitted a complaint to the Office of the
    Special Prosecutor for Human Rights against former de facto regime
    leader Roberto Micheletti, and several other de facto regime officials
    including: head of the armed forces, Romeo Vasquez Velasquez; the
    defense minister, Adolfo Lionel Sevilla; and the security minister,
    Jorge Rodas. The complaint alleged the commission of multiple and
    systematic violations of human rights, including assassinations,
    torture, and illegal detention of 481 persons in El Paraiso Department
    between July and August 2009. At year's end of the prosecutor was
    investigating the case.
        The Public Ministry continued its investigation into the July 2009
    fatal shooting of Isis Obed Murillo during an anticoup demonstration at
    Toncontin Airport. By year's end the military had not given to the
    Public Ministry 25 of approximately 1,000 weapons, which security
    forces held at the airport on the day of the shooting and which the
    military reportedly agreed to hand over to the ministry. The Public
    Ministry also reported that the military twice denied requests to
    provide information on police and military deployments at the airport
    that day.
        At year's end there was no further information about the
    prosecutor's investigation of the August 2009 death of Roger Vallejo
    due to gunshot injuries he received during a July 2009 anticoup
    demonstration in Tegucigalpa.
        There was still no further information available regarding the
    investigation by Office of the Special Prosecutor for Human Rights into
    the complaint received by the IACHR that in August 2009 a military
    official fatally shot Pedro Pablo Hernandez at a military roadblock
    during curfew hours.
        Police officer Denis Omar Montoya, who in September 2009 reportedly
    shot and killed bicyclist Jacobo Perdomo, remained at large.
        At year's end there was no further information available regarding
    the investigation into the September 2009 shooting by unknown
    assailants of Jairo Sanchez, president of the labor union at the
    Institute of Professional Training, during an anticoup protest in
    Tegucigalpa. In October 2009 Sanchez died from injuries he sustained
    during the shooting.
        There was no further information available regarding the September
    2009 fatal shooting by unknown persons of Francisco Moncada Alvorado
    during a police dispersal of an anticoup demonstration in the Flor de
    Campo neighborhood in Tegucigalpa.
        There was no further information available regarding the November
    2009 shooting and subsequent death due to injuries of Angel Salgado
    when he drove through a military roadblock in Tegucigalpa.
        By year's end authorities reported that the case against four gang
    members for the 2008 killing of labor leader Altagracia Fuentes and of
    Liberal Party congressional deputy Mario Fernando Hernandez Bonilla
    would be closed due to the deaths of the suspects.
        There was no further information, and none was expected, regarding
    the 2008 killing of 11 persons involved in a land dispute between
    relatives of police official Henry Osortes and MUCA.
        At year's end there was no further information available regarding
    the 2009 arrest of Julio Cesar Galan Rodriguez for the 2008 killing in
    Trujillo of Irene Ramirez, a member of the MCA.
        There was no further information available regarding the case
    against Amilcar Antonio Hernandez, who was awaiting trial at the end of
    2009, for the 2008 killing of land-rights activist and community leader
    Elias Murcia. There also was no further information regarding the
    status of the cases of Fredi Osorto and Ubence Aguilar, who were killed
    with Murcia.
        There was no further information, and none was expected, regarding
    the investigation of the killings in 2008 of Danilo Edgardo Castro
    Hernandez, La Lima vice mayoral candidate, or of Julio Cesar Padilla,
    Liberal Party mayoral candidate for Morazan.
        There were no developments, and none were expected, regarding four
    police officers, who remained at large since 2008 in relation to the
    2006 killing of environmentalist Heraldo Zuniga.
        Violent crime continued to fuel the growth of private unlicensed
    security guard services and vigilante groups that patrolled
    neighborhoods and municipalities allegedly to deter crime. Human rights
    organizations asserted that some citizen security councils
    (neighborhood protection groups) and private security companies, with
    ties to former and current military or police officials, acted with the
    complicity of police as vigilantes or death squads to use lethal force
    against supposed habitual criminals.

        b. Disappearance.--There were reports of politically motivated and
    other disappearances. Some disappearances, including those involving
    disappearances of minors, were thought to be criminally motivated
    abductions, and others were attributed to voluntary acts of persons
    leaving the country for employment elsewhere or to escape death
    threats. Police reported investigating 63 cases of kidnapping during
    the year, compared with 88 reported in 2009.
        Human rights groups reported that on February 1, three unknown
    persons kidnapped Hermes Reyes in Siguatepeque, injuring his eye; they
    released him later that day. An investigation continued.
        Manuel de Jesus Murillo and Ricardo Rodriguez, cameramen for Globo
    TV, reported to CODEH that on February 2, four unknown armed persons
    kidnapped, beat, and questioned them about the Resistance movement. At
    year's end authorities had identified four suspects and were planning
    to present indictments.
        Oscar Flores, a CODEH volunteer and Resistance activist, reported
    that on April 20, unknown persons kidnapped and questioned him about
    his involvement in the Resistance movement. Police denied holding
    Flores in custody. At year's end there was no information regarding an
    investigation of this incident.
        On October 19, two unknown persons reportedly forced into a taxi
    and abducted a legal consultant for the NGO Association for a More Just
    Society (ASJ), questioned her about her work for ASJ and involvement in
    investigating Technical Security of Honduras, a private company under
    contract with the Government; threatened to kill her; and released her
    the same day. On November 3, two unknown persons on a motorcycle
    threatened at gunpoint another ASJ lawyer, reportedly referencing the
    lawyer's association with ASJ and the NGO Transformemos Honduras.
        There was no further information regarding the investigation of the
    March 2009 kidnapping by unknown actors of Bernardo Rivera Paz whose
    remains were found in July 2009 in Florida, Copan Department.
        There was no further information, and none was expected, regarding
    the 2008 disappearance of Jose Alfredo Guevera, Carlos Lazo, and Hector
    Herrera.
        There was no further information available, and none was expected,
    regarding an investigation into the whereabouts of public defender Juan
    Bautista Vargas who disappeared in 2008 and whose vehicle had been used
    until September 2009 by police officers without informing their
    superiors.
        The National Reparations Program, created by government decree in
    2008, did not operate after the Office of the Prosecutor Against
    Corruption determined that the Government had already provided
    compensation to some of the designated program beneficiaries. At year's
    end the court system was reviewing nullification of the decree creating
    the program.

        c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or
    Punishment.--Although the constitution and law prohibit such practices,
    there were instances in which the police and military employed them,
    including police beatings and other abuse of detainees.
        On June 30, police in Tegucigalpa reportedly arrested, forced into
    a vehicle, subjected to pepper spray and Tasers for several hours, and
    taunted about his membership in the Resistance Edwin Robelo Espinal.
    COFADEH and Espinal alleged that police had been harassing him and his
    family since 2009 due to their participation in Resistance activities.
    Police reported that they arrested Espinal for disorderly conduct and
    inappropriate behavior. On July 22, the IACHR requested that the
    Government provide precautionary measures to protect Espinal's life and
    physical security. In July government officials signed an accord with
    Espinal and COFADEH to provide precautionary measures. Espinal alleged
    that the measures provided were inadequate, and that the police
    involved in the June 30 incident continued to intimidate him. As of the
    end of December, the Office of the Special Prosecutor for Human Rights
    was continuing an investigation of the case.
        There was no further information available regarding the
    whereabouts of police officer Delmi Yamileth Martinez for whom police
    issued an arrest warrant in August 2009 for aggravated illegal
    detention, torture, and threats to kill anticoup demonstrator Antonia
    Coello.
        On February 9, unknown persons reportedly wearing military uniforms
    and ski masks raped a woman and her sister-in-law at their home near
    San Pedro Sula. According to the woman, the perpetrators stated that
    she was being raped for complaining to authorities that four police
    officers raped her in August 2009 due to her anti-coup political
    activities. At year's end the Office of the Special Prosecutor for
    Human Rights continued its investigation of the 2009 case and the
    February reported assault.
        There was no further information available regarding any
    investigation of an October 2009 incident during which security forces
    reportedly beat on the head, kicked, and shot and injured with rubber
    bullets, an 18-year-old Garifuna, Luis Norales during an anticoup
    political demonstration in Tegucigalpa.
        On September 9, a court sentenced Marvin Javier Martinez Bermudez
    and Jose Santiago Lopez Villalobo to 40 years' imprisonment for the
    2007 murder of Judge Alba Leticia Bueso. Ruben Antonio Pineda
    Hernandez, another suspect in the case, remained at large.

        Prison and Detention Center Conditions.--Human rights groups
    reported that prisoners suffered from severe overcrowding,
    malnutrition, and lack of adequate sanitation. Authorities did not
    provide adequate food or other basic necessities. The ready access of
    prisoners to weapons and other contraband, impunity for inmate attacks
    against nonviolent prisoners, inmate escapes, and threats by inmates
    and their associates outside prisons against prison officials and their
    families contributed to an unstable and dangerous penitentiary system
    environment. Human rights organizations charged that prison officials
    used excessive force against prisoners, including beatings, as well as
    isolation and threats. There were reports that prisoners were tortured
    or otherwise abused in, or on their way to, prisons and other detention
    facilities.
        Persons with mental illnesses, as well as those with tuberculosis
    and other infectious diseases, were held among the general prison
    population. Authorities at the Dr. Marco Aurelio Soto National
    Penitentiary at Tamara reported that while their facility was the only
    prison in the country with an antiretroviral treatment program, the
    facility did not have necessary materials to test or diagnose for HIV/
    AIDS, tuberculosis, or diabetes. For the nearly 3,000 inmates held at
    Tamara in August, there was only one dentist, and the surgical facility
    lacked anesthesia, surgical gloves, and needles.
        There were credible reports that security officials condoned rapes
    and other physical assaults on LGBT detainees. Prisoners were subject
    to various abuses, including rape by other inmates.
        Between January and August, seven inmates reportedly died due to
    violence with another seven dying of natural causes. Prison authorities
    attempted to hold prisoners from rival gangs in different facilities or
    in different areas of the same prison to reduce intergang violence but
    lacked an efficient classification system to identify potentially
    violent new arrivals.
        Authorities reported that former prison directors Leonel Ramos
    Andino and Luis Trochez Pineda and prison officials Wilfredo Maradiaga
    Oeguera and Aldo Rodolfo Oliva Rodriguez, who were charged or under
    investigation in 2009 with abuse of authority, were reassigned to the
    Preventive National Police. The country has 24 prisons, 23 for men or
    mixed populations, and one exclusively for women. In December the total
    prison population was 11,846 of which 411 were women. Forty-nine
    percent of inmates had been formally sentenced while 51 percent were in
    the processing phase. As of late September, authorities reported that
    the men's section of the Tamara complex, which has a designed holding
    capacity of 1,500, was holding 2,779 male inmates. There were 500
    additional offenders serving sentences under house-arrest.
        There was one juvenile prison in Tamara, which operated under the
    supervision of the Honduran Institute of the Child and Family. As of
    September Tamara held 87 male and 34 female juvenile inmates. Judges
    tended to place minors in detention centers in the absence of other
    educational or reform programs.
        Female prisoners generally were held in separate facilities under
    conditions similar to those of male prisoners but, unlike their male
    counterparts, did not have conjugal visit privileges. At certain lower-
    security prisons, women were held with the general population. Children
    up to the age of two were permitted to stay with their mothers in
    prison. Authorities often held pretrial detainees together with
    convicted prisoners. Minors were sometimes held together with adults.
        Authorities generally permitted inmates with reasonable access to
    visitors and religious services of their choice. Authorities permitted
    inmates to submit complaints to judicial authorities without censorship
    and request investigation of credible allegations of inhuman
    conditions. The director of prisons held meetings with human rights
    organizations. While the Government did not directly monitor prison
    conditions, the National Preventive Police, National Police, and the
    Secretariat of State of Security investigated credible allegations from
    prisoners or NGOs regarding inhuman conditions. Investigations resulted
    in written reports, which were available to the public.
        The Government generally permitted prison visits by independent
    local and international human rights observers, including the
    International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), and such visits
    occurred during the year. The visits were in accordance with ICRC
    standard procedures and practices.
        According to the National Direction of Special Preventive Service,
    the National Commissioner on Human Rights (CONADEH), which performs
    some of the functions of an ombudsman, does not serve on behalf of
    prisoners and detainees for such matters as alternatives to
    incarceration for nonviolent offenders to alleviate overcrowding;
    addressing the status and circumstances of confinement of juvenile
    offenders; and improving pretrial detention, bail, and recordkeeping
    procedures to ensure that prisoners do not serve beyond the maximum
    sentence for the charged offense. These functions were performed by
    public, defenders, judges, and the NGO CODEH. The Secretariat of State
    of Security continued a major prison reform program involving the
    construction of new facilities to reduce overcrowding, separate the
    most dangerous prisoners from nonviolent offenders, and promote
    rehabilitation. The Government did not increase the amount of resources
    for maintaining or improving the prison system.

        d. Arbitrary Arrest or Detention.--The constitution and law
    prohibit arbitrary arrest and detention, but authorities at times
    failed to enforce these prohibitions effectively.
        There was no information available, and none was expected,
    regarding developments in the investigation of the 2008 unlawful
    detention of land-rights activists Mario Alvarez, Nelson Alvarez,
    Heliodoro Amador, and Alonso Andino in Suntule, Francisco Morazan
    Department.

        Role of the Police and Security Apparatus.--The Ministry of
    Security oversees police operations, including those of the Honduran
    National Police (HNP), the National Preventive Police, Criminal
    Investigation Division (DGIC), Transit Police, Frontier Police, Tourist
    Police, and Prison Police. Corruption and impunity were serious
    problems that impeded the effectiveness of the security forces.
        The Office of Internal Affairs in the Secretariat of State of
    Security is charged with investigating allegations of illegal
    activities committed by members of the police. The HNP and the DGIC
    each have an office of professional responsibility that conducts
    internal reviews of police misconduct. At year's end there were
    approximately 95 ongoing investigations against police officers in
    relation to administrative and criminal complaints, including conduct
    not befitting an officer, abuse of authority, police brutality,
    robbery, and homicide.
        During the year the National Police Academy provided 150 hours of
    human rights training to the Honduran Police National University, 120
    hours to the National Police Academy, 60 hours to the Officers
    Candidate School, and 20 hours to the Police Technology Institute.
        Gang violence and intimidation, notably on public transport,
    remained serious problems. The Government did not effectively respond
    to these problems.

        Arrest Procedures and Treatment While in Detention.--The law
    provides that police can arrest a person only with a court order,
    unless the arrest is by order of a prosecutor, made during the
    commission of a crime, made when there is strong suspicion that a
    person has committed a crime and may try to evade criminal prosecution,
    or made when the person is caught with evidence related to a crime. The
    law requires police to inform a person of the grounds for arrest and
    bring a detainee before a competent authority within 24 hours. The law
    provides that the prosecutor has 24 hours to decide if there was
    probable cause for an indictment, and a judge then has 24 hours to
    decide whether to issue a temporary detention order that could last up
    to six days, by which time the judge must hold a pretrial hearing to
    examine probable cause and make a decision on whether pretrial
    detention should continue. The law provides for bail for persons
    charged with some felonies and the right of prisoners to prompt access
    to family members. The authorities generally respected these provisions
    effectively, and in practice detainees were promptly informed of
    charges against them and allowed access to family members. Although the
    law also provides for prisoners to have the right of prompt access to a
    lawyer of their choice, and, if indigent, to state-provided counsel,
    authorities did not always follow these requirements.
        Lengthy pretrial detention was a serious problem. The law mandates
    the release from prison of any detainee whose case has not come to
    trial and whose time in detention exceeds the maximum prison sentence
    for the crime of which he is accused. Judicial inefficiency,
    corruption, and insufficient resources delayed proceedings in the
    criminal justice system.
        As a result of trial delays, many pretrial detainees already had
    served time in prison equivalent to the maximum allowable for the crime
    for which they were accused. Many prisoners remained in jail after
    being acquitted or having completed their sentences due to the failure
    of officials to process their releases.

        Amnesty.--On January 26, the National Congress passed a decree,
    which President Lobo signed on January 27, granting amnesty to persons
    who committed between January 1, 2008, and January 27, the political
    crimes of treason, terrorism, and sedition, and crimes against the form
    of government. The decree also provided amnesty for the following
    common crimes connected to political crimes: abuse of power; crimes
    committed by individuals against the exercise of rights provided by the
    constitution; and the crimes of disobedience, abuse of authority, and
    violation of public officials' duties. The decree's provisions excluded
    amnesty for human rights violations.

        e. Denial of Fair Public Trial.--Although the constitution and the
    law provide for an independent judiciary, the judicial system was
    poorly funded and staffed, inadequately equipped, often ineffective,
    and subject to patronage, corruption, and political influence.
        Low wages and lack of internal controls rendered judicial officials
    susceptible to bribery, and powerful special interests exercised
    influence in the outcomes of court proceedings.
        On June 1, the Supreme Court ratified its May 5 decision to dismiss
    four judges and a public defender, who were members of the anticoup
    ``Judges for Democracy'' organization. Domestic and international civil
    society groups alleged that the dismissals were in retaliation for the
    anticoup activism of the dismissed four judges and one public defender.
    Following its May 15 to 18 visit to review the human rights situation
    in the country, the IACHR expressed concern about harassment directed
    at judges who participated in activities against the coup and stated
    that the reasons motivating the May 5 dismissals were ``undoubtedly
    linked'' to participation in anticoup demonstrations or expression of
    an opinion against the coup. The IACHR requested that the authorities
    reverse the decision to render the dismissals, which it stated
    ``seriously undermines the rule of law. In July the dismissed personnel
    presented a petition for reinstatement to the Council for the Judicial
    Career. At year's end there was no information regarding any action the
    Government had taken to respond to the petition or the IACHR's
    concerns.

        Trial Procedures.--The law provides for the right to a fair public
    trial for all citizens, permits defendants to confront or question
    witnesses, present witnesses and evidence on their behalf, and provides
    defendants access to government-held evidence relevant to their cases.
    Although the law recognizes that the accused is presumed innocent and
    has the right to an initial hearing by a judge, to bail, to consult
    with legal counsel in a timely manner, to have a lawyer provided by the
    state if necessary, and a right to appeal, these rights frequently were
    not observed. Jury trials are not used.
        Although the law prohibits cases from proceeding where a suspect
    lacks legal representation, the Government allocated minimal resources
    to the public defenders. As a result, the public defender was not able
    to meet the demand for legal assistance to those unable to afford
    representation.
        Throughout the year common challenges to criminal prosecutions
    included a lack of credible evidence presented by the prosecution, lack
    of witness protection, widespread public distrust in the legal system,
    and judicial corruption.

        Political Prisoners and Detainees.--There were no reports of
    political prisoners or detainees.

        Regional Human Rights Court Decisions.--On June 10, to comply with
    an Inter-American Court of Human rights ruling, the Government held a
    public ceremony to commemorate the 1995 murder in Tela of environmental
    activist Blanca Jeanette Kawas Fernandez. At the ceremony, President
    Lobo stated that the Government would comply with all other provisions
    of the ruling.

        Civil Judicial Procedures and Remedies.--There is an independent
    and impartial judiciary in civil matters, including access to a court
    to seek damages for a cessation of a human rights violation. A litigant
    can bring such charges when the criminal court determines that damages
    may be sought.

        f. Arbitrary Interference With Privacy, Family, Home, or
    Correspondence.--Although the constitution and law generally prohibit
    such actions, a legal exception allows entry into a private residence
    at any time in the event of an emergency or to prevent the commission
    of a crime. There continued to be credible charges that police
    occasionally failed to obtain the required authorization before
    entering a private home.
        At year's end, an investigation continued regarding a July 2009
    incident during which military officers reportedly entered the home of
    former president Zelaya's cousin, former Liberal Party congresswoman
    Margarita Zelaya, allegedly to intimidate her.
        Garifuna and other ethnic minority rights leaders continued to
    complain that the Government failed to redress previous actions by
    private and public security forces that dislodged farmers and
    indigenous groups who claimed ownership of lands based on land reform
    laws or ancestral titles to property (see section 6).

    Section 2. Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:
        a. Freedom of Speech and Press.--The constitution and the laws
    provide for freedom of speech and of the press, and upon assuming
    office on January 27, the Lobo government respected these rights in
    practice. Independent media were active and expressed political views
    without government restriction, and individuals could criticize the
    Government publicly or privately without government reprisal.
        On August 31, the Government abrogated decree number 124-2009,
    which the de facto regime adopted in October 2009 to authorize the
    National Council on Telecommunications to cancel licenses of television
    and radio stations disseminating messages that generated ``national
    hate, promoted social anarchy, or disturbed the peace.''
        The news media continued to suffer from venality, politicization,
    vulnerability to special interest manipulation, and weak
    professionalism in reporting and analyzing news. A small number of
    powerful business magnates with intersecting commercial, political, and
    family ties owned most of the country's news media and substantially
    influenced the political and factual content of reporting.
        During the year there were reports that unknown actors killed 10
    journalists and intimidated other members of the media. In May, June,
    and September, the IACHR expressed serious concerns about acts of
    violence against journalists. On August 25, President Lobo publicly
    pledged to investigate fully these killings. On September 20, the IACHR
    requested that the Government take all measures necessary to prevent
    such acts and duly to investigate and punish the perpetrators.
        On March 1, unknown actors fatally shot Joseph Antony Hernandez
    while he was driving a vehicle in which procoup journalist Wendy
    Carolina ``Karol'' Cabrera was a passenger. Cabrera suffered a gunshot
    wound, but survived. At year's end an investigation continued. The
    Office of the Prosecutor continued its review of the December 2009 case
    involving the fatal shooting by unknown assailants of Catherine, the
    daughter of Cabrera, and Catherine's unborn child.
        On June 1, authorities issued arrest warrants for Mario Roberto
    Guevara and three other persons in relation to the March 11 fatal
    shooting of journalist David Enrique Meza in La Ceiba. On August 19,
    Guevara voluntarily turned himself into police but declared his
    innocence. On August 25, authorities temporarily dismissed the charges
    against Guevara. At year's end the Public Ministry continued its
    investigation of the case.
        On March 14, unknown assailants shot and killed Nahum Palacios,
    director of Aguan television Channel 5, who allegedly was illegally
    detained and beaten while in police custody in June 2009, in Tocoa,
    Colon Department. On April 20, authorities charged Hector Tercero with
    abuse of authority, illegal detention, and harassment in relation to
    the detention of Palacios. On December 19, the press reported that the
    Supreme Judicial Court confirmed a lower court's dismissal of these
    charges. At year's end the case against Tercero remained under appeal
    and an investigation continued into the killing of Palacios.
        On April 21, ``Georgino'' Jorge Alberto Orellana, was fatally shot
    after broadcasting a program at Channel TVH. Authorities arrested
    Jonathan Joseph Cockborn in Villanueva, Cortes Department, who at
    year's end remained in detention.
        By year's end authorities were investigating the killings by
    unknown individuals of the following journalists: Jose Bayardo Mairena
    of Radio Excelsio and Channel RZ and Victor Manuel Juarez on March 26;
    W105 radio show host Luis Antonio Chevez on April 26; Luis Arturo
    Mondragon, owner and news director of TV Channel 19, on June 15; radio
    journalist Israel Zelaya on August 24; and Henry Suazo on December 28.
        On September 14, unknown persons fired shots at Radio Globo
    journalist Luis Galdamez Alvarez, who was able to flee the scene
    unharmed. On September 20, the IACHR condemned the attack and expressed
    concern that the authorities had failed to provide adequate protective
    measures to Galdamez Alvarez, which the commission had requested in
    July 2009, due to death threats the journalist had been receiving. At
    year's end the Public Ministry was investigating this case.
        There was no further information available regarding a trial of
    officers Dora Elvira Rivera Zuniga, Leonardo Rerrufino, and Walter
    Castellanos of DGIC on charges of detention and abuse of authority for
    detaining La Tribuna newspaper reporter Martin Ramirez in February
    2009.
        As of November there was no further information available regarding
    an investigation of the March 2009 fatal shooting by unknown assailants
    of Radio Cadena Voces correspondent Rafael Munguia, who had been
    reporting on organized crime and gangs.
        By year's end authorities had presented evidence and begun judicial
    proceedings regarding the April 2009 attempted killing by unknown
    gunmen of reporter and owner of television station Telemaya Channel 12,
    Carlos Roberto Chinchilla.
        In June the First Court of Appeals overturned a lower court's
    decision dismissing criminal charges against army Lieutenant Colonel
    Jose Arnulfo Jimenez for abuse of authority in occupying anticoup
    television station Channel 30 during the coup in June 2009. The court's
    decision required, however, that a public trial be scheduled for the
    case, Jimenez would report to the court twice per month and would be
    prohibited from approaching Channel 36 or its owner. On August 31, the
    judge presiding over the second stage of the criminal process
    provisionally dismissed the charges. By year's end the prosecution had
    appealed the dismissal.
        There was no further information available regarding a 2009 pending
    Public Ministry investigation into the legality of the de facto regime-
    imposed decree 016-2009 restricting freedom of expression and other
    civil liberties; the military's June 2009 damage to equipment;
    censorship and blocking of transmissions of Radio Globo, Radio
    Progreso, Cable Color, Channel 8, television stations Channel 11 and
    Channel 36; or the August 2009 damage by masked individuals to
    equipment of Radio Globo and Channel 36.
        At year's end, an investigation was ongoing into the July 2009
    fatal shooting by masked assailants of radio journalist Gabriel Fino
    Noriega who had been covering anticoup activities in Atlantida
    Department.
        On September 10, the Supreme Judicial Court dismissed the cases
    against former de facto regime head of the National Telecommunications
    Commission Miguel Rodas and others for abuse of authority in relation
    to the September 2009 forced closure of Channel 36 and Radio Globo,
    after the prosecutor appealed a lower court's April 13 dismissal of the
    original indictment.

        Internet Freedom.--There were no government restrictions on access
    to the Internet or reports that the Government monitored e-mail or
    Internet chat rooms. Generally individuals and groups could engage in
    the peaceful expression of views via the Internet, including by e-mail.
    There were approximately 10 Internet users per 100 inhabitants, and
    lack of infrastructure in rural areas greatly limited access for many
    persons.

        Academic Freedom and Cultural Events.--There were no government
    restrictions on academic freedom or cultural events.

        b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association.--Freedom of
    Assembly.--The constitution and law provide for freedom of assembly,
    which the Government generally respected.
        On August 3, pursuant to the Honduran National Autonomous
    University's request for police assistance to control approximately 100
    students, current and former university employees, and suspected gang
    members who had taken control of the university's main gate, police
    used tear gas to respond to rocks and other projectiles thrown at them
    by protesters. Four police and four protestors suffered minor injuries.
        Human rights NGOs alleged that the security forces employed
    disproportionate force, including the spraying of tear gas, during
    striking teachers' demonstrations on August 18, in Choloma and on
    August 20, 26, and 27, in Tegucigalpa. At the August 26 demonstration
    outside the presidential office building, demonstrators attacked
    security forces with rocks and sticks containing embedded nails. On
    August 21, a court hearing was held for demonstrators Luis Alonso Sosa
    Salgado, Edgar Arnulfo Soriano Davila, Andres Martinez Solorzano, and
    Carlos Francisco Anariba, who were arrested on August 20 and charged
    with carrying out an illegal demonstration. The four demonstrators were
    reportedly released on condition that they appear before the court
    weekly. On September 16, a court found the demonstrators not guilty of
    sedition and suspended the charges. CODEH asserted that security forces
    did not release information about the contents of the tear gas,
    impeding the ability of hospitals to treat persons exposed to the
    spraying during the demonstrations.

        Freedom of Association.--The constitution and the law generally
    provide for freedom of association, and the Government generally
    respected this right in practice. The penal code prohibits illicit
    association and prescribes prison terms of two to four years and a fine
    between 30,000 and 60,000 lempiras ($1,500 to $3,000) for anyone who
    convokes or directs an illicit meeting or demonstration, defined as
    those attended by persons bearing arms, explosive devices, or dangerous
    objects with the goal of committing a crime. The penal code prescribes
    prison terms between 20 and 30 years and a fine between 100,000 and
    300,000 lempiras ($5,000 and $15,000) to heads of gangs or other groups
    that associate to commit a crime. Human rights organizations continued
    to criticize the law and its implementation as an undue restriction on
    the right to associate freely. LGBT advocacy groups continued to
    express concerns that the law could be used to criminalize social
    activities and organizations of the LGBT community. On November 18, the
    legislature approved a law against terrorist financing that enables the
    Government to close business organizations deemed to be engaged in
    terrorist financing. NGOs expressed concern that the Government could
    use the law to close NGOs for political reasons.

        c. Freedom of Religion.--For a complete description of religious
    freedom, please see the 2010 International Religious Freedom Report at
    www.state.gov/g/drl/irf/rpt.

        d. Freedom of Movement, Internally Displaced Persons, Protection of
    Refugees, and Stateless Persons.--The constitution and law provide for
    freedom of movement within the country, foreign travel, emigration, and
    repatriation, and the Government generally respected these rights in
    practice. The Government abrogated decrees instituted in 2009 that
    limited movement within the country.
        The Government cooperated with the Office of the UN High
    Commissioner for Refugees and other humanitarian organizations in
    providing protection and assistance to internally displaced persons,
    refugees, returning refugees, asylum seekers, stateless persons, and
    other persons of concern.
        The law prohibits forced exile, and the Government did not use
    forced exile in practice.

        Protection of Refugees.--The country's law provides for the
    granting of asylum or refugee status, and the Government has
    established a system for providing protection to refugees.
        In law and practice, the Government provided protection against the
    expulsion or return of refugees to countries where their lives or
    freedom would be threatened on account of their race, religion,
    nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political
    opinion.
        The Government determined that eight persons holding South African
    passports, who were detained in 2008 and later applied for asylum, were
    citizens of Eritrea. The Government reported that it granted them 90-
    day residence permits and, as of September, the eight persons had
    withdrawn their asylum applications and voluntarily returned to
    Eritrea.

    Section 3. Respect for Political Rights: The Right of Citizens to
            Change Their Government
        The constitution and law provide citizens the right to change their
    government peacefully. Citizens exercised this right in practice
    through periodic, free, and fair elections held on the basis of nearly
    universal suffrage. The law does not permit active members of the
    clergy and of the military and civilian security forces to vote.

        Elections and Political Participation.--On January 27, Porfirio
    Lobo assumed office for a four-year presidential term, following
    elections in November 2009 that international observers considered to
    be free and fair.
        Political parties could operate without restriction or outside
    interference. Women participated actively in politics. Women held 30 of
    128 seats in the National Congress. Thirty women were alternate members
    of congress. Six women sat on the 15-member executive board of
    congress, and 12 women presided over congressional committees. One of
    three presidential designates in the Government, with equivalent status
    to that of a vice president, was a woman. There were three female
    cabinet members, namely the secretaries of state for justice and human
    rights, tourism, and social development.
        The National Congress had one Misquito community member and one
    Afro-Honduran member. The cabinet-level minister of the Secretariat of
    State for Indigenous and Afro-Honduran Affairs, created on October 14,
    was an Afro-Honduran.

    Section 4. Official Corruption and Government Transparency
        The law provides criminal penalties for corruption. However,
    authorities did not effectively implement the law. The World Bank
    governance indicators reflected that government corruption was a
    serious problem. Government institutions were subject to corruption and
    political influence, and officials engaged in corrupt practices with
    impunity.
        Public officials are subject to financial disclosure laws. The
    Public Ministry, police investigative services, and the Superior
    Accounting Tribunal are the Government agencies responsible for
    combating corruption. There is an Anti-Corruption Inter-Institutional
    Working Group composed of the Superior Accounting Tribunal, the Office
    of the Solicitor General, the Public Ministry, the Supreme Court, the
    Institute for Access to Public Information, the National Commission of
    Human Rights, and the Anti-Corruption Council. There was a widespread
    public perception that the country's anticorruption institutions had
    not taken the steps necessary to combat corruption and were unwilling
    or lacked the professional capacity and or the resources to
    investigate, arrest, and prosecute those involved in high level
    corruption.
        On February 23, the Government expressed its commitment to
    transparency and accountability by declaring the Year of Transparency
    and enacting an executive decree, signed by all members of the cabinet,
    pledging adherence to an ethical pact. President Lobo and the cabinet
    also appeared before the Superior Accounting Tribunal to file legally
    required sworn statements about their property and assets. On September
    8, the Secretariat of State of Interior and Justice and the National
    Anti-Corruption Council signed a framework convention on
    interinstitutional cooperation.
        Following an April 2009 IACHR request, the Government provided
    protective measures to Ines Yadira Cubero Gonzalez, the victim of a
    March 2009 attempted shooting. Authorities charged police officers
    Denis Geovanny Orellana and Jorge Meza Cruz with violation of their
    duties as public officials. Authorities reported that the Orellana and
    Meza Cruz would be tried, but as of year's end no date had been set.
        On July 2, authorities arrested Marcelo Chimirri, the former head
    of the state-owned telephone company, Hondutel, and charged him with
    embezzlement involving alleged bribes paid to Hondutel officials.
    Chimirri remained in custody during his trial. Upon sentencing he paid
    a fine in lieu of serving time in prison, a legal option for prison
    sentences of under four years. On August 22, authorities brought
    corruption charges against Hondutel auditor Julio Daniel Flores. On
    November 4, an appeals court upheld a guilty verdict, which was issued
    earlier in the year against Flores.
        By year's end the prosecutor had appealed a court decision to
    dismiss abuse of authority charges against Enrique Flores Lanza,
    secretary of the presidency under the Zelaya administration, for
    allegedly withdrawing in June 2009, 40 million lempiras ($2 million)
    from the central bank. Lanza remained at large and his whereabouts were
    unknown.
        On April 9, authorities dismissed charges of abuse of authority,
    issued in July 2009, against Zelaya administration executive vice
    president Aristides Mejia and head of the state energy company Rixi
    Ramona Moncada. On June 1, abuse-of-authority charges against Zelaya
    administration finance minister Rebeca Santos were suspended pending a
    Court of Appeals ruling.
        The Government allowed access to public information for citizens
    and noncitizens, including foreign media through the Institute for the
    Access to Public Information (IAIP). The institute operated a Web site
    for citizens to request information from government agencies and is
    responsible for ensuring that government institutions comply with the
    Government transparency rules and practices for permitting access to
    public information. If a government agency denies a request for public
    information, a party can submit a claim with the IAIP, which has the
    authority to grant a resolution, including sanctioning noncompliance
    with fines. During the year IAIP staff travelled nationwide to increase
    public awareness of the Law on Transparency and Access to Public
    Information and entered into an agreement with secondary schools to
    enhance community awareness of the law.
        There was no further information, and none was expected, regarding
    the Public Ministry's January 2009 announcement that it had reopened a
    2008 case involving a Cuban immigrant trafficking network.
        At year's end a trial was underway for the 2008 case against
    Guillermo Seaman for approving fraudulent certifications of airline
    employees.

    Section 5. Governmental Attitude Regarding International and
            Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations of Human
            Rights
        A wide variety of domestic and international human rights groups
    operated in the country, investigating and publishing their findings on
    human rights cases. Government officials generally cooperated with
    domestic and international NGOs and were usually responsive to their
    views. A number of human rights defender groups refused to recognize
    the Lobo government and, therefore, would not meet executive branch
    officials to discuss human rights issues. Some groups subsequently
    resumed dialogue with the Government. The Government met with Garifuna
    advocates and other human rights and civil society organizations and
    responded to their inquiries and recommendations.
        In a report issued on June 3 regarding its May 15 to 18 visit, the
    IACHR stated that the Government's efforts to implement precautionary
    measures to protect human rights defenders and other persons due to
    intimidation reportedly connected with their political activities, were
    inadequate and, in some cases, nonexistent. On June 7, the IACHR noted
    that based on its May visit observations, human rights defenders,
    journalists, social communicators, teachers, trade union members, and
    members of the Resistance were subject to threats and harassment. The
    commission further stated that complaints received from members of
    these groups could correspond to the same pattern of violence begun in
    the context of the June 2009 coup, but that the authorities were not
    investigating the killings and other forms of intimidation in a way to
    make it possible to clarify whether the incidents were related to the
    context of the coup.
        On August 30, the Government requested that the Office of the High
    Commissioner on Human Rights (OHCHR) open an office in the country. The
    OHCHR appointed a two-person team to provide staff for advising the
    Government and assisting government and civil society on protecting
    human rights in the country.
        There was no further information, and none was expected, regarding
    an investigation of the 2008 killing by unidentified gunmen of educator
    and CONADEH member Luis Gustavo Galeano Romero.
        On March 12, President Lobo created the position of presidential
    commissioner for human rights and appointed Ana Pineda as commissioner
    to formulate government human rights policy. On September 28, the
    National Congress approved the creation of a Secretariat of State for
    Human Rights and Justice, and on November 22, swore in Pineda as
    minister for the secretariat. Pineda's mandate is to promote and
    execute interinstitutional coordination of respect for human rights; to
    design policies and programs to strengthen rule of law, access to
    justice, and protection of vulnerable groups; and to increase public
    awareness about human rights. The secretariat was considered to be
    effective in fostering dialogue with civil society, but by year's end
    the Government had allocated only 35 million lempiras ($1,842,100) of
    the 50 million lempiras ($2,632,500) Pineda had requested to operate
    the secretariat.
        CONADEH was headed by Human Rights Commissioner Ramon Custodio
    Lopez. Domestic and international human rights organizations lacked
    confidence in Custodio's work, which they viewed as partisan,
    politicized, and supportive of the June 2009 coup. In October CONADEH
    released one special report on public security designed to assist in
    fostering a national environment for respecting human rights and public
    security. The report highlighted lack of citizen confidence in the
    police, which deterred many victims from reporting abuses, and lack of
    adequate investigation as primary reasons for the high rate of impunity
    in the country. The Government did not respond to the report.
        On May 4, the Government installed the Truth Commission, provided
    for under the Tegucigalpa-San Jose Accord with the goal of producing an
    objective report about the facts surrounding the June 2009 coup. The
    commission, designed to operate for nine months, consisted of three
    international and two Honduran commissioners. On June 8, former
    president Zelaya called on the members of his former government not to
    cooperate with the Truth Commission. On June 28, the Human Rights
    Platform, made up of six human rights NGOs: Center for the Rights of
    Women, Center of Prevention, Treatment, and Rehabilitation of the
    Victims of Torture and their Relatives, For the Right to Food,
    CIPRODEH, CODEH, and COFADEH, established an alternative ``Commission
    of Truth.''

    Section 6. Discrimination, Societal Abuses, and Trafficking in Persons
        The law prohibits discrimination based on race, gender, disability,
    language, or social status; however, in practice it was not effectively
    enforced. Political, military, and social elites generally enjoyed
    impunity under the legal system. Women suffered social and economic
    discrimination and, along with other vulnerable groups, experienced an
    erosion of human rights protections following the 2009 coup.

        Women.--The law criminalizes all forms of rape, including spousal
    rape. With the exception of spousal rape, which is evaluated on a case-
    by-case basis, rape is considered a public crime. A rapist can be
    prosecuted even if the victim does not press charges. The penalties for
    rape range from three to nine years' imprisonment, and the courts
    enforced these penalties in practice. Rape was reportedly a serious and
    pervasive societal problem. Through September the police reported
    receiving 2,048 cases of rape with 1,697 of these against minors.
        Violence against women, including systematic killing, occurred
    throughout the year. The law criminalizes domestic violence with
    between two and four years' imprisonment. The only legal sanctions for
    lesser forms of domestic abuse are community service and 24-hour
    preventive detention if the violator is caught in the act. The law
    provides a maximum sentence of three years' imprisonment for disobeying
    a restraining order connected with the crime of intra-familial
    violence. In many cases, victims were reluctant to press charges
    against abusers, and the authorities did not enforce the law
    effectively.
        The police reported receiving 7,742 complaints of domestic abuse.
    The National Criminal Investigation Division reported 267 killings of
    women during the year. There were two local government-operated
    domestic violence shelters: one in Choluteca and another in La Ceiba,
    which received assistance from the Spanish government. NGOs operated
    shelters in Santa Rosa de Copan and Juticalpa. However, the Government
    provided insufficient financial and other resources to enable these
    facilities to operate effectively.
        Women were trafficked for sexual exploitation and debt bondage.
    There were no reports that the Government was involved or complicit in
    these activities.
        The law prohibits sexual harassment in the workplace and provides
    penalties of one to three years' imprisonment, but the Government did
    not effectively enforce the law, and sexual harassment continued to be
    a problem. The Secretariat of State of Labor and Social Security, the
    Public Ministry and the National Institute of Women promoted
    enforcement of the law, through public awareness campaigns to encourage
    public reporting of sexual harassment.
        Couples and individuals had basic rights to decide freely and
    responsibly the number, spacing, and timing of their children.
    Information about access to contraception was widely available, and
    access to contraception was free from discrimination, violence, and
    coercion. Skilled attendance, including essential obstetric, prenatal,
    and postpartum care before and during childbirth and access to maternal
    health services were available only to those that could afford it.
    According to the UN Population Fund, only 67 percent of births were
    attended to by trained medical personnel. The UN Population Fund
    reported an estimated maternal mortality rate of 110 deaths per 100,000
    live births in 2008.
        As of June all targeted national hospitals complied with the law
    for obtaining signed consent forms for patients undergoing voluntary
    female sterilization. There was no known difference in access of men
    and women to diagnosis and treatment for sexually transmitted
    infections, including HIV.
        Although the law accords women and men equal rights, including
    property rights in divorce cases, in practice women did not enjoy such
    rights.
        Most employed women worked in lower-status and lower-paid informal
    occupations, such as domestic service, without legal protections or
    regulations. Women were represented in small numbers in most
    professions, and cultural attitudes limited their career opportunities.
    By law women have equal access with men to educational opportunities.
    The law requires employers to pay women equal wages for equivalent
    work, but employers often classified women's jobs as less demanding
    than those of men to justify women's lower salaries. Workers in the
    textile export industries continued to report that they were required
    to take pregnancy tests as a condition for employment.
        The National Institute for Women develops government policy on
    women and gender. On July 28, the Government enacted a National Plan on
    Equality and Gender Equity to incorporate objectives to achieve gender
    equity. In August the Supreme Electoral Tribunal established an office
    for gender equity. The NGO Center for the Rights of Women actively
    addressed women's issues.

        Children.--Birth registration was widely available. Under the
    constitution, citizenship is derived by birth within the territory,
    from one's parents, or by naturalization.
        Child abuse was a serious problem. The law establishes prison
    sentences of up to three years for persons convicted of child abuse.
    The Government reactivated the Permanent Commission on Protection for
    the Physical and Moral Well-Being of Children, coordinated by the
    Secretary of State of Interior and Justice, for unifying and
    coordinating public and private entity efforts to combat child abuse.
        Abuse of youth and children in poor neighborhoods remained a
    serious problem. Police, gangs, and members of the general population
    engaged in violence against poor youth and children. Human rights
    groups alleged that individual members of the security forces and
    civilians used unwarranted lethal force against supposed habitual
    criminals, suspected gang members, and other youths not known to be
    involved in criminal activity. At year's end there was no information
    available about developments in two cases Casa Alianza reported in 2009
    regarding cruel police treatment of minors.
        Trafficking in children for commercial sexual exploitation and
    child prostitution were problems. Penalties for facilitating
    prostitution are between nine and 15 years in prison and a fine ranging
    between 50,000 and 100,000 lempiras (between $2,360 and $5,290). The
    penalty increases by half if the victim is less than 18 years of age.
    There is no statutory rape law, but the penalty for rape of a minor
    under the age of 12 is between 15 and 20 years in prison and between
    nine and 13 years if the victim is the age of 13 or older. The law
    prohibits the use of children less than 18 years old for exhibitions or
    performances of a sexual nature and in the production of pornography.
        The country was a destination point for child prostitution. The
    Honduran embassy in Guatemala and the National Forum for Migration in
    Honduras reported continuing problems with child prostitution in
    municipalities near the Honduras-Guatemala border.
        In July the UN Children's Fund and the Honduran Commission Against
    Commercial Sexual Exploitation and Trafficking in Children and
    Adolescents launched the ``Break the Silence'' campaign for
    highlighting the problem of child exploitation and coordinating a
    coherent policy response. The Office of the Prosecutor for Crimes
    against Children reported that there was no clear state policy for
    caring for child victims of sexual exploitation or other abuse.
        Casa Alianza operated three shelters (with a daily capacity for 180
    children) for victims of commercial sexual exploitation, street
    children, and children with substance abuse problems and provided
    vocational and educational training for the parents of 365 children at
    risk. The Government established a hotline where suspected crimes
    against children could be conveyed directly to investigative
    authorities. Authorities reported receiving more than 300 calls to the
    hotline within the first 48 hours of its operation in May.
        The country is a party to the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil
    Aspects of International Child Abduction. For information on
    international parental child abduction, please see the Department of
    State's annual report on compliance at http://travel.state.gov/
    abduction/resources/congressreport/congressreport--4308.html.

        Anti-Semitism.--There were no reports of anti-Semitic acts. The
    Jewish community, which lived primarily in San Pedro Sula, numbered
    approximately 1,000 persons.

        Trafficking in Persons.--For information on trafficking in persons,
    please see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons
    Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        Persons With Disabilities.--The law prohibits discrimination
    against persons with physical, sensory, intellectual, and mental
    disabilities in employment, education, access to health care, or the
    provision of other state services, but the Government did not
    adequately enforce these provisions. Statutory provisions make it
    illegal for an employer to discriminate against a worker based on
    disability. There were no verifiable reports of discrimination against
    persons with disabilities in employment, education, access to health
    care, or the provision of other state services. The law requires access
    to buildings for persons with disabilities. In practice few buildings
    were accessible, and the Government did not effectively implement laws
    or programs to ensure such access. The Honduran National Federation of
    Organizations for Persons with Disabilities stated that the national
    library contained the nation's only copy of the constitution in
    Braille. One publicly available National Educational Television program
    used sign language interpretation to familiarize viewers with the
    constitution.
        The Government created a disabilities unit in the Ministry of
    Social Development and a Secretariat of the Presidency Special
    Commissioner for Disabilities. The National Congress Committee on Human
    Rights established an internal committee to act as congressional
    liaison for disabilities. The Directorate General for the Development
    of Persons with Disabilities expressed concern that disability issues
    had not been incorporated into the Government's National Development
    Plan.
        A trial was scheduled for September 17 in relation to the March
    2009 arrest of former principal Melvin Alvarado Diaz for allegedly
    sexually molesting 16 students at Pilar Salinas School for the Blind.
    At year's end Alvarado was on temporary release pending trial.

        Indigenous People.--Approximately 621,000 persons, constituting 8
    percent of the general population, were members of indigenous and other
    ethnic minority groups. These groups, including the Misquitos,
    Tawahkas, Pech, Tolupans, Lencas, Maya-Chortis, Nahual, Bay Islanders,
    and Garifunas, lived in 362 communities and generally had little or no
    political power to make decisions affecting their lands, cultures,
    traditions, and the allocation of natural resources.
        Most indigenous lands were owned communally, providing land-use
    rights to individual members of the ethnic community. Indigenous land
    titles often were defined poorly in documents dating back to the mid-
    19th century. Lack of clear title fostered encroachment and
    expropriation conflicts by landless nonindigenous settlers, powerful
    business elites, and government entities interested in exploiting
    coastlines, forests, and other lands traditionally occupied or utilized
    by indigenous and other ethnic minority communities. Indigenous and
    nonindigenous communities criticized the Government's alleged
    complicity in the exploitation of timber and other natural resources on
    these lands. Indigenous groups maintained that their community-based
    land systems more effectively protected their lands from encroachment
    by large landowners and that outside groups engaged in illegal
    activities. Garifuna leaders continued to allege that groups engaged in
    drug smuggling and other contraband trafficking had illegally
    appropriated vast areas of their communal lands.
        On September 15, Maya-Chorti community members stated that if the
    Government did not respond by September 17 to their long-standing
    concerns about noncompliance with land restitution commitments made in
    2008, provide payments to teachers for indigenous students, and address
    landowner threats to eject community members from Maya-Chorti lands,
    the community would consider taking over the Mayan Ruins Archeological
    Park in Copan. There was no information regarding whether the
    Government had responded to the community's concerns. By year's end
    there had been no takeovers of the ruin site.
        On June 2, a court in Tegucigalpa absolved Pedro Antonio Chirnos
    Reyes of the 2008 killing of Tolupan youth Geovanny Banegas Sevilla
    and, on the same day, a court in Talanga, Francisco Morazan, absolved
    Chirnos Reyes of the 2008 killing of Tolupan youth Jose Mastul.
        The National Criminal Investigation Directorate determined that the
    crime alleged in a complaint involving the 2008 reported abduction and
    physical assault of Garifuna activist Santos Feliciano Aguilar Alvares
    by 10 private security guards in San Juan Tela, Atlantida Department,
    was a misdemeanor and not punishable by imprisonment. However, at
    year's end the Office of the Prosecutor for Ethnicity and Cultural
    Patrimony reported that it had retaken the case and was investigating
    the matter with a view to presenting it as a criminal offence
    punishable by imprisonment.
        At year's end the Office of the Prosecutor for Ethnicity and
    Cultural Patrimony continued an investigation based on a complaint
    filed in 2008 by anthropologist Danira Miralda Bulnes that the National
    Congress did not consult with indigenous Misquito, Tawaka, Pech, and
    Lenca populations when granting a private concession to build several
    dams on the Rio Patuca in 1997. Indigenous communities claimed that the
    dams negatively affected their welfare and livelihood.
        Persons from indigenous and Afro-descendant communities continued
    to experience discrimination with respect to employment and occupation,
    education, housing, and health services. There were minimal government
    efforts to combat this discrimination.
        On November 30, the Government swore in Luis Green, a member of the
    Garifuna community, to the cabinet-level position heading the
    Secretariat of State for Indigenous and Afro-Honduran Affairs, which
    was established on October 14. The Government provided the ministry
    with a budget of 35 million lempiras ($1.85 million).

        Societal Abuses, Discrimination, and Acts of Violence Based on
    Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.--There are no discriminatory
    laws based on sexual orientation, but in practice social discrimination
    against persons from sexual minority communities was widespread.
    Representatives of NGOs focusing on sexual diversity rights asserted
    that throughout the year security forces killed and abused their
    members. The prosecutor often encountered serious difficulties in
    investigating suspicious deaths of LGBT persons because the victims had
    concealed their identity or sexual orientation.
        Criminal investigations did not recognize a ``transgender''
    category. Sexual minority rights groups asserted that throughout the
    year security forces, government agencies, and private employers
    engaged in antigay discriminatory hiring practices. These groups also
    reported that intimidation, fear of reprisal, and police corruption
    made LGBT victims reluctant to file charges or proceed with
    prosecutions.
        In January the NGOs Lesbian Gay Rainbow Association of Comayaguela
    (ARCOIRIS) and CIPRODEH released a report documenting killings and
    other serious human rights abuses reportedly perpetrated by member of
    the security forces and other individuals against members of the LGBT
    community. For example, on September 9, a court sentenced police
    officer Amado Rodriguez Borjas to between 10 and 13 years' imprisonment
    for a 2008 attack on Nohelia, a transgender person, who had resisted
    Rodriguez Borjas' advances. On September 8, a court found Rodriguez
    Borjas guilty of aggravated attempted homicide for attacking
    ``Protected Witness E,'' who had witnessed the assault on Nohelia. As
    of October Rodriguez Borjas, in prison for the attack on Nohelia, was
    also awaiting sentencing in the ``Protected Witness E'' case.
        On May 17, the LGBT community organized a demonstration in
    Tegucigalpa to raised awareness about homophobia. In July the NGO Gay
    Community of San Pedro Sula organized a gay pride event, which the
    Government authorized. On December 13, the LGBT community organized a
    demonstration in front of the Public Ministry to commemorate the one-
    year anniversary of the killing of LGBT and HIV/AIDS activist Walter
    Trochez. It was not known if the police provided sufficient protection
    for participants at these events.
        In May unknown persons fatally shot in San Pedro Sula transvestite
    Neraldys, vice president of Colectivo TTT. On August 31, two unknown
    persons on a motorcycle reportedly fatally shot in San Pedro Sula
    transvestite sex worker and president of the LGBT NGO Coletivo TTT,
    Imperia Gamaniel Parson. Human rights advocates asserted that these
    killings were hate crimes. LGBT activists submitted a complaint to the
    prosecutor in San Pedro Sula. At year's end there was no information
    regarding any investigation of these killings (see section 1.a.).
        In October LGBT activists reported that authorities located the
    vehicle used by unknown assailants in the January 2009 fatal shooting
    of Cynthia Nicole, a transgender sex worker. LGBT rights defenders also
    reported that authorities were in the process of issuing an arrest
    warrant for a suspect.
        At year's end, there was no information available regarding any
    investigation of the June 2009 fatal shooting by unknown assailants of
    transvestite sex worker Vicky Hernandez Castillo in San Pedro Sula
    during a curfew imposed by the de facto regime.
        At year's end there were no known developments in the prosecutor's
    investigation of the December 2009 fatal shooting by unknown assailants
    of LGBT activist Walter Orlando Trochez in Tegucigalpa.
        There was no information available, and none was expected,
    regarding any response by the Committee on Human Rights to an LGBT
    rights advocate's complaint that authorities reportedly denied
    transgender persons national identity cards because the applicants were
    wearing cosmetics and feminine accessories.
        On June 9, a tribunal in Tegucigalpa sentenced police officer
    Nelson Daniel Gaytan to 39 months imprisonment and a fine of 50,000
    lempiras ($2,630) for the crime of illegal detention in relation to the
    2007 police beating, detention, and gang rape while in detention, of
    LGBT activist Donny Reyes.
        There was no information available, and none was expected,
    regarding the status of a police officer awaiting trial in 2009 for
    unlawful detention in 2007 of several members of ARCOIRIS.

        Other Societal Violence or Discrimination.--There was no reported
    widespread societal violence or discrimination against persons based on
    their HIV/AIDS status.
        Job-related age discrimination remained a serious problem.

    Section 7. Worker Rights
        a. The Right of Association.--The law provides for the right of
    workers to form and join unions of their choice, but in practice
    workers exercised this right with difficulty. The law prohibits members
    of the armed forces and the police force from forming labor unions and
    prohibits certain public service employees from going on strike or
    participating in collective bargaining. There were an estimated 519
    unions representing approximately 8 percent of the work force,
    excluding the agriculture sector.
        The law prohibits coexistence of more than two trade unions at a
    single enterprise, requires 30 or more workers to constitute a trade
    union, prohibits foreign nationals from holding union offices, and
    requires that union officials be employed in the economic activity of
    the business the union represents.
        Union leaders were subjected to violence and threats. On September
    17, unknown actors shot and killed Juana Bustillo, the regional
    president of the Social Security Institute's labor union after he left
    a meeting with workers. Several other unionists, who were also members
    of the Resistance movement, were killed, including Vanessa Zepeda,
    member of the Social Security Institute union; Julio Funes Benitez,
    member of the water and sewer workers' union; and Jose Manuel Flores
    Arguijo, member of the teachers' union (see section 1.a.). Labor
    leaders reported receiving death threats and other forms of
    intimidation.
        On November 3, unknown actors shot at, but did not harm, Pedro
    Elvir, president of the National Children's Foundation Union
    (SITRAPANI). Elvir was returning to his office after participating in a
    protest against the rate of the minimum wage increase and a law
    legalizing temporary employment. The SITRAPANI leadership has reported
    threats to the organization and increased monitoring by unknown
    individuals since the coup.
        COFADEH reported that in February unknown persons broke into the
    house of a vice president of the Beverage Workers Union (STIBYS) and
    that in May armed men entered into the offices of STIBYS and fired
    shots at a labor leader. At year's end no progress had been reported in
    the investigations.
        There were no new developments regarding a Public Ministry
    investigation into the location of union leader Lorna Jackson, who
    remained in hiding since 2008 after receiving death threats in relation
    to the 2008 dismissal of 1,800 workers at Alcoa factories in El
    Progreso and Choloma.
        The law permits unions to operate without government interference,
    and the Government generally respects this right in practice. The law
    provides for the right to strike, and workers exercised this right in
    practice. However, the law places several restrictions on this right,
    including prohibiting labor federations and confederations from calling
    strikes and requiring that a two-thirds majority of the total
    membership of the trade union call for a strike. The law also prohibits
    strikes in a wide range of economic activities that the Government
    deemed essential services and any others that, in the Government's
    opinion, affect individual's rights to security, health, education,
    economic, or social life. In addition transportation workers are, by
    law, not permitted to go on strike while en route to their scheduled
    destination.
        Strikes in the public sector are illegal in certain areas where the
    Government determines public health and welfare would be affected.
    Public-sector health care workers, social security workers, municipal
    sanitation workers, staple food production workers, and public water,
    electricity, and telecommunications workers are allowed to strike, but
    they must continue to provide basic services. The law also requires
    that public-sector workers involved in the refining, transportation,
    and distribution of petroleum products must submit their grievances to
    the Ministry of Labor and Social Security prior to striking.
        Civil servants occasionally engaged in illegal work stoppages
    without experiencing reprisals. However, the Ministry of Labor has the
    power to declare such work stoppages illegal and to dismiss the
    protesting workers. The International Labor Organization (ILO)
    continued to express concerns about the Government's authority to end
    disputes in several sectors, including oil production and transport. It
    also noted with concern the law's requirement that employees in state-
    owned enterprises must either obtain the Government's previous
    authorization or give six months of notice before striking.
        On August 31, the Government reached an agreement with the
    teachers' union, which ended strikes that had lasted for more than 20
    consecutive days, and teachers returned to work in their classrooms.
    The strikers had called for an increase in the minimum wage, payments
    to the pension fund, and reinstatement of dismissed colleagues.
    Teachers were on strike for 42 days of the 200-day school year during
    the year. This was down from 56 days in 2009. On November 8, the
    Ministry of Education announced that striking teachers who did not
    submit grades for their students would not be paid.

        b. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively.--The law
    provides for the right to organize and to bargain collectively, but the
    Government did not protect this right in practice. Although the law
    requires that an employer begin collective bargaining once workers
    establish a union, employers often refused with impunity to engage in
    bargaining.
        Antiunion discrimination was a serious problem. Although the law
    prohibits employer retribution for engaging in trade union activity,
    employers commonly threatened to close unionized factories and harassed
    or dismissed workers seeking to unionize--including firing leaders soon
    after unions were formed to prevent the union from functioning. Failure
    to reinstate workers was a serious problem. The Ministry of Labor can
    reach administrative decisions and fine companies for unfair dismissal,
    but the ILO noted that penalties for such discrimination were
    inadequate and lacked credibility in the eyes of companies and
    municipalities. The Government also did not allocate adequate resources
    to the Ministry of Labor for labor inspectors to perform their duties.
    Moreover, only a court can order reinstatement of workers. Employers
    often failed (with impunity) to comply with court orders requiring them
    to reinstate workers fired for engaging in union activity.
        Although the law prohibits blacklisting, there was credible
    evidence that apparel assembly factory employers continued with
    impunity to blacklist employees seeking to form unions. Some companies
    also established employer-controlled unions, thereby preventing the
    formation of an independent union because of the restriction permitting
    only one union per company.
        On July 28, Nike agreed to pay 31 million lempiras ($1.6 million)
    to a relief fund for workers as part of the settlement of a dispute
    with the union representing former workers at Nike supplier factories
    Hugger and Vision Tex, which were closed in 2009.
        On March 4, the Fruit of the Loom/Russell Corporation inaugurated
    its Jerzees Nuevo Dia factory in Choloma. The reopening of the factory
    followed the November 2009 signing of an agreement between Fruit of the
    Loom/Russell Corporation and the factory union SITRAJERZEESH.
        There were allegations that the mayor of Choloma dismissed 28
    municipal employees in retaliation for their union activities. At
    year's end the mayor continued to challenge the union organizers'
    efforts to reinvigorate a dormant municipal workers' union. The mayor
    claimed that the union organizers did not provide him with the required
    list of 30 eligible municipal workers required to form a union and that
    the union included names from the municipal water authority, a public-
    private partnership. The union organizers rejected this claim and
    continued their efforts to form a union. On November 30, the mayor
    signed a pledge to reinstate municipal employees who had allegedly been
    fired for union activity. However, on December 3, he stated that his
    signature had been forged and that none of the employees would be
    rehired.
        Strikes are permitted in the 102 registered export-processing zones
    (EPZs) and the 19 industrial parks operating as EPZs. However, the law
    requires that strikes not impede the operations of other factories in
    the industrial parks. An additional 26 companies that provided services
    for industrial parks had their own free zones, outside the industrial
    parks. Workers are permitted to strike in these zones as long as
    strikes are held in accordance with similar labor code requirements as
    those that govern the EPZs. Several companies in the EPZs instituted
    solidarity associations that, to some extent, functioned as company
    unions for the purposes of setting wages and negotiating working
    conditions. Other EPZ companies used the minimum wage to set starting
    salaries and adjusted wage scales by negotiating with common groups of
    plant workers and other employees based on seniority, skills,
    categories of work, and other criteria.

        c. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor.--The law prohibits
    forced or compulsory labor; however, there were some reports that such
    practices occurred. The International Trade Union Confederation also
    reported allegations that factory management in EPZs required
    compulsory overtime, with some factories enforcing this requirement by
    locking workers inside.
        Also see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons
    Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        d. Prohibition of Child Labor and Minimum Age for Employment.--The
    law regulates child labor, sets the minimum age for employment at 14,
    and provides that minors between the ages of 14 to 18 cannot work
    unless authorities determine that the work is indispensable for the
    family's income and will not conflict with schooling. The constitution
    and the law establish the maximum work hours for children under the age
    of 18 at six hours daily and 30 hours weekly. Parents or a legal
    guardian can request special permission from the Ministry of Labor to
    allow children between the ages of 14 and 15 to work, and the ministry
    is supposed to perform a home study to ensure that the child
    demonstrates an economic necessity to work and that the child will not
    work outside the country or in hazardous conditions, including offshore
    fishing.
        The law prohibits night work and overtime for minors under the age
    of 18 and requires that employers with more than 20 school-age children
    working at their business facility provide a location for a school. The
    law provides for between three and five years in prison for persons
    violating child labor laws. In practice the vast majority of children
    who worked did so without ministry permits.
        Child labor was a problem. A household survey of 2008, the most
    recent available, found that approximately 370,000 children between the
    ages of five and 17 and 123,600 children between the ages of five and
    14, representing 12 percent and 6 percent respectively of the
    populations in those age groups, were child laborers. Children often
    harvested melons, coffee, and sugarcane; rummaged at garbage dumps;
    worked in the forestry, hunting, and fishing sectors; and worked as
    deckhands and divers in the lobster industry. Children worked as
    domestic servants, peddled goods such as fruit, begged, washed cars,
    hauled loads, and were employed in limestone and lime production. Most
    child labor occurred in rural areas. Children worked, often out of
    economic necessity, alongside other family members in agriculture and
    in other sectors such as fishing, construction, transportation, and
    small businesses. Children were engaged in the worst forms of child
    labor in lobster fishing, harvesting coffee and sugar cane, and
    production of lime and limestone.
        The Government did not devote adequate resources or inspectors to
    follow up, prevent, or monitor compliance with child labor laws. The
    Ministry of Labor, the Government agency responsible for enforcing
    child labor laws, did not effectively enforce child labor laws outside
    the apparel assembly sector, and there were frequent violations of the
    child labor laws. During the year the ministry received 24 complaints
    of companies violating child labor laws. At year's end there was no
    information regarding a resolution of these complaints. There was no
    known change to the practice of appointing child-labor inspectors only
    to offices in Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula, which reportedly limited
    the Ministry of Labor's ability to investigate allegations of child
    labor, particularly in rural and other remote areas.

        e. Acceptable Conditions of Work.--On October 31, the Ministry of
    Labor announced the minimum wage for the year. The wages were
    retroactive to September 1. For businesses with one to 20 employees,
    the minimum wage remained 5,000 lempiras ($291) per month in urban
    areas and 4,055 lempiras ($214) per month in rural areas. For
    businesses with 20 to 50 employees, the minimum wage was increased to
    5,665 lempiras ($300) in urban areas and increased to 4,167 lempiras
    ($220) in rural areas. For businesses with over 50 employees, the
    minimum wage was increased to 5,886 lempiras ($311) in urban areas and
    4,339 lempiras ($230) in rural areas. The minimum wage in the maquila
    sector remained unchanged at 3,894 lempiras ($206). In practice many
    employers did not pay employees the legal minimum wage. The ILO
    reported that the national minimum wage did not provide a decent
    standard of living for a worker and family.
        The law applies equally to national and foreign workers and
    prescribes a maximum eight-hour shift per day, a 44-hour workweek, and
    at least one 24-hour rest period for every six days of work. The law
    requires overtime payment for hours in excess of the standard, and
    there are prohibitions on excessive compulsory overtime. Employers
    frequently ignored these regulations, and the Ministry of Labor failed
    to effectively enforce these requirements.
        There were credible allegations of compulsory overtime at apparel
    assembly factories (particularly for women, who made up approximately
    65 percent of that sector's workforce), in the private security sector,
    and among household workers. Human rights organizations frequently
    reported that in the private security and household sectors, workers
    were typically obliged to work more than 60 hours a week and were paid
    for only 44 hours. The labor rights of domestic workers are, in
    practice, rarely protected by labor laws. These household workers often
    lacked contracts and were paid salaries below the minimum wage. As many
    lived on-site, their work hours often varied widely based on the will
    of individual employers. Private security guards also often worked for
    salaries below the minimum wage. Many guards worked every other day on
    24-hour shifts, which violated labor law restrictions on maximum number
    of hours worked.
        The Ministry of Labor is responsible for enforcing national
    occupational health and safety laws, but it did not do so consistently
    or effectively. Worker safety standards were enforced poorly,
    particularly in the construction industry, the garment assembly sector,
    and in agriculture production activities. The ILO reported that labor
    law violations discovered during inspections were typically corrected,
    although the limited number of inspectors precluded comprehensive
    inspections of worksites. Because labor inspectors were concentrated in
    Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula, complete labor inspections as well as
    follow-up visits to confirm compliance with findings were far less
    frequent. The law does not provide workers with the right to leave a
    dangerous work situation without jeopardy to continued employment.
        The Ministry of Labor did not investigate alleged violations of
    occupational health and safety laws and other labor rights problems
    relating to the approximately 3,000 lobster divers, many from the
    Misquito indigenous and other ethnic minority groups in Gracias a Dios
    Department. Since 2003 approximately 365 lobster divers have died and
    at least 2,000 became disabled due to the dangerous nature of their
    work.

                                   __________

                                    JAMAICA

        Jamaica is a constitutional parliamentary democracy with a
    population of approximately 2.8 million. In generally free and fair
    elections in September 2007, the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) won 32 of
    the 60 seats in the House of Representatives, and JLP leader Bruce
    Golding was sworn in as prime minister. There were instances in which
    elements of security forces acted independently of civilian control.
        There were serious human rights problems in some areas, including
    unlawful killings committed by members of the security forces, abuse of
    detainees and prisoners by police and prison guards, poor prison and
    jail conditions, impunity for police who committed crimes, an
    overburdened judicial system and frequent lengthy delays in trials,
    violence and discrimination against women, violence against and sexual
    abuse of children, trafficking in persons, and violence against persons
    based on their suspected or known sexual orientation.

                            RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

    Section 1. Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom
            From:
        a. Arbitrary or Unlawful Deprivation of Life.--While the Government
    or its agents did not commit any politically motivated killings, there
    were reliable accounts that security forces committed unlawful or
    unwarranted killings during the year.
        According to official statistics, there were more than 309 killings
    involving police during the year. This figure does not include the 73
    civilians security forces killed in May during operations to arrest an
    alleged drug lord and gain control of a criminally controlled area.
        Reliable sources indicated that many killings by police were
    unreported, with police meting out the justice they see as unavailable
    through the judicial system. In most shooting incidents, police alleged
    that the victims were carrying firearms and opened fire on them. In
    many cases, however, eyewitness testimony contradicted the police
    accounts. In other cases allegations of ``police murder'' were suspect,
    because well-armed gangs trafficking in weapons and narcotics and
    running lottery scams controlled many inner-city communities and were
    often better equipped than the police force.
        Violent crime remained rampant, and on many occasions the Jamaica
    Constabulary Force (JCF) employed lethal force in apprehending criminal
    suspects. The JCF's Bureau of Special Investigations (BSI) investigated
    all police killings, and when appropriate, forwarded some to the
    Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) for prosecution. The BSI
    completed 308 investigations during the year and sent 291 to the DPP
    for further consideration. However, it takes many years to bring police
    officers to trial for unlawful killings. Although there was progress
    during the year in bringing some cases to trial, there were no
    convictions, and no police officer accused of human rights violations
    has been convicted since 2006. In August the Government created an
    Independent Commission of Investigations (INDECOM), with the power to
    take over and direct BSI investigations.
        The BSI investigated and the DPP brought charges against a
    constable in connection with the April 9 killing of 17-year-old Shanna-
    Kaye Clarke. The constable reportedly was involved in a relationship
    with Clarke. The constable identified another suspect in connection
    with the incident, but subsequent investigations led to the constable
    being arrested and charged.
        In May security forces entered West Kingston, after gunmen loyal to
    former Tivoli Gardens don Christopher ``Dudus'' Coke set fire to police
    stations and barricaded themselves inside the community. Seventy-three
    civilians and three security force members were killed. Preliminary
    forensics reports suggested that some individuals were shot execution-
    style. An official report authored by the Public Defender's Office with
    the support of international donors is scheduled to be released in
    2011.
        In June security forces shot and killed Keith Clarke, businessman
    and brother of former government minister Claude Clarke, inside his St.
    Andrew home during the search for the fugitive Coke. A report
    documented that Clarke sustained 20 gunshot wounds. As of October the
    police commissioner declared the investigation partially completed and
    pending forensic and ballistic reports.
        On July 29, an amateur video clip carried on a local newscast
    showed policemen beating Ian Lloyd on the ground and shooting him in
    full view of a crowd. The video contradicted reports by the police that
    Lloyd was killed after he attacked police. Authorities charged one
    policeman with murder, and his case remained before the court.
        On September 23, police shot and killed Leroy Berry, and his death
    sparked angry protests. Berry and his wife were involved in an
    altercation with police in 2006, an incident that was caught on camera
    and caused outrage because of how Berry was treated. The September
    killing was controversial because a vehicle carrying Transport
    Authority staff and police rammed a car carrying Berry, his wife, and
    two children in an effort to stop the car. During an ensuing argument
    Berry was reportedly shot in the stomach.
        On November 4, police shot and killed Frederick ``Mickey'' Hill, a
    prominent businessman in Negril, where numerous eyewitnesses observed
    the incident. Hill was confronted by seven or eight police officers
    wearing masks or with ``kerchiefs'' tied over their faces. They
    demanded that he tell them what was in a bag that he carried. When Hill
    was in the process of showing them the contents of the bag (cornmeal
    and condensed milk), the police shot him twice at point-blank range. On
    December 23, an investigation was completed and the results forwarded
    to the DPP, with a recommendation to charge the security officers. At
    year's end the DPP had yet to evaluate the evidence collected or make a
    determination as to whether charges should be filed.
        On November 16, security forces shot and killed Pastor Trevor
    Edwards when he was returning home from work by taxi. Police chased and
    fired through the rear of the moving taxi, which was carrying unarmed
    passengers. A bullet hit Edwards in the back, puncturing his heart.
    According to Edwards' brother, the police stated the taxi was stolen.
        The case of the policeman charged with the murder of Paul Brown,
    who was driving a bus in January 2009 when he allegedly hit a
    policeman's personal car, remained before the Home Circuit Court with
    trial scheduled for February 5, 2011.
        The BSI completed the investigation of the January 2009 police
    killing of Anthony Nelson, a security guard, at Nelson's workplace and
    referred the file to the DPP in September 2009. By year's end the DPP
    had not reached a decision on whether charges should be filed.
        The BSI completed its investigation into the April 2009 killing of
    16-year-old Hussein McCormack and referred the file to the DPP in
    April. The DPP had not reached a decision by year's end.
        The BSI continued its investigation into the May 2009 police
    killing of Ramon Hopkins. It completed its investigation into the May
    2009 police killing of Dane Daley and referred the case to the DPP on
    February 25. The DPP had not reached a determination on the matter by
    year's end.
        In December 2009 police shot and killed entertainer Robert Hill at
    his Kingston home in what police accounts called a ``shootout.'' The
    DPP ruled that the matter should be referred to Kingston and St. Andrew
    Coroner's Court. An inquest was set to begin on January 25, 2011.
        In February 2009 the DPP brought murder charges against Christopher
    Thompson, the police officer accused of murdering Randeen Hall in 2008.
    The Home Circuit Court set the case for trial in November but postponed
    it until January 4, 2011.
        The Home Circuit Court postponed the trial of the police officers
    charged in the 2008 murder of Carlton Grant, the 17-year-old son of
    dancehall artist Spragga Benz, until February 21, 2011.
        The BSI completed the investigation into the killing of Jehvanie
    Robinson in 2008 and sent the case to the DPP in April 2009, but the
    DPP had not made a ruling on the matter by year's end. The BSI
    completed the investigation of the 2008 death of Fabian Wray and
    forwarded the file to the DPP in December 2009, but there had not been
    a ruling on the matter by year's end. The 2008 death of Randal Richards
    was under investigation by the BSI at year's end.
        The BSI completed its investigation into the 2007 police shooting
    deaths of Dexter Hyatt and Tian Wolfe and submitted the case to the DPP
    for a decision on whether to bring charges. The DPP had not made a
    ruling by year's end.
        In December 2007 the DPP charged four policemen, Noel Bryan,
    Phillip Dunstan, Omar Miller, and Clayton Fearon, with murder in the
    2007 death of Andre Thomas. The Home Circuit Court set a trial date for
    March 14, 2011.
        An inquest into the 2005 shooting death of Jeff Smellie started in
    November 2007 and was concluded on July 5 with a verdict of ``death
    caused by accident.'' The matter involving the 2005 police killings of
    Nicholas Weir and Donald Allen was referred to Spanish Town Coroner's
    Court, which commenced hearings on August 23 and was scheduled to
    continue taking evidence on January 24, 2011.
        In June 2009 authorities arrested Loui Lynch, Paul Edwards, and
    Victor Barrett, policemen involved in the 2004 abduction and killing of
    Kemar Walters and Oliver Duncan, and charged them with murder. The Home
    Circuit Court set a trial date of February 14, 2011.
        In May 2009 the DPP, in response to a Privy Council ruling, decided
    not to prosecute police officer Rohan Allen a second time for the 2000
    killing of 12-year-old Janice Allen. In April the Supreme Court upheld
    the DPP's decision, deciding there was no need for judicial review.
        Mob killings continued to be a problem and often went unpunished.
    On April 13, three men armed with guns and knives robbed several
    persons in the community of St. Catherine. An alarm went off, and the
    residents reportedly attacked the men, killing one, stabbing and
    holding another, while the third one escaped.
        On July 14, a mob killed Omar Levy, who was wanted by the
    Christiana police in a case of shooting with intent. Police reports
    stated that officers saw Levy in the area, but he managed to elude
    them. Residents went in search of him and inflicted vigilante
    ``justice.'' While trying to rescue Levy, a police officer was injured.
    Police took Levy to the hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries.
        On August 20, a mob in Kingston killed an unidentified man.
    According to the police, the man was involved in a dispute with another
    person, whom he had wounded. The mob later stabbed this man to death.

        b. Disappearance.--There were no reports of politically motivated
    disappearances.
        During the security operations that took place in West Kingston's
    Tivoli Gardens, teenagers Dale Anthony Davis, Dwayne Edwards, and Andre
    Smith vanished and their whereabouts remained unknown. On October 8,
    the BSI, which was investigating the matter, stated that checks with
    the National Intelligence Bureau, the Inspectorate Branch, and a review
    of the list of detainees held at the National Arena in Kingston turned
    up no trace of the three. Andre Smith's body was later found in a
    marked grave in May Pen cemetery.

        c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or
    Punishment.--Although the law prohibits such practices, reports of
    physical abuse of prisoners by guards continued, despite efforts by the
    Government to remove abusive guards and improve procedures.
        When prisoners raise allegations of abuse by correctional officers,
    the charges are first reviewed by corrections officials, then by an
    inspector from the Ministry of National Security, and finally by the
    police. Authorities file charges against correctional officers for
    abuse if evidence is found to support the allegations. However,
    official complaints and investigations were infrequent.

        Prison and Detention Center Conditions.--Prison conditions remained
    poor, primarily due to overcrowding and poor sanitation. Tower Street
    Adult Correctional Center, located in downtown Kingston, housed
    approximately 1,600 inmates, nearly double the capacity for which the
    facility was built. Men and women were incarcerated in separate
    facilities under similar conditions. Female prisoners were generally
    incarcerated under better conditions than their male counterparts.
    Cells in some facilities had little natural light, inadequate
    artificial light, and poor ventilation.
        On February 8, a prison riot broke out at the Horizon Remand
    Center, where as many as 40 inmates suffered injuries when 128
    detainees in three security areas managed to remove the locks from
    their cells before gathering in a corridor. The riot began as inmates
    protested poor living conditions at the facility, including the lack of
    water caused by a shortage that affected several parishes, and a
    failure to provide breakfast by noon. At St. Andrew Juvenile Remand
    Center, notorious for repression and corporal punishment, boys were
    kept indoors at all times, never being permitted activity in the open
    air.
        Hunt's Bay Lockup held prisoners in a cage-like structure open to
    the rain and sun and the gazes of passersby. The women's prison, Fort
    Augusta, with about 200 inmates, had no indoor water supply. Inmates
    had to obtain water from a central source in containers they provided
    themselves. Inmates who did not own a container could not bathe.
        Prison food was poor, and wardens were observed serving themselves
    generously with whatever meat was available, leaving only leftover
    gravy for the inmates. Mattresses were not provided; inmates slept on
    the concrete floors. Those with access to funds and outside contacts
    were permitted to purchase thin foam mattresses that often became
    infested with bedbugs. Ringworm was a common malady.
        Prison medical care was also poor, primarily a result of having
    only three full-time doctors, one full-time nurse, and one psychiatrist
    to cover 12 facilities (eight adult, four juvenile) with almost 5,000
    inmates across the island. Prisoners in need of dentures and unable to
    eat the prison food encountered difficulties in gaining access to a
    dentist.
        In May 2009 seven girls perished in a fire at the Armadale Juvenile
    Correctional Facility, and many more were injured. The results of a
    three-month investigation were leaked to the media in March. According
    to investigators, a police officer, responding to a disturbance,
    discharged a tear gas canister into the dormitory. The key to the main
    door could not be located during the fire, and the surviving girls were
    rescued through barred dormitory windows. The staff testified during
    the investigation that there were no fire extinguishers, fire drills,
    or emergency training.
        Although the law prohibits the incarceration of children in adult
    prisons in most cases, some juveniles as young as 13 years old were
    held in adult jails because there were no juvenile facilities with
    adequate security. Armadale remained closed, and the 50 female
    juveniles previously held there were moved to the Horizon maximum-
    security remand center, where the island's most violent male offenders
    are held, and to Fort Augusta Women's Prison. Juveniles and adults were
    housed together in these facilities. In one case a 16-year-old was held
    in detention with adult arrestees for more than two months while the
    judicial process was underway.
        Nonviolent youth offenders were under the jurisdiction of the
    social services agency and were generally sent to unsecured halfway
    houses (called ``places of safety'' or ``juvenile remand centers'')
    after they were removed from their homes. However, because the law does
    not clearly define an ``uncontrollable child,'' a large number of
    minors were classified as uncontrollable and detained for long periods
    of time without regard to the nature of their offenses.
        In October 2009 the Office of the Children's Advocate investigated
    reports of children being held in police lock-ups and made a number of
    recommendations to Parliament, including a request that the Child Care
    and Protection Act of 2004 be revised to limit to 90 days the amount of
    time children spent in lock-up, thereby preventing extended detention.
    However, Parliament did not address the issue.
        Reliable reports indicated that there was no clear separation of
    detainees according to the different stages of criminal procedure.
    Persons detained without charges, remandees, and convicted persons were
    held together in the same facility, and often shared cells.
        In general the Government allowed private groups, voluntary and
    religious organizations, local and international human rights
    organizations, and the media to visit prisons and monitor prison
    conditions, and such visits took place during the year. Prisoners were
    able to make complaints to the Public Defender's Office without
    censorship, and representatives generally were able to enter the
    detention centers and interview prisoners without problems. Although
    access was denied after a riot at the Horizon Remand Center, the prime
    minister subsequently ordered the center to restore access.
        The Government invited a UN special rapporteur to conduct a fact-
    finding mission in February regarding detention facilities, where he
    was promised access to senior state officials, representatives of civil
    society, and detainees. He reported, however, that officers at the
    Hunt's Bay Police Station were ``very obstructive, uncooperative,
    aggressive, and openly threatened his team during their visit.'' After
    completion, he presented his preliminary findings and recommendations
    to the Government, including: reduce police custody to 48 hours and
    ensure remandees are held in proper remand centers and not in police
    lock-ups, introduce accessible complaint mechanisms within places of
    detention, ensure investigations of all allegations of abuse or
    excessive force, ensure that justices of the peace and magistrates
    conduct regular visits to all police lock-ups, remove all children from
    adult detention facilities, and abolish capital punishment. By year's
    end, however, the Government had not taken any action on his report.

        d. Arbitrary Arrest or Detention.--The law permits the arrest of
    persons ``reasonably suspected'' of having committed a crime. While the
    law prohibits arbitrary arrest, security forces performed ``cordon and
    search'' operations, during which they detained persons and took them
    into custody. Although they can legally hold persons for 24 to 48 hours
    before charging or releasing them, police sometimes reportedly held
    individuals for as long as five weeks.
        During the period from May 23 to July 22, authorities detained and
    then released more than 4,000 persons under a declared state of
    emergency, initiated to allow security forces to enter West Kingston
    and regain control after gunmen barricaded themselves inside the
    community. Most of the individuals detained were young men who were
    fingerprinted, photographed, and interviewed by detectives and were
    later released without being charged for any offense.

        Role of the Police and Security Apparatus.--The JCF has primary
    responsibility for internal security and is assisted by the Island
    Special Constabulary Force. The Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) is charged
    with national defense, maritime narcotics interdiction, and JCF
    support. The JDF routinely conducts joint patrols and checkpoints in
    conjunction with the JCF. As the minister of defense, and outside of a
    state of emergency, the prime minister is the approval authority for
    all JDF operations in support of the JCF. The Ministry of National
    Security exercises the prime minister's authority for oversight of the
    JCF and JDF.
        The JCF is headed by a commissioner who delegates authority through
    the ranks to constables. The force maintains divisions focusing on
    community policing, special response, intelligence gathering, and
    internal affairs.
        The JCF conducted administrative and criminal investigations into
    all incidents involving fatal shootings by police. The JCF's BSI
    addressed police shootings, but no officer was found criminally liable
    during the year. The BSI, unable to keep up with its caseload, had a
    backlog of approximately 932 cases with 37 full-time and nine part-time
    investigating officers. In August INDECOM replaced the civilian Police
    Public Complaints Authority; the new body has the power to take over
    and direct BSI investigations.
        The JCF continued a community policing initiative to address the
    long-standing antipathy between the security forces and many poor
    inner-city neighborhoods. Through the Community Safety and Security
    Branch, during the year the JCF conducted targeted training of 309
    officers in 38 communities, trained community safety officers, and
    assigned JCF personnel to targeted schools as resource officers to stem
    school violence. These officers also served as liaisons between the
    students, faculty, parents, and police. The Government bolstered these
    efforts through public education and by nominating deputy divisional
    commanders with responsibility to introduce community policing to all
    the communities within their division.

        Arrest Procedures and Treatment While in Detention.--Arrests
    normally require warrants signed by a police officer of the rank of
    station sergeant or higher; however, arrests may be made without
    warrants. Police often used the warrant as the first step in an
    investigation to search for evidence. The law requires detained
    suspects to be charged or released within 24 to 48 hours of arrest,
    unless a justice of the peace or a resident magistrate grants a special
    waiver.
        If a detainee requests access to counsel, the law requires police
    to contact duty counsel (a private attorney who volunteers to represent
    detainees at police stations and until cases go to trial) under the
    Legal Aid Program; however, authorities continued to wait until after
    detainees had been identified in a lineup before contacting duty
    counsel for them. There was a functioning bail system, and detainees
    were provided with prompt access to family members.
        Although the law requires police to present a detainee in court
    within a reasonable time period, in practice authorities sometimes
    remanded suspects for psychiatric evaluation, some for as long as three
    years when their cases were ``lost in the system.'' Magistrates were
    required to inquire at least once a week into the welfare of each
    person listed by the JCF as detained, but few did so in practice,
    especially in the busy Kingston/St. Andrew corporate area.

        e. Denial of Fair Public Trial.--Although the law provides for an
    independent judiciary, the judicial system relied entirely on the
    Ministry of Justice for all resources.
        Trials in many cases were delayed for years, and other cases were
    dismissed because files could not be located or had been destroyed.
    Some trials suffered as a result of antiquated rules of evidence as
    well as from lack of equipment for collecting and storing evidence. For
    example, drug evidence collected in an arrest had to be stored in its
    entirety; samples or photographs were not acceptable. Storage
    facilities were inadequate and understaffed, and evidence went missing,
    rotted in the warehouse, or could not be located when needed.
        The resident magistrate's courts, which handle more than 90 percent
    of the cases in the court system, continued operation of a night court
    in an effort to reduce the backlog of cases. The Supreme Court used
    mediation through the Dispute Resolution Foundation as an alternative
    to traditional trials. This alleviated some of the civil case backlog
    in that court. The resident magistrate's courts also used alternative
    dispute resolution in limited cases.
        Some criminal trials were dismissed because witnesses failed to
    come forward as a result of threats, intimidation, or murder. Some of
    those who came forward qualified for the witness protection program,
    but many either refused protection or violated the conditions of the
    program. According to the JCF, no participant in the witness protection
    program who abided by the rules of the program has ever been killed.

        Trial Procedures.--Most trials are public and adjudicated by a lone
    judge. More serious criminal offenses are tried with juries in circuit
    court at the Supreme Court level. There was a persistent problem
    seating jurors for cases, which contributed to the extensive judicial
    backlog. Citizens were reluctant to serve as jurors for fear of
    retribution.
        The constitution provides that defendants are presumed innocent and
    have the right to counsel and to confront witnesses against them. Legal
    Aid attorneys were available to defend the indigent, except those
    charged with certain offenses under the Money Laundering Act or
    Dangerous Drugs Act and in the case of offenses in which the defendant
    is not liable to incarceration. The Office of the Public Defender (OPD)
    may bring cases on behalf of persons who have had their constitutional
    rights violated but the OPD cannot appear in court on their behalf.
    Although the OPD contracted with private attorneys to represent
    indigent clients, funds were insufficient to meet demand, and such
    attorneys sometimes requested payment from clients.

        Political Prisoners and Detainees.--There were no reports of
    political prisoners or detainees.

        Civil Judicial Procedures and Remedies.--There is an independent
    and impartial civil judiciary process. Complainants may bring human
    rights abuse cases for civil remediation to the courts, but awards can
    be difficult to collect. The Government is required to undertake
    pretrial negotiations or mediation in an attempt to settle out of
    court, but the Government often did not do so. When there were
    settlements, whether in or out of court, the Government often lacked
    the funds to pay, resulting in a backlog of awards.

        f. Arbitrary Interference with Privacy, Family, Home, or
    Correspondence--Although the constitution prohibits such actions, the
    Constabulary Force Act gives security personnel broad powers of search
    and seizure. This act allows search without a warrant of a person on
    board or disembarking from a vehicle, ship, or boat if a police officer
    has good reason to be suspicious. In practice the police conducted
    searches without warrants.

    Section 2. Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:
        a. Freedom of Speech and Press.--The law provides for freedom of
    speech and of the press, and the Government generally respected these
    rights in practice. Newspapers were independent and free of government
    control. Broadcast media were largely state owned but open to
    pluralistic points of view.
        Some local media professionals expressed concern that the country's
    libel laws limited freedom of expression. Specifically, news outlets
    reported the need to self-censor investigative reports because of the
    potential for courts to award high damages in cases of defamation. In a
    speech on May 17, Prime Minister Golding expressed the need to reform
    the libel laws to enable greater transparency and accountability in
    government.
        The Press Association of Jamaica (PAJ) continued to advocate for
    changes in the country's ``antiquated'' libel and defamation laws. The
    PAJ also advocated repealing the Official Secrets Act, ``which runs
    counter to the Access to Information Act,'' requested that whistle-
    blower legislation be enacted to help the media expose corruption, and
    called for strict separation between management and editorial
    departments since a free press ``requires the absence of undue
    influence of media owners on newsroom output.''
        Some journalists also stated that they censored their political
    coverage based on fear of violent reprisals, and the UN Human Rights
    Council's 2010 Freedom in the World Report stated that journalists
    sometimes faced intimidation in the run-up to elections.
        In July the police attempted to confiscate the camera of a CVM TV
    correspondent at the scene of an alleged police killing in St. Ann.
    Authorities detained the journalist and later released him. Later that
    month, in a meeting with representatives from the PAJ and the Media
    Association Jamaica Limited, Commissioner of Police Owen Ellington
    pledged to publish guidelines governing conduct between members of the
    JCF and the media at crime scenes. However, no guidelines had been
    published by year's end. Ellington also said the JCF would take action
    against officers who prevented journalists from carrying out legitimate
    duties at crime scenes.

        Internet Freedom.--There were no government restrictions on access
    to the Internet or reports that the Government monitored e-mail or
    Internet chat rooms. Individuals and groups could engage in the
    peaceful expression of views via the Internet, including by e-mail.
    According to the International Telecommunication Union, there were 58
    Internet users per 100 inhabitants in 2009.

        Academic Freedom and Cultural Events.--There were no government
    restrictions on academic freedom.
        With respect to cultural events, the Jamaica Broadcasting
    Commission (JBC) sought to regulate and limit the dissemination of
    certain popular music deemed inconsistent with public morality. Since
    2009 the JBC banned certain lyrics deemed inappropriate to broadcast,
    including dancehall songs referring to the simulation of aggressive or
    violent sex, and employed editing methods to expunge lyrics thought
    unfit for broadcast. The commission stated that its directive was aimed
    at ``all types of musical broadcast output, including soca music and
    carnival music.''

        b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association.--The law provides
    for freedom of assembly and association, and the Government generally
    respected these rights in practice.

        c. Freedom of Religion.--For a complete description of religious
    freedom, please see the 2010 International Religious Freedom Report at
    www.state.gov/g/drl/irf/rpt.

        d. Freedom of Movement, Internally Displaced Persons, Protection of
    Refugees, and Stateless Persons.--The law provides for freedom of
    movement within the country, foreign travel, emigration, and
    repatriation, and the Government generally respected these rights in
    practice.
        The law prohibits forced exile, and there were no reports that it
    occurred.

        Protection of Refugees.--The Government has established a system
    for processing and providing protection to refugees. In practice the
    Government provided protection against the expulsion or return of
    refugees to countries where their lives or freedom would be threatened,
    and it handled refugee or asylum cases administratively.
        The Government was prepared to cooperate with the Office of the UN
    High Commissioner for Refugees and other humanitarian organizations in
    assisting refugees and asylum seekers, should such cases arise.
        Following the January earthquake in Haiti, the Government stated
    that it would provide temporary accommodations, health inspections, and
    food for Haitians fleeing the earthquake until they could safely return
    home. Between March and April, the Government provided temporary
    shelter and medical treatment for 93 Haitians who landed in three
    vessels. The Government stated that due to financial constraints, the
    Haitians would be repatriated. The JDF Coast Guard returned all 93,
    plus an additional 24 who were being held on immigration violations, to
    Haiti by the end of April.

    Section 3. Respect for Political Rights: The Right of Citizens to
            Change Their Government
        The law provides citizens the right to change their government
    peacefully, and citizens exercised this right in practice through
    periodic elections held on the basis of universal suffrage.

        Elections and Political Participation.--All citizens age 18 and
    over have the right to vote by secret ballot. However, in recent
    elections voters living in ``garrison communities,'' inner-city areas
    dominated by one of the two major political parties, often faced
    substantial influence and pressure from politically connected gangs and
    young men hired by political parties to intimidate supporters of the
    opposing political party. These factors impeded the free exercise of
    their right to vote. According to Amnesty International, at least nine
    persons died as a result of election-related violence in the 2007
    campaign period.
        In the 2007 elections, after a legal challenge in one district,
    authorities determined that the JLP won 32 out of 60 seats in the House
    of Representatives. People's National Party (PNP) challengers filed
    four cases against elected parliamentarians who held dual
    nationalities, citing a constitutional provision that bars from office
    those who have ``sworn allegiance to a foreign power.'' Although three
    winning JLP candidates subsequently renounced their foreign
    citizenship, the Supreme Court ruled that if the candidate had held
    dual citizenship at the time of nomination for office, he or she was
    ineligible to hold a seat in Parliament. In three of the four cases,
    the Supreme Court ordered by-elections, each of which was won by the
    incumbent JLP parliamentarian after renouncing dual nationality. On
    June 2, the parliamentary seat held by Shahine Robinson was vacated
    after she was alleged to be a foreign citizen when nominated for the
    2007 general election. On November 26, the prime minister called for a
    by-election for the empty seat, and Robinson regained her seat on
    December 20.
        In August Betty Ann Blaine, along with 10 other founding members,
    launched a new political party, the New National Coalition. It
    announced plans to contest all 60 constituencies in the next election.
        There were eight women elected to the 60-seat House of
    Representatives and three women appointed to the 21-seat Senate. Two of
    the 16 cabinet ministers were women.

    Section 4. Official Corruption and Government Transparency
        The law provides criminal penalties for official corruption, but
    the Government did not implement the law effectively. The contractor
    general stated in his 2009 annual report that 30 formal criminal
    offenses were referred to the DPP, with no criminal charge, arrest, or
    prosecution arising out of any of the matters.
        The JCF Anti-Corruption Branch, headed by a British police officer
    hired as assistant commissioner of police, has responsibility for
    addressing corruption in the force, and some recent improvements were
    noted. However, suspicions of corruption and impunity within the force
    remained, despite a notable increase in the number of arrests of
    officers for corruption.
        In February JCF officers seized a large load of weapons in Kingston
    that were traced back to the police armory. Authorities arrested 11
    suspects, including a police sergeant, in connection with the seizure.
    A full investigation by the Anti-Corruption Branch of the JCF ensued.
    In October three civilians charged in the case pleaded guilty, and a
    court sentenced them to prison terms ranging from 10 to 13 years. The
    sergeant was charged with illegal possession of 18 firearms and 9,540
    rounds of ammunition and was awaiting trial in Gun Court at year's end.
        In August the JCF announced that 149 rogue police officers had been
    removed in the first seven months of the year; by year's end 188 police
    officers had been dismissed. Authorities arrested 21 police personnel
    and charged them with breaches of the Corruption Prevention Act. Police
    personnel are required to sign five-year contracts with renewal
    contingent upon good conduct. They are barred from reenlisting whenever
    there is information that they are not efficient or effective in
    carrying out their duty with integrity.
        Also in August authorities dismissed Lenice Barnett, executive
    director of the Student Loan Bureau (SLB), and forced the resignation
    of its Board of Directors, following an audit conducted by the Public
    Accountability Inspectorate of the Ministry of Finance. The ministry
    stated that Barnett was augmenting her pay through receipt of a
    gratuity paid on a monthly basis, implementing an unapproved monetary
    incentive scheme, and providing access to loans without SLB
    management's knowledge.
        In October Prime Minister Golding announced that a commission of
    inquiry would be formed to probe the Government's handling of an
    extradition request for alleged drug lord Christopher ``Dudus'' Coke.
    The commission was to look into charges that the Government hired a
    foreign lobbying firm, possibly to derail the request. The prime
    minister had approved the extradition request in May and stated that
    when the lobbying firm was hired, he was not acting as the Government
    leader but only in his capacity as head of the JLP.
        In October 2008 authorities arrested Kern Spencer, a former junior
    minister, and charged him with fraud, corruption, and money laundering
    in a scheme to distribute and install energy efficient light bulbs
    donated by Cuba. His trial began on June 30, and the matter was still
    before the Magistrate Court at year's end.
        In December 2009 a court found former police superintendent Harry
    Daley guilty of corruption, and a judge sentenced him to 18 months of
    hard labor. However, at year's end he was on bail pending an appeal
    hearing.
        The Corruption Prevention Act requires many government officials to
    file financial declarations; however, reports indicated that more than
    5,000 civil servants failed to file or filed late or incomplete
    financial declarations required under the act. The DPP's Office has the
    authority to identify noncompliant officials and send their cases to
    the Magistrate's Office, but the Government did not levy any fines on
    officials during the year. The Ministry of Justice and the Attorney
    General's Office have overall responsibility to combat official
    corruption, but various other ministries are responsible for their own
    investigations.
        Despite provisions in the Access to Information Act to promote
    transparency, media accounts indicated that access to information was
    sometimes categorically denied. The act contains no sanctions or
    penalties to discourage lack of response to applications.

    Section 5. Governmental Attitude Regarding International and
            Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations of Human
            Rights
        A number of domestic and international human rights groups and
    other international bodies generally operated without government
    restriction, investigating and publishing their findings on human
    rights cases. Government officials often were cooperative and
    responsive to their views.
        The Public Defender's Office provides services on behalf of those
    who charged that their constitutional rights were violated. The office
    contracted private attorneys to bring suits against the Government on
    behalf of private citizens.
        The Government was generally supportive of international human
    rights concerns and humanitarian nongovernmental organizations (NGOs).
    The Government invited a UN special rapporteur to conduct a fact-
    finding mission in February regarding detention facilities, where he
    had access to senior state officials, representatives of civil society,
    and detainees (see section 1.c.).

    Section 6. Discrimination, Societal Abuses, and Trafficking in Persons
        The law prohibits discrimination based on race, gender, place of
    origin, political opinion, color, or creed. The Government generally
    enforced these prohibitions in practice, although there continued to be
    widespread discrimination on the basis of political opinion in the
    distribution of scarce governmental benefits, including employment,
    particularly in the garrison communities.

        Women.--Rape is illegal and carries a maximum penalty of 25 years'
    imprisonment. The 2009 Sexual Offenses Act criminalizes spousal rape,
    but only in certain circumstances. Human rights groups continued to
    advocate for a more comprehensive law. While that law replaced an
    existing patchwork of laws relating to sexual assault, rape, and
    incest, the authorities had yet to implement many of its provisions.
    The number of rapes victims reported declined slightly to 668, compared
    with 695 in 2009. NGOs believed the actual numbers were much higher,
    but no other statistics were available. The JCF Rape Investigative and
    Juvenile Unit, which was headed by a female deputy superintendent,
    handled sex crimes.
        Social and cultural norms perpetuated violence against women,
    including spousal abuse. Violence against women was widespread, but
    many women were reluctant to acknowledge or report abusive behavior,
    leading to wide variations in estimates of its extent. The law
    prohibits domestic violence and provides remedies including restraining
    orders and other noncustodial sentencing. Breaching a restraining order
    is punishable by a fine of up to J$10,000 (approximately $114) and six
    months' imprisonment. Police were generally reluctant to become
    involved in domestic issues, which led to cases not being pursued
    vigorously when reported. The Bureau of Women's Affairs (BWA) operated
    crisis hotlines and managed a public education campaign to raise the
    profile of domestic violence, while the NGO Woman Inc. operated a
    shelter that received some government funds.
        Sex tourism continued to be a problem.
        There is no legislation that addresses sexual harassment, and the
    BWA reported that it had become a ``disturbing problem.'' There were
    anecdotal reports of sexual harassment of women by the police as well
    as in the workplace, but few statistics were available. The BWA and
    NGOs such as Woman Inc. and Women's Media Watch believed that women
    often did not report such incidents because there was no legal remedy.
        Couples and individuals had the right to decide the number,
    spacing, and timing of children, and had the information and means to
    do so free from discrimination. Access to information on contraception
    and skilled attendance at delivery were widely available. However,
    essential obstetric and postpartum care was often lacking. The UN
    Population Fund reported a 2008 maternal mortality ratio of 89 deaths
    per 100,000 live births and a modern contraceptive prevalence rate of
    66 percent. Missionaries of the Poor, a Kingston-based NGO, provided
    counseling and medical services to expectant mothers. Women and men
    were given equal access to diagnostic services and treatment for
    sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV.
        Although the law accords women full legal equality, including equal
    pay for equal work, in practice women suffered from discrimination in
    the workplace and often earned less than their male counterparts.
    According to the World Economic Forum's 2010 Global Gender Gap Report,
    women earned 36 percent less than men for comparable work. The BWA,
    reporting to the minister of development, oversaw programs to protect
    the legal rights of women. These programs had limited effect but raised
    awareness of problems affecting women. Women sought jobs and served in
    almost every occupation in both the public and private sectors.
        There was an active community of women's rights groups, which
    focused on the protection of victims of sexual abuse, participation of
    women in the political process, and legislative reforms affecting
    women.

        Children.--Every person born in the country after August 5, 1962,
    is entitled to citizenship. Persons born or adopted outside the country
    to one or more Jamaican parents can claim citizenship, and those
    married to Jamaican spouses may also claim citizenship. There is
    universal birth registration, either in the hospital at the time of
    birth or at a local registrar's office if the child is not born in a
    hospital.
        There was no societal pattern of abuse of children; however, child
    abuse, especially sexual abuse, was a substantial problem. The Office
    of Children's Registry (OCR) receives, records, and stores data
    relating to the mistreatment and abuse of children. The law requires
    anyone who knows of or suspects a child is being abused to make a
    report to the OCR, with a penalty of up to J$500,000 ($5,800) for
    failure to do so. The OCR received approximately 6,330 reports of child
    abuse, compared with 6,778 cases reported in 2009.
        Under the Child Care and Protection Act, the Child Development
    Authority (CDA) in the Ministry of Health is responsible for
    implementation of the Government's programs to prevent child abuse.
    According to the CDA, sexual assault was the most common reason for
    children to be taken to hospitals, with children under age 10
    accounting for 17 percent of all sexual assault cases and children
    between the ages of 10 and 19 accounting for 57 percent. In the 2008
    Reproductive Health Survey (the most recent one conducted), almost half
    of young women reported that they had been pressured or forced into
    sexual intercourse at the time of their first sexual experience. NGOs
    reported that inner-city gang leaders and sometimes even fathers
    initiated sex with young girls as a ``right.'' There were 538 cases of
    carnal abuse reported to the JCF, compared with 578 cases reported in
    2009.
        The Office of the Children's Advocate (OCA) has broad
    responsibilities for reviewing laws, policies, practices, and
    government services affecting children, as well as providing legal
    services to protect the best interests of children. In February the OCA
    launched a Web site to provide information on children's rights. The
    site also includes downloadable forms so that persons can lodge
    complaints electronically or by fax. The OCA reported it received over
    400 complaints during the year, conducted some preliminary
    investigations, and referred other cases to appropriate government
    institutions.
        Child prostitution and sex tourism were problems, especially in
    tourist areas. In September authorities uncovered a prostitution ring
    in Kingston, involving an undisclosed number of minors.
        The law prohibits statutory rape, defined as sexual relations with
    a person less than 16 years old, the minimum age for consensual sex.
    Sexual relations by an adult with a child between the ages of 12 and 16
    are a misdemeanor punishable by not more than seven years in prison; if
    the victim is under 12, it is a felony punishable by up to life
    imprisonment. The 2009 Sexual Offences Act included the establishment
    of a Sex Offenders Registry, which children's rights advocacy groups
    considered a vast improvement over the old legislation in terms of its
    ability to protect children.
        In September 2009 Parliament enacted the Child Pornography
    (Prevention) Act, criminalizing the commercial sexual exploitation of
    children. The law applies to the protection, possession, importation,
    exportation, and distribution of child pornography and carries a
    maximum penalty of 20 years' imprisonment and a fine of J$500,000
    ($5,800).
        The country is not a party to the 1980 Hague Convention on the
    Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. For information on
    international parental child abduction, please see the Department of
    State's annual report on compliance at http://travel.state.gov/
    abduction/resources/congressreport/congressreport--4308html.

        Anti-Semitism.--There was a small practicing Jewish congregation in
    the country. There were no reports of anti-Semitic acts.

        Trafficking in Persons.--For information on trafficking in persons,
    please see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons
    Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        Persons With Disabilities.--There are no laws prohibiting
    discrimination against persons with disabilities or mandating
    accessibility for persons with disabilities, and such persons
    encountered discrimination in employment and denial of access to
    schools. Health care and other state services were reported to be
    universally available.
        The Ministry of Labor has responsibility for the Jamaica Council
    for Persons with Disabilities (JCPD), which had a budget of J$48
    million ($560,000) in 2009-10. The JCPD distributes Economic
    Empowerment Grants of up to J$50,000 ($580) to persons with
    disabilities to help them embark on small entrepreneurial ventures such
    as vending or furniture making, or to provide them with assistive aids,
    such as prosthetics or hearing aids. These economic empowerment grants
    are significantly larger than the maximum sum of J$15,000 ($174) that
    persons with disabilities occasionally received in the form of
    rehabilitation grants ostensibly for the same purposes. The Ministry of
    Labor also has responsibility for the Early Stimulation Project, an
    education program for children with disabilities, as well as the
    Abilities Foundation, a vocational program for older persons with
    disabilities.

        National/Racial/Ethnic Minorities.--Maroons, descendants of slaves
    who escaped to the mountainous interior in the 17th and 18th centuries,
    considered themselves a group apart and maintained some African
    traditions distinct from those of the larger society. They continued to
    defend their rights and legal status, which stem from peace treaties
    signed with the British in 1739-40. In Maroon communities such as
    Accompong and Nanny Town, voters elect a colonel for a five-year term,
    who governs the community assisted by an appointed 32-member council.
    Maroons also vote in general elections, and their leaders worked with
    Parliament to ensure that their communities' needs are considered when
    making important decisions. Maroons are exempt from national taxes and
    land is held in common; however, there are major infrastructural needs
    that the Maroons believe the central government neglects. Formal
    education was not available in Maroon communities beyond the junior
    high school level, and unemployment rates were high. Many young Maroons
    leave the region for employment elsewhere; this migration and the
    influx of popular island-wide culture threatened the communities'
    culture.

        Societal Abuses, Discrimination, and Acts of Violence Based on
    Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.--The law prohibits ``acts of
    gross indecency'' (generally interpreted as any kind of physical
    intimacy) between men, in public or in private, which are punishable by
    10 years in prison.
        The Jamaica Forum for Lesbians, All Sexuals, and Gays (J-FLAG)
    continued to report human rights abuses, including arbitrary detention,
    mob attacks, stabbings, harassment of gay and lesbian patients by
    hospital and prison staff, and targeted shootings of such persons.
    Police often did not investigate such incidents. During the year, J-
    FLAG received 43 reports of sexually motivated harassment or abuse,
    which included 26 cases of attempted or actual assault, including three
    murders and three cases of rape. This violence created a climate of
    fear that prompted many gay persons to emigrate, while the gross
    indecency laws left those who remained vulnerable to extortion from
    neighbors who threatened to report them to the police unless they were
    paid off.
        In September six men brutally gang-raped a lesbian woman and cut
    her genitals after the assault ended. These men had previously taunted
    their victim, and this attack typified a phenomenon known as
    ``corrective rape,'' whereby rapists justify their actions under the
    rationale that forcing their victim into sex will somehow convert the
    injured party to heterosexuality. Three days later a taxi driver raped
    another lesbian woman in an unrelated attack staged in the same
    northern parish of St. Ann's. J-FLAG protested both rapes, stating that
    the women were attacked because of their sexual orientation. The
    organization believed that, as with heterosexual women, many homosexual
    rape victims were hesitant to report their abuse out of fear, shame, or
    for any number of personal reasons, suggesting that the actual
    incidence of sexual violence perpetrated against such persons could be
    notably higher.
        J-FLAG members also suffered attacks on their property and home
    intrusions, as people demanded to know the number of persons and beds
    in a home. Victims reported numerous cases of threats and intimidation
    to J-FLAG. In many instances family members expelled their own
    relatives from homes because of sexual orientation. In other cases
    neighbors drove gay and lesbian persons out of their communities,
    slashing tires and hurling insults. Many gays and lesbians faced death
    and arson threats, with some threats also directed at J-FLAG offices.
    As a result of such threats, J-FLAG elected not to publicize its
    location, and one of its officials reported feeling unsafe having
    meetings with clients at the organization's office.
        The trial of six suspects arrested for the 2005 robbery and murder
    of prominent gay rights advocate Lenford ``Steve'' Harvey, initially
    begun and then postponed in 2007, was scheduled to recommence in early
    2011.
        Male inmates deemed by prison wardens to be gay were held in a
    separate facility for their protection. The method used for determining
    their sexual orientation was subjective and not regulated by the prison
    system, although inmates were said to confirm their homosexuality for
    their own safety. There were numerous reports of violence against gay
    inmates, perpetrated by the wardens and by other inmates, but few
    inmates sought recourse through the prison system.
        Gay men were hesitant to report incidents against them because of
    fear for their physical well-being. Human rights NGOs and government
    entities agreed that brutality against such persons, primarily by
    private citizens, was widespread in the community.

        Other Societal Violence or Discrimination.--No laws protect persons
    with HIV/AIDS from discrimination. Human rights NGOs reported severe
    stigma and discrimination against this group. The International Labor
    Organization (ILO) worked with the Ministry of Labor on a program to
    reduce the stigma of HIV/AIDS in the workplace and to assist employers
    in designing policies for workers with HIV/AIDS. Health-care facilities
    were prepared to handle patients with HIV/AIDS, but health-care workers
    often neglected such patients. The Ministry of Labor, in conjunction
    with the ILO and the Ministry of Health, conducted workplace education
    programs on HIV/AIDS issues. Laws banning homosexual acts and societal
    attitudes prevented distribution of condoms in prisons and similar
    institutions.

    Section 7. Worker Rights
        a. The Right of Association.--The law provides for the right to
    form or join a trade union, and unions functioned freely and
    independently of the Government. Approximately 20 percent of the work
    force of 1.2 million was unionized. It was not uncommon for private-
    sector employers to lay off union workers and rehire them as
    contractors, a practice unions did not oppose so long as labor and
    management agreed.
        The law neither authorizes nor prohibits the right to strike, and
    strikes occurred. Striking workers could interrupt work without
    criminal liability but could not be assured of keeping their jobs,
    although there were no reports of any workers losing their jobs due to
    strike action during the year. Workers in 10 categories of ``essential
    services'' must first take disputes to the Ministry of Labor before
    they can legally strike. The ILO has repeatedly criticized the
    Government for its broad definition of these 10 categories. Nurses and
    other public sector workers--although taking their disputes to the
    Ministry of Labor as required--circumvented the ministry's permission
    to strike by holding ``sick outs'' during the year.

        b. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively.--The law permits
    unions to conduct their activities without interference, and the
    Government protected this right in practice. An estimated 20 to 25
    percent of the work force was covered by a collective bargaining
    agreement. An independent Industrial Disputes Tribunal (IDT) hears
    cases when management and labor fail to reach agreement. Cases not
    resolved by the IDT pass to the civil courts. The IDT received 23 cases
    during the year, with most cases decided within 90 days. Some took
    longer to resolve due to the complexity of the dispute or delays
    requested by involved parties.
        Collective bargaining is denied to a bargaining unit if no single
    union represents at least 40 percent of the workers in the unit or when
    the union seeking recognition does not obtain support from 50 percent
    of the workers (whether or not they are affiliated with the union). The
    ILO Committee of Experts asked the Government to change this threshold,
    but the Government expressed no intention to change the existing law.
        The law allows for union activity and prohibits antiunion
    discrimination. Employers generally respected the law in practice.
    However, some labor unions reported that private-sector workers were
    increasingly fearful of management retaliation against unionization as
    the job market contracted in the past year. While union organizers and
    members were entitled to full legal protections that were enforced
    effectively, both management and workers were often unaware of their
    rights and obligations.
        Domestic labor laws apply equally to the country's ``free zones''
    (export processing zones), but there were no unionized companies in any
    of these three publicly owned zones. Union organizers suspected that
    foreign owners in the zones resisted organization efforts and that many
    free-zone employees chose not to unionize for fear of losing their
    jobs. Employer-controlled ``workers' councils'' handled grievance
    resolution in most of these companies but did not negotiate wages and
    conditions, which were set by management.

        c. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor.--The country has
    ratified relevant ILO conventions, which carries a legal obligation to
    apply their provisions. There are otherwise no specific laws
    prohibiting forced or compulsory labor. There were reports of girls in
    rural areas recruited for domestic labor and then forced into
    servitude. Some cases of coerced employment of suspected trafficking
    victims were reported and were being treated in the court system. Also
    see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons Report at
    www.state.gov/g/tip.

        d. Prohibition of Child Labor and Minimum Age for Employment.--The
    law protects children from exploitation in the workplace and stipulates
    that every citizen has a duty to report child abuse. The minimum age
    for employment is 15 years, and the law prohibits the employment of
    children under age 13 in any type of work. Children between 13 and 15
    years are permitted to engage in ``light work,'' as defined by the
    Ministry of Labor, which will not disrupt their education or be harmful
    to their health. The ministry's Child Labor Unit was responsible for
    monitoring and controlling child labor.
        The Ministry of Labor assisted the Office of Health and Safety in
    child labor enforcement efforts. The CDA is responsible for carrying
    out investigations of abuse. According to CDA officials, resources to
    investigate exploitive child labor were insufficient. Children under
    the age of 12 peddled goods and services, begged on city streets, and
    worked on plantations, farms, and construction sites, as well as in
    gardens, shops, and markets. In May the CDA reported that there were
    approximately 6,000 street and working children in the country.

        e. Acceptable Conditions of Work.--The Government sets the minimum
    wage in a transparent process after receiving recommendations from the
    tripartite National Minimum Wage Advisory Commission. The minimum wage
    was J$4,070 (approximately $47) per week for all workers, although
    there were some reports of domestic workers receiving less. The minimum
    wage did not provide a decent standard of living for a worker and
    family, leading most minimum-wage earners to work two or more jobs.
    However, most workers were paid more than the legal minimum. The
    Ministry of Labor administered and enforced the minimum wage.
        The law provides for a standard 40-hour workweek and mandates at
    least one day of rest per week. Work in excess of 40 hours per week or
    eight hours per day must be compensated at overtime rates, a provision
    that was generally respected. The law does not prohibit excessive
    compulsory overtime, and some employees, notably security guards, were
    regularly required to work 12-hour shifts without overtime
    compensation.
        The Ministry of Labor's Industrial Safety Division (ISD) sets and
    enforces industrial health and safety standards, mainly through factory
    inspections. Insufficient staffing in the Ministries of Labor, Finance,
    National Security, and Public Service contributed to difficulties in
    enforcing workplace regulations. The ISD conducted inspections,
    investigated accidents, warned violators, and gave them a time period
    in which to correct the violation. If the violation was not corrected
    within that time, the violator was taken to court.
        The law provides workers with the right to remove themselves from
    dangerous work situations without jeopardy to their continued
    employment if they are trade union members or covered by the Factories
    Act. The law does not specifically protect other categories of workers
    in those circumstances.

                                   __________

                                     MEXICO

        Mexico, with a population of approximately 112 million, is a
    federal republic composed of 31 states and a federal district, with an
    elected president and bicameral legislature. President Felipe Calderon
    of the National Action Party was elected in 2006 to a six-year term in
    generally free and fair multiparty elections. The country continued its
    fight against organized crime, which involved frequent clashes between
    security forces and drug traffickers. Security forces reported to
    civilian authorities; however, there were instances in which elements
    of these forces acted outside the Government's policies.
        The following problems were reported during the year by the
    country's National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) and other sources:
    unlawful killings by security forces; kidnappings; physical abuse; poor
    and overcrowded prison conditions; arbitrary arrests and detention;
    corruption, inefficiency, and lack of transparency that engendered
    impunity within the judicial system; confessions coerced through
    torture; violence and threats against journalists leading to self-
    censorship. Societal problems were domestic violence, including
    killings of women; trafficking in persons; social and economic
    discrimination against some members of the indigenous population; and
    child labor.

                            RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

    Section 1. Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom
            From:
        a. Arbitrary or Unlawful Deprivation of Life.--The federal
    government or its state agents did not commit any politically motivated
    killings; however, security forces, acting both within and outside the
    line of duty, killed several persons, including minors, during the
    year.
        As the Government brought enforcement pressure against
    Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCOs), both the TCOs and gangs
    linked to them battled each other and the Government for control of
    trafficking routes and markets. Officials reported 15,273 drug-related
    homicides during the year. The Government continued to deploy as many
    as 45,000 military troops dedicated to counternarcotics activities to
    assist civilian law enforcement authorities. In Ciudad Juarez in April,
    the Government gave the lead in public security to the Federal Police,
    which deployed 5,000 elements and coordinated 2,800 municipal police
    and 200 state police.
        Killings allegedly involving government security forces included
    the following:
        In January gunmen claiming to be federal police twice attacked a
    group of Central American migrants who were traveling on a train from
    Arriaga to Ciudad Ixtepec, Oaxaca. The attacks left three dead, two
    women raped, and one minor injured. The migrants reported the incident
    to the Brothers Along the Road Shelter in Ciudad Ixtepec, Oaxaca, which
    subsequently requested help from the state's Office of the Attorney
    General. The investigation reported no progress by year's end.
        On March 19, soldiers killed two students at Monterrey
    Technological Institute. The soldiers reportedly mistook the two
    students for criminals they were pursuing and shot them in the
    university library, killing both instantly. Investigations continued
    but no arrest had been made at year's end.
        CNDH alleged in June that the National Defense Secretariat (SEDENA)
    altered the scene in which Martin and Brayan Almanza Salazar, ages five
    and nine, respectively, were shot and killed on April 3, to create the
    impression that the shots occurred during a firefight with a criminal
    gang. CNDH concluded that the children had been killed by direct fire
    from army troops on the road from Nuevo Laredo to Reynosa, Tamaulipas;
    however, military findings concluded that the children had been killed
    by shrapnel from a grenade thrown by members of organized criminal
    organizations. The incident remained under investigation at year's end.
        On August 22, soldiers on a highway in Guerrero shot and killed
    U.S. citizen Joseph Proctor after he failed to stop at a military
    checkpoint. The soldiers involved were arrested and awaiting trial by
    military court.
        On September 5, a military convoy fired upon a vehicle that
    allegedly failed to stop at a checkpoint on a major thoroughfare
    leading into Monterrey. A family of seven was riding in the vehicle,
    and the shooting resulted in the deaths of 15 year-old Alejandro
    Gabriel de Leon Castellanos and his father Vicente de Leon; five other
    family members sustained injuries. SEDENA published the names of four
    soldiers who had been arrested for the incident and who at year's end
    were awaiting trial by military court for charges of violence resulting
    in homicide.
        There were no developments in the following cases from 2009:
        The investigation of the January migrant shooting incident
    involving two federal police officers and the deaths of three
    civilians.
        The investigation of the February abduction, torture, and killing
    of the president and secretary of the Organization for the Future of
    the Mixtec People (OFPM) in Ayutla de los Libres, Guerrero.
        The case of 12 members of the army's First Regiment of the
    Motorized Cavalry, Eighth Military Zone indicted for the killings of
    three civilians.
        The case of an army soldier arrested in connection with the
    shooting of Naua Bonfillo Rubio, a civilian killed during a bus
    inspection at a military checkpoint.
        The military prosecutor general charged one soldier with homicide
    in the 2008 case from the 12th Infantry Battalion in Michoacan; the
    soldier reportedly opened fire at a military checkpoint on a pick-up
    truck, killing minor Victor Alfonso de la Paz Ortega and injuring Juan
    Carlos Penaloza Garcia. According to SEDENA the soldier was
    subsequently released, and the military investigation had concluded.
        There were no developments in the following 2008 cases of killings
    by security forces: the March killing of four persons in Sinaloa, the
    June killing of three civilians in Chihuahua, and the July killing of a
    teenager in Aguascalientes.
        A number of killings during the year appeared to be politically
    motivated. Prior to mid-term elections in July, armed men shot and
    killed Tamaulipas gubernatorial candidate Rodolfo Torre Cantu during a
    campaign event. Unidentified perpetrators killed 14 mayors of small
    towns in states along the northern border, allegedly for failing to
    cooperate with organized crime. In August the bodies of 72 migrants, 58
    men, and 14 women from Central and South America were discovered in the
    state of Tamaulipas. The migrants were kidnapped and shot by the drug
    cartels.
        The National Council for Private Security stated in July that of
    approximately 8,000 private security firms active in the country, only
    659 were registered and regulated by federal authorities. This large
    presence of unregulated security companies led to concerns about
    illegal use of weapons as well as the emergence of vigilantes,
    exemplified by a September incident in which residents of Asencion,
    Chihuahua, beat and stoned two suspected kidnappers to death and forced
    the resignation of the town's entire police force, which they claimed
    was corrupt.

        b. Disappearance.--There were no confirmed reports of politically
    motivated disappearances at the federal level; however, there were
    multiple reports of forced disappearances by the army and police. Most
    occurred in the course of security operations. In several cases of
    reported disappearances, security forces had detained the missing
    persons incommunicado for several days.
        In February soldiers in Chilpancingo allegedly beat and took
    Guerrero Raul Evangelista Alonso from his home. Several days later in
    the same city, Roberto Gonzalez Mosso was abducted by masked
    individuals claiming to be from the office of the Deputy Attorney
    General for Special Organized Crime Investigations (SIEDO). At year's
    end neither individual had been seen and information was unavailable on
    the investigation of the cases.
        SEDENA was investigating the case of the disappearance of Isaias
    Uribe Hernandez and Juan Pablo Alvarado Oliveros, two veterinarians who
    went missing in April 2009 while driving in Torreon, Coahuila. Family
    members presented complaints to the Coahuila State Human Rights
    Commission and state authorities. They alleged that SEDENA officials
    were responsible for the disappearances. SEDENA stated it had no
    information that military personnel were involved in the incident but
    were nevertheless investigating the case.
        There were no known developments in the 2008 disappearance of
    brothers Jose Luis and Carlos Guzman Zuniga in Ciudad Juarez after they
    were reportedly detained by soldiers.
        There were no known developments in the case of ecologist Javier
    Torres Cruz from Petatlan, Guerrero, who was allegedly detained in 2008
    by soldiers from the 19th Battalion and reappeared after 10 days with
    evidence of physical abuse.
        Kidnapping remained a serious problem for persons of all
    socioeconomic levels. The Government reported a 78.8 percent increase
    in kidnappings compared with 2008. Express kidnappings, in which a
    victim is detained for a short period to extract payment, often through
    forcing the victim to use an ATM card to drain a bank account, remained
    a problem. Many kidnapping cases continued to go unreported, as
    families feared repercussions and often negotiated directly with
    kidnappers. Informed observers believed the number of cases reported to
    authorities was far less than the actual number of kidnappings. There
    were reports of police involvement in kidnappings for ransom, primarily
    at the state and local level.
        CNDH estimated that during the year approximately 20,000 migrants
    were kidnapped as they attempted to transit the country to cross the
    border into the United States, although the National Migration
    Institute disputed this claim, noting that they had registered only 222
    such cases during the year. Many migrants were reluctant to report such
    crimes due to fear of being deported.
        According to the Oaxaca-based migrant shelter, Hermanos en el
    Camino, 40 Central American migrants were abducted from a train in
    December. The initial alarm was raised by several migrants who escaped
    and reported the event. Both CNDH and the National Migration Institute
    (INM) continued to investigate the incident at year's end.
        There were anecdotal reports that government agents were complicit
    in kidnappings. Amnesty International reported instances of federal
    police kidnapping and extorting Central American migrants on freight
    trains. In November, a former director of the Chihuahua state police
    and several Chihuahua City municipal policemen were arrested and
    charged with operating a kidnapping ring.

        c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or
    Punishment.--The law prohibits torture and other cruel, inhuman, or
    degrading treatment and stipulates that confessions obtained through
    illicit means such as torture are not admissible as evidence in court;
    similarly inadmissible is any confession made directly to police. To be
    admissible a confession must be formally recorded before a prosecutor
    with the acknowledgement that it is being made voluntarily and after
    examination by a doctor confirming that the person has not been
    subjected to physical abuse.
        The Government took steps to implement preventive measures against
    the practice of torture, including applying, at the federal level, the
    Istanbul Protocol, which contains guidance on investigating and
    documenting torture and other abuses. According to the Attorney
    General's Office (PGR), 12 of the country's 31 states had passed laws
    to implement the protocol and established consultant and evaluation
    offices. In addition, the PGR said it had provided training on human
    rights and torture to its local, state, and federal staff. CNDH made
    150 visits to civilian and military prisons and detention centers
    nationwide. During the year CNDH conducted 133 human rights-related
    courses for SEDENA, 153 for PGR, and 189 for Secretariat of Public
    Security (SSP); the courses included sections on torture.
        In May the UN Subcommittee on the Prevention of Torture made public
    the recommendations from its 2009 report on the subcommittee's visit.
    The Foreign Affairs Secretariat announced in July an action plan to
    implement the 122 recommendations listed in the report. The ad hoc
    multiagency working group to implement the recommendations includes
    representatives from five states, as well as the Secretariat of
    Government, SEDENA, the Secretariat of the Navy (SEMAR), the National
    Migration Institute, and the National System for Integral Family
    Development. The plan seeks to formalize cooperation between federal
    and state authorities on the training of public officials, the
    standardization of interrogation procedures, the investigation of
    torture accusations, the improvement of detainment conditions, the
    implementation of judicial system reform, and follow-up on CNDH
    recommendations.
        During the year CNDH received 1,170 complaints of cruel or
    degrading treatment and 10 torture complaints, compared with 1,105
    complaints of cruel or degrading treatment and 33 torture complaints in
    2009.
        Human rights organizations, including Human Rights Watch (HRW),
    criticized SEDENA for a lack of transparency in the information it
    makes available to the public. As of December SEDENA's Web site
    indicated that seven soldiers and one officer had been sentenced since
    2006 for human rights-related crimes committed against civilians. These
    involved a human rights case in Castanos, Coahuila, in which civilian
    courts tried and sentenced four soldiers for rape and battery and found
    four others not guilty. SEDENA further reported that 178 soldiers were
    under investigation and 42 were in a military trial process for a
    variety of human rights offenses.
        According to information from human rights organization Comision
    Mexicana para la Defensa y Promocion de los Derechos Humanos (CMDPDH),
    on May 13, individuals claiming to be from SIEDO detained Juan Jose
    Jimenez Barahona and five other local police officers from Cardenas,
    Tabasco, when they were called to the Public Security Command in
    Huimanguillo, Tabasco. The six officers were subsequently transferred
    to the Tabasco Attorney General's office, where they were allegedly
    tortured until they confessed to having links with organized crime
    groups. All of the officers required medical care following the
    incident, and Jimenez Barahona required surgery to remove his damaged
    spleen, as well as parts of his kidney and intestine. At year's end all
    of the officers were being detained in the Tabasco State Rehabilitation
    Center.
        According to CMDPDH, in March 2009 soldiers from the 28th Infantry
    Battalion of the Second Military Zone in Baja California allegedly
    detained and tortured 25 Tijuana municipal police, using electric
    shocks, beatings, and asphyxiation to force the police to make self-
    incriminating statements that were used to charge them with crimes. The
    officers were transported to a state prison in Nayarit in May 2009. A
    complaint was made to CNDH, and an investigation was opened to
    determine the soldiers' responsibility for the alleged abuses. Human
    rights defenders working on the case reported receiving threats in May,
    causing them to halt work on the case. According to the PGR,
    investigations into both the abuse of the police officers and the
    threats to the human rights defenders continued at year's end.
        There were no developments in the June 2009 case involving alleged
    military abuses to members of the communities of Puerto de las Ollas,
    Las Palancas, and El Jilguero in the state of Guerrero, and the
    military's investigation reportedly continued at year's end.
        There were no developments in the 2006 San Salvador Atenco
    confrontation between local flower vendors and state and federal police
    agents in Mexico State. During the conflict two individuals were killed
    and more than 47 women were taken into custody, many of whom allegedly
    were raped by police officials. At year's end none of the 2,500 police
    officers who participated in the Atenco Operation had been convicted of
    any crime. According to CentroProdh, the case remained stagnant in the
    Mexico State judicial system.

        Prison and Detention Center Conditions.--Prison conditions remained
    poor. During the year CNDH and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs)
    reported that corruption, overcrowding, prisoner abuse, alcoholism, and
    drug addiction were prevalent in most facilities. According to CNDH,
    health and sanitary conditions were poor, and most prisons did not
    offer psychiatric care. According to accounts related to consular
    officers by prisoners, poorly trained, underpaid, and corrupt guards
    staffed most prisons, and authorities occasionally placed prisoners in
    solitary confinement for indefinite periods. Prisoners often had to
    bribe guards to acquire food, medicine, and other necessities. Prison
    overcrowding continued to be a common problem. According to CNDH, in
    July there were 222,297 prisoners in 429 facilities, approximately 26
    percent above capacity. Approximately 95 percent of those inmates were
    men and 14 percent were juveniles. In its 2008-12 Strategic Plan, the
    SSP described the penitentiary system as ``one of the most
    underdeveloped and abandoned components of public security.''
        Prison conditions in the country varied greatly across states and
    facilities. There were reports of dire conditions for prisoners due to
    overcrowding, posing risks both to the prisoners' physical safety and
    long-term health. Prisoners at the La Mesa facility in Tijuana, for
    example, reported: a lack of beds; unsanitary living conditions,
    including insects, rats, and sewage on cell floors; inadequate food;
    and lack of potable water. Several prisons in Mexico City were
    dilapidated, with broken windows and inadequate lighting. CNDH noted
    that lack of access to adequate healthcare was a significant problem at
    all facilities.
        The SSP reported that during the year 150 inmates died in prison
    and 407 escaped in 27 separate incidents. The most significant prison
    riots during the year were caused by skirmishes between prisoners from
    rival gangs and cartels. For example: in January a fight between rival
    cartel members led to the death of 23 inmates in a prison in Durango;
    in March a fight resulted in the death of five inmates in Chihuahua; in
    August fighting between rival cartels killed 14 inmates and injured 10
    in Tamaulipas; and in December a riot over food at the Center for
    Juvenile Internment in Villahermosa, Tabasco, left one inmate dead and
    two others injured. In August CNDH noted that conditions for female
    prisoners were inferior to those for men, particularly for women who
    lived with their children in prison. There were anecdotal reports of
    sexual abuse of women while in detention. Pretrial detainees were
    routinely held together with convicted criminals.
        There were cases of prison officials abetting the escape of
    prisoners, including repeated instances of state prison officials at
    the rehabilitation center in G"mez Palacio, Durango allowing prisoners
    to leave the prison to commit crimes and then return to their cells. In
    July, prisoners from this rehabilitation center were found responsible
    for three killings in Torreon, Coahuila. In September 82 prisoners
    escaped from a facility in Reynosa, Tamaulipas. In December the
    attorney general declared 41 state prison officials responsible for
    allowing the escape of 152 prisoners from a facility in Nuevo Laredo,
    Tamaulipas.
        Prisoners and detainees had reasonable access to visitors and were
    permitted religious observance. While prisoners and detainees were
    generally permitted to lodge complaints about human rights violations,
    access to justice was inconsistent and the results of investigations
    were generally not made public.
        The Government permitted independent monitoring of prison
    conditions by human rights organizations. The International Committee
    of the Red Cross, CNDH, and state human rights commissions visited
    detainees during the year. CNDH reported making 150 prison visits
    during the year in addition to 309 in conjunction with the National
    Mechanism to Prevent Torture. Separately, CNDH opened 688 complaint
    cases based on concerns about human rights violations against
    prisoners. CNDH also received 19 complaints of ``cruel treatment.''
        Independent monitors are generally limited to making
    recommendations to authorities to improve prison conditions. Ombudsmen
    do not serve as legal representatives for prisoners.
        The federal government worked to improve prison conditions by
    implementing its 2008-12 strategic plan focused on security,
    rehabilitation, and education. During the year the SSP trained new
    corrections officials, technical staff, and administrative staff. The
    Government designated approximately 2.3 billion pesos ($186.2 million)
    in the fiscal year for prison construction, upgrades, and reform. Much
    of that funding was dedicated to the construction of new centers and
    renovation of others that continued at year's end. The SSP also worked
    towards developing a new prisoner classification system and a new unit
    to oversee the classification process.

        d. Arbitrary Arrest or Detention.--The law prohibits arbitrary
    arrest and detention as well as sponsoring or covering up an illegal
    detention. However, CNDH reported receiving 1,197 complaints of
    arbitrary arrests and detentions during the year.
        SEDENA indicted two soldiers and one officer for their role in the
    January 2009 illegal detention of Arnulfo Anaya, Luis Carlos Perez, and
    Juan Ramon Castillo in Chihuahua. Investigations continued at the end
    of the reporting period.

        Role of the Police and Security Apparatus.--According to CNDH the
    Government entities with the greatest number of human rights complaints
    filed against them were SEDENA, the Mexican Institute for Social
    Security (IMSS), the Federal Police, and the PGR.
        Concerning the military CNDH reported that their deployment as
    domestic law enforcement in the struggle against TCOs led to an
    increased number of reported human rights abuses. SEMAR, which played
    an increasingly important domestic security role, saw CNDH human rights
    complaints more than quadruple from 42 in 2009 to 198 in 2010. Human
    rights NGOs continued to charge that an opaque military justice system
    led to impunity, pointing to a failure to openly and promptly
    investigate, prosecute, and convict members of the military. During the
    year CNDH received 1,415 complaints against SEDENA and issued 22
    recommendations (certifications that a case merits further
    investigation or sanction) concerning allegations of human rights
    violations committed by members of the armed forces, compared with 30
    in 2009. SEDENA accepted all of the recommendations and affirmed its
    commitment to collaborating with CNDH on outstanding investigations.
    CNDH issued six recommendations to SEMAR, compared with one in 2009;
    SEMAR did not accept two of these recommendations and refused to
    cooperate with CNDH on cases related to the December 2009 operation
    against Arturo Beltran Leyva. CNDH also issued two recommendations to
    PGR and six to the Federal Police. All of these recommendations were
    accepted.
        SEDENA's general directorate for human rights investigates military
    personnel for violations of human rights identified by CNDH and is
    tasked with promoting a culture of respect for human rights within the
    institution. However, the directorate has no power to ensure
    allegations are properly tried and prosecuted. Human rights NGOs such
    as CenterProdh complained about a lack of access to the directorate and
    maintained it had done little to improve SEDENA's human rights
    performance.
        Despite a persistent lack of human rights-related prosecutions by
    military tribunals, SEDENA took steps to increase transparency on its
    handling of human rights cases. In July it inaugurated a human-rights
    page on its Web site, providing a partial listing of the status of
    military trials and their compliance with CNDH recommendations. SEDENA
    also arrested four soldiers and released their names in the media in
    conjunction with the September 5 killings of 15 year-old Alejandro
    Gabriel de Leon Castellanos and his father Vicente de Leon Ramirez at a
    military checkpoint in Nuevo Leon.
        In June SEDENA founded the Community Liaison Unit that focuses on
    regular community outreach and identifying the needs of civilians in
    areas where SEDENA has engaged in military operations. This unit
    initiated a program of town hall meetings in regions with military
    presence to establish a mechanism for outreach and a forum to receive
    feedback from the local population.
        CNDH provided human rights training to 17,656 military personnel
    during the year. SEDENA reported that during the year 5,136 soldiers
    participated in 33 courses centered on human rights, 70,016 officials
    attended 549 conferences, and 129,107 soldiers attended 1,653 lectures.
    Additionally, SEDENA routinely instructed its personnel to promote
    respect for human rights during operations.
        CNDH received 595 complaints during the year against the federal
    police, which upon investigation produced a finding of 384 violations
    in categories that included arbitrary detention (155), noncompliance
    with arrest warrant procedures (20), and cruel and inhuman treatment
    (169). More than half the complaints received were resolved by
    reorienting the complainant to the proper authority (281), suspending
    an investigation for lack of evidence (34), and reaching an amicable
    agreement (six). The SSP made amends to victims and adopted procedural
    measures to comply with its obligations after receiving 573 complaints
    involving violations pertaining to treatment in prison and nine related
    to arbitrary detention.
        During the year the SSP conducted 50 courses specifically on human
    rights or with modules pertaining to the topic, training a total of
    2,570 personnel. The SSP also worked with the International
    Organization for Migration and experts from the International Committee
    of the Red Cross to train federal police officers. Additionally, CNDH
    trained 7,851 SSP officials. The SSP in collaboration with the National
    Autonomous University of Mexico also continued to provide human rights
    training to federal police officers throughout the country. Separately,
    CNDH provided training to 5,378 PGR personnel.

        Arrest Procedures and Treatment While in Detention.--Only duly
    authorized officials are permitted to apprehend an individual; however,
    a warrant for arrest is not required if the official has reasonable
    suspicion about the person's involvement in a crime. Bail exists, but
    not for persons being held in connection with drug trafficking or other
    forms of organized crime. In most cases persons must be presented to a
    judge, along with sufficient evidence to justify their continued
    detention, within 48 hours of their arrest. According to many NGOs, in
    practice there were violations of this 48-hour provision. CNDH received
    346 complaints involving illegal detention, the 11th most common
    complaint submitted to the organization.
        In organized crime cases (involving three or more persons who
    organize for the purpose of committing certain crimes), suspects may be
    held for up to 96 hours before being presented to a judge. Only the
    federal judicial system can prosecute organized crime cases. However,
    recognizing the complex nature of organized crime, the constitution was
    amended to stipulate that, under a precautionary procedure known as
    ``arraigo,'' certain suspects may, with the approval of a judge, be
    detained for up to 80 days prior to the filing of formal charges.
    Without levying formal charges persons so detained are not entitled to
    legal representation and are not eligible to receive credit for time
    served if convicted. Human rights NGOs considered this form of pretrial
    detention a violation of due process that facilitated torture, and some
    groups alleged it was used to obtain forced confessions.
        In areas involving military operations against TCOs, SEDENA
    personnel detained individuals without the involvement of state or
    federal investigators with the authority to collect evidence for use in
    subsequent prosecutions. The PGR claimed it was not always notified in
    a timely manner of the detentions, which complicated efforts to
    prosecute and convict arrestees.
        In November 2009 the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
    (IACHR) held a special session on public safety and human rights in
    Tijuana and heard the cases of alleged torture and human rights abuses
    against prisoners held under arraigo by military members or police
    officers.
        In June 2009, 28th Infantry Battalion soldiers detained and
    allegedly tortured two former ministerial police officers from Baja
    California. Soldiers allegedly tried to force them to sign self-
    incriminatory confessions of extortion and crime participation, but
    they refused. The victims were sent to the II Military Zone
    installation (28th Infantry Battalion headquarters) by the Baja
    California state attorney, Rommel Moreno Manjarrez, and local internal
    affairs officers. The two former police officers presented a complaint
    to CNDH against II Military Zone commander General Jorge Alonso Garrido
    for allowing arbitrary detentions and torture; in the absence of a
    satisfactory response, they presented their case to the IACHR. By
    year's end the IACHR had not taken action on the case, nor was there
    information that the case had progressed in civilian or military
    courts.
        In July 2009 soldiers detained without formal charges 20 police
    officers from Nuevo Leon. The police officers were reportedly tortured
    and forced to admit they belonged to organized crime.
        While detainees usually were allowed prompt access to family
    members and to counsel, there were complaints that in some cases police
    held persons incommunicado for several days and made arrests
    arbitrarily and without a warrant. Human rights NGOs documented, and
    CNDH issued several recommendations confirming, that the army
    frequently detained civilians for extended periods before placing them
    at the disposition of civilian authorities.
        According to the King's College World Prison Brief, the prison
    population has grown by more than 90,000 since 1998. The same study
    states that 42.1 percent of the prison population has not been tried in
    court. According to the Mexican Center for Research and Teaching in
    Economics (CIDE), the average period for prisoners awaiting trial is
    two years and of those sentenced, 14 percent were declared innocent
    after having served time in prison, and 85 percent received sentences
    of less than five years. For many of these, the time spent in prison
    ultimately exceeded the sentence.
        The law provides time limits within which an accused person must be
    tried. However, due to caseloads that far exceeded the capacity of the
    federal judicial system and the fact that most state judicial systems
    still used the written inquisitorial criminal justice system, such time
    limits often were disregarded. CIDE and HRW reported that more than 40
    percent of prisoners have never been convicted of a crime but were held
    in pretrial detention, often for years, waiting for a trial. Pretrial
    release on bond is supported by the 2008 reforms, but in jurisdictions
    that have not implemented the reforms, it was available only in cases
    in which the charges were not considered a serious crime.

        e. Denial of Fair Public Trial.--Although the judiciary is
    independent, according to CIDE, court decisions were susceptible to
    improper influence by both private and public entities, particularly at
    the state and local level. Civil society organizations reported that
    corruption, inefficiency, and a lack of transparency continued to be
    major problems in the judiciary.
        International bodies have criticized the Government's failure to
    limit military jurisdiction over human rights cases. Article 13 of the
    constitution states that military jurisdiction applies to ``crimes
    against military discipline'' but that military tribunals have no
    jurisdiction over persons who do not belong to the military. However,
    article 57 of the military code of justice defines crimes against
    military discipline as ``state or common offenses that have been
    committed by active duty military.'' In practice civilian courts have
    generally ceded jurisdiction to the military in cases where military
    personnel stand accused of human rights violations committed against
    civilians (see Regional Human Rights Court Decisions below).
        In cases in which a member of the military is arrested by civil
    authorities, the military may request the immediate transfer of the
    case to military jurisdiction. Traditionally, civilian judicial
    authorities grant jurisdiction to the military in all cases involving
    soldiers. NGOs, such as CenterProdh, maintained that human rights abuse
    cases involving military personnel were not handled transparently by
    the military justice system, giving rise to concerns about impunity in
    these cases.

        Trial Procedures.--The civilian legal system is a hybrid system.
    While it incorporates some aspects of common law and accusatory-style
    systems, it draws primarily from traditional European code-based,
    inquisitorial systems. The 2008 constitutional criminal justice reforms
    mandated implementation of an oral adversarial system and the
    presumption of innocence by 2016. The military employs an inquisitorial
    legal system. SEDENA continued to move toward an oral accusatorial
    system.
        At year's end 10 states had passed legislation related to moving
    towards an oral, adversarial system and were at various stages of
    training and implementation, six states were legislating reforms, and
    seven states sought assistance to consider the reforms. Under the old
    system, still being used by the federal government, the federal
    district, and 22 states a typical trial consists of a series of fact-
    gathering hearings during which the court receives documentary evidence
    or testimony. A judge in chambers reviews the case file and then issues
    a final written ruling. The record of the proceeding is not available
    to the general public; only the parties involved have access to the
    official file and only by special motion.
        The 2008 constitutional criminal justice reform establishes that
    defendants enjoy a presumption of innocence; however, such rights are
    not provided for in jurisdictions that have not finished with reform
    implementation and are still operating under the inquisitorial system.
        The new constitutional reform provides for the right of the accused
    to attend the hearings and challenge the evidence or testimony
    presented, and the Government generally respected these rights in
    practice. In most cases court hearings were open to the public.
        While the law provides defendants with the right to an attorney at
    all stages of criminal proceedings, in practice this only meant that
    authorities had to appoint a ``person of confidence,'' who was not
    required to meet any particular legal qualifications, to represent a
    defendant. Because of the nascent implementation stage of the 2008
    reforms, not all public defenders had preparation and training to serve
    adequately on the defendants' behalf, and often the state public
    defender system was not adequate to meet demand. Public defender
    services were placed either in the judicial or executive branch; there
    rarely were autonomous public defender services. According to AI and
    CIDE, most criminal suspects did not receive representation until after
    they were placed under judicial authority, thus making individuals
    vulnerable to coercion to sign false statements before being presented
    to a judge.
        Although the law provides for translation services from Spanish to
    indigenous languages to be available at all stages of the criminal
    process, this generally was not done due to limited resources.
    Indigenous defendants who did not speak Spanish sometimes were unaware
    of the status of their cases, and some suspects were convicted without
    fully understanding the documents they were required to sign.
        On June 30, the Supreme Court freed 12 men who had been in prison
    for more than four years for alleged crimes that occurred in 2006
    during violent protests in San Salvador Atenco, Mexico State. The
    Supreme Court found that the evidence against them was insufficient and
    that state authorities had used the legal proceedings to punish
    political opposition and limit free speech.
        According to human rights NGOs, including HRW and AI, despite
    enactment of judicial reform legislation in June 2008, judges,
    particularly in areas that had not yet implemented the reforms,
    continued to allow statements coerced through torture to be used as
    evidence against the accused. Confessions were often the primary
    evidence in criminal convictions in these cases (see section 1.c.).
    NGOs asserted that judges often gave greater evidentiary value to the
    first declaration of a defendant given in the absence of legal
    representation. This provided prosecutors an incentive to obtain an
    incriminating first confession and made it difficult for defendants to
    disavow such declarations. For their part, law enforcement officials
    complained that defendants frequently made baseless claims of coerced
    confessions as a way to win acquittal.
        The 2008 justice reform, which facilitates transition to an oral
    trial system: establishes strict guidelines on the use of confessions,
    evidence, and expert testimony; allows consensual monitoring of
    telephone calls; and gives police more responsibility for conducting
    investigations. The reform stipulates that all hearings and trials must
    be conducted by a judge and under the principles of public access,
    immediacy, confrontation, and cross-examination, promoting greater
    transparency and allowing defendants to challenge their accusers.

        Regional Human Rights Court Decisions.--In a 2009 decision in the
    Rosendo Radilla Pacheco case, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights
    found the use of military courts to try human rights cases involving
    civilians deficient and issued a binding ruling calling for the country
    to evaluate and reform this process. The Inter-American Court of Human
    Rights called article 57 ``broad and imprecise,'' described it as
    ``incompatible with the Inter-American Convention on Human Rights,''
    and concluded that the Government ``should adopt corresponding
    legislative reforms.'' In March the UN Human Rights Committee observed
    that the country should amend its code of military justice ``to ensure
    that the jurisdiction of military courts does not extend to cases of
    human rights violations'' and that ``in no event may military courts
    judge cases where the victims are civilians.'' The executive branch
    presented a proposal for military justice code reform to Congress on
    October 18. The reform proposes that crimes of torture, rape, and
    forced disappearance be removed from the purview of the military
    justice system. Human rights groups criticized the Government's
    inclusion of only certain crimes in the reform instead of all human
    rights violations.
        In November 2009 the Inter-American Court of Human Rights found in
    the so-called Cotton Field case that the Government denied justice to
    and failed to prevent the deaths of Claudia Gonzalez, Esmeralda
    Herrera, and Berenice Ramos, whose bodies were found near Ciudad
    Juarez, Chihuahua, in 2001. The Government had provided compensation to
    the victims' families but had not complied with the court's ruling to
    investigate the case by year's end.
        In October the Inter-American Court of Human Rights ordered the
    Government to compensate Ines Fernandez Ortega and Valentina Rosendo
    Cantu, who were both abused in 2002 by soldiers in Guerrero State (see
    section 6, Indigenous People).
        On December 20, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights published
    its sentence in the case of Rodolfo Montiel and Teodoro Cabrera, ruling
    against Mexico for human rights violations committed in 1999 against
    the ecologists from the state of Guerrero, including violations of the
    rights to liberty, personal integrity, due process, and judicial
    protection. In its ruling the Court ordered the Government to carry
    out, within time periods set by the Court, specific reparation measures
    for the victims. It reiterated previous rulings and ordered the
    Government to remove human rights cases involving civilians from
    military jurisdiction.
        Numerous threats and attacks against members of the Organization of
    Indigenous Me'phaa People (OPIM) and OFPM prompted the Inter-American
    Court of Human Rights to order the Government in April 2009 to provide
    protective measures for 109 human rights defenders in Guerrero.
    According to local NGOs, this protection has not been forthcoming.

        Political Prisoners and Detainees.--There were no reports of
    political prisoners or detainees.

        Civil Judicial Procedures and Remedies.--There is an independent
    and impartial judiciary in civil matters, including access to a court
    to seek damages for a human rights violation. However, for a plaintiff
    to secure damages against a defendant, the defendant first must have
    been found guilty in a criminal case, which was a high standard in view
    of the relatively low number of individuals convicted of human rights
    abuses in the country.

        f. Arbitrary Interference With Privacy, Family, Home, or
    Correspondence.--Although the law prohibits such practices and requires
    search warrants, during the year CNDH received 729 complaints of
    illegal searches, most related to the country's fight against organized
    crime.

    Section 2. Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:
        a. Freedom of Speech and Press.--The law provides for freedom of
    speech and of the press, and the Government generally respected these
    rights in practice. Most newspapers and television and radio stations
    were privately owned, and the Government had minimal presence in the
    ownership of news media.
        Despite federal government support for freedom of the press, many
    journalists were the victims of increased threats, harassment, and
    violence. Reporters covering corrupt public officials and crime
    acknowledged practicing self-censorship, recognizing the danger
    investigative journalism posed to them and to their families. In an
    initial report following their August country review , the UN and
    Organization of American States special rapporteurs for the promotion
    and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression
    characterized the states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Durango, Guerrero,
    Michoacan, Nuevo Leon, Sinaloa, and Tamaulipas as ``completely silent''
    due to dramatic levels of media self-censorship. According to CNDH,
    during the year nine journalists were killed and four disappeared. CNDH
    reported that 66 journalists have been killed and 12 disappeared since
    2000.
        The PGR's Office of the Special Prosecutor for Crimes Against
    Journalists accepted jurisdiction over 61 cases during the year, 28 of
    which were found to be lacking in evidence and 33 of which were
    investigated or remain under investigation. In October the Government
    announced an initiative to provide protection to journalists. NGOs
    Article 19 and the National Center of Social Communication criticized
    the mechanism's lack of funding, insufficient consultation with civil
    society, and reliance on local, rather than federal, authorities for
    protection responsibilities. CNDH issued five recommendations on crimes
    against journalists during the year.
        On June 28, unidentified gunmen killed two journalists in a small
    town near Acapulco, Guerrero--Juan Francisco Rodrigues Cortez and his
    wife, Maria Elvira Hernandez Galeana. Rodriguez Cortes was a reporter
    for the local newspaper, El Sol de Acapulco, and the secretary general
    of the local chapter of the National Union of Press Editors. He and his
    wife also edited a local weekly newspaper.
        On July 6, journalist Hugo Alfredo Olivera Cartas was found dead in
    his vehicle on the outskirts of Apatzingan, Michoacan. Olivera owned
    and published the Apatzingan newspaper, El Dia de Michoacan, operated a
    small local news agency, served as local correspondent for La Voz de
    Michoacan, and collaborated with the Quadratin news agency. He
    specialized in covering crime in the Apatzingan area.
        On July 9, a group of unidentified armed men abducted and killed
    Marco Aurelio Martinez Tijerina in Montemorelos, Nuevo Leon. Martinez
    was the producer and presenter of a local radio news program that
    covered various issues, including local politics.
        On July 26, kidnappers later identified as members of the Sinaloa
    Cartel abducted four journalists in the state of Durango. Reportedly
    unhappy with the media's coverage of alleged cooperation between cartel
    members and police at a jail in Durango, they instructed media outlets
    to broadcast videos implicating rival cartels in the incident. Several
    channels eventually broadcast the unedited TCO videos, and all four
    journalists were subsequently released or rescued by police.
        On August 7, hundreds of journalists demonstrated in several states
    against the violence and impunity associated with crimes against the
    press. The protest called for unity among journalists and criticized
    the Government for its lack of progress on the investigations of 66
    members of the press killed and 12 missing since 2000. The journalists
    declared the Office of the Special Prosecutor for Crimes against
    Journalists ineffective, claiming that it had brought criminal charges
    in only three of the 88 cases under consideration in the past four
    years.
        On September 16, gunmen ambushed two employees of the Ciudad Juarez
    newspaper El Diario. A new photographer at the paper, Luis Carlos
    Santiago, died, and an intern was seriously wounded. The newspaper
    subsequently published a front-page editorial, asking cartels to
    ``explain what you want from us, what we should publish or not publish,
    so we know what to expect.''
        In September the PGR announced the arrest of two persons who may
    have been involved in the killing of journalist Armando Rodriguez
    Carreon, a veteran police reporter with the newspaper El Diario, which
    took place in 2008 in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua.
        The 2006 killing of Bradley Will, a documentary filmmaker and
    independent journalist who was shot while documenting civil unrest in
    Oaxaca, remained under investigation. Pursuant to a December 2009
    ruling by a federal judge, Juan Manuel Martinez Moreno, the only
    suspect in the case, was released in February, and jurisdiction over
    the case was transferred to Oaxaca state authorities.
        The law does not provide a legal framework for issuing permits to
    nongovernmental and noncommercial community radio stations. According
    to Article 19, the Government closed down at least one community radio
    station in Chiapas.
        Although defamation, libel, and slander are not federal offenses,
    17 states have criminal libel laws making journalists vulnerable to
    threats of imprisonment at the state level.

        Internet Freedom.--There were no government restrictions on access
    to the Internet or reports that the Government monitored e-mail or
    Internet chat rooms. Individuals and groups could engage in the
    peaceful expression of views via the Internet, including by e-mail. The
    International Telecommunication Union reported that there were
    approximately 28 Internet users per 100 inhabitants.
        There were no documented instances of the Government collecting
    personally identifiable information.

        Academic Freedom and Cultural Events.--There were no government
    restrictions on academic freedom or cultural events.

        b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association.--The law provides
    for freedom of assembly and association, and the Government generally
    respected these rights in practice.

        c. Freedom of Religion.--For a complete description of religious
    freedom, please see the 2010 International Religious Freedom Report at
    www.state.gov/g/drl/irf/rpt.

        d. Freedom of Movement, Internally Displaced Persons, Protection of
    Refugees, and Stateless Persons.--The law provides for freedom of
    movement within the country, foreign travel, emigration, and
    repatriation, and the Government respected these rights in practice.
    However, according to several NGOs including AI, in the course of its
    operations the army occasionally restricted freedom of movement. The
    Government cooperated with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees
    (UNHCR) and other humanitarian organizations in providing protection
    and assistance to internally displaced persons, refugees, returning
    refugees, asylum seekers, stateless persons, and other persons of
    concern. The law does not permit forced exile, and it was not
    practiced.

        Protection of Refugees.--The laws provide for the granting of
    asylum or refugee status, and the Government has established a system
    for providing protection to refugees.
        In practice the Government provided protection against the
    expulsion or return of refugees to countries where their lives or
    freedom would be threatened on account of their race, religion,
    nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political
    opinion. The Government provided temporary protection to individuals
    who may not have qualified as refugees under the 1951 Convention and
    its 1967 Protocol; however, there were no available reports that it
    received such requests during the year.
        Pursuant to its 2008 migration agreement with Cuba, the country
    repatriated 154 undocumented Cubans.

    Section 3. Respect for Political Rights: The Right of Citizens to
            Change Their Government
        The law provides citizens the right to change their government
    peacefully, and citizens exercised this right in practice through
    periodic, free, and fair elections held on the basis of universal
    suffrage. There were occasional cases of criminal-style killings that
    had apparent political motivations (see section 1.a.).

        Elections and Political Participation.--The closely contested
    presidential and congressional elections of 2006, in which Felipe
    Calderon was elected president to a six-year term, were considered
    generally free and fair by the majority of neutral observers, including
    EU representatives and local and international civil society
    organizations. On July 4, local legislative and gubernatorial
    elections, which took place in select states, were free of significant
    violence or claims of fraud.
        The law prohibits all public and private funding of political
    advertisements on television or radio outside of time slots established
    by individual states. It also requires placement of all political
    campaign advertisements through the Federal Elections Institute (IFE)
    and stipulates allocation of broadcast time among registered political
    parties based on their share of the vote in the most recent election.
    The law also prohibits negative campaign messages and establishes
    public spending limits for presidential elections. Recognition as a
    national political party by IFE is based on having won at least 2
    percent of the vote in the previous national election.
        There were 27 women in the 128-seat Senate and 135 women in the
    500-seat lower house. Two female justices sat on the 11-member Supreme
    Court, and there were three women in the 19-member cabinet. Many state
    electoral codes provide that no more than 70 to 80 percent of
    candidates can be of the same gender. All political parties continued
    their efforts to increase the number of women running for elected
    office. Some utilized quotas requiring that a certain percentage of
    candidates on a party list be female.
        There were no established quotas for increased participation of
    indigenous groups in the legislative body, and no reliable statistics
    were available regarding minority participation in government. The law
    provides for the right of indigenous people to elect representatives to
    local office according to ``usages and customs'' law, rather than
    federal and state electoral law. Traditional customs varied by village.
    In some villages women did not have the right to vote or hold office;
    in others they could vote but not hold office.

    Section 4. Official Corruption and Government Transparency
        The law provides criminal penalties for official corruption;
    however, the World Bank's Worldwide Governance Indicators and other
    indices reflected that corruption remained a problem at all levels of
    government, as some public officials continued to perpetrate
    bureaucratic abuses and some criminal acts with impunity. Corruption at
    the most basic level involved paying bribes for routine services or in
    lieu of fines to administrative officials and security forces. More
    sophisticated and less apparent forms of corruption included overpaying
    for goods and services to provide payment to elected officials and
    political parties.
        By the end of the year, 16 SSP and PGR officials had been indicted
    for corruption since the Government launched Operation Cleanup in 2008;
    however, none had been convicted. During the year the Customs Agency
    relieved more than 700 employees and replaced them with vetted
    officials.
        President Calderon remarked in speeches in March and October that
    corruption was a serious problem in the police forces and a primary
    reason for the use of the military in the domestic counternarcotics
    fight. CNDH reported that police, especially at the state and local
    level, were involved in kidnapping, extortion, and in providing
    protection for, or acting directly on behalf of, organized crime and
    drug traffickers. Local forces in particular tended to be poorly
    compensated and directly pressured by criminal groups, leaving them
    most vulnerable to infiltration. According to a 2009 HRW report,
    impunity was pervasive, contributing to the continued reluctance of
    many victims to file complaints. Responsibility for investigating
    federal police criminal abuse falls under the purview of the PGR or the
    Secretariat of Public Administration, depending on the type of offense.
        In May SIEDO arrested Gregorio Sanchez, the mayor of Cancun, and a
    federal judge charged him with money laundering, drug trafficking, and
    cooperating with drug traffickers. Officials at Cancun's municipal jail
    have been connected repeatedly with TCOs, and jail director Alberto
    Rojas Garcia was dismissed on September 15 amid allegations that he
    provided assistance to the perpetrators of the August 31 bombing of a
    Cancun nightclub.
        Other high-profile instances of corruption included the September
    incident involving congressman-elect Julio Cesar Godoy, who had been a
    fugitive for 15 months but was able to elude authorities by taking his
    oath in Congress and obtaining parliamentary immunity. According to
    public prosecutors, Godoy was in charge of providing institutional
    protection to La Familia. On December 14, however, Congress voted to
    remove this immunity. At year's end Godoy remained at large.
        Migration officials were implicated in a number of cases involving
    crimes against migrants and human trafficking. In December Oscar Manuel
    Navarrete Orozco and his wife Maria America Maldonado Alfaro, both
    former migration officials arrested in 2007, received prison sentences
    of 12 and eight years, respectively, for their role in operating a
    migrant smuggling ring.
        Despite significant institutional and regulatory changes increasing
    government transparency, access to information continued to be
    difficult in some states. The Federal Institute of Access to Public
    Information (IFAI), the agency responsible for information requests,
    received more than 120,000 such requests during the year. All states
    have laws complying with the 2007 constitutional reforms regarding
    access to information and have signed a formal agreement with IFAI to
    make the information system on government operations, Infomex,
    available for petitions for state government information.
        In September IFAI ordered SEDENA to make public information related
    to the 1998 military operation ``El Charco'' in Guerrero, in which 11
    persons, including one student, were killed and 22 persons were
    detained for four years for rebellion. SEDENA refused to comply with
    the order, claiming that the original request had come from an
    individual without residence in the country.
        In July CNDH brought a case before the Supreme Court challenging
    the PGR's right to withhold information from CNDH. This dispute stemmed
    from an unresolved conflict in the law under which CNDH should have
    access to all information it needs to fulfill its human rights mandate
    and investigate serious cases, while the PGR claims the right under law
    to withhold information on cases under investigation. At year's end the
    court had not ruled.
        To better manage the corruption problem, in January 2009 the
    Government enacted legislation establishing a four-year deadline to vet
    personnel in all of the country's 2,600 police forces using a series of
    testing mechanisms. The legislation requires all police forces to meet
    certain compensation and training standards and it makes it easier for
    authorities to fire corrupt or unfit officers. On August 30, 3,600 of
    the 34,500 Federal Police officers were dismissed after failing to
    perform their duties or engaging in criminal misconduct. An additional
    1,020 police officers were placed under investigation for failing the
    vetting process.
        Internal controls and vetting processes were applied to new SSP
    entrants and incrementally expanded to existing staff. SSP managed the
    ``Kardex Police'' registry, which provides a database of police at all
    levels whose records, including misdeeds, are catalogued. SSP expanded
    the Intranet-based communications platform, Plataforma Mexico, allowing
    for communication and coordination with federal and some state and
    local police throughout the country. At both federal and state levels,
    authorities provided for the establishment of Citizen Participation
    Councils (CPCs) to address citizen complaints about police and other
    justice system actors. The Government's efforts to increase
    transparency through the Office of the Attorney General's CPC at
    national and state levels incorporate and institutionalize processes
    for receiving, addressing, and resolving citizen concerns. CPCs created
    ``observatories'' to monitor criminal justice and security issues. They
    developed and launched two Web sites, a toll-free hotline, and the
    awareness campaign called ``Somos Mas'' to promote the online
    registration of citizen complaints. However, as noted by the Washington
    Office on Latin America and a number of human rights NGOs, citizen
    participation is limited to presenting complaints, and no clear
    mechanisms have been established for citizen participation in the
    design, implementation, and evaluation of public security policies.

    Section 5. Governmental Attitude Regarding International and
            Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations of Human
            Rights
        A wide variety of domestic and international human rights groups
    generally operated without government restriction, investigating and
    publishing their findings on human rights cases. The Government made
    periodic attempts to engage civil society, particularly on security
    issues but also on human rights issues, by encouraging civil society's
    participation in policy debates and allowing individuals to register
    complaints. While some NGOs reported improved engagement with the
    Secretariat of Government, they also expressed frustration over the
    difficulty to engage in constructive human rights discussions with
    military officials.
        CNDH is the autonomous agency created by the Government and funded
    by the legislature to monitor and act on human rights violations and
    abuses. It can call upon government authorities to impose
    administrative sanctions or pursue criminal charges against officials,
    but it cannot impose legal sanctions itself. Whenever the relevant
    authority accepts a CNDH recommendation, CNDH is required to follow up
    with the authority to ensure that it is, in fact, carrying out the
    recommendation. CNDH sends a request to the authority asking for
    evidence of their compliance. CNDH then reports this follow-up
    information in its annual report. When authorities fail to accept a
    recommendation, CNDH publicly condemns the authority to show their lack
    of respect for human rights. NGOs and international organizations often
    draw attention to the failure of the country's institutions to comply
    with or even accept CNDH recommendations.
        NGOs generally praised CNDH for its investigations into alleged
    human rights violations but criticized its inability to bring
    sufficient pressure to bear upon the Government to comply with
    recommendations.
        Each of the 31 states plus the federal district has a state human
    rights commission, which maintains autonomy from CNDH.
        The UN and NGOs reported harassment of human rights defenders.
    According to a November update by the Office of the UN High
    Commissioner on Human Rights (OHCHR), from September 2009 to October
    2010, there were 37 attacks against human rights activists but only
    three prosecutions. The report criticized government authorities for
    the lack of comprehensive policies to reduce and eliminate the risks
    faced by human rights activists and recommended that the Government
    establish a national mechanism for protection of human rights
    defenders. NGOs maintained that state and municipal authorities
    harassed defenders. Due to continued threats against its staff, the
    Tlachinollan Mountain Center for Human Rights in Guerrero had not
    reopened its office in Ayutla by year's end. The Inter-American Court
    on Human Rights ordered protective measures for five human rights
    defenders during the year.

    Section 6. Discrimination, Societal Abuses, and Trafficking in Persons
        The law prohibits discrimination based on race, gender, disability,
    language, or social status. While the Government continued to make
    progress enforcing these provisions, significant problems, particularly
    violence against women, persisted.

        Women.--The law criminalizes rape, including spousal rape, and
    imposes penalties of up to 20 years' imprisonment. However, rape
    victims rarely filed complaints with police, in part because of the
    authorities' ineffective and unsupportive responses to victims, the
    victims' fear of publicity, and a perception that prosecution of cases
    was unlikely. Human rights organizations asserted that authorities did
    not take seriously reports of rape, and victims continued to be
    socially stigmatized and ostracized.
        Federal law prohibits domestic violence, including spousal abuse,
    and stipulates fines equal to 30 to 180 days' pay and detention for up
    to 36 hours; actual sentences, however, were normally lenient. This
    countrywide law obligates federal and local authorities to prevent,
    punish, and eradicate violence against women. Nevertheless, according
    to the NGO Citizen Femicide Observatory (Observatorio Ciudadano de
    Feminicidios), domestic violence was pervasive and mostly unreported.
        State-level laws sanctioning domestic violence are weak. Seven
    states do not criminalize it, and 15 states punish it only when it is a
    repeated offense. According to a survey conducted by the National
    Institute of Public Health in several of the country's rural and
    indigenous communities, victims did not report abuses for a variety of
    reasons, including fear of spousal reprisal, shame, and the view that
    the abuse did not merit filing a complaint.
        The 2006 National Survey on Household Relationships, the most
    recent such survey completed, suggested that 67 percent of women over
    age 15 had suffered some abusive treatment. According to the Citizen
    Femicide Observatory, more than 1,700 girls and women were killed
    between January 2009 and June 2010. According to statistics from the
    Government of the state of Mexico, femicides have increased in the
    state each year. With 225 cases during the year, the number of
    femicides has more than doubled since 2005.
        According to the National Institute of Statistics and Geography,
    Mexico City and the 12 states of Chihuahua, Nuevo Leon, Sinaloa,
    Sonora, Tamaulipas, Mexico, Guanajuato, Jalisco, Morelos, Tlaxcala,
    Tabasco, and Yucatan experienced high rates of alleged gender-driven
    homicide.
        FEVIMTRA--a PGR office staffed by 19 legal, administrative, and
    technical support professionals--is responsible for leading government
    programs to combat domestic violence and trafficking in persons. Its
    work includes prosecuting the crimes, raising awareness with potential
    victims and government officials, and providing the only government
    shelter for trafficking victims. With only five lawyers dedicated to
    federal cases of violence against women and trafficking countrywide,
    FEVIMTRA faced challenges in moving from investigations to convictions.
        INMUJERES, the federal government institution charged with
    directing national policy to achieve equality of opportunity between
    men and women, reported that its national hotline established under the
    National Plan for a Life without Violence received 70,761 calls during
    the year. Although there were approximately 70 government-funded
    shelters, civil society and women's rights groups maintained most
    available shelters.
        The country was a destination for sex tourists. There are no laws
    specifically prohibiting sex tourism, although federal law criminalizes
    corruption of minors, for which the penalty is five to 10 years'
    imprisonment.
        Federal law prohibits sexual harassment and provides for fines of
    up to 40 days' minimum salary, but victims must press charges. Sexual
    harassment is criminalized in 26 of the 31 states and in the federal
    district; 22 of these states have provisions for punishment when the
    perpetrator has a position of power. According to INMUJERES, sexual
    harassment in the workplace was widespread, but victims were reluctant
    to come forward, and cases were difficult to prove.
        Couples and individuals have the legal right to decide the number,
    spacing, and timing of children and have the information and means to
    do so free from discrimination. However, services, information, and
    public policies in the area of reproductive health were limited.
    Despite the existence of a national family planning program, the lack
    of sex education and contraceptives in public hospitals and rural areas
    undermined the Government's commitment to reproductive rights.
        In 2009 INMUJERES reported that 72.5 percent of women use some form
    of contraception. Information on maternal health was available at
    public and private health clinics and online at the Health
    Secretariat's Web site. Skilled attendants at delivery and in
    postpartum care were widely available except in some marginalized
    areas. According to INMUJERES the estimated maternal mortality rate in
    2008 was 57.23 per 100,000 live births. Women and men were given equal
    access to diagnostic services and treatment for sexually transmitted
    infections, including HIV.
        The law provides women the same rights and obligations as men and
    ``equal pay ... for equal work performed in equal jobs, hours of work,
    and conditions of efficiency.'' According to INMUJERES, during the year
    women earned on average 8.2 percent less than men for comparable work;
    however, in some occupations the disparity reached 51 percent.
        The law provides labor protection for pregnant women. According to
    the Information Group on Reproductive Rights, some employers reportedly
    sought to avoid this law by requiring pregnancy tests in pre-employment
    physicals and by continuing to make inquiries into a woman's
    reproductive status.

        Children.--The country provided universal birth registration in
    principle, with citizenship derived both by birth within the country's
    territory and from one's parents.
        Citizens generally registered the birth of newborns with local
    authorities. In some instances government officials visited private
    health institutions to facilitate the process. Failure to register
    births could result in the denial of public services, such as education
    or health care, to children living in communities where such services
    were in any event not widely available. The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF)
    country office survey data for 2000 estimated--based on the total
    population of children under the age of five when the survey was
    taken--that 90 percent or more of these children were registered at
    birth.
        Child marriage has historically remained a problem, although there
    were no statistics available for the year. The minimum marital age in
    the country is 14 for girls and 16 for boys with parental consent, and
    18 without parental consent. UNICEF estimated that in 2008--the latest
    year for which information was available--approximately 19.2 percent of
    women and 4.5 percent of males married before the age of 18.
        The antitrafficking law prohibits the commercial sexual
    exploitation of children. UNICEF reported that 16,000 children were
    involved in commercial sex exploitation. NGOs CEIDAS, Casa Alianza, and
    the National Network of Shelters reported that sex tourism and sexual
    exploitation of minors were significant problems in resort towns and
    northern border areas.
        The country does not have a statutory rape law, but it has laws
    against corruption of a minor, child pornography, and sexual tourism
    that apply to victims under 18 years of age. For the crimes of selling,
    distributing, or promoting pornography to a minor, the law stipulates a
    prison term of six months to five years and a fine of 300 to 500 times
    the daily minimum wage. For the crime of involving minors in acts of
    sexual exhibitionism, the law mandates seven to 12 years in prison and
    a fine of 800 to 2,500 times the daily minimum wage. The production,
    facilitation, reproduction, distribution, sale, and purchase of child
    pornography carries a punishment of seven to 12 years in prison and a
    fine of 800 to 2,000 times the daily minimum wage. Perpetrators who
    promote, publicize, or facilitate sexual tourism involving minors face
    seven to 12 years in prison and a fine of 800 to 2,000 times the daily
    minimum wage. For those involved in sexual tourism who commit a sexual
    act with a minor, the law requires a 12- to 18-year prison sentence and
    a fine of 2,000 to 3,000 times the daily minimum wage. The crime of
    sexual exploitation of a minor carries an eight- to 15-year prison
    sentence and a fine of 1,000 to 2,500 times the daily minimum wage.
        The country is a party to the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil
    Aspects of International Child Abduction. For information on
    international parental child abduction, please see the Department of
    State's annual report on compliance at http://travel.state.gov/
    abduction/resources/congressreport/congressreport--4308.html as well as
    country-specific information at http://travel.state.gov/abduction/
    country/country--3781.html.

        Anti-Semitism.--There were no reports of anti-Semitic acts. The
    Jewish community numbered approximately 50,000 persons.

        Trafficking in Persons.--For information on trafficking in persons,
    please see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons
    Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        Persons With Disabilities.--Although the law prohibits
    discrimination against persons with physical and mental disabilities in
    employment, education, access to health care, and the provision of
    other services, the Government did not effectively enforce all these
    stipulations. Public buildings and facilities in Mexico City did not
    comply with the law requiring access for persons with disabilities,
    although the federal government stated that entrances, exits, and
    hallways in all of its offices were accessible to persons with
    disabilities. The education system provided special education for
    approximately 341,000 of an estimated two million students with
    disabilities; only 45 percent of the country's municipalities provided
    special education.
        In the 2000 census, 1.8 percent of the population reported having a
    disability, 72.6 percent of whom lived in urban areas. According to the
    National Commission for Persons with Disabilities, of children with
    disabilities between the ages of six and 14, 62.6 percent attended
    school, compared with 91.3 percent for those in the same age range
    without disabilities. Only 3.6 percent of the overall population with
    disabilities had finished university; 95.2 percent of all persons with
    disabilities had access to public or private health care. CNDH received
    21 complaints of discrimination against persons with physical
    disabilities and three complaints of discrimination against persons
    with mental disabilities.
        The secretary of health collaborated with the secretaries of social
    development, labor, and public education, as well as with the Integral
    Development of the Family (DIF) and the Office for the Promotion and
    Social Integration of the Disabled, to protect the rights of persons
    with disabilities. The Government established offices and programs for
    the social integration of persons with disabilities, including a
    program to enhance job opportunities and launch an online portal to
    disseminate information and assistance. One popular and well-known
    program, spearheaded by the Humanitarian Foundation for Aid for the
    Handicapped, employed approximately 70 wheelchair users in the Mexico
    City airport. The program proved highly successful and was expanding
    across the country.
        Nevertheless, in a 2010 study, Disability Rights International
    found widespread human rights abuses in mental institutions across the
    country, including lack of access to justice, the use of physical and
    chemical restraints and lobotomies on patients, and trafficking of
    children with mental disabilities. According to the Latin American
    Network of NGOs for Disabled Individuals and their Families, 14 percent
    of workers with disabilities did not receive a salary and 22.6 percent
    earned below the minimum wage.

        Indigenous People.--CNDH and the Secretariat of Indigenous Peoples
    in Chiapas acknowledged that indigenous communities have long been
    socially and economically marginalized and subjected to discrimination,
    particularly in the central and southern regions, where indigenous
    persons sometimes represented more than one-third of the total state
    population. In the state of Chiapas, the NGOs Fray Bartolome de las
    Casas (FrayBa) and SiPaz argued that indigenous peoples' ability to
    participate in decisions affecting their lands, cultural traditions,
    and allocation of natural resources was negligible.
        Indigenous groups reported that the country's legal framework
    neither respected, nor prevented violations of, the property rights of
    indigenous communities. Communities and NGOs representing indigenous
    groups reported that the Government did not consult indigenous
    communities adequately when making decisions about development project
    implementation on indigenous land.
        Indigenous persons did not live on autonomous reservations,
    although some indigenous communities exercised considerable local
    control over economic, political, and social matters. In Oaxaca State,
    for example, 70 percent of the 570 municipalities were governed
    according to the indigenous regime of ``usages and customs,'' which did
    not follow democratic norms such as the secret ballot, universal
    suffrage, and political affiliation. These communities applied
    traditional practices to resolve disputes, chose local officials, and
    collected taxes without federal or state government interference. While
    such practices allowed communities to elect officials according to
    their traditions, usages and customs laws generally excluded women from
    the political process and often infringed on the rights of women and
    religious minorities.
        A conflict between factions of the Triqui indigenous group in
    Oaxaca led to the besieging of the town of San Juan Copala, which was
    blockaded by armed paramilitaries. On April 27, an armed group in
    Oaxaca attacked and killed two members of a humanitarian aid mission
    travelling on the road to the town. The delegation, which sought to
    deliver aid and document human rights violations against the Triquis,
    included NGO members, human rights defenders, and international human
    rights observers from Germany, Belgium, Finland, and Italy. Beatriz
    Alberta Carino, director of the CACTUS organization community radio
    group, and Jyri Antero Jaakkola, a Finnish observer, were killed during
    the attack. The incident remained under investigation with no known
    results at year's end.
        The Government generally showed respect for the desire of
    indigenous persons to retain elements of their traditional culture. The
    law provides protections for indigenous persons.
        The law provides for educational instruction in the national
    language, Spanish, without prejudice to the protection and promotion of
    indigenous languages. However, many indigenous children spoke only
    their native languages. In practice education in indigenous languages
    was limited by the lack of textbooks and teaching materials, as well as
    the lack of qualified teachers fluent in these languages.
        During the year CNDH received 132 complaints about human rights
    abuses of the indigenous population; by year's end it concluded
    investigations into 134 complaints and 35 remained pending. Most
    complaints pertained to a lack of interpreters and discriminatory
    practices by government officials.
        NGOs such as FrayBa and SiPaz reported that state authorities and
    nongovernmental actors harassed and abused indigenous human rights
    defenders.
        In 2009 the Tlachinollan Mountain Human Rights Center closed one of
    its offices in Ayutla de los Libres, Guerrero, because of threats and a
    climate of insecurity toward indigenous rights activists, and the
    office remained closed during the year.
        UNHCR and AI criticized the Government for arbitrarily detaining
    and imprisoning some indigenous members of the OPIM. In 2008
    authorities detained and charged OPIM members with the murder of
    Alejandro Feliciano Garcia, an army informant, in the town of El
    Camalote, Guerrero. The Tlachinollan Mountain Center for Human Rights
    defended the five in court and eventually secured the release of all,
    most recently Raul Hernandez in August.
        During the year AI documented cases of intimidation and harassment
    of OPIM and OFPM indigenous members, including the intimidation of
    human rights defender Raul Hernandez in Guerrero following his August
    release from prison.
        In October the Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruled on the
    cases of OPIM members Valentina Rosendo Cantu and Ines Fernandez
    Ortega, indigenous women whom soldiers allegedly detained arbitrarily
    and raped in separate incidents in 2002. The Inter-American Court of
    Human Rights decision ordered the military to compensate the victims
    and their families, who have complained of harassment and intimidation
    by soldiers in the area since the court accepted the cases in 2006. In
    2008 the brother of Ines Fernandez Ortega was found dead in Ayutla de
    los Libres, Guerrero, and in August 2009 her daughter was reportedly
    accosted and threatened by men in Ayutla.
        The OHCHR, as well as NGOs AI, SiPaz, and RedTDT, reported that
    Chiapas-based human rights defender Margarita Martinez and NGO FrayBa
    received death threats on November 24 in connection with their work on
    human rights for indigenous groups in Chiapas.

        Societal Abuses, Discrimination, and Acts of Violence Based on
    Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.--While society increasingly
    accepted homosexual conduct, CNDH and the National Center to Prevent
    and Control HIV/AIDS stated that discrimination persisted. According to
    the National Center and the Mexican Foundation for Family Planning,
    societal discrimination based on sexual orientation was common,
    reflected principally in entertainment media programs and everyday
    attitudes. Activists organized gay pride marches in cities across the
    country; the largest, in which 400,000 persons participated, was held
    in June in Mexico City. In December 2009 Mexico City legalized gay
    marriage and adoption, which took effect in March. In August the
    Supreme Court ruled that all 31 states were required to recognize gay
    marriages conducted in states that permitted it and upheld a law that
    allows gay couples in the capital to adopt children.

        Other Societal Violence or Discrimination.--CNDH reported that
    police, immigration officers, and customs officials violated the rights
    of undocumented migrants and failed to provide for their safety. In
    August 72 migrants were kidnapped and killed in Tamaulipas, reportedly
    by TCO members, provoking the Government to implement an interagency
    plan to address violence against and exploitation of migrants traveling
    through the country. Another 50 migrants were reportedly kidnapped in
    Oaxaca in December.
        There were no known developments in the 2007 cases of Jose
    Alejandro Solalinde, a priest and activist for migrant rights, and 18
    Central American migrants who were reportedly beaten and detained for
    seven hours by police officers in Ixtepc, Oaxaca. Solalinde continued
    to receive threats; in April CNDH and the Inter-American Commission on
    Human Rights ordered protective measures for the priest and his migrant
    shelter. In December he reported receiving threats from Zetas and the
    Mara 13 gangs who threatened to enter the shelter by force to take 15
    migrants who had escaped from them earlier that month. Undocumented
    migrants rarely filed charges in abuse cases because the authorities
    generally deported such persons who came to their attention. The INM
    operated 48 detention centers specifically for undocumented migrants
    with a total capacity of 3,913. CNDH had an office in each of these
    facilities to monitor compliance for respect of detainee human rights.
        In 2008 CNDH issued recommendations to SEMAR and SEDENA for
    discrimination against military members with HIV. SEDENA accepted the
    recommendations and reported that the officials involved remained on
    duty, receiving pay and medical attention; SEMAR did not accept the
    recommendation and did not take further action.

    Section 7. Worker Rights
        a. The Right of Association.--Federal law provides workers the
    right to form and join trade unions, and workers exercised this right
    in practice, but enforcement of this law continued to be weak.
    Approximately 10 percent of the country's workforce was organized, and
    many observers noted that a majority of organized workers belonged to
    unrepresentative unions. According to the National Institute of
    Statistics, during the year there were approximately 47 million workers
    in the workforce, with between 15 and 20 million in the formal sector,
    defined as those paying taxes and receiving benefits from the IMSS. The
    country's official unemployment rate was an estimated 5 percent, and
    its underemployment rate was approximately 9 percent, but unofficial
    estimates for unemployment as well as underemployment were much higher.
    The youth unemployment rates reached 9.2 percent in September, and the
    so-called ``ni-nis''--youth ages 14 to 25 who neither work nor study--
    became a serious political discussion. The topic of informal sector
    employment also generated discussion, with the Government estimating
    that 26 percent of the workforce to be employed in the informal economy
    (those who do not pay taxes or receive benefits from IMSS). However,
    private think tanks estimated such informal employment to be 64
    percent.
        Approximately 10 percent of the formal sector was unionized. By law
    20 workers may formally register an independent union. However,
    administrative procedures for registration remained complex and
    burdensome, and government labor boards frequently rejected independent
    union registration applications on technicalities. A new union also
    must often challenge the existing union, if one exists, for control of
    the collective bargaining contract. Union organizers from several
    sectors complained about the overt and usually hostile involvement of
    the Government in their attempts to develop independent unions.
    Credible reports continued to note the use of officially sanctioned
    protection contracts, which consisted of an informal agreement whereby
    the company supported an unrepresentative union (i.e., not chosen
    democratically by workers) in exchange for labor peace. Exclusion
    clauses in these protection contracts gave promanagement unions the
    right to prevent the formation of an authentic union by expelling
    agitators from the ``official'' union, thereby obliging the company to
    fire these individuals. Some fired workers accused unions of harassment
    and intimidation. The Government's general failure to enforce labor and
    other laws left workers without much recourse with regard to violations
    of freedom of association by employers or unions, working conditions,
    or other problems. Workers were reportedly frequently expelled from
    official unions for trying to organize their colleagues. An
    international human rights organization also reported that workers who
    sought to form independent unions risked losing their jobs, as
    inadequate laws and poor enforcement generally failed to protect them
    from retaliatory dismissals.
        Elections for union leaders were traditionally not secret, despite
    a 2008 Supreme Court decision requiring their confidentiality. Union
    managers and officials were usually present with the presiding labor
    board official when workers openly declared their individual votes, and
    workers continued to face intimidation in the voting process.
        The Sindicato Mexicano de Electricistas (SME) continued to seek
    legal existence after the Mexican government shut down its employer,
    Luz y Fuerza del Centro, after it was incorporated into the national
    power company Comision Federal de Electricidad in October 2009. During
    the year the SME faced a series of legal setbacks but remained
    militant. In December the SME held elections in which the de facto
    leader became the de jure leader. The leadership was granted official
    government recognition, and the union promised to keep fighting until
    its workers were employed again as public servants in the electricity
    industry.
        The law provides for the right to strike in both the public and
    private sector, and workers exercised this right. However, only
    officially recognized unions may call for a strike. Before a strike may
    be considered legal, a union must receive approval of a strike notice
    from the appropriate labor authorities. Independent union activists
    claim that this ``government veto'' on strikes gives authorities the
    power to show favoritism by determining which companies will be
    protected from strikes. Although few formal strikes actually occurred,
    informal stoppages of work by both union and nonunionized groups were
    fairly common. In the reporting period, 11 strikes were launched, and
    all but one was resolved.

        b. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively.--The law
    provides for the right to organize and bargain collectively, but the
    Government did not consistently protect this right. Collective
    bargaining agreements covered approximately 10 percent of workers.
        The use of so-called protection contracts by employers continued to
    expand and was common in all sectors. Such contracts were collective
    bargaining agreements negotiated between management and a non-
    representative union. These contracts were often developed prior to the
    hiring of a single worker at a new job site and managed without direct
    input from workers. Collective bargaining agreements resulting from
    protection contracts usually failed to provide workers benefits beyond
    the legal minimum and impeded the rights of legally recognized
    independent unions to effectively and legitimately bargain collectively
    on behalf of workers. Individuals and non-representative union leaders
    involved in the development of protection contracts took advantage of
    the lack of awareness of worker rights by the Mexican workforce to
    prevent workers from achieving more favorable collective contracts and
    fully exercising their rights to labor protection as defined by law.
        In June Grupo Mexico, a large mining company, won a Supreme Court
    case against the National Mine and Metalworkers Union (``los Mineros'')
    that allowed it to legally end a long-running strike, dissolve the
    collective contract, and rehire workers at the copper mine in Cananea,
    Sonora. Grupo Mexico very quickly began clean-up operations and set up
    a union to represent workers. Miners suspected this union would not be
    representative, and many feared that the presumed protection union
    would prevent los Mineros from representing Cananea's workers. In early
    September violence broke out between police forces protecting the mine
    and members of los Mineros who were maintaining a protest at the gate.
    The clash raged in the town of Cananea for just under 24 hours before
    federal and state police could restore calm. In the aftermath, one
    contract worker had been shot in the head and was in critical
    condition, and slightly more than 20 los Mineros members were detained
    and charged with violence and disturbing the peace. The struggle at
    Cananea continued to impact workers through the end of the year as
    lawsuits and labor rights campaigns persisted.
        A group of workers at Telefonica's ATENTO call centers launched a
    campaign to improve their working conditions after several health
    complaints. They eventually attempted to oust their protection union
    and form a legitimate union under the auspices of the National
    Telephone Workers Union. ATENTO fired the principal organizers, who
    reported harassment and intimidation, but the workers eventually won
    the right to a vote for their union. The independent union did not win
    its bid to represent ATENTO workers, but with the support of the
    National Telephone Workers Union the workers continued to organize and
    rally support against protection contracts.
        At the Johnson Controls Interiors plant in Puebla, several workers
    complained about health and safety problems. They were supported in
    their attempts to achieve better working conditions by the Worker
    Support Center (Centro de Apoyo al Trabajador--CAT), a local NGO.
    Workers alleged intimidation and violence on the part of the existing
    protection contract and consequently voted to change to an independent
    contract. At the end of the year, the independent contract remained
    pending finalization.
        In late December the CAT leader reported that its offices had been
    burgled and vandalized. Perpetrators stole personnel information,
    account information, cash, and computers and wrote threatening messages
    on the walls. Shortly after the break-in, the CAT leader left the
    country after receiving death threats. The case was submitted to the
    Inter-American Human Rights Commission.
        There are no special laws or exemptions from labor laws in export
    processing zones.

        c. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor.--Although the law
    prohibits forced or compulsory labor by children and adults, such
    practices commonly persisted in both the agricultural and industrial
    sectors. Migrants and children were the most vulnerable to forced
    labor. Also see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons
    Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        d. Prohibition of Child Labor and Minimum Age for Employment.--The
    law protects children from exploitation in the workplace, including a
    prohibition of forced or compulsory labor; however, the Government did
    not effectively enforce such prohibitions. The law prohibits children
    under the age of 14 from working and allows those between the ages of
    14 and 16 to work limited hours, not at night or in hazardous
    conditions, and only with parental permission. According to UNICEF and
    International Labor Organization statistics, 3.6 million (16 percent)
    children between the ages of five and 14--many of them indigenous--were
    involved in child labor activities. Approximately 1.5 million child
    laborers did not attend school.
        Child labor was especially prominent in the agriculture sector.
    According to the Government's 2007 national child labor survey, 3.1
    million children, ages five to 17, worked with approximately one-third
    of them in the agricultural production of melons, onions, sugarcane,
    tobacco, and tomatoes. Child labor in agriculture was most common among
    migrant and indigenous children. Other sectors with significant child
    labor included commerce (803,515), services (718,588), manufacturing
    (391,000), and construction (151,787).
        For child trafficking, see the Department of State's annual
    Trafficking in Persons Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.
        The Secretariat of Labor and Social Security (STPS), which is
    charged with protecting worker rights, carried out child labor
    inspections and led a number of initiatives to address child labor. The
    STPS conducts workplace inspections to verify that no child under age
    14 is working and that children between ages 14 and 16 are not
    participating in activities prohibited by federal labor law. The STPS
    was involved in programs that supported the elimination of such
    exploitation and the improvement of conditions for working minors.
    During the year the STPS provided workshops on child labor exploitation
    and planned to introduce on-line courses on the labor rights of
    children and adolescents. The STPS also designed a campaign to educate
    workers and employers about agriculture workers' rights in 26 of the 31
    states. The STPS continued to work with global donors to implement
    programs to combat child labor in the agriculture sector, including in
    Michoacan, Veracruz, Chiapas, and Sinaloa. The STPS also collaborated
    with other government secretariats and offices.
        In addition the Secretariat for Social Development, the PGR, and
    the Family Development Institute each has responsibility for
    enforcement of some aspects of child labor laws or intervention in
    cases where such laws are violated. The labor inspection process is
    complicated by complex and outdated divisions between federal and state
    jurisdictions. Furthermore, child labor inspections were made difficult
    by the economic need of many children to work for a living. Anecdotal
    evidence suggested children often colluded with their employers to
    avoid being removed from the workplace. Government enforcement was
    reasonably effective at large- and medium-sized companies, especially
    in the maquila sector and other industries under federal jurisdiction;
    inadequate at many small companies and in the agriculture and
    construction sectors; and nearly absent in the informal sector, in
    which most children worked.
        During the year the Secretariat for Social Development and DIF
    carried out programs to prevent child labor abuses and promote child
    labor rights, including specific efforts to combat the commercial
    sexual exploitation of children. Nevertheless, it was not uncommon to
    find girls under the age of 15 working in prostitution.

        e. Acceptable Conditions of Work.--By law the National Minimum Wage
    Commission of the STPS is charged with setting the minimum wage each
    December for the coming year. During the year the commission increased
    the minimum wage by 4.85 percent, just under the year's average
    inflation rate of 5 percent. The minimum daily wages, determined by
    zone, were 57.46 pesos ($4.65) in Zone A (Baja California, Federal
    District, State of Mexico, and large cities); 55.84 pesos ($4.52) in
    Zone B (Sonora, Nuevo Leon, Tamaulipas, Veracruz, and Jalisco); and
    54.47 pesos ($4.41) in Zone C (all other municipalities). Most workers
    received between one and five times the minimum wage. Metropolitan
    Autonomous University experts noted that article 90 of the federal
    labor law states that an individual's salary should be sufficient to
    provide for the basic needs of the worker and his dependent family, and
    the minimum wage clearly did not meet that requirement.
        The law sets six eight-hour days and 48 hours per week as the legal
    workweek. Any work over eight hours in a day is considered overtime,
    for which a worker receives double the hourly wage. After accumulating
    nine hours of overtime, a worker earns triple the hourly wage; the law
    prohibits compulsory overtime. There were labor rights disputes filed
    with labor boards and international labor organizations during the year
    regarding complaints that workers did not receive overtime pay they
    were owed. Employers often used the ``hours bank'' approach--requiring
    long hours when the workload is heavy and cutting hours when it is
    light--to avoid compensating workers for overtime.
        The law requires employers to observe occupational safety and
    health regulations, issued jointly by the STPS and the IMSS. Legally
    mandated joint management and labor committees set standards and are
    responsible for overseeing workplace standards in plants and offices.
    Individual employees or unions may complain directly to inspectors or
    safety and health officials. Workers may remove themselves from
    hazardous situations without jeopardizing their employment, but in
    practice this was often not permitted. Plaintiffs may bring complaints
    before the Federal Labor Board at no cost to themselves. STPS and IMSS
    officials reported compliance was reasonably good at most large
    companies.

                                   __________

                                   NICARAGUA

        Nicaragua is a constitutional democracy with a population of
    approximately six million. Daniel Ortega Saavedra of the Sandinista
    National Liberation Front (FSLN) began his second term as president in
    2007, following an election in 2006 that international observers
    characterized as generally free and fair. Security forces reported to
    civilian authorities. There were instances in which elements of the
    security forces acted independently of government control.
        The most significant human rights abuses during the year included
    restrictions of citizens' right to change their government and widely
    reported voting fraud in regional elections; occasional unlawful
    killings by security forces, which authorities in some cases
    investigated and punished; police abuse of suspects during arrest,
    which authorities in some instances investigated and punished; harsh
    and overcrowded prison conditions; arbitrary and lengthy pretrial
    detention; lack of respect for the rule of law and widespread
    corruption and politicization of the membership and actions of the
    Supreme Judicial Council (CSJ), the Supreme Electoral Council (CSE),
    and other government organs; withholding of accreditation from
    election-monitoring nongovernmental organizations (NGOs); and erosion
    of freedom of speech and press, including government intimidation and
    harassment of journalists and independent media. There were also
    frequent instances of corrupt practices; government harassment and
    intimidation of NGOs; increasing violence against women; trafficking in
    persons; discrimination against ethnic minorities and indigenous
    persons and communities; widespread societal discrimination and abuse
    of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals;
    discrimination against persons with HIV/AIDS; and violations of trade
    union rights.

                            RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

    Section 1. Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom
            From:
        a. Arbitrary or Unlawful Deprivation of Life.--The Government or
    its agents did not commit any politically motivated killings; however,
    security forces killed eight persons during the year. The Office of the
    Inspector General, which makes determinations independently of court
    rulings, in some cases conducted parallel investigations and
    administered punishments, including demotion and dismissal of officers.
        On May 26, Judge Ruth Chamorro found voluntary police officer Cesar
    Augusto Cruz Jiron guilty of manslaughter and police officer Francisco
    Antonio Munoz not guilty in the February 15 shooting and killing of
    unarmed Manuel Quintanilla Carballo in Catarina. Jiron reportedly shot
    Quintanilla on the order of Munoz after Munoz and Quintanilla had
    exchanged words and fought on the street. In response to the verdict, a
    crowd of 200 to 300 persons--allegedly incited by Vice Mayor Isabel
    Carballo--attacked the Catarina police station, destroyed records and
    furniture, and burned a police car. An investigation by the NGO
    Institute of Strategic Studies and Public Politics (IEEPP) alleged
    longstanding animosity between the police force and citizens of
    Catarina that stemmed from police soliciting bribes and abusing
    authority. After the attack, Catarina police officers were reassigned
    to other departments and replaced.
        On March 21, Nicaraguan National Police (NNP) officers Mariano
    Esteban Membreno Lopez and Alvaro Vincente Membreno Lopez killed
    Winston J. Mendoza and injured Jesus Mercado in the Managua barrio of
    Dimitrov. Accounts by the officers and local residents differed (firing
    into the air while pursuing gang members versus intoxicated or drug-
    influenced officers firing for no reason). The NNP failed to confiscate
    the officers' weapons even though the rounds that harmed the victims
    were from the same type of weapon issued to Mariano Esteban Membreno
    Lopez. On June 16, a court acquitted the Membreno brothers for lack of
    evidence.
        On April 1, during a religious celebration in Waslala in the North
    Atlantic Autonomous Region (RAAN), a shoot-out between police and
    civilians resulted in the killings of four civilians (Virgilio
    Quintero, Salome Zeledon, Jairo Zeledon, and Henry Ochoa) and two NNP
    officers (Captain Reynaldo Amador and Officer Nelson Joshua Hernandez).
    Initial reports from NNP Commissioner Anmita Granera claimed that
    police fired in self-defense while trying to disarm Quintero. An
    investigation by the NGO Nicaraguan Human Rights Center (CENIDH)
    reported evidence that the officers were intoxicated; eyewitness
    reports claimed the same and also related that police killed Quintero
    while he was handing over his weapon and Salome Zeledon while his
    pistol was holstered. A witness claimed that police shot and injured
    Ochoa, a bystander, as he attempted to flee and then killed him with a
    shot in the back. According to CENIDH, at year's end there were no
    trial developments because the district attorney in Matagalpa,
    responsible for prosecuting the case, had not received records from the
    prosecutor in Waslala.
        On July 7, in Chichigalpa, NNP officers shot and killed two
    citizens. The officers attempted to arrest Alonso Israel Cuadra Zamora,
    wanted for robbery, while he rode in a truck with other sugarcane
    workers. The NNP claimed that Zamora resisted arrest and a broad fight
    occurred; witnesses alleged that police fired into the truck and killed
    another rider, Urrita Lopez. In the following hours, civil unrest broke
    out and police used tear gas and gunfire to control unruly crowds,
    resulting in the shooting and killing of Norvin Antonio Flores and the
    injuring of 20 other civilians (three by gunfire, according to the
    media) and 12 officers. A CENIDH investigation reported that the NNP
    used excessive force and did not attempt mediation or antidisturbance
    tactics, but by year's end there were no developments in this case, and
    none were expected.
        By year's end there were no developments, and none were expected,
    in the February 2009 case of Jinotega police officer Rosendo Gomez
    Poveda, who shot and killed Jose Magdaleno Rocha Benavides, and in the
    October 2009 case of a police officer in Somoto, Madriz, who shot and
    killed Francisco Absalon Carrasco Montano.
        Concerning the case of the 2008 killing of Luis Angel Vargas
    Salgado, in April 2009 a jury found police officers Denis Cano and
    Norvin Sevilla guilty of homicide. A judge sentenced Cano, the patrol
    chief, to 12 years in prison (later reduced to two years and six
    months) and Sevilla to three years. On May 6, Salgado's mother filed a
    complaint with CENIDH, claiming that Cano and Sevilla had not been
    incarcerated immediately following their sentences and that her family
    had received numerous death threats. By year's end Sevilla was released
    from prison, and Cano's case was under appeal.

        b. Disappearance.--There were no reports of politically motivated
    or other disappearances.

        c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or
    Punishment.--Although the law prohibits such practices, human rights
    and other NGOs received complaints that police frequently abused
    suspects during arrest; often used excessive force, including beatings
    on body areas that do not bruise easily; or engaged in degrading
    treatment that caused injuries to criminal suspects during arrests.
    According to an NNP report covering the period January-September, the
    NGO Permanent Commission on Human Rights (CPDH) and CENIDH--the main
    human rights organizations--received seven and five complaints,
    respectively, against the NNP for excessive force, arbitrary detention,
    and cruel or degrading treatment at prisons. Human rights organizations
    claimed that the Government generally did not take action on complaints
    against government authorities or security forces.
        The National Human Rights Institute (PDDH) reported that the
    largest number of complaints received during the year (1,291, or 35
    percent of the total) was related to the NNP and that the NNP had the
    highest rate of compliance with PDDH resolutions (80 percent) (see
    section 5).
        On March 17, during a carnival celebration, two student members of
    the National Network of Citizen Resistance (Jairo Contreras and Jessica
    Lottz) were distributing flyers that called for a protest against
    government corruption when a police antiriot squad with covered badges
    and identification numbers surrounded and without explanation assaulted
    and injured them and wrestled away their flyers. At year's end there
    were no developments, and none were expected, in this case.
        There were no investigations or charges, and none were expected, in
    the April 2009 warrantless home search, strip search, and beating case,
    notwithstanding a complaint filed with the CPDH; in the June 2009 case
    of police firing into a crowd of protesting indigenous lobster divers
    and injuring two persons; in the September 2009 case of antiriot police
    dispersing and injuring protesting artisanal salt makers; or in the
    October 2009 case of Sandinista-led Citizen Power Council (CPC) members
    beating a female member of the NGO Coordinadora Civil.

        Prison and Detention Center Conditions.--Prison conditions
    continued to deteriorate due to antiquated infrastructure, increasing
    inmate populations, and lack of capital investment. The country's eight
    prisons, designed for fewer than 5,000 inmates, held more than 6,500
    prisoners. They suffered from parasites, inadequate medical attention,
    frequent food shortages, contaminated water, and inadequate sanitation.
    Family members, churches, and charitable organizations provided some
    prisoners with food and medical attention to mitigate harsh conditions
    since, according to NGOs, prisoners were only provided with the bare
    essentials: food (beans and rice) and water. The national budget
    allowed only 11 cordobas (approximately $0.50) per prisoner per day for
    three meals and lacked an amount for prisoner health. The Government
    permitted religious observance by prisoners and detainees.
        Conditions in jails and temporary holding cells were also harsh.
    Most facilities were old; infested with vermin; physically
    deteriorated; lacking in potable water; and equipped with inadequate
    ventilation, electric, or sewage systems. There were no reports of
    detainee deaths due to dangerous conditions, although many prisoners
    suffered mistreatment and discrimination from police officials and
    other inmates. The PDDH reported receiving 163 complaints related to
    prison conditions.
        In May Isolda del Socorro Herrera complained in a filing to CENIDH
    that during incarceration in the National Women's Prison, La Esparanza,
    in Managua, officials subjected her to numerous unnecessary vaginal
    searches and intentionally delayed her release.
        On July 11, police arrested a young gay man (identified in the
    media only by the initials J.O.M.) in Altagracia and placed him in a
    prison cell with four inmates on Ometepe Island. J.O.M. alleged that
    police told the other prisoners he was ``fresh meat,'' provided them
    condoms, and ignored his pleas for help as prisoners raped and
    sodomized him repeatedly until the next day. After his release his
    family complained to Altagracia officials; after no response, the
    family brought a case to the Rivas Department municipal court. The case
    began on October 11 and was underway at year's end.
        During the year CENIDH received some prisoner reports of
    mistreatment by the Judicial Auxiliary Directorate, the plainclothes
    police unit responsible for investigation of serious crimes. One family
    member reported to CENIDH the case of a prisoner subjected to electric
    shock; at year's end, CENIDH awaited the results of an examination by
    the CSJ Institute for Forensic Medicine (IML).
        Pretrial detainees often shared cells with convicted prisoners.
    Juvenile prisoners also shared cells with adults due to overcrowding,
    especially in the departments of Leon, Matagalpa, and Esteli. Suspects
    were regularly left in police holding cells during their trials because
    the Government did not allocate funds to transport them to court.
    During the year the CPDH identified cases where prisoners have waited
    for months in NNP holding cells for movement to permanent facilities or
    for judicial proceedings to commence. This problem was particularly
    serious in the RAAN and the South Atlantic Autonomous Region (RAAS).
    According to an NNP report released on November 17, 93 percent of the
    inmates in preventive holding cells in the RAAN and the RAAS should be
    incarcerated in the National Penitentiary System. The report also
    stated that the RAAN and the RAAS prison facilities had a capacity for
    1 percent of the country's total incarcerated population but held up to
    11 percent.
        Conditions for female inmates were generally better than those for
    men, but women still suffered from overcrowded and unhygienic cells.
    During the year human rights organizations reported that the National
    Women's Prison held approximately 290 women.
        The Government frequently denied prison visits by local and
    international human rights observers, and the CPDH claimed that the
    Government generally denied media access to prison facilities. In
    certain instances the Government restricted prisoners' access to
    visitors, attorneys, physicians, and human rights officials. Throughout
    the year local human rights groups claimed authorities denied them
    access to prisons and prevented them from interviewing detainees. Both
    the CPDH and CENIDH reported denials of access to prison facilities
    (except access to NNP holding cells), the CPDH, since 2007, and CENIDH,
    since 2009. In addition the National Assembly Human Rights Commission
    reported denials and slow or no response to requests for prison access.
    Due to their lack of access, human rights organizations received
    complaints through family members of inmates and often were unable to
    follow up cases until after release of the prisoner.
        The Government allowed foreign government representatives to meet
    with their imprisoned nationals. However, during the year the NNP
    failed to notify foreign government representatives in most cases of
    arrests of their citizens; virtually all notifications came through
    friends or family members of the arrestees. In one case foreign
    government representatives protested that the NNP confiscated and
    failed to return an arrestee's passport.
        Prisoners and detainees were permitted to submit complaints to
    judicial authorities without censorship and to request investigation of
    credible allegations of inhumane conditions. However, the complaints
    were often ignored or not processed. The ombudsman could serve on
    behalf of prisoners and detainees to consider such matters as
    alternatives to incarceration for nonviolent offenders, although the
    CPDH claimed that this generally did not occur.
        The extent to which the Government monitored and investigated
    prison conditions was unknown, but the Government included funds in its
    budget to improve prison and detention facilities, including plans to
    repair facilities in the RAAN and to construct a new facility in
    Bluefields in the RAAS. During the year in Bluefields, two holding
    cells were remodeled, and dining- and kitchen-facility improvements
    were begun. On October 24, Minister of Government Ana Isabel Morales
    reported an annual penitentiary system allocation of approximately 340
    million cordobas ($15.5 million). The National Penitentiary System
    director publicly commented on requirements for a new Granada prison
    water well, a new Bluefields prison, and a new women's penal center,
    but by year's end there were no signs of new facility construction. In
    addition the CSJ implemented a program to ameliorate juvenile detention
    conditions that involved a media campaign, electronic filing systems,
    and psychological care for detainees. Its effectiveness at year's end
    was unknown.

        d. Arbitrary Arrest or Detention.--The law prohibits arbitrary
    arrest and detention, and the Government observed these prohibitions,
    with some exceptions.

        Role of the Police and Security Apparatus.--The president is
    commander in chief of the NNP, which is administered by the Ministry of
    Government. The NNP forms a single, unified force responsible for
    enforcing the law throughout the country. The NNP maintains internal
    security. The army is responsible for external security but also has
    some domestic security responsibilities, including combating drug
    trafficking. There were 10,072 NNP employees, of whom 9,341 were police
    officers and 731 were civilian personnel.
        The Government's inadequate funding of the NNP hampered efforts to
    improve police performance and resulted in a continuing shortage of
    officers. The NNP reported that its budget of approximately 1.1 billion
    cordobas ($50 million) was insufficient and negatively affected
    operational capacity. During October the Government began constructing
    a new medical forensic facility funded by foreign government
    assistance.
        The Office of the Inspector General in some cases investigated and
    punished officers through internal administrative measures and referred
    some corruption cases of lower-level officers to courts. The slow pace
    of the justice system fostered a public perception of impunity within
    the police force. The NNP Office of Internal Affairs is responsible for
    investigating police abuses. From January to September, the office
    registered 2,010 complaints and investigated 1,418 cases of alleged
    police misconduct involving a total of 2,296 officials. Of the
    complaints filed against police, approximately 73 percent pertained to
    human rights violations; 14 percent to corrupt acts; and 13 percent to
    minor offenses or infractions. Authorities disciplined 710 officials,
    resulting in 34 demotions, 126 minor disciplinary actions, and 550
    other types of disciplinary action. In 29 other cases, judicial
    resolution was pending at the end of the period.
        NNP regulations require that police trainees receive human rights
    instruction to graduate from the police academy and also annual
    recertification in human rights awareness. During the year the police
    academy formally trained 3,219 officers and trainees in human rights
    principles, of which 641 officers received continuous or follow-on
    training. The army included human rights training in its curriculum.
    Additionally, the antitrafficking-in-persons and antichild-labor NGO
    Casa Alianza reported providing training on basic human rights
    principles and human-trafficking prevention to approximately 230 police
    officers.
        The constitution establishes the NNP as an apolitical, nonpartisan
    institution protecting all citizens equally under the law. Human rights
    groups and other NGOs complained that in practice President Ortega
    continued to use his position as commander in chief and his embedded
    surrogates to politicize NNP affairs and threaten the organization's
    professionalism and institutional integrity.
        For example, on September 1, a pro-Sandinista union group staged a
    violent demonstration at the offices of La Prensa, an opposition
    newspaper, and the NNP made no attempt to stop or disperse the crowd.
    Demonstrators used explosive projectiles shot from homemade mortars and
    threatened newspaper workers and CENIDH personnel. There were no
    injuries or property damage reported, but newspaper delivery was
    delayed for several hours, and employees were denied access to their
    workplaces. CENIDH and the CPDH declared the demonstration to have been
    politically motivated and government organized to apply pressure to
    media sources and promote self-censorship before 2011 elections. On
    December 10, the same group demonstrated for three hours in front of
    the homes of La Prensa officials, including the general manager. The
    demonstrators threatened violence, and police reportedly took no action
    to disperse them.

        Arrest Procedures and Treatment While in Detention.--Individuals
    are apprehended openly. The law requires police to obtain a warrant
    from a judicial authority prior to detaining a suspect and to notify
    family members of the detainee's whereabouts within 24 hours. The law
    mandates that a prosecutor accompany police making an arrest. Detainees
    have the right to an attorney immediately following their arrest.
    Police may hold a suspect legally for 48 hours before arraignment, when
    they must bring the person before a judge to decide if charges should
    be brought. The judge then must order the suspect released or
    transferred to jail for pretrial detention. In practice few prisoners
    were held beyond the 48-hour deadline. After the initial 48 hours, the
    suspect has access to bail, visits from family members, and legal
    representation.
        Arbitrary and lengthy pretrial detention after arraignment was a
    problem. Particularly in the RAAN and the RAAS, detainees often waited
    an average of six months for their cases to be presented formally
    before a judge due to limited facilities and high crime rates.
        On June 23, authorities detained lay Roman Catholic missionary and
    former opposition mayoral candidate Alberto Steffano Boschi, a dual
    national, for five hours at Managua airport and stripped him of his
    Nicaragua citizenship. Convicted in 2008 of assault--a charge that he
    and several human rights groups labeled as fabricated and politically
    motivated--and sentenced to one year in prison, Boschi had fled the
    country. Granted amnesty by a law passed in November 2009, Boschi
    returned to the country to reunite with his family, but the airport
    citizenship revocation without regard to normal administrative process
    meant that his reentry was only for a limited time as a foreign
    tourist. On October 11, he appealed; at year's end he remained in the
    country as a tourist, and a court decision was pending.
        In August Fausto Carcabelos complained to CENIDH that police
    arrested him at home, based on a March 2009 court order; held him
    illegally for three days; and denied him access to his attorney while
    incarcerated. Although pressed during the year, the NNP did not act on
    the complaint by year's end.

        Amnesty.--During the year the National Assembly received 800 pardon
    requests and granted 37.

        e. Denial of Fair Public Trial.--Although the law provides for an
    independent judiciary, the judicial system remained susceptible to
    corruption and politicization and did not function independently (see
    section 4). The law requires new judicial appointments be vetted by the
    CSJ, a process often based on nepotism, influence, or political
    affiliation. Once appointed, many judges were subject to political and
    economic pressures that affected their judicial independence. The PDDH
    reported receiving 759 complaints (18 percent of the total) concerning
    due process of law and 550 complaints related to access to justice
    during the year.
        The law does not permit military tribunals to try civilians, and
    the military code requires the civilian court system to try members of
    the military charged with common crimes. Human rights and lawyer groups
    complained of a delay of justice caused by judicial inaction and
    impunity, especially regarding family violence and sexual abuse.

        Trial Procedures.--Trials are public, and the law provides that
    defendants can choose a jury trial. Defendants have the right to legal
    counsel and are presumed innocent until proven guilty. Defendants also
    have the right of access to all information and evidence registered
    with the Government, as well as the right to know why and how it was
    obtained, but only during the discovery and trial phases, not during
    the pretrial period. The law provides public defenders to represent
    indigent defendants. Defendants can confront and question witnesses who
    testify against them and also have the right to appeal a conviction.
    The law extends these rights to all citizens regardless of gender,
    ethnicity, disability, or other status. The courts continued to use the
    Napoleonic legal process for cases that were initiated before December
    24, 2002.
        The country continued to lack an effective civil law system, with
    the result that private litigants often filed their cases as criminal
    complaints to force one party to concede rather than face the prospect
    of detention in jail. This civil-based criminal caseload continued to
    divert resources from the overburdened Office of the Prosecutor.

        Political Prisoners and Detainees.--There were no reports of
    political prisoners or detainees.

        Regional Human Rights Court Decisions.--On February 17, members of
    the Artola Delgadillo family, who had been granted special protection
    under precautionary measures from the Inter-American Court of Human
    Rights, filed a complaint with CENIDH that armed groups had again
    threatened them. The family members stated that relatives of Casimiro
    Candry, who had been sentenced in 2008 to 30 years in prison for the
    2007 killings of Villanueva and Gilberto Artola Delgadillo, threatened
    them after police had disarmed the family members.
        On May 28, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights found the
    Government in partial compliance with its 2005 judgment in the Yatama
    case, having paid indemnities for damages as well as expenses incurred
    by CENIDH and the Center for Justice and International Law. However,
    the court also found the Government in partial noncompliance, since it
    had not adopted legislative measures to establish judicial recourse for
    implementing CSE decisions, had not reformed electoral law to regulate
    the consequences of nonfulfillment of electoral participation
    requirements, had not reformed electoral law provisions that were
    declared in violation of the American Convention on Human Rights, had
    not adopted measures necessary for indigenous and ethnic community
    members to participate in electoral processes, and had not publicized
    certain paragraphs of the judgment. The court asked the Government to
    report its compliance progress every four months.

        Civil Judicial Procedures and Remedies.--The law provides that
    persons can file lawsuits seeking damages for human rights violations
    before civil courts and also provides for litigants to use mediation to
    resolve civil claims. In practice many members of the judiciary did not
    render impartial judgments in civil matters and were not independent of
    political or other influence. Due to bureaucratic inefficiencies,
    litigants unable to resolve claims through mediation often had to wait
    months or years for the courts to process their claims, including the
    enforcement of domestic court orders.

        Property Restitution.--The Government regularly failed to enforce
    court orders with respect to seizure, restitution, or compensation of
    private property. The PDDH reported receiving 110 complaints related to
    private property during the year. Even when courts order specific
    compensation, the Government refused to pay settlements, arguing it was
    illegal for a judge to determine compensation.
        For example, at year's end the following three cases, in which the
    Government failed to enforce court-ordered restitution, remained
    pending:
        Danilo Perez won cases ordering return of his property in 1994 and
    1995, but the Government refused to execute the court order to expel
    illegal occupants from his property.
        In 1999 Sylvia Sanchez, Olman Dompe, and Yolanda Diaz requested
    that the Attorney General's Office reclaim their property from an
    occupant who did not receive title under applicable law. The office,
    however, filed a petition with the court requesting a ruling in favor
    of the illegal occupant.
        The Attorney General's Office filed suit in a civil court in 2007
    to overturn an appellate court ruling that ordered the Government to
    return a 5,349-acre property to Mrs. Lidia Baumister, although the law
    provides that appellate rulings may not be appealed.

        f. Arbitrary Interference With Privacy, Family, Home, or
    Correspondence.--While the law prohibits such actions, several domestic
    NGOs alleged that their e-mail and telephone conversations were
    monitored by the Government.
        On April 20, an FSLN sympathizer threatened opposition leader
    Eduardo Montelegre, telling him that he and his family were ``being
    watched.'' His wife, Eliza Maria McGregor Raskosky, claimed that her
    telephone calls were recorded (see section 3).

    Section 2. Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:
        a. Freedom of Speech and Press.--The constitution provides for
    freedom of speech and of the press. However, the Government used
    administrative, judicial, and financial means to limit the exercise of
    these rights. Although the law provides that the right to information
    cannot be subject to censorship, it also establishes retroactive
    liability, implying the potential for penalties for libel and slander.
    Individuals could not always criticize the Government freely without
    reprisal, and at times the Government attempted to impede criticism
    (see section 1.c.).
        One of the largest daily newspapers, La Prensa, claimed that
    government officials insulted and intimidated its journalists and that
    CSJ officials responded aggressively or refused to respond to questions
    about cases involving the constitution, rule of law, and corruption.
    Independent media sources reported during the year that government Web
    sites did not have up-to-date information ordinarily available
    publicly. They claimed that the CSE removed the electoral list from its
    site and that the National Assembly changed its site to make it
    difficult to refer to laws.
        Independent media were active and expressed a variety of views. The
    Government, however, sought to restrict media freedom through
    harassment, censorship, the arbitrary application of libel laws, and
    the use of national security justifications to suppress reporting.
    Private individuals also harassed media outlets for criticizing the
    Government.
        According to La Prensa in January, the Government attempted to
    block the importation of paper needed to produce newspapers. The
    Government attributed the problem to differing tax and customs agency
    views, but media and civil society organizations called these actions
    politically motivated. La Prensa also reported government use of tax
    audits and the denial of transmitting licenses against television and
    radio stations as means to exert pressure on independent media.
        On October 27, alleged pressure by FSLN groups on the owner of a
    Juigalpa radio station forced the cancellation of a daily program, Face
    to Face with the News, and the denial of studio access for its head,
    Lombardo Madriz Fonseca, who broadcast statements critical of the
    Government, condemned the 2008 municipal elections for fraud, and
    criticized the Juigalpa mayor, an FSLN party member.
        The National Assembly considered and defeated in March a bill,
    proposed by FSLN legislators in 2009, which would have required all
    journalists to belong to an FSLN-affiliated union, the Nicaraguan
    Journalists Association. The Committee to Protect Journalists and other
    NGOs had criticized the bill.
        The Government continued to exclude independent media outlets from
    all official media events and to withhold government advertising
    contracts, instead funneling the equivalent of millions of dollars
    worth of its advertising funds and important public announcements only
    to ``official'' media outlets owned or controlled by the Ortega family.
    Opposition news sources reported that during official government
    events, they were generally not permitted to enter the venue, and if
    they were allowed access, were not permitted to interview or question
    officials.
        During the year there were several reported cases of threats or
    acts of violence against press outlets and journalists. After the
    reported mid-July Ometepe prison rape (see section 1.c., Prison and
    Detention Center Conditions), NNP officials in Rivas Department
    reportedly hampered La Prensa efforts to investigate the incident and
    refused to provide any information. The College of Journalists issued a
    notice complaining about NNP behavior.
        On August 27, five men ignored press credentials, assaulted
    independent journalist and photographer Sergio Cruz, and destroyed his
    camera equipment and vehicle while he was photographing an opposition
    mural on a public street. Several civil society groups, including
    Movement for Nicaragua, called the attack politically motivated.
        On August 31, a contract dispute between La Prensa and six
    distribution service providers led to government-inspired action
    against the newspaper. The Government declared La Prensa's contract
    cancellation a violation of worker rights, and the Ministry of Labor
    threatened large fines and mobilized the Sandinista Workers' Center
    (CST), a government-affiliated union umbrella group, which violently
    demonstrated in front of the newspaper offices on September 1 and at
    the homes of newspaper officials on December 10, both reportedly
    without efforts by police to stop or disperse demonstrators (see also
    section 1.d., Role of the Police and Security Apparatus).
        After September and October floods, independent news outlets
    reported they were denied access to, or information about, conditions
    in shelters and camps that housed displaced persons. The shelters were
    mainly controlled and administered through Sandinista-led Citizen Power
    Councils (CPCs) instead of through the Government agency charged with
    disaster response.
        La Prensa continued to have pending libel cases against it in the
    court system, cases that newspaper officials claimed were filed for
    political purposes by individuals affiliated with FSLN-controlled CPCs.
    In January a court dismissed an open libel case against the newspaper
    El Nuevo Diario due to lack of evidence.

        Internet Freedom.--There were no government restrictions on access
    to the Internet or Internet chat rooms; however, for the second year,
    several NGOs alleged that the Government monitored their e-mails.
    Individuals and groups engaged in the expression of views via the
    Internet, including by e-mail. Internet access was available in the
    majority of the country's cities, and there were more than 23,500
    Internet hosts in the country as of 2006, although the International
    Telecommunication Union reported only approximately 3.5 percent of the
    country's inhabitants used the Internet in 2009. Frequent power outages
    and infrastructure problems hampered citizen access to Internet and e-
    mail services.

        Academic Freedom and Cultural Events.--There were no government
    restrictions on cultural events.
        In February the Government allegedly interfered with academic
    freedom when, contrary to university statutes, the FSLN influenced the
    election of the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua (UNAN)
    president in Leon. An influential FSLN member and former director of
    state security, Lenin Cerna, reportedly actively influenced the
    election and stated that he would make the UNAN an FSLN bastion, and
    the president-elect, Dr. Roger Gurdian Vijil, declared himself an FSLN
    member and publicly thanked the party for its election support.

        b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association.--Freedom of
    Assembly.--The law recognizes the right to public assembly,
    demonstration, and mobilization but mandates that demonstrators obtain
    permission for a rally or march by registering its planned size and
    location with the police. Police failed to act against or allowed
    violent demonstrations by pro-Sandinista groups which generally
    impinged on the freedom of movement of others, endangered bystanders,
    and damaged or destroyed property.

        Freedom of Association.--The law provides for this right, including
    the right to organize or affiliate with political parties; however, the
    CSE and the National Assembly used their accreditation powers for
    political purposes. CSE accreditation is mandatory for political
    parties and election-monitoring organizations, and the CSE withheld
    accreditation from election-monitoring NGOs for political purposes (see
    section 5). National Assembly accreditation is mandatory for NGOs to
    receive donations.
        The FSLN made party membership mandatory for public-sector
    employment and used intimidation and violence to prevent opposition
    National Assembly deputies from convening and passing legislation. The
    CPDH reported that employees in various state institutions were
    required to affiliate with the FSLN and claimed that in order to apply
    for a government position, an applicant must receive a written
    recommendation from the FSLN. The CPDH has also received reports that
    the FSLN automatically withdrew party fees from the paychecks of state
    employees.

        c. Freedom of Religion.--For a complete description of religious
    freedom, please see the 2010 International Religious Freedom Report at
    www.state.gov/g/drl/irf/rpt.

        d. Freedom of Movement, Internally Displaced Persons, Protection of
    Refugees, and Stateless Persons.--The law provides for freedom of
    movement within the country, foreign travel, emigration, and
    repatriation; the Government generally respected these rights in
    practice. The Government cooperated with the Office of the UN High
    Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) through humanitarian organizations,
    such as the International Organization for Migration, in providing
    protection and assistance to internally displaced persons, refugees,
    returning refugees, asylum seekers, stateless persons, and other
    persons of concern.
        The law prohibits forced exile, and there was no reported use of
    it.

        Protection of Refugees.--The law provides for the granting of
    asylum or refugee status, and the Government has established a system
    for providing protection to refugees. The National Commission for
    Refugees--composed of six voting members (three government ministries,
    three religious organizations) and five nonvoting members from human
    rights NGOs--is the only entity that may grant refugee status in the
    country. Asylum for political persecution may only be granted by the
    executive branch or by the country's embassies abroad.
        In practice the Government provided protection against the
    expulsion or return of refugees to countries where their lives or
    freedom would be threatened on account of their race, religion,
    nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political
    opinion. The law provides for regularizing the legal status of
    approximately 6,000 Salvadorans who have lived in the country since the
    1980s civil wars; waiving fines imposed on persons who have been in the
    country illegally and offering them a year-long status-regularization
    period beginning in 2008; and establishing a detention center in
    Managua for refugees during case processing. The center, however, was
    underfunded and understaffed and only had capacity for 30 refugees.
        According to a January UNHCR survey, the Government granted refugee
    status to 120 persons, and there was one person seeking asylum.

        Stateless Persons.--Citizenship is derived from birth within the
    country's territory and from one's parents. Local civil registries
    normally register births within 12 months upon the presentation of a
    medical or baptismal certificate; however, many persons, especially in
    rural areas, lacked registration or birth certificates. According to
    NGOs the Government attempted to increase the registration of newborns
    by opening service desks in public hospitals, specifically Hospital
    Bertha Calderon in Managua, and not requiring parents to travel to
    distant offices. Additionally, government ``social-promoter'' programs
    have visited rural neighborhoods and encouraged registration.
        Due to the high cost, persons without citizenship documents were
    unable to obtain ``cedulas'' (national identity cards). A credible
    December poll released by M&R Consultants estimated that more than
    460,000 citizens, approximately 12 percent of the eligible population,
    lacked cedulas. Persons without cedulas had difficulty participating in
    the legal economy, conducting bank transactions, or voting and were
    subject to restrictions in employment, access to courts, and land
    ownership. Women and children lacking citizenship documents were
    reportedly more vulnerable to sexual exploitation by traffickers. Civil
    society organizations and the media reported that the Government
    deliberately manipulated issuing cedulas to citizens within and outside
    the country for political purposes. The December M&R Consultants poll
    found that 70 percent of surveyed citizens lacking cedulas were members
    of opposition parties or independents.
        In August the CSE raised the cost of a cedula to 300 cordobas
    (approximately $14), a 600 percent increase, without National Assembly
    approval. Numerous civil society organizations objected and declared
    the cost too expensive for the average citizen whose old cedulas had
    expired, almost half of whom lived on less than 22 cordobas
    (approximately one dollar) a day. Additionally, several organizations
    expressed concern by alleging that the cost increase and the increased
    potential for voting irregularities with new cedulas disguised a
    governing-party attempt to manipulate voter rolls before the 2011
    election while government and political party resources were used to
    purchase large numbers of cedulas for party members.

    Section 3. Respect for Political Rights: The Right of Citizens to
            Change Their Government
        The law provides citizens the right to change their government
    peacefully; however, the Government restricted the exercise of this
    right in practice.

        Elections and Political Participation.--On January 19, the CSE
    issued regulations governing electoral observation for the March
    regional elections in the RAAN and the RAAS. Civil society
    organizations and the opposition claimed the regulations differed
    greatly from previous elections, limited electoral-observer
    eligibility, and tightly controlled the observation process. On January
    22, the CSE disqualified numerous opposition candidates, months after
    the disqualification deadline. Civil society organizations reported
    that FSLN officials and FSLN-affiliated members of the Yatima political
    party were granted use of government and military transportation staged
    in the RAAN and the RAAS to facilitate movement of ballots and poll
    watchers, while opposition members were not. Opposition party members
    and poll watchers stated that CSE officials denied them access to
    voting stations on election day. Voting fraud was widely reported in
    the elections, and the ruling FSLN won a majority of council seats.
        In addition to being threatened by an FSLN sympathizer on April 20
    with surveillance and claiming that her telephone calls were recorded
    (see section 1.f.), opposition leader Eduardo Montelegre's wife, Eliza
    Maria McGregor Raskosky, declared she was threatened by Sandinista
    party members on April 30. She reported that a truck--bearing CSJ
    markings, displaying party colors, and occupied by FSLN supporters--
    forced the car she was driving off the road, blocked her exit, and
    pointed homemade mortars at her. They ordered her to move her vehicle,
    as did a police officer with no badge displayed, who appeared but
    refused to provide his name or badge number. She reported the
    harassment to CENIDH and the CPDH; both labeled the actions as FSLN
    efforts to silence opposition.
        On April 20, FSLN supporters led by FSLN-member Supreme Court
    justices Rafael Solis and Armengol Cuadra gathered outside the National
    Assembly--in support of the January 9 presidential decree that extended
    their terms of office and the terms of other government officials
    including those on the CSE--and prevented opposition deputies from
    convening inside the building. The crowd forced the deputies to
    assemble at a local hotel, later attacked that hotel, fired homemade
    mortars, and held the deputies hostage for several hours. The next day
    FSLN supporters again prevented the deputies from convening at the
    National Assembly. The deputies took refuge at an opposition party
    office that FSLN supporters also mortared. Demonstrators burned several
    deputies' vehicles and held them hostage for approximately seven hours.
    Witnesses claimed that FSLN members who worked for several government
    sectors took part in the demonstrations. Police did not act to disperse
    the crowd or stop the violence.
        There were 21 women in the 92-seat National Assembly, three women
    in the 16-member CSJ, and 12 women in 29 cabinet-level posts. Eight
    persons from indigenous and other ethnic groups were deputies in the
    National Assembly.

    Section 4. Official Corruption and Government Transparency
        The law provides criminal penalties for official corruption;
    however, the Government did not implement the law effectively, and
    officials frequently engaged in corrupt practices with impunity. World
    Bank indicators reflected that corruption was a serious problem.
        In the executive branch, officials dispensed funds outside the
    normal budgetary process controlled under law by the legislature.
    Officials who drew these funds, from the equivalent of hundreds of
    millions of dollars in economic and developmental assistance loaned by
    the Venezuela-led multigovernmental Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples
    of Our America (ALBA), claimed they were administered by a joint
    venture between the state-owned oil companies of Venezuela and
    Nicaragua. That arrangement prevented public oversight or basic
    accounting to track the money. Government explanations of ALBA-related
    spending were often contradictory. Media reported that ALBA-funded
    contracts were awarded to companies run by individuals with ties to
    President Ortega's family. Media sources estimated these funds from
    Venezuela total the equivalent of approximately $500 million annually
    and referred to this sum as a separate budget tightly controlled by the
    FSLN and not subject to the normal oversight and scrutiny.
        An IEEPP study released on February 16 raised concerns about the
    Government's food-assistance/poverty-reduction program ``Zero
    Hunger''--a program to grant livestock, seeds, and tools to poor
    citizens that was administered through government-controlled CPCs. The
    NGO study presented evidence that the FSLN used the program to direct
    assistance to areas with higher FSLN party affiliation, rather than to
    the poorest areas. The IEEPP claimed the program rewarded party loyalty
    and was a potential election tool.
        Independent media, human rights groups, and opposition political
    parties reported that the Ortega administration blurred distinctions
    between party and government by using FSLN-directed CPCs. The
    Government administered subsidized food and other government benefits
    directly through CPCs, which reportedly coerced citizens into FSLN
    membership. During the severe flooding of September and October, the
    Government dispensed the majority of aid strictly through CPCs and not
    through an existing government disaster-response agency. Additionally,
    persons seeking to obtain or retain public-sector employment were
    obliged to obtain recommendation letters from CPC block captains. Civic
    groups complained that government agencies required CPC recommendation
    letters from persons seeking voter registration and national identity
    documents.
        Within the judicial branch, the CSJ was demonstrably susceptible to
    corruption throughout the year, especially by political parties and
    drug cartels.
        On August 11, the governing Sandinista party replaced seven
    boycotting Supreme Court justices affiliated with the opposition,
    thereby consolidating FSLN control of the judiciary. Five of the seven
    alternate justices appointed by the National Assembly were members of
    the Sandinista party; the other two were Constitutionalist Liberal
    Party (PLC) members. Media sources reported that the FSLN paid the two
    PLC justices a bribe of 1,088,000 cordobas (approximately $50,000) each
    plus the salaries of the two boycotting justices they replaced. Many
    constitutional scholars declared the actions illegal; civil society
    NGOs claimed the actions were part of a Sandinista campaign to control
    the judiciary to legitimize the president's coming reelection campaign.
    Following the installation of these alternate justices, the CSJ on
    September 30 reaffirmed the October 2009 decision of its Constitutional
    Chamber that allowed the president to run for reelection, despite what
    many interpreted as a constitutional ban. Also in September, without
    obtaining the mandated supermajority in the National Assembly, the
    Government published a revised version of the constitution so as to
    allow high-level public officials to remain in their positions beyond
    the expiration of their terms.
        The law requires that cash seized in antinarcotics operations
    remain under judicial-system control, until a conviction sentence is
    issued, but it does not clearly specify how seized cash should then be
    distributed. Cars seized by the NNP in drug cases reportedly were given
    to members of the judiciary contrary to the law requiring seized assets
    to be distributed equally among five government agencies.
        Public officials were subject to financial disclosure laws, and the
    Office of the Comptroller is responsible for combating government
    corruption.
        Although the law mandates public access to government information
    and statistics, it was rarely applied. Generally no reason was given
    for denial of access, or government agencies stated they would respond
    later with the information but rarely did. Government Web sites
    frequently did not contain this information, or the information was not
    current. An appeal mechanism existed if authorities denied or ignored
    an appropriate information request, but its processes were slow and
    burdensome. The CPDH, unable to obtain information from the CSE about
    its actions during 2008 municipal elections, filed a case in 2009 with
    the Court of Administrative Disputes to compel information release. At
    year's end the CSJ had not provided any information on the case status
    nor responded to CPDH information requests.

    Section 5. Governmental Attitude Regarding International and
            Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations of Human
            Rights
        A wide variety of domestic and international human rights groups
    operated in the country. Civil society organizations that focused on
    humanitarian activities generally operated without government
    restriction. However, government officials harassed and intimidated
    domestic and international NGOs that criticized the Government or the
    FSLN. Civil society organizations continued to report governmental
    confrontations with NGOs, adversarial conditions, and a climate of fear
    created to suppress organizations critical of the Government. The
    Government continued to prevent non-FSLN-affiliated NGOs and civil
    society organizations from participating in government social programs,
    such as Zero Hunger and Programa Amor.
        The CSE made the resignations of Roberto Courtney and Mauricio
    Zuniga--outspoken critics of the Government--from Ethics and
    Transparency and the Institute for Democracy and Development,
    respectively, a requirement for their accreditation as election-
    monitoring organizations.
        Domestic NGOs and their members who were under investigation
    reported problems in access to the justice system and delays in filing
    petitions with courts. Many believed that comptroller and tax
    authorities audited their accounts as a means of intimidation. NGOs
    reported encountering severe problems scheduling meetings with
    authorities and an unwillingness to reveal any information due to a
    growing culture of secrecy.
        There were fewer death threats against members of civil society and
    human rights NGOs during the year; however, many NGOs reported being
    met with hostility or aggression when questioning or speaking with
    government officials on subjects such as corruption and rule of law.
    During the August CST demonstrations against La Prensa, progovernment
    demonstrators threatened CENIDH workers, including Executive Director
    Bayardo Izaba, with death.
        The Government generally cooperated with international
    organizations and permitted visits by the UN Development Program and
    other UN representatives. However, on September 1, the Government
    reportedly forced the transfer of UN Children's Fund director Maria
    Jose Conde after she brought attention to the level of the country's
    infant mortality.
        The Government maintained a human rights ombudsman in the National
    Human Rights Institute (PDDH). However, the presidency, without
    apparent constitutional authorization, extended the terms of the
    ombudsman, as well as those of the 25 members of the PDDH, and new
    elections to replace them were not held. This led the NGOs CPDH and
    CENIDH and several National Assembly deputies to label the PDDH as an
    illegitimate, highly partisan body.
        The PDDH, which is required to present an annual report to the
    National Assembly, stated that it did so in December for the first time
    since 2007. The institute reported receiving a total of 3,672
    complaints, an 11 percent increase from 2009, as well as investigating
    and ruling on 1,471 of those cases (and referring the remainder to
    other agencies). Of those investigated, the PDDH claimed to have found
    proof of violations in 495 cases and that public institutions complied
    with 114 resolutions (23 percent) of the total resolutions it issued.
    It also maintained a weekly newsletter that detailed some activities
    and recommendations.
        The National Assembly operated a human rights committee that
    focused primarily on amnesties and pardons. Civil society organizations
    viewed the committee as controlled by partisan political forces and not
    credible.

    Section 6. Discrimination, Societal Abuses, and Trafficking in Persons
        The law prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, gender,
    disability, language, or social status. In practice the Government
    often did not enforce these legal prohibitions, and aggrieved persons
    filed few discrimination suits or formal complaints.

        Women.--The law criminalizes all forms of rape, regardless of the
    relationship between the victim and the accused, and the Government
    generally enforced the law. However, many women were reluctant to
    report abuse or file charges due to the social stigma attached to rape,
    fear of retribution, and loss of economic security. NGOs reported that
    both sexual and domestic violence increased. During the year the NNP
    listed a total of 25,803 reported cases of violence against women,
    encompassing 2,737 cases of sexual crimes that included 1,276 cases of
    rape, 407 cases of rape of a minor, and 188 cases of attempted rape.
    There were no statistics available as to prosecutions, convictions, or
    punishment.
        On May 9, rape victim and former government worker Fatima Hernandez
    began a hunger strike in front of the CSJ to protest the release from
    prison of her alleged rapist, Farington Reyes, her former co-worker at
    the Ministry of Migration and a Sandinista supporter. On June 8, a
    court convicted Reyes of the July 2009 attack and sentenced him to
    eight years in prison; throughout the proceedings, Hernandez claimed
    that family members of Reyes threatened her repeatedly. On October 18,
    the scheduled appeal date, family and friends of Reyes, carrying knives
    and stones, threatened and verbally assaulted Hernandez and forced her
    to shelter nearby and miss the trial. At the rescheduled trial on
    October 25, without receiving any new evidence, the appellate court
    dismissed the case and set Reyes free, based on his defense that a
    prior romantic relationship existed between Hernandez and him. She
    resumed her hunger strike shortly thereafter and, on November 8, was
    hospitalized for malnutrition and dehydration. The next day an
    appellate court in Managua sentenced Reyes to a reduced sentence of six
    years; he appealed the decision to the CSJ, which postponed the case
    until January 2011.
        The law requires female victims of sexual crimes to undergo a
    medical examination by CSJ forensic specialists before proceeding
    legally against alleged perpetrators; the lack of female forensic
    doctors deterred women from taking legal action. Rape victims were
    often unaware or uninformed about the procedures required to process
    their cases officially, and much time transpired before victims
    received the necessary physical and psychological examinations.
        Rape and sexual abuse of adolescent girls continued. According to
    the NNP, approximately 24 percent of rape cases during the year
    involved minors. A June study by the IML showed that 74 percent of rape
    victims were between the ages of 11 and 17 and persons known to the
    victim committed 88 percent of the rapes. A November Amnesty
    International report noted that incidents of rape and sexual abuse in
    the country were ``widespread.endemic,'' that the majority of victims
    were young, that young women faced many obstacles in reporting sexual
    violence, that the Government did not provide girls sufficient
    protection, and that many victims did not have access to comprehensive
    support services.
        The law criminalizes domestic violence and provides prison
    sentences up to six years. The law also provides for the issuance of
    restraining orders to protect women who fear for their safety. NGOs
    asserted that victims of violence did not have reasonable access to
    justice; only approximately 10 percent of cases went to court, while
    the majority of cases were resolved through mediation. NGOs asserted
    that this form of case resolution was ineffective and led to patterns
    of abuse and impunity.
        During the year the NNP reported 2,943 cases of domestic violence.
    NGOs and the NNP asserted, however, that domestic violence remained
    widespread and underreported, primarily due to cultural attitudes.
    During the year the IML released a study that showed total domestic
    violence cases rose from 10,208 to 11,313 in the period 2005-09 and
    concluded that more than 70 percent of women in the country were
    victims of domestic violence, with the majority between the ages of 25
    and 36.
        The NNP reported that 34 women were killed during the year due to
    domestic and sexual violence, 41 percent of these killings were
    committed by spouses, and 27 percent of the victims were sexually
    abused before death. Many victims were often raped, beaten, maimed, or
    mutilated. According to the IML and the Center for the Prevention of
    Violence, as of October, 80 women were killed, eight of whom were young
    girls. Courts convicted seven individuals of the killings, while
    another 29 awaited trial.
        Recent increases in the reporting of domestic violence and violence
    against women were attributed in part to a higher frequency of
    occurrence, in part to a greater public willingness to come forward,
    and in part to the NNP's continued campaign (``A Home Cannot Be Built
    Out of Violence. Give Love To Your Family'') aimed at raising public
    awareness of such violence and helping domestic-abuse victims. Also,
    local organizations such as the Women's Network against Violence and
    the Center for Prevention of Violence were instrumental in raising
    awareness.
        During the year 38 NNP women's commissariats operated in the
    country, three more than in 2009. Commissariats provided social and
    legal help to women, mediated spousal conflicts, investigated and
    helped prosecute criminal complaints, and referred victims to other
    governmental and nongovernmental assistance agencies. Although the
    Government and the NNP intensified media and community outreach
    campaigns to encourage women to report spousal abuse and other
    violence, commissariats lacked sufficient government-provided equipment
    and funding to discharge their responsibilities adequately. There were
    no government-operated shelters dedicated to female victims of violence
    or abuse, although there were seven nongovernment-operated women's
    shelters, two less than in 2009--a number the NNP labeled as
    insufficient.
        The law imposes a penalty of five to seven years' imprisonment for
    convicted sex-tourism offenders. The country was a source, destination,
    and transit point for sex tourism. A December 23 NNP report listed 11
    reports received of sex trafficking, of which four had judicial
    proceedings opened, and the Prosecutor General's Office reported 13
    cases of sex trafficking during the year, with no information available
    to determine if those trafficking cases were related to sex tourism.
    Government efforts to combat sex tourism reportedly were inadequate.
    Several NGOs reported that sexual exploitation of young girls was
    common, as was the prevalence of older men (often foreigners) who
    exploited young girls under the guise of providing them support.
    Generally NGOs provided care and rehabilitation to victims trafficked
    for sex tourism. Casa Alianza reported caring for 27 such victims
    during the year and referring 13 cases to the NNP for investigation
    (two were initiated).
        The law prohibits sexual harassment, and those convicted face
    between one- and three-year prison terms, or three- to five-year
    sentences if the victim is under age 18. By year's end there were no
    statistics on sexual harassment cases or related prosecutions available
    from the Public Ministry.
        The Ministry of Health's family-planning norms provide couples and
    individuals the right to decide the number, spacing, and timing of
    their children and to have the information and means to do so free from
    discrimination. Access to information on contraception and skilled
    attendance at delivery and in postpartum care were more available in
    urban areas but have improved in remote areas, such as the Atlantic
    coast. Women generally received better access than men to diagnostic
    services and treatment for sexually transmitted infections, including
    HIV, because NGO efforts and government campaigns focused on women's
    reproductive health. Health centers and hospitals provided information
    on the benefits of family planning and breast feeding and generally had
    programs in place to address problems. A 2010 Population Reference
    Bureau report indicated that 70 percent of married women ages 15-49
    used a modern contraceptive method and that the gap between urban and
    rural users had decreased.
        Women in some areas, such as the RAAN and the RAAS, did not have
    widespread access to medical care or programs, and maternal death was
    generally more likely to affect poor rural women than their urban
    counterparts. The Ministry of Health reported 70 maternal deaths per
    100,000 live births during the year, while in 2008 the UN Population
    Fund estimated the maternal mortality rate at 100 deaths per 100,000
    live births. Most of the women who died in childbirth were older than
    35 years or adolescents who lived in rural areas and had low education
    levels.
        The law provides that women enjoy the same rights as men, including
    in the family and the workplace and regarding property. However, women
    generally experienced economic discrimination in access to employment,
    credit, and pay equity for substantially similar work, as well as in
    owning and managing businesses. A 2010 World Economic Forum survey
    estimated that women earned approximately 45 percent less than men for
    comparable work. The NNP Office of the Superintendent of Women is
    responsible for enforcing the law to protect women. In practice
    authorities often discriminated in property matters against poor women
    who lacked birth certificates or national identity cards. The Human
    Rights Ombudsman's Special Prosecutor for Women and the Nicaraguan
    Women's Institute, the principal government entities responsible for
    protecting the legal rights of women, had limited effectiveness.

        Children.--Citizenship is derived by birth within the country's
    territory and from one's parents; the Ministry of the Family,
    Adolescents, and Children (MiFamilia) is responsible for registering
    births (see section 2.d.), but did not make statistical data available.
        ``Programa Amor,'' the child-welfare program launched in 2007 by
    the president's wife, was designed to end child labor and child
    homelessness, but questions were raised regarding organizational
    transparency and information accuracy. For example, a 2009 MiFamilia
    estimate of 25,000 homeless children in Managua differed significantly
    from the estimate of 238,000 such children in a 2005 National Child and
    Adolescent Labor study, and a 2009 CENIDH investigation reported that
    the situation concerning homeless children in the country had not
    changed significantly since Programa Amor's inception. On May 24, La
    Prensa questioned the program's effectiveness and the Government's
    reluctance to make public its funding sources, budget, and statistics
    about progress, and there was no information on Programa Amor's
    effectiveness available on MiFamilia's Web site.
        The NNP reported that approximately 13 percent of the victims of
    domestic and sexual violence were children, the majority of whom were
    between the ages of 15 and 17. Save the Children reported that both
    child abuse and violations of children's human rights increased most
    notably in poor rural areas. The NNP conducted a public-outreach
    campaign to raise awareness of domestic violence.
        NGOs stated that, while child marriage was uncommon, it existed in
    rural areas. There were no reported government efforts to combat it.
        The law prohibits promoting or engaging in child prostitution, but
    it remained a problem. Penalties include four to 10 years in prison for
    a person who entices or forces a child under age 12 to engage in sexual
    activity, and one to five years in prison for the same acts involving
    persons between the ages of 12 and 18. The law defines statutory rape
    as sexual relations with children who are 13 years old or younger, and
    there is no law prohibiting prostitution by juveniles 14 years of age
    or older. Local organizations, especially in Granada Department, worked
    with hotel owners and tourist service providers to curb child
    prostitution related to sex tourism.
        The law also prohibits promoting, filming, or selling child
    pornography. The penalty for an individual convicted of inducing,
    facilitating, promoting, or using a minor younger than 16 years for
    sexual or erotic purposes, or forcing such a person to watch or
    participate in such an act, is five to seven years in prison. If the
    victim is older than 16 years, but younger than 18 years, the penalty
    is reduced to four to six years in prison. The NNP reported no new
    cases of child pornography during the year. In February a court
    convicted three individuals in a 2009 case involving child pornography,
    trafficking in persons, and abuse of minors and sentenced them to
    imprisonment terms ranging from seven to 37 years.
        According to the IML midyear report, 76 percent of sex crimes were
    with minors younger than 17 years old. The country was a destination
    for child sex tourism, primarily in Granada and Managua Departments;
    however, there were no officially reported cases during the year.
        The country is a party to the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil
    Aspects of International Child Abduction. For information on
    international parental child abduction, please see the Department of
    State's annual report on compliance with the convention at http://
    travel.state.gov/abduction/resources/congressreport/congressreport--
    4308.html.

        Anti-Semitism.--The Jewish community numbered fewer than 50. There
    were no reports of anti-Semitic acts.

        Trafficking in Persons.--For information on trafficking in persons,
    please see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons
    Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        Persons With Disabilities.--The law prohibits discrimination
    against persons with physical and mental disabilities, but in practice
    such discrimination was widespread in employment, education, access to
    health care, and the provision of state services. Laws related to
    persons with disabilities did not stipulate penalties for companies
    noncompliant with its provisions, although penalties may be issued
    under the general labor inspection code. MiFamilia is responsible for
    the protection and advancement of rights for persons with disabilities.
    The Government did not effectively enforce the law with regard to the
    protection of such individuals, did not mandate accessibility to
    buildings for them, and did not make information available on efforts
    to improve respect for their rights. The PDDH reported that less than 1
    percent of public sector employees were persons with disabilities and
    that public institutions lacked coordination with the Ministry of Labor
    (MITRAB) regarding rights for persons with disabilities.
        On November 13, representatives of several organizations of
    citizens with disabilities demonstrated in front of the Managua mayor's
    office and called for implementation of the budget for accessible
    public works projects. The demonstrators lamented the lack of
    government attention to such problems, but at year's end there was no
    reported execution of projects to create or improve accessibility for
    persons with disabilities.
        Government clinics and hospitals provided care for veterans and
    other persons with disabilities, but the quality of care was generally
    poor.
        At year's end there was no information available, and none was
    expected, on the remaining three cases from 2007 regarding abuse of
    children with disabilities.

        National/Racial/Ethnic Minorities.--Various indigenous and other
    ethnic groups from the RAAN and the RAAS attributed the lack of
    government resources devoted to the Atlantic coast to discriminatory
    attitudes toward the ethnic, racial, and religious minorities in those
    regions. In contrast to the rest of the country, the racial makeup of
    the RAAN and the RAAS was predominantly black and Amerindian.
        Exclusionary treatment based on race, skin color, and ethnicity was
    common, especially in higher-income urban areas. Darker-skinned persons
    of African descent from the RAAN and the RAAS, along with foreigners
    assumed to be from those areas, experienced social discrimination in
    the interior and Pacific areas and were denied access to private clubs
    and restaurants in Managua. Persons with darker skin claimed that
    authorities at the Managua airport targeted them for extra security
    measures; that police stopped them to conduct illegal searches; and
    that while travelling through the RAAN and the RAAS, authorities
    frequently stopped and searched them but not Mestizo persons from the
    Pacific coast.
        There was no information available on government efforts to address
    discrimination based on skin color, race, or ethnicity.

        Indigenous People.--Indigenous persons constituted approximately 5
    percent of the country's population and lived primarily in the RAAN and
    the RAAS. The five major identifiable indigenous groups--the Miskito,
    the Sumo, the Garifuna (of Afro-Amerindian origin), the Mayangna, and
    the Rama--alleged government discrimination through underrepresentation
    in the legislative branch. For instance, the RAAN and the RAAS had
    generally the same population as Leon and Masaya Departments but had
    only five representatives in the National Assembly, compared with 10
    for the two departments.
        Indigenous group members often lacked birth certificates, national
    identity cards, and land titles. Although they formed political groups,
    these often held little sway over politics and were ignored or used by
    major national parties to advance their own agendas. Most indigenous
    persons in rural areas lacked access to public services, and
    deteriorating roads made medicine and health care almost unobtainable
    for many communities. The rates of unemployment, illiteracy, and
    absenteeism of school-age children were among the highest in the
    country. By year's end there continued to be no information available
    regarding any government action to meet the 2008 request, by the UN
    Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, to develop a
    national strategy to combat racism and forge a new relationship with
    indigenous and ethnic minority communities.
        On March 20, a group of Creole citizens protested in front of the
    NNP station in Bluefields in response to the arrest and reported
    beating of Charles Sanders, who claimed that local business owners
    discriminated against him and harassed him because of his skin color
    and that local police responded to the incident and arrested and beat
    him. There were no developments in the case by year's end.
        Human rights organizations and indigenous rights groups claimed
    that the Government failed to protect the civil and political rights of
    indigenous communities, including their rights to land, natural
    resources, and local autonomy. The PDDH reported receiving 26
    complaints related to indigenous rights during the year.
        There were no significant developments regarding the April 2009
    declaration of independence from the central government by the Miskito
    Council of Elders in the RAAN.
        Although the law requires that the Government consult with
    indigenous persons regarding the exploitation of their areas'
    resources, and give the indigenous population a percentage of profits,
    some indigenous communities continued to complain that government
    authorities excluded indigenous persons in the RAAN and the RAAS from
    meaningful participation in decisions affecting their lands, cultures,
    traditions, and the allocation of natural resources. Representatives of
    autonomous regions and indigenous communities regularly complained to
    the Government, media, and NGOs that the Government failed to invest in
    infrastructure in those regions. On August 27, the Government ratified
    the International Labor Organization (ILO) Indigenous and Tribal
    Peoples Convention of 1989 (No. 169), but there was no significant
    change in government behavior toward indigenous persons reported
    afterward.

        Societal Abuses, Discrimination, and Acts of Violence Based on
    Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.--Although sexual orientation is
    not mentioned specifically, the constitution states that all persons
    are equal before the law and have the right to equal protection. LGBT
    persons continued to face widespread societal discrimination and abuse,
    particularly in employment, housing, and education. In 2009 the human
    rights ombudsman created the position of a special prosecutor for
    sexual diversity to champion LGBT issues; the LGBT community generally
    regarded this position as ineffective and deficient in resources. It
    was difficult to measure trends, because LGBT human rights violations
    were underreported and often mischaracterized.
        Although not authorized by the Government, during the year two gay
    pride events occurred in Managua. There were no reports of violence
    directed against these events.

        Other Societal Violence or Discrimination.--The law provides
    specific protections for persons with HIV/AIDS against discrimination
    in employment and health services. However, persons with HIV/AIDS
    continued to suffer societal discrimination based on their alleged HIV/
    AIDS status. Communities often stigmatized persons with HIV/AIDS, and
    there was a general lack of awareness and education among the public
    and health care professionals regarding prevention, treatment, and
    transmission of HIV/AIDS. Several NGOs worked to educate communities
    regarding HIV/AIDS discrimination.

    Section 7. Worker Rights
        a. The Right of Association.--The law provides for the right of all
    public and private sector workers, with the exception of those in the
    military and police, to form and join independent unions of their
    choice. Workers exercised this right in practice. Workers are not
    required to notify their employer or MITRAB of their intention to
    organize a union. At year's end the Government and private business
    leaders estimated the national workforce at approximately 2.5 million.
    In general labor unions were allied with political parties.
        In March 2009 anonymous CPC members sent death threats to Alvaro
    Leiva Sanchez, the leader of the Ministry of Transportation and
    Infrastructure and Democratic Federation of Public Service Employee
    unions, because of his public lobbying for improved labor rights on
    behalf of the employees he represented. He reported the threats to
    police, but by year's end there was no investigation because the police
    claimed a lack of evidence. The Ministry of Transportation and
    Infrastructure fired Leiva on September 30 without showing proper
    cause.
        The constitution recognizes the right to strike, and the law allows
    unions to conduct their activities without government interference.
    However, there were reports of government interference in union
    activities. There were reports of illegal dissolution of unions not
    associated with the ruling FSLN party. The CPDH reported that since
    2007 there have been 116 unions illegally disbanded by government
    ministries. Burdensome and lengthy labor code conciliation procedures
    impeded workers' ability to call strikes. During a strike employers
    cannot hire replacement workers. If a strike continues for 30 days
    without resolution, MITRAB has authority to suspend the strike and
    submit the matter to arbitration. The ILO noted that this provision
    limits the right to strike and called for amendment of the law.
        MITRAB often declared strikes illegal, even when workers followed
    legal strike procedures. Wildcat strikes were common, the most notable
    being among taxi drivers and other transportation workers. In November
    municipal employees in Leon conducted a strike, claiming violation of
    their right to back pay in accordance with their collective bargaining
    agreement. Although the workers claimed legal exercise of their right
    to strike, MITRAB declared the strike illegal and fined the union
    leaders eight days' salary.

        b. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively.--The law
    provides for the right to bargain collectively. A collective bargaining
    agreement cannot exceed two years and is automatically renewed if
    neither party requests its revision. The Government protected these
    rights and often sought to foster resolution of labor conflicts through
    informal negotiations rather than formal administrative or judicial
    processes. Companies in disputes with their employees must negotiate
    with the employee union, if one exists. By law several unions may
    coexist at any one enterprise. The law permits management to sign
    separate collective bargaining agreements with each union operating at
    the enterprise.
        The law establishes fines against employers who violate labor
    rights by engaging in antiunion discrimination, such as interfering
    with the formation of unions or strikebreaking. In practice many
    employers in the formal sector continued to violate worker rights with
    impunity by blacklisting or firing union members, or delaying payment
    of severance pay to fired workers. Employers also avoided legal
    penalties by organizing ``white unions'' (employer-led unions) for
    their employees, which lacked independence. Labor leaders complained
    that employers routinely violated collective bargaining agreements and
    labor laws with impunity. The PDDH reported receiving 140 complaints
    related to labor problems.
        Union leaders asserted that employers and union leaders who
    supported the Ortega administration continued to pressure workers
    affiliated with non-FSLN unions to resign and register with FSLN
    unions. Politically motivated firings of workers continued. According
    to the CPDH, since 2007, 21,000 public-sector employees were fired
    without just cause or due process of law. The CPDH reported that these
    firings were carried out for political reasons, such as refusal of the
    worker to join the FSLN or to participate in FSLN demonstrations.
        Although employers must reinstate workers fired for union activity,
    MITRAB may not legally order employers to rehire fired workers; that
    requires a judicial order. The law allows employers to obtain
    permission from MITRAB to dismiss any employee, including union
    organizers, provided the employer agrees to pay double the usual
    severance pay. In practice employers often did not reinstate workers or
    pay the severance due to weak enforcement of the law.
        Although the law establishes a labor court arbitration process,
    long waiting time and lengthy, complicated procedures detrimentally
    affected court-mediated solutions, and many labor disputes were
    reconciled outside of court. The ILO worked with the Government and
    labor leaders to reform this process and make it more accessible to
    employees in disputes. However, at year's end the Government had not
    presented ILO recommended reforms to the Labor Code to the National
    Assembly for legislation.
        There are no special laws or exemptions from regular labor laws in
    the country's 41 export processing zones, also known as free trade
    zones (FTZs). Approximately 10 percent of the estimated 75,000 FTZ
    workers were union members. Because a high proportion of FTZ unions had
    fewer than 50 members, many lacked effective collective bargaining
    power. MITRAB generally conducted inspections of companies that
    operated in the FTZ's and issued fines where violations occurred.

        c. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor.--The law prohibits
    forced or compulsory labor, and there were no reports that such
    practices occurred.

        d. Prohibition of Child Labor and Minimum Age for Employment.--
    Although the law provides for the protection of children's rights and
    prohibits any type of economic or social exploitation of children,
    child labor was a widespread problem. The Government did not
    effectively enforce the law to protect children from workplace
    exploitation. The most recent available national survey of adolescent
    and child labor (2005) estimated that there were approximately 239,000
    working children between five and 17 years old, of whom 36 percent were
    younger than 14 years of age. MITRAB reported conducting 205 special
    inspections into child labor.
        The law establishes the minimum age for employment at 14 years and
    limits the workday for any child between 14 and 18 years of age to six
    hours and the workweek to 30 hours. Children between 14 and 16 years
    must have parental approval to work or to enter into a formal labor
    contract. The law prohibits teenage domestic workers from sleeping in
    the houses of their employers. It is also illegal for minors to work in
    places that MITRAB considers harmful to their health or safety, such as
    mines, garbage dumps, night-entertainment venues, and many agricultural
    sectors.
        All employees older than age 14 must be enrolled in the national
    social security system. The law also provides for eight-year prison
    terms and substantial fines for persons employing children in dangerous
    work and permits inspectors to close those facilities. The Government
    did not provide adequate resources for MITRAB to enforce the law
    effectively, except in the small formal sector.
        Most child labor occurred in the large informal sector, including
    on coffee plantations and subsistence farms, and in forestry and
    fishing. Children also worked in the production of sugarcane, crushed
    stone, and to a lesser extent in the production of bananas and tobacco.
    Child labor also occurred in cattle raising, dairy production, street
    sales, garbage-dump scavenging, and transport. According to the ILO's
    International Program on the Elimination of Child Labor, children
    engaged in the worst forms of child labor in plantation agriculture,
    shellfish harvesting, pumice and limestone quarrying, gold mining,
    industrial manufacturing, construction, commercial/retail, hospitality,
    and as domestic servants.
        Children working in agriculture suffered from sun exposure, extreme
    temperatures, and dangerous pesticides and other chemicals. Children
    working in the fishing industry faced polluted water and dangerous
    ocean conditions.
        The Government continued activities to incorporate working
    adolescents into the formal workforce by transferring children above
    the legal working age from the worst forms of child labor into
    nondangerous jobs. NGOs offered vocational training to help adolescents
    develop job skills for FTZ factory employment. During the first six
    months of the year, MITRAB reported that it removed 64 child workers
    from employment in hazardous conditions.
        MITRAB has in place a 10-year plan (2007-16), La Hoja de Ruta, to
    end child labor. Its execution by the National Commission for the
    Progressive Eradication of Child Labor and Adolescent Worker Protection
    (CNEPTI) requires all government programs to include child-labor
    prevention and eradication initiatives. However, the organizations that
    comprised CNEPTI have not convened since September 2009, and most NGOs
    considered CNEPTI ineffective. The Government continued its Programa
    Amor, which had a primary goal of eradicating child labor by
    reintegrating abandoned children into society; however, information on
    specific activities, funding, and effectiveness remained unavailable.
    La Prensa reported there was no concrete evidence that Programa Amor
    objectives were being reached (see section 6, Children).

        e. Acceptable Conditions of Work.--The national minimum wage law
    establishes statutory minimum wages for nine different economic
    sectors. It is calculated differently for each sector, and the average
    was 2,635 cordobas (approximately $120) a month. An increase of 6
    percent was implemented in August; however, the minimum wage was
    generally enforced only in the formal sector and was thus applicable
    only to approximately one-third of the working population. Several
    labor NGOs reported that the minimum wage did not cover the cost of
    inflation or provide a decent standard of living for a worker and
    family.
        The standard legal workweek is a maximum of 48 hours, with one day
    of rest; however, this provision was often ignored by employers who
    claimed that workers readily volunteered for extra hours for additional
    pay. While the law mandates premium pay for overtime and prohibits
    excessive compulsory overtime, these requirements were not always
    effectively enforced.
        The law establishes occupational health and safety standards, but
    the Government did not allocate adequate staff or resources to enable
    the Office of Hygiene and Occupational Safety to enforce these
    provisions. The law mandates the creation of regional offices for the
    National Council of Labor Hygiene and Safety. The council is
    responsible for worker safety legislation and for collaboration with
    other government agencies and civil society organizations in developing
    assistance programs and promoting training and prevention activities.
    The Government did not enforce the new law effectively. During the
    first eight months of the year, MITRAB conducted 2,097 health and
    safety inspections and 1,205 workplace accidents were reported,
    including one registered death. No end-of-year statistics were made
    available.
        The law provides workers with the right to remove themselves from
    dangerous workplace situations without jeopardizing continued
    employment, but many workers were unaware of this right due to the lack
    of government dissemination of information.

                                   __________

                                     PANAMA

        Panama is a multiparty constitutional democracy with an estimated
    population of 3.4 million. In May 2009 voters chose Ricardo A.
    Martinelli Berrocal as president in national elections considered
    generally free and fair by international and domestic observers.
    Security forces reported to civilian authorities.
        Human rights problems included the use of excessive force by police
    during protests, which was investigated; harsh prison conditions;
    prolonged pretrial detention; corruption, ineffectiveness, and alleged
    political manipulation of the judicial system; political pressure on
    the media; corruption in the executive and legislative branches as well
    as in the security forces; discrimination and violence against women;
    trafficking in persons; substantial discrimination against individuals
    with disabilities; continued marginalized participation of indigenous
    communities in decisions that affected them; widespread societal and
    employment discrimination against indigenous persons; societal
    discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity;
    discrimination against persons with HIV/AIDS; and violation of some
    worker rights.

                            RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

    Section 1. Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom
            From:
        a. Arbitrary or Unlawful Deprivation of Life.--The Government or
    its agents did not commit any politically motivated killings; however,
    on July 9, workers Antonio Smith and Fernan Castillo died in
    Changuinola, Bocas del Toro Province, during violence associated with
    protests over a controversial, multifaceted law (Law 30) and with
    security-force actions. On July 10, the UN High Commissioner for Human
    Rights (UNCHR) regional representative reminded the Government that
    ``the use of force and firearms by officers responsible for upholding
    the law must be restricted and exceptional.'' Mid-July initial reports
    by the nongovernmental organization (NGO) Human Rights Everywhere and
    the Office of the Ombudsman signaled that the failure by police to
    adhere to basic regulations for controlling protesters was a factor
    contributing to the killings.
        A government-appointed independent investigatory commission
    reported in October that the July 9 violence injured 772 individuals
    (two were permanently blinded and more than 50 suffered some vision
    loss), including 56 police officers. The report attributed the two
    confirmed deaths to shootings from a distance of less than 16 yards and
    attributed two other deaths (Ruben Marbin Becker Abrego and Liandro
    Santos Breabu) to an inability to transport persons injured by police
    tear gas to a hospital. There were no arrests by year's end, and
    authorities were investigating other deaths to determine whether they
    were also attributable to police actions.
        In continuing investigations of 47 cases of killing or
    disappearance during the 1968-89 military regime, cases were under
    consideration or underway at year's end.
        There were no known developments in investigations the attorney
    general opened in 2008 regarding the alleged killings in 1982-83 of
    more than 20 persons reportedly thrown from helicopters.
        In December the Supreme Court acceded to the 2009 request by the
    Attorney General's Office and the prosecutor to try former minister of
    government and justice Daniel Delgado for a 1971 killing. By year's end
    a court date was not set.

        b. Disappearance.--There were no reports of politically motivated
    disappearances. However, during the mid-July violence in Bocas del Toro
    Province (see section 1.a.), Valentin Palacios reportedly disappeared.
    On August 15, he reappeared in good health at a hospital in Almirante,
    Bocas del Toro Province, but an explanation for his disappearance
    remained unclear at year's end.
        Contractual and procedural issues continued to delay the DNA
    testing of the remains of four persons, including disappeared priest
    Hector Gallego, that were sent abroad in 2008 and for whose testing the
    Public Ministry requested permission from family members in 2009. In
    July President Martinelli announced funding to help conduct DNA tests
    abroad on the remains located at the Legal Medical Institute of
    approximately 30 other individuals believed disappeared during the
    military regime, but as of year's end no funds were disbursed.
        In April the Second Superior Court agreed to try former National
    Guard members Melbourne Walker, Manuel Antonio Noriega, Moises Correa,
    Pablo Garrido, Lucino Miranda, Pedro del Cid, Gabriel Correa, and
    Aquilino Sieiro for the disappearance and killing of Heliodoro Portugal
    in 1970 during the military dictatorship (see section 1.e., Regional
    Human Rights Court Decisions).
        In March the Prosecutor's Office opened an investigation of
    Panamanian National Police (PNP) Director Gustavo Perez de la Ossa for
    alleged human rights abuses during a 1989 military operation.
    Specifically, media reports claimed that the Defense Force dishonorably
    discharged then lieutenant Perez de la Ossa in 1990 for having
    participated the previous year in taking foreign civilians hostage to
    exchange them for Panama's military personnel captured during a foreign
    invasion of the country. The media reports had not been confirmed by
    year's end, and the investigation remained open.

        c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or
    Punishment.--The constitution prohibits treatment or punishment that
    harms the physical, mental, or moral integrity of persons.
        As of September the PNP Directorate of Professional Responsibility
    (DRP) had not opened any cases alleging abuse of prison inmates by
    prison guards, compared with two such investigations in 2009 (both of
    which remained open at year's end).
        There were no known developments in the case of two persons in
    custody and charged with involvement in the 2007 killing of an inmate
    and the injuring of another in the Basilio Lakas detention facility,
    and none were expected.

        Prison and Detention Center Conditions.--The Ministry of Government
    (formerly the Ministry of Government and Justice) oversees all prisons
    in the country. Prison conditions remained harsh and, in some cases,
    life threatening. Problems included overcrowding, use of police
    stations as detention facilities, and failure to separate inmates
    according to the type or severity of their alleged crimes.
    Additionally, there was little ventilation or lighting. One of the main
    prisoner complaints was the lack of access to medical care.
        As of September the prison system, with an official capacity of
    7,187 persons, held 12,293 prisoners. Pretrial detainees shared cells
    with convicted prisoners due to space constraints. In September the
    Government released 388 inmates who had served two-thirds of their
    sentences in an attempt to alleviate overcrowding.
        Prison medical care was inadequate. HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis,
    hepatitis B, and other communicable diseases were common among the
    prison population. Only 14 physicians served the entire prison system,
    and they worked limited morning hours. A 60-bed clinic, opened at La
    Joyita Prison in 2008, remained unused due to the lack of guards to
    watch ill detainees; authorities transferred patients to public clinics
    instead.
        PNP officers provided perimeter security at all prisons but
    generally lacked training for prison duty. At La Joya and La Joyita
    prisons, PNP officers also provided internal security, although
    civilian custodians were also present. In all prisons, inmates
    complained of limited time outside cells and limited access to family
    visits. Small jails attached to local police stations sometimes held
    prisoners for the entire length of their sentences, but police officers
    who guarded them lacked the necessary custodial training to prevent
    abuses, and typically the detention facilities were not suitable for
    long-term detention.
        Female and male prisoners were held separately. Although prison
    conditions for women were generally better than those for men, they
    remained characterized by overcrowding, poor medical care, and lack of
    basic supplies for personal hygiene.
        Juvenile pretrial and custodial detention centers throughout the
    country did not have resources to provide education or adequate
    supervision and suffered from overcrowding and poor conditions. The
    main male facility in the country, in Panama City, held more than twice
    the number of detainees for which it was designed, and a diplomatic
    representative observed inhumane conditions there during an October
    visit. Lack of funding led to cancellation of virtually all
    rehabilitative (workshops and job-training programs) and recreational
    activities; that and a severe shortage of custodial guards resulted in
    the majority of detainees spending nearly all their time in cells.
        The Ombudsman's Office intervened in cases involving the prison
    system by negotiating and petitioning on behalf of prisoners and
    receiving complaints about prison conditions. The office reportedly
    received six complaints by prisoners during the year: one for verbal
    abuse by a PNP prison guard, four for physical abuse by PNP officers in
    the course of prisoner detention, and one for physical abuse by a
    civilian custodian. One of the four physical-abuse cases was under
    investigation by the Public Ministry at year's end.
        Prisoners were able to submit complaints to judicial authorities
    without censorship and to request investigation of credible allegations
    of inhumane conditions, but authorities did not document the results of
    such investigations in a publicly accessible manner. The Government
    investigated and monitored prison and detention center conditions.
        The Ombudsman's Office conducted weekly prison visits, and the
    Government generally did not monitor its meetings with prisoners.
    However, authorities repeatedly denied access to human rights
    organizations, particularly after one organization filed two lawsuits
    against the Ministry of Government on behalf of prisoners. By year's
    end the lawsuit regarding a lack of potable water was pending, while
    the court had dismissed the lawsuit about a lack of access to fresh air
    and sunlight. Prisoners at some facilities had reasonable access to
    visitors and were permitted religious observance; however, this was not
    the situation at high-security facilities, such as La Joya and La
    Joyita, where prisoners had very little time outside their cells.
        An ombudsman may serve on behalf of prisoners and detainees to
    consider such matters as alternatives to incarceration for nonviolent
    offenders to alleviate overcrowding; to address the status and
    circumstances of the confinement of juvenile offenders; and to improve
    pretrial detention, bail, and recordkeeping procedures to ensure that
    prisoners do not serve beyond the maximum sentence for the charged
    offense.
        Ground was broken in August for a new mega-prison that would hold
    5,500 male and female prisoners in separate facilities. During a mid-
    November prison reform conference, Minister of Government Roxanna
    Mendez announced that the mega-prison plan had been modified to set out
    four separate facilities. More than 160 new corrections officers were
    hired during the year, although 38 reportedly resigned due to a low
    monthly salary of 400 balboas ($400).

        d. Arbitrary Arrest or Detention.--The law prohibits arbitrary
    arrest and detention, and the Government generally observed these
    prohibitions. The law permits exceptions when an officer apprehends a
    person during the commission of a crime or when an individual
    interferes with an officer's actions.
        On July 10, media reported that authorities arrested at least 50
    union leaders and members of civil society in Panama City as they
    emerged from a meeting at Hotel Soloy during which they had agreed to
    launch a national strike to protest Law 30. Authorities also issued
    arrest warrants for 17 union leaders and a former presidential
    candidate who participated in the meeting. Authorities released those
    arrested that same day and lifted the arrest warrants on July 13
    without taking any further legal action.

        Role of the Police and Security Apparatus.--Civilian authorities in
    the new Ministry of Public Security (formed on April 1 from the
    Ministry of Government and Justice) maintained effective control over
    all police, investigative, border, air, and maritime forces in the
    country, which has no regular military forces. The PNP remains
    responsible for internal law enforcement and public order. The
    Government has effective mechanisms to investigate and punish abuse and
    corruption, and there were no reports of impunity involving security
    forces during the year.
        Law 18 includes guidelines for the use of force, including deadly
    force; requires that police respect human rights; and prohibits
    instigation or tolerance of torture, cruelty, or other inhumane or
    degrading behavior. On October 24, the National Assembly modified Law
    18 so that, in its changed form as Law 74, police accused of using
    excessive force may not be detained prior to trial, suspended, nor face
    other internal discipline unless and until convicted.
        From January to September, the PNP's DRP opened 1,040 disciplinary
    proceedings against police, including 145 for inappropriate conduct, 12
    for physical aggression, and 220 for abuse of authority. Also as of
    September, there were 80 incidents reported of domestic violence by
    police. Through September the Ombudsman's Office received 37 complaints
    against police for abuse of authority. Investigations in most of these
    cases were ongoing at year's end, although authorities dismissed 50 PNP
    officers and placed many others on ``semipermanent vacation.''
        In September a jury found two PNP agents not guilty of killing a
    construction worker during a 2007 demonstration against poor labor
    conditions.

        Arrest Procedures and Treatment While in Detention.--Police
    generally apprehended persons openly and did not practice arbitrary or
    secret arrest and detention. The law provides that suspects be brought
    promptly before a judge; however, lack of prompt arraignment continued
    to be a problem. The law requires arresting officers to inform
    detainees immediately of the reasons for arrest or detention and of the
    right to immediate legal counsel. The law provides for bail, and a
    functioning bail system exists for a limited number of crimes.
    Detainees were allowed prompt access to legal counsel and family
    members, and the Government provided indigent defendants with a lawyer.
        The law prohibits police from detaining suspects for more than 48
    hours without judicial authorization but permits detention of minors
    for 72 hours. By law the preliminary-investigation phase of detention
    may last from eight days to two months, and the follow-up investigation
    phase, another two to four months, depending on the number of suspects.
    However, in practice inmates were regularly imprisoned for more than a
    year before a judge's pretrial hearing, and their pretrial detention
    exceeded the maximum sentence for the alleged crime. Such extended
    pretrial detention continued to be a serious problem, largely due to
    judicial inefficiency and the use of a written inquisitorial system.
    According to government statistics, as of August, 63 percent of
    prisoners were pretrial detainees. In Veraguas Province, courts
    initiated a system that greatly decreased case backlog in preparation
    for introduction of the accusatorial system.

        e. Denial of Fair Public Trial.--The law provides for an
    independent judiciary; however, the judicial system was susceptible to
    corruption and outside influence and there were allegations of
    manipulation by other government branches.
        The Directorate of Judicial Investigation, under PNP administrative
    control, provides investigative services to the judicial system.
        In August the attorney general was officially removed from office
    after a trial for ``abuse of authority'' that human rights groups
    claimed was politically motivated.
        At the local level, mayors appoint ``corregidores'' (administrative
    judges), who exercise jurisdiction over minor civil cases and the
    arrest and imposition of fines or jail sentences of up to one year.
    Outside of Panama City, this system had serious shortcomings.
    Defendants lacked adequate procedural safeguards. Corregidores usually
    had no legal training or other pertinent expertise. In actuality appeal
    procedures were generally nonexistent. Affluent defendants often paid
    fines while poorer defendants were incarcerated.

        Trial Procedures.--The law provides that all citizens charged with
    crimes enjoy a presumption of innocence and have rights to counsel, to
    refrain from incriminating themselves or close relatives, and to be
    tried only once for a given offense. If not under pretrial detention,
    the accused may be present with counsel during the investigative phase
    of proceedings.
        In August 2009 the Government postponed until September 2011
    implementation of a new Code of Criminal Procedure designed to
    transition from an inquisitorial to an accusatory system of justice.
    The Government budget contained 38 million balboas ($38 million) for
    implementation.
        Trials are open to the public. The law provides for trial by jury
    at the defendant's election but only in cases where at least one of the
    charges is murder. Judges may order the presence of pretrial detainees
    for rendering or amplifying statements or for confronting witnesses.
    Trials are conducted on the basis of evidence presented by the public
    prosecutor. Defendants have the right to be present at trial and to
    consult with an attorney in a timely manner. Defendants may confront or
    question witnesses against them and present witnesses and evidence on
    their behalf. Defendants and their attorneys have access to relevant
    government-held evidence. Defendants have a right of appeal. The law
    extends these rights to all citizens, and the judiciary generally
    enforced them.
        The law obliges the Government to provide public defenders for the
    indigent, and an estimated 70 percent of inmates used them. Many public
    defenders, however, were appointed late in an investigation, after the
    prosecutor had evaluated most evidence and decided to recommend trial.
    Public-defender caseloads remained very high, averaging 395 cases per
    attorney per year. The court system has maintained a backlog of
    approximately 45 percent of cases since 2004, which was also a large
    contributing factor to prison overcrowding.

        Political Prisoners and Detainees.--There were no reports of
    political prisoners or detainees.

        Regional Human Rights Court Decisions.--In its May 28 order in the
    case concerning the disappearance of Heliodoro Portugal, the Inter-
    American Court of Human Rights ruled that the Government fully complied
    with requirements for widespread circulation of the 2008 court
    judgment, for payment of damages (254,000 balboas ($254,000)) and
    costs, and for public acknowledgement of the Government's
    responsibilities. Compliance remained pending at year's end with
    requirements for immediate medical and psychological care of Portugal
    family members, for enactment within a reasonable time of legal
    definitions of the offenses of forced disappearance and torture, and
    for investigation of the Portugal disappearance plus prosecution and
    punishment of those responsible. In April judicial authorities agreed
    to try the eight former National Guard members allegedly involved in
    the disappearance and killing of Portugal (see section 1.b.).

        Civil Judicial Procedures and Remedies.--The constitution and the
    judicial code establish an independent judiciary in civil matters.
    Alleged political manipulation of the judicial system remained a
    problem, and bureaucratic delay hindered access to judicial and
    administrative remedies for human rights violations. Problems continued
    in enforcement of domestic court orders.

        f. Arbitrary Interference With Privacy, Family, Home, or
    Correspondence.--The law prohibits such actions, and the Government
    generally respected these prohibitions; however, there were complaints
    that in some cases law-enforcement authorities failed to follow legal
    requirements and conducted unauthorized searches. The Public Ministry
    maintained representatives in each PNP division to approve searches,
    and they approved numerous searches during the year.
        The law also sets forth requirements for conducting wiretap
    surveillance. It denies prosecutors authority to order wiretaps on
    their own and requires judicial oversight. During the year several
    citizens claimed to have been wiretapping targets after making
    statements critical of the Government, but there was no confirmation.

    Section 2. Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:
        a. Freedom of Speech and Press.--The law provides for freedom of
    speech and of the press, and individuals generally enjoyed freedom of
    expression. However, during the year the Government used a variety of
    means to impede freedom of expression and attempt to silence criticism
    of its actions.
        The independent media were active and expressed a variety of views
    without restriction. The law prohibits newspapers from holding radio
    and television concessions and vice versa. International media operated
    freely in the country.
        Journalists alleged that the Government purchased advertising space
    to reward news organizations for publishing favorable stories and
    withdrew advertising funding from news organizations engaged in
    unfavorable coverage. Legal actions brought by officials of the former
    government remained pending against many journalists. The Inter-
    American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), the Inter-American Press
    Association (IAPA), the NGO Reporters without Borders, and other groups
    criticized these measures as efforts to censor the press.
        The law allows prosecution of journalists for vague charges related
    to exposing private information and documents, even those deemed of
    public interest. The law also permits prosecution of journalists for
    publishing information restricted on national security grounds. NGOs
    asserted that these provisions threatened freedom of speech and press.
        Journalists alleged that members of the Government, including
    President Martinelli and Secretary of Communication Alfredo Prieto,
    telephoned them to complain about stories printed or aired concerning
    the Government. Journalists asserted that those calls had a chilling
    effect, especially on reporters, resulting in frequent self-censorship.
    There was at least one report of threats against a leading journalist
    by a member of the Government.
        In May the director of El Siglo newspaper, Jean Marcel Chery, filed
    a complaint with the IACHR that alleged the Government had launched a
    campaign of intimidation after El Siglo ran a story on government
    failure to collect garbage in poor Panama City neighborhoods.
    Transcripts of text messages between Chery and Communications Secretary
    Prieto were published. In the complaint Chery also accused Prieto of
    having commentators attack him on Prieto's privately owned television
    station. The IACHR was evaluating the complaint at year's end.
        Also in May the Supreme Court of Justice fined the national
    newspaper of record, La Prensa, 300,000 balboas ($300,000) for ``moral
    damages'' after it reported the 2005 firing and subsequent
    reinstatement of a prosecutor. The story had been covered by six other
    papers, none of which were cited in the damages suit. Leading
    journalists condemned the ruling as ``absurd'' and warned of
    intimidation. La Prensa's appeal was pending at year's end.
        In July a group of leading media figures met with the president and
    complained about the Government's behavior toward journalists.
        In early July authorities detained La Prensa journalist Paco Gomez
    Nadal, a foreign national with a valid permit to work in the country
    who was also a human rights activist from the NGO Human Rights
    Everywhere and an editorial adviser and contributor to foreign
    publications, as he attempted to board a flight to another country. In
    the ensuing controversy, the Government made several contradictory
    public claims about its reasons, all involving alleged tax and
    immigration irregularities; reportedly told him that he could leave if
    he promised not to return; but released him after several hours. At
    year's end he continued to reside in the country and publish his
    articles critical of the Government.
        Controversy continued regarding the decriminalization of defamation
    and slander. In late September Acting Attorney General Giuseppe Bonissi
    filed an opinion with the Supreme Court that stated the 2008 reform
    that decriminalized defamation or slander of high-ranking public
    officials was unconstitutional. On the other hand, many civil society
    groups advocated even broader decriminalization of slander.
        Also in late September, the Second Superior Court convicted
    television journalists Sabrina Bacal and Justino Gonzalez of criminal
    slander, banned them from professional work for one year, and ordered
    them each to pay a fine of 3,650 balboas ($3,650) or serve one year in
    prison--notwithstanding that two lower courts had dismissed the same
    charges earlier in the year. The appellate court's decision sparked
    protests and public criticism of the Government over its possible lack
    of compliance with international standards regarding freedom of
    expression. In early October the Ethics Committee of the National
    Council for Journalism requested that the Inter-American Court of Human
    Rights review the case. However, since there were case-related
    constitutional issues awaiting a Supreme Court decision, the Inter-
    American Court had not accepted the case by year's end. Meanwhile, on
    October 7, a full pardon of both journalists by President Martinelli
    took effect.
        In mid-November Guillermo Adames, president of the National Council
    for Journalism, claimed that the Government retaliated for his
    criticism of its policy toward freedom of expression by sending tax
    inspectors to his radio station, Omega Stereo. The council shortly
    thereafter declared a ``permanent state of alert'' because of what it
    described as a ``government attack against freedom of speech.''
        In April 2009 a judge sentenced the director of El Siglo, Jean
    Marcel Chery, and two journalists to two years in prison for
    trespassing while reporting in 2001 on corruption allegedly involving
    Supreme Court Justice Winston Spadafora. Local journalists and the IAPA
    criticized the judgment as judicial harassment. Chery appealed, but the
    court upheld the earlier ruling. At year's end the case remained at the
    Superior Court level without a final judgment. However, since the law
    requires commutation of prison sentences into fines in all cases where
    the final ruling has not been made within two years, Chery and the two
    journalists were not imprisoned.
        The appeal by La Prensa's Rafael Berrocal of a September 2009
    conviction for calumny and libel against a former vice president of the
    country, since deceased, remained pending at year's end. The court had
    sentenced Berrocal to 200 days in prison or a fine of 400 balboas
    ($400).
        The impact of the 2008 Supreme Court ruling that overturned former
    president Moscoso's pardons of several journalists convicted of libel
    remained uncertain at year's end, because the court returned the cases
    to their ``original state,'' which required clarification. Meanwhile,
    in October police detained one of the journalists, due to a criminal
    slander case pending from 2001, but released him the same day.
        At year's end an appeal remained pending of a 2008 judicial order
    seizing the assets of the newspaper El Periodico, which subsequently
    went out of business.
        In June journalist Carlos Nunez Lopez served 18 days of a one-year
    sentence in prison in connection with a 2007 criminal conviction for
    defaming a property owner in a 2004 La Cronica story about
    environmental damage in Bocas del Toro Province.

        Internet Freedom.--There were no government restrictions on access
    to the Internet, but there were anecdotal reports that the Government
    monitored private e-mails. In a few cases, law-enforcement monitoring
    of suspects' computers led to arrests for sex crimes. Individuals and
    groups could engage in the peaceful expression of views via the
    Internet, including by e-mail. The International Telecommunication
    Union reported that 28 percent of inhabitants used the Internet in
    2009, an increase of 5 percent from 2008.

        Academic Freedom and Cultural Events.--There were no government
    restrictions on academic freedom or cultural events.

        b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association.--The law provides
    for freedoms of assembly and association, and the Government generally
    respected these rights in practice. The law also states that anyone
    who, through use of violence, impedes the transit of vehicles on public
    roads or causes damage to public or private property may be sentenced
    to imprisonment for six to 24 months.
        Several labor leaders claimed that they received anonymous
    threatening phone calls due to their participation in meetings held
    abroad on July 20 with foreign officials and legislators to discuss
    concerns related to Law 30 and a pending bilateral free trade
    agreement.

        c. Freedom of Religion.--For a complete description of religious
    freedom, please see the 2010 International Religious Freedom Report at
    www.state.gov/g/drl/irf/rpt.

        d. Freedom of Movement, Internally Displaced Persons, Protection of
    Refugees, and Stateless Persons.--The law provides for freedom of
    movement within the country, foreign travel, emigration, and
    repatriation, and the Government generally respected these rights in
    practice. The Government generally cooperated with the Office of the UN
    High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and other humanitarian
    organizations in providing protection and assistance to internally
    displaced persons, refugees, returning refugees, persons under
    temporary humanitarian protection (THP), asylum seekers, stateless
    persons, and other persons of concern.
        The Government generally permitted freedom of movement for
    documented refugees and asylum seekers; however, it restricted the
    freedom of movement of Colombian nationals living in the region
    bordering Colombia under the THP regime, who could only leave those
    locations with special temporary permits issued by the National Office
    for the Protection of Refugees (ONPAR).
        The law prohibits forced exile, and there were no reports of its
    use.

        Protection of Refugees.--The law provides for the granting of
    asylum or refugee status, and the Government has established a system
    for providing protection to refugees. The 1998 Executive Decree 23
    grants protection to all persons entering the country due to ``state
    persecution based on race, gender, religion, nationality, social group,
    or political opinion.'' The decree grants two months' THP status to
    ``displaced persons'' in the case of a large influx; in actuality the
    Government did not enforce the two-month time limit. A Colombian THP
    group has continued to live in the Darien region for 14 years,
    notwithstanding a 2008 law that, until November 9, 2010, provided a
    legal mechanism by which all those persons under refugee status who had
    been in the country for 10 years or more were enabled to apply for
    permanent residence.
        In practice the Government provided some protection against the
    expulsion or return of refugees to countries where their lives or
    freedom would be threatened on account of their race, religion,
    nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political
    opinion. At times, however, border officials and authorities in large
    urban centers did not have a clear understanding of their
    responsibilities when dealing with persons seeking asylum or refugee
    status, which resulted in arbitrary detention and risk of return to
    countries where their lives or freedom could be threatened.
        Authorities did not provide asylum seekers and refugees with
    documentation in a timely fashion, and the documents provided were not
    always recognized as valid by public officials, including police,
    health service providers, schools, and banking institutions. Work
    permits were issued after a lengthy bureaucratic process, but the
    Government did not permit displaced Colombians to work or move outside
    of their assigned villages.
        There were approximately 1,213 recognized refugees in the country.
    During the year 454 persons approached the Government seeking refugee
    status, according to ONPAR. The law requires that the Government's
    National Commission for the Protection of Refugees, convened by ONPAR,
    meet at least once every three months to determine the status of
    persons seeking refugee status. The commission met four times during
    the year, reviewed 140 cases, and granted refugee status to 13 persons.
    Local NGOs claimed that the Government arbitrarily denied admission to
    the refugee-status determination process and often refused asylum-
    seeker requests on the basis that they failed to prove past persecution
    or a well-founded fear of future persecution.
        For most of the year, the law enacted in 2008 allowed persons who
    had been recognized as refugees for 10 years or more to apply for
    permanent residence. By November 9, when that law expired, 300
    applicants had requested this status, and the Government had approved
    277 such cases.
        Persons under THP included 899 displaced persons, mainly of Afro-
    Colombian heritage, and 289 of their dependents, some of whom were
    citizens born in Panama of marriages between displaced Colombians and
    Panamanian citizens. Seventy individuals were from the Embera
    indigenous group.
        The Government reported an increase in migration of persons from
    outside the region, primarily from Asia and East Africa, who transited
    the country en route to North America. The Government regularly
    detained undocumented migrants from this population and provided those
    individuals who requested international protection with access to the
    asylum process; however, nearly all such individuals abandoned their
    applications and continued on their migration route before a refugee-
    status determination was completed. The UNHCR estimated that 70 such
    persons applied for asylum during the year.
        The UNHCR classified approximately 15,000 persons living in the
    country as ``persons of concern'' in need of international protection.
    These included persons for whom the Government had denied refugee
    status and persons in the country who did not apply for refugee status
    due to lack of knowledge or fear of deportation. The UNHCR had a
    permanent office in the country and was generally granted access to
    refugees and project sites where it could provide services to refugees,
    internally displaced persons, and persons under THP.

    Section 3. Respect for Political Rights: The Right of Citizens to
            Change Their Government
        The law provides citizens the right to change their government
    peacefully, and citizens exercised this right in practice through
    periodic, free, and fair elections based on universal suffrage. The law
    provides for direct popular election every five years of the president,
    the vice president, legislators, and local representatives. Naturalized
    citizens may not hold specified categories of elective office.

        Elections and Political Participation.--In May 2009 voters chose
    Ricardo A. Martinelli Berrocal, the opposition Alliance for Change
    candidate, as president in national elections considered generally free
    and fair by independent observers. More than two million citizens voted
    in elections for president, vice president, legislators, mayors, and
    local representatives, including citizens residing overseas who had
    registered via the Internet and voted by mail-in ballot.
        The law requires new political parties to meet strict membership
    and organizational standards to gain official recognition and
    participate in national campaigns. The law also requires political
    parties to be structured democratically, permits independents to
    campaign for the presidency and National Assembly, provides for the
    autonomy of the National Electoral Tribunal, and limits the immunity of
    representatives in the National Assembly by permitting the Supreme
    Court to prosecute criminal cases against representatives.
        On October 24, the National Electoral Tribunal organized,
    regulated, and monitored the Ngobe-Bugle community's elections of
    local, regional, and general congress delegates. The elections were
    controversial (community leaders claimed the tribunal sought to deprive
    them of their autonomy), community leaders encouraged a boycott, and
    participation was only 20 to 30 percent of registered voters. NGO Human
    Rights Everywhere observers described the elections as ``confusing''
    and ill-timed and recommended consultations between the tribunal and
    traditional authorities to resolve matters. Although the Ngobe-Bugle
    community stated they would not validate the election results, their
    elected officials did receive and accept credentials from the
    Government.
        Women held six seats in the 71-member legislature and five places
    in the 17-member cabinet.
        Five seats in the legislature were designated to represent the
    country's recognized indigenous regions. In general deputies in the
    legislature, cabinet members, or members of the Supreme Court did not
    identify themselves as members of ethnic or racial minorities.

    Section 4. Official Corruption and Government Transparency
        The law provides criminal penalties for official corruption, and
    the Government sometimes implemented these laws. However, there were
    also instances when government officials engaged in corrupt practices
    with impunity. Corruption remained a problem in the executive,
    judicial, and legislative branches as well as in the security forces,
    and World Bank indicators reflected that evaluation. Anticorruption
    mechanisms such as asset forfeiture, whistleblower and witness
    protection, plea bargaining, and conflict-of-interest rules existed.
        Corruption among police officers continued to be a problem,
    although the Ministry of Public Security (MSP) improved accountability
    within the security services. The PNP worked with the MSP to reform the
    Directorate of Professional Responsibility (DRP) to create a more
    transparent method for handling traditional internal affairs problems
    for all security services. Proposed changes included incorporation of a
    semi-independent civilian staff to monitor DRP investigations. The MSP
    opened three cases against PNP officers for embezzlement and one for
    corruption during the year, all of which continued under investigation
    at year's end.
        In July authorities fired a number of senior National Aero-Naval
    Service officers and several senior PNP officers, reportedly due to
    involvement in narcotics-related crime.
        In September authorities opened an investigation into allegations
    of high-level immigration officials involved in a ring smuggling
    Chinese citizens. Several officials were fired, and several more
    remained under investigation at year's end.
        Although the law provides for judicial appointments through a
    merit-based system, civil-society groups maintained that political
    influence and undue interference by higher-level judges undermined the
    system. In midyear a commission formed by civil-society members and
    members of the judiciary began meeting to discuss legislative changes
    that would address this issue, but by year's end there were no known
    developments.
        In February authorities released former minister of education
    Belgis Castro on bail of 150,000 balboas ($150,000) while August 2009
    charges of embezzlement concerning contracts awaited adjudication.
        In the case of six Ministry of Education employees charged in 2008
    with embezzling 1.5 million balboas ($1.5 million), the Third Criminal
    Court of the Special District of San Miguelito postponed the May 5
    preliminary hearing, returned the file to the First Anticorruption
    Prosecutor's Office for expansion, and did not set a new hearing date.
        Despite the Government-instituted Internet-based procurement system
    that required publication of all proposed government purchases,
    evaluations of proposals, monitoring of the procurement process, and
    advance public notice of intended procurement, there were many reports
    of government purchases made via direct contracts that circumvented the
    system during the year. The media reported up to one billion balboas
    ($1 billion) in approximately 1,300 direct contracts.
        Public officials were subject to financial disclosure laws, but
    this information was reported to the Government and not the public.
        The transparency law provides public access to information from and
    about public entities with the exception of cabinet meeting minutes. In
    practice the Government was not always forthcoming in response to
    information requests, obliging journalists to resort to legal remedies.
    When denying requests, authorities generally provided the rationale for
    the denials. Requesters may appeal access decisions to the Supreme
    Court.

    Section 5. Governmental Attitude Regarding International and
            Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations of Human
            Rights
        A number of domestic and international human rights groups
    generally operated without government restriction, investigating and
    publishing their findings on human rights cases. Government officials
    generally were cooperative and responsive to their views.
        The ombudsman, elected by the National Assembly, had moral but not
    legal authority, enjoyed the Government's cooperation, and operated
    without government or party interference. Between January and
    September, the Ombudsman Office received 578 complaints. During the
    year the office issued reports on the violence associated with protests
    in Bocas del Toro Province (see section 1.a.) and on environmental
    contamination and prison conditions, with recommendations to which the
    Government had not responded by year's end.
        In accordance with an October 2009 law to improve legislative
    efficiency, the National Assembly merged its Human Rights Committee
    with the Government Affairs Committee. At year's end an effort was
    underway to re-separate the committees.

    Section 6. Discrimination, Societal Abuses, and Trafficking in Persons
        The law prohibits discrimination based on race, gender, disability,
    language, or social status, but the Government allegedly did not
    enforce these prohibitions effectively.

        Women.--The law criminalizes rape, including spousal rape, with
    prison terms of five to 10 years and eight to 10 years under
    aggravating circumstances (use of a weapon), and the Government
    enforced the law effectively. Rapes constituted the majority of sexual
    crimes investigated by the PNP, and its Directorate of Judicial
    Investigation reported 481cases of rape in the context of domestic
    violence for the period January to September.
        Domestic violence against women continued to be a serious problem,
    and the number of reported cases increased during the year. Although
    the law criminalizes domestic abuse and family violence with prison
    terms of two to four years and makes domestic violence an aggravating
    circumstance in homicide cases, there were few convictions for domestic
    violence, except for killing in the course of domestic abuse. In
    October the NGO Queen Sofia Center reported a high rate of domestic
    femicide in the country. The PNP's Directorate of Judicial
    Investigation reported 2,397 cases of domestic violence for the period
    January to June, and 46 women died as a result of domestic violence
    during the period January to October.
        The Government-operated shelter in Panama City for victims of
    domestic abuse--the only one in the country--offered social,
    psychological, medical, and legal services.
        The law prohibits sexual harassment in cases of established
    employer/employee relations in the private sector and in teacher/
    student relations; violators face one- to three-year prison sentences.
    The extent of the problem was difficult to determine because
    convictions for sexual harassment were rare, and preemployment sexual
    harassment was not actionable. The effectiveness of law enforcement
    could not be determined due to the small number of cases brought before
    the courts.
        Couples and individuals had the right to decide the number,
    spacing, and timing of their children, and had the information and
    means to do so free from discrimination. The UN estimated the country's
    maternal mortality ratio in 2008 as 71 deaths per 100,000 live births.
    Access to information on contraception and skilled attendance at
    delivery and in postpartum care were widely available, except in
    comarcas (provincial-level indigenous regions), where it was limited,
    according to the American Red Cross. The law limits sterilization to
    women who are 33 years of age or older, have at least five children,
    and are of a low socioeconomic level (undefined). Various groups
    considered the law discriminatory, and legislation remained pending at
    year's end that would allow women to seek sterilization regardless of
    age or number of children but not regardless of socioeconomic level.
    Women and men were given equal access to diagnostic services and
    treatment for sexually transmitted infections, including HIV.
        The law prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender, and women
    enjoyed the same rights as men under family, property, and criminal
    law. The law recognizes joint or common property in marriages, but the
    Government did not enforce the law effectively.
        The law mandates equal pay for men and women in equivalent jobs,
    but according to a 2010 World Economic Forum survey, women received
    approximately 41 percent less on average than men for comparable work.
    The Ministry of Social Development (MIDES), through the National
    Institute of Women, promoted equality of women in the workplace and
    equal pay for equal work, attempted to reduce sexual harassment, and
    advocated legal reforms.

        Children.--Although the law provides that citizenship is derived by
    birth within the country's territory, children in remote areas
    sometimes had difficulty in obtaining birth registration certificates.
        MIDES received complaints regarding physical abuse of children. The
    ministry maintained a free hotline for children and adults to report
    abuses and advertised it widely. From January to the beginning of
    December, the hotline received 1,781 calls reporting child abuse (242
    other cases were reported in person at one of the Integral Guidance and
    Attention Centers), 294 reports of abandonment, and 581 reports of
    neglect. The ministry provided funding to children's shelters operated
    by NGOs in seven provinces and continued a program that used pamphlets
    in schools to sensitize teachers, children, and parents about
    mistreatment and sexual abuse of children. The independent National
    Secretariat for Children, Adolescents, and the Family (SENNIAF) was
    created to coordinate, execute, and follow-up all policies designed to
    protect the rights of children and adolescents.
        Lack of reporting on sexual exploitation of minors remained a
    problem, often because of parental involvement or complicity. Sexual
    abuse of children was reported in both urban and rural areas, as well
    as within indigenous communities.
        The law prohibits consensual sex with a girl aged 14 to 18 and
    provides for one to three years' imprisonment; when the child is
    younger than 14, the sanction is four to 10 years' imprisonment. The
    law provides for three- to five-year prison terms for anyone who
    practices, facilitates, or promotes the corruption of a minor and also
    criminalizes child pornography, for which it also provides the same
    imprisonment penalty.
        The country is a party to the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil
    Aspects of International Child Abduction. For information on
    international parental child abduction, please see the Department of
    State's annual report on compliance with that convention at http://
    travel.state.gov/abduction/resources/congressreport/congressreport--
    4308.html.

        Anti-Semitism.--There was a Jewish population of approximately
    10,000 persons. There were no reports of anti-Semitic acts.

        Trafficking in Persons.--For information on trafficking in persons,
    please see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons
    Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        Persons With Disabilities.--The law prohibits discrimination based
    on physical or mental disability; however, the constitution permits the
    denial of naturalization to persons with mental or physical
    disabilities. The law mandates access to new or remodeled public
    buildings for persons with disabilities and requires that schools
    integrate children with special needs. In practice persons with
    disabilities experienced substantial discrimination in employment,
    education, access to health care, and the provision of other state
    services. Some public schools admitted children with mental and
    physical disabilities, but most did not have adequate facilities for
    children with special needs. The Government installed ramps in some
    schools and mainstreamed some children with disabilities. Few private
    schools admitted children with special needs.
        On August 2, the National Assembly passed a law mandating that the
    National Electoral Tribunal register citizen disabilities as well as
    blood type and allergies on the citizen identification card to be able
    to deal with situations in which an individual collapses or loses
    consciousness. The law also requires the National Transportation
    Authority to include the same information on individual driver's
    licenses.
        The National Secretariat for the Social Integration of Persons with
    Disabilities is the Government agency responsible for protecting the
    rights of persons with disabilities. The Ministry of Education and
    MIDES share responsibilities for educating and training minors with
    disabilities.
        MIDES opened a new educational resource center for blind children--
    the first of its kind in the country--in September to provide access to
    books, maps, and other documents in Braille. In October the ministry
    also translated into Braille a guide to the Labor Code so that blind
    workers could read about their labor rights. The law provides that a
    minimum of 2 percent of workers at a given company should be persons
    with disabilities, with the Ministry of Labor and Labor Development
    (MITRADEL) responsible for placing workers with disabilities in
    suitable jobs; however, in practice placement remained difficult.
    During the period January to July, the Ombudsman's Office received 26
    complaints of government violations involving the labor rights of
    persons with disabilities; information was not available on the
    resolution of those complaints.
        In October the Social Security Administration announced a new
    system enabling deaf patients to make medical appointments via the
    Internet.
        The Government disbursed 50 balboas ($50) monthly and donated
    rehabilitation equipment to low-income persons with disabilities.

        National/Racial/Ethnic Minorities.--Minority groups have generally
    been integrated into mainstream society, but problems continued with
    negative attitudes among all ethnic communities toward members not
    belonging to their particular group. Prejudice was directed at recent
    immigrants; cultural and language differences and immigrant status
    hindered integration into mainstream society by immigrant and first-
    generation individuals from China, India, and the Middle East.
    Additionally, some members of these communities were themselves
    reluctant to integrate into mainstream society. Members of these groups
    often owned major businesses or worked in the country's retail trade: A
    constitutional provision reserving retail trade for citizens of the
    country generally was not enforced.
        The Afro-Panamanian community continued to be underrepresented in
    positions of political and economic power, and many blacks remained
    clustered in the economically depressed areas of Colon Province and
    Panama City. These areas conspicuously lacked government services and
    social-sector investment. Prejudice toward blacks was generally subtle,
    taking the form of unofficial ``right-of-admission'' policies at
    restaurants and commercial establishments that discriminated against
    darker-skinned individuals or those of lower social status.
        The law prohibits discrimination regarding entry to public or
    commercial establishments; however, cases of discrimination were
    difficult to prove in practice, and legal remedies, difficult to
    obtain.
        There were reports of racial discrimination against various ethnic
    groups in the workplace. In general lighter-skinned persons were
    represented disproportionately in management positions and jobs that
    required dealing with the public, such as bank tellers and
    receptionists. Some businesses discriminated against citizens with
    darker skin through preferential hiring practices. Employers often
    required job applicants to submit photographs with their resumes, which
    the employers used to discriminate against persons based on appearance.

        Indigenous People.--The law affords indigenous persons the same
    political and legal rights as other citizens, protects their ethnic
    identity and native languages, and requires the Government to provide
    bilingual literacy programs in indigenous communities. Indigenous
    individuals have the legal right to take part in decisions affecting
    their lands, cultures, traditions, and the allocation and exploitation
    of natural resources. However, in practice their participation
    continued to be marginalized, and conflict emerged when the internal
    regulations of indigenous groups conflicted with the country's laws or
    constitution (see section 3, Elections and Political Participation).
    There were legally designated comarcas governed by traditional
    community leaders for five of the country's seven indigenous groups,
    including the Embera-Wounaan, Ngobe-Bugle, and Kuna communities. The
    Government did not recognize comarcas for the Bri-Bri and Naso
    communities.
        The Ministry of Government maintained an Office of Indigenous
    Policy. Although the country's law is the ultimate authority on
    indigenous reserves, local groups maintained considerable autonomy. For
    example, the Government recognized traditional Kuna marriage rites as
    the equivalent of a civil ceremony.
        Many indigenous persons misunderstood their rights and failed to
    employ legal channels when threatened, because they did not have an
    adequate command of the Spanish language. Outside-settler encroachment
    continued to threaten indigenous comarcas, which were not well
    demarcated.
        On June 3, the Naso community petitioned the IACHR for urgent
    interim measures to protect the integrity of its land and to open
    negotiations with the Government on economic development projects. The
    community claimed discrimination, because the Government refused to
    recognize its territorial rights, and irreparable damage, because
    hydropower projects were being implemented. By year's end there was no
    further information available on this situation.
        In July a Compliance Advisor Office ombudsman team from the
    International Finance Corporation of the World Bank Group visited the
    country and obtained key-stakeholder agreement to address Chiriqui
    Province community-organization concerns about the Pando Montelirio
    hydroelectric power plant project through a facilitated dialogue
    process. The social and environmental concerns listed in the community
    organizations' complaint filed on January 27 included lack of a
    participative consultative process and endangerment of local
    communities, fish and water resources, plants, and the natural
    landscape.
        On May 28, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights denied the
    IACHR's January 19 request for provisional measures in the case of four
    Ngobe-Bugle communities (Charco La Pava, Valle del Rey, Guayabal, and
    Changuinola Arriba) that in 2008 had initiated proceedings before the
    IACHR concerning the Government's issuance of concessions for the
    exploration and exploitation of natural resources along the Changuinola
    River, Bocas del Toro Province. The court took the opportunity to note
    that a crucial factor for IACHR consideration was whether the
    restriction of community property rights implied denial of traditions
    and customs in a way that endangered group subsistence and also to note
    the obligation of governments to guarantee community participation in
    consultations in good faith through culturally adequate procedures. At
    year's end IACHR consideration continued.
        Societal and employment discrimination against indigenous persons
    was widespread. Employers frequently did not afford indigenous workers
    basic rights provided by law, such as a minimum wage, social security
    benefits, termination pay, and job security, and MITRADEL conducted
    limited oversight of working conditions in remote areas due to limited
    staff. Laborers in the country's sugar, coffee, and banana plantations
    (the majority of whom were indigenous persons) continued to work in
    overcrowded and unsanitary conditions. Employers were less likely to
    provide quality housing or food to indigenous migrant laborers, and
    their children were much more likely to work long hours of heavy farm
    labor than nonindigenous children (see section 7.d.).

        Societal Abuses, Discrimination, and Acts of Violence Based on
    Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.--The law does not prohibit
    discrimination based on sexual orientation.
        There was societal discrimination based on sexual orientation and
    gender identity, which often led to denial of employment opportunities.
    The PNP's regulations describe homosexual conduct as a ``grave fault.''
        In July the advocacy group New Men and Women of Panama issued a
    report that documented incidents between April and June of
    discrimination against lesbians involved in child-custody cases and of
    PNP agents who refused to aid a stabbed transsexual who was a minor or
    take him to the hospital. No known investigations were pending at
    year's end.
        In June the advocacy group organized an annual gay pride parade
    that the Government authorized. There was no police protection for
    parade participants, but no incidents were reported.

        Other Societal Violence or Discrimination.--The law prohibits
    discrimination against persons with HIV/AIDS in employment and
    education, but discrimination continued to be common due to ignorance
    of the law and a lack of mechanisms for ensuring compliance. The
    Ministry of Health and Social Security provided treatment for HIV/AIDS.
    The only local NGO dedicated to HIV/AIDS patients, the Foundation for
    the Welfare and Dignity of People Affected by HIV/AIDS (PROBIDSIDA),
    received a government subsidy to help defray its payroll and mortgage
    expenses. During the year PROBIDSIDA inaugurated its first clinical
    laboratory for conducting AIDS diagnostic tests. Pregnant women and
    teenagers were tested there at no cost, while others paid a nominal
    fee.

    Section 7. Worker Rights
        a. The Right of Association.--The law recognizes the right of
    private-sector workers to form and join unions of their choice, subject
    to the union's registration with the Government. The law requires a
    minimum of 40 persons to form a private-sector union (either by company
    across trades or by trade across companies) but permits only one trade
    union per business establishment. The ILO Committee of Experts (COE)
    continued to criticize both provisions as violations of worker rights
    to organize, stating that the 40-person minimum was too high when
    workers want to form a union within a company. The Government, private
    sector, and unions supported keeping the figure at 40 individuals.
        The constitution requires Panamanian citizenship to serve on a
    trade union executive board. The ILO observed that this requirement
    could deprive some workers of the right to elect their representatives
    in full freedom and noted, for example, that migrant workers could be
    adversely affected in sectors in which they accounted for a significant
    share of the membership. According to labor officials, approximately 17
    percent of the workforce was unionized.
        The law provides that if the Government does not respond to a
    registration application within 15 days, the union automatically gains
    legal recognition; however, union officials asserted that such
    automatic registration did not occur in practice. MITRADEL reported
    that inadequate personnel resources, case backlogs, and incomplete or
    inaccurate information in applications delayed the processing of new
    registrations within the required time frame.
        The law prohibits public servants from forming unions but allows
    them to form associations that may bargain collectively on behalf of
    members. However, the law stipulates that there may not be more than
    one association in a public-sector institution and that, while
    associations may have provincial or regional chapters, no more than one
    chapter per province is permitted. The ILO noted that these provisions
    should be amended. Member associations represent public-sector workers,
    such as doctors, nurses, firefighters, and administrative staff in
    government ministries. A 2009 law raised the minimum number of public
    servants required to form a worker's association from 40 to 50--a level
    considered too high by the ILO COE.
        Workers exercised their right to conduct their activities without
    government interference, including the right to strike. However, union
    leaders expressed concerns about government actions, such as auditing
    union budgets, which they characterized as intimidation.
        The law provides private-sector workers with the right to strike
    but requires that the strike be supported by a majority of employees.
    The law prohibits strikes that are unrelated to a collective bargaining
    agreement. In practice and in law, restrictions on collective
    bargaining in enterprises that have been in existence for less than two
    years limited the right to strike in those enterprises.
        The law grants public-sector employees a limited right to strike,
    except for those in areas vital to public welfare and security,
    including police and health workers. By law the National Federation of
    Public Servants (FENASEP), an umbrella federation of 21 public-sector
    worker associations, is not permitted to call strikes or negotiate
    collective-bargaining agreements. The ILO COE noted that FENASEP
    reported in November 2009 that the Government eliminated its standing
    as a worker organization, thereby denying it membership and
    participation rights in the National Organization of Organized Workers
    and access to public funding.
        Nevertheless individual associations under FENASEP may negotiate on
    behalf of their members. In the event of a strike, at least 25 percent
    of the workforce must continue to provide minimum services in the case
    of administrative workers, and 50 percent of the workers providing
    ``essential public services''--such as transportation, firefighting,
    mail, and telecommunications--must continue to provide those services.
    The ILO COE criticized the Government's definition of ``essential
    services'' as overly broad and also noted concerns regarding legal
    provisions that permit compulsory arbitration at one party's request.
    The law allows arbitration by mutual consent, by employee request, or
    during a collective dispute in a public service company and allows
    either party to appeal if arbitration is mandated during a collective
    dispute in a public service company.
        The ILO COE expressed continued concerns that the Government had
    not amended the law to permit strikes by federations. The ILO also
    requested that the Government take the necessary steps to guarantee the
    right to strike for public servants who do not exercise authority in
    the name of the state, such as transport workers or workers in export
    processing zones. Executive decrees issued in 2009 and during the year
    increased transportation workers' ability to strike by limiting the
    scope of strike restrictions on essential transportation services to
    those involving public passenger services.
        The law governing the autonomous Panama Canal Authority prohibits
    the right to strike for its 9,500 employees but does allow unions to
    organize and bargain collectively on such issues as schedules and
    safety and provides for arbitration to resolve disputes. The Government
    is a party to the ILO Maritime Labor Convention. In April MITRADEL
    issued a document that reaffirmed the Labor Code's application to
    maritime laborers, directed the ministry to ensure the existence of
    mechanisms for maritime workers to file complaints, and required that
    workers be informed of their rights.
        Controversial Law 30, which revised aspects of the Labor Code and
    eight other laws in June, sparked opposition from labor leaders among
    others as well as widespread protests and a strike by the Sitrabana
    union in early July in Bocas del Toro Province. A government-appointed
    investigatory commission attributed two deaths to police actions, and
    authorities initiated investigations into other deaths (see sections
    1.a., 1.d., and 2.b.).
        The Dialogue Table formed by the Government to decide how to revise
    Law 30, which included union participation, agreed in October to divide
    the law into six individual bills with reworked provisions acceptable
    to all the participants. Notable changes to labor provisions made by
    Law 68 in October included the following: reaffirmation of the
    requirement for employers to deduct union dues; permission for owner
    access to an on-strike work site for maintenance purposes;
    reaffirmation of the right of the two largest union federations, the
    National Council of Organized Workers and the National Confederation of
    Independent Unions, to choose attendees to international workers'
    conferences; and authorization for pretrial detention for allegedly
    improper actions taken by police officers in controlling public
    protests.

        b. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively.--The law
    provides all private-sector and most public-sector workers the right to
    organize and bargain collectively, with some exceptions. Enterprises
    that have been in existence for less than two years as well as those in
    Export Processing Zones (EPZs) are not obligated to bargain
    collectively. In June, Law 29 created a special economic area in Baru
    region. For specific investments in Baru under that law, employers are
    not required to bargain collectively for the first six years of
    operation.
        Private-sector unions widely exercised the right to organize and
    bargain collectively. In addition to the court system, the Conciliation
    Board of MITRADEL has the authority to resolve some labor disputes,
    such as internal union disputes, enforcement of the minimum wage, and
    some dismissal issues. The separate Tripartite Conciliation Board has
    sole competency for disputes related to domestic employees, some
    dismissal issues, and claims of less than 1,500 balboas ($1,500). While
    labor leaders approved of the conciliation board, some lawyer groups
    criticized it as a route for circumventing the judiciary, for leaving
    interpretation of labor laws to the discretion of persons who might
    lack expertise, and for opening the labor dispute-resolution system to
    political pressure.
        For public-sector workers, the Board of Appeal and Conciliation in
    the Ministry of the Presidency hears and resolves complaints. If not
    resolved by the board, complaints are referred to an arbitrage
    tribunal, which consists of representatives from the employer, the
    employee association, and a third member chosen by the first two.
    Tribunal decisions are final.
        Executive decrees issued in 2009 and 2010 provide that an employer
    may not enter into collective negotiations with nonunionized workers
    when a union exists. However, these decrees have not been tested in
    court. Based on previous practice, MITRADEL's Manual of Labor Rights
    and Obligations provides that unorganized workers may petition MITRADEL
    regarding labor-rights violations and may exercise the right to strike.
    Supreme Court decisions recognize that collective agreements negotiated
    between employers and unorganized workers have legal status equivalent
    to collective-bargaining agreements, although collective agreements
    negotiated by a union have precedence over collective agreements
    negotiated by nonunionized employees.
        A 2009 executive decree protects employees from employer
    interference in labor rights, specifically including ``employer-
    directed unions,'' and mandates that unions be freely chosen by workers
    without penalty. However, the Government lacked sufficient mechanisms
    to ensure that laws prohibiting employer interference in unions and
    protecting workers from employer reprisals were adequately enforced.
    The Labor Code prohibits employer antiunion discrimination and protects
    workers engaged in union activities from loss of employment or
    discriminatory transfers; however, these occurred in practice.
    Employers in the retail industry frequently hired temporary workers to
    circumvent code requirements for permanent workers; temporary workers
    have the same rights established under a collective-bargaining
    agreement as do other employees, except relating to dismissal. In
    lower-skilled service jobs, employers often hired employees under
    three-month contracts for several years, sometimes sending such
    employees home for a month and later rehiring them. Employers also
    circumvented the law requiring two-week notice for discharges by
    dismissing some workers one week before a holiday. Due to laws that
    make it difficult to fire employees who have worked two years or more,
    employers frequently hired workers for one year and 11 months and
    subsequently laid them off. Two 2009 executive decrees strengthened the
    ability of workers to bargain collectively by clarifying the criteria
    for legitimate subcontracting and by establishing an enforcement plan
    to protect the rights of temporary workers.
        Unions and collective bargaining are permitted in EPZs and call
    centers, some of which operated under the law applicable to EPZs. A
    strike in the EPZs is considered legal only after 36 workdays of
    conciliation; striking workers may be fined or fired if they stop work
    without the strike being considered legal. There were approximately
    2,790 employees in EPZs and 8,830 employees in call centers. Other call
    centers registered with the Public Services Authority were not subject
    to EPZ laws.

        c. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor.--No law expressly
    prohibits forced labor of adults or children, although the Government
    stated that forced labor could be prosecuted under provisions of
    constitutional law and other civil and criminal statutes. There were no
    reports that forced labor occurred.

        d. Prohibition of Child Labor and Minimum Age for Employment.--The
    law contains provisions to prevent exploitation of children in the
    workplace. MITRADEL, which has responsibility for enforcement, was
    reasonably effective in enforcing the law in the formal sector. During
    the year the ministry performed inspections to ensure compliance with
    child labor regulations.
        The labor code prohibits the employment of children under age 14,
    although exceptions can be made for children 12 and older to perform
    light farm work so long as it does not interfere with their school
    hours. Children who have not completed primary school may not begin
    work until age 15. The law prohibits 14- to 18-year-old children from
    engaging in potentially hazardous work and identifies such hazardous
    work to include work with electrical energy, explosives, or flammable,
    toxic, or radioactive substances; work underground and on railroads,
    airplanes, or boats; and work in nightclubs, bars, and casinos. Youths
    under 16 years may work no more than six hours per day or 36 hours per
    week, while those 16 and 17 years old may work no more than seven hours
    per day or 42 hours per week. Children under 18 may not work between
    6:00 p.m. and 8:00 a.m.
        Businesses that employ an underage child are subject to civil
    fines, while employers who endanger the physical or mental health of a
    child may face two to six years' imprisonment. MITRADEL enforced these
    provisions in response to complaints and has authority to order the
    termination of unauthorized employment. The Government acknowledged
    that it was unable to enforce some child labor provisions in rural
    parts of the country; due to insufficient staff, MITRADEL conducted
    only limited inspections in those areas.
        According to the 2010 child labor survey performed by the
    Government in conjunction with the ILO International Program on the
    Elimination of Child Labor, approximately 60,700 children and
    adolescents (7 percent of the overall population in the five-to-17-
    year-old age group) were found working. This was a 32 percent decrease
    from the previous survey in 2008, when approximately 89,800 children
    were found working. Sixty-nine percent of working children also
    attended school. Seventy-seven percent of working children and
    adolescents said they worked less than 25 hours per week, and 57
    percent worked with their families.
        Child labor violations occurred most frequently in rural areas in
    agriculture and fishing, especially during the harvest of melons,
    tomatoes, onions, coffee, and watermelon. The harvest season for these
    products is in January and February, with planting occurring in March
    and April. Children generally work five to eight hours per day while
    working these crops.
        According to the 2010 survey, approximately 36,400 children (and
    almost all of the employed indigenous children) worked in the
    agricultural sector. Farm owners often paid according to the amount
    harvested, leading many laborers to bring their young children to the
    fields to help. The problem of child labor in agricultural areas fell
    most heavily on indigenous families that often migrated from their
    isolated communities in search of paid work and whose frequent
    migrations interrupted schooling. Many indigenous families believed in
    the importance of children working to obtain necessary life skills and
    preferred to bring women and children to the fields for safety.
        Also according to the survey, approximately 1,870 children between
    the ages of five and 17 worked as domestic servants, compared to 4,500
    in 2009, although the law prohibits such employment under age 14.
    Government enforcement regarding labor violations in this sector was
    traditionally weak, because the places of work were private residences.
    Children also worked in the informal sector; for example, approximately
    5,100 performed personal services; 9,200 worked in trade and the repair
    of motor vehicles and appliances; 3,100 worked in manufacturing; and
    2,200 worked in construction. According to NGO Casa Esperanza, fewer
    children worked in urban areas as street vendors, vendors working at
    fixed locations, baggers in supermarkets, fare collectors on buses,
    shoe shiners, window washers, car washers, loaders, port workers, hair
    stylists, manicurists, and painters. The number of children collecting
    garbage in Panama City and Colon decreased, because that work was
    privatized.
        On February 23, by decree, MITRADEL established the National
    Directorate for the Eradication of Child Labor and the Protection of
    Working Adolescents (DIRETIPPAT). Primary DIRETIPPAT responsibilities
    were to promote strict application of child labor laws, including on
    the eradication of child labor, and to protect lawfully employed
    adolescents.
        Also on February 23, First Lady Marta Linares de Martinelli
    announced the country's Roadmap toward the Elimination of Child Labor
    that outlined a specific strategic plan to achieve the goals of the
    National Plan for the Eradication of Child Labor (2007-11). The
    national plan, adopted in 2006, contained goals of eliminating the
    worst forms of child labor by 2015 and eradicating all illegal child
    labor by 2020. The roadmap, a joint effort of the ILO's International
    Program on the Elimination of Child Labor and the Committee for the
    Eradication of Child Labor and the Protection of Working Adolescents
    (CETIPPAT), identified the following six dimensions of the effort:
    fighting poverty, improving education, improving healthcare, protecting
    basic rights, increasing social mobility, and increasing knowledge
    about the hazards of child labor.
        The Government continued to raise awareness about and provide
    training for officials and civil society on combating child labor,
    although its budget to combat child labor shrank from approximately
    541,000 balboas ($541,000) in 2009 to 253,000 balboas ($253,000) during
    the year. CETIPPAT outreach decreased from 1725 children in 96 schools
    in 2009 to 200 children in nine schools during the year, while the
    number of inspectors decreased from 196 in 2009 to 178 during the year.
    From April to October, DIRETIPPAT conducted more than 30 training
    sessions on child labor in which more than 1,000 individuals
    participated, including workers, businesspersons, parents, students,
    union leaders, and local officials.
        The National Secretariat for Children, Adolescents, and the Family
    (SENNIAF) continued operations with a budget of 2.3 million balboas
    ($2.3 million), an increase from its startup budget of 2 million
    balboas ($2 million) in 2009, and more than doubled its staff members
    to 72. SENNIAF operated programs that offered comprehensive services to
    children at risk and their families, including home and school visits,
    tutoring, and parental counseling. During the year it assisted 2,470
    children and adolescents rescued from child labor and identified and
    assisted 81 child and adolescent street laborers. To improve
    traditionally poor communication among government agencies involved in
    combating child labor, SENNIAF in midyear organized the first Symposium
    for Inter-Institutional Coordination to bring together similar
    institutions to share information about programs and services for
    children and adolescents in vulnerable situations.
        During the year CETIPPAT provided outreach to 654 children engaged
    in or at risk of child labor. The National Institute of Vocational
    Training for Human Development implemented programs for parents of
    those children involved in DIRETIPPAT's outreach program.
        The NGO Casa Esperanza, CETIPPAT, and MIDES continued programs in
    the comarca of the Ngobe-Bugle, in Santiago de Veraguas, and in
    Chorrera that provided scholarships for working children, so they could
    begin or return to primary school, and provided job-training and
    literacy programs for their parents.

        e. Acceptable Conditions of Work.--At year's end the minimum wage
    ranged from 1.06 to 2.00 balboas ($1.06 to $2.00) per hour, depending
    on region and sector.
        Working 40 hours per week, 50 weeks a year, and earning at the
    minimum-wage median, a worker would earn approximately184 to 347
    balboas ($184-$347) per month. The poverty line was 94 balboas ($94),
    while the extreme poverty line was 53 balboas ($53) per month per
    person or 212 balboas ($212) for a family of four. Food and the use of
    housing facilities were considered part of the salary for some workers,
    such as domestic and agricultural workers. The agricultural and
    construction sectors received the lowest and highest minimum wages,
    respectively. Most workers formally employed in urban areas earned the
    minimum wage or more. Approximately 40 percent of the population worked
    in the large informal sector and earned well below the minimum wage,
    particularly in most rural areas, where unskilled laborers earned from
    three to six balboas (three to six dollars) per day without benefits.
    MITRADEL was less likely to enforce labor laws in most rural areas (see
    section 6, Indigenous People).
        The law establishes a standard workweek of 48 hours, provides for
    at least one 24-hour rest period weekly, limits the number of hours
    worked per week, provides for premium pay for overtime, and prohibits
    excessive or compulsory overtime. MITRADEL generally enforced these
    standards in the formal sector.
        MITRADEL is responsible for setting and enforcing health and safety
    standards and generally did so. Information on the number of workplace
    inspections during the year was unavailable.
        Inspectors from MITRADEL and the occupational health section of the
    Social Security Administration conducted periodic inspections of
    hazardous employment sites and responded to complaints. However, the
    Government did not enforce health and safety standards adequately. For
    example, during the year eight construction workers in Panama City died
    due to accidents suffered on the job. MITRADEL's Department of
    Inspection conducted 1,713 construction inspections during the year,
    approximately half of which were initiated by a request. Some
    construction workers and their employers were occasionally lax about
    conforming to basic safety measures, frequently due to their perception
    that it reduced productivity. Equipment was often outdated, broken, or
    lacking safety devices, due in large part to a fear that it would be
    cost prohibitive to replace such equipment. Construction workers and
    safety inspectors needed training to enable them to use new
    construction technologies.
        The Labor Code requires employers to provide a safe workplace
    environment, including the provision of protective clothing and
    equipment for workers, but does not specifically recognize the right of
    a worker to leave a dangerous work situation without jeopardy to
    continued employment. In practice workers removed themselves from
    situations that presented an immediate health or safety hazard without
    jeopardizing their employment. Law 68 enacted in October requires that
    the resident engineer and a MITRADEL safety officer remain on
    construction sites, establishes fines for noncompliance, and identifies
    a tripartite group composed of MITRADEL, the Chamber of Construction,
    and construction union Suntracs to regulate adherence.

                                   __________

                                    PARAGUAY

        Paraguay is a multiparty, constitutional republic with an estimated
    population of seven million. In 2008 Fernando Lugo of the Patriotic
    Alliance for Change won the presidency in elections that were generally
    free and fair. Security forces reported to civilian authorities.
        There were reports of killings by government officials and police
    that were not always investigated or prosecuted. Government agents
    reportedly abused some prisoners with impunity. Prisons were routinely
    overcrowded and did not meet international standards. Political
    interference, corruption, and inefficiency in the judiciary were
    common, as was lengthy pretrial detention. Government corruption
    remained a serious problem. Violence against women continued, as did
    discrimination against women, persons with disabilities; indigenous
    persons; and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT)
    individuals. Trafficking in persons persisted. Exploitation of child
    labor and violations of worker rights also remained serious problems.

                            RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

    Section 1. Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom
            From:
        a. Arbitrary or Unlawful Deprivation of Life.--The Government or
    its agents did not commit any politically motivated killings. However,
    there were reports that some security forces and government
    prosecutors, acting in official capacity but without government
    knowledge or support, occasionally killed individuals for personal
    gain.
        On July 9, authorities arrested and charged Prosecutor Dionisio
    Daniel Fleitas Ramirez and five police officers (Miguel Leguizamon,
    Gervasio Almiron, Carmelo Ojeda, Isidro Torres, and Castro Dario
    Aguilera) with killing Marcos Roberto Carrion, a Brazilian. Carrion's
    body was found in a field near Ciudad del Este several days after a
    videotape showed Fleitas and the officers taking Carrion from the
    apartment building where he lived. The videotape also showed Fleitas
    wiping Carrion's blood off the building stairwell floor. The alleged
    motive was the theft of $26,000 that Carrion was carrying.
        On August 30, prosecutors charged 17 police officers working for
    the 911 system with manslaughter in the death that day of 47-year-old
    Gustavo Munoz, who refused to show identification when approached by
    police. There were no further developments in the case by year's end.
        On September 10, a three-judge panel sentenced police officers
    Daniel Alvarez, Luis Gonzalez Rodriguez, and Arsenio Fernandez Zayas to
    prison for killing Pedro Luis Morinigo Servin in April 2009.
        There were no developments and no investigation in the August 2009
    case in which the father of Higinio Aquino Santos alleged police killed
    his son after an extortion attempt in Ciudad del Este, and none were
    expected.
        In October 2009 police officer Nestor Eduardo Gonzalez Alonso fired
    warning shots to disperse a crowd in Villa Hayes, killing 16-year-old
    Roberto Ramon Mendoza. Prosecutors charged Alonso with murder. The case
    remained pending at year's end, and no developments were expected.
        On March 27, a court selected a three-judge tribunal to try eight
    police officers charged in the 2008 shooting of Leticia Veronica Lugo
    in Villa Elisa. However, as of year's end, a trial had not begun.
        There were no known developments in the 2008 arrest of police
    officer Gustavo Arnaldo Duarte for the killing of security guard
    Salinas Vicente Gonzalez, and none were expected.

        b. Disappearance.--There were reports of ``express kidnappings''
    for ransom, including by prosecutors and police officers, which
    occasionally resulted in unsolved disappearances.
        In September Daniel David Castelli disappeared while carrying
    200,000 euros (approximately $270,000) that he allegedly received in
    conjunction with a large drug deal. Suspects included three police
    officers (German Arevelo, Marcos Valezquez, and Hector Ortiz); the
    attorney general was investigating the case at year's end.
        On January 18, kidnappers calling themselves the Paraguayan
    People's Army (EPP) released cattle rancher Fidel Zavala Serrati, whom
    they had captured in mid-October 2009.
        Free Fatherland Party members Aristides Vera Silguero, Roque
    Rodriguez Torales, Simeon Bordon Salinas, Basiliano Cardozo Jimenez,
    Agustin Acosta Gonzalez, and Gustavo Lezcano Espinola remained
    incarcerated awaiting trial for the 2004 kidnapping and killing of
    Cecilia Cubas.
        Throughout the year officials excavated a gravesite in the Tacumbu
    area of Asuncion containing remains of suspected Stroessner-era
    political prisoners. The remains of at least eight victims have been
    recovered since the site's discovery in July 2009. As many as 40
    additional victims were possibly buried there. At year's end,
    excavation and forensic work continued.

        c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or
    Punishment.--The law prohibits such treatment, and the Government
    generally respected these legal provisions, although there were reports
    that some government agents employed such practices. The Coordinator of
    Human Rights in Paraguay (CODEHUPY), made up of 33 nongovernmental
    organizations (NGOs) and civic organizations, reported several
    allegations of police torture and other abuses designed to extract
    confessions or intimidate detainees.
        There were no new developments, and none were expected, regarding
    the January 17 CODEHUPY accusation that police and military forces
    deployed in San Pedro Department tortured several farmers following a
    2008 attack on a military outpost in Tacuati.
        On October 13, Precinct Chief Alfredo Pineda filed a complaint
    against police officers Osvaldo Jose Navarro Diaz and Oscar Calestra
    for a May beating of a handcuffed 15-year-old youth in police custody
    at the 24th Precinct in Asuncion. On November 22, prosecutors also
    charged police officer Oscar Raul Rolon Unzain with causing bodily
    injury in this case. The alleged perpetrators videotaped the beating.
    An investigation remained pending at year's end.
        On November 7, Carlos Sanchez accused two unidentified police
    officers from the Second Police District, Caaguazu Department, of
    beating him following his arrest on November 5. The police chief stated
    that doctors confirmed that Sanchez had injuries to his face, eyes, and
    nose. The investigation remained pending at year's end.
        In January police reinstated Virginia Villar as Guayaybi District
    police chief. Six alleged victims had previously accused Villar of
    torture, and in 2008 she was convicted of the 2004 shooting of Eseer
    Arens Ocampos. After a public outcry, authorities removed Villar as
    district chief and assigned her to other duties. Andrews Ramon Rotela
    Acosta accused Villar in March of having made him sit naked on an
    anthill. The August 2009 allegation that Villar beat Emiliana Quinonez
    Espinola to unconsciousness in connection with a theft in Guayaybi
    District remained under investigation at year's end.
        There were no developments in the reopened case against former
    interior minister Walter Bower and police officers Basilio Pavon,
    Merardo Palacios, and Osvaldo Vera. Bower and Pavon reportedly tortured
    Alfredo Caceres following an alleged coup d'etat in 2000. The case
    remained in the courts at year's end.
        On April 8, a three-judge panel convicted National Military Academy
    cadets Cesar Antonio Candia Britos, Francisco Sotelo Blanco, Leonardo
    Fabio Martinez Rotela, Gustavo Joel Ramon Benitez, and Guillermo
    Benitez Adorno of sexual abuse of a defenseless person in the 2008 rape
    of a female cadet. The panel found Carlos Caniza not guilty on
    technical grounds and sentenced Candia, Sotelo, and Martinez to eight
    years and three months in prison; Ramon Benitez to three years; and
    Benitez Adorno to two years and six months. Judicial authorities denied
    initial appeals to substitute ``conditional liberty'' and ``house
    arrest'' but, on November 10, granted conditional house arrest to both
    Ramon Benitez and Benitez Adorno.
        On November 3, first-year military cadet Antenor Rafael Saiz Ribes
    filed a complaint against the military academy alleging he was brutally
    beaten and verbally assaulted in October as part of a common hazing
    ritual. Accused cadets Derlis Milciades Villagra Castillo, Joel
    Alejandro Velazquez Meza, and Carlos Luis Coronel claimed Saiz received
    his injuries playing soccer. President Lugo replaced the commander of
    the corps of cadets following the controversy.
        The Government continued to improve hygienic conditions and
    implement controls to monitor and prevent abuse at the Neuropsychiatric
    Hospital in Asuncion in further compliance with the 2008 Inter-American
    Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) ruling on abuse at the hospital. The
    hospital opened an additional group home in September. A verbal
    agreement ending IACHR oversight of the hospital was pending formal
    announcement at year's end.

        Prison and Detention Center Conditions.--Prison and detention
    center conditions generally did not meet international standards. A
    2008 Senate Human Rights Committee report stated that prisons remained
    in ``deplorable'' condition. The most serious problems included
    violence, mistreatment, overcrowding, inadequate and poorly trained
    staff, deteriorating infrastructure, unsanitary living conditions, poor
    food safety standards, and inadequate medical and psychological care.
        The Government permitted independent monitoring of prison
    conditions and granted the media, human rights groups, and diplomatic
    representatives access to prisons with prior coordination from the
    Ministry of Justice and Labor (MJT). Media, Red Cross representatives,
    and other NGOs conducted prison visits during the year.
        The country's 15 penitentiaries held more than 6,200 inmates
    (including 240 women), approximately 16 percent more than their design
    capacity of 5,340. The penitentiary in Ciudad del Este, designed to
    hold approximately 300 inmates, held more than 620. Pretrial detainees
    made up approximately 70 percent of the prison population and were held
    together with convicted prisoners in all but two penitentiaries. In May
    the director of adult prisons estimated that 30 percent of prisoners
    were held beyond their constitutional minimum sentence for lack of a
    judicial decree ordering their release (see section 1.d., Arrest
    Procedures and Treatment While in Detention).
        Prisons lacked adequate security controls. Inmates frequently
    carried weapons and committed acts of violence, particularly against
    other inmates. During the year the MJT recorded 18 deaths of prisoners
    in custody, some of whom were killed by other inmates, and 18 injuries.
    The MJT also recorded nine inmate escapes during the year. There were
    cases of inmates conducting illicit activities by bribing and
    conspiring with prison guards. Visitors were required to pay informal
    bribes to designated prisoners whose job was to alert inmates of
    visitors. This informal payment system hindered effective
    representation of inmates by public defenders.
        On September 17, following reports that inmates at Tacumbu Prison
    in Asuncion used Christian ministry computers to blackmail female
    minors into entering the prison and submitting to the videotaping of
    sex acts, prosecutors raided the prison, seized computers, and charged
    prisoners Jorge Abe Pereira Colman and Feliciano Lopez Lopez with the
    production of child pornography videos and coercion. Unidentified
    prison guards also were allegedly involved. On October 6, prosecutors
    charged ministry pastors Horacio Danilak and Felix Duarte Dupont with
    failure to report a crime. The MJT suspended Prison Director Julio
    Acevedo, and on October 11, he resigned after prosecutors charged him
    and Tacumbu security chief Silverio Baez with several crimes related to
    the production of child pornography and failure to report a crime. A
    judge released Acevedo and Baez on bail on November 18, and all cases
    remained pending at year's end.
        In September 2009 prosecutors arrested Pablo Soley and Eligio
    Lagrana, the director and the chief of security at the Social
    Rehabilitation Center at Cambyreta, for alleged extortion of prisoners.
    Soley resigned in January, and the case remained pending at year's end.
        Although the MJT assigned minors convicted of juvenile crimes to
    five youth correctional facilities in the country, some juvenile
    offenders served their sentences in adult prisons. Living conditions in
    juvenile facilities were generally better than in adult prisons.
        Prison officials and unauthorized prisoner leadership frequently
    separated inmates based on their ability to pay for better living
    conditions. Inmates could upgrade their accommodations for a monthly
    fee ranging from 15,000 to 700,000 guaranies (approximately $3 to
    $150).
        On July 9, President Lugo created the National Commission on Prison
    Reform by presidential decree.
        The Government's prison construction and relocation plan continued
    apace, with new prisons projected in the cities of Ciudad del Este, San
    Juan Bautista, and elsewhere.

        d. Arbitrary Arrest or Detention.--The law prohibits arrest and
    detention without an arrest warrant signed by a judge and stipulates
    that persons detained must appear before a judge within 24 hours for an
    initial hearing. Police may arrest without warrant a person apprehended
    in the act of committing a crime, and the Public Ministry may detain
    persons up to six hours. There were some reports of arbitrary arrest
    and detention of persons without a warrant.

        Role of the Police and Security Apparatus.--The National Police,
    under the authority of the Interior Ministry, preserves public order,
    protects the rights and safety of persons and entities and their
    property, prevents and investigates crimes, and implements orders given
    by the judiciary and public officials. The military, under the
    president's authority, guards the country's territorial integrity and
    defends lawfully constituted authorities. The Defense Ministry, also
    under the president's authority but excluded from the military's chain
    of command, handles some defense matters. The law authorizes the
    Antinarcotics Secretariat (SENAD) and the Antiterrorism Secretariat
    (SEPRINTE), both under the president's authority, to enforce the law
    and maintain order in matters related to narcotics trafficking and
    terrorism.
        Civilian authorities generally maintained control over the security
    forces. The security forces did not effectively coordinate law
    enforcement efforts. Although the Government has mechanisms to
    investigate and punish security force abuses and corruption, there were
    regular reports of police involvement in crimes that went unpunished.
    In a change from previous years, authorities fired several police
    officers for criminal behavior (although they were not convicted).
        The 23,000-member National Police force was poorly trained,
    inadequately funded, generally corrupt, and shielded by impunity.
    Police officers were routinely accused of ``express kidnappings'' and
    holding civilians for short periods until bribed for their release.
    Some prosecutors routinely conspired with police and criminal
    organizations to extort and blackmail individuals.
        On November 1, prosecutors charged precinct police chief Juan
    Pereira and deputy police officer Nicodemos Mendez Torres with
    aggravated robbery of 32 million guaranies (approximately $6,900) and
    assault of two moneychangers on October 30; authorities also charged
    two other officers with complicity. The cases remained open at year's
    end.
        The Government continued to take steps to decrease and punish human
    rights violations committed by police. However, some officers often
    acted with impunity. Although the National Police trained officers in
    human rights, there were routine incidents of police involvement in
    homicide, arms and narcotics trafficking, car theft, robbery,
    extortion, and kidnapping throughout the country, with such abuses
    particularly widespread in Ciudad del Este and other areas bordering
    Brazil (see section 4).
        On request from President Lugo, Congress approved a 30-day ``state
    of exception'' in late April to permit domestic use of the military in
    five departments to support locating the EPP guerrilla group and
    detaining individuals involved in its attacks. On May 11, Amnesty
    International (AI) cautioned the president about the state of exception
    and mentioned the need to specify the rights to be restricted and to
    avoid violations of those rights. In the event, the populace supported
    the measure, and the Government maintained its activities did not lead
    to restrictions on or violations of human rights. Authorities
    apprehended approximately 180 individuals during the state of
    exception, roughly half of whom were the subjects of outstanding arrest
    warrants. As of year's end, there were no known further developments in
    these cases.

        Arrest Procedures and Treatment While in Detention.--Police may
    arrest individuals when authorized by a judicial or prosecutorial
    warrant or when they discover a crime in process. The law provides
    that, after making an arrest, police have up to six hours to notify the
    Prosecutor's Office, whereupon the Prosecutor's Office has up to 24
    hours to notify a judge of its intention to prosecute the case.
        The law provides detainees with the right to a prompt judicial
    determination regarding the legality of the detention, and authorities
    appeared to respect this right in practice and inform detainees
    promptly of the charges against them. The law permits detention without
    trial until the accused completes the minimum sentence for the alleged
    crime. This often occurred in actuality. The law stipulates that
    pretrial detention may range from six months to five years, based on
    the nature of the crime; in practice, detention was arbitrarily
    lengthy, and some detainees were held beyond the maximum allowable
    detention time. Judicial inefficiencies and corruption in the judiciary
    caused significant trial delays and extended pretrial detention.
        On November 6, the Supreme Court Penal Tribunal ordered the release
    of Rogelio and Hector Paiva Vera, who were detained in prison since
    2007 under grand theft charges. The maximum pretrial detention for
    grand theft is two years.
        The law allows judges to utilize ``substitute measures,'' such as
    house arrest and bail, in felony cases. In nonfelony cases, judges
    frequently set relatively high bail, and many poor defendants were
    unable to post bond and thus waited in prison for trial. At the same
    time, minimal or no bonds were required of those with political or
    economic connections.
        The law grants accused criminals the right to counsel, and the
    Government provided representation to poor defendants. The quality of
    representation was degraded by the size of the public defenders'
    caseloads. The Government permitted defendants to hire attorneys at
    their own expense. Detainees had access to family members.

        e. Denial of Fair Public Trial.--The constitution provides for an
    independent judiciary; in practice, however, political interference
    seriously compromised that independence. Courts remained inefficient
    and subject to corruption. Politicians and interested parties routinely
    attempted to influence investigations and pressure judges and
    prosecutors. There were also frequent accusations that judges and
    prosecutors solicited bribes to drop or modify charges against
    defendants.
        On September 14, appellate judges Maria Doddy Baez, Silvio Reyes,
    and Enrique Alfonso released Jose Martinez Mendi Pavao, the son of one
    of the country's most-wanted narcotics traffickers, on technical
    grounds. A judicial review board suspended the decision and replaced
    the judges and prosecutors the following day, pending an investigation.
    As of year's end, there were no known further developments.
        The nine-member Supreme Court appoints lower-court judges and
    magistrates based on slates of three candidates submitted by the eight-
    member Magistrate's Council. The council also nominates for Senate
    approval a slate of three candidates for Supreme Court vacancies. Both
    selection processes were highly politicized, with specific seats
    customarily allocated by political party.

        Trial Procedures.--The constitution provides for the right to a
    fair trial, which the judiciary nominally enforced through a lengthy
    trial process. In June 2009 a Center for Judicial Studies report
    revealed that only 47.9 percent of cases initiated in 2008 were
    resolved within one year. Wealthy or well-connected defendants received
    impunity by conspiring with judges and filing often-specious motions
    that slowed legal progress until their cases reached the statute of
    limitations.
        The law provides for the use of three-judge tribunals in lieu of
    juries to rule on procedure, determine guilt or innocence, and decide
    sentences. A majority opinion is required to convict. One judge
    presides over civil cases and misdemeanor cases when the maximum
    punishment does not exceed two years in prison.
        All trials are open to the public. The law requires prosecutors to
    indict accused persons within 180 days of arrest. Prosecutors and
    public defenders at the Public Ministry lacked the resources to perform
    their jobs adequately. Defendants enjoy a presumption of innocence and
    a right of appeal, and defendants and prosecutors may present written
    testimony from witnesses and other evidence. Defendants and their
    attorneys have the right of access to state evidence relevant to their
    cases.

        Political Prisoners and Detainees.--There were no reports of
    political prisoners or detainees.

        Regional Human Rights Court Decisions.--On August 24, in the Xakmok
    Kasek indigenous community case, the Inter-American Court of Human
    Rights judged that the country violated the complainants' rights to
    life, personal integrity, collective property, humane treatment, and
    freedom from discrimination. The court criticized the Government's
    passive and unresponsive administrative procedures and specifically
    directed the return of property by 2013, the funding of development
    projects, and the payment of compensation.
        During the year the Government partially complied with two other
    court rulings. Concerning the 2006 decision in favor of the Sawhoyamaxa
    indigenous community, the Government continued to provide monetary
    restitution but did not award the group land. Regarding the 2005
    judgment in favor of the Yakye Axa indigenous community, the community
    accepted in principle the Government's purchase of approximately 37,000
    acres of alternative land for resettlement to replace ancestral land on
    which its members were living--an agreement negotiated in September
    through an IACHR representative. However, the community later reversed
    its position, and the alternative lands were not purchased. In both
    cases the legislature prevented implementation of the executive
    branch's preference for expropriation as a means to provide title for
    native lands to indigenous inhabitants.

        Civil Judicial Procedures and Remedies.--Citizens have access to
    the courts to bring lawsuits seeking damages for, or cessation of,
    human rights violations. There are administrative and judicial remedies
    for alleged wrongs, although authorities rarely granted them to
    citizens. The Government experienced problems enforcing court orders.

        Property Restitution.--The Government generally enforced court
    orders with respect to seizure, restitution, or compensation for taking
    private property. However, systemic failures occurred. For example, in
    Puerto Casado, continuing land disputes dating back to 2000 between
    local residents and landowner Victoria SA have resulted in regular
    clashes and damage to private property. The Government did not enforce
    judicial decisions and court orders to return occupied land to the
    landowner.

        f. Arbitrary Interference With Privacy, Family, Home, or
    Correspondence.--The law prohibits police entry into private homes
    except to prevent a crime in progress or when the police possess a
    judicial warrant, and the Government generally respected these
    prohibitions in practice.
        An investigation of former commander of the Presidential Escort
    Regiment Colonel Heriberto Galeano for illegally wiretapping telephones
    from his home remained open at year's end, and no developments were
    expected.

    Section 2. Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:
        a. Freedom of Speech and Press.--The law provides for freedom of
    speech and of the press, and the Government generally respected these
    rights in practice. Individuals criticized the Government publicly and
    privately, generally without reprisal or impediment.
        The independent media were active and expressed a wide variety of
    views without restriction. The media frequently criticized the
    Government and freely discussed opposition viewpoints without
    censorship. Many media outlets reflected personal business or political
    interests, and ethical and professional standards were low.
        Political officials often retaliated against media criticism by
    invoking criminal libel laws and suing the media to intimidate
    journalists and suppress further investigations. For example, during
    the year ABC Color managing director Aldo Zuccolillo faced many
    criminal charges relating to defamation suits brought against him by
    former government officials. On April 7, a judge ordered him to pay 236
    million guaranies (approximately $51,000) plus interest for questioning
    the judicial decision that freed former president Luis Angel Gonzalez
    Macchi from prosecution. The appeals process remained pending at year's
    end.
        During the year journalists were subjected to harassment,
    intimidation, and violence--primarily from drug trafficking gangs and
    criminal syndicates based in departments bordering Brazil--due to their
    reporting. For example, in January ABC Color correspondent Sergio
    Escobar Rober reportedly received anonymous death threats after
    reporting on police abuse. Unidentified assailants allegedly fired
    shots at the car and house of Panambi Vera radio and La Nacion/Cronica
    newspaper reporter Secundino Silguero Rodas after his reporting about
    police involvement in killings. Provincial governor bodyguards and an
    unidentified armed assailant reportedly threatened Vanguardia/ABC Color
    correspondent Fermin Jara and photographer Eduardo Homero after they
    covered vandalism allegedly performed by local officials. On March 2,
    members of the National Police Specialized Unit reportedly attacked and
    threatened with death ABC Color correspondent Higinio Ruiz Diaz who was
    covering a local clash.
        There were no known developments, and none were expected, in the
    following cases: the January 2009 killing of Martin Ocampos Paez,
    director of a community radio station, by an unknown assailant in
    Concepcion; the February 2009 assault on television journalist Richard
    Villasboa and camera operator Blas Salcedo by security officials; the
    March 2009 death threat by a citizen against newspaper journalist Aldo
    Lezcano; and the September 2009 shooting at journalist Javier Nunez by
    alleged petroleum smugglers.

        Internet Freedom.--There were no government restrictions on basic
    access to the Internet or reports that the Government monitored e-mail
    or Internet chat rooms. Individuals and groups could engage in the
    peaceful expression of views via the Internet, including by e-mail. The
    International Telecommunication Union reported that approximately 16
    percent of the population used the Internet in 2009.

        Academic Freedom and Cultural Events.--There were no government
    restrictions on academic freedom or cultural events.

        b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association.--Freedom of
    Assembly.--The law provides for freedom of assembly and association,
    and the Government generally respected these rights in practice. The
    Government generally protected demonstrators from indiscriminate
    violence. The law restricts demonstrations to certain times and places
    and prohibits meetings or demonstrations in front of specified
    government buildings.

        Freedom of Association.--The constitution provides for the right of
    citizens to free association, and the Government generally respected it
    in practice.

        c. Freedom of Religion.--For a complete description of religious
    freedom, please see the 2010 International Religious Freedom Report at
    www.state.gov/g/drl/irf/rpt.

        d. Freedom of Movement, Internally Displaced Persons, Protection of
    Refugees, and Stateless Persons.--The law provides for freedom of
    movement within the country, foreign travel, emigration, and
    repatriation, and the Government generally respected these rights in
    practice. The Government's National Commission of Refugees cooperated
    with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and other
    humanitarian organizations in providing protection and assistance to
    internally displaced persons, refugees, returning refugees, asylum
    seekers, stateless persons, and other persons of concern. The NGO
    Committee of Churches for Emergency Aid acted as the UN's local legal
    representative. At year's end, 115 political refugees were living in
    the country, 80 of whom were Cuban. The law prohibits forced exile, and
    it was not used.

        Protection of Refugees.--The country's laws provide for the
    granting of asylum or refugee status, and the Government has
    established a system for providing protection to refugees. In practice
    the Government provided protection against the expulsion or return of
    refugees to countries where their lives or freedom would be threatened
    on account of their race, religion, nationality, membership in a
    particular social group, or political opinion. The Government also
    provided temporary protection to individuals who may not qualify as
    refugees and permits persons refused asylum or refugee status to obtain
    legal permanent residency.

    Section 3. Respect for Political Rights: The Right of Citizens to
            Change Their Government
        The law provides citizens the right to change their government
    peacefully, and citizens exercised this right in practice through
    periodic, free, and fair elections based on universal suffrage.

        Elections and Political Participation.--In the 2008 multiparty
    general elections, Fernando Armindo Lugo Mendez of the Patriotic
    Alliance for Change won the presidency. International observers
    characterized the elections as generally free and fair.
        Although political parties operated without restriction or outside
    interference, the Government must approve their participation in
    elections. The Government prohibits unregistered parties and
    independent candidates from participating in national and departmental
    elections, although independent candidates may participate in municipal
    elections. Between April and June, the Organization of American States
    conducted a review of the voter rolls in anticipation of November 7
    municipal elections and found a freely and fairly functioning system
    but with some structural deficiencies; the elections were deemed free
    and fair.
        The Superior Electoral Court oversees the electoral process and
    settles election disputes, and the Supreme Court has final appellate
    jurisdiction.
        There were no legal impediments to women's participation in
    government and politics. There were 17 women in Congress (seven of 45
    senators and 10 of 80 national deputies). Of 39 appeals court judges,
    11 were women. Two women served on the Supreme Court; one, as a
    departmental governor; and three, as members of the Mercosur
    Parliament. One woman headed a cabinet-level ministry, and four women
    held ministerial rank. In municipal elections on November 7, women won
    mayoral contests in 18 of the 238 cities where they were held. The
    electoral code requires that at least 20 percent of each party's
    candidates in internal party primaries be women, and this requirement
    was fulfilled.
        Although there were no legal impediments to participation by
    minorities or indigenous persons in government and politics, there were
    no indigenous persons or members of minorities serving as governor or
    in the cabinet, legislature, or Supreme Court.

    Section 4. Official Corruption and Government Transparency
        The law provides criminal penalties for official corruption;
    however, the Government did not implement the law effectively, and some
    officials in all branches and at most levels of government frequently
    engaged in corrupt practices with impunity. Under a law that prohibits
    court cases from lasting longer than five years, politicians convicted
    in lower courts routinely avoided punishment by filing appeals and
    motions until the statute of limitations was reached. The World Bank's
    Worldwide Governance Indicators reflected that corruption was a serious
    problem.
        The Public Ministry, under the authority of the attorney general,
    commissioned teams of prosecutors to combat corruption. In October
    there were 11 anticorruption prosecutors. The Public Ministry worked
    with the Ministry of Industry and Commerce's Money Laundering
    Secretariat to investigate and prosecute corruption cases.
        Elected officials are required to disclose their finances before
    running for office; however, many did not. Many engaged in corrupt
    practices with impunity and used political immunity to avoid
    prosecution. Filings often were late, incomplete, or misleading.
    Regarding police financial disclosure, on July 21, the interior
    minister announced that all police officers must file reports of net
    worth every three years and when they are eligible for promotion. As of
    July, individuals filed 174 formal complaints against the police for
    corruption, compared with 175 complaints for all of 2009.
        There were no developments, and none were expected, in the February
    2009 charges against former defense minister Roberto Gonzalez Segovia,
    national deputies Magdaleno Silva and Jose Chamorro, and five others
    for issuing false documents to obtain special low-interest loans or in
    the September 2009 extortion charges against police officers Agustin
    Rios and Ramon Lequizamon.
        Corruption in the 12,000-member military continued. Several senior
    leaders at the military's primary training facility repaid money during
    the year that they had extorted from their subordinates, which resolved
    the case in the eyes of the military justice system. The extortion
    scheme involved instructors diverting a portion of their teaching
    stipend to their nonteaching senior leaders.
        On May 24, prosecutors charged the former governor of Alto Paraguay
    Department, Rosalba Belmonte, with damage to state property in the
    disappearance of 2.7 billion guaranies (approximately $582,000) while
    in office in 2007 and 2008.
        On November 11, prosecutors charged 23 employees of the Civil
    Registry Office with extorting citizens requiring basic services. The
    employees had been filmed demanding and accepting bribes for rapid
    request processing. The Supreme Court ordered suspensions without pay
    starting November 16.
        Following a November 2009 raid, prosecutors charged electoral
    prosecutor Liz Perez Idoyaga on September 7 with the theft of 185
    million guaranies (approximately $40,000) by claiming government
    salaries for more than a dozen nonexistent employees working for her.
    While thee case proceeded, she was initially suspended for 60 days but
    then resumed work as a prosecutor in Quiindy. On October 14, Perez
    Idoyaga obtained a postponement by claiming amnesia, and she filed
    charges against the primary witness in the case for false testimony.
        In the case of Eugenio Escobar Cattebecke, former governor of
    Presidente Hayes Department who was sentenced to two years and six
    months in prison in December 2009 for diverting more than 1.3 billion
    guaranies (approximately $280,000) in public money during his term of
    office, a three-judge tribunal converted his sentence to house arrest
    on January 26.
        There were no updates, and none were expected, in the case
    involving federal prosecutor Victor Maldonado. Eyewitness and press
    reports indicated Maldonado accepted a bribe from fugitive Alberto
    Luciano Chavez Pereira in return for his release. There was no known
    government investigation into the bribery allegation.
        On June 9, a three-judge panel revoked the temporary bond of former
    justice and labor minister Silvio Ferreira and sentenced him to five
    years and six months in prison for embezzlement (allowing overcharging
    on public contracts), but the panel also found him not guilty of
    criminal association. An appeals court confirmed the sentence on
    November 19, but the Supreme Court did not affirm the results before
    the statute of limitations expired, leaving Ferreira without a criminal
    record in this case.
        On January 4, a three-judge Supreme Court panel (composed of
    Colorado Party members) refused to overturn a lower court ruling that
    had limited the illicit enrichment investigation of former president
    (and Colorado Party member) Nicanor Duarte Frutos. A truncated
    investigation remained underway at year's end.
        On August 18, a three-judge panel decided that suspended prosecutor
    Gustavo Gamba's case should proceed to trial. Gamba had been audiotaped
    in June 2009 receiving an initial payment of $90,000 from Senator
    Victor Bernal Garay in return for Gamba's promise to dismiss one of
    five cases pending against the senator, involving his reported misuse
    of funds while serving as director of the Itaipu Binational Entity.
    Bernal continued to enjoy political immunity while in office, and his
    case was transferred to another prosecutor. In October the judges'
    panel scheduled Gamba's trial to start in December 2011.
        The 2008 case involving the detention of 13 officials from the
    National Administration of Navigation and Ports for alleged
    embezzlement remained pending at year's end.
        Although the law provides for public access to government
    information, citizens and noncitizens, including foreign media, had
    limited access to government information. Insufficient infrastructure
    and determined efforts to conspire to hide corruption hindered access,
    although the Government improved transparency by publishing information
    publicly via the Internet.

    Section 5. Governmental Attitude Regarding International and
            Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations of Human
            Rights
        More than 50 domestic and international human rights groups,
    including the International Organization for Migration, the
    International Labor Organization (ILO), and the UN Children's Fund,
    operated without government restriction, investigating and publishing
    their findings on human rights cases. Major local NGO umbrella
    organizations representing many local human rights NGOs operated
    independently.
        Government officials cooperated with domestic NGOs and met with
    domestic NGO monitors but often did not take action in response to
    their reports or recommendations. The Government generally did not
    restrict domestic NGO operations or suppress criticism by them. The
    Government generally cooperated with international human rights groups,
    humanitarian NGOs, and international governmental organizations and
    regularly permitted visits by their representatives.
        The term of Ombudsman Manuel Paez Monges, the country's primary
    human rights advocate, expired in August, but he continued to serve
    while a replacement was sought. The ombudsman employed approximately
    160 lawyers and support personnel, including 70 who worked in municipal
    offices outside Asuncion. Human rights organizations, victims of the
    Stroessner dictatorship, and several Congress members criticized Monges
    for what they considered ineffective handling of cases. His office
    lacked independence and initiative and issued no significant reports
    during the year.
        The Senate Committee on Human Rights made frequent fact-finding
    trips within the country and highlighted abuses in the military and
    prisons during the year.
        The Ministry of Justice and Labor's director general of human
    rights chaired the National Commission on Human Rights. The office
    forwarded information concerning human rights abuses to the Public
    Ministry for action. The Foreign Ministry's Human Rights Section
    organized an interministerial roundtable on human rights that met
    periodically and served as a forum for human rights officials from the
    Government and NGOs.

    Section 6. Discrimination, Societal Abuses, and Trafficking in Persons
        While the law prohibits discrimination based on race, gender,
    disability, language, or social status, certain groups faced
    discrimination in practice.

        Women.--The law criminalizes rape, including spousal rape, and
    provides penalties of up to 10 years in prison for rape or forcible
    sexual assault. If the victim is a minor under the age of 18, sentences
    range from three to 15 years. According to the Public Ministry, rape
    continued to be a significant problem, although no statistics were
    available for the year. The Government generally prosecuted rape
    allegations and often obtained convictions; however, many rapes went
    unreported, and police were generally reluctant to act on rape reports.
    In its latest available report, the Government investigated 1,316 cases
    of various categories of sexual assault in 2008, including rape.
        Although the law criminalizes domestic violence, including spousal
    abuse, and stipulates a penalty of two years' imprisonment or a fine
    for those who are convicted, it requires that the abuse be habitual
    before considering it criminal. Those convicted were typically fined.
    The law does not specify the amount of the fine but instructs judges to
    take into account the severity of the act on the victim and the
    perpetrator's economic situation.
        Despite increased reports of domestic violence, individuals often
    withdrew complaints soon after filing due to spousal reconciliation or
    family pressure. In some cases the courts mediated in domestic violence
    cases, but there were no reliable statistics available as to the
    results. Domestic violence was very common, and thousands of women were
    treated for injuries sustained in domestic altercations. The emergency
    911 system took 16,974 calls on domestic violence in 2009, and women
    filed 286 formal complaints with police. The National Police opened
    three domestic violence units in Asuncion during the year, staffed with
    approximately 30 police officers and operated from existing police
    stations. From January to November, 1,586 formal complaints of domestic
    violence were filed with them. The Secretariat of Women's Affairs
    (SMPR) received 2,409 domestic abuse complaints in 2009, an 18 percent
    increase from 2008; from January to November, the SMPR attended to
    1,872 victims of domestic violence.
        The SMPR operated a shelter for female victims of trafficking or
    domestic violence in Asuncion. The SMPR coordinated victim assistance
    efforts with the National Police, health care units, the Public
    Ministry, and women's NGOs. NGOs provided health and psychological
    assistance, including shelter, to victims. The SMPR also provided
    victim assistance courses for police, health care workers, and
    prosecutors.
        The law prohibits sexual harassment and stipulates a penalty of two
    years in prison or a fine of an unspecified amount (although the law
    requires the tribunal to take into account the economic situation of
    the perpetrator). Sexual harassment remained a problem for many women,
    although no statistics were available for the year. Prosecutors found
    sexual harassment and abuse claims difficult to prove, and most
    complaints were settled privately without involving prosecutors.
        Couples and individuals had the right to decide the number,
    spacing, and timing of their children and had the information and means
    to do so free from discrimination. The Government committed to
    providing access to information on contraception and providing skilled
    attendance at delivery and in prenatal and postpartum care.
    Contraception use among married women between the ages of 15 and 44 was
    79 percent in 2008, according to the Population Reference Bureau. The
    UN Population Fund reported an estimated maternal mortality ratio of 95
    deaths per 100,000 live births and approximately 150 maternal deaths in
    2008. Reproductive health services were concentrated in cities, and
    rural areas distant from government-provided services faced significant
    gaps in promised coverage. Women and men had equal access to diagnostic
    services and treatment for sexually transmitted infections, including
    HIV.
        Although women generally enjoyed the same legal status and rights
    as men, gender-related discrimination was widespread and deeply
    ingrained. Employers often paid women significantly less than men for
    comparable work, and women experienced more difficulty finding work. A
    2010 World Economic Forum survey estimated that women earned
    approximately 47 percent less than men for comparable work. Women
    generally were employed as domestic workers, secretaries, and customer-
    service representatives. According to the General Directorate of
    Statistics, Surveys, and Censuses (DGEEC), the 2009 unemployment rate
    for women in the formal sector was 7.8 percent, compared with 5.5
    percent for men. The SMPR worked to promote the rights of women and
    sponsored programs intended to give women equal access to employment,
    social security, housing, ownership of land, and business
    opportunities. Its minister-level director reported directly to the
    president.

        Children.--Nationality is derived by birth within the country's
    territory, by birth to government employees in service outside the
    country, or by birth to a citizen residing temporarily outside the
    country. Citizenship is conveyed to all nationals who attain the age of
    18 as well as to older individuals when they are naturalized.
        Failure to register all births resulted in some discrimination,
    including the denial of public services. The DGEEC noted registration
    of 49,879 live births in 2007, a shortfall in registrations of
    approximately 65 percent.
        Child abuse and neglect were serious problems. The National
    Commission to Prevent and Eradicate the Exploitation of Children worked
    to prevent the exploitation of child labor. The Secretariat for
    Children and Adolescents (SNNA) and children's NGOs also organized
    programs to combat child abuse.
        The SNNA provided funds to the Grupo Luna Nueva hostel for
    exploited children. The NGO Children's and Adolescents' Care and
    Assistance Center managed a shelter in Ciudad del Este partially
    supported by the SNNA, and local Roman Catholic charities operated
    several children's homes and orphanages in several locations, including
    Asuncion and Encarnacion. The NGO Integral Adolescent Attention Service
    assisted abused children in Villarrica, Guaira Department. In many
    cities, the municipal council for children's rights assisted abused and
    neglected children.
        Sexual exploitation of children, principally in prostitution, was a
    serious problem. According to the SNNA, many underage children were
    forced to work as prostitutes or domestic servants for survival and
    were sexually abused. The law provides penalties of up to six years'
    imprisonment for prostitution of victims between the ages of 14 and 17
    and eight years' imprisonment for victims younger than 14. The minimum
    age for consensual heterosexual sex is 14 when married and 16 when not
    married. While there is a statutory rape law for those under 14, the
    maximum penalty is a fine for opposite-sex partners and prison for
    same-sex partners. Enforcement was not vigorous. Child pornography is
    illegal. Production of pornographic images can result in a fine or up
    to three years in prison. Authorities may increase this penalty to 10
    years in prison depending on the age of the child and the child's
    relationship to the abuser (see also section 1.c. concerning production
    of child pornography in prison).
        On February 19, the minister of defense formally apologized to the
    families of Marcelino Gomez Paredes and Christian Ariel Nunez, child
    soldiers recruited into the armed forces in 1997 at age 14, who
    disappeared in the Chaco in 1998. The apology with monetary payments
    brought the country into compliance with the agreement mediated by the
    IACHR in November 2009.
        The country is a party to the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil
    Aspects of International Child Abduction. For information on
    international parental child abduction, please see the Department of
    State's annual Report on Compliance with the Hague Convention on the
    Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction at http://
    travel.state.gov/abduction/resources/congressreport/congressreport--
    4308.html.

        Anti-Semitism.--The Jewish community numbered approximately 1,000.
    There were no reports of anti-Semitic acts.

        Trafficking in Persons.--For information on trafficking in persons,
    please see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons
    Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        Persons With Disabilities.--The law prohibits discrimination
    against persons with physical and mental disabilities in employment,
    education, access to health care, or the provision of other state
    services. The law does not mandate accessibility for persons with
    disabilities, and most of the country's buildings were inaccessible.
    Many persons with disabilities faced significant discrimination in
    employment; others were unable to seek employment because of a lack of
    accessible public transportation. The Ministry of Education estimated
    that at least half of all children with disabilities did not attend
    school because public buses could not accommodate them. The National
    Institute for the Protection of Exceptional People (INPRO) is
    responsible for legally confirming disability status. On October 15,
    authorities issued regulations granting blind persons free passage on
    public transport.
        Although the law requires that persons with disabilities fill 5
    percent of all public-sector jobs, as of April they constituted less
    than 1 percent of public-sector employees. During the year the
    Secretariat for Personnel Management conducted training and outreach
    sessions for human resources offices within the Government.

        Indigenous People.--The law provides indigenous persons the right
    to participate in the economic, social, political, and cultural life of
    the country. However, the Government did not effectively protect
    indigenous civil and political rights. Discrimination and lack of
    access to education, health care, shelter, and sufficient land hindered
    the ability of indigenous persons to progress economically and maintain
    their cultural identity. The law protecting the property interests of
    indigenous persons was not respected in practice. The July 12 Amnesty
    International submission to the UN Universal Periodic Review focused on
    alleged violations of the rights of indigenous persons as provided in
    the country's constitution and specified concerns regarding traditional
    lands, healthcare, water, and sanitation.
        A 2008 census reported an indigenous population of approximately
    108,000 and estimated that 39 percent of indigenous persons above age
    15 were illiterate and that approximately 48 percent were unemployed.
    According to the DGEEC, the average monthly income of the indigenous
    population in 2008 was 778,000 guaranies (approximately $170),
    approximately half the minimum wage of the nonindigenous population.
    Indigenous workers engaged as laborers on ranches earned low wages,
    worked long hours, were paid infrequently or not at all, and lacked
    benefits. This situation was particularly severe for indigenous persons
    engaged as laborers on ranches and estates in the Chaco region. On
    November 22, four indigenous recruits for the national police entered
    into service, including one woman. At year's end, the other 18
    positions (of the 22 set aside in December 2009 for indigenous
    recruits) remained unfilled.
        The National Institute of the Indigenous (INDI), the Public
    Ministry, and the Ombudsman's Office are responsible for protecting and
    promoting indigenous rights. The INDI reported titling approximately
    477,000 acres of land to benefit 18 indigenous communities during a
    three-year program that ended in December. However, the INDI lacked
    funding to purchase land on behalf of indigenous persons and required
    them to register for land at its office in distant Asuncion, and
    Congress did not pass expropriation bills or appropriate sufficient
    funds, as requested by the executive branch, to comply with Inter-
    American Court of Human Rights rulings (see also section 1.e., Regional
    Human Rights Court Decisions).
        The law authorizes indigenous persons to determine how to use their
    land, leading many of them to transfer or rent their land to
    nonindigenous persons, some of whom illegally harvested fish or
    deforested the lands through cultivation. There were insufficient
    police and judicial protections from encroachments on indigenous lands,
    and few indigenous persons held title to their ancestral lands. In a
    September 29 statement, Amnesty International pointed out that the
    country had no effective and efficient mechanism for settling ancestral
    land claims (see also section 1.e.).
        In the Kelyemagategma indigenous community's case pending before
    the IACHR, two community leaders reportedly received death threats on
    September 5 while accompanying an international investigatory
    delegation.

        Societal Abuses, Discrimination, and Acts of Violence Based on
    Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.--The Public Ministry is
    responsible for investigating discrimination cases; however, government
    agents often condoned such discrimination. For example, on April 7,
    family members of 20-year-old Norma Beatriz Machado Rivarola forcibly
    took her from her partner's home, beat her, and locked her in her
    parent's house. The complaint she filed with the prosecutor's office on
    April 23 had not been acted upon by year's end.
        Penalties for the crime of having sex with a minor between the ages
    of 14 and 16 vary, depending on the genders of the victim and
    perpetrator. Same-gender perpetrators are subject to up to two years in
    prison; the maximum penalty for opposite-gender perpetrators is a fine.
        Several LGBT rights organizations, which operated during the year
    without governmental interference, conducted two gay pride marches
    during the year. The Government issued the required permits and
    provided sufficient security in both cases.
        There were no developments regarding the 2008 attacks on and
    killings of transgender persons Lupita, Laura, and Gaby, and none were
    expected.
        There are no laws explicitly prohibiting discrimination against
    LGBT individuals in employment, housing, access to nationality, access
    to education, or health care, but all types of discrimination occurred
    frequently. There was also societal discrimination based on sexual
    orientation.
        In March the Interior Ministry signed a cooperation agreement with
    the NGO Somosgay to provide tolerance and antihomophobia training to
    police.

        Other Societal Violence or Discrimination.--The CODEHUPY noted that
    individuals with HIV/AIDS faced discrimination as well as societal
    intimidation in health care, education, and employment. In November the
    NGO Fundacion Vencer introduced a confidential toll-free help-and-
    information telephone line dedicated to HIV/AIDS-related problems.

    Section 7. Worker Rights
        a. The Right of Association.--The law allows both private and
    public sector workers (with the exception of the armed forces and the
    police) to form and join unions. The law allows unions to conduct
    legitimate activities without government interference and contains
    provisions that protect fundamental worker rights. Although the
    Government did not always enforce these provisions, workers exercised
    these rights in practice. Approximately 317,000 persons (11 percent of
    the workforce) were members of more than 350 labor unions affiliated
    with six major labor umbrella organizations. Most workers, including
    farmers, ranchers, and informal sector employees, did not have suitable
    labor unions. Many of these workers were members of campesino
    movements.
        There are no restrictions on the right to form or dissolve a union.
    All unions must register with the Ministry of Justice and Labor.
    Although the official registration process can take more than a year,
    the ministry typically issued provisional registrations within weeks of
    application to allow new labor unions to operate.
        The law provides for the right to strike, prohibits binding
    arbitration, and prohibits retribution against union organizers and
    strikers. However, the Government failed to prevent retaliation by
    employers who took action against strikers and union leaders. The
    courts provided due process through mechanisms such as voluntary
    arbitration.

        b. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively.--The law allows
    collective bargaining, and this provision generally was respected in
    practice. The Government did not place restrictions on collective
    bargaining and did not require approval for collective agreements to be
    valid. According to the Ministry of Justice and Labor, there were
    approximately 30 collective-bargaining agreements in place, covering
    approximately 10 percent of private-sector employees and 60 percent of
    public-sector employees.
        Although the law prohibits antiunion discrimination, discrimination
    occurred in practice. Some union organizers experienced harassment and
    dismissal for union activities. Some workers allegedly chose not to
    protest due to fear of reprisal or anticipation of government inaction.
        There are no export processing zones. Factories (maquiladoras) that
    assemble imported parts for reexport to Mercosur are subject to all
    labor laws.

        c. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor.--The law prohibits
    forced or compulsory labor, including by children; however, there were
    reports that such practices occurred. Also see the Department of
    State's annual Trafficking in Persons Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.
        In May 2009 the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues reported
    allegations of debt labor on the estates and ranches of the Chaco
    region. Receiving little to no wages, some indigenous workers allegedly
    contracted debts with their employers, who advanced them pay to meet
    the cost of food and clothes as well as of sending their children to
    school. This situation was severe for women in domestic service, who
    were reportedly offered no compensation for their work and faced abuse.
    Investigators from the Ministry of Justice and Labor were unable to
    substantiate claims made by the UN; however, they did not deny that
    such conditions could exist. The Government created the Commission on
    Fundamental Rights at Work and the Prevention of Forced Labor to
    address these problems in March 2009; the commission took no known
    public actions during the year.

        d. Prohibition of Child Labor and Minimum Age for Employment.--Laws
    protect children from exploitation in the workplace, but the Government
    did not effectively enforce them. Child labor was a problem,
    particularly in brick and lime manufacturing, domestic service, and
    agricultural sectors. Also see the Department of State's annual
    Trafficking in Persons Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.
        The law prohibits work by children under the age of 14. The law
    permits minors between 14 and 15 years of age to work, with parental
    authorization, up to four hours per day in nonhazardous working
    conditions. Minors who are 16 and 17 years of age are permitted to work
    up to six hours per day in nonhazardous working conditions.
        A 2007 ILO study reported that 970,000 (53 percent) of children
    between the ages of five and 17 worked more than one hour per day and
    862,0000 worked at least 14 hours per week. Children, primarily boys,
    worked in the manufacturing and agricultural sectors (including cotton,
    beans, soy, sesame, wheat, peanuts, and stevia production) and in the
    hotel, restaurant, and transportation industries. Children also worked
    as vendors in markets. An estimated 60,000 children, primarily girls,
    worked as criadas (child domestic servants) and received no pay. In
    exchange for work, employers promised the child domestic servants room,
    board, and financial support for school. However, they were sometimes
    subject to sexual exploitation and often lacked access to education.
        In addition to domestic servitude, the worst forms of child labor
    occurred where malnourished, abused, or neglected children worked in
    unhealthy and hazardous conditions selling goods or services on the
    street, working in factories, or harvesting crops. Slavery and similar
    practices occurred, particularly in domestic servitude. Parents and
    guardians reportedly sold their children for the purpose of forced
    labor, and children were used, procured, and offered to third parties
    for illicit activities. Some minors worked as drug smugglers along the
    border with Brazil as part of criminal syndicates.
        The Ministry of Justice and Labor is responsible for enforcing
    child labor laws, and the Public Ministry prosecuted violators. The
    country's National Commission for the Prevention and Eradication of the
    Exploitation of Children worked to eliminate exploitative child labor
    by increasing awareness, improving legal protections and public policy,
    and implementing monitoring systems; however, resource constraints
    limited the effectiveness of these efforts. In August the Ministry of
    Justice and Labor approved a commission-produced, intra-institutional
    guide for coordinating agency handling of child workers.
        The SNNA administered the ``Hug Program'' (Programa Abrazo) to
    assist families with children at risk of working in the streets, and
    the Secretariat for Social Action administered the ``Well-being
    Program'' (Programa Tekopora) that paid parents of street children a
    monthly stipend to send their children to school. The SNNA's
    ``Operacion Verano'' brought children of street workers into shelters
    when school was not in session. The Ministry of Education and Culture
    continued using the ILO's Supporting Children's Rights through
    Education, the Arts and the Media (SCREAM) child labor intervention
    program in six departments to train and assist educators in identifying
    child laborers and protecting them from exploitation.

        e. Acceptable Conditions of Work.--The mandatory national minimum
    wage was approximately 1.5 million guaranies ($320) per month,
    sufficient to maintain a minimally adequate standard of living for a
    worker and family, but the Ministry of Justice and Labor did not
    enforce it. In June the Secretariat for Personnel Management reported
    9,234 government workers earned less than the minimum wage, an
    improvement from August 2008's estimate of 28,047. In July the DGEEC
    estimated that 40 percent of private-sector workers and 80 percent of
    public-sector workers earned the minimum wage or higher.
        The law provides for a standard legal workweek of 48 hours (42
    hours for night work) with one day of rest. The law also allows an
    annual bonus of one month's salary and a minimum of 12 and a maximum of
    30 vacation days per year, depending on years of service. The law
    requires overtime payment for hours in excess of the standard; however,
    many employers violated these provisions. There are no prohibitions of
    or exceptions for excessive compulsory overtime.
        The law sets occupational health and safety standards stipulating
    conditions of safety, hygiene, and comfort. The Ministry of Justice and
    Labor and Ministry of Health did not enforce these provisions
    effectively. Workers have the right to remove themselves from
    situations that endanger their health or safety without jeopardy to
    their employment, but authorities did not effectively enforce this
    right.

                                   __________

                                      PERU

        Peru is a multiparty republic with a population estimated at 30
    million. In 2006 Alan Garcia Perez of the American Popular
    Revolutionary Alliance (APRA) party won the presidency in elections
    that were considered free and fair. Security forces reported to
    civilian authorities.
        The following human rights problems were reported: incidents of
    killings by security forces of protesters during demonstrations, most
    of which were being investigated by authorities; abuse of detainees and
    inmates by prison security forces, for which the Government took steps
    to prosecute and punish those responsible; harsh prison conditions;
    lengthy pretrial detention and inordinate trial delays; lack of full
    compliance with regional human rights court decisions; intimidation of
    the media by local authorities; incomplete registration of internally
    displaced persons; government corruption; violence and discrimination
    against women; violence against children, including sexual abuse; and
    trafficking in persons. There was also some discrimination against
    racial- and ethnic-minority individuals; indigenous persons, lesbian,
    gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) persons; individuals with
    disabilities; and persons with HIV/AIDS as well as a lack of labor-law
    enforcement and the exploitation of child labor, particularly in the
    informal sector.
        The terrorist organization Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) was
    responsible for killings and other human rights abuses, including the
    recruitment of child soldiers, extortion, and intimidation. The
    organization was also deeply involved in narcotics trafficking.

                            RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

    Section 1. Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom
            From:
        a. Arbitrary or Unlawful Deprivation of Life.--The Government or
    its agents did not commit any politically motivated killings; however,
    in episodes of societal unrest, protesters and security forces were
    killed.
        On April 4, six civilians were killed and 29 persons, including
    police, were injured during a confrontation, reportedly involving
    gunfire and tear gas, between police and demonstrating miners who
    blocked a stretch of the Pan-American Highway in Chala, Arequipa
    Region. At year's end the Public Ministry was investigating the
    incident, but no formal charges had been brought.
        On July 27, security forces killed a protester during a
    demonstration against the export of natural gas in Quillabamba, Cusco
    Region. At year's end the Public Ministry was investigating the
    incident, but no formal charges had been brought.
        On August 3, a clash between government coca eradication personnel
    and approximately 300 growers who tried to stop the eradication
    operation in an area close to Aguaytia, Ucayali Region, resulted in the
    death of one grower and the injury of two others. At year's end there
    were no reported developments.
        On September 16, clashes between police and residents of Espinar,
    Cusco Region, who protested against the Majes Siguas II dam project,
    resulted in the death of one protester (Leoncio Fernandez Pacheco) and
    the injury of 18 others. At year's end the Public Ministry was
    investigating the incidents, but no formal charges had been brought.
        On June 22, a special congressional committee, created to
    investigate the killings of two protesters during a February 2009
    agrarian strike in Ayacucho, released its final report that concluded
    it was not possible to prove that security forces caused the deaths. At
    year's end court proceedings continued against police officer Carlos
    Alberto Rodriguez Huamani.
        Investigations into the June 2009 clashes between police and
    indigenous protesters in and around Bagua, Amazonas Region, which
    resulted in the deaths of 10 civilians and 24 police officers (see
    section 6, Indigenous People), concluded on January 25 and led to seven
    legal cases in which authorities were investigating 96 indigenous and
    mestizo persons on kidnapping and homicide charges at year's end.
    Several human rights organizations complained that investigators failed
    to question key authorities and most of the 222 police involved and
    that defendants lacked interpreters.
        There were no developments in the September 2009 case of security
    force members who shot four persons attempting to impede Coca
    Eradication Agency workers in Bolson Cuchara, Huanuco Region. One of
    the shooting victims died.
        There were no developments in a prosecutor's investigation into the
    2008 killings of four persons and the disappearances of two children
    during an antiterrorist operation by security forces in the Rio Seco
    area of the Apurimac and Ene River Valleys (VRAE).
        The trial of former intelligence service director Vladimiro
    Montesinos, former armed services chief General Nicolas Hermoza,
    Colonel Roberto Huaman, and Colonel Jesus Zamudio Montesinos--for
    alleged extrajudicial killings following the 1997 rescue of 74 hostages
    at the Japanese ambassador's residence--resumed in March and continued
    at year's end. A former Japanese diplomat, who was among the hostages,
    testified again in December that he saw at least three hostage-takers
    alive at the time of the rescue.
        On January 3, the Supreme Court of Justice announced its December
    30, 2009, decision to uphold the sentencing of former president Alberto
    Fujimori to 25-years' imprisonment for authorizing the mass killings in
    1991 at Barrios Altos and in 1992 at La Cantuta as well as the
    kidnapping of journalist Gustavo Gorriti in 1992. At year's end
    Fujimori remained in prison concurrently serving this sentence and
    others imposed in 2009 and earlier.
        On October 1, the First Special Penal Court convicted members of
    the paramilitary ``Colina Group'' of the killings at Barrios Altos and
    El Santa and the killing of journalist Pedro Yauri in the early 1990s
    and sentenced them to prison terms ranging from 15 to 25 years.
    Vladimiro Montesinos, Nicolas de Bari, Julio Salazar, and Juan Rivero--
    then leaders of the intelligence service--were among the convicted. The
    court determined that the group received financial and logistical
    support from the military and the presidency.
        Juan Manuel Rivera-Rondon, implicated in the 1985 killings of 69
    villagers during a military raid in the village of Accomarca, remained
    in custody while on trial in the Third Supraprovincial Court.
    Meanwhile, Telmo Ricardo Hurtado Hurtado, also implicated in the
    massacre, remained in a foreign country pending the outcome of
    extradition proceedings.
        The Public Ministry continued investigating a mass grave of unknown
    date discovered in 2006 in Pichari, Cusco Region. The Government's
    Institute of Legal Medicine (IML) awaited DNA results to help identify
    25 of the exhumed bodies; another 36 of the 83 bodies exhumed through
    June were identified, and five were returned to their families.
        During the year the Peruvian Forensic Anthropology Team identified
    12 of the 37 bodies connected to the 1984 Huanta Stadium case that were
    found in a clandestine mass grave in Pucayacu, Ayacucho Region.
    Analysis of the remains began in December 2009.
        Human rights activists asserted throughout the year that the
    National Penal Court, the highest court handling human rights cases
    against military personnel, proceeded slowly and tended either to
    acquit or issue lenient sentences. However, there was no consensus on
    whether a climate of impunity existed for military personnel accused of
    abuses: some claimed judges were subjected to subtle pressure, such as
    strong public statements supporting the military, but not to direct
    governmental interference; others attributed the situation to
    prosecutorial failure to prepare strong cases, rather than to political
    pressure.
        During the year members of the two Shining Path terrorist
    organization factions conducted 136 terrorist acts in remote coca-
    growing areas that resulted in the killings of six police officers,
    nine soldiers, and 10 civilians in the Upper Huallaga Valley. There
    were credible reports that women and children (see section 6, Children)
    participated in Shining Path operations in order to attempt to thwart
    security-force responses or to underpin allegations of abuse by those
    forces.

        b. Disappearance.--There were no reports of politically motivated
    disappearances during the year, and there were no known developments in
    the 2008 disappearances of two children in the VRAE region (see section
    1.a.).

        c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or
    Punishment.--The law prohibits such practices. There were reports that
    security officials used excessive force, and authorities seldom
    punished those who committed such abuses.
        Allegations of abuse most often arose immediately following an
    arrest, when families were prohibited from visiting suspects and when
    attorneys had limited access to detainees. In some cases police and
    security forces allegedly threatened or harassed victims, their
    relatives, and witnesses to prevent them from filing charges of human
    rights violations. According to the nongovernmental Human Rights
    Commission (COMISEDH), some victims were reluctant to pursue judicial
    proceedings for fear that members of the security forces allegedly
    involved in abuses would be released without being charged. COMISEDH
    reported that 30 cases of claimed aggravated torture by security forces
    had been reported to provincial prosecutors.
        On September 16, the Pisco Superior Court sentenced four former
    members of a neighborhood watch patrol (Serenazgo) (Felix Angel
    Guerrero Cana, Cesar Rogger Felipa Ortiz, Juan Guillermo Moreno Solis,
    and Pedro Eusebio Mayhua Quintanilla) to five years in prison and a
    fine for the October 2008 torture of alleged thief Saul Conislla
    Manrique. The ruling was the first such conviction against Serenazgo
    members.

        Prison and Detention Center Conditions.--Prison conditions were
    harsh for most of the country's 45,599 inmates, of whom 2,784 were
    women, 985 were juveniles ages 18-19 years. The National Penitentiary
    Institute (INPE) operates 57 of the country's active prisons, while the
    Peruvian National Police (PNP) has jurisdiction over 14. Prisoners with
    money had access to cell phones, illegal drugs, and meals prepared
    outside the prison; prisoners who lacked funds experienced much more
    difficult conditions. Overcrowding, poor sanitation, and inadequate
    nutrition and health care were serious problems. Inmates had
    intermittent access to running water, bathing facilities were
    inadequate, kitchen facilities were unhygienic, and prisoners slept in
    hallways and common areas for lack of cell space. There was basic
    medical care at most prisons, but there were complaints that inmates
    had to pay for medical attention. There was also a lack of doctors;
    only 54 doctors worked at the country's 71 prisons, with 34 based in
    the capital city area. Tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS reportedly remained at
    near-epidemic levels. The San Juan de Lurigancho men's prison held
    8,730 prisoners in a facility designed for 3,204.
        Prisons for women were also overcrowded and marked by conditions
    similar to those for men. In an INPE-operated facility for women opened
    in 2008, prisoners continued to complain about dormitory-style sleeping
    quarters. INPE operated a high-security prison in the jungle area of
    Iquitos that was in poor condition and remained under renovation.
        Prison guards and fellow inmates reportedly abused prisoners.
    Guards received little or no training or supervision. There were
    killings in prisons, most attributed to fellow inmates. In addition,
    during a December inspection in Lurigancho prison, authorities found
    the body of Leslie Dayan Paredes, a visitor, in the cell of her
    boyfriend. The inmate, Jackson Sanford Staling Conket, confessed to
    killing Dayan and hiding her body when she visited him in August, and
    authorities suspended police personnel for failing to notice that she
    never checked out of the prison.
        By December authorities had sentenced only 18,223 of the 45,599
    persons held in the country's facilities (see section 1.d., Arrest
    Procedures and Treatment while in Detention). Authorities held these
    detainees temporarily in pretrial detention centers located at police
    stations, judiciary buildings, and the Palace of Justice and in most
    cases with convicted prisoners.
        The Government permitted monitoring visits by independent human
    rights observers. International Committee of the Red Cross officials
    during the year made 48 unannounced visits to inmates in 19 prisons and
    detention centers in accordance with standard modalities and met with a
    total of 222 persons (69 women) of the 712 persons detained in those
    facilities. The Office of the Human Rights Ombudsman also made regular
    visits to both Lima and provincial prisons. The ombudsman urged the
    Government to consider such matters as alternatives to incarceration
    for nonviolent offenders to alleviate overcrowding; addressing the
    status and circumstances of confinement of juvenile offenders; and
    improving pretrial detention, bail, and recordkeeping procedures to
    ensure that prisoners did not serve beyond the maximum sentence for the
    charged offense.
        Prisoners and detainees had reasonable access to visitors and were
    permitted religious observance. Authorities permitted prisoners and
    detainees to submit complaints to judicial authorities without
    censorship and to request investigation of credible allegations of
    inhumane conditions. Authorities investigated such complaints and
    documented the results in a publicly accessible manner. The ombudsman
    reported that most complaints stemmed from not being released on time
    due to the slow judicial process and INPE administration, not due to
    inhumane conditions, and that the number of such complaints during the
    year diminished because of improved INPE recordkeeping. Human rights
    advocates maintained that the Government failed to allocate the
    resources needed to monitor and improve prison conditions and
    criticized INPE leadership for lacking competence.

        d. Arbitrary Arrest or Detention.--The constitution and laws
    prohibit arbitrary arrest and detention, and the Government generally
    observed these prohibitions.

        Role of the Police and Security Apparatus.--The PNP, with an
    officer and enlisted force as of September of approximately 100,000,
    was responsible for all areas of law enforcement and internal security
    and functioned under the authority of the Ministry of the Interior. The
    PNP's organizational structure comprises directorates that specialize
    in specific areas (such as kidnapping, counternarcotics, and
    counterterrorism) and local police units. Each region, province,
    district, city, and town has a PNP presence.
        On October 7, the president launched the Citizen Security
    Initiative, a first-time meeting of national government authorities,
    the PNP, and newly elected local officials aimed at improving citizen
    safety.
        Observers noted that the PNP was undermanned and its members lacked
    training and professionalism. According to an October 21 Ombudsman's
    Office report, 30 percent of police stations lacked basic equipment and
    infrastructure, thus placing PNP officials and the public at risk and
    undermining PNP capability. More than 50 percent of police stations
    inspected did not have sufficient vehicles, weapons, or gasoline, and
    more than 30 percent lacked sufficient communications equipment.
        The armed forces, with approximately 115,000 personnel, are
    responsible for external security under the authority of the Ministry
    of Defense but also have limited domestic security responsibilities,
    particularly in the VRAE region.
        Corruption and a high rate of acquittals for military personnel
    accused of crimes remained problems (see section 4). The Ministries of
    Interior and Defense employ internal mechanisms to investigate
    allegations of abuses by security forces. The Public Ministry conducts
    investigations, although access to evidence held by the Ministry of
    Defense was not always forthcoming. The ombudsman is another mechanism,
    although she may only refer a case to the Public Ministry.
        On September 1, the Government adopted four executive decrees
    relating to security-force activities and the procedures for civilian
    court investigations of military and police actions. Decrees 1094
    and1096 established a military justice system. Decree 1095 established
    rules for the use of force by the military in situations of
    noninternational armed conflict. At presidential request, Congress
    rescinded one of the decrees (Decree 1097) on September 14 at the
    urging of domestic and international human rights and civil liberties
    organizations, which maintained the decree would have applied a 2003
    statute of limitations and could have granted virtual amnesty to some
    security-force members accused of human rights abuses committed during
    the 1980s and 1990s. (Nobel Laureate Mario Vargas Llosa resigned in
    September as president of the Museum of the Memory Commission in
    protest over the decree.) Human rights activists claimed that the three
    other decrees remaining in force created a culture of security-force
    impunity. In particular, activists raised concerns that Decree 1095,
    which some claimed is unconstitutional, expands the rules of engagement
    for military personnel to permit the use of force during societal
    conflicts that take place in areas in which no state of emergency has
    been declared.
        The PNP is charged with witness protection responsibilities but
    lacked resources to provide officer training, conceal identities, or
    offer logistical support to witnesses. Officers often used their own
    homes to protect witnesses.

        Arrest Procedures and Treatment While in Detention.--The law
    permits police to detain persons for investigative purposes. Persons
    were apprehended openly. The law requires a written judicial warrant
    based on sufficient evidence for an arrest unless the perpetrator of a
    crime is apprehended in the act. Only judges may authorize detentions.
    Authorities are required to arraign arrested persons within 24 hours,
    except in cases of terrorism, drug trafficking, or espionage, for which
    arraignment must take place within 15 days. In remote areas arraignment
    must take place as soon as practicable. Military authorities must turn
    over persons they detain to the police within 24 hours. The law
    requires police to file a report with the Public Ministry within 24
    hours after an arrest. The Public Ministry, in turn, must issue its own
    assessment of the legality of the police action in the arrest;
    authorities respected this requirement in practice.
        The time between an arrest and an appearance before a judge
    averaged 20 hours. Judges have 24 hours to decide whether to release a
    suspect or continue detention. A functioning bail system exists, but
    many poor defendants lacked the means to post bail. By law detainees
    are allowed access to family members and to a lawyer of their choice.
    Police may detain suspected terrorists incommunicado for 10 days. The
    Ministry of Justice provided indigent persons with access to an
    attorney at no cost, although these attorneys were often poorly
    trained. Several nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) worked with the
    ministry to improve their skills.
        Lengthy pretrial detention continued to be a problem. According to
    INPE statistics, as of October 60 percent of those in prison were
    awaiting trial, the majority for between one and two years. The law
    requires release of prisoners who have been held more than 18 months
    without being tried and sentenced; the period is extended to 36 months
    in complex cases.

        e. Denial of Fair Public Trial.--The constitution provides for an
    independent judiciary, and the Government generally respected this
    provision in practice. NGOs and other analysts complained that the
    judiciary was politicized and corrupt (see section 4).
        The seven-person Constitutional Tribunal operates independently of
    the judicial branch. The independent and autonomous National Judicial
    Council (CNM) appoints, disciplines, and evaluates all judges and
    prosecutors (excluding those chosen by popular election) who have
    served in their positions for at least seven years. Withdrawal of CNM
    certification permanently disqualifies a judge or prosecutor.
        The National Penal Court continued investigating cases involving
    allegations of human rights abuses by security forces during the
    internal conflict with the Shining Path and the Tupac Amaru
    Revolutionary Movement (MRTA) in the 1980s and 1990s. Several cases
    referred by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission remained pending
    with the court, but only a few involved active investigations.

        Trial Procedures.--The justice system is based on the Napoleonic
    Code. A prosecutor investigates cases and submits an opinion to a
    first-instance judge, who determines if sufficient evidence exists to
    open legal proceedings. A judge conducts an investigation, evaluates
    facts, determines guilt or innocence, and issues a sentence. All
    defendants are presumed innocent; they have the right to be present at
    trial, to call witnesses, and to be represented by counsel. The
    Ministry of Justice provided indigent defendants with access to an
    attorney at no cost, although these attorneys were often poorly
    trained. Defendants and their attorneys generally have access to
    government-held evidence related to their cases for recent crimes,
    except in cases connected to human rights abuses of the period 1980-
    2000 and particularly with respect to those involving the Ministry of
    Defense. Although citizens have the right to be tried in their own
    language, language services for non-Spanish speakers, who comprise a
    substantial number of persons in the highlands and Amazon regions, were
    sometimes unavailable (see section 1.a.). Defendants may appeal
    verdicts to a superior court and then to the Supreme Court. The
    Constitutional Tribunal decides cases involving such issues as habeas
    corpus.

        Political Prisoners and Detainees.--There were no reports of
    political prisoners or detainees.

        Regional Human Rights Court Decisions.--The Inter-American Court of
    Human Rights issued seven follow-up orders during the year to monitor
    the country's compliance with earlier decisions, all of which involved
    acts during the Fujimori administration. In the following two cases,
    the Government fulfilled none of the required actions, which included
    paying damages as ordered and publishing sentences in the daily
    register: (1) the case involving Gustavo Cesti Hurtado, a former army
    captain who was jailed for two years in 1998 after being illegally
    tried in a military court despite being retired; and (2) the case
    involving the 1992 extrajudicial killings of 42 accused Shining Path
    members and the injury of many others at Miguel Castro Castro
    Penitentiary. Additional cases involved a forced disappearance, the
    mass firing of congressional workers, a revocation of citizenship, and
    two arrests without cause.
        In all the cases, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights
    specified timing for the Government to report compliance progress. For
    two cases--those of Cesti Hurtado and Ivcher Bronstein (a naturalized
    citizen stripped of citizenship after his television station aired
    programming opposing the Fujimori administration)--the deadline was in
    2010, but no such report was issued by year's end in either case. For
    the remaining cases, the follow-up report was due in 2011.
        On April 20, the Ministry of Justice paid a total of 2.1 million
    soles (approximately $740,000) in court-ordered compensation to
    relatives of the forcibly disappeared Santiago Gomez Palomino, to
    relatives of victims of the La Cantuta mass killings, and to two
    victims of torture and inhumane treatment (Bernabe Baldeon Garcia and
    Luis Alberto Cantoral Benavides)--all incidents that occurred in 1992.

        Civil Judicial Procedures and Remedies.--The country has an
    independent judiciary that enables citizens to bring lawsuits for
    violations of their rights; however, court cases often continued for
    years. Press reports, NGOs, and others alleged that those outside the
    judiciary frequently corrupted or influenced judges (see section 4).

        f. Arbitrary Interference With Privacy, Family, Home, or
    Correspondence.--The law prohibits such actions, and the Government
    generally respected these prohibitions in practice. There were reports,
    however, that authorities sometimes entered private dwellings before
    obtaining a warrant. There were no known cases of the Government
    monitoring private communications.

    Section 2. Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:
        a. Freedom of Speech and Press.--The constitution provides for
    freedom of speech and of the press, and the national government
    generally respected these rights. However, there were instances of
    harassment of the press, including attacks directed against journalists
    by regional and municipal authorities and police.
        Independent media were active and expressed a variety of views. All
    media outlets were privately owned except for one government-owned
    daily newspaper, two television networks, and one radio station.
        A number of journalists and media outlets reported experiencing
    threats or intimidation. By December 15, the National Journalists
    Association reported 194 cases of harassment during the year (up from
    180 cases for the same period in 2009) and the Institute of Press and
    Society issued 85 alerts (up from 82 for the same period in 2009). Of
    the harassment cases reported by the National Journalists Association,
    63 involved harassment by civilian authorities and 27 were committed by
    police and military personnel. The Inter American Press Association
    periodically expressed its concern about attacks on freedom of
    expression in the country. Most incidents involved threats; judicial
    and administrative pressure, including revocation of licenses; and
    physical violence. Among the incidents reported by the country's
    journalist associations were the following:
        On February 2, in Chimbote, Ancash Region, members of the Cuenta
    Conmigo party of regional president Cesar Alvarez beat newspaper
    journalists Paul Meza Castaneda (Correo) and George Vergaray Sanchez
    (La Industria de Chimbote) who reported Alvarez's failure to appear at
    a judicial hearing about his alleged involvement in a woman's
    accidental death in 2009.
        On February 12, in Lima, Constitutional Tribunal judge Raul Rosales
    More aimed a gun at photojournalist Carlos Saavedra of Caretas magazine
    after public criticism of a controversial sentence commutation.
        On February 27, police in Barranco District, Lima Province, beat
    and arrested newspaper reporter Jose Puga (El Comercio) and freelance
    photographer Jean Marco Cordova for covering alleged police repression
    against individuals holding an illegal party.
        On June 5, in Iquitos, Loreto Region, the director of the La Voz de
    Nauta program of Radio Anaconda, Salomon Valle, received anonymous
    telephone death threats that demanded he withdraw his complaint against
    the Nauta police station chief, Major Armando Ludena, for allegedly
    seducing a minor. Valle had published photographs of the alleged act on
    Radio Anaconda's Facebook page.
        On August 18, after an Institute of Press and Society appeal and
    NGO allegations of political motivation, the Ministry of Transport and
    Communications reinstated the operating license of Radio La Voz in
    Bagua, Amazonas Region, which it had suspended in June 2009 after
    accusations the station incited violent and deadly protests (see
    section 1.a.).
        On November 15, the Office of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of
    Expression of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR)
    stated its general concern about the country's use of defamation
    charges against those who denounce or express critical opinions about
    public officials. The office also declared its particular concern about
    the criminal defamation case brought against Lima Mayor-elect Susana
    Villaran, prior to her run for office, for publishing an Internet
    article in 2009 concerning a 2004 accusation of corruption against a
    government minister. After Judge Benjamin Enriquez Colfer procedurally
    remanded the case to Judge Carmen Nancy Choquehuanca, at year's end the
    case continued. In another defamation case, the Supreme Court ordered
    the release from prison in June of Nor Oriente regional weekly
    newspaper editor Alejandro Carrascal Carrasco after he had served five
    months of a one-year sentence for libeling a local official.

        Internet Freedom.--There were no government restrictions on access
    to the Internet or reports that the Government monitored e-mail or
    Internet chat rooms. Individuals and groups engaged in the free
    expression of views via the Internet, including by e-mail. The chief
    impediment to Internet access was a lack of infrastructure; the
    International Telecommunication Union reported that there were 31
    Internet users per 100 inhabitants in 2009.

        Academic Freedom and Cultural Events.--There were no government
    restrictions on academic freedom or cultural events.

        b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association.--Freedom of
    Assembly.--The constitution provides for the right of freedom of
    assembly, and the Government generally respected this right in
    practice. However, the Government maintained emergency zones and
    suspended the freedom of assembly and other freedoms in coca-growing
    areas where Shining Path terrorists operated. The emergency zones were
    located in Ayacucho, Cusco, Huancavelica, and Junin regions.
        The law does not require a permit for public demonstrations, but
    organizers must inform the Interior Ministry's political authority
    (prefect) about the type of demonstration and its location.
    Demonstrations may be prohibited for reasons of public safety or
    health. Police used tear gas and occasional force to disperse
    protesters in various demonstrations. Although most demonstrations were
    peaceful, protests in some areas turned violent, and some deaths and
    injuries resulted (see section 1.a.).

        Freedom of Association.--The law provides for freedom of
    association, and the Government generally respected this right in
    practice.

        c. Freedom of Religion.--For a complete description of religious
    freedom, please see the 2010 International Religious Freedom Report at
    www.state.gov/g/drl/irf/rpt.

        d. Freedom of Movement, Internally Displaced Persons, Protection of
    Refugees, and Stateless Persons.--The law provides for freedom of
    movement within the country, foreign travel, emigration, and
    repatriation, and the Government generally respected these rights in
    practice. The Government maintained emergency zones where it restricted
    freedom of movement in several provinces, an effort it stated was
    designed to ensure public peace and restore internal order (see section
    2.b., Freedom of Assembly).
        Narcotics traffickers and Shining Path members at times interrupted
    the free movement of persons by establishing roadblocks in sections of
    the Upper Huallaga Valley and the VRAE region. Occasionally protesters
    blocked roads to draw public attention to grievances.
        The law prohibits forced exile, and the Government did not engage
    in such practice.

        Internally Displaced Persons.--There were no major incidents of
    internal displacement during the year, and the situation of existing
    internally displaced persons (IDPs) continued to be difficult to
    assess. According to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for
    Refugees (UNHCR), the number of IDPs remained unknown, because
    officials registered relatively few. The Internal Displacement
    Monitoring Center reported that the Government had estimated in 2007
    that approximately 150,000 persons remained internally displaced from
    the conflict between security forces and the Shining Path and the MRTA
    during the period 1980-92; however, during the year there was no
    evidence of a continuing problem (see section 5).

        Protection of Refugees.--The law provides for the granting of
    asylum or refugee status, and the Government has established a system
    for providing protection to refugees. In practice the Government
    provided protection against the expulsion or return of refugees to
    countries where their lives or freedom would be threatened on account
    of their race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social
    group, or political opinion.
        The Government cooperated with the UNHCR Office and recognized the
    Catholic Migration Commission (CMC) as the official provider of
    technical assistance to refugees. The CMC also advised citizens who
    feared persecution and sought asylum abroad. The Government provided
    protection to refugees on a renewable, year-to-year basis, in
    accordance with CMC recommendations. For the year the UNHCR reported
    264 pending refugee requests and 1,146 refugees who the Government
    recognized.

        Stateless Persons.--Citizenship is derived either by birth within
    the country's territory or from one's parents. If overseas, parents
    must register their child's birth by age 18 in order for the child to
    obtain citizenship. The law provides all citizens with the right to a
    name, nationality, and legal recognition, and it also provides for
    other civil, political, economic, and social rights. An estimated
    226,000 citizens, however, lacked identity documents and could not
    fully exercise these rights. Poor indigenous women and children in
    rural areas were disproportionately represented among those lacking
    identity documents. Undocumented citizens faced social and political
    marginalization and barriers in accessing government services,
    including running for public office or holding title to land. Obtaining
    a national identity document requires a birth certificate, but many
    births in rural areas occurred at home. Poor women who gave birth at
    home often could not pay the fees associated with registration.
        In an effort to lower infant mortality rates, the Ministry of
    Health provided free registration for women who gave birth in clinics
    or hospitals.
        The ombudsman investigated complaints about the unlawful practice
    of charging fees to issue identity documents and facilitated refunds
    when such fees had been paid. The ombudsman also helped citizens obtain
    documents promptly.

    Section 3. Respect for Political Rights: The Right of Citizens to
            Change Their Government
        The law provides for the right of citizens to change their
    government peacefully, and citizens exercised this right in practice
    through periodic, free, and fair elections held on the basis of
    mandatory voting and universal suffrage.

        Elections and Political Participation.--In 2006 Alan Garcia assumed
    the presidency after two rounds of presidential elections that were
    considered free and fair. In those elections, the president's APRA
    party won 36 congressional seats. Presidential and congressional terms
    are five years, and the law prohibits the consecutive reelection of a
    president.
        Domestic and international observers declared the October 3
    nationwide regional and municipal elections to be fair and transparent,
    despite a few local incidents of violence and long delays in vote
    counting in some areas.
        Political parties operated without restriction or outside
    interference. Registration of a new political party requires the
    signature of 1 percent of the voters who participated in the past
    election. Groups that advocate violent overthrow of the Government are
    barred from participating in the political process. In the October
    elections, there were no parties that so advocated, although a few
    candidates were former members of such groups.
        There were 32 women in the 120-member unicameral Congress. Three of
    17 cabinet members were women, as was one of the 16 justices of the
    Supreme Court. The law mandates that at least 30 percent of the
    candidates on party lists be women, and the parties complied. However,
    many female candidates were low on the lists. The municipality of Lima
    elected its first female mayor on October 3.
        There were 23 Quechua and two Aymara speakers in Congress. Two
    members of Congress identified themselves as Afro-Peruvians.

    Section 4. Official Corruption and Government Transparency
        The law criminalizes official corruption; however, the Government
    did not always implement these legal provisions effectively. World Bank
    indicators reflected that government corruption was a serious problem,
    and there was a widespread perception that corruption was pervasive in
    all branches of government.
        On November 18, Congress approved a law that provides independent
    authority to the Office of the Comptroller General (OCG) to sanction
    public officials who commit corrupt acts and that specifies penalties,
    including temporary suspension and termination of employment and
    handling a case as a criminal infraction. Previously the OCG was
    empowered only to recommend punishment to leaders of each department
    and agency of government for their decision, which resulted in many
    corrupt public officials avoiding punishment.
        Corruption in prisons was a serious problem, and in some cases
    guards cooperated with criminal bosses who oversaw the smuggling of
    guns and drugs into prisons.
        There were several reports of military corruption, impunity, and
    resistance to providing information on military personnel under
    investigation for human rights abuses committed during the country's
    internal armed conflict. Security forces sought to strengthen
    accountability with training in human rights and the revision of
    disciplinary procedures but were doing so slowly.
        Fernando Barrios, appointed interior minister in October, resigned
    after a local newspaper reported that he received a large, irregular
    severance supplement upon resigning as the head of the National Social
    Security Service. Members of Congress called for a full investigation
    of the supplement's legality, and Barrios testified before lawmakers,
    but by year's end there had been no determination.
        Numerous members of Congress were involved in scandals during the
    year, but most cases were deemed ethics violations and handled through
    internal congressional investigations and discipline. The judiciary
    investigated a few of the cases, but authorities made no arrests. In
    the 2009 case of Alas Peruanas, a private university under
    investigation for financing travel of several members of Congress, two
    Supreme Court justices faced a disciplinary process by the National
    Council of Magistrates. The council found the justices guilty of an
    infraction, a verdict that was upheld on appeal. The justices were
    reprimanded, and no other proceedings were expected.
        Allegations of widespread corruption in the judicial system
    continued. Experts voiced concerns about increasing politicization of
    the judiciary during the current administration. In August the Judicial
    Defense Council, an executive branch multisectoral consultative
    council, in a report sent to the Prosecutor's Office, the Office of
    Magisterial Oversight, and the Supreme Court, identified and criticized
    a network of corruption in the judiciary and named 116 magistrates,
    some of whom allegedly were linked to narcotics trafficking. None of
    the report's recipients took action explicitly in response to the
    report, although the Magisterial Oversight Office investigated and
    suspended some judges. In December a panel of Supreme Court justices
    elected self-avowed corruption fighter Cesar San Martin as president of
    the judicial branch and the Supreme Court.
        The scandal labeled ``Petroaudios''--the 2008 public release of
    audiotapes suggesting government kickbacks associated with oil
    concessions and the subsequent arrest of former government minister
    Romulo Leon and Perupetro's Alberto Quimper Herrera--led to
    investigations that were completed during the year. At year's end Leon
    remained in jail, Quimper was under house arrest, and a trial was
    expected to start in 2011.
        The January 2009 arrests of several individuals (including former
    navy officers) for illegal wiretapping related to Petroaudios as well
    as further investigation revealed illegal wiretapping of members of
    Congress, judges, and other high-profile individuals. The perception
    persisted that the judiciary sought to limit the scope of the
    investigations, and some of the wiretapping evidence was reported
    during the year as lost or altered. On September 8, the investigation
    by the judiciary's Comptroller's Office concluded that police and
    Prosecutor's Office staffs did not properly manage sensitive
    information; at year's end a judicial investigation continued.
        On December 30, 2009, the Supreme Court upheld the convictions of
    former president Fujimori on embezzlement, bribery, and other charges
    (see section 1.a.).
        Most public officials are subject to financial disclosure laws and
    must submit personal financial information to the OCG prior to taking
    office and periodically thereafter.
        The law provides for public access to government information, and
    most ministries and central offices provided information on Web sites.
    Implementation of the law was incomplete, particularly in rural areas,
    where few citizens exercised or understood their right to information.
    The ombudsman encouraged regional governments to adopt more transparent
    practices for releasing information and monitored their compliance with
    the requirement for public hearings at least twice a year.

    Section 5. Governmental Attitude Regarding International and
            Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations of Human
            Rights
        A large number of domestic and international human rights groups
    generally operated without government restriction, investigating and
    publishing their findings on human rights cases. Government officials
    generally were cooperative and responsive to their views. NGOs seeking
    information from military commanders had to work through the
    Ombudsman's Office.
        The Government's Reparations Council continued assisting persons
    who suffered during the 1980-2000 conflict with the Shining Path and
    the MRTA. The council compiled a registry of victims, which included
    more than 84,000 individuals and 5,600 communities eligible for
    reparations benefits. The Ministry of Women and Social Development
    (MIMDES) also maintained a registry specifically for IDPs that included
    approximately 5,000 individuals. A number of victims and family members
    lacking proper identity documents had difficulties registering their
    eligibility for reparations.
        The Government cooperated with international governmental
    organizations and permitted visits by UN representatives. The UN
    Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights and
    Fundamental Freedoms while Countering Terrorism--who conducted a fact-
    finding mission in September and was scheduled to present his findings
    and recommendations to the UN Human Rights Council in March 2011--
    raised concerns about relatively frequent state-of-emergency
    declarations in the country and derogations from human rights
    obligations because of terrorism.
        The Office of the Human Rights Ombudsman operated its 28 offices
    and 10 satellite sites without government or party interference and was
    considered effective, although it lacked adequate resources. During the
    year the office issued four reports with recommendations on sustainable
    forestry policy, children's rights, access to rural electrification,
    and police-station conditions. The Government took account of these
    recommendations in differing degrees.
        Congressional committees included the Justice and Human Rights
    Committee and a committee for health, population, family, and persons
    with disabilities. They made no reports and had limited policy impact;
    credible NGOs did not consider them valuable beyond their legislative
    functions.
        On November 4, the president and other dignitaries laid the first
    stone of the Museum of the Memory dedicated to the victims of the 1980-
    2000 internal conflict.

    Section 6. Discrimination, Societal Abuses, and Trafficking in Persons
        The law prohibits discrimination based on race, gender, disability,
    language, or social status, but enforcement lagged and discrimination
    persisted.

        Women.--The law criminalizes rape, including spousal rape, but
    enforcement was not effective. MIMDES reported 4,253 cases of rape
    during the year; there were no available statistics on abusers
    prosecuted, convicted, or punished.
        The law prohibits domestic violence, and penalties range from one
    month to six years in prison. The law authorizes judges and prosecutors
    to prevent the convicted spouse or parent from returning to the family
    home and authorizes the victim's relatives and unrelated persons living
    in the home to file complaints of domestic violence. It also allows
    health professionals to document injuries. The law requires police
    investigation of domestic violence to take place within five days and
    obliges authorities to extend protection to women and children who were
    victims of domestic violence.
        Violence against women and girls, including rape, spousal abuse,
    and sexual, physical, and mental abuse remained a problem.
    Insensitivity on the part of law enforcement and judicial authorities
    toward female victims contributed to a societal attitude of
    permissiveness toward abuse. A trend developed during the year of media
    stories on the mistreatment of women. In some instances such coverage
    compelled authorities to take legal action after initially declining to
    do so. For example, in the August case of a woman whose husband threw
    boiling water on her, by year's end authorities jailed the husband
    pending trial. MIMDES reported that there were 80 femicides and 29
    attempted killings of women for the year through September.
        Many domestic abuse cases went unreported, and NGOs stated that the
    majority of reported cases did not result in formal charges because of
    fear of retaliation or the expense of filing a complaint. The
    protections offered were limited because of legal delays, ambiguities
    in the law, and the short supply of victim shelters.
        MIMDES operated the Women's Emergency Program, which included 114
    centers that combined police, prosecutors, counselors, and public
    welfare agents to help victims of domestic abuse. It also sought to
    address the legal, psychological, social, and medical problems facing
    victims of domestic violence. The level of public services fluctuated
    daily; for example, 920 persons received attention on July 22, and
    1,095 persons received attention on December 20 (most individuals were
    follow-up cases). A 2009 ombudsman report on the centers highlighted
    the Government decentralization process and challenges the centers
    faced, such as a lack of qualified professionals. MIMDES also operated
    a toll-free hotline that answered a monthly average of 1,543 calls
    through November.
        MIMDES continued efforts to sensitize government employees and the
    citizenry to domestic violence, but the ombudsman asserted that police
    officers reacted indifferently to charges of domestic violence, despite
    legal requirements to investigate such complaints.
        Sexual harassment was a problem. The law defines sexual harassment
    as a labor-rights violation subject to administrative punishment, which
    depends on the professional situation in which the violation occurred.
    Government enforcement was minimally effective.
        Couples and individuals had the right to decide the number,
    spacing, and timing of their children free from discrimination and
    generally had the means and information to do so. Access to information
    on contraception and family planning was high, according to a National
    Institute of Statistics and Information demographic and family-health
    survey that included figures for the first half of the year: 99.5
    percent of women were aware of some family-planning method, although
    only approximately half were using a modern method. The NGO Population
    Reference Bureau listed the use of all methods of contraception among
    married women ages 15-49 at 73 percent. The availability of skilled
    attendance at delivery varied widely between urban (93.7 percent of
    births) and rural (58.7 percent of births) areas. According to the UN
    Population Fund, in 2008 there were an estimated 98 maternal deaths per
    100,000 live births per year. Women and men were given equal access to
    diagnostic services and treatment for sexually transmitted infections,
    including HIV, and according to Demographic and Health Surveys, had
    approximately the same level of knowledge about those infections.
        The law provides for equality between men and women and prohibits
    discrimination against women with regard to marriage, divorce, and
    property rights, and women from the upper and upper-middle classes
    assumed leadership roles in companies and government agencies. The law
    prohibits racial and sexual discrimination in employment or educational
    advertisements and the arbitrary dismissal of pregnant women; however,
    in practice discrimination continued.
        The law stipulates that women should receive equal pay for equal
    work. However, societal prejudice and discrimination led to
    disproportionate poverty and unemployment rates for women. Women
    usually worked in less-secure occupations as maids, in factories, or as
    street vendors, and were more likely to be illiterate due to lack of
    formal education. According to a 2010 World Economic Forum survey,
    women were paid 38 percent less than men for comparable work.

        Children.--Citizenship is derived either by birth within the
    country's territory or from one's parents. There were problems with
    government registration of births (see section 2.d.). Although this did
    not cause denial of public services, it limited access to social
    welfare programs and public health services.
        The constitution stipulates that primary and secondary education is
    free. However, citizens and NGOs asserted neither was completely free
    in practice, and fees for parental associations, administration, and
    educational materials greatly reduced access for lower-income families.
        Violence and sexual abuse of children were serious problems. MIMDES
    reported 1,768 cases of violence or sexual abuse of children five years
    of age and younger and 4,216 cases of abuse of children ages six to 11
    during the year. Many abuse cases went unreported because societal
    norms viewed such abuse as a family problem to be resolved privately.
    The Women's Emergency Program received information through child-rights
    and welfare-protection offices and worked to help child victims of
    violence.
        The MIMDES Children's Bureau coordinated government policies and
    programs for children and adolescents. At the grassroots level, more
    than 1,300 child-rights and welfare-protection offices resolved
    complaints ranging from physical and sexual abuse of children to
    abandonment and failure to pay child support. Provincial or district
    governments operated approximately half of these offices, while
    schools, churches, and NGOs ran the others. Law students staffed most
    of the units, particularly in rural districts. When these offices could
    not resolve disputes, officials usually referred cases to the Public
    Ministry's local prosecutor offices, whose adjudications were legally
    binding and had the same force as court judgments.
        The law prohibits child prostitution, penalizing perpetrators with
    five to 12 years in prison. The country was a destination for child sex
    tourism, with Cusco and Iquitos as the principal locations. Involvement
    in child sex tourism is punishable by two to eight years in prison. The
    Foreign Trade and Tourism Ministry ran publicity spots to disseminate
    information about the problem.
        Statutory rape law stipulates different rape offenses, including
    rape of a minor younger than 14 years, with penalties ranging from six
    years to life in prison. The penalty for involvement in child
    pornography is four to eight years' imprisonment and a fine.
        Children continued to be used in armed combat, mainly in those
    parts of the country plagued by narcotics trafficking and terrorism.
    The March petition to the IACHR by the NGO National Coordinator for
    Human Rights (CNDDHH) claimed that both the Shining Path groups in the
    VRAE region and the country's armed forces recruited children.
    Documentation of the Shining Path recruitment surfaced in November
    after digital-camera photographs found at the site of an October
    government raid on a suspected Shining Path narcotics-trafficking unit
    showed children ages five to 16, many of them armed with automatic
    weapons, apparently as part of a group led by Leonardo Huaman Zuniga
    (or ``Alipio''), a notorious Shining Path leader known for bloody
    ambushes. It was thought that children such as those were sometimes
    kidnapped from local towns and were sometimes the children of Shining
    Path members.
        The country's military, no longer a conscripted force, bars minor
    children from being enlisted. However, according to the CNDDHH, there
    continued to be credible reports of children under age 18 in the armed
    forces, most apparently minors who misrepresented their ages. According
    to the CNDDHH, the youths most at risk of being recruited were in the
    country's poorest areas, and they were also those most often sent
    patrolling in the VRAE area, which put them particularly at risk of
    death or injury. In March government representatives met with IACHR
    officials to discuss the CNDDHH petition, but it remained unclear
    whether the Government complied with the IAHCR request for a written
    status report. A June report by the NGOs CNDDHH and Save the Children
    stated that the Government and the military had not done enough to end
    child recruitment; however, the NGOs also cited continuing efforts by
    the army commander, who in May 2009 assured them that he had ordered
    the discharge of approximately 1,000 adolescents and an end to the
    recruitment of minors. During the year the Government incorporated
    proposals, which were developed by the National Commission for the
    Study and Application of International Humanitarian Law (in which the
    CNDDHH was an observer), into a draft law to prevent children from
    serving as soldiers and submitted it to Congress.
        The country is a party to the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil
    Aspects of International Child Abduction. For information on
    international parental child abduction, please see the Department of
    State's annual report on compliance at http://travel.state.gov/
    abduction/resources/congressreport/congressreport--4308.html.

        Anti-Semitism.--There was a Jewish population of approximately
    4,000 persons. There were no reports of anti-Semitic acts.

        Trafficking in Persons.--For information on trafficking in persons,
    please see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons
    Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        Persons With Disabilities.--The constitution addresses social
    security, health, education, and employment matters for persons with
    disabilities as well as their right to engage in business, trade, and
    industry. The law provides for the protection, care, rehabilitation,
    security, and social inclusion of persons with disabilities; mandates
    that public spaces be free of barriers and accessible to persons with
    disabilities; and provides for the appointment of a disability rights
    specialist in the Ombudsman's Office. In addition the law mandates that
    Internet sites maintained by governmental, institutional, and other
    service providers be accessible to persons with disabilities and
    requires accessibility through the inclusion of sign language or
    subtitles in all educational and cultural programs on public television
    and in media alternatives in all public libraries. The law prohibits
    discrimination against persons with disabilities and establishes
    infractions and sanctions for noncompliance with specified norms.
        However, the Government devoted limited resources to enforcement
    and training, and many persons with physical disabilities remained
    economically and socially marginalized. Government at the national,
    regional, and local levels made little effort to ensure access to
    public buildings. There were no interpreters for the deaf in government
    offices and no access to recordings or Braille for the blind. The
    majority of government Web sites remained inaccessible to persons with
    disabilities, and only the congressional television channel offered
    sign language interpretation.
        A report during the year by the Ibero-American Federation of
    Ombudsmen, a group headed by the country's ombudswoman, Beatriz Merino,
    highlighted the gap between policy and implementation and pointed out
    measures not taken since the 2007 ratification of the UN Convention on
    the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The report also pointed out
    the lack of enforcement of accessibility standards in buildings and
    public transport and noted that mainstream schools were not prepared to
    incorporate students with disabilities, despite being encouraged to do
    so by the Government.
        The Government failed to enforce laws safeguarding and attending to
    persons with mental disabilities in situations of social abandonment.
    The number of medical personnel providing services in psychiatric
    institutions was insufficient to care for all patients. The Ombudsman's
    Office reported in 2009 that the Government did not adequately protect
    the rights of persons with mental illnesses, inhumanely treated
    institutionalized patients, discriminated in the provision of health
    and social services, and failed to ensure informed consent.
        The Ombudsman's Office tracked instances of abuse of persons with
    disabilities in educational facilities. A 2000 report identified 38
    cases of mistreatment of students with disabilities in special-
    education facilities, but there was no statistic for mainstream
    schools. A 2007 report stated that 15.6 percent of teachers and 15.7
    percent of students reported cases of abuse of children with
    disabilities in their mainstream schools.
        The MIMDES National Council for the Integration of Persons with
    Disabilities (CONADIS) is responsible for protecting the rights of such
    persons. CONADIS continued to work with the NGO Sense International to
    provide educational, vocational, and training services to meet the
    needs of hearing- and sight-impaired persons, integrate them into
    society, and foster increased public awareness.
        CONADIS, in collaboration with the Ministry of Economy and Finance,
    established during the year a Strategic Program Design in which
    municipalities were authorized, but not mandated, to use 0.05 percent
    of their budget for construction, repairs, or modifications that would
    improve accessibility to urban infrastructure, including municipal
    buildings. CONADIS also released suggestions for the incorporation of
    resources and expenses to address the rights of persons with
    disabilities during the planning and budgeting process of government
    agencies.
        In 2009 MIMDES developed an Equal Opportunity for Disabled Persons
    Plan for 2009-18, meant to be a strategic plan across various
    government agencies, to promote the rights of persons with disabilities
    based on four fundamental pillars: health, employment, education, and
    social development. A multisectoral commission was created by executive
    decree to monitor and evaluate progress. According to comments by the
    Ombudsman's Office in December, the plan was insufficiently strategic,
    only involved four of the seven-plus targeted agencies, lacked a
    budget, and did not specify indicators for measuring progress. The
    monitoring and evaluation commission did not include representatives
    from organizations for persons with disabilities.

        National/Racial/Ethnic Minorities.--The law provides all citizens
    equality before the law and forbids discrimination on the basis of
    race, national origin, or language.
        In actuality, however, the large minority of individuals of African
    (Afro-Peruvian) descent faced societal discrimination and prejudice.
    Afro-Peruvians generally did not hold leadership positions in
    government, business, or the military. Few Afro-Peruvians served as
    officers in the navy or the air force, although one Afro-Peruvian
    general officer worked in the presidential palace. Despite the law
    prohibiting the mention of race in job advertisements, NGOs alleged
    that employers often found ways to refuse hiring Afro-Peruvians or to
    relegate them to low-paying service positions. Employers often required
    applicants to submit photos.
        Media often used stereotypes in portraying Afro-Peruvians. On April
    7, a local television channel announced the suspension, but not the
    elimination, of the ``Black Mama'' character from its weekly humor
    show. This role long offended some viewers for its negative portrayal
    of the Afro-Peruvian community.

        Indigenous People.--The Government did not provide sufficient
    resources to protect effectively the civil and political rights of
    indigenous persons, and indigenous communities continued to be
    politically, economically, and socially marginalized.
        The constitution and the law provide that all citizens have the
    rights to use their own language before any authority by means of an
    interpreter and to speak their native language. Spanish and Quechua are
    official languages, but the Government also recognizes 49 other
    indigenous languages. In Congress native speakers of Quechua conducted
    some debate in Quechua (translators were available for non-Quechua
    speakers). In August Congresswoman Hilaria Supa, a native Quechua
    speaker, became the chair of the Congressional Committee on Education.
    The National Program of Mobilization for Literacy continued teaching
    basic literacy and mathematics to poor men and women throughout the
    country. However, language barriers and inadequate infrastructure in
    indigenous communities impeded the full participation of indigenous
    persons in the political process.
        Many indigenous persons lacked identity documents, since they did
    not have access to government offices or could not pay the necessary
    bribes to obtain them. Without identity cards, they were unable to
    exercise basic rights, such as voting and gaining access to health
    services and education. The infant mortality rate was higher in rural
    areas where most indigenous persons lived (27 deaths per 1,000 live
    births), compared with the rate in urban areas (17 deaths per 1,000
    live births), a difference mainly related to the economic situation and
    low education of indigenous persons. Public health centers were located
    primarily in urban areas, but the Government was in the process of
    expanding them to rural areas during the year and incorporating roving
    teams.
        While the constitution recognizes that indigenous persons have the
    right to own land communally, indigenous groups often lacked legal
    title to demarcate the boundaries of their lands, making it difficult
    to resist encroachment by outsiders. By law local communities retain
    the right of unassignability, which should prevent the reassignment of
    indigenous land titles to nonindigenous tenants. However, some
    indigenous community members sold land to outsiders without the
    majority consent of their community. Moreover, in the absence of an
    effective representative institution, there were continuing societal
    conflicts between indigenous and nonindigenous persons, particularly
    concerning environmental issues and extractive industries.
        Additionally, mineral or other subsoil rights belong to the state,
    a situation that often caused conflict between mining interests and
    indigenous communities. For example, the Pluspetrol oil company
    reported oil spills into rivers of the Loreto Region in June and
    September which sparked protests in Amazonian communities. A September
    16 demonstration against the construction of a dam in the Majes Siguas
    II project in Espinar Province, Cusco Region, resulted in casualties
    (see section 1.a.). On December 12, the Centauro mining company ceased
    operations due to protests by members of surrounding communities in
    Catac, Ancash Region.
        Indigenous community representatives attributed the deadly June
    2009 clashes in and around Bagua, Amazonas Region, between security
    forces and demonstrators who were demanding repeal of certain
    legislative decrees, in part to the Government not consulting with
    indigenous community representatives prior to approval, as required by
    International Labor Organization (ILO) Convention 169 on Indigenous and
    Tribal Peoples (see section 1.d., Role of the Police and Security
    Apparatus). Four working groups established to address clash-related
    problems completed their tasks in December 2009. One of the groups led
    a series of consultative meetings during the year aimed at developing a
    new forestry law to replace the one that was repealed as a consequence
    of the clashes. On May 19, Congress approved a law requiring prior
    consultations with indigenous persons, including consultations on draft
    legislation affecting their communities. In June the president returned
    the law to Congress, maintaining among other objections that it awarded
    indigenous groups veto power over development projects; indigenous
    affairs experts did not agree with this conclusion. The Ombudsman's
    Office continued expressing support in October for the passage of the
    consultation law, and the law remained under congressional review at
    year's end.
        On September 24, the newly created Ministry of Culture absorbed the
    ineffective National Institute for the Development of Andean,
    Amazonian, and Afro-Peruvian Peoples (INDEPA)--a government entity with
    the mission of formulating and adopting national development policies,
    programs, and projects. While the Government maintained that funding
    for programs related to indigenous persons would triple under the new
    arrangement, a number of indigenous organizations stated that they
    feared the new entity would be limited to cultural matters and be less
    effective than INDEPA in protecting indigenous rights.
        Many indigenous persons and those with indigenous physical features
    faced societal discrimination and prejudice. They were often the
    victims of derogatory comments and subjected to illegal discrimination
    in public places, including restaurants and clubs.

        Societal Abuses, Discrimination, and Acts of Violence Based on
    Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.--There are no laws specifically
    prohibiting discrimination against persons based on sexual orientation,
    and such discrimination occurred. Government authorities, including
    police, sometimes harassed and abused LGBT persons.
        On March 29, a court handed down a four-year suspended sentence
    against two police members for not assisting a transsexual person who
    was beaten and injured by a gang.
        The case of the January 2009 kidnap and alleged torture of a
    transgender woman, known as Techi, by members of a neighborhood-watch
    patrol remained at year's end in the Second Court of Tarapoto.
        On July 10, a gay pride march occurred in Lima. By law organizers
    must inform the Interior Ministry of their intention to hold a public
    gathering. There were no impediments or incidents related to the march,
    and police provided sufficient protection.
        There were some instances of official and societal discrimination
    based on sexual orientation in employment, housing, statelessness, and
    access to education or health care during the year.
        The Constitutional Tribunal determined in December 2009 that
    homosexuality is not an impediment to entry into the armed forces or
    the police when it ordered the police academy to reinstate an expelled
    student. The Ministry of Interior Handbook of Human Rights Applied to
    the Civil Police stipulates that police must respect human rights,
    especially of the most vulnerable groups, and referred explicitly to
    the rights of lesbian, gay, and transvestite individuals.

        Other Societal Violence or Discrimination.--Persons with HIV/AIDS
    faced extensive discrimination and harassment.
        The Ministry of Health executed policies to combat discrimination
    based on HIV/AIDS status, including a four-year plan to prevent and
    control HIV/AIDS. Some of these policies enjoyed success, such as the
    treatment of HIV/AIDS, but observers noted that education and
    prevention programs needed strengthening.

    Section 7. Worker Rights
        a. The Right of Association.--The law provides for the right of
    association. Regulations allow workers to form unions on the basis of
    their occupation, employer affiliation, or geographic territory.
    Workers are not required to seek authorization prior to forming a trade
    union; however, the minimum membership required by law to form a union
    is often prohibitively high. (There is a minimum of 20 employees for a
    workplace-level union and a minimum of 50 employees for a sector-wide
    union.) Employers may not prevent employment because of union
    membership. Judges, prosecutors, and members of the police and military
    are not permitted to form or join unions. According to the
    international NGO Solidarity Center, temporary workers may join the
    same unions as permanent workers but face nonrenewal of their
    contracts. More than 72 percent of the 10.6 million-member labor force
    worked in the informal sector. During the year the Ministry of Labor
    and Promotion of Employment (MOL) announced that the number of unions
    registered nationwide increased from 866 to 941 or approximately 8.7
    percent.
        Many businesses hired temporary or contract workers who were
    effectively barred from participating in those firms' unions. The law
    forbids businesses from hiring temporary workers to perform core
    company functions, requires businesses to monitor their contractors,
    and imposes liability on businesses for the actions of their
    contractors. However, employers circumvented these restrictions in a
    number of ways. Allegations of abuse of subcontracted workers in the
    areas of wage and hour violations and associational rights continued to
    be reported. Abuses occurred in a number of industries, including in
    the seafood processing and cannery industry. For example, at Conservera
    las Americas S.A. de Paita, Piura Region, more than 1,000 subcontracted
    workers did not receive wage and hour benefits determined by law, as
    documented by the union that represented them.
        Regulations limited the associational rights of workers in
    nontraditional export sectors (fishing, wood and paper, nonmetallic
    minerals, jewelry, textile, and agroindustry). For example, Legislative
    Decree No. 728 sets out nine different categories of employment
    contracts under which workers can be hired in response to particular
    circumstances. These types of contracts include temporary, project, or
    seasonal ones, which typically dissuade workers from unionizing. The
    MOL reported that there were 2.5 million workers with contracts under
    Decree No. 728 in 2009. Another decree allows employers to hire workers
    on a series of short-term contracts without requiring that the workers
    be made permanent. There were approximately 268,000 workers employed in
    nontraditional export sectors nationally, according to the MOL.
        There have been frustrated attempts at organization by temporary
    workers in nontraditional export sectors, such as palm oil production.
    For example, a group of employees in a palm oil processing plant in
    Santa Lucia did not initially complain about serious workplace matters
    that allegedly included health and safety problems and gender-based
    harassment due to fear of losing their employment contracts. However,
    during the year the workers began to organize and requested an MOL
    inspection. In October workplace inspectors supported the laborers'
    claims and insisted that the company directly hire 300 workers; the
    company did not comply, according to a Solidarity Center report. The
    company resisted the workers' decision to strike in December and cut
    off a number of resources, including food, normally provided to
    employees. At year's end the situation remained unresolved.
        The constitution provides for the right to strike with certain
    limitations. Unions in essential public services, as determined by the
    Government, must provide a sufficient number of workers during a strike
    to maintain operations. This level of employees is determined jointly
    by the union and labor authorities on an annual basis in the first
    trimester of the year. The law also requires strikers to notify the MOL
    before carrying out a job action.
        During the year the Government declared eight out of 119 strikes
    legal. According to labor leaders, permission to strike was difficult
    to obtain, in part because the MOL feared harming the economy. The MOL
    justified its decisions to deem a strike illegal by citing union
    failure to fulfill the legal requirements necessary to strike. The law
    allows unions to declare a strike in accordance with its own statutes
    and also allows nonunion workers to declare a strike with a majority
    vote, so long as the written act is notarized and announced at least
    five working days prior to a strike. Workers who strike legally retain
    avenues for reinstatement that illegal strikers lose. However, all
    workers retain legal protections during the administrative procedure
    period, which means, in practice, that workers may conduct short,
    illegal strikes of up to 14 days with protection of the law. Dismissal
    of striking workers and delays in reinstatement of these workers, in
    both legal and illegal strikes, are the main repercussions that
    employers utilized to dissuade workers from going on strike.
        Despite improved laws that facilitate workers' calling of a legal
    strike, employers continued to dismiss workers for exercising the right
    to strike. Drawn-out judicial processes and lack of enforcement
    following strike-related dismissals, however, threatened to nullify
    such improvements. During the year a domestic NGO drew on MOL data and
    stated that 84 percent of strikes were based on unenforced decisions,
    collective bargaining, noncompliance with legal norms or collective
    bargaining agreements, and dismissals (both general and from antiunion
    animus) and 16 percent were based on wage issues.

        b. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively.--The law
    recognizes the right of public and private sector workers to organize
    and bargain collectively but specifies that this right must be
    exercised in harmony with broader social objectives. A union must
    represent at least 20 workers to become an official collective
    bargaining agent. Union representatives have the right to participate
    in collective bargaining negotiations and establish negotiating
    timetables.
        Significant delays in the collective bargaining process due to
    employers' lack of interest in concluding agreements proved to be a
    common obstacle to compliance with worker rights to bargain
    collectively. Public-sector employers--such as the drinking water
    company in Piura and Lambayeque regions, the electricity company in Ica
    Region, the Federico Villarreal National University in Lima, and the
    National Superintendency of Tax Administration in Lima--did not bargain
    according to established timelines, resulting in no agreements for
    workers in those sectors by year's end.
        Although a conciliation and arbitration system exists, union
    officials complained that the high cost of arbitration made it
    difficult to use. Also, many companies refused to be bound by the
    decisions and appealed to the Constitutional Tribunal. Of the 639
    registered collective bargaining agreement disputes in 2009, the MOL
    reported that 71 percent (454) were resolved that year: 398 by direct
    negotiation, 25 by conciliation, 24 by settlement, five by arbitration,
    and two by MOL administrative decision.
        On January 15, Congress adopted a new labor procedure law (No.
    29497) to improve the efficiency of resolving labor disputes. The new
    law, which entered into force on July 15 and whose implementation was
    not completed by year's end, requires that labor conflicts be resolved
    in less than six months, allows unions or their representatives to
    appear in court on behalf of workers, requires proceedings to be
    conducted orally and video-recorded, and relieves the employee from the
    burden of proving an employee/employer relationship. The law prohibits
    antiunion discrimination and other forms of employer intimidation, and
    workers fired for union activity have the right to reinstatement.
    However, the Government did not effectively enforce the new law, and
    employers engaged in antiunion practices. The International Trade Union
    Confederation (ITUC) noted in its 2009 annual report that the Law of
    Productivity and Competitiveness legalizes unfair dismissals by giving
    companies the right to fire employees without justification, if they
    offer severance pay fixed by law. The ITUC alleged that under this law
    employers pressured unionists to accept severance pay and threatened
    them with nonrenewal of contract.
        In August labor unions, including the General Confederation of
    Workers of Peru (CGTP), reported the dismissal of more than 4,000
    workers during the last four and a half years from a range of economic
    sectors for union-related activities. For example, Diamante factory, a
    fish-processing plant operating in Chancay and Pisco, dismissed
    unionized employees for reasons unrelated to work performance according
    to the CGTP.
        There are no known special laws or exemptions from regular labor
    laws in export processing zones (EPZs), although in actuality
    businesses in the four EPZs had more legal flexibility in hiring
    temporary labor. According to the MOL, there is one recognized public-
    sector union with 122 members in one EPZ. All labor in the EPZs
    (estimated at no more than 500 workers) was subcontracted.

        c. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor.--The law prohibits
    forced or compulsory labor, including labor by children; however, there
    were reports that such practices occurred. Also see the Department of
    State's annual Trafficking in Persons Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.
        The ILO estimated in 2006 that 20-40,000 individuals worked as
    forced laborers, primarily in the logging industry in two provinces in
    the Amazonas Region. The ILO Committee of Experts in 2008 observed that
    forced labor practices, including slavery and debt bondage, affected
    many workers from indigenous communities and called upon the Government
    to take the necessary measures in law to criminalize and repress forced
    labor practices. At year's end the Government's response was not known.

        d. Prohibition of Child Labor and Minimum Age for Employment.--Laws
    exist to protect children from exploitation in the workplace and
    prohibit forced or compulsory labor; however, in practice child labor
    remained a serious problem, especially in the informal sector. The ILO
    estimated that during the year there were approximately 3.3 million
    working children in the country, with 70 percent (2.3 million) working
    in the worst forms of child labor. Child labor was a serious problem in
    informal sector activities of gold mining, brick and fireworks
    manufacturing; stone extraction; and the production of timber, Brazil
    nuts, and coca. According to the country's media reports, children
    worked in hazardous conditions, including approximately 141,000 on the
    streets, 101,000 at night, and 87,000 with trash. Also see the
    Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons Report at
    www.state.gov/g/tip.
        The legal minimum age for employment is 14. However, children
    between the ages of 12 and 14 may work in certain jobs for up to four
    hours per day, and adolescents between ages 15 and 17 may work up to
    six hours per day, if they obtain special permission from the MOL and
    certify that they are attending school. In certain sectors of the
    economy, higher minimums were in force: age 15, in industrial,
    commercial, or mining; and age 16, in fishing.
        On April 20, MIMDES published Decree No. 003-2010 that approved a
    list of the worst forms of child labor. This decree differed from its
    predecessor as the list may be modified as necessary. Specifically
    prohibited are a number of occupations considered hazardous for
    children, including working underground, lifting, or carrying heavy
    weights; accepting responsibility for the safety of others; or working
    at night. The law prohibits work that jeopardizes the health of
    children and adolescents; puts their physical, mental, and emotional
    development at risk; or prevents regular attendance at school.
        The MOL Office of Labor Protection for Minors may issue permits
    authorizing persons under age 18 to work legally. During the year the
    MOL granted 520 such permits to children between ages 14 and 17.
    Parents must apply for the permits, and employers must have a permit on
    file to hire a child. In many cases the child worked alongside the
    parents in a family business, usually in areas and sectors identified
    above.
        The MOL is responsible for enforcing child labor laws, and its
    inspectors may investigate reports of illegal child labor. The ministry
    stated that inspectors conducted routine visits without notice to areas
    where persons or organizations reported child labor problems. The
    Government reported that it fined and suspended operations of firms
    that violated labor laws. From January through October, authorities
    fined 11 businesses 17,746 soles (approximately $6,300) for hiring 14
    minors illegally or without seeking the proper authorization.
        Inspectors maintained contact with a wide variety of local NGOs,
    church officials, law enforcement officials, and school officials.
    There were 412 labor inspectors (213 in Lima) whose inspections focused
    on the formal sector.
        The Office of the Ombudsman for Children and Adolescents (DEMUNA)
    worked with the MOL to document complaints regarding violations of
    child labor laws. There were more than 1,000 DEMUNA offices in
    municipalities throughout the country. DEMUNA also operated a
    decentralized child labor reporting and tracking system. MIMDES
    administered a program that sent specialized teachers to the streets to
    provide education and support to minors involved in begging and other
    kinds of work. The MOL instituted several programs aimed at improving
    access to legal work for youth, including the ProCerti and ProJoven
    programs to educate youth regarding, respectively, their rights to work
    and training in a variety of employable skills.

        e. Acceptable Conditions of Work.--In November the statutory
    monthly minimum wage was increased from 550 soles (approximately $196)
    to 600 soles ($215), an amount that did not provide a decent standard
    of living for many families. The Government estimated the poverty line
    to be approximately 257 soles ($92) a month per person, although it
    varied by region. The MOL enforced the minimum wage only in the formal
    sector, which employed approximately 30 percent of the labor force, and
    many workers in the unregulated informal sector, most of whom were
    self-employed, received less.
        The law provides for a 48-hour workweek and one day of rest and
    requires companies to pay overtime for more than eight hours of work
    per day and additional compensation for work at night. Labor, business,
    and the Government reported that the majority of companies in the
    formal sector generally complied with the law.
        A decree defines acts of discrimination against domestic workers.
    Employers frequently required long hours from domestic workers and paid
    low wages. During the year the MOL launched an extensive campaign to
    inform domestic workers of their rights.
        Although occupational health and safety standards exist, the
    Government often did not devote sufficient personnel, technical, and
    financial resources to enforce them. Labor sources claimed that many
    inspectors were forced to pay for transportation to sites and were
    often harassed or refused entry by businesses. Many fines went
    uncollected, in part because the MOL lacked an efficient tracking
    system and at times due to a lack of political will, according to a
    local labor NGO.
        According to the MOL, its inspectors conducted 46,355 visits to
    worksites for the purposes of orientation (10.7 percent) and inspection
    (89.3 percent) in 2009. Through October the MOL levied approximately 12
    million soles ($4.2 million) in fines on 2,089 companies for failure to
    place employees on labor rolls and health and safety violations.
        The National Federation of Mineworkers reported that 61 miners died
    in mining accidents in the formal mining sector during the year, mainly
    as a result of rockslides, falls, and asphyxiation.
        In cases of industrial accidents, an agreement between the employer
    and worker usually determined compensation. The worker did not need to
    prove an employer's culpability in order to obtain compensation for
    work-related injuries. The law did not provide workers the right to
    remove themselves from potentially dangerous situations without
    jeopardizing employment.

                                   __________

                             SAINT KITTS AND NEVIS

        Saint Kitts and Nevis is a multiparty, parliamentary democracy and
    federation, with a population of approximately 39,200. In national
    elections on January 25, Prime Minister Denzil Douglas's Saint Kitts
    and Nevis Labour Party (SKNLP) won six seats in the 11-seat
    legislature. Independent observers concluded that the election had no
    major irregularities and was generally free and fair, but called for
    electoral reform. The constitution provides the smaller island of Nevis
    considerable self-government under a premier. In 2006 voters in Nevis
    elected Joseph Parry of the Nevis Reformation Party (NRP) as premier.
    Security forces reported to civilian authorities.
        Human rights problems included use of excessive force by police,
    poor prison conditions, violence against women, and discrimination
    against homosexuality.

                            RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

    Section 1. Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom
            From:
        a. Arbitrary or Unlawful Deprivation of Life.--There were no
    reports that the Government or its agents committed arbitrary or
    unlawful killings.

        b. Disappearance.--There were no reports of politically motivated
    disappearances.

        c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or
    Punishment.--The constitution prohibits such practices, and there were
    no reports that government officials employed them. However, due to
    regular reports of violent incidents involving police, law enforcement
    officials came under increased scrutiny, and some citizens were afraid
    to report crime because of the heavy-handedness with which police have
    carried out their duties. Corporal punishment is legal and an accepted
    measure for juveniles in schools and the justice system. A court can
    order that an accused person receive lashes if found guilty.
        Authorities brought no charges against the police officers
    responsible for two police shootings in 2008, determining at the time
    that the shootings were justifiable.

        Prison and Detention Center Conditions.--Prisons remained
    overcrowded, and facilities austere. Built in 1840, the prison on Saint
    Kitts had an intended capacity of 150 prisoners but held more than 270
    prisoners; some prisoners slept on mats on the floor. Pretrial
    detainees were sometimes held together with convicted prisoners. There
    were five female inmates and fewer than 10 juveniles, all separated
    from adult male prisoners. Prisoners and detainees had reasonable
    access to visitors, were permitted religious observances, and had
    reasonable access to complaint mechanisms and the ability to request
    inquiry into conditions. The Government investigated and monitored
    prison conditions, and the prison staff periodically received training
    in human rights.
        The Government permitted prison visits by independent human rights
    observers, although no such visits were known to have occurred during
    the year.

        d. Arbitrary Arrest or Detention.--The constitution prohibits
    arbitrary arrest and detention, and the Government generally observed
    these prohibitions.

        Role of the Police and Security Apparatus.--The security forces
    consist of an approximately 400-officer police force, including a
    paramilitary Special Services Unit, a coast guard, and a small defense
    force. Military forces patrolled jointly with the police. The military
    and the police report to the Ministry for National Security, Justice,
    and Labor.
        Senior police officers investigated complaints against members of
    the police force. When warranted, they refer them to an internal
    disciplinary tribunal for adjudication; penalties include dismissal,
    warnings, or other administrative action. No information was available
    as to the number or disposition of cases under consideration during the
    year.

        Arrest Procedures and Treatment While in Detention.--Police may
    arrest a person based on the suspicion of criminal activity without a
    warrant. The law requires that persons detained be charged within 48
    hours or be released. If charged, a detainee must be brought before a
    court within 72 hours. There is a functioning system of bail. Family
    members, attorneys, and clergy were permitted to visit detainees
    regularly.
        Detainees may be held for a maximum of seven days awaiting a bail
    hearing. Those accused of serious offenses are remanded to custody to
    await trial, while those accused of minor infractions are released on
    their own recognizance.

        e. Denial of Fair Public Trial.--The constitution provides for an
    independent judiciary, and the Government generally respected this
    provision in practice.

        Trial Procedures.--The constitution provides for a fair, speedy,
    and public trial, and these requirements generally were observed.
    Defendants have the right to be present and to consult with counsel in
    a timely manner. There is a presumption of innocence, and defendants
    may question or confront witnesses. Juries are used at the High Court
    level for criminal matters only. Free legal assistance was available
    for indigent defendants in capital cases only.

        Political Prisoners and Detainees.--There were no reports of
    political prisoners or detainees.

        Civil Judicial Procedures and Remedies.--There is an independent
    and impartial judiciary for civil matters, including lawsuits regarding
    alleged civil rights violations.

        f. Arbitrary Interference With Privacy, Family, Home, or
    Correspondence.--The constitution prohibits such practices, and the
    Government generally respected these prohibitions in practice.

    Section 2. Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:
        a. Freedom of Speech and Press.--The constitution provides for
    freedom of speech and of the press, and the Government generally
    respected these rights in practice. However, during the January
    elections, the opposition party claimed that government-controlled
    media unfairly favored the ruling party.

        Internet Freedom.--There were no government restrictions on access
    to the Internet or reports that the Government monitored e-mail or
    Internet chat rooms. Individuals and groups could engage in the
    peaceful expression of views via the Internet, including by e-mail.
    According to the International Telecommunication Union, there were 34
    Internet users per 100 inhabitants in 2009.

        Academic Freedom and Cultural Events.--There were no government
    restrictions on academic freedom or cultural events.

        b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association.--The constitution
    provides for freedom of assembly and association, and the Government
    generally respected these rights in practice.

        c. Freedom of Religion.--For a complete description of religious
    freedom, see the 2010 International Religious Freedom Report at
    www.state.gov/g/drl/irf/rpt.

        d. Freedom of Movement, Internally Displaced Persons, Protection of
    Refugees, and Stateless Persons.--The constitution and the law provide
    for freedom of movement within the country, foreign travel, emigration,
    and repatriation, and the Government generally respected these rights
    in practice.
        The law does not address forced exile, but the Government did not
    use it.

        Protection of Refugees.--The Government has not signed the 1967
    protocol to the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees. The
    Government has not established a system for providing protection to
    refugees, and it did not routinely grant refugee status or asylum. The
    Government did not expel or return refugees to countries where their
    lives or freedom would be threatened on account of their race,
    religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or
    political opinion; however, no such cases arose during the year.
        The Government cooperated with the Office of the UN High
    Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and was prepared to cooperate with
    other humanitarian organizations in providing protection and assistance
    to internally displaced persons, refugees, returning refugees, asylum
    seekers, stateless persons, and other persons of concern. There was an
    honorary UNHCR liaison in the country.

    Section 3. Respect for Political Rights: The Right of Citizens to
            Change Their Government
        The constitution provides citizens with the right to change their
    government peacefully, and citizens exercised this right in practice
    through periodic, free, and fair elections held on the basis of
    universal suffrage.

        Elections and Political Participation.--There is a multiparty
    political system, in which political parties were free to conduct their
    activities.
        In the January 25 general elections, Prime Minister Denzil
    Douglas's SKNLP returned to office after winning six of eight Saint
    Kitts-assigned seats in the 11-seat National Assembly. The People's
    Action Movement (PAM) party won two seats. The Concerned Citizens
    Movement party won two of the three assembly seats assigned to Nevis.
    On election day armed police responded to address unrest over
    allegations of voting fraud in the constituency of the opposition
    leader. International observers from the Commonwealth, the Caribbean
    Community, and the Organization of American States (OAS) concluded that
    the elections were generally free and fair. The Commonwealth observer
    team reported that ``voters were able to exercise their right to vote
    in accordance with legal procedures'' but found ``issues of substance''
    requiring improvement in the electoral process, including a need to
    tighten residency requirements for voter registration and lack of broad
    and transparent consultation in the appointment of election officials
    and boundary redistribution. The OAS electoral mission made similar
    recommendations and added calls for guaranteed access to the media;
    mechanisms to recruit, train, and finance female candidates; and
    greater civil society support for the electoral process.
        For the January election, the Government successfully implemented
    identity controls for voting, alleviating past concerns over
    duplicative voting and fraud related to false identities. There are no
    campaign finance regulations or prohibitions on political parties
    paying for the transportation of overseas nationals to return to the
    country to vote. Observers remained concerned some voters may be
    registered in constituencies in which they do not live.
        The island of Nevis exercises considerable self-government, with
    its own premier and legislature. It also has the right to secede from
    the federation in accordance with certain enumerated procedures. In
    2006 voters in Nevis elected Joseph Parry of the NRP as premier.
        The governor general appoints three senators, two on recommendation
    of the prime minister and one on the recommendation of the leader of
    the opposition. There was one woman in the 14-member parliament--a
    cabinet minister--and three of four magistrates were female. In Nevis
    one elected member of the House of Assembly, the appointed president of
    the House of Assembly, and the island's resident judge were women.

    Section 4. Official Corruption and Government Transparency
        The law provides criminal penalties for official corruption, and
    the Government generally implemented these laws effectively. There were
    isolated reports of government corruption during the year. The
    opposition PAM party continued to allege possible misconduct on the
    part of government officials.
        Public officials are not subject to financial disclosure laws, and
    there is no agency responsible for combating government corruption.
        While no laws provide for public access to government information,
    the Government maintained a Web site with limited information
    concerning government actions.

    Section 5. Governmental Attitude Regarding International and
            Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations of Human
            Rights
        While there are no governmental restrictions on human rights
    groups, no local human rights groups operated in the country. There
    were no requests for investigations or visits by international human
    rights groups during the year.

    Section 6. Discrimination, Societal Abuses, and Trafficking in Persons
        The constitution prohibits discrimination based on race, place of
    origin, birth out of wedlock, political opinion or affiliation, color,
    gender, or creed, and the Government generally respected these
    prohibitions in practice.

        Women.--The law prohibits rape, but it does not address spousal
    rape. Penalties for rape range from two years' imprisonment for incest
    between minors to life imprisonment for statutory rape or incest with
    someone under 16. Indecent assault has a maximum penalty of seven
    years' imprisonment. Incest with a person 16 or older carries a penalty
    of 20 years' imprisonment. There were 15 rapes and 23 indecent assault
    cases reported during the year.
        Violence against women was a problem. The law criminalizes domestic
    violence, including emotional abuse, and provides penalties of up to
    EC$13,500 ($5,000) or six months in prison. Although many women were
    reluctant to file complaints or pursue them in the courts, the Ministry
    of Gender Affairs handled an annual average of 25 to 30 reports of
    domestic violence. The director believed that, due to the nature of the
    crime, many women did not feel comfortable reporting it or asking for a
    protection order. There were no prosecutions or convictions for
    domestic violence during the year.
        The ministry offered counseling for victims of abuse and conducted
    training on domestic violence and gender violence for officials in the
    police and fire departments, nurses, school guidance counselors, and
    other government employees.
        The law does not specifically address sexual harassment, and it
    remained a problem.
        Reproductive rights were generally protected; couples and
    individuals had the right to decide the number, spacing, and timing of
    children. The National Family Planning Office provided information on
    contraception and support for reproductive rights on a
    nondiscriminatory basis. Skilled attendance at delivery and in
    postpartum care was widely available. A 2008 report by the UN
    Children's Fund indicated that skilled attendance at birth was 100
    percent and estimated the contraceptive prevalence rate at 54 percent.
    Incidence of maternal mortality was not available. Women and men were
    given equal access to diagnostic services and treatment for sexually
    transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS.
        The role of women in society is not restricted by law but was
    circumscribed by culture and tradition; women did not occupy as many
    senior positions as men in society. The Ministry of Gender Affairs
    conducted programs addressing poverty and health and promoting
    institutional mechanisms to advance the status of women and attain
    leadership positions for women. Although no legislation requires equal
    pay for equal work, women and men generally received equal salaries for
    comparable jobs.

        Children.--Children acquire citizenship by birth in the country,
    and all are registered at birth and equally able to access public
    education and public services. Children born to citizen parents abroad
    can be registered by either of their parents.
        Child abuse remained a major problem. The law sets the age of
    consent at 16. Authorities received a number of reports of sexual
    assaults against children during the year and brought charges in cases
    involving alleged sexual activity with minors (indecent assault). Under
    the statutory rape law, sexual relations with anyone under 16 are
    illegal, with penalties ranging from probation to life in prison. Child
    pornography is illegal and carries a penalty of up to 20 years in
    prison.
        The country is a party to the 1980 Hague Convention on
    International Child Abduction. For information on international
    parental child abduction, please see the Department of State's annual
    report on compliance at http://travel.state.gov/abduction/resources/
    congressreport/congressreport--4308.html.

        Anti-Semitism.--There was no organized Jewish community, and there
    were no reports of anti-Semitic acts.

        Trafficking in Persons.--In 2009 there were no reports that persons
    were trafficked to, from, or within the country.

        Persons With Disabilities.--While the law prohibits discrimination,
    it does not specifically cite discrimination against persons with
    disabilities. There was no reported discrimination against persons with
    disabilities in employment, education, access to health care, or in the
    provision of other state services. The law does not mandate access to
    buildings for persons with disabilities.
        Persons who are mentally ill and deemed a menace to society can be
    incarcerated for life; there were five such persons in the prison.
    Ministry of Health nurses in the various district health centers deal
    with persons with mental illness, and the General Hospital has a wing
    dedicated to caring for patients with mental illness.

        Societal Abuses, Discrimination, and Acts of Violence Based on
    Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.--There are no laws that
    prohibit discrimination against a person on the basis of sexual
    orientation. Male homosexual acts are illegal and carry penalties up to
    10 years in prison. Female homosexual acts are not barred by statute.
        Societal attitudes towards homosexuality impede operation and free
    association of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT)
    organizations and the openness of LGBT persons. However, there were no
    reports of actual violence or discrimination based on sexual
    orientation.

        Other Societal Violence or Discrimination.--Although no statistics
    were available, anecdotal evidence suggested that societal
    discrimination against persons with HIV/AIDS occurred.

    Section 7. Worker Rights
        a. The Right of Association.--Workers exercised their legal right
    to form and join trade unions. Employers are not legally bound to
    recognize a union, but in practice employers did so if a majority of
    workers polled wished to organize. Approximately 10 percent of the
    workforce was unionized. The law permits the police, civil service, and
    other organizations to organize associations that serve as unions. The
    major labor union, the Saint Kitts Trades and Labour Union, was closely
    associated with the SKNLP and was active in all sectors of the economy.
        The right to strike, while not specified by law, is well
    established and respected in practice. Restrictions on strikes by
    workers who provide essential services, such as the police and civil
    servants, were enforced by established practice and custom but not by
    law.

        b. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively.--Labor unions
    have the legal right to organize and to negotiate better wages and
    benefits for union members, and the Government protected these rights
    in practice. A union that obtains membership of more than 50 percent of
    employees at a company can apply to be recognized by the employer for
    collective bargaining.
        The law prohibits antiunion discrimination but does not require
    employers found guilty of such action to rehire employees fired for
    union activities. However, the employer must pay lost wages and
    severance pay to workers employed at least one year, based upon their
    length of service.
        There are no export processing zones.

        c. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor.--The constitution
    prohibits forced or compulsory labor, and there were no reports that
    such practices occurred.

        d. Prohibition of Child Labor and Minimum Age for Employment.--The
    constitution prohibits slavery, servitude, and forced labor of
    children, and the Department of Labor effectively enforced this law in
    practice. There were no reports of child labor during the year. The
    minimum legal working age is 16 years. The Department of Labor relied
    heavily on school truancy officers and the Community Affairs Division
    to monitor compliance, which they generally did effectively.
        Juveniles worked in agriculture and domestic service. In rural
    areas where families engaged in livestock farming and vegetable
    production, children often were required to assist as part of family
    efforts at subsistence. Girls often engaged in domestic service. Such
    labor included children looking after younger siblings or ailing
    parents and grandparents at the expense of their schooling. Children
    often worked in other households as domestic servants or babysitters.
    In general society did not consider domestic work exploitive child
    labor.

        e. Acceptable Conditions of Work.--The Government sets the minimum
    wage, which was EC$8.00 ($3.00) an hour. Average wages were
    considerably higher than the minimum wage, which would not provide a
    decent standard of living for a worker and family. The Labor Commission
    undertook regular wage inspections and special investigations when it
    received complaints; it required employers found in violation to pay
    back wages.
        The law provides for a 40- to 44-hour workweek, but the common
    practice was 40 hours in five days. Although not required by law,
    workers received at least one 24-hour rest period per week. The law
    provides for premium pay for work above the standard workweek. There
    was no legal prohibition of excessive or compulsory overtime, although
    local custom dictated that a worker could not be forced to work
    overtime.
        While there are no specific health and safety regulations, the law
    provides general health and safety guidance to Department of Labor
    inspectors. The Labor Commission settles disputes over safety
    conditions. Workers have the right to report unsafe work environments
    without jeopardy to continued employment; inspectors then investigate
    such claims, and workers may leave such locations without jeopardy to
    their continued employment.

                                   __________

                                  SAINT LUCIA

        Saint Lucia is a multiparty, parliamentary democracy with a
    population of approximately 171,000. In generally free and fair
    elections in 2006, former prime minister Sir John Compton returned to
    power when his United Workers Party (UWP) defeated the previously
    ruling Saint Lucia Labour Party (SLP), winning 11 seats in the 17-
    member House of Assembly. In 2007 Stephenson King was appointed prime
    minister following Compton's death. Security forces reported to
    civilian authorities.
        There were human rights problems in some areas, including police
    killings, abuse of suspects and prisoners by the police, corruption,
    long delays in trials and sentencing, violence against women, child
    abuse, and discrimination against homosexuality.

                            RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

    Section 1. Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom
            From:
        a. Arbitrary or Unlawful Deprivation of Life.--The Government or
    its agents did not commit any politically motivated killings; however,
    security forces killed four persons during the year. The Criminal
    Investigations Department had investigations and inquests under way at
    year's end. The director of public prosecutions (DPP) reviews all
    police shootings resulting in death and refers matters for inquest.
        On March 28, police shot and killed Peter William while
    apprehending him during a response to a burglary. On April 17, police
    shot and killed Derickson Auguste after Auguste pointed a firearm at
    the police during a routine patrol. The DPP ordered an inquest into
    both of those shootings on July 30.
        On August 31, police shot and killed Hilarion Emmanuel while
    attempting to disarm him during a burglary investigation. The Criminal
    Investigations Department was investigating at year's end.
        One other separate fatal shooting by police was under
    investigation. All four cases involved shootings by police officers
    claiming they acted in self-defense while investigating crimes. No
    additional information on these shootings was available during the
    internal investigations and inquests.
        Inquests were still pending in the 2009 police killings of Anthony
    Fulgence and Alfred James. Criminal charges were filed and were pending
    against the officer involved in the 2008 police shooting of John Garvy
    Alcindor, and a civil suit filed by the family was still pending in the
    2008 police killing of Timothy St Lucre of Bouton.

        b. Disappearance.--There were no reports of politically motivated
    disappearances.

        c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or
    Punishment.--The constitution prohibits such practices; however,
    prisoners and suspects regularly complained of physical abuse by police
    and prison officers. There also were reports of beatings by police of
    arrestees either during the arrest or while in custody at the initial
    detention center prior to arrival at the prison.
        During the year citizens filed a number of complaints against the
    police, most of which were for abuse of authority.
        In August a 22-year-old woman claimed she had been raped by members
    of the police. The Government initiated an independent inquiry into the
    allegations. As of year's end, the DPP had sent the matter back to the
    police for additional follow-up investigation, and the police had
    completed the tasks and referred the case back to the DPP.
        Investigations into the May 2009 case in which Keiran Herman
    claimed police beat, kicked, and assaulted him; into the 2008 case in
    which police shot and injured Miguel Edwards; the 2007 incident in
    which members of the police Special Services Unit shot Andre Halls in
    the leg; and the 2006 police shooting of a 17-year-old boy were still
    pending in various stages of review and prosecution with the office of
    the DPP.

        Prison and Detention Center Conditions.--Prison and detention
    center conditions generally met international standards, and the
    Government permitted visits by independent human rights observers.
        The Bordelais Correctional Facility has an intended capacity of 500
    inmates; there were 551 inmates as of December 21, of whom 302 were
    sentenced prisoners and 249 were on remand awaiting trial or other
    judicial disposition. There were nine female inmates and 82 youthful
    offenders ages 16-21. Female inmates were segregated from male inmates,
    as were youthful offenders. Detainees were segregated from sentenced
    inmates.
        A criminal justice expert from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime
    toured the facility during the year. Prisoners and detainees had
    reasonable access to visitors and were permitted religious observance.
    Prison authorities permitted prisoners and detainees to submit
    complaints to judicial authorities without censorship. Prisoners and
    detainees had access to attorneys for this purpose.
        The Boys Training Center, a facility for boys charged with criminal
    offenses or suffering from domestic or other social problems, operated
    separately from the prison, and conditions were substandard. The boys
    in the program normally stay for two years and receive vocational
    training while enrolled. There was no additional information available
    about conditions at the center or plans for a replacement.

        d. Arbitrary Arrest or Detention.--The constitution prohibits
    arbitrary arrest and detention, and the Government generally observed
    these prohibitions.

        Role of the Police and Security Apparatus.--The Royal Saint Lucia
    Police numbered 826 officers, which included a Special Services Unit
    with some paramilitary training and a coast guard unit. The police
    force reports to the Ministry of Home Affairs and National Security.
        The police force's internal complaints unit, which consists of
    retired police officers, received and investigated complaints made by
    the public and sent its findings to the Police Complaints Commission, a
    civilian body. The commission reviewed the cases and made
    recommendations for internal disciplinary action, but human rights
    monitors considered the process ineffective, and the DPP stated that
    the commission had not made any recommendations for prosecution in many
    years.

        Arrest Procedures and Treatment While in Detention.--The
    constitution stipulates that persons must be apprehended openly with
    warrants issued by a judicial authority and requires a court hearing
    within 72 hours of detention. Detainees are allowed prompt access to
    counsel and family. There is a functioning bail system.
        Prolonged pretrial detention continued to be a problem;
    approximately 270 of the prisoners at Bordelais Correctional Facility
    were on remand awaiting trial. Those charged with serious crimes spent
    an estimated six months to five years in pretrial detention.
        In March prisoner Eugene St. Romain, who alleged that he had been
    detained but never tried since April 2004 on a charge of murder,
    entered a plea of not guilty. At year's end he awaited a trial date.
        In July Shawn Phillip was tried for murder after being held in
    custody on remand since his arrest in 2003. The trial ended in
    acquittal based upon the recantation of evidence by the original
    prosecution witnesses.

        e. Denial of Fair Public Trial.--The constitution provides for an
    independent judiciary, and the Government generally respected judicial
    independence in practice.

        Trial Procedures.--The constitution provides for the right to a
    fair trial, and an independent judiciary generally enforced this right.
        Trials can be by jury and are public. In cases involving capital
    punishment, legal counsel is provided for those who cannot afford a
    defense attorney. Defendants are entitled to select their own
    representation, are presumed innocent until proven guilty in court, and
    have the right of appeal. Defendants have the right to confront or
    question witnesses and have access to government-held evidence. An
    attorney can be provided at public expense if needed in cases of
    serious criminal charges.

        Political Prisoners and Detainees.--There were no reports of
    political prisoners or detainees.

        Civil Judicial Procedures and Remedies.--There is an independent,
    impartial judiciary in civil matters where one can bring lawsuits
    seeking damages for a human rights violation.

        f. Arbitrary Interference With Privacy, Family, Home, or
    Correspondence.--The constitution prohibits such actions, and the
    Government generally respected these prohibitions in practice.

    Section 2. Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:
        a. Freedom of Speech and Press.--The constitution provides for
    freedom of speech and of the press, and the Government generally
    respected these rights in practice. An independent press, an effective
    judiciary, and a functioning democratic political system combined to
    ensure freedom of speech and of the press.

        Internet Freedom.--There were no government restrictions on access
    to the Internet or reports that the Government monitored e-mail or
    Internet chat rooms. Individuals and groups could engage in the
    peaceful expression of views via the Internet, including by e-mail. The
    Internet was largely available in homes, offices, and Internet cafes in
    urban areas; infrastructure limitations restricted Internet access in
    some villages. According to the International Telecommunication Union,
    there were 83 Internet users per 100 inhabitants in 2009.

        Academic Freedom and Cultural Events.--There were no government
    restrictions on academic freedom or cultural events.

        b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association.--The constitution
    provides for freedoms of assembly and association, and the Government
    generally respected these rights in practice.

        c. Freedom of Religion.--For a complete description of religious
    freedom, please see the 2010 International Religious Freedom Report at
    www.state.gov/g/drl/irf/rpt.

        d. Freedom of Movement, Internally Displaced Persons, Protection of
    Refugees, and Stateless Persons.--The constitution and the law provide
    for freedom of movement within the country, foreign travel, emigration,
    and repatriation, and the Government generally respected these rights
    in practice.
        The constitution prohibits forced exile, and the Government did not
    use it.

        Protection of Refugees.--The country is not a party to the 1951
    Convention relating to the Status of Refugees or its 1967 protocol, and
    no formal government policy toward refugee or asylum requests existed.
    The Government did not expel or return refugees to countries where
    their lives or freedom would be threatened on account of their race,
    religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or
    political opinion; however, no such cases arose during the year.
        The Government was prepared to cooperate with the Office of the UN
    High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and other humanitarian
    organizations in assisting refugees and asylum seekers. The UNHCR and
    the St. Lucia Red Cross investigated the claims of seven refugees from
    Sri Lanka. One had been repatriated, and one was in the process of
    being repatriated at the end of the year. The other five did not want
    to return to Sri Lanka, and the UNHCR was working on their cases at the
    end of the year.

    Section 3. Respect for Political Rights: The Right of Citizens to
            Change Their Government
        The constitution provides citizens with the right to change their
    government peacefully, and citizens exercised this right in practice
    through periodic, free, and fair elections based on universal suffrage.

        Elections and Political Participation.--In 2006 Sir John Compton's
    UWP defeated Kenny Anthony's SLP by winning 11 of 17 parliamentary
    seats. Electoral observer missions from both the Organization of
    American States and the Caribbean Community considered the elections
    generally free and fair. Following Compton's death in September 2007,
    the governor general, in accordance with the constitution, appointed
    Stephenson King, the person who commanded the majority in the House of
    Assembly, as prime minister.
        Political parties could operate without restrictions.
        There was one woman elected to the 17-seat House of Assembly, and
    the appointed speaker of the house was a woman. There were three women
    in the 11-member appointed Senate; one served as president of the
    Senate, and one served as the sole female member of the 14-person
    cabinet. The governor general was a woman.

    Section 4. Official Corruption and Government Transparency
        The law provides criminal penalties for official corruption, and
    the Government generally implemented the law effectively. Corruption
    continued to be viewed as serious and was widely discussed by the
    media, the business community, and opposition politicians. Observers
    expressed concern that the country was moving backwards in terms of
    transparency and accountability. There was also concern that some
    foreign assistance programs went through the specific offices of
    parliamentarians, providing the opportunity for graft. There was an
    increasing public perception that certain politicians were wielding
    undue influence over the law enforcement community to shield them from
    investigation for corrupt practices.
        In June the appellate court ruled that actions taken in 2009 by the
    attorney general and other cabinet members to approve a duty-free
    waiver for a colleague were unlawful, unreasonable, irrational, and
    made in bad faith. The court ruling accused the cabinet members of
    being involved in a cover up of fraud and corruption, but there were no
    consequences aside from public disclosure.
        High-level government officials, including elected officials, were
    subject to annual disclosure of their financial assets to the Integrity
    Commission, a constitutionally established commission. The
    parliamentary commissioner, auditor general, and the Public Services
    Commission are responsible for combating corruption. Parliament can
    also appoint a special committee to investigate specific allegations of
    corruption.
        The law provides for public access to information, and
    parliamentary debates are open to the public. The Government
    Information Service disseminated public information on a daily basis,
    operated an extensive Web site, and published a number of official
    periodicals.

    Section 5. Governmental Attitude Regarding International and
            Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations of Human
            Rights
        A few domestic human rights groups generally operated without
    government restriction, investigating and publishing their findings on
    human rights cases, and government officials often were cooperative and
    responsive to their views.

    Section 6. Discrimination, Societal Abuses, and Trafficking in Persons
        The constitution prohibits discrimination, but there was no
    specific legislation addressing discrimination in employment or against
    persons with disabilities. However, government policy was
    nondiscriminatory in the areas of housing, jobs, education, and
    opportunity for advancement.

        Women.--The law effectively criminalizes rape, but not spousal
    rape. Police and courts enforced laws to protect women against rape,
    which is punishable by 14 years' to life imprisonment. The police were
    not reluctant to arrest or prosecute offenders, although many victims
    were reluctant to report cases of rape or to press charges. No data
    were available about the number of rapes reported, charges brought, or
    convictions obtained. The DPP reported that sexual assault cases were a
    growing problem, but that most cases were not prosecuted due to the
    reluctance of victims to press charges.
        Domestic violence was the most significant human rights problem in
    the country. While police were willing to arrest offenders, the
    Government prosecuted crimes of violence against women only when the
    victim pressed charges. Often victims were reluctant to press charges
    due to their reliance on financial assistance of the abuser. Shelters,
    hotlines, and improved police training were all used to deal with the
    problem, but the lack of financial security for the victim was the key
    impediment. Shelters were operated in private homes, in order to
    preserve the privacy of the victims, but the location of a shelter was
    hard to keep secret. The family courts heard cases of domestic violence
    and crimes against women and children.
        The Ministry of Health Wellness, Family Affairs, National
    Mobilization, Human Services, and Gender Relations assisted victims.
    Most of the cases were referred to a counselor, and the police
    facilitated the issuance of court protection orders in some cases.
    Police arrested and charged perpetrators in a number of domestic
    violence cases.
        The police's Vulnerable Persons Unit, designed to handle cases
    involving violence against women and children, increased police
    responsiveness to these cases. As a result the police reported an
    increase in the reporting of sexual crimes against women and children
    over previous years. This unit worked closely with the Family Court and
    the ministry's Gender Relations and Human Services Divisions.
        The Gender Relations Division also ran the Women's Support Center,
    which provided shelter, counseling, residential services, a 24-hour
    hotline, and assistance in finding employment. Various nongovernmental
    organizations (NGOs), such as the Saint Lucia Crisis Center and the
    National Organization of Women (NOW), also provided counseling,
    referral, education, and empowerment services. The crisis center
    assisted in cases of physical violence, incest, nonpayment of child
    support, alcohol and drug abuse, homelessness, custody, and visitation
    rights.
        The Family Court can issue a protection order prohibiting an abuser
    from entering or remaining in the residence of a specified person.
    Occupation and tenancy orders provide certain residential rights to
    victims of domestic violence, such as rental payments and other
    protective orders. The Family Court employed full-time social workers
    who assisted victims of domestic violence.
        The criminal code prohibits sexual harassment, but it remained a
    problem, as government enforcement was not an effective deterrent. The
    Gender Relations Division continued an awareness program through which
    it provided training opportunities in workplaces and assisted
    establishments in creating policies and procedures on how to handle
    sexual harassment. As a result, most cases of sexual harassment were
    handled in the workplace rather than being prosecuted under the
    criminal code.
        Couples and individuals have the right to decide freely the number,
    spacing, and timing of their children. Skilled attendance at delivery
    and in postpartum care was widely available. Access to contraception
    was widely available. Incidence of maternal mortality was not
    available. Testing for HIV and sexually transmitted diseases was
    nondiscriminatory and also widely available.
        Women generally enjoyed equal rights, including in economic,
    family, property, and judicial matters. Women's affairs were under the
    jurisdiction of the Gender Relations Division, whose parent ministry
    was responsible for protecting women's rights in domestic violence
    cases and preventing discrimination against women, including ensuring
    equal treatment in employment.

        Children.--Children receive citizenship by birth to a Saint Lucia
    parent. Birth certificates were provided to the parents without undue
    administrative delay.
        Child abuse remained a problem. The Division of Human Services and
    Family Affairs handled a number of cases of sexual abuse, physical
    abuse, abandonment, and psychological abuse, but no figures were
    available on its prevalence during the year.
        The few social welfare programs in the country were overwhelmed. As
    a result, parents of sexually abused children sometimes declined to
    press sexual assault charges against the abuser in exchange for
    financial contributions toward the welfare of victims of such abuse.
    Nonetheless, courts heard some child sexual abuse cases and convicted
    and sentenced offenders.
        The human services division provided a number of services to
    victims of child abuse, including counseling, facilitating medical
    intervention, finding foster care, providing family support services,
    and supporting the child while working with the police and attending
    court. The division was also involved with public outreach in schools,
    church organizations, and community groups.
        The Caribbean Association for Feminist Research and Action (CAFRA)
    operated a hotline for families suffering from different forms of
    abuse; however, there was no government shelter for abused children,
    resulting in the return of many children to the homes in which they
    were abused. Through the hotline, CAFRA learned of various cases of
    sexual abuse that were never reported to the police. The Government did
    not provide funding for foster care, and few families were willing to
    take in foster children.
        Laws on rape include statutory rape; the age of consent is 16.
    There was no separate law defining or specifically prohibiting child
    pornography.
        The Catholic Church operated the Holy Family Home for abused and
    abandoned children, with space for up to 40 children who were referred
    to the center by the police or social workers.
        The country is not a party to the 1980 Hague Convention on the
    Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. For information on
    international parental child abduction, please see the Department of
    State's annual report on compliance at http://travel.state.gov/
    abduction/resources/congressreport/congressreport--4308.html.

        Anti-Semitism.--There was no organized Jewish community, and there
    were no reports of anti-Semitic acts.

        Trafficking in Persons.--In 2009 there were no reports that persons
    were trafficked to, from, or within the country.

        Persons With Disabilities.--No specific legislation protects the
    rights of persons with disabilities or mandates provision of government
    services for them. The Government is obliged to provide disabled access
    to all public buildings, but only a few government buildings had ramps
    to provide access. There was no rehabilitation facility for persons
    with physical disabilities, although the Health Ministry operated a
    community-based rehabilitation program in residents' homes. There were
    schools for the deaf and the blind up to the secondary level. There
    were isolated cases of persons with disabilities holding jobs,
    including one blind bank teller, but a recent blind graduate from the
    local community college was not able to secure employment. There also
    was a school for persons with mental disabilities; however, children
    with disabilities faced barriers in education, and there were few
    opportunities for such persons when they became adults.
        A new foreign-built mental health facility, completed in October
    2009, was placed in operation during the year. There were no other
    mental health facilities on the island, and mentally ill persons were
    not generally provided much care. The Government's four mental health
    social workers had an average of more than 100 cases each.

        Societal Abuses, Discrimination, and Acts of Violence Based on
    Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.--Homosexual acts for both sexes
    are illegal under indecency statues, and some male homosexual acts are
    also illegal under anal intercourse laws. Indecency statutes carry a
    maximum penalty of five years, and anal intercourse carries a maximum
    penalty of 10 years in prison.
        There was widespread social discrimination against lesbians, gays,
    bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) persons in the deeply conservative
    society. There were few openly LGBT persons in the country.

        Other Societal Violence or Discrimination.--There was widespread
    stigma and discrimination against persons infected with HIV/AIDS,
    although the Government implemented several programs to address this
    issue, including a five-year program to combat HIV/AIDS. The UN
    Population Fund also provided support for youth-oriented HIV/AIDS
    prevention programs.

    Section 7. Worker Rights
        a. The Right of Association.--The law specifies the right of
    workers to form or belong to trade unions under the broader rubric of
    the right of association. Approximately 25 percent of the total
    workforce was unionized, including most public sector employees. There
    were four major unions, the largest being the National Workers Union
    (NWU), with more than 3,000 members in private sector firms; the civil
    service association, a quasi-union (as civil service workers were not
    legally permitted to join a union), with 1,008 members; the teachers
    union; and the prison service and police welfare associations that were
    also quasi-unions. All the unions belong to the umbrella Saint Lucia
    Trade Union Federation (SLTUF). The NWU recently organized workers for
    the first time in the financial services industry and formed a
    financial services council to look at ways to harmonize benefits and
    wages in the growing financial services sector.
        The law protects the right to strike, and workers exercised that
    right in practice. However, the law prohibits members of the police and
    fire departments from striking on the grounds that these professions
    are ``essential services.'' Workers in other essential services--water
    and sewer authority workers, electric utility workers, nurses, and
    doctors--must give 30 days' notice before striking. Once workers have
    given notice, the matter is usually referred to an ad hoc tribunal set
    up under the Essential Service Act. The Government selects tribunal
    members, following rules to ensure tripartite representation. The ad
    hoc labor tribunals try to resolve the dispute through mandatory
    arbitration.
        The April 2009 strike against the Government by the civil service
    association and the SLTUF resulted in the Government agreeing to a 14.5
    percent pay raise.

        b. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively.--The law allows
    unions to conduct their activities without interference, and the
    Government generally protected this right. Collective bargaining is
    protected by law and was freely practiced.
        The law does not prohibit antiunion discrimination, and workers
    fired for union activity did not have the right to reinstatement. In
    practice many companies were openly antiunion.
        There was no additional information regarding the NWU complaint
    with the labor commissioner that Diamond International Corporation
    engaged in antiunion discrimination through selective dismissal of pro-
    union activists. The NWU general secretary also noted that there were a
    number of other instances of antiunion activity on the part of
    corporations, particularly among the foreign-owned hotel chains, but
    that the NWU was not taking issue with them due to the slowing of the
    economy.
        The labor law extends to the export processing zones, and there
    were no administrative or legal impediments to union organizing or
    collective bargaining in those zones. The NWU was the only union
    representing workers in the export processing zones, representing
    workers in eight companies operating there.

        c. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor.--The Government
    prohibits forced or compulsory labor, and there were no reports that
    such practices occurred.

        d. Prohibition of Child Labor and Minimum Age for Employment.--The
    law provides for a minimum legal working age of 16 years. The minimum
    legal working age for industrial work is 18 years. Child labor existed
    in the rural areas, primarily where school-age children helped harvest
    bananas from family trees. Children also typically worked in urban food
    stalls or sold confectionery on sidewalks on nonschool days and during
    festivals. The Department of Labor of the Ministry of Labor Relations,
    Public Service, and Cooperatives was responsible for enforcing statutes
    regulating child labor. Employer penalties for violating the child
    labor laws were EC$9.60 ($3.55) for a first offense and EC$24 ($8.88)
    for a second offense. There were no formal reports of violations of
    child labor laws.

        e. Acceptable Conditions of Work.--Minimum wage regulations in
    effect since 1985 set wages for a limited number of occupations. The
    minimum monthly wage for office clerks was EC$300 ($111), for shop
    assistants EC$200 ($74), and for messengers EC$160 ($59). The
    Government recognized that the minimum wage law was outdated and
    established a minimum wage commission, which issued a preliminary
    report to Parliament in October. The minimum wage did not provide a
    decent standard of living for a worker and family, but most categories
    of workers received much higher wages based on prevailing market
    conditions. However, a number of smaller establishments paid less than
    the minimum wage, and Haitians and others often received less than the
    minimum wage due to illegal practices of employers.
        The labor commissioner is charged with monitoring violations of
    labor law, including the minimum wage. There were seven compliance
    officers to cover the entire country and to monitor compliance with
    occupational and safety standards, pension standards, and minimum wage
    violations. In practice there were few reported violations as those who
    received less than the minimum wage were often in the country illegally
    and afraid of reprisal, including possible deportation. Labor unions
    did not routinely report such violations.
        The legislated workweek is 41 hours, although the common practice
    was to work 40 hours in five days. Special legislation covers work
    hours for shop assistants, agricultural workers, domestics, and persons
    in industrial establishments.
        Occupational health and safety regulations were relatively well
    developed. The ministry enforced the act through threat of closure if
    it discovered violations in a business and the business did not correct
    them. However, actual closures rarely occurred because of lack of staff
    and resources. Workers had the legal right to leave a dangerous
    workplace situation without jeopardy to continued employment.

                                   __________

                        SAINT VINCENT AND THE GRENADINES

        Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is a multiparty, parliamentary
    democracy with a population of approximately 121,000. On December 13,
    Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves' Unity Labour Party (ULP) was returned
    to office in elections that international observers assessed as
    generally free and fair. Security forces reported to civilian
    authorities.
        There were continued human rights problems in some areas, primarily
    impunity for police who used excessive force, poor prison conditions,
    an overburdened court system, violence against women, abuse of
    children, and discrimination against homosexual persons.

                            RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

    Section 1. Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom
            From:
        a. Arbitrary or Unlawful Deprivation of Life.--The Government or
    its agents did not commit any politically motivated killings; however,
    security forces killed one person during the year. The Criminal
    Investigations Department investigated it, as it does all police
    killings.
        On August 7, police Constable Rohan McDowall shot and killed
    Constable Kingsley John. There was no public report of the
    investigation results, but media reports claimed the shooting was
    accidental. Nonetheless, authorities charged McDowall with murder. His
    trial was originally scheduled for November but later was postponed to
    early 2011.

        b. Disappearance.--There were no reports of politically motivated
    disappearances.

        c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or
    Punishment.--Although the law prohibits such practices, the
    nongovernmental organization (NGO) St. Vincent and the Grenadines Human
    Rights Association (SVGHRA) continued to assert that a number of
    confessions resulted from unwarranted police practices, including the
    use of physical force during detention. The SVGHRA complained that the
    Government failed to investigate adequately allegations of abuse or
    punish those police officers responsible for such abuses.
        Police officers investigated all complaints from citizens about
    assault or other abuse by the police and submitted their findings to
    the police commissioner. The Government did not normally provide any
    public information about the disposition of such complaints or any
    disciplinary charges or other actions taken.
        In August a police officer accidentally shot three girls during the
    response to a civil disturbance involving a mentally disturbed man. The
    matter was under investigation at year's end.
        In May a coroner's inquest cleared police officers accused of
    fatally shooting three men during a narcotics raid in May 2009, despite
    human rights groups' claims that they had used excessive force.
        In February a local judge fined each of the three police officers
    convicted of the 2008 beating of 15-year-old Jemark Jackson EC$1,512
    ($560). The judge declared the three officers should not be jailed for
    being ``overzealous.''

        Prison and Detention Center Conditions.--Prison conditions remained
    poor. Prison buildings were antiquated and overcrowded, with Her
    Majesty's Prison in Kingstown holding 413 inmates in a building
    intended to hold approximately 150 inmates, a situation that created
    serious health and safety problems. A larger prison, the Belle Isle
    Correctional Facility, with separate buildings for male and female
    inmates, officially opened in October 2009 but remained empty. While
    prisoners were working at the on-site farm, no prisoners were held in
    the facility, and there was no projected date to move prisoners into
    the new facility.
        The SVGHRA reported that prison problems such as endemic violence,
    understaffing, underpaid guards, uncontrolled weapons and drugs,
    increasing incidence of HIV/AIDS, and unhygienic conditions persisted.
    Corrupt prison staff commonly served as a source of drugs, weapons, and
    cell phones. The SVGHRA also alleged that guards routinely beat
    prisoners to extract information regarding escapes, violence, and crime
    committed in the prison.
        The Fort Charlotte Prison held nine female inmates in a separate
    section designed to hold 50 inmates, where conditions were antiquated
    and unhygienic. The facilities at Belle Isle, designed to hold 288
    prisoners, promise to be better, once it is in use. Pretrial detainees
    and young offenders (16 to 21 years of age), 10 percent of the total
    male prison population, were held with convicted prisoners.
        Each convict had a schedule of visitors limited to one visit per
    week. There were no limitations for visitors for those in custody but
    not yet convicted. Local churches organized weekly religious services.
    Prisoners could file complaints by writing the court registrar who
    schedules court hearings.
        Conditions were inadequate for juvenile offenders. Boys younger
    than 16 were held at the Liberty Lodge Boys' Training Center, which
    takes in at-risk boys who can no longer stay at home due to domestic
    problems or involvement with criminal activity. Most of the 25 boys
    were at the center because of domestic problems, and only a small
    number were charged with committing a crime.
        In August citizens formed a local chapter of the global
    organization called the Prison Fellowship. Its mandate is to provide
    counseling services to prison inmates, victims, and families. It will
    also provide prison-based programs such as literacy, formal education,
    and skills training.
        The Government permitted prison visits by independent human rights
    observers, and such visits took place during the year.

        d. Arbitrary Arrest or Detention.--The law prohibits arbitrary
    arrest and detention, and the Government generally observed these
    prohibitions; however, complaints continued regarding police practices
    in bringing cases to court.

        Role of the Police and Security Apparatus.--The Royal Saint Vincent
    and the Grenadines Police, the only security force in the country,
    includes a coast guard, a small Special Services Unit with some
    paramilitary training, and the fire service. There were approximately
    890 members of the police force. The police report to the minister of
    national security, a portfolio held by the prime minister.
        The Government operated an oversight committee to monitor police
    activity and hear public complaints about police misconduct. The
    committee reported to the minister of national security and to the
    minister of legal affairs and actively participated in investigations
    during the year.

        Arrest Procedures and Treatment While in Detention.--The law
    requires judicial authority to issue arrest warrants. Police
    apprehended persons openly, and detainees may seek judicial
    determinations of their status after 48 hours if not already provided.
    The bail system functioned and was generally effective. A local human
    rights group reported that most detainees were given prompt access to
    counsel and family members, although in some instances delays occurred.

        e. Denial of Fair Public Trial.--The law provides for an
    independent judiciary, and the Government generally respected this
    provision in practice.

        Trial Procedures.--The law provides for fair, public trials, and an
    independent judiciary generally enforced this right. Juries are used at
    the High Court level for criminal matters but are not used in the civil
    court or for crimes at the magistrate level. The court appoints
    attorneys only for indigent defendants charged with a capital offense.
    Defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty, may confront and
    question witnesses, may appeal verdicts and penalties, and have access
    to relevant government-held evidence once a case reaches the trial
    stage. Lengthy delays occurred in preliminary inquiries for serious
    crimes. A backlog of pending cases continued because the magistrate's
    court in Kingstown continued to lack a full complement of magistrates.

        Political Prisoners and Detainees.--There were no reports of
    political prisoners or detainees.

        Civil Judicial Procedures and Remedies.--There is an independent,
    impartial judiciary in civil matters where one can bring lawsuits
    seeking damages for a human rights violation.

        f. Arbitrary Interference With Privacy, Family, Home, or
    Correspondence.--The law prohibits such actions, and the Government
    generally respected these prohibitions in practice.

    Section 2. Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:
        a. Freedom of Speech and Press.--The law provides for freedom of
    speech and of the press, and the Government generally respected these
    rights in practice.
        The independent media were active and expressed a wide variety of
    views without restriction. However, there continued to be accounts of
    the prime minister or other officials rebuking the press for comments
    critical of the Government.
        In February the prime minister threatened to sue a local radio
    station, two talk show hosts, and an advertising company for alleging
    impropriety regarding a deposit in a state-owned bank. Local media
    feared the chilling effect of such threats on media reporting of
    alleged government wrongdoing.

        Internet Freedom.--There were no government restrictions on access
    to the Internet or reports that the Government monitored e-mail or
    Internet chat rooms. Individuals and groups could engage in the
    peaceful expression of views via the Internet, including by e-mail. The
    International Telecommunication Union reported that there were 70
    Internet users per 100 inhabitants.

        Academic Freedom and Cultural Events.--There were no government
    restrictions on academic freedom or cultural events.

        b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association.--The law provides
    for freedom of assembly and association, and the Government generally
    respected these rights in practice.

        c. Freedom of Religion.--For a complete description of religious
    freedom, please see the 2010 International Religious Freedom Report at
    www.state.gov/g/drl/irf/rpt.

        d. Freedom of Movement, Internally Displaced Persons, Protection of
    Refugees, and Stateless Persons.--The law provides for freedom of
    movement within the country, foreign travel, emigration, and
    repatriation, and the Government generally respected these rights in
    practice.
        The law prohibits forced exile, and it was not used.

        Protection of Refugees.--The Government has not established a
    system for providing protection to refugees or asylum seekers, and it
    did not grant refugee status or asylum. The Government did not expel or
    return refugees to countries where their lives or freedom would be
    threatened on account of their race, religion, nationality, membership
    in a particular social group, or political opinion; no such cases arose
    during the year.
        In September authorities released one Ghanaian and one Liberian
    from prison who had been held for five years without being formally
    charged. According to the chief immigration officer, the men were
    detained because they withheld information in an attempt to avoid
    repatriation. After their release, the Red Cross provided a house for
    the two men while it sought the information needed to deport them.
        The Government was prepared to cooperate with the Office of the UN
    High Commissioner for Refugees and other humanitarian organizations in
    assisting refugees and asylum seekers.

    Section 3. Respect for Political Rights: The Right of Citizens to
            Change Their Government
        The law provides citizens the right to change their government
    peacefully, and citizens exercised this right in practice through
    periodic, free, and fair elections held on the basis of universal
    suffrage.

        Elections and Political Participation.--In elections held on
    December 13, the ruling ULP was returned to office, winning eight
    seats. The opposition New Democratic Party increased its seats from
    four to seven. International observers from the Caribbean Community and
    the Organization of American States declared the elections to be
    generally free and fair.
        There were allegations from both the ruling party and the
    opposition of pre-election violence. Several shootings related to
    political rallies occurred in the weeks leading up to the election, but
    it was unclear if they were politically motivated. Opposition leaders
    filed lawsuits contesting the results in several constituencies.
    However, the director of public prosecutions (DPP) took over the
    prosecution of the 10 criminal charges filed and dismissed them.
    Although the DPP has the legal right to discontinue criminal
    proceedings, his decision was expected to be challenged.
        There was one woman in the 15-seat House of Assembly and two women
    in the cabinet.

    Section 4. Official Corruption and Government Transparency
        The law provides criminal penalties for official corruption;
    however, the Government did not implement the law effectively.
        There were no financial disclosure laws for public officials. No
    government agency was specifically responsible for combating government
    corruption.
        The law provides for public access to information, and the
    Government provided such access in practice.

    Section 5. Governmental Attitude Regarding International and
            Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations of Human
            Rights
        There were no restrictions on international human rights groups. A
    domestic human rights group, the SVGHRA, generally operated without
    government restriction, investigating and publishing its findings on
    human rights cases, particularly with respect to treatment of
    prisoners. Government officials generally were responsive, but the
    SVGHRA continued to report that its complaints regarding allegations of
    police brutality typically received perfunctory responses from the
    Government. Other advocacy groups, particularly those involved with
    protection against domestic violence and child abuse, worked closely
    with their corresponding government offices.

    Section 6. Discrimination, Societal Abuses, and Trafficking in Persons
        The law provides for equal treatment regardless of race or gender,
    and the Government generally enforced this provision in practice.

        Women.--Rape, including spousal rape, is illegal, and the
    Government generally enforced the law. Depending on the magnitude of
    the offense and the age of the victim, sentences for rape could be
    eight to 10 years' imprisonment. The possible sentence of life
    imprisonment was very rarely used. The three court sittings heard 32
    sexual offenses during the year, of which 12 were completed and 20
    carried over to 2011. These included two cases of incest, 18 rapes, and
    12 cases of unlawful sexual intercourse.
        Violence against women remained a serious problem. The law does not
    criminalize domestic violence specifically but provides protection for
    victims. Cases involving domestic violence were normally charged under
    assault, battery, or other similar laws. The SVGHRA reported that in
    many instances domestic violence went unpunished due to a culture in
    which victims choose not to seek assistance from the police or the
    prosecution of offenders. Furthermore, a number of victims decided not
    to press charges once domestic tensions subsided, after having already
    complained to the police. For this reason police were often reluctant
    to follow up on domestic violence cases, according to the SVGHRA.
        The Gender Affairs Division of the Ministry of National
    Mobilization, Social Development, NGO Relations, Family, Gender
    Affairs, and Persons with Disabilities provided a referral and
    information service for domestic violence victims, educating victims on
    the role of the police, legal matters, and the family court in dealing
    with domestic violence, as well as possible assistance from various
    NGOs. The Marion House provided counseling to victims of abuse. The
    SVGHRA and other organizations conducted numerous seminars and
    workshops to familiarize women with their rights. Development banks
    provided funding through the Caribbean Association for Feminist
    Research and Action for a program on domestic violence prevention,
    training, and intervention. Police received training on domestic abuse,
    emphasizing the need to file reports and, if there was sufficient
    evidence, to initiate court proceedings. To counter the social pressure
    on victims to drop charges, some courts imposed fines against persons
    who brought charges but did not testify.
        The law does not specifically prohibit sexual harassment, although
    it could be prosecuted under existing laws. Local human rights groups
    considered these laws ineffective.
        Couples and individuals had the right to decide the number,
    spacing, and timing of children, and had the information and means to
    do so free from discrimination. Access to information on contraception,
    and skilled attendance at delivery and in postpartum care were widely
    available. Incidence of maternal mortality was not available. Women and
    men were given equal access to diagnostic services and treatment for
    sexually transmitted infections.
        Women enjoyed the same legal rights as men. Women received an
    equitable share of property following separation or divorce. The Gender
    Affairs Division continued to assist the National Council of Women with
    seminars, training programs, and public relations. The minimum wage law
    specifies that women should receive equal pay for equal work, and this
    was generally enforced in practice.

        Children.--Citizenship is derived by birth within the country's
    territory or from either of one's parents. There was universal birth
    registration.
        The law provides a limited legal framework for the protection of
    children, and the Family Services Division of the Social Development
    Ministry monitored and protected the welfare of children. The division
    referred all reports of child abuse to the police for action and
    provided assistance in cases where children applied for protection
    orders with the family court.
        Some teenagers engaged in prostitution. The minimum age of
    consensual sex is 15 years of age. The penalty for child prostitution
    is 14 years' imprisonment. The law prohibits statutory rape, with
    special provisions for those less than 13 years of age. The penalty for
    statutory rape of a girl over 13 but less than 15 years old is five
    years' imprisonment; for girls less than 13 years old, it is life
    imprisonment. The law does not specifically prohibit child pornography.
        The country is not a party to the 1980 Hague Convention on the
    Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. For information on
    international parental child abduction, please see the Department of
    State's annual report on compliance at http://travel.state.gov/
    abduction/resources/congressreport/congressreport--4308.html.

        Anti-Semitism.--There was no organized Jewish community, and there
    were no reports of anti-Semitic acts.

        Trafficking in Persons.--For information on trafficking in persons,
    please see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons
    Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        Persons With Disabilities.--The law prohibits discrimination
    against persons with physical and mental disabilities in employment,
    education, access to health care, and the provision of other state
    services, and the Government generally observed these prohibitions in
    practice. The law does not mandate access to buildings for persons with
    disabilities, and access for such persons generally was difficult.
    Communications were available for persons with disabilities, but the
    Government did not have any programs to facilitate communication
    through technology. There were no restrictions on voting or other civic
    participation. The Government partially supported a school for persons
    with disabilities. A separate rehabilitation center treated
    approximately five persons daily. The Ministry of National
    Mobilization, Social Development, NGO Relations, Family, Gender
    Affairs, and Persons with Disabilities is responsible for assisting
    persons with disabilities.

        Societal Abuses, Discrimination, and Acts of Violence Based on
    Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.--There are no laws that
    prohibit discrimination against a person on the basis of sexual
    orientation. Homosexual acts for both sexes are illegal under indecency
    statutes, and some male homosexual acts are also illegal under anal
    intercourse laws. Indecency statutes carry a maximum penalty of five
    years, and anal intercourse carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in
    prison. Although no statistics were available, anecdotal evidence
    suggested there was social discrimination against lesbians, gays,
    bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) persons in the deeply conservative
    society. There were few openly LGBT persons in the country.

        Other Societal Violence or Discrimination.--Although no statistics
    were available, anecdotal evidence suggested there was some societal
    discrimination against persons with HIV/AIDS.

    Section 7. Worker Rights
        a. The Right of Association.--The law allows workers to form and
    join unions of their choice without prior authorization, and workers
    exercised this right in practice. However, no law requires employers to
    recognize unions. Approximately 20 percent of the work force was
    unionized.
        The organized unions generally maintained good relations with the
    Government, the Employers' Federation, and the Chamber of Commerce and
    Industry. The law provides for the right to strike, and workers
    exercised this right in practice; however, the Essential Services Act
    prohibits persons providing such services (defined as electricity,
    water, hospital, and police) from striking unless they provide at least
    a 14-day notice to the authorities. The law prohibits retaliation
    against strikers, and it was effectively enforced in practice.
        The law provides for establishment of an arbitration tribunal and a
    board of inquiry in connection with trade disputes and allows provision
    for the settlement of such disputes. Arbitration panels are formed on
    an ad hoc basis when a labor dispute arises. Labor unions and
    businesses were generally satisfied with the working of the arbitration
    panels, which have tripartite representation.

        b. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively.--The law permits
    unions to organize and bargain collectively, and the Government
    protected these rights in practice; however, no law requires employers
    to recognize a particular union as an exclusive bargaining agent. There
    were no reports of antiunion discrimination. The law provides that if
    both parties consent to arbitration, the minister of labor can appoint
    an arbitration committee from the private sector to hear the matter.
        The law protects workers from summary dismissal without
    compensation and provides for reinstatement or severance pay if
    unfairly dismissed. It also protects workers from dismissal for
    engaging in union activities and provides them with reinstatement
    rights if illegally dismissed.
        There are no export processing zones, but there were a few
    industrial parks that functioned like an export processing zone; unions
    were represented at these sites.

        c. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor.--The law prohibits
    forced or compulsory labor, including by children, and there were no
    reports that such practices occurred.

        d. Prohibition of Child Labor and Minimum Age for Employment.--The
    law sets the minimum working age at 16, and workers may receive a
    national insurance card at that age. The Ministry of Labor monitored
    and enforced this provision, and employers generally respected it in
    practice. There were five labor officers in the labor inspectorate with
    responsibility for monitoring all labor issues and complaints. The
    ministry reported no child labor problems. The only known child labor
    was work on family-owned banana plantations, particularly during
    harvest time, or in family-owned cottage industries. The Government
    operated Youth Empowerment, which provided training and increased job
    opportunities by employing young persons in government ministries for
    up to one year.
        There was a growing problem of young persons dropping out of school
    and becoming involved in the drug trade. Some children as young as 14
    reportedly worked in the marijuana fields common in the northern part
    of the country. The Government opened a number of new schools,
    providing additional educational opportunities to young persons. The
    Government continued efforts to provide employment opportunities to
    young people to keep them from becoming involved in the drug trade. At-
    risk youths were provided with life skills training, technical and
    vocational training, and job readiness training over a seven- to nine-
    month cycle. The program placed trained youth in internships and
    assisted them in finding jobs, with a goal of 40 percent job placement
    rate.

        e. Acceptable Conditions of Work.--The process of setting the
    minimum wage is tripartite and transparent. The Wages Council meets
    every two years to review minimum wages; they were last updated in July
    2008. Minimum wages vary by sector and type of work and are specified
    for several skilled categories. In agriculture the minimum wage for
    workers provided shelter was EC$32 ($11.85) per day, or EC $56 ($20.74)
    if shelter was not provided; for industrial workers it was EC$40
    ($14.81) per day. In many sectors the minimum wage did not provide a
    decent standard of living for a worker and family, but most workers
    earned more than the minimum. Workers who receive less than the minimum
    wage can file a claim with the Labor Ministry's inspectors, who will
    investigate and, if warranted, refer the matter to arbitration. In
    practice the ministry received very few complaints concerning minimum
    wage violations but did receive complaints regarding wrongful
    dismissal.
        The law prescribes hours of work according to category, such as
    industrial employees (40 hours per week), professionals (44 hours per
    week), and agricultural workers (30 to 40 hours per week). The law
    provides that workers receive time-and-a-half for hours worked over the
    standard workweek. There was a prohibition against excessive or
    compulsory overtime, which was effectively enforced in practice.
        Legislation concerning occupational safety and health was outdated,
    and enforcement of regulations was ineffective. The law does not
    address specifically whether workers have the right to remove
    themselves from work situations that endanger health or safety without
    jeopardy to their continued employment, but it stipulates conditions
    under which factories must be maintained. Failure to comply with these
    regulations would constitute a breach, which might provide legal cover
    to a worker who refused to work under these conditions.

                                   __________

                                    SURINAME

        Suriname is a constitutional democracy, with a president elected by
    the unicameral National Assembly or by the larger United People's
    Assembly. The population is approximately 493,000. After generally free
    and fair elections in May, a coalition government was formed by the
    Mega Combination, the A Combination, and People's Alliance political
    groups. The National Assembly elected former military leader Desire
    Bouterse as president in July. Security forces reported to civilian
    authorities.
        The following problems were reported during the year: overcrowded
    detention facilities; an overwhelmed judiciary with a large case
    backlog; lengthy pretrial detention; self-censorship by some media;
    governmental corruption; societal discrimination against women,
    minorities, and indigenous people; violence against women; trafficking
    in women, girls, and boys; and child labor in the informal sector.

                            RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

    Section 1. Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom
            From:
        a. Arbitrary or Unlawful Deprivation of Life.--There were no
    reports that the Government or its agents committed arbitrary or
    unlawful killings.
        The trial of former military head of state and current President
    Desire Bouterse and his codefendants for the 1982 extrajudicial killing
    of 15 political opponents continued at year's end.

        b. Disappearance.--There were no reports of politically motivated
    disappearances.

        c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or
    Punishment.--While the law prohibits such practices, human rights
    groups and the media continued to express concern about mistreatment by
    police and prison officials and reported isolated incidents of abuse of
    prisoners by prison officials.
        In December 2009 mob violence in Albina erupted after a Brazilian
    man stabbed to death a Maroon (descendants of escaped slaves who fled
    to the interior of the country to avoid recapture) during a dispute.
    The violence, primarily directed towards Brazilian and Chinese
    migrants, resulted in at least three rapes. Twenty persons, including a
    local official, were arrested on charges including rape, theft, and
    arson. During the year trials convened for nine of these suspects and
    continued at year's end.

        Prison and Detention Center Conditions.--Prison and detention
    center conditions remained poor, but the Government permitted visits by
    independent human rights observers.
        Violence among prisoners continued sporadically, including two
    riots in September at Santo Boma prison. Prison and local authorities
    restored order and no serious injuries were reported. Poor ventilation,
    limited lighting, and extreme heat remained problems in prisons and
    detention centers. Most prisons and detention centers, particularly the
    older jails, were unsanitary and overcrowded.
        There were three prisons, which held female and male prisoners
    separately. There were also 19 smaller jails, or temporary detention
    centers, in police stations throughout the country.
        There was one juvenile detention facility, Opa Doeli, for boys and
    girls under the age of 18 years old. This facility, located in
    Paramaribo, was considered adequate, provided educational and
    recreational facilities, and was occupied to less than its maximum
    capacity. A separate wing of the detention facility held boys under the
    age of 18 years old who had been convicted of serious crimes.
        Growing numbers of convicted prisoners were held in pretrial
    detention cells due to prison overcrowding. Due to staff shortages,
    police officers rarely permitted detainees to leave their cells.
    Detainees and human rights groups also alleged that meals were
    inadequate.
        Conditions in the women's jail and prison facilities were generally
    better than those in the men's facilities. Following conviction, girls
    under the age of 18 years old were held in the women's detention center
    and in the women's section of one of the prison complexes.
        Prisoners continued to have reasonable access to visitors and were
    permitted religious observance of their choice. Government officials
    continued regular monitoring of prison and detention center conditions.
    Authorities permitted prisoners and detainees to submit complaints to
    judicial authorities without censorship. During the year prisoners from
    the Santo Boma prison sent letters to public officials complaining of
    inadequate food provisions, mistreatment by prison guards, limited
    ventilation, and a lack of rehabilitation programs. Officials took no
    known action on these complaints and at year's end.
        Local nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) expressed concern over
    the continued tense situation in Santo Boma prison, with declining
    prison conditions, inadequate legal representation, and delayed court
    verdicts.
        The Government permitted monitoring visits by independent human
    rights observers, and such visits occurred during the year. No
    ombudsman served on behalf of prisoners and detainees; prisoners notify
    their defending lawyers and government officials of any problems.
        The Welzijns Institute Nickerie, an NGO operating in the western
    district of Nickerie, continued to visit and provide counseling for
    detainees in the youth detention center in that district. The institute
    continued a program to train prison officers to counsel detainees.
        The Government continued construction on the main pretrial
    detention center to improve conditions and reduce overcrowding. During
    the year the detention center accepted pretrial detainees who were
    previously imprisoned in the 19 smaller jails around the country.

        d. Arbitrary Arrest or Detention.--The law prohibits arbitrary
    arrest and detention, and the Government generally observed these
    prohibitions. However, due to a shortage of judges, prisoners who
    appealed their cases often served their full sentences before the
    lengthy appeals process could be completed.

        Role of the Police and Security Apparatus.--The armed forces are
    responsible for national security and border control, with the military
    police having direct responsibility for immigration control at the
    country's ports of entry. All elements of the military are under the
    control of the Ministry of Defense. Civilian police bear primary
    responsibility for the maintenance of law and order and report to the
    Ministry of Justice and Police.
        Police effectiveness was hampered by a lack of equipment and
    training, low salaries, and poor coordination with military forces.

        Arrest Procedures and Treatment While in Detention.--Individuals
    were apprehended openly with warrants based on sufficient evidence and
    brought before an independent judiciary. The law provides detainees
    with the right to a prompt judicial determination of the legality of
    the detention, and authorities respected this right in practice.
    Detainees were promptly informed of the charges against them. Police
    may detain a person suspected of committing a crime for up to 14 days
    if the sentence for that crime is longer than four years, and an
    assistant district attorney or a police inspector may authorize
    incommunicado detention. The police must bring the accused before a
    prosecutor to be charged formally within that period; but if additional
    time is needed to investigate the charge, a prosecutor and, later, a
    judge of instruction may extend the detention period an additional 150
    days. There is no bail system. Detainees were allowed prompt access to
    counsel of their choosing, but the prosecutor may prohibit access if
    the prosecutor thinks that this could harm the investigation. Detainees
    were allowed weekly visits from family members.
        The average length of pretrial detention was 30 to 45 days for
    lesser crimes. Detainees were held in 19 detention cells at police
    stations throughout the country that were at or near capacity. In
    accordance with the law, the courts freed most detainees who were not
    tried within the 164-day period. According to human rights monitors,
    factors such as a shortage of judges, large case loads, and large
    numbers of detainees caused trial delays.

        e. Denial of Fair Public Trial.--The constitution provides for an
    independent judiciary, and the Government generally respected judicial
    independence.
        The judiciary lacked professional court managers and case
    management systems to oversee the courts' administrative functions and
    also lacked adequate physical space--factors that contributed to a
    significant case backlog. The courts required a minimum of six months
    to process criminal cases.

        Trial Procedures.--The law provides for the right to a fair, public
    trial in which defendants have the right to counsel, and the judiciary
    generally enforced this right. All trials are public except for
    indecency offenses. There is no jury system. Defendants enjoy a
    presumption of innocence and have the right to appeal. Defendants have
    the right to be present and to consult an attorney in a timely manner.
    Defendants and their attorneys have access to government-held evidence.
    Defendants' attorneys can question witnesses and present witnesses and
    evidence on the defendant's behalf. The courts assign private sector
    lawyers to defend indigent detainees. There were court-assigned
    attorneys for both the civil and the penal systems. The law extends the
    above rights to all citizens.
        Military personnel generally are not subject to civilian criminal
    law, and there are parallel military and civilian court systems.
    Military police investigate crimes committed by members of the armed
    forces. An officer on the public prosecutor's staff directs military
    prosecutions before two military judges and one civilian judge. Due to
    a shortage of judges, military and civilian judges are selected from
    the same pool by the Court of Justice, which makes assignments to
    specific cases. A mechanism exists to prevent conflicts of interest.
    The military courts follow the same rules of procedure as the civil
    courts. There is no appeal from the military to the civil system.

        Political Prisoners and Detainees.--There were no reports of
    political prisoners or detainees.

        Regional Human Rights Court Decisions.--The Inter-American Court of
    Human Rights has ruled in two cases with regard to the Surinamese
    government.
        No further progress was made on implementing the Inter-American
    Court of Human Rights' ruling on a 2006 case involving 12 Saramaccan
    clans who claimed authority over 60 villages in the Upper Suriname
    River area. The court ruled in 2007 that the Government must recognize
    the collective land rights of the Saramaccan clans, draft legislation
    that complies with international treaties, establish a development fund
    of SR$1,680,000 ($600,000), and provide them with their own land. By
    the end of the year, the Government had paid approximately SR$560,000
    ($200,000) toward this amount, but had yet to pay in full or to
    complete the demarcation process.

        Civil Judicial Procedures and Remedies.--Although there are
    separate procedures for civil processes, the same pool of judges is
    responsible for presiding over these procedures. There is a court to
    consider lawsuits seeking damages for, or cessation of, a human rights
    violation. Despite the installation of new judges during the year, the
    backlog in cases continued. Most civil cases were resolved
    approximately three to four years after being heard by the courts.

        f. Arbitrary Interference With Privacy, Family, Home, or
    Correspondence.--The law prohibits such actions, and the Government
    generally respected these prohibitions in practice. The law requires
    search warrants, which are issued by quasi-judicial officers who
    supervise criminal investigations.

    Section 2. Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:
        a. Freedom of Speech and Press.--The law provides for freedom of
    speech and of the press, and the Government generally respected these
    rights in practice. An independent press, an effective judiciary, and a
    functioning democratic political system combined to ensure freedom of
    speech and of the press.
        In October media reported that a government official allegedly
    threatened an investigative journalist from a leading radio station,
    claiming that the journalist's investigations and reporting undermined
    the new government.
        In October 2009 the Government announced it would compensate two
    broadcasting companies for the army's destruction of their radio
    stations under the military dictatorship in 1982. The issue remained
    pending at year's end.
        Some media members continued to practice occasional self-
    censorship. This was due to a history of intimidation and reprisals by
    certain elements of the former military leadership or a response to
    pressure applied by senior government officials and important community
    leaders on journalists who published negative stories about the
    administration. In addition many news outlets were affiliated with
    particular political parties, which discouraged journalists from
    reporting on some news items.

        Internet Freedom.--There were no government restrictions on access
    to the Internet or reports that the Government monitored e-mail or
    Internet chat rooms. Individuals and groups could engage in the
    peaceful expression of views via the Internet, including by e-mail. The
    International Telecommunication Union reported that there were
    approximately 31 Internet users per 100 inhabitants in 2009. The
    population in the interior had less access to the Internet due to
    limited infrastructure.

        Academic Freedom and Cultural Events.--There were no government
    restrictions on academic freedom or cultural events.

        b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association.--The law provides
    for freedoms of assembly and association, and the Government generally
    respected these rights in practice.

        c. Freedom of Religion.--For a complete description of religious
    freedom, please see the 2010 International Religious Freedom Report at
    www.state.gov/g/drl/irf/rpt.

        d. Freedom of Movement, Internally Displaced Persons, Protection of
    Refugees, and Stateless Persons.--The constitution provides for freedom
    of movement within the country, foreign travel, emigration, and
    repatriation, and the Government generally respected these rights in
    practice. No occasion arose during the year for government cooperation
    with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees or other
    humanitarian organizations in providing protection and assistance to
    internally displaced persons, refugees, returning refugees, asylum
    seekers, stateless persons, and other persons of concern.
        Although the law does not address forced exile, the Government did
    not use it.

        Protection of Refugees.--The law does not provide for the granting
    of asylum or refugee status, and the Government has not established a
    system for providing protection to refugees. Under special
    circumstances, persons may be granted refugee status, and in practice
    the Government provided protection against the expulsion or return of
    refugees to countries where their lives or freedom would be threatened
    on account of their race, religion, nationality, membership in a
    particular social group, or political opinion.

    Section 3. Respect for Political Rights: The Right of Citizens to
            Change Their Government
        The law provides citizens the right to change their government
    peacefully, and citizens exercised this right in practice through
    periodic, free, and fair elections based on universal suffrage.

        Elections and Political Participation.--The constitution provides
    for direct election by secret ballot of the 51-member National Assembly
    no later than five years after the prior election date. The National
    Assembly in turn elects the president by a two-thirds majority vote. If
    the legislature is unable to do so, the constitution provides that the
    United People's Assembly, composed of members of parliament and elected
    regional and local officials, shall elect the president. After
    generally free and fair elections in May, the National Assembly elected
    Desire Bouterse president in July. Political parties could operate
    without restriction or outside interference.
        Historical and cultural factors, particularly in rural areas,
    inhibited equal participation by women in leadership positions in
    government and political parties. Societal pressures and customs,
    particularly with respect to marriage and inheritance, also limited
    female participation in political leadership. While women made limited
    gains in attaining political power, men continued to dominate political
    life. There were six women among the 51 members of the National
    Assembly and two women among the 17 ministers in the cabinet. There
    were five women among the 20 sitting judges. The head clerk of the
    Court of Justice, that body's highest administrative position, was a
    woman.
        Several factors traditionally limited the participation of Maroons,
    the descendants of escaped slaves, and indigenous Amerindians in the
    political process, including a population concentrated in remote areas
    in the interior and removed from the country's centers of political
    activity. Four of the 21 Maroon political parties participated in the
    May elections, and three of the four parties are members of the
    Government, participating as the A-Combination coalition. Voters
    elected 10 Maroons and two Amerindians to the National Assembly, all of
    whom joined in the governing coalition.

    Section 4. Official Corruption and Government Transparency
        The law provides criminal penalties for official corruption;
    however, the Government did not implement the law effectively, and
    officials sometimes engaged in corrupt practices with impunity. Long
    delays often occurred before corruption cases came to trial.
        The World Bank's worldwide governance statistics continued to
    indicate corruption was a serious problem. The media frequently
    reported alleged corrupt practices with regard to land rights and land
    titles, misuse of government funds, and other practices.
        In September 2009, 200 pounds of cocaine was stolen from a storage
    vault at a police facility. Six suspects were arrested, including three
    civilians and three police officers. The investigation was ongoing at
    year's end.
        The Personnel Investigation Department (OPZ), an office within the
    Police Department, investigates complaints against members of the
    police force. The OPZ received 190 complaints against members of the
    police force during the year and launched 20 investigations into cases
    involving mistreatment of detainees and civilians. Throughout the year,
    authorities relieved 29 police officers of duty for various offenses,
    20 of whom were jailed.
        Public officials were not subject to financial disclosure laws.
    Various sections of the Ministry of Justice and Police, including the
    Fraud Police and the Attorney General's Office, were responsible for
    combating government corruption.
        Although the law provides for public access to government
    information, such access was limited in practice for citizens and
    noncitizens, including foreign media. While almost every ministry has
    an information service, gaps in official government statistics and
    bureaucratic hurdles made obtaining information difficult.

    Section 5. Governmental Attitude Regarding International and
            Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations of Human
            Rights
        A number of independent domestic human rights groups generally
    operated without government restriction, investigating and publishing
    their findings on human rights cases. NGOs reported generally positive
    relationships with government officials, although occasionally
    officials were not responsive to their views. No international human
    rights groups operated in the country during the year.
        A legislative commission on human rights continued operating
    throughout the year, but resource constraints hampered its
    effectiveness. The National Assembly also has a commission dealing with
    women's and children's rights.

    Section 6. Discrimination, Societal Abuses, and Trafficking in Persons
        The law prohibits discrimination based on race and ethnicity but
    does not address discrimination based on disability, language, or
    social status. Although the law does not specifically prohibit gender
    discrimination, it provides for protection of women's rights to equal
    access to education, employment, and property. In practice various
    sectors of the population, such as women; Maroons; Amerindians; persons
    with HIV/AIDS; and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT)
    persons, suffered forms of discrimination.

        Women.--The law criminalizes rape, including spousal rape,
    prescribes penalties for rape or forcible sexual assault of between 12
    and 15 years' imprisonment. The Government enforced the law
    effectively. During the year the Ministry of Justice and Police
    registered 189 cases of attempted rape, 106 cases of rape, 1,213 cases
    of domestic violence, and 269 cases of child abuse.
        Violence against women was a common problem. The Ministry of
    Justice and Police registered 1,213 cases of domestic violence during
    the year, a drop from 1,769 in 2009. The increase in registered
    domestic violence cases may be due to a greater awareness of domestic
    violence issues.
        The 2009 Law Combating Domestic Violence, which allowed for more
    severe punishments (four to eight years' imprisonment) than are
    available when prosecuting domestic violence cases under the assault
    law, had not been implemented by year's end. The Bureau of Women and
    Child Policy under the Ministry of Justice and Police conducted an
    awareness campaign on domestic violence in 2009 in cooperation with the
    Foundation Ilse Henar Hewith, and the bureau trained government
    officials, social workers, and NGO staff on domestic violence issues.
    The Victim Assistance Bureau in Paramaribo provided resources for
    victims of domestic violence and other crimes. It operated a satellite
    office in Nickerie, the country's second largest city. There were four
    victims' rooms in police stations in Paramaribo and Nickerie, and
    police units were trained to deal with victims and perpetrators of
    sexual crimes and domestic violence. An NGO operated a shelter for
    victims of domestic violence.
        There was no specific legislation on sexual harassment; however,
    prosecutors cited various penal code articles in filing sexual
    harassment cases. There were no reported court cases involving sexual
    harassment in the workplace during the year.
        Couples and individuals had the right to decide freely and
    responsibly the number, spacing, and timing of their children and to
    have the information and means to do so free from discrimination,
    coercion, and violence. Access to information on contraception was
    widely available and, according to the Population Reference Bureau,
    contraceptive use among married women was 42 percent. The UN Population
    Fund estimated the maternal mortality ratio in 2008 at 100 deaths per
    100,000 live births, while UNICEF reported that 90 percent of births
    included skilled attendance during childbirth in 2008. Women and men
    were given equal access to diagnostic services and treatment for
    sexually transmitted infections, including HIV.
        Women have the legal right to equal access to education,
    employment, and property; nevertheless, societal pressures and customs,
    especially in rural areas, inhibited their full exercise of these
    rights, particularly with respect to marriage and inheritance. Where
    local customs remain a strong influence on the family unit, girls
    traditionally marry at or near the legal age of consent, and
    inheritance rights pass to their husband.
        Men and women generally enjoyed the same rights under property law
    and under the judicial system. The Bureau for Women and Children under
    the Ministry of Justice and Police worked to ensure the legal rights of
    women and children.
        Women experienced discrimination in access to employment and in
    rates of pay for the same or substantially similar work. The Government
    did not make specific efforts to combat economic discrimination.
        The National Women's Movement, the most active women's rights NGO,
    continued assisting women in launching small home-based businesses,
    such as sewing and vegetable growing, and provided general legal help.
    The Women's Business Group advocated for business opportunities for
    women, while the Women's Parliament Forum advocated for opportunities
    in the public sector. Stop Violence against Women provided assistance
    to victims of domestic violence, including legal help with dissolving
    an abusive marriage.

        Children.--Citizenship is derived by birth within the country's
    territory and from one's parents.
        Physical and sexual abuse of children continued to be a problem.
    During the year police received reports of 269 cases of sexual abuse of
    children, compared with 265 reported in 2009. The police Youth Affairs
    Office conducted three visits per week to different schools in the
    capital and the surrounding areas on a rotating schedule to provide
    outreach, raise awareness about child abuse, and solicit and
    investigate complaints. The Youth Affairs Office continued to raise
    awareness about sexual abuse, drugs, and alcohol through a weekly
    television program.
        Authorities applied various laws to prosecute perpetrators of
    sexual abuse, and several cases of sexual abuse against minors came to
    trial. Sentences averaged three years in prison. In the capital, there
    were several orphanages and one privately funded shelter for sexually
    abused children.
        During the year there was one report of sexual abuse of three
    children in a religious-led orphanage. The suspect was charged, and
    prosecution continued at year's end.
        Although the legal age of sexual consent is 14 years old, it was
    not enforced effectively. The marriage law sets the age of marital
    consent at 15 years old for girls and 17 years old for boys, provided
    parents of the parties agree to the marriage. Parental permission to
    marry is required up to the age of 21. The law also mandates the
    presence of a civil registry official to register all marriages.
        Trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation of minors remained
    problems.
        The criminal law penalizes child prostitution and provides
    sanctions of up to six years' imprisonment and fine of SR$100,000
    ($35,700). The law also prohibits child pornography, which has a
    maximum penalty of six years' imprisonment and maximum fine of
    SR$50,000 ($16,700).
        The UN Children's Fund continued cooperating with the Government in
    providing training to officials from various ministries dealing with
    children and children's rights. The Government operated a ``1-2-3''
    telephone hotline for children and provided confidential advice and aid
    to children in need.
        The country is not a party to the 1980 Hague Convention on the
    Civil Aspects of Child Abduction. For information on international
    parental child abduction, please see the Department of State's annual
    report on compliance at http://travel.state.gov/abduction/resources/
    congressreport/congressreport--4308.html.

        Anti-Semitism.--There was a declared Jewish community of
    approximately 150 persons. There were no reports of anti-Semitic acts
    or other societal abuses or discrimination based on religious
    affiliation, belief, or practice.

        Trafficking in Persons.--For information on trafficking in persons,
    please see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons
    Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        Persons With Disabilities.--There are no laws prohibiting
    discrimination against persons with physical or mental disabilities in
    employment, education, access to health care, or the provision of state
    services. In practice persons with disabilities suffered from
    discrimination when applying for jobs and services. Some training
    programs were provided for the persons with visual disability and
    others with nonvisual disabilities. There are no laws or programs to
    ensure that persons with disabilities have access to buildings. A judge
    may rule that a person with a cognitive disability be denied the right
    to vote, take part in business transactions, or sign legal agreements.
    Persons with disabilities had equal access to information and
    communications. There were no reports of abuse in educational
    facilities for persons with disabilities.
        A Ministry of Social Affairs working group remained responsible for
    protecting the rights of persons with disabilities, but it made limited
    progress during the year.

        National/Racial/Ethnic Minorities.--The law prohibits
    discrimination on the basis of race or ethnicity, and no such
    discrimination complaints were filed during the year. However, Maroons,
    who represent an estimated 15 percent of the population, generally
    continued to be disadvantaged in the areas of education, employment,
    and government services. Most Maroons lived in the interior where
    limited infrastructure reduced their access to educational and
    professional opportunities and health and social services. Some forms
    of discrimination that affected indigenous Amerindians also extended to
    Maroons.

        Indigenous People.--The law affords no special protection for, or
    recognition of, indigenous people. Most Amerindians (approximately 2
    percent of the population) live in the remote and undeveloped interior
    of the country, where government services are largely unavailable.
    Geographic isolation afforded limited opportunity to participate in
    national and regional policymaking, including decisions affecting
    interior lands, cultures, traditions, and natural resources.
        Because Amerindian and Maroon lands were not effectively demarcated
    or policed, populations continued to face problems with illegal and
    uncontrolled logging and mining. Organizations representing Maroon and
    Amerindian communities complained that small-scale mining operations,
    mainly by illegal gold miners, some of whom were themselves indigenous
    or supported by indigenous groups, dug trenches that cut residents off
    from their agricultural land and threatened to drive them away from
    their traditional settlements. Mercury runoff from these operations
    also contaminated and threatened traditional food source areas. Many
    Maroon and Amerindian groups also complained about the Government
    granting land within their traditional territories to third parties,
    who sometimes prevented the villages from engaging in their traditional
    activities on those lands. There are no laws granting indigenous people
    rights to share in the revenues from the exploitation of resources on
    their traditional lands.
        Indigenous groups, with the assistance of the Amazon Conservation
    Team, mapped their lands and presented proposed demarcation charts to
    the Government in 2000 and to the Ministry of Physical Planning, Land,
    and Forestry Management in both 2006 and 2009. At year's end, this
    proposal remained under consideration by the new government.
        Maroon and Amerindian groups continued to cooperate with each other
    to exercise their rights more effectively. Moiwana and other NGOs
    continued to promote the rights of indigenous people.

        Societal Abuses, Discrimination, and Acts of Violence Based on
    Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.--Although the law prohibits
    discrimination based on sexual orientation, there were reports of
    employment discrimination against LGBT persons. There were no reports
    of official discrimination based on sexual orientation in housing,
    access to education, or health care.

        Other Societal Violence or Discrimination.--Persons with HIV/AIDS
    continued to experience societal discrimination in employment and
    medical services. An NGO working with HIV-infected persons reported
    that law enforcement agencies and the fire department conducted HIV
    testing as part of their hiring procedures. Catering establishments,
    casinos, and some private companies also reportedly demanded HIV tests
    prior to employment. The Mamio Foundation noted that individuals,
    mostly women, reported physical violence or discrimination after their
    HIV-positive status became known. Insurance companies allegedly denied
    services to HIV-positive clients, having identified their status via
    their medication histories.
        The Ministry of Health continued its efforts to prevent mother-to-
    child transmission of HIV/AIDS through a comprehensive outreach program
    involving local health care providers. The program achieved its goal of
    voluntary testing of 90 percent of expectant mothers. The military
    continued its HIV/AIDS awareness program among troops during the year.

    Section 7. Worker Rights
        a. The Right of Association.--The law allows workers to form and
    join unions of their choice without previous authorization or excessive
    requirements, and workers did so in practice. Nearly 60 percent of the
    workforce was organized into unions, and most unions belonged to one of
    the country's seven major labor federations.
        The law provides for the right to strike, and workers in both the
    public and private sectors exercised this right in practice.

        b. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively.--Collective
    bargaining is protected by law, and the Government generally enforced
    this right in practice. Collective bargaining agreements covered
    approximately 50 percent of the labor force. The law prohibits employer
    interference in union activities, and in practice it did not occur.
        There are no export processing zones.

        c. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor.--The law prohibits
    all forms of forced or compulsory labor, including by children;
    however, there were reports that such practices occurred. Also see the
    Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons Report at
    www.state.gov/g/tip.
        The trial of six individuals arrested in 2009 after allegedly
    recruiting 23 men for a cooking course in Trinidad and Tobago and then
    providing them as forced labor upon arrival in that country continued
    at year's end.

        d. Prohibition of Child Labor and Minimum Age for Employment.--The
    law sets the minimum age for most types of employment at 14 years old
    and restricts working hours for minors to day shifts but does not limit
    the number of hours minors can work. Children younger than 14 years old
    are allowed to work only in a family-owned business, small-scale
    agriculture, and special vocational work. The law does not define the
    worst forms of child labor. Children younger than 18 years old are
    prohibited from doing hazardous work, which is defined as work
    dangerous to their life, health, and decency. Children under the age of
    15 years old are not permitted to work on boats. The Ministry of Labor
    and the police enforced the law sporadically, and child labor remained
    a problem in the informal sector, especially in the western districts
    of Nickerie and Saramacca.
        Some children under the age of 14 years old continued to work
    illegally in gold mines and in urban informal sectors. Employers in
    these sectors generally did not assure work safety or provide benefits
    such as access to medical care. There was a general lack of statistical
    data on the labor environment and child labor in the country.
        The Ministry of Labor's Department of Labor Inspection, with 63
    inspectors, of which 22 have finished their theoretical training by the
    end of the year, has responsibility to implement and enforce labor
    laws; however, enforcement was inadequate. Inspectors visited private
    sector companies throughout the country, but no data was available
    regarding the number of inspections performed during the year.
    Employers were required to maintain a Register of Young Persons that
    includes each employee's information. Employing a child less than 14
    years of age is punishable by fines and up to 12 months in prison.
    Parents who permit their children to work in violation of labor laws
    may be prosecuted. The Government did not investigate exploitive child
    labor cases outside urban areas. Labor inspectors were not authorized
    to conduct inspections in the informal sector as responsibility for
    controlling the informal sector lies with the police.
        Children were exploited in agriculture, particularly harvesting
    fruit and rice. Although the Government provided no programs to remove
    children from the worst forms of child labor, it supported vocational
    programs for dropouts and older children to serve as an alternative to
    underage labor and participated in a regional project to combat the
    worst forms of child labor in the Caribbean.
        The National Commission for the Eradication of Child Labor became
    active in 2009. Members included officials from the ministries of
    labor, social affairs, and education, as well as representatives from
    labor unions, the private sector, and NGOs. The commission's mandate
    includes formulating national policy regarding the eradication of child
    labor, initiating specific programs for indigenous children, developing
    a list of occupations involving the worst forms of child labor, and
    monitoring the country's compliance with international child labor
    standards. However, the commission's progress in these policy areas
    stalled during the year.

        e. Acceptable Conditions of Work.--There is no legislation
    providing for a minimum wage. The lowest wage for civil servants was
    approximately SR$600 ($214) per month, including a cost of living
    allowance, which did not provide a decent standard of living for a
    worker and family. Government employees, who constituted approximately
    50 percent of the 100,000-member workforce, frequently supplemented
    their salaries with second or third jobs, often in the informal sector.
    During the year the Government continued to implement a new civil
    servant wage system, increasing wages for many civil servants.
        Work in excess of 45 hours per week on a regular basis requires
    special government permission, which was granted routinely. Such
    overtime work earned premium pay. The law prohibits excessive overtime
    and requires a 24-hour rest period per week.
        The Government sets occupational health and safety standards. A 10-
    to 12-member inspectorate in the Occupational Health and Safety
    Division of the Ministry of Labor is responsible for enforcing
    occupational safety and health regulations, but it did not make regular
    inspections. There is no law authorizing workers to refuse to work in
    circumstances they deem unsafe; they must appeal to the inspectorate to
    declare the workplace situation unsafe.

                                   __________

                               TINIDAD AND TOBAGO

        Trinidad and Tobago is a parliamentary democracy governed by a
    prime minister and a bicameral legislature, with a population of
    approximately 1.3 million. Tobago has a House of Assembly that has some
    administrative autonomy over local matters on that island. In the May
    24 elections, which observers considered generally free and fair, the
    People's Partnership coalition led by Kamla Persad-Bissessar of the
    United National Congress (UNC) defeated Prime Minister Patrick
    Manning's People's National Movement (PNM) government and secured a 29-
    to 12-seat majority in the Parliament. Security forces reported to
    civilian authorities.
        Principal human rights problems were police killings during
    apprehension or custody, inmate illness and injuries due to poor prison
    conditions, high-profile cases of alleged bribery, violence against
    women, inadequate services for vulnerable children, and unsafe working
    conditions.

                            RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

    Section 1. Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom
            From:
        a. Arbitrary or Unlawful Deprivation of Life.--The Government or
    its agents did not commit any politically motivated killings; however,
    41 persons died as of December 17 while in police custody or at the
    hands of law enforcement officers. Authorities investigated or opened
    inquests into some of the killings. All cases were reported to be under
    investigation, but authorities had not brought charges or otherwise
    punished any of the officers by year's end. In the past, when charges
    were brought, 50 percent of the officers were acquitted.
        Authorities were investigating the police Repeat Offenders Program
    Task Force for allegations of misconduct, kidnapping, and murder made
    by members of the public. One allegation concerned Laventille resident
    Keon Glasgow, taken into custody in April and not accounted for since.
    His relatives believed that he was abducted and killed with police
    involvement.
        There were no reported developments in the inquiries into the 2009
    police killing of George Ashby or of the 2008 police killings of
    Mustapha Edwards, Karim Saint Aimee, and Russel Samuel.

        b. Disappearance.--There were no reports of politically motivated
    disappearances.

        c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or
    Punishment.--Although the constitution and the law prohibit such
    practices, there were credible reports that police officers and prison
    guards mistreated individuals under arrest or in detention.
        Authorities had 12 police officers from the Central Division Task
    Force and the Robbery Squad under investigation regarding allegations
    that they misused Tasers in March by placing suspects in a barrel of
    water and shocking them. The investigation continued at year's end and
    was pending a decision by the director of public prosecutions (DPP).
        An investigation was underway into the July beating of Wayne
    Roberts, who sought assistance from the police in aiding a woman who
    collapsed on the road. Roberts received blows to the head and body and
    was arrested for using obscene language and resisting arrest. Witnesses
    claimed the police beat Roberts because he called them ``imps'' for
    failing to attend to the woman.
        On July 23, residents of the Scorpion Alley neighborhood in
    Carenage claimed that police opened fire on a group of men and sped
    away in an unmarked car when they realized that someone had been shot.
    Police asserted that they were fired upon while on patrol. Curlon James
    was reportedly shot in the back in the incident. The case was under
    investigation at year's end.

        Prison and Detention Center Conditions.--Conditions in the prison
    system's eight facilities continued to be difficult. The designed
    capacity of the prisons was 4,380 inmates, and they held approximately
    3,700 prisoners at year's end. However, some prisons suffered from
    extreme overcrowding, while others had not reached full capacity. The
    Port of Spain prison, originally designed to accommodate 250 inmates,
    held 542 prisoners, compared with 506 in 2009. At peak times, up to 10
    prisoners were kept in 10- by 10-foot cells. Inmates complained of
    insufficient medical care for illness and injuries.
        Inmates at the Immigration Detention Center engaged in a hunger
    strike in June and rioted in August over cell searches and their desire
    to return to their home countries. In a separate incident, four center
    inmates were treated for injuries allegedly inflicted by security
    officers in the month of June. According to the local UN High
    Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) representative, when the center first
    opened in November 2009, detainees were permitted to be outside only
    five hours per week, and conditions were worse than at the maximum-
    security prison. The Government investigated the situation and improved
    living conditions. The majority of detainees were illegal immigrants
    who could not afford the cost of travel to their home country. The
    center has an intended capacity of 150 and held 46 persons at year's
    end. Men and women had separate facilities.
        Pretrial detainees were held separately from convicted prisoners.
    There were 1,604 inmates awaiting trial in October, compared with 1,403
    at the end of 2009. However, convicted prisoners often were held in the
    remand section until they exhausted their appeals. Since there is no
    female youth facility, some underage female prisoners were placed in
    the Golden Grove women's prison. Of 107 female prisoners, 38 awaited
    trial in October. Although conditions at the women's prison were better
    than those in the Port of Spain men's prison, it occasionally became
    overcrowded, since it held both women on remand and those serving
    prison sentences.
        A new library opened in July at St. Jude's School for Girls, a
    court-ordered detention facility for at-risk girls. An estimated 200
    male juveniles were held separately from adults at the Youth Training
    Center, and 11 female juveniles were in custody at Golden Grove.
        There were 2,200 prison officers. Prison authorities reported
    bringing charges against 29 prison officers for assault and battery or
    for poor conduct on the job, including possession of narcotics and
    provision of cell phones to inmates.
        On July 26, a High Court judge awarded damages of TT$180,000
    ($28,600) to an inmate who was beaten by a group of officers in 2006
    when he was held in the remand section of the prison. The beatings
    resulted in several weeks' hospitalization.
        Prisoners and detainees have reasonable access to visitors and are
    permitted religious observance. On October 3, Muslim prisoners at the
    Remand Yard Prison began a hunger strike after they were barred from
    holding a Friday prayer service. Prison officials cancelled the service
    because of fears the group was plotting to riot. The incident was under
    investigation at year's end.
        Prison authorities permit prisoners and detainees to submit
    complaints to judicial authorities without censorship and request
    investigations of credible allegations of inhumane conditions.
    Authorities investigated and monitored prison and detention center
    conditions but did not document the results in a publicly accessible
    manner. Prisoners can also contact the office of the ombudsman, which
    has the authority to investigate complaints related to the functions
    and duties of most government departments. However, in no instances has
    the ombudsman advocated on behalf of prisoners or detainees.
        The Government permitted prison visits by independent human rights
    observers upon approval of the Ministry of National Security; however,
    there were no such requests during the year.

        d. Arbitrary Arrest or Detention.--The constitution and the law
    prohibit arbitrary arrest and detention, and the Government generally
    observed these prohibitions.
        However, the courts made several awards in cases brought on grounds
    of wrongful arrest and imprisonment: Maurice Koon received TT$60,000
    ($9,500) on July 8 for false imprisonment; David Ambrose received
    TT$80,000 ($12,700) on July 20 for wrongful arrest and a three-day
    detainment; Brahim Rampersad received TT$412,000 ($65,400) on July 22
    for wrongful arrest, malicious prosecution, and an improper nine-day
    detainment; Aaron Roodal received TT$168,000 ($26,700) on October 4 for
    breaches of civil liberties, including being served only meals with
    meat even though his Rastafarian religion bans the consumption of meat;
    and Nankishoer Rajpath received TT$55,000 ($8,700) for false
    imprisonment.
        A prisoner was awarded TT$156,000 ($24,800) on July 29 for breach
    of his constitutional rights after documents signed at the prison and
    expected to be filed at the Court of Appeal were delayed by prison
    authorities causing the defendant to miss the filing deadline.

        Role of the Police and Security Apparatus.--The Ministry of
    National Security oversees the police service, immigration division,
    prison service, and defense force. The police service maintains
    internal security, while the defense force is responsible for external
    security but also has certain domestic security responsibilities. An
    independent body, the Police Service Commission, makes hiring and
    firing decisions in the police service, and the ministry has little
    direct influence over changes in senior positions. Public confidence in
    the Police Service was very low because of high crime and perceived
    corruption.
        The national police force comprises nine divisions, including 17
    specialized branches, with approximately 5,000 members. The Police
    Service Commission, in consultation with the prime minister, appoints a
    commissioner of police to oversee the police force. Municipal police
    under the jurisdiction of 14 regional administrative bodies supplement
    the national police force. The Special Anticrime Unit, composed of both
    police and defense-force personnel, combats violent crime--including
    kidnappings for ransom--and carries out other security operations.
        The Police Complaints Authority receives complaints about the
    conduct of police officers for transmittal to the Complaints Division
    of the Police Service, where uniformed officers investigate them. The
    authority monitors the division's investigations and its disciplinary
    measures. Police Service Commission restrictions limited the division's
    ability to dismiss police officers. The public had little confidence in
    the police complaints process because the authority had no power to
    investigate complaints and those investigating complaints against the
    police were themselves police officers.

        Arrest Procedures and Treatment While in Detention.--A police
    officer may arrest a person based on a warrant issued or authorized by
    a magistrate, or without a warrant if the officer witnesses the
    commission of an alleged offense. Detainees, as well as those summoned
    to appear before a magistrate, must appear in court within 48 hours. In
    the case of more serious offenses, the magistrate either commits the
    accused to prison on remand or allows the accused to post bail, pending
    a preliminary inquiry. Detainees were granted immediate access to a
    lawyer and to family members.
        There is a functioning bail system. Persons charged with murder,
    treason, piracy, kidnapping for ransom, and hijacking, as well as
    persons convicted twice of violent crimes, are ineligible for bail for
    a period of 60 days following the charge. However, a judge may still
    grant bail to such persons under exceptional circumstances, and many in
    government argued, during a nationwide debate over bail reform, that
    this occurred too frequently. Where bail was refused, magistrates
    advised the accused of their right to an attorney and, with few
    exceptions, allowed them access to an attorney once they were in
    custody and prior to interrogation.
        The minister of national security may authorize preventive
    detention in order to preclude actions prejudicial to public safety,
    public order, or national defense, in which case the minister must
    state the grounds for the detention. There were no reports that the
    authorities abused this power.
        Lengthy pretrial detention resulting from heavy court backlogs and
    inefficiencies in the judicial system continued to be a problem. Many
    persons under indictment waited months, if not years, for their trial
    dates in the High Court. An added inefficiency resulted from the legal
    requirement that anyone charged and detained must appear in person for
    a hearing before magistrate's court every 10 days, if only to have the
    case postponed for an additional 10 days pending conclusion of the
    investigation. Officials cited an increase in the number of arrests and
    an antiquated note-taking system in most magistrate's courts as
    explanations for the backlog.

        e. Denial of Fair Public Trial.--The constitution and the law
    provide for an independent judiciary, and the Government generally
    respected this provision in practice. Although the judicial process was
    generally fair, it was slow due to backlogs and inefficiencies.
    Additionally, prosecutors as well as judges stated that witness
    intimidation increased.

        Trial Procedures.--Magistrates try both minor and more serious
    offenses, but in the case of more serious offenses, the magistrate must
    conduct a preliminary inquiry. Trials are public, and juries are used
    in the High Court. Defendants have the right to be present, are
    presumed innocent until proven guilty, and have the right to appeal.
    All defendants have the right to consult with an attorney in a timely
    manner. An attorney is provided at public expense to defendants facing
    serious criminal charges, and the law requires provision of an attorney
    to any person accused of murder. Although the courts may appoint
    attorneys for indigent persons charged with serious crimes, an indigent
    person may refuse to accept an assigned attorney for cause and may
    obtain a replacement. Defendants can confront or question witnesses
    against them, can present witnesses and evidence on their own behalf,
    and have access to government-held evidence relevant to their cases.
        Both civil and criminal appeals may be filed with the Court of
    Appeal and, ultimately, with the Privy Council in the United Kingdom.

        Political Prisoners and Detainees.--There were no reports of
    political prisoners or detainees.

        Regional Human Rights Court Decisions.--In 1999 the Government
    withdrew from the American Convention on Human Rights. The convention
    states that such an action does not release a government from its
    obligations under the convention with respect to acts taken prior to
    the effective date of denunciation. From 1999 to 2009 the Inter-
    American Court of Human Rights issued rulings on cases predating the
    Government's withdrawal; by year's end the Government had not provided
    any official or public reaction to the rulings.

        Civil Judicial Procedures and Remedies.--The constitution and the
    law provide for an independent and impartial judiciary in civil
    matters, and citizens are free to file lawsuits against civil breaches,
    in both the High Court and petty civil court. The High Court may review
    the decisions of lower courts, order parties to cease and desist from
    particular actions, compel parties to take specific actions, or award
    damages to aggrieved parties. However, the petty civil court is
    authorized to hear only cases involving damages of up to TT$15,000
    ($2,400).

        f. Arbitrary Interference With Privacy, Family, Home, or
    Correspondence.--The constitution and the law prohibit such actions,
    and the Government generally respected these prohibitions in practice.

    Section 2. Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:
        a. Freedom of Speech and Press.--The constitution and the law
    provide for freedom of speech and of the press, and the Government
    generally respected these rights in practice. An independent press, an
    effective judiciary, and a functioning democratic political system
    combined to ensure freedom of speech and of the press.

        Internet Freedom.--There were no government restrictions on access
    to the Internet or reports that the Government monitored e-mail or
    Internet chat rooms. Individuals and groups could engage in the
    peaceful expression of views via the Internet, including by e-mail.
    According to the International Telecommunication Union in 2009, 44
    percent of the population used the Internet.

        Academic Freedom and Cultural Events.--There were no government
    restrictions on academic freedom or cultural events.

        b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association.--The constitution
    and the law provide for freedom of assembly and association, and the
    Government generally respected these rights in practice.

        c. Freedom of Religion.--For a complete description of religious
    freedom, please see the 2010 International Religious Freedom Report at
    www.state.gov/g/drl/irf/rpt.

        d. Freedom of Movement, Internally Displaced Persons, Protection of
    Refugees, and Stateless Persons.--The constitution and various laws
    provide for freedom of movement within the country, foreign travel,
    emigration, and repatriation, and the Government generally respected
    these rights in practice.
        The law prohibits forced exile, and it was not used.

        Protection of Refugees.--The Government has not passed legislation
    to implement its obligations under the relevant UN conventions. The
    Government cooperated with the UNHCR and other humanitarian
    organizations in providing protection and assistance to internally
    displaced persons, refugees, returning refugees, asylum seekers,
    stateless persons, and other persons of concern. The Government placed
    asylum seekers in the care of the Living Water Community (LWC), a local
    Catholic social services agency, while their cases were reviewed by the
    UNHCR and final resolution reached. Pending parliament's approval of
    implementing legislation, the Ministry of National Security's
    Immigration Division handled all requests for asylum on a case-by-case
    basis.
        In practice the Government provided protection against the
    expulsion or return of refugees to countries where their lives or
    freedom would be threatened on account of their race, religion,
    nationality, membership in a particular political group, or political
    opinion. However, it took as long as four years for the Government to
    provide identification cards or work permits to persons granted refugee
    status, due to a lengthy bureaucratic process.
        The Government did not provide temporary protection to persons who
    may not qualify as refugees. The LWC provided such persons with needed
    social services and reported in October that 126 previously filed
    asylum applications were still pending and that 19 new applications had
    been filed during the year. The Government recognized 31 persons as
    refugees.

    Section 3. Respect for Political Rights: The Right of Citizens to
            Change Their Government
        The constitution and the law provide citizens the right to change
    their government peacefully, and citizens exercised this right in
    practice through periodic, free, and fair elections held on the basis
    of universal suffrage.

        Elections and Political Participation.--The Caribbean Community
    observers found the May 24 national elections to be generally free and
    fair. However, during the campaign period, there were isolated
    incidents of vandalism and violence, and the then incumbent prime
    minister required all television stations to air an interview without
    paying for the airtime. Citizens voted the incumbent party out of
    office and elected a new coalition government that secured 29 of the 41
    parliamentary seats. The Congress of the People (COP) party joined the
    coalition and won six seats, while a new party, New National Vision--
    formed by Yasin Abu Bakr, leader of the Jamaat-al-Muslimeen group that
    attempted a 1990 coup--garnered few votes and no seats.
        Political parties operated without restriction or outside
    influence, and the two major parties fall loosely along ethnic lines--
    the PNM is primarily but not exclusively Afro-Trinidadian, and the UNC
    is primarily but not exclusively Indo-Trinidadian.
        In July the Government held local elections for the first time
    since 2003. Mirroring the national elections, the UNC-led coalition
    took control of 11 of 14 municipal councils.
        Voters elected the 41-member House of Representatives, and there is
    an appointed Senate composed of 31 persons. Of the 72 persons in both
    houses of Parliament, 20 were women; there were six women in the 28-
    member cabinet, including the prime minister. There were 13 female
    judges among the 34 judges on the High Court and the Court of Appeals.
        All major political parties reached out to voters from relatively
    small ethnic minorities, such as the Chinese, Syrian, Lebanese, and
    European-origin communities, and members of these groups held important
    positions in government. There was one member of these minorities, of
    Arab ancestry, in the legislature.

    Section 4. Official Corruption and Government Transparency
        The law provides criminal penalties for official corruption, and
    the Government generally implemented these laws effectively. However,
    the World Bank's worldwide governance indicators reflected that
    government corruption was a problem.
        The Integrity in Public Life Act mandates that public officials
    disclose their assets, income, and liabilities to an Integrity
    Commission. The commission had been nonfunctioning due to a series of
    resignations but was reconvened in March and continued to meet during
    the year. Public opinion of the commission improved after the naming of
    new commissioners. Officials and candidates for public office were
    reluctant to comply with asset disclosure rules, due in part to fear of
    kidnappings for ransom, but primarily because of the perceived
    invasiveness of the process. The act articulates a process when public
    officials fail to disclose assets, and by year's end the commission had
    publically listed in the newspaper 188 officials who had failed to
    comply.
        Police corruption continued to be a problem, with some officials
    acknowledging there were officers who participated in corrupt and
    illegal activities. On September 13, authorities suspended 35 police
    officers on corruption charges, and the investigation reportedly
    continued at year's end. There were allegations that some officers had
    close relationships with gang leaders.
        In April a report on alleged corruption in the local construction
    industry, including the Government's Urban Development Corporation of
    Trinidad and Tobago (Udecott), was released. The report stated that
    Udecott needed internal restructuring and improved managerial and
    budgetary practices. The leader of the company, Calder Hart, resigned
    and left the country. The Anti-Corruption Investigation Bureau and the
    Police Cyber Crime Unit began investigations but had not issued any
    arrest warrants by year's end.
        In June the Integrity Commission recommended that the DPP conduct a
    criminal probe into former prime minister Patrick Manning and a former
    minister of science, technology, and tertiary education regarding the
    awarding of a radio license to a political supporter.
        A minister in the Ministry of National Security issued a directive
    in August to investigate whether corrupt prison guards were complicit
    in the smuggling of cell phones to prisoners, following the fourth
    killing of a prison officer.
        In 2009 the DPP launched an investigation to determine whether the
    then prime minister and his PNM party breached the Prevention of
    Corruption Act or other provision of the law in regard to an alleged
    agreement with the Jamaat al Muslimeen organization prior to the 2002
    general elections. Unconfirmed reports circulated that the group's
    leader, Yasin Abu Bakr, agreed to support the prime minister's party in
    exchange for a promise that his property would not be seized to pay a
    state debt. At year's end the case was under investigation and pending
    a decision by the DPP, but no charges had been filed. In August
    Attorney General Anand Ramlogan held a court-ordered auction of 10
    properties owned by Yasin Abu Bakr to satisfy a debt owed to the
    Government.
        In April 2008 the Privy Council ordered a new trial for former UNC
    party chairman Basdeo Panday stemming from his 2006 conviction for
    failing to disclose a London bank account. This retrial was delayed by
    a series of judicial filings. A second trial focused on an alleged
    25,000 pound ($40,000) bribe, and the Appeal Court was scheduled to
    begin hearing arguments February 14, 2011.
        The Freedom of Information Act provides for public access to
    government documents, upon application. Critics charged, however, that
    a growing number of public bodies have been exempted from the act's
    coverage, which the Government claimed was necessary to reduce the
    volume of frivolous requests.

    Section 5. Governmental Attitude Regarding International and
            Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations of Human
            Rights
        A number of domestic and international human rights groups
    generally operated without government restriction, investigating human
    rights cases and publishing their findings. Government officials
    generally were cooperative and responsive to their views.
        The ombudsman investigates citizens' complaints concerning the
    administrative decisions of government agencies. Where there is
    evidence of a breach of duty, misconduct, or criminal offense, the
    ombudsman may refer the matter to the appropriate authority. The
    ombudsman has a quasi-autonomous status within the Government and
    publishes a comprehensive annual report. Both the public and the
    Government had confidence in the integrity and reliability of the
    Office of the Ombudsman and the ombudsman's annual report.

    Section 6. Discrimination, Societal Abuses, and Trafficking in Persons
        The Government generally respected in practice the constitutional
    provisions for fundamental human rights and freedoms for all without
    discrimination based on race, origin, color, religion, social status,
    or gender.

        Women.--Rape, including spousal rape, is illegal and punishable by
    up to life imprisonment; however, the courts often handed down
    considerably shorter sentences. The Government and nongovernmental
    organizations (NGOs) reported that many incidents of rape and other
    sexual crimes were unreported, partly due to perceived insensitivity on
    the part of the police. The Crime and Problem Analysis Branch of the
    police service reported that there were 260 reported cases of rape
    between January and December 7.
        Many community leaders asserted that abuse of women, particularly
    in the form of domestic violence, continued to be a significant
    problem. The law provides for protection orders separating perpetrators
    of domestic violence, including abusive spouses and common-law
    partners, from their victims. Abusive spouses can also be fined or
    imprisoned. While reliable national statistics were not available,
    women's groups estimated that from 20 to 25 percent of all women
    suffered abuse.
        The NGO Coalition Against Domestic Violence charged that police
    were often lax in enforcing domestic violence laws and asserted that
    rape and sexual abuse against women and children remained a significant
    problem.
        The Division of Gender Affairs (DGA) in the Ministry of Community
    Development, Culture, and Gender Affairs operated a 24-hour hotline for
    victims of rape, spousal abuse, and other violence against women,
    referring callers to eight shelters for battered women, a rape crisis
    center, counseling services, support groups, and other assistance.
        No laws specifically prohibit sexual harassment. Although related
    statutes could be used to prosecute perpetrators of sexual harassment,
    and some trade unions incorporated antiharassment provisions in their
    contracts, both the Government and NGOs continued to suspect that many
    incidents of sexual harassment went unreported.
        Couples and individuals had the right to decide the number,
    spacing, and timing of children and had the information and means to do
    so free from discrimination. Access to information on contraception and
    maternal health was widely available from healthcare providers and
    online sources. The Population Reference Bureau reported a
    contraceptive use rate of 43 percent among married women. Skilled
    attendance at delivery and in postpartum care was also widely
    available. According to the UN Population Fund, the estimated maternal
    mortality rate was 55 per 100,000 live births in 2008. Women and men
    were given equal access to diagnostic services and treatment for HIV/
    AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases.
        Women generally enjoyed the same legal rights as men, including
    employment, education, and inheritance rights. No laws or regulations
    require equal pay for equal work. While equal pay for men and women in
    public service was the rule rather than the exception, both the
    Government and NGOs noted considerable disparities in pay between men
    and women in the private sector, particularly in agriculture. According
    to the World Economic Forum's 2010 Global Gender Gap Report, women
    earned 32 percent less than men on average.
        The DGA had primary government responsibility for protecting
    women's rights and women's advancement and sponsored income-generation
    workshops for unemployed single mothers, nontraditional skills training
    for women, and seminars for men on redefining masculinity.

        Children.--Children acquire nationality by birth; every person born
    in the country is a citizen at the date of birth, unless the parents
    are foreign envoys accredited to the country. Children born outside the
    country can become citizens at birth if on that date one or both of the
    parents is, or was, a citizen. The Births and Deaths Registration Act
    provides that every child born alive must be registered within 42 days
    of birth.
        The Domestic Violence Act provides protection for children abused
    at home. The Ministry of Education's Student Support Services Division
    reported that young school children were vulnerable to rape, physical
    abuse, and drug use and that some had access to weapons or lived with
    drug-addicted parents. Abused children removed from the home were first
    assessed at a reception center for vulnerable children and then placed
    with relatives, government institutions, or NGOs. The Coalition against
    Domestic Violence operated Childline, a free and confidential telephone
    hotline for at-risk or distressed children and young persons up to age
    25. During the year Childline received 4,645 calls, 77 percent from
    females and 23 percent from males. Childline credited a significant
    decrease in calls to a change in how the organization handled prank
    calls. In the first nine months of the year, Childline reported 292
    neglect and abuse cases to the Police and National Family Services of
    the Ministry of the People and Social Development, including 36 cases
    of rape or incest.
        Several children were abused in their own homes or in institutional
    settings. There were allegations of widespread physical, sexual, and
    mental abuse of children at the St. Mary's Children's Home; a
    government investigation was unable to substantiate the allegations but
    recommended hiring additional qualified staff. The beating death of a
    two-year-old boy on October 20 by a family member resulted in calls for
    additional attention to child abuse. The case was under investigation
    at year's end.
        The law defines a child as less than 18 years of age, outlaws
    corporal punishment for children, and prohibits sentencing a child to
    prison. The legal age for marriage is 18 for both men and women.
    However, in practice the minimum legal age for marriage is determined
    by the distinct laws and attitudes of the various religious
    denominations. Under the Muslim Marriage and Divorce Act, the minimum
    legal age for marriage is 16 for men and 12 for women; the Hindu
    Marriage Act and the Orisa Marriage Act set the minimum legal age for
    marriage at 18 for men and 16 for women.
        Children between the ages of 16 and 18 were suspected of being
    engaged in prostitution. The Sexual Offenses Act of 2000 provides a
    penalty of up to 15 years' imprisonment for anyone who procures a child
    under 16 for prostitution.
        Statutory rape is illegal under the Sexual Offenses Act. The age of
    sexual consent is 16 years for males and females; however, this does
    not apply if the parties are married. Persons found guilty of rape can
    be sentenced from 12 years to life in jail.
        Child pornography is illegal, and penalties for pornographers
    include a fine of TT$2,000 ($320) and four months' imprisonment.
        The Government is a party to the 1980 Hague Convention on
    International Child Abduction. For information on international
    parental child abduction, please see the Department of State's annual
    report on the convention at http://travel.state.gov/abduction/
    resources/congressreport/congressreport--4308.html, as well as country
    specific information at http://travel.state.gov/abduction/country/
    country--3781.html.

        Anti-Semitism.--The Jewish community was very small. There were no
    reports of anti-Semitic acts.

        Trafficking in Persons.--For information on trafficking in persons,
    please see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons
    Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        Persons With Disabilities.--There are no statutes either
    prohibiting discrimination on the basis of disability or mandating
    equal access for persons with disabilities to the political process,
    employment, education, transportation, housing, health care, or other
    citizen services. The minister of the people and social development
    publicly called upon employers both in the private and public sectors
    to end discriminatory practices against persons with disabilities and
    to create inclusive work environments.
        In practice persons with disabilities (an estimated 16 percent of
    the population) faced discrimination and denial of opportunities in the
    form of architectural barriers, employer reluctance to make necessary
    accommodations that would enable otherwise qualified job candidates to
    work, an absence of support services to assist children with special
    needs to study, lowered expectations of the abilities of persons with
    disabilities, condescending attitudes, and disrespect. Transportation
    was a particular concern, with only five handicap-accessible buses
    (only one of which was in service) for a special on-call transportation
    service. A majority of bus stops were located on high sidewalks without
    ramps. Most government buildings and public places were not accessible.
    There were no restrictions on access to information, communications,
    the right to vote, or to participate in civic affairs. The court system
    and the Elections and Boundary Commission communicated the openness of
    the courts and voting to all citizens. The Government provided some
    funding to NGOs such as Disabled Peoples International. In August the
    Government installed the first elevator on a raised pedestrian walkway
    to allow citizens with disabilities to cross a busy highway.

        Indigenous People.--A very small group of persons identified
    themselves as descendants of the country's original Amerindian
    population. The Government effectively protected their civil and
    political rights, and they were not subject to discrimination.

        Societal Abuses, Discrimination, and Acts of Violence Based on
    Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.--Although the law criminalizes
    consensual homosexual relations, providing penalties of up to 25 years'
    imprisonment, the Government generally did not enforce such
    legislation, except when paired with more serious offenses such as
    rape. Immigration laws also bar the entry of homosexual persons into
    the country, but the legislation was not enforced.
        The Equal Opportunities Act does not specifically include lesbian,
    gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT) persons, and in fact it
    specifically excludes sexual orientation. Other laws, including the
    Domestic Violence Act and the Cohabitational Relationship Act, also
    include language that excludes same-sex partners from the laws'
    protections. LGBT rights groups reported that there remained a stigma
    related to sexual orientation in the country. There were no gay
    marches, although LGBT rights groups attended some election events with
    signs and clothing indicating their membership. LGBT rights groups
    reported individual cases of violence against homosexual persons
    including cases where they were lured to a venue by Internet
    advertisements and then beaten. LGBT rights groups also reported a
    reluctance to report crimes to the police for fear of harassment by the
    police and court officials.

        Other Societal Violence or Discrimination.--HIV/AIDS was viewed as
    a significant medical concern for the Government and society. Incidents
    of violence against this group were usually isolated events, and the
    Ministry of Labor partnered with the International Labor Organization
    (ILO) to launch an HIV antidiscrimination program in the workplace.

    Section 7. Worker Rights
        a. The Right of Association.--The law provides that all workers,
    including those in state-owned enterprises, may form and join
    independent unions of their own choosing without prior authorization.
    The law also provides for mandatory recognition of a trade union when
    it represents 51 percent or more of the workers in a specified
    bargaining unit. The Government's Registration and Certification Board,
    however, determines whether a given workers' organization meets the
    definition of a bargaining unit and can limit union recognition by this
    means. The Industrial Relations Act (IRA) does not recognize domestic
    workers (maids, chauffeurs, gardeners, etc.), and they do not have the
    right to join a union. The Government was consistently unwilling to
    negotiate with public sector unions and refused to amend its
    legislation on ``essential services'' and collective bargaining to
    conform to ILO conventions. According to the National Trade Union
    Center, one of two umbrella organizations in the labor movement,
    approximately 20 percent of the workforce was organized in
    approximately 24 active unions. The percentage of workers represented
    by a union fell as employers increasingly relied on contract employees
    who were not covered by unions.
        The law allows unions to conduct their activities without
    interference; however, there were heavy restrictions on strikes.
    Employees in essential services, such as police and teachers, do not
    have the right to strike, and walkouts can bring punishment of up to 18
    months in prison. These employees negotiate with the Government's chief
    personnel officer to resolve labor disputes. The IRA stipulates that
    only strikes over unresolved interest disputes may take place and that
    strikes may be prohibited at the request of one party if not called by
    a majority union.

        b. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively.--The law allows
    unions to participate in collective bargaining, although there were
    heavy restrictions on the practice. According to the International
    Trade Union Confederation, collective bargaining was restricted by the
    requirement that, to obtain bargaining rights, a union must have the
    support of an absolute majority of workers. Furthermore, collective
    agreements must be for a minimum of three years, making it almost
    impossible for workers on short-term contracts to be covered by such
    agreements. According to the National Trade Union Center, the
    requirement that all negotiations must go through the Public Sector
    Negotiation Committee, rather than with the individual government
    agency or government-owned industry, is another heavy restriction that
    adds significant time delays.
        The law mandates that workers illegally dismissed for union
    activities must be reinstated. A union also may bring a request for
    enforcement to the Industrial Court, which may order employers found
    guilty of antiunion activities to reinstate workers and pay
    compensation or may impose other penalties, including imprisonment.
        There are several export processing zones, where the same labor
    laws are in effect as in the rest of the country.

        c. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor.--Although the law
    does not specifically prohibit forced or compulsory labor, there were
    no reports that such practices occurred.

        d. Prohibition of Child Labor and Minimum Age for Employment.--The
    law sets the minimum age for employment in public and private
    industries at 16. However, children ages 14 to 16 may work in
    activities in which only family members are employed or that have been
    approved as vocational or technical training by the minister of
    education. Children under the age of 18 are prohibited from working
    between the hours of 10 p.m. and 5 a.m., except in a family enterprise
    or within other limited exceptions. Violation of these regulations is
    punishable by fines.
        The Ministry of Labor and Small and Micro Enterprise Development
    and the Ministry of the People and Social Development are responsible
    for enforcing child labor laws. The Government trained 19 inspectors to
    identify cases of child labor. The minister of labor may designate an
    inspector to gather information from parents and employers regarding
    the employment of a person under the age of 18. The Industrial Court
    may issue a finding of contempt on anyone obstructing the inspectors'
    investigation. Although the Government was generally effective in
    enforcing child labor laws, there were a very few reports of children
    working in agriculture or as domestic workers.
        The Ministry of the People and Social Development continued to
    slowly implement its Revised National Plan of Action for Children,
    which includes specific goals for combating commercial sexual
    exploitation of children and exploitive child labor. The Government
    also participated in a regional initiative to combat the worst forms of
    child labor, implemented by the ILO's Program for the Elimination of
    Child Labor. However, the Government did not have comprehensive
    mechanisms for receiving, investigating, and resolving child labor
    complaints. Consequently, it was unclear how many complaints related to
    child labor were received and if any children who work might have been
    involved in exploitive labor situations.

        e. Acceptable Conditions of Work.--The Ministry of Labor has a
    tripartite minimum wage committee, with input from trade unions and
    private sector leaders. The committee provides a recommendation for
    setting the minimum wage, which then is brought to cabinet by the
    minister. The national minimum wage was TT$9 ($1.43) per hour, which
    did not provide a decent standard of living for a worker and family.
    The Government provided limited food assistance for poor families
    through a conditional cash transfer program. Actual wages varied
    considerably among industries.
        The law establishes a 40-hour workweek, a daily period for lunch or
    rest, and premium pay for overtime. The law does not prohibit excessive
    or compulsory overtime.
        Health and safety regulations apply to all workers, regardless of
    citizenship. Foreign laborers brought into the country were generally
    protected by local labor laws, a stipulation usually contained in their
    labor contract.
        The law protects workers who file complaints with the Labor
    Ministry regarding illegal or hazardous working conditions. If
    complainants refuse to comply with an order that would place them in
    danger, and if it is determined upon inspection that hazardous
    conditions exist in the workplace, the complainants are absolved from
    blame.

                                   __________

                                    URUGUAY

        The Oriental Republic of Uruguay, with a population of
    approximately 3.4 million, is a constitutional republic with an elected
    president and a bicameral legislature. In November 2009 in a free and
    fair runoff election, Jose Mujica won a five-year presidential term and
    a majority in parliament. Mujica entered office on March 1. Uruguay has
    a multiparty electoral system with three major parties. Security forces
    reported to civilian authorities.
        Principal human rights abuses included severe overcrowding, inhuman
    conditions, and disrepair in the prison system; violence against women;
    and trafficking in persons.

                            RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

    Section 1. Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom
            From:
        a. Arbitrary or Unlawful Deprivation of Life.--There were no
    reports that the Government or its agents committed any politically
    motivated killings; however, police killed one person.
        In September the Government moved to prosecute a police officer for
    homicide and three police officers for concealment after killing a 23
    year-old man who fled instead of complying with an order to stop his
    vehicle. Authorities accused the officers of justifying their actions
    by leaving a firearm on the passenger seat of the victim's vehicle to
    make it appear that they had been attacked.
        There was no information available about the case of the police
    chief and three police officers who faced trial in connection with the
    2008 strangulation death of a detainee.
        The Government continued to investigate the serious human rights
    violations committed during the 1973-85 military dictatorship. In 2009
    a judge sentenced former military dictator Gregorio Alvarez to 25 years
    of prison for his role in aggravated homicides and disappearances. An
    appeals court confirmed this sentence in August and, in November, ruled
    that amnesty was unconstitutional in a number of cases involving human
    rights violations during the dictatorship.
        In February a court convicted and sentenced Juan Maria Bordaberry,
    the democratically elected president in office during the first years
    of the military rule, to 30 years in prison for the same crimes.
    Alvarez was serving his sentence in a military prison, and Bordaberry
    was under house arrest due to poor health.
        In November General Miguel Dalmao and Colonel Jose Chialanza were
    prosecuted on the charge of aggravated homicide and sent to prison
    pending trial for their complicity in the death of Nibia Sabalsagaray.
    Sabalsagaray died from torture during the military dictatorship in
    1974. Dalmao was the first active-duty military officer prosecuted for
    human rights violations in the country.

        b. Disappearance.--There were no reports of politically motivated
    disappearances.

        c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or
    Punishment.--The law prohibits such practices, and there were no
    reports that government officials employed them.

        Prison and Detention Center Conditions.--Prison conditions
    continued to be poor, as the Government did not adequately maintain
    aging facilities and provided insufficient resources for the prison
    system.
        Overcrowding was a significant problem despite the Government's
    efforts to build more prison facilities. According to government
    figures, the total prisoner population as of August 31 exceeded design
    capacity by 1,976 prisoners, or 29 percent (the prison ombudsman's 2009
    report defined 20 percent overcrowding as ``critical''). Additionally,
    many necessities were lacking and many prisoners depended on visitors
    for enough food to reach the daily minimum caloric intake.
        Prisoner-on-prisoner violence continued to be a daily problem,
    partially due to the lack of a separate, high-security prison for
    violent criminals. A high percentage of prisoners reportedly used
    drugs.
        Fire hazards and violence continued to plague the prison system. In
    2009 there were 39 deaths due to violence, and fires in prisons were
    reported. In July a cell fire killed 12 prisoners in Rocha Province. In
    August 5 prisoners perished in a cell fire in Comcar Prison in
    Montevideo. The fires started due to handcrafted heaters that set
    makeshift partitions on fire. Initial investigations revealed that fire
    extinguishers were not adequately maintained in both facilities.
        In general overcrowding and understaffing in some facilities
    resulted in problems related to sanitation, ventilation, temperature,
    lighting, access to potable water, and health. Supervision of medical
    care moved to the Ministry of Public Health, which implemented a pilot
    system in July to provide basic and emergency medical care to a prison
    in rural Montevideo that housed 3,000 inmates. An Anti-Tuberculosis
    Commission report confirmed 81 cases of tuberculosis in the prison
    population in 2009.
        The General Assembly elects a prison system ombudsman who is
    responsible for monitoring and reporting to parliament on prison
    conditions in the nation's 29 detention centers. This ombudsman
    receives complaints from prisoners and may present reports and
    recommendations but may not act on behalf of prisoners and detainees to
    consider such matters as alternatives to incarceration for nonviolent
    offenders to alleviate overcrowding. The ombudsman's report does not
    improve pretrial detention, bail, and recordkeeping procedures to
    ensure that prisoners do not serve beyond the maximum sentence for the
    charged offense. The ombudsman is mandated by parliament to present an
    annual report with his observations and recommendations. The separation
    of powers makes his conclusions valuable but not mandatory to the
    judiciary.
        Government figures from the end of August recorded that there were
    8,091 male and 692 female prisoners, of whom 34 percent had been
    sentenced, while 66 percent were awaiting trial. Pretrial detainees and
    convicted criminals were held together, but female and male prisoners
    were held in separate facilities. During the year, 32 children lived in
    prison facilities with their inmate mothers.
        The Uruguayan Institute for Adolescents and Children (INAU), which
    supervises juvenile detention and is tasked with protecting abandoned
    and orphaned children under age 18, also operated institutions to hold
    minor detainees. Juveniles who committed serious crimes were
    incarcerated in juvenile detention centers, which resembled traditional
    jails and had cells. In September INAU reported 310 juveniles were
    incarcerated. Conditions in some of these facilities were similar to
    adult versions, and conditions in others worsened and security was
    tightened because of frequent escape attempts. Male juvenile
    delinquents were held in a central processing detention center in
    Montevideo for up to 60 days before their sentencing. Independent
    prison observers reported that this detention center suffered chronic
    overcrowding, often with 10 adolescents living in a cell designed for
    six. Additionally, these observers reported that some high-security
    juvenile delinquents were often held in cells with no access to natural
    light or fresh air. Female juvenile criminals were processed and held
    in separate detention centers. Most incarcerated juveniles did not
    receive formal education; however, some detention centers allowed the
    youth to receive vocational training. The prison system ombudsman
    cannot address the status and circumstances of confinement of juvenile
    offenders.
        Prisoners and detainees had reasonable access to visitors and were
    permitted religious observance. The Government permitted general prison
    visits by independent human rights observers, nongovernmental
    organizations (NGOs), religious congregations, and foreign diplomats,
    and such visits occurred during the year. In March 2009 a UN special
    rapporteur on torture issued a report on the inhumane and degrading
    conditions of the prison system. In response the Government made prison
    reforms a priority.
        The Government investigated and monitored prison and detention
    center conditions. Authorities permitted prisoners and detainees to
    submit complaints to judicial authorities without censorship and to
    request investigation of credible allegations of inhumane conditions.
    There were no reported complaints of police abuse in prisons during the
    year, which some observers attributed to fear of reprisals from prison
    staff; however, the prison ombudsman received unofficial reports of
    maltreatment. Authorities investigated credible allegations of inhumane
    conditions. The results were documented by the Ministry of the Interior
    but were not public record.
        In April the Government inaugurated ``El Molino,'' a detention
    center for 30 female prisoners with children. INAU offered kindergarten
    services to these children, and their mothers received education and
    training for their reinsertion into society. Inmates and their children
    received adequate health services.
        In June the Government created the Oficina de Supervision de
    Libertad Asistida (OSLA), a bureau within the National Directorate of
    Prisons. OSLA police officers monitor criminals who receive alternative
    sentences to perform community service work. OSLA officers are required
    to prepare individual profiles on the inmates based on psychological,
    social, legal, and labor records and to supervise their sentence term
    outside prison.
        Despite outlining many concerns, the prison ombudsman's report for
    the year identified some positive practices. The report highlighted an
    increase in prisoners in open prisons (``chacras'') in each province,
    where the detainees were involved in maintaining small land holdings:
    the continuation of a successful clinic in one of the country's largest
    prisons; and advances in providing primary education to inmates.
    Government figures reported that 45 percent of prisoners in the 29
    detention centers study or work.
        In September the Government enacted a law modifying the system of
    temporary releases (salidas transitorias). The law allows judges to
    grant up to a 72- hour weekly release for prisoners with a good record
    of conduct to work or study in the custody of and accompanied by a
    police officer wearing street clothes. According to the law, prisoners
    may choose a family member or an individual, instead of a police
    officer, as legal assurance of their compliance with the activities
    performed outside the detention center.
        The Government accelerated and amplified its program to ease the
    chronic overcrowding. On July 15, it enacted an emergency law to allow
    for a one-time budget allotment of 15 million pesos ($750,000) to build
    additional facilities and refurbish existing ones, expanding the
    capacity of the total prison system by 2,550 places; to purchase or
    rent facilities to redistribute prisoners; to purchase the necessary
    equipment to improve food, hygiene, and health conditions; to use
    military facilities to relocate prisoners; and to hire 1,500 prison
    guards and technical staff (psychologists, psychiatrists, and
    teachers). In order to comply with the plan of action, the law
    simplified bureaucratic procedures until December 31. By year's end,
    the emergency law resulted in roughly 500 additional spaces in the
    prison system, and applications for 800 new technical staff and prison
    guards were processed. The Government opened a special link in its Web
    page to post prison condition updates in order to increase
    transparency.

        d. Arbitrary Arrest or Detention.--The law prohibits arbitrary
    arrest and detention, and the Government generally observed these
    prohibitions. The law requires police to have a written warrant issued
    by a judge before making an arrest except when police apprehend the
    accused during commission of a crime, and authorities generally
    respected this provision in practice.

        Role of the Police and Security Apparatus.--Civilian authorities
    maintained effective control over the national police, and the
    Government has effective mechanisms to investigate and punish abuse and
    corruption. There were no reports of impunity involving the security
    forces during the year.
        The Ministry of the Interior's Directorate of Internal Affairs
    operated a hotline for complaints of police abuse. The directorate
    received 1,232 complaints of police abuse during the year.

        Arrest Procedures and Treatment While in Detention.--Persons were
    apprehended openly with warrants based on sufficient evidence, issued
    by a duly authorized official, and brought before an independent
    judiciary. The law provides detainees with the right to a prompt
    judicial determination of the legality of detention and requires that
    the detaining authority explain the legal grounds for the detention.
    Police may hold a detainee incommunicado for 24 hours before presenting
    the case to a judge, at which time the detainee has the right to
    counsel. The law stipulates that confessions obtained by police prior
    to a detainee's appearance before a judge and attorney (without police
    present) are not valid. A judge must investigate any detainee's claim
    of mistreatment. A lawyer assigned to each police station reports to
    the Ministry of the Interior concerning the treatment of detainees.
        For a detainee who cannot afford a lawyer, the court appoints a
    public defender at no cost to the detainee. Judges rarely granted bail
    for persons accused of crimes punishable by at least two years in
    prison. Most persons facing lesser charges were not jailed. Detainees
    were allowed prompt access to family members. Some detainees spend
    years in jail awaiting trial, and the uncertainty and length of
    detention contributed to tensions and psychological stress in the
    prisons. Trial delays were caused by lengthy legal procedures, large
    numbers of detainees, and staff shortages.

        e. Denial of Fair Public Trial.--The constitution provides for an
    independent judiciary, and the Government generally respected judicial
    independence in practice.

        Trial Procedures.--The constitution provides for the right to a
    fair trial, and an independent judiciary generally enforced this right.
        Defendants enjoy a presumption of innocence. Juries are not used;
    trial proceedings usually consist of written arguments to the judge,
    which normally are not made public. Defendants have the right to
    consult an attorney in a timely manner, and those that do not have an
    attorney are provided one at the state's expense. Only the judge,
    prosecutor, and defense attorney have access to all documents that form
    part of the written record. Defendants can confront or question
    witnesses against them and present witnesses and evidence on their
    behalf. Individual judges may elect to hear oral arguments, but most
    judges choose the written method, a major factor slowing the judicial
    process. Criminal trials are held in a circuit court. Defendants have a
    right of appeal. The law extends these rights to all citizens.

        Political Prisoners and Detainees.--There were no reports of
    political prisoners or detainees.

        Civil Judicial Procedures and Remedies.--There are transparent
    administrative procedures to handle complaints of abuse against
    government agents. An independent and impartial judiciary handled civil
    disputes, but its decisions were ineffectively enforced. Local police
    lacked the training and work force to enforce restraining orders, which
    often were generated during civil disputes.

        f. Arbitrary Interference With Privacy, Family, Home, or
    Correspondence.--The law prohibits such actions, and the Government
    generally respected these prohibitions in practice.

    Section 2. Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:
        a. Freedom of Speech and Press.--The law provides for freedom of
    speech and of the press, and the Government generally respected these
    rights in practice. An independent press, an effective judiciary, and a
    functioning democratic political system combined to ensure freedom of
    speech and of the press.

        Internet Freedom.--There were no government restrictions on access
    to the Internet or reports that the Government monitored e-mail or
    Internet chat rooms. Individuals and groups could engage in the
    peaceful expression of views via the Internet, including by e-mail.
        The International Telecommunication Union reported that in 2009
    Internet penetration in Uruguay was 38 percent. Internet access was
    widely available and used by citizens; many restaurants, cafes, and
    public areas had free WiFi access.

        Academic Freedom and Cultural Events.--There were no government
    restrictions on academic freedom or cultural events.

        b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association.--The law provides
    for freedom of assembly and association, and the Government generally
    respected these rights in practice.

        c. Freedom of Religion.--For a complete description of religious
    freedom, please see the 2010 International Religious Freedom Report at
    www.state.gov/g/drl/irf/rpt.

        d. Freedom of Movement, Internally Displaced Persons, Protection of
    Refugees, and Stateless Persons.--The law provides for freedom of
    movement within the country, foreign travel, emigration, and
    repatriation, and the Government generally respected these rights in
    practice. The Government cooperated with the Office of the UN High
    Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and other humanitarian organizations
    in providing protection and assistance to internally displaced persons,
    refugees, returning refugees, asylum seekers, stateless persons, and
    other persons of concern. The law provides that in extreme cases of
    national emergency, an individual may be given the option to leave the
    country as an alternative to trial or imprisonment, but this option has
    not been exercised in at least two decades.

        Protection of Refugees.--The laws provide for the granting of
    refugee status, and the Government has established a system for
    providing protection to refugees. The Government granted refugee status
    and grants asylum only for political crimes as set forth in the 1928
    Treaty of Havana, the 1889 Treaty of Montevideo, and the 1954 Caracas
    Convention. In 2009 the Government signed a UNHCR framework agreement
    to accept 15 additional refugees per year. The NGO Servicio Ecumenico
    Para la Dignidad Humana, a member of the National Refugee Committee and
    a UNHCR partner, reported that there are 174 refugees in the country.
    During the year the Government accepted 10 Colombians resettled from
    Ecuador under the ``Plan de Reasentamiento Solidario de Mexico de
    2004.'' While the Government received nine refugee applications through
    the normal UNHCR process, it granted refugee status to only one.
        In practice the Government provided protection against the
    expulsion or return of refugees to countries where their lives or
    freedom would be threatened on account of their race, religion,
    nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political
    opinion. In conjunction with UNHCR, the Government supported
    repatriation of refugees upon request of the individual.

    Section 3. Respect for Political Rights: The Right of Citizens to
            Change Their Government
        The law provides citizens with the right to change their government
    peacefully, and citizens exercised this right in practice through
    periodic, free, and fair elections held based on universal suffrage.

        Elections and Political Participation.--In November 2009 Jose
    Mujica of the incumbent Frente Amplio (Broad Front) coalition won a
    five-year presidential term in a free and fair runoff election. The
    runoff followed a series of party primaries in June 2009 and a free and
    fair first-round election among the four leading parties in October
    2009. President Mujica took office on March 1.
        In parliamentary elections in October 2009, the Frente Amplio won
    16 of 30 seats in the Senate and 50 of 99 seats in the House of
    Representatives.
        Political parties operated without restrictions or outside
    interference.
        Women participated actively in the political process and
    government, although primarily at lower and middle levels. Four
    senators and 12 representatives are women. Two of the 13 cabinet
    ministers are women.
        There were no members of minorities in parliament. There was one
    member of a minority in the cabinet.

    Section 4. Official Corruption and Government Transparency
        The law provides criminal penalties for official corruption, and
    the Government generally implemented these laws effectively. There were
    some formal and informal reports of police corruption, which
    authorities addressed with appropriate legal action. In July a scandal
    involving fraudulent purchases in the Navy was widely reported. The
    investigation continued and many high-ranking Navy officials stepped
    down and/or were criminally charged.
        Public officials are subject to financial disclosure laws. A
    government commission on economic and financial matters collects sworn
    financial statements from public servants, including the president.
        Although there is no general public disclosure law, the Government
    requires all government agencies to produce regular public reports. All
    agencies complied with these reporting requirements.

    Section 5. Governmental Attitude Regarding International and
            Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations of Human
            Rights
        A number of domestic and international human rights groups
    generally operated without government restriction, investigating and
    publishing their findings on human rights cases. Government officials
    were generally cooperative and responsive to their views.
        In September the UN special rapporteur on trafficking in persons
    visited the country. She recommended that the Government support more
    in-depth statistical research, increase campaigns to raise awareness,
    and train more government, law enforcement, and judiciary officials.

    Section 6. Discrimination, Societal Abuses, and Trafficking in Persons
        The law prohibits discrimination based on race, gender, disability,
    language, or social status, and the Government generally enforced these
    prohibitions effectively, although societal discrimination against some
    groups persisted.
        The Commission Against Racism, Xenophobia, and All Forms of
    Discrimination, headed by the Ministry of Education and Culture's
    director of human rights and including government, religious, and civil
    society representatives, proposes policies and specific measures to
    prevent and combat racism, xenophobia, and discrimination. Since its
    creation in 2007, the commission investigated 70 claims from Afro-
    Uruguayans, persons with disabilities, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and
    transgender (LGBT) persons. There were five cases brought to the
    commission's attention during the year, only one of which it referred
    for legal action. The commission considered the other cases not valid
    for its action or handled them through mediation or other means.

        Women.--The law criminalizes rape, including spousal rape. The law
    allows for sentences of two to 12 years' imprisonment for a person
    found guilty of rape. According to Ministry of Interior statistics,
    between January and December there were 227 cases of rape and 84 cases
    of attempted rape.
        The Ministry of Interior believed that some victims of spousal rape
    did not report such incidents because of failure to understand their
    rights and fear of social stigma.
        The Ministry of Interior reported 11,255 cases of domestic violence
    of which 35 cases resulted in murder. The law allows for sentences of
    six months to two years in prison for a person found guilty of
    committing an act of violence or making continued threats to cause
    bodily injury to persons related emotionally or legally to the
    perpetrator. Civil courts decided most of the domestic cases during the
    year. Judges in these cases often issued restraining orders, which were
    difficult to enforce. In many instances, courts did not apply criminal
    penalties.
        In October the Government approved the creation of domestic
    violence units in police headquarters in the interior. Human resources
    and budget assignments are allotted by taking into account the
    prevalence of domestic violence in each region.
        Additionally, representatives of the Uruguayan Network against
    Domestic and Sexual Violence formally denounced the Government at the
    Human Rights Committee of the Organization of American States for
    failing to protect women who die in the country as victims of domestic
    violence, despite having presented formal complaints and often
    receiving restraining orders or other preventive measures ruled by the
    judiciary. The network represented 34 NGOs in the country.
        The Montevideo municipal government funded a free nation-wide
    hotline operated by trained NGO employees for victims of domestic
    violence. The Ministry of Social Development, INAU, and NGOs operated
    shelters in which abused women and their families could seek temporary
    refuge.
        The law prohibits sexual harassment in the workplace and punishes
    it by fines or dismissal. The law establishes guidelines for the
    prevention of sexual harassment in the workplace and in student-
    professor relations and defines a system of damages for victims.
        Couples and individuals had the right to decide freely and
    responsibly the number, spacing, and timing of their children and had
    the information and means to do so free from discrimination, coercion,
    and violence. Access to information on contraception and skilled
    attendance at delivery and in postpartum care were widely available.
    The Population Reference Bureau reported contraceptive use of 75
    percent among married women. The UN Population Fund reported in 2008
    that the maternal mortality ratio was 27 deaths per 100,000 live
    births. Women and men had equal access to diagnostic services and
    treatment for sexually transmitted infections, including HIV.
        Under the law, women enjoy the same rights as men, including rights
    under family and property law. However, they faced discrimination
    stemming from traditional attitudes and practices, and no gender
    discrimination cases have ever been litigated. The law declares a state
    interest in gender equality and decrees the creation of the National
    Plan for Equal Rights and Opportunity. The National Institute for Women
    supervised the work of a Tripartite Committee on Equal Opportunities
    and Employment, which includes a subcommittee on gender consideration
    in salaries and benefits. There was some segregation by gender in the
    workforce. Women constituted almost half of the workforce but tended to
    be concentrated in lower-paying jobs, with salaries averaging two-
    thirds those of men.

        Children.--Citizenship is derived by birth within the country's
    territory or through one's parents. The Government immediately
    registers all births.
        There were few reports of physical or sexual child abuse.
        Some minors engaged in prostitution and forced labor. INAU found
    that they sometimes did so at the request of their families to increase
    income. The minimum age for consensual sex is 12 years old. When a
    sexual union takes place with a minor under the age of 15, violence is
    presumed and statutory rape laws, which carry a penalty of two to 12
    years in prison, can be applied. However, minors between the age of 12
    and 15 can legally agree to consensual sex; if they consent, any
    presumed violence is waived. Penalties for pimping children range from
    four to 16 years in prison. Child pornography is illegal, and penalties
    range from one to two years in prison. The International Criminal
    Police Organization (INTERPOL) continued to uncover child pornography
    material produced in the country and available on the Internet through
    servers located in central Europe. Interpol and the Ministry of
    Interior authorities responded promptly to one child pornography case
    that became known in June. The authorities, working with information
    received from UK law enforcement officials via INTERPOL, tracked down a
    computer server where child pornography was stored. Authorities
    arrested the producer of the pornography and prosecuted him under the
    child pornography law.
        INAU provided funding for a number of NGOs that had programs to
    assist at-risk children, as well as victims of domestic violence and
    sexual exploitation. Assistance to trafficking victims was provided on
    a case-by-case basis. The Integral System to Protect Children and
    Adolescents Against Violence, an interagency workgroup that provided
    training and awareness-raising campaigns and promoted legislative
    advancements for the protection of children and adolescents, operated
    10 centers to provide assistance to victims of child abuse.
        The country is a party to the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil
    Aspects of International Child Abduction For information on
    international parental child abduction, please see the Department of
    State's annual Report on the Compliance with the Hague Convention on
    the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction at http://
    travel.state.gov/abduction/resources/congressreport/congressreport--
    4308.html.

        Anti-Semitism.--Jewish community leaders reported that government
    officials and society generally respected members of their community,
    which numbered approximately 18,000 to 20,000 according to the Jewish
    Central Committee. Jewish leaders reported effective cooperation with
    police investigating incidents of anti-Semitism.

        Trafficking in Persons.--For information on trafficking in persons,
    please see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons
    Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        Persons With Disabilities.--The law prohibits discrimination
    against persons with disabilities, but the Government did not
    effectively enforce these provisions. Local entities did not devote
    resources to provide appropriate accommodations. Persons with
    disabilities reported discrimination in employment despite government
    efforts to assist in individual cases. The Government did not
    discriminate against persons with disabilities but did not provide
    sufficient services such as transportation, which inhibited some
    persons from accessing these services.
        The Uruguayan Institute for Educational Psychology reported that
    school-age children with disabilities, such as blindness or Down's
    syndrome, received specially adapted laptops under Plan Ceibal (one
    laptop per child).
        A national disabilities commission oversees implementation of a law
    on the rights of persons with disabilities. The law mandating
    accessibility for persons with disabilities to new buildings or public
    services was not consistently enforced. The law reserves 4 percent of
    public sector jobs for persons with physical and mental disabilities,
    but the quota went unfilled.

        National/Racial/Ethnic Minorities.--The country's Afro-Uruguayan
    minority continued to face societal discrimination. A National Bureau
    of Statistics study stated that Afro-Uruguayans are 10 percent of the
    population and indigenous descendents constituted another 3 percent. A
    July 2009 study concluded that 43 percent of Afro-Uruguayans were poor,
    with 5 percent living in extreme poverty. The study concluded that race
    is one of the factors responsible for socioeconomic inequality in the
    country. The NGO Mundo Afro stated that the percentage of Afro-
    Uruguayans working as unskilled laborers was much larger than for
    members of other groups in society, despite equivalent levels of
    education. Afro-Uruguayans were underrepresented throughout government
    and academia and in the middle and upper echelons of private-sector
    firms.
        The Government did not fully implement initiatives to increase
    visibility and improve communication amongst the Afro-Uruguayan
    community. For example, Mundo Afro appointed advisors to each ministry,
    but these advisors have had extremely limited roles and do not receive
    financial support. The Government did support the creation of a
    commission to draft the first National Plan Against Racism and
    Discrimination. The Government also continued its outreach to the Afro-
    Uruguayan community for participation in the Quijano Scholarship
    Program for postgraduate work. Afro-Uruguayan community
    representatives, however, sought programs focused more on undergraduate
    education, noting that only 1 percent of Afro-Uruguayans attend
    college. For the last two years, the National Police Academy has
    included discrimination awareness training as part of its curriculum.

        Societal Abuses, Discrimination, and Acts of Violence Based on
    Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.--No laws criminalize sexual
    orientation, and authorities widely protected the rights of the LGBT
    community. The LGBT community benefits from many rights, specifically,
    the right to civil union for same-sex couples, the right for same-sex
    couples to adopt, and the right for transgender individuals to change
    their gender. However, the technical commission that reviews applicants
    who want to formally request a change of gender has not yet been
    formed; therefore, the right for transgender individuals to change
    their gender exists only in theory and not in practice.
        In September the LGBT community joined with other civil rights and
    gender-rights groups in an annual ``Diversity March,'' which drew
    nearly 10,000 participants. Police generally afforded protection to the
    LGBT community. Hate crimes were rare, but there were isolated reports
    of street violence against individuals leaving gay bars; the police did
    not intervene in these incidents. There were occasional reports of
    nonviolent societal discrimination based on sexual orientation and
    gender identity.

        Other Societal Violence or Discrimination.--There were isolated
    reports of societal discrimination against persons with HIV/AIDS.

    Section 7. Worker Rights
        a. The Right of Association.--The constitution grants the right of
    association, and the law promotes organization of trade unions,
    creation of arbitration bodies, and protects union leaders and
    negotiators from workplace discrimination. Unions traditionally
    organized and operated free of government regulation. Civil servants,
    employees of state-run enterprises, and private-enterprise workers may
    join unions. Legal foreign workers may join unions.
        Unionization was higher in the public sector (more than 42 percent)
    than in the private sector (approximately 10 percent). Agricultural
    workers are not formally represented within the national labor union
    system.
        The constitution provides workers with the right to strike, and
    workers exercised this right in practice.

        b. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively.--The law allows
    unions to conduct their activities without interference, and the
    Government protected this right. The law also protects collective
    bargaining, and it was freely practiced.
        Collective bargaining between companies and their unions determines
    a number of private-sector salaries. The executive branch, acting
    independently, determines public-sector salaries.
        The law regulates collective bargaining and grants the Government a
    large role in adjudicating labor disputes. A Superior Tripartite
    Council is made up of 21 officials: nine from the executive branch of
    government, six from the business community, and six from organized
    labor. This council administers the salary councils and has authority
    to make determinations related to labor negotiations. The law also
    designates trade unions to negotiate on behalf of workers whose
    companies are not unionized.
        The law expressly prohibits antiunion discrimination and requires
    employers to reinstate workers fired for union activities and pay an
    indemnity to such workers. The Ministry of Labor's Collective
    Bargaining Division investigates antiunion discrimination claims filed
    by union members. There were generally effective mechanisms for
    resolving workers' complaints against employers. In February a new law
    (No. 18.572) that shortened procedures for resolving disputes went into
    effect. An employer is informed in advance of the reason for the claim
    and the alleged amount owed to the worker. However, articles of the law
    have been deemed unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of Justice and,
    in practice, the processes to resolve disputes have not been shortened.
        All labor legislation fully covers workers employed in the 12 free
    trade zones. No unions operated in these zones, but the Government did
    not prohibit their formation.

        c. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor.--The law prohibits
    forced or compulsory labor, including by children; however, there were
    reports that some child labor occurred.

        d. Prohibition of Child Labor and Minimum Age for Employment.--The
    law protects children against exploitation in the workplace, including
    a prohibition of forced or compulsory labor. The Ministry of Labor and
    Social Security is responsible for enforcing it. Enforcement was
    difficult due to a lack of resources and because most child labor
    occurred in the informal sector. The Government's National Committee
    for the Eradication of Child Labor estimated that 8 percent of children
    and adolescents between the ages of eight and 17 years old worked. Some
    children worked as street vendors in the informal sector or in
    agricultural activities; these were areas generally less strictly
    regulated and in which pay was lower than in the formal sector. There
    were isolated reports of parents transferring their children to third
    parties for domestic service or agricultural work in exchange for food
    and lodging.
        The law prohibits minors under the age of 15 from working, and this
    was generally enforced in practice. Minors between the ages of 15 and
    18 require government permission to work and must undergo physical
    exams to identify possible exposure to job-related physical harm.
    Permits are not granted for hazardous or fatiguing work. Children
    between the ages of 15 and 18 may not work more than six hours per day
    within a 36-hour workweek and may not work between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.
        Violations of child labor laws are generally punishable by fines
    but may extend to imprisonment of three months to four years.
        INAU implemented policies to prevent and regulate child labor and
    provided training on child labor issues. INAU also worked closely with
    the Ministry of Labor and Social Security to investigate complaints of
    child labor and with the Ministry of Interior to prosecute cases. INAU
    had five trained inspectors to handle an estimated 1,250 inspections
    per year.

        e. Acceptable Conditions of Work.--The Ministry of Labor and Social
    Security enforces a legislated minimum monthly wage that covers both
    the public and private sectors. The ministry adjusts the minimum wage
    whenever public sector wages are adjusted. The monthly minimum wage of
    4,799 pesos (approximately $240) functioned more as an index for
    calculating wage rates than as a true measure of minimum subsistence
    levels; it did not provide a decent standard of living for a worker and
    family. The vast majority of workers earned more than the minimum wage.
    While there are no known mechanisms for enforcement, observers believed
    companies generally complied with the regulations.
        The standard workweek ranged from 44 to 48 hours, depending on the
    industry, and employers were required to give workers a 36-hour block
    of free time each week. The law stipulates that industrial workers
    receive overtime compensation for work in excess of 48 hours, entitles
    workers to 20 days of paid vacation after a year of employment, and
    prohibits compulsory overtime beyond a maximum 50-hour workweek.
        The law protects foreign workers and does not discriminate against
    them, but official protection requires the companies to report the
    foreign workers as employees. Many citizens and foreign workers were
    employed informally and thus did not benefit from certain legal
    protections.
        The Ministry of Labor and Social Security enforced legislation
    regulating health and safety conditions in a generally effective
    manner. However, some of the regulations cover urban industrial workers
    more adequately than rural and agricultural workers. Workers have the
    right to remove themselves from what they consider hazardous or
    dangerous conditions without jeopardy to their employment; the
    Government effectively upheld this right, although some workers claimed
    a subsequent loss of other privileges at work based on their refusal to
    work in unsafe conditions.

                                   __________

                                   VENEZUELA

        Venezuela is a multiparty constitutional democracy with a
    population of approximately 28 million. In 2006 voters reelected
    President Hugo Chavez Frias of the Fifth Republic Movement party.
    International observer missions deemed the elections generally free and
    fair but noted some irregularities. On September 26, voters elected 165
    deputies to the National Assembly. Voting on election day was generally
    free and fair with scattered reports of irregularities. However,
    domestic election observers and opposition political parties criticized
    both the electoral law, claiming it violated the constitutional
    principle of proportionality, and the Government's partisan use of
    state-owned media. There were instances in which elements of the
    security forces acted independently of civilian control.
        The following human rights problems were reported by
    nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), the media, and in some cases the
    Government itself: unlawful killings, including summary executions of
    criminal suspects; widespread criminal kidnappings for ransom; prison
    violence and harsh prison conditions; inadequate juvenile detention
    centers; arbitrary arrests and detentions; corruption and impunity in
    police forces; corruption, inefficiency, and politicization in a
    judicial system characterized by trial delays and violations of due
    process; political prisoners and selective prosecution for political
    purposes; infringement of citizens' privacy rights; restrictions on
    freedom of expression; government threats to sanction or close
    television stations and newspapers; corruption at all levels of
    government; threats against domestic NGOs; violence against women;
    trafficking in persons; and restrictions on workers' right of
    association.

                            RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

    Section 1. Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom
            From:
        a. Arbitrary or Unlawful Deprivation of Life.--The Government or
    its agents did not commit any politically motivated killings; however,
    security forces were accused of committing unlawful killings, including
    summary executions of criminal suspects.
        There were several reports that security forces allegedly committed
    arbitrary or unlawful deprivations of life. The human rights NGO
    Venezuelan Program of Action and Education in Human Rights (PROVEA)
    reported 237 deaths due to security force actions from October 2009
    through September 2010, a 15-percent increase compared with the
    previous year. The causes of death were categorized as 199 executions,
    nine cases of excessive use of force, 16 cases of indiscriminate use of
    force, 10 cases of torture or cruel treatment, and three cases of
    negligence.
        Prosecutors occasionally brought cases against such perpetrators.
    Sentences frequently were light, and convictions often were overturned
    on appeal. According to PROVEA, 463 public officials were involved in
    extrajudicial killings in 2009, the last year for which statistics were
    available. There was no information available on the numbers of public
    officials who received prison sentences for involvement in
    extrajudicial killings.
        On September 1, 19-year-old Wilmer Jose Flores Barrios was killed
    in Aragua State, making him the sixth member of his family to be killed
    since 1998. Since 2004 the Barrios family, including Wilmer, had been
    under protection orders issued by the Inter-American Commission on
    Human Rights (IACHR). The IACHR ``deplored the fact that members of the
    Barrios family in Venezuela have been executed extrajudicially without
    the State having adopted measures to protect the life of these persons
    or to investigate these crimes.'' The IACHR described at least five of
    the family's murders as extrajudicial executions perpetrated by Aragua
    state police agents. On July 26, the IACHR submitted the Barrios family
    case to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, noting that the
    Government ``did not provide effective protection measures'' and that
    ``the facts of the case fall within a more general context of
    extrajudicial executions in Venezuela by regional police forces, a
    situation the Inter-American Commission has been following closely
    through various mechanisms'' (see section 1.e.).
        There were no known developments in the prosecution of three Merida
    policemen, one member of the Bolivarian Intelligence Service (SEBIN),
    formerly the Directorate of Intelligence and Prevention Services
    (DISIP), and one civilian in the January 2009 killing of eight young
    persons in a cafe in El Vigia, Merida. The accused remained in the Coro
    Penitentiary pending trial.
        On October 22, the court convicted and sentenced Merida police
    inspector Julio Cesar Carucci to imprisonment for 17 years and six
    months as the material author of the April 2009 killing of student
    leader Yuban Ortega during a demonstration in Merida. Two other police
    officers, Jose Oscar Angel Davila and Pablo Emilio Parra Hernandez,
    were each sentenced to imprisonment for three years, one month, and 15
    days for improper use of weapons and violation of international
    agreements.
        There was no information available about the investigation into the
    May 2009 killing of Anderson Naranjo by 10 individuals dressed as El
    Valle police officials.
        There was no information available about the investigation of two
    Caracas Police Department members, Alejandro Guerra and Jorge Corrales,
    for their alleged involvement in the May 2009 killing of taxi driver
    Freddy Jose Castillin. They remained detained at year's end.
        On October 6, Yeres Smith Reyes and Victoriano Gonzalez Teran
    confessed and were sentenced to imprisonment for 11 years and four
    months for the June 2009 killing of psychologist Ana Matilde Raimondi
    de Bellorin. The trial against two other suspects, Wilmer Flores
    Monsalve and Leonel Matos Gonzalez, remained pending at year's end. The
    four were members of the Libertador Municipal Police Department.
        On June 23, the court sentenced Lieutenant Saher Ernesto Delgado
    Marchan and Sergeant Dirga Miguel Rodriguez Martinez to 18 years in
    prison for the 2008 beating and killing of Jean Carlos Rondon in
    Monagas State. Three other suspects were acquitted.
        There was no information available about the investigation into the
    2008 killing of Roger Oscar Avila by unknown assailants dressed as
    Caracas Metropolitan Police.
        There were no known developments in the 2008 shooting and killing
    of El Rodeo jail inmate Miguel Hiroyuki Baba Barroyeta and the injuring
    of five individuals (inmates Alexander Jose Gonzalez Mosquera, Renato
    Javier Rea Noguera, and Hector Luis Solorzano Dias as well as National
    Guardsman Victor Eduardo Salcedo Ochoa and driver Manuel Eloy
    Gonzales), which occurred while the inmates were in custody and being
    transferred from court to prison. According to the prosecutor general,
    the shooting resulted from prisoners attempting to seize weapons and
    escape.
        There were no known developments in the trial of 10 Lara state
    police officers charged in the so-called Massacre of Chabasquen in
    2008, in which six persons (including four minors) were tortured and
    killed in Portuguesa State. The accused remained in prison pending
    trial.
        There were multiple developments during the year in connection with
    the 1989 killings in Caracas known as the ``Caracazo.''
        On February 24, the Public Ministry claimed to have successfully
    exhumed the remains of 47 persons who may have been killed during the
    Caracazo. Identification of the 47 victims (10 female and 37 male)
    remained underway at year's end. Representatives from The Committee of
    Family Members of the Events that Occurred between February 27 and the
    First Days of March of 1989 (COFAVIC), an NGO representing the families
    of many of the victims, were not allowed to be present during the
    exhumation of victims' remains.
        Throughout the year COFAVIC urged the Government to permit experts
    from the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team to participate in the
    exhumation process, identification of the victims, and collection of
    forensic evidence; to designate a neutral location rather than military
    or police facilities to perform the forensic examinations; and to
    provide full access to its files by the victims' families and lawyers.
    By year's end the Prosecutor General's Office had not responded to
    COFAVIC's requests.
        In February and March the Public Ministry and COFAVIC engaged in a
    dispute over COFAVIC's records containing postmortem and other
    information on the victims. COFAVIC claimed the information had been
    provided confidentially to COFAVIC by victims' families. On February
    26, the prosecutor general threatened COFAVIC with legal charges for
    failure to turn over the information, and on March 1, the director of
    the litigation office of the Prosecutor General's Office accused
    COFAVIC of refusing to cooperate with the Government's investigation of
    the Caracazo. COFAVIC claimed the requested information had already
    been provided to the Government by COFAVIC (on November 26, 1990, and
    on November 24, 2009), the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (on
    July 5, 1998), and family members. COFAVIC also charged that the
    Government's statements constituted a serious threat against COFAVIC
    and the families of the Caracazo victims. On March 4, the World
    Organization against Torture, in conjunction with the International
    Federation of Human Rights, publicly called on the Government to
    immediately end its harassment of COFAVIC and to guarantee the security
    and safety of its members.
        On March 18, the Supreme Court approved the March 1 extradition
    request submitted by Prosecutor General Luisa Ortega Diaz for former
    president Carlos Andres Perez in connection with his alleged
    involvement in the Caracazo; Perez died outside the country on December
    25.
        The Public Ministry also announced it was investigating 336
    individuals for their alleged involvement in the Caracazo.
        On March 19, the Public Ministry charged former minister of defense
    Italo Del Valle Alliegro with premeditated homicide and violating
    treaties and international conventions in connection with the Caracazo.
    On June 28, the Ninth Court of Appeals in Caracas dismissed the charges
    asserting the period for filing charges had lapsed. On July 2, the
    Public Ministry asked the Supreme Court to reopen the case. On July 21,
    the Supreme Court announced the dismissal or suspension of 16 judges,
    including the dismissal of two provisional judges, Jose Alfonso Dugarte
    and Juan Carlos Villegas, and the suspension of the third, Angel Zerpa,
    involved in this case. On July 29, the Supreme Court declared the
    appeals court judges' decision to have been an ``inexcusable error.''
        On May 14, the Public Ministry charged the former Caracas Strategic
    Command chief, General Manuel Heinz Azpurua, with premeditated homicide
    and violating treaties and international conventions in relation to the
    Caracazo.
        On May 26, the National Assembly approved 9,282,000 BsF
    ($3,570,000) in compensation for the families of 63 of the victims.
        On August 24, the prosecutor general charged retired general Jose
    Rafael Leon Orsoni with premeditated homicide and violating treaties
    and international conventions in relation to the Caracazo.
        There were no known developments in the prosecution of retired
    general Freddy Maya Cardona and the Metropolitan Police commander,
    retired general Luis Guillermo Fuentes Serra, who had been charged in
    connection with the Caracazo.
        There were no known developments in the retrial of two police
    officers for their alleged involvement in the killing of Luis Manuel
    Colmenares during the Caracazo. An appeals court had annulled their
    2003 acquittal in 2004.
        There was one development during the year in connection with the
    so-called El Amparo massacre in 1988, in which government security
    forces allegedly killed 14 persons. In January the Inter-American Court
    of Human Rights convoked a private hearing to obtain information from
    the Government regarding its implementation of the court's 1995
    decision that required reparations to the victims' families,
    continuation of the investigation of the massacre, and prosecution of
    those responsible. On February 4, the court issued a resolution
    requiring the country to implement the 1995 ruling regarding
    reparations and requesting that the Government provide a timeline by
    June 25 with its planned actions to investigate and prosecute those
    responsible for the massacre. On October 26, PROVEA called on the
    Public Ministry to give the El Amparo massacre the same attention as
    other grave human rights abuses that occurred during the 1980s (see
    section 1.e.).
        There was one development during the year in connection with the
    so-called Yumare massacre in 1986, in which nine persons were killed.
    In May former DISIP commissioner German Gustavo Justino Lamoglia
    Mendoza was arrested for his alleged involvement in the massacre. An
    investigation remained pending at year's end. The Public Ministry
    reported in August that there were 29 individuals charged in the
    massacre and 12 persons formally accused.
        There were the following developments during the year in connection
    with the so-called Cantaura massacre in 1982, in which armed forces and
    DISIP members allegedly killed 25 persons:
        Exhumation of victims' remains continued during the year. In May
    the Public Ministry reported having exhumed 17 victims' remains from
    five separate states and Caracas. On October 1, the Government
    announced the exhumation of another victim.
        On September 17, PROVEA published an open letter to President
    Chavez expressing concern about the decision of the United Socialist
    Party of Venezuela (PSUV) to nominate Roger Cordero Lara as a candidate
    for the National Assembly in the September 26 elections. PROVEA alleged
    that Cordero Lara had commanded one of the airplanes that participated
    in the bombardment of the guerrilla camp in Cantaura. Following Cordero
    Lara's election, PROVEA publicly demanded that the newly elected
    National Assembly lift his parliamentary immunity to permit an
    investigation to proceed.
        On December 10, the Public Ministry announced that alleged
    paramilitary chief Sandra Barrera Cardozo would be tried for the
    September 2009 killing of Panamericano mayor Lluvane Alvarez in Tachira
    State and the August 2009 killing of Pablo Ruiz and Willer Quintero
    Valdez. She remained detained at the Western Penitentiary Center at
    year's end. Alix Xiomara Fuentes Ortega had previously been sentenced
    to one year and six months' imprisonment for involvement in Alvarez's
    killing; two other suspects, Roberth Centeno Sanchez and Fernando
    Gonzalez Vergara, were also pending trial for the three killings.
        Societal violence remained high. The NGO Venezuelan Observatory of
    Violence (OVV) reported 16,047 killings nationwide in 2009, or 70
    killings per 100,000 inhabitants, and estimated 17,600 homicides in
    2010. The OVV reported that during the past 10 years there were 20,743
    homicides in Caracas. On August 20, the El Nacional newspaper cited a
    leaked survey by the Government's National Statistics Institute (INE)
    reporting that 19,113 persons were killed nationwide in 2009, or 75 per
    100,000 inhabitants. The OVV reported in February that in 91 percent of
    the 2009 homicide cases there had been no arrest. On August 13, El
    Nacional reported that in the first six months of 2010, police
    initiated 5,186 homicide investigations.

        b. Disappearance.--There were no substantiated reports of
    politically motivated disappearances.
        Criminal kidnappings for ransom reportedly were widespread in both
    urban centers and rural areas. The newspaper El Universal reported on
    April 12 that 405 kidnappings had occurred in the first 100 days of the
    year. However, the newspaper Ultimas Noticias reported in June that 249
    kidnappings had occurred during the first five months. The states with
    the largest numbers of kidnappings were Zulia (37 cases), Carabobo
    (29), and Anzoategui (22). According to the National Federation of
    Cattle Ranchers (Fedenaga), 382 kidnappings took place in 2009 and 157
    in the first six months of the year. However, according to the
    Government's INE survey covering July 2008-July 2009, 16,917 persons
    were victims of kidnappings, of whom only an estimated 60 percent
    reported the crime to authorities. Approximately 75 percent of the
    cases involved ``express kidnappings,'' in which the victims were held
    for several hours and then released. NGOs noted that many victims did
    not report kidnappings to police or other authorities.
        The media frequently reported the public perception of
    collaboration between police and kidnappers. According to the NGO
    Active Peace, in 2008 the average total cost to the victim of a
    kidnapping--based on an average of 12 days in captivity, a negotiator's
    fee, and ransom paid--was approximately the equivalent of 306,800 BsF
    ($118,000). Human rights NGOs reported approximately 20 percent of
    kidnapping victims were minors or students. According to the INE
    survey, an estimated 30 percent of the victims were under 25 years of
    age.
        Notable examples of the linkage between police officials and
    kidnappers included:
        On March 9, the Public Ministry charged two Caracas Metropolitan
    Police officers and a police commissioner in the March 3 kidnapping of
    a 33-year-old woman allegedly held for ransom inside the police
    headquarters of Santa Rosalia, in the El Cementerio district of
    Caracas. A trial was pending at year's end.
        On March 12, a group of 17 to 20 men allegedly dressed in Bolivar
    state police uniforms reportedly abducted Gabriel Antonio Ramirez, Jose
    Leonardo Ramirez, and Nedfrank Xavier Cona. According to press reports,
    officers on police motorcycles escorted the car transporting the
    abducted young men. The victims were reportedly working as laborers on
    new university buildings in the city of Barcelona in Anzoategui State.
    On May 27, the Prosecutor General's Office charged six police officers
    (Jhonny Moya, Simon Felice, Juan Prado, Luis Magallanes, Pedro Quero,
    and Hector Romero) from the Simon Bolivar municipality of Barcelona
    with forced disappearance, violation of the home, abuse of authority,
    and violating treaties and international conventions.
        On April 6, the Public Ministry charged three officers of the
    Scientific, Penal, and Penal Investigative Corps (CICPC) in the March
    23 kidnapping of Luis Santiago de Ponce in Antimano. The officers,
    Erarith Rafael Frias Vegas, Jose Raul Blanco Rosales, and Wilfredo
    Camacho Martinez, allegedly kidnapped Ponce at gunpoint, held him in a
    CICPC warehouse, and forced his family to pay a ransom for his return.
    A trial remained pending at year's end.

        c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or
    Punishment.--Although the constitution states that no person shall be
    subjected to cruel, inhuman, or degrading punishment, there were
    credible reports that security forces tortured and abused detainees.
    During the year the National Assembly did not act on the fourth
    transitional provision of the constitution requiring the assembly to
    adopt by 2001 either a law or a reform of the penal code to provide
    sanctions for torture. The NGO Network of Support for Justice and Peace
    reported that the lack of such a law contributed to the Government's
    failure adequately to punish officials responsible for torture; the
    lack of programs providing medical, psychological, and rehabilitation
    services to victims; and the lack of a fund to compensate victims.
        PROVEA reported that between October 2009 and September 2010 it
    received complaints alleging torture involving 36 victims and cruel,
    inhuman, and degrading treatment involving 350 victims, an 18 percent
    decrease from the 427 cases in the previous year. (PROVEA defines
    ``torture'' as methods used by state security force members to extract
    information from victims and ``cruel and inhuman treatment'' as methods
    used by those members to punish or intimidate victims.) PROVEA reported
    that 10 persons died while in state custody as a result of torture or
    cruel treatment (see section 1.a.).
        In August 2009 the Public Defender's Office reported that
    allegations of torture by the police had increased by 10 percent during
    2008. Of the 87 complaint cases filed that year, 66 resulted from
    alleged physical torture and 21 from alleged psychological torture; 62
    percent of the victims were men between 20 and 34 years of age. The
    Public Defender's Office did not publish statistics regarding
    allegations of torture by police for 2010.
        Human rights groups continued to question the commitment of the
    prosecutor general and the public defender to conduct impartial
    investigations. There were no data available on convictions in cases of
    alleged torture.
        Press and NGO reports of beatings and humiliating treatment of
    suspects during arrests were common and involved various law
    enforcement agencies. Torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading
    treatment or punishments of prisoners were reported during the year.
    Among the more notable examples were:
        On June 16 two police officers from the municipality of Guanta in
    Anzoategui State were sentenced to four years, two months, and 17 days
    in prison for the April 1 torture of a private citizen held in custody
    at the police headquarters of the town. The officers, Ramon Ernesto
    Garcia Figueroa and Robert Jose Alcala Sabino, were found guilty of
    inflicting personal injury, torture, abuse of authority, and violating
    treaties and international conventions.
        In July the NGO Venezuelan Observatory of Prisons (OVP) publicly
    denounced five cases of alleged torture during June of prisoners in the
    newly opened Yare III penitentiary and requested that the Public
    Ministry conduct an immediate and impartial investigation. The OVP did
    not receive a response to its request. These five cases included
    allegations that guards committed the following abuses: burned Mayker
    Alfredo Plazola Quintero on his nipples with a lighter, subjected him
    to electric shock, and beat him with a bar; beat Eric Jose Coello with
    an aluminum bat and a club for five days while he was in an isolation
    cell and then transferred him to the Puente Ayala penitentiary in
    Anzoategui State; beat Jhonny Anibal Hernandez with a bat and subjected
    him to electric shocks, reportedly in the presence of the prison's
    director, and as a punishment for complaining, transferred him to the
    Puente Ayala penitentiary in Anzoategui State; removed Mohamad Adul
    Raman from the general population during a roll call, placed him in an
    isolation cell, reportedly beat him with a shovel, burned his left
    shoulder with a cigarette, and transferred him to a prison hospital for
    medical treatment the following day after he suffered a series of
    convulsions; and allegedly beat 20 inmates who were being transferred
    from Yare I and reportedly later transferred them to four separate
    facilities around the country.

        Prison and Detention Center Conditions.--Prison conditions were
    harsh due to poorly trained and allegedly corrupt prison staff;
    violence and alleged extortion by guards and inmates, some gang-related
    and fueled by trafficking in arms and drugs; severe overcrowding in
    some prisons; and food and water shortages. The NGO A Window to Liberty
    reported that there were approximately 43,460 inmates in the country's
    33 prisons and penitentiaries as of October and that these prisons were
    filled 300 percent beyond capacity. Leading prison-monitoring NGOs
    estimated that there was capacity for only 12,500-14,000 inmates
    nationwide.
        Security forces and law enforcement authorities often held minors
    together with adults, even though separate facilities existed. Because
    reform institutions were filled to capacity, hundreds of children
    accused of infractions were confined in juvenile detention centers
    where they were reportedly crowded into small, unsanitary cells. Women
    and men generally were held in separate prison facilities. The OVP
    stated that while no prison had good conditions, women's facilities
    were generally less violent and healthier than those for men.
        The National Guard and the Ministry of Interior and Justice have
    responsibility for prisons' exterior and interior security,
    respectively. The Government failed to provide adequate prison
    security. On November 5, the IACHR released an annex to its press
    release on its 140th session that noted a report that the number of
    deaths in prisons had increased 25 percent from 2009, with 352 deaths
    in prison as of that date, and a 31 percent increase in injuries, with
    736 reported through the third quarter of the year. Most such deaths
    and injuries resulted from prisoner-on-prisoner violence, riots, fires,
    and generally unsanitary and unsafe conditions.
        PROVEA reported that, in the first nine months of the year, four
    inmates died and 113 were injured as a result of inmate-organized knife
    fights, commonly known as ``the coliseum,'' which occurred in the
    Uribana penitentiary in Lara State as a way to settle differences among
    prisoners. On November 9, the IACHR denounced the ``coliseum'' violence
    and stressed the Government's obligation to ensure the safety of
    inmates.
        During the year prisoners conducted hunger strikes and violent
    uprisings to protest administrative delays and harsh prison conditions.
    While prisoners and detainees were permitted religious observance and
    had access to visitors, in some cases prison officials allegedly
    harassed or abused visitors. On June 24, Amnesty International reported
    that guards at the Fuerte de Macoa military jail in Zulia State forced
    three female relatives of jailed indigenous Yukpa leader Sabino Romero
    Izarra to undress, touched them inappropriately, and threatened them
    with imprisonment (see section 6).
        On May 11, the press reported that more than 1,000 inmates started
    a hunger strike at Los Teques prison, claiming the National Guard
    mistreated relatives waiting to visit them and subjected them to
    unnecessary physical inspections. Beginning on May 14, the press
    reported that prisoners at the Penitenciaria General de Venezuela, the
    Internado Judicial de San Juan de los Morros, La Planta, Rodeo I, and
    Rodeo II launched hunger strikes demanding a dialogue with the Ministry
    of Interior and Justice to discuss judicial delays and alleged
    mistreatment of family members during visiting hours. According to the
    press, the hunger strike quickly spread to 15 prisons and the list of
    complaints grew to include prison overcrowding and visitation policies.
    The strike was short-lived, but some prisoners and their family members
    continued to demand that the Government declare a prison state of
    emergency and that Supreme Court President Luisa Estela Morales visit
    the prisons and initiate a dialogue on prison reform. National Director
    of Penitentiary Services Consuelo Cerrada issued a press statement on
    May 26 claiming that ``every time there is a little incident in a
    penitentiary facility, the media magnify it with the sole purpose of
    destabilizing the national territory.''
        During the year there were numerous prison riots that resulted in
    inmate deaths and injuries. Among some notable examples were:
        According to the Public Ministry, on January 27, eight inmates were
    killed and more than 17 wounded during an exchange of gunfire at La
    Planta (El Paraiso) prison in Caracas. On January 28, the Public
    Ministry launched an investigation into the incident. The results of
    that investigation were not available.
        On April 12, the OVP reported that seven inmates at the Western
    Penitentiary Center Santa Ana in Tachira State died in a prison riot.
    On May 4, eight inmates died in a second violent confrontation among
    prisoners. According to information released by the authorities, three
    of the victims were killed with firearms and three with bladed weapons,
    while two were burned to death.
        According to official and press reports, on September 27, prisoners
    began a riot at the Tocoron prison in Aragua State that lasted for
    several days and resulted in 16 deaths and 35 injuries. The Government
    sent 800 National Guardsmen and military forces to end the riot. On
    October 1, approximately 5,000 prisoners at Tocoron launched a hunger
    strike to protest the military presence and the suspension of family
    visits. They were joined by an estimated 18,000 inmates at 11 prison
    facilities nationwide, according to the OVP. On October 5, 300 family
    members joined the hunger strike to protest the planned transfer of
    inmates to other facilities. Government officials announced on October
    7 the resumption of family visits and the establishment of provisional
    courts in the prison to ease the case backlog. Following this
    agreement, prisoners at all but one of the prisons ended their hunger
    strikes. Inmates at a prison in Bolivar State continued to demand the
    removal of the warden, improved conditions, and attention to their
    trial delays. On November 24, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights
    determined that the situation at Tocoron Prison was one of ``extreme
    gravity'' and ordered the Government to take definitive and immediate
    measures to protect the inmates.
        Human rights observers continued to experience lengthy
    administrative delays and restricted access to prisons and detention
    centers. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) did not
    have access to prisons except for the two controlled by SEBIN and the
    military for security detainees. The public defender did not generally
    advocate on behalf of prisoners and detainees for alternatives to
    incarceration.
        Throughout the year the IACHR issued several statements calling on
    the Government to improve prison conditions and adopt appropriate
    measures to prevent similar outbreaks of violence. On January 30, in
    response to the deaths of prisoners at La Planta prison, the IACHR
    urged the Government to ensure that inmates were adequately protected
    and to adopt appropriate measures to prevent similar outbreaks of
    violence. In March in response to a prison riot at Yare I, the IACHR
    called on the Government to adopt measures necessary to ensure that
    similar events were not repeated. On May 7, in response to the deaths
    at the Western Penitentiary Center, the IACHR issued a statement that
    reiterated its concern over the high rates of violence in the country's
    penitentiaries and the presence in several prisons of criminal
    organizations in possession of large-caliber weapons, and it reminded
    the Government of its duty to take immediate action to guarantee the
    physical, mental, and moral integrity of inmates, as well as their
    right to life.
        The Inter-American Court of Human Rights continued its supervision
    of Venezuelan penitentiaries pursuant to its 2006 decision regarding
    the need for improvement of prison conditions. Since February the court
    required the Government to submit bimonthly reports with specific
    information on actions taken to ``protect the life and integrity'' of
    prisoners, but there was no information publicly available about the
    Government's compliance with this requirement.
        There was no information available about the progress of the
    Government's High-Level Prison Council, established in 2008, to design
    policies to improve the penitentiary system. However, in July the
    Venezuelan embassy in London issued a fact sheet regarding the
    Government's efforts to ``humanize'' its prisons. The fact sheet
    claimed that recent government reforms had led to a ``significant
    reduction in prison violence and improved conditions for inmates.''
    Among the reforms cited were improved methods for confiscating weapons
    in prisons, the establishment of an itinerant judges program to oversee
    judicial proceedings against those in detention, the establishment of
    Human Rights Defense Councils within prisons to resolve community
    problems between inmates and prison authorities, improved visitation
    policies to permit visits throughout the week rather than on weekends
    only, and the construction of 15 ``prison communities'' to ``ensure
    inmates their rights and social services.'' In addition the fact sheet
    reported that in June the Ministry of Interior and Justice and the
    National Experimental Polytechnic University of the Armed Forces signed
    an agreement to provide vocational training to prisoners and courses on
    human rights, prison administration, and conflict resolution to prison
    personnel. The fact sheet also noted that the Government offered
    cultural opportunities to inmates, including participation in
    orchestra, theater, and sports. Penitentiary Director Cerrada stated in
    June that 2,045 inmates had participated in the symphony orchestra
    program and 6,000 were receiving formal education, 909 at the college
    level.

        d. Arbitrary Arrest or Detention.--The constitution prohibits the
    arrest or detention of an individual without a judicial order; provides
    for the accused to remain free while being tried, except in specific
    cases where state law or individual judges may supersede this
    provision; and provides that any detained individual has the right to
    immediate communication with family and lawyers who, in turn, have the
    right to know a detainee's whereabouts (see section 1.e.).
        On March 22, Oswaldo Alvarez Paz, a former governor of Zulia State
    and a 1993 presidential candidate, was arrested, held at the SEBIN
    detention facility, and charged with conspiracy, public instigation to
    commit a crime, and dissemination of false information for statements
    he made during a March 8 interview on Globovision's ``Hello, Citizen''
    talk show. In that interview he alleged that high-level government
    officials had links to groups involved with drug trafficking and
    terrorism, specifically the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia and
    the Basque terrorist organization ETA. He also claimed the Government's
    record on these issues was being compiled for potential prosecution in
    international tribunals and that ``the problem is the head of state
    could fall.'' On March 9, National Assembly Deputy Manuel Villalba
    filed a complaint with the Prosecutor General's Office requesting an
    investigation into Alvarez Paz's comments. On May 7, the prosecutor
    general withdrew the conspiracy charge, which legally requires the
    involvement of two persons in the criminal act, and on May 13, the
    judge granted Alvarez Paz conditional release pending trial on the
    condition that he not leave the country, report to the judge every 15
    days, and not discuss his case publicly. The judge deferred the start
    of the trial, originally scheduled for October, until early 2011.
        On July 6, the Public Ministry charged four directors of the
    country's largest brokerages, who had been detained in a May sweep of
    brokerages and foreign exchange houses, with ``illegal
    commercialization of hard currency'' and conspiracy. The four directors
    were indicted under the Partial Reform Law on Illegal Foreign Exchange
    Transactions, which only took effect on May 17, despite the fact that
    the law did not provide for its retroactive application. The law states
    that any legal actions underway at the time of its adoption would be
    decided according to the prior law.
        On April 6, Richard Blanco, the opposition prefect of the Caracas
    Metropolitan District, detained since August 2009, was provisionally
    released pending trial. Blanco had been arrested on charges of
    ``injurious and law-breaking behavior'' following a scuffle between
    police and opposition protesters during an August 22 demonstration even
    though video footage showed him intervening to protect a plainclothes
    police officer.

        Role of the Police and Security Apparatus.--The National Guard, a
    branch of the military, is largely responsible for maintaining public
    order, guarding the exterior of key government installations and
    prisons, conducting counternarcotics operations, monitoring borders,
    and providing law enforcement in remote areas. The Ministry of Interior
    and Justice controls the CICPC, which conducts most criminal
    investigations, and the SEBIN (formerly DISIP), which collects
    intelligence within the country and is responsible for investigating
    cases of corruption, subversion, and arms trafficking. The police
    include municipal, state, and national-level forces. Mayors and
    governors generally oversee municipal and state police forces, except
    in Caracas, where the Ministry of Interior and Justice assumed
    authority over the Caracas Metropolitan Police in 2008. The Government
    began the process of gradually incorporating local and state police
    into the new Bolivarian National Police (CPNB).
        During the year Minister of Interior and Justice Tareck El-Aissami
    issued graduation certificates to 3,803 new recruits of the new CPNB,
    which was established in December 2009 and was originally assigned to
    one Caracas municipality. In October the Ministry extended the
    responsibilities of the CPNB to other areas of the city and to the
    protection of railways and the metro system. On December 22, CPNB
    Director Luis Fernandez said the CPNB had a total of 4,222 officers and
    would increase its strength by 12,500 new officers in 2011. He also
    announced CPNB's plan to extend its presence throughout the Caracas
    metropolitan district and to the states of Anzoategui, Tachira,
    Carabobo, Zulia, Lara, Aragua, and Miranda during 2011. He claimed
    that, since its creation, the CPNB had arrested 3,214 individuals and,
    in the areas where it worked, had reduced the most violent crimes by 57
    percent, including homicide by 44 percent, gender-related violence by
    64 percent, robbery by 62 percent, and assault by 64 percent.
        Impunity remained a problem in the police forces. Although Public
    Defender Gabriela Ramirez stated on June 19 that the number of cases of
    police abuse had declined from previous years, ``it continues to
    generate concern.'' The Public Ministry's annual report for 2009 cited
    9,610 complaints of human rights violations by presumed police and
    military officers, of which 315 (3.28 percent) resulted in prosecutions
    and 177 in decisions: 82 confessions, 57 convictions, and 38
    acquittals. There was no information available for 2010.
        According to a July report by the NGO Citizen Observatory of the
    Penal Justice System, the lack of sufficient prosecutors made it
    difficult to prosecute police and military officials allegedly involved
    in human rights abuses. It claimed that in 2008 there were only 64
    prosecutors responsible for investigating police abuses, resulting in
    an average of 174 cases of police abuse per prosecutor. The NGO Network
    of Assistance for Justice and Peace reported on July 30 that more than
    99 percent of the human rights cases under investigation had not been
    resolved with a definitive sentence. Of the total number of complaints
    received by the NGO between 2000 and 2009, 19 percent of the alleged
    violations were committed by CICPC officials and 15 percent by the
    Caracas Metropolitan Police.
        In March, Prosecutor General Luisa Ortega Diaz announced that the
    Public Ministry had created a new forensic unit to investigate human
    rights violations committed by police officers. She said this
    initiative was a form of attacking impunity, ``which has been our
    slogan during this administration.''
        On July 20, the Public Ministry named two additional prosecutors to
    respond to citizen complaints of police abuse. According to the
    ministry, two prosecutors appointed in July 2009 conducted 78
    preliminary investigations between January and June 30.
        On June 19, Public Defender Ramirez announced the establishment of
    a new Office for Victim Assistance, created pursuant to the Organic
    Laws on Police Service and the Bolivarian National Police and a March
    19 resolution, to deal with crime and abuse by police. The offices were
    to be located independently from police stations and staffed by
    interdisciplinary personnel to guarantee ``fair, respectful, equal, and
    nondiscriminatory'' treatment and to protect ``the privacy of the
    complainants, guaranteeing their safety and that of their relatives and
    witnesses.'' Ramirez stated that ``the State cannot be indulgent or
    complacent with regard to police abuse in the disproportionate use of
    force. And the police who act against the law incur personal
    responsibility for this type of crime and should be sanctioned
    firmly.''
        In March the Public Ministry announced it would train 1,500 police
    and military officials on human rights issues. On September 18, the
    public defender announced that 7,000 police officials would receive
    human rights training by the end of the year. There was no information
    available about the implementation of these training programs. The ICRC
    provided training in human rights and humanitarian law at the
    Bolivarian National Police training institute. Some local police forces
    also offered human rights training for their personnel. For example,
    the Chacao municipality of Caracas continued to provide mandatory human
    rights training to all new police recruits. Amnesty International
    worked with the municipality to offer workshops on domestic violence
    case processing. On November 30, the prosecutor general announced the
    establishment of a permanent chair for human rights at the National
    School for Prosecutors.
        In October the new National Experimental University for Security
    (UNES) was inaugurated to professionalize further the security
    services, including the CPNB, state and local police forces,
    firefighters, civil protection authorities, the CICPC, and prison
    personnel. UNES was created in response to a recommendation in 2006 by
    the National Council for Police Reform. The official media reported
    that 3,047 students from Caracas and the neighboring states of Miranda
    and Vargas were selected out of 8,000 applicants for the five-year
    program leading to incorporation into the CNPB. Approximately 22
    percent of the new students were women. UNES Director Soraya El Achkar
    stated that ``the new national police will be trained with respect for
    human rights, since it is a preventive police that is close to the
    community and works with the community.''

        Arrest Procedures and Treatment While in Detention.--A warrant is
    required for an arrest or detention. A detention is possible without an
    arrest warrant when the individual is caught in the act of committing a
    crime. Individuals were sometimes apprehended without warrants from
    judicial authorities. Detainees must be brought before a prosecutor
    within 12 hours and before a judge within 48 hours to determine the
    legality of detention. A person accused of a crime may not be detained
    for longer than the possible minimum sentence for that crime or for
    longer than two years, except in certain circumstances, such as when
    the defendant is responsible for the delay in the proceedings. The law
    requires that detainees be promptly informed of the charges against
    them, and that requirement was generally met in practice.
        Although there is a functioning system of bail, it is not available
    for certain crimes. Bail also may be denied if a person is apprehended
    in the act of committing a crime or if a judge determines there is a
    danger that the accused may flee or impede the investigation.
        Pretrial detention was a problem. In its 2009 annual report, the
    IACHR noted that more than 65 percent of inmates had not received final
    convictions. PROVEA reported that as of June 7, approximately one-third
    of the prison population was formally convicted and sentenced, while
    two-thirds were in preventive detention or pending or undergoing trial.
    On October 29, the NGO A Window to Liberty reported to the IACHR that
    only 15 percent of the inmate population was convicted and sentenced.
        In July the NGO Citizen Observatory of the Penal Justice System
    attributed trial delays to the shortage of prosecutors and penal
    judges. Based on the Public Ministry's annual report for 2009, the NGO
    concluded that approximately 1,300 prosecutors had to process an
    estimated 260,000 cases in 2008, an average of 200 cases per
    prosecutor. The NGO also questioned the low number of penal judges,
    which it calculated to be 2.84 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2009 and
    which resulted in each penal judge being responsible for approximately
    317 cases in 2008. It also noted that the budget for the judicial
    sector accounted for only 2.6 percent of the national budget in 2009.
        In March NGOs testifying before the IACHR estimated that, on
    average, a prosecutor received nearly 2,000 complaints of criminal
    activity a year but investigated only 50. Of those 50 cases, only 20
    ended up in court and only two resulted in convictions. According to
    the Public Ministry's annual report for 2009, 373,044 crimes were
    investigated during the year, of which only 6 percent (23,540) resulted
    in criminal charges and only 11,976 in convictions. In more than half
    the cases (213,962), prosecutors did not find sufficient evidence to
    bring charges and/or take the case to trial.
        On May 21, the Supreme Court restored normal court hours of
    operation to address the judicial backlog; the Government had reduced
    the hours as part of an electricity rationing program implemented in
    December 2009.
        The law requires that detainees be provided access to counsel and
    family members, and that requirement was generally met in practice.

        e. Denial of Fair Public Trial.--While the constitution provides
    for an independent judiciary, judicial independence remained
    compromised according to many observers, and there were allegations of
    corruption and political influence within the Prosecutor General's
    Office.
        On May 18, the Appeals Chamber of the Supreme Court denied the
    appeals of former Caracas Metropolitan Police commissioners Ivan
    Simonovis, Henry Vivas, and Lazaro Forero and also disqualified them
    from running for political office in the September National Assembly
    elections. Along with seven police officers, they remained in the SEBIN
    detention facility serving three- to 30-year sentences for their
    alleged involvement in the killing of pro-Chavez demonstrators during
    events related to the 2002 attempted coup. They continued to maintain
    their innocence and to assert that their prosecution was politically
    motivated. The defendants claimed that the verdicts were reached
    despite a lack of key forensic evidence and asserted that the court
    ignored exonerating video, audio, and eyewitness-testimonial evidence.
        There were several developments in the case involving the 2004 car
    bombing that killed prosecutor Danilo Anderson. In November a former
    trial witness and Anderson's relatives separately alleged that former
    senior government officials had tampered with the investigation and
    witnesses. On December 14, the Supreme Court authorized the foreign
    ministry to request the extradition of Johan Humberto Pena and Pedro
    Vladimir Lander, charged as material authors in Anderson's homicide for
    their alleged involvement in the preparation and placement of the
    explosive device. The three persons convicted in 2007 for Anderson's
    killing remained in a SEBIN detention facility on 27- to 30-year
    sentences despite the 2008 claim by a former prosecutor that their
    convictions were based on false and perjured testimony.
        According to PROVEA, in 2009, 51 percent of lower court judges were
    provisional and temporary. There were no 2010 statistics available. The
    Supreme Court's Judicial Committee may hire and fire temporary judges
    without cause or explanation, and it did so. Provisional and temporary
    judges, who legally have the same rights and authorities as permanent
    judges, were allegedly subject to political influence from the Ministry
    of Interior and Justice and the prosecutor general. PROVEA reported
    that between October 2009 and October 2010 the Supreme Court rejected
    90 percent of judicial cases against the main organs of government (the
    Presidency, National Assembly, Comptroller General, National Electoral
    Council, and Prosecutor General's Office) and all 21 legal actions
    against President Chavez.

        Trial Procedures.--Defendants are considered innocent until proven
    guilty. The law provides for open, public, and fair trials with oral
    proceedings for all individuals. Defendants have the right to be
    present and consult with an attorney. Public defenders are provided for
    indigent defendants, but there continued to be a shortage. Defendants
    have the right to question witnesses against them and present their own
    witnesses. Defendants and their attorneys have the right to access
    government-held evidence, but in practice this access often did not
    occur. Defendants and plaintiffs have the right of appeal. Trial delays
    were common.
        The law provides that trials for military personnel charged with
    human rights abuses after 1999 be held in civilian rather than military
    courts.

        Political Prisoners and Detainees.--The Union of Democratic
    Organizations of America (Unoamerica) reported on August 25 that the
    Government was investigating 29 individuals for political reasons. At
    year's end the NGO Venezuelan Awareness Foundation listed 25
    individuals as political prisoners.
        In some cases political prisoners were held in SEBIN installations
    and the Ramo Verde military prison. Authorities permitted the ICRC
    access to these individuals.
        In a March 25 statement, the IACHR and its Office of the Special
    Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression noted ``their deep concern over
    the use of the punitive power of the State to criminalize human rights
    defenders, criminalize peaceful social protests, and persecute through
    the criminal justice system persons the authorities consider political
    opponents in Venezuela.''
        Some examples of persons claiming to be political detainees
    include:
        On May 7, a Venezuelan military tribunal sentenced retired General
    Raul Baduel, former minister of defense and former ally of President
    Chavez, to seven years and 11 months in prison on corruption-related
    charges. He had been detained at the Ramos Verde military prison since
    April 2009. He continued to claim his arrest and imprisonment
    constituted political retaliation by President Chavez for his public
    opposition to the president's proposed constitutional reforms and
    encouragement of the ``no'' vote in the December 2007 constitutional
    reform referendum.
        On May 17, the 50th tribunal ordered the prosecution of Judge Maria
    Lourdes Afiuni on corruption charges despite the prosecutor's statement
    ``that it has not been determined that she [had] received money or
    anything else'' to approve the release of banker Eligio Cedeno, who had
    been detained for more than two years without a conviction. The court
    also denied Judge Afiuni's request to be released pending trial as well
    as subsequent repeated requests for medical treatment by her own
    physician. In December 2009 Judge Afiuni had been arrested and charged
    with corruption, aiding in the evasion of justice, abuse of authority,
    and conspiracy, and imprisoned after ordering the conditional release
    pending trial of Cedeno; in her decision she cited a September 1
    opinion of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention that determined
    that ``the deprivation of freedom of Mr. Eligio Cedeno is arbitrary.''
    Two days after her arrest, President Chavez publicly called for her
    imprisonment for 35 years as a lesson to other judges. At year's end
    Judge Afiuni remained in the Women's Detention Facility where women she
    had previously sentenced were imprisoned and where, according to her
    attorney, she was routinely subjected to harassment, threats, and
    attacks by other inmates. On January 11, Judge Afiuni was granted
    precautionary protection measures by the IACHR. On December 10, the
    Inter-American Court of Human Rights ordered the Government to adopt
    immediate measures to guarantee the ``life and physical, psychological,
    and moral integrity'' of Judge Afiuni, to ensure her detention in a
    facility appropriate to her circumstances, to permit her to be seen by
    doctors of her choice, and to report every two months to the court on
    the measures taken.
        Jose ``Mazuco'' Sanchez, former Zulia state security chief, was
    released from prison and placed under house arrest on October 7
    following his September 26 election and September 30 certification by
    the local election board as a National Assembly deputy. Despite article
    200 of the constitution, which provides for immunity for deputies ``in
    the exercise of their functions from their proclamation until the
    conclusion of their term,'' the Supreme Court ruled on October 26 that
    parliamentary immunity did not take effect until the deputies were
    sworn into office. It also ruled that the charges against Mazuco would
    be suspended, but remain pending, during his term as deputy. On
    November 29, however, police took Mazuco into custody again and
    forcibly moved him from Zulia State to Caracas, where a trial against
    him began. On December 22, the court found Mazuco guilty of having
    authorized the killing of a purported military intelligence police
    informant in jail in 2007 and sentenced him to 19 years' imprisonment.
    Mazuco denied the charges and claimed the trial constituted political
    persecution because of his association with opposition leader Manuel
    Rosales (to whom Peru later granted asylum [see section 3]). Mazuco's
    lawyers stated they planned to file an appeal and claimed that Mazuco
    could not be permanently disqualified from holding public office as
    long as there was no final sentence against him.

        Regional Human Rights Court Decisions.--In January the Inter-
    American Court of Human Rights admitted a petition by Eloisa Barrios
    and others alleging that the Government was responsible for violations
    of the rights to life, humane treatment, personal liberty, a fair
    trial, and judicial protection set forth in the American Convention on
    Human Rights in connection with the deaths of her family members. A
    February 4 resolution by the court referred to ``the state's failure to
    comply with the measures ordered by the court'' and described the
    situation as one ``of extreme gravity and urgency that puts in grave
    risk the life and integrity'' of the members of the family. On November
    25, the court issued a resolution that said the deaths of Eloisa
    Barrios' family members ``showed the inefficacy of the provisional
    measures, representing serious non-compliance by the state.'' It
    ordered the Government to adopt ``immediate and effective'' measures to
    guarantee the safety of the petitioners, including permanent guards at
    their homes, and to report to the court every two months on the
    measures taken (see section 1.a.).
        On September 3, the acting president of the court issued a
    resolution declaring ``manifestly inadmissible the global attack
    against the Court'' contained in the Government's June 7 submission in
    the case of Leopoldo Lopez, the former mayor of the Chacao municipality
    of Caracas, who challenged the Government's 2005 decisions to
    administratively disqualify him from running for public office on one
    charge until 2011 and on a second until 2014. The Government's letter
    alleged that the court and the justices lacked impartiality. The court
    decided to continue its consideration of the case with the same
    justices. In 2008 Lopez had challenged his administrative
    disqualification in the IACHR, which referred the case to the court in
    December 2009. No date was set for the hearing by year's end (see
    section 3).

        Civil Judicial Procedures and Remedies.--There are separate civil
    courts that permit citizens to bring lawsuits seeking damages. Like all
    courts in the country, however, the civil elements of the judiciary
    remained subject to strong executive control.
        In the past there were administrative remedies available, but they
    were generally inefficient. The current consumer protection mechanism
    is enforced by the Institute for Defense of the People in Accessing
    Goods and Services (INDEPABIS) under the auspices of the Commerce
    Ministry. INDEPABIS is empowered to use reconciliation, mediation, and
    arbitration to settle disputes and is able to sanction providers of
    goods and services who violate the law. INDEPABIS also has authority to
    expropriate goods and services. Other entities that provide
    administrative or civil remedies include the National Securities
    Commission and the superintendencies for banks, insurance, cooperatives
    and savings accounts, and the promotion and protection of free
    competition.

        f. Arbitrary Interference With Privacy, Family, Home, or
    Correspondence.--The constitution provides for the inviolability of the
    home and personal privacy; however, in some cases government
    authorities allegedly infringed on citizens' privacy rights by
    searching homes, seizing properties, or interfering in personal
    communications.
        Among the more notable cases of arbitrary interference were:
        On May 1, officials from the National Land Institute and armed
    soldiers occupied the 914-acre family farm of Diego Arria, a former UN
    ambassador. Vice President Jaua claimed the land was unused and that
    Arria did not have clear title. During a May 7 television broadcast,
    President Chavez held up a picture of the colonial ranch house and
    said, ``It looks like 'Falcon Crest'...Tremendous pool. That's the
    bourgeoisie... This is now in the hands of the people, of the
    revolution.'' Arria charged that the expropriation was political
    retribution for his critical public description of President Chavez in
    a March 25 radio interview as a ``natural candidate for international
    criminal courts.'' During the April 26-29 Oslo Freedom Forum, Arria
    spoke about his efforts to bring former Serbian president Slobodan
    Milosevic to justice. In televised interviews on Globovision and CNN
    following the expropriation, Arria stated that ``the sword of
    international justice is hanging over the head of Hugo Chavez Frias.''
    On May 11, National Assembly Deputy Escarra asked the assembly's
    Commission on Internal Politics and the Public Ministry to investigate
    Arria for those statements, claiming they were an incitement to
    assassination and a coup. In mid-June a 100-acre orange orchard
    belonging to Arria was also expropriated. In an open letter to
    President Chavez on June 22, Arria claimed the expropriation was in
    retaliation for his international campaign to denounce Chavez for human
    rights violations.
        On September 22 and 23, several days before the September 26
    National Assembly elections, government-owned Venezolana de Television,
    on its La Hojilla and Dando y Dando programs, broadcast a recording of
    a private telephone conversation between a prominent pollster and an
    unnamed person. On September 24, government-owned newspaper Diario Vea
    printed a transcript of the taped conversation. The pollster was
    recorded as predicting favorable results for the Government's
    candidates in the elections as a result of President Chavez' strong
    leadership qualities. The media did not explain under what authority it
    had obtained the recording.
        On August 30, agriculturalist Franklin Brito died as a result of
    medical problems caused by the prolonged hunger strikes he had
    undertaken to protest the Government's failure to resolve remaining
    compensation issues related to the 2003 seizure of part of his lands in
    Bolivar State by the National Land Institute. Despite the Government's
    return of the land, compensation for damages, and provision of
    resources to reactivate production, Brito continued to insist on a
    public acknowledgement by the Government that his land rights had been
    violated. The Government had forcibly kept Brito at the Military
    Hospital since December 2009, when the Public Ministry claimed
    responsibility for safeguarding his life and officials took him to the
    psychiatric ward of the hospital for his own ``protection.'' On August
    21, Brito met with Minister of Agriculture and Land Juan Carlos Loyo,
    after which he reportedly agreed to resume intravenous support.
    However, one of Brito's lungs ceased to function properly on August 22,
    and he suffered a heart attack and died on August 30. On September 3,
    the Public Ministry asked the court to dismiss a complaint lodged by a
    citizen alleging that Brito's family had induced him to commit suicide
    through its support for his repeated hunger strikes.
        During the year the Government took no action to stop organized
    land invasions by squatters of two properties owned by the Catholic
    Conference of Bishops in Caracas and seven belonging to evangelical
    communities.
        NGOs expressed concern over official political discrimination
    against, and the firing of, state employees whose views differed from
    those of the Government.

    Section 2. Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:
        a. Freedom of Speech and Press.--The law provides for freedom of
    speech and of the press; however, the combination of laws and
    regulations governing libel and media content, as well as legal
    harassment and physical intimidation of both individuals and the media,
    resulted in practical limitations on these freedoms and a climate of
    self-censorship.
        The law makes insulting the president punishable by six to 30
    months in prison without bail, with lesser penalties for insulting
    lower-ranking officials. Comments exposing another person to public
    contempt or hatred are punishable by one-to-three-year prison sentences
    and fines starting at 55 bolivares fuertes (Bs.F) (approximately $26).
    Inaccurate reporting that disturbs the public peace is punishable by a
    two-to-five-year prison term. The requirement that media disseminate
    only ``true'' information was undefined and open to politically
    motivated interpretation.
        The Government took reprisals against individuals who publicly
    expressed criticism of the president or government policy.
        On February 5, National Guardsmen arrested Miguel Angel Hernandez
    during a baseball game and held him at the SEBIN detention facility.
    The Public Ministry charged him with ``offending the chief of state''
    for wearing a Homer Simpson T-shirt bearing scatological language
    directed at President Chavez's revolution. Hernandez remained free
    pending trial, which was scheduled for early 2011.
        On July 5, President Chavez called Cardinal Urosa Savino a
    ``troglodyte'' for the cardinal's June 27 comments charging that the
    president was leading the country down a ``socialist-Marxist'' path
    ``that leads to ruin, the destruction of the economy, [and] much
    greater poverty... We are on the road to a new Cuba.'' On July 12,
    government-controlled television stations rereleased an advertisement
    claiming that the cardinal had written a letter saying that only
    wealthy children should have access to higher education and good jobs;
    the cardinal publicly called the letter a forgery. On July 14,
    President Chavez called for a review of the 1964 concordat with the
    Vatican, an agreement regulating church matters, and on July 16, the
    foreign ministry recalled its ambassador to the Vatican. In response to
    a formal request by the National Assembly, on July 27, the cardinal
    appeared before a five-hour, closed-door session of the assembly to
    explain his remarks.
        On August 11, military prosecutors charged retired brigadier
    general Antonio Rivero with ``slander against the armed forces'' and
    ``publicly revealing private information and military secrets'' for his
    April 22 public denunciation of excessive Cuban influence in the
    military. Rivero's comments were made during his announcement of his
    resignation from the armed forces. The indictment occurred several days
    after CNN Espanol broadcast the documentary, ``Chavez's Guardians,'' in
    which Rivero was interviewed and expressed deep concern about the
    potential for serious political violence as a result of the
    Government's alleged arming of its supporters. Rivero's prosecution in
    a military tribunal contravened a 2009 Inter-American Court decision
    requiring the Government to limit military jurisdiction to active-duty
    military for crimes related to their function and to delimit the
    criminal behavior covered as an ``offense to the armed forces.'' On
    August 13, a military judge prohibited Rivero from leaving the country,
    required him to appear before a judge every 15 days, and prohibited him
    from speaking publicly about the charges against him. At year's end
    Rivero remained free pending trial.
        On December 22, the Public Ministry announced that it had opened a
    criminal investigation against Noel Alvarez, the president of the
    national chamber of commerce, Fedecamaras, to determine whether his
    statement earlier that morning violated the law by encouraging the
    armed forces to disobey orders. In a press conference to discuss the
    Government's recent land expropriations and package of socialist
    legislation (see section 3), Alvarez urged the armed forces to
    ``exercise their freedom of conscience. to reject orders that they
    consider violate the constitution,'' recalling both article 25 of the
    constitution, which provides that public officials who implement
    measures that violate constitutional rights bear administrative, civil,
    and criminal responsibilities, and the existence of the International
    Criminal Court.
        The country's major newspapers were independently owned. Some print
    media tended to exercise caution in order to secure government
    advertising. Two national newspapers, Diario Vea and El Correo del
    Orinoco, received direct financial support from the Government. In 2009
    a new Caracas newspaper, Ciudad CCS, debuted; the newspaper was run by
    the presidentially appointed Capital District vice president and
    received funding from the mayor of the Libertador municipality of
    Caracas.
        Two private television stations dominated the national airwaves,
    receiving the bulk of audience share despite the Government's ownership
    of six channels, two with nationwide coverage. The Government also set
    up and funded 244 community radio stations and 36 community television
    stations with programming aimed at local audiences throughout the
    country.
        In January, as a result of regulatory changes implemented by the
    National Telecommunications Commission (CONATEL), the Government's
    regulatory agency, cable operators ceased broadcasting the privately
    owned cable television station RCTV (see below). In July, President
    Chavez expressed interest in using the shares the Government obtained
    through its intervention of Banco Federal to gain representation on the
    executive board of Globovision, the major privately owned and
    opposition-oriented cable news station, which broadcasted nationally on
    cable and over the air in Caracas and Valencia. Nelson Mezerhane, the
    former owner of Banco Federal, was a minority shareholder of
    Globovision (see below).
        On December 21 and 28, respectively, the Reform of the Law of
    Social Responsibility for Radio and Television (RESORTE) and the Reform
    to the Organic Law for Telecommunications went into effect. The RESORTE
    law extended government content regulations to the electronic media for
    the first time (see below). The law prohibits all media from
    disseminating messages that incite or promote hate or intolerance for
    religious, political, gender-related, racial, or xenophobic reasons;
    incite, promote, or condone criminal acts; constitute war propaganda;
    foment anxiety in the population or affect public order; do not
    recognize legitimate government authorities; incite homicide; and
    incite or promote disobedience to the established legal order.
    Penalties range from fines to the revocation of licenses.
        The telecommunications law declares telecommunications a ``public
    interest service,'' thereby giving the state greater authority to
    regulate the content and structure of the radio, television, and
    audiovisual production sectors. The law reduces the maximum period for
    concessions from 20 years to a renewable 15-year period; establishes
    the ``personal'' character of the concessions, thereby making them
    nontransferable to individuals or successor companies; provides that
    concessions be issued only to persons domiciled in the country; and
    provides that the Government can suspend or revoke licenses when it
    judges such action necessary to the interests of the nation, public
    order, or security.
        On December 17, the National Assembly adopted the Enabling Law,
    which granted President Chavez authority to govern by decree for 18
    months (see section 3) and to ``issue or reform regulatory norms'' in
    the telecommunications sector.
        National and international groups, such as Reporters without
    Borders and the Committee to Protect Journalists, condemned government
    efforts throughout the year to restrict press freedom and to create a
    climate of fear and self-censorship. The domestic media watchdog NGO
    Public Space reported that, as of the end of November, 195 journalists,
    editors, or media outlets either were attacked or had their individual
    rights violated. The same NGO was targeted for harassment and criminal
    investigation (see section 5). During a December 16 demonstration in
    front of the National Assembly against the new media laws, a
    progovernment militant threw a traffic cone into the group of
    protestors, hitting Carlos Correa, the director of Public Space, and
    causing injury to his head; the militant also reportedly shouted a
    death threat against him.
        During the year journalists and media facilities were subject to
    violent attacks and several journalists were killed. However, the
    widespread violence in the country often made it difficult to determine
    whether the attacks were the result of common criminal activity or
    specifically directed against the media. Among the most notable cases
    were:
        On March 1, Israel Marquez, the director of the newspaper Diario
    2001, was shot six times and killed during an attempted robbery of his
    vehicle by four men. His son was quoted in the press on March 2 as
    saying ``the attack was a product of the insecurity in which the
    country lives.'' According to Chief of the Homicide Division of the
    CICPC Ramon Silva Torcat, the weapons used in the crime had been stolen
    from the CICPC in 2007. Two suspects, Walter Perez Canizalez and Yorman
    de Jesus Elias, reportedly members of a car-theft ring, were charged
    with first degree murder, attempted robbery of a vehicle, and carrying
    a illicit weapon. The accused remain imprisoned at Rodeo I prison
    pending trial at year's end.
        On June 7, unknown attackers threw five Molotov cocktails into the
    Capriles Press Tower in Caracas where the headquarters of the newspaper
    Ultimas Noticias was located. No one was injured. The Public Ministry
    ordered an investigation into the incident; there was no information
    publicly available about the results of that investigation.
        On July 1, two motorcyclists shot into the reception area of the
    newspaper El Nuevo Dia in Coro, resulting in the injury of a 15-year-
    old student, who received a bullet wound to his neck.
        Among events regarding cases that occurred in prior years:
        There were no known developments in the prosecution of the suspect
    accused in the January 2009 killing of El Impulso journalist and
    photographer Jacinto Lopez.
        In May authorities convicted and sentenced former Carabobo police
    officer Rafael Segundo Perez to 25 years in prison for the January 2009
    killings of investigative journalist Orel Sambrano and veterinarian
    Francisco Larrazabal. Two additional suspects, Jose Duque Daboin and
    David Antonio Yanez Inciarte, remained in detention pending completion
    of their trials. On August 20, the Public Ministry requested the
    extradition from Colombia of accused narcotrafficker Walid Makled, whom
    it charged in various crimes, including as the ``intellectual author''
    of Sambrano's assassination.
        In December a Carabobo state appeals court annulled the conviction
    of journalist Francisco ``Pancho'' Perez, restored his political and
    professional rights, and cancelled the fines levied against him. In
    October 2009 the mayor of Valencia had charged Perez with libel for a
    March 2009 article in which he charged the mayor with nepotism.
        There were no known developments in the investigation of the 2008
    killings of Pierre Fould Gerges, vice president of Reporte Diario de la
    Economia, and columnist Eliecer Calzadilla, a contributor to the
    regional newspaper Correo del Caroni.
        Pro-government media personnel also faced violence. For example:
        On January 8, in Portuguesa State, unknown assailants abducted
    Diario Panorama Sub-Director Wilmer Ferrer. Sometime during the 33 days
    before his body was discovered, Ferrer was shot and killed. On February
    22, police arrested a suspect, Oscar David Cabrera Fernandez, and on
    April 8, the Government formally charged him with first-degree murder
    while executing a robbery. The accused remained imprisoned pending
    completion of the trial.
        There were no known developments in the Government's investigation
    of the August 2009 killing of Ministry of Communication and Information
    journalist Daniel Ivan Escamez.
        Senior federal and state government leaders actively harassed and
    intimidated privately owned and opposition-oriented television
    stations, media outlets, and journalists throughout the year using
    threats, property seizures, and criminal investigations and
    prosecutions. Government officials, including the president, used
    government-controlled media outlets to accuse private media owners,
    directors, and reporters of fomenting antigovernment destabilization
    campaigns and coup attempts. Officials made such allegations against
    Guillermo Zuloaga, president and majority shareholder of Globovision;
    Nelson Mezerhane, a minority shareholder of Globovision; Marcel
    Granier, president and chief executive officer of RCTV; Miguel Henrique
    Otero, director of El Nacional newspaper; Andres Mata, owner and editor
    in chief of El Universal newspaper; and Teodoro Petkoff, director of
    the Tal Cual newspaper. Members of the independent print media
    privately said they regularly engaged in self-censorship due to fear of
    government reprisal.
        Among the most notable examples of government harassment of private
    media owners and journalists associated with the independent media
    were:
        During the year the Government repeatedly took measures to harass
    and prosecute Globovision President Guillermo Zuloaga. On March 25,
    authorities detained him upon his return from a meeting of the Inter-
    American Press Association (IAPA) in Aruba for his remarks during the
    conference that allegedly criticized the Government's actions to
    ``repress the media'' and reportedly accused President Chavez of having
    ordered soldiers to shoot protesters during the April 2002 coup
    attempt; he was released the same day. On June 1, the Public Ministry
    issued an arrest warrant for Zuloaga and his son, Guillermo Jr., for
    ``usury'' related to May 2009 charges involving Zuloaga's car
    dealership that were widely considered to be politically motivated. The
    warrant was issued eight days after President Chavez publicly
    complained that only a ``weakness'' in the judicial system had allowed
    Zuloaga to ``walk about freely'' after having made the critical remarks
    about the president in Aruba. On June 2, the Public Ministry initiated
    an investigation of Zuloaga for ``environmental crimes'' for his
    possession of hunting trophies. On July 13, SEBIN seized Zuloaga's
    private airplanes, and on July 29, officials from the National Land
    Institute confiscated Zuloaga's farm in San Fernando de Apure. On
    August 17, the Supreme Court authorized the foreign ministry to submit
    an extradition request for Zuloaga and his son, who remained outside
    the country at year's end. On November 20, several days after Zuloaga
    reportedly criticized the Government during a November 17 forum in
    Washington, DC, President Chavez accused Zuloaga of conspiring against
    the Government and of involvement in an assassination plot against him.
    The following day he demanded that Zuloaga return to the country to
    face pending charges or ``it would be necessary to take actions against
    his companies, among them Globovision, which is blasting the
    Government, the people, distorting the truth, every day.'' In a
    televised special session of the National Assembly on November 23,
    President Chavez said the Government could not remain quiet while
    Zuloaga was going to the ``Congress of the empire to attack Venezuela
    and still has a television channel here.''
        On June 9, La Manana journalist Yunior Lugo reported receiving
    telephone threats following the June 8 publication of his photographs
    showing tons of decomposed food in government-owned warehouses in
    Falcon State (see section 4). The callers allegedly identified
    themselves as members of the ``government of Hugo Chavez'' and accused
    Lugo of committing perjury against the Government. Local political
    leaders denounced Lugo and threatened to bring criminal charges against
    him. The National Union of Press Workers (SNTP) and the Graphic
    Reporters Circle of Venezuela denounced the threats and ``deplored the
    harassment and intimidation committed by representatives of state
    government and the executive branch against press workers who are doing
    their job.''
        On July 20, the National Assembly adopted a resolution calling on
    the Public Ministry to ``deepen its investigation'' into foreign
    financing of civil-society members and journalists, including those who
    had participated in exchange programs, to determine whether their
    activities ``could be considered crimes.'' Among the journalists
    denounced were Miguel Angel Rodriguez, Maria Fernanda Flores, Pedro
    Flores, Reynaldo Trompeta, Ewald Scharfenberg, Jesus Torrealba, Ana
    Karina Villalba, Aymara Anahi Lorenzo, and William Echeverria.
        The Government sometimes engaged in direct press censorship. On
    August 14, Prosecutor General Luisa Ortega Diaz opened an investigation
    of the opposition-oriented El Nacional for its August 13 front-page
    photograph showing naked and half-naked bodies piled on tables and on
    the floor of the Caracas morgue. The photo, taken in December 2009, was
    accompanied by an article reporting on Caracas's high homicide rate.
    Ortega alleged that the publication violated the Organic Law for the
    Protection of Boys, Girls, and Adolescents. On August 16 and 17,
    opposition-oriented dailies Tal Cual and Correo del Caroni reprinted
    the photograph. A juvenile court judge issued injunctions on August 16
    and 17 against El Nacional and Tal Cual as well as all other print
    media that prohibited them from publishing ``violent content or
    images'' for a 30-day period, which generally coincided with the
    official campaign period leading to the September 26 legislative
    elections, in which insecurity was a key campaign issue. The judge
    ruled that the constitutional rights of children had to be ``favored''
    over the constitutional rights to freedom of expression and
    information. On August 19, the judge limited the ban to the publication
    of violent images for the period until the case was decided.
    Journalists and human rights advocates claimed the decision violated
    the constitutional prohibition against prior censorship. The case
    remained pending at year's end.
        The Government also used administrative measures and criminal
    investigations to indirectly censor private cable television stations
    RCTV and Globovision that were critical of the Government.
        For example, on January 21, CONATEL notified RCTV of a new
    regulation that reclassified the station as a ``national'' rather than
    an ``international'' audiovisual producer, thereby requiring it to
    provide live coverage of certain mandatory government broadcasts,
    including most speeches by President Chavez. The regulation also
    affected five smaller cable stations; those stations eventually re-
    registered under the new regulation. However, RCTV President Marcel
    Granier called the redesignation an effort to ``silence the voice of
    protest of the Venezuelan people'' and filed an appeal with the Supreme
    Court. Cable operators ceased to broadcast RCTV as of January 24. On
    February 22, RCTV changed its position and submitted applications to
    CONATEL to register as both a ``national'' and an ``international''
    producer. On March 4, CONATEL denied both applications, arguing that
    the station had missed the registration deadline and had submitted an
    incomplete application. On November 24, the Supreme Court denied RCTV's
    request to be registered as a ``national producer.'' At year's end RCTV
    remained off the air and was only able to broadcast via Internet.
        During the year the Government threatened Globovision's owners and
    directors in an apparent effort to change the station's editorial line.
        On February 18, Globovision Director Alberto Ravell announced his
    resignation, alleging that Energy Minister Ali Rodriguez and Central
    Bank President Nelson Merentes had pressured Globovision shareholders
    Guillermo Zuloaga and Nelson Mezerhane to fire him and controversial
    talk show host Leopoldo Castillo and to soften the station's anti-
    Chavez orientation.
        In June and July, the Government took actions against Nelson
    Mezerhane, former president of Banco Federal. On June 14, the
    Government took control of the bank, and on July 1, it issued an arrest
    warrant against him. The Government alleged the bank suffered from
    insufficient liquidity and other irregularities, and the prosecutor
    general claimed the Public Ministry had evidence that Mezerhane had
    taken money from Banco Federal depositors and state-owned companies out
    of the country for personal gain. On July 2, President Chavez stated
    the Government might use Mezerhane's 20 percent share of Globovision to
    reimburse depositors of Banco Federal; on July 20, he claimed that by
    seizing Mezerhane's shares, the Government could own up to 45.8 percent
    of Globovision's shares and have the right to name a representative to
    its executive board, suggesting several progovernment television
    journalists as possible candidates. However, according to a statement
    released by Globovision, the election of board members required a vote
    representing 55 percent of the corporation's shares.
        On August 1, National Guardsmen conducted a search of Mezerhane's
    residence. According to press reports, the security forces prevented
    his attorney, Magaly Vasquez, from witnessing the search, as required
    by law. On August 3, President Chavez alleged the search had uncovered
    evidence of Mezerhane's links to a Colombian paramilitary group.
    Mezerhane denied the allegations and accused the Government of using
    the bank intervention as a way to pressure Globovision.
        On December 3, the Superintendence of Banks and Other Financial
    Institutions assumed control of the Mezerhane-owned Sindicato Avila
    C.A., which held 20 percent of the shares of Globovision. On December
    8, the IACHR's Office of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of
    Expression issued a statement expressing concern about the possible
    intervention by the Government in Globovision.
        There were no developments in CONATEL's 2008 investigation of
    Globovision for its broadcasts of comments allegedly encouraging the
    assassination of the president and of a speech by the Carabobo state
    governor-elect that allegedly incited violence.
        The Government also exercised control over the media through its
    application of licensing and broadcasting requirements.
        The law requires that practicing journalists have journalism
    degrees and be members of the National College of Journalists, and it
    prescribes three- to six-month jail terms for those practicing
    illegally. These requirements are waived for foreigners and opinion
    columnists.
        The telecommunications law empowers the Government to impose heavy
    fines and cancel broadcasts for violations of its norms, and CONATEL
    oversees the law's application. Media observer organizations called on
    the Government to appoint an independent body to regulate the
    implementation of the law, which it had not done by year's end.
        On August 3, the Official Gazette published a decree transferring
    responsibility for CONATEL from the Ministry of Transportation and
    Communication to the Vice Presidency. In announcing the transfer on
    August 4, Vice President Jaua said the decision was taken ``considering
    that telecommunications is a strategic area for Venezuelan democracy
    and for political stability.'' Telecommunications and human rights
    advocates claimed the decree violated both the Organic Law on
    Telecommunications of 2000, which established CONATEL as an
    ``autonomous institute,'' and the constitution, which does not give the
    vice presidency direct responsibility for any ministry or agency of the
    Government. The reform of the telecommunications law adopted in
    December retained CONATEL's character as an ``autonomous institute.''
        The Government also sought to exercise control over the press
    through the Center for National Situational Studies (CESNA), created
    pursuant to a June 1 decree published in the Official Gazette. This new
    government entity, under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Interior
    and Justice, is responsible for ``compiling, processing, and
    analyzing'' both government-released and other public information with
    the objective of ``protecting the interests and objectives of the
    state.'' The Government named Colonel Jose Adelino Ornelas Ferreira as
    the head of CESNA on December 29. The National Journalist Association
    (CNP) and five domestic NGOs publicly expressed concern about the
    potential for abuse and censorship on national security grounds by
    CESNA. On July 15, the NGO Public Space, the CNP, and SNTP filed a
    complaint contesting the formation of CESNA with the Political and
    Administrative Chamber of the Supreme Court, which referred the case to
    the Constitutional Chamber on November 17. The court did not act on the
    complaint by year's end.
        During the year the IACHR and its Office of the Special Rapporteur
    for Freedom of Expression expressed their ``serious concern about the
    situation of the right to freedom of expression in Venezuela.''
        Five radio stations belonging to the National Belfort Circuit were
    among 34 radio stations CONATEL ordered closed and the 240 ordered
    reviewed in July 2009. On April 15, the Inter-American Court dismissed
    the IACHR's February 26 request for provisional measures on behalf of
    Belfort Isturiz and others to have the Government adopt measures to
    temporarily reestablish the stations' right to operate. The court
    decided that the request did not meet the requirements of the American
    Convention for ``cases of extreme gravity and urgency, and when
    necessary to avoid irreparable damage to persons.'' On November 24, the
    Supreme Court rejected Belfort's legal challenge of the July 2009
    regulation.
        On July 16, IAPA issued a statement expressing concern about the
    ``authoritarian tendencies'' and restrictions of freedom of expression
    in Latin America, particularly in Venezuela. IAPA President Alejandro
    Aguirre said that ``Venezuela is one of the countries where freedom of
    expression is most in danger.''

        Internet Freedom.--During the year there were no government
    restrictions on access to the Internet, and individuals and groups
    could engage in the expression of views via the Internet, including by
    e-mail. However, some NGOs expressed concern that the Government
    monitored e-mails and Web searches. In April El Universal reported that
    nearly 8.8 million inhabitants, or approximately 31 percent of the
    country's population, used the Internet, and more than two-thirds were
    from the poorest sectors of society.
        During the year the Government expressed interest in developing
    regulations limiting the Internet.
        On March 13, President Chavez ordered the prosecutor general to
    open an investigation of the Web site Noticero Digital for falsely
    reporting the assassination of Minister of Housing and Public Works
    Diosdado Cabello and progovernment talk show host Mario Silva. The
    president warned that ``the Internet cannot be something open where
    anything is said and done. No, every country has to apply its own rules
    and norms.'' Noticiero Digital responded by explaining that it did not
    practice prior censorship of comments posted by visitors to the site,
    but it removed comments it considered inaccurate or irresponsible.
    Noticiero Digital removed the comments regarding Cabello and Silva from
    its site within three hours and permanently barred the authors from
    future postings. The Web site announced it would be ``taking measures
    so that these types of incidents do not occur again.'' On September 21,
    the president of the National Assembly Committee on Science,
    Technology, and Communications requested that the prosecutor general
    open an investigation against Web site Noticias 24 for allegedly
    ``inciting hate'' through its coverage of the false report; there were
    no known developments in the investigation.
        On June 6, President Chavez again called for an investigation of
    Noticiero Digital for a June 2 column in which the author claimed that
    high-level retired and active-duty officers were working together to
    achieve a civil-military transition in 2010 or early 2011. President
    Chavez stated that ``there keep appearing incitements to a coup and
    that cannot be permitted...this has to be investigated urgently...
    Noticiero Digital keeps saying that rebellion is the path.'' On June 8,
    the Public Ministry opened another investigation against the Web site;
    there were no known developments in the investigation at year's end.
        On July 8, police arrested two users of the social networking and
    microblogging service, Twitter, Luis Enrique Acosta Oxford and Carmen
    Cecilia Nares Castro, in Ciudad Bolivar for allegedly spreading false
    rumors about the banking system via the network. The Government charged
    them with violating article 448 of the Law on Banking and Financial
    Institutions, which prohibits the dissemination of false information
    about banks and carries a possible prison term of up to 11 years. Both
    remained free pending trial.
        On March 15, Prosecutor General Luisa Ortega Diaz called for the
    National Assembly to consider approving regulations on the Internet.
    However, on March 18, President of National Assembly Committee on
    Science and Technology Manuel Villalba announced that the Assembly was
    not planning to introduce legislation to regulate the Internet.
    Nevertheless, on December 20, the National Assembly passed a reform to
    the RESORTE law that made Internet and Internet providers subject to
    government regulations for the first time (see above). The law
    prohibits the dissemination of messages or information that could
    incite violence, promote hatred and intolerance, lead to crime or
    murder, foment anxiety in the populace or disturb public order, or be
    considered disrespectful of public offices or officeholders. It puts
    the burden of filtering electronic messages on service providers,
    provides that CONATEL can order them to block access to Web sites that
    violates these norms, and sanctions them with fines for distributing
    prohibited messages. Human rights and media freedom advocates
    complained that the law further limited freedom of expression. On
    December 15, the IACHR concluded that the RESORTE and
    telecommunications laws ``represent a serious setback for freedom of
    expression that primarily affects dissident and minority groups that
    find in the Internet a free and democratic space to disseminate their
    ideas.''

        Academic Freedom and Cultural Events.--There were some government
    restrictions on academic freedom and cultural events. On December 22,
    the National Assembly passed a controversial University Education Law
    that eliminated the principle of university autonomy, established the
    construction of socialism as the goal of higher education, and
    transferred most responsibilities for the management of universities,
    including admission standards and budgets, from the universities to the
    Ministry of University Education. The Government stated the law was
    needed to democratize university education. Organizations representing
    students, professors, and rectors criticized the law as violating the
    constitutional principles of university autonomy and respect for ``all
    currents of thought'' in education. The law was not officially
    promulgated in the Official Gazette by year's end.
        Government supporters often disrupted university classes, marches,
    and rallies and used violence and intimidation to protest university
    policies and to discourage students from political participation.
        On February 17, unknown assailants shot multiple bullets and threw
    a Molotov cocktail (which did not explode) into the office of the
    rector of the Central University of Venezuela, Cecilia Garcia Arocha.
    In the weeks before the attack, progovernment students had protested
    the rector's decision to erect security doors at the school's entrance
    for greater protection. The Public Ministry opened an investigation
    into the incident on February 18; no information was available at
    year's end on the results. On February 24, Garcia Arocha publicly
    stated that between November 2007 and February 2010 the university had
    been subject to 27 violent attacks with little to no response from the
    police.
        On May 18, approximately 35 armed progovernment students took over
    the rector's office at the Experimental Pedagogical University
    Libertador in Caracas and held the rector hostage for 24 hours in
    protest of his alleged ``malpractice'' and ``aggressive policies...of
    the right.'' The students released the rector after a meeting with the
    vice minister of academic development.
        On December 15, a group of purportedly progovernment militants
    threw bottles and rocks at students from the Catholic University Andres
    Bello (UCAB) protesting the pending University Education Law, resulting
    in 13 injuries. UCAB student representatives told the press on December
    17 that they were collecting video and photographic evidence of the
    incident to submit to the Prosecutor General's Office.

        b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association.--Freedom of
    Assembly.--The constitution provides for freedom of assembly, and the
    Government generally respected this right in practice.
        Human rights groups continued to criticize the 2005 penal code
    revision for its strict penalties on some forms of peaceful
    demonstration. PROVEA expressed concern over the law's
    ``criminalization'' of protests.
        PROVEA noted that 3,315 demonstrations occurred in the country
    between October 2009 and September 2010, a 24 percent increase over the
    2,893 that occurred during the same period one year earlier. PROVEA
    reported that 98.5 percent (3,266) of the demonstrations were peaceful
    in nature. Of the total number of demonstrations, PROVEA reported that
    police and security forces repressed 150, a reduction of 4.6 percent
    compared with the previous year. PROVEA further noted a decrease in the
    number of injuries, detentions, and deaths resulting from security-
    force interventions: 368 injuries, 575 detentions, and no deaths,
    compared with 584 injuries, 676 detentions, and four deaths during the
    previous year. PROVEA noted that rallies and street closings were the
    principal forms of protest. However, it also concluded that the
    increased number of hunger strikes, 105 compared with one during the
    previous year, represented a radicalization of protests.
        NGO Public Space reported that Monagas state police shot and killed
    a student, Miguel Hernandez, on July 13 during protests over
    electricity outages in the city of Chaguaramal. The press reported that
    a member of the Monagas police special brigade, Sub-Inspector Enrique
    Gustavo Romero Diaz, also was killed during the protests. There was no
    information regarding any government investigation of the killings.
        During the year government security forces used tear gas, water
    hoses, and rubber bullets to suppress peaceful protests. Among the
    notable examples were:
        Between January 24 and February 4, the press reported that hundreds
    of students nationwide held demonstrations to protest the closing of
    RCTV (see section 2.a.), electricity and water shortages, and the
    general situation of the country. Government security forces responded
    to the demonstrators often dressed in full riot gear using tear gas,
    water hoses, and rubber bullets. The media reported that nationwide 174
    persons were admitted to hospitals for injuries related to inhaling
    tear gas, 83 were injured by rubber bullets, and approximately 85 were
    briefly detained by police. On January 28, President Chavez threatened
    governors and police who failed to halt the protests and replaced the
    head of the state-owned Venezolana de Television who met with student
    protesters the previous day. On February 2, the IACHR called on the
    Government to engage in dialogue and allow the peaceful exercise of the
    right of assembly. A few days later, President Chavez called the
    student protesters ``fascists, subversives, violent, and filled with
    hate and anger,'' and he praised the security services for their
    ``firm'' response. On February 7, he accused the student protestors of
    wanting ``to have deaths and wounded people for the fascist television
    cameras behind them, so that they can transmit to the world the idea
    that this is a repressive government.''
        On January 25, the press reported that progovernment Tupamaro
    militants in Merida mobilized a counter-demonstration to that held by
    opposition students. Sixteen persons were wounded and two students were
    killed at the University of the Andes (ULA): progovernment 15-year-old
    Yorsinio Carrillo Torres was struck by a stray bullet and killed while
    inside the Domingo Salazar Residence Hall, and 28-year-old opposition
    student Marcos Rosales Suarez was attacked and killed by progovernment
    motorcyclists at a McDonald's restaurant near the ULA campus. On
    January 26, the National Guard and police repelled the progovernment
    militants throughout a 20-square-block area of the city with tear gas
    and rubber bullets. In a January 27 conflict between the Tupamaros and
    the National Guard, six National Guardsmen were wounded, two by
    bullets. The same day the minister of the interior and justice
    announced a temporary suspension of the electrical and water outages in
    an effort to end the protests. The Public Ministry later announced that
    two suspects were arrested in connection with the killing of the two
    students: Freddy Orta Anez was charged in the death of Carrillo Torres,
    and Ruben Dario Valero was charged with Rosales' death. The courts
    ordered trials to proceed against Orta Anez and Valero on May 20 and
    September 30, respectively. At year's end both remained in custody at
    the Andean Regional Penitentiary pending the conclusions of their
    trials.
        On May 5, according to press reports, state police in Merida fired
    rubber bullets against students demonstrating against quotas on
    subsidized public transportation tickets. The press reported that seven
    students were injured, including one student who reportedly received
    more than 65 bullet wounds on his arms, neck, back, and legs.

        Freedom of Association.--While the constitution provides for
    freedom of association and freedom from political discrimination, the
    Government only partially respected this right. Although indicating
    that they generally operated without interference, professional and
    academic associations complained that the National Electoral Council
    (CNE), which is responsible for convoking all elections and
    establishing dates and procedures for them, repeatedly interfered with
    their attempts to hold internal elections.

        c. Freedom of Religion.--For a complete description of religious
    freedom, please see the 2010 International Religious Freedom Report at
    www.state.gov/g/drl/irf/rpt

        d. Freedom of Movement, Internally Displaced Persons, Protection of
    Refugees, and Stateless Persons.--The constitution provides for freedom
    of movement within the country, foreign travel, emigration, and
    repatriation, and the Government generally respected these rights in
    practice.
        The Government cooperated with the Office of the UN High
    Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and other humanitarian organizations
    in providing protection and assistance to refugees and asylum seekers.
        The law prohibits forced exile, and it was not used.

        Protection of Refugees.--Laws provide for the granting of asylum or
    refugee status, and the Government has established a system for
    providing protection to refugees. In practice the Government provided
    protection against the expulsion or return of refugees to countries
    where their lives or freedom would be threatened on account of their
    race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group,
    or political opinion.
        The UNHCR reported 16,413 (cumulative) applicants for refugee
    status in the country from 2002 through September 2010, of whom 2,226
    applied during the year. The UNHCR estimated that there were a total of
    200,000 persons in need of international protection. On December 6, the
    National Commission for Refugees reported that the Government
    recognized 2,700 individuals (cumulative) as refugees as of May, an
    increase from the 1,313 recognized refugees (cumulative) as of the end
    of 2009.
        The Government cooperated with the UNHCR and other humanitarian
    organizations in assisting refugees and asylum seekers. The National
    Committee for Refugees had limited physical and human resources to
    address refugee issues, in addition to a lengthy process for examining
    individual refugee applications.

    Section 3. Respect for Political Rights: The Right of Citizens to
            Change Their Government
        The constitution provides citizens the right to change their
    government peacefully, and citizens exercised this right through
    periodic free and fair elections based on universal suffrage.

        Elections and Political Participation.--On September 26, voters
    elected 165 deputies to five-year terms in the National Assembly in an
    election in which voter participation reached 66.5 percent. Voters also
    elected 12 deputies to the Latin America Parliament (``Parlatino'').The
    CNE did not invite international election monitoring missions to
    observe the electoral process. However, domestic electoral observers
    and opposition political leaders generally considered the elections
    free and fair despite scattered delays due to problems with old voting
    machines, generalized reports of improper electioneering by the
    official PSUV party, and isolated examples of voter intimidation.
        However, one CNE rector and opposition political parties criticized
    the electoral law and the electoral redistricting for allegedly
    violating the constitutional principle of proportionality. Opposition
    parties claimed the changes led to PSUV candidates winning
    approximately 59 percent of the National Assembly seats (98) despite
    winning only 49 percent of the national vote. Opposition candidates won
    approximately 40 percent of the seats (65) with 48 percent of the
    national vote. A third party won the remaining two seats with
    approximately 3 percent of the vote.
        One CNE rector and the domestic electoral observation NGO Ojo
    Electoral also criticized the Government's partisan use of state-owned
    media in the months before the election and during the official month-
    long campaign period. The NGO specifically cited the CNE's failure to
    enforce its regulations providing for ``equality of conditions'' in
    access to the media, especially the president's use of frequent and
    lengthy mandatory broadcasts (cadenas) for partisan campaign purposes.
        On December 5, gubernatorial and mayoral elections were held in two
    states and in 11 municipalities. The elections were considered
    generally free and fair.
        On December 10, claiming he needed the authority to govern by
    decree to address the emergency caused by the severe flooding in the
    country during late November and early December, President Chavez
    called on the National Assembly to pass an enabling law (Ley
    Habilitante) to permit him to legislate by decree, the fourth since he
    took office in 1999. On December 17, the outgoing National Assembly,
    with the constitutionally required three-fifths majority, adopted the
    Enabling Law, which gave the president the authority to decree laws for
    a period of 18 months in the areas of flood relief, infrastructure,
    telecommunications, public services, housing, use of urban and rural
    land, financial and tax matters, citizen security, the judiciary,
    national defense, international cooperation, and the ``socioeconomic
    system of the nation.''
        Opposition leaders claimed the president already had the legal
    authorities necessary to respond to the flood emergency and accused him
    of taking advantage of the flood crisis to ``impose his political
    project'' and to circumvent the newly elected National Assembly, which
    was scheduled to take office on January 5, 2011. Critics also claimed
    the National Assembly did not have the authority to cede legislative
    powers to the president beyond its own term of office and that ``decree
    laws'' issued after January 5 would be unconstitutional. In a December
    14 letter to Organization of American States Secretary General Jose
    Miguel Insulza on behalf of the opposition's ``Unity Table,'' Ramon
    Guillermo Aveledo said the Enabling Law usurped the competencies of the
    newly elected deputies, ``which constituted an evident violation of the
    popular will and constitutional norms relative to legislative
    authority.'' The letter said the situation was ``so serious'' that it
    ``suggests a violation of the norms'' contained in the Inter-American
    Democratic Charter. On December 15, the IACHR expressed concern that
    the law failed ``to set the limits necessary for the existence of true
    control over the executive branch's legislative power.''
        Opposition leaders also criticized two other laws adopted by the
    outgoing National Assembly that restricted the freedom of the newly
    elected deputies:
        The Law on Political Parties, Public Meetings, and Demonstrations,
    adopted on December 21, prohibits deputies from voting against
    legislation proposed by the political organization that supported their
    candidacies; ``making common cause'' with ``contrary'' positions,
    parties, or organizations; and changing parliamentary blocs. At the
    request of 0.l percent of the voters and upon the approval of a simple
    majority of the deputies, the comptroller general can penalize a deputy
    for ``fraud against the electorate'' with disqualification from public
    office. Critics claim the law violates article 201 of the constitution,
    which provides that deputies are subject only to their consciences and
    that their votes are ``personal.''
        On December 22, the National Assembly adopted the Law on Internal
    Rules and Debate, which reduces the amount of time a deputy can speak
    on the floor, lowers the threshold necessary to sanction a deputy for
    violating the rules of debate, and restricts access by private
    television media to the National Assembly.
        Opposition political parties operated in an atmosphere
    characterized by intimidation and restricted media access because of
    the fewer number of independent television and radio stations (see
    section 2.a.). The Government used ``administrative disqualifications''
    as one way to restrict access of opposition leaders to public office.
    According to the annual report presented by Comptroller General
    Clodosbaldo Russian on August 11, during the year a total of 55
    citizens were administratively disqualified from public office as a
    result of allegations of misuse of public funds, including eight
    National Assembly candidates, bringing the total to 622 citizens
    administratively disqualified since 2002 (see section 1.e.). On May 24,
    the comptroller general administratively disqualified former Maracaibo
    mayor and 2006 presidential candidate Manual Rosales for a period of 12
    months; in 2009 Rosales was charged with corruption and left the
    country.
        The Government also prosecuted opposition figures on questionable
    charges. For example, on March 26, the National Assembly lifted the
    legislative immunity of Deputy Wilmer Azuaje so he could be prosecuted
    on charges of insulting a public official and violence against women
    for a purported scuffle with a female police officer the previous day.
    Azuaje had repeatedly and publicly accused the president's family of
    corruption as well as complicity in the February 2009 killing of his
    brother Carlos. On March 27, the Supreme Court ruled that Azuaje could
    not exercise his legislative duties or run for reelection while the
    case against him remained open. The court ordered him to appear every
    20 days, prohibited him from leaving the country, ordered him to be
    evaluated by a court dealing with violence against women, and sent him
    to a center for gender violence awareness training. Azuaje publicly
    criticized his prosecution as ``political.'' On November 1, the
    Official Gazette published the October 27 decree signed by Russian
    administratively disqualifying Azuaje from public office for 12 months;
    the decree alleged that Azuaje had submitted an ``untruthful''
    financial disclosure statement. On May 5, a court convicted and
    sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment a second person in the killing of
    Azuaje's brother; another person had been convicted and sentenced in
    November 2009.
        There were no developments in the comptroller general's October
    2009 investigation of opposition Miranda state Governor Henrique
    Capriles Radonski for alleged corruption, tax evasion, and other
    financial crimes. There was also no information regarding the case
    against Capriles for alleged involvement in a 2002 violent
    demonstration outside the Cuban embassy. Prosecutors reopened the case
    after a court of appeals annulled an October 2008 acquittal.
        The National Assembly that was to take office on January 5, 2011,
    had 28 female deputies. During 2010 women headed four of the five
    branches of government (legislative, judicial, electoral, and citizen)
    and occupied six cabinet positions. There were 13 women among the 32
    justices on the Supreme Court at year's end.
        The constitution reserves three seats in the National Assembly for
    indigenous persons. Three deputies were elected for these seats on
    September 26. There was one indigenous member of the cabinet.

    Section 4. Official Corruption and Government Transparency
        The law provides criminal penalties for corruption by government
    officials; credible observers alleged the Government did not implement
    the law effectively or fairly and frequently prosecuted its political
    opponents selectively on corruption charges to harass, intimidate, or
    imprison them.
        The World Bank's governance indicators reflected that government
    corruption was a serious problem. According to a study by the INE that
    was leaked to the press in August, survey results of ``corruption by
    officials reveal figures of an elevated occurrence, while in official
    statistics its level is minimal'' (see section 1.a.). There was a
    perception of widespread corruption at all government levels.
        The Comptroller General's Office is responsible for investigating
    and sanctioning corruption by public officials. The Public Ministry and
    the Public Defender's Office investigate abuses by police and military
    officials. The National Assembly can order the Public Ministry to
    undertake investigations.
        Journalists reported many cases of apparent corruption involving
    government officials at all levels, and the Public Ministry regularly
    reported indictments and prosecutions of low-level local officials. In
    its 2009 annual report, released in June, the Public Ministry reported
    2,722 complaints regarding corruption in both the private and the
    official sectors, of which 594 resulted in indictments and 268 in
    convictions. The report also claimed the Public Ministry's fight
    against corruption was ``positive, since it achieved for the first time
    in its history accusations against two former governors and 16 mayors
    or former mayors for irregularities committed in the exercise of their
    responsibilities.'' Both governors charged in 2009 were former
    government allies who had become critics, Eduardo Manuitt and Didalco
    Bolivar. Both left the country during 2009. On April 21, the Supreme
    Court reaffirmed the arrest warrant against Bolivar. There were no
    known developments in the case against Manuitt during the year.
        There was no information publicly available about any
    investigations of high-level officials associated with the Government.
    Among the most notable examples of allegations of high-level corruption
    by public officials were:
        In June the national media reported on the so-called Pudreval
    scandal, in which thousands of tons of decomposed food intended for
    distribution through the Government's subsidized food programs were
    found at government warehouses throughout the country. According to the
    economic daily newspaper El Mundo on July 12, high-level government
    officials, including the then vice president Ramon Carrizales, were
    aware of large amounts of food waiting in the ports as early as January
    2009. On August 11, Comptroller General Russian dismissed media
    inquiries about a possible criminal investigation by observing ``there
    are no conclusive reports about this case.'' Despite calls from the
    opposition and NGOs for an investigation, the Government pursued
    charges against only three current or former employees of PDVAL, the
    food import and distribution unit of the national oil company PDVSA.
    PDVAL Director Luis Pulido Lopez, former executive director of
    operations, Mercedes Vilyeska Betancourt Pacheco, and former general
    manager Ronnal Jose Flores Burgillo were arrested in early June on
    charges of speculation and detained at the SEBIN facility in Puerto
    Cabello; on December 16, the Supreme Court annulled the proceedings and
    ordered a retrial in a different trial court. The defendants remained
    detained awaiting trial at year's end.
        On July 11, El Nacional reported that seven current or former high-
    ranking government officials whom President Chavez had selected as
    candidates for the National Assembly had pending accusations of
    corruption in the Comptroller General's Office or the Public Ministry
    that had not been investigated, prosecuted, or sanctioned.
        On October 23, securities regulator Rafael Ramos de la Rosa was
    arrested in Miami on charges of allegedly attempting to extort $1.5
    million from the former owner of a brokerage firm seized by the
    Government in late 2009.Subsequently the head of the securities
    regulatory agency stated that Ramos de la Rosa was not a government
    employee despite the fact that he had been appointed to his position by
    the agency.
        On August 11, Comptroller General Russian expressed frustration
    that his office's annual reports continued to observe ``the same
    recurrent flaws and deficiencies in government administration.'' He
    criticized public servants who ``neither resolved nor even addressed''
    the problems of citizens, ``unnecessarily delayed'' decisions, or made
    them ``arbitrarily or capriciously.'' He cited one government
    investigation involving a project initiated in 2005 to erect 12,000
    prefabricated houses purchased from Uruguay. The investigation by the
    Comptroller General's Office found that the project had resulted in the
    completion of just 11 of the houses despite the disbursement of $71
    million--almost half the project's total. The report criticized the
    Ministry of Public Works and Housing and the state-owned oil company
    PDVSA for ``reckless mismanagement of public funds.'' However, there
    was no information available about any government investigation or
    prosecution of those responsible.
        Corruption was a major problem in all police forces, whose members
    were generally poorly paid and minimally trained. Impunity for
    corruption, brutality, and other acts of violence were major problems
    explicitly acknowledged by some government officials.
        According to the INE study, police and National Guard members were
    responsible for almost one-eighth of all crimes and a high proportion
    of the crimes of corruption, deprivation of liberty, and extortion. The
    study reported that 19,177 police or National Guard members committed
    crimes between July 2008 and July 2009, of which 4,268 involved
    corruption and 1,334 extortion. In October 2009 Interior and Justice
    Minister Tareck El Aissami stated that police committed approximately
    15-20 percent of the country's crimes, including the most violent ones.
        Public officials as well as all directors and members of the board
    of private companies are required to submit sworn financial disclosure
    statements pursuant to the Organic Law on the Comptroller General of
    the Republic and the National Fiscal Control System and the Law against
    Corruption, respectively (see section 3). The law also provides for
    citizen access to government information. However, human rights groups
    reported that the Government routinely ignored this requirement and
    their requests for information, did not make government information
    available, and usually did not give a reason for not providing it. On
    July 15, the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court declared that
    the salaries of public officials were confidential information. The NGO
    Pro-Access Coalition complained that the court's ruling constituted a
    setback in the public's right to access information and to transparency
    in public administration.

    Section 5. Governmental Attitude Regarding International and
            Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations of Human
            Rights
        A variety of independent domestic and international human rights
    groups generally operated with some government restrictions. Major
    domestic human rights NGOs conducted investigations and published their
    findings on human rights cases. There was no indication the Government
    took action in response to their reports or recommendations.
        Many domestic NGOs reported government threats and harassment
    against their leaders, staff, and organizations. Among the most notable
    examples of government harassment were:
        On March 4, two human rights NGOs requested that the Inter-American
    Court on Human Rights grant provisional measures to representatives of
    COFAVIC because of a series of attacks against the organization and its
    leadership by government officials and the official media. The IACHR
    had granted COFAVIC protective measures in 2002. On May 28, the court
    denied the request for provisional measures.
        On May 11, Rocio San Miguel, director of the military watchdog NGO
    Civil Association of Citizen Control in Venezuela, filed a complaint
    with the Public Defender's Office and the Public Ministry claiming that
    she had received threatening telephone calls and was the victim of
    attacks in the official media following her May 6 public allegation
    that 14 high-level military officials were registered and active in the
    PSUV despite the constitutional prohibition against membership by
    military officials in political parties. On May 17, the Observatory for
    the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, the World Organization
    against Torture, and the International Federation of Human Rights
    issued a joint statement denouncing the ``harassment, threats, and
    defamation against San Miguel'' and urging the Government ``to take
    immediate action to ensure the physical safety of San Miguel.''
        On May 28, OVP Director Humberto Prado submitted a complaint to the
    Public Defender's Office regarding a surveillance operation in the
    vicinity of his home conducted the previous day by seven armed
    militants on motorcycles. The surveillance occurred a week after
    Prado's participation in a May 20 peaceful protest by families of
    prisoners over delays in the judicial process and prison conditions.
    Prado had been subject to previous harassment and had been granted a
    provisional measure by the IACHR in November 2009.
        The Government also threatened NGOs with criminal investigations
    for allegedly illegal receipt of foreign funds:
        On July 15, the Public Ministry named a prosecutor to investigate
    allegations by the PSUV and the progovernment NGO Necessary Journalism
    Movement that certain NGOs had illegally received foreign funding
    through the Pan American Development Fund, in particular the Press and
    Society Institute and NGO Public Space. On July 14, President Chavez
    had asked the Public Ministry to deepen its investigation into foreign
    funding of NGOs, which he claimed was undermining the country's
    sovereignty. On July 20, the National Assembly's Permanent Committee on
    Science, Technology, and Social Communication adopted a resolution
    calling for a ``deepening of the investigation'' of foreign-funded
    programs to determine whether NGOs and journalists had committed any
    crimes. The resolution specifically listed more than 35 foreign and
    domestic organizations and 18 individuals. Human rights defenders
    publicly called the resolution ``a witch hunt'' and an attempt by the
    Government to ``criminalize'' human rights work. There were no known
    developments in the Government's investigation by year's end.
        On July 22, in a decision on a case brought by the NGO Sumate
    challenging the legality of the 2009 constitutional referendum, the
    Supreme Court noted that ``obtaining financial resources, whether
    directly or indirectly, coming from foreign states with the intention
    of being used to the detriment of the Republic, the
    People,...political, social, or economic acts... might eventually
    constitute'' a punishable crime under the penal code.
        On December 21, the National Assembly adopted the Law on the
    Defense of Political Sovereignty and National Self-Determination. The
    law prohibits individuals, political organizations, or organizations
    involved in the defense of ``political rights'' from receiving
    resources from any non-Venezuelan person or entity. It penalizes
    individuals and organizations with fines and/or a potential 5-8 year
    disqualification from running for political office, notwithstanding
    penalties established under other laws. The law defines political
    organizations as those involved in promoting citizen participation,
    exercising control over public offices, and promoting candidates for
    public office. Organizations involved in the defense of political
    rights include those that ``promote, disseminate, inform, or defend the
    full exercise of the political rights of citizens.'' The law also
    prohibits foreign nationals who are sponsored by Venezuelan individuals
    or political organizations from ``issuing opinions that offend the
    institutions of the state, its high officials or go against the
    exercise of sovereignty.'' The law's adoption followed President
    Chavez's November 23 appeal to the National Assembly for a ``severe
    law'' to prohibit ``political parties, NGOs, and people against the
    revolution to continue to be financed with millions and millions of
    dollars from the Yankee empire...to destabilize our country.'' In a
    December 20 letter to the National Assembly, Sumate advised that the
    law violated the rights guaranteed in the constitution to freedom of
    association, political participation, and equality and the right to
    receive resources to promote human rights contained in article 13 of UN
    General Assembly resolution 53/144.
        Domestic NGOs spoke out against government harassment of NGOs and
    threats against organizations receiving foreign assistance. On July 16,
    the Forum for Life, a coalition of human rights NGOs, publicly rejected
    what it characterized as ``politics of harassment and a public campaign
    to discredit the work of Venezuelan human rights NGOs'' and stated that
    international treaties signed by the Government, the constitution, and
    article 13 of the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders allow for
    NGOs to receive international funding.
        International NGOs and the IACHR also expressed concern about the
    situation of NGOs in the country. On March 25, the IACHR issued a
    statement expressing ``profound concern about the use of the punitive
    power of the State to criminalize human rights defenders.'' On August
    12, 34 members of the International Coalition of Human Rights
    Organizations of the Americas denounced the criminal investigations the
    Government launched against NGOs involved in human rights and media
    freedom issues. On August 24, the NGO Human Rights Watch issued a
    statement urging the Government to ``end its apparent campaign of
    harassment'' against Carlos Correa, the director of the NGO Public
    Space.
        During the year the Government expressed hostility toward
    international human rights bodies (see section1.e.). The Government
    refused to permit a visit by the IACHR, although several working-level
    officials from the OAS visited Caracas for one day in December 2009 to
    meet with NGOs and other groups. The Government has not permitted a
    visit by the IACHR since 2002. The Government also rejected the IACHR's
    2009 report, Democracy and Human Rights in Venezuela, publicly released
    on January 22, which identified the following problems preventing the
    full exercise of human rights in the country: the lack of effective
    separation of powers, the lack of guarantees for freedom of expression
    for all viewpoints, use of the Government's punitive power to
    intimidate or sanction contrary views, the lack of conditions for human
    rights defenders and journalists to work freely, and impunity in cases
    of violence. President Chavez said on February 25 that the report was
    ``pure garbage'' and threatened to withdraw from the organization,
    saying that ``someday the OAS needs to vanish.'' He publicly told
    Foreign Minister Maduro that the report ``wasn't worth responding to''
    and instructed him to look into withdrawing from that ``awful
    commission.'' He also criticized IACHR Secretary General Santiago
    Canton, calling him ``pure excrement.'' Public Defender Gabriela
    Ramirez also disputed the report's findings and accused the IACHR of
    unfairly taking some statistics out of context and using others
    selectively to show a pattern of political repression and abuses by the
    Government.
        On June 18, in response to UN Special Rapporteur for Freedom of
    Opinion and Expression Frank LaRue's charge that, in the case of
    Globovision President Zuloaga (see section 2.a.), the Government was
    ``silenc[ing] critics or those who oppose the state with criminal
    proceedings,'' the country's UN Ambassador Jorge Valero stated that
    these ``declarations, without any basis, constitute a new and
    unacceptable interference by LaRue in the internal affairs of our
    country, and they show the rapporteur's identification with the
    political plans of the coup mongering opposition.'' The ambassador also
    accused LaRue of ``undue use and abuse of his functions in a case that
    does not have anything to do with freedom of expression'' and said the
    country would file a request with the UN Secretary General for the
    rapporteur's dismissal. The Government did not respond to LaRue's 2009
    request to visit the country.
        Although the public defender, appointed by the National Assembly,
    is responsible for ensuring that citizen rights are protected in a
    conflict with the state, human rights NGOs claimed that the Public
    Defender's Office was not independent and rarely acted on public
    interest cases; they also alleged that the public defender was chosen
    in 2007 in a nontransparent process. Reports or recommendations issued
    by the office were not widely available.
        The National Assembly's subcommission on human rights played an
    insignificant role in human rights debates.

    Section 6. Discrimination, Societal Abuses, and Trafficking in Persons
        The law prohibits discrimination based on race, gender, sexual
    orientation, disability, language, or social status; however,
    discrimination against women, persons with disabilities, and indigenous
    persons and discrimination based on sexual orientation were problems.

        Women.--The law prohibits rape, including spousal rape. It is
    punishable by a prison term of eight to 14 years, although cases often
    were not reported to the police. A man may avoid punishment by marrying
    his victim before sentencing. There were no reliable statistics on the
    incidence of, or prosecutions or convictions for, rape. Women faced
    substantial institutional and societal prejudice with respect to
    reporting rape and domestic violence. The INE survey reported that from
    July 2008 to July 2009 there were 5,005 victims of sexual abuse, 927
    involving rape. According to the study, 5 percent of the victims of
    sexual abuse were children.
        The law criminalizes physical, sexual, and psychological violence
    in the home, the community, and at work, as well as sexual harassment
    and slavery. The law punishes domestic violence with penalties ranging
    from six to 27 months in prison. The law requires police to report
    domestic violence to judicial authorities and obligates hospital
    personnel to notify the authorities when they admit patients who are
    victims of domestic abuse. Police generally were reluctant to intervene
    to prevent domestic violence. The law also establishes women's bureaus
    at local police headquarters and tribunals specializing in gender-based
    violence. According to a July 1 announcement by the Public Ministry, 57
    prosecutors were assigned to handle cases of violence against women.
        Violence against women continued to be a problem. On April 13, the
    Public Defender's Office cited statistics that every 15 minutes in the
    country a woman was the victim of abuse by her partner, and every 10
    days in Caracas a woman died from domestic violence. In a July 20
    statement, the NGO consortium Network of Support claimed that only 10
    percent of abused women filed complaints with government authorities.
        In April in a press note announcing a course for public officials
    to improve treatment of victims of domestic violence, the Public
    Defender's Office stated that the Public Ministry received 101,750
    complaints nationwide of violence against women; courts had more than
    50,000 cases involving domestic violence; and the specialized courts
    for women had approximately 12,000 cases. In June, Luisa Rodriguez
    Andarcio, vice minister for social strategies of the Ministry of Women,
    stated in a televised interview that, in the first five months of the
    year, there were 200,000 complaints of violence against women. On
    September 16, Prosecutor General Luisa Ortega Diaz stated that since
    January 1, the Public Ministry had received 65,464 complaints of
    violence against women through August 30. She said the figure reflected
    a lessening in the fear and shame attached to reporting these crimes.
    There was no publicly available information regarding the number of
    indictments, prosecutions, or convictions resulting from these
    investigations and cases. However, in its 2009 annual report, the
    Public Ministry reported that the tribunals specializing in gender-
    based violence had issued a total of 570 sentences during 2009, of
    which 410 (72 percent) were convictions, 121 (21 percent) were
    acquittals, and 39 (7 percent) were confessions. El Nacional reported
    on November 25 that a total of 120,217 complaints of violence against
    women were filed in the specialized courts, of which 118,417 were in
    the investigative phase, 1,735 were in trial phase, and 60 had
    concluded with final sentences.
        The Government sought to combat domestic violence through public
    awareness campaigns and a national victim-assistance hotline
    administered by the Ministry of Women's Affairs, which succeeded the
    National Women's Institute in 2009. On March 8, the Government-
    sponsored newspaper Correo del Orinoco reported that the hotline had
    received 31,921 calls since its creation in 1999. It also reported that
    the National Defenders Office for Women, established in 2001, had
    provided legal and other assistance to a total of 21,553 women and that
    two government-run shelters had saved the lives of 184 women, 155
    girls, and 137 boys. In August the Public Ministry announced the
    planned creation of technical units staffed by medics, psychiatrists,
    and/or psychologists with specialized training to provide assistance to
    women, children, and adolescents who were victims of violence.
        The April 18 killing of Jennifer Carolina Viera by her husband, ex-
    world lightweight boxing champion Edwin ``Inca'' Valero, put a public
    spotlight on the problem of violence against women and highlighted some
    limitations in the Government's response to these situations. Valero,
    who committed suicide shortly after confessing to the killing, had been
    questioned or charged with numerous acts of violence and aggressive
    behavior against his wife and other female members of his family since
    2006. On March 25, police had detained him on charges of harassment,
    making threats, and resisting arrest after his wife was hospitalized
    with two broken ribs and other injuries; the court issued a restraining
    order against him. However, Viera asked that the charges be dropped.
        Sexual harassment is illegal and punishable by a prison sentence of
    one to three years. Sexual harassment was allegedly common in the
    workplace, but cases were rarely reported.
        Couples and individuals had the right to decide the number,
    spacing, and timing of children and had the information and means to do
    so free from discrimination. Access to information on contraception and
    skilled attendance at delivery and in postpartum care were widely
    available. Women and men were generally given equal access to
    diagnostic services and treatment for sexually transmitted infections.
    The Population Reference Bureau reported 70-percent use of
    contraception among married women between ages 15 and 49. A 2008 UN
    inter-agency report estimated the maternal mortality rate at 68 deaths
    per100,000 live births in 2008. Maternal health information and online
    resources were generally available.
        Women and men are legally equal in marriage, and the law provides
    for gender equality in exercising the right to work. The law specifies
    that employers must not discriminate against women with regard to pay
    or working conditions. According to the Ministry of Labor and the
    Confederation of Workers, these regulations were enforced in the formal
    sector, although women reportedly earned 30 percent less than men on
    average. In its preliminary report to the 11th Regional Conference on
    Women in Latin America and the Caribbean in July, the Government
    reported that it provided between 60 and 80 percent of the minimum wage
    to needy homemakers. The Ministry of Women worked to protect women's
    rights but did not make statistics publicly available.
        The law provides women with property rights equal to those of men.
    In practice, however, women frequently waived these rights by signing
    over the equivalent of power of attorney to their husbands.

        Children.--Citizenship is derived by birth within the country's
    territory. According to the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), thousands of
    children were not officially registered at birth.
        According to UNICEF and NGOs working with children and women, child
    abuse, including incest, occurred but was rarely reported. Although the
    judicial system acted to remove children from abusive households,
    public facilities for such children were inadequate and had poorly
    trained staff.
        Under the law sexual relations with a minor under age 13 or an
    ``especially vulnerable'' person, or with a minor under age 16 when the
    perpetrator is a relative or guardian, are punishable with a mandatory
    sentence of 15 to 20 years' imprisonment. The law prohibits inducing
    the prostitution and corruption of minors. Penalties range from three
    to 18 months in prison and up to four years in prison if the minor is
    younger than 12 years old. If the crime is committed repeatedly or for
    profit, it is punishable by three to six years' imprisonment. Prison
    sentences for inducing a minor into prostitution are increased by up to
    five years if various aggravating circumstances occur. Penalties for
    several crimes relating to child prostitution do not apply if the
    perpetrator marries the victim.
        Child marriage was not a widespread problem. There were some
    reports of child sexual exploitation during the year, including reports
    of trafficking in children for the purpose of commercial sexual
    exploitation. The law prohibits the production and sale of child
    pornography and establishes penalties of 16 to 20 years' imprisonment.
    There was no publicly available information regarding the number of
    investigations or prosecutions of cases involving the commercial sexual
    exploitation of minors or child pornography.
        According to a March 3 announcement by the Public Ministry, a total
    of 67 prosecutors were assigned to handle cases specializing in the
    protection of children.
        The NGO For the Rights of Children and Adolescents estimated that
    15,000 children lived on the streets. Authorities in Caracas and
    several other jurisdictions imposed curfews on unsupervised minors to
    attempt to cope with this problem, but with institutions filled to
    capacity, hundreds of children accused of infractions, such as curfew
    violations, were confined in inadequate juvenile detention centers. The
    Government's social service mission, Mision Negra Hipolita, provided
    assistance to street children and the homeless.
        The country is a party to the 1980 Hague Convention on Civil
    Aspects of International Child Abduction. For information on
    international parental child abduction, please see the Department of
    State's annual report on compliance at http://travel.state.gov/
    abduction/resources/congressreport/congressreport--4308.html.

        Anti-Semitism.--There were reports of societal abuses or
    discrimination based on religious affiliation, belief, or practice,
    including anti-Semitism.
        There were an estimated 9,500 Jews in the country. Jewish leaders
    reported that much of the anti-Semitic graffiti that appeared in 2009
    had not been painted over and was still publicly visible. New anti-
    Semitic graffiti appeared on the Episcopal Conference's downtown
    Caracas commercial buildings after their February 7 expropriation by
    President Chavez; press reports indicated that the buildings were
    erroneously rumored to be Jewish-owned. The 11 suspects in the January
    2009 vandalism and desecration of the Tiferet Israel synagogue in
    Caracas remained in prison awaiting trial at year's end.
        Jewish community leaders publicly expressed concern about anti-
    Semitic expressions carried in official and government-affiliated
    media. These expressions often increased following government criticism
    of Israeli government policies or actions. For example, on June 2,
    following the Gaza flotilla incident, President Chavez called Israel a
    ``genocidal state'' but said he was not an ``enemy of the Jews,'' that
    Venezuelan Jews ``have our affection and our respect,'' and that he
    ``could not believe that a Venezuelan Jew.would support this kind of
    massacre.'' On July 11, an anti-Israel advertisement produced by Tatuy
    TVC and Phantom Studios aired on government-owned Venezolana de
    Television during a World Cup soccer game; it showed an Israeli soccer
    team attacking a pregnant woman, an elderly man, and children, followed
    by the text, ``It's not a game, it's a massacre,'' and, ``We are all
    Palestinians.'' In the advertisement boot sounds were audible in the
    background. On July 12, government-owned newspaper Diario Vea published
    an article that claimed that ``to avenge the Shoah, the Jews commit
    their own genocide, [they] massacre families and perpetrate other
    atrocities, like starving the children of Gaza until they die.'' On
    July 13, Diario Vea published a political cartoon depicting Israeli
    Foreign Minister Lieberman, with half his face as Adolf Hitler, holding
    up his hand that was tattooed with a skull with sharp teeth and an
    Israeli flag on its forehead. Government-affiliated Web site
    Aporrea.org published an article on August 6 claiming that ``the people
    are the new enemy of the degenerate neo Zionist fascist race, who are a
    new edition of Hitler's Nazi thinking and his racial superiority
    madness, which has been recovered by Zionist Jewish and Catholic
    thieves and assassins.''
        On August 9, Foreign Minister Maduro met with representatives of
    the Latin American Jewish Congress, who later stated publicly that the
    foreign minister had promised to provide security to the Jewish
    community during the Jewish High Holidays and to monitor anti-Semitism
    in the media. The Government provided increased security to Jewish
    religious and community centers in response to their concerns.
        On September 16, Jewish community leaders met with President Chavez
    and issued a communique which stated that they had expressed their
    ``profound concern'' to the president regarding the ``anti-Semitic
    statements, practically daily, which started years ago, in the official
    and government-affiliated media.'' They noted the possible negative
    consequences of expressions of hate, such as threats to the security
    and integrity of Jewish institutions and individuals, and ``officially
    requested the President of the Republic to intervene and stop these
    expressions.'' In a televised September 17 meeting with PSUV party
    representatives, President Chavez said the Jewish community had his
    ``respect and affection and can count on the respect of the revolution,
    of the PSUV, and of the Bolivarian state.'' With respect to the request
    to end anti-Semitic expressions in the media, President Chavez called
    ``for all of us to respect the Jewish community in Venezuela as another
    community, as other Venezuelans.'' After a temporary lull, Jewish
    community representatives reported a renewed rise in anti-Semitism in
    the media. On October 13, government-affiliated Web site Aporrea.com
    published an article recommending the anti-Semitic book, The Protocols
    of the Learned Elders of Zion.

        Trafficking in Persons.--For information on trafficking in persons,
    please see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons
    Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        Persons With Disabilities.--The constitution prohibits
    discrimination against persons with physical and mental disabilities in
    education, employment, health care, and the provision of other state
    services. Persons with disabilities had minimal access to public
    transportation, and ramps were practically nonexistent. The law
    requires that all newly constructed or renovated public parks and
    buildings provide access and prohibits discrimination in employment
    practices and in the provision of public services; however, the
    Government did not make a significant effort to implement the law,
    inform the public of it, or combat societal prejudice against persons
    with disabilities. Online resources and access to information were
    generally available to persons with disabilities.

        Indigenous People.--The law prohibits discrimination based on
    ethnic origin, and senior government officials repeatedly stated
    support for indigenous rights. However, some NGOs complained of
    government mismanagement and paternalistic attitudes toward the
    indigenous population. Of the country's approximately 300,000
    indigenous persons in 27 ethnic groups, many were isolated from urban
    areas, lacked access to basic health and educational facilities, and
    suffered from high rates of disease. The Government included indigenous
    persons in its literacy campaigns, in some cases teaching them to read
    and write in their native languages as well as in Spanish.
        The law provides for three seats in the National Assembly for
    deputies of indigenous origin and for ``the protection of indigenous
    communities and their progressive incorporation into the life of the
    nation.'' Nonetheless, NGOs and the press reported that local political
    authorities seldom took account of indigenous interests when making
    decisions affecting indigenous lands, cultures, traditions, or the
    allocation of natural resources. Indigenous persons called on the
    Government to recognize lands traditionally inhabited by them as
    territories belonging to each respective indigenous group. The Yukpa
    indigenous group also called on the National Assembly to recognize the
    jurisdiction of indigenous courts to handle criminal cases involving
    its members.
        Conflict between cattle ranchers/landowners and indigenous persons
    occurred sporadically. Civil-society organizations criticized a
    government land-transfer program, which gave private dairy farms in
    Zulia State to the Yukpa indigenous group, for causing tension and
    violence in the region.
        On July 7, 80 Yukpas began a vigil in front of the Supreme Court to
    demand a response to their request that murder charges against Yukpa
    leader Cacique Sabino Romero and two Yupka members, Alexander Fernandez
    and Olegario Romero, be handled through their own indigenous legal
    system. The three were arrested in October 2009 in connection with the
    killing of three Yukpa members in a dispute over alleged cattle thefts.
        The protestors cited article 260 of the constitution and article
    141 of the Organic Law on Indigenous Peoples and Communities, which
    provide for indigenous communities to handle certain crimes in their
    own judicial system. The Supreme Court did not respond to the
    protesters' request; however, it transferred jurisdiction of the case
    from Zulia to Trujillo State, stating the decision to change venues was
    made to avoid ``local interests.'' On October 18, Jose Maria Korta, the
    81-year-old Jesuit founder of the Indigenous University of Venezuela,
    announced a hunger strike to demand that the three Yukpas be judged
    according to indigenous traditions. Korta ended the hunger strike on
    October 25 when Vice President Jaua met with him to discuss indigenous
    jurisdiction and the National Demarcation Process of Yukpa ancestral
    lands in Sierra de Perija.

        Societal Abuses, Discrimination, and Acts of Violence Based on
    Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.--The constitution provides for
    equality before the law of all persons and prohibits discrimination
    based on sex or social condition. On this basis the Supreme Court ruled
    in 2008 that no individual may be discriminated against by reason of
    sexual orientation in any way that implies treatment in an unequal
    fashion.
        Violence against lesbian, gay, transgender, and bisexual (LGBT)
    communities reportedly occurred during the year.
        On October 29, the president of the NGO Diversity and Sexual
    Equality before the Law testified before the IACHR on the rights of
    LGBT persons. According to her testimony, based on a 2008 study
    involving more than 750 interviews, more than 50 percent of lesbians
    and gays reported suffering from societal violence or police abuse. In
    cases of transgender persons, 83 percent reported having been victims
    of such violence or abuse. She also claimed the Government
    systematically denied legal recognition to transgender persons by
    preventing them from obtaining identity documents required for
    accessing education, employment, housing, and health care. She said the
    Supreme Court had not yet acted on her 2004 petition for legal
    recognition.
        On July 14, the NGO Diverse Venezuela reported that six transgender
    persons were killed in Caracas in 2009. Nationwide statistics of
    violence against transgender persons were unavailable. Media frequently
    reported on hate crimes against transgender persons, but NGOs reported
    difficulties in following individual cases.
        The media and leading advocates for the rights of LGBT persons
    noted that victims of hate crimes based on sexual orientation
    frequently did not report the incidents and were often subjected to
    threats and/or extortion if they filed official complaints with local
    police or authorities.
        On May 5-7, the Public Defender's Office hosted an international
    seminar on sexual diversity in Caracas in order to promote discussion
    on ways to eliminate discrimination against the LGBT sector. The public
    defender said the event was undertaken as a way to help public
    defenders develop the methodological and conceptual tools to process
    complaints by LGBT persons of human rights violations.

        Other Societal Violence or Discrimination.--According to the NGO
    Citizen Action against AIDS, persons diagnosed with HIV/AIDS frequently
    were discriminated against at the workplace and often were refused
    access to government health services.
        The prison monitoring NGO A Window to Liberty and the media
    reported that a La Planta inmate, under the pseudonym ``Jesus
    Sotillo,'' was denied HIV/AIDS treatment and medicine by Second
    Metropolitan Tribunal Judge Jorge Timaury on August 6 because his case
    was not deemed critical enough to warrant medical attention. Sotillo
    alleged he contracted the disease following a 2003 attack by 20 inmates
    who, upon learning of his homosexuality, reportedly beat and sexually
    abused him. Sotillo claimed he had not received any medical treatment
    by prison officials in more than 10 months.
        On November 19, the Ministry of Interior and Justice published in
    the Official Gazette guidelines for the National Police and its
    officers relating to respect for gender identity and sexual
    orientation.

    Section 7. Worker Rights
        a. The Right of Association.--The law provides that all private and
    public sector workers (except armed forces members) have the right to
    form and join unions of their choice. However, according to labor
    sources and media reports, the Government continued to undermine this
    right by restricting the composition of union leadership and refusing
    to negotiate collective bargaining agreements. Approximately 10 percent
    of the 13-million-person total labor force was unionized. According to
    INE statistics cited by PROVEA, approximately 6.8 million workers were
    in the formal sector as of August.
        The Government provided no statistics on newly registered trade
    union organizations during the year, but other sources estimated that
    the number of such organizations increased slightly to approximately
    6,500. According to labor leaders, the Government was responsible for
    the creation of many of these organizations, because it sought to
    create ``parallel'' unions to dilute the membership and effectiveness
    of traditional unions. In general these new unions were not subject to
    the same government scrutiny and requirements regarding leadership
    elections.
        The CNE has the authority to administer internal elections of labor
    unions, federations, and confederations. By law elections must be held
    at least every three years. The law prohibits union leaders from
    engaging on anything beyond administrative tasks, including
    representing workers in negotiations, if CNE-administered and -
    certified elections are not held within this time period. Labor unions
    complained of long delays in obtaining CNE concurrence to hold such
    elections and in receiving certification of the election results. The
    International Labor Organization (ILO) noted that it repeatedly found
    cases of interference in trade union elections by the CNE that were
    incompatible with ILO Convention 87. On June 21, the ILO Governing Body
    determined that the intervention of the CNE in the elections of the
    SNTP executive board ``seriously violated'' ILO Convention 87. In the
    cases of the SNTP and the Single Organized National Trade Union of
    Workers of the Judiciary, the governing body urged the Government to
    prevent any interference by the CNE in the elections to the executive
    boards of these unions, to refrain from invoking alleged irregularities
    or appeals to prevent them from engaging in collective bargaining, and
    to take measures to amend or repeal legislation that allows
    interference by the CNE in trade union elections.
        On August 1, in his weekly column ``Lines from Chavez,'' President
    Chavez claimed ``that in Bolivarian Venezuela we do not have unionists
    assassinated.'' PROVEA issued a statement on August 3 challenging that
    claim and subsequently published a list of 122 unionists killed between
    June 2008 and August 2010, mostly in conflicts allegedly related to
    obtaining jobs.
        In its November 12 report, the ILO Committee on Freedom of
    Association expressed grave concern about the allegations of contract
    killings of 200 workers and the June 2009 murder of three union
    officials and noted that freedom of association could be exercised only
    when fundamental rights relating to human life and personal safety were
    fully respected and guaranteed. It called on the Government to
    intensify its judicial investigations into these killings. It also
    called on the ILO Governing Body to pay special attention to this case
    ``because of the extreme seriousness and urgency of the matters.''
        There was no new information regarding the prosecution of Julio
    Cesar Arguinzonez for his alleged role in the 2008 killings of three
    trade union leaders (Richard Gallardo, Carlos Jose Requena, and Luis
    Hernandez) in Aragua State at the time of a collective-bargaining
    dispute.
        Although the law recognizes the right of all public and private
    sector workers to strike in accordance with conditions established by
    labor law, public servants may strike only if the strike does not cause
    ``irreparable damage to the population or to institutions.''
    Replacement workers are not permitted during legal strikes; however,
    the president may order public- or private-sector strikers back to work
    and submit their disputes to arbitration if the strike ``puts in
    immediate danger the lives or security of all or part of the
    population.''
        In November the ILO Committee on Freedom of Association called on
    the Government to take the necessary steps to immediately release six
    PDVSA workers detained for their participation in a June 2009 strike
    and to drop the criminal charges against them. It also called on the
    Government to amend the INDEPABIS law (see section 1.e.) to exclude
    services ``which are not essential in the strict sense of the term and
    so that in no event may criminal sanctions be imposed in cases of
    peaceful strikes,'' and to partially amend the Organic National
    Security Act, whose criminal penalties of five to 10 years'
    imprisonment for ``activities to disrupt or adversely affect the
    organization and operation of public services'' could apply to the
    lawful exercise of the right to strike.
        At year's end the Government continued to refuse to adjudicate or
    resolve the cases of 19,000 state-owned petroleum-company employees who
    were fired during and after the 2002-03 national strike. The Ministry
    of Labor continued to deny registration to UNAPETROL, a union composed
    of these workers.

        b. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively.--The law
    provides that all public- and private-sector workers have the right to
    conduct their activities without interference and protects collective
    bargaining; however this right is restricted in practice. The law
    stipulates that employers must negotiate a collective contract with the
    union that represents the majority of their workers but does not allow
    minority organizations to jointly negotiate in cases where no union
    represents an absolute majority. The ILO objected to this provision and
    requested that the Government amend it. In practice CNE delays in
    administering union elections and certifying their results hampered
    unions' ability to bargain collectively because union leaders were not
    permitted to represent workers in negotiations (see section 7.a.).
    During the year a report by the International Trade Union Confederation
    noted that more than 3,700 collective bargaining agreements in both the
    public and private sectors were expired. The Government's refusal to
    negotiate or renew the public-sector agreements meant that only 9
    percent of the sector's workers were covered by them. According to
    PROVEA, more than two million public-sector employees worked under
    expired collective agreements during 2009; the Ministry of Labor
    provided no comparable statistics for 2010.
        The leader of the largest national union federation, the National
    Workers' Union, stated that the framework agreement for public
    administration had not been discussed for five years and the one
    covering Labor Ministry employees had not been discussed for 18 years.
    There were no developments reported during the year concerning the
    formal complaint lodged with the ILO by the Teachers' Federation and
    its 27 affiliated organizations to request that the Government restore
    its collective bargaining rights, which were blocked in 2006.
        In November the ILO Committee on Freedom of Association requested
    that the Government immediately release and compensate union leader
    Ruben Gonzalez, who was detained in September 2009 for protesting the
    state-owned iron ore mining company's alleged violation of a collective
    agreement.
        There are no special laws or exemptions from regular labor laws in
    the sole export processing zone.

        c. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor.--While the law
    generally prohibits forced or compulsory labor, including by children,
    there were isolated reports of trafficking in children for employment
    purposes, particularly in the informal economic sector (see also
    section 7.d.). International organizations and NGOs also reported that
    there were men, women, and children from Brazil, China, and Colombia
    subjected to forced labor, although there was no information available
    regarding the extent of the problem.
        Also see the Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons
    Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.

        d. Prohibition of Child Labor and Minimum Age for Employment.--The
    law protects children from exploitation in the workplace. The Ministry
    of Labor and the National Institute for Minors enforced child labor
    policies effectively in the formal sector of the economy but less so in
    the informal sector.
        Children most frequently worked in agriculture, retail trade,
    hotels, restaurants, manufacturing, and community and social services.
    Hundreds of thousands of minors were believed to be working but not
    receiving the salary and benefits due them under the law. According to
    the Government, in 2006, 131,902 boys and 10,196 girls worked in the
    agricultural sector, 3,772 boys and 10,285 girls worked in industrial
    manufacturing, and 36,106 boys and 746 girls worked in construction.
        There were reports that children were trafficked for exploitation
    as domestic servants and forced begging. (Also see the Department of
    State's annual Trafficking in Persons Report at www.state.gov/g/tip.)
        The law sets the minimum employment age at 14 years and permits
    children aged 12 to 14 years to work only if the National Institute for
    Minors or the Ministry of Labor grants special permission. Children
    aged 14 to 16 years may not work without the permission of their legal
    guardians. Those under 16 years of age may work no more than six hours
    per day or 30 hours per week. Minors under the age of 18 may work only
    between 6 a.m. and 7 p.m. Minors may not work in mines or smelting
    factories and in occupations that risk life or health or could damage
    intellectual or moral development.
        Fines are established for employing children ages eight to 11 and
    for employing 12- or 13-year-olds without authorization. Employing a
    child younger than eight years of age is punishable by one to three
    years' imprisonment. Employers must notify authorities if they hire a
    minor as a domestic worker. The law establishes sentences of one to
    three years' incarceration for forced child labor. There were no
    substantiated reports that these penalties were enforced.
        The Ministry of Education, Culture, and Sports ran educational
    programs to reincorporate school dropouts and adults into the
    educational system, and the Government also continued to provide
    services to vulnerable children, including street children, working
    children, and children at risk of working. However, there was no
    independent accounting of the effectiveness of these and other
    government supported programs.

        e. Acceptable Conditions of Work.--On May 5, the Government
    announced a 25-percent increase in the monthly minimum wage and in the
    salaries of all public-sector employees, implemented in two stages,
    which raised the minimum wage to 1,223.89 Bs.F (approximately $470).
    However, the 25-percent increase was below the country's recent annual
    inflation rate of 28-30 percent. Moreover, the real annual purchasing
    power of the minimum wage was reduced with the devaluation of Bs.F from
    2.15/$1 to 2.60/$1 for goods the Government defined as essential and
    the establishment of a second 4.30/$1 official exchange rate on January
    8 for goods the Government deemed nonessential. According to the INE,
    as of October the basic food basket cost 1,353 Bs.F, although the NGO
    Workers' Center for Documentation and Analysis reported that for the
    same month a basic food basket cost 2,428 Bs.F--almost twice the
    minimum wage. The Labor Ministry enforced minimum wage rates
    effectively in the formal sector, but approximately half the population
    worked in the informal sector, where labor laws and protections
    generally were not enforced.
        The law stipulates that the workweek may not exceed 44 hours.
    Managers are prohibited from obligating employees to work additional
    time, and workers have the right to weekly time away from work.
    Overtime may not exceed two hours daily, 10 hours weekly, or 100 hours
    annually and may not be paid at a rate less than time-and-one-half. The
    ministry effectively enforced these standards in the formal sector.
        While the constitution provides for secure, hygienic, and adequate
    working conditions, authorities conducted infrequent inspections to
    implement the health and safety law. Employers are required to report
    work-related accidents, and the law obligates employers to pay
    specified amounts (up to a maximum of 25 times the minimum monthly
    salary) to workers for accidents or occupational illnesses, regardless
    of who is responsible. Workplaces must maintain ``sufficient protection
    for health and life against sickness and accidents,'' and penalties
    range from one quarter to twice the minimum monthly salary for first
    infractions. While statistics are not publicly available, PROVEA and
    the press reported some industrial accidents and at least one fatality
    during the year stemming from accidents at facilities operated by PDVSA
    and other heavy industrial operations. Numerous complaints of unsafe
    conditions continued in Bolivar State. In practice ministry inspectors
    seldom closed unsafe job sites. Under the law workers may remove
    themselves from dangerous workplace situations without jeopardy to
    continued employment; there is no information about whether this right
    was respected in practice.

                                   __________

                                   APPENDIX A

                                  ----------

                      Notes on Preparation of This Report

                                  ----------

        The annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices are
    based on information available from a wide variety of sources,
    including U.S. and foreign government officials, victims of
    human rights abuse, academic and congressional studies, and
    reports from the press, international organizations, and
    nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) concerned with human
    rights. We find particularly helpful, and make reference in the
    reports to, the role of NGOs, ranging from groups within a
    single country to those that concern themselves with human
    rights worldwide. While much of the information that we use is
    already public, information on particular abuses frequently
    cannot be attributed, for obvious reasons, to specific sources.
    This report reflects the Department of State's assessments and
    concerns with respect to the human rights situation around the
    world. The Department of States does not use sources or
    information it believes lack credibility.
        By law, the Secretary of State must submit the Country
    Reports to Congress by February 25. The Country Reports cover
    respect for human rights in foreign countries and territories
    worldwide; they do not purport to assess any human rights
    implications of actions by the United States Government or its
    representatives, nor do they consider human rights implications
    of actions by the United States Government or of coalition
    forces in Iraq or Afghanistan. To comply with the congressional
    requirement for the reporting of human rights practices, we
    provide guidance to U.S. diplomatic missions in August for
    submission of draft reports in September and October, which we
    update at year's end as necessary. Other offices in the
    Department of State provide contributions, and the Bureau of
    Democracy, Human Rights and Labor prepares a final draft. Due
    to the submission deadline, the report will not reflect
    developments that became known after the end of the year.
    However, we make every effort to include references to major
    events or significant changes in trends.
        We have attempted to make the reports as comprehensive,
    objective, and uniform as possible in both scope and quality of
    coverage. We have paid particular attention to attaining a high
    standard of c onsistency in the reports despite the
    multiplicity of sources and the problems associated with
    varying degrees of access to information, structural
    differences in political, legal, and social systems.
        Evaluating the credibility of reports of human rights
    abuses is often difficult. Most governments and opposition
    groups deny that they commit human rights abuses and sometimes
    go to great lengths to conceal any evidence of such acts. There
    are often few eyewitnesses to specific abuses, and they
    frequently are intimidated or otherwise prevented from
    reporting what they know. On the other hand, individuals and
    groups opposed to a government sometimes have powerful
    incentives to exaggerate or fabricate abuses, and some
    governments similarly distort or exaggerate abuses attributed
    to opposition groups. We have made every effort to identify
    those groups (for example, government forces) or individuals
    who are believed, based on all the evidence available, to have
    committed human rights or other related abuses. Many
    governments that profess to oppose human rights abuses in fact
    secretly order or tacitly condone them or simply lack the will
    or the ability to control those responsible for them.
    Consequently, in judging a government's policy, the reports
    look beyond statements of policy or intent and examine what a
    government has done to prevent human rights abuses, including
    the extent to which it investigates, brings to trial, and
    appropriately punishes those who commit such abuses.
        To increase uniformity, each country report begins with a
    brief overview that includes a description of the country's
    political structure and the extent to which civilian
    authorities control security agencies. The overview summarizes
    human rights developments during the calendar year, identifying
    abuses and notable specific improvements.
        We have continued the effort from previous years to cover
    in the reports human rights problems affecting women, children,
    persons with disabilities, and indigenous people. The
    appropriate section of each country report discusses any abuses
    that are targeted specifically against women (for example, rape
    or other violence perpetrated by governmental or organized
    opposition forces, or discriminatory laws or regulations). In
    Section 6, we discuss socioeconomic discrimination;
    discrimination against persons with HIV/AIDS; societal violence
    against women, children, the gay, lesbian and transgender
    community, persons with disabilities, or ethnic minorities; and
    the efforts, if any, of governments to combat these problems.
        The following notes on specific sections in each country
    report are not meant to be comprehensive descriptions but
    rather to provide an overview of the key problems covered and
    their organization:

        Arbitrary or Unlawful Deprivation of Life.--Includes
    killings by governments without due process of law or where
    there is evidence of a political motive. This section also
    covers extrajudicial killings (for example, the unlawful and
    deliberate killing of individuals carried out by order of a
    government or with its complicity), as well as killings by
    police or security forces and actions that resulted in the
    unintended death of persons without due process of law. The
    section generally excludes combat deaths and killings by common
    criminals if the likelihood of political motivation can be
    ruled out. Deaths in detention due to adverse conditions are
    covered in detail in the section on ``Torture and Other Cruel,
    Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.''

        Disappearance.--Covers cases in which political motivation
    appears likely and in which the victims have not been found or
    perpetrators have not been identified. Cases eventually
    classified as political killings in which the bodies of missing
    persons are discovered also are covered in the previous
    section, while those eventually identified as having been
    arrested or held in detention may be covered under ``Arbitrary
    Arrest or Detention.''

        Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or
    Punishment.--Covers torture (an act of intentionally inflicting
    severe pain, whether physical or mental) and cruel, inhuman, or
    degrading treatment or punishment committed by or at the
    instigation of government forces, including paramilitary
    forces, or opposition groups. The section discusses actual
    occurrences, not whether they fit any precise definition, and
    includes use of physical and other force that may fall short of
    torture but which is cruel, inhuman, or degrading, including
    judicially sanctioned violent or abusive punishment. There also
    may be discussion of poor treatment that may not constitute
    torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment. The section
    also covers prison conditions and deaths in prison due to
    adverse conditions.

        Arbitrary Arrest or Detention.--Includes cases in which
    detainees, including political detainees, are held arbitrarily
    in official custody without being charged or, if charged, are
    denied a public preliminary judicial hearing within a
    reasonable period. The section also includes subsections on the
    role of the police and security apparatus, arrest and detention
    practices, and any amnesties that may have occurred during the
    year.

        Denial of Fair Public Trial.--Describes the court system
    and evaluates whether there is an independent judiciary free of
    corruption and whether trials are both fair and public (failure
    to hold any trial is noted in the section above). The
    subsection ``Political Prisoners and Detainees'' covers persons
    convicted, imprisoned, or detained essentially for political
    beliefs or nonviolent acts of dissent or expression, regardless
    of the actual legal charge. The subsection ``Civil Judicial
    Procedures and Remedies'' inquires whether there is access to
    an independent and impartial court to seek damages for or
    cessation of an alleged human rights violation. The optional
    subsection ``Property Restitution'' is included if there is a
    systemic failure of a government to enforce court orders with
    respect to restitution or compensation for the taking of
    private property under domestic law.

        Arbitrary Interference with Privacy, Family, Home, or
    Correspondence.--Includes government punishment of family
    members for alleged violations of law by individuals and
    efforts to coerce or forbid membership in a political
    organization. The reports discuss the right of the individual
    to noninterference by the state. It includes the right to
    receive foreign publications, for example, while the right to
    publish is discussed under ``Freedom of Speech and Press.''
    Includes the right to be free from coercive population control
    measures, including coerced abortion and involuntary
    sterilization, but does not include cultural or traditional
    practices, such as female genital mutilation, which are
    addressed under ``Discrimination and Societal Abuses.''

        Use of Excessive Force and Other Abuses in Internal
    Conflicts.--This optional section describes abuses in countries
    experiencing significant internal conflict. Includes
    indiscriminate, nonselective killings arising from excessive
    use of force, or by the shelling of villages (deliberate,
    targeted killing of civilians is discussed in the section on
    ``Arbitrary or Unlawful Deprivation of Life''). This section
    also includes abuses against civilian noncombatants. For
    countries where use of this section would be inappropriate
    because there is no significant internal or external conflict,
    killings by security forces are discussed in the section on
    ``Arbitrary or Unlawful Deprivation of Life''; nonlethal abuses
    are discussed in the section on ``Torture and Other Cruel,
    Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.''

        Freedom of Speech and Press.--Evaluates whether these
    freedoms exist and describes any direct or indirect
    restrictions. A subsection (``Internet Freedom'') includes
    discussion of monitoring or restriction on the expression of
    opinion via the Internet. Another subsection, entitled
    ``Academic Freedom and Cultural Events,'' includes information
    on restrictions, intimidation, and censorship in these fields.

        Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association.--Evaluates
    the ability of individuals and groups (including political
    parties) to exercise these freedoms. It considers instances of
    government failure to provide permits or licenses for meetings
    and demonstrations, as well as information on the ability of
    trade associations, professional bodies, NGOs, and similar
    groups to maintain relations or affiliate with recognized
    international bodies in their fields. The right of workers to
    associate, organize, and bargain collectively is discussed
    under the section on ``Worker Rights'' (see Appendix B).

        Freedom of Religion.--All country reports have a hyperlink
    to the most current International Religious Freedom Reports
    published by the Department of State. Examples of anti-Semitism
    are moved to Section 6 under its own subsection, appearing
    after Children and before Trafficking.

        Freedom of Movement, Internally Displaced Persons,
    Protection of Refugees, and Stateless Persons.--The section
    discusses whether and under what circumstances governments
    exiled citizens, restricted foreign travel, especially for
    women, and revoked passports. It includes subsections
    ``Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs)'' (if applicable),
    ``Protection of Refugees,'' and ``Stateless Persons'' (if
    applicable.) As defined in the 1951 Convention Relating to the
    Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol, refugees are persons
    outside their country of origin or, if stateless, outside their
    country of habitual residence who have a well-founded fear of
    persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality,
    membership in a particular social group, or political opinion,
    and who are unable or unwilling to avail themselves of the
    protection of that country. Under certain regional instruments,
    such as the Organization of African Unity convention governing
    the specific aspects of refugee problems in Africa, the term
    refugee may refer to persons displaced by civil strife,
    widespread violence, or natural disaster. The subsection
    ``Protection of Refugees'' reviews the government's extension
    of assistance and protection to refugees, including
    nonrefoulement, the provision of temporary protection, support
    for voluntary repatriation, longer term integration
    opportunities, and third country resettlement. It also covers
    abuse and discrimination against refugees. The subsection on
    stateless persons examines whether a country has habitual
    residents who are legally stateless (not recognized as
    nationals under the laws of any state) or de facto stateless
    (not recognized as nationals by any state even if these
    individuals have a claim to nationality under the laws of a
    particular state). The report reviews whether the government
    has effectively implemented laws and policies to provide such
    persons the opportunity to gain nationality on a
    nondiscriminatory basis. The subsection also examines, among
    other matters, whether there is violence or discrimination
    against stateless persons in employment, education, housing,
    health services, marriage or birth registration, access to
    courts, or the owning of property.

        Respect for Political Rights: The Right of Citizens to
    Change Their Government.--Discusses the extent to which
    citizens have freedom of political choice and the legal right
    and ability in practice to change the laws and officials that
    govern them. The subsection ``Elections and Political
    Participation'' assesses whether elections were free and fair,
    including participation by women and minorities on an equal
    basis.

        Official Corruption and Government Transparency.--Covers
    allegations of corruption in the executive, legislative and
    judicial branches of government and actions taken to combat it.
    Also, the section covers whether the public has access in law
    and practice to government information.

        Governmental Attitude Regarding International and
    Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations of Human
    Rights.--Discusses whether the government permits the free
    functioning of local human rights groups (including the right
    to investigate and publish their findings on alleged human
    rights abuses), whether these groups are subject to reprisal by
    government or other forces, and whether government officials
    are cooperative and responsive to their views. The section also
    discusses whether the government grants access to and
    cooperates with outside entities (including foreign human
    rights organizations, international organizations, and foreign
    governments) interested in human rights developments in the
    country. Reports on national human rights commissions,
    parliamentary commissions, relations with international war
    crimes tribunals and truth or similar commissions.

        Discrimination, Societal Abuses, and Trafficking in
    Persons.--Contains subheadings on Women; Children; Anti-
    Semitism, Trafficking in Persons; Persons with Disabilities;
    Societal Abuses, Discrimination, and Acts of Violence Based on
    Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity; and Other Societal
    Violence or Discrimination. If applicable, also includes
    subheadings on National/Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Indigenous
    People, and Incitement to Acts of Discrimination. The section
    addresses discrimination and abuses not discussed elsewhere in
    the report, focusing on laws, regulations, or state practices
    that are inconsistent with equal access to housing, employment,
    education, health care, or other governmental benefits for
    members of specific groups. (Abuses by government or opposition
    forces, such as killing, torture and other violence, or
    restriction of voting rights or free speech targeted against
    specific groups would be discussed under the appropriate
    preceding sections.)

        The subsection ``Women'' discusses societal violence
    against women, e.g., ``dowry deaths,'' ``honor killings,'' wife
    beating, rape, female genital mutilation, and government
    tolerance of such practices, as well as the extent to which the
    law provides for, and the government enforces, equality of
    economic opportunity for women. A paragraph on reproductive
    rights reports on the basic right of couples and individuals to
    decide freely and responsibly the number, spacing, and timing
    of their children.
        The subsection ``Children'' discusses violence or other
    abuse against children.
        The subsection on ``Anti-Semitism'' discusses anti-Semitic
    abuses. The material used to be found under
    Section 2.c. on
    Religious Freedom; that section now contains a hyperlink to the
    most recent International Religious Freedom Report. Within that
    report, there is material on anti-Semitism, but such
    information is also included in the Country Reports.
        The ``Trafficking in Persons'' subsection contains a
    hyperlink to the most recent Trafficking in Persons report of
    the Department of State.
        The subsection ``Persons with Disabilities'' covers
    discrimination against persons with physical or mental
    disabilities in, among other things, employment, education, and
    the provision of other government services. The subsection on
    ``Societal Abuses, Discrimination, and Acts of Violence Based
    on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity'' notes laws
    criminalizing sexual orientation and reports on discrimination
    against gays, lesbians, bisexual, and transgender persons.

                         WORKER RIGHTS--SEE APPENDIX B.

    Explanatory Notes
        Occasionally the Country Reports on Human Rights Practices
    state that a country ``generally respected'' the rights of its
    citizens. The phrase ``generally respected'' is used because
    the protection and promotion of human rights is a dynamic
    endeavor; it cannot accurately be stated that any government
    fully respected these rights all the time without qualification
    in even the best of circumstances. Accordingly, ``generally
    respected'' is the standard phrase used to describe all
    countries that attempt to protect human rights in the fullest
    sense, and is thus the highest level of respect for human
    rights assigned by this report.
        In some instances, Country Reports use the word
    ``Islamist,'' which should be interpreted by readers as a
    Muslim who supports Islamic values and beliefs as the basis for
    political and social life.
        Since the Secretary of State designates foreign groups or
    organizations as foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs) on the
    FTO list, only those groups on the FTO list dated November 24,
    2010 will be described as ``terrorists'' in the reports.
        When describing whether a government provides ``protection
    against refoulement,'' the reports are referring to whether the
    government refrained from expelling or returning a refugee in
    any manner whatsoever to the frontiers of territories where his
    or her life or freedom would be threatened on account of race,
    religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a
    particular social group.
        Subject headings in these reports are used to introduce
    general topics, and the report text that follows such headings
    is intended to describe facts generally relevant to those
    topics and is not intended to reach conclusions of a legal
    character.

                                  ----------

                                   APPENDIX B

                                  ----------

                           Reporting on Worker Rights

                                  ----------

        The 1984 Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) Renewal
    Act requires reporting on worker rights in GSP beneficiary
    countries. It states that internationally recognized worker
    rights include: ``(A) the right of association; (B) the right
    to organize and bargain collectively; (C) a prohibition on the
    use of any form of forced or compulsory labor; (D) a minimum
    age for the employment of children; and (E) acceptable
    conditions of work with respect to minimum wages, hours of
    work, and occupational safety and health.'' All five aspects of
    worker rights are discussed in each country report under the
    section heading ``Worker Rights.''
        The discussion of worker rights considers not only laws and
    regulations but also their practical implementation. This
    discussion is informed by internationally recognized labor and
    antitrafficking standards, including the Conventions and
    Recommendations of the International Labor Organization (ILO)
    and the UN Organized Crime Convention Protocol to Prevent,
    Suppress, and Punish Trafficking in Persons. Differences in the
    levels of economic development are taken into account in the
    formulation of the standards related to acceptable conditions
    of work. Some specific guidelines derived from international
    standards are discussed below.

     A. ``The right of association'' has been defined by the ILO to
            include the right of workers and employers to establish
            and join organizations of their own choosing without
            previous authorization; to draw up their own
            constitutions and rules, elect their representatives,
            and formulate their programs; to join in confederations
            and affiliate with international organizations; and to
            be protected against dissolution or suspension by
            administrative authority.
          The right of association includes the right of workers to
            strike. While it is generally accepted for strikes to
            be restricted in the public sector and in essential
            services, the interruption of which would endanger the
            life, personal safety, or health of a significant
            portion of the population, these restrictions must be
            offset by adequate safeguards for the interests of the
            workers concerned (for example, mechanisms for
            mediation and arbitration, due process, and the right
            to judicial review of legal actions). Reporting on
            restrictions on the ability of workers to strike
            generally includes information on any procedures that
            may exist for safeguarding workers' interests.
     B. ``The right to organize and bargain collectively'' includes
            the right of workers to be represented in negotiating
            the prevention and settlement of disputes with
            employers, the right to protection against
            interference, and the right to protection against acts
            of antiunion discrimination. Governments should promote
            mechanisms for voluntary negotiations between employers
            and workers and their organizations. Coverage of the
            right to organize and bargain collectively includes a
            review of the extent to which collective bargaining
            takes place and the extent to which workers, both in
            law and practice, are protected against antiunion
            discrimination.
     C. ``Forced or compulsory labor'' is defined as work or
            service exacted under the menace of penalty and for
            which a person has not volunteered. ``Work or service''
            does not apply where obligations are imposed to undergo
            education or training. ``Menace of penalty'' includes
            loss of rights or privileges as well as penal
            sanctions. The ILO has exempted the following from its
            definition of forced labor: compulsory military
            service, normal civic obligations, certain forms of
            prison labor, emergencies, and minor communal services.
            Constitutional provisions concerning the obligation of
            citizens to work do not violate this right so long as
            they do not take the form of legal obligations enforced
            by sanctions and are consistent with the principle of
            ``freely chosen employment.'' The UN Trafficking
            Protocol definition also references forced labor or
            services.
     D. ``Prohibition of child labor and minimum age for
            employment'' concerns the effective abolition of child
            labor by raising the minimum age for employment to a
            level consistent with the fullest physical and mental
            development of young people. ILO Convention 182 on the
            ``worst forms of child labor'' identifies anyone under
            the age of 18 as a child and specifies certain types of
            employment as ``the worst forms of child labor.'' These
            worst forms of labor include slavery, debt bondage,
            forced labor, forced recruitment into armed conflict,
            child prostitution and pornography, involvement in
            illicit activity such as drug production or
            trafficking, and ``work which, by its nature, or the
            circumstances in which it is carried out, is likely to
            harm the health, safety or morals or children.'' In
            limited circumstances, ILO Convention 182 permits the
            employment of children between the ages of 16 and 18 in
            what the convention describes as an ``unhealthy
            environment,'' if adequate protective measures have
            been taken.
     E. ``Acceptable conditions of work'' refers to the
            establishment and maintenance of mechanisms, adapted to
            national conditions, that provide for minimum working
            standards, that is: wages that provide a decent living
            for workers and their families; working hours that do
            not exceed 48 hours per week, with a full 24-hour day
            of rest; a specified number of annual paid leave days;
            and minimum conditions for the protection of the safety
            and health of workers.

                                  ----------

                                                                                               APPENDIX C
                                                                             Selected International Human Rights Conventions
                                                                              (See Footnotes for Treaty/Convention Titles)
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                COUNTRY                              A    B    C    D    E    F    G    H    I    J    K    L    M    N    O    P    Q    R    S    T    U    V    W    X    Y    Z
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Afghanistan...................................................   P    -    -    P    -    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    S    P    P    P    -
    Albania*......................................................   S    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    S
    Algeria.......................................................   P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P
    Andorra.......................................................   -    -    -    P    -    P    P    -    P    -    -    -    P    P    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    P    P    P    -    S
    Angola........................................................   -    P    P    -    P    P    P    -    -    P    -    P    -    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    -    P    -    P    P    -
    Antigua & Barbuda.............................................   P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    -    1    P    P    P    -    -    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    S
    Argentina.....................................................   -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P
    Armenia.......................................................   -    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    -    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P
    Australia.....................................................   P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P
    Austria.......................................................   P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P
    Azerbaijan....................................................   P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    -    -    P    P    P    P    P
    Bahamas.......................................................   P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    -
    Bahrain.......................................................   P    P    -    P    -    P    P    -    -    -    P    P    P    P    -    -    -    -    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    S
    Bangladesh....................................................   P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    -    -    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P
    Barbados......................................................   P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    -    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    S
    Belarus.......................................................   P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P
    Belgium.......................................................   P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P
    Belize........................................................   1    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    -    -    1    P    P    P    S    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -
    Benin.........................................................   2    P    P    -    P    P    P    -    -    -    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    S
    Bhutan*.......................................................   -    -    -    -    -    P    P    -    -    -    -    -    S    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    P    -    P    -    S
    Bolivia.......................................................   P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    S
    Bosnia & Herzegovina..........................................   P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P
    Botswana......................................................   1    P    P    -    P    P    P    -    -    -    1    P    P    P    -    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -
    Brazil........................................................   P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P
    Brunei*.......................................................   1    -    -    -    -    P    P    -    -    -    1    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    P    P    P    -    P    -    -
    Bulgaria......................................................   2    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -
    Burkina Faso..................................................   -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    -    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P
    Burma.........................................................   P    P    P    P    -    P    P    S    -    S    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    P    -    P    -    -
    Burundi.......................................................   -    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    -    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    S
    Cambodia......................................................   -    P    P    P    P    P    P    S    -    S    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    S
    Cameroon......................................................   P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    -    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    S
    Canada........................................................   P    -    P    P    -    P    P    -    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P
    Cape Verde....................................................   -    P    P    -    P    P    P    -    -    -    -    P    P    P    P    -    P    -    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    S
    Central African Republic......................................   2    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    S
    Chad..........................................................   -    P    P    -    P    P    P    -    -    -    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -
    Chile.........................................................   P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P
    China.........................................................   2    -    -    P    -    P    P    -    -    P    -    -    P    S    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P
    China (Hong Kong).............................................   P    -    -    P    -    -    -    -    -    P    -    -    P    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    P    P    P    -    -
    China (Macau from  12-20-99)..................................   -    -    -    P    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    P    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    P    -    -
    China (Macau to  12-19-99)....................................   -    -    -    P    -    -    -    P    -    -    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    -    -    -    -    P    P    P    -    -
    China (Taiwan only)*..........................................   P    -    -    P    -    -    -    -    -    P    P    -    P    S    S    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -
    Colombia......................................................   S    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    -    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    S
    Comoros.......................................................   -    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    -    -    -    P    P    -    -    -    -    -    P    P    P    P    S    P    P    S
    Congo, Democratic  Republic of................................   -    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -
    Congo, Republic of............................................   2    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    S
    Cook Islands..................................................   -    -    -    -    -    P    P    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    P    P    P    -    -    -    P
    Costa Rica....................................................   -    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    -    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P
    Cote D'Ivoire.................................................   2    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    S
    Croatia.......................................................   P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P
    Cuba..........................................................   P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    -    -    -    -    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P
    Cyprus........................................................   P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    S
    Czech Republic................................................   2    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P
    Denmark.......................................................   P    P    P    P    P    P    P    S    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P
    Djibouti......................................................   -    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    -    -    P    P    S    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -
    Dominica......................................................   P    P    P    -    P    P    P    -    -    1    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    S
    Dominican Republic............................................   S    P    P    S    P    P    P    -    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    S    P    P    P
    East Timor....................................................   -    P    P    -    P    -    P    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    P    P    -    -    -    P    -
    Ecuador.......................................................   P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P
    Egypt.........................................................   P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P
    El Salvador...................................................   -    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    -    S    S    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P
    Equatorial Guinea.............................................   -    P    P    -    P    P    P    -    -    -    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -
    Eritrea.......................................................   -    P    P    -    P    P    P    -    -    -    -    P    P    P    P    -    -    -    P    -    -    P    -    P    -    -
    Estonia.......................................................   2    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    -    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    S
    Ethiopia......................................................   P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P
    European Union................................................   -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    S
    Fiji..........................................................   P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    -    P    P    P    P    -    -    P    P    -    P    -    -    P    -    P    P    S
    Finland.......................................................   P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    S
    France........................................................   P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P
    Gabon.........................................................   -    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    -    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P
    Gambia........................................................   1    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    -    -    1    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    S    P    P    -
    Georgia.......................................................   -    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P
    Germany.......................................................   P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P
    Ghana.........................................................   2    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    S
    Greece........................................................   P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    S
    Grenada.......................................................   1    P    P    1    P    P    P    -    -    1    1    P    S    P    P    -    -    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    S
    Guatemala.....................................................   P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P
    Guinea........................................................   P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P
    Guinea-Bissau.................................................   -    P    -    -    P    P    P    -    -    -    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    S    P    -    P
    Guyana........................................................   1    P    P    -    P    P    P    -    -    -   ...   P    P    P    P    -    -    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    S
    Haiti.........................................................   2    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    -    P
    Holy See......................................................   -    -    -    -    -    P    P    -    -    -    -    -    P    -    -    P    P    -    -    P    P    -    P    P    -    -
    Honduras......................................................   -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    -    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P
    Hungary.......................................................   P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P
    Iceland.......................................................   -    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    S
    India.........................................................   P    P    -    P    -    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    -    -    -    -    -    P    S    P    -    P
    Indonesia.....................................................   -    P    P    -    P    P    P    -    -    P    -    P    P    P    P    -    -    -    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    S
    Iran..........................................................   S    P    -    P    -    P    P    S    -    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    -    S    S    -    -    P    P    P
    Iraq..........................................................   P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    -    -    P    P    P    P    P    -    -    -    P    -    -    P    -    P    P    -
    Ireland.......................................................   P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    S
    Israel........................................................   P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    -    -    P    P    P    P    S
    Italy.........................................................   P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P
    Jamaica.......................................................   P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P
    Japan.........................................................   -    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    -    P    -    -    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    S
    Jordan........................................................   P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    -    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P
    Kazakhstan....................................................   -    P    P    P    P    P    P    S    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    S
    Kenya.........................................................   -    P    -    -    P    P    P    -    -    -    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P
    Kiribati*.....................................................   1    P    P    -    P    P    P    -    -    1    1    P    -    1    1    -    1    -    -    -    -    P    -    P    P    -
    Korea, Dem. Rep. of*..........................................   -    -    -    P    -    P    P    -    -    -    -    -    -    P    P    -    -    -    -    P    -    P    -    P    -    -
    Korea, Republic of*...........................................   -    -    -    P    -    P    P    P    -    P    -    -    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -
    Kuwait........................................................   P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    -    -    P    P    P    P    P    -    -    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -
    Kyrgyzstan....................................................   P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -
    Laos..........................................................   -    P    -    P    -    P    P    P    -    P    P    -    P    S    S    -    -    -    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P
    Latvia........................................................   2    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P
    Lebanon.......................................................   2    P    -    P    P    P    P    -    -    P    -    P    P    P    P    -    -    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    S
    Lesotho.......................................................   P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P
    Liberia.......................................................   P    P    P    P    P    P    P    S    -    S    S    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    S
    Libya.........................................................   P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    -    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    S
    Liechtenstein*................................................   -    -    -    P    -    P    P    -    P    -    -    -    P    P    P    P    P    -    -    P    P    P    P    P    -    -
    Lithuania.....................................................   S    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    -    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P
    Luxembourg....................................................   -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    S
    Macedonia.....................................................   2    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -
    Madagascar....................................................   P    P    P    -    P    P    P    S    -    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    -    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    S
    Malawi........................................................   P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P
    Malaysia......................................................   -    P    -    P    P    P    P    -    -    -    P    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    P    -    -    P    -    P    P    P
    Maldives*.....................................................   -    -    -    P    -    P    P    -    -    -    -    -    P    P    P    -    -    -    -    -    P    P    P    P    P    P
    Mali..........................................................   P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P
    Malta.........................................................   P    P    P    -    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    S
    Marshall Islands*.............................................   -    -    -    -    -    -    P    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    P    -    P    -    -
    Mauritania....................................................   P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -
    Mauritius.....................................................   P    P    P    -    P    P    P    -    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    -    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P
    Mexico........................................................   P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    -    P    P    P    P    P
    Micronesia*...................................................   -    -    -    -    -    P    P    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    P    P    P    -    P    -    -
    Moldova.......................................................   -    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -
    Monaco*.......................................................   P    -    -    P    -    P    P    -    S    -    -    -    P    P    P    P    -    -    -    P    P    P    P    P    -    S
    Mongolia......................................................   P    -    P    P    P    P    P    -    -    P    P    -    P    P    P    -    -    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P
    Montenegro....................................................   P    -    -    P    -    P    P    P    -    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    -    -    P    P    P    P    P    -    P
    Morocco.......................................................   P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    S    S    P    P    P    P    P
    Mozambique....................................................   -    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    -    -    -    P    P    P    -    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    S
    Namibia.......................................................   -    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    -    -    -    P    P    P    P    P    -    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P
    Nauru*........................................................   -    -    -    -    -    P    P    -    -    -    -    -    S    S    -    -    -    -    -    P    P    -    S    P    -    -
    Nepal.........................................................   P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    -    P    P    P    -    -    -    P    -    -    P    P    P    P    P
    Netherlands...................................................   P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    S
    New Zealand...................................................   P    P    -    P    P    P    P    -    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P
    Nicaragua.....................................................   P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P
    Niger.........................................................   P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P
    Nigeria.......................................................   P    P    P    -    P    P    P    -    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P
    Niue..........................................................   -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    P    -    -
    Norway........................................................   P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    S
    Oman*.........................................................   -    P    -    -    -    P    P    -    -    -    -    P    P    -    -    -    -    -    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P
    Pakistan......................................................   P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    -    S    -    -    -    P    S    S    P    -    P    P    S
    Palau.........................................................   -    -    -    -    -    P    P    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    P    P    -    -    P    -    -
    Panama........................................................   S    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    -    -    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P
    Papua New Guinea..............................................   P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    -    P    -    P    P    -    -    P    P    -    P    -    -    P    -    P    P    -
    Paraguay......................................................   -    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    -    P    -    P    S    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P
    Peru..........................................................   -    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    -    P    S    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P
    Philippines...................................................   P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    S    P    P    P    P    P    P
    Poland........................................................   2    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    S
    Portugal......................................................   2    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P
    Qatar.........................................................   -    P    -    -    -    P    P    -    -    -    -    -    P    -    -    -    -    -    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P
    Romania.......................................................   P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    S
    Russia........................................................   P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    S
    Rwanda........................................................   -    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    -    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P
    Samoa*........................................................   -    -    -    -    -    P    P    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    P    P    -    -    P    P    P    -    P    -    -
    San Marino....................................................   -    P    P    -    P    P    P    -    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    -    -    -    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P
    Sao Tome & Principe...........................................   -    P    P    -    P    P    P    -    -    -    -    P    S    S    S    P    P    -    P    P    P    S    S    P    P    -
    Saudi Arabia..................................................   P    P    -    P    -    P    P    -    -    -    P    P    P    -    -    -    -    -    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P
    Senegal.......................................................   2    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P
    Serbia........................................................   -    P    P    -    P    -    P    -    P    -    -    P    -    -    -    -    -    -    P    P    -    P    -    -    P    P
    Seychelles....................................................   2    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    1    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P
    Sierra Leone..................................................   P    P    P    -    P    P    P    -    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    -    P    P    P    P    P    -    P
    Singapore.....................................................   -    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    -    -    P    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    P    -    -    P    -    P    P    -
    Slovak Republic...............................................   2    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P
    Slovenia......................................................   -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P
    Solomon Islands...............................................   P    P    -    -    -    P    P    -    -    P    P    -    1    -    1    P    P    -    -    P    P    P    -    P    -    S
    Somalia.......................................................   -    P    -    -    -    P    P    -    -    -    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    -    -    -    -    P    S    -    -
    South Africa*.................................................   P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    S    -    P    P    P    S    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P
    Spain.........................................................   P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P
    Sri Lanka.....................................................   P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    -    P    P    P    P    P    -    -    -    P    -    -    P    P    P    P    S
    St. Kitts & Nevis*............................................   1    P    P    -    P    P    P    -    -    1    1    P    P    -    -    P    -    -    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    -
    St. Lucia.....................................................   P    P    P    1    P    P    P    -    -    1    P    P    P    -    -    -    -    -    -    P    P    P    -    P    P    -
    St. Vincent & the Grenadines*.................................   P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P
    Sudan.........................................................   P    P    -    -    P    P    P    -    -    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    -    S    P    P    P
    Suriname......................................................   2    P    P    -    P    P    P    -    -    1    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    -    P    P    S
    Swaziland.....................................................   1    P    P    -    P    P    P    -    -    P    1    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    S
    Sweden........................................................   P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P
    Switzerland...................................................   P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -
    Syria.........................................................   P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    -    P    P    P    P    P    -    -    -    P    P    -    -    P    P    P    P
    Tajikistan*...................................................   -    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    -    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -
    Tanzania......................................................   P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    -
    Thailand......................................................   -    P    -    -    -    P    P    -    -    P    -    P    P    P    P    -    -    -    P    -    -    P    -    P    P    P
    Togo..........................................................   2    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    S
    Tonga*........................................................   1    -    -    P    -    P    P    -    -    1    1    1    P    -    -    -    -    -    -    P    P    -    -    P    -    S
    Trinidad & Tobago.............................................   P    P    P    -    P    P    P    -    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    S
    Tunisia.......................................................   P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P
    Turkey........................................................   P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    S    S    P    P    -    P    -    -    P    P    P    P    P
    Turkmenistan..................................................   P    P    P    -    P    P    P    -    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    -    P    P    P    P    P    -    P
    Tuvalu*.......................................................   1    -    -    -    -    P    P    -    -    1    1    -    -    1    -    P    P    -    -    -    -    P    -    P    -    -
    Uganda........................................................   P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P
    Ukraine.......................................................   P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P
    United Arab Emirates..........................................   -    P    -    P    -    P    P    -    -    -    -    P    P    -    -    -    -    -    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P
    United Kingdom................................................   P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P
    United States.................................................   P    -    -    P    -    P    P    -    -    P    P    P    P    P    S    -    P    S    -    S    S    S    P    S    P    S
    Uruguay.......................................................   S    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    -    S    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P
    Uzbekistan....................................................   -    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    -    P    P    P    P    -    -    -    -    P    P    P    P    P    -    S
    Vanuatu*......................................................   -    -    P    -    P    P    P    -    -    -    1    P    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    P    P    P    -    P    P    P
    Venezuela.....................................................   -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    -    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -
    Vietnam*......................................................   P    -    -    P    -    P    P    -    -    -    -    -    P    P    P    -    -    -    P    P    -    P    -    P    P    S
    Yemen.........................................................   P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P
    former Yugoslavia.............................................   P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    -
    Zambia........................................................   P    P    P    -    P    P    P    -    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P
    Zimbabwe......................................................   1    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    P    P    -    P    P    -
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    P = Party
    S = Signatory
    * = non-ILO member
    1 = Based on general declaration concerning treaty obligations prior to independence
    2 = Party to 1926 Convention only

    ================================================================================================================================================================================================

    Key to Human Rights Conventions:  A-Slavery  B-ILO Convention 29  C-ILO Convention 87  D-Genocide  E-ILO Convention 98  F-Prisoners of War  G-Civilians in War  H-Traffic in Persons  I-European
      HR Conv.  J-Pol. Rights of Women  K-Suppl. Slavery Conv.  L-ILO Convention 105  M-Racial Discrimination  N-Civil and Pol. Rights  O-Econ./Soc./Cul. Rights  P-UN Refugee Convention  Q-UN
      Refugee Protocol  R-American HR Conv.  S-ILO Convention 138  T-Geneva Protocol I  U-Geneva Protocol II  V-CEDAW  W-Torture  X-Rights of the Child  Y-ILO Convention 182  Z-Disabilities
      Convention

                                   APPENDIX D

                                  ----------

      Description of International Human Rights Conventions in Appendix C

                                  ----------

     A.  Convention to Suppress the Slave Trade and Slavery of
            September 25, 1926, as amended by the Protocol of
            December 7, 1953.

     B. Convention Concerning Forced or Compulsory Labor of June
            28, 1930 (ILO Convention 29).

     C. Convention Concerning Freedom of Association and Protection
            of the Right to Organize of July 9, 1948 (ILO
            Convention 87).

     D. Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of
            Genocide of December 9, 1948.

     E. Convention Concerning the Application of the Principles of
            the Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively of July
            1, 1949 (ILO Convention 98).

     F. Geneva Convention Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of
            War of August 12, 1949.

     G. Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian
            Persons in Time of War of August 12, 1949.

     H. Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons
            and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others
            of March 21, 1950.

     I. European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and
            Fundamental Freedoms of November 4, 1950.

     J. Convention on the Political Rights of Women of March 31,
            1953.

     K. Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the
            Slave Trade, and Institutions and Practices Similar to
            Slavery of September 7, 1956.

     L. Convention Concerning the Abolition of Forced Labor of June
            25, 1957 (ILO Convention 105).

     M. International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
            Racial Discrimination of December 21, 1965.

     N. International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights of
            December 16, 1966.

     O. International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural
            Rights of December 16, 1966.

     P. Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees of July 28,
            1951.

     Q. Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees of January 31,
            1967.

     R. American Convention on Human Rights of November 22, 1969.

     S. Convention Concerning Minimum Age for Admission to
            Employment of June 26, 1973 (ILO Convention 138).

     T. Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of August 12,
            1949, and Relating to the Protection of Victims of
            International Armed Conflicts (Protocol I), of June 8,
            1977.

     U. Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of August 12,
            1949, and Relating to the Protection of Victims of Non-
            International Armed Conflicts (Protocol II), of June 8,
            1977.

     V. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
            Discrimination Against Women of December 18, 1979.

     W. Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or
            Degrading Treatment or Punishment of December 10, 1984.

     X. Convention on the Rights of the Child of November 20, 1989.

     Y. Convention Concerning the Prohibition and Immediate Action
            for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labor
            of June 17, 1999 (ILO Convention 182).C

     Z. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities of
            December 13, 2006.

                                                                           APPENDIX E
                                                           FY 2010 Foreign Assistance Actuals, Part I
                                                                        ($ in thousands)
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                       All                   GHCS-      GHCS-       GHCS
                                    Accounts       DA        USAID      STATE      Total       ESF         TI       AEECA      INCLE       NADR       IMET
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    TOTAL........................  35,490,592   2,520,000  2,468,600  5,359,000  7,827,600  8,817,831     55,000    741,632  2,778,660    754,000    108,000
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Africa.......................   8,111,776   1,075,632  1,145,205  3,516,103  4,661,308    648,104         --         --     35,538     47,894     15,130
      Angola.....................      84,115      20,192     45,750     10,300     56,050         --         --         --         --      7,500        373
      Benin......................      36,580       5,364     30,900         --     30,900         --         --         --         --         --        316
      Botswana...................      77,331          --         --     76,443     76,443         --         --         --         --         --        688
      Burkina Faso...............      21,737       1,375      6,000         --      6,000         --         --         --         --      1,143        261
      Burundi....................      35,618      12,124     12,060         --     12,060         --         --         --         --         --        345
      Cameroon...................       9,261       1,344      1,500      1,250      2,750         --         --         --         --         --        267
      Cape Verde.................         727          --         --         --         --         --         --         --        603         --        124
      Central African Republic...       6,013          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         60
      Chad.......................     106,384         473         --         --         --         --         --         --         --      1,143        375
      Comoros....................         661          --         --         --         --        550         --         --         --         --        111
      Cote d'Ivoire..............     103,605          --         --    103,305    103,305         --         --         --         --        300         --
      Democratic Republic of the      282,699          --     65,700     19,635     85,335     77,600         --         --      1,700        841        500
       Congo.....................
      Djibouti...................      13,566       6,542        396        150        546         --         --         --         --      1,970        379
      Ethiopia...................     909,419      82,177     87,200    286,699    373,899         --         --         --         --      2,225        336
      Gabon......................         720          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --        200
      Ghana......................     141,441      73,497     59,100      7,000     66,100         --         --         --        500         --        794
      Guinea.....................      23,618      14,518      7,500         --      7,500         --         --         --         --         --         --
      Guinea-Bissau..............       1,500          --         --         --         --         --         --         --      1,500         --         --
      Kenya......................     797,889      79,395     71,550    528,760    600,310      4,000         --         --         --      9,750        959
      Lesotho....................      28,227          --      6,400     21,650     28,050         --         --         --         --         --        177
      Liberia....................     230,513       1,375     34,850        800     35,650    153,000         --         --      9,000         --        488
      Madagascar.................      91,023      10,500     58,400        500     58,900         --         --         --         --         --         --
      Malawi.....................     148,199      29,851     63,600     36,448    100,048         --         --         --         --         --        300
      Mali.......................     120,336      55,891     49,950      1,500     51,450      1,000         --         --         --      1,143        411
      Mauritania.................       7,902       1,199         --         --         --         --         --         --         --      1,556        147
      Mauritius..................         600         150         --         --         --         --         --         --         --        300        150
      Mozambique.................     386,335      38,107     64,175    261,953    326,128         --         --         --        300      2,000        385
      Namibia....................     102,899          --      1,950    100,809    102,759         --         --         --         --         --        140
      Niger......................      66,551       1,973         --         --         --         --         --         --         --        842         --
      Nigeria....................     616,180      70,967     69,100    471,227    540,327         --         --         --        500      1,520      1,016
      Republic of the Congo......       4,926          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --        132
      Rwanda.....................     212,351      45,900     37,500    124,072    161,572         --         --         --         --         --        512
      Sao Tome and Principe......         501          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --        171
      Senegal....................     109,480      56,528     48,350      1,768     50,118        400         --         --         --      1,143        991
      Seychelles.................         118          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --        118
      Sierra Leone...............      31,353          --         --        500        500     18,000         --         --        250         --        403
      Somalia....................     152,176          --      1,550         --      1,550     31,270         --         --         --      2,353         --
      South Africa...............     579,930      16,316     14,500    545,969    560,469         --         --         --         --      1,500        845
      Sudan......................     705,021       1,300     30,010      7,036     37,046    296,034         --         --     16,000      3,900        793
      Swaziland..................      27,767          --      6,900     20,700     27,600         --         --         --         --         --        167
      Tanzania...................     467,739      38,252     83,525    336,254    419,779         --         --         --        450      2,110        397
      The Gambia.................         118          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --        118
      Togo.......................         319          95         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --        224
      Uganda.....................     458,100      72,025     66,000    271,584    337,584         --         --         --        235      1,030        591
      Zambia.....................     358,235      46,054     50,900    253,661    304,561         --         --         --         --         --        366
      Zimbabwe...................     168,481          --     24,500     24,330     48,830     40,200         --         --         --         --         --
      African Union..............       3,000       1,500         --         --         --      1,500         --         --         --         --         --
      State Africa Regional (AF).      40,675          --         --         --         --     22,550         --         --      4,500      3,625         --
      USAID Africa Regional (AFR)     129,190     108,916     19,774         --     19,774        500         --         --         --         --         --
      USAID Central Africa             20,500      20,500         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Regional..................
      USAID East Africa Regional.      58,428      48,093      9,585         --      9,585        750         --         --         --         --         --
      USAID Southern Africa            30,727      26,927      2,000      1,800      3,800         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Regional..................
      USAID West Africa Regional.     100,992      86,212     14,030         --     14,030        750         --         --         --         --         --
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    East Asia and Pacific........     805,553     240,824    128,520    106,968    235,488    190,900         --         --     18,575     32,687      8,878
      Burma......................      38,600          --      2,100         --      2,100     36,500         --         --         --         --         --
      Cambodia...................      72,614      19,000     31,500      3,000     34,500     15,000         --         --         --      3,015         99
      China......................      27,200      12,000      4,000      3,000      7,000      7,400         --         --        800         --         --
      Indonesia..................     220,789      73,500     36,950      5,250     42,200     65,000         --         --     11,570      6,700      1,819
      Laos.......................      10,927         513      1,000         --      1,000         --         --         --      1,000      5,000         71
      Malaysia...................       2,250          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --      1,300        950
      Marshall Islands...........         534         500         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         34
      Micronesia.................         500         500         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
      Mongolia...................      13,256       7,500         --         --         --         --         --         --         --        250      1,006
      North Korea................       3,500          --         --         --         --      3,500         --         --         --         --         --
      Papua New Guinea...........       2,500          --      2,500         --      2,500         --         --         --         --         --         --
      Philippines................     157,178      40,310     33,220         --     33,220     30,000         --         --      1,365      5,675      1,850
      Samoa......................          36          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         36
      Singapore..................         500          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --        500         --
      Taiwan.....................         575          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --        575         --
      Thailand...................      18,362       6,151      1,000        500      1,500      2,500         --         --      1,740      3,300      1,571
      Timor-Leste................      26,803      20,200      2,000         --      2,000      3,000         --         --        800         --        303
      Tonga......................         500          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
      Vietnam....................     134,078      16,500         --     94,978     94,978     16,000         --         --         --      4,200        400
      State East Asia and Pacific      16,211          --         --         --         --     12,000         --         --      1,300      2,172        739
       Regional..................
      USAID Regional Development       58,640      44,150     14,250        240     14,490         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Mission-Asia (RDM/A)......
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Europe and Eurasia...........     861,296          --     14,600     13,378     27,978     33,000         --    610,882         --     21,049     30,532
      Albania....................      29,521          --         --         --         --         --         --     22,000         --      3,559        962
      Armenia....................      45,599          --        400         --        400         --         --     41,000         --        750        449
      Azerbaijan.................      28,101          --      1,250         --      1,250         --         --     22,000         --        965        886
      Belarus....................      15,000          --         --         --         --         --         --     15,000         --         --         --
      Bosnia and Herzegovina.....      42,840          --         --         --         --         --         --     36,000         --      1,850        990
      Bulgaria...................      11,519          --         --         --         --         --         --        800         --         --      1,719
      Croatia....................       3,814          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --        450        864
      Cyprus.....................      11,000          --         --         --         --     11,000         --         --         --         --         --
      Czech Republic.............       7,892          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --      1,892
      Estonia....................       3,656          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --      1,156
      Georgia....................      78,956          --         --        850        850         --         --     59,000         --      1,300      1,806
      Greece.....................         105          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --        105
      Hungary....................       2,060          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --      1,060
      Kosovo.....................      99,270          --         --         --         --         --         --     95,000         --      1,070        700
      Latvia.....................       3,600          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --      1,100
      Lithuania..................       3,800          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --      1,100
      Macedonia..................      27,975          --         --         --         --         --         --     22,000         --      1,020        955
      Malta......................       1,004          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --        400        149
      Moldova....................      21,421          --         --         --         --         --         --     19,650         --        290        731
      Montenegro.................      10,648          --         --         --         --         --         --      8,500         --        550        398
      Poland.....................      49,198          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --      2,198
      Portugal...................          95          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         95
      Romania....................      14,760          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --      1,760
      Russia.....................      71,500          --      8,500      3,000     11,500         --         --     59,000         --      1,000         --
      Serbia.....................      51,553          --         --         --         --         --         --     49,000         --        650        903
      Slovakia...................       2,214          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --        964
      Slovenia...................       1,194          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --        694
      Turkey.....................       8,187          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --      3,195      4,992
      Ukraine....................     117,932          --      4,000      9,528     13,528         --         --     89,000         --      2,500      1,904
      Eurasia Regional...........      43,541          --        450         --        450      3,000         --     38,591         --      1,500         --
      Europe Regional............      36,341          --         --         --         --      2,000         --     34,341         --         --         --
      International Fund for           17,000          --         --         --         --     17,000         --         --         --         --         --
       Ireland...................
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Near East....................   6,403,401      64,935      8,000         --      8,000  1,725,900         --         --    828,250     85,385     18,520
      Algeria....................       8,648         710         --         --         --         --         --         --         --        775        950
      Bahrain....................      20,471          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --        800        671
      Egypt......................   1,295,700          --         --         --         --    250,000         --         --      1,000      2,800      1,900
      Iraq.......................   1,116,789          --         --         --         --    382,500         --         --    702,000     30,300      1,989
      Israel.....................   2,220,000          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
      Jordan.....................     692,997          --         --         --         --    463,000         --         --      1,500     24,725      3,772
      Lebanon....................     238,300          --         --         --         --    109,000         --         --     20,000      6,800      2,500
      Libya......................         769          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --        300        319
      Morocco....................      35,285      19,546         --         --         --      3,000         --         --        750      1,200      1,789
      Oman.......................      12,028          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --      1,655      1,525
      Saudi Arabia...............         207          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --        200          7
      Tunisia....................      21,945          --         --         --         --      2,000         --         --         --         --      1,945
      United Arab  Emirates......         230          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --        230         --
      West Bank and Gaza.........     495,900          --         --         --         --    393,400         --         --    100,000      2,500         --
      Yemen......................      80,328      35,000      8,000         --      8,000      5,000         --         --      1,000      4,975      1,153
      Middle East Multilaterals         1,000          --         --         --         --      1,000         --         --         --         --         --
       (MEM).....................
      Middle East Partnership          65,000          --         --         --         --     65,000         --         --         --         --         --
       Initiative (MEPI).........
      Middle East Regional              5,000          --         --         --         --      5,000         --         --         --         --         --
       Cooperation (MERC)........
      Multinational Force and          26,000          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Observers (MFO)...........
      Near East Regional.........       2,325          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --      2,325         --
      Near East Regional               40,000          --         --         --         --     40,000         --         --         --         --         --
       Democracy.................
      Trans-Sahara Counter-            13,800          --         --         --         --      6,000         --         --      2,000      5,800         --
       Terrorism Partnership
       (TSCTP)...................
      USAID Middle East Regional       10,679       9,679         --         --         --      1,000         --         --         --         --         --
       (OMEP)....................
    South and Central Asia.......   6,642,946     112,788    285,799     24,164    309,963  4,672,000         --    130,750    763,050     97,195     13,404
      Afghanistan................   4,144,868          --     91,827        500     92,327  3,346,000         --         --    589,000     57,655      1,756
      Bangladesh.................     167,905      66,271     53,200         --     53,200         --         --         --        350      3,575      1,009
      India......................     126,653      31,250     78,200      9,000     87,200         --         --         --         --      3,200      1,269
      Kazakhstan.................      22,722          --      2,200        600      2,800         --         --     10,400         --      1,900        779
      Kyrgyz Republic............      53,608          --      1,200        475      1,675         --         --     46,000         --      1,590        843
      Maldives...................       1,203       1,000         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --        203
      Nepal......................      62,226          --     25,000         --     25,000     27,000         --         --      3,700        700        896
      Pakistan...................   1,911,617          --     29,722         --     29,722  1,292,000         --         --    170,000     23,875      5,000
      Sri Lanka..................      29,903       9,900         --         --         --         --         --         --         --        450        731
      Tajikistan.................      57,972          --      1,450        524      1,974         --         --     42,500         --      1,725        456
      Turkmenistan...............      16,512          --        600         75        675         --         --     12,500         --      1,075        262
      Uzbekistan.................      12,040          --      2,400        590      2,990         --         --      8,250         --        600        200
      Central Asia Regional......      23,500          --         --     12,400     12,400         --         --     11,100         --         --         --
      State South and Central           7,850          --         --         --         --      7,000         --         --         --        850         --
       Asia  Regional (SCA)......
      USAID South Asia Regional..       4,367       4,367         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Western Hemisphere...........   3,279,589     420,451    130,589    172,411    303,000  1,270,540         --         --    930,024     16,835     16,315
      Argentina..................       1,500          --         --         --         --         --         --         --        300        300        900
      Belize.....................         278          --         --         20         20         --         --         --         --         --        258
      Bolivia....................      72,524      35,248     16,910         --     16,910         --         --         --     20,000         --        366
      Brazil.....................      25,099      16,789      5,000      1,300      6,300         --         --         --      1,000        400        610
      Chile......................       1,949          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --        450        899
      Colombia...................     516,192          --         --         --         --    201,790         --         --    243,900      4,750      1,694
      Costa Rica.................         366          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --        366
      Cuba.......................      20,000          --         --         --         --     20,000         --         --         --         --         --
      Dominican Republic.........      49,194      24,600      9,050      9,250     18,300         --         --         --      4,450         --        844
      Ecuador....................      30,972      24,783         --         --         --         --         --         --      4,500         --        375
      El Salvador................      56,122      23,904      5,490         20      5,510     25,000         --         --         --         --      1,708
      Guatemala..................     104,036      38,726     14,600         --     14,600         --         --         --      7,500         --        797
      Guyana.....................      22,034       4,809         --     16,525     16,525         --         --         --         --         --        300
      Haiti......................   1,412,398          --     22,800    121,240    144,040    920,750         --         --    168,767         --         92
      Honduras...................      50,268      37,491     11,000      1,000     12,000         --         --         --         --         --        777
      Jamaica....................      10,511       7,559      1,200        300      1,500         --         --         --         --         --        752
      Mexico.....................     403,597      10,000      3,458         --      3,458     15,000         --         --    365,000      3,900        989
      Nicaragua..................      35,035      27,344      5,900        897      6,797         --         --         --         --         --        894
      Panama.....................       7,320       6,420         --         --         --         --         --         --         --        150        750
      Paraguay...................      11,781       8,287      2,100         --      2,100         --         --         --        500         --        394
      Peru.......................     119,741      63,334     11,240         50     11,290         --         --         --     40,000      2,000        627
      Suriname...................         650          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --        250
      The Bahamas................         350          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --        200
      Trinidad and Tobago........         567          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --        167
      Uruguay....................       1,223          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --        200        523
      Venezuela..................       6,000          --         --         --         --      6,000         --         --         --         --         --
      Barbados and Eastern             37,901      14,818      5,750     14,550     20,300         --         --         --         --         --        783
       Caribbean.................
      State Western Hemisphere        182,292          --         --         --         --     82,000         --         --     74,107      4,685         --
       Regional  (WHA)...........
      USAID Central America            29,348      17,786      5,391      6,171     11,562         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Regional..................
      USAID Latin America and          63,857      57,369      5,400      1,088      6,488         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Caribbean Regional (LAC)..
      USAID South America               6,484       1,184      5,300         --      5,300         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Regional..................
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Asia Middle East Regional....      58,506      52,356      5,500        650      6,150         --         --         --         --         --         --
      Asia Middle East Regional..      58,506      52,356      5,500        650      6,150         --         --         --         --         --         --
    Complex Crises Fund..........      50,000          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
      Complex Crises Fund........      50,000          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
    DCHA--Democracy, Conflict,      1,475,886     110,438     13,000         --     13,000     37,500     55,000         --         --         --         --
     and Humanitarian Assistance.
      DCHA--FEWSNet..............      18,000      18,000         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
      DCHA/ASHA..................      23,500      23,500         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
      DCHA/CMM...................       3,500       3,500         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
      DCHA/CMM--Reconciliation         26,000      10,000         --         --         --     16,000         --         --         --         --         --
       Programs..................
      DCHA/DG--Core..............      28,500      12,000         --         --         --      6,500         --         --         --         --         --
      DCHA/DG--Elections and           32,500          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Political Process Fund....
      DCHA/DG--Global Labor             7,500          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Program...................
      DCHA/DG--SPANS, Special          52,000      24,000     13,000         --     13,000     15,000         --         --         --         --         --
       Protection and Assistance
       Needs of Survivors........
      DCHA/FFP--Contingency......     192,948          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
      DCHA/FFP--Non-Contingency..       5,288       5,288         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
      DCHA/OFDA..................   1,017,000          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
      DCHA/OTI...................      55,000          --         --         --         --         --     55,000         --         --         --         --
      DCHA/PPM...................      14,150      14,150         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
    DRL--Democracy, Human Rights       70,500          --         --         --         --        500         --         --         --         --         --
     and Labor...................
      DRL--China.................      15,000          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
      DRL--Global Forensic              3,500          --         --         --         --        500         --         --         --         --         --
       Assistance................
      DRL--Global Funds..........      42,000          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
      DRL--Muslim World Outside        10,000          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       the  Middle East..........
    EGAT--Economic Growth             292,834     280,334         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
     Agriculture and Trade.......
      USAID Economic Growth,          292,834     280,334         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Agriculture and Trade
       (EGAT)....................
    G/TIP--Office to Monitor and       21,262          --         --         --         --     12,000         --         --      9,262         --         --
     Combat Trafficking In
     Persons.....................
      State Office to Monitor and      21,262          --         --         --         --     12,000         --         --      9,262         --         --
       Combat Trafficking in
       Persons (G/TIP)...........
    GH--Global Health............     320,342          --    320,342         --    320,342         --         --         --         --         --         --
      Global Health--Core........     320,342          --    320,342         --    320,342         --         --         --         --         --         --
    GH--International                 417,045          --    417,045         --    417,045         --         --         --         --         --         --
     Partnerships................
      GH/IP--Blind Children......       2,000          --      2,000         --      2,000         --         --         --         --         --         --
      GH/IP--Commodity Fund......      20,335          --     20,335         --     20,335         --         --         --         --         --         --
      GH/IP--Global Alliance for       78,000          --     78,000         --     78,000         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Vaccine Immunization
       (GAVI)....................
      GH/IP--International AIDS        28,710          --     28,710         --     28,710         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Vaccine Initiative (IAVI).
      GH/IP--Iodine Deficiency          2,000          --      2,000         --      2,000         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Disorder (IDD)............
      GH/IP--Microbicides........      45,000          --     45,000         --     45,000         --         --         --         --         --         --
      GH/IP--Neglected Tropical        65,000          --     65,000         --     65,000         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Diseases (NTD)............
      GH/IP--Pandemic Influenza       151,000          --    151,000         --    151,000         --         --         --         --         --         --
       and Other Emerging Threats
      GH/IP--TB Drug Facility....      15,000          --     15,000         --     15,000         --         --         --         --         --         --
      GH/IP--New  Partners Fund..      10,000          --     10,000         --     10,000         --         --         --         --         --         --
    INL--International Narcotics      193,961          --         --         --         --         --         --         --    193,961         --         --
     and Law  Enforcement Affairs
      INL--Alien Smuggling/Border       1,000          --         --         --         --         --         --         --      1,000         --         --
       Security..................
      INL--Anti-Crime Programs...       4,150          --         --         --         --         --         --         --      4,150         --         --
      INL--CFSP, Critical Flight       20,750          --         --         --         --         --         --         --     20,750         --         --
       Safety  Program...........
      INL--Civilian Policing.....       4,000          --         --         --         --         --         --         --      4,000         --         --
      INL--Criminal Youth Gangs..       8,000          --         --         --         --         --         --         --      8,000         --         --
      INL--Cyber Crime and IPR...       5,000          --         --         --         --         --         --         --      5,000         --         --
      INL--Demand Reduction......      14,000          --         --         --         --         --         --         --     14,000         --         --
      INL--Fighting Corruption...       4,750          --         --         --         --         --         --         --      4,750         --         --
      INL--GPOI, Global                 5,000          --         --         --         --         --         --         --      5,000         --         --
       Peacekeeping  Operations
       Initiative................
      INL--ILEA, International         37,200          --         --         --         --         --         --         --     37,200         --         --
       Law Enforcement Academy...
      INL--Inter-regional              60,088          --         --         --         --         --         --         --     60,088         --         --
       Aviation Support..........
      INL--International                4,500          --         --         --         --         --         --         --      4,500         --         --
       Organizations.............
      INL--International                1,000          --         --         --         --         --         --         --      1,000         --         --
       Organized Crime...........
      INL--Program Development         24,523          --         --         --         --         --         --         --     24,523         --         --
       and  Support..............
    IO--International                 390,400          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
     Organizations...............
      IO--ICAO International              950          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Civil Aviation
       Organization..............
      IO--IDLO International              600          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Development Law
       Organization..............
      IO--IMO International               400          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Maritime  Organization....
      IO--International                 7,500          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Conservation  Programs....
      IO--International Panel on       13,000          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Climate Change / UN
       Framework Convention on
       Climate Change............
      IO--Montreal Protocol            25,500          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Multilateral Fund.........
      IO--OAS Development               5,000          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Assistance................
      IO--OAS Fund for                  3,000          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Strengthening  Democracy..
      IO--UN OCHA UN Office for         3,000          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       the Coordination of
       Humanitarian Affairs......
      IO--UN Voluntary Funds for        1,425          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Technical Cooperation in
       the Field of Human Rights.
      IO--UN-HABITAT UN Human           2,050          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Settlements Program.......
      IO--UNCDF UN Capital                625          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Development Fund..........
      IO--UNDF UN Democracy Fund.       4,500          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
      IO--UNDP UN Development         100,500          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Program...................
      IO--UNEP UN Environment          11,500          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Program...................
      IO--UNESCO/ICSECA                 1,000          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       International
       Contributions for
       Scientific, Educational,
       and Cultural Activities...
      IO--UNFPA UN Population          51,400          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Fund......................
      IO--UNHCHR UN High                7,000          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Commissioner for Human
       Rights....................
      IO--UNICEF UN Children's        132,250          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Fund......................
      IO--UNIFEM Trust Fund......       3,000          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
      IO--UNIFEM UN Development         6,000          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Fund for Women............
      IO--UNVFVT UN Voluntary           7,100          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Fund for Victims of
       Torture...................
      IO--WMO World                     2,050          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Meteorological
       Organization..............
      IO--WTO Technical                 1,050          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Assistance................
    ISN--International Security       262,485          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --    262,485         --
     and  Nonproliferation.......
      State International             262,485          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --    262,485         --
       Security and
       Nonproliferation (ISN)....
    MFS--Multilateral Food             66,600      66,600         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
     Security  Programs..........
      Multilateral Food Security       66,600      66,600         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Programs..................
    ODP--Office of Development         57,637      57,637         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
     Partners....................
      ODP--Bilateral and                1,000       1,000         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Multilateral  Donors (BMD)
      ODP--Board for                      300         300         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       International Food and
       Agricultural Development
       (BIFAD)...................
      ODP--Cooperative                 10,000      10,000         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Development Program (CDP).
      ODP--Development Grants          40,000      40,000         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Program (DGP).............
      ODP--Partnership for              1,000       1,000         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Democratic Governance
       (PDG).....................
      ODP--Private Sector               5,100       5,100         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Alliances (PSA)...........
      ODP--Volunteers for                 237         237         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Prosperity (VfP)..........
    OES--Oceans and International     178,800          --         --         --         --    178,800         --         --         --         --         --
     Environmental and Scientific
     Affairs.....................
      OES/CC Climate Change......     145,500          --         --         --         --    145,500         --         --         --         --         --
      OES/FTA-E FTA Environment..       5,000          --         --         --         --      5,000         --         --         --         --         --
      OES/OESP OES Partnerships..       2,350          --         --         --         --      2,350         --         --         --         --         --
      OES/OP Other Programs......       5,950          --         --         --         --      5,950         --         --         --         --         --
      OES/SPFF South Pacific           18,000          --         --         --         --     18,000         --         --         --         --         --
       Forum  Fisheries..........
      OES/W Water................       2,000          --         --         --         --      2,000         --         --         --         --         --
    PM--Political-Military            242,880          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --     65,295      5,221
     Affairs.....................
      PM--Conventional Weapons         65,295          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --     65,295         --
       Destruction...............
      PM--FMF Administrative           54,464          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Expenses..................
      PM--IMET Administrative           5,221          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --      5,221
       Expenses..................
      PM--TSCTP, Trans-Sahara          21,000          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Counter-Terrorism
       Partnership...............
      PM--GPOI...................      96,900          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
    Policy, Planning and Learning       4,900       4,900         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
      USAID Policy, Planning and        4,900       4,900         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Learning (PPL)............
    PRM--Population, Refugees,      1,903,000          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
     and  Migration..............
      PRM, Administrative              26,000          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Expenses..................
      PRM, Emergency Funds.......      45,000          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
      PRM, Humanitarian Migrants       25,000          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       to Israel.................
      PRM, OA--Africa............     385,780          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
      PRM, OA--East Asia.........      44,020          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
      PRM, OA--Europe............      47,850          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
      PRM, OA--Migration.........      16,200          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
      PRM, OA--Near East.........     604,500          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
      PRM, OA--Protection             175,200          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Priorities................
      PRM, OA--South Asia........     160,950          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
      PRM, OA--Western Hemisphere      48,500          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
      PRM, Refugee Admissions....     324,000          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
    Reserve......................      78,892      30,305         --         --         --     48,587         --         --         --         --         --
      Unallocated Earmarks.......      78,892      30,305         --         --         --     48,587         --         --         --         --         --
    S/CT--Office of the               125,175          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --    125,175         --
     Coordinator for
     Counterterrorism............
      State Coordinator for           125,175          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --    125,175         --
       Counterterrorism (CT).....
    S/GAC--Office of the Global     1,525,326          --         --  1,525,326  1,525,326         --         --         --         --         --         --
     AIDS  Coordinator...........
      S/GAC, Additional Funding        40,000          --         --     40,000     40,000         --         --         --         --         --         --
       for Country Programs......
      S/GAC, International            793,000          --         --    793,000    793,000         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Partnerships..............
      S/GAC, Oversight/Management     140,754          --         --    140,754    140,754         --         --         --         --         --         --
      S/GAC, Technical Support/       551,572          --         --    551,572    551,572         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Strategic Information/
       Evaluation................
    USAID Management.............   1,646,800          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
      USAID Capital Investment        185,000          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Fund......................
      USAID Development Credit          8,600          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Authority Administration..
      USAID Inspector General          54,400          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Operating Expense.........
      USAID Operating Expense....   1,398,800          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
    USAID Program Management            2,800       2,800         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
     Initiatives.................
      USAID Program Management          2,800       2,800         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Initiatives...............
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Account Acronyms: DA Development Assistance; GHCS Global Health and Child Survival; ESF Economic Support Fund; TI Transition Initiatives; AEECA
      Assistance for Europe, Eurasia, and Central Asia; INCLE International Narcotics Control and Law Enforcement; NADR Nonproliferation, Anti-terrorism,
      Demining, and Related Programs; IMET International Military Education and Training; FMF Foreign Military Financing;  PKO Peacekeeping Operations; ERMA
      U.S. Emergency Regugee & Migration Assistance; IO&P International Organizations and Programs; MRA Migration and Refugee Assistance; FFP Food for
      Peace; IDA International Disaster Assistance; DF Democracy Fund; AID Admin USAID Administration; CCF Christian Childrens Fund

                                                                           APPENDIX E
                                                           FY 2010 Foreign Assistance Acutals, Part II
                                                                        ($ in thousands)
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                  FMF         PKO        ERMA       IO&P       MRA        FFP        IDA         DF     AID Admin     CCF
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    TOTAL...................................   4,301,169     331,500     45,000    390,400  1,858,000  1,840,000  1,305,000    120,000  1,646,800     50,000
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Africa..................................      17,950     187,600         --         --         --  1,422,620         --         --         --         --
       Angola...............................          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Benin................................          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Botswana.............................         200          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Burkina Faso.........................          --          --         --         --         --     12,958         --         --         --         --
       Burundi..............................          --          --         --         --         --     11,089         --         --         --         --
       Cameroon.............................         350          --         --         --         --      4,550         --         --         --         --
       Cape Verde...........................          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Central African Republic.............          --          --         --         --         --      5,953         --         --         --         --
       Chad.................................         500          --         --         --         --    103,893         --         --         --         --
       Comoros..............................          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Cote d'Ivoire........................          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Democratic Republic of the Congo.....       1,450      14,000         --         --         --    101,273         --         --         --         --
       Djibouti.............................       2,000          --         --         --         --      2,129         --         --         --         --
       Ethiopia.............................          --          --         --         --         --    450,782         --         --         --         --
       Gabon................................         520          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Ghana................................         550          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Guinea...............................          --       1,600         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Guinea-Bissau........................          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Kenya................................       1,500          --         --         --         --    101,975         --         --         --         --
       Lesotho..............................          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Liberia..............................       6,000      10,000         --         --         --     15,000         --         --         --         --
       Madagascar...........................          --          --         --         --         --     21,623         --         --         --         --
       Malawi...............................          --          --         --         --         --     18,000         --         --         --         --
       Mali.................................         200          --         --         --         --     10,241         --         --         --         --
       Mauritania...........................          --          --         --         --         --      5,000         --         --         --         --
       Mauritius............................          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Mozambique...........................          --          --         --         --         --     19,415         --         --         --         --
       Namibia..............................          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Niger................................          --          --         --         --         --     63,736         --         --         --         --
       Nigeria..............................       1,850          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Republic of the Congo................          --          --         --         --         --      4,794         --         --         --         --
       Rwanda...............................         200          --         --         --         --      4,167         --         --         --         --
       Sao Tome and Principe................         330          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Senegal..............................         300          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Seychelles...........................          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Sierra Leone.........................         200          --         --         --         --     12,000         --         --         --         --
       Somalia..............................          --     102,000         --         --         --     15,003         --         --         --         --
       South Africa.........................         800          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Sudan................................          --      44,000         --         --         --    305,948         --         --         --         --
       Swaziland............................          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Tanzania.............................         700          --         --         --         --      6,051         --         --         --         --
       The Gambia...........................          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Togo.................................          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Uganda...............................         300       6,000         --         --         --     40,335         --         --         --         --
       Zambia...............................          --          --         --         --         --      7,254         --         --         --         --
       Zimbabwe.............................          --          --         --         --         --     79,451         --         --         --         --
      African Union.........................          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
      State Africa Regional (AF)............          --      10,000         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
      USAID Africa Regional (AFR)...........          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
      USAID Central Africa Regional.........          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
      USAID East Africa Regional............          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
      USAID Southern Africa Regional........          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
      USAID West Africa Regional............          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    East Asia and Pacific...................      59,100          --         --         --         --     19,101         --         --         --         --
       Burma................................          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Cambodia.............................       1,000          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       China................................          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Indonesia............................      20,000          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Laos.................................          --          --         --         --         --      3,343         --         --         --         --
       Malaysia.............................          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Marshall Islands.....................          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Micronesia...........................          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Mongolia.............................       4,500          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       North Korea..........................          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Papua New Guinea.....................          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Philippines..........................      29,000          --         --         --         --     15,758         --         --         --         --
       Samoa................................          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Singapore............................          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Taiwan...............................          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Thailand.............................       1,600          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Timor-Leste..........................         500          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Tonga................................         500          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Vietnam..............................       2,000          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
      State East Asia and Pacific Regional..          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
      USAID Regional Development Mission-             --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Asia (RDM/A).........................
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Europe and Eurasia......................     137,855          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Albania..............................       3,000          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Armenia..............................       3,000          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Azerbaijan...........................       3,000          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Belarus..............................          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Bosnia and Herzegovina...............       4,000          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Bulgaria.............................       9,000          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Croatia..............................       2,500          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Cyprus...............................          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Czech Republic.......................       6,000          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Estonia..............................       2,500          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Georgia..............................      16,000          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Greece...............................          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Hungary..............................       1,000          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Kosovo...............................       2,500          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Latvia...............................       2,500          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Lithuania............................       2,700          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Macedonia............................       4,000          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Malta................................         455          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Moldova..............................         750          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Montenegro...........................       1,200          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Poland...............................      47,000          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Portugal.............................          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Romania..............................      13,000          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Russia...............................          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Serbia...............................       1,000          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Slovakia.............................       1,250          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Slovenia.............................         500          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Turkey...............................          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Ukraine..............................      11,000          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
      Eurasia Regional......................          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
      Europe Regional.......................          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
      International Fund for Ireland........          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Near East...............................   3,627,498      26,000         --         --         --     18,913         --         --         --         --
       Algeria..............................          --          --         --         --         --      6,213         --         --         --         --
       Bahrain..............................      19,000          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Egypt................................   1,040,000          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Iraq.................................          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Israel...............................   2,220,000          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Jordan...............................     200,000          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Lebanon..............................     100,000          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Libya................................         150          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Morocco..............................       9,000          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Oman.................................       8,848          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Saudi Arabia.........................          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Tunisia..............................      18,000          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
      United Arab Emirates..................          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
      West Bank and Gaza....................          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
      Yemen.................................      12,500          --         --         --         --     12,700         --         --         --         --
      Middle East Multilaterals (MEM).......          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
      Middle East Partnership Initiative              --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       (MEPI)...............................
      Middle East Regional Cooperation                --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       (MERC)...............................
      Multinational Force and Observers               --      26,000         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       (MFO)................................
      Near East Regional....................          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
      Near East Regional Democracy..........          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
      Trans-Sahara Counter-Terrorism                  --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Partnership (TSCTP)..................
      USAID Middle East Regional (OMEP).....          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    South and Central Asia..................     311,312          --         --         --         --    232,484         --         --         --         --
       Afghanistan..........................          --          --         --         --         --     58,130         --         --         --         --
       Bangladesh...........................       1,500          --         --         --         --     42,000         --         --         --         --
       India................................          --          --         --         --         --      3,734         --         --         --         --
       Kazakhstan...........................       6,843          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Kyrgyz Republic......................       3,500          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Maldives.............................          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Nepal................................         800          --         --         --         --      4,130         --         --         --         --
       Pakistan.............................     294,169          --         --         --         --     96,851         --         --         --         --
       Sri Lanka............................       1,000          --         --         --         --     17,822         --         --         --         --
       Tajikistan...........................       1,500          --         --         --         --      9,817         --         --         --         --
       Turkmenistan.........................       2,000          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Uzbekistan...........................          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
      Central Asia Regional.................          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
      State South and Central Asia Regional           --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       (SCA)................................
      USAID South Asia Regional.............          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Western Hemisphere......................      92,990          --         --         --         --    229,434         --         --         --         --
       Argentina............................          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Belize...............................          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Bolivia..............................          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Brazil...............................          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Chile................................         600          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Colombia.............................      55,000          --         --         --         --      9,058         --         --         --         --
       Costa Rica...........................          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Cuba.................................          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Dominican Republic...................       1,000          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Ecuador..............................         500          --         --         --         --        814         --         --         --         --
       El Salvador..........................          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Guatemala............................          --          --         --         --         --     42,413         --         --         --         --
       Guyana...............................         400          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Haiti................................       1,600          --         --         --         --    177,149         --         --         --         --
       Honduras.............................          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Jamaica..............................         700          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Mexico...............................       5,250          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Nicaragua............................          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Panama...............................          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Paraguay.............................         500          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Peru.................................       2,490          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Suriname.............................         400          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       The Bahamas..........................         150          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Trinidad and Tobago..................         400          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Uruguay..............................         500          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Venezuela............................          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
      Barbados and Eastern Caribbean........       2,000          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
      State Western Hemisphere Regional           21,500          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       (WHA)................................
      USAID Central America Regional........          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
      USAID Latin America and Caribbean               --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Regional (LAC).......................
      USAID South America Regional..........          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Asia Middle East Regional...............          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
      Asia Middle East Regional.............          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
    Complex Crises Fund.....................          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --     50,000
      Complex Crises Fund...................          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --     50,000
    DCHA--Democracy, Conflict, and                    --          --         --         --         --   --95,052  1,305,000     50,000         --         --
     Humanitarian  Assistance...............
      DCHA--FEWSNet.........................          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
      DCHA/ASHA.............................          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
      DCHA/CMM..............................          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
      DCHA/CMM--Reconciliation Programs.....          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
      DCHA/DG--Core.........................          --          --         --         --         --         --         --     10,000         --         --
      DCHA/DG--Elections and Political                --          --         --         --         --         --         --     32,500         --         --
       Process Fund.........................
      DCHA/DG--Global Labor Program.........          --          --         --         --         --         --         --      7,500         --         --
      DCHA/DG--SPANS, Special Protection and          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Assistance Needs of Survivors........
      DCHA/FFP--Contingency.................          --          --         --         --         --   --95,052    288,000         --         --         --
      DCHA/FFP--Non-Contingency.............          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
      DCHA/OFDA.............................          --          --         --         --         --         --  1,017,000         --         --         --
      DCHA/OTI..............................          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
      DCHA/PPM..............................          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
    DRL--Democracy, Human Rights and Labor..          --          --         --         --         --         --         --     70,000         --         --
      DRL--China............................          --          --         --         --         --         --         --     15,000         --         --
      DRL--Global Forensic Assistance.......          --          --         --         --         --         --         --      3,000         --         --
      DRL--Global Funds.....................          --          --         --         --         --         --         --     42,000         --         --
      DRL--Muslim World Outside the Middle            --          --         --         --         --         --         --     10,000         --         --
       East.................................
    EGAT--Economic Growth Agriculture and             --          --         --         --         --     12,500         --         --         --         --
     Trade..................................
      USAID Economic Growth, Agriculture and          --          --         --         --         --     12,500         --         --         --         --
       Trade (EGAT).........................
    G/TIP--Office to Monitor and Combat               --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
     Trafficking In Persons.................
      State Office to Monitor and Combat              --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Trafficking in Persons (G/TIP).......
    GH--Global Health.......................          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
      Global Health--Core...................          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
    GH--International Partnerships..........          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
      GH/IP--Blind Children.................          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
      GH/IP--Commodity Fund.................          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
      GH/IP--Global Alliance for Vaccine              --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Immunization (GAVI)..................
      GH/IP--International AIDS Vaccine               --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Initiative (IAVI)....................
      GH/IP--Iodine Deficiency Disorder               --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       (IDD)................................
      GH/IP--Microbicides...................          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
      GH/IP--Neglected Tropical Diseases              --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       (NTD)................................
      GH/IP--Pandemic Influenza and Other             --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Emerging Threats.....................
      GH/IP--TB Drug Facility...............          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
      GH/IP--New Partners Fund..............          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
    INL--International Narcotics and Law              --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
     Enforcement Affairs....................
      INL--Alien Smuggling/Border Security..          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
      INL--Anti-Crime Programs..............          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
      INL--CFSP, Critical Flight Safety               --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Program..............................
      INL--Civilian Policing................          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
      INL--Criminal Youth Gangs.............          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
      INL--Cyber Crime and IPR..............          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
      INL--Demand Reduction.................          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
      INL--Fighting Corruption..............          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
      INL--GPOI, Global Peacekeeping                  --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Operations  Initiative...............
      INL--ILEA, International Law                    --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Enforcement  Academy.................
      INL--Inter-regional Aviation Support..          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
      INL--International Organizations......          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
      INL--International Organized Crime....          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
      INL--Program Development and Support..          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --  .........
    IO--International Organizations.........          --          --         --    390,400         --         --         --         --         --         --
      IO--ICAO International Civil Aviation           --          --         --        950         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Organization.........................
      IO--IDLO International Development Law          --          --         --        600         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Organization.........................
      IO--IMO International Maritime                  --          --         --        400         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Organization.........................
      IO--International Conservation                  --          --         --      7,500         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Programs.............................
      IO--International Panel on Climate              --          --         --     13,000         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Change / UN Framework Convention on
       Climate Change.......................
      IO--Montreal Protocol Multilateral              --          --         --     25,500         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Fund.................................
      IO--OAS Development Assistance........          --          --         --      5,000         --         --         --         --         --         --
      IO--OAS Fund for Strengthening                  --          --         --      3,000         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Democracy............................
      IO--UN OCHA UN Office for the                   --          --         --      3,000         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
      IO--UN Voluntary Funds for Technical            --          --         --      1,425         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Cooperation in the Field of Human
       Rights...............................
      IO--UN-HABITAT UN Human Settlements             --          --         --      2,050         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Program..............................
      IO--UNCDF UN Capital Development Fund.          --          --         --        625         --         --         --         --         --         --
      IO--UNDF UN Democracy Fund............          --          --         --      4,500         --         --         --         --         --         --
      IO--UNDP UN Development Program.......          --          --         --    100,500         --         --         --         --         --         --
      IO--UNEP UN Environment Program.......          --          --         --     11,500         --         --         --         --         --         --
      IO--UNESCO/ICSECA International                 --          --         --      1,000         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Contributions for Scientific,
       Educational, and Cultural Activities.
      IO--UNFPA UN Population Fund..........          --          --         --     51,400         --         --         --         --         --         --
      IO--UNHCHR UN High Commissioner for             --          --         --      7,000         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Human Rights.........................
      IO--UNICEF UN Children's Fund.........          --          --         --    132,250         --         --         --         --         --         --
      IO--UNIFEM Trust Fund.................          --          --         --      3,000         --         --         --         --         --         --
      IO--UNIFEM UN Development Fund for              --          --         --      6,000         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Women................................
      IO--UNVFVT UN Voluntary Fund for                --          --         --      7,100         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Victims of Torture...................
      IO--WMO World Meteorological                    --          --         --      2,050         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Organization.........................
      IO--WTO Technical Assistance..........          --          --         --      1,050         --         --         --         --         --         --
    ISN--International Security and                   --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
     Nonproliferation.......................
      State International Security and                --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Nonproliferation (ISN)...............
    MFS--Multilateral Food Security Programs          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
      Multilateral Food Security Programs...          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
    ODP--Office of Development Partners.....          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
      ODP--Bilateral and Multilateral Donors          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       (BMD)................................
      ODP--Board for International Food and           --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Agricultural Development (BIFAD).....
      ODP--Cooperative Development Program            --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       (CDP)................................
      ODP--Development Grants Program (DGP).          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
      ODP--Partnership for Democratic                 --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Governance (PDG).....................
      ODP--Private Sector Alliances (PSA)...          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
      ODP--Volunteers for Prosperity (VfP)..          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
    OES--Oceans and International                     --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
     Environmental and Scientific Affairs...
      OES/CC Climate Change.................          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
      OES/FTA-E FTA Environment.............          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
      OES/OESP OES Partnerships.............          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
      OES/OP Other Programs.................          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
      OES/SPFF South Pacific Forum Fisheries          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
      OES/W Water...........................          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
    PM--Political-Military Affairs..........      54,464     117,900         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
      PM--Conventional Weapons Destruction..          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
      PM--FMF Administrative Expenses.......      54,464          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
      PM--IMET Administrative Expenses......          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
      PM--TSCTP, Trans-Sahara Counter-                --      21,000         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Terrorism  Partnership...............
      PM--GPOI..............................          --      96,900         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
    Policy, Planning and Learning...........          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
      USAID Policy, Planning and Learning             --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       (PPL)................................
    PRM--Population, Refugees, and Migration          --          --     45,000         --  1,858,000         --         --         --         --         --
      PRM, Administrative Expenses..........          --          --         --         --     26,000         --         --         --         --         --
      PRM, Emergency Funds..................          --          --     45,000         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
      PRM, Humanitarian Migrants to Israel..          --          --         --         --     25,000         --         --         --         --         --
      PRM, OA--Africa.......................          --          --         --         --    385,780         --         --         --         --         --
      PRM, OA--East Asia....................          --          --         --         --     44,020         --         --         --         --         --
      PRM, OA--Europe.......................          --          --         --         --     47,850         --         --         --         --         --
      PRM, OA--Migration....................          --          --         --         --     16,200         --         --         --         --         --
      PRM, OA--Near East....................          --          --         --         --    604,500         --         --         --         --         --
      PRM, OA--Protection Priorities........          --          --         --         --    175,200         --         --         --         --         --
      PRM, OA--South Asia...................          --          --         --         --    160,950         --         --         --         --         --
      PRM, OA--Western Hemisphere...........          --          --         --         --     48,500         --         --         --         --         --
      PRM, Refugee Admissions...............          --          --         --         --    324,000         --         --         --         --         --
    Reserve.................................          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
      Unallocated Earmarks..................          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
    S/CT--Office of the Coordinator for               --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
     Counterterrorism.......................
      State Coordinator for Counterterrorism          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       (CT).................................
    S/GAC--Office of the Global AIDS                  --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
     Coordinator............................
      S/GAC, Additional Funding for Country           --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Programs.............................
      S/GAC, International Partnerships.....          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
      S/GAC, Oversight/Management...........          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
      S/GAC, Technical Support//Strategic             --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
       Information/Evaluation...............
    USAID Management........................          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --  1,646,800         --
      USAID Capital Investment Fund.........          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --    185,000         --
      USAID Development Credit Authority              --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --      8,600         --
       Admin................................
      USAID Inspector General Operating               --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --     54,400         --
       Expense..............................
      USAID Operating Expense...............          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --  1,398,800         --
    USAID Program Management Initiatives....          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
      USAID Program Management Initiatives..          --          --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --         --
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Account Acronyms: DA Development Assistance; GHCS Global Health and Child Survival; ESF Economic Support Fund; TI Transition Initiatives; AEECA
      Assistance for Europe, Eurasia, and Central Asia; INCLE International Narcotics Control and Law Enforcement; NADR Nonproliferation, Anti-terrorism,
      Demining, and Related Programs; IMET International Military Education and Training; FMF Foreign Military Financing;  PKO Peacekeeping Operations; ERMA
      U.S. Emergency Regugee & Migration Assistance; IO&P International Organizations and Programs; MRA Migration and Refugee Assistance; FFP Food for
      Peace; IDA International Disaster Assistance; DF Democracy Fund; AID Admin USAID Administration; CCF Christian Childrens Fund

                                                      APPENDIX F.--United Nations General Assembly's Third Committee  Country Resolution Votes 2010
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                            Belarus  Belarus   Burma   Burma   Burma   DPRK    DPRK    DPRK    DRPK    Iran    Iran    Iran    Iran    Burma   DPRK    IRAN    Burma   DPRK    Iran
                                               '06       7      '06      7      '08     '05     '06      7      '08     '05     '06     '07     '08     '09     09      09      '10     '10     '10
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Afganistan............................       y        y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       n       n       n       n       y       y       n       y       y       n
    Albania...............................       y        y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y
    Algeria...............................       n        n       n       n       n       a       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n
    Andorra...............................       y        y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y
    Angola................................       a        a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a
    Antigua-Barbuda.......................       a        a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a
    Argentina.............................       y        y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y
    Armenia...............................       n        n       y       y       y                       y               n       n       n       n       y               n       y               n
    Australia.............................       y        y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y
    Austria...............................       y        y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y
    Azerbaijan............................                        n               n       y       a               a       n       n       n       n       n       a       n       n       a       n
    Bahamas...............................       a        y       a       y       y       a       a       y       y       a       a       y       y       a       a       a       y       y       y
    Bahrain...............................       a        a       a       a       a       a       a       y       y       n       n       n       n       a       y               n       y       n
    Bangladesh............................       n        n       n       n       n       a       a       y       y       n       n       n       n       n       a       n       n       a
    Barbados..............................       a        a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a
    Belarus...............................       n        n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n
    Belgium...............................       y        y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y
    Belize................................       a        a       a       a       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y
    Benin.................................       a        a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       y       a
    Bhutan................................       a        y       a       a       a       y       y       y       y       a       a       a       a       a       y       a       a       y       a
    Bolivia...............................       y        a       y       y       a       y       y       a       a       y       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       n
    Bosnia/Herzeg.........................       y        y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       a       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y
    Botswana..............................       a        a       a       a       y       a       a       a       y       a       a       a       y       y       y       y       y       y       y
    Brazil................................       a        a       y       y       y       y       y       y       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       y       a
    Brunei Dar-Salam......................       a        a       n       a       n       a       a       a       a       n       n       a       a       n       a       a       n       a       n
    Bulgaria..............................       y        y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y
    Burkina Faso..........................       a        a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a
    Burundi...............................       a        y       y       y       y       a       a       y       y       a       y       y       a       y       y       a       y       y       a
    Cambodia..............................                a       n                               a       y       a               a                       a       a       a       n       a       a
    Cameroon..............................       a        a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a
    Canada................................       y        y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y
    Cape Verde............................       a        a       a       a       a               a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       y
    Central Afr Rep.......................                        a               a               a               a       a                       a       a       a       a       a       y       a
    Chad..................................                                a       a                       a       a                       a       a
    Chile.................................       y        y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       *       y
    China.................................       n        n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n
    Colombia..............................       a        a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a
    Comoros...............................                a               a       a               y       y       y               n       n       n       a       a       n       a       a       n
    Congo.................................       a        a       n       a       a               a       a       a               a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a
    Costa Rica............................       a        y       a       y       y       y       a       y       y       y       a       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y
    Cote D'ivoire.........................       a        a       a       a       n       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a
    Croatia...............................       y        y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y
    Cuba..................................       n        n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n
    Cyprus................................       y        y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y
    Czech Republic........................       y        y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y
    Dem Rep of Korea......................       n        n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n
    Dem Rep of Congo......................       n        a       n       a               a       a       a               a       n       n               a       a       a       a       a
    Denmark...............................       y        y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y
    Djibouti..............................       a        a       a       a               a       a       a               n       n       n                                       a       y       a
    Dominica..............................                a               a       a                       a       a                               a
    Dominican Rep.........................       y        a       y       a       y       y       y       a       a       y       y       a       a       y       y       y       a       a       y
    Ecuador...............................       a        a       y       a       a       y       y       y       a       y       y       a       a       a       a       n       a       a       a
    Egypt.................................       n        n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n
    El Salvador...........................       y        y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y
    Equat Guinea..........................                a               a       a       a               a       a       y               a       a       y       y       y
    Eritrea...............................       a        a       a       a       a       a       a       y       y       a       a       a       n       a       y       n       a       y       n
    Estonia...............................       y        y       y       y       y       a       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y
    Ethiopia..............................       n        a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a
    Fiji..................................       y        a       a       a       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       a       y       a
    Finland...............................       y        y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y
    France................................       y        y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y
    Gabon.................................                                                                                                                                        a       a       a
    Gambia................................                n                       a       n                       a       n               n       n       a       a       a       a       a       y
    Georgia...............................       y        y               y       y       y       y       y       y               a       a       a       y       y       a       y
    Germany...............................       y        y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y
    Ghana.................................       a        a       a       y       a       a       y       y       y       a       a       a       a               y       a       y       y       a
    Greece................................       y        y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y
    Grenada...............................                                        a                               a                               a       a       a       a       a       a       a
    Guatemala.............................       y        a       y       y       a       y       y       a       a       y       y       a       a       a       a       a       a       y       a
    Guinea................................       a        a       n       a       a       n                       n       n       n       n       n       a       a       n       a       a       n
    Guinea-Bissau.........................       a                a               a       a       y               a       a                       n       a       y       n       a       a       a
    Guyana................................       a        a       a       y       y       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       y       a       a       y       a       a
    Haiti.................................       a        a       a       a       a       y       a       a       a       y       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a
    Honduras..............................       y        y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y
    Hungary...............................       y        y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y
    Iceland...............................       y        y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y
    India.................................       n        n       n       n       n       a       a       a       a       n       n       n       n       n       a       n       n       a       a
    Indonesia.............................       n        n       n       a       a       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       a       n       n       a       a       n
    Iran (Islamic Rep)....................       n        n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n
    Iraq..................................                                        y       y       y       y       y       a                               y       y               y       y
    Ireland...............................       y        y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       a       y       y       y       y       y       y
    Israel................................       y        y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y
    Italy.................................       y        y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y
    Jamaica...............................       a        a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       y       y       a       y       y       a
    Japan.................................       y        y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y
    Jordan................................       a        a       a       a       a       a       a       y       a               a               a       a       a       a       a       y       a
    Kazakhstan............................       n        n       a       y       y       y       y       y       y       n       n       n       n       y       y       n       y       y       n
    Kenya.................................       a        a       a       y       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a
    Kiribati..............................                                        y                               y       y       y               y       y       y       y       y       y       y
    Kuwait................................       a        a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       n       n       n       n       a       a       n       a       a       n
    Kyrgyzstan............................       n        n       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       n       n       n       n       a       a       n       a       a       n
    Lao Rep...............................       a        a       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       a       a       a       a       n               a       n       a       a
    Latvia................................       y        y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y
    Lebanon...............................       n        n       y       y       y               y       y       y       n       n       n       n       y       y       n       y       y       n
    Lesotho...............................       a        a       a       a       a       a       a       y       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a
    Liberia...............................                y               y       a               a       y       y                       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y
    Libyan AJ.............................       n        n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n
    Liechtenstein.........................       y        y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y
    Lithuania.............................       y        y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y
    Luxembourg............................       y        y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y
    Madagascar............................       a                a                               a       a       y               a                       a       y       y       a       y
    Malawi................................       a        a       a       a       a               y       y       y               a       a       n       y       y       a                       a
    Malaysia..............................       n        n       n       n       n       n       a       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n
    Maldives..............................                                        y       y       y       y       y       n       n                       y       y               y       y       y
    Mali..................................       a        a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a
    Malta.................................       y        y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y
    Marshall Islands......................       y        y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y
    Mauritania............................       a        a       a       y       a               a       y       a       n       n               n       a       a       n                       n
    Maurtius..............................       a        a       y       y       y       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       y       a       a       y       a       a
    Mexico................................       a        a       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       a       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y
    Micronesia (FS).......................       y        y       y       y               y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y
    Moldova...............................       y        a       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y
    Monaco................................       y        y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y               a       y       y       y
    Mongolia..............................       a        a       y       y       y                                       a       a       a       a       y       y       y       y               a
    Montenegro............................       y        y       y       y       y               y       y       y               y       y       y       y       y       a       y       y       y
    Morocco...............................       n        a       y               y       a       y       y       y       n       n       n               a       a       a       y       y       a
    Mozambique............................       a        a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       n       n       n       a       a       a
    Myanmar...............................       n        n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n               a       a       n       n       n
    Namibia...............................       a        a       a       a       n       a       n       a       n       a       a       a       a       y       y       y       a       a       a
    Nauru.................................                a       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       a       a       a       y       y       y
    Nepal.................................       a        a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       y       y       y       a       a       a
    Netherlands...........................       y        y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y
    New Zealand...........................       y        y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       n       a       n       y       y       y
    Nicaragua.............................       y        n       y       a       n       y       y       y       n       y       y       n       n       a       a       n       n       a       n
    Niger.................................       a        a       a       a       n       a       a       a       a       n       n       n       n       y       a       n       a       a       n
    Nigeria...............................       a        a       a       a       y       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       y       y       y       y       a       a
    Norway................................       y        y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       n       n       n       y       y       y
    Oman..................................                n               n       n                       n       n       n       n       n       n       a       a       n       n       n       n
    Pakistan..............................       n        n       n       n       a       a       a       n       a       n       n       n       n       y       y       y       a       a       n
    Palau.................................       y        y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y
    Panama................................       a        a       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       a       a       y       y       a       y       y       y       y       y
    Papua N Guinea........................       a        a       a       a       a       y       y       y       y       y       a       a       a       y       y       a       y       y       y
    Paraguay..............................       y        y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       a       y       y       y       y       y       a
    Peru..................................       y        y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       a       a       a       y       y       y
    Philippines...........................       a        a       a       a       a       a       y       y       a       a       a       a       a       y       y       y       a       a       a
    Poland................................       y        y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y
    Portugal..............................       y        y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       a       a       n       y       y       y
    Qatar.................................       n        n       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       n       n       n       n       y       y       a       a       a       n
    Rep of Korea..........................       y        y       y       y       y       a       y       a       y       a       a       a       a       y       y       y       y       y       a
    Romania...............................       y        y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y
    Russian Federation....................       n        n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n
    Rwanda................................       a                a       a       a               a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       y
    St Kitts-Nevis........................                a               a       a       a               a       a                       y       a       a       a       a       a       a       a
    Saint Lucia...........................                a               a       y       a               a       y       n               a       y       y       y       y       y       y       y
    St Vincent-Green......................                a               a       a       y               a       a       y               a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a
    Samoa.................................       a        a       a       a       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y
    San Marino............................       y        y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y
    Sao Tome Principe.....................                                        a                                                               a                               y       y       y
    Saudi Arabia..........................       a        a       a       a       a       y       y       y       y       n       n       n       n       a       y       y       a       a       a
    Senegal...............................       a        a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       n       n       n       n       a       a       n       a       a       n
    Serbia................................       y        y       y       y               y       y       y               y       y       y       n
    Seychelles............................                                                                                                                a       a               y       y       y
    Sierra Leone..........................       a        a       a       a               a       a       a               a       a       a               a       y       a       y       y       y
    Singapore.............................       a        a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a
    Slovakia..............................       y        y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y
    Slovenia..............................       y        y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y
    Solomon Islands.......................       a        a       a       a       a       a       y       a       a       y       y       a       a       a       a       a       y       y       y
    Somalia...............................                                n       n                       n       n       n               n       n       a       n       n       n       *       n
    South Africa..........................       n        n       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       n       n       n       n       y       a       a       y       a       a
    Spain.................................       y        y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y
    Sri Lanka.............................       a        a       a       a       n       a       a       a       a       n       n       n       n       n       a       n       n       a       n
    Sudan.................................       n        n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       m       n       n       n       n       n
    Suriname..............................       a        a       a       y       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a
    Swaziland.............................       a        a       a       a       a       n       a       a       a       n       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a
    Sweden................................       y        y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y
    Switzerland...........................       y        y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y
    Syrian AR.............................       n        n       n       n       n       y       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n
    Tajikistan............................       n        n               a               n       n       n               n       n       n       n       a       a       n       a       a       n
    Thailand..............................       a        a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a
    The FYR Macedonia.....................       y        y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y
    Timor-Leste...........................       y        y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y               y       y       a       y       y       a       y       y
    Togo..................................       a        a       a       a       y       a       n       a       y       n       n       n       n       y       y       a       y       y       a
    Tonga.................................       y        y       y               y               y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y
    Trinidad-Tobago.......................       a        a       a       a       a       a               a       a       a               a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a
    Tunisia...............................                                                a                               n       n       n       n                       n                       n
    Turkey................................       y        y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y                                       y       y               y       y
    Turkmenistan..........................       a        n       a       a       a       n       a       a       a       n       a       n       n       a       a       n                       n
    Tuvalu................................       y                y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       n       y       n       y       *       y
    Uganda................................       a        n       a       n       a       a       a       n       a       a       a       n       a       a       a       a       a       a       a
    Ukraine...............................       y        y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y
    U A Emirates..........................       a        a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       n       a       y       n
    United Kingdom........................       y        y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y
    U R Tanzania..........................       a        a       a       y       a       a       a       y       y       a       a       a       a       y       y       a       y       y       a
    United States.........................       y        y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y
    Uruguay...............................       y        y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y               a       a       a       y       y       a       y       y       a
    Uzbekistan............................       n        n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n               n       n       n       n
    Vanuatu...............................                y               y       y       a               y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y       y
    Venezuela.............................       n        y       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n
    Vietnam...............................       n        n       n       n       n       n       n       s       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n
    Yemen.................................       a        n       a       a       a       a       a       y       a       n       n       n       n       a       a       n       a       a
    Zambia................................       a        a       a       a       a       a       a               a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a       a
    Zimbabwe..............................       n        n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n       n
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Final Vote
      yes.................................      70       68      79      88      89      84      91      97      95      77      70      72      70      92      97      74      96     100      80
      no..................................      31       32      28      54      29      22      21      23      24      51      48      50      51      26      19      48      28      18      44
      abstain.............................      67       76      63      66      63      62      60      60      62      46      55      55      60      65      65      59      60      60      57
      * vote was yes......................                                                                                                                                               *3
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

                                   APPENDIX G

                                  ----------

                     Universal Declaration of Human Rights

                                  ----------

                                    Preamble

        Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the
    equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family
    is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world,

        Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have
    resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience
    of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings
    shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear
    and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the
    common people,

        Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to
    have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny
    and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the
    rule of law,

        Whereas it is essential to promote the development of
    friendly relations between nations,

        Whereas the peoples of the United Nations have in the
    Charter reaffirmed their faith in fundamental human rights, in
    the dignity and worth of the human person and in the equal
    rights of men and women and have determined to promote social
    progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,

        Whereas Member States have pledged themselves to achieve,
    in co-operation with the United Nations, the promotion of
    universal respect for and observance of human rights and
    fundamental freedoms,

        Whereas a common understanding of these rights and freedoms
    is of the greatest importance for the full realization of this
    pledge,

        Now, therefore, The General Assembly, proclaims this
    Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a common standard of
    achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that
    every individual and every organ of society, keeping this
    Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and
    education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and
    by progressive measures, national and international, to secure
    their universal and effective recognition and observance, both
    among the peoples of Member States themselves and among the
    peoples of territories under their jurisdiction.

    Article 1

        All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and
    rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should
    act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

    Article 2

        Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set
    forth in this Declaration, without distinction of an kind, such
    as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other
    opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other
    status.

        Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of
    the political, jurisdictional or international status of the
    country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be
    independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other
    limitation of sovereignty.

    Article 3

        Everyone has the right to life, liberty and the security of
    person.

    Article 4

        No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and
    the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.

    Article 5

        No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman
    or degrading treatment or punishment.

    Article 6

        Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a
    person before the law.

    Article 7

        All are equal before the law and are entitled without any
    discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled
    to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of
    this Declaration and against any incitement to such
    discrimination.

    Article 8

        Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the
    competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental
    rights granted him by the constitution or by law.

    Article 9

        No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or
    exile.

    Article 10

        Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public
    hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the
    determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal
    charge against him.

    Article 11

        1. Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to
    be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a
    public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary
    for his defence.

        2. No one shall be held guilty without any limitation due
    to race, of any penal offence on account of nationality or
    religion, have the any act or omission which did not constitute
    a penal offence, under national or international law, at the
    time when it was committed.

    Article 12

        No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with
    his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks
    upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the
    protection of the law against such interference or attacks.

    Article 13

        1. Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and
    residence within the borders of each state.

        2. Everyone has the right to leave any country, including
    his own, and to return to his country.

    Article 14

        1. Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other
    countries asylum from persecution.

        2. This right may not be invoked in the case of
    prosecutions genuinely arising from non-political crimes or
    from acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United
    Nations.

    Article 15

        1. Everyone has the right to a nationality.

        2. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality
    nor be denied the right to change his nationality.

    Article 16

        1. Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to
    race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to
    found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to
    marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution.

        2. Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and
    full consent of the intending spouses.

        3. The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of
    society and is entitled to protection by society and the State.

    Article 17

        1. Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as
    in association with others.

        2. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.

    Article 18

        Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience
    and religion; this right includes freedom to change his
    religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community
    with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion
    or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.

    Article 19

        Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and
    expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions
    without interference and to seek, receive and impart
    information and ideas through any media and regardless of
    frontiers.

    Article 20

        1. Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly
    and association.

        2. No one may be compelled to belong to an association.

    Article 21

        1. Everyone has the right to take part in the Government of
    his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives.

        2. Everyone has the right of equal access to public service
    in his country.

        3. The will of the people shall be the basis of the
    authority of government; this will shall be expressed in
    periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and
    equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by
    equivalent free voting procedures.

    Article 22

        1. Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to
    social security and is entitled to realization, through
    national effort and international cooperation and in accordance
    with the organization and resources of each State, of the
    economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his
    dignity and the free development of his personality.

    Article 23

        1. Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of
    employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to
    protection against unemployment.

        2. Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to
    equal pay for equal work.

        3. Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable
    remuneration insuring for himself and his family an existence
    worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by
    other means of social protection.

        4. Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions
    for the protection of his interests.

    Article 24

        Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including
    reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays
    with pay.

    Article 25

        1. Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate
    for the health and well-being of himself and of his family,
    including food, clothing, housing and medical care and
    necessary social services, and the right to security in the
    event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age
    or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his
    control.

        2. Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care
    and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of
    wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.

    Article 26

        1. Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be
    free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages.
    Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and
    professional education shall be made generally available and
    higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the
    basis of merit.

        2. Education shall be directed to the full development of
    the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for
    human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote
    understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations,
    racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of
    the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.

        3. Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of
    education that shall be given to their children.

    Article 27

        1. Everyone has the right freely to participate in the
    cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share
    in scientific advancement and its benefits.

        2. Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral
    and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary
    or artistic production of which he is the author.

    Article 28

        Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in
    which the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can
    be fully realized.

    Article 29

        1. Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the
    free and full development of his personality is possible.

        2. In the exercise of his rights and freedoms, everyone
    shall be subject only to such limitations as are determined by
    law solely for the purpose of securing due recognition and
    respect for the rights and freedoms of others and of meeting
    the just requirements of morality, public order and the general
    welfare in a democratic society.

        3. These rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised
    contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.

    Article 30

        Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying
    for any State, group or person any right to engage in any
    activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any
    of the rights and freedoms set forth herein.

    Hundred and eighty-third plenary meeting
    Resolution 217(A)(III) of the United Nations General Assembly,
    December 10, 1948

     (THIS MATERIAL IS IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN AND MAY BE REPRINTED WITHOUT
              PERMISSION; CITATION OF THIS SOURCE IS APPRECIATED.)