As Chair of the Advisory Commission on Rakhine State I am gravely concerned by, and strongly condemn, the recent attacks in Rakhine State. I am saddened to hear of the loss of life of members of the security forces. The alleged scale and gravity of these attacks mark a worrying escalation of violence. No cause can justify such brutality and senseless killing. Perpetrators should be held to account. I urge the security forces to exercise restraint in dealing with the situation and above all ensure that innocent civilians are not harmed. I strongly urge all communities and groups to reject violence. After years of insecurity and instability, it should be clear that violence is not the solution to the challenges facing Rakhine State. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 Kofi Annan Foundation

The Secretary-General condemns in the strongest terms the attacks carried out against the Myanmar security forces in northern areas of Rakhine State. He extends his heartfelt condolences to the families and loved ones of all those killed and wishes a speedy recovery to those injured. He hopes those responsible for this unacceptable violence will be swiftly brought to justice. The Secretary-General has been closely following developments in Rakhine State and is concerned over the escalating tensions in the region. He reiterates the importance of addressing the root causes of violence, in particular issues related to identity and citizenship, and reducing inter-communal tensions. He strongly urges all the communities in Rakhine State to choose the path of peace. The Secretary-General stresses that, while taking the necessary measures to curb attacks by criminal elements in the region, the security forces must protect civilians at all times, in line with international humanitarian and human rights law. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 United Nations

At least 71 people, including 12 members of the security forces, have been killed in Myanmar’s northern Rakhine state after Rohingya militants attacked border police, ushering in the bloodiest day of fighting since conflict broke out last year. The fighting exploded around Rathedaung township, where there has been a buildup of Myanmar troops over recent weeks after reports of murders by shadowy groups and an exodus of refugees across the border to Bangladesh. About 20 police posts across the north of the state came under attack in the early hours of Friday by hundreds of insurgents, some carrying guns and using homemade explosives, Myanmar’s military said. “The military and police members are fighting back together against extremist Bengali terrorists,” said Min Aung Hlaing, commander in chief on the armed forces, in a statement that used the state’s description for Rohingya militants. The office of Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar state counsellor, said 12 security officials and 59 militants had been killed. “People are hiding, especially old people and women,” Hla Tun, a Rohingya man from a village close to the fighting, told the Guardian. “The military tried to enter our village at 3.30pm and were shooting us with guns,” he said, adding that four Rohingya were killed. Tin Maung, a Buddhist villager in Maungdaw township, said he had been hearing gunshots since 2am. “Some military guys are now in our village,” he said on Friday evening, from the police post where he was sheltering. Fears are growing for hundreds of Rohingya who had been penned into Zay Di Pyin village in Rathedaung township by Buddhist villagers armed with swords and sticks since late July. Despite years of persecution, the Rohingya have largely eschewed violence. But a previously unknown militant group emerged last October under the banner of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), which claims to be leading an insurgency based in the remote May Yu mountain range bordering Bangladesh. A Twitter account (@ARSA—Official) which frequently posts purportedly from the group confirmed its fighters were engaging Myanmar’s military in the area and accused the soldiers of carrying out atrocities in recent weeks. Myanmar says the group is headed by Rohingya jihadists who were trained abroad but it is unclear how large the network is. Chris Lewa, director of the Arakan Project, an NGO monitoring the Rakhine crisis, said Friday’s violence came after Myanmar soldiers arrested about 80 men in a village in a Rohingya internal displacement camp in Rathedaung and rumours circulated that some had been beaten to death. When they came to take more men on Thursday, they were met with resistance by the villagers. “Suddenly more soldiers came and started shooting into the IDP camp,” she said. “Two men were killed. I have pictures of the dead bodies.” That night, a rallying call went out among members of the armed group. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 The Guardian

At around 1:00 am, 25 August 2017, the newly deployed military have attacked over 25 villages in Maungdaw, Buthidaung and Rathedaung, compelling the ARSA to confront and defend its fellow civilians. Among the victim villages are Nett chaung, Tammen Tha, Kunsibing, Nentha Taung, Mi Thaik, Kyi Kyun, Zee Bin Chaung, Laung Done, Thi Hun Gyun, Zin Pin Nya, Thre Kung Baung, Pa Nyaung Pin Gyi, Shwe Yin Aye, Myint Lyut, Alel Than Kyaw, Oo Daung, Thin Bo Kwet, Chin Ka Li, Ko Dan Kauk, Thawen Chaung, Taung Bazar, Paungdaw Pyin, Maungdaw Natala, and others. Large scales of civilian places are being targeted by the Myanmar troops and Myanmar is expected to send more military soon. There are reports of loses of lives but the details are yet to be confirmed. Since late July, Rohingyas of Zay Di Pyin of Rathedaung have been blockaded inside their hamlet by their Buddhist neighbors from going to work or fetching food and water for the last three weeks, although a small number had been allowed through the blockade to buy provisions on Tuesday. During this week, the Rathedaung Penn Kaing IDP was raided and all the males were arrested, while in Oo Hla Phe around 60 men are arrested. In such a scale many villages in Maungdaw were raided, and innocents arrested by hundreds. Similarly military and its allies are extremely trying to destabilize the region to advantage from the issue politically. According to observers, Military intentionally escalated the violence in order to halt the implementation of recommendations by Kofi Annan Commission. For the past couple of weeks, Myanmar has been beefing up its troops in Maungdaw and other areas deliberately provocating the resisting groups. Following the 9 October incidents, military, BGP and some new settlers have been conducting joint operations, raids against Rohingya villages and targeting civilians looting valuables, destroying long-lasting homes, arbitrarily arresting innocents and killing peoples extrajudicially. _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ © 2017 Copyright Rohingya Vision

The Turkish police carried out a new wave of arrests this morning under a combined warrant issued today for 35 journalists and media workers suspected of installing the encrypted messaging app ByLock on their smartphones. The authorities are now treating installation of this app as proof of membership of the movement led by the Turkish cleric Fethullah Gülen, which is accused of masterminding the July 2016 coup attempt. Turkey’s Court of Cassation nonetheless ruled on 16 June that “use of [ByLock] would constitute incontestably incriminating evidence in the event that it was technically and indisputably established that communication took place at the behest of the [Gülen] organization and with the aim of exchanging secret messages.” In practice, the judicial authorities tend to criminalize any link with ByLock users, as they have in the case of Cumhuriyet columnist Kadri Gürsel. “Lumping together all ByLock users and anyone who contacts them as criminals is totally illegal,” said Johann Bihr, the head of RSF’s Eastern Europe and Central Asia desk. “The judicial authorities cannot accuse journalists on the basis of this app alone, without establishing a specific and individual link to criminal activities.” Nine journalists and media workers have so far been arrested under this warrant. They include Burak Ekici, the editor of the online edition of the left-wing newspaper BirGün. They also include Muhsin Pilgir of Cihan (and formerly Zaman), Ömer Faruk Aydemir of IHA, Sait Gürkan Tuzlu, Cüneyt Seza Özkan (formerly of Samanyolu), Yusuf Duran, Ahmet Feyzullah Özyurt, Mutlu Özay and Ahmet Sağırlı (who was fired last week from the weekly Türkiye). Ranked 155th out of 180 countries in RSF’s 2017 World Press Freedom Index, Turkey is the world’s biggest prison for professional journalists, with more than 100 currently detained. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 Reports without Borders

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is concerned that The Cambodia Daily, an independent English-language newspaper known for criticizing Cambodia’s government, is facing imminent closure, while many independent radio stations have already been closed. This clampdown on independent media outlets has come as Cambodia prepares to hold elections next year. The Cambodia Daily was the first to be targeted. The finance ministry suddenly gave it until 4 September to pay 6.3 million dollars (about 5.3 million euros) in back taxes. If it fails to pay, it will just have “pack up and go,” according to no less a person than Prime Minister Hun Sen. The newspaper learned of the ultimatum shortly after a cabinet meeting at the start of August at which the prime minister announced that he planned to investigate the taxes of Cambodia’s media and NGOs. The newspaper’s editor, Jodie DeJonge, regards it as arbitrary and politically motivated, pointing out that no tax audit had been carried out. “The government has been increasingly critical of The Cambodia Dailyand our reporters over the past few months.” she told RSF. “Now, we are facing a huge tax bill, which we dispute. But this is not a tax issue, it is a free press issue.” The Cambodia Daily has been one of the relatively few independent media outlets to cover corruption, deforestation and other stories that are embarrasing for the government. The fact that the finance ministry letter containing the ultimatum was leaked to the pro-government Fresh News website was seen as threat to other outlets that dare to cover the country’s problems. “Demanding vast sums of money from a media outlet without first conducting an audit and then threatening it with closure for non-payment in an extremely short space of time constitutes an indirect form of censorship,” RSF said. “These threats are all the more disturbing because they are occurring one year before the next elections. We fear a pre-emptive clampdown designed to silence media that are likely to let the opposition’s voice be heard.” No voice for the opposition The mounting fears about the threat to independent media outlets has been confirmed by the government-ordered closure of several radio stations in the past two days. Without any warning, the information ministry issued orders on 23 August to two independent Cambodian stations, Women’s Media Centre of Cambodia (WMC) and Mohanokor, to terminate their operations on the grounds that they had violated the terms of their licences. Three other radio stations, Kampong Cham, Angkor Ratha and Samleng Cheayden, were closed yesterday. They retransmitted the programmes of Radio Free Asia (RFA) and Voice of America (VOA), international broadcasters that promote democracy and human rights. RFA and VOA were themselves the targets of Cambodian government intimidation in 2012. Including the local offshoots of each of these mother radio stations, at least ten stations have been shut down in the space of a few days. The management of Mohanokor disputes the information ministry claim that it broadcast “outside programs without requesting authorization” while the management of WMC, which had been told to stop retransmitting VOA and RFA programmes, said such programes “generally did not pose any problems” in the past. RSF points out that RFA’s programmes are still accessible on shortwave, on its English-language Facebook page, and in Khmer. The same applies to VOA’s programmes. Cambodia is ranked 132nd out of 180 countries in RSF’s 2017 World Press Freedom Index. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 Reports without Borders

The Government of Myanmar should immediately act on comprehensive recommendations from the Advisory Commission on Rakhine State, said Fortify Rights today. The Commission, led by former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, released its final report today in Yangon The Advisory Commission recommends that the government take concrete steps to end enforced segregation of Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims; ensure full and unfettered humanitarian access throughout the state; tackle Rohingya statelessness and “revisit” the 1982 Citizenship Law; hold perpetrators of human rights violations accountable; and end restrictions on freedom of movement, among other recommendations. “Rather than deal with ongoing atrocities, the government tried to hide behind the Advisory Commission,” said Matthew Smith, Chief Executive Officer of Fortify Rights. “The Commission responded with concrete recommendations to end violations, and the government should act on them without delay. The government needs to urgently address the realities on the ground.” Myanmar State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi established the nine-member Advisory Commission on Rakhine State on August 23, 2016 to “consider humanitarian and development issues, access to basic services, the assurance of basic rights, and the security of the people of Rakhine.” It comprised six Myanmar nationals and three international commissioners, including Mr. Annan. The government previously said it would implement the Commission’s recommendations. Just over a month after the government established the Commission, Rohingya militants murdered nine police officers on October 9, 2016 in a coordinated attack on three police outposts in northern Rakhine State. The Myanmar Army responded with brutal force. Army soldiers killed civilians, raped women and girls, and razed entire villages, displacing more than 90,000 civilians, according to Fortify Rights and others. The Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights alleged in February that violations against Rohingya since October may amount to crimes against humanity. The government has denied the allegations. “Whenever there is an accusation from the international community, we say we are taking action in line with the recommendations of the Kofi Annan commission,” said Myanmar government spokesperson Zaw Htay to The Irrawaddy on July 10. “The commission is serving as a shield for us.” The government did not mandate the Advisory Commission to investigate and document human rights violations. Recognizing the importance of accountability to address the “human rights crisis” in Rakhine State, the Commission today recommended that the government hold “perpetrators of serious human rights violations” accountable. The Advisory Commission also recommended the government ensure the right to freedom of movement for all residents of Rakhine State. In 2014, Fortify Rights exposed local orders and internal government documents revealing severe restrictions on freedom of movement, marriage, childbirth, and other aspects of daily life for more than one million Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine State. The government continues to confine more than 120,000 people—mostly Rohingya survivors of 2012 violence—to 38 internment camps in eight townships in Rakhine State. Local orders and practices prevent Rohingya from traveling freely between villages, village tracts, townships, and beyond. Rohingya who violate restrictions on movement face criminal charges, extortion, or violent reprisals by Myanmar state security forces, Fortify Rights said. “Restrictions on freedom of movement are not only unlawful, they’re also bad for the economy and create deadly security risks,” said Matthew Smith. “These apartheid-like restrictions erode security for communities and heighten the risk of mass killings. It’s a tinderbox.” Following the Myanmar Army’s crackdown in northern Rakhine State in October, the U.N. Human Rights Council passed a landmark resolution on March 24 ordering an independent, international Fact-Finding Mission to investigate human rights violations and abuses in Myanmar, including in Rakhine State. The President of the Human Rights Council appointed three experts to lead the mission. Fortify Rights recommended that the Fact-Finding Mission focus on human rights violations by state and non-state actors in Rakhine, Kachin, and Shan states. The Government of Myanmar “disassociated” itself from the resolution. Suu Kyi explained that her government would not cooperatewith the Mission. The Fact-Finding Mission is expected to formally request access to Myanmar soon. The Myanmar military and Suu Kyi’s offices have routinely denied allegations of serious human rights violations in Rakhine State since October 2016. On August 6, another commission appointed by Suu Kyi and led by Vice President Myint Swe dismissed allegations of serious human rights violations in Maungdaw Township since October. “There is no possibility of crimes against humanity, no evidence of ethnic cleansing, as per UN accusations,” Vice President Myint Swe told journalists. The Myint Swe Commission’s methodology and practices were “deeply flawed” and “its findings lack any semblance of credibility,” Fortify Rights said. “Between the Annan Commission, U.N. fact finders, and Myanmar’s own civil society, the government has an opportunity make real progress in ending and remedying atrocities,” said Matthew Smith. “Some officials are looking to sweep Rakhine under the rug. The military and civilian authorities should cooperate with international efforts to establish the facts and hold perpetrators accountable. There’s no other way forward.” __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 Fortify Rights International

Rohingya refugees, displaced by violence in Myanmar, at a camp in Coxs Bazar, Bangladesh. (File) Photo: UNHCR/Saiful Huq Omi The United Nations today welcomed the release of the final report of an independent advisory body looking into the situation in Myanmar's Rakhine state. “We welcome the release of the comprehensive report of the Advisory Commission on Rakhine state and take note of its emphasis on issues related to identity and citizenship, particularly its call for freedom of movement for all people,” said UN Spokesman Stéphane Dujarric at today's regular press briefing in New York. He also acknowledged its endorsement “to address the root causes of violence and reduce inter-communal violence.” “We look forward to reviewing the report's recommendations further,” Mr. Dujarric continued, saying that in the meantime, the UN recognizes the significance of the Government's establishment of the Commission – which was led by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan – and “the importance of its mandate to analyze the situation of all communities in Rakhine state and draft recommendations toward conflict prevention, reconciliation, institution building and long-term development, as well as humanitarian services. The Spokesman concluded by affirming that “the UN stands ready to support the Government's implementation of the recommendations for the betterment of all communities in Rakhine state.” Building on the Advisory Commission's interim report, released in March, the final report puts forward recommendations to surmount the political, socio-economic and humanitarian challenges that currently face Rakhine State. The report is the outcome of more than 150 consultations and meetings held by the Advisory Commission since its launch in September 2016. Its members have travelled extensively throughout Rakhine state, and held meetings in Yangon and Naypyitaw, Indonesia, Thailand, Bangladesh and Geneva. _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 UN News Centre

Myanmar should respond to a crisis over its Muslim Rohingya community in a "calibrated" way without excessive force, a panel led by former U.N. chief Kofi Annan said on Thursday, adding that radicalization was a danger if problems were not addressed. The treatment of approximately 1.1 million Rohingya has emerged as majority Buddhist Myanmar's most contentious human rights issue as it makes a transition from decades of harsh military rule. Annan's commission - appointed last year by leader Aung San Suu Kyi to come up with long-term solutions for the violence-riven, ethnically and religiously divided Rakhine state - said perpetrators of rights abuses should be held accountable. Security deteriorated sharply in the western state on the border with Bangladesh last October when Rohingya militants killed nine policemen in attacks on border posts. In response, the Myanmar military sent troops fanning out into Rohingya villages in an offensive beset by allegations of arson, killings and rape by the security forces which sent 87,000 Rohingya fleeing to Bangladesh. The situation in the state deteriorated again this month when security forces began a new "clearance operation" with tension shifting to a township, Rathetaung, where Buddhist Rakhine and Rohingya communities live side-by-side. "While Myanmar has every right to defend its own territory, a highly militarized response is unlikely to bring peace to the area," the nine-member commission said in its final report. "Whatever action is taken, we should make sure that the population do not suffer and (that) they have access to support and necessary humanitarian needs they require," said Annan at a news conference in Yangon. Annan added that he discussed the military operation in Rakhine's Mayu mountains with army chief Min Aung Hlaing, who told him that the risk of a negative impact on the civilian population was small due to the remoteness of the area. Nevertheless, the commission said that a nuanced and comprehensive response was needed to "ensure that violence does not escalate and inter-communal tensions are kept under control", it said. The commission warned that if human rights were not respected and "the population remain politically and economically marginalized – northern Rakhine State may provide fertile ground for radicalization, as local communities may become increasingly vulnerable to recruitment by extremists". The Rohingya are denied citizenship and classified as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, despite claiming roots in the region that go back centuries, with communities marginalized and occasionally subjected to communal violence. Annan has visited Myanmar three times since his appointment, including two trips to Rakhine. On Thursday, he presented his findings to Suu Kyi and Min Aung Hlaing. Kofi Annan, chairman for Advisory Commission on Rakhine State, talks to journalists during his news conference in Yangon, Myanmar August 24, 2017. RETUERS/Soe Zeya Tun The United Nations said in a report in February security forces had instigated a campaign that "very likely" amounted to crimes against humanity and possibly ethnic cleansing. That led to the establishment of a U.N. fact-finding mission a month later. But Myanmar's domestic investigation team criticized the U.N. report this month and rejected allegations of abuses. Myanmar declined to grant visas to experts appointed by the U.N. and instead the government said it would comply with recommendations by the Annan team. But Annan's panel - which has a broad mandate to look into, among other things, economic development, education and healthcare - said it was "not mandated to investigate specific cases of alleged human rights violations". It said that the government "should ensure – based on independent and impartial investigation – that perpetrators of serious human rights violations are held accountable". The commission made a host of other recommendations, ranging from a faster and more transparent citizenship verification process to equal access to healthcare. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 Reuters

The plight of the marginalised Rohingya people of Myanmar has sporadically hit the headlines over recent years but the desperation of their situation is still not widely known. It is estimated that up to half a million undocumented Myanmar nationals have crossed the shared border into Bangladesh. I recently had the opportunity to visit and witness how Unicef is supporting the children and families who have arrived in Chittagong, in the south of the country. Some 33,000 Rohingya people have been registered in Bangladesh and live in official refugee camps but many more are not registered at all and live in in makeshift settlements adjacent to the camps or in host communities. Provision of water and sanitation is poor and child malnutrition rates in the affected districts are at 12.5%, amongst the highest in Bangladesh. Access to education among the host communities is also below national average, with more than 1 in 4 primary age children out of school and education for unregistered arrivals from Myanmar has until recently been non-existent. A health worker testing children for malnutrition - 12.5% of local children are affected. My Unicef colleagues in Bangladesh are working around the clock to respond to the needs of children and their families, but ongoing and fresh challenges are making their task more difficult. While meeting with our staff, I learned that an influx of approximately 74,000 people (60% women and children) in early 2017 resulted in rapid growth of existing and new makeshift camps in the Cox’s Bazar district of South Eastern Chittagong. Unicef mounted a rapid response to provide the essential nutrition support, child protection services and early education activities which the children urgently need. Now there are 140 learning centres benefitting more than 10,000 children, with plans to reach 20,000 children by the end of 2017, and 3 child friendly spaces servicing more than 8,500 children. I visited the Shamlapur settlement in Teknaf to see the vital work that Unicef funds for children’s development in their early years. Mark meeting boys in the Child Friendly Space, Shamlapur The local communities, themselves poor, have welcomed Unicef’s interventions and made space available for the construction of what we call ‘Child Friendly Spaces’, where children have a chance to learn and play and be children when they otherwise might not. In a short space of time, the facilities have found their place at the heart of these makeshift settlements and have provided access to education for some Rohingya families for the very first time - something that was denied to some of them in Myanmar due to the marginalisation of their community status Girls drawing in the safe environment of a Unicef Child Friendly Space Abdullah, a father of seven children described how his family had left Myanmar because of the constant threat of violence and told me that “our lives had no value there”. A statement borne out by reported claims of torture and exploitation by some Rohingyas. He was happy that his children could now be educated and looked on proudly as his two teenage girls told of their aspiration to become teachers. The Rohingya and local people seem to be reasonably integrated in Shamlapur, with the men and boys gaining work with local fishermen in their distinctive sickle-shaped sea boats. More recent sudden influxes have resulted in fragile encampments in Kutupalong and Balukhai with little resilience to weather conditions, as demonstrated when Cyclone Mora demolished many recently constructed dwellings in late May. Young boys often work with adults on the fishing boats. It was clear to me from my time in the country that the Rohingya are a resilient and stoic people, who have left their homes in Myanmar under duress and are living in very fragile subsistence circumstances amongst an already poor Bangladeshi community. Unicef’s efforts in providing nutrition support, child protection and education are vital to protect the lives and rights of children, especially the youngest and most vulnerable. Early marriage is a risk to girls, as poor living conditions make families anxious to secure their daughters’ futures, whilst both boys and girls are often engaged in child labour, with the boys working with adults on the fishing boats to provide much needed economic support to families living on the breadline. The situation is precarious and Unicef’s immediate funding requirement of $2m is so far 59% unmet. Without greater support now and going forward, I fear that Abdullah, his children and the many other Rohingya families seeking refuge in Bangladesh will face further insecurity and uncertainty for their futures. Alternatively, if the education work Unicef has initiated can be sustained and developed, his girls and others may be able to realise their ambitions and in turn help other children meet their full potential. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 The Huffington Post

Reacting to the final report issued today by the Kofi Annan-led Advisory Commission on Rakhine State, James Gomez, Amnesty International’s Director of Southeast Asia and the Pacific, said: “People in Rakhine State, in particular the Muslim Rohingya minority, have suffered a horrific catalogue of rights abuses for decades. This comprehensive report released by the Commission today clearly outlines many of the steps Burma’s authorities must take to end discrimination and segregation in the region. “The government has spent the past year playing for time and trying to hide behind the Commission, but has now run out of excuses not to act. Authorities in Burma must swiftly move to implement the report’s recommendations for improving the human rights situation and ending discrimination. In particular, they must urgently lift restrictions on movement, allow full access for humanitarian workers and media, and review and amend the country’s discriminatory citizenship laws. “Without concrete action by the authorities to address long-standing grievances and redress decades of violations, people in the region will continue to be trapped in a cycle of deprivation and abuse.” __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 Amnesty International

In recent weeks, the Tunisian, Jordanian, and Lebanese parliaments have repealed provisions in their penal codes that allowed rapists to escape punishment by marrying their victims. Provisions like these, largely colonial-era relics, remain on the books in many other countries in the region and beyond. Some permit exoneration for a range of offenses, including kidnapping, rape, and consensual sex with a child (statutory rape) if the perpetrator marries the victim. Demonstration outside Parliament on December 6, 2016, with women in white dresses and wrapped in bandages, calling for the repeal of article 522 of the penal code.© Patrick Baz / AFP On July 26, the Tunisian parliament repealed article 227bis in full when it passed its landmark law on eliminating violence against women. Less than a week later, on August 1, the lower house of Jordan’s parliament approved the full repeal of article 308. Jordan’s penal code amendment still has to go to the appointed upper house for approval and requires the king’s signature to become law. On August 16, Lebanon’s parliament repealed article 522, that had allowed rapists to escape prosecution by marrying the victim, but allowed a loophole to remain in offences relating to sex with children between the ages 15-17 and seducing a virgin girl into having sex with the promise of marriage. A colonial legacy These reforms are credit to the intense campaigning by women’s rights non-governmental organizations in these countries. But, most people are unaware of the colonial origin of such laws in the Middle East and North Africa region. They largely stem from or were inspired by the French Napoleonic Code of 1810, which allowed a man who kidnapped a girl to escape prosecution if he married her. The Ottoman Code of 1911 introduced a similar article inspired by the French. France only repealed this provision in 1994. Former French colonies and mandates particularly in North Africa and parts of the Middle East kept the rape exoneration provisions in some form in their laws after independence or took inspiration from the French Code when drafting their own penal codes. Former British mandates and protectorates applied the Ottoman Code with rape exoneration while under British rule, and retained it after independence. Patriarchal attitudes and stigma kept such provisions in place. In many countries, people considered rape survivors “unmarriageable.” Some lawmakers even felt that the laws protected women and girls from being killed by their family members for having sex outside of marriage. Their “solution” led to impunity for rapists but trapped women and girls in unwanted, abusive marriages. It also allowed child marriage in countries that had otherwise set a minimum age of marriage at 18. Tunisia, Lebanon, and soon Jordan, join others in the region that have rooted out such provisions. In January 2014, Morocco’s parliament removed a clause from article 475 of its penal code that had, in effect, allowed some men who raped a child to escape prosecution if they married the victim. In 1999, Egypt repealed article 291 from its penal code, which had allowed rapists or kidnappers to escape prosecution by marrying their victims. Holding on to outdated laws The bad news is that many countries still have these outdated, abusive laws. In the Middle East and North Africa region, Algeria, Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Syria, and Palestine still allow rapists to escape punishment. Bahrain’s parliament proposed a full repeal of article 353 in 2016. But the cabinet rejected the proposal, and parliament is now considering a narrower repeal in which the exemption will not be allowed in cases of gang-rape. Globally, several Latin American countries, the Philippines, and Tajikistan are among countries that retain such laws. But, in the past 30 years, a number of countries have made similar reforms, including Costa Rica (2007), Uruguay (2006), Ethiopia (2005), Romania (2000), Peru (1998), and Italy (1981), among others. Laws alone can’t change practices. Indeed, forced marriages to rapists may have existed before such marriage exonerations were codified. Even if such provisions are removed, forced marriage may continue unofficially as it has in many countries. The authorities should, once exoneration laws are removed, take steps to change the discriminatory attitudes and stigma that fuel forced marriages of rape survivors to their rapists. In the Middle East and North Africa, this means promoting respect for women’s physical integrity and autonomy and shifting away from traditional views about the family’s “honor” being tied to women’s and girls’ behavior, including maintaining their virginity before marriage. Authorities should also ensure that rape survivors, and girls and women at risk of so-called “honor” violence at the hands of their families, are provided with assistance and protection. The recent reforms in Tunisia, Jordan, and Lebanon could propel reforms in the region and beyond, but only if other countries take heed. Rape-marriage exoneration laws are a relic of the colonial past. It’s time to leave them there. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 Human Rights Watch