members of the security forces faced prosecution as a result of investigations. However, by the end of the year, no senior officers or officials responsible for torture, unlawful killings and other excessive use of force in 2011 had been held to account. Tunisia stood out as the only state in the region undertaking a serious transitional justice process, with its Truth and Dignity Commission reporting that it had received tens of thousands of complaints concerning human rights violations committed between 1955 and late 2013 and undertaking televised, public sessions. Yet a governmentproposed law that would offer former officials and business executives immunity if they repaid their proceeds from corruption in former years threatened to undermine the Commission’s work. The UN General Assembly also provided a glimmer of hope in December by establishing an independent international mechanism to ensure accountability for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Syria since March 2011. In December too, the UN Security Council demonstrated rare unity when it reaffirmed that Israel’s establishment of settlements in Palestinian territory it has occupied since 1967 have no legal validity and constitute a flagrant violation of international law and an obstacle to peace and security. Rather than exercise its veto, the USA abstained while the Council’s 14 other member states supported the resolution. Despite these developments, however, the future as regards justice and accountability remained bleak at an international level, with four of the UN Security Council’s five permanent member states – France, Russia, the UK and the USA – actively supporting forces that continued to commit war crimes and other grave violations of international law in Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Libya, and themselves implicated in serious violations. application. No new death sentences were handed down in Bahrain, Oman or in Israel, which has abolished the death penalty for ordinary crimes only. Although courts continued to hand down death sentences in Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia, the authorities there maintained long-standing policies of refraining from executing people. By contrast, the governments of Iran, Saudi Arabia and Iraq remained among the world’s foremost executioners: their victims were often sentenced after grossly unfair trials. Some – in Iran, the majority – were sent to their deaths after being convicted of non-violent drugs offences; some were sentenced for crimes committed when they were children. On 2 January the Saudi Arabian authorities executed 47 prisoners at 12 separate locations; on 21 August, the Iraqi authorities executed 36 men sentenced after a perfunctory trial that failed to address their allegations of torture. Executions were also carried out in Egypt, where unfair military and other courts have handed down hundreds of death sentences since 2013. STANDING UP FOR HUMANITY While 2016 saw some of the worst forms of human behaviour, it was also a year in which the very best of human conduct shone through. Countless individuals stood up in defence of human rights and victims of oppression, often putting their own lives or freedom in jeopardy to do so. They included medical workers, lawyers, citizen journalists, media workers, women’s and minority rights campaigners, social activists and many others – far too many to name or to list. It is their courage and determination in the face of dire abuses and threats that offer hope for a better future for the people of the Middle East and North Africa region. DEATH PENALTY All countries in the region retained the death penalty but there were wide disparities in the range of offences penalized by it and in its Amnesty International Report 2016/17 55