launched an audit of the environmental impact following the dumping of tons of toxic waste in 2006. Nineteen people including a child were killed in an attack by an armed group. BACKGROUND Opposition parties protested against the proposed Constitution introduced following a national referendum in October. The new Constitution lifted the age limitation for presidential candidates, removed a condition requiring both parents of a candidate to be Ivorian nationals and created a senate where one third of its members would be appointed by the President. In December, the coalition of the ruling party won legislative elections. FREEDOMS OF EXPRESSION, ASSOCIATION AND ASSEMBLY The authorities restricted the rights to freedom of expression, of association and of peaceful assembly under laws that criminalized peaceful protests and other peaceful expression. More than 70 people, mostly opposition members, were arrested and released hours or days later. In July, Prospère Djandou, Jean Léopold Messihi and Ange Patrick Djoman Gbata were arrested while collecting signatures in support of the release of former President Laurent Gbagbo, and charged with public order offences. They were released two weeks later. In October, following a peaceful protest against the October referendum, at least 50 opposition members including Mamadou Koulibaly, former president of the National Assembly, were arbitrarily arrested in Abidjan, and detained for hours. Some were held in moving police vehicles, a practice known as “mobile detention”, driven for kilometres and forced to walk back home. Some were taken as far as Adzopé, about 100km from the centre of Abidjan. IMPUNITY In February, 24 military officers charged with the assassinations of President Robert Guéi, his family and bodyguard, Fabien Coulibaly, in 2002, were tried before the Military 130 Tribunal. Three defendants, including General Bruno Dogbo Blé, former head of the Presidential Guard, and Commander Anselme Séka Yapo were sentenced to life imprisonment. Ten defendants were sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment each and the others were acquitted. At least 146 supporters of former President Gbagbo who were arrested between 2011 and 2015 were still awaiting trial for crimes allegedly committed during the post-electoral violence of 2010. Approximately 87 of them had been in detention since 2011 or 2012. Despite President Ouattara’s commitment to ensure that justice would be applied equally under his presidency, only those suspected of being supporters of Laurent Gbagbo were tried for serious human rights violations committed during and after the 2010 election. Forces loyal to President Ouattara who committed serious violations, including the killing of more than 800 people in Duékoué in April 2011, and of 13 people at a camp for internally displaced people in Nahibly in July 2012, were not prosecuted. Some of them had been identified by victims’ families; although the killings were investigated no one was prosecuted by the end of the year. INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE The trial of former President Gbagbo and Charles Blé Goudé before the ICC began in January and was ongoing at the end of the year. In February, President Ouattara announced that no more Ivorian nationals would be sent to the ICC for prosecution because the national justice system was operational. In May, a national court began trying the former President’s wife, Simone Gbagbo, for crimes against humanity, despite an outstanding ICC warrant for her arrest. Prior to this, in May 2015, the ICC rejected Côte d’Ivoire’s appeal against the admissibility of her case before the Court. JUSTICE SYSTEM David Samba, opposition figure and president of the NGO Coalition des Indignés de Côte Amnesty International Report 2016/17