participation; serious government corruption; serious government restrictions on or
harassment of domestic and international human rights organizations; lack of
investigation of and accountability for gender-based violence, including domestic
and intimate partner violence, sexual violence, workplace violence, child, early,
and forced marriage, and other forms of such violence; crimes involving violence
or threats of violence targeting members of ethnic minority groups or Indigenous
people; crimes involving violence or threats of violence targeting lesbian, gay,
bisexual, transgender, queer, or intersex persons; laws criminalizing consensual
same-sex sexual conduct between adults; significant restrictions on independent
trade unions and workers’ rights to freedom of association and collective
bargaining; and existence of the worst forms of child labor.
There were numerous reports of widespread impunity for security force abuses and
corruption. The government took few measures to identify, investigate, prosecute,
and punish officials or security force members who committed human rights
abuses or engaged in corruption.
Section 1. Respect for the Integrity of the Person
a. Arbitrary Deprivation of Life and Other Unlawful or Politically
Motivated Killings
There were numerous reports that the government or its agents committed arbitrary
or unlawful killings. Police policy requires internal investigations of all significant
uses of force by police, including actions that resulted in serious physical injury or
death, usually by a professional standards unit that reports directly to the inspector
general of police. The government, however, neither released official statistics on
total killings by security personnel nor took transparent measures to investigate
cases. Human rights groups expressed skepticism regarding the independence and
professional standards of the units conducting these assessments and claimed
citizens were being deprived of justice. In the few known instances in which the
government brought charges, those found guilty generally received administrative
punishment.
Law enforcement raids occurred throughout the year, primarily to counter terrorist
activity, drugs, and illegal firearms. Suspicious deaths occurred during some raids,
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