society groups calling for a ban on deep-sea mining. PARAGUAY RIGHT TO LIFE Republic of Paraguay Intercommunal violence continued with 38 Head of state and government: Mario Abdo Benítez people killed in two separate incidents in Hela and Eastern Highlands provinces in Police responded with unnecessary and February and April respectively. The lack of excessive use of force to protests over the an effective and adequately resourced police government's management of the Covid-19 service contributed to challenges in pandemic and alleged corruption. Several addressing such violence and other law and protesters were arrested and faced criminal order concerns in remote areas. charges. The health system collapsed as the DEATH PENALTY pandemic intensified. There was no significant progress regarding several cases On 31 July, the Supreme Court revoked of human rights violations in previous years, orders issued by the National Court in 2017 including cases of torture and violations of that had temporarily stayed executions, LGBTI and Indigenous rights. There were pending the establishment of clemency high numbers of cases of sexual abuse of procedures under the Constitution. children and adolescents and violence ARBITRARY ARRESTS AND DETENTIONS against women. The country was shaken by forced evictions, especially of rural and In April, a lawyer, Laken Lepatu Agilio, was Indigenous communities. assaulted and arrested by police after filing a BACKGROUND corruption complaint against the governor of Enga province. The corruption allegations The UPR of Paraguay’s human rights record related to a compensation scheme by the resulted in more than 200 recommendations Canadian-owned Porgera gold mine, for of which seven were rejected and two were human rights violations including forced partially accepted. The Inter-American Court evictions, rape and other sexual violence by of Human Rights found Paraguay responsible police and private security personnel at the for violating judicial independence and legal mine. A police officer was subsequently protections in the case of two former disciplined for the lawyer’s arbitrary arrest. Supreme Court justices dismissed in 2003 and the UN Human Rights Committee found REFUGEES’ AND MIGRANTS’ RIGHTS Paraguay responsible for violating the rights The Papua New Guinea and Australian of an Indigenous community. governments ended the offshore processing FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY agreement between the two countries in October. However, it was unclear what In March, thousands of people throughout protections or resettlement options would be the country took to the streets to protest available to the 88 refugees and 36 asylum against alleged corruption in the pandemic seekers remaining in Papua New Guinea at response as well as the collapse of the health year end. system. There were multiple complaints of excessive use of force by police. Vivian Genes 1. Papua New Guinea: Health in Crisis, Amnesty International and other student protesters were arrested, Submission for the Universal Periodic Review, 39th Session, UPR charged and accused of involvement in a fire Working Group (ASA: 34/4020/2021), 23 April at the premises of the ruling party, the National Republican Association. The authorities announced that they would acquiesce to the facts presented before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights Amnesty International Report 2021/22 294