detention was exacerbated under Covid-19 was subjected to transphobic harassment restrictions. Gender-based violence while in custody. remained widespread and LGBTI people ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL faced discrimination. There was a shortage RIGHTS of Covid-19 vaccine supplies. Oil and gas exploration threatened the environment and RIGHT TO HEALTH Indigenous peoples’ livelihoods. A In July, Namibia experienced a third wave of commission recommended that the Covid-19 infections, exacerbated by government enact legislation to protect insufficient vaccine supplies and slow ancestral land rights. The president was vaccine uptake. During the pandemic, implicated in corruption allegations. access to sexual and reproductive health EXCESSIVE USE OF FORCE services was further disrupted. RIGHT TO ANCESTRAL LANDS In April, a man with disabilities was assaulted In January, the Commission of Inquiry into by police officers before he and his sister-in- Claims of Ancestral Land Rights and law were arrested for violating Covid-19 Restitution published a report supporting the curfew regulations in Khorixas town. In June, restitution of ancestral land rights. The a police officer shot and injured three pre- commission concluded that land claims trial detainees at Rundu police station. In demanded by groups and individuals as August, a police officer shot and killed two restitution fell under the broader concept of people, including a police officer, in Lüderitz reparations under international and human town. rights law. In light of this, it recommended that parliament enact an ancestral land rights DETAINEES’ RIGHTS claim and restitution law within the next two The use of prolonged and indefinite pre-trial years, on condition that the process and its detention was exacerbated as a result of outcome be consistent with constitutional, Covid-19 restrictions. Several detainees had international and human rights law. their hearings postponed as correctional ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION authorities imposed a lockdown in prisons; In August, UNESCO’s World Heritage conditions in detention centres and police Committee registered its concern about oil holding cells remained poor. exploration licences being granted in DISCRIMINATION environmentally sensitive areas in the Kavango river basin, in north-eastern WOMEN’S AND GIRLS’ RIGHTS Namibia, to Canadian-based mining The tier four Covid-19 lockdown made life company ReconAfrica. This followed the especially difficult for those women and girls government’s confirmation that drilling who were forced to self-isolate with their operations had been successfully concluded abusers. In February, the Chief Justice on the 6-1 well. Environmental activists and announced that domestic violence court local people organized several petitions and cases had increased sharply in 2020. Child other protests against drilling during the year, marriage persisted and in January it was but drilling continued. The operations reported that a four-year-old’s parents had threatened the fragile environment and the married her to a 25-year-old man when she livelihoods of local Indigenous peoples. was only two. IMPUNITY LGBTI PEOPLE’S RIGHTS LGBTI people remained subject to In April, the president was implicated in widespread discrimination. In April, a allegations of corruption involving the transgender woman was accused by police of country’s lucrative fishing industry. Officials faking her identity to avoid prosecution and were accused of engaging in corrupt practices for which they enjoyed impunity. Amnesty International Report 2021/22 267