March until 27 April, sex workers were excluded from, and largely unable to access, state-funded emergency financial aid packages. This meant some may have been compelled to continue to sell sex despite the risks.
Violence against women and girls The number of rape cases reported to the police decreased by 10% between 2018 and 2019 and continued to decrease in 2020. It was not clear whether the decrease was caused by a reduction in the incidents of rape, or by a reduced willingness to report rape. In June, the Director of Public Prosecutions published a report on the quality of police investigations in rape cases. The report noted some progress but highlighted that in half of the reported rape cases the lack of a timely and efficient investigation was a problem.
INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE In May, the Ministry of Justice concluded that a Rwandan national accused of complicity in the 1994 Rwandan genocide would not be extradited. The accused spent four years in custody as the Ministry of Justice had previously concluded he could be extradited to Rwanda, but further investigation concluded two prosecution witnesses were not sufficiently credible.
CORPORATE ACCOUNTABILITY A public consultation was held on a draft law on human rights in business operations and supply chains. The government was expected to present a proposal for a human rights due diligence law to Parliament before the end of June 2021. In April, the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) noted the law but expressed concern, among other things, about inadequate access to remedies by non-nationals whose rights had allegedly been violated by Norwegian companies abroad.
Amnesty International Report 2020/21
1. Bahrain, Kuwait and Norway contact tracing apps among most dangerous for privacy (News story, 16 June)
OMAN Sultanate of Oman Head of state and government: Haitham bin Tariq (replaced Qaboos bin Said Al Said in January) Freedom of expression remained unduly restricted, including through prosecutions of and sentences against individuals for publishing COVID-19-related information deemed “false” by the government. Oman amended the Foreign Residency Law, removing the requirement for foreign workers to obtain a “no objection certificate” from their current employer to change jobs. Women continued to face discrimination in law and practice. Courts handed down death sentences.
BACKGROUND Oman continued its “Omanization” drive to replace expatriates with Omani nationals in the workforce. In April, Oman acceded to the International Convention against Enforced Disappearance, the UN Convention against Torture, and the ICESCR. However, it rejected the competence of the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances and the Committee against Torture to receive individual and interstate complaints. The reservation to Article 8 of the ICESCR impinged on the right of public employees to unionize and strike.
FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION The government continued to unduly restrict the right to freedom of expression, arresting and sometimes prosecuting journalists and online activists. On 1 March, shortly after the first confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Oman, the new Sultan Haitham bin Tariq issued a decree reaffirming the extraordinary powers of the Internal Security Service (ISS) which has an open-ended mandate “to combat
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