Atrocity Alert: Haiti, Venezuela, and China

The Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect

Civilian Casualties Continue to Grow Amid Drone Strikes in Haiti's Escalating Crisis

Civilians across Port-au-Prince, Haiti, are facing severe protection risks, caught between widespread gang violence and increasingly militarized police operations. On 20 September explosions from two kamikaze drones launched by the Haitian National Police (HNP) killed eight children, in the deadliest strike on civilians since the government formed a task force in March 2025 to confront heavily armed gangs with drones. The explosions reportedly also killed four gang members and three adult civilians, including a pregnant woman. According to family members, several children were playing at home when they were killed, while others died while buying or selling food. The alleged intended target, gang leader Albert “Djouma” Stevenson, escaped unharmed.

In response to the deteriorating situation, the government has increasingly turned to privatized and militarized responses, including drone strikeswith explosive munitions in densely populated areas. These tactics raise serious concerns over civilian harm, rules of engagement and accountability. No major gang leader has yet been killed by a drone strike. According to the UN Integrated Office in Haiti, of the 1,520 people killed and 609 injured between April and June, 64 percent of the casualties occurred during security operations against gangs. Over a third of the deaths resulted from explosive drone strikes, and at least 15 percent of the victims were civilians unaffiliated with gangs, harmed either in public spaces or in their homes.

While addressing the UN General Assembly on 25 September, Laurent Saint-Cyr, President of Haiti’s Transitional Presidential Council, stated, “Every day, innocent lives are extinguished... Entire neighborhoods are disappearing.” He called for immediate international action and endorsed the proposal by the United States and Panama to transform the Kenyan-led Multinational Security Support (MSS) into a Gang Suppression Force (GSF). In the 15 months since the MSS was deployed, gangs have continued to expand their control, now taking over nearly all of Port-au-Prince and spreading to three other departments. On 30 September the UN Security Council voted in favor of the resolution to establish the GSF, authorizing the force to operate independently or alongside the HNP and conduct operations to “neutralize” gangs, provide security for vulnerable populations and critical infrastructure and support humanitarian access.

The international community must uphold its Responsibility to Protect by ensuring any force deployed in Haiti has adequate personnel, sustainable funding and strong human rights safeguards. Haitian civil society must be involved and consulted. The GSF must include rigorous vetting and human rights training, including in child protection, use of force and the prevention of gender-based violence. A security support mission will not address the root causes of the protracted crisis, including impunity for human rights violations and corruption. Security measures must be complemented with accountability, including the operationalization of the two specialized judicial units that are tasked with prosecutions for grave crimes.

For more detailed analysis, see our Haiti Populations at Risk page.

UN Report Documents Ongoing Crimes Against Humanity in Venezuela

In a report dated 8 September, the UN Human Rights Council-mandated Fact-Finding Mission on Venezuela (FFM) warned that the Venezuelan government continues to commit “acts of extreme cruelty” that constitute crimes against humanity on political grounds. These acts, targeting actual or alleged opponents, include arbitrary detentions, torture and sexual violence.

The latest findings highlight a pattern of systematic persecution that has intensified since the July 2024 presidential elections. Although President Nicolás Maduro claimed victory and was sworn in for a third term in January 2025, the election was widely condemned as fraudulent. In response to those contesting the results, state authorities dramatically intensified persecution, targeting ordinary citizens, opposition members, journalists and human rights defenders to silence dissent and maintain power – consistent with patterns of abuse the FFM has identified as crimes against humanity since its establishment in 2019.

The FFM emphasized that “the State policy of silencing, discouraging, and quashing the opposition to the Government continues to be systematically implemented. The various events in 2025 have clearly shown how this policy is being maintained and, adapting to different circumstances, combines various methods of persecution and repression, depending on moments and events of heightened political tension.” According to the FFM, state agents have deployed a calibrated mix of repression – ranging from mass arbitrary detentions to tighter social-media controls and expanded surveillance of ordinary citizens.

Arbitrary detentions, often accompanied by short-term enforced disappearances, also continue to be committed systematically. Venezuelan NGO Foro Penal verified at least 843 political prisoners as of 15 September, including 89 foreign nationals. The whereabouts of at least 42 individuals in state custody remain unknown. Since 28 July at least 220 children below the age of 17 have been detained, held in secretive confinement and subjected to cruel or degrading treatment, acts of sexual violence and due process violations. Sexual and gender-based violence against women, girls, boys, adolescents and men in state custody has also increased during the reporting period. The FFM also warned of a record number of foreign nationals that have been subjected to prolonged incommunicado detention, amounting to enforced disappearances.

Ongoing crimes against humanity are facilitated and enabled by state institutions complicit in systematic persecution, including the country's judicial system, security and intelligence agencies, the Attorney General's office and the National Assembly. Over the past two years, the National Assembly has passed a series of legislation aimed at closing civic space and criminalizing opposition, further entrenching repressive control.

The FFM has previously found that crimes against humanity have been committed by Venezuelan state agents since at least 2014. With domestic avenues for justice, truth and redress for victims remaining elusive, UN member states must act on the FFM’s findings. This includes initiating universal jurisdiction cases, using the evidence to inform targeted sanctions and applying sustained political pressure on the Maduro government to end ongoing crimes against humanity.

For more detailed analysis, see our Venezuela Populations at Risk page.

Surveillance and Artificial Intelligence Technology Enable Atrocities in China

On 9 September the Associated Press published an extensive investigation revealing how American technology companies contributed to the development of surveillance systems that helped transform China’s Uyghur Region into a de facto police state. Despite repeated warnings from the United States (US) Congress, human rights groups and the media about the misuse of these technologies, companies sold billions of dollars’ worth of equipment to Chinese police and security agencies. These technologies became a core component of the mass detention campaign against Uyghurs and other Turkic and Muslim communities. Authorities have used surveillance systems to track individuals, assign them scores based on their behaviors, affiliations, beliefs or other factors and forcibly assimilated nearly the entire population. Although US export restrictions and the imposition of sanctions have slowed the flow of these technologies since 2019, the systems already in place have laid the groundwork for an enduring surveillance state in the Uyghur Region.

Similar reports highlight the role of DeepSeek, a Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) engine, in reproducing bias against religious and ethnic minorities. Researchers found that DeepSeek generates responses mirroring the Chinese Communist Party ideology and government rhetoric, spreads disinformation and intentionally produces faulty or obstructive responses when queried about targeted groups. These findings highlight the growing risks of AI as a tool for disinformation, censorship and repression, alongside the role of technology in enabling widespread state surveillance.

The August 2022 report by the UN Human Rights Office warned that China’s so-called counterterrorism and security framework provides legal cover for a “sophisticated, large-scale and systematized surveillance system” across the Uyghur Region. Such surveillance measures, including facial recognition cameras, biometric data collection, cyber monitoring and the use of community informants, are supported by AI and remain central to the government’s persecution of Uyghurs, enabling possible crimes against humanity. The Chinese government also exports these practices through transnational repression, targeting Uyghurs and dissidents living abroad.

The exponential growth of AI and surveillance technologies utilized by governments worldwide, often justified under the guise of national security or counterterrorism, raises serious concerns about their potential to facilitate identity-based persecution and atrocity crimes. Yet global regulatory frameworks and safeguards remain weak, while the development of these measures is largely driven by a narrow group of private actors. Their misuse demonstrates the urgent need for stronger international oversight and accountability.

Julia Saltzman, China expert at the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect, stressed, “States should strengthen transparency requirements for technology companies, adopt human rights due diligence standards and impose sanction on entities found complicit in enabling persecution.” Urgent investment is needed in global AI governance frameworks to restrict the use of these technologies in high-risk environments. Governments and technology companies must prioritize human rights protections in the development, sale and application of digital tools to ensure they are not weaponized against vulnerable populations.

For more detailed analysis, see our China Populations at Risk page.

For more analysis on atrocity risks and digital technoligies, see our Policy Brief.

More From the Global Centre

Ministerial Meeting on the Responsibility to Protect at 20: Reaffirming Our Collective Commitment to Prevent Atrocity Crimes

To commemorate the 20th anniversary of R2P, a ministerial-level meeting titled “The Responsibility to Protect at 20: Reaffirming Our Collective Commitment to Prevent Atrocity Crimes” was held on 23 September on the sidelines of the opening of the 80th session of the UN General Assembly. The event was convened by the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect and the Permanent Missions of Guatemala, Luxembourg and Morocco to the UN, with co-sponsorship from the Permanent Missions of Australia and Sierra Leone.

This high-level meeting brought together ministers, senior officials and key stakeholders to reflect on two decades of the evolution of R2P, assess the norm’s impact in preventing and responding to atrocity crimes and explore concrete actions to enhance early warning, prevention and response strategies. Read our summary of the meeting here.

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