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Ethiopian migrants protest outside the headquarters of international organizations in Aden after a fire killed dozens of migrants at a holding facility in Yemen's capital, Sanaa. Human Rights Watch said the fire was started by Huthi rebels.
In May, Burundi held a presidential election which was won by Evariste Ndayishimiye, candidate of the ruling National Council for the Defense of Democracy - Forces for the Defense of Democracy (CNDD-FDD) party.
Ndayishimiye was hurriedly sworn in after the untimely death of president Pierre Nkurunziza in June.
Rights violations continue
The Council encouraged donor countries which had suspended aid to Burundi to continue dialogue towards resumption of development assistance.
A report by a UN watchdog in September said human rights violations were still being committed in Burundi, including sexual violence and murder.
The country was plunged into a crisis in April 2015 when Ndayishimiye’s predecessor Pierre Nkurunziza decided to run for a controversial third term, which he ultimately won in July 2015.
His candidature, which was opposed by the opposition and civil society groups, resulted in a wave of protests, violence and even a failed coup in May 2015.
Hundreds of people were killed and over 300,000 fled to neighboring countries.
KAMPALA, Jan 8 - Dozens of campaign staff working for Bobi Wine, Uganda's leading opposition candidate in next week's presidential election, are being held in a military barracks after authorities defied court orders to release them, Wine's lawyer s
The aversion to making amends for systemic racism is perhaps most evident in my hometown of Tulsa, Okla., which last week commemorated the 99th anniversary of the Greenwood massacre.
On May 31, 1921, thousands of white Tulsans, 2,000 of whom were deputized by the police, stormed the Greenwood neighborhood, a community known as “Black Wall Street.”
About 35 square blocks, including 1,200 homes and scores of businesses, were destroyed.
Nearly 100 years later, Tulsa is still suffering from the legacy of that violence and racism.
For the African American community, the Greenwood massacre isn’t just history — it is felt to this day.
Recent arrests and alleged assaults against women by state agents in Zimbabwe have again brought international attention to the country's long history of violence against women. On July 31, award-winning Zimbabwean novelist Tsitsi Dangarembga and her friend Julie Barnes participated in a demonstration against government corruption, bad governance, human rights abuses and a worsening economic […]
The post Critics: Zimbabwe Stepping Up Arrests and Assaults Against Female Protesters appeared first on L.A. Focus Newspaper.
[Radio Dabanga] El Geneina -- The sit-in in the West Darfur capital El Geneina was lifted yesterday. A government delegation, led by Transitional Sovereignity Council member Mohamed El Faki, met all the demands of the Arab tribesmen that set up the sit-in.
[Dalsan Radio] On the International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict, the United Nations envoy to Somalia today called on Somalia's leaders, communities and partners to do more to assist and listen to victims and survivors of conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV). He called for all people to stand in solidarity with those who have endured these acts, and to act decisively to eradicate CRSV in Somalia. He paid tribute to those taking on the challenging and often dangerous work to prevent such viole
[HRW] Kinshasa -- Trial Progress Slow Four Years after Killing of Michael Sharp, Zaida Catalán
UN Women is bringing up-to-date information and analysis on how and why gender matters in COVID-19 response.
A year ago, Mohammed al-Magri’s son disappeared when fighting intensified in Tripoli, Libya.
The 60-year old fears his son then 20- years old may be buried in one of the mass graves discovered in his city near Tarhouna, in the southeast of the Libyan capital.
\"Someone knocked on the door, my son went to open the door and said some people were asking for me. I went out and found four vehicles with masked and armed men parked outside our house.\"\"He told me to leave, we will talk to Haitham for a bit and then let him go. I left, then Wednesday, Thursday, Friday came (and I never heard from him).\"
Haitham was taken by force by an armed group at the end of 2019. The discovery of mass graves in June has horrified the United Nations.
Lotfi Tawfiq is Head of committee tasked by the Government of National Accord in Tripoli to search for missing persons.
\"We took some of the families to the city of Benghazi to check if there have been any prisoners who have been transferred there. As it appears to us, there are no prisoners there. We've taken the DNA samples from the parents and from the corpses to match them and see if they belong to the families or not\", Tawfiq said.
\"Bodies have not yet been identified, while the searches carried out by the technical teams \"are still underway, he told AFP.
The young man disappeared the day after the departure of forces loyal to Khalifa Haftar, a strongman of Eastern Libya, who had been trying since April 2019, to conquer Tripoli.
Human Rights Watch has called on pro-Haftar forces to \"urgently investigate apparent evidence of torture and summary executions committed by fighters affiliated with them.’’
Libya plunged into anarchy following the ouster and subsequent death of long-serving leader, Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.
Press Release - 79th Pre-Session
Human Rights Watch has said that the shadowy arrest of the hero of the \"Hotel Rwanda\" film amounted to an \"enforced disappearance\", demanding a full account of how he returned to the country.
POLITICAL Ombudsman Donna Parchment Brown is calling on Parliament to give teeth to the functions of her office to enable it to apply penalties and sanctions for breaches of the code of political conduct, and to create certain offences in law.
While claiming to rule by divine will, in the last couple of years, Burundi's President Pierre Nkurunziza turned the country into a living hell for many.
\"It was the end of free speech, political opponents were forced into exile, the country went into political isolation,\" said analyst Sematumba.
\"Despite some shortcomings of his tenure in the 15 years, if you see the current situation, whereby a president dies and the country remains stable, with no violence, no bloodshed, this means a lot about his legacy,\" Havyarimana told DW.
\"Here in Burundi people say that President Nkurunziza brought democracy to the country, because [2020] was going to be the first time for a Burundi president to peacefully and democratically hand over power to another president.
Analyst Sematumba concured: \"During his first two mandates he toed the line of the Arusha Accords,\" of 2000, which brought to end a brutal civil war and sought to establish the foundation for a lasting peace between the country's Hutu majority and the Tutsi minority.
Bir Lehlou (Saharawi Republic) — The Saharawi National Commission for Human Rights (CONASADH), called on the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), to urgently intervene for the release of Saharawi political prisoners in Morocco, to protect them from possible Covid-19 infection.
Here is the complete text of the letter sent by CONASADH to ICRC of which Saharawi.net received a copy:
\"Request of urgent intervention for the release of Saharawi political prisoners in various Moroccan jails
It is with deep concern that the Saharawi National Commission for Human Rights (CONASADH) addresses you this letter hoping to draw your attention to the dangerous conditions in which Saharawi political prisoners are living in various Moroccan prisons, especially with the alarming spread of Covid-19 infections all over the world, including in Morocco.
The dire conditions of the Moroccan prisons and the alarming lack of the minimum hygienic environment necessary for the protection of prisoners is a permanent threat to the lives of political prisoners, whose only crimes, as evidenced by all international organization, are related to their political views and peaceful activities, as human rights defenders.
The Moroccan regime of occupation arrested those Saharawi political prisoners simply because they were defending theirs and their people's rights to self-determination and independence, which are recognized to them by the UN and other international and regional organizations and instruments.
For all these reasons, Mr. President, CONASADH calls on you and on your organization to immediately and urgently intervene for the release of Saharawi political prisoners and to put an end, not only to their ordeals and possible threats to their lives, but also to a long continuing violation of the international humanitarian law in Western Sahara, the last colony in Africa.
[Shabelle] Somalia and the UN have lauded the role played by Somali women in peace, security and governance as the world celebrated the 20th anniversary of UN Security Council Resolution 1325.
www.washingtonpost.com By DeNeen L. Brown On the eve of the 99th anniversary of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, Human Rights Watch released a report Friday demanding reparations for survivors and descendants of the violence, which left hundreds of black people dead and blocks smoldering. “No one has ever been held responsible for these crimes, the impacts []
Press Release - A Case-Study on the Treatment of Ethiopian Migrants
On the evening of October 20, 2020, Nigerian army soldiers opened fire at a crowd of protesters in Lagos who were calling for an end to police brutality.
Burundi’s health minister Monday visited a COVID-19 testing center in Bujumbura.
The visit comes as the new president has signaled that his government will take the coronavirus pandemic more seriously than his dead predecessor.
President Evariste Ndayishimiye called the virus the country’s “worst enemy” and announced new screenings.
He said the screenings will be launched wherever clusters of cases are suspected, and that soap prices and water bills will be reduced.
Predecessor Pierre Nkurunziza died last month of what Burundi’s government called a heart attack.
His government had been criticized not taking the pandemic seriously.
It kicked out the World Health Organization’s country director, and allowed large campaign rallies ahead of the presidential election in May.
It also expressed the belief that divine protection would largely suffice for protection.
Burundi has 191 confirmed cases of the virus.
Health workers in Burundi have warned that the coronavirus is more serious there than the government admits, Human Rights Watch said last week.
AP
Paul Rusesabagina, whose actions during the genocide inspired the Oscar-nominated film 'Hotel Rwanda', has been charged with terrorism and other serious crimes in his first court appearance in Kigali.
Presidents from five West African countries are stepping up efforts to end a crisis in Mali which threatens to topple the President of that troubled country. The five regional leaders, Malian government officials and members [...]
The Government of Rwanda has finally endorsed civil registration services at health facilities around the country where designated members of staff can legally register events such as births and deaths.
The Order gives powers to the Cell Executive Secretary, based on the information provided by the head of the Village where the event took place, to register births and deaths that \"occur in places other than a health facility for persons having known civil status.\"
The revised law, among other things, states that an officer of a health facility has the power of civil registrar to record births and deaths that occur there.
The approved Order of the Minister in charge of civil registration who is the Minister of Local Government - among others, specifies the officer of the health facility who has that power, his or her responsibilities and the modalities for performance of such responsibilities.
Why Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) is important
Civil registration as defined by the UN is the continuous, permanent, compulsory and universal recording of the occurrence and characteristics of vital events, such as birth and death, of the population in accordance with the law.
Nyumba Kumi to police Covid patients in State homecare plan
Tuesday, June 23, 2020 0:01
By ANNIE NJANJA
Health Chief Administrative Secretary Mercy Mwangangi.
PHOTO | DENNIS ONSONGO | NMG
The Ministry of Health is banking on the community policing groups such as the Nyumba Kumi Initiative, local administration and estate groups to monitor the Covid-19 patients on home-based care.
Health Chief Administrative Secretary Mercy Mwangangi said this on Monday when she announced 59 new Covid-19 cases, raising the national tally to 4,797.
She said this as the government released more than 600 Covid-19 patients showing no symptoms for home-based care, stepping up its plans to free-up bed spaces for seriously-ill patients in hospitals.
The ministry launched the home-based care a fortnight ago to lessen the burden being borne by public facilities owing to the increasing number of Covid-19 patients.
According to Nodjitoloum Salomon, Group of Human Rights Associations of Chad chairperson, 'It's inconceivable that 44 people can die under such mysterious circumstances in a government prison.'
These deaths highlight the false dichotomy between the state's fight against terrorism and its obligation to respect human rights and the rule of law.
The United Nations' Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary and arbitrary detentions Christof Heyns issued a statement saying that, 'The death penalty is an extreme form of punishment and, if used at all, should only be imposed after a fair trial that respects the most stringent due process guarantees as stipulated in international human rights law.'
Criminal and other justice systems founded on the respect for human rights and the rule of law should complement military responses to terrorism.
But in Chad's case, the death of 44 suspects in prison while awaiting trial does not inspire confidence in the complementary nature of the criminal justice system.
