(Kampala – 6 September 2017) International Refugee Rights Initiative (IRRI) today published a new report on the African Union and the Responsibility to Protect (R2P), exploring how this principle has taken root within the continental union, in the form of non-indifference. The internationally agreed principle of R2P provides that states are primarily responsible for protecting their populations…
Burundian refugees should “return to their homeland, because peace and security prevail on the whole national territory”, Burundi’s second vice-president, Joseph Butore stated during the Uganda Solidarity Summit on Refugees, held in Kampala in June 2017. Then during a recent visit to Tanzania, Burundi’s president Pierre Nkurunziza expressed a similar message to refugees there. However,…
This paper draws on six years of field research in the Great Lakes region, incorporating nine units of field research. Each study focused on the links between citizenship and forced displacement in the Great Lakes region and examined both the differences and the interaction between local and national understandings of belonging.
Authorities should release all in arbitrary detention, drop charges Sudanese authorities have been unjustly holding Dr. Mudawi Ibrahim Adam, Hafiz Idris, and Mobarak Adam Abdalla, three human rights defenders, and have charged them with ‘crimes against the state which carry the death penalty, 26 human rights groups said today. Dr. Mudawi Ibahim Adam and Hafiz…
To all Members of the African Union Peace and Security Council Your Excellencies, RE: URGENT: Ensuring the Independence, Neutrality and Impartiality of the AU PSC Field Mission to Burundi Your Excellencies, as Burundian and African civil society organisations, we welcome news that the Peace and Security Council of the African Union (AU PSC) will conduct a…
The United Nations Human Rights Council should urgently establish a commission of inquiry into the situation in the central Kasai region of the Democratic Republic of Congo, a coalition of 262 Congolese and 9 international nongovernmental organizations said today. The 35th session of the Human Rights Council begins June 6, 2017, in Geneva. Between…
International Refugees Rights Initiative (IRRI) today launched a report about civilian perspectives on the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), whose mandate has been recently renewed. This report is based on interviews with 62 Somalis and is the third in a series on civilian perspectives of peacekeeping forces in Africa. The report highlights that many in Somalia…
We, the undersigned South Sudanese, regional and international non-governmental organisations, write to urge your delegation to renew and strengthen the mandate and capacity of the UN Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan (the Commission) to address the continued lack of accountability for severe, widespread and on-going crimes under international law and human rights violations…
We, the undersigned organizations from the continent in solidarity with the people of South Sudan, urge you to seize a potentially powerful opportunity for a sustained peace in South Sudan by committing your leadership to the development of an open and inclusive national dialogue for our continent’s newest nation at the 28th Ordinary Session…
The International Refugee Rights Initiative (IRRI) is responding to the call for information about humanitarian responses to forced displacement in Central and East Africa. Dedicated to promoting human rights in situations of conflict and displacement and enhancing the protection of vulnerable populations before, during and after conflict, IRRI works to challenge the exclusion and human…
The International Refugee Rights Initiative (IRRI) publishes an annual report on progress made in three focus areas: identifying the violations that cause displacement and exile; protecting the rights of those who are displaced, and ensuring the solutions to their displacement are durable, rights respecting, safe and timely. The 2016 report summarizes our work and looks…
Tomorrow marks a terrible anniversary for South Sudan. On December 15, 2013, fighting in Juba ignited a brutal conflict that has torn the country apart, leaving millions of South Sudanese in dire need. Today the country stands on a precipice. On behalf of the undersigned organizations we urge the UN Human Rights Council to use…
The Victims’ Rights Working Group (VRWG) is an informal network of national and international civil society groups and experts created in 1997 under the auspices of the NGO Coalition for the International Criminal Court (CICC). Its membership includes international as well as local NGOs and experts from a wide array of countries, in particular those…
Transitional justice, an emerging genre in the study, conception and practice of justice, has come about as a result of years of negotiation, contestation and compromise between state and nonstate actors. It is now generally acknowledged that nonstate actors, and in particular civil society organizations (CSOs), play a critical role in deconstructing authoritarianism, rebuilding the…
(Kampala, 6 September 2016) Five years after the start of the conflict in Sudan’s Blue Nile State, attacks against civilians continue unabated according to a report released by the International Refugee Rights Initiative (IRRI) and the National Human Rights Monitors Organisation (NHRMO) today. A Crisis Normalised: Civilian perspectives on the conflict in Sudan’s Blue Nile…
The political impasse in the Democratic Republic of Congo is at serious risk of spiraling into widespread violence over the coming months, with serious consequences for the people in Congo and broader ramifications across the region. Since January 2015, the Congolese government has imposed a brutal crackdown against those who have spoken out against or…
This submission focuses on the conflict in Sudan’s Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile states (also known as the “Two Areas”) between the government and the Sudan People’s Liberation ArmyNorth (SPLA-N). It details attacks against civilians in the Two Areas and is based on information compiled by the Sudan Consortium and the National Human Rights Monitors Organisation…
August 9, 2016 The Honourable Frank-Walter Steinmeier Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs c/o German Embassy 4645 Reservoir Road NW Washington, DC 20007 Dear Minister Steinmeier, We, the undersigned 77 human rights groups, civic leaders, scholars and activists, write to request your assistance in securing the immediate release of internally displaced Darfuris who were arrested by…
State repression and violent conflict lead to gross human rights violations on a daily basis worldwide. Many of these conflicts and violations barely see the light of day as they often happen in areas less of a priority to international key players. Courageous local human rights monitors struggle to collect evidence and put pressure…
(23 June 2016) With the UNAMID mandate renewal under discussion at the UN Security Council, a new report released today by the International Refugee Rights Initiative provides an analysis of the joint United Nations-African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) as seen by some of the civilians the force is mandated to protect. The report, “‘No…
