On 30 December 2014, some members of the Gambian opposition and dissidents in the Diaspora took up arms with the aim of overthrowing the regime of President Yahya Jammeh. The coup was foiled, but the attempt has triggered a crackdown on real and perceived political opponents and worsened the already serious human rights situation. On…
There is considerable concern about the well-being of Hawa Suleiman , a young activist and a student at Alzaiem Alazhari University arrested during the eviction of Zahra Women’s Dormitory in Khartoum by the National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) forces during Eid al-Adha holiday (5/6 October 2014). Suleiman was arrested along with 17 other student activists, yet…
When the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC or “the Court”) was adopted in 1998, it was greeted with great fanfare by human rights activists around the world as an important milestone in the progress of the human rights movement. As the Court began to investigate its first cases in 2003-04, many civil…
Since his accession to power by coup d’etat on 22 July 1994, President Yayah Jammeh has been accused of ruling the Gambia with an iron fist. After 20 years in office, his record has been tarnished by allegations of serious human rights violations including, restriction of the freedom of expression and opinion, arbitrary arrest and…
(This blog first appeared on the IntLawGrrls blog site) On 29 September 2014, at the annual meeting of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees’ Governing Executive Committee in Geneva, the government of Tanzania announced that it finally intends to deliver on its 2008 promise of citizenship to tens of thousands of former…
This blog first appeared in the Guardian development blog on 5 October 2014 (see article here) It is rare to witness a paradigm shift in refugee protection. But such a shift has just happened with the release of UNHCR’s new Policy on Alternatives to Camps. For refugees and refugee advocates who have been shouting for…
It is rare to witness a paradigm shift in refugee protection. But such a shift has just happened with the release of the new policy from the UN high commissioner for refugees (UNHCR) on alternatives to refugee camps. For refugees and their advocates, who have been shouting for years about the perils associated with camps,…
June 20th marked United Nations World Refugee Day. In Senegal, IRRI marked its commitment to promoting and protecting the human rights of asylum-seekers, refugees, and internally displaced persons (IDPs) by raising awareness among both the authorities and the Senegalese public of the conditions of refugees and of their rights under the 1951 United Nations (UN)…
(This blog first appeared on the International Justice Monitor, a project of the Open Society Justice Initiative.) On June 27, a Dutch court refused the appeal of three former the International Criminal Court (ICC) witnesses, Floribert Ndjabu Ngabu, Sharif Manda Ndadza Dz’Na, and Pierre-Célestin Mbodina Iribi, for asylum in the Netherlands. The witnesses, who were previously in…
IRRI Submits Evidence on UK and International Engagement with South Sudan On 3 July 2014 IRRI submitted a statement to the UK All Party Parliamentary Group on Sudan and South Sudan in response to a call for written evidence into “UK and International Engagement with South Sudan 2011-2014”. While mindful of the humanitarian crisis in…
(1 July 2014) It is with great pleasure that we announce that the Fahamu Refugee Programme (FRP) has merged with the International Refugee Rights Initiative (IRRI). The merger reinforces IRRI’s capacity to address refugee rights issues, bringing new opportunities and expertise and complementing our research and policy work with a focus on legal assistance. At the same…
This blog first appeared on the International Justice Monitor, a project of the Open Society Justice Initiative. On May 23, the International Criminal Court (ICC) handed down a 12-year prison sentence to the convicted Congolese militia leader Germain Katanga. Despite what was seen as a light sentence to some, it was not greeted with surprise…
Secretary-General League of Arab States 10 June 2014 Subject: Call to end targeting of civilians in Sudan’s conflict areas Your Excellency, As a coalition of civil society groups from Africa and the Middle East who are working to assist the people of Sudan, we write to Your Excellency to appeal to you to intensify your…
All Members of the African Union Peace and Security Council Addis Ababa 10 June 2014 Re: Call to end targeting of civilians in Sudan’s conflict areas Your Excellencies, As a coalition of civil society groups from Africa and the Middle East providing assistance to civilians in South Kordofan and Blue Nile or supporting peace in…
To all members of the United Nations Security Council 09 June 2014 Dear Ambassadors As a coalition of non-governmental organizations working to provide assistance to civilians in South Kordofan and Blue Nile or supporting peace efforts in Sudan, we appeal to the UN Security Council to demand an end to the targeting of civilians by…
This blog first appeared on openDemocracy (http://www.opendemocracy.net/arab-awakening/lucy-hovil/consequences-of-exclusion-in-sudan) The story of one individual can bring home the realities of living under a repressive regime that otherwise seem intangible. The recent story of Meriam Yehya Ibrahim Ishag, a Sudanese woman who has been sentenced to death by a court in Sudan for adultery and “apostasy”, highlights one…
Read the full letter to the UN Security Council. (In French). Read the full letter to the AU. (In Arabic). Read the full letter to the LAS. (In Arabic).
For thirty two years, the armed conflict in Casamance, which has pitted the government of Senegal against separatist rebels of the Movement of Democratic Forces of Casamance (MFDC), remains unresolved and the civilians displaced by it remain vulnerable. The MFDC rebellion, which is one of the oldest in Africa, is calling for the independence of…
Meriam Ibrahim, a 27-year-old Sudanese woman currently pregnant with her second child, is facing punishments of public flogging and execution if found guilty on baseless charges of apostasy and adultery in an upcoming hearing to be convened by Sudan’s Criminal Court at the Haj Yousif court complex in Khartoum, Sudan. SIHA is calling for urgent…
On Friday, March 7, 2014, Trial Chamber II at the International Criminal Court (ICC) convicted, by a majority, Germain Katanga as an accessory to four war crimes (murder, attacking a civilian population, destruction of property, and pillaging) and one crime against humanity (murder). While some welcomed the verdict, reactions to the decision focused as much…
