Re: Creating a dedicated country-wide human rights monitoring and reporting mechanism on the Democratic Republic of Congo at the UN Human Rights Council Geneva, 5 September 2018 Your excellency, We, the undersigned Congolese, regional, and international organizations, write to urge your delegation to support the creation of a country-wide human rights monitoring and reporting…
Issue 95, September 2018 ISSN 2049-2650 Editorial Team: Catherine Tyson, Nejla Sammakia, Mohamed ElSayeh, Kavita Kapur, Joshua Lowe, Christian Jorgensen, Cristina de Nicolas, Nicolas Parent, and Taylor Brooks. Chief Editor: Themba Lewis Web links are in blue. ___________ In this issue: SPECIAL TRIBUTE: DR BARBARA HARRELL-BOND, OBE External tributes to Dr Barbara Harrell-Bond, OBE Statement:…
For many years, Rwandan refugees in Uganda have faced abuses, including arbitrary detention, forced return to Rwanda and attacks on their physical security, without any form of accountability. However, last Friday, 24 August, former Inspector-General of the Ugandan police, General Kale Kayihura, has been charged with aiding and abetting the kidnapping and repatriation of…
With words and actions, the Tanzanian is pressuring Burundian refugees to go home, putting them at greater risk of abuses.
On 7 August, South Sudan’s president and main opposition leaders signed a new deal, which allows for the inclusion of the latter in the country’s government and is supposed to end the conflict that has ravaged the country since it started in late 2013. Despite hopeful statements by the signatories and its guarantors, this…
In July 2016, serious fighting erupted in Juba, the capital of South Sudan, when a peace agreement signed less than a year before broke down. Many citizens were killed, often in deliberate, ethnically motivated attacks, while others sought safety in the vicinity of the premises of the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS). Many more…
Les dirigeants africains devraient déterminer comment relancer le dialogue sur le Burundi, a déclaré IRRI aujourd’hui, à l’occasion de la sortie de son dernier rapport sur le dialogue et les accords de paix dans le pays. Les conclusions du rapport montrent que malgré leur point de vue critique, de nombreux Burundais appuient la poursuite des…
African leaders should decide how to revive the dialogue on Burundi, IRRI said today, as it launches a new report on dialogue and peace agreements in Burundi. The report’s findings show that despite considerable skepticism, many Burundian citizens support a continuation of talks and strongly value previous peace agreements. “While criticising the parties and the…
Issue 94, July 2018 ISSN 2049-2650 Editorial Team: Catherine Tyson, Natsumi Paxton, Nejla Sammakia, Mohamed ElSayeh, Kavita Kapur, Joshua Lowe, Christian Jorgensen, Cristina de Nicolas, Nicolas Parent, and Taylor Brooks. Chief Editor: Themba Lewis Web links are in blue. ___________ In this issue: Articles The Guardian publishes the full UNITED List of 34,361 refugee deaths…
“They killed my brothers of 16 and 18 years old. They killed them in my presence, I saw it happening,” Sylvia,* a young Congolese mother, told IRRI in Angola. “Even when the military killed my brothers, I wasn’t allowed to cry. They burned the corpses.” A team of experts, mandated by the UN Human Rights…
On Wednesday 2 May 2018, the International Refugee Rights Initiative (IRRI) with support from the Open Society Foundations (OSF), organised a workshop in Uganda on the Right to Nationality, ahead of the second meeting of African Union’s Member States Experts on the Draft Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights on the Specific Aspects on the Right to a…
Issue 93, June 2018 ISSN 2049-2650 Editorial Team: Catherine Tyson, Natsumi Paxton, Nejla Sammakia, Mohamed ElSayeh, Kavita Kapur, Joshua Lowe, Christian Jorgensen, Cristina de Nicolas, Nicolas Parent, and Taylor Brooks. Chief Editor: Themba Lewis Web links are in blue. ___________ In this issue: News News on Countries of Origin News on Countries of Asylum Detention…
The Anglophone crisis has plagued the north western and south western regions of Cameroon for more than a year and seems no closer to resolution. It has reportedly caused the deaths of at least 120 civilians and 43 members of the security forces. Since the end of 2016, and exacerbated since October 2017, the…
Issue 92, May 2018 ISSN 2049-2650 Editorial Team: Susan Fratzke, Catherine Tyson, Natsumi Paxton, Nejla Sammakia, Mohamed ElSayeh, Kavita Kapur, Joshua Lowe, Christian Jorgensen, Cristina de Nicolas, Nicolas Parent, and Taylor Brooks. Chief Editor: Themba Lewis Web links are in blue. ___________ In this issue: Articles Circumventing non-refoulement or fighting “illegal migration”? News News on…
As the world witnesses a drastic increase in the numbers of refugees and forced migrants, governments, humanitarian actors and development partners alike continue to debate the humanitarian, social, economic and security implications of this growth in international displacement. The global response to forced migration remains centred around three durable solutions: repatriation to country of…
Refugees and migrants who are trying to escape from Libya by boat are often intercepted at sea by the EU-funded Libyan coastguard and disembarked on land, where they are provided with immediate assistance by humanitarian agencies. Little is known about the interception process or what happens to refugees and migrants who have been returned…
Issue 91, April 2018 ISSN 2049-2650 Editorial Team: Fiona McKinnon, Mandy Jam, Susan Fratzke, Catherine Tyson, Natsumi Paxton, Nejla Sammakia, Iana Messetchkova, Mohamed ElSayeh, Kavita Kapur, Joshua Lowe, and Christian Jorgensen. Chief Editor: Themba Lewis Web links are in blue. ___________ In this issue: News News on Countries of Origin News on Countries of Asylum Detention…
They may have fled abuses in their country, but Burundian refugees in Nakivale refugee settlement in Uganda still live in fear for their safety and do not feel beyond the reach of the Burundian government and its militia, the Imbonerakure. During a visit to Nakivale refugee settlement in South-Western Uganda in December 2017, IRRI…
Issue 90 ISSN 2049-2650 Editorial Team: Fiona McKinnon, Mandy Jam, Susan Fratzke, Catherine Tyson, Natsumi Paxton, Nejla Sammakia, Iana Messetchkova, Mohamed ElSayeh, Kavita Kapur, Joshua Lowe, and Christian Jorgensen. Chief Editor: Themba Lewis Web links are in blue. ___________ In this issue: Articles Thoughts on the Deportation of De-Facto Citizens Prison or deportation: The impossible choice…
On 1 January, the Israeli government announced a new plan to coerce all Eritreans and Sudanese asylum seekers to leave the country by the end of March 2018. Those leaving within this period will receive a grant of USD 3,500 in cash upon their departure and a free one-way ticket. Those who will remain,…
