In the 1990’s and early 2000’s, West Africa was plagued by successive waves of conflict. Civil wars in Liberia, Cote d’Ivoire and Sierra Leone displaced many and separatist rebels in Senegal’s Casamance region fighting with government troops for over 20 years, displaced tens of thousands. However, accountability for crimes committed against civilian populations of the region have been ongoing, through a variety of means both legal, in the form of the Special Court for Sierra Leone, the case against Hissane Habre and at the ICC and non legal such as through the Truth and Reconciliation processes of Sierra Leone and Liberia.
More recently, violent conflict as a result of the activities of Boko Haram and the military counter operations has forced large numbers of civilian to be displaced from Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon.
However, the peaceful transfer of power in Gambia, in part as a result of regional heads of state intervention, is a positive development for the region.
FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR When I was joining IRRI in the first quarter of 2019, I could not have imagined the dynamism and shifts we would experience by the end of 2019. We changed. Simply put. At the milestone of 15 years, we determined that we needed to re- strategise and rethink IRRI, and what…
Parliamentary elections held in Togo on 20 December 2018 appear to have been relatively calm, despite serious tensions in the run-up to the polls. A major coalition of opposition parties, the C14, boycotted the polls, citing the need for more systemic political reform, includingof the electoral commission, but the ruling party, the Union for…
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:…
“African States should seize the opportunity to set clear standards on the recognition of nationality and the eradication of statelessness”, urged a coalition of African civil society organisations working on the issue. Member States are meeting in Abidjan, 7-11 May 2018, to discuss the text of a draft protocol to the African Charter on Human…
IRRI’s 2017 Annual Report highlights our work in a year of significant achievement for us, as we continued to work on our three main programmatic areas of: -identifying the violations that cause displacement and exile; -protecting the rights of those who are displaced, and -ensuring resolutions to their displacement are durable, rights respecting, safe and timely. The…
(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…
The first six months of this year has continued at a pace for IRRI. Not only have the areas we work in continue to be challenging but we have worked hard to ensure the voices of the displaced and conflict affected communities are not only heard but heeded at the international level. In addition, our…
On 26 January 2017, Gambia’s former Interior Minister, Ousmane Sonko, was arrested near Berne in Switzerland and charged with crimes against humanity. Two alleged victims, supported by the Swiss NGO TRIAL International, recently filed criminal charges against Sonko, claiming that “they were tortured by the Gambian authorities while Sonko was in charge of security services,…
In October 2009, the African Union adopted The Kampala Convention, (the Convention) which was designed for the protection and assistance of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Africa. It came into force in 2012, 30 days after its ratification by the 15th member state. According to paragraph k of the 1st article of the Kampala Convention,…
President Trump’s recent Executive Order is, without a doubt, extreme. The four-month hold on allowing refugees into the US, and the temporary ban on travellers from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Sudan, Afghanistan, Somalia and Yemen, is both ridiculous and cruel. It is also wrong at multiple levels. It is flawed in its methodology, mistakenly based…
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…
A week after accepting defeat in the Gambia’s 1 December polls, President Yahya Jammeh, in an extraordinary volte-face, rejected the results of the presidential election and ordered soldiers to take control of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), throwing the country into uncertainty. Today anxiety and disarray prevails in the minds of many Gambians as they…
On 1 December 2016, Gambians will go to the polls to elect a president with the likely scenario being the incumbent, President Yahya Jammeh will be re-elected for a fifth time. Twenty-two years ago, Jammeh was a young army officer when he took power in a military coup. He was then elected in 1996, and…
This has been a rough month for the International Criminal Court (ICC). After years of threats of withdrawal from the Rome Statute which created the ICC by African states, South Africa, Gambia and Burundi have made moves to do so this month (South Africa and Burundi have formally notified the UN of their withdrawals while…
On 17 October 2015, Alpha Condé, the incumbent president of the Republic of Guinea was declared the winner of Guinea’s presidential elections. With 58% of the vote, Condé was able to avoid a second round. The opposition, led by Cellou Dalein Diallo however, described the election as a “masquerade” and refused to recognise the results….
Failing to Prosecute Hissène Habré for Sexual Crimes Would be Missing a Historic Opportunity Mr. President of the Extraordinary African Chambers, Mr. Chief Prosecutor, We welcome the creation of the Extraordinary African Chambers, a special tribunal created by the African Union and Senegal to prosecute international crimes committed in Chad during the rule of Hissène…
Five weeks after the start of the trial of former Chadian dictator, Hissène Habré, 17 women’s rights organization , including the Panzi Foundation of Dr Denis Muwege, often referred to as “the man who mends women”, have issued an Open letter denouncing the insufficient attention given to sexual violence in the indictment.
On 22 July 2015, to mark the 21st anniversary of his accession to power, President Jammeh announced that he would release approximately 200 detainees in the country. Among those released were all of those who had been convicted of treason between 1994 and 2013 received a presidential pardon. Although the pardon was welcomed by Gambians,…
Five years after the death of Congolese human rights activist, Floribert Chebeya and the disappearance of his colleague Fidèle Bazana shook the Congolese human rights community, the fight for justice continues. Although eight people have been found in connection with the case in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), activists argue that the truth is…
For years, people have wondered if Hissène Habré would ever be brought to justice. Therefore, the start of his trial in Dakar, Senegal on 20 July 2015 by the Extraordinary African Chambers marks an important turning point in the fight against impunity on the African continent. Hissène Habré has been indicted for crimes against humanity,…