People seeking safety are trapped at borders across Eastern Africa due to COVID-19 measures A coalition of international, national, and refugee-led organizations in the Horn, East and Central Africa (HECA) have today called on governments in the region to reopen borders for asylum seekers. The organisations are calling on governments to put in place measures…
Joint civil society statement Ahead of the African Union (AU) High-Level Dialogue on displacement taking place from 4-6 December in Uganda, 15 African and international NGOs call on African leaders and regional organisations to urge the government of Tanzania to stop pressuring 163,000 refugees and asylum seekers into returning to Burundi, where there are…
H.E Solomon Dersso, Chairperson of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights CC: Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Chairman of the African Union Moussa Faki Mahamat, Chairperson of the African Union Commission Smail Chergui, Commissioner for Peace and Security of the African Union Commission Banjul, The Gambia, 25 October 2019 Your Excellency, We, a coalition…
Ahead of the 42nd regular session of the UN Human Rights Council, 17 civil society organisations have urged the Council to take action to address serious human rights violations and abuses that have been and continue to be committed in Sudan, and to support systemic reforms in the country. Noting that the Council has not…
Monday 8th July, 2019. RE: The Militarization of Public space in Rural and Urban areas in Sudan and the Corresponding Increase in Cases of Sexual Violence, Sexual harassment and Intimidation in the Aftermath of the Khartoum Massacre. We, the undersigned are a coalition of Sudanese and African civil society organizations working in and concerned with Sudan,…
[Kampala, 20 June 2019]: On the occasion of World Refugee Day, 16 non-governmental organisations call for urgent action to prevent and mitigate the impact of environmental degradation around refugee settlements in Uganda. Uganda currently hosts more than 1.25 million refugees, most of whom rely on natural resources in and around refugee settlements for domestic fuel, construction…
© Picture accessed via msn news The International Refugee Rights Initiative (IRRI) together with 30 other civil society organisations from all over the world have appealed to the UN Security Council for urgent action to prevent further violence in Sudan and support the people’s efforts for democratic change. In a letter to the UN Security…
11 June 2019 Excellency, We, the undersigned human rights organizations, are writing to urge you to support the adoption of a resolution at the upcoming 41st session of the UN Human Rights Council (“Council”) to maintain a monitoring and reporting mandate on the human rights situation in Eritrea. The human rights situation in Eritrea remains…
[6 June 2019] The attack on peaceful democracy protesters in Khartoum that began on June 3 that has reportedly seen the killing of at least 100 people and hundreds more injured demands a strong international response to immediately stop such attacks and ensure accountability for this and other violence in response to peaceful protests. At…
As a coalition of 16 international and regional civil society organizations, we are writing to seek your urgent support in addressing the precarious situation in South Sudan. Delays in implementation of the Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan (R-ARCSS) and the recent six-month extension of the…
29 April 2019 Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Excellencies, Representatives of the AU Peace and Security Council Member States, H.E. Chairperson Mr. Moussa Faki, African Union Commission, Your Excellencies, We, the undersigned Sudanese and African civil society organizations write to urge the African Union to take a strong stand with the people of Sudan, demanding an expeditious…
Statement to the Ministerial Conference on the Eradication of Statelessness in the Great Lakes Region, 16-18 April 2019 (18 April 2019 Nairobi, Kenya) Your Excellencies, Honourable Ministers and Principle Secretaries, Ambassadors and Plenipotentiaries, Head of Division for Humanitarian Affairs of the African Union Commission, Director of the Africa Bureau of the UNHCR, Special Envoy for the…
(12 April 2019, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia) We, the undersigned Sudanese and African civil society organizations write with deep concern about the military takeover in Sudan on 11 April 2019. The recent announcement of a military transitional council headed by Awad ibn Auf, the former vice president and minister of defense under Bashir’s regime, however, represents an…
(10 April 2019) What has happened in Sudan since 6 April can leave no doubt as to the seriousness of the Sudanese people to dismiss a regime that has remained in power for 30 years through its dependence on the tools of dictatorship, kleptocracy, patronage, fear and wide-scale human rights abuse. Citizens in the hundreds…
6 February 2019 Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Excellencies, Representatives of the AU Peace and Security Council Member States, H.E. Chairperson Mr. Moussa Faki, African Union Commission, Your Excellencies, We, the undersigned African civil society organisations, write with deep concern about the deterioration of the situation in Sudan. The combination of long term repression and economic mismanagement…
Statelessness affects ten thousands of people in East Africa. Being stateless has significant negative impact on the lives of affected persons – who are unable to access fundamental rights to which they are entitled under human rights law, but which require state mediation to access in practice. Without identification documents they are not able to…
Issue 98, January 2019 ISSN 2049-2650 Editorial Team: Olivia Bueno, Catherine Tyson, Nejla Sammakia, Mohamed ElSayeh, Kavita Kapur, Joshua Lowe, Christian Jorgensen, Cristina de Nicolas, Nicolas Parent, and Taylor Brooks. Chief Editor: Fiona McKinnon Web links are in blue. In this issue: Articles Will the ECHR shake up the European asylum system? News News on Countries…
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,…
(27 September 2016) The International Refugee Rights Initiative (IRRI) is pleased to announce the publication of Refugees, Conflict and the Search for Belonging by Lucy Hovil, IRRI’s Senior Researcher. This timely publication, based on seven years of research by IRRI in Eastern and Central Africa, has application beyond the region, pointing to drivers and failures…
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…
