Day: November 14, 2021

Human Rights Watch has urged the African Union to pledge its support for the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, which opens a session Monday, the last meeting of the year.

Human Rights Watch, in a statement Sunday, also called for the AU to “urgently tackle the deepening human rights and democratic crises affecting the continent, including in Ethiopia,” at the Commission’s 69th ordinary session.

“In Ethiopia, in the face of intensifying and a widening field of fighting, with attendant abuses and impact beyond the Tigray region,” HRW said, “it is especially important for the AU to demonstrate a commitment to enforcing member states’ obligations under its strong human rights standards and norms.”

Carine Kaneza Nantulya, HRW’s African advocacy director, said, “The growing gap between the AU political organs and African human rights institutions is threatening to undo decades of developments in African human rights law.”

HRW also noted that the AU failed to consistently apply two of its legal instruments — the AU Constitutive Act and the Charter of Democracy, Elections and Governance when dealing with Sudan and Chad.

“This year, the AU promptly suspended Sudan after the October 25 military coup but did not take similar action after the Chadian military takeover in late April,” the statement said. “The ACHPR condemned Chadian security forces for using excessive force against peaceful protesters demanding a return to civilian rule and called for prompt, credible investigations, and accountability.”

Nantulya said in the statement, “In a context of intensifying crises, with wide-ranging regional human rights and humanitarian repercussions, AU member states should stop choosing politics over human rights and instead rally behind African-led conflict prevention and investigation mechanisms.”

Source: Voice of America

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet on Friday designated Adama Dieng as an expert on human rights in Sudan, following a request from the UN Human Rights Council. The designation follows a special session of the Council held on Sudan on 5 November, to discuss the implications of the October 25 military takeover on the human rights situation in the country, after which the Council adopted resolution HRC/RES/S-32/1, which requested the High Commissioner to designate an expert on human rights in Sudan.

A press statement form the Council announced that the High Commissioner has designated Adama Dieng, a Senegalese national. According to the resolution, Dieng will monitor the developing human rights situation in Sudan with the assistance of, and in close cooperation with, the UN Joint Human Rights Office in Sudan. In performing his duties, he will pay special attention to victims and ensure a gender perspective. He will engage with all relevant parties, including civil society.

The work undertaken by Dieng will contribute to the written report that the High Commissioner will present to the Human Rights Council in its fiftieth session in June 2022.

Dieng is currently a member of the United Nations Internal Justice Council and the Special Adviser to the Higher Committee of Human Fraternity. He is a former UN Under-Secretary-General and Special Adviser of the Secretary-General on the Prevention of Genocide. Before joining the UN, for 10 years, Dieng was the Secretary-General of the International Commission of Jurists. Dieng also served as Registrar of the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda from 2001 to 2008. He helped establish the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights and produced the draft of the African Convention to fight corruption. He has led many fact-finding missions on human rights and rule of law as well as trial observation missions.

He will assume his duties immediately, and his term of office as an expert for Sudan will conclude upon restoration of the country’s civilian-led government.

The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has urged all Sudanese parties to cooperate with Dieng to ensure the implementation of the Human Rights Council resolution.

Source: Radio Dabanga

KHARTOUM —

The Qatar-based satellite news network Al-Jazeera said Sunday its bureau chief in Sudan was detained by security forces, a day after mass protests across the country against last month’s military coup.

The network said on Twitter that Sudanese forces raided the home of El Musalmi El Kabbashi and detained him.

The development comes after security forces fired live ammunition and tear gas Saturday to disperse protesters denouncing the military’s tightening grip on the country.

The Sudan Doctors Committee said a 15-year-old protester died Sunday of gunshot wounds to his stomach and thigh, raising the death toll to six people.

In a later statement, Al-Jazeera said El Kabbashi had been arrested at his home in Khartoum, the Sudanese capital. The broadcaster said it held the Sudanese military responsible for his safety.

“Al-Jazeera condemns in the strongest terms the reprehensible actions of the military and calls on the authorities to release El Kabbashi immediately and to allow its journalists to operate unhindered, free to practice their profession without fear or intimidation,” the channel said.

Sudanese officials could not be immediately reached for comment.

Thousands of pro-democracy protesters took to the streets across Sudan on Saturday to rally against the military coup last month. The takeover has drawn international criticism and massive protests in the streets of the capital of Khartoum and elsewhere in the country.

The killings Saturday took place in Khartoum and its twin city of Omdurman. The dead included four people killed by gunshots and one who died from being hit by a tear gas canister. The 15-year-old who died of his wounds Sunday brought to six the number of fatalities, the doctors committee said. Several other protesters were wounded, including from gunshots, it said.

That brought the tally since the Oct. 26 coup to at least 21 protesters dead, according to the medical group.

Saturday’s rallies, called by the pro-democracy movement, came two days after coup leader Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan reappointed himself head of the Sovereign Council, Sudan’s interim governing body. Thursday’s move angered the pro-democracy alliance and frustrated the United States and other countries that have urged the generals to reverse their coup.

The newly appointed body held its first meeting, chaired by Gen. Burhan Sunday in Khartoum, the council said on its Facebook page.

The pro-democracy movement condemned “the excessive use of force” against the protesters Saturday. The Forces for the Declaration of Freedom and Change said their struggle to establish a full civilian government “will not stop” and called for mass demonstrations on Wednesday.

The Sudanese military seized power Oct. 25, dissolving the transitional government and arresting dozens of officials and politicians. The takeover upended a fragile planned transition to democratic rule, more than two years after a popular uprising forced the removal of longtime autocrat Omar al-Bashir and his Islamist government.

Source: Voice of America