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[Premium Times] The MRA also wants the perpetrators of such attacks punished.
In May, Burundi held a presidential election which was won by Evariste Ndayishimiye, candidate of the ruling National Council for the Defense of Democracy - Forces for the Defense of Democracy (CNDD-FDD) party.
Ndayishimiye was hurriedly sworn in after the untimely death of president Pierre Nkurunziza in June.
Rights violations continue
The Council encouraged donor countries which had suspended aid to Burundi to continue dialogue towards resumption of development assistance.
A report by a UN watchdog in September said human rights violations were still being committed in Burundi, including sexual violence and murder.
The country was plunged into a crisis in April 2015 when Ndayishimiye’s predecessor Pierre Nkurunziza decided to run for a controversial third term, which he ultimately won in July 2015.
His candidature, which was opposed by the opposition and civil society groups, resulted in a wave of protests, violence and even a failed coup in May 2015.
Hundreds of people were killed and over 300,000 fled to neighboring countries.
BY SILAS NKALA BRITISH MP and former anti-apartheid campaigner Peter Hain has urged the British government to extend sanctions against President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s regime because of “escalating human rights violations” in the southern African country. Addressing Parliament on Wednesday, Hain implored Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government to impose more punitive sanctions on key Zimbabwean ministers and security chiefs. “On July 20, highly-respected journalist Hopewell Chin’ono was arrested and denied bail for supporting an anti-corruption protest and faces 10 years in jail,” Hain, a former Labour cabinet minister, said. “Opposition leader Jacob Ngarivhume was arrested and youth leader Takunda Madzana abducted and tortured by State security agents on July 26.” Zimbabwe has been under Western sanctions since the 2000 land reform programme that displaced whites from commercial farms and subsequent human rights abuses by the late former President Robert Mugabe in successive elections. The European Union has relaxed its embargo on Harare, but the US has remained steadfast, demanding political and economic reforms from the Zanu PF government for sanctions to be lifted. Mnangagwa has been on a re-engagement drive, but continued rights abuses by his administration, which came to power in November 2017 through a military coup, has frustrated the efforts. Hain added: “As well as rampant corruption, there is a pattern of ongoing human rights violations under cover of the COVID-19 crackdown. “Can the government update its sanctions to cover more Zimbabwe ministers and security chiefs?” Ngarivhume and Chin’ono, whose arrest Hain cited as reasons for beefing up sanctions, were both involved in the organisation of the protest. Both have been charged with incitement to commit public violence and denied bail, to block them from participating in yesterday’s protests. Several other members of opposition parties were abducted with some going into hiding fearing arrest.
The United States, Britain and France accused Russian mercenaries on Wednesday of operating alongside Central African Republic forces and committing human rights violations against civilians and obstructing U.N. peacekeeping
In its investigation, TNH obtained information drawn from leaked WHO documents that suggests how some health workers and civil servants profited from response funds; and how, in the rush to scale up a response in an active conflict zone, the WHO paid millions of dollars in inflated per diems to Congolese security forces.
The authors of the draft review commissioned by the UN and NGOs - obtained exclusively by TNH - warn that \"practices implemented during the Ebola response will inevitably have a direct impact on the ability of aid organisations to control corruption within their programmes\".
The UN's emergency aid coordination body, OCHA, acknowledged there had been challenges in the Ebola response - Ituri and North Kivu provinces are relatively remote and located inside an active conflict zone.
In January, David Gressly, the UN's former emergency Ebola response coordinator, told TNH that the attack on the WHO doctor may have been motivated by a desire to divert resources to local health workers.
The outbreak that erupted in North Kivu and Ituri was the first in an active conflict zone, and response operations had to be shut down on numerous occasions because of attacks against clinics and health workers, leading to fresh spikes in Ebola cases and deaths.
[Vanguard] Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has asked the Federal High Court in Abuja \"to order the Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) and the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission (NSIWC) to perform their statutory functions to review downward the remuneration and allowances of President Muhammadu Buhari, Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, 36 governors and members of the National Assembly.\"
By Miriam Mangwaya THE Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum has called on local police officers to adopt the Southern African Regional Police Chiefs Co-operation Organisation (SARPCCO) guidelines to instil discipline in the force. The call came at a time the police are being accused of heavy-handedness, especially when deployed to enforce the COVID-19 lockdown measures. In its latest COVID-19 lockdown weekly monitoring report, the human rights body said police should stop unlawful attacks on citizens. Since the beginning of the lockdown on March 30, the police throughout the country have subjected more than 800 people, including journalists, to beatings, torture, abductions and harassments, according to statistics released by the forum. “Government should ensure ZRP (Zimbabwe Republic Police) develops a code of conduct in line with SARPCCO guidelines to help strengthen police discipline,” the human rights group said. “The forum remains concerned by the conduct of police and other law enforcement officers, who continue to use excessive force during law enforcement.” The rights group added: “The forum urgently calls upon the Home Affairs minister Kazembe Kazembe, ZRP Commissioner-General Godwin Matanga to ensure that members of ZRP stop perpetrating human rights violations, including, but not limited to beatings, excessive use of force, torture, abductions and intimidation of civilians.” The report also reveals that cases of police brutality are on the rise following the return of commuter omnibuses in major cities and towns after relaxation of lockdown restrictions by the government. The forum commended the Judiciary for upholding human rights through recent court orders which include instructing Harare City Council to ensure that pregnant women receive emergency medical services.
[New Zimbabwe] The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) has moved to place the country's mobile money platforms under strict surveillance by compelling them to join the Zimswitch platform.
Below, Black community activists and their allies share how to turn your empathy into action in the wake of police brutality.
Now more than ever is the time to take action to support Black, Indigenous and other people of color ― even if you’ve been slow to get involved in the past.
(The group Perkal is involved with, Showing Up For Justice, is a perfect example of that: They’re a nonprofit that works to bring more white communities and people into multiracial, antiracist movements for justice.)
In the clip, Elliott asks an audience of mostly white people a very, very simple question: Would you want to be treated like a Black person in America?
“Then you can show up at the police precinct and let the chief of police know you are outraged by the treatment of Black people,” she said.
BY MIRIAM MANGWAYA The Zimbabwe Media Commission (ZMC) has advised security forces to allow journalists to operate with 2019 and 2020 Press cards since it was still waiting for the board to gazette new accreditation fees. During last year’s COVID-19 lockdowns, several journalists were harassed by State security agents for using “expired” Press cards. “The Zimbabwe Media Commission is advising all stakeholders, journalists and other media practitioners that the commission has not yet started issuing accreditation cards for the year 2021,” the ZMC said in a statement yesterday. “The commission is still awaiting the gazetting of the 2021 fees which have already been sent to the line ministry. The commission expects these fees to be gazetted any time soon. “Once the fees have been gazetted the ZMC will advise all journalists and media practitioners on the commencement of the accreditation process. The commission had hoped that the fees would have been gazetted well before the end of 2020.” The commission added: “As a temporary measure to allow journalists and other media practitioners carry on with their duties during this phase of the national lockdown, the ZMC hereby expects law enforcement officers and other stakeholders to accept accreditation cards for the years 2019 and 2020. “It is in this regard that the ZMC is appealing to all stakeholders to treat 2019 and 2020 accreditation cards as valid till the gazetting of the new fees and the resumption of accreditation. The commission calls upon all stakeholders and security forces manning checkpoints to assist journalists and other media practitioners to carry out their duties without harm or harassment.” Acting Information minister Jenfan Muswere last night also said: “Media practitioners are considered to be part of the essential services as stipulated in Statutory Instrument 200 and in this regard, pending the production of new accreditation cards by the Zimbabwe Media Commission, journalists will continue to use 2019 press cards while the ZMC puts in place modalities for the registration for the current year.” Meanwhile, the Media Institute of Southern Africa (Misa) — Zimbabwe has implored police to exercise restraint and allow journalists to carry out their duties unhindered during the 30-day COVID-19-induced lockdown which came into effect yesterday. This comes after journalists were subjected to harassment which included assaults, arrests and detentions when the country first went into a lockdown in March last year. Misa-Zimbabwe national chairperson Golden Maunganidze wrote to Police Commissioner-General Godwin Matanga pleading for the “safety and security of journalists during the COVID-19 lockdown”. “Misa-Zimbabwe is humbly reaching out and appealing to your esteemed offices to ensure the safety and security of journalists, who in terms of the regulations are providers of essential services.”
[East African] Somalia's army remains \"incapable\" of ousting Al-Shabaab from its strongholds, enabling the insurgents to exercise continued control over large parts of the country, the US State Department said on Wednesday.
Press Release - As Pride month draws to a close, the DA will be submitting a Private Members Bill (PMB) which will prohibit conversion therapy for minors - a dangerous practice focused on the LGBTQIA+ community that falsely claims to change sexual orientation for children.
[Tunis Afrique Presse] Tunis/Tunisia -- The average monthly money market rate (MMR) for June rose slightly to 6.26% against 6.25% in May and April 2021, according to the latest statistics of the Central Bank of Tunisia (BCT).Actually, the MMR has been going up since the beginning of the current year, while it was at the level of 6.13% and 6.12% in November and December 2020.
The post U.S. Criticized For Police Violence, Racism At U.N. Rights Review appeared first on Essence.
[Daily Trust] The Young Progressives Party (YPP) has asked a Federal High Court in Awka, Anambra State to determine the validity or otherwise of the governorship primaries conducted by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state.
A Deputy Minister of Health (MoH), Dr Bernard Oko-Boye has stated that the country's success in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic is no fluke.
\"The achievement of Ghana is not just by an accident but about the effective measures that the government has put in place in aggressively tracing, testing and treating people with the virus,\" DrOko-Boye stated.
Dr Oko-Boye explained that since the outbreak, efforts at getting medical supplies for frontline staff had solely been on the government and expressed happiness for the embassy's support to MoH.
DrOko-Boye maintained that all the necessary measures had been put in place to control the spread of the virus in the country, stressing that government has established COVID-19 structures at the national, regional and district level.
Presenting the items, the Deputy Ambassador of Beijing Mission, Dr Charles Dwamena explained that the items came from Chinese companies that do business in Ghana, with majority of the supplies from the Tianyun Manganese, the parent company of Ghana Manganese Company (GMC) to supplement government's effort in the fight against COVID 19.
[State Department] The United States is deeply concerned by the continued violence in the Anglophone regions of Cameroon. We continue to call for both the Cameroonian government and separatist armed groups to end the violence and engage in a dialogue without preconditions to peacefully resolve the crisis. It is important that children can attend school and that humanitarian aid can be delivered. We urge all relevant stakeholders in Cameroon and in the diaspora to engage constructively and seek a peaceful resolution to the cr
Paradigm Initiative, PIN, avers that human rights and the ordinary citizen stood as the main victims if the Written Laws (Miscellaneous Amendments) Act, No. 3 of 2020 is assented to.
PIN concerned about ongoing plans to abolishes public interest litigation in Tanzania
\tParadigm Initiative, a pan-African social enterprise working to advance digital rights and inclusion in Africa, is deeply concerned about the Tanzanian authorities’ attempts to abolish Public Interest litigation.
In effect, and as evident in its various provisions, the Bill seeks to abolish public interest litigation, meaning that Tanzanian nationals, other persons and civil society organisations (CSOs) like ours in Tanzania shall be required, as a matter of law, to prove how an action complained of “has affected that person personally.”
As most actions brought against government or private entities in the pursuit of public interest litigation are often as a result of human rights violations against the general public or vulnerable persons, public interest litigation will be a thing of the past if this retrogressive law is assented into law by H.E President J.P Magufuli.
For the common “mwananchi” (citizen) in Tanzania whose access to courts of law is already handicapped by an avalanche of social and economic constraints, the enactment of the Written Laws (Miscellaneous Amendments) Act, No. 3 of 2020 outlawing public interest litigation provides a fertile ground for human rights abuses in a country that already has a not-so-good human rights record and violates the Constitution of the United Republic of Tanzania.
As Burundi holds elections, the UN's human rights body says the country fails to meet conditions for free and credible polls.
As elections were taking place, DW talked to Doudou Diene, president of the Commission of Inquiry on Burundi at OHCHR, the United Nations body mandated to promote and protect human rights.
The commission has been tasked to investigate human rights violations and abuses in Burundi since 2015.
Burundi has a history of the highest level of violence and the violations of human rights in the context of electoral process.
This is why we had to put it in our [Commission of Inquiry 2019] report to call upon the authorities of Burundi to prove to the internal community that there is change and that human rights will be respected and elections will be held in a credible and a free conditions.
The Judicial Conduct Committee was tasked with probing several complaints against Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng, and also whether he had contravened the Code of Judicial Conduct.
[allAfrica] As of July 10, the confirmed cases of COVID-19 from 55 African countries have reached 541,923. Active cases have reached 266,619 after 5,420,815 tests.
By Dr. John E. Warren, Publisher The number of people testing positive for Covid-19 in this country has now exceeded 3 million, and increasing. Unlike the rest of the world, we have not been able to get control of this virus and not because we don’t have the ability. The real reason is that we []
The post Profits, Pandemics, People and Racism appeared first on Voice and Viewpoint.
In their strongest rebuke yet of President Emmerson Mnangagwa since he took over in 2017, church leaders said abductions of government critics had reached alarming levels.
Initially the government blamed the abductions on an alleged third force comprised of disgruntled security agents from the previous Mugabe regime, but of late the authorities dismiss them as stunts by the opposition to attract the attention of the international community.
Nelson Chamisa, the MDC Alliance leader, appealed to the international community to intervene in Zimbabwe saying President Mnangagwa was using the Covid-19 induced lockdown to crush the opposition.
The MDC Alliance has since written to the UN special rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of punishment, Nils Melzer, asking for an investigation into the abduction of the activists.
The Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission (ZHRC), a quasi-government body, called for investigations into the mounting cases of abductions.
The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, described President Muhammadu Buhari's Democracy Day address as a huge and unpardonable slap on the face of the nation's democratic process.
This is as the party noted that President Buhari's silence on the values of democracy as well as the myriads of violations under his watch \"has further vindicated its stance and that of majority of Nigerians that the Buhari administration has no regard for democracy and is not prepared to uphold its tenets in our country.\"
\"President Buhari's failure to express any commitments to electoral reform in his 38-minute pre-recorded address shows that his administration has no plans to guarantee credible elections in our country.
\"Furthermore, President Buhari had no words of commitment on how to tackle the constitutional and human rights violations under his watch, including reported intimidation and brutalization of citizens, disobedience to court orders, arbitrary arrests, illegal detentions, extra-judicial killings as well as hounding of opposition and dissenting voices.
Executve Director, Civil Society Legislative and Advocacy Centre, CISLAC, Ibrahim Auwal Rafsanjani, like Ozekhome faulted the claims of Buhari, especially the President's stand on the fight against corruption and road projects completion statistics.
July 9, 2021 (KHARTOUM) - The United States called for the urgent resumption of the talks over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) under (...)
Yenagoa — A Federal High Court sitting in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State capital, Thursday convicted Mr. Yunusa Dahiru for the abduction, raping and impregnating a teenager, Miss Ese Oruru, in 2015.
The abduction of Oruru said to be the youngest child of Mr. Charles Oruru and Mrs. Rose Oruru occurred on 12 August 2015 at her mother's shop in Yenagoa Local Government Area of Bayelsa State.
Following public outcry and the intervention of the then Inspector-General of Police (IG), Mr. Solomon Arase, Ese was reportedly rescued by Kano State Police Command on February 29, 2016 and placed in the custody of the government.
Dahiru was arraigned on March 8, 2016 before the Federal High Court in Yenagoa on charges of criminal abduction, illicit sex, sexual exploitation and having unlawful carnal knowledge of the minor.
Dahiru was arraigned and charged with abduction, kidnapping, unlawful carnal knowledge and sexual exploitation by the police on March 8, 2016.
They condemned the latest incident in Muranga in which a 30-year-old woman from Kariti Kandara was allegedly mutilated by her husband.
… building and the surprise that African Americans say they are due reparations …
BY VENERANDA LANGA PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa’s Zanu PF government has been urged to amend laws and enshrine the principles in the African Charter on Democracy and Governance (ACDEG) in order to improve issues of human rights and democracy in the country. This comes after the United Nations (UN) and African Union (AU) recently called out Zimbabwe for violating human rights and democracy principles enshrined in ACDEG. Zimbabwe is signatory to the charter which was adopted by the AU in 2007, with 34 countries having ratified the charter, and Zimbabwe is in the process of ratifying it after it appended its signature to the charter on March 21, 2018. After numerous reports of human rights abuses, which include targeted arrests of opposition and workers’ union leaders, abductions and heavy handedness on ordinary citizens and arrests of journalists, the AU Commission chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat this week said the continental body was closely monitoring the Zimbabwean situation in terms of breaching ACDEG principles. “The chairperson further encourages the government of Zimbabwe to uphold the rule of law allowing for freedom of the media, freedom of assembly, freedom of association and the right to information. Violations of these rights are a breach of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the 2007 African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance,” AU Commission chairperson Mahamat said. Constitutional expert James Tsabora said while the statement by the AU chairperson was welcome, it was disappointing that they had to wait for UN to first make a stern pronunciation on Zimbabwe. “Firstly it is disappointing that the AU had to wait for the UN to say something first about the situation in Zimbabwe. They must shout first because the AU is closer to home,” Tsabora said. He said in order to show its seriousness in promoting human rights and democracy, Zimbabwe must not only align its laws to the Constitution, but must also ensure that all the laws that are being aligned include the principles enshrined in ACDEG. “ACDEG passed through Parliament, and it is now up to government to take the principles in ACDEG and put them into the relevant laws. Government has not done that yet. They have said they will approve ACDEG, but they have not changed the laws to meet ACDEG standards which touch on several issues pointed out by the AU which include elections, democracy and human rights. “In the current alignment process, there are no specific laws that have used ACDEG as a standard. Those are some of the shortcomings of the alignment process. “Government should tell us which are the specific laws that they are practising that have accommodated ACDEG standards? They are amending laws, but are not infusing ACDEG standards,” he said. In his statement on the commemoration of Heroes Day on Monday, Mnangagwa claimed that his government had promoted constitutional democracy and “a just, open society” and claimed to be the victim. “Thank you for remaining calm and peaceful in the wake of some misguided calls for violen
[Zimbabwe Standard] Human rights watchdog, the Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP), has launched a mobile application that enables Zimbabweans to report human rights violations in real time from anywhere in the country.
[Premium Times] The SSS flouted the first order issued by the court on July 23 for the agency to produce the allies of Sunday Igboho last Thursday.
