Titled ‘The Syrian Government Detention System as a Tool of Violent Repression,’ the report from the UN International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism (IIIM) draws on over 300 witness interviews, medical forensic evidence and the Syrian Government’s own documentation. It reveals widespread human rights violations including sexual violence and enforced disappearances....
More than 700,000 people are displaced in the country – over half of whom are children – with recent violence in the capital Port-au-Prince displacing another 12,000 people in recent weeks. Food insecurity is at an all-time high, affecting half of Haiti’s population, or approximately 5.4 million people. Pockets of...
In a statement concluding a 12-day visit there, the UN expert group said that reforms including the transition to an accusatory criminal procedure, adherence to international human rights laws and introduction of a National Registry of Detentions, and an increasingly human-rights centred legal system are significant achievements. ‘Catalyst for ill-treatment’...
ECOWAS is scheduled to hold another meeting on the crisis on Thursday in Abuja, Nigeria, according to media reports. This follows an extraordinary summit last week where the 15-member bloc issued a communiqué calling for the reinstatement of Nigerien President Mohamed Bazoum. Failing this, ECOWAS had threatened to “take all...
“At the start of this year – the 75th anniversary year of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights – I call on governments and all detaining authorities, globally, to amnesty, pardon or simply release all those detained for exercising their rights,” he said in a statement. “Reach into your hearts, review their cases,...