Commonwealth Human Rights weekly update (09/07 - 15/07/2011)

Kenya

Wednesday 13/07: Row over Refugee Camp: Kenya's Assistant Internal Security Minister Orwah Ojodeh said he was against opening a new section to the Dadaab refugee camp. It is claimed that it would encourage more Somalis to cross the border.

The proposed new section would have room for up to 40,000 people and would ease the over-crowding. Currently 370,000 people are crammed into an area set up for 90,000 people.

Kenyan Immigration Minister Otieno Kajwang said he was embarrassed that the government was refusing open a new refugee facility.

Malawi

Thursday 14/07: Malawi’s Aid Cut: The UK's Department for International Development (DFID) released a statement stating Malawi's government was suppressing demonstrations. It says it will be cutting budgetary support to the Malawian government.

The statement is the latest stage in a diplomatic spat between Britain and Malawi. Early on this year Malawi expelled Britian’s high commissioner after he was quoted criticising Malawi’s human rights record,

However, the UK is continuing to give Malawi aid through non government channels. This is targeted at £90 million over the next year.

Namibia

Wednesday 13/07: Country Running out of Condoms: According to The Namibian, one of Namibia’s national papers, The Ministry of Health is running out of free condoms after it terminated its agreement with Namibia’s sole producer of condoms, Commodity Exchange (ComEx).

The paper reports that the Ministry of Health stopped buying condoms from ComEx Last year after claiming that there condom’s were too expensive. The Ministry has instead opted to source them from abroad.

Sexual health is part of the wider “Right to Health” contained within the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

Commonwealth Human Rights weekly update (02/07 - 08/07/2011)

Horn, East and Central Africa

Monday 04/07: Aid agencies launch multi-million pound appeals to address food crisis

Aid agencies launched huge appeals this week in order to tackle the impending humanitarian emergency in east Africa, where severe drought and high food prices have left 10 million people needing help.

The drought in some pastoralist regions of Kenya, Somalia, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Uganda comes as a result of the second failed rainy season in the last year. The drought has destroyed livestock, which at a time where cereal prices are soaring has caused hunger levels to increase sharply.

Almost a thousand Somalis refugees per day continue to cross across the Kenyan border to Dadaab, already the largest refugee settlement in the world, as covered in a previous post.  The greatest proportion of people in need are located in Kenya’s northern regions, where cereal prices have risen sharply in recent times. This is partly due to an increase in the global price, however a shortage of the maize has also been attributed to poor planning by the government, who claimed to have a surplus earlier in the year, before declaring a national disaster in May. There have also been allegations that politically connected Kenyans have sold maize meant for domestic consumption to neighbouring countries.

Sub-saharan Africa

Thursday 07/07/2011: Sub-saharan Africa on route to achieve MDG2

Sub-saharan Africa has been recognised as having up the best record for improvement in primary school enrolment, according the UN's annual report card of regional progress towards the eight MDGs.

The report highlighted that the world is far from achieving universal primary education. However Burundi, Madagascar, Rwanda, Samoa, São Tomé and Principe, Togo and Tanzania are among the countries that have achieved, or are nearing the goal of universal primary education. The abolition of school fees has contributed to progress in many of these countries, the UN said.

To achieve universal primary education, children must complete a full cycle of primary schooling. Currently, 87 out of 100 children in poor countries complete primary education.

Swaziland

Monday 04/07: Aid agencies launch multi-million pound appeals to address food crisis

The Commonwealth Secretariat is continuing to help Swaziland in advance of the country’s first Universal Periodic Review (UPR) human rights evaluation through a series of workshops for civil society organisations.

The UPR is a four yearly review of the human rights records of all 192 member states of the Commonwealth.  Swaziland is due to present its report to the Human Rights Council this month, and answer questions on it in October.

Karen McKenzie, Human rights adviser with HRU stated ‘engagement was contructive around a number of the burning human rights issues confronting government currently – some of these issues have been pending for a while.’ CHRI has covered Swaziland’s human rights record in previous posts and official statements.

African Civil Society Urges Support for ICC

Today the weakness of the International Criminal Court was underlined as Sudanese President al-Bashir, who has been subject two International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrants, was free to jet off to China on a state visit.

This visit coincides with a report by African civil society activists called ‘Observations and Recommendations on the ICC’, which calls upon African ICC members to fulfil its obligations to the court. The report has been timed to coincide with the upcoming African Union (AU) summit meeting.

The 17th AU summit will hold its assembly of heads of state from June 30 to July 1 in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea. Amongst the objectives of the AU's leading institutions is a commitment to promoting democratic institutions, good governance, and human rights. African states played an essential role in the formation of the ICC, and almost two thirds of African states have ratified the Rome Statute, under which it is established.

ICC Logo

However the last few years have seen tensions arise between the AU and ICC. The initial response of the AU and its members to the issuance of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir’s arrest warrant for war crimes and crimes against humanity provides a disquieting example. In ratifying the Rome Statute, African ICC state parties assume obligations that require them to cooperate with the court, including arrest and surrender of suspects. Despite this, several African ICC members chose to ignore the warrant and some actively invited Bashir to visit their countries. The AU itself sought suspension of the proceedings against Bashir from the UN Security Council and stated that they would not co-operate in with the ICC in his arrest. It is a welcoming recommendation therefore that this report calls for African ICC members to uphold their obligations vis-à-vis visits by persons subject to ICC arrest warrants.

The report also calls for African ICC members to press for justice for serious crimes in violation of international law in Kenya. This has been the cause of further erosion in the relationship between the AU and ICC, following the AU’s request for the Security Council to delay ICC investigation of post-election violence in Kenya. This request ran contrary to opinion polls which suggest that not only are most Kenyans in support of the ICC process, but they believe it to be the only way justice can be done for the victims of these atrocities.

AU officials have recently gone as far as to suggest that the ICC is targeting Africans. Whilst it may be true that all situations under ICC investigation to date are in Africa, this can be seen to reflect Africa’s commitment to justice for the most serious crimes. It must also be remembered that the majority of the ICC's investigations have come about as a result of referrals by the governments of states where the crimes were committed. As Stephen Tumwesigye of Human Rights Network Uganda, one of the NGO’s supporting the report, states ‘African states should urge the AU to increase - not scale down - support for holding the worst rights abusers to account.’

The AU and ICC must connect better across the physical and political borders of its members, and act in solidarity to fulfill the human rights commitment they have made to Africans across the continent. It is hoped that heads of state will note this report at this week’s AU summit and adopt its recommendations.

Alison Picton, Human Rights Advocacy, CHRI

LGBT Situation in Kenya

Last week The UN passed a resolution on Human Rights, Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity. The resolution was adopted by a vote of 23 in favour, 19 against, and 3 abstentions. It requests that the High Commissioner should establish a committee to document discriminatory laws and acts of violence against individuals based on their sexual orientation and gender identity.

The Commission will be active in all regions of the world, including Cameroon, Ghana, Nigeria and Uganda who all actively voted against its formation. The Commission will report on how international human rights law can be used to end violence and related human rights violations based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

In addition the UN will convene a panel discussion during the nineteenth session of the Human Rights Council which will pick over the commission’s findings and suggest follow on recommendations to the High Commissioner.

In the meantime here is CHRI’s assessment of the LGBT situation in Kenya.

Kenya

Law that Criminalises Homosexuality Penal Code of the Laws of Kenya, Rev. 2009[1] Under section 162 it is an offence to have carnal knowledge of any person against the order of nature or of an animal; or to permit a male person to have carnal knowledge of him or her against the order of nature.  Whoever commits this felony is liable to imprisonment for fourteen years, or in the case that said carnal knowledge was without the consent of the person, or with consent obtained by force, intimidation or false representations, imprisonment for twenty one years. Under section 163 it is an offence to attempt to commit any of the offences specified in section 162, whoever commits this felony is liable to imprisonment for seven years. Under section 165 it is an offence for any male, whether in public or private, to commit any act of gross indecency with another male person, or to procure or attempt to procure another male person to commit any act of gross indecency with him.  This felony is liable to imprisonment for five years. Under the Sexual Offences Act of 2006, section 3 criminalises rape by a woman or man who intentionally and unlawfully commits an act which causes penetration with his or her genital organs; and the person does not consent to this penetration, or the consent is obtained by force or intimidation.  Whoever is guilty of this felony is liable to imprisonment from ten years to life.

Practical Consequences of the law In February 2010 police crashed a ‘gay wedding’ and arrested five men.[2] GALCK – Gay and Lesbian Coalition of Kenya is a group which seeks to promote recognition, acceptance and defend the interests and rights of LGBTI organizations and their members including their health rights. http://galck.org/

Constitutional Clause on Equality or Right to Privacy Constitution of Kenya, 2010[3] Article 27 guarantees equality before the law, where equality includes the full and equal enjoyment of all rights and fundamental freedoms.  It also guarantees the right to equal protection and equal benefit of the law.  Neither the State nor a person shall discriminate directly or indirectly against any person on any ground, including race, sex, pregnancy, marital status, health status, ethnic or social origin, colour, age, disability, religion, conscience, belief, culture, dress, language or birth. Article 24. expands upon limitations to the rights and freedoms of the constitution and affirms that right or fundamental freedom in the Bill of Rights shall not be limited except by law, and then only to the extent that the limitation is reasonable and justifiable in an open and democratic society based on human dignity, equality and freedom, taking into account all relevant factors, including the nature of the right or fundamental freedom; the importance of the purpose of the limitation; the nature and extent of the limitation; and the need to ensure that the enjoyment of rights and fundamental freedoms by any individual does not prejudice the rights and fundamental freedoms of others. Article 28 guarantees the innate and inherent dignity of every person and the right to have that dignity respected. Article 31 guarantees to every person the right to privacy including having their family or private affairs unnecessarily revealed or the privacy of their communications infringed.

African Commonwealth Human Rights Weekly Update (11/06 - 17/06/2011)

Kenya

10/06/2011 – Humanitarian emergency as world’s biggest refugee camp runs out of room

Dadaab, a sprawling refugee camp in Kenya, has run out of space, Medicines Sans Frontiers has declared. Situated in the barren desert of Kenya’s north-eastern province, the camp’s population is expected to reach 450,000 by the end of the year.

Three years ago, the UN declared that the camp had no more room for new arrivals, but conflict and the worst drought in years have forced 44,000 Somalis to seek admittance into Dadaab since the beginning of this year.

The refugees – most of whom are women and children – arrive with no money, no food, no water and no shelter. 60% report illness on arrival, having walked through the desert for days. They are left without food or shelter in dry heat of 50C and are said to be vulnerable to attack by animals.

‘More refugees are on their way,’ Nenna Arnold, an MSF nurse, said. ‘We are already at bursting point, but the figures keep growing. This situation is a humanitarian emergency.’

Nigeria

17/06/2011 – Radical Islamist sect claims responsibility for suicide bombing

A radical Islamist sect has claimed responsibility for Nigeria's first suicide bombing, saying the attack that killed two at Abuja's police headquarters was aimed at Nigeria’s police chief.

The group, Boko Haram, stated ‘We are responsible for the bomb attack on the police headquarters in Abuja which was to prove a point to all those who doubt our capability.’

The group had threatened ‘fiercer’ attacks the day before the bombings, declaring their anger at a police declaration that its days were ‘numbered.’

Thursday’s powerful explosion ripped through the car park inside the police headquarters compound, killing a police officer and the bomber, wounding several others and destroying dozens of cars, according to police. The death toll is still to be confirmed.

The event was the first suicide bombing in Nigeria, a country of 150 million people facing a growing threat from Islamic militants. Levels of insecurity are already high in the country only weeks after President Goodwill Jonathan's election late April for his first full term.

Boko Haram, whose name means ‘Western education is sin’, launched an uprising in 2009 which was brutally repressed by the military, leaving hundreds dead. The group advocate for the creation of an Islamic state, and have been blamed for shootings of police and community leaders, bomb blasts and raids on churches, police stations and a prison.

Rwanda

16/06/2011 – Rwandan Parliament admitted to CPA

The Rwandan Parliament were officially admitted as the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association’s 19^th member. Rwanda is hosting the 42^nd African CPA annual conference under the theme ‘Consolidation Growth and Development.’

Sessions will include issues of food security and sustainable livelihood, and the role of Parliament in mitigating the impact of genetically modified crops on poverty and food security. The agenda also covers the role of Parliaments in promoting democracy and good governance.

Uganda

16/06/2011 - Uganda's former vice president charged with fraud

Former vice-president Gilbert Bukenya has been charged with fraud.

He is accused of being responsible for the fraudulent procurement of luxury cars, which provided the transport for several heads of state during the 2007 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Kampala.

Mr Bukenya chaired the cabinet team in charge of preparations for the event but denies that he benefited from the $3.9m deal.

The former vice president was sacked in May, as part of a reshuffle in the wake of February's elections.

African Commonwealth Human Rights Weekly Update (04/06 - 10/06/2011)

Cameroon

09/06/2011 – NGO’s campaign for Mdbede’s release

NGO’s have joined together to demand the release of Jean-Claude Roger Mdbede, sentenced to three years imprisonment for homosexuality.

Entrapment is regularly used by the police in Cameroon to target and arrest gay men under anti-homosexual laws allowing imprisonment for up to five years. In Mbede’s case, he was sent text messages by an ‘acquaintance’ and was arrested by waiting police officers upon meeting him.

Last year a joint report by four human rights organisations said homosexual people in Cameroon face arbitrary detention, scant regard for due process and sentencing without evidence. The report documented abuses in detention, both pre-trial and in prison, by police and prison personnel, including beatings, torture and verbal abuse.

CHRI has covered the legal status of homosexuality in Cameroon here.

Kenya

10/06/2011 – Government makes financial commitment to police reform

The government has budgeted KSh78 billion for the implementation of police reforms over the next three years.

Internal Security permanent secretary Francis Kimemia, speaking during the launch of the Police Reforms Programme Document in Nairobi, stated that the money was to be used in the implementation of the various projects like provision of transport, housing, communication gadgets, and for re-training, capacity building and institutional support programmes for the two police services.

You can find out more about the work CHRI has done on policing in East Africa here.

Swaziland

08/06/2011 – Campaign launched to free president of NUS

A campaign has been launched to free Maxwell Dlamini, the president of Swaziland's NUS (SNUS). Dlamini was arrested, along with political activist Musa Mgudeni, on the eve of the pro-Democracy protests on April 12, and charged with possession of illegal ammunition, although he denies this charge.

His supporters say that the Swazi government is trying to smear Dlamini following the many battles with the government on behalf of the students since he took office.

Dlamini was voted in as president of the NUS late last year. In office he has led campaigns against increased tuition fees and proposed cuts to scholarships. He has also urged the Swazi government to honour its constitutional commitment to introduce free primary school education.

African Commonwealth Human Rights Weekly Update (28/06 - 03/06/2011)

Kenya

31/06/2011 – Kenya plans to appeal ICC decision

Kenya has declared its intention to appeal the decision of the International Criminal Court which rejected their request that trials of six men accused of crimes against humanity be held in Kenya’s national court.

The ICC ruled that the application did not contain sufficient evidence that the government could deliver justice locally, stating that it ‘did not provide concrete evidence of ongoing proceedings before national judges, against the same persons suspected of committing crimes falling under the ICC's jurisdiction.’

Kenya had earlier challenged the jurisdiction of the ICC, saying its own authorities would investigate and prosecute the cases on Kenyan soil.

Mozambique

01/06/2011 - Free weekly newspaper marks its third year

@Verdade, (truth, in Portuguese) is an extraordinary newspaper. With an aim of increasing access to information, it is distributed free of charge in Maputo and four other towns to people who could otherwise not afford to buy a newspaper.

‘@Verdade was designed and set out to be a tool for development,' says Erik Charas, the papers founder and developer. ‘The development of the citizen, the human being who is entitled to be an active participant of their country's economy simply by being informed. By being able to take or make informed decisions. By being able to speak and be heard. By being allowed to dream, to want and to do. And to change things.’

And three years on, signs show that the newspaper is working as an agent for change in a country that continues on its road to recovery following a sixteen year civil war. A study by Paul Collier, Jenny C Aker and Pedro C Vicente about the 2009 national elections found that access to @Verdade had increased political participation by 10%.

Nigeria

02/06/2011 – Nigerian police raid ‘baby farm’

An alleged ‘baby farm’ in the southern city of Aba was raided by Nigeria police this week. Thirty two pregnant girls, mostly of school age, were found locked up at the Cross Foundation clinic. Their babies were to be sold for illegal adoption or for use in ritual witchcraft.

Human trafficking is the third most common crime in Nigeria after financial fraud and drug trafficking. The UN estimates that at least ten children a day are sold across the country. Traffickers are seldom caught.

The police carried out similar raids on such clinics in neighbouring Enugu state in 2008.

Rwanda

02/06/2011 – Rwanda disputes claims of repressing free speech

This week saw the publication of an Amnesty International report stating that the genocide ideology and sectarianism laws enacted in Rwanda following the 1994 genocide have been used to stifle free speech and political opposition. The report stated that the policies are overly vague, broad and are being used by the government to punish journalists, human rights workers and political opposition.

Justice Minister Tharcisse Karugarama stated that Rwanda is already in the process of reviewing the policies. The government has labelled the report ‘inaccurate’ and ‘highly partisan’.

Living in fear of forced evictions

This week saw Amnesty International celebrate its 50^th birthday.  Events across the world marked the contribution that the organisation, supported by its three million members, has made to the human rights agenda across the world.

The Amnesty Ghana birthday celebrations saw the launch of the report ‘When we sleep, we don’t sleep’, covering the thousands of people living in informal slums in Ghana who are at risk of forced evictions.

A forced eviction occurs when people are removed from their homes without the following safeguards being in place:

·         genuine consultation with those at risk of eviction

·         adequate and reasonable notice of eviction

·         provision of adequate alternative housing and compensation for losses

·         access to legal remedies.

Forced evictions are, regrettably, a common occurrence both in Ghana and throughout our African Commonwealth neighbours.  In 2009, hundreds of people were  displaced by the demolition of structures along the Graphic Road in Abuja. The same year saw the progression of the Kenyan government’s campaign to forcibly evict an estimated 20,000 people from the Mau Forest Complex. In Nigeria more than two million people have been forcibly evicted from their homes since 2000.

All three countries have made international commitments to respect, protect and fulfil the right to adequate housing, and to prevent and refrain from carrying out forced evictions. However their governments are yet to implement national laws to ensure the realisation of the right to adequate housing.  A pledge by the Kenyan government in 2006 to develop guidance on forced evictions is yet to materialise, and forced evictions in Nairobi continue to this day.

In Ghana, the absence of constitutional or legal provisions that would give effect to its international legal obligations in relation to the right to adequate housing and the prohibition of forced evictions provide an avenue for officials to deny that they have any responsibility towards residents in slums, claiming that they are there illegally. This lack of legal protection was confirmed in the 2002 case brought to the High Court by the residents of Old Fadama, the biggest informal settlement in Accra. The judgment stated that the Accra Metropolitan Authority, who were carrying out the evictions, were ‘under no obligation to resettle or relocate or compensate the plaintiffs in any way before evicting them from their illegal occupations.. the mere eviction of plaintiffs who are trespassers, from the land they have trespassed onto, does not in any way amount to an infringement of their rights as human beings.’

Today, 80,000 people living in Old Fadama continue to face the threat of forced eviction. 

Forced evictions frequently occur as a result of a governments desire to use the land in question for development projects.  Examples include the recent building of the Northern Bypass in Nairobi, which saw 3000 people forcibly evicted from the village of Githogoro, and the current redevelopment of the little-used railway line in Accra. Such projects are designed to increase prosperity by attracting investment, creating jobs, and improving infrastructure. These are welcome initiatives, but through the forced evictions that occur as part of the process, the very governments that claim to strive for improving living standards for the people instead force them deeper into poverty. The failure to provide an adequate alternative simply escalates levels of poverty as people either remain in the ruins of their homes or move to another slum. Forced evictions create problems, they do not solve them.

The governments of Ghana, Kenya and Nigeria must be held to account for their failures to comply with the ICESCR, which provides people with the right to a minimum degree of security of tenancy, whether they own their homes, rent property, or live in informal settlements.  An enforceable ban on forced evictions must be legislated for, and guidelines developed to ensure those who will potentially be at risk of forced eviction as a result of government initiatives are afforded a genuine opportunity to participate in the process.

Alison Picton, Human Rights Advocacy, CHRI Africa