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Human rights
RSS FeedSudan: Kenya’s ambassador expelled
2011-12-01, Issue 560
Sudan has ordered the expulsion of the Kenyan ambassador after a Kenyan judge issued an arrest warrant for Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir, Sudan's foreign ministry has said. The Kenyan ambassador to Sudan now has 72 hours to leave that country and ...
Zambia: Zambia ignores arrest call for Bush
2011-12-05, Issue 560
We will consider arresting George Bush when Amnesty International 'give us the facts', said Zambia President Michael Sata on Sunday shortly before he saw off the visiting US former president. The Zambian president also said 'it’s a coincidence' that ...
Ethiopia: Man sets himself on fire in protest against government
2011-11-22, Issue 559
An Ethiopian man has died from his injuries after he set himself on fire in a protest against the government following mass arrests of youths from his local area. Residents of Dawro area in south west Ethiopia said 29-year-old school teacher Yenesew ...
Libya: Libya and the ICC: What Next?
2011-11-22, Issue 559
It has now been confirmed that the two remaining Libyan suspects wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC), Saif al-Islam al-Qaddafi and Abdullah al-Senussi, have been detained by national authorities. What happens now? Under international law...
Equatorial Guinea: Reforms ring hollow ahead of summit
2011-11-23, Issue 559
Latin American and African dignitaries gathering in Equatorial Guinea for a cross-regional meeting should press their host, President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasago, on his human rights record, EG Justice and Human Rights Watch said. This ahead of a A...
Burundi: 300 killed by death squads, rights group claims
2011-11-23, Issue 559
Government-backed death squads have killed more than 300 members of Burundi’s former rebel group and opposition supporters in covert operations over the past five months, a rights group said. The group, Government Action Observatory, a coalition of c...
Uganda: Compensation to Acholi war claimants not enough
2011-11-23, Issue 559
While the payment of compensation to 30,000 Acholi war claimants is welcomed after two years of waiting, further reparations are required for victims of the northern Uganda conflict, says this article form Uganda's Monitor newspaper. 'Providing compe...
Egypt: Tear gas used in Egypt causes liver, heart damage, miscarriages
2011-11-23, Issue 559
The tear gas being employed by the Egyptian military and police in the past 48 hours, beyond being expired for at least five years, according to canisters obtained by Bikyamasr.com, cause severe pulmonary damage, as well as causing damage to the hear...
Egypt: UK firm denies 'cyber-spy' deal with Egypt
2011-11-24, Issue 559
A UK firm offered to supply 'cyber-spy' software used by Egypt to target activists, the BBC has learned. Documents found in the headquarters of the country's security service suggest it was used for a five-month trial period at the end of last year. ...
Nigeria: Niger Delta still unstable despite amnesty
2011-11-27, Issue 559
Two years after the Nigerian government granted amnesty to militants fighting mainly for development and job opportunities in the oil-rich Niger River Delta, violence has diminished, and oil revenues - which dropped at the height of the conflict - ha...
Libya: Ex-rebels hold 7,000 detainees, says UN chief
2011-11-27, Issue 559
Libya's former rebels are holding some 7,000 detainees, many of them sub-Saharan Africans, without access to due legal process after the country's civil war, UN chief Ban Ki-moon said in a new report. Ban cited reports that some detainees had been to...
DRC: Male rape in the DRC
2011-11-16, Issue 558
They are men who have lost all pride and self-confidence and who have been left severely traumatised by their experience. At the medical centre in Uganda where they are being treated, they talked candidly about the crimes carried out against them. 'I...
Nigeria: Sexual slaves evacuated from Mali
2011-11-16, Issue 558
Nigeria has evacuated from Mali 104 of its citizens, mostly women, either made to work as 'sexual slaves' or suspected of involvement in human trafficking, officials said. The National Agency for the Prohibition of Traffic in Persons (NAPTIP) evacuat...
Egypt: Activists continue to push against military trials
2011-11-17, Issue 558
The No Military Trials group has stepped up the momentum in its campaign, presenting family members of military detainees at a conference chaired by Mohammad Abd Al-Qaddous of the Journalists’ Syndicate. Ahmad Darrag of the National Gathering for Cha...
Libya: World powers urge fair trial for captured Gaddafi son
2011-11-21, Issue 558
World powers have urged Libya to work with the International Criminal Court and ensure a fair trial for Seif al-Islam, son of slain leader Muamar Gaddafi who was arrested after months on the run. Seif, wanted by the ICC for crimes against humanity al...
Angola: Local authorities disrupt civil society event
2011-11-21, Issue 558
On 9 November 2011, local authorities in Benguela suddenly withdrew their support and disrupted an arts and culture event organised by the NGO OMUNGA that was scheduled to start the following day. OMUNGA is a human rights group based in the province ...
CAR: Country no 'no rights black hole', says government
2011-11-08, Issue 557
The Central African Republic has hit out at an Amnesty International report that deemed the country a human rights 'black hole', saying much had been done to protect its citizens. The government spokesperson said it was 'extreme' to maintain, as AI d...
Burundi: Rumoured hit list frightens opposition
2011-11-08, Issue 557
Many teachers in the eastern Burundian provinces of Ruyigi and Cankuzo have fled their homes, fearing for their lives. Rumour has it that a plan, codenamed ‘Safisha’ and allegedly being carried out by the ruling CNDD-FDD party, aims to eliminate all ...
South Africa: SA justice minister calls for investigation into Zim rendition reports
2011-11-09, Issue 557
South Africa’s Justice Minister has called for an investigation into reports that the country’s priority crimes unit and the police are involved in an illegal ‘renditions’ deal with Zimbabwe. Minister Jeff Radebe is reportedly on a 'collision course'...
Gambia: Rights group urges Gambia to free two activists
2011-11-09, Issue 557
A global human rights body, ‘Front Line’, has urged the Gambian authorities to 'immediately drop all charges' against Dr Isatou Touray and Amie Bojang, two leading rights activists. Dr. Touray and Bojang, Director and Programme Coordinator respective...
Nigeria: 10 extra-judicial killings per week
2011-11-09, Issue 557
Nigeria records 10 extra-judicial killings per week, and 95 per cent of such killings are unresolved, the local media quoted the non-governmental organisation Legal Defence and Assistance Project (LEDAP) as saying. LEDAP also said about 2,800 unlawfu...
Zimbabwe: Amnesty highlights Murambatsvina
2011-11-10, Issue 557
The 50th African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights ended recently in Banjul, Gambia with Amnesty International voicing its concern over the continuing struggle that victims of Operation Murambatsvina face. AI said it was concerned about the fai...
Nigeria: Amnesty urges Shell to pay for Nigeria spills
2011-11-14, Issue 557
Amnesty International has called on Shell to pay $1bn to start cleaning up two oil spills in Nigeria's Niger Delta which it says caused huge suffering to locals whose fisheries and farmland were poisoned. The report by the human rights group to mark ...
Uganda: FDC’s Turinawe, Besigye aides further remanded
2011-11-01, Issue 556
Three members of the opposition Forum for Democratic Change who were last week charged with treason in connection with walk to work have been further remanded to Luzira Maximum Security Prison. The FDC women leader Ms Ingrid Kamateneti Turinawe along...
Global: US cuts off Unesco funding after Palestinian vote
2011-11-01, Issue 556
The United States said on Monday 31 October it had stopped funding Unesco, the United Nations' cultural agency, following its vote to grant the Palestinians full membership. US State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland told reporters the US had ...
Global: Alarming rise in use of mercenaries
2011-11-02, Issue 556
The United Nations Working Group on the use of mercenaries has warned of an alarming resurgence of the use of mercenaries in armed conflict –'often in new and novel ways'. The expert panel also noted in a report to the UN General Assembly that the gr...
Uganda: Government-backed harassment and repression of critics increasing
2011-11-03, Issue 556
The Ugandan government and public officials are increasingly placing illegitimate restrictions on freedom of expression and peaceful assembly to silence critical voices, Amnesty International said in a new report. 'Stifling Dissent: Restrictions on t...
Africa: Britain, we are guilty
2011-11-03, Issue 556
The latest cover story of the New African examines the fight for reparations for the transatlantic slave trade, featuring old and rare official records of British parliamentary debates in June 1806 in which both Houses of Parliament accepted that the...
South Africa: Goldstone a ‘liar’, says Gaza lawyer
2011-11-06, Issue 556
Prominent Gaza human rights lawyer Raji Sourani has called South African judge Richard Goldstone a liar, following recent comments he made in the New York Times regarding apartheid in Israel. Speaking at a Palestine Solidarity Campaign event, the fou...
Sierra Leone: Amputees still waiting for reparations almost 10 years on
2011-10-25, Issue 554
Cutting off peoples’ limbs - in most cases their hands - was one of the brutal strategies used by members of the Revolutionary United Front to terrify people to support them. Some 27,000 Sierra Leoneans are estimated to have been disabled or have had...
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