Concludes Interactive Dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Development The Human Rights Council this afternoon held an interactive dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation and concluded its interactive dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the right to development. Speaking on the right to water and sanitation were the European Union, Denmark, Burkina Faso, State of Palestine, Fiji, Ecuador, Pakistan, France, Germany, Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso, Armenia, India, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Djibouti, Libya, Senegal, Iraq, Togo, Morocco, Mexico, South…
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Man Who Inspired the Film ‘Hotel Rwanda’ Charged with Terrorism
A Rwandan court is charging the man who inspired the film “Hotel Rwanda” with terrorism, complicity in murder and forming an armed rebel group. Prosecutors accuse Paul Rusesabagina of orchestrating crimes against unarmed, innocent Rwandan civilians in 2018. Rusesabagina refused to plead to all 13 charges on Monday, including being linked to murders, claiming some of the charges are baseless. Rusesabagina, who has been detained since late last month, is asking to be released because of poor health. The court will hear his request for bail on Thursday. The film…
Read MoreWest and Central Africa: Weekly Regional Humanitarian Snapshot (1 – 7 September 2020)
REGIONAL FLOODS Heavy rains have been recorded in West and Central Africa in the past weeks, including in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Ghana, Niger, Mali, Nigeria, Republic of Congo and Senegal, leading to devastating floods that have killed dozens and displaced thousands of people. In Niger, 329,958 people had been affected by flooding with 65 deaths. About 31,960 houses have collapsed and 5,768 hectares of farmland destroyed. Maradi, Dosso, Tahoua and Niamey are the most affected regions. In 2019, at the same time, 35,384 people were affected across the country.…
Read MoreUN Rights Chief Condemns Death Threats Against Congo Nobel Laureate
GENEVA – A U.N. official is calling for swift action to find and prosecute those responsible for recent death threats against Congolese human rights defender and Nobel Laureate Denis Mukwege. U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet is urging authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo to provide 24-hour security for Mukwege, a gynecologist who survived an assassination attempt in October 2012 and is receiving death threats. Her spokesman, Rupert Colville, said it is difficult to say who is behind the recent threats, but he does not believe it…
Read MoreAtrocity Alert No. 217: Myanmar (Burma), Lake Chad Basin and Human Rights Defenders Under Attack
Atrocity Alert is a weekly publication by the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect highlighting situations where populations are at risk of, or are enduring, mass atrocity crimes. THIRD ANNIVERSARY OF THE ROHINGYA GENOCIDE Yesterday, 25 August, marked three years since Myanmar’s security forces launched so-called “clearance operations” against the ethnic Rohingya population in Rakhine State. The operations were characterized by widespread mass killings, sexual violence, torture, the destruction of more than 300 Rohingya villages and the forced displacement of more than 745,000 people. The UN Human Rights Council-mandated…
Read MoreCameroon Dispatches Humanitarian Assistance as Floods Render Thousands Homeless
YAOUNDE – Cameroon has dispatched emergency aid for at least 5,000 people left homeless or displaced by the worst coastal flooding in decades. Heavy rains this month swept floodwaters through Douala, Cameroon’s largest city and economic capital, leaving much of it underwater. Fresh fish seller Marcelline Obono, 39, says she lost all of her fish in weekend floods in Cameroon’s economic capital Douala. She says she obtained a loan from a friend to buy fish and sell at the Nkoulouloun market, but that she is not certain of what may…
Read MoreCameroon Women Protest Insecurity, Gruesome Murder of Civilians
YAOUNDE, CAMEROON – Dozens of women in Cameroon’s English-speaking southwest are protesting today against recent violence by suspected rebels. Women in the town of Buea say they are increasingly victims of the region’s four-year separatist conflict. A…
Read MoreHumanitarian Coordinator ad interim in Cameroon condemns killing of an aid worker in the North West region
Yaoundé, 8 August 2020 – The Humanitarian Coordinator ad interim in Cameroon, Mrs. Siti Batoul Oussein, strongly condemns the killing of a humanitarian aid worker serving with the Community Initiative for Sustainable Development (COMINSUD) in Batibo Subdivision in the North West region of Cameroon. “I am outraged and saddened by the killing of another aid worker in the North West region of Cameroon. On behalf of the United Nations and the wider humanitarian community in Cameroon, I extend our deepest condolences to his family, community and to COMINSUD”, said Mrs.Oussein.…
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