“The Kenyan authority decision is an intimidation to the laws and conventions of the human rights as I believe and is also a threat to many civilians who similarly escaped terrorist acts by Shabab due to reprisal including women, children, human rights activists and journalists”said Daud Abdi Daud the Secretary General of AFEJ from Mogadishu, Somalia.

“ As Kenya’s President H.E. Mwai Kibaki said that his country is malleted with terrorist attacks and attributed the incursions of being planned from neighborhood Somalia. I’ agree with the president of Kenya that shabab is threat to Kenya security but women, children and journalists cannot be similar to Shabab and they need to be protected as 18 journalists killed in Somalia only this year of 2012 by Shabab, however, this quandary among Kenya and Somalia authorities still waits global involvement by United Nations and the African Union” Mr. Daud added
This statement from the secretary General of AFEJ comes after when the President of Somalia H.E. Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud traveled to Kenya today and met Kenya authorities since he was elected as a president.

The political scene of the two countries recently was not good and its widely believed that this bilateral presidential meeting could boost the hope of many Somalis or pave the way a new humanitarian upheavals against dozens of Somalia refugees.

Out of the 26 million persons internally displaced due to conflict or human rights violence in 2011, an estimated 10 million were in Africa, with at least a  further half million internally displaced due to sudden onset natural disasters, such as floods.  While precise figures are not yet available, the continent is also impacted by displacement related to slow onset natural disasters, such as desertification and more frequent droughts, associated with the effects of climate change.

However, I believe that the significance of the Kampala Convention goes beyond Africa – as an international model this comprehensive Convention represents the culmination of over two decades of work during which Governments, civil society and the international community have sought to improve the way we address the plight of millions of internally displaced persons across the globe.

In many contexts, the situation of internally displaced persons affects the stability of states. This is especially the case in post conflict /crisis situations, as I have seen through my missions for example, in Kenya, Cote d’Ivoire and Sudan. The Kampala Convention can contribute to stabilizing displaced populations through the specific obligations it sets out to States and other actors, such as obligations relating to humanitarian assistance, compensation, and assistance in finding lasting solutions to displacement as well as accessing the full range of their human rights.

The unique ‘added value’ of this Convention stems from how comprehensive it is and the manner in which it addresses many of the key challenges of our times, and indeed, of Africa.  If implemented well, it can help States and the African Union address both current and potential future internal displacement related not only to conflict, but also natural disasters and other effects of climate change, development, and even mega trends such as population growth and rapid urbanization. The Convention provides a solid legal framework for dealing with many of the complex dynamics of internal displacement in Africa today.

The Convention is significant in many respects. It sets out the obligations of the State parties, but also of the African Union, international organizations and members of armed groups, to prevent displacement, protect and assist people once displacement has occurred, and to find lasting solutions to displacement. Under the Convention, States have specific obligations to allocate resources, adopt national policies and strategies and enact or amend national laws to ensure that displacement is prevented and that IDPs are protected and supported until they reach a sustainable solution to their displacement.

Based on the spirit of partnership on which the Kampala Convention is founded, it is vital that the international and donor communities now support African States, the African Union and civil society in raising awareness and building the capacities to implement the Convention. This is and will remain one of the key priorities of my mandate over the next few years.

I also urge those States that have not yet done so, to sign and ratify this landmark Convention, which embodies principles of good governance, respect for human rights and preparedness so necessary to prevent and address the human crisis related to situations of internal displacement.”

(*) The Kampala Convention, which was adopted in October 2009 and has been signed by 37 African Union Member States, has come into force today – one month after receiving the 15th ratification by Swaziland on 6 November 2012. Check the Convention: http://www.unhcr.org/4ae9bede9.html

                                                                                                 ENDS

Chaloka Beyani, a Zambian national and professor of international law at the London School of Economics, was appointed as Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons by the Human Rights Council in September 2010.  Learn more about the mandate and work of the Special Rapporteur, visit: http://www2.ohchr.org/english/issues/idp/index.htm

For more information and media requests, please contact Rosa da Costa (+41 22 917 9140 /rdacosta@ohchr.org) or write to idp@ohchr.org

For media inquiries related to other UN independent experts:
Xabier Celaya, UN Human Rights – Media Unit (+ 41 22 917 9383 / xcelaya@ohchr.org)

Africa is still suffering the affects of global warming which causes Africa to be the poorest region in the world and looked as continent the most vulnerable to the impacts of projected changes due to widespread poverty limits and adaptation capabilities.

In fact, so as to draw a close measurable image about where the current food crisis is exactly exist as emergency in order to boost the desperate voice from entire African community most of who are living in fear from the continental food security crisis or in situations of need. Below you can see and read by countries scarcity in across Africa.

Somalia

Although, the United Nations  declared that Famine outcomes no longer existed in Southern Somalia the people’s call for help is still remaining in parts of Somalia and Somalis are still at risk due to lack of proper humanitarian action for security reasons. In addition to that, Somalia government and AMISOM are continuing sporadic fighting to defeat Al-shabab, an Al-Qaeda linked group in the most of south and central Somalia.

Nigeria

Hundreds of people are continuing to die in across Nigeria in a daily basis due to famine most of them are women and children. There is no adequate humanitarian assistance from aid agencies because of fear from Boko Haram in certain parts of Nigeria and people are still continuing to flee to the border areas looking for help.

Mozambique

Although food crisis is exist in parts of the country the current common situation in Mozambique is 50=50 the people of Mozambique started to speak loudly to push their authority to hear the voice from across Africa towards famine in order to set up good steps to avert drastic famine like Somalia or Nigeria in which could happen on the coming season.

Central African Republic (CAR)

 Thousands of people, who have returned to their homes in areas close to Ndélé, in northern Central African Republic’s (CAR) Bamingui-Bangoran region, after years of displacement, are living in difficult conditions as the security situation is still precarious.

The people of CAR are similar to Somalia people as they are without basic health, water, sanitation, shelter and proper food.

Mali and Burkina faso

At least  20,000 Malian refugees who are now in Burkina Faso are in situation of need from the humanitarian agencies globally though There are near by 1, 000 of people arriving yet and aiming to cross the border while the relief efforts is very weak in generally.

As a result of failed rains and widespread drought, Mali lost 11.8% of total cereal output between the years 2010 to 2011. While in Burkina Faso it is estimated that 41.47% of the country will face severe food insecurity.

The Burkina faso, Minister of Communications honorable Alain Traore stated that his government needs more support in order to help the Malian refugees in Burkina faso, the most urgent of these refugees is shelter, food and clean water  the minster said.

South-Sudan Republic

A near by 4.7million people of South-Sudan are at risk due to erratic rains and worsening food crisis currently. If the inter-ethnic violence continues to cause major population displacement and food prices keeping to raising thousands of people will be severely affected by chronic starvation.

In addition to that a statement from both the UN World Food Programme (WFP) and Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) said that in South Sudan’s first year of statehood, half the population of about nine million people could face hunger.

However, there are another African people who are still suffering the impacts from the horn of Africa drought such as Kenya, Djibouti and Ethiopia communities. Its clear that many other African people are at risk, as the government of Niger believe that more than half of the nation’s villages are now running out of basic food.

Despite Africa suffered climatic changes it seems that its leadership is doing nothing trustable efforts with no meaningful solution and even not mobilizing the ordinary society to wake up in order to create joint space for challenge, unless to wait for the drastic impacts from the hunger crisis ahead in across Africa.

Gradually, African government’s needs to support the local level attempts to build resilience, the national planning strategies could deliberately addressing community success with no more impairment average to avert the climate change problems.

Finally, I have to say “African’s time is not waiting for you; you have to think and move carefully to avert chronic despair over you”.

With more arriving each day – some 100 have arrived in the last 48 hours according to the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) – the food situation is getting desperate, say aid workers.

Migrants told UNICEF they fled the villages of Douri and Madaye in eastern Nigeria when members of the Boko Haram militant group attacked them, burning down houses. Police and military forces then arrived and started firing at those who remained, claiming they were Boko Haram supporters, according to witness accounts.

Some 10,000 people have reportedly fled northern Nigeria for Chad and Niger in recent weeks, fleeing violent crackdowns and Boko Haram violence.

The head of the canton and sub-head of the district have put together a local emergency team to register migrants and try to build them a makeshift shelter on the outskirts of N’Gbouboua. Most of the migrants are currently sheltering in the village’s two mosques and one church.

Some 557 of the migrants are children, 80 percent of them Koranic students or `talibés’, who live with and support their Koranic teachers (`marabouts’), said a senior district official. According to IOM, most of these children come from the Lac Chad region, including the villages of N’djelea, Bagasoula and N’gloua.

Attacks by Boko Haram and ensuing violent crackdowns by Nigerian police and military forces have killed up to 1,000 people in Nigeria since 2009.

Residents of the surrounding eastern Nigerian villages of Dougouri, Folkine, Koyorom and Malfahtri also fled.

To reach N’Gbouboua, each migrant had to take up to six boats to cross Lake Chad as the crossing is often interrupted by river banks and boats have to avoid very low water levels. Migrants told UNICEF Water and Sanitation Officer Jules Laouhingamaye that many had stayed behind in the Chadian village of Faroro nearer the Nigerian border, some 30km from N’Gouboua.

Begging to survive

The needs are enormous and migrants urgently “need everything”, said Laouhingamaye, with food and water the most urgent priorities. UNICEF has counted a significant number of breastfeeding women among the migrants, many of whom have had little or nothing to eat in over a week. Village residents are sharing what little food they have but there is simply not enough to go around, he said.

Photo: Jules Laouhingamaye/UNICEF

Locals are collecting straw to build a hangar to house the migrants

Many of the talibés, accustomed to begging for alms, are going door-to-door begging for food, but the villagers “have had enough – they’re starting to get angry,” he said.

UNICEF’s Laouhingamaye, along with staff from their partner NGO Secours Islamique France (SIF), have distributed soap and some water containers to migrants, and are putting together a water and sanitation response following a rapid evaluation on 3 and 4 March.

“We’re doing what we can to help get them sanitation materials, but food is needed now,” he told IRIN in Bol, (capital of Lac Region in Chad, some 125km away), having just returned from the site.

The deputy head of the region has asked the regional authorities and aid agencies for aid but thus far no food has been delivered. “Food is the immediate priority,” Laouhingamaye told IRIN in Bol.

The UN country team, including representatives from the World Food Programme, is meeting on 6 March to plan the UN response.

Reaching N’Gbouboua involves travelling on appalling roads with maximum speeds of 45km per hour, and a river crossing on a rudimentary raft that will take nothing larger than a 4WD vehicle.

Among the migrants are some 100 Christians – most of them farmers from the Mayo Kebi and Tandjile regions of southern Chad. “We will have to help provide these groups with transport so they can return to their homes,” said IOM’s Qasim Sufi.

If the resources are available, IOM will start an operation to help migrants return to their homes as soon as possible said Sufi. The organization recently helped some 100,000 Chadian returnees home after they fled violence in Libya.

“We will follow the same approach here… This is a migration crisis. It is risky to leave these people there [so close to the border]. These people have nothing to do with Boko Haram,” Sufi told IRIN from the capital, N’djamena. IOM has already distributed some medicines but many more are needed.

Some of the migrants who hail from Chad’s Kanem region further north have already started to make their way home, according to IOM; while among those in N’Gbouboua, most told UNICEF they want to return to their homes in Chad, while some hope to return to Nigeria if things become less insecure.

Tracing families

Reunifying the hundreds of `talibés’ will be an arduous task, say child protection agencies.

Gamalao Dara, a child protection consultant with UNICEF who returned from the site yesterday after evaluating protection needs, told IRIN the situation is “complicated” but many of the children they interviewed do know the names of their home villages and thus their families may be traceable.

Sufi told IRIN the task may be hard but it is not impossible: “As agencies we have experience in family reunification… We will have to see what can and cannot be done.”

Source: IRIN

Burundi’s civil war ended in 2005 but it remains in a state of acrimonious political deadlock, with widespread reports of assassinations and human rights abuses since elections in 2010.

After several postponed deadlines since 2009, Mtabila camp, in western Tanzania and home to almost 38,000 Burundians, is set to close at end-2012, with repatriations scheduled to take place between April and November, according to an agreement reached by both countries and the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).

Following a detailed questionnaire conducted by UNHCR and Tanzanian officials in December 2011, 33,708 refugees in Mtabila were found to be “not in need of international protection”.

In the absence of a successful appeal against this unprecedented determination, those who “are unwilling, without justifiable grounds, to return to Burundi, will find themselves liable to be dealt with under relevant Tanzanian laws, including those for immigration control and management”, according to the communiqué released on 22 February after the tripartite meeting.

Tanzania has hosted tens of thousands of refugees from Burundi over the past four decades, but is now “resolute” that the camp will close at the end of this year.

UNHCR Burundi representative Clementine Nkweta–Salami said after the meeting in Bujumbura that the reasons most Mtabila residents gave for not wanting to return to Burundi “were not based on the international [refugee] convention”.

“That is why we are going to focus our efforts on persuading them to return in security and dignity. We do not want a situation where they are forced out but they must understand that refugee status is not indefinite and if they do not have well-founded reasons they must reflect and return home,” she said.

Photo: UNHCR

Incentive: Burundi has been urged to improve educational facilities for returning refugee children

Burundi’s Minister of National Solidarity, Human Rights and Gender, Clotilde Niragira, said: “A person who fled in 1993 cannot refuse to return because of security. Even if there are still problems, the country is safe.”

Information campaign

Despite UNHCR’s offer of assistance and cash incentives, just a few hundred Burundian refugees returned from Tanzania in 2011.

In an effort to accelerate the process, government ministers are set to visit the camp in March as part of a “mass information campaign”.

If they lose the right to stay as refugees in Tanzania, those in Mtabila will have little option but to return to Burundi. Tanzania has indicated it will not extend to them a naturalization process benefiting some 160,000 Burundians in the country as a result of the 1973 influx.

Opportunities for resettlement elsewhere are limited to any places offered by third countries via UNHCR.

For many in Mtabila, fear of insecurity and the prospect of having no land seem to be the main reasons for the reluctance to return.

“If I repatriate I will be killed because the authorities that rule the country today think that whoever did not repatriate before is on the side of those who are in opposition, those who fight the government,” one female Mtabila resident told International Refugee Rights Initiative (IRRI) during an investigation into conditions in the camp.

IRRI’s report said income-generating opportunities, education facilities, sanitation, water and freedom of movement had been significantly restricted in Mtabila.

Theo Mbazumutima of Rema Ministries, a Christian NGO working with refugees, said of those in the camp: “They are still hoping this latest wasn’t the final [decision,] because in the past the authorities have not kept to their deadlines.

“Last time they didn’t take them back by force and they’re hoping these are just threats. I don’t think so. This is genuine,” he said.

Source: irinnews.org

ASYLUM-SEEKERS detained and ill-treated

Somali and Eritrean asylum-seekers and migrants are on hunger strike in protest against their illegal detention at a Migrant Accommodation Centre in Western Ukraine. They, and detainees from other countries supporting them have been threatened and beaten and are at risk of other ill-treatment.

On 30 January, the Migrant Accommodation Centre in Zhuravichi, Western Ukraine, called in security forces in response to the protest. Detainees have been carrying out a hunger strike in protest against their illegal detention since 6 January. The security forces arrived in riot gear and carried batons and forced some of the striking detainees to eat. Rooms of detainees were searched and personal possessions were confiscated.

Prior to the arrival of security forces, detainees at the centre had reported that they were being beaten and ill-treated by staff at the centre; that some of them had been placed in an isolation unit, without a bed, for several days; and that they had received anonymous emails and phone calls containing death threats and racist abuse. The anonymous threats included information about the date of birth and date of release of the detainees, suggesting that whoever sent the threats had access to official records. Some detainees who experience health problems have not received adequate medical care.

There are approximately 60 Somalis and six Eritreans at the centre. This includes around 20 children, some of whom are unaccompanied. The Somali nationals were detained in various parts of Ukraine on or around 23 December 2011 and the Eritreans were detained in November 2011. They have all been sentenced to up to a year of detention “for the purposes of deportation”. However, records show that no Somali or Eritrean nationals have ever been deported from Ukraine. Instead, they are released and face the risk of renewed detention. As there is no prospect of deportation, there are no legal grounds for detaining them and their detention is arbitrary and unlawful.

Please write immediately in Ukrainian, Russian or your own language:

n      Urging the authorities to ensure that detainees at the Migrant Accommodation are not subjected to torture and other ill-treatment, reminding them that as a state party to the UN Convention against Torture and the European Convention on Human Rights they have an obligation to ensure that no one is subjected to torture or ill-treatment;

n      Calling for an immediate investigation into allegations that detainees are being beaten, threatened and ill-treated;

n      Urging the authorities to immediately release Somali and Eritrean asylum seekers, reminding them that as a state party to the UN Refugee Convention, Ukraine cannot return anybody to a country where they would be at risk of grave human rights violations;

n      Urging the authorities to stop detaining Somali and Eritrean nationals when there is no prospect of deportation.

PLEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE 13 MARCH 2012 TO:

Also send copies to diplomatic representatives of Ukraine accredited to your country. Please insert local diplomatic addresses below:

Name Address 1 Address 2 Address 3 Fax Fax number Email Email address Salutation Salutation

Please check with your section office if sending appeals after the above date.

Name: Somali and Refugee asylum seekers and migrants at the Migrant Accommodation Centre

Gender m/f: Both

UA: 29/12 Index: EUR 50/001/2012 Issue Date: 31 January 2012

Some of the senior Somali journalists in Nairobi and their union leaders, visited colleague Hassan Mohamed Mohamoud better known as Hassan Jaceyl, who has been suffering severe diabetes and had one of his legs amputated last year due to the diabetes, at COPTIC hospital in Nairobi on, on Saturday February 4, 2012.

Hassan, 45, a veteran journalist, has been suffering from diabetes in recent years, but the disease took him into a dire situation and was admitted to South B Hospital in Nairobi mid 2011which resulted to have his right leg amputated and since then did not heal properly. Somali Journalists through their union fundraised more than $7000 for his medical expenses. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), an international press freedom organization based in New York also donated additional fund for Hassan’s medical expenses.

He came to Nairobi after the radio and Television – Horn Afrik Radio and Television – was seized by the Shabab in 2010, followed by fear and threats.

Last Wednesday, Mohamed Garane Adan, NUSOJ’s Training Secretary, who is also the union representative in Nairobi handed over a total of 88, 191 Kenya Shillings donated by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), an International Press Freedom organization based in Paris, to Hassan.

Somali Journalists led by Mohamed Garane, NUSOJ’s training Secretary visited at COPTIC hospital in Nairobi. The journalists learned by shocking health condition of Hassan- his kidneys malfunctioned due to the diabetes – in his dyless room.

Hassan’s condition worsened since last week. The journalists and the union officials who visited include Mohamed Garane Adan, NUSOJ’s training Secretary, Ali Mose Abdi, a veteran journalist who works for AFP, Bile Abdullahi Ali, Heeb Abdi, Abdifitah Omar Halane, Ahmed Muuse Guurre Waqa, Mohamed Barre, Cabdifitah Mohamed Elmi, Abdi-asis Ibrahim Ali, Ahmed Hasan Qeyre, among others.

Hassan’s Dr. George Muturi said that Hassan was fortunate, after performing CT BRAIN SCAN, Dr. Muturi declared that Hassan’s brain was healthy and in good condition. The brain scanning follows after Hassan went unconscious. Dr. Muturi added that they will do their best for Hassan’s healing.

Mr. Garane declared that “Our colleague Hassan needs help from his fellow brothers and sisters and the entire media members in Kenya and Somalia,” noting that it is the duty of each of us to donate for the healthy recovery of our colleague.”

Ali Mose Abdi, a veteran journalist working for the AFP, after briefly talking about the disease that led to Hassan’s kidneys malfunction, reiterated that “Our colleague Hassan needs constant assistance from the Somali Journalists and the Somali community at large, as long as his kidneys will need Dylesis every time.

Please donate/help Hassan to recover. For more information, Hassan can be reached through Ahmed Mire Ali, a relative member who is currently helping him:             +254 7222 07041       Or the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) who will guide you.

Christian Aid has sent and emergency task force to the north of Burkina
Faso to develop its programme of emergency feeding in one of the worst
affected areas.

Amanda Farrant of Christian Aid will be available to give an eyewitness
account of the conditions at Gorom-Gorom in the Sahel reserve near the
Niger border tomorrow morning, 4 February.

As a result of failed rains and widespread drought, Mali lost 11.8% of
total cereal output between 2010-2011, while in Burkina Faso it is
estimated that 41.47% of the country will face severe food insecurity,
and in Niger the government believe that more than half of the nation’s
villages are now running out of basic food.

Families in the Sahel are also being affected by the recent conflicts in
Libya and Cote d’Ivoire as relatives are no longer able to send money
home from these countries.

The most recent joint evaluation by CILSS, FAO, WFP and FEWNET conducted
in January 2012 estimates that in Niger, 5,458,000 people are food
insecure, including 1,324,000 at severe levels; in Mauritania, 700, 000
people – over one-quarter of the population – are food insecure,
including 290,000 people at severe levels in rural areas; and 1,671,178
people are vulnerable in Burkina Faso.

The results of evaluations are expected soon in Mali, Chad and Senegal,
but WFP and FAO estimate that 3,000,000 people in Mali and 850,000
people in Senegal live in areas at risk10, while earlier evaluations in
Chad estimated that 13 out of 22 regions could be affected11. Overall,
the European Commission estimates that at least 7 million people will
need support over the next six months.

According to the “cessation clause” of the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, which UNHCR is recommending countries invoke for Rwandans, fundamental and durable changes in a refugee’s country of origin, such that they no longer have a well-founded fear of persecution, should remove the need for international protection.

“The main thing taken into account is whether the situation that forced people to flee still exists,” explained Fatoumata Lejeune-Kaba, a spokesperson with UNHCR in Geneva. “In this case, for the Rwandans, obviously the genocide and the war is over and many Rwandans have already returned.”

However, a number of Rwandan refugees living in South Africa whom IRIN interviewed insisted that, while there had been changes in Rwanda, it was not safe for them to return home.

“I left in 1994 and I haven’t been back,” said Celine*, who like all of the Rwandans interviewed for this article, asked that her real name not be used. “If I go back, my safety will not be guaranteed and even up to now, my family is still getting threatened… people are still getting arrested and put into prison and spend years without trial.”

“What we fled is still there,” agreed Jean-Pierre*, who left Rwanda after his father, sister and a number of other family members were killed during the genocide. “We follow what is going on in our country; there’s no democracy, no respect for freedom of speech.”

Jean Pierre has been living in South Africa for 14 years and has already applied for permanent residency, “but what about those who are fleeing the country now and arriving here every day?” he asked.

Bernard* arrived in South Africa a month ago. A well-known singer in Rwanda, he says he was targeted by the security forces for singing songs critical of the ruling Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF).

“Soldiers came to my house and I heard my mother outside talking to them. Then I heard shouting and bullets firing and I climbed out the window and ran,” he said, speaking to IRIN through a translator.

Convinced that his mother had been killed, Bernard crossed the border into Burundi where he stayed for a week before narrowly escaping a second encounter with Rwandan soldiers. After brief stays in Zambia and Mozambique, he finally reached South Africa and did not waste time lodging an asylum claim with the Department of Home Affairs in Pretoria.

But after an interview that lasted less than 10 minutes and in which he struggled to speak through a translator, his claim was rejected the same day. 

Rushed decisions?

Although South Africa’s foreign affairs department has yet to announce whether it will invoke the cessation clause for Rwandan refugees and did not respond to questions from IRIN, Celine said Home Affairs officials had been denying asylum to Rwandans and refusing to extend refugee permits “since the rumours of cessation started”.

Kaajal Ramjathan-Keogh of Lawyers for Human Rights, a local NGO which provides legal assistance to refugees, noted that Rwandans seeking asylum in South Africa are supposed to be considered on a case by case basis, but that recent efforts by Home Affairs to address a large backlog of asylum-seeker claims had resulted in some rushed decisions.

“The people doing the interviews are given a target that they need to make 10 decisions a day which results in people having 10-minute interviews,” she told IRIN. “It seems to us not enough time to adequately consider a person’s asylum application.”

Bernard intends to appeal the decision to reject his asylum claim which, according to a print-out given to him by Home Affairs, was based on a lack of evidence that his fear of arrest was well-founded and information indicating that, “the Constitution of Rwanda protects and advances basic human rights and in practice the government respects these rights.”

In fact, a number of human rights organizations have repeatedly raised the alarm about human rights abuses in Rwanda and called for an independent assessment of the current situation in the country prior to invoking the cessation clause.

“It can’t be compared with what it was in 1994 and there have been significant changes since that time, but there are ongoing concerns such as the very tight restrictions on freedom of expression, and that applies not only to the lack of political space, lack of freedom of the media, but also more broadly to ordinary Rwandans who may have a view that is different from that of the government,” said Carina Tertsakian, a senior researcher with Human Rights Watch.

Reporters Without Borders, which ranked Rwanda 169th out of 178 countries in its 2010 press freedom index, has released a statement pointing to the cases its registers every year of Rwandan journalists being threatened, harassed and forced to flee the country and urging UNHCR to review its decision to support the cessation clause.

Fahamu, an NGO that promotes social justice and human rights in Africa, has also mounted a campaign to oppose UNHCR’s decision and has released a “Memorandum of Fact and Law” detailing the human rights situation in Rwanda that cites numerous recent examples of groups and individuals being targeted for persecution.

“[Rwanda] remains a fragile, volatile, authoritarian regime with little tolerance for dissent, freedom of speech, or independent human rights observation, reporting, or advocacy,” conclude the authors.

Pressure on UNHCR

Tertsakian pointed out that the Rwandan government had put considerable pressure on UNHCR to invoke the cessation clause. “I think it’s partly a way of trying to control people; they can speak out much more easily when they’re outside the country,” she said.

Long before UNHCR announced its recommendation on 7 October, the Rwandan government had begun informing its remaining 114,000 refugees, the majority of whom are concentrated in the Great Lakes region, that they would no longer qualify for refugee status after 31 December 2011. Over the past year, high-level delegations have been dispatched to host countries such as Mozambique, Zambia, Uganda and Cameroon urging refugees to repatriate and offering government assistance with reintegration.

“There’s been a fair bit of misinformation about the cessation clause,” Tertsakian told IRIN. “I think many people don’t realize that they have the option of resubmitting a claim for refugee status.”

According to Lejeune-Kaba of UNHCR, Rwandans who can still claim persecution or who have gone through severe trauma because of persecution can apply for an exemption from the cessation clause. However, Tertsakian worried about the capacity of a country such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, where an estimated 70,000 Rwandan refugees are living, to process a potential flood of exemption claims.

Source: Irin News