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The Chagos Islanders: Britain's Historic Injustice

In the late 1960s, the British government made a decision to send the made to send the inhabitants of Diego Garcia, in the Indian Ocean, into exile in Mauritius and the Seychelles Islands, so that their island - unencumbered with people - could be handed to the United States for use as a military base. Their tragic story since shows the willingness of the British government to ignore inconvenient human rights. What will happen now, after last month's High Court ruling in the Chagossians' favour will tell us much about Britain's current government if it is prepared to stand up for the values that really matter. (Iain Orr, Toward Freedom, 14 June 2006)

http://towardfreedom.com/home/content/view/836/

(Added: Fri Jun 16 2006   Modified: Thu Jan 18 2007   Hits: 193)

"Every Morning They Beat Me" Police Abuses in Burundi [pdf]

This 42-page report documents 21 cases of beatings and torture of civilians carried out in October 2007 by a special reserve unit known as Rapid Mobile Intervention Group (Groupement Mobile d'Intervention Rapide, GMIR) in Muramvya province. Various victims described to Human Rights Watch how they were arbitrarily arrested, beaten with clubs and batons, subjected to death threats and mock executions, and forced to pay large bribes in exchange for freedom (human Rights Watch, 30 April 2008).

http://hrw.org/reports/2008/burundi0408/burundi0408web.pdf

(Added: Fri May 02 2008   Hits: 11)

"On Our Watch" - A Documentary About Genocide in Darfur

Three years of fighting in Darfur have destroyed hundreds of villages, displaced 2.2 million and led to more than 400,000 deaths. President Bush has accused the government of Sudan of genocide, but the U.S. has taken few concrete actions to stop the fighting. Narrated by Sam Waterston, this 11-minute documentary tells the story of those who have lost their loved ones to this war, those who are fighting to survive and those who are working to bring peace to the region. (Refugee International, 2006)

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1587138622759665645&q=Refugees+International

(Added: Mon Aug 28 2006   Modified: Thu Jan 18 2007   Hits: 206)

"They Do Not Own This Place": Government Discrimination Against "Non-Indigenes" in Nigeria (pdf)

This 64-page report documents the harmful impact of discriminatory policies against those citizens defined as "non-indigenes" in Nigeria. These policies have a harmful impact on the human rights of many Nigerians and are in violation of the Nigerian constitution and international human rights law. The report also shows how these policies of discrimination exacerbate interethnic and interreligious tension in ways that have sparked violence in many different parts of the country. (Human Rights Watch, 25 April 2006)

http://hrw.org/reports/2006/nigeria0406/nigeria0406web.pdf

(Added: Fri May 05 2006   Modified: Thu Jan 18 2007   Hits: 189)

A Call to Action: Crisis in Zimbabwe

The SADC mediation talks must incorporate human rights concerns and set clear benchmarks for progress. This memorandum provides a brief summary of human rights concerns in Zimbabwe and proposes a number of actions to help tackle the crisis (Human Rights Watch, August 2007).

http://hrw.org/backgrounder/africa/zimbabwe0807/zimbabwe0807web.pdf

(Added: Tue Sep 11 2007   Hits: 81)

A Report on Torture and Human Rights Abuses in Zimbabwe

Since early 2007, the Zimbabwean government has brutally sought to suppress political opposition with state sponsored torture and political violence. This upsurge in political violence occurred following a peaceful prayer rally organized on March 11 2007 by a coalition of Zimbabwean church and civic organizations (December 2007).

http://www.soros.org/resources/articles_publications/publications/zimbabwe_20071201/zimbabwe_20071130.pdf

(Added: Tue Dec 11 2007   Modified: Thu Dec 20 2007   Hits: 40)

Africa South of the Sahara: Selected internet resources

Stanford University online link database that includes: Current Events; Development; History; Human Rights; International Relations

http://library.stanford.edu/africa/

(Added: Thu Sep 18 2003   Modified: Thu Jan 18 2007   Hits: 210)

African migration: from tensions to solutions

While industrial countries are promoting easier flows of capital, goods and services, they are at the same time restricting the movement of labour, which comes mainly from developing countries. Developing countries view this as a double standard, especially since labour is an important factor in the production of goods and services. (Africa Renewal, U.N. Department of Public Information, January 2006)

http://www.un.org/ecosocdev/geninfo/afrec/vol19no4/194migration.html

(Added: Mon Apr 03 2006   Modified: Thu Jan 18 2007   Hits: 140)

All Over Again: Human Rights Abuses and Flawed Electoral Conditions in Zimbabwe's Coming General Elections

In a 59-page report, Human Rights Watch documents how the government and the ruling party ZANU-PF, in the run up to the 2008 elections, have engaged in widespread intimidation of the opposition; have restricted freedom of association and assembly; and have manipulated food and farming equipment distribution to gain political advantage (Human Rights Watch, March 2008).

http://hrw.org/reports/2008/zimbabwe0308/

(Added: Thu Mar 20 2008   Hits: 45)

Alliances for Africa (AfA)

Alliances for Africa (AfA) is an African non-governmental peace, human rights and development organisation. Through strategic partnerships with local, national and regional organisations, AfA undertakes programmes to enhance or reconstruct the interface between civil and political rights and economic and social rights. Initiatives are designed to build capacity and strategic alliances among local, national, regional and international human rights, peace and development agencies, promoting South to South and South to North interaction at manifold levels.

http://www.alliancesforafrica.org/

(Added: Thu Jan 17 2002   Modified: Thu Jan 18 2007   Hits: 372)

Broken dreams : child migration in Southern Africa [pdf]

The stories of children who travel alone in Southern Africa tell of beatings at the hands of the authorities, of their possessions being taken, of forced labour, and their vulnerability to sexual abuse. This report by Save the Children (STC) also tells of their bravery and resilience, and they even offer advice to other young migrants. (Save the Children, 2008)

http://www.crin.org/docs/Save_the_children_sa_migration.pdf

(Added: Mon May 05 2008   Hits: 9)

CHAD-SUDAN: Islamic community failing Darfur victims, rights groups say

Human rights advocates and religious leaders are using a conference in Dakar to tell leaders of predominantly Muslim countries they are failing the people of Darfur. (IRIN, 16 March 2008)

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=77227

(Added: Mon Mar 17 2008   Hits: 29)

Chop Fine: The Human Rights Impact of Local Government Corruption and Mismanagement in Rivers State, Nigeria

Nigeria has produced several hundred billion dollars worth of oil since independence in 1960, but ordinary Nigerians have derived appallingly little benefit from all of that wealth. This situation exists primarily because successive governments, both military and civilian, have stolen or misused much of Nigeria's tremendous oil wealth. The head of Nigeria's Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has stated that the country lost as much as $380 billion to corruption and waste between 1960 and 1999, the year Nigeria's current government came to power. (Human Rights Watch, January 2007).

http://hrw.org/reports/2007/nigeria0107/

(Added: Fri Mar 02 2007   Hits: 64)

Conor Foley's Blog on Comment is Free

Conor Foley is a humanitarian aid worker. He has worked for a variety of human rights and humanitarian aid organizations, including Liberty, Amnesty International and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), in Kosovo, Afghanistan, Colombia, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. He currently lives and works in Brazil, and is a research fellow at the Human Rights Law Centre at the University of Nottingham. In his blog on the Guardian's blog site Comment is Free he writes regularly on issues of interest to development practitioners. Eager readers can also join the debate in the blog comments where Connor answers his critics (or, at least, his sane critics).

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/conor_foley/index.html

(Added: Tue Apr 17 2007   Hits: 201)

Country Reports on Human Rights Practices- Eritrea

This report by the US Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labour maintains the Eritrean government's human rights record remained poor last year and the authorities continued to commit numerous serious abuses (Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, 11 March 2008) .

http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2007/100480.htm

(Added: Mon Mar 31 2008   Hits: 15)

Darfur Bleeds: Recent Cross-Border Violence in Chad

The crisis in Darfur, Sudan, which has been trickling into Chad for the better part of three years, is now bleeding freely across the border. A counterinsurgency carried out by the Sudanese government and its militias against rebel groups in Darfur, characterized by war crimes and "ethnic cleansing," has forcibly displaced almost two million civilians in Darfur and another 220,000 people who have fled across the border into Chad. The same ethnic "Janjaweed" militias that have committed systematic abuses in Darfur have staged cross-border raids into Chad, attacking Darfurian refugees and Chadian villagers alike, seizing their livestock and killing those who resist. This report is based on a Human Rights Watch research mission to eastern Chad in January-February 2006. (Human Rights Watch, February 2006)

http://www.hrw.org/backgrounder/africa/chad0206/

(Added: Thu May 04 2006   Modified: Thu Jan 18 2007   Hits: 166)

DEATH PENALTY: Five Years after Bosch, Nothing Changed in Botswana

Botswana was in the international spotlight in 2001 after it hurriedly sentenced and secretly hanged Marriette Sonjaleen Bosch, a white South African woman convicted of murder. Five years on, human rights activists say very little has changed. Fast convictions, hasty executions and inhumane treatment of the prisoner's family - all hallmarks of Bosch's case - continue. In fact, the government is unapologetic about it. (Bester Gabotlale, IPS News Agency, 17 May, 2006)

http://ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=33275

(Added: Thu May 18 2006   Modified: Thu Jan 18 2007   Hits: 95)

Demand Fair Trials in Nigeria

Gloria was arrested in Nigeria at age 17 and spent 7 years in prison awaiting trial for a murder she says she didn't commit. Her male co-defendant claimed he had a vision of her killing the victim, and with no lawyer to represent her, she was given a death sentence. Gloria was not allowed to appeal the case. Amnesty International believes that she may have been arrested instead of somebody else. Other women are facing the death penalty for having abortions. Please urge the Nigerian State Governors to review all death penalty cases and ensure that international fair trial standards are upheld.

http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/siteapps/advocacy/index.aspx?c=goJTI0OvElH&b=953489&template=x.ascx&action=7579

(Added: Mon Dec 04 2006   Modified: Thu Jan 18 2007   Hits: 206)

DRC: Lead-up to elections - backgrounder

The general elections due on Sunday in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are billed as the first fully democratic vote to be held in the country since Patrice Lumumba became prime minister in 1960. Beginning with his murder a year later, and the coup in 1965 staged by Mobutu Sese Seko, who introduced a one-party system, the past 40 years have witnessed the systematic impoverishment of one of the potentially wealthiest countries on the African continent (IRIN News, 25 June 2007).

http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=59726

(Added: Tue Jun 26 2007   Hits: 123)

End Mugabe's brutality in Zimbabwe

Robert Mugabe's desperate attempts to cling on to power are plunging Zimbabwe into ever greater chaos. His attacks on democratic opposition leaders must end now. Sign the petition below to urge that Zimbabwe's two main trading partners, South Africa and the European Union, adopt and enforce tougher sanctions targeting Mugabe and his top aides.

http://www.avaaz.org/en/zimbabwe/?cl=3153007

(Added: Fri Mar 23 2007   Hits: 243)

Ethiopia: Prisoners of conscience on trial for treason- opposition party leaders, human rights defenders and journalists

A treason trial opened on 2 May 2006 with the presentation of the prosecution case before the Federal High Court in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa. On trial, and charged with crimes punishable by the death penalty, are newly-elected opposition party members of parliament, human rights defenders and journalists, whom Amnesty International considers to be prisoners of conscience. This report outlines Amnesty's concerns about the fairness of the arrests and of the trial. (Amnesty International, 2 May 2006)

http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/engafr250132006

(Added: Wed May 17 2006   Modified: Thu Jan 18 2007   Hits: 189)

From the slave trade to 'free' trade : How trade undermines democracy and justice in Africa (pdf)

This book questions whether trade in the era of globalisation can be 'fair' or 'just'. It draws on lessons from the slave trade and studies of the international finance institutions, providing insights into how free trade policies have a profoundly negative impact on the rights of communities, environmental sustainability and the development of democracy in Africa. (by Firoze Manji, Fahamu, 2007)

http://www.fahamu.org/downloads/tj_book_forweb.pdf

(Added: Thu Mar 06 2008   Hits: 136)

Genocide in Slow Motion

In this New York Review of books article American journalist Nicholas Kristof reviews two books on the Dafur genocide - Darfur: A Short History of a Long War (by Julie Flint and Alex de Waal) and Darfur: The Ambiguous Genocide (by Gerard Prunier). In doing so Kristof provides a detailed history of the conflict as well as outlining the ongoing tragedy. Kristof ends his review with a plea for UN intervention to halt the ongoing crisis before it becomes just another name in the long list of crimes against humanity that have taken place while the rest of the World has looked away.

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/18674

(Added: Fri Jan 27 2006   Modified: Thu Jan 18 2007   Hits: 301)

Human Rights Watch: Sudan

Human Rights Watch's Sudan webpage. Contains the latest HRW briefing papers and publications on Sudan, a background overview of human rights issues in the country, maps, a 'Crisis in Darfur' video, and what you can do about it.

http://hrw.org/doc/?t=africa&c=sudan

(Added: Tue Jun 29 2004   Modified: Thu Jan 18 2007   Hits: 196)

Leave None to Tell the Story: Genocide in Rwanda

This study describes in detail how the killing campaign was executed, linking oral testimony with extensive written documentation. It draws upon interviews with those who were marked for extinction but managed to survive, those who killed or directed killings, those who saved or sought to save others, and those who watched and tried not to see.

http://www.hrw.org/reports/1999/rwanda/

(Added: Mon Apr 05 1999   Modified: Thu Jan 18 2007   Hits: 225)

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