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Africa: Regional overview 2004
Amnesty International
Armed conflicts continued to bring widespread destruction to several parts of Africa in 2004, many of them fuelled by human rights violations. Refugees and internally displaced people faced appalling conditions. There were international initiatives to hold perpetrators of abuses accountable. Across the region, there was discrimination against people living with HIV/AIDS, the vast majority of whom were denied the right to medical treatment. Political repression was widespread and human rights defenders came under attack. Pervasive violence against women was exacerbated by poverty and lack of access to health care and education.
Regional institutions, established to ensure respect for human rights, to carry out peacekeeping functions or to prevent and resolve conflicts, became operational. In addition, in January the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Establishment of an African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights entered into force. However, the Court was not fully established because a decision of the African Union (AU) Assembly to integrate it with the African Court of Justice caused considerable delays.
Governments reaffirmed commitments to promote and protect human rights. Yet broken promises, weak or collapsed criminal justice systems, corruption and illegal exploitation of resources contributed to deny basic rights to many.
Armed conflict
Killings, abductions and rape by government forces and armed opposition groups remained widespread in armed conflicts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Somalia, Sudan and Uganda. The progress made on a number of peace agreements remained fragile in Burundi, Côte d'Ivoire and Somalia, where sporadic outbreaks of violence persisted in localized areas.
The parties to the north-south warfare in Sudan made commitments to reach an overall peace agreement by the end of 2004. Wealth and power sharing agreements had already been signed, and interim security arrangements made. In stark contrast to these peace negotiations, thousands of people were killed or raped in the escalating conflict in Darfur, western Sudan, and hundreds of thousands driven from their homes, many of them by government supported militias. Ceasefire agreements were regularly violated by the various fighting forces.
In Somalia, in the final stages of a reconciliation process to end over a decade of state collapse and factional violence, a newly appointed President formed a government and a transitional parliament was created. Most of the faction leaders were made members of the newly formed government.
Eastern DRC remained volatile. Armed political groups continued to carry out killings, rapes and
other torture of civilians, and occasionally resumed fighting with rival forces. The direct support of armed groups by neighbouring countries contributed to the persistent instability.
The role of peacekeeping missions in Africa expanded throughout 2004. The UN mission in Côte d'Ivoire and the African Mission in Burundi were transformed into UN peacekeeping missions, and additional troops strengthened the UN peacekeeping mission in the DRC. The AU Peace and Security Council sent a force to Darfur with a mandate to protect civilians. In spite of the increased presence of UN and AU forces on the ground, the protection of civilians often remained inadequate in Bukavu, DRC, or in Darfur.
The proliferation of small arms in the region continued to be a major cause of human rights abuses, and the UN Security Council declared an arms embargo against all non-governmental forces in Darfur. However, no proper monitoring mechanisms were put in place and the embargo was not extended to the Sudanese government, despite its direct responsibility for human rights violations. The Security Council also declared an arms embargo in Côte d'Ivoire but again failed to ensure adequate monitoring.
As armed conflicts ended, large-scale repatriation of refugees proceeded or was planned. In Burundi and Liberia, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees facilitated voluntary returns. In Angola, the repatriation of thousands of refugees continued. In countries with long-term refugee populations, such as Tanzania, refugees often faced deteriorating living conditions, host governments reluctant to accept further refugees, and increased pressure to repatriate.
Conflicts such as in Darfur caused extensive displacement of people. The attack in August on Congolese refugees in a transit centre in Burundi, which killed more than 150 people, further demonstrated the need for enhanced protection of refugees and civilian populations in general.
International justice
There were important developments in addressing impunity for human rights violations in armed conflicts through the use of international justice mechanisms.
The governments of the DRC and Uganda referred war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in armed conflicts to the International Criminal Court (ICC), in the first cases in which ICC prosecutors would initiate such investigations. As the ICC can investigate and prosecute only a limited number of individual cases, there was still a need for comprehensive plans to end impunity for all such crimes, regardless of which side committed them and the perpetrator's level of responsibility. Uganda subsequently suggested that war crimes and crimes against humanity in Northern Uganda would be addressed in traditional reconciliation procedures, although its referrals to the ICC could not be withdrawn.
Trials started before the Special Court for Sierra Leone of people indicted for crimes against humanity, war crimes and other serious violations of international law, including rape, other forms of sexual violence and sexual slavery. The Court had previously ruled that the general amnesty granted in the 1999 Lomé peace agreement was "ineffective" in preventing it from prosecuting crimes against humanity and war crimes, and that Charles Taylor, former President of Liberia, had no immunity from prosecution. Charles Taylor, indicted for "bearing the greatest responsibility" for killings, mutilations, rape and other abuses through active support of armed opposition forces in Sierra Leone, remained in Nigeria. He had been granted refugee status, with apparent guarantees that he would be neither surrendered to the Special Court nor brought before Nigeria's own courts.
A commission of inquiry investigated reports of violations of international humanitarian law and human rights in Darfur following a Security Council resolution. Its brief included determining whether acts of genocide had occurred, and identifying the perpetrators with a view to ensuring accountability.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights established an inquiry into reports of unlawful killings and excessive use of force against anti-government demonstrators in Côte d'Ivoire. Another international commission of inquiry, set up under the terms of the 2003 Linas-Marcoussis peace agreement in Côte d'Ivoire, had not yet reported publicly the findings of its investigations into human rights abuses since September 2002, which concluded during 2004. Its report was to be the basis for government prosecutions.
At the request of the Security Council, an assessment was made of the feasibility of establishing an International Judicial Commission of Inquiry in Burundi, as outlined in the 2000 Arusha peace agreement. Such an inquiry would investigate and determine responsibility for crimes under international law committed in the period between independence from colonial rule and signature of the peace agreement.
Violence against women
Women continued to be raped and subjected to other forms of sexual violence despite the ending of armed conflicts in the Central African Republic, Côte d'Ivoire and Liberia. In Darfur and eastern DRC, such abuse was used as a weapon of war against women and girls who had already experienced years of violence. There was no safe haven for women, even in refugee camps. In the DRC, the collapse of the health system left survivors of rape without health care for sometimes fatal injuries and infections. This lack of even basic health care was common to many other states.
There was increasing evidence that the violence against women in conflicts and post-conflict situations was gender-based and an extreme manifestation of the discrimination and inequalities women experienced in peacetime. Women's physical integrity was threatened and their basic rights eroded on a daily basis. The violence that women faced in peacetime also contributed to a broad acceptance of violence in the home. In Nigeria, as in other countries, discrimination within the family and community was compounded by the existence of discriminatory laws.
Many girls living below the poverty line remained at risk of being enrolled as child soldiers, beaten, forced into sexual slavery, and even killed. In the DRC, there was continued recruitment of child soldiers despite a planned demobilization of the army that was still largely to be implemented by the end of the year. Programmes of disarmament, demobilization and reintegration failed to include specific provisions for those who had suffered sexual violence.
Death penalty
Senegal formally abolished the death penalty. Many other states remained abolitionist in practice. In Nigeria, a National Study Group on the Death Penalty called on the government to impose a moratorium on executions and to commute to life imprisonment the sentences of all death row prisoners whose appeals had been concluded. In Sierra Leone, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission recommended the immediate repeal of all laws authorizing the use
of capital punishment. Nevertheless, shortly afterwards, 10 people convicted of treason were sentenced to death.
However, prisoners remained under sentence of death in countries including Burundi, Equatorial Guinea, Kenya and Mauritania, the majority of them after unfair trials. In Sudan, several hundred people were sentenced to death in 2004.
Economic, social and cultural rights
Africa continued to face severe economic conditions. Massive corruption and illegal exploitation of natural resources contributed to denying many, especially the most marginalized sectors of the population, their economic, social and cultural rights - in particular the rights to food, water, health, housing and education - as well as enjoyment of their civil and political rights, such as the right to a fair trial and the effective administration of criminal justice.
In Zimbabwe, communities were routinely deprived of their right to food, in part because of discriminatory policies by the government, which used food as a tool of political repression. The adequate implementation of the right to health in Rwanda, South Africa and Swaziland, and of the right to housing in Angola, continued to be denied, especially to women, children, the elderly, minorities and migrants. There was growing awareness of the basic needs of people living with HIV/AIDS, and access to anti-retroviral drugs was gradually made available through government and Global Fund programmes. However, considerable efforts were still needed to address discrimination, the impact of poverty and the severe shortage of medical staff as obstacles to the enjoyment of the right to health.
Political repression
Freedom of expression and association continued to come under attack by governments and remained restricted under the law in Swaziland. In Côte d'Ivoire, the government intimidated journalists and human rights defenders through manipulation of the print media. In Cameroon, Mauritania and Zimbabwe, the security forces were deployed to curb dissent or opposition to governments.
The leader of the opposition in Zimbabwe, Morgan Tsvangarai, was acquitted by a tribunal on charges of treason against the state, but questions remained about the independence of the judiciary. Youth militia in Zimbabwe were allowed to attack those perceived as critical of the government with impunity.
In Eritrea thousands of government critics and political opponents, many of them prisoners of conscience, were detained in secret. Some had been sentenced by panels of military and police officers in closed proceedings that flouted basic standards of fair trial. Those convicted were not informed of the accusations against them, had no right to defend themselves or be legally represented before the panels, and had no recourse to an independent judiciary to challenge abuses of their fundamental rights.
In Sudan, political opponents, supposed government critics, students and activists were detained under the National Security Forces Act, which allowed incommunicado detention without charge or trial for up to nine months. Many detainees were reported to have been tortured or ill-treated while held incommunicado under the Act.
The failure by the authorities to bring to justice members of the security forces suspected or accused of serious human rights violations contributed to the climate of impunity in many countries. In addition, the absence of thorough and credible investigations into allegations of torture and extrajudicial executions effectively weakened the rule of law.
Human rights defenders
Several governments imposed severe restrictions on the work of human rights defenders. Legislation passed by parliament in Zimbabwe on the operation of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) gave the government sweeping powers to interfere with civil society and human rights groups through a government-appointed NGO Council. Under the NGO legislation, Zimbabwean groups could be prohibited from receiving foreign funding for human rights work, and foreign human rights organizations could be banned from working in Zimbabwe.
In Rwanda, the work of a leading independent human rights organization, the Rwandese League for the Promotion and Defence of Human Rights (LIPRODHOR), was effectively closed down. It was among a number of Rwandese NGOs recommended for dissolution on the grounds that they had supported the genocide, after investigations by a Parliamentary Commission that were neither fair nor transparent.
In Sudan, the government continued to arrest human rights defenders who exposed human rights violations instead of bringing the perpetrators of abuses to justice. The government of Eritrea did not allow national human rights organizations to operate, and denied international human rights organizations access to the country. In Côte d'Ivoire, human rights defenders came under attack for expressing views perceived to be critical of the government.
A positive development was the establishment of a Special Rapporteur on human right defenders by the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights. However the Commission continued to face many challenges, including lack of adequate resources to carry out its mandate.
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