Human Rights Watch - The African Mirror

Apr

15

2021

LGBT persecution on the rise in Cameroon, Human Rights Watch says

LGBT+

CAMEROON security forces have arrested, threatened or assaulted at least 24 people since February in a ramped-up crackdown on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT+) people, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said yesterday. The rights group said recent documented accounts of abuse, including that of a 17-year old boy, point to an overall rise of police action against LGBT+ people in Cameroon, where same-sex relations are criminalised. Cameroon authorities did not respond to Reuters requests for comments. HRW said it shared its report with Cameroon's justice, and defence ministries, and the head of police. It received no response to a March…

Jan

27

2022

By The African Mirror

As Taliban threats grow, LGBT+ Afghans struggle for work and food

LGBT+

ANNIE BANERJI LGBT+ Afghans face increasing threats and violence five months since the Taliban seized power, with many forced into hiding and unable to earn a living amid a worsening economic crisis, researchers said. Sixty LGBT+ Afghans who were interviewed by rights groups said the community was being targeted by members of the hardline Islamist movement and their supporters, making it too risky for them to work or even leave the house. Two gay men said they had been raped by Taliban fighters, while many others said they had been threatened or attacked, found the report by Human Rights Watch…

Mar

12

2021

By The African Mirror

Uganda urged to end abductions

NEWS

ELIAS BIRYABAREMA UGANDA should stop the abductions of opposition supporters and release those illegally detained, New York-based Human Rights Watch said on Thursday, adding to pressure on President Yoweri Museveni to end a crackdown on dissidents. In recent months, hundreds of supporters of opposition leader and pop star Bobi Wine have been seized and some tortured by state agents, according to his National Unity Platform (NUP). Wine, 39, whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi, lost to Museveni in a Jan. 14 presidential election marred by widespread violence. He rejected the results, claiming he won. This week, he urged supporters to…

Oct

11

2020

By The African Mirror

Rights group blasts Argentina for using face recognition tech on kids

WORLD

HUGH BRONSTEIN HUMAN Rights Watch wants the city of Buenos Aires to stop using live facial recognition to identify children accused of committing crimes, the rights group has said. New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Buenos Aires started using the technology in April 2019, making Argentina the only country in the world to deploy it against people under the age of 18. Although no minors are known to have been arrested yet, the group says the methodology is riddled with misidentifications that could unjustly limit job and educational opportunities for kids wrongly accused of theft and other crimes. HRW…

Oct

07

2020

By The African Mirror

Hundreds of thousands of people shackled for mental health issues globally

NEWS

PAUL CARSTEN and ANGELA OKUMADU HUNDREDS of thousands of men, women and children with mental health conditions are living chained up in roughly 60 countries, Human Rights Watch has revealed. Without mental health support or awareness, families or institutions shackle people against their will - often believing their condition is because they are bewitched, possessed or have sinned - and leaving them eating, sleeping, urinating and defecating in one small space, the rights watchdog said in a report. In the run-up to World Mental Health Day on October 10, the report documents almost 800 interviews describing how people with psychosocial…

Nov

27

2020

By The African Mirror

African peace envoys meet Ethiopian PM in bid for peace in Tigray

NEWS

AFRICAN peace envoys have met Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, a day after he said the military was beginning the "final phase" of an offensive in the northern Tigray region that rights groups fear could bring huge civilian casualties. The government had given the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) until Wednesday to lay down their arms or face an assault on Mekelle, the regional capital of 500,000 people. The United Nations says 200 aid workers are also in the city. The African Union envoys were in Addis Ababa "with a view to helping to mediate between the parties to the…

Dec

08

2020

By The African Mirror

Eritrea frees 28 Jehovah’s Witnesses prisoners, some after 26 years in jail

NEWS

ERITREA has released 28 members of the Jehovah's Witnesses group after they served prison terms of up to 26 years, the Christian denomination has announced. Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki. Picture: Wikipedia In 1994 Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki signed a decree revoking citizenship for members of the group for reasons including their conscientious objection to military service. Eritrea has maintained conscription for more than 20 years. Since that decree, Jehovah's Witnesses members have been subjected to detentions, torture and harassment in Eritrea, in part to compel them to renounce their faith, according to the group and international human rights organisations. In…

Jan

30

2021

By The African Mirror

Indonesia’s Aceh province publicly canes two gay men

WORLD

AUTHORITIES in Indonesia’s Aceh province publicly caned six people accused of breaching Islamic law, including two men who received 77 lashes for having a same-sex relationship, in a punishment Human Rights Watch called “public torture”. Aceh is the only province in majority-Muslim Indonesia to follow Islamic law, and this was the third such caning since Aceh outlawed homosexuality in 2014. The province, on the northern tip of Sumatra island, also imposes caning for crimes such as theft, gambling and adultery. A hooded religious police officer carried out Thursday’s floggings, watched by a crowd wearing face masks. One of the men…

Jan

22

2021

By The African Mirror

‘French bombs hit wedding’

NEWS

AARON ROSS THREE villagers in northern Mali told Human Rights Watch (HRW) that a French airstrike this month hit a wedding party attended by civilians, disputing French claims that only Islamist militants were hit. Different sides have offered contradictory accounts of the Jan. 3 strike outside the village of Bounti. The French military said it killed about 30 Islamist fighters - a version backed by Malian authorities. The military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the HRW report. It has previously said its intelligence before and after the strike allowed it to exclude the possibility of…

Sep

05

2021

By The African Mirror

How Chadians torture victims faced ex-president

NEWS

RICCI SHRYOCK CLEMENT Abaifouta, 55, has been waiting nearly 25 years to put one question to Hissène Habré, the former president of Chad: “Why did you arrest me?” Video: The Gravedigger and the President https://youtu.be/G1Lh4w6Bj3g Film by Aida Grovestins and Ricci Shryock Abaifouta was arrested on 12 July, 1985, when he was 23 years old. He had won a scholarship to study in Germany and reckons his travel plans raised suspicions in Habré's government that he was an opposition supporter. Instead of going to university, he first spent two weeks at the headquarters of the political police, known as the Documentation…