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Nairobi – Clear governance models have emerged in 2018 against peaceful protesters, activists and journalists in the eastern region and the Horn of Africa, Human Rights Watch said in its World Report 2019. Governments in the region should do much more to protect freedom of expression and association and to provide justice for crimes by government security forces.
In the ongoing conflicts in Sudan, South Sudan and Somalia, national armed forces and armed groups attacked civilians. The struggle has moved millions of people, both internally and across the borders of neighboring countries. Ethiopia has distinguished itself during the year as an example of positive change, with Abiy Ahmed, who was appointed prime minister in April, carrying out numerous significant reforms.
"We are witnessing an alarming retreat of human rights in East Africa and Horn when governments use violence and repression to silence peaceful dissent, while not guaranteeing responsibility for abuses by their forces" said Mausi Segun, director of Africa at Human Rights Watch. "Ethiopia stands out as a counter-example to this regressive trend."
In the 674-page World Report 2019, the 29th edition, Human Rights Watch examined human rights practices in over 100 countries. In his introductory essay, Executive Director Kenneth Roth says that populists who spread hatred and intolerance in many countries are generating resistance. New alliances of governments that respect the rights, often motivated and reunited by civic groups and the public, are increasing the cost of the autocratic excess. Their successes illustrate the possibility of defending human rights – indeed, the responsibility to do so – even in the darkest moments.
In Ethiopia, Prime Minister Abiy announced a commitment to revise the repressive laws, revoked the state of emergency, ordered the release of tens of thousands of political prisoners, overturned the opposition political parties and fired some abusive officials. Some long prisons associated with abuse, including in particular the Ogaden prison, have been closed and measures have been taken to increase the independence of key institutions, ahead of the 2020 national elections.
In Kenya, security forces violently repressed protesters during the elections between the end of 2017 and the beginning of 2018. Repression, mostly in opposition strongholds, killed more than 100 people; and dozens of women and girls reported sexual violence. Kenyan authorities also targeted journalists during election periods to report on sensitive individuals such as corruption and security and minority rights workers in Nairobi and western Kenya with arbitrary arrests, threats and raids in their offices and homes .
Although the Independent Police Supervisory Authority (IPOA), an institution responsible for police civil liability, said it had initiated investigations into police killings, Human Rights Watch found that no police officer Police were held responsible for crimes by security forces.
Even the Ugandan security forces violently dispersed the protests; beat up, arbitrarily detain and sometimes torture, protesters, journalists and opposition politicians. Thirty-four people, including six parliamentarians, were arrested during the election campaigns in Arua, in the northwest of Uganda and accused of treason, alleged torture by the security forces. Despite government commitments to hold the security forces accountable, Human Rights Watch found that many investigations into police civilian and military abuses failed to progress, including an investigation into the killing of more than 100 civilians in Kasese occurred in November 2016.
Tanzania has had a marked decline in respect of freedom of expression, association and assembly from the election of President John Magufuli in 2015, along with other human rights violations. The authorities harassed and detained journalists, members of the opposition and activists; and has used hostile rhetoric against sexual minorities, threatening to enlist suspicions of LGBTI people and subjecting them to forced anal exams and conversion therapy. Girls face discrimination in education following a ban in 2017 for pregnant girls and young mothers in schools.
In Sudan, government forces attacked and destroyed dozens of villages in Jebel Mara, central Darfur, forcing thousands of people to flee. In Khartoum and other cities, the security forces violently dispersed protests and detainees activists, journalists, bloggers and opposition politicians, bringing invented charges that carry the death penalty against activists. President Omar al-Bashir has executed justice for crimes in Darfur, and Sudan has made minimal or no progress towards taking responsibility.
In South Sudan, fighting between the government and the rebel forces continued despite a revitalized peace agreement signed in September. Government forces carried out insurrectionary offensive operations in areas west of Wau; kill, loot and destroy villages, while sexual violence has spread to the former state of unity. The country's leaders have not made progress since its agreement to create a hybrid court of the African-South Sudan Union to attempt the most serious crimes committed by the war five years ago.
In Somalia, fighting, insecurity, lack of protection by the government and recurrent humanitarian crises have had a devastating impact on civilians in 2018. Security forces have killed and injured civilians during the fight for land and control of roadblocks , and disarmament operations, particularly in Mogadishu and Lower Shabelle. There have been targeted attacks on the media, including harassment and arbitrary detentions, with authorities that have rarely investigated kills or attacks on journalists. The government has not made tangible progress in controlling the abusive security forces, in particular the intelligence agency, or putting an end to repeated forced evictions of displaced persons.
In Eritrea, a July peace deal with Ethiopia and the lifting of UN sanctions in October led to greater hope that the draconian restrictions on fundamental freedoms and rights would be eliminated, but in 2018 there were no changes. The country has no independent media, civil society organization, political parties, judicial power and arbitrary detention remain on the agenda. Citizens are forced into national service for indefinite periods, often in the military, and thousands of people flee from Eritrea every month.
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