AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

PUBLIC STATEMENT

AI index: IOR 63/003/2009

13 May 2009

African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights: Human rights situation in Africa

Member states of the African Union (AU) committed, through the adoption of the AU Constitutive Act, to adhere to a set of principles which include the respect for the rule of law and the rejection of impunity. However, at the moment, those who violate other peoples’ rights can continue to do so freely. Unless governments address impunity in a serious manner the widespread human rights violations across the continent will continue.

In most countries in Africa police and other law enforcement officers are rarely held accountable for human rights violations, including arbitrary arrests and detention, torture or other forms of ill treatment, extrajudicial executions and enforced disappearances. Law enforcement officers also frequently use excessive force when dealing with public order situations. For example security forces in Cameroon in 2008 injured and killed scores of people who were protesting against high food and commodity prices.

Occasionally, after large-scale human rights violations occurred, commissions of inquiry or other types of investigative panels are set up, but they are often more to appease public opinion than to establish the truth and identify those responsible. Governments also often use commissions of inquiry, or truth and reconciliation commissions, as surrogates for judicial inquiries, which are essential for establishing individual criminal responsibility.

• In Chad, a national commission of inquiry into hundreds of killings and other human rights violations in February 2008 published its report in September – very little action was taken to date by the government to implement its recommendations.

• A commission of inquiry set up in Guinea to investigate human rights violations committed in 2006 and 2007 did not conduct any investigations.

• In Liberia, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission concluded its public hearings and its findings were pending by the end of the year.

• The commission of inquiry in Kenya, set up to investigate the post-election violence in 2008, made its findings public in October. Even though the government pledged to implement the recommendations in the report it has not put in place a comprehensive plan of action to do so. Members of Parliament in Kenya recently voted against the establishment of a Special Tribunal for Kenya to investigate and prosecute those involved in post-electoral violence.

• The recently established truth, justice, and reconciliation commission in Togo contains a number of serious shortcomings regarding the mandate and authority of the future commission, the guarantees for the protection of witnesses, the victims and their families, the composition and resources of the commission, as well as the remedies this body will be able to recommend.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) continues to work on a number of cases from Africa and is providing an essential contribution in addressing impunity in situations where states are unable or unwilling to investigate and prosecute people suspected of committing crimes under international law. Unfortunately, the issuance of an arrest warrant against President Omar Al Bashir of Sudan for war crimes and crimes against humanity triggered renewed efforts to undermine the work of the ICC by various states and regional bodies, including the African Union (AU).

While the ICC Prosecutor continued to investigate and prosecute a number of cases from Africa and to conduct preliminary inquiries in Afghanistan, Colombia and Georgia, the Prosecutor can only prosecute a limited number of individuals. It is essential that national criminal justice systems investigate and prosecute those suspected of being responsible for crimes under international law, including by exercising universal jurisdiction. Regrettably, Senegal has only made limited progress in the case of former Chadian President Hissène Habré, indicating a lack of political will to initiate serious investigations. At the instance of the government of Rwanda, the AU adopted a resolution criticizing what it called the “abuse” of universal jurisdiction¹, although most of the cases cited as “abuses” did not involve universal jurisdiction.

In Algeria, a series of amnesty measures introduced after the end of the worst of the violence that engulfed the country in the 1990s entrenched a climate of impunity. Blanket amnesties were granted successively to members of armed groups and security forces who had committed serious human rights abuses including enforced disappearances, unlawful killings, abductions and torture. These amnesty measures also effectively prevented victims and their families from obtaining truth, justice and reparations.

In Uganda, Amnesty International is concerned that proposed agreements signed in 2008 between the Lords Resistance Army (LRA) and the government of Uganda fall short of a comprehensive plan to ensure justice, truth and reparations. Since the implementation of an Amnesty law in 2000 thousands of individuals have been granted amnesties in relation to armed conflicts including the northern Uganda conflict involving the LRA in which crimes against humanity and war crimes, as well as torture, extrajudicial executions and enforced disappearances were committed.

In light of the continuing impunity for crimes under international law, Amnesty International urges the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights to reaffirm and expand its earlier resolutions on impunity by adopting a resolution:

• Calling on AU member states to adhere to the principles under the AU Constitutive Act and specifically to reject impunity for human rights violations and abuses.

• Calling on AU member states to ensure that law enforcement agencies operate in accordance with international human rights standards such as the United Nations Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials.

• Calling on AU member states to cooperate with international criminal courts by arresting and surrendering suspects to them and to ensure that human rights abuses and violations are defined as crimes under national law and investigated and those responsible brought to justice in their own courts in accordance to international recognized standards of fair trial without recourse to the death penalty.

• Stressing that under international law there can be no amnesty, pardons or similar measures of impunity for crimes under international law such as war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, torture, extrajudicial executions and enforced disappearances.

• Reaffirming its 1996 Resolution on the Respect and the Strengthening on the Independence of the Judiciary.