Violations_en
Threats are one of many strategies used to discourage HRDs. Among the most frequent threats/intimidations, we can cite death threats, loss of a job or other various consequences. Threats/intimidation linked to physical attacks can be very effective in contexts characterized by extreme violence.
Member of Action of Young Breeders and Farmers in Kivu “AJEAK”
On April 25, 2021, he was tortured by elements of the MAY MAY armed groups at his home in the village of Murambi/Kitoga in the DRC
Journalist and President of the national platform of Gabonese civil society
In July 2021, he was summoned and then detained in the B2 cell in Gabon
On September 14, 2022, the Editor-in-Chief of Panorama Papers and columnist for the daily newspaper “Le Messager” was the victim of threats from the Cameroonian intelligence services.
From January 16 to 17, 2024, between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m., unidentified individuals broke into the home of Mr. Dismas KITENGE in Kisangani, where he was with his family.
On February 16, 2021, six journalists were sentenced to three years in prison and to pay a fine of 500,000 Congolese francs (250 US dollars) and 1 million Congolese francs (500 US dollars) in damages by the peace court from Bumba.
Deprivation of liberty is a strategy used against HRDs to discourage them in their work to defend Human Rights.
MOUTHE Roland Stéphane alias Patricia, LGBT Defenders
On May 11, 2021, sentence to 5 years of imprisonment by the Court of First Instance (TPI) of Douala Bonanjo and 200,000 (two hundred thousand francs) in fines.
On December 8, 2021, Mr. Fortuné EDOU ESSONO, Coordinator of the National Union and his accomplice Mr. Eric OTSETSE were detained at the General Directorate of Counter-Interventions and Military Security in Libreville and are accused of “calling for violence on Facebook.
May 17, 2022: arbitrary arrest and detention of Me Max LOALNGAR; lawyer at the CHAD bar and spokesperson for the opposition coalition Wakit Tama, by the police and detained at the general intelligence service.
Coordinator of the Congolese NGO Platform. On March 11, 2021, he was kidnapped and held incommunicado by at least three people in civilian clothes and taken against his will from his home in Brazzaville.
Coordinator of the Citizen Movement “Le Temps”
In July 2021, tortured and arbitrarily detained at Amsinéné central prison in N’Djamena
On September 25, 2022, arbitrary arrest and detention without any reason of Mr. ANACLETO Micha Ndong, member of GE Nuestra Somos by President Teodoro Nguema Obiang.
On August 24, 2023, eleven HRDs in the same city were arrested and questioned in the P2 police cell. Later, the latter were transferred to the dungeon of the Military Auditorat of the Goma Garrison where the conditions of detention are humanely degrading.
On November 13, 2023, arbitrary arrest and detention of journalist AMINOU Alioum; correspondent for the privately owned channel Canal 2 international in the Far North region of Cameroon.
On November 8, 2023, the Publication Director of the daily newspaper “The Guardian Post”, Christian Ngah, was arrested by the gendarmes at the headquarters of his newspaper in Yaoundé, at a place called Efoulan Lac, in the third district of Yaoundé and taken to the State Secretariat of Defense (SED) where he was placed in police custody for a few days.
On the night of January 28 to 29, 2022, Anne Marie Buhoro, Defender of victims of sexual violence, was assassinated by her spouse Jérémie SALEH BIN SALEH, captain of the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (FARDC). Anne Marie Buhoros was involved in caring for victims of sexual violence in the region.
According to international law, enforced disappearance is any abduction or imprisonment by agents of the State or a third party with the authorization, support or consent of the State, followed by the refusal to recognize the fate of the person and where it is located. Anything that places the victim outside the protection of the law. The risk here is that the person may be found tortured or killed by their torturer(s).
National President of the Frontline Fighters for Citizens Interests (FFCI) association and member of the Network of Human Rights Defenders in Central Africa (REDHAC), missing since August 6, 2018.
One of the methods of repression and dissuasion used to scare HRDs from their country, or even silence them, is the use of the judicial system. We can speak of judicial harassment in the event of criminal accusations or civil or administrative proceedings. This is how HRDs are then accused of having, for example, violated the laws on demonstrations, respect for public order and sometimes of being in collusion with terrorist groups. All these accusations sometimes expose them to heavy sentences such as the death penalty.
On November 29, 2021, Mispa Fri AWASUM, lawyer and President of the women of the Movement for the Renaissance of Cameroon (MRC), was summoned to the Military Court of Yaoundé. Placed in pre-trial detention on November 23, 2020, she will be sentenced to 7 years of imprisonment on December 28, 2021.
On December 20, 2022, Mr. Vamoulké AMADOU, former Director General of the Cameroonian audiovisual channel “Cameroon Radio Television” (CRTV) was sentenced to 12 years in prison by the Special Criminal Court (TCS) of Yaoundé-Cameroon after several referrals.
Defender incarcerated at the central prison of Yaoundé Kodengui (Cameroon).
He was sentenced in August 2023 to 25 years in prison by the Yaoundé Military Court.
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He is serving a 15-year prison sentence for simply wanting, at the end of 2016, to peacefully exercise his rights to freedom of opinion, expression, association and peaceful demonstration in the North-West region of Cameroon. He was tried and convicted by a Military Court in Yaoundé on the basis of a repressive law: the law on the repression of acts of terrorism of December 23, 2014.
On April 1, 2022, 13 activists from the Citizen Movement Struggle for Change (LUCHA) were sentenced by a Military Court in Beni to 12 months in prison for participating in a peaceful demonstration in November 2021.
Every year, numerous reports indicate that several HRDs are victims of physical attacks, the perpetrators of which are most often members of the defense and security forces (police, military, gendarmes, etc.), agents of private security, non-state armed groups and other thugs. These violations are generally perpetrated during events such as peaceful demonstrations in which elements of defense and security forces intervene to disperse the crowds under the pretext of preserving public order.
Whistleblower and promoter of the TGV de l’Info Facebook page was kidnapped on the night of March 9 to 10, 2022 around 10 p.m. by 3 unidentified men who subjected him to inhuman and degrading treatment, acts of torture, physical abuse: he escaped with a black eye and abandoned on the road from Nsimalen to Yaoundé.
On October 27, 2018, Alfredo OKENVE, Human Rights Defender, was severely beaten and injured by security agents in civilian clothes in Equatorial Guinea.
These two types of violations can be committed against men and women HRDs. However, it is the WHRDs who are most often victims; because, by defending human rights, they challenge cultural norms and barriers. Anything that exposes them to many risks specific to their gender.
On February 21, 2018, Marceline DYAWA, victim of violence by elements of the Km5 self-defense group.
Coordinator of the Association of Christian Mothers for Assistance to the Vulnerable (AMCAV) in the DRC. In October 2016, Ntumba Bernadette suffered sexual violence in the South Kivu province of the DRC. She was targeted by a former rebel leader after a misunderstanding over a case of rape of a minor on which the defender’s organization was trying to lobby the judicial authorities.
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HRDs are not safe from burglaries and thefts either in their offices or in their homes. In other words, these are violations committed by people intending to negatively affect the work of HRDs in favor of the promotion and protection of Human Rights. We must also add to this category searches by elements of defense and security forces carried out in accordance with the law or in violation of the law, especially in conflict zones.
Burglary of the REDHAC headquarters office in Douala, November 4, 2015.
On the night of August 6, 2022, Mr. Philippe NANGA, Coordinator of the NGO “Un Monde Avenir”, Human Rights Defender and member of the Board of Directors of REDHAC was the victim of a burglary at his home by unidentified men. identified.
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September 28, 2022, around 2:30 p.m., in the heart of the Bali district, Mr. Alex Gustave AZEBAZE, independent journalist and Human Rights Defender, also a member of the Board of Directors of REDHAC, was the victim of a burglary of his car by unidentified men.
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In recent years, REDHAC has observed an increase in the use of travel bans against certain HRDs. The purpose of travel bans is often to prevent people from attending international conferences and events related to the human rights situation in their home country. In many cases, travel bans are imposed without following any legal procedures and HRDs are simply arrested at airports and prevented from leaving.
On December 11, 2021, opponent Paulin MAKAYA saw his Congolese passport confiscated by the border police at Brazzaville airport as he prepared to go to London for medical treatment.
Jean Remy YAMA, President of “Dynamique Unitaire” was the victim of arbitrary arrest and detention on February 27, 2022 at Libreville International Airport when he was going to Senegal for emergency care. He was arrested by the police and without having been the subject of any summons throughout his stay in Gabon.
On September 8, 2023, as he was preparing to board a flight to Lubumbashi, journalist Stanis BUJAKERA TSHIAMALA was arrested at N’Djili airport in Kinshasa. Since then, he has been deprived of his liberty.
Christophe REMANDE member of the Collective of victims of the 2016 post-electoral crisis in Gabon.
Jean Roger MAVOUNGOU, ROLBG, (Network of Free Civil Society Organizations for Good Governance in Gabon).
International Human Rights Law (IHRL) considers torture to be the infliction of acute mental or physical pain or suffering on a person with the aim of obtaining information or a confession or to punish, to intimidate or coerce the victim. We can only speak of torture in the presence of the instigation, consent or acquiescence of a state agent or a person acting in his official capacity.
Article 2 al2 of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment formally prohibits this practice in these terms: “No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether in a state of war or threat of war, internal political instability or any other state of emergency cannot be invoked to justify torture.
Torture differs from other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatments in terms of its objective and severity.
On May 19, 2021, the President of the Reform Party, Yacine ABDRAMAN SAKINE, was arrested and molested before being admitted to a hospital following physical abuse in N’djamena.
On June 13, 2021, Theodore MIH NDZE, journalist for the newspaper The Voice, was arrested by security forces in Yaoundé, without having previously been served with either a summons or a warrant. He was the victim of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and torture.
On November 3, 2022, Serge Alain OTTOU journalist on private television Éaquinoxe TV and presenter of the program “Équinoxe Soir” and Mr. Engelbert Lebon DATCHOUA are threatened with arrest for having organized the debate around the 40th anniversary of the Renewal and having left one of the guests Mr. Engelbert Lebon DATCHOUA; executive of the opposition political party Movement for the Renaissance of Cameroon (MRC) declared that: “Mr BIYA is one of the bad lucks that Cameroon has known”.
Attempted arrest as well as the inhuman and degrading treatment inflicted on the journalist Xavier MESSE (Publication Director of the Weekly “Le Calame”) by elements of the Mixed Commission prescribed by President Paul Biya and housed at the State Secretariat in Defense (SED) in Yaoundé in the case of the heinous and barbaric assassination of journalist Martinez Zogo whose body was found on January 22, 2023 in the district called Ebogo 2 in Yaoundé in Cameroon.
On July 21, 2021, Landry LOUBOUEYA was arrested by the police for having denounced customs abuse in Brazzaville.
Every year, HRDs pay a high price for the daily defense of Human Rights. This harsh reality that they face calls for everyone to mobilize so that the targeted assassinations against them end and the culprits answer for their actions before the competent courts.
July 11, 2014. Assassination of Eric OHENA LEMBEMBE, journalist and human rights defender engaged in the protection of the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people in Cameroon.
He was the General Director of the private radio Amplitude FM, and star host of the daily show, “Bouteillage” in the city of Yaoundé whose lifeless body was found on January 22, 2023.
Human rights defenders, President and founder of the NGO “La Voix des sans-voix” in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). He was murdered at the same time as his assistant and driver Fidèle Bazana by police officers on June 1, 2010.
Barthélemy KUBANABANDU CHANGAMUKA, 23, was killed on the night of May 10 to 11, 2021 by two unidentified armed men in the locality of Kitshanga, in the province of North Kivu.
On October 21, 2022, assassination of Radio Cefod journalist Narcisse OREDJE, shot and killed in Chad.
On July 21, 2021, Landry LOUBOUEYA was arrested by the police for having denounced customs abuse in Brazzaville.
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