TUNISIA MOROCCO ALGERIA LIBYA Western EGYPT Sahara MAURITANIA MALI NIGER ERITREA SENEGAL THE GAMBIA CHAD SUDAN GUINEA-BISSAU BURKINA DJIBOUTI FASO GUINEA BENIN NIGERIA SIERRA TOGO ETHIOPIA LEONE CÔTE CENTRAL D’IVOIRE GHANA LIBERIA AFRICAN REP. CAMEROON SOMALIA UGANDA SAO TOME EQUAT. AND PRINCIPE GUINEA REP. OF KENYA GABON THE CONGO RWANDA DEM. REP. BURUNDI OF THE CONGO INDIAN TANZANIA OCEAN ANGOLA MALAWI ATL ANTIC ZAMBIA OCEAN MOZAMBIQUE ZIMBABWE MADAGASCAR NAMIBIA BOTSWANA SWAZILAND LESOTHO SOUTH AFRICA Africa Rahnuma Hassan, Anna Horvai, Paige Jennings, Bobbie Mellor and George Mukundi Wachira publicized findings regarding the practice of human trafficking, including of women and girls, within Central and through the region, while others drew attention to the effects of drug trafficking. The treatment of asylum-seekers and refugees, many of whom may and West belong to minorities in their countries of origin, was also a serious concern. In one example, in July a joint operation between the governments Africa of Uganda and Rwanda saw the forced return of around 1,700 Rwandans from refugee settlements Paige Jennings in south-western Uganda. Armed police officers reportedly surrounded them and forced them onto he year 2010 marked 50 years of inde- waiting trucks, which proceeded to drop them at a pendence for many countries in Africa. transit centre in Rwanda. The United Nations High T Elections, some unprecedented, were Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) protested held in 22 countries, with others planned for 2011. at the failure to respect international standards While elections can be a positive indicator of the and reported that not only asylum-seekers but also level of respect for fundamental freedoms, the recognized refugees were among those forcibly region offered several examples of how electoral con- returned to their country of origin. tests can also increase levels of violence, including that based on gender and ethnicity. In this context, Efforts to address past human rights women and girls from minority and indigenous violations groups can be at particular risk, as they may find The year 2010 also saw a range of positive efforts themselves targeted on the basis of both gender and to address past human rights violations, including minority or indigenous identity. those targeted at minority groups. Though the African Union (AU) declared Former president Charles Taylor of Liberia 2010–20 the African Women’s Decade, renewing remains on trial before the Special Court for commitments to gender equality and women’s Sierra Leone. The Court was set up jointly by the empowerment, events around the region government of Sierra Leone and the United Nations demonstrated that the rights of women continue (UN) to address serious violations of international to be in need of particular protection. The newly- humanitarian and Sierra Leone law committed after appointed UN Special Representative of the November 1996. Taylor has pleaded not guilty to Secretary-General (SRSG) on sexual violence in 11 charges of instigating murder, rape, mutilation, conflict highlighted egregious abuses against women sexual slavery and conscription of child soldiers. during the year, particularly in the Democratic Efforts continue to bring Hissène Habré, the Republic of Congo (DRC). former dictator of Chad, to justice, following a Across the region, human rights defenders and 2006 recommendation by the AU to Senegal (where journalists continued their courageous work on the Habré lives in exile) that he should be prosecuted. social issues of greatest concern in their countries. The government of Senegal stated that the trial At times, this was at great risk to their own security, would proceed if donors funded it; in November as highlighted in the country entries below. Attacks they pledged to do so. The Court of Justice of on human rights defenders as well as journalists the Economic Community of West African States have a devastating impact, not just on individual (ECOWAS) also gave input. lives, but also on the fabric of societies as a whole, The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda by shrinking the space available for free debate and (ICTR), created in 1994 in the aftermath of the hampering the outside world’s ability to understand genocide, continued its work. Cases are currently in developments in their countries. progress against 21 people, while two are awaiting Concerns continue regarding significant cross- trial and guilty verdicts against nine more are under border issues. A number of non-governmental appeal. Ten accused remain at large. The UN organizations (NGOs) and international bodies Security Council had recommended that the Tribunal 64 Africa State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2011 conclude its efforts by 2010, but that deadline proved Above: Internally-displaced Bambuti woman, unrealistic. Meanwhile, the vast bulk of genocide cases Kalehe, South Kivu, DRC. Mark Lattimer/MRG. – reportedly over 1 million – have been prosecuted in Rwanda before gacaca, or traditional community The trial of Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo, leader tribunals that have been expanded in order to deal of the Movement for the Liberation of Congo with the significant caseload. (MLC), opened in November; Gombo was The International Criminal Court (ICC) arrested in Belgium in 2008 and transferred to The remained an important mechanism for bringing Hague to face charges of crimes against humanity, perpetrators to justice, though its Review including murder and rape, and war crimes allegedly Conference in Kampala in June heard calls for committed in the CAR. Since 2007 the ICC has more robust prosecution of sexual violence crimes. been investigating abuses against civilians reportedly It is currently hearing cases from four armed committed during armed conflict between the CAR conflicts, in the DRC, the Central African Republic government and rebel forces in 2002 and 2003. (CAR), Sudan and Uganda. In March it opened ICC arrest warrants issued in 2005 remain an investigation into the post-election violence of pending against three surviving leaders of the 2007–8 in Kenya. notorious Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) for abuses The arrest in October in France of Rwandan committed in northern Uganda. After being forced Hutu rebel leader Callixte Mbarushimana of the from Uganda in 2005, the LRA moved into the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda Haut-Uele and Bas-Uele districts of Orientale (Forces Démocratiques de Libération du Rwanda, province in the DRC, the Central and Western FDLR), on charges of crimes against humanity and Equatoria region of Sudan and the Haute-Mbomou war crimes dating from 2009, brings to five the province of the CAR. In May the UNHCR number of alleged perpetrators of egregious human reported an alarming rise in its attacks on civilians. rights abuses in the DRC with cases before the ICC. Finally, a UN ‘mapping exercise’ of a decade of Four are in international custody. The fifth, Bosco conflict in the DRC, published in October, reported Ntaganda, is a serving DRC army general. that the Rwandan army systematically killed tens State of the World’s Minorities Africa 65 and Indigenous Peoples 2011 of thousands of Hutu civilians after it invaded the three reportedly murdered in 2010. DRC in 1996 in pursuit of perpetrators of the 1994 Nevertheless, Burundi’s Constitution does genocide and subsequent attacks on the region’s recognize ‘minority groups’, including ethnic, Tutsis. The report contained more than 600 alleged cultural and religious minorities. It also provides incidents of violence, including widespread rape and for proportionate ethnic representation in public sexual assault by all sides. While the root causes of enterprises, the National Assembly and the Senate. the high incidence of sexual violence in the DRC The explicit mention of Batwa as beneficiaries of today (see below) are clearly complex, the report this ethnic quota constitutes an important step highlighted victims’ lack of access to justice and forward for this ancient hunting and gathering the resulting impunity as significant contributing community. Despite this, however, stereotyping factors. The DRC welcomed the report’s release and marginalization of Batwa people continues, but Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda reacted very restricting their involvement in political life. negatively, with Rwanda calling it a ‘dangerous and Local, communal, legislative and presidential irresponsible attempt […] to undermine the peace elections were all held in 2010. In the run-up and stability attained in the Great Lakes region’. to the elections, opposition parties reported intimidation and violence from both police and Central Africa the youth wing of the party in power, the National Burundi Council for the Defence of Democracy – Forces Burundi emerged in 2008 from over a decade for the Defence of Democracy (Conseil National and a half of civil war between the army, drawn pour la Défense de la Démocratie – Forces de predominantly from the minority Tutsi group, Défense de la Démocratie, CNDD-FDD), which and militias from the majority Hutu. During the had been formed from one of the main Hutu war, women and girls of all ethnic groups were rebel groups active in the civil war. Other parties systematically targeted for violence by both sides. organized their own youth wings in response, at This violence did not stop with the cessation of times with disaffected young ex-combatants. These hostilities. In May the outgoing Independent Expert groups, including that of the CNDD-FDD’s closest of the UN Human Rights Council on the situation rival the National Liberation Forces (FNL), were of human rights in Burundi, Akich Okola, reported involved in numerous violent clashes. that gender-based violence had escalated year on year. The communal elections, held in May, went Also during the civil war, Batwa, caught in the off peacefully, although Human Rights Watch middle between Hutu and Tutsi militants, both reported at least five politically motivated killings accusing them of loyalty to the other side, were in the weeks running up to them.