Updates from December 2022
29 December 2022
Dear Friends, First, congratulations upon completing 2022. For those whose
Menu
Menu
Dear Friends, First, congratulations upon completing 2022. For those whose
Dear Friends, Dear friends and colleagues, November is that time
Arguably no single individual personifies Burundi’s human rights struggle like Pierre Claver Mbonimpa. Born 72 years ago in the small East African country, Claver’s quest for human rights and justice is as old as his country’s modern history.
When his country was plunged into a civil war that killed an estimated 300,000 people following the 1993 assassination of President Cyprien Ntaryamira, Claver was one of its earliest victims. Then a close confidant (he was also a former driver) of the assassinated President, he was framed, and arrested, and would go on to spend the next two years between 1994 and 1996 in jail.
It is in prison that the ulcer of injustice bit him hard. There, he met inmates who had either been wrongfully imprisoned or who had been remanded for long periods without trial, all living in dehumanising conditions. “I was strongly revolted by the injustice. Here were probably innocent people whose years were being wasted away by an unfair judicial system, with no one to stand up for them. I swore that I would try to do something about it once I got out myself,” he says.
Dear Friends, October is usually a busy month for us
As grave human rights violations continue to be reported in
Dear Colleagues, Globally, September has been an eventful month, with
Oral statements delivered during the 51st session of the UN
Dear Friends, Dear friends, Greetings from DefendDefenders and AfricanDefenders. I
Ahead of the 51st session of the UN Human Rights
Dear Colleagues, Greetings from DefendDefenders (East and Horn of Africa
Address:
DefendDefenders
Human Rights House
Plot 1853, John Kiyingi Road
Nsambya P.O. Box 70356,
Kampala, Uganda
General Phone Line:
+256-414-510263 (General)
+256-3932-65820/1/2
24/7 Emergency Phone Line: +256 783 027 611