AFRICA ( commonwealth Union ) _ In nearly 90% of the sub-Saharan African nations, fundamental rights and freedoms are continuously being curtailed, while the rest of the world advances toward more open societies characterized by respect for civil liberties.
This week, Civicus, a global coalition of civil society organizations that promote human rights, raised the alarm about the increasing number of human rights violations in African nations, many of which still do not permit freedom of expression, association, or peaceful assembly.
According to their most recent Civic Freedoms Monitor report, freedom is either suppressed or impeded in 44 of the 49 sub-Saharan African countries, including all of the countries in the region. According to the research, frighteningly many incidents of intimidation of activists and other individuals, incarceration of journalists, arrest of protestors, unjustified disruption of peaceful protests, and attacks on reporters occurred in sub-Saharan African countries in the last year.
The most frequent type of violation last year reported in multiple instances in at least 23 nations in the region was intimidation. Governments allegedly utilized it as a strategy to dissuade journalists and activists from continuing their work. State and non-state actors intimidated people in a variety of ways, according to the report, including through police summonses for interrogation, threats of legal action, warrantless searches of people’s homes, break-ins and raids on offices, and online or offline threatening messages.
Incidences of violence against the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex (LGBTQI+) population increased at the same time as sexual and gender minorities’ rights violations increased.
One of the main restrictions on freedom in the region, according to US sources, is “interference with the freedom of peaceful assembly and freedom of association, including harassment of nongovernmental organizations and activists.”
In addition, they claimed there were instances of “serious” government corruption, the majority of which did not result in the perpetrators being charged or found guilty, as well as a lack of investigations into and accountability for gender-based violence and the existence of laws that make consensual same-sex adult sexual activity illegal.
