Category: Advocacy
Joint Statement on Political Intolerance in Burundi Ahead of the June 2025 Elections
Joint Statement on Political Intolerance in Burundi Ahead of the June 2025 Elections
As the legislative, municipal, and hilltop elections scheduled for June 2025 in Burundi approach, the Raoul Wallenberg Center for Human Rights and the organization SOS-Torture/Burundi express their deep concern about the growing political intolerance characterizing the pre-election climate, exacerbated by an upsurge in violence, hate speech, and other serious violations of fundamental rights.
Political tensions and acts of repression against members of the opposition, independent journalists, human rights defenders, and ordinary citizens exercising their freedoms of expression, association, and peaceful assembly are increasingly being reported in various regions of the country.
Since the launch of the electoral campaign, several opposition political parties have denounced a series of acts of intimidation, physical attacks, and harassment, which they attribute to youth affiliated with the ruling CNDD-FDD party, known as Imbonerakure. These practices fuel a widespread climate of fear, hindering free participation in the electoral process and undermining the very foundations of democracy.
Joint Statement on Political Intolerance in Burundi Ahead of the June 2025 Elections
THE CALL OF NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS ORGANIZATIONS FOR THE RELEASE OF THE BURUNDIAN JOURNALIST ALINE SANDRA MUHOZA
The undersigned organizations are deeply concerned by the violation of human rights and fundamental freedoms and the lockdown of civic space in Burundi. The Journalist Sandra Muhoza, arbitrarily detained since April 13, 2024, is one of the many victims of this dramatic situation. The undersigned organizations appeal for her release.
It is worth mentioning that the principles of equitable justice, respect for judicial procedures and the law without any discrimination, independence of the judiciary, impartiality of the magistrate and legality no longer serve as bases for governance in Burundi even though the State has adopted and ratified several international instruments relating to the protection and promotion of human rights.
Hence, acts of arbitrary arrests, kidnappings and forced disappearances have become commonplace, especially against members of opposition parties, human rights defenders, journalists and other citizens considered as such. These practices have intensified since 2015, with the political crisis that erupted with the third term of the late President Pierre Nkurunziza.
By this Declaration, the signatory organizations deplore the conditions in which Sandra Muhoza was arrested and held in detention, which clearly demonstrate the extent to which the judiciary has become a tool for persecuting all voices that disagree with the ruling regime. This represents a serious threat to the freedom of the press and that of expression in Burundi.
Call for a release of the burundian journalist Aline Sandra Muhoza_28022025
Burundi:Open Letter Concerns about the human rights situation in Burundi/Lettre Ouverte: Préoccupations concernant la situation des droits humains au Burundi
Open Letter | Concerns about the human rights situation in Burundi
We, the undersigned, are writing to express our deep concern about the continuing deterioration of human rights in Burundi. Despite certain commitments proclaimed at the international level, the situation on the ground reveals an increasingly alarming repression and a climate of terror that stifles the voice of all Burundians.
Since President Évariste Ndayishimiye came to power in 2020, many observers had been hoping for an opening to democratic reform. However, the current reality contrasts sharply with those promises of hope. The ‘law of silence’ has become an absolute rule throughout the country. Critics of the regime are systematically muzzled, and enforced disappearances are reported every week in the capital, Bujumbura. Denunciation has become a common weapon of repression, fuelled by widespread fear among citizens.
Lettre Ouverte | Préoccupations concernant la situation des droits humains au Burundi
Nous, soussignés, nous adressons à vous pour exprimer notre profonde préoccupation concernant la dégradation continue des droits humains au Burundi. Malgré certains engagements proclamés au niveau international, la situation sur le terrain révèle une répression de plus en plus alarmante et un climat de terreur qui étouffe la voix de tous les Burundais.
Depuis l’arrivée au pouvoir du Président Évariste Ndayishimiye en 2020, de nombreux observateurs ont espéré une ouverture vers des réformes démocratiques. Cependant, la réalité actuelle contraste fortement avec ces promesses d’espoir. La « loi du silence » s’est imposée comme une règle absolue dans tout le pays. Les critiques du régime sont systématiquement muselées, et des disparitions forcées sont signalées chaque semaine dans la capitale, Bujumbura. La délation est devenue une arme courante de répression, alimentée par la peur généralisée parmi les citoyens.
Joint statement from Burundian civil society to demand Tanzania to stop the process of persecution against Burundian refugees.
The Burundian civil society organizations signatories to this Declaration are deeply concerned by the humanitarian crisis affecting Burundian refugees in Tanzania. This situation, which has persisted and worsened since the end of 2019, should be of major concern to all those committed to human rights values. Forced to flee their home country, Burundi, due to violence and instability stemming from the 2015 crisis, these refugees found refuge in Tanzania. However, far from being a safe haven, this host country has become the scene of a series of atrocities perpetrated by the police and intelligence forces of Burundi and Tanzania. Operations carried out by night have been source of forced disappearances, arbitrary detentions and torture, turning refugee camps into places of terror rather than security.
URGENT Stop to forced repatriation of Burundian refugees from Tanzania
Letter To Permanent Representatives of Member and Observer States of the United Nations (UN) Human
40 Burundian and international organizations send a letter to the Permanent Representatives of Member and Observer States of the United Nations Human Rights Council (Geneva, Switzerland) to renew the mandate of the Special Rapporteur and guarantee adequate financial resources for his follow-up work and documentation of the human rights situation in Burundi