Voir Pétition en français ici.
Click here to sign the petition.
Batwa People in Burundi Subject to Arbitrary Detention, Torture and Killings: Urgent Request for Intervention
We, the undersigned organizations, express our extreme concern at the human rights abuses including arbitrary detentions, torture and extrajudicial killings perpetrated against the indigenous Batwa people in Burundi since 2015 and recently.
- On 02 April 2021 Sylvestre Bazirinyakamwe, founder and Vice President of the Batwa organization called Unissons nous pour la promotion des Batwa (UNIPROBA), was arrested in the style of a kidnapping by the national intelligence service of Burundi. These police officers later arrested seven other staff of this organization, who were released after 5 hours. After being held in an unknown location for 4 months, on 18 August 2021 he was suddenly taken to Bujumbura central prison. The Batwa of Burundi fear that their leader has been tortured in the unknown prison because his organization and his family have not been allowed to see him.
- In late July 2021, Innocent Mahwikizi, Founder and National Coordinator of the Batwa organization called UCEDD, was imprisoned in the central prison Gitega.
- In 2018, Jacques Ndayizeye, founder and Deputy Legal Representative of Union des Jeunes Batwa pour le Développement Communautaire (UJEDECO), was unjustly imprisoned in the central prison of Bujumbura. He was arrested the same way Sylvester was. Since 2018, no one in the Batwa community has been able to obtain justice for this indigenous leader.
- Since 2015, numerous other instances of assassination, torture, and unjust imprisonment of Batwa leaders and community members have been documented, without a means to obtain justice for these victims of State-sponsored and extrajudicial actors. The documentation is being provided to the human rights agencies.
We hereby call for the immediate release of all Batwa who have been detained in Burundi for political reasons, including Sylvestre BAZIRINYAKAMWE, Innocent MAHWIKIZI and Jacques NDAYIZEYE; and we call on the human rights bodies of the international community, including the UN’s Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights, the Human Rights Council, the UN Commission of Inquiry on Burundi, the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous People (EMRIP), the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, and the Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, as well as international NGOs such as World Organisation Against Torture, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Trial International, to launch an immediate investigation into the above-listed acts, and to follow up with an urgent intervention for those that are ongoing.
Click here to sign the petition.
Signatories
Réseau Initiative for Equality (regional) – sponsor
Actions pour le Regroupement et l’Auto promotion des Pygmees (DRC)
Développeurs Sans Frontières (DRC)
Association des jeunes filles et Femmes Autochtones Engagées dans la protection de l’environnement et la Lutte Contre la Pauvreté Féminine (DRC)
Dynamique des Groupes des Peuples Autochtones – DGPA (DRC)
Ligue des Sacrifices Volontaires pour la Défense des Droits de l’Homme et d’Environnement – LISVDHE (DRC)
Pan African Vision for the Environment – PAVE (Nigeria)
African Initiative for Mankind Progress Organization – AIMPO (Rwanda)
African Initiative On Food Security And Environment (regional)
Reach The Youth – RTY (Uganda)
Association For Promotion Sustainable Development (India)
Union pour la Promotion/Protection, la Défense des Droits Humains et de l’Environnement – UPDDHE (DRC)
Réseau Congolais des Forestiers de la RD Congo (DRC)
Peace Foundation (Pakistan)
Permaculture for Refugees (global)
PATHIKRIT (Bangladesh)
The Schumacher Institute (United Kingdom)
Bureau Pour la Croissance Intégrale et la Dignité de l’Enfant (DRC)
Conseil consultatif de femme africaine (DRC)
Rural-Urban Women And Children Development Agency (Ghana)
Action de Solidarité Communautaire – ASCO (DRC)
Association pour la Conservation Communautaire de la Biodiversité – ACCB (DRC)
Abibinsroma Foundation (Ghana)
Women future life – WFL (DRC)
Action de Solidarité des Femmes pour le Développement en Milieu Rural – ASOFED-MR (DRC)
SOS Secours a la Femme en Détresse – SOS SFD (DRC)
Organisation d’Accompagnement et d’Appui aux Pygmees (DRC)
Développeurs Sans Frontières (DRC)
AGAPE Hauts Plateaux (DRC)
Mukono Multipurpose Youth Organisation – MUMYO (Uganda)
Association pour la protection de l’environnement et le développement durable de Bizerte – APEDDUB Bizerte (Tunisia)
Maya Media (United States)
Actions pour la Promotion et Protection des Peuples et Espèces Menacés – APEM (DRC)
Femmes Solidaires – Elat Meyong (Cameroon)
Grupo Tacuba, A. C. (Mexico)
Réseau d’encadrement des pygmées de l’Equateur – REPEQ (DRC)
Comite de Lutte contre les Violences faites aux Femmes – CLVF (Senegal)
KACHORE-ONG (Bénin)
Focus Droits Et Accès (DRC)
Initiative pour la Protection des Femmes Autochtones et de l’Environnent – IPROFAE (DRC)
Hawai’i Institute for Human Rights (United States)
Community and Family Aid Foundation (Ghana)
Hequeendo Compassionate Friends (Kenya)
Union pour la Promotion des Femmes – UPF (DRC)
Fanos Ethiopia (Ethiopia)
Parlement des Filles au Sud-Kivu – PAFI (DRC)
Sustainable and Resilient Resources Roundtable (United States)
Observatoire pour la Défense des Droits des Personnes Handicapées – ODDPH (DRC)
Golden Change for Concerned Youth Forum (Nigeria)
Shacks and Slum Dwellers Association (Nigeria)
Fondation pour les Femmes Africaines – FFA (France, Congo Brazzaville)
Better World Cameroon (Cameroon)
Foyer de Développement pour l’Autopromotion des Pygmées et Indigènes Défavorisés – FDAPID (DRC)
Association of Environmental Justice in Israel – AEJI (Israel)
Environnement Ressources Naturelles et Développement – ERND (DRC)
Monde d’Espoir (DRC)
OSIENALA – Friends of Lake Victoria (Kenya)
Center for World Indigenous Studies – CWIS (global)
KOTHOWAIN – Vulnerable Peoples Development Organization (Bangladesh)
Africapacity (DRC)
Groupe Martin Luther King (DRC)