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For Immediate Release
July, 31 2009, 02:55pm EDT
Contact:
Tel: +1-212-216-1832,Email:,hrwpress@hrw.org
US: Clinton Should Stress Human Rights on Africa Trip
Seven-Nation Visit Should Urge Accountability and the Rule of Law
NEW YORK
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton should emphasize human rights
on her seven-nation trip to Africa, Human Rights Watch said today in a letter to Clinton.
The 11-day trip, to begin on August 4, will take Clinton to Kenya,
South Africa, Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Liberia,
and Cape Verde. While in Kenya, Clinton will also meet with the
president of Somalia's Transitional Federal Government.
In the letter, Human Rights Watch called on Clinton to urge the power-sharing Kenyan government to hold accountable those responsible for human rights abuses
committed in the aftermath of the December 2007 elections and to
implement urgently needed reforms of Kenya's security and justice
sectors.
"Kenyans are losing faith in their politicians," said Georgette
Gagnon, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. "The government's
failure to ensure justice for the victims of the post-election violence
threatens to undermine Kenya's stability and impede its economic
development."
Clinton should encourage Somali President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed to support the establishment of a commission of inquiry into serious crimesSomalia, home to one of the most acute human rights and humanitarian crises on the continent, Human Rights Watch said. by all the warring parties in
In South Africa, she should urge the new government
of President Jacob Zuma to play a more proactive role on foreign policy
matters on the continent, particularly in pressing for human rights
reforms by its neighbor, Zimbabwe, where the army continues to commit
abuses with impunity, including in the eastern diamond fields of Marange.
Clinton should call on the Angolan government to
rein in its armed forces and ensure that they abide by international
human rights and humanitarian law in Cabinda, Angola's oil-rich
enclave, where Human Rights Watch has documented arbitrary detention and torture,
and in Lunda Norte, a diamond-rich area on the Congolese border, where
Human Rights Watch has recently found pillaging, arbitrary detention,
and rape in the process of the mass expulsions of migrants.
Human Rights Watch also called on Clinton, while in the Democratic Republic of Congo,
to urge the prosecution of all military personnel, regardless of rank,
who have committed serious human rights abuses, particularly sexual violence.
In the past 11 years, tens of thousands of girls and women in eastern
Congo have been raped. While some low-ranking soldiers have been
prosecuted for such offenses, not one senior commander has been brought
to account.
In Nigeria, Clinton should denounce corruption and mismanagement of natural resources, which deny Nigerians basic rights to the highest attainable standard of health and education, Human Rights Watch said.
And in Liberia, Clinton should stress the
importance of fair, credible prosecutions for the most serious crimes
committed during Liberia's armed conflicts, and urge the government of
President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf to establish commissions that would
promote reforms in key areas such as human rights, the rule of law, and
land disputes, which were at the root of Liberia's conflicts.
"The US rightly wants to promote Africa as a place of great
opportunity, but Africans will be unable to realize their potential if
their human rights are denied," Gagnon said. "Secretary Clinton should
make this connection clear."
Human Rights Watch is one of the world's leading independent organizations dedicated to defending and protecting human rights. By focusing international attention where human rights are violated, we give voice to the oppressed and hold oppressors accountable for their crimes. Our rigorous, objective investigations and strategic, targeted advocacy build intense pressure for action and raise the cost of human rights abuse. For 30 years, Human Rights Watch has worked tenaciously to lay the legal and moral groundwork for deep-rooted change and has fought to bring greater justice and security to people around the world.
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For the first time, Democratic lawmakers were allowed to tour U.S. President Donald Trump's sprawling Everglades immigrant detention center on Saturday. They said what they witnessed was "disturbing" and "disgusting."
After Democrats were previously denied entry to the facility known as "Alligator Alcatraz," three Democratic congresspeople from Florida—Reps. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, Jared Moskowitz, and Maxwell Frost—journeyed to the remote compound along with another group of Republicans as part of a state-arranged tour.
"Alligator Alcatraz" was erected within a matter of weeks and now contains approximately 900 people who have been rounded up as part of Trump's "mass deportation" crusade, which a court determined was rife with illegal racial profiling.
The administration said they hope to fill the camp with as many as 5,000 people at a time.
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"There are three tiny toilet units that have a sink attached to it," she said. "They get their drinking water, and they brush their teeth where they poop, in the same unit," she continued.
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He brought up prior complaints made by prisoners of the camp about the sanitation.
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Wasserman-Schultz also said she brought a thermostat to measure the temperature within the facility, which the Department of Homeland Security has claimed was "air conditioned." She said that the area just outside the tents that housed the detainees was 83°F and said it was likely much hotter inside due to the body heat.
Moskowitz said there was "evidence of flooding" and "floors that are only about eight inches above the ground," while other lawmakers noted that a hurricane or even a lighter tropical storm could prove catastrophic.
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Moskowitz also noted the extraordinary cost to assemble and run the makeshift facility, which is estimated to cost $450 million per year according to one U.S. official who spoke to The Associated Press.
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The Trump administration has described the facility as a holding tank for "the worst of the worst" criminals as they await deportation. But according to reporting by the Miami Herald and Tampa Bay Times on Sunday, only a third of the people in the facility have criminal convictions, which range from crimes like attempted murder to traffic violations. More than 250 of the people in the facility have not been convicted of or even charged with a crime.
No outside journalists have been allowed to tour the facility, and there are no photos or videos available publicly beyond what has been released by the Trump government. The congresspeople on the tour were told they were not allowed to take any photos or videos inside or meet with any of the detainees.
Instead of being shown the conditions in which detainees were currently being housed, they were shown facilities that had not yet been filled. They were still denied access to some, including medical facilities.
Last week a group of Democrats in Florida's state legislature were turned away when they attempted to tour the camp, with Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) saying they could not show up unannounced to perform oversight over a federal facility.
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Outrage continues to grow against U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem over her response to the deadly floods that ravaged Texas last week.
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The next day, July 6, FEMA received 2,363 calls and answered 846, or roughly 35.8 percent, according to the documents. And on Monday, July 7, the agency fielded 16,419 calls and answered 2,613, or around 15.9 percent, the documents show.
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"Responding to less than half of the inquiries is pretty horrific," Jeffrey Schlegelmilch, director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University, told The Times.
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Democratic lawmakers were already calling for investigations into Noem's response to the floods before Friday. They also sought to look into how the Trump administration's mass firings of FEMA employees, as well as employees of the National Weather Service (NWS) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) may have hampered the response.
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Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) called it "unforgivable and unforgettable" and an "inexcusable lapse in top leadership."
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According to the complaint:
The raids in this district follow a common, systematic pattern. Individuals with brown skin are approached or pulled aside by unidentified federal agents, suddenly and with a show of force, and made to answer questions about who they are and where they are from. If they hesitate, attempt to leave, or do not answer the questions to the satisfaction of the agents, they are detained, sometimes tackled, handcuffed, and/or taken into custody.
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Two of the plaintiffs were U.S. citizens.
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Since early June, Southern California has been the epicenter of the Trump administration's "mass deportation" push, with thousands of immigrants detained—often by unidentified, masked agents—in sweeping raids that have traumatized Latino communities across the state.
Despite the administration publicizing the arrests of violent criminals, the vast majority of those arrested have no criminal history. More than 1,500 people have been disappeared, the ACLU said last week, "in order to meet arbitrary arrest quotas set by the Trump administration."
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