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DRC: Peaceful activists jailed for call to strike

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On 6 May, the DRC authorities announced a “State of Siege” for two provinces in the eastern part of the country: North Kivu and Ituri. This decision, according to the authorities, was meant to restore security and peace in the two provinces where decades of armed conflicts and violence have left thousands of people dead and forced many more to flee their homes. Under this special regime, the civilian administration, including justice administration, was replaced by the military. Amnesty International is firmly opposed to the trials of civilians before military courts. And to date, the military courts are not fully operational, delaying the administration of justice to thousands of people in the two provinces. Amnesty International’s statement on the proclamation of the “State of Siege” is available here. 



Elisée Lwatumba Kasonia is in his last year of high school. He risks missing the national exam that gives access to tertiary education. Eric Muhindo Muvumbu is married and a father of two children, aged 8 and 2. His small business has gone bankrupt due to his prolonged absence, leaving his wife struggling to provide for their two children alone.



The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has determined that those detained solely for the peaceful exercise of their human rights must be immediately released. The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights has called on all member states, in its resolution 466 on prisons and conditions of detention in Africa, to release different groups of detainees amidst the Covid-19 pandemic, including human rights defenders, “in order to reduce overcrowding in prisons and curb the spread of the Coronavirus”.

 

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