On October 10, the UN Human Rights Council adopted a resolution renewing the mandate of the UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Burundi. The Council expressed concerns about the country’s rights record, which, nearly 10 years after a political and human rights crisis began, remains dire.
The report presented by the UN Special Rapporteur to the Human Rights Council in September provides a grim picture, with little to no sign of the systemic reforms needed to address the country’s pervasive human rights issues. It highlighted a narrowing of civic space and repression of political opponents, media professionals, and human rights defenders, and described “widespread impunity enjoyed by perpetrators of human rights violations, […] the deteriorating security situation, […] and the increase in the number of cases of enforced disappearance and arbitrary arrest”. The situation in the country is compounded by a deepening economic crisis.
The work of the UN Special Rapporteur is critical in a situation that lacks any other independent oversight. Civil society and media are severely curtailed, and the judiciary is controlled by the executive. In June, the Subcommittee on Accreditation (SCA) of the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions recommended the downgrading of Burundi’s National Independent Human Rights Commission (Commission Nationale Indépendante des Droits de l’Homme du Burundi, CNIDH). The SCA criticized the political interference in the selection of its members; limited cooperation and engagement with civil society organizations and international human rights mechanisms; and the CNIDH’s unwillingness to engage in politically sensitive cases of human rights violations. In 2019, the government shut down UN Human Rights Office in the country, and continues to bar the UN Special Rapporteur from entering the country.
In light of these challenges, and the upcoming 2025 legislative elections, independent monitoring and reporting by the UN Special Rapporteur is critical.
The government should heed the Council’s clear message “to provide a safe and enabling environment for civil society, human rights defenders, journalists, bloggers and other media workers’’ and “to release all those who are still in detention for doing their work in defense of human rights’’.
The government of Burundi should start cooperating meaningfully with the UN Special Rapporteur, respect its obligations under international human rights law, and end impunity for human rights violations.
