UN Transitions from Peacekeeping to Governance, amid Crisis in Haiti

As oversight bodies call for restraint amid ongoing protests in Haiti, the United Nations is ending its 15-year peacekeeping mission in the country. [IACHR Press Release; UN News: Protests] On October 16, 2019, a special political mission, the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH), replaced the United Nations Mission for Justice Support in Haiti (MINUJUSTH), shifting the UN’s focus

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civil society meets with IACHR

New Report: Civil Society Access to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights

The International Justice Resource Center (IJRC) has published its second report in an ongoing series examining the barriers to civil society’s engagement with supranational human rights oversight bodies. See IJRC, Civil Society Access to International Oversight Bodies: Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (2019). This edition analyzes the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), a principal autonomous organ of the Organization

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Guatemala & Nicaragua: Cooperation with Human Rights Monitors Deteriorates

The governments of Guatemala and Nicaragua each recently issued decisions terminating cooperation with international and regional oversight bodies in critical areas of human rights, prompting strong criticism. [UN News: Nicaragua; IACHR Press Release: Guatemala; European Council Press Release] Escalating his September 2018 decision that Guatemala would not renew its agreement with a United Nations-backed anti-corruption investigatory body, the International Commission

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Ethiopia: Mass Arrests Seen as Setback Amid Recent Progress

In recent weeks, the Ethiopian government has retreated from democratic reforms by arresting more than 1,200 individuals, killing several dozen, sending arrestees to “rehabilitation” camps, and shutting off mobile internet access as violence and protests reached the capital. [NYTimes: Arrests; Quartz] Among other reforms, new Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed had welcomed previously-outlawed opposition groups to return to Ethiopia and reopened

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Guatemala and Nicaragua Reject UN Human Rights Monitors Amid Turmoil

Two Central American governments ended their cooperation with the United Nations on specific human rights initiatives and sought to exclude UN representatives from their territories in late August 2018. In Guatemala, President Jimmy Morales announced on August 31 he would not renew the mandate of the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) when it expires in 2019 and barred

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Conflicts in Cameroon Escalate, Human Rights Experts Respond

In the past month, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights have called on Cameroon to launch an investigation into persistent reports of a deteriorating human rights situation in the English-speaking Northwest and Southwest regions of Cameroon, including to investigate a video showing the alleged extrajudicial executions of a

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