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Earlier this week, the Special Criminal Court (SCC) of the Central African Republic issued an arrest warrant for former president François Bozizé. He is charged with crimes against humanity allegedly committed between February 2009 and March 23, 2013, by the Presidential Guard and other security services at the Bossembelé military training center, referred to as “Guantanamo,” north of the country’s capital Bangui.

In April 2013, I interviewed 10 former detainees from Guantanamo who described conditions of near-starvation, constant beatings, torture, and extrajudicial executions. Later, I was taken to see two cells on either side of Bozizé’s private villa, concrete shafts in the ground with just enough space for a person to stand. A cement enclosure on top of the enclosures had air holes for a person to breathe, but no space to move. Reliable accounts by former prisoners indicate that individuals were placed in these cells and left there until they died.

The SCC is a novel court established to investigate and prosecute serious international crimes committed in Central African Republic since 2003. The court is staffed by both national and international judges and personnel.

Bozizé first fled Bangui in March 2013 as the Seleka, a mostly Muslim rebel coalition, took control of the Central African Republic amid widespread abuse, much of which was committed by Bozizé’s presidential guard, which killed at least hundreds of civilians and destroyed thousands of homes during unrest in the mid-2000s. Impunity for alleged crimes dates back even further. The Seleka gave rise to local militias, called anti-balaka, who in turn targeted Muslim civilians and displaced hundreds of thousands of people.

Bozizé returned to the country in 2019 as it was wracked with conflict and later emerged as a key leader in a rebel coalition that attacked Bangui in late 2020 before going back into hiding in Guinea-Bissau.

Umaro Sissoco Embaló, the president of Guinea-Bissau, has told local media that he was surprised by the arrest warrant and that Bozizé had not done anything in Guinea-Bissau to call into question his exile status. Bozizé has been a glaring example of impunity in the Central African Republic for over a decade. Guinea-Bissau has a chance to play a role in finally bringing him to justice.

The Nigerian military authorities said this week they had completed investigations into an erroneous Army airstrike in Tundun Biri Community, Kaduna state, which killed 85 people and injured dozens more in December 2023. Two officers have been indicted over the attack and will face court martial with the military’s disciplinary process.

While this announcement may mark progress towards accountability, authorities should provide answers to many of the outstanding questions about the investigation. This includes the terms of reference, those responsible for conducting the probe, the methodology, the findings – including those implicated. The army should also disclose measures recommended or put in place, if any, to prevent more erroneous airstrikes.

Since 2017, more than 300 people have been killed in strikes that security forces claimed were intended against bandits or members of the Islamist armed group Boko Haram but instead hit local populations.

Following the Tundun Biri airstrike in December, army authorities claimed responsibility for the incident and apologized to the community, while Nigeria’s president, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, ordered an investigation to be carried out.

Human Rights Watch documented the loss, devastation, and trauma resulting from the December airstrike as well as a prior erroneous airstrike by the Air Force in January 2023, which killed 39 people.

Survivors and loved ones of those killed in these airstrikes have yet to receive compensation and services to help them through their loss, injuries, and trauma. The military’s announcement about the investigation’s conclusion did not mention any steps towards such efforts.

Far too many people have been killed by erroneous airstrikes by the Nigerian military. Authorities should build trust in their efforts towards accountability by ensuring transparency in the process and prioritizing reparations for victims.

For many Afghans, the country’s armed conflict has never ended.

The armed group Islamic State of Khorasan Province (ISKP) attracted worldwide attention in March when it attacked the Crocus City Hall in Moscow, killing at least 143 people and injuring many others. Since emerging in Afghanistan in 2015, the group has carried out a bloody campaign mostly targeting Shia-Hazara mosques and schools and other facilities in predominantly Hazara neighborhoods.

In the most recent attack, on April 29, an armed member of the group opened fire on worshippers at a Shia-Hazara mosque in western Herat province, killing six, including a child. On April 20, a magnetic bomb attached to a bus whose passengers were primarily Hazara exploded, killing one and injuring 10. On January 6, a similar attack on a bus in Dasht-e Barchi, a predominantly Hazara neighborhood of Kabul, killed five people, including at least one child, and injured 14. Dasht-e Barchi has been the site of numerous ISKP attacks. When ISKP claimed responsibility for the January 6 attack, they said it was part of their “kill them wherever you find them” campaign against “infidels.”

Between 2015 and mid-2021, ISKP attacks killed and injured more than 2,000 civilians primarily in Kabul, Jalalabad, and Kandahar. Since the Taliban took over Afghanistan in August 2021, these attacks have continued – killing and injuring over 700.

The Taliban have long battled the ISKP, which have also targeted Taliban personnel. A suicide bombing outside a Kandahar bank on March 21 killed at least 21 people and injured 50, many of them Taliban ministry employees who had lined up to collect their salaries.

Attacks on Hazara and other religious minorities and targeted attacks on civilians violate international humanitarian law, which still applies in Afghanistan. Deliberate attacks on civilians are war crimes. Beyond the immediate loss of life, such attacks incur lasting damage to physical and mental health, cause long-term economic hardship, and result in new barriers to education and public life.

Like the previous Afghan government, Taliban authorities have not taken adequate measures to protect Hazaras and other communities at risk or provide assistance to survivors of attacks, though they are responsible for ensuring the safety of all Afghan citizens.   

(Paris) – French President Emmanuel Macron should lay out consequences for the Chinese government’s crimes against humanity and deepening repression during Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Paris, Human Rights Watch said today. Xi’s visit on May 6-7, 2024, will mark 60 years of diplomatic relations between France and the People’s Republic of China, and will likely focus on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, conflict in the Middle East, and trade issues.

“President Macron should make it clear to Xi Jinping that Beijing’s crimes against humanity come with consequences for China’s relations with France,” said Maya Wang, acting China director at Human Rights Watch. “France’s silence and inaction on human rights would only embolden the Chinese government’s sense of impunity for its abuses, further fueling repression at home and abroad.”

Respect for human rights has severely deteriorated under Xi Jinping’s rule. His government has committed crimes against humanity – including mass detention, forced labor, and cultural persecution – against Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims in Xinjiang, adopted draconian legislation that has erased Hong Kong’s freedoms, and intensified repression of government critics across the country.

In March 2021, European Union governments unanimously agreed to adopt targeted sanctions against a handful of Chinese officials and entities deemed responsible for the crackdown in Xinjiang. China immediately retaliated with counter-sanctions, which contributed to cooling bilateral relations and the suspension of a bilateral trade deal.

Macron visited Beijing in 2019 and 2023, but refrained from publicly speaking out about the deteriorating human rights situation in the country. He should change course and publicly raise human rights concerns during Xi’s visit, Human Rights Watch said.

Specifically, Macron should urge Xi to end crimes against humanity in Xinjiang and release hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs who remain arbitrarily detained or imprisoned, including Rahile Dawut, a Uyghur academic, and Ilham Tohti, the economist and Sakharov Prize laureate. Macron should press Xi to end Chinese government oppression in Tibet.

Macron should also urge Xi to revoke the two draconian national security laws that Beijing imposed on Hong Kong. As both laws can be applied for actions outside of China, they affect Hong Kong people and registered businesses in France that criticize the Chinese government. Macron should press for the release of jailed Hong Kong pro-democracy leaders including Joshua Wong, Chow Hang-tung, and Jimmy Lai, among others.

Finally, Macron should press the Chinese government to end its relentless repression of peaceful activists across China, including by freeing the human rights lawyer Yu Wensheng and his wife, Xu Yan, arrested in April 2023 on their way to meet an EU delegation in Beijing.

However, speaking out on human rights, as the EU has repeatedly done in its statements, will only lead to positive results if accompanied by concrete consequences, Human Rights Watch said. Macron should make clear to Xi that France will pursue accountability for Beijing’s egregious crimes, including by pressing ahead toward a United Nations Human Rights Council-backed investigation in Xinjiang.

And he should spell out how Beijing’s continued repression will hinder trade and business between the two countries and with the EU more broadly; including once the EU’s due diligence and forced labor legislation come into force.

This approach to human rights is in line with Macron’s vision of “strategic autonomy” for Europe; an idea that the continent should be strong and not a strategic “vassal” to the United States, as well as not to rely too heavily on China for production. He has also described a “humanist model” that is based on values such as democracy and human rights.

“Macron should demonstrate the French government’s commitment to addressing Xi’s assault on rights inside and outside China,” Wang said. “That requires leadership, determination, and clarity on human rights. He should step up to the task, and not succumb to business as usual.”

(New York) – Human Rights Watch will present a podcast twice a month starting May 6, 2024, that will explore human rights hotspots around the world through the eyes and ears of people on the front lines. Rights & Wrongs will take listeners behind the scenes of in-depth Human Rights Watch investigations. 

Human Rights Watch researchers work in more than 100 countries across the globe, producing dozens of meticulously researched reports every year. Those reports, grounded in international human rights law, are directed at government officials and policymakers and aim to end abuses and change government policies. Rights & Wrongs will bring that research to life in an immersive medium with compelling accounts that are accessible to a general audience.  

“From a Ukrainian city to a Bangladesh shipyard, we will take listeners to the places where human rights violations are happening and hear firsthand powerful stories about the fight to speak freely, to get a decent standard of living, or simply, just to live,” said Mei Fong, chief media officer at Human Rights Watch. 

The series will be hosted by Ngofeen Mputubwele, formerly of The New Yorker, and produced by Curtis Fox, a veteran podcast producer for National Public Radio and The New Yorker. Rights & Wrongs will feature interviews with Human Rights Watch researchers as well as voices from the countries where they work.    

The first episode of Rights & Wrongs looks at Human Rights Watch efforts to document the destruction of Mariupol as Russian forces laid siege and cut off communications to the Ukrainian city. Documenting what happened became all the more critical when Russia began destroying evidence of war crimes as it began to rebuild Mariupol in Russia’s image. 

Subsequent episodes of Rights & Wrongs will explore how Human Rights Watch documented the killing of Ethiopian migrants by Saudi border guards at a remote Saudi-Yemen border outpost, how the shipping industry sends end-of-life ships to Bangladesh to be scrapped in dangerous yards that harm workers and pollute the environment, and how governments reach across borders to silence or deter dissent of their own nationals abroad.

Rights & Wrongs will be available on Spotify, Apple, YouTube, and Amazon.