Africa
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Cameroon: Amid deadly conflicts, activists Ngo Mbe and Nkongho inspire hope for closing civic space
Tags Share As the rest of the world welcomed a new month on June 1, residents of the village of Missong in Cameroon’s north-west region were thrown into mourning. Nine civilians, including an 18-month-old girl, were shot dead by soldiers in what the authorities themselves described as a “grossly disproportionate” and “hasty” response to “a…
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Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights honors Cameroonian activists Ngo Mbe and Nkongho at 39th annual Human Rights Awards
Tags Share WASHINGTON, D.C., June 7, 2022 – Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights today honored two Cameroonian human rights defenders – Maximilienne C. Ngo Mbe and Felix Agbor Nkongho (Balla) – and presented them with its 39th annual Human Rights Award at a ceremony in the U.S. Senate’s Kennedy Caucus Room in Washington, D.C. “We…
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#RFKChat: We are very concerned about surveillance and internet shutdowns, says CPJ’s Gypsy Guillén Kaiser
Tags Share On Tuesday May 31, 2022, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights hosted a Tweet Chat with Gypsy Guillén Kaiser, Director of Advocacy and Communications at the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). The conversation, our second on the issue of press freedom in the month of May, focused on the challenges journalists currently face, from…
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Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Announces 2022 Human Rights Award Laureates
Tags Share WASHINGTON, D.C., May 5, 2022 – Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights today announced Cameroonian human rights defenders Maximilienne C. Ngo Mbe and Felix Agbor Nkongho (Balla) as the 2022 recipients of its annual Human Rights Award. A ceremony honoring the two laureates will take place Tuesday, June 7 at 2pm in the Kennedy…
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Frank Mugisha: RFK Human Rights Award gave Uganda’s LGBTQ+ community international prominence
Tags Share By Ohimai Amaize One evening in the spring of 2011, Frank Mugisha was in the middle of work mobilizing advocacy against Uganda’s anti-gay legislation when he received a phone call. It was Ethel Kennedy, founder of Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights on the line. Mugisha, who heads Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG)—the country’s largest…
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Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights joins Somali organizations in calling for the immediate release of detained journalists in Somaliland
Tags Share Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights joins the Somali Journalists Syndicate and the Somali Media Association in condemning the retaliatory detention of 15 journalists in Hargeisa, and calls on Somaliland authorities to immediately release the three detained journalists who remain in detention. On April 13, Somaliland police and intelligence service officers arrested a group…
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#FreeRusesabagina calls on the Rwandan government to release Hotel Rwanda star from arbitrary detention
Tags Share It has been close to 600 days since Anaise Kanimba hugged her father, Paul Rusesabagina. Close to 600 days since she’s even been able to look him in the eye. Rusesabagina, the Hotel Rwanda hero who’s been arbitrarily detained by the Rwandan government he has spoken out against, remains in prison without access…
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UN Confirms that Rwandan Authorities Abducted and Are Arbitrarily Detaining Paul Rusesabagina
Tags Share Following a petition filed by Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights in March 2021, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (UNWGAD) found that the Rwandan government abducted and has arbitrarily detained the Hotel Rwanda hero Paul Rusesabagina for over 20 months. Requesting his immediate, unconditional release and an independent investigation of his…
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Civil society organizations call on Egyptian authorities to drop the case of researcher Ahmed Samir Santawy and release him immediately
Tags Share 14 March 2022 Today, the Egyptian Emergency State Security Court (ESSC) will hold a second session in the retrial of researcher Ahmed Samir Santawy.* The undersigned organizations call on Egyptian authorities to drop this case and release Santawy immediately. In June 2021, the ESSC sentenced Santawy to a four year prison sentence on…
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Sahrawi activist and Awards Laureate Aminatou Haidar hacked with Pegasus spyware
Tags Share In November 2021, Apple sent Sahrawi human rights defender Aminatou Haidar a security alert warning that her phone may have been targeted by state-sponsored attackers. Amnesty International’s Security Lab, where the case had been referred, conducted a forensic analysis of Haidar’s devices, confirming that Pegasus spyware recently targeted two of her phones. According…
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Zimbabwe Must Withdraw the Private Voluntary Organisations (PVO) Amendment Bill
Tags Share March 2, 2022 Zimbabwean authorities should immediately withdraw the Private Voluntary Organisations (PVO) Amendment Bill, which was gazetted on 5 November 2021 and announced in Parliament earlier this month. Public hearings on the PVO Amendment Bill have begun this week and are ongoing. If passed into law, the PVO Amendment would provide the…
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Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Calls on the Biden Administration to Immediately Designate Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Cameroon
Tags Share Today, on the National Black Immigrant Advocacy Day of Action, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights stands alongside our partners at Cameroon Advocacy Network (CAN) to urge President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to immediately designate Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Cameroon. “The Biden…
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