• World Report Chapter: Guinea
    Jan 22, 2012
    President Alpha Condé, who was elected in largely free and fair elections in December 2010, made limited progress in addressing the serious governance and human rights problems he inherited. The elections ended a period of profound political instability that began in December 2008, when Captain Moussa Dadis Camara seized power in a coup after the death of Lansana Conté, Guinea’s authoritarian president of 24 years.
  • World Report 2011: Guinea
    Jan 24, 2011
    The June and November 2010 presidential elections marked a major step forward in Guinea’s transition from military to civilian rule. While some irregularities and a leadership crisis within the electoral commission marred the credibility of the polls, they were nevertheless considered to be the first free and fair elections since independence in 1958. However, serious bouts of intercommunal violence and clashes between supporters of the two parties, and the excessive use of lethal force by the security forces in responding to them, highlighted the fragility of the security situation and pressing rule of law challenges.
  • Guinea
    Jan 20, 2010
    The bloodless coup in December 2008 by a group of young military officers following the death of Guinea’s longtime authoritarian president, Lansana Conté, brought initial hope for improvement in Guinea’s chronic human rights problems. However, this hope was dashed as the military government consolidated control of the country’s political affairs, failed to hold free and fair elections as initially promised, and steadily and violently suppressed the opposition, culminating in a large-scale massacre of some 150 demonstrators in September 2009. The perpetrators of these abuses enjoyed near-complete impunity.
  • Guinea
    Jan 14, 2009
    By the end of 2008, hope that nationwide protests in 2007 would improve governance and respect for human rights was replaced by growing concern over the human rights fall-out from Guinea’s emergence as a major drug-trafficking hub. The chronic problems of endemic corruption, a fractious and abusive military, the rise of drug trafficking and the involvement of state agents in it, threaten to further erode the rule of law and the government’s ability to meet the basic needs of its citizens.
  • Guinea
    Jan 20, 2008
    2007 was a tumultuous year in Guinea, characterized by rising demands for political change, continued economic uncertainty, and brutal repression by security forces. In January and February government security forces violently repressed a nationwide strike organized by Guinea’s leading trade unions to protest widespread corruption, bad governance, and deteriorating economic conditions. The six-week crisis ended in late February when President Lansana Conté agreed to appoint Lansana Kouyaté as prime minister from among a list of candidates, as demanded by the trade unions, raising hopes of improvements in economic conditions and respect for human rights.