In February 2000, a Senegalese court indicted Chad's exiled former dictator, Hissène Habré on charges of torture and crimes against humanity and placed him under house arrest. The result of work spearheaded by HRW, the indictment represented the first time that an African had been charged with atrocities by the court of another African country. In March 2001, however, after political interference, Senegal's Court of Final Appeals ruled that Habré could not be tried in Senegal for crimes allegedly committed in Chad. We are now working with Habré's victims to seek his extradition to Belgium where a judge has opened an investigation. The United Nations Committee against Torture, in a rare move, has asked Senegal not to let Habré leave Senegal except via extradition. In the meantime, the case has opened new possibilities for justice in Chad itself, where the victims have filed cases against many of Habré's accomplices who remain in powerful positions.
"Chasseur des Dictateurs: Sur la piste d'Hissène Habré" (Dictator Hunter: On the Trail of Hissène Habré), a 26-minute TV documentary on HRW Advocacy Director Reed Brody's international justice work, premieres on the leading current events show on Swiss TV on June 7, followed by prime-time airings in Belgium on June 8 and France and Germany June 20. Filmed in New York, Geneva, Dakar, and N'Djamena, it chronicles three eventful months in the Habré prosecution.
The film shows Reed interviewing witnesses, plotting strategy, and talking about accountability and the "Pinochet principle."
For more on the documentary visit https://www.hrw.org/french/themes/habre-documentary.html
For more on the case against Hissène Habré visit https://www.hrw.org/en/habre-case
