Alarm in Abuja: Daily Brief

The pressure on Nigerian authorities to better protect people is increasing. A series of attacks and threats within close proximity of Nigeria’s seat of government, Abuja, by Islamist and other armed groups is causing fear and apprehension among citizens across the country. While the northeast conflict with Boko Haram has been ongoing for over a decade, there are now more groups posing threats, and the security forces are stretched thin in trying to respond. Looking at July only, Human Rights Watch underlines three attacks and a threat by insurgents to kidnap the president. Organizations following Nigeria’s security issues describe the security situation in the federal region as worse than it has ever been, even in comparison to the earlier days of the Boko Haram conflict, when places like the United Nations office in Abuja were attacked. The ability of the groups to expand outside their base, even to the nation’s capital, show the alarming deterioration of the nation’s security situation. The authorities need to greatly expand their efforts to protect people. 

Today marks the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples. In Brazil, President Jair Bolsonaro is putting Indigenous rights under severe pressure. His administration has undermined the government agency protecting Indigenous people's rights (FUNAI), issued regulations harmful to Indigenous people, halted the recognition of their traditional lands, and significantly weakened the federal environmental protection agencies, leaving Indigenous territories even more vulnerable to encroachment. The Bolsonaro administration promoted a bill that would hinder many Indigenous peoples from claiming their traditional lands.  "As the beginning of the electoral campaign approaches, candidates should tell voters how they will ensure that FUNAI will fulfill its mission again, how they will protect Indigenous rights, and how they will dismantle the criminal groups that are both destroying Brazil’s environmental riches, and threatening and attacking forest defenders" says Maria Laura Canineu, Brazil Director at HRW.

It's been two years since Mali’s transitional government took over following the military-led coup in August 2020. Since then, violence has surged across the country, with serious abuses by the Malian army and foreign soldiers identified as Russian fighters. The transitional government has also increasingly restricted the United Nations peacekeeping mission. As the transitional government agreed to a new timeline for elections and other reforms by March 2024, it should focus on addressing human rights violations and persistent laws-of-war violations during this two year period. That includes detention and harassment of perceived critics, restrictions on the media and free expression, as well as torture and enforced disappearance. Upholding human rights and the rule of law are integral to a successful transition to civilian rule.

To instil fear among its civil society and deter it from mobilizing against the Kremlin and its war on Ukraine, Russian authorities are throwing their critics behind bars on spurious charges and continuing to add new bogus charges to keep them there. Opposition politician Vladimir Kara-Murza, their latest target, has been in detention since April for his public criticism of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and was just informed of a new charge of involvement in an “undesirable” foreign organization. The Kremlin should immediately drop the bogus charges, free Vladimir Kara-Murza, and repeal the abusive ‘undesirables’ law that threatens any dissent and opposition.

In the midst of a political, economic, and human rights crisis, following years of misgovernance and rights violations, Sri Lanka just swore in a new president, Ranil Wickremesingh. The previous President, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, stepped down after months of widespread protests against economic mismanagement and corruption. In an open letter, Human Rights Watch urged Wickremesingh to ensure his administration adopts measures to protect the basic rights of all Sri Lankans, including putting in place appropriate social protection policies and addressing endemic corruption, while respecting fundamental rights, including freedoms of expression and association, and ending abuses by the security forces.

Finishing with a good news from the sports world: Haiti’s former minister of sports, Evans Lescouflair, was arrested by Interpol in Panama where he had sought to escape Haitian justice. Thanks to the courage of survivors and whistleblowers, Haiti’s government is taking important steps to bring top sports officials implicated in child abuse to justice and out of sport. Lescouflair stands accused of repeatedly raping an 11-year-old student and is facing a lawsuit, accused of sexually abusing several other people. In December 2020, Haitian Football Federation President Yves Jean-Bart was suspended and banned for sexually abusing women and girls on the national football team. FIFA has not attempted to collect the fine it issued Jean-Bart nor removed other officials who were involved in covering up sexual abuse. International sports bodies should support athlete survivors by banning child abusers from sport and upholding their own child safeguarding policies.