Africa: Human Rights Watch Letter to the Candidates Vying for the Position of African Union Commission Chairperson

press release

January 28, 2025

Object: New AU Yearly Theme for Reparations Should Center Victims and their Descendants and Tackle Contemporary Abuses

Dear candidates to the African Union Commission chairperson position,

We write in advance of the 38th Ordinary Summit of the African Union (AU) Assembly of Heads of State and Government, where a new AU Commission (AUC) chairperson will be elected for a four-year period.

The election of the AUC chairperson, the AU's chief executive officer and legal representative, provides an opportunity for the continental body to reflect on its record on the promotion and protection of human rights in Africa, and to choose a candidate who places human rights at the center of their vision.

As you prepare for the upcoming election, Human Rights Watch urges you to prioritize human rights protection in your vision for Africa. Centering human rights will not only enhance governance but also foster human dignity, respect for the rule of law, and social justice across the continent.

Key pressing human rights concerns that you should be aware of include:

  1. Impunity for violations: Several African governments often ignore calls for accountability as well as their obligations to investigate and hold to account those responsible for grave human rights violations, allowing human rights abuses to flourish unchecked, particularly during conflicts and political unrest.
  1. Lack of protection for civilians caught amid conflict: Warring parties in Africa, including both state and non-state actors, continue to commit grave violations of international humanitarian law, and serious international core crimes, including war crimes and crimes against humanity. Both regional and international initiatives to protect civilians have yielded limited results.
  1. Civil and political rights violations: The authorities in many countries demonstrate high levels of intolerance for dissent. Journalists, civil society members, and political opposition members face crackdowns for criticizing governments and rights abuses, including killings, abductions, enforced disappearances, unlawful detentions, and judicial persecutions, which stifle democratic engagement.
  1. Economic and social rights violations: Millions of people lack access to basic needs due to corruption, inflation, and conflict, exacerbating food insecurity and undermining socio-economic rights.

The AU's 2025 theme is "Justice for Africans and People of African Descent through Reparations." Under this theme, the AU is expected to "build a common and united front for the cause of justice [...] and reparations to Africans," both on the continent and in the diaspora, for historical crimes, including transatlantic-enslavement, colonialism, and apartheid.

The theme raises hope that the AU and its member states will shift the dynamic towards addressing the impact of historical wrongs and their profound legacies. So far, affected communities in Africa and the diaspora have been the sole catalyst of reparations processes seeking European governments' accountability for the ongoing legacies of abuses by former colonial authorities. European governments' refusal to acknowledge a right to reparations has resulted in very few and selected political processes, which excluded communities.

The AU theme should put African actors in the driver's seat. The AU and its member states should ensure that any reparations processes are based on meaningful consultations with representation and participation of victims and victims' descendants. The AU should act on previous commitments by member states in the Accra Proclamation on Reparations, including lending its weight to support actions by descendants of victims seeking reparations.

Human Rights Watch documented how, over 50 years ago, the Indigenous peoples of the Chagos Islands were forcibly displaced from their islands by the United Kingdom, with support from the United States, who have refused them the right to return to live on the Islands, which constitutes an ongoing colonial crime against humanity. The AU should urge the government of Mauritius, which is in the process of signing a treaty with the UK on the status of the Chagos Islands, to ensure meaningful participation of the Chagossians in the decision-making concerning their homeland and any further reparations programs. It should press for the right of the Chagossians to reparations for the crimes committed against them, including the right of return to live in all their islands and adequate compensation.

The AU and its member states should equally take steps to ensure reparations and remedy for grave contemporary rights abuses on the continent.

Chadian authorities only delivered parts of the total amount awarded by courts to victims of crimes committed by Hissène Habré and his agents. The AU, which backed the Senegal-based court that tried Habré and was mandated to set up a trust fund to collect and distribute reparations, should work with the Chadian government to ensure all victims receive the full compensation they are owed.

Several African countries are facing armed conflict, with severe consequences for civilians, who often bear the brunt of hostilities between abusive warring parties. Human Rights Watch found that both state and non-state actors have committed gross abuses against civilians in the context of ongoing conflicts in Africa, and pushed millions to flee internally and outside their countries, exacerbating already dire humanitarian situations, including in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Sudan, and in the Sahel (Burkina Faso, Mali).

The AU should go beyond the usual cursory statements of condemnation and take measures to efficiently deter atrocities, protect civilians caught amid conflicts, and ensure redress for international crimes. The AU should also unequivocally press national authorities to hold abusers to account in free and fair trials and support regional or international judicial mechanisms when those at the national level have proven unable to deliver justice.

In eastern DR Congo, the AUC chairperson should prioritize his engagement in revitalizing the Luanda and Nairobi processes aimed at resolving the escalating conflict.

In Sudan, Human Rights Watch documented laws-of-war abuses by all parties to the conflict, including crimes against humanity by the Rapid Support Forces and allied militias. The fighting and warring parties' bureaucratic measures in areas under their control are heightening the risk of spreading the famine already being experienced in some areas. Previous discussions at the AU on protection of civilians caught amid the fighting in Sudan have not translated into concrete measures to protect or prevent atrocities against civilians. The AU should explore options under UN resolution 2719 to urgently roll out a civilian protection mission to prevent further atrocities in Sudan.

The AU action on Burkina Faso has been ineffective to stem the widespread abuses committed by state and non-state actors, including potential crimes against humanity by security forces and allied militias against civilians. The AU should acknowledge the magnitude of violations by all warring parties and press them to abide by international humanitarian law.

The AU's response in Ethiopia has been mixed despite atrocities there. While the AU mediated an agreement to end the fighting in the country's Tigray region and established a monitoring mechanism, it has failed to provide public reporting on ongoing violations. The incoming AUC chairperson should urge the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights to release the final report of its Commission of Inquiry, whose mandate was prematurely terminated after two years of important work and despite ongoing abuses in Tigray.

The AU should also urge relevant governments to implement long-overdue accountability mechanisms to prosecute perpetrators of international crimes in the context of the AU's Transitional Justice Policy Framework, including an internationalized justice mechanism in DR Congo and the AU-backed hybrid court for South Sudan.

Several African governments continue to restrict the lawful activities of critics, civil society organizations, political opponents, and journalists, including in Burkina Faso, Burundi, DR Congo, Ethiopia, Mali, Niger, and Rwanda. National security forces used excessive force, with sometimes deadly consequences on peaceful protesters, including in Chad, Guinea, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, and Uganda. The AU should urge all members states to take stronger action to uphold the rule of law and fundamental freedoms and push for reparations for civil and political rights violations.

Human Rights Watch enjoys a positive, productive engagement with the AUC and many AU member states. We look forward to concrete and decisive action by the new AU chairperson and other AU officials on the situations described above and remain at your disposal should you require any further information.

Sincerely,

Mausi Segun, Human Rights Watch's Africa Division, Executive Director

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