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This week, Burundian authorities once again displayed their contempt for human rights by walking out of the country’s review before the UN Human Rights Committee in Geneva.

The Burundi delegation walked out shortly after the session began, saying it objected to the presence of members of civil society in attendance – people the government claimed to be “criminals convicted by Burundian justice.” The Committee stood its ground, saying individuals who had been accredited by the UN Human Rights Office could not be excluded from a public meeting. The session proceeded in the absence of the state delegation.

One civil society activist in the room was Armel Niyongere, one of twelve exiled human rights defenders and journalists convicted of participating in a May 2015 coup attempt. The defendants were absent during the sham trial and had no legal representation, a clear breach of due process. Niyongere and many other human rights defenders and journalists fled Burundi after a brutal crackdown against civil society triggered by the country’s 2015 political crisis.

Since the crisis’ outbreak, Burundi has increasingly refused to meaningfully engage with the UN’s human rights mechanisms. In 2016, the Burundian government shocked everyone by refusing to attend to the second day of the UN Committee Against Torture’s special session, organized to review allegations of torture and other abuses in the country. Burundi has also shut down the UN human rights office in the country and refuses to cooperate with the Special Rapporteur on Burundi.

Despite the election of a new president in May 2020, the Burundian government has remained deeply hostile to civil society activists, journalists, and human rights defenders. Today, Floriane Irangabiye, a journalist, is in prison in violation of her right to freedom of expression.

If Burundian authorities are serious about reform they should abandon these convictions, cooperate with international rights experts, and take the committee's recommendations seriously. The European Union and Burundi's other international partners should make clear, through public statements and concrete requests, that their confidence in Burundian authorities will only be restored when they genuinely respect the rights of the media and civil society. Cooperation with international bodies tasked with scrutinizing their human rights record would help in that regard. - Human Rights Watch

Representing a frontier oil and gas market, the Democratic Republic of the Congo stands to learn a great deal from its regional neighbour Angola

LUANDA, Angola, July 7, 2023/APO Group/ - Energy Capital & Power (EnergyCapitalPower.com) is pleased to announce the participation of Didier Budimbu Ntubuanga, Minister of Hydrocarbons of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), as a keynote speaker at the 2023 edition of the Angola Oil & Gas (AOG) conference and exhibition

Scheduled to take place in Luanda from September 13-14, AOG 2023 will bring together a distinguished lineup of regional ministers and globally competitive energy companies. The event will focus on crucial topics such as oil and gas investment, expanding infrastructure, and methods to enhance regional collaboration.

Representing a relatively new and largely untapped hydrocarbon market, the DRC stands to learn a great deal from an oil and gas heavyweight such as Angola. With over 5 billion barrels of oil, the Central African country is undertaking an ambitious exploration drive in the hopes of revealing sizeable hydrocarbon deposits and monetizing resources.

In July 2022, the country’s Ministry of Hydrocarbons officially launched its 2022 Bid Round, with 27 oil Blocks and 3 gas Blocks on offer. At the beginning of 2023, the Ministry awarded three licenses for natural gas blocks to Symbion Power (Makelele Block); Winds Energy & Production (Idjwi Block); and Alfajiri Energy (Lwandjofu Block). Angola and the DRC have enjoyed a long-history of strong bilateral relations, with cooperation expanding the security, social, political and economic sectors

While exploration and production (E&P) is largely concentrated in the Congo Basin as well as along the four major lakes bordering Tanzania, Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda, efforts to expand the upstream market even further have opened lucrative opportunities for E&P players and investors alike. AOG 2023 provides a platform for Minister Ntubuanga to provide crucial insight into such opportunities, paving the way for deals to be signed and licenses awarded.

Notwithstanding the promotion of untapped acreage, Minister Ntubuanga’s participation at AOG 2023 will advance discussions around regional collaboration and the role cross-border cooperation plays in strengthening energy developments, facilitating intra-African trade and driving long-term and meaningful economic growth.

Angola and the DRC have enjoyed a long-history of strong bilateral relations, with cooperation expanding the security, social, political and economic sectors. Now, both countries are eager to leverage these ties to accelerate the development of their respective energy sectors, and the AOG 2023 conference will be a strategic platform for the exchange of dialogue in this regard.

“The DRC’s Minister of Hydrocarbons’ participation at the 2023 edition of AOG 2023 is not only a testament to the strategic role the conference plays in advancing dialogue, driving deals and charting a path of development for Africa’s energy sector but speaks to the commitment by the DRC to strengthen its own energy progress on the back of regional collaboration. We look forward to having Minister Ntubuanga in Luanda this September,” states Stephanie E. Benjamin, International Conference Director for AOG.

AOG 2023 takes place under the auspices of the Minister of Mineral Resources, Oil and Gas, H.E. Diamantino Pedro Azevedo, and in partnership with the National Oil, Gas and Biofuels Agency, AIDAC and the African Energy Chamber. The event represents the premier platform to address the most pressing matters across the regional energy sector; to generate new ideas and opportunities; and to make the decisions that will accelerate the growth of both the Angolan and broader African energy sector.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Energy Capital & Power.

 

Home Secretary Suella Braverman and Rwandan President Paul Kagame© GETTY

The Rwandan Government said it took "issue" with the ruling by the British Court of Appeal regarding Whitehall's deportation scheme.

Three judges at the Court of Appeal overturned a High Court ruling, which had previously stated the eastern African nation could be considered a "safe third country" to send migrants to.

Rwanda is "one of the safest countries in the world", according to the country's government spokeswoman Yolande Makolo.

Asked if her government was considering intervening in the case in order to appeal the ruling, she said: "The UK Government is considering an appeal."

She added: "While this is ultimately a decision for the UK's judicial system, we do take issue with the ruling that Rwanda is not a safe country for asylum seekers and refugees.

  • Rwanda policy ruled 'unlawful'
    Rwanda policy ruled 'unlawful' Rwanda asylum plan explained: UK's asylum seekers to be sent deported 

"Rwanda is one of the safest countries in the world and we have been recognised by the UNHCR and other international institutions for our exemplary treatment of refugees.

 

"We make a significant contribution to dealing with the impacts of the global migration crisis. Rwandans know what it means to be forced to flee home, and to make a new life in a new country."

People relocated there under the British Government's scheme would "benefit" from the environment created by the Rwandan society and leadership, she said.

Ms Makolo continued: "As a society, and as a government, we have built a safe, secure, dignified environment, in which migrants and refugees have equal rights and opportunities as Rwandans."

Rwanda, the government's aide said, "remains fully committed to making this partnership work".

The "broken global migration system", she continued, doesn't protect the vulnerable and only empowers smugglers, "at an immeasurable human cost".

She concluded: "When the migrants do arrive, we will welcome them and provide them with the support they'll need to build new lives in Rwanda."

The latest twist in the long-running legal battle to get the migration scheme championed by Home Secretary Suella Braverman up and running saw Lord Chief Justice Lord Burnett delivering the verdict on June 29.

While he said he doesn't accept migrants would be at risk of removal to their home countries from Rwanda, with the ruling the court said the African nation isn't a safe place for asylum seekers to be housed in while their claims are being processed.

He said: "The result is that the High Court's decision that Rwanda was a safe third country is reversed, and unless and until the deficiencies in its asylum process are corrected, removal of asylum seekers will be unlawful."

The judge stressed the ruling took "no view whatsoever" about the political merits of the policy.

While the three judges agreed unanimously the assurances on safety made by the Rwanda Government were made "in good faith", the majority of the members of the court "believe that the evidence does not establish that the necessary changes had by then been reliably effected or would have been at the time of the proposed removals".

The British Government wants to send tens of thousands of migrants to Rwanda as part of a £120m deal agreed with Kigali last year.

The plan found its first major bump in the road in June last year, when the first flight to Rwanda was stopped at the eleventh hour after an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.

The High Court had dismissed a series of legal bids launched by campaigners against the plan in late 2022. By Alice Scarsi, Daily Express

 
 
 
 

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