The East Africa Law Society (EALS) has called for the immediate release of people who have been abducted in the region.
While decrying a resurgence of human rights and rule of law violations
across the region, EALS said lawful arrests should be effected on those that
security agencies believe have broken the law.
“The situation of abductions and enforced disappearances
within the East African Community has reached a critical point,” EALS president
Ramadhan Abubakar said.
In a statement, Abubakar said human rights violations have been reported in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.
He added that Rwanda, Burundi, South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and EAC’s newest member, Somalia, also face significant human rights challenges.
“The continued pattern of abductions, enforced disappearances, torture and extra-judicial killings across the region directly contravene the fundamental principles of the East African Community as provided for under Article 6 of the treaty establishing the community,” he stated.
Law Society of Kenya President Faith Odhiambo, Uganda Law Society President Isaac Ssemakade, Tanganyika Law Society President Boniface Mwabukusi, Rwanda Bar Association President Moise Nkundabarashi, Zanzibar Law Society President Joseph Shaaban Magazi, Burundi Bar Association President Patrick Didier Nukuri and South Sudan Bar Association President Arop Malueth also signed the statement.
Abubakar noted that most East African countries are signatories to several key international instruments, including the UN Convention Against Torture (UNCAT) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), both of which obligate states to prevent torture, investigate abuses, and prosecute perpetrators.
Abubakar added that all East African Community partner states are bound by both domestic and international obligations to protect their citizens from torture, abductions and enforced disappearances.
He called for urgent ratification of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (ICPPED).
He further called for a meeting of a high-level summit to adopt concrete, enforceable measures to address abductions, enforced disappearances and extra-judicial killings.
“Governments that are yet to do so must establish independent and impartial oversight bodies with the power to investigate abductions and enforced disappearances,” he stated.
Abubakar urged the immediate cessation of cross-border abductions.
EALS is the umbrella Regional Bar Association of respective national law societies in East Africa.
It is among the apex bodies of the East African Community and has Observer Status officially conferred upon it by the East African Community and the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights.
