Burundi has banned the Iteka human rights league, the country’s oldest human rights group, over accusations of tarnishing the east African country’s image, according to reports:
In November 2016, the Burundi-based Iteka Human Rights League and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) jointly published a report entitled “Repressions with a Tendency to Genocide” where they said that the crisis that broke out in Burundi since April 2015 following the third term bid of Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza has left over 1,000 deaths and between 300 and 800 disappearances. The report also said that about 8,000 people were detained in various custodies and prisons in the east African nation while some 300,000 people had fled to neighboring countries, mostly Tanzania, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo) since the outbreak of the crisis.
In October 2016, the Burundian home affairs and civic education ministry indefinitely banned five other civil society groups for “failing to behave well” during a suspension period. Those organizations include the Umbrella for Civil Society Organizations in Burundi (FORSC), the Forum for Development Consciousness (FOCODE), the Christian Action for the Abolition of Torture (ACAT-Burundi), the Association for the Protection of Human Rights and Detainees’ Rights (APRODH) and the Network for Honest Citizens (RCP).
The National Endowment for Democracy has supported Iteka’s work on good governance and the rule of law.
