Author: prtimesafrica

They have arbitrarily detained former President Mohamed Bazoum, and at least 30 officials from the ousted government and people close to the deposed president, as well as several journalists. They have rejected oversight of military spending, contrary to claims to combat corruption. The Nigerien authorities should immediately release all those held on politically motivated charges; guarantee respect for fundamental freedoms, particularly the rights to freedom of expression, opinion, and association; and publicly commit to transparency and accountability in military spending.

“One year since the military coup, instead of a path toward respecting human rights and the rule of law, the military authorities are tightening their grip on opposition, civil society, and independent media,” said Samira Daoud, Amnesty International’s regional director for West and Central Africa. “Niger’s military authorities should release Bazoum as well as all those detained on politically motivated charges and ensure their due process rights.”

On July 26, 2023, Gen. Abdourahamane Tiani and other Nigerien army officers of the National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland (Conseil national pour la sauvegarde de la patrie, CNSP) overthrew Mohamed Bazoum, elected as president in 2021, and arbitrarily detained him, his family, and several members of his cabinet. In response to the coup, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) on July 30, 2023, imposed sanctions, including economic sanctions, travel bans, and asset freezes, on the coup leaders and on the country more generally. On August 22, 2023, the African Union suspended Niger from its organs, institutions, and actions. On January 28, 2024, Niger, Burkina Faso, and Mali announced they would leave ECOWAS, and on February 24, ECOWAS lifted the sanctions on Niger.

Since the coup, Bazoum and his wife have been detained at the presidential palace in Niamey, the capital. The three organizations have repeatedly expressed concern about their well-being. In August 2023, the authorities announced plans to prosecute Bazoum for “high treason” and undermining national security, but he has yet to be brought before a judge. In September 2023, Bazoum filed a lawsuit with the ECOWAS Court of Justice in Abuja, citing violations of human rights against him and his family during his detention. In December 2023, the ECOWAS Court ruled that Bazoum was arbitrarily detained and called for his release. In April, the authorities initiated legal proceedings against Bazoum to lift his presidential immunity so he could be prosecuted for alleged crimes committed after he was elected president in 2021. On June 14 2024, Niger’s state court lifted the immunity following a proceeding that failed to meet basic due process and international fair trial standards, including the right to a defense.

Military authorities have also arbitrarily arrested at least 30 officials from the ousted government, including former ministers, members of the presidential cabinet, and people close to the deposed president, failing to grant them due process and fair trial rights. Lawyers representing those arrested said that their clients were detained in secret by the intelligence services, before being transferred to high-security prisons on trumped-up charges. At least four of them were granted bail in April, while all others were charged with “threatening state security,” among other offenses, before a military court, despite being civilians.

Since the 2023 coup, media freedom has been severely restricted in the country. The authorities have threatened, harassed, and arbitrarily arrested journalists, many of whom say they are self-censoring amid fear of reprisals.

On September 30, men who identified themselves as security force members arrested Samira Sabou, a blogger and journalist, at her mother’s home in Niamey. Sabou’s whereabouts remained unknown for seven days. The Niamey judicial police initially denied arresting her, but on October 7 she was transferred to the criminal investigations unit of the Niamey police, where her lawyer and her husband visited her. On October 11, she was charged with “production and dissemination of data likely to disturb public order” and released pending trial. No date has been set for the trial.

On January 29, the interior minister issued a decree suspending the activities of Maison de la Presse, an independent media organization, and announcing the creation of a new management committee for the media organization headed by the Interior Ministry’s Secretary General.

On April 13, security forces arrested Ousmane Toudou, a journalist and former communications adviser to the ousted president. In the days following the July 2023 coup, Toudou denounced the military takeover through a widely shared social media post. In May 2024, he was charged with “plotting against state security” and sent to pretrial detention.

On April 24, security forces arrested Soumana Maiga, the editor of the L’Enquêteur, after the newspaper reported a story published by a French newspaper about the alleged installation of listening equipment by Russian agents on official state buildings. He was taken before a judge in May, detained on a charge of infringement of national defense, and released pending trial on July 9.

Tchima Illa Issoufou, the Hausa language BBC radio correspondent in Niger, said that she received threats from members of the security forces accusing her of attempting to “destabilize Niger” because of her reporting on the security situation in the Tillabéri region, western Niger, where armed Islamist groups carry out attacks against both civilians and security forces. “I was attacked by junta supporters on social media,” she told Amnesty International in May after she fled Niger for another country. “They accused me of working under foreign influence.” On April 26, security forces arrested Ali Tera, a civil society activist whom Issoufou had interviewed.

On May 29, the justice and human rights minister issued a circular suspending all visits by human rights organizations to Nigerien prisons “until further notice,” in violation of national and international human rights law, including the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, which Niger ratified in 1988.

On June 12, the justice and human rights minister issued a news release announcing that a 2019 law on cyber-crime had been amended. The law, which criminalized the “dissemination, production and making available to others of data that may disturb public order or threaten human dignity through an information system,” was the basis of a crackdown on human rights, including the right to freedom of expression online in 2020. In 2022, the Bazoum government, following a sustained civil society campaign, amended the law, replacing prison sentences with fines for defamation-related crimes. The June 12 amendments, however, reinstate prison sentences.

“The long list of attacks on journalists over the past year demonstrates the authorities’ determination to restrict press freedom and the right of access to information,” said Drissa Traoré, secretary general of the FIDH. “The amendment of the 2019 cyber-crime law is a dangerous step back that could be used to silence any voice deemed to be dissenting, and certainly to further target human rights defenders, activists and journalists. The Niger authorities must reverse this decision and guarantee freedom of expression.”

The African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, both of which Niger ratified in 1986, guarantee the rights to freedom of opinion and expression.

On February 23, Tiani, who vowed to fight corruption after taking power, signed an order repealing any control on military spending. The order states that “expenditure for the acquisition of equipment or materials or any other supplies, the performance of works or services for the defense and security forces […] shall be excluded from the scope of the legislation on public procurement and public accounting,” and shall also be exempt from taxation. Transparency in military budgeting and expenditure is crucial to addressing corruption and mismanagement and contributes to respect for human rights and the rule of law, adequate management of military expenditure, and government accountability, the organizations said.

“Public oversight of the military’s economic activities is not only critical for restoring civilian democratic rule and holding military officials accountable for abuses, but also for preventing the loss of public resources to corruption and mismanagement,” said Ilaria Allegrozzi, senior Sahel researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The Niger authorities should commit to transparency and accountability by immediately disclosing verifiable financial information about military spending.”

It is the 53rd Party to the Convention and 10th African country to join the 1992 Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes, known as the 1992 UN Water Convention. This further consolidates the strong momentum for water cooperation in Africa, where over 90% of water resources are in 63 basins shared by two or more countries.

“Cote d’Ivoire’s accession is a milestone for multilateralism and reaffirms the role of the UN Water Convention as a tool to support water cooperation for peace, sustainable development and climate change adaptation across borders. I encourage all countries worldwide to join this proven instrument for water diplomacy and I reconfirm our commitment to support them in this process”, said Tatiana Molcean, Executive Secretary of UNECE, which services the UN Water Convention.

“The accession of Côte d’Ivoire to the UN Water Convention will support relations with countries with which we share water resources. In our capacity as defenders of water in the context of the United Nations, we must use transboundary cooperation to reinforce peace, and for harmonious and sustainable development in our countries”, said Minister of Water and Forest of Côte d’Ivoire, Laurent Tchagba.

Cote d’Ivoire, the 9th largest economy in Africa and 5th fastest growing economy on the continent, shares eight transboundary river basins (Black Volta, Bia, Tanoé, Comoé, Niger, Sassandra, Cavally et Nuon) with its neighbours, which include Ghana, Burkina Faso, Mali, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.  Meeting the water needs of the country’s population of some 30 million people, which is growing by 2.5% annually, brings significant challenges. Its water resources are threatened by urbanisation, climate change impacts including drought and flooding, while water quality is deteriorating due to pollution from agricultural, industrial waste, illegal gold panning and untreated wastewater. Water resources are also unevenly distributed across the country, with areas of water stress in the north and north-east.

According to the last Sustainable Development Goals indicator 6.5.2 report, in Cote d’Ivoire only 25% of the transboundary basin area is covered by operational arrangements. No transboundary aquifers shared by the country are covered by operational arrangements.

Cooperation is indispensable to address Africa’s water challenges

Since the global opening of this treaty to all UN Member States in 2016, Chad, Senegal, Ghana, Guinea Bissau, Togo and Cameroon became the first African nations to accede, before being joined by five countries in 2023 – Nigeria, Namibia and the Gambia, in addition to Iraq and Panama who became the first Parties in their respective regions. Over 20 more are in the process of joining, the majority of which are in Africa, including Zimbabwe and Sierra Leone, which are in the final stages of accession.

The four largest economies of West Africa – Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal and Cote d’Ivoire — are now Water Convention Parties.

The 10th session of the Meeting of the Parties to the Water Convention, to be held in Ljubljana, Slovenia (23-25 October), is expected to further catalyze this momentum.

Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, Claver Gatete, said “In the context of increasing water scarcity and high demand for water in Africa, Côte d’Ivoire’s accession as the 10th African Party to the 1992 Water Convention is a significant step for the continent. The UN Economic Commission for Africa – ECA – will continue to work in partnership with the UN Economic Commission for Europe – UNECE – to promote transboundary water cooperation to address climate change impacts and reduce conflict risks, fostering an enabling environment for the realization of the Sustainable Development Goals and Africa’s Agenda 2063.”

Reinforcing transboundary cooperation helps countries to jointly develop and implement climate change adaptation strategies, which are key to reduce risks linked to flooding, drought and other climate related events, which cost African countries between 2% and 9% of their GDP.

According to the African Development Bank, one in every three people in Africa currently faces water insecurity, only 58% of Africans have access to safely managed drinking water services, and 72% of people lack basic sanitation services. Water, however, also has huge transformational potential, considering less than 5% of cultivated land is irrigated today and only 10% of hydroelectricity potential in Africa is utilized.

With Sub-Saharan Africa’s population forecast to double by 2050 and climate change impacts set to intensify, strengthening cooperation across borders is crucial to addressing water challenges and seizing opportunities on the continent. Fortunately, Africa, along with Europe, is among the regions with the highest levels of water cooperation, illustrated by a number of established joint bodies to manage many of its transboundary rivers and lakes, such as the Lake Chad Basin Commission, the Niger Basin Authority, Senegal River Basin Development Organisation, Volta Basin Authority, and the Cubango Ovakango River Basin Commission. Joining the UN Water Convention further reinforces this cooperation.

However, the latest data for Sustainable Development Goals indicator 6.5.2 revealed that in sub-Saharan Africa, one-third of the countries in the region sharing transboundary rivers, lakes, and aquifers have 90% or more of their transboundary basin area covered by operational arrangements.

The Convention requires Parties to prevent, control and reduce negative impacts on water quality and quantity across borders, to use shared waters in a reasonable and equitable way, and to ensure their sustainable management through cooperation. Parties bordering the same transboundary waters are obliged to cooperate by concluding specific agreements and establishing joint bodies.

In addition to facilitating cooperation on surface water, the Water Convention helps countries work together on groundwater reserves, which are less susceptible to climate change impacts and hence crucial for climate change adaptation. 40% of the continent is situated on transboundary aquifers, where 33% (381 million people) of Africa’s population resides. The UN Water Convention has supported pioneering cooperation on the Senegal-Mauritania Aquifer Basin, leading to the establishment by the Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Mauritania and Senegal of a joint body to support its cooperative management.

Recognizing that sound transboundary water management needs to be rooted in solid national governance, the Water Convention supports new Parties to develop national implementation plans. Following multistakeholder processes, Togo, Senegal and Ghana, for instance, have started using their plans to mobilise resources for implementation, while Chad is set to do the same following the recent validation of its plan; the development of Guinea Bissau’s plan is underway, while Nigeria and Cameroon are expected to follow in the development of their plans. 

Following the recent nationwide protests, President William Ruto declined to sign Finance Bill 2024, which included regressive tax measures that risked undermining rights. Any alternative measures should relieve economic pressures by addressing the root causes of protesters’ anger.

“The widespread outrage sparked by proposed taxes on goods like sanitary pads and cooking oil in a country where corporate tax evasion is endemic should be a wake-up call to the Kenyan government and the IMF that they cannot sacrifice rights in the name of economic recovery,” said Sarah Saadoun, senior researcher on poverty and inequality at Human Rights Watch. “Economic sustainability can only be achieved with a new social contract that raises revenues fairly, manages them responsibly, and funds services and programs that allow everyone to realize their rights.”

Finance Bill 2024, in the context of an IMF program with Kenya, was expected to raise US$2.7 billion in additional revenues in the upcoming fiscal year, in part to meet IMF targets. The bill included several new tax provisions, such as removing exemptions from certain food items and a mobile money transfer tax, that would increase the cost of essential goods and services and fall heaviest on Kenyans with lower and middle incomes, as well as already marginalized groups such as women.

The IMF program was approved in 2021 to support Kenya’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic and global inflation, as well as devastating cycles of droughts and floods made worse by climate change. An increase in interest rates has also forced the government to spend upward of half its tax revenues to service debt.

The Kenyan government has other options to raise revenue progressively and enhance trust in the government, Human Rights Watch said. Kenya’s tax-to-GDP ratio is around 15 percent, which is the minimum threshold according to the World Bank for a viable state and economic stability.

The government could introduce tax reforms to better enforce existing tax rules, tackle mismanagement and corruption, and increase taxation on the wealthiest. Taxes on industries or products that harm the environment should also be designed so that they do not undermine rights, such as by using the revenues raised to compensate for their effects on low and middle-income people.

Under human rights law, governments, and the international financial institutions that support them, are required to respond to economic crises in ways that do everything possible to protect and advance rights. They are expected to conduct and publish human rights impact assessments to ensure that proposed reforms, including to fiscal policy and public spending, best fulfill people’s economic, social, and cultural rights, paying special attention to risks to women and economically marginalized groups. These assessments should be transparent, include public participation, and shape the measures that are ultimately enacted.

The IMF has committed $4.4 billion to Kenya, and the World Bank anticipates $12 billion in support from 2024 to 2026. Yet, the program negotiated with the IMF requires steep spending cuts and increased revenues. A June IMF statement praised the Finance Bill and the upcoming fiscal year’s proposed budget as in line with the required “sizable and upfront fiscal consolidation,” referring to reducing public expenditure or increasing revenues.

Human Rights Watch analysis of such measures shows that they frequently harm human rights. Research has also shown that these measures tend to worsen inequality, and “a large upfront fiscal consolidation can be particularly damaging,” according to the Independent Evaluation Office, an independent IMF entity.

The IMF program in Kenya has already introduced sweeping reforms, some of which exacerbated the cost-of-living crisis. These include doubling the value added tax on fuel without any compensatory measures and other efforts to raise revenues that contributed to financial hardship. Yet, the public has seen little benefit from additional revenues and the government has continued to fall short of IMF targets.

The IMF statement advised strengthening the so-called “social safety net,” referring to social security programs that provide income support, while also expressing support for the approved budget. According to an analysis submitted to the Budget and Appropriations Committee of the National Assembly by Bajeti Hub, a nongovernmental group formerly called International Budget Partnership Kenya that advocates for budget transparency, the budget presented to parliament in April included significant cuts in health, education, social protection, and water and sanitation. In 2022/23, the combined spending on these categories came to only around 6 percent of Kenya’s GDP, or 23 percent of government expenditures. This amount is far below international benchmarks and reflects a continued decrease in social spending in Kenya since 2019.

For health care, the World Health Organization recommends spending a minimum of 5 percent of GDP, and Kenya has agreed to at least 15 precent of government expenditures. Global benchmarks on education recommend spending at least 4 to 6 percent of GDP or 15 to 20 percent of national budgets to meet human rights obligations.

Anger at the bill provoked unprecedented protests across the country and online, which quickly evolved to express broader outrage at the high cost of living, corruption, poor governance, wasteful government spending, and the abysmal state of public services. Protesters said they were particularly incensed that the government would tax sanitary pads, cooking oil, and other basic goods rather than address rampant tax evasion and corruption.

The government responded by brutally cracking down on protesters, killing at least 39 people, according to the Police Reforms Working Group – Kenya. Authorities have continued to target protesters and perceived protest organizers with arbitrary arrests and detentions and, in at least 32 cases, abductions and enforced disappearances. Victims of abductionsreport being tortured by police or suspected state agents, and others have been found dead.

President Ruto sent the bill back to parliament, saying he would instead seek $1.4 billion in expenditure cuts and $1.3 billion in new borrowing. This could be a positive step against regressive tax measures, but protesters have described this as largely inadequate to address the root causes of the country’s problems or to heed public demands for reforms.

In addition, it may create fresh risks to rights, Human Rights Watch said. The president has said he would achieve the cuts by, for example, decreasing travel expenses and eliminating budget lines for the president and deputy president’s spouses, but this is unlikely to be sufficient. To reach $1.4 billion in cuts, the government could further decrease—or, at a minimum, decline to increase—chronically low social spending. A revised budget was published on July 15, but it has yet to be analyzed. At the same time, without the Finance Bill, the IMF’s Executive Board may not approve the release of additional funds.

The IMF should revisit its targets to ensure that it is not impeding the Kenyan government from meeting its human rights obligations and ensure that any policies enacted to achieve program targets do not exacerbate poverty and inequality or undermine rights. To build trust, the IMF and Kenyan government should work together to conduct and publish human rights impact assessments of both the budget and finance bills and amend them to best fulfill their rights obligations, Human Rights Watch said.

The United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights noted in its 2016 periodic review of Kenya that “there is a large amount of illicit financial flows and tax avoidance” and “cases of corruption, particularly those involving high-level officials, are not thoroughly investigated.”

Further, Tax Justice Network, a nongovernmental group, ranks Kenya as highly complicit in helping multinational corporations underpay corporate income tax and says that Kenya loses $190 million annually in global tax abuse, largely committed by multinational corporations. This figure is equivalent to 9.5 percent of Kenya’s budget for health and 4 percent of education. Corporations had a tax compliance rate of 70 percent in 2023, according to data from the Kenya Revenue Authority.

Human rights law also obligates other states and public institutions to set a global environment and provide support to Kenya to best fulfill everyone’s economic, social, and cultural rights in the country. This applies, for instance, to global tax rules and the treatment of debt.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has called for a “human rights economy.” This concept is rooted in the shared vision of reforming domestic economies and the international financial architecture to enable everyone to realize their economic, social, and cultural rights, as well as the rights to development and to a healthy and sustainable environment.

“Kenyans are expressing the anger of billions of people across the world who are being squeezed dry by an economic system that leaves even well-intentioned governments with little margin to meet their human rights obligations,” Saadoun said. “Only by aligning economic policies with human rights on every level, domestic and international, can we address the root of the problem.”