Madame Chairperson, DefendDefenders would like to congratulate the African Commission on its 30 years of existence, which is a remarkable milestone. In order to keep this up, we would like to invite the secretariat of the African Commission to improve communication with victims or representative of victims on cases pending before the African Commission.

I would like to thank the Commission for this opportunity to raise some of the key human rights issues from the East and Horn of Africa in the past six months.

The citizens ofSouth Sudancontinue to be victims of rampant human rights violations, possibly amounting to crimes against humanity. Over the past ten months, the government has led coordinated attacks on civilians along ethnic lines, and as the threat of famine grows, humanitarian workers have been attacked and killed while trying to deliver aid to civilians trapped in conflict areas.

InEritrea, a UN Commission of Inquiry accused the government of crimes against humanity and yet, no significant steps have been taken to bring the government to account as it continues to flout its obligations under the African Charter.

InBurundi, we are particularly concerned by accounts of enforced disappearances, torture and sexual violence emanating from the country and as of late April 2017, nearly half a million Burundians have fled the country.

Since the State of Emergency was declared inEthiopiain October last year, local groups report tens of thousands of arbitrary detentions and the government continues to ignore calls for an independent, international and impartial investigation into allegations of the use of excessive and unnecessary lethal force by security to disperse and suppress peaceful protests.

The new Government ofSomaliais confronted with a widespread humanitarian crisis as famine looms across the East and Horn of Africa, and widespread violations against independent media and civil society continue to escalate in complete impunity.

InSudan, local monitoring groups continue to report civilian casualties, injuries, the destruction of crops and infrastructure, as well as mass forced displacement in South Kordofan and Blue Nile states as a result of government bombing campaigns in those areas.

InRwanda, members of the opposition, civil society, and the media continue to be exposed to threats, intimidation and enforced disappearances, and we are particularly concerned that these may escalate ahead of the 2018 presidential election.

InUganda, violent clashes between the military and royal guards in Kasese, police detained the opposition leader without charge reportedly led to over 100 deaths and have yet to be thoroughly and transparently investigated.

InKenyacivic space has become increasingly restricted ahead of the August 2017 general elections, and inTanzaniathe government has continued to restrict freedom of assembly, particularly regarding gatherings planned by the opposition and the media.

In light of these updates and observations, we recommend to the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights to:

East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Project

DefendDefenders seeks to strengthen the work of human rights defenders throughout the region by reducing their vulnerability to the risk of persecution and by enhancing their capacity to effectively defend human rights.

DefendDefenders focuses its work on Burundi, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia (together with Somaliland), South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda. Visit us atwww.defenddefenders.org