A/HRC/45/32
99.
Children suffer the harmful effects of the many human rights violations that
have been committed since 2015. The country’s economic system is underpinned by
corruption and misappropriation of public funds, including funding from international
development assistance, to the benefit of high-ranking persons in the Government and
administration who have thus enriched themselves illegally. Such practices are not
isolated cases, but the result of a system based on a patrimonial concept of power, and
they are directly linked to the human rights violations committed since 2015.
100. The main risk factors, particularly those with a structural dimension, are still
present. They can only disappear if the new authorities take concrete action.
101. In view of the historical depth of the Burundian crisis and the partly structural
dimension of human rights violations, and taking into account the principle of the
responsibility to protect the people of Burundi, including in the context of the political
transition under way in the country, as well as the measures likely to mitigate risk
factors, the Commission first reiterates its previous recommendations. 32 Those
recommendations remain entirely valid and relevant, particularly those addressed to
the Burundian authorities concerning measures to be given priority in order to put an
end to human rights violations and international crimes, to combat impunity and to
improve the human rights situation in the country, including the reopening of the
democratic space and the protection of civil liberties. Its recommendations for longerterm measures relating to the review of the legal framework and the reform of the
judiciary remain crucial.
102. The Commission also makes the following recommendations to the Burundian
authorities:
(a)
To reopen the country office of the Office of the United Nations High
Commissioner for Human Rights;
(b)
To immediately release human rights defenders and journalists who have
been arbitrarily detained, as well as all political prisoners, including those from
opposition parties arrested and detained in the context of the 2020 elections;
(c)
To guarantee the safety, freedom and physical integrity of members of
opposition parties, including the Congrès national pour la liberté, and to ensure that
they are not subjected to intimidation, harassment or any form of discrimination as a
reprisal for their political activities;
(d)
To restore all civil liberties to enable future elections to be free, credible
and transparent;
(e)
To stop the Imbonerakure from usurping the functions of the security
forces and the judiciary and to prosecute and punish, as an example, those who have
been involved in violations, or alternatively to dissolve the Imbonerakure;
(f)
To reform the Joint Human Security Committees to make them more
inclusive and to limit the scope of their competence;
(g)
To fulfil the specific obligations of the authorities with regard to women’s
rights and the rights of the child;
(h)
To put an end to the recruitment of children by the Imbonerakure and to
disband the CNDD-FDD party’s “Little Eagles”;
(i)
To establish psychosocial care services for child victims and witnesses of
serious human rights violations, particularly among returnees;
(j)
To ensure access to justice and appropriate medical and psychosocial
services for victims of sexual violence, including male victims;
32
18
(k)
To establish a 30 per cent quota for women on hill district councils;
(l)
To resume full cooperation with the World Health Organization;
See annex III.
GE.20-10689
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