A/HRC/36/54 Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, 6 the United Nations independent investigation on Burundi7 and the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights.8 13. The large number of testimonies collected by the Commission clearly show that the demonstrations which began in April 2015, the failed coup d’état in May 2015 and the attacks against four military installations in and around Bujumbura on 11 December 2015 constituted decisive stages in the escalation of violence in 2015. This climate conducive to human rights violations continued in 2016 and 2017, maintained by hate speech on the part of the authorities and members of the ruling party — the Conseil national pour la défense de la démocratie-Forces de défense de la démocratie (CNDD-FDD) — and also by the pervasive impunity that was aggravated by a judiciary lacking independence. Some violations have been committed in a more clandestine, but equally brutal, manner since 2016. 14. The victims, mostly young men (with the exception of victims of sexual violence), were invariably opponents of the Government or perceived as such: demonstrators against Pierre Nkurunziza’s candidature in the presidential election of 2015; members of opposition political parties, particularly the Mouvement pour la solidarité et la démocratie, and the Forces nationales de libération, as well as their relatives; members of the former Burundian Armed Forces (“ex-FAB”); 9 members of civil society; journalists; persons suspected of supporting or participating in the failed coup; and members and sympathizers of armed opposition groups or persons who, having gone into exile, were thereby suspected of joining those groups. The Commission also noted a phenomenon of recruitment of the population into CNDD-FDD and its youth league, the Imbonerakure. Any resistance often led to human rights violations. 15. The Commission’s interviews revealed a climate of deep and widespread fear: fear of testifying in view of the risk of reprisals, fear of persecution, even in exile, and fear of returning to the country. In mid-July 2017, the Burundian refugee population was estimated at 417,098 persons, 10 i.e. around 4 per cent of the country’s total population. Many members of civil society, as well as journalists, remain in exile and international arrest warrants have been issued against some of them. Those who are still in Burundi have to work underground. The Government has suspended or revoked the licences of the principal independent media and human rights organizations. 16. The violations of civil and political rights have had a direct impact on the enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights due to the restriction of freedoms, particularly freedom of movement, and the decision taken by the main donors to suspend much of their direct aid to the Government as a consequence of those violations. The deteriorating economic situation has, in turn, exacerbated the phenomenon of extortion, which has taken various forms, including ransom demands by agents of the State, the release of detainees in exchange for payment, the imposition of new taxes on an already impoverished population, and extortion by Imbonerakure. B. Responsibility 1. The State’s responsibility for the conduct of its organs 17. Under international law, including human rights law, the State is responsible for the conduct of its organs regardless of whether they exercise legislative, executive, judicial or any other functions, whatever position they hold in the organization of the State and 6 7 8 9 10 GE.17-13865 See A/HRC/32/30. See A/HRC/33/37. Report of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights on its fact-finding mission to Burundi (7-13 December 2015). The term “ex-FAB” refers to members of the former Burundian Armed Forces, the majority of whom were Tutsis. The Burundian army found itself in a deeply divided state after the attempted coup in May 2015 and this led to marginalization of the “ex-FAB” and their subjection to human rights violations. Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, 20 July 2017. 5