BUJUMBURA, Burundi –UN Special Rapporteur Maina Kiai will give a public lecture in Bujumbura, Burundi, tomorrow as part of a brief academic visit to the country ahead of key elections planned for 2015. The lecture will take place at 2 p.m. on July 22 at the Best Outlook Hotel. The subject of the lecture is “the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association in the context of elections.” Kiai, who is the Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, is concerned about reports of growing… Continue reading →
Maina Kiai has called on the incoming UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Prince Zeid, to “hold governments accountable for the human rights pledges that they make” and ensure that human rights is a “real rather than rhetorical” pillar of the UN system. The call came in a commentary by Kiai that was published today in openGlobalRights, a multilingual online publication that covers human rights issues worldwide. The publication is currently running a series of pieces in which global leaders give their advice for the incoming High… Continue reading →
GENEVA – A group of UN human rights experts, including Special Rapporteur Maina Kiai, expressed outrage after a Criminal Court in Minya, Egypt, confirmed death sentences against 183 people, in what constitutes the largest mass death sentence to be confirmed in Egypt in recent history. The experts urged the Government to quash the sentences and offer new and fair trials to all defendants. On 21 June 2014, the Court upheld 183 of the 683 provisional death sentences imposed on 28 April 2014 in connection with events in Minya last August. The… Continue reading →
UN Special Rapporteur Maina Kiai has authored a commentary for the International Service for Human Rights, in which he blasts the practice of targeting of groups “most at-risk” who seek to exercise their assembly and association rights. The plight of at-risk groups was the subject of a report Kiai presented to the UN Human Rights Council on June 10, 2014. The label ‘most at risk’ refers to the heightened occurrence of attacks and reprisals against these groups Kiai notes in article that it is hard to define exactly what “at risk”… Continue reading →
COPENHAGEN, Denmark – UN Special Rapporteur Maina Kiai told an audience in Copenhagen, Denmark, this week that restrictions on civil society are a global trend, and not one limited to the so-called Global South. “Pressure on in developing countries is growing,” said Kiai, who is the UN Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association. “But the pressure on NGOs is a global tendency which affects the North just as much as the South. Fear of what the NGOs can do – and will do – threatens freedom of… Continue reading →
