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Torture

latest news & developments
The Syrian Civil Defense (White Helmets) conduct a work at a mass grave, where remains of bodies believed to be those of civilians killed by the ousted regime of Bashar al-Assad were found, in the Baghdad Bridge area outside the capital Damascus, Syria on December 17, 2024. (Photo by Emin Sansar/Anadolu via Getty Images)
BASHAR AL ASSAD

Syria: A rose for every Martyr

The unbearable atrocities committed by the Assad regime have been exposed, and the opposition forces in the form of the Hayat Tahrir Al Shaam are seeking to rebuild a shattered…

  • Zeenat Adam
13 min read
Convicted individuals are delivered to the Court of Appeal by wardens from the Rwanda Correctionnal Services (RCS) in Rwandan capital, Kigali on April 4, 2022. (Photo by Simon WOHLFAHRT / AFP)
ASSASSINATION

Rwanda fed false intelligence to US and Interpol as it pursued political dissidents abroad

A classified FBI report confirms that US law enforcement has long known of Rwandan intelligence operations against civilians on its soil

  • Carlos Mureithi
  • Kira Zalan
11 min read
Graveyard: Wreckage of cars burned by protesters in Eswatini’s unrest in July. A preliminary inquiry has put the number of people killed at 46 but others say that at least 70 people died. (Michele Spatari/AFP)
ESWATINI

‘Gross human rights abuses’ in Eswatini

Civil society has called for an investigation into King Mswati’s alleged crimes against humanity

  • Zweli Martin Dlamini
5 min read
Jermaine Prim, who allegedly ran an elaborate scam targeting luxury car owners from his cell, will return to court in later November
DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONAL SERVICES

Torture is not limited to CIA black sites – it’s alive in South Africa’s prisons

Unlike the US, it is not foreigners that are subjected to torture and cruel treatment, but South Africans

  • Casper Lӧtter
7 min read
BOTSWANA

‘These people are barbarians’: Police torture in Southern Africa

In Botswana, South Africa and Zimbabwe torture is used to extract information, elicit confessions, punish or sometimes for sadistic reasons

  • Tshepang Edwin Makwati
8 min read
The opinion of the tribunal is not legally binding but meant as a call to awareness and accountability.
ABDUCTION

Turkey tribunal accuses state of systematic torture

The international tribunal is preparing a complaint to the International Criminal Court after concluding that torture and abductions, coinciding with attacks on the judiciary and…

  • Emsie Ferreira
6 min read
(Graphic: John McCann/M&G)
ALBIE SACHS

Richard Calland: Why judges matter — an illustrative tale

Johannes Mahlangu’s torture by police and charge for a murder he didn’t commit should never have happened

  • Richard Calland
8 min read
(John McCann/M&G)
BRIDGET HARRIS

Torture and murder in Eldos, but cops couldn’t be stopped for help

When screams of torture woke residents of Eldorado Park on Friday morning, calls to police remained unanswered as two bodies were found inside a house of horrors

  • Tunicia Phillips
6 min read
Bicycles are piled up as Burundian refugees crowd gather along the shoreline of the Tanganyika lake in the fishing village of Kagunga. (Photo by Daniel Hayduk/AFP)
AFRICAN UNION

Burundian refugees in Tanzania face increasing danger

Human Rights Watch has documented cases of Burundian refugees being tortured and forcibly returned by Tanzanian authorities

  • Mausi Segun
4 min read
Two Somalis, convicted of the murder of a Somali nurse working with a Turkish medical aid unit, are tied to large wooden stakes as they wait to be executed by a firing squad on July 15, 2014 in Mogadishu. (Photo by Mohamed Abdiwahab/AFP)
CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS

Access to counsel crucial for those facing capital punishment

The deadly institution of the death penalty should be abolished. It undermines humanity and in places where adequate legal representation is inaccessible it is often unjustly…

  • Alice Mogwe
3 min read
Terrifying ordeal: Tawanda Muchehiwa’s abduction by unidentified armed men was caught on CCTV, as shown above. Photos: ZimLive.com
CECILIA CHIMBIRI

The brutal abduction caught on camera in Zimbabwe

Tawanda Muchehiwa is one of dozens of Zimbabweans who have been kidnapped and tortured by unidentified armed men

  • Kudzai Mashininga
6 min read
Burundi’s president was a cruel and tyrannical leader under whom no one was safe, not even schoolchildren.
AFRICA

Remembering the cruelty of strongman Nkurunziza and his regime

Burundi’s president was a cruel and tyrannical leader under whom no one was safe, not even schoolchildren

  • Aanu Adeoye
4 min read
It is true that in the African continent, ethnicity is a dreaded term because of the continent’s experience with ethnicity- or tribe-based inter-group animosities and conflicts that, in some countries, morphed into genocides. (Zinyange Auntony/AFP)
CONSTITUTIONAL COURT

Zimbabwe: What is the current status of the Torture Docket case?

International crimes must be prosecuted and domestic jurisdictions are well placed to do this. Domestic prosecutions based on universal jurisdiction are on the rise

  • Atilla Kisla
6 min read
Pollsmoor Correctional Facility in Cape Town. (David Harrison/The Union)
COMMISSION AGAINST TORTURE

Introducing South Africa’s mechanism for the prevention of torture

After ratifying the optional protocol of the relevant UN convention, South Africa is now in the process establishing a national preventive mechanism for the prevention of torture

  • Kwanele Pakati
  • Chris Nissen
7 min read
Defendants at a Cairo court after the acquittal on January 12 2015 of 26 men accused of ‘debauchery’
AFRICA

​African states biggest culprits of forced anal testing to ‘prove’ homosexuality

Haunting testimonies of LGBTQ Africans appear in a Human Rights Watch report on violations.

  • Carl Collison
11 min read