{"id":4716,"date":"2015-04-15T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-04-15T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/new.conectas.org.inf.br\/wp\/noticias\/equatorial-guinea-group-should-investigate-abuses\/"},"modified":"2018-01-24T22:55:22","modified_gmt":"2018-01-24T22:55:22","slug":"equatorial-guinea-group-should-investigate-abuses","status":"publish","type":"noticia","link":"https:\/\/conectas.org\/en\/noticias\/equatorial-guinea-group-should-investigate-abuses\/","title":"Equatorial Guinea: Group Should Investigate Abuses","content":"

A group of Portuguese-speaking countries that accepted Equatorial Guinea as a member in July 2014 should investigate ongoing serious human rights violations in their newest member state, EG Justice, Conectas Direitos Humanos, and Human Rights Watch said today.<\/p>\n

In a joint\u00a0letter<\/a>\u00a0on March 31 to the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP), the nongovernmental organizations called on the leaders of the multilateral group to carry out \u201can immediate, independent mission to Equatorial Guinea to assess the human rights situation\u201d and recommend specific reforms.<\/p>\n

\u201cPresident Obiang goes to great lengths to try to win acceptance on the international stage, including making human rights commitments that he never keeps,\u201d said\u00a0Tutu Alicante<\/a>, executive director of US-based\u00a0EG Justice<\/a>, which monitors human rights in Equatorial Guinea. \u201cInstead of letting him claim a propaganda victory without delivering results, the leaders of Portuguese-speaking countries should insist on verifiable progress on respect for human rights.\u201d<\/p>\n

The group\u2019s decision on July 2014 to grant full membership to\u00a0Equatorial Guinea<\/a>\u00a0came after years of lobbying by the government of President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo to overcome objections about its poor human rights record.<\/p>\n

Membership in the Portuguese community group is open to \u201cany state using Portuguese as [its] official language, provided it unreservedly adheres to the [group\u2019s] statutes.\u201d The community\u2019s statutes incorporate commitments to democracy, the rule of law, human rights, and social justice.<\/p>\n

Equatorial Guinea is the only Spanish speaking country in Africa, with French as a second official language. It added Portuguese as a third official language as part of its membership bid.<\/p>\n

The rights to freedom of speech, association, and assembly are\u00a0severely curtailed<\/a>\u00a0in Equatorial Guinea. The authorities frequently arbitrarily arrest, intimidate, and harass people belonging to or associated with the political opposition. Due process rights are routinely flouted. Prisoners are subjected to serious abuses, including\u00a0torture<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Portugal had blocked the country\u2019s application to join the group since 2010, citing human rights concerns, but relented when the Obiang government, via presidential resolution, imposed a temporary\u00a0moratorium<\/a>\u00a0on capital punishment on February 2014, as a purported first step toward eliminating the death penalty.<\/p>\n

Only two weeks before the Obiang government announced a suspension of the death penalty, it executed at least four people convicted of murder and as many as nine inmates in all, according to\u00a0Amnesty International<\/a>. These were the first known judicial executions in the country since August 2010, when four political opponents wereexecuted by firing squad<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn the basis of Equatorial Guinea\u2019s rights record, the leaders of Portuguese speaking countries should never have let the country join their community,\u201d said\u00a0Maria Laura Canineu<\/a>, Brazil director at Human Rights Watch. \u201cObiang\u2019s government does not belong in any group that claims it takes human rights seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a media\u00a0interview<\/a>\u00a0after Equatorial Guinea admitted in the group, Obiang expressed continued support for the death penalty. \u201cYou know what happens in Equatorial Guinea, the level of crime, so it\u2019s necessary to keep the death penalty to prevent people from taking another human being\u2019s life,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In a joint declaration issued when they approved the country\u2019s admission at a summit meeting in Dili, East Timor, leaders of the Portuguese language grouping affirmed their commitment to \u201csupport the [Equatoguinean] authorities in full compliance with the statutory provisions of the CPLP, in terms of adoption and the effective use of the Portuguese language, the adoption of the moratorium on the death penalty until its abolition, and other interests of the CPLP in the national legislation of Equatorial Guinea\u201d. They did not specify how they intended to do this.<\/p>\n

EG Justice, Conectas Direitos Humanos, and Human Rights Watch called for an independent verification mission, including representatives from independent groups in the country, to assess human rights conditions in Equatorial Guinea and make specific recommendations for improvements needed for the government to adhere to the Portuguese community\u2019s statutes.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was premature for the Portuguese-speaking community to grant Equatorial Guinea full membership based only on promises of future human rights improvements,\u201d said\u00a0Juana Kweitel<\/a>\u00a0of\u00a0Conectas<\/a>. \u201cThe way Equatorial Guinea was granted membership became a dangerous blank check. Now there needs to be an independent assessment of the Obiang government\u2019s human rights practices and verification that its commitments will be kept.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>

<\/div>","excerpt":"

Country\u2019s Actions Violate Portuguese Language Community\u2019s Charter<\/p>\n","author":2,"featured_media":25573,"parent":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[7],"tags":[681,500],"tema":[12278],"class_list":["post-4716","noticia","type-noticia","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-community-of-portuguese-language-countries","tag-equatorial-guinea","tema-democracy-and-human-rights-movement"],"acf":{"author":false},"yoast":{"focuskw":"","title":"","metadesc":"","linkdex":"","metakeywords":"","meta-robots-noindex":"","meta-robots-nofollow":"","meta-robots-adv":"","canonical":"","redirect":"","opengraph-title":"","opengraph-description":"","opengraph-image":"","twitter-title":"","twitter-description":"","twitter-image":""},"featured_image":{"original":"https:\/\/conectas.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/5894899513_e35d0a040a_b.jpg","thumbnail":"https:\/\/conectas.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/5894899513_e35d0a040a_b-150x150.jpg","medium":"https:\/\/conectas.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/5894899513_e35d0a040a_b-300x200.jpg","medium_large":"https:\/\/conectas.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/5894899513_e35d0a040a_b-768x512.jpg","large":"https:\/\/conectas.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/5894899513_e35d0a040a_b-1024x683.jpg","1536x1536":"https:\/\/conectas.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/5894899513_e35d0a040a_b.jpg","2048x2048":"https:\/\/conectas.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/5894899513_e35d0a040a_b.jpg","post_slider_img":"https:\/\/conectas.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/5894899513_e35d0a040a_b.jpg","storyform_xlarge":"https:\/\/conectas.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/5894899513_e35d0a040a_b.jpg","storyform_xxlarge":"https:\/\/conectas.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/5894899513_e35d0a040a_b.jpg","storyform_xxxlarge":"https:\/\/conectas.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/5894899513_e35d0a040a_b.jpg","noticia":"https:\/\/conectas.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/5894899513_e35d0a040a_b.jpg"},"terms":{"acoes_categorias":[],"acoes_tags":[],"category":[{"term_id":7,"name":"News","slug":"news","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":7,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":1520,"filter":"raw","term_order":"0","permalink":"https:\/\/conectas.org\/en\/category\/news\/","relative_link":"category\/news\/","langs":{"en":"news","br":"noticia-conectas"}}],"post_tag":[{"term_id":681,"name":"community of portuguese language countries","slug":"community-of-portuguese-language-countries","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":681,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":1,"filter":"raw","term_order":"0","permalink":"https:\/\/conectas.org\/en\/tag\/community-of-portuguese-language-countries\/","relative_link":"tag\/community-of-portuguese-language-countries\/","langs":{"en":"community-of-portuguese-language-countries","br":null}},{"term_id":500,"name":"Equatorial Guinea","slug":"equatorial-guinea","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":500,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":3,"filter":"raw","term_order":"0","permalink":"https:\/\/conectas.org\/en\/tag\/equatorial-guinea\/","relative_link":"tag\/equatorial-guinea\/","langs":{"en":"equatorial-guinea","br":null}}]},"author_name":"Leonardo Medeiros","author_nicename":"leonardo-medeiros","protected":false,"langs":{"en":"equatorial-guinea-group-should-investigate-abuses","br":"guine-equatorial-grupo-deve-investigar-abusos"},"permalink":"https:\/\/conectas.org\/en\/noticias\/equatorial-guinea-group-should-investigate-abuses\/","relative_url":"https:\/\/conectas.org\/en\/noticias\/equatorial-guinea-group-should-investigate-abuses\/","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/conectas.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/noticias\/4716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/conectas.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/noticias"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/conectas.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/noticia"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/conectas.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/conectas.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4716"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/conectas.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/conectas.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/conectas.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/conectas.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4716"},{"taxonomy":"tema","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/conectas.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tema?post=4716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}