SUMMARY OF KEY FINDINGS BY THE NCHRD-K BETWEEN APRIL – NOVEMBER 2017
The NCHRD-K election project confirms a chilling pattern of attacks of human rights defenders, CSOs and journalists during the election process. While such attacks have taken place at other periods, the right to vote appears to create a particularly volatile period for advancing human rights, informing the public and exposing malpractices for timely remedy.
The attacks, intimidation and threats of deregistration of CSOs, personal attacks, destruction of equipment, denial of access and even killings of Journalists, HRDs, and election monitors have been perpetrated by state and non-state actors despite constitutional safeguards and the existence of laws and policies that recognize the critical role played by HRDs, journalists and other civil society actors in exposing human rights violations and providing vital information to citizens.
The 52 cases of human rights violations targeting HRDs, journalists and CSOs documented by the NCHRD-K since it kicked off the election monitoring exercise in April 2017, and covering both 8 August 2017 elections and the 26 October 2017 presidential elections illustrate critical debate regarding measures needed to ensure justice for victims, accountability of perpetrators and arrest future occurrence by putting in place necessary intervention measures and support programmes. These are highlighted in the report below.