Global Disability Watch

Powering Advocacy

  • About
    • Our Team
    • Our Partners
    • Member organisations
  • Resources
    • Literature
    • Videos
    • DGS Journal
    • Events
    • GDW News
  • Contact
  • Regions
    • Africa
    • Asia
    • Europe
    • Latin America & Caribbean
    • Middle East
  • Reports
  • Field Pulse
  • Policy Watch
  • News Picks
  • Write Inside
  • Disability & Development
You are here: Home / Africa / Albinism in Burundi: new report submitted to UN Committee Against Torture

Albinism in Burundi: new report submitted to UN Committee Against Torture

7th July 2016 by Global Disability Watch

A new report has just been published by the international organisation Under the Same Sun addressing the torture of people with albinism in Burundi. The report has been submitted to the UN Committee Against Torture, Session 58.

People with albinism in Burundi regularly face torture. They are ritually hunted, attacked and murdered. Limbs and digits are hacked off to feed an illegal trade in their body parts, a phenomenon rife in other countries in the region, including Malawi and Tanzania. Myths about the ghostly magic of albinism suggest that these body parts can bring fortune and good health. The crisis is so serious that the United Nations Independent Expert on the rights of persons with albinism, recently stated that people with albinism are facing systemic extinction. 

But the government has failed to protect Burundians with albinism. Investigation, prosecution and punishment continue to be weak and limited. Perpetrators go unpunished while the government sections off people with albinism in police stations for their protection, often without food or clothing. The Convention Against Torture demands that states do better.

People with albinism have little or no pigment in the skin, hair and eyes. This report shows how this violence and the fear people with albinism are subjected to, is and should be considered as torture.

The report includes graphic cases of mutilation and murder, chilling statistics, but also hopeful recommendations.

Download the full report here

Related Posts

  • Child with albinism dismembered in BurundiChild with albinism dismembered in Burundi
  • UN Report on the enjoyment of human rights by persons with albinismUN Report on the enjoyment of human rights by persons with albinism
  • Attacks on people with albinism in Africa: European Parliament calls for end to impunityAttacks on people with albinism in Africa: European Parliament calls for end to impunity

Filed Under: Africa, Reports Tagged With: Albinism, Burundi, Torture

Latest

  • UN Report on the enjoyment of human rights by persons with albinism
  • Canada’s first federal disability law- gaps and ways forward
  • Mothers of children with cerebral palsy trained to make APT Chairs
  • Ghanaian mothers of children with cerebral palsy told to ‘seek help’
Tweets by @GlobalDWatch

Publication Monitor

  1. Discrimination and Violence Against Children With Albinism in Cameroon
  2. Albinism: Report on Investigative Mission on the Situation of Children with Albinism in Temporary Holding Shelters - Tanzania
  3. Research Toolkit for Disabled People’s Organisations: How to undertake and use applied research, LCI London
  4. Equal Access Monitor: Handicap International. Feb 2016
  5. Disability and Rehabilitation Services in Nagaland
  6. Disability & Rehabilitation in the North East of India: working paper

Newsletters

  • August 2016: Lesotho National Federation of the Disabled

Follow us

Join our mailing list

Follow us

GDW

  • Our Team
  • Our Partners
  • Member Orgs

Pages

  • Reports
  • Field Pulse
  • Policy Watch
  • News Picks
  • Development
  • Migration

Be Part of GDW

  • Share a story
  • Become a member organisation

Search

Copyright 2014-20 © 2023 · News Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in