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STORY: OHCHR / MALI POLITICAL RIGHTS
TRT: 02:05
SOURCE: OHCHR
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH /NATS
DATELINE: 16 MAY 2025 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
1. Various shots, exterior, Palais Wilson, Headquarters of OHCHR
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Seif Magango, Spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights:
“We are alarmed by laws recently adopted in Mali which risk silencing dissent and deepening wider human rights concerns in the country.
The Transitional President on 13 May issued a decree dissolving all political parties and “organisations of a political nature”. He also signed into law a repeal of previous laws that governed political parties and that provided protections to them.
We call on the Transitional President to repeal this draconian decree.
The transitional authorities must release all individuals who have been arrested on politically motivated grounds. They must also fully restore political rights in the country.
According to credible sources, documented human rights violations and abuses in Mali increased by almost 120% between 2023 and 2024.
These setbacks come at a time when Jamāʿat nuṣrat al-islām wal-muslimīn (JNIM), Islamic State – Sahel Province, and other armed groups continue to attack, kill and abduct civilians, and to subject women and girls to sexual and gender-based violence, including rape and forced marriage.
Malian armed forces, allegedly accompanied by foreign military personnel commonly known either as Wagner or as Africa Corps, also reportedly summarily executed dozens of people last month in Sebagougou, in the southwestern Kayes region.
We call on the Malian authorities to ensure that the multiple investigations they have announced into these attacks and killings are conducted in a timely manner, and that those found responsible are brought to justice in trials that meet Mali’s international human rights obligations.”
The UN human rights office (OHCHR) is “alarmed by laws recently adopted in Mali which risk silencing dissent and deepening wider human rights concerns in the country.”
Seif Magango, OHCHR’s Spokesperson said, “In The Transitional President on 13 May issued a decree dissolving all political parties and ‘organisations of a political nature’. He also signed into law a repeal of previous laws that governed political parties and that provided protections to them.”
The human rights office called on the Transitional President to “repeal this draconian decree.”
“The transitional authorities must release all individuals who have been arrested on politically motivated grounds. They must also fully restore political rights in the country,” Magango said.
According to credible sources, documented human rights violations and abuses in Mali increased by almost 120 percent between 2023 and 2024.
Magango continued, “These setbacks come at a time when Jamāʿat nuṣrat al-islām wal-muslimīn (JNIM), Islamic State – Sahel Province, and other armed groups continue to attack, kill and abduct civilians, and to subject women and girls to sexual and gender-based violence, including rape and forced marriage.”
The Spokesperson added, “Malian armed forces, allegedly accompanied by foreign military personnel commonly known either as Wagner or as Africa Corps, also reportedly summarily executed dozens of people last month in Sebagougou, in the southwestern Kayes region.”
He called on the Malian authorities to “ensure that the multiple investigations they have announced into these attacks and killings are conducted in a timely manner, and that those found responsible are brought to justice in trials that meet Mali’s international human rights obligations.”
