Publications

This report provides information on REDRESS's activities from 1 April 2020 to 31 March 2021, including a review of our impact and activities, governance and management, and a financial review; an Independent Auditors Report, with their opinion on the accounts of the charity for the financial year, and a Statement of Financial Activities, with a detailed review of our finances for the year.

This Q&A aims to help journalists navigate the complexities of reporting on enforced disappearances in Africa, a particularly cruel human rights abuse that is prevalent on the continent, frequently used by governments as a method of repression, terror, and stifling dissent. Human rights advocates, political opposition, union leaders, journalists and minority groups are often targeted. The Q&A addresses key concepts and terminology; the main contexts in which it happens in Africa; the main obstacles faced by victims seeking justice; and the shortcomings in the available data. It also offers guidance on how to mitigate the risks to journalists and victims when reporting on enforced disappearances.  

In a letter distributed on 28 October, REDRESS joined more than 35 Sudanese, African, and international civil society organisations in calling on the UN Human Rights Council to convene a special (emergency) session to address the ongoing political crisis in Sudan, following the 25 October military takeover of the transitional government. The signatories stress that the Human Rights Council has a res­ponsi­bility to act urgently.

Early on the morning of October 25 2021, Sudanese security forces arrested at least five civilian members of Sudan’s transitional government, including the prime minister and other officials and key political leaders. The military announced the dissolution of the joint civilian-military transitional government. In response, in a briefing distributed to members of the UK Parliament on 25 October, REDRESS called on the UK Government to take several urgent steps.

Anoosheh Ashoori and Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe are both British nationals who have been arbitrarily detained in Iran for four years and five years, respectively. In this briefing, Amnesty International UK and REDRESS share the deeply held concerns of Anoosheh's and Nazanin’s families that there remain crucial areas not being pursued by the UK government to secure their release and bring them home. The briefing calls on the UK government to review their current, failed strategy, to ensure that by the end of 2021, all necessary and available steps have been taken to secure the release of Anoosheh, Nazanin, Mehran Raoof and Morad Tahbaz.

In a letter released ahead of the 48^th session of the UN Human Rights Council (HRC48), 34 Sudanese, African, and international civil society organisations highlight the need for the Coun­cil to both continue supporting human rights reforms in Sudan and maintain human rights moni­tor­ing and reporting. The signatories suggest that the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) continue reporting to the Council on a yearly basis, and that its reports form a basis for debates.

REDRESS and 66 other civil society organisations wrote to Sudan's transitional government, urging it to urge the government to follow through on recent commitments to deepen its cooperation with the ICC by transferring former president Omar al-Bashir, Ahmed Haroun, and Abdel Raheem Muhammed Hussein to The Hague.

This report considers the practice of enforced disappearance in Africa, exploring the contexts in which it takes place, the existing international and regional legal and policy frameworks in place to prevent and respond to enforced disappearances, and the gaps in those frameworks that prevent the eradication of enforced disappearance in Africa, as well as making a set of recommendations to the relevant bodies on how to eliminate the practice on the continent. We are grateful to the law firm Linklaters for their invaluable pro-bono support.