Epimack Kwokwo
Cases- Location of case in SG report
- 2017-064-001
- Relevant SG report
- Year of the report
- 2017
- From Country
- Country Geolocation
Latitude: -1.940278
Longitude: 29.873888
- Country Geolocation (linked Cases)
- Rwanda
- From Region
- UN body that raised the case prior to the SG report
- UN Special Procedures: Thematic
- Dates of prior UN action
- 5 July 2016
- Type of record
- Named individual
- Gender
- Male
- Was the victim a foreign national?
- Yes
- Was the victim a minor?
- No
- Individual's/organization's activity
a human rights defender from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Executive Secretary of the League for the Defense of Human Rights in the Great Lakes region
- Type of rights defended
- Unclear in SG Report
- Was the victim a civil servant or member of the security forces or of the judiciary?
- No
- Reported trigger of reprisal
cooperation with the universal periodic review, the Human Rights Council and special procedures
coordinated the work of various civil society organizations reporting on the situation of human rights in Rwanda for a submission to the universal periodic review of the country scheduled for November 2015
- Engagement with UN body
- UN Human Rights Council: UPR
- Dates of engagement
- Between September 2014 and March 2015
- Type of attempted engagement
- Submission of information to UN
- Dates of mentioned reprisals
- 12 October 2015; between January and March 2016; May 2016
- Location of mentioned reprisals
- border between Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda; Kigali
- Reprisal information
According to allegations received, on 12 October 2015 Mr. Kwokwo was stopped and detained by immigration officers for seven hours on the border between Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda as he was coming back from a mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He was interrogated on his work on human rights and the reports produced by the League. His passport was confiscated by immigration authorities. He was also told that he had contributed to “frame Rwanda in a bad light” given his contribution to the submission to the universal periodic review.
Between January and March 2016 he was stopped by immigration services five times and asked about his work and his residence in Rwanda. In May 2016, Mr. Kwokwo was interviewed twice at the immigration office in Kigali. He was informed that he was declared persona non grata in Rwanda and would be expelled from the country.
- Types of reprisals suffered
- Expulsion/Denied visa (foreigners)
- Threats/Intimidations (incl. "fear of reprisal")
- Travel restriction
- Alleged/likely perpetrators
- State actors
- Was the reprisal based on new legislation?
- No
- Does the report make general comment about country’s environment for engagement with UN?
- No
- Government response dates
- 22 September 2016
- Government response content
Government responded that Mr. Kwokwo had been expelled as a result of his repeated violations of and disregard for the immigration laws of Rwanda, and that the expulsion had nothing to do with his human rights work as alleged
- Is the country cited for a "pattern of reprisal" in the context of this case?
- No
- Is a pattern of reprisals mentioned otherwise in the context of this case?
- No
- Does the report cite "self-censorship" as an issue in the context of this case?
- No
- How many times has the case been followed up in subsequent SG reports?
- 0