28th September, 2017
The UN Human Rights Council agreed on Thursday to an African resolution to send a team of three experts to work with Burundi government in pursuing perpetrators of “deplorable crimes”.
The EU and U.S. spoke out strongly against the last-minute text presented by the Africa group, which was adopted by a vote of 23 states in favour, 14 against, with nine abstentions at the 47-member Geneva forum.
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“The text in no way reflects the scale or severity of the situation in Burundi,” the Latvia delegation said on behalf of the EU, adding that the last-minute manoeuvre “presents a dangerous precedent for the Council’’.
The fate of an existing UN Commission of Inquiry on Burundi, which said this month that top-level Burundian officials should be held accountable for atrocities possibly amounting to crimes against humanity was not immediately clear.