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The Advocates for Human Rights welcomes the oral briefing from the Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in Burundi. We commend the Human Rights Council for mandating the Commission of Inquiry to thoroughly investigate the human rights abuses in Burundi since April 2015. As the Commission of Inquiry has noted, the human rights situation in Burundi continues to deteriorate, with widespread and systematic repression of suspected opponents, civil society, and media. State actors, including members of the police and the Imbonerakure youth league of the ruling party, continue to commit abuses with impunity.

In the U.S., The Advocates for Human Rights provides free legal services to asylum seekers, including individuals who have fled the human rights abuses in Burundi discussed by the Commission of Inquiry. Our clients from Burundi share stories of being accused, often arbitrarily, of supporting protests against the government. They report police and Imbonerakure members searching their houses, looting their businesses, and arresting, beating, and interrogating them and their family members. They report that family members who have been arrested are often later found dead, while others are still missing. Families often do not know what has happened to their loved ones.

Further, The Advocates for Human Rights remains extremely concerned about violence targeted against family members of those who, like our clients, have been forced to flee Burundi. This is just one additional strategy that the government uses to crush dissent in Burundi.

The Advocates for Human Rights calls upon the Human Rights Council to:

• Continue the mandate of the Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in Burundi and keep the situation of Burundi on its agenda under item 4;
• Request that the Security Council impose sanctions targeted against individuals responsible for ongoing gross and systematic human rights violations and Burundi's deliberate obstruction of the Commission of Inquiry and other UN mechanisms mandated to document human rights violations.
• Encourage domestic, regional and international justice mechanisms to take all necessary measures to ensure that individuals responsible for these human rights abuses are held accountable.

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The Advocates also recently submitted a stakeholder submission for Burundi’s Universal Periodic Review, which included direct information about human rights violations from survivors who have fled Burundi to seek asylum in the United States. Read the full submission here.