Raise your hand if you ever doodled in a textbook as a child.
What were the consequences for it? An hour of after school detention? Maybe paying to replace the textbook?
Can you imagine being arrested and facing five years in prison for doodling?
This is why we need Article 9 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:
“No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.”
What does that mean?
Arbitrary: based on random choice or personal whim OR unrestrained and tyrannical use of authority
Arrest: seized by legal authority and taken into custody
Detention: held in official custody for questioning or as a political prisoner
Exile: kicked out and banned from your native country for political or punitive reasons
Many people around the world today have good reason to fear being subjected to these human rights abuses. One country that is particularly awful at the moment is Burundi in East Africa.
Last month, seven schoolchildren were arrested in Burundi for scribbling on the president’s photo in their school books. Three of them, teenagers under the age of 18, were charged with insulting the head of state and could spend up to five years in prison if convicted.
This is not Burundi’s first offense for this either. Three years ago, eight students were arrested, hundreds expelled, and at least one was badly beaten in a police cell for this same “offense”.
As President Nkurunziza works to extend his stay in power, brutal, targeted attacks on opponents, suspected opponents, human rights activists, and journalists have led to arrest or exile for the leaders of independent media and human rights organizations as well as the arbitrary detention of countless others.
Watch this video to learn more about the current climate of human rights violations in Burundi:
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