Country Report: African Union (Part 1)
Throughout 2024, the African Union (AU) reaffirmed its commitments on the protection of human rights and democratic governance across the continent. AU leaders, however, demonstrated persistent lack of genuine and sustained political will, hindering the Union’s ability to effectively engage in critical issues, including armed conflicts, with devastating consequences on civilians and widespread attacks on fundamental rights. The AU inconsistently responded to crises, at times failing to uphold its obligations, citing the principle of subsidiarity to regional bodies as a rationale for inaction. 
 
Institutional Updates 
In September, 51 African heads of state, along with AU Commission Chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat participated in the China-Africa Cooperation Forum, which predominantly focused on development and funding issues, overshadowing pressing human rights concerns. Fewer than 20 African heads of state were in New York for the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). AU Peace and Security Council (PSC) members discussed civil- military relations and conflict management in Africa on the margins of UNGA, without addressing the conflict in Sudan. 
 
The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) convened four sessions in 2024. During its June session, it laid the groundwork for a comprehensive general comment on the right to development, reinforcing AU’s leading efforts in this area. 
 
The February 37th AU summit inaugurated education as the Union’s yearly theme. Leadership of AU reforms changed from Rwandan President Paul Kagame to Kenyan President William Ruto, who had called for reforms granting the AU financial autonomy. The organization will elect a new chairperson in February 2025, to replace Mahamat, whose second term will expire. 
 
Rights, Peace Process in the Democratic Republic of Congo 
The AU has relied heavily on regional initiatives to address the crisis in eastern Congo, with limited results, leaving civilians to bear the brunt of the ongoing conflict. 
 
Throughout 2024, the Rwandan military and M23 armed group continued their offensive in the North Kivu, committing grave violations of international humanitarian law. The Congolese military and a coalition of abusive militias have also been implicated in laws-of- war violations in their response and increased the risk faced by displaced people. About 2.4 million people have been displaced, while fighting close to Goma has affected humanitarian aid delivery. 
 
In July, the PSC reiterated the importance of the Nairobi and Luanda processes as “viable frameworks for reconciliation between the DRC and Rwanda.” While the PSC expressed concern regarding the role of “negative forces” and encouraged direct dialogue between the two states, it has yet to publicly denounce the responsibility of Rwanda and other parties for abuse. 
 
In March, the PSC directed the AU Commission to expedite funding from the AU Peace Fund Crisis Reserve Facility and facilitate transfer of equipment donated to the Southern Africa Development Community Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (SAMIDRC), which deployed in January 2024. However, these limited contributions may not empower the mission to effectively support Congolese forces. SAMIDRC took over from an East African regional force, which withdrew its troops in December 2023. 
 
The Luanda mediation process between Rwanda and Congo secured a cease-fire agreement between the Congolese armed forces and the M23 in July that was rapidly violated. 
 
Despite raising alarm at the violations against displaced people in eastern provinces, the ACHPR is yet to take stronger action to address conflict-related abuses in eastern Congo, including denouncing abuses by all parties. 

Human Rights Crises in the Sahel: Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger 
Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger were suspended from the AU following unconstitutional government changes. The military authorities in the three countries have severely restricted fundamental rights and freedoms, shrinking the civic, political, and media space. Armed forces in Mali and Burkina Faso, alongside with Wagner fighters and allied militias, respectively, perpetrated serious human rights violations against civilians as part of counterinsurgency operations against abusive Islamist armed groups, which gained significant ground in the Sahel region throughout 2024. 
 
The AU has relied on the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to address regional issues. Yet the relationship between ECOWAS and Sahel countries seems irretrievably broken, with their withdrawal from the ECOWAS Treaty in early 2024, depriving their citizens from the possibility to seek justice for abuses through the ECOWAS court of justice. 
 
The ACHPR has been monitoring individual cases of human rights violations in Burkina Faso, including of abducted prominent rights activist Daouda Diallo, and has called on the authorities to open an investigation into mass killings of civilians in Zaongo village, Centre-Nord region, in November 2023. The ACHPR requested an update on such investigations and raised allegations of enforced disappearances with the Burkinabè authorities as part of Burkina Faso’s state reporting review in October. 
 
The AU, including the ACHPR, did not sufficiently address widespread conflict-related abuses, including alleged crimes against humanity by Burkinabè security forces, as well as increasing crackdown by the junta on opposition, media, and dissent throughout. 
 
On Mali, the ACHPR called out restrictions on civic space following the suspension of political parties and associations. It denounced the September 2023 attack on a boat by an Islamist armed group, while acknowledging further abuses by such groups, in apparent failure to address abuse by state actors and their allies. 
 
Human Rights Watch, World Report 2025. New York.

Spotlights 4 

​Anti-Social: Modern Slavery on Social Media (Part 2)
Modern slavery risks permeate the entire social media value chain — from sourcing raw materials, such as cobalt, to the exploitation of workers in data labelling and overseas data centres, and into the digital platforms themselves. 
 
The international community has recognised the need to safeguard human rights in the digital era. In 2011, the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) established the “corporate responsibility to respect,” which requires businesses, to (a) avoid causing or contributing to adverse human rights impacts through their own activities and to address such impacts when they occur, and (b) seek to prevent or mitigate adverse human rights impacts that are directly linked to their operations, products, or services by their business relationships, even if they themselves have not contributed to those impacts. As a result, social media companies have a duty to respond to any harm they cause or contributed to, including harm caused by a third party using their platform. Despite this, little is being done to protect social media users from modern slavery risks. Under current Modern Slavery Acts (MSAs) in the UK and Australia, certain companies are required to report on modern slavery risks in their operations and supply chains,however there is no requirement for social media companies to report on how they are addressing modern slavery on their digital platforms. Further, several companies with significant reach in the UK and Australia, but with no operations in either country, are not required to report. Gaps in the application of MSAs allow social media companies to evade responsibility for potential violations linked to their platforms. 
 
In 2023, Walk Free assessed statements published under UK and Australian MSAs by 10 companies. These companies cover 10 social media platforms and two e-stores distributing social media applications. Our assessment found that social media companies are not doing enough to report on modern slavery within their direct operations or supply chains. In their most recent statements (current as of 28 February 2023), no company complied with all minimum requirements under the Australian or UK MSAs. Supply chains are opaque: while all companies had some form of modern slavery policy, only four had a policy that extended beyond the first tier of their supply chain. Although five companies reported conducting risk assessments and risk management activities, with these same companies also identifying modern slavery risks, only two disclosed potential incidents of modern slavery. This suggests these companies should be doing more to actively identify risks and remediate incidents of forced labour where they occur. 
 
Beyond requirements in the MSAs, we also reviewed the statements to understand how well companies are engaging with modern slavery risks on their social media platforms. While companies are not presently required to report on these aspects under the MSAs, we wanted to understand if companies were going beyond compliance to effectively engage with known risks. 
 
Half of the statements assessed made specific disclosures relating to modern slavery risks on their platforms. Four companies reported having modern slavery policies relating to social media, including policies against apps, content, and behaviours that facilitate human trafficking, child exploitation, and human exploitation. Further, only three companies reported activities to detect modern slavery on social media, including through use of image matching technology and mechanisms allowing users to report slavery-related content. 
 
One company reported making information on support services available for all users, however no other prevention measures were reported. Some of the companies assessed reported having policies against sexually explicit advertisements, however none reported assessing advertisements for indicators of modern slavery, despite known risks and the significant control companies have over paid promotions and advertisements. None reported including modern slavery considerations into product design and development, where such efforts are crucial to addressing risks before impacting vulnerable end users. 
 
Concerningly, only four companies reported remediation strategies for incidents identified on social media: measures included cooperation with law enforcement and removal of content, user accounts, or apps. Without further action to investigate and remove the source of risk, content removal merely displaces risk. Multi-stakeholder cooperation is vital to lifting industry standards, fostering greater transparency, and ensuring that modern slavery risks are effectively removed.39 Three companies assessed reported participation in industry collaborations seeking to combat modern slavery on social media. Tech Against Trafficking and the Tech Coalition, for example, represent industry initiatives to combat human trafficking and child sexual exploitation online. More targeted efforts must be made to combat all forms of modern slavery that manifest on social media. 
 
An assessment of statements released by social media companies shows that they must take more action to understand how modern slavery manifests online and to address the modern slavery risks that occur. Social media companies, with more than 4.5 billion users now active across the globe, have enormous influence worldwide. There is an urgent need for them to stop perpetrators from operating with impunity and to prevent modern slavery from flourishing online.
 
Walk Free 2023. Global Slavery Index 2023. Minderoo Foundation Ltd. Australia.

​Country Report: Afghanistan (Part 2)

​Attacks on the Media and Civil Society 
The Taliban curtailed freedom of expression and the media and arbitrarily detained and tortured journalists and other critics. In September, they banned live broadcasts of political programs, criticism of the group, and limited interviews to individuals from a pre- approved list. 
 
The Taliban continued to arbitrarily arrest media workers in 2024, usually detaining them for several days. On May 4, they arrested a journalist in Parwan province on allegations of sharing information with the Afghan diaspora media. He was released after three days. On February 17, Mansoor Nekmal, the editor in chief of Khaama Press, was detained in relation to a report on the enforcement of the hijab decree in Kabul. He was released the next day. On February 10, Saifullah Karimi, a Pajhwok News Agency journalist, was detained after requesting an interview with a Taliban official about the protests by restaurant and hotel owners over tax increases. He was released two days later. On January 18, Jawad Rasouli and Abdul Haq Hamidi from Gardesh-e Etilat News Center were arrested and then released; on January 17, Ehsan Akbari was arrested in Kabul and released on January 25. In most cases, Taliban authorities did not provide any information about the basis for these arrests or if those in custody would face trial. Detainees also lacked access to lawyers; in most cases even their family members were not allowed to visit them. 
 
On September 26, Jawed Kohistani, a well-known political analyst was detained by Taliban’s General Directorate of Intelligence (GDI) in Kabul and was released on October 15. 
 
Afghan Refugees 
More than 665,000 Afghan refugees were forced back to Afghanistan after Pakistan launched a campaign in late 2023 of intimidation, arrests, and deportations targeting “illegal foreigners.” Many had lived in Pakistan for decades or had been born there. Those arriving in Afghanistan faced severe economic hardship, and a lack of housing and access to schools. 
 
Resettlement of Afghan asylum seekers and refugees in the US, UK, Germany, Canada, and other countries has been slow and limited, leaving thousands of Afghans who fled the Taliban in limbo in Iran, Pakistan, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and other countries. 
 
In July, the UK announced a policy change, introducing a route to allow some Afghans to reunite with their families who were evacuated to the UK after August 2021. However, serious problems with the UK’s relocation and resettlement programs have meant that, three years on, many at-risk Afghans including women and girls, have no safe pathway to resettlement in the UK. 
 
Attacks on Civilians 
The Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP), the Afghan affiliate of the Islamic State (ISIS), launched several attacks against ethnic and religious minorities, especially the Hazara community, as well as attacks on the Taliban that injured and killed civilians. On May 18, ISKP issued a statement threatening NGOs, media, and foreign aid agencies. 
 
On September 12, ISKP claimed responsibly for killing 14 men in Daikundi province. The killings took place in a remote border district between Daikundi, which has a predominantly Hazara population, and Ghor provinces. ISKP claimed responsibility for an April 29 attack in which a gunman opened fire on worshippers inside the Shia Sahib-u-Zaman mosque in Guzara district, Herat province, killing six people. On January 6, ISKP claimed responsibility for an attack on a passenger bus in the in Dasht-e Barchi area, a predominantly Hazara neighborhood in Kabul, that killed at least 5 and wounded 20 people. 
 
On September 2, ISKP carried out a suicide attack outside the Taliban’s prosecution office, killing at least 21 people, most of them civilians. 
 
Cross border fire by Pakistani security forces in May caused 25 civilian casualties, including nine deaths. Airstrikes by the Pakistani military in Khost and Paktia killed eight civilians in March. 
 
Justice and Accountability 
In September, the UN human rights office presented a report on Afghanistan highlighting the importance of addressing decades of conflict and impunity for widespread human rights abuses and specifically referred to states involved in past military interventions needing to take responsibility for accountability for violations by their nationals. 
 
In 2024, there was no reported progress in the first war crimes charges against a soldier accused of murdering an Afghan civilian in 2012. A UK independent inquiry into alleged abuses by the country’s special forces during detention operations in Afghanistan between 2010-2013 continued in 2024. 
 
On September 25, Germany, Australia, Canada, and the Netherlands, announced that they were initiating legal proceedings against Afghanistan before the International Court of Justice, alleging that the Taliban’s systematic gender-based discrimination and violence violates Afghanistan’s obligations under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, which Afghanistan ratified in 2003. It would be the first time a case has been brought before the court under this treaty. 
 
The UN Human Rights Council adopted a resolution in October underscoring the need to strengthen international efforts to advance accountability for past and ongoing abuses, including through the collection and preservation of evidence, but did not create a mechanism that could support these efforts. 
 
Human Rights Watch, World Report 2025. New York.

Spotlights 4 

​Anti-Social: Modern Slavery on Social Media (Part 1)
While social media has enabled unprecedented levels of global connectivity and delivered many socio-economic benefits, greater connectivity has also brought new risks, with consequences that transcend the digital world. There is mounting evidence social media is used to facilitate modern slavery, with perpetrators able to simultaneously target multiple people in different geographic locations, access their personal information, and exploit vulnerabilities while shielded by online anonymity. 
 
At the same time, rapid technological advancements have outpaced the development of regulatory frameworks, resulting in a lack of effective governance and accountability that enables modern slavery risks to flourish online. 
 
The facilitation of forced commercial sexual exploitation (FCSE) of adults and children using social media is well documented. Social media users may be recruited through deceptive job advertisements or targeted outreach using chat features, typically under the guise of building a relationship. In June 2021, for example, 11 people were arrested for trafficking women and girls from Bangladesh to India for sexual exploitation after luring them via TikTok with the promise of work. Following recruitment, social media may be used to track victims’ locations, control their movements, and to record, advertise, and distribute FCSE material. In 2023, shareholders launched litigation against Meta, arguing that the company’s leadership and board failed to protect shareholder interests by purportedly turning “a blind eye” to widespread evidence of sex trafficking and child sexual exploitation on Facebook and Instagram. Some measures intended to curb FCSE online have also exacerbated risks. For example, legislation introduced in the United States in 2017 to combat sex trafficking online reportedly increased the vulnerability of sex workers. In effect, the law placed greater pressure on platforms to censor users, thereby removing safer spaces for sex workers to communicate and reduce their risk of harm, while increasing their risk of violence and poverty.
 
Less is known about how social media impacts forced labour; however, increasing use of social media to search for employment and the growing perception of it as a reliable source of information has created new opportunities for exploitation.Fraudulent recruiters and traffickers may target potential victims via social media business pages, recruitment advertisements, and direct outreach on social media platforms. Key word searches of some popular video-sharing platforms reveal the presence of unverified accounts posing as government-approved recruitment agencies which poses significant risks. Traffickers may also use social media to lure victims onto end-to-end encrypted platforms, such as WhatsApp, where oversight by law enforcement for prevention and evidence collection is both legally and technically difficult.
 
Harrowing accounts of trafficking for labour exploitation and domestic servitude via social media have emerged in recent years. In 2021, leaked Facebook documents revealed that Instagram and Facebook were used to recruit migrant workers from low-income countries via deceptive job advertisements and traffic them to the Gulf Cooperation Council countries for domestic servitude and forced sex work. This followed a 2019 investigation which found that migrant domestic workers employed under the kafala system in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia were bought and sold via Instagram and other applications listed by Google Play and the Apple App Store. Instagram’s algorithm reportedly promoted hashtags used to advertise domestic workers on the platform.
 
While it is clear that social media exacerbates modern slavery risks, it can also provide an avenue for vulnerable users and survivors to share their experiences and access support. In 2021, for example, a Kenyan woman who was exploited while working as a cleaner in Saudi Arabia reported receiving assistance from an international organisation after posting about her situation on Facebook. She was also recruited via Facebook, and claimed that the platform saw her into and out of the situation. Migrant domestic workers experiencing abuse and mistreatment in the Gulf have also used Facebook and TikTok to share their experiences, ask for information, and raise awareness. While this has reportedly helped domestic workers connect with other workers on the platforms, without the necessary safeguards in place, domestic workers can be exposed to further harms such as re-trafficking by exploitative recruiters who are also active on the platforms, employer retaliation, and even deportation.
 
Walk Free 2023. Global Slavery Index 2023. Minderoo Foundation Ltd. Australia.