Tony Nkina
Tony Germain Nkina is a well known human rights lawyer in Kayanza province, who provides legal assistance to detained persons and victims of human rights abuses. He is the former representative of the Association for the Protection of Human Rights and Detained Persons (Association pour la protection des droits humains et des personnes détenues - APRODH), a leading human rights group in Burundi until 2015. APRODH worked to protect human rights in general, and the rights of detained persons in particular, and provided legal and psychological assistance to detained persons and victims of abuse as well as worked to raise public awareness on the prevention of all forms of abuse of humans and persons in pre-trial detention. In 2015, the government suspended the organization as part of a crackdown on independent civil society.
In Burundi, mass human rights violations were committed after the failed coup in 2015 as the government targeted anyone considered to be supportive of the opposition. Since then, human rights defenders have been subjected to threats, violence, arbitrary detention, assassination attempts and enforced disappearances. HRDs fighting impunity or denouncing acts of corruption and embezzlement involving public authorities are particularly at risk. Defenders speaking up on the need for democratic reforms or independent journalists denouncing human rights violations are similarly targeted. This has caused many human rights defenders and journalists to flee the country for their safety and live in exile.
