Equatorial Guinea

Human Rights in Equatorial Guinea

Human Rights Concerns

President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, Africa’s longest-serving head of state, has held power since 1979. He was awarded a new seven-year term in the 2016 presidential election, reportedly winning 93.5 percent of the vote. The main opposition party at the time, Convergence for Social Democracy (CPDS), boycotted the election, and other factions faced police violence, detentions, and torture.

Equatorial Guinea holds regular elections, but the voting is neither free nor fair. Oil wealth and political power are concentrated in the hands of the president’s family. The government frequently detains the few opposition politicians in the country, cracks down on civil society groups, and censors journalists. The judiciary is under presidential control, and security forces engage in torture and other violence with impunity.

Human rights defenders

The crackdown on human rights defenders continues and administrative obstacles prevents NGOs from obtaining legal registration. The right to a fair trial is violated. Police use excessive force and the right to freedom of expression, including access to information, has been violated in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020, draft legislation threatened to discriminate against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) people and sex workers.

Freedom of expression

Press freedom is severely limited, despite constitutional protections. Most journalists consistently exercise self-censorship, and those who do criticize the regime are subject to dismissal and other reprisals.

The authorities violates the right to freedom of expression, including access to information, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. In May 2020, the government stopped publishing the numbers of COVID-19 cases, arguing that the information had been used by its critics to discredit its public health work.

According to Reporters without Borders, seven journalists who worked for the TV channel, Asonga, were suspended in May 2020 after they publicly criticized the use of violence by the defense and security forces to impose the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown.

 Excessive use of force

 In April 2020, people regularly posted videos on social media which showed the police using violence against people while enforcing the lockdown. Many of those attacked were street sellers, particularly women, whose stalls were destroyed.

 Right to a fair trial

The judiciary is not independent, and judges in sensitive cases often consult with the Office of the President before issuing important rulings. Under the constitution, the president is the nation’s first magistrate. He also oversees the body that appoints judges. The court system’s impartiality is further undermined by corruption.

In March 2020, a military court in Oveng Asem (a city on the mainland) convicted 10 men in connection with membership of the Movement for the Liberation of Equatorial Guinea Third Republic (MLGE3R), an opposition group. They were sentenced following a trial held behind closed doors to a total of 734 years imprisonment for treason, verbal abuse/insult against the head of state, and espionage. Four of these prisoners – two Spanish nationals of Equatorial Guinean origin and two Equatorial Guineans resident in Spain – had been abducted in South Sudan and transferred to Equatorial Guinea in November 2019. Their whereabouts remained unknown for several months until they were reported to be in Black Beach Prison and then transferred to Mongomo Prison on the mainland. The Spanish nationals were denied access to their embassy representatives.

 Freedom of association

 The authorities continues to place obstacles in the way of NGOs seeking to register their organizations. In 2019, the government had accepted recommendations during the UN Universal Periodic Review process to reform Law 1/1999 which regulates NGO registration but failed to modify the law.

 Arbitrary arrests and detention

 Security forces routinely detain people without charge. Those who are tried can be subjected to proceedings that lack due process.

In February, Joaquín Elo Ayeto, a Somos+ member, was released without explanation from Black Beach Prison, where he had been held for almost one year following his arbitrary arrest in February 2019. Although he was tried in 2019 for defamation and threats against the President, he was not given any information about his sentence. He was released on the President’s orders after the President met the Secretary-General of the opposition Convergence for Social Democracy Party.