Mr. Haq made the following remarks at a press conference at the UN Headquarters in NY today:

"And we were asked yesterday about Burundi, and we are very disappointed to hear that the Burundian Government has banned the country’s oldest human rights organisation, Ligue Iteka.

The organisation carries out crucial work in monitoring and documenting human rights abuses committed in Burundi, which is all the more important given the precarious human rights situation in the country.

We call on the Government to reverse its decision and reconsider restrictions on the other human rights and civil society organisations that have been sanctioned in the past three months."