Human rights in Togo

According to a U.S. State Department report based on conditions in 2010, problems include "security force use of excessive force, including torture, which resulted in deaths and injuries; official impunity; harsh and life-threatening prison conditions; arbitrary arrest and detention; lengthy pretrial detention; executive influence over the judiciary; infringement of citizens' privacy rights; restrictions on freedoms of press, assembly, and movement; official corruption; discrimination and violence against women; child abuse, including female genital mutilation (FGM), and sexual exploitation of children; regional and ethnic discrimination; trafficking in persons, especially women and children; societal discrimination against persons with disabilities; official and societal discrimination against homosexual persons; societal discrimination against persons with HIV; and forced labor, including by children.

[2] Togo, once a German protectorate, and later a French possession, won independence in 1960 and has been criticized for its human rights record ever since.

[4]1 Togo's constitution and laws forbid discrimination "based on race, gender, religion, disability, language, or social status", but these prohibitions are not adequately enforced.

Although Togo's constitution and laws guarantee freedom of speech and of the press, there are considerable restrictions on those rights, with many journalists being fined or sued for defamation, and some engaging in self-censorship to avoid lawsuits or violent reprisals.

According to a 2012 report by Freedom House, the size of Togo's private media sector "is impressive for a relatively small country, and its content is often highly politicized.

[6] The High Authority of Audiovisuals and Communications (HAAC) is supposed to be an independent agency that protects freedom of the press, in fact it censors the media on behalf of the government, and has the power to suspend newspapers for six months and to confiscate journalists' press cards and equipment.

The station's news director, Guy Mario, said that it "was being punished for its shows in June in which callers had criticized the violent crackdown by security forces on anti-government protests in Lomé....Mario said that the programs, which ran for nine days, featured participants criticizing the government in uncensored language."

A security force is maintained at the University of Lome to intimidate academics, and undercover government informants attend classes.

Likewise, though Togo technically guarantees the right to move freely around the country, travel abroad, emigrate, and repatriate, these rights are also restricted in practice, with armed forces manning checkpoints around the country at which they arbitrarily search travelers and demand bribes.

[5] The opposition began holding protests in April demanding electoral reforms, calling for an end to the Gnassingbé dynasty, and insisting on respect for human rights.

In October 2012, a sociology student described the situation as "very worrying", noting that the opposition "is hardening its stance and the government doesn't seem to be listening".

A former economy and finance minister said at the same time that the Togolese people "are angry about the government's slip-ups in terms of human rights, acting arbitrarily and using the judiciary to cling to power".

Police tend not to get involved in domestic abuse, the government has no official program to address it, and women are unaware of their rights in such situations.

[5] A 2012 report by the German Federal Office for Migration and Asylum noted that the "abolition" of FGM "was officially announced and celebrated at a national ceremony in Sokodé on 29 and 30 December 2012".

Within Togo, traffickers often recruit children from the northern part of the country to work in the capital city of Lomé as street vendors, servants, sex workers, or jobs involving hazardous machinery.

Travel restrictions and curfews imposed due to the COVID-19 pandemic significantly increased vulnerability of children to trafficking.

There is a Ministry of Social Action, Women’s Empowerment and Literacy that runs awareness campaigns, offers job training, and distributes food and clothing.

[1] The national law stipulates that "acts against nature committed with an individual of one’s sex", generally understood to refer to homosexuality, are punishable by up to three years in prison, but this is rarely enforced in practice; prosecutions of LGBT people are ofted predicated on other offenses, such as public urination.

Family members are commonly ostracized after diagnosis with HIV, and many Togolese believe that HIV/AIDS is a form of cosmic punishment for wrongdoing.

Still, Togo has yet to devote "sufficient resources to enforce its child labor laws effectively" and minors "continue to work in dangerous conditions".

Islam, Catholicism and Protestantism are recognised by the state; other groups must register as religious associations to receive similar benefits.

Owing partly to a shortage of judges and other qualified judicial officials, defendants are often kept in pretrial detention for long periods, which sometimes are longer than the terms they would have been sentenced to if put on trial and found guilty.

[5] One example is the case of Abdoul-Aziz Goma, an Irish-Togolese dual citizen who has been held in pre-trial detention for more than three years, starting in 2018.

[5] A young British human-rights volunteer in Togo describes attending a trial at which he was pressed into service as a translator.

[16] A 2012 report by Integrated Regional Information Network (IRIN) said that "Togo's 12 prisons – many of them dilapidated – hold more than twice their designed capacity.

[17] The watchdog group Atlas of Torture ranked Togo the world's fourth worst country when it came to the number of detainees waiting to be tried.