Interviews with Tutu Alicante

The Arab Spring clearly shows that as a people, as a community, as a group of persons, we have so much more power than we think we do. The Arab Spring – just like many other situations where a people has won their freedom, specifically in South Africa, for example, shows that there are more things that we have in common than that separate us.

Today in Equatorial Guinea, specifically, we still think that ethnicity divides us. We still think that there is too much fear. We still think that there is too much repression. And even though there are ethnic divisions, even though there is repression, even though there is fear, we are much closer today to a positive, non-violent change in Equatorial Guinea than we were ten years ago.

With the organization that I run, I hope, I am certain, I have faith that we can find these things that unite us, find a message that unites us, and use this message, in a non-violent way, to inform the world, to invite the international community to help us improve the lack of democracy, the lack of freedoms, the lack of political space inside our country and improve our condition.

Tutu Alicante is a human rights lawyer from the island of Annobon in Equatorial Guinea. In 1993, Mr. Alicante was in a Roman Catholic seminary, preparing for the priesthood. A group of citizens, among them one of Mr. Alicante’s cousins, organized a peaceful demonstration at the governor’s house calling for respect for human rights and measures to address widespread poverty. In response, government forces arrested and killed a number of the demonstrators and burned Mr. Alicante’s family home to the ground. He left Equatorial Guinea in 1994 to pursue his education abroad.

After obtaining a law degree from the University of Tennessee and a Masters in Law from Columbia University, he worked on legal defense programs for migrant farm workers and as a consultant for a branch of the Open Society Institute promoting legal accountability and transparency in extractive industries.

Tutu Alicante founded and serves as Executive Director of EG Justice, a nonprofit and nongovernmental organization that educates, empowers, and engages a new generation of democracy and human rights advocates at home and abroad. It undertakes grassroots campaigns to reform institutions inside Equatorial Guinea and
documents human rights violations, collecting oral and written testimonies inside the country and abroad to hold violators accountable. EG Justice publishes periodic reports and educates the public. EG Justice collaborates with international institutions to bring critical human rights issues to the attention of global policymakers, including the United Nations, the African Union, and other multilateral organizations. It undertakes and supports legal advocacy to hold human rights abusers accountable in local, regional, and international tribunals and works closely with community-based partners to empower them through the litigation process.

Follow Tutu Alicante on Twitter at @TutuAlicante and follow EG Justice on Twitter at @EGJustice