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Urgent campaigns / Statements / Algeria / 2010 / November

Joint Statement on the human rights situation in North Africa and Sudan at the 48th session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights

Joint Oral Intervention, Item 4 – Human Rights Situation in Africa

48th ordinary session of the African Commission for Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR)

11 November 2010

CIHRS, FIDH, CFDA, and OMCT


Thank you Madame Chairperson,
 
The Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS), the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), la Collectif des Familles des Disparus en Algerie (CFDA), and the World Organization against Torture (OMCT), are deeply concerned about the grave human rights violations that have continued to take place on a regular basis in North Africa since the last session of the African Commission for Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR). In particular, the past few months have been dire for Human Rights Defenders, activists, and civil society in Sudan, Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya. We denounce the escalation in violations of the Rights to Freedom of Expression, Opinion, and Assembly as enshrined in articles 9, 10, and 11 of the African Charter, as well as in the ICCPR and other international legal instruments.
 
Egypt has failed to demonstrate any real commitment to improving the state of Human Rights in the country. On the contrary, in May Egypt broke the promise it had made to the international community and to its own citizens, when it renewed the Emergency Law, in place almost continuously since 1967, for another 2 years. Egypt continues to use the protracted Emergency Law as a tool to harass, detain, silence, intimidate, and torture members of its civil society and stifle dissenting opinion. In September, three activists, amongst them a researcher at CIHRS, were forcibly disappeared by unidentified security agencies and interrogated under harsh conditions before being released.
 
We are also deeply concerned about the increase in the use of violence to prevent peaceful protests and gatherings in Egypt. On the 21st of September, peaceful demonstrations in Cairo and Alexandria in opposition to the suspected succession of President Mubarak’s son were met with brutality. The police and security forces were quick to act in cordoning off crowds, detaining activists, and using physical force and batons to beat, restrain and limit the movement of demonstrators. Journalists and people walking by, were amongst those targeted, attacked, and harassed by riot police and security.
 
In addition, the pressure placed on NGOs has also increased to such an extent that several NGOs having been unable to carry out their work as a consequence of harassment by the government. The government has launched a hostile campaign against the Centre for Trade Union and Workers’ Services (CTUWS), whose offices were subjected to surprise inspections, without any prior notice by the Commission of the Ministry of Social Solidarity in April. The campaign against CTUWS has only escalated in response to their participation in the 99th session of the International Labor Association (ILO) in June.
 
In Sudan, the situation has continued to deteriorate since the elections and is particularly concerning for human rights defenders and journalists. Mr. Abdelrahman Al-Gasim, a prominent human rights defender from Darfur, was supposed to be here today, before this House, to speak to you about the human rights situation in his country, as he has done several times before during his frequent engagement with the Commission. However, on Saturday night, October 30th, Mr. Al-Gasim was arrested along with 5 other human rights defenders. His whereabouts remain unknown, and no official charges have been brought against him.
 
Were Mr. Al-Gasim not forcibly disappeared and arbitrarily detained by the government of Sudan, he would be here to speak about the continuing crackdown on Freedom of Expression and Association in the country. The 2010 National Security Act and 1991 Criminal Act have been used to undermine journalistic freedom of expression. Both partisan and non-partisan newspapers have suffered severe blows under the policy of pre-censorship, whereby editors are intimidated into silence. Journalists have been tried in unfair trials as a consequence of their writings, and there has been a return to the practice of blocking websites. Media freedoms have been curtailed also in the South.
 
The situation is particularly dire for those who express dissenting political opinion. Shortly after the arrest of Popular Congress Party leader Hassan Al Turabi, who was held without charge by the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) from May 15 - June 30, 4 staff members of party-affiliated newspaper Rai Al Shaabwere arrested and held incommunicado. At least two of the journalists were tortured during detention, including through the use of electric shocks. Under unfair trials, three of the four journalists were sentenced for prison terms of 2 and 5 years on vague charges of “undermining the constitutional system” and “publishing false news.” This is merely one example of the many violations in post-election Sudan, which warns of more to come as the 2011 referendum approaches.
 
We continue to be concerned about the lack of tolerance for dissenting voices in Libya, where spaces for civil society, independent media, and freedom of assembly remain extremely limited. Repressive legislation outlawing any form of independent thought or group activity remains in force, and the red line for tolerance is drawn at any criticism of the Colonel Mu’ammar al-Gaddafi or the current political system.
 
The peaceful exercise of freedom of expression and association remains largely criminalized, individuals who criticize the authorities or seek to organize anti-government protests have faced reprisals, and the government still does not permit the establishment of independent human rights organizations.
 
In Algeria, the authorities haverecently revealed they would stop at nothing to supress Freedom of Expression and Association. In an attempt to silence the voices of the families of victims of enforced disappearances, the authorities used violence to break up two consecutive weekly peaceful demonstrations in August. The families of the disappeared have been participating in these peaceful demonstrations for over 10 years to demand answers from the government about the fate of the more than 8000 that were disappeared by the Algerian security forces between 1992 and this date. On the 4th of August the authorities denied the families of victims the right to demonsrate, stripping them not only of their right to truth, but even the ability to seek it. A demonstration took place on the 11th of August where many human rights defenders, activists, and ordinary citizens, gathered in solidarity with the families. The security forces suppressed demonstrators including mothers and old grandmothers of victims. Lawyers and human rights defenders were also assaulted. The police arrested four demonstrators, among them members of the Algerian Association for the defense of Human Rights and an 82 year old man.
Authorities in Algeria also continued to monopolize both the visual and the auditory media, and have been violent in their rejection of new independent media. In May, the security forces prevented the organization of a peaceful gathering to demand the lifting of censorship on the public media and to allow Algerians to create and broadcast media that is able to represent and reflect the social and political diversity in the country. The security forces arrested 14 people carrying banners and interrogated them at a police station before releasing them.

Tunisia continues to have all the features of a police state, and this July a law was passed further enhancing the system of repression by the state.The Tunisian cabinet passed an amendment to article 61 of the Tunisian Penal Code criminalizing “any persons who shall, directly or indirectly, have contacts with agents of a foreign country, foreign institution or organization in order to encourage them to affect the vital interests of Tunisia and its economic security.” This law could have serious effects on the ability of human rights defenders to carry out their work and poses a real risk to anyone who is critical of the authorities or speaks up on human rights.
It is not possible in Tunisia to set up independent human rights associations without risk of harassment. Activists can be tried and imprisoned on trumped up charges, and it is not uncommon for family and friends to be harassed as well. Whilst there are over 9000 official Civil Society organizations in Tunisia, only a few are fully independent, and none can operate without government interference, from close surveillance, office raids and smear campaigns; to direct attacks and death threats.
 
Not only do these violations continue unabated in North Africa, but they continue within the framework of widespread and total impunity. Such a climate offers meager hopes for accountability, progress, or adequate compensation to victims. We call on the African Commission to address the state of Human Rigths in this sub-region through a resolution, and we urge the Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders, the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression, and the Special Rapporteur on Prisons and Conditions of Detention, to undertake fact finding missions to these countries as a first step towards addressing the tools of repression used to strangle the civil societies and citizens of North Africa.
 
***

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Date: November 25, 2010
Activity: Urgent campaigns
Type: Statements
Country: Algeria, Egypt, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Sudan, Tunisia
Subjects: Arbitrary arrests and enforced disappearances, Human Rights Defenders, Justice system, Minorities and marginalised communities, Threats, intimidation and harassment, Torture and violence

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