Paris
– Banjul, 3rd November 2003
The FIDH and a dozen of its member organizations
will be present at the 34th ordinary session of the African
Commission of Human and People's Rights, which will take place
in Banjul from 6th to 20th November 2003.
The FIDH and its member organizations are expecting
that this session will see some major progress such as: the
adoption of a regional structure for the protection of human
rights defenders; the mobilization of African states in favor
of the fight against impunity, in particular with the launch
of the African Court on Human Rights and the ratification process
by States of the International Criminal Court; the inclusion
of human rights at the very core of NEPAD mechanisms; respecting
the process of democratic elections.
Moreover, the Commission will have to examine
the human rights situation of Niger, Senegal and the Democratic
Republic of Congo. Given the continuing human rights violations
in these States, this examination is of particular importance.
The FIDH and its member organizations in these countries will
be presenting to the Commission alternative reports to the periodic
reports of States.
This session will take place against a sombre
background described by the FIDH president, Sidiki Kaba, as
the "autumn of human rights" . The Commission should
not turn a deaf ear to this reality. Indeed, since the last
session of the African Commission, the FIDH has denounced many
human rights violations, such as: rejection of political alternation
and pluralism, rigged elections in Togo, the coup d’Etat
in Guinée Bissau, and in Sao Tome and Principe, arbitrary
arrests and persons held in detention in Mauritania, torture
in Cameroon, death sentences in Nigeria, mass expulsion of immigrants
in Djibouti, restriction of basic freedoms in Senegal and in
Chad, harassment of human rights activists in Zimbabwe, Algeria
and Tunisia, economic and social rights trampled, armed conflict
and/or violation of international humanitarian law in Liberia,
the Democratic Republic of Congo (RDC), Burundi, etc.
Many challenges will be put to the African
Commission which will have to show a real will and ability to
take these up, in particular by adopting a firm stance on these
situations. The FIDH specifically hopes that it will take account
of the elements presented in the two reports published on this
occasion by the FIDH, on human rights violations committed in
Cameroon and in the Democratic Republic of Congo .
Press contact : +33 1 43 55 2518/14 12
1- See FIDH position paper for the 34th session
of the African Commission for Human Rights : « Sombre
situation des droits de l’Homme en Afrique : Entre responsabilité
des Etats et réaction de l’Union africaine »
www.fidh.org
2- "La torture au Cameroun: une réalité "banale",
une impunité quotidienne", October 2003 ; www.fidh.org
3- "Persistance de la haine ethnique et des violations
massives et systématiques des droits de l’Homme
à Bunia”, October |
