22.10.02
Urgent Interventions
Intervention before the African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights
Thank you Mr. Chair,
M. Chair, honourable Commission, distinguished delegates and participants, as the largest coalition of non governmental organizations fighting against torture, summary executions, forced disappearances and all other forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) would like to share its concern on the situation of Human Rights prevailing in the African continent.
The African continent still holds a sad record of torture being performed by State agents at security service offices, police stations and prison facilities, as well as by non state actors, all of them acting under cover of intolerable levels of impunity.
Thousands of people continue to be arrested and put in incommunicado detention, victims of unfair trial and are exposed to torture and inhuman treatment.
Moreover, practices of corporal punishment, contrary to the international and regional instruments are being reported in several countries throughout the continent.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, civilians are being arrested without warrant and brought to military courts, namely the Court of Military Order, an exceptional jurisdiction which does not meet the requirements and standards applicable to the conduct of fair trials. Despite the fact that the abolition of this Court was one of the objectives of the government’s National Plan of Action adopted in 1999, the Court is still in place.
OMCT has also expressed concern about the constant deterioration of the conditions of detention in various prisons, where detainees suffer from malnutrition, undernourishment and lack of medical attention leading to a large number of deaths.
In Tunisia, the authorities continue to use all means at their disposal to pursue their repression of any kind of dissent. The country counts many hundred political prisoners detained in harsh conditions – torture is routinely reported as are unfair trial proceedings. In this context, the release of M. Hamma Hammami has been an encouraging sign and has risen expectations for the future. It is our hope that they will be fulfilled.
OMCT is also concerned about the authorities use of arbitrary arrest, detention and torture as a means of stifling political opposition in Sudan. The government’s resumption of the use of amputation and the sentencing to the death penalty of children below the age of 18, are particularly worrying developments.
Despite Sudan’s Constitution and its ratification of international and regional human rights instruments which prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex, the subordination of women and girls continues to be part of the law and customs. In the alternative report presented to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, that examined Sudan’s implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child on 24 September 2002, OMCT expressed its serious concerns about the widespread practice of female genital mutilation, which violates the right to life, physical integrity, and the right to health of girls. It is estimated that 89.2% of the women and girls in Sudan have undergone FGM and that 82% of women have undergone infibulation, the most severe form of FGM.
The report also noted the adverse impact of the ongoing armed conflict on the human rights situation in the country, and in particular on the right of women and children. According to coinciding reports, abduction and slavery continue to be practiced by all parties to the civil war.
OMCT condemns the use of corporal punishment which violates human rights norms and standards. Practices of stoning to death or flogging have been reported notably in Sudan* and in Nigeria, as illustrated by the case of Amina Lawal.
Finally, we would like to bring to the attention of this Commission, that 2000 copies of a report published by OMCT in collaboration with the Center for Law Enforcement Education (CLEAN) entitled “Hope Betrayed. A Report on Impunity and State Sponsored violence in Nigeria” based on the input of some 60 local NGOs has just been impounded at the customs office in Lagos due to allegations of its subversive nature. Two co-authors of a chapter of the report are reportedly being harassed in violation of the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders adopted by the General Assembly on 9 December 1998.
M. Chair, honourable Commission, distinguished delegates and participants, OMCT urges the States, the National institutions, the Commission and the NGO community to undertake all necessary efforts to ensure compliance by the States of their obligations under international and regional instruments regarding the prohibition of torture, and to put an end to all forms of corporal punishment.
OMCT also calls on the Commission to adopt a mechanism for the protection of Human Rights Defenders who are targeted due to their involvement in the promotion and protection of human rights, as it has been advocating in the framework of its join program with FIDH, the Observatory for the protection of Human Rights Defenders.
Thank you for your kind attention
*OMCT draws the attention of the reader to the fact that in the case of Sudan, in January 2002, the Court of Appeal overturned the death sentence by stoning pronounced against Abok Alfa Akok, a young pregnant woman accused of adultery.
M. Chair, honourable Commission, distinguished delegates and participants, as the largest coalition of non governmental organizations fighting against torture, summary executions, forced disappearances and all other forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) would like to share its concern on the situation of Human Rights prevailing in the African continent.
The African continent still holds a sad record of torture being performed by State agents at security service offices, police stations and prison facilities, as well as by non state actors, all of them acting under cover of intolerable levels of impunity.
Thousands of people continue to be arrested and put in incommunicado detention, victims of unfair trial and are exposed to torture and inhuman treatment.
Moreover, practices of corporal punishment, contrary to the international and regional instruments are being reported in several countries throughout the continent.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, civilians are being arrested without warrant and brought to military courts, namely the Court of Military Order, an exceptional jurisdiction which does not meet the requirements and standards applicable to the conduct of fair trials. Despite the fact that the abolition of this Court was one of the objectives of the government’s National Plan of Action adopted in 1999, the Court is still in place.
OMCT has also expressed concern about the constant deterioration of the conditions of detention in various prisons, where detainees suffer from malnutrition, undernourishment and lack of medical attention leading to a large number of deaths.
In Tunisia, the authorities continue to use all means at their disposal to pursue their repression of any kind of dissent. The country counts many hundred political prisoners detained in harsh conditions – torture is routinely reported as are unfair trial proceedings. In this context, the release of M. Hamma Hammami has been an encouraging sign and has risen expectations for the future. It is our hope that they will be fulfilled.
OMCT is also concerned about the authorities use of arbitrary arrest, detention and torture as a means of stifling political opposition in Sudan. The government’s resumption of the use of amputation and the sentencing to the death penalty of children below the age of 18, are particularly worrying developments.
Despite Sudan’s Constitution and its ratification of international and regional human rights instruments which prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex, the subordination of women and girls continues to be part of the law and customs. In the alternative report presented to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, that examined Sudan’s implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child on 24 September 2002, OMCT expressed its serious concerns about the widespread practice of female genital mutilation, which violates the right to life, physical integrity, and the right to health of girls. It is estimated that 89.2% of the women and girls in Sudan have undergone FGM and that 82% of women have undergone infibulation, the most severe form of FGM.
The report also noted the adverse impact of the ongoing armed conflict on the human rights situation in the country, and in particular on the right of women and children. According to coinciding reports, abduction and slavery continue to be practiced by all parties to the civil war.
OMCT condemns the use of corporal punishment which violates human rights norms and standards. Practices of stoning to death or flogging have been reported notably in Sudan* and in Nigeria, as illustrated by the case of Amina Lawal.
Finally, we would like to bring to the attention of this Commission, that 2000 copies of a report published by OMCT in collaboration with the Center for Law Enforcement Education (CLEAN) entitled “Hope Betrayed. A Report on Impunity and State Sponsored violence in Nigeria” based on the input of some 60 local NGOs has just been impounded at the customs office in Lagos due to allegations of its subversive nature. Two co-authors of a chapter of the report are reportedly being harassed in violation of the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders adopted by the General Assembly on 9 December 1998.
M. Chair, honourable Commission, distinguished delegates and participants, OMCT urges the States, the National institutions, the Commission and the NGO community to undertake all necessary efforts to ensure compliance by the States of their obligations under international and regional instruments regarding the prohibition of torture, and to put an end to all forms of corporal punishment.
OMCT also calls on the Commission to adopt a mechanism for the protection of Human Rights Defenders who are targeted due to their involvement in the promotion and protection of human rights, as it has been advocating in the framework of its join program with FIDH, the Observatory for the protection of Human Rights Defenders.
Thank you for your kind attention
*OMCT draws the attention of the reader to the fact that in the case of Sudan, in January 2002, the Court of Appeal overturned the death sentence by stoning pronounced against Abok Alfa Akok, a young pregnant woman accused of adultery.