Situation of human rights defenders in Africa - Oral intervention at the 54th ordinary session of ACHPR

Oral Intervention underagenda item 9: “Situation of human rights defenders”

MadamPresident,

Madamthe Special Rapporteur for Human Rights Defenders,

Madamand Sir Commissioners,

Madamand Sir Delegates,

TheOMCT and the FIDH, in the framework of the Observatory for the Protection ofHuman Rights Defenders, reiterate their deep concern about the situation ofhuman rights defenders in Africa.

Sincethe last session of the Commission in April 2013, the Observatory has reported,with great concern, multiple violations of human rights defenders’ rights andfreedoms all across the continent, especially in Angola, Cameroon,the DemocraticRepublic of Congo (DRC), Egypt, Mauritania, Rwanda,Senegaland Tunisia.

Humanrights defenders were attacked, received threats or were slandered in the DRC,Senegaland Tunisia.In some cases they were even killed, as in the DRC and in Cameroon,in a climate of impunity. Defenders, and in particular defenders ofeconomic, social and cultural rights, also continuedto be subjected to arbitrary arrests and judicial harassment in Angola,Cameroon, theDRC, Egypt, Mauritania andTunisia.Obstacles to freedom of association were also recorded, as for instance in Angola,Egyptand Rwanda.

Thedefenders who saw their rights violated were, among others, members ofnon-governmental organisations (NGOs), lawyers, journalists, women's rightsactivists, judges and civil society organisations who defend the right tofreedoms of expression, association and peaceful protest, denounce human rightsabuses by State actors or powerful companies and fight for the respect of therights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people andfundamental freedoms in general.

1. Ongoing acts of violence against human rights defenders in theAfrican continent

a) Assassination of human rights defenders in the DRCand Cameroon

All acrossthe continent, human rights defenders have again been subjected to violentassaults and in some worse cases to assassination. This most extreme form ofattack to human rights defenders and their work must be condemned in thestrongest terms. The impunity of perpetrators of such awful acts, which toooften remains the rule, is a sign of weakness and failure of States in theirobligations to protect defenders, which may encourage perpetrators to commitfurther acts of violence against human rights activists.

Since thelast session of the ACHPR, three cases of killing of human rights defenderswere reported to the Observatory.

In the DRC,Mr. Rocksy Tshimpaka was killed onSeptember 19, 2013, for denouncing on a television programme the torture andconsequent killing of a Congolese citizen by the police in 2012.

On August 7,2013, rebel groups savagely murdered Mr. GodefroidMutombo, a member of the NGO Libertaswho had denounced several human rights violations in which the Congolesemilitia and military were reportedly involved.

The Observatoryalso remains particularly concerned by the ongoing impunity for theassassination in June 2010 of Messrs. Floribert Chebeya Bazire,Executive Director of the Voice of the Voiceless (Voix des sans voix -VSV) and a member of OMCT General Assembly, and Fidèle Bazana, a memberof VSV. While the complaint lodged by the two defenders’ widows has remainsunheard for more than three years now, it is urgent that General John Numbi isbrought before an impartial and independent tribunal, so that he can face hisresponsibility for the murder of their husbands.

TheObservatory was also shocked and saddened by the murder of Mr. Eric Ohena Lembembe, Executive Director of theCameroonian Foundation for AIDS (CAMFAIDS), who was brutally assaulted andkilled in July 2013 following an upsurge of threats to activists, lawyers andorganisations engaged in the defence of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender andintersex (LGBT) rights in Cameroon in the previous months. TheGovernment of Cameroon did not publicly condemn this killing, and policeinvestigations have failed to produce results.

b) Threats and slandering campaigns against humanrights defenders

On severaloccasions, human rights defenders were victims of threats or defamationcampaigns as attempts to intimidate and silence them. Such acts were committedeither directly by State agents or by non-State actors with the silentcomplicity of the authorities, therefore encouraging acts of violence againsthuman rights defenders.

Such was thecase in the DRC,where several defenders and lawyers representing the plaintiffs in the case ofthe murder of Messrs. Floribert Chebeya and FidèleBazana were subjected to threats and pressures ahead of the appeal trial thatresumed in April before the Supreme Military Court. For instance, on the night of May 29 to 30, 2013, thecabinet of lawyer Jean-Marie Kabengele Ilunga was vandalised by unknown persons. A bag containing conclusions and notes on the trialwas stolen on this occasion.

Still in the DRC,in June 2013, collaborators of the Governor of the Eastern Province started adefamation campaign against Mr. DismasKitenge, President of the LotusGroup and Vice-President of FIDH, accusing him of being a “puppet of the West”,and announcing that he would be “corrected”. They also incited the populationnot to listen to the “message of distraction, division and nostalgia” of humanrights defenders. Subsequently, a group of unidentified individuals threwstones on Mr. Kitenge’s home, promising to attack anyone who tried to sabotagethe Governor’s development activities.

In May 2013,the Executive Director of the branch of Amnesty International in Senegal,Mr. Seydi Gassama, was defamed andthreatened with arrest by senior representatives of the Parliament and theGovernment following the presentation of a report that denounced thepersistency in human rights violations in the country, despite the change ofGovernment in 2012. The Observatory denouncesthese public accusations that aimedto discredit and moregenerally to silence humanrights defenders in the country in an attempt to assimilate them to members of the opposition.

In Tunisia,the Observatory was concerned following the death threats that were issued inMay 2013 against Ms. Kalthoum Kennou,President of the Association of Tunisian Magistrates (Association des magistrats tunisiens - AMT) and Judge at theSupreme Court, for defending the independence of the judiciary in the country,as they are indicative of the obstacles posed to the proper functioning of thejudiciary through acts of intimidation against impartial and independentjudges.

2.Judicial harassment of defenders of economic, social and cultural rights inAfrica

In manycountries of the continent, the judicial system remains used by the authoritiesas a tool of retaliation against human rights defenders activities. Such wasthe case in Angola, Cameroon, the DRC, Egypt, Mauritaniaand Tunisia, where the Observatory recorded in particularacts of judicial harassment against defenders of economic, social and culturalrights.

In Angola,journalist and human rights defender Mr. RafaelMarques de Morais is currently facing criminal charges of defamationrelated to the publication of his investigative book documenting violations ofhuman rights and corruption issues associated to diamond mining industries inLundas region.

Arbitraryarrests and detentions also remained frequent in the continent.

In Tunisia,the feminist activist Ms. Amina Sbouiwas arbitrarily detained from May 19 to August 1, 2013 as a result of heractivities in favour of women’s rights. The criminal proceeding against her wasfilled with irregularities and inconsistencies.

In Mauritania,on October 6, 2013, 25 members of the Initiative for the Resurgence of theAbolitionist Movement in Mauritania (Initiative pour la résurgence dumouvement abolitionniste en Mauritanie - IRA), who were peacefullyprotesting since September 9 against the inaction of the local authorities inBoutilimit in relation to a case of alleged slavery, were arbitrarily arrested,before being released without charge the same day. The sit-in was violentlydispersed by the police. On September 30, 2013, five members of IRA had alreadybeen arrested in this framework and were charged with "unlawfulassembly" and "membership to an unknown organisation" on October1. Two of them, Messrs. Abdallahi Ould Hemdy and Slama Ould Seyidi,remain in custody in the prison of Rosso.

In Egypt,Mr. Hassan Mustafa, a human rightsactivist working on economic rights and police violence, remains arbitrarily detained sinceJanuary 21, 2013 for requesting information on the situation andwhereabouts of demonstrators arrested two days earlier. OnJune 15, 2013, he was sentenced in appeal to one year's imprisonment under thecharges of "defamation" of a staff member of the AlexandriaProsecutor’s Office, which he strongly denied. His arbitrary detention andsentencing in appeal is another sign of the weaknesses to protect and guaranteehuman rights defender’s activities in the country.

In Cameroon, several membersof the Mbororo Social and Cultural Development Association (MBOSCUDA), anorganisation defending the rights of Mbororo pastoralists in North-WesternCameroon, have been subjected to judicial harassment on the basis of acomplaint lodged by a local influential landowner, in relation to a criminalcase on the assassination attempt of Mr. Jeidoh Duni, MBOSCUDAPara Legal Officer, on July 1, 2012. Those acts of harassment have increasedafter MBOSCUDA and its members submitted a report in early May 2013 in theframework of the United Nations Human Rights Council Universal PeriodicReview (UPR) of Cameroon in Geneva, outlining the various obstaclesfaced by the Mbororo community.

Furthermore,in addition to judicial harassment, denials of justice and unjustifiable delaysin judicial procedures continue to be a frequent way of targeting human rightsdefenders. For instance, in the DRC, nine members of the Association for the Advocacy of the Interests of the City ofBandundu (Association pour la défense desintérêts de la ville de Bandundu - ADIVB) remain currently detained inBandundu prison after being sentenced in April 2013 for "contempt of thepublic authority", for calling upon the population to take part in apeaceful demonstration to protest against the raise of the prices ofelectricity and water. On August 26, 2013, the lawyersof the nine defenders filed a bail request before the Supreme Court in Kinshasabut, as of today, the decision of the Court has still not been made public, incontradiction with Congolese law.

3. Obstacles to freedom of association inAfrican countries

Sincethe last session of the ACHPR, the Observatory has also continued to recordobstacles to freedom of association, as for instance in Angola, Egyptand Rwanda.

In Angola, the work ofhuman rights NGOs is faced with structural impediments. The NGO registrationprocess remains complex, costly and opaque and the NGO sector is crippled by alack of human resources and financial sustainability.

TheObservatory is also particularly concerned by alarming restrictions andcriminalisation of civil society work in Egypt. We were particularly dismayedby thesentence issued by North Cairo Criminal Court on June 4, 2013, condemning 43Egyptians and foreign staff members of five foreign civil society organisationsto one to five years in prison for “managing unlicensed branches” of theirorganisations, “conducting research, political training, surveys, and workshopswithout licenses”, “training political parties and groups” and “illegallyreceiving foreign funding”. The court also ordered the confiscation of funds and theclosure of Egypt-based branches of Freedom House, the International RepublicanInstitute, the National Democratic Institute, the International Centre forJournalists (ICFJ), and Konrad Adenauer Foundation. Thesentencing came at a time when a draft for a new Law on Associationswas being discussed before the Shura Council, aiming to impose strict controlover NGOs establishment, funding, daily activities, internal decisions andfunctioning.

In Rwanda,the board of the Rwandan League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights(Ligue rwandaise pour la promotionet la défense des droits humains - LIPRODHOR), one of the fewindependent human rights organisations in the country, was ousted on July 21,2013 by a small number of members, and replacedby people believed to be favorable to the Government. Afew days later, the Rwanda Governance Board (the public body in charge ofthe registration of associations) expeditiously recognised the new board. Thistakeover of an independent NGO took place following the decisionof LIPRODHOR to withdraw from a Rwandan umbrella body for human rightsorganisations. On July 24, bank accounts of LIPRODHOR were frozen andthe police canceled a training workshop organised by LIPRODHOR on how to submitevidence to the UN UPR. Reportedly, the police would also have threatenedLIPRODHOR staff with imprisonment if they did not cooperate with the new board.

Recommendations:

In view ofthe above-mentioned elements, the Observatory reminds States Parties of theirobligation to comply with all the provisions of the African Charter, inparticular those relating to the protection of human rights defenders.Therefore, the Observatory calls upon the ACHPR to request all States to:

• Implement all the provisions of the 1998 United Nations (UN) Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, especially by guarantying in all circumstances their physical and psychological integrity and their capacity to operate in an enabling environment;

• Release all defenders who are detained for merely exercising their right to fundamental freedoms, in particular freedoms of expression, peaceful assembly and association;

• Put an end to all acts of harassment - including at the judicial level - against human rights defenders;

• Order an immediate, thorough, transparent investigation into allegations of violations of defenders’ rights, in order to identify all those responsible, bring them before an independent tribunal, and apply them the sanctions provided by the law;

• Refrain from adopting any provisions that do not comply with international and African standards with respect to the exercise of the right to freedoms of expression, peaceful assembly and association, and abrogate or revise any such provisions that may be in force;

• Send a standing invitation to the UN and ACHPR’s Special Rapporteurs on Human Rights Defenders and facilitate their visits.

TheObservatory also calls upon the ACHPR to:

• Adopt the Guidelines on the rights to freedom of association and peaceful assembly prepared by the Study Group on Freedom of Association in Africa;

• Adopt a resolution on the fundamental right to freedom of association, including the right of NGOs to access funding.

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Banjul,October 22 - November 5, 2013