11/06/09 (B502) LDDH : diffusion d’informations sur l’application (la non-application ?) par Djibouti des recommandations du Conseil pour les Droits de l’Homme et d’autre part sur les exécutions sommaires de journalistes en Somalie (En Français et en Anglais)
 Le Président |
DIFFUSION D’INFORMATION DU 11 JUIN 2009 et sur les exécutions sommaires |
La Ligue Djiboutienne des Droits Humains (LDDH) diffuse :
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un Appel du Président du Réseau des Défenseurs des Droits de l’Homme de l’Afrique de l’Est et la Corne d’Afrique au Gouvernement Djiboutien pour qu’il mette en application ses engagements pris lors de « Universal Periodic Review Report on Djibouti », qui s’était déroulé en février dernier, notamment en garantissant la liberté de la Presse, actuellement totalement endiguée et de stopper l’étranglement des libertés syndicales.
En effet, la situation sociopolitique est la plus lamentable avec celle en l’Erythrée dans toute la région voir même par comparaison aux pays de la Comessa.
Faut-il rappeler qu’au Zimbabwe, que :
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l’Opposition est présente au pouvoir, que
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l’Assemblée Nationale regorge d’Opposants au régime,
– les Syndicats libres sont très puissants, que
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la Presse libre dénonce régulièrement la corruption et les dérives gouvernementales,
Même l’Ethiopie (connue pour ses crimes de génocide et crimes de guerre à l’égard des populations de la République de Somalie) a une Assemblée Nationale avec une très forte représentation de l’Opposition Ethiopienne qui contrôle aussi un grand nombre d’Assemblées Régionales.
Oui, Djibouti est le seul pays où la Presse Non gouvernementale est INEXISTANTE ;
Oui, Djibouti est l’un des pays à paralyser toutes les activités syndicales comme s’ils étaient des « Terroristes » ;
Oui Djibouti est encore le seul pays où l’Opposition n’a droit à aucun siège à l’Assemblée Nationale, compte tenu des rafles électorales avec le soutien et la complicité étrangère pour des raisons Géostratégiques.
C’est pour ces raisons que l’Opposition a appelé au boycott des élections depuis plusieurs années. Visiblement elle a été entendue, car le taux d’abstention n’a cessé d’augmenté au cours des différentes consultations pour atteiundre lors des dernières élections présidentielles (mascarades) un niveau supérieur à 85%, selon certains hauts Responsables qui préfèrent garder l’anonymat.
En dépit des électeurs venus des pays voisins qui n’ont pas pu endiguer ce raz de marée populaire.
NOEL ABDI Jean-Paul
_______________________ 1 – HRC
Human Rights Council
Eleventh Session
Item 6
Consideration of Universal Periodic Review Report on Djibouti
Read by Mr. Hassan Shire Sheikh, East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Network
9th June 2009
Mr. President,
On behalf of a network of over 65 human rights organizations from the East and Horn of Africa and the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies we would like to start off by commending the continued interaction and engagement by Djibouti and notably by the Djiboutian Ambassador in Geneva, His Excellency Mohamed-Siad Doualeh, with the Council. We hope that this engagement will serve as an example for other smaller Nations from throughout Africa to enhance their own involvement with this mechanism and actively commit to the promotion of human rights throughout the continent and beyond.
We wish to commend the Djiboutian government therefore but also encourage it to build on this engagement by enhancing its collaboration with all international human rights instruments and mechanisms; notably, by extending an open invitation to the Special Procedure Mandate holders, by ensuring timely treaty-body reporting and by publicly speaking out in favour of the International Criminal Court, to which it is State Party, at a time when its initial support for this, amongst other international mechanisms, is more vital than ever before.
We would also like to encourage the government of Djibouti to pay particular attention to many of the points raised both in the Stakeholders report in particular but also during the Interactive dialogue to the issue of freedom of expression and association in Djibouti.
Without a strong, free and vibrant civil society and human rights movement current engagement with the international human rights mechanisms will be limited.
Furthermore, current efforts by the government to establish a national human rights framework, which have been praised by many States during the Interactive Dialogue, will be hampered. Human rights defenders, whether activists or journalists amongst others, are a key component to the establishment of a sustainable and effective national human rights framework.
We therefore call on the government of Djibouti to respect and promote the rights of human rights defenders, notably by bringing an immediate end to the continued harassment of human rights activists, notably the President of the Ligue Djiboutienne des Droits de l’Homme, to create an enabling environment for the independent media by repealing the current press law and passing new legislation, which eliminates criminal sanctions for press offences amongst other provisions, and guarantees freedom of the media as stipulated in the numerous regional and international treaties that have been ratified by the Djiboutian government; and finally, we call on the Djiboutian authorities to refrain from the harassment, arbitrarily arrest and detention of trade unionists.
We hope that the Djiboutian government will seize the UPR as an opportunity to enhance its collaboration with civil society, notably by allowing the involvement of civil society in the follow-up to the review, to expand the space available to free and independent activism, and to allow civil society to serve as a key force in what we hope will be further and stronger collaboration by the government with the international and regional human rights system.
Thank you for your attention.
___________________________ 2 – EHAHRD
EAST AND HORN OF AFRICA HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS NETWORK
Statement 10th June 2009
EHAHRD-Net Index: SOM 016/005/2009
EHAHRDP: Protection of journalists in Somalia must be prioritised as another prominent journalist is killed
The East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Project (EHAHRDP) condemns the targeted killing of Mukhtar Mohamed Hirabe, Director of Radio Shabelle- one of Somalia’s leading independent radio stations, on Sunday 7th June in Bakara Market, Mogadishu, by two gunmen, and calls on all actors involved in the conflict to offer human rights defenders, and most particularly journalists, the protection which they require to carry out their vital work.
Somalia is at present one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists. Mr Hirabe is the fifth journalist to be killed in 2009 alone in Somalia and the third victim of a targeted killing this year. He had in fact been severely wounded in February 2009 in the very same market, currently under the control of the Al-Shabab militias, in an attack which had resulted in the death of another key journalist, Mr Tahlil Ahmed, who was the Director of Radio HornAfrik, another of the country’s key independent radio stations.
Baabul Nor Mohamed, a Somali Journalist currently in exile, described to EHAHRDP how The killing of such a well respected journalist, someone always willing to give a voice to the most marginalised groups in Somalia, will leave a void in the country.
In the attack which cost Mr Hirabe his life, another journalist of Shabelle Radio, Ahmed Omar Hashi Tajir’, was also shot at by the gunmen and severely wounded. Mr Hashi is currently receiving treatment in Mogadishu but has informed EHAHRDP that he has being receiving threatening calls warning him that next time he would not escape alive.
EHAHRDP seeks to offer its deepest condolences to the family and friends of Mr Hirabe whilst calling on all key actors involved in the conflict to bring an immediate end to the continued targeting of defenders and on key actors to offer them the protection which they require.
First and foremost, all those involved in the conflict must immediately end their attacks on journalists. Secondly, the government as well as the international community, notably the United Nations Office of the High Commission for Human Rights, must establish an independent and impartial inquiry into the killing of Mr Hirabe, amongst others, and ensure that those responsible are held to account says Mr Hassan Shire Sheikh, Executive Director of EHAHRDP. Such measures aimed at tackling the well entrenched culture of impunity in Somalia will be crucial to bringing an end to decades of violence and lawlessness.
For more information please contact
Ms Laetitia Bader, Human Rights Officer
at EHAHRDP on +256 775 141 756/
advocacy@defenddefenders.org