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| Ms. Souhayr Belhasse, FIDH President |
The President of the International Federation ofHuman Rights, FIDH, Ms. Souhayr Belhassen on Saturday lament the pitiable pace
at which governments are ratifying the African Charter on Democracy, Elections
and Governance.
Only 15 countries ratified the Charter which was
adopted by the 8th Ordinary Session of the African Union Assembly in
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in January 2007.
Ms. Belhassen was presenting a paper on an overview
of the situation of human rights and democracy in Africa at the opening of the NGOsForum (April 14-16, 2012), preceding the 51st Ordinary Session of
the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights, ACHPR in Banjul.
Of recent, elections in Africa become a breeding
ground for conflicts and wide spread violations of human rights, as have been
witnessed in Guinea, Ivory Coast, and Nigeria.
Per country violations
“The
Democratic Republic of Congo, DRC, missed the opportunity to embrace democracy
when it denied local citizens from exercising their right to elect a leader,”
Ms. Belhassen said, citing political repressions during the last presidential
election in that country.
Highlighting human rights violations in African Arab
countries, she said Tunisians, Egyptians and Libyans still have a long
way to reaping the benefits of deposing the dictatorial regimes of Ben Ali,
Hosni Mubarak and Mummar Gaddafi. This is because repressions of civil protests
are still extant in these countries, she said.
In Sudan,
she said the African Union, AU, should urge the Sudan army and the forces of
the Sudan Liberation Movement to immediately stop the violence and the human
rights violations in that part of Africa.
“It’s business and has been like business as usual
in Darfur,” she said of a region beleaguered by renewed fighting, displacements
and unacceptable human rights violations.
She laments that all the disregard for peoples’ rights
are happening when Sudan president, Omar Al Bashir and others indicted by the
international criminal court (ICC) continue to walk freely on the streets.
The AU general assembly, who believes the ICC, is
out to “witch-hunt” African leaders decided to defy the court’s international
arrest warrant against Al Bashir. That was the status quo for Gaddafi prior to
his killing.
Angolans,
inspired by the Arab spring, as the demonstrations are fondly called, also
protested against poverty and a dictatorial regime that has been there for 30
years, explains Ms. Belhassen. She added.
“What they get is harassments,
arrests, detention, torture and killings which are unacceptable.”
Commenting on the recent rebellion by the military
in Mali which resulted in the ousting of President Amadu Toumani Tore,
she commend the sub-regional bloc, ECOWAS, for efforts it has taken to restore
constitutional democracy in that country.
She said of recent, Mali turned into a country where
killings, arrests, and rape have forced an estimated 90, 000 people to be
displaced.
In Nigeria,
where bombings by the Boko Haram sect claims many lives, Ms. Belhassen notes
that the conflict is now taking a religious dimension.
While calling for justice for the victims of Chad,
she stressed that former president Hissene Habre should be held responsible for
the crimes he allegedly committed. The FIDH president exhort the newly elected
President of Senegal, Makey Sall to ensure Habre is tried.
Habre has been living in exile in Senegal since
1992, the year a truth commission report in Chad said he presided over up to
40,000 political and ethnic-related murders.
In her long presentation, she also rubbishes
legislations by African governments who criminalize homosexuality. “These
legislations are baseless,” she said, while urging those countries to adopt
social reforms.
Her tell off came in time with the arrest, charge
and detention of 17 Gambians on Tuesday alleged to have been involved in acts
of homosexuality.
Honoured Floribert
Ms. Souhayr Belhassen concluded by honoring
Floribert Chebeya, a DRC human rights defender murdered in that country in
2010. On whose murder a film entitled “The Chebeya Affair: A State
Crime?” was screened at the Forum.
The Film by the Observatory for the Protection ofHuman Rights Defenders, a formation of FIDH and the World Organisation
Against Torture, OMCT, retraces the steps of Chebeya, an internationally renown
human rights activist.
“Over a period of 8 months, Thierry Michel filmed
the extraordinary trial where military officers judged chiefs of police,” the
Observatory explains of the political-tragicomedy as the “chronicle of an
exceptional trial and fascinating political thriller.”
Written by Modou S. Joof
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