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ITEM 2 Paul Nsapu – Activity Report – Sub-Saharan Region of Africa

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ITEM 2 Paul Nsapu – Activity Report – Sub-Saharan Region of Africa ITEM 2 Paul Nsapu – Activity Report – Sub-Saharan Region of Africa For three years now, and as part of the priority objectives established by the Lisbon Congress, the Africa team has been developing numerous activities which it has adapted to national and international conditions, as well as to conditions specific to the African continent. It is necessary to emphasise a number of salient facts that have made it possible to advance the cause of human rights. For example: the cancellation of the debt of some of the poorest countries, increased economic development in certain other countries, the emergence of the African Union and other regional organisations, the establishment of the African Court of Human and Peoples’ Rights and the work of the International Criminal Court. In some countries there has been a democratic changeover of power, whereas others have abolished the death penalty and embarked on a reform of the judiciary, in accordance with their international obligations. Destabilising Conflicts and Crises In spite of these positive developments, the human rights situation in Africa has been significantly destabilised as a result of a concatenation of various events. I would first like to address two particularly disastrous contextual factors that have, over the last few years, undermined citizens’ most fundamental rights. At issue are continuing conflicts with their share of large-scale, systematic violations of human rights and international humanitarian law, as is the case in the DRC, the CAR, Darfur and Somalia. And similarly, democratic principles are again being violated in various ways. For example, constitutions have been tampered with to remove the limits to the number of presidential mandates, as in Nigeria, Uganda and Cameroon; there have been irregular and violent electoral processes and the establishment of ineffective union governments, as in Kenya and Zimbabwe; endlessly postponed elections, as in the Ivory Coast; coups d’état as in Mauritania, Guinea-Conakry, Guinea-Bissau, Nigeria and Madagascar and attempted coups d’état, as in Chad and the CAR, etc. These situations have given rise to large-scale violations of human rights and international humanitarian law, restrictions on fundamental liberties and a particularly precarious situation for human rights defenders who are the first to be challenged and, therefore, to be subjected to repression. FIDH has become strongly involved in these conflicts and crises by pursing three main lines of action: investigation, lobbying and the utilisation of judicial instruments on a national, regional and international level in order both to defend the rights of victims and take preventive measures. Thus, FIDH and its member organisations have gathered information and drafted investigation reports and position papers on the human rights situation in about twenty countries, including: the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the Central African Republic (CAR), Guinea-Conakry, Nigeria, Kenya, Sudan and Darfur, Guinea-Bissau, Chad, the Côte d’Ivoire, South Africa, Congo, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique and Botswana. The work carried out on documenting violations was followed by intensive lobbying, making it possible to achieve some of the following results at a national level: the exclusion of international crimes from the amnesty laws in the CAR, the establishment of a Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission in Togo, the establishment of national or international commissions to investigate the crimes perpetrated in Chad and Guinea-Conakry, the improvement of the living conditions for Zimbabwean immigrants in South Africa and the abolishment of the death penalty in Togo. 1 At the regional and international level, FIDH has relayed the input from its member organisations on the measures and strategies to be adopted with regard to conflicts and crises, and has, in particular, contributed to having Guinea, Nigeria and Mauritania suspended from the bodies of the African Union and the Organisation International de la Francophonie (OIF). FIDH has contributed to the adoption of a United Nations Security Council Resolution on the DRC, which echoes FIDH’s concern for the protection of civilians and defenders, and it has likewise contributed to the numerous resolutions and decisions adopted by the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights and by other AU bodies on Somalia, the DRC, Zimbabwe and Sudan, among other countries. Over the last few years, and in order to increase the effectiveness of its action, FIDH has been pursing a strategy of lobbying AU bodies to ensure that human rights are taken into account. The fight against impunity has been at the centre of our action, since FIDH believes that peace and security are impossible without justice. FIDH and its Legal Action Group (GAJ), in particular, have been pursuing their strategy of utilising universal jurisdiction to prosecute Rwandan perpetrators of genocide in France, the perpetrators of the Beach massacre in Congo Brazzaville and those responsible for the large scale intoxication of the population in the Probo Koala case. And in Senegal, FIDH, its Chadian and Senegalese member organisations and international partners are continuing with their relentless efforts to bring the ex- dictator Hissène Habré to trial. In addition, the GAJ has been acting to support national proceedings, as it intends to do in the very near future in Guinea-Conkary for the victims of the massacre of 28 September 2009. When the national judiciary failed to perform its role, FIDH fully availed itself of the possibilities offered by the International Criminal Court. Thus, we continued supporting the participation of Congolese victims before the ICC. As the prosecutor Louis Moreno Ocampo pointed out at the opening of the Forum, FIDH distinguished itself by putting the ICC spotlight on the forgotten conflict in the CAR. As a result, and following the launching of an investigation, FIDH made it possible to arrest Jean- Pierre Bemba for his alleged responsibility for numerous sexual crimes committed in this country. In addition, FIDH has been intensively lobbying the African Union, the African Commission for Human and Peoples’ Rights and the League of Arab States (LAS) to ensure that the ICC’s charges against Omar al-Bashir do not serve as a pretext for certain African countries to set the search for peace against the need for justice, and to deny victims their rights. FIDH has also sought to defend the right to truth and justice in Kenya by contributing, along with its member organisation, to the instigation of a Court investigation into post-electoral violence in 2008. Moreover, it gives me much satisfaction to point out that the mobilisation of NGOs and of FIDH and its leagues in particular has contributed to making the African Court of Human and Peoples’ Rights a reality which is fully functional at present. We hope that NGOs will fully understand this new instrument now at our disposal and will make extensive use of it. To this end, we have updated our practical guide on using the Court, which is now available. Other Destabilising Elements: Anti-terrorism/Economic Crisis FIDH has also taken action in relation to other situations which have prevented human rights in Africa from being respected. Thus, FIDH has supported its Mauritian league to ensure that the legitimate fight against terrorism is not conducted with disregard for the respect of fundamental rights. We have thus contributed to the Mauritian judiciary’s recognition of the fact that confessions obtained under torture cannot be considered as proof of guilt. 2 Moreover, we are currently developing similar actions in Kenya. Africa has been significantly affected by the World economic crisis, which has further galvanised the action we have undertaken to ensure that states and companies assume their responsibilities when it comes to respecting the economic and social rights of peoples and individuals. With this in mind, we have organised a trans-continental seminar bringing together member organisations, partners and experts in order to develop an action plan. We have also endeavoured to have these fundamental rights taken into consideration by regional and international bodies by providing concrete information and investigation reports, and by referring to specific cases in which economic and social rights were violated in the gold mines in Mali, and similar cases relating to workers’ conditions in Kenya. Denouncers Must be Protected These new situations make it even more dangerous to expose human rights violations. Attacks against defenders have proliferated and diversified. Some have died as a result of their combat. We have lost friends and militants: over a dozen journalists/defenders have been killed in Somalia and the DRC in the last two years. Kenyan defenders were killed in the post-electoral violence in 2008. And of course, I cannot fail to recall the memory of one of our close friends, someone who fought for many years with FIDH to ensure that human rights were respected in his country, the Central African Republic, and someone who was with us three years ago in Lisbon. Today, his seat remains unoccupied. I am referring to the lawyer Gougaye Wanfiyo who died in December 2008 in a car crash under circumstances which make one suspect that it may have been an assassination. The accident happened as Gougaye was returning from the north of the country where he had been taking statements from victims of large-scale and systematic sexual crimes committed in 2002. He was preparing to represent these victims before the ICC. His courage was only equalled by his kindness. We miss him. We want to pay tribute to him. African defenders have been subjected to arbitrary arrests and detention, to threats, judicial harassment, smear campaigns and attempts to destabilise them. Another major challenge for the region is the fact that numerous states are trying to control, subjugate or even destroy independent NGOs by adopting liberticidal laws, as is the case in Ethiopia and Sudan. Confronted with such repressive measures, the Observatory for the Protection of Defenders and the Africa Bureau have had to broaden their scope of action to deal with these situations more effectively.
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