Resolution on Djibouti

The Forum on the participation of NGOs to the 39th Ordinary Session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights;

Recalling the repeated violations since 1995 of the rights of human rights defenders and in particular those of trade unionists who defend economic and social rights in Djibouti including the detentions and arbitrary arrests, the wrongful dismissals, the intimidations, the harassment by the Police and the Judiciary, the obstacles to freedoms of Association and of Expression;

Considering the massive arrests of September 2005 of about 156 demonstrators and 12 Trade Union leaders aimed at suppressing the general strike action by the staff of the Port of Djibouti and restricting, de facto, the freedom to strike and to demonstrate;

Considering that following the demonstrations of September 2005, 36 individuals who were arrested, including the Trade Union leaders, were wrongfully dismissed, and that 12 representatives of the Union of Port Workers (UPW) had been condemned, due to their unionist activities, to 1 and 2 months suspended imprisonment at the end of an illegal proceedings;

Considering the arbitrary arrest of the Chairperson of the Djibouti Human Rights League (DHRL) on the 14th December 2005, the arrest and detention of four leaders of the central independent Trade Union, the Djiboutian Workers Union (UDW) in early 2006 and the legal proceedings brought against them with the false charge of “intelligence with a foreign power”;

Profoundly deploring the fact that, in spite the recommendations of the ILO, the new Labour Code which was promulgated in January 2006 contains provisions which are liberticidal for the rights of Djiboutian workers, in particular, Article 215 which places the existence and recognition of Trade Unions under the exclusive control of the Executive Powers;

Hereby requests the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights to adopt a Resolution:

Condemning the violations of the provisions of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and requesting the national Authorities to strictly guarantee the rights of assembly, of expression and demonstration;

Programming a mission of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights to the Republic of Djibouti comprising notably of the Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders;

Furthermore requesting the ACHPR to request the Djiboutian Authorities:

– To respect the Declaration of the Human Rights Defenders adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on the 9th December 1998, and more particularly to urge the national Authorities to respect, under any circumstances, the physical and moral integrity of the Human Rights Defenders;
– To conform to the restrictive provisions of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, of the fundamental Conventions of the International Labour Organization (notably Convention 87) and the international instruments relative to the protection of human rights to which Djibouti is signatory;
– To conform to the recommendations and arbitration activities of the International Labour Office in the area of trade unionist freedom notably by modifying Article 215 of the Labour Code;
– To take all useful measures to guarantee the independence and effective exercise of the judicial system in accordance with Articles 6 and 7 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights;

Done in Banjul, 8th May 2006