Item 11 (d)
Civil and political rights - Independence of the
judiciary, administration of justice, impunity
Oral
statement by the Transnational Radical Party, a
non-governmental organisation in general consultative
status.
Delivered by Chiara Steindler
Geneva, 9 April 1999
Madam Chairperson,
our organisation
continues to be concerned about the constant and
systematic violation of civil and political rights in
Tunisia, where the modalities of the repression have
acquired very insidious forms, whose existence the
government vigorously denies. These violations
consist of persisting arbitrary detentions, extended
terms of police surveillance, serious limitations to
the freedom of movement (confiscation of passports
and interdiction of leaving the territory). These
practices are added to the systematic closure of the
social and political life, the constant supervision
of democratic opposition and the marginalisation of
those rare associations that remain out of the
control of the government and of the ruling RCD Party
(For example: the Tunisian League for Human Rights,
the Tunisian Association of Democratic Women, the
Association of Young Lawyers, the Tunisian Section of
Amnesty International and the General Union of the
Students of Tunisia).
Harassed and daily
exposed to administrative and police offences, the
last parts of autonomous associations and their
leaders are deliberately ignored by the press and
media that are totally loyal to the Government. In
this framework, the Home Affairs Minister has
declared his unwillingness to legally acknowledge the
National Council for Freedoms created by 30 Tunisian
democratic personalities. This denial confirms the
policy of systematic closure practiced by the
Tunisian Government and its will to keep the civil
and political life under his direct control. Besides,
this measure gives a clear example of the restrictive
nature of the legislation concerning the
associations, whose arbitrary and anti-constitutional
nature is backed by an abusive administrative
practice.
Thus, we are
witnessing a hiatus between on one side the official
position of the Tunisian Government on the
international stage, with its concern for the
principles of human rights and the respect for the
international judicial instruments, and on the other
side the practices and the well known methods of one
dominating and intolerant party. All the initiatives
of the democratic opposition exceding the tiny space
that the government allows for propaganda are exposed
to harassment and heavy ostracism. The case of the
President of the Social Democratic Movement, Mr.
Mohammed MOADDA, deprived of his fundamental civil
and political rights, as well as the case of the
Vice-President of the M.D.S., Mr. Khemais Chammari,
obliged to an exile that does not even spare him from
inadmissible harassment, illustrate the difficulties
that the democratic opponents have to face.
Difficulties that for the more radical members often
mean an even tougher repression, when they are forced
to choose among prison, exile or clandestinity.
But one of the most
worrying question in the present situation of Tunisia
is a particular use of justice aimed at preserving
the political monopoly of the governmental party and
at frightening the population. All the international
NGOs estimate that justice in Tunisia is totally
submissive to the executive and that the right to a
fair trial, solemnly proclaimed in the Covenants, is
by no means respected in the country. For this
reason, during the last 2 years, a number of
international judicial observing missions have all
came to the same conclusion: lack of independence of
judiciary in the procedures against opponents,
trade-unionists and associative animators. (Since
over 5 years the Article 307 bis of the Criminal Code
allows to charge Tunisian citizens who had
participated abroad to activities that the Tunisian
authorities consider as illicit, despite the fact
that such activities are not considered illicit under
the legislation of the country where they have taken
place).
This non-respect of
the right to a fair trial and this repressive
legislation a la carte (laws on passports, mail code,
etc ...) are often justified by the Tunisian
authorities by the risks of the islamic danger. The
facts prove that this argumentation is not acceptable
since, during the last 30 months, 4 people out of 5
that have been subjected to a judicial procedure for
their opinions or their activities are known for
their democratic and modernist commitment.
Nobody doubts, Madam
Chairperson, that the Tunisian authorities will
vividly react to those reports, that are nevertheless
irrefutable, in the same virulent way they have
reacted to the equally irrefutable criticisms,
concerning the use of torture. After the UN Committee
Against Torture has clearly pronounced itself on this
issue last November the 20th, the Tunisian
authorities can no longer deny the torture and the
cruel and degrading treatment inflicted, according to
the Committee, by the security and police forces and
that these practices have in some cases resulted into
deaths.
Madam Chairperson, I
would like to conclude this speech with a glance at
the situation of the human rights defenders. Those
that still live in Tunisia and those that live abroad
too, continue to be targeted by a Government that
seems to give no importance to the Declaration on the
Protection of Human Rights Defenders, adopted last
December by the UNGA. These defenders and their
families unjustly pay the price of this non-respect,
by the Tunisian authorities, of the basic human
rights and of democracy. I would like to draw your
attention in particular to the cases of Ms. RADHIA
NASRAOUI, one of the most relevant figures of the
movement for the defense of the victims of repression
and torture. Member of the Council of the Tunisian
Bar of Lawyers and of the Tunisian League of Human
Rights, Ms. NASRAOUI was one year ago accused of 11
charges incredible in the content as serious in the
consequences. Mr. Khemais KSILA, on whose situation I
will conclude my intervention, continues to serve
since one year and a half the sentence to 3 years of
inprisonment pronounced against him on 11 February,
1998. This Vice-President of the Tunisian League of
Human Rights has been condemned because of a press
release he wrote about the situation of human rights
in Tunisia and about the harassment that he and his
family were suffering. It is a clear offense on the
freedom of opinion; the resolution adopted last
August by the Sub-Commission clearly confirms that M.
Ksilla has been arrested and condemned in his
capacity of human rights defender. Cited as the
second from 10 defenders listed in the resolution,
Mr. Ksilla must imperatively be freed and we are
convinced that, according to the resolution of the
Sub-Commission, Madam Robinson, the UN High
Commissioner for Human Rights, has taken his case
into consideration, and that her careful interest as
well as the international solidarity, will oblige the
Tunisian authorities to put an end to the denial of
justice that has lasted too long.
Thank you, Madam
Chaiperson.
