UN Commission on Human Rights

Fifty-fifth session

Provisional agenda 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.

Geneva, 9 April 1999

Delivered by Chiara Steindler

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 clande

stinity.

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.