Nobel Peace Prize Winner supports Tunisian human rights defenders

Hunger striker - Samir Dilou

17 November 2005 A press conference, on 16 November attended by Nobel Peace Prize winner, Shirin Ebadi, at the Tunis headquarters of the Tunisian League for Human Rights (LTDH), in effect, became the first unofficial meeting of the Citizens Summit on Information Technology (CSIS) The Tunisian government has systematically blocked the alternative summit’s preparatory meetings and planned workshops and events in flagrant breach of the right to freedom of expression and association. In doing so, the Tunisian Government has demonstrated contempt for the Geneva Principles* and for their obligations under the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders and international human rights law.

Leading representatives of International and Tunisian Civil Society committed themselves to continuing the struggle for the basic rights to freedom of expression and association in Tunisia in front of the audience of over 200 journalists, diplomats and NGO members. The Mayor of Geneva, echoing the statements of the President of Switzerland’s comment at the official World Summit, said that rights freedom of expression and assembly were universal and not the domain of one culture

Front Line Deputy Director Andrew Anderson who was present at the press conference said: “International support for human rights defenders in Tunisia will intensify following the Summit as a result of the heavy handed tactics of the Tunisian authorities.”

The following day, 17 November, Ms. Ebadi and over 50 representatives of civil society and the media visited the seven Tunisian human rights defenders and opposition leaders who have been on hunger strike since the 18th of October. The men are demanding that the Tunisian government respects the basic human rights of freedom of expression and assembly. Human Rights Defenders from Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Western Sahara and Yemen, who were part of the Front Line delegation in Tunisia, participated in the visit and committed themselves to ongoing solidarity with their Tunisian colleagues. Copies of the hunger strikers logo and slogan, “hungry but undefeated” were later distributed at the official UN conference site.

UN General secretary Kofi Annan had earlier sent a statement to the CSIS conference expressing concern for the health of the hunger strikers.

International NGOs and civil society organisations are participating in the UN sponsored World Summit on Information Technology (WSIS) but very few Tunisian groups are, due to their lack of legal status in Tunisia. The CSIS was intended to be a parallel event held by International NGOs with the participation of independent Tunisian civil society, in order to debate the same issues being discussed at the WSIS conference.

The hosts of the alternative conference created a website and rented a venue at a central Tunis hotel. The website is currently blocked to Tunisians and is only available from the WSIS media centre. On 10 November the hotel informed the CSIS hosts that the venue was no longer available. A sudden need for repair work was the reason given.

On 14 November, the Tunisian authorities prevented foreign and Tunisian associations, including Front Line, from holding a preparatory meeting of the CSIS. Over fifty policemen, who refused to identify themselves, prevented NGO members from entering the German Cultural Centre in Tunis. They shoved the participants and pushed one to the ground. A Belgian television crew, which was attempting to film the events, had their video confiscated.

Deputy Director of Front Line, Andrew Anderson, who was one of the International NGO representatives present, said:” It is outrageous that the Tunisian authorities are using these bullying tactics at a world summit. They are showing a visible contempt for freedom of association and assembly”.

Front Line, together with other NGOs, cancelled planned events in the WSIS conference centre that should have been held on Tuesday 15 November, as a protest against the activities of the Tunisian authorities and the ongoing harassment of Tunisian human rights defenders.

These latest actions are part of an ongoing pattern of attacks on human rights defenders in Tunisia as the Government seeks to silence any criticism of their deplorable record on human rights. Human rights organizations operate under heavy restrictions, and many are denied legal recognition by the authorities. Human rights defenders are regularly harassed and subjected to invasive surveillance and they are often forcibly dispersed from their peaceful gatherings. by plainclothes police.

President Zine el-Abidene Ben Ali has continually expressed his commitment to the development of the Internet while according to the LTDH, the telecommunications ministry monitors publinets (internet cafes) and people exploring the net have been harassed, arrested and sentenced to heavy prison terms following unfair trials.

Mohammed Abbou, a prominent human rights lawyer and a member of the National Committee for Liberties in Tunisia was arrested in March for publishing statements that were “likely to disturb public order” and for “defaming the judicial process” On 28 April he was sentenced to three and a half years in prison and the decision was upheld in June at his appeal. The statements, which appeared in an article on the website Tunisnews.net in April 2004, compared the torture and ill treatment suffered by Tunisian prisoners to that suffered by prisoners in Abu Ghraib, Iraq. Many observers believe that Mr Abbou was in fact being punished for another article posted just days before his arrest on Tunisnews.net, in which he criticised a government decision to invite the Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to attend the WSIS.

Tunisian and international human rights organisations have condemned the trial of Mr Abbou as unfair and arbitrary. Lawyers, journalists, diplomats and Mr. Abbou’s wife were expelled from the courtroom leaving only legal observers from international NGO’s present.

Mary Lawlor, Director of Front Line said: "President Zine el-Abidene Ben Ali approved the final statement of the last WSIS that stipulates that freedom of expression is an ‘essential foundation’ of the information society. It should be inconceivable that an International Summit on the Information Society is being held in a country that shows no respect for freedom of expression. Mohammed Abbou should be released immediately and unconditionally”.

On Saturday 12, Sunday 13 and Monday 14 November. Front Line conducted a training workshop in Tunis for human rights defenders from the Middle East and North Africa on electronic communications and security. The organization also launched the NGO-in-a-Box security edition that supports the training and which will be distributed for free to human rights defenders around the world. The package of free software and training materials has been developed in Arabic, French, Spanish, Russian and English and is designed to provide practical support to human rights defenders.

• 1. "We, the representatives of the peoples of the world, assembled in Geneva from 10-12 December 2003 for the first phase of the World Summit on the Information Society, declare our common desire and commitment to build a people-centred, inclusive and development-oriented Information Society, where everyone can create, access, utilize and share information and knowledge, enabling individuals, communities and peoples to achieve their full potential in promoting their sustainable development and improving their quality of life, premised on the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations and respecting fully and upholding the Universal Declaration of Human Rights."