Tunisia
15.12.00
Urgent Interventions
Tunisia: Arbitrary arrest/ill-treatment
URGENT APPEAL - THE OBSERVATORY
TUN 004/0012/OBS 129
Arbitrary arrest/ill-treatment
TUNISIA
15th December 2000
The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of the FIDH and the OMCT, requests your urgent intervention in the following situation in Tunisia.
Brief description of the facts:
The Observatory was informed that Mr. Omar Mestiri, General Secretary of the Conseil National pour les Libertés en Tunisie, (CNLT), was arrested on the morning of 15th December 2000, in Tunis.
According to the information received, Mr. Mestiri was arrested while making his way to the Health Ministry, within a delegation which was supposed to deliver a petition with 500 signatures protesting the dismissal of Dr. Marzouki, the spokesman of the CNLT, wrongly dismissed from his function as a professor at the Faculty of Medicine in Sousse.
As the delegation approached the Ministry, Mr. Omar Mestiri, Mr. Mohammed Bechri, the co-ordinator of the National Comittee of Dr. Moncef Marzouki's defence, and Mrs. Sihen Bensedrine, a member of the CNLT, were set on by policemen and violently ill-treated. Mr. Mestiri, in particular was thrown to the ground and beaten up. Afterwards he was taken away in a police car to an unknown location of detention.
The Observatory emphasises that these facts took place in a context of harsh repression against Tunisian Human Rights Defenders. Actually the Observatory recalls that this arrest happened just before the trials of Dr. Marzouki and Mister Najib Hosni, a barrister and Human Rights Defender. The Observatory also recalls that the Ligue Tunisienne des droits de l’Homme was closed on 7th December 2000 and that the members of its board of directors are to be prosecuted on 25th December. Furthermore, on 10th December (day of the 52nd anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights) several members of the Tunisian civil society, who meant to attend the celebration of the Hachemi Ayari Prize for 2000, awarded to the CNLT, met with police roadblocks which prevented them from reaching the ceremony.
Action requested:
Please write to the Tunisian authorities urging them to:
i. guarantee the physical and psychological integrity of Mr. Mestiri and order his immediate release, in light of the arbitrary nature of his arrest, and identify the location of his detention;
ii. abide by the provisions of the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on December 9th 1998 on "the Rights and Responsibility of Individuals, Groups and Organs of Society to promote and Protect Universally Recognised Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms", and more particularly by the article 1 which provides that "Everyone has the right, individually and in association with others, to promote and to strive for the protection and realisation of human rights and fundamental freedoms at the national and international levels";
iii. more generally to abide by the provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the international agreement concerning civil and political rights as well as the other international and regional covenants related to Human Rights which had been ratified by Tunisia
Addresses :
-Mr. Ziné El Abidine BEN ALI, President of the Tunisian Republic. Fax : + 216 1 742 513/216 1 744 721/216 1 731 009
-M Ali Chaouch, Home Secretary, Avenue Habib Bourguiba, Tunis, Tunisia. Fax : + 216 1 568 106/567 070
-Tunisian embassies in your own country
Geneva-Paris, 15th December 2000
Kindly inform us of any action undertaken quoting the code number of this appeal in your reply.
The Observatory, a joint FIDH and OMCT venture, is dedicated to the protection of Human Rights Defenders and aims to offer them concrete support in their time of need.
The observatory was the winner of the 1998 Human Rights Prize of the French Republic.
To contact the Observatory, call the emergency line: Fax : +33 (0) 1 43 55 83 92
Tel FIDH : 33 (0) 1 43 55 23 11 OMCT : + 4122 809 49 39
E-mail : observatoire@iprolink.ch
TUN 004/0012/OBS 129
Arbitrary arrest/ill-treatment
TUNISIA
15th December 2000
The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of the FIDH and the OMCT, requests your urgent intervention in the following situation in Tunisia.
Brief description of the facts:
The Observatory was informed that Mr. Omar Mestiri, General Secretary of the Conseil National pour les Libertés en Tunisie, (CNLT), was arrested on the morning of 15th December 2000, in Tunis.
According to the information received, Mr. Mestiri was arrested while making his way to the Health Ministry, within a delegation which was supposed to deliver a petition with 500 signatures protesting the dismissal of Dr. Marzouki, the spokesman of the CNLT, wrongly dismissed from his function as a professor at the Faculty of Medicine in Sousse.
As the delegation approached the Ministry, Mr. Omar Mestiri, Mr. Mohammed Bechri, the co-ordinator of the National Comittee of Dr. Moncef Marzouki's defence, and Mrs. Sihen Bensedrine, a member of the CNLT, were set on by policemen and violently ill-treated. Mr. Mestiri, in particular was thrown to the ground and beaten up. Afterwards he was taken away in a police car to an unknown location of detention.
The Observatory emphasises that these facts took place in a context of harsh repression against Tunisian Human Rights Defenders. Actually the Observatory recalls that this arrest happened just before the trials of Dr. Marzouki and Mister Najib Hosni, a barrister and Human Rights Defender. The Observatory also recalls that the Ligue Tunisienne des droits de l’Homme was closed on 7th December 2000 and that the members of its board of directors are to be prosecuted on 25th December. Furthermore, on 10th December (day of the 52nd anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights) several members of the Tunisian civil society, who meant to attend the celebration of the Hachemi Ayari Prize for 2000, awarded to the CNLT, met with police roadblocks which prevented them from reaching the ceremony.
Action requested:
Please write to the Tunisian authorities urging them to:
i. guarantee the physical and psychological integrity of Mr. Mestiri and order his immediate release, in light of the arbitrary nature of his arrest, and identify the location of his detention;
ii. abide by the provisions of the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on December 9th 1998 on "the Rights and Responsibility of Individuals, Groups and Organs of Society to promote and Protect Universally Recognised Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms", and more particularly by the article 1 which provides that "Everyone has the right, individually and in association with others, to promote and to strive for the protection and realisation of human rights and fundamental freedoms at the national and international levels";
iii. more generally to abide by the provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the international agreement concerning civil and political rights as well as the other international and regional covenants related to Human Rights which had been ratified by Tunisia
Addresses :
-Mr. Ziné El Abidine BEN ALI, President of the Tunisian Republic. Fax : + 216 1 742 513/216 1 744 721/216 1 731 009
-M Ali Chaouch, Home Secretary, Avenue Habib Bourguiba, Tunis, Tunisia. Fax : + 216 1 568 106/567 070
-Tunisian embassies in your own country
Geneva-Paris, 15th December 2000
Kindly inform us of any action undertaken quoting the code number of this appeal in your reply.
The Observatory, a joint FIDH and OMCT venture, is dedicated to the protection of Human Rights Defenders and aims to offer them concrete support in their time of need.
The observatory was the winner of the 1998 Human Rights Prize of the French Republic.
To contact the Observatory, call the emergency line: Fax : +33 (0) 1 43 55 83 92
Tel FIDH : 33 (0) 1 43 55 23 11 OMCT : + 4122 809 49 39
E-mail : observatoire@iprolink.ch