Submitted by crinadmin on
[10 April 2008] - One of the first countries to be subject to Universal Periodic Review, the new examination of the human rights records of all UN members, Tunisia is accused of having dictated the questions asked by other members of the UN body. Carole Vann - « We were shocked to hear Japan praise Tunisia as a model of democracy. How can you talk of a democracy in a country where the President was elected with 96.4 per cent of the vote? We were also shocked to hear Indonesia praise the same government for its freedom of expression and its independent judiciary. It was like this that Tunisia has just been held to account by the human rights committee in New York! Antoine Madelin from the International Federation for the league of human rights can not find strong enough words during the press conference given in the afternoon to describe “the masquerade” which went on Tuesday morning at the Human Rights Council in Geneva. Third in line for universal periodic review, after Bahrain and Ecuador, Tunisia, had, according to several diplomatic sources, tried to « influence » the process. After a report delivered by the Tunisian Minister for Justice and Human Rights, Bechir Tekkari, member states were able to submit their questions and recommendations. “Most of the ambassadors were extremely obliging. We learnt that the Tunisian mission in Geneva had telephoned delegations to steer their remarks during the review. Several ambassadors explained to us that they didn’t want to make enemies as they were also going to be reviewed” says Antoine Madelin. Present at the press conference, the journalist and political opponent, Sihem ben Seddrin from the National Council for Freedom in Tunisia (an association banned in the country) came from New York where she had followed the sessions at the Human Rights Committee. “The debates and recommendations concerning Tunisia made over there by the Committee experts were just the opposite of what we heard in Geneva. I had the impression that they were not talking about the same country”. In reality the Human Rights Council is flailing under its new UPR mechanism: the States, obliged to assess each other, have an interest in toning down their remarks. Moreover, as a western diplomat clarifies, the rules of the game are dictated by countries bilateral relations. France has been extremely lenient towards Tunisia, contenting itself with mentioning child rights and carefully avoiding questions which could offend such as torture, censorship of the press and internet and other violations. « But apart from this shocking behaviour, we have found that countries, such as South Korea, Mexico, Ghana, Angola and many western and Latin American delegations have been incredibly rigorous in asking real questions » adds Antoine Madelin. Romania used the recommendations from the Committee against Torture to ask if the Tunisian government envisaged revising its penal code to ensure that torture was no longer used in interrogations. In the light of the first faltering steps of this new mechanism, can it avoid the trap of being too lenient? According to human rights defenders, all hope is not lost. For this to happen the States must base their recommendations on those of UN experts. Further information pdf: http://www.humanrights-geneva.info/The-Tunisian-art-of-avoiding,2990