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 Tunisian Government Should Immediately End Harassment of Human Rights Defenders (10/31/07)   HRF's Julia Fromholz analyzes the regime and the US government's relationship with it on the 20th anniversary of the coup (11/7/07) 
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Activists subject to travel restrictions for defending basic rights in Tunisia Alert Issued: October 31, 2007 Travel restrictions are commonly used by the Tunisian government to punish human rights defenders. The latest victims of this practice are human rights lawyer and former political prisoner Mohamed Abbou and veteran journalist and human rights advocate Kamel Labidi. On October 22, the Tunisian authorities prevented Mohamed Abbou form traveling to Cairo to attend and monitor the trial of Egyptian journalist Ibrahim Issa. Since July, the Tunisian government has imposed a de facto travel ban on Kamel Labidi by refusing to give him a new passport. Call on the Tunisian government to put an immediate end to its persistent harassment of the independent human rights community and lift all travel restrictions imposed on Mohamed Abbou, Kamel Labidi and other human rights defenders. Background: On October 22, 2007, the Tunisian border police at the Tunis-Carthage International Airport prevented human rights lawyer and activist Mohamed Abbou from boarding an international flight to Egypt. Mr. Abbou was about to travel to Cairo at the invitation of the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information to attend and observe the trial of Egyptian journalist Ibrahim Issa, editor in chief of the independent newspaper al-Dustur. Abbou was to represent the National Council for Liberties in Tunisia (CNLT), an independent Tunisian human rights NGO to which he belongs, at a hearing in Issa’s trial that took place on October 24, 2007. Mohamed Abbou is a former political prisoner whose imprisonment became emblematic of the repression long faced by the human rights movement in Tunisia. He was arrested on March 1, 2005 following the publication of two online articles in which he denounced the use of torture in Tunisia. After an unfair trial in April 2005, Mohamed Abbou was sentenced to three-and-a-half years’ imprisonment and detained at el-Kef, a town that is more than 100 miles (170 km) from his family home in Tunis. On July 24, 2007, following an international campaign to support him and intense pressure from the international community, Tunisian President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali ordered the release on parole of Mohamed Abbou. Mohamed Abbou has devoted his legal practice to defending, on a pro bono basis, those who are being persecuted for peacefully expressing their opinions. He was formerly the director of the Association of Young Lawyers of Tunisia and is also a member of the International Association for the Support of Political Prisoners (AISPP). The police officers who prevented Mr. Abbou from leaving Tunisia informed him that “his release on parole forbids him from leaving the country.” The Embassy of Tunisia in Washington D.C. told Human Rights First that “the implementation of Abbou’s parole does not allow him to travel abroad.” In response, Abbou told Human Rights First that there are no legal grounds for this travel ban and that nothing in his parole conditions prevents him from leaving Tunisia, adding that he can point to dozens of cases in which prisoners released on parole were able to travel abroad. It is the second time that the Tunisian authorities have prohibited Mohamed Abbou from traveling. On August 24, 2007, he was prevented from flying to London to be interviewed by the Pan-Arab television channel al-Jazeera for a program on freedom of expression and human rights. These restrictions on Mohamed Abbou’s rights to freedom of movement interfere with the performance of his peaceful human rights activities and appear designed to prevent him from exposing violations of human rights in Tunisia. The travel ban imposed on Mohamed Abbou coincides with the de facto refusal of the Tunisian authorities to deliver a new passport to veteran journalist and human rights advocate Kamel Labidi. On July 17, Mr. Labidi, who resides in the United States, applied to the Tunisian Embassy in Washington D.C. for a new passport after his old one was lost. A consular officer at the Embassy informed him then that the replacement of his lost passport will only take few days. However, more than three months have passed since Labidi submitted his application and the Tunisian authorities have not issued the new passport. Mr. Labidi contacted the Embassy several times to inquire about his passport and Embassy officials told him every time that they were awaiting approval from the Tunisian Ministry of Interior. Human Rights First contacted the Tunisian Embassy twice to express its concern about the delay in issuing a new passport to Kamel Labidi and was told by a diplomat at the chancery that the “delay is merely due to routine security checks that follow passport loss.” When asked how long it will take before Labidi’s passport is issued, the diplomat was unable to give a clear answer and simply said that “there were no reasons to be concerned.” “Compared with the short periods of time the Tunisian authorities normally take to replace lost passports and given the precedents, I have every reason to believe that the Tunisian authorities are withholding my new passport in retaliation for my commitment to freedom of expression and my cooperation with local and international human rights groups to protect Tunisians’ basic right to live in a democracy,” Kamel Labidi told Human Rights First. Indeed, in 1996, the Tunisian authorities confiscated Kamel Labidi’s passport for six months, without any explanation. In January of that year, security agents came to Labidi’s apartment on the eve of his departure to Yemen to take part in a UNESCO conference on freedom of expression in the Arab world and took away his passport. Kamel Labidi is a veteran journalist known for his writings on the human rights situation in Tunisia and the rest of the region and his calls for reform and democratization. In the mid 1990s he ran the Tunisia Section of Amnesty International. Between 2000 and 2001, he was Amnesty International Human Rights Education Coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa. He is currently the representative of the Committee to Protect Journalists in the Middle East and North Africa and a consultant for the Toronto-based International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX). Travel restrictions imposed on human rights defenders are commonly used by the Tunisian government to punish them for their commitment to human rights and hinder the activities of the independent human rights movement. Many HRDs have been subjected to international travel bans; either they have been prevented at the airport from boarding the plane or the authorities have confiscated or refused to renew their passports. Mokhtar Yahyaoui, a former judge and founder of the Tunisian Center for the Independence of Justice (CTIJ) has faced a travel ban for 6 years, since the authorities have refused to renew his passport. Human rights lawyer Mohammed Ennouri is also under a de facto travel ban as his passport has not been renewed for years. In September 2006, Judge Wassila Kaabi, a member of the executive broad of the Association of Tunisian Magistrates (AMT) who is known for her commitment to the independence of the judiciary, was prevented from attending the congress of the International Association of Judges in Budapest, Hungary when members of the security forces stopped her from boarding a plane at Tunis-Carthage airport. His Excellency Mr. Zine El Abidine Ben Ali Your Excellency, I am writing to express my deep concern about the travel restrictions imposed recently on human rights defenders Mohamed Abbou and Kamel Labidi. As you are aware, the Tunisian border police at the Tunis-Carthage International Airport prevented human rights lawyer and activist Mohamed Abbou from boarding an international flight to Egypt on October 22, 2007. Abbou was about to travel to Cairo at the invitation of the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information to attend and observe the trial of Egyptian journalist Ibrahim Issa. The travel ban imposed on Mohamed Abbou coincides with the de facto refusal of the Tunisian authorities to deliver a new passport to veteran journalist and human rights advocate Kamel Labidi. On July 17, Mr. Labidi, who resides in the United States, applied to the Tunisian Embassy in Washington D.C. for a new passport after his old one was lost. A consular officer at the Embassy informed him then that the replacement of his lost passport will only take few days. However, more than three months have passed since Mr. Labidi submitted his application and the Tunisian authorities have not issued the new passport. These restrictions on Mohamed Abbou’s and Kamel Labidi’s right to freedom of movement interfere with their peaceful, legitimate human rights activities. Your Excellency, the travel bans on the two men are serious violations of Tunisia's Constitution and its obligation under international law to respect freedom of movement. The Tunisian Constitution states in Article 10 that: “Every citizen has the right to move freely in the interior of the territory, to leave it, and to establish his domicile within the limits established by the law.” Article 22 (2) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, ratified by Tunisia in 1969, states that “everyone shall be free to leave any country, including his own.” The repressive practices used against the two human rights activists also constitute clear violations of the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders adopted by the U.N. General Assembly on December 9, 1998, in particular Article 12, which states that: “everyone has the right, individually and in association with others, to participate in peaceful activities against violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms.” and that “the State shall take all necessary measures to ensure the protection by the competent authorities of everyone, individually and in association with others, against any violence, threats, retaliation, de facto or de jure adverse discrimination, pressure or any other arbitrary action as a consequence of his or her legitimate exercise of the rights referred to in the present Declaration.” Your Excellency, I strongly urge you to intervene without delay to lift all travel restrictions imposed on human rights defenders Mohamed Abbou and Kamel Labidi and put an end to all forms of harassment targeting the independent Tunisian human rights movement. Thank you for your attention to these pressing matters. I will continue to monitor this situation closely. CC: His Excellency Mr. Bechir Tekkari
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Tunisian Government Should Immediately End Harassment of Human Rights Defenders 