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The Human Rights Committee examined the First Report of Djibouti on the 16th and 17th of October 2013. The Secretary-General of the Ministry of Justice of Djibouti headed the State delegation and the President of the Commission of Human Rights was also present. The Human Rights Committee was, however, disappointed that no NGOs from the State party were present.
Despite the positive steps taken by Djibouti such as the creation of the National Commission of Human Rights (CNDH) and legislative provisions that protect human rights and punish abuses, a number of Committee members also expressed their dismay at the lack of information provided by the State party.
Overall, the responses provided by the delegation of Djibouti were not of a high standard; they avoided responding to many of the questions posed by the Human Rights Committee members by repeatedly questioning the legitimacy of the Committee’s information and alleging that the it represented mere figments of the imagination of the opposition. The Committee members responded by stating that the session ‘is not a place to accuse Committee Members and that rather than attacking the sources, the delegation of Djibouti should give impartial responses.’
One of the main concerns of the Committee were the cases of torture and arrests of anti-government protesters and trade union leaders. The President of CNDH responded to this concern by stating that the political context in Djibouti has been exacerbated since the 2013 elections. The CNDH has accepted that ‘there may have been errors’ but does not believe there was torture. Furthermore, the head of the delegation stated that ‘most trade union leaders are people who have political affiliations with political parties and they are not impartial in their assessment’ and that the political parties that contested the election results, were ‘disturbing the public order as they were protesting in the streets’.
The Concluding Observations selected for the follow-up procedure, under which the State should provide information on the implementation of the Committee’s recommendations within one year, are: paragraph 10 on domestic violence and marital rape; paragraph 11 on torture; and paragraph 12 on the freedoms of expression, association and assembly.
The next periodic report should be submitted by the 1st of November 2017.
The complete video of the review (in French) is available from: http://www.treatybodywebcast.org/hrctte-109-session-djibouti
