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| Human Rights in the Mediterranean | Date: 17-06-2002 |
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Human Rights in the Mediterranean: Convening of a hundred human rights defenders at the 5th General Assembly of the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network (EMHRN). Around a hundred human rights defenders from the Euro-Mediterranean region met in Athens, 13-15 June 2002 for the EMHRN women’s rights seminar and 5th General Assembly. The participants expressed their deep concern about the absence of Mokhtar Yahiaoui, Tunisian judge, who deprived of his passport by the Tunisian authorities, was unable to leave the country. Also Iyad al-Alami and Hamdi Shaqqura from the Palestinian Center for Human Rights were unable to attend the General Assembly as they were unable to leave the Gaza strip after having waited 13 hours at the Rafah border crossing. The General Assembly (GA) expressed their support for Mr Zouhair Yahyaoui, who was arrested on 4 June, and risks up to five year imprisonment for diffusing information on the internet (via his site: www.TuneZine.com) as well as for Marwan Barghouti, still held in solitary confinement by the Israeli authorities and subject to harsh interrogation methods. Participants also expressed their deep preoccupation with the conviction of Jordanian former MP Toujan al-Faisal, who was sentences to 18 months of imprisonment following new laws placing limitations on the freedom of expression in Jordan, and who now suffersserious health problems. The GA was also deeply worried by information on the frequent and grave violations of foreign detainees’ rights in Greece and adopted a statement in this regard. The participants discussed the promotion of women’s human rights within the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership (EMP) identifying the key women’s rights problems, the key organisations and well as analysing the initiatives with regard to women’s rights within the EMP. Participants agreed on the need for the EMP to be more sensitive to gender issues in all its programs and at all level of programming, implementation, and evaluation of projects. The participants also urged the human rights organisations to give more attention to women’s right issues. The GA expressed their deep preoccupation about the increased attacks on human rights following the changes in the environment after the 11th September. It was noted that the increased focus on security issues has undermined attention toward the human rights protection of Palestinian and Kurdish civilians as well as led to a general neglect for ongoing human rights abuses. The GA took major steps in strengthening its work on Human Rights Education; the creation of a Euro-Med Human Rights Solidarity Found; Justice; Migrant and Refugees; and Palestine. 45 RIGHTS GROUPS FROM 21 EURO-MEDITERRANEAN COUNTRIES DECRY FREQUENT AND GRAVE VIOLATIONS OF FOREIGN DETAINEES’ RIGHTS IN GREECE Athens, 15 June 2002. The undersigned NGOs, meeting in Athens between 13-15 June, 2002 in the framework of the General Assembly of the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network (EMHRN), and after having been informed on the situation of migrants and refugees in Greece, would like to express their great concern about the frequent and grave violations of the rights of thousands of foreigners who arrive or live in Greece as (potential) asylum seekers or (un)documented migrants and are detained pending judicial or administrative deportation. Greek NGOs have documented an almost systematic absence of competent translators during examination by law enforcement officials or in court. Moreover, the Greek authorities frequently fail to inform foreigners of their rights, refuse them asylum application forms or even provide misleading information. Undocumented migrants or asylum seekers have often been tried without benefit of legal counsel, and sentenced to imprisonment or deportation after trials lasting only a few minutes. Detention conditions are in many cases degrading and inhumane, and access to lawyers and NGOs has been severely and arbitrarily limited. When authorized representatives of detainees have requested the full documentation for their cases, this has been denied by the authorities, on the grounds that this might hinder efforts to deport them. We welcome last week’s statement by the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights, Alvaro Gil-Robles, that “Greece should not forget that deportees are human beings, too”; and we appeal to the Greek authorities to radically revise their treatment of foreigners under arrest, detention, trial or deportation. We also call upon all inter-governmental organizations (UN, OSCE, CoE, EU) to use all of their mechanisms (expert committees, special rapporteurs, commissioners, etc.) to review this situation regularly and to urge Greece to honor its human rights commitments, in this as well as in many other areas. They should review Greece’s record and judge it according to universal international standards which protect the rights of detainees, the right to fair trial and the rights of refugees. International NGOs Amnesty International (AI) Article 19 Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network (EMHRN) Fédération Internationale des Ligues de Droits de l’ Homme (FIDH) Human Rights Watch (HRW) International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights (IHF) Organization Mondiale Contre la Torture (OMCT) Greek NGOs Greek Committee for International Democratic Solidarity (EEDDA) Greek Helsinki Monitor (GHM) Other National NGOs Al Urdun Al Jaded Research Center (Jordan) Arab Association for Human Rights (Israel) Arab Organisation for Human Rights in the UK Association Démocratique des Femmes de Maroc B’ Tselem (Israel) Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (Egypt) Center for Media Freedom, Middle East and North Africa (UK) Collectif 95 “Magreb Egalité” (Algeria/Morocco/Tunisia) Comite pour le Respect des Libertés et des Droits de l’ Homme en Tunisie (France) Committee for Defense of Human Rights (Syria) Conseil National pour les Libertés en Tunisie Danish Center for Human Rights 80:20 Education and Acting for a Better World (Ireland) Espace Associatif (Morocco) Fédération des Tunisiens pour une Citoyenneté des Deux Rives (France) Foundation for Human and Humanitarian Rights (Lebanon) Foundation Réne Moawad (Lebanon) Human Rights Association (Turkey) Institut Arabe des Droits de l’Homme (Tunisia) Intercenter (Italy) International Association for Human Rights in Cyprus Italian Refugee Council Italian Helsinki Committee LAW Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights and the Environment Libyan League for Human Rights Ligue Algérienne des Droits de l’Homme Ligue Algérienne pour la Defense des Droits de l’ Homme Ligue des Droits de l’ Homme (France) Ligue Tunisienne des Droits de l’Homme Mediterranean Academy of Diplomatic Studies (Malta) Norwegian Council for the Rights of Kurdish People Norwegian Helsinki Committee Organisation Marocaine des Droits Humains Rights and Freedoms Association (Cyprus) Soutien aux Libanais Détenus Arbitrairement (France/Lebanon) Swedish Refugee Council For further information please contact: Marc Schade-Poulsen, Executive Director / Marit Floe Joergensen, Information Officer Euro Mediterranean Human Rights Network, Wilders Plads 8 H, DK-1403 Copenhagen K, Denmark Tel: +45-32 69 89 12 / Fax: +45-32 69 89 01 E-mail: info@euromedrights.net |
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