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| EMHRN's executive committee meeting in Paris | Date: 01-07-1999 |
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Meeting of the EMHRN's Executive Committee in Paris: The crisis of human rights defenders in the Mediterranean On July 8-9, 1999, the Executive Committee of the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network (EMHRN) gathered for a meeting hosted by the League for Human Rights, Paris. During the meeting, the EC was informed about the arrest in Tunis, on July 5, 1999, of Mr. Abderraouf Chammari with the charge of "slandering the authorities and spreading false news" on the alleged reason that he during a work meeting had accused members of the President’s family for misuse of public property. Abderraouf Chammari is the brother of Mr. Khemais Chammari, a well-known Tunisian human rights defender in exile in Europe and member of the EMHRN. The EC condemns the arrest of Abderaouf Chammari which the EC has reasons to believe is intended to further harass his brother and to intimidate the Tunisian human rights defenders. During the meeting, the EC discussed the crisis of the human rights defenders in the South and East Mediterranean following events, such as, the adoption by the People’s Assembly in Egypt of a new law on associations that severely restricts the right to associate; recent attacks by representatives of the Palestinian Authorities on human rights NGOs; the multiplication of clamp-downs on Tunisian human rights defenders; and the recent imprisonment of Akin Birdal, President of the Human Rights Association, Turkey. These events are detrimental to the development of human rights promotion and protection in the Euro-Mediterranean region and to the progress of the Barcelona process. In addition it is against the final statement of the Euro-Mediterranean Summit in Stuttgart, April 1999, which recommended that regional and local authorities should be more closely associated with the non-governmental organisations. The EC agreed to strengthen the EMHRN’s activities in defence of human rights activist in the South and East Mediterranean. It decided to send a mission to Palestine to inquire into the recent campaign against human rights NGOs. It will furthermore urge the European Parliament not to ratify the Association Agreement between the EU and Egypt until the new law on association is repealed; and it will call on the European Union to make human rights an explicit point on the agenda during the Association Council meeting with Tunisia and to publicly communicate its concerns about the situation of the human rights defenders to the Tunisian authorities. Finally, the EC welcomed the many constructive proposals made during the third General Assembly of the EMHRN and the Civil Forum in Stuttgart, April 1999, and decided to ask the Syrian authorities for permission to hold its next meeting in Syria. |
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