Djibouti

Following Independence in 1977 the country’s first President Hassan Gouled Aptidon installed an authoritarian one-party state. The Rally for Progress (RFP) party, which is now headed by Gouled’ s nephew, Ismael Omar Guelleh’s, has been in power ever since.
The first, although very limited, elections took place in 1992- yet the presidential party took all the seats in the National legislature. 
Ismail Omar Guelleh, the current president, was re-elected in 2005 in what was a one-man Presidential elections seeing as Guelleh was the sole candidate of the Union for a Presidential Majority (UPM) (a coalition which includes the Rally for Progress party). The opposition parties claimed that they were prevented from campaigning as a result of government control over the media and repression of the opposition’s activities and therefore boycotted the elections which they saw as neither free nor fair.  The coalition continues to hold all the seats in the national legislature.

The recent legislative elections, held in February 2008, were once again won by the regime after the opposition boycotted the elections due to a lack of reform of the electoral system and a preponderance of governmental candidates on the electoral list rendering inevitable that they would take the 65 parliamentary seats being fought for.

Women’s rights are poor in Djibouti but very little effort has been made by the government to improve this situation. Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) remains rampant and the criminal legislation dealing with FGM is not enforced; the number of girls going to primary school lags behind that of boys and women continue to suffer from discriminations as a result of customary laws, notably regarding inheritance practices.1 Many of the organisations working on women’s rights are in fact linked to the regime. No laws currently exist on sexual harassment.

Restrictions on the free operation of trade unions are numerous and a new labour law is likely to further restrict the development of free and independent trade unionism. Members of trade unions have themselves in recent years been arbitrarily detained. In 2006 two trade unionists were detained after they returned from Israel where they had been participating in a training course. They were accused of having passed on information to foreign power and thus of having committed an affront to the President.2

Opposition parties are in theory allowed to organise but in reality are faced with many restrictions. Permits are required in order to hold assemblies and the government continuously monitors the activities of the opposition. Opposition members have been subjected to harassment, police repression as well as to more subtle legal and logistical constraints. Certain opposition leaders resort to self-censorship and refrain from organising popular demonstrations in order not to face the reprisals of the authorities. In the run-up to the February 2008 legislative elections, the main opposition party leaders were subjected to house arrest by the armed forces. Several leaders of the opposition have as a result been forced into exile notably the President of the opposition party Mouvement pour le Renouveau et le Development (MRD) who was forced into exile in 2005 and has still not returned.
There is a significant number of what could be considered as civil society organisations but most have links with the government. Certain groups are allowed to work with relatively little government interference but human rights groups do not operate freely. As a result there are currently only a few human rights organisation in operation in Djibouti. The main organisation is EHAHRD-Net Focal Point, the Djibouti League of Human Rights (Ligue Djiboutienne des Droits Humains- LDDH).

Freedom of expression is almost inexistent thereby greatly hampering the work of human rights defenders (HRDs). There are currently no legal mechanisms in place offering protection to HRDs.
Mr Jean Noel Abdi, President of LDDH, has been subjected to ongoing intimidation and harassment in recent years. He has been arbitrarily detained on several occasions and aggressively interrogated regarding his work and denunciations his organisation has made against government violations. In March 2007, after an unfair trial, Mr Abdi was sentenced to one year imprisonment after having been accused of defamation when he spoke out about the discovery of a mass grave containing the bodies of 7 civilians which are believed to have been killed by government forces in 1994. Mr Abdi was released but was once again detained on the 2nd December 2007 and interrogated after he denounced the irregularities which he had witnessed in the run up to the February 2008 legislative elections. More recently, on the 1st February, one week prior to the legislative elections, the Djibouti authorities placed prominent opposition leaders and Mr Abdi under house arrest.  Mr Abdi has also had his passport confiscated on several occasions which has prevented him from attending key regional and international events.3

The constitution provides for freedom of press yet this is rarely adhered to. There are very few media outlets in Djibouti. The government owns the main newspaper, La Nation, as well as the national radio and television broadcasting agency. There are no private broadcasters in Djibouti.
In May 2007 le Renouveau, the sole independent newspaper, which had links to the main opposition party was forced to close as a result of continued harassment and attacks by the authorities. Prior to the closure, the offices had been raided and vital equipment seized. The managing editor of the paper had on several occasions been arbitrarily detained and accused of crimes such as defamation, and was again detained on this occasion for ten days. The offices were raided again some days later.4
Although private newspaper are allowed to circulate many journalists resort to self-censorship- notably by refraining from dealing with taboo issues such as the human rights situation in the country, the army and relations with Ethiopia. This helps them to protect themselves against the country’s defamation laws and escape government controls, which have in the past seen bans imposed on publications whose reports were perceived as being critical of the government.
Government control over the electronic media has increased after the authorities came to realise that the internet was gaining in popularity and was being widely used- notably amongst the Djiboutian youth. The government has a result blocked access to a number of sites- notably those of the LDDH, the Association for Respect of Human Rights in Djibouti (ARDHD) and certain of the opposition parties’ sites.

The Djibouti authorities are largely responsible for the series of violations described above but impunity reigns and the perpetrators have not been held accountable or brought to justice.