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Djibouti

The human rights situation in Djibouti has not experienced significant changes basing on the last report that EHAHRDP submitted to the African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights.

Recently, Djibouti’s parliament approved a constitutional amendment removing term limits allowing the current president Ismail Omar Guelleh to run for the third term, a move made clearly in preparation for the forthcoming elections in May 2011.1 In 1999, President Guelleh succeeded his uncle, who was the country’s first president, and he was re-elected in 2005 in what was seen as a one-man Presidential elections since he was the sole candidate of the Union for a Presidential Majority (UPM). 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 constitution and the law provide for freedom of speech and the press however, this is almost inexistent in Djibouti and this greatly hampers the work of human rights defenders (HRDs). There are very few media outlets to speak of with the government owning the main newspaper, La Nation, as well as the only national radio and television broadcasting agency. There are no private broadcasters in Djibouti. Le Renouveau, the sole independent newspaper, was closed in May 2007 and since then no new independent newspaper has been established. According to the law legislating on freedom of the press, media entities can only be owned or funded by Djiboutians.

Political freedoms are also limited. Opposition parties are in theory allowed to organise but in reality are faced with many restrictions. They are subjected to harassment, police repression as well as to more subtle legal and logistical constraints. Government continuously monitors their activities and most times permits are also required from them in order to hold assemblies. Several leaders of the opposition have as a result been forced into exile or resorted to self censorship.

The judicial system in Djibouti is weak with State actors in particular accorded more or less impunity and yet in most cases they are the perpetrators of most human rights violations.

Women’s rights are not respected in Djibouti and very little effort has been made by the government to improve the situation. Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) still remains rampant and the criminal legislation dealing with FGM is not enforced. There have in fact so far been no legal proceedings deposited against individuals carrying out FGM.2

Human rights groups in Djibouti do not operate freely and most of the civil society organisations in the country have links with the government. As a result there are currently only a few human rights organisation in operation. The main independent human rights organisation the Djibouti League for Human Rights (Ligue Djiboutienne des Droits Humains - LDDH), EHAHRD-Net Focal Point, operates with limited freedom. In fact, the President of LDDH, Mr. Jean-Paul Noel Abdi, has been awaiting his appeals process since April 2007. 3 Despite regular interventions by the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and by the Special Rapporteur of the UN on HRDs the trial is continually delayed.