Mediterranean Programme - [05/27/2008]

Defenders of Maghrebi human rights meet at CIDOB

Under the auspices of Elcàlam, the commission for the defence of human rights in the Maghreb region, the CIDOB Foundation held a meeting on 21 May which brought together Maghrebi activists in the field of the defence of human rights with their Catalan counterparts. In addition to representatives from several Catalan NGOs, the event was also attended by representatives of public administrations such as Barcelona City Council, the Generalitat and the Diputació of Barcelona. It is the second event of its kind, given that in 2007 the CIDOB Foundation collaborated with Elcàlam to host the first such meeting.

The common denominator in all the addresses made by Maghrebi activists was a call for European civil society to become much more involved in the defence of human rights in the Maghreb. They claim that EU governments do not show sufficient firmness when it comes to dealing with this challenge.

Khadija Ryadi, Director of the Moroccan Association for Human Rights, called on the Moroccan government to improve its application of the international human rights treaties and conventions that Morocco has signed. Ryadi believes that the greatest obstacle to developing the state of law in Morocco is the lack of independence of the judicial powers. She also mentioned a new subject for debate in this area: the lack of rights of immigrants, for whom Morocco is an important transit zone. Semir Ben Amor, a member of the Commission for the support of political prisoners in Tunisia, also emphasised the lack of legal guarantees in his country to defend political liberty and freedom of expression.

Meriem Benaziza, from the Algerian Association for the Disappeared, which is based in Paris, illustrated with specific cases the impunity that exists in relation to the disappearance of people in Algeria. Another Algerian, Mohamed Smaïn, from the Algerian League for the Defence of Human Rights, complained about the isolation experienced by Maghrebi activists. In his opinion, this isolation is the result of, on one hand, the lack of media coverage of this issue in Europe (a fact that derives from the lack of support given by Europe's civil society), while on the other hand, he claimed, this isolation is a consequence of the attitude of European political leaders, who tend to evade this issue in their contacts with Maghrebi leaders.

The subsequent debate was very useful in terms of making contacts between the representatives from the two sides of the Mediterranean. The CIDOB Foundation hopes that this will result in greater Catalan involvement - through its NGOs and public administrations - in the defence of human rights in the Maghreb.