Resolution of support for democracy and for the MRD in Djibouti

Meeting of the SI Council at the United Nations in Geneva, 26-27 June 2018

Original: French

The members of the Socialist International, gathered at the United Nations in Geneva on 26- 27 June 2018 for a meeting of the SI Council, follow with great concern the situation in Djibouti, the denial of democracy, repeated violations of human rights and bad governance which have persisted in the country since its independence in 1977.

The government has still not implemented the political agreement signed with the opposition on 30 December 2014 following the post-electoral crisis of February 2013. Consequently, the parliamentary elections held on 23 February 2018 were neither free nor democratic and were therefore boycotted by the credible opposition.

Similarly, the main opposition party in Djibouti, the MRD, is a victim of denial of justice and had its existence threatened, hence the complaint it filed on 21 November 2017 with the United Nations Human Rights Committee in Geneva.

SI cannot remain indifferent to this situation which, if left unresolved, could end up in a serious crisis and worsen instability and insecurity in Horn of Africa and on the banks of the Red Sea.

Consequently, the SI urges President Ismael Omar Guelleh to:

-end repression, human rights violations and denial of democracy,

-implement the political agreement of the 30 December 2014 and to thereby put in place  the democratic reforms such as the creation of an egalitarian Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI) and the implementation of a status for the opposition, conditions that are necessary for the holding of for free and fair elections,

-restore the rights and legality of the MRD and to stop the arbitrary refusal and legality of opposition parties and civil society organisations such as the Djiboutian League for human rights (LDDH).

 

 

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