Objectif 3 2020
Protéger et promouvoir les droits de l’homme
La pandémie de COVID-19 a eu d’énormes conséquences en matière de droits de l’homme. Les lois sur les mesures de confinement et d’urgence ont trop souvent servi de prétexte à des détentions ou d’autres violations des droits de parlementaires d’opposition. Les chiffres de 2020 confirment la tendance à la hausse des violations signalées contre des parlementaires, ainsi que des actes d’intimidation et de violence. Plus souvent qu’à leur tour, ce sont les femmes parlementaires qui ont été visées. Le Comité des droits de l’homme des parlementaires de l’UIP a continué à rassembler des données pour défendre les droits des parlementaires. En Côte d’Ivoire, les interventions de l’UIP ont contribué à la libération de quatre parlementaires emprisonnés.
Parliamentarians, especially women, face growing violence
In 2020, the IPU Committee examined 552 alleged violations in 42 countries, up from 533 violations in 2019. These cases included 83 new alleged violations in 13 countries. Human rights violations against MPs have been growing since the IPU Committee was established more than 40 years ago.
For the fifth year in a row, the Americas accounted for the greatest proportion of human rights violations against parliamentarians. Venezuela accounted for 178 of the 552 cases, equal to 32 per cent.
In four countries – Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela and Yemen – the growing number of violations, especially against opposition MPs, suggests a deteriorating political situation.
Detention represents a significant violation. At the end of 2020, the IPU Committee was examining the cases of 30 MPs, detained in a total of nine countries, including Venezuela, Uganda and Zimbabwe. The cases highlight the way in which some governments have used pandemic lockdown laws to infringe the rights of opposition MPs.
Women MPs suffer disproportionately from violence and acts of intimidation. Torture, ill treatment and violence affect 34 per cent of women parliamentarians in the cases considered by the IPU, compared with 18 per cent for male MPs. In 2020, the IPU examined 98 cases concerning women parliamentarians, up from 85 in 2019 and almost three times higher than six years previously in 2014, when we had 34 cases on our books.
Human rights during the pandemic
The pandemic has had significant consequences for human rights. The IPU developed and disseminated recommendations for parliaments on how to ensure respect for human rights while protecting public health.
The IPU also organized workshops on human rights and public health. In July and November, the IPU partnered with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and the Commonwealth Secretariat to organize two online workshops for the human rights committees of Commonwealth parliaments in Canada and other countries in Africa, Europe, and the Caribbean and Asia-Pacific regions.
“The proactiveness of the IPU and its Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians has had an impact on the ongoing proceedings. They helped facilitate my return to the DRC without being arrested or detained when I arrived in the country. I am sure that the Committee’s efforts will contribute to a final resolution of my case.”
Mr. Jean-Jacques Mamba
DRC MP
Several parliaments adopted IPU recommendations. Particularly noteworthy was the inquiry by the United Kingdom Parliament’s Human Rights Committee, which wanted to ensure that the UK’s COVID-19 response complied with human rights.
Étude de cas
The IPU supports parliaments in Burkina Faso and Uzbekistan to advance their human rights agendas
In Burkina Faso, the government presented bills to parliament to formalize the ratification of a UN treaty to abolish the death penalty and strengthen the mandate of the country’s torture prevention mechanism. The bills follow IPU-recommended consultations organized by the National Assembly together with the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights. Participants discussed implementation of these specific UN recommendations on human rights.
Through a series of virtual workshops in 2020, the IPU and the OHCHR supported efforts by the parliament in Uzbekistan to implement UN recommendations on human rights. Key action points included the creation of a specific parliamentary committee on human rights, the creation of an independent committee on the elimination of torture, the translation of IPU handbooks on human rights into Uzbek, strengthening parliamentary oversight, ensuring parliamentary transparency and setting up a legal framework for dialogue with civil society.
L’impact de l’UIP
In December 2019, five MPs from Côte d’Ivoire were arbitrarily detained. After extensive IPU lobbying, four of them were released in September 2020.
Intervention by the IPU in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) allowed MP Jean-Jacques Mamba to return to his country and resume work without fear of arrest. He had left the DRC earlier in 2020 to avoid arbitrary detention after filing a petition that led to the removal of the First Deputy Speaker.
In Guatemala, authorities have provided former MP Amilcar Pop with permanent police protection in line with IPU requests. The former MP had been the subject of repeated death threats and serious harassment for his work as an opposition MP.
In Turkey, former MP Selahattin Demirtas received a boost from the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), after the IPU made an elaborate third-party intervention. The ECHR adopted IPU arguments, ruling that Demirtas’ 2017 arrest on terrorism-related charges did indeed violate his basic rights, including freedom of expression and the right to participate in elections.