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Tunisia:Denying a passport to a journalist and a human rights defender in retaliation
The Tunisian authorities should stop its violation against the right to travel
Cairo, January 8, 2008
The human rights organizations singing this statement condemn the Tunisian authorities stance represented in denying a passport to Mr. Kamal El Ebaidy, a Tunisian journalist, human rights activist and CPJ representative in the Middle East. Mr. Kamal is deprived from returning back home or traveling outside the USA because of having no passport for six months.
While being in the USA, Mr. Kamal lost some of his documents among which was his passport last July. He, directly, asked for a new passport from the Tunisian embassy in Washington. Six months passed on his request to the embassy without getting his passport.
The Tunisian authorities stance coincides with the governments policy which aims at violating the rights of citizens specially the journalists. This stance of the Tunisian authorities is not new since denying passports to journalists and human rights activists, is a common practice of the government of Presdint Zain Al Abedain Bin Ali along twenty years; his ruling period which started in November 1987.
Tunisian embassy officials assured more than once that issuing a new passport does not require a long time. Six months now without issuing a passport to Mr. Kamal. The only explanation given by the embassy is that the ministry of interior has not given them the green light to issue the passport.
Many human rights organization expressed their concerns to the Tunisian embassy whose diplomats attributed the delay to some routine procedures. Of course this is not true because the Tunisian authorities always maltreat the critical human rights activists.
The human rights organizations signing this statement said, “Comparing the ordinary period of issuing a passport by the embassy and similar cases to this case, we can recognize the on-purpose delay of the embassy which acts in retaliation of the journalists and human rights activists who call for democracy and protecting fundamental human rights.”
It is worth to mention that in 1996, the Tunisian authorities broke through Mr. Kamal’s house before his travel to Yemen to participate in the UNESCO conference about the freedom of expression in the Arab world. Mr. Kamal’s passport was confiscated for six months.
The human rights organizations signing this statement see that violating the right to travel is a violation against the Tunisian constitution which states in its 10th article that “each citizen has the right to move in or outside the country and choose the place of residency according to the law”. Moreover, it is a violation against the international conviction of civil rights upon which the Tunisian government signed in 1969.
The human rights organizations signing this statement condemn the stance of the Tunisian authorities who deny a passport to Mr. Kamal Al Ebaidi. The organizations call the Tunisian authorities for ending this stance and issue a new passport to Mr. Kamal Al Ebaidi according to the Tunisian constitution and the Tunisian international commitments. Also they request the authorities to stop threatening the freedom of journalists and to provide a safe atmosphere without the suppression that made Tunisia on the top of the Arab countries violating the human rights and human basic freedoms.
- The Arabic network for human rights information
- The Egyptian observatory for justice and law
- Nadeem Center for Psychological Therapy and Rehabilitation of the Victims of Violence
- Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights
- The legal assistance of human rights group
- Al Naqeeb for training and democracy support
- Egyptian women issues Association
- The Ganoub (South) Center for Human Rights
- Hisham Mubarak law center
- Egyptian Association Against Torture
- Arab Program for Human Rights Activists
- The Land Center for Human Rights
- Habi Center for Environmental Rights
- The Civil Observatory of Human Rights Association
- The Egyptian Center for Housing Rights
- Andalus Institute for Tolerance and Anti-Violence Studies
- The Coordinating Committee for the Trade Union and Worker Rights & Liberties
- The Egyptian association for community participation enhancement
- Arab foundation for civil society support and human rights
- Association for freedom of thought and expression
- Freedom center for political rights and democracy support
- The Egyptian association for economic and social rights
- Egyptian Awn human rights association
- The national center for human rights
- Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies
- Damascus Center for Theoretical and Civil Rights Studies
- The Syrian observatory for human rights
- The Arabic committee for human rights
- International justice organization
- Al Karama for human rights
- Protecting human rights defenders in the Arab world
- The European coordination for freedom of expression
- The national organization for human rights
- The Palestinian human rights organization
- Shakaik Araby Forum for Human Rights
- Bahrain youth society for human rights
- Difa movement for observation violence against women in Yemen
- Yemeni Organization for Defending Democratic Rights and Freedoms
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