Equatorial Guinea
UN human rights withdrawal from Equatorial Guinea

afrol News, 24 April - Human rights observers are concerned after the UN has decided to stop monitoring Africa's worst dictatorship. The ex-Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Equatorial Guinea, Gustavo Gallón Giraldo, who saw his mandate terminated after 23 years of monitoring, yesterday warned the international community to keep a close eye on the development in the country. 

Gallón made it clear that he had opposed the termination of the special mandate to monitor the human rights situation in Equatorial Guinea. In his view, the human rights situation in the country still was alarming and needed further close supervision. International human rights groups agree with him. 

Last Friday, on 19 April, the UN Human Rights Commission voted in favour of a resolution that terminates the mandate of the UN Special Representative for Equatorial Guinea. Following this resolution, the situation in Equatorial Guinea will be examined in the next session of the Commission under paragraph 19 of the agenda, titled "Services of technical advice and assistance related to human rights." The Commission with this decided to terminate its oldest functioning mandate, which had monitored the situation in Equatorial Guinea continuously since 1979. It now only encourages the government of Equatorial Guinea "to implement a national human rights action plan."

The Equatoguinean representative to the UN Commission however had claimed that ""in recent years there had been no politically motivated disappearances or arrests, arbitrary detentions, political kidnappings, ethnic violence or discrimination against ethnic groups, and the political system had been transformed". This is strongly contested by human rights organisations and recent reports from the country.

In his statement, Gallón also questions the basis for the vote that ended in the termination of his mandate. "The commission endorsed facts and statements that are at odds with reality, such as the one stating that the Government of Equatorial Guinea had ratified the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or degrading Treatment or Punishment and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination," Gallón states. "Equatorial Guinea is not a party to those treaties," he adds.

Gallón also note with indignation that nothing had changed in Equatorial Guinea which could justify the adoption of this resolution; only the composition of the Commission had changed during the last year. In his view, the human rights situation in Equatorial Guinea is still serious and deserves close monitoring, especially at this critical moment, in which massive detentions of political opponents have been carried out since mid-March. 

He further noted that the authorities of Equatorial Guinea have accepted in principle that a mission headed by the Special Representative visit the prisoners in early May. Due to the end of the mandate of the Special Representative, this mission should take place with the least delay, possibly by the appropriate thematic Special Rapporteurs.

The initiative to terminate Gallón's mandate had come by several African countries represented in the Commission. The 12 African countries of the 53-member Commission, headed by Equatorial Guinea's neighbour and oil partner Nigeria, made the breakthrough for the government of President Teodoro Obiang Nguema, who has stick to power using all means since his military coup d'état in 1979. 

Human rights groups and the Equatoguinean opposition repeatedly had warned the Commission not to terminate Gallón's mandate. According to Amnesty, "the need for ongoing international monitoring has dramatically increased since March 2002 when more than one hundred people, both civilians and military and security personnel, were arrested and are still held in detention, for alleged links with the Fuerza Democrática Republicana (FDR), Republican Democratic Force, a not-yet-legalized opposition party." 

Amnesty last week also deplored "the fact that the families [of the detained] are being denied access to their relatives and that nobody knows where they are currently being held." The group had received "reliable information from eyewitnesses" who saw some of these detainees in prison with visible marks of torture during their first days of detention. It therefore group agrees to the opposition's allegations that "torture by security forces is routine in Equatorial Guinea," further stressing that Gallón's mandate should have been extended. 

Sources: Based on UN sources, Amnesty and afrol archives

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