Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06DAKAR1761
2006-07-21 17:24:00
UNCLASSIFIED
Embassy Dakar
Cable title:  

HUMAN RIGHTS IN SENEGAL: MID-YEAR REVIEW

Tags:  PHUM SOCI SG 
pdf how-to read a cable
VZCZCXRO8010
PP RUEHMA RUEHPA
DE RUEHDK #1761/01 2021724
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 211724Z JUL 06
FM AMEMBASSY DAKAR
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 5826
INFO RUEHZK/ECOWAS COLLECTIVE
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 DAKAR 001761 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

STATE FOR DRL, G/TIP, AF/RSA, AF/W AND INR/AA

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PHUM SOCI SG
SUBJECT: HUMAN RIGHTS IN SENEGAL: MID-YEAR REVIEW


SUMMARY
-------
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 DAKAR 001761

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

STATE FOR DRL, G/TIP, AF/RSA, AF/W AND INR/AA

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PHUM SOCI SG
SUBJECT: HUMAN RIGHTS IN SENEGAL: MID-YEAR REVIEW


SUMMARY
--------------

1. We recently invited key human rights activists to a
luncheon seminar to review rights violations and concerns
in the past year. About 40 people attended, representing
key Senegalese NGOs specializing in freedom of speech,
children and women's rights, TIP (trafficking in persons),
transparency and anticorruption. Several international
organizations, including UNHCR, UNICEF, and the
International Organization for Migration (IOM),also
attended. The main issues raised were lack of adequate
legal protection for journalists, increasing cases of
violence against women, lack of enforcement of child
begging laws and increasing cases of corruption,
particularly in the judiciary. END SUMMARY.

CORRUPTION THRIVES
--------------

2. The representative of the Forum Civil, Transparency
International's Senegalese partner, called corruption
"Senegal's main problem" and stressed that "GOS responses
are unsatisfactory." He noted that ministers and senior
civil servants are not required by law to make financial
disclosure statements and that the National Assembly never
passes the end-of-fiscal year law certifying that the
national budget has been executed properly, as required by
current legislation. The country's National Commission on
Corruption, he added, has no power to initiate hearings
even when cases of corruption are reported in the media,
but can only act upon mandates given by the GOS.
Participants bemoaned widely perceived high levels of
corruption in the judicial branch. Other participants
pointed to early July press revelations that Aminata
Mbaye, a senior judge at the Supreme Court (Cour de
Cassation),had received 15 million CFA francs (CFAF) (USD
30,000) to "purchase" a case involving fraud in which the
defendant was likely to receive a prison sentence. (NOTE:
Judge Mbaye and the judges who were helping her in the
prosecution are under administrative investigation and
have been suspended by the GOS. END NOTE.)

FREEDOM OF SPEECH
--------------

3. A journalists' union representative noted that freedom
of speech is protected by the Constitution by a law passed
in 1996. In general, he said, there was progress during
the year. No journalists were prosecuted or imprisoned
for propagating false news: unlike in the past the GOS

tended to prosecute and imprison political leaders who
made allegations against the Government rather than the
media relaying them. He noted, however, that article 139
of the Code of Criminal Procedure still allows the GOS to
put in pretrial detention any journalist "propagating or
helping propagate" false news. He also said the increase
in media enterprises (mainly radio and newspapers) has led
to hiring of untrained journalists who receive low pay and
almost no social protection. Another participant brought
up the case of a young female journalist involved in a car
accident while on duty who now may lose use of one leg for
lack of insurance. In addition, several media companies
violate collective bargaining agreements, and participants
charged that resultant low or unpaid salaries have led to
journalists blackmailing political leaders to supplement
their income.

MORE CASES OF VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN
--------------

4. CLVF, an organization fighting violence against women,
noted that between October 2005 and July 2006, it has
dealt with 59 cases of violence involving females. Five
cases were rapes of female minors. In another case, one
women's husband murdered her. The CLVF representatives
deplored the lack of national statistics. In their view,
while there is an increase in infanticides reported, many
cases are still hidden by families or charges are simply
"abandoned" by prosecutors. Participants deplored the
lack of shelters for women victims of domestic violence.
They also questioned the current criminal system's
expectations that minors, especially girls of just 5 or 6,
can bring evidence of rape into court. They indicated
that many people accused of rape have been freed by judges
for lack of sufficient evidence, and called for legal
reform to reverse the burden of proof. Another human
rights organization, RADDHO, noted that just during the
month of May, 16 cases of child abuse were reported,
involving children between 6 and 16 years of age.

GOS STILL HESITANT TO BAN CHILD BEGGING
--------------

5. All participants deplored that despite laws banning
begging, exploitation of child begging by unscrupulous

DAKAR 00001761 002 OF 002


religious teachers and other adults still prevails in the
streets of Dakar. One participant said "the law is here,
it is clear, but nobody is enforcing it."

COMMENT
--------------

6. The human rights situation in Senegal is generally
good, but as demonstrated by cases and concerns reported
at this seminar, there are areas that need to be addressed
promptly. There is widespread NGO concern over freedom of
speech and right of assembly, which the NGOs believe the
GOS has tended to restrict over the past year. Above all,
though, and this may well be driven by current heavy press
coverage of a particularly egregious case, there is
concern over alleged corruption in the judiciary. END
COMMENT.

Jacobs