OUTREACH IN SUPPORT OF DEMOCRACY AND HUMAN RIGHTS

UNCLAS COTONOU 000289 SIPDIS STATE FOR DRL/SEA E.O.12958:N/A TAGS: PHUMPRELBN SUBJECT: OUTREACH IN SUPPORT OF DEMOCRACY AND HUMAN RIGHTS REF: STATE 44903 ¶1. Benin is widely regarded as a free country and was classified as such in Freedom House's 2008 Freedom in the World Report. There are no known third-country dissidents in Benin. The Ambassador and the entire country team pursue an active strategy to advance the respect of human rights and encourage democracy in Benin. ¶2. In March 2007 and April 2008 the Ambassador led embassy election observer teams for the legislative and municipal elections. The teams visited polling places throughout Benin. They publicly demonstrated the priority the mission puts on democracy in Benin. Additionally in 2007 the Embassy used the Democracy, Human Rights, and Freedom (DHRF) fund to support a project which promoted fair, ethical and accountable elections in Benin. ¶3. In August 2007, the Ambassador headlined an event at the Ministry of Health (MOH) highlighting the USAID funded Women's Legal Rights Initiative, an activity which advanced the legal, civil, property, and human rights of women. As part of the event, the Ambassador presented the MOH with birth, newborn death, and stillbirth registries developed and printed by the initiative. These registries provide the GOB with an important tool to implement its innovative Family Code, and women with important documentation needed to take advantage of the expanded inheritance, property, and marriage rights under the law. ¶4. In November 2007, the Ambassador highlighted the USG's interest in protecting the rights of women and ending gender based violence (GBV) through a well-attended and publicized forum on GBV. The forum gave GBV activists a public platform to discuss the problem of GBV in Benin and strategies to fight it. The Ambassador followed the forum with a meeting with local anti-GBV activists and victims. ¶5. The Ambassador's support for human rights and democracy is also evident in the six high visibility projects funded by the Democracy, Human Rights, and Freedom fund in 2007. These projects include an awareness campaign for the rights of women working in the markets of Cotonou and a program which worked to protect the rights of children in Dassa, a city in northern Benin. BOUSTANI