(WiPC/IFEX) – The following is a 21 June 2006 WiPC press release: INTERNATIONAL PEN: WRITERS IN SOLIDARITY WITH COLLEAGUES PERSECUTED IN TUNISIA Over six months on from the holding of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Tunis in November, International PEN’s Writers in Prison Committee is calling on the Tunisian authorities to […]
(WiPC/IFEX) – The following is a 21 June 2006 WiPC press release:
INTERNATIONAL PEN: WRITERS IN SOLIDARITY WITH COLLEAGUES PERSECUTED IN TUNISIA
Over six months on from the holding of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Tunis in November, International PEN’s Writers in Prison Committee is calling on the Tunisian authorities to bring to an end the persecution of writers in Tunisia. The hosting of this United Nations sponsored Summit in Tunisia, a country where repression of human rights, notably of the media, is rife, was controversial. The WSIS Declarations of Principles specifically referred to Article 19 of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, which guarantees freedom of expression. Kofi Annan, Secretary General of the UN, stated that the holding of this Summit in Tunis offered “a good opportunity for the Government of Tunisia to address various human rights concerns, including those related to freedom of opinion and expression.” Yet today the Tunisian government has clearly failed to do this.
PEN members worldwide remain deeply concerned by the relentless persecution of writers in Tunisia and fifteen PEN centres participated in a month long PEN campaign in May to demonstrate their solidarity with their fellow writers and to voice the organisation’s grave concerns in respect of the poor state of freedom of expression in Tunisia. During the action, PEN members lobbied the Tunisian authorities to stop the persecution of writers and journalists in Tunisia for exercising their right to express their opinions. PEN members called for the immediate and unconditional release of internet writer and lawyer Mohammed Abbou who is currently serving a three year prison sentence for criticising Tunisian President Ben Ali in an article posted on the Internet. The Tunisian government was also called upon to bring an immediate end to the persecution of writers including Sihem Bensedrine, Naziha Rjiba, Lotfi Hajji and Abdallah Zouari, to release all banned books and publications and to stop censoring books.
In addition to directly voicing their concerns with the Tunisian authorities, PEN Centres also raised awareness within their own countries about the Tunisian government’s repression of writers by contacting their own governments’ foreign offices, holding meetings and exhibitions, contacting their national press and publishing information about the atrocious treatment of writers on internet websites. Writers from all corners of the globe showed their solidarity with their fellow writers in Tunisia and stated that they would not forget their plight but would continue to campaign on their behalf. Persecuted writers, including Mohammed Abbou, Sihem Bensedrine, Naziha Rjiba and Hammadi Jebali, have been elected as honorary members of PEN centres and more links between PEN members and writers in Tunisia are planned for the future.
Towards the end of the month long campaign on Tunisia, International PEN was honoured to welcome Naziha Rjiba as a guest speaker at the 72nd International Congress in Berlin, Germany from 22nd to 28th May. Rjiba (an honorary member of the English and Belgian Flemish PEN centres) spoke movingly of her continual persecution and told the PEN delegation “It has been wonderful for me to be here with members of this family that holds the quills in its hands. To be with you and among you, and it is very, very important. I am very impressed by you all. Writers in my country live in a withdrawn society and the struggle is waged by political writers. I can go back to Tunisia and tell them that in PEN there is a group of writers who will stand up for them.
In a resolution passed at the Congress, PEN called upon the Tunisian Government to “lift the veil which hides the Tunisian regime’s practices of stifling freedom of expression and free access to the Internet, to end imprisonment and harassment of writers, and to comply with the rules and regulations laid down in the United Nation’s Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.”
PEN today repeats its call upon the Tunisian authorities to quash the prison sentences handed down to Mohammed Abbou and to release him immediately and unconditionally and calls additionally on the Tunisian authorities to allow writers to express themselves freely without fear of persecution in accordance with Article 19 of the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Tunisia is a signatory. As long as writers continue to be persecuted for carrying out their work in Tunisia, International PEN will seek to raise awareness of their situation and campaign on their behalf.
For full details of the Congress in Berlin, go to: http://www.internationalpen.org.uk/index.php?pid=33&aid=466
For more on the WSIS, see: http://www.itu.int/wsis/
For more information on the current situation concerning freedom of expression in Tunisia go to the IFEX Tunisia Monitoring Group (TMG) website (the Writers in Prison Committee of International PEN is a member of the TMG) and the Tunisian website Kalima, which is edited by Sihem Bensedrine and Naziha Rjiba:
http://campaigns.ifex.org/tmg
http://www.kalima.com
