Dakar, Dec 26 (APS) – The Senegalese Coalition of Human Rights Defenders (COSEDDH) pleaded, Thursday, in Dakar, for the adoption of a law for the protection of the actors of these associations and the decriminalization of offenses linked to the exercise of their activities.
''We demand that the law for the protection of human rights defenders be adopted, so that the offenses to which these actors are exposed are decriminalized,'' declared Seydi Gassama, director of Amnesty International Senegal and president of COSEDDH.
He was speaking on the sidelines of the launch of the COSEDDH report entitled: ''Human rights defenders in a precarious state: The need for a protection law''.
''Human rights defenders take the risk of falling prey to offenses such as the dissemination of false news, defamation and disturbances of public order,'' lamented Seydi Gassama, reiterating his call to '' the decriminalization of these offenses''.
The president of COSEDDH therefore called on the State of Senegal to move in this direction so that a person accused of such offenses can be prosecuted in civil court and ordered to pay damages, rather than suffering criminal sanctions.
According to him, protecting human rights defenders amounts to protecting civic space, freedom of expression, freedom of association and fundamental human rights.
The PM and the Minister of Justice in favor of this law, according to Seydi Gassama
Seydi Gassama also indicated that the preliminary draft of the law for the protection of human rights defenders and the decriminalization of offenses committed in the exercise of their activities was submitted to the current Prime Minister, Ousmane Sonko, and to the Minister of Justice, Ousmane Diagne, who ''are both in favor of its adoption''.
''We will intensify advocacy with the new legislature so that this law is passed before the end of the first quarter of 2025,'' he said.
In its report, COSEDDH recalled that Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Niger and the Democratic Republic of Congo have already adopted laws protecting human rights defenders.
Its author, Sylla Sow, member of COSEDDH, stressed that the document highlights the precariousness of human rights defenders.
''This essentially concerns attacks on freedom of association, opinion, press and assembly, particularly observed between 2021 and 2024'', coinciding with the long pre-electoral period marked by violent social unrest policies, which shook Senegal, said the teacher-researcher.
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