On April 24

On this day in ...
... 2007 (5 years ago today), Souhayr Belhassen of Tunisia was elected president of FIDH, the Paris-based nongovernmental organization the full name of which is Fédération internationale des droits de l'homme. (Prior posts.) A journalist since the late 1970s as well as a human rights activist, Belhassen (left) was born in Tunisia in 1943 and educated at the University of Tunis and at Sciences Po in Paris. Her FIDH tenure has been marked by her promotion of women's human rights; just this past March, she was the 1st-named signatory of "L'appel des femmes arabes pour la dignité et l'égalité" ("The Call of Arab Women for Dignity and Egality"), published in the Paris daily Le Monde.

(Prior April 24 posts are here, here, here, here, and here.)

After the Arab Spring

While many Egyptians today fear violence at the polls, the non-Egyptians in their midst worry that the elections will bring increased xenophobia and widespread abuse of migrants. As we've blogged before, though the Arab spring promises liberation for many native North Africans, the migrant workers in their midst have faced deteriorating security and significant rights violations. And those North Africans who've attempted to flee to Europe to escape instability have been met with unwelcoming conditions, to say the least.
How should international migration law and policy move forward from here? This month, Dr. Khalid Koser published a report entitled Responding to Migration from Complex Humanitarian Emergencies: Lessons Learned from Libya that assesses international responses to the migration dimensions of the Libyan crisis, finding serious shortfalls in strategic planning and drawing out lessons for future complex migration crises.
The study notes that over 1 million people from Libya and Tunisia, including nationals, migrant workers, refugees and asylum-seekers, have been displaced internally and internationally. This massive migration has challenged basic services delivery, such as health, food, and shelter, and increased the vulnerability of migrants. Though the crisis in Libya is headed to resolution, Dr. Koser reminds us that this type of complex migration is likely to recur in the future due to environmental change and military intervention among other factors. The particular challenge inherent in these situations is that different categories of migrants move together so it is difficult to distinguish those entitled to special protection.
In the case of Libya, there were about 10,000 asylum seekers and refugees registered by UNHCR at the beginning of the crisis. By June 2011, 500,000 migrant workers had left Libya, largely for Tunisia and Egypt. About half of these migrants were third country nationals, 60,000 of whom were flown home (35,000 to China). As for Libyans themselves, though many have now returned, nearly 175,000 sought refugee in Egypt and nearly 325,000 fled to Tunisia. A far smaller number tried to enter Europe (43,000 from North Africa in total). About 150,000 people have been displaced within Libya.
How have countries and international organizations responded to the crisis? These internally displaced fared the worst, as humanitarian organizations were unable to penetrate Libya's borders. These IDPs will have significant needs once the country stabilizes, including access to their property, personal documentation, family reunification, and reconciliation with those who were not displaced.
For those able to escape, Egypt and Tunisia deserve kudos for keeping their borders open despite the significant pressure on public services resulting from the influx. The United Kingdom and the ICRC provided significant international assistance to those who crossed into Egypt and Tunisia, including enabling migrant workers to return to their home countries. This portion of the crisis response, in particular involving significant cooperation between UNHCR and the International Organization for Migration, was perhaps the most successful. However, it was still difficult for many countries to address the return of migrant workers, given their poor economic circumstances and dependence on remittances from these workers.
Ironically, the most vociferously negative response has come from Europe, which received the smallest number of migrants. Most of those who made it to Lampedusa have now been transferred to Italy for processing, though this has not been without political ramifications (further described here). In the meantime, FRONTEX has stepped up maritime operations and the EU has offered financial assistance and training to the coastguard in Tunisia. France and Italy are undertaking joint patrols by sea.
Dr. Koser draws out several important policy questions from these responses. How can the international community better protect internally displaced persons? Faced with only a set of non-binding principles that draw from existing international law, international organizations have faced serious obstacles in their efforts to offer aid to IDPs. Are migrant workers to be considered internally displaced persons? The Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement do not offer a clear response to this question, potentially leaving such migrants without even the limited protections accorded IDPs. Do we need a new UN agency to protect non-refugee migrants in need of protection and assistance? Though existing agencies worked together in response to the Libyan crisis, it's still unclear who deserves what level of international protection, and more importantly whether the current hierarchy of protection is appropriate for modern humanitarian crises.

(photo credit)

'Nuff said

(Taking context-optional note of thought-provoking quotes)

'There is a lack of any debates about women's rights, certainly not in terms of how to take them forward. ... Partly, it's a reaction to the way the former regime used women's rights, and partly it's a concession to the Islamists.'

-- Ahlem Belhaj (above left), president of the Tunis-based Association tunisienne des femmes démocrates/Tunisian Association of Democratic Women. (photo credit) Belhaj was quoted in an Al Jazeera English story whose title, "Tunisia: Women's rights hang in the balance," provides a pithy commentary on women's campaign for recognition as the post-Ben Ali regime is shaped.

The man in the cage box

A scant 8 months after masses thronged to Tahrir Square and its counterparts throughout Egypt, the leader who's ouster they demanded is standing trial.
"Stand" is but a metaphor in this instance.
Former President Hosni Mubarak lay flat on a hospital bed yesterday as a prosecutor read the lengthy indictment against him aloud to the 3-judge panel and others present in a Cairo courtroom. The gurney had been wheeled into a cage box (image credit), the mesh-and-bars prisoners' dock from which Mubarak, 2 sons, and a handful of other codefendants seem destined to witness the proceedings against them.
Prosecutors have lodged multiple charges, relating to violence and corruption, against the 83-year-old Mubarak. Some carry the death penalty; for example, charges that Mubarak ordered troops to fire lethal rounds upon demonstrators. Hundreds died during the weeks that marked what's variously called North African People Power or the Arab Spring -- an ongoing phenomenon about which IntLawGrrls frequently have posted.
As occurred 1st in Tunisia, protests eventually eroded Presidential authority so much that Egypt's longtime strongman stepped down.
Efforts to form a new and democratic government have proved difficult and promise to be protracted. And yet, now, Egypt is having its national accountability moment.
The spectacle reportedly touched off strong emotions on all sides. CNN quoted Egyptian journalist Mona Eltahawy (below right) (prior post):

Every dictator in the region is watching this in total fear, thinking he could be next. And all the citizens in the region, ordinary people in the Arab or Middle East or North Africa, are thinking 'we wish we could put our tyrants on trial.'

(Tunisia already did so. In June ousted President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali and his wife were convicted in absentia of embezzlement and misuse of public funds and given 35-year sentences; they are not in jail, however, having found safe haven in Saudi Arabia.)
A National Public Radio report yesterday noted that some in Egypt still support Mubarak, and suggested that many who don't prefer that he receive capital punishment. More complex feelings were relayed by a young man who said, in paraphrase:

I am personally against executions. But he deserves it.

The outcome of the trial against Mubarak, which adjourned till next week, of course remains uncertain. So too the political future of Egypt itself.

On August 2

On this day in ...
... 216 B.C., under the command of Hannibal, armed forces from Carthage defeated a much larger army of the Roman Republic at Cannae (right) in southeast Italy. (photo credit) This battle of the 2d Punic War "is regarded as one of the greatest tactical feats in military history and, in terms of the numbers killed, the second greatest defeat of Rome." Not only was Rome's army "effectively destroyed as a fighting force," but several of its city-states consequently defected to Carthage, centered in what is now Tunisia.

(Prior August 2 posts are here, here, here, and here.)

ICC Elections: A Worrisome Update

The International Criminal Court is about to experience a massive overhaul in its professional staff, as we've discussed in posts here, here, and here. Developments in the election process to date are worrisome.

Judges
In terms of nominations to the 6 open spots on the bench, the ICC Assembly of States Parties (left) recently published an updated report setting forth the status of nominations.
The list of candidates is available here and here by region. Nominations for List A (individuals with criminal law experience per Article 36 of the ICC Statute) abound. By contrast, however, there is only 1 nomination designated under List B, which encompasses individuals with humanitarian and human rights law experience. The African states have made 5 nominations, and the rest come from Eastern Europe (2), Latin America and the Caribbean (1) (GRULAC), and Western European and Other group (2) (WEOG).

Most troubling for readers of this blog, perhaps, is that so far, there are no women nominated for the ICC bench.
To repeat: No women.
Concerns continue to be raised that the elections will be based on vote trading rather than a genuine review of each candidate on the merits. An Independent Panel on ICC Judicial Elections, featuring IntLawGrrl alumna Patricia M. Wald as Vice Chair, is assessing the candidates based on the treaty's requirements, as we've discussed here.

The nomination period ends on September 2, 2011, although this can be extended.

Prosecutor
In terms of the Chief Prosecutor position, the Search Committee will continue to accept submissions and expression of interest until September 9, 2011. (See here for the Committee's Terms of Reference.)
The Search Committee and the Coalition for the ICC report that at this moment the Committee has under consideration the names of approximately 26 persons, only 5 of whom are women. Fifteen hail from WEOG, 8 from the African Group, 1 from Eastern Europe, and 2 from GRULAC.
Notably, the Asian group has produced no candidates for either the bench or the prosecutor's office.
It is no surprise that Fatou Bensouda (right), Deputy Prosecutor, is in the running for Chief Prosecutor. (See our prior posts here).
Running too for a spell was Hassan Jallow, Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. However, both individuals hail from the Gambia, so Bensouda would have had to step down or be relieved of her position as Deputy Prosecutor for Jallow to serve, since Article 42(2) requires the Prosecutor and Deputy to be of different nationalities. Jallow has apparently withdrawn his candidacy, although he had the support of influential states such as the United Kingdom, which has a seat on the Search Committee.
Belgian Serge Brammertz (prior IntLawGrrls posts), the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia is also in the running, although it may be difficult for him to leave his current position with both the Karadzic and Mladic cases in trial. One other name that has been floated is Canadian Louise Arbour, former Chief Prosecutor of the ICTY and former High Commissioner for Human Rights

Assembly of States Parties.
The Bureau of the Assembly of States Parties (ASP) has announced that it will nominate Estonian Ambassador Tiina Intelmann (left) as a candidate to be President of the ASP for the next 3 years, replacing Ambassador Christian Wenawesar of Liechtenstein. Intelmann has represented Estonia before the United Nations and the Organization of Security and Co-operation in Europe. If approved at a meeting of the entire Assembly in December, Intelmann will be the first woman to lead the Assembly, which, following the recent ratification by Tunisia, now constitutes 116 states.
Elections will take place at the 10th ASP session in New York in December 2011. Stay tuned!

On May 12

On this day in ...
... 1943, Allied forces declared victory in the armed conflict in Africa, one of many theaters of World War II combat. The New York Times reported that the British had captured the "Prussian Commander in Chief of the Axis forces in North Africa," and that approximately 110,000 German and 40,000 Italian troops also had fallen into Allied custody in the previous week's "final assaults" on 2 cities in Tunisia, the national capital of Tunis and a regional capital, Bizerte. (map credit)

(Prior May 12 posts are here, here, and here, and here.)

The Missing Peace

(Delighted to welcome back alumna Mary Ellen O'Connell, who contributes this guest post)

The coalition military action in Libya began March 19, 2011. This may sound like a very brief time considering that the United States is heading into its eleventh year of war in Afghanistan and ninth in Iraq. But it is ten times longer than President Barack Obama’s prediction: Remember, he was contemplating days, not weeks. (photo credit)
More worrying is his new reason for being in Libya. The President told the nation that military action was absolutely necessary to protect civilians. Now Obama, British Prime Minister Cameron and French President Nicolas Sarkozy say military action will continue until Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi is gone.
The dramatic change should surprise no one. Protecting civilians with major military force in Libya was always an unlikely prospect: “humanitarian” is not a military objective. Removing a national leader and defeating an army, however, are.
And as soon as Ghadafi is gone, President Obama can declare victory and move on, which plays well in the sound-bite world of politics.
What does not play well is patient, careful, costly support of national transformation. Action truly designed to protect civilians, and, more importantly, to lead to a healthy, well-governed Libya, does not play well– it is anything but a sound bite. As I wrote in the days before the military intervention in “How to Save a Revolution”, the Libyan rebels made the error of taking up arms in a war they could not win– perhaps they were emboldened by the loose talk of a military intervention in Egypt? By the time they made their fateful decision, the only way to minimize death and destruction in Libya and to support democracy was to get the rebels out of Libya, to a safe place where they could build a peaceful movement.
The departure of the armed resistance would have left Ghadafi no reason to continue fighting in Benghazi. He might have been able to persuade his forces to continue attacking for the sake of revenge, but it is hard to say that more people would have died or been displaced in that scenario than has occurred in this month of heavy bombing by two sides.
Once the rebels were in safety, they could have selected leaders and built a movement. With that movement in place, its leaders would have been in a position to negotiate a peaceful transition with Ghadafi.
One of the great differences between Libya, Egypt, and Tunisia is that Egypt and Tunisia had a human rights movement in place. Well-trained lawyers, with connections to counter-numbers in Europe and North America, were in a position to work peacefully for change. Their struggle is far from over, but they have the building blocks that just do not exist in Libya.
This sort of longer term, deep thinking about how to assist in Libya apparently did not appeal to President Obama’s advisers, who have been committed to military action for human rights since the failed interventions in Rwanda and Bosnia.
I say failed interventions because that is what they were. There has been an insistence on misreading the facts of Rwanda and Bosnia, saying they were failures to intervene, rather than what they were: failed interventions. (See this video clip of my exchange with State Department Legal Adviser Harold Koh on international law and intervention at last month's ASIL Annual Meeting.)
Libya was turning into another failed intervention until Obama, Sarkozy, and Cameron announced the new goal: removing Ghadafi.
Once Ghadafi is gone, I predict victory will be declared, and once again the wrong lessons will be learned from the use of military force.
If another month goes by, however, and the fighting continues, I urge President Obama to change directions again. Ask the African Union to renew the peace effort that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton dismissed because it involved negotiating with Ghadafi. Put peace, reconciliation, protection of civilians, and the building of a new Libya ahead of sound-bite politics.

What Role for the African Human Rights System in the Current Transformation of North Africa?

(My thanks to IntLawGrrls for the opportunity to contribute this guest post)

TUNIS - In Tunis last week, human rights defenders from across North Africa gathered to discuss the role that the regional African human rights system can play in the current transformation of North Africa. They were attending a workshop organized by the North African Litigation Initiative, a programme established by the Cairo-based Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights.
Pictured above at far right, I work as the Legal Advisor for NALI, and it was our pleasure to host participants from Mauritania, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt and Sudan.
We were also honored to have Justice Fatsah Ouguergouz (left), the Algerian Justice from the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, join us for the three-day proceedings.
It was particularly exciting to hear from Justice Ouguergouz given the pioneering ruling issued by the African Court on March 25. In issuing this Order for provisional measures against Libya, the Court instructed Libya to

'immediately refrain from any action that would result in loss of life or violation of physical integrity of persons.'

The Court’s judgment is its first binding ruling issued against a State. It is an important intervention by the African human rights system in recent North African events.
Overall, however, the view of the workshop participants is that the response of the African system to developments in North Africa has, to date, been slow and lacking in conviction.
Indeed, the fact that African institutions mandated with protecting and promoting human rights have, on the whole, reacted in a limited manner to events in North Africa led a couple of human rights workers to criticize our decision to hold the Tunis workshop. One human rights lawyer from the United Kingdom wrote to me a couple of weeks ago and said that he felt that the workshop was “mistimed.” The African human rights bodies, he said, could only offer recourses that are “time consuming and typically remote from real effects in actual situations.” At this point, he said, it was necessary both in Tunisia and across North Africa to deal with immediate human rights abuses and the rebuilding of domestic institutions. “So why,” he asked, “was this topic chosen at this time and place?”
This question played through my mind on the first day when I arrived in Tunis and went downtown to have tea with a Tunisian activist. Tanks and barbed wire lined the streets (left and below). But the atmosphere was initially peaceful: a couple of women were even taking photographs of each other with the soldiers and tanks.
Suddenly, however, the mood changed. Police with batons and riot shields began chasing a group of young men and all of us sitting at the street-tables ran inside for cover. My Tunisian friend explained:

'The tensions are rising. There is frustration that reform is not occurring quickly enough. We have so much work to do and so many human rights abuses that must be remedied.'

This experience in downtown Tunis emphasized the continuing volatility in Tunisia – a volatility also evident in Egypt, where I live and work. It highlighted the fact that many immediate, domestic steps must be undertaken to ensure the creation of democratic societies fully removed from the past oppressive regimes.
Yet the fact that much work needs to be completed at the domestic level should not exclude engagement with the regional human rights system. On the contrary, it is especially important at this particular moment to consider how the new governments in Tunisia and Egypt (and also, let us hope, in Libya) can develop strong relationships with the African human rights system so that the new regimes actively promote, protect and fulfill the rights they pledged to uphold when they ratified the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
The belief that the African human rights system has the potential to reinforce and strengthen domestic reform certainly influences the work of the EPIR, my organization in Cairo. Over the last few months, EIPR staff members have been working around the clock to document and address the continuing domestic human rights abuses in Egypt (see also here).
However, EIPR has also been looking beyond the domestic judicial realm and has been attempting to engage with the African human rights system. In partnership with Human Rights Watch and INTERIGHTS, we requested the African Commission to issue provisional measures to stop human rights abuses in both Egypt and Libya. In the case of Libya, such requests undoubtedly helped to motivate the African Commission to refer the situation to the African Court.
It is critical that North African human rights defenders take this type of proactive approach so that the African human rights system is encouraged to play a positive role in the transformation of North African societies. In his introductory remarks to our Tunis workshop, Justice Ouguergouz reminded us:

'The African Court cannot act, but can only react. Civil society therefore has a crucial role to play in creating an environment where it is possible for both the African Court and Commission to take steps to protect human rights.'

Following these remarks by Justice Ouguergouz, one Tunisian lawyer took me aside and showed me some of the scars that riddle his body following 8 years of imprisonment under the Ben Ali regime. The lawyer told me:

'I will fight for justice for these scars, and for the scars of thousands of other Tunisians. After this workshop I know that I needn’t stop at the domestic level. I will continue the fight for justice within the African system so my country can become a place of tolerance and dignity.'

It remains to be seen how exactly the African human rights system can play a role in the incredible societal transformations occurring across North Africa. One thing, however, is clear: North African human rights defenders are determined to seize this historical moment to ensure that human rights principles are respected. It is NALI’s mission to ensure they are given assistance to utilize every means available to achieve this goal, including recourse to the African regional system.

The road from Sidi Bouzid to Algiers

ALGIERS – Straight from a visit to revolutionary Tunisia next door, I returned to Algiers a month after observing the first marches organized here by the National Coordination for Change and Democracy (CNCD) in mid-February. As the season turns meteorologically, I wanted to see if the North African spring is on its way here politically as well. The series of protests staged over the weekend suggested just such a possibility, but also that the road may be long and difficult.
On Saturday March 19, a group of about a hundred stalwart demonstrators stood on the Place de 1er Mai (First of May Square), at the now weekly gathering called by one section of the recently bifurcated CNCD. They included activists from opposition political parties, women’s rights advocates, and people who were just plain fed up with their lot. This small but resolute troop was surrounded (and vastly outnumbered) by policemen in blue jumpsuits who pushed them around, and attempted to make them simply go away. At one point these cops encircled a small group of women, including a 62 year old wearing a long robe who says she recently lost her housing, and forced them out of the square altogether. Their grievances will be much less easy to dislodge.
I am sorry to see fewer people demonstrating now than in February, and ask an expert on the protests, the journalist Madjid Makedhi, who has covered many of them for the El Watan newspaper, why this is the case. He says the diminished numbers are entirely understandable in light of the massive security presence that has been mobilized to counter the marches. There is even a helicopter overhead. And, as if to underscore his explanation, as we talk he is forced to move from place to place by policemen, all the while explaining that he is a journalist. According to Makedhi,

'Algerians have been separated from politics by these security policies of the government. Today ordinary Algerians can only think about their daily lives, about taking care of their children, and trying to have enough money to satisfy the needs of their families.” But he is quick to point out that, “the fact that people are trying to live a normal life does not mean that they refuse change. It is not that they are against these efforts, it is that the government has installed fear in Algeria.'

Still, the activists refuse to give up.
Cherifa Kheddar, the prominent women’s rights advocate I saw arrested on Feb. 12, has been at every single Saturday protest since then. She was in the First of May Square again on March 19 with her sign calling for the abolition of the gender-discriminatory family code, and carrying a bag full of similar placards for others. However, the authorities ripped them all up. Finding herself empty-handed, she then raised her hand in the victory sign (photo top left), and asked,

'Are you going to try to take my fingers away from me now?'

Why were they still here? Yacine Teguia, from the leftwing opposition party known as the Mouvement Démocratique et Social (MDS), explained to a group of journalists:

'We are sick of seeing young people having no prospect but to kill themselves. Today, we have workers who are threatening to commit collective suicide. We can either get together and express ourselves democratically and develop collective solutions, or we can leave people facing a wall, facing death.'

His concern took me back 48 hours to my visit to Sidi Bouzid, the town about three hours south of Tunis that gave birth to the Tunisian revolution. This remote city with its bustling main street and omnipresent trilingual revolutionary graffiti (“Stand up for your rights.” “Stay strong, Tunisia. The world is proud of you.”) was the setting for the desperate catalytic act of Mohamed Bouazizi.
Bouazizi was the – now-legendary – unemployed man who set himself on fire in front of the provincial headquarters when the produce he sold to support his family was confiscated and he was slapped by an official. He died on January 4, and thereby launched a now truly transnational revolutionary moment. A young man in Bouazizi’s neighborhood tells me he not only poured gasoline all over himself, but drank it before setting himself alight. Looking at the terrible pictures of the 26-year-old completely bandaged in hospital, you can only shudder to think how much he might have suffered. When I visit Sidi Bouzid, Mohamed Bouazizi’s picture adorns the public square downtown. And it is right here that I find (left) other young people on March 17 – three months to the day of the now world-famous self-immolation – with desperate eyes and urgent appeals, seemingly an entire generation of Bouazizis, possessing diplomas that have still not translated into jobs, on hunger strike since March 14 in a tent.
These same young people had started the Tunisian revolution when they took to the streets in December after the suicide, but are still waiting for that same revolution to concretely improve their own lives. They still call for “bread, freedom and dignity.” (“el khobz, el houria wa’l karama”) Importantly, the revolution does mean that they can now express their agony freely, and are allowed to remain here in the public square. Nevertheless, many of them told me:

'I am ready to die.'

Will governments in North Africa – and beyond – save this generation of would-be Bouazizis?
Unfortunately, regional self-immolation did not begin in December 2010. In both Tunisia and Algeria, I am told that people have been setting themselves on fire in protest for the last two years. Mohamed Bouazizi, however tragic, brave and fateful his action, was not the first and certainly not the last...
Just three days after my trip to Sidi Bouzid, on Sunday March 20, I spend the day in Algiers at a protest (right) of teachers and the new National Committee for the Defense of the Rights of the Unemployed. About 600 protestors lined both sides of the street near the seat of the Presidency for hours, singing, chanting slogans (“hukuma degage” or “government out,” borrowed from Tunisia; al hukuma dar al ajaza ,“the government is an old folks home”;“al shaab yourid iskat el chomage,”a bilingual rendering of “the people want to bring down unemployment”; and still other slogans calling on the national and international press to broadcast their demands). They sing “miyat wa khamsa wa khamseen milliards” (“155 billion”), the song written by Amazigh Kateb about the foreign exchange reserves Algeria has from selling its natural gas. As the blogger Amine Menadi from Collectif Algerie Pacifique told me:

'This country is rich but its people are poor.'

Everyone has demands today. The demonstrating teachers want better working conditions. The protesting jobless want decent jobs.
On the other side of the street, waving their Algerian passports, stood a group of now unemployed workers who fled Libya during the current conflict and want to be assisted by the state. More than anything, they all want to be heard. The members of the National Committee for the Defense of the Rights of the Unemployed were supposed to gather at the iconic Martyrs Square. However, when I arrived there this morning I found it entirely shut down by policemen, and learned by phone that in the face of this blockade, they decided to join the teachers up the hill in the Golfe region of Algiers.
At the new location, there were as many policemen in riot gear as there were demonstrators. They lined the street in front of the protestors. (bottom photo) I wonder what the young policemen must be thinking as they stand in the street all day with their youthful counterparts. Fadia Babou, a serious 24 year-old unemployed woman in a corduroy jacket who used to work for a radio station, tells me:

'Really, the young policemen are living in the same situation we are.'

In recent weeks, there have been multiplying manifestations of discord – communal guards marching, wounded veterans sitting in, doctors on strike, community meetings demanding change. Many more are planned. One of the young teachers tells me the problem is that each sector is demonstrating separately and there is currently no structure available to bring them all together. He is not hopeful about this as he says all the political parties are discredited and no single forum appeals to everyone.
Notably, both the teachers and the unemployed have come from around the country to be here. Some have travelled over night by bus from Mostaganem, a seven-hour journey. I interview one of them, Dalila Touati (left), a young woman with long blond hair and a degree in physics, who was arrested this past Wednesday March 16 for distributing flyers calling on people to attend this very demonstration, an act which she says was considered tantamount to inciting revolt. She spent 24 hours in custody, was repeatedly questioned by police, and is supposed to appear in court on March 26. Dalila is moved to tears as she tells me she is not political and simply wants decent work for everyone. Her words take me back to the tent of simmering youth in central Sidi Bouzid, when she pleas that young people not have to kill themselves but instead be given the possibility to build a future.
Standing next to her, a 28 year- old man also from Mostaganem says,

'We thank the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions for the fact that there is no police violence here today. The authorities know this situation could explode anytime, and might just do so if a cop touches a demonstrator.'

But he also notes that only one woman came with the group of ten present today from Mostaganem because they were frightened by Dalila Touati’s arrest. He says that everyone will go to her court appearance. I hope he is right. Her unassuming bravery merits widespread solidarity.
Later in the day, I am told that some of these protestors are planning to spend the night on the sidewalk, refusing to give up the fight. They have taken the lyrics of Bob Marley, via the message of the graffiti in Sidi Bouzid, to “stand up for your rights” seriously. However, Algeria’s road ahead may be quite different than that of Tunisia or Egypt. The lingering nightmares of the 1990s, when some 200,000 died in a terrible civil war with the fundamentalist armed groups, are partly responsible for this. According to this week’s Jeune Afrique, the distinction is also partially due to the fact that much more freedom of expression is possible here than in Ben Ali’s Tunisia and this provides something of a pressure valve. The possible impact of the nearby conflict in Libya is a wild card. And Algeria possesses the resources to buy off sectors of the society, for a while at least.
However, one of the biggest obstacles may be a lack of popular belief in the possibility of change.
On March 19, I attended a discussion at the Chihab bookstore of a recent work about Ali Boumendjel, an important figure in Algeria’s independence movement. Boumendjel, a lawyer, died in French custody in 1957 after 43 days of torture. Author Malika Rahal says that generation of activists was able to make the sacrifices they did because of their conviction that another future, beyond colonialism, was possible. Today, notwithstanding recent events in neighboring countries, the belief in the real possibility of an alternative future is shaky.
I interview Boumendjel’s niece, the distinguished professor of medicine and women’s rights activist Fadila Chitour. At the Feb. 12 demonstration in Algiers, she was thrown to the ground and trampled during a police charge. Today she explains to me that many Algerians suffer from what she calls wounded memories, from the sense that so many deaths in the country since independence – in the protests of October 1988, in the Berber spring of 2001, in the terrible 1990s – have been in vain. Hence, there is a pervasive feeling that making sacrifices now will not change anything. This profound disillusionment with politics, which echoes Makedhi’s assessment, makes rallying the population to protest much more difficult than elsewhere. Dr. Chitour is, however, persuaded that change will come to Algeria. She asserts:

'It is ineluctable.'

The optimism expressed by some at this last set of protests – by a brightly smiling young teacher in hijab, by those who traveled over night at a high cost relative to their means to attend – bears witness to this.
However, the big question for Chitour is not whether change will come or when, but how:

'Will it be by peaceful means or not?'

She says that Algerians are terrorized by the idea that blood could flow in the streets again. And so, she and the other members of the CNCD will keep organizing their peaceful protests every Saturday trying to make sure that grievances are channeled non-violently. Meanwhile, the Committee of the Unemployed will meet soon to assess its next move as well.
My fervent hope is that the leaders of Algeria will heed the calls of the peaceful protestors, while that is possible. This will require amongst other things responsiveness to the youth, unity in the opposition and a seizing by all of this “moment of grace” as the Tunisian human rights activist Alya Chamari described this spring across North Africa.
Is there a road that leads from Sidi Bouzid to Algiers?
That remains to be seen. Still, I cannot forget what Chamari says when I ask her if there is a message for Algerians, and others, from the Tunisian revolution:

'You must never lose hope. And you must count on your youth.'

(All photos by Karima Bennoune. A short version of this post appeared today in The Guardian.)

On March 20

On this day in ...

... 1956 (55 years ago today), Tunisia won independence from France, which had exercised a "protectorate" over the North African territory since 1881. In 1987 Tunisia's 1st President would be deposed by a successor -- Zine El Abidine Ben Ali -- who, as we've posted, ruled until his own people ousted him from office this past January. Protests have persisted since then, and the flight of refugees from conflict-ridden Libya has exacerbated the situation.

(Prior March 20 posts are here, here, here, and here.)

People Power Meets Fortress Europe

The people power movement has been celebrated throughout North Africa in recent weeks, but the resultant political unrest has also pushed many Tunisians to flee their homes. Some fear reprisal under a new political regime; others are simply concerned for their safety in an unstable political environment. Though the push for democratic change in Tunisia has been welcomed in Europe, not so the Tunisians fleeing political instability in their native land. European nations have been quick to apply a security rather than a humanitarian lens to the issue of North African migration.
As noted on the Immigration Prof blog, Italy declared a humanitarian emergency last weekend, referring to the estimated 5,000 Tunisians who have arrived on the Italian island of Lampedusa in recent weeks as a "Biblical exodus." The migrants are fleeing a state of lawlessness in Tunisia, where strikes and clashes have become commonplace and police protection is scarce. IOM officials described the migration as a "mixed flow", including both refugees and economic migrants.
Lampedusa, which is closer to North Africa than to Italy, has a native population of 5,000 and an immigration holding center designed for 850 people. While most have been moved to better-equipped migrant camps elsewhere in Italy, the 1,814 Tunisians who remain threatened a hunger strike yesterday rather than face return.
Last weekend, Italian Interior Minister Roberto Maroni (of the anti-immigrant Northern League party) asked the EU border patrol to step up controls in the Mediterranean, the EU to cover part of the cost of deporting migrants (to the tune of 100 million euros), and EU members to share the burden of accommodating them. On Tuesday, the EU offered fast-track money to Italy to assist with accommodation infrastructure, material aid and medical care, social assistance, legal aid, and language assistance.
The individual member states have not been quite so forthcoming. Austria, Germany, and France have all refused to come to the aid of the Tunisian migrants. On Monday, France said that it "will not tolerate any illegal immigration from Tunisia." Though the French government recognized that there might be refugees in the flow, it said there were very few such cases. Moreover, the French advocated a return to regular patrols along the coasts of North Africa to keep immigration levels as low as possible. On Tuesday, the German Interior Minister said, "we cannot solve all the world's problems."
While the EU appeared willing to take a stab at stepping up border controls, its bureaucratic rigidity has left it ill-prepared to do so. On Monday, Frontex, the EU agency focused on border security, said it was ready to assist with the Tunisian situation and indeed had sent two experts to Lampedusa, but could not yet get involved because it had not received a formal request from Italy for assistance. And the idea of increasing EU patrols in the Mediterranean through Frontex could take weeks as EU nations have to agree on personnel and equipment contributions to the mission.
To its credit, in addition to the aid to Italy, the EU announced a 258 million Euro aid package to Tunisia through 2013. Unfortunately some of these funds are earmarked for radar equipment and patrol boats for the Tunisian military -- presumably to prevent migrant outflows. After refusing Italy's request to put its armed forces on Tunisian soil in order to put an end to these migration streams, the Tunisian government itself has been enforcing European borders. Tunisian troops have already arrested between 1000 and 1500 people trying to flee; given that at least some of those in flight are refugees, encouraging such border closure appears contrary to international refugee law obligations. Even worse, the Tunisian coast guard was accused last week of ramming and sinking a ship containing 120 migrants headed to Italy; 5 died and 30 are missing. People power, undaunted by brutal security forces and dictators alike, may be no match for Fortress Europe.

On February 18

On this day in ...
... 1162, during the time of the Crusades, one Amaury 1er (Amalric the First), born into a family with roots in France, was crowned King of Jerusalem. He was permitted to ascend to the throne on the death of his brother, on one condition: that he repudiate his wife, Agnès de Courtenay, whom barons deemed a frivolous schemer, "unworthy" to become "queen of a city as important as Jerusalem." (Their complaints bear echo to some of those levied recently against 1st ladies in Tunisia and Jordan (here and here).) Agnès would marry 4 times. After the death of her royal ex-husband and enthronement of their son, Agnès would return to court -- and to court intrigues. (credit for depiction of the 1162 "annulment" of Agnès and Amaury following a marriage that had produced 2 children)


(Prior February 18 posts are here, here, here, and here.)

"Yesterday Egypt, today Algeria"

ALGIERS – In the wake of Friday's historic events in Cairo, over 1,000 peaceful demonstrators defied a ban on protests in Algiers on the Place de 1er Mai on Saturday.
The goal of the National Coordination Committee for Change and Democracy, the organisers of what was supposed to have been a march to Martyr's Square, was to call for an end to the 19-year state of emergency, for democratic freedoms, and for a change in Algeria's political system. Invigorated by Cairo's great event, this Saturday in Algiers they chanted slogans like "Djazair Horra Dimocratia" ("A free and democratic Algeria"), "système dégage" ("government out") and indeed,

'Yesterday Egypt, today Algeria'.

There were small echoes of Egypt. Thousands of police in full riot gear painted the square blue in their uniforms, attempting to occupy the space and prevent the demonstration, yet the protestors remained, for hours risking arrest and beatings, shouting slogans and singing effervescently. A large group of young men, with the obvious cooperation of the police, entered the scene violently, chanting in favour of President Bouteflika (in power since 1999) and attempting to provoke fights with the protestors. (This was so reminiscent of Cairo, that for a moment, one half-expected a charge of men riding camels like in Tahrir Square.) At one point, these youths rushed the bench where I stood taking photographs with journalists, and we all toppled to the ground. Later, the pro-government provocateurs started throwing large stones.
The single most moving part of the day was the women's demonstration. A group of about 50 of the many women present – a few young women in hijab, many other young women in jeans, older, seasoned feminist activists wearing khaffiyehs and dresses – took up position next to the bus station at 1st of May Square holding a large Algerian flag. (credit for Reuters/Zohra Bensemra photo above)

One of these women, prominent psychologist Cherifa Bouatta (below right), told me on Friday as we watched the celebration in Cairo:

'I have been waiting for this for years. This is the beginning. From the years of terrorism [the 1990s] and what came after, everything seemed lost. Our hopes for a just society were dying. But now the possibilities are fantastic.'

On Saturday in 1st of May Square, she and the other women explored those possibilities. They occupied the street; they called for profound political change; they ululated (what Algerians call "pousser les youyous"; a high-pitched glottal chanting); they sang "Kassaman", the national anthem, and "Listiqlal" (independence), a song of the anti-colonial movement that freed the country from French rule in 1962 at the cost of a million martyrs. Most importantly, they refused to cede to the police. The pro-Boutef youth repeatedly confronted them, and even began shouting in favour of an Islamic state at one point as a confused riposte to the women.
The most surreal moment came as I watched the unyielding female activists attacked by a group of young policewomen in pants and boots – their own career paths only imaginable thanks to the hard work of some of the very women activists they hit and shoved. A young policewoman, the age of one of the students I teach, slapped me for taking a picture as this occurred. The women protesters' only "crime" had been to stand peacefully on the sidewalk of their own capital city singing the national anthem and calling for democracy.
Reportedly, as many as 350 were arrested during the day. Many were roughed up, including the prominent, 90-year-old lawyer Ali Yahia Abdennour, who is the honorary president of the Algerian League for the Defence of Human Rights (LADDH). Cherifa Khaddar, the redoubtable human rights activist and president of Djazairouna, an association of the victims of the fundamentalist terrorism of the 1990s, whose brother and sister were brutally murdered in 1996 by the Armed Islamic Group (GIA), was arrested twice. I watched in horror as policewomen manhandled her – unfortunately, not an oxymoron.
Just before she was arrested the first time, Khaddar (left; credit) was attacked by a group of the young pro-government "protesters", some of whom attempted to pull her clothes off while another attempted to simulate sex with her. A policewoman dragged her away from this melee, only to help a group of male cops throw her to the ground and arrest her, rather than the perpetrators. Later on, at the police station, she found herself in a cell with 20 other women. Together, they continued the protest, chanting and singing:

'My brothers do not forget our martyrs. They are calling you from their tombs. Listen to their voices, you free ones.'

The police became enraged and attacked the women in the cell, dragging one away by her hair. Khaddar was later released.

The situation is fluid. As the protest waned, the square was taken over by a large group of mostly young male protesters, many from the surrounding neighbourhood. Some of them had previously chanted pro-government slogans and insulted the women demonstrators, but now took up anti-government slogans themselves, talked supportively with the freed Khaddar and challenged the police alone. Hundreds of riot police then brought out their guns, marched in formation and shut down the square altogether. It looked like a scene out of the Costa Gavras film "Z".
I hope that what happens in Algeria in the coming period will be watched carefully, notwithstanding the understandable preoccupation with events to the east in Egypt. (Prior IntLawGrrls posts.) The contexts are different, but the struggles are the same. Moreover, the brave Algerian activists of 1st of May Square – women and men, young and old – also deserve solidarity and support on the road ahead. Algerian writer and journalist Mustapha Benfodil said that this demonstration's goal was to turn 1st of May Square into an Algerian Tahrir Square, and that what occurred on Saturday was a very important step in that direction. But he noted that much work remains to be done to that end.
Clearly, the wall of fear needs to be broken down here – perhaps a harder task than elsewhere, given the terrible violence of the 1990s that killed as many as 200,000 people and terrorised the entire society. The opposition needs to be united and organised. Additionally, activists need to build critical links with broader segments of the society to achieve the political change so clearly needed in the country and which the police overreaction only underscored – change that Tunisia and Egypt have proven to be entirely possible.
For now, perhaps it is more accurate to say,

'Yesterday Egypt, tomorrow Algeria …'

(Cross-posted at the Guardian)

North African women's power?

'How many women are there?'

The question, heard on my commuter train yesterday, spoke volumes.
The question referred to this week's anti-government protests in Egypt. But it applied to all the ferment throughout North Africa and the Middle East this young but remarkable new year.
Mass demonstrations in Egypt, which yesterday prompted 30-plus-year-President Hosni Mubarak to attempt an LBJ.
Mass demonstrations as well, as IntLawGrrl Karima Bennoune has posted, in Algeria and Tunisia. Still more in Yemen and Sudan. Plans are on for Syria this weekend.
Then too there was yesterday's trying-to-get-in-front-of-events dismissal of the Cabinet of Jordan, another site of demonstrations, by its king.
The gender dynamics in countries like these are fraught. For that reason, a marker of the true democratic potential of these events is inherent in the commuter's question quoted above. Rephrased, it is:

Are women taking part, and if so, to what extent?

As to the 1st part of the question, it seems the answer is "yes."
Although most photos shows seas of men, within can be found islands of women. Women, young and old, with and without head coverings. (In addition to photos accompanying this post, see, e.g., here and here.) Other women reporting on the scene, via all the channels of social networking about which Hope Lewis posted earlier this week. (Some are local women. Some -- like Sonia Verma, tweeting for Toronto's Globe and Mail (far right), and Harriet Sherwood, tweeting for London's Guardian (near right) -- are not.)
As to the 2d part of the question?

How extensive is women's participation, now and for the long term?

The answer awaits further events. In the meantime, IntLawGrrls welcome readers' realtime comments and reports.

(Clockwise from top left: Suhaib Salem/Reuters photo of women at demonstration in Egypt appeared in a photo array yesterday at The New York Times' site; credit for Reuters/Muhammad Hamed photo of Jan. 28 demonstration in Amman, Jordan; credit for Jan. 30 BBC image of Sudan protest; credit for Jan. 15 cover photo from the Paris daily Libération, depicting a protest in Tunisia; credit for Hani Mohammed/AP photo of students chanting at Jan. 29 Yemen protest)

North African People Power: Saturday in Algiers

(Part 2 of IntLawGrrl Karima Bennoune's series on developments in North Africa; Part 1 appeared 1st at IntLawGrrls, here, and, we're proud to say, was reprinted at The Nation, here.)

Today the Algerian government tried to hold back the winds of change blowing westward from neighboring Tunisia by besieging its own capital city.

A peaceful protest called by the Algerian opposition party, the Rassemblement pour la culture et la démocratie (RCD), on the Place du 1er Mai was forcefully disrupted by large numbers of heavily armed riot police. One report claimed that 10,000 police had been deployed. Meanwhile, as many as 42 people were injured, several seriously, and others arrested, including a photojournalist. (photo credit)

Security forces encircled the RCD headquarters on the Didouche Mourad, the main thoroughfare of Algiers, and set up checkpoints to prevent protestors from arriving in the capital from other parts of the county, or from reaching the Place du 1er Mai from other parts of the city. As depicted in this YouTube video, the trapped protestors – and those on balconies above – waved Algerian and Tunisian flags and chanted “Djazaïr, horra, dimocratia.” (“A free and democratic Algeria!”)
Today’s protest had been organized around very specific demands, set forth in the poster below right:

► the lifting of the state of emergency in place since 1992,

► the opening of political space,

► the restoration of individual liberties and constitutional rights, and

► the liberation of those demonstrators arrested during the riots and protests that erupted across Algeria earlier this month who remain detained.

In fact, today’s events but illustrate the importance of those very demands.

The RCD had applied for a permit for this demonstration – and the government summarily denied permission. Hence, the gathering was technically unlawful, putting protestors at risk of arrest. The wilaya, or province, of Algiers put out a widely broadcast statement Thursday calling on the population to show “wisdom and vigilance,” and not to respond to the call to protest. According to these authorities’ Orwellian message, “protests in Algiers are not authorized and any public gathering is to be considered a breach of the peace.” They acted on those pronouncements today.

Many Algerians remember all too well the émeutes of October 1988 when a previous generation of protestors were shot – perhaps as many as 500 in a week’s time – arrested in large numbers, and tortured. And this week the United Nations said that 100 people have died in recent events in neighboring Tunisia. So, there is reason to be concerned about the safety of those who will be involved in what are likely now to be ongoing demonstrations.

In the beginning, the U.S. media and government paid little attention to the protests in neighboring Tunisia. That mistake should not be repeated. The international media should closely follow developments in Algeria so as to let the Algerian government – and democracy activists – know that the world is watching.

Today’s events come amid escalating political tensions in the country.

In recent days Ahmed Badaoui, a trade unionist, was arrested and accused of fomenting rebellion in relation to a text message he sent regarding events in Tunisia. Subsequently, a coalition of political parties, human rights groups, unemployed youth and trade unionists met and agreed to hold a joint protest on February 9, which will mark the nineteenth anniversary of the declaration of a state of emergency in Algeria.
Peaceful protests like these are crucial because real change is needed and demanded by so many Algerians:

► One is the man with desperate eyes whom I interviewed in Algeria in October, a victim of the fundamentalist terrorism of the 1990s, unable to obtain a job, traveling from government office to office unsuccessfully seeking assistance for himself and his children with his collection of ripped documents.

► Or the Algerian artists who last week braved the police in the Rue Hassiba Ben Bouali – an Algiers street named for the nationalist heroine killed by the French Army - to express their opposition to the stifling of freedom of expression.

► Then there are those who live ten to a room in the quartiers populaires with few prospects of getting a job or getting ahead, and without avenues to peacefully express their anguish.

► Or those countless harragas who as a result attempt to flee illegally by boat across the Mediterranean to Europe every year in search of a better life, and too often find an anonymous death on the sea.

► And finally, those Algerian men and women who have expressed the ultimate frustration in recent days setting their own bodies on fire as if to try and recreate Mohamed Bouaziz’s catalytic Tunisian moment.

In fact, according to the Algerian newspaper El Watan, this week these various manifestations of despair intersected when a group of young harragas set their own boat on fire after being caught by the authorities. Remember Fanon’s “the wretched of the earth”? These are the wretched of the sea. How desperate must a young person be when he would rather burn himself to death than return home?

On the subject of the rash of self-immolations, see the excellent article in the January 21 issue of El Watan by Chawki Amari, Melanie Matarese, Ramdane Koubabi and Ghellab Smail, entitled “Immolation: I burn therefore I am.” It features the testimonies of some of those who have recently tried to incinerate themselves in protest, including a 40-year-old divorced woman struggling to make ends meet, whose mother was humiliated by local officials when she went to request that their dwelling be included in a public works program, and a 34-year-old unemployed man wrapped in bandages who explained that burning himself “was the only way to denounce la hogra (the arrogance with which officials sometimes treat ordinary people), contempt and …misery...”

Algeria fought a bloody, decade-long battle to defeat armed fundamentalism in the 1990s, and many thousands of ordinary Algerians were killed by fundamentalist terrorism. (In fact, the authors of “I burn therefore I am” make a link between that experience of largely unredressed violence and the current waves of self-immolation.) The government often uses the threat of terrorism to justify the continuation of the state of emergency and the prohibition of gatherings in the capital city like the one scheduled for today. Of course, there is a considerable irony to this, as it is the same government which has amnestied all of the perpetrators of the 1990s, to the horror of many advocates for victims. Moreover, it is profoundly heartening that attempts by fundamentalists to rally early January’s demonstrators to their banner failed entirely.

In light of all this, the government of the United States would be mistaken in thinking that the best way to assure its security interests in the ongoing fight against Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) in Algeria and elsewhere is to simply overlook legitimate popular frustration in the region.

Unquestionably, the Algerian military has played a significant role in the fight against AQIM. However, it must also be noted that as of now in Algeria there is little to no popular support for AQIM, an organization descended from the remains of the armed groups that brutalized the population in the 1990s. It is especially loathed of late because of its reported involvement in kidnappings, which have also sparked large protests in parts of the country.

Although security is used to justify the stifling of peaceful expression like today’s demonstration, it is actually vital, both for human rights and for real security, that legitimate popular grievances are heard and redressed democratically. This can help to maintain the consensus against AQIM and against fundamentalism as a political alternative, while improving the quality of life for millions. And figures like Saïd Sadi, head of the RCD, have warned that if peaceful protest proves impossible and democratic changes are not made, serious violence could erupt. He argues that there is even more anger in Algeria than in Tunisia.
What happens next depends in part on how many Algerians defy the ban on peaceful protests in Algiers and attend the February 9 demonstration, and on how the authorities respond. The best ways to honor the memory of so many who sacrificed for the country, whether during the 1950s/1960s battle against colonialism, or the 1990s battle against fundamentalism, would be to allow the next “unauthorized” peaceful march to proceed without the repression witnessed today, and to permit such gatherings to be the start of a new social democratic opening in Algeria that creates a better future for all its people.

Imagine a North Africa where a truly democratic Algeria adjoins a free Tunisia…