Djerba Declaration on
the campaign to decriminalize poverty, status and activism
Meeting in Djerba in November 2022, more than 50 organizations from all walks of life adopted a joint declaration to reiterate the importance of the ongoing campaign to achieve the decriminalization of poverty, status and activism. FIACAT, ACAT Congo and ACAT Chad were among the signatories.
We, the members of the Campaign for the Decriminalization of Poverty, Status and Activism, bringing together lawyers, jurists, members of the judiciary, activists and experts from over 50 organizations, including national, regional and international non-governmental organizations, philanthropic organizations national human rights institutions, legal aid organizations, research institutes, universities, and advocacy groups, and advocating for the revision and repeal of laws that target people because of their status (social, political, or economic) or activism,
Recognizing:
(i) That inequality and criminalization of poverty and marginalization continue to increase around the world, in clear violation of national and international human rights laws and standards;
ii) That states constantly use the security, justice and prison apparatus against people based on who they are, i.e. their identity and status, rather than what they do;
iii) That the criminalization of poverty and status contributes to the increase in the number of people detained in prisons around the world, exposing them to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment while keeping them in a state of great economic, physical and psychological insecurity;
iv) That due to their great social and economic precariousness, the right to a full legal defense, including the right to a lawyer, is not guaranteed to certain categories of the population;
v) That criminal laws and law enforcement policies and practices continue to be largely based on considerations inherited from colonialism, aimed at consolidating a colonial or neo-colonial social order of exclusion of the masses;
vi) That offences dating from the colonial era, such as vagrancy, loitering, begging or disorderly conduct, are still used arbitrarily and disproportionately against marginalized and discriminated social categories (1) ;
(vii) That there is an increase in the pernicious use of criminal laws and law enforcement policies and practices to suppress activism, limit freedom of expression, control the work of human rights defenders, and stifle popular insurrection or dissent;
viii) That the application of this arbitrary power has a profound human rights cost, manifesting itself in discrimination, the use of lethal force, torture
(viii) That the application of this arbitrary power has a profound cost in terms of human rights, manifested in discrimination, the use of lethal force, torture, arbitrary and excessive imprisonment, disproportionate sentences and inhumane conditions of detention.
Convinced that there is a clear and urgent need to end the decriminalization of people on the basis of poverty, status and activism by adopting human rights-based reforms.
Recalling and building on the Principles on the Decriminalization of Minor Offenses in Africa adopted by the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights in November 2017, as well as the advisory opinion of the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights declaring "vagrancy laws" incompatible with the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights
We call on:
1. The Parliamentary Affairs Committee, the Cooperation and Development Committee and the Political Committee of the Assemblée Parlementaire de la Francophonie (APF) to take up the campaign, including by creating a the campaign, including by creating a special committee or a joint working group, and to propose, in plenary, motions, resolutions, opinions or recommendations in favor of decriminalization of poverty, status and activism.
2. To the members of the APF to adopt a resolution in favor of the decriminalization of poverty, status and activism, including a resolution to the Ministerial Conference of La Francophonie (CMF) and the Permanent Council of La Francophonie (CPF), as well as recommendations to the Heads of State and Government of the OIF member countries.
3. OIF members to recognize the feminization of poverty and to address laws, policies and procedures that target women as violating entrenched patriarchal norms;
4. IFM members to integrate an intersectional and holistic approach to all reform efforts aimed at addressing the criminalization of poverty and status, which takes into account multiple and cumulative forms of discrimination;
5. 5. Member States of the African Union to take into account the advisory opinions issued by the ACHPR on laws deemed by the ACHPR to be inconsistent with the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights and to implement the Principles on the Decriminalization of Minor Offences in Africa;
6. The IOF to organize the next Summit around the decriminalization of poverty, status and activism.
7. The OIF to create an inter-ministerial commission bringing together the ministries of justice and interior of the member states of La Francophonie to adopt human rights-based reforms of the security sector and the judicial system
Signatory organizations (non-exhaustive list, in the process of being signed) :
- The Tunisian League for the Defense of Human Rights (LTDH)
- BEITY Association
- Organization Against Torture in Tunisia (OCTT)
- Tunisian Coalition Against the Death Penalty (CTPCM)
- Tunisian Association for Justice and Equality Damj
- Tunisian Association for the Defense of Children's Rights (ATDDE)
- Vigilance Committee for Democracy in Tunisia-Belgium (CVD)
- Association intersection for rights and freedoms
- Lawyers Without Borders (ASF)
- International Federation of ACATs (FIACAT)
- Relais Prison/Society (Morocco)
- ADALA Association (Morocco)
- Les Mêmes Droits pour Tous (Guinea)
- Coalition of Francophone Africa Against the Death Penalty
- Culture for Peace and Justice - CPJ - DR Congo
- Network of Human Rights Associations and Abolitionist Activists of the Death Penalty
the Death Penalty - RADHOM - DRC
- Network of Cameroonian Lawyers Against the Death Penalty - Cameroon
- Nigerian Coalition Against the Death Penalty - CONICOPEM - Niger
- Association Rights and Peace - Cameroon
- ACAT Congo
- ACAT Chad
(1) Including, but not limited to, people living in poverty, street people, marginalized racial, ethnic and caste groups, indigenous peoples and tribal groups, women, children, religious groups, people with disabilities, people discriminated against because of their health status, drug users, minorities, the elderly, members of the LGBTQIA+ community, sex workers and migrants.
 Djerba Declaration - 11 19 2022 |
