Alkarama is deeply concerned at ECOSOC precedent decision favouring repressive governments

It will be recalled that on 29 January 2009, the ECOSOC -NGO Committee met in New York and recommended the suspension of the Arab Commission for Human Rights for one year, on a request by the Algerian Permanent Mission to the UN. Algeria's complaint was based on the appearance by the ACHR's Permanent Representative at the time, Mr Mesli, at the Human Rights Council session in Geneva on 10 June 2008. Mr Mesli is also the Legal Director of Alkarama, a Geneva-based human rights non-governmental organization (further information at end).

Alkarama expresses its serious concern at the adoption by ECOSOC of the ECOSOC-NGO Committee's decision. The adoption was a mere formality and there was no discussion or debate concerning the misinformation provided to the ECOSOC-NGO Committee by the Algerian government. The Algerian government provided no evidence to support its complaint which has been supported without question by ECOSOC and the allegations made by the Algerian government are strongly refuted as false by those affected, including Mr Mesli.

Yesterday's decision seriously undermines the credibility of ECOSOC and its NGO Committee. It sets a dangerous precedent as this decision means that repressive Governments can now more easily undermine the work of human rights advocates, and the NGOs they work for, within the UN human rights system, by presenting false and/or misleading information to the ECOSOC-NGO Committee.

Unfortunately, the ECOSOC-NGO Committee appears to be operating in a politicized manner and there are significant concerns within ECOSOC about the functionality of this committee. For example the ECOSOC representative for the United States stated yesterday, "[t]he United States had regretfully come to the conclusion that some delegations on the Committee were trying to use it to silence the voices of the United Nations of NGOs with which they did not agree." The Swedish representative speaking on behalf of the European Union stated that "States were increasingly opposing consultative status for organizations which had been critical of their human rights record, or whose views a particular State did not agree with."

This is not the first time Algeria has tried to silence an NGO working on human rights violations. In 1997, the then Algerian Ambassador publicly complained about Amnesty International due to its reporting of massive human rights violations in Algeria,  and publicly requested for Amnesty International to lose its ECOSOC consultative status. The ill-founded attack against Mr Mesli, a well-respected human rights advocate, is yet another attempt by Algeria to silence critics of its human rights record - and they have now gone a step further and successfully misled ECOSOC for their own ends.

Serious questions therefore need to be asked regarding the credibility of ECOSOC which has based an important decision on the unquestioned say-so of a well-known serious human rights violator - the Algerian government.  It is with regret that we must conclude that the Algerian government is in effect manipulating the UN system to stifle any concerns being raised over its appalling human rights record - and the UN system is allowing itself to be manipulated by the Algerian government.

The Algerian government itself consistently disregards requests from the UN human rights mechanisms - for example it has consistently ignored repeated requests from the Special Rapporteurs on torture, disappearances and extra-judicial and summary executions for a country visit. It does not make public Concluding Observations of the Treaty Bodies and we also recall that very recently its National Human Rights Institution was downgraded to status B by the International Coordinating Committee, due to a lack of its compliance with the Paris Principles. Yet, the complaint lodged by the Algerian government - which has no objective foundation - was upheld without scrutiny by ECOSOC, thereby prejudicing a respected and hardworking NGO, and defaming a recognised refugee in Switzerland.

Obviously, Alkarama is very concerned at the intentional misinformation from the Algerian Permanent Mission against Mr Mesli which has serious flow-on effects not only for our colleague, but also for all NGOs which work with the United Nations. We also regret how this decision will affect the Arab Commission for Human Rights, which has actively participated in a constructive manner with the Human Rights Council.

This decision therefore goes to the heart of civil society being able to participate in the work of the United Nations and its human rights mechanisms and affects the credibility of all the human rights work of ECOSOC and the Human Rights Council.

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