Dakar, May 13 (APS) – The Senegalese section of Amnesty International and the Senegalese League for Human Rights (LSDH) on Friday called on the State of Senegal to respect and apply the decision of the Court of Justice of the ECOWAS ordering the repeal of the decree prohibiting political demonstrations in certain places of the Senegalese capital.
“The decision of the Court of Justice is clear that the decree violated fundamental freedoms for a decade in Senegal,” said Seydi Gassama, executive director of Amnesty International’s Senegal branch, adding that ‘it is “incumbent on the State of Senegal to respect the decision of the Court by repealing this decree as soon as possible”.
”This decree violates the rights to freedom of expression and freedom of peaceful assembly of the Senegalese people”, regretted the executive director of the section of Amnesty International in Senegal during a press briefing.
He had at his side Assane Dioma Ndiaye, Alassane Seck, president of the Senegalese League for Human Rights, among others.
Alassane Seck considered that with this judgement, ”the Court of Justice has vindicated the arguments put forward by human rights defenders for a decade”.
For Me Assane Dioma Ndiaye, it is important that the State of Senegal take note of the decision of the ECOWAS Court of Justice, noting that the country had the obligation, within a period of three months, to annul this decree. which violates people’s rights.
“We reiterate to the State of Senegal our willingness to cooperate,” said Me Ndiaye, stressing that no supervised demonstration had degenerated.
Ministerial Order no. 7580 of July 20, 2011 had been taken by the Minister of the Interior Ousmane Ngom in the context of the demonstrations against the constitutional revisions paving the way for a 3rd consecutive candidacy of President Abdoulaye Wade, recalls a press document.
The provision banning all demonstrations of a ‘political nature’ in downtown Dakar, where the majority of government institutions are located, has been the basis for several bans on demonstrations by civil society organizations and political parties policies over the past 11 years.
On September 4, 2019, the Supreme Court of Senegal declared inadmissible an appeal for annulment of the decree, submitted by the Senegal section of Amnesty International and the Senegalese League for Human Rights (LSDH), recalls the same source.
In a decision dated March 31, 2022, the ECOWAS Court of Justice requested the repeal of the ministerial decree which prohibits “demonstrations of a political nature” in the space between Avenue El Hadj Malick Sy and Cap Manuel, and prescribing a protection perimeter.