HUMAN RIGHTS COMMITTEE CONCLUDES CONSIDERATION OF REPORT OF GABON

Human Rights Committee
70th session
27 October 2000
Afternoon







Urges Gabon to Prohibit Polygamy


The Human Rights Committee this afternoon concluded its consideration of the third periodic report of Gabon on the implementation of the provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in that country and urged it, in preliminary remarks, to prohibit the traditional practice of polygamy.

Upon completion of its review of the report, Committee Chairperson Cecilia said that the practice of polygamy was incompatible with the Covenant and that Gabon should prohibit it. She also said that gender equality was a central issue in the Covenant and the Committee was looking for what the State had done to protect the rights of women.

The Committee will issue its final, written concluding observations and recommendations on the report of Gabon towards the end of its current three-week session which will conclude on 3 November.

Gabon is among the 148 States parties to the Covenant and as such it is obligated to submit written periodic reports to the Committee on its efforts to implement the provisions of the treaty. As a result, the Government of Gabon sent a delegation to present its report and to provide answers to questions raised by the Committee's experts.

After they completed their consideration of the report of Gabon, the experts held a private meeting to examine communications received from individuals claiming to be victims of a violation by their respective States parties of any of the rights set forth in the Covenant. Only States parties which declare that they recognize the competence of the Committee under the Optional Protocol to the Covenant are concerned by the procedure. Ninety-seven States are parties to the Optional Protocol.

When the Committee reconvenes at 10 a.m. on Monday, 30 October, it will consider in private draft concluding observations and recommendations on the report of Denmark, which it reviewed last week. In the afternoon, it will hold a public informal meeting with States parties on reporting procedures.


Discussion

At the beginning of the afternoon meeting, the Gabonese delegation continued to provide responses to questions raised during the previous meeting. The officials said the issue of child labour was strange to Gabon and it was shocking to hear that it existed in the country. It was true that children brought from outside were made to work as domestic helpers by foreign communities residing in the country. Gabon was a country of destination for child labour from the neighbouring States. In addition, there had been cross-boarder criminality with children involved. It had been a problem even to trace the identity of children in order to repatriate them to where they came from.

In 1997, Rwandan soldiers had been terrorizing the population of Gabon in the border areas between Congo and Gabon, the delegation said. For that reason, the Rwandese who arrived on the pretext of being refugees had been sent back by the Government. Other Rwandese who came to Gabon were lecturing at universities and were involved in business without any sentiment of xenophobia from the Gabonese people.

In carrying out their duties, judges were independent and their responsibility was only to the application of the law, the delegation said. The council of the magistrate was presided over by the President of the Republic, as it was customary with the French judicial system. The diversity in membership of the council could guarantee impartiality while appointing judges to the different courts. Once judges were appointed to a nine-year term, they could not be removed. However, a judge who failed to fulfil his or her honesty could be sanctioned by the council.

The judiciary police was put under the control of the judiciary for the better monitoring of police custody, the delegation said.

In Gabon, there was one prison in each of the nine provinces, however, because of the increased number of prisoners and to maintain better conditions, new ones were being built, the delegation said. Women and child prisoners were placed separately. Prisoners with HIV/AIDS diseases were treated like any other prisoners and no special regime was applied to them.

When a law was incompatible with the provisions of the Covenant, it was revoked, the delegation said. The Covenant had higher hierarchy over domestic law. At the domestic level, statuary law prevailed over customary law.

Gabon was not insensitive to the issue of women, the delegation said. Women were not without personal values in Gabon; the Constitution recognized the equality of women and men, but there were areas where further improvement was needed. In all spheres, the prime concern was to identify every aspect with the right of women. Major sectors where women dominated were health and education. In schools, there was no discrimination, girls excelled over boys in many cases. In universities, women played a leading role in advanced studies. At the workplace, women and men received equal pay for equal work done.

With regard to polygamy, the Government had attempted to limit the number of wives a man could have. In the past, a man could have up to 30 wives, the delegation said. At present, the number was limited to four. The situation was still persisting in the name of tradition. Concerning the issue of the man being the head of the family, there was a debate because of the role of women in bringing up the children.

Women held highly responsible jobs in the public and private sectors, the delegation said. The president of the constitutional court was a woman; and the most important jobs in the public services and the military were held by females. Women generals in the army commanded men. In addition, a number of social establishments were run by women.

The human rights commission whose members were appointed recently was comprised of 14 distinguished personalities with knowledge of human rights, the delegation said. When they started their function, they would have the competence to visit detention places and receive complaints of human rights violations.

There were about 25 political parties that were highly influential in the society, the delegation said. All the parties were in the opposition with seats in the parliament. They won 45 per cent of votes during the last elections, while the remaining seats were held by the party in power.

Since many of the business sectors were run by foreigners and because of the need for foreign labour, it was incompatible to assume that discrimination or xenophobia existed, the delegation said. The Government only feared certain immigrants because of their banditry activities.

On the issue of freedom of journalists, the delegation said the freedom of expression was guaranteed and journalists exercised their own code of conduct; and there were several newspapers run privately.

Preliminary Remarks

In preliminary remarks, Chairperson Cecilia Medina Quiroga thanked the members of the Gabonese delegation for the information they provided and for the answers to the questions raised by Committee experts. However, she said she was disappointed that the report was slim and lacked facts and adequate information. Many questions did not get proper replies from the delegation.

Following its consideration of the initial report of Gabon, the Committee had required information on the issue of civil debt and the need for it to be abolished. Under article 11 of the Covenant, no one should be imprisoned on the ground of inability to fulfil a contractual obligation. Also this time, the delegation did not provide answers on the status of civil debt.

According to article 95 of the Gabonese Constitution on the freedom of the press, the national council on communications had large powers over the press and freedom of expression was not as absolute at it should be.

With regard to the Pygmies, Gabon had the obligation to enact laws which protected all vulnerable groups under its jurisdiction as it was clearly expressed under article 27 of the Covenant. In addition, gender equality was a central issue of the Covenant; no doubt that women were active in Gabon, but what the Committee was looking for here was what was done by the State to protect the rights of women.

Polygamy was incompatible with the Covenant and Gabon should prohibit it, Ms. Quiroga said. The delegation had said that polygamy was concluded on mutual consent, but social and economic factors could play in favour of the man. She also expressed concern at the situation of divorce which did not favour women.


* *** *