ACAT Côte d'Ivoire - Le plaidoyer abolitionniste en Côte d'Ivoire - YouTube

Yves N'Guettia, Secretary General of ACAT Côte d'Ivoire, Action by Christians for the

Abolition of Torture.

How is ACAT's advocacy organised to push for the ratification of the Second Optional Protocol

to the ICCPR concerning the abolition of the death penalty [OP2]?

ACAT's action in favour of the ratification of the OP2 is essentially an advocacy at different

levels, at the national level and also at the international level.

At the national level, ACAT has been able to carry out many advocacy actions, as well

as awareness-raising actions among the population.

In terms of advocacy, we met with various authorities in the country, including the

Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs through the Directorate

of Legal and Consular Affairs, the National Council for Human Rights (CNDH), and we also

met with the Special Advisor to the President of the Republic in charge of human rights.

It was a question of getting them to ratify the OP2 because it must be said that Côte

d'Ivoire was examined at the UPR [Universal Periodic Review] and several States made recommendations

that go in the direction of ratifying the OP2.

The State of Côte d'Ivoire has accepted these recommendations and it is now a question of

putting its money where its mouth is by taking the necessary measures to ratify OP2 as soon

as possible, which is why we had to make this plea to the national authorities.

We also made a plea to the diplomatic missions because Côte d'Ivoire is a partner with several

countries, so we met with the French and Swiss embassies and the European Union delegation

in Côte d'Ivoire so that the ambassadors of these countries and of the EU could discuss

the ratification of OP2 during their meetings with our national authorities, so that it

is not only ACAT or the NGOs that advocate for ratification but also the diplomatic missions.

This is what has been done in terms of advocacy, but there have also been awareness-raising

actions among the population, as we are taking action to ensure that ratification becomes

a reality, but it is also a good thing for the population to know that abolition is not

definitive, because common sense thinks that Côte d'Ivoire has definitively abolished

the death penalty, whereas this is not the case, the door is always open to the return

of the death penalty as long as Côte d'Ivoire has not ratified the OP2.

It is therefore important that these populations understand that there are still things to

be done with regard to ratification and it is this awareness-raising that is being done

among the populations.

We have met with traditional chiefs and community religious leaders to get them to support ACAT's

action to make the abolition of the death penalty a permanent reality in Côte d'Ivoire.

What difficulties do you encounter with the authorities?

What is difficult is the will.

When you meet people, they adhere to the idea and even promise to act in this direction,

but then you see that the actions do not always follow.

So you wonder what is blocking it, is there a real will from the State to act in favour

of the ratification of the PO?

This is the question we ask ourselves.

We are trying to identify the obstacles and see how to overcome them.

There have been several commitments, there was even an action that began but did not

come to an end because I remember that in 2016, the Director of Cabinet of the Minister

of Human Rights at the time had already made the commitment and told us that Côte d'Ivoire

had officially initiated the ratification process, that the file had been put together

and that it was at the level of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

But then there were so many changes at the head of the Ministry that the file could not

be found.

At the last capitalisation seminar [of the project on the abolition of the death penalty

carried out by FIACAT], the Director of Human Rights was there and he said that he had sent

a file to Foreign Affairs.

But I think that this process is long and that by a simple decree the President could

do it, we don't have to go through all this legislation to get it done.

So the question today is to have the President's special adviser convince the President so

that he can issue the ratification decrees as soon as possible, which would spare us

this long process that requires parliamentary authorisation for ratification.