Friday, January 14th 2011

The associations and organizations signing the present declaration strongly condemn the violent repression by the Tunisian government of the current demonstrations by citizens that the country is now witnessing. We stand with the far-ranging expressions of dismay and international solidarity to demand an immediate cease-fire by the government in Tunis. We support the legitimate demands of Tunisians for respect of their rights to dignity and their democratic freedoms as enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Over the previous weeks, numerous demonstrations by citizens have emerged to both express the feeling of exasperation of a Tunisian population faced with widening social inequalities, as well as to denounce the systematic use of violence to counter all dissident voices. Faced by these citizen demonstrations, the government of Ben Ali reacted with extreme violence, causing the death of dozens of people and arresting and arbitrarily detaining numerous citizens, trade unionists, students, journalists, and others.

As Canadians, we call upon the Harper government to use all diplomatic tools at its disposal to exert pressure on its Tunisian counterpart so that the latter immediately ceases its attacks against Tunisian civilians and respects the rights of activists, journalists, lawyers, Internet users, and cyber-dissidents as well as all citizens who participate in peaceful demonstrations.

We expect the Canadian government to more firmly denounce these violations of human rights, and to call for the establishment of a respectful social dialogue on the right to demonstrate and freedom of expression in Tunisia, for the cessation of arbitrary arrests, and for the liberation of all people who have peacefully demonstrated while exercising their right to freedom of expression and assembly as stipulated in the Tunisian Constitution.

As called for on January 12th by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navy Pillay, who implored the Tunisian government to carry out “independent and credible” investigations following reports of security forces using “excessive force,” we also urge the Canadian government to call for transparent, independent, and credible investigations of these abuses.

 

Signatories:

Alternatives
Amnistie internationale Canada francophone
Association des droits de la personne au Maghreb
Association québécoise des organismes de coopération internationale
Centrale des syndicats du
Collectif de Québec en solidarité avec les luttes sociales en Tunisie
Confédération des syndicats nationaux
Conseil central du Montréal métropolitain – CSN
Conseil régional FTQ Montréal métropolitain
Fédération des travailleurs du Québec
PEN-Québec