MOTION FOR A RESOLUTION on the situation in Chad

13.12.2022 - (2022/2993(RSP))

with request for inclusion in the agenda for a debate on cases of breaches of human rights, democracy and the rule of law
pursuant to Rule 144 of the Rules of Procedure

Miguel Urbán Crespo
on behalf of The Left Group

NB: This motion for a resolution is available in the original language only.

B9‑0574/2022

European Parliament resolution on the situation in Chad

(2022/2993(RSP))

The European Parliament,

-  having regard to its previous resolutions on Chad,

 

-  having regard to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights Defenders of 1998,

 

-  having regard to  the Constitution of the Republic of Chad,

 

-  having regard to the Lomé Declaration of July 2000 on the Framework for an OAU Response to Unconstitutional Changes of Government,

 

-  having regard to the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance and the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights,

 

-  having regard to the statements by the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy dated 27 April 2021,

 

-  having regard to Rule 144 of its Rules of Procedure,

 

 

1. whereas Chad is one of the five worst dictatorships in the world according to the Democracy Index published annually by The Economist magazine;

 

2. whereas according to the army, on 18 April 2021, Chad's President Idriss Déby died after clashes with the Front for Change and Concord in Chad (FACT) in the north of the country; whereas Chad's President died in violent circumstances that have yet to be clarified;

 

3. whereas on 20 April 2021, a Chadian army spokesperson informed the population of the death of the president and that a Transitional Military Council (CMT) led by General Mahamat Idriss Déby (President Déby Itno's son): immediately take power, adopt a transnational charter, suspend the Chadian constitution, dissolve the government and the National Assembly and assume all powers for a renewable period of 18 months;

 

4. whereas the Chadian constitution provided that in the event of a vacancy in power or permanent incapacity of the head of state, the interim presidency would be exercised by the president of the National Assembly, who must organise elections within a period of 45 to 90 days; whereas the constitution also stipulates that any candidate for president must be 45 years old and a civilian, which excludes Mahamat Idriss Déby, who is 37 years old and a general in the army; whereas these constitutional provisions were not respected , leaving little hope for the democratic change so much desired by the Chadian people;

 

5. whereas the African Union expressed its "grave concern" over the takeover of power by the military and called for a reestablishment of constitutional order and the peaceful transfer of power to the "civil authorities";

 

6. whereas civil society organisations called for demonstrations against the unconstitutional seizure of power by CMT, in favour of a civilian transition and against French interference; whereas the military government has banned demonstrations and dispersed protesters firing live ammunition on demonstrators and using disproportionate force and repressive violence; whereas at least nine people were killed, hundreds were arrested and many others were detained; whereas many civil society organisations, including the Chadian League for Human Rights (LTDH), have been subjected to harassment and persecution for supporting the protests;

 

7. whereas according to the N'Djamena’s prosecutor, more than 650 people were arrested during the demonstrations of April 27 and are currently being heard by courts; whereas the organizers of the protests count 1000 arbitrary arrests; whereas protesters have been detained beyond the legal period of custody and denied access to their lawyers and doctors; whereas several national and international journalists were briefly arrested during the protests;

 

8. whereas the CMT has formed a government which doesn’t reflect the broad inclusion that the opposition and civil society wanted; whereas criticism of the lack of a truly inclusive dialogue and of a transition without military tutelage continues, and Civil society organisations have announced more peaceful demonstrations;

 

9. whereas Idriss Déby had been in power since 1990 and had ruled Chad with an iron fist, multiplying human rights violations; whereas opposition leaders, human rights defenders, journalists and trade unionists have faced threats to their lives with tragic consequences;

 

10. whereas on April 19, the Chadian electoral commission announced that Déby had won a sixth term in the presidential elections held on April 11; whereas the pre-election period was marked by persecutions and the arbitrary arrests of more than 112 political opponents and human rights defenders; whereas in the weeks leading up to the election campaign, security forces used  disproportionate and illegitimate force against peaceful protesters; whereas on 28 February 2021, the home of opposition politician Yaya Dillo Djerou was attacked by the Chadian presidential guard, leaving five people dead, including the opposition leader's mother and son;

 

11. whereas on election day, rebels from FACT, attacked a military post, and called on Déby to step down; whereas FACT, does not accept the National Council of Transition and continue to pursue the offensive aiming at taking over the capital;

 

12. Whereas one in three Chadian women declare they are victim of physical violence and 12% of women endure sexual violence every year; whereas according to UNICEF Chad has one of the highest child marriage prevalence rates in the world with 70% of married girls; whereas it is estimated that  38 % of Chadian women have been subjected to female genital mutilation; whereas internal displacements  and ongoing conflicts have heightened the risk of sexual exploitation and gender-based violence; whereas great social, economic and political gender inequalities persists;  whereas Chad penal code criminalizes homosexuality putting LGBTQI+ people at increased risk of violence,  police harassment and abuse;

 

13. whereas Chad is now ranked 187th out of 189 on the United Nations Human Development Index; whereas, according to various reports, including that of Swissaid in 2017, Chad's resources abundant in oil, gold and cotton, have been systematically plundered by the Déby family; whereas 10 billion euros have thus been diverted from Chad to tax havens, according to the Panama Papers; whereas government contracts are part of a patronage systems and privatization had enabled the ruling elite to loot public resources; whereas decades of institutionalized corruption have exposed Chadian people to dire living conditions and abject poverty;

 

14. whereas although Chad is one of the three poorest countries in the world, it has one of the highest defence budgets relative to GDP in Africa; whereas the country’s defence budget helped secure the late Déby’s power and enabled him to maintain a military diplomacy in the region;

 

15. whereas former President Déby was considered an ally of the West countries in the fight against terrorism in the Sahel region; whereas Chad has committed 1,000 troops to the G5 Sahel Joint Force and has also contributed 3,000 soldiers to the Multinational Joint Task Force; whereas Chad also has supplied troops to the UN peacekeeping mission in northern Mali; whereas the work of the Chadian army has also been marred by abuses, such as war crimes and rape of civilian population;

 

16. whereas the significant foreign, and in particular French, military presence in Chad; whereas Ndjamena, the Chadian capital, is the headquarters of the French military operation Barkhane; whereas a 1976 military cooperation agreement links France and Chad; whereas on several occasions, France intervened militarily to save Idriss Déby's regime from non-jihadist rebel offensives; whereas France still supports the current regime in its fight against the FACT rebels, providing military cooperation, logistical and  intelligence support; whereas Chad also received direct financial support from UK, Russia and the EU for its annual budget, military training, arms and non-lethal equipment supplies;

 

17. whereas the European Union has supported the development of Chad through the EDF and the EU Emergency Trust Fund for Africa; whereas  security issues and migration management concerns have often conditioned the humanitarian and development aid EU offers; whereas  according to an Oxfam report, the allocation of aid and success of projects under the EUTF for Africa programme are measured by a contribution to a reduction to migration flows to Europe’ rather than advancement of development and humanitarian objectives; whereas the financial support of the European Union to Chad must be conditional on the respect of fundamental rights and individual freedoms by the Chadian government;

 

18. whereas Chad has been struggling with a high debt burden against a backdrop of  a severe socio-economic Covid-19 pandemic crisis and drop in international oil prices; whereas  in 2020 the Executive Board of IMF  have approved several disbursements to Chad under the Rapid Credit Facility and in 2021 Chad has reached an agreement on a new medium-term financing program worth about $560 million;  whereas Chad’s heavy burden of collateralized debts are owed to destructive nature of IMF neoliberal policies; whereas repeated and long-running austerity measures have curbed public spending and have left the public sector working for less than half of their wages since 2016; whereas IMF policies have led to massive anti-austerity protests;

 

1. Strongly condemns the ongoing coup d'état and the dissolution of the National Assembly and of the government; condemns the unconstitutional establishment of the Military Transitional Council and the establishment of a ‘transitional charter’ by the CMT under Déby´s son command which has not been submitted to democratic consultation, and which confers all powers on the military for a renewable period of eighteen months;
2. Calls on Chadian CMT to restore constitutional order and hand over the political power to the civilian authorities; supports civil society's call for transparent, credible and inclusive legislative and presidential elections;
3. Supports the aspirations of the Chadian people for democracy and change and expresses its strong commitment, solidarity and support for a peaceful civilian led transition, political stability and unity;
4. Underlines the urgent necessity of an all-inclusive and participatory national dialogue between all stakeholders, with the aim of restoring constitutional order;
5. Calls on the European Union to clearly condemn the ongoing coup d'état and to call for respect for the constitutional order and a civil democratic transition;
6. Denounces that like the government of President Idriss Déby Itno, the Transitional Military Council continues to violate the human rights of the population, to repress any form of credible opposition, to militarise the country and to weaken public institutions capable of managing social and political crises;
7. Urges the military authorities to end violence against demonstrators, human rights defenders, civil activists and journalists; demands that the authorities guarantee the physical integrity and psychological well-being and to stop all forms of harassment, including at the judicial level, against all human rights defenders in particular LTDH members;
8. Condemns the restriction of the right to demonstrate and the use of excessive violence against demonstrators; calls for the respect of Chad’s international commitments, in particular the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and to freedom of association, the right to physical integrity and the prohibition of torture and the prohibition of summary or arbitrary executions;
9. Calls for the opening of a prompt, independent and impartial investigation in order to prosecute the perpetrators of this violence and to grant reparations to those who have suffered harm; calls for the immediate release of the hundreds of peaceful demonstrators arrested during the marches;
10. Reiterates its deep concern on the situation of women’s and LBGQTI+ rights in Chad; calls Chadian authorities to combat and eliminate harmful practices such as female genital mutilation and child marriage, prioritizing the protection and care of women and girls; calls on the authorities to tackle gender inequalities and sexual gender based violence, also within the context of displacement situations and in military sites, condemns homophobic violence and discrimination and calls for the decriminalization of homosexuality;
11. Warns that the current political crisis could turn into a humanitarian and security crisis if priority is not given to preserving democratic gains and human rights;
12. Expresses deep concern over the increasing spate of violence and political tensions throughout the Sahel region; however affirms that the role of Chad in the fight against terrorism and insecurity does not justify the violation of the Chadian constitutional framework or of international treaties; insists on the fact that the fight against terrorists groups could be efficient only if we address the root causes and specifically problems related to inequality, unemployment and poverty; highlights the fact that the terrorist attacks shouldn’t be a pretext to derogate the rule of law and restrict human rights and fundamental freedoms or to commit crimes;
13. Rejects that European governments have propped up Déby’s government for its support for counterterrorism operations in the Sahel and the Lake Chad basin while largely have turned a blind eye to his legacy of repression and violations of social and economic rights at home; in particular critics the Statements by French President Emmanuel Macron and its Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian which suggest that the French government recognizes and supports the military coup;
14. Denounces the role played by AFRICOM and the increasing of its presence in the destabilization of the African Continent; affirms that today it’s even more clear that the presence of more troops, more military bases leads to more wars and conflicts in the African continent; affirms that on the pretext of combating terrorist groups, the US and their allies justify their military interference in Africa; the African continent faces today the spread of wars and fratricidal divisions which provokes instability and chaos and favour the control and plundering of the continent's natural resources by the imperialist powers;
15. Demands that foreign armies present in Chad remain completely neutral in the country's internal affairs;
16. Calls for cooperation between the European Union and Chad to be suspended immediately as long as the CMT remains in power and free elections are not held; calls on the European Commission to evaluate the development aid already paid to Chad, in particular through the Emergency Trust Fund for Africa, in order to verify that the funds allocated have been used and have not been earmarked for other purposes, in particular military; reiterates that allocation of aid to partner countries should not be conditional on their cooperation with the EU’s  demands regarding returns and readmission or border management but in line with humanitarian and development principles; calls on the Commission to be more transparent in the allocation of the resources of the Emergency Trust Fund for Africa;
17. Condemns the economic, social and political interference implemented through the Structural Adjustment Plans of the World Bank and the IMF; Calls on the IMF and  World Bank to cancel the external debt of African countries as such actions are both fair and necessary; reminds that making assistance contingent on general spending cuts have undermined Chadian  people’s economic, social and cultural rights including the rights to education and the right to health; reiterates that debt cancellation would  prevent an increase in poverty, hunger and disease while allowing also Chad to strengthen its public services and address the devastating impact of austerity measures on people’s lives.
18. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission, the Vice-President of the European Commission/High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, the governments and parliaments of the Member States, the African Union, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, the UN Human Rights Council and the President and Governments of Chad.