The situation of human rights in Benin evaluated positively at the UN

Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland: UN headquarters in Europe where the sessions of the Human Rights Council are held.

© Véronique Gaymard/RFI

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3 mins

The UN Human Rights Council examined the situation in Benin on Thursday in Geneva.

Faced with representatives of a hundred countries, the Beninese delegation led by the Minister of Justice tried to give guarantees on progress since the last review six years ago.

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Of the 198 recommendations made in 2017, 191 were adopted.

For the other seven, the Beninese authorities had taken " 

note 

", and this Thursday, the Keeper of the Seals, Séverin Quenum promised new measures.

On economic, social and cultural rights, by the very admission of human rights defenders, Benin has made a leap forward since the last official review at the UN, which has not been missed to recall the Minister of Justice of Benin, Séverin Quenum:

“

The culmination of this general spirit of consecration of human rights unquestionably resides in the law which amended the Constitution with the consecration of the abolition of the death penalty, the introduction of positive discrimination in promoting women's access to elected office and strengthening the status of the opposition, public funding of political parties, strengthening the limitation on the number of presidential terms and extending it to deputies.

 »

The abolition of the death penalty is indeed the best example of this progress, now enshrined in the Constitution, new since 2019. The last 14 people sentenced to death have had their sentences commuted to life imprisonment.

Abuse of children, forced marriages, female genital mutilation, arbitrary detention, extra-judicial executions and excessive use of force.

These are the points that have been blocking for six years in Benin.

Points that human rights defenders had not failed to raise.

Six years later, before the UN assembly, Séverin Quenum tried to reassure the Member States, notably announcing the creation of prisons to international standards and also recalling the progress made in terms of compliance of Beninese laws with international standards.

“Excessive use of force”

So much for progress.

So many measures which, according to the minister, have made it possible to open a new era leading to the

last legislative elections in January

open to the opposition and without violence.

However, on this aspect of political rights, the shoe pinches still according to the representative in Benin of Amnesty International, Dieudonné Dagbeto: "

The excessive use of force is still topical, it is a question that concerns us always, without overshadowing the issues of freedom of expression, of peaceful assembly.

We believe that Benin still has enormous efforts to make in this regard.

 “Progress is possible on this subject, judge the Beninese and international NGOs, in particular on the investigations of the five Beninese killed just before the presidential election of April 2021, investigations which have still not led to this day.

Human rights defenders insist that the penal code must also be revised - here again, "

if there is the political will, we can do it fairly quickly 

", continues Dieudonné Dagbeto - and the digital code, in particular their articles judged the most repressive ones that limit the right to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly or to abolish the offense of false information used to imprison journalists.

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