59. The Complainant claims that the first part of the document was a presentation of the major facts of life
in the nation which had been examined by the participants at the Congress and ideas and solutions,
outlined in the resolutions which had been advocated by the party as definitive solutions. These were
obviously problems which the Authorities did not wish and still do not wish to see exposed to the public
view, such as:
• the threats to national unity brought about by racist, slave-like, tribalistic and regionalistic practices;
• the maintenance of repressive texts which legalise the muzzling of the press, the violation of
individual and collective freedoms and the regular and shameless rigging of elections;
• the economic bankruptcy resulting from the systematic looting of national resources and the
diverting of national aid by the ruling clique, giving rise to the aggravation of social inequality, of
unemployment, of impoverishment and the abandonment by the State of its essential functions of
regulation, health, education and security;
• the diplomatic isolation of Mauritania from its natural arabo-african environment and its most
spectacular action which was the elevation of Israelâs diplomatic representation to the rank of
Ambassador.
60. The Complainant notes that in these two documents, there is no passage that contains an insulting or
outrageous word against the Authorities or advocating violence and/or calling on the populations to rise
against the leaders of the country. And in the two cases, the Party was acting as an activist in the national
political life and playing its natural and important role in drawing public attention to the facts outlined by the
information disseminated by independent organisations, and all of this with due respect for the laws and
regulations of the country, argues the Complainant.
61. The Complainant party recalls that in a democratic society, âthe Authorities should tolerate criticism
even where it can be considered as insulting or provocativeâ 4 and one of the characteristics of
democracy is âto allow the proposal and the discussion of diverse political projects even those which
challenge the Stateâs current mode of organising, so long as these do not cause prejudice to democracy
itselfâ 5 , this is what the Mauritanian Constitution requires in its Article 11
×
Article 11: Parties and political groups shall work together for the formation of the expression of the
political will. They shall be formed and shall engage in their activities freely, provided that they respect
democratic principles and that, through their objectives or by their actions, they not undermine the national
sovereignty, the territorial integrity and the unity of the Nation and of the Republic. The law shall determine
the conditions for the creation, the functioning and the dissolution of political parties.
.
62. As for the incriminating speech, the Complainant continues, it had been delivered by Mr Ahmed Ould
Daddah in his capacity as Secretary General of the UFD/EN during one of the rare occasions when the
party had obtained approval to hold a rally. The essence of his speech related, that day, to the respect
which should be accorded by the Mauritanian Authorities to the main opposition party of the country as
itâs due. In his view, the party should no longer accept the harassment to which it was being subjected
and if it should continue the changes being fervently called for by its militants would not come about in a
peaceful manner for the UFD/EN would no longer leave the initiative to the authorities. He ended is speech
by calling on all the members of the party to prepare for battle in the coming elections. The Complainant
alleges that nowhere in the speech was there use of a word to make people think that his party was, from
henceforth, going to resort to violence. That was all the more important considering that at the end of the
meeting the thousands of militants dispersed without any incident in spite of an impressive police presence.
63. The Respondent State alleges that political pluralism in the Islamic Republic of Mauritania has its
political bases in Article 11
×
Article 11: Parties and political groups shall work together for the formation of the expression of the
political will. They shall be formed and shall engage in their activities freely, provided that they respect
democratic principles and that, through their objectives or by their actions, they not undermine the national
sovereignty, the territorial integrity and the unity of the Nation and of the Republic. The law shall determine
the conditions for the creation, the functioning and the dissolution of political parties.
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