Human Rights Group Supports Obasanjo Stand

by Maputo published on November 28, 2003 in allafrica.com

The New Delhi-based Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) has welcomed the decision of Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo not to invite Zimbabwe to December's Commonwealth summit in Abuja.

In a press release received by AIM, CHRI praises Obasanjo "for making it clear by his actions that respect for human rights is of fundamental importance to the Commonwealth". Last week, after Obasanjo had paid a visit to Harare, rumours circulated that Obasanjo might include Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe on the final summit invitation list.

Instead he has made it clear that Mugabe is not invited.

CHRI describes it as "very positive" that Obasanjo "has not allowed himself to be drawn into the often racially-charged debate around Zimbabwe's exclusion". Instead, he has shown "that human rights are a universal concern, valued by all responsible leaders throughout the world, no matter their colour or heritage". The release adds "To blame Zimbabwe's exclusion from the Commonwealth on racism is unworthy and grossly devalues the current suffering being endured by Zimbabweans of all colour as a result of President's Mugabe's actions". Obasanjo's decision, CHRI adds, "provides an endorsement of the fact that Zimbabwe was suspended from the Commonwealth for a singular reason: the Zimbabwean Government's flagrant disregard for the Commonwealth's foundation principles of good governance, democracy and respect for fundamental human rights".

CHRI adds that the Commonwealth has shown its seriousness about human rights by consistently excluding "democratic defaulters". For Zimbabwe is not the first country to be excluded - Nigeria itself was suspended from the Commonwealth in 1995, when it was under military rule, and more recently Fiji and Pakistan have been excluded. "President Obasanjo has sent a clear message that countries which do not respect the dignity and human rights of their people cannot be accepted as participating, respected members of the international community", CHRI declares. It concludes that excluding Mugabe is not at all the same thing as excluding the people of Zimbabwe: "rather, this action is intended as a way of expressing solidarity for the plight of Zimbabweans and demonstrating the international community's refusal to countenance the steady deprivation of their civil liberties and their dwindling economic development".