After five years as rapporteur for the United Nations Human Rights Council on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Frenchwoman Agnès Callamard is stepping down to join Amnesty International, of which she is to become secretary general next week.
What conclusions do you draw when you leave your post?
Assassinations targeting dissidents, such as Jamal Khashoggi [journaliste et opposant saoudien tué au consulat saoudien d’Istanbul, le 2 octobre 2018], are increasing. We are going through a period similar to the Cold War. Control of information has become important again. Whereas during the last twenty years, repressive states have tended to expel their opponents, we are back in the Soviet era: we keep them inside and if they leave, we kill them.
The states that execute outside their borders are Iran, Burundi, Saudi Arabia and Russia, which is at the forefront. Turkey and Egypt are also part of it, but they are more likely to kidnap or force returns. No one is immune. Even in France, an Azerbaijani journalist was recently brutally beaten in Nantes by individuals probably linked to power.
It is important that the states where these dissidents find refuge strengthen their protection. The legal framework needs to be improved, especially with regard to targeted surveillance. This espionage is often the harbinger of kidnapping, execution or disappearance. It is implemented with Western and Israeli technologies without any legal framework to regulate their export, as is the case for weapons.
Which files were the most difficult? Have you received threats?
My work on the Philippines touched me a lot. It was a war against the poor that was waged there, a form of social cleansing that then spread to other sectors of society: lawyers, activists, all those described by the government as communists, even terrorists. In October 2020, the Human Rights Council adopted a harmless resolution, when an international commission of inquiry was needed.
“We must continue to denounce the absence of sanctions against Prince Mohammed Ben Salman. This indifference plagues the fragile rule of international law ”
States, European in particular, have not had the courage to act. It was a slap given to the victims. Especially since the government and its supporters violently attack those who denounce this violence in the Philippines: they are threatened, sometimes imprisoned or killed. As for me, I have often been attacked on social networks. President Duterte threatened to slap me. During a stay in the Philippines, I had to go into hiding because the threats were too insistent. UN colleagues were questioned to find out where I was. In fact, I had already left the country.
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