Con
ocasión del Día Mundial del Refugiado, Reporteros sin Fronteras alerta a
António Guterres, Alto Comisionado de las Naciones Unidas para los
Refugiados, sobre la necesidad de proteger mejor a los periodistas en el
exilio, asimismo, actualiza su guía para ayudarlos en sus gestiones.
En
2011 cerca de ochenta periodistas huyeron de su país y de la suerte que
les reservaban los dirigentes de regímenes enemigos de la libertad de
información. La hemorragia continúa en 2012 y decenas de profesionales
de los medios de comunicación sirios, iraníes, somalíes, eritreos han
debido optar por el exilio en el último semestre.
Frente
a las amenazas de detención arbitraria, agresiones, hostigamiento e,
incluso asesinato, estos hombres y mujeres tomaron la decisión de dejar
atrás a su familia, amigos y colegas, en busca de una mayor seguridad.
Por
falta de medios o porque debieron irse de forma urgente, estos
periodistas fracasan con más frecuencia en países vecinos al suyo. Si
bien las fronteras de esos Estados son permeables para las personas que
buscan refugio, lo son aún más para los agentes de los gobiernos de los
que huyen. Así, la seguridad de los periodistas en el exilio en esos
“primeros países de refugio” no está garantizada.
El
30 de mayo de 2012 Reporteros sin Fronteras envió una carta a António
Guterres, Alto Comisionado de las Naciones Unidas para los Refugiados,
con el fin de alertarle sobre esta situación de los periodistas que se
encuentran en el exilio en países como Turquía, Uganda o Kenia. La
organización publica hoy esta carta y las recomendaciones que contiene.
Reporteros
sin Fronteras pide a António Guterres que intervenga para que se cree
en cada representación del Alto Comisionado de las Naciones Unidas
(ACNUR) un mecanismo de alerta específico y que exista un responsable encargado de tratar los casos de periodistas y otros defensores de los derechos humanos en el exilio,
con el fin de que se identifique y se trate sus expedientes más rápido.
La organización también pide al Alto Comisionado que actúe para que
estas personas particularmente amenazadas tengan un mejor acceso a
medidas de protección individuales adecuadas, así como al proceso de
reinstalación de urgencia y al mecanismo de evacuación temporal a países
seguros que pertenezcan a la Organización de las Naciones Unidas (ONU).
Finalmente,
con la convicción de que también concierne a terceros países miembros
de las Naciones Unidas obrar a favor de la protección de periodistas
empujados al exilio debido a su actividad profesional, Reporteros sin
Fronteras pide a António Guterres que reconozca públicamente que el
proceso tradicional de protección de la ONU para el tratamiento de las
peticiones de defensores de los derechos humanos que continúan
amenazados en los primeros países de refugio es inadecuado y que ordene a
los Estados miembros que reaccionen.
En
vísperas del 20 de junio de 2012, Día Mundial del Refugiado, Reporteros
sin Fronteras también publica una actualización de su Guía para los
Periodistas en el Exilio, publicada inicialmente en 2009.
Este
fascículo de una treintena de páginas, destinado a los profesionales de
los medios de comunicación, aborda los procesos de petición protección
ante el ACNUR, así como de petición de asilo en Europa y Norteamérica.
Los periodistas en el exilio encontrarán en él información, consejos y
contactos que los orientarán y los apoyarán a lo largo de este proceso
largo y difícil, punto de partida de una nueva vida.
Copia
de la carta de Reporteros sin Fronteras a António Gutiérrez, Alto
Comisionado de las Naciones Unidas para los Refugiados, del 30 de mayo
2012 (en inglés)
Mr. António Guterres United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees UNHCR PO Box 2500 CH-1211 Geneva 2 Switzerland
Paris, 30 May 2012
Urgent: Situation of asylum-seeking journalists in transit countries
Dear High Commissioner,
Reporters
Without Borders, the leading international NGO defending freedom of
information, is extremely concerned about the situation of journalists
who apply to UNHCR for protection in the first country they reach after
fleeing their own country.
By
providing information about the situation of their fellow citizens, by
interviewing government opponents, and by drawing attention to human
rights violations, corruption and misrule, journalists attract the
hostility of regimes and influential groups that do not tolerate freely
reported news and information.
Because
of their work, journalists are exposed to serious reprisals. Many are
forced to flee abroad to escape physical violence, threats, arrests and
arbitrary jail sentences. Journalists are easy to identify because they
sign articles, appear on TV and speak on the radio. When they flee to a
nearby country and register with UNHCR, they continue to be at the mercy
of the regimes they are trying to escape because their names, faces and
voices are known.
This
was seen when Eritrean journalist Jamal Osman Hamad was arrested in
Khartoum on 24 October 2011, less than a week after Eritrean President
Issaias Afeworki visited his Sudanese counterpart, and 300 Eritrean
citizens were deported to their country of origin without UNHCR being
able to examine their cases.
Our
concern increased when Rwandan journalist Charles Ingabire was gunned
down in Kampala on 30 November 2011 in very unclear circumstances.
Reporters Without Borders is convinced that an act of political revenge
cannot be ruled out.
It
is clear that the Rwandan, Eritrean, Ethiopian and Iranian governments,
like Somalia’s Al-Shabaab and Latin America’s drug traffickers, have an
ability to do harm that reaches well beyond their own borders.
It
must however be recognized that, as things stand, there is no adequate
mechanism for protecting asylum-seeking journalists (and other news
providers), who are all, by the nature of their work, also human rights
defenders. Reporters Without Borders would therefore to like propose
that local UNHCR offices adopt the following dedicated procedures for
the protection of journalists.
Reporters
Without Borders asks UNHCR to establish an alert mechanism with a
designated referral officer within each of its local offices so that
cases of persons who are in particular danger can be identified and
handled more quickly. As Reporters Without Borders is in regular contact
with journalists who have decided to flee abroad to safeguard their
safety and freedom, and as it systematically conducts an investigation
whenever it is contacted by a journalist seeking its protection, it is
in a position to act as guarantor of the identity and background of
journalists who approach UNHCR protection officers.
Adequate
safety measures must also be adopted for refugee journalists (and other
human rights defenders) including a programme of urban shelters (away
from the regular refugee camps), safehouses, and emergency alert and
protection mechanisms. Reporters Without Borders has been helping
refugee journalists for more than 20 years but, although we are in
constant contact with them and give them advice and guidance, we do not
have the human and financial resources to enable them to meet their
daily needs, including their security needs. It is vital that
journalists should have greater access to the emergency resettlement
process and to the UN’s mechanism for temporary evacuation to a safe
third country. UNHCR should work to obtain greater participation in
these programmes by countries that can offer safe refuge.
Reporters
Without Borders also urges the United Nations to publicly acknowledge
that its traditional protection procedure is not appropriate for
threatened journalists and to ask member states to help to make up for
the shortcomings. This would enable UNHCR to overcome the culpable
inaction of certain western government that use the overall quota as an
excuse for doing nothing, although more than 260 journalists have been
killed in connection with their work in the past five years and 154 are
currently detained.
Our
organization very much hopes that you will come out in favour of
specific and more personalized treatment of resettlement requests by
journalists and human rights defenders who are threatened in transit
countries. We also hope that our recommendations will help to bring
about a more general overhaul of UNHCR procedures.
We
stand ready to provide you with any additional information and to meet
with you to discuss these recommendations further. Sincerely,
Olivier Basille Director General
_____________
World Refugee Day
Around 80 journalists fled abroad in 2011 to escape the
fate reserved for them by governments hostile to freedom of information.
The exodus is continuing this year. Dozens of Syrian, Iranian, Somali
and Eritrean journalists have had to flee their countries in the past
six months.
Faced by the probability of imminent arrest, physical
violence, harassment or even murder, these men and women have had to
abandon family, friends and colleagues in a quest for greater security.
Because of a lack of funds or because they departed in
haste, they often end up being stranded in neighbouring countries that
are accessible to refugees but also to the agents of the governments
they are fleeing. As a result, their safety is far from being assured in
these countries of initial refuge.
Reporters Without Borders wrote to UN High Commissioner
for Refugees Guterres on 30 May alerting him to the situation of refugee
journalists in countries such as Turkey, Uganda and Kenya. Today, we
are releasing the letter and the recommendations it contains.
We call on UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, to establish an alert mechanism with a designated referral officer within each of its local offices
so that cases involving refugee journalists and human rights activists
can be identified and handled more quickly because they are particularly
exposed to danger.
We also urge the High Commissioner to ensure
that refugee journalists and human rights activists get better access to
appropriate individual protection, to the emergency resettlement
process and to the UN’s mechanism for temporary evacuation to a safe
third country.
Finally, Reporters Without Borders is convinced that UN
member states have a duty to help protect journalists who are forced to
flee into exile because of their work. It therefore urges Guterres to
publicly acknowledge that the UN’s traditional protection procedure is
not appropriate for refugee journalists and human rights activists, who
continue to be in danger in countries of initial refuge, and to urge
member states to take the necessary action.
The latest version of the Guide for journalists who flee
into exile, which Reporters Without Borders first published in 2009,
contains some 30 pages of advice for refugee journalists about UNHCR
protection procedures and seeking asylum in Europe and North America.
Journalists who have had to flee their country will find information,
tips and contacts that will help to guide and assist them during the
long and difficult process of starting a new life.
___________
Journée mondiale des réfugiés
En 2011, près de quatre-vingts journalistes ont fui leur
pays et le sort que leur réservaient les dirigeants de régimes ennemis
de la liberté de l’information. L’hémorragie continue en 2012 et des
dizaines de professionnels des médias syriens, iraniens, somaliens,
érythréens ont pris le chemin de l’exil au cours du dernier semestre.
Face aux promesses de détention arbitraire,
d’agressions, de harcèlement ou même d’assassinat, ces hommes et ces
femmes se sont résolus à laisser derrière eux famille, amis et collègues
en quête de plus de sécurité.
Faute de moyens ou parce qu’ils doivent partir en
urgence, ils échouent le plus souvent dans des pays voisins du leur. Si
elles sont perméables aux personnes en quête de refuge, les frontières
de ces Etats le sont plus encore aux agents des gouvernements qu’elles
fuient. La sécurité des journalistes en exil dans ces pays de « premier
refuge » n’est donc pas garantie.
Le 30 mai 2012, Reporters sans frontières a adressé un
courrier à M. António Guterres, Haut Commissaire pour les réfugiés de
Nations unies afin de l’alerter sur la situation des journalistes en
exil dans des pays tels que la Turquie, l’Ouganda ou le Kenya.
L’organisation publie aujourd’hui cette lettre et les recommandations
qu’elle contient.
Reporters sans frontières demande à M. Guterres d’œuvrer à ce qu’un mécanisme
d’alerte spécifique et qu’un référent chargé de traiter des dossiers
des journalistes et autres défenseurs de droits de l’homme en exil
soient institués au sein de chaque représentation du Haut Commissariat
des Nations unies pour les réfugiés, afin de permettre une
identification et un traitement plus rapide de leurs dossiers.
L’organisation prie également le Haut Commissaire de permettre un
meilleur accès de ces personnes particulièrement menacées à des
mesures de protection individuelles adéquates ainsi qu’à la procédure de
réinstallation d’urgence et au mécanisme d’évacuation temporaire dans
des pays sûrs des Nations unies.
Enfin, convaincue qu’il appartient également aux Etats
tiers membres des Nations unies d’œuvrer à la protection des
journalistes contraints à l’exil en raison de leurs activités, Reporters
sans frontières demande à M. Guterres de reconnaître
publiquement l’inadéquation du processus traditionnel de protection
onusienne pour le traitement des demandes des défenseurs des droits de
l’homme qui demeurent menacés dans les pays de premier refuge et
d’enjoindre les Etats membres à réagir.
En cette veille du 20 juin 2012, journée mondiale des
réfugiés, Reporters sans frontières publie également une mise à jour de
son Guide pour les journalistes en exil, initialement publié en 2009.
Ce fascicule d’une trentaine de pages destiné aux
professionnels des médias traite des procédures de demande de protection
auprès du UNHCR, mais également de demande d’asile en Europe et en
Amérique du Nord. Les journalistes en exil y trouveront des
informations, des conseils et des contacts à même des les orienter et de
les soutenir tout au long de ce processus long et difficile, point de
départ d’une nouvelle vie.
