As delivered by Huda Ibrahim
30th Session of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Working Group
Geneva, May 10, 2018
The United States warmly welcomes the Djiboutian delegation.
We congratulate Djibouti for conducting peaceful legislative elections and for committing to take measures to increase the political representation of women. This is an important step toward greater gender equality.
We are concerned by reports of detentions and arrests of opposition members, journalists, and demonstrators. We urge the government to respect and protect the right of peaceful assembly and freedoms of association and expression, and to resume discussions with opposition political parties to implement the 2014 framework agreement.
We also ask that the Ministry of Communication’s Communication Commission begin approving nongovernmental requests to establish new media outlets.
Finally, we applaud the government’s continued efforts to eliminate human trafficking but urge it to increase its investigations, prosecutions, and convictions of traffickers, expand protective provisions for all trafficking victims, and fully implement its national referral mechanism and action plan to combat trafficking.
The United States makes the following recommendations:
- Release detainees who were arrested for their support for opposition political parties;
- Approve nongovernmental requests to establish new media outlets;
- Increase efforts to criminally prosecute traffickers and provide adequate care to trafficking victims.