Auteur : Freedom House 

Site de publication: freedomhouse.org

Type de publication : Rapport 

Date de publication : 2022

Lien vers le document intégral 

 

Overview

Côte d’Ivoire continues to recover from an armed conflict that ended in 2011. Several root causes of the country’s violent conflict remain, including ethnic and regional tensions, land disputes, corruption, and impunity. While civil liberties had been better protected in recent years, an outbreak of election-related violence in 2020 brought significant setbacks. Improved electoral conditions in 2021 allowed opposition groups and civil society to operate more freely than during the previous year.

Political Rights

Electoral Process

The October 2020 presidential election was neither free nor fair. Former prime minister and presidential candidate of the RHDP Amadou Gon Coulibaly died unexpectedly in July 2020. President Alassane Ouattara, who had spent two five-year presidential terms in office, reversed his previous decision not to run and was nominated in August by the RHDP, which claimed Ouattara was eligible for two more terms because the 2016 Constitution’s two-term limit was adopted after Ouattara’s second election; some critics charged that Ouattara had moved forward with the new constitution to enable his third term. His nomination was met by major protests from opposition parties.

The Constitutional Council rejected 40 of the 44 candidates for the presidential election and validated the candidacy of only four individuals: Alassane Ouattara, Henri Konan Bédié, Pascal Affi N’Guessan, and Bertin Konan Kouadio. Rejected candidates were unable to appeal the Council’s decisions, and the government ignored a ruling from African Court of Human and People’s Rights (ACHPR) to allow prominent opposition leader Guillaume Soro and former president Laurent Gbagbo to run. Several leading opposition parties, including those of Soro and Gbagbo, refused to participate in the polls and called for a boycott of and protests against the election. 

The opposition boycotted the October election outright, while many would-be voters were prevented from casting ballots due to security concerns. Ouattara won the poll with 94 percent of the vote, according to the government, which put turnout at 54 percent. These numbers were contested by independent observers from the Electoral Institute for Sustainable Democracy in Africa (EISA), which reported that only 54 percent of polling stations opened and only 41 percent of voter cards were distributed before the vote.

The prime minister is the head of government, is appointed by the president, and is responsible for designating a cabinet, which is also approved by the president. In March 2021, Patrick Achi was appointed prime minister following the death of former prime minister Hamed Bakayoko.

Political Pluralism and Participation

In contrast to the 2020 presidential elections—which had been boycotted by several leading opposition parties—party competition improved in 2021. Multiple opposition parties, including many of those that had boycotted the 2020 presidential elections, contested the March 2021 parliamentary elections, increasing the competitiveness of the election and winning a combined 117 of 255 seats in the National Assembly. 

In June 2021, former president Laurent Gbagbo returned to Côte d’Ivoire after ten years, following his acquittal by the ICC on charges of crimes against humanity. In October, Gbagbo officially launched a new left-wing pan-African party, the PPA-CI. 

Opposition parties have little chance of gaining power without reforming the electoral framework, which favors the ruling party. The ruling RHDP has an absolute majority in the National Assembly, limiting the opposition’s ability to pursue such reforms.

Individuals faced intimidation, threats, and physical violence when participating in the 2020 presidential election. Opposition parties boycotted the polls and staged multiple marches, sit-ins, and demonstrations leading up to election day in October 2020, despite the government’s ban on all protests from August through October. Security forces used violence to disperse protesters, killing several demonstrators during the campaigning period. Members of leading civil society institutions, like academics, suggested that participating in public debate about the elections would be seen as protest by their superiors.

More than 50 people were killed by militia members who attacked citizens with impunity. Opposition and government supporters clashed on the streets with machetes, clubs, and hunting rifles in Abidjan and at least eight other towns.

Such violence was not repeated during the March 2021 legislative elections; observers from the Electoral Institute for Sustainable Democracy in Africa (EISA) found the elections to have taken place in an inclusive, peaceful, and generally transparent atmosphere. Despite the improved atmosphere, however, voter turnout remained low, at 37.88 percent. 

Functioning of Government

Though defense and security forces are nominally under civilian control, problems of parallel command and control systems within the armed forces, known as the Republican Forces of Côte d’Ivoire (FRCI), remain significant. 

Corruption and bribery remain endemic, and particularly affect the judiciary, police, and government contracting operations. Petty bribery also hampers citizens’ access to services ranging from obtaining a birth certificate to clearing goods through customs. 

The government generally awards contracts in a nontransparent manner. Access to up-to-date information from government ministries is difficult for ordinary citizens to acquire, although some ministries do publish information online.

Civil Liberties

Freedom of Expression and Belie

However, journalists face intimidation and occasional violence by security forces in connection with their work. Most national media sources, especially newspapers, exhibit partisanship in their news coverage, consistently favoring either the government or the opposition. Many journalists were arrested, detained, and beaten by police while covering protests and violence during and after the 2020 election period.

Legal guarantees of religious freedom are typically upheld, and individuals are free to practice their faith in public and private.

Academics faced threats and intimidation if they addressed or critiqued the ruling party and other politically sensitive topics during the 2020 election cycle. Legal scholars were unable to organize a public debate on the constitutionality of President Ouattara’s third term, as many feared their participation would be considered a form of illegal protest. 

Security forces largely overlooked the violence against opposition supporters, which discouraged individuals from openly expressing their political views.

In 2021, Ivorians’ ability to speak openly greatly improved, and political debates were allowed to resume in the newspapers and on social media. However, self-censorship remains common, and some political discussions, especially those regarding the legitimacy of Ouattara’s third presidential term, still carry a risk of harassment for participants.

Associational and Organizational Rights

President Ouattara banned public demonstrations and protests throughout the 2020 election period. Police violently dispersed protests and other acts of civil disobedience that stemmed from the opposition’s election boycott; more than 50 people were killed because of violence at public demonstrations.

In 2021, fewer political demonstrations and protest marches took place than in the previous year; those that did occur were largely peaceful, and were not subjected to police violence or interference.

Domestic and international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) are generally free to operate. However, poor security conditions—especially in north and west—are a constraint for some organizations.

The right to organize and join labor unions is constitutionally guaranteed. Workers have the right to bargain collectively. Côte d’Ivoire typically has various professional strikes every year, though sometimes strikes have become violent. 

Rule of Law

The judiciary is not independent, and judges are highly susceptible to external interference and bribes. Processes governing the assignment of cases to judges are opaque. The courts generally adjudicate cases in accordance with the ruling party’s political interests, and the judiciary was fully mobilized to support President Ouattara’s third term.

Physical violence against civilians in the form of extortion, banditry, and sexual violence, sometimes perpetrated by members of the state armed forces, remain common. Disputes over land use and ownership between migrants, and those who claim customary land rights, sometimes turn violent. The country’s prisons are severely overcrowded, and incarcerated adults and minors are not always separated.

In November 2020, the United Nations reported that over 3,000 people fled Côte d’Ivoire because of postelection violence. Many of those who fled returned to Côte d’Ivoire in 2021.

Throughout 2020 and 2021, numerous terrorist attacks occurred in the north of country, along the borders with Burkina Faso and Mali. In February 2021, the head of French intelligence warned that terrorist groups were planning to expand their operations in Côte d’Ivoire and in December, the government increased its budget for antiterrorism programs in the north.

Same-sex relations are not criminalized in Côte d’Ivoire, but LGBT+ people can face prosecution under criminal code language amended in 2019 that references “unnatural acts” and “moral sensitivity.” No law prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation. LGBT+ people face societal prejudice as well as harassment by state security forces.

Intercommunal tensions over land rights frequently involve migrants from neighboring countries, who sometimes experience violent intimidation.

Personal Autonomy and Individual Rights

Women are generally afforded equal freedom of movement, though risks of insecurity and sexual violence hinder this in practice.

Women suffer significant legal and economic discrimination, and sexual and gender-based violence are widespread.

The spread of COVID-19 has also been linked to an increase in violence against women; during a COVID-19-related lockdown between March and May 2020, cases of domestic violence rose by 52 percent.

Legal protections from gender-based violence are weak and are often ignored. Impunity for perpetrators also remains a problem, and when it is prosecuted, rape is routinely reclassified as indecent assault. Costly medical certificates are often essential for convictions, yet are beyond the means of victims who are impoverished.

Child marriage is historically widespread, though the July 2019 marriage law set the minimum age for marriage at 18 for both sexes. Customary and religious marriages, more common outside urban areas, were not affected by the law. The July 2019 law also banned same-sex marriage.

Despite efforts by the government and international industries in recent years to counter the phenomenon, child labor is a frequent problem, particularly in the cocoa industry. Human trafficking is prohibited by the new constitution, but government programs for victims of trafficking—often children—are inadequate.