France

World Coalition Steering Committee member

International Federation of ACATs (FIACAT)

The International Federation of ACATs (Action by Christians for the Abolition of Torture), FIACAT, is an international non-governmental human rights organisation, set up in 1987, which works towards the abolition of torture and the death penalty. The Federation brings together some thirty national associations, the ACATs, present in four continents.

FIACAT – representing its members in international and regional organisations

FIACAT enjoys consultative status with the United Nations, participative status with the Council of Europe and observer status with the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights. FIACAT is also accredited to the International Organisation of la Francophonie.
By referring the concerns of its members working on the ground to international bodies, FIACAT’s aim is to encourage the adoption of relevant recommendations and their implementation by governments. FIACAT works towards the application of international human rights conventions, the prevention of torture in places of detention, and an end to enforced disappearances and impunity. It also takes part in the campaign against the death penalty by calling on states to abolish capital punishment in their legal systems.
To give added impact to these efforts, FIACAT is a founding member of several campaigning coalitions, in particular the World Coalition against the Death Penalty, the Coalition of International NGOs against Torture, the International Coalition against Enforced Disappearances and the Human Rights and Democracy Network.

FIACAT – building up the capacities of the ACAT network in thirty countries

FIACAT assists its member associations in organising themselves, supporting them so that they can become important players in civil society, capable of raising public awareness and having an impact on the authorities in their country.
It coordinates the network by promoting exchanges, proposing regional and international training events and joint campaigns, thus supporting the activities of the ACATs and providing them with exposure on the international scene.

FIACAT – a network of Christians united in fighting torture and the death penalty

FIACAT’s mission is to awaken Churches and Christian organisations to the scandal of torture and the death penalty and convince them to act.

Date founded

1987             

Structure type

NGO             

World Coalition Steering Committee member

Contact informations

96 boulevard de la Libération
94300 Vincennes
Phone +33 (0)1 58 64 10 47

Resources

Document(s)

Report on the situation of abolitionist human rights defenders in Democratic Republic of the Congo

By International Federation of ACATs (FIACAT), on 10 October 2024


2024

NGO report

Democratic Republic of the Congo

Moratorium

fr
More details See the document

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

On February 9, 2024, the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) lifted the moratorium on executions that had been in place since 2003. This decision comes amid a deteriorating security situation in the eastern part of the country and increasing restrictions on civic space. Since the moratorium was lifted, human rights defenders who publicly oppose this decision have faced heightened repression from Congolese authorities. This note documents the violations suffered by these defenders in several provinces of the country, including:

– death threats and acts of physical violence;
– arbitrary arrests and detentions;
– baseless accusations and fabricated judicial proceedings;
– violations of property rights and freedom of movement;
– harassment targeting their relatives and collaborators.

These violations are mainly perpetrated by agents of the National Intelligence Agency (ANR), the Military Detection of Unpatriotic Activities (Démiap), and security forces. The impunity enjoyed by the perpetrators allows this repression to continue.

This note also highlights the considerable impact that the criminalization of defenders has on their living conditions and those of their families, including:

– the inability to continue their activities due to fear of reprisals;
– economic and social consequences (loss of employment, marginalization);
– disruption of family life (forced relocations, separations);
– forced exile for some particularly threatened defenders.

The growing phenomenon of repression described in this note is part of a broader context of civic space restrictions in the DRC, exacerbated by the state of siege in place in some eastern provinces. This repression risks having a significant deterrent effect on the entire abolitionist movement and, more broadly, on any form of opposition to the government.

Document(s)

UN Special Procedures toolkit – World Day 2023

By FIACAT and the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, on 18 September 2023


2023

World Coalition

fr
More details Download [ pdf - 345 Ko ]

There are several ways in which individuals and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) can work with the UN to report human rights violations. One way is through the special procedures of the UN Human Rights Council (HRC). Find out how to work with them here.

Document(s)

The death penalty and the prohibition of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment

on 21 August 2021


2021

NGO report

World Coalition

Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment and Punishment

fr
More details See the document

The signatory organizations are convinced that the death penalty is incompatible with the prohibition of torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, which is a peremptory norm of international law (jus cogens) and should thus be abolished. The death penalty is only tolerated by international law and standards to the extent that it may only be imposed for the most serious crimes and applied in a way that causes the least possible suffering. However, the signatory organizations believe that from the sentencing to the execution, the death penalty inevitably causes physical harm and psychological suffering amounting to torture or ill-treatments.

The present position paper documents the extent to which international and regional organisation have already recognised a violation of the absolution prohibitionof torture in the application and imposition of the death penalty.

Document(s)

19th World Day Against the Death Penalty – Engaging the Special Procedures of the UN Human Rights Council: Women and the Death Penalty

By World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, Reprieve, FIACAT, The Advocates for Human Rights, on 10 August 2021


2021

Working with...

Women

fr
More details Download [ pdf - 454 Ko ]

While the methods in this tool are applicable beyond the scope of capital punishment, for the 19th World Day Against the Death Penalty, Reprieve and the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty have drafted this How-To on engaging the United Nations (UN) Special Procedures for elevating cases pertaining to women who have been sentenced to the death penalty.

Document(s)

PRIMER ON TRANSGENDER INDIVIDUALS FACING THE DEATH PENALTY

By World Coalition Against the Death Penalty; FIACAT; The Advocates for Human Rights; Cornell Center on the DP Worldwide, on 30 June 2021


2021

Campaigning

Women

fr
More details Download [ pdf - 450 Ko ]

On 10 October 2021, the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty and other abolitionist organizations worldwide will celebrate the 19th World Day Against the Death Penalty.

This year the World Day is dedicated to women who risk being sentenced to death, who have received a death sentence, who have been executed, and to those who have had their death sentences commuted, have been exonerated or pardoned. Included in this theme, are trans women and other gender diverse individuals, who are a minority on death row but who are discriminated against on the basis of gender.

Capital punishment disproportionately targets socially marginalized individuals; it is no different for transgender people, who may face discrimination in every aspect of their lives.

Document(s)

Cameroon – Committee to Eliminate Racial Discrimination – Death Penalty – March 2020

By RACOPEM, ACAT Cameroun, on 21 March 2020


2020

NGO report

World Coalition

Cameroon


More details Download [ pdf - 1898 Ko ]

This report addresses Cameroon’s compliance with human rights obligations under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, particularly with respect to the imposition of the death penalty against Anglophone Cameroonians.

By way of background, the Anglophone crisis in Cameroon began in 2016 as peaceful protests by lawyers and teachers demanding linguistic reforms but rapidly escalated into a war of secession that has killed thousands of people and displaced over one million.

The Cameroonian Criminal Code adopted in 2016 allows for the death penalty, including for vaguely defined terrorism-related offences. In this regard, the Anti-Terrorism Law of 2014 has been used to prosecute Anglophone human rights activists before military courts for acts of terrorism, secession, rebellion, and spreading false news, with the death penalty as a potential sentence in such cases.

While Cameroon ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) in 1984, it has yet to ratify its Second Optional Protocol aiming at the abolition of the death penalty (ICCPR-OP2). Although no execution has taken place in Cameroon since 1997, civil society organizations estimate that 220 people currently are under sentence of death in Cameroon.

As discussed below, Cameroon fails to uphold its obligations under the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination because its domestic law and institutional and political framework do not sufficiently protect Anglophones facing the death penalty.

  • Document type NGO report / World Coalition
  • Countries list Cameroon

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