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UN Human Rights Official Assesses Deteriorating Situation in Cote D'ivoire

Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights Ivan Simonovic today visited Côte d'Ivoire to assess the deteriorating situation in the strife-torn West African country.

The country is overwhelmed with violence where forces backing the former leader and those supporting the democratically-elected president are engaged in bloody fighting with civilians bearing the brunt of the violence.

Ivan Simonovic, Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights, who arrived in Abidjan yesterday, has expressed deep concern over the worsening human rights situation, as reports of massacres and other forms of brutality against civilians come in from the country's west.

Forces supporting Alassane Ouattara, the President of Côte d'Ivoire, are on the offensive to oust Laurent Gbagbo, the former president who refuses to step down despite his defeat by Mr. Ouattara in a UN-certified and internationally recognized run-off election last November.

Mr. Simonovic will have meetings with the Ivorian authorities, political leaders and civil society. He will also have meetings with the representatives of the international community, the UN system and the diplomatic corps. He also plans to go on field visits.

He will also take the opportunity to remind all parties to the Ivorian conflict of their individual and collective responsibility to ensure that international human rights law and humanitarian law are respected. He will urge them to immediately take necessary measures to protect civilians, especially women and children, and put an end to all human rights abuses.

Source: United Nations