Related Research Articles
Djibouti is a country in the Horn of Africa. It is bordered by Somalia to the southeast, Eritrea and the Red Sea to the north and northeast, Ethiopia to the west and south, and the Gulf of Aden to the east.
Politics of Djibouti takes place in a framework of a presidential representative democratic republic, whereby the executive power is exercised by the President and the Government. Legislative power is vested in both the Government and the National Assembly. The party system and legislature are dominated by the socialist People's Rally for Progress. In April 2010, a new constitutional amendment was approved. The President serves as both the head of state and head of government, and is directly elected for single six-year term. Government is headed by the President, who appoints the Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers on the proposal of the latter. There is also a 65-member chamber of deputies, where representatives are popularly elected for terms of five years. Administratively, the country is divided into five regions and one city, with eleven additional district subdivisions. Djibouti is also part of various international organisations, including the United Nations and Arab League.
Evin Prison is a prison located in the Evin neighborhood of Tehran, Iran. The prison has been the primary site for the housing of Iran's political prisoners since 1972, before and after the Islamic Revolution, in a purpose-built wing nicknamed "Evin University" due to the number of intellectuals housed there. Evin Prison has been accused of committing "serious human rights abuses" against its political dissidents and critics of the government.
Ismaïl Omar Guelleh is the current President of Djibouti, in office since 1999. He is often referred to in the region by his initials, IOG.
The People's Rally for Progress is a political party in Djibouti. It has dominated politics in the country since 1979, initially under the rule of President Hassan Gouled Aptidon. Today it is led by President Ismail Omar Guelleh and is in a coalition government with Front for the Restoration of Unity and Democracy (FRUD) and other parties.
The Movement for Democratic Renewal and Development, is a political party in Djibouti. It was originally known as the Party for Democratic Renewal. The PRD of Djibouti was created with the purpose of forming a national democratic party. The PRD gained popularity at the collapse of the communist bloc and the end of the Cold War. It used its military power gained through its coalition with the Front for the Restoration of Unity and Democracy (FRUD) and the Movement for Peace and Reconciliation (MPR). The current leader of PRD is Abdillani Hamariteha.
Hassan Gouled Aptidon was the first President of Djibouti from 1977 to 1999.
Barkat Gourad Hamadou was the Prime Minister of Djibouti from 2 October 1978 until 7 March 2001.
Ahmed Dini Ahmed was a Djiboutian politician. He was trained as a health technician and entered the political realm at age 26. He served as Vice-president of the Representative Council of French Somaliland from April 1959 to June 1960, he was a member of the government of Ali Aref Bourhan in 1962-1964, he then participated in the foundation of the Afar Democratic Union (UDA). He is Minister of Home Affairs until 1971. In 1975, he became spokesman for the new African People's League for Independence (LPAI), led by Hassan Gouled Aptidon and was later Prime Minister of Djibouti from 1977 to 1978. In July 1977, he became Prime Minister of the new Republic of Djibouti. In December, after the bombing of the Palm in Zinc, and the consequent ban on the Movement for the Liberation (MPL), he resigned and returned to the opposition. He led the Front for the Restoration of Unity and Democracy (FRUD), an Afar rebel group, during the civil war of the 1990s; after the group split in 1994, he led a radical faction of FRUD.
The Issa are a northern Somali clan, a sub-division of the Dir clan family and are one of the largest clans of the Dir with a large and densely populated traditional territory.
The Djiboutian Civil War was a conflict in Djibouti, lasting from 1991 to 1994 and resulting in thousands of fatalities. This uneven power sharing between the Issas and Afars led to the Civil War that ravaged the country for three years.
In the 1990s in Morocco gradual political reforms culminated in the constitutional reform of 1996, which created a new bicameral legislature with expanded, although still limited, powers. Although reportedly marred by irregularities, elections for the Chamber of Representatives were held in 1997. With the death of King Hassan II of Morocco in 1999, the more liberal-minded Crown Prince Sidi Mohammed, who assumed the title of Mohammed VI, took the throne. He has since enacted successive reforms to modernize Morocco, and the country has seen a marked improvement in its human rights record. One of the new king's first acts was to free some 8,000 political prisoners and reduce the sentences of another 30,000. He also established a commission to compensate families of missing political activists and others subjected to arbitrary detention.
Moumin Bahdon Farah was a Djiboutian politician and the President of the Social Democratic People's Party (PPSD). He was Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1978 to 1993 and Minister of Justice from 1993 to 1996. Concurrently, he was a member of the National Assembly of Djibouti.
Ahmed Boulaleh Barreh, also known as Gabayo, is a Djiboutian politician. He is the Vice-President of the People's Social Democratic Party (PPSD) and a member of the National Assembly of Djibouti.
Presidential elections were held in Djibouti on 8 April 2005. The incumbent President of Djibouti, Ismail Omar Guelleh, was re-elected to a second six-year term in an unopposed election.
Presidential elections were held in Djibouti for the first time on 12 June 1981. Earlier in the year, the country had been declared a one-party state with the People's Rally for Progress as the only legally permitted party. RPP leader Hassan Gouled Aptidon, who had been president since independence in 1977, was the sole candidate on the ballot, and was re-elected with 84.58% of the vote. Voter turnout was around 85%.
Haitham al-Maleh is a Syrian human rights activist and former judge. He is a critic of the current Syrian government under Bashar al-Assad and has been imprisoned by the Syrian government because he was calling for constitutional reforms. Maleh became an important opposition figure in the Syrian Civil War.
The issue of human rights in Djibouti, a small country situated within the Horn of Africa, is a matter of concern for several human rights organizations. In its 2011 Freedom in the World report, Freedom House ranked Djibouti as "Not Free", a downgrading from its former status as "Partly Free". The nation most recently saw martial violence in 2008, in the form of border clashes with neighbouring Eritrea.
Mohammad Davari is an Iranian journalist. After he documented abuses of prisoners at Kahrizak detention center, he was sentenced to five years in prison by the Iranian government, drawing international protest on his behalf.
The United Arab Emirates Five are five activists who were arrested on April 2011 on charges of breaking United Arab Emirates law of defamation by insulting heads of state, namely UAE president Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, vice president Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, and Abu Dhabi crown prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan through running an anti-government website that express anti-government views.