It was such a great disappointment for me to witness the resounding fall of international pillars of human rights defenders, which I believed – naive as I was – to be bulwarks for the oppressed and the victims of various injustices.
It was this very innocence that led me to knock on their door one day, and ask for their protection against the person who had raped my humanity and dignity.
But, little did I know, my expectations and aspirations turned out to be in vain. Unfortunately, I only realized this later, after Human Rights Watch (HRW) had shut the door in my face and distorted my statements, which clearly shows the dysfunction of this organization and the duality of its discourse.
The organization has ardently advocated the version of the perpetrator, forcing evidence aside and casting shadows of doubt over it. Having not stopped at this point, HRW even went as far as to condemn the victim and glorify the perpetrator, thus flouting justice. In doing so, it had one sole objective: to influence the course of this case and direct it to the desired course.
Hence, my case has most likely exposed this organization and revealed its “true” dark side. This has prompted me to ask several questions. Questions about the real objectives of these international organizations, which are supposed to be impartial, neutral, and in solidarity with the victims.
I then began my quest in search of sufficient and convincing answers about their alleged neutrality, their methods of work and investigations for obtaining information, preparing their reports, and the selection criteria for the cases they defend.
My journey in search of answers led me last June to knock on the door of Eric Goldstein, Deputy Director of Human Rights Watch’s Middle East and North Africa Division, and expert on Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, and Western Sahara.
After more than two years of great hesitation and reluctance, Goldstein finally answered some of my questions, even though my case was already closed after the court had handed down its final verdict. He, himself, had once worked in the commission for the protection of journalists – apparently, male journalists but not female journalists!
Most of my questions were about the way the organization works and how it obtains information, questions that were explicitly avoided of course.
However, I was surprised by the nature of some of the questions I was asked in return, especially from HRW’s Senior Women’s Rights Researcher Rothna Begum. She plainly asked me about the way I was treated by Moroccan authorities when I filed my complaint, and also during the investigation and whether I had any complaints or objections to make about it.
This misplaced, misleading, and incomprehensible question was, for me, more than enough to reveal the true intentions of this organization, which is supposed to defend human rights. Yet, it turned out that the prominent organization only uses this slogan as a means of camouflage to serve their political and social ends of destabilizing countries.
It is an underhanded and shameful exploitation of the woes and sorrows of the victims, for political, and even, financial purposes, in a relentless attempt to question state institutions and undermine the confidence of citizens and the international community. This is what has been clearly revealed by this resounding fall of Human Rights Watch and its counterparts such as Reporters Without Borders.
The true intentions of these organizations were also reinforced by the flagrant disregard for the principles of impartiality when Human Rights Watch commissioned Ahmed Reda Benchemsi to oversee the trial of “ARR, his close friend and former colleague at Tel Quel.” A question then arose: Do not the principles of professional ethics and impartiality require the selection of a neutral party to ensure the reliability and admissibility of reports?
However, if there is a positive point in my cause and my arduous struggle, it is to have been able to expose these organizations and unmask their true identities. Organizations that sided with the offender and condemned the victim. Organizations that gave all the legitimacy to the offender and took it away from the victim. Organizations that stripped the victim off her rights and her professional affiliation, and left her alone to face the evil deeds of her offender as well as his companions. Yes, these are the true colors of those who claim to defend the rights of journalists.
Such experiences have left me with deep wounds that are difficult to heal because neither justice nor time can heal them. Wounds that I will continue to display at each and every opportunity. Wounds that are both a proof of my conviction and a warning to those who still believe in the false and hypocritical values advocated and defended by these deceptive organizations.
Revealing the truth remains for me the only consolation that shall heal my wounds. That is why I chose to take this path, to uncover the truth, instead of keeping silent all my life.
The same method was followed with young Adam, an LGBT activist, who was harassed by a journalist.
These organizations did not hesitate to promote his tormentor, burying Adam’s voice, without even bothering to listen to him or meet him. And when these cases are recurrent from several organizations that are supposed to defend human rights, it becomes no longer an exception or a misjudgment, but rather a unified scenario in the selection of cases and involved parties.
From their point of view, human rights are only worth defending if they fit into their agendas and suit their purposes. What suits them, they adopt it without hesitation. And what goes against what they want, they then do their best to discredit and delegitimize.
In short, these organizations that advocate human rights select with great care the cases that are presented to them, under very precise agendas. The apparent goal is of course to defend human rights, but carefully hidden inside, the real goal is quite devious: to destabilize states and sow chaos and uncertainty, which makes them mere schadenfreude, dancing on the sorrows of the misfortunes and wounds of the victims!
