On March 13, 2024, the Malian junta’s Minister of Territorial Administration announced the dissolution of the Association of Pupils and Students of Mali’s (AEEM), for alleged “violence and clashes” on campus. In the days surrounding AEEM’s dissolution, police also arrested more than 10 members of the organization.

In the Council of Ministers’ public statement, the government accused AEEM of “sow[ing] unrest within the school and university environment and cause[ing] disruptions to classes, assassinations, murders and destruction of public and private property through violent street demonstrations and illegal carrying of weapons,” which had previously led to arrested some of its members in 2017 and 2018.

AEEM’s dissolution occurred against the backdrop of a broader crackdown on political dissent by Mali’s military government. Mali’s student movement has long been viewed as a hub of oppositional activity. The student group was the fourth organization that the government dissolved in less than four months, actions which Human Right Watch and the United Nations have pointed to as violations of both Malian law and international human rights law. About a month after AEEM’s dissolution, Mali’s council of ministers decreed that the activities of all political parties and associations would be suspended “until further notice.”

Scholars at Risk is concerned about the dissolution of a student organization on an apparently pretextual basis, and about the arrests of members of the group, in apparent retaliation for the expression of the rights to freedom of expression and freedom of association–conduct which is explicitly protected under international human right instruments, including the Universal Declaration on Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. State authorities have a responsibility to refrain from restricting or retaliating against expressive activity, so long as it is nonviolent and responsible. In addition to the harm to the immediate victim, arbitrary detentions undermine academic freedom and democratic society generally.

Sources:
https://www.lemonde.fr/afrique/article/2024/03/14/au-mali-la-junte-dissout-l-association-des-etudiants-du-pays_6222021_3212.html
https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20240327030820201
https://www.voaafrica.com/a/mali-military-government-disbands-student-group/7527604.html
https://www.rfi.fr/fr/afrique/20240330-nouvelles-arrestations-de-responsables-et-sympathisants-de-l-association-des-%C3%A9l%C3%A8ves-et-%C3%A9tudiants-du-mali
https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/04/12/mali-junta-suspends-political-parties-associations
https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/03/15/mali-deepens-crackdown-civil-society
https://monitor.civicus.org/explore/mali-military-authorities-suspend-activities-of-political-parties-and-associations-several-csos-dissolved/