Right to free speech and assembly
On 5 February 2020, four union leaders were arrested in Libreville, Gabon, during the demonstration of Dynamique Unitaire, the country's leading trade union organisation, to challenge the government's austerity plan. Using the pretext of the ongoing meetings concerning the reform of the Labour Code on 4 February, the Ministry of Interior pre-emptively banned the demonstration. The trade union leaders decided to go ahead with the planned demonstration, but the authorities sent in the police force, which brutally repressed the protesters and arrested the union leaders.