ICJ welcomes historic UN decision on economic, social and cultural rights
The United Nations Human Rights Council yesterday approved by consensus an Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
States should strengthen judicial independence, develop a legal framework for businesses on human rights and tackle the crisis in Zimbabwe, Tibet and Myanmar
The ICJ said today at the Human Rights Council that all States should use their interaction with experts on extra-judicial executions, independence of judges and lawyers, torture and business and human rights.
This is not just to review their mandates to better address the major rights’ challenges, but also to demand accountability and end impunity for the perpetrators of persistent human rights violations in Zimbabwe, Tibet and Myanmar, the ICJ added.
HRC-States should strengthen judicial independence-Press releases-2008 (full text, word)
ICJ calls on Iranian authorities to cease harassment of Baha’i faith leaders
” The Six leaders of the Baha’i faith in Iran, who were arbitrarily arrested in Tehran in May 2008 and are being held incommunicado, must be released immediately or legally charged with a recognisable offence,” said the ICJ.
Read the full press release here
Business and Human Rights: NGO proposals for the future within the Human Rights Council
In defining the scope of a follow-on mandate the ICJ urges the HRC to broaden the focus beyond the elaboration of the “protect, respect, and remedy” framework.
The HRC must also include an explicit capacity to examine situations of corporate abuse, the ICJ says.
HRC-statement-advocacy-2011 (full text, PDF)
Sri Lanka: the government must strengthen the justice system and agree to re-establish the international monitoring presence
The ICJ expressed dismay at the Sri Lankan government’s complacent responses to mounting criticism of deteriorating human rights situation in the country.
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