On 11 July 2023, the Chamber of the third section of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) handed down its judgment in the case of Semenya v. Switzerland finding that Caster Semenya’s right to freedom from discrimination, taken together with her rights to respect for private life and to an effective remedy had been violated.
As the United Nations Human Rights Council concludes its 53rd session in Geneva, the ICJ welcomes the Council’s continued commitment to addressing some of the critical challenges of the day, including violence against women and girls, the rights of migrants, the independence of the judiciary, and the impact of new technologies and climate change on human rights. At the same time, some States at the Council have persisted in calling into question and undermining hard-fought gains in such areas as the protection of the rights of LGBTI persons, or sexual and reproductive health and rights.
The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) welcomes the judgment of the Harare High Court which has acquitted human rights activists Joana Mamombe and Cecelia Revai Chimbiri following their arrest on 10 June 2020. The case reviewed magistrate Faith Mashure’s decision to charge the women for “publishing or communicating false statements prejudicial to the State”, or alternatively, “defeating or obstructing the course of justice”. The high court held that the magistrate’s finding of a prima facie case against the human rights activists was grossly unreasonable and attributed to bias and mala fides.
The ICJ condemns the violent attacks on human rights lawyer, Obey Shava, who was severely beaten by four unidentified assailants The Zimbabwean authorities must conduct a prompt, thorough, and impartial investigation into his assault and bring to justice those responsible for the attack. They must also take measures to protect Obey Shava’s well-being and physical safety
Obey Shava is a human rights lawyer, co-founder of Shava Law Chambers, and a member of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR). He has been providing legal representation to activists from the Zimbabwean opposition party, Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC). CCC spokesperson, Fadzayi Mahere, described the incident as a cowardly act done at a time Shava has been litigating on behalf of her party in the double candidates fraud cases as well as electoral appeals that have emerged in the build-up to the country’s harmonized elections on August 23.
The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) today condemned a series of violent assaults against lawyers and a journalist in the Russian Federation.
The assaults targeted lawyer Alexander Nemov and Yelena Milashina, a journalist of the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta in Chechnya, followed by another attack on lawyer Elena Ponomareva in Moscow. They are part of a worrying broader pattern of violence against persons for carrying out their important professional functions as lawyers and journalists.
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