Apr 20, 2013 | Advocacy, News, Non-legal submissions
The ICJ today condemned the execution by the Government of Taiwan of six prisoners, convicted on charges of murder, on 19 April 2013. It follows the earlier execution of six convicted persons in December 2012.
Twenty-one executions have been carried out in Taiwan since April 2010, shattering a de facto moratorium of the death penalty that had been respected by the Government since December 2005.
“The Government of Taiwan’s execution of 12 people in the last six months constitutes a serious and unacceptable assault on the right to life and human dignity”, said Alex Conte, Director of the ICJ International Law & Protection Programmes. “These executions also place Taiwan at odds with the international community, which has adopted with increasingly large majorities since December 2007 the UN General Assembly resolutions calling for a worldwide moratorium on executions”, Conte added.
This new round of executions are especially lamentable in light of the encouraging step recently taken by the country to invite an international group of experts to review the measures adopted by the Government to promote and protect human rights. The recommendations to the Government of Taiwan, formulated by those experts, and welcomed by the ICJ and other rights groups, included intensifying efforts towards the abolition of capital punishment and the recommendation that Taiwan “as a first and decisive step, immediately introduces a moratorium on executions in accordance with the respective resolutions of the UN General Assembly”.
The ICJ believes that the use of the death penalty constitutes a violation of the right to life and the right not to be subjected to cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment.
ICJ and other rights groups encourage Taiwan on domestic implementation of human rights (see ICJ and other rights groups’ statement on Taiwan’s human rights review process)
Apr 2, 2013 | Advocacy, News, Non-legal submissions
The ICJ, Amnesty International and the AIRE Centre submitted written comments on the draft EU accession agreement to the European Convention on Human Rights.
The ICJ, Amnesty International and the AIRE Centre have submitted written observations, on the occasion of the last meeting of the 47+1 Group in charge of the negotiations on the accession of the European Union to the European Convention on Human Rights. The observations focussed on issues of jurisdiction, responsibility, and on the mechanism of co-respondence in cases involving the EU.
EUAccessionECHR-Paper-Joint-2013 (download the paper)
Photo credit: © Yanni Koutsomitis (the author of the picture has no involvement in nor does support this submission)
Mar 20, 2013 | Advocacy, Non-legal submissions
The ICJ presented its views on corruption and the rule of law at a hearing of the Legal Affairs and Human Rights Committee of PACE, on 19 March.
The ICJ presentation, supported by a written submission, addressed in particular the importance of a strong and independent judiciary in combating corruption, and the need to prevent judicial corruption through legislative, organisational and educational measures that promote and support an independent and impartial judiciary.
The hearing, before the Legal Affairs and Human Rights Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, was in preparation for a report by the Committee on Corruption as a threat to the Rule of Law in Europe.
Corruption as a Threat to the Rule of Law (Full text, PDF)
Mar 19, 2013 | Advocacy, Non-legal submissions
The ICJ today welcomed the recent deposit of the tenth instrument of ratification to the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR).
Noting that the entry into force of the Optional Protocol (OP) on 5 May 2013 will mark an historic boost to the international protection of economic, social and cultural rights, the ICJ called on the Human Rights Council and its members to become party to the OP and other individual communications procedures of the treaty bodies.
The ICJ’s statement was made during the General Debate under Item 8 of the Human Rights Council’s agenda (follow-up and implementation of the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action) during the 22nd regular session of the Council (25 February to 22 March 2013).
HRC22-Item8GD-OPICESCR-NonLegalSubmission-2013 (download full statement in ODF)
Mar 18, 2013 | Advocacy, Events
The ICJ’s Director of the International Law & Protection Programmes today addressed an international conference on strengthening cooperation in preventing terrorism, held in Baku, Azerbaijan.
In a session focussed on measures to address the conditions conducive to the spread of terrorism, Alex Conte emphasised that it is only by avoiding the creation or maintenance of conditions conducive to the spread of terrorism – including human rights violations and lack of the rule of law – that a sustainable international effort can be achieved to combat terrorism.
Identifying numerous negative trends in the national implementation of counter-terrorism obligations, Dr Conte made concrete proposals towards international cooperation aimed at ensuring that national law and practice complies with human rights and the rule of law.
ICJ-BakuConference-Statement-2013 (download full statement in PDF)
Mar 18, 2013 | Advocacy, Cases, Legal submissions
The ICJ and Amnesty International presented a third party intervention in the case Al Nashiri v Romania before the European Court of Human Rights.
In the third party intervention, the ICJ and AI outlined developments on the prohibition of arbitrary deprivation of liberty as a rule of customary international law; on the knowledge imputable to Contracting Parties at relevant times; on the duty to investigate credible allegations of human rights violations and the right to truth; and on the evidential approach to enforced disappearances.
AlNashiri_v_Romania-ICJAIJointSubmission-ECtHR-final (download the third party intervention
