Dec 16, 2015 | Events, News, Video clips
More than 40 senior judges and lawyers from all parts of the world have made an important contribution to efforts to hold judges accountable for involvement in human rights violations and judicial corruption, by participating in the sixth annual ICJ Geneva Forum of Judges & Lawyers.
The Geneva Forum is organized annually by the ICJ’s Centre for Independence of Judges & Lawyers (CIJL) and brings together judges, lawyers and prosecutors from around the world, together with UN officials and representatives from international professional associations of legal professionals, as well as academics and other experts.
This year’s Geneva Forum (14-15 December) formed part of a larger CIJL project to promote judicial accountability, through sharing of knowledge about relevant international standards and international and national good practices, between the judiciary, other legal actors, and governments and civil society around the world.
The focus of the project is on judicial involvement in human rights violations such as unjust executions, prolonged arbitrary detention including imprisonment after deliberately unfair trials, judges providing impunity to perpetrators or enforced disappearance and torture, as well as judicial corruption that leads to human rights violations.
Victims of such violations have the right to remedy and reparation, including in relation to the role of judges, and society as a whole should be able to be confident that those responsible for such judicial misconduct will be held to account.
The two days of intense and detailed discussion and debate, at times practical and at times passionate, identified wide areas of agreement amongst participants, as well as areas of divergence and questions requiring further study and deliberation. Topics covered included:
- the composition and character of accountability bodies (and particularly, the importance of judge-led processes that at the same time may benefit from involvement of representation of the legal profession, legal academia, and general public – while excluding undue influence from the Executive or Legislative branches of government);
- the practicalities of bringing criminal proceedings against judges;
- the role of national, regional and international professional associations;
- possible options in situations of transition to democracy where the judiciary on the whole may have been an instrument of repression of the prior regime, or situations of pervasive corruption, or conflict or post-conflict situations;
- particular considerations in relation to judicial accountability in developing countries;
- the powers and methods for gathering of evidence of judicial misconduct;
- the rights of individual judges and of alleged victims of judicial misconduct;
- the role of publicity and transparency in judicial accountability processes;
- the inclusion of safeguards against the abuse of judicial accountability mechanisms for ulterior motives, including political interference that undermines the independence of the judiciary;
- and practical means for ensuring that mechanisms and procedures, once established, operate effectively and fairly in practice.
The Forum follows a smaller expert consultation meeting convened in Tunisia in October focussing on judicial accountability in developing countries where, it is widely recognized, the negative impacts of corruption on human rights are deepest and most widespread. A report of the Tunis consultation is available here.
The Geneva Forum and Tunisia consultation are an opportunity for direct sharing of experience and expertise between practitioners, strengthening their capacity to carry out effective judicial accountability work in their own regional and national contexts, and to further disseminate this knowledge to others.
It is also an opportunity to discuss possible global strategies for promoting more effective and fair judicial accountability mechanisms and procedures.
The exchanges between leading judges and lawyers at the Geneva Forum and Tunis consultation will also directly feed into an ICJ Practitioners Guide on Judicial Accountability, with global legal, policy and practical guidance, to be published in June 2016. (Update 7 June 2016 – the Guide has now been published and is available here.)
The Practitioners Guide will be printed, published electronically, and distributed as a foundation for subsequent work by the ICJ and others at the national and regional level, from 2016 onwards, including in development-assistance recipient countries. It will join a series of Practitioners Guides published by the ICJ (nine to date, no. 10 and 11 to be published very soon), which have proved to be leading reference guides and training materials in the field of legal protection of human rights and the rule of law.
The developing countries consultation in Tunisia, and participation of practitioners from developing countries in the global Geneva Forum, will help to ensure that the Practitioners Guide is relevant to and has impact in ODA recipient countries.
The ultimate aim of the work of the CIJL, including the 2015 Geneva Forum on judicial accountability and the eventual Practitioners Guide, is to improve access to independent and impartial justice for victims of human rights violations, corruption and similar abuses, including when the judiciary itself has been involved in the wrongdoing.
The 2015 Geneva Forum, and the earlier Tunisia consultation, have been made possible with the support of the Republic and Canton of Geneva, as well as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland. The ICJ is also grateful for the assistance of the Geneva Welcome Centre (CAGI).
The list of participants to this year’s Geneva Forum is available here: Participants list (public)
The report of the Tunis consultation is available here: Universal-Tunis Consultation-Publications-Seminar and Conference Report-2016-ENG
Information about previous years’ events and publications is available here: Geneva Forum Homepage
A 2000 CIJL Yearbook focussing on Judicial Corruption is available here: 2000 CIJL Yearbook Judicial Corruption
Voices from the Geneva Forum:
Dec 16, 2015 | Advocacy, Events
The ICJ joins other non-governmental organisations in co-sponsoring “Escalation of Violence in Burundi: Human rights defenders voices from the ground”, a side event to the Human Rights Council’s special session on Burundi, 17 December 2015.
The event will take place Thursday 17 December – 9.00-10.00 am in Room XII, Palais des Nations, Geneva
Panelists:
Mr Pierre Claver Mbonimpa, Association for the Protection of Human Rights and Incarcerated Persons (APRODH)
Ms Margaret Barankitse, Maison Shalom
Mr Anschaire Nikoyagize, Ligue ITEKA
Ms Carina Tertsakian, Human Rights Watch
The event will be moderated by Nicolas Agostini of FIDH.
The event will be webcast live by the International Service for Human Rights (ISHR).
Follow on twitter using the hash-tag #BurundiHRDs
A flyer for the event is available here: Burundi-UNHRC-Advocacy-SideEvent-2015
Dec 11, 2015 | Events, News
On 10-11 December, the ICJ gathered leading jurists and human rights defenders in Harare, Zimbabwe to discuss measures needed to implement legal reform and change attitudes to eliminate sexual and gender based violence.
For International Human Rights Day (10 December), the ICJ organized high level panel discussions, chaired by ICJ Commissioner Justice Qinisile Mabuza.
Justice Mabuza, who is also a judge for the High Court of Swaziland and for the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) Court of Justice, set the tone for the discussions that followed in setting out the extent of the problem of sexual and gender based violence not only within Africa but also on a global scale.
One panel consisted of Judge Lillian Tiabtemwa-Ekrikubinza, Supreme Court Judge of Uganda; Magistrate Asha Ramlal of South Africa; Judge Lavender Makoni, High Court Judge of Zimbabwe; and Magistrate Polo Banyane from Lesotho.
This panel provided a judicial perspective from magistrates and judges from across the region, sharing their experiences and common problems encountered in tackling sexual and gender based violence in their jurisdictions.
The judges spoke about the need to adopt a gender analysis in judicial decision-making and to be conscious of the way in which pervasive gender stereotypes can influence even seemingly gender neutral decisions.
They also spoke of the practicalities in implementing domestic violence and sexual offences legislation as well as the challenges involved when this legislation does not exist.
Welekazi Stifole from Tshwaranang Legal Advocacy Centre; Kelvin Hazangwi from Padare (Men’s Forum on Gender) and Lisa Gormley, ICJ Consultant on women’s rights participated in a second panel.
The participants shared their perspectives and insights concerning reviewing legislation, identifying problems with evidence gathering, analyzing the international and regional frameworks covering gender based violence and in working with perpetrators and within communities to change cultural attitudes.
The second day of the gathering featured a consultative meeting on the ICJ’s forthcoming Practitioner’s Guide on Women’s Access to Justice for Gender-Based Violence.
ICJ expert consultant Lisa Gormley presented the Guide and participants shared their experiences in relation to its content, as well as developing strategies for its future implementation.
Representatives of civil society, judges, lawyers and law students participated in both events, contributing to a broader understanding of sexual and gender based violence issues and strengthening national and international networks of defenders of women’s rights.
Nov 18, 2015 | Events, News
The ICJ, OSCE and Group 484 are holding a training on migration and international human rights law starting on Tuesday 17 November in Vrnjačka Banja (Serbia).
The training has been organised by the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the Serbian NGO “Group 484” and will be given by the International Commission of Jurists.
It will focus on international protection of migrants and asylum seekers, access to territory and asylum and the principle of non-refoulement, in light of the current migrants and refugee crisis and drawing from the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights, of the UN human rights systems and from EU law.
The training will be centred on the ICJ Practitioners Guide no. 6: Migration and International Human Rights Law.
Serbia-JointTrainingMigrationHR-Events-2015-ENG (download the agenda in English)
Sep 29, 2015 | Events, News
From 30 September to 1 October 2015, the Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA), International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), and Boat People SOS (BPSOS) will jointly organize a conference in Bangkok.
The regional conference will discuss pressing concerns on the promotion and protection of freedom of religion or belief.
The UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom on Religion or Belief, Mr. Heiner Bielefeldt, will be joined by approximately 60-70 human rights defenders, members of religious groups, rights groups, UN agencies and representatives from the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights, ASEAN Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Rights of Women and Children, National Human Rights Institutions and other government agencies.
The event will provide a multi-stakeholder platform to discuss key emerging issues, distinct and shared challenges faced by various Southeast Asian religious groups and advocates of religious freedom, identify advocacy strategies and best practices to overcome these obstacles, and to strengthen cooperation between the different stakeholders important in promoting freedom of religion or belief in Southeast Asia.
The event will also be an opportunity for participants to have a better understanding of the mandate of the UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief.
Some of the key topics expected to be discussed include state control and regulation of religion, extreme interpretations of religion, and how freedom of religion together with other human rights are complementary or mutually reinforcing.
Upon the completion of the conference, the Special Rapporteur will hold a press briefing at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand (FCCT) at 7.30pm on 1 October 2015 to provide an overview of the status of freedom of religion or belief in Southeast Asia and how this right could be better protected and promoted.
Sep 15, 2015 | Events, News
Organized by UNICEF and the ICJ, this side event takes place on Thursday 17 September 2015, from 12:00-14:00, Room XXVII, Palais des Nations, Geneva.
More than ever before, business enterprises have an impact on children’s lives.
Children are consumers of businesses’ products and services, workers in their factories and fields, family members of their employees, and residents of the communities that host their operations.
Some of these interactions can benefit children. Companies have, for instance, created new technologies that enrich children’s education, enhance medical care, and connect families around the world.
Yet at the same time, businesses can also have detrimental impacts.
Companies can make and sell unhealthy and unsafe goods to children, pollute the environments in which children live and play, and expose them to serious dangers including in the workplace.
As children are still growing and developing, they are especially vulnerable to negative business impacts and can be severely and permanently affected by infringements of their rights.
Child consumers can be more easily convinced to buy and use inappropriate or unsuitable products, and children are much more susceptible than adults to the harmful physical effects of toxic chemicals, manual labour and poor diets.
Young workers can never fully make up for time spent out of education, and missed opportunities are rarely restored.
Many of these impacts remain unnoticed, and businesses rarely involve or seek the input of children on decisions that will profoundly affect them.
Children may not understand that their rights are in jeopardy, and, even when they do, often face tremendous challenges in making their voices heard.
All too frequently, child victims lack the confidence, resources and legal authority to demand accountability from those who violate their rights.
For these reasons, it is imperative that governments take action to protect and promote children’s rights in the context of business operations.
In February 2013, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child adopted General Comment 16 on State obligations regarding the impact of the business sector on children’s rights to assist States to ensure that businesses respect children’s rights as envisioned in the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
The ICJ and UNICEF, at the request of the Committee, have elaborated a Guide to offer to States practical examples and best practices on how to protect and ensure the realization of the rights of the child in the context of business operations.
