Sep 15, 2014 | Events, News
The International Commission of Jurists and the Greek Council for Refugees will hold today a two-day conference on administrative detention of migrants and asylum seekers according to international and Greek law.
The conference will address the interplay of international law, EU law and national law in the domain of administrative detention of third country nationals. With presentations given by international experts and Greek experts and practitioners, the conference will address issues such as the nature of detention, its lawfulness, conditions of detention and treatment and judicial review of situations of deprivation of liberty.
Greece-conference-detention-ICJGCR-2014 (programme in English)
Greece-conference-detention-ICJGCR-2014-greek (programme in Greek)
Migration_and_International_Human_Rights_Law_Greek_materials (Collection of case law materials in Greek)
Aug 12, 2014 | Events
Matt Pollard and Alex Conte, of the ICJ’s International Law and Protection Programmes, will give presentations during the Global Consultation on the Right to Challenge the Lawfulness of Detention, to be held in Geneva on 1-2 September 2014.
The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, in cooperation with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, will convene the Consultation. The aim of the two-day meeting is to seek input on the development by the Working Group of draft basic principles and guidelines on remedies and procedures on the right of anyone deprived of his or her liberty, by arrest or detention, to bring proceedings before court, in order that the court may decide without delay on the lawfulness of his or her detention and order his or her release if the detention is not lawful.
ICJ experts, Matt Pollard and Alex Conte, will be members of two panel discussions during the Global Consultation, respectively on the framework, scope and content of the right to court review of detention and on exercise of that right in situations of armed conflict, state of emergency or for counter-terrorism purposes.
The ICJ has already made two written submissions to the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention on the subject, in November 2013 and April 2014.
Go to the OHCHR webpage on the Global Consultation
See the ICJ’s written submissions to the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention
Jul 1, 2014 | Events, Uncategorized
The ICJ’s Director of International Law and Protection Programmes, Alex Conte, today addressed the Human Dimension Committee of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) on the subject of human rights and terrorist listing and sanctions regimes.
The ICJ’s intervention:
- Provided an overview of the procedures for the listing and delisting of individuals or entities in the sanctions lists of the Security Council’s Al-Qaida and Taliban Sanctions Committee;
- Outlined the legal challenges and implications concerning the relationship between human rights and relevant Security Council resolutions, emphasising that regional courts have held States to account for any violation of human rights, irrespective of whether this comes about as a result of implementing Security Council listing and sanctions resolutions; and
- Identified some minimum safeguards applicable by States in their implementation of sanctions.
Jun 27, 2014 | Agendas, Events
The ICJ is today holding an expert roundtable on asylum claims based on sexual orientation, gender identity or expression.
Participants include asylum judges and lawyers; officials from national refugee status determination authorities, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights; asylum academics; and staff members from other NGOs, including the Organization for Refuge, Asylum & Migration (ORAM), the Human Dignity Trust (HDT), the Advice on Individual Rights in Europe (AIRE) Centre and the Belgian Refugee Council.
At the roundtable, taking place in Brussels, participants will discuss: the legal challenges and responses in the context of asylum claims based on sexual orientation, gender identity or expression and refugee law; reflections on the UNHCR’s Guidelines on International Protection No. 9: Claims to refugee status based on Sexual Orientation and/or Gender Identity; the concept of persecution and assessment of evidence in the context of those claims; and the relevance of European human rights law to asylum claims based on sexual orientation, gender identity or expression.
The programme of the expert roundtable can be downloaded here.
This roundtable forms part of a broader project of the ICJ on international protection claims based on sexual orientation, gender identity or expression. The ICJ’s commentary on the related CJEU judgment in X, Y and Z v The Netherlands can be downloaded here.
Jun 20, 2014 | Events
The ICJ’s International Legal Adviser, Reema Omer, participated in a panel discussion on ‘Rule of Law in Bangladesh’, convened on 19 June 2014 in the margins of the Human Rights Council’s 26th regular session in Geneva.
The event was co-sponsored by the Asian Legal Resource Centre, CIVICUS, FIDH, OMCT and Human Rights Watch and was moderated by Mr Mandeep Tiwana, Head of Policy and Research for CIVICUS. Panelists included Mr Adilur Rahman Khan, Secretary of Odhikar; Mr M.D. Ashrafuzzaman, Urgent Appeals Programme Coordinator of the Asian Legal Resource Centre; Mr Gerald Staberock, Secretary General of OMCT; and Ms Reema Omer, International Legal Adviser of the ICJ’s Asia Pacific Regional Programme.
The ICJ’s intervention focussed on the incompatibility of the Bangladesh Information and Communication Technology Act 2006 (ICTA) and its 2013 amendments with international human rights law and standards. Based on the ICJ’s briefing paper on the ICTA from November 2013, and referring to recent cases, Reema Omer highlighted how the Act and its amendments amount to an assault on the freedom of expression and a stifling of public discourse. Her intervention also spoke of the judiciary’s responsibility to prevent such attacks on freedom of expression.
Bangladesh-ICT-Brief-2013 (download the ICJ’s briefing paper on the ICTA)
ICJ press release of 20 November 2013 concerning the ICTA
Jun 15, 2014 | Events
On 14 June 2014, the ICJ convened an international seminar on the rights of the child, the business sector and the international legal framework.
The one-day seminar took place in the context of the efforts by the ICJ and other organisations to assist in the implementation of General Comment No 16 of the Committee of the Rights of the Child on State obligations regarding the impact of the business sector on children’s rights. Participants included members of the Committee, staff of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, UNICEF, the ILO and NGO representatives in the domain.
A summary of the seminar and main interventions is now available.
ICJ Seminar on Business and Children’s Rights – June 14 (download in PDF)
