This Conference, to be held on 27-28 September 2010 in Geneva, represents the culmination of the initial phase of a project conducted by the ICJ.
The side event, held during the 15th session of the UN Human Rights Council, will look into the human rights situation in Sri Lanka, in the aftermath of May 2009.
The post-conflict phase in Sri Lanka is failing to meet minimal expectations on rule of law, democratic participation, investigation of, and accountability, for human rights violations, and ending impunity; not to mention social rehabilitation and political reconciliation after war. The side event will particularly focus on three issues: alleged war crimes, the fate of surrendered Tamil combatants and the governance on human rights and impunity.
Sri Lanka-rights challenges-event-2010 (full text in English, PDF)
El seminario (Sao Paulo, 30 Agosto 2010) va a discutir el tema de “Impacto de las actividades de Empresas Multinacionales en la puesta en práctica de las obligaciones internacionales en materia de derechos humanos”. El seminario está dirigido a miembros regionales de órganos de tratados internacionales de derechos humanos y busca crear un espacio de diálogo y coordinación entre miembros de los diferentes comités de derechos humanos y tendrá lugar como continuación de otro seminario que tuvo lugar en Ginebra en Junio del 2010.
The scale of human rights violations committed by the armed forces, police and rebel groups in the Democratic Republic of Congo has meant that little attention has been directed to other failings of the justice sector, including the inadequate regulation of companies and the lack of effective remedies for victims of corporate abuse of human rights. Several studies and reports on human rights violations in the DRC have established the extent of corporate involvement or complicity and the State failure to protect people against violations by business corporations. It is necessary to mobilize and strengthen the capacity of legal professionals to use the law to ensure greater accountability by business for their numerous violations and that victims of such violations be afforded effective redress
The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) in conjunction with Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa, the African Association for the Defense of Human Rights and the SADC Lawyers Association will, at the sidelines of the Annual General Meeting of the SADC Lawyers Association,hold on 22nd August 2010 a Lawyers’ Dialogue on “Business Involvement in Human Rights Violations and Victims’ Access to Justice in the Democratic Republic of Congo”.
The Dialogue is intended to bring together experts from the DRC and SADC legal fraternity in a one-day activity to reflect on how human rights law can creatively and effectively be used to bring business entities and players to respect human rights standards and to account for their involvement or complicity in violation thereof. In exploring this key question, the following subsidiary questions shall be answered:
What are the obstacles facing access to justice for victims of business gross human rights abuse in the DRC, and how can they be overcome?
DRC-dialogue violation justice-agenda-2010 (full text in English, PDF)
DRC-dialogue violation justice-agenda-2010 (full text in French, PDF)
On 13th and 14th August 2010, the Tanganyika Law Society (TLS) held their Half Annual General Meeting in Dodoma, Tanzania, with Arnold Tsunga, Director of the ICJ Africa Regional Programme, as a guest speaker.
The theme of the meeting was The TLS at 56 – Interrogating the Role of the Law Society in Consolidating Rule of Law and Democracy in Tanzania. Arnold Tsunga (photo) presented a paper at the meeting titled “Rule of Law and Elections in Africa – Recent Experiences.
Tanzania-Law election experiences-event-2010 (full text in English, PDF)
The ICJ has invited to a 4-day Camp around 35 experts from the SADC regions to exchange experience, identify risks, difficulties and opportunities for a better protection and enjoyment of ESC rights.
Although economic, social and cultural rights continue suffering from prejudices against their legal nature and their ability to be enforced by courts, developments in international and national law in the last two decades have reinforced their status as “real” human rights as well as their equal value and importance.
At the regional level, the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights particularly emphasizes the interdependence of human rights. Moreover, the Charter does not differentiate between provisions for the realization of economic, social and cultural rights and those for the realization of civil and political rights.
Such equal treatment provides the possibility to challenge states’ reluctance or failure to protect, promote and fulfill socio- economic rights in the South Africa Development Community (SADC).
However, most challenges to human rights violations in the SADC region have tended to focus on violations of civil and political rights even though economic and social rights are daily concerns of the people. This gap is particularly due to a lack of capacity of the lawyers and human rights activists as well as social justice practitioners who are interested in socio-economic rights advocacy and litigation.
In order to contribute to reduce this gap, the Africa regional office of the International Commission of Jurists has invited to a 4-day ESCR Camp around 35 experts from the SADC regions. Together with international experts on economic, social and cultural rights, the participants will, exchange experience, identify risks, difficulties and opportunities for a better protection and enjoyment of these human rights.
South Africa-ESCR advocacy litigation-agenda-2010 (full text in English, PDF)
South Africa-ESCR advocacy litigation-event-2010 (ful text in English, PDF)
Palestine/Israel: Israel must immediately stop its criminal forcible displacement in Gaza
HRC59: ICJ Statement in the interactive dialogue on the High Commissioner’s report on Venezuela – addressing arbitrary detention and repression of civic space
HRC59: Joint statement during interactive dialogue on Myanmar – addressing ongoing atrocity crimes and the collapse of judicial independence
HRC59: Joint statement during the interactive dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on Belarus – condemning repression of lawyers and the erosion of judicial independence