Feb 2, 2017 | News
Today, the ICJ in cooperation with the the Supreme Court of Turkmenistan holds a seminar on Comparative Approaches to Judicial Ethics.
The seminar, supported by the European Union, will be attended by judges of the Supreme Court of Turkmenistan as well as other judges.
ICJ experts, including Judge Vladimir Borissov, former judge of the Supreme Court of Kazakhstan, Judge Georg Stawa, the President of the European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice (CEPEJ), and others will present comparative perspective and international standards related to the judicial ethics, accountability and guarantees for judges.
This is the second such event the ICJ holds in Turkmenistan. The first event, organized in June 2016, was dedicated to the issue of international obligations in national courts.
Turkmenistan-Judicial ethics seminar-News-web story-2017-RUS (full story in Russian, PDF)
Turkmenistan-Seminar Ethics-Agenda-2017-ENG (agenda in English, PDF)
Turkmenistan-Seminar Ethics-Agenda-2017-RUS (agenda in Russian, PDF)
Feb 1, 2017 | News
The ICJ today launched a new global initiative focussed on redress and accountability for gross human rights violations.
In all regions of the world, perpetrators of gross human rights violations enjoy impunity while victims, especially the most vulnerable and marginalized, remain without effective remedies and reparation.
Governments of countries in transition and/or experiencing a wider rule of law crisis often seek to provide impunity for perpetrators of gross violations of human rights, or make no effort to hold them to account, or misuse accountability mechanisms to provide arbitrary, politically partial justice.
Yet international law requires perpetrators to be held accountable and victims to be provided with effective remedies and reparation, including truth and guarantees of non-recurrence.
This is reinforced by the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, which recognizes the need to build peaceful, just and inclusive societies that provide equal access to justice, are based on the rule of law and respect for human rights, and provide for accountability.
“Impunity and lack of redress dehumanizes victims and acts as an impediment to the cementing of democratic values and the rule of law”, said Alex Conte, coordinator of the ICJ initiative.
Lack of accountability and claims for justice dominate national debates, frequently leading to a paralysis or reduced functioning of the institutions of the State and detracting from the pursuit of other rule of law and development initiatives.
Impunity threatens a nascent democracy by rendering its constitution hollow, weakening its judiciary and damaging the political credibility of its executive.
Public institutions often act in ways that bring them into disrepute and undermine the public confidence in them that is required for sustainable transition, for example through the legislature enacting laws providing for impunity, through law enforcement and the judiciary acting on a selective basis or without independence, and/or through the executive ignoring rule of law based judgments by higher courts.
A failure to guarantee redress and accountability has too often also resulted in former structures of power, to the extent that they enjoy impunity, transforming into criminal and hostile elements that may perpetuate violence and conflict.
The ICJ’s new initiative, generously sponsored by the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, currently focuses on seven countries (Cambodia, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nepal, Tajikistan, Tunisia and Venezuela) aims to combat impunity and promote redress for gross human rights violations.
It concentrates on the transformative role of the law, justice mechanisms and justice actors, seeking to achieve greater adherence of national legal and institutional frameworks with international law and standards so as to allow for effective redress and accountability; more independent justice mechanisms capable of dealing with challenges of impunity and access to redress; and judges, lawyers, human rights defenders, victims and their representatives that are better equipped to demand and deliver truth, justice and reparation.
The initiative will commence with the production of baseline studies on the situation in each focus country concerning accountability, access to justice/redress and the independence and accountability of judges and lawyers.
These will form the basis for tailored plans of action for each country identifying interventions and capacity building activities that can best drive the brining to justice of perpetrators of human rights violations and the access of victims to effective remedies and reparation.
Implementation of those activities will follow, alongside the production of global manuals and guides on key challenges for redress and accountability.
GRA Initiative Factsheet
Feb 1, 2017 | News
The ICJ, the European Council on Refugees and Exiles, Refugee Rights Turkey, Mülteci-Der and the ICJ-European Institutions begun today a two-year project to enhance access to justice for migrants, refugees and asylum-seekers in Turkey.
The project, which also aims to ensure protection of their rights, at the national and international levels, is co-funded by the European Union.
More information here: Turkey-ICJ project migrants-News-2017-ENG
Jan 31, 2017 | Multimedia items, News, Video clips
The ICJ continues its series of profiles of ICJ’s women Commissioners with an interview with ICJ Vice-President Michèle Rivet.
Michèle Rivet was a judge for 30 years. Previously a Children’s Judge, she was appointed the first President of the Quebec Human Rights Tribunal when it was first established in 1990 and remained in that position until 2010.
In the interview she explains how the Human Rights Tribunal was constituted and how the Tribunal gave itself the mission to develop jurisprudence on equality and non-discrimination by referring to the fundamental international standards elaborated in the ICCPR and the ICESCR, by giving them the broadest interpretation possible.
A key goal of the Tribunal was to ensure that it was as accessible and as effective as possible, so that the people who came to the Tribunal could express themselves freely. Careful measures were taken to ensure that the Tribunal would work well and to ensure that anyone putting questions or issues to the Tribunal could know that the judges were listening to them and would provide an answer.
Michèle spoke of the advances that were achieved in the Tribunal. Some of the most significant decisions handed down by the Tribunal refer to cases of multi-faceted systemic discrimination. Justice Rivet explained that discrimination is about daily life: for example it may be a woman who is fired because she is pregnant, or it could be about a homosexual person who is refused accommodation.
A particular case referred to a large Canadian gas company, a big employer in Quebec, where women were never being appointed to certain posts, as there were a whole series of barriers at the point of recruitment, at the level of tests, and other conditions. After a series of profound reflections, evidence gathering and a long hearing the Tribunal reached the decision that the five women plaintiffs had been discriminated against.
However, the Tribunal also went further in its judgement by requesting that an equal access employment programme be implemented for the whole staff. The Court of Appeal upheld the decision on appeal and that decision marked a real victory for women in the recognition of their rights.
Michèle considers that the ICJ, with its mandate to promote the rule of law, acts as a laboratory of great ideas and carries out fundamental and far-reaching work to advance the rights for those who otherwise would not be able to speak.
Those who work in the field of human rights form a global village, said Michèle, and members have a duty to help women victims of violence: those forced to marry when they are 13 years old, those forced to keep their children because abortion is not an option and all those who are battered or disfigured by relatives because they dare to leave the home.
“This eventually led to the establishment of an international community of women and of all those who are fighting for equality, and for a society where everyone is fully integrated,” she said.
Justice Rivet considers herself privileged to work in the field of human rights as it is such rewarding work, and although it can be also be very challenging she says “we must all walk together on the long march towards equality.”
Watch the interview:
The series of profiles introducing the work of ICJ Commissioners and Honorary Members on women’s rights was launched on 25 November 2016 to coincide with the International Day to Eliminate Violence against Women and the first day of the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence Campaign.
Jan 30, 2017 | News
It is with great sadness that the ICJ has learned of Lawyer U Ko Ni’s death at Yangon International Airport today.
An armed man in the crowded airport reportedly shot him in the head at close range, along with U Nay Win a taxi driver who had tried to intervene.
The suspect was reportedly apprehended at the scene.
The ICJ stresses the need for a prompt, thorough and impartial investigation into the killing.
“It is vital that in the current climate of inter-religious tension that the rule of law is seen to prevail and for those responsible to be held criminally accountable,” said Sam Zarifi, the ICJ’s Asia-Pacific Regional Director.
“We await the results of the ongoing investigation,” he added.
U Ko Ni (photo) was a prominent and well-respected legal figure in Myanmar.
He was a respected veteran of the democracy movement, an adviser to the National League for Democracy and Aung Sang Su Kyi.
He was a rare outspoken voice against discrimination and had recently advocated for laws against hate speech and for inter-communal harmony.
U Ko Ni was returning from an official visit to Indonesia with senior Buddhist and Muslim figures aimed at sharing experiences and overcoming inter-religious tensions when the attack occurred.
U Ko Ni was also a patron of the recently formed Myanmar Muslim Lawyers Association.
He was an outspoken critic of the “race and religion laws”, a legislative package of four bills supported by hardline nationalists, as well as a champion of religious tolerance.
“U Ko Ni was a principled lawyer. He was committed to protecting human rights, preventing hate crimes and the rule of law in Myanmar, and his presence as leading advocate will be deeply missed,” Zarifi added.
Jan 26, 2017 | News
The ICJ deplores comments made last night by the United States President Donald Trump, expressing approval for the practice of torture in counter-terrorism operations.
The ICJ is also alarmed at reports that the US administration is considering resurrecting the most abusive policies and practices during the early 2000s, including prolonged arbitrary detention in CIA-administered secret “black site” facilities, enforced disappearance, and rendition to other countries for torture and ill-treatment.
“These practices of torturing detainees and ‘disappearing’ them in black sites are serious crimes which must never be repeated,” said Ian Seiderman, ICJ Legal and Policy Director.
“Even President Bush, despite his administration’s appalling record, publicly denounced torture as being against the laws and values of the United States,” he added.
Contact:
Ian Seiderman, ICJ Legal and Policy Director, t: +41 22 979 3837 ; e: ian.seiderman(a)icj.org
Background:
During an interview on US television last night, President Trump repeated his support for torture practices such as waterboarding (near-drowning) and declared that “torture works.”
A number of media reports have indicated that the Trump Administration may issue an Executive Order to review “whether to reinitiate a program of interrogation of high-value alien terrorists to be operated outside the United States” and whether the CIA should be in charge of such a programme.
Counter-terrorism abuses during the Bush administration from 2001-08 involving torture, enforced disappearance, secret detention and rendition were widely condemned as unlawful, morally unacceptable, and ineffective, both internationally and in the US, leading to the abandonment of such practices.
A report by the Eminent Jurists Panel of the ICJ on Terrorism, Counter-terrorism and Human Rights, issued in 2009 conducted after a four-year study concluded that “such practices are not a legitimate response to the threat of terrorism. Such practices are not only inconsistent with established principles of international law, and undermine the values on which free and democratic societies are based, but as the lessons of history show, they put the possibility of short term gains from illegal actions, above the more enduring long term harm that they cause.”
The Obama administration definitively abolished the practices of torture and secret detention upon taking office in 2009, although they had already been substantially wound down in the later years of the second Bush administration.
