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 | News
The ICJ today welcomed the significant steps forward taken by the UN Human Rights Council aimed to develop and strengthen the protection of people from corporate human rights abuses around the world.
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 26, 2014 | Advocacy, Cases, Legal submissions, News
The ICJ expresses its disappointment today at the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights in the case of M.E. v. Sweden (Application No. 71398/12).
Jun 24, 2014 | News
The ICJ deplores the wave of recent decisions by Egyptian officials and courts that aim to silence journalists, human rights defenders, political activists and all those suspected of opposing the military and the government.
Jun 23, 2014 | News
An ICJ delegation including ICJ Commissioners Justice Philippe Texier and Professor Olivier De Schutter concluded a one-week mission in Morocco to discuss access to justice for social rights in the country.
During its stay, the ICJ delegation met with various public authorities and civil society actors.
Among these meetings, the ICJ organized a round table discussion together with the Conseil National des Droits de l’Homme, and a discussion with civil society together with the Organisation Marocaine des Droits Humains and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation.
All the meetings allowed to discuss the normative advances as well as the remaining difficulties in the implementation of Morocco’s international obligations in the area of economic, social and cultural rights, including the obligation to guarantee effective mechanisms for the remedy and reparation of violations of these rights when they occur.
In this latter field, weaknesses have been identified in law and practice, with important efforts still to be realized in strengthening an institutional framework that is able to inquire, sanction and redress violations of ESCR.
During the discussions and consultations, the ICJ paid particular attention to the situation of marginalized and disadvantaged individuals and groups, including those who work in, and live around, free trade zones and areas for export-oriented agricultural production.