Jul 14, 2023 | News
As the United Nations Human Rights Council concludes its 53rd session in Geneva, the ICJ welcomes the Council’s continued commitment to addressing some of the critical challenges of the day, including violence against women and girls, the rights of migrants, the independence of the judiciary, and the impact of new technologies and climate change on human rights. At the same time, some States at the Council have persisted in calling into question and undermining hard-fought gains in such areas as the protection of the rights of LGBTI persons, or sexual and reproductive health and rights.
Jul 14, 2023 | News
The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) has renewed its call for the immediate release of Buzurgmehr Yorov, an imprisoned Tajikistan lawyer, and expressed deep concern over his recent additional sentencing. This follows the decision by Vahdat city court on 10 July 2023 to add an extra ten years to Yorov’s existing sentence, accusing him of large-scale fraud.
Jul 12, 2023 | News
The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) welcomes the judgment of the Harare High Court which has acquitted human rights activists Joana Mamombe and Cecelia Revai Chimbiri following their arrest on 10 June 2020. The case reviewed magistrate Faith Mashure’s decision to charge the women for “publishing or communicating false statements prejudicial to the State”, or alternatively, “defeating or obstructing the course of justice”. The high court held that the magistrate’s finding of a prima facie case against the human rights activists was grossly unreasonable and attributed to bias and mala fides.
Jul 11, 2023 | News
The ICJ condemns the violent attacks on human rights lawyer, Obey Shava, who was severely beaten by four unidentified assailants The Zimbabwean authorities must conduct a prompt, thorough, and impartial investigation into his assault and bring to justice those responsible for the attack. They must also take measures to protect Obey Shava’s well-being and physical safety
Obey Shava is a human rights lawyer, co-founder of Shava Law Chambers, and a member of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR). He has been providing legal representation to activists from the Zimbabwean opposition party, Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC). CCC spokesperson, Fadzayi Mahere, described the incident as a cowardly act done at a time Shava has been litigating on behalf of her party in the double candidates fraud cases as well as electoral appeals that have emerged in the build-up to the country’s harmonized elections on August 23.
Jul 7, 2023 | News
The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) today condemned a series of violent assaults against lawyers and a journalist in the Russian Federation.
The assaults targeted lawyer Alexander Nemov and Yelena Milashina, a journalist of the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta in Chechnya, followed by another attack on lawyer Elena Ponomareva in Moscow. They are part of a worrying broader pattern of violence against persons for carrying out their important professional functions as lawyers and journalists.
Jun 29, 2023 | Advocacy, News
The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) welcomed the decision of the Oversight Board calling on Meta to immediately suspend Cambodian Prime Minister’s Hun Sen’s Facebook page and Instagram account for six months, in response to his posting of a video on 9 January with statements of intent to commit violence.
