Jun 19, 2023 | News
Lawyers for Lawyers, the Bar Human Rights Committee, the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Committee (IBAHRI), International Commission of Jurists, the Law Society of England and Wales, and Lawyers’ Rights Watch Canada, the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) are concerned about the ongoing violations of fair trial rights in the ongoing trial of Sri Lankan lawyer and human rights defender Hejaaz Hizbullah. Key witnesses have been subject to threat, coercion, intimidation and arrest.
The full statement can be read here.
Jun 19, 2023 | News
On 19 June 2023, the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), the European Council for Refugees and Exiles (ECRE), and the AIRE Centre have submitted a joint third-party intervention before the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in the case of V.M. and Others v. Poland. The case concerns the detention of a child and her family seeking asylum in Poland. The application concerns the on-going detention of V.M. and her two minor children (born in 2012 and in 2015), Armenian nationals, at a guarded centre for foreigners, pending their asylum and deportation proceedings. The applicants were detained upon arrival. V.M., who was pregnant with twins at the time suffered a miscarriage three weeks after their detention took place.
Read the full text of the intervention here.
Jun 19, 2023 | Human Rights Council, News, Work with the UN
As the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council discussed the situation of women and girls in Afghanistan, the International Commission of Jurists called today on the international community to scale up efforts to address the ongoing widespread and systematic human rights violations abuses in the country.
Following on from their joint report on The Taliban’s War on Women, The ICJ and Amnesty International, addressed the Human Rights Council and convened a panel discussion at the UN. The event provided additional space for women human rights defenders and UN experts to offer insights about the atrocious plight of faced by women and girls in Afghanistan, including the crime against humanity of gender persecution. Participants advanced their expectations for an international response and recommendations towards accountability for the crimes committed in the country.
Jun 17, 2023 | Advocacy, News
“Business enterprises continue to use their clout to nullify the work of human rights and public interest advocates through abusive lawsuits (SLAPPs) and far more needs to be done by governments to protect against this practice,” said the panelists during the forum titled ‘Addressing SLAPPs Against Human Rights Defenders in South-East Asia: Challenges and Lessons Learned’ on 9 June 2023.
Jun 16, 2023 | News
The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) has welcomed the Supreme Court of Namibia’s recent landmark ruling ordering the government to interpret the country’s immigration laws so as to recognize same-sex marriages concluded abroad. Nonetheless, the organization is gravely concerned at the country-wide protests against the human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex (LGBTQI+) people and against the ruling, including through a petition calling for the removal of the judges responsible for it and for the Minister of Justice to be fired. Such public attacks on judges threaten judicial independence and, in turn, undermine the rule of law.
Jun 15, 2023 | News
The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) and its partners (Human Rights in Practice, Free Courts, aditus and Forum for Human Rights) organized a workshop on Institutional independence of the judiciary and autonomy of the prosecution service, on 13-14 June 2023 in Brussels.
