The ICJ is concerned by the government’s failure to enact legislation that would criminalize the practice of enforced disappearances, investigate past cases, prosecute the perpetrators and provide reparation to victims.
Nepal-After Two Years, Government Still in Non-Compliance-Press releases-2009 (full text, PDF)
The ICJ urged the UN Human Rights Council’s special session to call on the Government of Sri Lanka to take several human rights measures.
In particular, the Government of Sri Lanka must ensure unhindered humanitarian access and assistance to the internally displaced persons (IDPs), protection of IDPs, safeguards against attacks on journalists and human rights defenders and effective accountability, including through an independent international investigation into human rights and humanitarian law violations.
The ICJ deplored that the draft resolution L.1/Rev.2, which was later adopted by vote, failed to address the most pressing concerns.
SriLanka-UNcouncil-news-2009 (full text, PDF)
The ICJ welcomes the convening of a Human Rights Council’s special session today in Geneva to address for the first time the humanitarian and human rights crisis in Sri Lanka.
“The human rights and humanitarian crisis continues to unfold following the Government of Sri Lanka’s announcement last week that its military operations against the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) had ended and that all civilians had left the conflict zone,” said Wilder Tayler, Acting Secretary General of the International Commission of Jurists.
SriLanka-UNcouncil-IDPs-news-2009 (full text, PDF)
“There is a continuing and acute need for the Human Rights Council to act on Sri Lanka notwithstanding a reported end of fighting between the Sri Lankan Army and the Tamil Tigers.”
“Even though the fighting may have dissipated, any nation’s reconstruction requires respect for international law, accountability and the rule of law principles, which today remain largely absent in the wake of this lengthy conflict,” said Wilder Tayler, Acting Secretary-General of the ICJ.
SriLanka-UNCouncilspecialsessions-news-2009 (full text, PDF)
The ICJ is urging the international community to take further steps to ensure the Government of Sri Lanka addresses the dire humanitarian and human rights situation in the country.
Currently, up to 50,000 civilians are trapped within the shrinking conflict zone in the Vanni district on the north-eastern coast and 196,000 people have fled the conflict zone.
Sri Lanka-The International Community must increase pressure-Press releases-2009 (full text, PDF)
The ICJ welcomes the reinstatement of Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry by the Government of Pakistan.
“The reinstatement of the Chief Justice is an historic milestone in reaffirming the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary in Pakistan,”said Dato Param Cumaraswamy, ICJ Honorary Commissioner and former UN Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges. “It will help restore public and international confidence in the judicial system, but for this to be effective, the Government must ensure functional independence of the judiciary, without any executive interference in the future.”
Pakistan-reinstatemt-chiefjustice-web story-2009 (full text, PDF)
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