Mar 21, 2017 | News
The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) held a consultation conference on case and docket management system in Harare on 21 March 2017. The ICJ provided technical support.
The consultation conference was intended to validate findings of the field and desk research conducted in respect of case management in Zimbabwe.
The ICJ engaged consultants reviewed the case and docket management system as it relates to other justice actors such as the judiciary, police, prisons and legal aid providers.
The case and docket management assessment was measured against regional and international comparative standards.
The assessment focused on how case and docket management systems address the rights of vulnerable groups’ including women, unrepresented minors, juveniles and persons with disabilities.
From these consultations and field work, the NPA will be supported with a comprehensive, specific and detailed proposal with practical steps for adopting an improved case and docket management system.
Further, the findings will make recommendations on strengthening the case management system in Zimbabwe and how to address the needs and interests of the various justice sector stakeholders.
The consultation conference was attended by the Acting Prosecutor General, Deputy Prosecutor General, National Director of Public Prosecutions, senior law officers, senior magistrates, clerks (criminal courts), representatives from Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services (ZPCS), Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP), and Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission (ZHRC).
Civil society representatives included directors and senior staffers from Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum, Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) among others.
This consultation was held with financial support from the Foreign Commonwealth Office (FCO) Magna Carta Fund, through the British Embassy in Harare.
Contact
Arnold Tsunga, ICJ Regional Director for Africa, t: +27 716 405 926, e: arnold.tsunga(a)icj.org
Mar 8, 2017 | Advocacy, Analysis briefs, News
Today the ICJ submitted a brief opposing the current efforts by South Africa to withdraw from the Rome Statute of the International Court.
The brief was submitted in collaboration with a number of South Africa’s leading jurists to the South African Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Justice and Correctional Services.
The brief was signed by Retired South African Constitutional Court Justices Laurie Ackermann; Richard Goldstone; Johann Kriegler; Yvonne Mokgoro, Kate O’Regan, Zak Yacoob. It was co-signed by Navi Pillay, former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, former judge of the ICC and former President of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). Wilder Tayler, Secretary General, signed on behalf of the ICJ
The ICJ and leading South Africa jurists call on South African Parliamentarians not to pass The Implementation of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court Act Repeal Bill [B23-2016].
They also urge South Africa to remain a party to the Rome Statute of the ICC and engage, where appropriate with other African States, in actively pursuing appropriate reforms within the Assembly of State Parties, with a view to making the ICC more effective in advancing the objectives of international justice.
“South Africa should actively encourage other African states to put in place legislation required to empower domestic courts with the ability to try genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. South Africa should continue to work constructively with civil society on the advancement of international criminal justice,” the report stated.
“Pursuit of justice and pursuit of peace are complementary and mutually reinforcing objectives that South Africa will best achieve by remaining party to the Rome Statute of the ICC. Its not an either or situation. Protecting heads of States from justice whatever they do compromises peace too much,” said Retired Justice Zak Yacoob.
The report also underscored the danger of an impunity gap if South Africa pulls out of the ICC, as there would be no other effective regional or international forum in which to prosecute the most serious crimes under international law.
“Given the devastating impact of impunity on the rule of law, on development efforts and on society at large, it is vital that South Africa projects itself as a leader in anti-impunity efforts in the region. Pulling out of the Rome Statute of the ICC would crush the best chances that Africa has today to tackle the pervasive impunity that affects the region and would be a most unfortunate move for South Africa and the wider international community,” said Wilder Tayler, Secretary General of the ICJ.
Background
South Africa is one of the earliest parties to the Rome Statute of the ICC. It signed the Rome Statute on the day it was adopted, 17 July 1998, and ratified it on 27 November, 2000. Both during the negotiations preceding the Rome Conference that established the Court in 1998, and at the Conference itself, South Africa played a leading role.
However, the events of June 2015 surrounding the arrival of President Omar al Bashir of Sudan in South Africa appears to have engendered a shift in South Africa’s posture, leading many observers to call into question the country’s commitment to international justice.
The failure by South African authorities to arrest and surrender President al Bashir to the ICC, although he had been indicted by the ICC for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, led to the Southern Africa Litigation Centre (SALC) taking the government to court to compel it to fulfil its obligations both under the Rome Statute and the Implementation of the International Criminal Court Act 27 of 2002 (Implementation Act).
On 19 October 2016, the Minister of International Relations and Co-operation gave notice of South Africa’s intention to withdraw from the Rome Statute.
The Portfolio Committee on Justice and Correctional Services put out a call for submissions to be made to the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Justice and Correctional Services on the Implementation of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court Act Repeal Bill [B23-2016] to be made by 8th March 2017. The ICJ Brief was filed pursuant to that call.
Contact
Arnold Tsunga, Director of the ICJ Africa Programme, arnold.tsunga@icj.org and +277 164 059 26
RSA-ICC Withdrawal-Advocacy-Analysis Brief-2017 (Analysis brief in PDF)
Mar 3, 2017 | News
15 HRDs from Mozambique, including lawyers and journalist working in different provinces and towns of Mozambique including Nampula, Manica, Tete, Sofala and Beira held a strategy meeting for the protection of human rights defenders (HRDs) in Maputo from 2-3 March 2017.
The meeting was facilitated by the ICJ in collaboration with the Southern Africa Human Rights Defenders Network (SAHRDN) supported by the Open Society Foundations (OSF) and Open Society Institute of Southern Africa (OSISA).
Participants reflected on the state of human rights in Mozambique with a focus on prevailing political and economic conditions requiring urgent multi-pronged interventions to support HRDs.
The participants developed practical steps for legal protection of HRDs, enhancing a HRDs network, the nature of services and safety mechanisms required to protect HRDs including in violent conflict. In addition, ideas on how to address business and human rights violations were explored.
The use of strategic litigation at the domestic and international level to protect human rights was looked at and specific situations mapped as requiring some attention.
Linkages to regional and international human rights mechanisms for protection purposes and challenging impunity were discussed and some initial measures to take at the African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights were identified.
Contact
Arnold Tsunga, ICJ Regional Director for Africa, t: +27 716405926, e: arnold.tsunga(a)icj.org
Feb 27, 2017 | Multimedia items, News, Video clips
The ICJ continues it’s monthly profile series on women’s rights defenders with an interview with ICJ Commissioner and International Criminal Court Justice Sanji Monageng.
Justice Monageng told the ICJ that her interest in women’s rights began when she went through her own divorce and encountered the injustices that Botswana women suffered. This motivated her to pursue a career in law and align herself with the women’s rights movement that was establishing itself in southern Africa.
She became the Founder and Chief Executive of the Law Society in Botswana, a Magistrate in Botswana and High Court Judge in the Gambia and Swaziland. She was elected a Commissioner of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights and served as Chair of the Commission. She has been a Judge of the International Criminal Court since 2009 and served as First Vice-President between 2012-2015.
Justice Monageng commented that in Botswana, and elsewhere in southern Africa, women were at a serious disadvantage when it came to access to justice because of cultural, customary and religious restraints as well as economic inequality.
For example, up until only a few years ago women in Botswana were unable to inherit their parent’s property, on the basis of customary law, but a progressive judge was not afraid to challenge this and when this judgement was supported this led to a real change in the lives of women.
Sanji spoke of the importance of a strong civil rights movement and noted how instrumental this had been in Africa in leading the agenda to promote progressive rights protection for women. The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights has a Special Rapporteur on Women and the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (the Maputo Protocol) has been hailed as the best in the world.
At the International Criminal Court (the ICC) there is a coalition of some 2,500 NGOs that work very closely with the court and have been instrumental in driving key aspects of the Court’s work including addressing sexual violence and ensuring victim and women’s participation. ‘Without civil society, without NGOs, and we have witnessed very credible civil society organisations’, Sanji says, ‘we cannot move.’
However, Justice Monageng commented that the ICC has not done very well in prosecuting sexual and gender based violence so far but acknowledges that the Court is still young and that progress is being made.
The new Chief Prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, has undertaken a lot of endeavours to promote this aspect of the Court’s mandate such as creating a policy on sexual violence and gender issues, establishing a dedicated unit to address these crimes and appointing the highly qualified Brigid Inder as her Special Gender Advisor. Sanji commented that it is now evident in the cases she sees as a judge that a lot more attention is being paid to sexual violence.
Justice Monageng suggests that young women interested in defending women’s rights must internalize the importance of human rights. They should start associating themselves with women’s rights organizations even if only in a small way.
Defending women’s rights is difficult work and those that are interested in this must be prepared for criticism, and other unpleasantness but this work needs to be done. ‘The world is upside down and human rights are forgotten in most instances’, Sanji says, so she looks forward to girls joining the women’s rights movement.
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.
Feb 23, 2017 | Advocacy, Open letters
The ICJ joins South Sudanese, regional and other international non-governmental organizations in a joint letter urging the Human Rights Council to renew and strengthen the mandate and capacity of the UN Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan.
Action is needed to address the continued lack of accountability for severe, widespread and on-going crimes under international law and human rights violations and abuses, many of which amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity, during the upcoming 34th session of the UN Human Rights Council (UN HRC).
South Sudan-letter HRC34-Advocacy-Open letters-2017-ENG (full text in PDF)
