Feb 20, 2017 | News
On Monday 20 February 2017, the ICJ Commissioner Belisário Dos Santos Júnior and the lawyer, Jaime Araíújo Rentería commenced an international mission in Guatemala.
The ICJ Commissioner Belisário Dos Santos Júnior (photo) is the former representative of the Brazilian lawyers’ association at the São Paulo Human Rights Commission, who has acted as the legal representative for political detainees. Jaime Araújo Rentería, former President of the Colombian Constitutional Court is a practicing lawyer and university professor.
The objective of the mission is to evaluate the situation of the legal profession in the country, identify obstacles and challenges, and offer perspectives about ways in which the State can provide better protection for lawyers so they can carry out their functions in an independent and safe manner.
The two mission members will be in Guatemala for a week and will interview the President and Executive Committee of the Bar Association, human rights lawyers, and high-level officials from the three branches of the State, members of the international community and representatives of human rights organizations.
On Friday 24 February, the two lawyers will hold a press conference to present the conclusions and recommendations of the mission to the press and general public.
Jan 31, 2017 | Multimedia items, News, Video clips
The ICJ continues its series of profiles of ICJ’s women Commissioners with an interview with ICJ Vice-President Michèle Rivet.
Michèle Rivet was a judge for 30 years. Previously a Children’s Judge, she was appointed the first President of the Quebec Human Rights Tribunal when it was first established in 1990 and remained in that position until 2010.
In the interview she explains how the Human Rights Tribunal was constituted and how the Tribunal gave itself the mission to develop jurisprudence on equality and non-discrimination by referring to the fundamental international standards elaborated in the ICCPR and the ICESCR, by giving them the broadest interpretation possible.
A key goal of the Tribunal was to ensure that it was as accessible and as effective as possible, so that the people who came to the Tribunal could express themselves freely. Careful measures were taken to ensure that the Tribunal would work well and to ensure that anyone putting questions or issues to the Tribunal could know that the judges were listening to them and would provide an answer.
Michèle spoke of the advances that were achieved in the Tribunal. Some of the most significant decisions handed down by the Tribunal refer to cases of multi-faceted systemic discrimination. Justice Rivet explained that discrimination is about daily life: for example it may be a woman who is fired because she is pregnant, or it could be about a homosexual person who is refused accommodation.
A particular case referred to a large Canadian gas company, a big employer in Quebec, where women were never being appointed to certain posts, as there were a whole series of barriers at the point of recruitment, at the level of tests, and other conditions. After a series of profound reflections, evidence gathering and a long hearing the Tribunal reached the decision that the five women plaintiffs had been discriminated against.
However, the Tribunal also went further in its judgement by requesting that an equal access employment programme be implemented for the whole staff. The Court of Appeal upheld the decision on appeal and that decision marked a real victory for women in the recognition of their rights.
Michèle considers that the ICJ, with its mandate to promote the rule of law, acts as a laboratory of great ideas and carries out fundamental and far-reaching work to advance the rights for those who otherwise would not be able to speak.
Those who work in the field of human rights form a global village, said Michèle, and members have a duty to help women victims of violence: those forced to marry when they are 13 years old, those forced to keep their children because abortion is not an option and all those who are battered or disfigured by relatives because they dare to leave the home.
“This eventually led to the establishment of an international community of women and of all those who are fighting for equality, and for a society where everyone is fully integrated,” she said.
Justice Rivet considers herself privileged to work in the field of human rights as it is such rewarding work, and although it can be also be very challenging she says “we must all walk together on the long march towards equality.”
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.
Jan 26, 2017 | News
The ICJ deplores comments made last night by the United States President Donald Trump, expressing approval for the practice of torture in counter-terrorism operations.
The ICJ is also alarmed at reports that the US administration is considering resurrecting the most abusive policies and practices during the early 2000s, including prolonged arbitrary detention in CIA-administered secret “black site” facilities, enforced disappearance, and rendition to other countries for torture and ill-treatment.
“These practices of torturing detainees and ‘disappearing’ them in black sites are serious crimes which must never be repeated,” said Ian Seiderman, ICJ Legal and Policy Director.
“Even President Bush, despite his administration’s appalling record, publicly denounced torture as being against the laws and values of the United States,” he added.
Contact:
Ian Seiderman, ICJ Legal and Policy Director, t: +41 22 979 3837 ; e: ian.seiderman(a)icj.org
Background:
During an interview on US television last night, President Trump repeated his support for torture practices such as waterboarding (near-drowning) and declared that “torture works.”
A number of media reports have indicated that the Trump Administration may issue an Executive Order to review “whether to reinitiate a program of interrogation of high-value alien terrorists to be operated outside the United States” and whether the CIA should be in charge of such a programme.
Counter-terrorism abuses during the Bush administration from 2001-08 involving torture, enforced disappearance, secret detention and rendition were widely condemned as unlawful, morally unacceptable, and ineffective, both internationally and in the US, leading to the abandonment of such practices.
A report by the Eminent Jurists Panel of the ICJ on Terrorism, Counter-terrorism and Human Rights, issued in 2009 conducted after a four-year study concluded that “such practices are not a legitimate response to the threat of terrorism. Such practices are not only inconsistent with established principles of international law, and undermine the values on which free and democratic societies are based, but as the lessons of history show, they put the possibility of short term gains from illegal actions, above the more enduring long term harm that they cause.”
The Obama administration definitively abolished the practices of torture and secret detention upon taking office in 2009, although they had already been substantially wound down in the later years of the second Bush administration.
Jan 5, 2017 | News
Mr Reed Brody (United States), Ms Roberta Clarke (Barbados/Canada), Professor Juan Mendez (Argentina), Mr Alejandro Salinas Rivera (Chile) and Justice Kalyan Shrestha (Nepal) have recently been elected to join the ICJ.
The new Commissioners were elected by a ballot of existing Commissioners, which took place between November and December 2016.
Mr Reed Brody (United States) has 25 years on the cutting edge of the human rights movement. Mr Brody has worked, amongst other things, as a freelance activist, New York Assistant Attorney General, Director of the ICJ’s Centre for the Independence of Judges and Lawyers, Executive Director of the International Human Rights Group (now Global Rights), Director of the Human Rights Division of the UN Observer Mission in El Salvador, Deputy Director of the UN Secretary General’s Investigative Team in the Democratic Republic of Congo and at Human Rights Watch, including on such cases as those against the former Chilean dictator, Augusto Pinochet, and the former dictator of Chad, Hissène Habre.
Ms Roberta Clarke (Barbados/Canada) has an extensive background in working on human rights issues, particularly in relation to women’s rights and social and economic rights. Ms Clarke has held a number of Academic roles including Research Assistant, Junior Research Fellow, Assistant Lecturer and now Visiting Fellow at the University of West Indies. Ms Clarke has also worked as an Attorney in private practice and in a number of civil society and intergovernmental organization roles including as the Project Coordinator of the Women and the Law Project with the Caribbean Association for Feminist Research and Action in Trinidad and Tobago, Social Affairs Officer on the Gender and Development Programme for the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, Regional Programme Director for UNIFEM/UN Women’s Caribbean Office and then for UN Women’s Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific.
Professor Juan Méndez (Argentina) is currently the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment, having been appointed in November 2010 and then having had his mandate renewed in 2014. Professor Méndez is also a Professor of Human Rights Law in residence at the Washington College of Law. Previously Professor Méndez has worked in a number of human rights roles including as general counsel of Human Rights Watch, Executive Director of the Inter-American Institute of Human Rights in Costa Rica, Professor of Law and Director of the Center for Civil and Human Rights at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, President of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the Organization of American States, Special Advisor to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, as Co-Chair of the International Bar Association Human Rights Institute, as President of the International Center for Transnational Justice (ICTJ) and as Kofi Annan’s Special Advisor on the Prevention of Genocide.
Mr Alejandro Salinas Rivera (Chile) is a lawyer from Chile with expertise in international issues and cooperation, mining and labour law. Alejandro has collaborated with and ran leading national and international human rights organizations. He has worked as a consultant and adviser for the ICJ as well as for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the International Parliamentary Union and the Presidential Advisory Commission for human Rights Policy. He has been the head of a number of Departments and Units in various government agencies including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as Director of the Human Rights Department; the Attorney General’s Office as Chief of the Unit of International Affairs; and at the Public Defender’s Officer as Chief of Staff of the National Defender, Head of the Evaluation, Control and Claims Department and Head of the International Cooperation Unit.
Justice Kalyan Shrestha (Nepal) was Chief Justice of the Nepalese Supreme Court from 2005 until his retirement in 2016. Prior to this he served in a number of judicial roles including as Chief Judge of the Appellate Court Jumla, a Judge of various Zonal, District and Appellate courts, Under Secretary in the Ministry of Justice and Law and as a Section Officer for the Supreme Court and Government of Nepal. Justice Shrestha has also held a number of senior roles in judicial bodies including as Chairperson of the Constituent Assembly Court, President of the South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation in Law, President of the Judges Society Nepal and as a Member of the Judicial Services Commission.
In addition to the election of five new members the following Commissioners have also been elected in the following capacity:
- Professor Carlos Ayala (Venezuela) – elected for a second term as Commissioner and a third term on the Executive Committee
- Justice Azhar Cahcalia (South Africa) – elected for a third term on the Executive Committee
- Professor Andrew Clapham (United Kingdom) – elected to the Executive Committee
- Professor Robert Goldman (United States) – elected for a second term as Vice-President
- Ms Hina Jilani (Pakistan) – elected for a second term on the Executive Committee
- Professor Sir Nigel Rodley (United Kingdom) – elected for a third term as President
- Professor Marco Sassòli (Switzerland) – elected for a second term as alternate to the Executive Committee
- Justice Stefan Trechsel (Switzerland) – elected for a second term as alternate to the Executive Committee
Aug 16, 2016 | News
The ICJ said today that the attack on Ramón Cadena, its director in Central America, is deplorable evidence that human rights lawyers in Guatemala cannot carry out their activities without fear of reprisal.
Around a dozen armed men ransacked Ramón Cadena’s house in Guatemala City on Monday morning while he was attending a workshop elsewhere in the country.
The ICJ regional director for Central America is the latest victim of a recent wave of harassment and intimidation against human rights defenders and legal and environmental activists in Guatemala and neighboring Honduras.
“The ICJ strongly condemns the attack against Ramón Cadena, which is most likely linked to his activities as a human rights lawyer,” said Wilder Tayler, ICJ Secretary General.
Ramón Cadena, a highly prominent human rights lawyer in the region, was a key witness in the trial of former President Efrain Rios Montt for his role in the alleged genocide and other atrocities committed during the civil war of the 1970s and 80s.
Ramón Cadena has also been providing legal advice and support (on behalf of the ICJ) to the communities fighting against mining projects in Guatemala.
“We urge the Guatemalan authorities to provide the much needed protection to Ramón Cadena and promptly and thoroughly investigate the attack to find the culprits. They must also combat the increasing threats and growing insecurity faced by human rights defenders in the country, which is a clear assault on human rights,” Tayler added.
Contact
Wilder Tayler, ICJ Secretary General, t +41 76 562 38 10 ; e: wilder.tayler(a)icj.org
Several organizations have also condemned the attack on Ramón Cadena and issued a statement in Spanish which can be read here.
