International Commission of Jurists
Final nominees of the 2013 Martin Ennals Award announced

Final nominees of the 2013 Martin Ennals Award announced

Apr 24, 2013 | Feature articles, News

The three final nominees for the Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders are Mona Seif (Egypt), Joint Mobile Group (Russia) and Mario Joseph (Haiti). The ICJ is one of the ten members of the jury.

The Martin Ennals Award is given to Human Rights Defenders who have shown deep commitment and face great personal risk. The aim of the award is to provide protection through international recognition.

Selected by ten leading human rights organizations (ICJ, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Human Rights First, International Federation of Human Rights, Front Line Defenders, HURIDOCS, Diakonie – German Protestant Welfare, World Organization Against Torture and International Service for Human Rights) it is the world’s most important Human Rights Prize.

The 2013 Award will be presented on Oct. 8th at a ceremony hosted by the City of Geneva.

Mona Seif (Egypt) is the core founder of the” No To Military Trials for Civilians”, a grassroots initiative which is trying to stop military trials for civilians.

Since February 25, 2011, Mona has brought together activists, lawyers, victims’ families, local stakeholders and started a nationwide movement against military trials.

As part of the recent crackdown on the Freedom of Speech in Egypt she has been charged along with other Human Rights activists.

She noted that “International solidarity, and I mean people’s support not governments, empowers us to continue our battle and stop military trials for civilians“.

After the murder of several human rights activists working in Chechnya, Igor Kalyapin started the Joint Mobile Group. To reduce the risk they send investigators on short missions to Chechnya to document Human Rights abuses.

This information is then used to publicise these abuses to seek legal redress.  Igor Kalyapin speaking of the effect of international publicity said   “… when the international community is watching us it is more difficult for the authorities to take steps against us…”

Mario Joseph, Haiti’s most important Human Rights lawyer, has worked on some of the most important cases in Haiti, including the current case against the former dictator Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier.

His family received asylum in the United States in 2004, while he chose to return to Haiti. He has faced threats and harassment for much of his 20 years as a lawyer although it has intensified in recent months.

He says: “this recognition from the Ennals Award shines a vital spotlight on my work, and on the work of everyone who is fighting for human rights in Haiti. That spotlight will make our work safer and more effective.”

MEA-Short Summary-2013 (read the pdf)

MEA-MONA SEIF bio-2013 (read the pdf)

MEA-JOINT MOBILE GROUP bio-2013 (read the pdf)

MEA-MARIO JOSEPH bio-2013 (read the pdf)

 

ICJ to assess independence of judiciary in Uruguay

ICJ to assess independence of judiciary in Uruguay

Mar 12, 2013 | News

The ICJ is undertaking today a five-day mission to Uruguay to gather information concerning recent developments affecting the independence of the judiciary in the country.

The mission members will meet with a broad group of stakeholders in Uruguay.

The mission will also look at the impact that these developments have on the exercise of the right of victims to effective remedies for human rights violations.

The two-member mission will consist of ICJ Commissioner Belisário dos Santos Junior (picture) and Alejandro E. Salinas Rivera, member of the Advisory Committee of the ICJ Centre for the Independence of Judges and Lawyers.

Uruguay-CIJL mission-Nota de prensa-2013-Spa (full text, pdf)

Suriname: unacceptable delays and uncertainty in trial of former President Bouterse and others

Suriname: unacceptable delays and uncertainty in trial of former President Bouterse and others

Jan 22, 2013 | News

a_president_bouterseThe ICJ today expressed its concern at further delays in the trial of President Desiré Delano Bouterse and 24 others, who are accused of the murder of thirteen civilians and two military personnel in 1982.

The ICJ further expressed its dissatisfaction with the continued uncertainty on the applicability of an Amnesty Law that could threaten the status of the trial.

No public statement has been made by the Suriname Military Court since the judges hearing the matter decided to suspend the trial of President Bouterse in May 2012 and leave it to the public prosecutor and an undesignated court to decide whether President Bouterse and the other accused should benefit from the country’s Amnesty Law.

“It is unacceptable that there have been no pronouncements in this case since the last hearing over eight months ago,” said ICJ Secretary-General Wilder Tayler. “Justice has been denied for more than three decades and it is in everyone’s interests, both the accused and the families of the victims, that this trial should proceed without further delay”.

President Bouterse had been accused of having been present on 8 December 1982 at the military barracks of Fort Zeelandia, where 15 political opponents were allegedly executed.

Reports published by various organizations at the time, including by an ICJ affiliate, indicated that several of the victims had also been subjected to torture. At the time, Bouterse was leading a military government in Suriname.

On 19 July 2010, Desiré Delano Bouterse was elected President of Suriname, taking up office on 12 August 2010. On 4 April 2012, despite some contestation, an amendment to the existing Amnesty Law of 1989 was adopted by the country’s Parliament, purportedly granting amnesty to President Bouterse and others for the murders that allegedly took place in 1982.

As the ICJ noted in its report of 29 May 2012, there are a number of unresolved questions regarding the legality of the Amnesty law.

Read also:

Suriname: independent observation mission to the trial of President Desiré Delano Bouterse

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