Mar 28, 2021 | News
The credibility of the criminal trials currently ongoing before Tunisia’s Specialised Criminal Chambers depends on their capacity to deliver justice and reparation to victims and their families in a manner consistent with international law, said more than 25 Tunisian lawyers and human rights defenders at a workshop organized with the ICJ and international experts.
The workshop, which was held in Tunis on 25 and 26 March, aimed at enhancing the capacity of participants to use international law in the preparation and litigation of cases before the Specialized Criminal Chambers (SCC) effectively.
The participants discussed the application of international law and standards relating to the notions of victims and persons entitled to reparation before the SCC. Participants also considered the various forms of reparation, including restitution, compensation, rehabilitation and satisfaction, and guarantees of non–repetition.
The workshop was attended by international and Tunisian experts, along with ICJ representatives.
The Director of ICJ’s Middle East and North Africa Programme, Said Benarbia, emphasized the importance of guaranteeing the right of victims to effective remedies and reparations, especially in transitional justice contexts.
Mondher Cherni, the Secretary–General of the Tunisian Organization Against Torture (OCTT), underlined that reparations must be comprehensive. “Tunisian courts should ensure the adoption of a comprehensive notion of harm, while addressing the violations suffered by victims in Tunisia,” he said.
Rachel Towers, Legal Advisor at Dignity (The Danish Institute Against Torture)highlighted that there is no justice without remedies and reparations; accordingly, Tunisia should ensure that victims of gross human rights violations may enjoy these rights effectively.
Clive Baldwin, Senior Legal Advisor at Human Rights Watch, said that “Tunisia is not only bound to punish and sanction gross human rights violations, but also to prevent them from occurring in the future.” Baldwin also emphasized the importance of providing a comprehensive set of guarantees of non–repetition, including legislative and institutional reforms aiming to ensure effective civilian control of military and security forces and the independence of the judiciary.
Participants also addressed the lack of compliance in law and practice of the Tunisian transitional justice framework with international law and standards.
“The functioning and delivery of transitional justice in Tunisia has been enduring numerous and complex challenges over the last years,”said Benarbia.“The Tunisian authorities should immediately respond to these challenges with a holistic action plan, based on concrete reforms and solutions” Benarbia added.
Contact
Valentina Cadelo, Legal Adviser, ICJ Middle East and North Africa Programme, e: valentina.cadelo(a)icj.org
Asser Khattab, Research and Communications’ Officer, ICJ Middle East and North Africa Programme, e: asser.khattab(a)icj.org
Mar 26, 2021 | News
In a joint communication to five United Nations Special Procedures, the ICJ and its partners urged the mandate holders to call on the Tunisian authorities to immediately stop hampering the transitional justice process.
The organizations expressed their concern at the ongoing attempts to undermine the transitional justice process and accountability efforts for past gross human rights violations.
“The Tunisian transitional justice process has been under serious attack since its inception in 2013. Today, the ICJ and its partners are urging the United Nations Special Procedures to take urgent action to deter such attacks, demand justice for the victims and secure accountability for the perpetrators,” said the Director of ICJ’s Middle East and North Africa Programme, Said Benarbia.
The joint communication highlights the following areas of concern:
- The recent political initiatives to dismantle the transitional justice process;
- The incessant attacks against the Truth and Dignity Commission (Instance Verité et Dignité, IVD) and its 2018 final report’s findings;
- The lack of support to the Specialized Criminal Chambers (SCC) and the numerous obstacles that risk to severely impair access to justice and effective remedies for victims of gross human rights violations.
The communication is addressed to the following United Nations Special Procedures:
- The Special Rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence;
- The Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment;
- The Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers;
- The Working Group on Arbitrary Detention; and
- The Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances.
The communication was submitted jointly by the ICJ along with:
- The World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT)
- The Ligue tunisienne des droits de l’homme (LTDH)
- The Forum Tunisien pour les Droits Economiques et Sociaux (FTDES)
- Avocats Sans Frontières (ASF)
- The Association of Tunisian Magistrates (AMT)
- Al Bawsla
- International Alert
- The Association KARAMA
- The Association INSAF pour les anciens militaires
- No Peace Without Justice
- The Organisation Contre la Torture en Tunisie (OCTT)
- The Organisation Dhekra we Wafa, pour le martyr de la liberté Nabil Barakati
- The Coalition Tunisienne pour la Dignité et la Réhabilitation
- The Association Tunisienne pour la Défense des Libertés Individuelles
- The Association des Femmes Tunisiennes pour la Recherche sur le Développement
- The Association Internationale pour le Soutien aux Prisonniers Politiques
- The Réseau tunisien de la justice transitionnelle
Contact
Valentina Cadelo, Legal Adviser, ICJ Middle East and North Africa Programme, e: valentina.cadelo(a)icj.org
Asser Khattab, Research and Communications’ Officer, ICJ Middle East and North Africa Programme, e: asser.khattab(a)icj.org
Download
Tunisia-Special-Procedures-Joint-Submission-2021 (PDF, in French)
Mar 19, 2021 | Advocacy, News
On 13 and 14 March 2021, the ICJ and the Association of Tunisian Magistrates (AMT) organized a roundtable discussion in Tunis to assist Specialized Criminal Chambers (SCC) judges and prosecutors to advance accountability and justice in line with international law and standards.
Participants discussed in-depth the ongoing challenges to the fair and effective prosecution and adjudication of gross human rights violations before the SCC. They also examined joint approaches to address these challenges with a view to enhancing the fairness and effectiveness of the SCC proceedings and achieving accountability in turn.
At the roundtable, Said Benarbia, ICJ’s MENA ProgrammeDirector, underlined that SCC trials should enable victims to obtain redress and reparation, while ensuring the defendants’ right to a fair trial in compliance with Tunisia’s obligations under international law. Anas Hmedi, the President of the AMT, highlighted the key role that the SCC play in relation to the discovery of the truth, accountability and guarantees of non-recurrence of gross human rights violations in Tunisia.
Martine Comte, ICJ France Commissioner,stressed the importance of finding joint approaches and reinforcing coordination among the SCC to address the various challenges that that they are currently facing. Kalthoum Kennou, ICJ Tunisia Commissioner, called for the development ofjoint approaches to ensure victims’ participation at SCC trials and enhance support for the transitional justice process.
In light of the roundtable discussion, participants identified joint solutions and agreed to develop a set of recommendations targeting the High Judicial Council and its role in supporting the SCC and resolving the practical obstacles that might impede their work.
The roundtable is part of the ICJ’s efforts to enhance the SCC’s capacity to adjudicate the cases referred to them by the Truth and Dignity Commission (IVD) in a manner consistent with international law and standards.
Contact
Valentina Cadelo, Legal Adviser, ICJ Middle East and North Africa Programme, e: valentina.cadelo(a)icj.org
Asser Khattab, Research and Communications’ Officer, ICJ Middle East and North Africa Programme, e: asser.khattab(a)icj.org
Mar 16, 2021 | News
On the first day of the trial before the eastern Cairo criminal military court of those accused in connection with the 2016 explosion in the Haram district of Giza, the ICJ calls on the Egyptian authorities to: investigate allegations of torture and other ill-treatment; ensure reparation for those arbitrarily detained; and end the trials of civilians before military courts.
“The case has been under investigation by the State Security Prosecution for more than five years, involving prolonged pre-trial detention and severe restriction on the right to legal counsel, in a flagrant violation of Egyptian and international law,” said Said Benarbia, the ICJ’s MENA Programme Director. “Detaining people pending trial for that length of time makes this case yet another example of how the authorities are using pre-trial detention as a tool of repression and to punish, in violation of Egypt’s obligations under international human rights law”.
In January 2016, hundreds of people were arrested, and some forcibly disappeared in connection with an explosion in the Haram district of Giza that killed seven police officers and four civilians, and injured 15 others.
A number of those detained have reportedly been subjected to ill-treatment and denied fair trial rights guaranteed by Egyptian and international law, including the right to receive family visits. In addition, to the ICJ’s knowledge, while all the accused may have briefly met their lawyers in highly restrictive circumstances at the state prosecution office each time they have been remanded into custody, over the years, they have been denied their right to legal counsel before trial as their lawyers have not been allowed to visit them in prison.
The ICJ calls on the Egyptian authorities to investigate the incidents of enforced disappearance, ill-treatment and other human rights violations with a view to bring those responsible to justice.
“Notwithstanding the gravity of the charges involved, civilians should not be brought before military courts,” said Benarbia. “the jurisdiction of military courts should be limited to trials of military personnel in cases of strictly military offences; it should not extend to crimes over which civilian courts have jurisdiction, human rights violations or crimes under international law,” he added.
Contact
Said Benarbia, Director, ICJ Middle East and North Africa Programme, t: +41-22-979-3817; e: said.benarbia(a)icj.org
Asser Khattab, Research and Communications’ Officer, ICJ Middle East and North Africa Programme, e: asser.khattab(a)icj.org
Download
Press release in English and Arabic.
Mar 12, 2021 | Advocacy, News
Several Iranian and international human rights organisations urge member states of the United Nations Human Rights Council to support the renewal of the mandate of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran.
The letter reads:
We, the undersigned Iranian and international human rights organisations, call on your government to support the renewal of the mandate of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran at the 46th session of the Human Rights Council. We also urge your government to use this opportunity to voice concern at the grave and systematic violations of human rights reported by the Special Rapporteur, and to call on Iranian authorities to put an end to the endemic impunity that surrounds these violations.
The renewal of this mandate is essential in light of the persistence of widespread and systematic violations of human rights committed by Iranian authorities with total impunity.
Iran remains second only to China in the number of executions carried out each year. In 2020, the authorities executed more than 240 people, including for drug offences and other acts that do not amount to the ‘most serious crimes’ under international law. Several people were executed in secret without prior notice to their families and lawyers. Among those executed was dissident and journalist Ruhollah Zam who was sentenced to death in connection with his anti-establishment social media news channel. Several protesters were sentenced to death and dozens of others faced capital crimes in relation to the nationwide November 2019 protests. The Iranian authorities executed at least three juvenile offenders in 2020, in violation of international law and despite repeated calls from UN bodies and member states for Iran to cease this unlawful practice and high-level bilateral engagement with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights on this issue.
Fair trial rights continue to be systematically violated, making the hundreds of death sentences, corporal punishment sentences and long prison terms issued all the more egregious. The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has raised alarm at ‘a familiar pattern of arrest and detention that does not comply with international norms’, including ‘lengthy detention pending trial with no access to judicial review; denial of access to legal counsel; incommunicado detention and solitary confinement; prosecution under vaguely worded criminal offences for the peaceful exercise of human rights; a closed trial and appeal by courts lacking in independence; disproportionately harsh sentencing; torture and ill-treatment; and denial of medical care’. In addition to these concerns, courts consistency rely on forced ‘confessions’ extracted under torture and other ill-treatment to issue convictions, as in the recent case of Navid Afkari, executed on 12 September 2020.
The Iranian authorities continue to routinely arbitrarily arrest, detain and sentence individuals to prison terms and flogging for the exercise of their rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly. Among those who are targeted are protesters, media workers, journalists, political dissidents, artists, writers, and human rights defenders, including lawyers, women’s rights defenders, labour rights activists, minority rights activists, conservationists, anti-death penalty campaigners and
those demanding truth, justice and reparation for the mass extrajudicial executions of the 1980s.
Authorities in Iran have further quashed civic space through state policies and the recent introduction of new provisions in the Islamic Penal Code, which further criminalise the exercise of the rights to freedom of expression, religion or belief. Violent crackdowns on protests have become intertwined with the imposition of internet shutdowns or disruptions in recent years. These measures stifle internet freedom and have been used by the authorities to prevent protesters from mobilising and to conceal the scale of grave human rights violations and international crimes carried out by the state and its security forces.
Conditions in many prisons and detention facilities are cruel and inhuman, with prisoners suffering from overcrowding, bad ventilation, lack of adequate food, poor hygiene and sanitation and inadequate access to toilet and washing facilities. Despite such conditions providing a breeding ground for infectious diseases, authorities have failed to adequately resource prisons to control the spread of COVID-19 and treat infected prisoners. They have excluded prisoners of conscience and others held for politically motivated reasons from temporary releases or pardons announced to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 and have deliberately denied them access to adequate health care.
As highlighted in the report of the Special Rapporteur before the Human Rights Council, discrimination in law and practice remains pervasive and a daily reality for women and girls, for persons belonging to ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities, as well as for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) individuals. Women and girls continue to face widespread and systematic discrimination in law and practice in all aspects of their lives, amid the authorities’ continued failure to protect them from gender-based violence.
Ethnic minorities, including Ahwazi Arabs, Azerbaijani Turks, Baluchis, Kurds and Turkmen continue to face entrenched discrimination, which curtails their economic, social, cultural and other rights. The High Commissioner has recently noted that ‘an apparently coordinated campaign has been targeting minority groups since December, including in Sistan and Balochistan; Khuzestan; and in the Kurdish provinces. Mass arrests and enforced disappearances have been reported, as well as increasing
numbers of executions, following deeply flawed processes’. Some ethnic minorities have also been disproportionately affected by the imposition of the death penalty in 2020.
Freedom of religion or belief continues to be systematically violated, including for Baha’is who face widespread and systematic persecution, hate speech and obstacles to access education and work. Christian converts, the Yarsan (Ahl-e Haq), Sunni Muslims and non-believers also face discrimination and persecution for expressing or practising their faith or beliefs.
These long-standing patters of human rights violations have been facilitated by systematic impunity and lack of transparency. An illustration of this crisis of impunity is the continued failure of the authorities to investigate and prosecute crimes and human rights violations committed in the context of the violent repression of the nationwide protests of November 2019. The state repression resulted in the unlawful killing of hundreds of men, women and children, the arrest of at least 7,000 others, and widespread patterns of enforced disappearances and torture and other ill-treatment of detainees to obtain ‘confessions’ that have been used to issue convictions in unfair trials. In his report before the Human Rights Council, the UN Special Rapporteur has expressed dismay that ‘more than one year on, the Government has failed to conduct an impartial, independent and transparent investigation into the use of excessive and lethal force during nationwide demonstrations in November 2019’. On the contrary, the authorities have engaged in harassment and violence against victims and their families for seeking truth, justice and reparation, as documented in the recent reports of the Special Rapporteur.
In this context, the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran continues to be critical to monitor, document and report to this Council on steps taken by Iran to uphold its human rights obligations or of its failure to take such measures. It is essential to engage with Iranian authorities on issues of concern, and to make potentially life-saving urgent appeals and other communications. The mandate draws the attention of this Council to the voices of victims, and its expert findings and recommendations steer and inform the efforts of UN bodies and member states to encourage Iran’s authorities to undertake long overdue human rights reforms and hold them to account for human rights violations.
For these reasons, we urge your government to support the renewal of the mandate of the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran at this session and to press Iran to give unfettered access to the Special Rapporteur. We also call on your government to voice concern at the dire situation of human rights in Iran, and to send a strong message to the Iranian authorities that the cycle of impunity must be broken, and that members of the Council expect without delay the adoption of long-overdue
human rights reforms and tangible improvements to the human rights situation in the country.
Download
Joint letter with a list of organizations in English.
