Mar 23, 2016 | Advocacy, Non-legal submissions
Today, the ICJ made a submission to the Human Rights Council’s Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review in advance of the Human Rights Council’s review of Uganda in October/November 2016.
In its submission, the ICJ expressed concern about the detrimental impact of the adoption and enforcement of the Anti-Homosexuality Act, 2014; the effect of pre-existing and extant criminalization of consensual same-sex sexual conduct; and the introduction of the Prohibition of Promotion of Unnatural Sexual Practices Bill, on the respect for and the protection and realization of human rights in Uganda.
A copy of the submission can be found here:
Uganda-ICJ CESCR submission-Advocacy-non legal submission-2015-ENG (full text in PDF)
Jun 24, 2015 | News
The workshop took place from 22-24 June in Victoria Falls and had a special focus on children’s rights as a particularly vulnerable group.
Its primary objective was to create a pool of jurists and activists with the knowledge and ability to undertake strategic litigation before national or regional courts in the interest of victims of human rights abuse by business enterprises in the Southern/Eastern Africa region.
To this end the meeting brought together legal practitioners and Human Rights Defenders involved in human rights legal accountability of business enterprises.
This workshop gathered together a selected group of human rights advocates from Malawi, Zambia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania working on cases relating to business’ human rights abuse.
In East and Southern African countries mining represents a significant part of the national economies and annual GDP.
Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, South Africa, Botswana and Mozambique have seen the inflowing investments grow in recent years, but it is not clear that this trend has meant improvements in the realization of human rights, especially economic and social rights.
Child labour is endemic, and its occurrence in tobacco plantations subject children to additional hazards to their health and wellbeing.
Mining and oil exploration creates problems to local communities who are not properly consulted or benefit from the activity and usually bear the brunt of environmental degradation and pollution associated with those extractive industries.
Business enterprises are in many instances complicit with State’s violations of human rights.
The meeting also sought to provide legal and other tools to community representatives and litigators who want to start strategic litigation in the public interest.
This flows from the realisation that effective remedy and reparation for victims of business human rights abuses, especially in a transnational context, remains elusive as ever and confronts a series of legal and procedural obstacles.
Access to effective remedy and justice is a priority objective in the context of work relating to the human rights responsibilities of business enterprises.
Jun 11, 2014 | Advocacy, Non-legal submissions
The ICJ, together with the International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA) and on behalf of ARC International, today delivered an oral statement to the Human Rights Council during an interactive dialogue with the UN Special Rapporteur on peaceful assembly and association.
The report of the Special Rapporteur addressed challenges faced by groups at risk, including lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex persons.
The statement welcomed the report by the Special Rapporteur.
It referred to the Nigerian Same Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Act (which in fact criminalizes a much broader range of human rights-protected activities than its title would necessarily suggest), Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Act, and Ukraine’s draft law on “propaganda of homosexual relations”. All of these laws impede freedom of peaceful assembly of LGBTI persons. The Nigerian law also interferes with freedom of association, as it bans registration, funding and activities of “gay” organizations.
It also referred to Russia’s ban on “propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations”.
It emphasised the detrimental impact of such laws on the work of LGBTI human rights defenders and the activities of health care providers. It stressed that laws directly targeting the freedom of peaceful assembly or association of LGBTI individuals solely because of their sexual orientation or gender identity are inconsistent with international human rights law.
UN-HRC26-AssociationLGBTI-OralStatement-advocay-non legal submission-2014 (full text in pdf)
The report of the Special Rapporteur is available here.
