Aug 27, 2019 | News
The ICJ welcomes yesterday’s ratification by Uzbekistan of the CIS Convention on Legal Assistance and Legal Relations in Civil, Family and Criminal Matters 2002, also called the Chisinau Convention. The law on ratification was signed by President Shavkat Mirziyoyev.
The ICJ calls on the Uzbek authorities to take measures to make the Convention’s protective guarantees effective.
“This is a major step forward by Uzbekistan to get its extradition system up to standard with the rest of the world”, said Massimo Frigo, ICJ Senior Legal Adviser. “. “Its ratification of this treaty considerably steps up human rights guarantees in extradition.”
The Chisinau Convention enshrines several human rights guarantees to protect against extraditions that may breach the human rights of the transferred person, including the prohibition to transfer persons where they risk the death penalty or torture or cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.
“The ratification of the Convention is a very important first step. An effective implementation of these guarantees in the legal and law enforcement systems is necessary now.” said Dmitry Nurumov, ICJ Central Asia Legal Consultant.
Background
Last May, the ICJ held, together with the General Prosecutor’s Office of Uzbekistan, UNODC Regional Office for Central Asia and the Regional Office for Central Asia of OHCHR, a regional and a national seminar on comparative practices in extradition in the CIS and European legal systems, including with regard to human rights guarantees in these procedures.
In 2017, the ICJ issued a report documenting the shortcomings in the Russian Federation, Central Asia and European countries in their extradition systems and other transfer procedures.
The ratification by Uzbekistan of the Chisinau Convention meets part of the recommendations formulated by the ICJ in these occasions.
Contact:
Massimo Frigo, Senior Legal Adviser, e: massimo.frigo(a)icj.org , t: +41229793805
Mar 12, 2019 | Multimedia items, News, Video clips
Today, the ICJ and the Tashkent State University of Law (TSUL) in partnership with the UN Human Rights Office in Central Asia are organizing this event. The topic of the Third Expert Discussion is rights of persons with disabilities.
The Expert Discussions are part of “Access to Justice in Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Project (ACCESS)” supported by the European Union.
The Expert Discussions are aimed at increasing awareness about the implementation of international law and standards on ESC rights by national courts, to facilitate access to justice in relation to ESC rights and effective use of international human rights law for ESC rights at the national level.
Each Expert Discussion is supported by presentations of international and national experts.
The first experts’ meeting was held in September 2018 on international standards in labour rights, and the second meeting – held in December 2018 – on the principle of non-discrimination in courts and court decisions.
The two events brought together lawyers, defense lawyers, individual experts, academia representatives and law students via interactive discussions, research papers, peer review articles and policy papers. Selected papers will be published in collection of scientific articles by the end of 2019.
Mansurkhon Kamalov, the Deputy Rector of TSUL, said: “We have already held two expert discussions on the right to work and the principle of non-discrimination in courts together with the ICJ with the support of the European Union. Each event touched upon international and national standards and legal regulation of specific ESC rights. Our meeting today is organized on the eve of celebrating the day when independent Uzbekistan became a full member of the UN; and it raises a very relevant topic not only for the country, but also for the international community as a whole. The TSUL is pleased to cooperate with the ICJ, which helps increase public awareness about international legal norms and standards in the field of ESC rights and practice of their implementation at the national and international level; access to justice with regard to ESC rights, as well as the effective use of international human rights law to protect these rights at the national level.”
Ryszard Komenda, Head of the UN Human Rights Office in Central Asia, said: “Today, about 10 per cents of the population are persons with disabilities. Persons with disabilities are the largest minority in the world. This figure is constantly increasing as a result of demographic growth, progress in healthcare systems, and the overall population aging patterns, according to WHO’s world data. In the framework of the Universal periodic review (UPR) of Uzbekistan, that was held for the third time in May 2018, a number of the UN Human Rights Council members called on Uzbekistan to ratify the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and welcomed measures that have been already in the process of implementation with the aim to ensure the rights of persons with disabilities in the country. According to the UPR outcome document, the Republic of Uzbekistan accepted relevant recommendations and declared its intention to ratify the Convention. Ratification of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities will be a significant step in further promoting and ensuring implementation of international human rights standards in the Republic of Uzbekistan.”
Dmitriy Nurumov, ICJ Legal Consultant, said: “Access to justice, which includes a fair trial and equality before the law, is of particular importance for people living with a disability, who often face inter-sectional and multiple barriers to access justice. The ICJ believes that inclusive societies in which all individuals have equal access to justice, require identifying and overcoming systemic and practical barriers that hamper equal access to justice, including in enjoyment of ESC rights. The ICJ hopes that today’s discussion will map out such existing barriers and the ways they can be overcome.”
Contact:
Dilfuza Kurolova, ICJ Legal consultant, t: +998 90 9050099 ; e: dilfuza.kurolova(a)icj.org
Watch the video here:
Dec 21, 2018 | Multimedia items, News, Video clips
The ICJ invited a number of women lawyers to Geneva to participate in a training workshop and gain practical experience of UN human rights mechanisms as part of a project supported by the German Mission to the United Nations in Geneva.
One group of women came to Geneva in June during the 38th session of the UN Human Rights Council and 70th session of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, and the other group came in September to coincide with the 39th session of the Human Rights Council.
During the week long training workshops participants learned about the international human rights mechanisms available to tackle issues of women’s access to justice and gained hands-on exposure to the operation of these mechanisms in practice.
Participants spoke about the impact that the CEDAW Convention has had in their domestic legislation.
Donia Allani a lawyer and lecturer at the Faculty of Legal, Political and Social Sciences of Tunis, discussed the impact of CEDAW in shaping legislation in Tunis to eliminate violence against women and facilitate access to justice but noted that women still faced stigmatization.
Donia Allani commented, however, that UN mechanisms could be improved to ensure that all activists and feminists can access these mechanisms without fear of reprisals.
Uzbek lawyer Sabina Saparova, also spoke of the impact that international law and standards can have domestically. She explained that Uzbekistan’s ratification of the CEDAW Convention provided an international commitment to incorporating equality between men and women into its legal structure. Recently the president of Uzbekistan initiated the first steps toward the adoption of a law on the prevention of domestic violence.
Dec 15, 2018 | News
From 10 to 14 December, the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) conducted a research mission to Uzbekistan to identify some of the main obstacles impeding access to justice for economic, social and cultural (ESC) rights.
ICJ experts met with key stakeholders, including relevant State bodies, CSOs, independent experts and other actors to discuss legal and practical aspects of access to justice for ESC rights.
Adopting a legal aid system for cases related to ESC rights, public accessibility of court judgements including on ESC rights and its effect on enjoyment of ESC rights, relevant reforms which concern vulnerable groups were discussed among other things with the stakeholders.
The findings will be part of the report on access to justice for ESC rights in Uzbekistan.
The mission included Jarna Petma, ICJ Commissioner as well as a number of staff members of the ICJ Europe and Central Asia Programme.
The ICJ appreciates the facilitation of the Government of Uzbekistan and of the European Union Delegation, for essential support in organisation of the mission.
Dec 15, 2018 | Events, News
On 14 December, the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) and the Tashkent State University of Law (TSUL) organised expert discussions on economic, social and cultural rights (ESC) to advance civil society in promoting ESC rights and standards in Uzbekistan.
Leading national experts as well as ICJ representatives, including an ICJ Commissioner, Jarna Petman, discussed the use of non-discrimination principle in court decisions.
The expert discussion, including on issues such as adoption of new laws, regulations and policies that leave marginalized groups outside the protection of the law, took place during a research mission on access to justice for ESC rights in Uzbekistan.
The ICJ expert discussions aim to increase awareness about the implementation of international law and standards on ESC rights before national courts, to facilitate access to justice for ESC rights and effective use of international human rights law for ESC rights.
Every two months, they bring together lawyers, specialists, members of academia and law students via interactive discussions, research papers, peer review articles and policy papers.
The first expert discussion took place on 18 September 2018 at TSUL and was devoted to international standards on the right to work.
