Feb 3, 2018 | Agendas, Events, News
Today begins in Ankara (Turkey) a two-day training for lawyers and CSO practitioners representing and working with migrants, refugees and asylum-seekers.
This event is organized by ICJ, in cooperation with its partners Refugee Rights Turkey, the European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE), Mülteci-Der (MD) and ICJ-EI, as part of the EU co-financed project Fostering Access to Rights for Migrants, Refugees and Asylum-Seekers in Turkey.
30 lawyers and civil society practitioners – representing nine different bar associations and relevant organisations from the Ankara area and other nearby key migration and asylum locations – are taking part in the training on 3 and 4 February.
The training aims to update lawyers and CSOs on the international and national law on the rights of refugees, migrants and asylum-seekers in order to be effective in their work at both the national and international levels. It aims at an effective implementation of the Turkish legal framework on asylum and migration.
The main thematic areas to be discussed will be the principle of non-refoulement, international protection, detention and access to economic, social and cultural rights.
The training will use as a basis the draft training materials prepared by the ICJ and its partners (to be published an the end of 2019) and, among other sources, the ICJ Practitioners Guide no. 6: Migration and International Human Rights Law.
The project “Fostering Access to Rights for Migrants, Refugees and Asylum-Seekers in Turkey” is funded by the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR) of the European Union.
Turkey-Training-Ankara-MigrationAsylum-Agenda-2018-tur-eng (download the agenda in Turkish and English)
Jan 15, 2018 | News
The ICJ is concerned at allegations that the recent arrest and detention of Oyub Titiev, the head of the Chechen branch of the Russian human rights organisation Memorial, were carried out as retaliation for his human rights activity.
The ICJ is particularly concerned at the more recent reports that family members of Oyub Titiev have had to leave Chechnya for security reasons following threats.
The ICJ calls on the Russian federal and local authorities to conduct a prompt, thorough and independent investigation into allegations that criminal charges against Oyub Titiev have been fabricated by police.
Oyub Titiev should be immediately released pending the outcome of this investigation, and measures should be taken to protect his security and that of his family.
On 9 January 2018, at 10.30, according to an official statement of the Ministry of Interior of Chechnya, Oyub Titiev’s car was stopped near Kurchaloy town to check his documents.
During a search of his car, a plastic bag with approximately 180 grams of a substance identified as marijuana was allegedly found.
Titiyev was charged with possession of a large quantity of narcotics under article 228 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. However, he has stated that the narcotics were planted and has filed a complaint with the Prosecutor’s Office to initiate an investigation into these allegations.
Oyub Titiev, the head of Memorial in Chechnya, is one of very few human rights defenders who continue their work in Chechnya despite significant obstacles and threats.
He took over this position following the murder of the former head of Memorial in Chechnya, Natalya Estemirova in 2009.
In accordance with Article 2(a) of the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders (Declaration on the Right and Responsibility of Individuals, Groups and Organs of Society to Promote and Protect Universally Recognized Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms), human rights defenders have a right to conduct human rights work individually and in association with others.
Under the same Declaration, States have a duty to take all necessary measures to ensure the protection of everyone against any violence, threats, retaliation, adverse discrimination, pressure or any other arbitrary action as a consequence of his or her legitimate activities as a human rights defender.
Threats of violence and the falsification of evidence by public officials constitute crimes under the Russian Criminal Code. Reliance in criminal proceedings on evidence falsely planted by the police or other State actors would violate international human rights law including fair trial guarantees under the UN Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the European Convention of Human Rights.
Attacks on human rights defenders working in an extremely difficult human rights environment such as that of Chechnya, or attacks on their family members, have a chilling effect on work to defend human rights there. If further such attacks are to be prevented, individuals responsible for them must be brought to justice through a fair procedure, the ICJ stressed.
Jan 11, 2018 | Advocacy, Cases, Legal submissions
The ICJ responded today to the observations of the Czech Government on the merits of the collective complaint brought against it earlier last year by the ICJ and Forum for Human Rights.
The complaint to the European Committee of Social Rights (ICJ v. the Czech Republic, No. 148/2017) argues that the Czech Republic fails to ensure equal legal protection and participation of children below the age of criminal responsibility in the pre-trial stage of juvenile justice procedures.
The ICJ and Forum for Human Rights reinforced the complaint, relying on Article 17 of the Social Charter, in relation to the State party’s failure to ensure that children below the age of criminal responsibility but recognised as having infringed the penal law are treated in a manner consistent with the promotion of the child’s sense of dignity and worth, which reinforces the child’s respect for the human rights and fundamental freedoms of others and which takes into account the child’s age and the desirability of promoting the child’s reintegration and the child’s assuming a constructive role in society.
Europe-ECSR-ICJvCzechRepublic-ChildrenJustice-ICJresponse1-2018-ENG (download the ICJ reply)
Dec 20, 2017 | News
From 9-13 December, a delegation from the ICJ visited the company Carbones del Cerrejón LLC (El Cerrejón) to analyse the operation and effectiveness of its grievance mechanism.
The company, owned by Glencore plc, Anglo American and BHP Billiton, is located in the department of La Guajira, Colombia. The visit took place within the framework of the ICJ’s initiative on the effectiveness of grievance mechanisms established by companies to remedy negative impacts and human rights abuses.
The ICJ appreciated the collaboration of the Institute of Studies for Development and Peace (INDEPAZ) in the organization and facilitation of the visit.
It also acknowledges and thanks the company Carbones del Cerrejón for the welcome and all the facilities provided to the mission as well as the information shared with the delegation.
The ICJ also thanks the communities of Afro-descendants, peasants and indigenous Wayuu who welcomed and spoke with it.
This statement contains preliminary views and recommendations from the delegation regarding the company’s grievance system and the context in which it operates.
Subsequently, the ICJ will prepare a full report and will use this evaluation in the context of a general evaluation and recommendations on operational level grievance mechanisms.
The objective of the mission was to learn about and analyse the operation of the grievance mechanism established by the company and to evaluate in a preliminary way its effectiveness.
Cerrejón is one of the companies in the coal mining sector that started the process of establishing grievance and / or complaint mechanisms early.
Between 2009 and 2011 it was part of five pilot projects carried out by a team of the Special Representative of the UN Secretary General on business and human rights.
Contextualize the mechanism: Coal mining in La Guajira
La Guajira – province of Colombia on the border with Venezuela – besides its natural beauty and the friendliness of its people surprises visitors by the sharp contrast it presents between the great wealth generated by the extraction of coal and the poverty prevalent among its population.
The majority percentage of the population of La Guajira is made up of indigenous Wayuu populations and Afro-descendant communities, who generally live in poverty.
There is a lack of water and of employment opportunities or economic activities that are not linked to the operations of El Cerrejón, which accentuates the apparent dependence of the regional economy on the extractive activity of coal and raises doubts and questions about sustainability of the regional economy sitting on these bases in the short, medium and long term.
The information received by the delegation of the ICJ points to corruption as one of the main factors that influence and determine the lack of better health and education services, infrastructure and economic investment in the region by the State.
Corruption is more visible among the political class. Senior officials of the regional government were or are currently being prosecuted for corruption and murder.
La Guajira has had eight different governors in five years, which is a destabilizing and paralyzing factor in a highly centralized political system of government.
In this context, although considerable efforts are made by various actors, including El Cerrejón, distrust among the population is significant.
El Cerrejón, which operates in La Guajira, is one of the largest open-pit coal mining operations in the world and has an integrated operation that includes the extraction of coal, its transport by private railroad to Puerto Bolivar (150 kilometers away) and its cargo and transportation to consumer countries.
About 40 percent of the coal exported by Colombia goes to European markets. El Cerrejón is presented as an example of responsible mining both in the Colombian coal mining region and in the world and it has recently developed a series of social responsibility policies, including a due diligence process in the field of human rights.
The ICJ was informed that the experience and lessons learned from the grievance mechanism have influenced the design of these policies.
Colombia-Cerrejon-grievance-assessment-News-2018-ENG (Full text in PDF)
Watch the video (in Spanish):
Dec 18, 2017 | Multimedia items, News, Video clips
Leaders of indigenous communities in Guatemala, seeking to protect their lands and natural resources from the negative impacts of business operations and infrastructure projects, have been charged with alleged criminal offences and in some instances arbitrarily detained.
This response is designed to silence voices of protest and legitimate demands for free, prior and informed consent for infrastructure or other projects in indigenous communities.
The video includes interviews with Ramón Cadena, ICJ Director for Central America, two indigenous traditional leaders, who have been the victims of arbitrary detention, and a women community leader, explaining the impact of the detention on the family and the whole community.
The criminalization of human rights work is a phenomenon whereby community leaders are charged with different criminal activities because of their opposition to a development model based on extractive industries or the privatization of essential social services.
This development model affects the natural resources (water, land and the environment) on indigenous peoples’ territories.
This is a global phenomenon and is particularly acute in Guatemala.
The exploitation of natural resources, such as open-cast mining and the operations of extractive industries in the territories of indigenous peoples, is one of the main reasons which are behind the crackdown on social protest and human rights work.
The different communities that have been affected seek to defend their territories and oppose the different forms of exploitation of the natural resources found on their territories or in the surrounding areas because it can affect the water supply, the land and the environment.
A number of leaders have been killed because of their opposition to these projects.
Some family members of those killed have in turn taken on the task of opposing these projects and they have also been charged with criminal offences.
In Guatemala, there is also an intense social conflict because of the way in which electricity services are delivered.
As a result of the privatization of the service in 1996, the Guatemalan State has granted concessions to national and international companies to provide electricity services.
Over the years, many users have complained about the poor quality and high cost of the services that these private companies provide.
The National Electricity Commission has failed to respect its legal duty to “ensure that the obligations of the concessionaries and contractors are fulfilled and to protect the rights of users,” which many discontented users have demanded.
The social protests concern the three different phases of electricity production: the generation of electricity, involving the construction of hydroelectric dams by multinational companies that impact on indigenous peoples’ territories, the electricity transmission grids, and the electricity services.
Because of this situation, many electricity users have declared that they are in resistance, citing article 45 of the Guatemalan Constitution that states: “It is legitimate for the people to resist in order to protect and defend the rights and guarantees enshrined in the Constitution.”
Acting on this Constitutional protection has led to human rights attacks on many community leaders, lawyers and human rights defenders.
The ICJ supports access to justice for persons who are victims of these human rights violations.
The ICJ supports lawyers who defend these victims of the criminalization of social protest; it carries our trial observations in significant cases; it promotes dialogue between the communities and the relevant State authorities as well as the local Mayors; and in some cases, it supports submissions before the Constitutional Court.
