NGOs recommendations on the strengthening of the UN treaty bodies

NGOs recommendations on the strengthening of the UN treaty bodies

Since 2009, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has called for the strengthening and increased funding for the UN treaty bodies. 

The UN treaty bodies are the monitoring mechanisms established under the universal treaties on international human rights.

To date, however, this strengthening process has inadequately addressed the need to strengthen, streamline and coordinate the Individual Communications procedures of the treaty bodies.

A coalition of NGOs has therefore issued a joint statement on the strengthening of these procedures, which represent a key aspect of the right of access by all to international justice in the context of human rights. The joint statement includes recommendations to States, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and the treaty bodies themselves.

statement strengthening treaty body-analysis brief-2011 (full text in English, PDF)

Italy: bill increasing length of criminal trial should be rejected

Italy: bill increasing length of criminal trial should be rejected

The ICJ is urging the Members of the House of Representatives to dismiss the draft legislation on evidence in criminal trials which could exacerbate further the already dramatic delays in Italian judicial proceedings.

The legislation would eliminate the possibility for a judge to reject the admission of “superfluous” and even “manifestly superfluous” evidence, allowing the parties to a case to call an almost infinite number of witnesses, and potentially delaying the case indefinitely.  It also would make it unduly difficult to incorporate previous final rulings on the same case as prima facie evidence of the facts in the proceedings.”

Italy-length-criminal-trial-web story-2011-eng (full text in English, PDF)

Italy-length-criminal-trial-web story-2011-ita (full text in Italian, PDF)

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