Mar 17, 2015 | Events, News
This side event will take place on Thursday 19 March 2015, 12.00-14.00, at the Palais des Nations, Geneva, Room XXVII.
It aims at creating a space to discuss the EU agenda on Business & Human Rights, identifying current challenges and development, and exploring opportunities arising from the Treaty process.
Panelists:
Mons. Silvano Tomasi, Holy See, Permanent Observer
Mr. Jerome Bellion-Jourdan, Delegation of the European Union to the UN
Mrs. Elena Valenciano, European Parliament Sub-Committee on Human Rights, Chair
Mr. Richard Meeran, Leigh Day, Partner
Ms. Anne van Schaik, Friends of the Earth Europe, Economics and Justice Team
Moderation: Dr. Carlos Lopez, International Commission of Jurists, Senior Legal Adviser
Erope-Flyer side-event EU BHR perspectives-News-event-2015-ENG (ful text in PDF)
Mar 13, 2015 | Advocacy, Non-legal submissions
The Colombian Commission of Jurists, an affiliate of the ICJ, today called for the UN Human Rights Council to uphold the use of civilian courts, rather than military tribunals, to try civilians and to adjudicate claims for human rights violations.
An oral statement to the UN Human Rights Council highlighted that:
- military tribunals should as a matter of principle have no jurisdiction to try civilians or to adjudicate claims of serious human rights violations;
- These matters should be the domain of civilian courts; and
- The jurisdiction of military tribunals should be restricted to specifically military offenses committed by military personnel.
The oral statement emphasised to the global reach of the issue, referring by way of example to the military commissions established by the United States of America at Guantánamo Bay, as well as recent negative developments in Colombia, Egypt, Thailand and Pakistan.
The statement noted that the Principles Governing the Administration of Justice Through Military Tribunals presented to the Commission on Human Rights by Emmanuel Decaux in 2006 (UN Doc E/CN.4/2006/58), are widely referenced, but have yet to receive full recognition by the Human Rights Council. The statement added its support to the calls by the Special Rapporteur on Independence of Judges and Lawyers, the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, and others, for the Council to endorse and seek implementation of the Principles without further delay.
The statement responds to an expert consultation on the administration of justice through military tribunals convened by the Council (UN Doc A/HRC/28/32).
The full oral statement can be downloaded in pdf format here: Advocacy-HRC28-MilitaryCourts-OralStatement-2015
Said Benarbia, Director of ICJ’s Middle East North Africa Programme participated in the expert consultation.
His statement can be found here: MENA-Military Courts HRC28-Advocacy-2015-ENG (full text in PDF).
Thailand exercised its right of reply, which can be viewed in the UN webcast archive, here.
Mar 13, 2015 | Advocacy
The ICJ today supported, with 91 other NGOs from around the world including a number of ICJ national sections and affiliates, an oral statement calling on the UN Human Rights Council to establish a Special Rapporteur on Privacy at its current session.
The UN General Assembly, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, existing special procedure mandate holders, and many states and civil society organisations have recognized the pressing need to provide continuous, systematic and authoritative guidance on the scope and content of the right to privacy as enshrined in article 12 of UDHR and article 17 of ICCPR. Significantly, all of them have identified the need to assess and monitor the ongoing implementation of this right. The creation of a Special Rapporteur would fill this long-standing gap.
Although the initiative has its origins in concerns about online and telecommunications surveillance, the call is for the creation of a Special Rapporteur with a mandate to look at all aspects of the right to privacy, in all contexts, including issues relating to private sector practices.
The text of the oral statement, delivered by Article 19, can be downloaded here: Advocacy-HRC28-Privacy-JointOralStatement-2015
Mar 4, 2015 | Events
A panel discussion on Guantánamo and accountability for torture, featuring UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Juan E. Méndez and other experts, will take place in Geneva on 9 March 2015 in connection with the UN Human Rights Council session.The panel features:
- Juan E. Méndez, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture
- Jamil Dakwar, Director, Human Rights Program, American Civil Liberties Union
- Peter Jan Honigsbert, U of San Francisco Law School, Founder & Director of Witness to Guantánamo
- Julia Hall, Expert on Counter-Terrorism and Human Rights, Amnesty International
moderator: Connie de la Vega, University of San Francisco Law School & Human Rights Advocates.
The ICJ joins the ACLU, Amnesty International, Human Rights Advocates, Conectas, Human Rights Watch, CELS, and OMCT in supporting this event.
The event takes place 9 march 2015, at 15:00-17:00, Room XXIII, Palais des Nations, in Geneva.
The event flyer may be downloaded in PDF format here: SideEventTorture
Mar 3, 2015 | Advocacy
Thirteen human rights organizations, including the ICJ, call on the United Arabe Emirates government to release the activists jailed following the UAE 94 trial.
On the second anniversary of the start of the mass “UAE 94” trial that imprisoned dozens of government critics and reform activists in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), including prominent human rights defenders, judges, academics, and student leaders, a coalition of 13 organizations calls on the UAE government to release immediately and unconditionally all those imprisoned solely for peacefully exercising their rights to freedom of expression and association following this grossly unfair trial, as well as those who remain detained or imprisoned for publicizing concerns about it.
The organizations also call on the authorities to ensure that the allegations of torture and other ill-treatment that the individuals were subjected to prior to and following their trial are promptly, independently, impartially and thoroughly investigated, that those responsible are held to account, and that the victims have access to effective remedies and to reparation.
The organizations share the serious concerns raised since 2011 by several UN human rights bodies and human rights organizations regarding the UAE government’s continuing pattern of harassment, secret, arbitrary and prolonged incommunicado detention, torture and other ill-treatment, enforced disappearances, and unfair trials targeting activists and those critical of the authorities, as well as its increasing use of national security as a pretext to clamp down on peaceful activism and to stifle calls for reform.
The space for dissent in the UAE is increasingly shrinking. The repression has been entrenched with the enactment in 2012 of the cybercrimes law, which the government has used to silence social media activists and others who support and defend freedom of expression online, and the enactment of the 2014 counter-terror law.
The vague and overly broad definition of terrorism in the 2014 law, which treats a wide range of activities, including those protected by human rights standards, as amounting to terrorism, may be used to sentence human rights defenders or critics of the government to lengthy prison terms or even death.
The organizations call on the UAE government, which currently is a member of the UN Human Rights Council, to adhere to its obligations to uphold human rights at home, including respecting the rights to freedom of opinion and expression, and to freedom of association and peaceful assembly.
The full statement can be found here in English and Arabic:
United Arab Emirates-Release activists convicted at the UAE94 trial-Advocacy-2015-ENG (full text in PDF)
United Arab Emirates -Release activists convicted at the UAE94 trial-Advocacy-2015-ARA (full text in PDF)
Read also:
UAE: Fear that Anti-Terrorism Law will be used to curtail human rights and target human rights defenders, Gulf Centre for Human Rights, Front Line Defenders, Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, 13 December 2014,
Mass convictions following an unfair trial: The UAE 94 case, an ICJ report, October 2013,
United Arab Emirates: ICJ condemns blatant disregard of the right to a fair and public trial, ICJ, 12 March 2013
