Mar 29, 2019 | News
As leaders gather for the League of Arab States (LAS) Summit beginning on 31 March 2019 in Tunis, the ICJ called on them to place human rights and accountability for violations at the forefront of their agenda.
In particular, the ICJ urged the Summit to take immediate steps to revise the Statute of the Arab Court of Human Rights in line with international standards to allow access by victims of human rights violations in the region to such a Court.
“We’ve been witnessing a spike in gross human rights violations across the Arab region, including in extrajudicial executions, enforced disappearances, arbitrary detentions, and torture and other ill-treatment,” said Said Benarbia, the ICJ’s MENA Programme Director.
“The region is in dire need of a credible and independent judicial mechanism to provide justice for human rights violations, the overwhelming majority of which presently go unaddressed,” he added.
The ICJ called on external participants to prioritize human rights in their discussions with League member States at the Summit.
Expected attendees include United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, the European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Federica Mogherini, the Head of the African Union Commission Moussa Faki Mahamat, and the Secretary General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation Yousef bin Abdul Al-Othaimeen.
Many States in the region are plagued by widespread and systematic violations.
These range from torture, enforced disappearance and arbitrary detentions in Egypt, attacks against human rights defenders and journalists in Saudi Arabia, including the high profile enforced disappearance and killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khasshogi, as well as the judicial harassment of human rights defenders and political activists throughout the region.
Civilian populations have borne the brunt of violations and crimes through military operations by governments and armed groups in Yemen, Syria and Libya, and in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“International leaders mustn’t sit back and follow the agendas of rights-violating States at this Summit, which will no doubt be directed towards further entrenchment of their authoritarian regimes at the expense of victims,” said Benarbia.
“Instead, they should urge LAS members States to ensure accountability for human rights violations in the region, including by revising and then making operational the Statute of the Arab Court,” he added.
The ICJ said that the process of revision should only be done with the participation of a wide range of stakeholders, civil society, judges, academics, bar associations, and victims of violations.
Contact:
Said Benarbia, Director of the ICJ Middle East and North Africa Programme, t: +41-22-979-3817; e: said.benarbia(a)icj.org
Background
The Statute of the Arab Court of Human Rights, which aims to establish a regional human rights court for Arab States, was approved by the LAS Ministerial Council on 7 September 2014, but is yet to come into force.
The ICJ and others have identified significant flaws in the Statute, highlighted in the 2014 ICJ report. The report notes that the Statute does not allow victims themselves to submit complaints directly to the Court, making access to justice an illusion. In addition, the Statute does not provide for sufficient guarantees to ensure judicial independence and impartiality; does not provide adequate protective measures for petitioners, their representatives or witnesses; and fails to require the Court to interpret the Arab Charter in line with international human rights obligations.
MENA-Arab Court HR-News-2019-ARA (full story in Arabic, PDF)
Mar 28, 2019 | Events, News
The ICJ is co-operating in a conference organized by the Council of Europe and the Federal Bar Association of Russia on “Crimes against Human Dignity: Interaction of International and National Remedies”, which will take place today, 28 March 2019 in Moscow.
The Conference will address crimes that affect physical and moral integrity of a person, notably through ill- treatment, domestic violence, trafficking in human beings and other forms of modern slavery. The core provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights and the related case-law of the European Court of Human Rights are of particular relevance in combatting these phenomena. The Conference will address national and international remedies against such crimes and serve for exchange of good legal practices in that regard.
Mikhail Lobov, Head of Human Rights Policy and Co-operation Department of the Council of Europe, Yuriy Pilipenko, President of the Federal Bar Association, Denis Novak, Vice-Minister of Justice of the Russian Federation, Radmila Dragichevich Dichich, Vice-President of the International Commission of Jurists, Judge of the Supreme Court of Serbia, Ilya Subbotin, Deputy Director of the Depratment of Paneuropean Co-operation of the Russian Foreign Ministry and Petr Sich, Head of Council of Europe Programme Office in the Russian Federation will open the Conference.
The Conference will give an overview of identification and qualification of crimes against human dignity, as well as of assessment of evidence and investigation of such violations. Special attention will be paid to such questions as professional training of practicing lawyers as a factor of strengthening of remedies’ efficiency and, in more general terms, the role of advocates in the framework of the Council of Europe conventions.
The event will take place on 28 March 2019 at 09.30 a.m., in Moscow, Hotel “Azimut Smolenskaya”, Smolenskaya street, 8.
The agenda for the conference is available here
Mar 19, 2019 | News
Today, the ICJ held a side event titled “Accountability for crimes under international law in Libya: Challenges and Prospects” during the 40th Session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.
The event was co-hosted by the Permanent Mission of the Kingdom of Netherlands and the Permanent Mission of the Federal Republic of Germany.
A panel of renowned experts discussed a number of issues relating to accountability for crimes under international law in Libya, including shortcomings in Libyan law and practice, political and security challenges impacting prospects for reform, the role of the International Criminal Court, and the consequences for tackling human trafficking and abuse of migrants.
The panel included Monique van Daalen, Ambassador of the Permanent Mission of the Netherlands; Salah el-Marghani, former Justice Minister of Libya; Marwa Mohammed, Lawyers for Justice in Libya; Mark Kersten, Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, University of Toronto, and Wayamo Foundation; Kate Vigneswaran, Senior Legal Adviser for the ICJ’s Middle East and North Africa Programme; and Mary Fitzgerald, Libya researcher and expert.
During the side event, the ICJ presented and distributed a briefing paper highlighting the key issues that hamper accountability for crimes under international law in Libya, including the definition of crimes under domestic law, amnesties and imunities, rights during arrest and detention, and rights at trial.
The paper included detailed recommendations to the Libyan authorities as well as the international community with a view to tackling the main obstacles to the achievement of accountability in Libya.
The briefing paper anticipates the publication of the forthcoming ICJ report on Libya’s criminal justice system.
Download:
Lybia-Accoutability challenges-Advocacy-Analysis brief-2019-ENG (Briefing paper, in PDF)
Libya HRC side event flyer – March 2019 (Event flyer, in PDF)
Mar 15, 2019
Today the ICJ issued a Legal Brief note in order to help in understanding the offence of Subverting a Constitutional Government under Zimbabwe law.
Following protests that occurred in most major cities and towns in Zimbabwe in January 2019, a number of activists, human rights defenders, civil society leaders and opposition leaders have been arrested and charged with ‘subverting constitutional government’ as provided for under section 22 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act [Chapter 9:23] (hereinafter referred to as the Criminal Code).
This legal briefing note seeks to provide an explanation of the elements of the crime and how it has been construed by Zimbabwean courts, and whether and to what the resort to section 22 has accorded with international law and standards, including African regional standards.
Under Zimbabwe’s existing laws, a person may be charged with an offence known as ‘subverting constitutional government’.
This is a crime akin to but less serious than treason. It is nonetheless an offence which attracts a sentence of up to 20 years in prison.
Various protesters have been arrested on the allegations that their public statements amounted to inciting the commission of this crime.
Following the January 2019 protests, more than 5 protesters and MDC opposition members have been charged with this crime.
Despite the high number of arrests based on this charge in the past few years, there have been no convictions.
Where the basis of the charge are public statements made, the question of what exceeds legitimate exercise of the right to freedom of expression arises.
As such, there is need to interrogate where the line is drawn between legitimate and illegitimate exercise of the right to freedom of expression.
International human rights law, pursuant both universal and African regional standards, protects for the rights of persons to freedom of opinion and expression (Article 9 ACHPR; article 19 ICCPR), freedom of assembly (article 11 ACHPR;21 ICCPR) article, freedom of association (article 10 ACHPR; article 22 ICCPR), and the right to political participation (article 25 ICCPR).
These provisions in these international instruments impose an obligation on all state parties to respect the rights of persons under their jurisdiction.
Zimbabwe as a member state is bound by these provisions and similar provision under sections 58 (freedom of assembly and association), section 59 (freedom to demonstrate and petition), section 60 (freedom of conscience) and section 61 (freedom of expression).
These rights and fundamental freedoms, when exercised by human rights defenders, have been accorded heightened protection in international standards in particular through the UN Declaration on the Right and Responsibility of Individuals, Groups and Organs of Society to Promote and Protect Universally Recognized Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (Declaration on Human Rights Defenders), adopted in 1999 by consensus of the General Assembly
While these freedoms are not absolute, under international law, any restrictions must be (i) legitimate, provided by law which is clear and accessible to everyone and formulated with sufficient precision to enable an individual to regulate his or her conduct; (ii) proven strictly necessary to protect the rights or reputation of others, national security or public order, public health or morals and (iii) proven to be the least restrictive and proportionate means to achieve the purported aim.
Contact
Elizabeth Mangenje, e: elizabeth.mangenje@icj.org
Brian Penduka, e: brian.penduka@icj.org
Arnold Tsunga, e: arnold.tsunga@icj.org
Zimbabwe-Subverting Constitutional Gvt-Advocacy-Analysis Brief-2019-ENG (full legal brief in PDF)
Mar 5, 2019 | News
On 4 March 2019, Malaysia acceded to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), making it the 124th State Party to the ICC.
“The decision by Malaysia’s government to become party to the Rome statute should be commended as a positive sign of its commitment to the rule of law and acceptance to work with the global community to end impunity and ensure accountability for some of the gravest crimes under international law,” said Frederick Rawski, the ICJ’s Asia-Pacific Director.
The ICJ considers the establishment of the ICC as a watershed achievement in the development of international law and the will and capacity of States to act in concert to address atrocities around the world that carry devastating consequences for the victims.
The aim to end impunity on a global scale requires that the Rome Statute be ratified universally.
The ICC was established in 2002 as a permanent international criminal court to investigate and, where warranted, put on trial individuals charged with the some of the most serious crimes of international concern, particularly the crime of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and the crime of aggression.
The Rome Statute operates on the principle of complementarity, meaning that the ICC can only become engaged when the responsible States are unable or unwilling to investigate and prosecute allegations at the national level.
“Malaysia’s accession serves as an example for the entire Asian region, which has been significantly underrepresented at the ICC,” said Rawski.
“It sends a timely message of support for international accountability, at a moment when the actions of two of Malaysia’s neighboring countries – Myanmar and the Philippines – are the focus of preliminary investigations by the ICC, and after Philippines announced its intent to withdraw from the Statute last year,” he added.
In March 2018, the ICC was formally notified by Philippines of its intention to withdraw from the Rome Statute after the court initiated a preliminary examination into allegations of crimes committed in the context of the Philippines’ government’s “war on drugs” campaign since July 2016. The ICJ condemned this move as a blow to international justice.
In September 2018, the ICC launched a preliminary examination into allegations of forced deportations of Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar into Bangladesh, on the basis that the court had jurisdiction because Bangladesh is a State Party and the deportations occurred in part on Bangladeshi territory. The ICJ submitted an amicus curiae in support of such jurisdiction.
Contact
Frederick Rawski, ICJ Asia and Pacific Regional Director, e: frederick.rawski(a)icj.org
See also
Philippines: the Government should reconsider withdrawal from ICC
ICJ submits Amicus Curiae Brief to International Criminal Court
