Mar 11, 2011 | Agendas
On 11th March 2011, the Court of Appeals rendered a verdict acquitting all five police officers accused of abducting, killing and “disappearing” prominent Muslim lawyer, Somchai Neelapaijit. This decision has important consequences not only for the Somchai case itself, but for broader issues of justice, human rights and rule of law in Thailand. The Justice for Peace Foundation (JPF) and the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) will be holding a public event to examine key legal and political issues concerning this case, from 12:00 – 15:00 on 17th March at the FCCT. The event will be in Thai and English, with simultaneous translation. It will feature a film of Somchai’s last public speech the night before his enforced disappearance, followed by speakers:
- Angkhana and Pratabjit Neelapaijit, widow and daughter of Somchai
- Vitit Muntarborn, Professor, Chulalongkorn University, UN human rights expert
- Roger Normand, ICJ Asia Pacific Director
Their brief presentations will be followed by an extended question-and-answer session. Complimentary refreshments will be served.
Thailand-judgement Somchai Neelapajit case-agenda-2011-eng (full text in English, PDF)
Thailand-judgement Somchai Neelapajit case-agenda-2011-tha (full text in Thai, PDF)
Feb 17, 2011 | News
Seven years after the arrest and killing of Maina Sunuwar, the Government of Nepal should take immediate steps to ensure that criminal proceedings move forward, the ICJ and other Human Rights groups said today.
Advocacy Forum (AF), Amnesty International (AI), Human Rights Watch (HRW) and the ICJ express their solidarity with Maina’s family, and call on the Nepali authorities to immediately transfer Major Niranjan Basnet to the Kavre District Court where he has been charged with murder, and arrest Babi Khatri, Sunil Prasad Adhikari and Amit Pun who have all been implicated in her death.
That Maina’s family is still waiting for justice for her killing, as in so many cases of crimes during the armed conflict, suggests that the realization of victims’ right to a judicial remedy for serious crimes remains a distant dream in Nepal.
Nepal-MainaSunuwar-news-2011 (full text, PDF)
Jan 20, 2011 | Agendas
The International Commission of Jurists, with FORUM-ASIA and NNC-UPR, cordially invite you to a parallel event to the 10th Session of the Universal Periodic Review on “Background to the Human Rights Crisis in Nepal: Impunity for Human Rights Violations”.
Nepal-humanrightsviolations-news-2011 (full text, PDF)
Jan 17, 2011
The ICJ and other human rights groups submitted an amicus curiae brief to the US Supreme Court in the leading rendition case of Mohamed and Others v. Jeppesen Dataplan, Inc.
The defendant is a private company accused of providing flight services to facilitate the US rendition program involving the unlawful transfer of detainees to situations of arbitrary and secret detention, torture and enforced disappearance.
The brief supports review by the Supreme Court with the view to reverse the decision of the Court of Appeals dismissing the case for reasons of state secrecy and addresses the obligations under international human rights law on the right to an effective remedy and reparations for torture, enforced disappearances and other human rights violations.
The brief is also joined by Swiss Senator Dick Marty, former Rapporteur of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe inquiry on Alleged Secret Detentions and Unlawful Inter-State Transfers of Detainees involving Council of Europe Member States, Professor Manfred Nowak (former UN Special Rapporteur on Torture (2004-2010)), Professor Robert Goldman (former UN Independent Expert on Terrorism and Human Rights) and Professor Stefan Trechsel, (Judge ad litem at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY)). Professor Goldman and Professor Trechsel served on the ICJ’s Eminent Jurists Panel on Terrorism, Counter Terrorism and Human Rights.
USA-amicuscuriae-advocacy-2011 (full text, PDF)
Nov 1, 2010 | News
The ICJ today deplored the failure of the Syrian authorities to protect the physical integrity ICJ Commissioner Muhannad Al-Hasani, an internationally renowned lawyer and human rights defender currently in jail.
