Sep 27, 2019 | News
ICJ today denounced the promulgation of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Actions (In Aid of Civil Power) Ordinance, 2019, by the Governor of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on 5 August 2019.
The ICJ said that implementation of the Ordinance will lead to serious human rights violations and miscarriages of justice, contrary to the purported aims of the measures.
“The Ordinance is yet another example of Pakistan’s resort to ‘exceptional’ measures that are grossly incompatible with human rights protections, ostensibly to combat terrorism and other serious crime,” said Frederick Rawski, ICJ’s Asia Director.
“Pakistan must reject this dangerous, oppressive, and counter productive strategy and instead strengthen its judicial process and law enforcement in line with its domestic law and international human rights law obligations,” he added.
The Ordinance gives sweeping powers to members of the armed forces, including the power to detain people without charge or trial on a number of vaguely defined grounds where it appears that such “internment” would be expedient for peace. Individuals may be detained for an unspecified period without any right to be brought before a court of law or to challenge the lawfulness of detention before a court.
In addition to the vague and overbroad detention provisions, the Ordinance provides that statements or depositions by members of the armed forces shall on their own be sufficient for convicting the detainees if they are tried for any offence.
The Ordinance also provides wide immunity for armed forces for any action done, taken, ordered to be taken, or conferred, assumed or exercised by, before or after the promulgation of the Ordinance.
The Ordinance is incompatible with “fundamental rights” guaranteed by the Constitution of Pakistan, as well as Pakistan’s international legal obligations, including under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), the ICJ said.
Article 9(4) of the ICCPR, for example, guarantees the right of all detainees to take proceedings before a court to challenge the lawfulness of their detention, and to be released if the court finds such detention unlawful.
The President of Pakistan passed similar regulations, namely, the Actions (In Aid of Civil Power) Regulations in 2011, which were applicable in the former Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and the Provincially Administered Tribal Areas (PATA). The Actions (in Aid of Civil Power) Regulations were extensively used as a legal cover for arbitrary detention and enforced disappearances.
In their review of Pakistan’s implementation of the ICCPR and the Convention against Torture (CAT), the UN Human Rights Committee and the UN Committee against Torture in 2017 expressed concern about the Regulations, and recommended that Pakistan “review the Actions (in aid of Civil Power) Regulation, 2011 with a view to repealing it or bringing it into conformity with international standards.”
“It is regrettable that not only did Pakistan flout these express recommendations of the UN Committees, but that it extended the scope of the regulations,” added Rawski.
“This step also calls into question Pakistan’s pledge for election to the UN Human Rights Council in 2017, where Pakistan ‘firmly resolved to uphold, promote and safeguard universal human rights and fundamental freedoms for all’,” Rawski said.
ICJ urges the Pakistan Government to immediately revoke the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Actions (In Aid of Civil Power) Ordinance, and to review all national security legislation to ensure it is fully compatible with international human rights law and standards.
Contact
Frederick Rawski (Bangkok), ICJ Asia Pacific Regional Director, e: frederick.rawski(a)icj.org
Reema Omer, ICJ Legal Advisor (South Asia) t: +447889565691; e: reema.omer(a)icj.org
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Full statement, with additional information: Pakistan-Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Actions Ordinance-Press releases-2019-ENG (PDF)
Aug 27, 2019 | News
The ICJ welcomes yesterday’s ratification by Uzbekistan of the CIS Convention on Legal Assistance and Legal Relations in Civil, Family and Criminal Matters 2002, also called the Chisinau Convention. The law on ratification was signed by President Shavkat Mirziyoyev.
The ICJ calls on the Uzbek authorities to take measures to make the Convention’s protective guarantees effective.
“This is a major step forward by Uzbekistan to get its extradition system up to standard with the rest of the world”, said Massimo Frigo, ICJ Senior Legal Adviser. “. “Its ratification of this treaty considerably steps up human rights guarantees in extradition.”
The Chisinau Convention enshrines several human rights guarantees to protect against extraditions that may breach the human rights of the transferred person, including the prohibition to transfer persons where they risk the death penalty or torture or cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.
“The ratification of the Convention is a very important first step. An effective implementation of these guarantees in the legal and law enforcement systems is necessary now.” said Dmitry Nurumov, ICJ Central Asia Legal Consultant.
Background
Last May, the ICJ held, together with the General Prosecutor’s Office of Uzbekistan, UNODC Regional Office for Central Asia and the Regional Office for Central Asia of OHCHR, a regional and a national seminar on comparative practices in extradition in the CIS and European legal systems, including with regard to human rights guarantees in these procedures.
In 2017, the ICJ issued a report documenting the shortcomings in the Russian Federation, Central Asia and European countries in their extradition systems and other transfer procedures.
The ratification by Uzbekistan of the Chisinau Convention meets part of the recommendations formulated by the ICJ in these occasions.
Contact:
Massimo Frigo, Senior Legal Adviser, e: massimo.frigo(a)icj.org , t: +41229793805
Aug 21, 2019
On the occasion of the second United Nations’ International Day of Remembrance of and Tribute to Victims of Terrorism, the ICJ has today published a compilation of international sources on human rights of victims of terrorism.
The compilation features a preface by the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism, Ms Fionnuala Ni Aolain.
It collects relevant UN General Assembly, Human Rights Council, and Security Council resolutions; findings and recommendations of the Special Rapporteur; and other UN and regional sources.
Human rights of victims of terrorism are set to receive new attention and focus at the global level.
Among important current developments are the following:
- The Human Rights Council’s most recent renewal, in March, of the mandate of the UN Special Rapporteur, highlighted and endorsed the ongoing efforts of current Special Rapporteur Fionnuala Ni Aolain to mainstream and highlight the human rights of victims of terrorism in relation to country visits and thematic work carried out by the mandate.
- In June in New York, a group of States led by Afghanistan and Spain launched a “Group of Friends of Victims of Terrorism” with the aim of bringing additional focus and activity at the United Nations to this topic.
- In July the General Assembly adopted for the first time a resolution on “Enhancement of international cooperation to assist victims of terrorism”.
- The UN Office of Counter-Terrorism is preparing to convene a global Congress of Victims of Terrorism in June 2020.
Many governments have long invoked the suffering of victims of terrorism in seeking to justify counter-terrorism measures that do not comply with human rights law, or indeed the rule of law more generally, while failing in practice to adopt and implement concrete measures at the national or global level to respect, protect and fulfil the actual human rights of victims of terrorism.
The ICJ accordingly welcomes the renewed focus and cooperation within the United Nations on concrete measures to ensure that the human rights of victims of terrorism are fully respected, protected and fulfilled.
Civil society, including groups that specifically represent victims as well as other organizations with a range of relevant experience and expertise, has an important role to play, not only in implementing but also in helping to shape those efforts.
The ICJ hopes the present publication will be found useful by all engaged in these processes, and looks forward to further engagement and progress towards the better realization of human rights of victims of terrorism in the years to come.
For more information, contact un(a)icj.org
Download
Universal-Compil Victims of Terrorism USLet-Publications-reports-thematic reports (full compilation in PDF)
Aug 19, 2019 | Advocacy, Cases, Legal submissions
The International Commission of Jurists, the Turkey Human Rights Litigation Support Project and Human Rights Watch have jointly intervened before the European Court of Human Rights in the case of Taner Kiliç, former Chair of the Board of Amnesty International Turkey.
Taner Kiliç is a Turkish human rights defenders. He had been Chair of the Board of Amnesty International Turkey since 2014.
He was arrested on 6 June 2017 on reportedly unsubstantiated charges of “membership of a terrorist organisation” and was released on bail on 15 August 2018 after having spent 14 months in detention.
His case before the European Court of Human Rights challenges the lawfulness of his pre-trial and on remand detention, the violations of his right to judicial review of his detention, and of his freedom of expression and association, considering his arrest linked to his work as leader of a NGO.
As the interveners have written to the Court, this case epitomises some of the most fundamental human rights challenges in Turkey today.
These involve widely documented restrictions on freedom of expression, association, and assembly of human rights defenders (HRDs) and rapidly closing civil society space.
The interveners have submitted observations on:
- the factual context in respect of the situation facing HRDs in Turkey;
- international standards governing obligations towards HRDs of relevance to the Court’s interpretation of the European Convention on Human Rights, including the limits prescribed by Article 18;
- key principles necessary for a rule of law approach to the application of the criminal law, against the legal and practical pattern of excessive resort to criminal law against HRDs in Turkey today.
Turkey-ECtHR-icj&others-Kilic-Advocacy-legal submission-2019-ENG (download the third party intervention)
Photo credit: Amnesty International
Jun 28, 2019
The ICJ and Amnesty International presented today a third party intervention in the case of al-Hawsawi v. Lithuania before the European Court of Human Rights.
The interveners made submissions to the Court in this case on complicity with the US-led rendition, secret detention and interrogation programme on:
- knowledge imputable to Contracting Parties, in particular, Lithuania, at the relevant times;
- enforced disappearance as a violation of Article 3 of the Convention;
- non-refoulement obligations;
- and post-transfer obligations under the Convention.
Mustafa al Hawsawi, a Saudi Arabian national currently detained at Guantanamo, was arrested in Pakistan in 2003 and subjected to rendition and secret detention. He was one of the many “high-level” persons subjected to torture following his rendition.
He was subject to treatment that could “easily approximate waterboarding”. He arrived in Guantánamo on 6 September 2006.
He is currently subject to proceedings before a military commission together with four other defendants; they are all charged with being involved in the 9/11 attacks.
The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention found that his right to liberty and to a fair trial had been violated and that the US has a duty to release him and provide him with compensation.
Several UN Special Rapporteurs raised serious concerns at the denial of medical treatment for Mr al Hawsawi, leading to a deterioration in his health, and the inhumane detention conditions.
The full intervention can be downloaded here: Al-Hawsawi-submission-2019-ENG
