On 18 July 2023, the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) made a submission to the UN Human Rights Council’s Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) in advance of its review of Malaysia’s human rights record early next year.
In response to a Call for Inputs to inform an upcoming thematic report by the United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression (the Special Rapporteur), the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) provided a substantive submission providing concrete examples of gendered disinformation and of the responses by States, companies and organizations, as well as potential solutions to combat this phenomenon. The Special Rapporteur’s report is to be presented at the UN General Assembly’s 78th Session in October 2023.
The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) has welcomed the Supreme Court of Namibia’s recent landmark ruling ordering the government to interpret the country’s immigration laws so as to recognize same-sex marriages concluded abroad. Nonetheless, the organization is gravely concerned at the country-wide protests against the human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex (LGBTQI+) people and against the ruling, including through a petition calling for the removal of the judges responsible for it and for the Minister of Justice to be fired. Such public attacks on judges threaten judicial independence and, in turn, undermine the rule of law.
In the aftermath of President Yoweri Museveni signing into law the so-called “Anti-Homosexuality Act”, the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) stands in solidarity with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people in Uganda. The ICJ vehemently condemns Uganda’s continual clampdown on the human rights of LGBTI persons and strongly denounces the passage of this discriminatory law.
The ICJ today welcomed the determination by the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka regarding the constitutionality of the private member’s bill entitled Penal Code (Amendment) Bill 2023 whose stated objective is to repeal “provisions that make sexual orientation a punishable offence”. The Bill had been challenged by three petitioners who sought a determination by the Supreme Court that the Bill was inconsistent with provisions of the Constitution relating to Sovereignty, Fundamental Rights and Directive Principles of State Policy, and that it required the approval of a two-thirds majority in Parliament and the approval of the People at a referendum. Petitions in support of the Bill were also filed by a number of interveners, such as civil society organizations working to advance the human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) persons in Sri Lanka, academics, and activists, including Professor Savitri Goonesekere who had previously served as a member of the Committee on Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and Dr. Radhika Coomaraswamy, who had formerly been a United Nations Under Secretary General and the Special Representative on Children and Armed Conflict.
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HRC61: Oral statement of The ICJ in the interactive dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities