Sep 15, 2020 | Advocacy, Non-legal submissions
At the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, the ICJ has urged States to ensure human rights and avoid discriminatory impacts, and for businesses to respect their human rights responsibilities, in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The oral statement, delivered in a general debate on the update of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, read as follows:
“In our latest report, Living Like People Who Die Slowly: The Need for Right to Health Compliant COVID-19 Responses,[1] the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) calls on States to ensure that their individual and collective responses to the COVID-19 pandemic comply with international human rights law, including the right to health.
Any abuse of pandemic measures to repress human rights defenders, dissenting voices, or civil society more generally, is unacceptable. Respect for freedom of expression, including the right to information, is essential to effectively addressing the pandemic.
The particularly acute impact of COVID-19 on already-marginalized people heightens the importance of equal access to health facilities, goods and services. The report documents disproportionate impacts on non-citizens, older persons, women and girls, LGBT persons, persons deprived of their liberty, persons with disabilities, sex workers and healthcare workers.
Businesses, and particularly private actors in the healthcare sector must meet their responsibility to respect human rights. This will be crucial in the development, production and distribution of any COVID-19 vaccine.
Madame President, the ICJ emphasizes the continuing importance and applicability of the 1984 Siracusa Principles on the Limitation and Derogation Provisions in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,[2] and the recognition in the WHO International Health Regulations that implementing measures must be fully consistent with human rights.”
[1] https://www.icj.org/icj-new-global-report-shows-that-the-right-to-health-must-be-central-to-state-responses-to-covid-19/ (1 September 2020).
[2] https://www.icj.org/siracusa-principles-on-the-limitation-and-derogation-provisions-in-the-international-covenant-on-civil-and-political-rights/ and UN Doc E/CN.4/1985/4, Annex.
The full range of materials produced by the ICJ concerning the COVID-19 pandemic can be accessed at: https://www.icj.org/human-rights-in-the-time-of-covid-19-front-and-centre/
Sep 14, 2020 | Advocacy, Non-legal submissions
In a statement to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, the ICJ has welcomed the report of the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar (IIMM)
The oral statement was delivered in an interactive dialogue with the IIMM, and read as follows:
“The ICJ salutes the Mechanism in setting up the necessary infrastructure for its operation despite the challenges brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. Given the lack of genuine and independent domestic investigation and prosecution of serious human rights violations in Myanmar, the efficient establishment of the Mechanism is welcomed.
The ICJ shares its concern over the Government of Myanmar’s lack of cooperation with the Mechanism. The ICJ recalls Myanmar’s obligation to ensure accountability for serious human rights violations occurring in Myanmar, including, but not limited to, the acts against ethnic Rohingya that were the subject of the report of the Government-appointed Independent Commission of Enquiry.
Given the Mechanism’s mandate to gather and preserve evidence of any serious human rights violations committed in Myanmar from 2011 to the present, the ICJ underscores the need to investigate the widely reported accounts of killings, serious physical injury, mass displacement and destruction of property in various parts of Rakhine and Chin states in the context of the ongoing conflict between Myanmar and the Arakan Army. The Myanmar Government still refuses to hold a ceasefire despite the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in Rakhine. The parties to the conflict must be held accountable for any violation of international human rights and humanitarian law.
The ICJ would like to ask: how can States and inter-governmental organizations strengthen support for the mandate?”
For more information, contact: Kingsley Abbott, kingsley.abbott(a)icj.org
Sep 9, 2020
The ICJ has joined more than 300 other NGOs in urging the UN to establish a specific mechanism to systematically monitor and report on human rights violations by China.
The joint NGO letter follows a similar call made by 50 United Nations experts, and highlights human rights violations across China, including in Hong Kong, Tibet, and Xinjiang, as well as suppression of information in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, and attacks on human rights defenders.
The joint letter also expresses concern about the global reach of China’s censorship, threats, surveillance, and misuse of UN processes to deny NGOs accreditation, attack UN experts, and undermine country resolutions at the UN Human Rights Council.
The text of the letter and the list of signatories is available here.
Sep 2, 2020 | Advocacy, Non-legal submissions
The ICJ has made submissions to the Human Rights Committee, today, on Ukraine’s implementation of, and compliance with, the provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
The ICJ broughtto the Committee’s attention some issues of concern pertaining to Ukraine’s compliance with and implementation of the ICCPR.
This submission highlights a number of concerns relating to the security and independence of lawyers in Ukraine, and their consequences for the protection of certain Covenant rights. In particular, this submission addresses:
- the institutional independence of the legal profession;
- security of lawyers and their right to life;
- restrictions on access to clients and the rights of the defence; and
- security of lawyers and access to justice in uncontrolled territories in Ukraine.
These concerns highlight Ukraine’s lack of compliance with its obligations under the Covenant, including in respect of the right to life under article 6 and the right to a fair trial under article 14, in particular, as well as under other Covenant rights, such as Ukraine’s obligations under articles 2, 7, 9, 10, and 17 of the ICCPR.
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Aug 28, 2020 | News
The ICJ contributed to and has endorsed a groundbreaking new UN standard aimed at ensuring effective access to justice for persons with disabilities, published today in Geneva.
Published today by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the International Principles and Guidelines on Access to Justice for Persons with Disabilities were adopted jointly by the UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities, the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and the Special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General on Disability and Accessibility. They have been endorsed by the ICJ and the International Disability Alliance.
The ICJ contributed to the development of the Principles and Guidelines, including through participation in expert consultations alongside disability rights experts, organizations of people with disabilities, State representatives, academics, and other judicial and legal practitioners. The ICJ also plans to assist with promotion and implementation of the Principles and Guidelines at the global and national levels.
Building on the provisions and interpretations of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and other international standards and best practices, the document affirms ten key principles of access to justice for people with disabilities and sets out detailed guidelines on how to implement each one.
The Principles and Guidelines are intended to be a practical tool to help inform the design and implementation of justice systems that provide equal access to justice for persons with disabilities, in line with international human rights standards.
The Principles and Guidelines can be downloaded by clicking here.
Further information about the process of their development is available here, and the UN press release announcing their publication is here.
