Feb 26, 2013 | Advocacy, Non-legal submissions
The ICJ joined 14 other NGOs in expressing deep concern over the exclusion of civil society from the consultation process on the UN human rights treaty bodies strengthening process.
In a statement delivered by the International Service for Human Rights during an informal hearing for civil society on 26 February 2013, the continued exclusion of the Geneva-based NGO Alkarama, and the lack of transparency by which this decision was made, was criticised.
Signatories to the statement urged the facilitators of the process and UN member States to enable independent civil society to contribute to the treaty body strengthening process.
TBSP-Alkarama-NonLegalSubmission-2013 (download statement in full)
Feb 11, 2013
The ICJ has called on the Human Rights Council and its members and observers, individually and collectively, to ensure that universal and regional standards and mechanisms reinforce rather than undermine universal human rights standards.
Reflecting on the ICJ Declaration on Access to Justice and Rights to a Remedy in International Human Rights Systems, adopted during the 17th Congress of the ICJ in December 2012, the statement was submitted today to the UN ahead of the Human Rights Council’s 22nd regular session (25 February to 22 March 2013).
Recalling the emphasis placed on the right to a remedy in the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, adopted by consensus twenty years ago, the ICJ called on all States to:
- Ensure that regional standards and mechanisms reinforce rather than undermine universal human rights standards;
- Ensure that the outcome of the treaty body strengthening process indeed strengthens the treaty bodies;
- Actively promote universal acceptance of individual communications procedures of the treaty bodies, and fully implement interim decisions and final views of the treaty bodies; and
- Initiate an intergovernmental process for the elaboration and adoption of a statute for a World Court of Human Rights.
HRC22-Item8-WrittenStatementVDPA-A2J-LegalSubmission-2013 (download full statement in PDF)
Dec 13, 2012
The Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights, with the support of the Academic Platform Switzerland UN, today convened an expert meeting on the independence of the UN treaty bodies.
Providing a critical assessment from civil society, the ICJ’s UN Representative spoke of the legal and policy challenges in the proposal to establish a code of conduct for treaty body members. His intervention posited that:
- The General Assembly’s intergovernmental process on the strengthening of the treaty bodies has no legal competence to establish or impose a code of conduct for treaty body members;
- A request by the intergovernmental process for treaty bodies to themselves establish a code of conduct would be inappropriate and inconsistent with the framework of the human rights treaty bodies; and
- Such a request is also unnecessary.
The ICJ’s intervention reflects its submission to a civil society consultation on the intergovernmental process.
ICJ-TBStrengtheningCSForum-legal submission (2012) (download in PDF)
Dec 12, 2012 | Multimedia items, News, Video clips
The ICJ 17th World Congress closed today with the adoption of a landmark Declaration on Access to Justice and Right to a Remedy in international human rights systems.
In his final speech at the closing of the Congress, Sir Nigel Rodley, the new ICJ President (photo above, on the right, with Pedro Nikken, outgoing ICJ President) said:
“The ICJ has always been the world’s leading organization of lawyers working for the Rule of Law and human rights. At the ripe young age of 60, it is at the height of its prestige and authority.”
“Led by one of the world’s most experienced international human rights lawyers, Wilder Tayler, of Uruguay, the ICJ is now on a firm footing with a strong secretariat in Geneva – the city of human rights – and an increasing number of offices in key countries and regions of the world.”
“So, the ICJ is well-placed to make an even more significant contribution meeting such challenges as the serious problem of assaults on the independence of judges, lawyers, and prosecutors.”
“There is no justice if people don’t have access to it. The ICJ Congress, with its vast range of eminent expertise, from the ICJ Commissioners, national sections representatives, and guests, adopted a landmark Declaration on Access to Justice and Right to a Remedy in international human rights systems.”
“The focus was how to make international regional human rights systems more able to respond to the needs of those who cannot secure justice at home. There was special urgency bearing in mind the attempts of governments to weaken the systems’ ability to call these same governments to account.”
Sir Nigel Rodley, ICJ President, talks about the Declaration:
To download the text of the full declaration click on the links below:
ICJ 17th World Congress-Declaration and opening speeches-2012 (full text in pdf)
ICJ 17th World Congress-Declaration-2012 (full text in pdf)
ICJ 17th World Congress-Declaration-2012-FR (full text in pdf)
Photo by David Rouge
Dec 7, 2012
La CIJ y la Comisión de Derechos Humanos (COMISEDH-Perú) presentan el siguiente informe paralelo independiente al Comité Contra la Tortura de las Naciones Unidas.
Peru-ICJ-COMISEDH-CAT49-AlternativeReport-legal submission (2012) (informe en español, PDF)
