The ICJ is concerned by the government’s failure to enact legislation that would criminalize the practice of enforced disappearances, investigate past cases, prosecute the perpetrators and provide reparation to victims.
Nepal-After Two Years, Government Still in Non-Compliance-Press releases-2009 (full text, PDF)
The ICJ urged the UN Human Rights Council’s special session to call on the Government of Sri Lanka to take several human rights measures.
In particular, the Government of Sri Lanka must ensure unhindered humanitarian access and assistance to the internally displaced persons (IDPs), protection of IDPs, safeguards against attacks on journalists and human rights defenders and effective accountability, including through an independent international investigation into human rights and humanitarian law violations.
The ICJ deplored that the draft resolution L.1/Rev.2, which was later adopted by vote, failed to address the most pressing concerns.
SriLanka-UNcouncil-news-2009 (full text, PDF)
The ICJ welcomes the convening of a Human Rights Council’s special session today in Geneva to address for the first time the humanitarian and human rights crisis in Sri Lanka.
“The human rights and humanitarian crisis continues to unfold following the Government of Sri Lanka’s announcement last week that its military operations against the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) had ended and that all civilians had left the conflict zone,” said Wilder Tayler, Acting Secretary General of the International Commission of Jurists.
SriLanka-UNcouncil-IDPs-news-2009 (full text, PDF)
The ICJ is alarmed by the plans of the Obama administration to regularize the indefinite detention without trial that has been emblematic of the worst US abuses in its counter terrorism programs since 11 September 2001.
USA-President signals continuation of detention without trial-Press releases-2009 (full text, PDF)
The ICJ is urging the international community to take further steps to ensure the Government of Sri Lanka addresses the dire humanitarian and human rights situation in the country.
Currently, up to 50,000 civilians are trapped within the shrinking conflict zone in the Vanni district on the north-eastern coast and 196,000 people have fled the conflict zone.
Sri Lanka-The International Community must increase pressure-Press releases-2009 (full text, PDF)
India: Joint statement urging Indian authorities to immediately and unconditionally release human rights defender and student activist Umar Khalid
HRC60: Statement by the International Commission of Jurists in the Interactive Dialogue with the UN Special Rapporteur on truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence
HRC60: International Commission of Jurists in the General Debate under Item 2
Serbia: Political leaders must cease interference with the judiciary