Aug 16, 2016 | News
The ICJ said today that the attack on Ramón Cadena, its director in Central America, is deplorable evidence that human rights lawyers in Guatemala cannot carry out their activities without fear of reprisal.
Around a dozen armed men ransacked Ramón Cadena’s house in Guatemala City on Monday morning while he was attending a workshop elsewhere in the country.
The ICJ regional director for Central America is the latest victim of a recent wave of harassment and intimidation against human rights defenders and legal and environmental activists in Guatemala and neighboring Honduras.
“The ICJ strongly condemns the attack against Ramón Cadena, which is most likely linked to his activities as a human rights lawyer,” said Wilder Tayler, ICJ Secretary General.
Ramón Cadena, a highly prominent human rights lawyer in the region, was a key witness in the trial of former President Efrain Rios Montt for his role in the alleged genocide and other atrocities committed during the civil war of the 1970s and 80s.
Ramón Cadena has also been providing legal advice and support (on behalf of the ICJ) to the communities fighting against mining projects in Guatemala.
“We urge the Guatemalan authorities to provide the much needed protection to Ramón Cadena and promptly and thoroughly investigate the attack to find the culprits. They must also combat the increasing threats and growing insecurity faced by human rights defenders in the country, which is a clear assault on human rights,” Tayler added.
Contact
Wilder Tayler, ICJ Secretary General, t +41 76 562 38 10 ; e: wilder.tayler(a)icj.org
Several organizations have also condemned the attack on Ramón Cadena and issued a statement in Spanish which can be read here.
Aug 15, 2016
The ICJ and others intervened before the European Court of Human Rights in a case of five undocumented children of Afghan nationality subject to detention and/or closed reception measures in Greece.
The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), the European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE) and the AIRE Centre jointly intervened in the case of Sh.D and others v. Greece.
After his arrest by the police, Sh.D was placed in detention in a police station and then transferred to a reception centre for undocumented minors. The other four unaccompanied minors are currently living in the Idomeni camp at the border with the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
In this case, the European Court of Human Rights is called to rule on whether their detention and reception conditions were lawful and/or constituted an inhuman or degrading treatment under the European Convention on Human Rights.
In their third party intervention, the three human rights organizations submitted the following arguments:
- The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) must be implemented in all of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) decisions that concern children. Since the principle of the best interests of the child must be upheld as a primary consideration in all actions concerning children, children must never be deprived of their liberty, under 5(1) ECHR, without a rigorous examination of the individual circumstances of the case, of necessity and proportionality, including a mandatory and prior assessment of less coercive measures.
- For children to have effective enjoyment of their rights under international law, in particular the ECHR, and EU law, including the right to liberty and security and the right to asylum, their needs, welfare and well-being must be individually assessed. The discharge of State obligations to ensure enjoyment of these rights is reliant on the appointment of a guardian with the necessary expertise and who has the specific duty to assist the child by enabling him or her to access rights under EU law.
- Since measures affecting the right to liberty and other Convention rights must be undertaken in accordance with national law, they must also, where Contracting Parties are EU Member States, be undertaken in accordance with EU law.
Greece-ICJ&others-AmicusBrief-ShD&others-ECtHR-legalsubmission-2016 (download the third party intervention)
Aug 12, 2016
An opinion piece by Sean Bain, ICJ Legal Consultant in Myanmar.
Although Myanmar’s new civilian-led government has said little about the future of controversial, large-scale foreign investments, some projects are gaining ground without adequate public consultation and oversight.
Among them is the Kyaukphyu Special Economic Zone, a China-backed project in Rakhine State.
Communities affected by the development of the Kyaukphyu SEZ are concerned about speculators improperly buying-up land and are worried they will be displaced without due compensation.
This scepticism reflects recent bad experiences with infrastructure projects in the area, where officials reneged on commitments to comply with international standards on resettlement and compensation.
The ICJ has made several visits to Kyaukphyu over the past two years to monitor the human rights and environmental impacts of investment projects.
The ICJ has spoken with community groups, government and business.
As at the sites of the country’s two other SEZs, at Dawei and Thilawa, the ICJ has found that a lack of transparency is a key complaint of affected communities.
Since the National League of Democracy took office in April, the development of large-scale projects has slowed whilst the new government takes stock of Myanmar’s investment agreements.
Yet some of these projects are moving ahead – apparently without direction from the central government.
In the final months of its term, the Union Solidarity and Development Party government announced that the Chinese conglomerate, CITIC, had won tenders to develop an SEZ and build a deep-sea port at Kyaukphyu.
A corporate promotional video suggests the SEZ will create an investment and economic hub akin to Singapore in one of Myanmar’s poorest regions.
The port is expected to establish an alternate shipping route for Chinese trade by linking Yunnan Province with the Bay of Bengal – significant for China’s western provinces and for regional geopolitics.
An oil and gas pipeline completed in 2013 already connects Kyaukphyu with China.
Public access to information about the SEZ project remains scarce.
Research by the ICJ could not establish whether investment agreements have been finalised.
In the meantime, local authorities and project developers are moving forward with preparatory work for land acquisition and the resulting resettlement and livelihood changes for the local population.
The ICJ documented that when the NLD formed government, authorities were conducting land demarcation activities with an inter-departmental team in the Kyaukphyu area.
Plots and property were measured and documented, indicating preparations for future compensation.
Yet community members say they have received limited information about the purpose and method of this process.
Civil society groups have requested maps that collate this data but government officials have not made them available.
Residents recently told the ICJ that land prices are increasing as speculators buy plots in anticipation of future demand in the SEZ area. Farmers toiling in the fields may be unaware of the transactions.
Most don’t have land titles to sell, for a variety of reasons: Customary tenure is unrecognised; there were disincentives for land registration during the Socialist era; and would-be title holders continue to face barriers to registration, including corruption and laws that provide little protection and are poorly enforced.
These property transactions raise questions about who has the right to sell land and indicate that de facto land acquisition is occurring, despite a May 2016 Presidential Notification ordering a temporary halt to state land acquisitions.
Development of a new land law modelled on international standards and drafted in consultation with civil society was among 14 recommendations the ICJ recently made to the new government.
In southeast Myanmar, civil society groups investigating impacts of the Dawei SEZ documented that residents with insecure tenure sold land to speculators for prices below what they would be entitled to receive in an appropriate compensation process.
These sales reportedly occurred in response to pressure, coercion and misinformation from businesspeople in collusion with local authorities.
Depriving displaced persons of adequate compensation impedes their ability to re-establish livelihoods and results in violations of rights enshrined in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights – that Myanmar has signed and the NLD has indicated it intends to ratify.
The Kyaukphyu project risks repeating these violations.
Access to remedy is severely limited because the judiciary lacks the independence, capacity and willingness to adjudicate conflict and disputes over land.
Authorities and investors associated with SEZs can and must mitigate these risks by immediately sharing plans with communities and establishing accessible lines of communication.
Over the past year CITIC has invested in reaching out to communities affected by the SEZ development. CITIC has offered community members microfinance and has began setting up vocational training opportunities.
These activities are efforts by CITIC to be a responsible investor in Myanmar. But these activities are not enough to satisfy the company’s legal obligations.
Companies are obliged to disclose project-related information in a timely manner and to arrange appropriate consultations that adhere to international standards.
Civil society and local leaders have told the ICJ that they hope future meetings with CITIC will be more inclusive and allow for genuine feedback and dialogue.
Myanmar’s Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Procedure, approved last December under the Environmental Conservation Law, requires developers to disclose timely project information with communities and civil society.
The procedure obliges developers to ensure that affected parties have opportunities to express their views and concerns before an EIA starts, as well as during and after the process.
The ICJ has encouraged CITIC to use the EIA as a chance to demonstrate its stated commitments to responsible investment in Kyaukphyu. It is also an opportunity for the government to exercise its regulatory right to protect human rights and the environment.
Communities have a right to timely information about project developments so they can participate in planning and make informed decisions about their future.
Transparency, access to information, and opportunities for genuine consultation and participation are principles of international standards such as the World Bank’s Policy on Involuntary Resettlement.
Through the EIA Procedure, Myanmar law requires that developers of major projects adhere to these standards.
In Kyaukphyu, the NLD government has an opportunity to enforce social and environmental safeguards for investment projects.
This is not without challenges: under the SEZ Law, responsibility for land acquisition is conferred to the military-controlled Ministry of Home Affairs. But the NLD now gets to appoint officials responsible for project approvals.
The NLD will also determine the composition of the peak body for SEZ implementation in Myanmar.
These new powers must be used to ensure that any displacement occurs only when absolutely necessary, and through a process consistent with international standards.
Whilst the NLD government continues to review investment agreements, in Kyaukphyu the situation is transforming.
Affected communities require transparent access to information, genuine consultation and opportunities to participate in decision-making.
The government and developers must immediately demonstrate stated commitments to responsible investment in Myanmar by applying democratic principles of timely and meaningful transparency and consultation.
Aug 12, 2016 | News
The ICJ and the Judicial Service Commission of Zimbabwe (JSC) today held a one-day workshop in Harare to review the Magistrate Court Civil Rules.
Mr Chikwana, Deputy Secretary of the Judicial Service Commission of Zimbabwe, provided the opening remarks to the meeting.
He stated that the purpose of the review was to reconcile the procedural requirements in the courts with the provisions of the new constitution of Zimbabwe (2013).
Mr Chikwana mentioned that one of the objectives of the revisions was to create uniformity in the Rules of the different courts and in so doing make court processes simpler and more accessible to the general public.
Arnold Tsunga, ICJ’s Director for Africa, said that the whole idea behind the in-country activities carried out by the ICJ was to strengthen justice administration in Zimbabwe.
The workshop commenced with a presentation on an Overview of the current rules and feedback on input from Stakeholders by Justice Uchena.
Thereafter the delegates were assigned to groups to discuss the 34 Orders within the Rules of the Magistrate’s Court. After the 45-minute discussions, the groups presented their feedback.
The meeting was attended by judicial officers from the Constitutional Court, High Court and Magistrate Court; members of the legal profession, academia and civil society organizations.
Other notable attendees at the workshop include the Deputy Attorney General Nelson Dias and Mr Edward Mapara from the Law Society. There were 23 female and 24 male delegates at the workshop.
Aug 11, 2016 | News
The ICJ today urged President Duterte to respect the judiciary’s institutional independence and allow it to conduct its work, particularly in disciplining its own judges, without external influence or undue interference.
This week, President Duterte publicly released a list of public officers, including judges, who are allegedly involved in the illegal drugs trade. In response, on 9 August 2016, Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno wrote to President Duterte noting that it is the responsibility of the judicial branch to discipline judges.
In her letter, the Chief Justice also stated that the disciplining of judges should be done without compromising the independence of the judiciary.
In response, President Duterte warned Chief Justice Sereno not to set off a “constitutional crisis”, saying that he may “order” the executive department not to “honor” the judiciary.
According to the UN Basic Principles on the Independence of the Judiciary and the UN Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, the body responsible for the discipline of judges should be independent of the executive and composed mainly (if not solely) of judges and members of the legal profession.
The ICJ therefore calls for the Supreme Court of the Philippines to be free to establish and employ its established mechanisms to discipline its own judges, in full respect for procedural guarantees.
On a related issue, the ICJ is now in the Philippines to speak to lawmakers regarding a proposal to re-introduce the death penalty and its concerns regarding the recent spate of extrajudicial killings in the country.
The organization has previously written to President Duterte regarding its concerns on the proposal to re-introduce the death penalty and the rising number of deaths of people who are alleged to be involved in the illegal drug trade.
“The proposed reintroduction of the death penalty, the spate of extrajudicial killings, and the fervor currently exhibited by President Duterte in going after allegedly corrupt members of the judiciary are directly linked to his zeal to address a perceived widespread drug menace in the country,” said Sam Zarifi, ICJ’s Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific.
The ICJ strongly urges President Duterte to focus his efforts in strengthening key institutions such as the judiciary so that they can be strong allies in his efforts to address crime in the country.
Contact:
Emerlynne Gil, ICJ’s Senior International Legal Adviser, t +66 840923575 ; e: emerlynne.gil(a)icj.org
Picture: Sam Zarifi and Emerlynne Gil with Congressman Edcel Lagman (in the center), the main proponent of the law that abolished the death penalty in the Philippines in the past. He is now leading the charge in the House of Representative to try to defeat the proposal to reimpose the death penalty.
