The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) condemns the ongoing attacks against independent lawyers in Belarus, a number of whom are facing disbarment, arbitrary prosecution, and other forms of harassment by authorities as they perform their professional duties and exercise their right to freedom of expression.
In response to news on 17 May 2023 of the fatal shooting of Bounsuan Kitiyano, a 56-year-old Lao human rights defender and a refugee recognized by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), in a border town in northeastern Thailand, the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) and nine other organisations urge the government of Thailand to independently, effectively and promptly investigate this incident and ensure effective remedy to the victim’s family and loved ones.
Since President Kais Saied’s institutional power grab of July 25, 2021, followed by his decree of September 22 of the same year, which implicitly repealed the constitutional order, and the adoption of a tailor-made Constitution a year later, the judicial system has been subjected to constant attacks aimed at crushing its independence and sweeping away the right to a fair trial.
The checklist aims to assist States to draft new laws or amend existing ones to prevent and address online gender-based violence (OGBV) against women in line with their legal obligations under international human rights law and standards.
Authorities in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) continue their sustained assault on human rights and freedoms, including targeting human rights activists, enacting repressive laws, and using the criminal justice system as a tool to eliminate the human rights movement. These policies have led to the closure of civic space, severe restrictions on freedom of expression, both online and offline, and the criminalisation of peaceful dissent.
For more than 10 years, UAE authorities have been unjustly detaining at least 60 Emirati human rights defenders, civil society activists, and political dissidents who were arrested in 2012 because of their demands for reform and democracy or their affiliation with the Reform and Social Guidance Association (al-Islah). Some from this group, commonly known as the “UAE 94” because of the number of defendants in their mass trial, were subjected to enforced disappearance, torture and other ill-treatment. They were sentenced to between 7 and 15 years in prison during a trial in 2013 that failed to meet minimum fair trial standards.
Pakistan – Dismantling Justice: A Full-Frontal Assault on the Rule of Law
Egypt: New Criminal Procedure Code violates human rights
GUATEMALA: International organizations express concern over the detention of lawyer Ramón Cadena
Tanzania: African CSOs Call for the Non-Recognition of the Illegitimate Government and for Transitional Justice and Fresh Elections