Jun 8, 2016
In a memorandum published today, the ICJ called on the Tunisian authorities to implement a comprehensive set of measures to fully realize women’s right of access to justice.
Despite some progressive legislation protecting women’s human rights, and the recent adoption of institutional and legal reforms of the justice system, the ICJ identified significant remaining obstacles undermining women’s access to justice in breach of Tunisia’s obligations under international human rights law.
“Women in Tunisia face numerous barriers accessing justice. While some are specific to their status as women, such as explicitly discriminatory laws, others are common to men and women but affect women and men differently or are predominantly experienced by women,” said Shirin Abu Fannouneh, Legal Researcher for the ICJ Middle East and North Africa Programme.
The ICJ memorandum analyzes some of the main obstacles to women’s effective access to justice in Tunisia, including inadequate laws failing to fully protect women’s human rights, such as the Criminal Code’s flawed, discriminatory definitions of rape and sexual harassment; laws perpetuating gender discrimination, such as certain child custody provisions of the Personal Status Code; structural and practical obstacles related to the administration of justice; gender stereotypes and norms undermining women’s ability and/or willingness to seek justice; and economic and social barriers.
“Obstacles in the way of women exercising the right of access to justice take various forms in Tunisia. Even if certain legal provisions were to be reformed in line with international human rights law, other hurdles – such as the biased attitudes of justice-sector actors and women’s own disadvantaged social and economic realities – would, if unaddressed, continue to undermine women’s ability to claim and obtain respect for their human rights,” added Abu Fannouneh.
The ICJ stresses that, under international human rights law, Tunisia is not only required to adopt a wide range of legislative, administrative, educative and practical measures to realize the right of access to justice for all, but it must also take specific steps to address women’s experiences and the numerous, specific obstacles they face when seeking to exercise their right of access to justice.
“Effective access to justice for women is not merely a matter of the right to access a mechanism to claim their rights. It also requires prohibiting all forms of discrimination and ensuring that men and women enjoy equal rights, including equality before the law and equal protection of the law, in law and in practice,” said Abu Fannouneh.
The ICJ identified a wide range of measures Tunisia must implement to eliminate these obstacles. These reforms include:
- amending existing legislation, including through the Draft Law on Violence against Women, to ensure that certain violations of women’s human rights are adequately criminalized, such as rape, including marital rape, sexual assault and sexual harassment;
- providing adequate legal aid and protection measures, for example to victims of domestic violence;
- training for judges, prosecutors, police officers and lawyers in addressing and overcoming discriminatory attitudes and gender stereotypes within the administration of justice; and
- taking steps to address certain social and practical realities, such as women’s disadvantaged status in society, their lack of financial independence and societal gender-based stereotypes and prejudices that ultimately impede the effective exercise by women of their right of access to justice.
“If women’s effective access to justice is to become a reality, women must be fully empowered to seek and obtain respect for their human rights. The Tunisian authorities for their part must adopt and implement comprehensive reforms to address all types of obstacles to making women’s right of access to justice a reality so that legislative advancements are not nullified by persisting discriminatory attitudes and practices,” added Abu Fannouneh.
Contact
Theo Boutruche, ICJ Legal Adviser, Middle East and North Africa Programme, t: +96 170 888 961, e: theo.boutruche(a)icj.org
Tunisia-Memo WA2J-Advocacy-Analysis brief-2016-ENG (full Memo in English, PDF)
Tunisia-Memo WA2J-News-Press releases-2016-ARA (full news in Arabic, PDF)
Tunisia-Memo WA2J-Advocacy-Analysis brief-2016-ARA (full Memo in Arabic, PDF)
Apr 25, 2016
In this submission, the ICJ provides comments on the Draft Federal Law “On amending certain legislative acts of the Russian Federation concerning ensuring the right of a lawyer to collect data necessary for providing qualified legal assistance” No 993553-6 (Draft Law).
The comments are provided in light of international law and standards on the role of lawyers and are informed by the ICJ report Towards a Stronger Legal Profession in Russia published in December 2015.
The document addresses the following issues: a “lawyers’ query”, a new legal tool which intends to empower defence lawyers to make requests for data and information; admission of evidence gathered by lawyers to be included in the case-file; the lawyers’ certificate which grants access to state buildings and the related issue of obstruction of lawyers’ access to their clients; ethical standards of lawyers and the problem of “pocket lawyers” in the Russian Federation.
Russia-Comment on Lawyer draft law-Advocacy-Analysis brief-2016-ENG (full text in English, PDF)
Russia-Comment on Right of Lawyer Law-Advocacy-Analysis brief-2016-RUS (full text in Russian, PDF)
Photo: Russian lawyer’s ID. Credit: http://minjust.ru/
Apr 19, 2016
Today, the ICJ has provided comments on the Draft Resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation “On judicial practice of application of legislation regulating the issue of disciplinary responsibility of judges”.
The comments focus on a number of issues in the disciplinary system that the ICJ considers to be of particular importance in this regard.
The ICJ recommended that the Draft Resolution should, in particular:
– Clarify further the definition of disciplinary misconduct;
– Prohibit disciplinary action for judicial decisions of judges; and
– Clarify further the very exceptional nature dismissals of judges.
These comments and recommendations draw on the ICJ’s report and recommendations Securing justice: the disciplinary system for judges in the Russian Federation published in 2012 following a mission to the Russian Federation.
The report made a series of recommendations for specific and practical measures designed to advance the process of reform of the judicial disciplinary system in the Russian Federation.
Among other things the report concluded that “comprehensive reforms of the [disciplinary] system [were] needed to establish a judiciary that is an effective guardian of the Rule of Law, complies with international standards on the judicial independence, and is a reliable guarantor of the right to a fair hearing”.
Russia-Recommendaitons on Draft Resolution-Advocacy-Analysis Brief-2016-ENG (full text, in PDF)
Russia-Recommendaitons on Draft Resolution-Advocacy-Analysis Brief-2016-RUS (full text, in PDF)
Apr 15, 2016
The Indian government must ensure protection of rights of transgender people in line with its international obligations and the seminal ruling of the Supreme Court in National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) v. Union of India, the ICJ said in a briefing paper released today.
“While there has been some progress over the past two years since the NALSA judgment, it is not enough,” Sam Zarifi, ICJ’s Asia Pacific Director said. “India must take steps to immediately implement all directions of the Supreme Court, and ensure that transgender persons in India can enjoy the full range of their human rights, free from discrimination and violence”.
“The directions in the NALSA judgment provide an important charter for transgender rights in the country,” Zarifi added. “It is time for the government to uphold the equality and dignity of transgender persons in India, and enable them to fully enjoy their human rights, free from discrimination and violence”.
The ICJ’s briefing paper addresses questions regarding the scope of the NALSA decision; the government’s role and responsibility in implementing it; what implementation steps have been taken so far and other related developments since the judgment; what the significant gaps in implementation have been; and India’s relevant international human rights law obligations.
Background
On 15 April 2014, the Indian Supreme Court released its judgment in the NALSA case.
Grounding its reasoning in the rights to equality, non-discrimination, freedom of expression and dignity, the Court affirmed transgender persons’ right to their self-identified gender, such as male, female or as third gender, and directed the government to grant legal recognition of the same and to take specific steps to ensure equality and non-discrimination for transgender persons.
It has now been two years since the NALSA decision.
But the Indian Central and state governments have still not implemented some of the core directions set out in the judgment.
For example the basic process of accessing legal gender recognition remains unclear, with individuals being forced to navigate a dizzying array of bureaucratic hurdles.
India has ratified several international human rights instruments that require the government to respect, protect and fulfill the right to equality and non-discrimination for transgender people.
Contact:
Danish Sheikh: t +91 8197979171
Sanhita Ambast: t +91 9810962193
India-Q&A NALSA-Advocacy-Analysis brief-2016-ENG (full brief, in PDF)
Apr 4, 2016
The ICJ, the European Council on Refugees and Exiles and Amnesty International present their joint briefing on the Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the European Border and Coast Guard.
Europe-Cost Guards-Advocacy-Analysis Brief-2016-ENG (full paper in PDF)
