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 1, 2016
On 29 July 2016, the ICJ and other groups submitted a third-party intervention in the joint cases of Nikolay Alekseyev and Movement for Marriage Equality v. Russia and Nikolay Alekseyev and Others v. Russia before the European Court of Human Rights.
The cases concern the Russian authorities’ refusals to register associations defending the rights of homosexuals.
In their written submissions to the European Court of Human Rights, the ICJ, the European Human Rights Advocacy Centre (EHRAC) and the European Region of the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA-Europe) focused on the extent of legitimate restrictions on the right to freedom of association for the protection of morals having regard, in particular, to the right to respect for private life under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
The comments drew upon the European Court’s case-law; authoritative interpretation of other applicable sources of international law and comparative international law.
RUSSIA-INTERVENTION ALEKSEYEV ECtHR-LEGALINTERVENTION-2016-ENG
Jul 26, 2016
The ICJ and Lawyers Rights Watch Canada (LRWC) today submitted a joint amicus curiae in the criminal defamation proceedings against human rights defender Andy Hall.
The defamation charges have arisen in the context of research he has carried out on allegedly poor labour conditions, and the alleged use of illegal child labour employed in Thailand’s tuna and fruit export industry.
The brief points out that the imposition of harsh penalties such as imprisonment or large fines on a human rights defender risks having a ‘chilling effect’ on the exercise of freedom of expression, which Thailand is bound to protect pursuant to its international legal obligations.
These include international human rights treaties to which Thailand is a party. The brief aims to clarify the nature and scope of these international legal obligations relating to the right of freedom of expression.
Thailand-Amicus Andy Hall-Advocacy-Legal Submission-2016-ENG (full text in English PDF)
Thailand-Amicus Andy Hall-Advocacy-Legal Submission-2016-THA (full text in Thai, PDF)
Jul 26, 2016
The ICJ today submitted to the Human Rights Committee information in preparation for the Committee’s examination of Pakistan’s initial periodic report under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).
During its session in October 2016, the Human Rights Committee will adopt a List of Issues for the examination of the first periodic report of the Pakistan under the ICCPR in July 2017.
In its submission, the ICJ raised issues and suggested questions to be put to the Government of Pakistan concerning:
- The compliance of Pakistan’s counter-terrorism laws with the rights to life, liberty and fair trial, particularly in the context of its “military justice” system and the operation of the Protection of Pakistan Act;
- The continuing practice of enforced disappearances and impunity for law enforcement and military agencies; and
- The compliance of Pakistan’s blasphemy laws with the rights to life; freedom of expression; religion, thought and conscience; and fair trial.
This submission was based on the more detailed findings in recent reports of the ICJ.
PAKISTAN-HRC LOI SUBMISSION-Advocacy-legal submission-2016-ENG (full text in PDF)
Read also:
On Trial: the implementation of Pakistan’s blasphemy laws
Military injustice in Pakistan
Jul 7, 2016
On 5 July 2016, the European Court of Human Rights, in its judgment in O.M. V. Hungary ruled that the immigration detention of an LGBT asylum-seeker had violated Article 5 of the European Convention of Human Rights, enshrining the right to liberty and security of person.
In particular, the Court found that the Hungarian authorities had failed to make an individualized assessment or take into account the applicant’s vulnerability within the detention facility because of his sexual orientation.
The ICJ, alongside the AIRE Centre, ILGA-Europe and ECRE had intervened in this case.
The Court’s judgment has, once again, recognized the fundamental right of asylum-seekers to protection – no matter their sexual orientation or gender identity.
Background
O.M. is an Iranian national who requested asylum in Hungary after travelling to Europe via Serbia.
On arriving in Hungary in early 2014 he was arrested and placed in a detention facility, where he was kept for 58 days.
He claimed asylum based on his homosexuality and the fact that were he to be returned to Iran he faced severe penalties because of his sexual orientation, including the death penalty.
During his time in detention, O.M. repeatedly asked the asylum authority to release him from the detention facility or transfer him to an open facility due to the harassment he faced because of prejudice against his sexual orientation.
His was eventually released on 22 August 2014 and in October 2014 he was recognized as a refugee.
The Court made a strong statement in favour of the rights of LGBT asylum seekers: “…when asylum seekers claim to be a part of a vulnerable group in the country which they had to leave, the authorities should exercise particular care in order to avoid situations which may reproduce the plight that forced these persons to flee in the first place. In the present case, the authorities failed to do so when they ordered the applicant’s detention without considering the extent to which vulnerable individuals –for instance, LGBT people like the applicant – were safe or unsafe in custody among other detained persons”.
