May 13, 2013
The ICJ today published its recommendations on a draft law introducing changes to the disciplinary system for judges in the Russian Federation.
The ICJ considers that the Draft Law amending Articles 12-1, 14 and 15 of the Law of the Russian Federation “On the Status of Judges in the Russian Federation” includes a number of positive amendments. Nevertheless, the ICJ regrets that this opportunity has not been taken to introduce more comprehensive reforming legislation, to address the institutional, substantive and procedural weaknesses in the disciplinary system that allow for abuse and facilitate arbitrariness and inconsistency in the application of disciplinary sanctions against judges.
Russia-judicialdisciplinelaw-comment-2013-eng (download the comment in English)
Russia-judicialdisciplinelaw-comment-2013-rus (download the comment in Russian)
Apr 30, 2013
The ICJ has submitted to the Human Rights Committee information in preparation for the Committee’s examination of the initial report of Malawi under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).
During its session in July 2013, the Committee is to adopt a List of Issues for the examination in 2014 of the initial report of Malawi under the ICCPR. The ICJ’s submission raises issues and suggested questions to be put to the Government of Malawi in preparation for the examination in 2014. The ICJ’s submission addresses:
- Malawi’s obligation to give effect to the provisions of the ICCPR;
- The right to life;
- The prohibition against torture and other ill-treatment;
- Conditions of detention;
- Rights to privacy and non-discrimination, focusing on the situation of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons; and
- Right to family.
Malawi-HRCttee108-LOl-LegalSubmission-2013 (download submission in PDF)
Apr 16, 2013
In view of the discussion by the Committee of Ministers, the ICJ and nine other NGOs wrote an open letter to all member states of the Council of Europe on draft Protocol 15 to the European Convention on Human Rights.
Amnesty International, the AIRE Centre, the European Human Rights Advocacy Centre (EHRAC), the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights (HFHR), Human Rights Watch, Interights, the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), JUSTICE, Open Society Justice Initiative and REDRESS wrote an open letter to all member states of the Council of Europe on Draft Protocol 15. In the letter, the organizations draw the states’ attention to a specific shortcoming in article 1 of the Protocol in relation to the insertion of a reference to the doctrine of the margin of appreciation in the Preamble to the Convention.
OpenLetter-Joint-CouncilofEurope-Protocol15-2013 (download the open letter)
Mar 26, 2013
The ICJ, TRIAL, FIACAT, ACAT-France and CFDA have presented to the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances a submission on the respect by France of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance.
The joint submission focuses on both current French legislation and practice and a draft law (Projet de loi No. 250), pending before the State’s legislature, which aims to bring the French legal system into compliance with the obligations enshrined in the Convention.
France-UNCED-JointSubmission-2013-français (download the submission in French)
France-UNCED-SummarizedSubmission-2013-english (download the summarized submission in English)
Photo credit: © Montecruz Foto (the author of the picture has no involvement in nor does support this submission)
Mar 18, 2013
The ICJ today called on the Human Rights Council to take all effective measures at its disposal to halt the Israeli policy on the construction, expansion and encouragement of settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory.
Noting that the policy is in violation of obligations under international law, the ICJ’s statement was delivered in the General Debate under Item 7 of the Human Rights Council’s agenda (human rights situation in Palestine and other occupied Arab territories) during the Council’s 22nd regular session (25 February to 22 March 2013).
Israel-oPt-HRC22-Item7GD-IsraeliSettlements-NonLegalSubmission-2013 (download full statement in PDF)
![Smoke rises after an Israeli air strike on the village of Taybeh in southern Lebanon [Source: Al Jazeera]](https://www.icj.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Screenshot-2026-03-20-at-15.56.24-300x200.png)
