Feb 11, 2013
The ICJ has called on the Human Rights Council and its members and observers, individually and collectively, to ensure that universal and regional standards and mechanisms reinforce rather than undermine universal human rights standards.
Reflecting on the ICJ Declaration on Access to Justice and Rights to a Remedy in International Human Rights Systems, adopted during the 17th Congress of the ICJ in December 2012, the statement was submitted today to the UN ahead of the Human Rights Council’s 22nd regular session (25 February to 22 March 2013).
Recalling the emphasis placed on the right to a remedy in the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, adopted by consensus twenty years ago, the ICJ called on all States to:
- Ensure that regional standards and mechanisms reinforce rather than undermine universal human rights standards;
- Ensure that the outcome of the treaty body strengthening process indeed strengthens the treaty bodies;
- Actively promote universal acceptance of individual communications procedures of the treaty bodies, and fully implement interim decisions and final views of the treaty bodies; and
- Initiate an intergovernmental process for the elaboration and adoption of a statute for a World Court of Human Rights.
HRC22-Item8-WrittenStatementVDPA-A2J-LegalSubmission-2013 (download full statement in PDF)
Feb 8, 2013
The ICJ has intervened before the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights in Del Rio Prada v. Spain, concerning the retrospective application of criminal penalties.
Spain-Prada-v-Spain-legal submission-2013-eng (full text in pdf)
Feb 8, 2013
The ICJ has intervened before the European Court of Human Rights in the case of Suso Musa v Malta, concerning the detention of asylum seekers.
Europe-Suso Musa v Malta-legal submission-2012 (full text in pdf)
Feb 8, 2013
The ICJ is concerned that the Government of Nepal has in recent months taken measures promoting impunity for those those responsible for gross human rights violations.
The ICJ says than the Nepalese government should rather have acted to address impunity, accountability and redress instead of ensuring that those responsible for gross human rights violations and serious crimes under international law will escape justice.
Ahead of the 22nd session of the Human Rights Council (25 February to 22 March 2013), the ICJ submitted a written statement and delivered an oral statement to the UN in response to the report of the High Commissioner for Human Rights on democracy and the rule of law.
Pointing to recent measures by the Government of Nepal, the ICJ has called for the Council to urge the Government to:
- Promptly establish a Truth and Reconciliation Commission and a Commission of Inquiry on Disappearance, as agreed in the 2006 Comprehensive Peace Agreement, and in accordance with international standards;
- Implement the recommendations in the October 2012 report of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights;
- Conduct prompt, independent and thorough investigations into alleged cases of past human rights violations; and
- Establish and implement vetting guidelines concerning persons holding public office.
Nepal-HRC22-Item3-Democracy&ROL-Legal Submission-2013 (download written statement in PDF)
Nepal-HRC22-Item3-Democracy&ROL-OralStatement-NonLegalSubmission-2013 (download oral statement in PDF)
Feb 6, 2013
The ICJ is concerned by laws and legislative proposals in a variety of countries that severely threaten the work of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) persons and human rights defenders.
Ahead of the 22nd session of the Human Rights Council (25 February to 22 March 2013), the ICJ today submitted a written statement to the UN encouraging the Human Rights Council’s Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders to follow up on these laws and legislative proposals.
Pointing to unlawful restrictions on the freedoms of association and assembly, and the freedom of expression, in several countries, the ICJ encouraged the Special Rapporteur to:
- Call on governments to protect these rights for everyone and to ensure that any restrictions comply with the requirements of legality, of necessity and proportionality and of non-discrimination on all grounds; and
- In the case of laws or legislative proposals that fail to comply with these requirements, take appropriate action.
HRC22-Item3-HRDs-WrittenStatement-legal submission-2013 (download statement)
![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)
