Feb 20, 2018 | News
In a memo published today, the ICJ called on the Moroccan authorities to refrain from signing into Law Draft Organic Law No. 86.15 on access to the Constitutional Court with a view to amending it and ensuring its full compliance with international standards.
On 8 August 2017, the House of Representatives approved the Draft Law.
The Second Chamber of the Parliament, the House of Counselors, approved the Draft Law on 16 January 2018.
Before its promulgation, the Draft Law is due to be reviewed by the Constitutional Court to assess its compliance with the Constitution.
“The Draft Law is a missed opportunity to facilitate individuals’ access to the Constitutional Court and to remedy Morocco’s history of inadequate procedures of constitutional review,” said Said Benarbia, ICJ MENA Director.
“By providing for a two-layered admissibility system that includes vague and subjective criteria, and by omitting to extend free and competent legal assistance to those unable to pay when challenging the constitutionality of laws, the Draft Law puts undue burden on the litigants and curtails their access to the Court,” he added.
Under the Draft Law, a request to challenge the constitutionality of a law can only be introduced in the context of a litigation.
Lower courts are to refer the request to the Cassation Court after reviewing it and confirming that the formal and legal requirements set out in the Draft Law are met.
The Cassation Court shall then assess the challenge and refer it to the Constitutional Court if deemed “serious.”
The ICJ is concerned that this proposed procedure increases the likelihood that some laws and provisions may never be subjected to constitutional review, and that litigants may be blocked in their efforts to ensure the review of the constitutionality of the laws.
Moroccan authorities should provide for lower courts to immediately refer constitutionality challenges to the Constitutional Court, as well for other avenues of access, including for individuals and NGOs to be enabled to join proceedings as interested parties or to submit information as amicus curiae or through expert opinions, the ICJ says.
Under international law, anyone who alleges they have been the victim of a human rights violation has the right to access to an effective remedy, including a judicial remedy.
In Morocco, ensuring that alleged victims have access to constitutional review is of key importance to fulfilling this right within the national legal system.
Morocco-Access Const Ct-News-web story-2018-ARA (full story in Arabic, PDF)
Morocco-Access Const Ct-Advocacy-Position paper-2018-ENG (Memo in English, PDF)
Morocco-Access Const Ct-Advocacy-Position paper-2018-ARA (Memo in Arabic, PDF)
Feb 16, 2018 | Comunicados de prensa, Noticias
La CIJ considera que el ataque contra la Fiscal Sonia Montes constituye un grave atentado contra la justicia en el país.
La CIJ exige al Presidente de la República, como Jefe de la fuerza pública, esclarecer estos hechos a la mayor brevedad posible y tomar las medidas necesarias para que los presuntos autores de estos hechos sean llevados ante la justicia.
La CIJ destaca que el papel que viene jugando la Fiscal Sonia Montes en la búsqueda de justicia en casos de graves violaciones a los derechos humanos cometidos por miembros de las Fuerzas Armadas durante el conflicto armado interno, ha cobrado mayor relevancia en estos días, cuando el juicio por el delito de Genocidio se ha reiniciado semanas atrás.
“Este atentado constituye un ataque contra la justicia en Guatemala así como contra de todo el movimiento de derechos humanos de ese país. Este tipo de ataques pretenden afectar seriamente la Democracia y el Estado de Derecho y obstruir la justicia,” declaró Ramón Cadena, Director de la CIJ para Centroamérica.
Ante estos hechos condenables, la CIJ expresa su total solidaridad hacia la Fiscal de Derechos Humanos Sonia Montes, su familia y su motorista Néstor Valdes Antonio; asímismo, expresa su apoyo a la Fiscal General Thelma Aldana y al Comisionado de la Comisión Internacional contra la Impunidad (CICIG), Iván Velásquez y a todas y todos los fiscales y operadores de justicia, que realizan un trabajo diario y comprometido con la lucha contra la impunidad y la corrupción.
Ramón Cadena, Director de la CIJ para Centroamérica expresó:
“Exigimos al Presidente de la República Jimmy Morales una investigación pronta y eficiente, que permita individualizar la responsabilidad penal de los autores materiales e intelectuales de estos hechos. Hacemos un llamado a la ciudadanía guatemalteca, para no dejarse intimidar ante estos hechos de violencia.”
Feb 16, 2018 | News
The ICJ strongly condemns the attack against the Deputy Prosecutor for Human Rights, Sonia Elizabeth Montes Valenzuela, carried out on 15 February by unknown gunmen in the central Zone 1 of Guatemala City.
Sonia Montes was on her way to work at the Public Prosecutors Office when two gunmen on motorbikes drove past and fired six bullets into the car.
Fortunately both Sonia Montes and her driver, Néstor Valdes Antonio, were unharmed.
“This is a vile attack against the justice system in Guatemala and the whole human rights movement in the country. These types of attacks seek to destabilize democracy and the rule of law,” Ramón Cadena, the ICJ Director stated.
“We call on President Jimmy Morales to carry out a full and impartial investigation in order to identify the material and moral authors of these acts,” he added.
The ICJ also expresses its solidarity with the families of the victims of the attack and with the Attorney General, Thelma Aldana, and the Commissioner of the International Commission against Impunity (CICIG), Iván Velásquez.
The Public Prosecutors’ Office and the CICIG are working tirelessly to investigate crimes and to end impunity and corruption in Guatemala.
Feb 15, 2018 | News
Thailand should immediately cease misusing criminal and civil defamation laws to legally harass victims, human rights defenders and journalists who raise allegations of torture or other ill-treatment, the ICJ said today.
Yesterday, the Director of the Internal Operations Security Command (ISOC) Region 4, Lt. Gen. Piyawat Nakwanich, reportedly authorized Lt. Col. Seathtasit Kaewkumuang to lodge defamation complaints against Isma-ae Tae, a founder of Patani Human Rights Organization (HAP).
ISOC is responsible for security operations in Thailand’s deep South.
“It is astonishing that after all of the Government’s repeated commitments to address allegations of torture and protect victims and human rights defenders, ISOC is now misusing the justice system to legally harass an alleged victim of torture,” said Kingsley Abbott, the ICJ’s Senior International Legal Adviser for Southeast Asia.
“Thailand should immediately stop these defamation complaints against Isma-ae Tae and ensure an investigation that meets international law and standards is conducted into all allegations of torture or other ill-treatment without delay,” he added.
The accusations relate to a TV program entitled “Policy by People” that aired on the Thai PBS channel on 5 February 2018 in which Isma-ae Tae described being tortured and ill-treated by Thai soldiers when he was a student in Yala, located in Thailand’s restive deep South.
Criminal defamation in Thailand carries a maximum penalty of two years imprisonment and a fine of up to 200,000 Baht (USD $6,300).
The imposition of harsh penalties such as imprisonment or large fines under these laws has the effect of discouraging victims of torture or other ill-treatment from coming forward to seek the remedies and reparations to which they are entitled under international human rights law binding on Thailand, the ICJ said.
The complaints were made against the backdrop of a ruling by the Supreme Administrative Court on 19 October 2016, which ordered the Royal Thai Army and the Defence Ministry to pay 305,000 baht (USD $9,700) compensation to Isma-ae Tae, after it found he was “physically assaulted” during detention and had been illegally detained for nine days – exceeding the limit of seven days permitted under Martial Law Act B.E. 2457 (1914) (Martial Law).
“Even more astonishing is that a superior Thai court has already found that the military physically assaulted Isma-ae Tae and awarded him compensation, which only serves to highlight the injustice of these complaints”, added Abbott.
In 2008, Isma-ae Tae was arrested pursuant to Martial Law and allegedly tortured in order to purportedly extract a confession in relation to a national security case. To date, no perpetrators have been brought to justice.
Contact
Kingsley Abbott, Senior International Legal Adviser, ICJ Asia Pacific Programme, t: +66 94 470 1345, e: kingley.abbott@icj.org
Thailand-Isma-ae Tae defamation case-News-Press releases-2018-ENG (full story with additional information, in PDF)
Thailand-Isma-ae Tae defamation case-News-Press releases-2018-THA (Thai version of full sory, in PDF)
Read also
Thailand: ICJ welcomes decision to end proceedings against human rights defenders who raised allegations of torture
Thailand: ICJ welcomes dropping of complaints against human rights defenders but calls for investigation into torture
Thailand: stop use of defamation charges against human rights defenders seeking accountability for torture
Thailand: immediately withdraw criminal complaints against human rights defenders
Further reading on the Draft Prevention and Suppression of Torture and Enforced Disappearance Act
UN Committee against Torture: ICJ and TLHR’s joint submission on Thailand
Thailand: ICJ, Amnesty advise changes to proposed legislation on torture and enforced disappearances
Thailand: ICJ commemorates international day in support of victims of enforced disappearances
Thailand: pass legislation criminalizing enforced disappearance, torture without further delay
Feb 14, 2018 | News
From 12 to 14 February, representatives the ICJ visited Uzbekistan as the first step in a new programme of work on access to justice in the area of economic, social and cultural rights.
During the visit, ICJ representatives met with a number of State institutions relevant to this topic, including the Supreme Court, the High Judicial Council, the Ministry of Justice, the Bar Association of Uzbekistan as well as the Commission of the European Union Technical Assistance Programme National Coordination Unit (NCU).
The ICJ also met with the Delegation of the European Union to Uzbekistan.
The visit allowed the ICJ to provide information and begin plans for its work to advance access to justice for the protection of economic, social and cultural rights in Uzbekistan in the framework of the ACCESS project (“Advancing Civil Society in promoting ESCR Standards”), supported by the Delegation of the European Union to Uzbekistan.
During this visit, the ICJ signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Research Centre for the Study of Justice under the Supreme Judicial Council of the Republic of Uzbekistan, with which it held an international seminar on Comparative Approaches to Selection, Appointment and Evaluation of Judges in September 2017.
The memorandum will serve as a platform for furthering ICJ’s work with the judiciary in Uzbekistan within the ACCESS project and other initiatives.
The ICJ is grateful to all those who met with the ICJ representatives in Tashkent.
