The ICJ and other rights groups today sent an open letter to the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the member States of the League of Arab States (LAS) urging them to defer action on the adoption of the draft Statute of the proposed Arab Court of Human Rights (the Arab Court).
China must immediately release all lawyers detained for carrying out their professional functions or for exercising their human rights, the ICJ said in a letter today to President Xi Jinping.
The International Commission of Jurists has joined other non-governmental organisations to urge the UN Human Rights Council to take action on the situation in Egypt.
The organisations urge the Human Rights Council to adopt a resolution that clearly and unequivocally condemns the ongoing crackdown and increasing restrictions to basic freedoms in Egypt and calls upon the Government of Egypt to fully respect its human rights obligations and to ensure accountability and justice for past and ongoing gross human rights violations.
The letter is available for download in pdf format here: ICJ-UN-HRC-Egypt-OpenLetter-29082014.
The ICJ today replied to lawyers and legal academics regarding concerns expressed about statements by the Prime Minister and the Minister of Justice in Canada concerning Chief Justice Beverly McLachlin, in the context of the appointment of Justice Marc Nadon to the Supreme Court.
On 9 May 2014, the ICJ received expressions of concern from lawyers and legal academics in Canada. It wrote to the Prime Minister’s Office at the end of May seeking any information or views from the Government of Canada on this matter. In the absence of a reply from the Office of the Prime Minister, the ICJ set out its understanding of the relevant facts based on information provided to it and made publicly available.
The ICJ’s reply to the group of lawyers and legal academics describes relevant provisions of international human rights instruments on the independence of the judiciary and the rule of law and analyses the facts in relation to those international standards. The ICJ concluded that the criticisms of the Chief Justice by the Prime Minister and the Minister of Justice were not well-founded and amounted to an encroachment on the independence of the judiciary and the integrity of the Chief Justice.
Canada-JudicialIndependenceAndIntegrity-CIJL-OpenLetter-2014 (download ICJ analysis and conclusions in PDF)
The undersigned national and international civil society groups call on the Cambodian Senate to delay its review of three bills passed by the National Assembly (NA) on ‘reforming’ the judiciary that, if passed, could seriously undermine the rule of law in Cambodia.
Tunisia: Conviction of Ebru Timtik Award Laureate Ahmed Souab marks escalating repression of lawyers
ICJ Honored for Championing Refugee and Migrant Justice Worldwide
Thailand: Swift action is needed to ensure access to justice for survivors of sexual and gender-based violence
Uzbekistan: ICJ and the Academy of Justice open the third cycle of the International Human Rights Law Course