Nov 17, 2020
The ICJ has published Judicial Accountability: An Adaptation of Practitioners Guide No. 13 for Zimbabwe, which analyzes the Zimbabwean legal framework in light of international and regional standards on accountability mechanisms for judicial corruption and judicial involvement in human rights violations.
The Guide reproduces the text of the ICJ’s 2016 global publication, Judicial Accountability: Practitioners’ Guide No.13, supplementing it with detailed information, analysis and recommendations specific to the context of Zimbabwe.
The Guides focus on international and regional standards and best practices on not only the accountability of individual judges, but also the accountability of the judiciary as an institution and State responsibility under international law, particularly in relation to the harm caused to victims of violations by judges.
The adaptation of this Guide to the Zimbabwean context specifically, is meant to assist practitioners in Zimbabwe, including judicial officers and lawyers, to engage with the domestic legal framework from a position informed by international standards and best practices.
This publication should be a particularly useful and relevant resource for the Zimbabwean judiciary whose theme for this calendar year is “Judicial Transparency and Accountability”.
Speaking on this publication and its relevance to the Zimbabwean context, ICJ Senior Legal Adviser, Blessing Gorejena highlighted how topical the issue of judicial independence in Zimbabwe has been:
“Judicial accountability is at the core of a functional and independent judiciary. The independence of a judiciary cannot just be assumed, it must be evidenced by functional and effective accountability mechanisms, systems and processes which leave little to no room for doubts about the judiciary’s ability to dispense justice without fear or favor. As such, like justice, judicial independence must not only be said to exist but must be seen to exist. Accountability is how judicial independence is seen to exist.”
This Guide considers a multitude of topics relating to judicial accountability, including but not limited to an appraisal of Zimbabwe’s duties to ensure an independent, impartial and accountable judiciary under international law and an analysis of the relevant accountability bodies in Zimbabwe.
Recommendations are consequently made in an effort to tackle inconsistencies between the adopted practices in Zimbabwe and its duties under international law.
Contact
Blessing Gorejena, Senior Legal Adviser and Team Leader of ICJ Zimbabwe Project, t: +263 77 215 1989, e: blessing.gorejena(a)icj.org
Elizabeth Mangenje, Legal Adviser, t: +263 77 474 2420, e: elizabeth.mangenje(a)icj.org
Download
Zimbabwe-PG No 13 Accountability adaptation-Publications-Reports-Thematic report-2020-ENG (full guide, in pdf)
Oct 30, 2020
The ICJ published today its new Guidance on Extraditions and Expulsion in Central Asia, an essential tool for judges, prosecutors, law enforcement officers, lawyers and NGOs in the region to implement these procedures in full respect of international law.
The Guidance is the fruit of the long-term work of the ICJ to bring proceedings for the transfer of suspects in Central Asian countries, in particular extraditions and expulsions, in line with States’ obligations under international law, including international human rights and refugee law. It addresses the application by judges and prosecutors of international law and standards in extradition and expulsion proceedings.
This Guidance has been informed by a comparative legal study conducted by the ICJ on the practices of national security-based transfers in countries of the Commonwealth of the Independent States, the European Union and the United States of America. In this study, the ICJ identified shortcomings and provided recommendations to all the countries examined.
Following this mapping, the ICJ, together with the UN Office on Drugs and Crimes (UNODC), the Regional Office for Central Asia of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the General Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic of Uzbekistan and the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court of Kyrgyzstan convened two Central Asia international expert workshops for judges and prosecutors from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, with the participation of international experts from several European countries.
This Guidance provides practical recommendations for judges and prosecutors in the region to uphold international law in extraditions and other procedures for transfer of suspects.
Their purpose is not only to promote the legal compliance of such measures and the rights of those subject to them, but also their effectiveness, in particular in the fight against impunity.
Universal-Extradition&ExpulsionsCA-Publications-Guidance-2020-ENG (Guidance in English)
Universal-Extradition&ExpulsionCA-Publications-Guidance-2020-RUS (Guidance in Russian)
Watch the ICJ, OHCHR and UNODC event on extraditions and expulsion in Central Asia and how to comply with human rights law
Apr 21, 2020
La Guía para Profesionales No. 14 de la CIJ, inicialmente publicada en inglés, describe los estándares internacionales que deben considerarse en las investigaciones y los enjuiciamientos que se lleven a cabo en los casos de muertes potencialmente ilícitas.
Dichas investigaciones deben cumplir los estándares internacionales del derecho internacional de los derechos humanos.
La Guía aborda los contenidos del Protocolo de Minnesota sobre la Investigación de Muertes Potencialmente Ilícitas (2016). Dicho texto fue publicado por la Oficina del Alto Comisionado de las Naciones Unidas para los Derechos Humanos en 2017, y ofrece orientación a los Estados para aplicar los Principios de Minnesota y el deber de investigar en virtud del derecho a la vida. La versión original del Protocolo fue realizada en 1991, y su revisión contó con la experiencia de distintas organizaciones, entre ellas, la Comisión Internacional de Juristas.
La versión en inglés de la Guía No. 14 fue publicada en septiembre de 2019 en el marco de la Iniciativa global de rendición de cuentas de la CIJ. Su versión en español se publica gracias al apoyo financiero de la Unión Europea, en desarrollo del proyecto “Promoviendo justicia para ejecuciones extrajudiciales y desapariciones forzadas en Colombia, Guatemala y Perú”.
Esta Guía se nutre de otras Guías para Profesionales de la CIJ, en especial:
Universal-PG 14 Unlawful death-Publications-Reports-Practitioners Guides series-2020-SPA (Guia N°14 en español)
Dec 11, 2019
Today, the ICJ released Practical Guide 1 on the adjudication of crimes under Tunisian and international law, the first guide in a four-part series on accountability for crimes under international law and the Tunisian Specialized Criminal Chambers (SCC).
Practical Guide 1 addresses the application of Tunisian law governing the penalization of crimes and modes of liability, in relation to international law and standards.
The SCC were established in 2014 to adjudicate cases involving alleged “gross human rights violations” between 1955 and 2013 referred by the Truth and Dignity Commission.
“Tunisia has obligations under international law to ensure justice for victims and combat impunity for the egregious human rights violations that were committed in the past,” said Saïd Benarbia, ICJ MENA Programme Director.
“International law is directly relevant to the work of the SCC, particularly since the gross human rights violations over which the SCC have jurisdiction are either not defined in domestic law or are defined inconsistently with the definitions under international law binding Tunisia,” he added.
The Practical Guide sets out relevant international law and correlates it to related provisions of Tunisian law.
The Guide examines the principles of legality and non-retroactivity under international law and their application in the domestic system, and conducts an analysis of the definition of crimes under domestic law vis-à-vis international law for arbitrary deprivations of life, arbitrary deprivations of liberty, torture and other ill-treatment, enforced disappearance, rape and sexual assault and crimes against humanity.
Although the transitional justice framework governing the SCC gives judges some tools to remedy the gaps and inconsistencies in domestic law, legislative reform is needed to ensure Tunisia is in compliance with its obligation to penalize crimes under international law and investigate, prosecute and remedy them whenever they are committed, whether pre- or post-2011.
“Tunisian legislators gave the SCC the mandate to adjudicate gross human rights violations but haven’t remedied all the gaps and inconsistencies in the domestic law the SCC were tasked with applying,” said Valentina Cadelo, ICJ MENA Programme Associate Legal Adviser.
“Tunisian authorities must now take steps to reform the law to guarantee that all perpetrators of gross human rights violations can be held criminally responsible in any Tunisian court,” she added.
Practical Guide 1 aims to:
- Explain international law relevant to the SCC, including the application of the principles of legality and non-retroactivity, statutory limitations and crimes under international law, to guarantee justice for victims of gross human rights violations and hold perpetrators accountable, while meeting international fair trial standards.
- Correlate domestic definitions of crimes with the definitions of crimes under international law applicable at the time the alleged conduct occurred.
- Describe the requirement that penalties applied upon conviction be based in law and correspond to the gravity of the crimes.
Contact
Saïd Benarbia, Director of the ICJ Middle East and North Africa Programme, t: +41.22.979.3817, e: said.benarbia(a)icj.org
Valentina Cadelo, ICJ Associate Legal Adviser, t: +21671962287, e: valentina.cadelo(a)icj.org , twitter: @ValentinaCadelo
Download
Tunisia-Accountability series-Publications-Reports-Thematic reports-2019-ENG (full report in English, PDF)
Tunisia-Accountability series-News-2019-ARA (full story in Arabic, PDF)
Tunisia-Accountability series-Publications-Reports-Thematic reports-2019-ARA (full report in Arabic, PDF)
Sep 14, 2019
ICJ Practitioners’ Guide no. 14 Investigation and Prosecution of Potentially Unlawful Death aims to help legal practitioners ensure that potentially unlawful death is investigated in a manner that respects international human rights law and, where responsibility is identified, that appropriate measures of accountability ensue.
At the heart of the Guide is the Minnesota Protocol on the Investigation of Potentially Unlawful Death (2016), which was published by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in 2017.
The revised Minnesota Protocol (2016) is the Revised United Nations Manual on the Effective Prevention and Investigation of Extra-legal, Arbitrary and Summary Executions, the revision of which involved expertise from the International Commission of Jurists and other leading organizations.
It is a companion document to the UN Principles on the Effective Prevention and Investigation of Extra-legal, Arbitrary and Summary Executions (1989), and sets a common standard of performance in investigating potentially unlawful death and a shared set of principles and guidelines for States, as well as for institutions and individuals who play a role in death investigations.
Topics covered by the Practitioners’ Guide include:
- Potentially unlawful death and the duty to prosecute;
- The duties of states to investigate and prosecute;
- The rights of victims’ families and of witnesses;
- General principles of forensic investigation of potentially unlawful death;
- Forensic investigation of potentially unlawful death: types of evidence and the chain of custody;
- Forensic investigation of potentially unlawful death: crime scene management and victim identification;
- Forensic investigation: the autopsy;
- The effective prosecution of individuals responsible for unlawful death;
- Specific guidance for prosecutors and defence lawyers; and
- Potentially unlawful death in armed conflict.
This Practitioners’ Guide builds on earlier Guides, especially:
– The right to a remedy and reparation for gross human rights violations – 2018 update to Practitioners’ Guide no. 2
– International Law and the Fight Against Impunity: ICJ Practitioners’ Guide no. 7
– Enforced Disappearance and Extrajudicial Execution: Investigation and Sanction – ICJ Practitioners’ Guide no. 9
– Enforced Disappearance and Extrajudicial Execution: the Right of Family Members – ICJ Practitioners’ Guide no. 10
The Practitioners’ Guide would not have been possible without the financial support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland and was produced as part of the ICJ’s Global Accountability Initiative.
Download the full report
Universal-PG 14 Unlawful death-Publications-Reports-Practitioners Guides series-2019-ENG (PDF of English version)
Universal-PG 14 Unlawful death-Publications-Reports-Practitioners Guides series-2021-THA (PDF of Thai version)
Universal-PG 14 Unlawful death-Publications-Reports-Practitioners Guides series-2020-SPA (PDF of Spanish version
