Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, and Justice: A Comparative Law Casebook is a collection of domestic court cases addressing legal issues relating to sexual orientation and gender identity.
The Maldives remains a country in transition. It holds the deepening promise of a constitutional democracy with institutions founded upon respect for the rule of law, fundamental rights, and the separation of powers. But the legacy of an authoritarian past, in which the President was also the supreme judicial authority, has tested the transition.
A delegation of the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), comprised of Dr. Leandro Despouy, former UN Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, Roger Normand, ICJ Asia-Pacific Director, and John Tyynela, ICJ Senior Legal Adviser, visited the Maldives from 12 to 17 September 2010 in order to assess advances in establishing an independent judiciary.
Report of mission to to monitor the hearings of the trial of Haytham Al-Maleh, prominent Syrian human rights lawyer. The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network (EMHRN), and the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders – a joint programme of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) carried out six missions1 to Damascus between February and July 2010 to monitor the hearings of the trial of Haytham Al-Maleh, an 80-year-old prominent Syrian human rights lawyer and former President of the Human Rights Association in Syria (HRAS). Haytham Al-Maleh was unlawfully arrested by officers of the General Intelligence Service on 14 October 2009 and prosecuted before the Second Military Court of Damascus on the grounds of “transferring false and exaggerated news that weaken national sentiments,” “spreading false or exaggerated information abroad which undermines the prestige of the State,” and “slandering the judicial system.”
“There is a need for a systemic programme of judicial reform in the Russian Federation,” the ICJ said today, as it released the final report of a research mission in this country.
The Report, The State of the Judiciary in Russia, called for a programme of reform to be led by an expert, independent body, with the meaningful involvement of civil society.
Russia-indepjudiciary-news-2010 (full text, PDF)
Russia-indepjudiciary-news-2010-rus (full text in Russian, PDF)
Russia-indepjudiciary-report-2010 (full text, PDF)
Russia-indepjudiciary-report-2010-rus (full text in Russian, PDF)
In July 2009, Muhannad Al-Hasani, a Syrian lawyer, human rights defender and ICJ Commissioner, was arrested in Damascus by officers of the Syrian General Intelligence Service.
Syria-trial Al-Hasani-trial observation report-2010 (full text in English, PDF)
USA/Israel/Palestine: Immediately rescind sanctions against UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese
Strong push back against US sanctions on the International Criminal Court at UN Human Rights Council
ECtHR Grand Chamber Ruling in Semenya v. Switzerland: Joint Statement of Third-Party Interveners
UN Human Rights Council struggles to fulfil its mandate in the midst of global attacks on human rights, the rule of law and multilateralism