As a non-political organization, the ICJ is dedicated to the support and advancement of those principles of justice which constitute the basis of the Rule of Law. Respect for fundamental human rights is one such principle.
Télégramme de la CIJ adressé au Premier Ministre d’Italie.
Le télégramme suivant est adressé aujourd’hui à Son Excellence le Premier Ministre d’Italie par la Commission internationale de Juristes:
“La Commission internationale de Juristes exprime son plus profond regret pour le massacre brutal et froidement perpétré de pilotes italiens par des troupes congolaises mutinées, au mépris des règles d’humanité les plus élémentaires.
Les pilotes accomplissaient un devoir humanitaire au service des Nations Unies et jouaient un rôle vital dans le fonctionnement des services administratifs de l’Etat congolais, divisé et troublé.
La Commission internationale de Juristes exprime aux familles des victimes ainsi qu’au peuple et au Gouvernement italiens sa sympathie émue et sincère en son propre nom et au nom des milliers de juristes qu’elle groupe dans le monde entier”.
Sir Leslie Munro
Secrétaire général de la Commission internationale de Juristes
The following cable was sent today by the ICJ to the Prime Minister of Italy.
“The International Commission of Jurists expresses its profoundest regret at the brutal and unprovoked massacre of Italian airmen at the hands of mutinous Congolese troops as a result of cruel and wanton lawlessness.
Notes about the project of an International Commission of Jurists inquiry committee on Berlin.
The ICJ learnt with profound concern the sentences of death passed by the Turkish High Court of Yassiada on September 15th, 1961, upon certain accused who had appeared before the Court. Three Ministers were eventually executed.
The Commission had appointed Observers to the trials, namely Mr. Vivian Bose, a former judge of the High Court of India and now President of the Commission; Me Raymond Nicolet, an eminent Swiss lawyer of Geneva; and M. René Degouy, Président de Chambre à la Cour d’Appel de Paris.
The Commission had some expectation that the accused after sentence would receive leniency.
Immediately upon learning of the sentences the Secretary-General of the Commission, Sir Leslie Munro, forwarded on September 16th, 1961, the following telegram to the Minister of Justice of the Republic of Turkey:
“ON BEHALF OF THE INTERNATIONAL COMMISSION OF JURISTS AND WITH ALL POSSIBLE STRENGTH I URGE UPON YOUR GOVERNMENT THAT CLEMENCY BE EXTENDED TO THOSE SENTENCED TO DEATH AT YASSIADA PARTICULARLY BECAUSE CONSTITUTIONAL EXPERTS AT THE TRIALS WERE IN CONFLICT ON THE VALIDITY OF THE CHARGES STOP WITH THE ASSURANCES OF MY HIGHEST RESPECT – SIR LESLIE MUNRO SECRETARY-GENERAL OF THE INTERNATIONAL COMMISSION OF JURISTS GENEVA”
Finally the Commission profoundly regrets that sentences of death were nevertheless executed against three former Ministers of the Turkish Government, namely, Mr. Adnan Menderes, former Prime Minister of Turkey; Mr. Fatin Rustu Zorlu, former Foreign Minister and Mr. Hasan Polatkan, former Finance Minister.
The extreme penalty has been exacted for what appear to have been political offences.
More than fifty years on: enforced disappearance, the families who named it, and the reframing of international protection
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ICJ hosts Johannesburg roundtable on the draft Crimes Against Humanity Treaty with the Malala Fund and other civil society actors