Sep 24, 2019 | Événements, Nouvelles
L’ICJ organise son premier gala-concert de récolte de fonds, le lundi 14 octobre 2019 à 19h30 au Palais Eynard, 4 rue de la Croix Rouge à Genève. Ce gala soutient l’ICJ et son combat pour la défense de l’Etat de Droit dans le monde et qui marque la fin de la série d’événements organisés pour notre 60e anniversaire dans la capitale des droits humains.
Le thème de notre gala sera: “Genève, la défense de l’Etat de Droit: que puis-je faire?”
Après un mot de bienvenue de la maire de Genève et une présentation de Me Pierre de Preux, ancien Bâtonnier de l’Ordre des avocats de Genève, les Commissaires de l’ICJ incluant Sir Nicolas Bratza (ancien Président de la Cour européenne des Droits de l’Homme), Dame Silvia Cartwright (ancienne juge et Gouverneur Général de la Nouvelle-Zélande), le professeur Bob Goldman (président de l’ICJ et ancien président de la Commission interaméricaine des Droits de l’Homme) et Mme Roberta Clarke (Présidente du Comité Exécutif de l’ICJ, Bureau de l’ONU Femmes pour les Caraïbes, Bureau régional de l’ONU Femmes pour l’Asie et le Pacifique), donneront des réponses concrètes à cette question.
Ces interventions seront suivies d’un merveilleux concert des «Solistes de la Menuhin Academy» (photo) et d’un cocktail dînatoire.
Réservations: Pascale.andris@icj.org
Vous ne pouvez pas venir mais désirez malgré tout nous soutenir: cliquez ici
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Invitation Gala 14 Oct
Sep 23, 2019 | Advocacy, Non-legal submissions
The ICJ today drew the attention of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, to the Bangkok General Guidance for Judges on Applying a Gender Perspective, in the context of a discussion of “Gender-responsive initiatives to accelerate gender equality”.
The oral statement read as follows:
“International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) welcomes this opportunity to share information on our ongoing work with women judges in many parts of the world, supporting them and their male colleagues to better ensure women’s access to justice and gender equality.
As part of these efforts, facilitated by the ICJ and UN Women, in 2016 judges from the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, and Timor Leste developed and adopted The Bangkok General Guidance for Judges on Applying a Gender Perspective.
Among many other provisions, the Guidance urges States to achieve gender parity in appointments to the bench.
The Guidance provides that: “Gender equality should be a principle that guides judicial appointments. Women and men must be equally represented on the bench as they bring a diversity of perspectives, approaches and life experiences to adjudication, which influence the interpretation and application of laws.”
It further recommends that “[i]f necessary, temporary affirmative measures – like quotas which should be consistent with requirements of integrity and high competency – should be implemented in order to assure that women are adequately represented in the judiciary” and that “[e]valuation panels for the appointment and promotion of judges should be composed of men and women.”
The Guidance builds on global standards such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights’ provisions on equality, non-discrimination, and equal access to public service; article 10 of the UN Basic Principles on the Independence of the Judiciary, on non-discrimination in judicial selection processes; and related articles of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).
We hope the Bangkok Guidance will be a useful reference both in considering how to improve gender parity within the Council’s mechanisms, and as a resource for the Council and its mechanisms to cite in their analysis and recommendations to governments and other stakeholders, on improving access to justice for women in Southeast Asia and around the world.”
Sep 21, 2019 | Advocacy
The ICJ has joined several hundred organizations working to defend human rights, the environment, and climate justice in a bold declaration setting out a vision and objectives for addressing the climate crisis and the devastating human rights and environmental impact of catastrophic climate change.
The Declaration was adopted at a gathering of the the Peoples’ Summit on Climate, Rights and Human Survival in New York on 18-19 September, which brought together some 200 representatives of Indigenous Peoples, workers, academia, environmental and human rights groups, including the ICJ.
The Declaration warns that “the climate emergency threatens human survival, the environment and the enjoyment of all human rights, for present and future generations.”
It emphasizes that governments and corporations bear the primary responsibility for acting to address and reverse the drivers of climate change.
The signatories to the Declaration agreed to 10 types of actions, including, among others, placing human rights at the core of climate activism, demanding effective access to justice for individuals and communities whose rights are impacted by the climate crisis, and support for environmental human rights defenders.
Download
Universal-Peoples Summit Declaration CC-Advocacy-2019-ENG (full declaration in PDF)
Sep 19, 2019 | Advocacy, Non-legal submissions
The ICJ today joined other NGOs in an oral statement to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, highlighting ongoing challenges faced by independent UN human rights experts, supporting the process the experts have established to make their own work effective, and calling for related issues of funding and non-cooperation of States to be addressed.
The statement was delivered on behalf of the group of NGOs by Amnesty International and read as follows:
“We note the concerns in the Declaration of the Special Procedures’ mandate holders at the Annual Meeting 2019 and share their concern about the global retrenchment against the values and obligations embedded in international human rights law and the challenges they spell out with regard to non-cooperation.
We also express appreciation[1] for the process set in place by the Special Procedures Coordination Committee to discuss ways in which the work can be strengthened including by seeking input from a wide range of stakeholders. This process presents the most appropriate way to ensure the effectiveness of the Special Procedures in protecting and promoting human rights, and to discuss ways to strengthen cooperation and address situations where there may be concerns regarding the actions of individual mandate holders.
We hope that this process will also provide an opportunity to discuss issues of chronic underfunding, non-cooperation of States with the Special Procedures, acts of reprisal and intimidation against human rights defenders and ad hominem attacks against mandate holders and how to make non-cooperation including selective cooperation by states more costly.”
(Partial) list of signatories:
- Amnesty International
- Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies
- Center for Reproductive Rights
- Child Rights Connect
- CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation
- Colombian Commission of Jurists
- Defence for Children International
- Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA)
- Geneva for Human Rights
- ILGA World
- International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute
- International Commission of Jurists
- International Movement against All Forms of Discrimination and Racism (IMADR)
- International Service of Human Rights
- Peace Brigades International
- Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF)
- World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT)
[1] Civil society statement on efforts to strengthen and increase effectiveness of the United Nations Special Procedures , https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/IOR4009672019ENGLISH.pdf
Sep 18, 2019
The ICJ has issued its Annual Report 2018, which offers a concise summary of the work carried out by the ICJ over the past year.
The ICJ’s long-standing work to uphold the international framework underlying human rights protection has never been so important as in the current climate of wholesale assault upon this framework and the very concept of the rule of law.
Many of the current challenges to human rights stem from the same issues that we have been dealing with in recent decades. However, there are also new challenges that come from States that would not have been predicted 15 years ago.
The rise of democratically elected, self-styled populist leaders who embrace and espouse authoritarian, nationalistic and xenophobic policies has led to almost unprecedented levels of licence to engage in attacks and incitement against some of the most marginalized in society, including immigrants, asylum seekers and minorities.
These leaders have also attacked human rights defenders, civil society organizations, the civilian judiciary, the media, and have arrested opposition leaders and at times have cynically used counter-terrorism laws against and military courts to try peaceful protesters.
Such practices are exquisitely antithetical to and utterly destructive of the rule of law and the rights-based system that the ICJ has sought to promote and protect over the years.
While these new challenges to human rights are particularly insidious and damaging, the ICJ is well-placed to deal with them by virtue of our unique approach which focuses on the transformative role and potential of the law, of justice institutions and of justice actors.
Our ability to influence legal and institutional reform and individual justice actors is unparalleled and this reinforces the relevance and effectiveness of the ICJ.
Accordingly, rule of law issues on the international and regional levels continued to dominate the ICJ’s core work in 2018.
As indicated in this Report, the ICJ helped to protect the European Court of Human Rights from proposed ‘reforms’ that would have undermined its ability to operate effectively, and contributed to the UN Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, which recognizes the need to observe human rights in the context of large movements of peoples.
As part of our global and regional efforts to strengthen independent and accountable judicial systems, the ICJ contributed to the elaboration of the Lilongwe Principles on the Appointment of Judicial Officers and was actively engaged with the UN Global Judicial Integrity Network.
In addition, we continued our work on traditional and customary justice systems and the opportunities they offer for enabling access to justice consistent with internationally recognized fair trial standards.
Finally, it is worth noting that 2018 marked the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Given the current climate, it is altogether fitting to recall and reflect on why this seminal document was adopted and why it envisions that human rights be protected by the rule of law.
Accordingly, the ICJ will continue to work vigorously to uphold the rule of law around the world, always mindful that what we do is ultimately intended to benefit all rights holders in all places and in all contexts.
Download
Universal-ICJ Annual Report 2018-Publications-Reports-Annual Report-2019-ENG (full report in PDF)
