Mar 1, 2018 | Events, News
This side event at the 37th session of the Human Rights Council takes place on Friday, 2 march, 15:00-16:30, room XI of the Palais des Nations. It is organized by the Civic Space Initiative (CSI) and co-sponsored by the ICJ.
In recent years, the use of exceptional national security and emergency powers to combat terrorism has become increasingly common.
The international instruments recognize that respect for human rights and rule of law are the basis of the fight against terrorism.
However, counterterrorism measures and emergency powers have increasingly resulted in or been used to restrict fundamental freedoms, including the rights to assembly, association and expression.
In this context, it is necessary for states and civil society to increase their understanding of the relationship between entrenched emergency powers and sustained human rights violations and to further elaborate guidelines and good practices that will return respect for human rights to the center of state efforts to combat terrorism.
This event aims to elevate attention and further explore the pernicious effects of states of emergency and emergency powers on human rights and fundamental freedoms with particular attention to the rights of freedom of association, assembly, and expression. It will also address how states of emergency often facilitate targeting and undermining the work of human rights defenders.
Speakers:
- Professor Fionnuala Ni Aolain, UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human
rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism
- Kerem Altiparmak, Ankara University, Faculty of Political Science
- Yared Hailemariam, Director, Association for Human Rights in Ethiopia
- Lisa Oldring, Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
- Sonia Tanic, Representative to the United Nations, International Federation for Human Rights
Moderator:
- Nicholas Miller, International Center for Not-for-Profit Law
Coffee/croissants served at 14:45
For more information contact: nmiller@icnl.org, vanja@ecnl.org
The event will be livestreamed on the @CIVICUS Facebook page
Universal – Counterrorism and Civic Space – News – Events – 2018 – News (Event flyer in PDF)
Feb 27, 2018 | Advocacy, News, Non-legal submissions
The head of the ICJ’s Centre for the Independence of Judges and Lawyers, Matt Pollard, highlighted the role of judges, lawyers and prosecutors in preventing human rights abuses, at a UN expert workshop in Geneva.The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) organised the expert workshop, 21 to 22 February 2018, to discuss the role and contribution of civil society organizations, academia, national human rights institutions and other relevant stakeholders in the prevention of human rights abuses, drawing on the conclusions and recommendations of OHCHR’s study on the prevention of human rights violations.
The workshop, mandated by the Human Rights Council resolution 33/6, covered topics such as: a framework approach to prevention; human rights education; abuses by private actors, national and regional practices, planning and monitoring tools; human rights impact assessments; and the role of UN institutions.
The presentation on the role of judges and lawyers can be downloaded in PDF format here: UN-ExpertMeeting-JudgesLawyersPrevention-2018
More information about the expert workshop is available by clicking here.
Feb 8, 2018
The ICJ has today published a compilation of international human rights standards relevant to Traditional and Customary Justice Systems.
The compilation is being published as part of an ongoing project on the relationship between traditional and customary justice systems, including indigenous justice, and human rights, access to justice, and the rule of law.
Among the sources included in the compilation are global and regional treaty provisions, UN and other declarations, and the jurisprudence and recommendations of Committees and Special Procedures established by treaties and the UN Human Rights Council.
The sources are organised by themes including the rights of women, rights of children, the role of judges and lawyers and the administration of justice, the rights of indigenous peoples, and the rights of minorities.
The 2017 ICJ Geneva Forum of Judges and Lawyers brought together judges and lawyers from around the world to discuss traditional and customary justice systems, and the ICJ is currently planning for continuing work on the theme over the next three years with the aim of producing practical global legal and policy guidance to assist actors within traditional systems, actors within State justice systems, and others to best ensure that everyone enjoys their rights of access to justice and other human rights. A report of the Forum is also available.
Contact
Matt Pollard, Senior Legal Adviser, matt.pollard@icj.org
Universal-Trad Custom Justice Compil updated-Publications-2018-ENG (Full publication in PDF)
Cover Photo: Traditional leaders preside over a case in B-Court, Nyang Payam, Torit County, South Sudan. Photo Credit: UNDP South Sudan2016Angelique Reid ©2016 United Nations
Dec 18, 2017 | Multimedia items, News, Video clips
Raquel Yrigoyen Fajardo, Karabo Ozah and Charles Dinda talk about traditional justice systems in video interviews recorded at the 2017 ICJ Geneva Forum.
Dr. Raquel Yrigoyen Fajardo, Lawyer and Professor at the Law Faculty of the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, and founding member of the International Institute on Law and Society (IIDS), describes the survival and contemporary recognition of justice systems of indigenous peoples in the Americas, despite the history of colonial domination.
She argues that indigenous justice systems often already reflect many international human rights standards, and where there may be discrepancies change should be sought through respectful engagement and consultation rather than coercive imposition.
In contrast, Ms Karabo Ozah, Deputy Director of the Centre for Child Law at the University of Pretoria in South Africa, argues that it is crucially important to ensure that customary and traditional courts respect domestic legislation and international standards on human rights.
Otherwise she warns, based on her experience, customary courts too frequently fail to protect the rights of marginalized groups, children, LGBTI, and women.
Charles Dinda, Senior Legal Adviser with the Danish Institute for Human Rights in Zambia, points out that while traditional and customary justice institutions are the most easily accessible and in many respects most credible institutions for some populations, their decisions are too often inconsistent or unfair.
To avoid this, he insists on the importance of understanding and studying the way these systems operate and on the need to engage with them to learn about their practices and to build their capacities so that they have better knowledge of international human rights standards and indeed of the national laws in the countries where they operate.
Watch the interview with Dr. Raquel Yrigoyen Fajardo
Watch the interview with Karabo Ozah
Watch the interview with Charles Dinda
NOTE:
The views expressed by the participants do not necessarily reflect those of the ICJ.
For more information about the 2017 Geneva Forum on Customary and Traditional Justice Systems, click here or contact matt.pollard(a)icj.org .
Nov 25, 2017 | Multimedia items, News, Video clips
Over the last year, since 25 November 2016, the ICJ has published a series of (video) profiles introducing the remarkable work of ICJ women Commissioners and Honorary Members.
“The ICJ has a strong focus on the struggle to eliminate violence against women. It is supporting the judiciary, independent civil society organizations and women’s rights defenders, in their work to promote international standards, ensure that victims are made visible and that States understand their responsibilities and obligations. At the same time, the ICJ provides much-needed judicial education on gender-based violence,” said Justice Radmila Dragicevic-Dicic, ICJ Commissioner, member of ICJ’s Executive Committee, and Justice of the Supreme Court of Serbia, on the occasion of 25 November, International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.
ICJ Commissioners have been at the forefront of the work to reform justice systems to make it easier for women to take cases of domestic violence to the courts, to punish perpetrators of rape and sexual assault as a war crime, to challenge discriminatory religious and family laws and to support victims of human trafficking and forced prostitution.
The ICJ has also supported judicial training programmes on access to justice for women. In 2016, the ICJ, in collaboration with UN Women, hosted a workshop for representatives from the judiciaries of Indonesia, Philippines, Timor Leste, and Thailand.
The participants of the workshop developed and adopted the Bangkok General Guidance for Judges in Applying a Gender Perspective.
In follow up, for example, the Supreme Court of Indonesia has now issued a Regulation based on the General Guidance, requiring judges to apply a gender perspective as they consider cases before them that involve women’s human rights.
Working in partnership with other organizations and the UN, the ICJ and its Commissioners will continue to work to ensure justice for women and to end gender-based violence.
The video interviews of ICJ women Commissioners and Honorary Members can be accessed here:
Justice Radmila Dragicevic-Dicic has worked on issues of organized crime and human trafficking. In the Serbian Constitution, human trafficking is now categorized as a crime against humanity and is taken very seriously. Radmila highlights the importance of ensuring the non-punishment, safety and protection of victims as well as their right to access compensation.
Prof Jenny Goldschmidt is a former President of the Equal Treatment Commission of the Netherlands and has combined academic research with practical work, with a particular focus on non-discrimination and the concepts of equality. She considers it is vital to take cases to the Treaty Bodies and courts everywhere to establish severe measures against discrimination and domestic violence.
Asma Jahangir is an Honorary Member of the ICJ, and the co-founder of Pakistan’s first all female law firm. She worked on a number of landmark cases including on issues such as whether women could get married without their father’s permission, be entitled to family maintenance or whether women should be judged according to religious law.
Imrana Jalal is a human rights lawyer and gender specialist in the Asian Development Bank in Manila. Imrana helped draft and negotiate the passage of the ground-breaking Fiji Family Law Act, which took twelve years to pass. She considers that in the area of family law, some progress has been made but it is hard because it is based on the premise that women have an equal right to property and this directly confronts social norms.
Hina Jilani is an advocate of the Supreme Court of Pakistan and served as the first UN Special Representative on Human Rights Defenders. She considers domestic violence in Pakistan as a major problem. Although the Pakistani judiciary is traditionally very conservative, Ms Jilani considers there has been progress because women’s rights advocates present cases in such a way as to make the social inequalities and injustices apparent.
Justice Sanji Monageng is a member of the International Criminal Court. She considers that the ICC has not done very well in prosecuting sexual and gender-based violence so far. The new Chief Prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, has created a policy on sexual violence and gender issues, establishing a dedicated unit. She says is it evident in the cases that now come before her, there is a lot more attention being paid to sexual violence.
Karinna Moskalenko is a Russian lawyer and a founder of the International Protection Centre in the 1990s after Russia had ratified the Optional Protocol to the ICCPR. She explains her work to support women who are much more vulnerable than men, particularly because of the problem of domestic violence.
The former ICJ Vice-President Michèle Rivet was the first President of the Quebec Human Rights Tribunal from 1990 and until 2010. For Michèle, those who work in the field of human rights form a global village and have a duty to help women victims of violence: “we must all walk together on the long march to equality.”
Prof. Leila Zerrougui is Algerian and has served at the Algerian Supreme Court. She worked in the DRC as part of the UN Stabilization Mission and was Special Representative of the Secretary General for Children and Armed Conflict. In the DRC, she established mobile criminal justice system, with an investigator, prosecutor and a mobile court and prison in every Province. In this context, she explained how rewarding it was to see a colonel taken to the village where he and his soldiers had raped women to face justice there.
