ICJ welcomes General Assembly’s Third Committee’s adoption of resolution on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions

ICJ welcomes General Assembly’s Third Committee’s adoption of resolution on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions

The ICJ welcomes the UN General Assembly’s Third Committee’s adoption of resolution A/C.3/69/L.47 on Extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions on 19 November most recently.

The resolution, which is introduced biennially, urges States to protect the right to life of all people. Importantly, it calls upon States to investigate killings based on discriminatory grounds, including killings that target people based on their sexual orientation or gender identity. It is the only resolution at the General Assembly to make specific reference to sexual orientation and gender identity.

The resolution was introduced by Finland and co-sponsored by 62 additional states. The support came after a concerted effort by civil society to ensure the successful adoption of the resolution, culminating in a joint letter to all States by 30 NGOs, including the ICJ.

An effort led by Egypt to weaken the resolution, by introducing an amendment that would have removed reference to any of the groups particularly at risk of extrajudicial killings, was defeated by a vote of 86 against, 53 in favour and 24 abstaining.

The resolution was adopted 111 to 1, with 63 abstentions. Kiribati after the vote declared their intention to change their ‘no’ vote to abstention.

ICJ presentation on access to justice to OECD Public Governance Committee

ICJ presentation on access to justice to OECD Public Governance Committee

The ICJ’s Director of International Law and Protection Programmes, Alex Conte, will speak next week on access to justice at a meeting of the OECD Public Governance Committee.

The meeting Fostering Inclusive Growth and Trust in Justice Institutions: Access, Performance and Alternatives, will be held in Paris on 12 November 2014.

The ICJ’s presentation will focus on the key components of access to justice as a means of ensuring access by all to legal institutions capable of rending independent, impartial, binding and enforceable decisions.

It will also address the question of how, when such components are adhered to, trust in justice institutions is attained, from the perspective of the rule of law and public governance, from individuals’ perspectives and from investment and international perspectives.

ICJ convenes second expert roundtable on asylum claims based on sexual orientation and/or gender identity

ICJ convenes second expert roundtable on asylum claims based on sexual orientation and/or gender identity

Today, the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) held its second expert roundtable on asylum claims based on sexual orientation and/or gender identity.

Participants included asylum judges, lawyers, and academics, as well as officials from the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and staff members from a number of civil society organizations.

Prof. Hathaway, Director of the Program in refugee and asylum law at the University of Michigan Law School, Prof. Anker, Director of the Harvard Law School’s Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program, and Judge Lars Bay Larsen, judge of the Court of Justice of the European Union, were the main speakers at the roundtable. Each delivered a presentation focussing on different normative aspects of asylum claims based on sexual orientation and/or gender identity.

The programme of the second expert roundtable, including a list of all participants, can be downloaded here.

This roundtable forms part of a broader ICJ’S project on international protection claims based on sexual orientation AND/OR gender identity. The programme of the first roundtable organised in Brussels last June can be downloaded here. The ICJ’s commentary on the related CJEU judgment in X, Y and Z v. the Netherlands can be downloaded here.

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