Justice enslaved: a collection of documents on the abuse of justice for political ends

Europe and Central Asia
Issue: Civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights
Document Type: Publication
Date: 1955

“The documentation presented herewith by the Commission to the members of the legal profession exposes the system of injustice in Communist countries. This does hot imply that the Commission restricts its activities to the field of totalitarian systems of the Communist variety.

If the first collection of documents applies only to Communist countries, it is for two outstanding reasons. Firstly, because the systematic injustice in these countries has assumed such proportions that it constitutes a direct menace to those legal principles which the Commission is pledged to defend throughout the world. Secondly, because in the countries behind the Iron Curtain there is neither right nor means to raise a voice in protest against the flood of in­justice. This is particularly the case of those whose true mission

is that of helping individuals to assert their right- against its private or public abuse — the lawyers. The International Com­mission assumes the task of these silenced jurists and files through its documentation open charges against a system which — in face of a hostile majority of the subject peoples — abdicated legality to exigencies of self-preservation.”

The material is organised by theme, as follows:

A.  Violations of fundamental human rights

  • violations of the freedom of opinion and expression
  • violations of the right to assembly and association
  • violations of the freedom of religion
  • violations of the right to instruction
  • violations of the freedom of the press
  • violations of the secrecy of mails

B. Restrictions on free elections

C. Oppression of the population through employment and activity of informers

D. Violations of the security of the person

  • administration of justice
  • persecution for political reasons
  • Penal law proceedings in pursuance of aims of economic policy
  • violations of the freedom of the legal profession and the rights of defence counsel
  • arbitrary arrest and extortion of confessions
  • inhuman sentences and inhuman execution

E. Economic law

  • property rights
  • supremacy of the State in contracts
  • family law

F. Labour law

  • trade unions as an instrument of the State
  • manpower direction based upon compulsion
  • exploitation of workers
  • workers’ discipline

Europe-abuse of justice-thematic report-1955-eng (full text in English, PDF)

Europe-abuse of justice-thematic report-1955-fra (full text in French, PDF)

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