Dec 15, 2019 | Advocacy, Non-legal submissions
The ICJ has urged the UN Special Rapporteur on Independence of Judges and Lawyers to ensure that his upcoming report on challenges to the independence of prosecutors, fully addresses abuse of prosecution powers to target human rights defenders, political opponents or others, or giving rise to a more general and systemic lack of fair trial for accused persons, or entrenching impunity of State perpetrators of human rights violations, as among the dominant contemporary challenges to prosecutorial independence globally from a human rights perspective.
The Special Rapporteur has made clear his intention to address challenges to prosecutorial independence arising from transnational corruption and organized crime. While the ICJ certainly agrees that such interference can and does have impacts on human rights, to varying extents around the world, the ICJ submission also highlights and documents that threats to prosecutorial independence emanating from the prosecutor’s own Executive government should be seen to be of at least equal concern from a human rights perspective, globally, and should be fully addressed in any report on “contemporary challenges of prosecutorial independence” from a human rights perspective.
The ICJ’s submission can be downloaded in PDF format here: UN-Advocacy-SRIJLProsecutors-2019
Dec 10, 2019 | News
The pervasive practice of torture and other ill treatment can only be addressed if the States in the region ensure perpetrators are held accountable in line with international standards, said lawyers and activists from Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
The call came at a regional conference on the investigation and prosecution of torture and other ill treatment in South Asia, organized by the ICJ ahead of Human Rights Day.
“Governments in South Asia have done very little to support the victims and survivors of torture and other ill treatment, or to ensure their rights to truth, justice and reparation,” said Frederick Rawski, ICJ’s Asia Director.
“Despite the persistence of the practice, Governments have failed to follow their legal obligation to treat these crimes as the serious human rights violation they are,” he added.
Torture and other ill treatment are prevalent in South Asia, and in some countries widespread and systematic, with perpetrators enjoying impunity for the crime.
According to the ICJ, States in the region continue to deny the pervasiveness of torture, use torture as a deliberate tool to control and punish dissent, fail to enact specific legislation to criminalize torture, and where a special law exists, fail to implement it in good faith.
Consequently, there have been few concerted efforts to hold perpetrators of torture and ill treatment to account.
All too often, perpetrators get away with only disciplinary sanctions, and even when prosecutions happen, they do not result in convictions and commensurate penalties.
Suspects are often lower or middle-ranking public officials rather than their superiors, who are charged with lesser crimes than torture, such as assault, battery, coercion or abuse of office that carry relatively low punishments.
Prosecutions frequently fail because of the difficulties to prove torture, including securing witnesses for the prosecution, inadequate or conflicting medical evidence as well as threats of reprisals influencing victims and witnesses.
Even when such hurdles are overcome, immunities that protect public officials from prosecutions allow perpetrators to escape accountability.
Furthermore, military and intelligence agencies have extensive and unaccountable powers, including for arrest and detention, which facilitate the practice of torture and other ill treatment.
Under international law, States must ensure protection against torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
Whenever there are reasonable grounds to believe that torture has been committed, States are required to investigate allegations competently, impartially, independently, promptly and thoroughly.
While a comprehensive set of reforms, both in law and policy, is required to prevent and combat torture and other ill treatment – ensuring accountability for perpetrators would be a first step, said the ICJ.
Contact:
Frederick Rawski (Bangkok), ICJ Asia Pacific Regional Director, e: frederick.rawski(a)icj.org
Reema Omer, ICJ International Legal Adviser for South Asia (Lahore), t: +923214968434; e: reema.omer(a)icj.org
Oct 3, 2019 | News
Today, ICJ and the Defender Center for Human Rights (DCHR) filed a submission to the Human Rights Council’s Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review in advance of its review of Libya’s human rights record in May 2020.
Information provided in the submission was based on the ICJ report titled Accountability for Serious Crimes under International Law in Libya: an Assessment of the Criminal Justice System, published in July 2019.
In the submission, the ICJ and DCHR drew the attention of the Working Group on the UPR to the following concerns with respect to Libya:
- Impunity for crimes under international law committed by State and non-State actors;
- The insufficient penalization of crimes under international law;
- The lack or inadequacy of investigations and prosecutions of crimes under international law;
- The systemic failure to guarantee the right to liberty and fair trial rights at pre-trial and trial stages.
The ICJ and DCHR called on the Working Group and the Human Rights Council to urge the Libyan authorities to take the following actions:
With regard to insufficient penalization of crimes under international law:
- Enact laws criminalizing war crimes, crimes against humanity and arbitrary deprivations of life (in particular arbitrary and summary executions) in line with international law;
- Amend Law No. 10 of 2013 to bring the definition of torture in line with the Convention Against Torture and the definition of enforced disappearance in line with the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, and criminalize other acts of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment consistent with international law;
- Amend article 425 of the Penal Code to include a definition of the crime of slavery consistent with international law;
- Amend articles 407 and 408 of the Penal Code to criminalize rape in line with international law and standards; enact laws criminalizing all forms of sexual and gender-based violence; and repeal article 424 of the Penal Code which extinguishes a conviction for rape or indecent assault and grants a stay of execution of the penalty imposed against the perpetrator if they marry the victim; and
- Amend (or repeal) Law No. 35 of 2012, Law No. 38 of 2012 and Law No. 6 of 2015 to exclude all crimes under international law from the scope of amnesties.
With regard to the obligation to independently and impartially investigate crimes:
- Amend article 3 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CCP) to remove the requirement that an investigation can only be commenced upon the receipt of a criminal complaint, extend the three-month deadline for victims to file a complaint and remove the deadline entirely for crimes under international law and for other serious crimes under domestic law;
- Amend article 7 of the CCP to grant victims’ family members the right to file a complaint with a view to ensuring the commencement of an investigation;
- Repeal article 224 of the Penal Code to remove the power of the Minister of Justice to control and direct investigations and prosecutions by the Prosecutor’s Office; and
- Repeal Decree 388 of 2011 granting the “Supreme Security Committee” investigative powers and article 2 of Law No. 38 of 2012 permitting the use of information and evidence collected by “revolutionaries” during investigations and at trial.
With regard to the systemic failure to guarantee the right to liberty and fair trial rights at pre-trial and trial stages, amend the CCP in order to:
- Exclude the possibility of detaining an accused on the sole ground that she or he does not have a fixed place of residence;
- Set a maximum duration of pre-trial detention, and specify that any such detention should be employed as last resort only when necessary, proportionate and reasonable according to the circumstances of the case;
- Ensure that detainees are brought before an independent and impartial judicial authority promptly following arrest, and no later than 48 hours in any event;
- Include a provision recognizing the right to habeas corpus, and the right to compensation and other reparations for unlawful detention;
- Provide for the right to legal counsel from the moment of arrest in all circumstances, and repeal the provision requiring a lawyer to seek authorization from the investigating judge to speak during the interrogation of the accused;
- Require the disclosure of all evidence to the accused and allow them to make copies of the case file before a case is referred to court for prosecution; and
- Grant individuals the right to appeal any conviction and sentence on alleged errors of law and fact and to reconsideration of a conviction upon discovery of a new fact.
Download
Libya-UNHCR submission final-advocay-non legal submission-2019-ENG (submission in PDF)
Sep 26, 2019 | Events, News
Today, the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) in cooperation with the Civil Society Coalition Against Torture and Impunity in Tajikistan and the Union of Lawyers of the Republic of Tajikistan hold the final event within the framework of its Global redress and accountability initiative.
This event presents an opportunity to discuss measures to prevent impunity and ensure accountability for the use of torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment (CIDT) in Tajikistan.
The findings of the research on the key challenges for effective investigation of torture and CIDT, carried out by the Coalition Against Torture under the initiative, will be presented at the event. The ICJ will launch its compilation of the cases decided by the UN Human Rights Committee concerning allegations of torture in Tajikistan.
Background information:
The ICJ’s Global redress and accountability initiative focused on seven countries (Cambodia, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nepal, Tajikistan, Tunisia and Venezuela) and it aimed to combat impunity and promote redress for gross human rights violations.
It concentrates on the transformative role of the law, justice mechanisms and justice actors, seeking to achieve greater adherence of national legal and institutional frameworks with international law and standards so as to allow for effective redress and accountability; more independent justice mechanisms capable of dealing with challenges of impunity and access to redress; and judges, lawyers, human rights defenders, victims and their representatives that are better equipped to demand and deliver truth, justice and reparation.
Agenda here.
Sep 25, 2019 | Advocacy, Non-legal submissions
The ICJ today highlighted the need for a Commission of Inquiry or similar accountability mechanism for Libya, at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.
The call came in an oral statement, delivered during an interactive dialogue on Libya. It read as follows:
“The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) welcomes the oral update by the High Commissioner for Human Rights on the situation in Libya.
Violations and abuses under international human rights, humanitarian and refugee law are being committed by State and non-State actors on a widespread and systematic scale in Libya, including since the resurgence of conflict in April. As noted by the High Commissioner on 9 September 2019, the human rights and potentially lives of migrants “intercepted by the Libyan Coast Guard and forcibly returned to Libya … are [also] under serious threat.”
Despite the scale of violations and abuses, only a handful of criminal investigations and prosecutions have been undertaken, resulting in near-total impunity.
A recent ICJ report on the criminal justice system in Libya found that the domestic legal framework governing investigations and prosecutions does not meet international law and standards on the right to a fair trial, the right to liberty and the prohibition on torture and other ill-treatment. As a result, any domestic investigation or prosecution is unlikely to satisfy the requirements of fair and effective justice. Moreover, most crimes under international law, including war crimes and crimes against humanity, are not penalized in domestic law.
These findings undercut the presumption relied upon by States in their engagement with Libya that the Libyan authorities can ensure accountability for crimes under international law.
To fill the accountability gap, the ICJ urges the Human Rights Council to establish a Commission of Inquiry or similar mechanism to document and report on gross human rights violations and to collect and preserve evidence of crimes for future criminal proceedings.
States should also refrain from entering into or implementing agreements with Libyan authorities that could give rise to support for or complicity in violations of international law.”
