The ICJ is urging the Syrian authorities to immediately and unconditionally release Mazen Darwish, a prominent human rights lawyer and defender, and President of the Center for Media and Freedom of Expression (SCM).
Under the second cycle of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) mechanism, the UN Human Rights Council Working Group on the UPR will be undertaking a review of Israel during its 15th session in January 2013.
The ICJ today called upon the Tunisian authorities to take immediate steps to ensure the rights of victims of human rights violations to effective remedies and to reparation.
The ICJ urged the UN Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights to further press for the regulation or prohibition of military courts.
This is essential for the proper administration of justice, respect of the right to fair trial and the eradication of impunity, the ICJ said.
UN Sub-Commisssion-administrration justice-non-legal submission-2011 (full text, PDF)
The ICJ and other Human Rights groups today strongly condemned the conviction, and sentence to three years’ imprisonment, of Mr. Haytham Al-Maleh, a 79 years old prominent Syrian human rights lawyer.
This conviction was ordered on the grounds of “transferring false and exaggerated news that weaken national sentiments”, under Articles 285 and 286 of the Syrian Criminal Code. The charges arise from Mr. Al-Maleh’s interviews with the media in which he criticized, amongst other things, the continued use of the emergency laws in Syria and the ongoing control of the Syrian authorities over the judicial system.
Syria-conviction Al-Maleh-press release-2010 (full text in English, PDF)
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