Articles and Other Commentary: July 2011

A new 100-page publication by Margaret Sekaggya, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, explains the Declaration on the Right and Responsibility of Individuals, Groups and Organs of Society to Promote and Protect Universally Recognized Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (Declaration on Human Rights Defenders), the rights it protects, and how they may be implemented. UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, Commentary to the Declaration on the Right and Responsibility of Individuals, Groups and Organs of Society to Promote and Protect Universally Recognized Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (July 2011).

A new General Comment No. 34 by the UN Human Rights Committee analyzes restrictions on the right to freedom of opinion and expression as protected by Article 19 of the ICCPR – including laws prohibiting blasphemy, treason, terrorism, and defamation – and addresses governments’ obligations to provide access to information.

Roman Anatolevich Kolodkin, the UN International Law Commission Special Rapporteur on the immunity of State officials from foreign criminal jurisdiction has published its Third report on the subject, addressing procedural aspects of immunity (timing, invocation and waiver) and State responsibility.

Adam Tomkins, National Security and the Due Process of Law, CURRENT LEGAL PROBLEMS (2011) p. 1-39 examines the balance between national security concerns and procedural fairness under English law, with a closer look at special advocates and closed materials, as well as the cases of Binyam Mohamed, Al Sweady, and Al Rawi.

Craig Forcese, Spies Without Borders: International Law and Intelligence Collection, 5 J. NAT’L SEC. L. & POL’Y 179 (2011) examines the Canadian Federal Court’s 2007 decision concluding that the Canadian Security Intelligence Service had no authority to conduct covert investigations abroad.

The latest issue of the Journal of International Criminal Justice includes a symposium on the influence of the European Court of Human Rights’ case law on international criminal law, with articles analyzing the intersections between international criminal law and human rights law and the bodies charged with enforcing each, and including articles focused on torture, criminal due process, punishment. The issue also contains four articles on the topic of “National Prosecution of International Crimes: Cases and Legislation”. J. INT’L CRIM. JUST. (2011) 9(3)

Jens David Ohlin proposes a normative framework for defining States’ use of targeted killings, based on such factors as the individual’s direct participation in hostilities and functional membership in a terrorist organization, in Targeting Co-Belligerents (July 15, 2011). TARGETED KILLINGS: LAW & MORALITY IN AN ASYMMETRICAL WORLD, Claire Finkelstein, Jens David Ohlin, Andrew Altman, eds., Oxford University Press, Forthcoming.

Spanish network Coordinadora para la Prevención y Denuncia de la Tortura has released its annual report documenting complaints of torture in Spain, La tortura en el Estado Español (2010).

A new report published by the Open Society Justice Initiative, Pretrial Detention and Torture: Why Pretrial Detainees Face the Greatest Risk, analyzes the vulnerability of pre-trial detainees and the safeguards recommended for their protection.

In an article for Jadaliyya, Lisa Hajjar documents The Legal Campaign Against American Torture, examining the challenges raised by U.S. organizations and attorneys against U.S. government practices in the ‘war on terror’.