In the month of April, various universal bodies will assess States’ compliance with their human rights obligations by conducting country visits, engaging in interactive dialogues, and reviewing reports from States and civil society. Four United Nations treaty bodies will meet to engage with States regarding their treaty obligations pertaining to the rights of persons with disabilities, the rights of migrants,
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Civil Society This week, hundreds of people in Johannesburg, South Africa protested recent xenophobic attacks. [Al Jazeera] On Tuesday, 17 anti-deportation protesters locked themselves to an aircraft due to remove asylum seekers from the United Kingdom to Nigeria and Ghana. [Guardian] Lawyers and activists allege Russian authorities in Crimea are detaining and abusing human rights activists in psychiatric hospitals. [Guardian]
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Last week, in two separate cases, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued its first decision on sentences for witness tampering and first order for a convicted war criminal to pay reparations to victims. A chamber of the ICC delivered a decision on March 22 regarding the sentences of five convicted individuals in the case of The Prosecutor v. Jean-Pierre Bemba
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Civil Society On Thursday, a civil society organization called for an end to the targeting, prosecuting, and detention of journalists in Belarus. [Committee to Protect Journalists] On Wednesday, activists, politicians, and religious leaders protested unfair elections in Zimbabwe. [Fox News] This week in Macedonia, an estimated 50,000 individuals protested a potential coalition government, which includes Social Democrats and ethnic Albanians. [DW
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On March 21st, the International Justice Resource Center (IJRC) was among the civil society organizations that appeared before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) in Washington, D.C. to address the “travel ban” and two other United States executive orders in a hearing held at the IACHR’s own initiative. In a remarkable departure from recent administrations’ engagement with the region’s
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United Nations Secretary General António Guterres released a report on February 28 detailing his strategy to prevent and respond to sexual exploitation and abuse perpetrated by UN peacekeepers against vulnerable communities. See UN Secretary General, Special measures for protection from sexual exploitation and abuse: a new approach, UN Doc. A/71/818, 28 February 2017. The report comes less than three months
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In two separate opinions issued this week, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) found that while an employer may prohibit a Muslim woman from wearing a headscarf at work through a rule applied consistently to all religious beliefs, an employer may not prohibit a Muslim woman from wearing religious clothing based on a customer’s preferences. These are the first cases
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International Criminal Law The Colombian Senate voted to approve the establishment of a court with jurisdiction over war crimes, fulfilling one part of the recent peace deal with the FARC. [VOA] A court in Poland issued an arrest warrant for a man living in the United States for war crimes committed during World War II. [Washington Post] Civil Society After
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The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) issued a unanimous judgment on March 7 holding that imprisoning individuals thousands of miles away from their families violates their right to private and family life protected under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). See ECtHR, Polyakova and Others v. Russia, Nos. 35090/09, 35845/11, 45694/13, 59747/14, Judgment of 7
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Ahead of International Women’s Day, the African Union in conjunction with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and UN Women launched the inaugural report of a planned series concerning the human rights of women in Africa; the report indicates that while women’s participation in politics has increased, women’s rights and equality are severely lacking
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