On September 23, 2016 more than 100 people gathered at University of California Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco for a training on the human rights of migrants hosted by the International Justice Resource Center and the Center for Gender & Refugee Studies. The distinguished line-up of speakers included experts on international human rights advocacy and on migrants’
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Refugees and Migrants The UN held the Summit for Refugees and Migrants on Monday and the United States President Barack Obama hosted the Leaders’ Summit on the Global Refugee Crisis on Tuesday. [IJRC; UN News Centre: Bold; UN News Centre: Integration] The International Justice Resource Center and the Center for Gender & Refugee Studies are hosting a training on the
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United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, voiced clear dissatisfaction with Member States’ lack of cooperation with UN human rights monitors, in his recent address to the United Nations Human Rights Council, which begun its 33rd session on September 13, 2016. The High Commissioner directed the international community’s attention to the growing number of Member States
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The United Nations General Assembly will host its first UN Summit for Refugees and Migrants (the Summit) on Monday September 19, 2016 at the UN Headquarters in New York to address one of the greatest current global challenges: the millions of refugees and migrants on the move. [UN News Centre] The Summit will bring together heads of state and government officials,
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Civil Society United Nations human rights experts showed concern for the harassment, detention, and torture of six human rights activists in Sudan who now may also face the death penalty. [OHCHR Press Release] With tens of millions of workers on strike in India, 150 million people were involved in protests on Friday. [Guardian] Girls at a high school in Pretoria,
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During the month of September 2016, several supranational bodies will review States’ implementation of their treaty obligations, regional judicial bodies will conduct hearings, and four UN special procedures mechanisms will conduct country visits. Four United Nations treaty bodies will hold interactive dialogues with more than 20 States regarding their implementation of treaty obligations related to economic, social, and cultural rights and
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Civil Society Ahead of a constitutional referendum scheduled for September, Azerbaijani authorities have arrested several activists critical of the government within the last week. [RSF] In order to make room for civil society members arrested after the coup, Turkey announced that it will release inmates convicted of nonviolent offenses from its prisons. [NYT] Following the recent re-election of Zambia’s president,
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Civil Society & Human Rights Defenders After a video revealed the harassment of aboriginal boys in detention in an Australian jail, Australians protested, demanding an investigation. [Al Jazeera] A human rights lawyer in China, Wang Yu, who was in detention for over a year, made a public confession this week that appeared scripted. [Washington Post] A court in Bahrain postponed
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The United Nations Human Rights Council adopted 33 resolutions during its 33rd session, including to create one new independent expert mandate to monitor violence against LGBT persons and extending or renewing the mandates of eight other expert bodies. [OHCHR] The Human Rights Council, an intergovernmental group that tracks human rights conditions in the UN Member States, is responsible for creating
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Human Rights Defenders and Civil Society Civil society organizations called for the release of Bahraini Human Rights defender, Nabeel Rajab, ahead of the start of his trial this week. [FIDH Press Release] Evan Mawarire, the organizer of recent protests in Zimbabwe, has been charged with inciting public disorder. [The Guardian] A pride parade scheduled to take place in Beersheba, Israel was
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