domestic courts – Page 6 – International Justice Resource Center

Bangladesh Faces Violence, Controversy Over International Crimes Tribunal Convictions

March 12, 2013 IJRC domestic courts, due process & judicial protection, international criminal law, international human rights, internationalized criminal tribunals

Bangladesh has been marked by riots and violence, with more than 80 killed since January 21, 2013 due to conflict surrounding the International Crimes Tribunal’s recent convictions of members of the Islamist Jamaat-e-Islami political party on charges stemming from the its collaboration with Pakistani forces during the 1971 Liberation War, through which Bangladesh won independence. [The International] Since it began

Extraordinary African Chambers: Hybrid Court to Try Former Chad Dictator Hissène Habré

February 13, 2013 IJRC African System, crime & impunity, domestic courts, due process & judicial protection, European System, extrajudicial executions, International Court of Justice, international human rights, internationalized criminal tribunals, torture, UN treaty bodies, universal jurisdiction

The Extraordinary African Chambers, a special criminal court, opened on February 8, 2013 in the West African nation of Senegal to prepare a case against former Chadian president Hissène Habré. [NY Times] Habré has been accused of responsibility for the deaths of more than 40,000 people and the torture of more than 20,000 during his eight-year rule of Chad, from 1982

Developments in Sri Lanka, Honduras Cause Concern for Judicial Independence

January 10, 2013 IJRC domestic courts, due process & judicial protection, Inter-American System, international human rights, judicial independence, UN Special Procedures

Recent developments in Honduras and Sri Lanka have caused concern among civil society and human rights monitoring bodies for the judiciary’s independence in those countries. In Honduras, the National Congress removed four of the five justices who sit on the Constitutional Chamber of the nation’s Supreme Court. According to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), the Honduran Congress ousted the justices due to their

UK Exercises Universal Jurisdiction to Prosecute Nepalese Colonel for Torture

January 9, 2013 IJRC domestic courts, international human rights, torture, universal jurisdiction

On Thursday, January 3, 2013, British Metropolitan Police arrested Colonel Kumar Lama, a former Nepalese army officer, during a visit with his wife and children at their home in East Sussex, England. [BBC] Col. Lama was charged with two counts of torture allegedly committed in 2005 during Nepal’s civil war and faces trial in Britain. Charges and Basis of British

U.S. Government Limits Legal Access by Guantanamo Detainees

August 8, 2012 IJRC due process & judicial protection, liberty & security of person, security & rule of law, U.S. courts

The U.S. Government has sought to curtail the scope of the Supreme Court ruling in Boumediene v. Bush and claim authority to decide when Guantanamo detainees may or may not be granted access to legal counsel. As reported by SCOTUS Blog: The Obama Administration conceded to a federal judge early Tuesday that it is cutting back on the legal rights

In Guatemala, Long-Awaited Step towards Accountability as Former Dictator Faces Genocide Charges

January 23, 2012 IJRC domestic courts, enforced disappearance, Inter-American System, international criminal law, international humanitarian law, massacres

On January 14, 2012, Efraín Ríos Montt lost the immunity against prosecution that he had enjoyed as a member of the national legislature (diputado al Congreso) since 2008, and previously from 1994-95 and 1999-2004. [PrensaLibre] After taking office through a coup d’état, Rios Montt presided over what is considered the bloodiest period in Guatemala’s thirty-six year internal conflict. As the

Guantanamo, Ten Years On: A Look Back

January 11, 2012 IJRC civil litigation, due process & judicial protection, international human rights, security & rule of law, U.S. courts

Today marks the tenth year anniversary of the United States government’s use of the prison camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba to hold individuals suspected of supporting or being associated with al Qaeda or other groups – some, but not all, of which were designated terrorist groups by the U.S. government. See Mark Denbeaux et al., Report on the Guantanamo Detainees:

Blackwater Successor Settles Two Wrongful Death Cases by Civilians and Contractors Killed in Iraq

January 8, 2012 IJRC ATCA litigation, corporate accountability, international criminal law, military and humanitarian intervention, U.S. courts

Family members of Iraqi civilians killed by Blackwater security contractors in Baghdad’s Nisoor Square in 2007 have agreed to a settlement offered by Academi, Blackwater’s successor (also recently known as Xe Services). [Washington Post] On September 16, 2007, Blackwater employees guarding U.S. diplomats opened fire into a crowd, killing seventeen Iraqi civilians in what was alleged by prosecutors to be

International Human Rights Law as a Local Advocacy Tool : Video of Panel Discussion

December 21, 2011 IJRC civil society, domestic courts, human rights defenders, Inter-American System, international criminal law, international humanitarian law, regional human rights protection, torture, Universal system

On December 7, IJRC hosted Boston Human Rights Night, bringing together the legal, academic and social just communities to learn about one another’s work and discuss the relevance of international law and mechanisms to their advocacy efforts. Panelists Gabor Rona (Human Rights First), Martha Davis (Program on Human Rights and the Global Economy), Christy Fujio (Physicians for Human Rights), John

News Clips – October 11, 2011

October 11, 2011 IJRC civil society, democracy & political rights, domestic courts, due process & judicial protection, regional human rights protection, thought, expression & association

In the wake of the killing of Al-Qaida militant and U.S. citizen Anwar al-Awlaki in late September by a U.S. drone strike in Yemen, many have questioned the Obama Administration’s legal justification for killing U.S. citizens and others outside combat zones, as discussed by IJRC Board member Jamil Dakwar in “State Sanctioned Killings”, published in the ezine Jadaliyya last Friday.