On January 27, the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) confirmed Vlastimir Đorđević’s conviction in relation to crimes committed by Serbian forces against Albanians, during the conflict in Kosovo. [ICTY: Appeal Judgment Summary] It partially granted appeals raised by both the prosecution and defense, reducing Đorđević’s sentence from 27 to 18 years. This judgment
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Beginning in April 2014, individuals will have the ability to file complaints with the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) concerning alleged violations of children’s human rights by participating States. The Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on a Communications Procedure (OPCP), which establishes the new complaints procedure, received its tenth required ratification,
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Amid ongoing sectarian violence in the Central African Republic, including reported war crimes and crimes against humanity, the United Nations has established two expert mechanisms to monitor the human rights situation, but has so far stopped short of authorizing a UN peacekeeping mission to support the French and African Union troops already in the country. Hundreds have been killed and
Read moreThe European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) issued a judgment last week upholding a British court’s grant of immunity to Saudi Arabia and Saudi officials who allegedly tortured British citizens. See ECtHR, Jones and Others v. United Kingdom, nos. 34356/06 and 40528/06, ECHR 2014, Judgment of 14 January 2014. The UK House of Lords had blocked the plaintiffs’ civil suits
Read moreLast week, Nepal’s highest court released a decision prohibiting grants of amnesty for serious human rights violations committed during the nation’s 10-year internal conflict. The Supreme Court found that grants of amnesties, limitations on criminal prosecutions, and the 35-day time limit on filing cases do not conform to the standards established by the Nepalese Constitution and international law. [OHCHR] If
Read moreFrom January 28 to 31, 2014, the United Nations’ open-ended Intergovernmental Expert Group on the revision of the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (SMRs) will hold its Third Meeting in Brasilia, Brazil in order to continue the process of revising the SMRs. [UNODC: SMRs] The review process is intended to modernize the SMRs to reflect developments in
Read moreBeginning January 1, 2014, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) will apply several major changes to its consideration of individual complaints, pursuant to the entry into force of the new Rule 47 of its Rules of Court. [ECtHR Press Release] The changes to Rule 47 concern the form and content of initial applications themselves, and enforcement of the “six-month rule.”
Read moreOver the past week, the European Court of Human Rights has held hearings in several cases relating to the “war on terror,” at the same time as the United States has forcibly repatriated two Guantanamo Bay detainees, despite their fears of persecution. The following post summarizes these developments and – in follow-up to this previous post – also surveys recent advances in other
Read moreDecember 10, 2013 marks the 65th anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), the statement of fundamental freedoms and privileges that is considered to be the foundation of international human rights law. This year’s Human Rights Day also coincides with the end of a yearlong series of activities commemorating and following up on the 20th
Read moreDuring its 31st Ordinary Session, the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights (AfCHPR) held public hearings in two pending cases, one involving the unsolved assassination of a prominent journalist in Burkina Faso and the other concerning alleged criminal due process violations and arbitrary detention in Tanzania. On November 28-29, the AfCHPR heard arguments on the merits in Beneficiaries of the Late
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