This month, the International Criminal Court (ICC), the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), and United Nations special procedures mandate holders all took steps to expose Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s regime’s responsibility for human rights violations and international crimes committed against the Venezuelan population. On February 8, the prosecutor of the ICC announced that she opened a preliminary examination into the situation in Venezuela. The preliminary
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At the end of January, three international human rights bodies took substantial steps to ensure protection of children’s rights. On January 25, 2018, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) issued its first decision on the merits in the case K.Y.M. v. Denmark, holding that Denmark violated the International Convention on the Rights of the Child
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The African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACERWC) recently published its holding that Mauritania violated the rights to protection from child labor and from child abuse, among other rights and obligations, established in the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (African Children’s Charter), due to the enslavement of two children.
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On January 24, the European Committee of Social Rights (ECSR) published its 2017 conclusions regarding 33 States’ implementation of the European Social Charter’s provisions related to health, social security, and social protection, and found 175 instances of non-conformity out of 486 situations examined. [ECSR Press Release] Additionally, the ECSR was unable to adequately assess the situation in 83 cases due to lack
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In February 2018, several universal and regional human rights bodies and experts will assess States’ compliance with their human rights obligations through the consideration of State and civil society reports, country visits, interactive dialogues, and hearings on individual complaints. Four United Nations treaty bodies will be holding sessions throughout February on issues related to children’s rights, prevention of torture, the
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The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has called on the Tunisian government to respect demonstrators’ rights following the protests that began around January 8, continuing through January 14, and have resulted in almost 850 arrests. [UN News Centre; NY Times: Arrests; BBC: Gas] In addition to mass arrests, the police have responded to the
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On January 9, 2018, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR), the judicial organ of the human rights system in the Americas, published an advisory opinion holding that Member States of the American Convention on Human Rights have an obligation to permit transgender individuals to change their name and gender on identity documents, to recognize same-sex marriage, and to ensure
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The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), two United Nations special rapporteurs, and one UN working group recently condemned Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski’s decision to issue a humanitarian pardon on December 24, 2017 to former President Alberto Fujimori, who was convicted and sentenced in 2009 to 25 years in prison for murder, kidnapping, and crimes against humanity during his
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In January 2018, several universal and regional human rights bodies and experts will assess States’ compliance with their human rights obligations through the consideration of State and civil society reports, interactive dialogues, country visits, and hearings. One United Nations treaty body will meet throughout January to assess States’ compliance with their treaty obligations related to the rights of the child.
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The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) presented a report on December 5, 2017 that, for the first time in the region, details Member States’ human rights legal obligations to address the situation of poverty and extreme poverty in the Americas through a human rights perspective. See IACHR, Poverty and Human Rights in the Americas (2017), para. 18 (in Spanish
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