Remembrance, Truth and Justice.Credit: Lisa Reinsberg

On 4th International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, Advocacy and Monitoring Continue on Behalf of Victims and Families

On August 30th, the international community will commemorate the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, honoring those who have been forcibly disappeared, while encouraging States to cease this practice and remedy the damage it has caused. Enforced disappearance is defined as arrest, detention, abduction, or other deprivation of a person’s liberty by agents of the State, combined with

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Inter-American Commission on Human Rights 152nd Extraordinary Session in Mexico

Inter-American Commission Holds Extraordinary Session & Outreach Events in Mexico This Month

This week, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (Commission) will hold its 152nd Extraordinary Period of Sessions in Mexico City, Mexico, to focus on the general human rights situation in the countries of Central America. [IACHR] These hearings will be the first in seven years to be held away from the Commission’s Washington, D.C. headquarters. In light of the controversial reform process

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European Convention on Violence against Women Enters into Force, Codifying Advances in the Protection of Women’s Human Rights

August 1, 2014 marked the entry into force of the first legally binding instrument in Europe that specifically targets violence against women and domestic violence. The “most far reaching international treaty to tackle this serious violation of human rights,” the Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic violence, known as the Istanbul Convention, requires States parties to

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European Court of Human Rights: Poland Responsible for Secret Detention, Torture, and Rendition of Two Guantánamo Detainees

In its first judgment concerning the human rights of current Guantánamo detainees, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) found that Poland failed to uphold its international obligations by allowing the secret detention, torture, and extraordinary rendition of a Saudi Arabian national and a stateless Palestinian, both suspected of terrorist acts. See ECtHR, Al Nashiri v. Poland, no. 28761/11, Judgment of 24

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Three New Judges Elected to the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights

The Assembly of the African Union appointed four judges to the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights (AfCHPR) during its 25th Session in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea. Three of the judges, Mrs. Solomy Balungi Bossa (Uganda), Mr. Rafaa Ben Achour (Tunisia), and Mr. Angelo Vasco Matusse (Mozambique), are new to the AfCHPR and the fourth, Justice Sylvain Oré (Côte d’Ivoire), was re-elected to serve

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Civil Society Advocates a More Robust Regional Mechanism as ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights Reviews its Terms of Reference 

Earlier this year, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) began a series of regional consultations with governments and civil society on the revision of its Terms of Reference (TOR), one of the commission’s principal governing documents.  The AICHR, which began operating in 2009, has been criticized as insufficiently committed to human rights accountability

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