On January 30, 2015, the United Nations Human Rights Council Open-ended Intergovernmental Working Group on the Draft United Nations Declaration on the Right to Peace held informal consultations with non-governmental organizations and Member States in preparation for the third session of the Working Group, which is scheduled for April 20 to 24, 2015. [Human Rights Centre of the University of
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For the first time in its eight-year tenure, the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights (African Court) has directly considered the right to freedom of expression, and the validity of legislation that criminalizes defamation. The case, Lohé Issa Konaté v. Burkina Faso, involved a journalist’s conviction, imprisonment, and substantial fine in connection with his reporting. [AfCHPR Press Release] In
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January 1, 2015 marked the beginning of the International Decade for People of African Descent, a United Nations-initiated framework for strengthening national, regional, and international cooperation in pursuit of the full enjoyment of civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights, and equal participation in all aspects of society by people of African descent. [UN: Plan of Action] The UN General
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The human rights records of 14 States are under review during the 21st session of the Human Rights Council’s (HRC) Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Working Group, being held in Geneva, Switzerland from January 19 to January 30, 2015. [OHCHR Press Release] Through this peer review process, United Nations Member States review one another’s overall human rights record every four and
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On January 19, a Guatemalan court found Pedro García Arredondo, a former police chief, guilty of murder and crimes against humanity for his role in authorities’ attack on the Spanish embassy in Guatemala City in 1980. In this attack, 37 protesters burned to death when the Spanish embassy building caught fire and García Arredondo ordered the building to be sealed
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The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) is reviewing 12 States’ implementation of their obligations under the Convention of the Rights of the Child (the Convention) and its optional protocols on the sale of children and children in armed conflict at its 68th Session, being held in Geneva, Switzerland from January 12 to January 30, 2015. [OHCHR
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The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) has published a new report on missing and murdered indigenous women in British Columbia, Canada. The report, Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women in British Columbia, Canada, examines the context and efficacy of Canada’s response to the pattern of violence and discrimination against indigenous women. The report also offers recommendations to assist the Canadian
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This month, United Nations (UN) Secretary General Ban Ki-moon extended the mandate of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) for an additional three years beginning on March 1, 2015. The STL was established in the aftermath of Lebanon’s Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri’s assassination and the deaths of 22 others in 2005. [UN News Centre] The extension of the STL’s mandate
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The retrial of former Guatemalan dictator José Efraín Ríos Montt reopened on January 5, 2015, but was quickly suspended. [La Prensa; BBC] Charged with committing genocide and crimes against humanity against indigenous Ixil Maya of the Quiché region, the 88-year-old ex-army general is allegedly responsible for 15 massacres carried out against indigenous Mayans during his rule from 1982 to 1983,
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On December 24, 2014, the watershed United Nations Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) entered into force. The treaty, which is the first international instrument regulating the trade in conventional arms, creates a human rights framework to govern transfers of conventional arms, with the goal of curbing the flow of weapons that may be used to perpetrate human rights violations and crimes
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