The Open Society Justice Initiative and Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights have announced a development in their complaint on behalf of Egyptian political prisoner Mohammed Abderrahim El-Sharkawi. [OSJI] The two organizations recently filed written arguments on admissibility before the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, which received the complaint in late 2010. [OSJI] El-Sharkawi reportedly spent nearly 16 years in
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Freeze on Prison Admissions May Fill Police Station Holding Cells, as Venezuela Attempts to Reduce Historic Overcrowding
Venezuelan police station holding cells are filling up as the country’s new prisons minister orders a freeze on new admissions to the violent, overcrowded prisons operating at nearly 400% capacity. [Washington Post] Venezuelan prisons are known to be effectively run by armed gangs, house inmates in inhumane conditions, and be the scene of numerous violent uprisings and clashes between prisoners
Read moreEmployment Opportunities in Human Rights – August 12, 2011
Human Right to Housing Program Director, National Economic and Social Rights Initiative (NESRI). Deadline: August 15, 2011. Location: New York, NY. See application requirements. Special Advisor: Mexico, ABA Rule of Law Initiative. Deadline: August 31, 2011. Location: Mexico City, Mexico. See application requirements. Various other ABA ROLI positions available here. Brazil Director, Human Rights Watch. Deadline: August 21, 2011.
Read moreRights Groups Advocate for Greater Transparency in ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights
The ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR), created in 2009, has yet to release a public report on its activities or findings, leading some rights groups to push for greater transparency and opportunities for public engagement. [Jakarta Globe] Other groups have criticized the body’s lack of an independent secretariat and accused it of failing to fulfill its mission of
Read moreFive New Orleans Police Officers Convicted in Post-Katrina Shooting Deaths of Civilians on Danziger Bridge
On August 5, in the culmination of a federal criminal trial, a jury convicted five police officers of various civil rights violations, but not murder, for having shot into a crowd of civilians fleeing New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, killing two individuals and injuring four more. [USHR Network] The Department of Justice, which prosecuted the four officers
Read moreHosni Mubarak Pleads Not Guilty on Charges of Corruption and Conspiracy to Kill Protesters
In a makeshift court in Cairo this week, former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak pleaded not guilty yesterday on corruption charges related to a land deal (his sons also face charges in the case) and oil and gas prices, and on charges of conspiring with former Egyptian interior minister Habib el-Adly to commit murder and attempted murder of more than 850
Read moreArticles and Other Commentary: July 2011
A new 100-page publication by Margaret Sekaggya, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, explains the Declaration on the Right and Responsibility of Individuals, Groups and Organs of Society to Promote and Protect Universally Recognized Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (Declaration on Human Rights Defenders), the rights it protects, and how they may be implemented. UN Special Rapporteur on the
Read moreNew Commissioners Elected to IACHR
During the 41st General Assembly of the Organization of American States, currently underway in El Salvador, the OAS Member States elected three new commissioners to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. [CEJIL] The three new members are Tracy Robinson of Jamaica, Rosa Maria Ortiz of Paraguay and Rosa-Mary Bella Antoine of Belize. These new commissions will begin their four-year terms
Read moreCoalition Urges UN to Increase Protection for DRC Civilians in Run up to Fall Elections
The Democratic Republic of Congo will be holding national elections for the presidential and parliamentary offices on November 27, 2011. [CongoPlanet] Amidst fears of attacks by the Lord’s Resistance Army and other acts of violence, 47 organizations issued a press release calling on the UN Security Council to direct adequate resources to the UN stabilization mission in DRC (MONUSCO) to
Read moreCanadian and U.S. Indigenous Communities Seek Protection of Land and Water Rights before IACHR
In Canada, the Hul’qumi’num Treaty Group – a group of First Nations communities in British Columbia – has requested precautionary measures from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, seeking to stop the sale of their historic land to the provincial and Canadian governments by a logging corporation. [Canada.com; Hul’qumi’num Treaty Group] The request alleges that the Canadian government has failed
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