On August 5, 2015, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) published its report “Towards the Closure of Guantanamo,” which examines the human rights situation of detainees at the U.S. Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. See Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Towards the Closure of Guantanamo (Report), 2015. The report concludes that detainees are subject to indefinite detention; torture and
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Human Rights Committee Developing New Right to Life General Comment
On July 14, 2015, the United Nations Human Rights Committee met in Geneva for a half day general discussion to begin the process of developing a general comment on Article 6 (Right to Life) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). See UN Human Rights Committee, Draft General Comment No. 36: Article 6 (Right to Life), UN
Read moreAfrican Commission Addresses Torture of Human Rights Defenders in Sudan
On March 10, 2015, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights published a decision condemning Sudan’s mistreatment of human rights defenders, which remains a pressing concern in the country. In the case of Monim Elgak, Osman Hummeida and Amir Suliman v. Sudan, the African Commission held that the government of Sudan violated several articles of the African Charter on
Read moreAfrican Commission to Review Eight States’ Human Rights Records
The African Commission on Human and People’s Rights (ACHPR) will open its 56th Ordinary Session on April 21, 2015 in Banjul, the Gambia. During this session, which continues through May 7, the Commission’s agenda includes discussion of the human rights situation in Africa, consideration of State reports, and hearing activity reports from members of the Commission and its special mechanisms. This
Read moreAya Fujimura-Fanselow
Aya Fujimura-Fanselow joined the International Justice Resource Center as Staff Attorney in 2015. Most recently, Aya was based in Mexico City, where she worked on projects in the field of torture, reproductive rights, and human rights violations committed in drug detention centers (with organizations including GIRE, the US Human Rights Network, and Open Society Foundations). Prior to relocating to Mexico,
Read moreUniversal Review of 14 Countries’ Human Rights Records Underway
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
Read moreHuman Rights Experts Call for Prosecution, Reparations in Wake of U.S. Torture Report
On Tuesday, December 9, the United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (Intelligence Committee) published a report detailing the “abuses and countless mistakes” of the Central Intelligence Agency’s (CIA) detention and interrogation program in the years after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. See Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Committee Study of the Central Intelligence Agency’s Detention and Interrogation Program:
Read moreHuman Rights Bodies Respond to Killings by Police in U.S.
Recent decisions by two grand juries in the United States not to indict white police officers for the shooting deaths of two black men, Eric Garner in New York and Michael Brown in Missouri, have sparked “legitimate concerns” about American police practices among United Nations human rights experts. [UN News Centre] The deaths of Garner and Brown in separate incidents
Read moreIn the Case of Dominican and Haitian People Expelled v. the Dominican Republic, IACtHR Finds Multitude of Human Rights Violations
Last week, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights released its opinion in Case of Dominican and Haitian People Expelled v. the Dominican Republic, where it held that the State’s discrimination, detention, and mass expulsion of individuals of Haitian descent violated the rights to: juridical personality, nationality, a name, personal liberty, privacy, fair trial, judicial protection, equal protection before the law,
Read moreSexual Orientation & Gender Identity
For more information on specific rights discussed in this guide, please see the full list of IJRC’s thematic guides. OVERVIEW International and regional human rights conventions protect all persons regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights lays out this key principle of modern human rights, declaring, “All human beings are born free and
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