JBI Human Rights

UN Committee Adopts Landmark Interpretation of the Right to Redress for Victims of Torture

JBI Associate Director Christen Broecker recently contributed a guest post to the website IntLawGrrls on the UN Committee against Torture’s adoption, on November 16, of an authoritative interpretation of the content and scope of the right to redress for victims of torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment.  The General Comment, which is particularly notable for its victim-centered approach to the right to redress, is the first interpretive statement by a UN human rights treaty body aimed at clarifying this area of international law.  In her post, Broecker analyzes some of the key aspects of the Committee’s General Comment No. 3, which draws from and consolidates decades of the Committee’s jurisprudence on the right to redress. 

The Committee against Torture is an expert committee that monitors the implementation of the UN Convention against Torture by its 153 States parties.  One of its 10 expert members is JBI Director Felice Gaer, who has served on the Committee since 1999. 

The full text of the post is available here: IntLawGrrls post on the Right to Redress by Christen Broecker

JBI on Iran’s Must-See Sites of Oppression and Abuse for UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon

Despite warnings that attending the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit in Tehran would legitimize the regime’s abusive behavior at home and abroad, UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon has decided to go. He seeks to meet with Iranian officials, including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.  Responding to criticisms of Ban’s plans, his spokesman argued that to skip the summit “would be a missed opportunity.”

It will be Ban’s first visit to Iran. On Friday, Iran’s top tourism official, H.M. Ajabi, told local press (IRNA) that the NAM summit offers a great opportunity for “boosting Iran’s tourism industry” and the Tehran Times reports that Ban has been invited to attend a meeting of the Human Rights Committee of the Iranian parliament.  Below are key sightseeing opportunities in Iran that the secretary-general should not miss if he is to be ready for this encounter:

Evin Prison:  This is Iran’s best-known site of cruel and prolonged torture, particularly of political prisoners, and secret executions. Among  the prisoners there were Fariba Kamalabadi and Mahvash Sabet, two of the seven imprisoned leaders of the Baha’i faith, Iran’s largest religious minority. American journalist Roxana Saberi met them while also detained in the notorious jail; she can help Ban identify them, should he seek their long-overdue release.

University of Tehran: On June 14, 2009, after widespread protests against the announced results of Iran’s presidential election, security forces broke open the gates of Tehran University and stormed campus dorms, indiscriminately arresting, beating and shooting students with pellet guns. Five students were reportedly killed and others seriously injured.  Authorities reportedly buried the dead within hours, without notifying their family members.  Student leaders currently imprisoned include Bahareh Hedayat, who called for holding security forces accountable.  Ban might ask for her to be released to offer a guided tour.

JBI Human Rights Papers: Human Rights in Iran

The Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights (JBI) published a new advocacy briefing note on Human Rights in Iran, part of a new series of JBI Human Rights Papers.

Since it seized power in 1979, the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran has been engaged in committing a range of human rights violations against the Iranian people.  During and since the violent crackdown surrounding the June 2009 flawed presidential elections, Iran’s widespread and systematic pattern of human rights violations has intensified and increased.  Iranian authorities admit to arresting more than 4,500 protesters during the crackdown and a death toll of 37.  Many protestors were subjected to violations of due process, arbitrary arrest, detention and torture.  These and other tactics have been used to silence human rights defenders, political opponents, journalists and lawyers, and to discriminate against women, and religious, ethnic and other minorities.

JBI Co-Sponsors Conference on Human Rights in North Korea

On April 10-11, AJC’s Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights (JBI) and the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea convened an expert conference, “Hidden Gulag,” which called for closing down the extensive North Korean political prisoner camp system.  The conference launched a groundbreaking 200-page report by David Hawk pointing to over 150,000 persons incarcerated in these “kwan-li-so” camps, based on eyewitness testimony of former prisoners, guards, and satellite images of the camps.  JBI Director Felice Gaer, who moderated a conference panel on “Seeking Legal and International Human Rights Remedies,” commended the U.N. Special Rapporteur on human rights in North Korea, Marzuki Darusman, whose message to the Conference expressed interest in “setting up a more detailed method of inquiry such as a [UN] Commission of Inquiry” to investigate the government-run camps and hold those responsible accountable.  

(JBI Director Felice Gaer moderates conference panel on “Seeking Legal and International Human Rights Remedies”)

The conference, “Hidden Gulag: Exposing North Korea’s Political Prisoner Camp System,” took place in Washington DC and featured eye-witness analyses of former North Korean political prisoners; U.S., South Korean and Japanese government officials; human rights experts, including specialists on the dismantling of Nazi concentration camps and the Soviet Union’s “Gulag ”; and Korea specialists. A Washington Post editorial, calling the conference “unprecedented,” argued that governmental indifference to these camps is “inexcusable.”

JBI on Belarus: Letter to President Lukashenka

On December 23, JBI sent an open letter to Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenka urging him to take urgent action to safeguard the rights and physical integrity of Belarusian journalists, human rights defenders, and former presidential candidates, particularly Andrei Sannikov and Vladimir Neklayev, who were detained along with more than 600 others by Belarusian security forces on December 19 and 20, 2010.  JBI expressed particular concern that both Sannikov and Neklayev appear to be in urgent need of medical attention, which they have not received. 

The letter can be downloaded at: Download JBI_Letter_Belarus

The text of the letter follows:

Gaer Article on Prevention of Torture in Washington College of Law Review

The spring issue of the Human Rights Brief of the Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law of the American University Washington College of Law (vol. 16, issue 4 (Spring 2009 Special Edition) contained an article by JBI Director Felice Gaer, “Transparency and Access of Independent Experts to All Places of Detention:  Follow-Up Procedures.”  The article was based on Gaer’s remarks at a conference organized by the AU Washington College of Law in February 2009.

Gaer outlined a follow-up procedure she designed at the UN Committee Against Torture, where she is an independent member, to enable the CAT to avoid waiting five years for a country’s turn to report again. After a country is reviewed, the CAT selects a number of critical issues from the recommendations made to the state party, and follows up with letters urging specific steps as part of the call on states to adopt effective measures to implement the Convention based findings during CAT’s review.

A measure commonly indicated is the need for earlier and sufficient access to legal counsel and prompt access to an independent doctor; other measures include improved training of police and forensic information-gathering and the creation of independent bodies outside the criminal justice system and executive authority of government for victims to seek remedies.

A PDF copy of the issue containing Gaer's office is available here: Download HumanRightsBriefTorture

Jordan and Syria Review by UN Committee Against Torture

In April 2010, Jordan came before the UN Committee Against Torture (CAT) for an in-depth review of its compliance with its obligations under the UN Convention Against Torture.  JBI played a key role in the review with Director Felice Gaer, in her capacity as expert member of the UN Committee Against Torture, serving as rapporteur, or lead questioner of the government representatives who appeared before the CAT.

Among the broad range of torture-related issues Ms. Gaer raised with the Kingdom of Jordan’s representatives  were the use of administrative detention, the use of unlawful and coerced evidence, and the lack of safeguards against torture in security-related cases and interrogations.

In its conclusions, the CAT condemned Jordan's withdrawal of nationality from 2700 Palestinians; honor killings; and the use of incommunicado detention.

In a related examination of Syria – the first one by the CAT --  secret detention centers in Syria and many of the same issues were condemned. Notably, in its concluding observations, the CAT called on Jordan –and Syria, separately -- to investigate “numerous and credible allegations” that their police and prison authorities routinely tortured detainees.

At another session of the CAT, Gaer was lead rapporteur on Azerbaijan.

JBI on Women’s Rights and Torture

JBI, which has long worked on women's rights and ensuring that rape in armed conflict is prosecuted as torture, helped develop this appeal to the International Criminal Court and was co-signatory, along with several UN special rapporteurs and treaty experts, for The Case of the Prosecutor v. Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo.

Gaer Testifies Before Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission on Torture Prevention

JBI Director Felice Gaer was among five persons who testified before the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission in the U.S. Congress on June 25 on preventing torture, an event covered in the Epoch Times June 30.  The Lantos Commission held the hearing for consideration of possibly more involvement of the Congress in the eradication of torture, which has been defined as a universal crime against humanity. The U.S. is party to the UN Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT), which is monitored by the  UN Committee Against Torture (CAT), where Gaer sits as one of ten independent experts. In opening the hearing, sponsor Congressman James McGovern (D-Massachusetts) said, “As a member of Congress and an American citizen, it is very painful for me that my government over the past few years condoned the use of torture in a cruel, degrading, and inhumane treatment of prisoners.”

“State obligations under the Convention against Torture require actions -- and ‘the obligation to prevent’ torture and ill-treatment engages the State in many ways,” Gaer stated in her testimony. She urged moving beyond the concept of outlawing torture to making global mechanisms in place work. The CAT has evolved with a certain measure of “candor and transparency,” noted Gaer in making an honest appraisal of how countries are meeting their obligations. She noted that importance of providing detailed information such as lists of prisoners and deaths in incarceration and providing prompt, impartial investigations into allegations of abuse, and stressed the role of adequate police training with clear-cut instructions on the prohibition of torture, as well as information on how to conduct forensics in cases of torture.

American-born Ursuline sister Dianna Ortiz, a nun who was tortured in Guatemala in 1989 and helped found the Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition, was among three victims who testified at the hearing, which was also covered by the Catholic News Service.

JBI on Prevention of Torture: Transparency and Access of Independent Experts to All Places of Detention

The spring issue of the Human Rights Brief of the Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law of the American University Washington College of Law (vol. 16, issue 4, Spring 2009 Special Edition) contained an article by JBI Director Felice Gaer, “Transparency and Access of Independent Experts to All Places of Detention:  Follow-Up Procedures.”  The article was based on Gaer’s remarks at a conference organized by the AU Washington College of Law in February 2009.