JBI Human Rights

Burma: New Publication Outlines Needed Law Reforms

The Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights (JBI), together with partners Perseus Strategies and New Perimeter, launched a new report presenting an in-depth assessment of rule of law reform needs in Burma.  Key Burma experts, U.S. and other policymakers attended the launch at a meeting in Washington DC on March 5.  As noted in The Irrawaddy and Trust Law, the discussion focused on reforming Burma’s Constitution, and the incorporation of international human rights standards and civil society participation in the rule of law reform process.  In line with these recommendations, on March 20 the Burmese parliament agreed to create a commission to review the controversial 2008 Constitution.

Burma is transitioning from 50 years of military rule marked by rights abuses to a more democratic government.  In the past two years, Burma has released Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest and registered her National League for Democracy political party, which won 43 of 45 available seats in April 2012 parliamentary by-elections.  Other reforms include the release of approximately 800 political prisoners (although many were conditionally released); decreased restrictions on the internet and media; the establishment of a new National Human Rights Commission; and signing of preliminary ceasefire agreements with several ethnic armed groups. 

The Rule of Law Assessment Report (the “Assessment”) identifies needs and responses that would expedite the rule of law reform process required in Burma to ensure that transition continues.  It presents an overview of initial and needed reforms, encouraging integration of universal human rights principles in the rule of law reform process, and providing guidance and recommendations to all those who will engage with local actors in Burma.  This will allow international actors to help move the law reform process from the current state where promises are made by Burma to the international community to one where reforms are implemented in Burma both on paper and in practice.  

Country-specific scrutiny by the UN Human Rights Council: Changes documented since US membership began

The 22^nd regular session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva marks the beginning of the United States’ second consecutive three-year term as a member of the intergovernmental body created in 2006 to replace the Commission on Human Rights.  In an effort to review the effect that US membership on the Council has had to date, the Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights has reviewed of the “country-specific” resolutions adopted by the Council, the country-specific special sessions held by the Council, and the number of country-specific and thematic special procedures created by the Council since its establishment.  This is one of a number of areas to which the US has devoted substantial attention during its first term on the Council.

The findings of this review are that in the three years that the US has served on the Council, the body’s criticism of countries by name on human rights grounds has substantially increased.  The Council’s criticism of an increasing number of violator States has not only strengthened its legitimacy; it has decreased to a certain degree the Council’s highly disproportionate focus on the conduct of a single UN Member State, Israel. 

While there remain many aspects of the Council’s performance that States should continue to work to improve, and while the Council still devotes a disproportionate degree of its country-specific action to Israel, JBI’s review finds that US engagement has had beneficial effects on the Council’s performance.  JBI concludes that the United States should continue its efforts in its second term of membership, by pressing Council members to convene special sessions on emerging human rights crises and by proposing and encouraging the tabling of resolutions that identify the perpetrators of serious human rights violations worldwide by name.  It should also devote further efforts to ensure the Council’s credibility and professionalism, including with respect to Israel.

JBI’s detailed documentation and analysis of trends over time, as well as background information, can be found in the full analysis below.

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

Advocacy for International Religious Freedom and Human Rights

A new volume of essays analyzing strategies of advocacy for international religious freedom has recently been published by The Review on Faith & International Affairs (Fall 2012).  It examines diverse approaches by a wide range of actors and from different perspectives.  One article, "'If Not Now When?': Jewish Advocacy for Freedom of Religion" by JBI Director Felice Gaer, examines Jewish advocacy for international religious freedom and related human rights from the Holocaust and the founding of the United Nations to current times, using this advocacy to uphold universal human rights standards.

Gaer argues that Jewish advocacy for freedom of religion and related human rights has been indelibly shaped by the Holocaust, in which six million Jews were annihilated, as well as by the experiences of expulsion, discrimination, and violence against Jews throughout the millennia.  The most prominent and successful particularist Jewish advocacy effort was the movement for Jews to be allowed to depart from the Soviet Union.  Efforts by Jewish organizations and advocates to advance religious freedom are also anchored in and directly influenced by universal elements in Judaism that value all human life and call for equality for all before the law, which has translated into support for efforts that guarantee universal human rights through bodies like the United Nations and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).  As part of the interplay between the universal and the particular, Jewish advocacy has also reflected a sense of what is possible – a realism about how to achieve the idealistic goals of religious freedom and related human rights.  The strategy remains that by defending and respecting each individual’s rights, all will flourish and be protected. 

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 support to aid South Sudanese Asylum Seekers and Migrants in Israel

The Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights (JBI) has made an emergency grant to the Refugee Rights Clinic of the Tel Aviv University Faculty of Law to support immediate interventions on behalf of asylum seekers and migrants from South Sudan who are at risk of imminent deportation from Israel. Since 2008, JBI has worked to promote legislative and policy reforms that call upon Israel to develop an asylum system that complies with its international law obligations.

On June 8, 2012, JBI hosted a discussion with HIAS on the dimensions of the current crisis affecting African asylum seekers and migrants in Israel. 

JBI has prepared a background document, updated through June 20, 2012, which summarizes recent events affecting African asylum seekers and migrants in Israel; outlines Israel’s international obligations with regard to asylum seekers and refugees; and cites legal concerns and possible responses to them, including proposals regarding Israel’s development of an effective asylum system, which could enable the government to distinguish between refugees, who have a right to be protected from deportation to their home country, and economic migrants, who are not so entitled.

Updated information on this topic is available in a document prepared by HIAS.

 

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.”

UN High Commissioner Celebrates 40 Years of Jacob Blaustein Institute at the Vanguard of Human Rights

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, experts, human rights defenders, and representatives of major international human rights organizations came together in New York City to mark the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights (JBI) and to analyze the challenges currently faced by the High Commissioner.  Addresses were delivered by Ms. Pillay; by Michael Ignatieff, scholar and former leader of the Liberal Party of Canada; by Harold Koh, Legal Adviser to the US Department of State; and by Bertrand Ramcharan, formerly Deputy/Acting UN High Commissioner.

(UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay (left) participates in a question-and-answer session with JBI Director Felice Gaer at the JBI High Commissioner Conference.  Photo by Frank Ritter.)

Convened on February 7 and 8 by the Jacob Blaustein Institute, in collaboration with the Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute at Hunter College, the conference, entitled The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights: Conscience for the World, explored the role of the High Commissioner; assessed the accomplishments of and challenges faced by the current and five previous High Commissioners; and recommended strategies to increase the High Commissioner’s effectiveness in preventing human rights violations in the future.

Several conference participants, including Navi Pillay, commended the key role played by JBI in pressing for and ensuring the creation of the High Commissioner post in 1993.  Pillay also discussed the way her office’s efforts are advanced by UN human rights mechanisms composed of independent experts: “We have a number of … experts with us here today, including of course Felice Gaer [director of JBI], who was elected to the Committee Against Torture in 2000, and in that capacity, has made a profound contribution, in particular by ensuring that freedom from torture is also defined against the singular experiences of women and girls…”

The full text of the High Commissioner’s prepared remarks are available on her Office’s website.

The conference convened at a pivotal moment for human rights protection efforts at the United Nations.  In his address, Michael Ignatieff noted that the High Commissioner’s office has developed its fact-finding capacity to the point where since mid-March 2011, it has been seen as the “gold standard” on reporting about human rights violations perpetrated by the Syrian government.  At the same time, despite High Commissioner Pillay’s characterization of Syria’s conduct as constituting crimes against humanity and her call for the Security Council to refer it to the International Criminal Court, Russia and China have blocked action by the Council, and the government of Syria continues to commit gross human rights abuses with impunity.  Ignatieff also highlighted a number of other serious challenges faced by the High Commissioner – including carrying out the post’s wide-ranging mandate in the face of perennially insufficient resources, maintaining the legitimacy of the post even when other components of the UN system act inappropriately or display bias, and determining which human rights issues to prioritize. He urged conference participants to devise strategies for addressing them, recognizing that there have been conflicts between the roles of the High Commissioner as insider politician in the UN and as an outsider and global spokesman for human rights.

(Michael Ignatieff, scholar and former leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, delivers keynote remarks at the JBI conference.  Photo by Frank Ritter.)

Harold Koh, Legal Adviser to the Secretary of State, spoke of the qualities needed in a High Commissioner, particularly to raise the profile of the subject of human rights globally.

(Harold Koh, Legal Adviser to the Secretary of State, delivers keynote remarks at the JBI Conference.  Photo by Frank Ritter.)

Suzanne Nossel on UN Human Rights Council -- at JBI Meeting

As part of its long-standing study of the UN human rights institutions, the Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement for Human Rights (JBI) convened a meeting in December 2011 with Suzanne Nossel, who had just stepped down after two years as U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Organizations. Nossel discussed the impact of U.S. membership in the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) and prospects for reform.

Nossel served at the State Department for two years, responsible for multilateral human rights and other issues, and played a leading role on U.S. policy at the UN Human Rights Council.  She left the government in November 2011, and, when she spoke at JBI, was a Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, prior to taking up a new position as Executive Director of Amnesty International USA.

In her remarks, Nossel frankly assesses the challenges she faced coming to the State Department as the U.S. re-joined the Human Rights Council (HRC), a body restructured from the UN Commission for Human Rights, criticized for its bias and cynical politicization by the world's worst human rights offenders.

During her two years in office, she and others were able to return a scrutiny to massive human rights violators such as Iran, Libya and Syria through new mandates to investigate situations. To some extent, they were also able to reduce somewhat the obsessive focus on Israel as compared to other countries, although the structural bias against Israel within the UN system continues.

In a lively question and answer session, Nossel addressed the imbalances at the HRC and US efforts to creatively push the human rights agenda, and debated the opportunities and challenges posed by the Arab Spring. Ultimately, Nossel encouraged the US government as well as NGOs to continue to participate in the HRC, to make an impact on human rights situations.

JBI Director Felice Gaer, Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Suzanne Nossel, and JBI Chair E. Robert Goodkind at the JBI event.