JBI Human Rights

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.

JBI on the Evolution of Women’s Rights within the UN

Women, International Law and International Institutions: The Case of the United Nations.  This article by JBI Director Felice Gaer considers the evolution of women's rights concepts and mechanisms within the United Nations. Gaer writes about this subject both as an historian of and a longstanding activist for women's human rights. She provides a critical history of how “women's” rights have been separated from and connected to “human” rights within the UN.

Gaer examines how the Commission on the Status of Women, the original UN division which inherited the agenda of the first wave of international feminism, dealt with many of the challenges raised by the activists and organization that proceeded it: making the shift away from great power, Euro American leadership; facing new political environments raised by anti-colonial and third world national developments; and expanding the feminist agenda beyond political and civil rights. By ending with an examination of the dilemma of enforcement that the UN still faces with respect to women's human rights, Gaer makes it clear that the subject of international feminism presents challenges that go beyond the academic, and is continuously linked with the efforts and freedom of the world's women.

Examination of China at UN Human Rights Council

When the UN decided to reform the Commission on Human Rights and create a new Human Rights Council, it added a requirement that every country go through a public review of its human rights record on all rights, and before a committee consisting of all members of the UN.

This so-called "Universal Periodic Review" (UPR) was seen by many UN diplomats as the procedure that would save the new Council and bring new country-specific scrutiny to every country.

As the Obama Administration was taking office in January 2009, the Congressional-Executive Commission on China held a roundtable briefing on the UPR and how non-governmental groups could be involved in the UPR of China.  JBI Director Felice Gaer was one of the panelists who provided testimony.

Gaer emphasized that since China had participated in the review of nearly 50 other states at that time, asking numerous questions about their compliance with human rights issues, it was appropriate that the U.S. and other states participate in a thorough review of  China. At the end of the process, countries are presented with recommendations, which they can either accept or reject.

As one prominent NGO, Human Rights in China noted, the PRC government rejected a large number of basic civil-political rights recommendations, including freedom of information, protection of lawyers and human rights defenders from attacks, freedom of religion (and movement) for Tibetans, Uihgurs, etc.