JBI Human Rights

JBI Facilitates Panel at Human Rights Funders Group

At the invitation of JBI Administrative Council member Michael Hirschhorn, who has been serving as Executive Director of the NY-based International Human Rights Funders Group, JBI facilitated a panel discussion of experts who examined current challenges and means of addressing them through international human rights bodies.

Speakers included Martin Scheinin, UN Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights While Countering Terrorism, Gerald Staberock, Global Security Program Director, International Commission of Jurists, and Salvador Tinajero,  Human rights officer at the Mexican Mission to the UN in Geneva. Felice Gaer moderated the program for JBI.

More than a dozen funders participated in a visit to better understand the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and what issues it was pursuing, where it was moving in progressive directions requiring outside support, and related topics.

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