Children in Court CRINMAIL 17:
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NEWS
A court for a court in Africa
The African Union has confirmed that it will vote on whether to create a regional criminal court to try human rights violations. A proposed resolution would expand the existing power of the African Court on Human and People's Rights, which currently lacks the authority to convict and sentence criminals. The Court's President, Judge Gerard Niyungeko, supports the move on the grounds that a court in Africa would better be able to understand crimes committed on the continent than the Netherlands-based International Criminal Court (ICC). The ICC already faces criticism of its legitimacy in Africa, where it has been maligned in recent years because of a perception that it only tries African criminals. Any show-down between the tribunals may be some way off, however, as – if approved – the resolution could take years to be ratified by African Union member-states.
In a more disappointing move, the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) last month effectively shuttered the doors of the organisation's human rights tribunal. At a summit in Mozambique, SADC leaders resolved to reduce the tribunal's jurisdiction over disputes between member states, thus stripping individuals of their right to bring claims of rights violations forward. The resolution is in many ways the nail in the coffin for the troubled court, which has been out of commission and under review for the past two years following several rulings against Zimbabwe. The director of the Southern Africa Litigation Centre has decried the SADC's decision as “entirely without any lawful basis”, lamenting that “[c]ivil society groups were worried that SADC leaders would conspire to weaken the tribunal but this is far worse than we had feared. SADC has destroyed it.”
Poverty and access to justice
UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty Magdalena Sepúlveda has called on Member States to accept that improving access to justice for the poor is critical to fighting poverty. “The rule of law is meaningless for people living in poverty without effective access to justice,” she cautioned, urging that “[c]oncrete actions must be taken to ensure that all individuals are empowered to claim their rights, demand effective remedies and accountability.” Next month, she will present a report to the General Assembly on the obstacles to accessing justice faced by persons living in poverty.
The Special Rapporteur's comments also coincide with her presentation of the final text of the Guiding Principles on extreme poverty and human rights for adoption by the Human Rights Council. The Guiding Principles aim to support, inform and empower persons living in extreme poverty, especially children. They recognise that because “most of those living in poverty are children..., children's rights must be accorded priority” and, among other things, explicitly call on States to “promote children's right to have their voices heard in decision-making processes relevant to their lives.”
A class act in France
The Minister of Justice in France has announced her intention to introduce “class actions” into the country's civil law system. Class actions are a form of group litigation that allows a large number of victims to seek justice in a single proceeding, and have over the past several decades proven a worthy tool in seeking redress for large-scale human rights violations. Class actions have long existed in countries with adversarial legal systems like the United Kingdom and the United States, and have recently been adopted by Portugal, Italy and Sweden under the guidance of the European Commission on Human Rights. Proponents of the change see not only greater access to justice, but also practical advantages like centralising litigation costs and reducing the individual risks of filing and losing a case.
Limits on justice in Israel
On September 1, Israel amended its civil procedure regulations to require that any person submitting a document to the country's civil court system have a government-issued identification number. Advocates have voiced concerns that the move will seriously limit access to justice for persons who are not residents of Israel and do not have foreign passports. As a result, these people – largely Palestinian residents of the Occupied Territories, migrant workers, and refugees – will be unable to file lawsuits or to defend themselves in Israeli civil courts.
Courts in crisis in El Salvador
The independence of the judiciary is under threat in El Salvador, where the Legislative Assembly this April controversially appointed five new judges to the Supreme Court and designated a replacement for the Chair of the Constitutional Chamber. The Chamber responded by declaring the moves to be unlawful and contrary to the guarantee of security of tenure for judges. The National Assembly then appealed the Chamber's decision to the Central American Court of Justice, which promptly admitted the case and suspended the ruling. The Chamber has since refused to accept the authority of the Central American Court on the matter, and El Salvador has been effectively operating with two separate Supreme Courts since July. To resolve the judicial crisis, advocates are now calling on the National Assembly to redo the appointment process with the guidance of the Constitutional Chamber.
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UPDATE: CHILDREN'S RIGHTS AND MEDICINE
An Australian woman born without arms or legs after her mother took the morning-sickness drug thalidomide while pregnant has been awarded millions of dollars under the terms of a class action settlement with British company Diageo. The case was filed on behalf of victims of the now notorious drug in Australia and New Zealand against German pharmaceutical manufacturer Grunenthal and the UK distribution company eventually acquired by Diageo. Diageo reports it is in negotiations with other plaintiffs, and the case against Grunenthal continues.
In India, the Supreme Court has demanded that the Government respond to concerns over victims of the 1984 Bhopal industrial disaster being used as “guinea pigs” in unauthorised drug trials. The tragedy, a toxic gas leak, left more than 10,000 dead and 500,000 injured, and there are now concerns that survivors are being used in unlawful and unethical pharmaceutical testing. A public interest litigation case filed highlights records of extensive testing in Bhopal, bonus payments made to hospitals and physicians, and the inclusion of 233 persons with mental disabilities and 1,833 children in drug trials. The complaint also cites evidence that over 1,500 vulnerable patients died between the years 2008 to 2010.
Meanwhile, the United States Government announced in August that it would receive a combined $60 million from drug company Pfizer to settle charges in two separate cases that the company bribed overseas doctors and health care workers to increase drug sales. The activities covered in the settlements range around the world from Italy, Bulgaria and Russia to China, Indonesia and Pakistan. According to a senior Government lawyer, “Pfizer subsidiaries in several companies had bribery so entwined in their sales culture that they offered points and bonus programs to improperly reward foreign officials who proved to be their best customers.” Sadly, however, Pfizer is not alone; last year, Johnson & Johnson agreed to pay the U.S. Government $70 million after admitting to bribing European doctors. The overseas practices of several other drug makers, including Merck, Eli Lilly and Bristol-Myers Squibb, are also currently under investigation by federal enforcement agencies.
Pharmaceutical companies are being similarly brought to task for their activities within the United States, after an appeals court questioned the industry's practice of making payments to keep cheaper, generic drugs off the market. Under so-called “reverse pay agreements,” drug companies offer money to generic competitors not to challenge their patents for a certain period of time, often until they expire. Last year, the U.S. Congressional Budget Office estimated that eliminating these agreements would lower drug costs in the country by $11 billion over 10 years. Yet U.S. courts have up until now generally upheld the agreements, with the new decision potentially paving the way for a Supreme Court challenge.
The European Union has also entered the debate on generic medicine production, pushing for intellectual property protections in a free trade agreement with India that now threatens to severely hinder the country's massive generic pharmaceutical industry. Given the size of its industry and the fact that over half the drugs produced are exported, India is often referred to as “the pharmacy of the developing world.” Under the terms of the proposed agreement, however, the availability of affordable, life-saving medicines could decline dramatically.
Generic pharmaceuticals face a further attack in the Indian justice system, where the Supreme Court has begun its final hearing on a case brought by Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis to challenge the country's drug patent regime. Novartis sued to extend protection for a slightly-modified version of an existing anti-cancer drug, a controversial practice known in the industry as “evergreening” and seen by many as a way to maintain artificially high drug prices. The Indian Government outlawed the practice in 2005, and drug makers have since decried the ban as a threat to innovation. Médecins Sans Frontières, however, argues that overturning the prohibition on evergreening would mean that “[m]ore and more treatments will remain priced out of reach for the duration of the patent term – 20 years or more – including those that are merely new forms of existing medicine and didn't deserve a patent in the first place.”
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SPOTLIGHT ON INDIGENOUS PEOPLES' RIGHTS
In Ecuador, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights has found an oil concession granted on the lands of the indigenous Sarayuku community to be an unlawful violation of their rights to be consulted, to community property, and to a cultural identity. The Sarayuku have long faced serious threats to their safety and survival as a result of their staunch opposition to explorations by oil companies in their territory. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the Government of Ecuador allowed an Argentine oil company to enter their lands without permission or discussion. The company later placed over 1,400 kilograms of high-grade explosives on almost 40,000 acres within Sarayuku territory, prompting the Inter-American Court to also hold Ecuador responsible for putting the community's lives at grave risk.
The Confederation of Indigenous Peoples of Ecuador (CONAIE) has welcomed the decision's recognition of inalienable indigenous property rights, and Amnesty International has further urged other countries in the region to take “immediate and decisive action to remedy the situation of hundreds of other indigenous peoples who face problems similar to those of the Sarayuku.”
Nonetheless, violations of the rights of indigenous peoples continue to be widespread around the Americas. In August, the Venezuelan Government finally promised to investigate allegations that gold miners from Brazil massacred a remote, indigenous Yanomami community in the country's Amazon region. According to a group of organisations representing indigenous peoples in the area, only 3 survivors from a community of 80 have been found. The Yanomani are considered the largest indigenous group on the continent to remain largely untouched, but have recently been under increasing pressure from miners entering their lands in search of valuable resources.
On a similar note, the Constitutional Court of Guatemala in July heard a challenge to the country's 1997 mining law on the grounds that the Government failed to consult indigenous peoples, who make up more than half of the nation's population. The case, brought by the Western People's Council (CPO), argues that the Government is required under national and international law to consult with indigenous peoples before approving policies with significant impacts on their territories. It responds in part to controversial actions taken by Guatemalan President Otto Pérez Molina to lift a moratorium on new concessions, which was put into place four years ago when the Constitutional Court found large portions of the mining law to be unconstitutional.
At the same time, those opposed to the changes have voiced increasing concerns over threats, targeted attacks and an intensifying Government crackdown. A gold mine in the northwest part of the country, for instance, continues to operate despite being the site of a nearly decade-long conflict, receiving reprimands from multiple international human rights bodies for failure to consult the affected Maya Mam and Sipakense indigenous peoples, and a recent People's Health Tribunal ruling that found serious risks to local water supplies and public health. Matters are no better in eastern Guatemala, where the violent eviction, rape and murder of activists and local residents around a nickel mine have lead to three lawsuits against mining company HudBay Minerals in Canadian courts.
In Brazil, a battle rages on over the construction of the Belo Monte dam in the Amazon rain forest. The $9 billion hydroelectric energy project began in 2005 when it gained approval from the Brazilian Congress, but has since faced 15 lawsuits and been shut down 4 times. Notably, in April 2011, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights found that the Government had failed to consult with indigenous communities in the surrounding area and requested that Brazil suspend construction. The Government refused to comply, and stopped contributing money to the Commission in retaliation.
In the latest saga, a high-level court again suspended construction for similar reasons in August, but was overruled by the Supreme Court two weeks later. The fight is not over yet, though, as the Court may revise its decision once it examines further evidence of the dam's environmental and human impacts. Meanwhile, similar cases rage on in courts across the country, pitting government and big business against indigenous peoples' rights. Earlier in August, another judge halted work on a Teles Peres River dam following the Ministry of Mines and Energy's apparent failure to even consider the effects of the project on the Kayabi, Apiakás and Munduruku indigenous peoples, much less consult them.
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GLOBAL CASE ROUNDUP
Housing for all in Argentina, but...
In Argentina, the Supreme Court of Justice has demanded that the City of Buenos Aires ensure adequate housing for a homeless mother and her disabled child. The case arose after the city repeatedly failed to answer the mother's pleas for assistance to find an alternative to life on the streets, violating her and her child's rights to health, dignity and housing. Looking to the Argentine Constitution and international human rights standards, the Court found that a minimum standard of living must be guaranteed for people in extremely vulnerable situations. The decision further emphasises that the case was not just about the right to housing, as children with disabilities also have the right to receive special care and attention in order to live in conditions of dignity.
...poverty and displacement in Cambodia, Turkey and the Dominican Republic.
The story has a less happy ending in Turkey, where a court belatedly ordered the cancellation of an urban renovation project in Istanbul's Sulukule neighbourhood, the oldest Roma settlement in Europe. The court found the project violated both Turkish laws and UNESCO criteria on historic preservation, as well as “not [being] in the public interest.” Unfortunately, the ruling does not come in time to save the neighborhood, which was almost entirely demolished in 2010 despite extensive national and international protests against the forced eviction of nearly 3,000 members of the community. Former residents were offered little in the way of resettlement, and many have now returned to live in shanties on the ruins of their former homes.
Meanwhile, in Cambodia, families displaced from their homes by an Asian Development Bank-financed project to rehabilitate the country's railways have filed a complaint with the Bank's Compliance Review Panel. Coerced into accepting low rates of compensation and now unable to make ends meet, the families allege they have lost their livelihoods as a result of the project's flawed involuntary resettlement process. According to the complaint, children have been particularly affected by the displacement, with one non-governmental organisation confirming that many have been forced to drop out of school and seek work to supplement their parents' income. The families seek a number of remedies from the Bank, including reimbursement and compensation, the provision of basic services in their new communities, and support to get their children back into education.
Along perhaps even more drastic lines, the Dominican Republic has also been accused of forcing people into poverty by arbitrarily detaining and expelling both Dominican and foreign citizens into Haiti. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has lodged a formal complaint against the country, alleging that the mass deportations of adults and children were based on racial prejudices, resulted in clear violations of the rights to nationality and to a fair trial, and left victims in a situation of extreme risk and vulnerability.
Gains for students in Brazil and the United States
The Brazilian Federal Supreme Court has unanimously upheld the constitutionality of racial quotas in the university admissions process. The Court found that allowing institutions of higher education to consider prospective students' race would help to create a diverse academic environment, promote equality in education, and ultimately overcome the country's history of racial discrimination. According to the International Network for Economic, Social & Cultural Rights, the decision promises to break the myth of racial equality in Brazil and may eventually lead to greater diversity in social positions of power.
United States-born children of parents without legal immigration status have also received a boost in higher education, with courts in New Jersey and Florida tossing out measures respectively designed to deny them state financial aid and charge them much higher tuition rates than their fellow citizens. The states defended the restrictions as necessary to deter illegal immigration and close budget gaps, but both failed to pass constitutional muster. According to the presiding federal judge in Florida, the new regulations “create a second-tier status of U.S. citizenship” and hinder the state's goal of “furthering educational opportunities for its own residents.”
Higher standards for refugees in Germany, but ritual circumcision back on the table
The Federal Constitutional Court of Germany has recognised the right to a minimum standard of living for asylum seekers and certain other foreign nationals in the country. Social benefits for asylum seekers have not increased since 1993, such that in 2012 adults now receive 40% less and children 55% less than the country's standard level of support. The Government argued that the differences were necessary to combat illegal immigration, but the Court found the lowered benefits to be insufficient and incompatible with the fundamental right to minimum existence. The German legislature has been ordered to review the matter, and the Government must provide asylum seekers and other persons on reduced social assistance with full benefits until new legislation has been passed.
Also in Germany, the state justice minister of Berlin has declared that the ritual circumcision of boys remains lawful in the city despite a Cologne state court decision banning the practice as a violation of children's rights. In response to an inquiry from a Jewish hospital, the justice minister clarified that circumcision is permitted where parents give their informed consent in writing, the religious reason and need for the procedure is presented, and it is performed according to acceptable medical standards. Earlier in the summer, Chancellor Angela Merkel announced plans to introduce new federal legislation that would protect the rights of parents across the country to circumcise their sons. Critics, however, maintain that the Government is giving into pressure from religious groups to the detriment of children's rights.
Church child abuse cases make waves in the United States and the United Kingdom
Religious officials face increasing scrutiny in the United States as allegations of child sex abuse continue to surface. Recently, a California jury awarded $28 million in a case brought against the Jehovah's Witnesses, marking the country's largest verdict for a single victim of religious child abuse. Among other things, the case alleged that the religion's national leaders adopted a policy instructing congregation elders to keep child sex abuse accusations secret in 1989, permitting those suspected of abusing children to continue to do so.
Meanwhile, across the country in Pennsylvania, a monsignor became the first top U.S. Catholic church official to be criminally convicted of child endangerment following his role in a cover-up of child sex abuse allegations. The case marks the first time that U.S. prosecutors have charged not just the priests who perpetrated the abuse, but also the church leaders who failed to stop them. Similarly, in the United Kingdom, an appeals court recently ruled that Catholic church officials can be held accountable for physical and sexual abuse committed by those within their ranks in the same way that companies are liable for the actions of their employees.
Blow to early marriage in India
In July, the Delhi High Court ruled that early marriage is banned across all faiths under the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act. Under the Court's decision, this Act will now override conflicting provisions of the Hindu Marriage Act and Muslim personal law, officially raising the national minimum age of marriage to 18 for girls and 21 for boys. Indian courts had been flooded with cases challenging the validity of underage religious marriages, many brought by parents complaining of the kidnapping and rape of their young, married daughters. Notably, however, the decision does not invalidate all marriages with children; rather, it gives children the option to void their marriages should they so request.
Backwards step for children with disabilities in the United States
In the United States, a class action lawsuit in Illinois claims that “draconian” state budget cuts will effectively institutionalise more than 1,000 children with disabilities into institutions. Under new state rules, children needing in-home nursing care for 12 or more hours a day would lose their health care benefits, leaving their families little choice but to place them in institutions. The lawsuit argues that forcing children to move out of their homes is a violation of their rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act and other federal legislation, especially when adequate hospital-level institutional care is three to five times more expensive than care provided at home.
Bringing polluters to task in Japan, Ecuador, Zimbabwe and the United States
Japanese law enforcement authorities have formally begun a criminal investigation into the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. The investigation will center around a criminal complaint filed by more than 1,300 people against plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), accepted by the Fukushima Prosecutor in June. The complaint names at least 33 individuals as defendants, and alleges that TEPCO failed to ensure that the facility was secure against earthquakes and tsunamis despite warnings that it may have been at risk. TEPCO is also accused of neglecting to warn local residents about the spread of radiation during the plant's meltdown, unnecessarily delaying evacuations.
Corporate responsibility is also at issue in Ecuador, where court proceedings seeking to hold oil company BP responsible for the massive 2010 spill in the Gulf of Mexico have been given the green light. The suit was presented by nine plaintiffs from five countries under a unique provision of the Ecuadorean constitution that grants the Earth a right to constitutional protection. The plaintiffs have demanded, among other things, that BP release information related to the accident, take continuing action to restore the affected areas, and – as a form of compensation – commit to leaving untapped an equivalent amount of oil to the oil spilled in the Gulf.
On a smaller but no less important scale, the Zimbabwe Environmental Law Association (ZELA) and villagers living along the Save River have sued to bar three diamond-mining companies in the country's Marange district from polluting water sources. According to a University of Zimbabwe study, exposure to heavy metals, chemicals and untreated sewage discharged into the river has put the villagers at a greater risk of contracting cancer and other diseases. The pollution is also a threat to livestock, and has negatively affected the livelihood of thousands of households.
Lastly, back in the Americas, a lawsuit has been filed in the United States against Missouri-based Doe Run Resources on behalf of 95 children suffering from the effects of lead poisoning near the company's plant in La Oroya, Peru. The lawsuit claims that the conditions around the plant constitute a public health crisis that poses health risks for the entire population, especially infants and young children. The plant lost its independent environmental certification in 2008, and evidence has since emerged that 99 per cent of children in the area have levels of lead in their blood high enough to cause permanent injury. Doe Run has faced two similar lawsuits in the past five years.
Concerns over prisons and police in Israel
After five years of isolation from relatives, family visits have resumed for Palestinian detainees in an Israeli jail. The visits were banned in 2007 following the abduction of an Israeli soldier by Palestinian militants, and were restored to end a month-long hunger strike by 1,600 detainees demanding better conditions and the end of detention without trial for suspected terrorists. Israel refused to put a stop to the latter despite growing international concern over the right to a fair trial, but agreed to restore weekly visitation rights for all family members except children.
In another move to highlight prison conditions and law enforcement practices in Israel, A UN special committee has condemned the country's treatment of child detainees. In particular, the committee noted the violent raiding of homes without warrants, the use of solitary confinement, and pressure placed by interrogators on children to become informants. The UN has since called on Israel to bring its practices in line with the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Arbitrary arrests in Australia, Pakistan
The Australian Government has recently come under fire after it was revealed that authorities imprisoned Indonesian children wrongly accused of smuggling people into the country. A report from the Australian Human Rights Commission detailed how 15 Indonesian children convicted of smuggling were eventually released after doubts were raised about their ages. The children had already spent an average of 948 days in detention, while another 48 children charged with similar offences were detained for an average of 431 days, including lengthy periods in adult prisons, before their prosecutions were abandoned. The Commission's report highlights how discredited age verification processes were used to back up the arrest and trial of children, leading to the conclusion that “Australian authorities did not respect the rights of children.” To remedy these violations, the Australian Lawyers Alliance is now asking the Government to pay compensation to children who were illegally detained.
In Pakistan, meanwhile, a 14-year-old Christian girl was arrested last month for blasphemy after allegedly burning the Koran, which carries a sentence of up to life imprisonment. After conflicting reports surfaced and it became clear that the girl might have mental disabilities, the country's President ordered an investigation into the arrest and affirmed the country's laws would not be misused to persecute religious beliefs. Taking a stronger stance on the subject, a human rights official in the country made clear that arrest was indeed a clear misuse of the law and argued that the situation should have been investigated before the girl was taken into custody. The girl has now been released on bail after spending 26 days in jail, in part because of suspicions that a religious official from her neighbourhood may have framed her for the crime. Pakistan's blasphemy laws have long been the subject of international opposition, including from UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay, and advocates from Human Rights Watch hope the incident will “lead to a solid re-examination of the law.”
Canada reconsiders stance on former child soldier in Guantanamo
Authorities in Canada are now considering whether to accept Canadian former child soldier and Guantanamo Bay detainee Omar Khadr into their custody. Khadr was captured by United States forces in Afghanistan in 2002, and in 2010 pleaded guilty to five charges before a U.S. military tribunal after unsuccessfully claiming his initial confession was the result of torture. Canada had previously declined to seek Khadr's repatriation after his lawyers secured a ruling from the Supreme Court that a 2004 interrogation following weeks of sleep deprivation had violated the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Now that Khadr has expressed his desire to serve out his sentence in his home country, however, Canadian officials will review that decision.
LGBT rights advocates hit the courts in Uganda, Singapore, Russia
During a hearing to challenge the Ugandan Government's closing down a gay rights workshop in February, presiding High Court judge Eldad Mwangushya suggested that security agencies should allow such meetings to go forward in order to “infiltrate” gay rights groups and ascertain whether children are being “recruited into homosexuality.” The case, brought by gay rights advocates, asserts that the Government's actions violated their rights to freedom of assembly and to influence government policies through civil society organisations under the Ugandan Constitution. The country's Ethics and Integrity Minister has since forced his way into another gay rights meeting and at times claimed that 38 organisations deemed to promote gay rights would be deregistered and forced to close.
In a brighter move, the Singapore Court of Appeal has allowed a challenge to a provision of the country's penal code criminalising homosexuality. The complaint argues that the provision is a violation of the rights to liberty, equal protection and freedom of expression under the Singapore Constitution. The decision reverses an earlier dismissal from the High Court, and now allows the case to proceed to trial.
In Russia, the Supreme Court just last week issued a decision that offers gay rights activists a mixed bag. While the Court upheld a local ban on “gay propaganda”, it limited the ban to prohibit only direct attempts at encouraging children to engage in “homosexual activity.” The Court explicitly ruled that gay pride parades and other demonstrations in support of gay rights must be permitted. In addition, information about homosexuality may still be provided to children, as long as it adopts a neutral tone. The Russian LGBT Network has welcomed those portions of the decision, but continues to disagree with any assertion that homosexuality harms family values.
Sexual exploitation at issue in the United States, India
Three 15 to 17-year-old girls in the United States have filed a lawsuit against classified ad website Backpage.com, a popular online destination for escort services. The girls' “pimp” is now behind bars, convicted in 2011 on numerous counts of child rape and promoting the sexual abuse of a minor. They now allege that the site allowed them to be raped and forced into prostitution for its own financial gain, knowingly operating a market for commercial sex and doing little to prevent the exploitation of children. In response, the site claims it offers an extensive system of prevention and argues that imposing new age verification requirements would only force child sexual exploitation further underground.
In India, the Supreme Court has ordered federal and state governments to account for 55,000 missing children in the country following allegations that authorities have “failed to trace” them. The complaint contends that the children were purchased and sold for sexual and other forms of exploitation, and blames the government for failing to investigate their kidnapping and trafficking. Children's rights organisations report that as many as 96,000 children could go missing in India every year.
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NEW LEGAL RESOURCES
REDRESS has released a manual on litigation strategies for sexual violence in Africa. The manual's overall purpose is to eliminate the knowledge gap about strategies women and girls may adopt to seek justice for sexual violence. It also hopes to encourage women and girls to use and exhaust all available avenues of justice within their domestic legal system and, if these systems fail them, to explore bringing complaints under regional or international mechanisms.
The International Network for Economic Social and Cultural Rights (ESCR-Net), Socio-economic Rights Institute of Africa (SERI) and NGO Coalition for the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (OP-ICESCR) have published a conference report on strategies for social rights litigation in Africa. The conference focused on increasing legal opportunities for claiming economic, social and cultural (ESC) rights in many parts of Africa, seen in the growing use of litigation strategies amongst civil society, increased legal mobilisation of marginalised groups and continued constitutionalisation of ESC rights.
The United States-based Human Rights Clinic at the University of Texas has released a report entitled “Maximizing Justice, Minimizing Delay: Streamlining Procedures of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).” The report is the result of two years' work based on statistical analysis and interviews on the duration of procedures under the Commission. It contains a serious and profound diagnosis of the current backlog and delay in the processing of cases and petitions pending and/or resolved by the IACHR over the last 15 years, and also offers a series of recommendations.
Penal Reform International (PRI) has published an Index of Paralegal Services in Africa, the latest resource in its paralegal series. It lists paralegal services, paralegal networks and university legal clinics in 21 African countries and provides contact details, a summary of the main services offered, a list of donors and examples of important results achieved. The important role of paralegal services was recognised recently at the international level with the adoption of the United Nations Principles and Guidelines on Access to Legal Aid in Criminal Justice Systems which note that ‘Paralegals and law students may provide assistance at court,’ provided that they are under the supervision of qualified lawyers. It is in this context that PRI promotes the appropriate use of paralegals within criminal justice systems as a means of complementing the work of qualified and experienced criminal defence lawyers.
Peace Brigades International (PBI) has published a conference report on environmental and land rights advocacy. The report discusses challenges posed by the extraordinary boom in mining and agribusiness in countries like Guatemala and Colombia, where the rights to water, food, health, standard of living, and traditional lands are increasingly under threat. It also analyses why these violations continue to occur despite a number of new international standards for governments and businesses alike, and seeks to establish what can be done to address the gaps in policy, legislation and enforcement to ensure that human rights and those who defend them are respected and protected. Along these lines, delegates at the conference urged greater adoption and implementation of national and regional court rulings on land and environmental rights, international human rights norms, and judicial reform measures to combat impunity and increase access to justice.
A Supreme Court judge in Bangladesh, Justice M. Imman Ali, has put together a selection of judgments and other legal resources related to children's rights. Among other things, the website offers documents relating to child custody, working children, and children in conflict with the law.
The South Africa-based Centre for Child Law has published a Case Report covering its involvement in strategic litigation to advance children's rights over the past decade. When the Centre is involved in litigation, it does so in numerous ways. The Centre has litigated in its own name in the public interest, represented individual children or children’s organisations as parties, and has brought applications, civil actions, appeals and reviews. Cases covered range from criminal justice and family law matters to freedom of expression and socio-economic rights.
Defence for Children International – Belgium has published a series of French-language fact sheets on children's rights, including a briefing on access to justice for children. The briefing reviews children's rights in the context of court proceedings, giving both general arguments on how lawyers can work to advance children's access to justice and particulars on the situation in Belgium.
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