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Much of Interights' work is carried out under four regional programmes in Africa, Central and Eastern Europe, South Asia and the Commonwealth Caribbean. Legal officers familiar with the legal, political and socio-economic conditions of each region develop programmes tailored for the specific needs and priorities of the communities concerned, in consultation and partnership with NGOs, lawyers, judges and others.
These programmes generally combine case work, strategic and institutional development, education and training and provision of informational materials. Through them we aim to provide expert advice and assistance to those defending human rights through law, to strengthen capacity in the use of human rights law, to improve the functioning and use of existing mechanisms and to develop positive human rights case law in each region and internationally.
AFRICA
CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE
SOUTH ASIA
COMMONWEALTH CARIBBEAN
MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA
Interights' Africa programme seeks to promote and reinforce the domestic legitimacy of human rights law. Through an integrated approach, melding national, regional, international and comparative experiences, it is designed to inform and enhance the effectiveness of persons, processes and institutions that work to protect human rights through law in Africa. Its main features include:
a combination of carefully targeted interventions including education and training, case work and resource support where appropriate support for and improvement in the work of Africa's regional human rights institutions supporting the development of skills in the domestic application of international human rights norms and in the use of national institutions and procedures to achieve redress for human rights violations promoting the development and sustenance of active but informal networks of communication, exchange and solidarity among those with whom we work throughout Africa.
African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights
The African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights (the African Commission) was set up in November 1987 to promote and protect human rights under the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights (the
Charter), previously adopted by the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) in 1981. The Commission implements its mandate by promotional activities such as seminars, workshops and promotional field missions. It has a quasi-judicial role in which it receives, considers and decides on cases, complaints and communications about violations of human rights by African States. The Commission has created three Special Rapporteurs to address specific problems of human rights in Africa in the areas of prisons, human rights of women, and summary, arbitrary and extra-judicial executions.
The African Commission maintains a healthy relationship with NGOs, to over 260 of whom it has granted Observer Status to enable them to participate constructively in its work. The Commission granted Observer Status to Interights in 1990 and we have been actively involved with it since then. Interights' work with the Commission included support for the work of the Commission's Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Women, the development of a project on the reform of the Commission's protection procedures, follow up of the Commission's promotional work in fair trial and economic, social and cultural rights and the conduct of case work before the Commission.
Support for the Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Women
In 1998, the African Commission designated a Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Women. Interights offered support to the Special Rapporteur in developing her mandate, including structuring her priorities which are now defined as follows:
Focusing on one aspect of that mandate, Interights helped the Special Rapporteur to design and implement a research project investigating forms of violence against women in Africa. This project aims to explore different types of violence including violence in conflict situations, trafficking in women, and domestic violence. Supported by UNIFEM and Centre Canadian d'Etudes et de Co-operation Internationale (CECI), this project will enable the Special Rapporteur to provide informed recommendations to governments in Africa on how to address these problems. Together with FEMNET, the African Women's Development and Communication Network, Interights will work with the Special Rapporteur to convene a meeting of experts to discuss her major findings before she prepares a report for the Commission.
Reform of the procedures of the African Commission
The African Charter empowers the Commission to receive, consider and decide on complaints of violations of human rights committed by African governments against their own citizens and residents or against the citizens of other African countries. Such complaints can be initiated by individuals or by states themselves. The protective work of the Commission has historically been hampered by poor capacity, including short-staffing, poor technical skills among professional staff at its secretariat in processing and handling cases, limited appropriations for communications and follow up with States and inadequate information technology.
Interights initiated discussions with the Commission on a project to identify means of addressing, on a sustainable basis, the capacity and procedural problems in the execution of the Commission's protective mandate. At its 28th Ordinary Session in Cotonou, Benin Republic, the Commission set up a Working Group of its members on this issue. Supported by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Interights will assist the Commission in the formulation, adoption and implementation of proposals for:
increasing public awareness with a view to increasing public recourse to the Commission across Africa; speeding up the processing of cases and complaints of violations by the Commission; and ensuring monitoring of decisions and compliance by States parties with such decisions.
To complement the capacity of the Commission to provide an effective remedy in cases of violation of human rights in Africa, the OAU decided in June 1998 to create an African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights. When established, the Court will hear cases alleging human rights violations and provide enforceable remedies against African governments from both individuals and governments. It will have powers to review decisions of the Commission, so its efficacy will depend to some extent on that of the Commission.
Interights agreed to work with the Commission during the next year both in the review of procedures relating to its protective mandate, and in exploring ways to prepare for the Court and clarify the relationship of the Commission and the Court.
Follow up to fair trial seminar
Fair trial and due process has been at issue in many of the communications submitted to the African Commission. In November 1999, the Commission adopted the recommendations of a Seminar on Fair Trial in Africa organised for the Commission by Interights, the African Society for International and Comparative Law and Rencontre africaine pour la defense des droits de l'homme (RADDHO). It set up a Working Group, chaired by Mr. K. Rezag-Bara, then Vice-Chairman of the Commission, to elaborate guidelines for the implementation of those recommendations, extending the Group's mandate by one year in November 2000. Interights is facilitating the work of the Commission in preparing these Guidelines, to be approved by the Commission during 2002.
Seminar on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
An essential feature of the African Charter is its integration of all categories of human rights into one single instrument. Although it has worked within this framework, the African Commission has not yet articulated coherent strategies for addressing economic, social and cultural rights (ESCRs) in the Charter. The Commission requested Interights to work with it in designing and organising a seminar on ESCRs under the African Charter for the purpose of informing the Commission's work on these rights. The seminar will be organised in early 2003.
Evaluation of Interights' work with the African regional human rights system
After holding observer status with the Commission for 10 years, Interights commissioned an independent evaluation of its work on the African regional human rights system in general and on the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights in particular. Undertaken by Professor Salif Yonaba of the Law Faculty at the University of Burkina Faso in Ouagadougou, this evaluation found that Interights' collaboration with the Commission had made positive and verifiable contributions to the development of the institution. Professor Yonaba also made recommendations for sustaining and improving this relationship, including further outreach in francophone countries.
Training for judges and lawyers
Human rights and administration of justice for lower court judges in Southern Africa
In most African countries, the lower courts are the closest point of contact between the justice system and an overwhelming majority of the citizens. It is estimated that over 80% of cases are addressed and settled at this level. Yet projects to improve the skills of judicial personnel are mostly focused on superior Courts of Record above these lower courts. To address this oversight, Interights, with the support of the heads of the judiciaries in Malawi and Zambia, designed and implemented a pilot project of training of human rights and the administration of justice in Southern Africa for the benefit of lower court judges in both countries.
Implemented between 1998 and 2000, this project involved the design and delivery of three separate week-long training events, two in Malawi and one in Zambia, on issues affecting the implementation of human rights in the lower courts. The training was preceded by a needs assessment of the lower courts in both countries. The faculty for the project was drawn from within and outside Southern Africa and included judges, academics and activists. In addition to the judiciaries of both Malawi and Zambia, the Centre for Advice, Research and Education on Rights (CARER) and the Danish Centre for Human Rights' Malawi project collaborated with us in this project.
Over 115 magistrates and judges of the lower courts of both Malawi and Zambia, of whom 42 were women, participated in the training. Following an evaluation of the project with the collaborating institutions, and with active support from the highest levels of the judiciary in both countries, we began to design a follow up project to prepare and test a handbook on human rights and administration of justice in the lower courts based on the training.
Training on the protection of the human rights of refugees in West Africa
Africa continues to experience a major problem of internal and cross-border forced displacement. The continent has the largest per capita distribution of forcibly displaced persons and of 'persons of concern to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees'. Between 1999-2000, we supported the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights in New York and a network of national human rights NGOs in West Africa, in organising week-long training workshops on the protection of the human rights of refugees. About 25 organisations in all 16 countries of West Africa benefited from these training activities which took place successively in C�te d'Ivoire, Ghana and Senegal.
Upon conclusion of the training in Dakar in June 2000, participants resolved to set up a West African Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons Network (WARIPNet) to monitor, report and advocate for the rights of refugees and other victims of forcible displacement in West Africa. This network is currently co-ordinated by RADDHO in Senegal. Interights has continued to work with WARIPNet, providing assistance in developing appropriate strategies.
Publications
Inter-African Initiatives in the Field of Human Rights
Those challenging the legitimacy of Africa's human rights community often accuse it of being unduly dependent on or guided by Western or Northern backers. Human rights initiatives in Africa face severe constraints in achieving intra-regional exchanges of skills or solidarity among themselves. One reason for this is the lack of ready information about sources for such support on the continent. To help alleviate this problem, Interights undertook a mapping and documentation of cross-border human rights initiatives in Africa, with support from the Ford Foundation. The resulting study was published in February 2001 under the title, Building Bridges for Rights: Inter-African Initiatives in the Field of Human Rights.
Building Bridges describes the factors that have influenced the evolution of cross-border human rights initiatives in Africa, their patterns of growth, problems and constraints as well as gaps, challenges and opportunities. It contains entries with brief descriptions of and contact information for 78 non-governmental and 17 inter-governmental bodies in Africa, including the Organisation of African Unity, the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights, the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights and the various regional integration arrangements in Africa.
French language Bulletin
Interights works in a number of civil law jurisdictions, in Africa and elsewhere, where the official or working language is French, but until recently this was poorly reflected in our publications. This year saw the appearance of the first volume of our flagship Bulletin in the French language. This issue features a compilation of articles and international law cases from the English version, as well as specially commissioned articles focussing on civil law and francophone jurisdictions. We aim eventually to publish two issues of the French language Bulletin annually.
Advisory and case work
African Commission for Human and Peoples' Rights
The African Commission this year concluded its consideration of seven cases - five against Nigeria and one each against Botswana and Sierra Leone - conducted by Interights as counsel. It also decided another case against Zambia in which Interights had acted as amicus curiae at the Commission's request. The Nigerian cases - on which we worked with three leading Nigerian human rights organisations, the Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO), Constitutional Rights Project (CRP) and Media Rights Agenda (MRA) - involved multiple violations of human rights committed by military regimes in Nigeria before the transition to elected government in Nigeria in 1999. They addressed questions of free expression, the rights to freedom of association and assembly, and the rights to property and personal dignity. In these decisions, the Commission condemned the violations complained of and requested Nigeria to take remedial measures.
In the Botswana case, we represented Mr John Modise, rendered stateless by the cancellation of his Botswana nationality in 1977. His case was initiated before the Commission in 1993. The Commission's decision upholds the existence of a right to nationality which is not expressly mentioned in the African Charter and restores Mr. Modise's nationality. In the case against Sierra Leone, undertaken with Forum of Conscience, based in Freetown, the Commission found that the execution of alleged coup plotters in 1998 following a trial in which they were not given the right to appeal violated the right to life.
The case against Zambia arose from a challenge by the Legal Resources Foundation of Zambia to the constitutional amendment of 1996, which deprived former President Kenneth Kaunda of his right to vie for elective political office in the country. The Commission requested Interights to submit an opinion as to whether it could consider questions relating to the compatibility of a national constitutional instrument with the African Charter. A decision on this case will be reached before the end of 2001.
Interights was involved as counsel in three other pending cases against Benin Republic, Eritrea and Ethiopia. The case against Benin Republic is being conducted on behalf of a private individual. We are undertaking the cases against Eritrea and Ethiopia with the Pan African Movement, Citizens for Peace in Eritrea and the Inter-Africa Group based in Ethiopia. These cases arise from violations that occurred during the war between the two countries between 1998-2000. Another case, initiated with the Namibian National Society for Human Rights, seeks the enforcement of the prohibition against refoulement under the African Charter and international human rights and refugee law.
Other fora
In addition to case work before the African Commission, described above, the programme provided general technical and advisory support in litigation to many partners and collaborators within and outside Africa, as reported in the Appendix. In one such initiative, we worked with and advised the Legal Defence and Aid Project (LEDAP), a Nigerian NGO, in designing and preparing for a Forum of Directors of Public Prosecutions of Nigeria. We also advised on aspects of migration including protection against forcible displacement, population and migration in the negotiation of the Cotonou Agreement (successor to the Lom� Convention) between the European Union and the African, Caribbean and Pacific States.
Issues addressed in case work included: remedies for gross violations of human rights, the right to property, violence against women, the deployment and conduct of field missions in situations of conflict, universal jurisdiction, due process standards in criminal proceedings, jurisdictional obstacles to initiating human rights claims against multi-nationals, and telecommunications reform and regulation.
In Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), Interights' programme focuses on activities - principally support for litigation programmes, training and information provision - which are likely to have impact in a number of jurisdictions. The principle aim is to support the development of institutions and long-term litigation strategies. Specific projects focus either on one precisely defined issue (e.g. access to justice or non-discrimination), or on applying a particular methodology (e.g. a comprehensive training scheme for practising lawyers, applied in a number of jurisdictions). This 'functional' approach is combined with work in individual countries, in partnership with local organisations and lawyers, to enhance capacity to use and to act as a resource for others using international human rights legal standards.
Activities in the region are designed to reinforce each other. Litigation frequently exposes the need for further training or the lack of sufficient support materials. Training, on the other hand, frequently produces the desire to use the skills learned in practice. Joint work between experts on domestic and international standards leads to new educational initiatives and to their further involvement with NGOs. Finally, enhanced national programmes increase the capacity to set up complex multi-country initiatives which in turn increase the efficacy of international pressure to improve domestic performance.
Regional Thematic Litigation Support and Advocacy Projects
In order to address certain key problems of human rights protection in the region that extend across borders, to influence public policy and achieve systemic change, we were recently instrumental in developing, in partnership with international and national organisations, two region-wide thematic litigation support and advocacy projects.
Access to Justice
The changes of the last decade in Central and Eastern Europe have resulted in an unprecedented growth in the potential for individuals to seek justice through courts. Yet these remain entirely theoretical for the vast majority of people throughout the region who are unable to afford the cost associated with legal proceedings, whether to enforce rights, or to defend themselves against criminal charges. Governments have largely ignored their international obligations to provide legal aid in criminal proceedings when the interests of justice require it, and in certain civil proceedings if access to court is at stake. This situation is a major impediment to the practical implementation of human rights guarantees and is the focus of two of Interights' initiatives.
Access to Justice in EU applicant countries
Studies prepared for a meeting on access to justice convened by Interights and others in 1999 confirmed the often insuperable obstacles to access to justice in the region and highlighted the absence of information regarding the problem and lack of critical thinking on how best to address it. Practitioners and specialists demonstrated keen interest to work out solutions to improve access to justice. The organisers drew on the discussions to elaborate a region-wide initiative aimed at creating a coalition of individuals and organisations committed to the improvement of legal aid for indigent persons. This initiative was designed to facilitate the exchange of information about new legal aid developments in the region, to initiate and provide technical assistance for quantitative and qualitative country studies on which to base proposals for reform, and to assist in the organisation of pilot national consensus-building fora of decision-makers, experts and activists in two countries.
In October 2000, Interights, the Public Interest Law Initiative (PILI), the Constitutional and Legal Policy Institute (COLPI), the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee (BHC) and the Polish Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights (HFHRR) launched a 30 month project focusing on strengthening access to justice, and particularly provision of legal aid, in the 10 EU applicant countries from the region. This project involves the following activities:
two pilot projects involving country studies in Poland and Bulgaria, to be followed by national fora in 2002 based on those studies. The fora will bring together experts, activists and decision-makers to establish a
consensus on needed reforms; assistance in establishing similar projects in a growing number of other countries in the region; acting as a clearinghouse for resource materials relating to legal aid models, including the relative costs and benefits of different solutions, and facilitating the exchange of information about access to justice developments through an e-mail list and the Worldwide Web (www.pili.org/access); and
support for strategic litigation and advocacy before international institutions identified as effective tools for change.
The project is guided by a Steering Committee, composed of representatives of the main project partners. The first meeting of the Committee was held in March 2001 in London, hosted by Interights.
Consultancy to the Council of Europe on effective access to the law and to justice for the very poor
The Council of Europe Steering Committee on Human Rights (CDDH) asked Interights to advise on the implementation, at domestic level, of the Council of Ministers' Recommendation (93)1 on effective access to the law and to justice for the very poor. The recommendation urged governments of the member States to facilitate access to the law for the very poor and specified a range of concrete measures that should be implemented to this end.
Interights drafted a detailed questionnaire for circulation to all relevant governments and produced an interim report to the CDDH in January 2001, based on a limited number of replies received from governments by the end of 2000. It was agreed that a further request would be addressed to governments to elicit more replies and specific information, to be compiled into a final report by Interights by the end of 2001.
Equality and non-discrimination
Another regional project, developed jointly with the European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) and the Migration Policy Group (MPG), is designed to address one of the most serious human rights problems that has emerged across Europe since 1989 - discrimination against racial, ethnic and national minorities. A full report of this project, launched in January 2001, is given under the Programme on Equal Treatment without Discrimination, below.
Litigation and Programme Development Support
NGOs have played a leading role in many countries in the region in developing the use of law, especially the European Convention of Human Rights, to protect human rights. Many have developed specialised programmes for these purposes. Elsewhere it is groups of lawyers who have set up programmes of activities on human rights, such as litigation in the public interest, education and dissemination of information.
Interights provided structured support to NGOs with legal defence programmes and to individual lawyers taking impact cases, by:
supporting the development of specialised skills and units within NGOs and professional bodies to undertake strategic litigation and provide legal defence; developing updateable legal briefs on frequently recurring litigation topics; and supporting litigation undertaken, encouraging the use of international human rights legal standards as early as possible in the domestic procedure to increase the impact of these standards and ensure better preparation of the cases for eventual international litigation.
Advice and support to NGO legal defence programmes and lawyers' groups
The establishment of the Urals Centre on Constitutional and International Human Rights Protection as a specialised unit within Sutyajnik, an Ekaterinburg-based NGO in Russia, marked an important phase in a longer partnership with Interights. The lawyers of the Centre receive and analyse the complaints of victims of human rights violations who turn to Sutyajnik for support, consider the potential for use of the European Court of Human Rights, select those cases which have important potential impact and represent the applicants before the European Court. The Centre's lawyers were trained by the project, and in turn began to set up training initiatives for NGOs throughout the Urals region. They also initiated collaboration with other NGOs in the Urals which lack sufficient legal expertise.
Longer-standing co-operation with the Legal Defence Programme of the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee (BHC) and the Consultative Bureau of the Ukrainian Union of Advocates also continued. Work with the BHC focused on a number of cases filed with the European Court of Human Rights, raising issues of fair trial, right to life, ill-treatment and privacy rights, while work with the Bureau concentrated on its
organisational development.
More generally, the programme provided advice on a number of cases, some reported in the annex to this report. Advice focused predominantly on assessing the chances of admissibility and success on the merits of applications to the ECHR, directed primarily against Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, and Moldova.
Litigation Briefs
In order to provide regularly updated resources on issues most widely raised in our litigation support work, the Programme continued to elaborate and maintain a number of litigation briefs. Work focused on the following briefs:
This brief encompasses a number of issues that are of relevance to the situation of refugees and the applicability of the ECHR to their circumstances, and focuses in particular on the question of arbitrary and unlawful detention of refugees and asylum seekers.
The primary objective of this brief is to inform practitioners of the modalities of the friendly settlement procedure, particularly stressing the flexibility of settlements in terms of remedial measures for an applicant. It sets out a typology of cases in which settlements have been reached and highlights a number of pitfalls and difficult areas as well as advice and strategies for the practitioner engaging in negotiations in the context of a Strasbourg case.
This brief, initially developed for a Russian publication, explores the relevance of the European Convention on Human Rights to military affairs. It examines both questions regarding the military's interaction with civilians and issues related to the armed forces' internal organisation, such as fairness of court-martial proceedings, or disciplinary procedures resulting from a soldier's sexuality or beliefs.
As applications relating to the armed forces from Central and Eastern Europe are likely to multiply in the coming years, the brief can also serve as a useful tool for legal representatives, giving them swift access to the Court's case law in this field.
Training for Lawyers
Many branches of the legal profession in CEE now have structured systems of training, but there is no systematic training for advocates, whether general or on human rights issues. Most laws regulating the profession are completely silent on the issue of advocates' training, and practically nowhere is there any obligation for advocates to attend continuous training after they have qualified for the Bar.
To fill the gap in the provision of ongoing human rights training for practising advocates, the Programme has developed and implemented two main types of training activities, carried out either regionally and/or in specific countries. The principle aims are to equip advocates with practical skills for domestic application of international human rights law and for international litigation, and to encourage the development of sustainable structures for human rights training for advocates.
Litigation-oriented workshops
These workshops, ideally forming part of a series with the same participants, are either focused on specific key issues, such as free expression, fair trial or refugee protection, or are procedure-oriented workshops based on consideration of hypothetical cases, where the main aim is to build practical skills in using international standards.
We conducted one such workshop in Georgia in October 2000 for lawyers from Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, in partnership with the Netherlands Helsinki Committee (NHC) and COLPI. Another was held in the Netherlands for lawyers from all CEE countries in June 2000, again with the NHC.
Comprehensive national training programmes
These programmes involve subject-specific training sessions (between 4 and 10, depending on local conditions), training on procedures, publications and the development of networking or programmes for legal advice and defence.
We implemented such a programme in Russia, for lawyers affiliated with human rights NGOs throughout Russia, in partnership with Sutyajnik. The course ran from March to July 2000 in Ekaterinburg. Another course was organised in Ukraine, in partnership with the Union of Advocates, for practising advocates. The preparatory work commenced in October 2000 and the training course had its first workshop in March 2001.
Planning began for similar programmes in Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, in partnership with the NHC, COLPI and national human rights NGOs.
Ensuring Access to International Human Rights Legal Information
One of the most serious obstacles facing lawyers and others in the CEE trying to use international human rights law in litigation or in public advocacy continues to be lack of access to international decisions in national languages.
The CEE Programme has, over the years, initiated several projects to address this issue. The ultimate aim was to encourage the creation of domestic systems of continuous case reporting. We focused, therefore, on:
creating models on publication of case-law in national languages, both as to substantive content and in terms of project management; providing relevant Interights resources in local languages, principally articles from Interights' Bulletin, case summaries and occasionally litigation materials.
Case Law Collections of Selected Judgments of the European Court of Human Rights
Over the last three years, Interights, together with COLPI and the Council of Europe, and in collaboration (through representative editorial Committees) with institutions and individuals in each country, has been working on a regional publication project to make available translations of the major ECHR case law in national languages. In a number of countries, volumes containing edited versions of the main ECHR judgments were published, and plans are under way to support partnerships and initiatives to make such case law available in local languages on a continuing and regular basis.
In May 2000, a 2-volume, 2,000-page Digest was published in Russian by NORMA Publishers, as a joint project between INTERIGHTS, the Council of Europe, COLPI and the Institute of European Law in Moscow, in a print run of 8,000, with several reprints planned in order to satisfy huge demand, both in Russia and in other countries where Russian is widely spoken.
In Bulgaria, we continued work on a Digest Update, and hope to publish this volume, covering the years 1998-2000, by the end of 2001, in conjunction with the Council of Europe Information and Documentation Centre in Sofia and the Association for Human Rights and European Integration.
In Romania, after the initial Digest was published in early 2000, Digest Update No. 1 was published in early 2001, and work started on Digest Update No. 2, to be published by the end of 2001.
Compendium issues of Interights Bulletin in Russian
In the absence of information sources on developments in international human rights law accessible to busy practitioners, translations of selected materials from Interights' Bulletin were very positively received by practitioners and NGOs in various countries. Following great interest in publication of some extracts from the Bulletin in Russian in local publications, we started a regular publication, in conjunction with the Moscow based Human Rights Institute, of compendium issues of the Bulletin in Russian. These carry primarily short articles and case summaries on a given subject.
Issues published this year were No. 3/2000, on freedom of religion, association and assembly, and No. 4/2000, on freedom of expression.
Given the limited access to international mechanisms (with only Nepal and Sri Lanka having ratified the Optional Protocol to the ICCPR to date), and the lack of any regional mechanism, work in South Asia necessarily centres around supporting initiatives to enforce human rights through domestic courts. In doing so it encourages cross-border co-operation and regional exchange of information and experiences on developments in law and practice on human rights. Where international recourse is available, Interights encourages its use and provides technical assistance, where required, with complaints before international tribunals, such as the UN Human Rights Committee.
Designed to support the work of human rights lawyers and organisations in using the law to protect human rights, activities undertaken during this period include developing a South Asian Regional Judicial Colloquium Series on human rights and access to justice; designing national and regional training workshops for lawyers on the domestic application of international human rights norms; and supporting strategies to address so-called 'honour crimes' and violence against women. Interights also emphasises the importance of generating and disseminating information on available rights and remedies, and to this end is involved in the preparation of a casebook on human rights in South Asia and of a handbook on Remedies for Forced Marriage, as well as an e-mail network for human rights lawyers in the region. These activities, together with an account of case work undertaken during the year, are outlined further below.
Strategies to Address 'Honour Crimes'
The Programme developed its collaboration with the Centre for Islamic and Middle Eastern Law at the School of Oriental and African Studies on a Project on Strategies to Address Honour Crimes. The Project focuses on �honour crimes' as an issue that cuts across communities, cultures, religions and nations, and includes in its specific manifestations a range of forms of violence directed, in the majority of cases, against women, including murder (�honour killings') and forced (as distinct from arranged) marriage. At one point of the spectrum are cases where, most typically, a woman is killed by her own relatives for bringing �dishonour' upon the family, usually through conduct perceived as breaching community norms on sexual behaviour. At another point is the incidence of forced (as opposed to arranged) marriages of young women, which also, in some cases, result in attempted murder of the women involved. These cases demonstrate the linkage between questions of honour and the attempt by the community and, specifically, male family members, to control women's behaviour and movement.
The incidence of honour killings, the virtual impunity enjoyed by those responsible for such killings, and the pattern of state inaction in such cases has never been systematically addressed by international or regional human rights mechanisms or non-governmental organisations. Existing initiatives were mostly undertaken at a local level, generally taking the form of campaigns around specific incidents, or individual legal interventions, as well as some documentation of judicial responses to such cases. The Project therefore aims to build on existing initiatives and to facilitate cooperation among activists and lawyers to develop diverse and multiple strategies, nationally, regionally and internationally. A central aim is to combat impunity for those responsible for honour killings and to challenge a climate of support for the practice in the wider communities and amongst state institutions.
Directory on Initiatives to Address 'Honour Crimes'
The mapping exercise of initiatives to address �honour crimes' undertaken in the first phase of the project was further developed. The first version of the Directory was sent out to all those listed at the end of April 2001. Feedback was swift and positive, with a number of persons requesting copies and using it to network and facilitate their own strategies of response to �crimes of honour.'
We received communications from people working on �honour killings' and forced marriages in such places as Lebanon, Norway, Sweden and Palestine, either expressing an interest in further information or involvement with the Project, or seeking inclusion of their initiatives in a subsequent version. The Directory has been used to identify experts to substantiate claims of gender based persecution in relation to asylum claims and to identify researchers to cooperate in related initiatives.
Annotated Bibliography
The Project has maintained the Annotated Bibliography produced last year with two updates adding new entries. A third update, including a substantial number of case summaries, is due to go out in Autumn 2001. The Bibliography is hosted on the web by two cooperating organisations, the International Women's Health Coalition at www.iwhc.org/bibliointro.html and the Human Rights Center of Minnesota University at www.1.umn.edu/humanrts/bibliog/honourintro; it will also be on the Project's website, currently under construction (see below). Here again the feedback has been very positive, and the Bibliography has generated a number of further requests for information and for contacts to which members of the Project team were able to respond.
Compilation of Extracts of International Human Rights Documents on 'Crimes of Honour'
The Project has prepared two substantial compilations, one on 'honour killings' and the other on forced marriage. The aim of these documents is to present in an easily accessible form, for the sake of reference, research and advocacy, the various international legal provisions and extracts from UN human rights reports that are pertinent to the discussion on 'honour crimes'. They are updated periodically and provided on request to researchers, activists, etc. The Project will be producing printed copies of the full texts for circulation as a resource document in advance of the international meeting in 2002.
Seminar for Practitioners on Forced Marriage
In July 2000, with Southall Black Sisters, the project convened a 'Seminar for Practitioners on Forced Marriage as an Abuse of Human Rights'. The Seminar brought together lawyers, scholars, human rights and women's rights activists and civil servants from Bangladesh, Pakistan, and the UK. The seminar was addressed by judges from Pakistan and the UK, the Chair of the British Home Office's Working Group on Forced Marriage, the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, its Causes and Consequences and by lawyers and activists from Bangladesh, Pakistan and the UK.
The Project participated in meetings held by women's organisations, local authorities and police forces in the UK following the release of a report by the British Home Office's Working Group on Forced Marriage. Issues addressed included remedies for abduction for forced marriage.
Handbook on Forced Marriage: Rights and Remedies in Bangladesh, India and Pakistan
Interights began work on a handbook on Remedies for Forced Marriage, focusing on three jurisdictions in South Asia, and including contributions from lawyers in Bangladesh, India and Pakistan. It was undertaken in close collaboration with lawyers and women's rights groups in each jurisdiction, including Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK) in Bangladesh, Shirkat Gah in Pakistan and the Lawyers' Collective in India.
Website and Listserve
A website for the Project is under construction, with preliminary access planned for September 2001. The site will be hosted from SOAS and will include the Project statement, the Bibliography, a number of the publications and papers, the Directory (permission from those to be included pending), and other resource materials (including the compilations of international law and other documents) produced by the Project.
Work has continued on the Listserve through compiling an updated and fairly comprehensive listing of email contacts and planning the distribution of materials in advance. A more limited group email is being established to facilitate discussions among partners on country studies.
Interventions to UN Human Rights Mechanisms
The project provided information on cases of 'honour killings' to Asma Jahangir, the UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Executions, and also assisted in identifying relevant contacts in Turkey prior to her mission there during the reporting year. It also provided related information to Radhika Coomerswamy, UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women.
International Conference on Honour Crimes
The Project plans to convene an international conference on Honour Crimes in 2002, and has commissioned a series of country studies from Bangladesh, Egypt, Palestine and Pakistan that will be presented at this conference. Other country studies, possibly from Brazil, India, Jordan and the Lebanon, are currently being considered.
South Asia Regional Judicial Colloquium Series
Preparations progressed on a series of South Asian Judicial Colloquia on the Domestic Application of International Human Rights Norms, one of the key recommendations of South Asian judiciary following a Judicial Colloquium held in Bangalore, India in December 1998. The purpose of the series is to provide an opportunity for senior judges within the region to share their experiences of using international and comparative human rights law in national courts, specifically in relation to interpreting national constitutional and legal standards. It will provide a forum for South Asian judges to develop judicial education on human rights within the region, and within each country, and an opportunity to consolidate some of the innovations and successes of judicial enforcement of human rights.
The series of colloquia, to be co-organised by Interights and the New Delhi-based Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), will be conducted in several phases over the next two years. The first planning phase included wide-ranging consultations with selected judges and lawyers in South Asia to identify the extent of recourse to international or comparative human rights law from the region, to prioritise concerns regarding human rights protection and enforcement in the region, and to suggest structuring for the regional colloquium series. A preliminary consultation, involving key judges from each country and selected lawyers, was convened in Dhaka in May 2000 by the Chief Justice of Bangladesh and co-hosted by the Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST). A Contact Group of six judges was set up to guide decisions as to key issues to be addressed, the selection of participants and the format of discussions.
The contact group agreed that action-oriented research should be undertaken in selected courts within the region to identify practical initiatives to develop access to justice and implement human rights norms. These studies would then inform the colloquia and associated activities.
During the past year, on the basis of these recommendations and further consultations, Interights and CHRI started to develop detailed plans for the project, initiated the background research and sought funds for the second phase, leading to the first Colloquium.
National Courts and Mechanisms
Project on Legal Protection of Human Rights in Nepal
Nepal's Constitution guarantees fundamental human rights and provides for judicial review of executive action. It permits the direct application of international human rights law in national courts, the only constitution in the region to do so. Nepal also has extensive international treaty obligations to promote and protect human rights and allows access to the complaints mechanisms of the UN Human Rights Committee. However, although national courts are competent and open to hearing and adjudicating on fundamental rights petitions, the courts' enforcement of human rights in practice has been sporadic at best.
With the Informal Sector Services Centre (INSEC), Kathmandu, Interights has developed a two year project on Legal Protection of Human Rights in Nepal. The project is also based on significant prior consultations with the Forum for Women, Law and Development (FWLD) and the Centre for Victims of Torture (CVICT). The project aims to increase the capacity of lawyers in Nepal to ensure the effective protection of fundamental rights and to provide them with practical skills training and with legal resources for this purpose.
The project has three components. Firstly, it will involve two workshops for lawyers in Nepal on the use of international tribunals and national courts to protect fundamental rights. These will focus on the practical application of the law before national and international courts and tribunals, and will be conducted through hands-on activities of drafting and arguing hypothetical cases on human rights. Secondly, the project will provide and develop resources for human right lawyers in Nepal. Thirdly, it will set up a process to link Nepalese human rights advocates through national and regional networks to enable them to share information and strategies on public interest and human rights law.
While the project awaited funding, we began working with Nepali partners on several cases, which will inform the Project when it begins.
Training Programmes on the use of International Human Rights Law in National Courts
The similarities between the legal systems, the shared human rights priorities and the richness of comparative fundamental rights jurisprudence within the region led Interights to prioritise regional as well as national programmes. These offer the opportunity to enhance and facilitate the effective interchange of information on human rights law and common legal strategies regionally and domestically among human rights practitioners.
Interights has participated in the development of a three year regional training programme on the use of international human rights law, organised by Forum Asia (the Asia Pacific Forum for Law and Development), the Law and Society Trust, Colombo, and the International Women's Rights Action Watch (Asia Pacific), Kuala Lumpur. This Project focuses on both the use of international mechanisms and the domestic application of international human rights law in national courts, entailing activities at regional and national level. Interights will support practitioners in each of the South Asian countries in preparing and disseminating shadow reports to the treaty bodies, taking recourse to other extra- conventional mechanisms (such as the Special Rapporteurs on Violence against Women and Summary Executions, or the Working Groups on Detentions and Disappearances respectively), and using international and comparative law before domestic courts.
We also assisted in the development of a training programme for lawyers from South Asia, organised by Forum Asia and the Law and Society Trust on the Domestic Application of International Human Rights Norms, held in Sri Lanka in July 2000. Sara Hossain contributed to the design of the agenda and to the background materials and presented a paper on the �Domestic Application of Women's Human Rights'.
International Mechanisms
The potential for using international mechanisms for enforcement of human rights in the region is very limited. Only Nepal and Sri Lanka have ratified the Optional Protocol of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which allows victims of human rights violations to petition the Human Rights Committee to date, while Bangladesh has ratified the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).
We encouraged human rights advocates, both lawyers and NGOs, to use these mechanisms and were consulted by lawyers in Nepal and Sri Lanka regarding the identification and preparation of cases for submission to the UN Human Rights Committee under the Optional Protocol procedure, and provided assistance in several potential cases, some of which are detailed in the annex. We assisted with the preparation of the first complaints proposed for submission to the UN Human Rights Committee from Sri Lanka and Nepal, relating to civil defamation and disappearances, respectively. The workshop for lawyers in Nepal on litigating human rights, mentioned above, will include discussion and review of potential cases to be taken before the Human Rights Committee.
We contributed to consultations relating to the development of the mandate and functions of the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women and have been requested to assist with the work of the UN Special Rapporteur on Summary and Arbitrary Executions. We plan to continue such support and to facilitate communications to these bodies by practitioners in the region, particularly in relation to the documentation and monitoring of �honour crimes'.
The Programme is continuing to monitor initiatives towards further ratification of international human rights instruments by countries in the region, as well as the creation of a regional or sub-regional human rights mechanism or instrument, and the functioning of national human rights institutions. The Legal Officer participated in a UNDP meeting for NGOs to review a Draft Asian Charter on Human Rights in Pnomh Penh in October
2000.
Information Dissemination
Interights, in cooperation with experts from Sri Lanka and India, has developed plans to compile a casebook for practitioners, provisionally entitled Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in South Asia: Cases and Materials. This is designed to be a standard reference work on the practical aspects of enforcing economic, social and cultural rights through law in national courts for use by lawyers and students across South Asia and beyond. It also aims to disseminate human rights information, foster cross-regional dialogue on human rights law, and build capacity for the enforcement of human rights across South Asian courts.
The casebook will include extracts from the most significant judgments on economic, social and cultural rights handed down by the apex courts in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka (cases from Nepal will be difficult to include given the difficulties of obtaining translations of judgments). It will also include other relevant materials, including treaties, statutes, extracts of academic articles and commentaries. Particular emphasis will be placed on including materials that reflect the intersection between human rights law and poverty, access to justice and effective litigation strategies, and the rights of vulnerable groups including
minorities, women, children, and the disabled.
Funds for the Casebook are now being sought. In the meantime, materials are being gathered and collaborators identified.
We continued to increase the distribution of our two regular publications, the Bulletin and the Commonwealth Human Rights law Digest to judges and human rights lawyers throughout the region. We have been requested to make these more widely available to judges of the superior courts in South Asia.
Case Work
Interights provided legal advice in relation to a number of cases pending hearing before national courts in South Asia. The issues concerned included the right to life (disappearances; honour killings), personal liberty (the detention of vagrants, women and children witnesses or victims of crimes), cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment (the practice of detaining women in �protective custody'), and gender equality (fatwas decreeing violence against women; implied consent, rule of corroboration and protections for complainants in rape trials). We also advised on the conformity of proposed legislation on special laws on violence against women and children and on a domestic violence bill with international human rights norms.
Interights' Caribbean programme has focused for more than a decade on direct representation of litigants before international human rights bodies, advice and assistance to lawyers and NGOs litigating human rights cases in domestic and international courts, education of and training for human rights lawyers on the use of international and comparative human rights law, and dissemination of information and resources on the use of
human rights law.
In the past, much of Interights' work in the region related to the death penalty. We pioneered submission of cases to the UN Human Rights Committee and more recently to the Inter-American Commission and Court in relation to both the implementation of the death penalty and the conditions under which death row prisoners are held. We have, however, also worked extensively with judges and lawyers on the application more generally of international human rights norms at domestic level. We convened a major regional Judicial Colloquium in 1996, and advised on cases and draft legislation on free expression, domestic violence, fair trial and freedom of association. Over the past two years we developed activities involving cooperation with national and regional NGOs as well as with the Jamaica Bar Association and the Caribbean Conference of Chief Justices, designed to strengthen the protection of human rights through law within the region.
Until early 2000 we were able to conduct this programme mostly from general funds, with the programme directed by a part-time lawyer. However, on her departure, we were unable to recruit a new lawyer without raising earmarked funds. Regrettably we have so far been unable to raise these funds, and so have not been able to undertake any of the strategic partnership activities outlined above. Our activities under the Caribbean programme this year have therefore been limited to conduct of case work and ad hoc assistance with other queries, when other staff are able to provide this.
During the year, we provided advice on issues relating to freedom of expression, criminal defamation, the death penalty, and procedural matters in cases from Guyana, Grenada, and Trinidad and Tobago. Issues involved include the right to reply, criminal defamation, sedition, failure to implement decisions of international tribunals, and the legality of a mandatory death penalty.
While Interights has no programme specifically focussing on the Middle East and North Africa, requests for assistance have steadily increased in recent years, as has our work in North Africa under the Africa Programme. Interights' ability to respond is limited by the lack of capacity to work in Arabic, but we were able to assist with advice in a number of instances. This year we began consultations on the feasibility of expanding this work into a Middle East programme, staffed by a lawyer able to work in Arabic.
Advice on case work covered issues such as racial profiling, administrative detention, compensation for victims of human rights violations and the use of secret evidence. More general advice was given on the right to return for Palestinian refugees, the legal status of refugees, and the right of association.
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