By Vanessa Molina On November 6, 2009, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) held a hearing by the Citizens Commission of Human Rights of the Northwest (Comisión Ciudadana de Derechos Humanos del Noroeste or CCDHN) and the Mexican Commission of the Defense and Promotion of Human Rights (Comisión Mexicana de Defensa y Promoción de [Read More...]
The Reckoning: Selling the United States on the International Criminal Court
November 29, 2009 By Leave a Comment
By Andrew W. Maki Paco de Onis and Pamela Yates’s The Reckoning is a film about the future of international criminal justice. The movie follows chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo from the inception of the International Criminal Court (ICC) through the progression of its first cases against defendants from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Central [Read More...]
Cuban Emigrants Petition the IACHR for Freedom to Return Home
November 23, 2009 By Leave a Comment
By Courtney Moran On October 16, 2009, five Cuban emigrants, Siro del Castillo, Dr. Juan Antonio Blanco Gil, Dr. Willy Allen, Dr. Carmen Diaz, and Dr. Haroldo Dilla, submitted a petition to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) addressing the Cuban government’s restrictions on freedom of movement. The petition alleged that the government routinely [Read More...]
Reshaping the Dialogue: Adoption and the Rights of the Child
November 20, 2009 By Leave a Comment
By Anna Maitland Separation from the parent is identified by UNICEF as the primary danger faced by children without caregivers. A 2004 report set the global number of children without a guardian at 143 million, with 13 million bereft of all family and the majority facing institutionalization. In 1993, the Hague Adoption Convention on the [Read More...]
International Co-Investigating Judge of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia Accused of Bias
November 15, 2009 By Leave a Comment
By Aileen Thomson Allegations of corruption and bias are not new to the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), the hybrid international criminal court established to try former members of the Khmer Rouge. However, such allegations have traditionally involved Cambodian members of the court. This trend changed in mid-October 2009, when defense lawyers [Read More...]
Karadzic on Trial
November 15, 2009 By Leave a Comment
By Cyrena Khoury, November 15, 2009 Radovan Karadzic at the ICTY. Photograph provided courtesy of the ICTY. The trial of Radovan Karadzic, accused of masterminding the most violent episode in Europe since the Holocaust, began on October 26, 2009 at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). Karadzic was the President of Republika [Read More...]
Directorio Democrático Cubano Urges IACHR to Address Systematic Human Rights Violations in Cuba
November 14, 2009 By Leave a Comment
By Caitlin Shay Janisset Rivero, Deputy National Secretary of Directorio Democrático Cubano, appeared before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) on November 6, 2009 to report ongoing systematic torturing and extrajudicial executions in Cuba and to urge the Commission to provide justice for victims. The hearing followed up on July 25, 2007 hearing that [Read More...]
Immigration Detention Centers: America’s Other Healthcare Crisis
November 11, 2009 By Leave a Comment
By Evan Wilson I am 35-year-old man without a penis with my life on the line. I have a young daughter, Vanessa, who is only 14. She is here with me today because she wanted to support me—and because I wanted her to see her father do something for the greater good, so that she [Read More...]
Human Rights Defenders Series: Professor Juan Mendez
November 11, 2009 By Leave a Comment
By Soumya Venkatesh, November 11, 2009 American University hosted a Human Rights Defenders series talk on Wednesday, October 21, 2009 co-sponsored by Amnesty International and featuring Professor Juan Mendez. Professor Mendez spoke about transitional justice and its role in the international community, focusing on its success and its problems. Professor Mendez is a visiting professor [Read More...]
Egyptian Civil Society Organizations Protest Egypt’s Legal Persecution of Activists, Artists, and Academics
November 11, 2009 By 1 Comment
By Shubra Ohri Egyptian activists, academics, lawyers, and non-governmental organizations came together on October 10, 2009 to denounce a number of Hesba cases brought against activists, artists, and academics in Egypt. Hesba cases are lawsuits filed against individuals or organizations that are accused of insulting God and can only be filed by Muslims. The Arab [Read More...]
