On October 13, 2015, the United Nations Security Council (Council) adopted a resolution designed “to integrate women, peace and security concerns across all country-specific situations on the Security Council’s agenda.” The Council highlighted the “differential impact on the human rights of women and girls of terrorism and violent extremism, including in the context of their health, education, and participation in public life.” It urged all UN entities to include “women’s needs and gender perspectives” in their work, especially in policy decisions and planning processes. The Council also...
International Law in Brief
International Law in Brief (ILIB) is a forum that provides updates on current developments in international law from the editors of ASIL's International Legal Materials.
On October 8, 2015, the United Nations Security Council (Council) adopted a resolution under Chapter VII authorizing the European Union or individual states to board, inspect, and seize vessels suspected of smuggling migrants. The resolution is intended to disrupt the smuggling activities and “save the threatened lives of migrants or of victims of human trafficking.” It authorizes inspection of vessels where there are “reasonable grounds to suspect [they] are being used for migrant smuggling or human trafficking from Libya” after “good faith efforts” to obtain consent from the flag state....
On October 8, 2015, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (Court) published a decision (only available in Spanish) it had made last month, holding Chile responsible for violation of the right to judicial protection in Article 25 of the Inter-American Convention of Human Rights. According to the Court, Chile failed to annul criminal convictions which were based on proceedings that had included evidence and confessions obtained under torture during the military dictatorship. The Court also found Chile responsible for the twelve-year delay in investigating the torture incidents after...
On October 7, 2015, the Spanish Supreme Court (Court) upheld a lower court’s decision to dismiss a case investigating the Rwandan genocide. According to the press release (only available in Spanish), the Court found that the case did not satisfy the jurisdictional requirements for Spanish courts, namely that a Spanish citizen is the victim or the suspected perpetrator, or is present on Spanish territory. The Court stressed that the dismissal was not final and that the proceedings may be taken up again at a later time should any of the jurisdictional requirements be met.
On October 7, 2015, the United Nations (UN) issued revised standard minimum rules for the treatment of prisoners (the Mandela Rules). According to a press statement, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon praised the rules as a “great step forward” and highlighted “the critical importance of protecting the human rights of all persons deprived of their liberty as one of the most vulnerable groups of individuals who risk abuse and ill-treatment.” The rules include provisions relating to health care, an absolute prohibition on torture of prisoners, and strict limits to solitary confinement. They also...
On October 7, 2015, the General Court of the European Union (Court) issued (judgment in French) its decision in Alessandro Accorinti and Others v. European Central Bank (ECB) and ruled that the ECB was not responsible for the losses of private investors resulting from the restructuring of Greece’s public debt. According to the press release, in February 2012 Greece reached agreements with both the ECB and national central banks as well as with private investors to exchange Greek debt instruments for new securities, which included a 53.5% “haircut” of the privately held securities...
On October 6, 2015, the European Court of Human Rights (Court) decided (judgement only available in French) in Belek and Velioğlu v. Turkey that a criminal conviction for a press article that did not call for violence or amount to hate speech violated Article 10 (freedom of expression) of the European Convention on Human Rights (Convention). According to the press release, the case concerned the convictions of two Turkish nationals for publishing statements by members of an illegal armed group dealing with, inter alia, the democratic resolution of the Kurdish question and...
On October 6, 2015, the European Court of Justice (Court) decided in Maximillian Schrems v. Data Protection Commissioner to strike down the Commission’s U.S. “safe harbour” provision. The case arose out of the suit brought by a European Facebook user who had complained to Irish authorities about the transfer of his data to the United States, arguing that U.S. law did not provide “adequate protection of the personal data held in its territory against the surveillance activities” by public agencies. The Irish agency had declined to take action “since any question of the adequacy of...
On October 5, 2015, The United States and eleven other Pacific Rim nations finalized their negotiations and agreed on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a regional trade agreement combining forty percent of the global economy. According to this news report, the TPP is designed to eliminate trade barriers and phase out tariffs and includes provisions establishing uniform rules on intellectual property. It also contains provisions for the mutual recognition of regulations and patent protection for pharmaceuticals. According to another report, trade ministers who negotiated the deal...
On October 1, 2015, the Court of Justice of the European Union (Court) decided that EU member states can impose prison sentences on migrants who reenter the country illegally after having received an entry ban. The case concerned Mr. Celaj, an Albanian migrant who had been deported from Italy and prohibited from returning for a period of three years. Having moved back to Italy in violation of the order, Italian authorities sought to impose a prison sentence on the basis of applicable Italian legislation, and asked the Court to confirm its compatibility with EU Law, namely the Return...