International Legal News
Updated: Aug 19, 2019
Update: 25 July- 12 August
The following media round up of international legal and foreign policy issues from the period 25 July -12 August 2019.
The Guernica Group will provide weekly media updates from the International Criminal Court, European Court of Human Rights, United Nations, European Union and other sources. Should you wish to contribute to or submit a media summary, opinion piece or blog, please send to Nenad Vucijak for consideration.
United Kingdom: 25 July 2019
The European Court of Human Rights unanimously declared the application in Miller v the United Kingdom (application no. 32001/18 as inadmissible. The case concerned the applicant’s complaint under Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights that the UK authorities failed to carry out an effective investigation into the killing of his son, Corporal Simon Miller, and other members of the Royal Military Police in Iraq in 2003.
https://hudoc.echr.coe.int/eng#{%22itemid%22:[%22001-194982%22]}
Brazil: 31 July 2019
For the second time since May, deadly rioting erupted in the Brazilian prison system, with Police confirming that gang clashes at the Altamira jail in Pará State took at least 58 inmates’ lives.
https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/07/31/another-gruesome-killing-spree-brazil-prison
United Kingdom: 31 July 2019
In R (H) (by her litigation friend B) v Secretary of State for Health and Social Care [2019] EWHC 2095 (Admin) the UK High Court considered a surrogacy case in which a claimant’s genetic father sought to be named on the claimant’s birth certificate. The claimant alleged that failure to do so breached their article 8 right to private and family life in conjunction with the right enshrined within article 14 to be free from discrimination. The Court held that the claimant’s private life had been interfered with but deemed that such interference met a legitimate aim and was necessary.
Syria: 7 August 2019
In a rare opportunity for the Security Council to hear directly form family members of people forcibly disappeared, Ms. Amina Khoulani, Co-Founder of Families for Freedom, told the Council that they had “utterly failed Syrian detainees and their families”. Ms Khoulani implored the members to make the issue of detention and forced disappearance in Syria a priority, urging them to adopt a resolution pressuring the regime and armed opposition groups for the names and whereabouts of everyone in detention and to allow humanitarian organisations to visit the detention centres.
https://news.un.org/en/story/2019/08/1043891
International Criminal Court: 5 August 2019
With the term of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court due to expire on 15 June 2021, Monday 5 August saw the President of the Assembly of States Parties formally announce the publication of the vacancy announcement for the position of the next Prosecutor of the ICC.
https://www.icc-cpi.int/Pages/item.aspx?name=PR1476
Colombia: 8 August 2019
Armed groups have committed egregious crimes against Colombian and Venezuelan civilians as they fight for control in Catatumbo, northeastern Colombia. A 64 page report released by Human Rights Watch documents killings, disappearances, sexual violence, recruitment of children as soldiers and forced displacement by the National Liberation Army, Popular Liberation Army and a group that emerged from the demobilized Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.
https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/08/08/colombia/venezuela-attacks-civilians-border-area
Mexico: 9 August 2019
Mexico detains migrant children in cramped holding centre despite court ruling. Known as Las Agujas, the Mexico City holding centre enclosed by spike-topped walls holds about 108 minors as of this week, despite a court ruling in June that it was unconstitutional for Las Agujas to hold children after a 10 year-old Guatemalan girl died in its custody.
Rohingya: 9 August 2019
More than 500,000 Rohingya refugees who fled a brutal crackdown in Myanmar two years ago, have received identification cards that are critical to safeguarding their right to return home. Issued to all refugees over the age of 12, in camps in southern Bangladesh, the biometric, fraud-proof card is for many, the first time that they have owned an official document that proves their identity.
https://news.un.org/en/story/2019/08/1044041
Japan: 9 August 2019
Secretary- General António Guterres paid tribute to the victims and survivors of the nuclear bombing of Nagasaki on 9 August 1945 at the annual Nagasaki Peace Ceremony reflecting on how the city has “emerged to become a beacon for global peace and understanding”. The Secretary-General called the youth of today the “future peacemakers of the world” and the “ultimate force for change to secure our common future.
https://news.un.org/en/story/2019/08/1044081
Yemen: 9 August 2019
Life-saving food aid distribution is set to resume to the 850,000 people in the Temeni capital, Sana’a, following guarantees by Houthi opposition forces that supplies will reach those who need them most. This deal will end a partial two-month break in assistance to the Houthi-held areas.
https://news.un.org/en/story/2019/08/1044081
United Nations: 9 August 2019
On International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, the Secretary General António Guterres underscored the urgency to “preserve, revitalize and promote indigenous languages”. Almost half of the world’s estimated 6,700 languages, which are mostly indigenous, risk extinction.