Communication Department, Author at TRIAL International

Pro Juventute and TRIAL, the Swiss association for international criminal justice, have examined whether and to which extent international humanitarian law is respected in computer and video games. The result is as deflating as reality. The organisation calls upon game producers to consequently and creatively incorporate rules of international humanitarian law and human rights into their games.

In computer and video games, violence is often shown and the players become “virtually violent”. However, such games are not zones free of rules and ethics. It would be highly appreciated if games reproducing armed conflicts were to include the rules which apply to real armed conflicts. These rules and values are given by international humanitarian law and human rights law. They limit excessive violence and protect the human dignity of members of particularly vulnerable groups.

Violations of international law in computer and video games

Pro Juventute and TRIAL followed the indication that war games which are particularly close to reality are likely to include scenes in which players are enticed to violate international law, for instance by giving them the possibility to kill civilians or combatants who have been captured by the enemy without any sanctions. The two associations therefore examined about 20 computer and video games regarding their compliance with the universally accepted rules of the law applicable in armed conflicts.

Disillusioning results

The analysis shows that the rules of international humanitarian law are often not taken into consideration within the game design. This may not be surprising, as these computer and video games are not meant to serve as didactical tools to teach the rules of war, but rather to entertain their players. The practically complete absence of rules or sanctions is nevertheless astonishing: civilians or protected objects such as churches or mosques can be attacked with impunity, in scenes portraying interrogations it is possible to torture, degrade or treat the prisoner inhumanely without being sanctioned for it and extrajudicial executions are simulated. At least a few games punish the killing of civilians or reward strategies that aim to prevent excessive damage.

Recommendations

The latter games show that it is indeed possible to include rules of international humanitarian law and human rights in war games. It is regrettable that game producers hardly ever use this possibility to creatively incorporate the rules of international law or even representatives of such rules (such as the ICRC or the international criminal courts etc.) as specific elements in the course of the game. Pro Juventute and TRIAL call upon the producers of computer and video games to use their strong creativity and innovation for this purpose. It would mean a wasted opportunity if the virtual space transmitted the illusion of impunity for unlimited violence in armed conflicts.

Rewarded project idea was carried out

In 2007 TRIAL’s project idea for this report was rewarded with the “sponsorship reward” (Förderpreis) at the International Human Rights Forum in Lucerne and the project was carried out in cooperation with Pro Juventute. The chosen games were analysed by experts of international humanitarian law under the supervision of Marco Sassòli, Professor and Director of the Departmenet of international law of international organization of the University of Geneva.

For further information:

See TRIAL’s special pages on this website
Read the reportPro Juventute aktiv im Kinder- und Jugendmedienschutz
Pro Juventute launched the petition „Stopp der (un)heimlichen Gewalt“ (Stop hidden violence). It aims at protecting the youth from inadequate contents in entertainment media and tries to ensure that depiction of unlimited violence is no longer freely accessible. As considering international humanitarian law in computer war games is an important aspect in the child and youth media protection, Pro Juventute supports TRIAL in carrying out the project idea.TRIAL
TRIAL (Track Impunity Always) is an Association under Swiss law founded in June 2002. It is apolitical and non-confessional. Its principal goals are in the fight against impunity for the perpetrators accomplices and instigators of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and acts of torture.

In November 2009, the Advocacy Center – TRIAL (ACT) submitted a communication to the UN Human Rights Committee concerning the enforced disappearance of Mr. Safet Kozica. ACT represents Mirha Kozica, Bajazit Kozica and Selima Kozica, respectively mother, brother and sister of the disappeared.

Mr. Safet Kozica was last seen on 16 June 1992 in the hands of members of the army of the Republika Srpska (Vojska Republike Srpske – VRS) in the concentration camp known as “Planjina kuca”, located in the municipality of Vogošća, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). His fate and whereabouts remain unknown since then.

Mrs. Mirha Kozica, Mr. Bajazit Kozica and Ms. Selima Kozica live in a lacerating situation of uncertainty, in spite of numerous attempts to establish the truth regarding the circumstances of the enforced disappearance of their loved one, his fate and whereabouts and the progress and results of the investigations.

More than 17 years after the events, no ex officio, prompt, impartial, thorough and independent investigation has been carried out by BiH authorities and no one has been prosecuted, judged and sanctioned for the enforced disappearance of Safet Kozica, thus fostering an ongoing climate of impunity. Mirha Kozica is now 80 years old and she fears to die without having established the truth about what has happened to her son.

Read more on the Kozica case
See also the General allegation submitted by TRIAL to the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances relating to the situation in BiH.

Geneva, 18 October 2009 – Mr. Bouguerra SOLTANI, leader of the Islamist party Movement for the Society of Peace, who was in Switzerland last Friday and against whom a criminal complaint alleging acts of torture was submitted to Fribourg’s investigating judge, left Switzerland before he could be arrested.

On 12 October 2009 TRIAL (Track Impunity Always – Swiss Association against Impunity) submitted a criminal complaint to the investigating judge in the Canton of Fribourg, charging Mr. Bouguerra SOLTANI with acts of torture. The following day, the victim, Mr. Nouar ABDELMALEK, joined the proceeding as a civil party.

In July 2009, TRIAL had already filed an individual communication against Algeria before the UN Committee against torture on behalf of M. ADBELMALEK. The communication referred to the multiple tortures he suffered in his country between 2001 and 2005. Mr. SOLTANI is among the individuals denounced by the victim for having organized a torture session. Mr. ABDELMALEK, owing to the abuses he endured, was later granted refugee status in France, where he is now living.

In the framework of his functions at the Ministry of Defense, M ABDELMALEK published a report in 1998 in which he expressly mentioned Mr. SOLTANI’s implication in the recruitment of a young Algerian Islamist sent to Afghanistan. After the report was released, Mr. ABDELMALEK was discharged from his official functions but continued criticizing Mr. SOLTANI in the press.

In June 2005, Mr. ABDELMALEK was arrested on the basis of fallacious charges. Policemen brought him to the brigade of Beni Messous where he suffered torture for several days. In the morning of the 1 July 2005, officials transferred Mr. ABDELMALEK to the Châteauneuf facility, notorious for being Algeria’s main center for torture and arbitrary detention.

Electric shocks and other abuses

On the same day, Mr. SOLTANI, then Minister of State, went to the room where Mr. ABDELMALEK was detained in order to personally direct a torture session which lasted for about 2 hours. During that session, the victim was subjected to waterboarding, to several electric shocks on the stomach, feet and hands, his ankles were twisted as if to break them and a screwdriver was even introduced into a recent wound on his right foot.

With the purpose to make Mr. ABDELMALEK sign fake declarations and blank documents, Mr. SOLTANI openly directed the session, encouraging and inciting the agents to carry out these inhuman acts. Mr. ABDELMALEK was also threatened of not leaving the facility alive.

Switzerland implements its international obligations

Mr. ABDELMALEK was heard on Friday 16 October 2006 by the investigating judge, in the presence of a psychiatric expert who established the credibility of his statement. According to Damien CHERVAZ, the victim’s lawyer, “it was planned at the end of the audience that Mr. SOLTANI was to be arrested and that a direct confrontation between the two subjects would consequently be organized”.

But the confrontation never took place. Mr. SOLTANI was seen and recognized in Geneva on Friday 16 October 2009 by a number of people and was interviewed by the press agency Alquds Press. He presumably escaped Switzerland shortly thereafter and probably never reached Fribourg, where he was awaited.

TRIAL regrets Mr. SOLTANI’s escape but is satisfied that Swiss authorities seriously tried to implement their international obligations by initiating a proceeding against an individual suspected of acts of torture.

According to the Convention against torture, entered into force in our country in 1987, Switzerland is bound to detain any person presumed of having perpetrated acts of torture, even if committed abroad (principle of universal jurisdiction) and must submit the case to its judicial authorities if it does not extradite the accused to be judged abroad. For Philip GRANT, President of TRIAL, Mr. SOLTANI’s capture “would have been a strong sign that impunity is no longer an option for torturers and that justice is on the side of the victims”.

 For further information:

TRIAL website
Proceeding before the UN committee against torture
Text of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment

Thank you for your interest in TRIAL’s activities.

Unfortunately, this page does not exist in English.

The French version of the page is however available.

n August 2009, the Advocacy Center – TRIAL (ACT) submitted a communication to the UN Human Rights Committee concerning the enforced disappearance of Huso Zlatarac and Nedžad Zlatarac. ACT represents Hasiba Zlatarac and Alma Cardakovic, wife and daughter respectively of Huso Zlatarac and mother and sister respectively of Nedžad Zlatarac.

On 4 May 1992, Huso Zlatarac was arrested in Svrake (BiH) by the Serb army together with Hasiba Zlatarac and their children Nedžad (then 21 years old) and Alma (14) and most of the inhabitants of the same village. They were all taken to the concentration camp known as Kasarna JNA in Semizovac.

A few days later, Hasiba Zlatarac, together with her daughter Alma and other women and children, were freed. Huso Zlatarac and his son Nedžad were kept prisoners and transferred to different concentration camps, where they were subjected to torture and forced labour. Huso and Nedžad Zlatarac were last seen on 16 June 1992 in the concentration camp known as “Planjina kuca”, located in the municipality of Vogosca. Their fate and whereabouts remain unknown since then.

More than 17 years after the events, no ex officio, prompt, impartial, thorough and independent investigation has been undertaken by BiH authorities in order to locate Huso and Nedžad Zlatarac or their remains or to identify, prosecute and sanction those responsible. Mrs. Zlatarac has taken several steps to obtain information about her husband and son, through the police of Visoko and Vogosca, the State Commission for Tracing Missing Persons, the Sarajevo Cantonal Prosecutor’s Office, and the Red Cross Society of BiH. These initiatives have to date proved vain.

Read more on the Zlatarac case.
See also the General allegation submitted by TRIAL to the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances relating to the situation in BiH.

TRIAL had actively engaged in the consultation procedure for the implementation of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court into Swiss law from its very early stages: it provided a detailed expert analysis of the initial draft of amendments to the Swiss Criminal Code, as well as relevant statements concerning some important aspects of the project.

TRIAL has now been invited to a hearing of the Legal Affairs Committee of the Council of States (the Swiss “Senate”) regarding the draft Law implementing the Rome Statute into the Swiss Criminal Code, to take place on August 17, 2009. The first chamber, the National Council, had passed the governmental proposal with a large majority in spring 2009.

Thanks to TRIAL’s intensive campaign, which was supported by about 60 Law Professors, the Federal Council has revised its initial draft and dropped the requirement of a “close link” (see Federal Council Report 23.04.08 -BBl 2008 3863, S. 3899), that a suspected war criminal is supposed to have with Switzerland in order for prosecution to be started in Switzerland, hence limiting the principle of universal jurisdiction. The National Council has already accepted that such a requirement be struck out.

Even if TRIAL is largely satisfied with the draft Law, in particular the elimination of the “close link” element, some concerns do remain. For instance the strict prohibition of retroactivity in art. 2 of the Criminal Code should not apply to international crimes. TRIAL argues, in line with art. 7 of the European Convention of Human Rights andart. 15 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, that international crimes subjected to universal jurisdiction should be exempted from the principle of non-retroactivity. Switzerland would risk becoming a safe haven for people who committed international crimes before 2009 if the project is not altered, even though the crimes in question have long been criminalized by international law.

Furthermore, TRIAL considers that the draft Law should be amended in regard to the responsibility of superiors, which is too strictly considered and thus does not fully meet the requirements of the Rome Statute. According to the project, a superior could only be held responsible if he had knowledge and did not prevent that a subordinate was committing or planning to commit an international crime, whereas art. 28 of the Rome Statute also provides sufficient ground for prosecution if, in light of the given circumstances at the time, the superior “should have known” about those intentions or acts.

Other smaller changes will be suggested to the Legal Affairs Committee.

In July 2009, an individual communication against Bosnia-Herzegovina (BiH) has been submitted to the Human Rights Committee concerning the enforced disappearance of Fikret Prutina. The Advocacy Center TRIAL (ACT) is representing Fatima Prutina, wife of the disappeared.

On 4 May 1992, Fikret Prutina was arrested in Svrake (BiH) by the Serb army together with his wife and their sons Asmir (mentally disabled, then 16 years old) and Hasib (then 18 years old) and most of the inhabitants of the same village. They were all taken to a concentration camp known as Kasarna JNA in Semizovac. A few days later, Fatima Prutina, together with her son Asmir and other women and children, were freed. Fikret Prutina and his other son Hasib were kept prisoners and transferred to different concentration camps, where they were subjected to torture and forced labour. Fikret Prutina was last seen on 16 June 1992 in the concentration camp known asPlanjina kuca, located in the municipality of Vogosca. His fate and whereabouts remain unknown since then.

Hasib Prutina, who eye-witnessed all the mentioned events, was freed from the concentration camp one month later. To date, he suffers from severe post-traumatic stress due to the brutality he has been subjected to, as well as to the horrifying facts, including the ill-treatment and disappearance of his own father, he was forced to assist.

More than 17 years after the events, no serious investigation has yet been undertaken by BiH authorities in order to locate Mr. Prutina or his remains or to identify, prosecute and sanction those responsible. Mrs. Prutina has taken several steps to obtain information about her husband, through the police of Visoko and Vogosca, the State Commission for Tracing Missing Persons, the Sarajevo Cantonal Prosecutor’s Office, and the Red Cross Society of BiH. These initiatives have proved vain.

Read more about the Prutina case here.
See also the General allegation submitted by TRIAL to the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances relating to the situation in BiH.

This decision will allow the NGO to better defend of the interests of victims of international crimes before the various organs of the United Nations.

Geneva, 27 July 2009. The United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) today granted TRIAL (Track Impunity Always) consultative status.

ECOSOC is the organ of the United Nations which has specific responsibility for questions related to human rights.

According to Philip Grant, President of TRIAL, “this decision is an important recognition of the work carried out by TRIAL to date, and will allow us to have a valuable presence in the various UN bodies when required during discussions on the defence of victims of international crimes and the fight against impunity.”

TRIAL had already applied for this consultative status in May 2005. However, at the time the Association had its request blocked by certain State members of the Committee on NGOs, a subsidiary organ of ECOSEC in charge of considering applications for consultative status.

Severe torture inflicted on Mr. Nouar Abdelmalek

In July 2009, the Advocacy Center TRIAL (ACT) filed an individual communication against Algeria before the Committee against Torture on behalf of Mr. Nouar Abdelmalek.

This is the fourteenth application submitted against Algeria by ACT.

A former member of the Algerian army, Mr. Abdelmalek was arrested twice in 2001 and 2005. He was subjected to multiple acts of torture on the part of Algerian security forces, either in secret as well as official detention centers. The irreversible after-effects of the torture inflicted on Mr. Abdelmalek can still be seen today.

Mr. Abdelmalek has consistently protested the torture to which he was subjected, to each judicial authority he has appeared before, but to no avail. No investigation has been undertaken and no one has ever been charged with the crimes.

With his life being under threat, he was forced to flee his country and ask for asylum in a third party country, where he was granted refugee status.

Mr. Abdelmalek has requested that the Committee against Torture acknowledge that he has been a victim of torture within the terms of the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, and that Algeria has violated Articles 2 (1), 6, 7, 11, 12, 13, 14, and 15 of the Convention, and subsidiarily Article16.

The author also requests the Committee to direct Algeria to open up a thorough investigation into the affair, to bring those responsible to justice, and to provide appropriate reparations.

More on the Abdelmalek case here.

Celebrating International Justice Day (July 17, 2009), and considering the upcoming 60th anniversary of the Geneva Conventions (August 12, 2009), TRIAL launches an online quiz.

How much do you know about the Geneva Conventions.

Would you qualifiy to be an ICRC delegate? Would you be accepted as prosecutor in an international court? Or, on the contrary, are Slobodan Milosevic or Charles Taylor your role models???

Check out more here.

TRIAL submits a General Allegation on Bosnia and Herzegovina to the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances

Under its mandate, the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (UNWGEID) can transmit to the governments concerned a summary of allegations received from relatives of disappeared people and NGOs with regards to obstacles encountered in the implementation of the 1992 UN Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, inviting them to comment thereon if they so wish.

At the end (1996) of the armed conflict that marked the struggle for independence of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), between 25,000 and 30,000 people were reported as “missing”. Almost 15 years have passed, and about 13,000 people remain disappeared to date, while their relatives endure a permanent state of anguish, frustration, distress and uncertainty.

In the past, the UNWGEID closely followed the situation of disappeared people in BiH. However, from 2000, the issue was basically left to domestic authorities and to initiatives undertaken by other actors working in the field. Some exhumations have been carried out and a number of legislative initiatives have been undertaken. Nevertheless, significant obstacles to the full implementation by BiH of the 1992 Declaration remain and should be addressed, as the rights of victims of enforced disappearance and their relatives continue to be impaired.

TRIAL (through it’s Advocacy Center) submits to the UNWGEID a general allegation about the existing obstacles to the implementation of 1992 Declaration in BiH, requesting the Group to transmit the allegations to the government, inviting it to comment thereon and to undertake all necessary measures to address existing problems.

In particular, TRIAL analyzes the existing legal framework on enforced disappearances as well as the administrative and judicial initiatives undertaken by BiH and their compatibility with the 1992 Declaration. Accordingly, TRIAL appeals to the UNWGEID to:

a) call on BiH to take all necessary measures to ensure the right to know the truth of relatives of disappeared people, to investigate the cause and circumstances of the disappearance, as well as to provide information relating the burial sites, to locate, respect and return the mortal remains;

b) evaluate the compatibility of the Law on Missing Persons (2004) with Article 3 of the 1992 Declaration, which establishes that States shall adopt effective legislative, administrative, judicial or other measures to prevent and terminate acts of enforced disappearance in any territory under its jurisdiction;

c) call on BiH to implement without delay all the provisions of the Law on Missing Persons (in particular those concerning the setting up of the Central Records of Missing Persons in BiH and the creation of the Fund for Missing Persons to provide financial and medical assistance to relatives of disappeared people);

d) evaluate the compatibility of Bosnian Criminal Code with the requirements of Article 4 of the 1992 Declaration and to remind Bosnian authorities that the crime of enforced disappearance shall be an offence and included in criminal law as an autonomous crime, and not incorporated in domestic legislation as part of other offences or only if committed as a part of a widespread and systematic practice directed against any civilian population;

e) evaluate the compatibility of Bosnian Criminal Code with the requirements of Article 18 of the 1992 Declaration, which establishes that persons who have or are alleged to have committed an enforced disappearance shall not benefit from any special amnesty law or similar measures that might have the effect of exempting them from any criminal proceedings or sanction;

f) remind Bosnian authorities that the crime of enforced disappearance is ongoing and shall not be subjected to statutes of limitations for criminal proceedings until the fate and whereabouts of the disappeared person are established with certainty;

g) evaluate the compatibility of the “declaration of death” of victims of enforced disappearance with the requirements of the 1992 Declaration and to remind to BiH that the continuous nature of the crime of enforced disappearance has direct consequences on the impossibility to apply statutes of limitation to criminal proceedings and on the right to know the truth and to obtain integral reparation of the relatives, as well as on the obligation of the State to continue the relevant investigations;

h) remind BiH of its ongoing obligation to carry out a thorough, prompt, impartial and independent investigation over cases of enforced disappearance; and to identify, judge and sanction those responsible, as established under Articles 3, 5, 9, 13 and 14 of the 1992 Declaration;

i) evaluate whether the present lack of implementation of the decisions on disappeared people delivered by the Constitutional Court of BiH and the inactivity of the Prosecutor’s Office are compatible with Articles 3, 5, 9, 13 and 14 of the 1992 Declaration;

j) remind to BiH that, under Article 13.5 of the 1992 Declaration it shall take all necessary steps to ensure that any ill-treatment, intimidation or reprisal or any other form of interference on the occasion of the lodging of a complaint or during the investigation procedure over cases of enforced disappearance is appropriately punished;

k) evaluate the compatibility of the measures adopted by BiH with Article 19 of the 1992 Declaration which provides that the victims of acts of enforced disappearance and their family shall obtain redress and shall have the right to adequate compensation, including the means for as complete a rehabilitation as possible; and

l) remind to BiH that the right to obtain integral reparation must be granted without any further delay and shall not be treated as a welfare tool and shall not be subjected to the condition of not having received other forms of financial support.

Finally, TRIAL suggests that a country visit of the UNWGEID to BiH would greatly contribute to maintaining the subject of enforced disappearances on the agenda, until relatives of disappeared people are granted their rights to justice, truth and integral reparation. Therefore, TRIAL requests the UNWGEID to solicit an invitation to carry out such visit to the government of BiH.

Links:

United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances
Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance
TRIAL’s General Allegations to the UNWGEID (25 pages, pdf)
TRIAL’s case on Bosnia and Herzégovina
Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights with information on Bosnia and Herzegovina
International Commission on Missing Persons
International Committee of the Red Cross (Special Section on “The Missing”)

Farid Faraoun case at the United Nations Human Rights Committee

RTEmagicC_1-_Photographie_de_M._Faraoun_Farid_04.jpg

In May 2009, the Advocacy Center TRIAL (ACT) submitted an individual communication to the United Nations Human Rights Committee in the name of Mouni Aouali, Feryale Faraoun et Fatiha Bouregba on behalf of their husband, father and son, Farid Faraoun.

This is the thirteenth application submitted against Algeria by ACT.

On 11 February 1997, Farid Faraoun was arbitrarily arrested at his home by security agents of wilaya de Sidi-Bel-Abbes, who acted in the context of vast police operation. His family has not seem him since.

The day after the arrest of Mr. Faraoud, his spouse and his children were expulsed from their home by the police forces, and their home was immediately and entirely demolished.

In the following months, his family learned from various sources that Farid Faraoun had been tortured, injured and that he had been seen in two military hospitals. Since then, the family was not able to localise him anymore nor to establish any contact with him, despite all efforts. Neither did the authorities open an inquiry, nor could any information on the whereabouts of Farid Faraoun be obtained.

The UN Human Rights Committee is asked to declare that Algeria violated fundamental human rights of Mr. Faraoun as well as those of his family and that redress ought to be offered for such breaches. The victims also ask that an investigation be undertaken into these alleged violations and that efforts be undertaken to bring those responsible to justice.

For more information, click here.

TRIAL and OMCT submit an amicus curiae brief to the Inter-American Court on Human Rights on the Right to Personal Integrity and the Right to Dignity

In April 2009 TRIAL – through it’s Advocacy Center TRIAL (ACT) – and the World Organization against Torture (OMCT) submitted a joint amicus curiae brief to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in the case Campo Algodonero: Claudia Ivette González, Esmeralda Herrera Monreal and Laura Berenice Ramos Monárrez v. Mexico.

This case is of great importance as it is the first one concerning the feminicide in Ciudad Juárez (Mexico) to reach an international human rights court. Since 1993, almost 400 women were abducted, raped and murdered in Ciudad Juárez. Victims were usually young women, between 15 to 25 years of age, belonging to socially disadvantaged groups. Mexican authorities have not responded in a timely and effective manner and conducted inadequate and, in some cases, negligent investigations, thus fostering an ongoing climate of impunity.

On 6 and 7 November 2001 the mutilated bodies of Esmeralda Herrera Monreal (14 years old), Laura Berenice Ramos Monárrez (17 years old) and Claudia Ivette González (20 years old), were found abandoned in the city’s outskirts. Municipal, federal and State authorities discriminated the victims and their families, failed to conduct a prompt and thorough investigation, misidentified and mistreated the bodies, failed to gather reliable forensic evidence and resorted to irregularities, including torture to extract confessions. To date, those responsible for the abduction, torture and murder of the young girls have not been identified, judged and sanctioned.

The amicus curiae brief submitted by TRIAL and OMCT focuses on State’s obligations with regards to the right to personal integrity and to the right to dignity, in particular in cases of violence against women and children.

The Inter-American Court held two public hearings on the case on 28 and 29 April 2009 and it will rule in the following months on whether Mexico is responsible for failing to ensure a number of rights enshrined in the American Convention on Human Rights, in the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment and Eradication of Violence against Women, and in the Inter-American Convention to Prevent and Punish Torture.

Links

pdf of the Amicus – in Spanish
Website of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights
Website of the Latin American and Caribbean Committee for the Defense of Women’s Rights

Rabiha Mihoubi v. Algeria at the United Nations Human Rights Committee

At the beginning of March 2009, the Advocacy Center – TRIAL (ACT) submitted an individual communication to the United Nations Human Rights Committee in the name of Rabiha Mihoubi on behalf of her son, Nour-Eddine Mihoubi.

This is the twelfth application submitted against Algeria by ACT.

During the afternoon of January 27, 1993, Nour-Eddine Mihoubi was with his brother, Hocine Mihoubi, at his home when they were arbitrarily arrested by members of the Algerian police. Hocine was released the next day but Nour-Eddine remained in custody. His family has not seen him since.

Despite Rahiba Mihoubi’s repeated pleas for information and the fact that the assistant prosecutor of Bou Saâda explicitly recognised that the local police force had arrested Nour-Eddine, the Algerian authorities have refused to provide any information on him.

The Human Rights Committee is asked to declare that Algeria violated fundamental human rights of Nour.Eddine Mihoubi as well as those of Rabiha Mihoubi and her family and that they ought to be compensated for such breaches. The victims also ask that an investigation be undertaken into these alleged violations and that efforts be deployed to bring those responsible to justice.

For more information, click here.

Thank you for your interest in TRIAL’s activities.

Unfortunately, this page does not exist in English.

The French version of the page is however available, and possibly, the German as well.

Two years have already passed – without results

It has been exactly two years since the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons From Enforced Disappearance opened for signature in Paris, but Switzerland had yet to sign this important human rights instrument.

Today, the Swiss Coalition for the International Criminal Court, a group of a dozen Swiss non-profit human rights organizations currently headed by TRIAL, sent a letter to the Federal Department for Foreign Affairs and the Federal Department of Justice and Police deploring the fact that no efforts have been made to sign the Convention. Indeed, the Federal Council will need to update legislation before Parliament can approve the Convention and integrate it into the Swiss legal system. These steps do not seem to be a priority for the Swiss government at this time.

The Coalition has already addressed the federal government on three previous occasions (in January and August 2007 as well as in August 2008) to insist that Switzerland take all the necessary steps to become one of the first twenty States to ratify the convention (the number of ratifications required for the Convention to enter into force). As of today, 81 States have signed the Convention but only 8 have ratified it (Albania, Argentina, Bolivia, Cuba, France, Honduras, Mexico and Senegal).

The federal government is again asked to promptly sign the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons From Enforced Disappearance and to begin the ratification process without any undue delay.

A similar call to action was recently submitted to the Swiss National Council. The text of this petition may be found here (in French and German).

Khaoukha Marouf v. Algeria at the United Nations Human Rights Committee

At the end of January 2009, the Advocacy Center – TRIAL (ACT) submitted an individual communication to the United Nations Human Rights Committee in the name of Khaoukha Marouf on behalf of her husband and her son, Abdelkrim Azizi and Abdessamad Azizi.

This is the eleventh application submitted against Algeria by ACT.

On the night of September 22, 1994, uniformed Algerian police officers invaded Khaoukha Marouf’s house. Once inside, they isolated her husband, Abdelkrim Azizi, in the family’s washroom and tortured him in plain sight of his wife and children. Afterwards, they took Abdelkrim and one of his sons, Abdessamad Azizi, with them. Furthermore, they brutally questioned two of the Azizi daughters, ransacked the house and pillaged the family’s store.

Despite Khaoukha Marouf’s numerous attempts to gain information regarding the fate of Abdelkrim and Abdessamad, none has been forthcoming from the authorities. It has been more than fourteen years since Mrs Marouf and her family have lost contact with Abdelkrim and Abdessamad.

The Human Rights Committee is asked to declare that Algeria violated fundamental human rights of Abdelkrim Azizi and Abdessamad Azizi as well as those of Khaoukha Marouf and her family and that they ought to be compensated for such breaches. The victims also ask that an investigation be undertaken into these alleged violations and that efforts be deployed to bring those responsible to justice.

For more information, click here.

Thank you for your interest in TRIAL’s activities.

Unfortunately, this page does not exist in English.

The French version of the page is however available.

The Advocacy Center – TRIAL (ACT) and the organisation Al-Karama for Human Rights, representing Ismail Al Khazmi’s father, lodged an individual complaint against Libya before the United Nations Human Rights Committee in November 2008.

It is the fourth individual communication brought by the ACT and Al-Karama against Libya.

Ismail Al Khazmi was arrested by officials of the State Internal Security Agency on 17 June 2006 and taken away to an unknown destination. Despite numerous attempts, his family was unable to obtain any information about his fate or whereabouts.

He was secretly detained in Asseka Prison in Tripoli, without being brought before a court, afforded any type of judicial recourse or allowed any contact with his family or a lawyer. He was repeatedly tortured (beaten and suspended from the ceiling), and following an especially severe incident on 29 June 2006, he was taken away from the prison, unconscious, to an unknown location.

His family was informed of his death on 1 May 2007. The father’s demands for information on the circumstances of his son’s death were refused by the authorities, as well as subsequent requests for an autopsy. An attempted investigation was blocked by the executive official in charge at the Ministry of Interior.

The Human Rights Committee is requested to declare that Libya violated the fundamental rights of Ismail Al Khazmi, as well as his father’s, and that, as a result, redress should be granted. An investigation into the circumstances of the alleged violation and steps to bring to justice those responsible should also be undertaken.

For more information on this case, see here.

The case of Djillali Larbi submitted to the United Nations Human Rights Committee.

The Advocacy Center – TRIAL (ACT), representing Djillali Larbi’s son, lodged an individual complaint against Algeria before the United Nations Human Rights Committee in October 2008.

It is the tenth individual communication brought by the ACT against Algeria.

Djillali Larbi disappeared on 14 June 1994, three weeks after being arrested by the Algerian police in the village of Mechraa Sfa. After being detained in different nearby police stations, he was transferred to an unknown place, and his family has heard nothing concerning his fate ever since.

All the initiatives taken by Djillali Larbi’s relatives were to no avail, and the Algerian authorities did not undertake any investigation into his whereabouts. Moreover, his family is today legally deprived of its right of access to justice, as complaints for forced disappearances against members of Algerian security forces are prohibited.

The ACT requests the Human Rights Committee to demand the liberation of Djillali Larbi, to declare that Algeria violated the fundamental rights of both Djillali Larbi and his son, and that, as a result, redress should be granted.

For more information on this case, see here.

Author: Communication Department

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