News releases

Kathmandu/London/Geneva, 26 February 2016 – Illegal arrests, torture, enforced disappearances: for years, the United Nations Human Rights Committee (HRC) has repeatedly found Nepal responsible for gross human rights violations against its own citizens. Despite these many decisions, the government has shown no sign of properly compensating victims and letting justice p...

Sarajevo, 2 December 2015 – More than 20 experts from the judiciary, international community and civil society organizations met today in Sarajevo to discuss, for the very first time, the burning question of compensation for wartime victims. How should compensation claims be dealt with in criminal proceedings? How could the existing practice be improved? Those were so...

Geneva, 4 November 2015 – Nepal underwent today its Universal Periodic Review (UPR) at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva. On the occasion of this second cycle of Nepal’s scrutiny by the UN, no less than 73 Member States took the floor and provided Nepal with recommendations. While most congratulated Nepal on the promulgation of the world’s youngest Con...

Berlin/London/Geneva, 15 September 2015 – Electric shocks, beatings on the soles of the feet, stress positions during incommunicado detention: those who allow this type of torture can and must be held criminally liable – even abroad. Bahrain-born British citizen Jaafar Al-Hasabi has submitted a criminal complaint to the prosecuting authorities in Berne (Switzerland) a...

The decisions of the United Nations Human Rights Committee (HRC) on the conflict-era enforced disappearance cases have gone unimplemented. To date, the HRC has decided ten individual cases against Nepal and eight cases were related with enforced disappearance. Read the complete news release & media kit In five cases decided by the HRC, the victims’ fate and wher...

Sarajevo - After several years of legal battle, the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina sentenced several soldiers of the Republika Srpksa Army (VRS) to 10 years each in prison for war crime. Bosiljko and Ostoja Markovic; were found guilty for rapes committed in Kotor Varoš district against a woman of Croatian nationality in June 1992. For the very first time in BiH histo...

The Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland (OAGS) decided not to further prosecute the Swiss precious metals company Argor-Heraeus SA, that handled dirty African gold. While Swiss authorities acknowledged that Argor did refine looted gold and violated its duty of diligence, the case was nonetheless closed, a decision met with disbelief by the three NGOs working...

The Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina adopted two days ago in urgent procedure important amendments to the Criminal Code. By recalibrating the crimes of torture, enforced disappearance and rape, the amended Criminal Code will help tackle widespread impunity, break the law of silence and provide justice and recognition to thousands of victims all across...

Geneva’s justice system has condemned  Erwin Sperisen for 10 murders. The former Guatemalan Chief of Police was found guilty of extrajudicial murders and sentenced to  life imprisonment. For the NGOs that denounced his actions, justice has now been done and this case will stand as an example in the continuing fight against impunity for State crimes. On 12 May 2015...