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Guatemala City and San José, 7 May, 2012. On May 3, the Washington-based Interamerican Commission of Human Rights (IACHR) submitted the María Isabel Véliz Franco femicide case to the jurisdiction of the Interamerican Court of Human Rights, whose headquarters are in Costa Rica. The case, relating to the murder of a young girl in Guatemala in 2001, will be heard by the Interamerican Court in due course.
María Isabel and her relatives are represented by the Red de la No Violencia contra las Mujeres en Guatemala (REDNOVI –No Violence against Women in Guatemala Network) and the Centre for Justice and International Law (CEJIL). In 2004, the Guatemalan authorities were denounced before the IACHR by both these organizations, for their failure to investigate the murder in a diligent, exhaustive and serious way. The inquiry has been plagued by unlawful delays, loss of evidence and the omission of lines of relevant investigation.
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On May 3rd and 4th, 2006 in Texcoco and San Salvador Atenco, state of Mexico, Mexico, 47 women were arbitrarily detained during a police operation carried out by state and federal forces, characterized by the excessive and indiscriminate use of force. The female detainees were brutally beaten, humiliated and abused, and the majority denounced suffering sexual torture at the hands of the police. Since then, 11 women have fought for justice, taking their case before national courts and now before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. However, despite the seriousness of the violations and their detailed documentation, absolute impunity persists in the case. Therefore, 6 years after the events, the women of Atenco continue suffering discrimination and institutional violence, as well as a lack of access to justice and reparations.
Guayaquil, Ecuador and Washington D.C- April 24, 2012. “Let there be justice”: the primary demand made of the Salvadoran State by Dorina Márquez, one of the three surviving victims of the massacre in El Mozote and surrounding areas. Márquez and the other two survivors gave testimony today in a public hearing before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in Guayaquil, Ecuador. The victims were represented by the Archdiocese’s Human Rights office in El Salvador (Tutela Legal) and the Centre for Justice and International Law (CEJIL).
At present, the events and all those responsible remain unpunished. The incidents date back to the 10th, 11th, 12th and 13th of December 1981, when close to 1000 inhabitants of El Mozote, La Joya, Ranchería, Toriles, Cerro Pando, Jocote Amarillo and other towns in the municipality of Meanguera (Department of Morazán) were murdered by Battalion Atlacatl and other units of the Salvadoran military.
March 30, 2012, New York and D.C. — Today, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) issued a landmark admissibility report in the case of Djamel Ameziane, an Algerian man imprisoned at the U.S. Naval Station at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, without any charge or trial for more than 10 years now.
Djamel Ameziane’s co-counsel at the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and the Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL) issued this statement:
“The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) has made the extremely significant decision to issue an admissibility report in the case of Djamel Ameziane, an Algerian man imprisoned at the U.S. Naval Station at Guantánamo without charge or trial for more than 10 years now.
OAS will choose three new judges before Inter-American Court
Three new judges before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights will be elected from June 3-5, 2012. The elections will be held during the 42nd OAS General Assembly, to take place this year in Cochabamba, Bolivia.
The judges of the Inter-American Court have a six year term and may be reelected once. This year the second term of the Court´s Vice President Leonardo Franco (Argentina) and the first term of the judges Rhadys Abreu Blondet (Dominican Republic) and Margarette May Macaulay (Jamaica) will expire. The last two have been nominated for reelection. The terms of President Diego Garcia Sayan and judges Eduardo Vio Grossi, Manuel Ventura Robles and Alberto Pérez Pérez have not been completed yet.
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The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights is taking applications for the Executive Secretary position, following Santiago Cantón’s decision to step down this year. Application deadline: May 1, 2012. The Job Announcement is available here. For more information read Resolution 01/2011. |
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The Organization of American States will hold its 42nd OAS General Assembly on June 3-5 in Cochabamba, Bolivia. The central theme for the General Assembly will be: "Food Security with Sovereignty in the Americas"
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On Monday 23rd April at 9 a.m. in Guayaquil, Ecuador, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights held session on the case of the El Mozote Massacre, which occurred in El Salvador in 1981. El Mozote may represent the largest massacre committed by a State in the republican era in Latin America. |
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On Wednesday January 25, the OAS Permanent Council approved a report submitted by the Special Working Group on the Strengthening of the Inter-American System, composed of OAS member States including Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela and Brazil among others. On behalf of civil society, CEJIL then presented a series of observations. The document is signed by over 90 organizations.
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This postgraduate certificate for lawyers will be held May 28-September 14, 2012. Includes 2 weeks in Santiago de Chile and 14 weeks of distance learning. For registrations click here. Registration deadline: April 19, 2012 |
