About Interights: Annual Report 1999-2000: 2. Regional


	ANNUAL REPORT 1999-2000 2. REGIONAL PROGRAMMES 2.1 Africa 2.2 Central and Eastern Europe 2.3 Commonwealth Caribbean 2.4 South Asia Much of INTERIGHTS' work is carried out under four regional programmes in Africa, Central and Eastern Europe, the Commonwealth Caribbean and South Asia. Legal officers familiar with the legal systems and general political and socio-economic conditions of each region develop programmes tailored for the specific needs and attributes of the communities concerned, in consultation and partnership with NGOs, lawyers, judges and others. These programmes generally combine casework, education and training, institutional development and provision of information materials. Through them we aim to provide expert advice and assistance to those defending human rights through law, to strengthen capacity in the use of human rights law, to improve the functioning and use of existing mechanisms and to develop positive human rights case law in each region and internationally. A selection of activities undertaken in each region during this period is described below. 2.1 AFRICA (top) In Africa, INTERIGHTS faces the challenge of demonstrating the utility, significance and effectiveness of legal processes and institutions in the overall scheme of protecting the integrity of the human person and the community. The programme proceeds on the basis that human rights are best protected at national level by national institutions and actors when they are effective, but recognises the impetus that comparative experiences and international solidarity can provide to this process when channelled sensitively. Accordingly, the objectives of the programme are: to enhance the over all effectiveness of Africa's regional human rights mechanisms in addressing the continent's human rights problems; to enhance and support the capacity of national level advocates, activists, organisations and institutions in protecting human rights domestically, including where necessary, through the use of international mechanisms; and to develop and popularise a body of regional law and practice to assist in preventing violations or, in redressing them effectively where they occur. The attainment of these objectives requires the building of partnerships with individual advocates, activists and officials, local organisations, national institutions, regional networks and other institutions. This involves long term commitment to solving mutually identified problems through agreed project initiatives. African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights Developing the efficiency of the African regional human rights mechanisms generally and its procedures for the protection of human rights in particular, has been and remains a major goal of the programme. Our strategy towards this objective entails working with national level actors to present the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights, currently the only regional human rights mechanism, with practical human rights problems requiring its attention and response. Our expectation is that through this strategy national level actors acquire skills in utilising the Commission, which in turn provides guidance to national level actors as to how best to protect human rights domestically. INTERIGHTS participated actively in the proceedings of the 25^th and 26^th Ordinary Sessions of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights in Bujumbura, Burundi and Kigali, Rwanda respectively. During these sessions, the Commission expedited its consideration of the creation of a mechanism for urgent response to human rights emergencies in Africa on the basis of a study and follow-up expert consultation facilitated by INTERIGHTS. At the 25^th Ordinary Session in Bujumbura, in April 1999, the Commission considered and approved arrangements for the Seminar on the Right to Fair Trial in Africa which it had requested INTERIGHTS and the African Society for International and Comparative Law jointly to organise on its behalf. Seminar on the Right to Fair Trial in Africa This Seminar took place in Dakar, Senegal between 9-11 September 1999. The Dakar Declaration on the Right to a Fair Trial in Africa generated by the Seminar contained an elaboration of principles applicable to the right to a fair trial in Africa as well as recommendation to States, and non-State actors such as NGOs, and professional organisations, bar associations and law societies. This declaration was adopted and issued by the Commission in a resolution on the Right to a Fair Trial and Legal Aid in Africa adopted by the Commission at its 26^th Ordinary Session in Kigali, Rwanda. By this resolution, the Commission constituted a Working Group headed by one of its members and including INTERIGHTS and Amnesty International. This Working Group was requested to facilitate implementation of the Dakar Declaration, including preparing a draft of general principles and guidelines on the right to a fair trial and legal assistance in Africa for consideration by the Commission at its 28^th Ordinary Session in October 2000. Response to Human Rights Emergency Situations At the request of INTERIGHTS and the Pan African Movement, the Commission considered the emergency situations in Sierra Leone and in Eritrea and Ethiopia at its 26^th Ordinary Session. The consideration was informed by a memorandum prepared by INTERIGHTS and facilitated by testimonies from victims and partner organizations victims from all three countries as well as other NGO partners such as Citizens for Peace in Eritrea, the Pan African Movement, and the Sierra Leone Bar Association. Following this, the Commission decided to deploy a mission of two of its members to Sierra Leone. The Mission took place in February 2000 and was due to report to the 27^th Ordinary Session of the Commission in Algiers in April 2000, as was one of the members of the Commission, designated to initiate good offices for human rights protection. Economic and Social Rights In October 1999, INTERIGHTS began consultations with the African Commission on the implementation of economic, social and cultural rights under the African Charter. An opinion on this subject requested from INTERIGHTS by the Commission will be considered by the Commission at its 28^th Ordinary Session. Casework During the year, INTERIGHTS was directly involved as counsel in six communications before the Commission, including two new ones. The new Communications were introduced on behalf of the deportees and other victims of the war between Eritrea and Ethiopia. In these two new cases, we are working with Citizens for Peace in Eritrea, the Inter-Africa Group in Ethiopia and the Pan African Movement. Southern Africa Lower Court Training Initiative Through a series of high-level judicial colloquia begun over twelve years ago, INTERIGHTS has accorded the highest priority to updating the skills and know how in the implementation of human rights of judicial officers around the world. To complement our work in this field and address a gap in the provision of judicial skills for the implementation of human rights, INTERIGHTS started work in 1997 aimed at developing sustainable training programmes for magistrates and judges of the lower courts who carry the burden of deciding an overwhelming majority of the cases that go to court in most countries. In June 1999, in collaboration with the judiciaries of Malawi and Zambia, and with the assistance of the Commonwealth Magistrates and Judges Association and the Malawi CARER, we began the first in a series of human rights course for magistrates. The first training course between 28 June - 1 July 1999 in Mangochi, Malawi, was convened by the Chairman of the Training Committee of the Malawi Judiciary, Justice Rizine Mzikamanda and co-organised with the Registry of the High Court of Malawi and Malawi CARER. The course was attended by thirty magistrates from both Malawi and Zambia. Issues addressed during the course include bail and personal liberty, as well as the role of the lower courts in preventing abuses by the police and law enforcement agents. In addition to these, the participants were also introduced to the concepts of human rights, rule of law and international law as well as practical sessions on fair trial and case management. Women and Law in Southern African Trust (WLSA) provided facilitation for a session on inheritance, customary law and the protection of women and their integrity as persons before the lower courts while the Danish Centre for Human Rights in Malawi provided additional copies of compilations of the major international human rights standards, and relevant domestic legislation in criminal law and evidence. A second course for another 30 Magistrates was held in Blantyre, Malawi in March 2000, and the third in the series will take place in Lusaka, Zambia in June 2000. Thereafter we will, working together with the judiciaries in both Malawi and Zambia, produce a handbook on human rights for the lower courts which will be adaptable to other common law countries. Advancing the Legal Protection of the Human Rights of Women Although INTERIGHTS does not work exclusively on the human rights of women, the organisation regularly seeks to adapt its work in ways that may facilitate the work that more specialised organisations do in this field. In the past year, under the African programme we have worked towards making a priority of developing a legal protection dimension to complement the excellent advocacy work undertaken by other organisations to advance the human rights of women in Africa. Together with UNIFEM, FEMNET and Alliances for Africa, we are currently assisting the organisation of the work and reporting by the African Commission's Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Women. A draft three year work plan that we have developed with the Rapporteur awaits adoption by the Commission. A major development during the year was the decision of the Supreme Court of Zimbabwe in the case Magaya v. Magaya in which the court upheld the constitutionality of rules of customary law that discriminate against women in terms of their rights to inheritance. Together with the Women in Law in Southern Africa Trust (WLSA) and other Zimbabwean and other international NGOs, we worked to bring explore legal avenues for securing a re-consideration of this decision both nationally in Zimbabwe and before other international human rights mechanisms, preparing an opinion on the legal options available. We are now assisting WLSA to institute a new case before the Supreme Court, and also working with COHRE to rise the issue before the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. At the invitation of the Centre Canadien d'Etude et de Cooperation (CECI), INTERIGHTS acted as adviser in the implementation of the project on the 'Human Rights and Citizenship of Women in West Africa', a multiple country project currently covering the West African countries of Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea and Mali, and headquartered in Mali. INTERIGHTS' role included advice on comparative treatment of nationality of women and on the application of relevant international human rights standards. Access to Justice, Public Interest Law Africa Strategy A major objective of the programme has been and remains to enhance the effectiveness of institutions and procedures for the administration of the law and, in so doing, to facilitate access to justice. In the past three years, the African programme has worked to evolve a coherent regional strategy on access to justice. This began with the project conference on the Legal Protection of Human Rights under the Constitutions of Africa in December 1997, and continued with a sub-regional East African Conference on Constitutional and Public Interest Law and Litigation in Uganda in 1998. The Dakar Fair Trial Conference in September 1999, mentioned more fully above, was also part of this strategy. In 1999, we issued the publication Universal Rights, Local Remedies: Implementing Human Rights in the Legal Systems of Africa, containing some of the major findings of the regional consultation that we have undertaken in the development on access to justice and public interest law in Africa. This publication is currently being translated into the Arabic and French languages. During the past year, in consultation with partner organisations in different parts of Africa, we began the development of sustainable projects to advance access to justice and public interest law around Africa. With Datacenta based in Accra, Ghana, we finalised arrangements for a West African Public Interest Law Initiative, which will be launched next year. Discussions were underway at the end of the year with the Foundation for Human Rights Initiative (FHRI) in Uganda and the East African Law Society (EALS) for a similar initiative in East Africa. Cases and Legal Advisory Work We participated in different forms in the conduct of cases that sought to enforce human rights before several national and international bodies. Our participation took different forms, including direct conduct of litigation and legal representation, technical assistance in the framing of litigation at both first instance and appellate level, expert intervention as amicus curiae, as well as research and drafting support. Some of the issues addressed in the cases during the year included: the legal obligations of States in respect of disappearances, the human rights and legal status of women in cases of intestate succession and inheritance, the legality and consequences of collective expulsion of foreign nationals, the legality and consequences of the cancellation of nationality, population transfers as a tool of war, and reparations for violations of the rights of journalists. 2.2 CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE (top) INTERIGHTS' work in Central and Eastern Europe programme is divided between a range of region wide activities and projects relating to individual countries. The focus of regional activities is the creation of more effective regional litigation networks to enhance the use of law - domestic, comparative and international - to protect rights. Among the specific projects are efforts to encourage the creation of working legal aid systems in the countries in the region and to enhance access to legal services, as well as thematic projects developed jointly with other NGOs to encourage region-wide strategic litigation on selected issues of crucial importance for the development of democracy and the rule of law. In individual countries, INTERIGHTS, in partnership with local organisations and lawyers, has been working to enhance capacity to use international human rights law by providing legal advice, briefing papers and materials on international human rights law, providing assistance to NGOs in the shaping and execution of their legal defence programmes and organizing workshops and conferences, particularly training for advocates in the use of international human rights law before domestic courts and in the use of international procedures. The provision of information to lawyers and NGOs is also an important part of our region-wide work. It includes the publication of Digests of Strasbourg case-law in many languages of the region in partnership with COLPI and the Council of Europe. Annual compendium issues of INTERIGHTS' quarterly publication, the Bulletin, which contains summaries of decisions on all important cases before international human rights tribunals, has been published in Hungarian and Bulgarian, and a publication in Russian started to appear in 1999. 1. Litigation and programme development support (i) Regional thematic litigation support and advocacy projects (a) Access to Justice Regional Project Following an experts' meeting in Warsaw in July 1999 and a number of other meetings and consultations, as well as two surveys, conducted in Lithuania and Bulgaria by NGOs, we have cooperated with the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights in Poland, the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee and the Public Interest Law Initiative in Transitional Societies (PILI), with the active support of the Constitutional and Legal Policy Institute (COLPI) and the European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC), as well with individual human rights activists in the region, to establish a region-wide project on Promoting Access to Justice in Central and Eastern Europe. One element of the project is focusing on the availability of legal aid, initially in two countries, Poland and Bulgaria. A comprehensive regional project was elaborated in August 1999. Under the project, we aim to: implement two country specific projects for improving in practice the legal aid systems in two countries of the region, Poland and Bulgaria. The country projects will involve the design and conduct of practical surveys, the preparation of National Legal Aid Reports and the convening of National Legal Aid Forums to examine the real situation and proposals for reform; these projects can then serve as examples for similar projects elsewhere in the region. identify gaps in the data collected by government agencies on the functioning of the justice system relevant for issues related to legal aid and to generate data through alternative means, provide a forum for co-ordination and encouragement of an expanding coalition of individuals and organisations committed to the improvement of legal aid for indigent persons in CEE and transfer the experience and expertise accumulated in the pilot countries in order to encourage similar legal aid initiatives in other states in CEE. For example, we plan to convene, probably some time in 2001, a regional Forum on Access to Justice in CEE. The main purpose of the Forum will be to transfer experience and acquired skills on work on access to legal aid in Poland and Bulgaria to the other states from CEE. The Forum will gather independent and government experts and representatives of NGOs from selected countries in the CEE and representatives of international institutions. facilitate the exchange of information about new legal aid developments in the region by the use of the Internet. Here one of our plans is to set up an Access to Justice Web Resource Bank which will eventually contain, inter alia, national legislative texts related to legal aid and access to justice, articles and other materials analysing the functioning in practice of legal aid systems in the countries of the world, analyses of cultural and other challenges facing those advocating for access to justice, documents containing international standards related to access to justice, litigation briefs and overviews of domestic and international case-law developments related to access to justice, conference and seminar materials, reports on civil society project reports and a world databank of experts on access to justice. We also plan to set up a number of Access to Justice E-mail 'round tables'. Suitably edited versions of some of the more substantive exchanges will later be deposited in the Resource Bank. In addition, the project partners will seek to provide support for similar initiatives in other countries in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. Largely as part of that effort, COLPI convened a conference on access to justice on 21-22 November 1999 in Budapest for participants from the countries of the former Soviet Union and Mongolia, at which representatives of the other partners, including INTERIGHTS, took active part. b) Work with the Council of Europe on Access to Justice In December 1999 INTERIGHTS was asked by the Steering Committee on Human Rights (CDDH) of the Council of Europe to serve as consultant to the Committee to carry out an analysis of the implementation, at domestic level, of the CM Recommendation (93)1 on effective access to the law and to justice for the very poor. The method of work is by distributing a questionnaire to all 41 Council of Europe member States, compiling and analysing their replies and making recommendations to the CDDH on possible further action by the organs of the Council. c) Equality and non-discrimination Another regional project, designed to address one of the most serious human rights problems that has emerged across Europe since 1989 - discrimination against racial, ethnic and national minorities - has been under discussion with the European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC). The project would encourage and assist national human rights organisations and lawyers to develop and implement legal strategies for challenges to discriminatory laws and practices. It would focus on the effective use in domestic courts of arguments from international and comparative jurisprudence and undertake international litigation, especially before the new European Court of Human Rights, where likely to be effective. The project also envisages targeted training and the publication of litigation handbooks in local languages. The aim is both to strengthen the capacity of those working with minorities to secure their rights through law, and also to develop a jurisprudence, nationally and internationally, that strengthens guarantees of equal treatment. Advice and support to NGO Legal Defence Programmes and casework with lawyers and NGOs Casework During the reporting period the programme responded to requests for advice and assistance from lawyers and NGOs in Russia, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Hungary, Georgia, Romania, Moldova, Azerbaijan and Lithuania. Advice focused particularly in the areas of liberty and security, ill-treatment, fair trial, freedom of expression and freedom of thought, conscience and religion. Further details of cases are given in the Appendix. Litigation briefs A centrepiece of our work was the drafting of model litigation briefs on key topics for the legal protection of human rights in CEE. The Right to Legal Aid in Domestic Proceedings under the Convention Considering the widespread absence of legal aid and effective representation in CEE countries, we have drafted a brief outlining the extent and scope of the right to legal aid under the European Convention, and possibilities to make use of and expand the case law on this issue. Torture and ill-treatment The Programme has produced a comprehensive litigation brief that considers all aspects of the prohibition of torture and ill-treatment. It focuses on the potential for achieving change by litigating against some particularly wide-spread violations in the CEE countries, such as atrocious conditions of detention, the absence of effective investigations into allegations, the use of confessions extracted under torture as the basis for criminal convictions and the necessary evidence and steps in the domestic sphere to ensure success in international proceedings. This brief is still subject to consultation with experts and practitioners. Expediting a case before the European Court of Human Rights This brief examines the options open to an applicant and his representative to have the substance of his case heard by the Court within an accelerated time scale. This may be done in order to preserve 'life and limb' of the applicant, or to prevent irreparable damage to assets. The brief outlines the process of requesting the Court to indicate interim measures, and the potential to extend their applicability to cases which involve a threat to the applicant's property or reputation, by seeking to have the situation frozen or be given a priority hearing before the Court. The brief also examines the practice of other international judicial mechanisms and selected domestic arrangements, providing the potential applicant with a number of options and arguments. In addition, it examines the development of the Court's existing rules of procedure, and in particular the Court President's discretion to have a particular case heard as a matter of priority. The practice of just satisfaction awards by the European Court of Human Rights The Programme advised a number of lawyers and NGOs on issues of compensation for violations of the ECHR, and in particulars lawyers in Bulgaria following a decision of the Committee of Ministers on four Bulgarian cases in February in which it decided that an award of non-pecuniary damages and the payment of costs should take into account the economic difficulties of the country in question. In addition to the above, the Programme has been working on a brief detailing template arguments for requesting just satisfaction awards in cases of death or injuries while in custody or at the hands of officials. All briefs will be translated into Russian and distributed to selected lawyers and NGOs. Development of Public Interest Litigation Programmes In addition to existing and developing partnerships with the Legal Defence Programme of the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee, SUTYAJNIK, the Ukrainian Union of Advocates and lawyers and NGOs in Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, the Programme focused on advice to several new partner NGOs: discussions were held with the Nizny Nowgorod Society of Human Rights (Russia) on the setting up, within a Centre for Social and Legal Rehabilitation of Victims of Torture, of a specialised unit to work on selecting cases suitable for effective litigation to challenge ill-treatment in militia (police) establishments, the lack or the deficiencies in the investigation of complaints of torture about ill-treatment in militia establishments, and the use of confessions extracted under torture in subsequent trial proceedings discussions were also held with the Moldovan Helsinki Committee (MHC) on setting up a Legal Advice Office to focus on work on selected impact cases. We also started work on several cases with the MHC, challenging the denial of registration of a human rights organisation, the fines imposed for participation in the student demonstrations in April, and the administrative detention of some of the participants in those demonstrations. Discussions were also held with the Association for Human Rights and European Integration (AHREI) in Bulgaria on a programme to extend their legal advisory work to the areas with compact ethnic Turkish population Contacts were established with the Kharkiv Group for Human Rights Protection, and we began work on selecting cases for international litigation in order to challenge the absence of fair trial guarantees in the imposition of prison sentences for the so-called 'administrative offences' Discussions were also held with the Human Rights Litigation Office of the Ukrainian Union of Advocates 2. Human Rights Training for Lawyers In the field of lawyers' training, the Programme has focused on sustainable projects which combine a six to nine months long human rights course, a one week practical training school and the preparation and publication of teaching and study materials. Such programmes aim to: establish pilot models for a sustainable structure for training of lawyers on international and national standards of human rights and their effective implementation, as a model which could be replicated in many other locations and ultimately on a national scale, prepare and make available teaching and litigation support materials in a modular form which could be easily updated periodically and will be of use to legal practitioners throughout the country, equip a considerable group of practising lawyers with the knowledge and skills which will enable them to apply human rights standards in their everyday practice, and encourage them to co-operate with each other on human rights cases, ultimately supporting the work of human rights advice centres and networks in all three countries. In addition, we have conceptualized and managed a number of litigation workshops in partnership with other NGOs, within the framework of more generalized training projects. Human Rights Training projects for lawyers in Russia and Ukraine In December 1999 we launched a training project in Russia, in partnership with Sutyajnik, a litigation and human rights education centre in Ekaterinburg (Russia). The Programme also set up, in partnership with the Ukrainian Union of Advocates and the Polish Bar Association, a similar project in Ukraine. Both projects combine the two elements outlined above - a six to nine months long human rights course and a one week practical training school. In addition, they envisage the preparation and publication of teaching and study materials on the ECHR in the respective languages specifically designed for practising lawyers. The first session of the Russian Programme - on the right to life and the prohibition of torture - was held on 10-11 March 2000. In Ukraine the course programme was finalised in February and we await the start of its implementation in the autumn of 2000 Training workshops for lawyers from Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan With the Netherlands Helsinki Committee and COLPI, INTERIGHTS co-organised two one-week practical skills training workshops in Tbilisi, on 30 May-6 June and 1-5 November 1999 respectively, for lawyers from Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. INTERIGHTS was principally responsible for drafting the materials and designing and conducting the substantive part of the training. The main aim of the workshops was to equip participants with practical skills for litigating before international human rights tribunals, principally the European Court of Human Rights. Consequently training was based on creating a working routine as near as possible to the real life practice of international litigation. Emphasis in this training was placed on the production of written litigation materials and on teaching participants how to use case-law to argue their case from the perspective of the different parties to the case. Participants were divided into two small groups where each group worked on two hypothetical cases of human rights violations, playing either the role of the lawyers for the applicant (preparing applications for submission to the European Court of Human Rights) or of the lawyers for the government. The groups drafted, in turn, the initial application to the Court, the government memorial on admissibility and merits and discussed responses of the applicant to the government's memorial and the preparation for the hearing. 'Hearings' on each case were held, following the rules of procedure of the European Court of Human Rights, the 'judges' deliberated and drafted 'judgments' which were read out at the last session of the training, and followed by analysis and discussion. Participants also heard practice oriented lectures designed to assist them in their 'litigation' on the following topics: the role of NGOs in domestic and international litigation the interpretative approaches of the European Court of Human Rights and the role of comparative jurisprudence in human rights litigation the interpretation of freedom of expression by the European Court of Human Rights preparation for hearings before the European Court of Human Rights the UN and OSCE systems of human rights protection. The training seminars in June and November brought litigation before the European Court as close as possible to a considerable group of lawyers, and those who have access to the European Court (for the time being only from Georgia) should feel more secure in bringing cases to it. In addition, thanks to the training seminar, the lawyers can also make use of an international network of experts. In this sense perhaps the most important result of the training workshops was the setting-up of a new regional organisation of lawyers, for which the development of human rights curricula for lawyers will form a central part of its mandate. After the June seminar, lawyers from the three countries decided to establish an international association of lawyers, which was registered in Tbilisi during the November workshop. The association is called International Association of Lawyers from the South Caucasus, and is devoted also to promoting communication between lawyers from the three countries, educating lawyers in inter-regional legal issues, and human rights protection and promotion. Some experts and organisers of the second training seminar agreed to serve on the International Consultative Committee of the new organisation. This international association is planning to establish a Human Rights Training School in Tbilisi, and is now discussing with the NHC and INTERIGHTS the modalities of implementing this plan. 3. Workshop for judges and advocates in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, 26 November 1999 This workshop was, like the ones in Georgia, again part of a long series of training events for lawyers on human rights, which started in 1997. Three previous training workshops had been held in Sofia and Plovdiv in June and October 1997, and in Plovdiv in November 1998. The workshops held in previous years have led to an increased number of applications to the European Commission of Human Rights from Plovdiv, and were instrumental in the establishment of an association of practicing lawyers in Plovdiv - the Association for Human Rights and European Integration in Plovdiv (AHREI). Among the projects undertaken by the Association are the establishment of a Human Rights Legal Advice Centre to provide free legal assistance to victims of violations of human rights and a project for continuous human rights training of its fellow lawyers. The topic of the workshop in November 1999, again co-organised with AHREI, was 'the right to respect for private and family life under the European Convention on Human Rights'. It aimed to deepen and widen the understanding of the practical aspects of using the Convention by advocates and judges, who are already familiar with its main aspects. AHREI intends to continue holding such workshops, now well established, in the future and plans to publish the main reports from the workshop in the legal journals. The seminar was filmed by Channel 1 of Bulgarian National Television (BNT) and a short film was shown within the main legal programme of BNT in late January. The broadcast apparently lead to a number of enquiries to AHREI from lawyers' organisations in other cities with requests for materials and know-how on holding such training events. AHREI is considering how best to assist them. INTERIGHTS' Legal Officer also took part in several training initiatives organized by partner organisations. These included: managing a session on ECHR litigation at the lawyers' training seminar of the Ukrainian Legal Foundation in Kharkiv (29-30 March 1999) assisting the Nizhny Novgorod Society of Human Rights in the preparation and the organization of a two day seminar (19-20 June 1999) for practising lawyers and human rights activists on the domestic application of international human rights law, with a focus on torture and ill-treatment taking part in the conference on 'Combatting Torture in Russia', held in Moscow on 6-8 November 1999, and submitting a comprehensive report on the standards of the ECHR and CPT. 3. Ensuring access to up-to-date and high quality international human rights legal information Key Judgments of the European Court of Human Rights (a) Russian version In two volumes and numbering around 2,000 pages, this book, finally published in May 2000, is the result of a joint project of INTERIGHTS with the Council of Europe and the Constitutional and Legal Policy Institute (COLPI) in Budapest. The work was directed by an editorial board consisting of experts from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, the Institute of European Law at MGIMO, the Human Rights Institute in Moscow ; of the Constitutional and Legal Policy Institute (COLPI) and of INTERIGHTS, working with representatives of the European Court of Human Rights and the Human Rights Directorate of the Council of Europe, under the general editorship of Professor V. A. Tumanov, the former President of the RF Constitutional Court and former Russian judge of the European Court of Human Rights. Borislav Petranov served as Deputy Editor. Although several monographs devoted to the court's practice and procedures have already been published in the Russian language, this book will provide a unique possibility for legal professionals, academics and the general public to consult the original texts of the judgements, as well as serve as an indispensable tool for teaching the standards of the European Convention on Human Rights in all branches of law. (b) Bulgarian and Romanian versions In Romania, a similar Digest covering judgments of the European Court of Human Rights for the period 1960-1996 was published in January 2000 and we commenced the work on the Digest Update for 1997-1998. In Bulgaria, work continues on the publication of the 97-98 Digest Update. Compendium issues of INTERIGHTS Bulletin in Russian Two volumes of INTERIGHTS Bulletin in Russian were published in Moscow in early May. The first was devoted to ill-treatment and the right to life and the second to the right to fair trial. 2.3 COMMONWEALTH CARIBBEAN (top) The 12 independent states of the Commonwealth Caribbean share a legal system inherited from the period of the British colonial rule. Whilst there are many variations in the legal regimes and legal cultures of the Commonwealth Caribbean nations, all of the states have human rights guarantees vested in their constitutions. Though the region is by and large free of the anti-democratic history of many other parts of the developing world in the post-colonial period, nonetheless, a number of serious human rights abuses exist in the region. Police brutality and extra-judicial killings have reached alarming heights in some states. Prison conditions in several institutions in the region are notorious. In a number of states, a catalogue of fair trial and due process violations has been found by domestic courts, UN bodies and human rights groups. And, finally, the implementation of the death penalty has long been a serious problem in the Commonwealth Caribbean. A large number of cases have successfully been brought before domestic and international tribunals challenging many aspects of capital punishment. Such cases have involved, among other things, unfair trial, appalling conditions of detention, serious delays in the legal system and extra-legal execution. In order to help enhance the legal protection of human rights in the Commonwealth Caribbean, INTERIGHTS' work in the region focuses on litigation and litigation support. Through direct representation of individuals at international human rights tribunals and the provision of technical legal services to lawyers in the region, INTERIGHTS works to help create and enforce stronger human rights protections through law. In particular, our work focuses on enhancing access to international human rights law. Our Caribbean programme has selected as a major area of focus the issue of liberty and security of the person. Its work has concentrated primarily in three countries; Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica. In the past year, we have won favourable judgments in a series of petitions before the UN Human Rights Committee in cases against Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago. In those petitions, judgments found serious human rights violations concerning lengthy delay, the right to counsel and cruel and inhuman treatment. In addition to these favourable decisions, during this period we submitted several further international human rights petitions. Two such petitions are against Trinidad, both centring on the question of delay in criminal trials. Having been approached by several individuals complaining of delays of 12 or 14 years in the disposition of simple criminal appeals, INTERIGHTS petitioned the United Nations Human Rights Committee and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in two of these cases. In the third case, INTERIGHTS helped lawyers in Guyana and the Guyana Human Rights Association to prepare a petition before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. That case, involving the death penalty, also alleges delay and further questions the impartiality of the government committee charged with considering 'mercy' petitions. Also, INTERIGHTS acted as co-counsel with Simons Muirhead and Burton in a case against Trinidad and Tobago challenging, inter alia, that state's controversial reservation to the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The reservation purported to preclude all individuals sentenced to death from bringing any claims before the Human Rights Committee. An admissibility decision was received during this period, finding against the validity of the reservation. Before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, INTERIGHTS has drafted with the help of the New York University School of Law's International Human Rights Law Clinic an amicus curiae brief in a death penalty case against Trinidad. That case seems likely to be the first to reach the Inter-American Court with a challenge to the mandatory nature of the death penalty. Unlike most other death penalty states, virtually all of the Commonwealth Caribbean nations have the mandatory death penalty. But because of constitutional 'savings clauses', preserving the law at the time of independence, none of these laws are vulnerable to challenge at the domestic level. In our brief, INTERIGHTS hopes to convince the Court of the inherently unfair nature of such laws, by reference to comparative and international law. In addition to this direct litigation, INTERIGHTS has also provided advice and assistance to Caribbean lawyers and NGOs on a number of different issues. For example, we advised an individual in St. Lucia on possible recourse in a sex and race discrimination case and a lawyer in Dominica on a suit involving a public monopoly in telephone services. We also assisted lawyers in Grenada defending a criminal defamation charge against a journalist, in a political speech case. Together with a number of Caribbean, regional and international NGOs (Amnesty International, Caribbean Rights, Center for Justice and International Law, Federation International Des Ligues Des Droits De L'Homme, Guyana Human Rights Association, Human Rights Watch, INTERIGHTS, International Commission of Jurists, and Lawyers Committee for Human Rights), INTERIGHTS drafted a statement presented to the UN Commission on Human Rights, noting the number of Caribbean states that have recently withdrawn from international human rights agreements and condemning this trend. Over the summer we hosted an intern from Trinidad, a law student who worked with both INTERIGHTS' Caribbean and Legal Information programmes. This was the first Caribbean intern to be hosted by the programme. We are currently seeking to raise funds to expand our work in the region, including the establishment of a regular internship programme for young Caribbean lawyers and law students. 2.4 SOUTH ASIA (top) Designed to support the work of human rights lawyers and organisations in using the law to protect human rights, the South Asia Programme is currently developing specific activities focusing on the judiciary and on human rights practitioners. These include events relating to a South Asian Regional Judicial Colloquium Series on Human Rights and Access to Justice; regional training workshops for lawyers on the domestic application of international human rights norms; and the development of an email network for human rights lawyers in the region. Given the limited access to international mechanisms (with only Nepal and Sri Lanka having ratified the Optional Protocol to the ICCPR to date), and the lack of any regional mechanism, the South Asia Programme necessarily focuses on supporting initiatives to enforce human rights through domestic courts, while encouraging efforts and cross-border co-operation and regional exchange of information and experiences on developments in law and practice on human rights. This year, INTERIGHTS has also paid special attention to 'honour' crimes, mapping current initiatives to address this issue, in South Asia and elsewhere, and exploring possible legal approaches. Project on Strategies to Address Crimes of Honour During 1999, the Programme initiated a collaboration with the Centre for Islamic and Middle Eastern Law at the School of Oriental and African Studies on a Project on 'Strategies to Address Honour Crimes'. The Project focused on honour crimes as an issue that cuts across communities, cultures, religions and nations, and includes in its specific manifestations a range of forms of violence directed, in the majority of cases, against women, including murder ('honour killings') and forced marriage. At one point of the spectrum are cases where most typically, a woman is killed by her own relatives for bringing 'dishonour' upon the family, usually through conduct perceived as breaching community norms on sexual behaviour. At another point is the incidence of forced marriages of young women, which also, in some cases, result in attempted murder of the women involved, demonstrating the linkage between questions of honour and the attempt by the community and, specifically, male family members, to control women's behaviour and movement. The incidence of honour killings, the virtual impunity enjoyed by those responsible for such killings, and the pattern of state inaction in such cases has never been systematically addressed by international or regional human rights mechanisms or non-governmental organisations. Existing initiatives have mostly been undertaken at a local level, generally taking the form of campaigns around specific incidents, or specific legal interventions, as well as some documentation of judicial responses to such cases. The Project therefore aims to build on existing initiatives and to facilitate cooperation among activists and lawyers to develop diverse and multiple strategies, nationally, regionally and internationally, to combat impunity for those responsible for honour killings and to challenge a climate of support for the practice in the wider communities and amongst state institutions. The aim of the Project was to prepare a document on 'Mapping Initiatives to Address Honour Crimes', which focused on legal, advocacy, research, media and related support activities being undertaken in different jurisdictions, including Africa, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia. The Project also produced an Annotated Bibliography on Honour Crimes, containing materials in English (and to some extent in Arabic and Portugese), drawn from books, articles and reported judgments, on crimes of honour including both honour killings and forced marriage (see http://www.iwhc.org/new/honorcrimes.html ). In November 1999, the Project convened a 'Roundtable for Practitioners on Strategies to Address Crimes of Honour', which brought together lawyers, scholars, human rights and women's rights activists and journalists from Jordan, Palestine/Israel, Pakistan, Turkey and the UK, as well as representatives of international human rights organisations, and the UN Special Rapporteur on Summary and Arbitrary Executions. Several roundtable participants also spoke at a public meeting on 'Religion, Culture and the State: Protection of Women's Rights', organised by the Project in collaboration with Amnesty International UK, and held at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London University. The Project also participated in meetings being held in the UK in relation to the hearings being conducted by the British Home Office's Working Group on Forced Marriage. These included active participation in a practitioner's network established by Reunite and Southall Black Sisters, two UK based organisations. Preliminary Meeting for a South Asian Regional Judicial Colloquium Series At the Judicial Colloquium on the Domestic Application of International Human Rights Norms, held in Bangalore, India in December, 1998, judges from South Asia had proposed that the Colloquium process be institutionalised within South Asia. Specifically, they recommended that a South Asia Judicial Colloquium Series be held, which would provide an opportunity for senior judges within the region to share their experiences of using international and comparative human rights law in national courts, specifically in relation to interpreting national constitutional and legal standards. During the course of 1999, preparations were made for a Preliminary Meeting aimed to discuss the proposal for a South Asian Regional Judicial Colloquium Series. The Preliminary Meeting will be convened in May 2000 by the Chief Justice of Bangladesh in Dhaka, and facilitated by INTERIGHTS in partnership with the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, and hosted by the Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust. Economic, Social and Cultural Rights In February 2000, the Legal Officer participated in a consultation to review the draft of a Manual on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, organised by the Washington-based International Human Rights Internship Programme and the regional human rights network, Forum Asia, in Jogjakarta, Indonesia. INTERIGHTS also contributed comments on the draft manual. Discussion with Forum Asia on follow-up included the possibility of convening a judicial colloquium on economic and social rights. The Programme is also preparing materials relating to the enforcement of economic, social and cultural rights for use in training workshops for lawyers and for inclusion in the forthcoming series of judicial colloquia. National Courts and Mechanisms INTERIGHTS provided legal advice in relation to several cases pending hearing before national courts in South Asia, as well as on the conformity of proposed legislation with international human rights norms (on special laws on violence against women and children). The issues concerned included the right to life (disappearances; honour killings), personal liberty (the detention of vagrants), cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment (the practice of detaining women in 'protective custody'), freedom of expression (media autonomy; academic freedom) and gender equality (women's transmission of nationality to spouses/children). Details of casework are provided in the Appendix. In collaboration with human rights organisations in Bangladesh and Pakistan working on the issue, INTERIGHTS made a submission to the British Home Office' Working Party on Forced Marriage, recommending action to address the practice of abduction of women and girls from the UK to South Asian countries for the purpose of forced marriage. International Mechanisms The Programme has begun to provide support regarding to lawyers in Nepal and Sri Lanka regarding the use of international complaints mechanisms, specifically the complaints process before the Human Rights Committee. It assisted with the preparation of the first complaints to be submitted to the United Nations Human Rights Committee from Nepal and Sri Lanka, relating to civil defamation and disappearances respectively. The Programme is also planning collaboration with regional human rights networks in Asia on training workshops for lawyers on the use of international and comparative human rights law. The Programme is closely monitoring initiatives towards further ratification of international human rights instruments by countries in the region, as well as the creation of a regional or sub-regional human rights mechanism or instrument, and the functioning of national human rights institutions Information Dissemination Publications INTERIGHTS has continued to increase the distribution of its two regular publications, the *Bulletin* and the *CHRLD, through expansion of its complimentary subscription list, available for judges and human rights lawyers throughout the region, and has been requested to make this more widely available to judges of the superior courts in South Asia. Selected papers from the Judicial Colloquium on the Domestic Application of International Human Rights Law, held in Bangalore, India, in December 1998, have been published in law journals, within and outside South Asia, thus ensuring their greater accessibility to members of the bar and the judiciary. Papers from the Colloquium were also edited and prepared for publication. Papers from the Preliminary Meeting for a series of South Asia Regional Judicial Colloquia will also be published in law journals within the region. Interns/Associates By hosting interns and visiting lawyers, the Programme provides an opportunity for law students to learn about and make a contribution to the organisations' work, and for human rights lawyers from the region to develop their own projects on legal protection issues through exposure to comparative law and experience. In 1999-2000, lawyers from Bangladesh and India, Ashok Karmaker, and Anjolie Singh*, both undertaking LLM studies at London University, volunteered with the Programme. 3. Thematic Programmes (top)