WK 225 Leveraging international mechanisms for local change

When local and national powers are resistant to pressure for change that comes from the local level, international mechanisms can provide the leverage needed. Citizens can access international and regional bodies established to ensure access to human rights standards.

Panelists

Featured Tactic:Paul Mageean, formerly with the Committee on the Administration of Justice, Northern Ireland Complementary Presentation: Viviana Krsticevic, Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL), Latin America

Featured Tactic

Using international mechanisms to apply pressure on a national government to institute policy and legal changes Paul Mageean, formerly with the Committee on the Administration of Justice, Northern Ireland

• View Paul Mageean’s PowerPoint presentation 38 KB
• Read Paul Mageean’s presentation outline

The Committee on the Administration of Justice (CAJ) uses examinations before the UN Committee Against Torture to pressure the UK government to improve human rights conditions in Northern Ireland. A key aspect of the human rights abuses taking place involved allegations of ill-treatment of those in custody. CAJ’s specific objectives were: getting lawyers immediate access to those arrested; getting lawyers access to interviews, recording the interviews electronically and establishing an independent system of monitoring them; limiting the periods of detention before charging or release; closing the detention centers; and having the ordinary criminal law rather than the emergency law apply to those detained. CAJ began utilizing the Committee Against Torture in 1991, when the UK had to appear before the Committee, and again in 1995 and 1998 when the UK was examined again. The situation for those arrested under the emergency laws in Northern Ireland has improved immeasurably since CAJ began working with the Committee. The most remarkable and immediate achievement, after the UK’s international embarrassment, was the speedy end to coordinated physical ill-treatment in the holding centers, which ceased between the first and second examinations by the Committee Against Torture.

Complementary Presentation

Viviana Krsticevic, Center for Justice and International Law, the Americas

• View Viviana Krsticevic’s PowerPoint presentation 1,587 KB
• Read Viviana Krsticevic’s presentation outline

The Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL) is a regional human rights organization with consultative status before the Organization of American States (OAS) and the UN. It works to ensure the full implementation of international human rights norms in OAS member states through the Inter-American System for the Protection of Human Rights. As part of its Legal Defense Program, CEJIL litigates cases before the Inter-American Commission and Court of Human Rights. CEJIL concentrates its litigation efforts on cases that can result in improvements to internal laws and practices, thereby promoting greater compliance with international human rights standards. Additionally, in an effort to broaden access to the Inter-American System, CEJIL instructs local organizations on the system’s procedures, standards and jurisprudence, thereby empowering local people to use international law to achieve justice for victims of human rights violations in their own countries.