Publications

This submission to the UN Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of the United States of America focuses on the United States’ longstanding failure to provide effective remedy and redress, including medical care, and guarantee fair trials to the “High Value Detainees” who are still held in Guantánamo, including Mustafa Al-Hawsawi. It was made by REDRESS jointly with the World Organisation against Torture (OMCT) and the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ).

This report sets out what REDRESS has achieved from 1 April 2017 to 31 March 2018. This has included addressing the need for effective consular protection for dual nationals detained abroad, and ongoing challenges to immunities for torture. In establishing international standards, we continued our work to highlight the problem of torture in the context of migration, sharing our ideas with various UN experts. Our post-conflict work in Kenya, Uganda, and the Central African Republic led to new cases and new structures for domestic trials, and our projects on SGBV enabled national NGOs to engage effectively on the issue. We advanced universal jurisdiction cases in several jurisdictions. We continued to monitor the operations of the ICC, and make suggestions for even greater participation of victims. We issued a number of influential reports, including on sexual abuse in the context of peace-keeping operations, and the criminalisation of women in Sudan. REDRESS also celebrated 25 years since it was founded, and we reflect on what has been achieved, and explore how we can have an even greater impact.

This report on our activities gives details of the many victims of torture for whom REDRESS has acted between 1 April 2018 to 31 March 2019. It also sets out our impact over the last 12 months. This includes a timely report on reparations at the International Criminal Court, responding to the situation in Sudan, and organising a broad coalition of NGOs to prepare a report on torture and ill-treatment in the United Kingdom for the UN Committee against Torture.

In this letter, submitted ahead of the 42nd regular session of the UN Human Rights Council, REDRESS and other civil society organisations urge the Council to take action to address serious human rights violations and abuses that have been and continue to be committed in Sudan, and to support systemic reforms in the country.

This report was submitted to the UN Committee against Torture as an alternative (or shadow) report to the UK's sixth periodic review taking place in May 2019. The report follows four consultation events and a call for evidence across England and Wales as part of the UK Torture Review project in which over 90 civil society organisations and individuals participated in the consultations or provided written evidence to inform the report.

REDRESS and the African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies (ACJPS) have issued this briefing which identifies priority areas for reform on torture in Sudan following the recent removal of Omar al-Bashir as President. It focuses on reparations for victims of torture, ensuring individual accountability and preventing torture in the future.

This joint NGO Letter to the Core Group and Co-Sponsoring States to the initiative for the creation of a new multilateral treaty for the domestic prosecution of the most serious international crimes - or Mutual Legal Assistance (MLA) Initiative - was sent in response to the Draft Convention on International Cooperation in the Investigation and Prosecution of the Crime of Genocide, Crimes against Humanity and War Crimes. The letter was sent in the context of the Second Preparatory Conference of the MLA initiative (11-14 March 2019) and was signed by REDRESS, FIDH, ECCHR, Women's Initiatives for Gender Justice, ICJ, Amnesty International and Parliamentarians for Global Justice.

This is a briefing on diplomatic protection, a mechanism by which a State may secure protection and obtain reparation for a legally wrongful act committed against one of its nationals, and what it means in the Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe case.