Publications

REDRESS submitted a report to the UN Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights (OHCHR) about the prevalence of torture in Sri Lanka, to aid the Office's Investigation on Sri Lanka (OISL). In particular, the submission addressed developments relating to torture in the period 2002-2011, with a focus on state responsibility. The submission highlighted cases of torture that REDRESS and others brought before the UN Human Rights Committee, including Sri Lanka’s failure to engage with the Committee in response to individual complaints, and to implement the Committee’s views. It argues that the lack of response to complaints at the international level forms part of the broader problem of the systemic nature of torture and impunity in Sri Lanka. This includes the failure of Sri Lanka to undertake the legislative and institutional reforms needed to bring relevant law and practice in line with its international obligations.  

In this letter addressed to the Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament, REDRESS and other NGOs question whether the decision of the UK government to ask this Committee to investigate the treatment of detainees and the UK involvement in rendition was lawful or appropriate.The organisations also reiterate the need to establish an independent judicial inquiry into these matters. The other NGOs are the AIRE Centre, Amnesty International UK, Cage, Freedom from Torture, JUSTICE, Liberty, Reprieve and Rights Watch UK.  

In these comments, Amnesty International, the Community Empowerment for Progress Organization (CEPO), the Enough Project, Human Rights Watch, South Sudan Action Network on Small Arms (SSANSA) and REDRESS highlight several key concerns regarding the draft National Security Service Bill of 8 October 2014 of South Sudan. The Bill was originally tabled before the National Legislative Assembly (NLA) in May 2014. The third reading took place on 8 October 2014. While some positive changes were incorporated into the Bill, the organisations remain concerned that it would give the NSS broad powers, without sufficient oversight and safeguards against abuse. Therefore, they call on members of parliament to vote against the Bill during the final reading and to make further amendments to bring it in line with South Sudan’s Constitution and with regional and international human rights obligations.

This report summarises the key findings of a day-long workshop at the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation to discuss upcoming changes to legal service provision, the impact of the changes to welfare and support services already in place, the current state of the law on issues that vulnerable individuals often face, and the ways that relevant groups can work better together. Experts from various different law firms and NGOs gave insights into the different challenges facing vulnerable people and those legal professionals working with them and discussed the increased funding that would be required to meet increasing demands on the third sector as a result of cuts to public services.

This brief, prepared by REDRESS and the African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies (ACJPS), outlines the main concerns of the organisations in relation to Sudan's implementation of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR).

The report examines the hurdles faced by victims of serious international crimes in the EU that prevent them from exercising their rights in proceedings, including the right to be protected from reprisals and the right to receive information about the progress of cases that concern them. The report highlights how the EU Directive on minimum standards on the rights, support and protection of victims of crime (which all EU countries must incorporate into national law) applies to victims of serious international crimes such as genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, torture and enforced disappearance. Most EU countries have a long way to go to put in place the necessary safeguards for victims required by the Directive. Encouraging and assisting victims to come forward and participate in criminal proceedings would improve the prospects for successful investigations and prosecutions as well as ultimately enhance victims’ ability to access justice.

The annex document lists the allegations of human rights abuse, reports and sources of the cases made against different private security contractors working in countries like South Africa, the USA, UK, Israel, Iraq, Australia.

This submission to the UN Committee against Torture relates to the United States’ treatment of so-called “High Value Detainees” (HVDs), those terrorist suspects considered to have high intelligence value by the USA. These individuals were forcibly disappeared by US authorities for a number of years until their detention was acknowledged in September 2006. They are now held in a separate facility within Guantanamo Bay, and are almost completely cut off from the outside world. Six of the individuals held as HVDs are currently facing trial before a Military Commission, and the Prosecution is seeking the death penalty in each case. This submission focuses on the silencing of these individuals - who are victims of torture and other ill-treatment - through detention, isolation and classification of information as a result of United States counter-terrorism policies as part of the “War on Terror”. These policies represent a deliberate system to ensure that no information about torture and other ill-treatment committed against HVDs will be released, to secure impunity for perpetrators of torture, and to ensure that no redress for the victims is achieved. More specifically, the submission argues that the system of isolation of individuals and classification of information leads to multiple grave, ongoing, violations of the UN Convention against Torture.One HVD facing capital charges before the US Military Commission at Guantanamo Bay is Mustafa al-Hawsawi, which REDRESS has been assisting to seek investigations in several European countries where it believes he was held in secret detention and ill-treated, then illegally rendered to Guantanamo Bay. This submission was made jointly with the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT),