Publications

We call upon the French Minister of Justice to ensure that France's new War Crimes Unit is provided with adequate resources and support, including a sufficient number of magistrates and adapted resources, including sufficient budgetary resources to undertake the necessary investigations, particularly in the countries where the crimes were committed.  so as to be enable it to effectively fight against impunity for war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and torture. In addition, we call upon the Minister of the Interior to create a "central office" specialized in international crimes, to integrate the already operational staff, develop a systematic, strategic and coordinated approach to investigating international crimes, and  improve international cooperation within Europe and beyond.

The report examines how laws are used and abused to shield perpetrators from justice and to deny victims’ rights in Nepal. Five years after a peace agreement ended a decade-long armed conflict in Nepal - a conflict that saw thousands detained, disappeared, killed, raped and tortured - not one person has been properly brought to justice for the crimes committed. Successive governments have granted amnesties to many perpetrators. At a press conference in Kathmandu, REDRESS and Advocacy Forum, co-authors of the report, urged Nepalese legislators to change the laws to end impunity.

This Paper – written on behalf of the Project for Criminal Law Reform in Sudan – forms part of broader efforts by Sudanese civil society to raise awareness about the repressive nature of Sudanese public order law. This campaign advocates for a repeal or amendment of provisions incompatible with applicable national and international human rights standards. The current draft of the Social Control Act 2011 entrenches repressive features of Sudanese public order law for the capital, and fails to reflect any of the concerns or proposals for change made in recent years, particularly concerning women’s rights. Its broad scope further opens the door to arbitrary law-enforcement, threatening marginalised citizens and the tranquility of post-separation Sudan.

This report details a two day conference on 'gender dimensions in torture', co-hosted by REDRESS and Amnesty International in may 2011, which brought together representatives of non-governmental organizations and academics from around the world to discuss how the legal framework on torture has and can achieve justice for women and those from marginalized groups who are the victims of deliberately inflicted harm. In doing so it looked at different gender dimensions to torture: considering how gender impacts not only the circumstances of the commission and its consequences, but also on its remedy. Their findings were shared with UN treaty body members and UN Special Rapporteurs.

Advocacy Forum and REDRESS have submitted an update on the implementation of recommendations made by then-Special Rapporteur, Professor Manfred Nowak, after his mission to Nepal in 2005. The information provided in this submission is based on Advocacy Forum’s work in Nepal monitoring places of detention, and (in partnership with REDRESS), its work with victims of torture and other serious human rights abuses to combat impunity and achieve justice through legal proceedings, legislative reform, and advocacy. We welcome the opportunity to further discuss these issues with the Special Rapporteur.