Publications

REDRESS made this submission to the UN Human Rights Committee addressing the Philippines' 'wholesale failure' to implement recommendations by the Committee in 12 individual communications, and to provide a remedy to the victims in these cases. In addition, REDRESS has identified several areas in which the Philippines is currently failing to uphold its obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

From 12-21 December 2011, States Parties to the International Criminal Court Rome Statute gathered in New York to address numerous issues central to the Court's operations. Representatives from 38 states and 12 NGOs, including Redress, made statements. In its statement to the Assembly of States Parties, REDRESS called for victims’ voices to be heard, and for states to give the Court the resources it needs in order to implement its mandate. We also organised a side event on behalf of the Victims’ Rights Working Group, a network of experts and NGOs that advocates for victims’ rights before the ICC. It focused on reparation for victims.

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.