On June 10, 2016, the Caribbean Court of Justice ruled in Maurice Tomlinson v. the State of Belize and the State of Trinidad and Tobago that homosexual CARICOM citizens enjoy full freedom of movement guaranteed under the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas (RTC). According to the press release, Maurice Tomlinson, a citizen of Jamaica, had brought suit against Belize and Trinidad and Tobago, alleging that the two states violated their obligations under the RTC “because their respective Immigration Acts contained provisions which sought to prohibit homosexuals from entering the two States...
International Law in Brief
International Law in Brief (ILIB) is a forum that provides updates on current developments in international law from the editors of ASIL's International Legal Materials.
On June 9, 2016, the Human Rights Committee issued its findings in a case involving Ireland’s abortion laws, ruling that they subjected women to discrimination and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment. According to a news report, AM, an Irish woman whose fetus had been diagnosed with a congenital birth defect which would cause its death in the womb or shortly after birth, was forced to choose between carrying the pregnancy to term or traveling abroad for an abortion. AM traveled to the U.K. to undergo the procedure and was forced to leave the hospital twelve hours after its completion as...
On June 7, 2016, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled in Affum v. Préfet du Pas de Calais that non-EU citizens cannot be imprisoned for illegally crossing an internal Schengen area border before the return procedure has been completed. According to the press release, French police officers intercepted Sélina Affum, a citizen of Ghana, at the entry to the Channel Tunnel when she was travelling on board a bus from Belgium to London. There, she was taken into custody on grounds of her illegal entry into France and French authorities requested that Belgium readmit Affum...
On June 2, 2016, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon released his annual report on grave violations of the rights of children in armed conflict. Issued pursuant to Resolution 1379, the report contains what news reports describe as a “blacklist” of violators. Notably, this year’s report—which is dated April 20, 2016—includes the Saudi Arabia-led coalition combatting Houthi rebels in Yemen. The report states, “In Yemen, owing to the very large number of violations attributed to the two parties, the Houthis/Ansar Allah and the Saudi Arabia-led coalition are listed for killing and...
On May 31, 2016, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon submitted a report to the Security Council in which he recommended the deployment of an additional 2,529 peacekeepers to MINUSMA, the UN’s peacekeeping mission in Mali. The additional peacekeepers would include 2,049 military personnel, raising the overall authorized strength of the military force to 13,289. According to the Secretary-General’s report, these soldiers would enhance MINUSMA’s capabilities by improving intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, force protection, explosives disposal, logistic supply, tactical...
On May 19, 2016, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security issued a joint statement on implementation of sanctions relief for Iran. The statement recalls the implementation in January 2016 of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). The JCPOA, negotiated between Iran, the “P5+1” (the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council plus Germany), and the European Union, lifted economic and financial sanctions against Iran in exchange for Iran’s agreement to curtail its...
On May 30, 2016, the Extraordinary African Chambers in Dakar, Senegal sentenced former Chadian President Hissène Habré to life imprisonment for crimes against humanity, war crimes, and torture. The charges concerned crimes committed in Chad during Habré’s tenure as president from 1982–1990. Chad’s National Commission of Enquiry estimated that Chadian security forces killed as many as 40,000 people during Habré’s rule. According to a human rights report, he was charged with crimes against humanity and torture as a member of a joint criminal enterprise and of war crimes based on command...
On May 28, 2016, an Argentinian court (decision available in Spanish) convicted Reynaldo Bignone, former head of the military junta of Argentina from 1982–83, and fourteen of his associates for their participation in Operation Condor. The co-accused included fourteen military officers, thirteen from Argentina and one from Uruguay. According to a news report, Operation Condor was a conspiracy in the 1970s and 1980s between the right-wing military dictatorships of Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, Bolivia, Uruguay, and Brazil. It focused on eliminating government opponents and suspected communists...
On May 25, 2016, the United Nations Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 2288 terminating sanctions against Liberia. According to a summary of the meeting at which the resolution was adopted, the thirteen-year-old sanctions regime originated in the aftermath of the 1999–2003 Liberian civil war. Sanctions consisted principally of a ban on arms imports into Liberia and a prohibition on exports of timber and diamonds from Liberia. According to a news report, sanctions were intended to support peacebuilding efforts and prevent the resumption of violence. Since their establishment,...
On May 24, 2016, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights issued its judgment in Biao v. Denmark, ruling that Danish immigration laws on family reunion were discriminatory. The complaint centered on the refusal of Danish immigration authorities to grant a married couple a residence permit for family reunion on the grounds that they did not comply with a provision of the Danish “Aliens Act” requiring that they not have stronger ties with another country (the so-called “attachment requirement”). The applicants claimed that this refusal constituted a violation of their...