On January 13, 2015, the European Court of Human Rights held in Petropavlovskis v. Latvia that Latvia’s refusal to grant an activist citizenship through naturalization did not prevent him from expressing his opinion or participating in meetings and that he had no arguable complaint under the European Convention on Human Rights (the Convention). The applicant, who had been an activist in regard to education reform in Latvia, argued that he was denied citizenship because of his criticism of the government’s position on education and that this violated Articles 10 (freedom of...
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 January 13, 2015, a Section of the European Court of Human Rights (the Court) ruled in Elberte v. Latvia that the removal of body tissue from the applicant’s deceased husband for use by a pharmaceutical company in Germany pursuant to a state-approved agreement without her knowledge or consent violated the European Convention on Human Rights. According to the press release, the Court found that Latvia violated Article 8 (right for respect to private and family life) and Article 3 (prohibition of inhuman or degrading treatment) and “in particular that Latvian law regarding the...
On January 10, 2015, new rules from the European Commission entered into force that allow cross-border enforceable judgments in civil and commercial matters to be automatically enforceable across all European Union states. According to the press release, the rules were established in order to simplify business rules and will “abolish the costly and lengthy procedure, which is currently used 10,000 times per year to get judgments in civil and commercial matters recognised in other EU countries.” The rules will ensure that when a “judgment is made in any Member State, the creditor will be...
On January 12, 2015 the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) presented a report entitled, “Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women in British Columbia, Canada.” The report “analyzes the context in which indigenous women have gone missing and been murdered over the past several years and the response to this human rights issue by the Canadian State,” while also offering recommendations for Canada on protecting indigenous women’s rights. According to the press release, the report notes that “[t]he numbers of missing and murdered indigenous women are particularly concerning...
On January 9, 2015, the UN International Commission of Inquiry on the Central African Republic released a report summarizing the investigation of the conflict in the Central African Republic, which began in 2013, with the primary purpose of identifying and holding accountable “perpetrators of violations and abuses of human rights and humanitarian law.” The report found that “ample evidence” existed that “human rights violations and abuses were committed by all parties,” over the past two years, including rape, murder, recruitment of child soldiers, torture, and burning of homes. The report...
On January 8, 2015, the war crimes division of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina (the Court) confirmed genocide charges against Dragomir Vasic, Danilo Zoljić, and Radomir Pantić over the executions of Srebrenica Muslims during the Bosnian Civil War in 1995. According to the press release, the Court found that the defendants, acted both alone and in collusion with two other co-defendants to commit the criminal offense of genocide in violation of Article 171 (in conjunction with Articles 29 and 31) of the Criminal Code of Bosnia. The defendants are charged with having “aided and abetted...
On January 1, 2015, the Registrar of the International Criminal Court (ICC) received a document from the Palestinian government declaring Palestine's acceptance of the jurisdiction of the ICC since June 13, 2014. On January 7, 2015, the President of the Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute received Palestine’s deposit of instruments of accession to the Rome Statute of the ICC and to the Agreement on the Privileges and Immunities of the International Criminal Court (APIC). As stated in the depository notifications from the UN Secretary-General, the Rome Statute will enter into...
On January 2, 2015, President Obama signed an Executive Order authorizing the imposition of additional sanctions against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) and the Workers’ Party of Korea. According to the press release, the Executive Order “escalates financial pressure on the Government of North Korea, including its agencies, instrumentalities, and controlled entities, by authorizing targeted sanctions that would deny designated persons access to the U.S. financial system and prohibit U.S. persons from engaging in transactions or dealings with it.” The sanctions are in...
On December 23, 2014, the UN Human Rights Office and the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) released a joint report entitled, “Update on Violations of International Human Rights and Humanitarian Law During the Ongoing Violence in Libya” (the Report). Based on evidence gathered between September and mid-December 2014, the Report found that widespread international human rights “abuses persist, causing hundreds of deaths, mass displacement and a humanitarian crisis in many areas [of Libya].” According to a news article, the Report “documents indiscriminate shelling of civilian areas, the...
On December 5, 2014, the British Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) ruled that U.K. security services’ programs of mass surveillance are lawful and human rights compliant. The IPT determined that in regard to the programs at issue, “the law gives individuals an adequate indication as to the circumstances in which and the conditions upon which the Intelligence Services are entitled to resort to interception, or to make use of intercept” and that there is no violation of Articles 8 (right to respect for private and family life) or 10 (freedom of expression) of the European Convention on...