On October 27, 2017, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) published a report on the human rights of indigenous women in the Americas. The IACHR has consistently received information regarding numerous human rights violations of indigenous women in the Americas and this report aims to “constitute an important step forward in dealing with the specific priority situation of indigenous women with the goal of promoting that States and the international community undertake further research and analysis of these topics.” The report documents the ways indigenous women have...
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 October 18, 2017, the U.K. Supreme Court ruled in two joined cases in favor of two Moroccan nationals who were employees at the Libyan and Sudanese embassies in London, were dismissed from their positions, and filed claims against Libya and Sudan in the Employment Tribunal. Their claims were based on European Union law as well as domestic U.K. law, and the Employment Tribunal dismissed them on the basis that the states were entitled to immunity under the State Immunity Act 1978. The press summary notes that “the 1978 Act renders a foreign state immune from the jurisdiction of a UK court...
On October 18, 2017, the U.K. Supreme Court ruled in Reyes v. Al-Malki and another that the Employment Tribunal in the United Kingdom had jurisdiction to hear claims of Ms. Reyes, a Filipino domestic servant, against her employer Mr. Al-Maliki, a member of the diplomatic staff of the Saudi Arabian embassy in London, under the exception to diplomatic immunity contained in the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. Reyes had brought a claim arguing that she was the victim of trafficking and a Court of Appeal had determined that the Employment Tribunal lacked jurisdiction due to...
On October 18, 2017, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled in Ypourgos Ethnikis Pedias kai Thriskevmaton v. Maria-Eleni Kalliri that a law requiring a minimum height for entry into a police school regardless of an individual’s sex may constitute unlawful discrimination against women. According to the press release, the Court found that a minimum height requirement for men and women constituted indirect sex discrimination because women were far more often at a disadvantage than the men. However, the Court stated that such a law would not be discriminatory where two...
On October 17, 2017, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) ruled in Navalnyye v. Russia that a Russian court’s criminal conviction of Aleksey Navalnyy, an opposition leader, and his brother Oleg Navalnyy, an entrepreneur, for fraud and money laundering was arbitrary and unfair because it was based on the unforeseeable application of criminal law. The case concerned an agreement between two companies—Yves Rocher Vostok and Multidisciplinary Processing (MPK)—and Chief Subscription Agency, which was set up by a company that the applicants and their parents had acquired 2007. The...
On September 28, 2017, United Nations Environment released its report “Towards a Pollution-Free Planet,” which is meant to serve as call to action for governments, businesses, local authorities, civil society, and individuals with the aim of preventing and reducing pollution globally. The report is broken into three parts: “In Part 1 . . . the evidence on pollution is presented. Part 2 discusses ongoing responses, challenges to effective actions, and the opportunities that existing multilateral environmental agreements and the Sustainable Development Goals provide to reduce pollution. Part...
On September 23, 2017, the Special Chamber of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) delivered its judgment in the Dispute Concerning Delimitation of the Maritime Boundary Between Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire in the Atlantic Ocean (Ghana/Côte d'Ivoire). In 2014, Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire agreed to submit the dispute concerning their maritime boundary to an ITLOS Special Chamber. The disputed area includes a number of oil and gas fields, and each party advocated for different methodologies in delineating the maritime boundary between their states. The Special Chamber...
On September 21, 2017, the UN Security Resolution adopted Resolution 2379 in which it asked the UN Secretary-General to create an independent Investigative Team, led by a Special Advisor, “to support domestic efforts to hold ISIL (Da’esh) accountable by collecting, preserving, and storing evidence in Iraq of acts that may amount to war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide committed by the terrorist group ISIL (Da’esh) in Iraq.” The Council requested that the team work to collect evidence so that it will have “the broadest possible use before national courts, and complementing...
On September 20, 2017, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled in Giorgio Fidenato and Others that EU member states and the European Commission may not adopt emergency measures regarding a genetically modified product where it is not clear that the product is likely to constitute a serious health or environmental risk. The case concerns the Italian government’s request to the European Commission to implement emergency measures prohibiting the cultivation of genetically modified maize MON 810 in light of two new scientific studies on the matter. The Commission determined...
On September 12, 2017, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) released a report titled “Measures Aimed at Reducing the Use of Pretrial Detention.” The press release notes that “the arbitrary and illegal use of pretrial detention is a chronic problem in the region” and “is one of the most serious and widespread problems facing member states of the Organization of American States (OAS) in regard to the respect for and guarantee of the rights of persons deprived of liberty.” The purpose of the report is to follow up on a 2013 report on pretrial detention, to analyze the gains...