Global Inquiry: ICJ examines human rights and rule of law

A panel of eight leading jurists from around the world has been set up to conduct a global inquiry into the impact of the fight against terrorism on human rights and the rule of law.


The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), a non-governmental organisation that works to promote human rights and the rule of law, launched its independent eminent jurists panel in the light of the increasingly security-dominated agenda adopted by governments since the 2001 US terror attacks.


Over the next 18 months, the panel will hold hearings across the globe, including in the UK and the US, to assess the implications of new laws and policies adopted to fight terrorism, before preparing a report.


It will seek meetings with governments and security officials who create and enforce counter-terrorism policies, as well as invite submissions from non-governmental organisations, lawyers, judges, academics and human rights groups.


Members of the panel include Mary Robinson, former president of Ireland, Justice Raul Zaffaroni, judge of the Supreme Court of Argentina, and Professor Georges Abi-Saab, former judge at the International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia.


ICJ President Arthur Chaskalson, the first president of South Africa's new Constitutional Court, chairs the panel. He said: 'We seek to examine the principles and legislative responses to the threat of terrorism, how these laws are applied, and the justifications put forward for them.'


He added: 'It is important that there be more than the rhetorical acceptance by states that their fight against terrorism must not jeopardise democratic values.'


Lawyers' group Justice is the UK section of the ICJ.