ICJ Eminent Panel of Jurists on Terrorism, Law & Human Rights Continues to Question US Practices

By Victor Comras

The US Congress has so far paid little attention to the work of the Eminent Panel of International Jurists appointed by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to develop and recommend new international legal standards in the war on terrorism. This special group was established in October 2005 and given an 18 month mandate to evaluate whether current counter-terrorism measures are “necessary and proportionate” under international law or are “excessive and risk undermining basic human rights and the rule of law.” The group’s final report is due later this year. The Panel has held a substantial number of hearings around the globe, and regularly issues press releases and other reports, available on the International Commission of Jurist website.

The Panel held three days of hearings in Washington last September and took testimony from US government officials, 9/11 victim families, and a broad range of American legal experts. US Counter-terrorism policies and practices, including the use of rendition, secret prisons, and incarceration under a “non defined” status as “illegal combatants” came in for particularly harsh criticism from the Panel. And other controversial US counterterrorism policies are also expected to take a “hit” in their final report. There were very few supporters for US use of these policies, and of allegedly wide ranging use of telephone wiretaps, and other intrusion into previously preserved privacy rights. The latest revelations of alleged FBI misuse of Patriot Act National Security inquiry letters undoubtedly will also now garner some Panel attention. While US policy makers may quickly pass over the criticisms directed at US counter-terrorism policies and practices, the Panel’s ICJ pedigree and its international prestige, will undoubtedly give its report a loud international resonance. And this factor alone would seem to merit greater congressional attention to the Eminent Panel of Jurist's work.

The Panel's most recent hearings were held two weeks ago in Pakistan. The Panel got an earful from all sides, and plenty of criticism of alleged US involvement in Pakistan's questionable counter-terrorism activities. While a number of Pakistan's modern and moderate legal community leaders stressed that Pakistan was trying to cope with an near impossible situation, and pleaded for the Panel's understanding that Pakistan had little choice but to impose stringent measures to hold its radical fringes in check, others criticized the Pakistan government for going too far. The critics alleged that Pakistan police and security forces routinely detained suspects without warrants, held them incommunicado without informing families, employed torture, and engaged in “illegal rendition” of Pakistan nationals for questioning in third countries. While the panel formally welcomed “the affirmation received by the authorities of the importance of combating the threat of terrorism within the law and with due respect to international human rights and international humanitarian law, and their commitment to do so,” members of the Panel reportedly expressed "grave concern" with Pakistan's actions during their individual press interviews.

The Panel will be holding its next series of hearings in Toronto and Ottawa, April 24th to 27th.

The Panel is composed of eight renown Jurists including Arthur Chaskalson, former Chief Justice and first President of the Constitutional Court of South Africa, (chairman), Vitit Muntarbhorn (Thailand), Professor of Law at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok and UN expert on human rights in North Korea; Hina Jilani (Pakistan), a lawyer before the Supreme Court of Pakistan and the UN Secretary General’s Special Representative on Human Rights Defenders; Mary Robinson, now Head of the Ethical Globalization Initiative, and former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and former President of Ireland; Stefan Trechsel (Switzerland), former President of the European Commission on Human Rights, and judge at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia; Georges Abi-Saab (Egypt), former Judge at the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and for Rwanda; Robert K. Goldman (United States), Professor of Law at American University’s Washington College of Law, a former President of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and former UN expert on counter-terrorism and human rights; and Justice E. Raúl Zaffaroni (Argentina), a judge at the Supreme Court of Argentina.

The Panel has already held hearings also in Australia, Colombia, East Africa (Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda), the United Kingdom (in London and Belfast), North Africa (Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia), the Southern Cone (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay), South-East Asia (Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand) and the Russian Federation. Prior to coming to Pakistan the panel visited India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Maldives, and Sri Lanka. Upcoming hearings are now being scheduled for countries in the Middle East, and with the European Union.

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