Maldives launches discussion on International Human Rights Court

Building on the high-level statement of the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Ahmed Naseem, last week at the opening of the UN Human Rights Council in which he called for the strengthening of the international human rights system, the Maldives yesterday hosted a major event at the Council to ask whether the current system offers redress for the victims of human rights violations and whether the international community should consider the establishment of an International Court of Human Rights. The event was attended by over 150 diplomats, UN officials, and NGOs.

The event was organized by the Permanent Missions of Maldives, Switzerland and Uruguay, in cooperation with the International Commission of Jurists, the Panel on Human Dignity and the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights. The aim was to allow States and other stakeholders a first opportunity to discuss and exchange views on a range of important questions for the international human rights system in the 21st Century including: do human rights really exist without effective remedy and under the current international system can rights-holders hold duty-bearers to account and secure redress?; to what extent have the procedures within the framework of the Human Rights Council contributed to the accountability for and the remedy of human rights violations?; and how can enforcement, accountability and remedy be enhanced and, to that end, do we not need to give consideration to the establishment of an independent international judicial mechanism?

Speaking at the event were Professor Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, Commissioner and Rapporteur on Children, Inter-American Commission on Human Rights; former Independent Expert of the UN Secretary-General for the study on violence against children; Professor Manfred Nowak, former UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, former member of the Working Group on Enforced Disappearances; Judge Theodor Meron, former president of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), Judge on the Appeals Chambers of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and the ICTY; and Judge Philippe Texier, Judge, Cour de Cassation, France, member (and former Chair) of the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and Commissioner at the International Commission of Jurists.

The speakers noted that, under the existing human rights system, there is no way in which an individual whose rights have been violated can hold a State to account at international level. This is especially problematic in Asia where, unlike Europe and South America, there is no regional human rights court. They therefore proposed that the UN return to the idea, first debated by the UN in 1947 but put on hold because of the Cold War, of establishing an International Court of Human Rights as "the final guarantor of human rights". 

Attendees then discussed how such a court might function, as well as the challenges to its establishment. 

In her address to the meeting, the Maldives Ambassador Iruthisham Adam said that it is vital, in countries suffering systematic human rights abuses, that individuals have recourse to effective remedy at international level. She therefore welcomed this first discussion on establishing an international court and thanks all States for expressing their views. She promised that the Maldives would continue to consult widely as it takes the initiative forward.