By Ricardo Zamora
Impunity Watch Reporter Europe

NUREMBERG, Germany – An exhibit commemorating the Nuremburg trials opened its doors to the public on Sunday.  The display is located at the Nuremberg Palace of Justice, the building where several Nazis were sentenced to death between November 20, 1945 and October 1, 1946.

The exhibit, commemorating the 65^th anniversary of the trials, features original documents and archival material including photo, video and audio displays.  Also on display are the original docks and seats where countless Nazi leaders such as Hermann Goering and Marin Bormann sat to face charges.

One of the major attractions is the famed Court Room 600, the room where some of the most significant trials were held 65 years ago.  The well-preserved and still-functioning court is open to the public when it is not presently in use.

Among those in attendance for the grand opening was 90 year-old Benjamin Ferencz, one of the original U.S. prosecutors at the trials.  In 1943, Ferencz, then 23 and  fresh out of Harvard Law School, began gathering evidence of Nazi crimes as the concentration camps were liberated.  Just four years later he found himself chief prosecutor at the trial of 22 Nazis.

Ferencz noted, “When I left Germany for the first time after World War II and left Nuremberg, my biggest regret was that I never heard from any German saying ‘I’m sorry.’  I would never have believed that I would come back 60 years later and would hear a completely difference voice and a different plan in the same country.”

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle, also in attendance, expressed how the trials set a precedent for the development of international law.  Indeed, not only were the trials the first to establish the legal precedent of crimes against humanity, they also made way for the International Criminal Court.

“Because a lot was risked here in Nuremberg – politically, legally and personally – international law was able to develop and rules could be set out for future cases,” Westerwelle said.

In his closing remarks Ferencz emphasized that prevention is the goal, not punishment.  “By the time you are punishing you have failed,” he warned.  Before stepping down, Ferencz left the audience with a final question: “How far have we come?”

For more information please see:

CBC – Nuremberg Trials Explored in Museum Exhibit – November 22, 2010

DEUTSCHE WELLE – How Far Have We Come? Nuremberg Trials Museum Opens – November 21, 2010

RIANOVOSTI – Museum on Nuremberg Trials Opens Doors in Germany – November 21, 2010

By Ricardo Zamora

Impunity Watch Reporter Europe

STRASBOURG, France – A recent investigation in the Greek prison system revealed severe police abuses against detainees.  The Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT), the experts that lead the investigation, report that police conduct, at times, bordered on torture.

In its report, the CPT notes instances of detainees being punched, kicked, beaten with clubs and even threatened with rape.

While the below-par living conditions in Greece’s prisons are not novel, the increasing detention has many human rights and political groups worried that living conditions and abuses will worsen.

In response to such concerns, the Council of Europe is calling on Europe to help Greece process inmates.

The “Dublin II Regulation” is major reason Greece is receiving so many migrants.  The regulation is an EU law that determines which state is responsible for looking into an asylum-seeker’s application.

While it aims to consider the legitimate concerns of asylum seekers and irregular migrants, the living conditions individuals face by being sent to Greek prisons under its guise indicates indifference.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees and human rights groups are calling for the stop of returns under the regulation because of the inadequate protection against inhuman conditions in Greece.

The European Court of Human Rights seems to share those concerns.  In a recent opinion it appealed to Austria, the Netherlands and Britain not to send any individuals back to Greece.

“Greece should not carry the burden of receiving the vast majority of all irregular migrants entering the European Union,” said Manfred Nowak, the UN Special Rapporteur on torture.  “In a number of Criminal Investigation Departments, I found more than 40 foreigners held in administrative detention in office space temporarily used as make-shift cells,” he added.

Nowak stressed that such conditions clearly violated Articles 7 and 10 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.  Articles 7 and 10 were adopted to curtail inhuman and degrading treatment.

Monsters and Critics reported that while the Greek government is planning on changing its system of expulsion centers, it has rejected the allegations of serious abuse of detainees.

For more information, please see:

Monsters and Critics – Council of Europe Group Blasts Greece Over Prison Abuses – 11.17.2010

Radio Free Europe – EU Sends Border Team To Greece Over Immigrants – 10.25.10

Global Nation – EU Urged to Help Greece Deal With Irregular Migrants – 10.24.10

By Ricardo Zamora
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

LONDON, England – Sharon Ferguson, ordained Christian minister and chief executive of the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement, is one of the latest homosexual individuals opposing a UK law banning same-sex marriages.  Her case has drawn heavy criticism, producing several hate messages, likely because of her position in the community.

Last week, the Reverend and her partner, Franka Strietzel, applied for a civil license marriage, the first of four such applications comprising the new “Equal Love” campaign.  The couple’s request for a civil marriage license for Greenwich Town Hall in South-East London was refused.

The BBC quoted Reverend Ferguson as saying “my whole life is about campaigning for equality and justice as a pastor in a parish that is known for its social justice work.”  “It’s part of my daily life to challenge discrimination, but with this campaign what is really nice is that it’s about love.”

The couple is now looking to the courts for the right to obtain a marriage license, arguing that the restriction violates Articles 8 (the right to respect for family life), 12 (the right to marry), and 14 (protection against discrimination) of the Human Rights Act.  Seven other couples are planning similar actions.

The couple remains in high spirits amidst the hostile messages.  Reverend Ferguson said that while the messages were mostly from unhappy Christians, the general public opinion is supportive of ‘Equal Love.’  The ‘Equal Love’ campaign, through these eight couples – four homosexual and four heterosexual – is seeking to overturn the twin bans on gay marriages and heterosexual civil partnerships.

Peter Tatchell, Human rights campaigner and coordinator of “Equal Love,” said: “We are guardedly optimistic that we will win in the courts.  We’re absolutely convinced we will have same-sex marriage within five years.  Boris Johnson has already come out in support of marriage equality.  We believe we have a pretty strong case.”

The London Evening Standard reports that the eight couples will likely launch a challenge in the High Court if their requests are refused at the register offices by the end of the year.

For more information, please see:

HERALD SCOTLAND – Lesbian couple to challenge ban on gay marriage – 3 November, 2010

BBC – Gay Couple Plan Legal Action To Challenge Marriage Ban – November 2, 2010

LONDON EVENING STANDARD – Abusive Emails Sent to Lesbian Pastor Fighting for Same-Sex Marriages – November 4, 2010

By Ricardo Zamora

Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

STRASBOURG, France – Despite a 2005 European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) decision finding blanket restrictions on prisoners’ right to vote illegal, the United Kingdom has continued denying prisoners in England and Whales the right to vote.

In June, the influential European body, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe (CMCE), an inter-governmental organization that oversees and enforces ruling made by the ECHR, called on the ECHR for action against the UK policy.

The ECHR responded to the CMEC’s concerns in its October, Frodl, decision, finding that, with few exceptions, any denial to prisoners of the right to vote violates EU law.

Adam Wagner, a human rights barrister at One Crown Office Row chambers, wrote on his blog: “The now-final decision in Frodl…effectively ruled that the disenfranchisement of prisoners could only happen on rare occasions: namely, where a prisoner was detained as a result of the abuse of a public position or a threat to undermine the rule of law or democratic foundations.”

The Daily Telegraph disclosed this week that the British Government, currently faced with a similar challenge in its courts, appears to have changed it’s approach and is instead focusing on how to deny the maximum number of prisoners the right to vote without breaking the law.

The government is now seeking denial of the voting right to individuals serving sentences of more than four years.  But even this approach may be illegal in the wake of Frodl.

David Davis, former Tory shadow home secretary, maintains that the decision was none of the European Court’s business.  Davis maintains that the issue had been decided long ago by parliament.

In a response to the ECHR’s decision, Davis noted that the Court “said in the judgment that one of the reasons they made this decision was because there had been no debate in Parliament.”  “Well, maybe they didn’t got back to 1867.  Maybe they didn’t realize there was a democracy here then, but that’s when it was debated and we made a decision,” he added.

Telegraph.co.uk reports that the British Government is expected to decide how to amend the law before a meeting of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe in December.

For more information, please see:

BBC News – Senior Conservative Calls For Prison Vote Debate – 11.05.10

Deutsche Welle – Postcard from Europe: UK Prisoners to Get the Vote – 11.05.10

Telegraph – Jailed MPs Could Be Denied Vote After Latest European Ruling – 11.05.10

By Ricardo Zamora

Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

ISTANBUL, Turkey – In a report released today, Human Rights Watch revealed that Turkey, through anti-terror laws, seeks to prosecute peaceful demonstrators as though they were armed militants.  Human Rights Watch cautions that such sweeping laws violate freedom of expression, association, and assembly.

After a suicide bombing during a Kurdish demonstration in Istanbul yesterday, local authorities are seeking to prosecute many attendees even though they were not involved in the bombing itself.

This is not a new approach for the Turkish government.  Over the past three years, courts have prosecuted demonstrators through the use of the 2005 Turkish Penal Code and case law.  Hundreds of Kurdish demonstrators are currently incarcerated awaiting the outcome of their trials or appeals.

“When it comes to the Kurdish question, the courts in Turkey are all too quick to label political opposition as terrorism,” said Emma Sinclair-Webb, Turkey researched at Human Rights Watch and author of the report.  “When you close off the space for free speech and association, it has the counterproductive effect of making armed opposition more attractive.”

In July, parliament amended laws to prevent the prosecution of Kurdish children who attend such demonstrations and quashed any current convictions.  However, Turkey’s approach to handling adults went unchanged.

Now, Human Rights Watch is calling Turkey to similarly amend its approach to the prosecution of Kurdish adults in related cases.

“Ending the prosecution under these laws of most child demonstrators was an important step forward,” Sinclair-Webb said. “But allowing laws clearly aimed at terrorism to be used against adult demonstrators inflicts immense damage on free expression, assembly, and association in Turkey.”

The report documents many “violations” which authorities found sufficiently severe to subject otherwise legal demonstrators from being subject to Turkey’s anti-terror laws and penalties.  For example, several individuals have been convicted for simply shouting slogans, making victory signs and throwing stones.  Sentences handed down for those offenses range from 10 years and 5 months to 11 years and 3 months.

“The government should complete the task of reform by changing laws relating to adult demonstrators, to bring them fully into line with Turkey’s human rights obligations,” Sinclair-Webb said.  “Throwing people in jail is not way to halt terrorism – or protest.”

For more information, please see:

IFEX – HRW Report Shows Terrorism Laws Used to Jail Kurdish Protesters – November 1, 2010

Human Rights Watch – Turkey: Terrorism Laws Used to Jail Kurdish Protesters – November 1, 2010

Monsters & Critics – Turkey Accused of Using Terror Laws to Stifle Kurdish Protests – November 1, 2010