Huri-Laws, a non-governmental organization registered in Nigeria, filed on behalf of the Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO), another Nigerian organization based in Lagos, a complaint claiming that the Federal Military Government of Nigeria harassed and persecuted the latter’s legal staff in various forms that violated provisions of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (Charter). …Read more

The plaintiff applied to the European Court of Human Rights alleging that the conditions in the Italian prison Pianosa violated Article 3 of the European Convention of Human Rights, which prohibits torture and inhuman or degrading treatment. The plaintiff was arrested on suspicion of involvement in a mafia-type organization, and transferred to Pianosa Prison. The …Read more

Six communications jointly alleged that the Mauritanian state committed numerous human rights violations from 1986 to 1992. Specifically, the communications alleged that the State violated articles 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 16, 18, 19, and 26 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (“the Charter”), which came into …Read more

Amnesty International and three other international human rights organizations filed a series of four complaints (Communications 48/90, 50/91, 52/91, and 89/93) on behalf of hundreds of prisoners, whom the organizations believed suffered detainment without trial, as well as various forms of torture and cruel and inhuman treatment in prison, following a coup d’état in Sudan …Read more

Rights International, a non-governmental organization based in the United States, claimed that Nigerian military soldiers arrested and tortured Mr. Charles Baridorn Wiwa at an unknown military detention camp in Gokana, Nigeria. The Complainant alleged that Mr. Wiwa’s detention lasted from January 2-9, 1996, and that during his detention, authorities horsewhipped him, subjected him to various …Read more

Finn (F) was arrested in 1987 and alleged that he was beaten on his way to the police lock up. He also alleged that threats were then made against his life and that he was given no medical treatment. F claimed that complaints about this ill treatment were not responded to. He was charged, together …Read more

S, a writer and president of an Ogoni people’s movement, and L (the movement’s vice-president) were arrested in May 1994 after the murder of four Ogoni leaders following a riot which had occurred during a meeting organized by the movement. It was alleged that S was severely beaten during the first days of his detention …Read more

On 19 March 1996, an indictment was issued against the four accused ZD, ZM, HD and EL. The indictment related to the events that took place in 1992 in a prison camp near the town of Celebici in central Bosnia and Herzegovina. The accused were charged with grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 1949, …Read more

Aksoy (A) claimed that in November 1992 he was taken into custody by twenty policemen after M (another detainee with them) had allegedly identified him as a member of the PKK which was engaged in a conflict with security forces for Kurdish autonomy. This conflict had resulted in nearly 8,000 deaths and there was a …Read more

Francis (F) had been convicted of murder and sentenced to death in February 1980. An appeal was dismissed in November 1981 and in October 1987 a note of the oral judgment was produced but nothing written was issued. His lawyers had apparently stated that they could find no grounds to argue on his behalf with …Read more