The indigenous community of Yakye Axa, a traditional society of hunter-gatherers, was resettled as part of a development program in Paraguay started in 1979. They were displaced to lands with a natural environment and resources that were different from the Yakye Axa’s traditional territory and incompatible with their traditional means of subsistence.  They also faced …Read more

This case was heard by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. Their opinion is available here. Leaders of the Yakye Axa indigenous community of the Enxet-Lengua people filed suit against the Republic of Paraguay claiming that the Paraguayan State violated Articles 4 (right to life) and 25 (judicial protection), in conjunction with Article 1(1) (obligation …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

Under Article 20(2) of the Interim Constitution 2063 in Nepal, every woman in Nepal had the fundamental right to reproductive health. However, there were no effective health services addressing the issue of uterine prolapse, a serious ailment affecting nearly 600,000 women in Nepal. The Petitioners, among others, Pro-Public, an organization working in the area of …Read more

The Petitioner, S.K. Garg, filed a writ petition in the Allahabad High Court under Article 226 of the Constitution of India (original writ jurisdiction of High Courts). The petition brought to the Court’s attention the appalling and unhygienic condition of Government hospitals in the city of Allahabad. It was alleged that indigent patients had been …Read more

Carpet industries in Uttar Pradesh employed children, under the age of 14, where they were “being treated as slaves” and were “subjected to physical torture.” This writ petition was filed in the Supreme Court under Article 32 as a public interest matter. The Court immediately commissioned a report to determine whether children under the age …Read more

A 10-month-old baby girl was diagnosed with lobar pneumonia, malnourishment, and dehydration. A doctor advised her parents to seek immediate medical attention considering her critical health state was putting her life at risk. The parents were evangelical Christians whose sect did not allow them to take the baby to the hospital for treatment. The Caldono …Read more

In a communication submitted to the United Nations Humans Right Committee (“UNHRC”), Yvonne M’Boissona asserted that her brother, François Bozize, led a coup d’état in the Central African Republic in 1982. After fleeing the country, he was arrested in July 1989 in Benin, repatriated to the Central African Republic by force, and imprisoned at a …Read more

In 1985 the Petitioners wrote a letter to the Court regarding the deteriorating state of the Ranchi Mansik Arogyashala, a mental hospital (the Hospital) in Bihar. The Court treated it as a public interest litigation under Article 32 of the Constitution. The Court directed the Chief Judicial Magistrate to visit the Hospital and submit a …Read more

This writ petition had been filed in the Supreme Court under Article 32 of the Constitution (right to move the Supreme Court for violation of fundamental rights), as a result of a letter outlining the condition of women in a “care home.” It was alleged in the letter that female inmates were made to live …Read more