McGinley (M) and Egan (E) were servicemen who had been present on a Pacific island in 1958 when atmospheric tests of nuclear weapons had been carried out (five in M’s case and one in that of E). During the tests service personnel had been ordered to line-up in the open and to face away from …Read more

Kalac (K), a judge advocate and director of legal affairs for the air force, was a practicing Muslim who was permitted to pray five times a day and to perform his other religious duties, such as keeping the fast of Ramadan and attending Friday prayers at the mosque. He was one of three officers and …Read more

Mentes (M), T1, T2 and U lived in a village in south-east Turkey, the first three in its lower neighbourhood and the fourth in a separate hamlet. Since 1985 serious disturbances had raged in this part of the country between the security forces and the members of a Kurdish separatist party. Turkey claimed that these …Read more

A group of armed persons with their faces covered by masks violently entered the home of the Mejías, abducted Mr. Mejías and later returned to the house, apparently to ask Mrs. Mejías for her husband’s identity documents. While she looked for them, one of the men followed her into the room and told her that …Read more

The applicant was a Finnish national who had retired from the military after receiving a shrapnel wound in his back during his service in the wars between Finland and the Soviet Union. Although the State Office for Accident Compensation (Compensation Office) acknowledged that the shrapnel wound was a “military injury” for purposes of compensation under …Read more

Simon Thwaites filed a complaint against the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF), alleging that it discriminated against him under the Canadian Human Rights Act (CHRA) by restricting his employment because of his HIV-positive status. Thwaites enlisted in the CAF in 1980 and by 1986 had risen to the rank of master seaman, a position that primarily …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

This case considered the practice of “forced disappearances” by the Government of Honduras, which included secret surveillance, kidnapping and executions. The Court found as proved that “[d]uring the period 1981 to 1984, 100 to 150 persons disappeared in the Republic of Honduras, and many were never heard from again.” It recognized patterns in these disappearances …Read more

The Richmond Hill Insane Asylum in Grenada was bombed by military aircraft belonging to the United States in 1983. Petitioners, including Disabled Peoples’ International, presented the names of sixteen persons who were killed and six who were injured and claimed that the deaths and physical injuries of the mental patients were caused by purposeful armed …Read more

Angel Manfredo Velasquez Rodriguez (“AMVR”), a UNAH student, was arrested without warrant in Tegucigalpa on September 12, 1981. Eyewitnesses saw members of the National Investigation Directorate and G-2 (Intelligence) of the Armed Forces of Honduras apprehend and take AMVR to an unknown location. On September 9, 1981, the Government of Honduras recognized the jurisdiction of …Read more