Combating Impunity

“Impunity” is the term used for a systemic failure to hold people, especially state agents, accountable for human rights violations. It is hugely destructive of the rule of law and erodes faith in the justice system and state institutions in general.

The longer it goes on, the more it poisons contemporary society, even when it relates to crimes of the past. A failure to hold a state to account for patterns of past human rights violations, fuels the risk that they will be repeated at home or abroad when similar circumstances arise. This is why impunity is a prime target of human rights activists throughout the world.

Latest press releases and publications

Apr

Submission to the Committee of Ministers in relation to the supervision of the cases concerning the action of the security forces in Northern Ireland (February 2021)

01/04/2021Committee on the Administration of JusticePublications, Submissions

CAJ regularly makes submissions the Committee of Ministers on the ‘McKerr group of cases’ concerning the actions of the security forces in the 1980s and 1990s in Northern Ireland. Our recent submissions have charted the unilateral abandonment by the UK of commitments to implement the legacy mechanisms contained within the Stormont House Agreement (SHA), and...

Feb

Model Bill Team submission to the Special Rapporteur on the Promotion of Truth, Justice, Reparation and Guarantees of Non-Recurrence

02/02/2021Committee on the Administration of JusticePublications, Submissions

The UN Special Rapporteur on the Promotion of Truth, Justice Reparations and Guarantees of Non-Recurrence is drafting a follow-up report to examine to what extent the UK has implemented recommendations made based on an official visit to the country in 2016. Civil society groups and national human rights institutions have been given an opportunity to...

Dec

MI6 unilaterally assumed power to break law on UK soil, tribunal reveals

16/12/2020Committee on the Administration of JusticeNews, Press releases

At the Investigatory Powers Tribunal today, it was revealed that MI6 may have unilaterally assumed the power to authorise agents to commit crimes in the UK – potentially without any legal basis or limits on the crimes they can commit. Reprieve, the Pat Finucane Centre, Privacy International, and CAJ have been challenging a secret policy...

Dec

CAJ Annual Report 2020

11/12/2020Committee on the Administration of JusticeAnnual Reports, Publications, Reports

Since our last Annual Report, the world has changed. A pandemic grips the planet, with over 68 million cases of Covid-19 infection and over one and a half million deaths caused by the virus. This is the most significant change on a global level and there are many consequences for human rights, negative and positive....

Dec

Submission to the Committee of Ministers in relation to the supervision of the cases concerning the action of the security forces in Northern Ireland (October 2020)

03/12/2020Committee on the Administration of JusticePublications, Submissions

The Committee of Ministers is the decision-making body of Europe’s leading human rights organisation, the Council of Europe. Its functions include examining the execution of judgments made by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in a series of cases in which states have been found to have committed human rights violations. CAJ regularly makes submissions the...

Dec

CAJ responds to Secretary of State smokescreen and refusal to discharge commitment to order a Public Inquiry into the killing of human rights lawyer Pat Finucane

01/12/2020Committee on the Administration of JusticeNews, Press releases

The case of Pat Finucane is one of profound importance for society in Northern Ireland and for those who believe in the rule of law. CAJ condemns the refusal of the UK government to hold a proper independent inquiry into the murder of Pat Finucane. The statement by Secretary of State Brandon Lewis alluding to...

Nov

Just News November 2020

04/11/2020Committee on the Administration of JusticeJust News, News

Inside this issue: While the pandemic may continue to dominate the political agenda and our day to day lives, there have been significant developments in relation to human rights in many other areas. We explore some of these developments in this new edition of Just News. Contributors include Lilian Seenoi-Barr of the North West Migrants...

Oct

CAJ response to the Independent Review of Administrative Law (IRAL)

27/10/2020Committee on the Administration of JusticePublications, Submissions

CAJ has responded to the UK’s government’s Independent Review of Administrative Law (IRAL). This was set up following a commitment in the Conservative Party 2019 Manifesto “to consider options for reform to the process of Judicial Review”. In our submission, we assert that it is not necessary or appropriate to seek to restrict judicial review,...

Oct

Written evidence to the Joint Committee on Human Rights on the Covert Human Intelligence Sources (Criminal Conduct) Bill

14/10/2020Committee on the Administration of JusticePublications, Submissions

The Covert Human Intelligence Sources (Criminal Conduct) Bill was introduced to the UK Parliament on 24 September 2020, and is scheduled to complete passage through the House of Commons by 15 October 2020. The Bill will amend existing legislation to create a new process of ‘Criminal Conduct Authorisations’, which will allow MI5, police forces, and a range...

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