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

Aug

Open letter to General Sir Nick Carter

03/08/2018Committee on the Administration of JusticeNews

CAJ has written an open letter to the UK’s new Chief of the Defence Staff, General Sir Nick Carter, in response to his remarkable statement that former soldiers who served in Northern Ireland will not be chased by people making “vexatious claims” on his watch. He also said he “would absolutely stamp on any of...

Mar

Submission to the Boundary Commission for Northern Ireland 2018 Review of Parliamentary Constituencies Revised Proposals (s470) March 2018

07/03/2018Committee on the Administration of JusticePublications, Submissions

s470-CAJ-Submission-to-the-Boundary-Commission-March-2018.doc-s460x

Dec

CAJ Annual Report 2017

15/12/2017Committee on the Administration of JusticeAnnual Reports, Reports

CAJ-Annual-Report-2017

Feb

S460 to the Committee of Ministers from CAJ in relation to the supervision of the cases concerning the action of the security forces in Northern Ireland

01/02/2017Committee on the Administration of JusticePublications, Submissions

Submission to the Committee of Ministers from CAJ in relation to the supervision of the cases concerning the action of the security forces in Northern Ireland This Rule 9 communication is for consideration at the 1280th meeting of the Ministers’ Deputies in March 2017. CAJ has regularly made Rule 9 communications to the Committee of...

Oct

CAJ Police Custody report

18/10/2016Committee on the Administration of JusticeNews, Press releases

This is a short clip of the main findings of a report on ill-treatment in police custody prepared by CAJ for a comparative study led by the Hungarian Helsinki Committee.

Oct

S459 to the Committee of Ministers from CAJ in relation to the supervision of the cases concerning the action of the security forces in Northern Ireland

02/10/2016Committee on the Administration of JusticePublications, Submissions

S459 to the Committee of Ministers from CAJ in relation to the supervision of the cases concerning the action of the security forces in Northern Ireland This Rule 9 communication is for consideration at the 1273rd meeting of the Ministers’ Deputies in December 2016. CAJ has regularly made Rule 9 communications to the Committee of...

Apr

S454 to the Committee of Ministers from CAJ in relation to the supervision of the cases concerning the action of the security forces in Northern Ireland

01/04/2016Committee on the Administration of JusticePublications, Submissions

This Rule 9 communication is for consideration at the 1259th meeting of the Ministers’ Deputies in June 2016. CAJ has regularly made Rule 9 communications to the Committee of Ministers on the ‘McKerr group of cases’ that have charted the evolution of the ‘package of measures’ agreed to by the UK further to the above...

Jan

S450 to the United Nations Committee Against Torture On the List of Issues for the UK

01/01/2016Committee on the Administration of JusticePublications, Submissions

CAJ files this submission on the List of Issues Prior to Reporting (LoIPR) for the Committee against Torture’s 57th Session from 18 April – 13 May 2016. This is to be read in conjunction with the submission from CAJ on the UK’s 5th periodic report under the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or...

Nov