The plaintiffs are two non-profit organizations, the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association and the John Howard Society of Canada. The plaintiffs challenged the constitutionality of sections 31-33 and 37 of the Corrections and Conditional Release Act (CCRA), which authorized administrative segregation of inmates in federal prisons. Section 31 provided that the purpose of administrative segregation …Read more

Eugène Diomi Ndongala Nzo Mambu was a national of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and president of the opposition political party in the State, challenging the legitimacy of an election. He alleged that he was abducted in 2012 and held incommunicado for three months and 13 days while being interrogated about his ties with …Read more

The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) is a treaty by which its parties commit to preserving certain human and political rights. The First Optional Protocol of the Covenant allows for individuals to bring complaints, referred to as communications, against state parties to the Protocol that have allegedly violated articles of the ICCPR. …Read more

The applicant was a Romanian NGO known as the Association for the Defence of Human Rights in Romania-Helsinki Committee (“Association”), representing a deceased party, Ionel Garcea.  Garcea was a mentally ill prisoner who died in prison. During his sentence, he made a number of complaints about his treatment, with the Association representing him. In June …Read more

Case 1: Tapela and Piye, two Zimbabwean nationals imprisoned in Botswana, both contracted HIV in prison. They were refused antiretroviral treatment for their condition based on a internal directive issued by the national government to all public medical institutions and personnel on March 26, 2004, indicating that testing, assessment, and treatment with antiretroviral and highly active …Read more

The state of Oklahoma adopted lethal injection as its method of execution for inmates on death row. The injection consisted of a three-drug protocol of (1) sodium thiopental (a barbiturate) to induce unconsciousness, (2) a paralytic agent to inhibit all muscular-skeletal movements, and (3) potassium chloride to induce cardiac arrest. The Supreme Court had previously ruled …Read more

Amirov is a local politician who was arrested and charged in June 2013 with attempted murder, attempting to organize a terrorist attack, and related charges. Amirov was paralyzed in 1993 and requires constant medical care.   Amirov argued that he should not be detained pending trial because of his poor health, age and position in the …Read more

Fifteen criminal convicts sentenced to the death penalty challenged their sentences as in violation of Article 21 of the Indian Constitution, which protects the right to life. They claimed that the executive orders rejecting their mercy petitions were passed without considering supervening events, including delay, insanity, solitary confinement, and procedural lapses. Two convicts alleged that the …Read more

Mr. Tali, an Estonian sentenced to life in prison, claimed he was subjected to inhuman and degrading treatment contrary to Article 3 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (“Convention”). On July 3 2009, Tali was told he would be taken to a punishment cell. The guards used defensive equipment …Read more

Nikolai Valetov, a Russian national, was arrested and charged in June 2001 with murder by Kyrgyzstan authorities while living in Kyrgyzstan. In addition to maintaining that he was framed for this crime by the police, Valetov further claimed that he was tortured by the police so severely while in pre-trial detention that he was permanently …Read more