On March 15, 2012, The Advocates for Human Rights submitted a report to the 48^th session of the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights outlining discrimination in Ethiopia on the basis of ethnicity in violation of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The report is based on interviews with members of the Ethiopian diaspora and professionals working with Ethiopians in the United States, as well as reviews of news and human rights reports. The Advocates’ submission highlights the ongoing violations of the human rights of members of the Oromo, Anuak, and other minority ethnic groups in Ethiopia, including forced displacement and persistent discrimination in areas such as work, education, health care access, and access to food and water.

The Advocates for Human Rights submitted a report to the UN Human Rights Committee for its review of Bulgaria's compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. This submission addresses Bulgaria’s compliance with its human rights obligations in the context of domestic violence. The UN Human Rights Committee, a body of independent experts charged with monitoring compliance with the treaty, conducted the review of Bulgaria on July 13 and 14, 2011. 

The Advocates for Human Rights submitted a report to the UN Human Rights Committee for its review of Ethiopia's compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The Advocates’ submission highlights the ongoing violations of the human rights of members of the Oromo ethnic group in Ethiopia, including arbitrary arrest, detention, torture.  Violations of the rights of minorities in Ethiopia also include persistent discrimination, as well as violations of the rights of freedom of expression and peaceful assembly.  The UN Human Rights Committee, a body of independent experts charged with monitoring compliance with the treaty, conducted the review of Ethiopia on July 11 and 12, 2011. 

In collaboration with The World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, The Advocates for Human Rights has submitted a shadow report to the United Nations Human Rights Committee regarding Jamaica’s compliance with its international legal obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (the “ICCPR”). Specifically, the shadow report shows how the living conditions on Jamaica’s death row violate Article 7 of the ICCPR, which prohibits inhuman and degrading treatment. Such conditions include overcrowding, unsanitary conditions, and inadequate medical treatment. The Advocates’ report is particularly important in light of Jamaica’s 2011 Constitutional amendment curtailing death row inmates’ rights to review of their conditions by external bodies, such as UN treaty bodies.

In February 2012, The Advocates for Human Rights submitted suggested issues and questions on Turkey’s domestic violence laws to the County Report Task Force on Turkey of the UN Human Rights Committee, in anticipation of the Committee’s review of Turkey’s compliance with the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights later this year. The Advocates, in partnership with the American Bar Association’s office in Istanbul and with the Law School of Bahçeşehir University, developed and taught a curriculum for lawyers in Turkey on the effective and sensitive representation of domestic violence clients. In preparation for the curriculum, The Advocates interviewed lawyers, judges, shelter advocates, psychologists, and others who serve domestic violence clients in Turkey. The Advocates used the expertise it gained from this experience to develop its recommendations for the Committee’s Turkey Task Force. The submission focuses on Turkey’s order for protection law and on victim-oriented remedies for gender-based violence that arises out of current or former intimate relationships between the abuser and the victim.

At the request of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants, The Advocates for Human Rights, together with the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, has compiled a submission outlining the situation relating to the detention of migrants in the United States, key systemic failures to protect their human rights, and priority recommendations.

The Advocates for Human Rights, in collaboration with the Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC) and Jamia Teachers Solidarity Association, submitted a joint stakeholders report to the United Nations Human Rights Council for consideration during the second Universal Periodic Review of India in 2012. This submission addresses India’s failure to comply with its international human rights obligations to protect members of minority groups. In particular, the submission calls attention to serious problems with the treatment of Muslims in India.

In collaboration with Global Rights, The Advocates for Human Rights submitted a joint stakeholder report to the Human Rights Council of the United Nations for consideration during the Council's second Universal Periodic Review of Morocco, which is scheduled for May 2012. The report focuses on Morocco’s compliance with its treaty obligations as they relate to violence against women. The report found that domestic violence is a widespread problem in Morocco that requires immediate attention. The Government of Morocco has not fulfilled its treaty obligations to prevent domestic violence, protect victims, and hold perpetrators accountable.

In collaboration with The World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, The Advocates for Human Rights submitted a joint stakeholder report to the Human Rights Council of the United Nations for consideration during the second Universal Periodic Review of Morocco, scheduled for May 2012. The report focuses on the death penalty and living conditions of death row inmates in Morocco.

In collaboration with Global Rights, The Advocates for Human Rights submitted a shadow report to the Committee Against Torture at the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) regarding Morocco’s compliance with the 1987 Convention Against Torture. The shadow report focuses on violence against women. The report found that domestic violence is a widespread problem in Morocco that requires immediate attention. The Government of Morocco has not fulfilled its obligations under the Convention Against Torture to prevent domestic violence, protect victims, and hold perpetrators accountable.

In collaboration with The World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, The Advocates for Human Rights submitted a shadow report to the Committee Against Torture at the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) regarding Morocco’s compliance with the 1987 Convention Against Torture. The shadow report focuses on the death penalty and living conditions of death row inmates.

In collaboration with The World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, The Advocates for Human Rights submitted a shadow report to the United Nations Human Rights Committee regarding Iran’s compliance with its international legal obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (the “ICCPR”). Specifically, the shadow report shows how methods of execution, death row prison conditions, and a state failure to notify families of impending executions of persons sentenced to death violates Article 7 of the ICCPR.

The Bulgarian Gender Research Foundation and The Advocates for Human Rights submitted a report to the UN Human Rights Council on Bulgaria's progress toward protecting the human rights of women in that country. The Advocates and BGRF have worked in partnership since 1994, publishing human rights reports on domestic violence in Bulgaria in 1996 and 2008, training court monitors in 2004, consulting on drafting and passing the 2005 domestic violence law, and training police and judges on effective implementation of the new law. 

Since 2004, The Advocates for Human Rights has documented reports from members of the Oromo ethnic group living in diaspora in the United States of human rights abuses they and their friends and family experienced in Ethiopia. The Advocates conducted over 65 interviews of Ethiopians, including Oromo and other ethnic group members; scholars; immigration attorneys; medical professionals; and other service providers working with Ethiopians in the United States. In addition, The Advocates monitored news and human rights reporting on events in Ethiopia.

The Advocates for Human Rights submitted to the African Commission on Human and P eoples' Rights related to the Secretariat's September 2008 Promotion Mission to Ghana. The Advocates specifically addressed the situation of Liberian refugees living in Ghana.

Country condition information from The Advocates’ Liberia is Not Ready: 2009 and A House with Two Rooms:  Final Report of the Liberia TRC Diaspora Project was submitted to the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).  Information and recommendations related to the treatment of women in Liberia was provided to expert members of the treaty body to assist them in reviewing Liberia’s compliance with the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women during the 44th session meeting in New York from July 20-August 7, 2009. 

From 1979 until 2003, the Liberian people survived a bloody coup d’etat, years of military rule, and two violent civil wars. Out of a pre–war population of 3,000,000, an estimated 250,000 people were killed and as many as 1,500,000 people were displaced. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Liberia (“LTRC”) was established by legislative act in 2005 to “promote national peace, security, unity and reconciliation” and to make it possible to hold perpetrators accountable for the gross human rights violations and violations of international law that occurred in Liberia between January 1979 and October 2003. The LTRC was the first TRC to involve a diaspora population in the truth seeking process. At the request of the LTRC, The Advocates coordinated the work of the TRC in the diaspora.

Immigrants and migrants in the United States are frequently denied their right to be free from discrimination their daily living and are often discriminatorily denied their fundamental civil and political rights, as well as their economic, social and cultural rights. The United States, through both its direct and indirect action, has failed in its obligations under the Convention to guarantee the rights of immigrants to be free from discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin and ancestry, and to recognize and address the multiplicities of discrimination immigrants face and the intersection of gender, race, national origin and citizenship discrimination.

The Advocates for Human Rights, together with Halleland Lewis Nilan & Johnson, the National Employment Law Project; Sarah Paoletti, Practitioner-in-Residence, Washington College of Law; American University Equal Justice Center; Columbia Law School Human Rights Institute; and the Center for Constitutional Rights, submitted a report to the UN Human Rights Committee on the United States' compliance with the rights of aliens under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

The Advocates for Human Rights, Detention Watch Network, and Amnesty International USA filed a joint response to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights' Questionnaire on Persons Deprived of Liberty in the Americas.

In coordination with the US Human Rights Network, The Advocates for Human Rights drafted the cluster report on US compliance with the human rights of migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers. The report, endorsed by nearly 100 national and local nongovernmental organizations and individuals, outlines key failings of the immigration legal system to protect the human rights of non-citizens in the United States.

The Advocates for Human Rights submitted a report to the UN Human Rights Council outlining the US's compliance with obligations under international human rights law. The report highlights US failures to protect human rights in the context of the death penalty, the rights of women, and the rights of non-citizens.