INTERNATIONAL LAW AND HUMAN RIGHTS
(LAWDM0123)
2018/19
COURSEWORK 1
The coursework must be in PDF format and not more than 3000 words in length (excluding bibliography and footnotes).
Please adhere to the guidelines for footnotes and referencing and be aware of the penalties for exceeding the word limit. For details, see the Coursework Guidelines 2018-19 on Blackboard.. Law School — Student pages Coursework.
The coursework must be submitted electronically via Blackboard no later than 12 noon on Wednesday 30. January 2019.
This coursework carries 50% of the marks in this unit.
Please consider this fictitious scenario:
The Gambia: Three individuals who are well known human rights campaigners have been held in detention since December 2017 on the charge of participating in terrorism. This was after a peaceful rally which they helped to organise to campaign against some of the oppressive tactics used by the government against certain minority groups in the country. Their families say they have been unable to get access to them in detention and when they have seen them they look weak, are saying that they have not been fed properly, and some of them have bruises and deep cuts on their faces and arms. They have not been allowed to see any doctors. They have been able to access lawyers but they have not been brought before a national court since their arrest in December 2017, and the government says that owing to the sensitive nature of the investigation it cannot give any details of information that it has learnt so far about the offence they are alleged to have committed.
The offence with which they are charged carries the death penalty.
A local Gambian NGO has asked you :
(a) for legal advice on whether it should submit a case to the UN Human Rights Committee; and
(b) a draft of the admissibility and merits of the communication.