Thompson v Police [2012] NZHC 2234 (31 August 2012)The New Zealand High Court dismissed the appellant's appeal against convictions for disorderly behaviour on the ground that the appellant's conduct did not involve an exercise of her right of freedom of expression pursuant to section 14 of the Bill of Rights Act 1990 (NZ). The High Court found that the appellant’s conduct (“calling for stray cats”) had caused a disturbance which the public could not reasonably be expected to endure.

UN Human Rights Committee, Korneenko v Belarus, UN Doc CCPR/C/105/D/1226/2003 (29 August 2012) Viktor Korneenko resides in Gomel, Belarus, where he was the chairperson of the Gomel regional association of Civil Initiatives. This NGO was involved in election monitoring in Belarus. Civil Initiatives was dissolved by court order after Belarusian authorities fined Korneenko and confiscated the organisation’s computer equipment on the basis that Koreenko had violated a temporary presidential decree banning the use of computer equipment, received as “untied foreign aid”, from being used for political purposes.

Chiti v Zambia, UN Doc CCPR/C/105/D/1303/2004 (28 August 2012) The UN Human Rights Committee considered an application against the State of Zambia lodged by the applicant, a Zambian national, on behalf of her children and her deceased husband, a former officer with the Zambian military. The Committee found that there had been a violation of articles 2, 7, 14, 17 and 23 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

Isatou Jallow v Bulgaria, UN Doc CEDAW/C/52/D/32/2011 (28 August 2012) The CEDAW Committee found that Bulgaria violated several articles of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women by failing to investigate domestic violence allegations, failing to take domestic violence into account in making court orders and failing to provide the complainant with information regarding the whereabouts of her child.

Russell v Pangallo [2012] ACTMC 4 (24 August 2012) In the ACT Magistrates Court, a Magistrate held that a six year delay between the filing of a summons for a drink driving offence and the first court date for that offence did not constitute unreasonable delay giving rise to a breach of the ACT Human Rights Act 2004.

Islamic Republic of Iran v Hashemi, 2012 QCCA 1449 (15 August 2012)The Court of Appeal in Quebec, Canada considered the tension between state immunity under the State Immunity Act 1985 (RSC), the prohibition against torture and the application of customary international law in relation to a Canadian citizen who had been subject to physical and sexual abuse and torture in Iran.

Davies v State of Victoria [2012] VSC 343 (15 August 2012)In a landmark decision, Justice Williams of the Supreme Court found that the conduct of a disability support worker in dragging a person with an intellectual disability across a carpeted hallway such as to cause a burn or abrasion constituted “cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment” contrary to section 10(b) of the Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities.

R v Bellusci, 2012 SCC 44 (3 August 2012) SummaryThe full bench of Canada's Supreme Court has upheld a trial judge's decision to permanently stay proceedings against a prisoner who was found guilty of threatening to rape a prison guard's wife and children. Because the prisoner was assaulted during the incident, his rights were found to be infringed under the constitutional Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and a discretionary remedy available under section 24(1) was awarded on this basis.

WBM v Chief Commissioner of Police [2012] VSCA 159 (30 July 2012)In this decision, the Court of Appeal upheld a Supreme Court trial division decision that the Sex Offenders Registration Act 2004 (Vic) applied to a particular offender. Although the Court made the decision without reliance on the Charter, the Court expressed the view that the legislation was compatible with the right to privacy under the Victorian Charter. The decision also considered the definition of the section 13 right to privacy, the role of comparative international human rights jurisprudence under the Charter and the scope of rights protected by the common law principle of legality.

Minister of Home Affairs and Others v Tsebe and Others [2012] ZACC 16 (27 July 2012) A majority of the Constitutional Court of South Africa has refused to extradite two people to Botswana on the basis that the South African Government cannot surrender a person to a country where he or she faces the death penalty without first seeking an assurance that the death penalty would not be imposed. Aptly summarised by Yacoob ADCJ, “this judgment leaves the government in no doubt that deportation, extradition or any form of removal under these circumstances is wholly unacceptable”.

RT (Zimbabwe) & Ors (Respondents) v Secretary of State for the Home Department(Appellant); KM (Zimbabwe) (FC) (Appellant) v Secretary of State for the Home Department (Respondent) [2012] UKSC 38 (25 July 2012)The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom considered whether an individual who has no political views, and therefore does not support the persecutory regime in his or her home country, is entitled to a claim for asylum where the alternative is to lie and feign loyalty to that regime in order to avoid persecution.

Ðordević v Croatia [2012] ECHR 1640 (24 July 2012) The European Court of Human Rights considered an application against the Republic of Croatia lodged by the first applicant, a physically and mentally disabled Croatian national, and the second applicant, his mother and full-time carer. The Court found that there had been a violation of articles 3, 8 and 13 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms in respect of both the first and second applicants through the Croatian authorities’ failure to take all reasonable measures to prevent the ongoing abuse of the first applicant by a group of schoolchildren.