International Law Prof Blog

U.N. Security Council Extends Lebanon Inquiry

The U.N. Security Council  unanimously extended for a further two months the mandate of the independent probe into the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri and several other political killings in Lebanon.  Click here to read more.

(mew)

Does Ratification Matter?

In response to an earlier blog posting on the subject of whether the United States should ratify CEDAW, Dr. Shashikala Gurpur, Dean of Symbiosis Law School in Pune, India wrote: " Given the debatable nature of linking ratification to efficacy of treaties, I wonder if this is important. We should now be looking at reservations rather than ratification.  Further, ratification or no ratification, the state practice is the best indicator, along with the HDI [Human Development Index] of the concerned group."

We thank Dr Gurpur for the comment and we welcome additional views on the subjects of treaty reservations and of linking ratification to the efficacy of treaties, including whether widespread ratification is truly an indicator of state practice. 

(mew)

Call for Papers: 2009 Human Rights Essay Award

The Academy on Human Rights and Humanitarian Law at American University Washington College of Law announced that the topic of the 2009 Human Rights Essay Award will be “60 Years of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Its Contemporary Normative Impact.” Deadline for submissions is February 3, 2009. The award consists of a scholarship to the 2009 Specialized Human Rights Program, travel expenses to Washington, D.C., housing at the university dorms, and per diem for living expenses for the three-week sessions. A comprehensive list of rules is available by clicking here.

Hat tip to Russell Kerr.

(mew)

Montenegro officially applies to join EU

On Monday, December 15, Montenegro filed its official application to become the 28th member of the European Union (EU).  Montenegro hopes to gain candidate country status sometime in 2009.  Montenegro was part of the former Yugoslavia, but declared its independence in 2006. It then signed a Stabilisation and Accession Agreement (SSA) with the EU in 2007 in preparation for filing its membership application.  Before Montenegro can join the EU, however, it must work on further reforms to its public administration and judicial systems and on reducing corruption.  Approval of its membership application requires an unanimous affirmative vote by the existing members of the EU.

With respect to the EU membership status of other former Yugoslav states, Croatia and Macedonia have had their membership applications pending since 2004 and 2005, respectively.  Croatia began its accession talks with the EU in 2005 and hopes to conclude them in 2009.  Macedonia has yet to begin its accesssion talks.  Slovenia is the only former Yugoslav state to have successfully joined the EU, which occurred in 2004.

(cgb)

ABA Section of International Law - Save the Dates for the Spring and Fall Meetings in 2009

The ABA Section of International Law has announced the dates and location of its spring and fall 2009 meetings. 

The section's Spring 2009 meeting will be held April 14-18, 2009 in Washington, D.C.  (The Spring meeting fluctuates each year between New York City and Washington DC, and 2009 is the year for Washington).  The meeting is a not-to-be-missed event, always well attended because of its high quality programs and in international business law, international dispute resolution, public international law, international trade law and other international topics of interest to lawyers with a cross-border practice.  April in Washington is also a lovely time of year to visit the city.

The Section of International Law will hold a leadership retreat in Wisconsin in the last week of July, just before the ABA annual meeting in Chicago.  The leadership retreat is open to section leaders . . . and to section members who would like to become section leaders.

The section's Fall 2009 meeting will be held October 27-31, 2009 at the Eden Roc Renaissance Beach Resort and Spa in Miami Beach, Florida. More than 800 international lawyers from around the world are expected to attend, with more than 70 programs of interest to lawyers with a cross-border practice, and of course international law professors and other readers of this blog who have an interest in international law issues.

Visit the section website for more information.

(mew)

International Tribunal for Lebanon on Course to Begin March 1, 2009

The Special Tribunal to try those responsible for political killings in Lebanon appears to be on track to begin its work on March 1, 2009.  Among the cases that tribunal will handle is the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri, who was killed in a massive car bombing in downtown Beirut.

(mew)

Rumsfeld and Other Top Bush Officials Linked to Abuses at Guantanamo

A bipartisan Senate Armed Services Committee Report has said that U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other top Bush administration officials are directly responsible for abuses of detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and that decisions by those officials also led to serious offenses against prisoners in Iraq and elsewhere. The report contradicts Bush Administration claims that harsh prisoner interrogation techniques were sought by front-line military officers. Click here for a link to the Law Librarian Blog, which has a link to the Report's executive summary.  You can also read more about it here on Jurist, which has some great document links as well.

Hat tip to Joe Hodnicki at the Law Librarian Blog.

(mew)

China's Report to the U.N. Human Rights Council

The Chinese Law Prof Blog notes that the People's Republic of China has filed its state-party report to the U.N. Human Rights Council.  That is the report that every state-party nation must file.  Click here to read more.  The English translation of China's report has not yet been posted, but the links here will provide that once it is available.

Hat tip to the Chinese Law Prof Blog.

(mew)

New Prime Minister Elected in Thailand

The parliament in Thailand has elected as prime minister a young, Oxford-educated opposition leader.  The vote follows months of protests and demonstrations that closed two airports in Thailand.  Click here to read more.

(mew)

Human Rights Lecturer Sought for Changchun, China

The Chinese Law Prof Blog has posted a job announcement form the Danish Institute for Human Rights, which seeks to hire a guest lecturer on a consultancy basis to teach human rights courses to students at Northeast Normal University in Changchun, China.  Click here to read more.

(mew)

D'Amato and Paust on Prosecute or Extradite

Professors Anthony D'Amato of Northwestern University School of Law and Jordan Paust of the University of Houston have written a piece calling on President-elect Barack Obama to prosecute persons accused of having authorized, committed, and abetted war crimes or crimes against humanity during the Bush administration's "program" of "coercive interrogation" and secret detention, which denied protections to detainees under the Geneva Conventions.  Click here to read more.

(mew)

CFIUS and FINSA Seminar in D.C.

The D.C. Bar Association will hold a seminar on "CFIUS and FINSA: Comparisons With Other Countries' Investment Review Mechanisms" on December 16, 2008, from 12:00 to 1:30 p.m. at the D.C. Bar Conference Center, 1250 H Street NW, B-1 Level (Metro Center), Washington, D.C. 20005.  "CFIUS" is the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States," and FINSA is the "Foreign Investment and National Security Act."  This 90-minute seminar should have a lot of great information.

(mew)

Representing Human Trafficking Victims

The American Bar Association has made available for free some useful resources for attorneys representing victims of human trafficking. One is a publication called Meeting the Legal Needs of Human Trafficking Victims: An Introduction for Domestic Violence Attorneys and Advocates.  A second publication is Meeting the Legal Needs of Child Trafficking Victims: An Introduction for Children's Attorneys and Advocates.  And a third publication is Human Trafficking Cases: How and Why to Use an Expert Witness.  How much do these publications cost?  They're all free.  You can download them for free by clicking here or order hard copies for free by clicking here.  Well done, ABA.

(mew)

Does the WTO's Decision-Making Process Need to Be Reformed?

Reaching consensus among 153 members isn't always easy.  The WTO has posted a video debate on whether its decision-making process needs to be reformed.  Click here to see the video. 

(mew)

ICC Seeks More Information on Arrest Warrants for Darfur

From the United Nations . . .

INTERNATIONAL COURT SEEKS MORE INFORMATION ON ARREST WARRANTS FOR DARFUR REBELS

.

The pre-trial chamber of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has asked prosecutors to submit additional information regarding their request for arrest warrants for three rebel commanders for their role in last year’s deadly attack against peacekeepers in Darfur.

Some 1,000 rebels attacked the Haskanita camp in South Darfur state on 29 September 2007, killing 12 peacekeepers serving with the African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS) – a predecessor to the joint UN-AU peacekeeping mission, known as UNAMID– and wounding eight others.

.

Last month, ICC Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo presented evidence against the unnamed three commanders, who “planned, led their troops and directed the attack… and completely destroyed AMIS facilities and property, directly affecting aid and security for millions of people of Darfur who are in need of protection.”

.

The Prosecution said that there are reasonable grounds to believe the three commanders bear criminal responsibility for three counts of war crimes for murder, intentionally directing attacks against personnel and objects involved in a peacekeeping mission and pillaging.

.

Some 300,000 people are estimated to have been killed across Darfur, an impoverished and arid region of western Sudan, as a result of direct combat, disease or malnutrition since 2003. Another 2.7 million people have been displaced because of fighting among rebels, Government forces and the allied Janjaweed militia.

.

This is the third case arising from the situation in Darfur, which was referred to The Hague-based Court by the Security Council in 2005.

.

The pre-trial chamber issued arrest warrants in May 2007 for Ahmad Harun, former Sudanese Minister of State for the Interior and now the Minister of State for Humanitarian Affairs, and Ali Kushayb, a Janjaweed leader.

.

The ICC is also examining the Prosecutor’s application filed in July for an arrest warrant against Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir for alleged war crimes, including genocide, in Darfur.

(mew)

Khmer Rouge Genocide Trial

Law.com is reporting that proceedings of United Nations-backed genocide tribunal for Cambodia briefly descended into chaos last week.  Defense lawyers for Khieu Samphan, the former Cambodian head-of-state under the Khmer Rouge, argued that all documents had to be translated into French, and that the trial could not continue until that happened.  The prosecutor argued that the court rules required only that documents in Cambodian be translated into one other language (English or French), but not both.  Click here to read more about the events last week.  Click here to read more about the Extraordinary Chambers for the Courts of Cambodia.

(mew)

Vienna Convention on Consular Relations

My co-blogger Cindy Buys and I will be presenting a CLE seminar this Thursday at the mid-year meeting of the Illinois State Bar Association in Chicago.  Our topic is the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations and other bilateral treaties that require consular notice when a foreign national is arrested or detained.  The Illinois Supreme Court will consider a proposed rule in January designed to promote enforcement of the right to consular notice. The proposed rule on judicial consular notification may be found by clicking here.

Click here to download an introductory note to the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Medellin v. Texas.  Click on the link, and then on "download" on any one of the five links to get the document.

(mew)

Principles for Responsible Management Education

There are many ways to celebrate today's 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. One of the most important is to promote the future of human rights in all areas, from preventing the most serious violations of human rights to promoting greater knowledge and appreciation of international human rights law, ways to enforce international human rights norms, and promoting values such as human rights and corporate responsibility.

On that last point, the U.N. press office tells us that 183 educational institutions from around the world have signed a United Nations-backed initiative to promote more ethical and inclusive business practices, including human rights education. The Principles for Responsible Management Education, established by the UN Global Compact last year, commits the business schools to include in their curricula values of corporate responsibility in such fields as human rights, fighting corruption, and the environment.

We wish all of our readers a happy International Human Rights Day today, and hope that you find some way today of promoting international human rights.

(mew)

Paid Internships at the Congressional-Executive Commission on China

  Some of your students may be interested in knowing that the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) is soliciting resumes for spring internships (paid) in Washington D.C., working on Chinese human rights and rule of law issues. Interns must be U.S. citizens.   Click here for more information.

Hat tip to the Chinese Law Prof Blog.

(mew)

60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Tomorrow, December 10, 2008, marks the 60th Anniversary of the United Nations' adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.  The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was written in the aftermath of World War II to demonstrate the world's commitment to and respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms.  The then 58 members of the United Nations represented many different political ideologies, cultures and religions, yet were able to come together and agree on basic human rights that belong to every person everywhere.  While the Universal Declaration is not a binding legal document, it has inspired many national constitutions, other domestic laws, and international treaties, and has contributed to the development of customary international law.  The United States was a leader in the preparation and adoption of the Universal Declaration.  In fact, Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt, widow of the former U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, chaired the committee that prepared the draft of the Universal Declaration.  On this 60th Anniversary, it is time for the United States to reclaim its role as a leader in the field of human rights and demonstrate its commitment to the ideals set forth in the Universal Declaration.  The United States can do so by increasing its participation in international human rights bodies, by providing more funding for international human rights initiatives, and by ratifying international human rights treaties such as the Convention for the Elimination of Discrimination against Women and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

(cgb)