18 Feb Weekday News Wrap: Monday, February 18, 2013
18.02.13
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- Bangladesh has amended its war crimes statute to allow the retrial of cases from 1971 amid protests. Human Rights Watch is concerned that the amendments will threaten the legitimacy of the tribunal.
- The Inter-American Court of Human Rights is proposing changes to its rules of procedure in order to strengthen the Inter-American system of human rights.
- ASIL has posted a new Insight on the International Law Issues in the Department of Justice White Paper on Targeted Killings (.pdf).
- Afghan President Hamid Karzai is expected to issue a decree to limit foreign air-strike assistance to Afghan forces in light of a strike that killed 10 civilians last week.
- The G-20 has vowed to take action on tax avoidance in order to stop multinationals who shift profits abroad to pay less tax. Additionally, the G-20 leaders agreed to avoid a currency war by pledging not to manipulate their currencies.
- Reuters has an exclusive about North Korea’s alleged preparation of a fourth and perhaps a fifth nuclear test later this year in order to force the US into diplomatic discussions.
- Speaking of nuclear weapons, Iran’s Supreme Leader Khamenei has stated that Iran is not seeking a nuclear weapon, but if it were, no nation could prevent it from gaining one.
- A UN-brokered peace deal for the Democratic Republic of the Congo is set to be signed February 24 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
- The UN has sent a team to investigate allegations of human rights violations in Mali.
- An investigator for the Charles Taylor defense team, Prince Taylor, has been sentenced for contempt of court.
- Anniversaries abound this weekend with Libyans celebrating two years since the uprising against Gaddafi and Kosovo marking five years of independence.
- Arusha has given a plot of land to the International Criminal Court for it to build the African Chapter of the International Criminal Court, in a bid to attract international organisations and temper the impact of the ICTR’s depature.
- The Russian Foreign Affairs Minister has finally returned the call to John Kerry, after keeping him waiting for six days to discuss Syria and North Korea’s recent nuclear test.
- Venezuela’s Foreign Minister has stated that they are willing to work towards better relations with the US.
The revised rules of procedure now being considered for the Inter-American Human Rights System are those of the Inter-American Commission, not the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. The Commission is under intense pressure from a group of States which, under the banner of “stengthening” the system, in fact seek to weaken it. The Organization of American States has scheduled a special session of the OAS General Assembly for March 22 to consider proposed recommendations to the Commission and, more ominously, proposed amendments to the Statute of the Commission. Among the amendments still under discussion is one banning States that do not join all OAS human rights treaties from nominating their citizens to sit on the Commission. This would effectively mean that no US citizen could be a member of the Commission. Another proposed amendment would require the Commission to relocate from OAS headquaryters in Washington, where it has always sat, to some other country which has joined all the OAS human rights treaties. Ostensibly measures to promote universal ratification of OAS human rights treaties, these proposed amendments are in fact designed to undermine the effectiveness of the Commission, by reducing the US role and by relocating the Commission from the… Read more »