• Former Guatemalan dictator Efrain Rios Montt was found guilty of genocide, torture and rape of 1,771 indigenous Ixil Mayans during his rule in 1982-1983.
• Bangladeshi authorities have arrested Jamaat-e-Islami party leader AKM Yusuf on charges of crimes against humanity allegedly committed during the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War.
• Taiwan’s government has issued a 72-hour ultimatum to the Philippines’ government, demanding an apology over the fatal shooting of a Taiwanese fisherman.
• Turkey accused a group with links to Syrian intelligence of carrying out car bombings that killed 46 people in a Turkish border town, and said it is time for the world to act against the government of President Bashar al-Assad.
• Malian troops headed for the remote northeastern town of Kidal ahead of a mid-May deadline set by the government to wrest it from the control of Tuareg separatist rebels.

Calls for Papers

• In cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, the University of Johannesburg, South Africa, is hosting a conference on the legacy of the ICTR. The organizers are currently calling for papers. A short abstract must reach mswart [at] uj [dot] ac [dot] za by May 24, 2013. More information on the conference is available here.
• The University of Oslo is hosting a conference August 30-31, 2014 entitled: The Legitimacy and Effectiveness of International Criminal Tribunals. Paper proposals should be e-mailed to c [dot] m [dot] bailliet [at] jus [dot] uio [dot] no by November 1, 2013, with an abstract no longer than 500 words.
• The ILA Study Group on ‘Principles on the Engagement of Domestic Courts with International Law’ has issued a call for papers. Those selected will be invited to participate in the discussion of their papers by the Study Group, and will be potentially included in a relevant publication. The deadline for submission of proposals is the end of May. Full details can be found on theStudy Group’s website, and the call may be directly downloaded (pdf) here.

Upcoming Events

• Cyber Threats and Cyber Realities, jointly sponsored by the Roger Williams University School of Law and School of Justice Studies, will be an interactive forum held June 17-20, 2013. “In addition to informative panels, each module will include a capstone experience in the form of a simulation that offers participants an opportunity to collaborate in resolving a regulatory challenge or national security crisis.”

Last week’s post can be found here. If you would like to post an announcement on Opinio Juris, please contact us.

• Another clothing factory has caught fire in Bangladesh, killing eight; this news comes after a recent factory collapse with a death toll now over 900, with both tragedies putting international safety standards in the spotlight. 
• In other Bangladesh news, the war crimes tribunal is poised to hand down its fourth verdict today over a senior member of the Jamaat-e-Islami political party; authorities are posed for clashes and unrest.
• The oldest brother of Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng has said he was beaten up by what he calls government-hired thugs.
• The UN Conference on Trade and Development has decried the rising levels of poverty in East Jerusalem, blaming what it terms Israeli “segregation policies” for deepened economic isolation for Palestinians. The full report can be found here.
• US Secretary of State, John Kerry, is pushing for renewed talks between Israel and Palestine ahead of his next visit to the middle east in two weeks.

• Internet communications companies have reported that Syria has been cut off of “internet communication with the rest of the world.”
• The World Trade Organization has a new Director General: Roberto Azevedo.
• The ICC postponed Kenyan Vice President William Ruto and journalist Joshua Arap Sang’s trial as the Prosecutor is seeking to add five witnesses and the Defense has requested to vacate the trial date.
  
• Suspected members of Boko Haram have attacked a prison in the town of Bama, freeing over 100 inmates and killing 55 people.
•  The Obama administration explicitly accused China’s military of attacking American government computer systems and defense contractors.
• Foreign Policy features a post about the outsourcing of lethality by the US in its conflict with al-Qaeda and affiliated forces.
• Human Rights Watch has called on Saudia Arabia to allow all girls to participate in sports in the Kingdom, not just those attending private schools.

• Senegal Justice Minister Aminate Toure and Chadian Justice Minister Jean-Bernard Badare agreed to allow Senegalese judges to investigate various situations in Chad ahead of the prosecution of former Chadian dictator Hissene Habre.
  
• Fifty countries and organisations are gathered in London for an international conference aimed at preventing Somalia from slipping back into abject lawlessness.
• North Korea has removed two missiles from launch sites on the country’s eastern coast, after weeks of concern that Pyongyang had been ready for a test-launch.
• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has quietly curbed new building projects in Jewish settlements, a representative from Peace Now, an Israeli watchdog group and media reports said on Tuesday, in an apparent bid to help U.S. efforts to revive peace talks with the Palestinians.
• An influx of people from crisis-hit southern European countries like Spain, Italy and Greece has led to the biggest surge in German immigration in nearly 20 years; the number of immigrants last year was up 13% from the previous year.

• South Korea has dismissed the plan from North Korea to reopen the joint industrial complex shared by the two countries, calling the demands from Pyongyang “incomprehensible” and urging North Korea to come forward for dialogue rather than making such demands. 
• The Mannheim Regional Court in Germany ruled in favor of Motorola Mobility, a subsidiary of Google, against Microsoft in a patent dispute.
• Nawaz Sharif, seen as the front-runner in Pakistan’s election race, said the country should reconsider its support for the U.S. war on Islamist militancy and suggested that he was in favor of negotiations with the Taliban.
• Syria’s information minister has warned that Israeli air raids over the weekend against three targets on the outskirts of Damascus “open the door to all possibilities.”
• NPR has a post on the hidden cost of the US drone program.

• North Korea has sentenced US citizen Kenneth Bae to 15 years’ hard labor for “crimes against the state.”
• In a clash on the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan that lasted more than two hours, one Pakistani policeman was killed and two Afghani soldiers wounded. 
• The UK Supreme Court has ruled that the government has been failing to meet EU air quality standards and has solicited the European Court of Justice for guidance.
• Chad has foiled an attempted coup that officials claim has been planned for months, with the arrest of several rebels.
• The Pope has weighed in on the tragic factory accident in Bangladesh last week, calling the unjust wages “slave labor” and condemning unbridled quests for profit as going “against God.”
• Foreign Policy has posted a guide on how to close Guantanamo.

• US President Barack Obama is making a new push to close the detention facilities at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, saying Gitmo is damaging US interests. 
• Chile will be Latin America’s only representative in the 2014-2015 UN Security Council.
• The ECHR has ruled that Ukraine violated former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko’s rights by detaining her for politically motivated reasons.
• The genocide trial against Guatemalan dictator Rios Montt has resumed, just short of two weeks after a judge suspended all proceedings.
• The US is still investigating use of chemical weapons in Syria, with President Obama stating that depending on how the weapons were used, the US might have to rethink its strategy in Syria.
• Foreign Policy has a post about why those wanting intervention in Syria are wrong.
• The UN International Labor Organization released a report with one major finding that the key to ending child labor is to advocate social protections.
• May Day protests, meant to demand better workers’ rights, are occurring around the world, in places such as Indonesia, The Philippines, Turkey, Cambodia and several European cities.

• The Syrian Prime Minister has survived a car bomb in Damascus, an event UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon labelled a “terrorist attack.”
• Ban Ki-Moon also urged Syria to allow international experts access in order to establish whether chemical weapons were used. Meanwhile, in a phone call to President Putin, President Obama has expressed his concern over the use of chemical weapons in Syria.
• The European Union Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo (EULEX) sentenced five men to prison for their roles in an organ trafficking syndicate.
• Afghan President Hamid Karzai has admitted to taking money from the US CIA in order to  pay for operational and health care costs as well as rent for some of the staff’s housing. Foreign Policy cheekily asks: do bags of cash ever help the CIA get what it wants?
• British retailer Primark and Canadian brand Loblaw are two Western companies that will compensate families of the victims of last week’s tragic clothing factory accident in Bangladesh.
• As nearly two-thirds of all detainees at Guantanamo have now joined the hunger strike, the US has sent extra medical staff to monitor the situation.
• During their first summit in ten years, Japan and Russia have agreed to talks to settle their dispute over the four Pacific islands, known in Russia as the Southern Kuriles and in Japan as the Northern Territories. If successful, the negotiations will formally end WWII between the two states.
• A change of guard in the Netherlands where Queen Beatrix is abdicating today and handing over the crown to her son Willem-Alexander, who becomes the country’s first King since the late 19th century.

For the procrastinators among us, here’s another friendly reminder about our New Voices Symposium coming up in July and August. As a recap, this July, we are planning to launch a new feature called New Voices: a two-month online symposium to run alongside our regular posts. Our goal is to give students, new practitioners and emerging scholars a chance to profile their work by providing a platform for fresh ideas that will hopefully stimulate discussion with our regular bloggers and commentators.

We invite submissions on any topic of international law from LL.M., Ph.D., and S.J.D. students as well as those in the early stages of their careers (e.g., post-docs, junior academics or early career practitioners within the first five years of finishing their final degree), anywhere in the world.

If you’re interested, please send a 200-word summary of your idea and your CV to opiniojurisblog [at] gmail [dot] com by May 1, 2013–that’s this coming Wednesday! If selected, we’ll let you know by mid-May. We’ll also let you know at that point when your post is scheduled to go online. Final submissions between 1000-1500 words will be required two weeks before publication for review, so at the earliest by mid-June.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask them in the comments or send us an e-mail at the address above.

• According to a recent report, tens of millions of dollars from the CIA were delivered to the office of Afghanistan’s president, Hamid Karzai over the course of decades, meant to buy US influence in Afghanistan.
• Syria’s neighbors are wary of a US-led intervention, should the US decide to take military action in the face of new evidence of chemical weapon use by the Syrian government–evidence that Syria claims is “inconsistent with reality and a barefaced lie.”
• Iraq’s media regulator has suspended licenses of ten broadcasters, including Al-Jazeera, accusing them of inciting violence after reporting on security raids on a Sunni protest camp.
• To complement Kevin’s post from the weekend, Jurist has more on the recent withdrawal of ICC Judge Christine van den Wyngaert from the Uhuru Kenyatta trial.
• Foreign Policy highlights a document uncovering the US’ plans to carry out cyber attacks since the Clinton years.
• The last of the South Korean workers at the joint industrial complex will withdrawal in the face of North Korea’s escalating nuclear threats.
• Rebel fighters from Darfur have stormed the Sudanese city of Um Rawaba and have vowed to take Khartoum.
• In a sign of rising patriotism, Japan celebrated its first “Restoration of Sovereignty” Day on Sunday, to celebrate the end of allied occupation after WWII.

Calls for Papers

• We have launched our own call for papers aimed at LL.M, Ph.D and S.J.D. students as well as those practitioners/academics within the first five years post-degree to participate in our New Voices symposium starting in July. The deadline for 200-word abstract submissions is in only two short days: May 1, 2013!!
• This serves as a reminder for the call for papers for the Interpretation and International Law conference at the University of Cambridge. The deadline for abstract submissions has been extended to May 8, 2013. For more information, click here.
• The Center for Legislative and Evaluation Studies of the University of Geneva and the International Association of Legal Methodology hosts Assessment of Research in Law: Stakes and Methods, on February 13-14, 2014. Research Proposals should be submitted to cetel[@]unige.ch by June 30, 2013.
• The Campbell Law Review announces a call for papers for its National Edition, which will be focused on Internet Law and related themes. Abstracts should be submitted by August 1, 2013. Submissions, along with a curriculum vita, should be sent to culawreview [at] email [dot] campbell [dot] edu.
• The Refugee Law Initiative (RLI) invites submissions to its Working Papers Series. The series provides for the rapid dissemination of preliminary research results and other work in progress, reflecting cross and inter-disciplinary interests within refugee law and policy, broadly defined. Recent papers have considered integration, detention and smuggling of asylum-seekers, gender-related asylum claims and long-term encampment. For more information, see here.

Upcoming Events

• The British Institute of International and Comparative Law will hold a seminar on Unilateral Jurisdiction and Arbitration Clauses, Valid or Not? on May 8, 2013.
• The British Institute of International Comparative Law will also host the Twentieth Public Meeting of the Investment Treaty Forum May 10, 2013. The theme is the Litigation of Public Law Concepts in Investor-State Arbitration – Practical and Theoretical Considerations.
• From May 22, 2013 to May 24, 2013, Lee Epstein and Andrew Martin will be teaching their annual Conducting Empirical Legal Scholarship workshop. This workshop will be held in Los Angeles, California, and is co-sponsored by University of Southern California’s Gould School of Law and Washington University Law. The workshop is for law school and social science faculty and graduate students interested in learning about empirical research. There is more information available about the workshop here. 
• The New York City Bar is hosting an event entitled Targeted Killing Away from a “Hot Battlefield:” Exploring the Legal Issues on May 28, 2013. Click here to register.
• The University of Amsterdam’s Research Project on Shared Responsibility in International Law (SHARES) will organise a seminar on Distribution of Responsibilities in International Law in Amsterdam on 30 and 31 May 2013. This seminar will consider extra-legal perspectives on how responsibility is to be distributed when multiple wrongdoing actors contribute to a harmful outcome. The relevant principles of international law leave many questions open. Should the responsibility of all actors be based on their individual contribution to such harms? Are there grounds for differentiation? Should all actors be held responsible in an equal amount, or should they, if no differentiation can be made, be held responsible collectively? At the seminar, 13 contributions by leading experts from various disciplines will be discussed. Only limited seats are available. If you are interested in participating, please send an email to: contact [at] sharesproject [dot] nl. For more information and the preliminary programme see here.

Announcement

• The Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University seeks a dynamic, proactive, and highly-motivated individual for the position of Director of the Center for Law and Global Affairs. The successful candidate will be responsible for advancing the vision of the Center and will be responsible for managing the Center’s budget and fund-raising efforts as well as coordinating Center events and activities. The Director will also be responsible for facilitating student engagement in international and transnational legal work. For a full description of the job description and instructions on how to apply, please click here. 

Last week’s post can be found here. If you would like to post an announcement on Opinio Juris, please contact us.