I just can't resist: There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: "The Lord of the Rings" and "Atlas Shrugged." One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs. Courtesy of...
In its application for the arrest warrant, the Prosecution argued that the Sudanese government's genocidal intent could be inferred from, inter alia, the slow-death conditions in the IDP camps. As part of that claim, the Prosecution pointed out the numerous ways in which Bashir's regime had hindered international efforts to provide the Darfuris in the IDP camps with humanitarian assistance. One...
That is the conclusion of the most comprehensive study of the issue to date, "Confronting the Yugoslav Controversies: A Scholars' Initiative," conducted by Purdue University. From the New York Times, which held follow-up interviews with some of the sources cited in the study: Charles W. Ingrao, the study’s co-editor, said that three senior State Department officials, one of them retired, and...
Pardon the title of this post being a somewhat-obscure allusion to the standard trope of movie-trailer voice-overs, but over at Danger Room, they are well under way in their Iron Eagles search: their "celebration of the most awesomely-bad videos of the military industrial complex." Videos that often mix bad animation, worse narration, explosions, and weaponry statistics. But, for my money, they have...
Earlier this week, the U.S. became the 66th UN member state to sign on to the Statement of Human Rights, Sexual Orientation, and Gender Identity. This is another departure from the Bush-era human rights policy, albeit a symbolic one. And, as Dianne Amann's post at IntlawGrrls implies, it's pretty amazing symbolism. The Statement is the first UN declaration...
Financial crisis getting you down? You can always move your money to the virtual world of the Planet Calypso: Interstellar banking isn't here yet, but at least you can pretend. The publisher of the online science-fiction game "Entropia Universe," set on the planet Calypso, received a banking license from the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority last week and plans to open a...
The following is a guest post written by Kate Cronin-Furman and Amanda Taub, the brains behind the must-read blog wronging rights. My thanks to them for contributing it. Two weeks ago, Pre-Trial Chamber I of the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for the arrest of Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir. (We’re sure you all remember; it was kind of a...
The Administration’s filing last week of a brief outlining its big-picture view of which Guantanamo detainees may be lawfully detained has sparked a vigorous – and I think productive – debate among international legal experts, human rights lawyers, and listserv participants on and off the blogosphere. So let me take the occasion to throw out a few recent articles/resources relevant...
I have been traveling throughout the country the past few days meeting with dozens of leaders discussing the past and future of Rwanda. The meetings have been incredibly hopeful and positive and there is an undeniable optimism about the direction of the country. But wherever one goes one cannot escape the long shadow of genocide. It continues...
Duke Law School's Program in Public Law recently started a new blog, Executive Watch. According to the Duke Press release, it will feature "news stories and commentary about executive-branch actions, including executive orders, presidential memos, and signing statements." The blog may be of interest to our readers as, in addition to issues of domestic authority, it will address perennial topics in U.S. foreign...
A reader has left a comment to my previous post in which he alleges that Alex tipped off Bashir that the OPT was going to seek his arrest and speculates that Alex might have promised Bashir to oppose the genocide charges. I have reluctantly left the comment up, because I don't believe that it is my role as a blogger to...
Alex de Waal criticizes Moreno-Ocampo''s decision to appeal the genocide issue today at his blog Making Sense of Darfur. It's a nasty and remarkably patronizing post. It also exhibits not even a shred of understanding of the Rome Statute or the Prosecution Application. Here is what de Waal writes: I was surprised to learn that the Prosecutor of the ICC is seeking leave...
