In association with the International Commission of Jurists

Topics

24 Dec

Medecins Sans Frontieres has published their list and report of the top-ten humanitarian disasters of 2008.  Africa suffers its disproportionate share: Massive forced civilian displacements, violence, and unmet medical needs in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, Iraq, Sudan, and Pakistan, along with neglected medical emergencies in Myanmar and Zimbabwe, are some of the worst humanitarian and medical emergencies in the world,...

|
22 Dec

Two interesting articles today about countries that want the ICC to get involved in their internal problems.  First, the Indian government apparently wants the Court to prosecute Pakistanis who are responsible for masterminding terrorist attacks, including the recent attack in Mumbai: "[h]ighly placed government sources have told TIMES NOW that decks are being cleared by New Delhi to get the...

|
22 Dec

Scott Horton has a typically excellent post today at Harpers.org discussing the perversity of right-wing commentators who defend the use of torture.  But I was troubled by the following comment about the ICC, which he offers in agreement with an old editorial by David Rivkin and Lee Casey: Rivkin’s history is much like that of Reynolds and Goldberg. Back when the...

|
21 Dec

Having finally resolved the disclosure issue, the Lubanga trial is set to begin on January 26, a little more than one month from today.  Unfortunately, the problems with the case continue: The senior trial lawyer in charge of the first case to be tried at the International Criminal Court has been taken off the case little more than...

|
20 Dec

The great Irish intellectual, scholar, and diplomat Conor Cruise O'Brien has died.  Although for many OJ readers, he is remembered most as a diplomat - at the center of the United Nations and the Congo Crisis of 1961 - his greatest influence on me was through his massive study of Edmund Burke, The Great Melody.   One passage that O'Brien cited...

|
19 Dec

No, I don't mean Obama's foreign policy.  The Foreign Relations of the United States is the official documentary historical record of major U.S. foreign policy decisions and significant diplomatic activity; and these days it's in trouble. The tip of the iceberg is the fracas described here and here between the Historian of the Department of State Marc Susser and the Advisory Committee on...

|
18 Dec

It turns out that all is not lost for the Lisbon Treaty (aka the EU Reform Treaty).  It had all the markings of an unperfected treaty after Ireland gave it a "no" vote this past summer via a referendum. (Interestingly, Ireland was the only state to hold one, since negotiators had designed the Reform Treaty to avoid such reviews given what they did to the...

|
18 Dec

A lawyer and human-rights activist with whom I spent some time while I was in Sarajevo, Adnan Kadribasic, has given me permission to turn his comment to my Karadzic post into a post of its own.  I think it's remarkable, and I want everyone to see it.  Here it is, edited only for typos: Dear Kevin, I support all of your...

|
18 Dec

The BBC is reporting that President-elect Obama has pledged to close Guantanamo within the next two years. The report is based on this  Time Magazine article declaring him (big surprise!) their "Person of the Year."  I am not 100% sure Obama has really made this pledge, but it certainly can be read that way.  In response to the question as...

|
17 Dec

The Ninth Circuit yesterday rendered its long-awaited decision in Sarei v. Rio Tinto. The case was argued before the Ninth Circuit en banc in October 2007, with the fourteen month deliberations suggesting that the court struggled mightily with its decision. The decision was fractured, but the essential holding by six of the eleven judges was that exhaustion of...

|
17 Dec

The UN Security Council has passed unanimously a US drafted resolution authorizing attacks upon pirates, whether by land or sea.  It is one of those rare security issues in which the great powers, and many small ones, have been willing to come together, at least in granting authority.  As the Washington Post reports: The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously Tuesday to authorize nations...

|