Here’s your weekly selection of international law and international relations headlines from around the world: Africa Kenya's president set fire to thousands of elephant tusks and rhino horns, destroying a stockpile that would have been worth a fortune to smugglers and sending a message that trade in the animal parts must be stopped. Nigerian gas exports to the US have dropped to zero. The...
The Pentagon has released its report on the U.S. air assault against a hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, in October. The picture painted by the Pentagon report is pretty damning. The attack killed 42 people and turned out to be a giant mistake. The U.S. attacked the wrong building. Initially, some Afghanistan officials suggested that insurgents had taken up positions in the...
Here’s your weekly selection of international law and international relations headlines from around the world: Africa Zambia's government is trying to send hundreds of refugees back to camps after two people were burned to death in anti-immigration riots in the country's capital, Lusaka. Heavy fighting between a local militia and Ethiopian paramilitary militia known as the Liyu Police broke out in Galgadud region...
Russia scored a huge victory today when the Hague District Court in the Netherlands court set aside a $50 billion arbitral award in favor of former shareholders of Yukos. The $50 billion Yukos award (that's BILLION, with a "B"), is the largest arbitration award ever issued, was issued under the authority of the Energy Charter Treaty. The arbitral tribunal (hosted at...
Next month's issue of Foreign Affairs, a leading journal of highbrow foreign policy in the U.S., features an important article on the United States as "The Once and Future Superpower" (subscription). Based on their forthcoming book, professors Steven Brooks and William Wohlforth of Dartmouth College argue that China is not going to displace the United States as the world's leading superpower...
Here’s your weekly selection of international law and international relations headlines from around the world: Africa The death toll from a raid carried out by South Sudanese gunmen in western Ethiopia has risen to 208 people and the assailants kidnapped 108 children, an Ethiopian official said on Sunday. The United Nations on Sunday condemned a government crackdown in Gambia that it said had...
I had the pleasure about a week ago to discuss Syria with David Remnick for the New Yorker Radio Hour. Most of the questions, not surprisingly, focused on whether I thought there was any realistic prospect that Assad would face justice. (My answer: probably not.) The show went live a couple of days ago -- I was traveling and didn't...
The Human Rights Advisory Panel has found UNMIK, the UN Mission in Kosovo, responsible for breach of a number of human rights provisions connected with lead poisoning of the Roma population following the 1999 conflict. Under Section 2 of UNMIK Regulation No. 2006/12, t the Panel has jurisdiction over complaints relating to alleged violations of human rights “that had...
Here’s your weekly selection of international law and international relations headlines from around the world: Africa In Mozambique, despite improvements in education access, many rural children are still pressed into work to supplement family income. The Nigerian government denies reports of $50 million ransom from Boko Haram for release of Chibok girls. As revelations from the Panama papers rock the world of politics and...
[Matthew Sands is a Legal Advisor with the Geneva based NGO, Association for the Prevention of Torture (APT) the full judgment on this case is available here.] In late January, the UK Supreme Court published its judgment in the case of Youssef. In 2005, Mr. Youssef had been suspected of involvement in terrorist-related activity, and Egypt had requested the UN sanctions committee...
Importantly, and for the first time, meetings will soon be held with all candidates for the post of UN Secretary General, enabling them to present their candidatures. Member States will also have the opportunity to ask questions. Mogen Lykketoft, president of the GA, has publicized his plans for these meetings in letters here and here. A current list of candidates (and...
Last week, I accompanied a group of Hofstra Law students on a one-week study abroad “field study” in Havana, Cuba. We visited just a week after President Obama’s historic visit and a day after an almost equally historic Rolling Stones concert. The trip gave my students and I an opportunity see how some of the effects of President Obama’s effort to...
