Search: palestine icc

...the holy month of Ramadan. IPS reports about the plans of Palestine to ask for non-member observer status at the United Nations September 27th. The Hill reports that Syrian rebel forces are entertaining the idea of joining forces with al-Qaeda. UNICEF is concerned with the increasing number of children being recruited as soldiers in Northern Mali. The New York Times reports that Iraq has been aiding Iran for months in getting around sanctions posed by the United States. Anti-Japanese protests took place in more than 20 Chinese cities on Sunday...

Kevin kicked off the week with a post about Jean-Pierre Bemba’s claim against the ICC for €70 million following his final acquittal. While Kevin was skeptical about the merits of Bemba’s compensation claim for €22 million based on his decade of wrongful detention, Kevin was more optimistic about the success Bemba’s spoliation claim for €42.4 million resulting from the ICC’s negligent management of his frozen assets. Kevin continued his commentary with a post on the ramifications of the Philippines’ withdrawal from the Rome Statute on the OTP’s preliminary examination. Steven...

...Qatar refutes the interpretation of Article 22 of CERD, i.e. that there is a linear progression in terms of dispute resolution. Qatar also asserts that the argument of contradictory outcomes is speculative, and the UAE misunderstands the role of the CERD committee or a conciliation commission, in that no decision will be legally binding. (See 8 May hearings verbatim record, p. 17 – 36) A few points to highlight: The complaint by Qatar before the CERD Committee was the first inter-state communication filed by a state at CERD. Palestine has...

...her mission had gone to Palestine, “I imagine that the discussion here would be amazingly different.” Regarding the challenges to the credibility of the report, she told Council members that the issue on credibility is “not about ours, it’s about yours.” (Williams begins speaking at 5:35). UN Watch addressed the Council on Friday afternoon: “If the Council cannot endorse the recommendations of this report, it will cast a shadow upon the reputation of the UN as a whole…” Watch our UN speech. Singling Out Israel Special Agenda Item Returning: The...

...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....

Australia will abstain in the upcoming UN vote on whether to grant non-member state status to Palestine. The body of Yasser Arafat will be exhumed in Ramallah today, to determine whether his death was the result of polonium poisoning. Ehud Barak, Israel’s Minister of Defence, has announced his retirement from politics. A map of China on new Chinese passports is controversial with its neighbours as it incorporates disputed areas in the South China Sea. Several neighbours are refusing to stamp the passports or are stamping them with their own version...

...speech as prepared for delivery. Further on UN appearances, Kevin wondered whether Benjamin Netanyahu’s “red line” about Iran’s nuclear bomb could still be taken seriously. Other posts also dealt with Iran. Kevin asked why progressive bloggers were so willing to overlook the MEK’s involvement in the assassination of Iranian scientists when claiming that the organization has not been involved in terrorist attacks for years, and Deborah Pearlstein wrote about new drone technology reportedly developed by Iran. In a guest post, Chantal Meloni argued why the Palestine-ICC saga is far from...

...one hand, and targeted killing directed against terrorist suspects, on the other. In the former case, I do not believe that we can or should move away from homogenous status of combatant; any other standard will overreach the technology now or in the foreseeable future. I suppose that one could imagine that in the very special circumstances of the Israeli-Palestine conflict, one could see on both the sides of regular soldiers and non-state actors, it would be possible to imagine a genuinely necessity based standard, beyond the fact of status....

...Although the fulfilment of this obligation comes as a second step after ensuring the safe passage and safety of the evacuees, this obligation does not appear to have been met either. Third, the evacuation of the civilian population must be carried out within the occupied territory. Israel is internationally recognized as the occupying power in Palestine – the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip (See UNGA, A/ES-10/L.25, para. 5, ICRC). The UNGA has rejected any Israeli attempts to forcibly transfer the Palestinian civilian population as Israel has...

Call for papers The Faculty of Law of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Columbia Law School invite the submission of written proposals for an international conference on the international law legacies of the Palestine mandate, to be held in Jerusalem on June 21-22, 2015, and for a subsequent publication. The full call for papers can be found here. Researchers interested in addressing these and related questions are invited to respond to this call for papers with a 1-2 page proposal for an article and presentation, along with a...

...on a man convicted of paralyzing a friend in an attack 10 years ago. In a significant step forward, the 49-strong group of Least Developed Countries has announced that they are willing to take on binding commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions A human rights group report alleges that Sudan officials have been committing war crimes, crimes against humanity and acts of torture in the border area near South Sudan since 2011. An exchange of fire between Israel and Palestine threatens the Gaza ceasefire from last November. Israeli troops have...

...territory, effective government, and capacity to enter international relations. It also manifests upon declaration, with or without the recognition of others, at least according to the Convention. In realpolitik, the picture is murkier. For example, Palestine meets the criteria, and it declared statehood in 1988. In addition, over 130 states recognise it as a state. Yet, it continues to wallow in a state of not-quite-statehood, Israel and its occupying cabal dictating life and death to gruesome effect. Closer to home, we recall Catalonia held a referendum and, with overwhelming popular...