Search: crossing lines
05 Aug Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales Asks OTP to Investigate Gaza (Updated)
...ICC jurisdiction over the situation in Gaza. If the ICC is to become involved in the most heavily politicised conflict in recent history — and I think the likelihood the OTP would act on even a proper request is essentially zero — there should be no doubt whatsoever about either Palestine’s desire for an investigation or the ICC’s jurisdictional competence. If we’ve learned anything about the conflict in Gaza, it’s the importance of always crossing the legal “t’s” and dotting the legal “i’s.” UPDATE: Multiple sources are reporting on Twitter...24 Jul Weekday News Wrap: Tuesday, July 24, 2012
...in the South China Sea, to bolster its sovereignty claims in the area. The Philippine president, Benigno Aqino, has said he will not back down from China regarding the disputed Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea. For the first time, Egypt has loosened the restrictions on Palestinians temporarily entering the country at the Rafah border crossing A US drone struck in Pakistan, killing 12 suspected militants. At the request of the EU, the US and Japan, the WTO Dispute Settlement Body has established a panel to consider China’s export...
26 Jul Symposium on Ljubljana – The Hague Convention on Mutual Legal Assistance: Critical Reflections – Closing the Impunity Gap: The Prospects and Potential of the Ljubljana-The Hague Convention
...not contain substantive definitional provisions, the inclusion of these definitions in the Ljubjana-the Hague Convention serves two critical functions in the fight against impunity. First, by requiring and facilitating domestic criminalization, the Convention empowers victims to report violations within their jurisdictions, as well as, in the jurisdictions of other State Parties, enhancing prospects for effective investigation and potentially prosecution, thereby strengthening the fight against impunity. Second, the coherence established among State Party jurisdictions streamlines legal processes and cooperation in investigating and prosecuting offenders, particularly in cross-border cases, reducing the number...30 Dec Weekly News Wrap: Monday, December 30, 2013
Your weekly selection of international law and international relations headlines from around the world: Africa More than 1000 people have died in fighting in South Sudan in the past month, where a political crisis is turning into a tribal conflict. Zimbabwe’s ambassador to Australia has requested asylum there a few days before her term was due to end. Americas Edward Snowden has declared “mission accomplished” and also issued an alternative Christmas message for the UK’s Channel 4. Legal or not? A federal District Court judge in New York has ruled...13 Mar YLS Sale Symposium: The European Union Policy on Refugees and Its Effect on Eritrean Refugees
...the aim of patrolling Libyan waters and brings intercepted migrants back to Libya. As the result of these these skewed agreements and policies which are contrary to EU refugee regimes and the principle of non-refoulment a cornerstone of the international refugee protection, many refugees became victims of many violations of human rights, and death in the sea. Many Eritreans were intercepted by Italian sea patrol and returned back to Libya where they faced imprisonment in harsh conditions for years. Furthermore, hundreds of Eritreans who took the risk of crossing the...27 Oct The Washington Post’s Three Article Series on “The Permanent War”
...to go to Congress to get legislation and, in effect, a political announcement that the two political branches have reached agreement on policy and law in these contentious areas, political and policy stability is much weaker. This particularly so given that the default position of any opposition party is to criticize-on-autopilot, especially when votes in Congress have not locked at least some of them in, including perhaps Congressional leadership, and reduced their ability to kibitz from the uncommitted sidelines. If this “pivot” or at least indifference by Democrats under a...
31 May IHL Application in the Context of a NIAC: An Issue in Ecuador?
...this post, I argue that crossing the threshold of a NIAC (non-international armed conflicts) with the State endorsing this qualification very quickly can be problematic in relation to some aspects, especially for the resulting facilitation of rules of engagement. The application of IHL rules pertaining to NIACs is triggered on the basis of two cumulative criteria: the intensity of the conflict and the degree of organization of the belligerent non-State party. As stated above, it seems that in the case of Ecuador, this threshold has been reached. The army is...
21 May Delivering the ICC Vision Through Deeds not Words: An Interview with Karim Khan QC
...but also to drive reform where this is necessary.” I note that as an ICC defence lawyer, and even though he has not practised at the ICC for five years, Khan has still represented more defendants than any other lawyer. Yet, I suggest, ‘crossing the floor’ will represent a challenge for Khan because in defending his clients, he has had cause to criticise the investigations and conduct of the very office he will now be heading up, for example in the Ruto case where he said in his opening statement...
17 Sep Navigating the Human Rights Trajectory of the EU Migration and Asylum Pact in Search and Rescue Operations (Part Two)
...Safety Committee (MSC) Guidelines on the treatment of persons rescued at sea (Preamble, para 7). The Recommendation urges cooperation amongst Member States in relation to SAR operations carried out by NGO vessels in order to reduce fatalities at sea, protect the safety of maritime navigation and aim for effective migration management (para 1). It is interesting to note that the flag and coastal State are expressly mentioned. While the coastal State clearly refers to the SAR State, the reference to the flag State is not commonly found in the legal...14 Oct The Human Rights Quagmire of “Human Trafficking”
...pursue a border control agenda under the guise of promoting human rights. The Trafficking Protocol and its companion Smuggling Protocol have set a transnational duty to end all forms of unauthorized border crossing and conscripted states in regions of origin to abet the developed world’s efforts to stymie international migration, in particular by routinized implementation of generic deterrence schemes. Broad brush deterrent schemes of this kind tend perversely to promote human smuggling—and even trafficking—since they make unassisted migration that much more difficult, even as they do nothing to open up...