Search: crossing lines
20 Aug Symposium on Informers Up Close: Weaponizing the Populace
...mistreated by their superiors, they are simply enduring what they signed up for. So, too, with soldiers in the American all-volunteer military, or the former prisoners who have secured a way out of prison by agreeing to deploy to the front lines in Russia’s war against Ukraine without proper training or equipment. The fact that someone has chosen a life, however, does not vitiate the state’s responsibilities to treat that person as an individual with dignity. What that means, of course, will vary according to the particular context. But the...
08 Mar A Short-Term Option for Addressing Misinformation during Public Health Emergencies: Online Nudging and the Human Right to Freedom of Thought
...and applying nudges to online news feeds that they think will help so-called ‘non-elites’ make ‘smart’ decisions (see this work of Michael Sandel at 81-112). Aside from the condescension that arises with practices and communications that run along the lines of ‘we know better than you’, which inhibits public trust (see, for example, here and here), nudging raises additional human rights considerations. There are a number of human rights dimensions to the current pandemic that have been highlighted (see, for example, here), including with respect to misinformation (see here and...16 Oct Obama Will “Engage” on Sudan (And Ignore the ICC)
...Scott Gration, said that the policy, to be announced Monday by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, would make use of a mix of “incentives and pressure” to put an end to the human rights abuses that have left millions of people dead and displaced while burningDarfur into the American conscience. General Gration said the administration would set strict time lines for President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan to fulfill the conditions of a 2005 peace agreementthat his government signed with rebels in southern Sudan; under the agreement, a proposal for...27 Aug Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About TWAIL (But Were Afraid to Ask)
...significant, both for the TWAIL movement and international law reformers in general. In the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas agreement (ALBA) we find a platform from which TWAIL might transcend its reactive nature and develop a proactive character. Building on a practical prototype that produced a participatory model of democracy and a progressive model of social relations, we argue that ALBA’s philosophy and substantive workings present the structure needed for the reinvention of international law along similarly equitable lines; from a formal regulatory regime to a substantive emancipatory paradigm, from...
09 Oct Trump vs. International Law: The Trump Administration and International Criminal Justice
...and able to navigate a nuanced relationship with the Court. Although the United States was centrally involved with the negotiations around the Rome Statute, the final treaty ultimately crossed too many of its red lines. At that time, the concern of the administration of President Bill Clinton was a rather amorphous one grounded in American exceptionalism: that a seemingly unaccountable prosecutor would bring meritless or politically-motivated prosecutions against U.S. personnel deployed in response to sovereign and global threats. Nonetheless, President Bill Clinton ultimately decided to sign the treaty on the...
07 Mar Seychelles, the United States, and Transitional Justice: Big Lessons from Little Countries
...the army and police, blurring the lines between the two, and started a People’s Militia where neighbor spied on neighbor and civilian members used army-supplied guns and equipment to intimidate those perceived as not sufficiently supportive. Militia membership was a way to show allegiance to the regime. Dissidents were harassed, detained, tortured, or disappeared, their families often forced to self-exile to the United Kingdom or Australia. Victoria, Mahé, Seychelles—March 5, 2021. The Truth, Reconciliation and National Unity Commission (TRNUC)—a truth-seeking body devoted to investigating alleged violations of human rights during...10 Jun Pride 2020: a time for vigilance, collective action and digital spaces in the COVID-19 pandemic
...inequalities and fault-lines within society. As the world slowly returns to a not-so-normal new normal, social, financial assistance and access to safe, secure homes and the right to housing for LGBTQ persons will remain illusive. Without protection from discriminatory application of laws, lockdown and COVID-19 related measures, LGBTQ persons will continue to be disproportionately targeted by police in the application of new emergency criminal law. The increase in executive control shifts state power towards authoritarianism in many places and this does not auger well for human rights protections that we...01 Jan Divesting Federal Foreign Affairs Power? The Sudan Accountability & Divestment Act
It’s a happy new year (of sorts) for U.S. Human Rights Groups concerned about the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Darfur. For the last several years, groups such as the Save Darfur Coalition have pushed state and local governments to divest from companies that invest or do business with Sudan. Their efforts have produced some impressive results –since 2005, 22 U.S. states have divested their assets from Sudan, either along the lines recommended by the grassroots Sudan Divestment Task Force, or through some other model (the movement also has a private...
24 Aug Error 404: Responsibility Not Found? Evidentiary Dilemmas in Attributing Cyber Operations
...met before the ICJ and rarely, if ever, before other fora (p. 80-81). In the Bosnian Genocide case, the ICJ was asked to uphold the more relaxed test of “overall control” proposed in the Tadić Appeals judgment (1999) of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. Under that test, conduct such as the US’ in Nicaragua could have given rise to attribution. Yet the Court upheld the “effective control” test as reflecting customary law, arguing that more lenient tests would blur the lines between private and State action (¶¶402-404)....18 Oct US Delegation to Dubai Internet Negotiations To Be Larded With (Dominated By?) Industry Reps
...be talkshop, in which included non-state representatives get the extra status that comes with inclusion on an official delegation and some access to state representatives. That would be a bump for lesser known entities like “dotGay LLC” (also on the delegation). But the real dealmaking remains an exclusively intergovernmental undertaking. The other would be along the lines of corporate sponsorship of Olympic competitors. That would be much more robust kind of involvement – the state provides the nameplate but nonstate actors are more like partners than hangers-on. Ultimately it may...