Search: palestine icc

...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...

...of the hostage situation between ISIS and Jordan/Japan, Jens weighed in on hostages and human dignity. Jens also reported on yesterday’s decision at the ICTY Appeals Chamber, upholding genocide charges in the case of The Prosecutor v. Popovic et al. related to the massacre at Srebrenica in July, 1995. Duncan highlighted his newest paper, this time he’s written An Intersubjective Treaty Power and a guest post came in from Nimrod Karin, responding to Kevin’s critique of his Just Security posts (here and here), about whether Palestine’s joining the ICC amounted...

For Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad it’s all about Israel. The cartoons were not an act of freedom, they were a desperate act of hostages. This week Ahmadinejad used the cartoon controversy to blame the United States and Europe for “being hostages of the Zionists.” He then criticized the double-standard of the freedom to insult the prophet while imposing criminal sanctions on those who deny the Holocaust. “I ask everybody in the world not to let a group of Zionists who failed in Palestine … to insult the prophet. Now in...

[Mona Ali Khalil is an internationally recognized public international lawyer with 25 years of UN and other experience dealing with the rule of law and international peace and security efforts including peacekeeping, sanctions, disarmament and counterterrorism.] In the face of a veto by any permanent member of the UN Security Council blocking enforcement action against the mass atrocities in Palestine, Myanmar, Syria and Yemen and elsewhere, is the international community helpless to help – failing to fulfill its responsibility to protect? Proponents of the use of force for purposes of...

Sponsored Announcements Admissions to the third edition of the Master in Democratic Governance – Democracy and Human Rights in the MENA Region (DE.MA) are open: first round deadline – 30 May 2016; second round deadline – 30 June 2016. DE.MA was created thanks to the support of the European Union and of the Danish Institute for Human Rights. It is based on a partnership between EIUC and the following universities: International University of Rabat (Rabat, Morocco), Birzeit University (Birzeit, Palestine), St Joseph University (Beirut, Lebanon), Ca’ Foscari University (Venice, Italy)...

...graduated to the level of cliche and truism. On a more granular level, debate centers on whether the norms of International Humanitarian Law (the law of armed conflict) are still fit for purpose, and on whether there exists a critical mass of compliance and political will to enforce the law. The panel takes place on 17 February 2026 at 11AM Eastern Time/4PM GMT, and will explore these propositions in contemporary contexts, including the so-called “War on Terror,” Russia/Ukraine, Israel/Palestine, Sudan, Venezuela and U.S. drug boat strikes, among others. Register here....

...policy the wrong way, not knowing that Congress is out to lunch and that US policy has not changed. That’s where the risk comes in. It’s what makes this case less than ideal for adapting the Constitution to the new global dynamic. The Middle East is a throwback to the old world. Arguments like Noah Feldman’s here still make a lot of sense when it comes to Israel-Palestine, even if they don’t make so much sense anywhere else. But the risk may be small enough that the Court is willing...

...an unnamed senior leader in the context of arrest warrants being requested for Israeli leaders that “this court is built for Africa and for thugs like Putin.” Of course, the fact that the ICC ultimately did proceed to issue arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant demonstrates that occasionally the wheels of justice move forward even in the face of resistance from key players in the West. Doing so, however, can come with a heavy price for those involved (see here, here and here regarding US sanctions on ICC...

...pictures of restricted Israeli areas. Iran also claims that it has developed much more advanced drone technology than the Iranian drone launched by Hezbollah and shot down by Israeli forces earlier this month. EU governments are set to debate spending cuts of 50 billion euro later this week. A recent poll showed that an overwhelming majority of Catalans would like a referendum on independence from Spain. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is going ahead with his plan of seeking upgraded observer status for Palestine in the UN General Assembly next month....