In association with the International Commission of Jurists

Author: An Hertogen

08 Jul

Conferences & events On Wednesday July 11, the Brookings Institution is organizing Translating Human Rights into Practice: A Conversation on the United Nations Human Rights Council in the Saul/Zilkha Rooms, 1775 Massachusetts Ave, NW, Washington, DC. For more information and registration, please click here. On July 18, the Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law at American University, Washington College of Law, is organizing...

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06 Jul

The Transnational Federal Government of Somalia has signed an action plan backed by the UN to stop the use of child soldiers. Ex-Argentine president Jorge Videla was sentenced to 50 years in prison for stealing babies from prisoners during Argentina's "Dirty War." The Foreign Minister of Iraq claims that al-Qaeda is flowing into Syria, posing potential threats to the stability of the entire region. An online poll...

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05 Jul

Paraguay has recalled its ambassador in Venezuela in protest over allegations that the Venezuelan government tried to encourage Paraguay's military leaders to defend the recently impeached leftist President Lugo. Yasser Arafat's body may be exhumed to examine whether he died of polonium poisoning as revealed by an Al-Jazeera investigation. Palestinian officials are calling for an international inquiry. It's a tough time for former...

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04 Jul

In an end to a 7 months standoff, Pakistan has reopened border crossings for US and NATO military supplies after US Secretary of State Clinton issued an apology of the November air strike that accidentally killed 24 Pakistani soldiers. Japan has protested against Russia's Prime Minister Medvedev visit on Tuesday to the disputed Kuril Islands. A Chinese newspaper is accusing the Philippines...

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03 Jul

Syria's President Assad has expressed regret at the downing of the Turkish jet last month and has vowed to apologize should it be established that the jet was shot down in international airspace. Human Rights Watch has released a report on arbitrary arrests, detention and torture in Syria since the beginning of the civil unrest in March 2011. A Reuters article discusses how the...

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02 Jul

The ICC turned 10 yesterday. Amnesty International's Secretary General passes judgement here. Militants in Timbuktu, Mali, are destroying Sufi shrines, which they consider idolatrous. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has expressed his concern and ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda has warned that the actions can be considered a war crime. Tensions continue to build along the Syria-Turkey border. The UN-backed Group on Syria reached...

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01 Jul

Calls for Papers The Institute for Transnational Arbitration is organizing its second Annual Winter Forum in Miami on January 24-25, 2013. It is calling for abstracts of works-in-progress on a broad variety of topics related to international commercial arbitration and international investment law. Abstracts are due by September 1, 2012 and need to be sent to ITAWinterForum2013@gmail.com.  Proposals should be made in a...

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29 Jun

Dear all, If you haven't had a chance yet to complete our Readers' Survey, there is still time to do so! We  want to know what our readers think about how we're doing and where we can improve. You can access the survey through this link or through the button on the right side bar of the blog. The survey shouldn't take...

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29 Jun

Differences of interpretation are plaguing Kofi Annan's proposed transition plan for Syria on the eve of Saturday's conference in Geneva. Following a political outcry, South Korea has delayed the signing of an intelligence sharing pact with Japan. The Washington Post has a Q&A with outgoing World Bank Chief Robert Zoellick. It's impossible to escape news articles on the Affordable Care Act judgment today, but since...

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28 Jun

For lack of evidence, former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic has been acquitted of one of two counts of genocide he faces at the ICTY at this mid-point in his trial. He faces 10 other charges, including the other genocide charge affiliated with the Srebrenica massacre, wherein 8,000 Muslim men and boys were killed (ICTY press release here). Turkey has sent a...

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27 Jun

As a second boat of refugees in less than a week sinks on its way from Indonesia to Australia's Christmas Island, Australia's Prime Minister Julia Gillard wants to revive an earlier plan to have refugees processed in Malaysia in exchange for the acceptance of genuine refugees. Syria's President Assad has claimed that his country is in a state of war. Notwithstanding the...

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26 Jun

As NATO meets over the downing of Turkey's jet by Syria, Turkey has also written to the UN Security Council that the attack is a "serious threat to peace and security". The EU foreign ministers have urged Turkey to exercise restraint in its responses. Meanwhile, Syria has allegedly shot at a second Turkish jet. In an interview, the Director-General of MI5...

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