In association with the International Commission of Jurists

Symposia

01 Sep

[Florence Shako is a Lecturer at Riara Law School, LLM (LSE), LLB (UoN), Advocate, MCIArb, CS, CPA.] Formal education was introduced in Kenya by Western missionaries, as an instrument for advancing the civilising mission. However, in the years of colonial rule, no facility for legal education was established. This is curious given that the period witnessed significant expansion of public as well as private institutions, and...

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01 Sep

[Pouria Askary (@AskaryPouria) is an Assistant Professor of International Law at Allameh Tabataba’i University and Sina Etezazian (@SinaEtezazian) is a Visiting Lecturer in Law at Allameh Tabataba’i University.] Eurocentrism played an important role in developing our understanding of the international legal regime in Iran. It also influenced our approach toward legal pedagogy. The first academic center in Iran to provide courses...

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31 Aug

[Babatunde Fagbayibo is a Professor of International Law, University of South Africa.] In 2017, I wrote an editorial criticising the decision of Third World Quarterly to publish Bruce Gilley’s offensive article on the need to bring colonialism back to Africa. Although the journal eventually withdrew the article due to widespread opposition, the point was made. As I noted in the piece, “Would Third World Quarterly (or...

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31 Aug

[Tony Anghie is a Professor of Law at  the University of Utah and National University of Singapore and the Head, Teaching and Researching International Law (TRILA), Centre for International Law, at the National University of Singapore.] Introduction I believe that questions of pedagogy and the teaching of law and critical theory must be considered in the context of the goals we seek to achieve as teachers. I teach my...

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31 Aug

Formalism in the teaching of international law is burning out. This is not surprising. Its application always seemed impractical, suffering from the theory’s glaring defects as well as unique flaws when administered to international law. Treaty interpretation and state practice, for example, the two most suitable facets for formalist analysis, proved deficient in producing the conclusive-qua-correct outcomes that formalists fetishize....

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28 Aug

The contributions in the symposium this past week have brought up multiple issues and perspectives, pointing to challenges in the quest for justice and accountability for the Rohingya, and the role of international law. Rather than go over what has been highlighted already, here are a few reflections, linked to the international legal developments and the wider context.  There is little...

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28 Aug

[Laetitia van den Assum is a diplomatic expert who has served as Netherlands ambassador on four continents. She was also a member of the Rakhine Advisory Commission, chaired by the late Kofi Annan.] Myanmar’s reluctance to embrace its rich ethnic, religious and cultural diversity remains the biggest stumbling block towards peace, stability and development.  It stands in the way of other major challenges, particularly high inequality and an...

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27 Aug

[Param-Preet Singh is associate international justice director at Human Rights Watch.] Three years ago, my organization reported on the brutal campaign of Myanmar’s military, also known as the Tatmadaw, as it committed countless atrocities and forced more than 740,000 Rohingya Muslims to flee to Bangladesh. In September 2018, the UN’s Independent International Fact-Finding Mission urged the investigation of the Tatmadaw’s generals for war crimes, crimes against humanity and...

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27 Aug

[Simon Adams is the Executive Director of the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect.] “We believe that mass killings and ethnic cleansing are underway across Rakhine State, and that there may be genocidal intent on behalf of the authorities.” That was my concluding comment at an informal briefing for members of the UN Security Council on the morning of 8 September 2017. The meeting took place...

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26 Aug

[Akila Radhakrishnan (@akilaGJC) is the President of the Global Justice Center, where she directs GJC’s work to establish legal precedents protecting human rights and ensuring gender equality.] This August marks not only the 3rd anniversary of the start of the Rohingya genocide, but also the 6th anniversary of the start of the Yazidi genocide. Beyond starting in the same month, these...

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26 Aug

[Shannon Raj Singh is a member of Guernica 37 International Justice Chambers and a Visiting Fellow of Practice at the Oxford Programme on International Peace and Security.] The seat of the International Criminal Court, in the rain-soaked Hague, is located approximately 8,000 kilometers from Cox’s Bazar, as the crow flies. For many Rohingya victims of atrocities located in the refugee camps there, that distance is simply...

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26 Aug

[Antonia Mulvey is the Executive Director of Legal Action Worldwide (LAW) and former investigator to the UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar.] On 10 December 2019, Human Rights Day, I was sitting in the International Court of Justice in The Hague, listening to Counsel for The Gambia quote an interview I had conducted with a Rohingya woman who had been beaten, stripped naked, tied...

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