In association with the International Commission of Jurists

International Human Rights Law

05 May

I hadn't been aware of this group, Human Rights at Home, which is seeking to "create a national political culture that supports and advocates for human rights."  In fact, they have some interesting ideas of how to reform U.S. legal infrastructure to implement U.S. international human rights obligations. revitalizing an Interagency Working Group on Human Rights to coordinate the efforts of the...

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04 May

Kudos to Northwestern's Searle Center on Law, Regulation, and Economic Growth for a wonderful conference on ATS litigation last week. The papers by David Scheffer & Caroline Kaeb, John McGinnis & Ilya Somin, Jide Nzelibe, Michael Barsa & David Dana, Anthea Roberts, and Eugene Kontorovich were all outstanding. There are many topics worthy of retelling, but I wanted...

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03 May

Julian entitled a post last week "The ICC Begins to Fade in Importance in Sudan."  Julian might want to have a talk with Bashir about that: On the international summit circuit, no one can clear a room more quickly than Sudan’s president, Omar Hassan al-Bashir. Leaders have maneuvered to stay out of photographs with him, dashed ...

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01 May

David Bernstein calls me out today for "blogging not a word" about The New Republic's recent attack on Human Rights Watch's coverage of Israel.  He also claims that "HRW has not responded" and that "it’s almost as if 'headquarters' has sent out word to ignore the TNR piece in the hopes it will go away."  I'll oblige Bernstein with a...

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28 Apr

Whoops, spoke too soon about the WSJ's anti-ICC editorial.  It does indeed contain a lie -- and its a doozy: What’s more, no amount of reform of the founding treaty will change the ICC’s inherent flaw. The ICC is a child of the doctrine of “universal jurisdiction,” which holds that courts can adjudicate crimes committed anywhere in the...

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27 Apr

My UN Dispatch friend Mark Leon Goldberg notes today that a group of Representatives are circulating a "Dear Colleague" letter urging their colleagues to support a resolution "opposing the United States joining the Rome Statute or participating in the upcoming review conference."  Reading the letter is an infuriating experience, not only for its ridiculously bad grammar -- how does one...

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26 Apr

This is not really a big deal, but it is still annoying when President Obama (or any president) flagrantly breaks his campaign promises with respect to foreign policy matters that are completely within their executive discretion.  Today, in his commemoration of the Armenians who died in the 1916 expulsion from Turkey, President Obama carefully avoided the use of the word "genocide"...

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23 Apr

This sounds impressive, but somehow it feels like the ICC Prosecutor is going in circles on Sudan. THE HAGUE, Netherlands — The International Criminal Court prosecutor wants judges to report Sudan to the U.N. Security Council for refusing to hand over a government minister and a militia leader accused of atrocities in Darfur. Luis Moreno Ocampo said in a written request to...

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22 Apr

Belgium and France are both considering laws to ban the wearing of full-face veils in public. According to Amnesty International, such bans would violate international human rights law. "A general ban on the wearing of full face veils would violate the rights to freedom of expression and religion of those women who choose to express their identity or beliefs in this...

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21 Apr

This seems like a bad idea for a number of reasons that are too obvious to go into here. BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Argentine human rights groups are turning the tables on Spain, hoping to open a judicial probe of murders and disappearances committed during the Spanish Civil War and the early years of Gen. Francisco Franco's dictatorship. Lawyers representing Argentine relatives...

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