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A Blog dedicated to reports, commentary and the discussion of topical issues of Public International Law as well as EC/EU-law.
Recent Posts Tagged With 'United Nations'
Obama’s Peace Prize Acceptance Speech
Barack Obama arrived in Oslo yesterday to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. The granting of this prestigious prize to the US president was controversial for a number of reasons. Some complained that it was too soon for the prize to be awarded to Oba...
The Right to Development and Intellectual Property
Since the Senegalese jurist Keba M’baye first advanced it in 1972, the idea of a ”right to development” has been the focus of an extensive but largely theoretical debate. Jurists from the South enumerated the possible subjects and o...
Honduran military government brings ICJ claim against Brazil
A press release from the ICJ Registrar has announced that an application has been filed by Honduras against Brazil. The proceedings relate to “legal questions concerning diplomatic relations and associated with the principle of non-interventi...
The General Assembly and the Responsibility to Protect: “The Devil will be in the Details”
I thought that for my first post it would be apposite to discuss a component of my doctoral research. This post will therefore focus upon the Responsibility to Protect doctrine or, “R2P”, as it has become known (for earlier posts on the R2P see h...
UN Fact-Finding Mission releases its Report on the Gaza Conflict
The Report of the UN Fact-Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict headed by Justice Richard Goldstone was released on 15 September 2009 together with a set of recommendations by the mission’s experts for the way forward in bringing justice to vict...
ILO to Set up Legal Instruments on Domestic Workers
One of the most striking problems for the enforcement of labour standards in developing countries is the huge informal sector that is to be found in most of the labour markets in the Southern hemisphere. In a number of Latin-American countries the pe...
Has Right to Self-determination Democratic Origin?
The general reading on self-determination is unclear or perhaps silent on the issue whether right to self-determination has democratic pedigree. Nonetheless this principle has been treated explicitly or tacitly by international scholarship having d...
Hezbollah Violates Resolution 1701
In past weeks various UN spokespeople have been issuing rare condemnations of Hezbollah’s violations of Resolution 1701. The Special Coordinator for Lebanon, Michael Williams, has said that there were “clearly” violations of the res...
Gaza Conflict Aftermath: so far “the international community has failed spectacularly”
Two reports have been recently released by the fact-finding missions posted by the major international NGO, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch (HRW) to the Gaza Strip and South Israel following the 22-day war that took place in the region b...
ILO’s International Labour Conference has opened its doors
From 3 June to 19 June, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) hosts this year’s International Labour Conference (ILC). The ILC, also referred to as the “international parliament of labour” is the main legislative body of the ILO which has...
The UN Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza conflict commences its work
On 3 April 2009, the President of the Human Rights Council established an international independent Fact Finding Mission with the mandate “to investigate all violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law that might...
Human Rights Elections
In today’s NY Times, former president of the Czech Republic Vaclav Havel adds his voice to the chorus criticising the UN’s Human Rights Council. Tomorrow, the General Assembly will elect the 47 Member States of the Council for the coming ...
New UN Special Rapporteur reports on the Human Rights situation in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967
The UN Special Rapporteur on the situation in the Palestinian Territories occupied since 1967 has come out with updated reports on the situation in the region in the last months. In fact, he has produced two separate reports: the first report is a co...
More Join the ‘Racism’ Conference Boycott
[See here and here for further reading.] The movement to boycott the ‘Durban II’ Review Conference on racism appears to be gathering pace. Not only have the US, Israel, Canada and Italy decided not to attend, but now Sweden, The Netherlan...
Germany to boycott the Durban Review Conference?
As we reported earlier, the upcoming Durban Review Conference is likely to be boycotted by a number of States due to the fear that the event becomes little more than a forum for anti-semitic opinions. It is now reported in the Spiegel (in german) th...
Piracy off the Horn of Africa Underscores the Need for a Comprehensive Effort on the Part of the International Community to Restore Order in Somalia
Piracy is not a new phenomenon. It has existed for probably as long as sailing itself. While it was largely believed to be something of the past, it has made a notorious comeback in the last decade or so. Piracy is a domestic crime, besides being a c...
The US and International Law - A New Approach?
In the past weeks and months we have been able to witness some indications that the new US administration is adopting a new approach to international law. This was to be expected if one considers that already during the presidential campaigns in 20...
US to Engage with the Human Rights Council
The new administration in the White House has decided to reverse one of the more controversial of George W. Bush’s policies: disengagement with the Human Rights Council. At the time of the HRC’s creation, the election of countries such as...
Thoughts on the Human Rights Council’s 10th Session
The UN Human Rights Council’s 10th Regular Session is currently coming to a close. As usual, the various reports available make for fascinating and frustrating reading, not least because of the design of the OCHR’s website, which could ch...
Systematic failure to enforce the law against Israeli occupation forces in the Palestinian territories
Ben-Naftali and Zamir have recently published an article in the Journal of International Criminal Justice titled ‘Whose ‘conduct unbecoming’? The shooting of a Handcuffed, Blindfolded Palestinian Demonstrator’. The work consid...
Another Racist Anti-Racist Conference?
In April this year the Human Rights Council will hold a ‘Durban Review’ conference in Geneva, in order to “evaluate progress towards the goals set” at the 2001 World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia...
Kosovo a Year on
Today marks the one year anniversary of Kosovo declaring independence from Serbia. In many ways, the first year has been a mix of fortunes and misfortunes. Most importantly, Kosovo has largely remained peaceful despite initial warnings that the decla...
Human Rights Watch’s 2009 Report
Human Rights Watch’s 2009 report is out. See report here, press release here and introduction by Kenneth Roth, Executive Director, here. Although there is every reason to exercise caution before relying too much on NGO information in general, the R...
UN Human Rights Council condemns the Israeli attacks against the Gaza Strip
On 12 January 2009, the Human Rights Council adopted a resolution on the human rights situation in the Gaza strip. The Resolution is entitled “The Grave Violations of Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory particularly due to the recent...
Sixty Years of the UDHR: Global Struggle for Human Rights Continues.
December 10, 2008 marked the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Since 1948 much has changed in the world: colonialism, by definition a systemic abuse of human rights, has largely been thrown into the dustbin of history al...
In the Name of Freedom of Speech
Ban-ki Moon is not the only one criticising international organisations such as the UN’s Human Rights Council for trying to curb free speech in the name of the fight against “defamation of religions” and “blasphemy” laws. A group of freedom...
UN Human Rights Envoy Expelled from Israel
Yesterday the UN’s special rapporteur for human Rights in the Palestinian territories, Richard Falk, was detained by Israeli border authorities, denied entry into Israel and subsequently expelled. While it is unfortunate that the UN is hindered in ...
