Posts filed under 'United Nations'
April 23rd, 2008 at 07:11pm
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) held its largest meeting ever during 8-11th April. Attended by member states and 2 new participants, China and Spain, the focus of the meeting was research and development needs in safeguards and verification. 41 delegates discussed the future agenda of the Member State Support Programme (MSSP), specifically addressing areas of research, technology transfer and operational support for verification activities. Given the IAEA’s own limitations in finance and implementation, the IAEA relies on its member states in order to meet its safeguards. The organization also released its publication, “Research and Development Programme for Nuclear Verification, 2008-2009,” a document released biennially detailing the IAEA’s activities in research, development and implementation activities. For further details, please click here.
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April 11th, 2008 at 12:01am
Last week, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) acquitted former Kosovo prime minister Ramush Haradinaj of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Haradinaj was also a commander in the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) during the late 1990s. Although he was charged with crimes such as murder, rape, and torture, the ICTY found that these crimes, if committed, may have been targeted against individuals rather than against groups. Because the victims may have been targeted for individual reasons, the ICTY could not find that Haradinaj had targeted entire civilian groups.
Although one of Haradinaj’s co-defendants, Idriz Balaj, was also acquitted, a third co-defendant, Lahi Brahimaj, was convicted and sentenced to six years in jail for cruel treatment and torture.
Judge Alphonsus Orie stated that the court has had difficulty in obtaining testimony from a significant number of witnesses. Orie remarked that “The Chamber gained a strong impression that the trial was being held in an atmosphere where witnesses felt unsafe.”
More on the story here.
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April 7th, 2008 at 11:07pm
On March 31, Ecuador filed an application against Colombia in the UN’s International Court of Justice in The Hague regarding the aerial spraying of toxic herbicides by Colombia along the border the two countries share.
Ecuador asserts that the spraying by Colombia has “caused serious damage to people, to crops, to animals, and to the natural environment on the Ecuadorian side of the frontier, and poses a grave risk of further damage over time.”
The application comes after Ecuador’s claim that efforts at negotiation with Colombia were unsuccessful. Ecuador asks the ICJ to declare that Colombia is in violation of international law, that it take steps to prevent the depositing of toxic herbicides on Ecuador’s territory, and that it indemnify Ecuador for any damages. Ecuador believes that the 1948 Pact of Bogotá the 1988 UN Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances should apply to the case. Colombia has not yet formally responded to the application.
See here for more information.
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March 19th, 2008 at 06:04pm
On March 6, infamous weapons dealer Viktor Bout was arrested in Bangkok. Bout’s role in supplying weapons to some of the world’s deadliest conflicts had earned him the nickname “Merchant of Death,” and he is believed to have inspired Nicholas Cage’s character in the film “Lord of War.”
While praising Bout’s capture, Antonio Maria Costa, the Executive Director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, called on Thailand to ratify the UN Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime. According to Costa, ratifying this treaty would “make it easier to bring criminals of [Bout’s] ilk to justice, for example through mutual legal assistance and extradition.” Costa also encouraged states to ratify the Protocol against the Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms, Their Parts, and Components and Ammunition, known as the UN Firearms Protocol.
According to the UNODC, nearly 1 billion guns are in circulation throughout the world, and three fourths of them are in civilian hands. Every year, 8 million guns are manufactured, along with twice the amount of ammunition that would be needed to kill the world’s entire population.
The story is available here.
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March 14th, 2008 at 10:17am
Last week, Rwanda agreed to enforce a jail sentence imposed by the United Nations war crimes tribunal set up to address the atrocities of the country’s 1994 genocide. Under the agreement, which has also been signed by six other countries, anyone convicted and given a prison term by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) can now serve that sentence in a Rwandan jail. The agreement is important in part because in signifies a milestone in cooperation between ICTR and Rwanda. For more on this story, click here.
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February 25th, 2008 at 06:05am
The Appeals Chamber of the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) upheld the convictions and sentences of three rebel leaders on February 22. The defendants were former leaders of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC), a military group that supported Revolutionary United Front (RUF) during Sierra Leone’s civil war in the 1990s. The three men, Alex Tamba Brima, Brima Bazzy Kamara, and Santigie Sorbor Kanu, were given sentences of 45 to 50 years for war crimes and crimes against humanity. They were found guilty of 11 charges, including acts of terrorism, murder, rape, enslavement, and military conscription of children under the age of fifteen. The full text of the decision can be found here.
On a separate note, the Court is currently convening a conference to address issues related to the cessation of its judicial activities. The Court’s press release can be found here.
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February 25th, 2008 at 05:51am
In an effort to meet its goal to try all defendants by the end of 2008, the Security Council has agreed to temporarily add four judges to the UN Tribunal set up after the Balkan wars of the 1990s. The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), which proposed the appointment of the additional judges, now may have up to 16 ad litem (or temporary) judges serving on it at any one time, in addition to the 16 permanent judges on the court. Though the new judges cannot serve past the end of the year, the resolution states that they should help the ICTY “conduct additional trials…in order to meet completion strategy objectives.”
In a related story, the ICTY granted temporary leave to five former Bosnian Croat leaders, accused of, among other war crimes, murder, rape, and the wanton destruction of cities. The crimes were committed in 1992 and 1993 against Bosnian Muslims and other non-Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The decision to grant leave means that the accused will reside in Croatia until May 4th, the day before the defense case in their collective trial is to begin. However, just two days later, the ICTY stayed the release, fearing that the men could be flight risks. As a result, the accused will remain in ICTY custody until the appeals chamber has a chance to rule on the merits of the prosecution’s appeal of the order granting the temporary leave.
For more information on the new judges, please click here. To read more about the decision to grant the temporary leave, please click here. To read more about decision to the stay the leave, please click here.
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February 13th, 2008 at 10:41pm
On February 13, some 1200 experts, legislators, law enforcement officials, business leaders, NGO representatives, celebrities, and trafficking victims convened in Vienna, Austria for the first-ever UN global forum against human trafficking. Giving remarks ahead of the February 13-15 forum, Executive Director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Antonio Maria Costa explained that human trafficking is widespread throughout the global economic system. Yet because of the lack of information about human trafficking, Mr. Costa called it “a monster whose shape, size and ferocity we can only guess.” It often accompanies other unlawful activities, including illegal migration, forced labor, pedophilia, child exploitation, and organized prostitution.
“It’s time for the world to open its eyes to this form of modern slavery,” declared Mr. Costa. “Moral outrage [alone] is not going to stop the traffickers; we need high impact law enforcement measures to make human trafficking a riskier business.”
Forum participants are discussing practical measures of preventing human trafficking and bringing perpetrators to justice. Measures under consideration include tracking and blocking Internet payments for human trafficking transactions; developing technology to pinpoint frequently used trafficking routes; help-lines to report suspected child prostitution or sex slavery; codes of conduct to curb sex tourism; and efforts to stop the forced removal and trade of human organs.
In a related development, UNODC launched a manual, Good Practices in the Protection of Witnesses in Criminal Proceedings Involving Organized Crime, aimed at helping countries develop comprehensive programs for the protection of victims and witnesses of crime. Witness protection programs can be a key tool in the dismantling of human trafficking networks.
More on these stories is available here and here.
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January 28th, 2008 at 01:00pm
Over 1,000 people, including government officials, business leaders, law enforcement personnel, journalists, and entertainers from over 100 nations, convened today in Bali, Indonesia at the beginning of a five-day meeting of the Parties to the UN Convention Against Corruption.
The custodian of the Convention is Antonio Maria Costa, Executive Director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Giving his opening remarks at the meeting today, Mr. Costa reminded participants that “Corruption hurts us all, therefore fighting it is a shared responsibility - we all have a duty and the power to say ‘no’ to corruption.”Mr. Costa highlighted areas where UNODC, the World Bank, and others can provide technical assistance, particularly in the area of asset recovery, which is a key measure in the anti-corruption Convention. Mr. Costa warned that despite political will and good intentions, efforts to recover assets are running into resistance from “middle-level bureaucrats with connections, knowledge and entrenched interests who have a lot to lose.”
Mr. Costa said countries need to explain what they have done to fight corruption and implement the anti-corruption Convention. He also stressed that business should become part of the anti-corruption solution, calling on multilateral organizations to lead by example.
Implemented in December 2005, the UN Convention Against Corruption is the first and only legally binding anti-corruption treaty. It has been signed by 140 States and ratified by 107. The Convention requires states to prevent corruption, make it a criminal offence, cooperate in stamping it out, and return stolen assets. This week’s meeting hopes to create methods for evaluating the treaty’s implementation.
More on the Convention and this week’s meeting is available here and here. Mr. Costa’s opening remarks may be found here.
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January 17th, 2008 at 11:38am
On January 16, Peru asked the UN’s International Court of Justice (ICJ) to adjudicate its ongoing maritime dispute with Chile. Peru claims that the zones in dispute have never been delimited by a treaty or other type of agreement, and thus should be determined by the ICJ in accordance with customary international law.
Two principal areas are disputed. The first is the maritime boundary between the two countries in the Pacific Ocean. The second is a zone within 200 miles of the Peruvian coast, over which Peru claims sovereign rights but which Chile considers part of the high seas.
More on the story is available here.
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