November 12th, 2008 at 06:24am
On Nov. 6, 2008, the ASEAN Secretariat and the Hubei Province of the People’s Republic of China signed a Minutes of Meeting on Strengthening of Trade and Economic Cooperation. The Minutes of Meeting affirmed the two parties’ commitment to implement the Memorandum on Cooperation, which was signed by the Secretary-General of ASEAN and the Governor of Hubei earlier this year. Under this memorandum, both parties will promote trade and economic cooperation, and the parties will explore the possibility of holding an ASEAN-Hubei Forum on Trade and Economic Cooperation in Wuhan City. Hubei was the first Chinese province to sign a Memorandum on Cooperation with the ASEAN Secretariat, with the objective of strengthening ASEAN-China relations.
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November 12th, 2008 at 06:18am
In a menacing speech broadcast live across Russia, President Dmitry Medvedev announced that he had ordered Russian missiles redeployed to the border of Poland last week. Medvedev’s remarks provoked concerns that Russia is reemerging as a threat to the U.S. and Europe.
Speaking within hours of Barack Obama’s election, Medvedev did not mention or congratulate the president-elect once, but his remarks were primarily aimed at the U.S. Medvedev claimed the missiles had been positioned in response to American plans to build an antiballistic missile defense system in Europe and lashed out at the “construction of a global missile defense system, the encirclement of Russia by military blocs, unrestrained NATO enlargement and other gifts.”
Medvedev went on to blame the U.S. for the global financial crisis, proclaim the end of American dominance in the world, and criticize the “mistaken, egotistical and sometimes simply dangerous decisions of certain members of the international community.”
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November 12th, 2008 at 06:15am
On October 20-21, 2008 the ASEAN Workshop on Domestic Violence Legislation was held in Hanoi, Vietnam in celebration of the country’s National Women’s Day. The workshop is one of the projects created under the Framework for Cooperation between ASEAN and the United Nations Fund For Women. Participants included over 60 ASEAN Member States.
The purpose of the workshop was to address the international issue of domestic violence. Representatives met to discuss ways of drafting, implementing, and monitoring domestic violence legislation as well as increase regional cooperation in order to prevent and control future domestic violence.
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November 12th, 2008 at 06:11am
Now that Americans have chosen the 44th President, international lawyers are beginning to scrutinize President-Elect Obama’s approach to foreign policy, and with that, how he perceives international law.
During the Democratic primaries Obama was quizzed by the American Society of International Law, and he emphasized the importance of international law in the conduct of American foreign policy, stating:
“Since the founding of our nation, the United States has championed international law because we benefit from it. Promoting – and respecting – clear rules that are consistent with our values allows us to hold all nations to a high standard of behavior, and to mobilize friends and allies against those nations that break the rules. Promoting strong international norms helps us advance many interests, including non-proliferation, free and fair trade, a clean environment, and protecting our troops in wartime. Respect for international legal norms also plays a vital role in fighting terrorism. Because the [George W. Bush] Administration cast aside international norms that reflect American values, such as the Geneva Conventions, we are less able to promote those values abroad.”
The ASIL survey can be accessed here.
Obama’s stance echoes Harvard Professor Noah Feldman’s discussion of international law in this recent article.
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November 10th, 2008 at 09:34pm
The General Assembly and the Security Council of the United Nations voted last week to elect five new members to the International Court of Justice. The five judges haling from Jordan, France, Brazil, the United Kingdom, and Somalia were affirmed for a nine-year term beginning in February 2009.
The International Court of Justice consists of 15 judges - three for Africa, two for Latin America, three for Asia, five for Western Europe and other States, and two for Eastern Europe and Russia. One third of the membership is renewed every three years, and no two judges may be from the same country.
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November 10th, 2008 at 11:25am
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon encouraged the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and neighboring nations (namely, Rwanda, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi, and South Africa) to take “urgent measures to contain the present crisis created by the upsurge of fighting in eastern DRC” at a UN-backed summit hosted by the African Union on November 7. He expressed deep concern at fresh fighting in the province of North Kivu between Government forces (FARDC) and the National Congress in Defence of the People (CNDP) and stressed that the escalation of violence would be felt not only by the Congolese people but across the region. He called for efforts to broker a political solution, which would involve a ceasefire, disengagement of troops, and disarmament of armed groups. In addition, he requested that the Security Council add 3,000 troops to reinforce the 17,000-strong UN peacekeeping force in the DRC, known as MONUC. Currently, 5,000 peacekeepers are in North Kivu, trying to carry out MONUC’s mandate to protect civilians from the violence. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that the total number of internally displaced people in North Kivu since September is now estimated at 252,000, in addition to the existing 800,000 displaced from earlier hostilities.
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November 10th, 2008 at 11:23am
On November 4th and 5th, the Ministers of Economy and senior officials from seven Central Asian countries met for a conference hosted by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Mongolia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan all had representatives in attendance. The goal of the meeting was for the parties to form an initiative to improve the business climate in the region. Foreign direct investment in the area is low, and it is hoped that cooperation will help to establish a more hospitable climate for business activity. International stakeholders such as the European Commission will assist the initiative through the formation of working groups to provide advice on addressing common challenges.
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November 9th, 2008 at 02:57pm
A World Trade Organization report published on November 5 has confirmed that growth in world merchandise trade slipped in 2007 to 6% from 8.5% in 2006. One of the primary causes of the slowdown is the reduction of import demand in the United States, Europe and Japan. Realignments in exchange rates and fluctuations in commodity prices also contributed to uncertainties in the global markets in 2007.
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November 8th, 2008 at 10:52am
On 4th November 2008, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Luis Moreno-Ocampo expressed concern over the situation in the Kivus area of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). He further reiterated that his Office is closely monitoring the reports on the attacks on civilian populations in the area.
Armed conflict between the Laurent Nkunda led National Conference for the Defence of the People (CNDP), Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) and the military of the Democratic Republic of Congo (FARDC) has been continuous since the beginning of this decade.
Recalling that the ICC has jurisdiction to investigate and prosecute war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide committed in the territory of the DRC or by Congolese nationals since 01 July 2002, the Prosecutor observed that “Crimes must stop. The people in the two provinces of North and South Kivu have already suffered too much. Rapes, massive displacements are serious crimes and will not go unpunished”
The Office of the Prosecutor is investigating commission of such crimes by individuals belonging to all the groups operating in the area, including the CNDP, the FDLR and the FARDC. After meeting a delegation of Congolese Parliamentarians, the Prosecutor urged all actors, including regional and international organizations, to assist the DRC authorities, particularly in the execution of the ICC arrest warrant against Bosco Ntaganda, who is the chief of staff of Laurent Nkunda’s CNDP and has an active role in the conflict. The focus of this investigation will be announced shortly by the Prosecutor. For further information, please click here
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November 3rd, 2008 at 01:07am
On Tuesday, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called for an end to the violence in the North Kivu province in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. The intensity of the conflict between Government forces (FARDC) and a militia group known as the National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP), led by former general Laurent Nkunda, has increased in the past several days .
Over the past several days, more than 45,000 people have fled internally displaced persons camps (IDPs) in North Kivu, while over 1,000 other Congolese have sought refuge in Uganda. The conflict between the FARDC and the CNDP, which began in August, has left 250,000 Congolese homeless and another 850,000 in IDPs.
Mr. Ban referenced “the use of civilians as human shields,” “the exchange of heavy weapons across the…DRC-Rwanda border,” “the collapse of discipline” among government forces, and “the targeting of UN peacekeepers” as particularly deplorable elements of the conflict. In addition, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) reported an inability to deliver over 100,000 metric tons of food due to the violence.
Nevertheless, Mr. Ban praised the UN peacekeeping mission in the DRC, MONUC, for its efforts to protect civilian lives. In recent days, he dispatched senior advisors to the region to meet with key leaders. Mr. Ban’s Special Representative Alan Doss emphasized, “What we want is for the CNDP to enter a process and stay in the process and remain committed to agreements they have signed.” To that end, Mr. Ban announced that “MONUC will use all necessary means, within the limits of its capacity to carry out its mandate,” which includes attempting to bring the CNDP and Congolese government to the negotiate in order to end what Mr. Ban has termed “a humanitarian crisis of catastrophic dimensions.”
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