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NEWSLETTER(Page 9)
Main Index
Index:
* Clarification of human rights based intervention needed to counter humanitarian tragedies, says IBAHRI
* the 4th Annual Bar Leaders' Conference
* FESTIVITY OF SANT RAIMON DE PENYAFORT 2009
* Commentary on the IBA's Rule of Law Resolution-response required
* UN human rights body to send fact-finding mission to Gaza
* ?Is Israel's Gaza War a New War Crime
* UN official urges steps to ensure Gaza crisis does not lead to further extremism
* ITC-UN/WTO: Invitation to contracts' committee: 21 - 22 April2009
* War crimes convictions after Gaza?
* Clarification of human rights based intervention needed to counter humanitarian tragedies, says IBAHRI
| International Bar Associations Human Rights Institute | |
Please see the news releases below. If you are able to place this on your website or in your organisations journal/ newsletter, or forward to your media contacts, that would be most welcome.
Best wishes,
Romana
NEWS RELEASE
INTERNATIONAL BAR ASSOCIATION
the global voice of the legal profession
[For immediate release: Wednesday, 10 December 2008]
Clarification of human rights based intervention needed to counter humanitarian tragedies, says IBAHRI
Today, on the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Bar Associations Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI) has sent to the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon, its just-published commentary:
The responsibility to protect in the case of humanitarian crises: an emerging norm of international law? The concept of the right to protect advocates the responsibility of the international community to intervene when a state fails to protect its own citizens. With current debates focusing on the controversial option of military intervention in egregious situations around the world, the IBAHRI calls upon the UN to give a clear and consistent definition and guidance on the use of the responsibility to protect.
Richard Goldstone, Co-Chair of the IBAHRI, stated that, the current situation in Zimbabwe, as well as the humanitarian catastrophe following the May 2008 cyclone in Burma, which resulted in nearly 80,000 deaths, demonstrates the urgent need for this concept to be clarified so that appropriate action can be taken as and when necessary. The principle needs solid guidelines in order to gain general support from all states.
The responsibility to protect constitutes a remarkable advance in the protection of human rights and it has the potential to be an extremely powerful tool, said Emilio Cárdenas, Co-Chair of the IBAHRI. It is timely on Human Rights Day to reflect on the limits and definition of this instrument to ensure it is well understood and applied.
Click here to download from the IBA website: The responsibility to protect in the case of humanitarian crises: an emerging norm of international law?
[http://www.ibanet.org//images/downloads/12_2008_Dec08_Paper_The_responsibility_to_protect_in_the_case_of_humanitarian_crises.pdf]
For further information please contact:
Dr Phillip Tahmindjis
Deputy Director
Human Rights Institute
International Bar association
10th Floor
1 Stephen Street
London W1T 1AT
United Kingdom
Tel: + 44 (0)20 7691 6868
Fax: + 44 (0)20 7691 6544
E-mail: phillip.tahmindjis@int-bar.org
Website: www.ibanet.org
Romana St Matthew - Daniel
Press Office
International Bar Association
10th Floor
1 Stephen Street
London W1T 1AT
United Kingdom
Tel: + 44 (0)20 7691 6868
Fax: + 44 (0)20 7691 6544
E-mail: romana.daniel@int-bar.org
Website: www.ibanet.org
Notes to the Editor
Related material
BBC Radio 4 discussion: Is it time for military intervention in Zimbabwe?
Click here to listen to IBA Executive Director, Mark Ellis, in conversation on the BBC Radio 4 The World Tonight programme recorded on Monday 8 December 2008.
Duration: 6minutes
[http://www.ibanet.org/images/downloads/12_2008_Dec08_BBC_worldtonight_zimbabwe.ram]
Click here for the transcript of the programme.
[http://www.ibanet.org//images/downloads/12_2008_Dec08_Transcription_BBC_Radio4_The_World_Tonight_Is_it_time_for_military_intervention_in_Zimbabwe.pdf]
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* the 4th Annual Bar Leaders' Conference
| Paris from 20 - 21 May 2009. |  |
Please find attached information regarding the 4th Annual Bar Leaders' Conference which will be held in Paris from 20 - 21 May 2009.
As indicated on the flyer, the programme is not ready as yet but you will all be sent a copy as soon as it is. For now please do make a note in your diaries to save the dates!
We also recommend that you make enquiries with regard to any visa applications which may be necessary well in advance. Please note that we can provide conference invitation letters only when registration has been completed and payment has been received.
Many thanks and kind regards,
Sibylle
Sibylle Duell
PPID & BIC Administrator
***********************************
A conference presented by the Bar Issues Commission of the International Bar Association, hosted by the Conseil National des Barreaux and the Paris Bar Acossiation
2021 May 2009 Maison du Barreau, 2 rue Harlay, 75001 Paris
4th Annual
Bar Leaders
Conference 2009
Sessions will encourage the involvement and interaction of bar leaders in discussions with top level panels on a variety of topics such as:
Lawyers and the Financial Industry Meltdown
Double Deontology Are conflicting professional rules and legal
obligations hindering cross border transactions, and if so what can be done about this?
Church and State Speration ou cohabitation?
Expanding the concept of the OHADA* Treaty 15 years later regional integration between African bars
Conflicts of interest rules in comparison and their impact on the international practice of law
The enlargement of the law profession: A french perspective *Organization for the Harmonization of Business Law in Africa
Who should attend?
Bar presidents, senior officers, executives, training officers and
individual practitioners with an interest in the regulatory perspective
on legal issues.
The full programme and registration form will be available in February 2009.
If you would like to receive the full programme, please send your contact details to elaine.owen@int-bar.org.
For further information, please contact:
International Bar Association
10th Floor, 1 Stephen Street
London W1T 1AT
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0)20 7691 6868 Fax: +44 (0)20 7691 6544
E-mail: bic@int-bar.org Website: www.ibanet.org
A conference presented by the Bar Issues Commission of the International Bar
Association, hosted by the Conseil National des Barreaux and the Paris Bar Association
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* FESTIVITY OF SANT RAIMON DE PENYAFORT 2009
| www.icab.es | |
We would like to remind you that the Festivity of the Barcelona Bar Associaton, Sant Raimon de Penyafort, will take place on the 29th. and 30th. of January 2009.
The programme will be as follows :
Thursday 29th. January 2009
7.30 p.m. Welcome Reception offered by the Mayor of Barcelona
Ajuntament de Barcelona
Plaa Sant Jaume, s/n
(Transport will be provided by the organisation)
Friday 30th. January 2009
9.30a.m. - 1.30pm. Trobades de Barcelona, Memorial Jacques HENRY
8th. floor, Barcelona Bar Association
Welcoming words : Silvia GIMENEZ-SALINAS, President of the Barcelona Bar Association
Subject : Round tables on Arbitration
Round table 1 : The pitfalls of arbitration and how to avoid them
Round table 2 : The arbitration enforcement avenue
Presidents of International LawyersAssociations and experts on this subject will intervene, as speakers, at this meeting.
5.00 p.m. Formal Session
Assembly Hall, Barcelona Bar Association
9.30 p.m. Gala Dinner
Institut Nacional dEducació Física
(Transport will be provided by the organisation)
Please, find attached the following information: registration form for the working session, the accompayning programme and the accomodation form to be sent before 16th of January to IURISTRAVEL. After these dates, we cannot guarantee availability.
We look forward to meeting you in Barcelona on the occasion of our Festivity.
Yours faithfully.
International Department
Barcelona Bar Association
Mallorca, 283
08037 Barcelona
Tel. 34.93.496.19.21
Fax.34.93.487.94.18
E-mail : internacional@icab.es
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* Commentary on the IBA's Rule of Law Resolution-response required
My sincere apologies for omitting the attached Commmentary in my earlier e-mail.
Sibylle
Dear IBA Council Member,
IBA Council - Commentary on the Rule of Law
This email is being sent to remind those of you who have not yet responded that your comments on and suggested amendments to the Commentary should be sent to Elaine Owen so as to arrive no later than 31 January 2009. For ease of reference I attach a copy of the text of the commentary. The original request for comments sent by Elaine Owen on 19 November is below.
In Buenos Aires reservations were expressed by Policy Committee members and representatives of Member Organisations about some aspects of the Commentary. It was therefore decided that all Member Organisations should have another chance to express any concerns they may have.
The Rule of Law Action Group and subsequently the BIC Policy Committee will consider all comments and suggested amendments.
As was agreed at the Council meeting in Buenos Aires either the revised version will be included in the IBA Council agenda in Paris for noting only or the Co-Chairs of the Rule of Law Action Group may wish to bring forward a proposed amendment to the 2005 resolution. If the latter is the case then IBA Member Organisations may wish to discuss the amended 2005 resolution in Paris before a resolution is brought before the Council in Madrid to adopt it.
Please send your comments to Elaine Owen at elaine.owen@int-bar.org.
Many thanks and kind regards
Sibylle
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Elaine Owen
Sent: 19 November 2008 11:38
To: Elaine Owen
Cc: Sibylle Duell
Subject: Commentary on the IBA's Rule of Law Resolution - response required
Dear IBA Council member
At the Buenos Aires Council meeting, Francis Neate, Chair of the IBA Action Group on the Rule of Law set forth a commentary he had prepared on the IBA's 2005 Rule of Law Resolution. This document has been prepared over the past year in consultation with the rule of law action group and the BIC Policy Committee.
At the meeting it was suggested that before this document is put to a vote for acceptance by the IBA Council, every member organisation of the IBA should have the opportunity to comment, or make suggestions as to the drafting of the commentary. The IBA President agreed with this and has asked me to contact each of you for a response.
Therefore, as the representative Councillor of your organisation, it is your responsibility to advise the IBA whether you have any comments to make on the document. Please read it carefully and then reply to me as follows:
1. Advising that you have no comment to make.
2. With any amendments or comments you would like to suggest.
The IBA wishes to engage all its member organisations in contributing to key documents such as this that are placed before the IBA Council. Your response would be appreciated - even if it is with no comment so that I know that the document has been received and considered. As you will see, my email is elaine.owen@int-bar.org
The deadline for receipt of responses is 31st January 2009.
With kind regards.
Elaine Owen
BIC Project Manager
Link to ''Commentary on the IBA's Rule of Law Resolution - response required''
*****************************************************************
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* UN human rights body to send fact-finding mission to Gaza
| Martin Uhomoibhi President of the Human Rights Council and Navi Pillay, High Commissioner for Human Rights at the ninth special session of the Council | |
Canada cast the only negative vote for the non-binding resolution, which received the support of 33 of the Councils 47 members, while 13 countries abstained.
In adopting the text, the Geneva-based body demanded that Israel which launched the latest offensive 17 days ago with the stated aim of ending Hamas rocket attacks into Israel immediately end its attacks and withdraw its military forces from Gaza.
The Councils action came as it wrapped up a special session begun last Friday to consider the grave violations of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory, including the recent aggression in the occupied Gaza Strip.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay stressed to the Council on Friday that international human rights law must apply in all circumstances and at all times, and strongly urged the parties to the conflict to fulfil their obligations under international humanitarian law to collect, care for and evacuate the wounded and to protect and respect health workers, hospitals, and medical units and ambulances.
Accountability must be ensured for violations of international law, she said, suggesting that the Council consider a mission to assess violations committed by both sides in the conflict in order to establish the relevant facts and ensure accountability.
The latest casualty figures according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health are 883 Palestinians killed since the operation began on 27 December, including at least 85 women and 284 children, as well as 4,057 wounded.
In addition, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) reports that some 21,555 people have been displaced by the conflict.
In its resolution today, the Council also requested Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to investigate the latest targeting of UNRWA facilities in Gaza, including schools, which have resulted in the killing of tens of Palestinian civilians, including women and children.
Mr. Ban begins a visit to the region on Wednesday as part of his ongoing diplomatic efforts to bring about an end to the hostilities.
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=29512&Cr=Gaza&Cr1=
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* ?Is Israel's Gaza War a New War Crime
| By Dennis Bernstein January 17, 2009 | |
The use of the internationally banned substance white phosphorus in highly densely populated areas of the Gaza Strip gives new meaning to the phrase ''white power.'' White western supremacy enforced by latest advanced weaponry.
And not only white phosphorus, but also the latest in bunker buster bombs, unmanned drones, not to mention U.S.-made F-16 fighter jets, Apache helicopters, etc.
Journalists, human rights officials, international aid workers, and many doctors and field medics, including high officials of the Red Cross and the UN, have accused the Israelis of using white phosphorus illegally against civilian populations, as well as other advanced weaponry. They have repeatedly witnessed burns on civilians, including women and children, consistent with the use of white phosphorous.
Meanwhile, Richard Falk, internationally respected legal scholar, and Special Reporter for the UN on Human Rights in Occupied Palestine, stated in a recent interview that Israel has potentially committed a new kind of war crime, by making it impossible for endangered civilians to flee a war zone.
Israel has basically locked the population into this war zone and as far as I know, that hasn't really happened before in such a systematic way and it probably should be considered a new kind of war crime, said Falk.
On Jan. 15, Israeli forces bombed several hospitals and a UN compound. As many as 500 people were sheltering in the Al-Quds Hospital in the city's southwestern Tal Al-Hawa district when it was bombed multiple times by Israel and set on fire.
A hospital spokesman said the fire was sparked by phosphorus shells. ''We have been able to control the fire in the hospital, the spokesman told reporters, but not in the administrative building. We hope that the flames don't spread again to the wings of the hospital.''
Sharon Lock is an independent journalist and human rights activist from Australia. For the past two weeks, Lock has been riding in a Red Crescent ambulance in Gaza, documenting attacks on medics and ambulances, as they try to reach hundreds of victims of the bombings, people cut down in the streets or caught under the rubble of hundreds of destroyed buildings.
According to Lock, who was in Al-Quds Hospital when it was struck multiple times, 80 percent of the calls for help have gone unanswered, because Israeli forces attack the medics when they try to retrieve the wounded and the dead, even after they have been given permission to move in.
In an interview on Jan. 16, Lock described the attack on Al-Quds Hospital, in a densely populated part of Gaza City, one of three medical centers bombed by Israel in a single day.
During the night we had quite a lot of attacks, about 50 strikes people counted in our immediate area, she told me, and about 4 or 5 had actually hit our building. The two that did involve major damage happened in the morning ...
One was a rocket that went through the wall of the hospital, into the pharmacy building, and we retrieved the rocket shell. The other went through the roof of the social center, which was a part of the hospital complex, and that started the fire on the roof which the medics were fighting.
We did manage to put it out eventually but it was quite difficult. And then, actually, we were only in the middle of getting the last bits of the fire out, when we heard shouting from upstairs and went up to the main steps and I saw my medical colleague covered in blood.
He said that he'd just picked up a little girl who was part of a family fleeing their house, and who had come to the hospital to take shelter. He heard screaming and had gone out and saw she had been shot by a sniper, and had gunshot wounds to her face and also to her abdomen and so he swept her off and brought her in for surgery.
Later the central building at Al-Quds was bombed and also set ablaze. Lock and other medical staff had to walk hundreds of Palestinians, who had fled to the hospital for safety, through the darkened streets to another location in front of Israeli snipers who had taken positions on the roofs of various building near the hospital.
Overflowing Morgues
Caoimhe Butterly is an Irish human rights activist working in Gaza City as a volunteer with ambulance services and as co-coordinator for the Free Gaza Movement. Butterly describes in troubling detail what life was like at Shifa Hospital, another key medical center attacked by Israel with U.S.-made weaponry.
The morgues of Gaza's hospitals are overflowing. The bodies in their blood-soaked white shrouds cover the entire floor space of the Shifa Hospital's morgue. Some are intact, most horribly deformed, limbs twisted into unnatural positions, chest cavities exposed, heads blown off, skulls crushed in.
Family members wait outside to identify and claim a brother, husband, father, mother, wife, child. Many of those who wait their turn have lost numerous family members and loved ones. ... Blood is everywhere. Hospital orderlies hose down the floors of operating rooms, bloodied bandages lie discarded in corners, and the injured continue to pour in bodies lacerated by shrapnel, burns, bullet wounds. Medical workers, exhausted and under siege, work day and night and each life saved is seen as a victory over the predominance of death.
On the same day, Israeli shells rained down on a UN compound in Gaza City, setting fire to its warehouses and reducing to ashes tons of sorely needed food and medical aid. Some 700 Palestinians had fled to the UN complex at the time of the bombings and a number of them were wounded.
John Ging, director of United Nations Relief and Works Agency in the Gaza Strip, accused the Israelis of bombing the UN Food Complex with phosphorus shells.''They are phosphorus fires so they are extremely difficult to put out because, if you put water on, it will just generate toxic fumes and do nothing to stop the burning,'' he said.
On Jan. 17, two Palestinian young boys, brothers aged five and seven, were killed when Israeli tank fire hit a UN school in Gaza. Twenty-five other Gazans were wounded in the shelling at the school run by the UN relief agency in Beit Lahiya, The school was the third UN shelter to be hit by Israeli fire in its 22-day war on the tiny Gaza strip.
Christopher Gunness, a spokesman for the UN-run school, said several tank rounds hit the school. The third floor of the school took a direct hit after a short pause, killing the pair of brothers and injuring another 14 people.
Gunness said about 1,600 civilians had sought refuge from the fighting inside the building when it was hit. And he made it clear that Israel knew what it was hitting.
''The Israeli army knew exactly our GPS coordinates and they would have known that hundreds of people had taken shelter there,'' he told Arab-run news services. ''When you have a direct hit into the third floor of a UN school, there has to be an investigation to see if a war crime has been committed.''
John Ging added ''People today are alleging war crimes here in Gaza. Lets have it properly accounted for. Lets have the legal process which will establish exactly what has happened here. It is another failure for our humanity and it is exposing the impotence of our [the international community's] inability to protect civilians in conflict.''
The statistics through the 20th day of the war over 1,100 Palestinians dead, of which 300 are children, and 5,400 more wounded, some critically. So far the Israeli strikes have claimed over 15 mosques, many schools, at least three hospitals, several UN facilities, more than six field medics, and hundreds of private homes and civilian apartment buildings.
Tutus Concern
In 2006, Nobel Laureate Bishop Desmond Tutu, one of the leaders of the South African anti-apartheid movement, was prevented from entering Israel and the Gaza Strip to investigate another potential massacre of innocent Palestinian civilians.
It took him two years to finally get in. Tutu has been quoted many times in regards to the similarities between the former apartheid system in South Africa and the current treatment of occupied Palestinians.
Tutu wrote in 2003, Yesterday's South African township dwellers can tell you about today's life in the Occupied Territories. To travel only blocks in his own homeland, a (Palestinian) grandfather waits on the whim of a teenage soldier.
More than an emergency is needed to get to a hospital; less than a crime earns a trip to jail. The lucky ones have a permit to leave their squalor to work in Israel's cities, but their luck runs out when security closes all checkpoints, paralyzing an entire people. The indignities, dependence and anger are all too familiar. Many South Africans are beginning to recognize the parallels to what we went through.
Last month, just before Israel's air war started, Richard Falk, the current UN special reporter for human rights in the occupied territories, was also turned away from Israel. In a recent interview, Falk told me that while he couldn't prove that Israel's pre-planned war against Hamas was a part of the reason, he was convinced it was.
Falk characterized Israels attacks on Gaza as nothing short of a humanitarian disaster and stated that Israel may be guilty of a series of war crimes, including a new kind of war crime characterized by heavy bombing attacks on civilian populations who have no possibility of fleeing.
I think that one needs to recognize that this is a devastating series of attacks on a civilian population that was already greatly weakened by 18 months of a blockade that restricted the entry of food medicine and fuel in such a way that international civil servants on the ground in Gaza and journalists were anticipating the possible collapse of Gazan society, said Falk.
So, its important to recognize that these attacks came on top of this prior situation that had already driven the civilian society to the point of near desperation. ... In my view it is already an unfolding humanitarian catastrophe. The legal implications of that situation are more complex. I think there is no doubt that the Israeli attacks since Dec. 27th constitute massive violations of international humanitarian law and of the UN Charter that prohibits the non-defensive use of force. Whether these violations add up to crimes against humanity is something that needs to be validated.
Falk also talked about a new kind of potential war crime.
The overall tactics that have been employed by Israel have one feature that has been not very well articulated in the media, and thats the entrapment of a civilian population in a war zone. The Gazans have been denied the option of becoming refugees, which is not a pleasant option to choose, but if you're seeking safety from a war zone that is threatening your life and the life of your family and children and so on, the refugee option is the least terrible option available to a civilian society, particularly in a place like Gaza where the density of population is so great and the area is so small.
But Israel has closed the exit and has basically locked the population into this war zone and as far as I know, that hasn't really happened before in such a systematic way and it probably should be considered a new kind of war crime.
Reporting Blackout
Meanwhile, Israel has attempted to impose a total blackout on reporting about its current land, air and sea war against Gaza. It has not only forbidden journalists from going into the Gaza Strip, but has also bombed them if they managed to get in.
In Israel, over 800 Israelis, most of them Palestinians, have been arrested protesting the attacks in Gaza. The secret police inside Israel have made it particularly difficult to protest and have rounded up entire protests that were peaceful in nature, accusing the protesters of endangering the morale of the state.
On the political front, the Israeli Knesset has taken actions to ban duly elected Arab members of the Israeli parliament, calling them in essence traitors and enemies of the Jewish state.
Are these the actions of the democratic state that Hillary Clinton and President-Elect Obama have vowed to stand side-by-side with? Are these the policies we can expect to be supported by the new administration?
I have to wonder what goes through Obamas mind when he goes on the Internet and sees how the country he has sworn to support is using advanced U.S. weaponry to bomb a locked-down population of 1.5 million, half children, already on the brink of starvation.
Dennis Bernstein is an award-winning investigative reporter and public radio producer. He is co-host and executive producer of the daily radio news magazine, Flashpoints, on Pacifica Radio, and a contributing editor to the Pacific News Service.
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* UN official urges steps to ensure Gaza crisis does not lead to further extremism
People are increasingly angry about what has happened here. That is perfectly understandable. But we want to channel the emotions now into something constructive and positive, John Ging, Director of Operations in Gaza for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), told a news conference in New York via video-link from the ground.
The 22-day offensive, which Israel launched on 27 December with the stated aim of ending Hamas rocket attacks, claimed over 1,300 lives and wounded more than 5,450, in addition to causing widespread damage and destruction.
Mr. Ging cautioned that those bent on extremism have been emboldened by what has happened because it has generated a high degree of grief, frustration and despair.
He stressed the need to restore the peoples confidence that there will be accountability and that they can rely on the rule of law being applied equally, fairly and objectively. That is a big, big challenge, he said, noting that there is a lot of cynicism on the ground as to whether that will be achieved. If we dont then we are defeated by the extremists. Its as simple as that.
The other priority is to restore people to a dignified existence, and the key there is the crossing points. He said he understood there are political, operational and security challenges to opening up the crossings, but it is time to put the peoples interests before all other and find solutions.
Ordinary people here have carried the burden for far too long. Theyve paid a phenomenal price, he said, noting the suffering endured by Gazas 1.5 million residents as a result of Israels closure of crossing points into the Strip.
We have to actually prioritize their needs, stand with them and realize that change means opening up the crossing points, and from that will flow all other elements that we hope to achieve in terms of positive impact, and not just on the daily lives of the people here but also on the perspective in terms of security, stability and the peace process, he stressed.
We need now to focus on getting the crossing open, that will then facilitate and enable not only the humanitarian effort but the restoration of a dignified existence for the people here.
The issue of crossings also came up during a meeting last night between Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator John Holmes and Israeli officials, with Mr. Holmes underscoring the need for regular and unimpeded movement of humanitarian aid workers and relief supplies into Gaza.
Mr. Holmes had a chance to see for himself the impact of Israels offensive during a visit to Gaza yesterday, accompanied by the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Robert Serry.
They met with many of the victims of the violence, as well as medical teams and representatives of UN agencies, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the Red Cross and Red Crescent movement, all of whom were at the forefront of the humanitarian response.
The UN humanitarian chief said the level of human suffering and destruction he witnessed was heartbreaking, adding that it is shocking that civilians suffered so disproportionately in this military operation.
Meanwhile, all schools run by UNRWA in Gaza are scheduled to open tomorrow one week later than the current school semester was supposed to have started. The schools will focus on the childrens psycho-social needs in the first weeks of operation, before resuming the teaching of core subjects.
In addition, the Office of the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process (UNSCO) reports that a mine action assessment team involving the UN Mine Action Service arrived in Gaza today to look at the scope and scale of the unexploded ordnance problem.
UNSCO stressed that the number of trucks allowed into the Gaza Strip needs to be increased. In particular, it is crucial that the Sufa crossing be opened for basic construction materials to allow for the repair of public infrastructure and private homes.
In addition, chronically ill patients who were receiving care outside of the Gaza Strip prior to the conflict urgently need to resume their treatment.
UNSCO also notes that cash has still not entered the Gaza Strip except for the staff of a few international organizations. Cash is urgently needed to reactivate the private sector and prevent increasing dependence on aid, UNSCO underscored.
For its part, the Executive Board of the World Health Organization (WHO) has adopted a resolution requesting that WHOs Director-General send a specialized health mission to Gaza, with the aim of identifying urgent health and humanitarian needs and assessing the destruction of medical facilities
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Senior UN officials survey shocking aftermath of Israeli offensive in Gaza
22 January 2009 Senior United Nations officials today began their assessment of the humanitarian needs in Gaza, getting a first-hand look at the damage and destruction inflicted on the Strips 1.5 million residents during three weeks of Israeli military operations.
The mission was struck by the scale and urgency of the needs of the people of Gaza, and the heavy and multi-faceted impact that this conflict has had on the civilian population, according to a joint statement issued by Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes and UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Robert Serry.
The 22-day offensive, which Israel launched on 27 December with the stated aim of ending Hamas rocket attacks, claimed over 1,300 lives, 412 of them children, and wounded more than 5,450, 1,855 of them children, as well as causing widespread destruction and suffering.
The bombing and shelling caused extensive damage to civilian facilities throughout the Strip, and supplies of basic food and fuel, and the provision of electricity, water and sanitation services remain critical.
We saw a lot of shocking destruction, Mr. Holmes said in an interview with UN Radio, describing the scene at several sites in Gaza, including the still-smouldering ruins of the UN compound that was hit last week by Israeli forces. What is evident when youre there is how miraculous it was that no one was killed.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has demanded a thorough investigation by Israel into all attacks against UN facilities in Gaza, and that those responsible be held accountable for their actions.
Mr. Holmes stressed that it was crucial to ensure that investigations do take place, adding that questions of compensation will arise because there was obviously very significant damage... to UN installations, work and UN staff.
During the course of their mission, Mr. Holmes and Mr. Serry will meet with Israeli authorities to underscore that countrys role in facilitating humanitarian assistance for the people of Gaza, including the need for full, timely, and unrestricted access for all goods and humanitarian actors.
They are also meeting the Palestinian Authority regarding the best way to scale up humanitarian assistance in Gaza.
Once the assessment is completed, the UN will launch a Flash Humanitarian Appeal for Gaza in early February.
Meanwhile, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) today began emergency distributions of vitamin A-fortified date bars and high-energy biscuits to thousands of displaced people in Gaza City. The distributions also include ready-to-eat meals for hospitals and milk for children. They are part of WFPs recently launched Operation Lifeline Gaza. The agency is also scaling up its regular distributions of wheat flour, vegetable oil, chick peas and sugar.
WFP emphasized that all crossing points into Gaza will need to be re-opened for the agency to be able to move 600 tons of food every day into the Strip as is currently planned. So far WFP shipments have only been crossing through Kerem Shalom, at the southern tip of the Gaza Strip, including shipments from Egypt.
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* ITC-UN/WTO: Invitation to contracts' committee: 21 - 22 April2009
Dear Colleague,
Invitation to participate in the ITC Pro-bono Committee on
International Model Contracts for Exporting SMEs
This letter is an invitation made to you or your organisation to participate, as Member, in the coming working session of ITCs Pro-bono Committee on International Model Contracts for Exporting SMEs. The meeting will be held in Geneva on 21 22 April 2009 at the World Meteorological Organization where some twelve draft model contracts will be examined and fine-tuned. The International Trade Centre (ITC) is a joint technical cooperation agency of the United Nations and the World Trade Organization. It promotes sustainable and inclusive development through trade by focusing in particular on the needs of exporting small and medium sized enterprises. (ITCs website: www.intracen.org).
ITC is developing a series of international model contracts specially designed for SMEs involved in international trade. The aim is to offer SMEs, on-line and free of charge, through their local chambers of commerce and other trade support institutions, some twelve basic international model contracts covering SMEs trade activities, together with short guidelines and capacity-building support. The projects objectives and choice of agreements are largely based on responses to a survey covering 43 countries. A particular drafting challenge is to offer solutions that not only are internationally acceptable, reflecting current practice and trade usages, but that are relevant and practical to smaller companies. These model contracts are being developed on a pro-bono basis. By being part of this process, you will be contributing as an active member of the international legal community to the Millenium Development Goals.
Under the Chairmanship of Professor Jean-Paul Vullity (Geneva) a multinational pro-bono drafting team is currently completing the initial drafts of the following model contract forms: commercial sale of goods; long-term supply of goods; contract for the manufacture of goods; commercial agency; brokerage or introductory agent; distributorship; long-term supply of services; one-shot general services agreement; short form corporate joint venture; short form contractual joint venture; confidentiality clauses.
All these drafts will be scrutinized and amended in Geneva at the plenary sessions of the Pro-bono Committee on International Model Contracts for Exporting SMEs, to which you are invited to participate, on 21 and 22 April 2009. The meeting will end at noon on 22 April. During that meeting, contracts and boilerplate clauses will be examined in thematic working groups. It is important that the membership offers true legal expertise as well as the widest possible spectrum of geographical, economic and cultural representation. We will ensure that the number of participants will not exceed what is required for fruitful, effective work.
We project that the model contracts as well as the guidance notes will be published as of June 2009 and thereafter translated into French and Spanish and several other languages. Of course, all participating Pro-bono Committee members will be listed in the Acknowledgement section of the contracts and will receive copies of the international model contracts (following their on-line publication). It is anticipated that the model contracts will be used extensively. They will be included in the ad-hoc project website, will be distributed on line and further training will be offered through trade support institutions.
If you are willing to share your knowledge and experience by participating in the Pro-bono Committee, please find below information and registration form.
Yours sincerely,
Jean-Franois Bourque
Senior Legal Adviser
Business Environment Section
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* War crimes convictions after Gaza?
| FOCUS: CRISIS IN GAZA Mark S Ellis, the executive director of the International Bar Association (IBA) By Anita Rice | |
Thursday, January 22, 2009
As the UN and human rights groups demand independent investigations into the conduct of Israels offensive in the Gaza Strip, the worlds attention is focusing on whether Israeli or Hamas officials could face prosecution for war crimes.
Whatever the inquiries find, bringing suspected war criminals to court will be far from straightforward.
There is a world of difference between establishing that war crimes have been committed, and then holding those responsible to account, says Mark S Ellis, the executive director of the International Bar Association (IBA).
''Often, people view these as the same, but they are not under international law. There is a gap ... regarding the issue of accountability,'' Ellis says.
Even if independent inquiries do establish that gross violations of the laws of armed conflict have taken place during the war in Gaza, the mechanisms to ensure those responsible on either side are brought to justice ''simply dont exist''.
Four options
There are four main options open to states, groups or individuals seeking to launch legal proceedings against suspects should investigators find war crimes have been committed during the 22-day assault on the Strip, Ellis says.
All four routes are fraught with complexities, particularly in relation to the Gaza conflict.
Israel has been accused of using white phosphorus in attacks [GALLO/GETTY] First, individual war crime cases would ordinarily be referred to the International Criminal Court (ICC).
''The ICC simply doesnt have jurisdiction over this conflict,'' says Ellis, ''because Israel has not signed up to the Rome Statute [that enshrined the ICC].''
As the ICC requires states to adopt the courts jurisdiction, it is unable to bring any actions against non-signatories itself, unless the UN Security Council votes to refer specific cases for potential prosecution.
While that happened when ICC prosecutors accused Omar al-Bashir, the president of Sudan - another non-signatory state - of committing war crimes in Darfur, it is unlikely to occur in relation to the Israel-Gaza conflict.
Gaza is not formally recognised as a state by the UN and ''the US, and perhaps other [security council] member states, would veto any resolution that would ask for the ICC to investigate Israel,'' says Ellis.
''The ICC option is effectively closed.''
The second route would be for the UN General Assembly to request an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice (ICJ), also based in The Hague, on the legality of specific actions taken by states.
However, the ICJ has no enforcement powers, as was witnessed by its inability to act following its ruling that Israels construction of a separation barrier breached aspects of international law.
The ICJ requested Israel rectify elements of the construction, which Tel Aviv ignored - something any state can choose to do, Ellis notes.
Geneva conventions
The third option involves states trying their own citizens or soldiers for war crimes a requirement under the Geneva Conventions.
''Thats unlikely to happen on both sides, but that is still a responsibility of the state, body, or entity thats responsible for, or has authority over, the individuals who have committed these crimes,'' says Ellis.
Geneva Conventions
Convention I
Conduct in relation to sick and wounded combatants in the field
Convention II
Treatment of wounded, sick and shipwrecked members of naval forces at sea
Convention III
Conduct in relation to prisoners of war
Convention IV
The protection of civilian populations in times of war
Finally, Ellis points to a legal concept referred to as ''universal jurisdiction'', where any state can choose to launch legal proceedings against any person, anywhere in the world, who is suspected of committing crimes such as genocide, torture, and other grave breaches of international law.
But states have already proven themselves reluctant to take responsibility for holding individuals to account for crimes committed in other countries and Ellis believes it is ''highly unlikely that a third party is going to step up and bring actions against Israeli or Palestinian individuals''.
Despite this, lawyers across the globe, and particularly in the Arab world, are seeking ways to take legal action in relation to events they believe constitute war crimes.
Dr Abdullah Al-Ashal, a professor of international law at the American University in Cairo and a former Egyptian foreign minister, belongs to both the Arab Bar Association and the Arab Federation of Lawyers (AFL).
He believes that Israel has breached all four Geneva Conventions that cover conduct during armed conflict with relation to civilians, prisoners of war, sick and injured combatants, weapons used and how troops engaged in fighting.
Al-Ashal claims that Jordan, the Comoros Islands and Djibouti all signatories to the Rome Statute have committed themselves to bringing war crimes cases against Israel to the ICC if needs be, following the recent Kuwait-hosted Arab summit on Gaza.
'Pursuing all options'
In addition, members of the AFL are set to meet in Tunis on Thursday, January 29, to ''discuss how to progress the prosecution of Israel for war crimes'', and Al-Ashal said that Arab lawyers are ''seriously pursuing'' all options to put Israelis on trial.
Meanwhile, both sides say they acted in self-defence and within the confines of international law.
Mark Regev, the spokesman for the Israeli prime minister, insists Israel takes ''extremely seriously any allegation of either improper or illegal behaviour by servicemen in combat'' and carries out its own investigations.
On Israels refusal to sign up to the Rome Statute, he cites Israeli concern over ''the politisation of the international human rights mechanisms in the international judicial system'', a reference to resolutions that Israel regards as hostile and were passed by UN bodies without the backing of western states.
''It is the responsibility of all civilised nations to agree that if these types of crimes have been committed, they should be brought to justice''
Mark Ellis, executive director, IBA
Asked if Israel intends to indict any Hamas leaders on charges of war crimes, Regev says Hamas is ''recognised legally as a terrorist organisation'' by the European Union, Japan, Australia, Canada and the US, adding: ''I dont think anyone has expectations as to the behaviour of a terrorist organisation.''
While Hamas is regarded as a ''terrorist group'' by many western governments, the Palestinian faction came to power after democratic elections in 2006 that were deemed fair and free by international observers.
Hamas says not only are Palestinians the victims of war crimes perpetrated by Israelis, but they are left without recourse to international justice.
Going back to Ellis' ''accountability gap'', the IBA chief puts the blame squarely on nation states - including the US - for failing to accept the legitimacy of the ICC.
''The ICC is probably the most important body with regard to individual responsibility for these crimes ... it is the responsibility of all civilised nations to agree that if these types of crimes have been committed, they should be brought to justice.
''Ultimately, thats where we want to be and we are a long way from that today,'' he says.
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