- News source:
- 27 February 2010
- Opinio Juris
- By Julian Ku
This coming Monday and Tuesday, Opinio Juris will be hosting its fourth online symposium in partnership with the Yale Journal of International Law. Each day, we will be hosting a series of posts revolving around Articles published in YJIL’s most recent Vol. 34-2, which is available for download here.
On Monday, Michael J. Glennon of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy will be leading a discussion around his timely Article The Blank-Prose Crime of Aggression. In his Article, Glennon addresses the draft definition of the crime of aggression that was released in early 2009 and is set to be voted upon by the Assembly of States Parties to the International Criminal Court (ICC) this coming May. This crime has remained undefined since being included in the ICC’s underlying Rome Statute, for what Glennon maintains are good reasons. He argues that the crime of aggression is subject to too much disagreement among strong and weak states to reach the level of specificity necessary for imposing individual criminal liability.
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- News source:
- 28 February 2010
- CTV News
- By Alia Dharssi
Housing activists experimented with a novel protest strategy Saturday: they attempted to set a Guinness World Record while raising awareness of national housing issues.
Supporters of the Red Tent Campaign gathered in downtown Vancouver to wrap 1,700 metres of red banners around the block surrounding the Canada Pavilion on West Georgia and Beatty…
The protesters hope to increase support for Bill C-304, which will be reviewed by Parliament in the spring. The bill would establish a constitutional right to housing in Canada, while providing the foundation for a national housing strategy with funding commitments and timelines.
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- News source:
- Vancouver2010.com
Children Inspiring Peace (ChIP) is a character education project by students in Grades K-6 at Leslie Park Public School [Nepean, Ontario]. The message of ChIP is that we can come together as a community and get along when we learn about one another and listen to each other’s story. ChIP’s goal is to gather stories from children and youth around the world. Already, ChIP has been shared with students in Israel and in Palestine. We invite classes across Canada to participate in our project and add your story to the ChIP album.
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- News source:
- 28 February 2010
- The Mediation Channel
- By Diane Levin
In my ongoing one-woman effort to contribute to the improvement of public discourse, each month I discuss an example of a Fallacious Argument. In December I chose a particular favorite of mine, the ad hominem.
This month I revisit it. Why? Because accusing someone of committing a fallacy of the argumentum ad hominem can itself be a fallacy.
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- News source:
- 27 February 2010
- Zero Intelligence Agents
- By Drew Conway
Yesterday, Andrew Exum—a person who admits his own ignorance of the current state-of-the-art in political science literature—presented his “manifesto” on the quantitative analysis of conflict. While Exum’s bonafides in counterinsurgency and military strategy go without saying, given that he knows almost nothing about quantitative analysis I found this manifest rather disingenuous. Furthermore, since he has referred to me as a quantitative “hired assassin,” I felt an additional duty to respond…
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- News source:
- 27 February 2010
- Toronto Star
- By Mike Funston
A former U.S. army colonel who has been barred from Canada for her peace activism will make another attempt to enter the country on Monday.
Ann Wright will attempt to cross the border at Windsor and if successful will attend a speaking engagement at the University of Toronto’s International Student Centre on Tuesday, organizers of the event said.
An outspoken critic of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Wright was blocked from entering the country on three prior attempts in 2007.
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- News source:
- 26 February 2010
- Peacebuilding | Change.org
- By Antony Adolf
A new chapter in Euro-African relations was opened today [26 February 2010] as French President Nicolas Sarkozy visited Rwanda in an effort to mend severely strained ties; and by all accounts the diplomatic envoy was successful.
During Rwanda’s 1994 genocide of Tutsis, France backed the Hutu Habyarimana regime which carried the genocide out. Then, in 2006, a French anti-terror judged issued warrants for nine associates of current President Paul Kagame, alleging that they helped spark the genocide. This visit by Sarkozy aimed to mend wounds and offer more than hope, perhaps building on Kagame’s acceptance of the World Technology Award for Policy last year.
“For us there is no doubt that this is reconciliation,” said Rwandan Foreign Affairs Minister Louise Mushikiwabo, according to AFP. “That said, there are still some very tough issues to discuss. I think President Sarkozy is sincere. For us that is the main thing.” Not quite.
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- News source:
- 26 February 2010
- War and Peace | Change.org
- By Daniel J Gerstle
If you follow Sudan or American diplomacy you’ve heard about Khartoum’s deal with the Darfur rebel group, the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) signed in Doha. Wow, it sounds terrific, that peace is upon the region. And yet fighting between Khartoum and other Darfur rebel groups like the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) persists even while those talks continue.
How does this bode for the future of diplomacy in Africa?
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- News source:
- updated 25 February 2010
- New America Foundation
- By Peter Bergen and Katherine Tiedemann
This research was last updated on February 25, 2010. For a full analysis of the repercussions and results of U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan, please click here for “The Year of the Drone,” by Peter Bergen and Katherine Tiedemann, February 24, 2010.
The research on these pages… draws only on accounts from reliable media organizations with deep reporting capabilities in Pakistan, including the New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal, accounts by major news services and networks—the Associated Press, Reuters, Agence France-Presse, CNN, and the BBC—and reports in the leading English-language newspapers in Pakistan—the Daily Times, Dawn, and the News—as well as those from Geo TV, the largest independent Pakistani television network.
Our study shows that the 114 reported drone strikes in northwest Pakistan, including 18 in 2010, from 2004 to the present have killed approximately between 834 and 1,216 individuals, of whom around 549 to 849 were described as militants in reliable press accounts, about two-thirds of the total on average. Thus, the true civilian fatality rate since 2004 according to our analysis is approximately 32 percent.
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- News source:
- 24 February 2010
- Rabble.ca
- By Martin Lukacs
The opening ceremonies at the Vancouver Winter Olympiad were flush with aboriginal motifs: hundreds of costumed indigenous dancers, giant illuminated Salish house poles, and the broad smiles of representatives from the “Four Host First Nations.”
It was a perfectly choreographed display of Canada’s multicultural grace for an international audience. Ever sensitive about their reputation as a land of the fair minded, Canada’s Olympic planners have gone to lengths to showcase the nation’s respect for aboriginals. They made an Inuit design the official logo. They ran the torch-relay through scores of reservations. They bought the support and participation of local First Nations with a few million in bonds, business ventures and gleaming buildings. An absolute bargain, if this aboriginal gilding can blind Canadians and the world to the country’s secret shame: the true state of its indigenous peoples.
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- News source:
- 24 February 2010
- New York Times
- Editorial
Is this really the state of ethics in the American legal profession? Government lawyers who abused their offices to give the president license to get away with torture did nothing that merits a review by the bar?
A five-year inquiry by the Justice Department’s ethics watchdogs recommended a disciplinary review for the two lawyers who produced the infamous torture memos for former President George W. Bush, but they were overruled by a more senior Justice Department official.
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- News source:
- originally published 2 February 2010
- Independent Catholic News
As the acclaimed 3D film ‘Avatar’ was today nominated for an Oscar in the Best Film category, tribal peoples around the world have claimed the film tells the real story of their lives today…
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- News source:
- 25 February 2010
- Global Post
- Danish Demining Group (DDG) face the arduous task of clearing land of explosives.
- By Pete Muller
MUNDRI, Southern Sudan — Sudan’s civil war ended five years ago, but its legacy remains in the cluster bombs that can still be found on the fertile banks of the Yai River…
The presence of sub-munitions poses significant risks to this largely agrarian community. Food, charcoal, building materials and other staples are extracted from the land using methods that could easily detonate a so-called “bomblet.” As more refugees and displaced persons return to Mundri in this period of calm, the demand for land is rising.
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- News source:
- 26 February 2010
- Globe and Mail
- By AP
The highest court in military-ruled Myanmar dismissed opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s latest bid for freedom Friday, turning down an appeal to end 14 years of house arrest, her lawyer said.
The Supreme Court’s decision had been expected since legal rulings in Myanmar rarely favour opposition activists, and the junta appears determined to keep Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, detained through elections planned later this year.
Defence lawyer Nyan Win told reporters he would launch one final “special appeal” before the court after determining why the recent appeal had been rejected. “The court order did not mention any reasons,” he said.
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- News source:
- originally published 3 February 2010
- Indigenous Portal
- By UCTP Taino News
Havana, Cuba, (UCTP Taino News)—One of Cuba’s most prominent diplomats died Monday morning due to serious illness. Dr. Michael J. Alfonso Martinez, age 74, was an outstanding diplomat, lawyer and academic with broad experience in the service of the Cuba People and Human Rights.
As a diplomat he held various positions in the Cuban Foreign Service. He was Foreign Ministry spokesman between 1994 and 1997 and as an expert in Human Rights he represented the Government of Cuba in numerous meetings and conferences, mainly within the UN system.
Well-known to Indigenous Peoples around the world, Martinez served as UN Special Rapporteur for the Study on Treaties, Agreements and Constructive Arrangements between States and Indigenous Peoples, as former member and Chair of the UN Working Group on Indigenous Populations, and as First Chairman of the Advisory Committee to the UN Human Rights Council.
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Monday, 8 March 2010
The Mahatma Gandhi Center for Global Nonviolence’s Drawing Peace Contest strives to foster a culture of nonviolence and peace by raising awareness among children ages 6-12 from all over the world, through the medium of art. The objective of this contest is to allow children and youth to appreciate the value of nonviolence, the potential of nonviolent action to address conflicts, the value of social responsibility, the interconnected nature of the human experience, and the planet’s natural environment.. more
Full details (pdf)
- News source:
- 24 February 2010
- UN News Centre
A senior United Nations human rights official today called on international troops fighting militants in Afghanistan to follow directives designed to guard against civilian deaths, drawing particular attention to the plight of children caught up in the conflict.
Last year, some 346 children were killed by warring factions in Afghanistan, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict Radhika Coomaraswamy told reporters in Kabul…
Ms. Coomaraswamy noted a “major change in attitude and tactics” on the part of the military since her last visit in July 2008, but stressed that “these ideas and directives have now to be implemented.”
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- News source:
- 23 February 2010
- Art Threat: Culture+Politics
- By Amanda McCuaig
Yuri Arajs, a Kelowna born artist who recently returned to Vancouver after a 30-year stint in Minneapolis, Minnesota, first heard about the Pivot Legal Society’s Red Tent campaign from his mother…
So inspiring that within four days of talking to his mom, Yuri had rented time at a screen printing studio and had already created the two colour prints that would become the basis of his art-meets-fundraising efforts to help raise money for the Red Tent campaign.
Yuri created 125 prints in the studio, and has been selling them online for $25.
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- News source:
- CoRe Clinic, UBC
Wednesday, 10 March 2010 Wednesday, 17 March 2010 Wednesday, 14 April 2010 Monday, 10 May 2010
2010 CoRe Clinic Speaker Series
Singleton Urquhart LLP, sponsors and host of the CoRe Speaker Series located at
1200 – 925 West Georgia Street, Vancouver, BC
Vicki Trerise
“Disputes Between the Canadian Polity and Aboriginal Peoples: Is Neutrality Possible?”
Wednesday, March 10, 2010 – Time: 4:30 pm – 6:00 pm
Nancy Cameron Q.C.
“Litigation, Dispute Resolution and the Brain: What do These Have to do with One Another, and with us as Practitioners?”
Wednesday, March 17, 2010 – Time: 4:30 pm – 6:00 pm
Christine Mingie
“Online Dispute Resolution – A Quiet Revolution in Justice?”
Wednesday, April 14, 2010 – Time: 4:30 pm – 6:00 pm
Sharon Sutherland and Carrie Gallant
“Improvisation and Mediation”
Wednesday, May 12, 2010 – Time: 4:30 pm – 6:00 pm
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