On July 24, 2014, the United Nations Compensation Commission (UNCC) made $1.19 billion available to the Government of Kuwait as part of the $14.7 billion it previously awarded the Kuwaiti Government for a claim it submitted on behalf of the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation. According to the press release, the Commission “awarded $14.7 billion in 2000 for oil production and sales losses as a result of damages to Kuwait’s oil field assets.” The Security Council, acting under Chapter VII, established the UNCC in 1991 to process claims and pay compensation for losses stemming from Iraq’s 1990...
International Law in Brief
International Law in Brief (ILIB) is a forum that provides updates on current developments in international law from the editors of ASIL's International Legal Materials.
On July 21, 2014, the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 2166 in response to the downing of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 in Ukraine on July 17, 2014. Condemning “in the strongest terms the downing of” the flight, the resolution “[r]eaffirm[s] the rules of international law that prohibit acts of violence that pose a threat to the safety of international civil aviation,” and “[d]emands that those responsible for this incident be held to account and that all States cooperate fully with efforts to establish accountability.” As such, the Security Council “demands that the armed groups in...
On July 21, 2014, the Office of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights published a report, entitled “Violence Against Journalists and Media Workers: Inter-American Standards and National Practices on Prevention, Protection and Prosecution of Perpetrators.” According to a press release, the report was created “[i]n response to the grave acts of violence committed against journalists and media workers in the region,” and “reviews international standards and domestic best practices on the prevention of crimes against journalists, the...
On July 18, 2014, arbitral tribunals established under the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law ruled in three arbitrations that the Russian Federation must pay $50 billion for expropriating the assets of OAO Yukos Oil Company (Yukos). According to the press release, “the arbitral tribunals unanimously held that the Russian Federation had taken measures with the effect equivalent to an expropriation of Claimants’ investments in Yukos and thus had breached Article 13(1) of the Energy Charter Treaty.” A news article stated that the decision was in relation to “decisions...
On July 14, 2014, the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 2165, in which it decided “that the United Nations humanitarian agencies and their implementing partners are authorized to use routes across conflict lines and the border crossings of Bab al-Salam, Bab al-Hawa, Al Yarubiyah and Al-Ramtha, in addition to those already in use, in order to ensure that humanitarian assistance.” It also “[s]trongly condemn[ed] the continuing widespread violations of human rights and international humanitarian law by the Syrian authorities, as well as the human rights abuses and violations of...
On July 22, 2014, in a vote of twelve to six, the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The purpose of the Treaty “is to promote, protect and ensure the full and equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms by all persons with disabilities, and to promote respect for their inherent dignity.” Currently, 147 countries are parties to the Treaty.
On July 18, 2014, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights released a report entitled “The Right to Privacy in the Digital Age.” The report concludes, inter alia, that “[i]nternational human rights law provides a clear and universal framework for the promotion and protection of the right to privacy, including in the context of domestic and extraterritorial surveillance, the interception of digital communications and the collection of personal data.” It also finds, inter alia, a “disturbing lack of governmental transparency associated with surveillance...
On July 18, 2014, the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq and the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights released a report finding evidence that both the State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) committed human rights violations and possible war crimes and crimes against humanity. The report found ISIL responsible for the “deliberate or indiscriminate targeting of civilians in a systematic manner, the use of civilians as shields, and hindering civilians from access to humanitarian assistance or areas of safety,” which “constitute serious violations of IHL...
On July 17, 2014, The Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights held in Svinarenko and Slyadnev v. Russia that holding remand prisoners in metal cages during their court hearings violated Article 3 (prohibition of torture and of inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment) of the European Convention on Human Rights (the Convention). According to the press release, “the Court found that the applicants had been subjected to distress of an intensity exceeding the unavoidable level of suffering inherent in their detention during a court appearance, and that, therefore,...
Court of Justice of the European Union Rules on Detention of Third-Country Nationals (July 17, 2014)
On July 17, 2014, the Court of Justice of the European Union (the Court) issued a preliminary ruling in the joined cases of Adala Bero v. Regierungspräsidium Kassel and Ettayebi Bouzalmate v. Kreisverwaltung Kleve that the detention of a third-party national must, as a rule, take place in a specialized facility and may only take place in a prison on exceptional basis. The Court held that the Directive 2008/115/EC, which provides the common standards and procedures in EU Member States for returning third-country nationals, requires “a Member State, as a rule, to detain...