On April 25, 2014, the Marshall Islands filed applications (UK-related application only) that accuse nine States (China, North Korea, France, India, Israel, Pakistan, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States) of, according to the press release, “fail[ing] to fulfil their obligations with respect to the cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date and to nuclear disarmament.” In its applications, the Marshall Islands invokes, inter alia, Article VI of the Treaty on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), which provides that: “Each of the Parties to the Treaty...
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 April 23, 2014, the United Kingdom and China signed a co-production film treaty that will, according to a press release, “allow qualifying co-productions to access national benefits including sources of finance and an easier passage to audiences.” According to a U.K. Department for Culture, Media & Sport news, under the treaty, co-productions “will be able to access the second highest box office in the world, worth US$2.7 billion and forecast to grow to US$5.5 billion by 2017.”
On April 22, 2014, Andorra became the tenth country to ratify the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence. Resultantly, the Convention will enter into force on August 1, 2014. The treaty recognizes a gender gap in protecting fundamental rights and requires States Parties to prevent violence, protect victims, and prosecute perpetrators.
On April 15, 2014, Trial Chamber I of the U.N. International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (the Tribunal) dismissed the defense request for acquittal in the Prosecutor v. Ratko Mladić case. Ratko Mladić is the former Commander of the VRS Main Staff and is charged with genocide and other crimes committed in Bosnia and Herzegovina from May 1992 to late 1995. He had requested acquittal on two counts of genocide and various other charges . According to the press release, the Tribunal also rejected “arguments relating to the Accused’s command responsibility for...
On April 14, 2014, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) delivered its judgment in The M/V Virginia G Case (Panama/Guinea-Bissau). ITLOS found that Guinea-Bissau had violated the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (the Convention) “by confiscating the M/V Virginia G and the gas oil on board” and “by failing to notify Panama, as the flag State, of the detention and arrest of the M/V Virginia G and subsequent actions taken against the vessel and its cargo.”
According to the press release, the authorities of Guinea-...
On April 11, 2014, the Inter-American Commission on Human (IACHR) rights issued a press release stating that it is “deeply concerned about the discovery of 110 migrants in an irregular situation being held against their will in a small house in a Houston, Texas.” In the press release, the IACHR “urges the United States to maximize its efforts in the prevention, investigation, prosecution and punishment of these crimes” and “to protect and provide assistance to migrant victims of crime, in cases such as the present, to ensure their physical, psychological, and social recovery.”
On April 10, 2014, the U.N. Security Council, acting under Chapter VII, unanimously adopted Resolution 2149 establishing the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA). According to a press release, MINUSCA’s mandate includes: “protecting civilians; supporting for transition process; facilitating the delivery of humanitarian assistance; protecting United Nations personnel and properties; promoting and protecting human rights; supporting national and international justice and the rule of law; and ensuring the disarmament,...
On April 7, 2014, the Court of Justice of the European Union (the Court) issued its judgment in the Digital Rights Ireland case, declaring invalid the Data Retention Directive (a 2006 Directive, which requires communications providers to retain traffic, location and identification data so that it is available in the fight against serious crime, including terrorism). According to the press release, the Court found that the retention and access to communications data permitted by the Directive “interferes in a particularly serious manner with the fundamental rights to respect for...
On April 4, 2014, the Trial Chamber of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) issued a new severance decision, defining which alleged crime sites and factual allegations will be included in the trial in Case 002/02 against former Khmer Rouge leaders Khieu Samphan and Nuon Chea. According to the press release, “[c]harges related to genocide, forced marriages and rape, treatment of Buddhists, internal purges, targeting of former Khmer Republic officials, four security centers, three worksites and one cooperative will form the basis for Case 002/02.” In ordering severance...
On April 3, 2014, the Inter-American Commission on Human (IACHR) issued a press release announcing the initiation of a process to create an Office of the Special Rapporteur on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights. Commissioner Paulo Vannuchi, who will coordinate the process, said “Latin America continues to be the region with the highest levels of inequality in the world, while in recent decades the United States has seen an increase in inequality in income distribution. These facts simply reaffirm the overriding need to give priority to the protection of economic, social, and cultural...