On March 13, 2014, Ukraine filed an application with the European Court of Human Rights against the Russian Federation and requested interim measures, indicating that Russia “should refrain from measures which might threaten the life and health of the civilian population on the territory of Ukraine.” According to the press release, the Court granted the interim measures on the same day, “[calling] upon both Contracting Parties concerned to refrain from taking any measures, in particular military actions, which might entail breaches of the Convention rights of the civilian population,...
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 March 10, 2014, the ICSID Arbitral Tribunal (the Tribunal) rejected Venezuela's request for reconsideration of the Tribunal’s September 2013 Decision. In the September Decision, the Tribunal found, first, that it had jurisdiction over the dispute regarding Venezuela’s taking of ConocoPhillips oil assets located in the country and, second, that Venezuela had breached its obligations under Article 6(c) of the BIT "to negotiate in good faith for compensation for its taking of the ConocoPhillips assets. . . ." (See previous ILIB post here.) Finding that it did not have the power to...
On March 17, 2014, by Executive Order, President Obama imposed asset freezes and travel bans on eleven people, as listed on the White House Fact Sheet including Dmitry Rogozin, the Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, Valentina Matviyenko, Head of the Federation Council, and Vladimir Konstantinov, the speaker of the Crimean parliament. This is further to an Executive Order of March 6, 2014, “finding that the actions and policies of the Government of the Russian Federation with respect to Ukraine – including the recent deployment of Russian Federation military forces in the...
On March 12, 2014, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (the Court) awarded between 29,400 and 72,770 Euros to each applicant for the breaches of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) that it had previously found in Kurić v Slovenia. According to the press release, the applicants, former citizens of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, “belong to a group of persons known as the ‘erased’, who on 26 February 1992 lost their status as permanent residents following Slovenia’s declaration of independence in 1991.” The applicants requested just...
On March 11, 2014, the European Commission, the executive body of the European Union (EU), adopted a new framework to strengthen the rule of law in the EU. Designed to address “systemic threats to the rule of law,” according to the press release, “the new . . . framework will be complementary to infringement procedures . . . and to the so-called 'Article 7 procedure' of the Lisbon Treaty which . . . allows for the suspension of voting rights in case of a ‘serious and persistent breach’ of EU values by a Member State.” Additionally, the framework “establishes an early warning tool...
On March 11, 2014, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) released a report identifying the situation in Syria as “the most damaging conflict for children in the region’s recent history.” According to the press release, the report “focuses on the immense damage caused to the 5.5 million children now affected by the conflict and calls for an immediate end to the violence and increased support for those affected.” The report discusses specific issues that Syrian children face due to the conflict, such as the challenges that come with “living as refugees . . ., malnutrition and illness...
On March 7, 2014, the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States (OAS) approved a declaration on the situation in Venezuela. The Permanent Council expressed “its condolences to and solidarity with the victims and their family members,” and called for peace and human rights, “[rejecting] all forms of violence and intolerance.” The Council stressed “its respect for the principle of nonintervention in the domestic affairs of states” and expressed its “appreciation, full support, and encouragement for the initiatives and the efforts of the democratically-elected Government of...
On March 7, 2014, the United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 2143, calling for increased efforts to protect children in armed conflict. According to the press release, “a new element in [the] resolution is references to the use of schools by armed forces.” In particular, the Security Council expressed “deep concern at the military use of schools in contravention of applicable international law, recognizing that such use may render schools legitimate targets of attack, thus endangering children’s and teachers’ safety as well as children’s education.” As such, the Security...
Further to the ILIB post of February 20, 2014, on March 6, 2014, the European Council brought into force, by decision and implementing regulation, restrictive measures which freeze the assets of “persons having been identified as responsible for the misappropriation of Ukrainian State funds and persons responsible for human rights violations in Ukraine.” Those persons, who are listed in the annexes to the decision and regulation, include the former President of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych, the former Minister of Internal Affairs, Vitalii Zakharchenko, and sixteen other former Ministers and...
On March 5, 2014, the United States Supreme Court in Lozano v. Montoya Alvarez unanimously ruled that the equitable tolling doctrine does not apply to Article 12 of the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. Under Article 12, when a parent abducts a child and flees to another country, that country must return the child immediately if the other parent requests return within one year. Equitable tolling is a federal legal doctrine which “pauses the running of . . . a statute of limitations when a litigant has pursued his rights diligently but some...