On August 4, 2017, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights released a report detailing the violence that a team of human rights officers documented through interviewing refugees in Angola who had fled violent attacks in the Kasai province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The report notes that the human rights violations at issue took place between March 12 and June 19, 2017, and that DRC government armed forces and pro-government militia attacks against civilians were often conducted along ethnic lines. The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human...
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 26, 2017, the Grand Chamber of the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled in Khadija Jafari v. Bundesamt für Fremdenwesen und Asyl and A.S. v Republic of Slovenia that Croatia is responsible for examining international protection applications from individuals who crossed its border during the 2015-2016 migration crisis. The Court’s press release notes that the case concerns asylum applicants who entered Croatia without the proper visa and were transported by Croatian authorities to other EU member states in order to make their applications there. The states...
On July 20, 2017, the UN Security Council passed a resolution reaffirming its resolve to combat terrorism. According to the press release, the Council unanimously adopted the resolution, which was aimed at “reinforcing its resolve to adapt to evolving terrorist threats, encouraging Governments to update their methods for cutting off funds to terrorist groups, preventing their travel, banning them from acquiring arms and ensuring that sanctions were fully implemented.” Acting under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, the Council detailed the sanctions currently imposed on ISIL, Al-Qaida, and...
On July 20, 2017, The European Court of Human Rights ruled in Belkacem v. Belgium (only available in French) that hate speech by the leader of a radical Salafist organization was not protected speech under the European Convention on Human Rights. According to the press release, the “case concerned the conviction of Mr Belkacem, the leader and spokesperson of the organisation ‘Sharia4Belgium’, which was dissolved in 2012, for incitement to discrimination, hatred and violence on account of remarks he made in YouTube videos concerning non-Muslim groups and Sharia.” The Court noted...
On July 19, 2017, the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Court (ICC) ruled in Prosecutor v. Gbagbo and Blé Goudé to reverse the Trial Chamber I decision that Laurent Gbagbo should continue to be detained and ordered the Chamber to carry out a new review. According to the press release, the Appeals Chamber stated that “Trial Chamber I should have considered the duration of time Mr Gbagbo has spent in detention alongside the risks being reviewed and it should have determined whether, all factors being considered, Mr Gbagbo's detention continues to be reasonable.” The...
On July 10, 2017, an Arbitral Tribunal at the Permanent Court of Arbitration issued its Award on Compensation in the matter of the Arctic Sunrise arbitration between Russia and the Netherlands, ordering Russia to pay €5.4 million in damages to the. In 2015, the Tribunal had issued its Award on the Merits, finding Russia had breached its obligations under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea by boarding the Greenpeace ship, Arctic Sunrise, without the Netherland’s consent and detaining the environmental activists on board (the Arctic 30). According to the...
On July 7, 2017, a conference of states at the United Nations adopted the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. The press release states that the Treaty “prohibits a full range of nuclear-weapon-related activities, such as undertaking to develop, test, produce, manufacture, acquire, possess or stockpile nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices, as well as the use or threat of use of these weapons.” The treaty was adopted by a vote of 122 in favor, one against (Netherlands), and one abstention (Singapore), and is also “the first multilateral legally-binding instrument for...
On July 6, 2017, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled in Toshiba v. Commission to uphold a €61.44 million fine on Toshiba (including a further amount of €4.65 million joint and severally with Mitsubishi) for its participation in a cartel on the market for gas insulated switchgear (GIS) between 1988 and 2004. According to the press release, the “undertakings which participated in the cartel concluded an agreement with a view to coordinating their commercial activity worldwide and developed a quota system aimed at determining the market shares which each group could...
On July 4, 2017, the International Criminal Court (ICC) Pre-Trial Chamber II decided in Prosecutor v. Al-Bashir not to refer South Africa to the Assembly of States Parties (ASP) or the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) in regard to its failure to arrest Omar Al-Bashir while he was in South Africa. Although Sudan is not a party to the Rome Statute, the UNSC referred the situation in Darfur, Sudan, to the ICC and the Court may consequently exercise jurisdiction over crimes committed in Darfur or by its nationals from July 1, 2002 onwards. According to the press release, the...
On June 29, 2017, an Arbitral Tribunal at the Permanent Court of Arbitration issued a final award on the territorial and maritime dispute between Croatia and Slovenia regarding three issues: “(a) the course of the maritime and land boundary between the Republic of Croatia and the Republic of Slovenia, (b) Slovenia’s junction to the High Sea and (c) the regime for the use of the relevant maritime areas.” According to the press release, the Tribunal fixed the territorial boundaries in more than twenty areas, using as their basis the cadastral boundaries that the Austrian Empire established...