On June 29, 2017, the UN Security Council passed a resolution extend until November 15, 2018 the mandate of the Expert Panel on Libya and a set of sanctions related to illicit petroleum exports. According to the press release, the unanimously adopted resolution also added “‘attacks against United Nations personnel’ to the criteria for the ongoing travel bans and freezing of assets affecting individuals and entities in the conflict-wracked North African nation.” The current sanctions are “applicable to those deemed as engaging in or supporting acts that threatened Libya’s peace, stability...
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 June 27, 2017, the grand chamber of the European Court of Human Rights ruled in Medžlis Islamske Zajednice Brčko and Others v. Bosnia and Herzegovina that there had been no violation of the right to freedom of expression in a finding of defamation against four NGOs for the publication of a letter containing untrue allegations about the entertainment editor of a public radio station. According to the press release, the NGOs had sent the letter to “the highest authorities of their district complaining about a person’s application for the post of director of Brčko District’s multi...
On June 27, 2017, the European Commission fined Google €2.42 billion for breaching EU antitrust rules. According to the press release, the European Commission determined that “Google has abused its market dominance as a search engine by giving an illegal advantage to another Google product, its comparison shopping service.” The fact sheet notes that while market dominance is not illegal in the EU, “dominant companies have a special responsibility not to abuse their powerful market position by restricting competition, either in the market where they are dominant or in separate markets.” The...
On June 23, 2017, the United Nations Human Rights Council adopted a resolution directing the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to send a team of international experts to investigate alleged human rights violations and abuses in the central Kasai region of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). According to the press release, the resolution requests the international experts be sent “to collect and preserve information, to determine the facts and circumstances in accordance with international standards and practice concerning alleged human rights violations and abuses, and violations...
On June 14, 2017, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled in Stichting Brein v. Ziggo that making available an online platform for sharing copyright-protected works may constitute copyright infringement. According to the press release, the case concerned two internet providers in the Netherlands, who were asked to block the domain names and IP addresses of “The Pirate Bay,” a platform that allows users to share and upload files that may be copyright-protected. The Court noted that under an EU Directive “any act by which a user, with full knowledge of the relevant facts,...
On May 26, 2017, the African Court on Human and People’s Rights ruled in African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights v. The Republic of Kenya that Kenya violated Articles 1, 2, 8, 14 17(2) and (3), 21, and 22 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights when it evicted the Ogiek Community of the Mau Forest. According to the case summary, “the Kenyan Government issued a thirty (30) days eviction notice to the Ogiek and other settlers of the Mau Forest, demanding that they move out of the forest on the grounds that the forest constituted a reserved water catchment zone,...
On May 24, 2017, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) released the 2016 Minnesota Protocol on the Investigation of Potentially Unlawful Death, “an updated version of the 1991 United Nations (UN) Minnesota Manual on the Effective Prevention of Extra-legal, Arbitrary and Summary Executions, which, through widespread usage, became known as the Minnesota Protocol (the Protocol).” The original Protocol was drafted to supplement the UN Principles on the Effective Prevention and Investigation of Extra-legal, Arbitrary and Summary Executions, “which set out international...
On May 24, 2017, the Security Council passed a resolution that featured a new framework developed by its Counter-Terrorism Committee entitled “Comprehensive International Framework to Counter Terrorist Narratives,” which contains “recommended guidelines and good practices to effectively counter the ways that ISIL (Da’esh), Al Qaida and associated individuals, groups, undertakings and entities use their narratives to encourage, motivate, and recruit others to commit terrorist acts.” The Council stressed that member states and UN entities should follow the guidelines and urged “Member States...
On May 18, 2017, the International Court of Justice issued a preliminary ruling in the Jadhav Case (India v. Pakistan), finding that Pakistan must “take all measures at its disposal” to ensure that Kulbhushan Sudhir Jadhav, an Indian national, is not executed pending a final judgment of the Court. According to the press release, the case concerns India’s claims against Pakistan “in a dispute concerning alleged violations of Article 36 of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations of 24 April 1963 with respect to an Indian national, Mr. Jadhav, sentenced to death in Pakistan.”...
On May 15, 2017, the Security Council adopted a resolution extending the mandate of the United Nations Interim Force for Abyei (UNISFA) until November 15, 2017. The Council decided to reduce UNISFA’s authorized troop ceiling from 5,326 to 4,791 and urged the all parties to resume direct negotiations in order to agree on a final settlement of the Abyei question. The Council also noted its regret regarding “the lack of significant progress made by both parties on the benchmarks for the Joint Border Verification and Monitoring Mechanism (JBVMM) and the unnecessary impediments imposed upon the...