Challenging International Law: Israeli attack on Iraq´s Osiraq Nuclear Reactor
Frankin Murianki analyzes the legality of “Operation Babylon,” an Israeli attack on Iraq´s Osiraq nuclear reactor in 1981. The article scrutinizes the attack by examining customary international law, the legal reasoning of involved parties and the position of the United Nations Security Council.
Key words = international law, self-defense, Israel attack
Intolerably Inferior Identity: How the Social Construction of Race Erased a Rwandan Population
The creation of racial identity in Rwanda, which predated the days of the genocide, may very well have been socially constructed. Aside from considering the dominant roles that the church and media played, this essay seeks to particularly explore how the Belgian inspired identification cards were used as policy instruments, serving as one of the primary tools that aided in the genocide. Racial differences were distinctly classified between the hierarchical Hutus and the inferior Tutsis. The cards said it all; they decided the fate of who would survive the 100 days of violence and who would not.
International Humanitarian Law Violations Committed by the Nkundan Rebellion in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
University for Peace Great Lakes Program Fellow, Philippe Tunamsifu Shirambere, comments on violations of International Humanitarian Law committed by the Nkundan rebellion in the Democratic Republic of Congo, understood within the larger context of political violence in Africa’s Great Lakes Region.
The Absence of Women in the Development of International Law: A Critical Women’s Rights Issue
Jerry M’bartee Locula sheds light on the development of international law from a gendered perspective, emphasizing the lack of women’s involvement in the patriarchal global system. Highlighting ways to strengthen the international women’s rights movement, he calls on men to become advocates of gender equality by being outspoken in demanding the inclusion of women’s rights at all levels of international lawmaking.
The Rise of Private Military Companies and the Legal Vacuum of Regulation
This paper discusses the rise of the private military industry as a challenge to contemporary international law. In recent times, the privatization of activities preserved by governments have been proposed and implemented;, such as communication facilities, garbage collection, electricity supply, immigration services and much more. Military operations have not been left out. The increasing privatization of military activities is proving to be a major challenge to international law. The literature on Private Military Companies (PMCs) is mind-boggling, but neither extensive nor exhaustive. As a new phenomenon, it receives situational attention. For example, when the operations of Executive Outcomes and Sandline International were unearthed by the press in the 90s,’ numerous scholarly material was written, but with distinct themes like the efficiency of the corporations and the human rights violations carried out, as well as the legal vacuum created by ex-professional soldiers banding up to create and legally incorporate a mercenary outfit. The issue of PMCs being present in weak states and ravaged war-torn zones is an understatement, yet these corporations are registered mostly in the U.S., U.K. and South Africa. The articles on this issue are usually highly polarized; opponents verses proponents of these corporations, as the activities of these outfits do not fit within any conventional classification as actors of war in the law of war.
This paper describes the history and definition of PMCs and analyses how the operations of these corporations affect human rights, sovereignty and states´ monopoly of violence. The paper also focuses on the legality of PMCs and proceeds to discuss how to regulate the industry. The paper concludes in favor of tougher regulatory controls through new international legal framework and national legislation to deal with mercenaries as decisively as with other non-state actors who wield violence.
World Peace through Law: Rethinking an Old Theory
James Ranney discusses the potential of law to bring about world peace, without submitting the world to a “global government” as such, but through the creation of a UN Peace Force to enforce the decisions of global courts, promote the abolition of nuclear arms, and generally create an atmosphere of global “justice” so that peace may prevail.
The Intersection of Law and Politics: The Case of the United States and the International Criminal Court
Researcher Mathew Ituma takes us through the story of the United States’ tentative support for the International Criminal Court under Clinton and its eventual “unsigning” under Bush, emphasizing the fundamental tension between national (in this case congressional) politics and international justice.
Key words: Rome Statutes, International criminal court, justice, law, politics.
Bend it Like Beckham [in a Burka]: Qatar v. Migrant Workers’ Rights – A Game of Deflection
Tags: FIFA World Cup 2022, Oatar, ILO, Workers Rights, Human Rights, International Labour Law
Palestine and the International Criminal Court
The Palestinian National Authority’s 2009 declaration under Article 12(3) of the Rome Statute to join the ICC presented the international court with an opportunity to implement its Statute and respond to the many UN and other reports of human rights abuses committed in Palestine since 2002. As Mahmoud Abdou argues, the Prosecutor of the ICC’s reaction accomplished precisely the opposite, allowing power politics to further frustrate the realization of justice and accountability in Palestine.
The Myth of Rule of Law
Law is neither morally just for its own sake, nor is it capable of securing international peace and stability as it is based on contested notions of territoriality and sovereignty. Shant Abou Cham explains.