International Law

International Law, Human Rights And Ukraine, With Alfred De Zayas

June 5, 2023 Alan MacLeod, Mintpress News. Resistance Report Human Rights, ICC, International Law, NATO, Russia, Ukraine, War crimes

You can indict Vladimir Putin over war crimes in Ukraine. But if you do, you’d better indict Joe Biden as well. That is the message that Professor Alfred de Zayas, world-renowned human rights and international law expert, gave “MintCast” host Alan MacLeod on today’s episode of the series. A Swiss-American lawyer, academic and United Nations official with over 50 years’ experience in the field of human rights, de Zayas joins us for a wide-ranging discussion about international law and Ukraine, U.S. sanctions, whistleblowers, the successes and failures of the United Nations and its bodies, and the growth of a new and cynical “human rights industry” that weaponizes the concept to attack foreign governments.

What Leaders Need To Know About The Alex Saab Case

April 27, 2023 Eileen Denza, Alliance for Global Justice. Educate! Alex Saab, International Law, Political Prisoner, Venezuela

It follows that the continued detention of Alex Saab in the U.S. is a grave violation of his inviolability as Venezuela’s special envoy in transit on a special mission to Iran, which clearly recognized his status and has protested at his illegal arrest and detention. There is abundant evidence of the appointment of Alex Saab to carry out a special mission. The requirement that a special mission must be notified is directed at the receiving state, and it doesn’t make sense to suggest that all transit states must be notified if a special envoy is overflying or in an aircraft that stops to refuel in the transit state. The fact that the U.S. does not recognize the Maduro government in Caracas is irrelevant.

Juan Guaidó Arrives In Miami With Washington’s Assistance

April 26, 2023 Orinoco Tribune. Educate! Colombia, International Law, Juan Guaido, US Imperialism

This Monday, Venezuela’s former deputy Juan Guaidó was escorted by Colombia Migration and US “agents” to the El Dorado airport, from where he flew, before midnight, to the city of Miami, Florida, United States, in a commercial Avianca flight with a ticket provided by the US government, according to statements by Colombian Foreign Minister Álvaro Leyva. Earlier on Monday, April 25, the Colombian Foreign Ministry, through a press release published on social media platforms, reported that in the afternoon of Monday, Colombia Migration took Juan Guaidó—who hours earlier had entered the country illegally—to the El Dorado airport and placed him on a flight to the US.

The Need For A New US Foreign Policy

April 20, 2023 Jeffrey D. Sachs, Consortium News. Educate! International Law, Multipolar World, US Foreign Policy, US Hegemony

U.S. foreign policy is based on an inherent contradiction and fatal flaw. The aim of U.S. foreign policy is a U.S.-dominated world, in which the U.S. writes the global trade and financial rules, controls advanced technologies, maintains militarily supremacy and dominates all potential competitors. Unless U.S. foreign policy is changed to recognize the need for a multipolar world, it will lead to more wars, and possibly World War III. The inherent contradiction in U.S. foreign policy is that it conflicts with the U.N. Charter, which commits the U.S. (and all other U.N. member states) to a global system based on U.N. institutions in which no single country dominates.

UN Expresses Concerns Over Reports Of US Spying On Its Top Officials

April 20, 2023 People's Dispatch. Educate! International Law, Surveillance, UN, US Imperialism

The United Nations officially expressed concern over recent reports of the US government spying on its top officials, including Secretary General António Guterres, and attempting to interfere in their work. The statement came from UN Secretary General’s official spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric on Tuesday, April 18. Dujarric said that the “UN officially expressed to the host country its concern regarding recent reports that the communications of the secretary general and other senior UN officials have been the subject of surveillance and interference by the US government.” He also asserted that the said US actions violate its obligations to the UN Charter and the Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the UN.

Israel Protests Should Not Be Confused With Palestinian Struggle For Equality

March 18, 2023 Ramzy Baroud, Mintpress News. Educate! International Law, Israel, Occupation, Palestine

As hundreds of thousands throughout Israel joined anti-government protests, questions began to arise regarding how this movement would affect, or possibly merge, into the broader struggle against the Israeli military occupation and apartheid in Palestine. Pro-Palestine media outlets shared, with obvious excitement, news about statements made by Hollywood celebrities, like Mark Ruffalo, about the need to “sanction the new hard rightwing government of (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu.” Netanyahu, who sits at the heart of the current controversy and mass protests, struggled to find a single pilot for the flight carrying him to Rome on March 9 for a three-day visit with the Italian government.

The Not-So-Winding Road From Iraq To Ukraine

March 17, 2023 Medea Benjamin and Nicolas Davies, LA Progressive. Educate! International Law, Iraq War, Ukraine, Wars and Militarism

March 19th marks the 20th anniversary of the U.S. and British invasion of Iraq. This seminal event in the short history of the 21st century not only continues to plague Iraqi society to this day, but it also looms large over the current crisis in Ukraine, making it impossible for most of the Global South to see the war in Ukraine through the same prism as U.S. and Western politicians. While the U.S. was able to strong-arm 49 countries, including many in the Global South, to join its “coalition of the willing” to support invading the sovereign nation of Iraq, only the U.K., Australia, Denmark and Poland actually contributed troops to the invasion force, and the past 20 years of disastrous interventions have taught many nations not to hitch their wagons to the faltering U.S. empire.

Contradictions Of The Imperialist ‘Rules-Based Order’

March 10, 2023 Vijay Prashad, Tricontinental: Institute For Social Research. Educate! Doomsday Clock, International Law, US Imperialism, Wars and Militarism

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has now moved the Doomsday Clock to 90 seconds to midnight, the closest it has been to the symbolic time of the annihilation of humanity and the Earth since 1947. This is alarming, which is why leaders in the Global South have been making the case to halt the warmongering over Ukraine and against China. As Namibia’s Prime Minister Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila said, ‘We are promoting a peaceful resolution of that conflict so that the entire world and all the resources of the world can be focused on improving the conditions of people around the world instead of being spent on acquiring weapons, killing people, and actually creating hostilities’.

White House Takes Possession Of Venezuela’s Embassy In Washington

February 10, 2023 Mision Verdad, Orinoco Tribune. Educate! Embassy Protection Collective, International Law, US Imperialism, Venezuela, Washington D.C.

Washington D.C. - Since this Monday, February 6, the US Department of State took possession of the Venezuelan Embassy headquarters, the ambassador’s residence in Washington DC, and the Venezuelan Consulate in New York, according to a Bloomberg citing “people familiar with the matter.” This was done in response to the disbanding of the fake Venezuelan diplomatic mission led by Carlos Vecchio, after the removal of Juan Guaidó as “interim president,” a decision taken by the same far-right groups that maintained that fictional position following US orders. According to anonymous sources, custody of the properties is due to the fact that, in the opinion of the US diplomacy and their failed understanding of international rules, there is no executive branch that represents the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. This disregards the fact that Washington has been sending high level delegations in recent months to directly negotiate with the government of Nicolás Maduro.

Launch Of The International People’s Tribunal On US Imperialism

January 29, 2023 The People's Forum, YouTube. Resistance Report Hybrid War, International Law, People's Tribunal, US Sanctions

After two years of dedication, we are excited to officially announce the launch of the International People’s Tribunal on U.S. Imperialism: Sanctions, Blockades, and Economic Coercive Measures. This project is a first-ever international effort to build systems of accountability—rooted in global cross-movement solidarity—both within and outside of the law, to challenge the violence of imperialism through sanctions. With an impressive group of internationally renowned jurists from across the world, we interrogate sanctions not from the perspective of those who enforce them, but from the perspective of those most impacted by them, namely the peoples of Asia, Africa, and South America. This half-day event took place on January 28, 2023, at People’s Forum located at 320 W 37th St, New York, NY 10018, by an international coalition of over 30 organizations.

Palestinians Protest Israeli Attempt To Forcefully Displace Hundreds

January 24, 2023 People's Dispatch. Resist! colonization, International Law, Israel, Palestine

Hundreds of Palestinians gathered on Monday, January 23, near Khan al-Ahmar in the occupied West Bank to oppose the proposed Israeli plan to forcefully displace the residents by demolishing their village. The protesters gathered following the calls for demolition issued by ultra right-wing Itamar Ben-Gvir, interior minister in Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. It was also rumored that Ben-Gvir would be visiting Khan al-Ahmar along with his cabinet colleague and settler leader Bezalel Smotrich. Maarouf Rifai, legal advisor to Palestinian Authority (PA), who participated in the protests, told Al Jazeera that Khan al-Ahmar “is Palestinian land. It is private Palestinian land. There is no excuse for the Israeli government, other than to develop the ‘Greater Jerusalem’ plan and to link the settlements surrounding East Jerusalem in order to clear this area from Palestinian Arabs.” He asserted that PA will not let Khan al-Ahmar be demolished.

What Will Happen After The ICJ Delegitimizes Israel’s Occupation?

January 12, 2023 Ramzy Baroud, Mintpress News. Educate! International Law, Israel, Palestine, United Nations

A historic United Nations vote on December 31 called on the ICJ to look at the Israeli Occupation in terms of legal consequences, the rights of the Palestinian people to self-determination and the responsibility of all UN Member States in bringing the protracted Israeli Occupation to an end. A special emphasis will be placed on the “demographic composition, character and status” of Occupied Jerusalem. The last time the ICJ was asked to offer a legal opinion on the matter was in 2004. However, back then, the opinion was largely centered around the “legal consequences arising from the construction of the (Israeli Apartheid) wall.” While it is true that the ICJ concluded that the totality of the Israeli actions in the Occupied Palestinian Territories are unlawful under international law – the Fourth Geneva Convention, the relevant provision of the earlier Hague Regulations and, of course, the numerous UN General Assembly and Security Council Resolutions – this time around the ICJ is offering its view on Israel’s attempt at making what is meant to be a temporary military Occupation, a permanent one.

Which Government Does The United States Recognize In Venezuela?

January 8, 2023 Vijay Prashad, People's Dispatch. Educate! International Law, Juan Guaido, US Imperialism, Venezuela

On January 3, 2023, Shaun Tandon of Agence France-Presse asked US State Department spokesperson Ned Price about Venezuela. In late December, the Venezuelan opposition after a fractious debate decided to dissolve the “interim government” led by Juan Guaidó. From 2019 onward, the U.S. government recognized Guaidó as the “interim president of Venezuela.” With the end of Guaidó’s administration, Tandon asked if “the United States still recognize[s] Juan Guaidó as legitimate interim president.” Price’s answer was that the US government recognizes the “only remaining democratically elected institution in Venezuela today, and that’s the 2015 National Assembly.” It is true that when the U.S. government supported Guaidó as the “interim president” of Venezuela, it did so because of his role as the rotating president in that National Assembly in 2019.

Peace Activists Take On The Pentagon’s Corporate ‘Merchants Of Death’

January 8, 2023 Kathy Kelly, Truthout. Resist! Afghanistan, Anti-war Movement, International Law, Wars and Militarism

Days after a U.S. warplane bombed a Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, killing forty-two people, twenty-four of them patients, the international president of MSF, Dr. Joanne Liu walked through the wreckage and prepared to deliver condolences to family members of those who had been killed. A brief video, taped in October, 2015, captures her nearly unutterable sadness as she speaks about a family who, the day before the bombing, had been prepared to bring their daughter home. Doctors had helped the young girl recover, but because war was raging outside the hospital, administrators recommended that the family come the next day. “She’s safer here,” they said.

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