Friday, December 10, 2010

IntLawGrrls

IntLawGrrls

Human Rights Defenders: In the frontlines

Posted: 10 Dec 2010 05:05 AM PST

Dora "Alicia" Recinos Sorto (left) of El Salvador was shot dead in November 2009, while on her way home from doing laundry at a nearby river. She was eight months pregnant and holding her two-year-old child when she was killed. She had been active in opposing a mining operation in her community due to concerns about the mine's health and environmental impacts. Attacks on environmental activists throughout Latin America are on the increase, according to the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL).
On 25 October 2010, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights held a hearing on the situation faced by environmental activists in Central America. CIEL provides background information, as well as a link to a webcast of the hearing, here.
People who work to defend human rights are subjected to killing, death threats, torture, kidnapping, arbitrary arrest and detention, prosecution, defamation, burglary, and more. This year's theme for Human Rights Day -- December 10, the anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (prior IntLawGrrls posts) -- is human rights defenders who act to end discrimination.
Human rights defenders are targeted not only by governments but also by private individuals and entities. In her August 2010 report, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, Margaret Sekaggya (right) focused on state obligations under international law with respect to human rights violations against defenders by non-state actors. (photo credit)
People working to end rights abuses targeting gay men, lesbians, transgender and bisexual individuals are among those who work at great personal risk. On Human Rights Day this year, in the ECOSOC Chamber of the United Nations in New York, the Permanent Missions of Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Croatia, France, Gabon, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, The United States of America and the Delegation of the European Union will hold a High Level Panel Discussion on Ending Violence and Criminal Sanctions on the basis of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will deliver opening remarks and Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu will deliver a special video address.
The Association for Women in Development (AWID), in collaboration with the Women Human Rights Defenders International Coalition, recently issued a new reference tool, List of Materials and Resources for Women Human Rights Defenders, which lists:
  • research materials dealing with the security and protection of defenders;
  • manuals on how to document and monitor violations of women's rights;
  • information on how to conduct trial observations;
  • manuals on the rights and mechanisms available to women human rights defenders at risk;
  • materials that address specific themes particularly relevant to women defenders, such as sexual orientation, religious fundamentalisms and conflict.

Guest Blogger: Caitlyn Antrim

Posted: 10 Dec 2010 04:00 AM PST

It's IntLawGrrls' great pleasure to welcome Caitlyn Antrim (left) as today's guest blogger.
Caitlyn's the executive director of the Rule of Law Committee for the Oceans and publisher of the "Ocean Law Daily," a newsletter focused on the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea, its relation to U.S. national interests, and prospects for approval by the U.S. Senate. She discusses those prospects in her guest post below.
Caitlyn began studying law of the sea under Harvard Law School Professors Louis Sohn and Richard Baxter at the same time she was earning the professional degree of Environmental Engineer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She credits this dual track for preparing her for translating and mediating between lawyers and engineers, developed and developing countries, and other cultural clashes in international ocean and environmental policy debates.
After graduation she joined the government, representing the Commerce Department and NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, on the U.S. delegation to the Law of the Sea Conference. Since then, she has served on delegations and secretariats at the U.N. Conference on Environment and Development and the Convention on Drought and Desertification. She's also worked for the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment, the American Academy of Diplomacy, and the National Academy of Sciences, all the while keeping involved in the progress of the law of the sea convention.
Caitlyn has published articles on law of the sea, strategic minerals, negotiation theory and practice and, most recently, the emerging regime for the Arctic. A loyal blogreader, Caitlyn nominated an IntLawGrrls transnational foremother years ago: Dr. Grace Murray Hopper (right) (photo credit), a Navy officer who developed the computer language COBOL.
Heartfelt welcome!

UNCLOS needs bipartisan push

Posted: 10 Dec 2010 03:00 AM PST

(My thanks to IntLawGrrls for the opportunity to contribute this guest post)

Twenty-eight years ago, on December 10th, 1982, 119 nations signed the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, a convention that the United States has yet to join. It was written recently that the American government can no longer approve treaties, at least not ones of importance. While IntLawGrrls Diane Marie Amann made a convincing counterargument, the case of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (prior posts) could leave one pondering the issue again. (credit for photo of 1982 U.N. law of sea conference in Montego Bay, Jamaica)
UNCLOS is recognized worldwide as one of the great accomplishments in modern international law. Responding to changes of ocean use that were undermining the three-century-old Grotian regime of free seas, negotiators labored for more than a decade to craft a convention that benefited all nations. Then they labored another dozen years to resolve the last of the concerns, enumerated by President Ronald Reagan, which had previously kept the United States from joining the Convention.
Though it can be intimidating in its scope and detail, the Convention has garnered the support of the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard, the energy, transportation, fishing and telecommunications industries, and non-profit organizations committed to conservation, law, and international engagement. In fact, there is no international agreement in decades that has garnered such a broad and powerful body of domestic support.
In spite of this support, UNCLOS, with its partner agreement on the implementation of Part XI, has been stalled in the Senate for 16 years.
For the first eight years, Senator Jesse Helms (R-N.C.), who chaired the Foreign Relations Committee, refused all requests for hearings. In 2003, when Helms retired and Senator Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) took his place, the Convention moved smoothly through hearings and unanimous approval in committee, but was brought to a halt by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.).
After Democrats took control of the Senate in 2007, the Convention was once again approved in committee -- only to have George W. Bush's support disappear in light of the foxhole conversion of Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) to opposition to the Convention during his campaign for the Republican nomination.
The Convention returned to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee again at the beginning of 2009. The new administration of President Barack Obama listed the Convention as one of 17 "priority" treaties, but never placed it above the economy and other domestic issues in the Administration's legislative agenda. Without active Presidential support, the Senate declined to act.
At the beginning of 2011, the Convention will automatically return to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to start the process once again.
So, should supporters of the Convention be discouraged and turn their attention and energy to other matters in 2011? That would be understandable, but it would be wrong.
The loss of 6 Democratic seats and replacement of several supportive Republicans certainly increases the effort needed to secure Senate advice and consent over the current session, during which the 2/3 majority was assured. Still, the outlook is more promising than in any other session since hearings began in 2003.
The key to approval of the Convention in 2011 lies in mobilizing a bipartisan coalition that includes Senate Democrats and Republicans, leaders of major industries, environmental groups, good governance and international engagement organizations, and respected Republican statesmen and military leaders. Most of these have already endorsed the Convention, but they won't pull out their big guns and commit their political and financial assets unless and until the President calls on them to make common effort to secure approval.
The downside for the President is that the Convention will be subjected to all the procedural roadblocks that opposing Senators, James Inhofe (R-Okla.), David Vitter (R-La.), and Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) can devise. This includes not one but two filibusters and cloture votes -- one for adoption of the Convention and another for adoption of the resolution of advice and consent. These delays would come at the cost of floor time for other legislative issues.
In addition to the Senate battle, another contest will be fought by grassroots groups through faxes and e-mails.
Conservative and libertarian networks such as "FreeRepublic.com" and "GrassFire.org" have deluged Senate offices with thousands of messages on a moment's notice. These communications are fraught with errors and outright lies, but the number of opposition messages puts senators on the defensive.
In the past, there have been no corresponding efforts to support for the Convention. This has to change. But just as businesses want to know that the Administration is serious before committing their CEOs and their political resources, public interest groups want to know that they will be part of a team effort and will not be abandoned by the Administration along the way.
Two women leaders will be key to success in approving the Convention: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska). (photo credit) Both have been outspoken supporters of the Convention, notably during Secretary Clinton's confirmation hearing (video clip). The commitment recently was repeated Clinton's comments to the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco:

We're going to prioritize the Law of the Seas next year. It is critical to how we're going to manage the Arctic. It is critical to our credibility in working with nations in Southeast Asia over questions regarding activities in the South China Sea. It is so much in America's interests. And the objections to it are just not well founded. So I'm hoping that we'll be able to get a hearing on it early in the year and get a vote on it as soon thereafter as possible.
In the end, success or failure regarding the Convention on the Law of the Sea rests with President Obama, for three reasons:
► First, he, with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), will determine where the Convention fits in the Senate's agenda;
► Second, military leaders, always strong supporters of the Convention, will not move forward until the President directs them to do so; and
► Third, the heavy hitters of industry, environment and public interest groups will only move as part of a concerted effort with the Administration.
While Clinton and Murkowski will help lead the effort to move the Convention through the Senate, their effort cannot get underway until the President enlists partners inside and outside the government in a bipartisan and multi-sector effort to secure the support of all but the most ideological opponents in the Senate.

No(bel)-shows

Posted: 09 Dec 2010 11:00 PM PST

Later today the Nobel Peace Prize will be awarded to Chinese writer and political dissident Liu Xiaobo (near left).
It will be the 1st time with "no one present to accept the award since 1936."
Liu Xiabo can't attend.
He's in jail in China.
His wife, Liu Xia (far left), can't attend.
China's put her under house arrest.
Many of their friends and family can't attend.
China won't let them leave the country.
At least 18 countries besides China won't attend.
They've acceded to China's call for a boycott.
United Nations leaders Ban Ki-moon and Navi Pillay won't attend. Pillay, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, says she's got another engagement on this Human Rights Day. That claim's drawn much criticism, and yesterday, she did demand the prizewinner's release from custody.
China has not let up resistance ever since the prize was announced a few months back. Yesterday, it went so far as to block websites to prevent its people from seeing the ceremony.
In short, the Nobel committee's succeeded in shining a light on how far China is from being an open society -- and how far some leaders will go to try to obscure that fact.
Their efforts no doubt will prove fruitless.
As events of the last weeks show, information will out.
Based on the moving poem published in yesterday's New York Times, the voice of the prizewinner (available in book form soon), is one to reckon with. A sample:

hovering within death
a hovering in drowning
Countless nights behind iron-barred windows
and the graves beneath starlight
have exposed my nightmares

Besides a lie
I own nothing

On December 10

Posted: 09 Dec 2010 09:04 PM PST

On this day in ...
... 1945 (65 years ago today), Gabriela Mistral addressed a banquet at City Hall in Stockholm, where earlier in the day she'd been awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. She stressed the bonds between Sweden and her own country:

As a daughter of Chilean democracy, I am moved to have before me a representative of the Swedish democratic tradition, a tradition whose originality consists in perpetually renewing itself within the framework of the most valuable creations of society. ...
At this moment, by an undeserved stroke of fortune, I am the direct voice of the poets of my race and the indirect voice for the noble Spanish and Portuguese tongues. Both rejoice to have been invited to this festival of Nordic life with its tradition of centuries of folklore and poetry.
Mistral (prior posts), who'd been born Lucila Godoy y Alcayaga 56 years earlier, was not only a renowned poet, but also a diplomat, serving on League of Nations cultural committee and as a Chilean consul in Italy, Spain, and Portugal. (credit for photo of 5,000-peso note honoring her) She's the transnational foremother of IntLawGrrl Naomi Roht-Arriaza.

(Prior December 10 posts are here, here, and here.)
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