The following media round up on international and foreign policy issues from around the world for the period of 01 December to 09 December 2024. Guernica 37 will provide weekly media updates from the International Criminal Court, European Court of Human Rights, United Nations, European Union and other sources. Should you wish to contribute or submit a media summary, opinion piece or blog, please send to Ned Vucijak at nenadv@guernica37.com for consideration.
6 December 2024
Conclusion of first week of hearings on climate change advisory proceedings before the ICJ
The International Court of Justice this week commenced hearings in the historic advisory opinion proceedings on the obligations of States in respect of climate change, and the legal consequences for breaching those obligations. This case is the largest ever heard by the ICJ, with 91 written statements filed with the court’s registry alongside 62 written comments on these statements submitted.
The proceedings have particular importance for the small island developing States which initially pushed for the opinion, and it can help inform subsequent judicial proceedings such as domestic cases. The case is occurring in the context of related advisory proceedings on climate change before the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.
6 December 2024
UN General Assembly boosts global fight against illegal trade in cultural artefacts
The UN General Assembly passed a Resolution introduced by Greece entitled “Return or restitution of cultural property to the countries of origin”. The Resolution urged Member States to introduce effective national and international measures to prevent and combat illicit trafficking in cultural property and called for proactive stances to verify where cultural property has originated from in terms of sales or acquisitions.
The Resolution was adopted by consensus and with the co-sponsorship of 146 UN Member States. For the first time all 27 EU Member States co-sponsored the Resolution.
3 December 2024
NGOs present at ICC’s 23rd Assembly of States Parties asking ICC to hold Azerbaijan accountable
The Center for Truth and Justice in partnership with the International Partnership for Human Rights at the ICC’s 23rd Assembly of States Parties, addressing the crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the blockade imposed by Azerbaijan.
The address called for the urgent attention of State Parties to the Rome Statute to refer the situation of the crimes against Armenians to the ICC’s Office of the Prosecutor to begin a preliminary investigation.
3 December 2024
ICC issues new anti-slavery guidelines
The International Criminal Court issued a new policy on Slavery Crimes, on the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery. ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan stated the policy is the first “of its kind issued by an international court or tribunal.”
The policy guidelines aimed to expand the scope of acts beyond that of obvious and literal “bondage” or “captivity” with a purposive analysis that takes into consideration “family separations, reproductive control, sexual harms, malnutrition, branding, or corporal punishments for attempts to escape” as markers of enslavement. The policy goes further and removes the previous element of abuse or enforced labour as required elements of the crime, indicating that enslavement “[does not] require that the person who is enslaved “do” anything” and that “a person may be well-fed, clothed and housed and still be enslaved.”
https://www.jurist.org/news/2024/12/international-criminal-court-issues-new-anti-slavery-guidelines/
3 December 2024
Afghanistan’s Taliban ban medical training for women
The Taliban in Afghanistan closed one of the last remaining loopholes in their ban on education for older girls and women by forbidding them from attending institutions offering medical education. The Taliban have also banned women in some provinces from being treated by male medical professionals, which means that this new decree, halting the training of new female healthcare workers will result in unnecessary pain, misery, sickness, and death for the women forced to go without health care, as there won’t be female healthcare workers to treat them.
Since regaining control of the country on August 15, 2021, the Taliban have imposed rules that systematically violate the rights of women and girls in most aspects of their lives, including not only the right to education but also to freedom of movement and speech, to work, to live free from violence, to participate in public life, and to access health care.
3 December 2024
Ukraine slams ‘failed’ 1994 security guarantee, urges NATO membership
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Kyiv slammed the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, which saw the newly independent country give up the world’s third-largest nuclear arsenal for security guarantees from Russia and the West. “We are convinced that the only real guarantee of security for Ukraine, as well as a deterrent to further Russian aggression against Ukraine and other states, is Ukraine’s full membership in NATO,” the Foreign Ministry statement read.
The criticism of the “short-sighted” deal came before a NATO meeting that is expected to discuss the growing possibility of negotiations to end the war with Russia. NATO has given little indication it will formally welcome Ukraine into the fold soon.