Bar-Sharci

Egypt court acquits protesters

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<span style="background-color: white;"> </span><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 8pt;"><span style="color: black;">Matthew Pomy at 9:47 AM ET</span></span><br style="background-color: white;" /><img height="10" src="http://jurist.org/images/s.gif" style="background-color: white;" width="1" /><br />
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[JURIST] A misdemeanor court in Egypt on Sunday acquitted 155 protesters who were arrested in connection with the violent clashes with police in October. The court <a href="http://www.ahram.org.eg/News/1027/25/246632/%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A3%D9%88%D9%84%D9%89/%D8%A8%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%A1%D8%A9-%E2%80%8F-%D9%85%D8%AA%D9%87%D9%85%D8%A7-%D9%85%D9%86-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A5%D8%AE%D9%88%D8%A7%D9%86-%D9%88%D8%A3%D9%86%D8%B5%D8%A7%D8%B1%D9%87%D9%85%E2%80%8F-%D9%81%D9%8A-%D9%82%D8%B6%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D8%AA%D9%87%D8%A7%D9%85%D9%87%D9%85.aspx" style="color: #6277bc; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">dismissed the charges</a> [Al-Ahram report, Arabic] of assaulting a police officer and vandalism. This group was specifically tied to violence on October 6 that killed almost 50 people. Thousands remain in jail awaiting trial, including former president <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-18371427" style="color: #6277bc; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">Mohamed Morsi</a> [BBC backgrounder; JURIST<a href="http://jurist.org/jurist_search.php?q=Mohamed+Morsi" style="color: #6277bc; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">news archive</a>], following the police crackdown on protesters supporting the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12313405" style="color: #6277bc; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">Muslim Brotherhood</a> [BBC backgrounder; JURIST <a href="http://jurist.org/jurist_search.php?q=muslim+brotherhood" style="color: #6277bc; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">news archive</a>]. In addition, a court in Alexandria <a href="http://www.ahram.org.eg/News/1027/25/246630/%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A3%D9%88%D9%84%D9%89/%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A7%D8%B3%D8%AA%D8%A6%D9%86%D8%A7%D9%81-%D8%AA%D8%B7%D9%84%D9%82-%D8%B3%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%AD-%D9%81%D8%AA%D9%8A%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A5%D8%B3%D9%83%D9%86%D8%AF%D8%B1%D9%8A%D8%A9--%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B3%D8%AC%D9%86-%D8%B9%D8%A7%D9%85%D8%A7-%D9%85.aspx" style="color: #6277bc; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">released</a> [Al-Ahram report, Arabic] a group of 21 female protesters, including seven teenagers, previously sentenced to 11 years in prison.Egypt has faced political unrest since its <a href="http://jurist.org/feature/featured/egyptian-revolution/" style="color: #6277bc; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">revolution</a> [JURIST backgrounder], which began more than two years ago. Last week Egypt's draft constitution was <a href="http://jurist.org/paperchase/2013/12/egypt-assembly-finalizes-draft-constitution-raises-election-concerns.php" style="color: #6277bc; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">finalized</a> [JURIST report] by a 50-member assembly, creating uncertainty about the country's election procedures. The draft dictates that elections are to take place within the first six months of the constitution's ratification. However, the draft does not determine whether a presidential election should be held before or after parliamentary elections. Also last week, Egyptian blogger and activist <a href="https://twitter.com/alaa" style="color: #6277bc; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">Alaa Abd El Fattah</a> [Twitter feed] was <a href="http://jurist.org/paperchase/2013/11/egypt-blogger-arrested-for-inciting-protests-in-violation-of-new-law.php" style="color: #6277bc; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">arrested</a> [JURIST report] on charges of inciting a demonstration in violation of the country's <a href="http://jurist.org/paperchase/2013/11/interim-egyptian-president-adly-mansour.php" style="color: #6277bc; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">controversial new law</a> [JURIST report] restricting rights to protest. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay has <a href="http://jurist.org/paperchase/2013/01/un-rights-chief-voices-concern-over-increasing-violence-in-egypt.php" style="color: #6277bc; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">voiced concern</a> [JURIST report] over the growing violence and rising death toll in Egypt stemming from ongoing protests throughout the country.</span></div>
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Egypt court acquits protesters

Matthew Pomy at 9:47 AM ET [JURIST] A misdemeanor court in Egypt on Sunday acquitted 155 protesters who were arrested in connection with the violent clashes with police in October. The court dismiss…

09 Dec 2013

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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQYhTO2j6LEY4OOponVWME0dZBV-eMn40-X4a7OaNKbJgS62iOTTEi7eKPbiUy8q0OpyMeK-QPfem9Wd70W_Eg7usfWPE0vN4SqNN-mVkH_dQsM1kG534BWTFC411I6ia28Bj6pBPZgdd6/s1600/inspirational_quotes_of_famous_people_640_11.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="410" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQYhTO2j6LEY4OOponVWME0dZBV-eMn40-X4a7OaNKbJgS62iOTTEi7eKPbiUy8q0OpyMeK-QPfem9Wd70W_Eg7usfWPE0vN4SqNN-mVkH_dQsM1kG534BWTFC411I6ia28Bj6pBPZgdd6/s640/inspirational_quotes_of_famous_people_640_11.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This quote was taken from the speech of late Steve Jobs to Harvard students, it's one of my favorite quotes of all time.</td></tr>
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This quote was taken from the speech of late Steve Jobs to Harvard students, it's one of my favorite quotes of all time. …

04 Nov 2013

The Lawyer Management Awards 2013: Book of the night

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On Tuesday 24th September over 400 operational professionals came together at The Brewery to celebrate excellence in operational and strategic management within law firms at The Lawyer’s inaugural Management Awards in association with Thomson Reuters. The packed awards ceremony was a chance for the legal industry’s business support staff to shine, with a shortlist of teams showing admirable innovation in grueling economic times.      <br />
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<img alt="Law+firm+management+individual+of+the+year" src="http://www.thelawyer.com/Pictures/web/d/x/j/Law-firm-management-individual-of-the-year300.JPG" />         <div class="awardsPictureCaption" style="background-color: black; color: white; padding: 5px 0px;">
Julia Hayhoe, Law Firm Management Individual of the Year</div>
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<img alt="Best+business+development+team" src="http://www.thelawyer.com/Pictures/web/c/c/x/Best-business-developmenet-team300.JPG" />     <div class="awardsPictureCaption" style="background-color: black; color: white; padding: 5px 0px;">
Mishcon de Reya, Best Business Development (BD) Team</div>
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Clifford Chance were named <a href="http://www.thelawyer.com/news/events-and-awards/law-firm-management-team-of-the-year/3009114.article"><strong>Law Firm Management Team of the Year</strong></a> and <a href="http://www.thelawyer.com/news/events-and-awards/law-firm-management-individual-of-the-year/3009113.article"><strong>Law Firm Management Individual of the Year</strong></a> went to Julia Hayhoe, the London client and business development (BD) director for Baker & McKenzie. Mishcon de Reya took home the <a href="http://www.thelawyer.com/news/events-and-awards/best-business-development-team/3009107.article"><strong>Best Business Development (BD) Team</strong></a> trophy and <a href="http://www.thelawyer.com/news/events-and-awards/best-knowledge-management-strategy/3009109.article"><strong>Best Knowledge Management Strategy</strong></a> was awarded to A&L Goodbody. <br />
Details of all the results can be found on the relevant category pages and pictures of the event can be viewed by clicking <a href="http://www.thelawyer.com/news/events-and-awards/lawyer-management-awards-2013-image-gallery/3009101.article"><strong>here</strong></a>. </div>

The Lawyer Management Awards 2013: Book of the night

On Tuesday 24th September over 400 operational professionals came together at The Brewery to celebrate excellence in operational and strategic management within law firms at The Lawyer’s inaugural Ma…

29 Sep 2013

Waxaan halkan hambalyo iyo Bogaadin uuga dirayaa arooskii Boqorka Eng Mukhtaar Omar iyo Boqoradda iyo Boqoradda Sucaad Sh.Nuux oo xafladooda ka dhacday Crown Hotel malintii Axadda ee 15 September 2013

Waxaan halkan hambalyo iyo Bogaadin uuga dirayaa arooskii Boqorka Eng Mukhtaar Omar iyo Boqoradda iyo Boqoradda Sucaad Sh.Nuux oo xafladooda ka dhacday Crown Hotel malintii Axadda ee 15 September 2013

…

24 Sep 2013

Quote of the day

Quote of the day

“No great idea in its beginning can ever be within the law. How can it be within the law? The law is stationary. The law is fixed. The law is a chariot wheel which binds us all regardless of conditio…

04 Sep 2013

A Short History of Bio-Chemical Weapons

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<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 24pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b> </div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">by ZOLTAN GROSSMAN<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">400s B.C.: Spartan Greeks use sulfur
fumes against enemy soldiers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">256 A.D.: Sasanian Persian Empire
may have used toxic smoke against Roman soldiers in a tunnel in modern-day
Syria.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">1346: Tatars catapult
plague-infected corpses into Italian trade settlement in Crimea.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">1500s: Spanish conquistadors use
biological warfare used against Indigenous peoples in the Americas.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">1763: British Gen. Jeffrey Amherst
advocates use of smallpox blankets against Native peoples during Pontiac’s
Rebellion. Smallpox blankets given to Native delegates during talks at Fort
Pitt.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">1789: Smallpox ravages Australian
Indigenous communities in New South Wales; debate persists whether the British
deliberately introduced it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">1800s: Smallpox, measles, and other
diseases ravage Native American and First Nation communities; U.S. and
British/Canadian officials use quarantine techniques to isolate diseases in
white communities, but not in Native villages.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">1845: British attack Maori resisters
with poison gas in Battle of Ohaeawai, Aotearoa/New Zealand.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">1907: Hague Convention outlaws
chemical weapons; U.S. does not participate.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">1914-18: World War I begins; Germans
introduce chlorine gas at Second Battle of Ypres. Poison gas such as mustard
gas and chlorine gas produces 85,000 deaths, 1,200,000 injuries on both sides.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">1919-21: Poison gas used in Russian
civil war, against rebels by the Bolsheviks, and against Bolsheviks by the
Royal Air Force.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">1920s: Spanish and French forces use
mustard gas against Berber rebels in Spanish Morocco. Britain proposes use of
chemical weapons in Iraq “as an experiment” against Arab and Kurdish rebels
seeking independence; Winston Churchill “strongly” backs the proposed “use of
poisoned gas against uncivilised tribes,” which was apparently not carried out.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">1928: The Geneva Protocol (first signed in 1925) by the
League of Nations prohibits gas and bacteriological warfare; most countries
that ratify it prohibit only the first use of such weapons</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">1935: Italy begins conquest of
Abyssinia (Ethiopia), using mustard gas.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">1937: Japan invades China, widely
uses chemical weapons in war to conquer China, and used biological weapons such
as plague-carrying fleas.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">1939: World War II begins; both
sides decide not to use bio-chemical arms in large-scale attacks, due to fears
of retaliation in kind.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">1941: U.S. enters World War II;
President Roosevelt pledges U.S. will not be first to use bio-chemical weapons.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">1942: German forces may have used
poison gas against Soviet resisters in tunnels during the Battle of Kerch in
Crimea.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">1943: U.S. ship damaged by German
bombing raid on Bari, Italy, leaks mustard gas, killing 1,000.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">1945: When concentration camps are
liberated, inmates report that Germans have used Zyklon-B in the extermination
of civilians. Japanese military discovered to have conducted biological warfare
experiments on POWs, killing 3000. U.S. shields officers in charge from war
crimes trials, in return for data. Soviets take over German nerve gas facility
in Potsdam. The Nazis had stockpiles of nerve gas against which the Allies had
no defenses, and had also been working on blood agents.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">1947: U.S. possesses germ warfare
weapons; President Truman withdraws Geneva Protocol from Senate consideration.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">1949: U.S. dismisses Soviet trials
of Japanese for germ warfare as “propaganda.” Army begins secret tests of
biological agents in U.S. cities.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">1950: Korean War begins; North Korea
and China accuse U.S. of germ warfare–charges never proven. San Francisco disease
outbreak matches Army bacteria used on city.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">1951: African-Americans exposed to
potentially fatal simulant in Virginia test of race-specific fungal weapons.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">1952: German chemical weapons
researcher Walter Schreiber, working in Texas, exposed as a perpetrator of
concentration camp experiments, and flees to Argentina.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">1954: Fort Detrick in Maryland
initiates Operation Whitecoat to research the effects of biological agents on
soliders and conscientious objector volunteers; program lasts until 1973.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">1956: Army manual explicitly states
that bio-chemical warfare is not banned. Rep. Gerald Ford wins policy change to
give U.S. military “first strike” authority on chemical arms.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">1959: House resolution against first
use of bio-chemical weapons is defeated.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">1961: Kennedy Administration begins
hike of chemical weapons spending from $75 million to more than $330 million.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">1962: Chemical weapons loaded on
U.S. planes during Cuban missile crisis.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">1963-66: US, UK and Israel accuse
Egypt of using chemical weapons during its intervention in North Yemen’s civil
war.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">1966: Army germ warfare experiment
in New York subway system.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">1968: Pentagon asks for the chance
to use some of its arsenal against protesters to demonstrate the “efficacy” of
the chemicals. Maj. Gen. J.B. Medaris says, “By using gas in civil situations,
we accomplish two purposes: controlling crowds and also educating people on
gas. Now, everybody is being called savage if he just talks about it. But nerve
gas is the only way I know of to sort out the guys in white hats from the ones
in black hats without killing any of them.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">1969: Utah chemical weapons accident
kills thousands of sheep; President Nixon declares U.S. moratorium on chemical
weapons production and biological weapons possession. U.N. General Assembly
bans use of herbicides (plant killers) and tear gasses in warfare; U.S. one of
three opposing votes. U.S. forces cause tear gas fatalities in Vietnamese
guerrilla tunnels, and widely use napalm (jellied gasoline that stick to skin).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">1971: U.S. ends direct use of
herbicides such as Agent Orange; had spread over Indochinese forests, and
destroyed at least six percent of South Vietnamese cropland, enough to feed
600,000 people for a year. Diseases and birth defects affected Vietnamese
civilians and U.S. veterans. White phosphorus grenades also used against South
Vietnamese rebels. U.S. intelligence gives swine-flu virus to anti-Castro Cuban
paramilitary group, which lands it on Cuba’s southern coast (according to 1977
newspaper reports).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">1972: Biological and Toxic Weapons
Convention. Cuba accuses CIA of instilling swine fever virus that leads to
death of 500,000 hogs.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">1974: U.S. finally ratifies 1928
Geneva Protocol.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">1975: Indonesia annexes East Timor;
planes spread herbicides on croplands.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">1978: Bulgarian secret service uses
ricin in umbrella tip to assassinate Bulgarian dissident in London.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">1979: Anthrax leak from Soviet
biological weapons lab kills 60 near in the Ural Mountains of Russia, near
Sverdlovsk. <i>Washington Post </i>reports on U.S. program against Cuban
agriculture since 1962, including CIA biological warfare component. White
government of Rhodesia contaminates Africans with anthrax in the last stages of
the Zimbabwe independence war, resulting in 10,000 cases, 182 of them fatal.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">1980: U.S. intelligence officials
allege Soviet chemical use in Afghanistan, while admitting “no confirmation.”
Congress approves nerve gas facility in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. Iraq begins
eight-year war with U.S. arch-enemy Iran; both sides use chemical weapons in
the war.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">1981: U.S. accuses Vietnam and
allies of using mycotoxins (fungal poisons) in Laos and Cambodia. Some refugees
report casualties in Laos; one analysis reveals “yellow rain” as bee feces, but
questions remained.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">1984: U.N. confirms Iraq using
mustard and nerve gasses against Iranian “human wave” attacks in border war,
killing up to 100,000 Iranians; State Department issues mild condemnation, yet
restores diplomatic relations with Iraq, and opposes U.N. action against Iraq.
Bhopal fertilizer plant accident in India kills 2,000; shows risks of chemical
plants being damaged in warfare. President Reagan orders over a half-million
M55 rockets retooled so they contain high-yield explosives as well as VX gas.
(The Army later claimed that many of these rockets were “unstable” and leaking
nerve gas.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">1985: U.S. resumes open-air testing
of biological agents. U.S. firms begin supplying Iraq with numerous biological
agents for a four-year period (according to a 1994 Senate report).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">1986: U.S. resumes open-air testing
of biological agents.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">1987: Senate ties in three votes on
resuming production of chemical weapons; Vice President Bush breaks all three
ties in favor of resumption.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">1988: Iraq uses chemical weapons
against Kurdish minority rebels and civilians in Halabjah, killing at least
5,000. U.S. continues to maintain agricultural credits with Iraq; President
Reagan blocks congressional sanctions against Iraq.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">1989: Paris conference of 149
nations condemns chemical weapons, urges quick ban to emerge from Geneva treaty
negotiations; U.S. revealed to plan poison gas production even after treaty
signed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">1990: U.S., Soviets pledge to reduce
chemical weapons stockpiles to 20 percent of current U.S. supply by 2002, and
to eliminate poison gas weapons when all nations have signed future Geneva
treaty. Israel admits possession of chemical weapons; Iraq threatens to use
chemical weapons on Israel if it is attacked.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">1991: U.S. and Coalition forces
invade Kuwait and Iraq in the Gulf War; Iraq possesses chemical weapons but
does not use them. At least 28 alleged bio-chemical production or storage sites
are bombed in Iraq during the Gulf War, including fertilizer and other civilian
plants. CNN reports “green flames” from one chemical plant, and the deaths of
50 Iraqi troops from anthrax after air strike on another site. <i>New York
Times</i> quotes Soviet chemical weapons commander that air strikes on Iraqi
chemical weapons would have “little effect beyond neighboring villages,” but
that strikes on biological weapons could spread disease “to adjoining
countries.” Czechoslovak chemical warfare unit detects sarin nerve gas after
air strikes on Iraqi chemical weapons facilities. Egyptian doctor reports
outbreak of “strange disease” inside Iraq. After the war, U.S. troops use
explosives in Khamisiya to destroy Iraqi chemical weapons storage bunkers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">1992: Reports intensify of U.S. and
Coalition veterans of Gulf War developing health problems, involving a variety
of symptoms, collectively called Gulf War Syndrome. U.N. sanctions intensify
civilian health crisis inside Iraq, making identification of similar symptoms
potentially difficult. Two members of anti-government Minnesota Patriots’
Council arrested for plan to use ricin chemical against law enforcement
officer.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">1993: President Clinton continues
intermittent bombing and missile raids against Iraqi facilities; U.N.
inspectors step up program to dismantle Iraqi weapons. U.S. signs U.N. Chemical
Weapons Convention, though approval later blocked in Senate.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">1994: Russian forces extensively use
white phosphorus shells as incendiary weapons in Chechnya.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">1994-95: Japanese cult Aum Shinrikyo
launches deadly sarin nerve gas attacks on the Matsumoto community and on the
Tokyo subway system.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">1996: Congressional hearings on Gulf
War Syndrome focuses on Iraqi storage bunker destruction, rather than other
possible causes, and does not call for international investigation of symptoms
among Iraqis. CIA investigation asserts that U.S. bombing of chemical weapons
sites did not contaminate population.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">1997: Cuba accuses U.S. of spraying
crops with biological agents. Iraq expels U.S. citizens in U.N. inspection
teams, which are allowed to continue work without Americans, but choose to
evacuate all inspectors. U.S. mobilizes for military action. Senate act
implements Chemical Weapons Convention, with a provision that “the President
may deny a request to inspect any facility” on national security grounds.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">1998: Chief UN weapons inspector
Richard Butler orders inspectors out of Iraq just prior to U.S. bombing. In
Operation Desert Fox, Clinton again bombs alleged Iraqi bio-chemical weapons
sites, after Iraq questions role of American U.N. inspector, and restricts
inspector access to presidential properties and security. U.S. launches missile
attack on pharmaceutical plant in Sudan that it alleges produces nerve gas
agents–a claim disputed by most of the international community.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">1998-99: Series of anthrax hoaxes
against U.S. media and government targetss. Ex-Aryan Nations member Larry Wayne
Harris carries out anthrax hoax to dramatize warning of alleged “Iraqi threat.”
Three members of Republic of Texas militia group arrested for intention to use
anthrax and other biological agents against public officials. Upsurge in
anthrax hoaxes against abortion clinics.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">1999: NATO bombs Yugoslavia in
Kosovo Crisis, triggering massive Serbian expulsion of ethnic Albanians. NATO
bombers hit a Serbian petrochemical plant in Pancevo, sending a toxic cloud
with 2,000 tons of chemicals over the city, and chemicals were released in
other bombings of industrial plants.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">2000: “Topoff Exercise” involving
federal and state authorities fails to cope with simulated chemical, biological
and nuclear attacks in three widely separated metropolitan areas.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">2001: U.S. withdraws from the first
round of Biological and Toxic Weapons Convention (BTWC), crippling
international efforts to establish global measures against biological weapons.
In wake of September 11 attacks, anthrax spores sent by mail to multiple
political and media targets around the U.S., resulting in anthrax exposures,
infections, and at least 5 deaths. Real anthrax attacks accompanied by increase
in anthrax hoaxes by “Army of God” and other groups and individuals.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">2002: Russian police use chemical
gas against Chechen rebels holding hostages in Moscow theater; 42 rebels and
120 hostages died from the gas raid. Bush Administration renews allegations
that Iraq possesses biochemical weapons (drawing on allegations by Iraqi
exiles), reluctantly acquiesces in return of United Nations weapons inspectors
(after four years of absence) to prove or disprove the claim. Chief UN arms
inspector Hans Blix reports no evidence of renewed chemical or biological
weapons programs in Iraq.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">2003: UN inspectors find evidence of
Iraqi violations of ballistic missile range limits, and begin to destroy
missiles. Bush Administration not satisfied with extent of UN inspection. Just
prior to U.S.-U.K. invasion of Iraq, UN orders inspectors out of country. After
invasion, U.S. contends it will hunt for Weapons of Mass Destruction on its
own, and finds none. As a member state of the UN Security Council, Syria
proposes a WMD-Free Zone in the Middle East, which the U.S. rejects.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">2004: During the First Battle of
Fallujah, U.S. forces use white phosphorus artillery shells (intended for
aerial illumination) as an incendiary weapon against Iraqi insurgents, killing
and injuring many civilians. Pentagon finally admits in 2013 its use of white
phosphorus as a weapon in Fallujah. Environmental justice protests in Anniston,
Alabama oppose incineration of chemical weapons in populated area.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">2007: Al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia
carries out chlorine gas tank bombings in Iraqi civil war. White phosphorus
train derails in Ukraine, contaminating 90 sq km.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">2008: Israel uses white phosphorus
shells during its three-week war against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. U.S.
government employee suspected in 2001 anthrax attacks commits suicide.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">2009: Taliban and U.S. forces accuse
each other of using white phosphorus as weapons. Rebels in Yemen accuse Saudi
warplanes of dropping white phosphorus.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">2011: Some news sources report white
phosphorus use by NATO forces in Libya. Four militia members arrested in
Georgia for plotting to use ricin to attack politicians, media, and the IRS.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">2012: U.S. has closed 7 of 9
chemical weapons depots and destroyed 90 percent of its stockpiles, to meet the
provisions of the Chemical Weapons Convention it signed in 1993. Israel hits
UNRWA compound in Gaza City with white phosphorus; announces the following year
that it will stop using white phosphorus weapons.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">2013: Actress allegedly mails ricin
mailed to the President and other U.S. leaders. In January, UK issues licenses
to export chemicals to Syria that could be used to make sarin; licenses revoked
when sanctions begin against Syria in July. Syrian government and rebels trade
accusations of using sarin in April and August. Doctors Without Borders
documents 355 killed in August sarin attack in Ghouta area; Secretary of State
John Kerry claims that Syrian government is responsible for killing 1,429
Syrians. UK declines to back military strikes on Syria; France, Turkey, Saudi
Arabia, and Israel back U.S. military action.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Dr.
Zoltan Grossman</span></i></b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
is a Professor of Geography and Native Studies at The Evergreen State College
in Olympia, Washington, and earned his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin.
His faculty website is <a href="http://academic.evergreen.edu/g/grossmaz"><span style="color: blue;">http://academic.evergreen.edu/g/grossmaz</span></a> and
email is </span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
</div>

A Short History of Bio-Chemical Weapons

by ZOLTAN GROSSMAN 400s B.C.: Spartan Greeks use sulfur fumes against enemy soldiers. 256 A.D.: Sasanian Persian Empire may have used toxic smoke against Roman soldiers in a tunnel in modern-day …

04 Sep 2013

Convention against Chimical Weapons

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Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction (Chemical Weapons Convention)</h1>
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The CWC aims to eliminate an entire category of weapons of mass destruction by prohibiting the development, production, acquisition, stockpiling, retention, transfer or use of chemical weapons by States Parties. States Parties, in turn, must take the steps necessary to enforce that prohibition in respect of persons (natural or legal) within their jurisdiction. </div>
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All States Parties have agreed to chemically disarm by destroying any stockpiles of chemical weapons they may hold and any facilities which produced them, as well as any chemical weapons they abandoned on the territory of other States Parties in the past. States Parties have also agreed to create a verification regime for certain toxic chemicals and their precursors (listed in Schedules 1, 2 and 3 in the Annex on Chemicals to the CWC) in order to ensure that such chemicals are only used for purposes not prohibited. </div>
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A unique feature of the CWC is its incorporation of the 'challenge inspection', whereby any State Party in doubt about another State Party's compliance can request the Director-General to send an inspection team. Under the CWC's 'challenge inspection' procedure, States Parties have committed themselves to the principle of 'any time, anywhere' inspections with no right of refusal. </div>
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<dt><a href="http://www.opcw.org/chemical-weapons-convention/about-the-convention/" title="About the Convention">About the Convention</a></dt>
<dd><span class="image"><img alt="" height="60" src="http://www.opcw.org/typo3temp/pics/fd7d049a51.jpg" width="80" /></span>The Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on Their Destruction (the 'CWC', or the 'Convention') aims to eliminate an entire category of weapons of mass destruction by prohibiting the development, production, acquisition, stockpiling, retention, transfer or use of chemical weapons by States Parties.</dd>
<dt><a href="http://www.opcw.org/chemical-weapons-convention/preamble/" title="Preamble">Preamble</a></dt>
<dd>The States Parties to this Convention -Determined to act with a view to achieving effective progress towards general and complete disarmament under strict and effective international control, including the prohibition and elimination of all types of weapons of mass destruction, -Desiring to contribute to the realization of the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations...</dd>
<dt><a href="http://www.opcw.org/chemical-weapons-convention/articles/" title="Read the 24 Articles of the CWC">Articles</a></dt>
<dd>The CWC comprises 24 Articles</dd></dl>
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Convention against Chimical Weapons

Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction (Chemical Weapons Convention) The CWC aims to…

04 Sep 2013

Short note of former Somali Legal System

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<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Somali         Republic formed 1<sup>st</sup> July 1960, upon union of British Somaliland         (independent from 26<sup>th</sup> June) and Italian Somaliland (independent         from Italian-administered UN trusteeship 1<sup>st</sup> July). Importation         of British-Indian legislation in north in late 19<sup>th</sup> and early         20<sup>th</sup> century. British promulgated Natives Betrothal and Marriage         Ordinance 1928 and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Qadis�</i> Courts         Ordinance 1937 specific to Somaliland. Subordinate Courts Ordinance 1944         repealed 1937 Ordinance, limiting jurisdiction of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Qadis�</i> Courts to matters of personal status. Under Italian rule         in south, well developed system of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Qadis�</i>         Courts; retained jurisdiction over civil and minor criminal matters. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Upon         independence, Republic faced with task of unifying legislation and judicial         structures drawn from Italian, British, customary and Islamic legal traditions.         After 1969 military coup, new regime embarked on programme of legal reform         based on scientific socialism. Early to mid-1970s, debate regarding family         law reform led to appointment of a commission to prepare draft code. Draft         enacted in 1975. Aimed to abolish customary laws and abrogated previous         British and Italian era legislation on family law. Article 1 of Family         Code 1975 provides that leading doctrines of Shafi�i school, and general         principles of Islamic law and social justice are to serve as residuary         sources of law.</span></div>
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<tr><td bgcolor="#999999" height="16" valign="TOP" width="24%"><b>Notable Features</b>     </td><td style="background: silver; border-color: windowtext windowtext currentColor; border-style: solid solid none; border-width: 0.75pt 0.75pt medium; height: 20.15pt; mso-pattern: solid silver; mso-shading: gray; padding: 0in 6.2pt; width: 355.65pt;" valign="top" width="474"><div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Marriage Age</span></b><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">: minimum marriage age is         18 years for both parties; female party may marry at 16 with guardian�s         consent; Court may grant exemption from minimum age requirements in case         of necessity<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Marriage Guardianship</span></b><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">: girl who has reached 16         years, but is under 18 years may be represented in contract of marriage         by father (in absence of father, guardians in order are: mother, grandfather,         elder brother, uncle, Court-appointed guardian or judge); Court also         empowered to overrule objection of guardian to marriage of female ward         between 16 and 18 years <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Marriage Registration</span></b><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">: marriage to be registered         at neared District Court or authorised office within 15 days (40 days         for residents of rural areas); failure to register punishable by fine;         essential elements of marriage outlined in Article 6 are: proposal and         acceptance by contracting parties before two witnesses; marriage contracted         under compulsion is invalid<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Polygamy</span></b><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">: man may not contract second         marriage without written permission of District Court; Court�s authorisation         requires ascertainment of one of following conditions: sterility of wife         of which husband was not aware at time of marriage, attested by panel         of doctors; incurable chronic or contagious illness of wife, certified         by a doctor; wife�s sentencing to more than two years in prison; wife�s         unjustified absence from matrimonial home for more than one year; or existence         of social necessity (not defined)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Obedience/Maintenance</span></b><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">: legislation states that         marriage is based on equal rights and duties; husband is declared head         of the family, parties are obliged to cohabit, and wife is obliged to         follow her husband; both parties obliged to share expenses of matrimonial         home in proportion to their incomes if they are able to do so; if either         party fails in duty to maintain and is not destitute, other party may         obtain Court order for maintenance (sums and time period for arrears of         maintenance not specified; Court empowered to award interim maintenance         and authorise claimant to contract debts against defaulting partner if         s/he finds it impossible to obtain maintenance from defaulter <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Talaq</span></i></b><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">: Family Code provides that right of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">talaq</i> belongs to husband "subject to the authorisation by the         competent court"; court may authorise divorce only after reconciliation         efforts (of 60 days) have failed, and court may not authorise more than         one <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">talaq</i> at a time; divorce         by a minor, insane person, or pronounced under compulsion is invalid<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Judicial Divorce</span></b><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">: either party may seek judicial         dissolution on following grounds: incurable disease of other spouse making         cohabitation dangerous or impossible; disappearance of other party for         period of over four years; habitual failure to maintain by other party;         serious disagreement between spouses making conjugal life impossible (after         reconciliation efforts of 60 days); perpetual impotence or sterility of         other party; and other spouse�s sentencing to over four years imprisonment<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Wife         is entitled to seek dissolution if husband has been granted permission         to marry polygamously by District Court, on condition that there are no         children <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Post-Divorce Maintenance/Financial         Arrangements</span></b><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">: where reason for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">talaq</i> or <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">faskh</i> is deemed         to be husband�s fault, Court shall order him to maintain former wife for         three months to one year; if wife is deemed to be at fault, Court shall         order her to pay husband sum not less than her dower in compensation<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Child Custody and Guardianship</span></b><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">:         mother entitled to custody of male children until age of 10 and female         children until age of 15, with court empowered to extend custody until         age 18 for male or female ward if s/he is not able to look after him/herself;         if mother remarries and husband is within prohibited degrees to ward(s),         or in case she is widowed and remarries, she may retain custody; maintenance         of children is duty of both parents until age of majority for sons and         marriage or financial independence/gainful employment for daughter<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Succession</span></b><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">: testate succession limited         to one-third of estate, unless consent of heirs is obtained; bequest         in favour of an heir also invalid unless consent of other heirs is obtained;         Article 158 states that "In conformity with the principles of the         1<sup>st</sup> and 2<sup>nd</sup> Charter of the Revolution females and         males shall have equal rights of inheritance"; heirs are identified         as: spouses, children, grandchildren, parents, grandparents, full siblings,         paternal and maternal aunts and uncles; widow or widower entitled to half         of estate if there are no children or grandchildren, or one fourth if         there are; sons and daughters to receive equal shares, and same applies         to grandchildren; shares of other heirs also specified in Code, as are         grounds for inclusion or exclusion of heirs and reduction of shares<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Short note of former Somali Legal System

Somali Republic formed 1st July 1960, upon union of British Somaliland (independent from 26th June) and Italian Somaliland (independent from Italian-administered UN trusteeshi…

01 Sep 2013

United Nations Convention against Corruption

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<span style="color: red; font-size: 120%; font-weight: bold;"><img align="right" alt="UNCAC, ZIP, approx. 80M" border="0" height="94" hspace="10" src="http://www.unodc.org/images/corruption/uncac.gif" vspace="10" width="94" /></span>   </h4>
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Convention highlights</h2>
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Prevention</h3>
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Corruption can be prosecuted after the fact, but first and foremost, it requires prevention. An entire chapter of the Convention is dedicated to prevention, with measures directed at both the public and private sectors. These include model preventive policies, such as the establishment of anticorruption bodies and enhanced transparency in the financing of election campaigns and political parties. States must endeavour to ensure that their public services are subject to safeguards that promote efficiency, transparency and recruitment based on merit. Once recruited, public servants should be subject to codes of conduct, requirements for financial and other disclosures, and appropriate disciplinary measures. Transparency and accountability in matters of public finance must also be promoted, and specific requirements are established for the prevention of corruption, in the particularly critical areas of the public sector, such as the judiciary and public procurement. Those who use public services must expect a high standard of conduct from their public servants. Preventing public corruption also requires an effort from all members of society at large. For these reasons, the Convention calls on countries to promote actively the involvement of non-governmental and community-based organizations, as well as other elements of civil society, and to raise public awareness of corruption and what can be done about it. Article 5 of the Convention enjoins each State Party to establish and promote effective practices aimed at the prevention of corruption.</div>
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Criminalization</h3>
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The Convention requires countries to establish criminal and other offences to cover a wide range of acts of corruption, if these are not already crimes under domestic law. In some cases, States are legally obliged to establish offences; in other cases, in order to take into account differences in domestic law, they are required to consider doing so. The Convention goes beyond previous instruments of this kind, criminalizing not only basic forms of corruption such as bribery and the embezzlement of public funds, but also trading in influence and the concealment and laundering of the proceeds of corruption. Offences committed in support of corruption, including money-laundering and obstructing justice, are also dealt with. Convention offences also deal with the problematic areas of private-sector corruption.</div>
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International cooperation</h3>
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Countries agreed to cooperate with one another in every aspect of the fight against corruption, including prevention, investigation, and the prosecution of offenders. Countries are bound by the Convention to render specific forms of mutual legal assistance in gathering and transferring evidence for use in court, to extradite offenders. Countries are also required to undertake measures which will support the tracing, freezing, seizure and confiscation of the proceeds of corruption.</div>
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Asset recovery</h3>
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In a major breakthrough, countries agreed on asset-recovery, which is stated explicitly as a fundamental principle of the Convention. This is a particularly important issue for many developing countries where high-level corruption has plundered the national wealth, and where resources are badly needed for reconstruction and the rehabilitation of societies under new governments. Reaching agreement on this chapter has involved intensive negotiations, as the needs of countries seeking the illicit assets had to be reconciled with the legal and procedural safeguards of the countries whose assistance is sought.</div>
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Several provisions specify how cooperation and assistance will be rendered. In particular, in the case of embezzlement of public funds, the confiscated property would be returned to the state requesting it; in the case of proceeds of any other offence covered by the Convention, the property would be returned providing the proof of ownership or recognition of the damage caused to a requesting state; in all other cases, priority consideration would be given to the return of confiscated property to the requesting state, to the return of such property to the prior legitimate owners or to compensation of the victims.</div>
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Effective asset-recovery provisions will support the efforts of countries to redress the worst effects of corruption while sending at the same time, a message to corrupt officials that there will be no place to hide their illicit assets. Accordingly, article 51 provides for the return of assets to countries of origin as a fundamental principle of this Convention. Article 43 obliges state parties to extend the widest possible cooperation to each other in the investigation and prosecution of offences defined in the Convention. With regard to asset recovery in particular, the article provides inter alia that "In matters of international cooperation, whenever dual criminality is considered a requirement, it shall be deemed fulfilled irrespective of whether the laws of the requested State Party place the offence within the same category of offence or denominate the offence by the same terminology as the requesting State Party, if the conduct underlying the offence for which assistance is sought is a criminal offence under the laws of both States Parties".</div>
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United Nations Convention against Corruption

Convention highlights Prevention Corruption can be prosecuted after the fact, but first and foremost, it requires prevention. An entire chapter of the Convention is dedicated to prevention, wit…

01 Sep 2013

Motivation of the day

Motivation of the day

The guy I liked most was Steve jobs because he was a guy living with his time through his guts, he was not a graduate from any high rank Universities but what he knew was where he is going and what …

29 Aug 2013

Just a reminder: UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS

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<dt><a href="http://www.etc-graz.at/typo3/fileadmin/user_upload/ETC-Hauptseite/publikationen/Broschueren/ETC-AEMR-engl-Minifolder-Web.pdf" target="page"><img alt="" border="0" height="375" src="http://www.etc-graz.at/typo3/typo3temp/pics/10e65f4cd6.jpg" width="250" /></a></dt>
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<strong>Adopted by the United Nations on December 10<sup>th</sup> 1948</strong>  </div>
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<strong>Article 1</strong> All human beings are born free and equal.  </div>
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<strong>Article 2</strong> Everyone is entitled to the same human rights without discrimination of any kind.  </div>
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<strong>Article 3</strong> Everyone has the human right to life, liberty, and security.  </div>
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<strong>Article 4</strong> No one shall be held in slavery or servitude.  </div>
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<strong>Article 5</strong> No one shall be subjected to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.  </div>
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<strong>Article 6</strong> Everyone has the human right to be recognized everywhere as a person before the law  </div>
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<strong>Article 7</strong> Everyone is equal before the law and has the human right to equal protection of the law.  </div>
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<strong>Article 8</strong> Everyone has the human right to a remedy if their human rights are violated.  </div>
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<strong>Article 9</strong> No one shall be arrested, detained, or exiled arbitrarily.  </div>
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<strong>Article 10</strong> Everyone has the human right to a fair trial.  </div>
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<strong>Article 11</strong> Everyone has the human right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty.  </div>
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<strong>Article 12</strong> Everyone has the human right to privacy and family life.  </div>
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<strong>Article 13</strong> Everyone has the human right to freedom of movement and residence within the state, to leave any country and to return to one's country. </div>
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<strong>Article 14</strong> Everyone has the human right to seek asylum from persecution.  </div>
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<strong>Article 15</strong> Everyone has the human right to a nationality.  </div>
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<strong>Article 16</strong> All adults have the human right to marry and found a family. Women and men have equal<strong> </strong>human rights to marry, within marriage, and at its dissolution.  </div>
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<strong>Article 17</strong> Everyone has the human right to own property.  </div>
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<strong>Article 18</strong> Everyone has the human right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion.  </div>
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<strong>Article 19</strong> Everyone has the human right to freedom of opinion and expression.  </div>
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<strong>Article 20</strong> Everyone has the human right to peaceful assembly and association.  </div>
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<strong>Article 21</strong> Everyone has the human right to take part in government of one's country directly or through free and fair elections and access to the public<strong> </strong>service </div>
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<strong>Article 22 </strong>Everyone has the human right to social security and to the realization of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for dignity.  </div>
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<strong>Article 23 </strong>Everyone has the human right to work, to just conditions of work, to protection against unemployment, to equal pay for equal work, to sufficient pay to ensure a dignified existence for one's self and one's family, and the human right to join a trade union<strong>. </strong> </div>
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<strong>Article 24</strong> Everyone has the human right to rest and leisure.  </div>
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<strong>Article 25</strong> Everyone has the human right to a standard of living adequate for health and well-being, including food, clothing, housing, medical care and necessary social services.  </div>
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<strong>Article 26</strong> Everyone has the human right to education including free and compulsory elementary education and human rights education.  </div>
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<strong>Article 27</strong> Everyone has the human right to participate freely in the cultural life and to share in scientific progress, as well as to protection of their artistic, literary or scientific creations, </div>
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<strong>Article 28 </strong>Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which these rights can be fully realized. </div>
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<strong>Article 29</strong> Everyone has duties to the community. </div>
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<strong>Article 30 </strong>None of the human rights in this Declaration can be used to justify violating another human right. </div>
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Just a reminder: UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS

Adopted by the United Nations on December 10th 1948 Article 1 All human beings are born free and equal. Article 2 Everyone is entitled to the same human rights without discrimin…

27 Aug 2013

Viena Convention on Succession of states in Respect of Treates

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In 1967, the International Law Commission (‘the Commission’) began work on the subject of succession of States in respect of treaties. In 1974, the Commission submitted to the United Nations General Assembly a final set of draft articles on Succession of States in respect of Treaties with a recommendation that the Assembly should convene a conference of plenipotentiaries to study the draft articles and conclude a convention on the subject. The General Assembly adopted resolutions 3496 (XXX) of 15 December 1975 and 31/18 of 24 November 1976 to this effect by which it accordingly decided that the draft articles should be considered by a United Nations Conference on Succession of States in respect of Treaties (‘the Conference’) to be held at Vienna from 4 April to 6 May 1997.</div>
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The Conference was  held as scheduled but partly because the draft articles raised some  controversial issues it recommended that the General Assembly decide to  reconvene the Conference in the first half of 1978 for a final session. The  resumed session of the Conference, approved by General Assembly resolution  32/47 of 8 December 1981, was held at Vienna from 31 July to 23 August 1978 and  resulted in the adoption of the 1978 Vienna Convention on Succession of States  in respect of Treaties (‘the 1978 Convention’).</div>
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Given the subject  matter, there was no question of the 1978 Convention being based on the very  successful 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (‘the 1969 Convention’).  Instead, the Commission decided to deal with the subject as a question of  succession. However, in appointing Sir Humphrey Waldock as the first Special  Rapporteur (he had previously been its Special Rapporteur for the law of  treaties), the Commission’s method of work would follow the pattern set by the  elaboration of the draft articles on the law of treaties which eventually  became the 1969 Convention. In 1973, Sir Francis Vallat succeeded Waldock for  the last year of the Commission’s work on the subject.</div>
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The 1978 Convention  did not enter into force until 1996 when it achieved the necessary fifteen  expressions of consent to be bound. This was almost eighteen years after its  adoption. Entry into force only happened because, between 1991 and 1996, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Estonia,  Slovakia, Slovenia, the former   Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Ukraine acceded or succeeded to the  1978 Convention. Not surprisingly, as new States they presumably thought it  would be useful to them. Estonia  is included as a new State even though it resumed its previous statehood.  However, since it had been for fifty years <em>de facto</em> part of the Soviet Union, it had to resolve succession problems of  some novelty. Although Byelorussia  (now Belarus) and Ukraine had been part of the Soviet Union, as  the result of a political deal involving also India (which became independent  only in 1947) all three became founding Members of the United Nations. Yet, the  former Soviet republics also had their own succession problems (on the  particular treaty succession problems of Estonia, and Belarus and Ukraine, see  A. Aust, <em>Modern Treaty Law and Practice</em>, 2nd ed., Cambridge, Cambridge  University Press, 2007, pp. 377-8 and 376-7, respectively). Today, the 1978  Convention has but twenty-two parties, the most recent being the Republic of Moldova. So, why has the 1978 Convention  not been more successful?</div>
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The so-called Cold  War was still an important factor when the 1978 Convention was adopted. As a  consequence, some of the draft articles were adopted by separate votes. In  addition, there was no general doctrine which resolved the problems of  succession to treaties. In particular, the situations in which new States are  created vary enormously, and a “one-size fits all” approach was quite  unsuitable. The number of different theories of succession did not make the  task of devising a text on the subject any easier. As a result, the 1978 Convention  contains much that is contentious progressive development of international law.  When the Commission was developing its draft articles (in the relatively short  space of seven years) the most recent State practice related to former colonies  but was not consistent. Consequently, those rules of the 1978 Convention which  are concerned with newly independent States are excessively complex. They also  give undue prominence to the so-called “clean slate” principle, and not enough  weight to the abundant State practice of concluding devolution agreements or,  even more importantly, making declarations of succession. Moreover,  decolonisation was almost at its end by 1978, and, unless a successor State  agrees otherwise, the 1978 Convention does not apply to a succession of States  which occurs before its entry into force (6 November 1996).</div>
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Nor did the 1978 Convention’s  rules about the break-up of States reflect modern State practice, in particular  the great variety of situations occurring at the end of the twentieth century.  The reunification of Germany  took place in 1990. The break-up of the Soviet Union occurred in 1991, and of Yugoslavia  mainly between 1992 and 1993. The so-called velvet divorce of Czechoslovakia  happened in 1993. In short, before the 1990s there was little of recent  practice on which to draw.</div>
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Although parts of the  1978 Convention may have been relied upon in drafting certain bilateral  succession agreements – an example in point being the strong endorsement of article  34(1) (Succession of States in cases of separation of parts of a State) in the  practices of the successor States to the former Czechoslovakia – its influence  and practical value is likely to continue to be considerably less than that of  the 1969 Convention. Notwithstanding the reference by the Arbitration  Commission of the Conference for Peace in Yugoslavia (also known as the  ‘Badinter Commission’) in its Opinions Nos. 1 and 9 to the 1978 Convention as  embodying principles of international law, article 34 cannot necessarily be  taken as reflecting customary international law. </div>
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Although the 1978  Convention is an example of progressive development of international law, the  customary rules of international law on succession of States in respect of  treaties apply to most States, yet they are not reflected in the text of the  1978 Convention. Therefore, it is not a reliable guide to such rules of  customary law on treaty succession. Yet, albeit its late entry into force,  practice following the end of the Cold War and decisions of the International  Court of Justice may now have breathed a little life into a few of its  provisions (see <em>Application of the Genocide Convention (Bosnia and  Herzegovina v. Yugoslavia)</em>, <em>I.C.J.  Reports 1996</em>, pp. 595 and 611-12 and <em>Gab</em>č<em>íkovo-Nagymaros Project  (Hungary/Slovakia)</em>, <em>I.C.J. Reports  1997</em>, pp. 7 and 72). But, they are unlikely to result in many States  wanting now to be parties to the 1978 Convention. So, it may remain little more  than an interesting historical document.<br /><br /><br /><strong>Related Materials</strong><br /><br /><em><strong>A. Jurisprudence</strong></em><br /><br />                Arbitration  Commission of the Conference for Peace in Yugoslavia (‘Badinter Commission’), <em>Opinion No. 1 on Questions Arising from  the Dissolution of Yugoslavia </em>(reproduced in <em>International Legal Materials</em>, vol. 31 (1992), p. 1497).<br /><br />                Arbitration  Commission of the Conference for Peace in Yugoslavia (‘Badinter Commission’), <em>Opinion No. 9 on Questions Arising from the  Dissolution of Yugoslavia </em>(reproduced in <em>International Legal Materials</em>, vol. 31 (1992), p. 1523).<br /><br />                International Court of Justice, <a class="a_underline-padding" href="http://www.icj-cij.org/docket/files/91/7349.pdf" target="_blank"><em>Application of the Convention on the  Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, Preliminary Objections, (Bosnia and Herzegovina v. Yugoslavia) Judgment, I.C.J.  Reports 1996</em></a>, p. 595.<br /><br />                International Court of Justice, <a class="a_underline-padding" href="http://www.icj-cij.org/docket/files/92/7375.pdf" target="_blank"><em>Gabčíkovo-Nagymaros Project (Hungary/Slovakia), Judgment, I.C.J. Reports 1997</em></a>, p. 7. <br /><br /><em><strong>B. Documents<br /></strong></em>Report of the  International Law Commission on the work of its twenty-sixth session, 6 May -  26 July 1974, Official Records of the General Assembly, Twenty-ninth session,  Supplement No. 10 (<a class="a_underline-padding" href="http://untreaty.un.org/ilc/publications/yearbooks/Ybkvolumes(e)/ILC_1974_v2_p1_e.pdf" target="_blank">A/9610/Rev.1</a>,  reproduced in <em>Yearbook of the  International Law Commission, 1974</em>, vol. II (Part One), chapter II).<br /><br /><a class="a_underline-padding" href="http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/RES/3496(XXX)" target="_blank">General Assembly  resolution 3496 (XXX)</a> of 15 December 1975 (Succession of States in respect of  treaties).<br /><br /><a class="a_underline-padding" href="http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/RES/31/18" target="_blank">General Assembly  resolution 31/18</a> of 24 November 1976 (United Nations Conference on Succession  of States in respect of Treaties).<br /><br /><a class="a_underline-padding" href="http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/RES/32/47" target="_blank">General Assembly  resolution 32/47</a> of 8 December 1977 (United Nations Conference on Succession of  States in respect of Treaties).<br /><br /> United Nations  Conference on Succession of States in Respect of Treaties, First Session, Vienna, 4 April - 6 May  1977, <em>Official Records</em>,Vol. I: Summary records of the plenary meetings  and of the meetings of the Committee of the Whole (<a class="a_underline-padding" href="http://untreaty.un.org/cod/diplomaticconferences/succ-treaties-1978/vol/english/vol_I_e.pdf" target="_blank">A/CONF.80/16</a>).<br /><br /> United Nations  Conference on Succession of States in Respect of Treaties, Resumed Session, Vienna, 31 July - 23  August 1978, <em>Official Records</em>,Vol. II: Summary records of the plenary  meetings and of the meetings of the Committee of the Whole (<a class="a_underline-padding" href="http://untreaty.un.org/cod/diplomaticconferences/succ-treaties-1978/vol/english/vol_II_e.pdf" target="_blank">A/CONF.80/16/Add.1</a>).<br /><br /> United Nations  Conference on Succession of States in Respect of Treaties, 1977 session and  resumed session 1978, Vienna, 4 April - 6 May 1977 and 31 July - 23 August  1978, <em>Official Records, </em>Vol. III:  Documents of the Conference (<a class="a_underline-padding" href="http://untreaty.un.org/cod/diplomaticconferences/succ-treaties-1978/vol/english/vol_III_e.pdf" target="_blank">A/CONF.80/16/Add.2</a>).<br /><br /><strong><em>C. Doctrine</em><br /></strong>A. Aust, <em>Modern  Treaty Law and Practice</em>, 2nd ed., Cambridge,  Cambridge University Press, 2007, pp. 367-391.<br /><br /> D. P. O’Connell, <em>The Law of State Succession</em>, Cambridge,  Cambridge University Press, 1956.<br /><br /> J. Klabbers, M. Koskenniemi, O. Ribbelink and A.  Zimmermann (eds.), <em>State Practice  Regarding State Succession and Issues of Recognition: the Pilot Project of the  Council of Europe</em>, (on behalf of Erik Castrén Institute of International  law and Human Rights, Finland, T.M.C. Asser Institute, The Netherlands, Max  Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, Germany),  The Hague, London, Boston, Kluwer Law International, 1999.<br /><br /> M. Shaw, <em>International  Law</em>, 6th ed., Cambridge, Cambridge University  Press, 2008, pp. 966-984.<br /><br /> A. Watts, <em>The  International Law Commission 1949-1998</em>, vol. II, Oxford, Oxford University  Press, 2000, p. 987 <em>et seq</em>. </div>
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Viena Convention on Succession of states in Respect of Treates

In 1967, the International Law Commission (‘the Commission’) began work on the subject of succession of States in respect of treaties. In 1974, the Commission submitted to the United Nations General …

27 Aug 2013

Convention against Turture and Other Crual ,Inhuman or degrading Treatment or Punishment.

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<strong>I. The Torture Convention</strong><br />
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<a href="http://untreaty.un.org/cod/avl/images/ha/catcidtp/03-l.jpg" rel="lightbox-intronote" title="1 February 1982 - Thirty-eighth Regular Session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, Geneva, Switzerland: Delegations attending the opening meeting."><strong><img align="right" alt="1 February 1982, Commission on Human Rights addressing the problems of genocide, political liquidations, mass killings, arbitrary and summary executions, disappearances, torture, etc." border="0" class="img-right" height="158" src="http://untreaty.un.org/cod/avl/images/ha/catcidtp/intro_note1.jpg" title="1 February 1982, Commission on Human Rights addressing the problems of genocide, political liquidations, mass killings, arbitrary and summary executions, disappearances, torture, etc." vspace="5" width="230" /></strong></a>The Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (the “Torture Convention”) was adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on 10 December 1984 (resolution 39/46). The Convention entered into force on 26 June 1987 after it had been ratified by 20 States.</div>
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The Torture Convention was the result of many years’ work, initiated soon after the adoption of the Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Being Subjected to Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (the “Torture Declaration”) by the General Assembly on 9 December 1975 (resolution 3452 (XXX)).</div>
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In fact, the Torture Declaration was intended to be the starting-point for further work against torture. In a second resolution, also adopted on 9 December 1975, the General Assembly requested the Commission on Human Rights to study the question of torture and any necessary steps for ensuring the effective observance of the Torture Declaration (resolution 3453 (XXX)). Two years later, on 8 December 1977, the General Assembly specifically requested the Commission on Human Rights to draw up a draft convention against torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, in the light of the principles embodied in the Torture Declaration (resolution 32/62).</div>
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The Commission on Human Rights began its work on this subject at its session in February-March 1978. A working group was set up to deal with this item, and the main basis for the discussions in the working group was a draft convention presented by Sweden. During each of the subsequent years until 1984 a similar working group was set up to continue the work on the draft convention.</div>
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There were a number of issues on which it was initially difficult to reach agreement. In particular, the following issues gave rise to long discussions:<br /><br /><strong><em>The Definition of Torture</em></strong></div>
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The definition of torture which appeared in the Torture Declaration was considered not to be precise enough and was criticized on various points. The discussions resulted in a more elaborate – and also more complex – definition which appears in article 1, paragraph 1, of the Torture Convention<br /><br /><strong><em>Jurisdiction</em></strong></div>
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The discussion centred round the concept of so-called universal jurisdiction. In other words, the question was whether each State should undertake, in respect of torture, to assume jurisdiction not only based on territory or the offender’s nationality but also over acts of torture committed outside its territory by persons not being its nationals. The principle of universal jurisdiction – which had already been accepted in conventions against hijacking of aircraft and other terrorist acts – was eventually accepted and found its place in article 5, paragraph 2, of the Torture Convention.<br /><br /><strong><em>International Implementation</em></strong></div>
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As the effectiveness of the Torture Convention, like that of many other human rights conventions, would depend to a large extent on the supervision system, the implementation at the international level gave rise to extensive discussions. It was finally decided that a Committee against Torture would be set up (article 17 of the Torture Convention) with the following tasks:</div>
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<tr><td align="right" class="p-left-justified" valign="top" width="4%"> </td><td class="p-left-justified" valign="top" width="96%">(i)   To receive, study and comment  on periodic reports from the States parties on the measures they have taken to  give effect to their undertakings under the Convention (article 19);</td></tr>
<tr><td align="right" class="p-left-justified" valign="top"> </td><td class="p-left-justified">(ii)  To initiate an  investigation when there is reliable information which appears to contain  well-founded indications that torture is being systematically practised in the  territory of a State party (article 20);</td></tr>
<tr><td align="right" class="p-left-justified" valign="top"> </td><td class="p-left-justified">(iii) To receive and examine complaints  by one State party of violations of the Convention by another State party (article  21); and</td></tr>
<tr><td align="right" class="p-left-justified" valign="top"> </td><td class="p-left-justified">(iv) To receive and examine applications by individuals claiming to be victims of a violation of the Convention by a State party (article 22). </td></tr>
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However, the competences of the Committee against Torture under (ii), (iii) and (iv) were not made compulsory but apply with the following modifications:</div>
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<tr><td align="right" class="p-left-justified" valign="top" width="5%">-</td><td class="p-left-justified" valign="top" width="95%">A State party may “opt  out” and declare that it does not recognize the Committee’s competence to  initiate investigations under article 20 (article 28);</td></tr>
<tr><td align="right" class="p-left-justified" valign="top">-</td><td class="p-left-justified">The Committee’s  competence to examine inter-State complaints only applies when a State party  has specifically recognized this competence (article 21);</td></tr>
<tr><td align="right" class="p-left-justified" valign="top">-</td><td class="p-left-justified">The Committee’s  competence to examine applications by individuals only applies when a State party  has specifically recognized this competence (article 22).</td></tr>
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   <strong><em>A State Party’s Undertakings</em></strong></div>
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Most of the provisions of the Torture Convention deal with the obligations of the States parties. These obligations may be summarized as follows:</div>
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<tr><td align="right" class="p-left-justified" valign="top" width="4%"> </td><td class="p-left-justified" valign="top" width="96%">(i)   Each State party shall  take effective legislative, administrative, judicial or other measures to  prevent acts of torture. The prohibition against torture shall be absolute and  shall be upheld also in a state of war and in other exceptional circumstances (article 2);</td></tr>
<tr><td align="right" class="p-left-justified" valign="top"> </td><td class="p-left-justified">(ii)  No State party may expel  or extradite a person to a State where there are substantial grounds for  believing that he would be in danger of being subjected to torture (article 3);</td></tr>
<tr><td align="right" class="p-left-justified" valign="top"> </td><td class="p-left-justified">(iii) Each State party shall ensure  that acts of torture are serious criminal offences within its legal system (article  4);</td></tr>
<tr><td align="right" class="p-left-justified" valign="top"> </td><td class="p-left-justified">(iv) Each State party shall,  on certain conditions, take a person suspected of the offence of torture into  custody and make a preliminary inquiry into the facts (article 6);</td></tr>
<tr><td align="right" class="p-left-justified" valign="top"> </td><td class="p-left-justified">(v)  Each State party shall either extradite a person suspected of the offence of torture or submit the case to its own authorities for prosecution (article 7);</td></tr>
<tr><td align="right" class="p-left-justified" valign="top"> </td><td class="p-left-justified">(vi) Each State party shall  ensure that its authorities make investigations when there is reasonable ground  to believe that an act of torture has been committed (article 12);</td></tr>
<tr><td align="right" class="p-left-justified" valign="top"> </td><td class="p-left-justified">(vii) Each State party shall  ensure that an individual who alleges that he has been subjected to torture will  have his case examined by the competent authorities (article 13);</td></tr>
<tr><td align="right" class="p-left-justified" valign="top"> </td><td class="p-left-justified">(viii) Each State party shall  ensure to victims of torture an enforceable right to fair and adequate  compensation (article 14).</td></tr>
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   <strong>II. The Optional Protocol</strong></div>
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An Optional Protocol to the Torture Convention was adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on 18 December 2002 (resolution 57/199). The Optional Protocol, which entered into force on 22 June 2006, establishes a system of regular visits by international and national bodies to places of detention in order to prevent torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. A Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment has been set up to carry out such visits and to support States parties and national institutions in performing similar functions at the national level.<br /><br /><strong>III. The Committee Against Torture</strong></div>
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The Committee against Torture holds two annual sessions. At each session, the Committee examines reports from a number of States parties. Each report is examined orally in the presence of one or more representatives of the State concerned. Each State whose report is to be examined at a session is informed in advance of the main questions the Committee wishes to be discussed. After the examination of each report the Committee adopts its conclusions and recommendations. The Committee may also adopt general comments on specific provisions of the Convention or issues related to their implementation.</div>
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The Committee against Torture has also set up a working group to prepare the examination of individual communications received under article 22 of the Torture Convention. The working group examines the admissibility and merits of the communications and makes recommendations to the Committee.<br /><br /><strong>Related Materials</strong><br /><br /><em><strong>A. Legal Instruments</strong></em><br /><br /><a class="a_underline-padding" href="http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=a/res/57/199" target="_blank">Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment</a>,  New York, 18 December 2002, General Assembly resolution 57/199.<br /><br /><em><strong>B. Doctrine</strong></em><br /><br /> J. Herman Burgers and H. Danelius, <em>The United Nations Convention against Torture. A Handbook on the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment</em>, Dordrecht, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1988.</div>
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Convention against Turture and Other Crual ,Inhuman or degrading Treatment or Punishment.

I. The Torture Convention The Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (the “Torture Convention”) was adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nat…

27 Aug 2013

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