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![kohenari:
The International Criminal Court has just this morning handed down it’s first ever verdict, finding Thomas Lubanga guilty of conscripting child soldiers. Lubanga was the leader of the Union of Congolese Patriots and stands accused of being the military authority behind the abduction of children as young as eleven to serve the Patriotic Forces of the Liberation of Congo in the 1998-2003 war. Lubanga was handed over in 2006, the first suspect to be detained by the ICC, and has been on trial since 2009.
This guilty verdict is great for the DR Congo and wonderful for the International Criminal Court. Last year former Nuremberg prosecutor Benjamin Ferencz told ICC judges: “Let the voice and the verdict of this esteemed global court now speak for the awakened conscience of the world.”
Photo: Ed Oudenaarden/AP.
[AJ English Twitter; Al Jazeera; AP]
I think the last time I wrote about the ICC proceedings against Lubanga was back in 2010, when the trial was suspended in order to ensure that proper procedures were being followed. As I wrote back then:
Regardless of Lubanga’s guilt (which really doesn’t seem to be in much doubt), the Court is setting an important precedent here: instead of proceeding with a trial that might later be decried as sham justice, the ICC is putting its foot down now … about the fair trial standards that must be followed. The prosecution cannot keep information from the defense and it cannot flout the Court’s orders, not if we’re to look back on these trials and confirm that justice was done.
With so much talk in the past week about Joseph Kony — another warlord indicted by the ICC for conscripting child soldiers — it’s good to see the the Lubanga trial brought to a close with a guilty verdict. International justice efforts, though still slow and selective, are beginning to take a toll on the long-standing culture of impunity for human rights abuses.
Of course, the only way to see more criminals in the dock is to arrest them …](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m0vcpapESn1qchhhqo1_400.jpg "http://soupsoup.tumblr.com/post/19288851388/lubanga-icc")
The International Criminal Court has just this morning handed down it’s first ever verdict, finding Thomas Lubanga guilty of conscripting child soldiers. Lubanga was the leader of the Union of Congolese Patriots and stands accused of being the military authority behind the abduction of children as young as eleven to serve the Patriotic Forces of the Liberation of Congo in the 1998-2003 war. Lubanga was handed over in 2006, the first suspect to be detained by the ICC, and has been on trial since 2009.
This guilty verdict is great for the DR Congo and wonderful for the International Criminal Court. Last year former Nuremberg prosecutor Benjamin Ferencz told ICC judges: “Let the voice and the verdict of this esteemed global court now speak for the awakened conscience of the world.”
[AJ English Twitter; Al Jazeera; AP]
I think the last time I wrote about the ICC proceedings against Lubanga was back in 2010, when the trial was suspended in order to ensure that proper procedures were being followed. As I wrote back then:
Regardless of Lubanga’s guilt (which really doesn’t seem to be in much doubt), the Court is setting an important precedent here: instead of proceeding with a trial that might later be decried as sham justice, the ICC is putting its foot down now … about the fair trial standards that must be followed. The prosecution cannot keep information from the defense and it cannot flout the Court’s orders, not if we’re to look back on these trials and confirm that justice was done.
With so much talk in the past week about Joseph Kony — another warlord indicted by the ICC for conscripting child soldiers — it’s good to see the the Lubanga trial brought to a close with a guilty verdict. International justice efforts, though still slow and selective, are beginning to take a toll on the long-standing culture of impunity for human rights abuses.
Of course, the only way to see more criminals in the dock is to arrest them …
(Source: thepoliticalnotebook)
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Reuters: Moroccan rights group seeks probe into reform referendum
Morocco’s main independent human rights group demanded a judicial investigation into what it said were serious violations that affected the outcome of a July 1 referendum on constitutional reforms.
King Mohammed is expected to hand over some of his powers to elected officials under the new charter while retaining a key say over strategic decisions.
The government said nearly 100 percent of those who voted in the referendum approved the changes.
Khadija Ryadi, who heads the Moroccan Human Rights Association (AMDH), said that in the absence of international observers, the vote “witnessed serious violations … throughout the referendum process”.
“We have material evidence those violations … did impact the credibility and the validity of the results that were announced,” Ryadi said at a press conference presenting AMDH’s report for 2010 and the first half of 2011.
Authorities used mosque preachers and religious schools and monasteries to urge worshippers to vote in favour of the reform crafted by the palace in what Ryadi called a “horrible exploitation” of religion.
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African refugees, and the misconceptions that come with them, have become a major issue in the Israeli town of Eilat, inspiring the “red flag” campaign against the newcomers.
The shift is most obvious, perhaps, in Eilat, the small city in the south where Anei and several thousand African asylum seekers live. Here, refugees find their children barred from municipal schools. And in a move that has alarmed both human rights organisations and the local branch of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the municipality has hung red flags throughout the city as part of a municipal campaign against African migrants - initiated by employees of the state of Israel and financed with public funds.
The flags are part of a campaign called “protect our homes”, hung by residents under the auspicies of local solidarity against the migrants.
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China tells U.S. to quit as human rights judge
“Stop the domineering behavior of exploiting human rights to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries,” it said, according to excerpts published by the official Xinhua news agency.
“The United States ignores its own severe human rights problems, ardently promoting its so-called ‘human rights diplomacy’, treating human rights as a political tool to vilify other countries and to advance its own strategic interests,” said a passage from the Chinese report
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Tate Modern expresses their solidarity with legendary artist Ai Weiwei (via @felixsalmon)
(Source: neighborhoodr-london)
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Ai Weiwei detained. Here is his TED film (by TEDtalksDirector) via @katetropa
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TOKYO— Who is Ai Weiwei? According to Chinese authorities, he is a dissident to be watched, one whose inflammatory blog needed to be silenced. But to others, the Chinese conceptual artist, architect, photographer, and curator — loathed and loved for his human rights activism — is the courageous voice needed in today’s repressive China.
More at ARTinfo
(Source: neighborhoodr-tokyo)
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Is anyone paying attention?
Hundreds have died in the name of democracy, in the name of freedom, today alone.
Hundreds will die tomorrow. The next day. The day after that.
In Yemen, Libya, Bahrain, Iran… in every Middle Eastern country that is uprising. That will uprise.
China. South Korea. In every country dictated by an authoritarian government.
The people are speaking and they are speaking LOUD.
Everyday for the past two months, civilians have been made casualties of this revolution. People, like you and me, young and old.
Fathers. Mothers. Sisters. Brothers. Friends. Family.
These people are dying in the name of a cause. They’re fighting, struggling for something most of us take for granted: liberty.
These people are being MURDERED for peacefully protesting against the corruption of government, against unemployment, against starvation and poverty.
These people are being MURDERED for wanting to be free. For wanting a voice.
For the freedom to think. To express. To dream. To speak.
These people are being MURDERED for peacefully protesting against governments that have, for too long, used the threat and the acts of violence to shut them up. To keep them down.
How many people do you know get arrested, get beaten, get tortured or get murdered for having an opinion? For blogging about it? For talking about it? For acting on it?
Well… now you know of the mere thousands who just died for it. And everyday you will know of hundreds more.
Are you paying attention? Because this is reality. Wake up.
![BREAKING: Ai Weiwei Arrested and Detained in Beijing, Current Status Unknown [LIVEBLOG]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lj525ebBdd1qz6z0no1_500.jpg "http://soupsoup.tumblr.com/post/4342436866/breaking-ai-weiwei-arrested-and-detained-in")
