22/04/2015
By Robert J. Burrowes*
As the world continues to engage in various commemorations in relation to World War I, Australia approaches the centenary anniversary of a defining event in the nation’s history: ANZAC Day. On 25 April 1915, and for many days after, Australia suffered savage losses at Gallipoli in Turkey.
**The Gallipoli Campaign | Author: LoudHmen | Wikimedia Commons (details at bottom of article)
Sometimes when we reflect on war, we talk about sacrifice for a good cause. Other times, we talk about the cost, in lives or liberties lost.
Occasionally, we talk about the horror. Sometimes we talk about the gains, nationally or internationally, for freedom and democracy.
And rarely, we analyse the causes of war and lament that one day we might end it.
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22/04/2015
Are you or do you know a young person from a developing country with an inspiring story about climate action? If so, the United Nations wants to hear from you.
Tokelau’s low-lying Nukunonu Atoll, is vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. UN Photo/Ariane Rummery (file photo)
A global search is underway for a young entrepreneur from a developing country to address a special United Nations High-Level Event on Climate Change, set for 29 June, and convened by the President of the General Assembly, Sam Kutesa.*
The event, which will be attended by Ministers, business leaders and representatives from civil society organizations will take place just months before countries meet in Paris in December 2015 to adopt a new universal agreement on climate change.
“The first goal is to check the pulse of Members States to see where we stand. But we also know the world needs to go further to tackle climate change. We are therefore looking for solutions and inspiration from a young person who is already successfully taking climate action in his or her community,” said Kutesa.
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22/04/2015
With the deadline of a post-2015 development agenda looming on the horizon, 2015 is set to be an important year for the security and prosperity of the world’s indigenous peoples, United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson on 20 April 2015 affirmed in remarks delivered to the opening of the fourteenth session of the Organization’s Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.
Opening of the fourteenth session of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. UN Photo/Loey Felipe
“The future well-being of the world’s indigenous peoples is a crucial part of this critical year,” the Deputy Secretary-General declared. “Now is the time for indigenous peoples to be at the forefront of a transformative agenda that leaves no one behind.”
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22/04/2015
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has reminded the international community on the anniversary of the first use of chemical weapons in a Belgian battlefield 100 years ago today [21 April 2015] and amid allegations of their continued use, the only fitting tribute is to rid the world of these indiscriminate arms “once and for all.”
Inspectors from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) inventory a stockpile of 22mm chemical artillery projectiles (file photo). Credit: OPCW | Source: UN
Confirmation of the use of chemical weapons in Syria two years ago served as “a shocking reminder” that their use has not yet been consigned to history on 21 April 2015 said the Secretary-General in a message delivered on his behalf by Virginia Gamba, Deputy to the UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, at a ceremony in Ypres, Belgium, where the first chemical attack was recorded 100 years ago today [21 April 2015]*
“The only fitting tribute to the memory of those who died at Ypres, and to all victims of chemical warfare, is to rid the world of chemical weapons once and for all,” Ban said in a message delivered by Virginia Gamba, Deputy to the High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, at an event held at the site of the Second Battle of Ypres.
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22/04/2015
By John Scales Avery*
Abstract
After the invention of agriculture, roughly 10,000 years ago, humans began to live in progressively larger groups, which were sometimes multi-ethnic. In order to make towns, cities and finally nations function without excessive injustice and violence, both ethical and legal systems were needed. Today, in an era of global economic interdependence, instantaneous worldwide communication and all-destroying thermonuclear weapons, we urgently need new global ethical principles and a just and enforcible system of international laws.
Part I dealt with: What is law?, Magna Carta, 1215, The English Bill of Rights, 1689, The United States Constitution and Bill of Rights, 1789, Kellogg-Briand Pact, 1928, and United Nations Charter, 1945.
**Audience of the “Accordance with International Law of the Unilateral Declaration of Independence by the Provisional Institutions of Self-Government of Kosovo” | Author: Lybil BER | Wikimedia Commons
Part II: International Court of Justice, 1946
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) is the judicial arm of the United Nations. It was established by the UN Charter in 1945, and it began to function in 1946.
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21/04/2015
OXFORD, 20 April 2015 (IRIN)* – Every time a migrant boat capsizes on its way to Europe, a death toll is estimated by aid agencies and reproduced in media reports. But what about that other number? What about all those who die before ever setting foot on a boat? That number may be far higher.
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Photo: Alfredo D’Amato/UNHCR | A boat carrying refugees off the coast of Italy in summer 2014.
Some 1,600 migrants have died or are missing after trying to cross the Mediterranean this year, including almost 700 who perished in last weekend’s tragedy off Libya, the worst on record.
The risks these migrants took when boarding smugglers’ boats in the hope of reaching Europe are well known, but this is only one of the many perilous steps in a journey that for many never reaches the shores of North Africa.
“Crossing the sea is just the last tiny bit,” noted Meron Estafanos, an Eritrean journalist and human rights activist who regularly listens to harrowing accounts from Eritrean asylum-seekers at different stages of their odysseys.
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21/04/2015
20 April 2015 (RT)* – To solve the refugee problem the EU countries, many of which are NATO-members, should criminalize the arms trade and abolish war in Syria and Libya, Jan Oberg from the Transnational Foundation for Peace and Future Research told RT.
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© UNHCR/F.Malavolta | Medics carry a young man on a stretcher off the Italian Coastguard vessel Gregoretti when it reached Palermo in Sicily earlier this week after rescuing people from the Mediterranean.
RT: The EU has called for an emergency summit over the deaths of illegal immigrants trying to get into Europe. What do you think might come out of that?
Jan Oberg: I really don’t know but it has to lead to some serious self-reflection. EU countries, many of which are NATO countries, always can find money for warfare and they can’t find the money to rescue the people running away from the war zones where the European countries are involved.
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21/04/2015
Following the loss of some 700 lives after a boat carrying migrants capsized and sank over the weekend, the UN human rights chief has urged European Union (EU) governments to take a “more sophisticated, more courageous and less callous approach” to coping with the flows of migrants towards Europe.
Maltese emergency workers in Senglea collect bodies from the Mediterranean disaster which happened overnight Saturday-Sunday 18-19 April 2015. Photo: UNHCR/F. Ellul
“As we learn of yet more men, women and children who have lost their lives in their search for better and safer lives abroad, I am horrified but not surprised by this latest tragedy. These deaths and the hundreds of others that preceded them in recent months were sadly predictable,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein on 20 April 2015 said in a statement.
“The [deaths] are the result of a continuing failure of governance accompanied by a monumental failure of compassion,” he added.
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20/04/2015
According to latest estimates, around 700 human beings would have lost their lives trying to reach European coasts. The tragedy, which occurred overnight (18 to 19 April) comes just days after a similar maritime incident took another 400 lives. Some 1600 people would have died already this year attempting to cross the Mediterranean into Europe.
Risking their lives to reach Europe from North Africa, a boatload of people, some of them likely in need of international protection, are rescued in the Mediterranean Sea by the Italian Navy. Photo: UNHCR/A. D’Amato
“This disaster confirms how urgent it is to restore a robust rescue-at-sea operation and establish credible legal avenues to reach Europe,” UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres confirmed in a press release issued on 19 April 2015.
“Otherwise people seeking safety will continue to perish at sea.”
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19/04/2015
By John Scales Avery*
“With law shall our land be built up, but with lawlessness laid waste.” Njal’s Saga, Iceland, c 1270.
Abstract
After the invention of agriculture, roughly 10,000 years ago, humans began to live in progressively larger groups, which were sometimes multi-ethnic. In order to make towns, cities and finally nations function without excessive injustice and violence, both ethical and legal systems were needed.
**Agricultural scene from Ancient Egypt. | Author: Norman de Garis Davies, Nina Davies (2-dimensional 1 to 1 Copy of an 15th century BC Picture) | Wikimedia Commons.
Today, in an era of global economic interdependence, instantaneous worldwide communication and all-destroying thermonuclear weapons, we urgently need new global ethical principles and a just and enforcible system of international laws.
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HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 