26/06/2020
(UN News)* — The decision by the United States to authorize sanctions targeting staff at the International Criminal Court (ICC) is “a direct attack to the institution’s judicial independence”, UN human rights experts said on Thursday [25 June 2020].
©UNICEF/Marko Kokic | Many schools in Afghanistan have suffered the effects of long-term conflict.
Washington announced this month that it would launch an economic and legal offensive against ICC officials investigating alleged war crimes committed by all sides in the conflict in Afghanistan, including US troops.
“The implementation of such policies by the US has the sole aim of exerting pressure on an institution whose role is to seek justice against crimes of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and the crime of aggression”, saidDiego García-Sayán, UN Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, speaking on behalf of the 34 experts.
read more »
Like this:
Like Loading...
Posted in Africa, Asia, Climate Crisis, Latin America & Caribbean, Market Lords, Others-USA-Europe-etc., The Peoples, War Lords |
Leave a Comment »
26/06/2020
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Jun 25 2020 (IPS)* – Katharina Pistor’s recent book, The Code of Capital: How the law creates wealth and inequality shows how law has been crucial to the creation of capital, and how capital continues to survive, evolve and enhance its ability to ‘make money’, or secure wealth legally, i.e., through the law.
Legal coding makes capital
In her magnum opus, the Columbia Law School professor explains how legal systems create capital and how law enables wealth creation through what she terms ‘legal coding’.
Notions of property and property rights have changed over the ages, reflecting and redefining social and economic relations more generally.
Pistor sees ‘legal coding’ — e.g., via collateral, trust, corporate governance, bankruptcy, contracts and other property laws — as means for assets to become capital, creating wealth for their holders. When “coded in law”, even “dirt” can become a valuable asset, capable of enriching its owners.
read more »
Like this:
Like Loading...
Posted in Africa, Asia, Climate Crisis, Latin America & Caribbean, Market Lords, Middle East, Migrants and Refugees, Mother Earth, Others-USA-Europe-etc., The Peoples, War Lords |
Leave a Comment »
26/06/2020
New records for extreme lightning bursts, or ‘megaflashes’, during 2019, have been made official, more than doubling the size and duration of the previous record flashes, the UN’s weather agency, WMO, announced on Thursday [25 June 2020]. *
WMO/Boris Baran | A lightning storm as seen from Istria, Croatia.
Closing the windows and covering your pet’s ears probably wouldn’t have made much difference to anyone stuck in the middle of the flash that developed continuously over northern Argentina on 4 March 2019, lasting a whopping 16.73 seconds.
Like this:
Like Loading...
Posted in Africa, Asia, Latin America & Caribbean, Middle East, Mother Earth, Others-USA-Europe-etc., The Peoples |
Leave a Comment »
26/06/2020
The internet and new digital tools are being manipulated as never before to infringe on people’s right to free assembly, the UN’s top rights official said on Thursday [25 June 2020], in a call for a moratorium on the use of facial recognition technology during peaceful demonstrations.*
Unsplash/Ian Usher | A drone flies over Mount Tamalpais in the United States.
Amid global protests against systemic racism, corruption and economic woes exacerbated by the COVID-19 crisis, High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet also expressed concern about the use of non-lethal weapons against demonstrators.
Like this:
Like Loading...
Posted in Africa, Asia, Latin America & Caribbean, Market Lords, Middle East, Others-USA-Europe-etc., The Peoples, War Lords |
Leave a Comment »
26/06/2020
(UN News)* — The COVID-19 pandemic is not just a health emergency, but a multi-dimensional crisis for Afghanistan, dealing its people a painful blow just as Kabul and the Taliban prepare for peace talks in Qatar, the top UN official in the country says.
World Bank/Ghullam Abbas Farzami | Child farmers help to level fields in Balkh Province, Afghanistan.
Deborah Lyons, Head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), told the Security Council on Thursday [25 June 2020] that the novel coronavirus outbreak is casting “a huge shadow” over Afghan daily life.
read more »
Like this:
Like Loading...
Posted in Africa, Asia, Market Lords, Middle East, Migrants and Refugees, Others-USA-Europe-etc., The Peoples, War Lords |
Leave a Comment »
26/06/2020
UN Women/Ryan Brown | After surviving military enslavement in Guatemala, Maria Ba Caal received help through an emergency grant from the UN Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture.
Although international law “unequivocally prohibits torture in all instances”, the UN chief
pointed out that it nevertheless continues in many countries, “even those where it is criminalized”.
Like this:
Like Loading...
Posted in Africa, Asia, Latin America & Caribbean, Market Lords, Middle East, Migrants and Refugees, Others-USA-Europe-etc., The Peoples, War Lords |
1 Comment »
26/06/2020
Artwork by a victim of torture supported by the UN Torture Fund (Atelier peinture de Claire Harel, Association Mana, France)
.
26 June 2020 (United Nations)* — Torture seeks to annihilate the victim’s personality and denies the inherent dignity of the human being. Despite the absolute prohibition of torture under international law, torture persist in all regions of the world.
Concerns about protecting national security and borders are increasingly used to allow torture and other forms of cruel, degrading and inhuman treatment. Its pervasive consequences often go beyond the isolated act on an individual; and can be transmitted through generations and lead to cycles of violence.
Like this:
Like Loading...
Posted in Africa, Asia, Climate Crisis, Latin America & Caribbean, Market Lords, Middle East, Migrants and Refugees, Others-USA-Europe-etc., The Peoples, War Lords |
1 Comment »
