Monthly Archives: June 2018

Seminar: The Ongoing Humanitarian Crisis in Yemen

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People gather to collect food rations at a food distribution center in Sanaa, Yemen. (c) REUTERS

People gather to collect food rations at a food distribution center in Sanaa, Yemen. (c) REUTERS

Date: Monday 25th June 2018

Time: 6:00pm-8:00pm

Venue: House of Commons, Committee Room 8, London.

The Arab Organisation for Human Rights in the UK (AOHR UK) invites you to participate in a seminar concerning the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Yemen: More than 8 million people are at risk of famine, with more than 22 million in desperate need of aid and protection. Yemen is likely to be the famine that will define this era.

International lawyers Joseph Breham and Catriona Murdoch of Global Rights Compliance and expert Clive Baldwin senior legal advisor at Human Rights Watch, will be speaking at the seminar in an attempt to draw the world’s attention further to the crisis - described by some as a forgotten war. Those experts will discuss the conflict, the legal and investigative steps, accountability efforts and mechanisms, and the humanitarian aspects to starvation, conflict and food insecurity. The event will be moderated by Rhys Davies an international criminal and human rights law barrister at Temple Gardens in London.

Overview

The situation in Yemen continues to worsen and is, the UN says, the world’s worst man-made humanitarian disaster.

According to the UN Human Rights Council, civilians have repeatedly been the victims of “unrelenting violations of international humanitarian law”. About 75% of the population – some 22.2 million people - are in desperate need of humanitarian assistance, including 11.3 million people in acute need who urgently require immediate assistance to survive.

Millions of people are considered at risk of starvation. Severe acute malnutrition is threatening the lives of almost 400,000 children under the age of five.

With only half of the country’s health facilities fully functioning, at least 16.4 million people are lacking basic healthcare. Medical professionals have struggled to cope with the world’s largest cholera outbreak, which has resulted in more than 1 million suspected cases and thousands of associated deaths since April 2017.

It is against this backdrop that the assembled experts will consider what action can be taken, including both legal and humanitarian remedies.

If you wish to register, click here.

ICTJ Lecture Asks: How Can the United States Confront Racial Injustice?

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ICTJAt the end of last year, leading activists, experts, and thinkers gathered for the ninth Emilio Mignone Lecture, a discussion about whether the tools of transitional justice have a place in the US. Darren Walker, President of the Ford Foundation, and Sherrilyn Ifill, President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, joined moderator David Tolbert, President of the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) at the time, in conversation.

The lecture, titled “Reckoning with Racial Injustice in the United States,” was co-hosted by ICTJ and the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice (CHRGJ) at New York University (NYU) School of Law.

Conversation began with introductions from NYU professor Meg Satterthwaite and ICTJ Executive Director Fernando Travesi. Meg Satterthwaite stressed CHRGJ’s commitment to holding the United States accountable to its human rights obligations while Fernando Travesi reflected on the increasing relevance of the tools of transitional justice in the US.

Darren Walker, Sherrilyn Ifill, and David Tolbert then opened discussion. Continue reading →

Transitional Justice in Countries Emerging From Conflict: A Step Toward Sustainable Peace And Development

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By David Tolbert and Roger Duthie*

INTRODUCTION

Tunisian activists protest the economic reconciliation bill presented to parliament that would offer a path for corrupt Ben Ali-era officials and business people to legalize their stolen assets and secure a form of amnesty, July 15, 2016. Photo Credit: Lina Ben Mhenni

Tunisian activists protest the economic reconciliation bill presented to parliament that would offer a path for corrupt Ben Ali-era officials and business people to legalize their stolen assets and secure a form of amnesty, July 15, 2016. Photo Credit: Lina Ben Mhenni

The challenge becomes still even more daunting when a country is confronting not only conflict and governance deficits but also the legacies of massive and serious human rights violations.

“It is difficult enough for a society to emerge from poverty. But it is significantly more difficult when specific individuals and groups, often already among the poorest and most marginalised in society, have in the recent past been specifically targeted victims of atrocities and other serious violations.” 

Addressing these thorny and often intransigent issues is a critical challenge in achieving the SDGs, and transitional justice processes thus have an important role to play.

While transitional justice arose from the experiences of countries in Latin America and later South Africa, its processes have now been adopted, implemented, or followed through upon in countries around the world. The essential premise of transitional justice is that for a society to move from a condition where rights were massively violated to one where rights are generally respected, the crimes of the past and their consequences must be addressed. Through a series of measures—including but not limited to reforms, criminal justice, reparations, truth and memorialization—societies aim to build trust and ensure that such violations do not happen again. Continue reading →