Via Avi Bell, here’s a fascinating interview with Itai Epstein, Director of Amnesty International in Israel. The interviewer asks some fairly sharp questions, and he gets answers filled with addled logic that amount to, “Whatever Israel does, Amnesty is still going to say it was acting illegally/violating human rights.” Here’s an excerpt (but read the […]
Archive | International Human Rights Law
Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act v Alien Tort Statute?
Sounds like Alien v Predator. Well, the Supreme Court might have taken up that question, but in the event, decided not to get involved with it. My Opinio Juris co-blogger Duncan Hollis explains at OJ. The case handed down today is Samantar v Yousef. I concur with Duncan’s takeaway: For human rights activists, however, the case […]
Bringing a case against Arizona before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
Apparently that is the plan of several Mexican and Arizona legislators. (Original story in Spanish from El Semanario here.) The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights is the Oranization of American States administrative body responsible for hemispheric human rights enforcement. Generally speaking, if the Commission finds that the government has violated human rights, the Commission attempts to resolve […]
Taking the Yglesias Challenge on Human Rights Watch
Matthew Yglesias writes of Benjamin Birnbaum’s piece on HRW in The New Republic: What I had in mind is that I don’t see what there is to rebut in the piece. As we’ve known for a while, some folks don’t like it that Human Rights Watch criticizes Israel. Some of those people aired their grievances […]
A Follow-on Drone Hearing
By Kenneth Anderson on May 1, 2010 11:10 pm in International Human Rights Law, Robotics, Targeted Killing, Uncategorized, War and Armed Conflict, War on Terror
The House Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs, chaired by Rep. John Tierney, held a second hearing (Wednesday, April 28, 2010), once again on the topic of drone warfare. The first, held back on March 23, was focused on the technology of UAVs; this follow-up hearing was specifically about targeted killing and drone warfare. […]
Birnbaum on Human Rights Watch and Israel
Benjamin Birnbaum’s investigative piece for The New Republic on Human Rights Watch and Israel is now up. The piece mentions, but does not dwell on, the various scandals that engulfed HRW last year—the fundraising trip to Saudi Arabia in which HRW Middle East director Sarah Leah Whitson invoked the organization’s hostility to Israel and the […]
An Eminently Sound Approach to (Supposed) International Human Rights Norms, from the Ninth Circuit
From Serra v. Lapin (9th Cir. Apr. 9, 2010) (Clifton, J., joined by Kozinski, C.J., and Wallace, J.) (some paragraph breaks added): Current and former federal prisoners allege that the low wages they were paid for work performed in prison violated their rights under the Fifth Amendment and various sources of international law…. Plaintiffs earned […]
“Garzon and the Trouble with International Law”
Onetime VC contributor Eric Posner has a WSJ op-ed on the indictment of Judge Baltasar Garzón in Spain and what this episode should teach us about the efforts to assert universal jurisdiction over alleged atrocities that occurred within the sovereignty of other nations. Here’s a taste: Universal jurisdiction arose centuries ago to give states a […]
Judge Baltazar Garzón Indicted
Spanish judge Baltazar Garzón rose to fame in 1998 when he issued an arrest warrant for former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet for the alleged murder and torture of Spanish citizens in Chile. Such use of universal jurisdiction was unprecedented — and it was only the beginning. Since then, Judge Garzón has investigated Bush Administration officials […]
Remarkable Window into Amnesty International’s Worldview
Despite widespread condemnation from many of its own allies and fellow-travelers (e.g.), Amnesty International continues to have no compunctions about its close association with the pro-Taleban former Guantanomo detainee Moazzam Begg. According to Amnesty Secretary General Claudio Cordone, Amnesty may disagree with Begg on the “role of jihad in self-defense,” but otherwise Begg’s support of […]
“Nazi Scandal Engulfs Human Rights Watch”
That’s the title of an excellent piece today in the Times of London. Despite the lurid title, the piece is actually a tough-but-fair overview of the various controversies surrounding HRW’s coverage of the Middle East. A taste: Some conflict zones get much more coverage than others. For instance, HRW has published five heavily publicised reports […]
Harold Koh Statements on Drone Warfare at ASIL Tonight
By Kenneth Anderson on March 25, 2010 11:43 pm in International Human Rights Law, Robotics, Targeted Killing, Terrorism, War and Armed Conflict, War on Terror
Update: I have had a chance to watch the video twice – I strongly recommend watching it, as it adds considerable language to the statements below in the press release. And welcome Instapundit readers and any others. Given how much I have pressed publicly for a statement by the administration’s lawyers, I want to say […]
Drone Warfare in House Subcommittee Hearing
By Kenneth Anderson on March 24, 2010 11:38 am in Counter-Terrorism Policy, International Human Rights Law, Robotics, Targeted Killing, War and Armed Conflict, War on Terror
Yesterday (Tuesday, March 23, 2010) I was pleased to appear as a witness before the House Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs, to discuss drone warfare and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). The list of witnesses is here, along with a link to a webcast (which I can’t seem to open), and links to the witness […]
Response from ACLU’s Jonathan Manes on Drones and US Forces
By Kenneth Anderson on March 22, 2010 6:58 pm in Counter-Terrorism Policy, International Human Rights Law, Robotics, Targeted Killing, War and Armed Conflict, War on Terror
Jonathan Manes, the ACLU lawyer whose work and presentations I have cited a couple of times in posts here at Volokh, and someone for whom, despite some fundamental agreements, I have great respect and like very much, has responded with the following letter. He has given me permission to post it here. The most important […]
Iran and the Shortcomings of International Human Rights Law
Hadi Ghaemi and Aaron Rhodes of the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran urge the United Nations Human Rights Council to take a stand against the blatant repression undertaken by the Iranian government. But they acknowledge that so far the UN has done more to support the Iranian government than its victims: The new […]