Free Republic

Monday, December 15, 2003 Mexico challenges U.S. death sentences in the World Court By Barnard R. Thompson The International Court of Justice (ICJ) is scheduled to hear a contentious case filed by Mexico against the U.S.A., challenging the legitimacy of the death penalty in this country, from December 15 to 19. Judges from the so-called “World Court,” the top-level legal body of the United Nations that is based in The Hague, will hear Mexico’s legal team argue that 54 Mexican citizens who were found culpable and who are now on death row in a number of states were denied their...

An international campaign to designate suicide bombings as crimes against humanity was launched in Boca Raton Thursday by the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Los Angeles-based Jewish organization that promotes tolerance. Rabbi Marvin Hier, who won several Academy Awards for his movies done through the center, met with Pope John Paul II eight days ago and told him of his mission to get the United Nations to adopt a resolution that would recognize perpetrators and supporters of suicide bombings as criminals against humanity. According to Hier, the Pope told participants in a Catholic-Islamic meeting 24 hours later: “I appeal to you,...

Omega Letter Christian Intelligence Digest Words that Kill Commentary on the NewsMonday, December 08, 2003 Jack Kinsella The United Nations war crimes tribunal investigating the butchery in Rwanda has convicted three Rwandan media executives of genocide in a case that will set a precedent for the new International Criminal Court. The three men were convicted of using words as weapons. "You were fully aware of the power of words, and you used the radio -- the medium of communication with the widest public reach -- to disseminate hatred and violence," wrote presiding Judge Navanethem Pillay in sentencing to life...

UN General Assembly votes to ask ICJ for opinion on Israel's separation barrier 8 December – The United Nations General Assembly, at the resumption of its long-running tenth emergency special session, adopted a resolution today asking the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to issue an advisory opinion on the legal consequences of Israel's construction of a separation barrier between itself and the West Bank. The recorded vote in the 191-member Assembly was 90 in favour, 8 against (Australia, Ethiopia, Israel, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, United States), with 74 abstentions. Nineteen delegations were absent. Among those abstaining were two members...

World court ruling sought on Israel fence By David Usborne in New York 09 December 2003 Israel came under fresh pressure to dismantle its security fence in the West Bank after the United Nations General Assembly voted in emergency session last night to ask the International Court of Justice to rule on its legality. The court is not obliged to take on the case. But the vote, called by the Arab states and the Palestinian Authority, and adopted 90 to 8 with 74 abstentions, makes it more likely. Any opinion against the 90-mile network of barriers, under construction since 2000,...

w w w . h a a r e t z d a i l y . c o m Last update - 21:11 08/12/2003 UN votes 90-8 to ask Hague court for opinion on fence By Shlomo Shamir and Aluf Benn, Haaretz Correspondents, Haaretz Service and Agencies The United Nations General Assembly approved on Monday a Palestinian-initiated resolution asking the International Court of Justice to issue an advisory opinion on the legal consequences of Israel's construction of the separation fence. Ninety nations voted in favor of the draft, eight opposed and 74 countries abstained. Israel condemned the resolution. Ra'anan Gissin,...

Court Convicts 3 in 1994 Genocide Across RwandaBy SHARON LaFRANIEREPublished: December 4, 2003 ARUSHA, Tanzania, Dec. 3 — In the first case of its kind since the Nuremberg trials, an international court here on Wednesday convicted three Rwandans of genocide for media reports that fostered the killing of about 800,000 Rwandans, mostly of the Tutsi minority, over several months in 1994. A three-judge panel said the three men had used a radio station and a newspaper published twice a month to mobilize Rwanda's Hutu majority against the Tutsi, who were massacred at churches, schools, hospitals and roadblocks. The court said...

Supreme Court or World Court?On October 28, the Atlanta-based Southern Center for International Studies presented Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor its World Justice Award. During her acceptance speech, O’Connor expressed concern that the High Court has seldom considered foreign laws when reaching important decisions affecting U.S. jurisprudence. She was gratified to note, however, that a few recent decisions may be signaling a change, as the court increasingly acknowledges legal standards set by the "global community."O’Connor approvingly noted that two important Supreme Court decisions in which she concurred were based in part on foreign laws. A 2002 case, Atkins v....

<p>The Supreme Court refused yesterday to be drawn into an international debate over the legal rights of a Mexican on Oklahoma's death row.</p> <p>The court was asked to consider whether American prosecutors are violating a 1963 international treaty when they do not notify foreign governments about death-penalty cases involving citizens of those countries. That issue is being debated internationally.</p>

International Court of Justice rules in favour of Iran in oil platforms case 7 November – The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has ruled in favour of Iran in its claim that the late-1980s bombing by the United States of its oil platforms in the Persian Gulf was in breach of a treaty between the two countries. The Court’s President, Judge Shi Jiuyong, read out its judgment – which is final and cannot be appealed – yesterday in The Hague, the Netherlands. The Court ruled 14-2 that the US had breached its obligations under a 1955 treaty between the...

THE HAGUE, Netherlands - The United States was wrong to destroy three of Iran's oil platforms during the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s, but doesn't need to pay damages, the World Court ruled in a 14-2 decision Thursday. "The actions carried out against Iran ... cannot be justified," said presiding Judge Shi Jiuyong of China, reading the decision by a panel of 16 judges from around the world. Washington doesn't need to pay damages because the countries had suspended trade relations at the time and the United States "cannot have been said to have infringed the rights of Iran," Shi...

<p>Baghdad -- Like so many Iraqis these days, Chedha al Awsi feels betrayed and confused.</p> <p>On a computer screen before her, poorly recorded footage shows half a dozen laughing soldiers of Saddam Hussein's elite Republican Guard as they beat and kick civilian men kneeling on the ground, their hands bound behind their backs.</p>

UNITED NATIONS PROPOSES COERCIVE POPULATION CONTROL IN ETHIOPIACruel "reward and punishment" system proposed for food aid. The United Nation's emergencies Unit for Ethiopia (EUE) has called for pressure tactics for depopulation in Ethiopia.  Rather than providing food aid, the EUE is suggesting that a "reward and punishment" system should be implemented to implement 'family planning'.   African media quote the EUE report as saying, "If Ethiopia wants to become less dependent on foreign food aid, all appropriate means should be explored to stop the ongoing population explosion." "The dissemination of family planning methods, possibly linked with relief operations, must be stepped...

THE HAGUE, Feb 16 (AFP) - The World Court here is scheduled on Monday to look into the case of Iran which has lodged a complaint against the United States over the destruction of oil rigs in the Persian Gulf in 1987 and 1988. Monday's hearings are the first to be held in this case. Iran alleged that with the destruction of the oil platforms Washington violated a 1955 treaty between the two countries establishing their amicable, economic and consular relations. In its complaint before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) lodged in 1992, Iran said that the United States...

Excerpted: Powell's prosecutorial summary of the case against Saddam should have been prelude not to further warmongering but to a legal indictment of the Iraqi leader for crimes against humanity. In what court, you ask, and under what jurisdiction? America's imminent war takes on an absurd -- and also tragic -- character in the light of what else is happening right now. Last week the International Criminal Court was initiated with the formal election of judges. Next month the court will be official. Its purpose is exactly to deal with offenses like those of which Saddam stands accused. A forceful...

THE HAGUE, Netherlands-The United Sates must temporarily stay the executions of three Mexican citizens on death rows in Texas and Oklahoma, the World Court ruled Wednesday.

The United States must temporarily stay the executions of three Mexican citizens on death rows in Texas and Oklahoma, the World Court ruled Wednesday. The ruling — which the court cannot enforce and the United States could ignore — said the delay was needed while the court investigated whether the men and 48 other Mexicans on death row in the United States were given their right to legal help from the Mexican government. The 15-judge World Court, officially called the International Court of Justice, is the United Nation's body for resolving disputes between nations. The United States has disregarded rulings...

THE HAGUE (Reuters) - The World Court Wednesday ordered the United States to stay the executions of three Mexican nationals on death row. Mexico had asked for stays of executions for 51 of its nationals. But judges said in their order, which is binding, that just three -- who Mexico had argued could be put to death in weeks or months -- should have their deaths put on hold. Mexico took Washington to the International Court of Justice in The Hague last month, alleging that state and municipal officials breached an international treaty by failing to tell the men of...

MEXICO CITY -- Mexico said Thursday it has asked the World Court in the Hague to resolve the case of 54 Mexicans on death row in the United States who allegedly were denied their rights to consular representation under an international treaty. Mexico's foreign relations department has made such allegations against the United States in the past -- one recent case led President Vicente Fox to cancel a meeting with U.S. President George W. Bush last summer. But this is the first time officials have brought the matter to an international court. In a news release, the foreign relations...

<p>After World War II, the victorious allies rounded up top Nazis, put them on trial and executed many of them. The Nuremberg trials established the principle that waging aggresssive war is a hanging offense under international law.</p> <p>Yet Bush, egged on by Ariel Sharon, is planning to wage aggressive war against Iraq.</p>