Llm-Public International Law

On 4 September 2014 the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) ruled in Trabelsi v Belgium that Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights requires Council of Europe member states not to extradite persons within their jurisdiction to states where they are liable to be sentenced to life imprisonment and where the legal system does not provide for any objective mechanism of review of the whole-life sentence.

International human rights law prescribes that marriage shall only be entered into with the free and full consent of both spouses.  Forced marriage thus constitutes a human rights violation and is also a criminal offence in the domestic law of some countries.  Additionally, international criminal courts have recently determined that forced marriage may amount to a crime against humanity when forming part of a systematic or widespread attack against a civilian population. The present post analyses the evolution of this new crime against humanity, from its conceptualisation as a form of sexual slavery to its recognition as a separate crime against humanity falling under the category of ‘other inhumane acts’. The latest stage in this evolutionary process was reached by the Pre-Trial Chamber II of the International Criminal Court (‘ICC’) in its decision of 23 March 2016 confirming the charges against Dominic Ongwen.  By acknowledging the particular features of forced marriage and distinguishing it from sexual slavery, this decision critically enables the prosecution of the crime in situations as prima facie different as the phenomenon of ‘bush wives’ in African armed conflicts and the state policy of ‘group marriages’ enforced in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge.

Colombia’s Final Accord for the Termination of the Conflict and the Construction of a Stable and Lasting Peace, signed on 26 August 2016, was hailed by the UN Secretary-General as ‘a bright flare of hope that illuminates the entire world’. Its rejection by Colombian voters in the referendum of October 2nd has been attributed in part to the view that it offers impunity to persons responsible for international crimes and serious human rights violations. This post considers the extent to which the peace agreement provides for an amnesty compatible with international law and human rights.

Seventy years on since the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) on 10 December 1948, this post examines the evolution of a right that was not included in the Declaration but is often seen as a precondition for the enjoyment of other human rights: the right to peace. It reviews UN declarations adopted over the last half-century for the purpose of recognising the right to peace and the extent to which the latest one issued in December 2016 adds to or detracts from these efforts.

Amnesties extending to international crimes and serious human rights violations have been subject to increasing international scrutiny over the last two decades. International courts have notably taken the view that such amnesties are generally incompatible with international law and human rights, thereby reflecting the emergence of an international norm prohibiting the grant of amnesty for serious crimes. However, the exact contours of this norm are uncertain. Indeed, a close scrutiny of the international case-law reveals some inconsistencies regarding the rationale underlying the amnesty prohibition, the specific crimes to which it applies and the question of whether it is absolute or warrants exceptions in special circumstances. This article examines some of the decisions of international criminal courts and human rights bodies dealing with amnesty with a view to identifying the main areas of convergence and divergence within this jurisprudence. The findings suggest that, while there is a growing tendency for international courts to consider that amnesties including serious crimes are contrary to international law, there is no unanimous agreement as to the existence of an absolute ban.

This post looks at the prospects of peace and justice in the Central African Republic (CAR) one year after the signing of the Khartoum peace agreement in February 2019, the latest in a long series of peace agreements concluded in the CAR in the past two decades. Although blanket amnesties were previously a recurrent feature of peace-making in the CAR, in recent years initiatives have been taken towards the prosecution of serious crimes at the national and international levels. The post examines how the Khartoum Agreement has added up to previous peace plans and transitional justice initiatives, arguing that a comprehensive strategy including elements of accountability, truth, reparation, reconciliation and, possibly, conditional amnesty would be necessary to put an end to the relentless cycle of violence in the CAR.

In a decision of 9 March 2020, the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Court (ICC) confirmed that the case against Saif Al-Islam Gaddafi is admissible. This decision is significant with regard to the debate on the status of amnesties under international law as it is the first time that the ICC makes a pronouncement as a full court on this controversial issue. The post starts by outlining the positions of international actors in the amnesty debate, before examining how and why the ICC Appeals Chamber backtracked from the Pre-Trial Chamber’s holding that the grant of amnesty for crimes against humanity is incompatible with international law. It then discusses whether amnesties, irrespective of their legality under international law, are opposable to international criminal courts.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) present two challenges for integrated planning and implementation at the national level. One is that policies and plans need to identify and accommodate interconnectivities
amongst the SDGs. Second is the need to balance the three dimensions: economic growth, social inclusion and environmental protection. This paper uses network analysis to explore interconnectivity and balance of the Sri Lankan policies or plans in relation to SDG 7, that advocates clean energy security. The findings suggest that the selected policies or plans are not only clearly linked to SDG 7, but also shows strong connectivity to SDG 1 (poverty), 10 (inequality), 11 (cities) and 12 (sustainable consumption and production) as well as other SDGs. This emphasises the need to recognise sectoral cross links for an integrated plan. In terms of balance there is a skew towards the environmental dimension over the economic and social dimensions. There are also conflicts between the environmental and economic dimensions that need to be acknowledged and reconciled, while more focus is needed to meet the objective of energy for all. Lastly the paper shows that network analysis can assist policymakers and planners to move towards building an integrated approach to develop sustainable policies and plans.

Summary
• Building global and national adaptation frameworks requires the
participation of the entire adaptation spectrum: global, regional,
national, sub-national and local communities.
• At one end of the spectrum, local communities play a vital role
in identifying, developing, monitoring, and evaluating adaptation
frameworks and the associated principles and indicators. At the
other end of the spectrum, the global community can work to
harmonize those adaptation frameworks and the associated
principles and indicators.
• An innovative effort to create harmonized adaptation frameworks
is the Joint Principles for Adaptation (JPA). The JPA represents
a set of global adaptation principles and indicators that encourage
the inclusion of various communities in the adaptation
framework.
• Rethinking adaptation through the lens of risk-management allows
policymakers to integrate CBA with other existing or emerging
concepts, and include all the communities across the adaptation
spectrum.

Abstract
International environmental governance is becoming an increasingly crowded space because of growing numbers of Non-State Actors (NSAs) and International Governmental Organisations (IGOs). Together with states, IGOs and NSAs enable a continuous and interactive approach to environmental governance. The interactions between the
principal actors shape the evolution of the institutions that determine environmental governance. Such evolution follows three broad stages: emergence-synthesis, cascades-synthesis, and internalisation. Each cycle of institutional evolution sets a new status quo. Moreover, each actor possesses a comparative advantage in the various stages of
institutional evolution. NSAs are ideal institutional entrepreneurs because their ability to function on multiple political domains – sub-national, national, and international – and their close proximity to adaptation issues. States and IGOs, however, are better placed to
synthesise emerging environmental institutions nationally and internationally, respectively. Both have the necessary mandates to deploy the necessary financial and political resources needed to legitimise and enhance emerging institutions. When these
actors engage in a continuous and complimentary manner, they can achieve virtuous cycles of environmental institutional evolution. Such virtuous cycles establish a new status quo that creates enough momentum for subsequent improvements in the environmental institutions.

Keywords: global adaptation standards, non-state actors, IGOs.

Sustainable development must strike a delicate balance between democracy and efficiency. The larger democratic mandate comes at the cost of efficiency. States (i.e. national governments) have the widest democratic mandate, but are the least efficient; sub-national actors have a narrower democratic mandate, but are more efficient; non-state actors (NSAs) have no democratic mandate, but are vital to the democratic process that involves developing and maintaining sustainable development institutions through consultative and co-productive partnerships. All three type of actors have interconnected roles concerning sustainable development institutions. Non-state actors are the best source of developing new sustainable development institutions. Sub-national actors are best placed to adopt emerging institutions and demonstrate their effectiveness, while reconciling differences at a more local level. States are necessary to help internalise and improve emerging institutions and importantly and reconcile competing priorities from various sub-national governments and NSAs. This creates a virtuous cycle of institutional emergence, cascade, and internalisation. As new institutions move through the cycle, the democratic mandate increases, but the synthesis may often capture the lowest common denominator. In response, states, together with the other actors, should create an environment that increases the intensity and velocity of the interconnectedness between the various actors. Thus, certain basic reforms are necessary. First, non-state actors should have robust formal mechanisms to access information, decision-making, and provide feedback on institutions of sustainable development. Second, states must genuinely decentralise power from central governments to sub-national governments. Third, it is important for all the principal actors to develop frameworks that enhance process of reconciling contradictory institutions. Forth, states and international donors must provide, as far as possible, unconditional sustainable development finance to all the principal actors to aid experimentation and ownership.

Global governance systems that are responsible for climate change and sustainable development are becoming increasingly complex. The complexity is driven by growing interdependence between actors and the interconnectedness between environmental and non-environmental systems of governance. As a result, the principal actors of global governance - states, International Governmental Organisations (IGOs), and Non-State Actors (NSAs) - are beginning to interact with each other through complex arrangements across multiple scales of governance – global, national, and local. Such complex multi-scale relationships allow actors to benefit from a network effect, whereby they can increase the output of public goods or maximise the common welfare. Yet, they also risk generating feedback effects and externalities that can overwhelm the governance systems and reduce the aggregate gains.  Yet, traditional governance models, which range from strict hierarchies to poly-centric networks, provide only partial explanations for complex interactions among diverse actors. Specifically, these models provide incomplete explanations for how governance systems go through virtuous cycles of evolution or vicious cycles of de-evolution: either becoming more complex and effective or becoming simpler and ineffective. Yet, such models present valuable insights into the comparative advantages and motives of the various actors. By synthesising these key insights, the paper presents a “Gears and Cogs” model that has three advantages over traditional models of sustainability governance. First, the model helps understand and visualise the evolution and institutional de-evolution of governance systems. Governance systems evolve when principal actors develop, synthesise, and internalise changes that enhance effectiveness in the output of a public good or the realisation of a common purpose. Systems de-evolve when the principal actors, often states, decide to disengage from the governance process because the opportunity costs of engagement become intolerable. Second, the model visualises the roles of the principal actors and the complex interactions between them. Three types of relationships are shaping global sustainability governance: first, traditional bi-lateral and multi-lateral relationships among the key actors; second, the consultative and co-productive relationships between the principal actors that emerge within the frameworks of IGOs; third, the transnational advocacy and epistemic networks that allow non-state actors to exercise influence across multiple governance levels and. Third, the model accommodates different power structures to help explain the complex interactions between the principal actors at various stages of institutional evolution or de-evolution. This takes the form of embedded hierarchies within a governance system that combine mono-centric and polycentric approaches. These hierarchies allow for actors to deploy various hard power and soft power instruments to affect change within the governance system.

Southern Voice's flagship initiative on the State of the Sustainable Development Goals (SVSS) has generated country-level, evidence-based analysis to enrich the global dialogue on the 2030 Agenda. SVSS is neither a typical data-driven analysis of progress nor a traditional monitoring exercise of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Instead, through this research initiative, we seek to identify the 'second-generation' challenges of the global agenda along with the policy responses to address them. Our crosscountry and regional analyses show that, on the one hand, national governments have made discernible progress in designing policy frameworks aligned with the Agenda. The governments have recognised the importance of not leaving the most vulnerable behind. On the other hand, weak coordination among relevant stakeholders and lack of horizontal coherence remain as challenges in achieving the Goals. Silo approaches continue to undermine national governments' ability to address systemic problems and create the necessary conditions to end poverty for all. Paucity of financial resources, along with no changes in the allocative priorities, are symptomatic of most of the developing countries' drive towards SDGs. With these challenges in mind, the SVSS report identifies three layers of critical action and analysis. First, we explore who is potentially excluded from deriving the benefits of SDG delivery within the country's contextual realities. Second, we recognise that the Goals are not necessarily additive (even within a holistic agenda), and delve into the links among Goals and their interconnections, so as to maximise their synergies and fend the trade-offs. Third, we explore the implications of the current conduct of the global institutions and policies for the national efforts to implement SDGs. The present study aims to understand how the fourth industrial revolution has moved along the value chain and impacted workers on the apparel sector in Sri Lanka. We hope that this piece of Southern Voice's research will enlighten the thought process of the policy community and development practitioners in their efforts towards a fuller realisation of the 2030 Agenda.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), with its advanced technology, is creating new work options but also threatening job losses and job polarisation. The effects of the 4IR will impact the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially in achieving sustainable economic growth and decent work for all (SDG 8). This study used a qualitative approach complemented by secondary quantitative data. A multi-dimensional, SDG-based, sustainable-labour lens was used to form the conceptual framework that explored how automation impacts labour, particularly low-skilled workers operating within the global value chain (GVC) in the apparel industry in Sri Lanka. The study found that automation so far, in this context, has not led to major displacement of low-skilled workers, but has narrowed the range of jobs while favouring high-skilled jobs. It also showed that the apparel sector uses GVCs to access technology and investment to gain economic benefits aligned with SDG 8. The GVCs forged synerg...

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) present two challenges for integrated planning and implementation at the national level. One is that policies and plans need to identify and accommodate interconnectivities amongst the SDGs. Second is the need to balance the three dimensions: economic growth, social inclusion and environmental protection. This paper uses network analysis to explore interconnectivity and balance of the Sri Lankan policies or plans in relation to SDG 7, that advocates clean energy security. The findings suggest that the selected policies or plans are not only clearly linked to SDG 7, but also shows strong connectivity to SDG 1 (poverty), 10 (inequality), 11 (cities) and 12 (sustainable consumption and production) as well as other SDGs. This emphasises the need to recognise sectoral cross links for an integrated plan. In terms of balance there is a skew towards the environmental dimension over the economic and social dimensions. There are also conflicts between ...