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61. Business and Human Rights: Proposals from the Research Group on Private International Law and Human Rights

Author:
Nicolás Zambrana Tévar
Publication Date:
07-2012
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre on Human Rights in Conflict
Abstract:
By means of Resolution 17/4 of 16 June 2011, the UN Human Rights Council has created a Working Group with the mission of implementing the UN “Protect, Respect and Remedy” Framework and its Guiding Principles. As part of its activities, the Working Group asked for input from stakeholders and convened a meeting with them, which took place in Geneva on 20 January 2012.
Topic:
Economics, Human Rights, Human Welfare, International Trade and Finance, and Markets
Political Geography:
Geneva and United Nations

62. Information Warfare and Civilian Populations: How the Law of War Addresses a Fear of the Unknown

Author:
Lucian Dervan
Publication Date:
06-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The Goettingen Journal of International Law
Institution:
The Goettingen Journal of International Law
Abstract:
Imagine a civilian communications system is being temporarily relied upon by an opposing military force for vital operations. If one launches a computer network attack against the communications system, the operation may disable the opposing force's ability to function adequately and, as a result, prompt their surrender. The alternative course of action is to launch a traditional kinetic weapons attack in the hopes of inflicting enough casualties on the troops to induce surrender. Given these options, the law of war would encourage the utilization of the computer network attack because it would result in less unnecessary suffering. But is the same true if we are unsure of the collateral consequences of the computer network attack on a large civilian population that also relies on this communications system? For instance, because civilians use the same communications system to gather critical information, disabling the system might result in rioting, civil disorder, serious injuries, and deaths. Further, civilians may be unable to call for help, seek out medical assistance, or locate emergency response centers. Given these unknown yet potentially severe collateral consequences to civilians, it becomes less clear that a proportionality analysis under the law of war would favor the computer network attack over the traditional kinetic operation. In this article, Professor Lucian E. Dervan examines the application of the law of war to information operations and analyses the role of the Geneva Convention's utilitarian goals in determining the validity of computer network attacks against dual-use civilian objectives.
Political Geography:
Geneva

64. Improving United Nations Intelligence: Lessons from the Field

Author:
Melanie Ramjoué
Publication Date:
08-2011
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Geneva Centre for Security Policy
Abstract:
The past twenty years have seen an exponential growth of UN peacekeeping in terms of breadth of mandates, scale and duration of operations. Where peacekeepers in the 1960s, 70s and 80s were deployed primarily to monitor ceasefires, they now investigate human rights violations, provide electoral support, and occasionally even support active combat operations. This surge has required a five-fold rise in the UN peacekeeping budget over the past ten years, from USD 1.5 billion in 1999 to almost USD 8 billion in 2011; it has similarly led to a four-fold increase in UN personnel deployed to support peacekeeping activities, from 27,000 military, civilian and police peacekeepers in 1999 to over 120,000 in 2011.
Topic:
Intelligence, International Organization, United Nations, and Peacekeeping
Political Geography:
Geneva, Finland, Germany, Estonia, and Denmark

65. Common Article 1 of the 1949 Geneva Conventions: A Soap Bubble?

Author:
Carlo Focarelli
Publication Date:
02-2010
Content Type:
Journal Article
Abstract:
Common Article 1 of the 1949 Geneva Conventions is today generally seen as a 'quasi-constitutional' international law rule, premised on the doctrine of obligations erga omnes and imposing on all contracting states an obligation to take a variety of measures in order to induce not only state organs and private individuals but also other contracting states to comply with the Conventions. The phrases 'ensure respect' and 'in all circumstances' contained therein, in particular, have been understood to imply a 'state-compliance' meaning, drawing basically upon the ICRC Commentaries to the 1949 Geneva Conventions and to the 1977 Additional Protocols. However, expressions similar to 'ensure respect' in human rights treaties, in other provisions of the Geneva Conventions themselves, and in military manuals have been given an exclusive 'individual-compliance' meaning. Lists of measures available to contracting states against other contracting states deemed to be in breach of the Conventions have been suggested without investigation of whether such measures were per se lawful or unlawful and whether their adoption was legally required, or authorized, or merely recommended under common Article 1. Measures the adoption of which is expressly required or authorized by ad hoc provisions of the Geneva Conventions have been redundantly linked to Article 1. The phrase 'in all circumstances' too has a variety of meanings already found in ad hoc provisions other than Article 1. Ultimately, the purported 'quasi-constitutional' character of common Article 1 has proved a subject of speculation. Common Article 1 is a reminder of obligations, negative and positive, to 'respect' the Geneva Conventions (according to the general pacta sunt servanda rule) which has progressively been given the meaning of a mere recommendation to adopt lawful measures to induce transgressors to comply with the Conventions.
Political Geography:
Geneva

66. The Libyan-Swiss Crisis: A Lesson in Libyan Foreign Policy

Author:
Alison Pargeter
Publication Date:
09-2010
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The International Spectator
Institution:
Istituto Affari Internazionali
Abstract:
Since July 2008 when one of Qadhafi's sons was arrested in Geneva, Libya has been engaged in a major stand-off with Switzerland. What began as a personalised affair soon escalated into a major diplomatic crisis with the Libyan leader going so far as to declare jihad against the Swiss. Yet whilst Libya's response to the arrest surprised many and prompted questions about whether the recently rehabilitated Libya had really changed its ways, this affair in fact demonstrates some of the constants of Libyan foreign policymaking since the revolution of 1969. These include the highly personalised nature of policymaking in the Libyan state and the use of foreign policy in the enduring quest for popular legitimacy.
Topic:
Foreign Policy
Political Geography:
Geneva, Libya, and Switzerland

67. A1. The Geneva Initiative, Security Annex to the Geneva Accord, Geneva, 15 September 2009 (excerpts)

Publication Date:
12-2010
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Palestine Studies
Institution:
Institute for Palestine Studies
Abstract:
On 15 September 2009, the private Israeli-Palestinian peace initiative known as the Geneva Initiative published 13 detailed annexes to the Geneva Accord, the draft framework for a final status agreement between Israelis and Palestinians unveiled in 2003. The Geneva Initiative was launched by former Israeli justice minister Yossi Beilin and then Palestinian Authority (PA) minister Yasir Abid Rabbuh in their private capacities in 2001. The original accord, while immediately rejected by then Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon, was met with considerable international backing, but never formed the basis of any official negotiations.
Topic:
Security
Political Geography:
Geneva, Israel, and Palestine

68. WTO Reform: The Time to Start Is Now

Author:
Uri Dadush
Publication Date:
09-2009
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Abstract:
Since its inception in 1995, the World Trade Organization has been the guardian of stability and predictability in world trade, but it has failed to fulfill its promise as a source of new trade rules and liberalization. Conclusion of the diluted Doha Development Agenda will not end the need for WTO reform. At the heart of WTO reform must be a more flexible approach to negotiations, one more tailored to the needs of individual countries and groups. The process of reflection and consultation on WTO reform should begin with the WTO Ministerial in Geneva in November.
Topic:
Economics, International Organization, International Political Economy, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:
Geneva

69. Square pegs in round holes: How the Farm Bill squanders chances for a pro-development trade deal

Publication Date:
07-2008
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
When trade ministers from 35 countries gather in Geneva at the World Trade Organization [WTO] for what is being billed yet again as a last-ditch attempt to forge a Doha trade deal, they will be forced to meet an unwelcome guest: the 2008 US Farm Bill. With a host of newly bolstered subsidies that will hurt farmers in developing countries, as well as higher farm payment rates, squeezing the new Farm Bill into the 'boxes' defined under existing WTO obligations will be a remarkable trick. That speaks poorly about the willingness of the US to accept new disciplines on agricultural subsidies, and demonstrates that the US Congress is unwilling - thus far - to take the necessary steps for a new trade agreement that would prioritize development.
Topic:
Agriculture, International Organization, International Trade and Finance, Markets, and World Trade Organization
Political Geography:
Geneva and United States

70. Sixty Years after the UN Partition Resolution: What Future for the Arab Economy in Israel?

Author:
Raja Khalidi
Publication Date:
01-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Palestine Studies
Institution:
Institute for Palestine Studies
Abstract:
Despite the expectations of economic theory, a century of Arab-Jewish economic interaction in Palestine has not led to the convergence that is supposed to result from exchange between a capital-rich economy and a labor-intensive one. After 60 years of failed integration, the Arab population in Israel has fallen to the bottom of the socio-economic ladder. With the Palestinian "regional economies" in Israel and the occupied territories operating as part of the same Israeli economic regime, the challenge for Palestinian economic policy makers is to build on the new paradigm in shaping a national development strategy aimed at reconstructing Arab-Jewish economic relations on the principles of balanced cooperation embodied in the Economic Annex of the 1947 UN partition resolution. RAJA KHALIDI is an economist with the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD, Geneva). The views expressed are his own and do not reflect those of the United Nations Secretariat.
Topic:
Development and Economics
Political Geography:
Geneva, Israel, and Palestine