Just trying to cope with the BBC news headlines these days.

1. Dutch cabinet collapses in dispute over Afghanistan.
2. US officials are investigating whether the crash, involving a plane piloted by Joseph Andrew Stack, was a deliberate attack on a tax office.
3. Portugal rushes aid to Madeira after deadly floods.
4. China anger at Dalai Lama-Obama meeting.
5. Russian ex-police boss gets life for supermarket murder.
6. Brothel remark Irish defence minister O'Dea resigns.
7. Far-right Czech Workers' Party to challenge court ban.
8. No Kenya crisis, says President Mwai Kibaki.
9. Women at war: How roles are changing.
10. Thousands rally in support of Niger coup.
11. ICC: Guinea killings 'crime against humanity'.
12. Rwandan capital Kigali hit by deadly grenade attacks.
13. Several dead in Ivory Coast clashes.

Genocide charge for Khmer Rouge leader Khieu Samphan: 18 December

A UN-backed tribunal in Cambodia has charged Khieu Samphan, formerly the head of state for the Khmer Rouge, with genocide.
The move came after genocide charges were filed against two other Khmer Rouge leaders, Ieng Sary and Nuon Chea.
All the genocide charges relate to the men's treatment of Cambodia's Vietnamese and Muslim minorities.
All three men had already been charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Those charged are already in pre-trial detention although the trial is not expected to begin before 2011.

Denial
Up to two million people are thought to have died under the Khmer Rouge's rule.
Khieu Samphan, 78, has never denied these deaths, but both he and his lawyers insist that, as head of state, he was never directly responsible.
One member of his defence team is the infamous French lawyer Jacques Verges, whose previous clients have included Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie and Venezuelan hijacker Carlos the Jackal.
Mr Verges, 83, has known Khieu Samphan since they were both involved in left-wing student activities in France in the 1950s.
He says he has lived a life of poverty after the Khmer Rouge regime was toppled.
A court official confirmed that the allegations were related to the treatment of two minority groups: Cham Muslims and ethnic Vietnamese people.
Researchers believe that the Khmer Rouge killed hundreds of thousands of Chams because of their religious beliefs.
The accusation of genocide carries enormous symbolic weight, says the BBC's Guy De Launey in Cambodia's capital, Phnom Penh.
Final arguments were heard last month in the trial of Khmer Rouge prison chief Kaing Guek Eav, known as Comrade Duch, who has admitted being responsible for overseeing the deaths of 15,000 people.
Judges at the tribunal are expected to make a ruling on his verdict early next year.

[from the BBC news here.]

#BAD09

As said yesterday, today is the Climate Change theme on Blog Action Day. Not having prepared my own, here are a couple of interesting takes:
UNICEF's tale, firstly, followed by David Milliband's.

How climate change impacts children

“Go Green” has become a popular catch-phrase over the last few years, with campaigns encouraging everything from recycling to driving electric cars to eating organic chickens. We all know that reducing our carbon footprint is important for future generations. What you may not know is that climate change is about more than just ensuring the future of the planet’s resources—it is a very present and real danger to millions of those most vulnerable to its harmful effects: the world’s children.

... and

The UK is doing its bit– the first country to set legally binding targets to cut its carbon footprint and the first to set carbon budgets to limit emissions. But we, and the rest of the world, have a massive challenge in front of us. The window of action to avoid catastrophic climate change is closing and agreement at Copenhagen is by no means certain.

All countries must come together to face the shared threat. There will have to be compromise, but there cannot be compromise on the ambition – to keep global temperature rises below 2 degrees, we need nothing less than a 50% reduction in global emissions by 2050. I hope the voices raised today will help us near our goal.

You might have heard by now that:

... At a scientific conference on climate change held this week in Copenhagen, four environmental experts announced that sea levels appear to be rising almost twice as rapidly as had been forecast by the United Nations just two years ago. The warning is aimed at politicians who will meet in the same city in December to discuss the same subject and, perhaps, to thrash out an international agreement to counter it.
The reason for the rapid change in the predicted rise in sea levels is a rapid increase in the information available. In 2007, when the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change convened by the UN made its prediction that sea levels would rise by between 18cm and 59cm by 2100, a lack of knowledge about how the polar ice caps were behaving was behind much of the uncertainty. Since then they have been closely monitored, and the results are disturbing. Both the Greenland and the Antarctic caps have been melting at an accelerating rate. It is this melting ice that is raising sea levels much faster than had been expected. Indeed, scientists now reckon that sea levels will rise by between 50cm and 100cm by 2100, unless action is taken to curb climate change....

More on the actual studies which had been carried out in supporting the above in The Economist's article.

The ICC's first ever warrant issued against a sitting head of state

Today’s decision by the judges of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to issue a warrant of arrest for Sudanese President Omar Bashir for crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in Darfur is a welcome and crucial step towards challenging the impunity that has worsened conflict in Darfur and elsewhere in Sudan. The Sudanese government must exercise restraint in its response to the decision, and ensure that its actions do not undermine the opportunity to achieve peace in Sudan. [...] The response by the Sudanese people, their government, the region and the international community will help determine whether this is the beginning of genuine democratic transformation in Sudan, or whether Bashir’s regime, including the army and other security services, will continue on their destructive path.

Keep reading International Crisis Group's analysis The ICC Indictment of Bashir: A turning point for Sudan?
... yet keep in mind that:

The war crimes court has already issued two arrest warrants - in 2007 - for Sudanese Humanitarian Affairs Minister Ahmed Haroun and the Janjaweed militia leader Ali Abdul Rahman. Sudan has refused to hand them over.
Reacting to the news, a Sudanese presidential adviser dismissed the charges, telling state television that it was part of a "neo-colonialism" plan, Reuters news agency reported.

- as the BBC reminds us.

Yesterday's news at a different level | Lizzo Day 320

Counter Terrorism and Human Rights - Newsroom
16th February 2009

In one of the most extensive studies of counter-terrorism and human rights yet undertaken, an independent panel of eminent judges and lawyers today presents alarming findings about the impact of counter-terrorism policies worldwide and calls for remedial action. The Eminent Jurists Panel on Terrorism, Counter-Terrorism and Human Rights, established by the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), has based its report "Assessing Damage, Urging Action" on sixteen hearings covering more than forty countries in all regions of the world.

as posted on the International Commission of Jurists' page, here.
Here's the full [213 pp.] report;
And Mary Robinson's statement

Witnessing: International Law in the Making

The trial of Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, which [opened] on Monday 26 January 2009 before Trial Chamber I of the International Criminal Court, will not only be the first in the history of the Court, but will also be the first one in the history of international law which will see victims participate fully in the proceedings.
In total, the judges have recognised 93 persons as victims for the purpose of participating in the case and the interests of these persons will be defended by eight legal representatives (lawyers).
Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, the first person to have been surrendered to the Court since its inception, is accused of having committed, as co-perpetrator, war crimes consisting of enlisting and conscripting of children under the age of 15 years into the Forces patriotiques pour la libération du Congo [Patriotic Forces for the Liberation of Congo] (FPLC), and using them to participate actively in hostilities in Ituri, a district of the Eastern Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), between September 2002 and August 2003.
His trial will be held before Trial Chamber I, composed of Judges Adrian Fulford (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland), Presiding Judge; Elisabeth Odio Benito (Costa Rica); and René Blattmann (Bolivia). These independent magistrates will ensure that the trial is fair and expeditious and is conducted with full respect for the rights of the defence, the equality of arms and the principle of adversarial debate, having further due regard for the protection of victims and witnesses.

From the ICC's press release entitled Opening of the first trial of the Court on Monday 26 January 2009: for the first time in the history of international law the victims will fully participate in the proceeding.

meanwhile, the legal conundrum - part 2

In Israel, Prime Minister Olmert told a weekly cabinet meeting that soldiers who had put their lives on the line for their country need not fear prosecution for war crimes overseas. [...]
Israel's military tactics have come under intense scrutiny as evidence has emerged of the high numbers of Palestinian civilians killed in Gaza.
Among complaints made by human rights groups are accusations of indiscriminate firing and the use of white phosphorus shells in civilian areas.
Israel has admitted using white phosphorus in Gaza but says it did not break international law in doing so.
White phosphorus is legal for creating smokescreens in open battleground. But rights groups and journalists say it was used in crowded civilian areas.
The weapon sticks to human skin and will burn through to the bone.

[source: BBC's Israeli PM in war crimes pledge]

meanwhile, the legal conundrum

John Ging of Unrwa has raised the question of whether Israel's government should be investigated for committing possible war crimes against Palestinians.

"For all those innocent people who have been killed in this conflict, were they war crimes? International law obliges is to get an answer to that question," he said.

Mr Ban has been more cautious, saying it is not for him to determine whether a war crimes investigation should take place. However, he has stressed the importance of accountability, where necessary.

In reality, a war crimes investigation by the International Criminal Court (ICC) is unlikely. The court's prosecutor and pre-trial chamber can only instigate their own proceedings against a state that belongs to the court. Israel is not a formal member.

The UN Security Council has been known to refer cases against non-members to the ICC, but the US, staunch ally of Israel, could well block such a move. A state party to the court can ask for a referral to the ICC, but there is no Palestinian state.

[source: the BBC's UN chief's impact on Gaza truce]