30 April 2013
The SHARES Project closely follows and collects news items that are linked to the topic of shared responsibility. This is our ‘SHARES News Items Overview: 16-30 April 2013′ consisting of a summary of recent news relating to shared responsibility. (more…)
25 April 2013
On 24 April, the District Court of the Hague in the Netherlands ordered Frans van Anraat, a Dutch national, to pay compensation to 17 victims of chemical weapon attacks by the regime of Saddam Hussein in 1988. The judgment raises interesting questions from a shared responsibility perspective, as Van Anraat obviously only was one of many contributors to the eventual injuries.
The case was brought by 17 survivors of the 1988 attack on the Kurdish city of Halabja in Iraq, in which an estimated 5,600 civilians were killed. Saddam Hussein ordered the Halabja attack as part of a crackdown on a Kurdish rebellion in the north, during the final months of the war with Iraq.
In the 2007 judgment in the criminal trial, the Court had found that Van Anraat was Iraq’s sole supplier of a chemical substance used in the production of mustard gas. He had claimed that he believed the chemical was to be used in the Iraqi textile industry. The Court rejected that argument in the criminal trial, saying that he knew the chemicals might well be used for war crimes. Van Anraat is now serving a prison sentence in the Netherlands. (more…)
24 April 2013
On 11 April, Judge Gaja gave a SHARES lecture entitled “The relations between the European Union and its member states from the perspective of the ILC Articles on Responsibility of International Organizations.” In his remarks, Judge Gaja discussed various aspects of the European Union’s relationship to the Articles, including its plea for special status, the implications of the EU’s forthcoming accession to the European Court of Human Rights, and the application of Articles 14 – 17 to international organizations generally.
Of particular note were his remarks on shared responsibility and the EU. Under the Articles, the EU responsibility might arise if it breaches an international obligation by act or omission. Judge Gaja used the Chile v. European Communities case based on dispute between Chile and Spanish fishermen fishing swordfish outside of the EEZ of Chile as an example of a situation where the EU might have been found responsible for failing to achieve a certain result, in this case the preservation of swordfish. Although the case settled, the EU has exclusive competence for the conservation of maritime resources and consequently there is little question it would have been responsible for any breach (see Hoffmeister’s article here). (more…)
19 April 2013
Fishing boats at Cape Coast, Ghana, West Africa.
Photo by Michael Sarver
Used under Creative Commons By Attribution license
On 28 March 2013 the Sub-Regional Fisheries Commission (SRFC), an intergovernmental fisheries management organisation, submitted to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) a request for an Advisory Opinion (see here). The SRFC comprises of seven states (Cape Verde, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mauritania, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Gambia) and it covers an area that corresponds to theses states’ Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ). The SRFC took this decision at its 14th Extraordinary Session, where it adopted a Resolution under article 22 of the Convention on the Determination of the Minimal Conditions for Access and Exploitation of Marine Resources Within the Maritime Areas under Jurisdiction of the Member States of the SRFC. (more…)
15 April 2013
The SHARES Project closely follows and collects news items that are linked to the issue of shared responsibility. This is our ‘SHARES News Items Overview: 1-15 April 2013′ consisting of a summary of recent news relating to shared responsibility. (more…)