News archive: November 2013
14 November 2013
An alliance of organisations and citizens, among others the Dutch Association of Defense Counsels, the Dutch Association of Journalists, the Internet Society Netherlands Chapter and Privacy First Foundation initiated legal proceedings against the Dutch state, demanding Dutch intelligent services to stop using United States National Security Agency (NSA) data.
The alliance said it is asking the Hague District Court on 27 November to ban the government from using intelligence data gathered by the NSA, using surveillance techniques that breach Dutch privacy laws. The case has been spurred by revelations that Dutch intelligence agencies have exchanged information with overseas agencies, including the NSA. Minister Plasterk confirmed that the NSA had collected information about 1.8 million Dutch phone calls in one month last year and acknowledged that the Dutch Intelligence Agency had supplied information to the NSA and vice versa.
Source: Miami Herald | Dutch government taken to court over NSA links
Source: Xinhua | Dutch Minister Plasterk sued over NSA spying
14 November 2013
Tomilola Akanle Eni-Ibukun has published ‘International Environmental Law and Distributive Justice: The Equitable Distribution of CDM Projects under the Kyoto Protocol’. The abstract can be found here.
Source: Routledge | Books | International Environmental Law and Distributive Justice - The Equitable Distribution of CDM Projects under the Kyoto Protocol
12 November 2013
Adrian Edwards, spokesperson for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said the UNHCR is encouraging cooperation among countries affected by mixed migration, and is supporting the Yemeni government to organise a conference next week on asylum and migration together with the International Organization for Migration.
This three-day conference will take place in Sana’a, with participants from governments from the Horn of Africa, Gulf states, donor countries, non-governmental organisations, and institutions such as the Regional Mixed Migration Secretariat.
According to Mr. Edwards, ‘the aim of the Yemen conference is to establish a regional plan to help manage mixed migration between the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula’.
Source: UNHCR | More than 62,000 people, mostly Ethiopians, risk lives to cross Gulf of Aden this year
11 November 2013
The Chinese Foreign Ministry urges states to come back to the negotiating table, after the six-party talks between North and South Korea, China, the US, Russia, and Japan stalled in 2009. Since the end of talks, North Korea has conducted to nuclear tests and China has been lobbying to reopen negotiations in order to ensure security of the Korean Peninsula. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Hong Lei, stated ‘there’s a common interest and shared responsibility to find a resolution to the impasse.’
Source: UPI | China presses for talks with North Korea
11 November 2013
In its judgment of 11 November on the Request for Interpretation of the Judgment of 15 June 1962 in the Case concerning the Temple of Preah Vihear (Cambodia v. Thailand), the International Court of Justice, apart from deciding that Cambodia had sovereignty over the whole territory of the promontory of Preah Vihear, noted that the Temple of Preah Vihear is a site of religious and cultural significance for the peoples of the region and is now listed by UNESCO as a world heritage site. It recalled that under Article 6 of the World Heritage Convention, to which both states are parties, ‘Cambodia and Thailand must co-operate between themselves and with the international community in the protection of the site as a world heritage. In addition, each State is under an obligation not to “take any deliberate measures which might damage directly or indirectly” such heritage’.
Source: ICJ | Request for Interpretation of the Judgment of 15 June 1962 in the Case Concerning the Temple of Preah Vihear (Cambodia v. Thailand) | Judgment | 11 November 2013