James A. Goldston

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Ucrania y el renacimiento de los derechos humanos

A medida que la democracia ha retrocedido en varias partes del mundo, el concepto de “derechos humanos” y el lenguaje, las instituciones y el marco legal a los que ha dado origen en los últimos 75 años, se han convertido cada vez más en objeto de críticas.

Por supuesto, las realidades sobre el terreno siempre han sido distintas de las nobles aspiraciones consagradas en el imperfecto mosaico de nuestro sistema global de derechos humanos, desde las primeras iniciativas de la Liga de las Naciones hasta la Carta de las Naciones Unidas de 1945 y los tratados subsiguientes adoptados por los países miembros de la ONU.…  Seguir leyendo »

Las victorias populistas en las elecciones de los últimos años en todo el mundo han llevado a muchos a concluir que la democracia liberal está amenazada. Sin embargo, el arresto esta semana del ex Primer Ministro de Malasia bajo cargos de corrupción es una de varias señales que sugieren lo prematuro de las predicciones del declive global de la democracia liberal.

La implicancia de esta visión fatalista es que los defensores de la democracia liberal no pueden reclamar la superioridad moral sino hasta reexaminar sus propios supuestos políticos y económicos. Pero es un error creer que el ascenso de los autócratas es puramente ideológico, o que representa un rechazo generalizado de la democracia, el liberalismo o los derechos humanos o civiles.…  Seguir leyendo »

It shouldn't come as a surprise that Yemen has collapsed -- again. A country that has split and been pulled together before, has the youngest and fastest growing population in the region, is running low on oil and water, and possesses a "personalist" government rather than stable institutions, was on the top of every expert's list as the fragile state most likely to fail next.

What is surprising is that U.S. policy ignored all of this and proceeded on the premise that simply drone-bombing al Qaeda terrorists could keep Yemen intact and stable.

Indeed, last fall, when President Barack Obama pointed to U.S.…  Seguir leyendo »

On Friday, Mexican officials announced that three members of a drug cartel had confessed to burning the bodies of 43 students who were abducted in Iguala, a town in the southern state of Guerrero, on Sept. 26 and then killed. The mayor of Iguala and his wife are in custody, accused of ordering the seizure of the students by local police, who then handed them over to the drug gangs. The discovery, during the search for the students, of other mass graves in the area has reinforced the picture of a catastrophic local breakdown of law and order.

But this is much more than the story of a small town, or even a country, in thrall to drug gangs.…  Seguir leyendo »

The International Criminal Court made headlines last week by pronouncing its first sentence, on Thomas Lubanga, a former Congolese warlord who forced children into combat. A decade after the I.C.C. opened its doors, the completion of its first trial marked a major milestone in the development of international justice.

But even as the I.C.C. savors this achievement, the court is struggling to deal with growing demands for justice that it can’t satisfy. The I.C.C. has the capacity to try only a handful of perpetrators in any conflict. Though Lubanga has been convicted, many who committed rape and murder remain at large, limiting the court’s deterrent impact.…  Seguir leyendo »

En un momento en el que la crisis actual de la deuda europea está acabando con la fe pública en las instituciones políticas y económicas del continente, sería de esperar que los dirigentes de Europa fortalecieran el mayor número de símbolos unificadores posible. En cambio, han permitido que peligre también una de las joyas de la integración europea posterior a la segunda guerra mundial: el Tribunal Europeo de Derechos Humanos (EDH).

A diferencia de la Unión Europea, radicada en Bruselas y durante mucho tiempo acusada por su déficit democrático, el TEDH, radicado en Estrasburgo, es, si acaso, demasiado apreciado. En 2011, más de 60.000 personas solicitaron su ayuda, muchas más de las que pueden esperar una resolución razonada.…  Seguir leyendo »

This past Monday, Siegfried Blunk, the international co-investigating judge at the United Nations-backed Khmer Rouge tribunal in Cambodia, resigned. As Judge Blunk explained, repeated demands by senior Cambodian officials to end all ongoing investigations have been “perceived as attempted interference” and “call in doubt the integrity of the whole proceedings.”

For months, civil society organizations, including my own, have warned that the Cambodian government’s public opposition to the two remaining cases under investigation (“003” and “004” in the parlance of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia) threatened the very independence of the court. Judge Blunk has now, sadly, confirmed our greatest fears.…  Seguir leyendo »

More than 30 years after the murderous Khmer Rouge were driven from power in Cambodia, the U.N.-backed effort to bring justice to the victims of the killing fields stands on the brink of ignominious failure due to political interference from the Cambodian government and the indifference of the international community.

A hybrid court, the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, has spent over $200 million since it was set up in 2003 with both international and local judges and prosecutors. It has tried only one person: Kang Kech Eav, or Duch, the head of the notorious Tuol Sleng prison complex, who is appealing his conviction for crimes against humanity, murder and torture.…  Seguir leyendo »

Last week, after the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court charged six senior Kenyan officials with orchestrating widespread violence following the 2007 national elections, President Obama rightly called on all Kenya’s leaders to “cooperate fully” with the court.

Similarly, declaring that “there has to be accountability,” Obama called on Sudan to cooperate with the court after it accused President Omar Hassan al-Bashir of Sudan of genocide in Darfur in July.

To its credit, this U.S. administration has repeatedly affirmed the centrality of international justice to U.S. foreign policy. But many wonder at the apparent disconnect between American support for justice abroad and Obama’s determination to “look forward not backward” at home.…  Seguir leyendo »

Don’t lie to Viviane Reding. That’s the lesson of this week’s revelation that, contrary to French government assurances that “specific ethnic groups had not been targeted in France,” an Interior Ministry circular had in fact ordered evacuation of camps of “Roma, as a matter of priority.”

Visibly enraged, the European Union’s commissioner for justice, fundamental rights and citizenship pronounced herself “personally convinced that the commission will have no choice but to initiate infringement action against France.”

The commission’s wake-up call to racism in France is welcome. But will outrage lead to legal action? And what about the wave of anti-Roma measures in other E.U.…  Seguir leyendo »