Tag: Fiji

More countries intervene in genocide case against Israel

ICJHungary, Namibia, Fiji and the United States each filed  declarations of intervention to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the case against Israel in relation to the situation in the Gaza Strip. The interventions illuminate the legal issues the court will be facing at trial. One key issue is what constitutes the mens rea, or the mental threshold, of the crime of genocide. According to Namibia, the court may infer the required genocidal intent based on the scale, systematic nature, intensity, duration, and repetition of acts listed in the Genocide Convention. On the other hand, Hungary, Fiji and the US asked the court to maintain a high threshold in inferring genocidal intent from the surrounding circumstances. (Photo: ICJ)

Progress on making ecocide an international crime

ecocideThree Pacific island nations have proposed that ecocide become a crime under international law, which would see the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecute cases of environmental destruction alongside war crimes and genocide. The move by Vanuatu, Fiji, and Samoa is unlikely to see fast results but is expected to force ICC member states to at least consider the question. The initiative could one day lead to company leaders, or even nations, facing prosecution. However, ICC member states notably do not include China, Russia, India or the United States. (Photo: Stefan Müller via Wikimedia Commons)

Planet Watch
Cumbre de los Pueblos

Madrid climate talks a total bust

Indian authorities have deported thousands of Bangladeshi citizens in the month since Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won elections in the state of West Bengal. Shortly after taking power in West Bengal, BJP officials ordered the creation of detention centers both for undocumented Bangladeshis and Rohingya Muslims who are fleeing persecution in their native Burma and mistreatment in overcrowded refugee camps in Bangladesh. (Image: Sowmya Reddy)

Oceania

Climate change ‘single greatest threat’ to Pacific

Marshall IslandsThe 18 member states of the Pacific Islands Forum held their 49th summit in Nauru, issuing a statement asserting that "climate change presents the single greatest threat to the livelihood, security and wellbeing of Pacific people." Leaders at the Forum urged all the world's countries to comply fully with their commitments to mitigate emissions. Among the projects discussed at the summit was redrafting the 2000 "Biketawa Declaration" on regional security in the Pacific as a "Biketawa Plus," with a greater emphasis on environmental security and climate-related disasters. Under the slogan "We are not drowning, we are fighting," community leaders across the Pacific Islands have been pushing for world action on climate change and adherence to the 2015 Paris Accords. (Photo: 350.org)

Planet Watch

Indigenous voice won in UN climate process

YanomamiIndigenous groups claimed a victory at the UN climate talks in Bonn as governments acknowledged for the first time that they can play a leadership role in protecting forests and keeping global temperatures within safe levels. But some critics point out that the adopted text stops short of actually acknowledging indigenous rights over land and territory.

Oceania

Fiji: not a ‘natural’ disaster

There are few climate-change skeptics in Fiji, which has been left devastated by Cyclone Winston, the strongest tropical cyclone ever measured in the Southern Hemisphere.