The continuing saga . . . As it happened I was at the AU this afternoon to listen to Obama’s speech in Ghana. It was delayed because of the rain, and so a friend who works at the AU took me to the Commission’s Situation Room. It’s really just an office with a couple of […]
Archives for July 2009
Seems Reuters got it wrong
July 11, 2009 by Leave a Comment
* 10.30am UPDATE This just through from someone who was actually at the press conference Reuters was reporting on: During that briefing, Pres. Mbeki was asked about the warrants. He said that the ICC warrants are part of the reality with which the Panel has to work but that the Panel has not yet formed […]
AU Mbeki-led panel supports ICC on Bashir case
July 10, 2009 by 1 Comment
Reuters is reporting that the AU Panel of “eminent Africans” led by former South African President Thabo Mbeki, and tasked by the AU with “looking into ways to balance accountability with bringing peace into Darfur” has come out in support of the ICC case against Sudanese President Omar al Bashir. This contradicts the “AU decision” […]
Kenyan post-election violence: The ICC at its best
July 10, 2009 by 1 Comment
As readers of this blog will know, I think one of the most important and useful aspects of the ICC is its complementarity provision (which is why I am worried about the ICC’s recent justification for its jurisdiction over the case against Germain Katanga). The ICC should only ever be a court of last resort, […]
Salt
July 9, 2009 by Leave a Comment
I had a solid few hours today with a couple of the advocates here working on Darfur. I thought I’d share the way one of them conveyed his point about locally contextual approaches to advocacy: “If I tell you that salt cleans your teeth, but you tell me that in your village salt is very […]
To the “Save Darfur Accountability Project”
July 9, 2009 by Leave a Comment
I’m interested in hearing all perspectives, so we should set up an interview. You can use the submit a question tab on my website to get in touch – your contact details go straight to my inbox (no one else will see it, so if confidentiality is a concern, I can agree not to disclose […]
Who says the Chinese government isn’t susceptible to pressure?
July 7, 2009 by Leave a Comment
Drafting my section of the Genocide Olympics campaign, I am dealing with two competing views summarized beautifully in this NYT op ed today by HRW’s Phelim Kine. Kine writes:
Activism under Obama
July 7, 2009 by 1 Comment
Where does one end a book about Darfur and advocacy? I have this very nice proposal which concludes neatly with the expectations around the incoming Obama Administration. But – unfortunately for my timeline and budget – the events since Obama came into office make it just too interesting to stop the story there. Related to […]
Odds & ends
July 6, 2009 by Leave a Comment
Apologies for the lack of updates. A friend told me that while the Kenyan government held a ceremony in honor of the arrival of fiber optic cable, their party was premature and the much-anticipated cable is not yet in the country. This didn’t seem implausible given that accounting for things not actually present is something […]
Regarding the SDAC post
I don’t want to be drawn into the personal attacks that I have criticized others for getting into, so I’ll try to keep this to a few substantive points that I should probably correct for the record. 1. SDAC says: “the root of the problem [with my research] is the apparent lack of diversity of […]