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Reinstating the death penalty in Turkey after the attempted coup?

Author(s): Tamás Lattmann / Language(s): English

Keywords: Attempted Coup d’État in Turkey; Venice Commission; Öcalan;

After the unsuccessful coup attempt in Turkey, both high-level officials and the pro-government public suggest the reinstatement of the death penalty. Unfortunately the question tends to re-surface from time to time in other states as well, but rarely with such political weight. It is important to evaluate the possibility of this step.

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The Derogation from the European Convention on Human Rights by Turkey after the Attempted Coup

Author(s): Tamás Lattmann / Language(s): English

Keywords: Turkish state of emergency; Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms;

After the unsuccessful coup attempt in Turkey, its high-level officials, including the president, have constantly talked about the necessity of the introduction of a state of emergency, and it has actually been declared on 20 July. At the same time, the president has also mentioned the “suspension” of the European Convention on Human Rights. What does this exactly mean? What are the effects and consequences of this step?

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When the Gloves Go Off? Turkey Intends to Suspend the European Convention on Human Rights

Author(s): Veronika Bílková / Language(s): English

Keywords: Erdogan; Öcalan; death penalty;

Could the state of emergency and the suspension of the ECHR justify the measures which have been adopted in Turkey in the past days (removal of public servants and teachers, purge in the judiciary, ban on academic travel, etc.)? With the ECHR suspended, are the (legal) gloves off in Turkey? Can the government use just any means it finds appropriate to suppress those segments of society in which it sees a threat? This reflection shows that all these questions have to be answered in the negative. It gives more details on the topic discussed in paper #5 of these “International Law Reflections”.

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Referendum on the refugee quotas in Hungary – protection of sovereignty or much ado about nothing?

Author(s): Tamás Lattmann / Language(s): English

Keywords: Dublin agreement; refugees in EU; quota system;

The migration crisis has stirred up political debates within the EU and its member states regarding not only possible solutions, but also about the future of the organisation. The first shock has come in the form of the Brexit referendum, the second one could have been the referendum in Hungary “against the quota system”, as the initiating government has calculated. The current analysis gives information about the referendum and examines its possible effects in the near future.

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No Revolution Has Taken Place: The Post-2015 Human Rights Foreign Policy of the Czech Republic

Author(s): Veronika Bílková / Language(s): English

Keywords: Petr Nečas; Petr Drulák;

In 2015, two new conceptual documents were adopted in the Czech Republic, under the Government of Bohuslav Sobotka –the general Concept of the Czech Republic´s Foreign Policy (available in English here) and a more specific Concept of Human Rights Promotion and Transition Cooperation(available in Czech here). The former document replaced an older text entitled Conceptual Basis of the Foreign Policy of the Czech Republic (available in English here) which had been adopted in 2011 by the Government of Petr Nečas. The latter document builds on the 2010 Concept of Transition Policy,but it is broader in scope, covering not only transition policy/cooperation but also human rights promotion.

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The Winner takes It All. Election of UN Secretary-General 2016

Vítěz bere vše. Volba generálního tajemníka OSN 2016

Author(s): Veronika Bílková / Language(s): Czech

Keywords: UN Secretary-General; António Guterres;

The next UN Secretary-General will be António Guterres of Portugal. On Thursday 13 October, on a recommendation by the Security Council, the UN General Assembly decided to oppose the nomination of a Portuguese candidate. Despite this consensus, the outcome of the elections is a great surprise for many. Since Guterres has had strong support from the beginning, it has long been expected to elect a candidate with a different profile and from another geographic area. So why did he become the winner? What can be expected of it? And what is the role of the Secretary-General within the World Organization?

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Can the Necessary International Legal Framework to Achieve a Nuclear-Weapon-Free World Be Reached?

Author(s): Miroslav Tůma / Language(s): English

Keywords: nuclear disarmament;

If we look at the issue of nuclear disarmament from the point of view of the development of multilateral disarmament negotiations at the main forums of the disarmament apparatus (the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, the UN Disarmament Commission, the First Committee of the UN General Assembly and the review process of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons) the situation is rather dismal. Given the principle of consensus decision-making, including consensus decision-making on proposed agreements, which applies to all negotiation forums, with the exception of the First Committee and also given the lack of political will and unwillingness to reach a compromise in the results on the side of nuclear-weapon powers, the multilateral disarmament negotiations process of these bodies has stagnated for the past several years. At the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, which is the most important body with a mandate for negotiating disarmament agreements, all action has been blocked for the last twenty years. In contrast to other types of weapons of mass destruction, that is chemical and biological weapons, which are banned by relevant conventions in the long-term, there is no similar international legal instrument for the much more destructive nuclear weapons. Yet, when they discuss the issue of nuclear weapons and disarmament, all of the representatives of both nuclear-weapon and non-nuclear-weapon states simultaneously support the creation of a nuclear-weapon-free world and, in this context, they sometimes recall the “Prague speech” of US President Barack Obama in April 2009, in which he unequivocally supported this goal.

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The nuclear weapons ban convention and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization

Author(s): Miroslav Tůma / Language(s): English

Keywords: NATO; Nuclear Disarmament;

This year, there will be an international conference in the headquarters of the UN in New York. The conference will have a mandate to negotiate an agreement to ban nuclear weapons. Besides being attended by member states of the UN, the conference will be attended by representatives of some non-specified international organizations and civic society representatives. The conference will be held on the basis of a resolution which has been adopted by the First Committee (the United Nations Committee on Disarmament and International Security) during the 71stUN General Assembly at the end of October 2016 (A/C.1/71/L.41) and subsequently adopted at a plenary session of the United Nations General Assembly in December 2016 (A/RES/71/258). The resolution’s title Taking Forward Nuclear Disarmament Negotiations calls on the world to achieve progress in just that area. Its importance especially resides in the wording of some paragraphs of the operational part, which contain the decision to convene the above mentioned conference in 2017 to negotiate a legally binding instrument banning nuclear weapons, which should lead to their complete elimination. The content of the resolution has been influenced by recommendations of the final report of the Open-Ended Working Group (OEWG), which held talks in Geneva in the first half of 2016. It was to assess new legal measures and the needed standards for reaching a world without nuclear weapons. (The article follows up the International Law Reflection #10, issued on November 10th 2016)

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All’s wrong that starts wrong – withdrawals from the International Criminal Court

Author(s): Tamás Lattmann / Language(s): English

Keywords: International Criminal Court; Hague Tribunal;

The Hague-based International Criminal Court, the world’s first permanent judicial forum, created in 1998 by the adoption of the Rome Statute, has been living difficult times during the past months. After years of struggle since its operations have started in 2002, the second half of 2016 has brought withdrawals, threats for withdrawals, and even a visibly collective strategy for a mass withdrawal of African states from the system. What keeps states in a similar structure, what makes them seriously consider a withdrawal, and what is the possible future of the International Criminal Court (ICC)?

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The controversial US withdrawal from the Iranian nuclear deal and its international consequences

Author(s): Miroslav Tůma / Language(s): English

Keywords: USA; Iran; JCPOA; Donald Trump; Israel; US Threats; nuclear weapons;

On May 8, 2018, US President Donald Trump went through with his threat and, this time, has not submitted his certification of the implementation of the Iranian nuclear agreement to the US Congress for approval. According to Trump, the document is the “worst deal” of Obama Democratic administration. He made his negative decision despite Iranʼs positive performance in the inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

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Two important summits of President Trump and nuclear disarmament expectations

Author(s): Miroslav Tůma / Language(s): English

Keywords: Donald Trump; Security policy; Democratic People’s Republic of Korea; Russia; Nuclear arms; Kim Jong-un; denuclearization; Vladimir Putin; American-Soviet treaty INF;

Somewhat surprisingly, in a relatively short time interval, approximately over the course of one month in the middle of this year, two important meetings of the American President Donald Trump were held with the highest representatives of two countries which pose long-term security problems to the USA: the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (hereinafter the DPRK) and the Russian Federation (hereinafter the RF). The meeting with the North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un was held on June 12, 2018 in Singapore, and that with the Russian President Vladimir Putin on July 16, 2018 in Helsinki.

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The conference on the establishment of a Middle East Zone Free of Nuclear Weapons and Other Weapons of Mass Destruction

Author(s): Miroslav Tůma / Language(s): English

Keywords: Middle East Zone Free of Nuclear Weapons and Other Weapons of Mass Destruction; security crisis;

The historically first session of the Conference on the Establishment of a Middle East Zone Free of Nuclear Weapons and Other Weapons of Mass Destruction was held on 18–22 November 2019 at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, pursuant to General Assembly decision 73/546. Twenty three Middle Eastern states, four observer states (Chína, France, Russia, and the United Kingdom), three relevant international organizations (the International Atomic Energy Agency, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and the Biological Weapons Convention Implementation Support Unit) and some other international organzations e.g. the LAS, the OIC and the EU, participated in the session, which was presided over by Jordanian Ambassador Sima Bahous. At the open sessions, non-governmental organizations took part as well. The United States and Israel declined the invitation to take part. In the conclusion of the conference, the participating states consensually approved the seven-point Political Declaration, which has a general and proclamatory character, and is an appendix to the Final Report (A/CONF.236/6).

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Can the Possible Non-extension of the New START Treaty Influence the Strategic Stability in the Use of the Outer Space Domain?

Author(s): Miroslav Tůma / Language(s): English

Keywords: New START Treaty; The Outer Space Treaty; security situation; US-Russia security relations;

If Trump’s administration refuses the Russian President Vladimir Putin’s offer to extend the validity of the last US-Russian arms-control treaty – the New START Treaty – it could have many negative consequences. A lot of arms-control experts, including the former US and Russian Ministers of Foreign Affairs Madeleine Albright and Igor Ivanov, as mentioned in their February declaration, stressed their support of the Treaty’s extension. The New START Treaty, which restricts the number of deployed strategic nuclear weapons, will expire in February 2021 but its wording enables its extension for five years more. Concerns related to the negative consequences of non-extension of the Treaty include, among others, that there could be a suppression of the strategic stability in the use of the space domain as a result of the end of the Treaty’s complex and intrusive verification system. The potential demise of the Treaty would have various negative impacts; besides the end of notifications, the exchange of telemetric and information data, on-site inspections etc., in connection with this the Treaty’s non-extension would especially have an effect on the binding principle of mutual non-interference with the national technical means (NTMs) of verification of the other party.

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Covid-19, Border Closures, and International Law

Author(s): Bríd Ní Ghráinne / Language(s): English

Keywords: Covid-19; International law; pandemic; border issues; refugees;

Covid-19 pays no heed to borders. Globalisation has carried the virus from a market in Wuhan, China, to almost every country in the world. In response to the virus, some governments have closed their borders to refugees and/or have pushed back refugees from their territories, even though they are well-aware of the dire circumstances that have caused these people to flee their homes. This reflection sets out the compatibility of such practices with international refugee and human rights law. It argues that while states may put in place measures to restrict the spread of the virus (such as health screening, testing, and/or quarantine) vis a vis refugees, such measures may not result in refoulement or in denying them an effective opportunity to seek asylum.

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Biden's Administration and Its Security Policy as Regards Nuclear Weapons

Author(s): Miroslav Tůma / Language(s): English

Keywords: Joseph Biden; security policy; nuclear weapons; New START Treaty; Open Skies Treaty;

The reflection deals with possibilities of finding at solution to the main nuclear arms control and nonproliferation issues in the wider international context from the point of view of President Joe Biden's Democratic administration's declared new approach as regards security policy. The closing part pays attention to some matters which could complicate and/or halt the implementation of the planned steps. There is a certain hope that the new administration will assume a more cooperative stance as regards the reduction and elimination of nuclear weapons and other security matters. The process of the extension of the ten-year validity of the last arms control treaty, the US-Russia New START Treaty, for five more years has been launched successfully. The international community also expects, besides the continuation of the US-Russia arms control talks, the renewal of the US participation in the so-called Iranian nuclear deal (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, JCPOA) and the continuation of the dialog on denuclearization with the DPRK. The Biden administration's position as regards the historically important the 2017 Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), which entered into force at the beginning of this year, will be in the centre of attention due to the US intention to renew its leading position in the arms control and nonproliferation process. The supporters of the international measures to strengthen the trust and security within the Euro-Atlantic space would particularly welcome the renewal of the USA's membership in the international Open Skies Treaty (OST).

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The Nuclear Arms Control and Disarmament Waiting

Author(s): Miroslav Tůma / Language(s): English

Keywords: Security policy; USA; Russia; Nuclear arms control; Jo Biden; North Korean nuclear and missile program; Iranian nuclear program;

The reflection deals with the current state of the nuclear arms control and disarmament process with a stressing on the role of the Biden administrationʼs security policy. The policy follows the Interim National Security Strategic Guidance (INSSG) of March 2021 till the summaries of the new relevant security documents, i.e. the National Defense Strategy (NDS) and the Nuclear Posture Review (NPR), will be published early next year. The reflection deals also with the US-Russia strategic dialogue, the current development in the effort to reach the Korean Peninsulaʼs denuclearization and the restoration of the US participation in the so-called Iranian nuclear deal (JCPOA). The final part of the reflection pays attention to some of the main factors of the USʼs internal and international policy that could influence the implementation of the declared intentions of the above mentioned security documents.

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Can Anonymous Be Prosecuted? A Reflection Under International Law in the Framework of the Current Armed Conflict in Ukraine

Author(s): Federica Cristani / Language(s): English

Keywords: International law; Armed conflict in Ukraine; Cyber-criminal law; Anonymous;

This reflection offers a concise analysis under national and international law of the cyber-operations carried out by Anonymous in the context of the ongoing armed conflict in Ukraine. It is highlighted that each one of the individuals acting as Anonymous is subject to the relevant national (cyber-criminal) law jurisdictions. Moreover, in the context of the war between Russia and Ukraine, they can be subject to the law of armed conflict. If their cyber-conduct amounts to “direct participation in hostilities”, they can even become targetable according to international humanitarian law. Also, when Anonymous directly participates in hostilities from a state that is not party to the armed conflict, the neutrality of non-belligerent countries can be challenged.

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The present development in the nuclear arms control

Author(s): Miroslav Tůma / Language(s): English

Keywords: nuclear arms control; security crisis; States-Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW); USA; Russia; Ukraine; New START;

The reflection highlights the need to increase the international nuclear disarmament, non-proliferation and arms control efforts, particularly in the wake of the security crisis development triggered by the war in Ukraine and Russian threats to use nuclear weapons. In this context, it examines the courses and results of two important conferences dealing with nuclear disarmament, non-proliferation of nuclear weapons and the peaceful use of nuclear energy, that were organized this year. These conferences were the first Meeting of the States-Parties of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Vienna in June and the 10th Review Conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, which took place in August at the UN Headquarters in New York. The conclusions contain some expected courses of action to reduce the risk of a nuclear war and a nuclear arms race.

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International law with Chinese characteristics. The South China Sea Territorial Dispute

Author(s): Sardor ALLAYAROV / Language(s): English

Keywords: South China Sea Territorial Dispute; International law; China; Geopolitics;

China actively participated in the drafting of the United Nations Convention on Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and ratified it in 1996. The domestic legal system of China also contains a set of laws such as the Law on the Territorial Sea and Contiguous Zone (1992), and the Law on the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and the Continental Shelf (1998).

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The crucial and fateful nuclear-arms dilemma

Author(s): Miroslav Tůma / Language(s): English

Keywords: Nuclear arms dilemma; AI and nuclear weapons; USA; Russia; Chinese nuclear capacity;

Nuclear weapons are an existential threat to humanity, as are the increasingly intense manifestation of climate change. The Reflection describes more broadly the main risk factors of this threat, including artificial intelligence (AI). In this context, it highlights the impasse which the US-Russian arms control process and strategic dialogue have reached as a result of their strained relations and the ongoing war in Ukraine. It also analyses the expected developments in the nuclear weapon field, taking into account the US Pentagon’s warning about the possible growth of China’s nuclear arsenal. In particular, it concludes by noting the main dilemmas for further development in this area: either the initiation of arms control and risk reduction negotiations by the major nuclear powers or the growing spiral of a costly and security-risk-laden nuclear arms race. The possibility of an ethical and moral commitment by the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, the so-called P5 (the US, Russia, China, France and the UK), to “responsible nuclear behaviour“, which is promoted by the US administration, appears as a temporary solution to this security crisis.

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