ER & 'Grrls

Having come to Washington for the annual meeting of the American Society of International Law, some of the many women who have contributed to IntLawGrrls gathered bright and early Friday morning to pose with our founding foremother, Eleanor Roosevelt (prior posts). Sorry about the glitches (D.C. traffic, our-fault crossed wires on when and where to meet, plus a couple unexpectedly early ASIL sessions) that kept some of you from making it to the the photo shoot at the FDR Memorial, nestled Friday amid cherry trees in bloom. Not to worry, though: this is a a tradition we hope to continue, and we look forward to welcoming more 'Grrlfriends next year.

'Nuff said

(Taking context-optional note of thought-provoking quotes)

'Men have to be reminded that women exist.'

-- Eleanor Roosevelt, in what New York Times columnist Gail Collins called a "tartly" delivered comment to reporters. It was made, presumably, in 1960 or 1961; the occasion, Collins writes, was the announcement of "the all-male list" of senior appointees in the new administration of President John F. Kennedy. (credit for March 1961 photo of ER and JFK) This criticism by Roosevelt -- among IntLawGrrls' very 1st transnational foremothers -- prompted Kennedy to issue Executive Order 10980 (1961), which established the President's Commission on the Status of Women. The work of the 3-year commission, which Roosevelt chaired till her death in 1962, has been complemented by Women in America, a report on women and girls in the United States just released by the White House Council on Women and Girls.

On February 20

On this day in ...

... 1976 (35 years ago today), Dr. René Cassin died in Paris, 88 years after his birth in Bayonne, France. Having earned his Ph.D. in law from the University of Aix-en-Provence in 1914, Cassin was wounded as an infantryman during World War I, then began a career in the teaching and promotion of human rights and humanitarian law. Among his many posts: delegate to the League of Nations, chief legal adviser during World War II to de Gaulle's French government in exile, President of the Permanent Court of Arbitration, and President of the European Court of Human Rights. Central to his legacy was his service as the 1st vice chair of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights: along with Chair Eleanor Roosevelt and others, Cassin was instrumental in the drafting and promulgation of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, an instrument that he contended "had not just moral, but legal weight" within the system established by the Charter of the United Nations:

It was the development of the Charter which had brought human rights within the scope of positive international law. That being so, it could not be said that the Declaration was a purely theoretical instrument. It was only a potential instrument; but that fact in no way detracted from the binding force of the provisions of the Charter.

(credit for 1947 U.N. photo of Cassin, right, with Roosevelt) Winner of the 1968 Nobel Peace Prize, Cassin is interred in the Panthéon in Paris.

(Prior February 20 posts are here, here, here, and here.)

On November 30

On this day in ...
... 1898, Dr. Marjorie M. Whiteman was born in Liberty Township in southern Ohio. After graduating from Ohio Wesleyan University, she earned her LL.B. and J.S.D. degrees from Yale. Her lifelong "distinguished career at the Department of State" included advising Eleanor Roosevelt from 1945 to 1951, when the former 1st Lady was the U.S. Representative to the U.N. General Assembly and chair of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights. (credit for photo of Whiteman, 2d from right, along with 3 Commission members; from left, Charles Malik of Lebanon, René Cassin of France, and Roosevelt) Whiteman also served as advisor to 10 different Secretaries of State. According to this website,

Whiteman's greatest contribution to international law was the completion of a Digest of International Law in 1969. This fifteen-volume work continues to serve as a leading resource on international law for government officials and scholars.

In 1985, she became the 2d woman to receive the Manley O. Hudson Medal, awarded by the American Society of International Law for scholarship and achievement in international law. Whiteman died at her Liberty Township home a year later.

(Prior November 30 posts are here, here, and here.)

Egg rolls over the years

Rolling eggs about the White House lawn is a time-honored Eastertime event, depicted below in photos, available at the American Memory website of the Library of Congress, and video.

(credit for photo of 1st Lady Grace Coolidge showing off her pet raccoon, Rebecca, to children at 1927 White House egg roll; credit for 1940 photo by Barbara Wright of 1st Lady Eleanor Roosevelt with children at south entrance of White House; credit for undated photo by Theodor Horydczak of White House south lawn during egg roll; credit for White House video of highlights from the Obama-hosted 2009 event)

Commemorating the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Human Rights Day commemorates the adoption by the UN General Assembly of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) on 10 December 1948. This photo (at left), taken on Human Rights Day in 1950, shows Eleanor Roosevelt, Chair of the UN Commission on Human Rights, with famed contralto Marian Anderson, and president of the fifth session of the UN General Assembly Nasrollah Entezam, at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York, during the intermission of the "Special Program of commemoration of the adoption by the United Nations of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights," at which Marian Anderson performed.
The focus of this year's Human Rights Day is non-discrimination. Discrimination is an attack on the very notion of human rights – a denial that everyone is equal in dignity and worth. The drafters of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights stated explicitly that they considered the non-discrimination principle to be the basis of the Declaration.
Video footage and photographs of the drafting and adoption of the UDHR, along with links to some of the drafting documents, are now available on-line through the UN Audiovisual Library of International Law. Video footage includes:

• 9 June 1947: Establishment of the Commission on Human Rights drafting committee on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; video shows statements by Eleanor Roosevelt (USA) and William Hodgson (Australia).
• 23 September 1948: Discussion of the UDHR in the Third Session of the UN General Assembly; video shows statements by George Marshall (USA) and Zygmunt Modzelewski (Poland).
• 9-10 December 1948: Discussion of the UDHR in the Third Session of the UN General Assembly; video shows statements by Charles Malik (Lebanon), Eleanor Roosevelt (USA), Hernan Santa Cruz (Chile), René Cassin (France), and Zdonek Augenthaler (Czechoslovakia).
• 10 December 1948: Video footage of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, showing statements by Ernest Davies (United Kingdom) and Campos Ortiz (Mexico); the roll-call vote; and the statement by UNGA President H. V. Evatt (Australia) after the vote.

Read On!: "The First (Black) Lady"

States Parties shall take all appropriate measures ... to modify the social and cultural patterns of conduct of men and wome, with a view to achieving the elimination of prejudices and customary and all other practices which are based on the idea of the inferiority or the superiority of either of the sexes or on stereotyped roles for men and women....
-- Article 5, Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women

Stereotypes about Black women rarely involve images of political power or social influence. I’ve been reflecting on this while reading an intriguing article by Verna Williams (below left), Professor of Law, and Co-Director of the Law and Women’s Studies Program at the University of Cincinnati College of Law. (Photo, below left). The essay, titled “The First (Black) Lady,” explores media and popular images of Michelle Obama (above), First Lady of the United States of America. (photo credit)
The piece is part of a University of Denver Law Review special issue on “Obama Phenomena.” Williams argues "that the gender and racial norms contributing to the traditional notion of First Lady exemplify the intertwined nature of racism and sexism, and particularly how they have been used to justify Black subordination.” It also explores the “transformative potential” of Mrs. Obama’s presence in this role. (Williams notes that Obama prefers the honorific “Mrs.”).

Fashioning a First Lady?
We’ve all heard more than enough about the faux “fashionista wars” between Mrs. Obama and France's First Lady, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy (a professional fashion model). Still, it is difficult not to be pleased by the cross-cultural acknowledgements of physical health, discipline, beauty, and grace in a prominent African-American woman. Stereotypes about Black women have been so often thoroughly derogatory. The fact that a woman of color could be a global trend-setter is too rare a thing to reject.
Television now even embraces at least one “Black woman as fashion trendsetter” in the post-feminist person of fictional (and thoroughly ruthless) fashion power broker “Wilhelmina Slater” (played by actor Vanessa L. Williams on “Ugly Betty”). But fashion trendsetting is only one form of power—and a particularly gendered one.
Michelle Obama was an attorney for a multinational law firm and an administrator for a major university medical center. She is a committed mother and family member. She has strong ideas about health, education, the rights of women workers, and the work/family balance. (See White House profile here.) That's as it should be. We are, after all, approaching the 30th anniversary of the adoption of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (and still awaiting ratification by the United States).

Who are we looking for?
As Verna Williams notes, however, we in the U.S. and outside it remain profoundly ambivalent about the role(s) of First Ladies. They are unelected and therefore should not exercise presidential powers. Yet they are often the closest advisers to presidents. They have always brought their own intellectual, political, social, and personal perspectives to Washington and beyond. The first UN Commission on Human Rights Chairperson Eleanor Roosevelt (below right) is a case in point, given her domestic and international advocacy. (photo credit) (Click here for posts by Beth Van Schaack and other IntLawGrrls on Ms. Roosevelt.) Historians reveal that the subtle or overt influence of First Ladies on presidential decision-making stretches back to the nation's founding and did not end with now Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (left) and former First Lady Laura Bush.
Their every move is scrutinized, whether it is in how they raise their children or what they said in a speech on health insurance reform. They represent the United States as cultural leaders in the art they select for the White House. They are expected to be “diplomats” by hosting foreign officials; they can cause an “international incident” with remarks at a state dinner abroad. The planting of a vegetable garden or a rose garden can cause a run on local plant nurseries. According to Williams,

These responsibilities, substantive and stylistic in nature, also carry the mark of traditional domesticity, and the gendered expectations that comprise it. Namely, the primary focus of the First Lady’s role is on the private sphere—that is, the home and family. Paramount among her duties is supporting her spouse at home so that he may succeed in the public sphere.

"Playing" herself
For First Ladies, the simplest gestures are fraught with social, cultural, and economic meanings. For example, many African-American observers, including me, found the sight of Michelle Obama jumping “double-dutch” (a complicated form of rope-jumping) at a White House "Healthy Kids Fair" to be a wonderful moment. None of us thought we’d ever see what we might have thought of as a Black "girls' game” being played at the White House. That game is now considered a sport, and requires significant physical stamina, balance, hand-eye coordination, and skill to perfect. (A virtuoso performance at the World Double-Dutch Championship is linked here.) Such symbols indicate that positive African-American and historically gender-linked traditions can represent an “American” tradition as well.
The more significant transformative potential of this “First Black Lady” status is yet to be seen (as will the potential of a future first “First Gentleman”). But I suspect it will be fulfilled by observers of the White House, not those inside it. It will be evident when we are prepared to assess presidential partners for who they are, not who we imagine them to be.
Thanks to Alexis Smith for her research assistance.

On October 11

On this day in ...

... 1884 (125 years ago today), a daughter, Anna Eleanor (left), was born in New York to Elliott and Anna Hall Roosevelt. Her father was from "a wealthy family of Dutch descent," and both parents "were prominent socially." Both died before the daughter was 10 years old, and she lived with her grandmother till she was sent to boarding school in England. (credit for 1898 school portrait) She returned to New York at age 18, eventually meeting and beginning a courtship with her distant cousin, a Columbia law student. On March 17, 1905, her uncle, President Theodore Roosevelt, stood in as father of the bride at the wedding of Eleanor Roosevelt to Franklin Delano Roosevelt. As is well known, the couple themselves eventually would occupy the White House, and play key roles during the Depression, World War II, and postwar reconstruction. On account of her contributions to human rights, Eleanor Roosevelt is among IntLawGrrls' 1st transnational foremothers.

(Prior October 11 posts are here and here.)

Internationalized judging in Kosovo

(My thanks to IntLawGrrls for the invitation to contribute this guest post on my service as an international judge in Kosovo)

When NATO’s 1999 intervention in Kosovo ended with the United Nations assuming interim civilian administration in that province of Serbia, my only understanding of the events was intellectual, gleaned from reading the morning newspaper before I began my day as a judge in Minnesota. Yet three years later, I found myself on a plane bound for Kosovo to help rebuild a destroyed justice system.
On arrival (left), I was posted to a city called Peć/Peja. Or is it Peja/Peć? These are two names, one Serbian and one Albanian, and the order in which you say them supposedly signifies a bias or preference.
It would be difficult being an impartial international judge in Kosovo, where every move was scrutinized.
The foundation for my work was laid by another woman, in the aftermath of another war. The woman was Eleanor Roosevelt, who played an instrumental role in drafting the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It is worth noting that although the U.N. General Assembly voted unanimously in favor, certain countries abstained, taking exception with UDHR’s guarantee of freedom in marriage. I would encounter the force of that exception a half-century later.
I took part in “internationalized justice”: in contrast with ad hoc bodies such as the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, we international judges sat in Kosovo’s domestic courts alongside local judges, in the hope of bringing a measure of impartiality to the outcome.
The stories of two women tell much about my experience in Kosovo.
Almost immediately upon arrival in Pec/Peja, I came to know the 1st woman, Haxjere Sahiti.
She had been married on Sunday and murdered on Monday. The 20-year-old Kosovar Albanian woman died from seven gunshots, in her family’s living room. The killer was her brother; the murder was witnessed by her mother and brother.
Her crime was supposedly not being a virgin.
Under traditional Albanian cultural code, a bride may be returned to her family if she “is not as she should be” on her wedding night – or the groom may kill her, with a bullet traditionally given him by the bride’s father.
Upon exhumation of Haxjere’s body, it was determined that she had been a virgin, after all.
The international police, with whom I worked, investigated this crime and tried to find the killer. But no one wanted to give information. To talk to police or the courts would violate notions of maintaining family “honor.” To do so would mean that the potential witness (or their family) would “pay” – with their lives – for the information given. Haxjere’s family professed to know nothing.
As an international judge in Kosovo, I was asked to sit on politically sensitive cases – of war crimes, crimes against humanity, ethnically motivated disputes, trafficking in drugs and human beings, genocide. I also acted as an investigative judge – more akin to a prosecutor in the United States – and determined whether sufficient evidence existed to charge someone with a crime. I faced many unconventional obstacles that necessarily exist in a mission environment. With Haxjere Sahiti’s case, I confronted an obstacle new to me – that cultural norms dictate both what a “permissible honor killing” is and the silencing of witnesses.
Yet another obstacle in the case of the 2d woman, Sabahate Tolaj.
Sabahate was 35 years old. She was not married and had no children, and had completed the Aviation School in Sarajevo. During the 1999 war in Kosovo, she had been a member of the Kosovo Liberation Army. Under UNMIK, the United Nations' Mission in Kosovo, Sabahate was a Kosovo Police Service officer in Peja, investigating high-profile murders and referring the investigations to international judges like me. Sabahate and I had numerous conversations and we felt a particular kinship with one another.
One day I asked about her safety. You see, I had bodyguards, and she did not. Sabahate just shrugged and said:

'This is what I do. I enjoy it. And it is the right thing to do. So, I do not worry.'

On November 24, 2003, at 7:45 in the morning, a “drive-by” assassination took place. Sabahate and another officer were killed; the third survived his wounds. After nearly four years of investigations and court hearings – justice comes slowly – the convictions were read out in Peja District Court. Bedri Krasniqi was sentenced to twenty-seven years for double murder; the other accused were acquitted for insufficient evidence.
Sabahate was killed only a couple of months after I returned home. My sadness over her death is still present.
An all-too-familiar postscript: Double murderer escapes Kosovo prison, wire services reported on December 1, 2008, adding, “nine member of the correctional services were held on suspicion that they helped” Sabahate’s killer get away.
My time as an international judge in Kosovo has had a profound impact upon me. In answer to the question often asked of me, here are some of the things I learned:
► To be by myself. In an apartment without reliable heat and electricity, one has time to think.
► How much I cherish my family and friends, at home and in Kosovo. (If you see my husband, tap him on the shoulder and say, “I think she is grateful for all the support you gave her.”)
► International law. If murder was a familiar legal concept to me, war crimes and crimes against humanity were not. Now I am passionate about learning this new body of law.
► Cultural norms can find their way into the courtroom, and have an impact upon guilt or innocence.
► Not everyone wants to reestablish the rule of law. Some will kill innocent police officers toward their end.
► Rendering verdicts was important, but inculcating a belief in the rule of law was more abiding than any one verdict I rendered.
► Each one of us can do our part in advancing the cause of international justice for women, and children and men, and in bringing to life the values of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

On April 30

On this day in ...
... 1927, at a 500-acre site in Alderson, West Virginia, about 270 miles southwest of Washington, D.C., the Federal Industrial Institution for Women, the 1st women's prison run by the U.S. government, opened. Intended for every woman sentenced to a year or more, the prison run by Dr. Mary Belle Harris (far left) held, for the most part, persons convicted of Prohibition-era alcohol- or drug-related crimes. Among those urging its establishment had been Eleanor Roosevelt (center, with Elinor Morgenthau near right). According to this website:

One judge described the prison as a 'fashionable boarding school.' In some respects the judge was correct; the overriding purpose of the prison was to reform the inmates, not punish them. The prisoners farmed the land and performed office work in order to learn how to type and file. They also cooked and canned vegetables and fruits.

Today, Alderson remains a minimum-security prison holding about a thousand convicted women. (credit for 1934 photo taken at Alderson)
... 1919 (90 years ago today), at the Paris Peace Conference, the "Big Three" powers of the United States, France, and Great Britain, agreed, over China's objection, with Japan's claim to the Shantung province that once had belonged to now-vanquished Germany. President Woodrow Wilson conditioned his approval on a requirement that Japan return the province -- now known as Shandong, in red on map (credit) -- "once China's civil strife ended."

(Prior April 30 posts are here and here.)

U.S. endorses sexual orientation statement

Yesterday -- 3 months to the day after scores of countries had joined in a Statement on Human Rights, Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity -- the iconic photo below of Eleanor Roosevelt holding the Universal Declaration of Human Rights appeared on the 1st page of the website of the U.S. State Department, along with this proclamation:

Human Rights, Sexual Orientation, and Gender Identity
The U.S. supports the UN Statement on “Human Rights, Sexual Orientation, and Gender Identity,” and is pleased to join the other 66 UN member states who have declared their support of this Statement that condemns human rights violations based on sexual orientation and gender identity wherever they occur.

This endosrsment marked an about-face for the United States, which had declined to join other states in signing the French-Dutch sponsored Statement in December, at the U.N. General Assembly. It thus had parted ways with many of its allies, including supporters among "all 27 European Union members as well as Japan, Australia and Mexico" -- and had cast its lot with the "[m]ore than 50 nations, including members of the Organization of the Islamic Conference" plus the Vatican, which stood in opposition.

Today IntLawGrrls publishes the full text of the just-endorsed Statement below.

IntLawGrrls' golden birthday

Today, on the 3d day of the 3d month (in a year we might abbreviate as 3-squared), we're delighted to celebrate IntLawGrrls' 3d birthday.
We've grown like Topsy since our 1st Grrls' Day 3 years ago -- from a few voices to, now, 30 IntLawGrrls plus more than 3 dozen guests/alumnae. Contributors have hailed from 5 continents and no fewer than 10 countries. Together we've:
► Honored more than 40 transnational foremothers -- not only inspiring women of wide renown, like Eleanor Roosevelt, but also figures like Nadia Younes, for whom we hope to help entrench a place in the global memory; and
► Published more than 2,000 posts, on issues ranging from Guantánamo to girl soldiers, Cambodia to climate change, the Democratic Republic of Congo to disability rights.
Oh, and our blog's been viewed more than 200,000 times since that 1st visit 3 years ago.

Heartfelt thanks to all -- to the subjects of our posts, to all the 'Grrls, and, most especially, to our readers!

On January 10

On this day in ...

... 1984 (25 years ago today), full diplomatic relations were re-established between the United States and the Holy See. Relations between America and the Vatican had broken in 1867. Representing the United States at the Vatican since last February (but expected to depart with the Bush Administration) is Ambassador Mary Ann Glendon (above at far right, with Pope Benedict XVI), whose work as a Harvard law professor included authorship of A World Made New: Eleanor Roosevelt and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (2001).

... 1991, Javier Pérez de Cuéllar (left), who'd been U.N. Secretary-General since 1982, prepared to head to Baghdad, the BBC reported, "in a final diplomatic effort to avoid war against Iraq," by "rais[ing] the possibility of sending a UN peacekeeping force to Kuwait to oversee the peaceful withdrawal of Iraqi troops. " His efforts would fail, and military intervention, dubbed "Operation Desert Storm," would begin on January 16.

Time for US to reaffirm commitment to principles enshrined 60 years ago in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

At the beginning of his campaign President-Elect Barack Obama stated:

No country has a greater stake in a strong United Nations than the United States. The United States benefits from a global institution intended to advance the rule of law, the peaceful resolution of disputes, effective collective security, humanitarian relief, development and respect for human rights.

Indeed, bodies of the United Nations have played a number of roles in protecting and promoting international human rights. For example, the Security Council has been responsible for determining when humanitarian intervention is necessary, while the specialized agencies give technical assistance to countries to help them promote human rights in a number of areas. The International Court of Justice has adjudicated a number of human rights issues but that has been dependent on the consent of the States, something that is not always forthcoming. The General Assembly has been the body responsible for the development of international standards, a task that was carried out by the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) since its inception in 1948. The Commission also had the capacity to address human rights situations by passing resolutions which are the basis for the mobilization of shame – one of the main tools available to affect countries who violate human rights but who often cannot be held accountable in courts or other adjudicative bodies. Again, the CHR was the main body that initiated investigative procedures that made it feasible to mobilize shame by having special rapporteurs and working groups look into violations of human rights on a variety of topics, including those that were focused on specific countries. While the treaty bodies play the role of overseeing country compliance with the specific human rights treaties, the CHR is able to look at country violations whether or not they have signed on to those treaties.
The country-specific procedures included the public Resolution 1235 procedure and the confidential Resolution 1503 procedures which were developed in the 1960s after the two main treaties implementing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights were drafted and sent to the General Assembly for approval: the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Theme procedures were later developed in order to address individual complaints more effectively as well as further the jurisprudence on specific topics.
The country-specific procedures always were much more political and it is important to assess their effectiveness in that context. The bottom line has been, despite their political nature that countries of all kinds and levels of development will fight to prevent resolutions from being passed against them. An indication that they do in fact care about what the U.N. bodies might say about them.
A couple of examples help to highlight the fact that the U.N. procedures have indeed been helpful in preventing and promoting international human rights standards:

► One involved South Africa, where the policy of apartheid violated in the most blatant way the prohibition against race discrimination that was one of the basic principles of the United Nations Charter. The work of the CHR for many years ultimately led to the economic embargo that eventually forced not only the change in the policy but in the government as well by peaceful means.
► Another less direct example was the role played by the CHR in stopping the death penalty for offenders under 18 in a number of countries. The attention paid to that issue by its expert body, the Sub-Commission on Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, and the CHR itself, put pressure on a number of countries to change its laws or stop the practice, including Pakistan, Yemen, and Saudi Arabia. Even the United States, which was the country with the largest number of violations of the prohibition against this sentence, eventually stopped the practice after a number of resolutions and statements by countries increasingly referred to the practice. Indeed, the U.S. Supreme Court made reference to the various resolutions by the CHR on the topic in interpreting the United States resolution to prohibit the practice.

Charging that the CHR had become to political, however, the United States initiated the effort to create the Human Rights Council. It was successful in those efforts in 2006, with the passage of Resolution 60/251 by the General Assembly. Whether that body is less political, is difficult to assess, especially since it is hard to imagine that any body representing governments would not be political. There have been some positive changes such as the limit of terms to two (six years) for any one country and the suspension of countries that are human rights violators. Also, having a more direct route to the General Assembly and having more meeting should make it address problems more efficiently and effectively. The politics continue and the potential control of majority votes by the Asian and African countries is problematic, but over the course of the two years the Council has been able to take some positive steps towards greater protection of human rights.
The Council has been able to pass more concise resolutions focused on human rights principles with greater consensus as exemplified by the resolutions on the rights of the child and the transfer of toxics. It was able to address the specific topic in a special session – that dealing with the emergency situation related to the right to food.
It is time for the United States to return to its leadership role in the protection of human rights.

To do so, it needs to take a more diplomatic and less political approach to addressing human rights concerns. Perhaps focusing less on Cuba and more on more massive human rights violations in countries such as Sudan would be helpful. It would also be helpful if it reiterated its commitment to the human rights standards that were enunciated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights under the leadership of Eleanor Roosevelt (left) sixty years ago. And in particular acknowledge both civil and political as well as economic, social and cultural rights as was done in that document and reaffirmed by the international community ever since.

(Portions of this blog post are taken from Connie de la Vega, "Just Back From the Human Rights Council," 11 April 2008 Panel Discussion at the annual meeting of the American Society of International Law, published in 102 ASIL Proceedings (2008))

On October 9

On this day in ...
... 1987, Clare Boothe Luce died from cancer. She'd been born in New York City 84 years earlier, the daughter of a businessman and a "chorus girl." She married a rich, older man, then divorced and began a journalism career that culminated in her editorship of Vanity Fair. In 1935 she married Henry R. Luce, a conservative publisher whose magazine empire included Time. After serving a couple terms in the 1940s as a Republican Member of Congress, Boothe Luce was named Ambassador to Italy -- "stirring controversy because of Mrs. Luce's Catholicism, her lack of diplomatic experience and because she was a woman" -- and, later, to Brazil. Throughout her political career Boothe Luce was a "hard-line anti-Communist." The quotable Boothe Luce is most remembered by this IntLawGrrl for her deliciously nasty play The Women (1936). (credit for photo of 1st Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and U.S. Rep. Clare Boothe Luce)
... 1988 (20 years ago today), in the capital city of Riga, Latvians launched "a mass movement to press Moscow for greater independence from the Soviet Union." Among the demands that the new Latvijas Tautas Fronte made was that of "the right to self-determination." The Baltic country (flag at left) would declare itself independent, and be recognized as such, in 1991.

Roosevelt memorial

Had the opportunity during my recent visit to Washington, D.C., to make a 1st visit to the Roosevelt Memorial installed a few years back on the edge of the Tidal Basin, a stone's throw from the Jefferson Memorial. The bronze statues recalling the life and times of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, President during the Great Depression and World War II, and Eleanor Roosevelt, 1st Lady and, eventually, U.S. delegate to the United Nations, were set against dark granite. The words etched in stone, they shone.

Depression-era soup kitchen line

Crippled by polio a decade before his election as President, FDR sits in his seldom-photographed wheelchair.

Perhaps the most famous line from FDR's 1st Inaugural Address in 1932; audio here.

Fala stands sentry at the foot of FDR.

Real men, and women, hate war.

Though the Roosevelts' record was not unblemished, their lifework helped to open a new era of human rights.

A call to global justice.

ER beside the symbol of the United Nations. Many women stopped, climbed into the alcove, and had their photos taken in a sisterly stance right next to Eleanor.

On this day

On March 5, ...
... 1898 (110 years ago today), Soong Mei-ling was born in Shanghai, China, to Chinese parents who were devout Christians. Her father, a Methodist minister, had spent 15 years in the United States before her birth; she herself moved there at age 10, earning a degree from Wellesley College in 1917. She then returned to China, where she met Chiang Kai-shek, "a severe-looking military aide." Not long after the 2 met, divorced his 1st wife and married Soong. Chiang would become President of China and then, along with his wife and their Kuomintang allies, flee the Communists to Taiwan. Fluent in English (her husband was not), Madame Chiang visited the United States often; she's pictured above with U.S. 1st Lady Eleanor Roosevelt in 1943. Madame Chiang became, in the words of The New York Times, "a dazzling and imperious politician," "a pivotal figure in one of the 20th century's great epics -- the struggle for control of post-imperial China waged between the Nationalists and the Communists during the Japanese invasion and the violent aftermath of World War II." She died in 2003 at age 105.
... 2003 (5 years ago today), referring to U.S. President George W. Bush, Texas native Dixie Chick Natalie Maines said that she "'ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas" before a concert audience in London. The remark touched off a U.S. boycott of the band's music; a week later, Maines (left) commented, "I feel the President is ignoring the opinions of many in the U.S. and alienating the rest of the world."

On December 9, ...

... 1948, the U.N. General Assembly adopted and opened for signature the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. The Convention, which entered into force on January 12, 1951, now has 133 states parties. I"ve written about its drafting history, as well as the abiding problem of defining groups protected under the convention, here; IntLawGrrl Beth Van Schaack's discussed similar issues here.
... 1948, in an address that's depicted at right and can be read and heard here, former 1st Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, as head of the U.S. delegation, spoke to the U.N. General Assembly in favor of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that she had helped to draft. She said in part:

This Declaration is based upon the spiritual fact that man must have freedom in which to develop his full stature and through common effort to raise the level of human dignity. We have much to do to fully achieve and to assure the rights set forth in this Declaration. But having them put before us with the moral backing of 58 nations will be a great step forward.
As we here bring to fruition our labors on this Declaration of Human Rights, we must at the same time rededicate ourselves to the unfinished task which lies before us. We can now move on with new courage and inspiration to the completion of an international covenant on human rights and of measures for the implementation of
human rights.

The text would be adopted the next day.
... 1954, U.S. Rep. Mary Fallin (R-Okla.) was born in Warrensburg, Missouri.

Charging Brother Number Two

The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) released today on their website the detention order for Nuon Chea, a.k.a. Brother Number Two -- Pol Pot's right-hand man and the ideologue of the Khmer Rouge regime. The order notes that Nuon Chea is being charged with crimes against humanity and war crimes, and justifies his detention to prevent witness tampering and destruction of evidence, to stop him from fleeing and to protect him from violence. It also catalogues Nuon Chea's denial of responsibility for the crimes charged and his desire to "enlighten the Kampuchean people and the whole world concerning the real enemies of Cambodia." The 81-year-old will likely face trial early next year. He has chosen Son Arun, a Cambodian defense lawyer specializing in terrorism cases, to represent him. More to come soon, and for more detailed information on the ECCC, check out http://www.cambodiatribunal.org/, a website dedicated to monitoring the tribunal, featuring expert commentaries from various Cambodia hands, including yours truly and "Eleanor Roosevelt," aka IntLawGrrl Beth Van Schaack. (Photo courtesy of the Documentation Center of Cambodia.)

Hot Off the Presses

Our very own "Eleanor Roosevelt," aka Beth Van Schaack, has just published (along with co-author Ron Slye) a new textbook -- International Criminal Law and Its Enforcement: Cases and Material (Foundation Press). An examination copy landed on my desk this morning, although I had the pleasure of reading some excellent chapters before publication. A timely contribution to a burgeoning field with few comprehensive texts thus far, the book explores the jurisprudence of international and hybrid criminal tribunals, United Nations legal bodies, regional human rights fora, domestic courts, and alternative accountability institutions. It compiles seminal cases as well as leading law review articles, and provides thought-provoking notes and questions after each section. You go, Grrl!