Write On! Transitional justice amid conflict

(Write On! is an occasional item about notable calls for papers)

Paper proposals are being sought for The Potential Role of Transitional Justice in Active Conflicts: An International Conference to be held from November 13 to 15, 2011, in Jerusalem. The conference will launch a series of conferences in the Minerva Center for Human Rights at Hebrew University will employ a broad, interdisciplinary approach and use the comparative experience of other societies and international experts to explore transitional justice.
This 1st conference will examine the potential impact of transitional justice mechanisms while conflicts are still ongoing. Chairing the planning committee is Dr. Tomer Broude of Hebrew University; other planners include IntLawGrrl guest/alumna Fionnuala Ní Aoláin and Professor Ruti Teitel of New York Law School. Questions that may be addressed at the conference include (full list is in the call for papers):
► Are there conditions in which mechanisms of transitional justice can make a positive contribution to the cessation of violence and human rights infringements?
► Can state-led transitional justice mechanisms be formed during ongoing conflict, or will lack of political will, economic conditions, and the need to prioritize other objectives such as security, make any efforts in this direction ineffective?
► What lessons can be learned from cases in which transitional justice was pursued while the guns were not yet silent, such as in the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, or in the International Criminal Court's intervention in the situation in Darfur?
► Are certain transitional justice mechanisms more suitable for application to ongoing conflicts?
► What about informal, as opposed to state-led, processes?
► Specifically in our local context, can transitional justice mechanisms assist in reaching greater reconciliation and coexistence between Israeli Jews and Arabs? Authors of selected proposals will be offered full or partial flight and accommodation expenses. It's anticipated that the conference will result in the publication of a dedicated volume or journal issue.
Deadline is May 1, 2011, for submission of 2-page proposals, plus CV, via e-mail to mchr@savion.huji.ac.il. Details here.

Recognizing Palestine

One nation in the Middle East is seeking a change in status even as a neighboring state faces a change in regime.
The nation is Palestine.
Though some members of the Palestinian people are dispersed, many live in the West Bank and Gaza, the latter of which shares a border with Egypt, locus of recent political ferment about which we've posted.* (map credit)
In these Palestinian territories, the entity known as the Palestinian Authority governs by dint of circa-1990s international agreement. The Authority administers "within the framework of a semi-presidential multi-party republic, with a Legislative Council, an executive President, and a Prime Minister leading the Cabinet."
IntLawyers will see in the above paragraph 3 of the 4 traditional indicia of statehood:
1) Permanent population;
2) Defined territory; and
3) Government.
Not immediately apparent is this indicator:
4) Capacity to enter into relations with other states.
The declaratory theory of statehood would emphasize the word "capacity" in that last phrase, so that statehood would exist whenever an entity possessing Nos. 1-3 has the ability to effect No. 4. Yet in practice the constitutive theory holds sway. For if no fully recognized states themselves recognize the entity -- if no states actually enter into relations with it -- the entity cannot act as a state.
Put another way:

Not everything that looks like a state and quacks like a state is able fully to operate as a state.

(image credit) The trickiness of that 4th indicator has left scholars chewing for years over Palestine's status.
► Even without sufficient recognition by others, does it sufficiently possess the 4 attributes?
► Is it a "state" for purposes, say, of litigating before the International Court of Justice, by ICJ Statute Article 34(1) a forum open only to "states"?
► For purposes of referring a situation to the International Criminal Court, as the Palestinian National Authority in fact is attempting to do?
► Does it benefit -- and it is burdened -- by other rights and duties of states?
Developments may be shifting this debate.
In recent months, a series of states has recognized Palestine as an equal sovereign.
December began with the announcement, on the 3d day of that month, that Brazil "recognized the state of Palestine along the 1967 borders before Israel's seizure of the West Bank." The notice in response to a Palestinian request, Politico's Laura Rozen reported, "took Washington by surprise." She added:

Brazil was the last of the so-called BRIC nations [Brazil, Russia, India, China] to recognize Palestine. More than 100 countries, including almost all the African and Arab ones, had recognized it, "so it was the natural thing to do," a Brazilian official explained ....

Days later, Argentina said it would recognize Palestine.
Less than a week into the New Year came news that Chile had recognized Palestine.
A couple weeks ago, Russia reaffirmed its recognition.
Then came Peru, reportedly joining Bolivia, Ecuador, Guyana, and Uruguay in addition to South American countries already named.
Last week, Suriname added its name to the list.
Such news has compelled France to deny reports that it too was ready to recognize.
Yet elsewhere in Europe, there are calls for recognition and, in the case of Ireland, a late January upgrading of the Irish presence in Palestine to a "diplomatic mission," a step short of recognition. (France, Spain, and Portugal already had made the same move.) Palestine continues to seek wider European recognition. The European Union-U.N.-Russia-U.S. "Quartet" was expected to discuss Palestine "on the sidelines" of a conference in Munich this past weekend.

What of the United States?
As of mid-January, the U.S. official word for such recognitions was "premature." Given that more than half the world's countries appear already to have recognized, it's a word that may be meant to imply a policy change sooner rather than later.

* Not-unrelated aside: CNN reports that in recent days, West Bank rallies in support of pro-democracy protests in Egypt have been "shut down by Palestinian Authority security claiming the participants did not have the appropriate permits to hold such events."

On January 12

On this day in ...
... 1976 (35 years ago today), at the United Nations' headquarters in New York, the Security Council voted 11-1-3 to let the Palestine Liberation Organization take part in a debate on the Middle East. Abstaining were Britain, France, and Italy; the lone dissenter was the United States. The U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Daniel P. Moynihan, complained both that the PLO did not recognize Israel and that the PLO

is not a state, does not administer a defined territory, does not have the attributes of a state and does not claim to be a state.

(Prior January 12 posts are here, here, and here.)

Go On! International Conflict & Negotiation Colloquium at Stanford

Anyone in the Bay Area should check out the Stanford Center on International Conflict & Negotiation's International Conflict Resolution Colloquium. The Colloquium is being convened by Professors Allen Weiner (Law--right); David Holloway (Political Science); and Lee Ross (Psychology).
All Colloquium sessions meet from 4:30 p.m. to 5:45 p.m. on Thursday in Room 90 of the Law School.

The schedule is below:

► January 6: Allen Weiner (above right)
Senior Lecturer in Law, Stanford Law School
Barriers to Conflict Resolution: The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

► January 13: Richard Goldstone (right)
Former South African Constitutional Court Justice, Visiting Professor, Stanford Law School
South Africa’s Transition to Democracy: The Role of the Law

► January 20: James Fishkin (right)
Director, Center for Deliberative Democracy,
Janet M. Peck Chair in International Communication, Stanford University Deliberative Democracy and Conflict Resolution

► January 27: Christopher R. Hill (left)
Dean, Josef Korbel School of International Studies, University of Denver,
former United States Ambassador to Iraq
The Iraqi Conflicts

► February 3: Beth Van Schaack (right)
Associate Professor, Santa Clara Law School
Negotiating at the Intersection of Power and Law:
The International Criminal Court and the Definition of Aggression

► February 10: Omar Dajani (left)
Professor of Law, McGeorge School of Law, University of the Pacific
Shadow or Shade – The Roles of International Law in Palestinian-Israeli Peace Talks

► February 17: James T. Campbell (right)
Edgar E. Robinson Professor in United States History
Settling Accounts? History, Narrative, and Historical Reconciliation

► February 24: Avishai Margalit (left)
George F. Kennan Professor in the School of Historical Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study
Sectarianism

► March 3: Christopher Greenwood (right)
Judge, International Court of Justice
International Conflict Resolution and the International Court of Justice

Hope to see you there!

On January 5

On this day in ...
... 1906 (105 years ago today), Kathleen Kenyon (left) was born in London, England, the eldest daughter of a father who would become director of the British Museum. Following her graduation in 1929 from Somerville College, Oxford University, Kenyon joined an excavation of ruins, led by the influential archeologist Gertrude Caton-Tomson, in what is now Zimbabwe. On her return to England she continued working, teaching, and publishing in the field of archeology. Kenyon became "world famous" in the 1950s, on account of her "[g]round-breaking concerning the Neolithic cultures of the Levant," conducted in the West Bank city of Jericho. (credit for 1969 photo by Jorge Lewinski) In 1973 Kenyon was named a Dame of the Order of the British Empire, equivalent to a knighthood. She died in 1978.


(Prior January 5 posts are here, here, and here.)

On November 4

On this day in ...
... 1995 (15 years ago today), Yitzhak Rabin, Prime Minister of Israel, was fatally shot 3 times at close range as he was leaving a peace rally in Tel Aviv. (credit for monument now at site of the shooting) Arrested at the scene was a founder of an illegal Jewish settlement on the West Bank; eventually he was convicted and received a life term, and his accomplices also were sentenced to prison. According to the BBC, the next Prime Minister, Shimon Peres -- who had won the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize along with Rabin and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat -- "pushed on with" his predecessor's "efforts to make peace with the Palestinians. But in an election in 1996 he lost to Binyamin Netanyahu who campaigned against the Rabin-Peres peace programme." Netanyahu would serve till 1999, and then return to the office, which he now holds, in 2009.

(Prior November 4 posts are here, here, and here.)

On September 28

On this day in ...
... 1995 (15 years ago today), a 400-page agreement to give control over a significant portion of the West Bank to Palestinians was signed by the leaders of Israeli and the Palestine Liberation Organization at a ceremony in the White House, as U.S. President Bill Clinton, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, and King Hussein of Jordan looked on. The signing leaders, Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat, then shook hands. Rabin would be assassinated in just 6 weeks; Arafat would die from natural causes 9 years later. As discussed in the press briefing at right by President Barack Obama, Secretary of State Clinton, and envoy George Mitchell, a new round of talks between current leaders of Israel and the Palestinian Authority was launched earlier this month.

(Prior September 28 posts are here, here, and here.)

On September 6

On this day in ...
... 1970 (40 years ago today), in the course of 4 hours, 4 airliners en route to New York were hijacked in Europe's skies. Passengers thwarted assailants on 1 plane. Nearly 400 passengers on the other 3 planes were being held in "different locations in the Middle East," and the hostage-takers, affiliated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, were demanding the release of 3 persons jailed in Switzerland. Most hostages would be released on September 11 of the same year; the final 6 would be freed on October 1 in exchange for Leila Khaled (right). (photo credit) Born 2 decades earlier in Haifa, Khaled had been arrested on the 1st plane, in the course of her thwarted attempt to reach the flight deck while grenade-armed. Her life's the subject of a 2006 documentary.

(Prior September 6 posts are here, here, and here.)

On July 14

On this day in ...
... 1890 (120 years ago today), Rosa Hacohen was born in Gomel, a city in what was then Russia and is now Belarus. Following her graduation from a 2dary school in Odessa, in what is now Ukraine, she immigrated to Palestine, joining her parents who'd gone there before her. Eventually she moved to Paris to be with her husband. There Rosa Ginossar (right) studied law and worked at a law firm. In 1922 she 1st sought to take the bar examination in Palestine. She was refused repeatedly, notwithstanding global efforts on her behalf. (Emily Murphy leant Ginossar winning arguments from Canada's Persons Case (1920).) Finally, in February 1930, the Supreme Court in Palestine issued a decision permitting women to take the exam; Ginossar did so 48 hours later, and was admitted to the bar in July of the same year. "This struggle marked the first battle in her war to secure the right of women to serve alongside men in all sectors of life in Israel." Her practice included much work on behalf of refugees. She died in 1979.

(Prior July 14 posts are here and here, and here.)

On July 10

On this day in ...
... 1947, at the harbor in Sète, on the Mediterranean coast in the south of France, Jewish refugees -- 1,282 women, many of them pregnant, 1,600 men, and 1,672 children -- boarded a ship bound for Palestine. (photo credit) Conditions were cramped on the 19-year-old passenger steamer President Warfield, which was only 118 meters (129 yards) long. It set sail the next day, soon renamed Exodus 1947. But as the ship neared its destination, British destroyers seized it, killing "a Jewish crew member and two passengers," according to an account by the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, which continues:

Attempting to make an example of the "Exodus 1947," the British transferred the passengers onto three navy transports which returned to Europe. ... The passengers were then transferred to displaced persons camps in Germany.
Displaced persons in camps all over Europe protested vociferously and staged hunger strikes when they heard the news. Large protests erupted on both sides of the Atlantic. The ensuing public embarrassment for Britain played a significant role in the diplomatic swing of sympathy toward the Jews and the eventual recognition of a Jewish state in 1948.

(Prior July 10 posts are here, here, and here)

On March 17

On this day in ...
... 1978, the BBC reported on the flight of "[t]housands of Palestinian civilians" following "a third day of Israeli attacks in southern Lebanon." While "[h]eavy artillery shells fell within Israeli-controlled southern Lebanon" and international diplomats endeavored to put an end to the fighting, refugees headed for Beirut in "vans, lorries and old buses," and the death toll reached 150. The offensive was reported to be "in retaliation for the 11 March bus hijacking in Tel Aviv in which 35 people were killed and 100 others were injured." Israeli troops would leave southern Lebanon in June of the same year.

(Prior March 17 posts are here, here, and here)

On November 22

On this day in ...
... 1974 (35 years ago today), the U.N. General Assembly adopted Resolution 3237, which granted permanent observer status to the Palestine Liberation Organization. Fourteen years later that decision would be reviewed in an International Court of Justice advisory opinion. (credit for U.N. photo depicting (left to right) Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim, General Assembly President Abdelaziz Bouteflika of Algeria, and Under-Secretary-General for Political and General Assembly Affairs Bradford Morse presiding as General Assembly votes on PLO status)

(Prior November 22 posts are here and here.)

Who said what on Gaza

Figuring out who said what about Palestine in recent days proved yet another mainstream media scavenger hunt.
► Reuters wrote Friday that "a report by U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay lambasted the 'nearly total impunity' for the violations," then proceeded to list "Pillay's recommendations" respecting the issue.
► Christian Science Monitor reporter Ilene R. Prusher led Thursday with a Human Rights Watch report on Gaza, the area depicted in cream coloring at right. She then anticipated that "what are expected to be two critical United Nations reports." (map credit) Prusher continued:

Israel has refused to cooperate in the investigation that is expected to yield the harsher of the two reports. That investigation is headed by Judge Richard Goldstone, a former war-crimes prosecutor from South Africa who was appointed by the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. Israel has criticized the council, which has a rotating membership that currently includes countries such as Saudi Arabia, Kyrgyzstan, and Angola, as biased and thus unfit to accurately assess its actions.
Israel has provided assistance, however, to investigators working on a second report, being conducted by the UN Commission on Human Rights.

Although the 1st paragraph makes sense, the 2d does not: as posted, the "UN Commission on Human Rights" disbanded in 2006 to make way for the "UN Human Rights Council." One guesses the 2d paragraph was intended to refer to the inquiry on which Reuters reported a day later. Yet this too appears a bit askew.
That's because the website of the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights attributes the Friday report not directly to Commissioner Pillay, but rather to the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories. The U.N. General Assembly renewed the mandate of this 41-year-old Special Committee just last December, via Resolution A/RES/63/95. Its 3 current members -- representing Malaysia, Senegal, and Sri Lanka -- conducted a 10-day field mission to Egypt, Jordan, and Syria at the beginning of this month, and then concluded:

'Violations of the international humanitarian law during the operation Cast Lead, in particular the targeting of civilian population and wanton destruction of property and religious and cultural objects.'

The Special Committee will present its findings -- based on field mission interviews and expert reports from nongovernmental and governmental organizations -- to the U.N. General Assembly later this year.
Have gone this far in the scavenger hunt, but still not entirely sure who said what.
Reportorial precision would go a long way toward aiding comprehension of the workings of international legal institutions.

'Nuff said

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

[A]lthough it was based on the provisions of the Palestinian Basic Law of 2003, the Lawyers' Clothing Statute of 1930 and what it calls 'common righteous norms,' as mentioned in its preamble, the decision violates the constitution and the law and undermines women's rights and personal freedoms ensured by the constitution ....

-- Press release entitled "Decision to Impose Traditional Robes and Veils on Female Lawyers in Gaza Is Illegal," issued yesterday by the Gaza-based nonprofit Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (logo below). One of the women affected, attorney Subhiya Juma, told the Associated Press that "the judge's decision would affect only 10 or so lawyers — since the vast majority of the 150 registered female lawyers already cover their hair." Juma is among those who do not.

On July 1

On this day in ...
... 1934 (75 years ago today), the United States' Roman Catholic bishops formed the Legion of Decency a lobbying group that issued ratings on movies. Films were categorized as "Class A: unobjectionable," "Class B: objectionable," or "Class C: condemned." An "objectionable" label would result if the film entailed suggestive dialogue, lack of moral compensation, lustful kissing, or acceptance of divorce. The lobby proved powerful, as film studios either pulled or altered projects in order to win the Legion's approval. For example, the plot of Belle of the Nineties (1934) was changed so that the lead actor, Mae West, was married by the end of the film. (image credit) Hollywood soon adjusted, adopting a more subtle but equally suggestive approach to “indecency.”
... 1994 (15 years ago today), Yasser Arafat (below left), Palestinian Liberation Organization chairman, returned to the Gaza Strip after 27 years in exile. Before boarding a helicopter from Cairo with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Arafat said: "Now I am returning to the first free Palestinian lands. You have to imagine how it is moving my heart, my feelings." His return followed the 1994 Israel-PLO pact known as the Cairo Agreement, which created self-rule for Palestinians in Gaza and Jericho in the West Bank. Arafat went on to become the elected president of the Palestinian National Authority in 1996. He would remain a symbolic figurehead for many years even after he lost prominence, and huge crowds would turn out for his funeral in November 2004.

(Prior July 1 posts are here and here. And a hat tip today to Rachel Prandini, 3L at the University of California, Davis, School of Law, for drafting these items!)

On June 13

On this day in ...
… 1966, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Miranda v. Arizona that police must inform suspects of their rights before questioning them. Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote in his opinion for the Court:

In the absence of other effective measures, the following procedures to safeguard the Fifth Amendment privilege must be observed: the person in custody must, prior to interrogation, be clearly informed that he has the right to remain silent, and that anything he says will be used against him in court; he must be clearly informed that he has the right to consult with a lawyer and to have the lawyer with him during interrogation, and that, if he is indigent, a lawyer will be appointed to represent him.

This section of the opinion has evolved into what's known as the Miranda warnings. developed to protect the individual's Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination." (credit for photo of law enforcement file on petitioner Ernesto Miranda)
… 1944 (65 years ago today), U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (below left) was born in Korea. The 8th Secretary-General, Ban succeeded Kofi Annan on January 1, 2007. (photo credit) Ban's official priorities are development, climate change, human rights, U.N. reform, ending the Darfur conflict, attaining peace in the Middle East, ending nuclear proliferation and increasing disarmament. He has specifically addressed the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, condemning recent violence in the Gaza Strip. As we've posted, he has called for an end to violence against women.

(Prior June 13 posts are here and here.)

On May 28

On this day in ...
... 1959 (50 years ago today) , 2 females became "the first living creatures to survive a space flight." Both were monkeys -- Able, a 7-pound rhesus monkey, and Baker, a 1-pound squirrel monkey (left). (photo credit) They traveled at speeds of up to 10,000 mph during a flight that sent them 300 miles into space in a Jupiter missile. It began at Florida's Cape Canaveral and and ended 15 minutes later in the Atlantic Ocean near Puerto Rico. Another female, a dog named Laika, had died during a 1957 flight launched by the Soviet Union (right). (credit for photo of Bulgarian stamp)
... 1964 (45 years ago today), at a meeting held by the Palestinian National Congress at the Inter-Continental Hotel in Jerusalem, the Palestinian Liberation Organization was formed. (image credit)

(Prior May 28 posts are here and here.)

ICC to go to Gaza?

The Los Angeles Times' Sebastian Rotella reports, from Madrid, that Luis Moreno Ocampo said yesterday the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court "will examine requests to investigate alleged war crimes during the recent combat in the Gaza Strip," about which we've posted.
Report of such an inquiry -- no official statement yet appears at the ICC website -- provokes immediate questions of international law and practice, among them:

► Last week the Palestinian Authority accepted the ICC's jurisdiction, according to Rotella. Even so, is it, for purposes of the Rome Statute of the ICC, a "state" that may become a "party" and so refer a situation on its territory?

Israel's Foreign Ministry gave the Times this categorical "no" to the question:

'The ICC charter is adhered to by sovereign states, and the Palestinian Authority has not yet been recognized as one, so it cannot be a member. It doesn't mean anything except that it's a good propaganda stunt.'

Palestinian Authority's Justice Minister, Dr. Ali Khashan, begged to differ:

'We have the fundamentals of a state and we have met all conditions required from a state. We have been demanding these rights for a long time, but no one has paid attention to us. Now we have decided to go to the ICC with this matter as a first step toward getting our rights through legal means.'

The debate entails questions of ICC statutory interpretation, and promises much pondering of the declaratory and the constitutive theories of statehood.
► As a practical matter, one has to ask what this announcement will mean for U.S. attitudes about the ICC. Softening of opposition was apparent even in the Bush Administration. As a candidate now-President Barack Obama pledged to call together experts to explore whether the United States might join the court. Just Monday, a high-level Task Force of the American Society of International Law called for a U.S. "policy of positive engagement" with the ICC. Detailed recommendations were set out by the Task Force, chaired by Patricia Wald, former judge of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and former Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, and William Howard Taft IV, former State Department Legal Adviser; other members: former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies Professor Ruth Wedgwood, former U.S. Rep. Mickey Edwards, Vanderbilt Law School Professor Michael A. Newton, former International Court of Justice President Stephen M. Schwebel, and former Deputy Prosecutor of the ICTY David Tolbert. Its report is welcome and timely -- and may prove an essential counterpoint criticism sure to come from some U.S. corners as a result of Moreno Ocampo's reported decision to examine conduct involving Israel.

On January 25

On this day in ...
... 1919 (90 years ago today), meeting in plenary session, delegates of the Paris Peace Conference gave quick, unanimous approval of plan to set up a League of Nations. Coming in the wake of the devastation of World War II, the concept of an international organization designed to channel states' warlike impulses into processes of pacific dispute settlement was much praised: among those writing favorable commentaries that month were, in the New York Times, Charles Warren (op-ed here), who'd served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney General and would go on to become a Harvard law professor noted for his works of legal history, and, in The Atlantic, noted British author H.G. Wells (essay here). (credit for photo of hall in which conference took place)
... 2006, in what were " the first Palestinian legislative elections in a decade," the Islamist party Hamas "won a large share of votes," thus "depriving the more secular Fatah party of its longstanding monopoly on power," the New York Times reported. This last several weeks Hamas and Israel have been in armed struggle in Gaza -- a struggle on which IntLawGrrls have posted here, here, and here. (map credit)

The Rights of Babes

Noëlle Quénivet's excellent post yesterday on the gaps in international law protecting child soldiers leads me to a related and even more fundamental question, that of the right of children not to be victims of armed conflict. Yesterday, the United Nations reported that 257 Palestinian children have been killed in Gaza and 1,080 wounded since December 27, just over 10 days ago. (And see prior post.) I'm no expert on the conflict, nor on international humanitarian law, but the violation of international human rights law seems quite clear. The Convention on the Rights of the Child, which Israel has signed and ratified, states in Article 6:

1. States Parties recognize that every child has the inherent right to life.
2. States Parties shall ensure to the maximum extent possible the survival and development of the child.

The indiscriminate bombing of crowded civilian areas -- especially where, as in Gaza, children constitute over half of the population -- seems contrary to these requirements. While one could quibble about whether Palestinian children are "under the jurisdiction" of Israel, Article 2 ensures that the CRC applies without regard to national origin of the child, and that a child should not be punished on the basis of the status, activities, or beliefs of their parents. Moreover, it's tough to find a gap between morality and law in this situation -- killing children, whether intentionally or from failure to take adequate precautions, is simply wrong, no matter their nationality or their parents' actions.