This report provides a summary of a symposium on independent advice on public international law, organized by the Dutch Advisory Committee on Public International Law (CAVV) on the 19th of January... Show moreThis report provides a summary of a symposium on independent advice on public international law, organized by the Dutch Advisory Committee on Public International Law (CAVV) on the 19th of January 2023 in The Hague. The speakers highlighted the internationally unique character of the CAVV, which is a formal body, established by law, advising the Dutch Government (Cabinet and Parliament) onquestions of international law. The CAVV reflects the Dutch traditional culture of broad societal involvement and of compromise. It serves various audiences, such as the Dutch Cabinet and Parliament, the International Law Commission, legal academics, legal practitioners, and the wider public. The CAVV can be said to have an influence on both national and international debates regarding international law. This is illustrated on the basis of a discussion of the CAVV’s advisory reports on the protection of the atmosphere, the use of the term ‘genocide’ by politicians, and the provision and funding of non-lethal assistance to non-state armed groups. Show less
The call to decolonize African Studies has a profound influence on the field, with varying degrees of success. This article addresses this topic in relation to the author’s personal experiences in... Show moreThe call to decolonize African Studies has a profound influence on the field, with varying degrees of success. This article addresses this topic in relation to the author’s personal experiences in the publishing industry in Namibia. By describing the attempt to publish a historical book about Namibian beer with a well-known German–Namibian publishing house, the lingering power of German–Namibian settler colonialism becomes clear. This article renders visible the power structures within the Namibian book market that perpetuates a whitewashed version of Namibian history and argues that decolonizing knowledge cannot succeed without paying attention to the (private) publishing industry. Show less
Collective identity can be altered by attacking culture’s tangible components (a temple) which are often a manifestation of or a support to their intangible (spiritual practice). That... Show moreCollective identity can be altered by attacking culture’s tangible components (a temple) which are often a manifestation of or a support to their intangible (spiritual practice). That identity can also be altered by attacking culture’s intangible in isolation (prohibition of spiritual practice). The research determines the extent to which international adjudicatory mechanisms have considered the causes, means and consequences of intentionally attacking culture’s tangible and intangible components. The research then brings their separate practice together. Based on treaty law, culture will be placed in a legal mould. Culture can be anthropical or natural, movable or immovable, secular or religious, tangible or intangible, regardless of terminology (cultural property, cultural heritage, intangible or tangible cultural heritage). Culture will then be placed in a judicial mould, in order to consider how natural and legal persons can invoke cultural damage in judicial proceedings. Culture is a legacy-oriented triptych made of local, national and international panels. While each panel makes sense in isolation, they are best understood when viewed together. State responsibility and individual criminal responsibility-based jurisdictions have accepted that attacking culture may be both tangible-centred and heritage-centred in terms of typology of damage. They have further recognised that the victims of such attacks can be natural persons as members of the collective or the collective as the sum of natural persons. But the victims can also be legal persons which may participate in judicial proceedings and seek reparations for harm sustained as a result of damage inflicted to their property (a museum’s building as well as its artefacts). Show less
Under conditions of guerrilla conflict, mass indiscriminate violence has been shown to effectively starve a guerrilla of its support. Consequently, counter-guerrilla mass violence is concentrated... Show moreUnder conditions of guerrilla conflict, mass indiscriminate violence has been shown to effectively starve a guerrilla of its support. Consequently, counter-guerrilla mass violence is concentrated within territories where a guerrilla is dominant. However, in roughly 40% of mass violence episodes (e.g., Rwanda and Cambodia), the violence was aimed at populations within areas of secure territorial control. These episodes have therefore been explained by attributing high-risk ideological preferences to leaders or as unique cases only. I argue that leaders under conditions of heightened elite rivalry, adopt mass indiscriminate violence against outgroup civilians to consolidate power. The violence serves two main goals. First, it helps build coalitions with constituencies that gain from violence. Second, it targets rival factions indirectly by undermining the formal monopoly of violence and forcing local security officials to facilitate or oppose the violence. The violence thereby provides rival supporters with an exit option, provides the regime with information on rival supporters’ private loyalties, and undermines rivals’ abilities to mount an effective resistance. These rivals can ultimately be purged from the regime. Based on newly collected original data on elite purges and on the type of mass indiscriminate violence for the years 1950-2004, I show that this type of mass violence, which I call ‘genocidal consolidation,’ is intimately connected to authoritarian consolidation. Show less
