From Human Security to the Responsibility to Protect: The Co-option of Dissent?

In this article I argue that the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) has sanitized much of the revolutionary potential of human security. While R2P has not subsumed human security — the latter arguably involves a broader array of issues and themes which continue to be discussed — it has come to dominate the debate on the protection of human rights and, specifically, preventing and responding to mass atrocities. Whereas human security, in its early inception, constituted a challenge to the state-centric nature of the international system, R2P maintains the systemic status quo and treats states — and the state-based nature of the United Nations (UN) — as unalterable constants. While R2P is propelled largely by non-states actors, the strategic calculus focuses on altering the behaviour of states — a strategy I consider naïve and/or hubristic — rather than reforming the state-based system in a way which coheres with the original human security approach of empowering individuals at the expense of states

The Impact of the Security Council on the Efficacy of the International Criminal Court and the Responsibility to Protect

This article argues that the manner in which the Security Council inhibits the consistent application of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) and International Criminal Court (ICC) referrals reinforces their power in the international order without creating long term peace and stability. The Security Council’s discretionary powers allow it to subjectively determine which situations to address and which lawbreakers to prosecute; this consolidates, and indeed expands, the power of the Security Council in relation to other agents of international law. As a result, international cooperation to protect and promote human rights and punish human rights violators is currently impeded. This article argues that those concerned with the consistent enforcement of international human rights law, and the punishment of human rights violators, must accept the need for reforms to the current international order that would allow a better integration of R2P and the ICC into international law and practice. Our reforms – advanced in the form of general principles taken from legal theory – propose altering the Security Council’s powers and developing new judicial structures to enable the more consistent application of international lawPostprintPeer reviewe

Lessons Learned? The Kosovo Specialist Chambers’ Lack of Local Legitimacy and Its Implications

The experiences of many transitional justice mechanisms have led to a general consensus on the central importance of local legitimacy and local ownership; this indeed is repeatedly avowed by both the UN and the EU in their prescriptions on effective transitional justice mechanisms. Yet, I argue that the Kosovo Specialist Chambers was established in the absence of both. The court was not created in response to domestic pressure from within Kosovo; rather, it was the result of external pressure which by definition compromised local ownership and legitimacy. Drawing on the findings from first-hand qualitative research, I demonstrate that the court’s local legitimacy has not improved since its establishment. This lack of legitimacy, I argue, has potentially negative implications as, without popular legitimacy, the court’s proceedings and judgements are unlikely to command sufficient public support to either catalyse the societal changes promised by the court’s external sponsors, or withstand opposition to the court from within the Kosovo Albanian population resulting from any perceived slight against the ‘heroic’ KLA

The CAG trinucleotide repeat length in the androgen receptor does not predict the early onset of prostate cancer

Objective To relate the repeat length of the androgen-receptor CAG trinucleotide to the age of onset of prostate cancer, stage and grade of disease. Patients and methods After obtaining ethical approval, 265 patients with locally confined or locally advanced/metastatic prostate cancer were identified and evaluated for age at diagnosis (less than 65 years and greater than 75 years). DNA was extracted from peripheral blood lymphocytes and 1 mug aliquots subjected to polymerase chain reaction using fluorescently labelled primers. Samples were then run on an ABI 377 gene scan analysis gel with an internal molecular weight marker. The length of the CAG repeat was determined by comparing the gene scan product size to samples where the CAG repeat length had been quantified using direct sequencing. The Kruskal-Wallis, Mann-Whitney and Wilcoxon two sample tests were used to analyse the data. Results The mean (range) length of the CAG repeat in the androgen receptor was 22.2 (10-31) in the younger and 22.5 (16-32) in the older group, and was not statistically different. There was no significant association between the CAG repeat length and the age of onset of prostate cancer (P = 0.568) or with stage (P = 0.577) and grade (P = 0.891) of prostate cancer. Conclusion These results suggest that there is no correlation between the androgen receptor CAG repeat length and the age of onset, stage and grade of prostate cancer, confirming recent doubts from other similar studies of a suggested correlation between shorter androgen receptor CAG repeat and early onset and aggressiveness of prostate cancer

The viability of the responsibility to prevent

The efficacy of the Responsibility to Prevent suffers from two key problems; causal indeterminacy, and a dependence on the political will of states, particularly the permanent five members of the Security Council. The vast array of factors which can be cited as potentially contributing to the outbreak of conflict and atrocity crimes mitigates against the determination of definite “conflict triggers”. This does not mean prevention is impossible but does limit the efficacy of “early warning systems”. The dynamics of the “four crimes” within R2P’s purview further limits the efficacy of prevention as the decision to engage in mass atrocities is taken in response to a perceived existential crisis. This significantly limits the scope for leveraging the “internal” aspect of R2P as the decision to commit these acts is invariably born from a belief that no other option is available to the potential aggressors. Thus the specifics of atrocity crime prevention places great emphasis on the operationalisation of the external dimension of R2P, namely the role of the international community. So long as the response of the “international community” is predicated on the political will of states, however, the efficacy of prevention in these areas will be limited, as the “international” response is prey to narrowly defined national interests

Development and evaluation of silent reading exercises for grade one,

Thesis (M.A.)--Boston Universit