Protecting Children in Conflict: An Unfinished Legal and Moral Agenda

Perhaps no individuals suffer more from the effects of war than our children. This contribution briefly reviews how children have suffered in the past, focusing on those who have been forced to flee their homes and often their families. It does this by describing the international law we have put in place to protect our children fleeing from war. It specifically describes the most important provisions of the corpora of international refugee law, international human rights law, and international humanitarian law. These corpora of law contain the law that has been created to mitigate the suffering of children fleeing armed conflicts. Having described the law, brief attention is given to some of the supplementary instruments that are used to interpret the legal obligations of states. And finally, attention is given to selected shortcomings of the law and the international community's efforts to adequately protect children from the scourge of war. The concluding suggestions emphasize the need to refocus our efforts. We need to make sure that the gaps in the law are closed by agreeing to international law that protects all children forced to flee their homes because of armed conflict. And we need to make sure that we address the causes of war by not losing track of the aspirational goal of ending war foreve

Cinq ans après la Constitution soudanaise de 1998

La tradition constitutionnelle soudanaise est l’une des plus longues et des plus tourmentées du Moyen-Orient et d’Afrique du Nord. Après des siècles d’existence tribale, après l’occupation napoléonienne puis l’exploitation britannique, les Soudanais furent parmi les premiers Africains à proclamer leur indépendance. Depuis lors, ils sont fiers de leur contribution à l’histoire constitutionnelle africaine et moyen-orientale. Comme le Soudan reste enlisé dans la plus longue et la plus meurtrière..

UNHCR and protection and assistance for the victims of climate change

This contribution argues that despite the fact that the United Nations Refugee Convention does not cover persons subject to climate change induced displacement, these people should be protected by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). This is the case because UNHCR's own Executive Committee has incorporated the broader African definition of a refugee that does include climate refugees into their protection mandate. We therefore conclude that UNHCR should exercise protection activities over climate refugees to be consistent with the mandate given to this United Nations programme by international law. To arrive at this conclusion we first briefly introduce the question about the protection of climate change induced displacement in the social science debate. We examine the legal definitions of refugees, agreeing with the most common interpretations of both United Nations and regional instruments. We then indicate how, by expressly extending its mandate, UNHCR itself has taken on the responsibility for the protection of people subject to climate change induced displacement. Finally, we report how, despite this mandate, UNHCR is still refusing to exercise its mandate properly, and that if it were to do so, a significant step could be taken in ensuring the protection of people subject to climate change induced displacement

Les architectures constitutionnelles des régimes politiques arabes

L'étude des régimes politiques arabes ne s'est guère intéressée aux architectures constitutionnelles, considérant que les constitutions et, plus largement, les relations politiques institutionnelles étaient plutôt un habillage de l'autoritarisme qu'un ressort de son organisation. Cette livraison d'Égypte/Monde arabe se propose au contraire, de prendre les constitutions et les institutions au sérieux, en soulignant la place centrale qu'elles occupent dans les régimes autoritaires. Ceux-ci sont, en effet, bien organisés par des constitutions et les trucages même de la vie politique qui permettent aux gouvernants d'imposer leur leadership, se coulent dans les spécifications du texte constitutionnel. Ce trait explique que, paradoxalement sans doute, les régimes autoritaires sont également soumis au droit et que leur droit peut se retourner contre leur domination. Cette caractéristique, au demeurant, n'est pas nouvelle et plusieurs contributions s'attachent à rappeler l'ancienneté des questions constitutionnelles dans la région. Les autres portent sur l'organisation actuelle des régimes et insistent, exemples à l'appui, sur la place du constitutionnalisme dans la vie politique des pays de la région