The concept of human security : Does it add anything of value to international legal theory or practice?

This chapter explains the concept of human security at the international policy level, and reflects upon its narrower and broader meanings. It considers the potential ‘added value’ of the human security concept. Prolonged armed conflict jeopardizes the basic elements needed for human survival, including fundamental rights and freedoms. In order to bring an appreciable ‘added value’ to international legal theory or practice, the concept of human security should be understood as the proper concern of existing international law and multilateral cooperation. The UN Development Programme (UNDP) Report provides a valuable starting point for elaborating a coherent conceptual and practical policy approach that links sustainable development and human security. Narrower notions of human security tend to focus more on serious violations of human rights and humanitarian law. The concept of human security implies that States bear a “responsibility to protect” the welfare of human beings and to accord this goal priority over more state-based considerations of sovereignty or State security

Can Human Rights NGOs Be Trusted in the Corridors of the United Nations and International Criminal Justice Institutions?

Governments around the world have been shortening the leash on human rights non-governmental organization (NGO) watchdogs. Some see NGOs working in the field of human rights, and more recently, those working to fight impunity for serious violations, as Trojan Horses for foreign intervention in their internal affairs. Many worry that NGOs dictate United Nations (UN) human rights and international criminal justice policy, force a Western agenda on countries of the Global South and undermine their national security and sovereignty. Have human rights NGOs become too numerous and too powerful in international and regional policy-making fora? Are they accountable to anyone? Are they really objective and independent? To discover whether or not human rights NGOs can be trusted in the corridors of the UN and international criminal justice institutions, Lyal S. Sunga looks beyond rhetoric and reaction to explore how and why human rights NGOs came to acquire the influence they currently wield, the kinds of NGO issue states argue about in the UN accreditation process, and the many ways in which NGOs interact with the UN human rights system and international criminal justice institutions

Noam Chomsky, Yugoslavia : Peace, war and dissolution, davor džalto (ed.), pm press, oakland, 2018

In this essay, the author reviews and critically assesses the book Yugoslavia: Peace, War, and Dissolution, authored by Noam Chomsky and edited by Davor Džalto. The author also points to the importance and value of the book for the field of political theory, international relations and Yugoslav studies, examining at the same time particular concepts (such as “genocide”) within the broader context of legal theory and international law