The handbook is finally out -- Justice Jakob
Th. Möller and I are happy to announce:
The
Case-Law of the United Nations Human Rights Committee 1977-2008 --
630-pages with annexes, index,
etc. obtainable from N.P.Engel, Kehl and Strasbourg,
June 2009, hardcover · ISBN 978-3-88357-144-7 · 2009 · € 148;
US$ 188; £120; SFr. 236 email: n.p.engel@eugrz.info
Extravantly expensive, but also frightfully thorough and still user-friendly.
The UN Special of June 2009 brings a nice review by
the former High Commissioner for Human Rights Bertrand Ramcharan
on pages 18-19.
This year we harvested over 100 cherries of our
own cherry tree -- which no doubt has produced well over
a thousand cherries, but those are on the higher branches and provide
food for the hundreds of birds who sing to us every morning
beginning 5 a.m.
Last weekend 19-21 June was the fête de la
musique in Geneva, and there were hundreds of events taking
place all over town. Highlights were Grieg's piano concerto at
Victoria Hall, wonderful melodies by Benjamin Britten sung by Nicola
Hollyman (soprano) at the Grand Theatre, our friend Cecile Neeser
playing Debussy's claire de lune and the arabesque on
the harp at the Palais de l'Athénée,
Beethoven's Septuor op. 20 at the Cour de l'Hôtel de Ville,
Brahms Sextuour No. 1 op. 18, and Carl Orff's complete Carmina
Burana:
In trutina mentis dubia
fluctuant contraria
lascivus amor et pudicitia
sed eligio quod video
collum iugo prebeo:
ad iugum tamen suave transeo.
The magic of opera is something very special. I
have heard Bohème and Traviata since my
early childhood. I saw countless operas at the Met when I was an
occasional usher back in 1964-67 and when I used to go to the Saturday
matinees with my parents. Verdi's Trovatore,
which was performed on Monday 15 June 2009 at the Grand Theatre
de Genève, is remarkable in its glorious melodies, including
a high C. But the text of the libretto is so over the top that
one wonders why Verdi ever thought of putting such a bizarre plot
to music -- or why he retained the ludicrous language of
the libretto. It is almost surrealistic how the music rings joyful,
optimistic, even sweet, when Azuzena is bemoaning the burning
of her mother at the stake, or the death of her son, or when Leonora
defends herself against Manrico's reproaches. Words and music just
do not go together. Of course, this was before Wagner's
Gesamtkunstwerk doctrine, meant to marry libretto, score,
scenery and action. I had the privilege to experience Gesamtkunstwerk
in New York under the baton of Erich Leinsdorf and with Birgit
Nilsson and George London in the roles of Brünhild and Wotan
respectively. I miss those Met performances -- Bayreuth has nothing
to offer since the productions have broken the unity of libretto-music-action.
I'll never forget the Schneider-Siemssen production of Parsifal at
the Met in 1992 -- after five hours of music you still did not
want it to end. Nor will I forget Alfredo Kraus' Manrico and
the high C Everest of the cabaleta in "di quella pira".
The Oxford Encyclopedia of Public International
Law just uploaded my online article on "Guantanamo Naval Base".
11 June I participated in a "Roundtable and Interactive Dialogue"
hosted by the International Human Rights Association of American
Minorities and the International Council for Human Rights, in room
XXV of the Palais. I spoke on the Council's mandate on Self-Determination.
3 June I participated on a UN Panel on migration and human rights.
5 June UN consultation on the human right to peace. 9 June again
a UN Panel - this time on the economic, social and cultural rights
of women -- all in French, together with Ambassador Mbaye of Senegal
and Princess Micheline Makou Djouma.
23 May was our spring
outing with P.E.N. Suisse romand -- fabulous weather on the shores
of Lac Leman at Rolle -- good poetry and conviviality. I read part
of my longer conference on Rilke as poet of the Valais Heimat,
concentrating on his Quatrains Valaisans -- I expect to read the
entire conference at the Cercle 21 in Geneva next fall. On Tuesday
night we enjoyed the Cercle 21 conference of Jacques Meylan on
Rilke's Cornet -- and his remarkable translation of Rilke's classic
ballad on youth, love, war and death..
16-17 May Carla and I headed for the mountains again -- by train
-- enjoying the "Goldenpass" panoramic up to Les Avants and discovering
fields upon fields of wild daffodils. We hiked 4 hours on
Saturday and 5 hours on Sunday before taking the cremaillère train
back to Vevey from Les Pléiades. Stayed the night at the cute little
hotel Hélioda in Les Avants (good kitchen!), and from our balcony
we could see not only the Goldenpass panoramic, but also the Goldenpass
"classic" and the "chocolate train" pass by.
Fun weekend.
The Durban Review Conference ended up with an acceptable "outcome
document" and High Commissioner Navy Pillay gave the right
tone in concluding it. The media, however, engaged in an orgy of
desinformation. Seldom have I seen it so bad. The Conference was
not only Mr. Ahmadinejad, but hundreds of ngos, thousands of victims
who came to hear and to be heard, excellent side-events and good
discussions. I myself participated in two UN panels and gave two
televised interviews. I cannot escape the feeling that if Barak
Obama had come to the Durban Review Conference no one would have
given much notice to Ahmadinejad. Obama would have
stolen the show. And if the EU heads of State had constructively
supported the Conference, then the dialogue would have been more
fruitful. Both the boycott and the walkout were counterproductive
in the eyes of most of civil society -- and the "red line" of
the EU was perceived as the red line of arrogance -- not of human
rights. I guess we Americans and Europeans have still a very bad
conscience (with good reason) because of the slave trade, centuries
of exploitation and colonialism.
Wednesday
15 April -- met with the Argentinian Armenians who brought me the
new booklet in Spanish -- my legal opinion -- "El
Genocidio contra los Armenios y la relevancia de la Convención
para la prevención
y la sanción del delito de genocidio" with a Prologue
by the International Commission of Jurists, Buenos Aires, 2009,
ISBN 978-950-895-277-6. As soon as I get the electronic version
I will upload it. The English brochure containing my legal
opinion on the Armenian genocide is currently out of print.
The book A Constitutional Convention for
Cyprus edited by Professor Andreas
Auer (Zürich) just came out, containing the studies presented
at the 2008 Conference, in which I delivered a paper on "Self-determination.
Turkish settlers and Cyprus referenda", Wissenschaftlicher
Verlag Berlin, 2009, ISBN 978-3-86573-423-5.
The conference was hosted on 4-5 April 2008 by the Centre
for Research on Direct Democracy of the Univesity of Zurich.
I participated on Panel
2 of the Conference on "A
Constitutional Convention for Cyprus". The conference
was attended by 120 participants and enriched by the lectures
of many distinguished professors including Daniel Thürer
of the University of Zurich, Thomas Bruha of the University
of Hamburg, Stelios Perrakis of the University of Athens,
as well as distinguished Greek, Turkish, Greek-Cypriot and Turkish-Cypriot
scholars.The Conference was opened by Micheline
Calmy Rey, Foreign Minister of Switzerland. I outlined
the procedural issues associated with self-determination
referenda.
Monday 13 April -- 36 Km cycling tour to the source of the river
Allondon in the French Jura. The Allondon later empties into the
Rhone in Geneva. Sunday 12 April -- cyclung tour to the Versoix
river and long walk along both banks. Saw a lot of wild ail de
l'ours. Sunday, 5 Apirl -- first cycling tour of the season --
49 kilometers through the vineyards of Dardagny, Perssy, Satigny,
visiting churches and chapels on the way.
Sunday 29 March -- glorious skiing with
Maritza, Bob, Alessa and Ian in La Tzumaz. Friday, 20 March - lectured
at the Fourth Global Issues Network (GIN) Conference "Giving
Everyone a Chance" in
Geneva. Linked up with Berkeley Professor Kirk Boyd of the 2048
Project.
Good students, challenging questions. Thursday 19 March -- participated
in a UN-Panel
on the three pillars of the UN: peace, development and human rights.Tuesday,
17 March -- sat on a UN-panel on the Human Right to Peace
and the Durban Review Conference as a side-event of the 10th session
of the Human Rights Council. 9 March - participated in the NGO-meeting
with High Commissioner Pilay, I represented the International Society
for Human Rights and spoke on the Luarca Declaration on the Human
Right to Peace.
Thursday, 5 March --
participated in a side-event of the Human Rights Council and spoke
with the President of the UN General Assembly Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann
(Nicaragua) on the human right to peace. Personally handed him
a copy of the book by Carlos Villán
Durán "La
Declaración
de Luarca sobre el Derecho Humano a la Paz", in which I wrote
the chapter "el crimen contra la paz".
Wednesday, 4 March. The President of the UN General Assembly
gave a remarkable address to the Human Rights Council. Finally
someone who tells politically incorrect facts -- even when they
upset the powerful, who evidently believes in human
rights and not in the human rights industry. This is more than
the many delegations of the HR Council who mostly play politics.
His speech showed factual knowledge and
refreshing honesty. Din't expect to hear such words in the Council.
It's a confirmation that 2 plus 2 actually adds up to 4.
The Pages Littéraires of the Centre PEN Suisse
romand have just come out -- edited by our Committee member Jacques
Herman, and with excellent articles by Etienne Barilier,
VaheéGodel, Mousse Boulanger, Alexis Koutchoumow etc. It is such
a pleasure to hold the finished product in my hands -- indeed,
it took much effort on the part of everybody. I only contributed
an introduction focusing on the Charter of PEN and our vocation
to work for peace and greater understanding among nations -- through
literature.
The March issue
of UN
Special published
my poem "Salève,
Parnasse Genevois" very nicely on the last page -- p. 50.
Beautiful photo with it.
Tuesday, 2 March. Our tortoise Masha just woke up from
4 and a half months of hibernation. Absolutely delightful -- washed
her twice, gave her water and some doucette to eat.
Just received a copy of Humanitäres Völkerrecht,
published by The German Red Cross -- with my article "Gewaltverbot,
Menschenrecht auf Frieden und die Luarca Erklärung vom 30.
Oktober 2006" , vol.
21, No. 4/(2008), pp 214-220.
Saturday
28 February, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung published on page
10 my op-ed on the ongoing German-Polish debate on the establishment
of a Stiftung
Flucht Vertreibung Versöhnung in Berlin.
Saturday
21 February -- back to Crozet/Lelex for some lazy skiing on excellent
fresh snow. The view of the Mont Blanc and Dents du Midi was totally
free.
Friday 23 January The United Nations Society of Writers held its 13th annual Ex Tempore salon, which I moderated. 52 persons came and this time we offere music -- Hans Schmocker played the flute in-between poems -- and more languages than usual, honouring the international year of languages. Hoang Nguyen declamation in Vietnamese -- with translation into French -- was particularly appreciated by the audience.
Tuesday 20 January I was interviewed in Geneva's Radio Cité on
the inauguration of Barak Obama and what he should do in his first
100 years. Let's be optimistic!
Saturday 10 January Carla and I spent a glorious afternoon skating
on the Lac de Joux under a deep blue sky and surrounded by snowed-under
conifers. Lots of happy people and dogs of all sizes and colours
on the ice. The only thing missing was the Dutch Windmills on a
painting by Henrick Averkamp or Jan van Goyen. Took a lot of pictures
-- see Photos/Leisure7 with me the
Dent de Vaulion (1482m ). Saturday 17 January we were back on the
slopes -- this time skiing in
Combloux with a marvelous view of the Mont Blanc. Friday/Saturday
13714 February we celebrated Valentines skiing and bubbling at
the thermal baths of Ovronnaz in the Valais.
The January 2009 issue of the UN Special (staff
monthly magazine with a run of 11,000 copies) published my article "The UN Society of Writers Welcomes 2009" which
brings an update on activities of UNSW/SENU and
a picture of the "Soirée Ex Tempore" 2008. the
article goes online next week.
Just back from 5 days harvesting olives in the Provence (some
400 kilos) and then 3 glorious days of skiing in
Alpe d'Huez, in Savoie, staying at a cute hotel in La Foret de
Maronne, a small village near La Garde.
Whoever has temporarily lost her/his joie de vivre should run to a performance of Johann Strauss' Die Fledermaus. On 22 December we saw a brilliant production at the Grand Theâtre in Geneva -- bubbling Lebensfreude! Especially this Glyndebourne mise en scène by Stephen Lawless, Benoît Dugardyn and Ingeborg Berneth. Pure fun!
From 15 to 20 December the Geneva School of Diplomacy hosted a successful seminar on disarmament, attended by several Ambassadors, together with the UN University of Peace. This time I am not lecturing, but only joining in the discussion -- especially on issues associated with the Non Proliferation Treaty. An impressive course.
On Wedenesday 17 December I represented the Spanish Association for the Advancement of International Human Rights Law at the UN consultation held at the Palais Wilson, hosted by the UN Working Group on Mercenaries. I made the link between promoting a culture of peace, eliminating impunity for gross human rights violations and banning the use of private military companies, e.g. in Iraq. War should be abolished, not privatized!
Grand Saconnex lies under a mantle of snow and the whole Jura chain is white, the trees heavy and beautiful. On Sunday 14th we tried every slope in Crozet/Lelex, barely 20 minutes away from the house, under a benevolent blue sky and minus 3 temperatures. On Saturday 20th we were back on the slopes, taking the red Les Astres three times. They have a new 6-seater telesiège that takes you over spectacularly ethereal Christmas-like landscapes.
On Saturday 13 December I spoke the Laudatio to Dr. Marianne Bouvier at the ceremony conferring upon her the human rights award of the Volksgruppe der Donauschwaben. The event was musically accompanied by the Tapach Choir, singing Mozart, Elgar and a wonderful anonymous "Dona nobis pacem" at the beautiful Gothic chapel of the Altes Schloss in Stuttgart. On 15 December the Stuttgarter Zeitung reported favourably and extensively.
On 9-10 December 2008 the Institut Pierre Werner in Luxembourg, the Instituto Internazionale Jacques Maritain, Rome, and the University of Luxembourg held a conference focusing on new approaches to contemporary human rights issues. I spoke on "the universal system of Protection of Human Rights" and elaborated on a new human rights paradigm where enabling rights like the right to peace play a central role. Other participants were Professorr Nicholas Michel of the University of Geneva, Ambassador Christian Strohal of Austria and Roberto Papini, Secretary General of the International Jacques Maritain Institute.
The UN Staff magazine UN Special just published my article on the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in its December issue, available online.
On 22 November I gave a Rilke lecture at the Alte Zwirnerei in Bazenheid in the Ostschweiz, near Wil. The event was hosted by the Kulturkommission Mühlau, and moderated by Dr. Peter Küpfer of the Kulturkommission in Toggenburg. Two newspaper headlines in the local press : "Ein Hochgenuss für Literaturfreunde" (a delight for literature friends) and "Von René zu Rainer Maria Rilke". The knowledgeable audience numbered some 60 persons and the animated discussion lasted until well past eleven p.m., in spite of the snow storm outside.
On 13-16 November the three Swiss PEN Clubs commemorated Writers in Prison Day by holding a number of public debates and poetry readings in Lugano, Zurich and Geneva. On Friday 14 November at the Bibliothèque de la Cité in Geneva, our Centre PEN Suisse romand hosted two Iraqui poets Ali Al-Shalah and Khazal Al-Majidi, who recited in arabic from their books. Three professional actors read out the translations into French with high emotional impact. Zeki Ergas moderated the discussion and our Vice-President Claude Krul provided simultaneous Arabic-French translation during the debate. Musical accompaniment
was provided by Ozan Cadas and his troupe who performed Turkish-Kurdish music. The event was announced and commented on 13 and 14 November in the Courrier de Genève under the rubric "Culture" (page 16).
The yearly event implements our commitment under the Pen Charter to engage "en tout temps de leur influence en faveur de la bonne entente et du respect mutuel des peuples; ils s'engagent à faire tout ler possible pour écarter les haines de races, de classes et de nations, et pour répandre l'idéal d'une humanité vivant en paix dans un monde uni."
In the photo above Ali Al-Shalah recites from his collection "Babylonian Decline" (from left to right: Khazal Al-Majidi, Claude Krul, Ali, de Zayas).
On 5 October 2008, at the Darwish Memorial Lecture hosted by PEN Suisse romand and the UN Society of Writers, Abdel Wahab Hani recited in Arabic the poetry of Mahmoud Darwish. I moderated the literary and human rights event, which was attended by 31 persons and lasted from 4 to 7 p.m. on a beautiful Sunday afternoon.. Claude Krul, Jacques Hermann and Zeki Ergas of PEN delivered profound words about the Palestinian poet, accompanied by readings of translations into French and English.
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev, President of the World Political Forum, hosted a fascinating conference at Bosco Marengo in Piemonte, Italy, on the Implementation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on 5-7 November. Top participants including the President of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, Fausto Pocar, Anatoly Adamishin, UN Special Rapporteur Doudou Diène, Danielle Mitterand, Professor Hal Gardner, Dr. Jona Bargur, Lelio Bentes Correa, Ambassador Stéphane Hessel, etc. etc. I spoke on the Human Right to Peace and personally gave Gorbachev the book "La Declaracion de Luarca" in his very hands -- chatted a while with him and understood every word. He speaks a clear, friendly Russian -- worthy of the glasnost predicate. By the way, the second, revised edition of Carlos Villan Duran's book just came out with Ediciones Madu in Spain. I considerably expanded and updated my article "el crimen contra la paz". Besides Spanish entries, there are other contributions in French and English. At the conference I presented one working paper and participated in two workshops. My closing remarks in the plenary of the Bosco Marengo conference: "Alvaro Gil Robles has reminded us of a number of uncomfortable realities. Allow me one observation: our politicians always pretend to be the 'good guys', and yet they often apply international law à la carte, give lip service to human rights, keep silent about violations by our friends and go around pointing fingers at the others. This has resulted in a feeling of malaise and even pessimism, because we know we are not being entirely honest with ourselves. The Oracle at Delphi told visitors: know yourself - gnothi seaton. Maybe our politicians should try this for once -- just get some mirrors. Then maybe when we regain our credibility we shall have the needed strength to advance the cause of peace, disarmament, solidarity and human dignity. Gospodin Gorbachev, eto sosedanie bila diestvitelna prekrasna. Mi vse ochen blagodorim vas."
Listening to Alvaro Gil Robles and getting ready
to comment.
Pax vobiscum! Although I am still a registered Republican, I cast my absentee ballot for Obama, hoping that Washington will listen more to the needs of the American people, to the needs of the world, and less to the wishes of the military-industrial complex. If I were Obama, I would reach out to all countries and endeavour to cooperate more in ending extreme poverty, reducing hunger, solving the HIV pandemic. I would immediately close Guantanamo. I would take steps to implement the Millennium Development Goals, ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child, endorse the Luarca Declaration on the Human Right to Peace.
Earlier this summer Justice Jakob Th. Möller and I finished our
book manuscript "The Case-Law
of the United Nations Human Rights Committee 1977-2008",
a handbook for practitioners (N.P.Engel Publishers in Kehl/Strasbourg). We sent back the corrected proofs in December 2008, including the index. Pure joy! Lol!
Professor Kirk Boyd of the University of California at Berkeley has just asked me to join the advisory board of the 2048 Project at Berkeley. It's an innovative human rights initiative and I feel very honoured.
A funny thing happened the other day on our way to the forum (not really, on a walk in the vineyards close to Aubonne -- we saw la vipère aspic -- some 60 cm long and not unpretty. I think he/she was more scared than we were.
On 2-3 October the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights conducted a seminar on the links between articles 19 and 20 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. I was the first ngo to take the floor, and reported on the Charter of PEN International and our commitment to promote freedom of expression. I also summarized the relevant judgment of 7 November 2007 of the Spanish Constitutional Court. On 3 October I again took the floor with a statement on the responsibility of writers to promote international understanding. A few days after this important conference, on 10 October 2008, Professor Pierre Nora, member of the Académie française, launched the Appel de Blois on behalf of the liberty of historians to conduct their research freely and the aberration of legislatures that pretend to legislate history and establish dogmas protected by penal law. I strongly support the Appel de Blois, which is consistent with article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and with the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
The Oxford Encyclopedia of Public International Law (edited by Professor Rüdiger Wolfrum, completely rewritten new edition of the famous Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law, edited by Professor Rudolf Bernhardt) has just gone on-line. Of my five entries, three are up: "Forced Population Transfer", "Repatriation" and "Spanish Civil War". Two more are in the pipeline: "Marshall Plan" and "Guantanamo Naval Base". See http://www.mpepil.com/
30 September we held our Millennium Solidarity meeting. Our President Zeki Ergas reported on the new ngo Beyahad Ma'an (Together) which aims at an Israeli-Palestinian solution going well beyond peace -.- the true challenge is the shaping of a better future together. I reported on the Earth Focus event with 500 students still eager to build a more just society. May they keep their enthusiasm in spite of all the commercialism around us!
21 September is International Day of Peace. The UN in Geneva celebrated the occasion on Friday 19 September with a ceremony at the Salle du Conseil, where last year I read out the Statement of Ban Ki Moon. This year Ban Ki Moon was live from New York and Carlos Villan Duran of the Asociacion Española para el Desarrollo y la Aplicación del Derecho Internacional de los Derechos Humanos spoke on progress toward the adoption of the Declaration of Luarca on the Human Right to Peace.. I also participated on a panel of Earth Focus, talking to 500 students on Peace and Sustainable Development.
On 18 September the Rheinischer Merkur brought a nice review of my "50 Thesen zur Vertreibung". We have sold nearly 5000 copies in barely 4 months.
From 11 to 14 September Carla and I were cycling through Paris -- and watching Pope Benedikt XVI on the big screens set up for the event. The Mass on the Invalides drew some 260,000 people. Velib is the new sensation in Paris -- you can easily get a bike for 1 Euro a day, and there are maybe 300 places throughout Paris to drop them off. It's fun (and dangerous) to cycle across the Place de la Concorde -- beautiful cycling under Poplars down to Trocadero and the Tour Eiffel.
From 18 to 25 August Carla and I cycled blithely though Zuidholland and Zeeland, discovering historic mills and churches -- including the magnificent Grote Kerk in Maassluis with its wonderful Garrels organ. Maassluis lies on the Nieuwe Waterweg some 20 Km downstream from Rotterdam - and the fresh, raw haringe are tasty indeed! The "Lange Jan" of the Nieuwe Kerk in Middelburg delighted us with its wonderful carillon.
On 26/27 July the Südmährischer
Landschaftsrat and the city of Geislingen an der Steige conferred
upon me their Kulturpreis. The Geislingen Zeitung and the Göppingen Zeitung reported on 28 July. I received the "Ehrenbrief"
from the hands of the Oberbürgermeister of Geislingen, Wolfgang
Amann, and from the Sprecher of the Süddmährer Franz Longin.
It was a beautiful ceremony in which I articulated my gratefuil
appreciation of the cultural heritage of this part of Europe that
produced Adalbert Stifter, Franz Schubert and Rainer Maria Rilke,
who mean so much to me. I also had the opportunity of introducing
the second, revised edition of my Rilke translations, published
in July 2008 by Red Hen Press in Los Angeles, with a preface by
Professor Ralph Freedman, the foremost Rilke and Hesse expert and
biographer in the United States. René Rilke was not "just"
a metaphysical poet, but at times a kind of Heimat
troubadour.. You can order Larenopfer from
the editor Mark E. Cull (mark@redhen.org),
also redhenpress8@verizon.net,
or go on the publisher's website www.redhen.org.
Of course, you can also find it through Amazon. The November 2005
issue of the Blätter
der Rilke Gesellschaft did a nice review of the
first edition of my translations of Larenopfer (Offerings
to the Lares -- i.e. to the household deities) with commentary.
In these charming 90 poems the then 20-year old Rilke sings his
hometown Prague and homeland Bohemia. For another review in a German-Canadian
journal click here.
The summer reading list of Millikin University in Decatur, Illinois,
praises Larenopfer and the "exquisite illustrations" by
Martin Andrysek. http://www.millikin.edu/english/archives/read07.html).
Red Hen Press is a small publisher specialized in poetry and literature
-- P.O. Box 3537 Granada Hills, California 91394, Tel. 818 - 831.0649,
Fax 818 - 831.6659.
On Wednesday, 16 July I participated in a panel
on disarmament and human rights at the Palais des Nations, as part
of the Graduate Study Programme of the Office of the UN High Commissioner
for Human Rights, organizized by the Department of Public Information
of UNOG and the World Federation of United Nations Associations.
Some 250 students filled the great Hall XVI -- and they asked very
pertinent questions. The event was sponsored by the Swedish mission,
and the Ambassador invited the panelists and the prize-winners among
the students to a wonderful luncheon on the 8th floor of the Assembly
Building.
On Saturday 28 June the Geneva School of Diplomacy celebrated its
graduation ceremony at the Château de Penthes. Fresh new doctors,
masters and bachelors of international relations paraded under the
huge chestnut- and plane trees; I had the pleasure of being in the
doctoral and masters commissions of many of them, and as in prior
years, I will miss the regular contact with these young, promising
students, but will surely hear from them when they want references!
Laura Maillet was an enthusiastic valedictorian. Doctorates honoris
causa were conferred by GSD President Dr. Colum Murphy on Esam
Yousif Janahi, an acclaimed Middle East economist, famous for the
Bahrain Financial Harbour and the "Energy City"; also
on Professor Curtis Roosevelt, grandson of Franklin and Eleanor,
a truly fine mind -- and a gentleman. A third honorary doctorate
was conferred in absentia upon His Serene Highness Albert
II of Monaco, who personally received the honour from Dr. Murphy
on Tuesday 1 July.
On Friday 27 June I interviewed the Al-Jazeera journalist Samy El Haj, who spent six years unjustly detained in Guantanamo. The interview was published in the July issue of the Swiss newspaper Current Concerns.
On Thursday 19 June I participated in a UN Panel on discrimination
and harassment of staff members. Well attended and many good questions.
The United Nations Society of Writers held its annual General Assembly
on Tuesday 17 June at the Escargot lounge in the Palais des Nations.
We celebrated the 57 authors of our most successful Ex Tempore
yet -- number 18 and drank some elderflower champagne and some of
the real stuff too. The UN Special published a
nice little article with photo illustration: "Ex
Tempore- Nouveau Numéro et Soirée Littéraire"
on page 33 of the April 2008 issue. Indeed, volume 18 of Ex
Tempore is remarkably variegated with its 164 pages of essays,
poetry, short stories, drama and aphorisms in Arabic, English, French,
German, Italian , Russian and Spanish. A literary tour de force.
ISSN 1020-6604. Elections went as expected -- Karin Kaminker
remains our President, Carla Edelenbos our Vice-President, Janet
Weiler our Treasurer and we have a new Secretary, Rose Buisson-Sauvage.
I was confirmed as Editor-in-Chief.
The Centre Suisse romand of P.E.N. International held its spring
outing on Saturday, 24 May on the shores of Lac Leman at Rolle.
A wonderful afternoon of poetry and essays in French -- with some
Arabic, English, Spanish and German added for good measure. Luce
Péclard's sonnets were particularly evocative, as Jacques
Herman's were touching and humorous. David Walter's short story
was riveting and compassionate. We also discussed the new format
of the forthcoming edition of our Pages littéraires,
for which we still have to get an ISSN number, and the preparations
for our joint events with PEN Svizerra italiana and Deutschschweizer
PEN in November, to commemorate Writers in Prison day.
The Geneva journal DIVA
International devoted its May/June 2008 issue to Human Rights.
I contributed the commentary "Human Rights in the New Millennium"
on pages 4-5 (http://www.divainternational.ch/spip.php?article354).
On 7 May 2008 my 50 Thesen zur Vertreibung (info@verlag-inspiration.de)
were published in a first edition of 10,000 copies. ISBN 978-3-9812110-0-9.
www.verlag-inspiration.de.
DIE WELT commented them favourably in its edition of 10 May, page
2 http://www.welt.de/welt_print/article1982667/Sudetendeutsche_hoffen_auf_neuen_Prager_Fruehling.html
The 22nd Salon du livre de Genève (annual book
fair) opened on 30 April and will last through 4 May. The last issue
of the UN literary journal Ex Tempore can be seen at the
United Nations stand on Rue Balzac. Myself, I spent two hours at
the stand of the Société genevoise des Écrivains
on Rue Flaubert 8 on Friday 2 May, exhibiting a selection
of my books, including the very last copies of the first
edition of my Rilke translations. The second, revised edition is
coming out very shortly with Red Hen Press in Los Angeles
-- with a perceptive foreword by the great Ralph Freedman, who is
not only the foremost Rilke expert in the US, but also
a fabulous Hesse biographer. I already corrected the proofs. What
a joy it is to be surrounded by millions of words written by a thousand
felicitous fencers of the pen! Elating indeed!
On 18-19 April I participated in an intenational conference on
the Armenian genocide, held at Nicosia, Cyprus, on the occasion
of the 93rd anniversary of the beginning of the genocide. I delivered
a lecture before
some 80 participants.
On 10 April I repesented the Spanish Society for the Advancement
of International Human Rights Law before the UN Working Group on
the use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights and
impeding the exercise of the right of peoples to self-determination.
I spoke of the the human right to security of person (article 9
of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights) and
the grave danger posed by the immunity/impunity of private security
contractors (PSCs) and private military companies (PMCs), operating
in ways analogous to mercenaries. In this context I referred to
GA Resolution 62/145 of 18 December 2007 and the corresponding HRC
Resolution extending the mandate of the Working Group. It is imperative
to adopt and enforce international rules to prevent the abuses committed
by PMCs in Iraq, Afghanistan, Colombia, etc. Of course, if the Luarca
Declaration on the Human Right to Peace were respected, there would
be no armed conflict and no PMCs. Privatization of industry is one
thing. Privatization of war is chaos and a serious challenge to
human rights. Other participants were Amnesty International, the
International Commission of Jurists, the Geneva Centre for the Democratic
Control of Armed Forces (DCAF) and Human Rights First.
Bernward Koch-Boehm issued in March 2008 a CD-recording with
Erdenklang/da music, Nr. 61182. Deutsche Austrophon GmbH,
D-49356 Diepholdz, 2008. The piano CD is dedicated to Hermann
Hesse 1946 Nobel laureate for Literature, and reproduces
the text of Hesse's wonderful poem "Stufen",
together with my translation. The CD is entitled "Montagnola.
Dedicated to Hermann Hesse. Meditative Piano Improvisations".
Just lovely!
On 7 March I spoke at a side-event of the Council, on a UN
panel at the Palais des Nations devoted to extreme poverty and the
human right to peace. Professor Carlos Villán Durán,
President of the Asociación Española para el Desarrollo
y la Aplicación del Derecho Internacional de los Derechos
Humanos, moderated the discussion together with the Director de
Unesco Etxea (Pais Vasco). Other participants were Charlotte Le
Den of the Institut International de Recherches pour la paix (Gipri),
Geneva, Rogate R. Mshana of the World Council of Churches:, Viet
Tu Tran of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and Mario
Yutzis, Former Chairperson of the UN Committee on Elimination of
Racial Discrimination. My topic was the right to development as
a component of the human right to peace. I also focused on the Millennium
Declaration and the Millennium Development Goals. I counted 54 persons
in the audience -- not too bad considering the competition.
On 23 February we held the annual General Assembly of PEN Centre
Suisse romand in Lausanne. We elected four new members to our Committee:
Alex Caire, Jacques Herman, Fanny Mouchet and Glorice Weinstein.
Looking forward to working with the new team, together with Vice-President
Claude Krul and Sec-Gen Zeki Ergas. Next event will be the PEN International
meeting in Glasgow. Literature is for literature -- but it is also
a marvelous medium to promote a culture of peace and human rights.
On 25 January we hosted the 12th annual Ex Tempore evening.
67 poets and essayists from the United Nations family (UNOG, ILO,
WHO, UNHCR), including members of PEN International, Centre Suisse
romand, came to our home to celebrate literature in English, French,
Spanish, Russian, Arabic and even Vietnamese. This time we missed
Chinese, which we have had in previous years, as well as German
and Italian. Aline Dedeyan did her humorous sketch, and people left
pretty happy. It was a fun evening..
From 28 December 2007 to 2 January 2008, thirty thousand young
people flocked to Geneva for the annual congress of the oecumenical
Christian movement Taizé -- Bolivians (Cochabamba), Kenyans,
Egyptians, Palestinians, Israelis, Iraquis, Chinese, Philippinos,
Indonesians, Lithuanians, Poles (the largest contingent), Czechs,
Slovaks, Hungarians, Germans, French, Dutch, Belgians, Bosnians,
Croats, Serbs, Albanians, Montenegrins, Kosovars, Belorussians,
Russians, Ukrainians, Romanians, Italians, Portuguese, Spaniards,
etc.. They stayed in Calvin's protestant citadel (Frère Roger
was also a Protestant), assembling primarily at the convention centre
Palexpo, where they conducted their workshops on practical ethics,
peace, spirituality -- not exactly as the "United Nations",
but surely as "united young people" of the world. They
were housed all over town, mostly in private homes and apartments
in the whole area of Lac Leman, as far as St. Saphorin. We hosted
8 young people -- six Spaniards and two Italians -- four girls and
four boys -- a delightful little group. We participated in a few
of their activities, including the prayer meeting from 7 to 8 p.m.
on 30 December -- there were 38,000 people at Palexpo, and everyone
received a candle. The flame came from Bethlehem. Next annual congress
will take place in Brussels from 29 December 2008 to 2 January 2009.
Our guests are gone - back to their own homes - and we miss them.
On 18 December 2007 the United Nations commemorated International
Migrants Day. Here at the United Nations in Geneva a round table
was organized in room XXIV of the Palais des Nations to revisit
aspects of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which will
be celebrating its 60th anniversary in 2008. We discussed the meaning
of the Declaration for UN staff, which is made up of "migrants"
from 193 nations. I read out the Migrants-Day statement of Secretary-General
Ban Ki-Moon: "Migrants are often driven by the aspiration for
a better life. They seek a safer, more prosperous future for their
children, and they are willing to work for it. Given the chance
to make the most of their abilities, on an equal basis, the vast
majority of migrants will be assets to society." I reminded
our listeners that migration is no "deviant" behaviour,
and that the Europeans were the migrants of the 16th, 17th, 18th
and 19th centuries, when they fled poverty and unemployment in Europe
to build new lives in the Western Hemisphere.
On 13 December 2007, I participated in the working meeting of the
advisory board of the Stiftung Zentrum gegen Vertreibungen in Berlin.
Our successful exhibit "Erzwungene Wege" is now
in Munich and will go on to Düsseldorf and Stuttgart in 2008.
A new exhibition on the German settlements in Eastern Europe is
now being elaborated by a team of experts.
On 10 December 2007, 59th anniversary of the adoption of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights by the UN General Assembly, I was honoured
in Stuttgart with the Human Rights Award of the Danube Swabian Society
of Germany (Volksgruppe der Donauschwaben e.V.). My former law professor
in Tübingen, Professor Thomas Oppermann held the laudatio.
Nice to have such friends! The Tapach Choir accompanied the ceremony
with Schubert and Beethoven. The event was reported on 11 December
in the Stuttgarter Zeitung under the header "Donauschwaben
zeichnen aus", p. 22.
On 7 December the Deutsche Welle interviewed me by telephone on
the Kosovo situation, pros and cons of a unilateral declaration
of independence and its implications for the self-determination
aspirations of Kurds, Basques, Catalans etc.. The Interview was
broadcast on 10 December.
The Zeitschrift für ausländisches öffentliches
Recht und Völkerrecht just published my long review of
Frank Hoffmeister's book on Cyprus and the Annan Plan, Vol. 67,
Nr. 3, pp. 987-991. The 2007 Cyprus Yearbook of International Relations
is publishing another article by me on the subject, but, alas, the
issue ist not out yet. Maybe before Xmas.
Diva International just published in its December
2007 issue pp. 40-41 my article on September
21, International Day of Peace, which contains the full text
of the statement by Ban-ki Moon, which I read out at the Salle de
Conseil at the Palais des Nations during the round table on the
human right to peace.
The University of Toronto journal Genocide
Studies and Prevention ( Vol. 2, No. 2, 2007) just published
my study "The Istanbul Pogrom of 6-7 September 1955 in the
Light of International Law". See abstract.The
article was translated into Greek and published in full length in
two consecutive issues of the Athens newspaper ó Politeis,
under the title "Septemvriana", September/October
2007. A longer version of the legal opinion was published in the
book by Professor Speros Vryonis, The Mechanism of Catastrophe,
ISBN 13: 978-0-9747660-6-5, second revised edition, New York 2007.
On 17 September I moderated a round table at the Palais des Nations,
Salle XXI, just outside the meeting room of the Human Rights Council.
Topic was "la dignité
de la personne au coeur des droits de l'homme", and the
participants were Archbishop Silvano Tomassi, Nonce apostolique,
Clément Imbert, représentant de Points-Coeur, Philippe
LeBanc, délégué permanent de l'Ordre Dominicain
aux Nations Unies, Jakob Möller, ancien juge à la Chambre
des Droits de l'Homme à Sarajevo, and Bertrand Ramcharan,
former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
In October 2007 the Institut für Zeitgeschichte in Munich,
together with the Zentrum gegen Vertreibungen in Berlin, published a small book "Die Posdamer Konferenz 60 Jahre danach",
containing the speeches delivered at the Berlin Colloquium on the
Potsdam Conference. The panelists were Prof. Helmut Altrichter of
the University Erlangen-Nürnberg, Prof. Alexei Filitov of the
Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow, Prof. Anthony Nichols of
Oxford, Prof. Georges-Henri Soutou of the Sorbonne, and myself.
Prof. Guido Knopp, chief historian at ZDF, moderated the lively
discussion. On 23 July 2005 the Bayernkurier
had already published a short version of my thesis on Potsdam
Das unbewältigte
Erbe der Potsdamer Konferenz.
On 15 September 2007 I delivered a lecture at the Felix Ermacora
Institut in Vienna entitled "Rainer
Maria Rilke als Heimatdichter: von böhmischer Heimat zur
walliser Wahlheimat". There were about 100 persons in the audience
and I learned a lot from the discussion that followed.
On 28-30 June I participated in the Civil
Society Development Forum 2007 in Geneva, which is working on
a "Platform for Development: Countdown to 2015". The goal
is to implement the Millennium Development Goals which the UN General
Assembly adopted at the 2000 Millennium summit and reaffirmed at
the 2005 summit. I spoke on behalf of the Spanish Society for the
Advancement of International Human Rights Law,
Asociación Española para el Desarrollo y la Aplicación
del Derecho Internacional de los Derechos Humanos (AEDIDH) and
focused on the "Luarca
Declaration". I moderated the workshop
on the human right to peace, in which Proferssor Krishna Ahooja
Patel (India) spoke eloquently on the sequels of colonialism and
the ravages of 21st century imperialism, while Dr. Zeki Ergas (Millennium
Solidarity) focused on extreme poverty as a form of genocide by
omission or passive genocide, and a threat to international peace
and security. See the conclusions
of our workshop. Renate Bloem, President of the Conference of NGOs
in consultative relationship with the United Nations (CONGO), awarded
Commendations
to Millennium Solidarity and Gcap Geneva for our support in the
white band campaign and the successful "Stand
Up Against Poverty" event in October 2006 (23,542,614 people
throughout the world marched or stood up against extreme poverty
and for solidarity with the less fortunate of our planet).The certificates
are signed by Salil Shetty, Director, UN Millennium Campaign.
On 18-19 June at the Hôtel Westminster in Nice, the UFR Institut
du Droit de la Paix et Développement de l'Université
de Nice Sophia-Antipolis, avec la collaboration de l'Institut International
de Droit Humanitaire (Sanremo), held a fascinating colloquium on
"Religions et Droit International Humanitaire". I was
on the panel devoted to "les doctrines religieuses et les sources
formelles du droit international humanitaire" and delivered
a paper entitled "Normes
morales et normes juridiques: concurrence ou conciliation",
which will be published shortly.
The Geneva Post Quarterly
just published my new article on "Minority rights in the New
Millennium". Citation: The Geneva Post Quarterly, Volume 2,
Number 1, May-June 2007, pp. 155-208
The May-June 2007 issue of Diva International published
my interview with Isabel
Contreras, Director of Life
Motivations. The October 2006 issue of the Swiss journal Diva
International published my article on "Peace and
P.E.N.International", focusing on the contribution of Poets,
Essayists and Novelists to a culture of peace and of human rights.
This was the hope of the young British poet Wilfried Owen, who fell
in WWI, and of the young German novelist Erich Maria Remarque, whose
"All quiet on the western front" remains one
of the most perceptive analyses on youth, war and the will to live.
Pax optima rerum. Indeed, it is the noble function of poets,
essayists and novelists to remind the politicians of the values
for which we ostensibly stand, for tolerance and human dignity,
for reconciliation and the Sermon on the Mount.
Martin Tielke's (ed.) Biographisches Lexikon
für Ostfriestland, Vol. 4, Aurich 2007, ISBN 3-932206-62-2
just came out, including my entry on the late Admiral
Karl Smidt, known by all his crews and his friends
as "Karolus", the NATO Navy Chief and former commander
of the "Erich Giese", sunk in Narvik in April 1940. What
a privilege to have known this honourable man with such a sense
for history, humour and humanity!
On 15-17 December I attended a conference on Cyprus
at Athens and took time to admire the Acropolis, grateful to the
ancient Greeks for their gift to civilization -- the cult of reason,
the Logos, and a sense for moderation, meden agan.
On 27 January we had a follow-up meeting in Geneva with Professor
Andreas Auer of the University of Geneva.
On October 17-19 New York University's Jean Monnet
Centre for International and Regional Economic Law and Justice
hosted an international symposium at its Florence (Italy) "La
Pietra" campus, which was devoted to "Rethinking
the Cyprus Problem: A European Approach". (http://www.nyulawglobal.org/events/cyprusparticipants.htm)
Professor Joseph Weiler presented a ground-breaking, thought-provoking
working paper, which a round
table of professors, diplomats, practitioners and experts analyzed.
We tackled not only the principles but also the functional and practical
aspects of Professor Weiler's proposals. I introduced and commented
the joint paper on constitution-making, which a year ago, on
12 October 2005, members of the "International Expert Panel
on a Cyprus Settlement" had presented before the European Parliament
in Brussels, where I had made opening
remarks on a "principled basis for a just and
lasting Cyprus settlement", and focused on the peaceful settlement
of disputes and on the principles of sovereignty, equality and independence
of States embodied in Article 6 of the European Union Treaty.
At the Florence round
table, I also delivered a paper on "The
Legal Status of the Turkish settlers".
See also Profressor
Auer's site.
On 8 October 2005 the International Association
for the Protection of Human Rights in Cyprus hosted a conference
under the auspices of the Secretary General of the Council of Europe,
and with the participation of numerous judges and advocates of the
European Court in Luxembourg and the European Court of Human Rights
in Strasbourg. Here is the abstract
of my paper. On
Thursday, 1 September 2005, at Nicosia, Cyprus, members of the international
expert panel presented "A
principled basis for a just and lasting Cyprus settlement in the
light of International and European Law" to President
Tassos Papadopoulos of Cyprus, to the leader of the Turkish-Cypriot
community, Mehmet Ali Talat, and to his eminence, Bishop Nikiforos
of Kikko. The paper was prepared by eight professors including Andreas
Auer, Marc Bossuyt, Peter Burns, Dieter Oberndorfer, Silvio-Marcus
Helmons, Malcolm Shaw and myself. Click here for the executive
summary. On 3 September 2005 I gave an interview to
the Cyprus Weekly,
which was published on 14 September 2005. I particularly enjoyed
meeting Titina Loizidou whose courage and perseverance
led to the now famous judgements of 1996 and 1998 of the European
Court of Human Rights. Titina is an expellee from Northern Cyprus
and her efforts to vindicate the right to return and the right to
restitution are of immeasurable value for the development of international
law. She is a true heroine of human rights and a living icon of
international law.
En 18-19 diciembre 2006 estuve de nuevo en Alcalá
de Henares, cuna de Cervantes, donde participé en la comision
de doctorado de un joven Aleman, Björn Arp, a quien le concedimos
la nota más alta de summa cum laude por una tesis
estupenda sobre los derechos de las minorías. A finales de
Noviembre había gozado de 5 espléndidos días
en Madrid, donde visité a mis primos de Oviedo, y conocí
el Club Zayas.
Disfruté enormemente el intercambio con 26 estudiantes de
derecho que tomaron mi curso intensivo en la Universidad de Alcalá,
ciudad patrimonio de la humanidad, llena de simpáticas cigueñas
y vestigios de la vieja ciudad Romana que se llamó en su
época Complutum.
The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
favourably reviewed the new edition of my book "Die deutschen
Vertriebenen" on 31 July under the felicitous headline "Fast
ein Klassiker" (almost a classic). This new
edition of Anmerkungen zur Vertreibung was published by
Leopold Stocker Verlag, Graz
(Ares), under the new title "Die deutschen Vertriebenen".
ISBN 3- 902475-15-3. For more information contact: carina.spielberger@stocker-verlag.com.
The new American version of the book "A Terrible Revenge"
(Palgrave/Macmillan) was mentioned favourably in the New York Review
of Books in an article by Robert Paxton on 22 November 2007 pp.
49-50 at p. 50. Didactically
useful are the Thesen
zur Vertreibung (ISBN 3-00-016129-6, August 2006).
The very successful Kohlhammer
paperback edition is now completely sold out. Myths and simplifications
are dangerous. One of those myths that I challenge in my theses
is the manichaean myth of the "good guys" and the "bad
guys", which ignores the complexities of life and disregards
the principle of equality and the imperative of respect for the
human dignity of each and every individual, including the victims
of the Vertreibung. At a commencement exercise at Yale
University in 1962 President John Fitzgerald Kennedy said something
very much in point:"The great enemy of truth is very often
not the lie-deliberate, contrived and dishonest-but the myth-persistent,
persuasive and unrealistic. . . . We enjoy the comfort of opinion
without the discomfort of thought.".
The English version of "The German Expellees" (Macmillan,
New York and London, 1993), was subsequently issued in paperback
under the title "A Terrible Revenge" (St. Martin's
Press, New York, 1994).In May 2006 a much revised third edition
was published by Palgrave/Macmillan. Both the English and the German
new editions contain about 20% new material, new photos, new statistical
tables, including new testimonies from Heinz Schön, a survivor
of the greatest sea catastrophe in history, the sinking of the "Wilhelm
Gustloff" on 30 January 1945 with more than 9,000 drowned refugees,
from young Ansgar Graw, born in the Federal Republic of Germany
of East Prussian parents, Bruno Kosak, an Upper Silesian who remained
in the homeland, Erika Murwig, a Pomeranian expellee who expresses
her sense of loss in poetry "Ein Traum", etc. High school
and college teachers may find the "Theses on the Expulsion"
didactically useful. Click here for the Theses.
On Friday 3 February 2006, the Frankfurter Allgemeine
Zeitung published my review
of Professor Norman Finkelstein's thought-provoking
book Beyond Chutzpah, University of California Press, Berkeley.
This book calls for an intellectually honest discourse on the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict and deplores the instrumentalization of Jewish suffering
for political purposes, in particular the aggressive use of the
past to excuse and justify human rights violations in the Israeli-occupied
Palestine territories today. Finkelstein is the son of Holocaust
survivors and keenly aware of the suffering of the Jewish people.
He convincingly calls for a human-rights approach to the solution
of the conflict. Click
here for the review in English translation.
On
Saturday, 6 August 2005 six thousand German expellees and their
families came to Berlin to commemorate "Tag der Heimat"
(The Day of the Homeland). Principal speakers were Angela Merkel,
head of the Christian Democratic Union, then candidate to the German
chancellorship, and now first woman Kanzlerin (Prime Minister) of
Germany, Otto Schilly, the then Social Democratic Minister or the
Interior,
Erika Steinbach, member of the German Parliament
for the CDU party and President of the Zentrum
gegen Vertreibungen in Berlin, and the first UN-High
Commissioner for Human Rights, Dr.
Jose Ayala Lasso, former Foreign Minister of Ecuador.
For the English text of Ayala's fine speech, click
here.
The Ullstein paperback
edition of Die Anglo-Amerikaner und die Vertreibung der Deutschen
(German version of "Nemesis
at Potsdam") is now sold out. On 6 September 2005
a much revised and enlarged 14th edition (hardbound) was published
by Herbig Verlag in Munich under the title Die
Nemesis von Potsdam,
ISBN 3-7766-2454-X. See the very positive review by
Patrick Sutter in the Neue
Zurcher Zeitung, also the review by Herbert
Ammon, and my interview "Verbrechen
gegen die Menschheit" The English version, originally
published by Routledge in London and Boston, ran three editions,
was then republished by the University of Nebraska Press, which
sold out two editions, and today hails its sixth revised and enlarged
edition with Picton Press, rockland, Maine. See "Publications",
infra.
Ninety-one
years ago the first genocide of the Twentieth Century started when
Ottoman Turkey attempted to exterminate its Armenian minorities
numbering two million. On 24 April 1915 the Armenian intelligentsia
was arrested and murdered in Istanbul and elsewhere throughout Turkey,
then the common folk in the towns and villages of Eastern Anatolia
were overrun, slaughtered, deported to the Syrian desert. One and
a half million human beings lost their lives. The survivors either
fled to Russia or went into exile, building the Armenian diaspora
of France, Canada, the United States, Argentina, Australia, etc.
On 20-21 April 2005 a major international conference was held in
Yerevan, with the participation (www.armeniaforeignministry.com/conference/speakers.html)
of American, Canadian, Belgian, German, Israeli, Turkish and other
scholars. My legal
opinion on the Armenian genocide and the 1948 Genocide
Convention was distributed to the participants, as well as the text
of my oral prensentation on International
Law, Human Rights and Genocide. On Sunday 24 April
an estimated one million persons, including many foreign delegations,
among others representatives of the U.S. and French Embassies in
Armenia, lay flowers and wreaths at the Genocide Memorial in Yerevan.
This very moving ceremony was followed by a performance of Verdi's
Requiem and an oecumenical service officiated by His Holiness Karaken
II, Catholicos of all Armenians, at the St. Gregory the Illumitator
Cathedral in Yerevan.
The
spring 2005 issue of the International Review of the Red Cross
was published in May in a new format, and is devoted entirely to
the growing problem of detention (volume 87, number 857, 2005) .
I contributed the chapter on "Human
Rights and Indefinite Detention" -- a matter of relevance
not only in connection with the so-called "war on terror",
incommunicado detention and ill-treatment in Guantanamo and Abu
Ghraib, but also in connection with the internment of undocumented
migrants and asylum seekers. |
Guantanamo:
On Friday, 27 June 2008 I interviewed Samy El Haj, Al-Jazeera journalist who was held and tortured in Guantanamo for six years.
http://www.currentconcerns.ch/index.php?id=613
On Thursday, 27 January 2005, I delivered a public lecture
on the U.S.
occupation of Guantanamo at the University of Trier
(Treverus), where I also gave an intensive international law course
to more than 100 eager students. The Guantanamo lecture was published
as Nr. 28 in the Rechtspolitisches Forum/ Legal Policy Forum series of the Institut für Rechtspolitik an der Universität
Trier, ISSN 1616-8828.
On Thursday, 16 September
2004, the Centre Culturel
Suisse de Paris hosted a press conference on the new
exhibit "Guantanamo Initiative" followed by my lecture
on the subject "Le
défi de Guantánamo", favourably
reported in the Paris press, including l'Humanité..
Meanwhile the lawyers
entrusted with the defense of Guantánamo detainees are having
a rough time, because the Bush Administration is apparently intent
on circumventing the US Supreme Court's judgement of 29 June 2004
ruling that the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights apply in Guantanamo
Bay, and that therefore the detainees are entitled to due process.
See my relevant articles in English, French and German on the subject,
under "Articles-monographies-chapters
in books" in particular the Douglas
McK Brown lecture at the University of British Columbia,
37 U.B.C.Law Review 277-341 (2004) © Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib
are deliberate crimes. Patrick Buchanan's recent book "Where
the Right Went Wrong" (St. Martin's Press, New York 2004),
sheds light on the wrong priorities of the Bush adminsitration.
I reviewed the book for the Frankfurter
Allgemeine Zeitung on 17 November 2004.
Click for my short essays on Human Rights in the New Millennium, Essay
on Genesis, Essay
on Easter, on the Samaritan
woman, on Hölderlin,
on historiography and
the "discovery" of America, on indigenous
names in America,
Maison de Paroisse
And
now for some Reviews of:
Nemesis
at Potsdam (Picton Press, Rockland Maine, 6th
revised edition, 2003, sales@pictonpress.com, candyperry@pictonpress.com).
German version Die Nemesis von Potsdam, Herbig
Verlag, Munich, 2005 (g.koralus@herbig.net).
"His is a lucid, scholarly and compassionate study. Most pertinently he insists that we deny what the lesser histories conspire with us to invent--that there are stopping places in history." Tony Howarth, Times Educational Supplement
"The author traces the genesis of the relevant territorial arrangements and ensuing population trnasfers and then gives a well-documented and horrifying account of the exodus, the sufferings and deaths of millions, the ruthlessness of the new masters -- a travesty of the 'orderly and humane' fashion in which the measures were supposed to be carried out." William Guttmann, Observer
"A young legal scholar from New York, Alfred
M. de Zayas, has written a book on a subject long taboo and ignored
by German writers...Truman, Churchill and Stalin agreed at Potsdam
in 1945 that the German populations of Eastern Europe should undergo
'transfer to Germany' but 'in an orderly and humane manner.' Out
of consideration for their Soviet ally, the Western powers made
little attempt to force compliance....Until recently the subject
has been treated with a mixture of shame and resentment. But now
it has begun to come out into the open...Mr. de Zayas said that
he got the idea for the book at Harvard Law School... " New
York Times, 13 February 1977.
"These Volksdeutsche were tragic figures, unfortunate
enough to have been located in the wrong areas at precisely the
wrong times. The circumstances leading to their abysmal situation
are tellingly related by de Zayas in this most important work."
Norman Lederer, Worldview
"An interesting, well-written, and important book covering a topic on which almost nothing has appeared in English" Choice
"The lesson from this well-organized
and moving historical record is not merely that retribution which
penalizes innocent human beings becomes injustice, but that acceptance
of political realities may be a better road to human fulfilment
than the path of violence. Alfred de Zayas has written a persuasive
commentary on the suffering which becomes inevitable when humanitarianism
is subordinated to nationalism"
Benjamin Ferencz, American Journal of International Law
"Books such as this ... deserve a respectful
welcome. There can be no dispute that the eviction and resettlement
of some 16 million people which occurred in Eastern Europe at the
end of the war caused enormous suffering. It is important that authors
such as Mr. de Zayas should form time to time remind us of man's
inhumanity to man." Michael Balfour in International
Affairs
"Profusely illustrated with photographs, documents
and excellent maps, this book analyzes the origin and the effects
of article XIII of the Potsdam Protocol which provided that ethnic
Germans living in the eastern countries would be transferred to
the truncated remains of the Reich 'in an orderly and humane manner'.
As the 16 million Germans were driven westward, some two million
died, but the world remained silent. Outraged by the crimes Nazis
had perpetrated ...the whole world, with a few exceptions, like
Bertrand Russell and Albert Schweizer, remained mum.... de Zayas
is perhaps best when delineating the legal aspects of the Potsdam
action, although his historical facts are equally impeccable....Due
to the willingness of the press and the scholarly comunity in the
West to ignore these facts of the Potsdam accord, few Americans
or Britons know there ever was an expulsion, let alone authorization
of the compulsory transfer. Questioning rhetorically whether the
wrong could ever be righted, de Zayas maintains that the West could
affirm its regard for individual guilt or innocence and reject the
concept of collective guilt." Professor LaVern Rippley, St.
Olaf College, Die Unterrichtspraxis, Vol. 11, No.
2, 1978, pp. 132-133.
"L'ouvrage est édifiant et sera pour
beaucoup une révélation. M. de Zayas n'est pas tendre
pour les Alliés, qui ont fermé les yeux sur l'une
des entreprises les plus inhumaines de l'histoire de la civilisation
occidentale, la responsabilité des démocraties anglo-saxonnes
étant a cet egard primordiale." Revue Générale
de Droit International Public
In minuziöser Quellenarbeit zeigt de Zayas,
dass in Polen und der Tschechoslowakei schon lange vor dem Krieg
die Absicht gehegt wurde, die dort wohnhaften Deutschen aus ihrer
rund 700-jährigen Heimat zu vertreiben. Beide Staaten missachteten
ihre völkerrechtlichen Verpflichtungen zum Schutz von Minderheiten
... De Zayas erkennt darin einem Präzedenzfall fuer spätere
Vertreibungen in Palästina, Zypern, Bosnien oder Kosovo. Sein
engagiertes Wirken gegen solche 'Kriegsstrategien' hat bedeutdenden
Anteil daran, dass sich das Recht auf die Heimat in den letzten
Jahren als fundamentales Menschenrecht etablieren konnte.
Patrick Sutter in der Neuen Zürcher Zeitung.
Reviews of The
Wehrmacht War Crimes Bureau (Picton Press, 4th revised
edition, 2000, sales@pictonpress.com; candyperry@pictonpress.com
). German version Die
Wehrmacht Untersuchungsstelle (Universitas Verlag,
Munich, 7th edition 2001, g.koralus@herbig.net)
"De Zayas is undoubtedly one of the world's leading legal scholars addressing forced population transfers ... [his] work provides massive confirmation of the truism that atrocities are committed in war by all sides, that many go unpunished, and some are part of national policy....the possibility that truth might be misused in argument by the devil is not a reason to suppress truth. I have no personal doubt that this book is a useful attempt to preserve an important truth. By writing it, the author -- whose own humanitarian sympathies are beyond question, as is Levie's scholarly detachment --has done a service to scholarship." Alfred Rubin in The Fletcher Forum
"The Wehrmacht War Crimes Bureau, 1939-1495
is a fascinating book. It is well-organized and elegantly written
... a sobering new look at the Second World War and ourselves ..
With the appearance of this new book ... our innocence comes to
an official end." Arnold Krammer, Journal of Soviet
Military Studies
"The facts were painstakingly resarched by the author. Archives were consulted and cross-checked and survivors interviewed. It is an academic job well done, and a must for students of small islands of sanity in the ocean of madness called war" Lt.-Gen. G.C. Berkhof, Netherlands International Law Review
"thoroughly and skillfully researched"- Col. Ernest Fischer in Army
"This well-written book, which is based on
thorough research of original sources... triggered a broad discussion...
It is timely and necessary to discuss the legal, sociological and
psychological problems involved in the investigation of war crimes
during and after armed conflicts." Dieter Fleck, in Archiv
des Völkerrechts
"Dr. de Zayas first came upon the previously
undiscovered 226 volumes of WUSt documents as a Fulbright fellow
on leave from his studies in International Law at Harvard. After
concluding his legal studies, de Zayas subsequently earned a Ph.D.
in history and the University of Göttingen, where he later
became an associate. The Institute supported the research on which
this study is based and arranged for the assistance of a Dutch international
law specialist, Dr. Walter Rabus ... Mindful that the WUSt might
have been manipulated by Goebbels's Propaganda Ministry, the authors
were punctilious in their verification. They carefully examined
the documents for internal consistency and continuity and then verified
the reports and testimony, where possible, with judges, medical
examiners and witnesses still alive. In addition, they compared
WUSt documents with those of other German agencies in seven additional
German archives, and with documents in British,.Dutch, Swiss, and
American archives. In this exhaustive analysis, it becomes clear
that the WUSt operated with scrupulous objectivity and therefore
that its documents constitute a valuable new source for the study
of the conduct of war. This carefully documented administrative
history together with its excellent bibliography will therefore
become an important introduction to this extensive archive. The
Wehrmacht-Untersuchungsstelle is at once an interesting history
of an internal agency of the Third Reich and an important archival
and historiographical contribution to the study of the war."
German Studies Review, Vol. 4, No. 1 (Feb., 1981),
pp. 150-151.
"a well-founded book" Professor
Norman Stone in the Sunday Times, London
"an excellent book" Professor
Christopher Greenwood in The Cambridge Law Journal
"an important book" Professor L.F.E.
Goldie in the American Journal of International Law
Reviews of A
Terrible Revenge new revised edition (Palgrave/Macmillan,
New York) e.leithauser@palgrave.com.
German version Die deutschen Vertriebenen, Leopold
Stocker Verlag/Ares, Graz 2006, stocker-verlag@stocker-verlag.com
"This popularly written but still scholarly
study follows the author's other successful books in the fields
of history and international law [which] were hailed by historians
as well as lawyers as masterpieces of academic craftsmanship. His
book.presents in a nutshell the history of the ethnic German population
which had settled in the early 13th century in large parts of what
is nowadays Eastern Europe." Netherlands International
Law Review
"The author has given the history of these
expulsions a dramatic immediacy through a series of eyewitness accounts
...The remarkable sequel to this recital of inhumanity is that this
displaced population has, in the 50 years since the war, managed
to find a new home in a reunited Germany where nearly 20 percent
of the population is made up of first- or second-generation descendants
of these exiled millions." Army
"Western historians have long averted their
eyes from the stupendous crime authoritatively described by Alfred-Maurice
de Zayas in this grim, essential book. The author has impeccable
credentials for this work: a law degree from Harvard, a doctorate
in history at Göttingen, mastery of five languages. He has
worked in foreign archives and interviewed many survivors for this
book, his fourth. For many years he has been a senior legal adviser
on human rights to an international organization in Switzerland...
The author conservatively takes the lowest available estimate of
the deaths: over two million people died in the expulsions...."
Ottawa Citizen
"De Zayas, a lawyer, historian and human rights
expert specializing in refugees and minorities, has uncovered testimony
in German and American archives detailing these atrocities, adding
a new chapter to the annals of human cruelty. His carefully documented
book serves as a reminder that many different peoples have been
subjected to ethnic cleansing." Publishers Weekly
"In stark and gruesome detail, Mr. de Zayas
presents the personal testimony of literally dozens upon dozens
of these German victims during those years of expulsion. Soviet
soldiers were given carte blanche to rape and plunder tens of thousands
of people. In their thirst for revenge, Soviet troops gang-raped
women over and over ... Though the American government did not overtly
endorse the brutalities that accompanied the expulsions of the Germans,
support for the deportation of these millions of people was laid
down as official U.S. policy while the war was still in progress."
Freedom Daily. The Future of Freedom Foundation
(http://www.fff.org/freedom/0795f.asp)
"Fast ein Klassiker" Frankfurter
Allgemeine Zeitung
Reviews of Heimatrecht ist Menschenrecht
(Universitas Verlag, Munich 2001, g.koralus@herbig.net):
"The central thesis of this unique and timely
book is that the right to one's homeland belongs to the most fundamental
human rights, since its observance by state and non-state actors
is a prerequisite for the enjoyment of most other human rights.
Indeed, human rights are not exercised in a vacuum, but in a concrete
geographical and temporal context, which is most frequently the
place where one was born, where one's historical and cultural links
lie. The denial of the right to live in one's homneland by mass
expulsion or ethnic cleansing entails not only the obvious violation
of the right to self-determination, which is considered by many
international legal experts as jus cogens, but a breach
of most civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights."
Netherlands International Law Review
"De Zayas hat deutlich weiter an Reife
gewonnen. Das Recht auf Heimat sei ein wesentliches Merkmal der
Zivilisation ...im thematischen Vergleich zu seinem bisherigen vorwiegend
Sachverhalte feststellenden Werk, wird de Zayas jetzt zwar ebenso
unbequem, aber nunmehr wölkerrechtlich bahnbrechend, ja visionär."
Neue Zeitschrift für Wehrrecht, 2002, Heft 1
Honours and Awards:
1980 Ehrengabe zum Georg Dehio-Preis für Geschichte
(Künstlergilde), Esslingen
1985 Human Rights Award of the Danube Swabian Society of the United
States and Canada
1996 VDA Cultural Award, Weimar
1997 Plakette for the Right to Self-Determination, Berlin
1998 Humanitas Award of the Ost-West Kulturwerk, Frankfurt a.M.
2001 Dr. Walter-Eckhardt-Ehrengabe für Zeitgeschichtsforschung
für das Buch Heimatrecht ist Menschenrecht, Ingolstadt, reported
in Die Welt, "Auszeichnungen" 24 November 2001, p. 27, and in
the FAZ 4 December 2001 in the Feuilleton.
2002 Cultural Award of the Landsmannschaft Ostpreußen, Leipzig
2003 Scholarly Achievement Award of the Armenian National Committee
of America, Los Angeles
2004 elected to the Conseil Scientifique of the Académie
internationale du droit constitutionnel
2004 Human Rights Award of the Sudetendeutsche Landsmannschaft,
Munich, for my publications on human rights and human dignity
2007 Human Rights Award of the Volksgruppe der Donauschwaben, Stuttgart,
for my work on the Danube Suevians
2008 Cultural Award of City of Geislingen an der Steige and the Landsmannschaft
Südmähren for my Rilke translations
Links
to my work on other sites
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