Gabriel Helou

“A pair of Canadian radio comedians said it took them less then an hour to get UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on the phone during international diplomacy’s busiest week — by pretending to be Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper: Ban was between meetings at the UN General Assembly of world leaders on Wednesday when he took a phone call from Quebec comedy duo The Masked Avengers, famous for tricking celebrities and politicians. The pair said in a statement that the impersonator of the prime minister, who is known for his helmet-like coiffure, apologized to Ban for not being able to attend the UN General Assembly meeting in New York because he was too busy combing his hair with super glue.”

Freedom of speech precludes walking out while your "adversary" is talking.  Ironically, Obama gave a lengthy lecture yesterday about - inter alia - freedom of speech. Today the US delegation boycotted Ahmadinejad's address before UNGA. Only by lifting the oppression inflicted on the Palestinian people that World leaders can proudly declare that "Justice has been done".  President Mahmoud Abbas must address in his speech before UNGA the refusal by the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court of Palestine's acceptance of the Court's jurisdiction. "Without justice, there can be no peace" Martin Luther King, Jr. Mursi needs to be reminded that the Palestinian question remains the cause of all times !  Mursi of Egypt didn't dare to explicitly refer to the "Israeli occupation". He merely said "occupation". Mursi affirmed Egypt's commitment to international treaties and above all to the UN Charter. Most pr...

UN General Assembly general debate is nothing but a social gathering. It is ridiculous when a leader wonders at UNGA: "Why wouldn't the UN act?" As though the UN could act without the will of the Member States! Obama was lecturing World leaders at UNGA, as usual. Aren't World leaders ashamed of themselves when they sit like pygmies to hear a lecture by Obama? The UN Headquarters should be moved out of the United States. Joke of the day: dispatching Arab deterrent forces to Syria.  The obnoxious calls for military intervention in Syria can be described as paltry, at best. The common 6th operative clause of Security Council Resolutions 1593 (2005) and 1970 (2011) is sufficient to oppose military intervention.  When the Security Council refers the situation in a certain State to the #ICC, it must do so without covering or exempting any party. 

“ Dutch   goverment wants to put the home of the international criminal court on the map as the justice capital of the world "Send him to The Hague" is the chant adopted by activists the world over when discussing their least favourite war criminal. Yet, although the international criminal court (ICC) has been around for 10 years, it's only in the last few months that building work has started on its permanent location. The Dutch were remarkably slow in catching on to the potential benefits of such a high profile for their sleepy seaside administrative town, even though they parade the country's historical links to the 17th Century father of international law, Hugo Grotius, with pride. Now they are full of ways to cash in on their identity as justice capital of the world. In the run up to the negotiations over the ICC in Rome, the Dutch went all out for the right to host the new institution. Their diplomats played a version of "total football" th...

“ Israel will allow Egyptian planes to patrol border: Senior Cairo security official tells news site that Jerusalem has given Egyptian military go ahead to use planes to patrol border...” That’s so nice of Israel ! 

Egypt still prosecutes civilians before "State Security Courts". What a substantial and impressive change, indeed ! The prosecution of civilians before military courts is illegal under international law.

Although the United States is a non-party State to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, it is nevertheless interesting to follow up the gradual shift in its line vis-à-vis the Court.