17 November JAHSS/JASID Conference – Global Governance Panel

In the JAHSS/JASID conference on 16-17 November, I moderated a fantastic panel on global governance. Below is my summary for the conference report.

 

Global Governance Panel, 17 November 2019

In the Global Governance Panel, First, Mr. Sayid Abdullaev spoke about his own experience as a refugee in the US. He spoke of two reactions he saw in people: one of fear for having someone different, and the other one was sympathy for his situation. He shared his initiative to change the perception of people towards refugees, involving young people and making a social movement. He worked for the United Nations, focusing on the World Humanitarian Summit and youth activation programs. He has founded multiple initiatives for refugee empowerment, youth for peace, and LGBTQ. He stressed the importance of involving refugees themselves in all initiatives involving refugees.

 

Next, Dr. Naoko Hashimoto of Hitotsubashi University, discussed pros and cons of proliferation of resettlement and ‘new ways’ of admitting refugees. Resettlement provides refugees with a durable solution, but an analysis of resettlement policies shows diversity of policies: while many host States are focusing on people’s vulnerability, a few States are focusing almost exclusively on their prospect of integration. Increasingly, resettlement is unclear in its quantity, selection criteria and process. Moreover, it may be argued that resettlement is used as an alternative to granting asylum. There are additionally ‘new forms’ of refugee admission, such as work permit, student visa, family reunification and private sponsorship, some of which allow taking in refugees without formally accepting them as refugees. It is questionable whether they appropriately complement refugee protection mechanism rather than diluting refugees’ rights.

 

Lastly, Prof. Eiji Oyamada of Doshisha University reported that globalization made corruption into a different shape. Corruption is now seen as a global issue, and corruption needs to be tackled through implementation of SDGs and international or regional agreements. Opportunities for corruption during humanitarian operation are many and systematic, but the existence of non-financial forms of corruption make it difficult to trace corruption systematically.

 

The panel was moderated by Dr. Ai Kihara-Hunt of the University of Tokyo.

 

(316 words)

Congratulations to my team IHL Moot Court Japan 2019

On 30 November and 1 December, there was IHL Moot Court competition Japan round 2019. The University of Tokyo had a team, which I coached.

The moot problem this time was very well written and brought up a lot of issues – what is the required control by a State over an armed group for IAC to exist, evidential standards for pre-trial and trial chambers, how sure should the attacker be about the identity of the target when they attack humanitarian convoys (for satisfying elements of war crime), how to establish ordering of no quarters with ambiguous orders, and many more technical and interesting questions.

The University of Tokyo’s team was headed by a second-year student, with two students who were in their first year when I started teaching a class back in April. They thrived with this challenge.

I am so proud of this team, who rose to the challenge and won the first prize at this IHL Moot Court competition.

Congratulations, and we will continue our effort for the Asia Regional Round in Hong Kong in March 2020.

Here is the team, from right to left, Mr. Issa Shiraishi (team member), Mr. Jan Romer (ICRC Asia Pacific Legal Advisor), Ms. Tong Fei (team member), Mr. Paul Hwa Namkoong (team member), and myself (coach).