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Europe
Russia
(Tuesday), 10/09/2024 - 14:11 Today Russia launched its largest navy drills of post-Soviet era alongside Chinese warships. China sent four warships and a supply vessel to the exercise, joining Russia's naval fleet in the Sea of Japan. The major naval exercise will see Moscow sail through waters spanning the Northern Hemisphere and Pacific. The wider drills will take place in the Pacific and Arctic Oceans, as well as the Mediterranean, Caspian and Baltic Seas, and are set to become one of the Russian army's main operational and combat training events of 2024.The "Ocean-2024" drills will continue until September 16 and will involve more than 400 warships, submarines and other maritime vessels. Also taking part are more than 120 aircraft and helicopters, about 7,000 units of weapons, military and special equipment, and more than 90,000 personnel. President Putin will make an address formally opening the Russian-led exercise and will oversee them from a situation centre in the Kremlin. The Japanese defence ministry said it had observed five Chinese naval ships entering the Sea of Japan heading in the direction of Russia, sailed north-eastwards through the Tsushima Strait towards the Sea of Japan from Saturday to Sunday. The Tsushima Strait lies between South Korea and Japan and connects the South China Sea and the Sea of Japan and is not within Japanese territorial waters. (Source: france24 / AFP)
10.9.2024 10:21 Authorities temporarily shut down three airports outside Moscow - Vnukovo, Domodedovo, and Zhukovsky. The Russian capital was targeted with one of the heaviest waves of Ukrainian drones of the war, Moscow says. More than 140 Ukrainian drones targeted Russian regions, including Moscow and those on the border with Ukraine. It is the second such massive Ukrainian drone attack on Russia this month. Overall, Russia's Defense Ministry said it "intercepted and destroyed" 144 Ukrainian drones over nine Russian regions. The Russian military on September 1 had intercepted 158 Ukrainian drones in more than a dozen Russian regions. At the time, Russian media described it as the biggest Ukrainian drone barrage since the start of the war. Meanwhile, Russian Security Council Secretary Shoigu says Ukraine's cross-border attack on Russia's Kursk region last month has failed to distract Moscow's forces from their objectives, to slow the advance in the eastern Donbas region. "They are losing up to 2,000 killed and wounded every day. In total, if we talk about 8 days in September and August, almost 1,000 square kilometers of territory have been liberated. The pace is increasing," Shoigu said. Ukraine's air force shot down 38 out of 46 Russia-launched drones during an overnight attack across 13 regions. Russia also used two missiles in its attack. The Ukrainian Energy Ministry says Russian forces have attacked energy infrastructure in eight Ukrainian regions in the past 24 hours. The attacks had disrupted high-voltage lines and power substations. In the Cherkasy region, the strike damaged an infrastructure facility and caused a fire. Authorities in Kyiv reported no damage or casualties in the city itself. Moscow's forces have ground ahead through the Donetsk region in recent weeks, in the direction of Pokrovsk, a strategic logistics hub for Ukraine. (Source: dw)
NATO
10 Sep 2024 What the Indo-Pacific is becoming for the United States, Wider Mediterranean Africa (WiMedAf) will become for NATO's European members. NATO is preoccupied with its eastern flank, it does so at the risk of overlooking equally strategically important developments elsewhere. The African-Mediterranean region is crucial for European security. Of North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s 32 members, nine face the Mediterranean Sea. Sicily is about 150 kilometres from the North African coast; the Canary Island of Fuerteventura is less than 100 kilometres west of Morocco. The Italian government uses the concept of "Wider Mediterranean” to refer not just to the area immediately around the Mediterranean, but spanning as far as the Middle East and Persian Gulf as well as the Horn of Africa and the Sahel. It is an area of primary importance in which Italian interests are projected and must be protected for reasons of national security. Many countries here are already a vital supplier of gas, oil and raw materials for Europe. At least 40% of global maritime trade passes through WiMedAf waters. Beneath the waves, communication cables connect Europe to India and East Asia. The region is the starting point for migration waves that have pushed European politics to the right. By 2050, Africa alone ’is expected’ to be home to 25% of the global population. Countries like Egypt, Nigeria and Ethiopia have booming populations and are only going to grow in geopolitical significance. New tensions between Egypt and Ethiopia, as a result of a defence deal between the former and Somalia, is an example of this. China, Russia and other revisionist powers are increasingly active in the WiMedAf region. China’s is based on loans, investment and trade, although many governments in the region are beginning to realize that all that glitters is not gold. Russia's is primarily one of hybrid warfare, such as the deployment of mercenaries, the massive use of disinformation, and supporting coups and subversive forces - evident from Libya to the Sahel and in the Central African Republic. Expanding the Wider Mediterranean definition even more, to cover the entire African continent, ’NATO needs to focus more’ on what is going on there, strengthening democracy and governance in the region by implementing ad hoc programmes in like-minded countries such as Cape Verde, Senegal, Mauritius and Ghana. It would also be important to strengthen ties with partly free countries such as Tunisia, Morocco, Kenya, Kuwait and Mozambique. NATO launched two partnership forums for WiMedAf countries – the Mediterranean Dialogue and the Istanbul Cooperation Initiative. Cooperation could include improving accountability in defence establishments, sharpening counter-terrorism capabilities and bolstering defence against cyber-attacks, disinformation and other hybrid warfare. NATO could also extend assistance in the event of pandemics and natural disasters as well as help WiMedAf energy exporters improve security of their infrastructure. It already has a blueprint for this kind of work, as it cooperates in these areas with countries like Moldova, Ukraine, Mongolia and Pakistan. NATO should increase its forward presence in the southern part of its territory just as it has already bolstered its eastern flank, reducing drug and human trafficking. It should not be interested in stationing military assets in this region, as Russia has done in Syria. Working more closely with African and Middle Eastern partners is not a roadmap to joining NATO - an option NATO's founding treaty forecloses on, anyway. The focus must be on working with organizations and governments that lean towards the West and support the rules-based international order. The recent appointment of a Special Representative for the Southern Neighbourhood, Spanish diplomat Colomina, was a step in this direction. The goal is democratic reform and knowledge exchange, not a new kind of European colonialism.
(Source: ’theparliamentmagazine.eu’ *)
* a monthly magazine, "owned by Dods', a British company (Total Politics Group, owned by Lord Ashcroft, a businessman and former deputy chairman of the Conservative Party)
by Catania, the director of the OGGNIL, a geopolitical think tank based in Italy
Globalization
10.09.24 International criminal law’s potential to adress online harms is Ukraine, Palestine, and beyond. Sharing footage of crimes to the internet, on social media is one of the harms, which has been particularly noticeable in both Ukraine and Palestine. Russian and Israeli combatants have allegedly filmed and uploaded violent footage of what likely constitute war crimes. In March and April 2023, two videos went viral circulated widely on Telegram and X of what appears to be Russian soldiers executing Ukrainian prisoners of war. In both instances, the videos could not be authenticated with absolute certainty, but information such as the clothing worn and language spoken suggested that Russian soldiers filmed the executions themselves and potentially shared them to wider audiences. This is also similar to content that has emerged from Palestine, where in addition to other imagery of alleged crimes, IDF soldiers have posted videos of Palestinian detainees stripped, blindfolded, and bound to TikTok, Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram. In one particular video shared on Instagram by an account identifying as an IDF soldier, which was verified by Bellingcat, bound and blindfolded detainees, one with an Israeli flag tied to him, are shown on the ground while a soldier taunts them and throws dollar bills at them. A sticker of a praying Israeli soldier was added on top of the footage. These examples demonstrate the alleged perpetrators’ desire to further degrade and humiliate the victims through sharing the video online. Tthe soldiers depicted are mocking the detainees, dehumanise them, reducing them to tools to be used to boast about alleged crimes and spread propaganda. The psychological and moral harms that arise from sharing footage of crimes online are similar in nature to those previously recognised in ICL jurisprudence. For instance, in Al-Werfalli, the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber stated in its two arrest warrants that ‘the posting on social media of the videos depicting executions’ and ‘the manner in which the crime was committed and publicized was cruel, dehumanizing, and degrading’ (para. 29, para. 31). When images are posted online on social media, they essentially are thrown into permanent circulation. It is virtually impossible to stop the footage from being reshared. Victim’s families and friends may be forced to constantly relive their trauma. Members of the general public will also come across the violent content while scrolling online - another layer of harm that was not possible prior to the development of social media. Chambers at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in Furundžija and the Special Court for Sierra Leone in Fofana and Kondewa have acknowledged the serious mental harm that can come to third parties who witness violent acts committed against others. Secondary trauma to those who innocently view the videos can manifest in psychological ailments such as post-traumatic stress disorder and depression. Maliciously sharing the content online can conceivably constitute its own additional crime. The harms are recognised in elements of existing international crimes, including torture, the crime against humanity of ‘other inhumane acts’, and the war crimes of inhuman treatment, wilfully causing great suffering, and outrages upon personal dignity. Multiple domestic war crimes trials have convicted and sentenced perpetrators for similar acts for outrages upon personal dignity. Courts in The Netherlands, Finland, Germany, and Sweden have convicted individuals of the war crime of outrages upon personal dignity for posting photos and videos to social media of themselves posing with or mutilating corpses in the context of the conflict in Syria. The digital harm of filming and sharing footage of crimes has not yet been addressed by an international criminal court or tribunal.Given the violent nature of the footage previously mentioned that is coming out of Ukraine and Palestine can be marginalised and silenced victims of ‘new’ harms? The Russian and IDF soldiers seem to be boasting about their crimes in a similar way that the individuals prosecuted in domestic courts were posing with the bodies of victims. It is not unreasonable to speculate that these acts could be addressed in future prosecutions at courts such as the ICC. Their recognition by international legal institutions will be critical in order to ensure justice for victims in a digital age.
(Source: opiniojuris *)
* an independent blog, in partnership with the International Commission of Jurists
by Zarmsky, a PhD Candidate and Assistant Lecturer at the University of Essex Human Rights Centre with a focus on international law and new and emerging technologies. In 2023, she was a Visiting Scholar at the Human Rights Center at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law
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