Ruvi at the Lib Dem Spring Conference in York

Ruvi Ziegler spent the weekend at the Lib Dem Spring Conference in York where he participated fully.

Ruvi Ziegler at the Lib Dem Spring Conference

Ruvi proposed an amendment to a foreign policy motion, which conference adopted, to make firm commitments to resettlement (including of unaccompanied minors), to the establishment of humanitarian visas with applications from outside the UK, and to ensuring rapid humanitarian responses to displacement from conflicts globally in line with the ‘Homes for Ukraine’ and Ukrainian family visa schemes. The motion (post and pre amendment) is available here. Listen to Ruvi’s conference speech proposing the amendment below.

 

Rwanda debate - Ruvi

Ruvi also spoke at a debate on the emergency motion ‘Beyond Rwanda: A Fairer way towards Asylum‘. The motion was adopted unanimously.

 

Click on the link below to listen to Ruvi addressing conference during the debate.

Finally, Ruvi spoke alongside Emily Graham from ‘Safe Passage’ at a fringe meeting of ‘Liberal Democrats for Seekers of Sanctuary’ about the need for ‘safe and legal routes’ to asylum in the UK and other responses to recent legislation, particularly the Nationality and Borders Act and the Illegal Migration Act.

Genocide and the Ocean: Conceptualising their Relationship

Genocide and the Ocean: Conceptualising their Relationship

Online workshop starting at 10am UK Time – Click to join us on Teams.

What is the relationship between genocide and the ocean? This question invites critical inquiry into what it is we talk about when we talk about ‘genocide.’ On one level, genocide is a narrow and technical issue of international law that imposes liability for violence undertaken with the ‘specific intent’ to destroy a racial, religious, or national group in whole or in part. On another level, genocide is broadly invoked in moral and political discourse as the supreme act of human evil. In other words, contrary to existing international legal doctrine, genocide occupies the popular imagination as a ‘crime of crimes’ placed at the very top of an asserted hierarchy of harm. Recognising this multi-faceted deployment as an embedded feature of genocide discourse, the aim of this workshop is to explore where exactly the ocean fits within this scheme, especially considering the myriad of ways in which the ocean and oceanic forces can end and/or degrade human life on a brutally massive scale.

Itinerary

10am – Welcoming RemarksEric Loefflad (University of Kent) and Vicky Kapogianni (University of Reading)

10:15am Opening Address Eric Loefflad – Otto Kranzbühler in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait: Nuremberg, Yemen, and Universal Justice in a World of Maritime Hegemony

10:45 – Panel 1: Migration

ModeratorVicky Kapogianni

*Fatima Mehmood (Universal College Lahore) – The Nexus of Non-Refoulement and Genocide: Exploring Erga Omnes Parties Obligations Owed to Sea Refugees

*Regina Palouse (Common Good Foundation) – Genocide beyond Borders? The Rohingya at Sea

*Dorothea Endres (Geneva Graduate Institute) and Vera Piovesen (Geneva Graduate Institute/Durham University) –Letting Migrants Drown in the Sea: A Practice-Based Analysis of EU Leaders Committing the Crime of Genocide

Q & A (15 minutes)

11:45 – Panel 2: Environment

ModeratorAndreas Kotsakis (University of Kent)

*Holly Leung (University of Hong Kong) – Maritime Ecocide

*Dave-Inder Comar (Just Atonement) – Self-Determination, Sea-Level Rise, and Climate Change: New Approaches towards Protecting the Existence and Survival of Peoples from Climate Change Impacts

*Gaspard Lemaire (University of Angers) – Climate Inaction and the Future of Small Island Developing States: A Crime Without a Name?

Q & A (15 minutes)

Break (15 minutes)

1pm – Keynote Address: Itamar Mann (University of Haifa) – Gaza’s Salty Water

Q & A (15 minutes)

1:45- Panel 3: Accountability

ModeratorBenjamin Throne (University of Kent)

*Aditya Kanuparthi (independent researcher) – The Potential Role of the Current Advisory Opinion Proceedings at ITLOS in Preventing Genocide at Sea

*Cristiano D’Orsi (University of Johannesburg) – Paradise for Tourists have not been Always a Paradise: Conflicts in African Islands and the Past (and Present) Role of the Formal Colonial Powers

*Vittorio Cama (University of Trento) – Navigating Murky Waters: Addressing the Intersection of International and Transnational Maritime Crime

Q & A (15 minutes)

2:45Farewell Remarks

Eric Loefflad and Vicky Kapogianni

Microsoft Teams meeting

Click here to join the meeting

Meeting ID: 376 436 224 435
Passcode: JqcRJZ

Ruvi Ziegler is interviewed by Dr Solon Solomon, as part of the ’emerging voices series’

Ruvi Ziegler speaks to Dr Solon Solomon from Brunel University London

In the latest BUL Emerging Law Voices series episode, Ruvi Ziegler speaks to Dr Solon Solomon from Brunel University London on the recent reshuffle in the UK government, the entering of David Cameron in the Foreign Office and what this may mean for the British foreign policy when it comes to human rights law and refugee law in the aftermath also of the UK Supreme Court’s Rwanda ruling.

Listen to the full interview here.