Category: Opinion
The latest opinion from those committed to making our region fair, just and democratic.
How is the Russian Invasion of the Ukraine Impacting Asia and its Future?
There may be darker clouds ahead for the US in Asia. In the long run, Putin, like Hitler, could be responsible for the emergence of a new geopolitical order on a global scale in which the US place in Asia is less welcome than it once was.
Russia’s War Against Ukraine & Its Global Consequences: Views from Asia
In Southeast Asia, a region of nearly 600-million, neither the citizens nor the states seem to share the kind of popular official outrage over Russia's invasion of Ukraine, or the fear of immediate impact on their lives, which one sees in the West such as in the United States, Canada, the UK and European Union.
The Russian Invasion of Ukraine Through My Burmese Eyes
None of the leading liberal democracies of the West really honours the principles they loudly espouse such as non-violence, popular and state sovereignty, human rights, or democracy, nor do they support democratic resistance, armed or non-violent, unless such support serves their hidden interests, whether those interests are commercial or geostrategic.
ICJ’s Mishandling of The Gambia v Myanmar undermines confidence in the Court
On 21 February, FORSEA hosted an international law roundtable with three Canadian and American legal scholars and practitioners immediately after the court’s completion of the first of the 4-public hearings on Myanmar’s preliminary objections to the court’s jurisdictions and Gambia’s legal standing with the court in The Gambia v Myanmar.
The Gambia v. Myanmar will decide whether the Genocide Convention is international law
Enforcement is one of the primary attributes that constitute law. If a law cannot be enforced, it can no longer be considered law. It is crucial that the ICJ's judgment in The Gambia v. Myanmar be used to correct the ICJ's erroneous requirement that genocide be the only intent of a State to prove its special intent to commit genocide.
The ICJ and the Issue of Lawful Representation in The Gambia v Myanmar
Ahead of the scheduled public hearings in The Gambia v Myanmar (the Rohingya genocide case) at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the University of Ottawa Human Rights Research and Education Centre, Canada, the Genocide Watch of USA and FORSEA release a comprehensive legal analysis. It focuses on the crucial question of who should lawfully speak for Myanmar before the ICJ as Myanmar's coup resulted in an unprecedented situation with...
Legal and Holistic Perspectives on The Gambia v Myanmar at ICJ
"These processes do not automatically improve humanitarian responses, amend the Myanmar Constitution, eliminate discriminatory laws, support restorative justice among divided communities, or directly build rule of law in Myanmar. They are complementary to and not a substitute for long-term solutions."
The Gambia vs Myanmar at the International Court of Justice (ICJ): The Uncertainties and Limits
FORSEA Dialogue on Democratic Struggles Across Asia. On 10 February 2022, FORSEA will host the second roundtable with two well-known American legal scholars, namely Michael A. Becker, who served as Associate Legal Officer at the International Court of Justice at the Hague from 2010-2014 and Dr Katherine Southwick, formerly with the Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia and now an engaged scholar on the...
The addresses from Tapan Kumar Bose and Barbara Harriss-White at FORSEA’s global civil society gathering
In increasing frequency and ferocity, Muslims are threatened, lynched, beaten, raped, and murdered, and their homes, businesses, and mosques vandalized and attacked. Disturbingly, there’s been little action taken against the perpetrators. Lynching of Muslims by Hindu nationalists are so commonplace today that the attacks are often organized on social media.
Professor Noam Chomsky’s address at the FORSEA event: A Scream from Global Civil Society: India Genocide Warning
The world-renowned activist and intellectual offers his words of concern and solidarity for the persecuted minorities of India while touching on other issues of global importance.