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It's still skiing-season! Here the Dents de Midi in the Canton of Valais, seen from the skislopes of Villars sur Ollon, canton of Vaud, Switzerland.

Epigram for March 2010

Millennia ago there was neither politics nor law.  Humans were hunters and gatherers and survived from hand to mouth, from day to day.  Primitive politics manifested itself as brute force, but soon the chiefs themselves recognized the necessity to legitimize their rule and secure a degree of social stability by enacting commandments, laws and ultimately constitutions that conferred primacy to the ”rule of law” and were administered by a higher caste of lawyers and  judges.  Gradually a more sophisticated system of checks and balances emerged.  Today the clock cannot be turned back and no politician is legibus solutus or above the law. 

RECENT DEVELOPMENTS & HIGHLIGHTS - 8 March, 2010

On 9 March we are following up on the Berlekey University Conference of November 2009 and doing a panel at the UN on the Swiss Agenda for Human Rights and Project 2048.

On 4 March I participated in the panel of a side-event of the Human Rights Council on the issue of the self determination of indigenous peoples, organized by the Indian Council of South America, the International Human Rights Association of American Minorities, the International Education Development, OCAPROCE International, the International Council for Human Rights and North South XXI. We even had a professor from the University of Puerto Rico on Skype!

On 3 March our tortoise Mascha finally woke up after 4 and a half months of hibernation. Resurrecta est! So she got her four lukewarm baths, drank a bit of water in the process, and even ate a leaf of doucette.

On 2 March I spoke at a UN Panel on the right to property and succession. I focused on the relevant jurisprudence of the Human Rights Committee and the potential for further development.

On 22-25 February the Spanish Assocition for International Human Rights Law met in Bilbao, Spain, to adopt the Declaration of Bilbao on the Human Right to Peace, which further develops and refines the earlier Luarca Declaration. I also visited the Guggenheim Museum -- what an amazing building!

On 19-21 February Carla and I went skiing in Villars sur Ollon, a wonderful ski station in the Canton of Vaud, not far away from Gstaad and the Diablerets glacier. On 30 January Carla and I skied with our OAS friend Christina Cerna -- absolutely spectacular snow and glorious weather at Le Grand Bornand. On Sunday 31 January we went skiing at Crozet/Lelex. What a privilege to live in Geneva next to so many skiing stations! On Sunday 7 February we went to Les Houches, very near the Mont Blanc, for pure powder -- and the splendid black competition slope Kandahar, which, in the top conditions of the day, was a piece of cake. What better way of celebrating St. Valentines on Sunday 14 February than by returning to Les Houches and again savouring the slopes under a deep blue sky. Kandahar was less fresh than last week and more challenging. The February 2010 issue of UN Special published my poem illustrated with my own pictures. On 7 March was back to the slopes -- this time around the corner at the Dole, 40 minutes from the house. But the highest temperature was minus 9 -- no wonder my fingers were frozen most of the time!

On 22 January Carla and I hosted the traditional Ex Tempore literary soirée. 73 people showed up, 14 performed -- poems, short stories, essays and, of course, Aline Dedeyan's sketch, which this time she did together with Sébastien Vernay of the service du prêt of the Bibliothèque des Nations Unies. It was a lot of fun. Another highlight of the evening was the singing -- yes, Connie, a colleague from WHO performed her own songs, thus demonstrating in a very immediate and contagious way the link between literature and music -- we also played her new CD with her poems. Who said UN staffers didn't have creative talent? We had languages galore: English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Hebrew, Vietnamese... and we announced that the next issue of the Ex Tempore will be devoted to the general theme: "Music, the international language". Besides the usual UN crowd, we had guests from the Geneva Art Club, the Geneva Writers Group, the Société genevoise des Ecrivains and P.E.N. Suisse romand. Here I am launching the evening:

We're having a remarkable snow-winter. What better way of burning off excess calories -- than skiing in Grand Bornand on the Aravis chain not far from the Mont Blanc? I even tried out my new HEAD skis - and just let them carry me. I never thought I could pass so many younger people! Praz de Lys has since provided some more glorious white experiences. La vita è bella!

Christmas is for singing. And as long as the voice functions, it is fun to sing in a church choir. On 20 December we gave our oecumenican Christmas concert -- Leopold Mozart, Rimsky Korsakov, Dobri Christof and, of course, many traditionals. It certainly makes you feel good about the world.

15-16 December the UN Workshop on the right to peace was held in Room XI of the Palais des Nations -- historical room where the UN Human Rights Committee used to meet. I was on the first panel Tuesday morning together with Professor Vera Gowlland and on the last panel Wednesday afternoon together with Professor Bill Schabas and Professor Mario Yutzis. ICJ Justice Antonio Cançado Trindade delivered the keynote address -- absolutely superlative! We discussed the holistic approach to human rights, a change of paradigms, questions of disarmament, NPT, R2P and the Luarca Declaration.

10 December -- Human Rights Day -- participated in 2 panels -- one hosted by Earth Focus on the proposal of a World Court of Human Rights and Project 2048. The other at the Forum Genève on "dignité et droits de l'homme". Then went to the Hautes Etudes Internationales to hear Professor Christian Tomuschat deliver a masterly lecture on reparation for victims of gross violations of human rights. This was followed by a cocktail and dinner at the beautifully refurbished Maison Monier on the grounds of the Graduate Institute of International Law in the Parc Mon Repos.

Our Jubilee number of Ex Tempore -- number XX! -- is out -- 160 pages of literature with contributions in Latin, Esperanto, Czech, Dutch, Vietnamese -- besides the usual languages. I already have 37 pages for number XXI. Just fixed the Ex Tempore evening for Friday 22 January 2010.

China is considering ratification of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. I participated on panels at an ICCPR symposium in Beijing on Saturday-Sunday 5/6 December. At left on the photo is Harvard and NYU Professor Jerome A. Cohen, who is also a bow-tie wearer like myself. I took advantage of the opportunity to visit the Great Wall and the Temple of Peace.

On Wednesday, 18 November, at the invitation of Professor Robert Kolb of the Law Faculty of the University of Geneva I delivered a two-hour lecture to an audience of 250 students on "The Human Right to Peace", focusing on the Luarca Declaration and on Human Rights Council Resolution 11/4 of 17 June 2009, by virtue of which the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights is preparing a study on the content and enforceability of the right to peace.  I elaborated on the existing norms and the implications of the doctrine of "responsibility to protect" in the light of UN Charter article 2(4). The students had lots of good questions. It was quite refreshing -- and fun.

On Friday, 13 November our P.E.N. Centre Suisse romand held its yearly "Writers in Prison" conference -- this time at the Club Suisse de la Presse. Our speakers were Zeki Ergas,Pinar Selek from Turkey, our President Mousse Boulanger, and Susanne Scholl from Austrian television. The general topic was: Liberté d'expression - un défi moral pour les femmes. Very animated discussion with a knowledgeable audience.

Project 2048 hosted an inernational workshop at Berkeley University Law School to discuss the drafting of a statute for an internationa court of human rights. Among the participants were the first UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Jose Ayala Lasso, the UN Rapporteur on Torture Prof. Manfred Nowak, the former Acting High Commissioner for Human Rights Bertrand Ramcharan, Professor Kirk Boyd, Prof. David Caron, and ICTY Judge Ted Meron. Among other things, I spoke about new human rights paradigms, enabling rights, end rights and the human right to peace, including the Luarca Declaration and gave the Villan Duran book on Luarca to Prof. Caron.

On 15-16 December the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights shall host a workshop on the human right to peace pursuant to Council Resolution 11/4. I have been appointed to the panel.

Authors and editors are usually the last to see their books. Since I am both co-author and co-editor of "International Human Rights Monitoring Mechanisms", I guess that's why I had to wait so long for my own copies of the book, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, Leiden 2009, ISBN 978 90 04 16236 5. But it does look good, after all.

2-3 November on panels of OCAPROCE, Organisation pour la Comunication en Afrique et de la Promotion Economique Internationale "Droits Economiques, Sociaux et Culturelles: Quelle place à la Femme au 21ème Siècle".

Our tortoise Mascha just started her 19-20 week hibernation on 12 October. We'll miss her smiling face.

Saturday-Sunday 3-4 October were devoted to a cultural and gastronomical tour of the Roannais and southern Bourgogne. Discovered a fine 3-star Michelin restaurant at Roanne --Troisgros -- that certainly deserves all three stars -- or a Nobel prize for the art of cooking. Also admired the XIIth century church of Saint Maurice-sur-Loire with its wonderful frescoes, the XVth century prieuré of Ambierle with its amazing van der Weyden altar dating from 1460 (?), in the church since 1476, the XIII century couvent des Cordeliers in St. Nizier, the romanesque Benedictine abbey of Charlieu, the XIth century church of Iguerande, the XIIth century Church of Saint Julien de Jonzy, and the splendid 12th century Hilarius church in Semur-en-Brionnais.

Oxford has just uploaded two more of my articles for the Encyclopedia of Public International Law. I now have six: Curzon Line, Forced Population Transfer, Guantanano, Marshall Plan, Repatriation, and Spanish Civil War.

On Wednesday 23 September we held the general assembly of the United Nations Society of Writers. David Winch was confirmed as President, Carla as Vice-President, Janet as Treasurer and we elected a new secretary -- Ngozi Ibekwe. We also discussed the cover of volumes XX and XXI. I remain as Editor-in-Chief of Ex Tempore.

On Tuesday, 22 September I participated in a UN Panel hosted by Princesse Micheline Djouma on empowerment of women and gender mainstreaming. I spoke on the relevant jurisprudence of the UN Human Rights Committee, in particular the general comment on Article 3 of the CCPR, and on goals 3 and 5 of the Millennium Development Goals..

Monday 21 September Carla and I drove to the little town of Côte St. André in de Dauphiné to discover the Hector Berlioz Museum and visit the fine exhibit of oils and aquarelles by the Dutch painter Johan Barthold Jongkind, who was a friend of Corot and influenced Monet and the other impressionists. Jongkind is a fine marine painter and his landscapes are a bit like Camille Pissarro. He is somewhat underrated -- same as Berlioz, whose Opera Les Troyens we recently saw in Geneva, and whose Requiem is just magnificent.

On Friday, 18 September I participated in the inter-active dialogue on the environment and water hosted by the Flux Project and sponsored by the Heim Foundation in Geneva and animated by Antony Hequet.

On Thursday 17 September I spoke on the "Regulation of solidarity rights in the light of International Human Rights Law and the right of peoples and individuals to global solidarity" at the UN consultation with the independent expert on Human Rights and International Solidarity, Professor Rudi Rizki, in room XXII of the Palais des Nations.

On 16 September I participated on the UN Roundtable "Enforced disappearance" at Room XXII of the Palais des Nations, together with Alan McClue, Fellow of the Foreinsic Institute at Cranfield University, UK, Kashmir reporter Gustavo Perodista, Barrister Majid Tramboo, Ambassadord Ronald Barnes, etc. on the panel. I focused on the recent jurisprudence on disappearances cases before the UN Human Rights Committee.

On 3-4 September I participated in the international conference on the Armenian genocide, held at Beirut, Lebanon. I gave several televised interviews. Below is the link to a published article in El Mundo, the Spanish daily. http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2009/09/04/orienteproximo/1252078237.html

Also took advantage of the opportunity to visit old Phoenian cities like Sidon and Tyre and admire the UNO world heritage sites.

The handbook is finally out -- Justice Jakob Th. Möller and I are happy to announce:

The Case-Law of the United Nations Human Rights Committee 1977-2008 -- 630-pages with annexes, index, etc. obtainable from N.P.Engel, Kehl and Strasbourg, June 2009, hardcover · ISBN 978-3-88357-144-7 · 2009 · € 148; US$ 188; £120; SFr. 236 email: n.p.engel@eugrz.info
Extravantly expensive, but also frightfully thorough and still user-friendly.

On 16 July Jakob and I personally handed the book to Navi Pillay, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, at her Palais Wilson office, and discussed its potential as a practitioner's handbook. On 15 July the book launch at the Château de Penthes took place, Christine Chanet spoke for the Committee and Bertie Ramcharan about the commitment of OHCHR to the treaty bodies and in particular to the creation of meaningful jurisprudence. After the "official" part of the event, Isabel Möller presented Jakob and me with "unofficial" Human Rights Committee baseball caps and a bagfull of publicity flyers for the book. Here are the happy authors

On 22 July I lectured at Sirnach in the canton of St. Gallen, on the jurisprudence of the HRC and focused on the spectacular "Views" in Sayadi v. Belgium, and on the decision to take the Sayadi family out of the terrorist list of the Security Council's Sanctions Committe. Quite a success for human rights. The audience of some 200 kept asking questions for more than an hour!

The UN Special of June 2009 brings a nice review by the former High Commissioner for Human Rights Bertrand Ramcharan on pages 18-19.

7-8 July 2009 I lectured on United Nations Mechanisms to uphold international humanitarian law -- at the International Institute of Humanitarian Law in San Remo, Italy, as part of their very successful summer course. Bottom line of my lecture is that human rights law is fully applicable during war and that it is not replaced by the regime of international humanitarian law. In other words, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights is not suspended when armed conflict occurs and the Hague and Geneva Conventions become applicable. The two regimes are complementary, not mutually exclusive. The Latin maxim "lex specialis derogat lex generalis" does not mean that the laws of war replace the laws of peace -- this is a bad translation of the Latin verb derogo, which does not mean abolish (aboleo, exstinguo, tollo, rescindo) but rather to make or propose modifications to a law. I thus suggested a new maxim: Lex specialis suppleat lex generalis, i.e. special legislation supplements or completes general legislation. I also listened to the presentations by the other distinguished lecturers, including ICJ Judge Abdul G. Koroma of Sierra Leone, and took advantage to jump in the Mediterranean and swim at the felicitous Morgana beach.

David Forsythe's Encyclopedia of Human Rights (Oxford) just came out, including my six articles on Jose Ayala Lasso (Vol. I, pp. 130-132), Aryeh Nyer (vol. 4, pp. 62-64), P.E.N. and Human Rights (vol. 4, pp.. 204-206), Bertrand Ramcharan (vol. 4, pp. 313-314), Kenneth Roth (vol.4, pp. 204-206), and Simon Wiesenthal (Vol. 5, pp. 327-330) ISBN13: 9780195334029.

Our Pontifex (pontiff, builder of bridges) Benedict XVI has just issued a new encyclical -- caritas in veritate. This reminds me of the right to truth that we want to formulate as part of Project 2048.

The Oxford Encyclopedia of Public International Law just uploaded my online article on "Guantanamo Naval Base".

On 29 August we cycled around two lakes -- Lac des Rousses in France and Lac de Joux in Switzerland -- about 61 km roundtrip (crossing the frontier twice). Swam in both lakes. On 15 August we cycled around Lac Le Bourget in Savoie and visited the Cistercian Abbey of Hautecombe and the monument to Lamartine -- 64 kilometers around, including a climb of some 550 m. and some nice vineyards in the Bugey region. Jumped three times in the lake. Hot day but cool waters!

11 June I participated in a "Roundtable and Interactive Dialogue" hosted by the International Human Rights Association of American Minorities and the International Council for Human Rights, in room XXV of the Palais. I spoke on the Council's mandate on Self-Determination. 3 June I participated on a UN Panel on migration and human rights. 5 June UN consultation on the human right to peace. 9 June again a UN Panel - this time on the economic, social and cultural rights of women -- all in French, together with Ambassador Mbaye of Senegal and Princess Micheline Makou Djouma.

23 May was our spring outing with P.E.N. Suisse romand -- fabulous weather on the shores of Lac Leman at Rolle -- good poetry and conviviality. I read part of my longer conference on Rilke as poet of the Valais Heimat, concentrating on his Quatrains Valaisans -- I expect to read the entire conference at the Cercle 21 in Geneva next fall. On Tuesday night we enjoyed the Cercle 21 conference of Jacques Meylan on Rilke's Cornet -- and his remarkable translation of Rilke's classic ballad on youth, love, war and death..

16-17 May Carla and I headed for the mountains again -- by train -- enjoying the "Goldenpass" panoramic up to Les Avants and discovering fields upon fields of wild daffodils. We hiked 4 hours on Saturday and 5 hours on Sunday before taking the cremaillère train back to Vevey from Les Pléiades. Stayed the night at the cute little hotel Hélioda in Les Avants (good kitchen!), and from our balcony we could see not only the Goldenpass panoramic, but also the Goldenpass "classic" and the "chocolate train" pass by. Fun weekend.

The Durban Review Conference ended up with an acceptable "outcome document" and High Commissioner Navy Pillay gave the right tone in concluding it. The media, however, engaged in an orgy of desinformation. Seldom have I seen it so bad. The Conference was not only Mr. Ahmadinejad, but hundreds of ngos, thousands of victims who came to hear and to be heard, excellent side-events and good discussions. I myself participated in two UN panels and gave two televised interviews. I cannot escape the feeling that if Barak Obama had come to the Durban Review Conference no one would have given much notice to Ahmadinejad. Obama would have stolen the show. And if the EU heads of State had constructively supported the Conference, then the dialogue would have been more fruitful. Both the boycott and the walkout were counterproductive in the eyes of most of civil society -- and the "red line" of the EU was perceived as the red line of arrogance -- not of human rights. I guess we Americans and Europeans have still a very bad conscience (with good reason) because of the slave trade, centuries of exploitation and colonialism.

Wednesday 15 April -- met with the Argentinian Armenians who brought me the new booklet in Spanish -- my legal opinion -- "El Genocidio contra los Armenios y la relevancia de la Convención para la prevención y la sanción del delito de genocidio" with a Prologue by the International Commission of Jurists, Buenos Aires, 2009, ISBN 978-950-895-277-6. As soon as I get the electronic version I will upload it. The English brochure containing my legal opinion on the Armenian genocide is currently out of print.

The book A Constitutional Convention for Cyprus edited by Professor Andreas Auer (Zürich) just came out, containing the studies presented at the 2008 Conference, in which I delivered a paper on "Self-determination. Turkish settlers and Cyprus referenda", Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Berlin, 2009, ISBN 978-3-86573-423-5. The conference was hosted on 4-5 April 2008 by the Centre for Research on Direct Democracy of the Univesity of Zurich. I participated on Panel 2 of the Conference on "A Constitutional Convention for Cyprus". The conference was attended by 120 participants and enriched by the lectures of many distinguished professors including Daniel Thürer of the University of Zurich, Thomas Bruha of the University of Hamburg, Stelios Perrakis of the University of Athens, as well as distinguished Greek, Turkish, Greek-Cypriot and Turkish-Cypriot scholars.The Conference was opened by Micheline Calmy Rey, Foreign Minister of Switzerland. I outlined the procedural issues associated with self-determination referenda.

Monday 13 April -- 36 Km cycling tour to the source of the river Allondon in the French Jura. The Allondon later empties into the Rhone in Geneva. Sunday 12 April -- cyclung tour to the Versoix river and long walk along both banks. Saw a lot of wild ail de l'ours. Sunday, 5 Apirl -- first cycling tour of the season -- 49 kilometers through the vineyards of Dardagny, Perssy, Satigny, visiting churches and chapels on the way.

Sunday 29 March -- glorious skiing with Maritza, Bob, Alessa and Ian in La Tzumaz. Friday, 20 March - lectured at the Fourth Global Issues Network (GIN) Conference "Giving Everyone a Chance" in Geneva. Linked up with Berkeley Professor Kirk Boyd of the 2048 Project. Good students, challenging questions. Thursday 19 March -- participated in a UN-Panel on the three pillars of the UN: peace, development and human rights.Tuesday, 17 March -- sat on a UN-panel on the Human Right to Peace and the Durban Review Conference as a side-event of the 10th session of the Human Rights Council. 9 March - participated in the NGO-meeting with High Commissioner Pilay, I represented the International Society for Human Rights and spoke on the Luarca Declaration on the Human Right to Peace.

Thursday, 5 March -- participated in a side-event of the Human Rights Council and spoke with the President of the UN General Assembly Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann (Nicaragua) on the human right to peace. Personally handed him a copy of the book by Carlos Villán Durán "La Declaración de Luarca sobre el Derecho Humano a la Paz", in which I wrote the chapter "el crimen contra la paz".

Wednesday, 4 March. The President of the UN General Assembly gave a remarkable address to the Human Rights Council. Finally someone who tells politically incorrect facts -- even when they upset the powerful, who evidently believes in human rights and not in the human rights industry. This is more than the many delegations of the HR Council who mostly play politics. His speech showed factual knowledge and refreshing honesty. Din't expect to hear such words in the Council. It's a confirmation that 2 plus 2 actually adds up to 4.

The Pages Littéraires of the Centre PEN Suisse romand have just come out -- edited by our Committee member Jacques Herman, and with excellent articles by Etienne Barilier, VaheéGodel, Mousse Boulanger, Alexis Koutchoumow etc. It is such a pleasure to hold the finished product in my hands -- indeed, it took much effort on the part of everybody. I only contributed an introduction focusing on the Charter of PEN and our vocation to work for peace and greater understanding among nations -- through literature.

The March issue of UN Special published my poem "Salève, Parnasse Genevois" very nicely on the last page -- p. 50. Beautiful photo with it.

Tuesday, 2 March. Our tortoise Masha just woke up from 4 and a half months of hibernation. Absolutely delightful -- washed her twice, gave her water and some doucette to eat.

Just received a copy of Humanitäres Völkerrecht, published by The German Red Cross -- with my article "Gewaltverbot, Menschenrecht auf Frieden und die Luarca Erklärung vom 30. Oktober 2006" , vol. 21, No. 4/(2008), pp 214-220.

Saturday 28 February, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung published on page 10 my op-ed on the ongoing German-Polish debate on the establishment of a Stiftung Flucht Vertreibung Versöhnung in Berlin.

Saturday 21 February -- back to Crozet/Lelex for some lazy skiing on excellent fresh snow. The view of the Mont Blanc and Dents du Midi was totally free.

Friday 23 January The United Nations Society of Writers held its 13th annual Ex Tempore salon, which I moderated. 52 persons came and this time we offere music -- Hans Schmocker played the flute in-between poems -- and more languages than usual, honouring the international year of languages. Hoang Nguyen declamation in Vietnamese -- with translation into French -- was particularly appreciated by the audience.

Tuesday 20 January I was interviewed in Geneva's Radio Cité on the inauguration of Barak Obama and what he should do in his first 100 years. Let's be optimistic!

Saturday 10 January Carla and I spent a glorious afternoon skating on the Lac de Joux under a deep blue sky and surrounded by snowed-under conifers. Lots of happy people and dogs of all sizes and colours on the ice. The only thing missing was the Dutch Windmills on a painting by Henrick Averkamp or Jan van Goyen. Took a lot of pictures -- see Photos/Leisure7 with me the Dent de Vaulion (1482m ). Saturday 17 January we were back on the slopes -- this time skiing in Combloux with a marvelous view of the Mont Blanc. Friday/Saturday 13714 February we celebrated Valentines skiing and bubbling at the thermal baths of Ovronnaz in the Valais.

The January 2009 issue of the UN Special (staff monthly magazine with a run of 11,000 copies) published my article "The UN Society of Writers Welcomes 2009" which brings an update on activities of UNSW/SENU and a picture of the "Soirée Ex Tempore" 2008. the article goes online next week.

Just back from 5 days harvesting olives in the Provence (some 400 kilos) and then 3 glorious days of skiing in Alpe d'Huez, in Savoie, staying at a cute hotel in La Foret de Maronne, a small village near La Garde.

Whoever has temporarily lost her/his joie de vivre should run to a performance of Johann Strauss' Die Fledermaus. On 22 December we saw a brilliant production at the Grand Theâtre in Geneva -- bubbling Lebensfreude! Especially this Glyndebourne mise en scène by Stephen Lawless, Benoît Dugardyn and Ingeborg Berneth. Pure fun!

From 15 to 20 December the Geneva School of Diplomacy hosted a successful seminar on disarmament, attended by several Ambassadors, together with the UN University of Peace. This time I am not lecturing, but only joining in the discussion -- especially on issues associated with the Non Proliferation Treaty. An impressive course.

On Wedenesday 17 December I represented the Spanish Association for the Advancement of International Human Rights Law at the UN consultation held at the Palais Wilson, hosted by the UN Working Group on Mercenaries. I made the link between promoting a culture of peace, eliminating impunity for gross human rights violations and banning the use of private military companies, e.g. in Iraq. War should be abolished, not privatized!

Grand Saconnex lies under a mantle of snow and the whole Jura chain is white, the trees heavy and beautiful. On Sunday 14th we tried every slope in Crozet/Lelex, barely 20 minutes away from the house, under a benevolent blue sky and minus 3 temperatures. On Saturday 20th we were back on the slopes, taking the red Les Astres three times. They have a new 6-seater telesiège that takes you over spectacularly ethereal Christmas-like landscapes.

On Saturday 13 December I spoke the Laudatio to Dr. Marianne Bouvier at the ceremony conferring upon her the human rights award of the Volksgruppe der Donauschwaben. The event was musically accompanied by the Tapach Choir, singing Mozart, Elgar and a wonderful anonymous "Dona nobis pacem" at the beautiful Gothic chapel of the Altes Schloss in Stuttgart. On 15 December the Stuttgarter Zeitung reported favourably and extensively.

On 9-10 December 2008 the Institut Pierre Werner in Luxembourg, the Instituto Internazionale Jacques Maritain, Rome, and the University of Luxembourg held a conference focusing on new approaches to contemporary human rights issues.  I spoke on "the universal system of Protection of Human Rights" and elaborated on a new human rights paradigm where enabling rights like the right to peace play a central role.  Other participants were Professorr Nicholas Michel of the University of Geneva, Ambassador Christian Strohal of Austria and Roberto Papini, Secretary General of the International Jacques Maritain Institute.

The UN Staff magazine UN Special just published my article on the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in its December issue, available online.

On 22 November I gave a Rilke lecture at the Alte Zwirnerei in Bazenheid in the Ostschweiz, near Wil. The event was hosted by the Kulturkommission Mühlau, and moderated by Dr. Peter Küpfer of the Kulturkommission in Toggenburg. Two newspaper headlines in the local press : "Ein Hochgenuss für Literaturfreunde" (a delight for literature friends) and "Von René zu Rainer Maria Rilke". The knowledgeable audience numbered some 60 persons and the animated discussion lasted until well past eleven p.m., in spite of the snow storm outside.

 

On 13-16 November the three Swiss PEN Clubs commemorated Writers in Prison Day by holding a number of public debates and poetry readings in Lugano, Zurich and Geneva. On Friday 14 November at the Bibliothèque de la Cité in Geneva, our Centre PEN Suisse romand hosted two Iraqui poets Ali Al-Shalah and Khazal Al-Majidi, who recited in arabic from their books. Three professional actors read out the translations into French with high emotional impact. Zeki Ergas moderated the discussion and our Vice-President Claude Krul provided simultaneous Arabic-French translation during the debate. Musical accompaniment was provided by Ozan Cadas and his troupe who performed Turkish-Kurdish music. The event was announced and commented on 13 and 14 November in the Courrier de Genève under the rubric "Culture" (page 16). The yearly event implements our commitment under the Pen Charter to engage "en tout temps de leur influence en faveur de la bonne entente et du respect mutuel des peuples; ils s'engagent à faire tout ler possible pour écarter les haines de races, de classes et de nations, et pour répandre l'idéal d'une humanité vivant en paix dans un monde uni." In the photo above Ali Al-Shalah recites from his collection "Babylonian Decline" (from left to right: Khazal Al-Majidi, Claude Krul, Ali, de Zayas).

On 5 October 2008, at the Darwish Memorial Lecture hosted by PEN Suisse romand and the UN Society of Writers, Abdel Wahab Hani recited in Arabic the poetry of Mahmoud Darwish. I moderated the literary and human rights event, which was attended by 31 persons and lasted from 4 to 7 p.m. on a beautiful Sunday afternoon.. Claude Krul, Jacques Hermann and Zeki Ergas of PEN delivered profound words about the Palestinian poet, accompanied by readings of translations into French and English.

Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev, President of the World Political Forum, hosted a fascinating conference at Bosco Marengo in Piemonte, Italy, on the Implementation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on 5-7 November. Top participants including the President of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, Fausto Pocar, Anatoly Adamishin, UN Special Rapporteur Doudou Diène, Danielle Mitterand, Professor Hal Gardner, Dr. Jona Bargur, Lelio Bentes Correa, Ambassador Stéphane Hessel, etc. etc. I spoke on the Human Right to Peace and personally gave Gorbachev the book "La Declaracion de Luarca" in his very hands -- chatted a while with him and understood every word. He speaks a clear, friendly Russian -- worthy of the glasnost predicate. By the way, the second, revised edition of Carlos Villan Duran's book just came out with Ediciones Madu in Spain. I considerably expanded and updated my article "el crimen contra la paz". Besides Spanish entries, there are other contributions in French and English. At the conference I presented one working paper and participated in two workshops. My closing remarks in the plenary of the Bosco Marengo conference: "Alvaro Gil Robles has reminded us of a number of uncomfortable realities. Allow me one observation: our politicians always pretend to be the 'good guys', and yet they often apply international law à la carte, give lip service to human rights, keep silent about violations by our friends and go around pointing fingers at the others. This has resulted in a feeling of malaise and even pessimism, because we know we are not being entirely honest with ourselves. The Oracle at Delphi told visitors: know yourself - gnothi seaton. Maybe our politicians should try this for once -- just get some mirrors. Then maybe when we regain our credibility we shall have the needed strength to advance the cause of peace, disarmament, solidarity and human dignity. Gospodin Gorbachev, eto sosedanie bila diestvitelna prekrasna. Mi vse ochen blagodorim vas."

Pax vobiscum! Although I am still a registered Republican, I cast my absentee ballot for Obama, hoping that Washington will listen more to the needs of the American people, to the needs of the world, and less to the wishes of the military-industrial complex. If I were Obama, I would reach out to all countries and endeavour to cooperate more in ending extreme poverty, reducing hunger, solving the HIV pandemic. I would immediately close Guantanamo. I would take steps to implement the Millennium Development Goals, ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child, endorse the Luarca Declaration on the Human Right to Peace.

Earlier this summer Justice Jakob Th. Möller and I finished our book manuscript "The Case-Law of the United Nations Human Rights Committee 1977-2008", a handbook for practitioners (N.P.Engel Publishers in Kehl/Strasbourg). We sent back the corrected proofs in December 2008, including the index. Pure joy! Lol!

Professor Kirk Boyd of the University of California at Berkeley has just asked me to join the advisory board of the 2048 Project at Berkeley. It's an innovative human rights initiative and I feel very honoured.

A funny thing happened the other day on our way to the forum (not really, on a walk in the vineyards close to Aubonne -- we saw la vipère aspic -- some 60 cm long and not unpretty. I think he/she was more scared than we were.

On 2-3 October the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights conducted a seminar on the links between articles 19 and 20 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. I was the first ngo to take the floor, and reported on the Charter of PEN International and our commitment to promote freedom of expression. I also summarized the relevant judgment of 7 November 2007 of the Spanish Constitutional Court. On 3 October I again took the floor with a statement on the responsibility of writers to promote international understanding. A few days after this important conference, on 10 October 2008, Professor Pierre Nora, member of the Académie française, launched the Appel de Blois on behalf of the liberty of historians to conduct their research freely and the aberration of legislatures that pretend to legislate history and establish dogmas protected by penal law. I strongly support the Appel de Blois, which is consistent with article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and with the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

The Oxford Encyclopedia of Public International Law (edited by Professor Rüdiger Wolfrum, completely rewritten new edition of the famous Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law, edited by Professor Rudolf Bernhardt) has just gone on-line. Of my five entries, three are up: "Forced Population Transfer", "Repatriation" and "Spanish Civil War". Two more are in the pipeline: "Marshall Plan" and "Guantanamo Naval Base". See http://www.mpepil.com/

30 September we held our Millennium Solidarity meeting. Our President Zeki Ergas reported on the new ngo Beyahad Ma'an (Together) which aims at an Israeli-Palestinian solution going well beyond peace -.- the true challenge is the shaping of a better future together. I reported on the Earth Focus event with 500 students still eager to build a more just society. May they keep their enthusiasm in spite of all the commercialism around us!

21 September is International Day of Peace. The UN in Geneva celebrated the occasion on Friday 19 September with a ceremony at the Salle du Conseil, where last year I read out the Statement of Ban Ki Moon. This year Ban Ki Moon was live from New York and Carlos Villan Duran of the Asociacion Española para el Desarrollo y la Aplicación del Derecho Internacional de los Derechos Humanos spoke on progress toward the adoption of the Declaration of Luarca on the Human Right to Peace.. I also participated on a panel of Earth Focus, talking to 500 students on Peace and Sustainable Development.

On 18 September the Rheinischer Merkur brought a nice review of my "50 Thesen zur Vertreibung". We have sold nearly 5000 copies in barely 4 months.

From 11 to 14 September Carla and I were cycling through Paris -- and watching Pope Benedikt XVI on the big screens set up for the event. The Mass on the Invalides drew some 260,000 people. Velib is the new sensation in Paris -- you can easily get a bike for 1 Euro a day, and there are maybe 300 places throughout Paris to drop them off. It's fun (and dangerous) to cycle across the Place de la Concorde -- beautiful cycling under Poplars down to Trocadero and the Tour Eiffel.

From 18 to 25 August Carla and I cycled blithely though Zuidholland and Zeeland, discovering historic mills and churches -- including the magnificent Grote Kerk in Maassluis with its wonderful Garrels organ. Maassluis lies on the Nieuwe Waterweg some 20 Km downstream from Rotterdam - and the fresh, raw haringe are tasty indeed! The "Lange Jan" of the Nieuwe Kerk in Middelburg delighted us with its wonderful carillon.

On 26/27 July the Südmährischer Landschaftsrat and the city of Geislingen an der Steige conferred upon me their Kulturpreis. The Geislingen Zeitung and the Göppingen Zeitung reported on 28 July. I received the "Ehrenbrief" from the hands of the Oberbürgermeister of Geislingen, Wolfgang Amann, and from the Sprecher of the Süddmährer Franz Longin. It was a beautiful ceremony in which I articulated my gratefuil appreciation of the cultural heritage of this part of Europe that produced Adalbert Stifter, Franz Schubert and Rainer Maria Rilke, who mean so much to me. I also had the opportunity of introducing the second, revised edition of my Rilke translations, published in July 2008 by Red Hen Press in Los Angeles, with a preface by Professor Ralph Freedman, the foremost Rilke and Hesse expert and biographer in the United States. René Rilke was not "just" a metaphysical poet, but at times a kind of Heimat troubadour.. You can order Larenopfer from the editor Mark E. Cull (mark@redhen.org), also redhenpress8@verizon.net, or go on the publisher's website www.redhen.org. Of course, you can also find it through Amazon. The November 2005 issue of the Blätter der Rilke Gesellschaft did a nice review of the first edition of my translations of Larenopfer (Offerings to the Lares -- i.e. to the household deities) with commentary. In these charming 90 poems the then 20-year old Rilke sings his hometown Prague and homeland Bohemia. For another review in a German-Canadian journal click here. The summer reading list of Millikin University in Decatur, Illinois, praises Larenopfer and the "exquisite illustrations" by Martin Andrysek. http://www.millikin.edu/english/archives/read07.html). Red Hen Press is a small publisher specialized in poetry and literature -- P.O. Box 3537 Granada Hills, California 91394, Tel. 818 - 831.0649, Fax 818 - 831.6659.

On Wednesday, 16 July I participated in a panel on disarmament and human rights at the Palais des Nations, as part of the Graduate Study Programme of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, organizized by the Department of Public Information of UNOG and the World Federation of United Nations Associations. Some 250 students filled the great Hall XVI -- and they asked very pertinent questions. The event was sponsored by the Swedish mission, and the Ambassador invited the panelists and the prize-winners among the students to a wonderful luncheon on the 8th floor of the Assembly Building.

On Saturday 28 June the Geneva School of Diplomacy celebrated its graduation ceremony at the Château de Penthes. Fresh new doctors, masters and bachelors of international relations paraded under the huge chestnut- and plane trees; I had the pleasure of being in the doctoral and masters commissions of many of them, and as in prior years, I will miss the regular contact with these young, promising students, but will surely hear from them when they want references! Laura Maillet was an enthusiastic valedictorian. Doctorates honoris causa were conferred by GSD President Dr. Colum Murphy on Esam Yousif Janahi, an acclaimed Middle East economist, famous for the Bahrain Financial Harbour and the "Energy City"; also on Professor Curtis Roosevelt, grandson of Franklin and Eleanor, a truly fine mind -- and a gentleman. A third honorary doctorate was conferred in absentia upon His Serene Highness Albert II of Monaco, who personally received the honour from Dr. Murphy on Tuesday 1 July.

On Friday 27 June I interviewed the Al-Jazeera journalist Samy El Haj, who spent six years unjustly detained in Guantanamo. The interview was published in the July issue of the Swiss newspaper Current Concerns.

On Thursday 19 June I participated in a UN Panel on discrimination and harassment of staff members. Well attended and many good questions.

The United Nations Society of Writers held its annual General Assembly on Tuesday 17 June at the Escargot lounge in the Palais des Nations. We celebrated the 57 authors of our most successful Ex Tempore yet -- number 18 and drank some elderflower champagne and some of the real stuff too. The UN Special published a nice little article with photo illustration: "Ex Tempore- Nouveau Numéro et Soirée Littéraire" on page 33 of the April 2008 issue. Indeed, volume 18 of Ex Tempore is remarkably variegated with its 164 pages of essays, poetry, short stories, drama and aphorisms in Arabic, English, French, German, Italian , Russian and Spanish. A literary tour de force. ISSN 1020-6604. Elections went as expected -- Karin Kaminker remains our President, Carla Edelenbos our Vice-President, Janet Weiler our Treasurer and we have a new Secretary, Rose Buisson-Sauvage. I was confirmed as Editor-in-Chief.

The Centre Suisse romand of P.E.N. International held its spring outing on Saturday, 24 May on the shores of Lac Leman at Rolle. A wonderful afternoon of poetry and essays in French -- with some Arabic, English, Spanish and German added for good measure. Luce Péclard's sonnets were particularly evocative, as Jacques Herman's were touching and humorous. David Walter's short story was riveting and compassionate. We also discussed the new format of the forthcoming edition of our Pages littéraires, for which we still have to get an ISSN number, and the preparations for our joint events with PEN Svizerra italiana and Deutschschweizer PEN in November, to commemorate Writers in Prison day.

The Geneva journal DIVA International devoted its May/June 2008 issue to Human Rights. I contributed the commentary "Human Rights in the New Millennium" on pages 4-5 (http://www.divainternational.ch/spip.php?article354).

On 7 May 2008 my 50 Thesen zur Vertreibung (info@verlag-inspiration.de) were published in a first edition of 10,000 copies. ISBN 978-3-9812110-0-9. www.verlag-inspiration.de.

DIE WELT commented them favourably in its edition of 10 May, page 2 http://www.welt.de/welt_print/article1982667/Sudetendeutsche_hoffen_auf_neuen_Prager_Fruehling.html

The 22nd Salon du livre de Genève (annual book fair) opened on 30 April and will last through 4 May. The last issue of the UN literary journal Ex Tempore can be seen at the United Nations stand on Rue Balzac. Myself, I spent two hours at the stand of the Société genevoise des Écrivains on Rue Flaubert 8 on Friday 2 May, exhibiting a selection of my books, including the very last copies of the first edition of my Rilke translations. The second, revised edition is coming out very shortly with Red Hen Press in Los Angeles -- with a perceptive foreword by the great Ralph Freedman, who is not only the foremost Rilke expert in the US, but also a fabulous Hesse biographer. I already corrected the proofs. What a joy it is to be surrounded by millions of words written by a thousand felicitous fencers of the pen! Elating indeed!

On 18-19 April I participated in an intenational conference on the Armenian genocide, held at Nicosia, Cyprus, on the occasion of the 93rd anniversary of the beginning of the genocide. I delivered a lecture before some 80 participants.

On 10 April I repesented the Spanish Society for the Advancement of International Human Rights Law before the UN Working Group on the use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights and impeding the exercise of the right of peoples to self-determination. I spoke of the the human right to security of person (article 9 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights) and the grave danger posed by the immunity/impunity of private security contractors (PSCs) and private military companies (PMCs), operating in ways analogous to mercenaries. In this context I referred to GA Resolution 62/145 of 18 December 2007 and the corresponding HRC Resolution extending the mandate of the Working Group. It is imperative to adopt and enforce international rules to prevent the abuses committed by PMCs in Iraq, Afghanistan, Colombia, etc. Of course, if the Luarca Declaration on the Human Right to Peace were respected, there would be no armed conflict and no PMCs. Privatization of industry is one thing. Privatization of war is chaos and a serious challenge to human rights. Other participants were Amnesty International, the International Commission of Jurists, the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF) and Human Rights First.

Bernward Koch-Boehm issued in March 2008 a CD-recording with Erdenklang/da music, Nr. 61182. Deutsche Austrophon GmbH, D-49356 Diepholdz, 2008. The piano CD is dedicated to Hermann Hesse 1946 Nobel laureate for Literature, and reproduces the text of Hesse's wonderful poem "Stufen", together with my translation. The CD is entitled "Montagnola. Dedicated to Hermann Hesse. Meditative Piano Improvisations". Just lovely!

On 7 March I spoke at a side-event of the Council, on a UN panel at the Palais des Nations devoted to extreme poverty and the human right to peace. Professor Carlos Villán Durán, President of the Asociación Española para el Desarrollo y la Aplicación del Derecho Internacional de los Derechos Humanos, moderated the discussion together with the Director de Unesco Etxea (Pais Vasco). Other participants were Charlotte Le Den of the Institut International de Recherches pour la paix (Gipri), Geneva, Rogate R. Mshana of the World Council of Churches:, Viet Tu Tran of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and Mario Yutzis, Former Chairperson of the UN Committee on Elimination of Racial Discrimination. My topic was the right to development as a component of the human right to peace. I also focused on the Millennium Declaration and the Millennium Development Goals. I counted 54 persons in the audience -- not too bad considering the competition.

On 23 February we held the annual General Assembly of PEN Centre Suisse romand in Lausanne. We elected four new members to our Committee: Alex Caire, Jacques Herman, Fanny Mouchet and Glorice Weinstein. Looking forward to working with the new team, together with Vice-President Claude Krul and Sec-Gen Zeki Ergas. Next event will be the PEN International meeting in Glasgow. Literature is for literature -- but it is also a marvelous medium to promote a culture of peace and human rights.

On 25 January we hosted the 12th annual Ex Tempore evening. 67 poets and essayists from the United Nations family (UNOG, ILO, WHO, UNHCR), including members of PEN International, Centre Suisse romand, came to our home to celebrate literature in English, French, Spanish, Russian, Arabic and even Vietnamese. This time we missed Chinese, which we have had in previous years, as well as German and Italian. Aline Dedeyan did her humorous sketch, and people left pretty happy. It was a fun evening..

From 28 December 2007 to 2 January 2008, thirty thousand young people flocked to Geneva for the annual congress of the oecumenical Christian movement Taizé -- Bolivians (Cochabamba), Kenyans, Egyptians, Palestinians, Israelis, Iraquis, Chinese, Philippinos, Indonesians, Lithuanians, Poles (the largest contingent), Czechs, Slovaks, Hungarians, Germans, French, Dutch, Belgians, Bosnians, Croats, Serbs, Albanians, Montenegrins, Kosovars, Belorussians, Russians, Ukrainians, Romanians, Italians, Portuguese, Spaniards, etc.. They stayed in Calvin's protestant citadel (Frère Roger was also a Protestant), assembling primarily at the convention centre Palexpo, where they conducted their workshops on practical ethics, peace, spirituality -- not exactly as the "United Nations", but surely as "united young people" of the world. They were housed all over town, mostly in private homes and apartments in the whole area of Lac Leman, as far as St. Saphorin. We hosted 8 young people -- six Spaniards and two Italians -- four girls and four boys -- a delightful little group. We participated in a few of their activities, including the prayer meeting from 7 to 8 p.m. on 30 December -- there were 38,000 people at Palexpo, and everyone received a candle. The flame came from Bethlehem. Next annual congress will take place in Brussels from 29 December 2008 to 2 January 2009. Our guests are gone - back to their own homes - and we miss them.

On 18 December 2007 the United Nations commemorated International Migrants Day. Here at the United Nations in Geneva a round table was organized in room XXIV of the Palais des Nations to revisit aspects of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which will be celebrating its 60th anniversary in 2008. We discussed the meaning of the Declaration for UN staff, which is made up of "migrants" from 193 nations. I read out the Migrants-Day statement of Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon: "Migrants are often driven by the aspiration for a better life. They seek a safer, more prosperous future for their children, and they are willing to work for it. Given the chance to make the most of their abilities, on an equal basis, the vast majority of migrants will be assets to society." I reminded our listeners that migration is no "deviant" behaviour, and that the Europeans were the migrants of the 16th, 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, when they fled poverty and unemployment in Europe to build new lives in the Western Hemisphere.

On 13 December 2007, I participated in the working meeting of the advisory board of the Stiftung Zentrum gegen Vertreibungen in Berlin. Our successful exhibit "Erzwungene Wege" is now in Munich and will go on to Düsseldorf and Stuttgart in 2008. A new exhibition on the German settlements in Eastern Europe is now being elaborated by a team of experts.

On 10 December 2007, 59th anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the UN General Assembly, I was honoured in Stuttgart with the Human Rights Award of the Danube Swabian Society of Germany (Volksgruppe der Donauschwaben e.V.). My former law professor in Tübingen, Professor Thomas Oppermann held the laudatio. Nice to have such friends! The Tapach Choir accompanied the ceremony with Schubert and Beethoven. The event was reported on 11 December in the Stuttgarter Zeitung under the header "Donauschwaben zeichnen aus", p. 22.

On 7 December the Deutsche Welle interviewed me by telephone on the Kosovo situation, pros and cons of a unilateral declaration of independence and its implications for the self-determination aspirations of Kurds, Basques, Catalans etc.. The Interview was broadcast on 10 December.

The Zeitschrift für ausländisches öffentliches Recht und Völkerrecht just published my long review of Frank Hoffmeister's book on Cyprus and the Annan Plan, Vol. 67, Nr. 3, pp. 987-991. The 2007 Cyprus Yearbook of International Relations is publishing another article by me on the subject, but, alas, the issue ist not out yet. Maybe before Xmas.

Diva International just published in its December 2007 issue pp. 40-41 my article on September 21, International Day of Peace, which contains the full text of the statement by Ban-ki Moon, which I read out at the Salle de Conseil at the Palais des Nations during the round table on the human right to peace.

The University of Toronto journal Genocide Studies and Prevention ( Vol. 2, No. 2, 2007) just published my study "The Istanbul Pogrom of 6-7 September 1955 in the Light of International Law". See abstract.The article was translated into Greek and published in full length in two consecutive issues of the Athens newspaper ó Politeis, under the title "Septemvriana", September/October 2007. A longer version of the legal opinion was published in the book by Professor Speros Vryonis, The Mechanism of Catastrophe, ISBN 13: 978-0-9747660-6-5, second revised edition, New York 2007.

On 17 September I moderated a round table at the Palais des Nations, Salle XXI, just outside the meeting room of the Human Rights Council. Topic was "la dignité de la personne au coeur des droits de l'homme", and the participants were Archbishop Silvano Tomassi, Nonce apostolique, Clément Imbert, représentant de Points-Coeur, Philippe LeBanc, délégué permanent de l'Ordre Dominicain aux Nations Unies, Jakob Möller, ancien juge à la Chambre des Droits de l'Homme à Sarajevo, and Bertrand Ramcharan, former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

In October 2007 the Institut für Zeitgeschichte in Munich, together with the Zentrum gegen Vertreibungen in Berlin, published a small book "Die Posdamer Konferenz 60 Jahre danach", containing the speeches delivered at the Berlin Colloquium on the Potsdam Conference. The panelists were Prof. Helmut Altrichter of the University Erlangen-Nürnberg, Prof. Alexei Filitov of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow, Prof. Anthony Nichols of Oxford, Prof. Georges-Henri Soutou of the Sorbonne, and myself. Prof. Guido Knopp, chief historian at ZDF, moderated the lively discussion. On 23 July 2005 the Bayernkurier had already published a short version of my thesis on Potsdam Das unbewältigte Erbe der Potsdamer Konferenz.

On 15 September 2007 I delivered a lecture at the Felix Ermacora Institut in Vienna entitled "Rainer Maria Rilke als Heimatdichter: von böhmischer Heimat zur walliser Wahlheimat". There were about 100 persons in the audience and I learned a lot from the discussion that followed.

On 28-30 June I participated in the Civil Society Development Forum 2007 in Geneva, which is working on a "Platform for Development: Countdown to 2015". The goal is to implement the Millennium Development Goals which the UN General Assembly adopted at the 2000 Millennium summit and reaffirmed at the 2005 summit. I spoke on behalf of the Spanish Society for the Advancement of International Human Rights Law, Asociación Española para el Desarrollo y la Aplicación del Derecho Internacional de los Derechos Humanos (AEDIDH) and focused on the "Luarca Declaration". I moderated the workshop on the human right to peace, in which Proferssor Krishna Ahooja Patel (India) spoke eloquently on the sequels of colonialism and the ravages of 21st century imperialism, while Dr. Zeki Ergas (Millennium Solidarity) focused on extreme poverty as a form of genocide by omission or passive genocide, and a threat to international peace and security. See the conclusions of our workshop. Renate Bloem, President of the Conference of NGOs in consultative relationship with the United Nations (CONGO), awarded Commendations to Millennium Solidarity and Gcap Geneva for our support in the white band campaign and the successful "Stand Up Against Poverty" event in October 2006 (23,542,614 people throughout the world marched or stood up against extreme poverty and for solidarity with the less fortunate of our planet).The certificates are signed by Salil Shetty, Director, UN Millennium Campaign.

On 18-19 June at the Hôtel Westminster in Nice, the UFR Institut du Droit de la Paix et Développement de l'Université de Nice Sophia-Antipolis, avec la collaboration de l'Institut International de Droit Humanitaire (Sanremo), held a fascinating colloquium on "Religions et Droit International Humanitaire". I was on the panel devoted to "les doctrines religieuses et les sources formelles du droit international humanitaire" and delivered a paper entitled "Normes morales et normes juridiques: concurrence ou conciliation", which will be published shortly.

The Geneva Post Quarterly just published my new article on "Minority rights in the New Millennium". Citation: The Geneva Post Quarterly, Volume 2, Number 1, May-June 2007, pp. 155-208

The May-June 2007 issue of Diva International published my interview with Isabel Contreras, Director of Life Motivations. The October 2006 issue of the Swiss journal Diva International published my article on "Peace and P.E.N.International", focusing on the contribution of Poets, Essayists and Novelists to a culture of peace and of human rights. This was the hope of the young British poet Wilfried Owen, who fell in WWI, and of the young German novelist Erich Maria Remarque, whose "All quiet on the western front" remains one of the most perceptive analyses on youth, war and the will to live. Pax optima rerum. Indeed, it is the noble function of poets, essayists and novelists to remind the politicians of the values for which we ostensibly stand, for tolerance and human dignity, for reconciliation and the Sermon on the Mount.

Martin Tielke's (ed.) Biographisches Lexikon für Ostfriestland, Vol. 4, Aurich 2007, ISBN 3-932206-62-2 just came out, including my entry on the late Admiral Karl Smidt, known by all his crews and his friends as "Karolus", the NATO Navy Chief and former commander of the "Erich Giese", sunk in Narvik in April 1940. What a privilege to have known this honourable man with such a sense for history, humour and humanity!

On 15-17 December I attended a conference on Cyprus at Athens and took time to admire the Acropolis, grateful to the ancient Greeks for their gift to civilization -- the cult of reason, the Logos, and a sense for moderation, meden agan. On 27 January we had a follow-up meeting in Geneva with Professor Andreas Auer of the University of Geneva.

On October 17-19 New York University's Jean Monnet Centre for International and Regional Economic Law and Justice hosted an international symposium at its Florence (Italy) "La Pietra" campus, which was devoted to "Rethinking the Cyprus Problem: A European Approach". (http://www.nyulawglobal.org/events/cyprusparticipants.htm) Professor Joseph Weiler presented a ground-breaking, thought-provoking working paper, which a round table of professors, diplomats, practitioners and experts analyzed. We tackled not only the principles but also the functional and practical aspects of Professor Weiler's proposals. I introduced and commented the joint paper on constitution-making, which a year ago, on 12 October 2005, members of the "International Expert Panel on a Cyprus Settlement" had presented before the European Parliament in Brussels, where I had made opening remarks on a "principled basis for a just and lasting Cyprus settlement", and focused on the peaceful settlement of disputes and on the principles of sovereignty, equality and independence of States embodied in Article 6 of the European Union Treaty. At the Florence round table, I also delivered a paper on "The Legal Status of the Turkish settlers". See also Profressor Auer's site.

On 8 October 2005 the International Association for the Protection of Human Rights in Cyprus hosted a conference under the auspices of the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, and with the participation of numerous judges and advocates of the European Court in Luxembourg and the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. Here is the abstract of my paper. On Thursday, 1 September 2005, at Nicosia, Cyprus, members of the international expert panel presented "A principled basis for a just and lasting Cyprus settlement in the light of International and European Law" to President Tassos Papadopoulos of Cyprus, to the leader of the Turkish-Cypriot community, Mehmet Ali Talat, and to his eminence, Bishop Nikiforos of Kikko. The paper was prepared by eight professors including Andreas Auer, Marc Bossuyt, Peter Burns, Dieter Oberndorfer, Silvio-Marcus Helmons, Malcolm Shaw and myself. Click here for the executive summary. On 3 September 2005 I gave an interview to the Cyprus Weekly, which was published on 14 September 2005. I particularly enjoyed meeting Titina Loizidou whose courage and perseverance led to the now famous judgements of 1996 and 1998 of the European Court of Human Rights. Titina is an expellee from Northern Cyprus and her efforts to vindicate the right to return and the right to restitution are of immeasurable value for the development of international law. She is a true heroine of human rights and a living icon of international law.

En 18-19 diciembre 2006 estuve de nuevo en Alcalá de Henares, cuna de Cervantes, donde participé en la comision de doctorado de un joven Aleman, Björn Arp, a quien le concedimos la nota más alta de summa cum laude por una tesis estupenda sobre los derechos de las minorías. A finales de Noviembre había gozado de 5 espléndidos días en Madrid, donde visité a mis primos de Oviedo, y conocí el Club Zayas. Disfruté enormemente el intercambio con 26 estudiantes de derecho que tomaron mi curso intensivo en la Universidad de Alcalá, ciudad patrimonio de la humanidad, llena de simpáticas cigueñas y vestigios de la vieja ciudad Romana que se llamó en su época Complutum.

The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung favourably reviewed the new edition of my book "Die deutschen Vertriebenen" on 31 July under the felicitous headline "Fast ein Klassiker" (almost a classic). This new edition of Anmerkungen zur Vertreibung was published by Leopold Stocker Verlag, Graz (Ares), under the new title "Die deutschen Vertriebenen". ISBN 3- 902475-15-3. For more information contact: carina.spielberger@stocker-verlag.com. The new American version of the book "A Terrible Revenge" (Palgrave/Macmillan) was mentioned favourably in the New York Review of Books in an article by Robert Paxton on 22 November 2007 pp. 49-50 at p. 50. Didactically useful are the Thesen zur Vertreibung (ISBN 3-00-016129-6, August 2006). The very successful Kohlhammer paperback edition is now completely sold out. Myths and simplifications are dangerous. One of those myths that I challenge in my theses is the manichaean myth of the "good guys" and the "bad guys", which ignores the complexities of life and disregards the principle of equality and the imperative of respect for the human dignity of each and every individual, including the victims of the Vertreibung. At a commencement exercise at Yale University in 1962 President John Fitzgerald Kennedy said something very much in point:"The great enemy of truth is very often not the lie-deliberate, contrived and dishonest-but the myth-persistent, persuasive and unrealistic. . . . We enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.".

The English version of "The German Expellees" (Macmillan, New York and London, 1993), was subsequently issued in paperback under the title "A Terrible Revenge" (St. Martin's Press, New York, 1994).In May 2006 a much revised third edition was published by Palgrave/Macmillan. Both the English and the German new editions contain about 20% new material, new photos, new statistical tables, including new testimonies from Heinz Schön, a survivor of the greatest sea catastrophe in history, the sinking of the "Wilhelm Gustloff" on 30 January 1945 with more than 9,000 drowned refugees, from young Ansgar Graw, born in the Federal Republic of Germany of East Prussian parents, Bruno Kosak, an Upper Silesian who remained in the homeland, Erika Murwig, a Pomeranian expellee who expresses her sense of loss in poetry "Ein Traum", etc. High school and college teachers may find the "Theses on the Expulsion" didactically useful. Click here for the Theses.

On Friday 3 February 2006, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung published my review of Professor Norman Finkelstein's thought-provoking book Beyond Chutzpah, University of California Press, Berkeley. This book calls for an intellectually honest discourse on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and deplores the instrumentalization of Jewish suffering for political purposes, in particular the aggressive use of the past to excuse and justify human rights violations in the Israeli-occupied Palestine territories today. Finkelstein is the son of Holocaust survivors and keenly aware of the suffering of the Jewish people. He convincingly calls for a human-rights approach to the solution of the conflict. Click here for the review in English translation.

On Saturday, 6 August 2005 six thousand German expellees and their families came to Berlin to commemorate "Tag der Heimat" (The Day of the Homeland). Principal speakers were Angela Merkel, head of the Christian Democratic Union, then candidate to the German chancellorship, and now first woman Kanzlerin (Prime Minister) of Germany, Otto Schilly, the then Social Democratic Minister or the Interior, Erika Steinbach, member of the German Parliament for the CDU party and President of the Zentrum gegen Vertreibungen in Berlin, and the first UN-High Commissioner for Human Rights, Dr. Jose Ayala Lasso, former Foreign Minister of Ecuador. For the English text of Ayala's fine speech, click here.

The Ullstein paperback edition of Die Anglo-Amerikaner und die Vertreibung der Deutschen (German version of "Nemesis at Potsdam") is now sold out. On 6 September 2005 a much revised and enlarged 14th edition (hardbound) was published by Herbig Verlag in Munich under the title Die Nemesis von Potsdam, ISBN 3-7766-2454-X. See the very positive review by Patrick Sutter in the Neue Zurcher Zeitung, also the review by Herbert Ammon, and my interview "Verbrechen gegen die Menschheit" The English version, originally published by Routledge in London and Boston, ran three editions, was then republished by the University of Nebraska Press, which sold out two editions, and today hails its sixth revised and enlarged edition with Picton Press, rockland, Maine. See "Publications", infra.

Ninety-one years ago the first genocide of the Twentieth Century started when Ottoman Turkey attempted to exterminate its Armenian minorities numbering two million. On 24 April 1915 the Armenian intelligentsia was arrested and murdered in Istanbul and elsewhere throughout Turkey, then the common folk in the towns and villages of Eastern Anatolia were overrun, slaughtered, deported to the Syrian desert. One and a half million human beings lost their lives. The survivors either fled to Russia or went into exile, building the Armenian diaspora of France, Canada, the United States, Argentina, Australia, etc. On 20-21 April 2005 a major international conference was held in Yerevan, with the participation (www.armeniaforeignministry.com/conference/speakers.html) of American, Canadian, Belgian, German, Israeli, Turkish and other scholars. My legal opinion on the Armenian genocide and the 1948 Genocide Convention was distributed to the participants, as well as the text of my oral prensentation on International Law, Human Rights and Genocide. On Sunday 24 April an estimated one million persons, including many foreign delegations, among others representatives of the U.S. and French Embassies in Armenia, lay flowers and wreaths at the Genocide Memorial in Yerevan. This very moving ceremony was followed by a performance of Verdi's Requiem and an oecumenical service officiated by His Holiness Karaken II, Catholicos of all Armenians, at the St. Gregory the Illumitator Cathedral in Yerevan.

The spring 2005 issue of the International Review of the Red Cross was published in May in a new format, and is devoted entirely to the growing problem of detention (volume 87, number 857, 2005) . I contributed the chapter on "Human Rights and Indefinite Detention" -- a matter of relevance not only in connection with the so-called "war on terror", incommunicado detention and ill-treatment in Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib, but also in connection with the internment of undocumented migrants and asylum seekers.

Guantanamo:

On Friday, 27 June 2008 I interviewed Samy El Haj, Al-Jazeera journalist who was held and tortured in Guantanamo for six years.
http://www.currentconcerns.ch/index.php?id=613

On Thursday, 27 January 2005, I delivered a public lecture on the U.S. occupation of Guantanamo at the University of Trier (Treverus), where I also gave an intensive international law course to more than 100 eager students. The Guantanamo lecture was published as Nr. 28 in the Rechtspolitisches Forum/ Legal Policy Forum series of the Institut für Rechtspolitik an der Universität Trier, ISSN 1616-8828.

On Thursday, 16 September 2004, the Centre Culturel Suisse de Paris hosted a press conference on the new exhibit "Guantanamo Initiative" followed by my lecture on the subject "Le défi de Guantánamo", favourably reported in the Paris press, including l'Humanité..

Meanwhile the lawyers entrusted with the defense of Guantánamo detainees are having a rough time, because the Bush Administration is apparently intent on circumventing the US Supreme Court's judgement of 29 June 2004 ruling that the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights apply in Guantanamo Bay, and that therefore the detainees are entitled to due process. See my relevant articles in English, French and German on the subject, under "Articles-monographies-chapters in books" in particular the Douglas McK Brown lecture at the University of British Columbia, 37 U.B.C.Law Review 277-341 (2004) © Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib are deliberate crimes. Patrick Buchanan's recent book "Where the Right Went Wrong" (St. Martin's Press, New York 2004), sheds light on the wrong priorities of the Bush adminsitration. I reviewed the book for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on 17 November 2004.

Click for my short essays on Human Rights in the New Millennium, Essay on Genesis, Essay on Easter, on the Samaritan woman, on Hölderlin, on historiography and the "discovery" of America, on indigenous names in America, Maison de Paroisse

And now for some Reviews and commentaries:

The Armenian Genocide and the Relevance of the 1948 Genocide Convention, (Haigazian University Press, 2010), in the introduction by the International Commission of Jurists:

"What are Turkey's international obligations and responsibilities for the Armenian genocide? What are the norms and principles of international law that are applicable? Is the argument put forward by some deniers that it is not possible to talk about the Armenian genocide because the concept was not yet defined at the same time according to international law a sustainable argument? Would the aplication of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide to the case of the Armenian genocide violate the non-retroactivity aspect of criminal law? Professor Alfred de Zayas provides an answer to these and other questions in his excellent juridical opinion - a thoroughly documented, clearly articulated and highly valuable juridical analysis that proposes a concrete and durable resolution to this crime against humanity." Federico Andreu-Guszman, Senior Legal Advisor, ICJ.

Nemesis at Potsdam (Picton Press, Rockland Maine, 6th revised edition, 2003, sales@pictonpress.com, candyperry@pictonpress.com). German version Die Nemesis von Potsdam, Herbig Verlag, Munich, 2005 (g.koralus@herbig.net).

"His is a lucid, scholarly and compassionate study. Most pertinently he insists that we deny what the lesser histories conspire with us to invent--that there are stopping places in history." Tony Howarth, Times Educational Supplement

"The author traces the genesis of the relevant territorial arrangements and ensuing population trnasfers and then gives a well-documented and horrifying account of the exodus, the sufferings and deaths of millions, the ruthlessness of the new masters -- a travesty of the 'orderly and humane' fashion in which the measures were supposed to be carried out." William Guttmann, Observer

"A young legal scholar from New York, Alfred M. de Zayas, has written a book on a subject long taboo and ignored by German writers...Truman, Churchill and Stalin agreed at Potsdam in 1945 that the German populations of Eastern Europe should undergo 'transfer to Germany' but 'in an orderly and humane manner.' Out of consideration for their Soviet ally, the Western powers made little attempt to force compliance....Until recently the subject has been treated with a mixture of shame and resentment. But now it has begun to come out into the open...Mr. de Zayas said that he got the idea for the book at Harvard Law School... " New York Times, 13 February 1977.

"These Volksdeutsche were tragic figures, unfortunate enough to have been located in the wrong areas at precisely the wrong times. The circumstances leading to their abysmal situation are tellingly related by de Zayas in this most important work." Norman Lederer, Worldview

"An interesting, well-written, and important book covering a topic on which almost nothing has appeared in English" Choice

"The lesson from this well-organized and moving historical record is not merely that retribution which penalizes innocent human beings becomes injustice, but that acceptance of political realities may be a better road to human fulfilment than the path of violence. Alfred de Zayas has written a persuasive commentary on the suffering which becomes inevitable when humanitarianism is subordinated to nationalism"
Benjamin Ferencz, American Journal of International Law

"Books such as this ... deserve a respectful welcome. There can be no dispute that the eviction and resettlement of some 16 million people which occurred in Eastern Europe at the end of the war caused enormous suffering. It is important that authors such as Mr. de Zayas should form time to time remind us of man's inhumanity to man." Michael Balfour in International Affairs

"Profusely illustrated with photographs, documents and excellent maps, this book analyzes the origin and the effects of article XIII of the Potsdam Protocol which provided that ethnic Germans living in the eastern countries would be transferred to the truncated remains of the Reich 'in an orderly and humane manner'. As the 16 million Germans were driven westward, some two million died, but the world remained silent. Outraged by the crimes Nazis had perpetrated ...the whole world, with a few exceptions, like Bertrand Russell and Albert Schweizer, remained mum.... de Zayas is perhaps best when delineating the legal aspects of the Potsdam action, although his historical facts are equally impeccable....Due to the willingness of the press and the scholarly comunity in the West to ignore these facts of the Potsdam accord, few Americans or Britons know there ever was an expulsion, let alone authorization of the compulsory transfer. Questioning rhetorically whether the wrong could ever be righted, de Zayas maintains that the West could affirm its regard for individual guilt or innocence and reject the concept of collective guilt." Professor LaVern Rippley, St. Olaf College, Die Unterrichtspraxis, Vol. 11, No. 2, 1978, pp. 132-133.

"L'ouvrage est édifiant et sera pour beaucoup une révélation. M. de Zayas n'est pas tendre pour les Alliés, qui ont fermé les yeux sur l'une des entreprises les plus inhumaines de l'histoire de la civilisation occidentale, la responsabilité des démocraties anglo-saxonnes étant a cet egard primordiale." Revue Générale de Droit International Public

In minuziöser Quellenarbeit zeigt de Zayas, dass in Polen und der Tschechoslowakei schon lange vor dem Krieg die Absicht gehegt wurde, die dort wohnhaften Deutschen aus ihrer rund 700-jährigen Heimat zu vertreiben. Beide Staaten missachteten ihre völkerrechtlichen Verpflichtungen zum Schutz von Minderheiten ... De Zayas erkennt darin einem Präzedenzfall fuer spätere Vertreibungen in Palästina, Zypern, Bosnien oder Kosovo. Sein engagiertes Wirken gegen solche 'Kriegsstrategien' hat bedeutdenden Anteil daran, dass sich das Recht auf die Heimat in den letzten Jahren als fundamentales Menschenrecht etablieren konnte. Patrick Sutter in der Neuen Zürcher Zeitung.

Reviews of The Wehrmacht War Crimes Bureau (Picton Press, 4th revised edition, 2000, sales@pictonpress.com; candyperry@pictonpress.com ). German version Die Wehrmacht Untersuchungsstelle (Universitas Verlag, Munich, 7th edition 2001, g.koralus@herbig.net)

"De Zayas is undoubtedly one of the world's leading legal scholars addressing forced population transfers ... [his] work provides massive confirmation of the truism that atrocities are committed in war by all sides, that many go unpunished, and some are part of national policy....the possibility that truth might be misused in argument by the devil is not a reason to suppress truth. I have no personal doubt that this book is a useful attempt to preserve an important truth. By writing it, the author -- whose own humanitarian sympathies are beyond question, as is Levie's scholarly detachment --has done a service to scholarship." Alfred Rubin in The Fletcher Forum

"The Wehrmacht War Crimes Bureau, 1939-1495 is a fascinating book. It is well-organized and elegantly written ... a sobering new look at the Second World War and ourselves .. With the appearance of this new book ... our innocence comes to an official end." Arnold Krammer, Journal of Soviet Military Studies

"The facts were painstakingly resarched by the author. Archives were consulted and cross-checked and survivors interviewed. It is an academic job well done, and a must for students of small islands of sanity in the ocean of madness called war" Lt.-Gen. G.C. Berkhof, Netherlands International Law Review

"thoroughly and skillfully researched"- Col. Ernest Fischer in Army

"This well-written book, which is based on thorough research of original sources... triggered a broad discussion... It is timely and necessary to discuss the legal, sociological and psychological problems involved in the investigation of war crimes during and after armed conflicts." Dieter Fleck, in Archiv des Völkerrechts

"Dr. de Zayas first came upon the previously undiscovered 226 volumes of WUSt documents as a Fulbright fellow on leave from his studies in International Law at Harvard. After concluding his legal studies, de Zayas subsequently earned a Ph.D. in history and the University of Göttingen, where he later became an associate. The Institute supported the research on which this study is based and arranged for the assistance of a Dutch international law specialist, Dr. Walter Rabus ... Mindful that the WUSt might have been manipulated by Goebbels's Propaganda Ministry, the authors were punctilious in their verification. They carefully examined the documents for internal consistency and continuity and then verified the reports and testimony, where possible, with judges, medical examiners and witnesses still alive. In addition, they compared WUSt documents with those of other German agencies in seven additional German archives, and with documents in British,.Dutch, Swiss, and American archives. In this exhaustive analysis, it becomes clear that the WUSt operated with scrupulous objectivity and therefore that its documents constitute a valuable new source for the study of the conduct of war. This carefully documented administrative history together with its excellent bibliography will therefore become an important introduction to this extensive archive. The Wehrmacht-Untersuchungsstelle is at once an interesting history of an internal agency of the Third Reich and an important archival and historiographical contribution to the study of the war." German Studies Review, Vol. 4, No. 1 (Feb., 1981), pp. 150-151.

"a well-founded book" Professor Norman Stone in the Sunday Times, London

"an excellent book" Professor Christopher Greenwood in The Cambridge Law Journal

"an important book" Professor L.F.E. Goldie in the American Journal of International Law

Reviews of A Terrible Revenge new revised edition (Palgrave/Macmillan, New York) e.leithauser@palgrave.com. German version Die deutschen Vertriebenen, Leopold Stocker Verlag/Ares, Graz 2006, stocker-verlag@stocker-verlag.com

"This popularly written but still scholarly study follows the author's other successful books in the fields of history and international law [which] were hailed by historians as well as lawyers as masterpieces of academic craftsmanship. His book.presents in a nutshell the history of the ethnic German population which had settled in the early 13th century in large parts of what is nowadays Eastern Europe." Netherlands International Law Review

"The author has given the history of these expulsions a dramatic immediacy through a series of eyewitness accounts ...The remarkable sequel to this recital of inhumanity is that this displaced population has, in the 50 years since the war, managed to find a new home in a reunited Germany where nearly 20 percent of the population is made up of first- or second-generation descendants of these exiled millions." Army

"Western historians have long averted their eyes from the stupendous crime authoritatively described by Alfred-Maurice de Zayas in this grim, essential book. The author has impeccable credentials for this work: a law degree from Harvard, a doctorate in history at Göttingen, mastery of five languages. He has worked in foreign archives and interviewed many survivors for this book, his fourth. For many years he has been a senior legal adviser on human rights to an international organization in Switzerland... The author conservatively takes the lowest available estimate of the deaths: over two million people died in the expulsions...." Ottawa Citizen

"De Zayas, a lawyer, historian and human rights expert specializing in refugees and minorities, has uncovered testimony in German and American archives detailing these atrocities, adding a new chapter to the annals of human cruelty. His carefully documented book serves as a reminder that many different peoples have been subjected to ethnic cleansing." Publishers Weekly

"In stark and gruesome detail, Mr. de Zayas presents the personal testimony of literally dozens upon dozens of these German victims during those years of expulsion. Soviet soldiers were given carte blanche to rape and plunder tens of thousands of people. In their thirst for revenge, Soviet troops gang-raped women over and over ... Though the American government did not overtly endorse the brutalities that accompanied the expulsions of the Germans, support for the deportation of these millions of people was laid down as official U.S. policy while the war was still in progress." Freedom Daily. The Future of Freedom Foundation
(http://www.fff.org/freedom/0795f.asp)

"Fast ein Klassiker" Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

Reviews of Heimatrecht ist Menschenrecht (Universitas Verlag, Munich 2001, g.koralus@herbig.net):

"The central thesis of this unique and timely book is that the right to one's homeland belongs to the most fundamental human rights, since its observance by state and non-state actors is a prerequisite for the enjoyment of most other human rights. Indeed, human rights are not exercised in a vacuum, but in a concrete geographical and temporal context, which is most frequently the place where one was born, where one's historical and cultural links lie. The denial of the right to live in one's homneland by mass expulsion or ethnic cleansing entails not only the obvious violation of the right to self-determination, which is considered by many international legal experts as jus cogens, but a breach of most civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights." Netherlands International Law Review

"De Zayas hat deutlich weiter an Reife gewonnen. Das Recht auf Heimat sei ein wesentliches Merkmal der Zivilisation ...im thematischen Vergleich zu seinem bisherigen vorwiegend Sachverhalte feststellenden Werk, wird de Zayas jetzt zwar ebenso unbequem, aber nunmehr wölkerrechtlich bahnbrechend, ja visionär." Neue Zeitschrift für Wehrrecht, 2002, Heft 1

Honours and Awards:

1980 Ehrengabe zum Georg Dehio-Preis für Geschichte (Künstlergilde), Esslingen
1985 Human Rights Award of the Danube Swabian Society of the United States and Canada
1996 VDA Cultural Award, Weimar
1997 Plakette for the Right to Self-Determination, Berlin
1998 Humanitas Award of the Ost-West Kulturwerk, Frankfurt a.M.
2001 Dr. Walter-Eckhardt-Ehrengabe für Zeitgeschichtsforschung für das Buch Heimatrecht ist Menschenrecht, Ingolstadt, reported in Die Welt, "Auszeichnungen" 24 November 2001, p. 27, and in the FAZ 4 December 2001 in the Feuilleton.
2002 Cultural Award of the Landsmannschaft Ostpreußen, Leipzig
2003 Scholarly Achievement Award of the Armenian National Committee of America, Los Angeles
2004 elected to the Conseil Scientifique of the Académie internationale du droit constitutionnel
2004 Human Rights Award of the Sudetendeutsche Landsmannschaft, Munich, for my publications on human rights and human dignity
2007 Human Rights Award of the Volksgruppe der Donauschwaben, Stuttgart, for my work on the Danube Suevians
2008 Cultural Award of City of Geislingen an der Steige and the Landsmannschaft Südmähren for my Rilke translations

Links to my work on other sites