Hutton Shmutton

Today the much anticipated Hutton Report was released in the UK. Surprise, surprise the Blair government was cleared on any under-handed dealings in the release of Dr Kelly's name to the media...an activity which ultimately applied sufficient public pressure upon Kelly that he took his own life. In addition, the government was cleared of falsifying evidence that WMD existed in Iraq when they produced their so-called dodgy dossier. Blair declared grinning like a cherub that “The allegation that I or anyone else lied to this House or deliberately misled the country by falsifying intelligence on WMD is itself the real lie". Ho-hum...so despite no WMD and several thousand Iraqi civilian deaths...Blair's hands are clean...all we know now is that he apparently did not deliberately mislead the British public. All I can conclude is that Britain must have accidentally gone to war then? Now there is a first...

A Short Guide to Truth Commissions

There is now an updated and enlarged version of 'Truth Commissions and
Transitional Justice: A Short Guide for Users' (17,000 words), written by Dan Bronkhorst from Amnesty International in the Netherlands available for download. More information here.

World Report 2004: Human Rights and Armed Conflict

The 407-page World Report 2004: Human Rights and Armed Conflict includes 15 essays on a variety of subjects related to war and human rights, from Africa to Afghanistan, from sexual violence as a method to warfare to the new trends in post-conflict international justice. “Waging war is no excuse for ignoring human rights,” said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch. “In 2003, we saw too many governments invoke the demands of warfare to excuse their own misdeeds.” More...

Post-War Reconstruction and Development Unit

Meant to put this up on Tuesday but did not get to it. I taught on the Post-War Reconstruction and Development Unit (PRDU) Master's Programme ay York University on the 20th of January. It was the third year I have done it now, a day course on 'Reconciliation and Dealing with the Past'. Anyway, thought I throw up the link because I think that the PRDU at York University is a very interesting initiative and useful programme as a whole. It attracts a wide range of students from the four corners of the globe. I get a lot of requests about recommending programmes, so here is one...

Slugger O'Toole

Just added a link to Slugger O'Toole, a site on Northern Ireland, best place for news and views. Visit Slugger O'Toole.

Business and HIV/AIDS

While many firms are concerned about the current and future impact of HIV/AIDS on their businesses and the communities in which they are based, few have implemented measures to counter the threat, says a new report from the Global Health Initiative written in collaboration with Professor David Bloom of Harvard University and UNAIDS. Click here, for the full report.