In the picture Mr. Patrick Aarsman, General Manager.
Escape from your daily routine of COVID pandemic’s restrictions and webinars and stay at Leonardo Royal Hotel for an over night with a 3-course menu “Du Chef” dinner at Brut International Flavours.
The next morning you will enjoy an extensive breakfast. The parking costs are included in the package.
The Sleep & Dine package includes: – Overnight in a room type of your choice including breakfast – Delicious 3-course menu ‘Du Chef’ – Parking (1 car per room)
The Ambassador of Romania, H.E. Ms.Brândușa Predescu, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Romania, H.E. Mr Bogdan Aurescu, and the Director-General of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), H.E. Mr Fernando Arias, after meeting at OPCW Headquarters in The Hague.
THE HAGUE, Netherlands–9 November 2020–The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Romania, H.E. Mr Bogdan Aurescu, met today with the Director-General of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), H.E. Mr Fernando Arias, at OPCW Headquarters in The Hague.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Romania, H.E. Mr Bogdan Aurescu, with the Director-General of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), H.E. Mr Fernando Arias, at OPCW Headquarters in The Hague.
The Director-General briefed the Minister of Foreign Affairs on the OPCW’s progress in implementing the Chemical Weapons Convention, highlighting the Organisation’s ongoing efforts to address the threat from chemical weapons use and promote the peaceful application of chemistry. Director-General Arias also provided an update on the upgrade of the OPCW Laboratory into a Centre for Chemistry and Technology and expressed his thanks for Romania’s voluntary contribution to this project.
Foreign Affairs Minister Aurescu stated: “Romania firmly supports the activity of the OPCW’s Director-General and the Technical Secretariat in their complex undertakings meant to advance the purposes of the Chemical Weapons Convention. We have confidence in their professionalism, expertise and impartiality. Romania will continue to be a strong supporter of the OPCW in fulfilling its core mission, thus contributing to ensuring peace and making the world a safer place. I reaffirm my strong belief that the use of chemical weapons is unacceptable under any circumstances.”
Minister Aurescu, OPCW Director-General and Ambassador Predescu.
Director-General Arias remarked: “I am deeply grateful for Romania’s stalwart support for our shared goal of maintaining and reinforcing the global ban on chemical weapons. I look forward to our continued collaboration in all key areas of OPCW’s work.”
Monday, 9 November 2020, Republic of Ivory Coast: The country’s Constitutional Court confirmed the results of the latest presidential elections that took place on 31 October, wherein the incumbent president Alassane Ouattara (78 years old) is confirmed for a third presidential term after having won 94,27% of the popular vote with a participation of 53,90%.
President Ouattara (b. 1 January 1942) is the country’s fifth president since independence back in 1960. He first won elections in December 2010. He represents the Rally of the Republicans Party. His win means a further term of five years as Ivory Coast’s head of state. Politically the country lives in a second republic, since the proclamation of the constitution of October 2010.
Ouattara is a economist with many years of experience working for the International Monetary Fund in Washington D.C. He served as his country’s prime minister from 1990 to 1993 after a multiparty system was restored. In Ivory Coast he is often known under his initials as ADO, that is, Alassane Dramane Ouattara.
Sunday, 8 November 2020, La Paz, Plurinational State of Bolivia: At Quemado Palace, the third president of the Bolivian state, Luis Arce Catacora, was installed as the country’s head of state and government elected for a five year term.
The Plurinational State of Bolivia goes back to the constitution proclaimed in 2009 after a national plebiscite.
President Luis Arce (born 28 September 1963) belongs to the Movement for Socialism political party. He won the general election held on 18 October 2020 with a final tally providing him with 55.1% of the popular vote. His party likewise holds the majority of seats in the Plurinational Legislative Assembly, albeit without a majority of two thirds that will require cooperation with other parties represented in the assembly. In the Senate, most seats are to be held by women for the very first time in history.
Arce has a long political experience, and served as Minister of Economy and Public Finance under erstwhile president Evo Morales from 2006 to 2017. Arce’s inaguration was attended by some of his regional counterparts as well as by Spain’s monarch, King Felipe VI.
While Joe Biden is now widely recognized as the United States’ president-elect, the 2020 Elections saga is not over yet. Alleging that the vote has been marred by fraud, President Trump has vowed to challenge the results in court. Moreover, the race for the control of the Senate is not over yet, with two seats to be allocated after a run-off in January. The elections saga thus continues, with major implications for the US and for the whole world.
A few days after Election Day on November 4th, the world finally got the news that it had been waiting for with growing impatience: the United States have a new president-elect. After an extremely tight race, observers and media outlets have eventually identified Joe Biden as the future President of the US – an outcome that will have to be officially confirmed by the Electoral College on December 14th. The Trump campaign, however, has not yet acknowledged this result. President Trump himself has repeatedly alleged that the vote has been marred by fraud. He has thus pledged to challenge the results in court – a process that, according to the original timeline of US elections, could drag until December 8th.
Embassy of the USA in The Hague
How did the situation come to this point? The 2020 round of elections in the United States was conducted under very special circumstances. Over the last months, the country has been heavily affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has not only imposed certain changes to the electoral process, for instance in terms of increased use of early voting and mail ballots, but it has also exacerbated an already high degree of political polarization in the country.
It was against this backdrop that, at the conclusion of Election Day on November 4th, the ballots casted by US citizens started to be counted. While pre-election polls had portrayed Joe Biden as the favorite candidate, the initial results announced by the media saw Trump well-positioned to compete, thanks to his success in Florida, as well as to his good performance in a number of key states, such as Georgia and Pennsylvania. As the tallying proceeded, however, results started to favor Biden, who first gained Arizona (a longtime Republican state), and then conquered Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania (three states that, albeit belonging to the so-called “Blue Wall” Democratic stronghold, had been won by Trump in 2016). In the wake of these successes, Biden was eventually identified as president-elect.
Yet, as of the time of writing the Trump campaign has not yet given up its fight. Since long before election day, Trump had been casting doubts over the election process, taking issue especially with mail ballots. In the wake of the vote, the President has repeatedly claimed that the election has been rigged against him, and he has vowed to take the issue to court. Yet, he has so far failed to provide convincing evidence, and some of the lawsuits presented by his campaign, such as those in Georgia and Michigan, have been quickly dismissed by judges. In the meanwhile, members of the Republican party have shown contrasting attitudes – some of them supporting the President’s claims, while others urging him to concede to his adversary’s success.
To add to the complexity of this round of elections, Trump’s accusations of electoral fraud are not the only issue that keeps the US political race open. On November 4th, many US citizens cast their ballots not only for the choice of the President, but also for that of members of Congress – which is currently split between the Democrats, who control the House of Representatives, and the Republicans, who have a majority in the Senate. While the results available so far have not delivered a way out of this deadlock, the race remains open, as the results for the Senate hinge on two run-offs to be held in Georgia on January 5th.
Therefore, a few days after Election Day, the race for the control of political power in the United States remain extremely heated. The world might finally have a name for the new president-elect, but the political struggle in the United States is set to continue for the weeks to come.
About the author:
Guido Lanfranchi
Guido Lanfranchi is an international affairs professional based in Den Haag, Netherlands. He studied at the Leiden University and Sciences Po Paris, and got with the Council of the European Union in Brussels. His research focuses on the EU, the Middle East and Africa.
The Embassy of Cuba in The Netherlands’ statement on the report presented by the country on resolution 74/7 of the United Nations General Assembly.
The Report covers the period from April 2019 to March 2020, marked by a serious setback in the bilateral relations between Cuba and the United States and a progressive tightening of the economic, commercial and financial blockade.
The Embassy would like to highlight that examples of tightening of US blockade during this period are the numerous regulations and provisions issued by the U.S. government against Cuba reached unprecedented levels of hostility. The possibility to bring claims under Title III of the Helms Burton Act in the US tribunals; the increased prosecution of Cuban financial and commercial transactions; the prohibition of flights from the USA to the provinces of Cuba, except for Havana; the intimidations of companies that send fuel supplies to Cuba, and campaign to discredit Cuban Medical Cooperation Programs, among others examples.
Actions and sanctions adopted by the US government are particularly alarming in 2019 with the imposition of 90 coercive economic measures against Cuba, and the monitoring ships and shipping companies that transport fuel to the Island. In this regards, were adopted illegal sanctions against 27 companies, 54 vessels and 3 individuals linked to the commercial sector. Penalty to 12 American and third country entities for violating regulations from the Office of Foreign Control (OFAC) were imposed, which in total exceeds 2.4 billion dollars, and application of the Helm-Burton Act as a mechanism for illegal pressure against third countries, their governments and companies.
The effect and obstacles provoked by the US blockade against the economic development that Cuba is building in a sovereign manner are clear and quantifiable. No sector of the Cuban economy escapes the effects of the blockade, even the Cubans living abroad cannot carry out transactions normally, just because they have Cuban nationality.
The accumulated damage over almost six decades of implementation of this policy amounts to USD 144,413,400,000. Taking into account the depreciation of the dollar against the value of gold on the international market, the blockade has caused quantifiable damages of over USD 1,098,008,000,000. This value represents a growth of 19 percent over the previous period, as a result of the increase in the price of gold by 18.3 percent. Between April 2019 and March 2020, the blockade causes losses estimated to amount to 5 thousand 570, 3 million dollars.
President Alpha Condé – Picture by US State Department
Saturday, 7 November 2020, Conakry, Republic of Guinea: Guinea’s Supreme Court ruled in favour of incumbent head of state, Alpha Condé, who garnered 59,50% of the popular vote in the presidential election held on 18 October. In accordance to the decision President Alpha Condé shall be sworn in for a third mandate in a row.
Professor Condé (born 4 mars 1938 in Boké) is in power since December 2010, and holds the headship of state under the support of the Party for the Guinean People. He is merely the fourth president of Guinea, and the only one elected by popular ballot since the country gained independence from France in 1958. Previous to holding the presidential office he was a professor in public law at Sorbonne University in Paris.
The President of Guinea is the country’s head of state, head of the executive branch of government as well as commander of the Armed Forces. He resides at Sekhoutoureah Presidential Palace based in Conakry.
United Kingdom Contributes £1M to Support OPCW’s Cyber Resilience and Centre for Chemistry and Technology
In the picture, the Permanent Representative of the United Kingdom to the OPCW, H.E. Ambassador Ms Joanna Roper CMG, and OPCW Director-General, H.E. Mr Fernando Arias at OPCW Headquarters.
THE HAGUE, Netherlands – 6 November 2020 – The Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland has made two contributions totalling £1M to a special Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) Trust Fund to support a number of major projects and activities of the Organisation.
A contribution of approximately £700,000 (€774,000) will support the activities of the Trust Fund for Security and Business Continuity. The funding will allow the OPCW to keep enhancing its cyber resilience from a security and business continuity perspective thus ensuring the Organisation is well prepared to meet current and future challenges.
Another contribution of £300,000 (€332,000) will be made to the OPCW Trust Fund to support the upgrade to the current OPCW Laboratory and Equipment Store through the construction of a new Centre for Chemistry and Technology (“ChemTech Centre”).
The contribution was formalised today during a ceremony between the Permanent Representative of the United Kingdom to the OPCW, H.E. Ambassador Ms Joanna Roper CMG, and OPCW Director-General, H.E. Mr Fernando Arias, which was held at OPCW Headquarters in The Hague.
Ambassador Roper remarked: “I am delighted that one of my first tasks as the UK’s Permanent Representative to the OPCW is to agree a further UK voluntary contribution of £1m to OPCW programmes. This funding will go towards the ChemTech Centre and cybersecurity, and the UK is pleased to support these valuable strands of OPCW work.”
H.E. Ambassador Ms Joanna Roper CMG, the Permanent Representative of the United Kingdom to the OPCW, and OPCW Director-General, H.E. Mr Fernando Arias during the meeting.
The Director-General thanked the UK Government for the contribution and expressed: “Our aspiration for a world free of chemical weapons can only become reality through concerted institutional action. I am grateful to the United Kingdom for its continued support, notably for the two important projects that underpin our strategic vision for remaining fit-for-purpose guardians of the global chemical weapons ban.”
Director-General Arias appealed to all OPCW Member States in a position to make voluntary contributions to do so. He further emphasised the important role the new ChemTech Centre will play in strengthening the OPCW’s ability to address chemical weapon threats and enhance capacity building activities. He highlighted that “all contributions, regardless of size, are greatly appreciated”.
So far, 45 countries, the European Union, and three other donors have contributed or pledged to contribute financially to the ChemTech Centre project, and a considerable amount has been raised to date.
ICC Prosecutor, Mrs Fatou Bensouda, receives high-level delegation from the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela in the context of its ongoing preliminary examinations
On 4 November 2020, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (“ICC” or the “Court”), Mrs Fatou Bensouda, met with a high level delegation from the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela (“Venezuela”), which included the Attorney General, Mr Tarek William Saab, and the Venezuelan Ombudsperson, Mr Alfredo Ruiz, at the Seat of the Court in The Hague, The Netherlands.
The meeting offered an opportunity for the Office to exchange with the delegation of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela on a number of aspects relating to the preliminary examination process and on the status of the two separate preliminary examinations conducted by the Office in relation to Venezuela (“Venezuela I” and “Venezuela II”), initiated in February 2018 and February 2020 respectively.
For their part, the Venezuelan authorities welcomed the Prosecutor’s availability to meet with them despite the current restrictions due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and renewed their commitment to support the Prosecutor and her Office in their independent and impartial work with respect to both situations concerning Venezuela.
With respect to the situation of Venezuela I, the Prosecutor conveyed to the delegation that the Office had concluded its subject-matter assessment and determined that there was a reasonable basis to believe that crimes within the jurisdiction of the Court have occurred in Venezuela. In this regard, the Office sought information on relevant domestic proceedings and their conformity with Rome Statute requirements.
With respect to the situation in Venezuela II, the Prosecutor updated the delegation on the status of the Office’s ongoing subject-matter assessment, which is aimed at reaching a determination on whether there is a reasonable basis to believe that the alleged conduct falls within the jurisdiction of the Court.
The Attorney General and Ombudsperson elaborated on the judicial system in Venezuela and the work of their respective offices and assured their willingness to cooperate in the framework of the Rome Statute with the work of the Prosecutor’s Office. To this end, the Venezuelan Attorney General invited Prosecutor Bensouda to visit Venezuela.
The Prosecutor reiterated that both situations (Venezuela I and II) remain under preliminary examination with a view to take a decision, upon completion, whether to open an investigation. Additional details, including on the Office’s findings will be available in the upcoming end of the year Report on Preliminary Examination Activities (2020).
The Office looks forward to the continued engagement with the Government of Venezuela and other relevant stakeholders in relation to the situations of Venezuela I and Venezuela II.
Initial Appearance of Kadri Veseli in the Case of Specialist Prosecutor Vs. Hashim Thaçi, Kadri Veseli, Rexhep Selimi and Jakup Krasniqi
On 10 November 2020 at 15:00, the Initial Appearance of Kadri Veseli will be a public hearing and will take place in the courtroom of the Kosovo Specialist Chambers (KSC) in The Hague.
The indictment against Kadri Veseli was confirmed on 26 October 2020. Following their arrests by the Specialist Prosecutor on 4 and 5 November, Hashim Thaçi, Kadri Veseli, Rexhep Selimi and Jakup Krasniqi were transferred to the Detention Facilities of the Kosovo Specialist Chambers (KSC) in The Hague on 4 and 5 November.
The indictment charges Kadri Veseli, under various forms of criminal responsibility, with war crimes and crimes against humanity under international law.
The indictment, alleges that Hashim Thaçi, Kadri Veseli, Rexhep Selimi and Jakup Krasniqi are individually criminally responsible, under various forms of responsibility, for the crimes charged, which were committed in the context of a non-international armed conflict in Kosovo and were part of a widespread and systematic attack against persons suspected of being opposed to the KLA.
The indictment, states that the war crimes of illegal or arbitrary arrest and detention, cruel treatment, torture, and murder, and the crimes against humanity of imprisonment, other inhumane acts, torture, murder, enforced disappearance of persons, and persecution were committed from at least March 1998 through September 1999.
The crimes charged took place in several locations across Kosovo as well as in Kukës and Cahan, in Northern Albania, and were committed by members of the Kosovo Liberation Army (“KLA”) against hundreds of civilians and persons not taking part in hostilities. The victims included persons suspected of being opposed to the KLA and later the Provisional Government of Kosovo, namely: (i) the Serbian, Roma and Ashkali populations; (ii) Catholics; (iii) civilians allegedly collaborating with Serb authorities or allegedly interacting with Serbs; (iv) Albanians affiliated to or supporting the Democratic League of Kosovo or other parties perceived as anti-KLA; (v) Albanians who did not join or support the KLA; and (vi) individuals with current or former employment perceived as anti-KLA.
