In the picture Premier Nikol Pashinyan and Dr. Stephan Holthoff-Pförtner – Picture by Land NRW, Uta Wagner.
Thursday, 31 January 2019, Köln, NRW, Germany: The 16th Prime Minister of Armenia, Nikol Pashinyan was received in North Rhine-Westphalia by the Minister of European and International Affairs, Dr. Stephan Holthoff-Pförtner.
Pivotal for the discussions was the democratic reforms carried out in Armenia after the peaceful revolt that led to the premiership of Nikol Pashinyan last year. Minister Dr. Holthoff-Pförtner highlighted the own peaceful revolt in East Germany that had as a consequence the collapse of the Communist system and facilitated German reunification.
Moreover, they explored concrete steps to establish partnerships between NRW higher education institutions and the ones in Armenia as well as ways to entice business people from Germany to the eastern European country. Before the institutional meeting, Premier Pashinyan had in fact been a guest at the Technical University of Cologne, and held an allocution before the student corps.
Prime Minister Pashinyan was accompanied by her spouse Anna Hakobyan, Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan and Ambassador to Germany, Ashot Smbatyan. After the NRW stopover, the latter dignitaries travelled further to Berlin wherein they were welcomed for bilateral talks by the Federal President, Dr. Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Federal Chancellor Dr. Angela Merkel.
In the picture, H.E. Sheik Mohammed Belal, Ambassador of Bangladesh signing the book of condolences at the Embassy of Ethiopia in The Hague.
By Roy Lie Atjam.
Ethiopian Airline flight ET302 bound from Nairobi, Kenya crashed at Bishoftu near Addis Ababa only minutes after taking off on Sunday 10 March 2019.
The Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft was carrying 149 passengers and 8 crew members when it crashed only 6 minutes after departing Addis Ababa on Sunday morning. All 157 passengers on board were killed. Reports have indicated that the passengers were from among 35 nationalities including 3 Russians, 18 Canadians, 7 Britons, 32 Kenyans as well as passengers from Ethiopia, Italy, China, the United States and France among others. This event is indeed an international tragedy.
The Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737
MAX 8 aircraft tragedy has sparked a global aviation response where many
airline companies have made the decision to discontinue the use of this
aircraft model. Airlines based in China, Ethiopia, Indonesia as well as the
Caribbean and Latin America have also grounded the Boeing 737 MAX 8 in their
respective fleets pending the outcome of the investigation of flight ET302.
Countries in Europe, as well as the United States and Canada, have made the decision to close their skies to all incoming services using the Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft.
Mr. Roy LIe Atjam, Diplomat Magazine´s Editor, signing the Book of Condolence.
Book of Condolence. In
view of this unfortunate tragedy, a condolence book has been opened at
the Ethiopian Embassy in The Hague. Members of the Diplomatic Corps in
the Hague and Diplomat magazine, made their way to the Ethiopian
Embassy in Oranjestraat to sign the book of condolence.
This heartfelt
gesture of sympathy by the diplomatic community did not only serve as a means
of paying their respects to the government and people of Ethiopia but also to
the other bereaved governments and their people.
Statement of the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court at the conclusion of its visit to Bangladesh (6-11 March 2019)
The Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court concluded its first visit to the People’s Republic of Bangladesh in the context of the on-going preliminary examination concerning the alleged deportation of the Rohingya people from Myanmar to Bangladesh. The purpose of this visit was to engage with relevant stakeholders, explain the preliminary examination process, and travel to the refugee camps with a view to informing the Office’s ongoing assessment.
On behalf of the Prosecutor, Mrs Fatou Bensouda, the delegation would like to express its gratitude to the Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh for providing its support to this visit and facilitating meetings with the relevant national authorities. During this past week, the delegation had constructive exchanges with senior officials from the Ministries of Foreign Affairs; Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs; and Home Affairs; as well as various law enforcement agencies.
The delegation also had the opportunity to exchange views with representatives of various agencies of the United Nations and members of the diplomatic community, as well as academics from the University of Dhaka’s Centre for Genocide Studies.
In Cox’s Bazar, the delegation visited the refugee camps and met with government authorities, humanitarian agencies and NGOs, as well as a number of victims’ representatives. The delegation listened carefully to their views and concerns.
The insights gained from the visit will continue to inform the Office’s ongoing assessment of the situation.
The independent and impartial preliminary examination of the situation in Bangladesh/Myanmar is on-going and will follow its course. A preliminary examination is not an investigation, but an assessment of the Rome Statute criteria to decide whether an investigation into the situation at hand is warranted. Therefore, during this mission, as is standard practice of the Office, the delegation did not collect evidence or perform any other investigative activities.
The field visit enabled the Office, however, to hold productive meetings in Bangladesh, and to fully appreciate the sheer magnitude and severity of this human tragedy.
The Office is committed to making continued progress on the preliminary examination process and is grateful to the authorities of Bangladesh and many other partners for their strong support.
President Agius concludes first visit to Tanzania as President of the Mechanism
Arusha, 8 March 2019– On 8 March 2019, the President of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (Mechanism), Judge Carmel Agius, concluded his first visit to the United Republic of Tanzania (Tanzania) in his capacity as President.
The visit took place on the occasion of the second in-person Plenary of Mechanism Judges, which was held at the Mechanism’s Arusha branch on 4 and 5 March 2019. Following the successful conclusion of the Judges’ Plenary, President Agius spent a full day at the Mechanism premises on 6 March 2019 where he took the opportunity, together with the other Principals, to hold a Town Hall meeting with all staff. In addition, he met with Section Chiefs of the Registry and staff from the Office of the Prosecutor.
President Agius also paid a courtesy call to the President of the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, Judge Sylvain Oré, where they discussed matters of mutual interest and relevance to the two institutions. President Agius, together with Mechanism Registrar Olufemi Elias, subsequently travelled to Dar es Salaam where they met on 7 March 2019 with the Chief Justice of Tanzania, Professor Ibrahim Hamis Juma.
During the meeting the President provided an update on the work of the Mechanism and theChief Justice in turn informed them about the Judiciary of Tanzania’s ‘5 years Strategic Plan’ for reforms to the Tanzanian justice system. On 8 March 2019, the President and Registrar held a Diplomatic Briefing for members of the diplomatic corps accredited to Tanzania and representatives of international organisations, at the premises of the United Nations Development Programme in Dar es Salaam. During the briefing, which was attended by some 20 Ambassadors and other members of the diplomatic corps, President Agius and Registrar Elias provided an overview of the Mechanism’s activities and answered questions from the audience. The President’s mission concluded with a press conference attended by the international and national press in Dar es Salaam, during which he and Registrar Elias informed members of the press about the progress of work at the Mechanism, its mandate and current challenges. President Agius assumed the Presidency of the Mechanism on 19 January 2019, having been a Judge of the Mechanism since its inception in 2012. He previously served for 16 years as a Judge of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, including as its Vice-President (2011-2015) and final President (2015-2017).
6-10 March 2019, Berlin: Ugandan Ambassador to Germany, Dr Marcel R. Tibaleka encouraged tour operators to take advantage of ITB Berlin, the world’s largest tourism fair, to network and entice new businesses.
Ambassador Dr Tibaleka held a meeting with The Hon. Godfrey Kiwanda, Minister of State for Tourism, Wildlife and Antiquities, who led Uganda’s delegation to ITB Berlin to promote Uganda as the number one tourist destination and to network with other exhibitors.
The delegation included Mrs Grace Aulo, Commissioner for Tourism, officials from Uganda Tourism Board (UTB) with new CEO Ms Lilly Ajarova at their helm, Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA), 30 Ugandan tour operators, 14 hoteliers led by Mrs Susan Muhwezi, the Chairperson of Uganda Hotel Owners Association (UHOA) and over 10 other independent trade visitors. The companies represented at the fair from all over the globe include hotels, tourist boards, tour operators, system providers, airlines and car rental companies.
Minister Godfrey Kiwanda, Diplomat Magazine’s Henri Estramant, Susan Muhwezi – Picture by Henri Estramant.
Minister Kiwanda said Uganda’s participation at the ITB Berlin and other related International travel fairs was premised on the need for continuous investment in aggressive marketing in order for the tourism sector to achieve the projected growth rate.
Tourism is currently Uganda’s leading foreign exchange earner, bringing in excess of US$ 1.45 billion annually.
I am running as a CDA candidate for the elections in Delfland, your water region. Vote for Mireille de Jonge!
May I ask for your vote?
Originally from the province of Zeeland, but living in Zuid-Holland since 1991, I am well-acquainted with water issues. I know about the beauty, purity and safety of water. But I also know that you cannot always take water for granted.
The province of Zuid-Holland is low-lying and therefore must be protected against flooding. To prevent unpleasant surprises in the future, I am focusing on 3 themes:
Water flows
A clean and safe water supply from neighbouring countries because rivers do not stop at the border.
Water needs to flow
Combat urbanisation and prepare for climate changes by making our cities and towns greener, including gardens and rooftops.
Flooding
Water crisis management focused on evacuation plans to ensure all of our safety.
Water: our mission for now and
the future!
If you would like to continue
to live safely in The Hague region vote for Mireille de Jonge!
All non-Dutch residents who are registered have
received a voting pass and can vote on 20 March.
The
politics of language in disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation.
Roundtable organised by ISS; KUNO; IHSA
Thursday 21 March, 16.30 – 18.00
Aula B, ISS, Kortenaerkade 12 The Hague
The concept of vulnerability has been a key concept in studies of
disasters and climate change. Vulnerability brings out the socially produced
ways in which groups are rendered safe or unsafe in view of hazards. The
concept has been a radical move in disaster studies as it took the natural out
of natural disasters, and in focusing on issues like power and inequality as
factors that turn the occurrence of a hazard into a disaster.
Today, the concept of vulnerability has partly been overtaken by
resilience. Increasingly, people (even disadvantaged people) have begun to be
considered as resilient, with the capacities to organise, resist, learn, change
and adapt. Adaptation, has become the slogan and the proposed solution to the
problem of adjusting human systems to actual or expected climatic stimuli.
The roundtable will discuss whether, and if so, how vulnerability
still matters? Does resilience indeed
help to focus disaster response on communities? What happens to social
inequalities and the role of the state’s duties to protect their citizens?
Featuring: Greg Bankoff, Kenneth
Hewitt, Terry Cannon, Lisa Schipper, Luis Artur, Sarah Bradshaw and Ben Wisner
The round table
will be concluded with drinks, offered by IHSA
On 13th September of 2017, H.E. Mr. Dilyor Khakimov had been named the new Ambassador of Uzbekistan to Belgium along with obtaining postings as Head the Missions of Uzbekistan to the EU and NATO. On 13 March 2019 he also became ambassador to the Kingdom of The Netherlands adding this country and the representation to the international organizations sitting in The Hague including OPCW to his ambassadorship portfolio.
H.E. Mr. Dilyor Khakimov is a highly skilled and experienced diplomat with outstanding service in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as well as UNDP. He began his career during the late 1990s in the project management department of UNDP. During his work in the management field, Mr. Khakimov closely cooperated with the government representatives on implementing projects. Consequently thereafter, he was assigned to various positions at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Uzbekistan.
From 2009 to 2013, H.E. Mr. Dilyor Khakimov worked on facilitating diplomatic ties between Uzbekistan and United States by first serving as Counsellor in the Embassy of the Republic of Uzbekistan in the USA and then being on duty as Permanent Representative of Uzbekistan to the UN in New York.
Before being promoted to the rank of Ambassador of Uzbekistan to Belgium, H.E. Mr. Dilyor Khakimov had been appointed to be First Deputy and Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Uzbekistan (2013-2017).
Furthermore, H.E. Mr. Dilyor Khakimov has a diverse academic background completed in Malaysia and Uzbekistan. Indeed, he holds a Business Management degree from Mara Technological Institute, as well as graduate degrees in International Economic Relations from Tashkent State Institute of Oriental Studies and from Tashkent Economic University.
H.E. Mr. Dilyor Khakimov fluently speaks English and Russian; he is a husband and a father to three kids.
On Saturday 13 April, The Hague Municipal Archives will organize The History of The Hague Day for the fourteenth time, celebrating the history of The Hague with all its residents.
This year’s theme is ‘gold’, inspired by the annual topic Rembrandt and the Golden Age. Between 11:00 PM and 4:00 AM Het Plein in the centre of The Hague will be transformed into a vibrant festival site.
Young, elderly, newcomer, expat, traditional ‘Hagenaar’ or ‘Hagenese’; everyone can participate and enjoy free workshops, guided tours, special performances and old Dutch children’s games, offered by over thirty heritage institutions and organizations in The Hague. An extensive English language programme will be available for expats and tourists.
The complete programme can be found on dagvandehaagsegeschiedenis.nl/ (choose the English flag in the menu to switch to English).
At a joint press conference held in The Hague, Russian and Syrian
representatives at the OPCW criticized the organization’s recently published
report on the alleged chemical attacks of April 7th, 2018 in Douma,
Syria. Nevertheless – Russian Ambassador H.E. Mr. Alexander Shulgin said –
Russia will not give up its quest to clarify what happened in Douma one year
ago.
On March 1st, 2019, the Organization for the
Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) issued the report of its Fact Finding
Mission (FFM) on the allegation of chemical weapons use in Douma, Syria, on
April 7th, 2018. On March 11th, 2019, the Russian mission
to the OPCW, together with its Syrian counterpart, organized a press conference
to issue a preliminary assessment of the OPCW report.
In the wake of the allegation of chemical weapons use in Douma last year, the OPCW had sent an independent mission to assess the situation on the ground. The mission managed to access Douma only on April 15th, a day after the retaliation strikes launched by the United States, France, and the United Kingdom in response to the alleged use of chemical weapons by the government of Mr. Bashar al-Asad. After almost a year of analysis, the report issued on March 1st stated that the evidence gathered by the FFM “provide[s] reasonable grounds that the use of a toxic chemical as a weapon has taken place” in Douma, although it refrained from blaming any actors for the incident.
During the March 11th press conference,
Ambassador Shulgin criticized the report issued by the FFM, pointing the finger
at “internal inconsistencies, discrepancies and gaps”. In particular, he
disputed the report’s ballistic analyses, its high estimates of casualties, as
well as its inconsistency in dealing with information coming from the White
Helmets (WH). This group, officially known as Syria Civil Defence, defines
itself as a volunteer organization supporting civilian victims of attacks, but
it has been accused by Damascus and Moscow of being affiliated with terrorist
groups such as Jabhat al-Nusra.
Moreover, Ambassador Shulgin criticized the FFM’s report for not taking into consideration large part of the evidence submitted by Russia in the wake of the alleged attacks. In April 2018, the Russian delegation in The Hague had organized an event on the Douma attacks, flying in from Damascus a number of witnesses who denounced the alleged attack as a farce. Such evidence, however, was only vaguely mentioned in the report – Mr. Shulgin regretted, accusing the OPCW’s experts of not having the courage to counter the pressure exercised by the U.S.-led coalition.
Stressing the importance of providing the
international public with appropriate information, H.E. Mr. Bassam Sabbah, Syrian
Permanent Representative to the OPCW, added new elements of criticism to the
FFM’s report. He denounced the FFM for not living up to the OPCW standards in
terms of sampling, interviewing and cooperation with the host government, in
spite of what he defined as the Syrian government’s “utmost cooperation” with
the mission. In particular, Mr. Sabbagh regretted the OPCW’s use of extra
samples outside those officially extracted by the FFM staff in Douma, as well
as the reliance on interviews to individuals whose background and relation to
the incident remain unclear.
The accusations of the Russian and Syrian diplomats were backed up by the more technical details provided by Mr. Sergey Kikot, chemical weapons expert at the Russian Ministry of Defence. Mr. Kikot underlined that although “Russia does not question the OPCW’s professionalism”, the FFM’s report contains analyses of dubious quality. Specifically, he questioned the report’s ballistic analyses, and dubbed its estimates of casualties, amounting to 43 victims and more than 500 injured, as unrealistic.
A further round of criticism was raised by Mr. Maxim
Grigoriev, Director of the Russia-based Foundation for the Study of Democracy.
Mr. Grigoriev specifically blamed the report for the poor standards of its
interviews policy, as well as for the inconsistent use of information coming
from the White Helmets. He welcomed the report’s denial of some claims arising
from the WH, but at the same time regretted that in other parts of the report
information provided by the WH was used as a reliable source. Repeatedly
referring to tweets by the BBC Syria Producer Riam Dalati, Mr. Gregoriev dubbed
such information as propaganda, and accused the WH of close affiliation with
terrorist organizations operating in Syria.
In his concluding remarks, Mr. Shulgin underlined that
the Russian Mission to the OPCW will not give up its quest to clarify what
happened in Douma on April 7th, 2018, and to overcome the excessive
politicization that surrounded this issue in the discussions held at the OPCW
over the last year.
