Dr Ekaterina Trendafilova appointed President of the Kosovo Specialist Chambers On 14 December 2016 Dr Ekaterina Trendafilova was appointed President of the Specialist Chambers. After the independent Selection Panel submitted its recommendation, the Appointing Authority, Ms. Alexandra Papadopoulou, Head of the EULEX Mission in Kosovo, formally appointed the President. President Trendafilova (1953) is a distinguished judge, lawyer and academic from Bulgaria with extensive experience in international criminal law, criminal law, criminal procedural law and human rights law. She served as a Judge of the International Criminal Court (ICC) from 2006 to 2015. Prior to the appointment to the ICC she was a professor of criminal justice at the Sofia University, Deputy District Attorney at the Sofia District Court and provided expert opinion in criminal law and human rights standards to the Bulgarian Parliament, Supreme Court and number of Bulgarian ministries. For a short biography of President Trendafilova please consult the website of the Kosovo Specialist Chambers (www.scp-ks.org). Upon her appointment, President Trendafilova stated: “I am truly honoured to have been appointed as the first President of the Kosovo Specialist Chambers. At this decisive moment in the early existence of the Specialist Chambers, I feel privileged to have been entrusted with the leadership task. I recognize the immense responsibility to ensure that the Specialist Chambers apply the best judicial practices and deliver fair and impartial justice for those brought to account, as well as the victims of the crimes allegedly committed. I intend to accomplish this mission independently, with determination, vigour and to the very best of my abilities. It is vital that we implement our mandate in an efficient, professional and secure manner.” The President of the Specialist Chambers is responsible for the judicial administration of the Specialist Chambers and other functions conferred upon her by the Law. The President also serves as presiding judge on Supreme Court Panel of the Specialist Chambers. President Trendafilova has been appointed for a term of four years and is to be deployed as of January 2017.

By H.E. Shahidul Haque, Foreign Secretary of Bangladesh and Chair-in-Office of the GFMD 2016. DHAKA – We live in a rapidly evolving, hyper-connected world, where goods, capital, and people are more mobile than ever before. But, whereas countries have shown a willingness to cooperate on exchanging goods and capital, the international community has shown little appetite for improving how it governs human mobility. After the wide-scale persecution and displacement of people in World War II, world leaders took the bold step of crafting the 1951 Refugee Convention. In doing so, they relinquished a measure of national sovereignty – by accepting the principle of non-refoulement – in order to promote global solidarity toward refugees. On the other hand, country leaders saw migration as something temporary that could be managed ad hoc, through unilateral or bilateral agreements primarily designed to fill specific labor-market needs in developed economies. In hindsight, it is now clear that this approach was inadequate for dealing with the upsurge in human mobility that came with global and regional economic integration. When writing about guest workers in Switzerland, Swiss playwright Max Frisch once observed that, “We asked for workers. We got people instead.” He meant that migrants are not goods that can be exported or imported, and they should not be exploited as if they were. Migrants are human beings with rights, and they are motivated by a complex combination of personal desires, fears, and familial obligations. Many migrants are searching for jobs because they have missed out on globalization’s unequally distributed gains, and they see no future for themselves if they remain where they are; countless others have been displaced by conflicts or natural disasters. Today, ungoverned migration is threatening geopolitical stability, burdening border controls, and creating chaos around the world. The current mechanisms for managing migration have clearly failed to meet existing needs. The world needs a new, comprehensive global-governance framework to address all issues relating to human mobility. Achieving such an outcome is Bangladesh’s primary objective as Chair of the 2016 Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD), which culminates with the Ninth Annual Forum Meeting in Dhaka on December 10-12. In 2015, as part of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals for 2030, world leaders pledged to cooperate on migration issues and to “facilitate orderly, safe, regular and responsible migration.” The SDGs acknowledge migrants’ positive contribution to inclusive growth and sustainable development, and it is high time that our leaders follow through on their promises. Sadly, governments worldwide have become preoccupied with deterring migration and restricting people’s movement, rather than creating safe, dignified channels for human mobility. Unsurprisingly, this obsession with control has had little impact on irregular migration flows, because it runs counter to the pull of market forces and the push of personal aspirations. Populist politicians have taken advantage of the current situation by politicizing migration and scapegoating migrants for socioeconomic problems such as unemployment, welfare-system strains, and deteriorating social cohesion. But there is still room for hope. When world leaders gathered at the UN Summit for Refugees and Migrants on September 19, they reaffirmed migrants’ human rights and committed to strengthening global governance on this issue. At the center of the summit’s unanimously adopted New York Declaration is a commitment to develop two global compacts: to share responsibility for taking in refugees, and to ensure orderly, safe, regular, and responsible migration. The government of Bangladesh proposed the second compact in April 2016. That compact, which will be adopted at an inter-governmental conference in 2018, offers an historic opportunity to improve the way governments and other stakeholders cooperate on migration. Building walls and discriminating against migrants or refugees on the basis of ethnicity or religion is antithetical to the 2030 SDG agenda, which aims to free people from the shackles of poverty, reduce inequality, and promote shared prosperity. The international community must now ensure that the new global compacts promote these broad ambitions. This will require national governments and global-governance institutions to implement bold policies that make migration both easier and more orderly. It will also require them to protect migrants and refugees’ rights, prevent ethnic or religious discrimination, and provide emergency assistance when needed. And it will encourage them to maximize migrants’ positive economic impact on both their new countries and their countries of origin, by reducing financial and human costs and integrating newcomers into the labor market. To achieve the best outcome, the two global compacts will need to be pursued in a coordinated fashion, and treated as two parts of a single framework for governing migration. In 2017, governments will begin to negotiate the details of this future framework. This may include a legally binding convention; a political declaration of principles to guide conduct; or operational commitments with goals, targets, and indicators of success, combined with a robust monitoring mechanism. These options should not be seen as mutually exclusive. If diplomacy prevails, and international arrangements are crafted carefully, one could imagine an outcome similar to the 2015 Paris climate agreement: binding commitments in some areas, non-binding guiding principles in others, and a shared promise by member states to take concrete action and to report their progress regularly. Such an approach would help to guarantee effectiveness. As the Chair of the GFMD, Bangladesh will communicate the Dhaka summit’s recommendations to countries’ negotiators. We will push for an agreement among political leaders at the inter-governmental conference in 2018 that vastly improves how migration is managed. With international cooperation, we can unleash the full social and economic potential of migration. And, in doing so, we will make migrants safer, societies more harmonious, and economies more prosperous.   ————————- This article has been published on December 7, 2016 in Project Sindicate/ wwwproject-syndicate.org In Diplomat Magazine by the Embassy Bangladesh, in The Hague.

Statement from the OPCW Director-General on Allegations of Chemical Weapons Use in Uqayribat, Hama Governate, Syria.

The allegations regarding the use of chemical weapons in the area of Uqayribat, in the Hama Governate in Syria, reported by the media recently are of serious concern. This area is located to the northwest of Palmyra and in territory understood to be controlled by the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). States Parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention deem the use of chemical weapons by anyone under any circumstances as reprehensible and wholly contrary to the legal norms established by the international community. The OPCW through its ongoing Fact-Finding Mission continues to examine any credible reports it receives including pertinent information that might be shared by States Parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention. Background The Chemical Weapons Convention comprehensively prohibits the use, development, production, stockpiling and transfer of chemical weapons. Any chemical used for warfare is considered a chemical weapon by the Convention. As the implementing body for the Chemical Weapons Convention, the OPCW oversees the global endeavour to permanently eliminate chemical weapons. Since the Convention’s entry into force in 1997 – with its 192 States Parties – it is the most successful disarmament treaty eliminating an entire class of weapons of mass destruction. To date, nearly 94 per cent of all chemical weapon stockpiles declared by possessor States have been destroyed under OPCW verification. For its extensive efforts in eliminating chemical weapons, the OPCW received the 2013 Nobel Prize for Peace.

The Commission is reporting on progress made in the implementation of the EU-Turkey Statement and on the EU’s relocation and resettlement schemes. The Commission also adopted a fourth Recommendation that takes stock of the progress achieved by Greece to put in place a fully functioning asylum system and sets out a process for the gradual resumption of Dublin transfers to Greece. European Commission First Vice-President Frans Timmermans said: “Our comprehensive European approach on migration is showing positive results. We can see this in the continued implementation of the EU-Turkey Statement and the dramatic decrease in the number of irregular migrants arriving in Greece.” “We also see it in the progress made by the Greek authorities in rectifying deficiencies in the country’s asylum system, which has allowed us to recommend the gradual resumption of Dublin transfers to Greece as of 15 March 2017. This will provide further disincentives against irregular entry and secondary movements, and is an important step for the return to a normally functionally Dublin and Schengen system.” Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship, Dimitris Avramopoulos said: “Both Italy and Greece have made herculean efforts in recent months in managing the refugee crisis. The fact that today we close the infringement cases on the fingerprinting and registration of migrants is proof of that.” “This November was a record month for relocation with over 1,400 persons transferred, and Member States must build on this progress by further intensifying and sustaining their efforts. Our aim is to relocate all those in Italy and Greece who are eligible for relocation within the next year. These efforts, together with a lasting reduction in arrivals from Turkey thanks to the EU-Turkey Statement, are necessary building blocks for a gradual return to the Dublin system for Greece.” Steady progress made in the implementation of the EU-Turkey Statement The implementation of the EU-Turkey Statement has confirmed the trend of a steady delivery of results, albeit in the face of many challenges. Numbers of irregular crossings of the Aegean during the reporting period remained dramatically lower than before the EU-Turkey Statement. Since March, arrivals have averaged 90 per day, compared to 10,000 in a single day in October last year. Return operations have continued to be carried out with an additional 170 persons returned since the Third Report, bringing the total number of persons returned under the Statement or the Greece-Turkey bilateral readmission protocol to 1,187. However, important shortfalls remain, notably as regards the still too slow pace of returns from Greece to Turkey which has led to additional pressure on the Greek islands. The situation deserves not only careful monitoring but, more importantly, additional efforts to help improve the situation on the Greek islands. It is therefore essential that sufficient resources are provided to ensure the effective processing of asylum applications and that Member States respond in full to calls from the European Asylum Support Office. To ensure full implementation of EU actions under the EU-Turkey Statement and to alleviate the pressure on the islands, the EU Coordinator Maarten Verwey has today published a Joint Action Plan elaborated with the Greek authorities. As regards the implementation of the Visa Liberalisation Roadmap, seven benchmarks remain to be met by Turkey. The Commission encourages Turkey’s efforts to complete the delivery of all outstanding benchmarks as soon as possible. The Commission and Turkey have continued their dialogue to find solutions, including on the legislative and procedural changes needed to meet the outstanding benchmarks. The Commission has continued to accelerate the delivery of funding under the Facility for Refugees in Turkey, having already allocated a total of €2.2 billion out of the €3 billion foreseen for 2016-2017 to address the most urgent needs of refugees and host communities in Turkey. The amounts contracted have increased to €1.3 billion. The Commission is making all necessary efforts to ensure an acceleration of disbursements under the Facility, the sum of which has now reached €677 million. Dublin transfers to Greece to be gradually resumed Today, the Commission adopted its Fourth Recommendation on the resumption of Dublin transfers to Greece as a step towards a normal functioning of the rules of the Dublin system. The Commission finds that Greece has made significant progress in putting in place the essential institutional and legal structures for a properly functioning asylum system. However, the resumption has to take account of the fact that Greece is still facing high migratory pressure and that deficiencies in the Greek asylum system remain, in particular as regards reception conditions, the treatment of vulnerable applicants and the speed with which asylum applications are registered, lodged and examined. The Commission therefore recommends that transfers to Greece should be resumed gradually, on the basis of individual assurances from the Greek authorities for each returnee, guaranteeing they will be received in dignity. In order to avoid that an unsustainable burden is placed on Greece, the resumption of transfers will not be applied retroactively and will only concern asylum applicants who have entered Greece irregularly from 15 March 2017 onwards or for whom Greece is responsible from 15 March 2017 under other Dublin criteria. To support the efforts of Greece, the Commission calls on all Member States to fully comply with their relocation obligations and to ensure sufficient deployment of asylum experts to Greece. Applicants should only be transferred if the Greek authorities give individual assurances in each case that the applicant will be treated in accordance with EU law. Vulnerable asylum applicants, including unaccompanied minors, should not be transferred to Greece for the time being. An EASO team of experts from Member States should be set up to support the cooperation between Member States and to report on whether the persons transferred back to Greece are treated in accordance with the assurances provided by the Greek authorities. The Commission will regularly report on the progress made in the implementation of the Recommendation and update its recommendations if necessary. Progress on relocation and resettlement November saw 1,406 relocations, the highest monthly number so far, confirming a continuous positive trend, with relocation from Greece stabilising around 1,000 per month and relocation from Italy having increased significantly. In total, 8,162 persons have been relocated so far, 6,212 from Greece and 1,950 from Italy. The Commission considers that it should now be feasible to transfer all eligible relocation applicants in Greece and Italy to other Member States by September 2017. To achieve this goal, Member States should from now on carry out at least 2,000 relocations per month from Greece and 1,000 from Italy. As of April 2017, the monthly number of relocations from Greece should be at least 3,000 and from Italy 1,500. The Commission has continued to work closely with the Greek and Italian authorities as well as Member States to remove obstacles to speedier relocation on the ground. Today, the Commission decided to close infringement procedures against Italy and Greece for non-implementation of the Eurodac regulation because in both Member States, there is now a fingerprinting rate of close to 100% of third-country nationals liable to be fingerprinted who entered the EU irregularly at their external borders. Member States have also continued to increase their efforts on resettlement – offering legal and safe pathways to 13,887 people so far out of the 22,504 agreed under the July 2015 scheme. Since the previous report a record monthly number of 2,035 people have been resettled mainly from Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon. An additional 544 Syrian refugees have been resettled from Turkey, bringing the total number of resettlements from Turkey under the EU-Turkey Statement to 2,761.