#DefendingTheDefenders – Episode 7: UN Special Rapporteur Margaret Satterthwaite
On the 24th of January, the Day of the Endangered Lawyer, we conclude our podcast with a conversation with Margaret Satterthwaite. She is a professor of Clinical Law at New York University and was appointed as United Nations Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers in October 2022. We talk about global trends in challenges to the independence of lawyers, and we talk about structural problems that need to be addressed to defend the defenders around the globe.
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#DefendingTheDefenders – Episode 3: Afghanistan
When the Taliban took over power in Afghanistan in the summer of 2021, it was a disaster for women. Immediately, they were stripped of their rights, in particular their political rights. In the third episode of #DefendingTheDefenders, a podcast by Deutscher Anwaltverein and Verfassungsblog, we talk to Shabnam Salehi about the human rights situation in Afghanistan and the rights of women in particular and to Matthias Lehnert about the German and European Migration Law system.
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Balancing Accountability and Legitimacy
As they have installed themselves as the de facto government of Afghanistan, the Taliban could theoretically be held accountable for potential crimes via inter-state proceedings. In practice however, that would run the risk of increasing the perceived legitimacy of the Taliban as the Afghan government. The announcement of Prosecutor Karim Ahmad Khan of the International Criminal Court on September 27 to resume investigations in Afghanistan in the form of criminal prosecution – and thus not as inter-state litigation – therefore deserves support.
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Solang sie noch am Leben sind
Über Afghanistan, Deutschland und wer wem was schuldig ist
Continue reading >>Fatal Non-Evolution
Like all constitutions, the Afghan Constitution was imperfect. As is so often the case, its imperfections were necessary short-term fixes to settle immediate problems at the time of the constitutional founding. I will discuss two critically important features of the Constitution—ones that in 2004 were essential to ensure the short-term survival of the Afghan state, but which the framers themselves recognized would need to be modified in the medium to long-term. Over time, these once necessary but ultimately problematic elements in the Constitution remained uncorrected, impeded government performance and destroyed the popular legitimacy of the government.
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Das Ortskräfte-Debakel hat im Innenministerium seinen Ursprung
Das Bundesministerium des Inneren hat offenbar beim Ortskräfte-Desaster die Schlüsselrolle gespielt und die Evakuation der Ortskräfte aus Afghanistan seit Monaten behindert und blockiert. Es trägt die Verantwortung für die Blockade von rechtzeitigen Maßnahmen und für das spätere Desaster bei der Evakuierung der Ortskräfte. Wer das Ministerium kennt, für den kommt diese Entwicklung nicht überraschend. Die Gründe für sie liegen in der Ausrichtung des Innenministeriums.
Continue reading >>Afghanistan’s Constitution between Sharia Law and International Human Rights
Afghanistan’s 2004 constitution is a compromise between liberal internationalists, local clerics and warlords. Apostasy cases are the constitution’s litmus test.
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