Colloquium on Genocides, War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity

by Eze Eluchie

The quest to congregate global revulsion against the commission of mass murders, forced enslavement and some of the worst crimes conceivable, received a big boost with the convocation of the 1st International Colloquium on Genocides, War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity, on Friday, March 1st, 2013 at the McDonough Hall of Georgetown University Law Center, Washington, DC.  The Colloquium was co-sponsored by the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law and the Human Rights Association-Amnesty International, both of Georgetown University and convened by Eze Eluchie.

The Colloquium’s theme was, “The Forgotten Genocides,” and had three core objectives:

  

1. Establish a platform where peoples who have been, and or are likely to be victims of or perpetrators of war crimes and crimes against humanity (particularly genocides) can share experiences and ideas of preventing such dastardly acts.

2. Identify early warning signals and locations where similar crimes are likely to be committed across the world with a view to focusing global attention at such areas and preventing the commission of such crimes.

3. Explore avenues to ameliorate the adverse impact (psychological, physiological, developmental and otherwise) of war crimes and crimes against humanity on the victims and perpetrators alike.

The convergence of speakers and participants from across the world at the Colloquium, particularly representatives of nationalities which had experienced genocides, war crimes and other crimes against humanity in their history, indicated a willingness of peoples from diverse countries and continents to strive towards a better understanding of the causative factors of these vile crimes with a view to forestalling repeats. 

Our Oil, Our Life.

by Eze Eluchie

One more reason why we are where we are and the rest of the world are where they are: As a result of an oil spill at Chevron facility in Brazil, the Brazilian Government has halted all Chevron prospecting and crude lifting operations in Brazil. In addition to criminal and civil suits filed against British Petroleum by the United States Government over the 2010 Gulf oil spill, a U.S. District Court awarded well over U.S.$7 Billion in damages in partial settlement to some persons affected by the same spill – this figure is bound to rise astronomically as the total impact of damages gets assessed.

 

Faced with much larger oil spills and the worst environmental destruction in human history, what do the kleptocrats manning the Nigerian government do?

 

Our goons deploy Nigerian troops and security operatives to shoot, kill and terrorize locals who dare express disapproval for the inhumane activities of oil prospecting activities in Nigeria and intent on rubbing the injury in, award national honors to officials of multinational oil firms - a 'keep-up-the-destructive-work' kind of award. With millions of barrels of crude routinely being spilled all over the Niger Delta region, destroying our ecosystem, further pauperizing the locals in the areas in question.