Tag: ICC

Sunday Smack

Happy Sunday, all! This year is the 60th annivesary of a hopeful revolution that started on the streets of Budapest in the fall of 1956 but resulted in brutal repulse and more than 40 more years under Russian oppression. Around this time every year we remember the bravery of those Hungarian people who risked their lives for freedom. There were commemorations held around the world this week for the occasion. And a lot of other news, of course. Let’s see some of them. Truly Winning the Battle of Mosul The battle of Mosul was kind of the news of the week….

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Sunday Smack

Happy Sunday! Although school has already started on the 1st, it was still very much summer at work this past week. Only at work, though, I am not exactly back to school this time, but started a new online course on edX, plus four other short trainings and challenges, all happening these first two weeks of September. There might be a post about all of them soon. Now, about this week’s reading. How the UN is Shoring Up the Historic Peace Deal in Colombia Colombia gets a lot of support to make this peace a reality. Let’s hope it will…

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Sunday Smack

Happy Sunday, everybody! This is the last Sunday Smack of this August and this summer, actually. In terms of the calendar, at least, I hope the weather stays warm for a while. I have spent this last weekend (made it a long weekend, actually) at home in Nagykálló with some well needed rest. September is going to be all work, no stops for me. As always, at this time of the year, I am half sad – for my favorite season to end, half excited – for things to get twirling again. And twirling, they are, this year. I have…

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Sunday Smack

Happy Sunday and happy summer everybody! After half a week of vacation at lake Balaton, a wonderful Plácido Domingo concert in Budapest, half a week of staycation in Nagykálló including some old school meteor shower watching, I will be back to work tomorrow. Let’s see what else happened this week. Russia’s Lawful Land Grab This comes on the week when Ukraine claims Russia is arranging military moves on their borders again. Can a New Peacekeeping Force Stabilize South Sudan? UN peacekeeping has a bad reputation these days. In theory I do think it can do wonders, but in practice it…

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Sunday Smack

Happy Sunday everybody! Seems like the weather finally got the memo that it’s almost summer already (at least in Hungary). I hope you are having a great weekend too. Here’s some reading to add to it… The World Humanitarian Summit: A Preview It was about time for a summit like this. As I often like to emphasize, I am a firm believer that the majority of the world’s problems could be solved with the financial resources we do have. All it would take is proper coordination and transparency of the utilization of these resources. I hope that the summit can…

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Sunday Smack

Happy Sunday and happy reading! The USA Sets Sights on Stopping UN Peacekeeper Sexual Abuse It’s about time to make this a priority. Hopefully the next Secretary General in alliance with the most powerful veto-holding member state can show some results. The Surprising Success of Syria’s Quasi-Ceasefire This is just one of the positive signs we see today, but the end is still nowhere in sight.  Refugees in ISIS’ Shadow This great New York Times op-ed (complete with a video) was written by Bono, who by the way, also testified to the US Congress this week about his experiences visiting…

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Sunday Smack

Happy Easter, everybody! A photo posted by Katalin Tarjan (@katalintarjan) on Mar 27, 2016 at 6:33am PDT After a week like this, I wish everybody to be safe wherever you are! Today’s reads are not at all pleasant, let’s get to them… What the Brussels Attacks Tell Us About the State of ISIS and Europe Today There are tons of analysis to read on the topic these days. It certainly cannot be said that the Belgian intelligence  were not preparing for an attack like this. Yet they were not prepared. I hate to say this, but since this seems to…

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Sunday Smack

Happy Sunday, everybody! I hope you all had a wonderful week. Mine was especially great and exciting. Check out my Instagram for a clue. 🙂 Let’s see what I have been reading, mostly during my travels this week… Putin’s Announcement on Russia: Unexpected but not Surprising The Russian announcement about them leaving the Syrian war scene met as much astonishment as the one about them entering it. The important question though is what will happen in Geneva now? First Report of the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Privacy to the Human Rights Council I posted several times last…

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Sunday Smack

You might have noticed that despite my promises there was no update on the blog this week. I have several unfinished posts and a bunch of excuses that I will not bother you with. So, no promises this time. Let’s all just accept whatever might come. Like these readings now to finish off your Sundays. ISIS Was Born In An American Detention Facility (And It Wasn’t Gitmo) This is equal parts interesting and disturbing. Julian Assange and the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention This was pretty big news this week, with people speculating whether it has any implications for…

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Sunday Smack

Happy Sunday Everybody! As you are reading this, I am in the UK somewhere having a good time and looking forward to the U2 concert on 3 November, which almost did not happen. (Phew, long story, perhaps many will contradict, but let me just warn you not to order tickets via viagogo.com! Well, not unless you can have them in your mailbox right away. What happened is that they kindly informed me three days prior to the concert, that the tickets I payed for five months in advance don’t exist!!! They blame it on the seller, but I suspect they…

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