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July 21, 2006

Ms Justice Louise Arbour

Ms Louise Arbour, former member of Sureme Court of Canada and now UN Human Rights Tsar, said "indiscriminate shelling of cities constitutes a foreseeable and unacceptable targeting of civilians. Similarly, the bombardment of sites with alleged military significance, but resulting invariably in the killing of innocent civilians, is unjustifiable." She also warned that "international law demands accountability ... The scale of the killings in the region, and their predictability, could engage the personal criminal responsibility of those involved, particularly those in a position of command and control." Ms. Arbour criticized both Israel and Hezballah.

This is an example of activist-judge. Instead of following the law, she tries to make the law. Geneva convention makes it a criminal offence to deliberately target civilians but does not mention the scale. Deliberately killing one civilian is a war crime. Killing 1000 of civilians because 100 militants blended among them and use them as human shields is a collateral damage. Ms. Arbor should read

Additional Protocol I, Article 44: If enemy combatants are indistinguishable from enemy civilians, then military forces are entitled to engage them. This entitlement extends to engaging enemy forces who are deliberately hiding among civilians.

I am very glad that Ms. Arbour became UN Human Rights Commissioner. More precisely I am glad that because of this she is no more Supreme Court Judge. I believe that on her current position she could cause far less damage than before: no one takes UN Human Rights branches seriously.

Posted by Victor at July 21, 2006 05:46 AM