The Migrants Crisis: reviewing the numbers.

By Bérengère Greenland

Earlier this month, the University of Canterbury hosted, in association with UN Youth, the EUCN and the NCRE, a model European Parliament for high school students. The theme this year was the refugee crisis in Europe. For months we had been working on how to best explain the crisis to teenagers. How could we make them understand what was at stake for refugees, for host countries and for Europe but also how it mattered for New Zealand? Then, that morning, before the event started I checked the news on my computer and saw Aylan’s photograph. And I felt like no words or figures could possibly explain with the same emotion the crisis that led a young child to drown in the Mediterranean Sea and be found the next morning lying lifeless on a beach.

Who is ISIS and what kind of enemy will they be?

The rebel group ISIS is becoming increasingly relevant as countries from around the world join the fight to dismantle them. From as far away as New Zealand, troops are being sent to manage the threat. But who are they and what kind of threat do they pose?

Diplomatic Immunity: a Necessary Evil?

Key Points

         History of diplomatic immunity

         Reason for diplomatic immunity

         Diplomatic immunity in New Zealand

Questions are raised regarding diplomatic immunity once again after a Malaysian diplomat allegedly committed sexual assault with intent of committing rape on New Zealand soil. But there are good reasons for the existence of diplomatic immunities. They were not established to give envoys and diplomats special rights beyond the law.

Don’t shoot the messenger

Diplomatic immunity emerged when humans realised it might be better not to shoot the messenger.  Early records of such immunities were found in the the Institutes of Manu, an archaic Hindu code that has been dated back to 1500BC . The concept of immunity was also found in correspondence between Ramses III and Hattusili III who recognised the right of messengers to unimpeded passage. The Greeks and Romans both respected certain codes of conduct towards envoys from different city-states, states or empires and these envoys enjoyed certain privileges. In Rome harming an envoy could be a motive to go to war. [1] A modern style of diplomacy appeared in the Italian city-states of the Renaissance. For the first time, an organised diplomatic system was established with permanent envoys sent to other city states as well as to the Pope and to the Holy Roman Emperor. This type of diplomacy spread throughout Europe and it is at this stage that countries started to grant diplomats more than a right to safe passage.  During the reformation countries used the doctrine of quasi extra territorium, “as if outside the territory”, to exempt diplomats from both criminal and civil justice. That is not to say however that this custom was always upheld. Napoleon killed a number of British envoys in order to make a statement. It was only at the Vienna convention on Diplomatic Relations in 1961 that diplomatic immunity formally became part of international law. Today, 190 countries have ratified it.

North Korean Camps: life inside sourced from eyewitness testimonials.

Key Points:

          What we know about the labour camps in North Korea.

          What escapees say about their experiences.

          Who is sent to camps, how many people are there and why?

          A summary of what we know about life in the camps.

If you had lived your whole life behind bars what would you know of the world beyond the walls? For many North Koreans the world they know is not only behind walls but a construct of propaganda. There are now generations of North Koreans that have never experienced freedom, never known democracy, or freedom of movement and freedom from poverty. There is a growing number of people who have never experienced any life other than that of a prisoner in a forced labour camp.

We know that the first camps were established in 1959 and there are only approximately 60 eye witnesses that have ever escaped from the camps. The camps exist throughout North Korea and while there is much that we do not know, their existence is indisputable. According to South Korea’s intelligence agency there are six camps, the largest of which is 31 miles by 25 miles. In fact, if you would like to see this camp there are high resolution photographs available on Google Earth. Estimates regarding just how many individuals are locked away inside the camps vary from 100,000-200,000.

Between East and West, Afghanistan in Context

By Cyrus Campbell and Bérengère Greenland

Key points:

                        Historical overview of Afghanistan

                        The Great Game - competition between Britain and Russia over Central Asia

                        Afghanistan as an independent kingdom

                        Political strife and attempts at liberalisation

                        Afghanistan under communism

                        Taliban rule            

Since 2001, Afghanistan has featured on our screen as a bloody front in the War on Terror. While the Taliban are nothing if not famous, very few people could begin to explain who they are, where they came from, or why New Zealand should have sent soldiers to fight them. As foreign troops leave Afghanistan and the votes of the Presidential election are counted, many commentators are looking ahead and considering what the future holds for this war torn country. Instead, this article will look backwards, and search for themes in Afghanistan’s history which may provide some context for what comes next.