Privatized Military Firms’ Impunity in Cases of Torture: A Crime of Humanity?

2012 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 117-135 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jose Serralvo

Abstract Over the past few years privatized military firms (PMFs) have allegedly committed all kind of war crimes, including torture. Prisoners’ abuses at Abu Ghraib or indiscriminate firing against civilian vehicles to the rhythm of Elvis Presley’s “Runaway Train” are but a couple of examples of the excesses revealed by the public media. Nonetheless, members of PMFs have hardly been held accountable. “Lawlessness” and “weak laws” have been blamed for these striking cases of impunity. Emphasizing the crime of torture, this article explores the legal framework applicable to PMFs, both from a domestic and an international perspective, and sheds light on ways in which these alleged crimes could be investigated, prosecuted, and tried. The article concludes by questioning the reasons behind the impunity of members of a PMF, even in cases in which their military counterparts were tried and condemned.

Temida ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 5-21
Author(s):  
Vesna Nikolic-Ristanovic

This paper aims to present German experiences in documenting the crimes of the past using Berlin as a case study. The first part provides a brief overview of the history and the broader social context in which the process of dealing with the past took place in Germany in general, and in Berlin in particular, as well as the most important characteristics of data on crimes that were presented to the public. The second part provides an overview and analysis of the data presented in two memorials: the Topography of Terror and the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. These two memorials are examples of presenting information about war crimes that can be considered as fairly inclusive, thus the goal of their presentation is to highlight the potential that these approaches may have in creating a social memory and the overall attitude of society toward the past. The findings presented in this paper are the result of the research carried out by the author in Berlin in June 2011.


Author(s):  
Eugenia Siapera ◽  
Maria Rieder

Focusing on Germany and Greece, this chapter examines the mobilization of the historical past in connection with the refugee issue. Based on an empirical analysis of news and digital media, we found that in Greece, the issue of refugees is understood through the prism of debt to humanity in general, to past generations of Greek refugees, and to Syrian people. The past debt can never be repaid but must be rolled over to future generations. The temporal horizon within which it unfolds enables social reproduction in the form of the maintenance of social bonds, among generations of Greeks and between Greeks and present-day refugees. In Germany, the debt to the past is never clearly articulated and the public/media discourse is denying that there is a debt. Germany’s concern is to liberate itself from its past and establish a relationship with refugees on a different basis. However, this ends up transferring the refugee issue from the realm of social relationships to the realm of management and logistics. In cutting off present-day refugees from those in the past, any relationship needs to be created anew, without the benefit of historical continuity. While for Germany this may have a liberating effect, for refugees the only role available is that of an eternal debtor.


2016 ◽  
Vol 46 (9) ◽  
pp. 1081-1091 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacqueline Logmani ◽  
Max Krott ◽  
Lukas Giessen

Over the past two decades, a number of international forest-related policies have evolved at the global and regional levels. The elements of this International Forest Regime Complex, however, are not equally relevant to all countries. This study analyzes the main actors’ positions in the public media debate in Germany and identifies links to the interests of the actors. First, the study explores the international regime related forest issues. A qualitative content analysis of the public media debate in one high-quality newspaper and in internet sources of relevant state and private actors analyzes the arguments of these actors in the issues. The results show that the debate of international forestry issues is fragmented and conflicting in Germany and that the conflict between use and protection structures in the public media debate is not supported by the data. Drivers of conflicting arguments are mainly associations representing protection, as well as user interests. The ministries avoid confrontation in public. Alliances between public agencies and lobby groups are seldom. Due to the strategic use of the public media, the debate does not indicate very well the existing conflicts about the main issues of the international forest regime in Germany.


2006 ◽  
Vol 67 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Eugene R. Gaetke

The regulation of lawyers’ behavior remains a controversial topic. Over the past hundred years, the organized bar has engaged in a number of efforts to generate rules governing lawyers’ conduct. Still, prominent lawyers and jurists, the public media, and legal scholars perceive an ongoing decline in the profession’s ethics.


Author(s):  
Kevin Linka ◽  
Mathias Peirlinck ◽  
Ellen Kuhl

AbstractThroughout the past four months, no number has dominated the public media more persistently than the reproduction number of COVID-19. This powerful but simple concept is widely used by the public media, scientists, and political decision makers to explain and justify political strategies to control the COVID-19 pandemic. Here we explore the effectiveness of political interventions using the reproduction number of COVID-19 across Europe. We propose a dynamic SEIR epidemiology model with a time-varying reproduction number, which we identify using machine learning and uncertainty quantification. During the early outbreak, the reproduction number was 4.5±21.4, with maximum values of 6.5 and 5.9 in Spain and France. As of today, it has dropped to 0.7±20.2, with minimum values of 0.4 and 0.3 in Austria and France. We found a strong correlation between passenger air travel and the reproduction number with a time delay of 12.6±22.7 days. Our new dynamic SEIR model provides the flexibility to simulate various outbreak control and exit strategies to inform political decision making and identify safe solutions in the benefit of global health.


Comunicar ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 13 (25) ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Villar-Onrubia

This work reflects on the substantial change that has ocurred on the communicative models that were used in the past to establish the relationships between the media and the audience. These changes have to do with the development of the digital technologies and the consolidation of the Internet as a space of communication. In this sense, we explain the Creative Archive, a BBC project that has redefined the idea of «service» offered by the public televisions. This project aims to facilitate the access to «the archive» to the citizens of the UK through the Internet, everything under a proper legal framework based on the Creative Commons License. Los esquemas comunicativos sobre los que se construían hasta hace relativamente poco tiempo las relaciones entre los medios y sus audiencias, han sufrido una serie de transformaciones sustanciales que tienen que ver con la evolución de las tecnologías digitales y con la consolidación de Internet como espacio para la comunicación. En este contexto es posible llevar a cabo una redefinición de la idea de servicio ofrecido por las televisiones públicas. Y es en estas nuevas posibilidades, en las que se ha inspirado un proyecto piloto impulsado por la BBC bajo el nombre de Creative Archive. El objetivo de este archivo es facilitar el acceso a los ciudadanos del Reino Unido a todo este material a través de Internet; sin embargo, este proyecto redefine los límites de la noción de acceso y extiende ésta más allá de la mera posibilidad de poder visionar las obras en cualquier momento. El Creative Archive no define la relación de los telespectadores con los contenidos a partir de un consumo pasivo, sino que contempla la posibilidad de que éstos construyan nuevas obras a partir de estos materiales. En este sentido, el espectador se entiende como usuario más que como consumidor, ya que no sólo adopta un papel activo en lo que respecta a la elección de los contenidos que desea ver y al momento en que desea hacerlo, sino que tiene además la capacidad de crear a partir de dicho material, integrándolo en trabajos personales y desarrollando obras derivadas, siempre y cuando no esté motivado por un ánimo lucrativo. Esta amplia noción de acceso queda resumida con gran claridad en el lema del proyecto: «Find it, rip it, mix it, share it. Come and get it» (Encuéntralo, cópialo, mézclalo, compártelo. Ven y consíguelo). No obstante, para hacer realidad este proyecto no es sólo necesario disponer de un desarrollo tecnológico determinado, sino que es imprescindible contar con el marco legal apropiado. Para ello se ha desarrollado la Creative Archive License, una licencia propia que toma como punto de referencia las Creative Commons. Frente al «all rights reserved» (todos los derechos reservados) del copyright, la Creative Archive License establece un marco bastante más flexible, en el que se especifica qué se puede y qué no se puede hacer con el material contenido en el archivo. Algunas de las cláusulas más representativas de esta licencia establecen que es necesario citar siempre al titular de los derechos de una obra que se difunda tal cual, o de cualquier obra derivada a partir de ésta; queda prohibido cualquier uso de este archivo que no sea de carácter personal o educativo, es decir, no puede emplearse con usos comerciales; cualquier obra derivada debe distribuirse bajo la misma licencia; únicamente puede hacerse uso de este archivo en el Reino Unido. Como indicaba Dyke en el discurso de presentación del proyecto, los contenidos de este archivo no son de la BBC: «...este contenido no es en realidad nuestro, los ciudadanos de Gran Bretaña han pagado por él, y nuestra obligación es ayudarlos a que lo usen».


Author(s):  
Nicolas Giraudeau ◽  
Olivier Roy ◽  
Eve Malthiery ◽  
Joao Pasdeloup ◽  
Jean Valcarcel ◽  
...  

In France, access to a dentist for elderly people, disabled people or inmates is limited. A person’s access to a dentist decreases by 25% when joining a nursing home. A national report mentioned that 85% of residents in nursing homes didn’t have access to a dentist in the past year and 42% in the last 5 years. There are fewer data on disabled people, but 48% of people with disabilities have, at least, one important issue related to oral health. Two examples of teledentistry, the e-DENT project from University Hospital of Montpellier and the TEL-E-DENT project from the public Hospital of Guéret, are presented to describe how teledentistry works in France, the current legal framework, remuneration of teledentistry and the pros and cons of teledentistry in France. 2019 will be crucial for the development of teledentistry as a number official decisions will be made that will influence the implementation of this kind of activity.


2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 64-77
Author(s):  
Doris Wolf

This paper examines two young adult novels, Run Like Jäger (2008) and Summer of Fire (2009), by Canadian writer Karen Bass, which centre on the experiences of so-called ordinary German teenagers in World War II. Although guilt and perpetration are themes addressed in these books, their focus is primarily on the ways in which Germans suffered at the hands of the Allied forces. These books thus participate in the increasingly widespread but still controversial subject of the suffering of the perpetrators. Bringing work in childhood studies to bear on contemporary representations of German wartime suffering in the public sphere, I explore how Bass's novels, through the liminal figure of the adolescent, participate in a culture of self-victimisation that downplays guilt rather than more ethically contextualises suffering within guilt. These historical narratives are framed by contemporary narratives which centre on troubled teen protagonists who need the stories of the past for their own individualisation in the present. In their evacuation of crucial historical contexts, both Run Like Jäger and Summer of Fire support optimistic and gendered narratives of individualism that ultimately refuse complicated understandings of adolescent agency in the past or present.


2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kaarina Nikunen ◽  
Jenni Hokka

Welfare states have historically been built on values of egalitarianism and universalism and through high taxation that provides free education, health care, and social security for all. Ideally, this encourages participation of all citizens and formation of inclusive public sphere. In this welfare model, the public service media are also considered some of the main institutions that serve the well-being of an entire society. That is, independent, publicly funded media companies are perceived to enhance equality, citizenship, and social solidarity by providing information and programming that is driven by public rather than commercial interest. This article explores how the public service media and their values of universality, equality, diversity, and quality are affected by datafication and a platformed media environment. It argues that the embeddedness of public service media in a platformed media environment produces complex and contradictory dependencies between public service media and commercial platforms. The embeddedness has resulted in simultaneous processes of adapting to social media logics and datafication within public service media as well as in attempts to create alternative public media value-driven data practices and new public media spaces.


2008 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 9-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cary Carson

Abstract Are historic sites and house museums destined to go the way of Oldsmobiles and floppy disks?? Visitation has trended downwards for thirty years. Theories abound, but no one really knows why. To launch a discussion of the problem in the pages of The Public Historian, Cary Carson cautions against the pessimistic view that the past is simply passéé. Instead he offers a ““Plan B”” that takes account of the new way that learners today organize information to make history meaningful.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document