Negotiating an International Legal Instrument on Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction: A Look Ahead

The negotiation of the future Agreement governing the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction is in its final stage. Essentially a treaty for the protection of general interests, the Agreement can generate several benefits for the governance of the oceans. However, in the first three sessions of the intergovernmental conference, deep discrepancies have emerged with respect to the core issues of the package agreed in 2011. This article identifies various formulas and strategies that have been considered in the negotiations and incorporated in the Revised draft text as possible regulatory options with the potential to bring positions closer and facilitate the agreement: avoiding explicit reference to the legal status of marine genetic resources; the incorporation of differential and contextual norms; the introduction of due diligence obligations; the incorporation of internal soft law; and the reduction of the scope of the treaty. These options may help to provide flexibility and differentiation in the regulation but, as essentially pragmatic measures, they tend to sacrifice the ambition of the final Agreement. On the other hand, if States assume their real role and responsibility in the process –that of interpreters of general interest and custodians of marine biodiversity –they would be in a better position to find novel and more ambitious solutions for bringing this crucial Agreement to fruition. This article advocates a return to basics and the placing of the marine environment at the centre of the regulations.

Aproximaciones al derecho a la verdad en la justicia transicional, en Colombia

Resumen: La configuración de la verdad como el derecho a “saber qué ocurrió”, es uno de los pilares fundamentales del sistema de justicia transicional implementado tras la firma del Acuerdo Final de Paz entre el Gobierno colombiano y las FARC-EP. En la verdad se ha depositado parte im- portante de la esperanza por la construcción de una paz estable y duradera, y de la reconciliación en el país. En el presente artículo se sostiene que el derecho a la verdad en el funcionamiento del Sistema Integral de Verdad, Justicia, Reparación y No Repetición (sIvJRnR) se experimenta como una construcción ética, jurídica, política y fáctica, que se desarrolla en el marco de un proceso relacional, multidireccional y polifónico, que va cambiando, modificándose y perfeccionándose en el tiempo, y puede pasar, según las necesidades y problemas a resolver, de tener un carácter puramente instrumental y racional, a uno ampliamente axiológico y moral. Para ello, se presenta una propuesta de operacionalización de esta verdad en respuesta a interrogantes sobre su com- prensión: ¿Qué? ¿Cómo? ¿Para qué? ¿Cuándo? y ¿Quién? Approaches to the Right to Truth in Transitional Justice in Colombia Abstract: The truth’s configuration as the right to “know what happened” has become one of the fundamental pillars of the transitional justice system implemented after signing the Final Peace Agreement between the Colombian Government and the FARC-EP. Thus, in truth, lays the hope for building a stable and lasting peace and reconciliation in the country. This article sustains that the right to the truth in the operation of the Comprehensive System of Truth, Justice, Reparation and Non-Repetition (sIvJRnR) is experienced as an ethical, legal, political and factual construction that is developed within the framework of a relational, multidirectional and polyphonic process. This construction is changing, modifying and improving through time and can go, depending on the needs and problems to be solved, from having a purely instrumental and rational character to a broadly axiological and moral one. To this end, a proposal for operationalisation of this truth is presented in response to questions about its understanding: What? How? Why? When? and Who? Keywords: Truth, Transitional Justice, Final Agreement, SIVJRNR

La paz de Colombia en un incierto entorno internacional

Resumen: En el presente artículo se buscó establecer la interrelación existente entre el cambiante contexto internacional, regional y nacional, y la implementación del Acuerdo Final de Paz entre el Gobierno nacional y las antiguas FARC-EP, en los cuatro años y medio transcurridos desde su firma en noviembre de 2016. Se parte del planteamiento de que la coincidencia temporal entre los gobiernos de Obama en EE. UU. y Santos en Colombia fue fundamental para la concreción y avance de los puntos acordados. A su turno, la concurrencia de los gobiernos de Trump y Duque fue también determinante en la crisis y estancamiento, cuando no franco retroceso, en la imple- mentación del Acuerdo. Colombia’s Peace in an Uncertain International Environment Abstract: This article establishes a relationship between a changing international, regional and na- tional context and the implementation of the Final Agreement between the government and FARC, in the four years passed since it was signed. It argues that the temporal concurrence of the govern- ments of Obama and Santos was fundamental for the concretion and advance of the agreement. For its part, the coincidence between the governments of Trump and Duque was instrumental for the crisis, stagnation and even backsliding in its implementation. Keywords: International and regional context, global order, final agreement, human rights.

Cuatro años de camino en la implementación del Acuerdo Final de Paz entre el Gobierno y las Farc-Ep

Resumen: Durante décadas, Colombia estuvo en la agenda nacional e internacional de los estudios sobre violencia, por la prolongada duración del conflicto armado, por la diversidad de actores con roles y características diferentes, y especialmente por las serias consecuencias en cuanto a desplazamientos, desapariciones y asesinatos sufridos por amplios sectores de la población, así como por los graves efectos sobre el uso y apropiación de valiosos recursos vinculados a la tierra y a las actividades extractivas. Pasados algo más de cuatro años del proceso de implementación del Acuerdo Final de Paz entre el Gobierno y las Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia- Ejército del Pueblo (FARC-EP), que por el alcance de los compromisos y por los acuerdos inéditos en justicia transicional ha despertado un gran interés de académicos y políticos en el concierto internacional, en este artículo se presentan algunas reflexiones sobre el contexto en el que se ha desarrollado su implementación, las oportunidades que se han abierto, y los avances y retos que enfrenta, la mayoría de ellas derivadas de los informes realizados por los órganos dispuestos para el seguimiento y verificación de los compromisos adquiridos por las partes. Four Years in the Way of Implementing the Final Agreement between the Colombia Government and the FARc-EP Abstract: For decades, Colombia was on the national and international agenda of studies on vio- lence due to the prolonged duration of the armed conflict, due to the diversity of actors with different roles and characteristics, and especially due to the serious consequences of displacement, disappearances and murders suffered by broad sectors of the population, as well as the serious effects on the use and appropriation of valuable resources linked to land and extractive resources. After just over 4 years of implementation of the Agreement with the FARC-EP, Colombia awakens great academic and political interest in the international arena, due to the scope of the commit- ments and unpublished agreements on transitional justice and mechanisms for the sustainability of the achievements. Keywords: armed conflict, peace negotiations, democracy, victims, land, challenges, alerts.

The EU as a global negotiator? The advancement of the EU’s role in multilateral negotiations at the UN General Assembly

This paper aims to account for the EU’s role in multilateral negotiations at the UNGA by looking at the negotiations on the enhanced observer status. During the negotiation process, the EU experienced significant opposition and had to accept an intermediate setback in form of a postponement of the vote. Despite this, the EU’s enhanced observer status was adopted by the UNGA in May 2011 as resolution 65/276. This research contributes to the understanding of the EU as an actor in multilateral negotiations and the interaction between state and non-state actors. I argue that the EU is in the process of establishing itself as an active and recognized actor at the UN and determining its role as a highly integrated regional organization and non-state entity in the state-centric environment of the UNGA. I analyse the negotiation process and the final agreement through the lenses of a bargaining approach and as an alternative, mutual recognition as global justice.

Recommendations for Analgesia and Sedation in Critically ill Children Admitted to Intensive Care Unit

We aim to develop evidence-based recommendations for intensivists caring for children admitted to intensive care units and requiring analgesia and sedation. A panel of national pediatric intensivists expert in the field of analgesia and sedation and other specialists (a pediatrician, a neuropsychiatrist, a psychologist, a neurologist, a pharmacologist, an anesthesiologist, two critical care nurses, a methodologist) started in 2018 a 2- years process. Three meetings and one electronic-based discussion were dedicated to the development of the recommendations (presentation of the project, selection of research questions, overview of text related to the research questions, discussion of recommendations). A telematic anonymous consultation was adopted to reach the final agreement on recommendations. A formal conflict-of-interest declaration was obtained from all the authors. Eight areas of direct interest and one additional topic were considered to identify the best available evidence and to develop the recommendations using the Evidence-to-Decision framework according to Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) approach. For each recommendation, the level of evidence, the strength of the recommendation, the benefits, the harms and the risks, the benefit/harm balance, the intentional vagueness, the values judgment, the exclusions, the difference of the opinions, the knowledge gaps and the research opportunities were reported. The panel produced 17 recommendations. Nine were evaluated as strong, 3 as moderate, 5 as weak. Conclusion: a panel of national experts achieved consensus regarding recommendations for the best care in terms of analgesia and sedation in critically ill children.

Can Social Agents Efficiently Perform in Automated Negotiation?

In the last few years, we witnessed a growing body of literature about automated negotiation. Mainly, negotiating agents are either purely self-driven by maximizing their utility function or by assuming a cooperative stance by all parties involved in the negotiation. We argue that, while optimizing one’s utility function is essential, agents in a society should not ignore the opponent’s utility in the final agreement to improve the agent’s long-term perspectives in the system. This article aims to show whether it is possible to design a social agent (i.e., one that aims to optimize both sides’ utility functions) while performing efficiently in an agent society. Accordingly, we propose a social agent supported by a portfolio of strategies, a novel tit-for-tat concession mechanism, and a frequency-based opponent modeling mechanism capable of adapting its behavior according to the opponent’s behavior and the state of the negotiation. The results show that the proposed social agent not only maximizes social metrics such as the distance to the Nash bargaining point or the Kalai point but also is shown to be a pure and mixed equilibrium strategy in some realistic agent societies.

From the War on farc to the War on Dissidents: a Critique of Imperial Peace in a Post-Agreement Theatre of War

In 2016, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia—People’s Army (farc-ep) signed a peace deal (The Final Agreement to End the Conflict and Establish a Stable and Long-lasting Peace) in Havana, Cuba to end a 50-year-old civil war. This paper argues that, contrary to the conventional view, the relinquishing of weapons was a mistake, which is best understood through the context of regional power relations and politics of the Pink Tide and United States imperialism. It also argues that the peace deal has only favoured repressive political forces. It is hoped that this critical analysis of imperial peace will provoke further debate and discussion of the policies and movements which have disintegrated or survived, and can spark genuine solidarity amongst liberation struggles to achieve better strategic outcomes that are independent of any state power, however great or small.

EULAR recommendations for intra-articular therapies

ObjectivesTo establish evidence-based recommendations to guide health professionals using intra-articular therapies (IAT) in adult patients with peripheral arthropathies.MethodsA multidisciplinary international task force established the objectives, users and scope and the need for background information, including systematic literature reviews) and two surveys addressed to healthcare providers and patients throughout Europe. The evidence was discussed in a face-to-face meeting, recommendations were formulated and subsequently voted for anonymously in a three-round Delphi process to obtain the final agreement. The level of evidence was assigned to each recommendation with the Oxford levels of evidence.ResultsRecommendations focus on practical aspects to guide health professionals before, during and after IAT in adult patients with peripheral arthropathies. Five overarching principles and 11 recommendations were established, addressing issues related to patient information, procedure and setting, accuracy, routine and special aseptic care, safety issues and precautions to be addressed in special populations, efficacy and safety of repeated joint injections, use of local anaesthetics and aftercare.ConclusionWe have developed the first evidence and expert opinion-based recommendations to guide health professionals using IAT. We hope that these recommendations will be included in different educational programmes, used by patient associations and put into practice via scientific societies to help improve uniformity and quality of care when performing IAT in peripheral adult joints.