CURIOUS

ISSUE NO. 1URIOS.ORG

U R I O S M A G A Z I N E

The legal positions of American Governerswho refuse to accept Syrian refugees

A report on the recent Climate Changesymposium

Remembering the founding of the tribunaland its milestones throughout history.

THE SYRIANREFUGEE CRISIS

NEW BEGINNINGSCLIMATE CHANGE

SYMPOSIUMTHE ICTR

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface

Introducing the committee

Article

Strasbourg study trip

UJIEL article

Hamburg MUN

Symposium Lecture

Column

10 things to look forward to in 2016

Member's page

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URIOS MAGAZINE

Ingeborg LeijtensC H A I R 2 0 1 5 - 2 0 1 6

Dear reader,

It is with great pleasure that I present to you the newest version of the UriosMagazine: Curious! After a calm period, the Urios magazine is back in full

swing and has even undergone a small face-lift. Our highly motivatedMagazine Committee is ready for the year to come, and I am certain they

will produce educative and at the same time highly entertaining issues.

The theme of this edition is ‘New Beginnings’. While most of you willprobably be thinking about their 2016 resolutions – ranging from finallyrunning that half marathon, travelling to India for a spiritual journey or

simply eating more veggies at dinner – we secretly all know that 2016 won’tbe much different from the year before when it comes to sticking to those

well meant but often improbable initiatives to change our lives for the better.So let’s approach things a bit differently and think of 2016 as the start of

another year to be filled with interesting encounters, exciting challenges andtime spent with new and old friends. We all know too well that it will also be

filled with rainy bike rides, nights spent at the library and long days at work –but perhaps, for now, let’s pretend like that won’t be the case so we can stillenjoy the beautiful feeling of a new beginning. I hope you will all start thenew year with the intention to make it a very good one. On behalf of the

Urios board and Magazine Committee I would like to wish all a wonderful,exciting and loving 2016! Enjoy the brand new edition of Curious.

URIOS MAGAZINE

PREFACE

PAGE 5 PREFACE

INTRODUCING THECOMMITTEE

Roos Bos

I’m Roos, 21 Years old and in my 3th year of

my law bachelor. I just came back from a

semester abroad in South Africa. The most

important thing I learned from spending six

months at a University in a country

recovering from decades of race

segregation is that creating an informative

platform for young people to share and

discuss ideas, can bring about great

change. So I am very excited to keep Urios

up to date on everything that is happening

within the association and in the field of

international law.

Natasha McArdle-Ismaguilova

My name is Natasha, I'm 21 and studying

my Masters in Law and Economics here in

Utrecht, I'm really interested in law and

how it intersects with social justice. In my

spare time you'll find me ranting about

feminism, legal theory, politics and

technology on my various social media

accounts.. I'm really looking forward to

being a part of Urios in 2016!

.

PAGE 6 COMMITTEEURIOS MAGAZINE

Judith Bel

My name is Judith Bel, I’m in my first year of

studying Law at the Utrecht University. I’m

passionate about travelling, different cultures and

making a change in the world. In my free time I

like to read, write, do yoga and attend lectures

every now and then. I also like plants and drinking

beer with friends.

When it comes to the magazine, I have tons of

ideas and like to brainstorm a lot, but I’m also very

interested in how a magazine is actually put

together, since I don’t have much experience with

the process. So far, it seems like a very interesting

and informative project to work on!

Sofia van Dijk

My name is Sofia van Dijk and it is a great

pleasure to have been given the task to

supervise the magazine committee.

Together with my committee we will strive

to make the Urios Magazine one of the

indispensable elements of our association.

I am a very curious person and if I were able

to, I would want to spend my life long

traveling. I can be quite the chaotic person,

but a perfectionist at the same time.

URIOS MAGAZINEPAGE 7 COMMITTEE

By Roos Bos

N O M A D I C | 2 4

THE LEGALPOSITION OFAMERICAN

GOVERNORS WHOREFUSE TO ACCEPTSYRIAN REFUGEESWHO SEEK A NEWBEGINNING.

PAGE 8 URIOS MAGAZINE ARTICLE

THE STATESREFUSINGSYRIANREFUGEES

PAGE 9 ARTICLEURIOS MAGAZINE

‘’Refugees could be one of the greatTrojan horses’’ (Donald Trump) ‘’Texascannot participate in any program thatwill result in Syrian refugees (…) beingsettled in Texas.’’ (Greg Abbott) ‘’I will doeverything ‘’humanly possible’’ to stopmore Syrian refugees to be placed in thisstate.’’ (Phil Bryant) ‘’I will take every lawfulmeasure in my power to prevent resettlingrefugees in Maine. ‘’ (Paul LePage)

More than four million Syrians have lefttheir homes looking for a new beginningin a safer place. John Kerry, the Americansecretary of state, announced inSeptember that the United States willincrease the number of worldwiderefugees they each year accept to 100,000in 2017. But not all the states of ‘’themelting pot of cultures’’ are happy withObama’s policy on resettling more Syriansin America. Thirty-one states in the U.Shave stated that they oppose letting inmore immigrants from Syria, but thequestion is whether the states have anylegal authority to close their borders forrefugees. According to immigration-lawexperts, the American constitutioncommits the legal power to refuse orallow people into the country to thefederal government.President Obama has the authority, underthe Refugee Act of 1980, to accept foreignrefugees who face: ’’Persecution or a wellfounded fear of persecution on account ofrace, religion, nationality, membership in aparticular group, or political opinion’’.

In the most recent immigration case ofthe supreme court of the United States,the judges confirmed the presidentialauthority on immigration. Furthermorethey stated that it is of utmost importancethat all executive branches ensure thattheir policies are consistent with theforeign policy of the federal governmentbecause of the dynamic nature of therelations with other countries.Immigration policy can provoke strongreactions and international controversy, soonly the federal government should setpolicy regarding refugees. When refugeesare resettled, states do have an assistingrole in working with the federalgovernment. This facilitating role of thestates specifies that states can directfederal money to organisations that assistin resettling refugees. The Obamaadministration reminded the states that ifa state refuses to direct money to theappointed organizations, they could besubject to an enforcement action. Butwithout cooperation of the states thesettlement of refugees can be made moredifficult, due to the fact that States candeny investing their own resources intoresettling refugees. Most importantly theycan make the states a very unwelcomingplace.

STRASBOURGBy So f i a van Di j k

S H O R T S T U D Y T R I P Traditionally Urios organizes studytrips each year in the theme of bothinternational as European law. This

year's European trip went toStrasbourg in France. The EuropeanCourt of Justice, the EuropeanParliament and the Council of

Europe are just a few examples ofthe many European institutionsseated in Strasbourg. It is not fornothing that this city is known asone of the European capitals, andtherefore it is a perfect destination

for a Urios study trip.

PAGE 10 REPORTURIOS MAGAZINE

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With a group of 22 people, amongst which were bothDutch as international students, we travelled toFrance with the bus. At 7 in the morning allparticipants were expected at Utrecht Central Stationfrom where we were supposed to depart at 7.30 am.

However due to some complications we had quite abig delay and so we arrived much later and moretired than planned. Luckily our awesome bus driverRob got us through this journey with a lot of patienceand lots of fun. After having checked in at our hotel, avery tasty dinner was arranged for the group in thebeautiful historical city center. As the holiday seasonwould almost be upon us, all streets were alreadydecorated in Christmas and winter theme, whichgave us the feeling we were walking around inDisneyland. A very pleasant way to start this great tripand a good compensation for the stress of thejourney.

The second day started off with a great Frenchbreakfast with fresh breads, fruits, yoghurt and muchmore good stuff. This was a great fuel for the excitingday that was ahead of us. Our first scheduled visit wasan encounter with a Dutch EU Parliamentarian. Wewere very lucky to be visiting the EU Parliament onthe day of an official debate on the current situationof refugees and terrorism. We had the chance to seethe Italian president speech for all parliamentarianson those topics. The second visit that day went to theInternational Institute of Human Rights, which is aresearch and education institute. Although thelocation was beautiful, the visit itself was not veryinteresting and quite short. That evening a big part ofour group went to explore the nightlife of Strasbourg,

with which we ended up crashing a private party of aRed Cross team.

The last day we visited Eurocorps, where we watcheda presentation on the institution and where we wereinvited to have lunch together with the residingcorps. A short visit, but definitely a very fun one. Afterthat everyone finally ahd some free time to do somesouvenir shopping and to grab some food to eat onthe way home. Around 5 pm we returned to Rob’sbus to drive back to the Netherlands. Rob once againgave us an entertaining trip home and made sure weall arrived in Utrecht safe. I can say for myself I arrivedin Utrecht quite tired, but nevertheless very satisfiedwith this studytrip and I am pretty certain manyshare the same feeling. The board is already lookingforward to the next study trip, which is going to theever exciting Israël.

PAGE 11 REPORT

THE ICTR

BY ANDREA MARILYNUTRECHT JOURNAL BOARD

In the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide which

claimed over a million lives in a very short span of

time, the international community and Rwanda had

to decide how to bring justice, peace and healing to

the Rwandan society. This led to the establishment

of an international criminal tribunal, the

International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR)

with the mandate of “prosecuting persons

responsible for genocide and other serious violations

of international humanitarian law committed in the

territory of Rwanda and Rwandan

citizens responsible for genocide and other such

violations”. Twenty years after its establishment, the

ICTR has finally decided to wrap up its work and the

closing events were held in the beginning of

December 2015.

In all, the Tribunal has sentenced 61 individuals after

indicting 93 of them including high ranking officials,

government officials, businessmen and religious

militia. In prosecuting such high ranking leaders, the

Tribunal has focused on one of the reasons behind

establishing international criminal tribunals in

general namely symbolic justice to the

victims. Nevertheless, one cannot conclusively say

that the ICTR has achieved such justice by

prosecuting individuals since the Tribunal itself was

established outside Rwanda, in Arusha, Tanzania.

This meant that victims could not always identify

with the justice laid down by the Tribunal.

Furthermore, it is pertinent to note that the ICTR is

concluding its work twenty years after the Rwandan

genocide, which in effect, is delayed justice to the

victims.

PAGE 12 UJIEL ARTICLEURIOS MAGAZINE

A Walk Down Memory Lane

In examining the work of the ICTR, one cannot ignore

the fact that the ICTR was one of the first international

criminal tribunals established after the Nuremberg

Tribunal and other national military tribunals. At the

moment of its establishment, international criminal

law and practice were mere infants. In fact, the

International Criminal Court (ICC), the permanent

body to try international crimes, they modelled the

ICC on the flaws and the successes of the ad hoc

tribunals. In light of this, the work of the ICTR is

commendable. For instance, the ICTR was the first

international criminal tribunal to prosecute individuals

for the crime of genocide although the Convention on

the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of

Genocide has been in existence since 1948.

Furthermore, the ICTR has laid down the law in

prosecuting genocide perpetrated through sexual

violence so much so that in 2014 the Tribunal

launched a best practices manual on the prosecution

of sexual violence crimes in post-conflict regions.

Another milestone in the work of the ICTR is its

prosecution of the media in instigating genocide. Such

rulings of the Tribunal have contributed to the

development of international criminal law and

practice.

The ICTR was established to achieve lofty ideals such

as maintenance of peace, national reconciliation and

deterrence. However, it is questionable if the ICTR did

actually achieve these aims. Peace in Rwanda cannot

be said to be a result of the establishment of the

Tribunal and if anything, the Tribunal was one of the

peace offerings to the victims. National reconciliation

in an ethnic conflict such as that in Rwanda is vital in

order to bring together the warring factions so as to

enable them to live together as a society. However, the

ICTR system could not achieve this by simply

prosecuting offenders. In fact, it would be well to

remember that the national systems of Rwanda are so

different from international criminal justice system

that one cannot conclusively state that the victims

viewed the ICTR as proper institution of justice sans

bias. An international criminal tribunal cannot by itself

be the solution to prevent and deter genocide since

genocides do not occur simply because of a feeling of

impunity. That said, one cannot conclude that the

ICTR was a futile institution. It was an essential

stepping stone in the peace process in Rwanda, in

upholding the rule of law within the international

community since international crimes are essentially

crimes against humanity as a whole and a guide to

future tribunals in the development of international

criminal law.

PAGE 13 UJIEL ARTICLEURIOS MAGAZINE

URIOS MAGAZINE REPORTPAGE 14

HAMBURGMUN

From the 3rd till the 6th of December the Urios MUNSociety participated in HamMUN, a Model UnitedNations conference in Hamburg. Our very own MUNCommissioner Maxime Voorbraak tells about theexperiences of the Urios delegation at this conference.

From the 3rd till the 6th of December the Urios MUN Societyparticipated in HamMUN, a Model United Nations conferencein Hamburg. We got of to a bit of a rocky start since the trainswere delayed and so we arrived an hour late in Hamburg. Aftera quick change of clothes, we went to the University for theopening ceremony and the first committee sessions, and fordelicious Subway sandwiches which they had as a welcomesnack.

After a first brief session it was time for the first social, a PubCrawl! Although most of us were tired and went to the hostelquite early, three of our delegates made it to the last bar. Afterwhich our delegate Eamonn o'Keeffe delighted many aparticipant with his lively interpretation of Gold Digger in akaraoke bar.

Next morning we had to get up early for our first day ofconference, it was an eventful day in which one of ourdelegates, who impersonated the Head of State of Mexico, gotkilled by one of the other delegates in the Joint CrisisCommittee simulation. Which he didn't like at first but luckilyhe got a new persona as Commander of the Mexican marinesso everyone was happy again.

The lunches were far from excellent in the weekend but onfriday we got to eat at the university cafeteria, which wasconsiderably better, so we got quite lucky there. The overallquality of the food was not superb that weekend. Since wedidn't have much time in between the committee sessions andthe socials we had dinner in the Mcdonalds at the trainstation 3nights in a row. We were not the only ones so it probably madequite a sight, all these students in formal suites eating big macsat the station.

Our delegation was spread over multiple committees andthere were some interesting positions, for example thepeople´s republic of China in the ECOSOC committee andthe Russian Federation in the Human rights council. TheHamMUN staff chose several very interesting topic like theextreme censorship of journalists in the Human rightscouncil and the increasing use of Drones in internationalconflicts in the DISEC committee. This topic focused inparticular on the use of Drones in the Northwest Pakistan,

which was interesting because one of our delegates wasthe Islamic Republic of Pakistan in DISEC. And he did agood job too, because our delegate Taco Brinkman got anhonourable mention, which is even more impressiveconsidering that he was a first- time MUN´er.

On saturday we dressed up for our last social, the Delegate´s ball. The ball was in a beautiful old venue in a district inHamburg which is well known for its outrageous partying.

Around the venue there were many stripclubs and bars.They opened with slow dancing but after a few beers theychanged the to pop and more fast paced music. After afun night of dancing a beers we had a rough andhangover last conference day. Many resolutions passed inthe last hours and although we were hungover, it was apretty successful day. After the closing ceremony it wastime to take the train back to Utrecht, which took about 5hours and most of us spend this time sleeping.

I think it was a very successful conference, it was wellorganised (apart from the lunches) and we had anespecially fun group of delegate´s. Everybody had a goodtime and I think we created some new MUN´ers. I hope totake many of them with me at MUN´s in the future since Ithink they acquired a taste for it now!

On the 14th of December, the Climate Change Lecture was held in the Oude

Raadszaal. The room was packed with Urios members and non­members,

and the list of speakers was very promising. Subjects to be discussed

included, amongst others, the recent developments at the Paris Summit

COP21, political developments and the Urgenda climate case.

Before diving into the more legal and politic subjects, Pier Vellinga (professor

at Wageningen university) gave us a geographical explanation of how the

greenhouse effect actually works. He also explained why it is almost certain

that humans are the cause of the global warming, and not natural shifts. This

is important, because it is the reason that finally some action has been taken

to improve the situation.

After these explanations,  Michel Rentenaar (climate envoy of the

netherlands) was able to give us a very detailed report of the Paris Summit

COP21. He was able to explain very clearly how it all took place, and how

chaotic it could be at the same time. It is after all an intense event, but they

luckily achieved a lot this time!

The last speaker was Dennis van Berkel (climate change lawyer for Urgenda).

He explained the Urgenda case against the government, which should

eventually cause the government to take more action to protect us against

climate change. So far, they have been doing pretty well and this was a very

interesting subject to hear about as well.

We hope you liked the Symposium Lecture as much as we did! And of course

we would like to see you next time at any other activities that will be

organised!

Climate Change Symposium

PAGE 15 URIOS MAGAZINE SYMPOSIUM

THELEGALITY OFAIRSTRIKESIN THE WAKE OF THE CHARLIE HEBDO KILLINGS AND THE MOST RECENTPARIS ATTACKS, AN INTERESTING PHENOMENA IS HAPPENING: IT FEELSTHAT NOW, FOR THE FIRST TIME IN SEVERAL YEARS, THE WESTERNWORLD HAS ENTERED A STATE OF EMERGENCY WHERE ALL FOCUSNOW IS FIRST AND FOREMOST ON THE PROTECTION OF ITS CITIZENSAGAINST ISLAMIC TERROR.

BY NATASHA MCARDLE

URIOS MAGAZINE COLUMNPAGE 16

The recent Paris attacks where 130 people lost their

lives were a tragedy, but they have also acted as a

catalyst: just days after the tragedy happened, a

motion was hurriedly passed in the UK calling for the

use of drones to drop bombs on Syria. Just one hour

after the vote passed with an overwhelming majority,

on December 3rd Britain joined forces with the United

States, France and Russia and officially launched

airstrikes against Islamic State militants in Syria. British

drones were seen leaving the airbase in Cyprus.

Reminiscent of UK intervention in Iraq in 2003, the UK

once again finds itself on the cusp of yet another war

that will leave Syria desolate and poverty-stricken. The

measure has already been widely criticised for being

an inefficient method in countering terrorism, failing

to consider the deaths and human rights abuses it will

entail and being extremely costly endeavour whilst

simultaneously widespread cuts to disability, child and

family welfare in the UK are being made. At the same

time, perhaps the most important aspect of the

airstrikes has barely been touched upon: is it legal?

It therefore quickly becomes evident that when world conflicts arise, they can be simultaneously legal or illegal

depending on which country or part of the world you are in. The West, who feel threatened and fear for the

safety of their citizens believe self-defence is a sufficient legal basis for enacting such brutal measures. As for the

innocent Syrian citizens these measures will affect? They will be too busy mourning the deaths of their relatives

and fleeing their war-stricken country to consider nuanced legal debates.

To put it flatly, it depends on who you ask. UK and US

military action in Iraq in 2003 was widely decried to be

illegal, due to the United Nations providing no

resolution calling for intervention. In a 2004 interview

with the BBC, the United Nations Secretary-General

Kofi Annan stated that"[F]rom our point of view and

from the Charter point of view [the war] was illegal.”

Contrast that with a UN resolution passed in

November this year which implicitly supports the

necessity to “take all necessary measures” to further

prevent terror. However, it does not strictly approve

the use of force and cannot in itself be seen as

providing a legal basis for intervention in Syria. This

has not however stopped David Cameron, the British

prime minister, from relying on the provision. As well

as this, he has stated that the main legal basis

allowing airstrikes in Syria is the “self-defence” of both

the UK and its allies, as per Article 51 of the UN charter

which allows countries the use of military force for

individual or collective self-defence. Keir Starmer,

writing for The Guardian, has expressed the opinion

that in the face of terror, this is a sufficient legal basis

for military intervention.On the flipside, Syrian

President Bashar Assad has said that Britain’s airstrikes

in Syria are “illegal” and will help spread terrorism.

Leading legal scholars in the UK have agreed with this

position, arguing that the move is based not on legal

but rather political considerations. There is no doubt

Iraq and Syria are different. Yet similarities are obvious:

we do not know yet whether the UK’s military

intervention in Syria is legal. What we do know is that

bombs will fall on innocent citizens and tear the

country apart as it did in Iraq. Is this not a human

rights abuse on the grandest scale imaginable?

URIOS MAGAZINE COLUMNPAGE 17

10 THINGS WE'RELOOKING FORWARDTO IN

1 E X C H A N G E T O I S R A E LThis year's long exchange is to Israel, andit's great. Israel is said to have everythingthere is, yet very small. There are cities,beaches, deserts and mountains... all justvery small. Small, but not less exciting. Wecan't wait.

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O U R U N I V E R S I T Y ' S B I R T H D A Y

Many of you maybe already attended oursymposium lecture on climate change, butthat's not all! There are more things tocome, so keep an eye out!

3 E U F A E U R O 2 0 1 6 Many of you might be pissed since theDutch team didn't make it to the EuropeanChampionship, but that doesn't mean itwon't be a fun happening! Let's take it as anopportunity to become better friends withour neighbors and cheer for them.

4 G E E N P E I L R E F E R E N D U MGeenpeil made a statement and got us areferendum, so let's use it! There arediffernt things to say about this trade treatywith Ukraine, but the referendum itself sureis an interesting political development!

5 O P E N I N G O F J A N S K E R H O F 3On January 28th the new building for theLaw department will be opened! Our officeis alread there and it's really beautiful, socome and take a look!

Sometimes it's crazy how fast time moves. 2016 is comingalready, but don't worry! There are lots of small andbig things to look forward to. We are excited, are you?

G O O D N E W S A F G H A N I S T A NIt might seem like a far future still, but onthe last day of 2016, it is said that the lastremaining American, British and Australiantroops will withdraw from Afghanistan. Yay!

A H O T E L I N S P A C E ?Yes, you heard it! Apparently OrbitalTechnologies, a Russian private spaceflightcompany, plans to launch a space hotel forwealthy tourists in 2016. Are you savingalready?

N E W Y E A R , N E W C H A N C E SDon't you love the idea of new chances, anew blank page to write on. It is proven thatit is easier to make life changes at the startof something new (like a new year), so takethe chance!

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7N E W M U S I C I S T O C O M E !Some famous and less famous artists likeKanye West, Red Hot Chili Peppers,Gorillaz, Rihanna, The xx and many more arescheduled to release their albums in 2016!It's going to be a good year for music!

S Y M P O S I U M A C T I V I T I E S

Not only Urios is celebrating in 2016, it'salso our University's 380th birthday! Let'shope that this 76th lustrum will give us lotsof opportunities to celebrate!

2016

URIOS MAGAZINE 2016PAGE 18

In every Curious issue an interview is held with one of the many activeUrios members. In the very first issue of Curious no one less than JulieAlbers will be presented to you. Julie is member of the SymposiumCommittee, which was the committee responsible for the successfulsymposium on Climate Change (see p. 16).

Julie has only been a member from the beginning of this academicyear and already has she done so much for the association. Not onlyis she doing a great job in her committee, but she has also been a bighelp for the current board assisting them in taking photographs,helping out with logistical problems during the Strasbourg study tripand many more other things. With this we would very much like tothank her for being such an awesome person.

About her membership she says that she’s quite enjoying it so far. Asa friend and roommate of our treasurer Janneke Feenstra, she saysit’s really fun to hear all the inside stories of the association. At thesame time it can be kind of difficult to be in an in-between position ascommittee member and at the same time a good friend. Juliesambitions in her career are to specialize in international law andhuman rights and to combine that with climate change andenvironmental issues. A job at the UN would not be a major problemshe says. Also besides Urios and the UCU double-degree program,she is editor-in-chief of the “duurzame student”, a magazine onsustainability; thus a very busy lady. In her free time, she enjoysdrinking coffee, going to the movies and playing the saxophone andclarinet. Also she loves to travel, but she does not get to do it veryoften. One of her biggest dream is to live some day in an apartmentin New York City with some cats and a dog.

FEATURED INCURIOUS: JULIEALBERS

PAGE 19 URIOS MAGAZINE MEMBER 'S PAGE

Curious - Urios magazine Vol. 1 Issue 1

January 2016

Editors

Sofia van Dijk, Natasha Mcardie-ismaguilova, Judith Bel, Roos Bos

Address

Janskerkhof 3 (Room M1.07) 3512BK UtrechtThe Netherlandsmagazine@urios.org

Copyright

The copyright of the articles, photographsand pictures are reserved to the authorsand artists. nothing in this issue may inany way be duplicated or made publicwithout permission from the authors.

Published every six weeks © All rights reserved, Curios – Urios magazine

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