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MILOSEVIC'S COMMAND RESPONSIBILITY: A KEY ISSUE IN HIS WAR CRIMES TRIAL
FindLaw columnist and human rights advocate Joanne Mariner explains what legal standards and precedents will govern the issue of whether Slobodan Milosevic, in his war crimes tribunal trial, will be held responsible for the abuses of subordinates.
Monday, Jul. 16, 2001
MILOSEVIC ON TRIAL
FindLaw columnist and human rights advocate Joanne Mariner discusses the possible strategies Slobodan Milosevic could employ to defend himself during his upcoming war crimes tribunal trial.
Monday, Jul. 09, 2001
ADVICE TO CUBAN DISSIDENTS: BEWARE U.S. SENATORS BEARING GIFTS
FindLaw columnist and human rights advocate Joanne Mariner explains why Senator Helms' proposed legislation to provide aid to Cuban dissidents is likely to hurt them instead, and contends that the analogy the legislation draws with the Polish Solidarity movement is flawed.
Monday, Jun. 25, 2001
KOSOVO'S UNQUIET DEAD
FindLaw columnist, attorney, and human rights advocate Joanne Mariner explains the significance of the recent discovery of new mass gravesites outside Kosovo, suspected to hold the bodies of ethnic Albanians slain in Kosovo by Serb forces in 1999. As Mariner explains, a U.N. war crimes prosecutors' claims of grave tampering as a cover-up for atrocities have been given further credence by the new findings.
Tuesday, Jun. 19, 2001
MACEDONIA'S ALBANIAN QUESTION
FindLaw columnist and human rights advocate Joanne Mariner examines the recent clashes in Macedonia between government forces and ethnic Albanian guerrillas; considers the historical backdrop; and explains why Macedonia is both different from, and similar to, Kosovo.
Thursday, May. 31, 2001
REFUGEE FATIGUE: HOW THE AFGHAN REFUGEES HAVE BEEN IGNORED
FindLaw columnist, attorney, and human rights advocate Joanne Mariner sketches the desperate plight of refugees from Afghanistan, and explores why their situation has failed to command the media attention and international aid that Kosovar Albanian refugees received only a few years ago.
Thursday, May. 17, 2001
TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION BEGIN AT HOME
FindLaw columnist and human rights attorney Joanne Mariner discusses the accusations against former Senator Bob Kerrey, based upon his leadership of a Navy commando team that killed at least thirteen unarmed civilians in Vietnam. Kerrey says the killings were in self-defense, but other witnesses disagree. Who will establish the truth? More importantly, when and how will the larger question of U.S. responsibility for Cold War abuses be investigated? Mariner suggests that a truth commissionmay be the answer.
Friday, May. 04, 2001
"NOT PART OF THE PENALTY": JUDICIAL ABDICATION OF RESPONSIBILITY FOR PROTECTING PRISONERS FROM RAPE
FindLaw columnist, attorney, and human rights advocate Joanne Mariner isalso the author of Human Rights Watch's report "No Escape: Male Rape in U.S.Prisons," which was published today. In her column, Mariner discusses animportant question: Given that the Supreme Court has recognized that prisonrape is not a legitimate part of the penalty for crimes and that officials'deliberate indifference to prisoners' risk of rape can be cruel and unusualpunishment, why do the courts still lag inproviding legal protection against rape? Mariner describes a pattern oflower court judges who appear to believe, as does Supreme Court JusticeClarence Thomas, that abuse in prison is inevitable. Therefore, they do nothold officials responsible for preventing it.
Thursday, Apr. 19, 2001
PROSECUTING MILOSEVIC
FindLaw columnist and human rights attorney Joanne Mariner lauds therecent imprisonment of Slobodan Milosevic, while noting that so far theBelgrade authorities have only charged Milosevic with embezzlement andsimilar crimes -- not human rights offenses. Moreover, YugoslavPresident Kostunica shows no sign of being willing to turn Milosevicover for trial before The Hague War Crimes Tribunal. While Marinerexplains the important reasons that a country may seek domestic, notinternational, justice, she also stresses that Milosevic must be broughtto account for the all the atrocities he spearheaded.
Friday, Apr. 06, 2001
SENSELESS PUNISHMENT: EXECUTING THE MENTALLY RETARDED
FindLaw columnist and human rights advocate Joanne Mariner discusses the Supreme Court case, to be argued March 27th, involving the death sentence of Johnny Penry, who is mentally retarded. Mariner explains why mentally retarded defendants both have less criminal culpability, and are less able to defend themselves in court, than other defendants. She also argues that the Supreme Court has been wrong, in the past, in allowing the mentally retarded to be executed. Mariner argues that the same principles that have led the Court to find Eighth Amendment violations in executing the insane, or those under sixteen years old, imply that executions of the mentally retarded should also be found to be cruel and unusual punishment.
Thursday, Mar. 22, 2001
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