Rene Wadlow, Author at Toward Freedom

Anti-Rom Measures in Europe Need to be Stopped

Rene Wadlow August 24, 2010 Rene Wadlow

In early August, the French Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux announced that more than 40 Gypsy camps had been dismantled around France since President Nicolas Sarkozy had called earlier this summer for a crackdown on the camps.

Can Elections Restructure Sudan for Peace?

Rene Wadlow May 25, 2010 Rene Wadlow

Omar al-Bashir

There are elections in countries with well-worn political structures, such as the recent elections in the United Kingdom. There, elections serve as a certain circulation of the elites and modest changes in policy.Then there are elections in countries that have not known multi-party elections in many years, where there are few existing political structures but a willingness to use violence for political ends and where the consequences of the elections are not clear. Such was the case with the April 11 elections in Sudan.

Banning Cluster Bombs: Light in the Darkness of Conflicts

Rene Wadlow March 17, 2010 Rene Wadlow

Cluster Bombs

In a remarkable combination of civil society pressure and leadership from a small number of progressive States, a strong ban on the use, manufacture, and stocking of cluster bombs will come into force on August 1, 2010 now that 30 States have ratified the Convention on Cluster Munitions. The Convention bans the use, production, transfer of cluster munitions and sets deadlines for stockpile destruction and clearance of contaminated land. The Convention obliges States to support victims and affected communities.

Guinea’s Slaughter: UN Fact-Finding Tightens The Noose

Rene Wadlow December 31, 2009 Rene Wadlow

Conflict in Guinea

The UN Human Rights Council initially took no real action on the news of the September 28 shootings of unarmed civilians in Conakry, Guinea as the Council was in the last days of its session and had little time or will to draft a resolution or set up a fact-finding mission. Thus the Council ended up passing the issue over to the African Union, which issued a statement deploring the violence and then passed the issue on to the 16-member regional body - the Economic Community of West African States.

For Europe – Politics is the Economy

Rene Wadlow December 10, 2009 Rene Wadlow

Van Rompuy & Ashton

There has been a good deal of ironic comments in the European press concerning the selection of the Belgium Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy as the European Council President and Baroness Catherine Ashton of Upholland, a life peer, as the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.

Guinea: A Wave of Horror But No UN Action

Rene Wadlow October 14, 2009 Rene Wadlow

Captain Moussa Dadis Camara

A wave of horror spread among the assembled delegates at the UN Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva as news of the September 28 shootings of unarmed participants in a political meeting in Conakry was known. It was the last days of the Council session which was then in its final stage of negotiating and voting resolutions. Was there anything that the UN human rights body could do?