Tag: Justice

Opening Session Washington: “Human Rights and Justice”

Posted by World Jurist Admin on November 16, 2020

On November 12, the WJA celebrated the fourth Opening Session of the World Law Congress Colombia 2021 from the Headquarters of the Organization of American States in Washington, D.C.

“We are far from a reality where human rights are protected in real time, and there is a long way ahead to guarantee effective mechanisms”. This is how the Secretary General of the Organization of American States, Luis Almagro, assessed the current situation in the debate “Human Rights and Justice: Fundamental Pillars for the Strengthening of Democratic Systems“. Almagro recognized that “political systems have to be structured in the best way to make justice work in societies, and this is the independence of power”. He also pointed out that “the main problem of democracy is impunity, a red line that separates it from dictatorship.

Tamara Sujú, WJA Representative before the International Criminal Court and director of the CASLA Institute, chaired the panel and highlighted its importance, assuring that “respect for human rights and justice tells us when democracy degenerates into dictatorial government”, and she bet on universal justice to denounce the crimes of Latin American dictatorships.

In this direction, the former president of Colombia, Álvaro Uribe Vélez, highlighted how tyrannies are detrimental to justice in the Latin American region and assured that “in this area everyone talks about human rights, but for many it is an electoral ploy”. He added, furthermore, that “we must be careful to avoid people who do not really believe in human rights from reaching power, since not everyone can defend human rights”.

Regarding the situation in Latin America, Dita Charanzová, Vice President of the European Parliament, highlighted the fundamental role played by international institutions against countries that violate human rights and highlighted the action of the European Parliament, which, she said, has openly supported investigations into crimes against humanity. In this sense, she requested “that the international community continue to speak out in order to continue rejecting dictatorships and, thus, achieve the absolute reestablishment of human rights in those Latin American countries subject to these regimes”.

Meanwhile, Karen Longaric, former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bolivia, emphasized that “only when the rule of law is solid, the justice system is independent” and noted that “even when governments emerge from elections or votes, they can have dictatorial and totalitarian characteristics”. Regarding justice, she stressed that it “does not exist in times of dictatorship, because the judicial body and the Public Prosecutor’s Office are obsequious with dictators” and she questioned the role of international human rights organizations since, she assured, “they have a role to play in protecting human rights, but some of them do not work or do so poorly because they have a biased view towards judging or appreciating human rights violations”.

Javier Cremades, president of the World Jurist Association, concluded the panel alleging that “there is no assured peace if there is no submission to the law” and stated that “human rights are there so each person can live their life with dignity and see all their objective value recognized”.

This Opening Session was the fourth meeting preceding the World Law Congress to be held in Colombia in 2021. The President of the host country, Iván Duque, also participated in this session, and through the projection of an institutional video he committed himself to “continue promoting the strength of the rule of law as fertile ground to allow growth and well-being, development and freedom for citizens” and assured that “we will continue working to build a better future for all, based on the strength and guarantees of the rule of law”.

FULL SESSION: https://youtu.be/cmUDv5-R1o8

SUMMARY SESSION: https://youtu.be/TIhVmX_wtuA

Peace Starts in Korea

Posted by World Jurist Admin on October 9, 2018

By Franklin Hoet-Linares

Worldwide President of the World Jurist Association

When Jesus delivered the Sermon on the Mount: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God”, among other Beatitudes, he did not specify whether that message was addressed to Jews, Samaritans, Romans or his own followers. Everyone, without distinction. And then, I would add, to ratify that they are concepts that march together: “Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven“.

That is the humble way in which here on Earth we have been working for 40 years at the World Peace Through Law Center, founded in 1965, today World Jurist Association (WJA); without distinctions, exclusions, privileged inclusions, or discriminations. The WJA seeks to strengthen and promote the rule of law and spread peace through law; a recognition of the inherent dignity and equality of inalienable rights of all the members of humanity, founded on freedom, justice and peace in the world, as established in the Preamble to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), approved by the General Assembly of the United Nations (Article III of the WJA Charter).

As WJA Worldwide President for third time, I have committed in the pursuit of our objectives, traveling to different places in the world to actively attend international and regional conferences, among other activities, organized by individuals, associations, corporations, non-governmental organizations and governmental institutions with similar leitmotiv. The cooperation extends to all branches of law: judges, academics and lawyers. We cannot become judges and discriminate those who work for peace, either co-religionists or not, because, in the end, our north is to maintain the inherent dignity of every human being in the process of achieving peace and justice.

Under that mandate and with deep conviction of pursuing a realistic world peace, I attended the invitation of the HWPL (Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light) in Seoul, Republic of Korea, in 2015, to prepare a document that initially was meant to be an international treaty for the promotion of peace and disarmament, with a view to the cessation of wars. Considering the difficulties of achieving such purpose, legal complexity, multiple political interests in the international scenario, especially in the formation of instruments legally binding the community of United Nations States Members, the International Law Peace Committee (ILPC) was created.

I accepted to integrate this Committee, and, within our mission, we achieved our goal after multiple meetings and discussions. A consensus was reached in a document of 10 articles and 38 clauses, called “Declaration of Peace and Cessation of War” (DPCW). The fundamental spirit is the same one that the WJA shares, just governance based on law, not power. Exactly, the same basic concept devised by Sir Winston Churchill when he was presented with our project for a center for peace: “Contribute firmly, from civil society, to strengthen the rule of law“. We were convinced that the future of immediate world peace was being played in Korea.

Or in the words of the inspiring Dwight Eisenhower on our first conference in Washington, by supporting the creation of today’s WJA: “The world has no choice between force and law: if civilization tries to survive it must choose the force of the law“.

This year we attended for second time to Seoul, the peace of the world was centered in those precise moments and territories, between the two Korean countries, with the United States and Russia behind; more precisely, Trump and Putin. Those of us who share the experiences of the Americans and follow the daily news on the media, perceive the almost imminent spectrum of war and, with us and our family, tens of millions more. Imagine how the consequences would be like in North and South Korea. The ILPC finally signaled a laudable solution to the manifest impossibility to obtaining a consensus at the UN General Assembly, as the DPCW restricted the powers of the States and imposed them obligations, which is not realistic at this time of a new international cold war: “Recognize with merit the excellent progress of the President of HWPL in bringing together individual States and regional organizations around the DPCW. Also, recommend that this process will continue until sufficient support is obtained for the presentation of the DPCW before the UN GA with a view to its endorsement in the form of a resolution approved within it“. It is not small thing.

On September 18, I had the historic opportunity of visiting the demilitarized zone. Today, just a few weeks later, in the process of dismantling. Something similar happened in Berlin, when the WJA held a Congress promoting the disarmament and unification of the two Germanies. It is gratifying to contribute, even with a grain of sand.

The UDHR is not an international treaty, it is what it is, a statement of great weight accepted by the entire international community, and that was decided in 1944, when realist legislators realized that it was not possible to obtain a consensus of the main countries for a treaty on fundamental rights, hence decided to produce three instruments. First, the Declaration, not legally enforceable, even though today, after 70 years of validity in international doctrine, it is given a weight of customary law. Subsequently, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICCPR and ICESCR, respectively) were produced. Both were adopted by the UN GA through Resolution 2200 A (XXI) of December 16, 1966, entered into force on March 23, 1976, and have been ratified by 167 States. These two Covenants have a value and can be legally binding among the countries that signed and ratify them.

It is our purpose in the immediate future to extract some fundamental political rights from the DPCW and incorporate them as an amendment to the Covenants. Furthermore, a review of the 30 Clauses or rights of the UDHR. Likewise, we are going to support an initiative of Unite for Rights, a human rights association that is trying to produce a Bill of Rights, to unify the existing human rights legislation in the world, in a simple, accurate and integrative way.

Now, after being sure that the war in the Korean Peninsula is moving away by leaps and bounds, we want to dedicate ourselves to work for peace in Venezuela and continue with the preparation of the XXVI Congress of the WJA in Madrid, to be held from 18 to 20 February 2019

Bratislava, October 08, 2018.

WJA Munich IP Conference 2018

Posted by World Jurist Admin on May 31, 2018

The WJA Munich Conference IP Protection & Trademark Rights was held on May 3 – 4 at the Courtyard® & Residence Inn^® Munich East Hotel in Munich, Germany. The successful conference featured an array of high level interesting presentations and events. The Opening Ceremony begun with speeches from Dr. Alexander Löw, President of the Organizing Committee & President of the WJA for Europe & Germany; Dr. Franklin Hoet-Linares, WJA Worldwide President; Hon. Justice TAO Kaiyuan, WJA President for Asia & China; and Marc F-X Groebl, member of the Board of Directors of the Munich Bar Association.

First day sessions included:

Franklin Hoet Linares, Founding Partner at HPCD, on Multiple Protection Strategies in the Fashion Design Business in LATAM;
Brian Smith, Partner at Robinson & Cole, on US Copyright Protections;
Yann Meniere, Chief Economist at the European Patent Office, on The Economic Impact of the Unitary Patent;
Orlando Viera Blanco, President of the Canadian-Venezuelan Engagement Foundation, on the Impact of Counterfeiting and Illegitimate Markets in the Social, Economic and Institutional Field;
TAO Kaiyuan, Vice President of the Supreme People’s Court of the People’s Republic of China, on the Reform and Development of Intellectual Property Protection of Chinese Courts;
WANG Chuang, Deputy Chief Judge of the 3^rd Civil Division of the Supreme People’s Court of the People’s Republic of China, on the Development of China’s Trademark Protection Rules and System;
JIANG Ying, Chief Judge of the 1^st Trial Division of Beijing Intellectual Property Court of the People’s Republic of China, on the Practice and Prospect of the Intellectual Property Case Guidance System in China;
LING Song, Deputy Judge of the 1^st Trial Division of Shanghai Intellectual Property Court of the People’s Republic of China, on the Promoting Judicial Protection of Scientific Innovation and Enhancing IP International Exchange against the Background of Globalization; and
HUANG Huihuan, Chief Judge of the Case-Filing Division of Guangzhou Intellectual Property Court of the People’s Republic of China, on Research on Market Value of IP & Key to the Difficulty of Determining Tort Damages Compensation.

The day closed with a moving Commemorative Ceremony held at the Munich Olympic Village near the Munich Massacre Monument in remembrance of the 11 Israeli Athletes and the German Police Officer murdered in 1972 during the Summer Olympic Games. The ceremony, greatly organized and produced by Adv. Yehoshua Nener, WJA Israel President, was initiated by Dr. Hoet and a prayer in the athletes’ memory recited by a Rabbi.

Adv. Nener delivered the opening speech, emphasizing that the world must unite against terrorism. Keynote Speaker, Hon. Jus. Miriam Naor, President (ret) of the Supreme Court of Israel, reviewed the events unfolding the act of terror, highlighting the unfortunate refusal of Germany to allow the Israeli Special Forces to release the hostages.

Following speeches were delivered by Mrs. Ankie Spitzer, widow of Andre Spitzer, athlete murdered during the massacre, and Mr. Yoram Domb, husband of Esther Roth-Shahamorov, surviving Israeli athlete. Other speakers included the Deputy Consul of Israel in Munich, Mr. Liran Sahar, Dr. Alexander Löw, and Dr. Franklin Hoet, who delivered his most moving message on behalf of the organization.

Through the videos screened behind the speakers, many of the participants were exposed for the first time to the details of the Munich Massacre. Attendees expressed how deeply moved they were and promised to transmit the indelible impression left by the ceremony to jurists and friends in their home countries.

Day two sessions included:

Miguel Domingo Vecchioni, Manager of the Team of Applied Mathematics and Natural Language Processing at the European Patent Office, on Patents in the 4^th Industrial Revolution;
Jacint Soler-Padró, WJA Spain President, on the Internet Company’s Monopoly – A Risk to our Freedom?
Panagiotis Rigopoulos, Lawyer of the European & International Legal Affairs of the European Patent Office, on the Recent Developments at the EPO and the EPO as a Key Harmonization Driver;
Alexander Löw, President of Data-Warehouse GmbH, on Challenges of Small and Medium Enterprises in IP;
Jesús Becerra, Corporate Criminal Defense Attorney and Lecturer at the Universitat Pompeu Fabré Barcelona, on the Criminal Law Consequences of the Protection of Intellectual Property Through Self Help under Spanish Law; and
Ramón Soler-Padró, Partner at Soler-Padró v. Hohenlohe Engel, on the Impacts of Social Media on the Civil Society.

A vibrant Closing Ceremony was held at the traditional Bavarian restaurant Ratskeller of the Munich City Town Hall. Hon. Jus. Peter Umeadi, WJA President for Africa, honored the Closing Statement of the Conference. Typical Oktober Fest gifts were presented as well as beautiful presents from the Chinese delegation, and a Bavarian music and dance show delighted the WJA Global Council, members and participants, who even joined in for a dance.

The WJA greatly appreciates the participation of attendees from countries as far as Canada, USA, Latin America, Nigeria, Israel and China, among other countries. Furthermore, WJA is proud of and thankful with the Organizing Committee, Dr. Alexander Löw and family, Sven Kohlmeier, Alexandra Lohr, Carola Dirscherl, Yacky Rodríguez and all the Data-Warehouse Gmgh team, who worked very hard to put together such a successful and high-quality event.

Expectations now rely on the upcoming 26th Biennial Congress in Madrid, Spain, to be presided by H.M. the King of Spain in 2019, and on the next Conference to be organized by the WJA Israeli team, probably in Jerusalem, which would give us the opportunity to reunite with our friends from the Israeli Supreme Court and the unforgettable and hardworking WJA member Dr. Ethia Simha.

Note: Presentations will be soon available. Further information Dr. Alexander Löw, WJA President for Europe A.Loew@dwh.email. WJA members discount applies.

First day sessions included:

Day two sessions included:

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