Interview with Colm Ó Briain, Special Advisor to Michael D. Higgins

ASIANPERSPECTIVE, Vol. 30, No. 3, 2006, pp. 159-165. BEYOND THE "NEVER AGAINS" Milton Leitenberg The Government of Sweden released a magnificent book in 2005, titled Beyond the "Never Agains." It was the culmination of a series of four international conferences initiated in 2000, the first three being "Education, Remembrance, and Research on the Holocaust" (2000); "Combating Intolerance" (2001); and "Truth, Justice, and Reconciliation" (2002). Even before the first of these conferences took place, the Swedish government had produced a book dealing with the Holocaust in Europe, 1933 to 1945, titled Tell Ye Tour Children. Copies were supplied to every Swedish family with school age children, and translated into Finnish, Arabic, Turkish, Serbo-Croatian, English, Spanish, and Persian. In all, 1,270,000 copies were distributed and the book was also reproduced in Germany, France, and Denmark. But most impor­ tantly, the final conference in the series took place in 2004. It was titled "Preventing Genocide: Threats and Responsibilities" and it took place with the participation of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, heads of state, foreign ministers, resident ambassadors in Stockholm, and other senior international diplomatic figures representing fifty-five countries. Beyond the "Never Agains" makes extensive use of photogra­ phy, virtually an illustration per page, greatly enhancing its message. The book is essentially composed of three sections. It contains short summaries of each of the first three conferences. This commentary also appears in the Institute for the Study of Genocide, International Association of Genocide Scholars' ISG Newsletter, No. 37 (Fall, 2006), and is reproduced here with permission. 160 Milton Leitenberg These are followed by the major portion of the book, composed of interviews with eighteen individuals, including Kofi Annan, Kay Gusmao, Luis Moreno Ocampo, Samantha Power, Gareth Evans, and Gitta Sereny. The final portion of the book, as well as a fair portion of the interviews, concerns itself with the subject of the 2004 conference: Genocide. The fourth and final conference was held in January 2004 in anticipation of the tenth anniversary of the genocide in Rwanda, which had cost the lives of between 800,000 and one million peo­ ple in the brief span of thirteen weeks. The conference had the sin­ gle material outcome in that it led to the establishment of a new position, a Special Advisor on the Prevention of Genocide, in the Office of the UN Secretary General. The office of the new special advisor was meant to provide an early warning function to the Secretary General. The senior diplomatic official present from each of the fifty-five states addressed the conference, in addition to Kofi Annan and the President of Rwanda. Literally every single speech hinged and elaborated on the theme of "Never Again." Neverthe­ less it is possible that not a single one of the speeches by national representatives pointed out that the next "Again" had already taken place, in the Congo between 1998 and 2003, with a cost of perhaps 3.5 million lives. (This reviewer attended the entire con­ ference). In spite of this, there was absolutely no international response during that period. Furthermore, yet another Genocide had already begun and was well underway as the conference was taking place: in the Darfur province of Sudan, and perpetrated by the Government of Sudan. It is questionable whether any of the speeches by the diplomatic figures pointed this out either. It would continue through 2006 without any meaningful interna­ tional intervention sufficient to bring it to an end. If the events that followed in Darfur after January 2004 should be considered its test, the conference must be seen as a failure. In April 2004, a few months after the Stockholm conference, Kofi Annan also spoke at the tenth anniversary of the Rwandan Genocide. He offered five "lessons" from international inaction in Rwanda in 2004, the fifth of which was "the need for swift and decisive action." And in January 2005, on the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi death camps in 1945, the United Nations General Assembly held its first-ever special commemo­ rative session. Once again the rhetoric was heavy, not least by Beyond the "NeverAgains" 161 the sitting President of the General Assembly, the Foreign Minis­ ter...

WPA Project on Partnerships for Best Practices in Working with Service Users and Carers.

"Edridge-Green, Frederick William, (died 17 April 1953), late Special Examiner and Adviser of the Ministry of Transport on Vision and Colour-vision; late Ophthalmic Surgeon, London Pensions Boards; late Chairman Ophthalmic Board, Central London Medical Boards National Service" published on by Oxford University Press.

Significance A key dismissal was that of the prosecutor general of Algiers, Zeghmati Belkacem, who was reportedly close to the former head of the Department of Intelligence and Security (DRS), General Mohamed 'Toufik' Mediene. Mediene was dismissed on September 13, when the president's office announced his retirement and replacement by Athman 'Bachir' Tartag -- the president's special advisor. The reshuffle prompted widespread speculation on the balance of power among the traditionally-ruling elites -- Bouteflika's circle, the army and the DRS -- and reignited speculation on Bouteflika's succession. Impacts The removal of Mediene and many of the DRS high-command before him could destabilise the security establishment. This could undermine the state's ability to combat terrorism. It could also threaten stability, if rivalries over access to state largesse hitherto contained in institutions spill over into the streets.

Significance However, the junta has kept core portfolios in the hands of trusted military officers, including two of Goita’s special advisors who were promoted to cabinet roles. This follows a controversial June 18 constitutional referendum that concentrates more power in the presidency. Impacts The withdrawal of the UN’s MINUSMA peacekeeping force may complicate logistics for planned elections. Despite deteriorating north-south relations, the junta may seek to delay the onset of conflict. Recent US sanctions against junta officials may boost their domestic legitimacy as defenders of Mali’s ‘sovereignty’.

This article examines Hebrew translations of World War II–era psychology handbooks as means of transmission for scientific knowledge and as a mechanism for the cross-cultural spread of behavioral modernity. While drawing a broad, vivid picture of transnational military mobilities postwar, the article centers on the story of one such handbook: John Dollard’s Fear in Battle, a 1943 self-help guide on combat behavior. Produced in the context of efforts to manage the morale of American troops, Fear in Battle then traveled overseas along with volunteers, mercenaries, and special advisors from the former Allied powers, and played a role in decolonization and nation-building in the Middle East. The article reconstructs each phase of the text’s geopolitical and institutional itinerary: the experimental work on aversive conditioning that led to its writing and the larger neobehaviorist agenda it formed a part of; its function within the United States Army and subsequent transit to Palestine; and its translation into two new versions that circulated among Jewish militia members during the 1948 Palestine War. Analyzing in detail changes in language, style and format, the article thus aims to unpack the process by which behavioral science had been vernacularized and its mode of explanation went global.

The integration of artificial intelligence into healthcare represents a transformative paradigm shift, reimagining the relationship between technology and medical professionals. This article examines the emergence of AI as a clinical collaborator rather than a replacement for human expertise, focusing on systems designed for relevance assessment, information ranking, and efficient retrieval of patient data. Modern healthcare AI implementation shows significant improvements in regular clinical functions, reducing clinical errors in special domains such as radiology and pathology. These systems excel in giving priority to information according to clinical urgency, separating the signal from noise in expanding versions of health care, and enabling rapid access to the relevant data from electronic health records. The article examines the three major structures for human-AI collaboration: the Consultant model, AI as special advisors, monitoring models that employ the continuous monitoring of patient data, and enhancing the model by integrating direct capabilities in clinical workflows. Emergency medical, radiology, primary care, and intensive care settings depict both case study transformational capacity and implementation challenges. Healthcare has adapted commercial AI technologies to the clinical environment by implementing stronger data governance, improving uncertainty quantification, and developing specialized validation frameworks. Evidence shows these adaptations enhance clinical capabilities, with AI-assisted professionals detecting more diseases and reducing diagnostic errors. Rather than replacing healthcare workers, AI handles routine tasks and provides evidence-based recommendations while preserving human judgment. This technological integration maintains the irreplaceable human dimensions of care, compassion, intuition, and relationship-building. The synergy between technological precision and human empathy creates a powerful partnership that produces better outcomes than either approach alone, suggesting a future where AI empowers health professionals rather than substituting them.

Foot, Michael David Kenneth Willoughby, (born 16 Dec. 1946), Special Advisor, Promontory Financial Group, since 2015 (Global Vice-Chairman, 2012–15)

Rarely has any country made such radical changes in all aspects of its life as post‐apartheid South Africa. The museum and heritage community was seen as a principal actor in bringing about a new democratic society based on a truthful, unflinching examination of the past and a creative, participatory approach to the future. These efforts are described by Dr Amareswar Galla, Director of the Australian Centre for Cultural Diversity Research and Development at the University of Canberra and founder of a national programme for interdisciplinary and holistic studies in heritage management. He has spent a substantial part of the past five years as a specialist adviser and facilitator for new policies, corporate plans and transformation documents in the cultural and heritage sectors of South Africa, including the National Parks system. His work earned him the South African Museums Association inaugural presidential award for outstanding service for transformation planning and training in 1997. He is also a Director of Australia’s Board of Special Broadcasting Service, Chairperson of the Asia Pacific Organization of ICOM and Chairperson of ICOM’s Cross‐cultural Taskforce.

In this concluding chapter there is a discussion on the strength of the Westminster model for the power basis of the civil service in the face of four challenges – devolution, Brexit, failures in the contractual state and the increasing role of special advisers. It considers the potential tools for change when the culture of the civil service has been able to survive or reverse successive government proposals and considers what would encourage the civil service to appreciate that reform is necessary for its future. It finishes on the prospect of change to a new Prime Minister who uniquely has been a member of the most senior group of civil servants and his choice of political special adviser over a former senior civil servant in leading his office.

The lecture began at 5:00 pm, Wednesday, April 9, and was given by Radhika Coomaraswamy, former UN Special Representative of Secretary-General on Children and Armed Conflict; discussant was Diane Marie Amann, Emily and Ernest Woodruff Chair in International Law, University of Georgia School of Law; Special Adviser on Children in and affected by Armed Conflict, International Criminal Court, Office of Prosecutor. * WOMEN AND CHILDREN: THE CUTTING EDGE OF INTERNATIONAL LAW By Radhika Coomaraswamy ([dagger]) PREFACE Sometime at end of 2011, while I was still United Nations Special Representative of Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, I met an ambassador from an Asian country just before a United Nations Security Council meeting on children and armed conflict. He told me that I was leaving United Nations at right time, because the era of human rights is over, it has been shown up for what it is, a product of western liberalism and now a modern day foreign policy weapon of western imperialism. (1) A few months earlier I was in Central African Republic (CAR) with three generations of women from same family, who had been brutally raped by forces of Jean Pierre Bemba when he entered CAR from Democratic Republic of Congo in 2002. (2) They were getting ready to go to The Hague to testify against him. They described events in detail, and I could feel their sense of vindication and hope. Even if Bemba were not convicted, they found consolation in fact that someone had recognized crimes committed against them. This, then, is complexity of human rights in modern world. Increasingly, member states, along with individuals and groups in Global South, challenge both epistemology and practice of human rights. But despite their efforts, at grass-roots level there is a groundswell of support for idea of human rights, including women's and children's rights, as more and more groups have begun to use discourse and strategy of human rights movement to fight for equality and social justice. INTRODUCTION In traditional world of international law, issues of war, peace, and security have always taken precedence over other developments. (3) The Westphalian origins led to a focus on dispute resolution and establishment of an international order that will enable peace. Even today media attention of world remains on Security Council, whose proceedings dominate discussion of international law and international relations. However, hidden from view away from drama of use of force and international peace and security, there has been a quiet, creeping revolution in area of women's and children's rights at international level, which may have far-reaching consequences on how we think about international law and its place in modern world. I have divided this lecture into three parts: (I) I will identify five ways in which women's rights and children's rights have impacted substance and procedure of international law, especially during last few decades; (II) I will describe backlash against some of these developments that has led to a certain paralysis in their contemporary evolution; and (III) I will identify a way forward--always keeping interests of women and children in mind. Before I proceed, I would like to outline three short caveats. First, international human rights law is often seen as a sub-regime of international law. (4) In same way, women's and children's rights are a sub-regime of international human rights law, with a level of autonomy and integrity relevant to their specialization. Nevertheless, as we will see later, what happens in international arena to regime of human rights also affects issues relating to women and children and vice versa. Some traditional international lawyers may dismiss all this as issues within periphery of periphery, but in some ways they have already begun to play a significant role in international relations. …

When Raphael Lemkin invented the word ‘‘genocide’’ in 1944, he explained that this is a ‘‘new word, coined by the author to denote an old practice in its modern development.’’1 As Lemkin wrote these words, the paradigmatic genocide, the Holocaust, was raging in Europe. Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/gsp This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Tampa Library at Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact scholarcommons@usf.edu. Recommended Citation Bazyler, Michael J. (2007) the Footsteps of Raphael Lemkin, Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal: Vol. 2: Iss. 1: Article 7. Available at: http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/gsp/vol2/iss1/7 In the Footsteps of Raphael Lemkin Michael J. Bazyler Professor of Law and ‘‘1939’’ Club Law Scholar in Holocaust and Human Rights Studies, Whittier Law School; Distinguished Visiting Professor of Law, Pepperdine University School of Law (2007) When Raphael Lemkin invented the word ‘‘genocide’’ in 1944, he explained that this is a ‘‘new word, coined by the author to denote an old practice in its modern development.’’ As Lemkin wrote these words, the paradigmatic genocide, the Holocaust, was raging in Europe. Since Lemkin was a lawyer, he put great weight on both national and international legal rules as one of the best tools to prevent and eventually eradicate this ‘‘old practice.’’ His response was to propose an international crime for which individuals committing such acts against a group of people—whom he labeled ‘‘a collectivity’’—could be punished, irrespective of national boundaries. In effect, Lemkin was proposing the now-accepted rule of universal jurisdiction, whereby individuals committing certain heinous crimes are considered hostis humani generis—enemies of all humankind—and can be prosecuted by any national or international court, regardless of where the crime was committed. It is the legalistic background of the inventor and the purpose for which the term was invented—to make certain group behavior an international crime recognized by the community of nations as illegal through a multilateral treaty—that put the term ‘‘genocide’’ solidly within a legal framework. The culmination of Lemkin’s work during his lifetime was the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (UNCG), adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1948 and entering into force in 1951. More than 130 states today are parties to the UNCG, in whose article 1 they solemnly ‘‘undertake to prevent and punish’’ genocide. How states are to do so is left unstated in the treaty. Though Lemkin died impoverished and in relative obscurity in 1959, his word has achieved a recognition beyond his dreams. ‘‘Genocide’’ has now become synonymous with extreme evil and, as noted by William Schabas, the ‘‘crime of crimes.’’ A Google search today yields more than 26 million entries for the term. Unfortunately, one of the major reasons for its widespread popularity is the failure of the UNCG to prevent repeated occurrences of this particular extreme evil. While the term ‘‘genocide’’ should by now be relegated to descriptions of historical events, most recently the Holocaust, it is instead still being used by those who followed Lemkin to describe current events. As explained by Gregory Stanton, When the Genocide Convention was passed by the United Nations in 1948, the world said, ‘‘Never again.’’ But the history of the twentieth century instead proved that ‘‘never again’’ became ‘‘again and again.’’ The promise the United Nations made was broken, as again and again, genocides and other forms of mass murder killed 170 million people, more than all the international wars of the twentieth century combined. As I write this commentary, a genocide is raging in the Darfur region of Sudan while the international community, in ‘‘Keystone Kops’’ fashion, haplessly tries to figure out how to respond to the events. Despite massive demonstrations, Michael J. Bazyler, ‘‘In the Footsteps of Raphael Lemkin.’’ Genocide Studies and Prevention 2, 1 (April 2007): 51–56. 2007 Genocide Studies and Prevention. letter-writing campaigns to politicians, public appeals, and extensive coverage by the media, the genocide in Darfur continues unabated. As Jerry Fowler recently explained in a more elegant manner, Darfur adds another sad chapter of irony in the convention’s history, given the dramatic incongruity between the sense of urgency that one might expect a plausible case of ongoing genocide to engender and the relatively lackadaisical international political response that has in fact unfolded. The failure of the international community to stop the Rwandan genocide of 1994, during which approximately one million victims were murdered over a period of 100 days, provides another sad and sorry example of the ‘‘again and again’’ phenomenon. As we approach the half-century mark of Lemkin’s death, it is a great blot on both international law and international diplomacy that we have failed miserably to make his dream into reality and relegate genocide to the trash bin of history. Not that we haven’t tried. Numerous proposals, some put into practice, have been offered over the last fifty years to make the work of genocide prevention more effective. The topic has also been the subject of numerous books, articles, policy papers, and speeches. In the 1970s, Israel Charny and Chanan Rapaport devised the Genocide Early Warning System (GEWS), an analytic process by which to recognize preludes to genocide so that effective action can be taken before events on the ground escalate into full-blown genocide. GEWS is based on the fact that genocides, including the Holocaust, are never spontaneous events; rather, they occur incrementally, in predictable steps. In the 1990s, Gregory Stanton addressed the same issue and gave us an important tool by likewise identifying the signposts on the road to genocide. Stanton explains that ‘‘genocide is a process that develops in eight stages that are predictable but not inexorable. At each stage, preventive measures can stop it. The later stages must be preceded by the earlier stages, though earlier stages continue to operate throughout the process.’’ At the policy level, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan took a stab at the task in 2004 by creating the position of Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide and appointing Juan Mendez, law professor, human rights advocate, and former political prisoner from Argentina, to the post. Events in Darfur demonstrate, at least to date, that the addition of such a special adviser for genocide prevention at the UN has had little effect in the real world. In 1997, the Clinton administration in the United States had created a new post in the US State Department, the US Ambassador at Large for War Crimes Issues, with a similar mandate to focus on genocide and other large-scale violations of international criminal law. The creation of this post has likewise had, at most, a negligible effect on the task of genocide prevention and the current holder of the position, John Clint Williamson, seems to play a minor role in the State Department. Prior to Williamson’s appointment in April 2006, the post was vacant for six months. David Scheffer, the first ambassador for war crimes issues and currently a law professor at Northwestern University, now offers another proposal to make genocide prevention more effective. Scheffer correctly points out that the legal definition of genocide, as found in the UNCG, has acted to constrain genocide prevention, since it offers both the United Nations and individual nations a ready-made legal excuse not to take action. It allows them to claim that the acts being committed, while horrible, have not yet risen Genocide Studies and Prevention 2:1 April 2007

Daniel Levy is a senior fellow and director of the Prospects for Peace Initiative at the Century Foundation and a senior fellow and director of the Middle East Initiative at the New America Foundation. During the Barak Government, he worked in the Prime Minister’s Office as special adviser and head of the Jerusalem Affairs Unit under Minister Haim Ramon. Mr. Levy also worked as senior policy adviser to former Israeli Minister of Justice Yossi Beilin and was a member of the official Israeli delegation to the Taba negotiations with the Palestinians in January 2001.

Young, Robert, (born 27 March 1944), Principal, European Economic Research Ltd, 2004–14, now Special Adviser

In mid 2002, the Federal Government of Nigeria through the Special Adviser on Petroleum Matters gave a directive that all Oil and Gas Operators should embark on abandonment and remediation/restoration programs to address all abandoned drill locations cutting across land, swamp and offshore environments. Before this directive, our company operations had commenced a comprehensive effort in 1999 to address these sites. Across the Nigerian Niger Delta, abandoned drill locations (including well stubs) number well over several tens of thousands. The Niger Delta area of the country lies in the southern part of Nigeria and oil and gas operations have been carried out in this region over the past four decades. Community unrests have arisen from lack of commensurate development in this region. In addition, new environmental regulations with very restrictive requirements have been enacted.This case study consists of two phases. The first phase is to address the land sites which involve demolition of existing camp/concrete structures, removal of existing well heads, backfilling of existing pits (including large borrow pits), leveling of entire drill site to match natural contour level, spreading of native humus soil and revegetation with native plant species. The second phase will address the abandoned swamp and offshore wells by ensuring that they are completely plugged and abandoned using a more cost-effective approach such as the use of highly compressed sodium bentonite. Thereafter, the wells will be cut below mudline and removed.This paper discusses the issues involved in abandoning and restoring the land sites and the well stubs in swamp and offshore environments. Experience obtained in carrying along all stakeholders particularly the host communities in the Niger Delta and the regulatory agencies is presented. Other alternatives to pit closure will be mentioned and the environmental and economic benefits of using highly compressed sodium bentonite (Zonite) for plugging well stubs will be discussed.