International Court of Justice

• In the past four months, all or parts of Gaza’s 12 universities have been bombed and mostly destroyed.
• The Palestinian Ministry of Education has reported the deaths of over 4,327 students, 231 teachers and 94 professors.
• Israel has a long record of targeted attacks on Palestinian institutions that produce knowledge and culture.

What is scholasticide?

• Scholasticide describes the systemic destruction of Palestinian education within the context of Israel’s decades-long settler colonization and occupation of Palestine.
• Scholasticide includes killing, causing bodily or mental harm, incarcerating, or systematically harassing educators, students and administrators.
• It can also include using universities or schools as a military base (as was done with Al-Israa University).

The International Court of Justice

• During the recent genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), South Africa argued that Palestinian academics were being intentionally assassinated.
• Legal representative for South Africa, Blinne Ní Ghrálaigh, told the court:
  “Almost 90,000 Palestinian university students cannot attend university in Gaza.
• Over 60 per cent of schools, almost all universities and countless bookshops and libraries have been damaged and destroyed.

Attempting to eliminate Palestinian futures

• It’s part of a colonial continuum of attacking and destroying a people’s educational life, knowledge systems and plundering material culture and cultural heritage.
• Thousands of Palestinian books, manuscripts, libraries, archives, photographs, cultural artifacts and cultural property were looted, destroyed or damaged by Zionist militias.
• In 1948, Palestinian schools were destroyed or damaged or later appropriated for use by the new Israeli state.

Resistance: Palestinian history and culture

• Despite the ongoing attempts to erase Palestinian history, culture and memory, Palestinians have found ways to resist their erasure.
• It helped to create infrastructures for the survival, mobilization and development of the Palestinian people and their national movement.
• Palestinian education and culture form the backbone of the right to self-determination.
• This is why Israel frequently targets Palestinian education and culture.

• Cultural heritage has been annihilated, damaged or plundered in this war.
• During the bombing of Al-Israa University in January, Israel also targeted the National Museum.
• Licensed by the Ministry of Antiquities, the museum housed over 3,000 rare artifacts, which were looted.

Chandni Desai does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

• Climate change will wreak havoc on small island developing states in the Pacific and elsewhere.
• So island states are asking whether obligations to address climate change might be contained in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
• It is possible small island states could one day be compensated for the damage done.
• Read more:
  COP26 failed to address ocean acidification, but the law of the seas means states must protect the world's oceans

Why seek an advisory opinion?

• The answers to these questions are known as advisory opinions.
• Advisory opinions are not legally binding, they are authoritative statements on legal matters.
• The tribunal has delivered two advisory opinions in the past: on deep seabed mining and illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing activities.
• One avenue to achieve this is through an advisory opinion from the tribunal.

The question before the tribunal

• (b) to protect and preserve the marine environment in relation to climate change impacts, including ocean warming and sea level rise, and ocean acidification?
• That provides clues as to which sections of the treaty the tribunal will refer to in its opinion.
• The question refers explicitly to the part of the convention entitled “Protection and Preservation of the Marine Environment”.

What if states do not meet their obligations?

• And if so, in what ways does the convention require that they be addressed by states?
• What the commission’s question does not ask is, what happens when states do not meet their obligations?
• Sustained pressure from small island states is advancing our understanding of the obligations of states to address climate change.
• Read more:
  The UN is asking the International Court of Justice for its opinion on states' climate obligations.

• Rarely do we hear stories of justice concerning the richest people of all time.
• Clark and Regan were dedicated to restoring what was wrongfully taken from their clients by Hughes and Davis.
• This secret connection, and Clark and Regan's efforts to use it to bring down Howard Hughes, have been told to only a very few, until The Forensic.
• Paul Regan worked as an expert in forensic accounting-related litigation with John Clark, until John's death, over a span of 40 years.

• The Peace Palace houses two of the most important Courts in the world, the United Nations International Court of Justice and the Permanent Court of Arbitration.
• By solving conflicts in the courtroom, the Courts in the Palace help avoiding billions of damage and loss as a result of warfare.
• The recently published study by Decisio shows that the Peace Palace has great value for the world economy as the institutions located at the Palace are saving the international community billions of euros in economic damage.
• In addition to the economic impact, the study also demonstrates that the Peace Palace and the Courts housed in the Palace serve societal development.