Persecution

• But she was also talking about the country’s international reputation for being clean, green, safe and honest.
• But recent rankings measuring the country’s international influence, transparency and corruption have started to tell a different story.
• Between 2021 and 2023, New Zealand dropped ten places – from 16 to 26 – on the Global Soft Power Index.

Brand New Zealand

• According to the 2023 Anholt-Ipsos Nation Brand Index, New Zealand is the 14th most valuable country brand in the world, valued at close to half a trillion New Zealand dollars in 2022 by brand valuation and strategy company Brand Finance.
• Brand New Zealand is a precious commodity in its own right, which has taken many decades to build.
• Since 2014, New Zealand has dropped six points in its CPI score, three times more than Denmark or Finland.

Perceptions matter

• A higher CPI score implies a lower level of perceived corruption.
• Read more:
  Return of the ‘consultocracy’ – how cutting public service jobs to save costs usually backfires

  But its two-point CPI slide from 87 to 85 is driven by perceptions among business leaders, as captured by the most recent World Economic Forum’s executive opinion survey taken in August 2023.

• CEO of Transparency International New Zealand, Julie Haggie, attributes the 2023 drop in business leaders’ confidence to three specific factors:

several high-profile cases of COVID-19 subsidy fraud and tax evasion by businesses
the government’s insufficient response to a rise in scamming, as well as a lack of transparency around government spending on outside consultation contracts and infrastructure projects
and a heightened focus on appropriate spending of public funds during a cost-of-living crisis when most New Zealanders are doing it tough.

Trust in government

• But it must still be mindful of the fragility of general trust in public institutions and the government.
• Damaging that trust can have unintended consequences for our international reputation.
• Cutting public spending by between 6.5% and 7.5%, as government agencies have been told to do, may be viewed positively by business leaders.
• But it can also erode public trust in government.

Turning the trend around

• While it placed 14th in the latest Transparency International ranking (with a CPI score of 75), Australia has gained two points under the Albanese Labor government.
• State capture by vested interest groups is a form of public corruption and would likely significantly affect New Zealand’s declining CPI score.

Matevz (Matt) Raskovic 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.

• With the death toll approaching 24,000 in the Palestinian territory, South Africa’s lawyers laid out the grounds on which they are accusing Israel of breaching the 1948 Genocide Convention, while Israel’s legal team have presented their counter- arguments.
• Israel in turn has denied this, arguing that it has been exercising its fundamental right to self-defence under international law.
• Read more:
  South Africa has made its genocide case against Israel in court.
• Here's what both sides said and what happens next

  The UN’s genocide convention was adopted by the General Assembly on December 9 1948.

Genocide in Gaza?

• They backed this assertion by quoting some of the more incendiary statements by the far-right members of the Israeli government.
• On November 2023, Israel’s heritage minister, Amichai Eliyahu, claimed that there was no such thing as non-combatants in Gaza and that dropping a nuclear weapon there was an “option”.
• But South Africa’s application reported other controversial statements from those senior leaders as well.

Israel’s defence

• They maintained that the Israel Defense Forces campaign in Gaza was justified by the inalienable right of self-defence.
• Because of this, it was within the stringent parameters of international humanitarian law.
• Hamad said: “We must teach Israel a lesson, and we will do it twice and three times.

What the case means

• Palestinians have traditionally sought legitimacy and recognition by trying to embed their national aspirations and rights in the lexicon of international law.
• But that reversal alone might retain enough symbolic clout to infer a decisive blow to Israel’s international status.

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

• TORONTO, Nov. 27, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- After the referral of the Flight PS752 case to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the Islamic Regime of Iran has escalated its malicious actions against the families of the victims with threats, intimidation, assault, persecution, confiscation of travel documents, and summons before the nefarious revolutionary courts.
• This increased activity is related to the state of the case before the ICJ, the Association of Families of Flight PS752 Victims’ (the Association) tireless efforts to reveal the truth and find justice, along with the Association’s demands to formally put the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on the terrorist organizations list and to expel Islamic Regime operatives and officials from Canada.
• Put the full and complete roster of the IRGC on the list of terrorist organizations without further delay.
• Immediately expel all Islamic Regime operatives, officials, and their families operating within Canada.

• GENEVA, Dec. 13, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Today at the Global Refugee Forum , we reaffirm our commitment to alleviate human suffering and serve humanity.
• We welcome Japan as a G7 leader to the ECW family, and look forward to strengthened collaboration and support in the years to come.
• Ultimately, refugee inclusion is not only an opportunity to strengthen national education systems for refugees and host community children and adolescents.
• With our own individual pledge , we are coming in strongly behind the education mega-pledge issued during the Global Refugee Forum, articulating what we as ECW can and will do to help achieve our shared vision.