A Cry from the Grave by Leslie Woodhead Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

A Cry from the Grave by Leslie Woodhead - Essay Example This mass killing is indeed a very horrible and a very traumatic occurrence in Bosnia. The experience of Bosnian Muslims during the period of war is of course a tragic one. Nobody except the Bosnian community could understand what it was like to be there in a place where it had seemed that death was the only thing that could happen to them at the end of the day. Nonetheless, the documentary â€Å"A Cry from the Grave† which has captured the dread and terror of the hour by hour story of the July 1995 Srebrenica genocide during the Bosnian war conveys a message that even if the war is over, it is not enough because there were more than 80,000 Bosnian Muslim who were still crying for justice from their graves. The images from video clippings of the camcorder and from the photographs of the Bosnian war, without a doubt, served a function of being the strongest element in the documentary itself to express that disastrous incident. Images of people seeking for refuge, images of peop le trying to escape their danger from the Serbian forces, images of people wounded, and the images of people killed have captured and covered not only the Bosnian genocide but can also elicit sentiments of sorrow, grief and fear from the testimonies of the survivors of the said war. The Bosnian war had all begun when the Bosnian Serbs attacked the lands where the Bosnian Muslims were residing. They attacked such zones in order to secure the Serb’s territory. This was followed by â€Å"ethnic cleansing†. The Serbian forces systematically eliminated the Muslim population within their territory. They separated the men from the women and children. Some of them were forced to escape the zones which the Serbs had considered to own. Nonetheless, this also resulted to thousands of deaths among the Bosnian Muslims. In addition to that, the series of constant attacks made by the Serbian army had likewise resulted to thousands of killings. Meanwhile, the United Nation declared th at Srebrenica was a safe area in 1993. Nonetheless, two years later, this â€Å"safe area† had started to deteriorate in 1995 and marked the beginning of the traumatic genocide. The documentary showed how those protecting the Bosnian Muslims had started to withdraw their support in Srebrenica. Basic resources including food and medicine, as well as the fuel and ammunition, had started to lowered. Bosniak civilians suffered from famishment. A few also had been killed because of starvation. The humanitarian situation of Bosnian Muslims turned to be the worst. It is the case that even the United Nation forces in the Srebrenica had been affected from such withdrawal of support. The United Nation forces were no longer patrolling using their means of transport but were just on foot as they guarded the enclaves. Likewise, from 600 Dutch soldiers, it had dropped to only 400. Moreover, the Serbian forces were now within their territory. Their forces had become stronger and stronger an d were out of control. On the one hand, the forces governing the safety of the Bosnian Muslim civilians had also lowered. Support from the air forces was also rejected. They were made to hope about the support which never had come. The situation had become worse and worse every single day for the lives of the Bosnian Muslims who all had their lives and nothing else. The situation was far from achieving a peaceful Srebrenica. What happened was an environment of total insecurity. There was no hope for the lives of the Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica asking for refuge. The documentary had illustrated the thousands of refugees from Srebrenica gathered around in the compound of United

Critically analyse the concept of ' fair and equitable treatment ' in Essay

Critically analyse the concept of ' fair and equitable treatment ' in investment treaties, taking into account recent investment - Essay Example In the context of international investment, inter-state negotiation, inter-governmental treaty drafting, diplomatic exchange, etc. have become frequent and critical. Naturally, the number of disputes between investors and host countries is increasing as well. Hence, the issue of fair and equitable treatment in international investment dealing is gaining momentum very rapidly. There is a need to urge the different countries of the world to avoid activities like confiscation, expropriation, discrimination, etc. in regards of the foreign investors and the objective can be achieved if and only if the basic principles of mutual respect are legally defined and incorporated in the treaty frameworks. This paper is developed through a literature review followed by an analysis phase which will critically evaluate the importance of fair and equitable treatment in relation to the recent trends of investment treaties and the different related arbitration cases. Arbitration case examples have been appended after the analysis, followed by a viable conclusion. The paper also aims to comprehend the present trends in the light of the older developments which have shaped up today’s international investment scenario. ... ovide and ensure â€Å"fair and equitable treatment† is generally put forward, along with certain other standards, as component of protection for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) by the host countries. It is a non-contingent and absolute treatment standard which states that the treatment would be executed in such terms whose exact meanings are well defined, by the means of references to certain situations of application. The â€Å"relative† standards specified in â€Å"national treatment† are not of primary importance in this regard. The standards to determine fair and equitable treatment were developed through multilateral investment and trade instruments, and with the increasing numbers of Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs), these standards became more critical and debated. â€Å"The obligation of the parties to investment agreements to provide to each other’s investments fair and equitable treatment has been given various interpretations by government al officials, arbitrators and scholars.†1 Thus the backdrop of analysis of the concept of â€Å"fair and equitable treatment† must be based on the literature that describes the trends of international investment law. â€Å"International investment law is one of the fastest-growing areas of international law today. Only a decade ago, the current surge in investor–state arbitrations, having cumulated in approximately 300 investment treaty disputes,  1  was beyond imagination. At the same time, investment treaties enshrine principles of international investment law, rather than hard and fast rules. Almost unavoidably, international investment law therefore became coined more by the dispute settlement activities of arbitral tribunals which entertain claims between foreign investors and host states brought under investment