The professor at the University of Valencia, José Elías Esteve Moltó has been elected judge of the Permanent People’s Tribunal – better known as Russell Tribunal – for the session that will be held between the 7 and 10 December in Bremen (Germany), and that will determine whether genocide is being committed against the Tamil people in Sri Lanka.
In an official note, the Permanent People’s Tribunal highlights José Elías Esteve’s career as international lawyer and legal expert on Tibet, as well as his status as main lawyer who investigated and wrote two lawsuits for international crimes by Chinese leaders in Tibet and a recent one for crimes in Burma. Professor of International Law at the University of Valencia, researcher and secretary of the Institute of Human Rights at the University of Valencia, José Elías Esteve will be the only Spanish lawyer that will be part of the court.
The Russell Tribunal was founded by the philosopher and mathematician Bertrand Russell with the participation of writers like Jean-Paul Sartre, James Baldwin and Julio Cortázar as a result of the Vietnam War. In a session held in Dublin (Ireland) 2010, the Tribunal ruled that, during the last months of the war in Sri Lanka, war crimes and crimes against humanity towards Tamil people were perpetrated. It also stated that the pressure from United Kingdom and the United States governments contributed to the breakdown of the peace process in 2002 between Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and the Sri Lanka government, which precipitated the war. Despite the accusations against the Special Group, in that moment the procedure did not contain the prosecution for genocide, but due to the character of the evidences they have, the panel of judges determines that further investigation may be necessary in relation to the issue of genocide.
About the IDH
Founded in 2005, and currently managed by Professor Consuelo Ramón, the Institute of Human Rights of the University of Valencia (IDH) has been received the Excellence Award by the Ministry of Education for its PhD programme Derechos Humanos, Democracia y Justicia Internacional (Human Rights, Democracy and International Justice). The IDH received in 2008 and aid within the programme Consolider-Ingenio 2010. The Institute is part of a project in which twelve research groups from different Spanish universities participate, while coordinated by the Instituto de Derechos Humanos Bartolomé de las Casas (Bartolomé de las Casas Institute of Human Rights) at the Carlos III University of Madrid. The selected project is called ‘El tiempo de los derechos’ (‘The age of rights’) and its main researcher has been Professor Gregorio Peces-Barba. Consolider-Ingenio 2010 is the main funding way of the National Plan for Scientific Research, Development and Technological Innovation 2008-2011 for high quality projects. It was the first time that a team of researchers from the legal field obtained such aid, mainly addressed to scientific contexts, away from Humanities and Social Sciences.
Last update: 5 de december de 2013 12:06.
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