15 May 2015

SHARES News Items Overview: 16 April 2015-15 May 2015

This is our News Items Overview of 16 April 2015-15 May 2015, a summary of recent news relating to shared responsibility.

• Almost 900 Dutch citizens filed a claim against their government for a failure to effectively reduce greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate climate change. ‘There’s a shared responsibility for any country to do what is necessary in its own boundaries to mitigate GHG emissions’ according to their legal adviser.
• A working group of current and former judges, advocates and professors released the Oslo Principles on Global Climate Change Obligations. The Principles recognise that obligations of states are ‘common but differentiated’.
• Reportedly, the sale of American military hardware is on the rise in the Middle East. The proliferation of arms to the region has been met with questions about how judicious Washington’s allies are in using US weaponry.
• Ban Ki-moon called on the global community to unite and take action to address the root causes of the Mediterranean migrant crisis. He said to raise his ‘voice for collective responsibility and sharing of responsibility and burden in the name of humanity’.
• The Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation told the Polish ambassador to the US that he regretted remarks made earlier which suggested Polish complicity in the Holocaust.
• The German intelligence agency reportedly let the US National Security Agency spy on French and European Commission officials from the Bad Aibling spying station in Bavaria.
• Germany decided to limit its cooperation in the long-standing information sharing partnership with the United States after revelations of the US spying on European partners.
• The European Commission proposed a EU-wide immigration policy, seeking to impose a quota system on the member states requiring them to share the burden of ‘persons in clear need of international protection’ and ‘ensure a fair and balanced participation of all member states to this common effort’.
• The Mediterranean migrant crisis calls for collective action focused on the immediate need to save lives, the UN Special Representative for International Migration said.