Gaza: UN Releases Report on War "No Judgement"

UN Releases Reports on Gaza War: On Wednesday, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon released a report reviewing Israeli and Palestinian investigations into alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity during Israel's Operation Cast Lead of 2008/9.

Last November, the UN General Assembly gave Israelis and Palestinians three months to undertake "independent, credible investigations", later extending the deadline by an extra five months. With his report, Ban is sending both investigations to a committee of independent experts established by the UN Human Rights Council in March 2010.

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Israelis criticised the UN's recent report for not including any input from Hamas, while the Palestinian Authority's statement criticized both Hamas and Israel. It said:

The numbers and the facts speak for themselves" and accused Israel of acting with impunity, disregarding international law, and justifying "its indiscriminate, disproportionate and collective punishment measures against the Palestinian people, as if no limitations applied to Israel.

Since Hamas took over Gaza legal institutions are being undermined and this has resulted in a high number of violations of international human rights law, negatively impacting the situation of human rights in Gaza.

Here are Ban's "Observations" in the 247-page UN report:

At the beginning of 2009, I visited both Gaza and southern Israel in order to help end the fighting and to show my respect and my concern at the death and injury of so many people during the conflict in and around Gaza. In March 2010, I again visited Gaza and Israel. I was, and remain, deeply affected by the widespread death, destruction and suffering in the Gaza Strip, as well as moved by the plight of civilians in southern Israel who have been subject to indiscriminate rocket and mortar fire.

I reiterate that international human rights and humanitarian law need to be fully respected in all situations and circumstances. Accordingly, on several occasions, I have called upon all of the parties to carry out credible, independent domestic investigations into the conduct and consequences of the Gaza conflict. I hope that such steps will be taken wherever there are credible allegations of violations of international human rights and humanitarian law.

It is my sincere hope that General Assembly resolution 64/254 has served to encourage investigations by the Government of Israel and the Palestinian side that are independent, credible and in conformity with international standards.

I recall that on 25 March 2010 the Human Rights Council adopted resolution 13/9, in which it decided, in the context of the follow-up to the report of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission, to establish a committee of independent experts in international humanitarian and human rights laws to monitor and assess any domestic, legal or other proceedings undertaken by both the Government of Israel and the Palestinian side, in the light of General Assembly resolution 64/254, including the independence, effectiveness and genuineness of those investigations and their conformity with international standards. Also, in resolution 13/9, the Human Rights Council requested me to transmit all the information submitted by the Government of Israel and the Palestinian side pursuant to paragraphs 2 and 3 of General Assembly resolution 64/254 to the committee of independent experts. I am accordingly sending today a letter to the High Commissioner for Human Rights requesting her to transmit the documents received from the State of Israel and the Permanent Observer Mission of Palestine to the United Nations to the committee of independent experts.

Human Rights Watch director Iain Levine harshly criticised Ban:

Israeli investigations still fall far short of being thorough and impartial, while Hamas appears to have done nothing at all to investigate alleged violations. We regret that the secretary-general merely passed on the reports he received from Israel and the Palestinian side instead of making the failings of these investigations clear.

MENA House: Egypt wins the Robocup (Robot Soccer World Cup) 2010

The German university of Cairo Pharoahs (GUC) came first place beating robOTTO (University of Magdeberg, Germany) in the final and winning the World Cup in Robotics and Artificial Intelligence known as RoboCup within the Festo Logistics League. This year RoboCup 2010 took place in Singapore from 19th -25th June 2010.

The GUC team was the only team participating from Africa, the Arab World and the Middle East. It is their first year to participate in the Robot games since its introduction to the international scene in 1997.  Participants ranged from Germany, Switzerland, Hungary, Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore and Egypt among others.  A total of 500 teams entered the competition from 40 different countries.   

The Robocup is similar to the world cup, but with robots.  The Robocup is an international competition which was founded in 1997 (with a pre-trila robotcup held in Japan in 1996 for domestic teams).  The competition and conference is designed for participants to test advanced robotics and Artificial Intelligence on a playing field.  Most participants are Undergrads, postgraduates and PhD holders who focus their research on this particular field.  

The Robocup objective is:

To creat a team of full autonomous humanoid robot football players who can play and beat the winners of the most recent (human) world cup, complying with official FIFA rules, by the year 2050.

Members of the GUC team consisted a variety of Undergrads, Postgrads and PhDs.  In fact, the Egyptian representatives were the only team to encoorporate undergraduates into their team.  A risky, but successful move paid off.  Team GUC Pharoahs consisted of: Ahmed Hani, Yomna Gamal, Mustapha Abdullah, Summer Kassem, Hesham Raouf and Nehal Hassan. The team was supervised by Prof. Dr. Hani Hagras, Dr. Rabie Ramadan, Dr. Hisham Elsherif and Engineer Mosutafa Nawito.

The GUC team played two group stages before going on to play in the Semi finals and then the finals of the Robocup.  Teams in their group included: The University of Bern, Switzerland and two teams from Singapore polytechnic and Nanyang Technology University, Singapore. In the second group stages, the GUC team went on to play against their group in the 2nd round which included The University of Magdeburg (Germany) and KAIST (South Korea). The GUC team then went on to beat Hungary in the Semi Final before beating the University of Magdeburg (Germany) in the final to be crowned as World Champions in Robocup 2010.

While it may seem iroic that the German University of Cairo beat representatives from of Germany, The University of Magdeberg, we look forward to the day when Egypt can once again, qualify to play in the (human) world cup and maybe, potentially, win. 

Congratulations to the GUC Pharaohs!