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born 1947 United States
Alfred Maurice de Zayas (born May 31, 1947, Havana, Cuba) is an American lawyer, writer, historian, an expert in the field of human rights and international law, a peace activist, President of PEN International Centre Suisse romand (2006-09 and 2013-17), United Nations Independent Expert on the Promotion of a Democratic and Equitable International Order (also known as Special Rapporteur 2012-2018), appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council. Professor of International Law.
United States Academics Activists Historians Lawyers Also known as: Alfred Maurice de Zayas, Alfred de Zayas
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In the light of continued warmongering by some States, it is apparent that resolutions of the General Assembly, including its resolution 68/28, have not succeeded in reducing tensions.
Direct, participatory and responsive democracy has been shown to be conducive to achieving a more just world order. Only such an approach will allow progressing from predator societies to human rights oriented societies.
We don’t want a dystopian future in which corporations and not democratically elected governments call the shots. We don’t want an international order akin to post-democracy or post-law.
Most States have enshrined in their Constitution and legislation the concept of ordre public
Surely the Council did not intend to convene an assembly of Cassandras when it established the Special Procedures.
The issue of corporate criminal responsibility for ecocide and other offences deserves in-depth analysis in a future report
Since a democratic and equitable international order requires peace, States must engage in good faith negotiations for disarmament and significantly reduce military expenditure and the arms trade.
Representative democracy betrays the electorate when laws have no roots in the people but in oligarchies. Studies on the concept and modalities of direct democracy are therefore becoming more topical
Its effects will be even broader than the establishment 45 years ago of Latin America and the Caribbean as a nuclear-free zone by the Treaty of Tlatelolco.
Norms cannot be applied à la carte.
The path to a democratic and equitable order is through the expansion of public courts, not the creation of private courts with questionable transparency, accountability or independence.
The ideal of direct democracy, including the power of legislative initiative of citizens and control of issues through genuine consultation and referenda has been partially achieved only in few countries.
One of the problems that we have in the human rights community is that special interests often forget the interests of other victims, and there’s competition among victims expressions that are unnecessary.
In a democracy, it is the people who are sovereign. Therefore, with regard to the promotion of democracy at the local, country and regional levels, civil society must have a stronger voice in all political processes.
A just, peaceful, equitable and democratic world order must not be undermined by the activities of investors, speculators and transnational enterprises avid for immediate profit at the expense of social and economic progress.
It is the responsibility of all of us to remind governments of their commitments to settle disputes by peaceful means and to negotiate in good faith under the UN Charter, and to denounce war agitation particularly by the media.
Democracy is not exercised only once in a while, but entails a continuing dialogue between representatives and constituents
Unilateralism is one of the most serious obstacles to achieving a just world order.
In a world of fake news, fake history, fake law, fake diplomacy, it is no surprise to encounter fake democracy along the way.
The rules of the game must be changed so that loans are not granted on purely economic considerations and that the loan “conditionalities” henceforth aim at advancing the wellbeing of the populations concerned.
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