Anne Bayefsky

Last updated

Anne Bayefsky, born 8 November 1953, is a lawyer, scholar and activist who currently directs the Touro College Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust. She is a Fox News opinion writer, [1] and an author and editor on several websites.

Contents

Career

Bayefsky holds a B.A., M.A. and LL.B. from the University of Toronto and an M.Litt. from Oxford University. She has served as the director of York's Centre for Refugee Studies, [2] project director for the university's Human Rights Treaty Study, member of Canadian delegations to international meetings, such as the UN Human Rights Commissions in 1993–1996, the UN General Assembly in 1984 and 1989, the Vienna World Conference on Human Rights in 1993, and a delegate of the American Society of International Law to the Beijing Fourth World Conference on Women in 1995. [3] She has previously been a Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute, an American conservative think tank. [4]

Currently, she is director of the Touro College Institute on Human Rights, [1] the senior editor and a board member for the 'Human Rights Voices' online news platform, [5] and an author at 'Eye on the UN', which is run by the Hudson Institute and the Touro College Institute for Human Rights. [6] She also sits on the Board of Advisors of the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, a non-profit thinktank focusing on issues of United States and Israel's national security. [7] Her legal expertise is in international, human rights, women's rights, and United Nations law, and covers four decades, beginning at the University of Ottawa in 1981. [8]

In 2018, the pro-Israel non-profit Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA) compensated Bayefsky $280,000.00 for consultant work, according to a public federal filing. [9]

Views

Bayefsky has argued that Ontario's policy of fully funding Roman Catholic schools, while denying full funding to other religious schools, is discriminatory. [10]

Bayefsky speaks out in defense of Israel. She was critical of "the Obama administration's response to Israel's announcement that it will continue to build new homes for its expanding population in disputed territory," calling it "hysterical," and asked, "Given that the United States is supposed to be committed to the parties determining ultimate legal ownership of the land in final status negotiations, what is going on?" [11]

Awards

Publications

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Israeli settlement</span> Israeli communities built on land occupied in the 1967 Six-Day War

Israeli settlements or colonies are civilian communities where Israeli citizens live, almost exclusively of Jewish identity or ethnicity, built on lands occupied by Israel since the Six-Day War in 1967. The international community considers Israeli settlements to be illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this.

Nationality is the status of belonging to a particular nation, defined as a group of people organized in one country, under one legal jurisdiction, or as a group of people who are united on the basis of culture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Palestinian territories</span> Occupied Palestinian territory in the Middle East

The Palestinian territories are the two regions of the former British Mandate for Palestine that have been occupied by Israel since the Six-Day War of 1967, namely the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has referred to the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, as "the Occupied Palestinian Territory", and this term was used as the legal definition by the ICJ in its advisory opinion of July 2004. The term occupied Palestinian territory was used by the United Nations and other international organizations between October 1999 and December 2012 to refer to areas controlled by the Palestinian National Authority, but from 2012, when Palestine was admitted as one of its non-member observer states, the United Nations started using exclusively the name State of Palestine. The European Union (EU) also uses the term "occupied Palestinian territory". The government of Israel and its supporters use the label "disputed territories" instead.

Issues relating to the State of Israel and aspects of the Arab–Israeli conflict and more recently the Iran–Israel conflict occupy repeated annual debate times, resolutions and resources at the United Nations. Since its founding in 1948, the United Nations Security Council, has adopted 79 resolutions directly related to the Arab–Israeli conflict as of January 2010.

The International law bearing on issues of Arab–Israeli conflict, which became a major arena of regional and international tension since the birth of Israel in 1948, resulting in several disputes between a number of Arab countries and Israel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rosalyn Higgins, Lady Higgins</span> Former British president of the International Court of Justice

Rosalyn C. Higgins, Baroness Higgins, is a British former president of the International Court of Justice (ICJ). She was the first female judge elected to the ICJ, and was elected to a three-year term as its president in 2006.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Israeli-occupied territories</span> Territories presently occupied by Israel since the 1967 Six-Day War

Israel has occupied the Palestinian territories and the Golan Heights since the Six-Day War of 1967. It previously occupied the Sinai Peninsula and southern Lebanon as well. Prior to Israel's victory in the Six-Day War, occupation of the Palestinian territories was split between Egypt and Jordan, with the former having occupied the Gaza Strip and the latter having annexed the West Bank; the Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights were under the sovereignty of Egypt and Syria, respectively. The first conjoined usage of the terms "occupied" and "territories" with regard to Israel was in United Nations Security Council Resolution 242, which was drafted in the aftermath of the Six-Day War and called for: "the establishment of a just and lasting peace in the Middle East" to be achieved by "the application of both the following principles: ... Withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict ... Termination of all claims or states of belligerency and respect for and acknowledgment of the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of every State in the area and their right to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force."

The status of territories captured by Israel is the status of the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, the Golan Heights, and the Sinai Peninsula, all of which were captured by Israel during the 1967 Six-Day War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Israel and apartheid</span> Assertion that Israels actions amount to the crime of apartheid

Israel's policies and actions in its ongoing occupation of the Palestinian territories have drawn accusations that it is committing the crime of apartheid. Leading Palestinian, Israeli and international human rights groups have said that the totality and severity of the human rights violations against the Palestinian population in the occupied territories, and by some in Israel proper, amount to the crime against humanity of apartheid. Israel and some of its Western allies have rejected the accusation, with the former often labeling the charge antisemitic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Navi Pillay</span> South African lawyer, judge and human rights activist

Navanethem "Navi" Pillay is a South African jurist who served as the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights from 2008 to 2014. A South African of Indian Tamil origin, Pillay was the first non-white woman judge of the High Court of South Africa. She has also served as a judge of the International Criminal Court and President of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. Her four-year term as High Commissioner for Human Rights began on 1 September 2008 and was extended an additional two years in 2012. In September 2014 Prince Zeid bin Ra'ad succeeded her in her position as High Commissioner for Human Rights. In April 2015, Pillay became the 16th Commissioner of the International Commission Against the Death Penalty. She is also one of the 25 leading figures on the Information and Democracy Commission launched by Reporters Without Borders.

International human rights organizations, along with the United Nations, and the United States Department of State, have reported human rights violations committed by the State of Israel, particularly against minority groups. These reports include violations of the rights of Palestinians, both inside and outside Israel as well as other groups in Israel.

The Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law 5763 is an Israeli law first passed on 31 July 2003. The law makes inhabitants of the West Bank and Gaza Strip ineligible for the automatic granting of Israeli citizenship and residency permits that are usually available through marriage to an Israeli citizen. It expired on 6 July 2021, but was reauthorized on 10 March 2022.

Issues relating to the State of Palestine and aspects of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict occupy continuous debates, resolutions, and resources at the United Nations. Since its founding in 1948, the United Nations Security Council, as of January 2010, has adopted 79 resolutions directly related to the Arab–Israeli conflict.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard A. Falk</span> American legal scholar and former UN expert

Richard Anderson Falk is an American professor emeritus of international law at Princeton University, and Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor's Chairman of the Board of Trustees. In 2004, he was listed as the author or coauthor of 20 books and the editor or coeditor of another 20 volumes. Falk has published extensively with multiple books written about international law and the United Nations.

The United Nations has been criticized for a variety of reasons, including its policies, ideology, equality of representation, administration, ability to enforce rulings, and ideological bias.

The international community considers the establishment of Israeli settlements in the Israeli-occupied territories illegal on one of two bases: that they are in violation of Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, or that they are in breach of international declarations. The United Nations Security Council, the United Nations General Assembly, the International Committee of the Red Cross, the International Court of Justice and the High Contracting Parties to the Convention have all affirmed that the Fourth Geneva Convention applies to the Israeli-occupied territories.

Durban III is an informal name for a high-level United Nations General Assembly meeting marking the 10th anniversary of the adoption of The Durban Declaration and Programme of Action that was held in New York City on 22 September 2011. It was mandated by United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) resolution 64/148 of 18 December 2009 to commemorate the World Conference against Racism 2001, and given additional form and visibility by a UNGA Third Committee draft resolution adopted on 24 November 2010. It followed the Durban Review Conference, the official name of the 2009 United Nations World Conference Against Racism (WCAR), also known as Durban II.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination</span> 1969 United Nations human rights instrument

The International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) is a United Nations convention. A third-generation human rights instrument, the Convention commits its members to the elimination of racial discrimination and the promotion of understanding among all races. The Convention also requires its parties to criminalize hate speech and criminalize membership in racist organizations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ruth Halperin-Kaddari</span> Israeli legal scholar and international womens rights advocate

Ruth Halperin-Kaddari is an Israeli legal scholar and international women's rights advocate who is known for her work on family law, feminist legal theory, women's rights in international law, and women and religion. She was a member of the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women from 2006 to 2018, and was the committee's vice chair during several terms. She is Professor of Law at the Bar-Ilan University and is the founding Academic Director of the Ruth and Emanuel Rackman Center for the Advancement of the Status of Women. She is also involved in international academic collaborations on the theme of women, state, and religion, and participates in international litigations as an expert on Israeli family law.

Allegations have been made that the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel constituted a genocide against Israelis. In the course of the assault, Palestinian militants attacked communities, a music festival, and military bases in the region of southern Israel known as the Gaza envelope. The attack, which has been described as a rampage of atrocities, resulted in the deaths of 1,139 people, two thirds of whom were civilians. Human Rights Watch criticised Hamas and their allies Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) specifically for the War Crime of taking civilian hostages. Thirteen IDF soldiers and 230 other men, women and children of all ages were kidnapped and taken as hostages to the Gaza Strip. A clear violation of international law. Previously Human Rights Watch criticised PIJ for alleged torture and "vigilante" arrests, and demanded that Hamad arrest PIJ.

References

  1. 1 2 "Anne Bayefsky". Fox News. 2021-06-06. Retrieved 2021-06-06.
  2. ↑ "Centre for Refugee Studies". Yorku.ca. Retrieved 2012-07-18.
  3. ↑ "Fourth World Conference on Women, Beijing 1995". Un.org. Retrieved 2012-07-18.
  4. ↑ Anne Bayefsky Archived 2006-02-19 at the Wayback Machine , Hudson Institute
  5. ↑ "About Human Rights Voices - Who We Are - Who We Are". humanrightsvoices.org.
  6. ↑ "eyeontheun.org". eyeontheun.org. Archived from the original on 2012-07-03. Retrieved 2012-07-18.
  7. ↑ Prof. Anne Bayefsky, Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs
  8. ↑ Henkin, Louis; An-Na'im, Abdullahi; Schneider, Mark L. (1994). "[Introduction]". Proceedings of the Annual Meeting (American Society of International Law). 88: 419–428. doi:10.1017/S0272503700082756. JSTOR   25658852. S2CID   246003101 – via JSTOR.
  9. ↑ ProPublica, Mike Tigas, Sisi Wei, Ken Schwencke, Brandon Roberts, Alec Glassford (9 May 2013). "COMMITTEE FOR ACCURACY IN MIDDLE EAST REPORTING IN AMERICA INC - Form Form 990 for period ending Dec 2018 - Nonprofit Explorer". ProPublica. Retrieved 2020-12-26.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  10. ↑ "UN says funding of Catholic schools discriminatory". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. cbc.ca. 1999-11-05. Retrieved 2018-07-09.
  11. ↑ "Obama's dangerous overreaction on Israel NYDailyNews.com, Monday, March 15th 2010". Nydailynews.com. Retrieved 2012-07-18.
  12. ↑ Archived November 17, 2004, at the Wayback Machine
  13. ↑ The UN and the Jews by Anne Bayefsky, Commentary Magazine, February 1, 2004.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.