My Midterm

I just drafted this for the class I'm TAing :)

You should spend about 15 minutes reading the following fact pattern and about 60 crafting your reply.

FACT PATTERN

The Democratic Republic of Golestan is a tiny island republic situated in the Arabian Sea between Oman and Pakistan. Golestan has roughly 120,000 inhabitants and covers an area of about 248 sq miles (this makes it about twenty times the size of Wasilla, Alaska, but just smaller, population-wise, than New Haven). Most of Golestan’s adult population engages in subsistence farming, although a significant portion of the country’s north coast is used for flower growing, which has proved extremely lucrative for Golestan and has allowed it to survive without significant foreign assistance. Golestan prides itself on being an economically independent flower economy, and sees its independence from its powerful South Asian and Gulf neighbors as tied to its status as the region’s leading flower exporter.

Golestan is party to the ICCPR, including the First Optional Protocol, the ICESCR, CAT, CEDAW, the CRC, and the Rome Statute of the ICC. In ratifying each of these treaties, the Golestan legislature issued the following declaration:

“The Government of the Democratic Republic of Golestan will comply with the provisions of the treaty, except those that the Government may consider contradictory to its ability to ensure the economic stability and autonomy of sovereign Golestan.”

On 1 September 2008, an unexpected tropical storm decimated the north coast of Golestan and all of the flower farms located there. On 2 September, Hamid Kasif, the president of Golestan, implored Golestan’s legislature to declare a state of emergency and activate the broad police powers of the executive. The legislature passed the Golestan Emergency Law (“GEL”), which declared that:

“In order to guarantee the economic stability and autonomy of sovereign Golestan in a crisis that threatens the survival of the Republic, all citizens of Golestan are immediately required to convert their crops into flower farms and join in collective flower growing. All persons who fail to comply with this law shall be executed or forced to work on government farms, and their property shall be seized.”

The month of September marked unparallel violence in Golestan, with soldiers from the Ministry of Agriculture engaging in neighborhood raids, either killing entire families on the spot if their land had not been converted to flower farms or forcing the strongest family members to work in chain gangs on government flower farms. Many of those slain or forced into labor camps hold dual nationality, including some with the United States and Belgium.

Last week, Columbia University invited President Kasif to be a guest speaker, and in introducing the President of Golestan, Columbia University President Lee Bollinger said that Kasif was “starting to exhibit all the signs of a petty and cruel dictator.” In response, Kasif made the following statement:

“The actions we have undertaken in Golestan are in conformity with the understanding our legislature has consistently expressed of our international treaty obligations, as modified by our Emergency Law. In addition, nothing we have done to protect the economic integrity of Golestan violates customary international law. The people of Golestan cannot enjoy their civil and political liberties in a state of poverty or enslavement to the World Bank and multinational corporations. The measures taken to ensure Golestan’s economic independence are well within the margins of acceptable state action to preserve public order, and are consistent with the strongly-held values of this great people.”

QUESTION

You are an associate researcher with a New York-based international NGO, Lawyers Heart Human Rights (“Heart”). You have been asked to draft a memo that Heart can use to brief reporters about Kasif’s claims concerning Golestan’s treaty obligations and customary international law, as well as the justifications he provided for the state’s repressive actions. Your memo should also present what you consider to be the best option for brining someone kind of claim against the state of Golestan or its leaders.