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United Nations International Year of Youth

An interview with JUAN PABLO ESCOBAR

(now Juan Sebastian Marroquín Santos)

I was born into a world fertile for violence. With this as my legacy, my only choice is to search for peace.

When deciding to expose your identity you probably evaluated the risks involved, but most likely your courage was driven by an objective which prevailed over the fear. Why did you decide to once again become the son of Pablo Escobar for the rest of the world?

It seemed selfish to me, just keeping to myself a solitary pacifist legacy of this violent story. I wanted to share with young people what I have learned about the serious consequences of participating in the cruel game of drug dealing. I am just doing what I believe is right. If I can prevent even a single young person from entering that world, then it will be worth it.

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Climate Change and Access to Justice

Written by Adriaan Grijns

This article provides an introduction to the importance of climate change as a humanitarian and development issue, and an overview of current responses to climate change. It goes on to identify the potential of “access to justice” in addressing the perceived gap in these responses. It finds in particular that empowering the poor and disadvantaged in developing countries to adapt to climate change effects can help in delivering “climate justice.”

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NO TIME to Put Climate Science on Ice

Written by Achim Steiner

Nairobi, 5 February 2010 - The science of climate change has been on the defensive in recent weeks, owing to an error that dramatically overstated the rate at which the Himalayan glaciers could disappear. Some in the media, and those who are skeptical about climate change, are currently having a field day, parsing every comma and cough in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) 2007 assessment. Some strident voices are even dismissing climate change as a hoax on a par with the Y2K computer bug. As a result, the public has become increasingly bewildered as the unremitting questioning of the IPCC and its chair assumes almost witch-hunting proportions in some quarters.

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Crime and Policing in Virtual Worlds

Written by Marc Goodman

The rapidly changing nature of information and communications technologies suggests that as soon as new hardware, software or other applications are introduced, they will be exploited in some form or fashion by international criminal organisations. The speed at which criminals can exploit these technologies is truly remarkable. Unfortunately, law enforcement and the criminal justice system, bound by limited budgets, finite training, and traditional legal regimes are much slower in their abilities to respond.

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Interview with a Hacker

Written by Raoul Chiesa

Chronicles of a Black Hat

How you would define yourself with respect to the hacking activities you are conducting?
I’m a Black Hat. This means that hacking is my job and gives me salary. I run black-ops for those hiring me. I’m quite expensive.

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Reporting in Times of War

Written by Francesca Caferri

Once upon a time there was journalism. Many have recited the de profundis for the reporting profession over the last few years. Because of the economic crisis, which has been stifling newspapers for the last two years.

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Dirty Collar Crime in Naples

Written by Vincenzo Ruggiero

It is true that “green criminology” should be grounded in the principles of environmental justice and help with the production of relevant legislative tools for the defence of the earth. However, there are conducts which violate even the limited and inconsistent existing norms. A variety of such conducts can be detected in the “rubbish crisis” experienced in Naples two years ago.

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UN Engagement on the Rule of Law

Helping States Substitute Right for Might

Promoting the rule of law at national and international level is at the very heart of the global mission of the United Nations. The rule of law is fundamental to achieving a durable peace in the aftermath of conflict, to the protection of human rights, and to economic progress and development. The basic concept that drives our work is the principle that everyone – from the ordinary citizen to the State and its leaders – is accountable to laws that are publicly promulgated, equally enforced and independently adjudicated, and which are consistent with international human rights norms and standards. As a lawyer and a former professor of law, I retain a deep personal interest in this area of UN engagement.

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