WPTL logo
WSBA World Peace through Law Section
August 2012

ROUGH DRAFT FOR YOUR COMMENTS!
August 28: Section Social!
Proletariat Pizza Door
The Section's next meeting is a Section Social!
Our planned August mini-CLE has been overtaken by events, so instead let's have an informal get-together during the dinner hour in White Center, south of West Seattle. Come chat, network, and share your business cards and dreams with members and prospective members of the World Peace Through Law Section. Families+Friends are Welcome!
When/Where:
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
6:00 to 7:30 p.m.
Proletariat Pizza
("Pizza We Can Believe In!")
9622 16th Avenue SW
White Center (unincorporated King County)
Cost:
Everyone pays for their own refreshments. This is a family-owned pizza shop, featuring (in your editor's opinion) the best thin crust pizza in Greater Seattle, plus salads, beer, and tiramisu. For ice cream fans, we recommended  Full Tilt Ice Cream across the street! Bring family and friends!
To register:
No pre-registration is necessary; however,
please email the editor so we can hold enough seats. When in doubt: show up and we'll squeeze you in - we hope to see you there!
Future Events:
We plant to resume our schedule of monthly mini-CLEs in September. If you'd like to organize a Section Social at your favorite gathering spot, talk it up! It would be great if the Section could meet where you are! 
Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Gets a Hearing
CRPD Stamp Commemorative Stamp for the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
On July 12, 2012, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee held a hearing on the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The Committee's press release reported:
"[E]xperts and interested parties from government and civil society expressed strong support for Senate ratification of the treaty.  The Convention is an international agreement for the protection of the rights of individuals with disabilities, which sets broad goals of autonomy, equality, acceptance, and accessibility for individuals with disabilities.
'Ratifying the Convention would strengthen our hand as we push for higher standards internationally-standards to which all of us should aspire,' said Committee Chairman John Kerry. Senators Tom Harkin and John McCain joined Sen. John Kerry in voicing support for the Convention, and Sen. Robert Dole submitted a written statement in favor of ratification (read by Sen. McCain)."

For more information on the hearing, see the press release.
For more information on the convention, see "Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities"
Howard Zinn: A People's History of American Empire
Reviewed by Randy Winn 
 
We all know the saying
"Those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it," variously attributed to Santayana and to Edmund Burke. Rarely do we reflect upon a few things that follow from this principle:
1. If history worked out well for you, you might want to keep on repeating it;
2. If you want to repeat parts of history that didn't work out so well for others, you might want to keep them from knowing it; and
3. If you're one of the "others" who don't know history, you won't know you're repeating it.  

After World War II, combat veteran-turned-historian Howard Zinn believe that the people of the United States have big chunks of history that we would not repeat, if only we knew them. He took on the task of writing A People's History of the United States to fill in the gaps. After more than 20 years in print, is still firmly among the top 1000 books purchased in America, according to Amazon.

In 2008, Zinn worked with artists to produce a graphic-based version of his history, entitled A People's History of American Empire. It's all still well-researched history, but in a grown-up cartoon format that is very accessible. If you are willing to entertain the notion that some parts of our adventures abroad have not been presented to you in full, and that the reaction of "natives" to our efforts to "help" them may be founded in something you don't know, then this work is for you. You'll be able to share it with your teenager, too!
--- REW 

Reflections from the International Criminal Court Prosecutor (Webinar)
Fatou Bensouda
Fatou Bensouda 
 
International Criminal Court Prosecutor
.
Fatou Bensouda, Prosecutor Elect of the International Criminal Court (ICC), is featured in a Case Western Reserve University School of Law webinar on August 29, 2012 at 4:30 p.m Eastern Time (1:30 Pacific). There is no charge to watch.
Bensouda has been a Deputy Prosecutor at the ICC since 2004, in charge of the Prosecution Division of the Office of the Prosecutor. Earlier, she worked as a Legal Adviser and Trial Attorney at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in Arusha, Tanzania, rising to Senior Legal Advisor and Head of the Legal Advisory Unit. Before joining the ICTR, she was the general manager of a leading commercial bank in The Gambia and was Chief Legal Adviser to the President and Cabinet of The Gambia, taking part in negotiations on the treaty of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the West African Parliament, and the ECOWAS Tribunal.
CLE Credit: This program is approved for one credit in Ohio; Washington State attorneys may  fill out a Form 1 to see if they can get credit in Washington. Either way, this promises to be an interesting and informative program!
Newsletters Online: You Can Help!
The WSBA is now making WPTL newsletters available online at the WPTL newsletter page.This will let you look up speakers and resources from the past, and show interested persons what the Section is about.
Will you help? We have the last couple of years' newsletters available in PDF format, and will get them posted over time. However, back issues (from about 2003 and before) are hard to come by.
If you have early issues of the WPTL newsletter (especially the quarterly that we used to publish) please consider lending them to us to be scanned and posted on the web. Contact the editor if you can help!

This is a publication of a section of the Washington State Bar Association. All opinions and comments represent the views of the authors and are not necessarily endorsed by WSBA, its officers or agents. 

In This Issue
August 28: Section Social!
Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
A People's History of American Empire
Reflections from the International Criminal Court
Newsletters Online: You Can Help

"To be a patriot,  

one had to say,  

and keep on saying,  

"Our country,  

right or wrong,"  

and urge on the little war.  

Have you not perceived that that phrase  

is an insult  

   to the nation?"  

-- Mark Twain

"Glances at History"

Section
Leadership

Chair
Patricia Paul

Chair-Elect
Randy Winn

Immediate Past Chair
Jana Heyd

Secretary-Treasurer
Paul Schlossman

Executive Committee
Lisa von Trotha
Mamie S. Brown

Newsletter
Randy Winn

Board of Governors Liaison  
Dan Ford


Contact Us!
http://www.wsba.org/Legal-Community/Sections/World-Peace-Through-Law-Section
- or -
WSBA Service Center
800-945-WSBA (9722)
206-443-WSBA (9722)
Images (c) Constant Contact, Wikimedia, WSBA. Used with permission.