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The closing statements in the case The Prosecutor v. Dominic Ongwen were scheduled for 10-12 March 2020 before Trial Chamber IX of the International Criminal Court ("ICC" or "Court") in The Hague, The Netherlands. The Prosecution, the Legal Representatives of Victims and the Defence will present their final arguments. Trial Chamber IX is composed of Judge Bertram Schmitt, Presiding judge, Judge Péter Kovács and Judge Raul Cano Pangalangan.
PP22 - Policy Statements
H.E. Ms Paula Ingabire
Minister
Ministry of ICT and Innovation
Bucharest, Romania
26 September 2022
©ITU/D.Woldu
PP22 - Policy Statements
Mr Carlos Manuel Baigorri
President
National Telecommunications Agency (Anatel)
Bucharest, Romania
27 September 2022
©ITU/Rowan Farrell
PP22 - Policy Statements
H.E. Mr Darsanand Balgobin
Minister of Information Technology, Communication and Innovation
Ministry of Information Technology, Communication and Innovation
Bucharest, Romania
27 September 2022
©ITU/Rowan Farrell
PP22 - Policy Statements
H.E. Mr Claudio Araya
Undersecretary of Telecommunications
Undersecretariat of Telecommunications
Bucharest, Romania
27 September 2022
©ITU/Rowan Farrell
PP22 - Policy Statements
H.E. Ms Khumbudzo Ntshavheni
Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies
Ministry of Communications and Digital Technologies
Bucharest, Romania
27 September 2022
©ITU/Rowan Farrell
PP22 - Policy Statements
H.E. Mr Timothy Masiu
Minister of Communication and Information Technology
National Information & Communications Technology Authority (NICTA)
Bucharest, Romania
27 September 2022
©ITU/Rowan Farrell
PP-22 - Policy Statements
Senator Karen Grogan
Chair, Senate Communications and Environment Committee
Bucharest, Romania
30th September 2022
©ITU/Rowan Farrell
PP-22 - Policy Statements
H.E. Mr Gospel KAZAKO
Minister
Ministry of Information and Digitalization
Bucharest, Romania
30th September 2022
©ITU/Rowan Farrell
IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano delivers his introductory statement at the 1383rd Board of Governors Meeting. IAEA Headquarters, Vienna, Austria, 15 September 2014.
Photo Credit: Dean Calma / IAEA
PP22 - Policy Statements
H.E. Mr Nizar Ben Néji
Minister
Ministry of Information and Communication Technologies
Bucharest, Romania
27 September 2022
©ITU/Rowan Farrell
PP22 - Policy Statements
H.E. Mr Claudio Araya
Undersecretary of Telecommunications
Undersecretariat of Telecommunications
Bucharest, Romania
27 September 2022
©ITU/Rowan Farrell
PP22 - Policy Statements
H.E. Ms Bolor-Erdene Battsengel
Deputy Minister of Digital Development and Communications
Ministry of Digital Development and Communications
Bucharest, Romania
27 September 2022
©ITU/Rowan Farrell
PP-22 - Policy Statements
Ms Naama Henig
Head of International Affairs Department
Ministry of Communications
Bucharest, Romania
28th September 2022
©ITU/Rowan Farrell
PP22 - Policy Statements
H.E. Dr Mr Chris Baryomunsi
Minister of ICT and National Guidance
Uganda Communications Commission
Bucharest, Romania
27 September 2022
©ITU/Rowan Farrell
PP-22 - Policy Statements
Mr Dan Sjöblom
Director-General
Swedish Post and Telecom Authority
Bucharest, Romania
28th September 2022
©ITU/Rowan Farrell
PP-22 - Policy Statements
H.E. Mr Michel Chebat
Minister
Ministry of Public Utilities, Energy, Logistics & E-Governance
Bucharest, Romania
30th September 2022
©ITU/Rowan Farrell
PP-22 - Policy Statements
H.E. Mr Michel Chebat
Minister
Ministry of Public Utilities, Energy, Logistics & E-Governance
Bucharest, Romania
30th September 2022
©ITU/Rowan Farrell
Ramzi Jammal, Executive Vice-President and Chief Regulatory Operations Officer Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, and President of the Conference, delivers his statement at the opening session of the International Conference on Global Emergency Preparedness and Response. IAEA Vienna, Austria, 19 October 2015.
Photo Credit: Dean Calma / IAEA
PP-22 - Policy Statements
Mr Dan Sjöblom
Director-General
Swedish Post and Telecom Authority
Bucharest, Romania
28th September 2022
©ITU/Rowan Farrell
PP22 - Policy Statements
H.E. Ms Paula Ingabire
Minister
Ministry of ICT and Innovation
Bucharest, Romania
26 September 2022
©ITU/D.Woldu
PP22 - Policy Statements
H.E. Ms Bolor-Erdene Battsengel
Deputy Minister of Digital Development and Communications
Ministry of Digital Development and Communications
Bucharest, Romania
27 September 2022
©ITU/Rowan Farrell
PP-22 - Policy Statements
Mr Konris Maynard
Minister of Information and Communication Technologies
Bucharest, Romania
30th September 2022
©ITU/Rowan Farrell
PP22 - Policy Statements
H.E. Mr Nizar Ben Néji
Minister
Ministry of Information and Communication Technologies
Bucharest, Romania
27 September 2022
©ITU/Rowan Farrell
PP-22 - Policy Statements
Mr Konris Maynard
Minister of Information and Communication Technologies
Bucharest, Romania
30th September 2022
©ITU/Rowan Farrell
Net Zero Needs Nuclear Power, Shared Presentations Stage 3, an IAEA Statement Event at the United Nations Climate Change Conference UNCCC held at the Expo City Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Blue Zone, 1 December 2023
Photo Credit: Dean Calma / IAEA
The heads of the international delegations made statements about the responsible use of Artificial Intelligence. This was done in a round table setting.
Watch the entire high level plenary session: youtu.be/J8APAkq4LlY
Read the speech by Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs Wopke Hoekstra at the round table: www.government.nl/ministries/ministry-of-foreign-affairs/...
Watch the REAIM 2023 aftermovie: youtu.be/dSZ48joIXJ0
Photo: Ministry of Foreign Affairs / Martijn Beekman
It's simply ridiculous of NBC to describe the settlement as "lucrative"! $1.5 million is hardly lucrative. She lost her job, may be her pension and health benefits as well, plus ten years of suffering and humiliation, not to mention the attorney fees and other legal defense costs she had to pay. Adding insult to her injuries, this settlement money is subject to federal income tax but her lawyers' fees are not tax deductible.
www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/after-being-falsely-accused-...
After being falsely accused of spying for China, Sherry Chen wins significant settlement
An Asian American scientist who was wrongfully accused of spying for China is speaking out after reaching a lucrative settlement with the U.S. government last week.
Sherry Chen, a Chinese American hydrologist who was arrested in 2014 before her case abruptly collapsed the following year, was awarded Thursday more than $1.5 million in damages for her wrongful prosecution and termination from her job at the National Weather Service (NWS).
Chen, one of several Asian Americans across science and academia who have been wrongfully accused of espionage, said in a statement that she sees the settlement as a step toward accountability.
“I have finally achieved justice in my case. It’s long overdue. I hope that my settlement inspires other Chinese Americans who were wrongly investigated and prosecuted to continue to fight for justice,” Chen told NBC News in an email.
According to the American Civil Liberties Union, which backed Chen, the hydrologist will receive $550,000 from the Commerce Department and an annuity over 10 years valued at $1.25 million. Additionally, a senior official from the department will meet with Chen and provide her a letter recognizing her accomplishments during her tenure at the NWS, the ACLU said.
The Commerce Department declined NBC News’ request for comment, but Salvador A. Dominguez, first assistant U.S. attorney at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Ohio, said in a statement to NBC News, “We are pleased the parties reached a mutually-agreed resolution of this lawsuit.”
The settlement concludes Chen’s legal battles against the government, the ACLU said. Roughly eight years ago, Chen, the only woman of color and only Asian American working at her Ohio-based NWS office at the time, was accused of economic espionage. The allegation was prompted by a 2012 visit to China during which she connected with a former classmate who worked in the Chinese government. Chen said she contacted the former classmate because she was seeking to help in a dispute between the local water bureau and a family member who worked on a water pipeline project, according to court documents. The family member was allegedly not paid for the work, she said.
Her classmate also asked her about how the U.S. financed water projects, a topic Chen didn’t know much about at the time, but she sought out public information from her work superiors when she returned to Ohio, according to her own account. She briefly continued the conversation with her former classmate over email, but the exchange, one she thought was a casual one, would eventually get the hydrologist flagged, Chen previously said.
A week before the trial, which was set to begin in March 2015, federal prosecutors abruptly dropped all charges without explanation.
“My lifetime of outstanding scientific work was destroyed. And my entire life was shattered,” Chen previously recalled to NBC News. “I was arrested in front of my co-workers, led out of a building in handcuffs, and held in solitary confinement at a courthouse jail.”
A former Department of Commerce security unit behind Chen’s case, the now-terminated Investigations and Threat Management Service (ITMS), has since been accused by advocates and officials of misconduct and opening investigations based on race and national origin, among other offenses. A Senate review from July 2021 said ITMS had mutated “into a rogue, unaccountable police force across multiple presidential administrations.” Citing Chen’s case, the report showed ITMS conducted investigations typically reserved for domestic law enforcement agencies, and did so in “an overzealous manner whereby agents abused steps in the investigative process.”
“The Department conducted a thorough review of ITMS, published a detailed accounting of its findings, disbanded the unit, and is implementing a series of policy changes to ensure greater accountability in its security operations,” a Commerce Department spokesperson previously told NBC News in a statement.
Other findings came to light during Chen’s previous employment proceedings. Among the allegations made against Chen was that she had used a stolen password to download information about U.S. dams and passed it off to a Chinese official. It was revealed during the proceedings, however, that Commerce officials may have disregarded evidence which would have exonerated her, including the fact that the password was an officewide one. But, Chen had still been unable to get back to work, her lawyers said.
Neither the Commerce Department nor the DOJ commented further on Chen’s ordeal.
In her employment suit, a judge from the Merit Service Protection Board (MSPB) previously sided with Chen in 2018, ordering her reinstatement plus back pay. However, the Commerce Department appealed the decision and placed her on administrative leave. After a second suit, an administrative complaint to Commerce and DOJ, the parties went into settlement negotiations.
As part of the settlement, Chen is retiring from the NWS, her lawyers said.
Chen’s win has prompted an outpouring of support from several Asian American and civil rights organizations, in addition to lawmakers. Rep. Judy Chu, D-Calif., said in a statement Monday that she was pleased the ordeal reached a “fair conclusion.”
“It has been over a decade since Sherry Chen was accused of espionage, yet another Chinese American who was targeted because of their race, this time by the Department of Commerce’s rogue ITMS unit,” Chu said in a statement. “This historic settlement is a welcome symbol to restore justice to Ms. Chen, and I’m pleased that at long last, Ms. Chen’s ordeal has reached a fair conclusion.”
Chen is among several Asian Americans across science and academia who have been accused of espionage, experts said. Under the Trump administration, the government formally implemented a security program, aimed at addressing the national security issue, entitled the “China Initiative.” The highly controversial program was accused by scholars and advocates of encouraging racial profiling, and was sunsetted by the Biden administration earlier this year.
“While I remain focused on the evolving, significant threat that the government of China poses, I have concluded that this initiative is not the right approach,” Matthew Olsen, head of the National Security Division at the DOJ, said in a speech at George Mason University earlier this year.
But the anxiety and fear of being racially profiled still lingers among many academics, studies show.
Research by the nonprofit Committee of 100, published in October, shows that more than 50% of scientists of Chinese descent “feel considerable fear and/or anxiety” that they are under U.S. government surveillance.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
www.aclu.org/press-releases/historic-settlement-us-govern...
IN HISTORIC SETTLEMENT, U.S. GOVERNMENT TO PAY WRONGLY PROSECUTED CHINESE AMERICAN SCIENTIST MORE THAN $1.5 MILLION IN DAMAGES
SETTLEMENT DELIVERS LONG-OVERDUE ACCOUNTABILITY FOR DISCRIMINATION AT DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
NOVEMBER 10, 2022
Attorneys for Sherry Chen, a Chinese American scientist with the National Weather Service, today announced a historic settlement in two lawsuits seeking accountability for her wrongful prosecution and termination from her job.
In 2012, the Commerce Department’s internal security unit, known as the Investigations and Threat Management Service (ITMS), began unlawfully investigating Ms. Chen as part of a broad pattern of discrimination directed at Chinese Americans, leading to her baseless arrest and prosecution by the FBI and Justice Department. ITMS was officially disbanded last year, following a Senate report detailing how the unit had become a “rogue, unaccountable police force” that operated outside the law and “opened frivolous investigations on a variety of employees without evidence suggesting wrongdoing.”
The settlement is one of the largest paid to an individual plaintiff in Commerce Department history. Ms. Chen will receive $550,000 from the Commerce Department and an annuity from the U.S. government valued at $1.25 million over 10 years. The Commerce Department will host a private meeting between Ms. Chen and a senior National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration official, where she plans to discuss wrongdoing at multiple levels of the agency and the importance of antidiscrimination reforms. The Commerce Department will also provide Ms. Chen with a letter acknowledging her extensive accomplishments during her years of service as a government hydrologist.
“The government’s investigation and prosecution of me was discriminatory and unjustified,” said Sherry Chen. “The Commerce Department is finally being held responsible for its wrongdoing and for the conduct of its illegal security unit, which has had a devastating impact on my life and the lives of so many other federal employees. No one else should have to endure this injustice.”
Based on ITMS’s improper investigation of Ms. Chen, the Justice Department charged her with making false statements to government investigators and unlawfully downloading data from a restricted government database. The government’s unfounded allegations rested on Ms. Chen’s use of a shared, office-wide password to access a database relevant to her work. The Justice Department eventually dropped all charges in 2015, but not before Ms. Chen was publicly arrested in front of her colleagues and faced 25 years in prison and $1 million in fines. The Commerce Department also fired Ms. Chen from the job she had worked at for years. After a federal administrative judge found that her termination was unlawful, and that Ms. Chen had been the victim of a “gross injustice,” the department appealed and placed her on indefinite leave. That appeal has been pending since 2018 before the Merit Systems Protection Board, an agency that hears claims from federal employees.
Today’s settlement marks the end of the Merit Systems Protection Board litigation and a separate federal lawsuit against the U.S. government, filed in 2019 by Ms. Chen’s counsel, Peter Toren and Michele Young. The American Civil Liberties Union and Cooley LLP joined as co-counsel in that suit last year. Stephen A. Simon, partner with Tobias, Torchia & Simon, represents Ms. Chen before the Merit Systems Protection Board.
“Ms. Chen’s historic settlement is a victory for her and for Chinese American communities,” said Ashley Gorski, senior staff attorney with the ACLU National Security Project. “It makes clear that profiling and discrimination are unacceptable, and that the government will be held to account.”
Additional statements from Ms. Chen’s attorneys are below:
“For years, the Commerce Department refused to take responsibility for destroying Ms. Chen’s career,” said John Hemann, partner at Cooley LLP. “Today’s settlement is a win for the rule of law and helps to ensure that rogue units like ITMS will not be allowed to take root.”
“Today, a great blow was struck against bigotry and for the rights of Asian Americans, as the government was forced to reckon with and be held accountable for the devastating damage to an award-winning scientist’s life,” said Michele Young, Managing Partner at Michele Young Co., LPA and Counsel to Gregory S. Young Co., LPA. “After a ten-year battle, from Congress to the Courts to Commerce, finally, there is justice. Sherry patriotically fought not only for herself, but to secure the rights of all Asian Americans. It was a privilege to be on this dream team that fought day and night for this moment.”
“Ms. Chen’s ordeal has lasted more than ten years,” said Peter Toren, counsel for Ms. Chen. “She bravely persevered in this fight, inspiring countless others who have experienced similar forms of discrimination,"
Letter from Shirley Chen re: the settlement with the U.S. government:
My dear friends:
Today is a day for celebration. I’m writing to announce a historic settlement in my two lawsuits seeking accountability for the government’s illegal and discriminatory investigation of me, its wrongful prosecution, and its termination of my employment with the National Weather Service.
The settlement is one of the largest paid to an individual plaintiff in Commerce Department history. As compensation, the Commerce Department is paying me $550,000, and I’ll receive an annuity from the U.S. government valued at $1.25 million over ten years. In addition, the Commerce Department is hosting a private meeting between me and a senior agency official, and it is providing me with a letter that acknowledges my extensive accomplishments during my tenure as a U.S. government hydrologist.
Today’s settlement is not only a victory for me; it is also a victory for our community and for the rule of law. It makes clear that profiling and discrimination are unacceptable, and that rogue investigative units like ITMS have no place in a democratic society. The government cannot escape the consequences for these wrongs. It will be held to account.
Of course, no amount of money can ever fully repair the injustices I’ve experienced. But today’s settlement is a critically important step toward achieving justice for myself and for so many Chinese Americans who have been subjected to unjustified government scrutiny.
Your unwavering support has been essential to this fight every step of the way. Although I’m unfortunately unable to celebrate with each of you in person, please know that I’m thinking of each of you, and I am so grateful for your kindness and generosity over this years-long fight. You’ve given me the strength to go on. Thank you so much!
The heads of the international delegations made statements about the responsible use of Artificial Intelligence. This was done in a round table setting.
Watch the entire high level plenary session: youtu.be/J8APAkq4LlY
Read the speech by Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs Wopke Hoekstra at the round table: www.government.nl/ministries/ministry-of-foreign-affairs/...
Watch the REAIM 2023 aftermovie: youtu.be/dSZ48joIXJ0
Photo: Ministry of Foreign Affairs / Martijn Beekman
PP-22 - Policy Statements
H.E. Mr Sumbue ANTAS
Ambassador, Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Permanent Representative to the United Nations and Other International Organisations, Geneva, WTO and to the Swiss Confederation
Bucharest, Romania
30th September 2022
©ITU/Rowan Farrell
These are some more shots of my Tour to Europe in Sept - Nov 2012. I has been a while since I last saw them.. great to be able to catch up on them at last!
Just arrived in Valencia on our Cosmos tour, October 15, 2012.
On a tour of the City of Arts and Sciences. It is an entertainment-based cultural and architectural complex in the city of Valencia, Spain. It is the most important modern tourist destination in the city of Valencia.
The City of Arts and Sciences is situated at the end of the former riverbed of the river Turia, which was drained and rerouted after a catastrophic flood in 1957. The old riverbed was turned into a picturesque sunken park.
Designed by Santiago Calatrava and Félix Candela, the project underwent the first stages of construction in July 1996 and the finished "city" was inaugurated April 16, 1998 with the opening of L'Hemisfèric. The last great component of the City of Arts and Sciences, El Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia, was presented on October 9, 2005, Valencian Community Day.
For More Info: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_Arts_and_Sciences
The heads of the international delegations made statements about the responsible use of Artificial Intelligence. This was done in a round table setting.
Watch the entire high level plenary session: youtu.be/J8APAkq4LlY
Read the speech by Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs Wopke Hoekstra at the round table: www.government.nl/ministries/ministry-of-foreign-affairs/...
Watch the REAIM 2023 aftermovie: youtu.be/dSZ48joIXJ0
Photo: Ministry of Foreign Affairs / Martijn Beekman
PP-22 - Policy Statements
H.E. Mr Sumbue ANTAS
Ambassador, Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Permanent Representative to the United Nations and Other International Organisations, Geneva, WTO and to the Swiss Confederation
Bucharest, Romania
30th September 2022
©ITU/Rowan Farrell
The heads of the international delegations made statements about the responsible use of Artificial Intelligence. This was done in a round table setting.
Watch the entire high level plenary session: youtu.be/J8APAkq4LlY
Read the speech by Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs Wopke Hoekstra at the round table: www.government.nl/ministries/ministry-of-foreign-affairs/...
Watch the REAIM 2023 aftermovie: youtu.be/dSZ48joIXJ0
Photo: Ministry of Foreign Affairs / Martijn Beekman
The heads of the international delegations made statements about the responsible use of Artificial Intelligence. This was done in a round table setting.
Watch the entire high level plenary session: youtu.be/J8APAkq4LlY
Read the speech by Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs Wopke Hoekstra at the round table: www.government.nl/ministries/ministry-of-foreign-affairs/...
Watch the REAIM 2023 aftermovie: youtu.be/dSZ48joIXJ0
Photo: Ministry of Foreign Affairs / Martijn Beekman
Policy Statements - ITU PP-18
H.E. Mr Daryn Tuyakov, Vice-Minister, Information and Communication of the Republic of Kazakhstan
Ministry of Information and Communication, Kazakhstan
©ITU/I.Wood
To my Darkness and my Light,
I unfold myself; you, in turn, call to me with your warm and aching mouth— its tongue, a delicate command I will not long withstand.
Your lips spill sighs; I drink until your thirst is sated.
Trembling hands steady me beneath you. You guide me toward your deepest acceptance. I find a center in you; you grasp me and gasp.
(You shudder— hands bracing the afternoon light dying against such white walls. I see with the eye of god your ineffable Beauty. I fall and place this feeble kiss to caress the spine of your neck as I pass.)
With you I experience annihilations most will never know.
After I am restless; you know that what I want is what I will never manage alone— you coax from my every ending its next beginning.
We must map these new and nameless oblivions together.
2008
Silver gelatin print