{"id":1061,"date":"2013-12-22T00:53:41","date_gmt":"2013-12-22T00:53:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hawaiiankingdom.org\/blog\/?p=1061"},"modified":"2013-12-22T22:36:09","modified_gmt":"2013-12-22T22:36:09","slug":"meeting-with-officials-of-the-international-committee-of-the-red-cross-in-geneva-switzerland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hawaiiankingdom.org\/blog\/meeting-with-officials-of-the-international-committee-of-the-red-cross-in-geneva-switzerland\/","title":{"rendered":"Meeting with Officials of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva, Switzerland"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Emblem_of_the_ICRC\"<\/a>On December 17, 2013, Dr. David Keanu Sai and attorney Dexter Kaiama had a meeting with Stephane Ojeda<\/a>, Deputy Head of Operations for the Americas<\/a> for the International Committee of the Red Cross<\/a> (ICRC) at the ICRC\u2019s headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. The ICRC is a humanitarian organization that has a specific mandate in the 1949 Geneva Conventions to provide protection for civilians during international conflicts and occupations. At a Conference on the Politics of Humanitarianism in the Occupied Territories<\/em> held in Israel in 2004, Mr. Ojeda described the ICRC as \u201cguardians of international humanitarian law\u201d and independent of political influences.<\/p>\n

The purpose of the meeting was to bring to the attention of the ICRC the severity<\/a> of an illegal and prolonged occupation of the Hawaiian Islands and the violation of the rights of \"ICRC_HQ\"<\/a>protected persons in the Hawaiian Islands as defined under the Fourth Geneva Convention<\/a> and the Protocol (1) Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949<\/a>, as well as United States citizens, who are not protected persons under the Convention and Protocol, but do have rights protected under Title 18, United States Code, \u00a72441 (War Crimes Act<\/a>) that has \u00a0force in territories occupied by the United States. These violations include deprivation of a fair and regular trial<\/a>, pillaging<\/a> of real and personal property, and unlawful confinement<\/a>. Mr. Kaiama has represented<\/a> over 150 clients in both Federal and State of Hawai\u2018i courts of the Hawaiian Islands centering on these violations. The majority of these clients are also clients of Laulima Title Search & Claims, LLC<\/a>, to include the company’s president, Mr. Kale Gumapac<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In addition, Mr. Kaiama submitted a formal request<\/a> to the ICRC for assistance in accordance with Article 30<\/a> of the Fourth Geneva Convention. Article 30 states that \u201cProtected persons shall have every facility for making application to\u2026the International Committee of the Red Cross.\u201d According to the ICRC<\/a>, \u201cThe right in question is an absolute right, possessed by all protected persons both in the territory of a Party to the conflict and in occupied territory, whether they are not detained, or are internees, persons placed in assigned residence or detained. The communication may have a wide variety of causes, and it may take the form of an application, suggestion, a complaint, a protest, a request for assistance, etc.; it is not even necessary for an infringement of the Convention on the part of the authorities to have occurred. The right of communication may be exercised under all circumstances.\u201d The Hawaiian Kingdom is a party to the Fourth Geneva Convention<\/a> and Protocol 1<\/a>.<\/p>\n

After Dr. Sai provided a brief overview of Hawai\u2018i\u2019s status as an independent State under an illegal and prolonged occupation, Mr. Ojeda admitted he was not aware of Hawai\u2018i\u2019s history despite the ICRC\u2019s working relationship with the United States Pacific Command<\/a>. Mr. Ojeda was also fascinated by the online news coverage provided Big Island Video News<\/a> on the subject of occupation and war crimes. Later that day, Mr. Ojeda contacted Dr. Sai and Mr. Kaiama in order to schedule a follow up meeting with the ICRC\u2019s legal advisor, Dr. Tristan Ferraro<\/a>, the following day. Dr. Ferraro\u2019s legal expertise is on occupations<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The meeting with Dr. Ferraro lasted 2.5 hours, and, like Mr. Ojeda, Dr. Ferraro was not aware of Hawai\u2018i\u2019s legal and political history and its place in international law. The focus of \"Sai_Ferraro_ICRC\"<\/a>the meeting centered on Hawai\u2018i\u2019s status as an independent State and whether or not international law provided for its continued existence or its demise. In order for the ICRC to exercise its mandate to ensure protection for civilians during a prolonged occupation as requested by Mr. Kaiama, the ICRC needs to determine how the intervention will take place. Dr. Ferraro assured Mr. Kaiama that he would complete his recommendation by March 2014, and report his conclusion to Mr. Ojeda. Dr. Sai provided his legal brief titled \u201cThe Continuity of the Hawaiian State and the Legitimacy of the acting<\/i> Government of the Hawaiian Kingdom<\/a>,\u201d and other pertinent documents to assist Dr. Ferraro in his review. Dr. Sai specifically drew attention to a section of the legal brief that states:<\/p>\n

\u201cany claim to State continuity will be dependent upon the establishment of two legal facts: first<\/i>, that the State in question existed as a recognized entity for purposes of international law at some relevant point in history; and, secondly,<\/i> that intervening events have not been such as to deprive it of that status.\u00a0 It should be made very clear, however, that the issue is not simply one of \u2018observable\u2019 or \u2018tangible facts,\u2019 but more specifically of \u2018legally relevant facts.\u2019\u00a0 It is not a case, in other words, simply of observing how power or control has been exercised in relation to persons or territory, but of determining the scope of \u2018authority,\u2019 which is understood as \u2018a legal entitlement to exercise power and control.\u2019 Authority differs from mere control by not only being essentially rule governed, but also in virtue of the fact that it is not always entirely dependent upon the exercise of that control.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the meeting came to a close, Dr. Sai provided Dr. Tristan the Hawaiian Kingdom\u2019s formal request<\/a> to have the ICRC assist in securing a Protecting Power<\/a> that is neutral and not a party to the conflict in accordance with Article 5(3) & (5)<\/a> of Protocol 1. A Protecting Power is a country that would serve as an intermediary between the Hawaiian Kingdom and the United States in order to assure compliance with the Fourth Geneva Convention, Protocol 1 and international humanitarian law. If the ICRC is not able to secure a Protecting Power it has to offer itself as a substitute<\/a>. According to the ICRC, a timetable for a decision will be no later than 60 days.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On December 17, 2013, Dr. David Keanu Sai and attorney Dexter Kaiama had a meeting with Stephane Ojeda, Deputy Head of Operations for the Americas for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) at the ICRC\u2019s headquarters in Geneva, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,5,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1061","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-international-relations","category-national","category-war-crimes"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p31YBQ-h7","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hawaiiankingdom.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1061","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hawaiiankingdom.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hawaiiankingdom.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiiankingdom.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiiankingdom.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1061"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiiankingdom.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1061\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1082,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiiankingdom.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1061\/revisions\/1082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hawaiiankingdom.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiiankingdom.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiiankingdom.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}