Your weekly selection of international law and international relations headlines from around the world:

Africa

• A young girl with explosives strapped to her killed five people and wounded dozens at a security checkpoint outside a market in the northeast Nigerian town of Potiskum on Sunday, witnesses said.
• Boko Haram militants attacked an island on Niger’s side of Lake Chad but the army repelled them after heavy fighting, residents and security sources said on Saturday.

Middle East and Northern Africa

• US-led air strikes against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group in Syria have killed more than 1,600 people since they began five months ago, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
• The UN special envoy to Syria is travelling to Damascus to try to reduce the fighting which has intensified in Aleppo, where rebels claim to have killed 300 government soldiers in the past week.
• A Moroccan court sentenced a former Spanish soldier to eight years in jail on Friday on charges of leading an Islamist network in the kingdom that was plotting terror attacks, the state news agency MAP said.

Asia

• North Korea has banned foreign runners from participating in an international marathon scheduled to be held in the capital in April, citing fears about the spread of the deadly Ebola virus, a Beijing-based travel agency said.
• Nearly three months after police cleared away the last of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy street protests, lingering anger is stoking a new front of radical activism that has turned shopping malls and university campuses into a fresh battleground.

Europe

• France’s Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier has started military operations against Islamic State in Iraq, a French army source said on Monday.
• France will support a bid by the African Union to win the backing of the U.N. Security Council for its five-nation force fighting Islamist militant group Boko Haram, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said on Sunday.
• International investigators looking into the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 over Ukraine last July met for their first joint consultation this week, examining cracks and impact patterns on the jet’s fuselage, Dutch officials said on Friday.
• The Swedish government is shutting down a job coaching program for new immigrants after complaints that it was being used to recruit people for militant groups, a state official said on Friday.

Americas

• High-level nuclear negotiations between the United States and Iran resumed in Geneva on Monday as both sides work through technical and political differences to come up with an initial deal by a March 31 deadline.
• Indonesia has recalled its new ambassador to Brazil after the South American country stopped him taking part in a credentials ceremony following the execution of a Brazilian national for drugs trafficking.

Oceania

• Australian air force personnel have begun training on armed drones in the United States, Australian defense officials said on Monday, less than a week after Washington said it would begin exporting the controversial weapons system.
• Australia’s Prime Minister Tony Abbott has announced that his government will tighten immigration laws and crack down on groups that incite hatred under a raft of counterterrorism measures introduced in a bid to combat the threat from “home-grown terrorists”.

UN/World

• United Nations war crimes investigators plan to publish names of suspects involved in Syria’s four-year war and push for new ways to bring them to justice, in a radical change of strategy announced on Friday.

Events

• This Friday, February 27, from 12pm to 1pm ET, join the American Society of International Law New Professionals and International Criminal Law Interest Groups for a special online event featuring speakers from the international courts and tribunals in The Hague and other organizations engaged in international criminal law.  “Getting Started in International Criminal Law” is part of the ASIL New Professionals Interest Group’s “Getting Started” series. The webinar will be broadcast live through the ASIL website. Speakers will include staff from the Office of the Prosecutor of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon and the International Criminal Court, legal officers from the chambers of judges on the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, and defense counsel from the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, as well as academic and non-governmental practitioners working in the field.  The event will be moderated by Professor Beth van Schaack of Santa Clara Law School. Viewers can stream the event on their personal computers and submit questions during the livestream by emailing events [at] asil [dot] org.  For more information and to register, go here.

Announcements

• The Academy on Human Rights and Humanitarian Law is pleased to announce that the Program of Advanced Studies on Human Rights and Humanitarian Law is now accepting applications. The program will take place from May 26 to June 12, 2015. This Program offers 18 courses in English and Spanish lectured by over 40 scholars of relevance in the field of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law and gathers more than 150 participants from more than 25 different countries and with different levels of professional experience. The Academy on Human Rights and Humanitarian Law provides through this Program the unique opportunity to learn and interact with judges of the International Criminal Court (ICC), the International Court of Justice (ICJ), Special Rapporteurs of United Nations, members of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and professors from all over the world. The Program is offered in three categories which include the modality of Certificate of Attendance for lawyers, law students and HR professionals of any country, ABA Credits for U.S. students and finally, the Diploma Course that is offered to a select group of 35 law professionals who fulfill the admission requirements. You can review the brochure here and the application form for this program will be available here. For more information, please contact: hracademy [at] wcl [dot] american [dot] edu.

Our previous events and announcements post can be found here. If you would like to post an announcement on Opinio Juris, please contact us with a one-paragraph description of your announcement along with hyperlinks to more information. 

Your weekly selection of international law and international relations headlines from around the world:

Africa

• A female suicide bomber has killed at least ten people at Damaturu Central Motor Park, a bus station in the northeast Nigerian city.
• Boko Haram fighters attacked a village in Chad on Friday, the first known lethal attack in that country by the Nigerian militant group, which killed several people including a local chief according to residents and security forces.
• Nigeria’s president has called for greater military assistance from the US in the fight against armed group Boko Haram.
• The United Nations expects the Nigerian military to do more to combat Boko Haram and urged Nigeria and its neighbors Chad, Niger and Cameroon to allow hot pursuit of the militants across borders as this was key to a regional offensive.
• There is enough evidence to put Chad’s deposed strongman Hissene Habre on trial for crimes against humanity, war crimes and torture, judges in Senegal ruled on Friday, according to a statement from the special tribunal set up to handle his case.

Middle East and Northern Africa

• Any Israeli-Palestinian peace deal must lead to improved living conditions for Palestinians to prevent violence between the two from erupting again, Middle East peace envoy Tony Blair said on Sunday.
• Fighters pledging allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) have released a video purporting to show the killing of 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians kidnapped in Libya.
• The United States and its coalition partners conducted three air strikes against Islamic State militants in Syria and eight in Iraq since Saturday, according to the U.S. military.
• Thousands of foreigners have flocked to Iraq and Syria in the past two years, mostly to join Islamic State, but a handful of idealistic Westerners are enlisting as well, citing frustration their governments are not doing more to combat the ultra-radical Islamists or prevent the suffering of innocents.

Asia

• Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is sending his top diplomat to Pakistan as part of a regional tour, the first top-ranking visit since Modi broke off talks last year over the disputed region of Kashmir.
• A former adviser to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has praised apartheid as a model for how Japan could expand immigration, prompting the government’s top spokesman on Friday to emphasize that Japan’s immigration policy was based on equality.
• China’s President Xi Jinping will visit Pakistan this year in what will be the first trip by a Chinese head of state to its western neighbor in nine years, as Beijing looks to take a bigger role in South Asia.
• Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera said on Thursday he was optimistic about securing a delay in the release of a U.N. report on alleged war crimes during his country’s civil war until the government has had time to establish a new judicial mechanism to deal with the allegations.

Europe

• A suspected gunman in two shootings on Saturday and Sunday in Copenhagen, in which two were killed and several injured, has been killed by police; the first shooting occurred at a freedom of speech event with Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks, and second happened outside a synagogue in the city.
• After the deadly shooting at a Denmark synagogue, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday such attacks will likely continue and Israel would welcome European Jews who choose to move there.
• The Italian coast guard has rescued more than 2,100 migrants in a major rescue operation in the sea between Europe and North Africa.
• Italy closed its embassy in Libya on Sunday and stepped up its call for a U.N. mission to calm the worsening conflict there as thousands of migrants approached Italy by boat from North Africa.
• Ukraine’s rebels disavowed a new truce on Sunday hours after it took effect, saying it did not apply to the town where most fighting has taken place in recent weeks.
• Greece and its international creditors started talks on Friday on reforms needed to keep the country financed, increasing the possibility of a interim compromise deal between the euro zone and Athens at a ministerial meeting on Monday.

Americas

• A United Nations watchdog called on Mexico on Friday to probe and prosecute alleged complicity of state forces in thousands of “disappearances”, including a notorious case of 43 students believed murdered last year.
• Canada is inclined to extend the six-month mandate of its military mission in Iraq, which comprises special forces on the ground as well as fighter bombers, Defence Minister Jason Kenney said on Wednesday.
• Colombia’s Marxist ELN rebels have freed a Dutch citizen kidnapped in January, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Wednesday after facilitating his liberation.

Oceania

• Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has warned Indonesia of the potential for diplomatic fallout if Jakarta goes ahead with the looming execution of two Australian citizens on death row for drugs charges.

UN/World

• The United Nations Security Council has unanimously adopted a resolution that demands that Houthi rebels immediately relinquish control of Yemen’s government.
• United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appealed to Indonesia on Friday not to execute prisoners on death row for drug crimes, including citizens of Australia, Brazil, France, Ghana, Indonesia, Nigeria and the Philippines.

Events

• Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law announces: “Liberty and Security Today: A New Normal?” a panel discussion taking place Thursday, Feb 26, 2015 from 7pm – 8:30pm at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. Given renewed fears of terrorism driven by the rise of ISIS and their skilled use of social media, how is the continuing conflict over security and liberty evolving? What can we expect in the future as the renewal of the Patriot Act looms and debate over authorizations for the use of force and surveillance come to the floor of Congress? Is there a new normal? And if so, what does it mean for civil liberties and for the safety and security of Americans? Panelists include our own Deborah Pearlstein, Associate Professor of Law, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law; Jameel Jaffer, Deputy Legal Director, ACLU; and Scott Shane, New York Times. The discussion will be moderated by Karen J. Greenberg, Director, Center on National Security at Fordham Law School. Please RSVP to sutjipto [at] yu [dot] edu.
• The Holocaust, Genocide and Human Rights Program at Cardozo School of Law, Jacob Burns Foundation, Rutgers School of Law-Newark, and the Law & Humanities Institute invite you to: The Abolition of War, from February 20-21, 2015. Why has war never become a taboo? This topic and others connected to the experience of war will be explored at a two-day symposium at Cardozo School of Law and Rutgers School of Law.

Announcements

• The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has now made the preparatory documents to the Geneva Conventions available digitally.
• The ICRC has also published its latest quarterly bibliography, which lists references to English and French publications on international humanitarian law. The bibliography is based on books and other material in the ICRC library.
• The University of Geneva has announced its summer school program in international humanitarian law, taking place from June 22 to July 10, 2015. The course methodology insists on the importance of a practice-based teaching of International Humanitarian Law (IHL), the law protecting persons affected by armed conflicts, thus combining theory and discussions of contemporary conflicts.The course welcomes applications from graduate or post-graduate students (currently enrolled in master degree or above) in law, international relations or related areas, Ph.D candidates, and humanitarian practitioners. Upper-year undergraduate students may also apply, and will be considered on a case-by-case basis. Please note that this is a master-level course. Background in public international law is recommended, although not required.More information, including the program flyer, information about courses and faculty can be found on the website here.
• The Kalliopi Koufa Foundation on the Promotion of International Law and Human Rights organizes the inaugural session of the Thessaloniki Summer Courses on International Law and Human Rights from 1 to 10 July 2015 in Thessaloniki, Greece, on the topic of “International Aspects and Issues of Energy Law”. The Thessaloniki Summer Courses are open to students, especially LLM students and PhD candidates, researchers and practitioners from all over the world. The registration deadlines are 1 March 2015 (early bird reduced fee) and 1 May 2015 (late application). For all other information concerning the provisional programme, please visit the website here, or contact the organizers at summercourses [at] koufafoundation [dot] org.
• The Research Group “The International Rule of Law – Rise or Decline?“ invites applications for three 12-24 months Fellowships in International Law or International Relations from 1 October 2015. The Group (Krieger, Nolte, Zimmermann (IL), Jachtenfuchs, Liese, Zürn (IR)) examines the role of international law in a changing global order. Developments in recent years give rise to the question whether the move towards an international rule of law, which seems to continue in some areas, has lost momentum in others. The Research Group addresses these questions from a legal and a political science perspective. The working language of the group is English. Fellows will work at Humboldt University Berlin. A monthly stipend of EUR 2500,00 plus one roundtrip is attached to the position from which all costs will have to be covered. The Fellowships are designed for applicants worldwide with a doctorate in international law or in international relations. The proposed projects should relate to the Group’s area of research. Applicants must have completed their PhD by 31 August 2015 and should not have pursued more than 3 years of postdoctoral research. Candidates from outside Europe are particularly encouraged to apply. Applicants should submit, apart from their CV and a list of publications, a description of current research and of a project to be pursued du-ring the first year of the Fellowship (no more than 1000 words), a summary of the candidate’s doctoral thesis, and two letters of recommendation. The deadline for application is 31 March 2015. Please send your application in PDF format to intlaw [at] rewi [dot] hu-berlin [dot] de.

Our previous events and announcements post can be found here. If you would like to post an announcement on Opinio Juris, please contact us with a one-paragraph description of your announcement along with hyperlinks to more information. 

Your weekly selection of international law and international relations headlines from around the world:

Africa

• Boko Haram fighters waged twin attacks Sunday in Niger, their latest front in a widening regional insurgency, with a market bomb blast sowing panic.
• At least two people were killed when Somali militants al Shabaab attacked the house of a senior police official in the semi-autonomous region of Puntland, police said on Sunday.
• Demanding an immediate end to all hostilities in Mali, the United Nations Security Council urged Malian parties to “engage with sustained political will and a spirit of compromise” and make the necessary concessions to engage in talks towards a comprehensive, inclusive peace deal that addresses the root causes of the years-long crisis in the country.

Middle East and Northern Africa

• Kurdish sources have told Al Jazeera that Syrian Kurdish forces backed by moderate Syrian rebels have recaptured more than 120 villages around the long-contested town of Kobane from the armed Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group.
• Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has appeared to rule out any new extension to negotiations with world powers over his country’s nuclear programme after meeting US Secretary of State John Kerry for new talks.
• The “Quartet” of Middle East peace mediators urged a prompt resumption of talks between Israel and the Palestinians after a meeting in Munich on Sunday and voiced concern about the slow pace of reconstruction in Gaza, damaged in last year’s war.
• An Egyptian court on Saturday set February 24 as the date that it will consider a lawsuit that claims Turkey is a “state that supports terrorism” and must be designated as such.

Asia

• Among the political, economic and cultural impacts of decades of war and violence in Afghanistan, there’s an artistic transformation: the history of violence is reflected in the country’s ancient art of rug making.
• North Korea has test-fired five short-range missiles into the sea off its east coast, raising cross-border tensions ahead of Seoul’s planned joint army drills with the US, according to South Korea.
• The police force in Afghanistan is being studied for ties to the Taliban.

Europe

• UK laws which let two embassies use diplomatic immunity to block employment rights cases breached European law, the UK Court of Appeal ruled.
• Germany’s Angela Merkel said on Saturday that sending arms to help Ukraine fight pro-Russian separatists would not solve the crisis there, drawing sharp rebukes from U.S. politicians who accused Berlin of turning its back on an ally in distress.
• Europe is set to launch an experimental “space plane”, a car-sized, wingless vessel whose 100-minute unmanned mission will inform the design of reusable spacecraft of the future.
• Russian President Vladimir Putin will visit Egypt as Moscow looks to expand its reach in the Arab world’s most populous country at a time when Cairo-Washington ties remain frayed.
• At least 1,000 British Muslims protested in central London on Sunday against what they called “insulting depictions” of the Prophet Mohammad by French newspaper Charlie Hebdo.
• Britain’s Prince Charles will intervene in the case of a jailed Saudi blogger sentenced to 1,000 lashes and urge Saudi Arabia’s new king to halt the punishment, the Mail on Sunday newspaper reported.
• As Belgium braces for a verdict in Europe’s biggest trial of those accused of fostering Islamist violence in Syria, much attention is on poor Muslim immigrant communities’ struggle in a region blighted by youth unemployment.

Americas

• CACI International, a US defence contractor which supplied interrogators accused of involvement in the abuse and torture of detainees at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, has sought to have a lawsuit against it dismissed, stating its employees were working under military control during a time of war.
• Somalia’s prime minister on Sunday appealed to the US government and US banks to resume allowing money transfers to Somalia, a crucial service for many in the war-torn country.

Oceania

• Human Rights Watch says Australia’s failure to respect international standards for asylum seekers and refugees is undermining its ability to call for stronger human rights protections abroad.

UN/World

• The International Court of Justice rejected claims made by Croatia and Serbia accusing each other of committing genocide during the Balkan wars of the 1990s (judgment).
• On Friday, the members of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) elected Judge Ronny Abraham of France President of the Court and Judge Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf of Somalia Vice President.
• Negotiations aimed at resolving the crisis in Yemen are set to resume on Monday and will be brokered by the U.N. envoy to the country, Jamal Benomar, the United Nations said.

Events

• The Centre for International Law of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel has the pleasure of inviting you to a one-day conference: “The South China Sea: An International Law Perspective” on Friday, 6 March 2015 in Brussels, Belgium. Showcasing panels of renowned law of the sea experts, the conference will offer presentations and Q&A sessions centered on the themes of fisheries, navigation, islands and international dispute settlement. Attendance is free, but registration is required, on a first come, first serve basis, by Sunday, 1 March 2015. A walking lunch, coffee breaks and a closing reception will be provided. Please register here. The conference programme may be consulted here.
• The International Institute of Humanitarian Law, in cooperation with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and the International Disaster Law Project and with the support of the Italian Red Cross, will conduct the 2nd International Disaster Law Course from 27 April to 1 May, in Sanremo, Italy. More information can be found here.
• The 5th Annual “Live from L,” presented by  the Office of the Legal Adviser, U.S. Department of State is taking place this Thursday, February 12th, 2015 12:00 PM – 1:30 PM US Eastern Standard Time. This year’s theme is: “The Role of the Law in the Fight Against ISIL: Use of Force, Sanctions, and Foreign Terrorist Fighters.” The Section of International Law is pleased to announce the fifth annual non-CLE webcast with the Office of the Legal Adviser from the Jacob Burns Moot Courtroom of the George Washington University Law School in Washington, D.C. Cosponsored by the American Society of International Law, the George Washington University Law School, and the Women’s Bar Association of DC International Law Forum Speakers: Mary E. McLeod Acting Legal Adviser, U.S. Department of State Joshua L. Dorosin Assistant Legal Adviser, Office of Political-Military Affairs David M. DeBartolo Attorney Adviser, Office of United Nations Affairs Michael J. Gilles Attorney Adviser, Office of Economic and Business Affairs Samuel W. McDonald Attorney Adviser, Office of Law Enforcement and Intelligence Moderator: Susan L. Karamanian Associate Dean for International and Comparative Legal Studies, George Washington University Law School   Attend the program in person at George Washington University Law School or from the convenience of your desk by webcast or by teleconference. Time permitting, the audience will be given the opportunity to ask questions; those who participate by conference call or by webcast will be provided an email address for questions. Registration: Register to attend in person for FREE Register for the webcast for FREE Register for the teleconference for $15 Click here to register now. 

Call for Papers

• Time is an inherent component of many of the most important international law concepts. However, it also fundamentally determines international law as a field. International law has been in constant dynamic change since its inception. Capturing and understanding this change in time is one of the discipline’s fundamental challenges, as is the difficulty of working with the constantly changing materiae of international law in practice. The Graduate Institute Geneva’s International Law Department is opening a call for papers to create an opportunity to reflect and debate about the fundamentals of international law in depth. The conference is open to both junior and senior international law scholars and practitioners. The deadline for abstract submissions is February 15, 2015. The Conference will be held at the Graduate Institute’s Barton site.
• The second workshop on Sociological Inquiries into International Law will take place at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs on 9-10 October 2015. Scholars and graduate students are invited to submit abstracts by 1 April 2015. For full details, including information about application processes, please see the call for papers.

Announcements

• Hart Publishing is delighted to announce that the 2^nd  issue of the Journal on the Use of Force and International Law (JUFIL) is now available online. The contents include an Introduction by James A Green, Christian Henderson and Tom Ruys; An Editorial Comment on The Use of Force and Islamic State by Christian Henderson; Articles include: The Contemporary Discourse on the Use of Force in the Nineteenth Century: A Diachronic and Critical Analysis by Agatha Verdebout; The Lawfulness of a Use of Force upon Nuclear Facilities in Self-Defence by Arman Sarvarian; Remote Law-Making? American Drone Strikes and the Development of Jus Ad Bellum by Marie Aronsson; Extraterritorial Kidnapping and the Rules on Interstate Force by Helen McDermott; The Digest of State Practice covers the period: 1 January–30 June 2014. Please click here to read the abstracts.

Our previous events and announcements post can be found here. If you would like to post an announcement on Opinio Juris, please contact us with a one-paragraph description of your announcement along with hyperlinks to more information. 

Your weekly selection of international law and international relations headlines from around the world:

Africa

• Malian rebels fought pro-government militia in the northern village of Kano overnight, three security sources said, firing rockets and briefly kidnapping at least 20 people in the latest spike of violence between armed groups.
• Chadian forces have killed 120 militants from Boko Haram in a battle in the north of neighbouring Cameroon that began when the insurgents attacked its troops, the army said in a statement on Saturday, adding that three of its soldiers were killed.
• Nigerians who fled from Boko Haram fighters have now become a headache for Chadian authorities after seeking safety across the border.
• Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has dismissed concerns that his appointment as new African Union chairman would harm relations between the pan-African bloc and the West.
• Suspected Boko Haram fighters have launched an offensive against the key Nigerian city of Maiduguri, the largest city in Borno State, witnesses said.

Middle East and Northern Africa

• At least 10 people have been killed in Yemen over the past four days in attacks led by an al Qaeda’s affiliate against Shi’ite Houthi fighters and the Yemeni army, local officials and the group said.
• Jordan has vowed to do all it can to save the life of a pilot held by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) after the group released a video purportedly showing the killing of Japanese journalist Kenji Goto.
• A suspected U.S. drone strike on a car in Yemen killed three men believed to be al Qaeda militants on Saturday and possibly another drone crashed in a different part of the country, residents said.
• The United States and its allies carried out 27 air strikes against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria since early Friday, the Combined Joint Task Force leading the operation reported on Saturday.

Asia

• Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Monday he wanted to debate the possibility of Japan’s military rescuing Japanese citizens abroad, a day after Islamic State militants said they had beheaded a Japanese journalist.
• Thousands of pro-democracy protesters returned to the streets of Hong Kong on Sunday in the first large-scale rally since demonstrations rocked the global financial hub late last year.

Europe

• Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has struck a conciliatory note hours before Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis was due to seek support for a renegotiation of the country’s $270bn bailout in Paris.
• Artillery attacks on the Ukrainian city of Donetsk killed at least one civilian on Monday while Kiev’s military reported that five more Ukrainian soldiers had been killed in clashes with separatists in the east in the past 24 hours.
• The Appeals Chamber of the ICTY on Friday upheld genocide convictions [PDF] for Vujadin Popovic and Ljubisa Beara for crimes perpetrated by Bosnian Serb forces during the 1995 Srebrenica massacre.

Americas

• North Korea said on Sunday the United States had rejected an invitation to send one of its top diplomats to Pyongyang, accusing Washington of trying to shift the blame for the deadlock in denuclearisation talks on the North.
• A district court held that environmental groups lack standing to challenge the U.S. Export-Import Bank’s approval of a $90 million loan guarantee that supports a three-year, $100 million loan from a private bank to a coal exporter.

Oceania

• Two Australian citizens are next in line to be executed for drug offences in Indonesia, the Southeast Asian nation’s attorney general said on Monday, in a move likely to strain ties between the neighbors. .

UN/World

• Fighting and other violence in Iraq killed at least 1,375 people including 790 civilians in January, the United Nations said on Sunday.
• UN chief Ban Ki-moon has backed an African Union (AU) proposal to send a regional force to fight Boko Haram in Nigeria, as warplanes from Chad carried out air strikes against the armed group.

This week on Opinio Juris saw Deborah note the publication of current Guantanamo detainee Mohammedou Slahi’s diary and her review that appeared in the Washington Post about it. Peter offered further commentary on his first post on John Boehner’s invitation to Benjamin Netanyahu to address the US Congress, specifically in terms of what the invitation says about constitutional change.

Though he never met him in person, Julian noted the passing of Dr. Luke T. Lee, and paid homage to him and his treatise on Consular Law and Practice.

In light of the hostage situation between ISIS and Jordan/Japan, Jens weighed in on hostages and human dignity. Jens also reported on yesterday’s decision at the ICTY Appeals Chamber, upholding genocide charges in the case of The Prosecutor v. Popovic et al. related to the massacre at Srebrenica in July, 1995.

Duncan highlighted his newest paper, this time he’s written An Intersubjective Treaty Power and a guest post came in from Nimrod Karin, responding to Kevin’s critique of his Just Security posts (here and here), about whether Palestine’s joining the ICC amounted to “lawfare.”

And finally, I updated you on the weekly news and also offered the events and announcements post.

Many thanks to our guest contributor and have a nice weekend!

Your weekly selection of international law and international relations headlines from around the world:

Africa

• Top Ugandan rebel commander Dominic Ongwen is due to make his first appearance at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague today to face war crimes charges.
• United Nations experts warned that Sudan’s remote western territories could become a breeding ground for radical Islamists as violence in the country’s conflict-torn Darfur region rages at an alarming level.
• Boko Haram has launched a major offensive in Nigeria’s northeastern city of Maiduguri and the town of Monguno, engaging in fierce battles with the military.

Middle East and Northern Africa

• At least 16 people have been killed in clashes in Cairo between police and protesters on the fourth anniversary of the uprising that toppled President Hosni Mubarak. Additionally, a BBC reporter in Cairo has accused police forces of threatening to kill her while covering protests by Muslim Brotherhood supporters commemorating the 2011 uprising.
• At least seven people have been killed in rocket attacks in Damascus, with at least 53 rockets fired on several neighborhoods in the heaviest attack the Syrian capital has witnessed in recent years.
• The United States and its coalition partners have launched another round of air strikes against Islamic State, conducting 25 strikes, 13 in Iraq, since early Thursday.
• Moroccan authorities said on Sunday they arrested a suspected Algerian member of the militant group responsible for kidnapping and beheading French tourist Herve Gourdel east of Algiers in September.
• Iran’s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif has been summoned before parliament to explain his recent public stroll with US Secretary of State John Kerry during nuclear negotiations, according to a report by the country’s official IRNA news agency.
• The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has reportedly demanded the release of an Iraqi woman detained in Jordan in exchange for a Japanese national they are holding captive, following the group’s apparent killing of another Japanese citizen, which the Japanese have harshly condemned.

Asia

• North Korea called on Thursday for the top United Nations human rights body to investigate allegations of Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) torture in the George W. Bush era, that were contained in a recent Senate report.
• A group calling itself “Official Cyber Caliphate” said it hacked the official website of national carrier Malaysia Airlines, but the airline said its data servers remained intact and passenger bookings were not affected.
• North Korea on Friday demanded the lifting of sanctions, imposed by South Korea after a 2010 attack on one of its naval vessels, as a condition for resuming dialogue.

Europe

• Spain will start talks with the United States about further increasing the number of U.S. troops at an air base in the south of the country, Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria said on Friday.
• France’s top court ruled on Friday it was possible to strip the nationality of a Franco-Moroccan man naturalized as French who was convicted on terrorism charges, paving the way for more dual nationality jihadists to lose their passports.
• Pro-Moscow rebels, backed by what NATO says is the open participation of Russian troops, pressed on with their offensive on Sunday after restarting the war in eastern Ukraine with the first all-out assault since a truce five months ago.
• Senior figures in the European Union brandished a threat of new sanctions against Russia over the weekend violence in eastern Ukraine, with one blasting what he called “appeasement” of Moscow.
• The European Union on Friday suspended some budget assistance to Guyana on the grounds that President Donald Ramotar’s 2014 suspension of parliament has left the nation without adequate supervision of state spending.

Americas

• US Secretary of State John Kerry says the US is prepared to do more to help Nigeria fight Boko Haram.
• President Barack Obama on Sunday defended his administration’s drone-based counter-terrorism strategy against al Qaeda militants in Yemen, saying the alternative would be to deploy U.S. troops, which was not sustainable: “It is not neat and it is not simple, but it is the best option that we have,” Obama told reporters at a news conference in New Delhi.
• A senior U.S. diplomat in Cuba for negotiations on restoring long-frozen diplomatic relations met a group of dissidents on Friday, seeking to underline Washington’s concern over human rights but irritating the island’s communist government.
• Prime Minister Stephen Harper denied on Thursday that Canadian military advisers in Iraq would be dragged into combat against Islamic State militants despite a recent clash but said Canada’s forces would kill anyone who attacked them.

Oceania

• Conservative Prime Minister Tony Abbott has awarded Australia’s highest honor to Prince Philip, husband of Queen Elizabeth, sparking a barrage of criticism across the country on its national day of celebration. The award grated with republicans who want to sever ties with Britain and appoint an Australian president.
• Australia called on Indonesia on Friday to reconsider its decision to execute two Australians convicted of drug offences, a move that is likely to strain already fragile ties between the two neighbors.
• The United States has agreed that Australian David Hicks, jailed on terrorism charges for five years at Guantanamo, is innocent, his lawyer said on Friday.

UN/World

• A new round of U.N. talks between rival Libyan factions will take place in Geneva on Monday, the United Nations said, even as gunmen kidnapped the deputy foreign minister of the recognised government.
• The World Health Organisation (WHO) has admitted that the Ebola outbreak in West Africa revealed “inadequacies and shortcomings” in how it responds to crises.

Call for papers

• International Colloquium – Current Issues of Agricultural Law in a Global Perspective, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna Pisa, September 17-18, 2015. The Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna and the Institute of Law, Politics and Sustainability are pleased to announce the First Edition of the International Colloquium on Current Issues in Agricultural Law in a Global Perspective. The Colloquium is intended to be an opportunity for Post Docs and Ph.D Candidates to present and discuss their research results and methodological approaches in a supportive environment. The aim is to build a community of early career researchers interested in agricultural law and its intersections with other legal areas. We welcome both theoretical and empirical papers as well as studies on issues at the local, regional and international levels. The main topics include: Natural Resources and Environmental Protection at the cross-roads with Agricultural Law; Agricultural models and People’s Rights; Agri-Food Production: Tradition and Technologies; International Trade Agreements, Investment Law and Agriculture. Those interested should submit a short CV and 400 word abstract to colloquium [at] sssup [dot] it no later than April 3, 2015. For full details, including information about application processes, please see the official Call for Papers

Announcements

• ALMA and the Radzyner School of Law of the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) Herzliya would like to invite you to next session of the Joint International Humanitarian Law Forum. The session will be held on Wednesday, January 28, 2015, 18:30 in room C110 (Arazi-Ofer Building, 2nd floor) at the IDC. In this session Adv. Efrat Bergman-Sapir, the Director of the Legal Department of the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel will discuss: Torture under the Protection of the Law? From HCJ to CIA (following the release of the U.S. Senate Torture Report). Following the presentation, there will be an open round table discussion. Please note that the session will be conducted in Hebrew. The meeting is free and open to the public. If you wish to attend the meeting please register in advance via forum [at] alma-ihl [dot] org.

Our previous events and announcements post can be found here. If you would like to post an announcement on Opinio Juris, please contact us with a one-paragraph description of your announcement along with hyperlinks to more information. 

Your weekly selection of international law and international relations headlines from around the world:

Africa

• At least 80 people have been abducted and three others killed in a cross-border raid in northern Cameroon by the Nigerian armed group Boko Haram, officials have said. Nigeria’s neighbors are banding together to fight the armed group; a contingent of soldiers from Chad has arrived in northern Cameroon where it will deploy to the Nigerian border as part of efforts to contain Boko Haram fighters.
• Mali’s government and the United Nations have declared the West African nation free of Ebola following a 42-day period without a new case of the deadly virus.

Middle East and Northern Africa

• Negotiators for Iran and six global powers, striving to reach a complex deal on Tehran’s nuclear program, have had “serious and useful” discussions in Geneva and will meet again next month, the European Union has said.
• Israel said on Sunday it had cracked the first Islamic State cell on its soil, made up of seven Arab citizens who would be prosecuted on charges of planning attacks in the Jewish state and communicating with the insurgent group in Syria.
• Israel is lobbying member-states of the International Criminal Court to cut funding for the tribunal in response to its launch of an inquiry into possible war crimes in the Palestinian territories, the country’s foreign minister said on Sunday.

Asia

• A senior Afghan army general has told Al Jazeera that the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group has been active in Afghanistan.
• Tens of thousands of people staged a rally on Monday in Russia’s Chechnya region against French magazine Charlie Hebdo’s cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad, which the predominantly Muslim region’s leader denounced as “vulgar and immoral”.
• Chinese police shot dead two ethnic Uighurs trying to cross the border with Vietnam, state media said on Monday, as the public security ministry accused a separatist group of orchestrating hundreds of cases of human smuggling.
• Nigeria, Brazil and the Netherlands recalled their ambassadors in Indonesia after the Southeast Asian nation ignored their pleas for clemency and executed six prisoners for drug offences on Sunday, the first executions under President Joko Widodo. Australia could do the same.
• Five Pakistani men have been arrested in Afghanistan in connection with the Taliban massacre of 134 school children in the Pakistani city of Peshawar last month, officials from both countries said on Sunday.
• A North Korean defector whose escape from a brutal prison camp was the subject of a bestselling book has changed key parts of his story and on Sunday apologized for misleading people.

Europe

• The European Union said on Monday it would appeal against a court ruling that the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas should be removed from the bloc’s terrorist list.
• Ukrainian troops have recaptured almost all the territory of Donetsk airport in eastern Ukraine they had lost to separatists in recent weeks and thousands gathered in Kiev for a state-sponsored peace march.
• British Prime Minister David Cameron said there was “a right to cause offense about someone’s religion” in a free society, drawing a distinction between himself and Pope Francis in their response to the deadly Islamist attacks in Paris.

Americas

• A delegation of US congressional Democrats began a three-day visit to Cuba to discuss expectations for the normalisation of relations between the United States and the island nation.

UN/World

• U.N. peacekeepers in Central African Republic have arrested a senior leader of the anti-balaka militia, wanted for crimes including murder, rebellion, rape and looting, the country’s senior prosecutor said on Sunday.

This week, we celebrated Opinio Juris’ 10th anniversary, with our permabloggers weighing in with their thoughts on the last decade of blogging. Julian kicked the discussion off with how the legal blogosphere has changed over the last ten years. Roger reflected on blogging and the marketplace of ideas. In Peter’s musings, he explored the evolution of international law as well as the role blogging has played and will play in the future. Duncan shared nine realizations that he has made over the last decade through blogging and teaching. Making international law no longer the invisible college but visible and accessible was at the heart of Peggy’s contribution.

Chris asked about the must-reads and key scholarly texts in international law over the last decade. Through tracing her own journey into international law, Deborah thanked Opinio Juris and the readers for the conversation. Kevin reflected on how blogging enhanced his career, and helped him to develop into the nicer, kinder blog version of himself he is today. Jens touched on the real-world impact blogging can and does have, while hoping for a continued discourse. Kristin capped the joviality off by wishing the blog a happy birthday and looking forward to the continued discussion.

Other contributions of note this week were two guest posts. The first from Rebecca Hamilton posed the question: When should the ICC call it quits? The second, by Oliver Windridge, was a great overview of the activities of the African Court of Human and Peoples’ Rights from 2014.

Duncan congratulated Dean Andrew Guzman on his new appointment at USC’s Gould School of Law and Kevin pondered the case of Roger Ver and whether renouncing US citizenship for “selfish economic reasons” makes you a bad person. And as usual, I wrapped up the week’s headlines and posted Events and Announcements.

Thanks for following us this week, and over the last decade. We’re very grateful to you readers for being part of the development of Opinio Juris and hope that the conversation continues far into the future.