Here’s your weekly selection of international law and international relations headlines from around the world:

Africa

• The purported leader of Nigerian Islamist militant group Boko Haram Abubakar Shekau appeared in a video posted on social media on Sunday in which he rejected statements by the country’s military that he had been seriously wounded.
• The United Nations, the African Union and the European Union pressed Democratic Republic of Congo leaders on Saturday to urge their supporters to refrain from violence as the International Criminal Court prosecutor warned she was watching the situation.

Middle East and Northern Africa

• The United States called Russia’s action in Syria “barbarism”, while Moscow’s UN envoy said ending the war was “almost an impossible task”, as government forces relentlessly bombed the besieged city of Aleppo.
• Yemen plans to complain to the U.N. Security Council over what it says are Iran’s weapon transfers to Houthi allies fighting the internationally recognized Yemeni government, the foreign minister said on Saturday.
• Four alleged members of al Qaeda’s Yemen branch, including a local commander, were killed in a suspected U.S. drone strike on a vehicle traveling east of the capital Sanaa, two local officials said on Saturday.

Asia

• India, the world’s third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases, will formally join the Paris agreement on climate change on October 2, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Sunday.
• China’s air force says it flew more than 40 bombers and other fighter planes through a strait between Japanese islands on their way to military drills in the western Pacific.
• The planned U.S. deployment of the THAAD anti-missile system in South Korea is not negotiable as part of efforts to agree new U.N. sanctions on North Korea after its fifth nuclear test, but Washington is confident tougher steps will be agreed before long, the senior U.S. diplomat for Asia said on Friday.

Europe

• French President Francois Hollande has confirmed plans to close the Calais refugee camp in northern France, while German Chancellor Angela Merkel called for Europe to secure deals with third countries to assist in the return of migrants.
• More than 15,000 people gathered in Helsinki on Saturday to protest against racism and violence, after the death of a man assaulted during a neo-Nazi rally in the city earlier this month.
• A group opposed to Britain’s exit from the European Union has accused the government of refusing to allow it to make public the official justification for triggering Article 50 to start the Brexit process without a parliamentary vote.
• German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen said she does not expect Britain to block a Franco-German initiative to deepen military cooperation among the 27 remaining European Union members after Britain’s vote to leave the bloc.

Americas

• Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos and Marxist rebel leader Timochenko will sign a deal on Monday ending a half-century war that killed a quarter of a million people, stymied the economy and made Colombia a byword for violence.
• More than 100 illegal immigrants are entering the small Central American country of Costa Rica every day, looking for “coyotes” to take them across the Nicaraguan border and on toward the United States, President Luis Solis said on Friday.
• US President Barack Obama has vetoed a bill that would have allowed the families of the victims of the September 11, 2001, attacks to sue the government of Saudi Arabia.

Oceania

• The United Nations special rapporteur on the human rights of migrants will visit Australia in November, more than one year after he cancelled his visit due to concerns over immigration legislation.
• Fiji’s Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama has criticised what he calls New Zealand and Australia’s “stark double standards” on human rights.

UN/World

• The United Nations Security Council urged China, the United States, North Korea, Egypt, India, Iran, Israel and Pakistan to ratify a treaty (CTBT) banning nuclear explosions, which would allow the deal negotiated 20 years ago to come into force.
• The United States, Britain and France have called for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council to discuss the escalating violence in Syria’s second city of Aleppo following a rising civilian death toll and impending humanitarian crisis.
• A political battle should be waged to bring tax havens into the light and allow governments to receive revenue currently lost in offshore accounts, Ecuador’s Foreign Minister Guillaume Long told the United Nations General Assembly on Friday.

This week, we are hosting a symposium on the Protection of Civilians, a volume recently published by Oxford University Press, edited by Haidi Willmot, United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations; Ralph Mamiya, team leader, Protections of Civilians at the United Nations’ Department of Peacekeeping Operations; Scott Sheeran, Senior Lecturer, Director of the LLMs and MAs in International Human Rights, School of Law and Human Rights Centre, University of Essex; and Marc Weller, Professor of International Law and International Constitutional Studies, at the University of Cambridge, and the Director of the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law.

The volume’s description:

The protection of civilians is a highly topical issue at the forefront of international discourse, and has taken a prominent role in many international deployments. It has been at the centre of debates on the NATO intervention in Libya, UN deployments in Darfur, South Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and on the failures of the international community in Sri Lanka and Syria. Variously described as a moral responsibility, a legal obligation, a mandated peacekeeping task, and the culmination of humanitarian activity, it has become a high-profile concern of governments, international organisations, and civil society, and a central issue in international peace and security.

This book offers a multidisciplinary treatment of this important topic, harnessing perspectives from international law and international relations, traversing academia and practice. Moving from the historical and philosophical development of the civilian protection concept, through relevant bodies of international law and normative underpinnings, and on to politics and practice, the volume presents coherent cross-cutting analysis of the realities of conflict and diplomacy. In doing so, it engages a series of current debates, including on the role of politics in what has often been characterized as a humanitarian endeavour, and the challenges and impacts of the use of force.

The work brings together a wide array of eminent academics and respected practitioners, incorporating contributions from legal scholars and ethicists, political commentators, diplomats, UN officials, military commanders, development experts and humanitarian aid workers. As the most comprehensive publication on the subject, this will be a first port of call for anyone studying or working towards a better protection of civilians in conflict.

In addition to Ralph Mamiya’s introductory and concluding remarks, there will be posts from Siobhan Wills, Mona Ali Khalil, Ray Murphy, Marten Zwanenburg and Kjetil Mujezinović Larsen. We look forward to the discussion from our contributors and the ensuing commentary from our readers.

The summer is coming to a close and so is our fourth annual Emerging Voices Symposium. We have featured fantastic posts from emerging scholars, practitioners and students over the course of the summer and a roundup follows of what it is that they have covered.

Alexandra Hofer started our 2016 edition off with her post on assessing the role of the European Union as an enforcer of international law in the Ukranian crisis, concluding that both the EU and Russia ought to change their practices in order to escape the stalemate in which they currently find themselves. Wolfgang Alschner weighed in on a novel approach to dealing with the complexities of international law in his post on computational analysis of international law, specifically focusing on text-as-data tools for investigating international investment agreements.

Our next post featured an analysis by Andrea Bowdren of the trial of Ahmed Al Faqi Al Mahdi before the International Criminal Court, which represented a series of firsts for international law and justice. as Al Mahdi is the first individual from Mali brought before the ICC, the first Islamic extremist to face charges at the ICC, the first individual to be prosecuted solely for cultural destruction as a war crime, and the first individual who indicated an intention to plead guilty to an ICC charge (which he subsequently did). John Coyle asked whether foreign investors can enforce international investment law in U.S. courts, and after a careful analysis concluded that the government should at least consider the possibility that an FCN treaty might impose legally enforceable limitations on its freedom of action.

The Symposium continued with Jenny Poon’s insightful contribution discussing whether the margin of appreciation accorded to European Union Member States is too wide, which may lead to violations of international law and used the topic of asylum as a lens in which to analyze this question, ultimately calling for more clarification on the margin of appreciation in order to protect the rights of the vulnerable. Myriam Feinberg weighed in with a thoughtful analysis of the role of international organizations in the context of sovereignty in the age of global terrorism, contending that this can be examined in the wider context of state sovereignty, even though a number of international law analyses consider the concept of State sovereignty obsolete or in need of reform.

Amina Adanan discussed the role of national prosecutors in the context of domestic regulation of universal jurisdiction, concluding, in particular, a balance must be struck between prosecutorial discretion and the need to prevent impunity for the worst atrocities, after a thorough analysis. Finally, Grazyna Baranowska analyzed the European Court of Human Rights and women affected by the disapperance of their relatives, positing several alternatives for action and concluding that actions that countries should take in order to address specific needs of female relatives of disappeared persons face could be included in ECtHR judgments.

Thank you again to all of our participants. We hope you have all enjoyed reading and interacting with the contributions in our fourth annual Emerging Voices Symposium.

Event

• The Minerva Center for the Rule of Law under Extreme Conditions at the University of Haifa is hosting a “Young Researchers Workshop on Terrorism and Belligerency” between September 7-19. Though this event is by invitation only, you can contact the organizer at bmichel [at] geo [dot] haifa [dot] ac [dot] il; additionally, information about the streaming of the event can be found on the Minerva RLEC YouTube channel will be available on the event website and the Minerva RLEC Facebook page.

Calls for Papers

• The Wisconsin International Law Journal announces its Annual Symposium March 31, 2017, University of Wisconsin Law School with the theme of: “Regional Human Rights Systems in Crisis.” For this event, they have issued this call for papers. WILJ invites submission of abstracts of not more than 500 words from legal scholars and practitioners in the fields of regional human rights and international law. The submission deadline is September 15, 2016, and applicants will be notified by October 10, 2016.
• Call for Papers: Cognitive Sociology, Culture, and International Law. iCourts, Centre of Excellence for International Courts, University of Copenhagen, 28-29 April 2017. The third workshop on the sociology of international law aims to break open the study of interactions between various cognitive processes and the formation, interpretation and implementation of international law. More information can be found here.
• The Cambridge International Law Journal (CILJ) is a double-blind, peer-reviewed journal run by members of the postgraduate community at the Cambridge University Law Faculty. The CILJ is the successor journal to the Cambridge Journal of International and Comparative Law (www.cjicl.org.uk) and is now published by Edward Elgar Publishing. The Editorial Board is pleased to invite submissions for its sixth volume. General call for submissions – International law The Board welcomes long articles, short articles, case notes and book reviews that engage with current themes in international law and EU law. All submissions are subject to double-blind peer review by our Editorial Board. In addition, all long articles are sent to our Academic Review Board, which consists of distinguished international law scholars and practitioners. The deadline for submissions is 28th October 2016 at 11.59 p.m. Submissions received by this date will be considered for publication in Volume 6, Issue 1, to be published in Spring 2017. Further submission information The Journal accepts the following types of manuscript:

  1. Long Articles between 6,000 and 10,000 words but not exceeding 12,000 words including footnotes;
  2. Short Articles not exceeding 6,000 words including footnotes;
  3. Case Notes, including substantive analysis, not exceeding 3000 words including footnotes; and
  4. Book Reviews not exceeding 2500 words including footnotes.
  Please list the word count of the text and the footnotes on your manuscript. All copies must be submitted in Word (.doc) or (.docx) format and must conform to our style guidelines, which are available at the following links: OSCOLA Fourth edition; OSCOLA: Citing International Law Sources. To submit, please follow this link. Please ensure that your manuscript does not contain any reference to your personal or professional identity. For further information, please email us at editors [at] cilj [dot] co [dot] uk

Announcements

• The Centre for War Studies (CWS) at the University of Southern Denmark in Odense is currently advertising a post as Assistant Professor with starting date 1 November 2016 or soon thereafter. CWS is an interdisciplinary research centre rooted in the Departments of Political Science, Law and Cultural Studies. The successful applicant will be skilled at organizing policy and public outreach activities, including workshops, partner networks and various communication platforms. The teaching load will include contributions to the interdisciplinary master degree in “International Security and Law”. The successful candidate can be trained either in international law or international relations, but should research issues of relevance to both communities. This position has been created to advance both interdisciplinary research collaboration and outreach, and if after three years the initiative proves successful, the Departments of Political Science and Law will fund a tenured position, budgets allowing. For more information and the application form see the official job advert. The deadline for applications is 15 September 2016.
• The Codification Division of the UN Office of Legal Affairs recently added new lectures to the UN Audiovisual Library of International Law website, which provides high quality international law training and research materials to users around the world free of charge. The latest lectures were given by Professor Emmanuel Decaux on “Les défis juridiques de la Convention internationale pour la protection de toutes les personnes contre les disparitions forcées” and Mr. Olufemi Elias on “An Introduction to the Law of the International Civil Service”, “The Chemical Weapons Convention, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and Non-State Actors”.
• The ICRC has recently issued its quarterly bibliography. For older issues, comments, unsubscribing and feedback, please contact library [at] icrc [dot] org  We take this opportunity to inform you that the annual version for the year 2015 will soon be out (paper and ebook).
  If you wish to receive a paper copy either for yourself or for your institution’s library, we will be glad to send you one free of charge. Please send an email to library [at] icrc [dot] org with the following subject: IHL bibliography 2015 – order.
• The European Inter-University Centre for Human Rights and Democratisation (EIUC) is proud to launch the first MOOC of the Global Campus Open Learning Series. With contributions by academic and experts from all the regions of the world, the Global Campus massive online courses provide open access to highly qualified learning on topical human rights concerns. The Series opens on 12 September 2016 with a MOOC on “Disability as a human rights issue: global and national perspectives”.
  Enrolment to our GC MOOC is FREE and available on Canvas.net until 14 October 2016
  Course dates: 12 September-24 October 2016
  Duration: 6 weeks – Commitment: 5 hours/week
  Requirements: participation in 4 weekly discussions and completion of 2 quizzes
  Course type: instructor-led
  Credentials: certificate of participation

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.

Here’s your weekly selection of international law and international relations headlines from around the world:

Africa

• Nigeria would let Boko Haram choose a non-profit organization as an intermediary in any talks on the release of about 200 schoolgirls kidnapped from the northeastern village of Chibok in 2014, President Muhammadu Buhari said on Sunday.
• A landmine planted by Islamist group Boko Haram killed four Chadian soldiers on patrol near Chad’s border with Niger on Saturday, two security sources said.
• Japan will invest $30bn in Africa over the next three years, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has pledged at a summit in Kenya.

Middle East and Northern Africa

• Almost a year and a half into Saudi Arabia’s U.S.-backed bombing campaign in Yemen, the humanitarian toll has become so extensive that the International Committee of the Red Cross has taken the unusual step of donating entire morgue units to Yemeni hospitals.
• Iraq has asked Saudi Arabia to replace its ambassador in Baghdad after he said that Iranian-backed Shia units are aggravating tensions with Sunni Muslims in Iraq.
• The United Nations Special Envoy for Syria called for all warring sides to agree by Sunday to allow the first safe delivery of relief supplies to the divided city of Aleppo.

Asia

• A knife-wielding Indonesian teen who tried to attack a priest at a church during a Sunday service was “obsessed” with extremist group Islamic State, a senior minister said on Monday.
• China is hoping to cement its standing as a global power when it hosts leaders from the world’s biggest economies this weekend, but suspects the West and its allies will try to deny Beijing what it sees as its rightful place on the international stage.

Europe

• A bomb exploded at the Brussels Institute of Criminology in the north of the Belgian capital on Monday but the building was empty and no one was wounded, broadcaster RTL said.
• About 1,100 migrants were rescued from boats in the Strait of Sicily on Sunday as they tried to reach Europe, Italy’s coastguard said.
• A law banning the full-body “burkini” swimsuit in France would stoke tensions between communities and would be both unconstitutional and ineffective, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said in an interview published on Sunday; France’s highest administrative court, the Council of State, ruled on Friday against a decision to ban the burkini by the mayor of the resort town of Villeneuve-Loubet.
• Social media users have expressed anger after a video posted online appeared to show two Muslim women in France being told to leave a restaurant by a man, reportedly the eatery’s boss, who called all Muslims “terrorists”.
• Germany, Poland and France vowed on Sunday to reinvigorate the “Weimar Triangle” group first formed 25 years ago after the end of the Cold War to help deal with the many challenges now facing Europe, including Britain’s vote to leave the European Union.

Americas

• A ceasefire to end the 52-year-old war between the Colombian state and FARC fighters has gone into effect, with a full peace agreement expected to be signed in September.
• Eight Paraguayan soldiers have been killed by a roadside bombing, according to the government, in an attack blamed on a Marxist armed group.

Oceania

• An Australian aid worker kidnapped in Afghanistan four months ago was freed following a raid by Afghan special forces near the eastern city of Jalalabad, officials said on Monday.
• Thousands of protesters across Australia have held rallies to demand the closure of the country’s overseas refugee detention centres.

UN/World

• Air pollution caused by war may be a major factor in the numbers of birth defects and cancers being reported in Iraq and other war zones, a study has suggested.
• French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said he was pressing members of the U.N. Security Council, including Russia, to condemn the Syrian government after a report found Syrian troops had used chemical weapons.
• Debates shine only a half-light on UN Secretary General selection process.

Here’s your weekly selection of international law and international relations headlines from around the world:

Africa

• A military court in the Democratic Republic of Congo has begun the trial of 215 members of an armed group accused of killing hundreds of civilians in and around Beni town in the country’s northeast.
• U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and counterparts from eight African nations meet in Nairobi on Monday to discuss ways to prevent South Sudan from sliding back into civil war and advance a political transition in Somalia.
• A suicide bomber on a motorbike killed three people and wounded 24 at a market in north Cameroon, where armed group Boko Haram has been waging an armed rebellion since 2009, authorities said.

Middle East and Northern Africa

• A Syrian army helicopter dropped incendiary “barrel bombs” on the only hospital in besieged, opposition-held Daraya early on Friday, putting it out of action, rebels and a war monitor said.
• Syrian government jets have continued to pound Kurdish-controlled parts of the northeastern city of Hasakah for a second day, killing at least 22 residents and forcing thousands to flee.
• Islamic State has claimed responsibility for an attack on a traffic police post outside Moscow on Wednesday in which both attackers were killed, calling it revenge for Russia’s aerial bombing campaign in Syria.
• A newly-formed governing council in Yemen could work with Russia to “fight terrorism” by allowing Moscow use of the war-torn country’s military bases, Yemen’s former president said on Sunday.

Asia

• Japan aims to develop a prototype drone fighter jet in two decades with private sector help in a technology strategy that focuses on weapons communications and lasers, according to a document seen by Reuters.
• China’s navy has carried out drills in the Sea of Japan, the Chinese military’s official newspaper said on Friday, describing the exercises as routine and done in accordance with international law and practice.
• China is eyeing the use of a high level of artificial intelligence and automation for its next generation of cruise missiles, a senior designer was quoted as saying on Friday.
• The United States and South Korea kicked off annual military exercises on Monday, prompting warnings of retaliation from the North, as already-heightened tension on the peninsula has been inflamed by the defection of a Pyongyang diplomat.
• Vietnam, with its strong export-led economy and potential for growth, is tipped to significantly benefit from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).

Europe

• A Dutch-based lawyer for a Palestinian human rights organization has been the target of a campaign of intimidation she believes is aimed at discouraging her cooperation with the International Criminal Court, and suspects Israel as being behind the campaign.
• Germany’s interior minister has proposed a partial ban of the burqa, the full-face veil worn by some Muslim women, as a nationwide debate rages over integration.
• Nice has become the latest French resort to ban the burkini, the full-body Islamic swimsuit that has sparked heated debate in secular France.
• British Prime Minister Theresa May will not begin formal divorce talks on leaving the European Union before the end of the year, a government spokeswoman said on Friday.
• Racial inequality is getting worse in the United Kingdom, with young black people and ethnic minorities suffering “institutional racism” and “unfairness” in the fields of education, employment and the criminal justice system, a human rights watchdog has said, noting an “unprecedented spike” in incidents since the Brexit vote concluded.

Americas

• The FBI and U.S. Justice Department are investigating possible U.S. ties to alleged corruption involving the former president of Ukraine, including the work of firms headed by political operatives Paul Manafort and Tony Podesta, CNN reported on Friday, citing multiple U.S. law enforcement officials.
• The United States is looking at whether Russia has violated a U.N. Security Council resolution on military dealings with Tehran by using an Iranian air base to carry out strikes inside Syria, the State Department said on Wednesday.

Oceania

• Concerns raised by activists around negotiations for the regional trade deal called PACER PLUS have been dismissed by a spokesperson for the Pacific Island Forum countries.

UN/World

• The United Nations acknowledged on Thursday that it played a role in the 2010 Haiti cholera outbreak that has killed nearly 10,000 Haitians and infected more than 770,000.
• The Philippine is not leaving the United Nations, the foreign minister said on Monday, a day after President Rodrigo Duterte threatened to quit the body after it called for an end to the wave of killings unleashed by his war on drugs.
• Experts from the United Nations have warned that an increasing number of adept fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and al-Qaeda are using encrypted messaging and dark-web forums to covertly plan potential attacks after returning home.
• South Sudan’s former vice president and opposition leader Riek Machar “is in the care” of the authorities in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the United Nations has said, several weeks after he withdrew from the capital Juba during fierce fighting with government troops.

Here’s your weekly selection of international law and international relations headlines from around the world:

Africa

• At least 64 people have been killed in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in an attack carried out by suspected rebels.
• Nigerian militant group Boko Haram has published a video apparently showing recent footage of dozens of school girls kidnapped two years ago, and saying some of them have been killed in air strikes.
• South Sudan said on Sunday it would consider the U.N.’s decision to authorize sending extra troops to the country following an eruption of fierce fighting, softening its stance after initially rejecting the initiative.

Middle East and Northern Africa

• Hundreds of civilians have been killed in both Syrian government and rebel attacks across the war-torn country in recent days, according to local activist groups.
• A suicide bomber detonated an explosive vest on a bus in Syria near the Atmeh border crossing into Turkey late on Sunday, killing at least 15 people and injuring 25 others, some critically, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
• Thousands of displaced residents streamed back into the northern Syrian town of Manbij on Saturday after U.S.-backed fighters ousted the last Islamic State militants from their former stronghold, residents and U.S. allies said.
• The Turkish government has hosted Iran’s top diplomat, in a move seen as a shift in foreign policy after last month’s failed coup attempt.

Asia

• Thai authorities have reportedly asked for help from Malaysia in tracking down the owner of a mobile phone used to detonate one of the explosives in the recent wave of bombings that targeted some of Thailand’s best-known tourist destinations.
• Nepal’s Maoist Prime Minister Prachanda sent one of his trusted lieutenants from the insurgency period as a special envoy to China on Monday, seeking to clear confusion over the future of agreements signed by his predecessor.

Europe

• Britain’s exit from the European Union could be delayed until at least late 2019 because the government was too “chaotic” to start the two-year process early next year, the Sunday Times reported, citing sources it said were briefed by ministers.
• The European Union should grant Turks visa-free travel in October or the migrant deal that involves Turkey stemming the flow of illegal migrants to the bloc should put be put aside, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told a German newspaper.

Americas

• Days after police foiled what they called a terrorist plot, a Canadian law enforcement body was preparing to make the case for reopening the federal bomb analysis center, which was shut in April for budget reasons.
• Thousands of Venezuelans were welcomed to Colombia by a military band early on Saturday morning as the two countries’ borders were officially reopened after being closed by Venezuela a year ago.

Oceania

• The devastating trauma and abuse inflicted on children held by Australia in offshore detention has been laid bare in the largest cache of leaked documents released from inside its immigration regime.

UN/World

• The United Nations today sounded the alarm over a spike in violence in crisis-torn Yemen, as the world body’s human rights wing reported the number of civilian casualties in the conflict has been “steadily mounting,” with some 815 casualties since April alone.

Here’s your weekly selection of international law and international relations headlines from around the world:

Africa

• The United States has recommended that the United Nations Security Council authorise a force of 4,000 peacekeepers for South Sudan’s capital Juba after a recent outbreak of violence.
• A United Nations peacekeeper was killed and four others wounded on Sunday when their vehicle hit a mine in Mali’s restive north, the U.N. mission (MINUSMA) said.
• Somali Islamist group al Shabaab on Saturday shelled residential areas in the town of Baidoa, west of the capital Mogadishu, hitting a hospital and likely causing casualties, the African Union (AU) peace keeping force AMISOM said in a Twitter post.

Middle East and Northern Africa

• Islamic State suicide bombers on Sunday attacked a military base for U.S.-backed fighters near the Syrian-Iraqi border, leaving several dead before blowing themselves up, rebel sources and the militants said on Sunday.
• Iran intends to purchase 20 regional jets from a unit of Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, according to Asghar Fakhrieh Kashan, deputy minister for international affairs at the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development.
• Authorities in the United Arab Emirates have warned the public that “criminal groups propagating radical ideologies” could spread violent ideas and rebellious behavior among young people through video gaming.

Asia

• Japan marked the 71st anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima on Saturday as its mayor urged world leaders to follow in U.S. President Barack Obama’s footsteps and visit, and ultimately rid the world of nuclear arms.
• Former Philippine President Fidel Ramos on Monday departed on a five-day trip to Hong Kong to meet “old friends” and rekindle ties with China soured by a maritime dispute in the South China Sea.
• Indonesian authorities said on Monday that several suspected radicals arrested on Batam island last week were part of a group that has “dozens of members” and has been active for two years; anti-terror forces arrested six men on Friday on suspicion of planning a rocket attack on neighboring Singapore.
• A bomb blast at a Pakistani hospital killed at least 30 people and wounded dozens on Monday in Quetta, the capital of the violence-plagued southwestern province of Baluchistan, police said.
• For the second time in two days, Japan has protested to Beijing over Chinese coastguard ships and fishing vessels sailing into waters close to disputed islands in the East China Sea.
• Militants linked to Islamic State have released photos that purport to show weapons and equipment that belonged to American soldiers and were captured by the group in eastern Afghanistan.

Europe

• Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz has threatened to block the expansion of negotiations with Turkey on its accession to the European Union, which could scupper a landmark migration deal between Brussels and Ankara.
• Most Germans think the European Union should scrap a landmark migration deal with Turkey and scupper negotiations on its accession to the bloc, according to a poll published on Sunday.
• Islamic State claimed responsibility on Sunday for an attack by a machete-wielding man in Belgium that left two female police officers seriously injured, the group’s Amaq news agency said on Twitter.
• More than 100 migrants broke through police barriers at the Italian border town of Ventimiglia and made their way into France on Friday, the local Italian police chief said.

Americas

• Cuba has blamed the United States for encouraging illegal and unsafe immigration by tens of thousands of Cubans who have left the country in the past two years.
• The U.S. Coast Guard has repatriated 97 Cuban migrants picked up at sea, part of a surge in attempts to reach the United States from the Communist-run island, the service said on Saturday.
• A Philippine lawmaker is seeking to permanently ban U.S. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump from visiting the Southeast Asian nation after the billionaire called it one of the “terrorist nations.”

Oceania

• A member of an Australian anti-immigration group accused of planning an attack may face additional charges in what the government said was the first time federal terrorism laws had been used to target such right-wing groups.

UN/World

• Former Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Guterres is still the front-runner to become the next United Nations Secretary-General after a second U.N. Security Council secret ballot on Friday, said diplomats.

Here’s your weekly selection of international law and international relations headlines from around the world:

Africa

• United Nations children’s agency UNICEF said it is continuing its aid work in northeastern Nigeria, a former stronghold of Islamist militant group Boko Haram, despite an attack on a humanitarian convoy earlier this week.
• Several people have been killed in an assault on a police base in the Somali capital, Mogadishu.
• An aircraft wing part found in Tanzania is “highly likely” to be part of missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, an Australian government minister said on Friday, in what would be the second confirmed piece of the jetliner.

Middle East and Northern Africa

• A Syrian maternity hospital in a rebel-held area of Idlib province was extensively damaged on Friday after a direct hit, international charity Save the Children, which supports the hospital, said.
• Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has lashed out at Western leaders for failing to show solidarity with Ankara over a failed coup attempt, saying countries who worry more about the fate of the perpetrators than democracy cannot be Turkey’s friends.
• Up to one million Iraqis risk facing displacement in the coming weeks as fighting intensifies ahead of a government offensive to retake the northern city of Mosul from ISIL, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
• Islamic State called on its group members to carry out jihad in Russia in a nine-minute YouTube video on Sunday. Islamic State, losing territory and on the retreat in Iraq and Syria, has claimed credit for a surge in global attacks this summer, most of them in France and Germany.

Asia

• British Prime Minister Theresa May was concerned about the security implications of a planned Chinese investment in the new Hinkley Point nuclear plant and intervened personally to delay the project, a former colleague and a source said on Saturday.
• Nepal’s Maithil women break traditional gender roles.
• The United States military said on Friday it was preparing for the biggest land return in Okinawa since 1972, as it faces a surge in opposition to its presence following the arrest of one its civilian contractors for the murder of a local woman.

Europe

• Almost as many Europe-bound asylum seekers and irregular migrants have died on desperate journeys so far this year than in all of 2015, the deadliest year on record for refugees.
• Belgium charged a man with planning to commit murder in a terrorist attack and released his brother after a series of house searches on Friday evening, federal prosecutors said.

Americas

• Brazilian authorities on Saturday arrested a man wanted since 1992 for allegedly committing war crimes during fighting that raged in the former Yugoslavia.
• U.S.-backed forces have now seized control of almost 70 percent of Manbij in northern Syria from Islamic State after making rapid advances over the past two days, a spokesman said on Sunday.

Oceania

• The head of an Australian inquiry into the abuse of children in detention resigned on Monday, four days after being appointed to investigate prison video of aboriginal boys being abused, citing his lack of support from the country’s indigenous leaders.
• Australians have rallied against the alleged mistreatment of young people in detention, including the hooding and physical restraint of teens, amid calls for an inquiry into the abuse to be expanded and the United Nation High Commission on Human Rights called on Australia on Friday to compensate children abused in prison.

UN/World

• The U.N. Deputy Special Envoy for Syria on Sunday held talks with Syrian officials in Damascus to sound out their position on how to break an impasse hindering the proposed resumption of peace talks around the end of August.

Our Fourth Annual Emerging Voices Symposium will kick off tomorrow. It features contributions from doctoral students and early-career academics or practicing attorneys posting about a research project or other international law topic of interest.

The Symposium will feature a few posts per week and will run for the next month. We hope you’ll join the conversation!

Here’s your weekly selection of international law and international relations headlines from around the world:

Africa

• Nigerian Muslims have welcomed a court ruling allowing girls to wear headscarves in government schools in Lagos state, hailing the decision as a victory for the rule of law.
• A faction of South Sudan’s armed opposition says it has temporarily replaced its leader Riek Machar, who is also the country’s first vice president, raising the prospect of more turmoil after weeks of unrest. South Sudan’s vice president and former rebel leader Riek Machar has no plans for an immediate return to Juba, his supporters said on Friday, accusing his rival President Salva Kiir of trying to oust or even kill him.
• Up to 20 people have been killed and at least 40 others wounded, according to health workers, in two days of fighting in northern Mali threatening a shaky year-old peace deal.

Middle East and Northern Africa

• Several people have been killed when a mortar bomb hit a restaurant in the government-controlled ancient quarter of the Syrian capital Damascus on Sunday, a monitor and a witness said.
• As the war rages on, Syrian children are starving to death.

Asia

• Southeast Asian nations failed to agree on maritime disputes in the South China Sea on Sunday after Cambodia blocked any mention to an international court ruling against Beijing in their statement, diplomats said.
• Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has criticized South Korea’s move to deploy an advanced U.S. anti-missile defense system to counter threats from North Korea, saying it harmed the foundation of their mutual trust, news reports said on Monday.

Europe

• British police said on Friday there had been almost 6,200 hate crimes reported in the last month (an increase of 20% from the previous year) following the vote to leave the European Union in a referendum where immigration had been a key issue.
• France’s decision to extend a state of emergency for six months undermines human rights and the rule of law, Human Rights Watch said on Friday, joining the country’s top magistrate union in criticizing the legislation.
• Several attacks occurred in Germany over the past week: a shooting near a shopping center in Munich where the 18-year-old shooter had planned the attack for over a year; an apparent suicide bomb explosion in Ansbach injured 12; an attacker with a machete killed a pregnant woman in Reutlingen and injured five others, and a person used an axe in a train to injure four in Weurzberg.

Americas

• Authorities are building a new containment boom to fight an oil spill in a major western Canadian river, officials said on Saturday, after the spill breached a previous barrier and threatened the drinking water of several communities along the coast.
• The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation gave Brazil the tip that led to arrests this week of 11 suspected militants who had discussed a possible attack on the upcoming Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, according to a Brazilian prosecutor.

Oceania

• Australia will indefinitely detain people convicted of “terrorism-related” charges if it feels they pose an ongoing danger to society upon their release, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has said.

UN/World

• Global warming is accelerating, and its effects are being felt around the globe.
• The International Olympic Committee (IOC) says it will not impose a blanket ban on Russia for next month’s Rio Olympics over the nation’s doping record.
• The United Nations Security Council on Friday authorized U.N. countries to help eliminate Libya’s stockpile of chemicals that could be used to develop toxic weapons amid concern they could fall into the hands of militant groups.
• The United Nations hopes to convene a new round of intra-Syrian peace talks in Geneva in August, the UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura said on Friday.