The inestimable Ryan Goodman has a new post at Just Security listing all the times the Saudis denied using cluster munitions in Yemen. As Ryan points out, we now know that those denials were what I like to call "shameless lies" (emphasis in original): On Monday, British Defense Secretary Michael Fallon told the House of Commons that following the UK’s own analysis,...
Oh for the love of God: Yes, I'm sure Gandhi would have wanted kids to enlist in a youth organization sponsored by the military of the country that colonized India, murdered tens of thousands of Indians, and adopted policies that starved millions of Indians to death....
My thanks to Adil Haque for his response to my post. Adil and I rarely disagree in any profound way about IHL, so it's enjoyable to spar with him about whether a first-strike by government forces against an organized armed group automatically creates a NIAC -- thus triggering IHL -- or whether a certain intensity of hostilities between the two is...
I have been following with great interest the debate at Just Security between Adil Haque and Jonathan Horowitz over whether the existence of a non-international conflict (NIAC) exists the moment a state launches a "first strike" at an organized armed group or whether hostilities of a certain intensity between the two are required. Adil takes the former position (see here, here, and here);...
As I recover from the gut-punch delivered last Tuesday, I plan to get back to blogging – something I have put aside for other priorities in the past years. The times and the issues are urgent, and I am anxious to engage with our readers and colleagues around the world at what I see as an extremely fragile period for...
Urbanization is our present and it is our future. Between the recently completed UN Habitat III conference in Quito, Ecuador, and Iraqi Special Operations entering Mosul, starting what may be a complex urban battle, we face constant reminders that much of the world’s population now lives in cities. How we protect rights, foster development, interact with the environment, organize politically,...
As part of its “ICTY Legacy Dialogues” events, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (“ICTY”) is organising in the week of 19 June 2017 a conference on the legacy of the ICTY in Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina. We invite your participation. With the ICTY’s closure scheduled for 31 December 2017, the conference aims to enable others to build on...
The inimitable David Bosco dropped quite the bombshell yesterday at FP.com: The Office of the Prosecutor at the ICC intends to open a formal investigation into the situation in Afghanistan -- a situation that includes, as the OTP discussed in its most recent preliminary-examination report, US torture of detainees between 2003 and 2005. I'll have more to say about the...
This is the first time a political ad has ever left me in tears. Enough said. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rp4AelhV8Ws Vote. You know for whom....
Just Security published a very interesting post yesterday entitled "Military Attacks on 'Hospital Shields': The Law Itself is Partly to Blame," which seeks to explain why deliberate attacks on hospitals are becoming increasingly common -- in Syria, in Yemen, and elsewhere. The authors acknowledge that deliberate attacks on hospitals are almost always unlawful under IHL, because they violate the principle...
I want to call readers' attention to Oxford University Press's publication of my friend Kim Priemel's new book, The Betrayal: The Nuremberg Trials and German Divergence. Here is the publisher's description: At the end of World War II the Allies faced a threefold challenge: how to punish perpetrators of appalling crimes for which the categories of 'genocide' and 'crimes against humanity'...
The Nobel Peace Prize for 2016 has been awarded to Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos. According to the Press Release, the award was given for his “resolute efforts to bring the country’s more than 50-year-long war to an end…. The award should also be seen as a tribute to the Colombian people who, despite great hardships and abuses, have...
