International Humanitarian Law

[Masoud Zamani is a lecturer in International Law and International Relations at the University of British Columbia, Canada.  Amir Abbas Kiani is a collaborating researcher in International Law at Shiraz University, Iran.] The recurring exchange of lethal force and military operations between Iran and Israel gives rise to several urgent and complex legal questions within the framework of jus ad bellum. A particularly intriguing...

[Paola Gaeta is a professor of international law at the Geneva Graduate Institute and director of the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights. Dr Etienne Henry is an independent legal consultant and a lecturer in international humanitarian law at the University of Neuchâtel, whose recent work includes contributing to the Geneva Academy’s research project IHL in Focus.] The weaponization...

[Benazir Jatoi is a human rights lawyer from Pakistan currently living in Bath, UK. She has worked as a consultant with UNFPA and UNWomen, Pakistan.] A buried mobile phone, along with its owner, Refat Radwan, in a shallow sand grave has settled, at least one thing we have been debating for a while. That Israel’s Defence Force operates with immunity until...

[Kate May is an LLM international human rights law and practice student at the University of York] As Palestinian scholar Nabulsi warned over ten years ago, “Israel is seeking to annihilate an educated Palestine.” The devastating impact of educational destruction in Palestine has reached unprecedented levels, and this extended crisis has left children without formal education for over a year and...

[Jasmin Lilian Diab is an Assistant Professor, and Director at the Institute for Migration Studies, at the Lebanese American University] Introduction The language of war is often wielded as a tool of obfuscation, sanitizing acts of violence and displacement under the guise of protection. Nowhere is this more evident than in the forced displacements in South Lebanon amid the Israel-Hezbollah conflict since...

[Alessandra Spadaro works as Assistant Professor in Public International Law at Utrecht University. She is conducting a three-year project titled “Business in and for war: the role and limits of international humanitarian law”, which is funded by the Dutch Research Council.] In a recent post on this blog, my colleague Jérôme de Hemptinne calls on (Western) international lawyers to engage with...

[Anna-Christina Schmidl is a legal advisor and Eitan Diamond is a manager and senior legal expert, both in the Israel & Palestine team with the IHL Centre] Introduction The smashed city stretched to the frozen river. International law prohibited the targeting of medical facilities, which explained why, in a city where eighty percent of freestanding structures had been flattened, the hospital still...

[Quinten DeGroote is an LL.M. Candidate in International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights at the Geneva Academy. He also holds a Bachelors and Masters degrees in law from the KU Leuven.] Introduction  The Ukraine-Russia war has highlighted the growing role of modern technology in contemporary warfare. A notable example is civilian intelligence apps, such as e-Enemy, a feature within Ukraine’s Diia e-governance...

[Dr Sarah Zarmsky is a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) at Queen’s University Belfast School of Law] Thank you to Professor Kevin Jon Heller for his helpful comments on an earlier version of this post. Introduction Yesterday, the Associated Press (AP) reported that a confidential report had been submitted to the International Criminal Court (ICC) which argues that the Russia-linked Wagner Group has committed international...

[Natasha Yvonne Barigye is an International Justice Fellow at Amnesty International and a lawyer specialising in international criminal law. Melissa Hendrickse is a Legal Advisor at Amnesty International, specialising in racial justice and international criminal law.  Vito Todeschini is a Legal Advisor at Amnesty International, where he advises on international humanitarian law, international criminal law and international human rights law.] Introduction In the last...

[Neve Gordon is a professor at the School of Law, Queen Mary University of London, a Fellow of the British Academy of Social Sciences and the former Chair of the British Society of Middle Eastern Studies’ Committee on Academic Freedom. He is the author of Israel’s Occupation (University of California Press 2008) and co-author of The Human Right to Dominate (Oxford University Press, 2015), Human Shields:...