In association with the International Commission of Jurists

International Humanitarian Law

20 Nov

By Karolína Babická, ICJ Legal Adviser The EU Counter-terrorism Directive On 15 March 2017 the European Union (EU) adopted EU Directive 2017/541 on Combatting Terrorism (“the Directive”)with a deadline for transposition into domestic law of 8 September 2018. The Directive aims principally to extend the scope of application of criminal law by Member States to terrorism related threats and activity within the EU. In...

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20 Nov

[David Matyas is a PhD Candidate and Gates Cambridge Scholar at the University of Cambridge, Lauterpacht Centre for International Law.] For over two weeks, violent and escalating clashes in the Tigray region of Ethiopia have resulted in hundreds of deaths, thousands of displaced persons and ever growing humanitarian needs in this mountainous region of northern Ethiopia. The parties to this conflict include the government of...

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19 Nov

[Eian Katz is Counsel and Program Manager at Public International Law and Policy Group. Opinions expressed here are his own.] Recent allegations that Turkey has prevented humanitarian aid from reaching Nagorno-Karabakh mark the latest instance of a disturbing trend in global conflicts. In recent months, belligerent actors have engaged in similar acts of obstructionism in Syria, Venezuela, and Yemen to dire humanitarian effect. The abject politicization of aid delivery...

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17 Nov

I just had the pleasure of a sharp exchange on Twitter with my dear friend Mark Kersten, one of the most insightful commentators on the ICC. The exchange was motivated by the ASP making it "officially official" (Mark's nicely turned phrase) that the process for electing the next Prosecutor will be opened up to include (at a minimum) any longlisted...

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06 Nov

[Vanessa Sant'Anna Bonifacio Tavares is a PhD candidate in Interdisciplinary International Studies (IIS) at the Vienna School of International Studies. The views expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect any official position.] In about 90 days, the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) shall enter into force, proscribing nuclear weapons use, threat of use, testing, development, production, possession,...

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03 Nov

[Ezequiel Heffes is a Thematic Legal Adviser, Geneva Call. PhD Candidate, Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies, Leiden University; Marcos D. Kotlik is an Associate Legal Officer at the International Court of Justice, the Academic Coordinator, Observatory of IHL, Universtiy of Buenos Aires and a PhD Candidate, IHEID. The views expressed in this article are personal to the authors and do not necessarily reflect those...

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02 Nov

[Marko Svicevic is a post-doctoral research fellow at the South African Research Chair in International Law, University of Johannesburg.] Introduction The growing insurgency in Mozambique continues to worry its neighboring states and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) alike. Known as Ansar al-Sunna, the insurgency first arose in 2017 in Mozambique’s northern province of Cabo Delgado. By July 2019, it had pledged allegiance...

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01 Nov

Announcements The Latest Volume of the Nuremberg Academy Series The Tokyo Tribunal: Perspectives on Law, History and Memory is out now. With the third volume of the Nuremberg Academy Series, the Nuremberg Academy offers a publication on The Tokyo Tribunal: Perspectives on Law, History and Memory, edited by Viviane E. Dittrich, Kerstin von Lingen, Philipp Osten and Jolana Makraiová. This publication combines perspectives from law,...

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28 Oct

[Dapo Akande, Antonio Coco, Talita de Souza Dias, Duncan B. Hollis, Harold Hongju Koh, James C. O’Brien and Tsvetelina van Benthem.] Election insecurity constitutes a dangerous global threat. Thirteen prominent intelligence experts stated, in a brief filed in U.S. federal court, that: “Over the last several years, evidence has emerged that Moscow has launched an aggressive series of active measure campaigns to interfere...

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28 Oct

[Adriano Iaria is a Humanitarian Advocacy Officer for the Italian Red Cross and a faculty member of the Master’s course in Intelligence and Security for Link Campus University in Rome, Italy. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in the text belong solely to the author, and not necessarily to the author's employer, organization, committee or other group or individual.] Last May, in the midst of the ongoing...

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26 Oct

[Chris Jenks is the Director of the Criminal Clinic and Associate Professor of Law at SMU Deadman School of Law.] How is ‘attack’ defined under international humanitarian law (IHL), particularly in the context of cultural property and hospitals? Opinio Juris readers will likely have already answered the first part of the question by referring to Article 49 of Additional Protocol I (AP I) to the 1949...

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26 Oct

[Verity Robson is the Legal Counsellor at the Permanent Mission of the United Kingdom to the United Nations and other International Organisations in Geneva.]  Accuracy counts. It is therefore necessary to provide a short response to the recent critique by John Heieck of my post on the scope of the duty in Common Article 1 of the Four Geneva Conventions of 1949 to ensure respect for those...

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