Search: Syria Insta-Symposium
08 May Symposium on ‘Marketing Global Justice’ – Monopoly Capitalism, Kitsch, and Accountable Accountability
...internet, twitter, insta, snapping. Fads, causes, self-promotion: the on-line commentariat contributes to the deluge of marketing(s), the simplification of content, the discourse of sloganeering. And, to be sure, the ICC itself tweets and retweets. A lot. Isabella Banks has studied these (re)tweets. What does she find? That despite all the social mediaing, well, the ICC ‘made little to no effort to solicit feedback or generate dialogue on Twitter’. You called it well, Christine, it’s the top-down ‘training’ of others. I remember reading Marshall McLuhan and his medium is the message....26 Nov Syria Avoids Security Council Sanctions, Agrees to Cooperate in Hariri Investigation
Syria has agreed to comply with the demands of Security Council resolution 1636 and will cooperate with the Hariri investigation by allowing five Syrian government officials to be interviewed in UN offices in Vienna. This ends, for now, the Syrian stalemate with the Council, and avoids a follow on resolution that would likely have slapped sanctions against Syria. The progress of the Mehlis team investigating the Hariri murder and the Security Council’s robust response is significant, fairly rebutting Julian’s view that UN investigations tend to produce “muddy, often useless conclusions.”...
03 Dec UNSC Veto Power Symposium: Mass Atrocities and the Security Council–The Limits of the Law
...the Assad regime, but also because States beyond Russia and China have concerns about more ambitious measures in terms of both the implications for State sovereignty, and the possibility that such assistance could strengthen the hand of different non-State armed actors. As Trahan acknowledges, accountability and humanitarian measures are unlikely to halt mass atrocities by themselves. In a situation such as Syria, it is difficult to see how that could be achieved absent a use of force. Military intervention in Syria has of course been only fleetingly considered: I’d argue...
28 Jul Transnational ne bis in idem for Corporate Involvement in International Crimes: The Lafarge Proceedings in the U.S. and France
involved in atrocity. In France, the defendant corporation Lafarge and several of its executives are under investigation for criminal charges that include financing of a terrorist enterprise, complicity in crimes against humanity, and endangering the lives of others (‘the French Proceedings’). Meanwhile in the U.S, in a criminal plea deal with the Department of Justice on 18 October 2022, Lafarge and its Syrian subsidiary Lafarge Cement Syria (‘LCS’) admitted to entering into business arrangements with ISIL and ANF. On this basis, Lafarge and LCS agreed to pay a financial penalty...04 Oct Aryeh Neier Calls for Syria No-Fly Zone
Aryeh Neier, recently retired president of the Open Society Institute (and former head of Human Rights Watch and the ACLU), has an opinion piece in Project Ricochet this week calling for a no-fly zone over Syria. He calls for it to be imposed by a regional force and NATO. The US would not lead the effort, though presumably it would participate via NATO – while providing backup, both material and political, another exercise in deliberately “leading from behind.” He is cautious about the US intervening militarily directly, and frames the...
04 Dec UNSC Veto Power Symposium: Reply to Professors Sterio and Clark, and Dr. McDougall
...by the duty (see the Bosnia v. Serbia Case, paras. 430–31). While I largely agree with Dr. McDougall’s statement that: “I do not believe [this duty] would be applicable to the situation in Syria,” that is beside the point. The book expressly notes the allegations of genocide in Syria relate to crimes against the Yazidis (p. 44; Chapter 5.1.3.5). The relevant arguments related to most crimes in Syria are those pertaining to war crimes and crimes against humanity. My book also discusses the situation in Myanmar, where the Genocide Convention...06 Apr Question on 2007 Strike Against Syria and Anticipatory Self-Defense
...that link doesn’t work] — there has been virtual silence from the international community about the 2007 strike on the Syrian nuclear facility at al-Kibar. Is that account accurate? I assume that because Israel has never acknowledged its purported involvement, it has also never offered an international law defense of the operation. (True?) Is it also the case that virtually no other nations have said anything one way or the other about its legality? If so, what, if anything, does the 2007 operation portend for the development of the law...31 May Syria War Crimes Accountability Act — Now Revised!
Last month, I blogged about the Syria War Crimes Accountability Act of 2017, a bipartisan Senate bill “[t]o require a report on, and to authorize technical assistance for, accountability for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide in Syria.” I praised the bill, but pointed out that Section 7(a) was drafted in such a way that it permitted the US to provide technical assistance to entities investigating international crimes committed by pro-Assad forces and “violent extremist groups,” but did not permit the US to support entities investigating international crimes committed...