Search: Syria Insta-Symposium
07 Oct Rethinking International Law After Gaza: A Symposium and a Call to Action
...Israel to pursue what Lydia Wazir provocatively describes as its ‘own final solution’. The richness of viewpoints at the conference led the organisers and me to carry the conversation forward via this symposium, ensuring allies who were unable to attend could still engage with the insights. Alongside the demonstrations taking place around the world in condemnation of a year of grotesque violence, over the next five days, we will publish perspectives on varied aspects of the occupation, apartheid, genocide, zionism, and, of course, resistance, all through the lens of international...14 Oct A Syrian IAC?
and likewise contains no indication that the U.S. military has (in the course of defending its own forces’ activities against other actors in the asserted ‘no-fly’ areas of Syria) fired on any Syrian aircraft or other Syrian assets. The U.S. has, to be sure, asserted its right to defend its forces in the region from Syrian attack, and has in particular highlighted a geographic area where U.S. forces are operating actively as an area in which it will assert this right of self-defense if attacked by Syria, but this sounds...21 May Luna Droubi Guest Post: A Call for Humanitarian Intervention in Syria
to flee from the brutality. As the years dragged on, nearly every Syrian I know (including me) has had a family member or friend who has been “disappeared,” only to return years later unable to talk about the severity of their detainment and torture. These stories and more are ingrained in the minds of everyday Syrians, who are too frightened to mention anything about their political beliefs lest the Mukhabarat, the thug-like secret police force, find out. The world watches but does nothing. Humanitarian intervention in Syria, under the Responsibility...07 Aug Emerging Voices: Limits to R2P–Lessons from the Arab Spring Conflicts
...not—should be examined. In both Libya and Syria, the governments used military force against civilians and failed to protect their populations; however, R2P was only applied to Libya. The disparate application of R2P in Syria, in comparison to Libya, illustrates several limiting factors that will guide R2P in future scenarios. Foremost, the Libya-Syria distinction shows that R2P application depends on, and is limited by, regional attitudes towards aggressive international action. This factor reflects the primary difference between the decision to intervene in Libya and not Syria. In the case of...07 Sep Weekend Roundup: August 31-September 6, 2013
Syria dominated (and continues to dominate) the headlines this week, and we featured many takes on the developing situation through our Syria Insta-Symposium. From our regular contributors, Julian pondered whether President Obama would reveal the international law justification on his position regarding intervention in Syria and Kevin questioned US Secretary of State John Kerry’s classification of Syria as the United States’ “Munich Moment.” Peter and Deborah both discussed US domestic/constitutional implications at length. Peter called President Obama’s decision to consult Congress on military intervention a “watershed moment” and wondered if...12 Apr Guest Post: How International Law Could Work in Transnational Non-International Armed Conflicts: Part II of a Two-Part Series
...relating to transnational non-international armed conflicts (NIACs). The scenario focused on Syria deciding whether or not to attack three high-level Free Syria Army (FSA) rebel commanders on U.S. soil who were present at the invitation and encouragement of the U.S. government (obviating any expectation that the U.S. would provide consent for an attack against them, or that it would arrest and hand them over to the Syrians). In this posting, we explore the set of legal issues that arise when a foreign State, in this case Iran, does grant Syria...
27 Jul Holding Transnational Corporations Accountable for International Crimes in Syria: Update on the Developments in the Lafarge Case (Part I)
including the Islamic State (hereafter “IS”), and for having put the lives of their Syrian employees at risk. Revelations about Lafarge’s illegal activities in Syria first surfaced in 2016 through the investigative work of Syrian newspaper Zaman Al Wasl and French journalist Dorothée Myriam Kellou. They were the first to claim that, between 2012 and 2014, with the violence of war raging at the doorstep of Lafarge’s massive cement factory in Jalabiya, northeastern Syria, the company paid various armed groups, including listed terrorist entities, in order to maintain the plant’s...11 Apr An Important Absence in the Syria War Crimes Accountability Act of 2017
chemical weapons, targeting of civilian populations with barrel, incendiary, and cluster bombs and SCUD missiles, and systematic gross human rights violations carried out by the Government of Syria and pro-government forces under the direction of President Bashar al-Assad; and (B) all abuses committed by violent extremist groups and other combatants involved in the civil war in Syria. It is difficult to see who “other combatants involved in the civil war in Syria” might be if they are not rebels. Indeed, Section 5(a), which requires the Secretary of State to submit...
28 Apr Syria and the UN Security Council: A Decade Of Abysmal Failures
By Said Benarbia, Director of the ICJ’s Middle East and North Africa Programme Since the start of Syria’s uprising in March 2011, Russia and China have vetoed 16 Draft United Nations Security Council (SC) Resolutions aimed at addressing the plight of the Syrian population and ending the scourge of armed conflict. As a result, the SC has failed to: Establish the UN Independent Mechanism of Investigation to identify individuals, entities, groups, or governments who were perpetrators, organizers, sponsors or otherwise involved in the use of chemical weapons in Syria; Renew...12 Sep Obama’s “Credible Threat” of Military Action Against Syria
more than a little difficult to swallow. Had Syria’s new willingness to give up its chemical weapons materialized two weeks ago, when Obama was still rattling his sabre and promising to attack Syria without congressional authorization, it would have been reasonable to conclude that the “credible threat of US military action” was the decisive factor in Assad’s capitulation. But now? Just days after Obama acknowledged that it would be very difficult for him to attack Syria against the will of both Congress and a large majority of the American people?...