Search: Syria Insta-Symposium
09 May A Brief Response to Kevin Heller’s Comment About My Post
...time when those initiatives were launched, that is what the states then felt they could achieve. That was a political, not legal, calculation. 3) We don’t have any actual decision or pronouncement on the legality of the veto in the face of atrocity crimes; we have no ruling whether there are or aren’t any restraints imposed by international law. 4) The Syria vetoes aren’t about authorizing outside intervention—which I agree can cause more harm than good. Look at the actual Syria vetoes (cited in an early post of mine) –...20 Feb Weekday News Wrap: Wednesday, February 20, 2013
one French soldier has been killed in the ongoing conflict in Mali. A scud-type missile has killed at least 20 people in Syria’s Aleppo, showing evidence that the army is turning to longer-range weapons to battle rebels in Syria’s second-largest city. The UN warns of a “humanitarian tragedy” in Syria as more than 4 million people are in need of assistance. Qatar’s PM has criticised the EU extension of the blanket arms embargo on Syria. The government of Bulgaria has resigned this morning amid mass protests. China’s Defence Ministry has...
04 Nov A Reminder that Targeting a Hospital is a War Crime
[Elise Baker is a senior staff lawyer at the Atlantic Council Strategic Litigation Project, where she leads work on accountability and support for victims and survivors of human rights violations in Syria. She previously documented the Assad regime’s systematic attacks on health care in Syria with Physicians for Human Rights. Britt Gronemeyer is an assistant director at the Atlantic Council Strategic Litigation Project, where she supports accountability for human rights violations in Iran, Syria, Ukraine, and other countries] The world is focused on the ceasefire taking hold across Gaza, and...23 Sep Does the Collective Self-Defense Justification Extend to Khorasan? If Not, Then Is There One?
I agree with Jens’ excellent post on the importance of the “unwilling or unable” standard to the US justification for legal strikes on non-state actors in Syria. I agree this action may reveal state practice supporting (or rejecting) this legal justification. I am curious whether the UK, France, or other states that may be participating in Syria strikes will embrace this theory. (I already know the Russians have roundly rejected this US justification). I also wonder whether this legal justification will weaken, as a policy matter, the ability of the...12 Jul Weekday News Wrap: Thursday, July 12, 2012
Syria has been hit by a wave of defections, with the latest–that of the ambassador to Iraq–coming yesterday. Kofi Annan has urged the UN to “reunite” regarding plans moving forward with Syria, suggesting “consequences” were Syria not to comply with the latest ceasefire calls. A human rights group, Women Under Siege, has reported that sexual violence is being used in Syria as a weapon in the conflict. Tensions between Japan and China are escalating ahead of an ASEAN summit over the islands dispute in the East China Sea. The Special...03 Sep Weekday News Wrap: Tuesday, September 3, 2013
The UN chemical weapons inspection team in Syria is set to begin transferring samples that it has collected from the country to the laboratories for testing. More than 2 million refugees have now fled Syria’s civil war, piling pressure on neighboring host countries according to the UN. Sweden is set to change its asylum law and grant permanent residency to those approved from Syria instead of three-year temporary permits. Another sampling of the discussion happening around the web with regard to Syria: a post on Lawfare about how the 9/11...08 Sep Weekly News Wrap: Tuesday, September 8, 2015
Your weekly selection of international law and international relations headlines from around the world: Africa Kenya plans to launch a military offensive against Islamist militants who have set up bases in a remote forest at the northern tip of its Indian Ocean coastline bordering Somalia, a police official said on Monday. Middle East and Northern Africa Iran’s president has said his country is ready to hold talks with the United States and Saudi Arabia on ways to resolve the Syrian civil war. Several Turkish soldiers have been killed and others...13 Aug Emerging Voices: Protecting the World’s Children: R2P and Measures Less-Than-Force
...less-than-force measures designed to put pressure on the Assad regime. These measures include ‘a ban on the import of arms and related material from Syria, export restrictions on equipment that could be used for repression, an import ban on crude oil and petroleum products from Syria, the freezing of the Syrian central bank’s assets, asset freezes on a number of entities and persons, and travel restrictions for a specific list of individuals associated with repression.’ At the same time as utilising these less than force measures (intercession), through its EU...
05 Oct Trump vs. International Law: The Challenge of Articulating a Legal Framework for Humanitarian Intervention
...by the Deputy Leader of the U.K. Labour Party in the wake of the April 2018 Syria strikes. If one understands Article 2(4) of the U.N. Charter as a blanket prohibition against the non-consensual use of force that has not been authorized by the Security Council—in that it requires member states to “refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations”—then there is not...
21 Apr Symposium: On the Promise and Potential of R2P
[Shannon Raj Singh is a Visiting Fellow of Practice at Oxford University, where she is researching the duty to prevent atrocity crimes with the Institute for Ethics, Law & Armed Conflict’s Programme on International Peace and Security. Shannon is also an Associate Legal Officer at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon. The views expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the STL.] It is difficult to talk about the survival of a doctrine aimed at human protection in contexts like Syria and Libya....