Search: Syria Insta-Symposium

...security reasons to block their purchase of four wind farm projects near a US naval base in Oregon. Syria’s President Bashir al-Assad rejected demands for a peaceful solution to the crisis in Syria from many of his staff after some of his top aides were killed in July. JP Morgan has been sued by the New York Attorney General for its involvement in the global financial crisis, a lawsuit the US Government supports. Amnesty International reports that in South Sudan, police forces are shooting and raping civilians. Iranian President Mahmoud...

...at this time, despite mention in Parliament of the related R2P doctrine. A more sophisticated claim might involve use of the concept in connection with a policy-serving and textually correct reading of Article 2(4) of the U.N. Charter in the context of a civil war in Syria and substantial outside recognition of the "rebels" as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people -- that only three types of force are proscribed, that none pertain under special circumstances re: Syria, etc. -- especially if the "rebels" consent to use of force....

support within Syria - one rebel commander saying, dejectedly, that 70% of the Sunni city of Aleppo supported Assad, not because they liked him but because he is regarded as better than the alternative) to create an Islamic State of one kind or another. It is hardly in the west's interests to see that end come about. Do we protect the rebels who are jihadists? How do we distinguish and influence matters on the ground? 3. Military intervention will be an act of war, requiring attacks against Syrian missile installations,...

KC I wonder what the US would make of this in context of the President's earlier assertion that it would act in defense of the "new U.S.-backed fighting force in Syria if it is attacked by Syrian government forces or other groups". Obviously, I doubt that the President intends for this statement to drag him into another Cold War era style proxy war with Russia, but it would be interesting to see how all these things connect together in the minds of US officials). Ref: http://www.wsj.com/articles/pentagon-to-defend-new-syria-force-from-assad-regime-others-1438549937 Jordan First, what section...

...weapons to Syria rebels would constitute complicity in resulting crimes. Thus, individuals wishing to interact with these rebel groups would be put “in an impossible situation,” such that they “cannot provide the organization with any assistance at all.” But at least two basic features of accomplice liability and one component of blame attribution writ large, expose both these statements as serious hyperbole. On a robust account of complicity, American and British governments could assist the Gestapo, the Interahamwe, the Taliban, Syrian rebels and any other bloodthirsty armed group without becoming...

...and now, they have become more suspicious ,concerning , biased western court . 3.Beyond that : they are now seriously implicated and engaged in Syria , in their fight against Daesh ( IS ) . Here, we deal with strict and direct involvement, huge devastation, huge amount of refugees, and much more brutal war (without any accusations right now). Now : 4.One may wonder , what jurisdiction has the ICC on Syria ? yet , Fatou Bensouda, already declared in the past , that she may seek jurisdiction , on...

Just as Syria has been our main focus the last few days with our Insta-Symposium, there has been a lot written elsewhere on the developing situation. Just a sampling of a couple other articles of note: one from William Schabas on intervention as aggression and one from Charli Carpenter urging us not to use the term “humanitarian” for this intervention. Foreign Policy urges Congress to think hard about Obama’s plan. Additionally, Reuters covers Syria’s request to the Security Council to intervene on the potential US intervention. In other news, A...

This week on Opinio Juris, we continued last week‘s Kiobel Insta-Symposium. Quoting from his and John Yoo’s Forbes contribution, Julian argued that the rejection of universal civil jurisdiction is common sense because it leaves the decision on foreign policy consequences of extraterritoriality to the political branches. He also drew our attention to two positive assessments of the opinion, by John Bellinger and Eugene Kontorovich. Austen Parrish offered an alternative narrative about the meaning of Kiobel, seeing it as a welcome retreat from US unilateralism towards more multilateralism. The many unanswered...

...have rallied against the alleged mistreatment of young people in detention, including the hooding and physical restraint of teens, amid calls for an inquiry into the abuse to be expanded and the United Nation High Commission on Human Rights called on Australia on Friday to compensate children abused in prison. UN/World The U.N. Deputy Special Envoy for Syria on Sunday held talks with Syrian officials in Damascus to sound out their position on how to break an impasse hindering the proposed resumption of peace talks around the end of August....

Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has quit as Syria’s peace envoy after becoming frustrated with “finger-pointing” at the UN while the battle in Syria rages on. IPS offers more context here. China has expressed its regret. Meanwhile, a UN resolution on Syria goes to the General Assembly today, criticizing the Security Council for failing to take action and denouncing the use of force on civilians by the Syrian government. The UN Security Council did, however, demand and end to foreign support of rebels in the Democratic Republic of the...

...non grata. Interestingly, Belgium can’t expel the Syrian ambassador, because he is also ambassador to the EU and there is no agreement on diplomatic sanctions against Syria within the EU. Foreign Policy has more on what expelling a diplomat entails and the five worst atrocities of the Syrian uprising. Two Danish brothers of Somali origin have been arrested in Denmark connected with allegedly planning an al-Shebab terrorist plot. A former Rwandan school teacher living in Canada pleaded not guilty yesterday to involvement in the Rwandan Genocide; his charges are one...

...southern Somalia. Middle East and Northern Africa At least nine civilians have been killed and dozens more wounded after mortar rounds and rockets were fired on a mainly Kurdish residential quarter in the northern city of Aleppo, according to the Syrian Kurdish YPG group. February marked the highest number of home demolitions in the occupied West Bank since the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) began recording in 2009, according to a recent statement. Libyan forces based in the city of Misrata have carried out air strikes...