Search: Syria Insta-Symposium

...Foreign Minister Lieberman said yesterday that he would like the Egyptian resident to also visit Israel, in order to back up his reassuring words about peace between the two countries. The UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has asked for an immediate investigation into the deaths of more than 200 civilians in Daraya, Syria. The exodus of hundreds of thousands of refugees in Syria to bordering countries has increased pressure for a buffer zone inside of Syria. Human Rights Watch encourages neighboring countries to keep their borders open for the refugees....

...post argues that President Obama’s public reference to old bilateral immunity agreements, Samantha Power’s calls for an independent Syria tribunal, and Harold Koh’s frustration with the Court’s inefficiency have heralded a new age of American opposition to the Court. This new stage is quite apart from the phantom concerns of the past, but all too concrete in its frustration with the ICC. The Bush administration’s second term in office is widely recognized as an important turning point in America’s relationship with the ICC. In particular, the UN Security Council (UNSC)...

The Syrian army has launched fierce attacks against rebel forces, who had made a stronghold in Damascus. Fighting has also spread to Aleppo. The UN has extended its monitoring mission in Syria another 30 days. The Arab League has called for Syrian President Assad to resign and has offered Assad and his family a safe exit from Syria. Turkey has sent a battery of ground-to-air missiles to its border with Syria. China will formerly garrison the disputed South China Sea, a move that will likely increase tensions throughout the region....

A Syrian airstrike has killed at least 54 amid heavy fighting in northern Syria. At a UN Security Council meeting, Iran was attacked about the aid it is providing to Syria’s government forces. At the IAEA’s meeting in Geneva, Iran and Israel squared off about nuclear proliferation in the Middle East region. The US has lifted a ban on New Zealand naval ships visiting US ports or bases in place since 1986, after New Zealand’s decision to ban any nuclear powered ships or nuclear armed ships from its ports, as...

...Levant (ISIL) group in Syria have killed more than 1,600 people since they began five months ago, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The UN special envoy to Syria is travelling to Damascus to try to reduce the fighting which has intensified in Aleppo, where rebels claim to have killed 300 government soldiers in the past week. A Moroccan court sentenced a former Spanish soldier to eight years in jail on Friday on charges of leading an Islamist network in the kingdom that was plotting terror attacks, the...

...rights violations, and ‘new investigative mechanisms’ (NIMs) created to build case files to achieve accountability for atrocity created to build case files to achieve accountability for atrocity crimes committed in Syria – IIIM and OPCW IIT, Iraq – UNITAD, and Myanmar, IIMM). For a sampling of MHs challenges, see here, and here). Our project seeks to provide evidence-based, realistic and cost-effective recommendations with a view to improve efficiencies and maximise outputs, against a background of scarce resources and competing priorities. As part of our research methodology, we are we engaging,...

According to the UN, Afghanistan civilan deaths are down for the first time since it started counting in 2007, though officials say that this is due to an extremely harsh winter rather than improved security. The United Nations also reports that targeted killings in Afghanistan have risen 53%. Ex-British Prime Minister Tony Blair has expressed his deep concern that the UK will leave the European Union in a referendum. In other statements from former heads of state, France’s Nicholas Sarkozy has called for a humanitarian intervention in Syria. Syrian troops...

Foreign Policy in Focus reports on Europe’s immigration dilemma after the Arab Spring. IMF Chief Christine Lagarde has attracted the ire of the Greeks over her comments in a Guardian interview last week that it is payback time. The UN Security Council has condemned Syria over the massacre of at least 108 people in the city of Houla. The Syrian government denies involvement and The Telegraph reports how Syria accuses the UN and Western envoys of a “tsunami of lies” over the massacre. The UK Foreign Secretary is in Moscow...

This week on Opinio Juris, there was a lot of news to cover with NSA leak and the US administration’s decision to arm Syrian rebels. On the first, Julian thought Hong Kong was a dumb choice of refuge for the NSA leaker. Chris dug deeper into domestic data-mining with earlier stories about the NSA’s activities. Peter addressed the position of expat Americans in PRISM. Further on cyber-issues, Duncan highlighted Japan’s new Cybersecurity Strategy. On the second bit of news, Julian argued why the “red line” crossed by Syria is meaningless...

R2P depends on having some conception of the “rights” of people to protection from other states. It is not about leaving the Syrians alone, but rather protecting them from harm. Yet what precisely this right to assistance includes in Syria or elsewhere, no one is able to say. Even accepting a basic moral responsibility, there remain difficult questions about what action best respects rights and what will serve to promote human rights and security overall. The responsibility will always be contingent on political, military, and other calculations and will be...

...Chinese and Russian backlash post-Libya be seen as the system's response to the unlawfulness of the actual Libya intervention and the manner in which the mandate was so blatantly exceeded? Okay, there are a number of other political factors guiding Chinese/Russian voting on Syria, but a pretty key issue has been the disillusionment post-Libya. NATO exceeded the limits of the lawful authority it was granted, so therefore any legal authority viz a viz Syria is now being withheld. Rhodri C. Williams @Mihai - I had a sense of that but...

weapons in Syria, with President Obama stating that depending on how the weapons were used, the US might have to rethink its strategy in Syria. Foreign Policy has a post about why those wanting intervention in Syria are wrong. The UN International Labor Organization released a report with one major finding that the key to ending child labor is to advocate social protections. May Day protests, meant to demand better workers’ rights, are occurring around the world, in places such as Indonesia, The Philippines, Turkey, Cambodia and several European cities....