In association with the International Commission of Jurists

Search: Syria Insta-Symposium

28 May

The African Union has accused the ICC of targeting Africans on the basis of race and it called for an end to prosecution of Kenya’s president and his deputy over crimes against humanity. Fighting rages on in Syria and more reports of the use of chemical weapons by Syria’s President Al-Assad have surfaced as well. The EU has lifted its arms embargo to the Syrian rebels, which paves the way for individual EU member states to supply the rebels with weapons. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay spoke...
28.05.13 | |

29 Aug

The UK has put a proposed resolution before the Security Council on Syria calling for military action to protect civilians, perhaps delaying US action. China has also called for restraint and calm in the situation, saying any intervention in the region would only make the turmoil worse. Human Rights Watch has a statement on possible intervention in Syria calling on all parties to follow international humanitarian law and for the situation to be referred to the ICC, and the Arms Control Blog offers an analysis of a new potential rationale...
29.08.13 | |

17 May

here. Kevin added the Security Council’s refusal to pay for any expenses related to an ICC investigation in Syria as another reason to be skeptical about the likelihood of a referral. More on Syria in a two-part guest post by Naz Modirzadeh who responded to the open letter to the UN on humanitarian access to Syria. Deborah shared her opinion on the Al Nashiri case and the question whether an armed conflict existed. In another guest post, Ezequiel Heffes offered four arguments why international humanitarian law covers detention in non-international...
17.05.14 | |

31 Aug

of Egyptian president Mohammed Morsy’s decorum on the world stage in light of how he presented himself at the recent Non-Aligned Movement summit in Tehran. One example of this was calling for intervention in Syria saying that the “oppressive regime” in place there must go. At Justice in Conflict, Mark Kersten offers an analysis of Assad supporters in Syria calling to allow the ICC to investigate the situation in the war-torn country. Julian Assange gave a speech yesterday in which he said he sees six months up to a year...
31.08.12 | |

25 May

...to make. The good news is that in the past fifteen years the secondary boycott against Israel has died a quiet death. According to official reports from the United States, of the twenty-two members of the Arab League, only three countries–Iraq, Libya, and Syria–continue to enforce a secondary boycott. Even then, it appears that only Syria is serious about it. USTR has recently stated that the secondary boycott “has extremely limited practical effect overall on U.S. trade and investment ties with most Arab League countries.” As a practical matter, we...
25.05.10 | |

09 Jul

Survivors of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre re-enacted their escape in Bosnia this weekend ahead of Ratko Mladic’s trial, which resumed today at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague. Tomorrow, the International Criminal Court will deliver the sentence and reparations order for Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, convicted March 14, 2012 of conscripting and enlisting child soldiers and using them to participate in hostilities. Reuters offers an analysis showing that the crisis in Syria reflects the limitations of Turkish power. Additionally in Syria news, amid President Al-Assad leveling...
09.07.12 | |

13 Oct

...minority within the PRC. On the meaning of the China-Russia veto of the Syria UNSC resolution that dismayed the US and European allies: Bosco: The recent Chinese and Russian veto of a draft resolution on Syria has generated anger from Western governments and from the human rights community. It seems to confirm the perception that China is wedded to a vision of national sovereignty very much at odds with that of the West and that may prevent the Security Council from effectively addressing bloody internal conflicts. How do you see...
13.10.11 | |

10 Apr

[Kingsley Abbott is the International Commission of Jurists’ Senior Legal Adviser for Global Redress and Accountability & Saman Zia-Zarifi is the Secretary General of the International Commission of Jurists. This is the first part of a two-part post.] Introduction The International Independent Investigative Mechanism for Syria and the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar are recent examples of States responding to situations where avenues for accountability for crimes under international law are otherwise limited. Both mechanisms, created respectively through the United Nations General Assembly and the United Nations Human Rights Council...
10.04.19 | |

23 Nov

was stored away in a Sarajevo museum on Saturday to mark the 20th anniversary of the peace deal that ended the Bosnian war but left the country deeply divided and dysfunctional. Americas The Washington D.C. Holocaust Museum has called on to the US not to turn away Syrian refugees; the museum expressed concern over refugee crisis, called on politicians to “not turn” their backs on Syrians fleeing conflict. Additionally, rights groups have criticized American politicians’ comments about Muslims as a debate over the future of Syrian refugees in the United...
23.11.15 | |

01 Mar

...Kingdom (“UK”) when authorities arrested a young mother with her small son for attempting to return from living in ISIS-controlled territory in Syria. Before that, in 2017, German authorities fought to stop Iraqi authorities from executing a 16-year-old ISIS recruit who was “groomed online,” joined the terrorist organization, and then imprisoned in Iraq (the effort to prevent the death penalty worked, and in February 2019, she was sentenced to 6 years imprisonment in Iraq). In December 2017, the United Nations Security Council (“UNSC”) adopted Security Resolution 2396 on national security...
01.03.19 | |

10 Sep

...double talking the international community while the streets in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria run red with blood. Kevin Jon Heller Well, you will never see the ICC prosecute someone in Syria or Iraq without a UNSC referral, as it does not otherwise have jurisdiction. And given that the OTP is waiting for authorization to formally investigate in Afghanistan, you should cut them at least a little slack. Jackdaw @Kevin The 'hard working Prosecutors' of the ICC, who needed to enlist Angelina and Brad Pitt to help them capture Joseph Kony....
10.09.18 | |

26 Sep

Two explosions have occurred near Syrian military headquarters in Damascus. Hours before these two explosions, a Qatari emir said that Arabs must intervene in Syria in the absence of Security Council action. Foreign Policy offers an insight into a report about the torture tactics used by the government of Syria and their effects on children–sometimes with the children being the victims of the torture themselves. On the sidelines of the UN General Assembly meeting in New York, the Chinese and Japanese Foreign Ministers have held a meeting over the disputed...
26.09.12 | |