Search: Syria Insta-Symposium

...Syria? Jordan Well, my last question nearly made the news -- with an Israeli strike on a target in Syria. But there is still a question whether a weapons research lab was struck or a conveoy of trucks carrying weapons. Perhaps the prior Syrian armed attack on Israel justified this measure in self-defense? Or did it initiate an armed conflict with Syria, the law of war paradigm, and the permissibility of targeting lawful military targets? If the latter, will Israel destroy the chemical weapons and biologic weapons stashed in Syria?...

...that the sexual allegations against Assange would not constitute a felony in Latin America. Rebels have claimed new victories in Syria’s Aleppo, while heavy fighting continues. Russia has warned the West with unilateral action after US president Barack Obama threatened the use of military force, were Syria to engage with use of chemical weapons. At talks in Moscow, Syria’s Depute Prime Minister has indicated that although Assad’s resignation cannot be a condition for starting talks, it could be on the table during negotiations if necessary to reach a settlement. Japan...

...country to a trickle. The sound of whirring helicopter blades fills Syrians with fear that “hell and fire” is about fall in a barrel bomb, a rescue worker told the United Nations Security Council on Friday as pressure mounts for the body to take action to stop civilian killings in Syria. United Nations human rights experts appealed to the United States on Friday to impose a moratorium on the death penalty for federal crimes, including the sentence imposed on the Boston Marathon bomber, with a view to abolishing the practice....

...The dilemma is not really a dilemma. It is the result of the fact that the powerful want to commit their crimes with impunity. Otherwise we would have had the means by now to prevent abuse during humanitarian interventions. Imagine for instance that U.S. wants to put her own dictator in Syria and succeeds. After a while the documents of this policy might get declassified or leaked. The Syrians should be able to sue U.S. in an international court. Another possibility is that U.S. goes to ICJ and sues Syria...

Chris Borgen Roger, these are defintely the tough questions that are on the table. I make no claims at answers but I'll do some thinking aloud (well, figuratively aloud) to pick up the conversation you started. Without revisiting the issue of when/whether combatting a terrorist organization would be international armed conflict (shades of Hamdan), I'll comment on whether state responsibility can be ascribed to Lebanon for the actions of Hezbollah (of course there's also the issue of Iranian and Syrian repsonsibility but I will also set those aside for now)....

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...

...those leaders tomorrow if it had them in custody. Indeed, Fatou Bensouda has already mentioned the possibility of such nationality-based prosecutions. Moreover, a Security Council referral may be more trouble than it’s worth. John himself notes a major problem: if the territorial parameters of any such referral exposed members of the Syrian government to ICC jurisdiction, Russia and/or China would almost certainly veto the referral. And what if the referral exposed Syrian rebels to ICC jurisdiction? I can’t imagine the US, France, and the UK would be too keen about...

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...

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...

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...

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...

...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...