Search: Syria Insta-Symposium
24 Feb The ICJ Ruling on Ensuring Access to Evidence of the UN-mandated Investigative Bodies
...be partly attributed to this inconvenience. Recently, the Court has ordered the prevention of destruction and guarantee of preservation of evidence in a case where such a measure was warranted by its circumstances. For example, it was ordered in The Gambia v. Myanmar, Canada and the Netherlands v. Syria, and South Africa v. Israel while it was rejected in the Armenia / Azerbaijan cases. However, nothing in these cases related to granting access to evidence by the adverse parties. However, the request to provide access to evidence to the UN-mandated...14 Oct Carsten Stahn Guest Post: On Intervention, Narratives of Progress, Threats of force and the Virtues of Case-by-Case Assessment–A Rejoinder to Koh (Part III)
...ripe for this. There may simply not be enough trust in proper handling. 2. The relationship between threat of force and use of force What is the role of the Syrian precedent in this context? Koh is right to claim that Syria produced some positive spin-offs. But is there a need to change the rule because of these effects? I am not convinced. In any legal system, there are cases in which illegal conduct may sometimes produce good results. But this does not necessarily mean that one has to abolish...03 Oct Weekly News Wrap: October 3, 2013
Your weekly selection of international law and international relations headlines from around the world: Middle East The Security Council has urged the Syrian government to allow cross-border aid deliveries, calling on all parties to Syria’s conflict to agree on humanitarian pauses in fighting and key routes for aid convoys. Russian President Vladimir Putin seems optimistic about Syria, saying global powers were “on the right track” with a plan to eliminate Syria’s chemical weapons and could avert military intervention in the conflict if they worked together. US Secretary of State, John...
19 Feb Justice for the Yazidis in the Ishaq Case by the Stockholm District Court – Part I
...convicted for having committed genocide, crimes against humanity and gross war crime against women and children belonging to the Yazidi community in Syria. It will expand on the summary in English issued by the district court. This was actually the second trial for Ishaq; the same court had in a judgment of 4 March 2022 convicted her for complicity in the war crime of recruiting child soldiers in Raqqa, Syria. Thus, at the time of her second trial she was already serving a six-year prison term. This post is only...
20 Feb Tertium datur: A Step Towards Squaring the Circle on the Current Meaning of Self-defence?
...of the territory of Syria and Iraq has been admitted by the Security Council (Resolution 2179), governments (see, for instance, Germany, S/2015/946; Belgium, S/2016/523) and scholars (such as Chaumette and Corten). There is however a strong resistance to assimilate ISIS to a subject of international law. Nonetheless, it has been argued with regard to non-recognized States that “[a]n international wrongful act does not prevent the creation of a State which is a question of fact, and a State which exists in fact attains its legal status solely on the basis...11 Feb “Victory is Not an Option”: General Odom’s Op-Ed
Matthew Gross I don't see any point in attempting to negotiate with Iran or Syria. They are our enemies and care only to negotiate in so much as it gives them time to build a stronger position. Time is on there side, and not on ours, unless we are hoping for a technological revolution to remove the primacy of oil. Chris Borgen That oversimplifies things, somewhat. I am not sure if you are implying we should actually go to war with Iran, but I'll use your comment as a launching...
09 May Jurisdiction in Palestine: What the ICC Prosecutor Did Not Say in Her Response …
...is through negotiation. The ICC therefore does not have jurisdiction over these areas on the ground that they are the territory of the “State of Palestine”, even if this “State” exists and is a party to the Rome Statute. The main steps of this argument are as follows: Until 1917 the Ottoman Empire was the sovereign of large territories in the Middle East including Palestine, which was then regarded as a southern part of Syria. The Ottoman Empire joined the central powers fighting against Britain and its allies in the...22 Nov Overcoming the Veto to Save Lives
[Mona Ali Khalil is an internationally recognized public international lawyer with 25 years of UN and other experience dealing with the rule of law and international peace and security efforts including peacekeeping, sanctions, disarmament and counterterrorism.] In the face of a veto by any permanent member of the UN Security Council blocking enforcement action against the mass atrocities in Palestine, Myanmar, Syria and Yemen and elsewhere, is the international community helpless to help – failing to fulfill its responsibility to protect? Proponents of the use of force for purposes of...02 Jul Weekday News Wrap: July 2, 2012
The ICC turned 10 yesterday. Amnesty International’s Secretary General passes judgement here. Militants in Timbuktu, Mali, are destroying Sufi shrines, which they consider idolatrous. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has expressed his concern and ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda has warned that the actions can be considered a war crime. Tensions continue to build along the Syria-Turkey border. The UN-backed Group on Syria reached an agreement over the weekend about principles for the transition government. However, Syria’s opposition has expressed disappointment over the outcome of the Geneva talks, as Russia resisted...18 Aug Weekly News Wrap: Monday, August 18, 2014
...forces aided by an expanded US air campaign have advanced to within kilometres of Iraq’s largest dam, less than two weeks after it was captured by the Islamic State group. Additionally, Kurdish militants have trained hundreds of Yazidi volunteers at several camps inside Syria to fight Islamic State forces in Iraq. The Islamic State group has executed 700 members of a tribe it has been battling in eastern Syria during the past two weeks, the majority of them civilians, a monitoring group said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on...