Search: Syria Insta-Symposium
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...16 Aug Weekday News Wrap: Thursday, August 16, 2012
Militants have attacked Pakistan’s nuclear air base which houses US F-16 fighters and about 100 nuclear warheads. The Organization on Islamic Co-operation has suspended Syria over the violent repression of the political protests, although there was no support for an external military intervention. A political and media advisor to Syria’s Assad is visiting Beijing where she has praised China and Russia for not being colonizers. A UN Independent Commission of Inquiry has concluded that both sides in the Syrian conflict have committed war crimes throughout the conflict, and bear responsibility...
22 May Should Courts Be Back-Stopping Political Citizenship-Stripping Decisions? Not Without Accounting for the Problem of Statelessness
...presence in Syria was likely the function of trafficking. These rulings are troubling, particularly insofar as they render Muthana and Begum effectively stateless, in contravention of myriad principles of international law and, specifically, Article 15 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The problem of statelessness is elemental—without citizenship, the individual’s access to the most basic rights diminishes drastically. These rulings therefore beg the question of how far judiciaries should go when considering whether to rubber-stamp the inherently political executive branch decision to effectively strip individuals of citizenship. Muthana’s Case: Neither...23 Jun My Response to a Recent Attack on SOAS in The Spectator
Edward Brynes Here is an excerpt from the Hilton article: "Earlier this year, Soas held an ‘Israel Apartheid Week’ , culminating in a vote to ‘boycott’ the Jewish state: not a student protest, but an official, university-sanctioned boycott. Needless to say, there have been no comparable protests against Syria, Saudi Arabia or China, which have far worse human rights records. You might forgive a bit of idealised student geo-political ignorance, but Soas’s decision to boycott Israel was made with the endorsement of the school’s academic staff. The vote was preceded...23 Feb Weekly News Wrap: Monday, February 23, 2015
...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...02 Feb Weekly News Wrap: Tuesday, February 2, 2016
...months. Former U.S. spy agency contractor Edward Snowden, peace negotiators in Colombia or Greek islanders helping Syrian refugees were among tips for the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize at the deadline for nominations on Monday. Regional rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran should reconcile and help resolve tensions in the Middle East, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Monday. The United Nations has said that there should be no amnesty for people suspected of committing war crimes as talks aimed at ending Syria’s war continued to struggle in Geneva. The United...03 Jul Weekday News Wrap: July 3, 2012
Syria’s President Assad has expressed regret at the downing of the Turkish jet last month and has vowed to apologize should it be established that the jet was shot down in international airspace. Human Rights Watch has released a report on arbitrary arrests, detention and torture in Syria since the beginning of the civil unrest in March 2011. A Reuters article discusses how the failing of diplomacy in Syria is pushing some states to get more actively involved in the dispute. UN Human Rights Chief Navi Pillay has plead with...
09 Mar Shamima Begum and the Right to Enter One’s Own Country
ties and a person’s duration of residence in a country) that have led the HRC to apply Art. 12(4) to individuals in subsequent decisions (see Nystorm v Australia and Warsame v Canada). Other interpretations of Art. 12(4) also point to the importance of a country facilitating the re-entry of its citizens who have travelled abroad – specific concerns have been raised, for instance, in the context of the Syrian Government’s failure to issue passports to some Syrian citizens abroad, effectively barring them from re-entering Syria (see Concluding Observations of the...14 Sep Weekend Roundup: September 7-13, 2013
This week on Opinio Juris, we continued the discussion on Syria. Geoff Corn started the week by examining President Obama’s options if Congress were not to enact an AUMF, a question that also occupied Peter who yearned for the good old days of unilateral presidential authority to initiated use of force. When the surprise Russian proposal to put Syria’s chemical weapons under international control put the Congressional vote on hold, Kevin was not convinced that this twist had anything to do with the “credible threat” of a US unilateral strike....18 Jan Weekly News Wrap: Monday, January 18, 2016
...efforts to defeat Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria during a surprise visit to Iraq on Saturday. Turnbull also announced on Monday a small increase in the Australian troop commitment to the NATO-led force supporting the Afghan central government during a surprise visit to Kabul. UN/World As attacks on civilians continue in North Kivu, DRC, many say the UN mission there is doing nothing to help or protect them. Unverified reports say 15 to 20 people died of starvation in the Syrian city of Deir al-Zor last year, the...