Search: Syria Insta-Symposium

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...

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....

...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...

...and any documentary evidence he may have access to could be useful in any number of situations beyond Ukraine. Salikov’s information might aid any one of the ICC’s three current Preliminary Examination (PEs) or seventeen investigations. There is the possibility that Salikov’s information might bolster the case for additional PEs elsewhere. For example, Wagner misdeeds in Syria have been widely reported. While Syria is not a state party to the Rome Statute, Salikov’s information might aid the development of cases against those who committed atrocities in Syria who are nationals...

...UK to Bangladeshi parents and travelled to Syria when she was 15, to join the ISIL. She married a Dutch ISIL fighter and had three children, all of whom died. She now remains in Camp al-Roj in northern Syria run by the Syrian Democratic Forces. In 2019, when the then Secretary of State received information that Begum is a threat to national security, he passed an order depriving her of her British citizenship under section 40(2) of the British Nationality Act, 1981. He also refused her entry into the country...

...on the global climate. The UN Security Council has unanimously agreed on the text of a draft resolution for peace talks in January and a ceasefire aimed at ending the war in Syria. The United Nations Security Council has unanimously adopted a resolution to cut off all sources of funding for the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq (ISIL) and other groups it classifies as terrorist organisations. Millions of Swiss francs related to world football’s governing body FIFA have been frozen by the Swiss Justice Ministry, a spokesman has confirmed....

...partners. Preston also referred to a public hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in May 2014, during which he had listed the groups and individuals against which the US were taking military action (in the sense of capture or lethal operations) under the 2001 AUMF, namely: al-Qa’ida, the Taliban and certain other terrorist or insurgent groups in Afghanistan; al-Qa’ida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) Yemen; individuals who are part of al-Qa’ida in Somalia and Libya; (since 2014) the Nusrah Front and the Khorasan Group in Syria; and “the group...

It’s only a matter of time before we start seeing proposals to take away the citizenship of Americans fighting for ISIS/ISIL forces in Syria and Iraq. They have drawn renewed attention in the wake of James Foley’s beheading (apparently by a British citizen) and the death, reported at length today in the NYT, of American Douglas McCain in Syria. Several hundred individuals with Western citizenships are thought to be fighting with the extreme Sunni group. A proposal to expatriate terrorists associated with entities hostile to the United States went nowhere...

...intervention on behalf of a State. Redaelli identifies a 3-pronged structure for answering this question, including legitimacy of origin (the recognition of democratically elected governments that do not exercise effective control over territory and population) and legitimacy of exercise (illegitimacy of governments which commit gross and systematic violations of IHRL and international humanitarian law (IHL) against their own populations, and the legitimacy of rebel groups fighting against such governments, e.g. in Libya and Syria). However, as Redaelli acknowledges, human rights and legitimacy are not the be-all and end-all in determining...

...Jack Smith, is funded by the United State as an in-kind donation to an otherwise European Union-led institution. It has also expressed support for new hybrid institutions dedicated to South Sudan and the Central African Republic—a situation also before the Court. In addition, the United States has been instrumental in conceptualizing and launching the third generation of international justice mechanisms that include two new documentation efforts for Syria and Iraq: the Syria International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism (IIIM) via the General Assembly and the Iraq Investigative Team via the Security...

In Syria, fresh clashes have broken out in Damascus and Aleppo, even though the defected Prime Minister Hijab has said the regime is close to collapse. Human Rights Watch reports that fighter planes have struck a hospital in Aleppo, while Reuters provides an exclusive about Libyan fighters joining the rebel forces. US Defense Secretary Panetta has accused Iran of supporting pro-Assad militias in Syria. Meanwhile, China has argued Western states’ attempts to engineer a regime change in Syria undermine solidarity on the UN Security Council. The Guardian reports that Ecuador...

...through civil war, PLO and Syrian occupation, terrorist attacks, de facto Hezbollah takeover and Israeli invasions – is going to fail once again to maintain the peace. (Apropos maintaining the peace, former peace negotiator Dennis Ross has an inadvertently comical piece in the Washington Post in which he urges engaging Syria in order to create an “enduring cease-fire” in south Lebanon like the enduring cease-fire Ross negotiated in 1993, and then again in 1996 when the enduring 1993 cease-fire broke down. With apologies to Mark Twain, it seems that bringing...