Search: Syria Insta-Symposium
07 Aug Does it Matter if a Ceasefire Violates International Legal Principles?
...no claims to it before 2000, and those claims are not taken seriously by anyone; the U.N. in 2000 even stated that some of Lebanon's proffered "evidence" was forged. The only real ownership dispute is between Israel and Syria. (The land lies at the intersection of Israel, Lebanon and Syria.) Peggy McGuinness EK-- My comments were meant to capture the historical realities of peace agreements. I am not sure it is any more a "defeat" of international law when parties agree to settle wars than it is a defeat for...30 Jul Guest Post: Israel’s Use of Law and Warnings in Gaza
...think your analysis misses a substantive element of the balance between the ability to conduct military operations and the duty to minimize civilian casualties. Mostly, I am having a difficult time with your argument that civilians have no duty to leave a mixed use civilian-combatant target even after they have been warned that it will be targeted in the near future for attack. In instances where the civilians have no free will (held at gun-point by Hamas) you may have a point (though then we have a host of other...23 Jul Weekday News Wrap: Tuesday, July 23, 2013
A top UN envoy, Leila Zerrougui, special representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, has warned officials and anti-government fighters in Syria risk prosecution as war criminals for atrocities against children. The US House Intelligence Committee says it is now willing to supply weapons to Syrian rebels despite the risk of their ending up with al-Qaeda allies. Additionally, top US military officials have outlined a range of intervention option plans in Syria, from instituting no-fly zones to conducting limited attacks on military targets. Iran condemned the EU’s decision...
15 Aug Emerging Voices: Sri Lanka’s Tamils Need Genocide Recognition and Innovative Justice Mechanisms
...Tamil sources provided updates that fell on deaf ears. For instance, it took years for international stakeholders to admit that the military killed tens of thousands of Tamil civilians, which Tamils on the ground had reported in real-time. While Tamils were identifying the GoSL’s atrocities as genocide against their people, international human rights organizations kept quiet, or actively rejected, even the risk of genocide (see, e.g., 42:19–45:00) despite UN guidance encouraging different actors to acknowledge when violations of international law may amount to genocide. Evidence of the GoSL’s Genocide Against...
13 Dec Symposium: Review of John Heieck, A Duty to Prevent Genocide
...the consistent case law adopting a narrow interpretation of the crime there is a broader use of the term, by NGOs, by journalists, by politicians, and even by UN bodies. For example, recently a fact-finding commission of the Human Rights Council suggested that the persecution of the Rohingya could be characterized as genocide. A few years earlier, another commission of inquiry of the Council said much the same about the Yazidi in Syria. There was a time, some decades ago, where these matters were still open to debate by reasonable...30 Nov Events and Announcements: 29 November 2021
...non-state armed groups in a diverse range of conflict situations, including the FARC (Colombia), Islamic State (Syria and Iraq), Taliban (Afghanistan), Tamil Tigers (Sri Lanka), PKK (Turkey), PYD (Syria), and KRG (Iraq), the book argues that it is possible for armed groups to legally establish and operate a system of courts to administer justice. In this online book launch, Professor René Provost will discuss with leading scholars in international humanitarian law (IHL) and international human rights law the legal and practical challenges related to the administration of justice by armed...10 Sep Weekday News Wrap: Tuesday, September 10, 2013
An inadvertent suggestion by John Kerry may have provided a solution to the international stalemate on Syria, as it led to a Russian proposal to bring chemical weapons under international control for destruction. The US is open but sceptical to the proposal, as are its allies. Syria’s foreign minister has welcomed the proposal, tacitly admitting in the process that the regime has chemical weapons. One year after its controversial purchase of the Diaoyu/Senkaku islands, a Japanese spokesperson said Japan may consider stationing government workers on the islands to defend its...