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Search: Syria Insta-Symposium

27 Aug

...enormous controversy, with the 2011 military intervention in Libya and the failure to act with regard to Syria, causing bitter divisions between the Council’s five powerful permanent members. The international community also completely failed to halt atrocities in Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Yemen. While this is not an exhaustive list, it points to the enormity of the political challenge that currently faces us. So far, the twenty-first century has been plagued by toxic nationalism and resurgent xenophobia. The number of people displaced by persecution, conflict and atrocities is at its...
27.08.20 | |

26 Sep

...situation. Middle East and Northern Africa The United States called Russia’s action in Syria “barbarism”, while Moscow’s UN envoy said ending the war was “almost an impossible task”, as government forces relentlessly bombed the besieged city of Aleppo. Yemen plans to complain to the U.N. Security Council over what it says are Iran’s weapon transfers to Houthi allies fighting the internationally recognized Yemeni government, the foreign minister said on Saturday. Four alleged members of al Qaeda’s Yemen branch, including a local commander, were killed in a suspected U.S. drone strike...
26.09.16 | |

17 Feb

Regular readers of the blog know that one of my hobbyhorses is the “unwilling or unable” test for self-defense against non-state actors. As I have often pointed out, scholars seem much more enamored with the test than states. The newest (regrettable) case in point: my friend Claus Kress, who is one of the world’s best international-law scholars. Here is what he writes in an otherwise-excellent contribution to Just Security about the use of force against ISIL in Syria (emphasis mine): It therefore follows not only from the right of self-defense’s...
17.02.15 | |

01 Jun

serve justice to the victims of atrocities. Similarly, countries hosting large numbers of Yazidi victims and witnesses, as well as significant numbers of asylum seekers from Syria and Iraq, such as Germany and Sweden, are at the forefront of accoutability efforts in relation to the genocide against the Yazidis and international crimes committed against other groups in Syria and Northern Iraq. Establishing a fully operational war crimes unit, which will be able to exercise universal jurisdiction over violations of the Geneva Conventions and Additional Protocols, is therefore a crucial step...
01.06.21 | |

27 Jan

...proven to be a critical international justice tool. In the past few years, it has allowed governments to address some of the asymmetry in international justice by creating new – albeit limited – paths to justice where other avenues are blocked. For example, in light of the inability of the UN Security Council to refer the situation of Syria to the ICC given Russia’s veto, investigations and prosecutions in third countries are currently the only option for individual criminal justice for Syrian victims and survivors.  The landmark first trial for...
27.01.23 | |

16 Dec

killed in cross-border gunfire near the Lebanese border, the Israeli military has said. Syrian government air raids using barrel bombs on rebel-controlled areas of Syria’s second city of Aleppo killed at least 76 people, including 28 children, activists said. Asia Japan and Southeast Asian nations have called for freedom of the high seas and skies, amid heightened tensions over China’s new air defense zone in the East China Sea. China’s first moon rover has touched the lunar surface and left deep traces on its loose soil, state media reported, hours...
16.12.13 | |

13 Nov

...in the Security Council’s authorization of military intervention. Nonetheless, within weeks, critics suggested that the intervention had gone beyond the intended Security Council mandate and had become a convenient cover for regime change. Not long after, as is well known, the situations in Bahrain and Syria began to spiral downwards, and many argued that intervention was again needed and appropriate. Nonetheless, the Security Council has not garnered enough support to invoke the doctrine since Libya. China and Russia have used their veto to block Security Council resolutions on Syria with...
13.11.12 | |

12 Oct

...Rwanda’s female football revolution–football is helping Rwandan women overcome the trauma of the 1994 genocide. Middle East and Northern Africa Iraqi security forces say they have struck the convoy of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group, in an air strike near the country’s border with Syria. Syrian troops backed by Russian air strikes have advanced against fighters in the centre of the country as Russian President Vladimir Putin defended Moscow’s intervention in the conflict, saying it would aid efforts to...
12.10.15 | |

26 Jun

Violent clashes in China’s western Xinjiang province, home to the Uighur minority, have killed 27 people. President Obama gave his long-awaited speech on climate change yesterday, but it fell short of environmentalists’ expectations. During his visit to the Middle East, US Secretary of State Kerry has been pressed by Saudi leaders to respond to the “genocide” in Syria. US officials are hoping to stage peace talks over Syria as soon as possible, but US peace envoy Brahimi is doubtful that they will take place in July. What do roses and...
26.06.13 | |

10 Sep

...operative language — emphasis mine throughout. First, Rep. Frank Wolf’s: SEC. 2. AUTHORIZATION FOR USE OF ARMED FORCES. (a) IN GENERAL.—The President is authorized, with the close consultation, coordination, and cooperation with NATO and regional allies, to use all necessary and appropriate force against those countries, organizations, or persons associated with or supporting terrorist groups, including al Qaeda and its regional affiliates, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, al Shabaab, Boko Haram, and any other emerging regional terrorist groups that share a common violent extremist ideology with such terrorist...
10.09.14 | |

31 Oct

...seekers who arrive illegally by boat from ever entering Australia again, rejecting criticism from rights lawyers who say it would breach the U.N. Refugee Convention. UN/World United Nations member states have voted overwhelmingly to start negotiations on a treaty to ban nuclear weapons, despite strong opposition from nuclear-armed nations and their allies. The United Nations Special Envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, has said that he is “appalled and shocked” by the high number of rockets indiscriminately launched by armed opposition groups on civilian suburbs of Syria’s western Aleppo in...
31.10.16 | |

18 Nov

...the weapons the neocons have in their arsenal these days. The first, as Heilbrunn notes, is Barack Obama, or more precisely discontent with his apparently reactive and hesitating approach to foreign and security policy, exemplified by situations such as Ukraine, Syria and the rise of ISIS. If you read the fine print, to the extent there is any, the neocons like Cheney and Bill Kristol don’t have any master plan or worked out strategy of their own for dealing with these problems. They appeal to the heartwarming (for some Americans)...
18.11.14 | |