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Search: Syria Insta-Symposium

11 May

...allies have conducted 15 air strikes against Islamic State in Syria and 13 in Iraq since Friday, the coalition leading the operations said in a statement. Asia Malaysia detained 1,018 Bangladeshi and Rohingya refugees after they arrived in three boats on Monday, police said, a day after Indonesian authorities rescued 600 stranded off the coast of Aceh. South Korea has said that North Korea’s recent test-firing of a ballistic missile from a submarine was “very serious and concerning”, and that it will respond “mercilessly” to the threat. China has invited...
11.05.15 | |

14 Jun

Opinio Juris is pleased to welcome Professor Neomi Rao of George Mason University School of Law as guest-blogger for the next week. With the Syria crisis re-emerging as a possible flashpoint for military intervention, we thought it would be interesting for Professor Rao to discuss her recent work on the status and impact of the “Responsibility to Protect” principle that is forthcoming in the Columbia Human Rights Law Review. Professor Rao teaches both constitutional and comparative law classes, and she has had wide experience at all levels of the U.S....
14.06.13 | |

10 Aug

The UK has appointed a senior judge to lead the inquest in the death of Russian ex-spy Litvinenko from polonium poising in 2006 in London. Veteran international diplomat, Lakhdar Brahimi, has been tapped as Kofi Annan’s successor as UN-Arab League joint special envoy for Syria. In the Syrian conflict, government troops have forced rebels from a key district in the city of Aleppo. In response to the PILPG memo featured in our Weekday News Wrap on Wednesday, the New International Law Blog offers an analysis posing the question: Would intervention...
10.08.12 | |

07 Oct

Looking back at all the debates over whether the United States could have legal authority to use force in Syria, I was struck by the presence of two very different types of arguments about the Responsibility to Protect (R2P). For some, the R2P questions were interpretative in nature — what did R2P mean (i.e., does it require Security Council authorization) and how does its meaning apply in the Syrian context? Obviously, different interpretative methods and techniques could generate different answers to what R2P meant, and, with them, different outcomes for...
07.10.13 | |

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 | |

30 Apr

The Syrian Prime Minister has survived a car bomb in Damascus, an event UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon labelled a “terrorist attack.” Ban Ki-Moon also urged Syria to allow international experts access in order to establish whether chemical weapons were used. Meanwhile, in a phone call to President Putin, President Obama has expressed his concern over the use of chemical weapons in Syria. The European Union Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo (EULEX) sentenced five men to prison for their roles in an organ trafficking syndicate. Afghan President Hamid Karzai...
30.04.13 | |

19 May

...the special protective regime of IHL for certain objects, including works and installations containing dangerous forces and the natural environment (including water resources), and specific methods of warfare, such as starvation and the prohibition against attacking, destroying, removing, or rendering useless objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population, such as drinking water installations and supplies and irrigation works. These protections are vital because even when such objects become military objectives, they shall not be attacked save for minor exceptions.  In situations of occupation, IHL imposes additional obligations on...
19.05.25 | |

09 Sep

...given that there was a Review Conference less than two years ago. Adopting the amendment would require 2/3 of States Parties to vote in favour of it, pursuant to Art. 121(3). I will be surprised if the amendment is not taken up and adopted. Even acknowledging that states do not like to tie their hands against internal threats, there is no justification for starving civilians as part of a counterinsurgency. And, of course, NIACs regularly feature the intentional starvation of civilians — most obviously in Syria and Yemen. To be...
09.09.19 | |

19 Feb

...in the African state. Meanwhile, the EU has pledged to organize an international donor conference in mid-May to help with Mali’s reconstruction. The EU has eased sanctions on Zimbabwe and pledged to lift sanctions on a state-owned diamond company once fair elections have been held. North Korea on the other hand has to face increased sanctions from the EU, going beyond those already imposed by the UN Security Council. The EU has decided not to lift the arms embargo on Syria, but will increase direct support to the rebels. Meanwhile,...
19.02.13 | |

19 Sep

...the meantime. Examples include the International Independent and Impartial Mechanism (IIIM) for Syria, and the Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan. At the current session of the Human Rights Council, the Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar has called for establishment of an IIIM pending referral to the ICC or an ad hoc tribunal. Opening Remarks were given by Ambassador Monique T.G. van Daalen, Permanent Mission of the Netherlands. The Moderator was Saman Zia-Zarifi, Secretary General, International Commission of Jurists. The panelists included Catherine Marchi-Uhel, Head, International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism...
19.09.18 | |

17 Nov

...the communique released at the end of a two-day summit in Brisbane. UN/World Fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) are committing war crimes and crimes against humanity on a large scale in areas under the group’s control in Syria, UN investigators say. In its first report focused squarely on acts by ISIL, the UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria presented on Friday a horrifying picture of what life was like in areas controlled by the group, including massacres, beheadings, torture, sexual enslavement and forced pregnancy....
17.11.14 | |

02 Apr

...the daily number of civilian casualties in Syria. Al Jazeera has an exclusive about the UN’s plans should the Syrian regime fall–a plan that includes deploying peacekeeping forces, a move beyond its normal role as no others in the international community are interested in getting involved. The mood in the Malian city of Timbuktu is tense in the wake of deadly clashes between rebel and Malian forces over the weekend. Relatives of approximately 90 Yeminis held at the US Guantanamo Bay prison are protesting their “very poor” conditions at Gitmo...
02.04.13 | |