Search: Syria Insta-Symposium
27 Aug Rohingya Symposium: The UN Security Council, the Rohingya Genocide and the Future of International Justice
...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...
17 Oct Which Russians Fleeing Military Service Should be Recognized as Refugees? The Answer is More Complicated and More Interesting Than Politicians Think
...of prosecution for fleeing having to indirectly support the crimes have a claim to persecution, or does it only attach to people fleeing having to directly perpetrate the crimes? What about conscientious objectors? For answers, we turn to the cases of an American fleeing participation in the 2003 US-Iraq War and a Syrian fleeing conscription into the Syrian army in the 2011 Syrian civil war. While it Is n’t EZ, P recedent Ca n be O ur Shepherd In April 2007, an enlisted American helicopter maintenance mechanic named André Shepherd...05 Dec Weekday News Wrap: Wednesday, December 5, 2012
to protect Turkey against a Syrian attack. Additionally, NATO has warned Syria against using chemical weapons, with an immediate international response as the consequence. The Guardian is reporting that the former spokesman of the Syrian foreign affairs ministry has defected and is on his way to the US. Mali’s government has agreed to holding peace talks with two separatist rebel groups. The European Union is mulling a collective response to Israel’s planned expansion of settlements into the West Bank, while Germany’s Angela Merkel is nonplussed with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin...10 May The Past, Present, and Future of the Veto: A Further Response to Professor Jennifer Trahan
[Dr. Mohamed Helal is an Assistant Professor of Law at the Moritz College of Law & Affiliated Faculty at the Mershon Center for International Security Studies, The Ohio State University.] I would like to start off by thanking Opinio Juris for hosting what has evolved into something of a mini-symposium on the legality of the veto, the powers and purposes of the Security Council, and, implicitly, the values and principles underlying international law. I would also like to thank Professor Jennifer Trahan for engaging with and responding to my rejoinder...
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...04 Jun Weekday News Wrap: Monday, June 4, 2012
...armed forces near the Colombia-Venezuela border. Syrian President Assad has condemned the massacre in Houla and has promised that the violence will end if Syrians pull together. He has denied involvement in the massacre. Regarding the Syria situation, Foreign Policy in Focus has called for an intervention…with Russia. CNN provides more about upcoming diplomatic efforts in Syria. The US Ambassador to France has marked the 68th anniversary of D-Day with a mass parachute jump in Normandy. The 23rd anniversary of the crackdown on the Tiananmen Square is creating overtime for...25 Aug Members of UN Security Council Discuss LGBT Issues
13 of the 15 members of the UN Security Council met yesterday to address LGBT issues for the first time in a closed session chaired by Chile and the US. The focus was on persecution of gays in Syria and Iraq. As an Arria-formula meeting, the discussion was confidential, however news reports after indicate the group discussed the Islamic State’s targeting of LGBTQ residents of Iraq and Syria. Samantha Power, US Ambassador to the UN, told the diplomats that “we are coming together as a Security Council to condemn these...26 Apr Weekday News Wrap: Friday, April 26, 2013
...this tragedy is unlikely to spur reform. North Korea has rejected the demands from South Korea to reopen the joint industrial zone and warned its neighbors to the south of “grave measures.” As the discussion intensifies about Syria’s alleged use of chemical weapons, which the US suspects has happened on a “small scale,” a few articles are of note. First, Julian points out an editorial in the LA Times about possible ramifications and Obama’s “red line,” Lawfare also opines about this red line and Foreign Policy asks what Syria is...11 Jul Weekly News Wrap: Monday, July 11, 2016
...Monday. Four South Africans attempting to fly to Syria have been arrested in Johannesburg and will face charges related to terrorism, police said on Sunday. Middle East and Northern Africa A suspected U.S. drone strike wounded four Al Qaeda fighters in Yemen’s central Marib province on Sunday, local tribesmen and media said, hours after the exiled Yemeni president flew in to meet Arab military leaders in his war against the Houthi rebels. NATO allies have agreed to provide increased military support, including surveillance planes, to Middle Eastern and North African...17 Sep Weekday News Wrap: Tuesday, September 17, 2013
continent that the court unfairly targets Africans. War crimes blamed on the Syrian opposition are predominantly being carried out by foreign fighters, according to a member of the UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria. Turkey will provide the UN Security Council and fellow members of the NATO military alliance with details of the circumstances of its shooting down of a Syrian helicopter. Bangladesh’s highest court has sentenced to death a leader of the main Islamist party convicted of crimes against humanity during the war for independence from Pakistan in 1971....