Search: Syria Insta-Symposium

...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...

According to a recent report, tens of millions of dollars from the CIA were delivered to the office of Afghanistan’s president, Hamid Karzai over the course of decades, meant to buy US influence in Afghanistan. Syria’s neighbors are wary of a US-led intervention, should the US decide to take military action in the face of new evidence of chemical weapon use by the Syrian government–evidence that Syria claims is “inconsistent with reality and a barefaced lie.” Iraq’s media regulator has suspended licenses of ten broadcasters, including Al-Jazeera, accusing them of...

Here’s your weekly selection of international law and international relations headlines from around the world: Africa Zambia’s government is trying to send hundreds of refugees back to camps after two people were burned to death in anti-immigration riots in the country’s capital, Lusaka. Heavy fighting between a local militia and Ethiopian paramilitary militia known as the Liyu Police broke out in Galgadud region of central Somalia, residents said on Saturday. Middle East and Northern Africa The UN special envoy for Syria has estimated that 400,000 people have been killed throughout...

the siege. I was joined by Hussam Alkatlaby, the Executive Director of the Syrian Violations Documentation Centre; Joost Hiltermann, programme director for Middle East & North Africa at the International Crisis Group; and Robin Peeters, the Syria Policy Officer in the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. You can watch a recording of the event on the University of Amsterdam website here. The panel was sponsored by the War Reparations Centre at the Amsterdam Centre for International Law (ACIL); the Amsterdam Students Association of International Law; and the Syria Legal Network....

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...

...a party to the conflict (members of the armed forces or members of an organized armed group) would suffice, while other insist that the act must be intended to further the hostilities. All agree, however, that some real connection is required. Taken together, the armed-conflict requirement and the nexus requirement make it extremely unlikely that a state could legitimately use lethal force against members of a hacker collective like Anonymous. There are currently no international armed conflicts, although Syria constantly threatens to become one. And hackers don’t tend to work...

Ghana’s President John Atta Mills has died, though details are unclear as to the cause of death. Foreign Policy has more here. Vice-President John Dramani Mahama has succeeded him, taking the oath of offices a few hours after the announcement of Mills’ death. Fighting has intensified in Syria’s Aleppo. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has joined the chorus of warning Syria against the use of chemical weapons. Israel’s foreign minister has stated that it will get involved in the Syrian conflict if the Syrian army loses control over its chemical...

related news, an 11-year old survivor of the Houla massacre recounts how he avoided being executed by covering himself in his brother’s blood and playing dead. Syrian rebels have given the government 48 hours to withdrawal its troops and adhere to a UN-backed peace plan, otherwise they would renew their attempts for a coup. US Ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice, believes that a political/diplomatic solution to the Syrian conflict is best. Russia has pledged to block the UN Security Council in any moves for intervention, claiming that any military...

...United Nations-African Union office in Khartoum. Middle East and Northern Africa An Egyptian court has designated the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) armed group a “terrorist organisation” and banned it in the country. A U.S.-led coalition carried out at least 30 air strikes in Syria against Islamic State militants in the northern province of Raqqa on Saturday, a monitoring group said. At least 50 fighters of the Islamic State in Iraq and Levant (ISIL) have been killed in the past 24 hours in Syria’s Kobane, the biggest...

...corrupt drug dealer. He is chief of the provincial council of Qandahar and said to be more powerful than the province’s governor. A US official wrote, “While we must deal with AWK as the head of the Provincial Council, he is widely understood to be corrupt and a narcotics trafficker. End Note.” 4. The Boston Globe reports of Senator John Kerry that he urged the return of the Golan Heights to Syria in return for peace: “In the meeting last February with the emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa...

...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...

...that we, as ordinary people, who do not have to fight in wars, still can pass moral and rational judgments on the people who do. The current Middle East conflict is a case in point.' As to 'Hezbollah's tactics of hiding among civilians,' please see, for instance, Mitch Prothero's piece, 'The "hiding among civilians" myth,' at Slate.com: http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2006/07/28/hezbollah/ Seamus Let's not forget the situation in the Occupied Territories.... Please see: The B'Tselem: The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories http://www.btselem.org/English/index.asp Palestinian Centre for Human Rights http://www.pchrgaza.org/...