Picking up on Jens’ post about the Administration’s apparent lack of plans for holding detainees picked up in Iraq/Syria, I too found the Times report troubling. In part I suspect it was because I was immediately reminded of one of the findings of the many Pentagon investigative reports issued after the revelations of torture at Abu Ghraib and other...
Today's New York Times tells us that the Obama Administration currently has no active plan for holding Islamic State (ISIS) detainees captured on the battlefields of Iraq or Syria. The article makes clear that the lack of a plan isn't because the Obama Administration hasn't been thinking about the issue. In reality, the lack of a plan stems from the...
[Ekaterina Kopylova is a PhD candidate at MGIMO-University, Moscow, and a former Legal Assistant with the ICC Office of the Prosecutor on the Bemba, et. al case] A month ago the ICC Trial Chamber V(A) vacated without prejudice the charges of crimes against humanity against the sitting Kenyan Vice-President William Ruto. This case involved intense cross-parties allegations of witness tampering. Some...
Here’s your weekly selection of international law and international relations headlines from around the world: Africa Three Red Cross staff members kidnapped three days ago in eastern Congo in an attack blamed by a rights group on Rwandan rebels, have been released, the Geneva-based organization said on Friday. Dozens of nuns, convened in Gisagara District in Rwanda for the 22nd commemoration...
Sponsored Announcements Admissions to the Venice Academy of Human Rights – Backlash against Human Rights? (4 – 13 July 2016), organised by the European Inter-University Centre for Human Rights and Democratisation (EIUC) are open until 22 May 2016. The Venice Academy of Human Rights is a centre of excellence for human rights education, research and debate. The Venice Academy provides an enriching forum...
[Dr. Daphné Richemond-Barak is an Assistant Professor at the Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy and Strategy at IDC Herzliya, and a Senior Researcher at the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT). Victoria Barber is a Master’s candidate at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, where she focuses on International Security Studies.] The emerging legal framework governing foreign fighters, whose importance is set...
Does anyone have an idea of what would be a fair hourly rate for someone to cite-check -- both for substance and for accuracy of citation -- a leading international law treatise published by a leading university press? Rates in pounds, dollars, or euros would be most appreciated!...
I read with great interest Jens's excellent post about whether the US attack on the MSF hospital in Kunduz was a war crime. I agree with much of what he says, particularly about the complexity of that seemingly innocuous word "intent." But I am not completely convinced by his argument that reading intent in the Rome Statute to include mental states other than...
[Patrick Wall is studying for an LL.M. in International Law at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva, as the Sir Ninian Stephen Menzies Scholar in International Law.] Last week, the British home secretary, Theresa May, called for the United Kingdom to withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights. Describing ‘the case for Britain remaining in organisations such as...
Here’s your weekly selection of international law and international relations headlines from around the world: Africa Kenya's president set fire to thousands of elephant tusks and rhino horns, destroying a stockpile that would have been worth a fortune to smugglers and sending a message that trade in the animal parts must be stopped. Nigerian gas exports to the US have dropped to zero. The...
The Pentagon has released its report on the U.S. air assault against a hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, in October. The picture painted by the Pentagon report is pretty damning. The attack killed 42 people and turned out to be a giant mistake. The U.S. attacked the wrong building. Initially, some Afghanistan officials suggested that insurgents had taken up positions in the...
Event The University of Sheffield School of Law Annual James Muiruri International Law Lecture will be held on Wednesday 11 May at 6pm. Prof Guy S. Goodwin-Gill, University of Oxford, will speak on Refugees in our Time: The Challenges of Protection and Security. The lecture will take place in The Diamond lecture theatre. For more details and to register click here. Over the past...
