armed conflict Tag

[Mahmoud Abdelwahab is a Deputy Public Prosecutor in Egypt, Director of the Financial Crimes Division within the North Cairo Public Prosecution, and a certified trainer on the Council of Europe’s HELP platform] The current Iran-U.S.-Israel hostilities have again demonstrated that modern armed conflict unfolds on two tracks at once: the kinetic and the digital. In recent days, Reuters reported that cyber...

[Asuman Ece Yildiz is a PhD candidate at the University of Groningen] In today's world, conflicts frequently take the form of non-international armed conflicts involving a variety of non-state armed groups espousing ideologies. These groups often assert de facto control over territories for extended periods, spanning years and even decades. Such control necessitates the establishment of governance systems, bureaucracies, and, in...

[Qerim Qerimi is a professor of international law and former rector at the University of Prishtina (Kosovo), and is currently a member of the Council of Europe’s Venice Commission. He served as a member and coordinator of Kosovo’s legal team in the advisory proceedings before the International Court of Justice on Kosovo’s Declaration of Independence. The views expressed here are...

[Anna Maria Puigderrajols Triadó is a PhD candidate at the Europa Law Institute of Leiden University, where she previously completed the Advanced LL.M. in European and international human rights law] In July 2025, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), in its landmark judgement in Ukraine and the Netherlands v Russia, was given a unique opportunity to deal with the...

[Davit Khachatryan is an international law expert and lecturer specializing in public international law, alternative dispute resolution, investment law, international humanitarian law, and security] A short video clip circulating online appears to show a US strike on a small vessel at sea, followed by imagery that has been read as suggesting that there were survivors in the water. The clip has...

[Dr Chiara Redaelli is a research fellow at the University of Geneva, IHL and ICL expert with the International Development Law Organization Ukraine Office and co-editor in chief of the on the Use of Force and International Law] From Drug Boats to Battlefields? The United States’ Classification of the “War on Drugs” In September 2025, the Trump administration began describing U.S. counter-narcotics...

[Paola Gaeta is a professor of international law at the Geneva Graduate Institute and director of the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights. Dr Etienne Henry is an independent legal consultant and a lecturer in international humanitarian law at the University of Neuchâtel, whose recent work includes contributing to the Geneva Academy’s research project IHL in Focus.] The weaponization...

[Alessandra Spadaro works as Assistant Professor in Public International Law at Utrecht University. She is conducting a three-year project titled “Business in and for war: the role and limits of international humanitarian law”, which is funded by the Dutch Research Council.] In a recent post on this blog, my colleague Jérôme de Hemptinne calls on (Western) international lawyers to engage with...

[Tadesse Kebebew is a Researcher and Project Manager at the Geneva Water Hub, a Centre of Competence on Water for Peace and holds a PhD in International Law from the Geneva Graduate Institute] Introduction  Water has increasingly become both a target and a weapon in armed conflicts across regions, causing severe humanitarian suffering and environmental degradation. When warring parties damage water systems...

[Neve Gordon is a professor at the School of Law, Queen Mary University of London, a Fellow of the British Academy of Social Sciences and the former Chair of the British Society of Middle Eastern Studies’ Committee on Academic Freedom. He is the author of Israel’s Occupation (University of California Press 2008) and co-author of The Human Right to Dominate (Oxford University Press, 2015), Human Shields:...

[Neve Gordon is a professor at the School of Law, Queen Mary University of London, a Fellow of the British Academy of Social Sciences and the former Chair of the British Society of Middle Eastern Studies’ Committee on Academic Freedom. He is the author of Israel’s Occupation (University of California Press 2008) and co-author of The Human Right to Dominate (Oxford University Press, 2015), Human...

[Dr Erica Harper is Head of Research and Policy Studies at the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights] International humanitarian law (IHL) stands at a crossroads. Once a universal touchstone for safeguarding basic human dignity during conflict, its foundational norms are eroding at an alarming pace. The IHL in Focus: Annual Report (June 2023-July 2024) (‘the Report’) paints...