Crossing the red line: The use of chemical weapons in Syria and what should happen now

2017 ◽  
Vol 99 (906) ◽  
pp. 959-993 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yasmin Naqvi
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
International Community ◽  
Chemical Weapons ◽  
Accountability Mechanism ◽  
Red Line

AbstractThe use of chemical weapons in the armed conflict in Syria has attracted universal and widespread condemnation and has led to unified responses by various international bodies. This article examines the international community's responses to chemical weapons use in Syria from the perspective of international law. It also analyzes the potential options for accountability that are available for chemical weapons-related crimes. The intention is ultimately to make the case that the special status the international community has ascribed to chemical weapons crimes could be harnessed to create an accountability mechanism, such as an ad hoc tribunal, that could help pave the complex road towards a negotiated peace.

scholarly journals Some problems of ad hoc recognition in the modern international law

2020 ◽  
pp. 23-27
Author(s):  
Ivanna Maryniv ◽  
Alyona Morozova
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
International Community ◽  
Scientific Article ◽  
Main Body ◽  
Practical Application ◽  
State Recognition ◽  
Scientific Papers ◽  
Theoretical Issues ◽  
Official Recognition

Formulation of the problem. The article deals with general theoretical issues related to the institution of international legal recognition. The basic theories of state recognition, problems arising in connection with their practical application and forms of state recognition are studied. Questions are raised about the problem of codification of this institution. Particular attention is paid to the practice of forced relations with unrecognized states. With the growth of globalization, the question of the formation of unrecognized states is becoming more frequent and more acute. In an interdependent, interconnected world that is gaining global integrity, one of the highest values has become independent statehood. The emergence of unrecognized states is a global problem for the international community, which cannot always be resolved even by such influential and powerful organizations as the UN and NATO. Analysis of recent research and publications. Among scholars who specialize in international law, there are many scientific papers on the problems of recognition. M. Aleksievets, S. Vidnyansky, V. Golovchenko, A. Zlenko, O. Ivchenko, B. Korneenko, Y. Makar, V. Matvienko, L. Chekalenko and many other domestic authors devoted their works to this issue. The purpose of the scientific article is a general overview of theories, procedures, forms of recognition of states, and the study of relevant practices in this area. Article’s main body. The article deals with issues related to the international recognition of the newly created states by other states. In this regard, there are a number of unresolved issues in international law in terms of their justification and regulation. The authors point out that when a new state is created, the international community should cooperate in some way with it, and there are no certain international norms on how to act. The article examines the main provisions of theories of recognition of states: constitutive and declarative, and the problems that arise in connection with their practical application. The authors consider the thesis that there is a world practice when states can enter into certain relations with other states before their official recognition, explaining this by the existence of three possible forms of recognition: “de jure”, “de facto”, “ad hoc”. At the same time, diplomatic relations and exchange of embassies arise only during the official recognition – recognition “de jure”. Conclusions and prospects for the development: The lack of an international act that would define the procedure and criteria for the recognition of states is due to the uniqueness of each case and the complex system of international relations. Currently, there are no clear and specific criteria that would determine when and under what conditions a new state can be recognized or not recognized by the international community. The emergence of an increasing number of unrecognized states in the international arena requires new approaches and research.

Syrian Views on Obama's Red Line: The Ethical Case for Strikes against Assad

2020 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 189-200 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wendy Pearlman
Keyword(s):  
Military Intervention ◽  
International Community ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Chemical Weapons ◽  
Ethical Context ◽  
Pros And Cons ◽  
Red Line

AbstractMuch ink has been spilled on the pros and cons of U.S. president Barack Obama's decision not to strike the regime of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad after that regime launched a deadly chemical weapons attack in 2013. Often missing from those debates, however, are the perspectives of Syrians themselves. While not all Syrians oppose Assad, and not all opponents endorsed intervention, many Syrian oppositionists resolutely called for Obama to uphold his “red line” militarily. As part of the roundtable “The Ethics of Limited Strikes,” this essay analyzes diverse expressions of such opinion and finds that they highlight three dimensions of the ethical case for limited strikes against Assad. First, they remind us that the ethical context of the red line question was many Syrians’ sense of abandonment by the international community. Second, they emphasize the ethical stakes of the limited strikes; namely an opportunity to hold the Syrian regime accountable, weaken it from within, and thus change the equation of the war. Third, they make sense of the ethical consequences of the nonintervention outcome, and especially its effect in deepening civilians’ despair, accelerating extremism, and convincing Assad and his allies that they could kill with impunity. These views controvert both legalistic arguments precluding military intervention and assumptions that U.S. intervention is always imperialist and warmongering. In this case, consideration of the case for military intervention from the viewpoint of those on whose behalf the intervention would have taken place challenges us to think deeply about circumstances in which limited strikes might be not only ethically justified but also imperative.

Sexual Violence against Men and International Law – Criminalising the Unmentionable

2013 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 665-695 ◽  
Author(s):  
Solange Mouthaan
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Violence ◽  
International Law ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
International Community ◽  
Armed Conflicts ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
International Criminal Tribunals ◽  
The World ◽  
Gender Based

This article will discuss the manner in which international law deals with crimes of sexual violence committed against men during armed conflict. To date sexual violence against men has received little attention from the international community; instead its focus is almost exclusively on women, yet in armed conflicts across the world, sexual violence is also perpetrated against men. The example of torture demonstrates the current weaknesses in the relevant provisions for acts of sexual violence generally, and acts of sexual violence committed against men specifically. I argue that international criminal tribunals should address sexual violence more broadly, including against men. However, rather than to adopt a piecemeal approach differentiating between acts of sexual violence suffered by men and women, the experiences of men of sexual violence in armed conflict should be used to contribute to understanding the broader issue of gender-based crimes, of which sexual violence forms part.

The ictr and Its Contribution to the Revivification of International Criminal Law

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (1-4) ◽  
pp. 231-246
Author(s):  
Emily Crawford
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Criminal Law ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Case Law ◽  
International Criminal Law ◽  
Legal Responses ◽  
The Law

In this article, Emily Crawford explores one set of key institutional and legal responses to, and consequences of, the Rwanda genocide – the ictr and the revival of icl that the ictr and the icty heralded. Tracing the development of the concept and institutions of icl, Crawford observes how the case law of the [ad hoc] tribunals, and the ictr in particular, were pivotal in progressively developing the international law of genocide, and the law of non-international armed conflict’.

The Law of Genocide

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Weiner
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
International Crime ◽  
International Community ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
Genocide Convention ◽  
Sovereign State ◽  
Winston Churchill ◽  
United Nations General ◽  
International War

Genocide is described as the most extreme form of crime against humanity; Winston Churchill even called it the “crime with no name.” The word “genocide” was coined by Raphael Lemkin, a Polish lawyer who embarked on a mission to persuade the international community to accept genocide as an international crime under international law. In 1946, the first session of the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution declaring genocide as a crime under international law. This resolution became the basis for the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, introduced in 1948. However, it would take another fifty years before the Genocide Convention would establish an International Criminal Court that would prosecute international war criminals. In the 1990s, special ad hoc tribunals were created for Yugoslavia and Rwanda to deal with international crimes such as genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. In reaction to the failure of the international community to deal with genocide in Rwanda, a great deal of emphasis has been placed on the norm of “the Responsibility to Protect.” The Genocide Convention was tested in the case brought by Bosnia and Herzegovina against Serbia (originally Serbia and Montenegro) in 1993. It was the first time in history that a sovereign state was placed on trial for the commission of genocide. The implications and ramifications of the International Court of Justice’s ruling that the Serbian government did not commit genocide in Bosnia became a subject of considerable debate among legal scholars.

Justice pénale internationale pour la paix et la réconciliation

2007 ◽  
Vol 7 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 391-424 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammed Ayat
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
International Criminal Tribunal ◽  
International Community ◽  
International Criminal Justice ◽  
The Past ◽  
International Tribunals ◽  
Judicial Recognition

AbstractInternational criminal justice has made a tremendous leap forward since the mid-1990s. Gradually, it tends to reacting more and more to situations of armed conflict with declared objectives aiming at restoring peace and bringing about reconciliation among people. To what extent have these objectives been achieved?This article is revolves around this important question. The analysis is particularly focused on the case of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, where the author has been working for the past ten years. Ad hoc international tribunals have helped formalizing the judicial recognition by the international community of crimes that go against the conscience of the entire mankind. They consecrate their disapproval of the commission of such offences. In so doing, they contribute towards fighting impunity, which has for long been associated with those offences. They function in an environment where conventional national jurisdictions would have found it difficult to operate with efficiency. The author is neither overestimating nor underestimating their contribution. It is presented as one of the components in a reply that is inescapably of a multiple nature, to some complex situations where a remedy is as difficult as the illness to be cured. It is in this perspective that such contribution is indeed appreciated.

scholarly journals Defending Weapons Inspections from the Effects of Disinformation

AJIL Unbound ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 115 ◽  
pp. 106-110
Author(s):  
Mallory Stewart
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Arms Control ◽  
International Community ◽  
Chemical Weapons ◽  
Concerted Effort ◽  
The Past ◽  
Scientific World ◽  
National Economic ◽  
The Face ◽  
Repeated Use

The intentional spread of disinformation is not a new challenge for the scientific world. We have seen it perpetuate the idea of a flat earth, convince communities that vaccines are more dangerous than helpful, and even suggest a connection between the “5G” communication infrastructure and COVID-19. Nor is disinformation a new phenomenon in the weapons inspection arena. Weapons inspectors themselves are often forced to sift through alternative narratives of events and inconsistent reporting, and they regularly see their credibility and conclusions questioned in the face of government politics or public biases. But certain recent disinformation campaigns have become so overwhelmingly comprehensive and effective that they constitute a new kind of threat. By preventing accountability for clear violations of international law, these campaigns have created a challenge to the survival of arms control treaties themselves. If weapons inspectors cannot regain the trust of the international community in the face of this challenge, it will be increasingly difficult to ensure compliance with arms control and disarmament treaties going forward. In this essay, I will briefly discuss one of the most comprehensive disinformation efforts of the past decade: the disinformation campaign used to prevent accountability for Syria's repeated use of chemical weapons. After this discussion, I will propose one possible approach to help protect the credibility of disarmament experts and weapons inspectors in the face of pervasive disinformation. This approach will require a concerted effort to connect and support compliance experts and to understand and explain their expertise across cultural, political, national, economic, and religious divides.

scholarly journals The Statelessness of Syrian War Refugees

2016 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 54-65
Author(s):  
Piratheeca Vimalarajah
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
International Community ◽  
Refugee Status ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Syrian Crisis ◽  
Syrian Arab Republic ◽  
The Status ◽  
Mass Displacement

The Syrian crisis has forced the mass displacement of refugees attempting to escape the armed conflict in search of security at the borders of surrounding states. Amidst the chaos, the question of whether international law obligates the international community to take action arises. This paper examines whether the principle to non-refoulement under Article 33(1) of the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees is a universal human right for persons seeking asylum from the war-torn state of the Syrian Arab Republic. Syrian asylum-seekers experience the ‘war flaw’ – the failure of international law to account for persons fleeing from armed conflict as legitimately entitled to refugee status. This paper argues that a human right to non-refoulement may exist in international law for war refugees. This may legally obligate states to accept Syrians as refugees entitled to non-refoulement without forcing their return under such critical circumstances.

Self-Determination and Territorial Integrity: Southern Cameroons and the Republic of Cameroun

2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 629-653
Author(s):  
Valerie Muguoh Chiatoh
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Third World ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Territorial Integrity ◽  
Present Issue ◽  
The Republic ◽  
The Relationship

African states and institutions believe that the principle of territorial integrity is applicable to sub-state groups and limits their right to self-determination, contrary to international law. The Anglophone Problem in Cameroon has been an ever-present issue of social, political and economic debates in the country, albeit most times in undertones. This changed as the problem metamorphosed into an otherwise preventable devastating armed conflict with external self-determination having become very popular among the Anglophone People. This situation brings to light the drawbacks of irregular decolonisation, third world colonialism and especially the relationship between self-determination and territorial integrity in Africa.

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