The Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland (OAG) indicted former Syrian Vice President Rifaat al-Assad on Tuesday, referring him to the Federal Criminal Court for trial. The OAG accused al-Assad of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity while serving as commander of the defense brigades and commander of operations in the Syrian city of [...]
Search Results for: 2013-12-31
Türkiye police detain several people suspected of planning attacks ahead of local elections
Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya announced Sunday the arrest of 33 suspects alleged to be connected to the Islamic State (IS) on charges of “preparing and seeking action before the upcoming local elections,” of having provided “personnel to conflict zone” and “financial aid to the organization within the scope of financing terrorism,” ahead of the [...]
Explainer: The Israel-Hamas War and the International Criminal Court
The current conflict engulfing Israel and Palestine raises significant issues of international law and policy. This is part one in an anticipated two-part series that will discuss some of the relevant legal questions before the International Criminal Court (ICC; Part I) and the International Court of Justice (ICJ; Part II). With both courts located in [...]
UN Human Rights Council examines peer review of China human rights record
The UN Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Working Group examined the human rights record of China, one of the 14 states reviewed during this year’s session, for the fourth time on Tuesday in a meeting at Geneva. The three previous UPR reports on China—which took place separately in February 2009, October 2013, and [...]
This Day in History: The Law of Gobblers and Other Tasty Sides
It is Thanksgiving Day. The aroma of turkey; of dressing; candied sweet potatoes; green bean casserole; cranberry sauce; freshly baked yeast rolls; giblet gravy, and of pies emanating from the kitchen fills our nostrils. Home is the place to be today. But have you ever given thought to the law of the gobbler? This Day in [...]
Israel's Strategic Doctrine: Nuclear Ambiguity and Iran-Backed Terror
“For by Wise Counsel, Thou Shalt Make Thy War.” Proverbs 24,6 Israel’s nuclear posture remains closely held. On its face, this “ambiguous” stance appears perfectly reasonable. But a critically core question should now be raised: Is unmodified deliberate nuclear ambiguity (the “bomb in the basement”) still in the long-term survival interests of the beleaguered state. [...]
For years, Sri Lanka has occupied the international spotlight for one of its contentious laws—the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA). The PTA was introduced in 1979 during the Sri Lankan Civil War using the emergency law provisions in Part II of the Public Security Ordinance. While similar laws exist in other nations, showing widespread acceptance [...]
The Call is Coming from Inside the House: Sex Discrimination in Australia’s Parliament
Within the past 12 months, Jacinda Ardern has resigned as New Zealand’s prime minister, former Australian PM Julia Gillard’s famous “misogyny speech” celebrated its tenth anniversary, and the high-profile retrial against Australian Liberal Party staffer Bruce Lehrmann for the alleged rape of colleague Brittany Higgins was dropped for posing a “significant and unacceptable risk” to [...]
What 20 Years of Putin’s Own Words Tell Us About Russia’s Subversion of International Law
Seven months into Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, amid mounting evidence of Russian battlefield losses, Putin announced his country’s latest annexation of four territories. In a rambling speech that alternately sought legitimacy for the annexations in the UN Charter and railed against Western colonialism and transgender rights, the enigmatic Russian leader revealed a great deal about [...]
In the leaked Supreme Court draft opinion overturning a half-century of abortion jurisprudence, Justice Samuel Alito repeatedly argued that this difficult issue should be decided by the people through their elected representatives. Such calls for democracy to work, however, should be looked at with great skepticism by the American people, given how often and how [...]