Rejecting sexual violence in conflict: significant progress; ongoing challenges

Conflicts in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia and the work of related criminal tribunals established legal bases for rejecting tactical rape and sexual violence in war as violating international humanitarian and human rights law. The UN Security Council has acknowledged security threats posed by these violations. There remain significant challenges

Migration Discourse in Croatian News Media

This paper investigates migration discourse in Croatian news media by combining corpus linguistics and critical discourse analysis approach. It first focuses on the phraseological and grammatical context of the terms migrant, imigrant, izbjeglica and azilant, whereupon it investigates the background of such linguistic behaviour. The latter is examined by means of critical discourse analysis, hence, by taking into account the non-linguistic context. This includes the analysis of historical, cultural and political context or sometimes even the relevant case law and standards of protection guaranteed in international humanitarian and human rights law. Results of the study suggest that discrimination does not occur only in the most obvious acts of inhuman treatment, such as pushbacks, but also in the language the media use when reporting on migration process

Private security companies and the state monopoly on violence: A case of norm change?

The proliferation of private security companies has received increasing public and academic attention in recent years. From the involvement of private security firms in Sierra Leone and Angola to the capture and killing of Blackwater security contractors in Iraq, the emergence of an international private security industry raises new questions with regard to the legitimacy of the private use of armed force. One aspect often missed in the public debate has been the pervasiveness of private security contractors. While most reports focus on the controversial actions of private security firms in international interventions, most notably Afghanistan and Iraq, domestic private security sectors in Europe and North America have been expanding since the 1970s. The emergence of a global private security industry thus appears to be part of a broader trend that suggests the growing acceptance and use of commercial security firms at the national and international levels. The recent signing of the Montreux Document on Pertinent International Legal Obligations and Good Practices for States related to Operations of Private Military and Security Companies during Armed Conflict has been a further expression of the increased legitimacy of private security contractors. In the document, seventeen states - Afghanistan, Angola, Australia, Austria, Canada, China, France, Germany, Iraq, Poland, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, the United Kingdom and the United States - have resisted pressures to strengthen the international regulation of private security firms by reiterating the applicability of existing international humanitarian and human rights law and by recommending that firms adopt a voluntary code of good practice

Settling the Syrian Conflict: Legal Pitfalls in a Political Agreement

Markus MayrThe planned Geneva conference will attempt to end the Syrian conflict with a political agreement. Such an agreement has to define a transitional order that accommodates the different groups’ interests. Meanwhile, serious violations of international humanitarian and human rights law by government forces and the armed opposition continue to be documented and pose familiar questions regarding accountability and reparation. The result is well-known: actors that are essential to end the conflict are the ones that have been involved in abuses and are to be held accountable. Therefore, calls for justice, accountability and truth create incentives to resist the conclusion of and adherence to an agreement

Guiding Principles for Victim Assistance

These principles are based on Article 6 of the Mine Ban Treaty and Articles 5 and 6 of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, the Oslo Action Plan and the Lausanne Action Plan,2 the International Mine Action Standards on Victim Assistance, as well as previous ones and other existing legal obligations and political commitments of States Parties under relevant International Humanitarian and Human Rights Law, foremost the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). They are guided by the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and rely on outcomes of the World Humanitarian Summit (WHS), including principles of localisation and equitable engagement in humanitarian response. These guiding principles recognize the vital role played by national and local non-governmental organizations (NGOs), including survivors networks, that resulted in the Grand Bargain Commitment made by donors to victim assistance to support National and Local Responders as well as the Charter on inclusion of persons with disabilities in humanitarian action and its related guidelines

Tort au canadien: A Proposal for Canadian Tort Legislation on Gross Violations of International Human Rights and Humanitarian Law

Despite Canada\u27s strong rhetoric on the protection of human rights, Canada lacks a meaningful tort scheme for gross human rights violations akin to that of the United States. This Article argues that legislation to facilitate tort suits for gross violations of international human rights and humanitarian law can be consistent with, and in fact supports, Canada\u27s commitments to human rights, the rule of law and multilateralism. In particular, provincial tort legislation should be one of a panoply of mechanisms in place to punish and deter violations of international humanitarian and human rights law. This Article proposes the shape of the legislation with respect to such key considerations as jurisdiction, sovereign immunity, and exhaustion. It contends that to comport with Canada\u27s strong backing for the international rule of law and emphasis on multilaterism and international cooperation, this transnational human rights legislation must be firmly grounded in international law with respect not only to the human rights norms covered but also to the jurisdictional principles to be applied

Protection of Medical Personnel and Other Voluntary Staff in Armed Conflict

When an armed conflict occurs, the Red Cross crew are at work, rescuing the victims of the attacks. The whole world is also at alert, keeping vigil, monitoring the wellbeing of the victims. But there is a great vacuum in the scenario. No one cares to know the effects of the armed conflicts on the health care workers themselves or on their beneficiaries and their facilities/services. Once, their services are guaranteed and the health of the victims are improving, the issue of their own health is neglected.This article departs from the general trend by looking into the condition of health care workers during the armed conflict, the effects of the armed conflict on their health and also on their work and their beneficiaries. The article adopts a right based approach to this issue of neglect, it concludes that such neglect is a violation of international humanitarian and human rights law and recommends different ways by which these set of persons can be better protected in a situation of armed conflicts. Keywords: Humanitarian law, human right law, Armed Conflict, Medical Personnel, volunteers

Guantánamo

This article addresses not only offshore detainees at Guantánamo and elsewhere, but also the two Americans and one Qatari held in the United States as enemy combatants. It focuses on the critical issues in U.S. litigation - extraterritoriality and deference - yet also examines the scope of detention and the propriety of proposed special tribunals. After demonstrating that in the wake of September 11, 2001, no U.S. constitutional precedent governed these issues, the article then looks to norms drawn from international humanitarian and human rights law to aid decision. The Supreme Court increasingly consults such external norms as persuasive authority; most recently, it found support in a European human rights judgment for its conclusion in Lawrence v. Texas that the Constitution forbids criminal punishment of homosexual conduct. This article likewise considers the constitutionality of governmental policy in light of external norms. It thus concludes: first, that U.S. courts have jurisdiction to scrutinize extraterritorial detention; second, that the doctrine of executive deference must yield to judicial duty to protect individual rights; and finally, that alleged conditions of detention and interrogation, as well as the proposal for trial before special tribunals, may violate core guarantees of the U.S. Constitution