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The integration of artificial intelligence and autonomous systems is essential to ensuring that Australia is capable of defending its interests now and into the future, but we as a country must be careful not to ...

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Australia should stay true to its track record of promoting the international rule of law and counsel Israel to show restraint in Gaza. Only by adhering to the norms of war and humanitarian, can the ongoing bloodshed by aborted.

Canada's duty under international humanitarian law is clear. Our government needs to urgently work for an immediate ceasefire, full humanitarian access to Gaza, a halt to any further arms exports to Israel and the release of all hostages.

In the context of some of the most challenging times for peacebuilding, Kaleem Hussain outlines his newly published book, "Peace and Reconciliation in International and Islamic Law", which explores the relationship between International Humanitarian Law (IHL) and Islamic Law (IL) in conflict resolution. With the escalation of the conflict between Palestine and Israel rising to … Continued

While humanitarian actors remain hesitant and somewhat suspicious to legal regulation, litigation, and lawyers, the sector is going through a process of juridification: the law regulates more activities, is more often used to solve conflicts, and the legal profession is getting more involved in the nuts and bolts of humanitarian lawyering. Most importantly, individuals in crisis and aid workers increasingly see themselves as legal subjects – whether as workers, rights-holders, or customers. My objective in this blog is to encourage the humanitarians to deal with these developments more comprehensively. Moreover, this blog post takes stock of the ambivalence to law and emergent shifts in the sector and calls for international law scholars to pay more attention.

In light of the atrocities committed by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad fighters in Israel on October 7, 2023 and the days thereafter, and against the backdrop of Germany's historical responsibility, the German government and German politicians have unanimously expressed solidarity with Israel and emphasized its right to self-defense. Following the October 17, 2023 call by Kai Ambos for a differentiated debate, we explain which international humanitarian law precautions are relevant and what German policy can contribute to contain the escalation of violence as well as the suffering of the civilian population in the immediate conflict and in the future.

The horrific atrocities perpetrated by Hamas on Israelis and the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Gaza amid Israel's response have rightfully focused policymakers on what needs to be done to respond to the immediate crisis and prevent further tragedy. Unfortunately, some of the calls for action from Congress risk increasing humanitarian suffering and further punishing ordinary civilians. This includes reckless calls by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and others to expand the war to Iran, which would further embroil Americans, Israelis, and Iranians alike in more senseless bloodshed.Less bombastic, but also unwise, are calls from Senate Republicans, and a handful of Democrats facing challenging elections next year, for the U.S. to renege on the recent agreement that freed five Iranian-American hostages by "freezing" Iran's access to $6 billion held in Qatari banks that can only be used for humanitarian purchases of food and medicine.These calls reflect a fundamental misunderstanding regarding these funds and, if implemented, would likely violate exemptions in U.S. law that food, medicine, and humanitarian goods cannot be subjected to sanctions.The bulk of the funds originate from a 2018 Trump administration decision to grant short-term waivers for South Korea to continue to purchase Iranian oil. The funds expended for those purchases were deposited in restricted accounts within South Korea. Under existing sanctions exemptions, Iran could theoretically have used these funds to purchase non-sanctioned humanitarian goods within South Korea. However, due to practical complications, including concerns by South Korea of potentially running afoul of additional U.S. sanctions, the funds in this account remained largely untouched. As a result, the Biden administration used this as leverage to get something in return — the freeing of American dual nationals from Iran.The U.S. did not "unfreeze the funds." Rather, the U.S. allowed the money to be transferred to banks in Qatar, where they remain frozen, as they were in South Korea, for any use other than for humanitarian purchases. As a result, lawmakers who propose the funds be "frozen" are implying that they should be blocked from being used to purchase food and medicine, despite humanitarian exemptions built into U.S. law.U.S. officials have noted that these funds are being tightly monitored by the Treasury Department and can only be expended on legitimate humanitarian goods like food and medicine. Yet partisan critics of the prisoner release rapidly seized on the horrific events in Israel to falsely claim these funds were used to finance the attacks, forcing Biden administration officials to correct the record.This week, Secretary of State Antony Blinken made this point crystal clear, stating, "Not a single dollar from that account has actually been spent to date. And in any event, it's very carefully and closely regulated by the Treasury Department to make sure that it's only used for food, for medicine, for medical equipment." This matches earlier statements clarifying that the U.S. is closely watching how the funds are spent.As U.S. Deputy National Security Advisor Jon Finer explained in August, "the reason we can be confident" that the funds will only be used for humanitarian purchases "is that the U.S. Treasury Department has oversight over all of the funds in this account, and we'll be able to monitor any transactions that they are used for to make sure that they're used for the proper purposes…we are going to be very carefully monitoring and using very careful oversight, again, through the Treasury Department to make sure it's used the way it's intended."Beyond the unprecedented cancellation of humanitarian exemptions, blocking these funds would renege on yet another rare diplomatic agreement with Iran. This would render any diplomacy with Iran exceptionally difficult for Biden's remaining time in office, including on critically important issues like hostages, regional security, and the nuclear program. The Trump administration did untold damage to U.S. credibility by reneging on the multilateral 2015 nuclear deal with Iran struck under the Obama administration. This gave hardliners in Iran the upper hand in advocating against restoring the far-reaching nonproliferation accord under Biden, helping ensure Iran's nuclear program is on the cusp of weapons production today. As a result of this historically self-defeating foreign policy decision, a regional spillover of the conflict in Israel could now have nuclear dimensions.Reneging on a hostage deal would double down on this error and further diminish U.S. diplomatic credibility, and Biden's credibility in particular, with a range of adversarial nations. This would undoubtedly make it much more difficult to get Americans home safely from a host of places — including potentially Gaza. Biden has rightly made getting Americans home a priority -— including from Russia, Venezuela, Iran and other nations. It would be a major error to diminish that track record and convey a lack of seriousness that the U.S. will follow through to get its people home to safety. Diplomatic options to free wrongfully detained Americans will be even more difficult, if not fully taken off the table.Additionally, this knee jerk reaction seems to dismiss out of hand any possibility of determining whether Iran could conceivably be an interlocutor for getting hostages freed from Hamas. George H.W. Bush administration officials credited Iran with playing a critical role in securing the eventual release of American and other foreign hostages held for years by Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon. Slamming the door on Iranian funds in Qatar risks removing one of the few levers that Biden can pull to secure freedom for Americans.While Iran offers material support for Hamas and has done so for quite some time, it appears that Tehran did not have a direct role in Hamas's decision to launch the attack in Israel. This makes it all the more important for policymakers to take time to understand the situation and consider how rapid shifts in U.S. policy could backfire amid a fast-moving situation. While it is understandable that some policymakers would speak rashly while emotions are running high, decision-making requires clear thinking. Rather than kneejerk reactions that risk backfiring, members of Congress should give the administration space to uphold its prior agreements with Iran and leave no stone unturned to secure freedom for Americans and move toward a ceasefire and just peace.

In its wise Order of 26 January 2024, the ICJ managed to make a virtue out of a necessity: Israel was not prohibited from continuing its combat operations but was reminded of its strict compliance with international humanitarian law and its obligation to avoid genocide. At the same time, the ICJ reiterated the requirement to respect the most fundamental rights and the core of humanitarian law to all warring factions. Despite still essentially being a court for inter-state disputes – it put the individual, the human being, at the centre. Henceforth, the ICJ's order of provisional measures is a Solomonic decision at its best and a further step towards the "humanization of international law".

In our last post of 2023 we reaffirm our commitment to working tirelessly for the diplomatic resolution of disputes based on international law, fundamental human dignity and our common humanity. Help us if you can with a generous year-end donation.

This year is the second winter that thousands of asylum seekers will spend on the cold streets of Brussels. More than 2700 of them are still without any material assistance and shelter. 869 of them have a domestic court order recognising their right to reception, yet the Belgian government has consistently refused to implement them. This deliberate refusal to secure the human rights of migrants, especially where these are single males, is not only creating a humanitarian disaster in Belgium's streets but also undermines the raison d'être of Belgian democracy. While the government's actions have been condemned by human rights experts and courts alike, we argue it is arguably reflective of a worrying wider trend in the EU of the impotence of the law to secure human rights for migrants.

The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine—established by the United Nations Human Rights Council in March 2022—published its report on 15 March 2023, detailing numerous violations of international human rights, criminal and humanitarian law, primarily carried out by Russian forces. Such commissions of inquiry are essential when other enforcement mechanisms are blocked, and can provide avenues for accountability in national, regional, and international courts. The full-scale attention of international institutions on Ukraine is a critical moment to strengthen the work of international fact-finding missions for future and existing armed conflicts.
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Farnaz Dezfouli Asl



Farnaz Dezfouli Asl ist Doktorandin an der Justus-Liebig-Universität in Gießen und assoziierte Forscherin am HSFK-Programmbereich "Internationale Institutionen". Zu ihren akademischen Interessen gehören das Zusammenspiel zwischen internationalem Menschenrechtsgesetz und humanitären Völkerrecht, die Rolle des Völkerrechts bei der Tatsachenermittlung und dem Informationsmanagement, die Umsetzung des humanitären Völkerrechts durch Menschenrechtsmechanismen und die Anwendung von Gewalt bei Terrorismusbekämpfungsmaßnahmen. // Farnaz Dezfouli Asl is a PhD candidate at Justus Liebig University in Giessen and an Associate Fellow at PRIF's research department "International Institutions". Her academic interests include the interplay between International Human Rights Law and International Humanitarian Law, the role of international law in fact-finding and information management, the Implementation of IHL through human rights mechanisms and the use of force in counter-terrorism operations. | Twitter: @farnazDezfouli

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Der Beitrag From Facts to Norm Violations and Accountability? The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine erschien zuerst auf PRIF BLOG.

Nicaragua alleges that Germany violates the Genocide Convention and international humanitarian law by assisting Israel and also by failing to prevent violations of these bodies of law. It requests the International Court of Justice to indicate provisional measures, which would oblige Germany inter alia to stop assisting Israel. While the Court may be barred from exercising its jurisdiction over Nicaragua's claims relating to the Genocide Convention it may be able to hear the claims regarding Germany's duties under IHL.