Suchergebnisse

This book will consider a rapidly emerging guiding general principle in international relations and, arguably, in international law: the Responsibility to Protect. This principle is a solution proposed to a key preoccupation in both international relations and international law scholarship: how the international community is to respond to mass atrocities within sovereign States. There are three facets to this responsibility; the responsibility to prevent; the responsibility to react, and the responsibility to rebuild. This doctrine will be analysed in light of the parallel development of customary and treaty international legal obligations imposing responsibilities on sovereign states to the international community in key international law fields such as international human rights law, international criminal law and international environmental law. These new developments demand academic study and this book fills this lacuna by rigorously considering all of these developments as part of a trend towards assumption of international responsibility. This must include the responsibility on the part of all states to respond to threats of genocide, crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansings and large-scale war crimes. The discussion surrounding aggravated state responsibility is also explored, with the author concluding that this emerging norm within international law is closely related to the responsibility to protect in its imposition of an international responsibility to act in response to an international wrong.

AbstractThis year in review will first discuss the major developments that contributed towards the formation or enforcement of international humanitarian law. Despite the many positive developments in the elucidation of international humanitarian law, 2009 witnessed the continuation of violent armed conflict around the world, not least in Sri Lanka where the long standing armed conflict came to a bloody conclusion amidst allegations of summary executions and other serious violations of international humanitarian law. Two other conflicts involving Israel/Gaza and Russia/Georgia which took place in 2008 and early 2009, resulted in the release of two influential international investigative reports, each of which alleged serious violations of international humanitarian law and called for the enforcement of criminal accountability. The election of Barack Obama marked a significant shift in the attitude of the United States to terrorism and detention with the new President immediately announcing on taking office, the closure of Guantánamo Bay.

The responsibility to record civilian casualties in both armed conflict and civil disturbances must be an integral element of the responsibility to protect, particularly in the application of the just cause principles. The first part of this article examines the threshold issue of the possibility of large-scale civilian casualties which triggers the international community's responsibility to react. The reports recommending the responsibility to protect emphasise the need to establish the actuality or risk of 'large scale' loss of life which is not possible in the current context without a civilian casualty recording structure. The second part of the article outlines the international legal obligation to record civilian casualties based on international humanitarian law and international human rights law. Thirdly, the responsibility to protect and the legal obligation to record casualties are brought together within the framework of Ban Ki-moon's reports on implementation of the Responsibility to Protect. The fourth and final part of the article reviews the situations in Sri Lanka and Syria. Both states represent egregious examples of governments hiding the existence of casualties, resulting in paralysis within the international community. These situations establish, beyond doubt, that the national obligation to record civilian casualties must be part and parcel of the responsibility to protect.

1. Historical background -- 2. The international law of armed conflict -- 3. Common Article 3, customary international humanitarian law, and human rights law applicable to the conflict in southeast Turkey -- 4. Belligerents -- 5. The international law of armed conflict-- jus ad bellum -- 6. Terrorism, the law of armed conflict and the PKK -- 7. Terrorism : historical engagement and the global war on terror -- 8. Self-determination : models for a political solution -- 9. International humanitarian law : recognition of the conflict as a basis for constructive political dialogue and peace-building.

This book looks at practically applying the law of armed conflicts to the ongoing situation in Turkey and Northern Iraq. The application of the law in this region will also mean addressing larger questions in international law, global politics and conflict resolution.

Preliminary Material /Javaid Rehman and Susan C. Breau -- Introductory. Reflections /Javaid Rehman and Susan Breau -- 3. The Twain Doth Meet! a Preliminary Exploration of the Theory and Practice of as-Siyar and International Law in the Contemporary World /Shaheen Sardar Ali -- 4. Religion as a Source of International Law /Ilias Bantekas -- 5. Human Rights and Cultural Relativism: the False Dichotomy /Susan C. Breau -- 6. Some Arguments on the Universality of Human Rights in Islam /Audrey Guichon -- 7. Religion within the Refugee Context: Squaring the Circle? /Rebecca M M. Wallace -- 8. The Advent of Proportional Human Rights and the Dignity Inherent in Individuals Qua Human Beings /Ben Chigara -- 9. The Religiosity of Jus Cogens: a Moral Case for Compliance? /Fiona De Londras -- 10. Why the Hindu Caste System Presents a New Challenge for Human Rights /David Keane -- 11. The Role of Islam in Human Rights and Development in Muslim States /Mashood a. Baderin -- 12. Human Rights, Natural Justice and Pakistans Shariat Courts /Martin Lau -- 13. Women, Islamisation and Human Rightsin Pakistan: Developing Strategies of Resistance /Siobhán Mullally -- 14. Nation-Building in an Islamic State: Minority Rights and Self-Determinationin the Islamic Republic of Pakistan /Javaid Rehman -- 15. Multiculturalism and Extremism:International Law Perspectives /Alexandra Xanthaki -- 16. Prayers, Planners and Pluralism:Protecting the Rights of Minority Religious Groups /Alice Diver and John Thompson -- 17 Are You a Protestant or a Catholic Muslim? the Path of Muslim Integration into Northern Ireland /Victoria Montgomery -- 18. Religion, Minority Rights and Muslims of the United Kingdom /Javaid Rehman -- Index /Javaid Rehman and Susan C. Breau.

This article discusses the international legal obligation to identify and record every casualty of armed conflict that finds its basis in the treaties and customs of international humanitarian law and international human rights law. The article applies the various facets of the legal
obligation to the armed conflicts in Iraq and Sri Lanka and argues that the parties in these conflicts failed in their international legal responsibility to civilians.