Guantanamo Military Commissions: Reflections from a Legal Observer – Part 1
There is perhaps no more controversial space in the world than the U.S. Naval Station at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. For many, Guantanamo represents the very worst of the American prosecution...
Humanitarian Intervention? – International Law and the Non-Use of Force in Syria
The UK House of Commons voted by a slim majority (13 votes) against UK involvement in direct military action in Syria. This refusal to endorse the use of force does...
The Ongoing Search for Justice for Victims of the Japanese War Crimes in Mapanique, Philippines
On November 23, 1944, Japanese troops descended on the town of Mapanique in the Philippines. The troops gathered men and boys in the town and proceeded to castrate them. Afterwards,...
Drone Strikes and Domestic Crimes?
As Kenneth Roth, the Executive Director of Human Rights Watch, has recently pointed out, international human rights and humanitarian law would not necessarily seem to require the wholesale abolition of...
A President in the Dock?
The ICC’s case against the President of Kenya, Uhuru Kenyatta, is scheduled to commence on 9 July 2013. Should this eventuate, Kenyatta will become the first sitting head of state...
UN Arms Trade Treaty opens for signature
The United Nations Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), adopted by the UN General Assembly on 2 April 2013, was opened for signature today at the UN in New York in accordance...
Between a Crocodile and a Snake: Racism and religious intolerance in Burma
By Benedict Rogers Benedict Rogers will be speaking in Oxford this Thursday, 2 May. Click here for more information on the Event “Racism in Burma: Silent Persecution of the Rohingya”...
Killer Robots in the Cross-hairs of New NGO Campaign
By Conor Fortune It has all the trappings of a sci-fi film. A life-size, talking robot stands outside Britain’s Houses of Parliament, flanked by a ponytailed professor of robotics, a...
The Arms Trade Treaty: A Small Step Forward
Following Dr Gilles Giacca’s post last Monday on the Arms Trade Treaty, Dr. Laurence Lustgarten argues that the Treaty is a historic accomplishment, but it has several limitations. It would...
The Iran Tribunal: The Case of the Court with Neither Power nor Jurisdiction
Olinga Tahzib assesses the impact of the Iran Tribunal in promoting a culture of human rights in Iran. The mass killings of 20,000 political prisoners by the government of Iran...
The Arms Trade Treaty: A Historic Achievement
Last month Dr Gilles Giacca wrote on the progress of the Arms Trade Negotiations recently held in New York. Today, in the first of a special two-part series, he provides...
So Near and Yet So Far: The International Arms Trade Treaty and Human Rights
By Dr Gilles Giacca – The renewed United Nations Conference on the Arms Trade Treaty opened on 18 March 2013 for a total of nine days. Optimism is running high...
