Chemical Weapons Convention

THE SYRIAN ARAB REPUBLIC’S USE OF CHEMICAL WEAPONS & THE CHEMICAL WEAPONS CONVENTION by Janet Munro-Nelson Posted: 25 September 2014 (Download PDF) Dulce Et Decorum Est …Gas! GAS! Quick, boys! — An ecstasy of fumbling, Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
 But someone still was yelling out and stumbling, And flound’ring like a

Read more

“Tallinn Manual on the International Law Applicable to Cyber Warfare (Draft)”

“Tallinn Manual on the International Law Applicable to Cyber Warfare (Draft)”. Prepared by the International Group of Experts at the Invitation of The NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence. General Editor: Michael N. Schmitt View The Paper Here

Read more

Broken Laws, Broken Lives

Physicians for Human Rights Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) mobilizes health professionals to advance the health and dignity of all people through actions that promote respect for, protection of, and fulfillment of human rights. PHR has a track record of more than 20 years documenting torture around the world, including in Turkey, Chile, Chechnya, Kosovo

Read more

The Use Of Rape In Armed Conflicts

(Download as pdf) As with other armed conflicts including those of the former Yugoslavia, Dafar, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and now Libya, rape is used as a weapon against civilians—especially women and children– by armed groups. Margot Wallstrom, U.N. Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, in addressing the U.N. Human Rights Council on

Read more

Wings over Libya: The No-Fly Zone in Legal Perspective

by Michael N. Schmitt (Download pdf) On March 17, 2011, the United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 1973, which imposed “a ban on all flights in the airspace of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya in order to help protect civilians.” Excluded from the scope of the ban are humanitarian flights, those evacuating foreign nationals from the country,

Read more

The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty & Why It Has Not Yet Come Into Legal Force

by Janet Munro-Nelson Posted: 28 February 2011 (Download pdf) The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty is considered one of the cornerstones in the effort for global arms control. This treaty’s inception began in 1994. After two years of discussions and negotiations between governmental representatives, a final document was opened for signature in 1996. This was already twenty-six

Read more

Israel Institutes Proceedings in Relation to Gaza War

by Katherine Iliopoulos Posted July 26, 2010 Crimes of War Project (Download pdf) Eighteen months after the end of the 2008-2009 Gaza War that claimed the lives of 1,300 Palestinians, the Israeli Defence Force has announced that it has instituted disciplinary and legal proceedings against Israeli soldiers in relation to four incidents, three of which

Read more

Rule of Law: A Footnote in Time

by Janet Munro-Nelson Posted: August 2008 (Download pdf) In recent years, the use of the term “rule of law” has become more prevalent. As a lawyer, I first heard the term about ten years ago during a lecture on international law. I remember thinking, “What does that mean?” and “Where did that come from?”. Many

Read more

The Prohibition of Torture and Other Abusive Treatments

The Legal, Moral and Ethical Reasons on why the United States Should Never Use Physical or Mental Abuse On Any Individual It Detains Outside the United States by Janet Munro-Nelson Posted December 2007; Updated July 2008 (Download pdf) Prior to September 11, 2001, the United States was one of the leading voices against the use

Read more

Two Sides to Every Story: Congo & the Rwandan Genocide

by Katherine Iliopoulos Posted 30 September 2010 Crimes of War Project (Download pdf) Narratives on the 1990s in Rwanda focus invariably on the country’s darkest hour: the genocide perpetrated by the Hutu against the Tutsi. It seems to many as if the story began shortly before April, 6, 1994, when the incumbent President’s plane was

Read more

Maritime Piracy and International Law

By Professor Donald R. Rothwell Posted October 2009 (Download pdf) 2008 saw an unprecedented upsurge in piracy at sea resulting in significant international efforts to suppress pirate attacks. The scale and frequency of the pirate incidents throughout the past year combined to create contemporary challenges for international shipping which have probably not experienced such significant

Read more

The Convention on Cluster Munitions

by Janet Munro-Nelson Posted: November 2008 Updated: 31st August 2011 (Download pdf) On 30 May 2008 in Dublin, Ireland, some 107 countries negotiated and adopted a draft treaty to ban the use of cluster munitions. The draft of the new treaty, “the Convention on Cluster Munitions” (CCM), was finally agreed after ten intensive days

Read more

Cluster Munitions

Gary Solis** (Download pdf) Cluster bombs are not banned weapons. Cluster bomb units (CBUs) do not fall under any of the five 1980 Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) protocols, yet fear of non-detectable fragments of exploding CBUs was a driving force behind CCW Protocol I. “Although the effects of unexploded cluster bomblets are in

Read more

A Brief Overview of International Law

by Janet Munro-Nelson March 2009 (Download pdf) In matters of world-wide concern, it is international law that determines the responsibilities and obligations of each State, organisation or individual. In the past 50 years, the world has become even more interconnected with the huge leaps in communication and technology, and a growing dependency on other countries

Read more