The recent events in Houla have, yet again, put Syria front and centre of news reports. Over recent months we have featured posts on Syria here, here, here and here but as the situation disintegrates and fears regarding a sectarian civil war rise, this post discusses, with a particular focus on the Security Council, what the options(…)
Judgment in the trial of former Liberian President Charles Taylor will take place shortly in the Special Court for Sierra Leone. You can see the judgment here. Charles Taylor was charged with an 11-count indictment alleging responsibility for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and other serious violations of international humanitarian law committed by rebel forces(…)
On 22 March, the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva adopted the draft resolution, proposed by the United States, on reconciliation and accountability in Sri Lanka. It was issued in a context of war crimes accusations over the conduct of Sri Lankan forces in the final throes of the conflict with the LTTE (Tamil Tigers)(…)
While, there probably has never been a year that has not been ‘interesting’ for modern international law, the past twelve months has seen several developments which were entirely unpredicted this time last year. This post aims to give a general overview of the various developments in international law over the past year. While significant events(…)
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Leymah Gbowee and Tawakul Karman have been named as this year’s recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize. In announcing the award, the Committee underlined the importance of women in the securing of peace and stated that: In October 2000, the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 1325. The resolution for the first time(…)
A recent documentary on RTE radio 1 highlighted the Irish Army’s return to Lebanon. The Irish Defence Forces involvement in UN peacekeeping in Lebanon has had a long history and has even entered the pop culture of, in particular, 1980s and 1990′s Ireland in the guise of Christy Moore song Welcome to the Cabaret and films(…)
The recent avalanche of protests and revolutions in the Middle East and North Africa has been broadly welcomed by the international community. While some states, (for example France with regard to Tunisia) have been caught initially on ‘the wrong side of history‘, generally the peaceful and leaderless revolutions have been cautiously welcomed. Perhaps too cautiously at times, as states balance(…)
This is the full contents of a memorandum published on the 3oth of November by wikileaks. It concerns the actions of the ‘Shannon Five’, and the responsiveness of major world powers to democratic mobilization in Ireland. All spelling errors were in the original. C O N F I D E N T I A L(…)
