For those Syrians waking up to a shattered country devoid of its dictator or those exiled by war, no superlative can quite capture the enormity of events that have transpired in the last few days. Assad’s fall not only marks the end of the Ba’ath regime (as occurred across the border in Iraq in 2003), but it also signals a seismic shift in the fortunes of the country’s 14-year civil war and 54 years of brutal rule by father and by son. I myself lived in Damascus in 2008-2009 studying Arabic. The personal security and safety I had experienced during my time there before the civil war was only possible through palpable fear and extreme repression. An unspoken rule – or a ‘social contract’ of sorts – seemed to prevail: I could only continue to presume that the chances of being mugged or assaulted were miniscule while I continued to observe the requirement of political silence. In exchange for everyday safety as provided by an authoritarian regime, Syrians had to sacrifice any scope for criticising or…
Syria
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Israel’s Use of Force Against Syria and the Right of Self-Defense
On December 8, the rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), augmented by other rebel forces, successfully overthrew the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad following more than five decades of rule by his family. As Assad’s regime fell, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) began a bombing campaign involving hundreds of air strikes in Syria against missiles, air…
The Plausibility test in the Recent Provisional Measures Orders of the International Court of Justice
In mid-November, the International Court of Justice issued two Orders for provisional measures based on claims under human rights treaties. On 16 November 2023, it issued an Order in the case of Canada and the Netherlands v. the Syrian Arab Republic, concerning the application of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or…
Twelve Years On: An Exceptional Chemical Weapons Tribunal
It is almost two years since a Permanent Member of the UN Security Council unilaterally decided to wage war against an independent European state. What response might we have expected in that time? More particularly, how might we have expected the international community to respond? Now let’s imagine we are a decade on. Twelve long years…
An Effective Form of Judicial Treatment of Foreign Terrorist Fighters in Kosovo?
Introduction Following the defeat of Islamic State in 2018 in Syria, thousands of Europeans accused of fighting for ISIS remain detained in Kurdish jails in Syria, while women and children related to these fighters are also living in several camps nearby the Iraqi border. Due to the absence of adequate infrastructure, some ISIS fighters are imprisoned in schools…
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