On 24 December 2014, the Arms Trade Treaty (“ATT”) entered into force with the object of ‘establish[ing] the highest possible common international standards for regulating or improving the regulation of the international trade in conventional arms’ for the purpose of ‘reducing human suffering’.
The lack of a clear demarcation between terrorist incidents and sufficiently protracted violence by an organized armed group contributes to this difficulty. While the Sindh High Court attempted to grapple with these issues the judgment rendered falls short in adequately clarifying the law and its application in this particular case.
Prior to 2014, “foreign fighters” and “terrorists” represented separate categories of individuals that fell under the jurisdiction of different international law regimes, namely international humanitarian law and the international counter-terrorism regime. However, after the landmark UNSC Resolution 2178 (2014) was passed in response to the influx of third-state fighters in support of ISIL and Al-Qaeda…
After over 18 years of war in Afghanistan, the US and the Taliban, the two parties to the conflict i.e. a State and an Insurrectional Movement respectively, concluded the “Agreement for Bringing Peace to Afghanistan” (“Doha Accord”) with a view to end the war.[1] This article will engage in a two part inquiry. It will…
The first case of coronavirus in Indian-Occupied Kashmir was reported on March 20, 2020.[1] Conflict-affected regions such as the Kashmir valley are acutely vulnerable to the spread of the virus and there are concerns that this could lead to serious humanitarian consequences in the region. This vulnerability is due to the fact that prolonged unrest…
after growing hostilities between the US and Iran, President Trump threatened to attack Iran’s cultural sites. He tweeted that the US had identified 52 Iranian sites some of which were “at a very high level and important to Iran and the Iranian culture” warning that they would be hit if Tehran conducted any revenge attacks. The Pentagon has since ruled out the targeting of Iranian cultural sites with the Defense Secretary acknowledging that this would be a war crime.[1] This article will analyse the protection provided to cultural sites during an armed conflict in IHL and any possible repercussions under the law of state responsibility as well as international criminal law.
Countries are already utilizing artificial intelligence based weapons in armed conflicts and this use has changed the scope of warfare from being a solely human endeavor. For instance, the United States has operated robots named SWORDS (Special Weapons Observation Reconnaissance Direct Action System) in Afghanistan used to detect and disable improvised explosive devices. However, these…
After the killing of Qasem Soleimani, chief commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ (IRGC) Quds Force, by US forces on January 3, 2020 in Iraq, the Iraqi Council of Representatives (“CoR”) passed a Resolution calling on the government to seek the withdrawal of US forces from Iraq.
Two Saudi Aramco oil facilities were attacked with drones, with the Houthis, a Yemeni rebel group engaged in a conflict against Saudi forces, claiming full responsibility. This was considered the biggest attack on any oil infrastructure since Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990.
The concept of safe zones has recently been much discussed following Turkey’s cross-border military operation against Kurdish-led forces in Northern Syria and its proclaimed intention to create a safe zone along the Syrian side of the border. This zone would prevent the flow of Syrian refugees into Turkey of which there are already 2.7 million.…