ICRC
28 May 2019
At an expert meeting co-organized by the Geneva Academy and the Swiss NGO Fight for Humanity experts discussed the detention and judgment of ISIS members, including foreign fighters and their families, in North-East Syria.
In North East Syria, the Self-Administration established in 2014 has increasingly extended its area of administration according to the military advancement of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and controls, today, more than 30 percent of the Syrian territory. The SDF is currently detaining over 2,000 ISIS members from approximately 46 different nationalities, in addition to their families, in detention centres and camps in various locations in North-East Syria.
Academics and experts from various concerned countries considered the legal issues arising from the detention of ISIS members and their families, in particular, non-Syrian nationals, by the SDF and the North-East Syria Self-Administration, including their transfer, release, continued detention or trial.
‘International security and countering violent extremism experts also analysed the situation from a security point of view to minimize the risk for future security threats’ underlines Dr Annyssa Bellal, Senior Research Fellow and Strategic Adviser on International Humanitarian Law (IHL) at the Geneva Academy.
‘As different options are on the table regarding the prosecution of ISIS members currently detained in Syria, this expert discussion allowed to outline all the legal issues, national and international, that arise in this context’ underlines Professor Marco Sassòli, Director of the Geneva Academy.
Fight For Humanity published a report shortly after the meeting, and issued 10 corresponding recommendations.
Our Head of Research and Policy Studies, Dr Erica Harper, spoke at a United Nations Economic and Social Council panel on June 16th, focused on Humanitarian Aid Under Siege.
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Co-hosted with the ICRC, this event aims to enhance the capacity of academics to teach and research international humanitarian law, while also equipping policymakers with an in-depth understanding of ongoing legal debates.
This training course will delve into the means and mechanisms through which national actors can best coordinate their human rights monitoring and implementation efforts, enabling them to strategically navigate the UN human rights system and use the various mechanisms available in their day-to-day work.
Participants in this training course will be introduced to the major international and regional instruments for the promotion of human rights, as well as international environmental law and its implementation and enforcement mechanisms.
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The IHL-EP works to strengthen the capacity of human rights mechanisms to incorporate IHL into their work in an efficacious and comprehensive manner. By so doing, it aims to address the normative and practical challenges that human rights bodies encounter when dealing with cases in which IHL applies.
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This project will explore humanitarian consequences and protection needs caused by the digitalization of armed conflicts and the extent to which these needs are addressed by international law, especially international humanitarian law.
Geneva Academy
Geneva Academy