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There wasn’t before, and now there even more definitely isn’t, any legal barrier to providing cross-border humanitarian assistance in northwest Syria

February 13, 2023

For three long days following last week’s earthquake in Southern Türkiye, thousands of people in northwest Syria lay trapped under rubble, with no help from the UN. The road through Türkiye to the border crossing between southern Türkiye and northwest Syria, Bab al-Hawa, was damaged. Although, to quote the International Crisis Group’s Syria Analyst Dareen Khalifa, ‘there are a million routes to Syria’, Bab al-Hawa was the only crossing that – in January – the Security Council had authorised the UN to use. The Assad regime meanwhile was not allowing sufficient aid deliveries into opposition-held northwest Syria from Damascus. So the UN waited, as people died. In shattered cities in northwest Syria, amongst the rubble, survivors flew UN flags upside down in disgust. One image shows the words ‘we are dead, thank you for letting us down’ scrawled across a collapsed slab in a sea of broken concrete. In a striking admission, UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths said ‘we have…

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With No Judge or Jury, Who Will Decide the Fate of 4.1 million Aid-Dependent Syrians? A Comment on the Legality of UN-Coordinated Cross-Border Aid Operations in Syria

January 6, 2023

As the UN Security Council (“UNSC”) once again prepares to consider renewing the mandate for UN-coordinated cross-border humanitarian aid operations in Syria, 4.1 million aid recipients wait to see whether Russia will finally veto their last remaining lifeline. With stakes at their highest since 2014, relevant actors within the international community can revert to established legal positions surrounding…

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Security Council Resolution 2669 (2022) on the Situation in Myanmar: Too Little, Too Late?

January 4, 2023

On December 21, 2022, the United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 2669 (2022) on the situation in Myanmar with a vote of 12 in favour to none against, and 3 abstentions (China, India, and the Russian Federation). The Council “demands an immediate end to all forms of violence throughout the country.” It “urges the Myanmar military to immediately…

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The Echo of Quiet Voices. Liechtenstein’s Veto Initiative and the American Six Principles

October 10, 2022

On 8 September 2022, the US Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, announced her government's intention to support efforts to reform the UN Security Council. The issue of exercising the right of veto on one's own behalf thus gained unprecedented momentum. Of “laugh tests” and “get-out-of-jail-free cards” The trigger was the…

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Disobeying the Security Council or a disobedient Security Council? The effects of jus cogens on Security Council resolutions in recent debates of the ILC and in the views of states

August 12, 2022

At the most recent plenary session of the International Law Commission, which concluded on 5 August 2022, one issue proved particularly controversial. Indeed, it proved so controversial that Prof. Tladi, Special Rapporteur on peremptory norms of general international law (jus cogens), claimed that he was willing to fall on his sword over the issue, whereas Chinese ILC-member Prof. Huang insinuated…

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