Search Results for: Kurdish

The Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the Islamic Republic of Iran (FFMI), mandated by the UN, concluded on Monday that the death of Mahsa Amini while in custody was unlawful and resulted from violence. The UN Human Rights Council established the mission in November 2022 to investigate alleged human rights violations in Iran. Its primary [...]

Marissa Zupancic is JURIST’s Washington DC Correspondent, a JURIST Senior Editor and a 3L at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. She’s stationed in Washington during her Semester in DC. This week I attended a talk hosted by Georgetown University entitled “Kurds in Iraq, Iran, Syria and Türkiye: At the Epicenter of Conflict in the [...]

The UN Syria Commission of Inquiry released a report Monday concerning the most severe escalation of violence in the country since 2020. Explosions during a military academy graduation ceremony in Homs triggered the escalation, which began in October, leading to a series of indiscriminate attacks by Syrian and Russian forces on opposition-held areas. The commission [...]

Türkiye bears responsibility for the human rights abuses and potential war crimes committed by Turkish and proxy forces in Turkish-occupied northern Syria, according to a report released Thursday by Human Rights Watch (HRW). The 74-page report documents various abuses, including abductions, sexual violence and torture, by the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) and Military Police. “Ongoing [...]

JURIST’s James Joseph interviews Patrick Kroker, Senior Legal Advisor at the European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) in Berlin, Germany to discuss the war crimes criminal complaint filed with the German Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office on January 18, 2024 against Turkish-backed militias in Syria’s Afrin region. The complaint calls for an investigation of [...]

The Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) reported on Monday that at least six civilians have been wounded, and several civilian facilities have been destroyed after Turkish shelling and airstrikes in northeast Syria. Since Friday, Türkiye has launched 73 attacks, targeting oil stations, electricity plants, control points of the internal security forces, as [...]

The Hengaw Organization for Human Rights announced Thursday that Barzin Hamzeh-Zadeh, a 16-year-old boy whom the Iranian government tortured, had died from his injuries. At age 15, Hamzeh-Zadeh was arrested in 2022 during the Jin, Jiyan, and Azadi movements and was held for a week by Iranian security forces. He was regularly beaten during his [...]

The Turkish Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee approved Sweden’s NATO membership on Tuesday. This is the first step in Türkiye’s process to full approval, which entails submission to the General Assembly of the Turkish Parliament, followed by ratification from President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Upon successful ratification, Hungary will be the final NATO member to approve Sweden’s [...]

Nadia Murad, a human rights activist and recipient of the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize, and Yazidi-Americans filed a civil lawsuit against French industrial company Lafarge in the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York on Thursday. The complaints are under civil provisions of the Anti-Terrorism Act, intending to obtain compensation from Lafarge [...]

Türkiye found itself the subject of international reproach on Friday, as a coalition of 27 bar associations, human rights organizations, and legal groups from eight countries pronounced their condemnation of the country’s alleged mistreatment of lawyers. The joint statement followed the conclusion of a fact-finding mission conducted within the nation. The scrutiny primarily centered on [...]