Search Results for: chemical weapons

The UK, the US and Canada announced coordinated sanctions on Friday against individuals and entities linked to human rights abuse, approaching the 75th anniversary of the ratification of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The UK has imposed 46 sanctions of asset freezes and travel bans. The first category of these focuses mainly on forced labour [...]

Syria’s opposition government said Saturday that government forces shelled the northwestern village of Qaqfin, located in Idlib, Syria. The shelling resulted in the death of ten civilians, drawing further attention to allegations of human rights violations committed by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his government.  In a press release, the Syrian Opposition Coalition (SOC) revealed [...]

Palestinian human rights organizations and others sued US President Joe Biden, Secretary of Defense Lloyd James Austin and Secretary of State Anthony Blinken for allegedly violating the duty to prevent genocide and complicity in genocide in relation to the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) filed the case on Monday on behalf [...]

France issued arrest warrants on Wednesday for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his brother Maher al-Assad, the de facto chief of the Syrian elite military unit, as well as two high-ranking armed forces generals. The arrest warrants stem from two chemical weapons attacks that occurred in Ghouta, Syria in August 2013. The warrants are in [...]

Indonesia’s counter-terrorism unit, Detachment 88, has arrested 59 suspected militants in connection to a purported plan to disrupt the democratic process, the unit spokesperson announced on Tuesday. The spokesperson revealed that the detained individuals had intentions to carry out attacks targeting security forces responsible for safeguarding the election proceedings. Weapons, propaganda materials and chemicals used [...]

Amid the recent renewed conflict between Israel and Hamas, Human Rights Watch (HRC) Thursday claimed that the Israeli armed forces had used a substance known as white phosphorous in munitions fired at populated urban locations. The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) appeared to rebut this allegation in subsequent statements. White phosphorus is a toxic material that [...]

In response to the October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks against Israeli civilians, Israel mounted Operation Swords of Iron. Although international law allows for certain limited uses of insurgent force, including uses directed toward “self-determination,” these residual allowances do not include any rights of indiscriminate violence or of deliberate attacks on noncombatants. “Revenge,” of course, is [...]

“The existence of `system’ in the world is obvious to every observer of nature, no matter whom.” Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, The Phenomenon of Man (1959)           Whether conspicuous or obscure, terrorism generally presents itself as a systemic challenge. This means, inter alia, that seemingly singular strategic and legal matters may actually be many-sided and interrelated. Regarding legal issues, though [...]

The UK’s Metropolitan Police said on Tuesday that they have charged two men and a woman with ‘identity document offences.’ The Met’s statement came after the BBC reported the group was accused of spying for Russia. Those charged, said to be Bulgarian nationals, were remanded to custody in February before being released on police bail. [...]

The US has completed the destruction of its chemical weapons stockpile, according to an announcement made Friday by US President Joe Biden. The president said the end of the thirty-year process has brought “us one step closer to a world free from the horrors of chemical weapons.” The destruction of chemical weapons is governed by [...]