Lawrence Wilkerson is a retired United States Army Colonel who held key roles in government, including serving as Chief of Staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell from 2002 to 2005. Wilkerson played a role in preparing US Secretary of State Colin Powell’s presentation in 2003 at the United Nations in making the case for [...]
Search Results for: afghanistan civilian deaths
Afghanistan arrests four local employees of Germany government aid agency
The German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development confirmed to German public broadcaster Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR) last week that four local Afghan employees of the German government aid organization Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) office in Afghanistan have been arrested by the Taliban-backed Afghan government. According to a confidential EU security report obtained by WDR [...]
Global dispatch: international reporting and views on Israel-Gaza conflict vary
In this first-of-its-kind JURIST “global dispatch” on a single topic, 15 law students and young lawyers from around the world, all of them JURIST correspondents from outside of Israel and Palestine, join together to offer a panoramic view of how the current Gaza conflict is unfolding in their countries and regions. Beyond the headlines, they [...]
Afghanistan and Pakistan’s border dispute over the Torkham Border Crossing flared up over the weekend as both Pakistan and Afghanistan claimed the other indiscriminately fired on border patrol forces. Pakistan closed the Torkham Border Crossing in the middle of last week after alleging that Afghanistan constructed unapproved buildings on the border. According to Afghan officials, [...]
The Enduring Consequences of Trump’s Pardons for Crimes Against International Law
“Each state is expected, perpetually, to aid and enforce the law of nations, as part of the common law, by inflicting an adequate punishment upon the offenses against that universal law.” William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Law of England (Book 4) After January 6, 2021, it was disclosed by the special investigating committee of the [...]
Marjorie Cohn is a professor emerita at Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego, California. She has authored publications arguing against the legality of the 2003 US military intervention in Iraq as well as the US-led NATO interventions into Afghanistan and the former Yugoslavia. Professor Cohn is also a national board member of Assange [...]
Israel, Counter-Terrorism, and International Law: The Analytic Challenges of 'System'
“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 [...]
Human rights NGO network calls upon international community to prevent possible genocide of Hazaras
The Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA) issued a statement on Friday calling for an end to the systemic killing of Shia Hazaras in Afghanistan in order to prevent a possible genocide under Taliban rule. In their Friday statement, FORUM-ASIA urged the international community to raise awareness about the ongoing persecution of marginalized groups [...]
In the UN Security Council’s latest quarterly report regarding life in Afghanistan, released last week, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres stated that Taliban authorities must ensure “inclusive governance,” allow freedom of speech and stop handing out corporal punishment in order to enter the global community. Guterres’ comments come as the Taliban remain under intense scrutiny for [...]
UN: deaths by IEDs and drug trafficking have skyrocketed in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan
The UN released two reports Tuesday, citing increases in deaths by improvised explosive devices (IED) and rising rates of drug trafficking in Afghanistan. The first report, released by the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), shows a steep increase in deaths by IEDs in Afghanistan since the Taliban took over in 2021. The report found [...]