The Laws of War in the War on Terror
The laws of war - the parts of international law explicitly applicable in armed conflict - have a major bearing on the "war on terror" proclaimed and initiated by the US following the attacks of 11 September 2001. They address a range of critical issues that perennially arise in campaigns against terrorist movements, including discrimination in targeting, protection of civilians, and status and treatment of prisoners. The laws of war have a scope of application that is not limited to wars between recognized States. The nature of the opposition, point to potential problems in the application of the laws of war in counter-terrorist operations. Although the great majority of prisoners taken in war viewed as qualifying for prisoner-of-war (PoW) status, in a counter-terrorist war, as in other armed conflicts, there are likely individuals and even whole classes of prisoner who do not meet the treaty-defined criteria for such status. Keywords:armed conflicts; laws of war; prisoner-of-war (PoW); terrorist; war on terror
How does law protect in war
Part I presents International Humanitarian Law (IHL) carefully and systematically. The important and non-controversial elements of each topic are outlined in Introductory Texts. In addition, readers are given the possibility and indeed encouraged to expand their knowledge on a given subject through references to the pertinent parts of Cases and Documents reproduced in Part II. For each topic, references to articles from the Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols and to the Rules of the ICRC Study on Customary IHL are also provided. Finally, a selected bibliography facilitates further study and deeper understanding of each topic. Part II, entitled Cases and Documents, constitutes the main body of the present publication. In this Part, the reader can find all the Cases and Documents in chronological and geographical order. The nature of each Case or Document varies according to the topic: the student or scholar will thus find judgements of national and international tribunals, Security Council resolutions, document excerpts and press releases. Each case and document has been carefully edited according to the specific topic(s) of IHL referred to in Part I. The originality of this section lies in the second part of each case, entitled Discussion, where the reader is asked questions that raise issues in relation to the case at hand. Part III, contained in the CD only, provides advice and recommendations on how to teach IHL and a series of teaching outlines that may be useful for university professors who wish to introduce a course on IHL. The suggested teaching outlines are primarily for law faculties, but they also target faculties of journalism and political science. This Part ends with fourteen course outlines written by experts in IHL and two general exercises on IHL. The electronic version is publicly available, in four parts, under the following links: http://www.icrc.org/eng/assets/files/publications/icrc-0739-part-i.pdf http://www.icrc.org/eng/assets/files/publications/icrc-0739-part-ii-vol-i.pdf http://www.icrc.org/eng/assets/files/publications/icrc-0739-part-ii-vol-ii.pdf http://www.icrc.org/eng/assets/files/publications/icrc-0739-part-iii.pdf
Arab Uprisings and the Outstanding Return to Democracy: Tunisia as a Model
In the wake of the Middle Eastern crises, the Tunisian case in focus has been doted as a unique phenomenon being that it was the Genesis of the revolution that ultimately spread across the Middle East like wild fire, but has eventually heralded a new dawn as democracy has incidentally returned to the Empire. This literature therefore looks closely at the extent to which the ‘DignityRevolution’ has been instrumental in the Middle East uprisings, which have brought an end to dynastic autocracies. The literature zeros in on the Tunisian uprising which has attracted global concerns, sympathy and has sparked interests in the international arena. The literature finds that the people hold colossal prospect in the uprising and its resultant effect, as it paved the way for the revolutionist to generate, gather and disseminate information on the condition of the entire region to the international community. The people in this context were of utmost importance and played a very crucial role in the creation of awareness, mobilization of protesters and utmost determining the direction of the uprising and also ensuring a speedy return to democratic rule. The paper submits that the role of the people in ensuring that the ruins of the uprising is not left littering around and democracy restored is highly commendable and should be a model for all other Arab countries involved in the revolution.