Armed Groups and International Law - End of Year News Roundup and Holiday Wishes

About the author(s):

Rogier Bartels

Rogier is a researcher at the Netherlands Defence Academy (NLDA) and works at the Dutch National Prosecutor’s Office. He holds LL.M-degrees from Utrecht University and the University of Nottingham. Before taking up his current positions, he was an associate legal officer in Chambers at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, and a legal adviser at the International Humanitarian Law Division of the Netherlands Red Cross.

Rogier is an adjunct-lecturer at the Hague University of Applied Sciences, where he teaches international humanitarian law, and he co-convenes the Hague Initiative for Law and Armed Conflict.

A lot has happened this year that was relevant to the blog. Notable new situations of fighting involving armed groups arose in, e.g., in Ukraine and northern Iraq/eastern Syria with the rise of ISIS. As again can be seen from the news round further below in this post, this armed violence still continues. The upsurge in the fighting between Hamas and Israel, which started during the summer, fortunately also (mostly) ended this same calendar year. However, as can also be seen from the news below, the violence in places like CAR, Colombia, DRC, Nigeria, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, and South Sudan, continued.

We therefore hope that the news roundups and other posts published this year were of assistance to your daily work or research. As the fighting by and against armed groups seems to be more prolific than ever, we are confident that the information we provide on this blog will continue to be of use to our readers.

The regular reader of this blog will have noticed that Katharine and I have not been overly consistent in posting news roundups these last weeks. We have both been busy with work, teaching (and the related correcting) duties, but – more importantly – also with the final drafting stages of our respective PhDs. Although Katharine has reached her ‘final drafting stage’ a fair bit quicker than I did (and she will surely have her defence at an earlier date as well), those of you familiar with the PhD process and the amount of work that still follows the ‘final’ drafting will appreciate that we have had to focus on our research more than on the blog; and will have to for the next while. Our New Year’s resolution is nonetheless to be more diligent with the news and to have another legal roundup posted in early 2015. Naturally, guests posts are also welcome, to help ensure a steady flow of posts on the blog.

We will now take our usual holiday break and be back 5 January 2015. For now, we wish you all a safe and peaceful holiday period (if applicable) and a good start of the new year!

Best,

Katharine and Rogier

News Roundup – 24 December 2014

US releases four Afghans from Guantanamo

Ex-rebels in Ivory Coast still plague Ouattara regime

Muslims Trapped in Enclaves in Central African Republic

UN Says Potential War Crimes in Libya; Talks Set

Palestinian Sniper Attack on Israeli Patrol at Gaza Border Sets Off Clash

New International Crisis Group report on South Sudan: South Sudan: Jonglei – “We Have Always Been at War”

UN Mission in South Sudan report: South Sudan rebels committed atrocities

Ukraine threatens to cut off power to rebel-held regions if usage not curbe

Human Rights Watch: Civilians Despair as Both Sides Break the Rules in East Ukraine