COVID-19 and International Humanitarian Law

Description: 

In this webinar, Professor Oona Hathaway (Yale Law School) will be discussing her series of articles that focus on the impact COVID-19 has had on international humanitarian law by exploring how the pandemic is affecting the rules and norms of IHL. Her series on international law seeks to address the rules around armed conflict during a pandemic, how this pandemic has impacted state obligations to provide humanitarian access, and how law of war detainees are treated in the presence of COVID-19.

The trio of articles that Professor Hathaway will be presenting on, highlight the importance of IHL?s role during this historical time of uncertainty. Her pieces address the Geneva Conventions and their direct application to armed conflict in regard to the pandemic. She argues that states must respond to this pandemic in ways that are consistent with their obligations under IHL, and describes how their violations of international law now have more severe consequences than ever before.

Oona A. Hathaway is the Gerard C. and Bernice Latrobe Smith Professor of International Law at Yale Law School, Professor of International Law and Area Studies at the Yale University MacMillan Center, Professor of the Yale University Department of Political Science, and Director of the Yale Law School Center for Global Legal Challenges. She is also Counselor to the Dean at Yale Law School. She has been a member of the Advisory Committee on International Law for the Legal Adviser at the United States Department of State since 2005. In 2014?15, she took leave to serve as Special Counsel to the General Counsel at the U.S. Department of Defense, where she was awarded the Office of the Secretary of Defense Award for Excellence. She is the Director of the annual Yale Cyber Leadership Forum. She has published more than 30 law review articles, and The Internationalists: How a Radical Plan to Outlaw War Remade the World (with Scott Shapiro, 2017).

This event is hosted by the American Red Cross-National Headquarters International Humanitarian Law Department located in Washington DC.

Those wishing to attend must register in advance. A zoom confirmation email will be sent following registration which will include the link to attend the event. Start time is 1 PM EST.

Date and Location

Date: 
Tuesday, April 6, 2021 - 1:00pm to 2:00pm
Location: 
Online