On March 27, 2015, acting under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations, the United Nations Security Council unanimously adopted two resolutions—2213 and 2214— on Libya. According to the press release, “the first, called for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire and extended the United Nations Support Mission there (UNSMIL) until 15 September, and [] the second, adjusted the arms embargo on the country in light of the terrorist threat there.” The Council also “decided that [UNSMIL’s] mandate should focus on support to the Libyan political process and security arrangements...
International Law in Brief
International Law in Brief (ILIB) is a forum that provides updates on current developments in international law from the editors of ASIL's International Legal Materials.
On March 26, 2015, the Human Rights Council created the mandate of a Special Rapporteur on the right to privacy. According to the press release, the Council “called on all countries to support this new mandate, including by providing all necessary information requested by the Special Rapporteur, to respond promptly to his or her urgent appeals and other communications, to consider favourably his or her requests to visit their countries, and to consider implementing the recommendations made in his or her reports.” The mandate was created pursuant to General Assembly resolution 68/167, which...
On March 23, 2015, the presidents of Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia signed the Declaration of Principles in an effort to resolve their long-standing dispute over the sharing of the Nile River’s waters. The ten-point agreement, which focuses on Ethiopia’s controversial construction of the Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the Blue Nile, includes principles on dispute settlement, fair and appropriate use, regional integration and sustainability, and cooperation among others. Ethiopia reportedly pursued the project because the dam would “give it a fairer share of Nile waters” and it wanted “to...
On March 23, 2015, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York dismissed a defamation case against an anti-Iran non-profit organization after the U.S. government intervened invoking the state secrets privilege in Restis v. American Coalition Against Nuclear Iran (ACNI). Mr. Restis, a Greek national and owner of a shipping business that engaged in business transactions with Iran, filed a defamation suit against the ACNI alleging the organization had attempted to destroy his company’s reputation. The U.S. government intervened, submitting a motion to dismiss on the...
On March 19, 2015, the Military District Court in Warsaw (the Court) cleared four Polish soldiers of war crimes for their role in the killing of six civilians in Afghanistan in 2007. According to one report, the soldiers participated in U.S. and NATO-led military operations in Afghanistan where their patrol attacked Nangar Khel, a village in southeastern Afghanistan, using automatic weapons and mortar shells, killing six people, including three children. The soldiers were first charged, tried, and acquitted of war crimes in 2011. At the new trial, they maintained the deaths had been...
On March 18, 2015, the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) issued its award in the matter of the Chagos Marine Protected Area Arbitration (Mauritius v. United Kingdom), unanimously finding the United Kingdom’s establishment of a marine protected area (MPA) around the Chagos Archipelago contravened its obligations under the Convention on the Law of the Sea. According to the press release, Mauritius commenced the arbitration before the PCA in 2010 after the United Kingdom declared an MPA in the waters surrounding the Chagos Archipelago. The Archipelago has been...
On March 18, 2015, 187 United Nations member states adopted the “Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030” at the UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction in Japan. The framework, described by the UN as “the first major agreement of the Post-2015 development agenda,” includes seven targets to be achieved over the next fifteen years— “a substantial reduction in global disaster mortality; a substantial reduction in numbers of affected people; a reduction in economic losses in relation to global GDP; substantial reduction in disaster damage to critical infrastructure and...
On March 5, 2015, a U.S. federal parole board consisting of representatives from the departments of Defense, State, Justice, and Homeland Security, and the National Intelligence directorate, cleared Saeed Sarem Jarabh, a Yemeni national formerly believed to have been Osama bin Laden’s bodyguard, for release from the Guantanamo Bay detention facility in Cuba where he has been held since 2002. In its final determination, the Periodic Review Board recommended his transfer to a third country after considering that Jarabh “was a low level fighter [who] lacked a leadership position in al-Qa'ida...
On March 19, 2015, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) released a report on “the human rights situation in Iraq in the light of abuses committed by the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant and associated groups.” According to the press release, the OHCHR found that the “Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) may have committed all three of the most serious international crimes – namely war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.” The report notes the investigation team found “that widespread abuses committed by ISIL include...
On March 18, 2015, Russian President Vladimir Putin and President of the Republic of South Ossetia Leonid Tibilov signed the Agreement between the Russian Federation and the Republic of South Ossetia on Alliance and Integration. According to the Kremlin’s press release, “[u]nder the Agreement, the two countries will establish a common defence and security space, allow free movement across the Russia-South Ossetia border, integrate their customs services, develop cooperation between their interior ministries, and simplify the procedures for obtaining Russian citizenship.” The twenty-five...