On August 7, 2015, the U.S. Treasury Department released new guidance on sanctions for Iran in the wake of the July 14, 2015 announcement of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) regarding Iran’s nuclear program. According to the Treasury Department, “the JCPOA will provide Iran with phased sanctions relief upon verification that Iran has implemented key nuclear commitments” and the U.S. Government will release detailed guidance on sanctions relief after receiving such verification from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The information released, which includes...
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 August 7, 2015, the UN Security Council passed a resolution that will allow for the creation of a Joint Investigative Mechanism of the United Nations and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to identify those using chemical weapons in Syria. The resolution reiterated the Security Council’s “condemnation in the strongest terms of any use of any toxic chemical, such as chlorine, as a weapon in the Syrian Arab Republic” and stressed that “that those individuals, entities, groups, or governments responsible for any use of chemicals as weapons, including chlorine or any...
On August 5, 2015, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) released a report titled “Towards the Closure of Guantanamo.” The report is meant to address the matter of detainees held at the U.S. Naval base in Guantanamo Bay and focuses on the human rights of the detainees. According to the press release, the “report concludes that the main human rights violations at the Guantanamo detention center are indefinite detention; the use of torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment; limited or no access to judicial protection; lack of due process; a discriminatory...
On August 3, 2015, U.S. DC District Court Judge Royce Lamberth held in Al Warafi v. Obama that Taliban prisoners held at Guantanamo may still be detained under the authority of the domestic 2002 Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) because fighting continues in Afghanistan. In his renewed habeas petition, al Warafi argued that “the Government cannot detain a person captured during a conflict once the conflict has ended” and because President Obama has stated that the U.S. and Afghanistan are no longer in an armed conflict with one another, the government no longer has...
On August 3, 2015, Kosovo’s Parliament voted to amend the state Constitution to create a war crimes court that would allow for the trial of ethnic Albanians accused of war crimes during the 1998–99 guerrilla war against Serbian rule. According to a news article, the Court itself will be based in The Hague with a panel of international judges to try war crimes, including accusations that guerilla groups harvested and sold organs from murdered Serbs. The United States and European Union have pressed for a court to address accusations of war crimes as a means of promoting regional...
On July 30, 2015, the British Court of Appeal held in Serdar Mohammed v. Secretary of State for Defence that U.K. armed forces violated Afghan law and Article 5 (right to liberty and security) of the European Convention on Human Rights by detaining a suspected Taliban commander in Afghanistan in 2010 for nearly four months. The Court found that “[t]here was no authority to detain [Serdar Mohammad] for longer than 96 hours under any of the three bases advanced by the Secretary of State” as Afghan law and International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) policy required any person...
On July 16, 2015, the Pre-Trial Chamber I of the International Criminal Court (the Court) granted Comoros’ request that the Court review the Prosecutor’s decision not to investigate the Israeli Armed Forces attack against a humanitarian aid flotilla in 2010. The case stemmed from a referral by Comoros in 2013 requesting that the Prosecutor consider attacks by the Israeli Army on “other flotilla vessels bearing State party flags in addition to the Mavi Marmara [registered in the Comoros]” bound for Gaza Strip on a humanitarian mission. According to the press release, the Prosecutor...
On July 20, 2015, the UN Security Council unanimously passed a resolution endorsing the international agreement on Iran’s nuclear program, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which was signed in Vienna on July 14 by the five permanent members of the Council, plus Germany, the European Union, and Iran. According to a press release, the resolution sets “out a rigorous monitoring mechanism and timetable for implementation, while paving the way for the lifting of United Nations sanctions against that country.” The resolution “reaffirmed that Iran should cooperate fully with the [...
On July 20, 2015, a special court in Senegal opened the trial of Hissène Habré, the former President of Chad, for crimes against humanity. According to a news article, “On 22 August 2012, Senegal and the African Union (AU) signed an agreement establishing the Extraordinary African Chambers in the Senegalese justice system to try alleged perpetrators of international crimes committed in Chad between 1982 and 1990 – including genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and torture.” The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, called the trial “a...
On June 24, 2015, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) released “Guidelines on International Protection No. 11: Prima Facie Recognition of Refugee Status.” The Guidelines were created “to provide legal interpretative guidance for governments, legal practitioners, decision-makers, as well as UNHCR staff carrying out refugee status determination under its mandate and/or advising governments on the application of a prima facie approach.” According to the Guidelines, the prima facie approach refers to “the recognition by a State or UNHCR of refugee status on the basis of...