Launch of Oxford Guidance on the Law Relating to Humanitarian Relief Operations in Situations of Armed Conflict (October 30, 2016) [1]
On October 30, 2016, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in conjunction with the Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict [3] and the Oxford Martin Programme on Human Rights for Future Generations [4] launched the Oxford Guidance on the Law Relating to Humanitarian Relief Operations in Situations of Armed Conflict [5]. According to the announcement [6], the project seeks to fill a void in legal analysis pertaining to the obligations of states under international humanitarian law to accept humanitarian relief under certain circumstances. Additionally, the project seeks to provide clear analysis on the overlap of these obligations with other areas of international law. Some issues the project seeks to address are, inter alia, when IHL requires humanitarian relief operations, who must consent to relief, when is withholding of consent arbitrary, and the consequences of arbitrarily withholding consent.