To honour Michael Kirby’s legacy tonight, I want to explore just how far the world has come – and how far we still have to go – in ridding the world of the worst of all human rights violations: the ...mass atrocity crimes of genocide, ethnic cleansing, other crimes against humanity and major war crimes. 2018 Annual Michael Kirby Justice Oration by Professor the Hon Gareth Evans AC QC, Chancellor of the Australian National University, College of Law and Justice, Victoria University, Melbourne, 26 September 2018.
While effective control, as formulated in art 7 of the International Law Commission Articles on the Responsibility of International Organizations, has become recognised as the key criterion to ...attribute conduct in international military operations carried out under the lead of an international organisation, its precise contours remain elusive when applied to concrete scenarios. This article argues that attribution of conduct under the test of effective control can be analysed in causal terms and that such analysis is useful to attribute the conduct of military organs over which control is shared between contributing states and international organisations. In this interpretation, effective control is understood as a causally proximate form of control over a given conduct. Applied to the military context, the analysis clarifies how different forms of military control are relevant to different types of harmful conduct and how they translate in terms of legal control for the purpose of attribution. The article submits that, beyond operational control, control exercised at the organic or strategic levels can also be linked to certain types of harmful conduct, which provides conceptual grounds for attribution of conduct in complex military scenarios.
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By examining high level statements by states at the past four sessions of the Conferences of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (2013-16) and the UN General ...Assembly over the past decade, this article seeks to provide insights into the meaning of responsibility sharing, international cooperation, and common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities in international environmental law from the perspective of individual states. Its purpose is to elucidate more fully how these precepts might inform deliberations on responsibility sharing for international refugee protection. This article complements a recent piece by the same authors examining the concepts of 'international cooperation' and 'responsibility sharing' in international refugee law. Since these principles are at a more advanced stage in international environmental law (most notably through their inclusion in binding international agreements on climate change), the present article compares and contrasts how states understand and apply them in that context. While there are some fundamental differences between responsibility sharing in the two regimes, it is clear that no state alone can respond to the protection needs of the world's refugees nor address the global impacts of climate change. The need for international cooperation and responsibility sharing in both cases is clear; indeed, it is a humanitarian imperative. Yet, the article shows that, ultimately, national interests tend to prevail when states determine how such global issues should be addressed.
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By examining high level statements by states at the past four sessions of the Conferences of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (2013-16) and the UN General ...Assembly over the past decade, this article seeks to provide insights into the meaning of responsibility sharing, international cooperation, and common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities in international environmental law from the perspective of individual states. Its purpose is to elucidate more fully how these precepts might inform deliberations on responsibility sharing for international refugee protection. This article complements a recent piece by the same authors examining the concepts of 'international cooperation' and 'responsibility sharing' in international refugee law. Since these principles are at a more advanced stage in international environmental law (most notably through their inclusion in binding international agreements on climate change), the present article compares and contrasts how states understand and apply them in that context. While there are some fundamental differences between responsibility sharing in the two regimes, it is clear that no state alone can respond to the protection needs of the world's refugees nor address the global impacts of climate change. The need for international cooperation and responsibility sharing in both cases is clear; indeed, it is a humanitarian imperative. Yet, the article shows that, ultimately, national interests tend to prevail when states determine how such global issues should be addressed.
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In a recently published piece, Robert Pape makes some misleading and erroneous comments on my published work. First, Pape writes, "Alex Bellamy, a staunch advocate of R2P the responsibility to ...protect initiative, catalogues episodes of mass atrocities to clarify 'R2P's preventive agenda,' with a total of twenty-one qualifying for intervention from 1990 to 2010" (p. 212). Pape provides no reference to support this statement. In truth, I have never produced a list of "cases" that "qualified" for intervention. The datasets that I have produced relate to cases where the lowest casualty estimates suggest that at least 5,000 noncombatants were intentionally killed. Nowhere have I suggested that this "qualifies" these cases for intervention. Actually, I have been generally critical of abstract talk about criteria and thresholds for armed intervention, as well as the pervasive and erroneous tendency to treat R2P as synonymous with humanitarian intervention, both of which I believe to be disconnected from political realities. Since I began working on R2P a decade ago, I have repeatedly expressed caution about the use of force for protection purposes for reasons similar to those aired by Pape last year. In my first book on R2P, I concluded that "non-consensual force is a highly unreliable form of protection."
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The purpose of this book is to consider the legality of the changing practice of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). It provides extensive legal analysis of the ICRC as an ...organisation, legal person, and humanitarian actor. It draws on the law of organisations, International Humanitarian Law, International Human Rights Law, and other relevant branches of international law in order to critically assess the mandate and practice of the ICRC on the ground. The book also draws on more abstract humancentric concepts, including sovereignty as responsibility and human security, in order to assess the development of the concept of humanity for the mandate and practice of the ICRC. Critically this book uses semistructured interviews with ICRC delegates to test the theoretical and doctrinal conclusions. The book provides a unique insight into the work of the ICRC. It also includes a case study of the work of the ICRC in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Ultimately the book concludes that the ICRC is no longer restricted to the provision of humanitarian assistance on the battlefield. It is increasingly drawn into long-term and extremely complicated conflicts, in which, civilians, soldiers and non-State actors intermingle. In order to remain useful for the people on the ground, therefore, the ICRC is progressively developing its mandate. This book questions whether, on occasion, this could threaten its promise to remain neutral, impartial and independent. Finally, however, it should be said that this author finds that the work of the ICRC is unparalleled on the international stage and its humanitarian mandate is a vital component for those embroiled in the undertaking of and recovery from conflict. Volume 68 in the series Studies in International Law
In armed conflicts around the world, children are being killed, raped, abducted and recruited to fight at a shocking scale. In light of this continuing general failure to protect children in ...conflict, it is questionable whether existing international law norms and institutions provide sufficient protection and accountability. Consideration needs to be given to whether international law can do more – practically and effectively – when moral lines are crossed. That is the purpose of this book. It reviews the position of children in armed conflict by reference to the ‘six grave violations’ as identified by the UN Security Council. It analyses the protection offered by international humanitarian law, international criminal law and international human rights law, and also assesses the related adjudicative accountability mechanisms. The analysis concludes with a number of recommendations and proposals for reform, with a view to enhancing accountability and deterring future violations. The book has been written by a team of lawyers, headed by Shaheed Fatima QC, and has drawn on the input of an expert advisory panel comprising leading academics, policy-makers and activists. It has been written as part of the Inquiry on Protecting Children in Conflict. The Inquiry has been sponsored by Save the Children and Theirworld and chaired by former UK Prime Minister, Gordon Brown.
iThis book examines the link between refugee protection, duration of risk and residency rights. It focuses on two main issues of importance to current state practice: the use of temporary forms of ...refugee status and residency and the legal criteria for cessation of refugee status under Article 1C(5) of the 1951 Refugee Convention.
In analysing this issue, this book canvasses debates which are pertinent to many other contentious areas of refugee law, including the relationship between the refugee definition and complementary protection, application of the Refugee Convention in situations of armed conflict, and the role of non-state bodies as actors of protection. It also illustrates some of the central problems with the way in which the 1951 Refugee Convention is implemented domestically in key asylum host states. The arguments put forward in this book have particular significance for the return of asylum seekers and refugees to situations of ongoing conflict and post-conflict situations and is therefore highly pertinent to the future development of international refugee law.
The issue of humanitarian intervention has generated one of the most heated debates in international relations over the past decade, for both theorists and practitioners. At its heart is the alleged ...tension between the principle of state sovereignty, and the evolving norms related to individual human rights. This edited collection examines the challenges to international society posed by humanitarian intervention in a post-September 11th world. It brings scholars of law, philosophy, and international relations together with those who have actively engaged in cases of intervention, in order to examine the legitimacy and consequences of the use of military force for humanitarian purposes. The book demonstrates why humanitarian intervention continues to be a controversial question not only for the United Nations but also for Western states and humanitarian organisations.
To honour Michael Kirby's legacy tonight, I want to explore just how far the world has come - and how far we still have to go - in ridding the world of the worst of all human rights violations: the ...mass atrocity crimes of genocide, ethnic cleansing, other crimes against humanity and major war crimes. 2018 Annual Michael Kirby Justice Oration by Professor the Hon Gareth Evans AC QC, Chancellor of the Australian National University, College of Law and Justice, Victoria University, Melbourne, 26 September 2018.
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