By Sahr Muhammedally Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman, in a letter to the mayor and council of Atlanta before he besieged the town in 1864, wrote, “war is cruelty and you cannot refine it.” As a practitioner whose work focuses on the protection of civilians, I have witnessed indiscriminate attacks on civilians, and both governments and…
The following are remarks delivered by CIVIC’s MENA and South Asia Director, Sahr Muhammedally, during the 43rd Sanremo Round Table on “New Dimensions and Challenges of Urban Warfare” – hosted by the the International Institute of Humanitarian Law and the International Committee of the Red Cross. View full recordings of the event here. Modern conflicts…
By Sahr Muhammedally and Marc Garlasco While the United States and the Taliban are engaged in talks, one fact is evident: As all sides have jockeyed for leverage over the past year, civilians have paid the price with over 10,000 civilian deaths and injuries in 2019, according to a new United Nations report. Now, it appears the U.S. and the Taliban…
In the third episode of MWI’s new Urban Warfare Project podcast, John Spencer is joined by Sahr Muhammedally. She works at the Center for Civilians in Conflict (CIVIC), a nongovernmental organization that seeks to convince parties to armed conflicts to recognize the dignity and rights of civilians, prevent civilian harm, protect civilians caught in conflict, and amend harm. Sahr manages…
The use of explosive weapons in populated areas has been identified as a key issue on the protection of civilians agenda by states and organizations over recent years. Operational policies and procedures provide guidance for armed forces including over the choice of weapons and how weapons can be used. Such policies and procedures to assess, reduce, and mitigate civilian harm…
Violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo took a turn for the worse in 2017 and the New Year is unlikely to bring much relief to Congolese civilians.
In this episode of Intercross the Podcast, we are joined by Interaction‘s Director of Protection Jenny McAvoy and Center for Civilians in Conflict’s (CIVIC) Director for the Middle East, North Africa and Asia, Sahr Muhammedally. Nearly 50 million civilians are affected by urban warfare, mostly in the countries of Yemen, Syria and Iraq. As warfare moves more and more…
Fighting in densely populated areas poses a number of significant challenges to forces trying to adhere to the rules that govern warfare. Even assuming that international humanitarian law (IHL) is respected, the cumulative effect of urban warfare inevitably leads to human suffering. Nowhere is the tension between the military necessity to defeat an enemy and…
KIRKUK, Iraq—Iraqi Security Forces (ISF), Kurdish Peshmerga, the U.S.-led coalition, and other pro-government forces are all stepping up their planning here in the fight against the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, and Daesh in Arabic. But defeating ISIS also means prioritizing civilian protection before retaking populated areas. Protecting civilians and their…