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…
Yemenis must have sighed with relief when, on April 21, the Saudi government announced they would end their air campaign against the Houthi rebels. In a bit more than a month, the strikes have reportedly killed 1,000 civilians and injured many thousands more. Facing mounting criticism of the high civilian toll, Saudis abruptly renamed the…
But unmentioned in all the the stories of military triumphs is a problem that Western officials behind the campaign to defeat the Islamic State tend to downplay: civilian casualties… …Sahr Muhammedally, senior program manager for the Middle East Center for Civilians in Conflict (CIVIC), a nongovernmental agency that works to prevent civilian casualties, says that…
On Monday, a coalition airstrike allegedly struck a camp for displaced Yemenis. Human Rights Watch said the attack “heightened concerns” that Saudi Arabia and its partners were not sufficiently protecting civilians.“The policy needs to come from the top – from Saudi political and military leadership – that protecting civilians is a priority. That then stretches down the chain of command,”…
In the fight against the Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) and associated Sunni armed opposition groups, the United States should ensure its security assistance to the embattled Iraqi government rests on clear commitment on civilian protection for all Iraqis. There is a strategic imperative for the Iraqi government to prioritize civilian protection to…
By Sahr Muhammedally When the US military was deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq, it had no plan for addressing civilian casualties despite following rules prohibiting disproportionate or deliberate attacks on civilians. Eventually, commanders in those theaters recognized they needed to change course, by acknowledging, investigating, and offering assistance to those harmed through ex-gratia monetary…
Syria has indicated that it will give up chemical weapons and may even sign the chemical weapons convention, but the war with conventional weapons in Syria continues with no end in sight. On the day the Syrian government signaled a willingness to hear proposals for transferring its chemical weapons stockpiles to the international community, it…
Today representatives of Syrian civil society released the “Syrian Transition Roadmap.”This 238-page document presents plans for constitutional, judicial, political, and security sector reforms, and transitional justice goals, including prosecutions for crimes and compensation to victims. The roadmap rightly advocates for compensation both moral (apologies and memorials) and physical (money or material goods) for harm suffered…