By Federico Borello and Christina Asquith U.S. President Barack Obama’s apology for the horrific U.S. airstrikes in Kunduz, Afghanistan was an important and necessary response to the global outrage sparked after the U.S. military bombed a Medecins Sans Frontieres hospital October 3, killing 22 Afghans including doctors and nurses. Whatever really happened in Kunduz, a city…
Article by Nicolette Boehland, Harvard Law Fellow at CIVIC. “What I think is that there is no line at all … Civilians can turn into fighters at any time. Anybody can change from a fighter to a civilian, all in one day, all in one moment.” I remember pausing when I heard this assertion. It…
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,”…
The crisis in the Central African Republic (CAR) has resulted in more than 300,000 refugees and over 630,000 internally displaced people as of June 2014. Thousands of people have been killed. The international community turned to African and European forces and the United Nations to deploy troops to stabilise the country and stop the violence….…
CIVIC discusses civilian harm mitigation lessons learned in “Return to Hope” — NATO’s virtual overview of its mission in Afghanistan. View the video here. View the full “Return to Hope” site here. Learn more about “Return to Hope” here.
Marla Keenan discusses CIVIC’s current work and founding on Katherine Albreacht’s Talk Radio with a Freedom Twist. Listen to the Entire Interview
Article by Nicolette Boehland, Harvard Law Fellow at CIVIC. Last September, I went to Gaza to talk to civilians about their experiences during conflict. When I arrived at my hotel, the manager told me with pride that I was lucky to be staying in one of the most secure locations in the Gaza Strip. He…