Category: Conduct of War
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Agnes Wanjiru, the British armed forces and the language of silence
Elizabeth Brown In recent years, two prominent British public institutions – the Metropolitan Police and the armed forces – have faced significant criticism regarding their ability to protect women both in the community and within their own organisations. Both have faced a multitude of allegations of bullying, harassment, sexual assault, and inadequate investigatory procedures, within…
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Holding Moscow Accountable: War Crimes, Crimes Against Humanity and Aggression in Ukraine – Prospects for and Problems of Prosecution
On 12 February 2024, WCRG members James Gow and Iva Vukušić offered insights as members of a panel on the quest for justice and accountability for war crimes in Ukraine held at Princeton University. Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, a manifest violation of the UN Charter, has been condemned with an overwhelming majority by the UN…
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The Shadow of Impunity: Justice for the killing of Baha Mousa and lessons for Afghanistan
Elizabeth Brown Twenty years ago, on 15 September 2003, a 26-year-old Iraqi man named Baha Mousa died following catastrophic mistreatment carried out by British soldiers in a detention facility in Basra. The incident spawned a complex web of accountability efforts, including a Royal Military Police investigation, a Court Martial, a judicial review case which ultimately…
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Putin and the End of ‘Genocide’?
by James Gow When Russian President Vladimir Putin justified his attack on Ukraine as ‘genocide’ prevention, the hollowness was astounding, the term emptied of meaning. It has become stock for one side to cry ‘genocide’ in pretty much every violent conflict of the past three decades. Those cries usually come from those subject to attack…
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Frenki and Johnny were War Criminals… Just About, or The Last Judgement
By James Gow Almost unnoticed, the last international trial for war crimes in the former Yugoslavia was completed on 30 June 2021. The chief of the Serbian security service and his deputy were found guilty on five charges relating to just a single crime, while acquitting them of all other crimes charged. Bosanski Šamac was…