ICRC
19 November 2019
Our new War Report article Iraq: Any Hope for Change? provides an overview of the non-international armed conflict (NIAC) in the country.
Written by Josiane Matar, it provides information about the classification of the conflict, its history, parties, developments in 2019 – including the recent protests and fate of foreign fighters and their families – and issues related to war crimes allegations, investigations and prosecutions.
‘This article is a very useful tool for anyone interested in understanding the current situation in Iraq and whether one can still classify the situation as a NIAC’ explains Dr Annyssa Bellal, Senior Research Fellow and Strategic Adviser on International Humanitarian Law at the Geneva Academy.
Despite the fact that the Iraqi state has claimed victory against ISIS, the armed conflict has not yet ended. Recent events have shown that there is still a high risk of ISIS resurgence and military operations are still taking place against ISIS sleeper cells and rural holdouts.
While the Iraqi Government have resorted to foreign assistance from the United States and its allies, and the PMU received backing and funding from Iran, the conflict remains a NIAC as the Iraqi Government invited and consented to these interventions.
This article complements the legal analysis of the conflict provided in the Rule of Law in Armed Conflict (RULAC) online portal, which includes an overview of the situation, its classification, parties and applicable international law.
Geneva Academy
At the 34th International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, we hosted a booth with Geneva Call and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Norway.
Applications for the upcoming academic year of our Online Executive Master – MAS in International Law in Armed Conflict - are now open. They will remain open until 30 May 2025, with courses starting at the end of September 2025.
Wikimedia
In this Geneva Academy Talk Judge Lətif Hüseynov will discuss the challenges of inter-State cases under the ECHR, especially amid rising conflict-related applications.
ICRC
Co-hosted with the ICRC, this event aims to enhance the capacity of academics to teach and research international humanitarian law, while also equipping policymakers with an in-depth understanding of ongoing legal debates.
ICC/CPI
This online short course examines and discusses the main criminal jurisdictions fostering individual legal accountability for international crimes.
The Rule of Law in Armed Conflicts project (RULAC) is a unique online portal that identifies and classifies all situations of armed violence that amount to an armed conflict under international humanitarian law (IHL). It is primarily a legal reference source for a broad audience, including non-specialists, interested in issues surrounding the classification of armed conflicts under IHL.
UN Photo/Violaine Martin
The IHL-EP works to strengthen the capacity of human rights mechanisms to incorporate IHL into their work in an efficacious and comprehensive manner. By so doing, it aims to address the normative and practical challenges that human rights bodies encounter when dealing with cases in which IHL applies.