Law and War in Syria

Willem-Jan van der Wolf

Pages: 650 pages
Shipping Weight: 550 gram
Published: 02-2013
Publisher: WLP
Language: US
ISBN (softcover) : 9789058870599

Product Description

The conflict in Syria began on 15 March 2011 with nationwide demonstrations, as part of the wider protest movement known as the Arab Spring. Protesters demanded the resignation of President Bashar al-Assad, whose family has held presidential power in Syria since 1971, as well as the end to nearly five decades of Ba`ath Party rule.

In April 2011, the Syrian Army was deployed to quell the uprising, and soldiers were ordered to open fire on demonstrators. Opposition forces, mainly composed of defected soldiers and civilian volunteers, became increasingly armed and organized as they unified into larger groups The conflict in Syria has received significant international attention. The Arab League, European Union, the United Nations, and many Western governments condemned the Syrian government`s violent response to the protests. The US and its NATO allies have pressed for al-Assad`s departure, but Russia and China have consistently blocked any United Nations resolution that would impose sanctions on Syria.

On 15 July 2012, the International Committee of the Red Cross assessed the Syrian conflict as a "non-international armed conflict" thus applying international humanitarian law under the Geneva Conventions to Syria. On 2 January 2013, the United Nations stated that the war`s death toll had exceeded 60,000. According to the UN, about 1.2 million Syrians have been displaced within the country. To escape the violence, hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees have fled to neighboring countries.

First an introduction to the current crisis is presented. Secondly we provide an overview of the international response to the crisis and a legal analysis of the conflict concludes this book.