Help promote human rights in the Middle East and North Africa

Donate Today
Facebook-f Twitter Instagram Linkedin Youtube
Search
Close
  • English
  • العربية
  • About
    • Our Mission
    • What We Do
    • Who We Are
    • FAQs
    • Support Dawn
    • Work With Us
    • For the Media
  • Founder Jamal Khashoggi
    • Who Was Jamal Khashoggi?
    • Chronology of a Murder
    • UN Recommendations
    • International Reaction
    • In His Own Words
    • DAWN and Jamal
  • Countries
    • Saudi Arabia
    • Egypt
    • UAE
    • Israel-Palestine
    • DAWN's Culprits Gallery
  • International Actors
    • DAWN's Advocacy
    • USA
    • Aid Conditionality
    • Human Rights Go to War
    • THE LOBBYIST HALL OF SHAME​
  • Democracy In Exile
    • About
    • Submission Guidelines for Democracy in Exile
  • Experts
  • Latest
Menu
  • About
    • Our Mission
    • What We Do
    • Who We Are
    • FAQs
    • Support Dawn
    • Work With Us
    • For the Media
  • Founder Jamal Khashoggi
    • Who Was Jamal Khashoggi?
    • Chronology of a Murder
    • UN Recommendations
    • International Reaction
    • In His Own Words
    • DAWN and Jamal
  • Countries
    • Saudi Arabia
    • Egypt
    • UAE
    • Israel-Palestine
    • DAWN's Culprits Gallery
  • International Actors
    • DAWN's Advocacy
    • USA
    • Aid Conditionality
    • Human Rights Go to War
    • THE LOBBYIST HALL OF SHAME​
  • Democracy In Exile
    • About
    • Submission Guidelines for Democracy in Exile
  • Experts
  • Latest
Donate

U.S.: Human Rights Organizations Should Reassess Approaches to International Law During Armed Conflict

August 3, 2022
in Feature, Human Rights Go to War, International Actors, Press Releases
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Landmark Workshop Examines Responsibility of Human Rights Organizations in Failing to Challenge Militarized Legal Strategies and Humanitarian Interventions

(Washington, D.C., August 3, 2022) – Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN) urged human rights organizations working on issues related to armed conflict to reform their current approach focusing on narrow questions of legal compliance with international humanitarian law by warring parties while avoiding more pressing questions of belligerence and militarism.

DAWN published its recommendations from Human Rights Go to War, an expert workshop it convened earlier this year, and encouraged human rights organizations to adopt a more holistic approach to international law during armed conflict that prioritizes human rights, especially the right to life, and recognizes the harmful impact of foreign policies championing uncritical military support, including weapons sales to abusive governments, and permissive legal strategies that greatly ease the legal burden to resort to military force.

"By emphasizing narrow technical questions of compliance with international humanitarian law instead of broader policy and political considerations, human rights organizations risk perpetuating an unquestioned acceptance of armed conflict and overly militarized foreign policies," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Executive Director of DAWN. "An alternative approach—one that critically examines use of force claims and opposes foreign policies predominantly based on military power—could result in less violence and a greater respect for human rights, especially in regions such as the Middle East and North Africa that are reeling from decades of disastrous foreign military intervention."

On May 13, 2022, DAWN and the Schell Center for International Human Rights at Yale Law School co-sponsored Human Rights Go to War, an expert workshop of more than 30 legal scholars, human rights practitioners, and foreign policy experts working at the intersection of international law, armed conflict, human rights, and foreign policy. This by-invitation workshop was conducted under Chatham House rule, meaning that participants were free to use the information received, but neither the identity nor the affiliation of the speakers, nor those of any other participant, could be revealed. This format allowed for frank and open debate on how human rights organizations could best engage in questions related to armed conflict.

The workshop sought to assess the successes and failures of the dominant approach for working on international law and human rights issues related to armed conflict, particularly after the last 20 years of protracted armed conflict, Forever War, and multiple military interventions throughout the Middle East and North Africa. With a group of experts deeply invested in the legal and policy issues surrounding the current approach, as well as possible alternatives, the workshop served as an especially ripe time to ask whether there is not a better way to engage on these matters.

"Human Rights Go to War provided a truly interdisciplinary forum for leading academics and practitioners to question the dominant approach to how human rights organizations engage in the policy debate and legal discourse surrounding human rights and armed conflict," said John Hursh, Program Director at DAWN. "Legal and policy experts from the Middle East, Europe, and North America provided a diverse range of opinions and constructive approaches to challenging the failed policies resulting from decades of military intervention and Forever War."

The first workshop session explored whether human rights organizations perpetuate an acceptance of armed conflict and militarized foreign policies by focusing exclusively on international humanitarian law compliance and limiting their investigations to the conduct of warring parties and the means of warfare, and whether an alternative approach, namely addressing the legality of the use of force or opposing war and militarism more generally, could produce better outcomes. The second session examined humanitarian intervention and whether human rights and advocacy organizations should support these military interventions as a mechanism to advance humanitarian interests even in extreme situations.

To spur further debate on these important questions, DAWN will publish a selection of articles stemming from this workshop in its journal, Democracy in Exile. DAWN's policy recommendations and workshop report detailing the proceedings of the event are available on the Human Rights Go to War landing page.

Human Rights Go to War is the second foreign policy workshop convened by DAWN. In 2021, DAWN and the Center for International Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) co-sponsored Debating Aid Conditionality, which examined the principles, effectiveness, and possible harms of conditioning U.S. arms transfers and economic and diplomatic support to abusive governments in the MENA region based on human rights improvements. DAWN anticipates convening a third foreign policy workshop on sanctions and sanction policy in 2023.

01 August 2019, Yemen, Aden: People inspect the damage after a missile attack targeting a camp during a military parade. At least 60 people were killed on Thursday in two attacks targeting a camp and a police station in the government-controlled port city of Aden. The missile attack on the camp in the western section of Aden was claimed by Yemen's Houthi rebels. Photo: Wail Shaif/dpa.

Source: Photo by Wail Shaif/picture alliance via Getty Images

Previous Post

Sisi's 'National Dialogue' in Egypt Is Just More Regime Window Dressing

Next Post

Egypt: Unblock Al-Manassa and other News Websites, Protect Freedom of Press

Related Posts

Democracy In Exile

Saving Lives in Time of War

The alternative to war unconstrained by international humanitarian law is total war—war fought without any effort to minimize harm...

Kenneth Roth
August 5, 2022
A Yemeni student is seen at the destroyed Shuhada-Alwahdah school in Al-Radhmah district, Ibb province, western Yemen, on April 12, 2022. Thousands of schools have been destroyed and abandoned in Yemen as a result of the civil war, according to teacher's unions, which warn that illiteracy among the younger generation is on the rise and the country's future is being gradually destroyed. (Photo by Mohammed Mohammed/Xinhua via Getty Images) TO GO WITH Feature: Students at Yemen's "rubble school" struggle to keep learning
DAWN

Human Rights Go to War: Workshop Report and Recommendations

The following report is a summary of the proceedings from Human Rights Go to War, an expert workshop focused...

DAWN
August 3, 2022
Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman attends a working breafast with US President Donald Trump (not pictured) during the G20 Summit in Osaka on June 29, 2019. (Photo by Brendan Smialowski / AFP)        (Photo credit should read BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)
DAWN

Rights Groups File Complaint Asking France to Investigate Saudi Crown Prince over Jamal Khashoggi Killing

عربيMohammed bin Salman accused of torture and enforced disappearance of journalist(Paris, July 28, 2022) Following a criminal complaint filed...

DAWN
July 28, 2022
The NSO Group company logo is displayed on a wall of a building next to one of their branches in the southern Israeli Arava valley near Sapir community centre on February 8, 2022. - Israel's domestic spying scandal widened yesterday, with Prime Minister Naftali Bennett vowing government action following new reports that police illegally used the Pegasus malware to hack phones of dozens of prominent figures. (Photo by MENAHEM KAHANA / AFP) (Photo by MENAHEM KAHANA/AFP via Getty Images)
DAWN

U.S.: Lobbyists Finch, Tamasi, Rabinowitz, and Dickinson Contributing to Rights Abuses by Blacklisted NSO Group

(Washington D.C., July 21, 2022) – Prominent DC lobbyists Brian Finch, David Tamasi, Steve Rabinowitz, and Timothy Dickinson are...

DAWN
July 21, 2022
Next Post
CAIRO, EGYPT - NOVEMBER 26:  Protesters view the internet with a laptop on Tahrir Square on November 26, 2011 in Cairo, Egypt.  Thousands of Egyptians are continuing to occupy Tahrir Square ahead of parliamentary elections to be held on November 28.  (Photo by Etienne De Malglaive/Getty Images)

Egypt: Unblock Al-Manassa and other News Websites, Protect Freedom of Press

Saving Lives in Time of War

August 5, 2022
A Yemeni student is seen at the destroyed Shuhada-Alwahdah school in Al-Radhmah district, Ibb province, western Yemen, on April 12, 2022. Thousands of schools have been destroyed and abandoned in Yemen as a result of the civil war, according to teacher's unions, which warn that illiteracy among the younger generation is on the rise and the country's future is being gradually destroyed. (Photo by Mohammed Mohammed/Xinhua via Getty Images) TO GO WITH Feature: Students at Yemen's "rubble school" struggle to keep learning

Human Rights Go to War: Workshop Report and Recommendations

August 3, 2022
NEW YORK, NY - SEPTEMBER 9: Former Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson testifies during a special Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental affairs hearing on "The State of Homeland Security after 9/11" at the National September 11th Memorial & Museum on September 9, 2019 in New York City. The hearing featured three former secretaries of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Former DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson: Rescind Endorsement of NSO Group Following Rights Violations

August 3, 2022

Categories

  • Advocacy
  • Aid Conditionality
  • Anonymous Interviews
  • Anonymous Interviews Egypt
  • Anonymous Interviews Saudi Arabia
  • Anonymous Interviews UAE
  • Cases
  • Cases Egypt
  • Cases Saudi Arabia
  • Cases UAE
  • Countries
  • Culprits
  • Culprits Egypt
  • Culprits Saudi Arabia
  • Culprits UAE
  • DAWN
  • Dawn's Advocacy
  • Democracy In Exile
  • Editor's Pick
  • Egypt
  • Feature
  • Fellows
  • Foreign Policy
  • Human Rights
  • Human Rights Go to War
  • International Actors
  • Lobbyists
  • Palestine
  • Political prisoners
  • Press Release Egypt
  • Press Release Israel-Palestine
  • Press Release Saudi Arabia
  • Press Release UAE
  • Press Releases
  • Saudi Arabia
  • UAE
  • Uncategorized
  • United Nations
  • US – Egypt
  • US – Saudi Arabia
  • US – UAE
  • USA

SUPPORT OUR MISSION

Donate Today

About Us

Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN) is a nonprofit organization that promotes democracy, the rule of law, and human rights for all of the peoples of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).

Support Us

Donate Now

Newsletter

Facebook Twitter Instagram Linkedin Youtube

© DAWN All rights reserved. | Website Design by KRS Creative.

DONATE TODAY