IMPLEMENTATION OF INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN LAW AND THE PROTECTION OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE MIDDLE EAST: THE CASE OF THE SYRIAN CRISIS
Prf. Sami Nizar Salhab
professor of Public Law and Public International Lwa, Kuwait International Law School
Abstract:
The Arab world has been the stage of political and social upheaval since 2011. The uprisings, which started in Tunisia, swept across the Maghreb. Syria, under an authoritarian regime for over four decades, was not immune to the snowball effect of the so called “Arab Spring”. However, the Syrian uprising came to be the bloodiest of all. It is described as the worst humanitarian crisis since the Second World War.
Despite the fact that the Syrian government has rejected the pronouncements made by the ICRC, and despite the fact that the opinion of the ICRC is not legally binding, the description of the conflict in Syria as a form of NIAC has serious implications for the legal framework to be applied and the level of protection afforded to innocent civilians. This paper aims to discuss the legal principles relating to the typology of conflict under IHL. An application of the existence of NIAC in Syria will be established. This paper will also demonstrate whether the protec