Category Archives: Geneva conventions

Red Cross and Foreign Office to discuss plan to visit Palestinians in Israeli detention

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ICRC is denied access to prisoners in what is said to be breach of Geneva conventions but critics say UK plan may weaken rule of law

Red Cross officials are to hold talks with the UK over a Foreign Office plan to visit Palestinian detainees held by Israel. Critics say this bypasses a duty on Israel under the Geneva conventions to give the Red Cross access to detainees.

Israel has suspended the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) from access to Palestinian detainees since the Hamas attack on 7 October, and says it will not rescind the policy until Hamas grants access to Israeli hostages.

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What are the rules of war – and how do they apply to the Israel-Gaza conflict?

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International humanitarian law dictates the rules combatants should follow – with a central tenet that ‘civilians should not be targeted’

Amid the horror of the attacks by Hamas on Israel and the response by the Israeli military in Gaza, there have been calls for both sides to abide by international law and accusations of breaches.

So what is the framework of international laws that is supposed to govern war or armed conflicts?

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‘He’s been betrayed’: sister of Moroccan man captured in Ukraine pleads for help

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Brahim Saadoun’s sister Iman says marine sentenced to death by Russian proxies has been abandoned by his own government

The sister of Brahim Saadoun, the Moroccan man who was captured while serving in the Ukrainian military, has said she feared he has been abandoned by his own government and has called on the international community to “claim my brother”.

“I just want any authority, anybody who is willing to help, to come and help,” Iman Saadoun said in an interview with the Guardian, describing being left in limbo while seeking government support for him.

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Moroccan sentenced to death is a victim of Russian ‘games’, friends say

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Brahim Saadoun is a much-loved marine on active duty, they insist, and not a mercenary, as court in Donetsk claims

While Russia claims that Brahim Saadoun was a foreign fighter in Ukraine, the 21-year-old Moroccan sentenced to death alongside two Britons last week had spent years making the country his home.

Friends and family of Saadoun have called for his freedom, telling the Guardian he was an active-duty marine and not a mercenary as claimed by Russian media and pro-Russia officials in eastern Ukraine who announced the sentence.

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Family of captive Briton tell of distress at seeing him on Russian TV

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Aiden Aslin’s relatives say he is speaking under duress and was legitimate combatant with Ukraine

Relatives of a British man who was taken prisoner while serving with the Ukrainian marines have spoken of their distress at seeing him paraded in front of cameras by his Russian captors.

Aiden Aslin’s family said he had been a legitimate combatant with the Ukrainian armed forces, and was speaking under duress during an interview posted online this week that was described as a breach of the Geneva conventions.

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Second British soldier captured in Mariupol is paraded on Russian TV

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Propaganda video shows Shaun Pinner, believed to have moved to Ukraine four years ago

A second British soldier fighting with the Ukrainian army has been paraded on Russian television after being captured in the besieged city of Mariupol.

Shaun Pinner said he had been fighting alongside Ukrainian marines when Vladimir Putin’s forces invaded nearly eight weeks ago.

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Make environmental damage a war crime, say scientists

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Call for new Geneva convention to protect wildlife and nature reserves in conflict regions

International lawmakers should adopt a fifth Geneva convention that recognises damage to nature alongside other war crimes, according to an open letter by 24 prominent scientists.

The legal instrument should incorporate wildlife safeguards in conflict regions, including protections for nature reserves, controls on the spread of guns used for hunting and measures to hold military forces to account for damage to the environment, say the signatories to the letter, published in the journal Nature.

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