Criminalizing Humanitarian Engagement? Counterterror Legislation and Humanitarian Action
Description:
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This Live Seminar will examine how recent legal and policy trends—punctuated by a June 2010 U.S. Supreme Court decision—may alter modalities of humanitarian engagement with non-state armed groups. In Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of a law criminalizing various forms of “material support” to prohibited groups. In light of that decision, related UN Security Council Resolutions, and other emerging challenges to humanitarian space, this Live Seminar will address the following questions:
- What types of activities does Holder criminalize? Committed by whom, and where?
- How may humanitarian mandates drawn from international humanitarian law and human rights law conflict with laws criminalizing “material support” to non-state armed groups?
- What effect may these American laws have on non-U.S. organizations and individuals operating abroad? How may engaging with prohibited organizations trigger criminal or civil liability?
- How may laws regulating interactions with non-state armed groups inhibit humanitarian access to vulnerable populations?
- What implications arise for the core humanitarian principles of neutrality, independence, and impartiality in such contexts?
These questions will be explored by reference to contemporary armed conflicts and to the applicable legal and policy frameworks.
Naz Modirzadeh (Associate Director of the Program on Humanitarian Policy and Conflict Research) and Claude Bruderlein (Director of the Program) will host the discussion.
Background materials are available at the International Humanitarian Law Research Initiative Portal.
In partnership with:
The Federal Department for Foreign Affairs (FDFA) formulates and coordinates Swiss foreign policy on the instructions of the Federal Council. A coherent foreign policy is a precondition for the effective protection of Swiss interests vis-à-vis foreign countries.
Sida works according to directives of the Swedish Parliament and Government to reduce poverty in the world. The overall goal of Swedish development cooperation is to contribute to making it possible for poor people to improve their living conditions.
