Accountability
352 Articles
Did the U.S. drone strike and secretly compensate Yemeni civilians?
New documentary evidence has emerged indicating that the families of those killed in a controversial December 2013 U.S. strike in Yemen received upwards of $1 million dollars in…
Inspectors General Information Access Complaints
Earlier this week, 47 Inspectors General (IGs) across the federal government signed a letter to congressional oversight committees complaining about impediments to access to information…
Road Map II: Legal Avenues to Prosecute a US Citizen for War Crimes—The Case of Gotabaya Rajapaksa
This is the second post arising out of a presentation I made at a congressional briefing earlier this month on issues of accountability in Sri Lanka. The analysis below is also…
Road Map I: What More Congress (and the Administration) Can Do to Promote Accountability in Sri Lanka
The Obama administration has taken the lead internationally to promote accountability in Sri Lanka. The principal focus is on war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during…
Sri Lanka’s Greatest War Criminal (Gotabaya) is a US Citizen: It’s Time to Hold Him Accountable
Monday, May 19th marks the five-year anniversary of the end of Sri Lanka’s civil war, which claimed the lives of 40,000 to 70,000 civilians in its “catastrophic”…
Honor Roll of US Congressional Members Who’ve Stood for Accountability in Sri Lanka
I developed this list as an appendix to accompany the post, “Sri Lanka’s Greatest War Criminal (Gotabaya) is a US Citizen: It’s Time to Hold Him Accountable.” Please…
Letter to the Editor from former U.S. Army JAG replying to Ryan Goodman on recent amends legislation
As a former judge advocate of the U.S. Army who served as a claims officer in Iraq for 14 months, I strongly support the new statute that allows for payments to be offered to civilian…
New Statute Provides Amends to Foreign Civilians Killed by the United States – but only if they’re “friendly”
Earlier this month, Just Security published a guest post by Sahr Muhammedally outlining a new congressional statute whereby the Defense Department can now move ahead in establishing…
Civilian War Victims Receive Recognition in US Law
When the US military was deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq, it had no plan for addressing civilian casualties despite following rules prohibiting disproportionate or deliberate…
Italian Court of Cassation Reverses Convictions of Italian Intelligence Agents Involved in Bush-Era Extraordinary Rendition
Reuters and AP have reported that Italy’s highest court in criminal matters, the Court of Cassation, reversed the convictions on Monday of five Italian military intelligence…
UK Court Rules against Alleged Pakistani Drone Victim (Noor Khan)
The United Kingdom’s Court of Appeal has issued its judgment in Khan v. Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (full text). A Pakistani man brought a civil action…
Considering Jones v. UK Requires Reflection Not Knee-Jerk Reactions
Jones v. United Kingdom was handed down by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) on Tuesday. It has already elicited a considerable amount of adverse commentary (here and…