Foreign Fighters

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Fully veiled women walk behind a man with a gun in the northern Kuridish-Syrian city of Qamishli as Uzbek women and children linked to the Islamic State group are handed over to diplomats from the Central Asian country for repatriation, on May 29, 2019.

CVE’s Relevance and Challenges: Central Asia as Surprising Snapshot

With its traditional over-emphasis on security-heavy responses to threats, experts didn't expect the region to be so receptive to "whole-of-society" approaches to counter violent…
A girl stands crying at al-Hol camp for displaced people in al-Hasakeh governorate in northeastern Syria on July 22, 2019, as people collect UN-provided humanitarian aid packages around her.

Legislative Responses to ISIS Returnees Take a New Twist in Australia

This week, the Australian Parliament is considering new laws that ban “extremists” from returning home, apparently aimed at preventing Australians, including women and children,…
Women and children evacuated from the Islamic State (IS) group's embattled holdout of Baghouz arrive at a screening area held by the US-backed Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), in the eastern Syrian province of Deir Ezzor, on March 6, 2019.

Repatriating ISIS Families: An Opportunity to Show that “Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism” Can Work

Working with returning mothers and children may be the best opportunity that any country, or the international community more broadly, will ever have to get preventing/countering…
Fully veiled women and children walk in the northern Kuridish-Syrian city of Qamishli as Uzbek women and children linked to the Islamic State group are handed over to diplomats from the Central Asian country for repatriation, on May 29, 2019.

Time to Bring Women and Children Home from Iraq and Syria

Kazakhstan proves that bringing home the women and children stranded in Iraq and Syria is possible for all countries facing the problem.
Renu Begum, eldest sister of Shamima Begum, 15, holds her sister's photo as she is interviewed by the media at New Scotland Yard.

Citizenship-Stripping and ISIS Members: The Recent UK Experience

A framework for understanding when governmental action violates the law against rendering someone stateless. The case of Shamima Begum.

UN Review Should Help Children Caught in ISIS Conflict

The U.N. Security Council should use Thursday’s Counter-Terrorism Committee meeting to begin swiftly amending the 2015 Madrid Guiding Principles to spell out member countries’…

Ensuring a Human Rights-Compliant Approach to the Challenge of Foreign Fighters

At a forum on returning foreign fighters last week in Qatar, I highlighted the necessity of addressing this thorny challenge through a human rights lens. I outlined the dangers…

European Counter-Terrorism Approaches: A Slow and Insidious Erosion of Fundamental Rights

A recent op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, titled, “Europe to Terrorists: It’s No More Monsieur Nice Guy,” praised the robustness of the recent European approach to counterterrorism,…

Fall of Mosul Raises Question: What Should Be Done with Female Foreign Fighters?

In the aftermath of the assault on Mosul, we have gained significant insights into the scale and substance of the brutality experienced by civilians during the occupation by ISIS and…
Just Security

Foreign Fighters, Mercenaries, and Private Military Companies Under International Law

Editor’s Note: This is the third post in a miniseries about the International Committee of the Red Cross’s newly released Report on International Humanitarian Law and the Challenges…
Just Security

The Council of Europe’s Draft Protocol on Foreign Terrorist Fighters is Fundamentally Flawed

The Council of Europe last week released a Draft Additional Protocol to its 2005 Convention on the Prevention of Terrorism intended to assist European countries in implementing…
Just Security

New Paths to Accountability for Crimes in Syria and Iraq (Including ICC Jurisdiction Over Foreign Fighters)

Horrific crimes in Syria during the Syrian Civil War and more recent ones in Iraq have led to widespread frustration at the present lack of a clear accountability mechanism. …
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