Overview
The Islam-IHL initiative examines from multiple perspectives the ongoing role of Islam, including Islamic leaders, in International Humanitarian Law (IHL), and the potential of that contribution for contending with new forms of warfare and international conflicts.
The Islam-International Humanitarian Law initiative (III) is an effort to direct global attention to an issue now gathering energy and focus: bridging the gap between Islamic and humanitarian law in pursuit of a comprehensive and modern set of international laws of armed conflict. Issues of human shielding (‘perfidy’ under Article 147 of the Geneva Convention IV), deliberate and direct attacks against civilians, forced displacement, mistreatment of persons detained in an armed conflict, as well as lack of political will by belligerents to respect and prevent violations of IHL are increasingly common areas of concern. The Islam-IHL initiative examines from multiple perspectives the ongoing role of Islam and Islamic leaders in international humanitarian law and the potential of that contribution for contending with these and other new tactics and forms of warfare and the changing nature of international conflicts.
Objective
The resulting analysis from the Islam-IHL initiative will lay the groundwork for engaging a larger community of practitioners and scholars in understanding the relationship between IHL and Islamic law for internationally viable approaches to present-day asymmetric challenges—including those involving Islamic groups or states.
The Islam and International Humanitarian Law initiative is designed to develop new strategies based in cross-cultural collaborative analyses to address new challenges in conflict situations—increased targeting of civilians, evolving tactics of warfare, disempowered states in conflict settings, lack of standardized approaches to IHL. This initiative is committed to building an international network of scholars, legal analysts, policy makers, and humanitarian practitioners to enhance a global dialogue on humanitarian law in armed conflicts in the Muslim world.
Research Questions
What role does Islam play in international laws and norms for conducting warfare and why do some consider Islamic law an alternative to IHL?
Does incorporating primary and secondary Islamic sources foster a different understanding and legal interpretation of key IHL provisions and its present challenges today?
What shared or divergent visions and precepts underlie IHL and Islamic attempts to humanize warfare?
Do Islamic doctrines of warfare have lessons for contemporary conflict settings, asymmetric warfare, non-state belligerents, present gaps in IHL, or the relationship between Jus in belloand Jus ad bellum?
Are contesting interpretations of Islamic law enabling Islamist interpretations of warfare and the use of violence for social and political change?
What would a productive synthesis look like between Islamic jurisprudence and IHL that humanizes war while preserving state’s sovereignty, a balance central to the universal acceptance of IHL?
Workshops
» Islam and International Humanitarian Law (4.17.2009), Syracuse University
Topics discussed included the role of culturally and religiously-based legal norms and their authoritative sources for limiting armed conflict’s effects on victims; the meaning of asymmetry from the perspective of the weaker party; con
flicting and even incompatible notions of legitimacy and defense in military actions; and the role of universal human rights standards in relation to culture and conflict.
The goal of the workshop is to begin identifying the most pressing issues at the intersection of Islamic jurisprudence and humanitarian law and to consider how their shared concerns may prompt creativity in addressing troubling gaps in IHL today—notably, the lack of standards for dealing with the rise of irregular armies, or the inability of the law to accommodate asymmetric forms of attacks by non-state entities against sovereign states.
Approach: The bodies of law under consideration are “living traditions,” to paraphrase the 8th century jurist al-Awzai’s view of Islamic law, the uninterrupted, intergenerational practice of adapting approved legal precepts to contemporary circumstances. This view rebuts the tendency to reduce Western and Islamic legal traditions to static or monolithic constructs by recognizing each as complex, dynamic, and plural (made up of sub-traditions). Given the inherent complexity of this subject across traditional disciplines and practice areas (i.e., international humanitarian, military, legal, and policy communities) an interdisciplinary approach and sustained collaboration for advancing knowledge on this pressing topic is necessary.
» Postconflict Justice and Islam (11.5.2010), Washington, D.C.
The goal of the workshop is to bring together scholars and practitioners so as to continue the process of assessing the conformity to the Shari'a of internationally recognized modalities of post-conflict justice for international crimes. These modalities include: international prosecutions, national prosecutions, truth commissions and related bodies, victims’ redress, vetting of personnel (“lustration”), memorialization, education, and domestic legal reforms. These approaches are alternatively referred to as transitional justice or post-conflict justice. While there has been a significant expansion in the use of these mechanisms, and a significant body of literature and policy debate on the topic as countries around the world struggle to properly address the aftermath of mass atrocities, there has been a dearth of thinking exploring Islamic perspectives on transitional or post-conflict justice.
For additional background and research materials or interested members of the community, please see the project's Research and Resources pages.
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