LLM International Criminal Law: ISIS Crimes in Iraq and Syria

This memorandum, prepared for the UN Security Council, provides a detailed analysis of alleged crimes committed by ISIS in Iraq and Syria between 2011 and 2018. It begins by outlining the extensive loss of life, displacement of populations, and destruction caused by the conflict, highlighting the involvement of various parties including the Syrian government, Russia, Iran, and opposing rebel groups. The report details specific instances of war crimes, including indiscriminate attacks on civilians, use of chemical weapons, and denial of humanitarian aid. It also addresses the role of foreign governments and the formation of various factions within the conflict. The memo then advises the Council on the creation of an International Criminal Tribunal, similar to those established for Rwanda and Yugoslavia, to hold perpetrators accountable for war crimes. The memo concludes by referencing key sources, including academic journals and reports from the UN and other organizations, to support its arguments.

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MEMORANDUM
TO: The United Nations Security Council
FROM:
DATE:
RE: Creation of International Criminal Tribunal to deal alleged crimes committed by ISIS in
Iraq and Syria in 2011-2018
Purpose:
The purpose of this memorandum is to advise the Council on the creation of
‘International Criminal Tribunal’ which would be dealing with the crimes that have been
allegedly committed by ISIS in Iraq and Syria between years 2011 and 2018.
Summary:
In this memo a brief discussion has been done about the crimes allegedly done by ISIS in
Iraq and Syria within the years 2011 and 2018. In furtherance advice has been provided to the
Council for the creation of the ‘International Criminal Tribunal’ that has been proposed earlier.
Issue:
The fight against the ‘Islamic State of Iraq and Syria’, also known as ‘ISIS’, can be seen
to be emerging as the top priority among multiple parties of war in Syria.1 According to the
1 Wallensteen, Peter. Understanding conflict resolution. SAGE Publications Limited, 2018.

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reports provided by the World Bank in the year 2018 more than 400,000 deaths have taken place
between the years 2011 and 2017 because of the conflict that has been happening in Syria since
the year 2011. The report by the UN Agencies in 2018 further estimated that approximately 5
million people have been seeking refuge abroad and the number of people who have been
displaced internally would reach over 6 million. Within June 2017 it was estimated by the United
Nations that almost 540,000 people have been living in the areas that have been sieged by the
armed forces. In the reports provided in the year 2019 the numbers have increased in a gradual
manner. In the reports presented by a monitoring group based in UK named the Syrian
Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), the death toll in Syria since the beginning of the war in
2011 till March 2018 has been estimated to be more than 511,000. ‘According to the United
Nations High Commissioner for Refugees’ (UNHCR)2 the numbers of people who have been
displaced internally because of the war are almost 6.6 million and the number of people
displaced around the world is 5.6 million.
The conflict started after the success of the uprisings of the Arab Springs dethroned the
presidents of Tunisia and Egypt in 2011. In March 2011, 15 boys were tortured after being
detained for supporting the Arab Springs by writing graffiti. The conflict was started by the
Government led by the President Bashar al-Assad when a 13 year old boy was killed after being
brutally tortured and there have been protests started around the country. In response to the
protests the Syrian Government killed and imprisoned hundreds of demonstrators. This gave way
to the formation of Free Syrian Army, a rebel group by the defectors from the military whose
aim was overthrowing the government. There has been speculations that issue of global warming
has also played a role in the start of the uprising in 2011, severe drought that had plagued Syria
2 United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)

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from 2007 to 2010 had caused almost 1 million people to be moving from countryside to the
cities that led to poverty and social unrest. The intervention from the foreign governments are
also said to be playing huge role in the civil war that has been going on in Syria since 2011. In
2015 Russia entered into the conflict and has been the greatest ally of the Government of Syria
led by President Bashar al-Assad. Although the protest was non-sectarian when it was started in
2011, however the armed conflict had created starker divisions between the sects. Most of the
Syrian civilians were seen to be Sunni Muslims but the security establishment, in which Assad is
a member, has been dominated by the Alawi sect for a long time. Hence the Shia majority
governments like Iran and Iraq and Lebanon based Hezbollah were seen to be supporting
Basshar al-Assad, whereas the countries where there was a majority of Sunnis, like Turkey,
Qatar and Saudi Arabia, were seen to be in support of the rebels who were against the
Government and the president.3
By contravening the international law the Government of Syria, with the support of Iran
and Russia, have been conducting attacks against the civilians and their infrastructure
deliberately and indiscriminately, employing starvation as the tactics for war, withholding
humanitarian aids and displacing the Syrians forcibly. There has further been the launch of
numerous chemical attacks by the Syrian Government on its civilians who live in the areas that
have been held by the oppositions. At the end of 2016 when the Government of Syria regained
its control over the parts of Aleppo that were held by the oppositions there had been a Russian-
Syrian military coalition.4 In that operation indiscriminate air attacks were conducted by the
military which included strikes on various medical facilities, there has also been use of cluster
munitions and inflammable weapons by the Russian-Syrian military coalition. There were
3 Al-Tamimi, Aymenn Jawad. "The dawn of the Islamic State of Iraq and ash-Sham." Current Trends in Islamist
Ideology 16 (2014): 5.
4 Ahram, Ariel I. "Sexual Violence and the Making of ISIS." Survival 57.3 (2015): 57-78.

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documentations made between September 19 and October 18 by a local monitoring group in
eastern Aleppo named the Violations Documentation Centre (VDC) for the deaths of 446
civilians, which included 91 children, due to aerial attacks.5 Between August 2016 and July 2017
there have been reports of more than 238 separate attacks in which cluster munitions were used.
There have been 22 air attacks alone in the year 2017 reported by the Human Rights Watch in
which incendiary weapons were used. There had also been reports for the repeated use of nerve
agents and chemical weapons unlawfully by the force led by the Syrian Government. Since late
2016 there had been at least four incidents in which nerve agents were deployed. In one of the
attacks reports were presented for the death of at least 92 people in which almost 30 children
were included, there were also reports of injury to hundreds more. In 2016-17 at least 8
occasions were documented by Human Rights Watch where it was captured that the government
helicopters were dropping chlorine.6
In 2018 various unlawful tactics, like prohibition of weapons, striking indiscriminately
and restriction of humanitarian aid, were used by the Syrian Government for forcing the anti-
government groups to surrender which resulted in mass displacement. Even a tenuous ceasefire
was also seen to be holding in Idlib between the Russian-Syrian military alliance and the armed
anti-government groups. After there had been several reports of chemical attacks in the first half
of the year the ‘Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons’ (OPCW) was given the
authorization for the attribution of the responsibility for the attacks that happened in Syria. As of
March 2018 the death toll has been reported by the ‘Syrian Observatory for Human Rights’
(SOHR) to be 511,000 approximately.7 According to the United Nations High Commissioner
5 Awan, Imran. "Cyber-extremism: Isis and the power of social media." Society 54.2 (2017): 138-149.
6 World Report 2018. "World Report 2018: Rights Trends In Syria". Human Rights Watch, 2018,
https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2018/country-chapters/syria.
7 Price, Megan, Anita Gohdes, and Patrick Ball. "Documents of war: Understanding the Syrian
conflict." Significance 12.2 (2015): 14-19.

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around 6.6 million people have been internally displaced and 5.6 million people were displaced
around the world since 2011. In the year 2018 also there have been persisting indiscriminate
attacks on the civilians by the Syrian-Russian military alliances. Over 1,600 deaths of the
civilians have been reported between the dates February 2018 and March 21. At least 11 schools,
25 medical facilities and several other civilian residences were struck down by the Syrian-
Russian military alliance during this time period. A massive displacement was triggered by the
Alliance by way of leading an offensive in Daraa and Quneitra governorates situated southwest
of Syria. At least 85 weapon attacks using chemicals were being investigated and confirmed by
various international organizations. It was found that the majority of those attacks had been
perpetrated by the forces led by the Syrian Government. On July 2018 simultaneous incursions
were led by the ISIS in the governorate in al-Suweida in which at least 200 people were killed
and 27 people were kidnapped, one of whom was executed unlawfully by ISIS. The others were
reportedly freed in November. However, thousands of the people in east of Syria, who were
kidnapped by ISIS are not yet been freed. There had been very little effort by the Syrian
Democratic Forces and US led coalition for uncovering their whereabouts. Although ISIS has
been pushed out of Raqqa in 2017 October by Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and the US-led
coalition, yet ISIS had planted landmines and explosive devices before fleeing. According to the
local medical workers in between the months October 2017 and April 2018 more than 1000
people have been killed or been injured by the mines.
More than 90,000 people have been reported to be forcibly disappearing in Syria as of
August 2018 according to a local monitoring organization named Syrian Network for Human
Rights (SNHR). The fates of almost 60,000 people who had been detained by the Syrian
government since 2011 have remained unknown. According to the United Nations between the

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months of January 2018 and April 2018 more than 920,000 people have been displaced
internally in Syria. 8 By September 2018 5.6 million people have been reported to be seeking
refuge in the neighboring countries, most of them unlawfully.9
There have been peace talks in Geneva held by the United Nations which have been a
failure. In 2017 there have been ceasefires conducted between the parties of the conflict Russia,
Turkey and Iran met in Astana, Kazakhstan for pursuing a de-escalation of the conflict. Although
there had been a decrease in violence, yet the complete end of violence was not possible. The
ceasefire was seen to be violated repeatedly by Syria, Russia and others. In furtherance the
suggestions for meaningful Security Council action for ceasing violence have been repeatedly
rejected by Syria, Russia and Iranian Government. A coalition of other states has also been led
by the United States for targeting ISIS in Syria and Iraq, in the same time to support the
Democratic Forces of Syria in the same offensive. In response to the chemical weapons used by
Syrian Government he United States also launched an attack on a Syrian airfield in April 2017.
In December 2016, a resolution was passed by the UN General Assembly for the creation of
‘International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism’ for gathering, preserving, and analyzing
potential evidence of serious crimes that have been committed in Syria, for use in courts that
might have a mandate over the abuses that are present now or in the future.10 There has been
report issued by the UN Commission of Inquiry on ‘sexual and gender-based violence’ from
March 2011 to December 2017 in which it was found that the rape and sexual violence that have
been committed by the associated militias and the government forces were amounting to war
8 World Report 2019. "World Report 2019: Rights Trends In Syria". Human Rights Watch, 2019,
https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2019/country-chapters/syria.
9 De Cock, Rozane, et al. "Refugees in the news: Comparing Belgian and Swedish newspaper coverage of the
European refugee situation during summer 2015." Communications 43.3 (2018): 301-323.
10 Weiss, Thomas G. The United Nations and changing world politics. Routledge, 2018.

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crimes and crimes against humanity.11 Many of the European States, NGO’s present in Syria and
various other actors of the Unitd Nations have entered into frameworks of the Mechanisms that
allow swift transfer of information and evidence for preserving the same for the crimes
committed on both sides.
Advice:
The United Nations Security Council have been advised to create an International
Criminal Tribunal just like they did in the cases of Rwanda and Yugoslovia. The role of the
tribunal would be hold accountable the guilty parties of the war-crimes committed in Syria.
11 Pettersson, Therése, and Kristine Eck. "Organized violence, 1989–2017." Journal of Peace Research 55.4 (2018):
535-547.

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Reference
Books and Journals
Ahram, Ariel I. "Sexual Violence and the Making of ISIS." Survival 57.3 (2015): 57-78
Al-Tamimi, Aymenn Jawad. "The dawn of the Islamic State of Iraq and ash-Sham." Current
Trends in Islamist Ideology 16 (2014): 5
Awan, Imran. "Cyber-extremism: Isis and the power of social media." Society 54.2 (2017): 138-
149
De Cock, Rozane, et al. "Refugees in the news: Comparing Belgian and Swedish newspaper
coverage of the European refugee situation during summer 2015." Communications 43.3 (2018):
301-323
Pettersson, Therése, and Kristine Eck. "Organized violence, 1989–2017." Journal of Peace
Research 55.4 (2018): 535-547
Price, Megan, Anita Gohdes, and Patrick Ball. "Documents of war: Understanding the Syrian
conflict." Significance 12.2 (2015): 14-19
Wallensteen, Peter. Understanding conflict resolution. SAGE Publications Limited, 2018
Weiss, Thomas G. The United Nations and changing world politics. Routledge, 2018
Websites

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World Report 2018. "World Report 2018: Rights Trends In Syria". Human Rights Watch, 2018,
https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2018/country-chapters/syria
World Report 2019. "World Report 2019: Rights Trends In Syria". Human Rights Watch, 2019,
https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2019/country-chapters/syria
Others
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)