Fionnuala NÍ Aoláin KC (Hons)

End-of-mission statement by the UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria.

UN Commission of Inquiry completes Syria mission in midst of regional clashes, encouraging respect for human rights.

x.com/uninvhrc/sta...

Exclusive: US investigation points to likely US responsibility in Iran school strike, sources say Military investigators believe it is likely that U.S. forces were responsible for an apparent strike on an Iranian girls' school that killed scores of children on Saturday, two U.S. officials told Reu...

Reuters Exclusive

"U.S. military investigators believe it is likely that U.S. forces were responsible for an apparent strike on an Iranian girls' school."

"The strike would rank among the worst cases of civilian casualties in decades of U.S. conflicts in the ​Middle East."

Was diplomacy with Iran really doomed to fail? Trump’s negotiators seemed to misunderstand Iranian positions, but acknowledge they probably could have gotten “Obama plus” deal.

““When complex nuclear negotiations are treated like a real estate transaction, and when big lies cloud realities, unrealistic expectations can never be met,” Araghchi wrote on Twitter. “The outcome? Bombing the negotiation table out of spite.”

diplomatic.substack.com/p/was-diplom...

Italian prosecutors confirm journalist was hacked with Paragon spyware | TechCrunch Italian authorities are making progress in their investigation into a wide-ranging spyware scandal in Italy involving Paragon spyware. But the mystery of who hacked two Italian journalists with Parago...

Italian authorities confirmed that a journalist who was alerted by WhatsApp last year of a suspected spyware attack on his phone was indeed hacked.

techcrunch.com/2026/03/05/i...

The Israeli finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, threatened in a post on X that “the southern suburbs of Beirut will become like Khan Younis”.

We now announce war crimes casually and in advance, it seems.

Pure and simple … expansionism and terror …

www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...

Is the UK's intervention in Iran war legal? Starmer said Britain would intercept Iranian missiles and allow US to use its bases in defensive action. Does that make the UK complicit in an illegal war?

Illegality at every turn - war in Iran explainer

www.middleeasteye.net/explainers/u...

FT comments section this morning - saying what everyone else is thinking, right?

Are the US-Israeli attacks against Iran legal under international law? Analysts say the joint US-Israeli strikes against Iran appear to breach the UN Charter's prohibition on aggression.

““This is not lawful self-defence against an armed attack by Iran, and the UN Security Council has not authorised it,” the United Nations special rapporteur on the promotion of human rights and “counterterrorism”, Ben Saul, told Al Jazeera.”

www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/3/...

Trump’s Case for War With Iran Faces Growing Scrutiny U.S. intelligence showed threats from Iran loomed, as they had for years. But they were not imminent.

"U.S. officials and lawmakers with access to classified information ... say the administration’s assertions are incomplete, unsubstantiated, or flat-out wrong."

- Wall Street Journal

Double Preemption, Imminence, and the U.S. Attack Against Iran Rubio’s argument that Operation Epic Fury was preemptive self-defense is not credible and does not satisfy the necessary precondition.

Secretary Rubio's "double-preemption argument fails, simply because you cannot double-preempt against an action to which you are yourself a party."

Double Preemption, Imminence, and the U.S. Attack Against Iran

By professor @eliavl.bsky.social

Syrian CSOs Urge Renewal of Core Mandate of Commission of Inquiry on Syrian Arab Republic Under Item 4 | Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression (SCM) The Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression (SCM), together with the Syrian Civil Society Organizations, urges the Member States at the 61st Session of the Human Rights Council to renew the ...

joint statement

www.linkedin.com/posts/scm-ng...

Top Questions the Trump Administration Needs to Answer on War with Iran Congress and journalists should demand answers to these questions, many of which should have been answered prior to the war beginning

A whole lot of answers needed.

www.justsecurity.org/132970/quest...

what we see from the trump admin is a total failure to justify on these grounds. their inarticulate sputtering about the question isn't just a failure of rhetoric; it's a demonstration that the basic requirements are not only far from being met - they know that to be the case.

the brilliance of the UN Charter's ban on and conditions for use of force -- legitimate individual or collective self-defense, or Security Council authorization -- is that it challenges governments to justify what is the most devastating use of state power. it's also intuitive.

War Court Prosecutor Asks Panel to Overturn Torture Finding in 9/11 Case

In case you missed this weekend: A war court prosecutor and defense attorney in the 9/11 case squared off at an appeals court over a government bid to resurrect interrogations a judge found to be tainted by torture. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/27/u...

The Legality of the UK Interception of Iranian Missiles and Permitting a Limited US Use of British Bases The UK government has been careful in not directly supporting the ongoing US-Israeli use of force against Iran. This is at least partly because (I’m sure) the internal view within the government is th...

“The UK government has been careful in not directly supporting the ongoing US-Israeli use of force against Iran. This is at least partly because (I’m sure) the internal view within the government is that the use of force is illegal.”

www.ejiltalk.org/the-legality...

Wars of choice kill those who have no choice. "Mistakes" like the reported strike on a girls' school that killed forty civilians are the predictable result of poor planning and execution.

For more on "Mistakes" in War, read this by me and @azmatzahra.bsky.social
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

FWIW, this is sec. 2(c) of the War Powers Resolution:

Big Tech’s Moment of Truth on AI Safety AI companies should resist the urge to undercut Anthropic and use their collective leverage to make clear that access to frontier models comes with limits.

“When AI companies publicly emphasize safety and responsibility, are those commitments real, or are they contingent on whether a sufficiently large and powerful customer is at the table?”

www.justsecurity.org/132536/big-t...

Trump appears ready to attack Iran as U.S. strike force takes shape Although the United States and ally Israel have a decisive military advantage over Iranian forces, there are ways for Tehran to make any attack painful, officials said.

Amidst many crises, the #Trump admin may be on the verge of a war of choice against #Iran. It would be:

-blatantly illegal (U.S. & int'l law)
-hugely costly (human & financial)
-has no clear end game

Your elected representatives have power to stop it.

www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...

Expert Q&A: Are U.S. Threats or Use of Force Against Iran Lawful? Experts examine the international law issued raised by the U.S. threats and potential strikes against Iran.

Just published this Q&A with @mikeschmitt.bsky.social & @rgoodlaw.bsky.social

Bottom line:

-US strikes on #Iran would be flatly illegal

-would trigger armed conflict between the US and Iran

-other countries (like the UK) are obligated not to assist

www.justsecurity.org/132180/us-ir...

Ethnic cleansing concerns in Gaza and West Bank amid intensified violence and forcible transfers by Israel – UN report GENEVA – A UN Human Rights Office report released today raises concerns over ethnic cleansing by Israeli authorities in both Gaza and the West

“It details the deaths of at least 463 Palestinians, including 157 children, from starvation in the Gaza strip. The situation of famine and malnutrition, … was a direct result of actions taken by the Israeli Government, such as the blocking of … humanitarian aid …”

www.ohchr.org/en/press-rel...

Credit cards cancelled, Google accounts closed: ICC judges on life under Trump sanctions Kimberly Prost and Luz del Carmen Ibáñez Carranza vow US reprisals will not affect work of international criminal court

““These are coercive measures designed to attack our ability to do our jobs objectively and independently,” she said. “We want people to appreciate how wrong this.”

Sanctions on ICC judges - just wrong.

www.theguardian.com/law/2026/feb...

Intellexa's Predator spyware used to hack iPhone of journalist in Angola, research says | TechCrunch Amnesty International says it found evidence that a government customer of Intellexa, a sanctioned surveillance vendor, used its Predator spyware against a prominent journalist in Angola.

And more surveillance targeting of HRDs … from unregulated spyware companies …

“A government customer of sanctioned spyware maker Intellexa hacked the phone of a prominent journalist in Angola, according to Amnesty International …”

techcrunch.com/2026/02/17/i...

Iraq: ISIS Detainees Transferred from Syria at Risk of Abuse The United States transferred 5,700 detainees held for alleged ISIS affiliation from Northeast Syria to Iraq, where they are at risk of enforced disappearance, unfair trials, torture, ill treatment, a...

“In June 2024, a group of United Nations experts said that Iraq’s systematic executions based on torture-tainted confessions and an ambiguous counterterrorism law amount to arbitrary deprivation of life under international law and may amount to a crime against humanity.”

www.hrw.org/news/2026/02...

Not Safe for Politics: Cellebrite Used on Kenyan Activist and Politician Boniface Mwangi - The Citizen Lab Following the widely-condemned arrest in July 2025 of prominent Kenyan opposition voice Boniface Mwangi, the Citizen Lab analyzed artefacts from devices seized during the arrest. We found that Cellebr...

“Following the widely-condemned arrest in July 2025 of prominent Kenyan opposition voice Boniface Mwangi … Citizen Lab analyzed artefacts from devices seized during the arrest … Cellebrite’s forensic extraction tools were used on his Samsung phone … in police custody.”

citizenlab.ca/research/cel...

The Chaos and Uncertainty That Dissolved Al-Hawl The handover of the detention camp for Islamic State families formerly guarded by Kurdish-led forces opened the way for its gradual emptying

“Even before the scale of the departures became clear, signs of dissolution were visible. In several sections of the camp, families had begun packing their belongings — sensing that something was shifting.”

And then it was over …

newlinesmag.com/spotlight/th...

Can Iraq Legally Detain Prisoners Transferred from Syria? Detainee transfers from Syria to Iraq test the limits of international law, raising grave questions about fair trial rights.

“Despite years of holding women “in a prison within a prison,” the notorious Annex of Al Hol camp exists no more. And, as women leave Al Hol, concerns about the physical safety of the women and children who remain in SDF detention in Al Roj grow …”

www.justsecurity.org/131218/legal...