Report from the Nieman Foundation of Harvard University that details the efforts by the Los Angeles Times to conduct a parallel investigation to the one being undertaken by the Army's Criminal Investigation Command (CID) into how a small U.S. Special Forces detachment in Afghanistan could be tied to two detainee deaths and two apparent cover-ups in less than two weeks. He says that the cases raise questions about the relatively low number of successful military prosecutions in criminal homicide and prisoner abuse cases and about whether the military is capable of policing itself in times of war.

David B. Rivkin, a legal expert and author, and Karen J. Greenberg, executive director of NYU’s Center on Law and Security, debate the appropriate venue for prosecuting “enemy combatants.”

The new secretary-general of the United Nations should make genocide prevention a centerpiece of his reform agenda, concludes a new Council Special Report. "Ban Ki-moon should take the General Assembly's endorsement of the responsibility to protect as a mandate and mission statement for the UN and build a reform program that is designed to implement it."

President Bush’s decision to press for more American troops in Iraq brought a significant increase in pressure directed at two of Iraq’s neighbors, Syria and Iran. With a second carrier-strike group en route, what lays ahead?  

The death of Saddam Hussein brings to a close one turbulent chapter in Iraq’s history. But his complicated relations with Washington portend challenging times ahead for U.S.-Iraqi diplomacy.

In January, Saddam Hussein is expected to be hanged, leaving Iraqis as divided as ever. His death may coincide with a major speech by President Bush on adjusting the war strategy in Iraq.

Augusto Pinochet, head of the military junta that led Chile in the 1970s and 1980s, died on Sunday. Pinochet set an international legal precedent when he was arrested in Britain for crimes against humanity committed in Chile.

In this report Amnesty International says that thousands of women have been raped in Sudan and Chad since the armed conflict began in Darfur in 2003. There have certainly been thousands. The names of 250 women who had been raped, and harrowing information about their cases, were recorded by Amnesty International on a 10-day visit to just three refugee camps in Chad in 2004. Recent months have seen a dramatic increase in the numbers of rapes as Darfur has been plunged into new fighting. In just one camp in Darfur, Kalma camp, the International Rescue Committee reported that rapes of women rose from under four to 200 a month during five weeks in July and August 2006. Overall, despite  the presence of an African Union peacekeeping force (African Union Mission in Sudan, AMIS) and international awareness of what is happening in Darfur, in 2006 rapes and other violence against women and girls have increased, not diminished.

A global push is underway to ban cluster bombs after their use in the Israeli-Hezbollah conflict, as well as in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Kosovo, has left hundreds of noncombatants maimed or dead.

Cluster bombs made news after last summer’s war between Israel and Hezbollah, but efforts to curb their use remain grounded.

The International Criminal Court looks set to begin its first-ever trial involving a case of child soldiers in the Congo, while in neighboring Uganda, calls for the Court to drop its indictments have called its authority into question.

Inaction in the face of genocide in Darfur breeds death in the region, but also contempt for international laws and voices which have demanded action—so far to no avail.

Backgrounder: U.S. debate over treatment of detainees hinges on interpretation of the Geneva Conventions.

The debate in Washington over the Geneva Conventions, now possibly resolved, has raised important moral as well as legal and political questions about the treatment of detainees in the war on terror.

This briefing summarizes Amnesty International’s assessment of and concerns about violations of international humanitarian law by Hizbullah in its attacks on northern Israel in July and August 2006.

This version of the Army Field manual on interrogations, FM-2-22-3, was published in September 2006. In contrast to the previous version of the manual, FM 34-52, this edition states that the Geneva Conventions are to be applied to all detainees in US military facilities. Interrogators are therefore limited in how they can question detainees, and may not keep interrogation methods classified.

New York University's Law School issues a research guide on International Health Law, which provides information about general trends in global diseases and their legal implications.