Noah Feldman says a bill establishing military commissions shifts the detainee debate “to being more purely a human rights issue.”

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.

This report from Human Rights Watch documents what the organization describes as serious violations of international humanitarian law by Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in Lebanon between July 12 and July 27, 2006, as well as the July 30 attack in Qana. During this period, the IDF killed an estimated 400 people, the vast majority of them civilians, and that number climbed to over 500 by the time this report went to print.

Israel's counteroffensive into Lebanon and the Palestinian territories raises a question about what constitutes a legal and legitimate proportional response under international law.

The White House now says terrorist suspects held in U.S. custody must be afforded Geneva Convention protections, a reversal of its post-9/11 decision to treat them as unlawful combatants.

Trial Watch maintains this updated backgrounder and current developments account of the trial of Liberia's alleged genocidal former president Charles Taylor.

Abraham D. Sofaer, a senior fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution, and Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, discuss the merits of capital punishment in trying dictators and other war criminals in this CFR Online Debate.

CFR Adjunct Fellow Noah Feldman, discussing the legal issues at stake in the upcoming Hamdan decision, says the case will decide whether military tribunals are constitutionally sufficient and warns that if the Supreme Court rules current trial procedures inadequate, it may be difficult to try many of the nearly 500 Guantanamo detainees.

The European Union scolds Serbia for its inability—some would say refusal—to hand over Ratko Mladic, the disgraced Bosnian Serb military leader and indicted war criminal who has eluded capture for over a decade.