Alannah Travers

From Babylon’s pioneering Hammurabi Code to Baghdad’s bustling Islamic jurisprudence at the very heart of the Abbasid Empire, codes of honour and legal regulations have been present in Iraq for thousands of years. Over the previous century, these have included the imposed British ‘Occupied Territories Code’ of 1915, and heavily US-influenced 2005 Constitution, following invasion and occupation between 1914 and 2003.

Who is seeking justice? What role does international law play in an ongoing war? How can the ICJ avoid becoming yet another arena for geopolitical contestation?

In this essay, the role of international law in shaping such accountability and reparations for civilian harm as a result of UK overseas military operations will be assessed, considering particularly the UK military’s investigations and absence of a formalised civilian harm compensation scheme for victims, as well as the positions of relevant actors, including the UK government and MoD, civil society organisations, human rights bodies, and domestic and regional courts – in cases such as Al-Skeini and Al-Saadoon.

I am taking part in the Hackney Half Marathon 2025 to raise funds for the amazing Medecins Sans Frontieres / Doctors Without Borders (MSF); a small contribution towards their life-saving work across the world, and especially in the Middle East where there is still such desperate need.

International Humanitarian Law Reaction Paper

Guest post by Alannah Travers and Sana Murrani. Previously based in Iraq where she worked with displaced communities and Genocide survivors, Alannah is currently completing an LLM in Human Rights, Conflict and Justice, at SOAS University, focused on IHL and the use of force, Islamic Law, prohibition of torture, and International Human Rights protection.

The Journal of Global Faultlines attempts to cover the evolving current world situation by looking at global problems from a variety of different and overlapping perspectives: economic, political, philosophical, cultural, educational, geographical, social, and historical, among many others.

Book Review: Dr Lily Hamourtziadou's Body Count is both a work of immense scholarly value, and a tribute to the individuals who have suffered and continue to suffer as a result of conflict in Iraq. https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/body-count

The closure of UNITAD on 17 September 2024 represents a turning point in efforts to achieve justice for the atrocities committed by ISIL. The article argues for the necessity of comprehensive legal reforms and a survivor-centered approach to justice.

A mapping of international law on the right to humanitarian assistance, focused on: International Humanitarian Law (IHL), International Criminal Law, International Human Rights Law - and the legal discourse around humanitarian assistance.

مركُز البيان للدراسات والتخطيط مركز مستقلٌّ، غيرُ ربح ٍّي، مقُّره الرئيس في بغداد، مهمته الرئيسة -فضلاً عن قضايا أخرى- تقديم وجهة نظر ذات مصداقية حول قضايا السياسات العامة والخارجية التي تخّصالعراقبنحوخاٍص،ومنطقةالشرقالأوسطبنحوعام.ويسعىالمركزإلىإجراءتحليٍلمستقٍّل، وإيجاد حلول عمليَّة جليَّة لقضايا معقدة تهُّم الحقلْي السياسي والأكاديمي.

ألانا ترافرز: صحفية ومستشارة بريطانية-ألمانية مقيمة في العراق بين عامي 2021 و2023.

On 11th December, Dr Inna Rudolf, Mirza Dinnayi, Sarah Sanbar and myself will be speaking at King's College London on the situation for the Yazidi community (and other minorities). I will cover the UNITAD mess more candidly, as well as the struggles with and among NGOs working on justice and accountability issues in Iraq. Also online!

Important Amnesty investigation into how Iraqis are being subjected to torture and other ill-treatment as well as enforced disappearance after being arrested in the Jeddah Rehabilitation Centre in northern Iraq (run by the MoMD with the support of several other Iraqi ministries, the UN – including IOM, UNICEF, UNHCR, UNFPA, WHO and WFP – and others), also touching on the false accusations and wrongful arrests that Iraqis already know are all too common, and tearing families apart still.

The symposium will showcase the findings of Dr Sana Murrani's latest project on Yazidi displacement, fostering collaborative discussions among academics and practitioners to improve policymaking concerning displacement and settlement in Iraq, as well as migration in the UK for Yazidis.

As the mandate of UNITAD—the United Nations Investigative Team to Promote Accountability for Crimes Committed by Daesh/ISIL—draws to a close on September 17, two competing narratives are almost certain to emerge. In an effort to explain the lack of prosecutions resulting from UNITAD’s work—just nine prosecutions for crimes against humanity and genocide have resulted from this data collection, mostly in Germany but also earlier this year in Portugal—proponents of UNITAD will likely cast the Iraq state as the primary obstacle in achieving justice, blaming Iraqi authorities for failing to meet international standards and the Government of Iraq for requesting the end of UNITAD’s mandate from the UN Security Council (UNSC) last year. In Baghdad, officials will continue to criticize UNITAD for withholding critical evidence and failing to collaborate effectively with Iraqi authorities, as was explicitly outlined in the original UNITAD mandate. The reality will lie somewhere between the country’s remaining displacement camps, informal settlements, and shattered lives.