The Politics of Human Shielding

In 2015, Middle East Studies organized The Politics of Human Shielding workshop, allowing scholars and human rights experts to discuss the role of human shielding in warfare. Recently, some of those contributions were published in the American Journal of International Law Unbound.

Contributions made at The Politics of Human Shielding workshop, a November 2015 event at the Watson Institute, were recently published in the latest special issue of the American Journal of International Law Unbound. Organized by Middle East Studies and supported by generous funding from the Watson Institute, the workshop brought international scholars and human rights experts together to discuss the role of human shielding in warfare and to analyze the way international humanitarian law (IHL) treats the grave phenomenon.

Written by Nicola Perugini and Neve Gordon, Introduction to Symposium on Critical Perspectives on Human Shields “is dedicated to the legal challenges posed by human shielding, a growing phenomenon intricately linked to the increasing ‘weaponization’ of human bodies in contemporary warfare.”

Read the full article here.