After years of perpetrating horrific abuses under Bashir, Sudan’s security forces are now hungry for legitimacy. Demonstrating that they can bring security to Darfur is an important step in achieving that quest.

After rampant military operations in the region, it has become overcrowded with around 62,000 residents despite its capacity of 20,000.

In October 2014, Islamic State (IS) territory in Syria and Iraq was at its maximum. The extremist offshoot of al-Qaeda controlled an area extending from central Syria to the outskirts of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, including major cities such as Mosul, Fallujah, Tikrit and Raqqa. The group looked to be on course to establish a […]

According to international law, the detention-like conditions in al Hol camp contravene prohibitions on collective punishment, and detention during wartime must be done on a clear legal basis. Detainees have the right to challenge their captivity before a court, according to HRW.

“In terms of international law, there is no international legal principal that requires a country to repatriate their nationals. But under international law, countries are not allowed to turn away people who are their nationals if they make it home.”

Ultimately, whether IS will regain the formidable reputation it once had is an open question. Its ideology is still attractive to many, and the world will have to remain vigilant.

Pilgrims who break any of these prohibitions out of forgetfulness, ignorance or necessity are not considered sinful; those who break any of them out of necessity are not considered sinful but are obliged to offer an animal sacrifice; but those who break any of them deliberately without excuse are considered sinful and must also offer an animal sacrifice.

It is not so much that Trump is fulfilling his election vow to pull US troops from Syria that is concerning. It is the way he is doing it: without any apparent strategy, without any protection for the forces the US army has been cooperating with in the war against ISIS since 2014 and without any concern for the rights of Kurds (and other minorities) in a post-war Syria. This leaves the Kurdish People’s Protection Unit (YPG) and the SDF highly vulnerable. And it leaves the local population open to ethnic cleansing.

It is becoming ever clearer that the movement is transforming itself at a much faster rate than expected, even as the US president seeks to bring the troops back from Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. In the short term he may win some political advantage, and it might even help his re-election bid, but the reality is that we are actually in a relative lull in a very long conflict, even if western leaders remain convinced that military power has been the right answer, even after 19 years of failure.

Tunisian’s anti-terrorism law, approved in July 2015, was a reaction to the panic following the major attacks that year. Human rights organizations said that the law could open the door to practices tantamount to torture and have an authoritarian backlash.