Humanitarian Assistance, IHL, and Counterterrorism Mandates

The Harvard Law School Program on International Law and Armed Conflict (HLS PILAC) has initiated a project examining certain intersections between humanitarian assistance, international humanitarian law (IHL), and United Nations Security Council-decided counterterrorism mandates. The project aims in part to develop new knowledge and expand the evidence base for lawmaking and policymaking in this area, with a view to informing strategic, legal, and policy interventions at the multilateral and domestic levels.

Researchers are analyzing international law and practice concerning Security Council-decided counterterrorism mandates alongside accounts of how select States seek to interpret and implement those mandates internally, including in light of applicable IHL obligations and humanitarian-policy frameworks. HLS PILAC analysts are also exploring how the Security Council foresees its role in “legislating” how States ought to comply with counterterrorism mandates in line with relevant IHL obligations. Another question being explored by researchers concerns how the Security Council seeks to assess and enforce compliance with its resolutions in this area. HLS PILAC has identified these and other lines of inquiry through extensive desk research accompanied by five-plus years’ worth of consultations with a broad range of Member States and extensive consultation with operational humanitarian organizations, counterterrorism bodies, and humanitarian donor governments.

This project is anticipated to result in various research products and policy-engagement activities at least through 2021.

Contact

Please direct inquiries pertaining to this project to Professor Naz K. Modirzadeh.

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Webpage last updated: March 2021.

Image credit: UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe.