scholarly journals The Role of a Forensic Pathologist in Armed Conflict

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 370-389 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nizam Peerwani
Keyword(s):  
Local Area ◽  
Armed Conflicts ◽  
Excessive Force ◽  
War And Peace ◽  
Forensic Pathologist ◽  
Mass Graves ◽  
Manner Of Death ◽  
Medical Neutrality ◽  
West Bank And Gaza ◽  
Mass Killings

Wars and armed conflicts by their very nature are cruel and ruthless. In the 17th century, the Dutch jurist Hugo Grotius, widely regarded as the father of public international law, wrote in The Rights of War and Peace Book 3, Chapter 1:VI that “wars, for the attainment of their objects, it cannot be denied, must employ force and terror as their most proper agents.” A forensic pathologist can play a crucial role in armed conflicts because of the unique training that he or she receives, including examination of human remains to determine both the cause and manner of death, and discussing the mechanism of death. Although the obvious role, then, would be to perform exhumation autopsies in mass killings or genocides, being a physician, a forensic pathologist is also uniquely qualified to evaluate and document physical torture, use of excessive force, and use of chemical weapons, as well as violation of medical neutrality in armed conflicts based on prevailing laws and conventions. Most of the investigations this author has conducted, including investigation of Rwanda and Bosnia genocides, violation of medical neutrality and use of excessive force in Bahrain and the Occupied West Bank and Gaza, searching for mass graves in post-Saddam Iraq, documenting mass graves in Bamiyan as well as Dash-t-Layli in Afghanistan after the defeat of the Taliban, and conducting local area capacity assessment in Libya after the fall of Colonel Gadhafi were all sponsored and logistically supported by nongovernmental organizations such as Physicians for Human Rights (USA).

scholarly journals Towards mass-grave protection guidelines

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 52-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melanie Klinkner
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
Armed Conflicts ◽  
Human Rights Violations ◽  
Right To Know ◽  
Mass Grave ◽  
Mass Graves ◽  
Legal Obligations ◽  
Legal Guidelines ◽  
Practical Agenda

In the aftermath of conflict and gross human rights violations, victims have a right to know what happened to their loved ones. Such a right is compromised if mass graves are not adequately protected to preserve evidence, facilitate identification and repatriation of the dead and enable a full and effective investigation to be conducted. Despite guidelines for investigations of the missing, and legal obligations under international law, it is not expressly clear how these mass graves are best legally protected and by whom. This article asks why, to date, there are no unified mass-grave protection guidelines that could serve as a model for states, authorities or international bodies when faced with gross human rights violations or armed conflicts resulting in mass graves. The paper suggests a practical agenda for working towards a more comprehensive set of legal guidelines to protect mass graves.

scholarly journals Red Corpses: A Microhistory of Mass Graves, Dead Bodies, and Their Public Uses

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
François-Xavier Nérard
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Armed Conflicts ◽  
Mass Graves ◽  
Political Dimension ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Monuments ◽  
Dead Bodies ◽  
The Moment ◽  
The Cost

What happens to corpses produced by armed conflicts? This question may seem simple: most bodies are buried, more or less quickly, in mass graves. However, the time between death and the moment when the human remains are inhumed deserves to be studied. This article focuses on the situation in the Urals at the end of the Civil War (1918–1919). The fights between the Bolsheviks and their opponents resulted in many casualties. The Bolsheviks gave a fundamental, and rather unusual, importance to the bodies of ‘their’ dead and attached a specific political significance to them. They developed a politics of corpses, using them in public space to assert their power. The bodies of dead Red fighters were brought back to symbolic places, resulting in impressive public funerals across the city of Yekaterinburg in 1918. Their burial sites became contested territories, protected by the authorities but derided by their opponents. After their final victory in 1919, Bolsheviks displayed their dead as proof of the cost of their struggle. Mutilated bodies were shown to carry the stigmata of sacrifice. The inventory and identification of victims became a central and immediate requirement. Inquiry commissions questioned witnesses and looked for mass burials and abandoned corpses. Mass graves were searched, cadavers exhumed and made visible. The public use of corpses was, however, not limited to identification purposes. The display of dead bodies, which is not unusual in Orthodox culture, took on a special political dimension. There was mass dissemination of the sight of death through these public monuments and the use of photography. We must especially stress the topographical importance of the displayed death: the exhumed bodies were used to tell of victory, to make control of the territory explicit. The memorialisation of some mass graves completed the process. In Yekaterinburg, but also in more distant localities, monuments were erected. They were meant to materialise the sacrifice of so-called ‘communards’ and the peculiar place of the Civil War in the narrative of the new Bolshevik regime, honouring the memory of the dead and mobilising the living.

THE MASS GRAVE SCOPING PROJECT: REMEMBERING AND RECORDING MEMORIES OF SILENCED MASSACRES, A CASE IN NORTHERN UGANDA1

2018 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 11-13
Author(s):  
Okot Komakech Deo
Keyword(s):  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Northern Uganda ◽  
Forensic Evidence ◽  
Mass Grave ◽  
Mass Graves ◽  
Missing Persons ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
Memory Support ◽  
Mass Killings ◽  
Potential Use

Abstract Drawing upon the experience of assembling a database that records events of mass killings in northern Uganda, this piece highlights impressions of ethnographic research exploring the potential use of forensic science to mitigate anxiety related to mass graves and missing persons. The existence of mass graves in communities and large numbers of missing persons is a new phenomenon to the Acholi people and one that lacks documentation. The assemblage of memory support by forensic evidence is a way to enforce true narratives of past atrocities.

scholarly journals Attitudes Towards Forensic Autopsy Standard B3.7 and the Use of Physician Extenders in Select Autopsy Cases

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 181-190
Author(s):  
Cassie B. MacRae ◽  
Seth H. Weinberg ◽  
Mitchell L. Weinberg
Keyword(s):  
Gold Standard ◽  
National Association ◽  
Forensic Autopsy ◽  
Forensic Pathologist ◽  
Manner Of Death ◽  
Autopsy Findings ◽  
Physician Extenders ◽  
Medical Examiners ◽  
Administrative Responsibilities ◽  
Overdose Deaths

Studies have demonstrated that autopsy is the gold standard for determining cause and manner of death. Indeed, the current National Association of Medical Examiners standard B3.7 states that a forensic pathologist (FP) shall perform a forensic autopsy when the death is by apparent intoxication by alcohol, drugs, or poison. Unfortunately, the recent increase in drug-related deaths has led to some question about the feasibility of maintaining compliance with standard B3.7. We constructed a voluntary survey to address consensus on standard B3.7 and the use of supervised accredited pathologists’ assistants (PAs) in performing select medicolegal autopsies. Additional questions were included to help characterize variables related to FP’s workload and experience. Each of these variables was predicted to influence FP’s attitudes toward B3.7 and the use of PAs. Our respondent pool (n = 107) consisted primarily of actively practicing FPs with administrative responsibilities (42%) and actively practicing FPs without administrative responsibilities (41%). Sixty-five percent agreed that standard B3.7 is appropriate. Opinion on the use of PAs was split between those who agreed (45%) and those who did not (44%). Tendency to agree with either B3.7 or the use of PAs was not a function of FP’s individual or office workload; however, respondents were more likely to agree with B3.7 if they previously experienced a case where internal autopsy findings radically altered diagnosis in an otherwise suggestive overdose case (P < 0.001). In certain offices and under certain conditions, the use of PAs may be one solution to ensuring all potential overdose deaths receive an autopsy.

scholarly journals ‘See How the Blood is Settled in his Face’: Shakespeare’s Warwick – Fiction’s First Pathologist

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Smith
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
The State ◽  
The Body ◽  
First Century ◽  
Forensic Pathologist ◽  
Manner Of Death ◽  
Modern Methods ◽  
Henry Vi ◽  
Murder Victims ◽  
Twenty First Century

The twenty-first century television detective drama often relies heavily on the forensic pathologist; analysing what they see and reaching a conclusion about the manner of death, not just the cause. This might include determining that a case that initially looks like natural causes is in fact murder. While this may involve toxicology reports and other modern methods of investigation, it might also include the state of the body; things like post-mortem lividity or marks such as scratches, or a lack of them. Using these sorts of indicators is not new; in fact Shakespeare was writing about them in the late sixteenth century in 2 Henry VI. In it, the Earl of Warwick describes the state of the body of the Duke of Gloucester who has reportedly died in his bed. Over the course of around twenty lines Warwick gives a detailed catalogue of the state of the body and why each sign indicates a violent, rather than peaceful, death. This paper looks at that description and relates it to other descriptions of murder victims in drama at the time, as well as to those investigated by twenty-first century television pathologists.

scholarly journals “The disappointed pacifist”: Problems of war and peace in P.N. Milyukov’s journalism at the beginning of the XX century

2021 ◽  
pp. 102-117
Author(s):  
Н.Ю. Николаев
Keyword(s):  
First World War ◽  
Armed Conflicts ◽  
War And Peace ◽  
World War ◽  
Political Position ◽  
The First World War ◽  
First World

В статье рассмотрены взгляды П.Н. Милюкова на проблемы войны и мира в 1910-е гг. Выявлено его отношение к вооруженным конфликтам, пацифистскому движению, милитаризму, разоружению и перспективам достижения всеобщего (вечного) мира. Определены причины и характер мировоззренческой эволюции Милюкова и его отказа от прежних антивоенных убеждений. Отдельно рассмотрена общественно-политическая позиция, занятая Милюковым в период Первой Мировой войны. The article examines the views of P.N. Milyukov on the problems of war and peace in the 1910s. His attitude to armed conflicts, pacifist movement, militarism, disarmament, and prospects for achieving universal (eternal) peace is Revealed. The reasons and nature of Milyukov's worldview evolution and his rejection of previous anti-war beliefs are determined. The socio-political position taken by Milyukov during the First World war is considered separately.

Cyber National Security

2018 ◽  
pp. 345-428 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary P. Corn
Keyword(s):  
Political Competition ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Private Life ◽  
Armed Conflicts ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Gray Zone ◽  
War And Peace ◽  
National Interests ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Peace And War

When the first host-to-host message was sent across the ARPANET in October 1969, few could have fully anticipated the degree to which the internet, and now the internet of things, would explode across the globe and revolutionize nearly every facet of public and private life. Nor could anyone have predicted the degree to which it would establish an entirely new realm—cyberspace—through which States could engage in traditional, and not-so-traditional, statecraft and conflict. However, it is now clear that States have fully embraced cyber operations as a means to pursue their national interests and gain low-cost asymmetric advantages over their adversaries. Cyberspace has become a new instrument of statecraft and presents novel and challenging questions about the applicability of existing legal orders. Adversaries are leveraging and exploiting the numerous technical, policy, and legal ambiguities surrounding cyberspace operations to conduct a range of intrusive and increasing aggressive activities. While some of these cyber operations have been conducted as part of ongoing armed conflicts, the vast majority have taken place in the so-called gray zone—the far more uncertain space between war and peace. Also known as gray-zone challenges or gray-zone conflicts, these activities are more accurately understood as actions that are coercive and aggressive in nature and rise above normal, everyday peacetime geo-political competition, yet remain below the threshold of war. This chapter will identify and consider some of the more challenging domestic and international legal issues raised by the conduct of cyber operations in the gray zone between peace and war.

Hybrid Conflict and Prisoners of War

2018 ◽  
pp. 191-222
Author(s):  
Jeffrey Kahn
Keyword(s):  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Prisoners Of War ◽  
Armed Conflicts ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
War And Peace ◽  
State Actors ◽  
The Law ◽  
Hybrid War ◽  
First Time

The conflicts in eastern Ukraine and Crimea are not the first time sovereign States have clashed under murky and confused circumstances. The law governing international armed conflict, i.e. the law regulating war between States, has long recognized this fact; the threshold to trigger it is a very low one, and it applies “even if the state of war is not recognized by one of them.” Nevertheless, some perceive Ukraine as a case of “hybrid war” for which the old rules are ill-fitting at best, and no longer capable of regulation or restraint. What happens to international humanitarian law (IHL) when, according to Russian General Valériy Gerasimov, the hybrid nature of recent conflicts produces a “tendency to erase differences between the states of war and peace?” This chapter argues that there are in fact two distinct armed conflicts ongoing in eastern Ukraine. First, there is an ongoing but unacknowledged international armed conflict (IAC) in eastern Ukraine between Ukraine and Russia. Second, there is also fighting sufficiently intense and involving sufficiently organized non-State actors to be considered a non-international armed conflict (NIAC) between the Ukrainian State and rebel forces in Donetsk and Luhansk. Adding another layer of complexity, at certain times and places, it may be that this NIAC might have transformed into an IAC because of Russia’s overall control of these non-State actors.

scholarly journals Prohibited means and methods of armed conflicts

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (26) ◽  
pp. 349-355
Author(s):  
Minas Arakelian ◽  
Khashmatulla Bekhruz ◽  
Liliana Yarova
Keyword(s):  
International Standards ◽  
Armed Conflicts ◽  
Third Party ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Military Operations ◽  
War And Peace ◽  
Military Equipment ◽  
Legal Standards ◽  
Cyber War ◽  
Security Companies

The goal of this article is to analyze prohibited means and methods of armed conflicts under the International Humanitarian Law (IHL). Technological progress, the transformation of the nature of armed conflicts and the idea of the war based on terror are the main reasons why the list of prohibited means and methods of armed conflicts should be constantly updated. The main text of this article consists of three thematic blocks. The first block represents an excursion into the history and development of IHL. It outlines its division into two branches, the Geneva and Hague law. The second part consists of definitions and characteristics of basic terms such as means and methods of armed conflicts. Under the means of warfare it is understood weapons, military equipment and other means used to cause harm and defeat the enemy. Methods of warfare are the procedures for using certain means to suppress the troops of the opposing side and inflict losses on it at the very minimum acceptable level. The third part of the study is devoted to new methods and means of warfare, among which the author analyzes such phenomena as hybrid wars, cyberwar and the involvement of private military and security companies in military operations. Hybrid wars, widespread in the 21st century, raise very complex issues related to the classification of a conflict, as the line between the state of war and peace is blurring. Most often, information about the nature of third-party intervention is kept secret. Moreover, such a third party refuses to acknowledge its participation in hostilities. It is concluded that parties to hybrid wars are required to comply with international standards that limit the methods and means of warfare and protect their victims. The article examines the concepts of cyber war, identifies the main characteristics of this type of war. The main conclusion was made about the need of formation of new restrictive approaches regarding the prohibition of the use of cyber weapons. Another trend related to modern armed conflicts is the process of delegating the performance of traditional state functions by states in favor of private military and security companies. The conclusion is drawn on the need to develop international legal standards for the activities of private military and security companies within the UN.

The Rhetorical Equivalent of War

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giorgio Mariani
Keyword(s):  
Literary Criticism ◽  
William James ◽  
Kenneth Burke ◽  
Stephen Crane ◽  
Armed Conflicts ◽  
Literary Studies ◽  
War And Peace ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter examines how the rhetoric of war may be turned against war by focusing on the views of William James, Kenneth Burke, and Stephen Crane. Recent literary criticism has suggested that, far from being powerless or simply neutral vis-à-vis the armed conflicts it seeks to represent, language is complicit with violence. This understanding of the relationship between language and violence has been filed by James Dawes under the rubric of “the disciplinary model”—a model that conceives language and violence “as mutually constitutive.” This chapter first considers the ways in which the hard facts of war and violence may be both acknowledged and worked through before discussing Burke's template for understanding the tension as well as the cooperation between war and peace. It also analyzes James's “The Moral Equivalent of War” and concludes by testing the usefulness of some of Burke's recommendations for literary studies through a reading of Crane's “A Mystery of Heroism.”

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