peer-reviewed journal articles by Valentina Azarova
Boston University Journal of International Law, 2022
The international legal prohibition of enforced disappearances first developed in the context of ... more The international legal prohibition of enforced disappearances first developed in the context of authoritarianism. In particular, throughout the second half of the 20th century, several Latin American governments used state agents and non-state actors to disappear political opponents and other identity groups. Today, advocates and scholars are employing the same category to contest state violence in a very different context: the
disappearance of migrants, through detention and/or death, under the guise of border enforcement. In this paper, we consider acts of border violence at the U.S.-Mexico Border and at the EU’s Southern and Eastern borders, including the Mediterranean Sea, imagining the potentials and limitations of labeling such practices as enforced disappearances in legal advocacy. After first exploring the doctrinal histories prohibiting enforced disappearance in international law, the paper examines two questions: first, what are the common and differing underlying assumptions in the authoritarianism and
border violence contexts that make the legal category of “enforced disappearance” relevant for migrants and their families? Second, what are the practical benefits for migrant rights struggles in such a framing? Beyond simply characterizing such acts of border violence as egregious, the categorization of certain practices as enforced disappearances under international law can provide the relatives of missing migrants with concrete informational remedies and other forms of reparation, including through
their rights provisioned by the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance. For countless individuals whose loved ones have gone missing on the move for reasons of State design, this legal framing could help finally uncover the truth behind the fate and whereabouts of their disappeared.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
ASY -- Revue suisse pour la pratique et le droit d’asile, 2021
This article traces the evolution of practices of refoulement performed by EU states, in particul... more This article traces the evolution of practices of refoulement performed by EU states, in particular Italy. The authors of the Global Legal Action Network (GLAN; now of/about work that has now moved to de:border | migration justice collective) and Forensic Oceanography (FO) observe that, especially since the Hirsi and Jamaa judgement of the European Court of Human Rights in 2012, EU states tend to shift the responsibility for refoulement on to third states and, more recently, to private actors, in order to avoid any legal sanction. By presenting a number of landmark cases from their collaboration, they demonstrate not only that it is necessary, but also possible to adapt the documentation and legal approach in order to combat these violent and dangerous practices.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
HuV Humanitäres Völkerrecht – Journal of International Law of Peace and Armed Conflict, 2021
The ongoing conflict in Yemen is a site of humanitarian catastrophe, unimaginable atrocity, and h... more The ongoing conflict in Yemen is a site of humanitarian catastrophe, unimaginable atrocity, and human suffering. Since the Saudi-led coalition entered the conflict in March 2015, several months after the entry into force of the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), the Yemen conflict has been fuelled by ongoing arms supplies by Western states and corporations. The scale and significance of these arms supply relationships has been the subject of unprecedented, concerted efforts by a legal platform of non-governmental organisations and legal advocates to mobilise the ATT in its broader environment of cognate international and domestic laws, to challenge these arms transfers before the domestic courts of arms-supplying states. In the absence of international oversight mechanisms, the ATT casts national authorities, licensing bodies, and domestic courts in a principal governing role in relation to the global arms trade. Drawing on the transnational legal work to contest and resist arms supply relationships conditioning the violence in Yemen, this essay examines the interpretative and paralegal practices of domestic authorities, constituted by and generative of (inter)national arms control law.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Global Affairs, 2018
The European Union (EU) is undertaking a prolonged, slow-burning revision of its relations with I... more The European Union (EU) is undertaking a prolonged, slow-burning revision of its relations with Israel, driven by the need to avoid recognition of an illegal situation. This article reviews these ongoing developments from the perspective of international law. As compared with the EU’s response to the annexation of Crimea by imposing sanctions on Russia, its measures vis-à-vis Israel aim at protecting the EU internal legal and political order from the
illegal situation created by Israel’s institutional practice with regards to the Palestinian territory. The EU’s approach to nonrecognition is a rule-based cornerstone of its external relations law and foreign policy, and provides insights on the otherwise opaque workings of this obligation in international law and the transnational legal enforcement process in which it manifests.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Yearbook of International Humanitarian Law, 2018
This article examines the regulation in international law of situations of foreign territorial co... more This article examines the regulation in international law of situations of foreign territorial control that breach peremptory norms on interstate force and self-determination of peoples, which it designates as unlawfully prolonged occupations. Traditionally, such situations are regulated by the international humanitarian law rules on belligerent occupation, or conflict management law. This practice apparently derives from the distinction between the jus ad bellum and jus in bello, and the dichotomy in the application of the two bodies of law. But this seemingly outdated logic is under pressure, as it also amounts to a silencing and failure to address the legality of the occupying state's pursuits, and that of the continued denial of the right to self-determination of people to the local population. Applying only the specialized law on occupation, in isolation from other applicable law, overlooks the consequences of unlawfully prolonged occupations on the protection of individual rights, and the systemic integrity of international law. This article re-situates occupation law within its broader normative environment, and proposes a regulatory approach to predatory acts, that would better support the unity, systemic integrity, and value system of contemporary international law.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Business and Human Rights Journal, 2018
The law and practice concerning the responsibilities of businesses and the obligations of their h... more The law and practice concerning the responsibilities of businesses and the obligations of their home states in relation to private dealings in occupied territory are under-developed. The establishment of a database by the United Nations (UN) Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to monitor the activities of corporate actors in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) is an opportunity to provide much-needed guidance on the scope of application of existing international law in this paradigmatic case of a high-risk business environment. This article engages with the contribution of this initiative to the regulation of transnational corporate dealings through two normative issues: the structural characteristics and effects of the violations taking place in certain business environments maintained in the OPT on the responsibilities of business and home states; and the various modes through which businesses become directly linked with and contribute to the illicit property rights regime underpinning the existence of settlements and the serious human rights abuses perpetuated by their maintenance.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Questions of International Law, 2017
Despite the burgeoning literature on the consequences in international law of Israeli practices a... more Despite the burgeoning literature on the consequences in international law of Israeli practices and policies in the territories it occupies, there has been only limited legal consideration of the intentions that drive Israel’s practices and the structures and processes that underpin them. This essay assesses Israel’s administration of justice in the occupied Palestinian territory in light of Hart’s category of the pathology of legal systems, which offers a normative perspective on the ends and means of a state’s relationship to international law. The essay examines the posture of Israel’s legal system towards international law to provide a distinct normative perspective on the thick background rules of Israel’s internationally unlawful acts. It analyses the presumptions underlying the operation of its administration of justice in the occupied territory, and explores how the systemic denial of Palestinians rights is based on the rejection of Palestinian sovereignty over the territory Israel occupies. The essay’s review of Israeli practices as manifestations of a legal pathology concludes with reflections on the utility of this analytical category, particularly for the determination of the nature of state responsibility in international law.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
This article interrogates the potential role of the ICC in the Israeli-Palestinian context as a f... more This article interrogates the potential role of the ICC in the Israeli-Palestinian context as a function of the relationship between international criminal justice and the maintenance of peace. It argues that the Palestine situation presents the ICC with a critical opportunity to redress its ‘crises’ of effectiveness and legitimacy. The risks of an ICC intervention for the Palestinian population and for the Court may have been underappreciated. However, the Court’s reluctance to open an investigation in the Palestine situation, and missed opportunities during the deliberation of Palestine’s 2009 declaration requesting jurisdiction, have undermined its institutional integrity and contributed to the waning of its standing as an enforcer of international law. This contribution concludes that the ICC’s potential to deter international crimes in the Israeli-Palestinian context is limited, and the Court needs a ‘Palestine situation’ more than the Palestine needs the ICC.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Palestine Yearbook of International Law Vol XVIII (2015), 2016
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
International Criminal Law Review, 2012
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
papers.ssrn.com, 2009
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Uploads
peer-reviewed journal articles by Valentina Azarova
disappearance of migrants, through detention and/or death, under the guise of border enforcement. In this paper, we consider acts of border violence at the U.S.-Mexico Border and at the EU’s Southern and Eastern borders, including the Mediterranean Sea, imagining the potentials and limitations of labeling such practices as enforced disappearances in legal advocacy. After first exploring the doctrinal histories prohibiting enforced disappearance in international law, the paper examines two questions: first, what are the common and differing underlying assumptions in the authoritarianism and
border violence contexts that make the legal category of “enforced disappearance” relevant for migrants and their families? Second, what are the practical benefits for migrant rights struggles in such a framing? Beyond simply characterizing such acts of border violence as egregious, the categorization of certain practices as enforced disappearances under international law can provide the relatives of missing migrants with concrete informational remedies and other forms of reparation, including through
their rights provisioned by the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance. For countless individuals whose loved ones have gone missing on the move for reasons of State design, this legal framing could help finally uncover the truth behind the fate and whereabouts of their disappeared.
illegal situation created by Israel’s institutional practice with regards to the Palestinian territory. The EU’s approach to nonrecognition is a rule-based cornerstone of its external relations law and foreign policy, and provides insights on the otherwise opaque workings of this obligation in international law and the transnational legal enforcement process in which it manifests.
disappearance of migrants, through detention and/or death, under the guise of border enforcement. In this paper, we consider acts of border violence at the U.S.-Mexico Border and at the EU’s Southern and Eastern borders, including the Mediterranean Sea, imagining the potentials and limitations of labeling such practices as enforced disappearances in legal advocacy. After first exploring the doctrinal histories prohibiting enforced disappearance in international law, the paper examines two questions: first, what are the common and differing underlying assumptions in the authoritarianism and
border violence contexts that make the legal category of “enforced disappearance” relevant for migrants and their families? Second, what are the practical benefits for migrant rights struggles in such a framing? Beyond simply characterizing such acts of border violence as egregious, the categorization of certain practices as enforced disappearances under international law can provide the relatives of missing migrants with concrete informational remedies and other forms of reparation, including through
their rights provisioned by the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance. For countless individuals whose loved ones have gone missing on the move for reasons of State design, this legal framing could help finally uncover the truth behind the fate and whereabouts of their disappeared.
illegal situation created by Israel’s institutional practice with regards to the Palestinian territory. The EU’s approach to nonrecognition is a rule-based cornerstone of its external relations law and foreign policy, and provides insights on the otherwise opaque workings of this obligation in international law and the transnational legal enforcement process in which it manifests.
PETI Committee, September 2021 hearing (EU funding to Libyan petition is Item 8): https://multimedia.europarl.europa.eu/en/committee-on-petitions_20210901-1645-COMMITTEE-PETI_vd
European Commission's response: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/PETI-CM-663059_EN.pdf
European Parliament link to petition: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/petitions/en/petition/content/0655%252F2020/html/missinglink
Petition in full: chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://sciabacaoruka.asgi.it/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/GLAN-ASGI-ARCI-EP-petition-IBM-in-Libya-with-annexes.pdf
Press release: https://sciabacaoruka.asgi.it/en/petition-to-european-parliament-challenging-eus-material-support-to-libyan-abuses-against-migrants/
The complaint is based on an opinion (annexed to the complaint) provided by EU budget and development law experts Prof. Dr. Phillip Dann and Dr. Michael Riegner of Humboldt University and Ms. Lena Zagst of Hamburg University.
Complaint: chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://sciabacaoruka.asgi.it/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/GLAN-ASGI-ARCI-ECA-Libya-complaint-expert-opinion.pdf
NGO coalition supporting joint statement: chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://sciabacaoruka.asgi.it/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Joint-statement-on-EU-financial-responsibility-final.pdf
Press release: https://sciabacaoruka.asgi.it/en/legal-complaint-against-eu-financial-complicity-in-illegal-push-backs-to-libya/
This briefing – the eighth in our ATT Expert Group series – examines, compares and contrasts ten separate legal challenges to stop the governments of the UK, US, France, Canada, Italy, Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands and South Africa from continuing to supply arms into the Yemen war. It also considers some of the broader points of law raised by this recent trend, including the implications it might have for the implementation of the ATT and whether the ATT itself might be a factor in this development.
Authored by Dr Valentina Azarova and attorney Stefano Trevisan, the guide benefited fro the invaluable input of European national laws and procedures from Hans Lammerant (Vredesactie); Aymeric Elluin (Amnesty International); Christian Schliemann (ECCHR); and Linde Bryk (University of Amsterdam/ECCHR).
Human Rights Watch (HRW), a leading international human rights organisation, has a long history in “naming and shaming” violators of rights through international media and lobbying of political officials with considerable influence and success. Yet, the work of the MATTIN Group on EU-Israel relations signals a methodological shift in human rights work on Palestine and contributes an interesting dimension to broader dilemmas in the field of human rights advocacy and activism.
Open Democracy, an online opinion forum, is hosting a discussion on advocacy strategies, considering the successes and failures of civil society worldwide. This session will consider some of the questions raised in this forum: How can wrongdoing states be brought to alter their behaviour? How have human rights groups, local and international, sought to hold political actors to account for wrongdoing? What is the future of effective human rights work and how can political interests be aligned with respect for human rights – making respect for rights a need, and not merely a choice?
In-person at the Feminist Autonomous Centre for research in Athens. Facilitated by Valentina Azarova & Anna Carastathis
The open call closes on December 11, 2023.