OUVRAGE : B. Conley, A. de Waal, C. Murdoch, W. Jordash QC (eds.), Accountability for Mass Starvation: Testing the Limits of the Law

Bridget CONLEY, Alex de WAAL, Catriona MURDOCH, Wayne JORDASH QC

Famine is an age-old scourge that almost disappeared in our lifetime. Between 2000 and 2011 there were no famines and deaths in humanitarian emergencies were much reduced. The humanitarian agenda was ascendant. Then, in 2017, the United Nations identified four situations that threatened famine or breached that threshold in north-eastern Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan, and Yemen. Today, this list is longer. Each of these famines is the result of military actions and exclusionary, authoritarian politics conducted without regard to the wellbeing or even the survival of people.

Violations of international law including blockading ports, attacks on health facilities, violence against humanitarian workers, and obstruction of relief aid are carried out with renewed impunity. Yet there is an array of legal offenses, ranging from war crimes and crimes against humanity to genocide, available to a prosecutor to hold individuals to account for the deliberate starvation of civilians. However, there has been a dearth of investigations and accountability for those violating international law.

The reasons for this neglect and the gaps between the black-letter law and practice are explored in this timely volume. It provides a comprehensive overview of the key themes and cases required to catalyze a new approach to understanding the law as it relates to starvation. It also illustrates the complications of historical and ongoing situations where starvation is used as a weapon of war, and provides expert analysis on defining starvation, early warning systems, gender and mass starvation, the use of sanctions, journalistic reporting, and memorialization of famine.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Bridget Conley, Alex de Waal, Catriona Murdoch, Wayne Jordash, Introduction

 

PART I: THE HISTORICAL AND CONCEPTUAL CONTEXT

2. Bridget Conley, Alex de Waal, What is Starvation?
3. Susanne Jaspars, Social Nutrition and Accountability for Mass Starvation
4. Bridget Conley, Randle Defalco, Senai Abraha, Alex de Waal, 'An Unprosecuted Crime'

 

PART II: THE LAW

5. Wayne Jordash, Catriona Murdoch, Joe Holmes, A Comprehensive Review of Existing IHL and ICL As It Relates to Starvation
6. Simone Hutter, The Right to Food in Armed Conflict

 

PART III: THE CASE FOR PROSECUTIONS TODAY

7. Chris Newton, 'Not Never Again, but Next Time': Armed Conflict and Mass Starvation in South Sudan 2013-2019
8. Mohammad Kanfash, Ali Aljasem, Starvation as Strategy in the Syrian Armed Conflict: Siege, Deprivation, and Detention
9. Aditya Sarkar, 'Once We Control Them, We Will Feed Them': Mass Starvation in Yemen
10. Wayne Jordash, Uzay Yasar Aysev, Prosecution of Starvation in South Sudan

 

PART IV: BROADER PERSPECTIVES

11. Dan Maxwell, Humanitarian Challenges and Implications for Famine Early Warning Systems
12. Ben Spatz, Catriona Murdoch, Olivier Windridge, Sanctions as a Mechanism for Accountability for Starvation Crimes
13. Dyan Mazurana, Bridget Conley, Kinsey Spears, Sex, Gender, Age, and Mass Starvation
14. Jane Ferguson, Reporting Famine
15. Alex de Waal, Truth, Memory, and Victims

 

Bridget CONLEY, Alex de WAAL, Catriona MURDOCH, Wayne JORDASH QC (eds.), Accountability for Mass Starvation: Testing the Limits of the Law, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2022 (496 pp.)