20 March 2019, Berlin

Germany's involvement in the Anti-IS Coalition: The air strike on Al-Badhiya IDP-Shelter in Syria

Berlin
20 March 2019, 6:30 pm
European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR)
Zossener Str. 55-58 (Staircase D), 10961 Berlin

The most severe air strike of the Anti-IS Coalition with over 150 civilian casualties took place on 20 March 2017 when it attacked a shelter for internally displaced people in Al Mansura, Syria. Germany, part of the coalition, acknowledged its role in the strike by providing images of the target site to the coalition command as well as battle damage assessment flights after the attack.

The coalition conducted extensive air and artillery strikes during its military operation with the aim of defeating IS in Syria and Iraq. Airwars, a non-profit monitoring organization and partner of ECCHR, has documented 14,424 strikes in Iraq, 19,280 strikes in Syria and estimated up to 11,841 civilian deaths. Civilian populations are inherently at risk from such actions - especially in populated areas. They are killed, injured, displaced or lose their property.

Commemorating the Al-Badhiya air strike's second anniversary, Airwars and ECCHR invite you to a panel discussion. We will present recent research conducted by the UN Commission of Inquiry and Human Rights Watch (HRW) about the strike, and analysis of how an estimated 150 civilian fatalities or more could have been prevented – as well as failures by the coalition before and after the strike. Likewise, we will address the legal obligations of states to investigate right to life violations under human rights law, the need for public transparency, and the question of how to better protect civilians in armed conflict.

Speakers include:
James Rodehaver, UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria.
Maike Awater, advocacy officer and conflict researcher for Airwars.
Fadel Abdul Ghany, founder and chairman of the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR).
Nadim Houry, director of the Terrorism and Counterterrorism Program at Human Rights Watch.
Robert Frau, University of Potsdam/European University Viadrina.
Andreas Schüller, director of the International Crimes and Accountability Program at ECCHR.
Moderator: Delina Goxho, consultant with the Lethal Drones Shared Framework at Open Society Foundations and PAX Netherlands.


The event will be held in English. The venue is wheelchair accessible.

A livestream of the event will be available via ECCHR's Facebook page.


We look forward to welcoming you to this event and kindly ask you to register until 18 March 2019 (please note that no confirmation will be sent).

The event is supported by Open Society Foundations.

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