Must Read: "How States Supporting Armed Proxies Can Reduce Civilian Casualties and Protracted Hostilities" by Brittany Benowitz and Alicia Ceccanese

In the latest Just Security article, “How States Supporting Armed Proxies Can Reduce Civilian Casualties and Protracted Hostilities,” Brittany Benowitz, Chief Counsel for the ABA's Center for Human Rights and Alicia Ceccanese, Legal Fellow for the ABA's Center for Human Rights, address the challenges associated with proxy warfare, in particular as it plays out in the Middle East and North Africa.

The authors take a deep dive into the safeguards contained within U.S. law that "ensure defense articles and services are not misused or diverted to unauthorized users," which include "risk assessments, red lines to block military aid in certain circumstances, vetting and training of partner forces, requirements for assurances that assistance will not be used unlawfully, and end-use monitoring." However, according to the authors, "the U.S. has continually provided aid to questionable partner and proxy forces, from the contra rebels in Nicaragua in the 1980s to the Saudi coalition today. The problem seems to lie instead in enforcement of these regulations."

The authors identified steps in implementing an effective security policy and arms export control regime are to respect human rights; promote national security; assess the risk, prior to the provision of assistance; and establish red lines to ensure compliance with the sponsor’s legal obligations, among others.

Learn more by reading the full article here.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Since 2011, Brittany Benowitz has served as the director of the ABA Justice Defenders Program and chief counsel for the Center for Human Rights. Previously, she served for four years as a defense advisor to a senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. In that capacity, she conducted oversight of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and monitored U.S. counterterrorism, foreign assistance, arms control and security sector reform policies. She has worked on litigation in civil and criminal courts both in the United States and abroad and conducted human rights investigations in Latin America, Eastern Europe and South Asia. She received her JD from the Washington College of Law at American University.

Alicia Ceccanese is the 2019–2020 Georgetown Legal Fellow for the Justice Defenders Program. She earned a J.D. and “Refugees and Humanitarian Emergencies” certificate from Georgetown University Law Center in 2019. She was the recipient of the 2019 Bettina Pruckmayr Award for Human Rights, presented each year to a graduating J.D. student who has demonstrated a commitment to international human rights work. During her time at Georgetown Law, she worked with the Southern African Litigation Centre (SALC) and the International Center for Not-for-Profit law (ICNL). Ms. Ceccanese was a co-author of the Georgetown Law Human Rights Institute’s 2018 fact-finding report on violence and discrimination against LGBT persons in Guyana. Through the International Women’s Human Rights Clinic, she worked on strategic human rights litigation challenging laws limiting access of women married under customary law to the rights and remedies of the formal civil courts of Botswana. Ms. Ceccanese also holds a master’s degree in public policy and international law from the American University of Paris and a B.A. in foreign languages from Indiana University, Bloomington.

The opinions expressed here are those of the authors. These statements have not been approved by the ABA House of Delegates or Board of Directors and should not be construed as representing ABA policy.