Territorial disputes in the South China Sea involve both island and maritime claims among several sovereign states within the region, namely Brunei, the People’s Republic of China, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam. A significant aspect of the territorial dispute in the South China Sea concerns China’s construction of (artificial) islands. The disputes in the South China focus on the question whether the (land reclamations on the) reefs in the South China Sea are islands or rocks or Low Tide Elevations.

The Syrian civil war is an ongoing multi-sided armed conflict in which international interventions have taken place. The war grew out of the unrest of the Arab Spring and escalated to armed conflict after Bashar al-Assad’s government violently repressed protests calling for his removal. Violence in Syria has escalated amid an absence of meaningful efforts to end the war. A confidential list of individuals and units are believed to be responsible for crimes against humanity, breaches of international humanitarian law and gross human rights violations.