Purposes and scope
You are contributing to the Addis Ababa University International Humanitarian Law (IHL) Clinic blog. The Addis Ababa University IHL Clinic Blog is an open-access blog for anyone interested in understanding the current issues of IHL as it applies directly to Africa, focusing critically on the rules, practices, and African traditions in times of war.
We welcome original academic and practical contributions from academics, practitioners and students across Africa.
Relevant topics include, but are not limited to:
- Contemporary challenges, interpretation, implementation and application of IHL in Africa
- Dissemination, education and training on IHL in Africa
- Topics related to IHL, such as public international law, refugee law, international human rights law during armed conflict, international criminal law, humanitarian action, etc.
Why submit to the Addis Ababa University IHL Clinic Blog?
Our readers
Our blog seeks to engage academics, practitioners and students and connect them to readers interested IHL, armed conflict and humanitarian action. Our readers include government officials and policy makers, academics, think tanks, NGOs, IGOs, ICRC practitioners, the Red Cross and Red Crescent movement and stakeholders. Our blog will also showcase and enrich African literature on IHL and humanitarian action offering unique perspectives informed and guided by the African context and experience.
Copyright
Writers of articles published in the Addis Ababa University IHL Clinic blog will maintain the copyright of their articles and will be free to reproduce and distribute their works.
Submitting a post
The types of articles that we accept are:
- Analytical evaluation of legal issues about IHL
- Explanatory articles on the rules governing IHL
- Contemporary challenges to and evolving practices of IHL;
- Stories or personal observations highlighting enforcement or respect of IHL in Africa
Submissions must be the author’s own, original work. Submissions must be respectful, non-discriminatory and apolitical.
Language: The Addis Ababa University IHL Clinic Blog will only accept posts in English.
Length: Posts should be 800 to 1,000 words, including footnotes, if applicable (except where discussed with the editors)
Format: Posts must be submitted in Word format in 12 pt, Times New Roman font with 1.5 line spacing. Use short paragraphs and avoid lengthy sentences. Make the post as clear as possible, while keeping its depth. When your post includes more than one main point, consider submitting a series of posts on the same topic.
Title: This is crucial. Titles should identify what the article is about clearly and concisely. Your title should be short, clear, interesting, and catchy. It should be 40–80 characters but in no case more than 110 characters.
Body: Your writing should be clear, concise, engaging and supported with evidence.
Hyperlinks / Footnotes: When stating facts or mentioning works by other writers, cite the source. Please use hyperlinks whenever possible and footnotes only if necessary.
Keywords: A few keywords should be identified for easy web search and referencing (maximum of five).
Bio: Please include a short biography (max 100 words) with your current position and organization, as well as a clear passport size photo for the article (You could add your email contact if you want it to appear in the blog post). This information will appear as follows: full name, organization, e-mail address.
Submission: Please email your post as a Word document, along with your bio and photo, to ihlclinicaau@gmail.com
Review
All submissions are reviewed for quality and clarity and should be consistent with the above stated editorial policy. Addis Ababa University undertakes to work constructively with authors to ensure the fulfilment of all submission criteria and to publish their posts. It retains, however, the ultimate authority to decline to publish content that it considers to be inconsistent with the objectives of the blog platform or that does not meet submission criteria.
Editing
Once a post is accepted, our editorial team may provide vocabulary, subject matter, and structural editing to make it more readable and consistent with our editorial guidelines. Once edited, we’ll send you back your article to check. We invite you to make any updates or feedback in tracked changes. Due to the timely nature of the blog post, our editorial team may ask you to approve edits quickly. Further edits may be made, on rare occasions, after publication.
Remuneration
The authors shall not be entitled to remuneration for their contributions.
Addis Ababa University IHL Clinic 