Prof. Fionnuala Ní Aoláin Quoted in CNN Report on Detention Camps in Northern Syria 

Professor Fionnuala Ní Aoláin was quoted in a CNN report about the continued detention of children in prison camps in northern Syria. Ni Aoláin visited the camps as a U.N. Special Rapporteur on counterterrorism and human rights in 2023. Among the nearly 4,000 ISIS male detainees held there are an estimated 600 boys and young men detained as boys, according to Amnesty International. Many were brought to Syria by their parents to live under ISIS rule. Many have no idea why they are being held, or what will happen to them. Separation from their mothers was done to prevent them from being radicalized. But according to Prof. Ní Aoláin, this policy is a breach of international law. “It runs us into the area of a war crime. There’s no legal process to justify it … you must have a court process and taking the child away from a mother is an absolute last resort, when you’ve tried everything else. And it’s neither a last resort nor a legal process, it’s generally a pretty violent, arbitrary process.”