In association with the International Commission of Jurists

Recent Posts

13 Sep

International accountability as a tool to empower and protect [Jeremie Smith is the Director of the Geneva Office at the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies and Karim Salem is a Legal Advisor at the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies. This is the final post in our symposium with Justice in Conflict on Libya and International Justice. Mark Kersten’s contribution to the symposium has...

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12 Sep

The European Union’s migration containment policy is trapping people in detention centres that are being targeted in the Libyan conflict. [Marwa Mohamed is Head of Advocacy and Outreach at Lawyers for Justice in Libya.  LFJL’s #RoutestoJustice programme works to promote the rights of migrants and refugees in Libya and to provide them with access to justice using domestic courts, regional human rights courts and mechanisms...

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11 Sep

[Hanan Salah is the Senior Libya and Mauritania Researcher at Human Rights Watch. This is the latest post in our symposium with Justice in Conflict on Libya and International Justice.] The scars ran deep. His back was a maze of thick welts, thinner scars and parts that resembled small craters. His wrists and ankles were raw from where he’d been shackled and suspended from a...

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11 Sep

[Kate Vigneswaran is a Senior Legal Adviser at the International Commission of Jurists, Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Programme, and Vito Todeschini is an Associate Legal Adviser, International Commission of Jurists, MENA Programme. This is the latest post in our symposium with Justice in Conflict on Libya and International Justice. Marieke Wierda’s contribution to the symposium has gone up at JiC and you can...

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09 Sep

The irreplaceable Carmi Lecker called my attention yesterday to a proposal by Switzerland to deem the intentional starvation of civilians a war crime in non-international armed conflict (NIAC). At present, it is only a war crime in international armed conflict (IAC) -- Art. 8(2)(b)(xxv) of the Rome Statute. Here is the text of the proposal: Add to article 8, paragraph 2...

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09 Sep

On 4 September last week the UN Commission of Inquiry on Burundi released its latest report. The situation in Burundi continues to warrant deep concern as grave human rights violations persist. Experts estimate that it may only get worse as the 2020 elections draw closer. After all, it was a political crisis in 2015 election cycle that catapulted the small...

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09 Sep

[Mark Kersten is a consultant for the Wayamo Foundation and a law student at McGill University. He is also author of the book, 'Justice in Conflict - The Effects of the International Criminal Court's Interventions on Ending Wars and Building Peace'.]  It isn’t for a lack of attention. Violence in Libya is covered almost daily in major newspapers and media outlets....

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07 Sep

Announcements I am delighted to announce that CUP has recently published Freya Baetens' new book, Legitimacy of Unseen Actors in International Adjudication. Here's the publisher's description: International courts and tribunals differ in their institutional composition and functions, but a shared characteristic is their reliance on the contribution of individuals other than the judicial decision-makers themselves. Such 'unseen actors' may take the form...

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04 Sep

[Anna Spain Bradley is a Professor of Law at the University of Colorado School of Law.] International law has a racism problem. Since 1950, when UNESCO published its seminal report, The Race Question, the international community has been on record that race has no basis in biology or science and that racism “directly affects millions of human lives and causes countless conflicts.” Yet the international...

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03 Sep

[Todd Carney is a student at Harvard Law School. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Political Science and Public Communications. He has also worked in digital media in New York City and Washington D.C.] In September 2018, the European Union (EU) Parliament voted to censure Hungary in response to Hungary’s laws that cracked down on institutions such as the media, independent government agencies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs)....

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