Europe

[Merna Aboul-Ezz is a scholar of international law and human rights. She has worked with victims and survivors of human rights violations, advocating for their meaningful participation in transitional justice and accountability mechanisms.] On 17 October 2025, the Portuguese parliament approved a bill proposed by the far-right Chega party banning face coverings worn for “gender or religious motives” in most public...

[Sude Kınık is a legal trainee at Kabine Law Office in Istanbul, Turkey] The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) delivered its latest climate change judgment, Greenpeace Nordic and Others v. Norway on October 28th, following closely in the footsteps of its decision in Verein KlimaSeniorinnen Schweiz and Others v. Switzerland. In this new case, the Court reaffirmed and applied the...

[Dr Mando Rachovitsa is an Associate Professor in human rights law at the School of Law, University of Nottingham and the Deputy Director of the Human Rights Law Centre] Although the UK’s ambivalence on adopting a national regulatory framework for AI has received considerable discussion, the UK’s policy and role in advancing the international governance of AI safety remains to be...

[Alessandra Spadaro works as Assistant Professor in public international law at Utrecht University. She is conducting a three-year project on “Business in and for war: the role and limits of international humanitarian law”, funded by the Dutch Research Council.] On 6 November 2025, The Hague Court of Appeal handed down its judgment in a case brought by a coalition of Palestinian...

[Jens Iverson is an assistant professor of international law at Leiden University]  The Trump Administration has sanctioned ICC high officials, UN officials, and human rights groups. There is concern this is not the end of the US bullying — without pushback, further sanctions against individuals, organizations, and the ICC itself may continue throughout President Trump’s term and beyond.  States Parties face a...

[Helen Duffy runs Human Rights in Practice and is a professor of human rights and humanitarian law at the University of Leiden. Karolína Babická is a Senior Legal Adviser at the International Commission of Jurists] Human Rights in Practice and the International Commission of Jurists have earlier this year published a report, Justice Under Pressure: Strategic Litigation of Judicial Independence in Europe, that maps the...

[Anna Kiefer is Advocacy and Litigation Officer at Sherpa. Cannelle Lavite is Co-Director, Business and Human Rights at ECCHR. Claire Tixeire is Co-Director, Institute for Legal Intervention at ECCHR.] Starting 4 November 2025, and continuing for six weeks, a criminal court in Paris will examine whether the multinational company Lafarge and several of its former top executives should be found guilty of financing...

[Meng Wang is a PhD Candidate in the International Law Department at Maastricht University, researching the protection of water in armed conflict across different branches of Public International Law. Andrés Cáceres Solari is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Department of International Law, Faculty of Law of Maastricht University, researching the compatibility of international humanitarian law with modern warfare] On 6 June...

[Annick Pijnenburg is Assistant Professor of international and European law at Radboud University Nijmegen. Michiel Tjepkema is Professor of administrative law at Radboud University and Professor of state liability at the Open University. Casper Smeulders is a PhD candidate at the Department of Jurisprudence, Radboud University.] The ongoing hostilities in Gaza since 7 October 2023, which have increasingly been characterised as constituting genocide...

[Sami Selçuk is Professor Emeritus of Turkish criminal law and criminal procedure at I.D. Bilkent University (Ankara) and Honorary President of the Court of Cassation of the Republic of Turkey. Bedirhan Erdem is a research associate at the Chair of German and international criminal law, Lüneburg Leuphana University; and doctoral researcher at the Chair of German criminal law, criminal procedure, foreign...