[Dr Saeed Bagheri is Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in International Law at the University of Reading School of Law. His research focuses on the law on the use of force and international humanitarian law. Gerhard Kemp is Professor of Criminal Law at UWE Bristol in the United Kingdom, with his research focusing on international criminal law, comparative criminal law, and transitional justice.]...
[Emre Acar is a PhD Candidate at Leiden University’s Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies of Leiden Law School] In recent years, the International Criminal Court (ICC) has faced a growing number of diverse and aggressive political attacks from both Non-States Parties and States Parties. As external threats, the Trump Administration has imposed unilateral sanctions on the Court’s officials (on 6 February, 5 June, 20 August and 18...
[Zsuzsanna Deen-Racsmány holds a Ph.D. in public international law from Leiden University. She is an independent researcher and has worked, inter alia, at Leiden University and the University of Amsterdam, and been a rapporteur for Oxford International Organizations.] In January 2026, the International Court of Justice (ICJ or Court) held public hearings on the merits in Application of the Convention on...
[Danielle Flanagan is an International Disputes & Litigation Associate at Hogan Lovells LLP and former Judicial Fellow at the International Court of Justice. Mariana Goetz is the Director of Rights for Peace, a U.K. registered human rights organization working to strengthen the rights and resilience of conflict-affected communities to prevent identity-based violence.] Amid renewed atrocities in Sudan since April 2023, the Rapid Support...
[Ezequiel Jimenez Martinez has a PhD in International Law (Middlesex University, United Kingdom), works at Amnesty International and is Senior Fellow at the Center for International Law Research and Policy. He is the author of Governing the International Criminal Court: the History and Practice of the Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute (Brill, 2025) While the International Criminal Court...
[Ben Gerstein (JD, BA) is a Visiting Fellow at the University of Sarajevo Institute for the Research of Crimes against Humanity and International Law] What is the difference between pursuing the violent ethnic homogenization of a territory and the physical destruction of the group living on that land? And further, when does ethnic cleansing reach the threshold of genocide? Examining the...
[Thairi Moya Sánchez (PhD) is a full-time professor of public international law at Complutense University of Madrid] Over recent months, the Venezuela file has moved into an accelerated escalation: international airlines suspended or curtailed operations amid official safety advisories and mounting regional military risk; Washington announced coercive maritime measures against sanctioned oil shipments; and, on 3 January 2026, U.S. forces conducted...
[Metra Mehran, is an activist from Afghanistan, member of the End Gender Apartheid Campaign and Afghanistan Advocacy Specialist at Amnesty International. Venesa Sulimani is a survivor-led advocate from Kosovo, advancing accountability for conflict-related sexual and other gender-based violence and mental health awareness.] Last week, we sat in the United Nations in New York as preparations began on what could become the first global...
[Christine Ryan is the director of the Crimes against Humanity Project at Columbia Law School. Richard Dicker is the founding director of the International Justice Program at Human Rights Watch. Akshaya Kumar is the Crisis Advocacy Director at Human Rights Watch.] On January 19, a process that has been 80 years in the making will get underway at United Nations headquarters in New York....
[Sanmay Moitra is a research assistant at ‘Human Rights in Practice’ and an Advanced LLM candidate at Leiden University. He has previously studied international law at the University of Oxford and Georgetown University.] The UN’s Human Rights chief – Volker Turk – delivered a scathing condemnation on 14th November, of the international community’s inaction on the situation in Sudan noting that...
[Mô Bleeker is a Senior Fellow at The Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights, Geneva, and Special Advisor of the UNSG on the Responsibility to Protect .She served as Special Envoy for Dealing with the Past and Prevention of Atrocities at the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs.] The opinions shared in this article are solely those of...
[Mô Bleeker is a Senior Fellow at The Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights, Geneva, and Special Advisor of the UNSG on the Responsibility to Protect .She served as Special Envoy for Dealing with the Past and Prevention of Atrocities at the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs.] The opinions shared in this article are solely those of...