Middle East

[Rugenge wa Nciko is an LLB student at Kabarak University Law School, a Kabarak Legal Aid Clinic (CLACLE) board member and a Trainee Editor at the Kabarak Law Review. He was born in the war-torn Eastern DRC and a citizen of DRC and interested in contributing to addressing the human rights and humanitarian situation in his country, across Africa.] International law...

[Mariam Hiba Malik is an international lawyer and LL.M. in International Law Candidate at the Geneva Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, specialising in the Protection of the Individual in International law] The recent ICJ Advisory Opinion on the illegality of Israel’s occupation in Palestine underscores the international community's recognition of systemic injustices and the urgency for enforcing existing legal...

[David Arita is a finalist LLB student at Kabarak University and former Peer-Review Editor of the Kabarak Law Review, an Afrocentric law review.] European colonial powers used pseudo-scientific racial underpinnings to justify their conquest and the exploitation of African lands and peoples. This racial ideology served multiple purposes including providing a moral justification for colonisation, facilitating the exploitation of African labour,...

[Mohsen al Attar is Associate Dean of Learning & Teaching at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University as well as a Contributing Editor to Opinio Juris. Nciko wa Nciko is an Amnesty International Climate Justice Advisor in East and Southern Africa and its lead advisor on human rights in Madagascar.] African peoples and states have long stood in solidarity with the liberation struggle of Palestinians....

[Ayesha Malik is Deputy Director at the Research Society of International Law where she leads the Conflict Law Centre. She is also Adjunct Faculty at the Lahore University of Management Sciences where she teaches international criminal law to undergraduate students.] On April 1, Israel attacked Iran’s consulate in Damascus killing Iranian generals and military officers. Nearly two weeks later, Iran responded...

[Toby Cadman, co-founder of The Guernica 37 Group and joint head of Guernica 37 Chambers. Dr Tomas Hamilton, Guernica 37 Chambers and Adjunct Faculty at the University of Amsterdam. In recent allegations that Israeli officials interfered with the ICC’s work on Palestine, +972 Magazine, Local Call, and the Guardian documented a nine-year, state-orchestrated campaign of spying, hacking and intimidation against the Court. Described as...

[Full disclosure: I serve as the Prosecutor's Special Adviser on War Crimes.] In this post I want to provide an overview of the Rome Statute's principle of complementarity. The principle has been consistently misrepresented by politicians and journalists since word first got out that the Prosecutor, Karim Khan KC, intended to seek arrest warrants in the Palestine situation not only for...

A forthcoming symposium coordinated by Mohsen al Attar and Nciko wa Nciko African peoples and states have long stood in solidarity with the liberation struggle of Palestinians. Following each proclamation of independence across the continent, African leaders demanded the same for Palestine, a place that encapsulated anti-colonial resistance to Western (racial) imperialism. As Nelson Mandela powerfully declared: ‘our freedom is incomplete...

[Adrián Agenjo is an LL.M graduate from the London School of Economics and a Researcher at Pompeu Fabra University. He also works at Irídia - Human Rights Defence Centre in Spain.] The views expressed in this article are the author’s alone and do not represent any institutional affiliation. Lavender Unveiled: The Oblivion of Human Dignity in Israel's War Policy on Gaza The Israeli military...

[Douglas Guilfoyle is Professor of International and Security Law at UNSW Canberra] Introduction  Israel’s strike on the World Central Kitchen (WCK) convoy on 1 April was almost certainly a war crime. Indeed, I struggle to see how any other conclusion is possible. This is true even accepting the ‘misidentification’ version of events the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has subsequently offered. At the outset...