[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...
[Yifat Susskind is the Executive Director of MADRE, an international human rights organization dedicated to meeting urgent needs in communities facing crisis and using the human rights framework to create durable social change] For women, girls, and LGBTQI+ persons in Afghanistan, the struggle for justice has never been more urgent. With each passing day, the Taliban is consolidating power while the...
[Audrey Plan is a Research Engagement Specialist at University College Dublin, and Adjunct Assistant Professor at Trinity College Dublin. She holds a PhD from Trinity College Dublin and specialises in sociolegal research of international courts.] Nuremberg (2025) is the latest attempt to put the first, and arguably most famous, International Criminal Law (ICL) trial on the silver screen. Released in November...
[Junius O. Williams is a third-year J.D. candidate at NYU School of Law, where he is an Institute for International Law and Justice (IILJ) Scholar and a Salzburg Lloyd N. Cutler Fellow] On 9 September 2025, Ethiopia inaugurated the Grand Ethiopia Renaissance Dam (“the GERD”), Africa’s largest hydropower project and the culmination of over a decade of planning and construction. At...
[Milena Sterio is James A. Thomas Distinguished Professor of Law at Cleveland State University College of Law and Managing Director of the Public International Law and Policy Group] The United States’ attack on Venezuela, as well as the kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, have no justification in international law or international relations. This post will first discuss...
[Miguel Lemos is an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Law, University of Coimbra] On 14 November 2023, a French court issued an arrest warrant for Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad on “charges of complicity in crimes against humanity and complicity in war crimes”. On 26 June 2024, this decision was upheld by the Court of Appeals of Paris. The prosecutor-general at the Paris court...
[Bruno Biazatti is a doctoral researcher at the Luxembourg Centre for European Law, University of Luxembourg, and a doctoral student at the Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil] On 24 July, the Trial Chamber V (TC-V) of the International Criminal Court (ICC or the Court) issued its judgment in the Yekatom and Ngaïssona case, convicting both co-defendants of war crimes and...
[Heybatollah Najandimanesh is an associate professor of international law at Allameh Tabatabaei University, Tehran, Iran] Introduction The incorporation of international crimes into domestic legislation marks a pivotal stage in the development of international criminal law (ICL). Iran’s proposed Iran’s Draft Bill on International Crimes (IDBIC) seeks to criminalise genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and aggression within its national legal framework. This initiative...
[International Committee on Nigeria (ICON), is a multi-stakeholder nonprofit / NGO working to secure a future for all Nigerians, where rule-of-law, justice, religious freedom and constitutional rights are secured for all Nigerians, regardless of religion, tribe, or location. Nadeshda Jayakody is a legal advisor and Isabelle Bienfait is a programme coordinator at eyeWitness to Atrocities, an NGO that supports human rights...
[Jason Beckett is an associate professor of law at the American University in Cairo] Introduction The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) recently released an analysis of Egypt’s proposed budget for 2025-6, titled, “Egypt in the Grip of Debt”. It is a gloomy read, documenting Egypt’s ongoing immiseration, but concludes with a strangely sentimental optimism. “After all, the state’s role is not...
[Dr. Cyril Laucci is Lead Counsel for the Defense at the International Criminal Court] For the ICC, 2025 will have been the year of US sanctions. These sanctions took shape as early as February 6 with the signing of Executive Order 14203, “Imposing Sanctions on the International Criminal Court”. This order placed Prosecutor Karim Khan at the top of a list...
[Elke Schwarz is a professor of political theory at Queen Mary University London] The U.S. National Security Strategy is a strange document. Many have commented – favourable or disparagingly – on its brevity and its accessible language. The form of the document is a simple, 33-page delineation of ‘What America Wants’ and ‘How it Will get It.’ It is a policy...