[Melanie O’Brien is Associate Professor of International Law at the University of Western Australia, President of the International Association of Genocide Scholars, and Visiting Scholar with the Human Rights Center at the University of Minnesota Law School.] Many people are asking the question, ‘is genocide happening in Gaza?’. The question was explored in the media in the early days after 7 October 2023...
[Vikrant Sharma works with the defence team of Mr. Kadri Veseli at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague. He graduated cum laude from the advanced LL.M. in public international law, specialising in international criminal law, from Leiden University.] The Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (‘the Court’ or ‘ICC’), Karim Khan, confirmed on 30 September 2024 that Lithuania had referred to...
[Professor Jennifer Trahan is director of the Concentration in International Law & Human Rights at the NYU Center for Global Affairs and convenor of The Global Institute for the Prevention of Aggression] A Special Session of the Assembly of States Parties to the International Criminal Court (ICC) took place at the United Nations from July 7-9, 2025. At issue was whether...
[Yaser Salarain is a lawyer and international law expert at the School of International Relations, Tehran] The protracted conflict in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) has consistently tested the limits of international humanitarian law (IHL) and, more specifically, the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War (GCIV). Despite repeated UNGA resolutions and diplomatic initiatives,...
[Juan Auz is an Ecuadorian lawyer and a postdoctoral researcher at Tilburg University's Law School] On March 14, 2025, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR) made public a landmark ruling holding Ecuador internationally responsible for the violation of various rights of the Tagaeri and Taromenane, the last remaining indigenous peoples living in voluntary isolation (PIAV) in the western Ecuadorian Amazon...
[Saniamu Ngeywa has a masters of laws (LL.M.) in international human rights law from the University of Groningen, Netherlands] No Laughing Matter Retrogressive times and events have taken Kenya back to an all-too-familiar phase, rendering citizens, funny guys, dissidents, and rights defenders shivering. Social media enthusiasts banter that political positions should have an undisputed requirement that the applicant must be able to...
[Aakash Chandran (X: @ChandranAakash is the Legal Advocacy and Communications Manager at Asia Justice Coalition.] The international community is currently navigating a turbulent phase marked by armed conflicts, aggression, and manifest violations of international humanitarian law and human rights law. The situation in South, Southeast, and East Asia also continues to present alarming developments, including the escalating situation in Myanmar, exacerbated...
Peru's Justice and Human Rights Commission of the Congress has just published a unified bill that would add the crime of ecocide to the Peruvian penal code. The next step is for Congress to approve the bill and the President to promulgate it. Here is Art. 1 of the unified bill, as translated by ClaudeAI: Article 305-A. Ecocide 305-A.1. Anyone who, knowingly, provokes,...
This post is a continuation of What Will Gaza Become After Genocide? Using the Counterfactual Method to Evaluate Three Post-Genocidal Futures (24 July 2025). You may access Part 1 here, where I argued that the genocide Israel is perpetrating against the Palestinians is central to the zionist ethos which, like other settler-colonial movements, seeks to remove the native from coveted...
[Thairi Moya Sánchez (PhD) is a full-time professor of public international law at Complutense University of Madrid. Simón Gómez-Guaimara is an adjunct professor of public international law at Universidad Católica Andrés Bello, Caracas and works as a human rights and international justice consultant.] Since 2007, Nicaragua has descended into a spiral of repression under Daniel Ortega’s rule. Popular discontent culminated in...
[Benoit Meystre is a Swiss lawyer and legal advisor at the International Investigations and Litigation Program of TRIAL International.] TRIAL International filed a criminal complaint against Ousman Sonko in 2017. The organisation supported nine plaintiffs who traveled to Switzerland in January 2024 to be heard by the court. It also ensured the regular publication of summaries of the hearings throughout the trial and advocated for the proceedings to...
[Masoud Zamani is a lecturer in International Law and International Relations at the University of British Columbia, Canada. Amir Abbas Kiani is a collaborating researcher in International Law at Shiraz University, Iran.] The recurring exchange of lethal force and military operations between Iran and Israel gives rise to several urgent and complex legal questions within the framework of jus ad bellum. A particularly intriguing...