In association with the International Commission of Jurists

Courts & Tribunals

05 Nov

[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...

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10 Sep

[Nicolás Carrillo Santarelli is an Assistant Professor at the University of Cagliari, Italy, and holds a PhD degree in international law and international relations from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and Master’s degrees in Modern and Contemporary Philosophy from the University of Luxembourg and Human Rights from the University of Alcalá.] Perhaps it would be convenient to start this text by...

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01 Sep

[Kate McInnes is a Vancouver-based criminal defence lawyer and the Principal at Arendt Chambers, Canada's first and only law firm practicing exclusively in international human rights law and international justice] The creation of the Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine (STCAU), a court embedded within the Council for Europe framework, marks a historic effort in securing accountability for...

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26 Aug

[Angel Cabrera is a Mexican human rights lawyer and an Assistant Professor of international law and human rights at the University of Washington Tacoma. He holds an S.J.D. and LL.M. from Harvard Law School and an LL.B. from the University of Guadalajara.] In a request submitted last December, Guatemala asked the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (the “Court”) to issue an...

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19 Aug

[Izza Drury is a Legal Fellow on the Border Justice Team at the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights. She holds a JD from Harvard Law School and completed a post-graduate fellowship at the European Court of Human Rights.] On 1 July 2025 Dr. Marialena Tsirli, Registrar of the European Court of Human Rights, published a keynote speech titled “Developing...

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18 Aug

[Petronella Mukaindo is an associate legal adviser at the International Commission of Jurists (Africa). Timothy Fish Hodgson is a senior legal adviser for ESC Rights at the International Commission of Jurists (Africa).] On 20 December 2024, the South African Constitutional Court handed down its judgment in O’Brien N.O. v Minister of Defence and Military Veterans and Others 2024 ZACC 30, affirming that...

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08 Aug

[Alexander Heinze is an Acting Professor at the University of Bremen and lecturer at the University of Göttingen] Part 1 of this post examined the Trial Chamber V’s remarkably efficient case management approach in Yekatom and Ngaïssona, highlighting how flexibility became the key to handling an exceptionally complex trial with nearly 20,000 exhibits and 174 witnesses. I explored the Chamber’s innovative...

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08 Aug

[Alexander Heinze is an Acting Professor at the University of Bremen and lecturer at the University of Göttingen] On 24 July 2025, Trial Chamber V (TC V) of the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued its 1,600-page Judgment in the Yekatom and Ngaïssona case, convicting both former Anti-Balaka leaders of a catalogue of war crimes and crimes against humanity—including murder, persecution, forcible...

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28 Jul

[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...

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24 Jul

[Fabián Raimondo is an Associate Professor of Public International Law at the Faculty of Law of Maastricht University. He has been a member of the Bar of the City of La Plata (Argentina) since 1990 and on the List of Counsel of the International Criminal Court since 2005. He has acted as counsel and advocate for Sudan in three advisory...

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22 Jul

[Jens Iverson is an assistant professor of international law at Leiden University] The Iranian Non-proliferation Problem: Where to Enrich? The main sticking point for a nuclear non-proliferation deal with Iran is domestic uranium enrichment. It seems intractable: but it might not be.  Iran has been clear that it is open to a new deal, but insists it must be able to enrich uranium...

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21 Jul

[Dr Nina Araneta-Alana (she/her) is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Australian National University (ANU) under an ARC fellowship, where her research examines state engagement with and backlash against the international legal order] The arrest of former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte by the International Criminal Court (ICC) is a moment of rare consequence in the often-elusive pursuit of accountability for heads of...

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