In my capacity as Special Adviser on War Crimes, I have been assisting the Prosecutor with the development of the OTP's forthcoming policy on Environmental Crimes Under the Rome Statute (ECP) -- a policy he announced in Paris last February. “Damage to the environment poses an existential threat to all life on the planet,” the Prosecutor said. “For that reason,...
Every juristic tradition has at least one point in common: they seek to distinguish between lawful and unlawful behaviours, usually extrapolating a normative parallel between right and wrong or, with ecclesiastical fervour, between good and bad. Tied up with this narrative are notions of accountability (for wrongdoers) and restoration (for those wronged). Of course, morality almost always morphs into moralisation,...
[Marta Bo is a Senior Researcher at the T.M.C. Asser Institute and an Associate Senior Researcher at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI)] In recent years, accountability for uses of artificial intelligence (AI) in warfare, especially under international criminal law, has progressively emerged as a critical issue in governance initiatives (SIPRI, GGE’s Guiding Principles, REAIM Blue Print for Action) and...
[Ezequiel Jimenez is an independent researcher with a PhD in International Law (Middlesex University, United Kingdom) focusing on the history and practice of the Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute. All comments and feedback welcome (email, X: @ezejim7 and Bluesky: @ezejim.bsky.social)] The Hague’s World Forum will be the site of contestation among the 124 States Parties to the Rome...
[Libby McAvoy is a Legal Advisor at Mnemonic, where she specialises in digital evidence archives, litigation support, and open source investigations into international crimes and human rights violations. Syrian Archive is Mnemonic's founding programme. Daragh Murray is a Senior Lecturer at Queen Mary University of London, and his research focuses on the intersection of technology and international law.] The authors were members of...
[Juliette Rémond Tiedrez is a Legal Researcher at the International Commission of Jurists’ Middle East and North Africa programme.] The views expressed in this post are the author’s alone and do not represent any institutional position on the part of the International Commission of Jurists. On 4 October 2024, Pre-Trial Chamber I of the International Criminal Court (ICC) granted the Office of...
As pretty much everyone in the world knows by now, the ICC's Pre-Trial Chamber (PTC) has issued arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in the Palestine situation. (It issued one for Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al-Masri -- Deif -- as well.) Like the Office of the Prosecutor's applications, the PTC's decision...
[Z.M. Yacoob is a former Judge of the Constitutional Court of South Africa] ‘The Court of the Citizens of the World’ – a people’s tribunal – was organized by the Cinema for Peace Foundation, relating to alleged crimes committed by Xi Jinping, President of the People’s Republic of China. The tribunal considered confirmation of an indictment for the crime of aggression,...
[Bhavani Fonseka is a constitutional law and transitional justice expert from Sri Lanka] ‘The Court of the Citizens of the World’ – a people’s tribunal – was organized by the Cinema for Peace Foundation, relating to alleged crimes committed by Xi Jinping, President of the People’s Republic of China. The tribunal considered confirmation of an indictment for the crime of aggression,...
[Stephen Rapp is a former US Ambassador-at-Large for Global Criminal Justice and former international prosecutor at the Rwanda and Sierra Leone tribunals] ‘The Court of the Citizens of the World’ – a people’s tribunal – was organized by the Cinema for Peace Foundation, relating to alleged crimes committed by Xi Jinping, President of the People’s Republic of China. The tribunal considered...
[John Quigley is Professor Emeritus at Moritz College of Law, The Ohio State University] The two Gaza genocide cases pending in the International Court of Justice bring into prominence a form of genocide that is not what constitutes the crime in the public mind, but that was very much on the minds of the drafters of the Genocide Convention. The outright...
[Dr Jasmin Johurun Nessa teaches at the University of Liverpool and is the Co-General Editor of the Journal on the Use of Force and International Law’s Digest of State Practice.] Delays and Politicisation: The ICC’s Path to Justice in Palestine On 20 May 2024, the ICC Prosecutor announced that applications for arrest warrants had been filed with the Pre-Trial Chamber (Chamber) for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu,...