In association with the International Commission of Jurists

New Crimes Against Humanity Treaty Must Not Perpetuate Outdated Definition of Gender

24 Jan

[Danielle Hites is the Staff Attorney at the Global Justice Center, an international human rights organization dedicated to advancing gender equality through the rule of law.] Despite the international community’s recognition that crimes against humanity are among the most serious crimes, there is no codified crimes against humanity treaty. The International Law Commission has undertaken the task of drafting one. Currently crimes against...

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23 Jan

Graffiti from the 36th Front of the FARC Dissidents in Briceño, Colombia, proclaims “We are Indestructible.” [Alex Diamond is a doctoral student in sociology at the University of Texas at Austin. His research focuses on the community experience of Colombia’s post-peace agreement transition.] January 28th, 2019 marks the two-year anniversary of the first arrivals of guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of...

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23 Jan

[Dr. Kubo Mačák is a Senior Lecturer in Law at the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom.] I would like to start by thanking Opinio Juris for providing a platform for the discussion of internationalized armed conflicts in international law. In the title of my opening post, I paraphrased Carl von Clausewitz to suggest that these types of confrontations have become...

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22 Jan

It's not yet available on the ICC website, but Judge Eboe-Osuji (the President of the Court) and Judge Hofmański (the President of the Appeals Division) have released a short Joint Declaration defending Judge Eboe-Osuji's appointment as the Presiding Judge in the Gbagbo No Case to Answer appeal. The Declaration does not explain his appointment, which seems to confirm Judge Ibañez Carranza's...

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22 Jan

Another day, another slow-motion fiasco at the ICC. Today's episode: Judge Luz del Carmen Ibañez Carranza has dissented from a decision to assign a presiding judge to an appeal. The appeal in question involves the Gbagbo No Case to Answer decision, about which I blogged extensively yesterday. The President of the Appeals Division appointed Judge Eboe-Osuji, even though he is already the...

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22 Jan

[Carlos Lopez is a Senior Legal Adviser at the International Commission of Jurists and Marilyn Croser is the Director of CORE Coalition UK.] The United Kingdom Supreme Court is presently considering an interlocutory appeal by the company Vedanta Resources and its Zambian subsidiary KCM challenging a Court of Appeal decision to uphold jurisdiction of UK courts in the case and allow...

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21 Jan

“Internationalized Armed Conflicts in International Law” by Kubo Mačák presents a detailed and insightful analysis of the tipping point at which non-international armed conflict (NIAC) may be ‘internationalized’ and considered to be an international armed conflict (IAC), with the focus in particular in relation to the status of combatants and the law of occupation. Far from esoteric, the topic is...

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21 Jan

[Vito Todeschini is an Associate Legal Adviser at the International Commission of Jurists, Middle East and North Africa Programme.] On 30 October 2018, the UN Human Rights Committee (HRC) finally adopted the long-awaited General Comment no. 36 (GC 36) on article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). GC 36, which replaces GC 6 (1982) and GC...

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21 Jan

I highly recommend Paul Bradfield's erudite post yesterday, in which he suggests that "the Gbagbo Trial Chamber appears to have departed from the standard enunciated in Ruto" concerning the standard of proof applicable to No Case to Answer (NCA) motions. I do not completely agree -- and I want to offer a couple of thoughts on Paul's post, with the caveat that we...

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21 Jan

[Elvina Pothelet is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Geneva. Her research interests focus on the international law governing the use of force, the law of armed conflict and war crime law.] Kubo Mačák’s book is a rich and thought-provoking contribution to the scholarship on IHL applicability. The writing style and structure of the book make it a smooth and enjoyable read – to...

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20 Jan

Call for Papers On Thursday 5 and Friday 6 December 2019, the Journal on the Use of Force and International Law (JUFIL) and the Ghent Rolin-Jaequemyns International Law Institute (GRILI) will host an international conference focusing on ‘military assistance on request’. Having regard to recent third-State interventions in Yemen, Syria and elsewhere, the conference seeks to explore the legal framework...

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