Search: palestine icc
25 Aug Emerging Voices: Is the International Community Ready for a “Duty to End Impunity”?
...following a blatant lack of cooperation from Sudan and a lack of support from the Security Council for the work of the ICC, despite the fact that the situation was initially referred to the Court by the Security Council. The ICC Prosecutor as well as the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber II recently pointed out the lack of willingness from the Security Council to play its part by imposing measures on UN Member States for their failure to comply with Resolution 1593 (2005) requesting cooperation with the ICC. This lack of cooperation...
11 Oct Rethinking International Law After Gaza Symposium: Unlawful Occupation as Ongoing Aggression – Rethinking Legal Responses in the Context of Palestine
[Ihsan Adel is the Founder and Chair of Law for Palestine and an international lawyer currently pursuing a PhD in Germany] The Israeli occupation of Palestine has long tested the limits and efficacy of international law. However, recent legal developments, particularly the ICJ’s advisory opinion, have intensified the call to recognise this occupation not only as an illegal act but as an outright form of aggression. This marks a significant turning point. The prohibition of aggression lies at the core of the international legal order established after the World Wars;...
03 Sep Occupation and Self-Defence in the Case of Palestine
...of statehood). When Kuwait was under Iraqi occupation, there was little doubt over whether it still retained statehood. The 2024 ICJ opinion on the consequences of the occupation reaffirms Palestine’s territorial integrity, treating it as a composite whole that is not Israel’s to claim. One could then argue that Palestine’s status now is similar to that of a state under foreign belligerent occupation. One must also contend with the reality that the Palestinian Authority does not claim to be exercising a right to self-defence through use of force. This is...
03 Sep Critical Pedagogy Symposium: Teaching Palestine–Recognising and Responding to the Dangers of Online Learning
[ Dr Brendan Ciarán Browne is an Assistant Professor Conflict Resolution at Trinity College Dublin. ] Introduction Few ‘conflicts’ engender the widest possible scrutiny within public, political and academic discourse than Israel’s ongoing settler colonial mission in Palestine. The goal of many critical legal scholars is thus to unpack the ways in which international law is weaponised to subjugate the Palestinian people, providing opportunity for students to debate and interrogate international law’s emancipatory potential therein. Yet, challenging and critiquing orthodoxies as they are applied in spaces such as Palestine requires...
19 Apr ICC Sanctions Symposium: Sanctions Gone, But Don’t Celebrate Too Quickly!
westerners and NATO personnel from prosecution in those ICC situations. With the Afghanistan investigation looming however, this is the most vulnerable that the US has ever been in regard to the ICC’s reach. To complicate matters further, the investigation in Palestine raises the stakes even higher for the US and Israel. And the Rome Statute’s ‘threat’ to Israel has always preoccupied the US government, even during the Rome negotiations. Let’s go back to that hearing on 23 July 1998 in the US Congress. This exchange between Senator Feinstein (a Democrat)...
14 Apr ICC Prosecutor Symposium: Wanted–International Prosecutor to Deliver Justice Successfully Across Multiple Complex Situations with Inadequate Resources
[Jonathan O’Donohue is a consultant on international justice and human rights, formerly a Legal Advisor at Amnesty International. Be sure to also read Ewan Brown and William H. Wiley at Justice in Conflict.] The vacancy announcement circulated globally in August last year emphasizes the extensive skills and experience that the next International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor must bring to the role but makes no mention of the serious resource challenges the successful candidate will face when they take office. The budget of the ICC Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) for...
14 Jan Extraterritorial Obligations of Arms Exporting Corporations: New Communication to the ICC
challenges in preparing the submission to the ICC was establishing the nature of responsibility of individuals within corporations for crimes committed against civilians in Yemen. Article 25(3)(c) of the Rome Statute is one of the key provisions invoked in the communication to the ICC as it establishes responsibility of those who: …“for the purpose of facilitating the commission of such a crime, aids, abets or otherwise assists in its commission or its attempted commission, including providing the means for its commission.” This definition of complicity, which calls for a ‘purposeful...
23 Aug Emerging Voices: The Participation of Children in Hostilities before the ICC–An Inherent Contradiction between IHL and ICL?
children in hostilities vis-à-vis the wider IHL framework. This is because the Rome Statute provision effectively brought the prohibition within the remit of ICL for the first time. In Lubanga, the ICC Chambers concluded that the term ‘active’ can encompass both direct and indirect participation (Lubanga TC Judgment para.628; AC Judgment para.340). Significantly, the ICC’s interpretation of ‘active’ participation reflects a broader understanding of the term compared to its meaning and scope under IHL. The underlying premise of the ICC’s reasoning is to be welcomed; it seeks to provide...
18 Apr ICC’s Jurisdiction over the Crime of Aggression: Amending Article 5 Instead of Article 15bis (Part I)
...Parties of the International Criminal Court (ICC) of 27 January 2025 is a case in point. It recognizes that the ICC now faces significant threats and unlawful sanctions from states like Russia for its investigations and arrest warrants in the Ukraine situation, and from the USA for investigations and arrest orders in the Palestine situation. As underlined by the authors of that call, “the ICC’s mission is not political, it is about applying international law consistently and impartially to hold perpretrators of the gravest crimes accountable”. Furthermore, the call points...
25 Sep From Immunities to the Afghanistan Decision – Talking International Criminal Justice with Stephen Rapp
like this? Civil society organisations need to be a part of the independent assessment I mentioned earlier to ensure that states do not use it as an opportunity to curtail the independence of the ICC. They are important to ensure that the Court will pursue cases without fear or favour. They are important as supportive critics of the ICC who want it to be more effective while some states might wish it to be less effective. An effective ICC is necessary even to strengthen domestic justice. A key part to...