Search: palestine icc

...perpetrators’ perception (meaning who the perpetrator intended to target), or (2) based on the victims’ membership in the targeted group “in fact.” The first option requires “subjective criteria” and underscores that categories such as gender and race are social constructs. What is relevant under this option is that perpetrators targeted the victim because they believed the victim was a member of the targeted group.  International and domestic jurisprudence and the ICC Policy Paper on the Crime of Gender Persecution affirm this understanding of “groups” under persecution. Taking language from the...

...less as the means by which imperialism is continued but rather provides the tools to advance the process of decolonisation in a more profound sense. As Ronald Lamola, the South African Minister of Justice, noted in his opening address to the Court in January 2024, quoting Nelson Mandela: “In extending our hands across the miles to the people of Palestine, we do so in the full knowledge that we are part of a humanity that is at one.” Indeed, this broader sense that international law can be redirected towards those...

While in DC last week for the ICC/Palestine event at George Mason — I’ll post a link to the video when it becomes available — I had the pleasure of sitting down with Lawfare’s Wells Bennet and Just Security’s Steve Vladeck to discuss the oral argument at the DC Circuit on the al-Bahlul remand, which the three of us attended that morning. You can listen to the podcast at Lawfare here; Steve did most of the talking, because he understands the constitutional issues in the case better than anyone, but...

[Valentina Azarov is a Lecturer in International Law and Human Rights, Al-Quds Bard College, Al-Quds University, Palestine (on leave)] This is the fifth response in our Symposium on the Functional Approach to the Law of Occupation. Earlier posts can be found in the Related Links at the end of this post. Those who believe in the progressive development of international law but remain fully aware of the deficiencies of its enforcement, have good reason to view the proposed functional approach to the law of occupation with cautious optimism. However, there...

...Israel has moved to block a “fly in” by detaining four Welcome to Palestine protesters at the Tel Aviv airport after their flight from Paris. Some 1,200 names are on the list of those barred from entry into Israel. Gulf States plan to meet next week on a dispute between Iran and the United Arab Emirates regarding Abu Musa and two other islands near the Strait of Hormuz, which both countries claim to own. Four men accused of plotting an attack against the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten for publishing a cartoon...

...government has actively pursued a political philosophy of retribution and control that tarnishes the country’s image as an ‘honest international broker’. Harper’s record attests to an unyielding mission to reshape Canada’s international identity as a tough and hard-power state. The Harper government plays the part of destructive belligerent in climate change negotiations and tar-sands cheerleader. It is first in line to threaten Palestine with “consequences” if Ramallah pursues accountability for alleged crimes committed by Israeli forces in Gaza. While it isn’t usually described as such (many prefer terms like “militarily...

...sovereign equals, elevating the status of the non-state actor in order to elevate the status of the agreement itself. But with Crimean separation being widely condemned, the reverse would seem to be the case here: a collective decision to shun one of the parties has the effect of denying it legal capacity to enter into a treaty. Some argue that an internationally acknowledged self-determination unit (e.g., Palestine) may conclude a treaty notwithstanding the state-centric definition in Article 2 of the Vienna Convention. This argument relies on Article 3 of the...

Ken, since I have commitments most of today, I can answer only briefly and perhaps a little too abruptly, the surprising, even astonishing remarks in your last post, remarks so surprising, given their source, that I am wondering whether someone pretending to be you actually made the post. Let’s begin with the granular. In my post on the Israeli-Palestine conflict I say the following: “I neither claim nor believe that the U.S. and the Islamic world would like down together like the lion and the lamb in the Peaceable Kingdom...

went into effect] and that the number of immigrants in the past decade has been relatively small, likely in the thousands. Contrast that with Israeli immigration: the number of Jewish settlers living in the West Bank in 2002 was around 214,000; there are more than 350,000 living there today — an increase of approximately 136,000 civilians. [Prof. Heller seems to assume, as he has argued before, that ICC jurisdiction over Palestine could be retroactive to 2002, if it files an Art. 12(3) declaration. I think that position has real textual...

...it is to get positive international action in Myanmar and Sudan. In Gaza, Israel’s campaign is supported by the United States, which has also used its veto to stop concerted action. Until its recent conditional promise to recognise Palestine, the United Kingdom government has seemed more intent on prosecuting those who protest the policy and practice of genocide rather than in actually doing anything other than uttering occasional words of mild reproof.  Writing in the New York Review of Books recently, American historian Christopher R. Browning recalled the words of...

...an unnamed senior leader in the context of arrest warrants being requested for Israeli leaders that “this court is built for Africa and for thugs like Putin.” Of course, the fact that the ICC ultimately did proceed to issue arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant demonstrates that occasionally the wheels of justice move forward even in the face of resistance from key players in the West. Doing so, however, can come with a heavy price for those involved (see here, here and here regarding US sanctions on ICC...

...graduated to the level of cliche and truism. On a more granular level, debate centers on whether the norms of International Humanitarian Law (the law of armed conflict) are still fit for purpose, and on whether there exists a critical mass of compliance and political will to enforce the law. The panel takes place on 17 February 2026 at 11AM Eastern Time/4PM GMT, and will explore these propositions in contemporary contexts, including the so-called “War on Terror,” Russia/Ukraine, Israel/Palestine, Sudan, Venezuela and U.S. drug boat strikes, among others. Register here....