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18 Apr

[Terje Einarsen is Professor of International Law at the University of Bergen and Chairperson of the Norwegian Section of International Commission of Jurists]  Part I of this post discussed why the jurisdiction should be extended and the current proposal to amend Article 15bis. An Alternative Proposal: Amending Article 5 Against this background (see Part I), it would presumably be better and more effective...

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18 Apr

[Terje Einarsen is Professor of International Law at the University of Bergen and Chairperson of the Norwegian Section of International Commission of Jurists] The Assembly of State Parties special session on the review of the amendments on the crime of aggression will be held at the United Nations, New York, 7 to 9 July 2025.  It comes with a challenging geopolitical...

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17 Apr

[Safia K Southey is a student at Columbia Law School, with experience at Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the Center for Justice and Accountability, and the International Center for Transitional Justice. She focuses on international law, Middle East policy, and alternative justice mechanisms.] On March 11, 2025, something unusual happened—the International Criminal Court (ICC) secured the arrest of a former head...

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17 Apr

[Laura van der Hoeven holds academic degrees in Public International Law and Business Administration. Her work focuses on the intersection of foreign relations and international law, with particular interest in security alliances, soft power diplomacy, and the application of international law to territorial disputes.] The ongoing conflict in the Gaza region has resulted in severe humanitarian and environmental losses. While international...

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16 Apr

11 April 2025 We, Hungarian international lawyers, observing with great concern the recent international and domestic events, guided by the best of our knowledge, professional convictions, and social responsibility, issue the following statement on certain current issues with international law relevance. 1. Bowing our heads before the victims who suffered horrors shocking the conscience of humanity, we declare our firm commitment to...

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16 Apr

[Andrew Forde is an Adjunct Lecturer at the Irish Centre for Human Rights.] In his famous poem, The Road Not Taken, Robert Frost laments the fact that travelling one road precludes travelling another but acknowledges that taking the road less travelled can make all the difference. The journey towards accountability for the crime of aggression has begun but we have reached a fork in the...

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14 Apr

Come and join our team! Opinio Juris is looking for three Assistant Editors to help with reviewing and assessing content that comes to our blog. This would be a volunteer position with a time commitment of approximately 3-4 hours per week. Each Assistant Editor would be responsible for monitoring and reviewing submissions for substantive content, ensuring submissions meet formatting and content...

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11 Apr

[Ozan Yildirim works as an Expert Associate in the Humanitarian Affairs Section of the Permanent Mission of Switzerland to the UN in Geneva and holds an LL.M. in International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights from the Geneva Academy] This post is written in the author's personal capacity. When it comes to the disappearance of individuals, non-State actors around the world are increasingly...

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10 Apr

[Lukas Willmer is a PhD candidate at Humboldt University Berlin, with a research focus on governmental status and recognition in international law] In September 2024, Australia, Canada, Germany, and the Netherlands announced their intention to initiate proceedings before the ICJ against Afghanistan for violations of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). The four states...

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09 Apr

[Anuja Jaiswal is a human rights consultant who has worked in various contexts, including Gambia, Ukraine, MENA, Myanmar, and North Korea. She studied at the University of Oxford and Columbia University, and has an LL.M in Transnational Crime and Justice.] Generally, there is an absence of adequate gender representation on the international bench. This gap has been identified by academics and...

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08 Apr

[Ben Saul is the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism] The Israeli human rights NGOs Public Committee Against Torture in Israel and Hamoked recently reported that around 6,800 Palestinians are detained by Israel outside the regular criminal justice process. Approximately 3,436 are held as “unlawful combatants” captured in Gaza – although...

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08 Apr

[Mona Rishmawi is an international human rights lawyer and a former senior UN official. She worked in several conflict contexts including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, Libya, the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Sri Lanka, Sudan, and Syria.] This post is written in the author's personal capacity. Israel has resumed pounding Gaza. Civilian casualties are mounting, and humanitarian assistance once again is weaponized....

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