The Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the Islamic Republic of Iran (IIFFM), created by the Human Rights Council, has released a new report. It's a depressing read, painstakingly cataloging Iran's human-rights violations and analysing two airstrikes carried out by the United States on 28 February 2026 -- the notorious attack on the the Shajareh Tayyebeh Primary School in Minab, which...
[Jessica Dorsey is an Assistant Professor of International Law at Utrecht University School of Law and Managing Editor of Opinio Juris.]The UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the Islamic Republic of Iran (FFMI) released its 18-page report to the Human Rights Council on 17 September 2026. In the report, among other findings, the Mission outlines reasonable grounds to believe that the United...
[Veronika Vozniuk is a Ukrainian legal and policy professional working on issues related to international humanitarian law, human rights, and the legal consequences of armed conflict.] Since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion, Ukraine has made significant efforts to investigate and prosecute individuals responsible for war crimes committed on its territory. The scale of the alleged crimes is immense and continues...
[Madara Meļņika is a PhD Researcher in Law at the European University Institute, where her research examines how international security organisations respond to environmental realities.] In May 2026, the media reported plans for NATO’s AI Centre of Excellence to be established in Rennes, a city already famous for France’s armed forces’ cyber-defence command and other AI institutions. Allegedly, France was the...
[Amir Abbas Kiani is a collaborating researcher in International Law at Shiraz University, Iran.] On June 17, 2026, the Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States of America (U.S.) signed an agreement, formally entitled the ‘Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding’ (MoU), to resolve certain disputes arising from the international armed conflict (IAC) that broke out between them on February 28, 2026,...
[Neil Cameron is a barrister and an Affiliate Scholar at the Judith Reppy Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies, Cornell University.] On the evening of 1 September a United States glide bomb came through the roof of a house in Kuhestak, a small port town on the Iranian shore of the Strait of Hormuz, where about 150 women and children were waiting for...
[Mohammad Zayaan Asimi is a D.Phil. candidate in socio-legal studies at the University of Oxford.] Introduction Internet services in Pakistan-administered Kashmir (Kashmir) were severely restricted since 5th June 2026 after widespread protests in the region linked to electoral reforms and other socio-political demands of the people. More than forty people were killed, and hundreds were wounded after the army and police forces...
[Dr Lena Riemer is an Assistant Professor of Law at Central European University working on migration related topics.] When around 80,000 people (according to the Spanish government) crossed into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta in early August, reactions quickly framed the event as a test of the EU’s border control and policy and the solidarity amongst its member states (for a...
[Dr Mais Qandeel is an Associate Professor of International Law at the Irish Centre for Human Rights, University of Galway, Ireland, and Örebro University, Sweden. She holds a Ph.D. in international humanitarian law from the University of Fribourg, Switzerland.] Introduction In addition to the genocide in Gaza perpetrated by Israel since October 2023, Israeli settlers and military have been escalating their deadly...
[Lara Torbay is a PhD candidate at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland.] Recent developments in Gaza reveal the ways in which development cooperation – a putative expression of solidarity – can function as a neocolonial tool. Of course, the weaponization of development cooperation is not new: post-development scholars have highlighted and criticized it arguing that, against colonized peoples, development cooperation cannot...
[Mehmet Sercan Ercan is an independent researcher with a PhD in Public Law, working in the fields of general public law and constitutional law.] International legal norms already exist. What is missing is the institutional capacity to enforce them in situations of mass atrocity. The post-Cold War era nurtured the ambition to transform humanitarian intervention into a universal standard, later conceptualized...
[Bashar AlHadla is a human rights researcher and educator specializing in international human rights law, refugee protection, and nationality law. He holds graduate degrees from Union University in Belgrade, the University of Toronto, and the University of London.] In February 2026, the United States Central Command announced the completion of transferring 5,700 ISIS terrorist fighters from detention camps in north-eastern Syria...