Africa

[Elise Keppler is an associate international justice director at Human Rights Watch, where she has worked since 2003 to advance justice for serious crimes before domestic, hybrid, and international courts, with a focus on crimes committed in Africa.] West African and nearby governments came together in Dakar, Senegal in late May to discuss advancing accountability for atrocity crimes through national trials and cooperation with the International Criminal...

Said Benarbia is the director of Middle East and North Africa Programme at the International Commission of Jurists Until 29 September 2019, Alaa Abdelfattah, a prominent Egyptian human rights defender, reported to the Dokki police station in Cairo every day at 6 pm. He would spend 12 hours in a windowless office. He would sleep on a chair or the floor....

[Stephen A. Lamony is an International Lawyer.] Introduction The aftermath of Dominic Ongwen's case, from his conviction to his sentence to his defense counsel's certain appeal, presents clear challenges for clans and communities in northern Uganda. In February 2021, the International Criminal Court's (ICC) Public Information and Outreach Section (PIOS) published an impact report on the Ongwen verdict. Among other concerns raised in the report typical...

[Danya Chaikel is currently consulting with FIDH's International Justice Desk and is the Co-Vice Chair of the IBA’s War Crimes Committee.] This amicus curiae brief was submitted by: Louise Arimatsu, Adejoké Babington-Ashaye, Danya Chaikel, Christine Chinkin, Carolyn Edgerton, Angela Mudukuti, and Cynthia T. Tai.* Following the Ongwen Appeals Chamber’s (AC) invitation to scholars and legal practitioners we submitted an amicus brief contending that duress and sexual violence...

[Matt Cannock is the Head of Amnesty International’s Centre for International Justice. Dr. Rosemary Grey is a Lecturer at Sydney Law School and a Sydney Southeast Asia Centre DECRA Fellow. Akila Radhakrishnan is the President of the Global Justice Center, where she directs GJC’s work to establish legal precedents protecting human rights and ensuring gender equality. Alix Vuillem is the Senior Advocacy Adviser / Program Manager...

[Valerie Oosterveld is Professor of International Law at Western University’s Faculty of Law (Canada) and Associate Director of the Centre for Transitional Justice and Post-Conflict Reconstruction. Kathleen M. Maloney is Visiting Law Professor at Lewis & Clark Law School and Founding Board Member of the international human rights organization, Just Planet. Melanie O’Brien is Associate Professor of International Law at the University of Western...

[Jocelyn Getgen Kestenbaum is Associate Professor of Clinical Law at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law where she directs the Benjamin B. Ferencz Human Rights and Atrocity Prevention Clinic and the Cardozo Law Institute in Holocaust and Human Rights (CLIHHR). Magali Maystre is an international criminal and human rights lawyer and adviser with a background of more than 15 years...

[Alexandra Lily Kather (she/they) is a lawyer, international justice practitioner & co-founder of the Emergent Justice Collective (EJC). Their work focuses, inter alia, on strategically addressing the intersectional dimensions of core international crimes. Angela Mudukuti is a member of Opinio Juris and a human rights lawyer specialised in international criminal law. She has worked with a variety of international organsisations including the International Criminal Court and Human Rights...

Featured Announcement The British Institute of International and Comparative Law (BIICL) provides training that combines world leading research with an applied perspective. Our courses are designed to enable legal practitioners, government officials, students, academics, and civil society organisations to gain expert insights and to deepen their knowledge in areas of international law.  During summer 2022, BIICL will offer the popular Law of the Sea course alongside...

[Dr Justine Bendel is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow at the University of Copenhagen.] [This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 101028622.] This post will look at the recent decision delivered by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) regarding the case entitled Armed Activities on the Territory of the Congo (Democratic Republic of the...

In an excellent recent blog post at Just Security, Tom Dannenbaum identified four options for prosecuting Russia's unprovoked aggression against Ukraine: [T]he International Criminal Court, an ad hoc international tribunal (whether along the lines proposed at Chatham House or pursuant to a General Assembly resolution), a domestic court exercising territorial jurisdiction (in Russia, Belarus, or Ukraine), or a domestic court exercising...

[Dr. Sigurd D’hondt is an Associate Professor at the Department of Language and Communication Studies, University of Jyväskylä (Finland). Dr. Juan-Pablo Peréz-León-Acevedo and Dr. Fabio Ferraz-de-Almeida are researchers associated with the project reported on here, and Elena Barrett is a PhD candidate at the department.] Introduction On 4 February 2021, Trial Chamber IX (TC-IX) of the International Criminal Court (ICC) convicted Dominic...