In association with the International Commission of Jurists

Middle East

22 Oct

Israel’s illegal blockade of Gaza turns twenty next year. In the context of state-to-state violence and of an anti-colonial struggle for self-determination, the Israeli action is unique, subverting so many authorities at once: the ICJ, the ICC, the UNGA, and countless international and regional civil society organisations. Since the blockade began, Israel has inflicted catastrophic levels of suffering to impose...

|
16 Oct

[Dr. Pouria Askary is an Associate Professor of International Law at Allameh Tabataba’i University. Dr. Katayoun Hosseinnejad is an independent researcher and consultant.] On August 24, 2026, the U.S. Department of the Treasury launched a new economic campaign against Iran, which it described as targeting the country’s “lifelines”. The so called “Operation Economic Outcast” as reflected in the statement of the Secretary...

and |
06 Oct

Two years before his assassination, the Palestinian revolutionary Ghassan Kanafani was interviewed by the Australian journalist Richard Carleton: Carleton: Why won’t your organisation engage in peace talks with the Israelis?Kanafani: You don’t mean exactly peace talks; you mean capitulation, surrender.C: Why not just talk?K: Talk to whom?C: To the Israeli leaders.K: That kind of conversation is between the sword and the...

|
02 Oct

[Arez Rizgari is an Iranian scholar. The author is writing under a pseudonym because they are concerned that this post will subject them to political retaliation or restrictions on their academic freedom by Iranian authorities.] The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has repeatedly targeted Rojhilat (Iranian Kurdistan) parties based in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) with missile and drone strikes...

|
19 Sep

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...

|
18 Sep

[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...

|
16 Sep

[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,...

|
08 Sep

[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...

|
07 Sep

[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...

|
03 Sep

[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...

|
21 Aug

[Natia Navrouzov is a lawyer and the Executive Director of Yazda, a global Yazidi organisation that has documented ISIL’s crimes since 2014 and supports survivors of the Yazidi genocide through legal, psychosocial, and advocacy work] On 20 March 2026, the Paris Assize Court convicted Sabri Essid of genocide and crimes against humanity for atrocities committed against the Yazidi community in Iraq....

|