In association with the International Commission of Jurists

Symposia

26 Oct

[Dimitrios A. Kourtis has a PhD from Aristotle University and is an Adjunct Lecturer at Hellenic Police Academy.] *TW: This piece contains mention of rape and sexual assault as is depicted in the Netflix Series, The Club (Kulüp). Identities and Narratives Narratives can articulate and perpetuate identities, both individual and collective. They tend to ‘index’ a set of practices, meanings, and symbols...

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25 Oct

[Samantha Franks is an associate at a law firm in Washington D.C., where she specializes in international trade. She is a former Frederick Douglass Fellow, a former Fulbright postgraduate scholar, and a current member of the Department of Health and Human Services Office on Trafficking in Person’s working group.] For many fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the 2021 release of Black Widow felt...

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25 Oct

[Alonso Gurmendi Dunkelberg is a Departmental Lecturer in International Relations at the University of Oxford, in association with Somerville College, as well as Visiting Professor at University of Michigan, at Ann Arbor.] *Spoiler Warning for Avatar (2009), Prey (2022) and The Woman King (2022) Hollywood is very (very) white. According to recent figures by the consulting firm McKinsey, “less than 6 percent of...

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24 Oct

[Catherine Butchart is a recent Deakin University graduate with a Bachelor of Laws (Honours) and Bachelor of Arts.] [Tamsin Phillipa Paige is a Senior Lecturer with Deakin Law School and periodically consults for the UN Office on Drugs and Crime in relation to Maritime Crime.] Introduction The legal profession is notorious for burnout, competitive and antisocial conduct, growing rates of mental illness and addiction, along with...

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24 Oct

For the average (Western) person, October might be synonymous with Halloween, but for us at Opinio Juris, October has now become International Law and Pop Culture Month. As readers may remember, last year we hosted the first edition of this symposium, in collaboration with our friend Rachel Jones, with great success. Back then, we set out rather ambitious objectives: “[W]e hope to imagine alternatives of...

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02 Sep

[Caroline Stover is a lawyer focusing on human rights and refugee law and is currently the acting Head of Asia Programme at ARTICLE 19. Michael Altman-Lupu is a human rights lawyer working with ARTICLE 19 to protect and defend freedom of expression in Southeast Asia.] The Argument for the Investigation of Those Ordering Internet and Telephonic Shutdowns Under Articles 25(3)(c) and...

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01 Sep

[Caroline Stover is a lawyer focusing on human rights and refugee law and is currently the acting Head of Asia Programme at ARTICLE 19. Michael Altman-Lupu is a human rights lawyer working with ARTICLE 19 to protect and defend freedom of expression in Southeast Asia.] Introduction Across the world, the rise of internet-based communications has facilitated the documentation of evidence of violations of...

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01 Sep

[Raquel Saavedra is an International Legal Adviser, Myanmar, for the International Commission of Jurists. Kingsley Abbott is the Director of Global Accountability and International Justice, International Commission of Jurists.] In recent conversations with diplomats covering Myanmar, we continue to be asked: is it still worthwhile for states to support the work of Myanmar lawyers when the justice system is in a state of...

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31 Aug

[Jennifer Keene-McCann is a Senior Legal Fellow at the Asia Justice Coalition and is based in Naarm/Melbourne, Australia. Aakash Chandran is a Fellow at the Asia Justice Coalition and is based in New Delhi, India.] This third Opinio Juris symposium relating to crimes against the Rohingya marks another difficult anniversary. Its theme, ‘Myanmar and International Indifference: Rethinking Accountability’, evokes a call to keep approaches...

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30 Aug

[Dr Melanie O’Brien is Associate Professor of International Law at the University of Western Australia and President of the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS). She is also a 2022 research fellow at the Sydney Jewish Museum.] Two years ago, in August 2020, thirteen blog posts were written in a Rohingya Symposium here on Opinio Juris. These posts covered, inter alia, the need for accountability, the Security Council, the problematic fact that Myanmar’s...

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29 Aug

[Matthew Smith is the co-founder and CEO of Fortify Rights.] August 25 marks the fifth anniversary of the Myanmar military’s most egregious attacks on the Rohingya people, but it’s not the anniversary of the Rohingya genocide per se. The ongoing genocide dates back decades, partly due to the repeated failure of the “international community”—U.N. member states and various institutions—to respond to targeted violence, protracted violations, and discriminatory...

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