In association with the International Commission of Jurists

Themes

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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26 Aug

[Laetitia van den Assum is a former ambassador of The Netherlands. She is also a former member of the Rakhine Advisory Commission, chaired by Kofi Annan.] August 2017, Prelude to a Catastrophe Thinking back to Myanmar’s ferocious and indiscriminate military campaign against the Rohingya, my mind turns to 24 August. On that day, the Advisory Commission of Rakhine state, headed by Kofi Annan, presented its final report...

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25 Aug

[Zaw Win is a Human Rights Specialist at Fortify Rights.] The Rohingya are one of the most ill-treated and systematically persecuted groups in the world, having lived in a realm of statelessness and perpetual abuse for over six generations. August 25, 2022, marks five years since genocidal attacks, led by the Myanmar military, forced more than 700,000 Rohingya to flee to Cox’s Bazar District, Bangladesh where living...

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25 Aug

[Antonia Mulvey is the Executive Director of Legal Action Worldwide (LAW).] As the world marks the 5th Rohingya Genocide Remembrance Day on the 25th of August, it is Rohingya women who are playing a leading role in the fight for international justice. They are ‘Champions of Justice’ - a remarkable group of women who are tearing up the gender norms of Rohingya patriarchal society. Most...

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