In association with the International Commission of Jurists

Courts & Tribunals

16 Oct

According to Stephanie Maupas, in late July the chair of the Committee on the Election of the Prosecutor (CEP), Sabine Nölke, said the following concerning the Committee's vetting of candidates long-listed for Prosecutor: "I made the statement very clearly to the States Parties, the vetting process did not disclose any disqualifying information,” she said. The Canadian diplomat also asserted, not without...

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15 Oct

[Parisa Zangeneh is a PhD student at the Irish Centre for Human Rights, National University of Ireland, Galway, where she is a recipient of the Hardiman Scholarship.]   On September 30th, the Independent Expert Review of the International Criminal Court and the Rome Statute System (“Independent Expert Review”, “IER”) issued its final report (“report”, “final report”) after the Assembly of States Parties...

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13 Oct

[Maria Antonia Tigre is the Director for Latin America at the Global Network for the Study of Human Rights and the Environment.] In September 2020, the Brazilian Supreme Court held the country’s first public hearing on climate change. For the first time, a climate litigation case reached Brazil’s highest court, marking an historic landmark for the country’s legal system. A broad range of...

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12 Oct

In past decades, Latin American countries witnessed violent conflict and serious human rights abuses at the hands of state and non-state actors. In these contexts, conflict-related sexual violence was widespread, perpetrated in order to advance military goals and as a tactic of repression against political opponents and communities. But as the region has grappled with the past through efforts toward...

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09 Oct

[Owiso Owiso is a Doctoral Researcher in Public International Law at the University of Luxembourg and Sharon Nakandha is a Program Officer with the OSF Africa Regional Office (OSF-AfRO). The views expressed herein are personal. Part I of this post can be found here.] Part I discussed the Committee’s evaluation of the nominees based on the requirements of Article 36(3)(b) of...

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09 Oct

[Owiso Owiso is a Doctoral Researcher in Public International Law at the University of Luxembourg and Sharon Nakandha is a Program Officer with the OSF Africa Regional Office (OSF-AfRO). The views expressed herein are personal.] Background On 30 September 2020, the Advisory Committee on Nomination of Judges (the Committee) released its report. It included an evaluation of 20 candidates nominated by states...

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30 Sep

[Lena Holzer is a PhD Candidate in International Law at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (IHEID) in Geneva and affiliated with the IHEID Gender Centre.] On 8 September 2020, the Swiss Federal Supreme Court (SFC) published its highly anticipated decision in the Caster Semenya case. Unfortunately, but not entirely surprisingly, it rejected Mokgadi Caster Semenya’s appeal against the Award by the Court of Arbitration...

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30 Sep

[Bede Sheppard (@BedeOnKidRights) is the children’s rights deputy director at Human Rights Watch, where he specializes in the issue of attacks on students, teachers, and schools. He has conducted investigations in Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Japan, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Nigeria, the Philippines, Poland, Thailand, South Africa, Ukraine, and Yemen.] The European Court of Human Rights found on 19 September that Finland violated its positive...

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29 Sep

[Jing Min Tan is a Research Assistant at the Centre of International Law, National University of Singapore.]  Things have been moving relatively quickly in the case(s) against Myanmar, and it finally is beginning to look like international law might have a holistic solution to the Rohingya Crisis. The ICJ issued a Provisional Measures order against Myanmar in January 2020 to comply with its obligations under the Genocide Convention, while the...

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29 Sep

On 18 September, the Netherlands announced that it was initiating legal proceedings against Syria, based on the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT).  This move by the Netherlands brings many issues to the fore: the first is the scale and magnitude of torturebeing committed in Syria, documented in many reports and most recently in a court cases in Germany (under the aegis of...

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25 Sep

[Tetevi Davi is a regional correspondent at Oxford Human Rights Hub and future pupil barrister in London. He is currently advising individuals and organisations bringing human rights and other claims before various judicial and quasi-judicial bodies, is involved in transitional justice processes and is a public international law rapporteur for Oxford International Organizations.] On 9 July 2020, the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights (AfCHPR),...

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25 Sep

[Tarini Mehta is Assistant Professor of Environmental Law, Assistant Dean of Student Affairs and Director of the Environmental Law and Science Advocacy Forum at Jindal School of Environment & Sustainability, O.P. Jindal Global University, India.] [This symposium was convened by Shirleen Chin, founder of Green Transparency.  Shirleen was inspired by attending an Expert Working Group on international criminal law and the protection of...

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