International Criminal Law

[Judy Mionki is an International Criminal and Human Rights Lawyer. She has been part of defence teams at the International Criminal Court in the Kenya and the DRC situations. The views expressed in this posts are the author's own. This post summarises an upcoming journal article (forthcoming, Journal of International Criminal Justice, 2024).] This post forms part of the Opinio Juris...

[Valeria Babără works as Legal and Advocacy Officer with the Women’s Initiatives for Gender Justice, where she monitors and researches developments on the prosecution and adjudication of gender-based crimes, and contributes to legal publications including 'The Hague Principles on Sexual Violence' and 'Judicial Approaches to SGBC at the ICC'.] This post forms part of the Opinio Juris Symposium on Reproductive Violence in International...

[Kimberly Mutcherson is a Professor of Law at Rutgers Law School] This post forms part of the Opinio Juris Symposium on Reproductive Violence in International Law, in which diverse authors reflect on how the International Criminal Court and other jurisdictions have responded to violations of reproductive health and reproductive autonomy. The symposium complements a one-day conference to be held on 11...

[Javier Eskauriatza is an Assistant Professor in criminal law at the University of Nottingham School of Law. He is also the Co-Director of the Criminal Justice Research Centre, and the Convener of the Criminal Law and Criminal Justice stream for the Society of Legal Scholars.] On 24 April 2024, twelve U.S. Senators (Republican Party) sent a letter to Karim Khan, the...

[Full disclosure: I serve as the Prosecutor's Special Adviser on War Crimes.] In this post I want to provide an overview of the Rome Statute's principle of complementarity. The principle has been consistently misrepresented by politicians and journalists since word first got out that the Prosecutor, Karim Khan KC, intended to seek arrest warrants in the Palestine situation not only for...

[Miguel Lemos is an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Law, University of Coimbra] On 28 February 2024, Ukraine’s Supreme Court decided that only persons who play a “decisive role” in an aggressive state policy and those “directing” aggressive military operations are “capable of committing the crime of aggression” (all references to the judgment of the Supreme Court can be found...

[Raquel Vazquez Llorente is the Associate Director, Technology Threats and Opportunities, at WITNESS. Sarah Zarmsky is an Assistant Lecturer and PhD Candidate at the University of Essex Human Rights Centre. In 2023, she was a Visiting Scholar at the Human Rights Center at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law.  Daragh Murray is a Senior Lecturer in International Human Rights...

[Beth S. Lyons is an experienced criminal defence attorney who has represented defendants before the ICTR and ICC. She is currently one of the counsel representing Dominic Ongwen.] Introduction Let me say from the start that I believe that victims of crimes have a right to redress and to reparations which are proportionate to the harms caused by these crimes.  This right...

[Fatuma Abiya is a child born in captivity following the abduction of her mother by the Lord’s Resistance Army. Now a young adult, Fatuma is a Human Rights activist, a peace practitioner and law graduate who completed law school in 2023. She is a passionate advocate concerning issues impacting women, youth and children born of war.] Background I was born in captivity to...

[Lorraine Smith- van Lin is the Founder and Executive Director of Tallawah Justice for Women e.v, a non-profit association which works to connect, empower and amplify the voices of women leaders of survivor and grassroots organisations.] Introduction The reparations decision in the case of Dominic Ongwen, a former commander  of the Ugandan rebel group, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) on February 28,...

[Alejandra Vicente is the Head of Law at REDRESS Renata Politi is a Legal Advisor at REDRESS.] Introduction The recent reparation order issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the case of Dominic Ongwen, a former Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) commander convicted of 61 counts of crimes against humanity and war crimes in northern Uganda, has brought victims and survivors a...

[Pamela Angwech is the Executive Director of Gulu Women Economic Justice and Globalisation in Gulu, Northern Uganda. She has received numerous awards for her work on human rights and gender justice for victims of the affected communities including the 2017 European Union Human Rights Defender Award.] As a grassroots activist and human rights defender in Northern Uganda, who has worked for...