In association with the International Commission of Jurists

International Human Rights Law

28 May

[Gustavo Prieto works for the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO) and is Senior Fellow and Lecturer at the Law Faculty of Ghent University, Belgium] Blockchain technology, with its decentralized and global reach, is transforming how rules, authority, and accountability are understood. Far from being confined to cryptocurrency payments, blockchain is rapidly shaping key arenas such as digital identities, supply chains, and the...

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27 May

[Valeria Ruiz-Perez is a Research Associate at the Centre for Applied Human Rights (University of York) and a Visiting Fellow at LSE Law School. She is a main researcher of the Rethinking accountability from the bottom: Setting a research agenda on traditional grassroots justice mechanisms (TGJMs) project.  Piergiuseppe Parisi is a lecturer in international human rights law at the Centre for...

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26 May

[Jorge Peniche is an international lawyer specializing in transitional justice and accountability, with a focus on emerging settings. He is the Associate in Mexico at G37 Centre and an Associate Professor at Universidad Iberoamericana (Mexico), where he teaches on transitional justice, organized crime and security. He holds a Master of Laws from New York University.] Preludium: “I Want Consequences…” “I want consequences,”...

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26 May

[Ben Grama is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Human Rights Centre of Ghent University. He is part of the inter-institutional multidisciplinary iBOF project “Future-proofing human rights: Developing thicker forms of accountability”, a collaboration between the Universities of Ghent, Antwerp, Brussels, and Hasselt. His work focuses on devising a thick conception of accountability drawing on the overall research findings of...

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19 May

[Tadesse Kebebew is a Researcher and Project Manager at the Geneva Water Hub, a Centre of Competence on Water for Peace and holds a PhD in International Law from the Geneva Graduate Institute] Introduction  Water has increasingly become both a target and a weapon in armed conflicts across regions, causing severe humanitarian suffering and environmental degradation. When warring parties damage water systems...

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06 May

[Image by Freepik.] Introduction It is widely acknowledged that, without regulation, Private Military and Security Companies (PMSCs) can contribute to violations of international law and benefit from impunity. Both corporate actors and States increasingly rely on PMSCs to secure their operations in high-risk areas—whether through direct contracts, in-house security arrangements, or outsourcing military and law enforcement functions. Numerous UN reports have documented...

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09 Apr

As I write these lines, the United States is fighting for the very soul of its democracy. Under dispute is whether their government can forcibly transfer a lawful resident – in this case a Latino with a tattoo – to a forced labour camp in El Salvador without any due process. For now, the US Supreme Court’s answer seems to be “no”, provided the...

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08 Apr

[Ben Saul is the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism] The Israeli human rights NGOs Public Committee Against Torture in Israel and Hamoked recently reported that around 6,800 Palestinians are detained by Israel outside the regular criminal justice process. Approximately 3,436 are held as “unlawful combatants” captured in Gaza – although...

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07 Apr

[Maya Nirula is a dual-qualified international human rights lawyer with multi-jurisdictional experience consulting and litigating on issues of business and human rights] Recapitulation  This is the second of a two-part series, the Role of Business in War. Part I: The Old Offense evaluated the interaction between International Humanitarian Law (IHL), International Human Rights Law (IHRL), and International Criminal law (ICL) in governing gross...

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07 Apr

[Maya Nirula is a dual-qualified international human rights lawyer with multi-jurisdictional experience consulting and litigating on issues of business and human rights] Introduction  This is the first of a two-part series, the Role of Business in War. Part I: The Old Offense will evaluate the interaction between International Humanitarian Law (IHL), International Human Rights Law (IHRL), and International Criminal law (ICL) in governing...

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11 Mar

When the news broke that the former Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte had been arrested and detained upon arrival at Manila’s airport from an overseas trip, by Philippine police executing an international arrest warrant, it was the culmination of months of speculation. The political feud and infighting in the Philippines halls of power certainly facilitated this moment. But let us not forget, it’s been the relentless work...

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28 Jan

The inimitable Sam Moyn and I have a chapter on the Vietnam War and international law in the Cambridge History of the Vietnam War: Volume 3, Endings and Aftermaths, which was just published by Cambridge University Press. Here are the opening paragraphs: There have been thousands of histories of the Vietnam War, but none assigns a pivotal role to international law....

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