In association with the International Commission of Jurists

Organizations

16 Aug

[Sienna Merope-Synge is a Staff Attorney with the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti (IJDH). In partnership with its Haiti-based partner, the Bureau des Avocats Internationaux, IJDH advocates, litigates, builds constituencies and nurtures networks to create systemic pathways to justice for marginalized Haitians and to hold international human rights violators accountable for their actions in Haiti.] In 2017, in the...

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15 Aug

[Anji Manivannan is the Legal Director at People for Equality and Relief in Lanka (PEARL) and a Senior Programs Officer at the World Federalist Movement - Institute for Global Policy (WFM-IGP).]  Introduction May 18th marked the tenth anniversary of the end of the 26-year-long armed conflict between the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The GoSL’s victory came with the deaths of 70,000–140,000...

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13 Aug

[Owiso Owiso is a Doctoral Researcher in Public International Law at the University of Luxembourg and a member of the PhD Academy of the Cross Cultural Human Rights Centre, VU Amsterdam.] Introduction With the celebratory dust finally settled, stakeholders are beginning to take stock of the performance of the greatest achievement of the international criminal justice movement, the permanent International Criminal Court (ICC). Tough questions are now...

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13 Aug

[Alison Berthet is an English-qualified lawyer who specialises in business & human rights. After several years in private practice, she is now an independent business & human rights consultant.]  The world has come a long way since 2011, when the United Nations and the OECD adopted the first international standards on the responsibility of businesses to respect human rights. Today, few...

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12 Aug

[Brenda K. Kombo is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Free State Centre for Human Rights at the University of the Free State.] It is ironic that the agreement establishing the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) came into force less than a week after United Kingdom Prime Minister Theresa May announced her resignation; the same day United States (US) President Donald Trump threatened Mexico with tariffs; and as the US-China trade war...

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12 Aug

Last week, I asked my followers on twitter to weigh on whether human-rights NGOs should offer unpaid internships. The poll offered three choices: (1) paid only; (2) unpaid is okay; (3) NGOs should offer a mix of paid and unpaid. I expected position 2 to be unpopular, but I thought position 3 would garner the most votes. I was right about...

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12 Aug

[Alexander Gilder is a PhD Researcher at The City Law School, City, University of London. From September he will be a Lecturer in Law at Royal Holloway, University of London.] In recent years UN peace operations have begun to explicitly seek so-called ‘stabilization’. In 2015 the Report of the High-Level Independent Panel on Peace Operations (HIPPO) suggested the Security Council give clarification to how the UN interprets ‘stabilization’....

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06 Aug

[Lorenzo Gasbarri is a Research Fellow in Public International Law at Bocconi University and Junior Editor of the Oxford Database on the Law of International Organizations.] One of the complex legal issues arising from the Al-Bashir case concerns the international relevance of the conduct of a member state in the context of its international organization: how to qualify the conduct of an ICC...

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18 Jul

On 23 January 2019, Juan Guaidó, the President of the Venezuelan National Assembly, proclaimed himself as the caretaker President of Venezuela in accordance with Article 223 of the Venezuelan Constitution. Guaidó’s Government falls foul of the criterion of effectiveness (control of at least some territory, habitual obedience of a majority of the population, and reasonable prospect of permanence), which remains with Maduro. The claim is purely...

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27 Jun

[Marie Davoise is an English-qualified lawyer who specialises in business & human rights and international criminal law. Previously in private practice, she is currently working as a Visiting Professional at the International Criminal Court.] When it comes to business and human rights, some sectors are considered as inherently high-risk: take for example the extractive industry, with its large mining projects impacting communities, or the...

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13 Jun

As I have discussed before, in March 2018 the Presidency curiously dissolved the Pre-Trial Chamber (PTC III) that had been dealing with the Afghanistan situation for six months and assigned that situation to a new PTC. Judge Mindua remained part of the new PTC (PTC II), while Judges Chung and Pangalangan were replaced by two newly-elected judges, Akane and Aitala....

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08 Jun

As expected, the OTP has asked the Pre-Trial Chamber (PTC) to grant leave to appeal its refusal to authorise the Afghanistan investigation. I'm in Kiev and don't have as much time to write as I'd like, so I just want to offer a few quick thoughts on the OTP's motion, which seeks appeal on three interrelated issues. First, I think it's...

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