[Melanie O’Brien is Associate Professor of International Law at the University of Western Australia, President of the International Association of Genocide Scholars, and Visiting Scholar with the Human Rights Center at the University of Minnesota Law School.] Many people are asking the question, ‘is genocide happening in Gaza?’. The question was explored in the media in the early days after 7 October 2023...
[Vikrant Sharma works with the defence team of Mr. Kadri Veseli at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague. He graduated cum laude from the advanced LL.M. in public international law, specialising in international criminal law, from Leiden University.] The Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (‘the Court’ or ‘ICC’), Karim Khan, confirmed on 30 September 2024 that Lithuania had referred to...
[Greta Ramelli is an international law jurist specializing in international criminal law, and has worked across governmental and non-governmental sectors] The first World Congress on Enforced Disappearances (WCED) was held in Geneva on January 15-16. This historic event brought together state representatives, victims, civil society organizations, international bodies, and experts to foster dialogue and strengthen the fight against enforced disappearances. I participated...
[Professor Jennifer Trahan is director of the Concentration in International Law & Human Rights at the NYU Center for Global Affairs and convenor of The Global Institute for the Prevention of Aggression] A Special Session of the Assembly of States Parties to the International Criminal Court (ICC) took place at the United Nations from July 7-9, 2025. At issue was whether...
[Yaser Salarain is a lawyer and international law expert at the School of International Relations, Tehran] The protracted conflict in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) has consistently tested the limits of international humanitarian law (IHL) and, more specifically, the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War (GCIV). Despite repeated UNGA resolutions and diplomatic initiatives,...
[Aakash Chandran (X: @ChandranAakash is the Legal Advocacy and Communications Manager at Asia Justice Coalition.] The international community is currently navigating a turbulent phase marked by armed conflicts, aggression, and manifest violations of international humanitarian law and human rights law. The situation in South, Southeast, and East Asia also continues to present alarming developments, including the escalating situation in Myanmar, exacerbated...
[Julie Fraser is an international lawyer from Australia and an academic with The Netherlands Institute of Human Rights at Utrecht University. Dr. Annette Mbogoh is currently a Board member of the Independent Policing Oversight Authority and law lecturer at University of Nairobi. She is a Kenyan social justice practitioner and scholar with over 18 years working experience.] Around the world there is...
This post is a continuation of What Will Gaza Become After Genocide? Using the Counterfactual Method to Evaluate Three Post-Genocidal Futures (24 July 2025). You may access Part 1 here, where I argued that the genocide Israel is perpetrating against the Palestinians is central to the zionist ethos which, like other settler-colonial movements, seeks to remove the native from coveted...
[Benoit Meystre is a Swiss lawyer and legal advisor at the International Investigations and Litigation Program of TRIAL International.] TRIAL International filed a criminal complaint against Ousman Sonko in 2017. The organisation supported nine plaintiffs who traveled to Switzerland in January 2024 to be heard by the court. It also ensured the regular publication of summaries of the hearings throughout the trial and advocated for the proceedings to...
“What will Gaza become after genocide?” Nour Jaddah asked this lamentable question, and it is the one I tackle today. I do so for two reasons. First, nearly two years ago, Antonio Guterres bemoaned that Gaza had become a graveyard for children. Little did he know that the graveyard would morph into a killing field, with official death tolls topping...
[Benazir Jatoi is a human rights lawyer from Pakistan currently living in Bath, UK. She has worked as a consultant with UNFPA and UNWomen, Pakistan.] A buried mobile phone, along with its owner, Refat Radwan, in a shallow sand grave has settled, at least one thing we have been debating for a while. That Israel’s Defence Force operates with immunity until...
Yesterday, Brian Cox, a frequent critic of this blog, posted a long comment on Twitter (now X), in the context of a discussion he had with Opinio Juris’ own Kevin Jon Heller. The post was part of a longer personal exchange, the subject of which I will not address here. What is scholarly interesting about Cox’s post is that he...