In association with the International Commission of Jurists

General

29 Apr

[Gerhard Kemp is professor of criminal law at UWE Bristol, and extraordinary professor of public law at Stellenbosch University] On Monday, 14 April 2025, the high court in Johannesburg issued an important ruling in the historic first criminal prosecution of two individuals for the crime against humanity of apartheid. The ruling is a significant victory for the prosecuting authority, civil society...

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28 Apr

[Deniz Mykola Dirisu is an international OSINT consultant and co-founder of OSINT For Ukraine, with experience in building and leading diverse teams across borders within the context of digital investigations and justice. Manon-Catherine Balbinot serves as the War Crimes Task Force Leader at OSINT For Ukraine, leveraging OSINT techniques to uncover war crimes and bring perpetrators to justice. She is...

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27 Apr

To have your event or announcement featured in next week’s post, please send a link and a brief description (1-2 paragraphs) to ojeventsandannouncements@gmail.com. Call for Papers Climate Law in Europe - Taking Stock, Looking Forward: The European Association of Climate Law (EACL) invites submissions for its first conference - a platform to discuss current developments, future challenges, and intergenerational justice in climate...

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17 Apr

[Safia K Southey is a student at Columbia Law School, with experience at Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the Center for Justice and Accountability, and the International Center for Transitional Justice. She focuses on international law, Middle East policy, and alternative justice mechanisms.] On March 11, 2025, something unusual happened—the International Criminal Court (ICC) secured the arrest of a former head...

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17 Apr

[Laura van der Hoeven holds academic degrees in Public International Law and Business Administration. Her work focuses on the intersection of foreign relations and international law, with particular interest in security alliances, soft power diplomacy, and the application of international law to territorial disputes.] The ongoing conflict in the Gaza region has resulted in severe humanitarian and environmental losses. While international...

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16 Apr

11 April 2025 We, Hungarian international lawyers, observing with great concern the recent international and domestic events, guided by the best of our knowledge, professional convictions, and social responsibility, issue the following statement on certain current issues with international law relevance. 1. Bowing our heads before the victims who suffered horrors shocking the conscience of humanity, we declare our firm commitment to...

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16 Apr

[Dr Andrew Forde is an Assistant Professor of European Human Rights Law at Dublin City University] In his famous poem, The Road Not Taken, Robert Frost laments the fact that travelling one road precludes travelling another but acknowledges that taking the road less travelled can make all the difference. The journey towards accountability for the crime of aggression has begun but we have reached a...

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11 Apr

[Ozan Yildirim works as an Expert Associate in the Humanitarian Affairs Section of the Permanent Mission of Switzerland to the UN in Geneva and holds an LL.M. in International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights from the Geneva Academy] This post is written in the author's personal capacity. When it comes to the disappearance of individuals, non-State actors around the world are increasingly...

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10 Apr

[Lukas Willmer is a PhD candidate at Humboldt University Berlin, with a research focus on governmental status and recognition in international law] In September 2024, Australia, Canada, Germany, and the Netherlands announced their intention to initiate proceedings before the ICJ against Afghanistan for violations of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). The four states...

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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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09 Apr

[Anuja Jaiswal is a human rights consultant who has worked in various contexts, including Gambia, Ukraine, MENA, Myanmar, and North Korea. She studied at the University of Oxford and Columbia University, and has an LL.M in Transnational Crime and Justice.] Generally, there is an absence of adequate gender representation on the international bench. This gap has been identified by academics and...

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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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