In association with the International Commission of Jurists

General

14 Sep

[Archita Sharma and Chytanya S Agarwal are undergraduate students at the National Law School of India University, Bangalore.] The Ukraine-Russia conflict has shown that international armed conflicts are not a distant reality in the 21st Century. The war continues to cause immense suffering and devastation, raising several international law concerns. The alleged use of thermobaric weapons by the Russian forces against Ukraine creates concerns...

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12 Sep

[Luke James, LLM. is a security analyst interested in peace processes. He has worked at the ICC, OSCE, British Red Cross, Platform for Peace Humanity, UNV and is an Army Reservist.] On 5 July, Ret. Colonel John Spencer spoke at NATO’s Urban Warfare Conference in London. He described how Ukrainian President Zelensky “turned his civilians into fighters”, telling the Ukrainians citizens...

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09 Sep

John Heieck has been putting together our weekly Events & Announcements post since we relaunched Opinio Juris -- more than 160 posts. But all good things must come to an end, so it's time to say goodbye to John. All of us at OJ want to express our profound gratitude for his efforts, and we wish him nothing but the...

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09 Sep

[Kartikeya Garg obtained his LL.M. in International Law from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva (IHEID) and as a lawyer, has worked at the Trade and Environment Division of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).] [The views expressed in this article are personal. This article has been prepared for informational purposes only.] Introduction Climate change mitigation has been at the forefront of many recent multilateral initiatives and transcends...

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02 Sep

[Caroline Stover is a lawyer focusing on human rights and refugee law and is currently the acting Head of Asia Programme at ARTICLE 19. Michael Altman-Lupu is a human rights lawyer working with ARTICLE 19 to protect and defend freedom of expression in Southeast Asia.] The Argument for the Investigation of Those Ordering Internet and Telephonic Shutdowns Under Articles 25(3)(c) and...

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01 Sep

[Caroline Stover is a lawyer focusing on human rights and refugee law and is currently the acting Head of Asia Programme at ARTICLE 19. Michael Altman-Lupu is a human rights lawyer working with ARTICLE 19 to protect and defend freedom of expression in Southeast Asia.] Introduction Across the world, the rise of internet-based communications has facilitated the documentation of evidence of violations of...

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01 Sep

[Raquel Saavedra is an International Legal Adviser, Myanmar, for the International Commission of Jurists. Kingsley Abbott is the Director of Global Accountability and International Justice, International Commission of Jurists.] In recent conversations with diplomats covering Myanmar, we continue to be asked: is it still worthwhile for states to support the work of Myanmar lawyers when the justice system is in a state of...

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31 Aug

[Jennifer Keene-McCann is a Senior Legal Fellow at the Asia Justice Coalition and is based in Naarm/Melbourne, Australia. Aakash Chandran is a Fellow at the Asia Justice Coalition and is based in New Delhi, India.] This third Opinio Juris symposium relating to crimes against the Rohingya marks another difficult anniversary. Its theme, ‘Myanmar and International Indifference: Rethinking Accountability’, evokes a call to keep approaches...

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30 Aug

[Dr Melanie O’Brien is Associate Professor of International Law at the University of Western Australia and President of the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS). She is also a 2022 research fellow at the Sydney Jewish Museum.] Two years ago, in August 2020, thirteen blog posts were written in a Rohingya Symposium here on Opinio Juris. These posts covered, inter alia, the need for accountability, the Security Council, the problematic fact that Myanmar’s...

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29 Aug

[Marissa Kardon Weber is an international criminal and human rights lawyer. She works on strategic human rights litigation against Iran and its agents and instrumentalities in U.S. federal court on behalf of victims of hostage taking, torture, extrajudicial killing, and aircraft sabotage. The views expressed herein are entirely her own.] Double Standards in Extrajudicial Killings? The decades of treatment and recent likely attempted murder of novelist and defender of the freedom...

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29 Aug

[Matthew Smith is the co-founder and CEO of Fortify Rights.] August 25 marks the fifth anniversary of the Myanmar military’s most egregious attacks on the Rohingya people, but it’s not the anniversary of the Rohingya genocide per se. The ongoing genocide dates back decades, partly due to the repeated failure of the “international community”—U.N. member states and various institutions—to respond to targeted violence, protracted violations, and discriminatory...

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