United Nations Tag

The 1990s marked a critical decade in the global recognition of climate change and its impacts. The 1992 Earth Summit in Brazil stands out as a decisive turning point, with states from across the world adopting the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). In doing so, they acknowledged that high-income countries bear greater responsibility for climate change due...

[Yang Han, PhD, is a Research Associate at China Centre, University of Oxford] Racism has been integral to international relations: e.g., scientific racism, social Darwinism, and the “yellow peril” discourses, just to name a few. Racist beliefs were often used to justify colonialism and imperialism, and invoked to instigate violence, hatred, and discrimination. Likewise, the principle of sovereign equality helps states...

[Dr Saeed Bagheri is Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in International Law at the University of Reading School of Law. His research focuses on the law on the use of force and international humanitarian law] An Iranian individual traverses the streets of Tehran, with life dictated by meticulous calculation. Words are carefully considered prior to being spoken. Opinions are scrutinised, gestures are moderated,...

[Davit Khachatryan is an international law expert and lecturer specializing in public international law, alternative dispute resolution, investment law, international humanitarian law, and security] The prohibition on the use of force is international law’s foundational rule. But not every violation of that rule is the same. When force is used not merely to coerce a state but to dismantle and replace its government, something...

[Liis Vihul is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Cyber Law International and an Ambassador of the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence. She served as the Managing Editor of the “Tallinn Manual 2.0 on the International Law Applicable to Cyber Operations” and was a member of, and advised, the Estonian delegation at the United Nations Group of...

[Janaha Selvaraj is a lecturer at the Department of Legal Studies of The Open University of Sri Lanka. She holds LL.B (Hons) from University of Colombo and LL.M in International Law from the South Asian University, New Delhi, India] Introduction Recent United States (US) military action against Venezuela raises familiar but unresolved questions about the prohibition on the use of force in international law....

[Mohammadhossein Sedehi is a DPhil student in international law at the University of Oxford, St Edmund Hall] Introduction Almost 10 years ago, five permanent members of the UN Security Council (UNSC) and Germany, collectively known as the 5+1, reached a historic agreement with Iran regarding its nuclear program: the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). The agreement was endorsed by UNSC Resolution...

[Emre Acar is a PhD Candidate at Leiden University’s Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies of Leiden Law School] In recent years, the International Criminal Court (ICC) has faced a growing number of diverse and aggressive political attacks from both Non-States Parties and States Parties. As external threats, the Trump Administration has imposed unilateral sanctions on the Court’s officials (on 6 February, 5 June, 20 August and 18...

[The authors are third year law students at the West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences (WBNUJS), Kolkata.] The UN Charter rests on a distinctive normative conception of sovereignty. Sovereignty is not abolished in matters of international peace and security; rather, it is collectively mediated through universality. Article 2(1) affirms the sovereign equality of states, grounding participation in peace and security governance in strictly juridical status....

[Elodie Tranchez, PhD, is an international human rights lawyer and teaches public international law, including the law of treaties and the law of international organizations, at the University for Peace (UPEACE). Elvira Domínguez-Redondo is professor of law at Kingston University, specialising in international law, human rights and United Nations mechanisms.] On 4 January 2026, the United States adopted Executive Order 14199, withdrawing from a wide range...

[Christine Ryan is the director of the Crimes against Humanity Project at Columbia Law School. Richard Dicker is the founding director of the International Justice Program at Human Rights Watch. Akshaya Kumar is the Crisis Advocacy Director at Human Rights Watch.] On January 19, a process that has been 80 years in the making will get underway at United Nations headquarters in New York....