In association with the International Commission of Jurists

War Crimes Tag

18 Sep

[Jessica Dorsey is an Assistant Professor of International Law at Utrecht University School of Law and Managing Editor of Opinio Juris.]The UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the Islamic Republic of Iran (FFMI) released its 18-page report to the Human Rights Council on 17 September 2026. In the report, among other findings, the Mission outlines reasonable grounds to believe that the United...

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17 Sep

[Veronika Vozniuk is a Ukrainian legal and policy professional working on issues related to international humanitarian law, human rights, and the legal consequences of armed conflict.] Since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion, Ukraine has made significant efforts to investigate and prosecute individuals responsible for war crimes committed on its territory. The scale of the alleged crimes is immense and continues...

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15 Apr

[Melanie O’Brien is Professor of International Law and Deputy Head of School (Research) at the University of Western Australia Law School; and visiting scholar with the University of Minnesota Law School’s Human Rights Center] In June 2023, I wrote here about the defamation case relating to the media reporting on allegations of war crimes by Australian soldier Ben Roberts-Smith (‘BRS’). The...

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23 Dec

[Bruno Biazatti is a doctoral researcher at the Luxembourg Centre for European Law, University of Luxembourg, and a doctoral student at the Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil] On 24 July, the Trial Chamber V (TC-V) of the International Criminal Court (ICC or the Court) issued its judgment in the Yekatom and Ngaïssona case, convicting both co-defendants of war crimes and...

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22 Dec

[Heybatollah Najandimanesh is an associate professor of international law at Allameh Tabatabaei University, Tehran, Iran] Introduction   The incorporation of international crimes into domestic legislation marks a pivotal stage in the development of international criminal law (ICL). Iran’s proposed Iran’s Draft Bill on International Crimes (IDBIC) seeks to criminalise genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and aggression within its national legal framework. This initiative...

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08 Dec

[Alice Autin is international justice researcher at Human Rights Watch.  Jörn Oliver Eiermann served as senior international justice counsel at Human Rights Watch from September to November 2025.] The December 2024 fall of the Bashar al-Assad government marks a historic turning point for Syria, and after decades of atrocities, potentially for justice. Despite extensive information and evidence of serious crimes, the Assad...

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05 Dec

[Libby McAvoy is a Legal Advisor at Mnemonic, where she specialises in digital evidence archives, litigation support, and open source investigations into international crimes and human rights violations. Syrian Archive is Mnemonic's founding programme. Daragh Murray is a Senior Lecturer at Queen Mary University of London, and his research focuses on the intersection of technology and international law.] The authors were members of...

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06 Apr

[Douglas Guilfoyle is Professor of International and Security Law at UNSW Canberra] Introduction  Israel’s strike on the World Central Kitchen (WCK) convoy on 1 April was almost certainly a war crime. Indeed, I struggle to see how any other conclusion is possible. This is true even accepting the ‘misidentification’ version of events the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has subsequently offered. At the outset...

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16 Feb

[Philip D. Cave is a retired U.S. Navy judge advocate, a Director of the National Institute of Military Justice (NIMJ), and a partner in Cave & Freeburg, LLP. Franklin D. Rosenblatt is a retired U.S. Army judge advocate, President of the NIMJ, and Associate Professor at Mississippi College School of Law. Giovanni Chiarini is a Lecturer at the University of Huddersfield, an...

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17 Nov

The header image depicts Fazel Mohammed (18 years), Mohammed Tayeb (14 years), Mohammed Ibrahim (55 years), Hussain Uzbakza (24 years). These photos have been provided for media use by Leigh Day. [Elizabeth Brown is a doctoral researcher at King’s College London’s Department of War Studies, where she studies British accountability processes following allegations of war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan. She...

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02 Jun

[Melanie O’Brien is Associate Professor of International Law at the University of Western Australia and President of the International Association of Genocide Scholars.] This post is about one of the most talked about trials in Australian legal history: a former soldier suing the media for defamation, for publishing allegations that he committed war crimes. During the trial a plethora of evidence against...

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