(ANALYSIS) On Feb. 13, a federal criminal court in Buenos Aires, Argentina, ordered arrest warrants against 25 Myanmar military leaders and officials for their involvement in the crime of genocide and crimes against humanity committed against the Rohingya community.
Read More(ANALYSIS) This past Feb. 15 marked the 10th anniversary of Daesh (the Islamic State group or ISIL) releasing the video of the murder of 21 men on a beach in Libya. The majority of them were Egyptian Coptic Orthodox Christians who were abducted from Sirte, Libya, between December 2014 and January 2015. One of the men was from Ghana and chose to stay with the Coptic men and face the same fate.
Read More(ANALYSIS) On Feb. 4, the Core Group on the Establishment of a Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine (the Core Group) laid down the legal foundations for the establishment of a special tribunal for the crime of aggression, taking a major step towards holding Russia accountable for its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Read More(ANALYSIS) On Jan. 31, United Nations agencies called for an end to the violence in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo as fighting between government forces and the Rwandan-backed M23 armed group intensified. The call comes after M23 rebels have already seized Goma, the provincial capital.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Monday marks the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi German concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz-Birkenau. Over 1 million people were murdered there, most of them Jews, but also Poles, Roma, Soviet prisoners of war and people of other nationalities.
Read More(ANALYSIS) The last three years have seen the Taliban placing restrictions on all aspects of women’s lives in Afghanistan. From education to employment. From movement to participation in everyday activities. When the international community thought that it could not get any worse for women in Afghanistan, the Taliban kept coming up with new ways how to impose more restrictions on women.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Earlier this month, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced that the U.S. State Department determined the atrocities in Darfur as amounting to genocide. The statement refers to the atrocities following the conflict unleashed by the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces in April 2023.
Read More(ANALYSIS) On Jan. 3, 2025, during a meeting of the U.N. Security Council, a WHO representative for the West Bank and Gaza warned about Gaza’s health system being on the brink of collapse. Peeperkorn warned that “time and again, hospitals have become battlegrounds, rendering them out of service and depriving those in need of lifesaving care.”
Read More(ANALYSIS) Technology, AI and social media have been developed for the common good, to make our lives easier, one way or another. However, they can also be abused — and this is precisely what we have seen across contemporary cases of genocide.
Read More(ANALYSIS) On Dec. 5, 2024, Amnesty International, a nongovernmental organization, published a new report analyzing the situation of Palestinians in Gaza. The report, “You Feel Like You Are Subhuman,” finds that the atrocities perpetrated against Palestinians in Gaza amount to genocide.
Read More(ANALYSIS) On Nov. 28, 2024, six state parties referred the “Situation in the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan” to the International Criminal Court, expressing concern about the severe deterioration of the human rights situation in Afghanistan, especially for women and girls.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Earlier this month, 45 Hong Kong pro-democracy leaders were sentenced to years in jail for “subversion” following a controversial National Security Law trial. The group of human rights defenders, scholars and lawmakers were charged with conspiracy to commit subversion for taking part in an unofficial primary to select opposition candidates in July 2020.
Read More(ANALYSIS) On Feb. 24, 2022, Russia attacked Ukraine and unleashed a full-scale invasion. This invasion, which in itself is a crime of aggression, was followed by a litany of international crimes, including crimes against humanity and war crimes. Furthermore, some of the acts may meet the legal definition of genocide. One thousand days later, the conflict rages, with an escalation being visible over recent weeks.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Now, thanks to a brave young Yazidi woman, Mediha Ibrahim Alhamad, the struggle to reestablish life after years of enslavement is brought to the surface, with a documentary from director Hasan Oswald and executive producer Emma Thompson.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Earlier this month, a trial of a Dutch member of Daesh, also known as the Islamic State group, began in The Hague, Netherlands. The Dutch national, known as Hasna A., is being tried for crimes against Yazidi women, representing a pivotal moment in the global fight for justice and accountability.
Read More(ANALYSIS) On Oct. 4, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled that gender and nationality alone are sufficient for a country to grant asylum to Afghan women. The case concerned Afghan women who were seeking international protection in Austria, and their asylum applications were rejected in 2015 and 2020.
Read More(ANALYSIS) On Sept. 23, 2024, when speaking at a side event on “The Inclusion of Women in the Future of Afghanistan” at the U.N. General Assembly, Oscar-winning actress and activist Meryl Streep addressed the dire situation of women and girls in Afghanistan. As she noted, “Today in Kabul a female cat has more freedom than a woman.”
Read More(ANALYSIS) Since the Taliban takeover in August 2021, women and girls have been banned from playing sports or participating in any form of physical activity. However, Afghan women have been defying the Taliban and competed at the 2024 Olympics and 2024 Paralympic, while flying the flag of the Refugee Olympic and Paralympic teams.
Read More(ANALYSIS) On Aug. 21, 2024, the Taliban published its new law to “promote virtue and eliminate vice” that sets up rules for everyday life and adds to the litany of restrictions on women. Over the last three years, the Taliban introduced tens and tens of decrees barring women and girls from all activities and engagements outside their homes.
Read More(ANALYSIS) In early August 2024, thousands of women and women’s rights campaigners took to the streets across Iraq to protest proposed legal changes that effectively would legalize child marriage. The proposed change is to allow citizens to choose between religious authorities or civil judiciary to decide on family matters.
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