(ANALYSIS) Andriy Kostin, the prosecutor general of Ukraine, explained that his team is looking into the abductions of Ukrainian children to Russia, but also the destruction of Ukrainian cultural heritage linked to Ukrainian identity, among others. He also indicated that his team is investigating mass killings, such as those in Bucha, as a crime of genocide.
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.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Recent weeks have seen an increase in the targeting of the Rohingya community. In June 2024, U.N. Secretary General António Guterres expressed his deep concern about escalating violence in Myanmar. According to the U.N., Myanmar’s Rakhine State has seen a spike in violence between the Myanmar military and the Arakan army. Reportedly, many of the attacks targeted the minority Muslim Rohingya community.
Read More(ANALYSIS) The legacy of the Taliban regime — which meant to be a new Taliban 2.0 but failed on all fronts — is gender apartheid, genocide and gross human rights violations. The three years of their reign, since the fall of Kabul on Aug. 15, 2021, have been filled with report after report documenting the litany of atrocities perpetrated in the country.
Read More(ANALYSIS) On July 25, a Hong Kong court dismissed Jimmy Lai’s defense’s mid-trial submission of “no case to answer” and adjourned the trial for four months until the end of November 2024, when Lai is expected to give evidence.
Read More(ANALYSIS) On July 11, 2024, the Argentine Federal Court of Criminal Cassation handed down its decision in a case concerning the issue of Uyghur genocide ordering the prosecutor to open an investigation. The decision follows a criminal complaint setting out the international crimes committed against the Uyghur and other Turkic people in Xinjiang, China, and the identity of those most responsible for these crimes.
Read More(ANALYSIS) On June 26, Trial Chamber X of the International Criminal Court (ICC), by a majority, convicted Al Hassan Ag Abdoul Aziz Ag Mohamed Ag Mahmoud (Al Hassan), a Malian Islamist militant, of some of the charges brought against him of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed between April 2, 2012, and Jan. 29, 2013.
Read More(ANALYSIS) On June 13, 2024, Global Rights Compliance, an international nongovernmental organization, published evidence of Russian and pro-Russian forces using starvation as a method of warfare against Ukrainian civilians during their 85-day siege of Mariupol between February and May 2022.
Read More(ANALYSIS) In June 2024, in the build-up to the 56th session of the Human Rights Council, U.N. special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan, Richard Bennett, published his report on “The phenomenon of an institutionalized system of discrimination, segregation, disrespect for human dignity and exclusion of women and girls.”
Read More(ANALYSIS) In May 2024, United Nations member states voted to declare July 11 as the International Day of Reflection and Commemoration of the 1995 Genocide in Srebrenica, an annual day of remembrance for victims of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre.
Read More(ANALYSIS) In May 2024, the U.N. Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reported that nearly 2,000 children in Ukraine were killed or injured amid ongoing and escalating war. The statement made it clear that this tally of children’s deaths is likely to be higher. The report comes shortly after Russia escalated its attacks in the Kharkiv region that killed several children.
Read More(ANALYSIS) On May 20, the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor Karim A.A. Khan filed applications for warrants of arrest before Pre-Trial Chamber I of ICC in the “Situation in the State of Palestine.” This follows the March 2021 opening of the investigation into the situation in the state of Palestine and a statement from Oct. 10, 2023, to confirm that the recent escalation of the situation is within the mandate of the ICC.
Read More(ANALYSIS) As the UPR was looking into the situation in Afghanistan, atrocity crimes continued. On the same day as the U.N. review, a gunman stormed a mosque in Andisheh town of Guzara district in Herat province, western Afghanistan. Six people were killed in the attack. The mosque is said to have belonged to Afghanistan’s minority Shiite community.
Read More(ANALYSIS) The U.N. Security Council recently heard a new report on sexual violence in conflict (conflict-related sexual violence, also referred to as CRSV) prepared by Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. The report, which covers the period from January to December 2023, suggests that CRSV is on the rise. If the previous years were bad, the situation only got worse.
Read More(ANALYSIS) On Jan. 26, 2024, the International Court of Justice ordered Israel, among others, to “in accordance with its obligations under the Genocide Convention, in relation to Palestinians in Gaza, take all measures within its power to prevent the commission of all acts within the scope of Article II of this Convention.
Read More(ANALYSIS) An inquiry was convened to respond to the ever-growing marginalization of women and girls in Afghanistan and Iran, which closely resembles segregation. Women and girls in those countries are treated as second-class citizens, deprived of their freedoms and forced to adhere to strict dress codes under the threat of severe punishments.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Saturday marks two years since Putin’s Russia attacked Ukraine and unleashed a full-scale invasion, with horrific atrocities against the Ukrainian nation, in an attempt to destroy Ukraine as a country.
Read More(ANALYSIS) A group of independent United Nations human rights experts called on the authorities in Hong Kong to drop all charges against Jimmy Lai and release him. Lai, a pro-democracy and human rights defender, has been detained and subjected to multiple Kafkaesque trials for fighting for freedom of speech.
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