After last year’s announcement of the sudden and premature closure of the United Nations Investigative Team to Promote Accountability for Crimes Committed by Da’esh/ISIL (UNITAD), which is scheduled to end its operations in September 17th 2024 due to funding and political challenges, many analysts highlighted the adverse impacts this decision could have on the lives of survivors in the region. UNITAD’s mandate includes filing ISIL criminal cases and their evidence to stay on records. As of June 2024, these amounted to 40 terabytes (TB) of data, 28TB of which had been transferred to the Iraqi g ..read more

Kenya has for the past three weeks been thrust into the international scene due to demonstrations under the hashtags #RejectFinanceBill2024 and #Rutomustgo. The demonstrations advocated for the rejection of the 2024 Finance Bill which was passed by 204 members of parliament, and for the resignation of the President on account of his failed leadership. This has resulted in various State violations of the right to peaceful demonstration which is protected under Article 37 of the 2010 Constitution and requires no prior authorization but a mere notification of the authorities. What is the 2024 Fin ..read more

The Ahmadiyya are a religious minority who suffer persecution in Pakistan and many other Muslim-majority countries. In 2023, for example, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan reported that at least 34 attacks had targeted Ahmadi religious sites. As a result, lawyers and policy makers have searched for answers as to why international human rights law has failed to protect the Ahmadiyya. To answer these questions, both scholars and practitioners ought to pay more attention to the Ahmadiyya as agents themselves, rather than solely victims. The Ahmadiyya were founded in the British Punjab, curr ..read more

On 10 June 2024, the groundbreaking US federal trial, Chiquita Brands International, Inc., Alien Tort Statute and Shareholders Derivative Litigation, found the banana corporation guilty of the deaths of eight men through its 1997-2004 funding of the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC), a paramilitary group known for large-scale civilian massacres, torture, public rape, and dismemberment. During this period, Chiquita made over 100 payments totalling $1.7 million to the AUC. The Court ordered Chiquita to award $38.3 million to the victims’ families. The case marks the first time an American ju ..read more

El 10 de junio de 2024, el innovador juicio federal estadounidense, Chiquita Marcas Internacional, Inc., Litigio por el Estatuto de Agravio para Extranjeros y Litigio Derivativo de Accionistas, declaró a la corporación bananera culpable de la muerte de ocho hombres a través de su financiamiento a las Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC), un grupo paramilitar conocido por masacres de civiles a gran escala, tortura, violación pública y desmembramiento, entre 1997 y 2004. Durante este período, Chiquita realizó más de 100 pagos que sumaron $1,7 millones de dólares estadounidenses a las AUC. La co ..read more

Ukraine has endured unprecedented levels of destruction and human rights violations since the onset of Russian aggression in 2014. Since the full-scale invasion in February 2022, infrastructure damage is estimated at nearly USD 152 billion, with projected recovery and reconstruction needs amounting to USD 486 billion over the next decade. In response to the aggression, the United Nations General Assembly recognised the need for an international mechanism to assist Ukraine in obtaining reparations for damages caused by the Russian Federation’s wrongful acts. It recommended creating a register t ..read more

Homelessness continues to disproportionately affect the most vulnerable and disadvantaged populations in the US and across the world. However, there is a discernible change in judicial opinion in the US toward homelessness, which supports the indirect criminalisation of homelessness. Justice Sotomayor’s dissenting opinion in the recent Supreme Court of the United States decision, City of Grants Pass, Oregon v Johnson et al, 603 US (2024) affirmed this. The Court in City of Grants Pass held that the enforcement of public laws regulating camping on public ..read more

The decision of the US Supreme Court (‘the Court’) in City of Grants Pass v Johnson allows cities to impose criminal penalties on homeless people for sleeping in public areas, even when there are not enough shelter beds for them. This decision, which overturns the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals’ decisions in this case and in Martin v. City of Boise, is technically about the nature of the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishments. But it is also a product of our nation’s ineffective approach to housing more broadly. US policy has long treated housing as a commodity to ..read more

There is a narrow catalogue of goods and values which represent fundamental importance for human survival, dignity and protection of life; consequently, these should be guaranteed and respected within international and constitutional frameworks. One example is water, and its sources, which are shrinking worldwide in the lighting speed. Being essential for human existence, water is not only a commodity, but became a new human right since the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights adopted General Comment No. 15 in 2002 and proclaimed the right to water as an element of the right to an ..read more

On 26 June 2024, the International Criminal Court (ICC) convicted Mr Al Hassan Ag Abdoul Aziz Ag Mohamed Ag Mahmoud (‘Al Hassan’) on eight counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Timbuktu, Mali in 2012 – 2013. While a welcome verdict for many, Al Hassan was not convicted of any gender-based crimes, including gender persecution. This was the first time in the Court’s history that gender persecution had been litigated at trial, and this recent judgment is the first by a Trial Chamber to adjudicate the crime. Background to the gender persecution charge In 2018 the Office of ..read more