[1] See, In Memory of the Acquitted and victims of selective justice and impunity (modernghana.com) by Chief Charles A. Taku. Today, 6 April, is 30 years since the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) shot down the plane carrying two Hutu Presidents, Juvenal Habyarimana of Rwanda and Cyprien Ntaryamira of Burundi, killing them and the plane’s crew members.  These assassinations was the event which triggered the killings of Tutsis, Hutus and Twas throughout Rwanda in 1994, as the RPF – which had invaded from Uganda in 1990 – continued its military advances, culminating in its control of Kigali in ..read more

On International Women’s Day I recommend seeking inspiration from the latest book edited by Daniëlla Dam-de Jong, Professor of International Sustainable Development Law, Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies, Leiden University, the Netherlands and Britta Sjöstedt, Senior Lecturer in Environmental Law, Lund University, Sweden- The Research Handbook on International Law and Environmental Peacebuilding, available via Open Access! At a time in which the UN Secretary-General has criticized the international community for its lack of cooperation to address climate change or safeguard peace ..read more

The passing of Johan Galtung, the peace scholar who articulated the concept of “positive peace” as incorporating equality, non-discrimination, and termination of structural violence marks the urgency of the international community to repair what Agnes Callamard described as an international system “rooted more in systemic inequality and discrimination than in universality.”[1] Citing the many examples of atrocity crimes in the twentieth century, culminating in Israel and Gaza at present, she called for accountability to counter the rampant impunity by state and non-state actors. However, a mor ..read more

The preamble of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child calls for children to be brought up in “the spirit of the ideals proclaimed in the Charter of the United Nations, and in particular in the spirit of peace, dignity, tolerance, freedom, equality and solidarity.” These values form a foundation for a life in dignity and with aspirations for the future.  At present, many children around the world face trauma, exploitation, attack, and death through direct actions of both state and non-state actors as well as neglect or omission in spite of an obligation to protect.  There is a ..read more

As the UN Independent Expert on Human Rights and International Solidarity I have witnessed a rise in the engagement of civil society groups in actions and expressions that seek to promote transnational unity, empathy, tolerance, and cooperation at a time of polarization and war. These initiatives are the elements of a strong culture of international solidarity in support of peace and social progress. However, these groups are increasingly subject to censorship and reprisals for their expression of international solidarity, including loss of funding, censorship, loss of employment, arrest ..read more

Climate justice and climate change in the face of rising sea levels and global warming have, for decades now, existed as urgent and profoundly important topics for study in international law. It is only with the sudden coming of age, through the experience of a global pandemic, and the mounting pressure from states and intergovernmental scientific bodies, of the institutions of international law in the last year, that climate change and its implications for international law are now well and truly under the limelight. An important part of this coming of age for climate change and adaptation la ..read more

On October 3rd, the Armenian parliament ratified the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court in the midst of what may be the commission of international crimes against the ethnic Armenian community in Nagorno-Karabakh, a region in territory contested between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Yet the world seems to be doing little to stop this from happening. In recent weeks, news stories have unfurled containing images and reports of Armenians fleeing in terror from their ancestral homes in the region. The international community’s inaction raises the possibility of Azeri officials getting away ..read more

One of the markers of the deep polarization between people interviewed in the media addressing the impact of both the hostage taking and the killing of children in Israel and Gaza is the repeated implied reference to the principle of Tu Quoque– that breaches of international humanitarian law, being committed by the enemy, justify similar breaches by a belligerent. This is principle is considered to be universally rejected in international humanitarian law, given that its obligations are considered to be unconditional and not based on reciprocity. It is imperative that the concept of internatio ..read more

The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 2023 to Narges Mohammadi for her fight against the oppression of women in Iran and her fight to promote human rights and freedom for all. “Zan – Zendegi – Azadi” “Woman – Life – Freedom” The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 2023 to Narges Mohammadi for her fight against the oppression of women in Iran and her fight to promote human rights and freedom for all. Her brave struggle has come with tremendous personal costs. Altogether, the regime has arrested her 13 times, convicted h ..read more

The first panel of Part IV of the Transitional Justice in the USA Speakers Series is scheduled to take place remotely on Thursday, October 19 (12-1:30 EST) entitled: Do Memory Battles About Contemporary and Historical Racial Injustice in U.S. Undermine the Right to Truth?The Center for International Law and Policy co-organized this panel with the Promise Institute for Human Rights at UCLA | School Of Law and Memria.Org. This panel explores how local and state efforts to ban books, to forbid education about racism including through critical race theory as well as to li ..read more