International Law in Brief

Photo by OPCW, CC BY 2.0

On July 9, 2025, the Assembly of States Parties of the International Criminal Court adopted by consensus Resolution ICC-ASP/S-1/Res.1, initiating a multi-year process to review the amendments to the Rome Statute on the crime of aggression.

The resolution noted that, although 49 of 125 states parties have ratified the Kampala Amendments, no investigation into the crime of aggression has been conducted since the Court’s jurisdiction was activated. It also acknowledges that states parties remain divided: some view the current framework as...

On December 3, 2025, the Council of Europe opened for signature the Council of Europe Convention on the Protection of the Environment through Criminal Law, which is the first regional treaty to criminalize a broad range of environmental harms. The Convention will enter into force after receiving ten ratifications, including at least eight by Council of Europe members.

The Convention implements commitments made in the 2023 Reykjavík Declaration to strengthen the Council of Europe’s work on the human rights aspects of the environment. It also responds to growing concern over the...

On November 1, 2025, the foreign ministers of Germany, Jordan, and the United Kingdom issued a joint declaration calling for an immediate ceasefire in Sudan. Their statement was delivered during the Manama Dialogue security summit and responded to rapidly escalating atrocities in Darfur, particularly El-Fasher. This call followed multiple reports of mass killings, ethnically targeted violence, starvation, and the systematic use of sexual violence by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

The three ministers stressed that the scale of the crisis rendered humanitarian assistance insufficient...

The United Nations (UN) General Assembly adopted the Doha Political Declaration at the Second World Summit for Social Development, held in Doha from November 4-6, 2025. The Summit sought to build a more just, inclusive, equitable and sustainable world by assessing global progress since the 1995 Copenhagen Declaration on Social Development and Programme of Action.

The General Assembly emphasized that social development and social justice are indispensable for the achievement of peace and security among nations. It acknowledged that, since the convening of the World Summit for Social...