International Law in Brief


International Law in Brief (ILIB) is a forum that provides updates on current developments in international law from the editors of ASIL's International Legal Materials.
UN Finds Increased Risks for Persons with Disabilities in Myanmar
| By: Brianne Blain : December 10, 2025 |

A recent UN report reveals that Myanmar’s junta violence has disproportionately harmed persons with disabilities. At least 117 persons with disabilities were killed—wheelchairs, prosthetics, hearing aids often left or destroyed during attacks. Many are unable to flee quickly, and evacuation efforts are often physically inaccessible. As a result, persons with disabilities are frequently left behind during military operations, exposing them to a heightened risk of torture, ill-treatment, and lethal violence if discovered.

Under Article 11 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons...

Council of Europe Opens Convention on Environmental Crime for Signature
| By: Özge Karsu : December 10, 2025 |

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...

UN Security Council Removes Syrian Officials from the Sanctions List
| By: Özge Karsu : December 04, 2025 |

Photo by Patrick Gruban (CC BY-SA 4.0)

On November 6, 2025, the United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 2799, removing two Syrian officials from the ISIL (Da’esh) and Al-Qaida sanctions list. The delisted individuals included Syria’s transitional President, Ahmed al-Sharaa and the Interior Minister, Anas Hasan Khattab.

The resolution reaffirmed the Security Council’s respect for the sovereignty, independence, territorial integrity, and national unity of the Syrian Arab Republic and noted the Council’s intention to support Syria’s long-term reconstruction,...

Germany, Jordan, and the UK Jointly Call for an Immediate Ceasefire in Sudan
| By: Ylian Gassmi : December 04, 2025 |

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...

United States Withdraws from Universal Periodic Review
| By: Emma Yadene : December 01, 2025 |

Photo by Kevin Harber

On August 28, 2025, Juliette de Rivero, the Chief of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Branch of the Office of the United Nations, announced that the United States has withdrawn its engagement from the UPR. The review of the United States’ fourth cycle was scheduled for November 7, 2025, but the government failed to submit its National Report by the August deadline.

The UPR serves as a cooperative mechanism for the Human Rights Council to review state fulfillments of human rights obligations. During each cycle, UN members and observer states...

UN Adopts Doha Political Declaration
| By: Emma Yadene : December 01, 2025 |

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...

EU Releases Revised Amendment on Western Sahara in Response to CJEU Rulings
| By: Brianne Blain : November 20, 2025 |

Photo by Michele Benericetti (CC BY-ND 2.0)

On October 6, 2025, the European Commission released a revised amendment to the EU-Morocco trade agreement concerning Western Sahara, a territory disputed between Morocco and the Algeria-backed Polisario Front. Listed by the UN as a “non-self-governing territory,” Western Sahara has been under Moroccan occupation since 1975. Its people, the Sahrawi, continue to seek independence, while the region remains contested.

The amendment responds to rulings by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), which emphasized that...

Obstetric Violence as a Human Rights Violation: Insights from HRW's Sierra Leone Report
| By: Brianne Blain : November 20, 2025 |

Photo by Robert Yates / Department for International Development (CC BY 2.0)

In November 2025, Human Rights Watch (HRW) released “No Money, No Care,” a detailed report documenting obstetric violence in Sierra Leone’s public health system. Sierra Leone, which has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world, has long been plagued by delays or outright denial of care for patients unable to pay hospital staff, despite the establishment of a free healthcare initiative in 2010.

Obstetric violence refers to abuse experienced by pregnant women...

ASEAN Adopts Declaration on the Right to Safe, Clean, Healthy and Sustainable Environment
| By: Ylian Gassmi : November 20, 2025 |

On October 26, 2025, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) adopted the ASEAN Declaration on the Right to a Safe, Clean, Healthy and Sustainable Environment. The Declaration takes place in a context of increasing regional environmental degradation and climate vulnerability in Southeast Asia. It also goes along with growing international recognition, under the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the UN General Assembly’s 2022 resolution on the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, that environmental protection constitutes a fundamental human right...

ITLOS Releases Annual Report for 2024
| By: Özge Karsu : November 19, 2025 |

On April 17, 2025, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) submitted its Annual Report for 2024 to the Thirty-Fifth Meeting of States Parties to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which took place in New York from June 23-27 2025. The report covered the Tribunal's activities from January 1 to December 31, 2024. It included information on judicial proceedings, organizational structure, administrative works, and capacity-building activities.

The report highlighted the Tribunal’s Advisory Opinion in the Request submitted by the Commission of...

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