On June 18th, Israel’s government approved the construction of thousands of new buildings on the West Bank, expanding its settlement. It remained steadfast in its decision to expand despite pressure from the United States to halt. This move raised concerns about achieving a peaceful resolution between Palestine and Israel. Secretary of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization Hussein Al-Sheikh stated, “We decided to boycott the meeting of the Higher Economic Committee between the two parties, which was scheduled to be held tomorrow.” On Monday, the EU expressed...
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.
On June 6th, reports suggested a massive series of explosions broke the Kakhovka dam and freed catastrophic levels of water that have flooded Southern Ukraine. According to the United Nations Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs, The destruction of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant may constitute the "most significant incident of damage to civilian infrastructure since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine." Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) claims to have intercepted a call in which two Russian soldiers...
On June 6th, 2023, the Trial Chamber of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals, also known as “The Mechanism Trial Chamber,” ruled that Félicien Kabuga, accused of bankrolling the Rwandan Genocide, is unfit to continue standing trial due to “progressive and irreversible” dementia. As a result, the Chamber will adopt a substitute for the traditional trial procedure, but “without the possibility of a conviction.” However, the Chamber found that substituting the traditional trial for a “finding of facts” would deny Mr. Kabuga significant lines of defense and opportunities...
On June 5th, 2023, The Court of Justice of the European Union (EU) ruled (at the time of writing, the judgment was not available in English) that the Polish Supreme Court’s Disciplinary Chamber violated EU laws on “effective judicial protection, judicial independence, and the rule of law.” The Court of Justice found that specific provisions of Poland’s court reform law, including the creation of the Disciplinary Chamber of the Supreme Court, infringed upon the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union and did not satisfy “the requirement of independence and impartiality.”...
On May 30, 2023, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention issued a report alleging that Afghanistan, Lithuania, Morocco, Poland, Romania, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and the US participated in human rights violations against Abd al-Rahim Hussein al-Nashiri, a Saudi Arabian citizen accused of involvement in the bombing of the USS Cole in 2000. Al-Nashiri is currently held in Guantanamo Bay Prison, where the report details that he was subjected to "enhanced interrogation techniques" by the US Central...
On May 12, 2023, Canada officially joined the Convention of 5 October 1961 Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents, often referred to as the 1961 Apostille Convention. With the addition of Canada, a Member of the HCCH since 1968, this convention has made the legalisation process of 125 states uniform by replacing a “long and costly legalisation process” with the issuance of a certificate by a “competent authority in the place where the document originates.Canada’s ascension adds to their...
On June 3rd 2023, the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command issued a report detailing a near collision between Chinese navy warship LY 132 and USS Chung-Hoon as the US and Canada conducted a joint sailing through the Taiwan Strait. The report attributes the hazardous nature of the encounter to “unsafe maneuvers” performed by the Chinese Warship, violating maritime ‘Rules of the Road’ of safe passage in international waters. Under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which China has ratified and the US respects, international ships maintain the right to innocent passage...
On May 17, 2023, during the Council of Europe Summit in Iceland, several Ministers from Council of Europe member states announced the establishment of the Register of Damage Caused by the Aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine. According to a press release from the Council of Europe, the Register marks an important step towards accountability for crimes committed by Russia in Ukraine. It is reported that the European Union has made a substantial contribution to get the Register up and running. The Register will be based in The Hague, and there will be a satellite office in...
On Wednesday, May 10, Russia announced its withdrawal from the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe. The Treaty was signed in 1990 and was aimed at creating a balance between NATO and the Warsaw Treaty Organization so that neither could amass forces in such large numbers so as to enable a blitzkrieg-like offensive military campaign. As reported by JURIST, Russia suspended its participation in the Treaty in 2007, but remained a party until now.
On April 28, 2023, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination issued reports regarding the state of human rights in Argentina, Niger, the Philippines, Portugal, Russia, and Tajikistan. The report reviewed each country’s performance under the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination and found systemic racial inequities throughout these countries, including concerns about racial profiling, slavery, and human rights violations. In Argentina, the Committee had concerns about police violence and profiling’s disproportionate impact on...