On April 8, 2024, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) delivered a landmark decision in Verein KlimaSeniorinnen Schweiz and Others v. Switzerland, finding that States have a legal duty to take action to mitigate climate change. Ruling in favor of a Swiss association of over 2,000 Swiss women, the Court found that the Swiss government violated the human rights of its citizens by failing to do enough to combat climate change.
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On March 25, 2024, the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution demanding a mandatory ceasefire in Gaza. Fourteen countries voted in favor of the resolution; the United States abstained from the vote.
This is the first resolution demanding a ceasefire to pass at the Council after four previous failures, including the most recent in which China and Russia vetoed a U.S. proposal last week. Previous to this resolution, the U.S. vetoed three draft resolutions concerning the Gaza conflict and abstained twice...
On March 6, 2024, South Africa submitted an urgent request to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to indicate further provisional and modify existing measures of the Court's previous orders in the South Africa v. Israel case. In its request, South Africa stated it was compelled to return to the Court due to new developments in Gaza, particularly the widespread starvation caused by Israel's actions.
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On March 1, 2024, Nicaragua initiated proceedings before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), alleging Germany violated international law by funding Israel and halting aid to the UN Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA).
In its official application, Nicaragua accuses Germany of failing to fulfill its obligation under the Geneva Conventions to prevent "serious violations of peremptory norms of international law" in Gaza. Nicaragua also alleges that Germany not only failed to prevent genocide from being committed...
On February 28, 2024, the International Criminal Court (ICC) judges delivered the largest reparation order (see summary here) in the Court's history, awarding over 56 million dollars to the nearly 50,000 victims of Ugandan war criminal Dominic Ongwen.
Ongwen, one of the top commanders of the notorious Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels, was convicted in 2021 on 60...
On February 16, 2024, the UK Central Criminal Court handed down its sentence in the unprecedented female genital mutilation (FGM) case against British national Amina Noor for her role in carrying out an FGM procedure performed on a UK citizen abroad.
In 2006, Noor took the victim, who was three years old at the time, to Kenya, where a woman performed the FGM procedure....
On January 31, 2024, the International Court of Justice delivered its judgment in Application of the International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism [ICSFT] and of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination [CERD] (Ukraine v. Russian Federation). The case was instituted by Ukraine in 2017 and addresses events which occurred from 2014 in eastern Ukraine and the Crimean peninsula. Ukraine alleged that Russia failed to take measures to prevent and suppress terrorism financing as required under ICSFT in relation to...
On Friday, January 26, 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) published its order on provisional measures in Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in the Gaza Strip (South Africa v. Israel). In particular, the Court upholded the standing of South Africa to institute proceedings, but rejected it contention regarding suspension of the military operations in the Gaza Strip. It ordered the following:
In relation to Palestinians in Gaza ("the group"), Israel must take all necessary measures to prevent (1) the killing of...The U.S. has announced the unsealing of war crimes charges in the Eastern District of Virginia against four Russian military officers for their conduct concerning a U.S. civilian national in the context of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 (see: U.S. v. Suren Seiranovich Mkrtchyan et al., U.S. District Court, E.D. Va., Case 3:23-cr-00161, Indictment dated December 5). The indictment specifically charges torture, inhuman treatment, unlawful confinement, and conspiracy to commit war crimes. As reported in International Enforcement Law Reporter (subscription required...
On December 5, 2023, UK Home Secretary James Cleverly signed an agreement with Rwanda concerning asylum seekers. The agreement follows a recent decision by the UK Supreme Court striking down a previous agreement with Rwanda blocking the government's policy of sending asylum seekers to Rwanda because, among other things, it concluded that Rwanda was not a safe third country and as such, returning asylum seekers to Rwanda would violate the principle of non-refoulement as contained in the Refugee Convention. As reported by JURIST, Secretary Cleverly noted that the new agreement "addresses all...