Sudan’s government has not yet handed over its former President Omar Al-Bashir to the International Criminal Court (ICC) for trial following atrocities perpetrated during the conflict in Darfur despite the executive’s promises. Here is why. It is necessary to clarify the reasons why Al-Bashir, a former President of a country who is not Party to the Rome Statute (1), establishing …

For more than two years now, in Ethiopia’s northern region of Tigray, a well-organized campaign of ethnic cleansing has been taking place, while some are referring to genocide. According to a report that Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have released, responsible for this action are new administrators in the area along with officials and security forces from the neighboring …

On December 15, 2022, Dominic Ongwen was sentenced by the Appeal Chamber (AC) of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to 25 years of life in prison for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in Uganda, movement of which he was a senior commander (1). Ongwen’s case is unique in that the ICC found …

The Wagner Group is a private military contractor (PMC) that does not officially exist but enjoys the implicit support of the Russian government. The Group has taken part in many conflicts around the world including Syria and Libya, as well as many African conflicts (1). This article focuses on the Group’s involvement in the latter; in particular, its targeting on …

The Rome Statute entered into force twenty years ago and, recently, the current ICC’s Prosecutor, Mr. Karim Khan KC, asserted that this document is testimony to the rule of law’s ability to provide protection, particularly to the most fragile, and to ensure that individuals guilty of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and crimes of aggression are brought to justice. …

At the end of November 2022 the ECCHR, a German NGO, has reported to the ICC some high-ranking officials from EU member States and agencies (most notably Matteo Salvini and Marco Minniti, former Italian interior ministers, Federica Mogherini, former European high representative for foreign affairs, and Robert Abela and Joseph Muscat, current and former Maltese prime ministers) for crime against …

Recently Volker Türk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, welcomed the decision of Kenya to charge 12 of its senior police officers for murder, torture and rape as crimes against humanity in the context of State’s 2017 post-electoral violence as an important improvement towards accountability for gross violations of human rights, stating that this “ground breaking decision is a …

2022 marks twenty years of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. On July 1, 2022, the statute came into force with signatories from all corners of the globe, with a vision of international legal order and to fight impunity. It became the first permanent court of criminal jurisdiction to prosecute crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes …

That zone is situated just before the “Green line” (border between Israel and the West Bank) and of the many fronts within the Middle East conflict, Masafer Yatta is a particularly ugly one. In the “Wild West” of Palestine, 1300 people are threatened with displacement – in favour of a training area for the Israeli army. Just recently, a demolition …

The International Court of Justice was established in 1945 to resolve legal disputes brought to it by Member States in accordance with international law, and to provide advisory opinions on legal problems referred to it by authorized United Nations organs and specialized agencies. Impartiality and political neutrality are supposed to be the ICJ’s main objectives. As the principal judicial organ of …