International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights

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Prosecuting Atrocity Crimes Committed in Northern Ethiopia: The Need for Special National Prosecution Mechanism

April 4, 2022

Over the last four years, serious human rights violations and abuses, have been committed in Ethiopia in and outside of the context of an armed conflict. These violations may constitute international crimes, such as crimes against humanity, war crimes and torture. The situation particularly worsened and garnered international attention after an armed conflict broke out in Tigray on November 3rd, 2020, and later expanded to Afar and Amhara regions of Ethiopia. On December 17, 2021, in a special session convened at the request of the EU, the UN Human Rights Council decided to establish an international commission of human rights experts on Ethiopia, with a mandate, inter alia, to investigate alleged violations and abuses committed in Ethiopia since November 3, 2020 and provide guidance on transitional justice, including accountability. On March 2, 2022, the President of the Human Rights Council appointed three experts, including Fatou Bensouda, the former chief prosecutor of the ICC, as members of the Commission.

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The Law and Tech of Two Targeted Killings

September 30, 2021

The New York Times recently published two fascinating pieces on two separate instances of targeted killings. The first is on the tragic denouement of the 20 years of US presence in Afghanistan – a drone strike conducted on 29 August by the US military in Kabul, purportedly against terrorists planning a second deadly attack against…

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The Endless War Against Human Rights in Afghanistan: Human Rights Defenders’ Joint Statement of Solidarity with the People of Afghanistan

August 31, 2021

Today, the 31st of August 2021, marks the official deadline for withdrawal of United States troops from Afghanistan after twenty years of military presence initially motivated by the 9/11 attacks of Al Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden.  Many have written (including Henry Kissinger) about the failures of American foreign policy and its efforts at nation-building…

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Drowning Migrants in the Mediterranean and the ICCPR, Again

April 26, 2021

Last week 130 migrants perished off the coast of Libya, as their rubber boat capsized in the stormy Mediterranean. Some 750 migrants have died this year in trying to make the crossing. (See here for the IOM report, and here and here for the recent posts we had on this topic…

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Myanmar: Testing the Democratic Norm in International Law

March 30, 2021

It is official now: history does repeat itself. In 1990, the military regime in Burma, now Myanmar, held elections. To their surprise, the democratic opposition in the shape of the National League of Democracy (NLD) achieved an overwhelming victory. This happened despite the fact that they had taken the precaution of keeping the leader of the NLD, Daw…

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